For the Bible Reading Challenge this summer, I decided to read George Lamsa's translation of the New Testament—meaning a translation into English from an early Aramaic version. And for the most part, ...
The Rope and the Needle
Permit the Children
Sermon Video Introduction: This is a remarkable period in the history of our congregation. We have never seen growth like this before, and all of us are getting used to the new situation. Of course, ...
Too High and Too Low
“It seems to me that a large part of the troubles and mistakes of our pastoral life come from our having too high an estimate of men’s present condition and too low an estimate of their possibility”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 73
Inspiration, Not Comfort
Ineffective pastoral care “tries to meet the misfortunes of life with comfort and not with inspiration . . . The truest help which one can render to a man who has any of the inevitable burdens of life to carry is not to take his burden off but to call out his best strength that he may be able to bear it”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 71
Be Both
“The preacher needs to be pastor, that he may preach to real men. The pastor must be preacher, that he may keep the dignity of his work alive. The preacher, who is not a pastor, grows remote. The pastor, who is not a preacher, grows petty . . . Be both; for you cannot really be one unless you also are the other”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 70
Dealing With Discouragement
Sermon Video Introduction: Although the occasions can be many, there are two basic reasons for discouragement—internal and external. The internal occurs when for some reason we have given way ...
Ponder for a Minute
“The minister must grow. His true growth is not necessarily a change of views. It is a change of view”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 66
The Manliest of Professions, Huh?
“That which ought to be the manliest of all professions has a tendency, practically, to make men unmanly. Men make appeals for sympathy that no true man should make. They take to themselves St. Paul’s pathos without St. Paul’s strength . . . Never appeal for sympathy. Let it find you out if it will. Count your manliness the soul of your ministry and resist all attacks upon it however sweetly they may come”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 65
Difficult Relationships
Sermon Video Introduction: For a number of years now, we have been emphasizing community, life together, fellowship, communion, and what the New Testament calls koinonia. The response to this ...
Always a Marvel
“A man’s first wonder when he begins to preach is that people do not come to hear him. After a while, if he is good for anything, he begins to wonder that they do”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 60