He said, “I’m very glad to hear that but” — I knew that word was coming — “but will any of my needs or my family’s needs perhaps be neglected in the effort to reach lost people? Which was saying: I’m more concerned about me than I am about the lost. That is the nature of sinful man and outside a spiritual reorientation they’re not going to have that.

So one thing I do is stress that this is the passion of the church, and if you’re not willing to get on board with that passion then this is not a good place for you. As much as you like what we’re offering it really isn’t because you won’t like it at all. It will make you feel uncomfortable, Lord willing, that you would be sitting here for yourself instead of for others.

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Preaching: Let’s talk about preaching in the prevailing church. What do you find is the role of your preaching ministry in bringing about and then nurturing that kind of missional atmosphere?

Pope: We talk about finding the most important elements of taking people through change. We use a little acronym — TEAMS — to help us understand it: Truth, Equipping, Accountability, Missions, Supplication. And preaching is very important part of the ‘T’ — it does a lot with truth and it lays the foundation weekly as God’s method to do that. God ordained the preaching of the Word. That’s the highest priority we have in terms of the truth element. There are lots of different ways that people want to gain truth besides just hearing preaching but they need to be under the exehortation and the teaching of God’s word on a regular basis.

I call equipping massaging the truth until it becomes understandable and usable. And so people hear preaching and they understand it. They hear it with preaching and it doesn’t mean they can use it. They’ve got to be equipped. They’ve got to be held accountable – an appropriate term. And then they’ve got to start using it before they really own it. With that environment and prayer you’ve got change.

It’s not preaching alone. As good as preaching is and the way God uses it, it is not to be a stand-alone. I think that’s why Paul said: I gave to you not only the Gospel but also my own life. And there had better be a life to life factor.

Preaching: How do you strategically preach in order to further the vision and mission of your church?

Pope: I personally think there are different ways to go about stylistically preaching; we’ve been in debates I remember since the 70’s about which is the right, best, and appropriate kind. I don’t buy into: this is the only way, that this person doesn’t do it right. because he didn’t work through books of the Bible, or whatever. I like to think there is expository preaching and there’s topical preaching and there really is a middle between those two. I call it topical exposition. And I often use the analogy of going to a graduate school or theological seminary. Half of your instruction is given in Biblical theology and half of it is systematic. I see that expository preaching is just biblical theology but in preaching form, and I see topical preaching is systematical theology but in a preaching form. Frankly, I think people ought to look at their gifts and see what they’re best at. I think, typically, somebody who’s stronger at exhortation will find that it fits them better to be more topical in their approach. People who are more teaching-oriented probably will lean more toward biblical theology and will prefer exposition.