The video of our Advance09 panel is up. Take a look.
Interestingly, John Piper's first answer led to this clarification. The clarification is well worth your read just to get a take on how we might view modern culture.
Also, several people have asked me about my comments about missions cooperation being the doorway to theological compromise. (I think that surprised some people.)
However, there is little question that this is an historic pattern. I wrote a bit about it a few years ago here. My answer in the video gives more details.
This week, the pastor search committee of my church announced that they have a candidate. Assuming that goes ahead, I will be finishing up as "interim Teaching Pastor" there in early August. It is a great church and I will miss delivering my messages there. But, I am, after all, an "interim" and eventually that comes to an end.
Here are some pics of the church from a recent blog post (see that post here).
So, that leaves me one message before the new pastor comes "in view of a call."
I should probably explain what "in view of a call" means. It is a common expression in low church evangelical circles where churches vote on the man who may serve as their pastor. For some of you, this will make you a little nervous. You want some elders to make that appointment-- after all, they know better.
Well, let me explain how it works in low church evangelicalism.
First, before the church really starts looking for a pastor they establish a Pastor Search Committee. (At this church it is called a "Pastor Selection Committee," a term that makes it a little confusing since they don't actually "select" but rather "nominate.") The Pastor Search Committee is elected by the church and does the hard work of finding a pastoral candidate whose gifts and personality will best serve the body.
Second, the PSC starts working by consulting other leaders and pastors, listening to on-line messages, listening to the church family through surveys and listening sessions, visiting churches, and contacting potential pastors. In a church like ours (with about 8000 members) that takes a while. For example, the PSC had over 50 listening sessions with church members.
Third, the PSC prays a lot and seeks to discern whom to ask to be considered. Once they are in agreement they approach that person.
Fourth, that person, after much prayer and examining the church, eventually agrees to be nominated by the PSC to the church (which happened this week).
Fifth, If the church votes "yes," the pastor then comes "in view of a call." In other words, they come to preach with the intent ("in view of") being called as the pastor.
But, for you non-congregationalists out there (who need Bibles, grin), the church actually votes to call the pastor. After the vote (which usually has to be 75%) the candidate is then informed of the results and agrees to come (or not). Then, the nominee is no longer a nominee and informs his church that he is leaving to pastor another church.
Then, the interim packs up his books and gets out of the way. ;-)
That will leave me with three or four messages after he accepts that call but before he comes and starts as pastor. I need time to pack up those books, after all. ;-)
So, my question for you is this: what should I preach on for this Sunday and then for the next several? Any suggestions? I can work through a text or share a series of texts, but I am very open to suggestions and believe that in many counselors there is wisdom.
First, what should I speak on NEXT week, July 5-- the week before he comes in view of a call. (I am out on July 12th and my friend and co-author Philip Nation is speaking that day.)
Second, what should I preach on after (and assuming) the church calls and he accepts on July 19th. The congregation votes that evening and, assuming the vote is positive, he is then to start his transition and i will bring several more messages. So, what can I preach on pointing to the new pastor.
My new article went up at Sermon Central. I have the privilege of serving on the advisory council for Sermon Central and am always appreciative when they publish our research or writings.
Check it out below and share your thoughts in the comments.
How Do You Handle the Word of God?
Recently I had the opportunity to travel to Europe to speak to pastors, missionaries, and church leaders. Europe is one of the most difficult and often discouraging ministry contexts in the world. Yet, the trip was incredible. Along the way, I met courageous men and women who were faithful to Jesus and his Great Commission within a culture that largely rejects their faith.
I visited worship services there and on four other continents. In every worship service I visited, no matter what country I was in, I had a simple expectation: the preacher would use the Bible in the sermon. God's Word is certainly (at least some) part of the vast majority of Christian sermons. If a Christian preacher doesn't use the Bible in the sermon, in fact, I'd be hard-pressed to call it Christian preaching.
But that's where the sermon similarities end. Pastors handle God's Word in many different ways depending upon their ministry context. In some ways, this variety can actually be good; after all, preachers are charged to preach the Word to a particular audience. Jesus himself taught in different ways at different times in his ministry. When he preached to the religious leaders of his day, he preached forcefully. In the Sermon on the Mount, he preached to his core group, the disciples, and he challenged them to go deeper. To the crowds, he preached differently still. So preachers who preach differently in different contexts should not surprise us.
At LifeWay Research, we recently studied the variety of ways pastors use the Bible by looking at 450 different sermons (all by different preachers). We gave our research team the audio files of these sermons and some objective questions about how the preacher handled God's Word.
Thus, let me share about the research and my views on preaching at the same time. Later, we will release a standard report; in the meantime, let me share some of the results.
First, a bit about our methodology. The sermons were randomly selected from two prominent online audio sermon sources. The dates the sermons were preached fell between August 31 and September 14, 2008. A percentage of sermons were even checked a second time to verify and confirm that the research team was accurately reviewing the material.
Our sample certainly impacted the results of our study (which is why we reveal the sample source). We know that those who upload their sermons to online sites are different than those who do not. Are they younger, more evangelical, better educated, and more computer literate? We do not know for sure. But this is not an analysis of ALL preachers, only of the sample described.
Sure enough, in these 450 sermons, the preachers handled God's Word differently. The way pastors organized their sermons varied widely. Half of pastors traveled verse-by-verse through a passage, and almost half organized their sermons around a theme. Almost one out of five pastors named and explained a Greek word in their sermon. More than half explained verses by using other verses in the Bible.
Even though different preachers handle the Word differently, I believe they're all obligated to teach it as authoritative, not merely as a scriptural footnote proving something they already wanted to say. Four things have to be true about a pastor's handling of the Bible if that pastor is to preach authoritatively.
1. The Word should be heard
Our central task as preachers is to present God's Word. Paul asked a series of questions that should haunt all of us who preach: "How can they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?" (Romans 10:14 HCSB) A preacher isn't a self-help guru. A preacher is not a political activist or an entertainer. Those who preach are truth-dispensers, proclaimers of the Word. If we don't do our job as preachers, people will not hear the good news and therefore can't respond to it. What we do is crucial.
At a surprisingly high level, most of the preachers we studied seemed to understand the need for the text. Four out of five of these sermons conveyed the correct meaning of the chosen text according to our research team's analysis (which was not denominationally specific). I'm encouraged by this. People will not really hear God's Word in our churches if we're not preaching it accurately.
Of course you can preach the Word accurately and still no one will really "hear" it; we must share God's Word in the way our hearers will understand it. No matter how accurately the Bible is preached, our message can get lost behind jargon and phrases that mean nothing to our congregations. This doesn't mean that we should gloss over difficult words within scripture. But we do need to explain the original language and "churchy" words we use. Words we only hear in church such as "holy," "righteousness," and "propitiation" can help hearers understand God's truth only if properly clarified.
Many of the preachers we studied did this. In fact, 41 percent explained at least one church or theological word during their sermon. Another 21 percent avoided such words altogether. This means more than half of the preachers we studied either avoided or at least explained some of the church or theological words they used. While this is notable, it still means that one out of three preachers are not speaking in the vernacular of their audience at least if the uninitiated or unchurched are in attendance.
Paul could have just asked, "How can they believe without a preacher?" But he didn't. Without people hearing really hearing what you say they will not believe the message.
2. The Word should be organized
If God is orderly, and the story of creation suggests he is, then the preaching of his Word should be, as well. Having a good sermon structure matters as listeners try to make sense of your message.
A good sermon structure simply allows your listeners to more easily grab upon truth. It's like a well-organized toolbox: If you know where everything in your toolbox is located, you can go find a tool even when your lights are out. Why? You know where everything is. A good sermon structure can do the same thing. If you've organized your sermon well, your listeners will be able to understand the Word more easily even when you're dealing with difficult subjects.
But different people and different cultures think differently and organize their thoughts differently. Not everyone looks for their tools in the same places. Your task as the preacher is to know how your listeners organize their thoughts and to organize your sermon likewise. (And you should note that our sample was in English, which limited the cultural diversity of our study group.) As we studied these 450 sermons, we saw three main categories of biblical preaching. Each category pointed to an important element in biblical sermons.
Half of these preachers focused their preaching around one block of scripture text, moving verse-by-verse through the passage. In truth, every sermon should strive to explain scripture. If the sermon fails to do so, it's hard to say the Word is central to it.
Another 46 percent of preachers focused their preaching around a main theme, question, or topic using multiple Scriptures to support it. Themes may address issues that listeners deal with throughout their life, or they might highlight a biblical principle or doctrine that should impact the listener's thinking. Again, this method effectively helps listeners apply the Word to their lives, no matter what organizational method they use.
Finally, the other 4 percent organized their message around one main biblical character using multiple Scriptures to support the theme. This demonstrates the necessity of personalizing biblical truth letting listeners see the truth lived out in someone else's life. (Wayne Cordeiro does a helpful job unpacking this approach to scripture in his book, The Divine Mentor.)
All of these examples are appropriate ways to structure a sermon depending upon your audience, and all point to essential elements in a good sermon.
3. The Word should be sufficient
Preachers today can be tempted to use all sorts of extra-biblical resources to make their sermons more interesting to the unchurched. Much of those efforts are good: For example, a movie clip may make a nice illustration. A quote from popular culture may show listeners the relevance of what you're teaching. What a commentator says about a verse may help explain the scripture better.
But, the best way to explain scripture is with scripture itself. Sometimes it isn't the most convenient place for us to go, but the Bible is simply far better equipped to explain itself than popular culture. More than half of the sermons we studied (56 percent) used cross-references to explain the Word.
I am not saying that cross-references are the only way to help us explain the Word. In many of the sermons we studied (just under half), the preacher gave contextual background information on the biblical book being studied to help listeners understand the text's meaning. About four out of ten preachers explained their text by talking about its context or what came immediately before and after the passage. Almost one in five preachers gave little to no background information to help explain the texts they preached upon.
4. The Word should be useful
God's Word should make a difference in the lives of our listeners. When God's Word is preached boldly and authoritatively, people change. Paul told Timothy, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16, HCSB)
Paul says God's Word is useful (or profitable) to equip us to do his work. In fact, he says all of God's Word is useful for this this includes Leviticus, Amos, and the lineage of Jesus. He doesn't give any exceptions.
The preachers we surveyed had a definite preference for the New Testament. Nearly three quarters (71 percent) of the main biblical texts were found in the New Testament. More than a third (37 percent) of the sermons came from the New Testament letters alone. A quarter came from the Gospels.
When preachers flipped through their New Testament looking for a passage to preach upon, they didn't flip far. Matthew was the most preached-upon and the most referenced book in the entire Bible. Genesis was the most preached-upon Old Testament book. Luke, John, Acts of the Apostles, and Romans all from the New Testament were the other most likely biblical books for preachers to use as a main text.
Every book, every page of the Bible is useful to make us more like Christ and prepare us for ministry, not just our favorite books or pages. In fact, an important part of authoritative, biblical preaching is helping listeners discover "the whole counsel of God." (Acts 20:27) This means we have to flip further into our Bibles if we're going to be completely obedient to our call.
How we handle the Word of God matters. As preachers, we have a limited time with our audience every week. The question is, how will we use that time? Will we handle the Word of God in a way that demonstrates its authority in our lives and over the lives of our listeners?
How important is this issue? God's Word is bread to a spiritually lost and hungry culture. The issue is urgent. Here is my challenge: Over the next 90 days, take action steps to make your sermons more biblically relevant. The following steps will help you get started:
Listen to one of your recent sermons and assess how you handled the Bible (start by listening for how your sermon addressed the four points in this article).
Have someone you trust (maybe from outside your church) listen to a different one of your sermons and do the same assessment.
Read some books on preaching, like Christ-Centered Preaching by Bryan Chappel or The Divine Mentor by Wayne Cordiero, to help your personal approach to God's Word.
Create a list of clear and measurable goals to strengthen the biblical content of your preaching.
My prayer is that God would do something new and deeper in all of us who have the honor of communicating his life-changing truth. May every man, woman, and child in every community truly see and hear his Word as a result. It's really the most important concern we can address as we prepare to preach.
Jump into the comments below and leave your thoughts.
When it comes to music, I tend to think, "if it ain't an 80s rock ballad, why bother?" As I tweeted this morning, some music never dies. (And, yes, my iPhone reflects my taste.)
My taste in music accounts for the low incidence of music related posts here at edstetzer.com (total thus far is zero). But a few weeks ago at Advance 09, I bumped into my friends from the music ministry at Sojourn Community Church (sojournmusic.com) who passed a copy of their new CD on to me. Then, I saw them again at the B21 panel and I thought that their new CD warranted a mention.
Since my denominational annual meeting just ended, I thought I would stay up late and share what has happened the last few days. Or, perhaps more accurately, share my experiences along the way.
Let me say it was a good convention and I left encouraged. Here is a day-by-day report.
Last night, I presented data to the state convention newspaper editors of my denomination. (Over 1 million people subscribe to these papers across my denomination.) These editors are great people working hard to communicate truth in an often tumultuous denominational environment.
Thanks to some good work of our team, we put together this data and released it to them last night. LifeWay released the data this morning from our LifeWay news people. You can find the charts here.
The July/August issue of Outreach Magazine features my article on small churches. Yep, small churches - I love 'em! Especially when they are thriving on gospel and mission.
My friends over at the SBC Executive Committee are releasing a new resource and you can have a copy! The resources are based on a message series I did at my church earlier this year. I hope they can help you and your church people be better financial stewards with God's money.
If you are a church that loves the Word and wants to help people deal with their finances, they will send you a free copy (a gift from us to the Body of Christ). Go to the It's a New Day website and click on "contact us" to request one. (Please order only one per church, preferably from the pastor or someone who helps the church with stewardship issues.)
As I mentioned yesterday, we are adding more video here at the blog. Here is my last message from my church. I working through Ephesians 4:17-32 with a particular emphasis on the difference between the gospel and moralism:
I am excited to see my friends from the BGCO working hard to serve their churches. In a tumultuous time in my denomination, Anthony Jordon has led the BGCO to serve their congregations well. At a time when some are saying we don't need a change, Anthony has been urging his churches to become more missional. I appreciate his friendship over the last several years and, more importantly, his steady leadership.
Well, my friend Bob Mayfield is part of the team there and he asked me to come out and do a training event that will be used for 10,000 leaders this August. Now, this training is not for pastors, but for leaders of small communities-- small group leaders and Sunday School teachers. And, training 10,000 leaders is a pretty great opportunity to encourage some folks, so I was glad to do it... and the videos will be coming out soon.
Let me add that I think this kind of approach will be big part of the future. Last year, I did a similar thing with the Assemblies of God. We shot the video at a television station in Chicago and then then used it in meetings across their region. It takes such training to people and not just to pastors. You can see those videos here.
They have planned a "One Day" training for leaders of small groups and classes to help them live on mission. Below is a preview video and you can find more information about the "One Day" initiative here.
Tullian Tchividjian's new book, Unfashionable boldly addresses the issue of what it means to be the church in the world, while refusing to be of it. This is a theologically driven book that calls the church to "contextualize without compromise." Tullian's is a voice of reasoned, biblical sanity when many who are having this discussion are talking past one another with unhelpful and exaggerated rhetoric. I spoke with Tullian recently and asked him to talk to us about this new book.
Young and single adults are more likely to be in megachurches than in smaller churches.
Nearly two-thirds of attenders have been at these churches 5 years or less.
Many attenders come from other churches, but nearly a quarter haven't been in any church for a long time before coming to a megachurch.
Attenders report a considerable increase in their involvement in church, in their spiritual growth, and in their needs being met.
Forty-five percent of megachurch attenders never volunteer at the church.
New people almost always come to the megachurch because family, friends or co-workers invited them.
What first attracted attenders were the worship style, the senior pastor and the church's reputation.
These same factors also influenced long-term attendance, as did the music/arts, social and community outreach and adult-oriented programs.
Attenders can craft unique, customized spiritual experiences through the multitude of ministry choices and diverse avenues for involvement that megachurches offer.
Today, I am in Garden Grove, California speaking to the Converge Worldwide / Southwest Baptist Conference. For those of you uninitiated to all things Baptist, there are about 431,034 Baptist denominations. This one descends from the Swedish Pietist movement.
The Baptist General Conference grew out of the great revival of the 19th century, but its roots can be traced back to Swedish Pietism. In 1852, Gustaf Palmquist emigrated from Sweden to the United States. Forty-seven days after his arrival, he and three others organized a Swedish Baptist church in Rock Island, Illinois. Frederick Nilsson, who was instrumental in leading Palmquist to Baptist views, arrived in America the next year with 21 immigrants. Some of these united with the Rock Island church, while others organized a church at Houston, Minnesota. Nilsson traveled widely, founding and strengthening churches. Anders Wiberg was another pioneer among these churches from 1852 until 1855, when he returned to Sweden as a missionary.
Christian experience was a major emphasis among these Swedish Baptists, and they prospered from the awakenings in the 19th century. Immigration, aggressive evangelism and conversion through revivals brought rapid growth to the denomination. John Edgren founded the Swedish Baptist Seminary in Chicago, Illinois in 1871.
In 1879, when the Swedish churches had grown to 65 in number, they formed a General Conference. The members of these churches assimilated into American society and gradually lost their separate ethnic identity. By 1940, most churches were English-speaking. In 1945, the Swedish Baptist General Conference dropped "Swedish" from its name and became the Baptist General Conference of America. Swedish Baptists had maintained an alliance with the American Baptist Publication Society, American Baptist home and foreign missions, etc., and later the Northern Baptist Convention. Some Swedish Baptists expected to merge with that body, but the groups moved toward different developments of theological emphasis. The conservative Swedish Baptists pulled back from growing liberalism of the Northern Baptists, and in 1944 formed their own Board of Foreign Missions. This moved them toward independent existence, which they have maintained to the present.
Today, they are a newly renamed group, now called "Converge Worldwide," and have almost 1000 churches in the U.S.
In 2006, the BGC had 194,000 members in 950 churches in the United States. These churches are also organized into 13 district bodies: Columbia, Florida/Caribbean, Great Lakes, Heartland, Iowa, Mideast, Michigan, Minnesota, Midwest, Northern California, Northwest, Northeast, Rocky Mountain, and Southwest. There are a further 105 churches in Canada organized into 5 district bodies. These congregations cooperate together nationally through the Baptist General Conference of Canada.
I have had the privilege of consulting with them as they merged their national and international mission boards a few years ago (focused on the idea that "one worldwide mission" requires "one mission board").
Based on a research project I did for Leadership Network, I have said that they are the leading mid-sized to large denomination engage in North American church planting. (I will unpack that more in a new and forthcoming book, our in 2010, on church planting.)
Great folks and honored to spend the day with their leaders today.
Earlier this week, I added a stop to my Los Angeles trip and, as is my custom, I share about my upcoming week here on Saturdays. As always, I appreciate your prayers.
After I preach tomorrow morning here in San Antonio, I'll be flying to Anaheim, CA to speak at the Southwest Baptist Conference, a regional gathering of Converge Worldwide (formerly the Baptist General Conference, formerly Swedish Baptists, formerly, Swedes, I guess).
I will spend all of Tuesday morning with Glenn Burris and the Foursquare Church leadership in Los Angeles. Three years ago, Glenn Burris and Jack Hayford asked me to consult with them through their reorganization, and I was greatly blessed that they would have me to help.
For those of you who do not know the Foursquare, it is a fascinating movement with a colorful beginning. The movement was founded by Aimee Semple McPherson. Her Wikipedia article is worth a read. Jack Hayford recently announced his forthcoming retirement. (Christianity Today has called him "The Pentecostal Gold Standard" and they are correct. He is called "Pastor Jack" around the building.)
I am honored to work with these great folks and will spend the morning at their Los Angeles headquarters. (And, let me add, the view from Glenn's office is a bit nicer than the view from mine.)
Enough for now... I am preaching at Grace Point Church in San Antonio tomorrow.
The National Congregation Study has been released via Duke University, and it contains helpful information to those of us trying to understand what is happening in and around churches in North America. The publication gives bullet points of the "most important observations."
Check it out:
Most congregations are small but most people are in large congregations.
Worship services are becoming more informal.
Congregational leaders are still overwhelmingly male.
Predominantly white congregations are more ethnically diverse.
Congregations embrace technology.
Congregations and clergy are getting older.
Congregations' position in the social class structure remains unchanged.
Congregations' involvement in social service activities remains unchanged.
Only a small minority of congregations describe themselves as theologically "liberal," even within the Protestant mainline.
Congregations are more tolerant and inclusive than we might expect them to be, even when it comes to hot-button issues.
There has been no significant increase in congregational conflict since 1998.
Congregations' involvement in political activities is largely unchanged since 1998.
This is fascinating research and very well presented.
* Update: Now the audio from a Q & A session between Piper, Driscoll, Greear and me is up. See bottom of post for link. *
Advance 09 was a great gathering that centered around the gospel, Jesus' church and mission. For those who couldn't make it here's the audio. I'm including some photos from the conference taken by Gabriel Boone. Be sure to check out the rest of photos on flickr.
We Americans value independence, exploration and going out on our own... unless you're one of those new college grads who have moved back in with mom and dad because you don't want to get an unpleasant job and live in a small apartment and pay your dues. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Americans like to do things their own way. We always have, and that doesn't seem to be changing. In fact it continues to impact new areas of American life - like faith and spirituality.
A recent nationwide Barna survey points out that while Americans are tiring of traditional church forms and experiences, they continue to see themselves as deeply spiritual, open to religious experience.
The study showed that,
-88% of American adults say that "my religious faith is very important in my life."
-75% say they sense that "God is motivating people to stay connected with Him, but in different ways and through different types of experiences than in the past."
-50% say "a growing number of people I know are tired of the usual type of church experience."
-64% say they are "completely open to carrying out and pursuing [their] faith in an environment or structure that differs from that of a typical church."
-45% say they are "willing to try a new church."
Don't miss that one. The Barna Group notes,
A staggering number of Americans - almost half of the nation's 230 million adults - are open to changing their church home, demonstrating their lack of connection with their present community of faith and their desire to have a more significant connection. It may also be a reflection of people's increasing lack of loyalty to both organizations and personal relationships, and the growing sense that there is always something better available if you can simply find it.
71% say they are "more likely to develop my religious beliefs on my own, rather than to accept an entire set of beliefs that a particular church teaches."
People often call this approach to religious belief "buffet theology," where individuals simply pick and choose what they believe based on personal preference. "I'll take a little of this, none of that, some of this over here, I can't tell what that is so I'll leave that alone..." While that criticism is valid, we should also be asking why Americans are so distrustful of organized religion, systems, and meta narratives.
This recent survey offers a lot of interesting data, so check it out, but I'll point out one more thing.
Across the board, the research showed that women are driving these changes. This is particularly significant given prior research from Barna showing that women are more spiritually inclined, are the primary shapers of family faith experiences, and are the backbone of activity in the typical conventional church. Specifically, Barna discovered that women were more likely than men to pursue their faith in a different type of structure or environment (68% of women, 59% of men); to sense that God is motivating people to experience faith in different ways (79% vs. 60%, respectively); and to be willing try a new church (50% vs. 40%).
This summer LifeWay will partner with NEXT to host a coaching network at LifeWay Headquarters in Nashville starting July 21. This is a small group of lead pastors meeting one day each month with an experienced pastor/coach.
We believe it is critical to the health of the church that pastors enlarge their thinking, network with other church leaders and establish some intentional learning relationships. We'll present specific tools to help pastors gain leadership perspective, expand the church's missional efforts while still addressing the details of weekend services, staffing, conflict & growth. I'll join a session or two as will others from our team.
As pastors, there's a tendency to get buried in the day-to-day problems of the church, even to the point of missing the mission of the church. Gaining proper perspective is foundational to leading well. Jesus modeled the way on the importance of pulling back in order to gain perspective. In Mark 1:29-39, we find Jesus ministering to hurting, sick, needy people all day and well into the night. At some point in the wee hours of the night, Jesus said, "I'm done," and He left. The text says that He went to a solitary place to pray and recharge. He needed perspective in order to lead more effectively.
If you are challenged in a particular area, or you've decided that 'business as usual' won't cut it this year, then come be a part of this group. In addition to Nashville, we'll start a network at Church of the Highlands in Birmingham July 13. Check it out at nextcoachingnetworks.com.
It has been three weeks since I have been in the office. We (parts of my family and I) have been in 6 states and 5 countries since last sitting in my office chair. (My travel details are here). As weird as it sounds, I miss my office chair (and, of course, my co-workers).
Here is a recap of this week:
Southeastern
As I post this, I just got home from a week in Raleigh-Durham. I had a great time teaching at Southeastern Seminary and, if I have not mentioned it, you should be going to school there (and check out the Ph.D. program in missiology with a focus on North America that I have been helping develop). It was a great week and I look forward to much more interaction at SEBTS.
Advance09
At the end of the week, I had the privileged to speak at Advance09. Here is a panel we did including Tyler Jones, Eric Mason, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, and J.D. Greear. I preached from Matthew 16 on how the Kingdom births the church in its wake.
The venue was pretty impressive. The attendees were enthusiastic. The music was amazing (good to hear the Sojourn Church band again).
I was blessed to hear preaching from several amazing leaders, most of whom I also know as good friends.
Thanks to the folks at Desiring God, you can find all the audio from the conference here.
Next Up
I am home this week and will be in the office five (count 'em, five) days in a row.
We hit the road just a bit next weekend.
I will be preaching Sunday in San Antonio at Grace Point Church. They have three services (which I did not remember when I agreed to do so about a year ago!). I am taking Jaclyn with me and we are planning to Remember the Alamo.
Building Church Leaders is sharing some information from my newest book, Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them, pointing the nine traits common to churches who are effectively reaching young adults. I am a contributor to the site, but it turns out I don't contribute as much as I should. So, when they use what I have already written, I say, "Thanks."
Creating Deeper Community
Churches that are effective at attracting and developing young adults place a high value on moving people into a healthy small group system. Young adults are trying to connect and will make a lasting connection wherever they can find belonging.
Making a Difference through Service
Churches that are transforming young adults value leading people to serve through volunteerism. More than being pampered, young adults want to be part of something bigger than themselves and are looking to be part of an organization where they can make a difference through acts of service.
Experiencing Worship
Churches that are engaging young adults are providing worship environments that reflect their culture while also revering and revealing God. More than looking for a good performance, young adults desire to connect with a vertical experience of worship.
Leveraging Technology
Churches that are reaching young adults are willing to communicate in a language of technology familiar to young adults. Young adults sense that these churches are welcoming churches that value and understand them, engaging them where they are.
Building Cross-Generational Relationships
Churches that are linking young adults with older, mature adults are challenging young adults to move on to maturity through friendship, wisdom, and support. Young adults are drawn to churches that believe in them enough to challenge them.
Moving Toward Authenticity
Churches that are engaging young adults are reaching them not only by their excellence but by their honesty. Young adults are looking for and connecting to churches where they see leaders that are authentic, transparent, and on a learning journey.
Leading by Transparency
Churches that are influencing young adults highly value an incarnational approach to ministry and leadership. This incarnational approach doesn't require revealing one's personal sin list so much as it does require that those in leadership must be willing to express a personal sense of humanity and vulnerability.
Leading by Team
Increasingly churches reaching young adults seem to be taking a team approach to ministry. They see ministry not as a solo venture but as a team sport--and the broader participation it creates increases the impact of ministry.
Is your church reaching young adults? If so, are any of these traits proving to me more instrumental than the others in your context?
I recently was in Rome, Italy and Marseille, France connecting pastors in the states with church plant opportunities in Europe. I was there with The Upstream Collective and the International Mission Board.
Daniel Ott was part of our team. Daniel is on staff of Southland Community Church, an independent Christan church in Lexington, KY.
Of these seven types of ministry expansion, the pastors surveyed indicated that adding an additional worship service or venue on site is most closely related to higher growth in attendance, followed by building new or additional ministry space at the same site where the church is located. Churches that expanded in those two ways experienced significantly higher levels of growth in average worship attendance over a five-year period, according to the pastors surveyed.
This study actually includes both opinion questions and the reporting of facts by pastors.
The fact questions included asking pastors if their church had made any of the 7 changes in the last 5 years. We also asked their current average worship attendance and their attendance 5 years ago. The recollection of the church's attendance 5 years ago could be off slightly for some. After all, this was a phone survey, but it should be close in most cases. Overall, we do consider the number of growing churches reported in this study to be a little higher than when annually reported data is available for comparison.
We ran statistical tests on these facts as reported and the first point in the story is related to these tests. The title we released the information with was stated in the negative, "Ministry expansion doesn't automatically lead to attendance growth." The fact is that causality is not something that we can test at all. However, since it is safe for us to rule out causality if there is not even a statistical relationship we felt comfortable stating this as we did in our release.
The opinion questions show that more than two-thirds of Protestant pastors agree (strongly or somewhat) that 5 of the ministry changes we tested "lead to additional growth." Pastors whose churches have actual made that type of change are more likely to agree, and this was true of all 7 we tested.
We wanted to see what the rest of the pastors believe.
It is interesting to note that all pastors did not agree without hesitation. A look at the PowerPoint that is now up on the LifeWay Research website shows that more pastors somewhat agree than strongly agree in all cases. Also, keep in mind our questions did not ask whether the pastors believe this is the only thing that leads to growth. For example, I can understand why many pastors did not want to disagree that you get some visitors when you open a new building and that some stick around.
The statistical tests we ran that showed a real relationship between two of the changes and growth also prove that only a small portion of the attendance growth is explained by the items we tested. There indeed are other things that lead to growth and some of the spiritual things related to growth would never be able to be tested through research.
Jump into the comments below and share your thoughts and experiences. Has expansion of your church led to, or been a result of, growth.
This week I'm teaching a D. Min. class, "Practical and Strategic Issues in Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth" at Southeastern Seminary, and later this week Advance 09 is going down. So, while my attention is very much focused on the people and events surrounding me I have not forgetten that you - my thoughtful and patient readers - are waiting for the last part of my interview with Andy Stanley to drop. Well, here it is!
We pick up where we left off, talking about Andy's thoughts on preaching and his approach of preaching one-point messages and how he brings the listener to the Biblical text. We also talk a bit about is views of verse-by-verse preaching and how to help people see why the scriptures matter.
Feel free to interact in the comments. Also, many of you have mentioned how helpful Andy's and Lane Jones book, Communicating for Change, has been. I told Andy that our last interview made his book an Amazon best-seller for a week. ;-) Let me encourage you to get it and learn why Andy is such an effective communicator.
Ed: I recently interviewed Craig Groeschel and he made a point that younger adults seem to want to go deeper than the boomers did... Have you noticed any shift? You've been at this for a long time at North Point (and before). Have you noticed any shift in the way that believers and the unchurched have responded to preaching?
Andy: I would agree with Craig only because I keep hearing people I respect say that. But I can't draw from any personal experience to say, if you mean by "deeper," that people have a longing for "keep me in the book of Romans for four months." I think that is an expression, but I do think there's a spiritual hunger. I think there is a wonderful hunger for the Scriptures, especially the gospels right now... Generation to generation switches from Paul to Jesus, Paul to Jesus, Paul to Jesus, and if you've been around long enough, you see that it goes back and forth. But, I think there's a huge hunger for Scripture and what does the Bible say, and for people who do what we do, that's a great thing.
Ed: One of the points that you have made is the need to help the audience, the listener, the people to see why this scripture "matters." Why is that so important? How do you do it to help people to see this matters?
Andy: I think the best way to understand that is to think about a father with his or a mother with her children. There are things as a parent that I know are extremely important for my kids to know. The problem is my kids don't know they're extremely important for my kids to know. So, for my kids to take my advice or instruction seriously, I have to do a little pre-work to help them understand the gravity of what I'm about to say. Well, the same is true when we open the Scripture with new believers, nonbelievers, or people who have been a Christian a long time, but you're about to present them with something you think, "this is a must have," a "must-understand" truth. But if we don't help people understand why it's so important before we lay it out, it just becomes more information.
As a parent, I have to do that when I really want my kids to embrace the truth or embrace an idea. The new craze right now among teenagers is texting, and so the other day I have a conversation with my two boys about texting inappropriate pictures and all that sort of stuff. Well, as I began the conversation, I began by talking about what's happening to kids who are caught. It's messing up their lives and being associated with this follows them for the rest of their life. So, I began with that before I talked to them about, have they heard of this or are kids doing this. So, again, I had to create some emotion around the topic. It would have, it's almost a waste of time to say, "Hey kids, don't do that. The end."
Well, I think with preaching, as we approach the platform or as we open God's Word, I want people to be hungry for what I'm about to say. The emotion we create at the beginning of a message causes people to "lean in" and causes people to want to take seriously what we're about to say. So, when I sit through a message or listen to a message where it's, "Hey, last week we ended at Romans 4:8. Today we pick up at verse nine," and they just jump in, I'm like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. Make me want this."
Now, as a mature believer, I want it because it's in the Bible, but I'm kind of glad I didn't bring my three unchurched friends because you haven't made them want this. Simply saying it's in the Bible isn't enough.
It depends a little bit on the audience, but I think for all of us, we need to look at our audience like we're shepherds or we're parents and they're children, and there's all these biblical metaphors, and so consequently, to be good stewards of their time, to be good stewards of their spiritual life, I think we need to do the difficult task and the difficult work of creating some desire or some appetite for what we're about to say.
Ed: I wrote an article on this topic in Preaching Magazine called "Contextual Preaching." I basically encouraged people to begin the message in a way that connects with your audience. Some objected to it. Some said, "Well, you just need to trust the Holy Spirit." I believe I trust the Holy Spirit. But I think there's a sense that some people think, "Well, we don't need to even worry about those things."
Andy: Well, they just need to read the parables. Why would Jesus bother telling a story? He shoulda' just told 'em the truth. Why spend all the time talking about a son and his father. The son runs off. Why don't you just say, "Look, God's the Father and God will take you back if you run off." Let's move on.
I think this is one of the reasons there was some kind of semi-controversy around our conversation last time, I made the point that verse-by-verse preaching is kind of cheating. And my point was, from my perspective, it's easier to do that than to do what I do and what people who do what I do in terms of spending lots of time trying to create a context for Biblical truth. And I didn't mean, obviously, cheating like they were doing something wrong. What I really meant to say was I think it's easier. And honestly, as I work through books of the Bible in my private devotional life, there are so many times, Ed, I think, "Gosh, I wish I could just go in next Sunday and say, 'Okay, here's what I read this week and here's what I got out of it.'" It would just be so much easier and so much simpler, but then I think, you know what? For people who are where I am, for people who just can't get enough of God's Word, that would work, but for the audience I'm trying to reach, I'm going to have to create some sorta creative environment... I'm going to have to create a hunger. And that's difficult. That just takes a lot of time.
Ed: There are people out there who are convictional verse-by-verse preachers. I preach that way a majority of the time. Let's say we're going work through a text. As you said earlier, we're going to stop at Romans 4:8 and then go to Romans 4:9. How can we help when we begin that conversation at Romans 4:9 for people to engage and to see this as important? Just go up and say, "The Bible says it. Let's go." Or is there something more we can and should do?
Andy: Well, I think the good news there is there are many who teach who do a great job at what you're suggesting, and that is: the introduction is everything. The introduction is designed to make me want to listen to what you're about to say. So, the question is always: what can I say up front to make my audience interested or more interested in what I'm about to say?
There's a group of people that as soon as you open the Bible, they're interested. But there's a group of people that as soon as you open the Bible, they're going to suspect anything you say. So, I think it's looking within culture; trying to unearth the tension. That's something I talk a lot about in the book. What is the tension that this text addresses? And the more tension I can create up front, the more interested people are going be in what I have to say. That's just true of general conversation. This is why anybody who listens to the news or listens to the radio or television, what are those news readers do right before they sign off for a commercial? They say, "In a minute we're going to find out why blah, blah, blah, blah, blah," and you go, "Gosh, well, I need to stay on this station 'til they come back." Well, they've just created interest in what they are about to say.
I think good communicators do that intuitively and I think as communicators of God's Word, it's to our advantage to create that kind of interest. I think a person who's preaching chapter-by-chapter through the Bible can do that. I think it's a little more challenging because, obviously, God didn't ordain the chapters and the verses. That was added later, but we find ourselves locked into that.
Ed: Who do you listen, other communicators, preachers, teachers out there, and how do they influence you?
Andy: The group I listen to the most, we have probably 12 communicators at our three campuses here in Atlanta combined with our pastoral staff and our student communicators, and I listen to just about everything they do primarily because I feel like I need to be in a coaching role. So, that takes a lot of my listening time, which I enjoy. I listen to Craig; I listen to Perry Noble; I listen to Ed Young; I listen to Joel Osteen. I think there's so much we can learn as communicators from Joel, and, obviously, he gets criticized a lot for a lot of things, but you don't learn anything if you put on your critique hat. You have to become a student before you're a critic. So, I listen to Joel. I listen to my dad, for various reasons, but those are probably the people that I am more intentional about tuning into the most.
Ed: What advice would you give to communicators, preachers of all different kinds about how they might effectively communicate God's Word to their congregations?
Andy: I think we have to create in our schedules the time we need to study.. The more talented the person is, obviously, the more tendency they're going to have to wing it or to just lean hard on their personality or their ability just to be interesting. I think we just have to study. It's difficult. I mean, for me, the better somebody is, that means the easier they make it look, and so the tendency is to think, "Well, they don't spend a lot of time. That just seemed so easy to them." But, when you watch a professional tennis player, you think, "Gosh, I can get out there and just whack the ball over the net like that." Well, the reason they make it look so easy is because they work so hard at it.
I just think a big part of this is just making sure in our schedules we have carved out our best time to do our best work to prepare for our most important jobs which is to open God's Word and say, "Here's what God has said. Here's what we've gotta do. Here's what we need to know." So, I think a lot of this just goes back to every individual communicator finding their sweet spot in terms of studying, preparation, and being prepared for Sunday or Wednesday or Tuesday or whenever it is that they have the opportunity to stand up in front of their audience.
Thanks, Andy, for taking the time and sharing your insights!
Feel free to interact in the comments. For those of you who are verse-by-verse preachers by conviction, how do you help people engaged the text as you start you message? Do you just assume that, or do you (as Andy suggests) seek to create tension. If so, how?
For those of you who preach topically, how to you make certain that you are preaching the scripture and not just your opinions with the Bible as spiritual footnotes?
