And Then God Gave Moses The Ten Promises – We thought it was strange a few years back when James MacDonald kicked off a sermon series on personal finances on Easter Sunday, but maybe it was just trendsetting. Perry Noble decided Christmas Eve was a good time to talk about the Ten Commandments, or as he preferred, The Ten Promises. Samples: "You shall have no other gods before me becomes You do not have to live in constant disappointment anymore ... Honor your father and mother becomes Your family does not have to fall apart." Anderson University assistant professor Dr. James Duncan tracked the event from the sermon itself, to Noble's replying to the critics and staying intransigent, to a complete turnaround apology. Duncan also did a radio interview with Janet Mefford in which he said, "Somebody tells the pastor of America's—the worlds—largest Baptist church, 'There is no commandment in the Bible;' and he says, 'Oh, that must be true, and I'll preach on it, and tell everyone God told me to say it.'"
When it Comes to Sermon Humor, Take The High Road – "Recently, a friend mentioned his pastor’s habit of occasionally peppering his sermons with gender-based jokes … If you’re in Christian leadership, and you find yourself with a microphone in hand in front of a room full of people waiting on your every word, do everything you can to avoid using stereotypical gender jokes." Here are five reasons.
Rethinking (again) the Meet-and-Greet Time on Sunday Morning – "I would use an additional argument to defend the practice of greeting one another, using appropriate physical contact. Southeast Valley Baptist Church actually is not only a handshaking church. This will of course make us the laughing stock assembly of “hip” and “cool” church planters everywhere, but—we are a hugging church! We do that appropriately. Our congregation is compassionate and I’m very thankful for that. On a regular basis when that compassion is combined with a warm embrace the one being loved will break down with tears as they share various challenges of life. Talk about a great opportunity for real ministry! That doesn’t happen if you hermetically seal up visitors away from the rest of the congregation in some kind of an invisible 'no formal greeting zone!'" A theology in support of 87-seconds of community.
Keeping Equality in Religious Journalism – As Christians, we speak of Jesus Christ, or Jesus, our Lord and Savior. But we would never expect mainstream media to use that terminology, hence terms like Jesus of Nazareth are more common. So why does the media speak repeatedly of The Prophet Muhammad? "When the media calls Muhammad a “prophet” they are imparting to him a title that is not based in fact but is a matter of faith. To call Muhammad a 'prophet,' don’t you have to believe he was divinely inspired? It is arguable that Muhammad’s status as a prophet is not an objective fact. And the media is supposed to deal in facts, whenever possible (climate change reporting notwithstanding.) To be sure, if a reporter is Muslim, it would make sense, I suppose, to refer to Muhammad as 'The Prophet Muhammad' because he personally believes that Muhammad was an inspired messenger from God. However, in our secular media, it would still be inappropriate."
How Much Should I Put in the Offering? – What separates this from many other online articles on what to put in the collection plate is that it appeared on MarketWatch, read by serious financial movers and shakers. "I recently joined a church and each week they pass a basket for collection. Some weeks, half of what’s collected goes to a local charitable organization or food drive, and other weeks it’s for the upkeep of the church. The minister says give what you can. On the one hand, I could technically give $100 a week and not go bankrupt. On the other hand, that seems excessive …" He gets an answer that contains a few references to scripture, "There’s no point in attending church if we use it as an opportunity to judge our neighbors for what they did or didn’t put into the collection plate. And it’s equally counterproductive to judge ourselves." Given the context, see if you think it's satisfactory.
From Guest Speaker to Adjunct Professor? – "Liberty University has announced a partnership with #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury, welcoming her as a visiting professor for the school’s residential and online programs. Exclusive to Liberty, Kingsbury will offer students the secrets to her storytelling and to selling more than 25 million copies of her books … Kingsbury will contribute to the university’s English and creative writing programs and provide writing curriculum exclusively to Liberty University. This will include teaching about story development, marketing, and publishing through both written pieces and video instruction. In addition, she will frequently visit the campus to teach hundreds of students, beginning in February and again in April."
And He Gave Some Prophets, Evangelists, Comforters and Storytellers – In a short article, Joshua Reich notes, "If you preach every week, you probably gravitate towards a certain style that you like to listen to and a style that you have personally. There are times that you will move in and out of styles on a weekly basis and sometimes within the same sermon, but you will by and large live within a certain style." Then he lists seven possibilities, you may think of a few others.
Counter-Programming – "Author and Christian apologist Lee Strobel along with colleagues at Houston Baptist University announced this week that in response to an increasing tide of skepticism in the U.S. they are launching the Center for American Evangelism program and initiative … Strobel stated … '[T]his is a unique mission field with its own particular set of challenges. We'll let experts on other cultures concentrate on reaching those places for Christ, while we try our best to help Christians share and defend the faith in the arena we're most familiar with.'" Joining Strobel will be Mark Mittelberg and Garry Poole who have worked together on previous projects.
Family Feud – Most families are divided when it comes time to consider selling or keeping family treasures which have sentimental value; but in this case, the Bible and prize medal belonged to Martin Luther King, Jr.; the same Bible used by President Obama at his inauguration and the medal in question is the Nobel Peace Prize.
Short Essay of the Week – The problem with using a Bible app on your smartphone is that you tend to read scripture the way you read any other news feed. "Unfortunately, I’ve caught myself treating God’s Word like an Instagram feed—a place where I listlessly scroll, occasionally tapping my seal of approval on the agreeable verses and scrolling past the harder, culturally challenging ones."
