I have learned a lot from Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan, NY.  One of the most helpful things I’ve learned from Keller is with regard to preaching Christ and the gospel from every text.  Keller recently wrote a piece on preaching on The Gospel Coalition Blog titled Preachers-Only Aren’t Good Preachers.  Below is a quote from the post:

“If you put in too much time in your study on your sermon you put in too little time being out with people as a shepherd and a leader. Ironically, this will make you a poorer preacher. It is only through doing people-work that you become the preacher you need to be–someone who knows sin, how the heart works, what people’s struggles are, and so on. Pastoral care and leadership (along with private prayer) are to a great degree sermon preparation. More accurately, it is preparing the preacher, not just the sermon. Through pastoral care and leadership you grow from being a Bible commentator into a flesh and blood preacher.”

If you are a pastor or an aspiring pastor, I’d encourage you to read and listen to anything you can by Keller regarding preaching.  Start with the article mentioned above, but for the real bang, go out and try to find the lecture series he gave at Gordon Conwell titled Preaching to the Heart.  It is worth every penny you might have to pay. (Sorry, I couldn’t locate the lectures online.  If someone knows where to find them, please add a link in the comments section).

Do you ever feel the pain and heartache of others?  I mean really feel it?  Do you ever get torn up with their story or captivated by their lives?  We all do to different degrees – that’s part of the reason we’re so attracted to movies.  This past week I came across this video for the REN3W Vision Campaign – part of Redeemer Presbyterian Church out in NYC.  The video is put together wonderfully and is a beautiful portrayal of the gospel in the city.

Let this stir you as you watch it.  Let the concept of gospel-transformation and gospel-renewal sink into you heart and build a passion in you for others: their lives, their struggles, their joys.

(Watch it full size over at Vimeo)

A few things have stirred in the last week that have driven me to begin to think about facilities way sooner than I ever imagined.  We’re a long way off from pulling the trigger on anything and to be truthful, we could still be six months away from locking anything down but nonetheless, some recent stuff got me thinking in this area.

As I did a bit of research, I came across this article on the Resurgence website called Finding a Facility. It is something that Driscoll wrote up a few years back and it provides some real good questions and categories/criteria to think through when trying to hone in on a facility.  I offer it up as this week’s recommended resource.

As a young church planter, one of the things I’m working hard at is improving my preaching.  Coming out of the Acts 29 Assessment last October, one of my conditions was to find 10-12 preaching opportunities over the next year.  While I’ve been busy chipping away at those and am on track to have the condition wrapped up later this fall, I’ve also grown in my realization for the need of good, solid, constructive, yet critical feedback and evaluation.

As such, I’ve assembled a team of friends: some pastors, some lay, and at least two potential church planters to listen to my sermons and then lovingly, ruthlessly, edifyingly (probably not a real word), and critically eval my stuff.  Here’s what I asked them to agree to:

1. Roughly once a month (maybe twice a month on occasion), listen to a sermon that I point you to (or you hear live if I’m at your place).
2. As you listen, fill out the evaluation form that I have attached.
3. Provide the completed evaluation form back to me (by email or by hand) within ten days of when I point you to the sermon/you hear it live.
4. Continue this for seven months (the rest of this year).  At that time, I’ll probably change this up.

The evalution form is one I created myself based on a survey of some others including one that Dr. Chapell includes in an appendix of Christ-Centered Preaching.

I am excited to get my hands on this and will be strongly considering it for use in our core development phase of Project 2 Pillars.  Read more about this resource on the Coram Deo blog or visit the World Harvest Mission website and buy yourself a copy.