How to Stop Being a Boring Preacher

John Piper:

Most of us tend to gravitate to abstractions.

We say, “Men tend to choose lesser pleasures and reject greater ones.”

But Newton says, “The men of this world are children. Offer a child and apple and bank note, he will doubtless choose the apple.”

We say, “Men are foolish to fret so much over material things when they will inherit eternal riches.”

But Newton says:

Suppose a man was going to New York to take possession of a large estate, and his [carriage] should break down a mile before he got to the city, which obliged him to walk the rest of the way; what a fool we should think him, if we saw him ringing his hands, and blubbering out all the remaining mile, “My [carriage] is broken! My [carriage] is broken!”

This is not merely a matter of style. It is a matter of life and vitality.

It is a sign to your people that your mind is healthy and a means to awakening their health.

Sick minds can only deal in abstractions and cannot get outside themselves to be moved by concrete, external wonders.

And you will never be a tender person toward your people if you merely communicate the heaviness of unhealthy concepts and theories rather than the stuff of the world in which they live.

Copyright © 2014 by the author listed above. Used by permission.

Four-year old Preacher?

Four-year old Preacher?

Today over at the Huffington Post there's a story about a four-year old preacher. The little boy has established a reputation for himself because he first "preached" when he was two years old. You can find the story here. From one vantage point, I'm sure the little boy has gained the attention of the media because he's cute. I mean, he has a wee pulpit, a wee suit, and wee kid's Bible, and he paces back and forth as he delivers his fire and brimstone. When asked where he gets his inspiration, his father said that the boy only preaches what the Holy Spirit lays upon his heart. 

Perhaps it's impolite to ask this question, but can the little boy read? While no one wants to doubt the sincerity of this boy and his parents, how else is a preacher's message judged except by the Word of God? How can someone preach if he cannot read the Word? Another question that comes to mind is whether this little boy meets the qualifications listed in 1 Timothy 3. Before a man can stand before the church and proclaim the gospel, there are specific qualifications that he is supposed to meet. Determining whether a man meets these qualifications is the way that the church determines whether he has been given the gifts of the Spirit that equip him to be a minister of the gospel.

I can't help but think that there is another reason why the media has picked up on this story, aside from the cuteness of it all. The media spotlight shines into a segment of the church and shows what passes for "Christian worship." In other words, Christianity isn't something that should be taken all that seriously. Our prayer should be that God would call faithful men to fill pulpits--men who preach the thunder of the law and offer the forgiveness of sins in the Gospel of Christ.

View the original article here