FIve Things I praise God for by being a pastor at Wooster Grace

photo courtesy of Kelsey Love Fusion Photography via Flickr Creative Commons License
As the end of this calendar comes to a close, I want to share with you five things that I praise God for by being pastor at Wooster Grace:

• Encouragement from all who attend and lead at Wooster Grace.
• Support: from admin staff, congregants, and pastors
• Connectedness I sense God's Holy Spirit working through the majority of us here.
  
• Vision to develop all people into fully devoted followers of Christ Jesus. We all strive towards that end--everyone a fully-devoted follower.
• Reach out: we value reaching out to people. New people are coming to Christ every month. What a great challenge to baptize and to disciple them all. 

I praise God for what God does through us. I love our church! May you find a church home for your family too that is seeking to be more on mission every week. 

Preparing to preach at Wooster Grace--one good resource

photo by Gastev

As I get ready to preach this weekend, I get to be the "other preacher" this weekend. At 9:45am at Wooster Grace we have two different preachers for the two services scheduled in our facility.  One preacher is the primary and the other one is the "back-up." 

Pastor Ivanildo and I get to preach on John 5:1-15.  He has set me up wonderfully with the sermon text and several illustrations.  I need time to make the message my own.  I enjoy preaching with all the pastors.  This time I get to preach with Pastor Ivanildo.

Our current series is "A Passion for Compassion."  Our theme is "Caring for the Sick." I intend to share God's heart on this but I find it challenging not to come across with a guilt-trip; but to let everyone who hears the message respond to what God wants them to do. 

I like how Pastor Ivanildo addresses a couple of objections, then he gives insight into what Jesus did in John 5 as the impetus for three distinct action steps you can take home.  I can't wait to share what God puts in my mind and fires up in my heart.  If you are near Wooster, Ohio, consider yourself invited.  If you can't come, then visit the message series online.  This sermon concludes our series, "A Passion for Compassion."

I find it helpful to re-read the passage and to do some preliminary exegesis (critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, esp. of the Bible). One good resource I have used since seminary is New Testament Exegesis 1st Ed. by Gordon Fee (3rd ed. pp 134ff).  Useful and helpful short guide for sermon exegesis (pp. 117-136) lets you as Fee states, "The goal of the shorter guide is to help the pastor extract from the passage the essentials pertaining to sound interpretation and exposition (explanation and application) (quote from first edition--Fee, NT Exegesis, 117)." 

I find that a systematic way of doing things works best for me.  So for those of you starting to preach, this is a good resource to use.  This handbook involves knowledge of the original biblical language, but the steps could still help someone without such knowledge.  But I believe its most beneficial if you have a working knowledge of NT Greek.  I wonder what helps you as you preach.  Please leave a comment. 

Sharpen the Saw

photo by romulusnr

I am part of a district of cooperating churches. In our fellowship of churches, we gather together in the Northeastern Ohio district to pray for and to encourage one another.

Our district coordinator, Joe Cosentino, asked us as a group to share what ideas, books, ministry tips we could glean from one another.

After a few moments of reflective silence we came up with the following list:

• Go where the people are--"just show up there among them"


• Feed the Team--provide a meal for a sports team in your school district


• Share a Meal--conduct a recipe exchange like the Kane's in Cambodia do


• Give a Meal--target a community service and give 'em lunch to share God's love


• Read Prayer: Does it make any difference? Philip Yancey


• Read Mark Cahill's books; One Heartbeat Away: your journey into eternity; One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven


• Throw a cookout--send out invitations to neighbors; pick any date


• Leadership development--launch a roundtable where leaders can come and receive equipping from you


• Conduct an Evangelism for Dummies elective (contact itrindade@woostergrace.org for a copy of his materials for this equipping seminar)


• Use non-verbal techiques for sermons or lessons--use an auditory device like a bell going off every minute to reinforce that 160 people die every minute


• Visit http://www.cpyu.org/ to stay up with youth trends and resources


• Subscribe to http://www.shiftworship.com/ For $99 per year you can download worship materials compatible with powerpoint and mediashout.


• Read The Shack William P. Young


• Unforgettable outline from II Samuel 11--email Joe Cosentino for a copy at joe@cantongbc.org