Hello all, we are back from Catalyst and I have officially caught up on seminary. Is that a miracle or what? Catalyst was terrific. The worship was terrific, the speakers were terrific, but most of all God was terrific. He was glorified and He spoke very loudly to me last week.
What did he say?
1) Well he told me not to go with Tim this week. Tim, our senior leader is speaking tomorrow at Willow for the Reveal Conference. It is an amazing honor for our church and Tim, but God said sit at home with your family. Andy Stanley was speaking and proclaimed, "Some pastors were sacrificing their family on the altar of ministry." I knew God was speaking to me. I spent last week at Catalyst, this coming weekend I am leading teens in worship at Windemere.. I am heading to honduras the first weekend of November. I argued a bit with God that this was like a once in a lifetime thing for our community and Tim... but he said spend time with your family. So right now I am watching a Halloween spooktacular cartoon featuring Barney and Thomas the train.
2) God changed yesterday's message. He laid 2 Timothy 2:14 through the end of the chapter on my heart and wouldn't let the fire burn out. I preached it pretty hard. And I shared some very serious things God had laid on my heart. Things dealing with "moralistic therapeutic deism." You can read more about it: here ... Moralistic therapeutic deism is the dominant american religion and I believe forms of it has penetrated the church and is not limited to youth or young adults. Actually, if you will read this study you will see that many of the deists are active in local churches and many adults follow this religion...
I'm ashamed to say, that I think some churches unknowingly lead people to this belief through their teachings. They teach moralism rather than grace. They teach therapeutic sermons rather than truth. And they teach about God and sin in a generic way.
We will not be a church like this.
I'll post some pics and more catalyst moments later.. Matt Chandler's message from 1 Timothy 4:6-16 was very challenging for every pastor/elder at the conference. They should have let him preach longer.
1 comment:
Interesting thoughts Ben. How do we balance Grace with the preaching of sin? How do we keep the blood of the cross front and central to our salvation when most want nothing to do with it? Many churches claiming to be gospel centered are merely self-centered and barely pass over the sacrifice God made to redeem us. These are all issues I wrestle with as a church planter trying to plant a healthy, God-centered, life-changing church while still striving to incorporate new ideas with the timeless message.
I'm glad you're taking a stand. Always be wary of your conviction because stagnation has a way of creeping up on all of us.
Blessings
Post a Comment