Primal: A Quest For The Lost Soul Of Christianity
I have really enjoyed reading Mark Batterson‘s newest book Primal. In the book Mark takes us on a quest to rediscover some of the “primal” essence of Christianity. He uses the Great Commandment, to love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength, as a grid to explain how each of these facets is basic to the Christian faith.
According to Mark, these aspects of loving God lead us to rediscover compassion, wonder, curiosity, and energy in our relationship with God. Mark’s writing style is creative, interesting, and thought-provoking. “Primal” is a very enjoyable read. I would recommend it for your 2010 reading list! Click here to get your copy in time for Christmas.
Thanks to Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers for the free review copy.
Annual Candlelight Service
Make sure to join us this Thursday for our annual Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. Its at our ministry center facility at 6:00 PM. In this one-hour service we will worship together with some traditional Christmas songs, hear from our Kid’s choir, and finish our “Do You Hear?” sermon series.
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name ‘Immanuel’ which means, God with us.” Matt. 1:23
Preaching Paradoxes
I’m currently reading through John Stott’s book “The Living Church.” In the chapter on preaching, he shares five preaching paradoxes that are helpful for any pastor or student. These are:
1. Biblical and Contemporary
This means that preaching is an exposition of Scripture which is related to the world in which we live. Authentic preaching must be faithful to the Biblical text and the modern context. He says, “In our resolve to be biblical, we refuse to lapse into irrelevance. Instead we seek to relate the ancient text to the modern context (99).”
2. Authoritative and Tentative
By this he means that preachers should declare with authority “what the Bible says” provided they have done their hermeneutical homework and applied proper interpretive principles to the text. While we believe that Word of God is infallible, we humbly recognize that we as human interpreters are fallible. While preaching should be dogmatic about the things that are plainly revealed, it should be tentative regarding the things God has kept secret (Deut. 29:29).
3. Prophetic and Pastoral
“Prophetic” refers to the ability to declare the truth and call people to it. “Pastoral” refers to the ability to gently deal with those who are slow to believe biblical truth and/or fail to attain biblical standards. Stott writes, “It is not easy to combine prophetic witness and pastoral care, firmness and gentleness, discipline and compassion (104).” Balanced preaching involves “disturbing the comfortable and comforting the disturbed.”
4. Gifted and Studied
This paradox acknowledges that God is the one who calls, anoints, and appoints preachers. On the other hand, this calling does not excuse the preacher from rigorous and disciplined study of the Scriptures. He quotes Billy Graham who announced what he would change about his ministry if he could do it over again. Graham said that first he would study three times as much. “I’ve preached too much, ” he said, “and studied too little (107).”
5. Thoughtful and Passionate
This paradox highlights the truth that in all authentic preaching, both “the mind and the emotions are engaged; clear thinking and deep feeling are combined (108).” Some preachers tend toward the thoughtful side while others toward the emotional side. There is a danger in only leaning in one direction. Balanced preaching will engage both the mind and the heart of the preacher.
Slickery Sunday
This past Sunday was cool in more than one way. Temperature wise it was actually freezing. So freezing that our gracious hosts at Ambridge High School unable to get the parking lot de-iced in time for our service at 10:30. But Sunday was also cool in a sense other than temperature. Rather than cancel our worship service, we decided to on-the-spot move it to 11:00 at our Ministry Center facility down the street for anybody who was able to make it.
To be honest, I was not expecting much of a turnout on a day when they closed some of the parkways in Pittsburgh. To my pleasant surprise we nearly packed the place out with people eager to worship God together. Makes me proud to be part of such passionate, amazing church.
I love being part of a church that is that is willing to roll with the punches (or the ice) and find a way to worship together in inconvenient conditions. That being said, I’m also happy for the rest of our church family that either couldn’t make it out of their driveway or didn’t want to risk dying on the way. We are so glad that you are alive and safe! You were with us in spirit 
I guess I’m saying all this to say I had a lot of fun Sunday. Yeah it was different, yeah it was cold, but we made it work and God’s presence was with us. I love my church family and can’t wait until next Sunday when we can all gather again at the school to raise our praise together and receive the Word of God. ‘Till then, stay warm!
Matt Chandler Before Going Into Surgery
Check out this video from Pastor Matt Chandler of The Village Church just before he went into surgery. Matt suffered from a seizure a week and a half ago and recently had a successful surgery removing a tumor from his frontal lobe. I love his faith and passion!
Christmas Series Begins Sunday
Hard to believe it’s already December! Jingle bells are rocking. Car horns are honking. Its starting to sound a lot like Christmas. But the harmony of Christmas isn’t complete until you hear from the One who started it all. Experience the sounds of the season you’ve been missing during our 3-week Christmas series beginning this Sunday.
