I have updated my Reading List, which primarily focuses on pastoral topics.
Month: August 2008
Corrections and Reflections on The Dark Knight
In his review of the Dark Knight, Marc Savlov of Austin’s Chronicle writes: “There’s something intangible missing from this Dark Knight. For all its thrum and thunder, Nolan’s film feels chilly and ill at ease.” Today I explored that “intangible missing” in a sermon that considered the perception of truth in the Dark Knight. What is missing? Could it be the Truth? Well, not just truth, because there is plenty of factual and moral truths in the film, but perhaps the whole truth? In the Dark Knight we get half the truth, half the gospel. We get a sacrifice but no Savior, a substitute outcast but no Redeemer. You see, we need more than a dark knight to change the city, more than a sympathetic hero, more than a guardian. We need a Redeemer, a hero who not only bears our burden, but who also changes us, who alters our desires. The hero spouse or hero career can not do that. Even Batman cannot change our hearts. But there is a hero who redeems, who takes our depravity to the grave, while also lifting our infinite desires for acceptance, meaning, goodness, and truth into heaven itself, where alone can be met by an infinite God. Some have critiqued my conclusions as “Christian ghetto.” Interacting with my post, one critic writes:
“Anyway, he goes on and it turns into one of those things where we pit some quote-unquote postmodern hero against the quote-unquote true hero and we all end up cheering for Jesus and feeling sorry for the other guy who could only be all he could be. This is that Christian ghetto we whine about..”
But I beg to differ. What would he have us all do? Stand up and cheer for Batman while feeling sorry for Jesus? As much as we can learn from the Batman, and we can learn a lot, in the end Batman only offers us half-truths. I have written about those here. Yet, in the end, Batman purports that deserve “more than the truth,” willing to ground his actions in fiction, in a Harvey Dent who has no dark-side. What if Gotham found out about the cover-up? Wouldn’t that do greater harm than good? We must affirm the virtues and insights of The Dark Knight, but not at the expense of the truth. If we do, we will find ourselves in a secular ghetto, with very little hope.
Check out this review from First Things.
Preparing for Sunday on Saturday
In preparing for sabbath, what Christians designate as Sunday, I have often struggled to know how to best “prepare” on Saturday night. I have often discovered that late night and/or intense entertainment late Saturday results in disconnected worship and community on Sunday mornings. And, as a pastor, prayer is an important part of pre-Sunday preparation. There’s certainly no one-size-fits-all here, but the principle of sabbath preparation is vastly overlooked by most Christians. We would do well to explore the principle, to reflect on our practice, and to consider our subsequent Sunday posture. Is it one of anticipation, of communing, learning, repenting, delighting, growing, loving, and serving? Or is it just one more event on the calendar with a twist of the spiritual?
Laura Winner reflects on similar things:
Of course, “Sabbath” observance begins on Friday evening. So does, or should, “Sunday” celebration begin on Saturday evening? I remember a family from my childhood who had been missionaries in Sudan who followed this practice. Even as a kid I can recall being both puzzled by and attracted to such a rhythm to life (though I didn’t call it that then, of course!). HT:JT
What would sabbath be like if we started with just a ten minute rhythm? A few minutes of prayer and Scripture meditation before we went to sleep? What if we aimed those reflections on considering Jesus, talking to him, loving him? Would Sundays look any different?
Andy Stanley: Communicating for Change?
In Communicating for Change, Andy Stanley gives us three possible goals for preaching:
- Teach the Bible to people.
- Teach people the Bible.
- Teach people how to live a life that reflects the values, principles, and truths of the Bible.
The third is Andy’s preferred goal, and he leaves room for you to differ with him. So I’m going to differ. He writes:
“We have enough hearers…We need doers, appliers. That means we need sermons that are loaded with application and preaching that is communicated with inspiration.” (99) “
Loaded with application? I agree that we all need to apply God’s Word and that preachers should aid the church in applying the ancient truths of the Bible to contemporary challenges, but I’m not sure that loading our sermons with application is the key. Often, our hearers know “what” to do, but aren’t convinced that they should do it. For instance, they know they shouldn’t envy their neighbor’s stuff, but their heart’s aren’t convinced that God offers anything better than their neighbor’s stuff. Their mind has bought the lie that envy is more satisfying that contentment. The trick is that they would never say it like that. So we ge to say it to them with broken-hearted love and Spirit-enabled power. The goal of preaching, I believe, is to convince the heart to cherish God and his Word so much that Spirit-enabled obedience is the result. I do not believe that the main goal of preaching is to load people up with “what” to do, with application. I do agree that “our goal should be life change,” provided a couple other things are in place.
First, we should preach, not for lives to change just when they leave the sermon and apply them afterwards, but for lives to change while you are preaching. The ancient concept of Spirit-empowered preaching that affects a person’s soul while listening has been lost in modern pulpits. Williams Perkins referred to this kind of preaching as “the art of prophesying.” Jonathan Edwards says it like this:
“The main benefit obtained by preaching is by an impression made upon the mind at the time, and not by an effect that arises afterwards by a remembrance of what was delivered.“
Tim Keller refers to it as “preaching that changes on the spot.” And here’s the first point, preach in the Spirit. Don’t preach the technique or simply for post-sermon application. Plead for the Spirit to change you in preparation, to preach to you in rehearsal, and to transform your people’s hearts, affections, loyalties during the sermon. Preaching is about Spirit-motivated change, not application-driven change. Note that Stanley’s goal is to “teach people how.” I suggest that we preach for change in the Spirit now. This puts the onus on God, not on your material, humor, delivery, or change goals. The Scriptures are filled with commands to preach, teach, live, speak, counsel, pray in the Spirit, but that prepositional phrase is a hidden endnote for most of us. We don’t look it up, consider it, or aim for it. We pay attention to the verbs, not the prepositions. As a result, we preach application, not Spirit-anointed messages.
Second, we should preach for change by preaching in the Spirit and to the heart. As many have noted, the heart is the control center of our every action. Edwards illustrates helpfully here. He asks if a man who surrenders his wallet while held at gunpoint is actually doing what he wants to do. Does he really want to part with cash? Ultimately, Edwards answers, yes. Even though the man was at gunpoint, he did what he desired to to most–live! C.S. Lewis remarked that we are all creatures of pleasure; we do what we desire most, we act from the heart. Therefore, if the heart is the control center of every decision, then preachers do well—best—to preach, not to the the will (application) or the mind (doctrine), but to the heart. To remind the heart of the one Person that can meet, correct, and surpass every legitimate and illegitimate desire. To remind the heart that it finds its true joy and rest in no one other than God.
And guess what? If your goal in preaching is convince the heart to cherish God and his Word so much that Spirit-enabled obedience is the result, then you don’t have to craft perfect sermons, impeccable rhetoric, mind-blowing illustrations, application for every demographic. Your greatest goal, then, becomes pleading for the Spirit to fall on you as you prepare and on your people as you preach. For God to change your heart now, not how to apply for change.
How does Andy’s goal compare to your goal in preaching? I don’t think I am on board with Andy, but I’m still reading and reflecting. He does make the good point that, whatever your goal in preaching, your approach to communicating must reflect it. And I need to work on that. He also mentions the importance of the “preacher’s burden,” “the one thing you must communicate.” Unfortunatley, this is not developed as Spirit-enpowered, heart-focused preaching.