Sermongate 2021

Ed Litton and JD Geear take a selfie with the Instrument of Great Power

It can be so irritating to be Southern Baptist sometimes.  Mercifully, I'm 2 months late to this information.

I became aware this week of the sermon gate controversy. (#sermongate) Apparently our previous SBC president JD "Cool Dude" Greear preached sermons that were copied almost word for word and delivered by our new SBC president Ed "Mr. Ed" Litton. Sermongate reveals things that I suspected but had hoped were not true. I had known since seminary that people would copy each other and take credit for things as their own, "but only losers do that." Predictably most of the row centers on the word "plagiarism." 

But to me the controversy is less about plagiarism and much more about spirituality and relationship with God. What are our methods for preparing sermons? And hence what is the quality of the message we are delivering?  

If you're an entertainer or an actor then you can deliver an entertainment or actor's quality message. But if you are supposed to be a pastor, supposed to be a minister, supposedly with a calling then you must be very intentional and serious disciplined and careful about what you do during your sermon on Sunday mornings in something that you refer to as worship. 

To me one of the main things has to do with how much of your message is first hand experience with God or second hand third hand or purchased experience with God. Do we actually believe that our congregations want to have something that we have purchased? Or that we have received second hand or third hand? a vicarious Christian experience? 

I firmly believe that most of my sermons and messages and Bible studies need to be first hand delivery of my first hand experience with God and his Word. I hope you will agree that this is a most important and vital consideration!  How could we do anything less and show our faces in the pulpit?  

So to be clear, my method is a very very very key thing, no matter what the Lord may use as a starting point for inspiration.  For example, if I choose to use a sermon outline published in a sermon outline book, or use a past Sunday School lesson, these would only be the "germ" or starting point of the work.  In fact, very very often whatever was the starting point of one of these sermons would be so irritating to me or so irrelevant to the Biblical text that it totally disappears in the later steps of my preparation!  In every case, I do not end up with what I began, unless I have begun, as is most frequent, with a Biblical passage!  

In other words, I almost always do "Expository Preaching" that includes as a very most important step "first hand careful study of the Biblical passage."  And guess what happens?  The sermon's main points are (hopefully and usually) the main points of the Biblical passage!  Even in topical sermons (which center on some specific topic, where many passages of Scripture are read) the text will be carefully allowed to make its points, and not intentionally abused to "proof-text" whatever my clever point is or was.  

All this is to say that the method, learned, practiced and repeated through the years, is the absolute key.  I firmly believe this cannot be done by a team, a committee, or by cutting and pasting, let alone by purchasing it with money from some anonymous person working at a "professional research service." 

After all these years of preaching I (and I hope the vast majority of pastors!) have file drawers full of sermons and studies that I have written, all of which were inspired by the Holy Spirit, for me, for my congregation, for the purpose of glorifying God in their lives and mine.  This collection is an ever churning resource of further information, for further inspiration and celebration of God's Word.  

I am discouraged that those who are the biggest and the most visible, with their multi-campus hologram sermons, are the ones who buy speeches from George Soros and assemble them in committees of major players in their mega church mega nerve centers of mega ministry.  While those in the country with a congregation of 35 are doing the hard work of Bible Study and preaching with no evidence of worldly success at all.  And the cheaters are the winners on this side of Judgement Day, even in the "church."

Don't people care?  Forget what the hodabies think, what on earth do the Christians in the churches think?  Or want?  Apparently for many what they want is something even less than a T.E.D. talk after all, they want a low quality actor running through a prepared script for the first time.  That's entertainment?

Not for me.  No wonder I almost never listen to them.  

Pro tip: hold your pastor accountable for the method they use to prepare sermons.  The method is the key.  Asking questions is the key to understanding.

Memorial for Dr. Haddon W. Robinson

Gordon-Conwell's page for Dr. Robinson

A few of my notes from October 21, 1993, when Dr. Robinson was talking to us about "Making Dry Bones Live" (chapter 7 of Biblical Preaching): 

"Is your theology abstract?  Is it less than real?  Your theology must be stated in light of revelation and scripture.  And this is revealed in words, linguistic signs.  Objective, propositional revelation is the necessary way to get to the real God.  Not our experiences of Him.  Our experience must be in the word.  Moral laws for example, stop sign laws or fire laws, they are in words.  You don't break God's laws, you break yourself on them" 

And on using illustrations in sermons to make "dry bones live":

"You need more less than more. You're not a storyteller, you're a communicator of truth."

And finally some of the best advice I ever got: "Don't assume they know where Africa is." 

See you later, Dr. Robinson.

Happy because of Jesus,
Pastor James

Some Thoughts on Hiring Larry Doyle

Look what fell out of my file cabinet!  I would have shared with my church back in the day.

Dated July 15, 2003 (Edited only for typographical errors)

Some Thoughts on Hiring Larry Doyle

On Monday night, I sat and watched Dr. Larry Doyle pour out his heart for what Cooperative/partnership Missions looks like. This is his way of speaking about Associational Missions work, which is what he as a Director of Missions will promote.

His text for the sermon part of his talk was Mark 2, the healing of the Paralytic: (Read Mark 2:1-12).

These four men were on their way somewhere perhaps. Maybe they were going to the meeting to see Jesus speak. They valued the ministry of Jesus, they knew that he healed people and was a person of great power and strength. So first, Dr. Doyle said that they had shared values. Next, these four men, on their way somewhere, saw a person in need. They realize that Jesus could make the man in need walk again. They valued the ministry of Jesus, and this gave rise to their vision that Jesus could make the man walk again. So they had a shared vision.

Next, these four men cooperated. They each cooperated in carrying their share of the burden. What would have happened if one man had decided not to carry his part of the stretcher? So these four men had shared values that led to a shared vision, that caused them to cooperate and share the work.

Next, these men had a problem. What happened? Did they just get to bring the paralytic right in and set him down? No! They could not get to the house. So they moved on to plan B, they overcame an obstacle together. So, they had shared values, that led to a shared vision, that caused them to cooperate and overcome obstacles.

They believed in their vision sufficiently to cooperate and overcome obstacles. But this common vision wasn't imposed on them. It arose naturally because of their shared values. They valued the ministry of Jesus.

One of the most difficult things to do in life is to get different people working together. Consider the following old sayings:

Too many cooks in the kitchen.

Too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

Too many generals and not enough foot soldiers.

It seems that plenty of people want to cooperate, as long as they are the one that is being cooperated with.

It seems to me that Dr. Doyle, if indeed we are allowed to vote tomorrow night and if he is elected as our DOM, will have significant challenges. Why is that? Because it is rare to find a majority of churches and pastors that share their values enough to have a common vision, a common sharing of burdens, a common effort to overcome obstacles.

Why is this? Because everyone says they are concerned about lost people, and believe that the gospel should be taken to the lost through acts of service, love, and the spoken word.

But wait, that sounds like a shared value to me! But too often it is only the surface value. Consider these other values and see if they sound like those ACTUALLY held by pastors and church leaders:

We value our independence; so we don't want to be told what to do by others.

We value our finances; so we don't want to give money unless we get something out of the deal.

We value our reputations; so we don't want to associate too closely with anything unless it is guaranteed to make us look good.

We value our status; so we don't want to be equal partners with those pastors of small churches or Bi vocational pastors. They should be learning from us, we shouldn't be partnering with them.

We value our correctness; so we won't cooperate unless it is proven that other churches or pastors agree with us on virtually everything that we consider to be important.

As you can see, there are some shared values that don't work very well for a shared vision.

So what is the answer? I believe there are two.

First, we can abandon Baptist ideals and go for authoritarianism. We can have a top-down model of cooperation, where Hitler tells us all what to do and we just do it. He says jump, and we say how high.

Second, we can renew our commitment to the real value we profess. Do we really value the ministry of Christ like these four men did?

Do we really appreciate His help in our own lives? Do we realize that He is the first and best of all beings? Do we want to please Him as we should by delighting ourselves in Him above all other things in life?

Do we love Jesus more than we love our independence, our reputation, our finances, our status, our correctness?

When we do, we will have a real foundation for shared vision, cooperation, and kingdom growth.

So join me in praying that we will glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

Dr. Larry Doyle is leaving us as Director of Missions of the Piedmont Baptist Association at the end of this year. He has been an encouragement to many pastors and churches, and has led the PBA through many initiatives and transformations. His ministry work continues with Unleashed by Design at facebook.com/unleashedbydesign 

"A mist in the pulpit (still) becomes a fog in the pew."

You have to love Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages (Baker, 1980) by my former professor Haddon Robinson.  How could we then imagine the thousands of sermons that would flow from our introductory preaching classes with Haddon and Dr. Scott Gibson?  Those were the days...or rather, these are still the days!  Preaching, with Biblical Theology, is a never-ending life-consuming pursuit.  Today I'm reminded of why the basics are called the basics:

"Explanation proves difficult if the expositor does not know his audience.  The more familiar he is with a subject, the less aware he may be of a congregation's ignorance of it.  The people in the pew live in a different intellectual world from their pastor.  Indeed they support him financially so that he can study what they cannot.  He must not assume that his listeners immediately understand what he is talking about.  He owes them a clear explanation of exactly what he means.  As a guiding rule, a speaker should define every important term in language the audience understands.  Certainly it is better to define too many terms than too few.  Explaining the relationships and implications of ideas, we should know the explanation ourselves so clearly that no vagueness exists in our own minds.  Then we should work through the steps in the explanation so that they come in a logical or psychological order.  A mist in the pulpit becomes a fog in the pew." (p. 141)

There should be no pride in preaching, but a sober and humble effort to both speak from the heart of God and speak to the hearts of people.  Here's to continually clearing out the mist!

Must Read: The Government wants to Control What We Preach

Here we go folks, you can see what's coming! This is no joke, even if it doesn't last in this case. Never say, "This won't happen here."

Houston Seeks Review of Pastors’ Sermons After Lawsuit Filed Over ‘Bathroom Bill’ Initiative

And another from Chronicle: http://m.chron.com/news/politics/houston/article/City-subpoenas-pastors-sermons-in-equal-rights-5822403.php

What happens in a great worship service 

in 2011?

• There is some keyboard based band, with live instruments
• There is a real loud organ
• There are music leaders, singers
• There are visual enticements and helps
• There is recitation of belief and focus
• There is strong congregational singing, reading, participation, praying, testimony
• There is a lot of prayer
• There is lots of Scripture, treated reverently
• There is a strong message, meaningful, intelligent and challenging
• There is a call to response and action and commitment

In summary, there is worship…