Jesusgreek

Great article from Brandon Cox... Ever watched a really good idea crash and burn? Me too. Here’s some brutal honesty: Entire movements have gone down in flames because of boneheaded approaches to good ideas. This isn’t to say we can’t afford to make mistakes. In fact, the only way to know we’re taking risks is to make mistakes. We can’t afford  not  to make them. But we also can’t afford to ignore timeless principles of leadership effectiveness. In honor of our most fatal leadership mistakes, here are my “from the hip” ways to kill great ideas. (Warning: sarcasm ahead) 1. Form a committee.  In this way, you’ll be able to devote more time to keeping minutes and electing officers and less time to solving problems. Also, we’ll be able to prevent a single great leader from running with the idea without feeling the need to check with several people with different opinions before proceeding. 2. Be sure to control it.  Before you even start execut...

I was recently asked by my good friend Sam Main to record an ad spot for our church that would run during his Masculine Journey radio show on a local Christian radio station. I wrote up a 2 min script that featured two guys discussing church. After we finished recording the spot, the ad was vetoed by management for being too edgy for Christian radio. At my request, the offensive word was replaced by a beep, which actually made the ad funnier. After initially getting approved, the ad was pulled again at the last minute after the powers that be deemed the beep to be “too suggestive”. Here is the link to the censored (and currently banned) radio ad for Main Street Baptist Church.

The fourth world. That’s what Haddon Robinson called it. He took John Stott’s two worlds of preaching — the world of the Bible and the world of the contemporary listener’s culture — and he added two more. First, the specific culture of the local congregation (which may differ sharply from the contemporary culture in general). Then, the fourth world — the inner world of the preacher. We have to understand all four worlds to preach effectively. I’d like to probe that fourth world in respect to personality types. Now I know these are controversial. There are those in favor and those against. There are advocates for this taxonomy and those pushing for another. Some oppose them altogether. Some people refuse to be labeled (perhaps a personality thing); others love it (ditto). I’ll let you chase the type tests and theoretical discussions elsewhere. I’m going to try to avoid an exhaustive taxonomy of personality types and instead probe various possible features with a fo...

The following is an article by Hershael York... I often have to answer the strangest question anyone could ask a preaching professor: “Do you think preaching can be taught?” I always want to respond, “No, I’m just going through the motions for the money.” Of course I never do, not only because it’s best not to say the smart aleck things I sometimes think, but because I know what they mean when they ask. It’s not really an unfair question. No one denies that a preaching class and some coaching can help anyone become better. What we question is the possibility that someone with no natural giftedness and ability can be taught well enough that he can become really good. For the last 16 years I’ve sat in a seminary classroom, listening to student sermons on an almost daily basis, and I’ve heard every kind of sermon and every level of preacher. I’ve seen guys so nervous that they had to stop and vomit during the sermon, and I’ve been so moved by a student’s sermon that I felt I had...