Time flies. My last post was on January 12th. To those of you who stop in and read (and my weekly report says that a couple of dozen do - hardly the same level as Tim Challies, but hey) it has been a very busy 2007. Yet I have a desire to contribute to the pastoral discussion that takes place in cyberspace.
Those of you who preach - do you find it harder to prepare Easter and Christmas sermons? I do. I think that the greatest challenge is finding an appropriate text. Let's face it - there are lots of them. But it is easier to know "where to go" when I am in a regular series. I'm choosing to preach a topical/expository sermon this Sunday on how the NT writers interpret the meaning of the resurrection.
One of the things that I have been thinking about is the development of a system of study for our church - I hate to use the term "discipleship program" that focuses on thinking rather than doing. A lot of the very good training programs (such as the Navigators' 2:7 series) are helpful for establishing positive spiritual habits. But I'd like to develop something for our church that focuses more on ways of thinking. One of the things that I think our modern church lacks is a sense of understanding of the future. Our church used to have a prophecy conference every-other year in conjuction with 7 other churches in our area. That fell by the wayside some time ago, and probably at that time for the best, because much of it tended toward the speculative . But I think a negative has been that we are more "now" focused and as a result we don't live in anticipation of Christ's return and in the awareness of the judgment seat of Christ.
In that vein, I have been scanning a new book by Stephen J. Nichols entitled Heaven on Earth: Capturing Jonathan Edwards's Vision of Living In Between. I'd post a link to it but Blogger doesn't work right with Safari - the default Mac browser. (I made the switch about a month ago and am entirely pleased with the transition).
To those of you who read - Happy Easter to you. May you be filled with joy at the new life we have in Christ!
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1 comments:
Hi Peter, I come by occasionally. On your opening line regarding Christmas and Easter, I usually don't have much trouble with these. I have set aside December most years for a special Christmas series. You can see a list of some of them here: http://www3.telus.net/dcsj/Sermons/ChristmasSermons.pdf. (I need to update the list!)
This last Christmas I decided to do an expository series chronologically through the Christmas passages, in keeping with a chronological New Testament series we are finishing up in a few weeks.
So for Christmas, I usually find it easy to come up with a topic.
Easter may be a little more challenging, but I often simply carry on with whatever series I am in and tie it in to redemption somehow.
FWIW
Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
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