Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd: congress on evangelism: denman lecture day 2

January 04, 2007

congress on evangelism: denman lecture day 2

updated / cleaned up a bit with commentary

i was a little late for this morning's denman lecture as i got pulled into a impromptu meeting with our bishop and this nashville area journal (life journal) project. here are some of my jotted notes from bishop scott jones lecture. not everything is cleaned up

upon coming in he was talking about interviewing ordination candidates.

"pastors are not ordained to preach their own theology. they are ordained to preach the doctrine of the church."
because of our understanding of catholic spirit, we know well this idea of generous orthodoxy. we reach out to those who disagree with us. we know that there are some things that people are going to agree with together. (this was in point to a reference mclaren used in his book generous orthodoxy which adam hamilton says mclaren is a closet methodist)

doctrine serves functions

says what it is that we believe. we know that it is going to focus on salvation as united methodists. God is in the business of saving souls. that is the message
"when you look over the general theme of your sermons from last year, what was the tendencies?" do you have specific parts or favorites. "your job is to preach the whole bible."
i generally say, "i preach the lectionary if i can't think of anything more important to say." (haha)
most of the clergy are working hard, my question "how many are working smart?" of vocational time each week, where is God leading you to be the greatest impact
if you want people to be spending time with pre-Christian people, then you need to model that. bishop wills has charged his people with that, he is deeply spiritual and it bothers me to death.
"how do you spend your time?" your doctrine, your understanding of who God is and how your ministry is shapes what is important. we have to be sure to not squander our resources on what is unimportant.
"united methodist churches don't grow because they don't want to grow." "that's not true" "show me your budget" "where your budget goes is one reflection of its understanding & doctrine."

when people become Christian they should have some understanding of what they are getting into.

pastors take people bowling, but have a curtain in front of the pins. people know what they are doing, but they don't know what they are shooting at. we don't give people an understanding of what the Christian life is all about. (the bowling image was someone imagery, but i missed the reference)
if you are a racist, sexist and become a Christian "those people" the the way you treat them are now treated differently. if you are a greedy hoarder, then you become Christian, you now want to give money away. we are giving out cheap grace. we want you to know the details of the buy before you buy the goods.
people are not as worried about life after death, they are more worried about life before death.
spiritual diagnostics is dependent on clarity of doctrine.

doctrine is a buzz because of a methodist argument on "orthodoxy."
other people see as essential

a particular experience on being born again (ugh, if we are past this as um'ers then we got real issues) sometimes Christians assume that in order to be Christian you have to have the same experience i did
you have to be part of a particular church
you have to have a particular doctrine in order to believe
modes of baptism
political ideology (i am proud to be a part of a church that has both george w bush and hillary clinton as members)

10 things that every Christian ought to know

the church is a spirit filled missionary community. ecclesiology heads the list. we are approaching a society that does not see the church, but it is the church that people first encounter. it's the first means of grace. it's essential to the Christian life. robert putnams book "bowling alone" on community. charles wesley singing our faith. hymn: "o for a thousand tongues to sing"
doctrine of the triune god. we have got to know that america is not a Christian nation. we are not the only game in tow. an altar call today is not the same as it was in the 1880's. we have got to be teaching the triune god. we have got to be able to talk about the unity of the three person is ways that make sense. hymn "maker in whom we live" (i find it funny that even the gbod expresses to pastors NOT to scare away from teaching the triune God during trinity sunday)
creation. not only our fundamental of coming into being but our viewpoint of creative making of all things. the homeless, the environment, the charter against racism & sexism, our understanding that every human being is priceless
sin. it is the human problem. we need to resurrect a robust understanding. we have gotten to a place where everyone is nice and good. if we do not believe in original sin we have a problem. "i believe in original sin, i have children" children are cruel and children are sinners (haha) original sin leads to actual sins and we are not critical of our own selves and others. hymn: "depth of mercy"
repentance. repentance is all about turning. aa, knows you can't help a drunk, but you can help someone who is bottomed out. in aa, when a new member starts they get a mentor. when a sinner confesses they get a mentor? hymn: "sinners turn
justification. when all of a sudden you are a child of satan and you become a child of God. it's a change in identity. this is a crucial change that is very complex.hymn: "and can it be"
new birth. all Christians need to be born again. remember that people are defining that. wesleyans need to give room to allow for that new birth to happen. hymn: "amazing grace"
assurance. yes i am, i know. i know to who i belong, but it doesn't have to mean that i'm still not working on the practice. hymn: "blessed assurance"
maturity. theleos gets translated in matthew as maturity. are you growing up to be more and more like Jesus? we have all these saints that we see, if only we can grow up to be like them. hymn: "love devine love excelling"
grace. too often our amazing grace should be "amazing works" as united methodists. eph2: 8-10 it is the gift of God. with prevenient, justifying and sanctifying grace, isn't God good. it's the means by where god shape how our heart grows. if we will only plug it in.