Throughout church history, the importance of preaching has been emphasized and explained as being a vital activity of the church. John Calvin said that where the word of God is not preached and heard, there is no church. Preaching is a ministry that Jesus himself authorized and continues to empower by his word and Spirit. When we prepare and deliver a sermon, we are sharing in the ongoing ministry of the Great Shepherd. As the living Word, he continues to communicate by his word, both written and preached. Therefore, let us offer our sermons up to God as “loaves and fish” for him to bless and multiply in feeding his sheep.
Reproduced with permission from Chris Carmichael.
Every time I prepare a sermon, I’m reminded of John Stott’s book for preachers, Between Two Worlds. He observed that preachers need twelve hours to adequately prepare a sermon. That amount of time, I know, is unrealistic for many of us—especially bivocational pastors. Nevertheless, Stott’s observation reminds us of the importance of adequate sermon preparation—I’m particularly motivated to spend more time in prayer.
We are blessed with many resources that help us prepare our sermons. I asked Ted Johnston from Church Administration and Development to list some of them (see the “preaching resources” link at left). These resources will need to be adapted to your personal style, your congregation’s needs and our denomination’s doctrinal standards. But they do take some of the “heavy lifting” out of sermon preparation.
The single oddest response I ever received after a sermon (true story) came from a man I had never met.
“Excuse me,” he said, “Do you mind if I disturb you for a moment?”
“No,” I said.
He put his thumbs in his ears, wiggled his fingers wildly, and made a noise that sounded like Ruga Ruga Ruga. Then he walked away. I haven’t seen him since. It was the oddest response I have received, but not the worst.
Perhaps the oddest response I have ever received was following a sermon I preached on grace. A man came up to me and said that he would like to publicly execute me by chopping off my head with a giant ax. As it turns out, this fellow was visiting us from one of our splinter groups.
How about you? What is the most unusual comment you have ever received in response to one of your sermons? I invite you to share yours using the “ADD A COMMENT” feature below.
Mark Twain once said, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.” I have noticed that the opposite is true as well. A critical comment can have the effect of trumping any number of positive remarks. But for a preacher, a certain amount of criticism goes with the territory. It isn’t necessarily your fault. Even the apostle Paul couldn’t please all of the people, all of the time. He wrote,
Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse (2 Corinthians 2:16 MSG).
So next time someone tells you your sermon “stinks,” remember you are in good company. However, let’s make sure the criticism comes because the listener rejects the truth of our message and not because of sloppy, inadequate preparation. To quote Paul again,
This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No—but at least we don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can” (2 Corinthians 2:17 MSG).
Let me encourage you to be diligent in your preaching, entrusting your best to Christ the living Word, so you can be “a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 NRSV).
Your brother in Christ,
Joseph Tkach
Jeff Chandler
Jeff and Trish Chandler
Jeff Chandler, pastor of the GCI church in Jonesboro, Arkansas, is less of a man than he was just a couple years ago—100 pounds less to be specific. “I am thankful for what God has been doing in my life in regard to health. It has turned into part of the ministry God has for me. I think I am a better tool for Jesus to use as a result of getting my health in check. As a result of Trish and my involvement with Fitness Bootcamp Unlimited where I lost the weight, the owners are now members of our church.”
Jeff’s grandparents were baptized in 1955. “They never attended regularly, primarily because there was no church in the area—my mother started going to WCG in 1968 when I was 2 years old. She drove from Milan to Memphis, Tennessee for several years until a church was started in Jackson. I was shy early in life even though I had four brothers. SEP in Orr, Minnesota (1982) and SEP in Big Sandy, Texas (1985) were a couple of the greatest experiences of my life up to that time. I loved to play sports, especially baseball, basketball and football, and I loved music, especially singing. Thankfully, our family took advantage of all the YOU and WCG activities.”
It was at a YOU activity that Jeff met his wife Trish. “She was 15 and I was 16 when we both knew we would be married one day. We went to Ambassador College in Big Sandy in 1986. We got engaged in Amman, Jordan in 1990 (she visited me during our Jordan Foreign Project). We married during the summer before my senior year. Then we moved to Jonesboro, Arkansas where Trish’s family still lives.”
Trish, Josie, Jeff and Legend at Josie’s graduation
Jeff and Trish have been married 23 years and have two children. “Our daughter Josie (18) just graduated from high school and will be attending Arkansas State University this fall. My son Legend (14) will enter the 9th grade this fall. Josie loves music and wants to teach art and music. Legend loves animals and thinks he will be working with them when he grows up.”
Trish is a director for SHARP, a health organization at a local hospital. “She’s better than me at most everything,” Jeff shares. “I truly married up.” Along with her job, Trish serves alongside Jeff doing something at church almost every week. “Trish is either leading Church Life or Communion, offering prayer or giving the sermon. She plays a vital role in organizing our special services at Christmas and Easter. Most of the growth in numbers we have had in our church has been a result of her personal relationships. She has the ability to draw people to her. Her unconditional love creates an inclusive spirit that is unmistakable and magnetic. Her prayers are deep and heartfelt—so much so that we have no doubt that we are kneeling right in front of God or sitting in his lap carrying on a conversation. She is a blessing to me, my family and the church.”
Jeff notes that following college, “Tom Blackwell, our pastor in Jonesboro, became my mentor. He guided me and encouraged me in Christian service. Then in 1996, we moved to Nashville, Tennessee and dropped from the church scene for eight years. We visited a few churches when my daughter Josie was invited to church by school friends. This is when we decided to visit WCG and became reacquainted with our church family. In Nashville I was privileged to have two mentors: Pastor Ray Gardner and Deacon Bill Floyd.” In August 2007, Jeff was asked to serve as assistant pastor to Ray after Ray found out he had prostate cancer. “He passed away in 2008 and I moved into the senior pastor position. I was able to meet with him every week for the last couple months of his life—it was a wonderful time of mentoring that I will always cherish. Bill continues to mentor me. I am so thankful for these father/grandfather figures in my life.”
“Yelling the good news” is what Jeff loves most about being a pastor. “I love the opportunity to participate in his love with others and to be given a platform to talk about God. I finally have a desire to yell from the rooftops that God loves us. When our focus was the law, my desire to tell people about what I believed was just not there. Why would I stand on rooftops yelling, ‘You won’t go to the place of safety if you don’t believe what I’m trying to tell you.’ But now I can yell the good news: ‘God loves you—and not only that, you are his—believe it!!!’”
Jeff and Trish
What Jeff appreciates most about GCI is its inclusive theology. “I love that we don’t think we have all the answers and that we continue to seek them. I love that we believe that Jesus died for all and that death applies to all. I love that we bring in people from other denominations to speak about the one God we all believe in. I feel this helps in unifying the body of Christ, the one church.”
Our theology leads to Jeff’s passion. “My passion is viewing people in light of who they are in Jesus. I teach English as a second language at Arkansas State University. The majority of the students I have been teaching are Muslims from Saudi Arabia. God put me in this position a year after he placed me in the position as pastor in Jonesboro. Holy Spirit has been showing me his presence in all my students. I have been able to experience a spiritual relationship with them that I would not have thought possible several years ago. I am able to make a love connection with my students because God is love. He is working on all my students as he works on me—through the Holy Spirit. Knowing how Holy Spirit brought me to understand who Jesus is makes me confident that he is doing the same with my students. Now, I simply connect with the Spirit—and that connection looks like love. I am compelled by his love to no longer look at my students the way I once did.”
Jeff also has a passion for relationships. “I love finding oneness in relationships. This oneness is not something I create, but discovering and then participating in the oneness already created by our Triune God. I describe my teaching at ASU as ‘relational teaching.’ God loves them through me—they love me through the Spirit—then we learn English.”
The most memorable moments Jeff has had as a pastor were baptizing both his children, a brother-in-law, a sister-in-law, two nephews, a niece and blessing one of his infant nephews. “There is nothing like connecting with family in this way.”
Asked when he feels closest to God, Jeff said, “When he loves through me and I recognize him doing so. When that happens, I find myself wrapped in his oneness. I feel closest to God in this chaotic and active lifestyle I find myself. These days I don’t have the privilege to visit with him often in quiet. With being a father, husband, bivocational pastor, full-time instructor at ASU, graduate student (seeking a master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at Azusa Pacific University) and maintaining an exercise program, life doesn’t often allow me to slow down and get quiet. Thankfully, I find God active in my life in all these activities—even in my exercise routine.”
In closing, Jeff commented: “As a result of Trish and my involvement with Fitness Bootcamp Unlimited where I lost the weight, we have started a Worship Workout service on Sunday evenings (see picture above right). For about a year now, we have had 20-30 people attend regularly. Worship Workout is a 30-minute aerobics workout done with Christian music (Toby Mac style) followed by a 5-10 minute message and prayer. Cornelius Lovelace, the owner of Fitness Bootcamp, leads the workout; I give the messages. This is one of the most rewarding hours of the week for me.”
Canadian camp fundraiser
This update is from GCI Canada member Mark Yandt who was one of the riders in the event.
Our Canadian youth camp, Camp Connections, recently held its third annual Peddling Kilometers fundraiser. The 200 km bicycle ride was completed by 13 riders (pictured below) who worked hard prior to the ride selling pledges for the kilometers they would cover. In this way funds were raised for Friends of Camp Connections (FOCC), an organization that subsidizes the registration fees paid by needy campers.
Over the past three years the event has brought participants together from Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Peterborough and Petawawa and has raised over $22,000 (Canadian). Though this year’s results are not yet finalized, it looks like we’ve raised over $10,000! This is a testament to the efforts of the riders who worked for months doing fundraising prior to the ride. Not only did they gain support from friends and colleagues (in person and online), they had the opportunity to tell people about the value of Camp Connections.
This year’s ride started at Parliament Hill in Ottawa and took us through eastern Ontario to Hawkesbury where we stayed overnight before heading the next day to Montreal. Camp director Lynn Lawrence welcomed us with a hot shower and a BBQ dinner.
Pastoral succession planning
Below is a video of an interview with retired GCI pastor Ray Meyer. He discusses the pastoral succession planning process in the Kansas City, Missouri church, where he served as senior pastor for 19 years. Also watch for the July issue of Equipper, which tells Ray’s story.
Through its ministry development website, GCI Church Administration and Development (CAD) catalogs resources that pastors and other preachers/teachers will find helpful in preparing sermons, discipleship classes, Bible studies and the like. Here is a list of some of those resources:
Sermon Series, which is a weekly sermon/Bible study preparation resource that is emailed to subscribers weekly by CAD ministry developer Ted Johnston—click here for a sample issue and email Ted.Johnston@gci.org if you would like to subscribe
CAD director Dan Rogers offers a day-long seminar on expository preaching—if it has not been held in your church district, you may request it by contacting your district pastor
The Surprising God blog has short articles that expound our Trinitarian, Incarnational faith—several of these would make good outlines for sermons
CAD recommends various non-GCI websites with helpful sermon preparation resources—while we don’t necessarily endorse everything on each site, here are some particularly helpful ones:
GCI pastor Mark McCulley and his wife Joanne recently narrowly escaped a disaster that occurred next door to them in Westminster, Colorado (in the Denver area). Here is his praise report.
With almost 500 homes destroyed in the Black Forest fires in nearby Colorado Springs, I feel a bit embarrassed to mention what happened in our neighborhood. But we are thanking God for delivering us from injury to ourselves and from significant damage to our home when our next door neighbor’s home was destroyed by a natural gas explosion (see picture at right, our home is in the lower right of the picture, near the exploded one).
Perhaps most amazing and encouraging about this situation was the community-building work that the Holy Spirit did through the disaster to bring together the folks in our neighborhood. Our neighbors came over several times to help us. We also had two community “thanksgiving” meals where Joanne and I were asked to say grace.
Mullins and Gill engaged
Here’s a happy announcement from Anthony Mullins who directs GCI’s Generations Ministries. Congratulations to Anthony and Elizabeth!
Anthony and Elizabeth
I have some big news out of North Carolina: I have asked Elizabeth Gill to be my bride (and she said “yes”).
It was a beautiful evening—we had been talking about the Father’s wooing and romantic heart. This seemed the natural segue into asking her to share life with me and me with her.
I know you will share our joy in announcing our engagement to be married. Thanks to the many who have been praying about this. For both of us, it’s a testament to God’s redemptive and restorative nature.
Glenn Roberson camp scholarships
This announcement is from GCI Generations Ministries director Anthony Mullins.
Glenn Roberson
Many of us fondly remember Glenn Roberson from his many years serving us at SEP in Orr, Minnesota. We can still see his vibrant smile and we remember his caring spirit. I always had a sense that Glenn would do most anything to serve others. He was truly one-of-a-kind.
Glenn died earlier this year and in lieu of flowers, family and friends were asked to donate funds for camp scholarships. The funds received were generously given by the family to Grace Communion International for use in our GenMin camp network.
After careful consideration, we have decided to give those funds to our CrossWalk Camp in Oklahoma to fund scholarships to campers who were directly impacted by the recent, horrific tornadoes in Moore, Oklahoma and the surrounding area.
As you may know, CrossWalk had to cancel their spring camp session due to storm damage at the rented camp facility near Oklahoma City. What a scene it will be to have their fall session in the newly renovated facility along with campers who have been blessed by a full scholarship!
Our God loves restoration! And frankly, I believe Glenn would be proud of how these funds, in his name, are being used.
Please join me in praying that these funds will reach families who have a need and that these new campers will experience the Father’s tender heart, the Son’s passionate pursuit, and the Spirit’s declaration of life as an adopted child of God!
Barreros’ son graduates
GCI mission developer and national director Hector Barrero and his wife Paulina provided this announcement concerning their son’s graduation.
Andrés Felipe Barrero
We are celebrating the recent graduation from college (Universida de la Salle) of our son Andrés Felipe. He graduated with the highest grades in the university—a grade point average of 4.7 out of a possible 5.0.
Andrés Felipe is already working on a master’s degree in social philosophy and has applied for a scholarship to study social conflict resolution in Germany.
Currently he is working as a philosophy teacher in a bilingual high school. With his brother Juan Carlos (our oldest son) he is leading the worship band and leading the youth ministry in our congregation. All this and Andrés Felipe is just 22 years old.
Throughout church history, the importance of preaching has been emphasized and explained as being a vital activity of the church. John Calvin said that where the word of God is not preached and heard, there is no church. Preaching is a ministry that Jesus himself authorized and continues to empower by his word and Spirit. When we prepare and deliver a sermon, we are sharing in the ongoing ministry of the Great Shepherd. As the living Word, he continues to communicate by his word, both written and preached. Therefore, let us offer our sermons up to God as “loaves and fish” for him to bless and multiply in feeding his sheep.
