Category Archives: Preaching

Preachers need to live well…

Posted on September 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

“It is a palpable error in those ministers that make such disproportion between their preaching and their living, that they will study hard to preach exactly and study little or not at all to live exactly. All the week long is little enough to study how to speak two hours; and yet one seems too much to study how to live all week…We must study as hard how to live well as how to preach well.” – Richard Baxter

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Posted in Local Church, Pastoring, Preaching

As long as the sermon stays on stage…

Posted on July 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

Everyone young man that aspires to ministry should read Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor. It has been the go-to book on pastoral care for a couple hundred years. You can read it free here.

Here is example of why it has held it own through this many years:

“(People) will give you leave to preach against their sins, and to talk as much as you will for godliness in the pulpit, if you will but let them alone afterwards, and be friendly and merry with them when you have done, and talk as they do, and live as they, and be indifferent with them in your conversation. For they take the pulpit to be but a stage; a place where preachers must show themselves, and play their parts; where you have liberty for an hour to say what you (desire); and what you say they regard not, if you show them not, by saying it personally to their faces, that you were in good earnest, and did indeed mean them…”

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, (Banner of Truth, Carlisle PA: 1974) p. 85.

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Posted in Local Church, Pastoring, Preaching, Reformed Theology

Rev. Max Headroom

Posted on June 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

My pastor, Tim Bayly, has written a humorous post entitled, “Fake preachers and live musicians.” He rightly points out the absurdity and common contradictions of video venues. I highly recommend it and while we are on the subject… Continue reading →

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Posted in Local Church, Preaching, Technology

Medium Matters: The Case Against Video Venues (Part Two)

Posted on March 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

Jimmy is a big jerk. Why?

Well, he is about to break Ashley’s heart. He had caught her on the rebound a couple of months ago. He knew she had a crush on him and he hated being single. One plus one equals a dating relationship that was doomed from the get-go.

Doomsday has come. Jimmy’s friends made him admit that he was just using Ashley. The pressure has lead him to end the relationship.

Feelings of dread possess Jimmy. She will cry. Maybe call him some nasty names. Hell, she might even throw a lamp or a book at him. It is going to be a terrible emotional mess.

That is when he comes up with a plan to sidestep it all. He will simply deliver the bad news through a text message. The dread evaporates until he floats the idea to his friends.

They tell him it is the wrong. He argues that he is going to say the exact same thing he would say in person. How is it any different? Continue reading →

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Posted in Local Church, Preaching