What Does My Quiet Time Look Like?

I have often wondered what others do when they spend time with the Lord. Do they kneel down to pray? Do they read the same scripture for a week? Do they work through a pre-made devotional? How do other Christians meet with God, and what are the practices they use to grow deeper in their faith? Since I have often wondered what others do, I thought I would share what one of my typical mornings spent with God looks like.


I am an avid coffee drinker and find that there is something special about having a fresh cup of coffee during my time with the Lord. Also, since I am usually just waking up and tired it helps keep me awake most mornings. So the first thing I do before sitting down with the Lord is grab my favorite coffee cup and pour myself a cup.

After I grab my coffee I usually sit in our big comfy arm chair and take a moment to pray. I thank God for the chance to meet with Him and ask that He would guide my time this morning. Then I will take 15-20 minutes to read scripture. Currently I am reading the Psalms with my church which has been a rich experience.

After spending time being challenged by scripture I will do one of two things. I will either take time to pray and listen to God, or I will journal my thoughts and prayers in one of my many journals. I love to journal because it allows me to read what God was doing in my life in the past and see how He has always been faithful even when I couldn't see it. (When I do journal I always grab my favorite fountain pen)

Outside of reading my Bible and journaling I will sometimes use other devotionals to challenge me and help me to grow. One of my favorites is The Message SOLO which provides a Lectio Divina (Latin for Divine Reading) type format. Also this week I have been guiding me journaling through the book Journaling As A Spiritual Practice. 

Well there you have it. These are some of the ways I spend my morning connecting with God. I have been challenged my mentor to strive to make meeting with God in the mornings a consistent part of my day. It can be challenging to wake up early; however, it can also be one of the most rewarding times of my day. May you find time to meet with your creator today and be filled by his presence!


God Bless,
Jason

Energy Vampires

This past Sunday Pathways @ Washpark started a new series called "Energy Vampires". Throughout the series, we are looking at what things suck life from us and from our relationship with God. Our main teaching pastor, Susie Grade, kicked off the series by talking about the regrets that we hold on to from the past, especially our guilt, grudges, and grief. At the beginning of the message they showed this Igniter Media movie that spoke to the regrets many of us have. One of the quotes from the video that resonated with me was "I Regret Consistently Missing Time With God Yet Somehow Never Missing My Show On TV." This resonated with me because there have been many times that I miss my time with the Lord; however, it is fairly rare that I miss watching the shows I follow. As I watched the video I felt convicted about how I chose to use my time and how little I give to God. Check out the video below.


Blessings,
Jason

Meeting God in the Morning

   
       This Spring semester, one area I am working on in my life in that of discipline. I have realized that I want to lead a more disciplined life, and so I decided that I would make this the focus of my character contract. One of the ways I have been putting this into practice is waking up at 6:00 A.M. 3 times a week to spend time with God. The other week, during my meeting with one of my mentors, she challenged me as to why only 3 days a week? Why do I not wake up Monday thru Friday(or everyday) to spend time with the Lord. I honestly told her that it was due to laziness. She asked that as part of our mentoring I spend one week waking up at 6 and having a quiet time.
       As of this morning, I have spent the last week successfully waking up at 6 and spending time with the Lord. The time with God has been good. I have been reading through the Psalms, journaling out my prayers, and leaving space to just sit and listen to God. Nothing radical has happened, I didn't hear an audible voice or feel God leading me into something crazy, but I have seen my relationship with God grow through the repetition of spending time with Him. It was nice to know that Monday thru Friday I will wake up and be with the Lord. There were some mornings that I was so tired that after I had my quiet time I fell asleep in my chair and Amy had to wake me up, but I faithfully continued to wake up each morning.
       One thing I did see throughout this last week is that I actually spent more time with God than I normally do. Usually when I would have a quiet time I would spend 30 minutes, however, this past week I spent an hour most mornings. It has truly been refreshing and a time I have valued.

       Do you have a regular quiet time?  What time works best for you to meet with God? What sort of things has God been teaching you lately?

Blessings,

Jason

A quick update

Hey everyone,

I have been very busy lately as I am writing the biggest paper I have written to date (30 pages). My paper is for my Greek class and is taking a lot of time which is why I haven't been blogging. I wanted to post a Psalm that I have been thinking a lot about lately. One of my mentors shared it with me the other week and I have been thinking through how it affects my life.

Psalm 106:13
"But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his plans to unfold."


What does it look like for us to wait for God's plans to unfold?

Is our tendency to try to make our own plans, find our own jobs, or wait on God's plan to be revealed?

Do you think we miss out on God's plan because we forget He is working?

Just some questions I have been wrestling with and for you to ponder on this beautiful Tuesday.

Blessings,

Jason

A Good Reminder For Pastors

A sense of hurry in pastoral work disqualifies one for the work of conversation and prayer that develops relationships that meet personal needs. There are heavy demands put upon pastoral work, true; there is difficult work to be engaged in, yes. But the pastor must not be "busy." Busyness is an illness of spirit, a rush from one thing to another because there is no ballast of vocational integrity and no confidence in the primacy of grace. In order for there to be conversation and prayer that do the pastoral work of meeting the intimacy needs among people, there must be a wide margin of quiet leisure that defies the functional, technological, dehumanizing definitions that are imposted upon people by others in the community. Henri Nouwen writes:

Without the solitude of heart, our relationships with others easily become needy and greedy, sticky and clinging, dependent and sentimental, exploitative and parasitic, because without the solitude of heart we cannot experience the others as different from ourselves but only as people who can be used for the fulfillment of our own, often hidden needs.

Eugene Peterson-Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Ministry

May we all remember our need solitude and rest.

Blessings,

Jason

How Should We Pastor

      Classes are in full swing here at Denver Seminary, and I find myself adjusting to an abnormal schedule. Due to the much anticipated arrival of my son I have chosen to take a lighter course load this spring. Amy and I decided that it would be wise being that we will have a newborn while I still have at least one month of school left. In addition to my classes this spring I am also trying to find a job to help support our growing family. I find myself extremely excited for this season and anticipating the many wonderful things God has in the works for my family. 
      As part of my studies here at Denver Seminary, I am required to take part in a mentoring program during five semesters of my studies. Each semester I create character contracts and skill contracts, to help me work on areas of my life that I believe I need to grow in. For my skill contract I will be spending the semester looking at what skill set is needed for a pastor today. To complement my conversations with pastors and church goers, I am also reading Eugene Peterson's Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Leadership. I started this book last week and already I have found my nuggets of wisdom that Peterson has learned through his many years as a pastor. One of the aspects of the first chapter that has shocked me was the theological significance and depth he has shown exists in the Song of Songs. I have read through the Song of Songs many times, however, I always read it through the lens of marriage and physical intimacy. Throughout his first chapter Peterson explains that while there is a relational element we can learn from this book, we must also look at what the Songs tells us about the character of God and our relationship both to Him and others.
      One of my favorite quotes from this book came when he was describing the pastoral themes found within the Songs and how these show a type of "saving love, the kind of love that rescues from nonbeing and creates being-in relationships." As he continues describing how we should approach the Song of Songs he profoundly states;

The love lyrics of the Song are a guard against every tendency to turn living faith into a lifeless 'religion.' They make sure that as we proclaim the truth of God, we do not exclude faith in God. The Song provides correctives to our tendencies to reduce faith to a tradition, or to make an academic dogma of it. It insists that however impressive the acts of God and however exalted the truths of GOd, they are not too great or too high to be experiences by ordinary people in the minutiae of the everyday."

What a picture of the importance of our relationship with God and the necessity of remembering not to exclude faith in God as we proclaim him. As I look forward to obtaining a position as a pastor, it is important to remember that we must not reduce our faith to merely a tradition. Tradition is important, but we need to remember that we serve a living and active God, one who must be worshiped whole-heartedly! I am excited to continue reading this book and see how many other ways I find that Peterson challenges my preconceived notions about pastoral ministry.

Blessings,

Jason

Control

      Throughout this past week, one of the things that God has been teaching me is about control. We all would like to believe that we are in control of our lives, however, I have been learning just how little control I actually have. I have been looking for a job lately, and while I hope to find a job working as a pastor or director at a local church, I have also applied at Starbucks, Panera, Home Depot, Dish Network, Tattered cover, and many other companies.  Out of all of those applications I received one interview, which is not that abnormal from my experience of trying to find a job this past summer/fall. Lately I have been left questioning if perhaps the reason none of these jobs applications are producing anything is because God has a job in store for me but it has not been the right timing yet.
      With our son arriving in April (and our income ceasing) I have tried to remain patient, trusting that God is in control. I believe that God will provide, and I have seen Him provide for Amy and I many times throughout our marriage. Despite this knowledge there are times when I get nervous and realize that April will be here before I know it, I need a job quickly. After thinking about this a lot last week, I have realized how little control I actually have. I can pretend that I can take matters into my own hands and find a job, but when I apply to countless companies, only to never hear from them again, I realize that God is the only one who is in control. I was talking with one of my mentors last week about my lack of control in life and how much Amy's pregnancy has made me realize this. Amy can do everything in her power to protect and nourish our son throughout pregnancy, but ultimately our babies health is out of our control. I have read many stories of miscarriage and know that these mothers were doing everything in their power to keep their babies healthy.
      The reality of our life is that we are not in control. Of course there are certain elements of our life that are within our power to control, but as a whole God is the only one who is control of our lives, what jobs we will get, and if our children will be healthy and safe. I am thankful that I have a my faith in God to help comfort me during these times when I realize how little control I have in my life. Praise be to God that He is the one in control for He truly knows what I need more than I do. May we all recognize that despite our desires we are not in control of our life, and in recognizing this may we turn to God even more, recognizing our deep need for Him every hour of every day.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap not gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do your worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' FOr it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 

Matthew 6:25-33 (NRSV)

Busy, Busy, Busy

This week I am slammed with papers due, Greek homework, and writing a sermon for Sunday. My desk accurately portrays what my week looks like...a lot going on. Anyways, hopefully I'll be able to write some blogs once I complete my sermon.

God Bless,

Jason

Humility

     One of the requirements of the MDIV program here at Denver Seminary is to be involved in a fairly intensive mentoring program. Part of the mentoring is working on 'character contracts' which seek to help one develop their character in order to be healthier and more effective pastors. This semester my character contract is focusing on humility. How does one obtain humility, what does it look like, how did Jesus display humility? These are just a few of the questions I have been wrestling with throughout this semester and at times it feels like I now have more questioning about humility than when I started this process.

I was journalist a little bit about this process yesterday and wanted to share some of my thoughts. These are not completely polished or finalized thoughts on the topic of humility, but more just a glimpse of my mind working through humility.

Here he was, God's son, part of the triune God head, in a mans body, walking around in His Father's broken creation. I imagine Jesus was actually hurting in more ways than we often recognize. Here He was in a world that was meant to be beautiful and a representation of God, but instead it was/is broken, damaged, torn apart, filled with sin and yet there in the midst of everything was God's Son in all His glory. How did Jesus walk around day after day in this broken world without crying all day over the destruction of something so beautiful, yet do damaged now? Was it because He was God? Yes and yes. Jesus was able to walk the earth because of His great humility which he exhibited. Humility, humiliation, one can see it throughout Jesus' life. From His mother asking Him to perform miracles before He is ready, as if he were a magician to being spit on, mocked, and crucified on the cross. The question for me becomes am I willing to be spit on, mocked, or crucified for Christ, because these actions take great humility. Some days I think the answer is emphatically Yes! However other days I don't know if I could endure it. Thankfully these are the days Christ upholds me and reminds me that it is ONLY by His strength now my own. Praise God!

  I believe that in our society today humility is not something at carries with it a high value. We believe that one should seek out power, wealth, and prestige rather than humility. As Christians we are called to a different lifestyle, one that is committed to humility, and with this humiliation at times. I am challenging myself (and you) to take some time this week to think about ways in which you are pursuing a humble life? How can you in your humility both become like Christ and also know Him more deeply.

God bless,

Jason

Our need for a Sabbath

On the Sabbath-

we learn that efficiency is

not God’s highest goal for

our life.

-Rob Bell

Hate him or love him, I believe that Rob Bell has correctly described both what our Sabbath should be as well as why we need a Sabbath. Far too often in our lives we buy into the worlds message that the most important aspect of our life is our efficiency. We run around 7 days a weeks trying to cram as much into the 168 hours we are given in a week. We find ourselves complaining about not having enough time in our days or wishing that God would just give us a 26 hour day so we could accomplish more. Rarely do we stop and think about if we are trying to do too much or if we are scheduling God right out of our busy lives.

In the fall of 2010 I was finishing up my job as a youth director after being let go due to budget cuts. My wife and I were packing up our apartment, Amy was graduating college, and we were preparing to move from Portland,OR to Littleton, CO. Needless to say life was chaotic and I felt as though we were constantly busy. It was during this same time that I listened to a lecture Rob Bell had given to graduate level counseling students at Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle(there is no relation to the church). Bell was explaining to the students that we all have ingrained in us a need from our Creator for rest in our lives, The Bible is very clear that we are commanded to take a day of rest, a Sabbath every week. As Christians we try hard to follow the instructions we are given in the Bible, however, too often we ignore God's call in our lives for a Sabbath. We come up with excuses time and time again that prevent us from carving out intentional times of rest. One of the things that stuck with me from Bell's lecture was when he challenged the students to take a Sabbath. He informed these students that if they don' t begin taking a Sabbath know, when will they? If you can't find time this week to set everything aside and rest in the Lord then when will be a good time.

I was greatly challenged by this and felt convicted of the fact that I have never taken a Sabbath on a regular basis. As I began seminary a year ago I committed to taking Sunday as a Sabbath. The Sabbath for me would mean a day of rest, a day without the stresses of homework or work. Some Sundays this means that Amy and I go to church and then come home and take a long Sunday naps. Other Sundays I take time to talk with family or catch up on reading. Really there is nothing that I must do except be with the Lord and rest in Him. My Sabbaths have become a time of remembering that I can not do it all, that I need God to help me and am dependent on Him. While taking a Sabbath has at times been difficult, like when I have a huge paper due Tuesday, I have grown to love this day more than any other. God has used my commitment of the Sabbath to refresh me when I am week and amazingly there is always enough time to get everything done.

I want to challenge you this week to take a Sabbath. This may mean that you have to skip watching your favorite show in order to finish everything you need to so you can rest on the Sabbath. Your Sabbath doesn't have to be on Sunday, it can be any day of the week. I believe if you commit to giving this time to the Lord you will find that He will give you all the time you need and your time resting in him will become invaluable. May we all rest at some point this week in our Lord and Savior, and in doing so recognize that it is not all about us. Blessings, Jason

Do you tailor Christianity to fit your needs?

Tailored Jesus?

I read this interesting article a few days ago titled "More Americans tailoring religion to fit their needs". I have been thinking about the concept of tailoring Christianity to our needs, and have been wrestling with the question of how much do we ignore difficult parts of the gospels because they don't fit our version of Christianity. My OT professor, Dr. Danny Carroll, challenged us in class yesterday that far too often in westernized Christianity we often cling to our theology too tightly. He suggested that even when we hit verses that disagree with our theology, we allow our logic to trump the scripture. We twists the scripture to support our own theology rather than allowing scripture to reshape our logic. I was challenged to continually try to allow the scripture to be the basis for my life rather than my own ideas. If you want to check out the article I have posted the link below. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the question of how much do we tailor Christianity to fit our needs.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2011-09-14/america-religious-denominations/50376288/1


Blessings,

Jason

Thoughts for the Morning

King Solomon

For one of my classes this semester, Kingdom of Israel & it's Prophets, we are reading very large chunks of the Old Testament. It has been a blessing to be able to read the Bible for my homework, and I have really enjoyed diving into the OT. This morning I was finishing up our assigned reading of 1 Kings 1-11. It is in this section that we see David's son Solomon become King, rule with wisdom, construct the temple for the Lord, build a massive palace for himself(I checked and his house was almost 7,000 sq. feet), and eventually turn away from the Lord. While Solomon was a very wise man as he got older he became distracted by temptations of the world. The Bible tells us that Solomon had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines (11:3) and that as he grew old "his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God."

I believe that far too often we allow things of the world to distract us from whole heartedly seeking after God in our lives. This passage has got me thinking about what things in my life turn my heart away from the Lord? Is it the shows I watch on TV, the desire to have "enough" money, a pursuit of education, trying to make friends and family happy? I believe that as Christians we must constantly be reevaluating our lives to ensure that we stay focused on God and serving him. This passage has challenged me to think about what areas of my life distract me from God and what areas bring me closer to the Lord. It is my hope that I will focus more on the latter in order to continue drawing nearer to the Lord. May you take the time to examine your own life this week and weed out those things that draw you away from the Lord and focus on drawing nearer to the Lord every day.

God bless

Preaching

This morning I once again had the opportunity to preach at 1st Reformed Church here in Denver, CO. I was a little nervous about preaching on the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, especially when the lectionary text I chose was focused on forgiving those who have wronged us. Thankfully, God is gracious and gave me the right words to say! I spent most of this week reading commentaries, reading Bibles, writing out ideas, praying, and writing my sermon. I spent the better part of Friday and Saturday holed up in coffee shops trying to finish my sermon. I experienced writers block Friday and thus ended up not finishing the sermon until Saturday at about 12:30p.m. This left me with a lot less time to practice than I had wanted, but God is good and everything went well.

I preached on Matthew 18:21-35, the parable of the unmerciful servant. I challenged the congregation that there are three things we can learn from this parable.

(1) We are sinners,
(2) God gives us grace,
(3) By extending forgiveness to those around us, we can truly experience the grace of God in our own    lives.

I had a blast preaching, and I am really beginning to enjoy the routine of preparing and delivering a sermon. If anyone is interested in seeing my manuscript please just let me know, and I can e-mail you a copy. I tried to video my sermon but the battery on my flip camera died.

I want to end this post by sharing a funny story that happened while I was getting dressed this morning for church. Sometimes our ability to laugh at ourselves can be just what we need to release some tension and calm our nerves. I had put on my slacks and dress shirt and decided that I should wear a tie. Now I only know how to tie one tie knot, and I have been using this exact one since the 9th grade. The only knot I know how to tie is the half windsor knot, it goes something like this,

Well this morning I decided that I wanted to use a different tie knot since you know, I am preaching and should be well dressed and have the perfect knot for my tie. I decided I should google how to tie a full windsor knot, as they project power and confidence. I read a step by step instructional online and even watched a video. I knew that now I was ready to tie my tie. I tied it while watching the video and when I was done I just laughed. There was no way my tie knot projected confidence or power! I showed Amy and we both laughed pretty hard. I know you are dying to see what my knot looked like, good thing I took a picture.

Needless to say, I don't think I have mastered the full windsor knot. I ended up just trying my good old half windsor knot, and I don't think anyone at church noticed or cared. Hope you all had a great weekend, God bless!!

I'm preaching on Sunday!

Sermon Writing at it's best!

Why is preaching still important?

(St. Paul preaching in Athens)

I have been thinking a lot lately about preaching in the North American Church and questioning why I have such a deep passion for it. As I was driving home from visiting a new coffee house(St. Mark’s Coffee House) on Saturday night with Amy we began to talk about preaching in church, and how I was excited to hear one of my favorite professors preach at Mission Hills Church the next morning. I was excited to hear this particular professor preach since he is the main preaching professor at Denver Seminary. This got me thinking and talking with Amy about my passion for preaching and how I hope to one day be a very Godly and impactful preacher.  

I have really felt that God has been giving me more of a desire to preach throughout this last year. I haven’t really been able to put my finger on why this is or what this means for my future as a pastor, but I have definitely been interested in the idea of a preaching pastor However, while talking with Amy I realized that part of the reason I am passionate about preaching is due to the fact that I am passionate about reaching people for Christ. I want to see people live more authentic and Godly lives on a daily basis. It hit me that as a pastor one of the main areas you are allowed to speak into people’s lives is through your sermon on Sunday mornings. Sure you will get lunch with people in your congregation throughout the week, but the majority of people will not have time or seek out meetings with the pastor during the week. 

I believe that most of the people who do seek out additional time with pastors are often those who have a good relationship with the Lord. I realized that I want to preach because I want to inspire people to grow closer to the Lord. I want to challenge people to think through what they believe and be able to articulate it clearly. I want to teach people to understand the Bible clearly and to recognize the importance that the Bible still has in our lives today. And most importantly, I want to preach because I want to serve God whole heartedly with my gifts and talents, and I believe this is an area he has gifted me in and is continuously cultivating in my life.

As I look towards beginning another semester of school in the fall I am trying to be wise with my time off this summer. I am reading some books on preaching, I bought the videos from a conference on the art of preaching and I am watching some podcast of impactful preachers. My prayer is that through spending the time researching, reading and listening to preachers I will be able to cultivate the gifts God has given me. If you have any suggestions on books to read related to preaching or preachers to listen to I would welcome any and all suggestions. God bless.

The Price of Neglect

     Recently I have began to read A.W. Tozer's The Price of Neglect. While I was home in Seattle my brother John gave me this book and suggested I read it. I had informed him that I have not read anything by Tozer, but have heard a great deal about him. I started reading Tozer's book last week and was immediately struck by the importance of what he is saying. I believe that right away he challenges Christians to stand up for the truth found in scripture and raises important questions that we must wrestle with as we look at the future of both Christianity and the church. The chapters are short and being that I feel it is very important, I have written out the first chapter from the book for you to read and wrestle with yourself. I would love to hear any thoughts you have on the topic or Tozer's work. 
_________________________________

The Price of Neglect

Plato has somewhere said that in a democratic society the price wise men pay for neglecting politics is to be ruled by unwise men.

This observation is so patently true that no one who values his reputation for clear thinking is likely to contest it.

In America, for instance, there are millions of plain men and women, decent, honest and peace loving, who take their blessings for granted and make no effort to assure the continuance of our free society. These persons are without doubt far in the majority. They constitute the main body of our population, but for all their numbers they are not going to determine the direction our country will go in the next few years. Their weakness lies in their passivity. They sit back and allow radicals and those in the minority but who shout the loudest to set the course for the future. If this continues much longer we have no assurance that we can retain that liberty which was once purchased for us at such appalling cost.

The price good and sober Christians pay for doing nothing is to be led by those highly vocal minorities whose only qualifications for leadership are an overweening ambition and a loud voice. And there have always been and always will be such persons in the congregations of the saints. They know least and talk most, while sane and godly men too often give up leadership to them rather than to resist them. Later these same docile souls may shake their heads and lament their captivity. But by that time it is too late.

Within the circles of evangelical Christianity itself there has arisen in the last few years dangerous and dismaying trends away from true Bible Christianity. A spirit has been introduced which is surely not the Spirit of Christ, methods employed which are wholly carnal, objectives adopted which have not one line of Scripture to support them, a level of conduct accepted which is practically identical with that of the world--and yet scarcely one voice has been raised in opposition. And this in spite of the fact that the Bible-honoring followers of Christ lament among themselves the dangerous, wobbly course things are taking.

So radically is the essential spirit and content of orthodox Christianity changing these days under the vigorous leadership of undiscerning religionists that, if the trend is not sopped, what is called Christianity will soon be something altogether other than the faith of our fathers. We’ll have only Bible words left. Bible religion will have perished from wounds received in the house of her friends.

The times call for a Spirit-baptized and articulate orthodoxy. They whose souls have been illuminated by the Holy Ghost must arise and under God assume leadership. There are those among us whose hearts can discern between the true and the false, whose spiritual sense of smell enables them to detect the spurious afar off, who have the blessed gift of knowing. Let such as these arise and be heard. Who knows but the Lord may return and leave a blessing behind Him?

How to preach to the masses?

     I have been thinking a lot lately about how one can most effectively preach in a typical church setting. How does a pastor convey the truth of scriptures in such a way that the congregation is not only captivated, but moved to action. For many years I have sensed that  whatever pastoral role God is leading me towards will involve preaching. I have a deep passion for preaching and believe that it is an important and useful aspect of our church worship services. Despite my belief that it is still crucial to our growth as Christians, I also believe that there are many preachers who lack inspiration and passion. The question for me is how do preachers allow their sermons to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, passionate, Bible based and meaningful to the point that listeners are moved to live more authentic and Christ based lives? Is this even possible or are my expectations too high?  
     This week I am back in Seattle visiting family and friends, which also means figuring out where Amy and I want to worship on Sundays. Last Sunday we visited my good friend Mark's church and really enjoyed their small, intimate service. This morning we decided to worship at the church I grew up in (which is always a mix of emotions for me) and worshipped with Amy's parents. The pastor who preached was a woman, in here late 30's, who at times sounded more like a stand up comedian than a pastor. I know that it is difficult to preach, especially in front of hundreds of people, but I find as I study the art of preaching it becomes more difficult not to critique the sermons I hear. All in all this women preached a good sermon and I listened attentively to the entire sermon, however, 8 hours later I can barely remember anything she said. Why is it that we can spend hours of our weeks preparing sermons, stressing out over if our illustrations will be effective and preach our hearts out only to have the congregation leave unchanged.
     I have within me a burning passion to be more effective as a preacher. I don't know what this will look like or how I will achieve this, but I am determined to someday, by the grace of God, inspire people through my preaching. I hope and pray that God will use my words to pull people closer to Him. If we, as the Church, are to bring people to Christ and help others understanding the living hope we have in Christ, we must tirelessly search for the most effective ways to reach people, including how we preach the word of God, which must be the foundation for all else. I am excited to use some of my free time to study the art of preaching. I plan to read a couple books about this topic, listen to some amazing preachers and look at the style and techniques of their sermons and watch some videos from a conference on preaching. Hopefully I will find the time to continue writing out some of my thoughts about this topic here on my blog as I continue to work towards one day becoming an effective preacher.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17