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Here's the question being asked by the Discovery Channel: "When you think of the Greatest American, what single person — living or dead — comes to mind as the best example?" If you didn't immediately think of Madonna or Dr. Phil, you're obviously not on the same wavelength as the Discovery folks. Apparently we are being invited to vote for the Greatest American, leading up to a TV special (naturally). And some of the 100 nominees are people you'd expect: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Tom Cruise, and so on. But I must admit I was a bit surprised at some of the names listed. There wasn't room in the top 100 for people like John Adams (our second president and a major leader in the American revolution) and James Madison (father of our constitution), but there were spaces for folks like Lance Armstrong, Lucille Ball, Ellen DeGeneres, Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart and Donald Trump. I'm as much a football fan as the next guy, but does anyone seriously consider Brett Favre one of the 100 greatest Americans of all time — I mean, anyone who lives outside the Green Bay area? (You can see the complete list at http://tv.channel.aol.com/greatestamerican) And speaking of Oprah — yep, she's on the list, too — a number of you responded to our invitation for feedback on the "Church of Oprah" item. Click here if you'd like to read some of the comments we received. Michael
Duduit, Editor Click here to visit "I Was Just Thinking" for insights and observations about faith and culture issues. If you missed this year's National Conference on Preaching, click here to learn about ordering audio cassettes and CDs of conference sessions and workshops.
Preaching should also speak to singles Single adults make up 50 percent or more of the population of most major metro areas. That's why Ed Young, Jr., in a recent issue of his Leadership Uncensored newsletter, points out that churches need to integrate singles into every part of ministry — including the worship service. "Including singles begins in the main worship service as the senior pastor is speaking and teaching. Include the concerns of single adults in your illustrations — always think about the single parent, the 25- to 35-year-old single man or woman, the 40- and 50-year-olds who are single again. They are part of the body of Christ, and when we include them, we're adding value to them. Even in a marriage or family series I'll say little things like, 'Singles, don't tune me out, because someday you're going to need to know what I'm talking about today.' "Don't be scared of doing a singles series in your weekend service. We are strategic about planning our singles series for times when families tend to go out of town, like Spring Break and summer time. Since singles don't revolve around a school calendar, your attendance can go up rather than down because you're attracting new singles. And for the married people who are attending, here's how we promote it, 'Over the next three weeks I'm talking about dating. Now some of you married people are thinking, 'Well I can skip for the next few weeks!' No you can't, because you have children who need to know this stuff, you work with singles, and you have single neighbors. You need this to help you minister to the singles in your life.'" (To learn more about leadership resources from Ed and Fellowship Church visit www.creativepastors.com)
What is biblical preaching? In a recent article in the PreachingTodaySermons.com newsletter, John Ortberg writes, "It is important not to be superficial when it comes to what makes preaching biblical. How many Bible verses a sermon has does not determine whether or not it's biblical. You can have a hundred verses in a sermon and misinterpret every one of them. It is not the structure. Biblical preaching occurs when people listen, are enabled to hear that God is addressing them as God addressed the world of the Scriptures, and are enabled to respond. "Far too many sermons have lots of information about the Bible but are not really biblical preaching because they do not call and enable people to respond to the Word. There is lots of information about the Bible — exegetical, historical or theological — with maybe a few applications tacked on the end. . . . "The goal is not to get vast amounts of exegetical information into people. My goal is not to get people all the way through the Bible. My goal is to get the Bible all the way through people. "To do that I ask three questions: What do I want people to know? What do I want people to feel? What do I want people to do? I think about these questions for every message I do because if I don't address the mind and heart and will — if I can't answer those questions — then I need not deliver this message because it's not going to wash their minds in the Word." (Click here to read the full article.) http://store.yahoo.com/pttranscripts/biprisablich.html
Welcome to H. Beecher Hicks We
are pleased to welcome Dr. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr. to our Board
of Contributing Editors for Preaching
magazine. Dr. Hicks is senior pastor of the historic Metropolitan
Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and is in the process of moving
the church to a new suburban campus after more than a century
in its present location. (A brave man!) He was one of the featured
speakers at our most recent National Conference on Preaching in
Nashville, and is a gifted proclaimer of God's Word. If you'd
like to learn more about H. Beecher Hicks, you can visit the church
website at In his new book On Jordan's Stormy Banks (Zondervan), Hicks writes, "Preaching is a pastoral calling. Preaching is not the work of academicians, though it must be informed by the contribution of those who are a part of academia. Nor is preaching exclusively the work of theological professors who struggle in their own God-directed journey and who have the frightful and thankless task of training pastors for this work. Preaching is the weekly task of those who are engaged in an arduous journey with the Eternal — a continuous life struggle to find words to say that come from a Source outside ourselves. Preaching is born in the soul of one who has, in the words of the late Peter Marshall, received a divine 'tap on the shoulder.' It is because of that 'tap' that a preacher embarks on an eternal, God-directed journey." (Click here to learn more about the book On Jordan's Stormy Banks)
ILLUSTRATION: The Cross In his book Evil and the Cross (Kregel), French theologian Henri Blocher writes, "Evil is conquered as evil because God turns it back upon itself. He makes the supreme crime, the murder of the only righteous person, the very operation that abolishes sin. The maneuver is utterly unprecedented. No more complete victory could be imagined. God responds in the indirect way that is perfectly suited to the ambiguity of evil. He entraps the deceiver in his own wiles. Evil, like a judoist, takes advantage of the power of good, which it perverts; the Lord, like a supreme champion, replies by using the very grip of the opponent. So is fulfilled the surprising verse, 'With the pure you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.' (Psalm 18:26)" (Click here to learn more about the book Evil and the Cross)
ILLUSTRATION: Dependence In The Wonderful Spirit Filled Life, pastor Charles Stanley notes a cardinal rule taught in water safety and rescue courses: Never try to save a person who is trying to save himself. The rescuer is to swim out, keep his distance, wait until the drowning person has no strength left, then move in for the rescue. Waiting until that person is totally dependent is the key to a safe rescue. David Jeremiah writes, "When it comes to living the Christian life, we will 'drown' until we learn to depend totally on Christ. Even He did not live an independent spiritual life. Everything He did — His words, actions, plans, and initiatives — were all carried out in dependence on the Father (John 8:28, 42; 12:49; 14:10). In fact, Jesus told the disciples that even the Holy Spirit who was coming to live in them would not speak on His own initiative — He would speak only what He heard the Father say (John 16:13). If Jesus lived a dependent life, so should we. "The world equates independence with maturity. But in the kingdom of God, dependence equals maturity — dependence on Christ living His life through us (Galatians 2:20)." (Turning Point Daily Devotional, 5-12-05)
ILLUSTRATION: Support, Cooperation When Sir Edmund Hillary and his native guide, Tensing, made their historic climb up Mount Everest, Hillary slipped, lost his footing, and fell into a treacherous crevice. Fortunately, Sir Edmund and the guide were tied together by a strong rope. The Nepalese guide, Tensing, pulled his British friend, Hillary, inch by inch back to safety. Tensing was later asked about this event and said, "Mountain climbers always help each other." There was a bond between them — figuratively and literally. The same was true for the disciples after Jesus' ascension and the same should be true in the Church today. There is a bond that ties us together — a bond that should lead us to support one another, to reach out to each other in love — a bond that seeks to pull each other up higher and higher into God's presence. (Lee Griess, "Taking the Risk Out of Dying"; via eSermons.com)
ILLUSTRATION: Heaven In his sermon "Heaven: A Sneak Preview," Vic Pentz observes, "We can get a hint about heaven from an experience most of us have had at family get-togethers. Imagine yourself seated at a big family dinner at Grandma's house, surrounded by aunts and uncles and cousins. All the spare leaves have been brought out of the closet to make room at the table, which groans beneath the weight of Grandma's finest recipes. "You have been sitting at the table for hours, and just as the meal is drawing to a close, Grandma tries to entice you to have one more helping of potatoes or turnip greens. You say, 'Oh no, thank you! I am so full, I can't eat another bite.' You have to say it two or three times before she stops urging you. And yet, as Grandma clears the plates from the table, what does she say to everyone? 'Hold on to your fork.' "Why would she say that, when you've already said you're so full you can't eat another bite? Because Grandma is about to make you an offer you can't refuse. She knows the best is yet to come. Sure enough, when she walks in moments later with fresh-from-the-oven apple pie a la mode, you are so glad she said, 'Hold on to your fork.' "At the end of our earthly lives, our gracious God comes to us with a twinkle in his eye and says, 'Hold on to your fork. There's much, much more.'"
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ILLUSTRATION: Memorial Day, Military, Prayer Lieutenant Johnnie "Cooter" Caldwell is a fighter pilot for the Navy who has served more than seven years as an aviator, most recently flying missions over Iraq in his F-18 Hornet from the flight deck of the USS Harry S. Truman. It's the first week of the war. Caldwell deployed to the Truman with his squadron almost four months before the war began. Although the separation from home is difficult, Caldwell believes he's where God needs him to be. "The past month has been pretty hard as things have heated up around here," he says, referring to Operation Iraqi Freedom. "You start feeling the anxiety — not the fear — the anxiety of what you're getting ready to do. The more you let it take control, the more it overwhelms you. I pray a lot about not worrying over things." "I always pray whatever I do, that God would be the priority and He would be in control," he says matter-of-factly. Flying night missions through pitch-black darkness, relying only on instrument panels for guidance could raise anyone's blood pressure. But Caldwell says prayer gets him through in multiple ways. . . . He quotes the text of Ephesians 6, which talks about putting on the whole armor of God. "It says the reason why we must take up the full armor of God is to resist the evil one, and having prepared everything, you take a stand." (from A Greater Freedom: Stories of Faith from Operation Iraqi Freedom by Sara Horn, published by Broadman & Holman. See the Link of the Week above for information about additional illustrations and accompanying high resolution images you can use for worship.)
ILLUSTRATION: Perseverance After twenty years of shaving himself every morning, a man in a small Southern town decided he had enough. He told his wife that he intended to let the local barber shave him each day. He put on his hat and coat and went to the barbershop, which was owned by the pastor of the town's Baptist church. The barber's wife, Grace, was working that day, so she performed the task. Grace shaved him and sprayed him with lilac water and said, "That will be $20." The man thought the price was a bit high, but he paid the bill and went to work. The next morning the man looked in the mirror and his face was as smooth as it had been when he left the barbershop the day before. "Not bad," he thought, "At least I don't need to get a shave every day." The next morning the man's face was still smooth! Two weeks later the man was STILL unable to find any trace of whiskers on his face. It was more than he could take, so he returned to the barbershop. "I thought $20 was high for a shave," he told the barber's wife, "but you must have done a great job. It's been two weeks and my whiskers still haven't started growing back." She responded, "You were shaved by Grace. Once shaved, always shaved." (from Mikey's Funnies)
"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families." (Benjamin Rush)
Leader Links is a free, monthly web-based publication for Christian leaders. The May issue is now available at www.leaderlinks.com.
ILLUSTRATION: Change John
Maxwell says, "When it comes to change, there are three
seasons of timing: People change when they hurt enough that
they have to, when they learn enough that they want to, and
when they receive enough that they are able to."
ILLUSTRATION: Politics, Politicians A little girl asked her father, "Daddy? Do all fairy tales begin with 'Once Upon A Time'?" He replied, "No, there is a whole series of fairy tales that begin with 'If elected I promise'."
Top
Ten Surprises in the New Star Wars Movie 10. Anakin Skywalker goes to the dark side after finding a finger tip in his chili. 9. Jedi qualifications dumbed down to just being able to flatten pop can against forehead. 8. Lord of the Rings guys make appearance, get all in Empire's face, sayin' smack like, "Are we doin' this? We doin' this, playa?" 7. Darth Sideous defeated in the end by fancy Doppler radar. 6. Yoda tries a stint on talk radio, ruins entire industry. 5. Obi Wan Kenobi employs union busting goons to take on the Empire. 4. The Force is sold on E-bay for, like, a buck ninety. 3. Jar Jar Binks gets pulled over and tasered by overenthusiastic Jedi rookie. 2. Count Dooku goes further into dark side, accepts the name "Chocula." 1. Newsweek reports that the Death Star won't be much of a problem. (Copyright
2005 Dave Tippett. Permission is granted to send this to others,
with attribution, but not for commercial purposes.)
And finally . . . A West Virginia woman who was painting a fence had to call 911 after a camel sat on her and pinned her to the ground, according to a May 19 Associated Press story. Volunteer firefighters helped move the 1,500-pound camel off the woman, according to the ambulance driver. "There is no protocol on something like this," he said. The woman reports that she has cancelled next week's painting assignment at a nearby elephant sanctuary.
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