Critique my Leadership Practice and Sermon
This is a record third post in a day! After learning much from critiques of my sermon on Sin, here is my next sermon on Leadership (Dt 1:9-18) for this Sun. Do also evaluate my laissez faire leadership at West Loop (WL) UBF: Since our inception in 2008, all things WL have been delegated to our 11 WL families. Because of countless stewards and leaders, God has allowed me to spend my time with my head in the clouds! Basically, everyone does everything at WL, and I do whatever I want!! By God’s mercy, what I want may be reading, studying, thinking, praying, contemplating, preparing, problem solving, writing, blogging, emailing, planning, teaching, preaching, and finally……annoying others from time to time unintentionally!
Critique My Deuteronomy Sermon
Please critique my sermon for this Sun (Jan 12, 2014) entitled Sin (Dt 1:1-46). [Don’t follow the picture’s advice. I am thick skinned enough, I think.] Since I preach extemporaneously, I do not read my sermon but preach freely by following the three part outline based on my preperation. When I recently studied this lesson with others, a group at West Loop liked the Bible study, while another group felt that my explanation of sin was simplistic and narrow. I learned much from the critique. Nonetheless, I thought that the theme of sin (Dt 1:41) was faithful to the text and not eisogesis. What do you think? I may incorporate your thoughts and comments if I am able to fit it in with the flow of the sermon on Sun. Thanks.
Love God in 2014
As 2013 comes to a close and 2014 approaches, a good thing UBF emphasizes is to write a review of the previous year and to choose a key verse for the New Year. This post is not my key verse testimony (2014, a year of remembrance). But this is a thought and a prayer which is good for all Christians in the coming year: Love God with our entire being. Continue reading →
The B.I.T.E. Model
These days I love psychology— the science of mind and behavior, the mental or behavioral characteristics of an individual or group, and the study of mind and behavior in relation to a particular field of knowledge or activity. The single most helpful resource for me the past several years has been something called the BITE model. This model of control was developed by Steven Hassan, the author of Freedom of Mind.
Yet Not I, But The Grace of God That Was With Me
1 Corinthians 15:10
“ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. “ (NIV)
This is for all those who preached grace and talked grace, but held onto some forms of legalism in the deep crevices of their hearts. This is my story and I pray it may set free, someone who was struggling as I was. This one is for you!
Extemporaneous Preaching
Consider preaching extemporaneously. For 30 years I preached by reading from a typed manuscript, perhaps like the way most UBFers deliver their Sun messages. But over the past few years, I began preaching extemporaneously without reading from a manuscript. After proposing 8 ways to improve our UBF messages, I would like to also suggest and propose that UBFers consider extemporaneous preaching as a way that could potentially improve the way one preaches.
My typed recollection of my extemporaneous preaching. Continue reading →
Where’s the Hope?
In a recent comment, Joe asked me “What is springboarding?“. And Ben challenged all of us to think about “How to improve our UBF messages“. Because I feel that I didn’t adequately answer Joe’s question and because I have had many thoughts on how to improve UBF messages, I would like to share my thoughts in reponse, using a message delivered by one of my friends in Toledo UBF just a couple weeks ago. There are two other reasons I share these thoughts. I was a UBF messanger for over 20 years. The most eye-opening experience I had as a UBF messenger was to read the public criticism of my message from former UBF messengers.
Because God “Blessed” UBF, UBF is OK
Over the years I have heard this expressed by some UBF leaders: “Since God ‘blessed’ UBF, then UBF must be OK. For if God was not pleased with UBF, God would not have blessed UBF so abundantly over the last 50 years.” Are such statements and reasoning biblically sound?
My short answer is NO! This post addresses what I believe is bad Bible study, wrong Bible interpretation, and horrible theology. It is NOT what the Bible teaches. It is a butchering of Gen 50:20. It goes something like this: “Because good resulted from evil, therefore the evil is OK or not that bad. Since God allowed the evil to fulfill God’s good will and blessed people anyway, then the evil is acceptable.” Such a Bible teaching says that a good result justifies a bad means. I do not believe that the Bible ever teaches that the ends justifies the means. The Bible teaches clearly that evil is evil, even if good resulted from evil. (Read J.I Packer’s excellent short book: Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God.)
I Have This Against You
Scary words of Jesus. These are harsh, critical and condemning words of Jesus to the church at Thyatira (Rev 2:20). To the church at Ephesus and Pergamun, Jesus also spoke equally critical words, “I hold this against you” (Rev 2:4), and “I have a few things against you” (Rev 2:14). That’s not all. To the two worst churches among the seven churches that Jesus addresses, he said, “I know…you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead” (Rev 3:2), and “I know…you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth…you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (Rev 3:15-17). Wow! It does not sound like a very Christian thing to say. Surely, no church likes to hear such words. Yet these are the very words of Christ spoken out of his love for the seven churches in first century Asia Minor, which are representative of all churches throughout history. Continue reading →
Good Leaders Lead Without Lording Over Others
No growth = Deficiency of leadership. Good leadership is a major key to any healthy growing organization or church. If a church is not growing you can almost always find that the deficiency lies with the “old” leadership of the church. They are not able to reverse the decline, likely because they want to maintain the status quo. They do not know how to delegate to different dynamic leaders, often because they still want to be the controlling authority, rather than allowing the Holy Spirit to be the head of the church. Instead of judging fairly without partiality, their decisions are often based on their strong sense of community solidarity. This comes across like showing favoritism and protecting the leadership, instead of caring for “the least of these.”
All four gospels emphasize “no lording over others.” According to Jesus, good leaders lead without lording over others, which is what worldly leaders do. Continue reading →
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