Preaching: Tell me how you go about planning your preaching.
Merritt: I've done this the last couple of years but especially this summer. I took a part every day of my vacation and just began to plan out my messages — trying to plan out what do I want my people to hear. For example after I finish this series, I'm going to be preaching a series of messages in Nehemiah because that's where our church is right now. We're right where Nehemiah was. We've got some walls that desperately need to be rebuilt. It's a daunting task. It's going to take unbelievable faith, resources, man power, sacrifice. I need to really take our people back to a man that faces similar situations — what I face as a leader and what we face as a people — and say, "OK, they had a wall to rebuild, we've got buildings to renovate. Along the way while we're doing that, let me just tell you that we're going to get opposition, we're going to get criticism, there are going to be doubters and yet at the same time you're not going to believe how Gods going to give resources we didn't even know we had, open doors we didn't even knew about."
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Then we're looking at doing something like 40 Days of Purpose because I think that would be a real shot in the arm for our church. Then, because of where we are as a culture, I'm thinking right now about doing a series of messages in Ecclesiastes. I don't know that there's a book in the Bible that's more relevant. Just what you said — we're no longer in the buckle of the bible-belt. Right here where I'm sitting is one of the more affluent areas in all the state. Ed Young wrote a book on it years ago — Been There, Done That — and that's where Solomon was. We live two miles from the most exclusive neighborhoods in this whole state, where major golf tournaments are held, million dollar homes — Solomon could very easily say, "You know, I've been there, done that, and if that's where you're trying to find your meaning in life you're walking down a dead end street."
I'm having more fun preparing messages right now than I've ever had in my life. I'm not a very creative person — I don't think I am, I've never seen myself that way. But when you say, "I am going to take this book of the Bible and Lord, with your help, open up my mind to see things I've never seen before and think things I've never thought before. Lord, show me how to make this series on this book of the bible a series that a 25 year old would say, 'I've got to hear that.' And then, Lord, lead me to the right illustration, lead me to the right media support, lead me to the right this or that, that would really help that come alive." That's what I want to do and it's really exciting to do that. It helps me to approach preaching from a totally different perspective.
Preaching: Tell me about a typical message on Sunday morning. What would we see if we came to Cross Pointe next Sunday?