Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don’t let anyone put you down because you’re young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. (1 Timothy 4:11-13 MSG)

Timothy had been given a very difficult task at the church of Ephesus: Leading it. Paul tells Timothy, “Let no one despise your youth,” because in those days one was not considered seasoned until they were in their forties. It was an unusual situation he was stepping into, because Timothy had to minister with men who had already been elders of the church in Ephesus for a number of years. These men had been taught by the Apostle Paul himself, and yet, as the opening chapter makes clear, Timothy was expected to take the lead and if necessary even correct some of the things that were going on in the church. In the third verse of the letter, Paul encouraged:

On my way to the province of Macedonia, I advised you to stay in Ephesus. Well, I haven’t changed my mind. Stay right there on top of things so that the teaching stays on track. Apparently some people have been introducing fantasy stories and fanciful family trees that digress into silliness instead of pulling the people back into the center, deepening faith and obedience. (1 Timothy 1:3-4 MSG)

That was a tough assignment for a young man. Timothy had to know how to go about it in a way that would not arouse the ire and opposition of others. Paul instructs him in the way a young man should minister among those who are older than he. It is clear from this passage that that requires a whole life to be aimed in the right direction. Timothy couldn’t simply give lip-service, he had to daily walk the godly path—in front of others, but especially when no one was looking. In short, it required heavenly doses of integrity.

And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed—keep that dusted off and in use. (1 Timothy 4:14 MSG)

Paul encourages Timothy to stand up and allow God to work through him. Paul knew Timothy’s ability and trajectory; Paul also knew that those who did not yet see it would, soon, see in Timothy what Paul himself had seen. The point the apostle makes is that, having been given a spiritual gift, Timothy is expected to use it.

A sermon is a living, breathing thing. A good one creates and sustains life through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word. It is equal parts: content and connection. As a preacher, I must have something to say and then say it in a way that they eyes of the heart are opened. It is a, dare I say, supernatural event where the speaker is super-intended and God words are spoken. If the message has not first seared my soul as a preacher, I cannot expect it to ever sear another’s. The most powerful sermons address the concerns of both the mind and the heart.

Though many preachers’ sermons fit neatly into a paradigm box, mine rarely do. I find my style is foundationally expositional yet tends to meander through topical, textual, historical, and biographical paradigms. Perhaps a better descriptive term is: narrative. Every sermon is an opportunity to tell the story of God through the lens of the biblical text. Thus our interpretation and application must always be firmly rooted in the text itself. Matt Chandler, Pastor of the Village Church, recently said to a group of pastors: “I’ve just come to find that a lot of you are really good at clichés and really bad at tying in the Word.” Oh to God that it may NEVER be said of me!

Essentially, I agree with Rob Bell’s assessment. The world needs better sermons and I’m passionate about it. A sermon shouldn’t be boring, it should be electric. It should never be something people sit through so they can get to lunch. A good sermon should rattle your cage, disturb you, comfort you, inspire and provoke you. This is an ancient, primal art form. When you study through the prophets and look through Jesus’ sermons: whatever you did, you didn’t sit back and just evaluate them. You were caught up into something because the communicator was caught up into something.

- – - – -

3:45a – Roll out of bed and into the shower.

4:30a – Arrive at the office and log in to the Mac.

4:31a – Pray.

4:32a – Begin putting final touches on the sermon notes and outline. Why didn’t I finish this earlier in the week?

6:00a – Mostly finished with the outline, time to begin downloading any final media content for the sermon.

6:26a – I really thought that I would be done with notes by now, but I’m not. The stress is starting to build.

7:03a – The music and support teams are starting to arrive.  It’s time to pause and go program the light show for the morning.

7:42a – Back at the Mac.  Time to begin creating the sermon slides that match the message.  This is one of my favorite parts.  It allows for a of creativity and gives me a chance to be sure my notes truly make sense and flow.

8:00a – I can hear runthrough starting in the auditorium.  Now the anxiousness is beginning to set in.  And, as the music pounds through the thin walls separating my office from the auditorium, I realize that the sand is now quickly sifting through the hourglass and the mad rush the start line is on.

8:25a – The slide package is finished and transferring to the presentation computer.  The presenter notes are printed, marked, and ready. Now it’s time to edit my notes for the front prompters, and reset the layout to print notes for my Bible.

8:46a – Doors are open people are everywhere.  I’m in the copy room with my notes, scissors, and a ton of paperclips.  It’s old school, but its how I like my notes.

9:03a – Service has begun.  I’m backstage in the Green Room.

9:04a – Pray. Go over notes. Pray some more. Talk through intro. Pray again. Pace lots. Final restroom opportunity.

9:25a – Cross paths with the band as they exit and I enter the stage.  Walk to thrust. Sweating already. Lights up. Anxiety. Look up. Smile. Calmness.

9:26a – Start line.

…. these intervening moments are completely inexplicable. There is no way to convey the emotions, feelings, thoughts, etc. that occur in the preaching of the Word.  A moment where a man is something of a conduit for the voice of God.  Timothy says simply, “preach the word.” My sermons are typically inductive narratives, one idea building on another until all of the pieces come together at the end to punch through the big idea.  When done well, its powerful.  But it takes every fiber of my skill as well as a tremendous measure of grace to pull it off. By the end, I am wholly spent.  I’ve given everything in me in pursuit of ‘preaching the word.’

9:59a – Head down. Done. Walk off. Final music package starts. For the audience, it’s an emotional breathing moment, an opportunity to let the last few moments of the message sink in.

10:04a – Back on stage one last time before dismissal.  A couple sentences to wrap up and reiterate the main point of the message. Everyone stand for prayer….

10:05a – TRANSCENDENCE

…. I look across the crowd as I am having them stand for closing prayer and I realize that the greeters have opened the rear auditorium exit doors.  The sun is shining outside and the light that is now streaming through the doors and across the crows is nearly blinding.  I suddenly realize that I am sending them out into this light.  In a sense, inside this church is true reality but they are about to leave here for the mission field.  I pause.  The crowd must sense my discombobulation.  It seems like an eternity passes by as I let the light envelop me and permeate every fiber of my being.  It rushes through me like the mighty waters of a treacherous river run and I drown in it.

…. Coming to my senses, I pray.

10:07a – “Have a great week”. Lights dim. Music swells.  Everyone exits.

…. I am, in a sense, in shock. Stunned. Spent yet bathed in the transcendence of what just happened.  In less than an hour I’ll do it all again for the second service. And invariably, again, I’ll be surprised by joy.

- – - – -

That moment.  The eternity where the crowd and this preacher disappear in the light that streams from the outside world haunts me.  I can’t stop thinking about it.  It is one of the few, of not the only, moments where I truly sense God’s wholeness and my complete nothingness.

I can agree. And I am sure that I will have heck to pay for admitting it…

You’ll think I’m crazy—sometimes I think I’m crazy—but as I dream of my life over the next decade or two I really hope my life will mirror offscreen the qualities I saw in this fictional man onscreen.

• He and his wife are very much in love and prone to public displays of affection.  They model a loving, trusting relationship that sets an example.
• He and his family are guided by faith, but the common theme is acceptance, not exclusion or judgment.
• He helps various congregation members and townspeople with their problems.  He’s not afraid to get involved and really is a pillar of the community.  It’s hard to imagine the town surviving without him.
• He boldly and passionately modeled the example of the Good Samaritan
• He could save everyone he came in contact with, within three episodes.
• He was articulate, soft-spoken, and direct.
• He listened as much as, if not more than, he spoke.
• He had a large family who (while not always got along) always loved each other.
• His children didn’t always agree with him, but they respected him.  He and his wife raised them with a strict but loving hand.  That shows a long-term level of commitment to one’s children and above average parenting skills.
• He was always helping others, but he was always there for his kids.  He was a dad first and a minister second. He was involved in his kid’s lives.
• He did not raise the stereotypical pastor’s family, nor were they all uptight sticks in the mud.
• He was not the dumb one in the household. he was communicative and responsible.
• He said things like, “We can justify our actions, but it doesn’t make it right” and people actually listened.
• He wasn’t perfect.  That was part of the beauty of the show in a way.  But you could always count on him to do the right thing in a pinch.  As such he inspired people.
• He had a really good sense of humor.  Rarely sarcastic and never cutting… his wit was understated and well-timed.
• He took life at a decent (relatively slow) pace, taking life in a calm and relaxed spirit.

Being a pastor, Bill is no stranger to adversity, even from within the church sadly.  But I doubt he ever imagined a circumstance quite like this.  A stroke is very much like hitting the pause button on life… and simply waiting, and waiting.  It is a lesson in patience.  It is a lesson in perseverance.  But it’s also been a lesson in paternity.

Let me explain…

In Mark 2 we are told the story of a man who is a ‘lifer’, paralyzed for the entirety of his life.  No hope.  Yet a group of friends weren’t willing to accept that diagnosis with the likes of Jesus roaming the countryside.  So they packed up their friend and took him to the man who was said to have the power to heal.  What faith.  Sadly, on arrival they couldn’t get near the Christ due to the press of the crowd.  I imagine it much like a Walmart on Nascar weekend.

I would have given up.  But not them.  Rather than accept defeat they went to the roof, disassembled it, and lowered their friend into the middle of the crowd directly in front of Christ.  The nerve!

Jesus (somewhat predictably) immediately forgives the man’s sins.  He avoids the more obvious need for physical healing in order to take care of the more important–though less obvious–need for spiritual healing.  It is at this point in the story that an odd thing happens: The scribes (Teachers of the Law) began to question in their hearts.

What could they possibly be questioning?

Their theology (the Old Testament) did not allow for a Messiah that could forgive sins.  They believed only God could do so and that Christ’s belief in his personal ability to do as God could only do was (in their mind) a direct affront to Jehovah. In short, blasphemy.  The Messiah was not supposed to be God.  There was only to be ONE God, Yahweh.

THIS MOMENT was the beginning of the official opposition of Jesus, the opposition that ultimately led to his arrest and death.  It began right here, when God healed a broken man.  The religious leaders simply couldn’t handle it.  It stretched their capacity too far.  God, it would seem, was much bigger than the box they had created for him.  So rather than expand their understanding, they chose the easier route: hardened hearts.

It is interesting to note that in these days sickness and disease were often viewed as punishment from God for a person’s sin.  Perhaps they secretly (or even openly) thought that this man who was paralyzed rightly deserved the fate that he endured.  Maybe they whispered stories to one other of tawdry sins and excesses that resulted in his suffering.  It is not difficult to imagine, mostly, because we’ve all done similarly at one time or another.  And had the New Testament not directly spoken against that narrow mindset we might still think it okay.  And yet, I still find people doing it!

As noted, my Pastor has recently faced serious health concerns, but God has been steadily moving him down the path of healing and recovery.  And there have been moments, days, even weeks when I feel as though I am reliving the story of the paralytic in Mark 12.

I see those who stand around watching the amazing work of God and, in the words of Mark 12:8, question those things in their hearts.  Perhaps it is because some believe that, like the Scribes, all suffering is punishment from God for sin.  I’ve heard loud whispers from those who would put words in God’s mouth as to “why” the suffering has come.  In fact, often their not whispers at all!  There is a strange boldness religious types feel when speaking on behalf of the Creator.

I often see those around me assuming the roles in Mark 12:

• I see crowds of people, so hungry (and even bloated) on Christ that they miss those on the fringes of the crowd that need him most.  Are we missing those with real needs because we’re so concerned with getting fed ourselves?
• I see a few (very few) who are carrying the ones with real needs to the Savior.  These are the real heroes of the story, those who aren’t concerned with the ‘why’ or even ‘how’ of the situation.  They see it as their opportunity to make an impact and, in whatever state they are, carrying their brother.
• I see many, many scribes.  The teachers and leaders of the Law who should have recognized God’s amazing handiwork even in suffering, but didn’t.  This is the real disappointment in the story.  Those that should have been the heroes, but end up a footnote in history as those who eventually murder God himself on a cross.

I learned long ago that I could never fully understand that mystery and reasons for God.  Fortunately, my mostly reformed understanding of Scripture does not make me fear a God who uses providence to work his will in the world.  I understand that the picture is much broader than I will ever see or understand.

God doesn’t need my opinions, talents, or accomplishments.  He only needs my yieldedness.  I pray, daily, that I am one of the ones who carried the paralytic to Christ.  And at the times in my life when I AM the paralytic (and they WILL come), I hope you’ll swallow your pride and carry me instead.

“Don’t you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as you see all around you right now—life for many people.” – Genesis 50:20

Like most great leaders, Joseph of the Old Testament labored in obscurity before he became qualified to lead others. Nearly twenty-three years passed from the pit to the palace before Joseph was reunited with his brothers and his vision was fulfilled.

But by then, he had come to learn that true progress occurs only when God orchestrates it. He understood that self-promotion can never replace divine promotion. His self-promotion with his brothers failed miserably. Only when he finally became submissive–as a slave–and chose to work faithfully for Potiphar, did it become evident that “the Lord was with him” (Genesis 39:3).

In prison, he served the jail’s keeper, and again God showed him favor and mercy. But when Joseph tried to take self-promotion back into his own hands–by recommending himself to Pharaoh’s chief butler–God again made him wait. Two years passed before Joseph got an audience with the monarch. By then, Joseph had learned his lesson. He was content to recognize that God was in charge… and that he was being grown as a leader for a much greater purpose than he could have imagined.

from: The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leader’s Day

“Our enemies learned that we knew all about their plan and that God had frustrated it. And we went back to the wall and went to work.” – Nehemiah 4:15

One of the great tests of leadership is how you handle opposition.  Nehemiah faced the usual tactics of the opposition: ridicule, resistance, and rumor.  Nehemiah modeled the right response to all three of these challenges by…

• Relying on God
• Respecting the opposition
• Reinforcing his weak points
• Reassuring the people
• Refusing to quit
• Renewing the people’s strength continually

Nehemiah had to deal with problems from without (ridicule resistance, and rumor) as well as within (disputes about food, property, and taxes).

Persistence is the ultimate gauge of our leadership; the secret is to outlast our critics. Nehemiah taught us this lesson by staying committed to his ultimate calling.

from: The Maxwell Leadership Bible

This segment from a recent sermon of Matt’s was especially poignant to me….

[As a Pastor] Here’s what you need me to be:

• You need me to submit to the Elder body. Nothing is more horrible than a Pastor who’s king.  Absolute power always goes bad.  It doesn’t matter what the domain of society, whether it’s religion or business.  As a Pastor, you need me to lose votes from time to time.  And I do, even though I’m always right.  [crowd laughs]  I’m willing to give it a couple years and say, ‘See, I told you so.’  But, for now, ‘OK.’
• You need me to love this staff, push them to holiness, and hold them accountable to not waste your money. They’ll work long.  They’ll work hard.  They’ll love their families.  And they’ll live holy lives.  Where they fail in those they’ll need to be engaged by us, encouraged, and handled biblically.
• You need me to love my wife very well. Encourage her, romance her, wash her in the water of the Word, let her grow into her giftings.
• You need me to love my children well and impart to them the glory of God, because Timothy and Titus clearly say that if I fail at that I am unfit for this.
• You need me to love, preach, and proclaim the word of God even when you don’t want to hear it.
• You need me to not care about numerical growth but care about spiritual growth, and let God take care of the numerics.
• You need me to guard our lives and doctrine closely. I know some of you are like, ‘We’re already too doctrinal.’ [pause]  Well, you’re at church!  [crowd laughs]  That’s what we do.  It’s not like we’re at tennis and I’m trying to bring doctrine into tennis.  (Which I think I could do.)  [crowd laughs]  We’re at church.  Trying to say that someone is too doctrinal at church might be one of the goofiest things I’ve ever heard in my life.  Of course we’re guarding doctrine!  We’re a church.  It’s what we do.  Where churches don’t guard doctrine they’re actually not churches.  They’re just a gathering of humanity that might mention Jesus’ name every once in awhile.
• You need me to understand that I am your servant, not your king.

This is what you need from me:  You need me to preach fearlessly, and you need me to do it in a way that you can understand and apply.

excerpted from “The Authoritative Word“, sermon 9.13.09
excerpted from “A Little Housekeeping“, sermon 9.06.09

“Essentially, I believe the world needs more, better sermons.  And I’m passionate about this.  I do not think a sermon should be boring; I think it should be electric.  I do not think that it should be something people sit through so they can go to lunch.  I think it should be something that rattles your cage, and disturbs you, and comforts you, and inspires you, and provokes you.  And it should be SOMETHING.  This is an ancient, primal art form.  It’s the original gorilla theatre.  When you look through the prophets and look through Jesus’ sermons:  Whatever you did, you didn’t sit back and just evaluate them.  You were caught up in something, because the communicator was caught up in something.”

- Rob Bell
“Have They Had Too Much Wine”, Sermon Audio, Mars Hill Bible Church, 5/9/2009

Was I crazy? What would the next step be? Where would I go? I have a great job and a family that is growing by leaps and bounds. What am I thinking? Is the timing right? How can we ever make it work?

I thought. I prayed. I discussed with my wife. I sought wise counsel. I prayed again. But mostly…

I dreamed.

Pieces quickly began falling into place and I soon found myself in an empty classroom on a bitterly cold January morning awaiting the start of my first class.

De’ja vu…

Students (several by far my junior) began filing in. Bookbags. Notebooks. Laptops. Finally a professor.

“Welcome to class. Let’s begin with devotions. Open to Matthew chapter five….”

My mind immediately trailed off. I knew I was in the right place. I knew I was home.

I leaped thirteen years into my past to the first class of the first day in undergrad. 1996. An unknown Professor who was destined to become a great friend, Jim Leightenheimer, opened the class by saying simply, “Let’s pray,” and then actually doing so.

To a boy who grew up in the public school system, those are defining words.

I was instantly and insatiably hooked.

Back to reality.

So here I am: Doing quizzes, writing papers, attending study sessions, and subjecting myself to the educational system again. And I am loving it…

I’m loving it because I’ve had an epiphany. I finally understand why I continue to find myself behind a wooden desk.

I am a lifelong learner.
No. I am compelled to be a lifelong learner, in both media AND biblical studies.

The fields of media and communications are always changing. I must always be a student of them to remain effective in the practice of them.

The Bible is never changing, but it is a pursuit that I will never master. The more I learn the more aware I am of how little I truly know.

So as that friend of mine aptly closed, “I hope the first day back on your continued journey is fantastic,” I’ve realized that is a journey that will not end.

If you ever need to find me, now or decades hence, … look in a classroom.