At the beginning of all our elders’ meetings this year, we are reading 2 Corinthians 4. We usually read it silently; then it’s read out loud; then we share with one another what jumped out afresh in our reading.
This Wednesday, the phrase that hit me was this: “what we preach is not ourselves.”
Not THAT would transform many churches, wouldn’t it? Have you ever been to an assembly where it seemed that the object was to convince everyone of what a great/friendly/serving/loving church it is? What a wonderful thing to be such a church. But the more you truly ARE that kind of church, the less you have to talk about it.
We don’t preach ourselves. We aren’t trying to convert people to our church. Or to our denomination.
“For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”
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Tonight Laredo Del Mar plays Hawaii for the national championship at the World Series. The winner will play tomorrow against the winner of the international bracket (either the Philippines or Canana) for the World Series championship.
The name “world series” applies more aptly to little league. How did we ever get the name “world series” in Major League Baseball? That was even before we had teams from Montreal and Toronto.
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Look forward to seeing many of you Sunday morning at 9:00. Was going to entitle my message: “Does the iPhone Make God Obsolete?” But am going with “Bipolar Faith: Living Between Worship and Doubt.”
I was blessed to hear Randy Harris at Lipscomb this summer, and your post reminded me of something he talked about in a session. He suggested that rather than coming up with catchy mission statements, or maybe in addition to these, a better approach might be to ask “What would devoted disciples of Jesus look like? How are the people in our congregation being transformed by Jesus?”
We could begin evaluating our churches by looking at people who have attended 10-20 years, and asking how they are growing in the areas of: a) being at peace with God, b) at peace with each other, and c) becoming peacemakers in the world.
Amy - That’s excellent. That would tell us much more about spiritual growth than the things we usually look at. Harder to measure, perhaps, but worth asking about!!
Mike,
Were you looking at my notes for Sojourners class this Sunday?
I need a copy of that bipolar sermon!
I am so in the middle of worship vs. doubt right now.
For 25 years I’ve been saying if every church in every community would covenant with Paul to preach nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified for just one year that He would validate His promise to draw all men unto Himself. So far, no takers. We would rather preach ourselves than Jesus.
“We are sent by the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ…” (from a mission statement I learned from Ed Mathews almost 25 years ago.
Preaching Christ, not ourselves? What a concept!
Now if everyone would just follow it.
As a minister we preach as Paul says, “We preach Christ & Him crucified.” And we understand as His servants of His people that it is no longer I but Christ. In everything we do may Jesus Christ be glorified: In our lives (self and family( the way we treat and meet the needs of our family and children), ministry, (prayer life, personal study, sermon prep, class prep), finances, other relationships, hobbies and other things that we do in life.
“For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.†WOW. We’ve had some guest speakers who preached this and these sermons were so inspiring, so convicting, so devastating….I would never get tired of this.
In my undergraduate years at Harding U., Dr. Stockstill said to us “What we win them with is what we win them to.” If we want to win someone to Jesus Christ then we must tell them about Jesus… not the church, not the doctrine of the church, not the fear of judgment, but Jesus.
Mike
This verse “that we don’t preach ourselves”, is especially true here in Zambia. For too long missionaries attempted to preach American or western cultured, Christianity. Despite this His Church bloomed where it was planted. Now, we try each time we teach or preach or interact with believers here, that it is indeed, not about us. The Zambians are often the ones who teach us. They have clear insight about whose we are and what we should be teaching . We try to focus on Jesus not a particular congreagation which we feel is better than another one. Here each small congregation of 10-100 people are hungry to hear the Word read, preached and taught. They don’t compare themselves to anyone else. They really don’t understand the competition American Churches have with each other. They have only joy for the success of each little church and what they are doing for others. I hope this lesson we are learning stays in my heart.
Believe by Brooks and Dunn is a great video to show when speaking about doubt. It’s available for $1.99 on iTunes.
I’m in Dallas this morning to see Robarts before picking up family and heading to ACU.
See you Sunday.
Peace.
Human nature is to make it all about US! Our restoration movement, our distinctiveness, our brotherhood, our members, our doctrine, our schools and graduate schools, and the list goes on and on.
OUR Lord and Savior takes a back seat to everything else many times.
May God forgive us,
DU
“We don’t preach ourselves.” Ever since that began to sink into me, it’s always been such a welcome relief. Thanks for the reminder.
When I visited New York in 2000, they had posters up everywhere that said, “They call it the World Series, but we usually play it here.” I thought that was hilarious and it summed up Yankee pride very well.
Enjoy my niece and nephew. Put Avery to work, huh?
Amen Mike! Im tired of churches trying to convert people from other churches. If we just live like Jesus I believe people will flock to the church and we wont have to do that much talking.
Vic, I fully agree with you. But preachers who are intent on concentrating on the gospel also have to be prepared for the kind of results that Wade Hodges (along with Greg Taylor) experienced and documented in their Christianity Today / Leadership Journal article earlier this year.
I served a church in New Mexico where everyone yearned for visitors to believe that the congregation was wonderful and nice and good and right, but no one wanted to do much to make people believe that. That was the preacher’s job. He was the salesman, the church’s “face.”
I’ve posted on my own blog on church hopping and shopping. People are looking for a better deal than they already have, and churches play right into the market-atmosphere.
http://tinyurl.com/yrag9n
Wow-powerful words-and right there in our own Bible-if we just stepped out of the way and allowed Jesus to be His own constant sermon-many more would be drawn to Him. It is never about us and “our church”-but only about Him!! I love it-thanks for the reminder!!
Hope everyone fit today and is safe from all of the flooding!
Right on target Mike. We are not here to transform people into our likeness. We have tried that and they end up more broken than they started out. We are here to point people to God. When we preach Christ and a transformation into his image rather than our own good things will happen and the church will be the church. The hard part is, we feel if we don’t pipe up and tell everyone how much we are the church God wants us to be no one will do that for us. So the focus comes off of God and goes onto self, particular worship practices, etc.
We end up being Churchians rather than Christians.
A congregation a while back, the elders were always bragging on themselves for being a godly and sound eldership. The problem was that the members did not believe it. If fact, it was making them sick. Sometimes people are tired of the brag.
http://www.matthewsblog.waynesborochurchofchrist.org
I just finished the massive volume 2 of Martyn Lloyd-Jones biography (recommended to me for summer reading by someone responding to Mike’s blog).
Of the many things that hit me by this man’s remarkable ministry, one that fits what you noticed in 2 Cor. 4, Mike, is the witness of those who heard this brother preach. They sensed a deep awareness of the power and majesty of God under Lloyd-Jones preaching.
Which is what happens when we preach the crucified and risen Christ — and not us, the church, etc.