{"id":3162,"date":"2010-06-21T08:06:46","date_gmt":"2010-06-21T13:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=3162"},"modified":"2010-06-21T08:06:46","modified_gmt":"2010-06-21T13:06:46","slug":"wiw-on-the-church-and-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2010\/20100621-3162.htm","title":{"rendered":"WiW: On the Church and the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The Esteemed Reverend Welcher<\/a>, on relevance in preaching (from a Facebook note):<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wonder how many modern sermons replete with movie quotes, pop references and endless rehashings of the Pastor’s college exploits will be even remotely useful to a person living in the future?<\/p>\n

Of course, the vast majority of us won’t be read after we fall asleep, let alone 500 years after we fall asleep. It’s not a problem we’ll have.<\/p>\n

For most of us, our goal should be to preach the Bible is such a way that we are relevant to the people we are teaching in the here and now, and to train up men who will be relevant tomorrow.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was good! The question of “relevance” vs. “timelessness” is of definite interest to many within the church. The answer, however, is not in choosing one or the other (as some might look upon it), but in seeking to translate timeless truth into relevant terms so each generation can be transformed by the unchanging but ever relevant gospel of Christ.<\/p>\n

Of course, I’m not a preacher–but I’d be willing to say that the same principles should be true of our teaching, evangelizing, making disciples, and… dare I say blogging?<\/p>\n

Robert L. Saucy, on the exercise of spiritual gifts, from Are miraculous gifts for today?: Four views<\/i>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The ministry of spiritual gifts is the encounter of God with his people. For a person open to God, the reception of gifted ministry is the experience of his supernatural work. Too often this is primarily seen and therefore sought in the miraculous. But the edifying experiences of rebuke, conviction, encouragement, comfort, etc., brought through the nonmiraculous gifts, are as much supernatural and the experience of God as are miracles.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I really appreciate this comment from Saucy’s “Open but Cautious” standpoint. I think there is a grave danger in letting the pursuit of the miraculous overshadow the “everyday” exercise of spiritual gifts. While the miraculous gifts are a hot button issue that receive a lot of attention, the bulk of the spiritual gifts listed in Scripture are non-miraculous (but still supernatural) workings of the Holy Spirit for the edification of the church. To lose sight of this and fail to practice the less “showy” spiritual gifts would be a tragedy.<\/p>\n

Chris Brauns, on the power of the church<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

You know: the magnifying glass does not provide any power of its own. It serves only to direct the power of the sun. But, when it does, it brings light to a burning focus and things ignite.<\/p>\n

That is what the local church is supposed to do. By itself, the church, God\u2019s people, do not offer any power. But, a church is like a magnifying glass that God uses to focus and direct His power.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

HT: Vitamin Z<\/a><\/p>\n

This quote refers to using a magnifying glass to ignite something on a sunny day. I appreciate the perspective this analogy provides to the idea of how a Christian is to work. Matthew 15:16 says “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Our good works, our very lives as the church are but a tool that God uses to display His power and glory to the world. <\/p>\n

Collect more quotes from throughout the week with Barbara H’s<\/a> meme “The Week in Words”.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Esteemed Reverend Welcher, on relevance in preaching (from a Facebook note): I wonder how many modern sermons replete with movie quotes, pop references and endless rehashings of the Pastor’s college exploits will be even remotely useful to a person living in the future? Of course, the vast majority of us won’t be read after … Read more WiW: On the Church and the World<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}