From Our Lord's Day Worship 11-6-05

A Hymn from our morning worship today: Jesus Shall Reign Jesus shall reign where'er the sun Doth his successive journeys run; His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, Till moons shall wax and wane no more. To Him shall endless prayer be made, And endless praises crown His head; His name, like sweet perfume, shall rise With ev'ry morning sacrifice. People and realms of ev'ry tongue Dwell on His love with sweetest song; And infant voic es shall pro claim Their early blessings on His name. Blessings abound where'er He reigns: The pris'ner leaps to lose his chains; The weary find eternal rest, And all the sons of want are blest. Where He displays His healing power, Death and the curse are known no more; In Him the tribes of Adam boast More blessings than their father lost. Let ev'ry creature rise and bring Blessing and honor to our King; Angels descend with songs a gain, And earth repeat the loud Amen. Last week our church held our annual Trick-or-Treat alternative. We estimate that over 700 people were on our facilities. We shared the gospel with at least 420 people that night. Around 100 people volunteered from our church to help with the event. What was incredible was the involvement of both young and old - there was an opportunityfor anyone who wanted to serve. Our gospel presentation was simply an introduction. We don't press for immediate decisions. We invited all who heard the gospel to a special AWANA open house tonight. We are praying for more opportunities to share the grace of Christ with people in our community. Tonight I will preach a message on preaching. "What's the Point in Preaching: What is so Important About Preaching." The central aim of the message is to challenge our congregation and encourage them with the purpose of preaching and what they should be listening for while listening to a sermon. In preparation, I read a few chapters from Dan Kimball's book, The Emerging Church, to get an idea of where some in the EC movement are coming from in regard to preaching. While Rick Warren and Brian McLaren wrote forwards to the book and make small side note contributions throughout, I found much of Kimball's comments to contradict their (at least Warren's) philosophy of ministry. Much of Kimball's discussion was not about public preaching/teaching, but rather, about peronsal evangelistic encounters with unbelievers. Many of the texts he quoted had nothing to do with preaching. However, when he did speak about preaching, I was somewhat surprised and encouraged with his comments. I don't know how he goes about practically applying what he says about public preaching, but he certainly demonstrated a strong backlash against the seeker-sensitive movement. I should post more specifics later.