I think my preaching paradigm is shifting. I've always believed that as a preacher I'm called to study the word and teach the word, but that is changing as our congregation reads through the Bible together. My job is NOT to just study and teach the Bible. My job is to teach our congregation to study the Bible. That is a subtle yet huge difference. The prior approach leads to spiritual codependency. The latter leads to spiritual maturity.
Our journey through the Bible is called From Garden to City. And the genesis was really my rediscovery of the Bible. I read through a one-year Bible in 2009 and it changed my life. I fell in love with the word all over again. And that is our prayer for National Community Church. We want our people to love the word, delight in the word, study the word, and hunger for the word.
The longer I preach the more I realize that people don't need to hear what I have to say but they do need a word from the Lord. Sometimes that happens in a sermon via the anointing. Somewhere between words leaving my lips and hitting the ear drums of listeners, the Holy Spirit will do what the Holy Spirit does. But we also want our people to have a first-hand experience with God via His Word. I try to remind our congregation all the time: don't take my word for it, take God's Word for it. I'd rather have people hear one word from the Lord than a thousand of my sermons.
My point? Let's not just study and teach. Let's teach to study.
Our journey through the Bible is called From Garden to City. And the genesis was really my rediscovery of the Bible. I read through a one-year Bible in 2009 and it changed my life. I fell in love with the word all over again. And that is our prayer for National Community Church. We want our people to love the word, delight in the word, study the word, and hunger for the word.
The longer I preach the more I realize that people don't need to hear what I have to say but they do need a word from the Lord. Sometimes that happens in a sermon via the anointing. Somewhere between words leaving my lips and hitting the ear drums of listeners, the Holy Spirit will do what the Holy Spirit does. But we also want our people to have a first-hand experience with God via His Word. I try to remind our congregation all the time: don't take my word for it, take God's Word for it. I'd rather have people hear one word from the Lord than a thousand of my sermons.
My point? Let's not just study and teach. Let's teach to study.
12 Comments:
Love this shift of focus. Could u give us some principles u use to accomplish this goal?
Awesome post! Love this! I've really had the desire lately to read through the Bible in a year. Any way you recommend over another? I know there are online versions and actual Bible in a year Bibles...What is best or is it all the same?
I actually did a little Hermeneutics 101 this weekend. You can see how I did it if you watch the webcast. I would not have done that a few years ago, but I feel like I need to challenge our congregation at a deeper level these days.
I loved The Message one year Bible. Right now I'm reading through the ESV for the first time. You'll find our reading plan at fromgardentocity.com.
Mark
Ephesians 4 is clear that we, in 'the ministry', are to 'equip the saints for works of service' until we reach a point of maturity, and maturity means (as a missionary) self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating. If part of 'self-governing' includes receiving 'rhema' personally, then 'teaching to study' is the key to personal self-governance. Unfortunately, most Christians do not open their Bible from Monday through Saturday and they know HOW, they just choose not to. This is not a matter of 'teaching' this is a matter of 'motivating'.
I have used Y-WAM's daily Bible reading planner for years AND used it as a guide for mid-week classes.
Sounds like you're putting the lessons from Willow Creek's "Reveal" study into practice.
Looking forward to hearing more about the approach and what you're learning in the process!
The difference between "study and teach" and "teach to study" is very subtle. In the first, we delve into God's Word to discover what it says, and then we share what it says with others; in the second, we look for something to say to other people.
The first is dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit to speak to use through God's word; the second is dependent on our skill in analyzing Scripture.
No matter what our spiritual gifts, when we teach, serve, give, lead, or exhort, the exercise of those gifts must flow out of the power of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for this Bible plan and for the way your team has built such a holistic system.
Mark, You are so right. My life and faith completely changed when I started reading the Word every day. I could pray, sing, attend Worship, etc. But NOTHING compares with reading His Word (and the personal friendship that comes with it!). Thank you for the Journey!
mmm Hermeneutics 101. I'll have to check out the webcast this week. Sounds intriguing.
That implies to me, Mark, you want ME to become your disciple. That looks like... You are not telling me what to do like "Study and Teach". That is like you TELL ME to study. I liked your twitter post dated January 6th "Is your church producing disciples or codependents", I am re-tweeting this again!
Josh, thank you about Willow Creek!
Pastor Mark,
What a great word. Like you and many at NCC, I falling in love again with the Word. I love it. Hagah!
David
This post reminds me of something you said a few weeks ago (during the "strength" sermon of the Primal series). It was, "if you just come to church to get fed, you're gonna get fat". It has been great to listen to sermons that are relevant to our daily reading...it's feeling more like a spiritual work-out than a spiritual feeding.
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