Video Preaching + Large Churches

The Article

The Initial Blog

My Original Comment

Leah's Comment on my Comments 

 

My Response 

What?!

 

First I will back up with scripture the giftedness aspect - this is not charismatic this is biblical.

 

Secondly I will expand your comment of sound teaching.

 

Thirdly I will disagree using Jesus as the example of the "can't be over 5000" comment (plus the one minister comment).

 

Fourthly application for technology in using video preaching in PCQ.

 

 

1. GIFTED PREACHERS

1 Corinthians 12:1-10 & 14 discusses various spiritual gifts among them here is preaching (prophecy).  Being a gifted preacher is not necessarily about being a Mark Driscoll or John Piper nor is it about attention grabbing or being “charismatic” in preaching.  It is about someone who can preach Philip Jensen, JI Packer, Dave Mc, Dave Miers, Matt Chandler, etc.  It is as Calvin put it

“By the term prophesying I do not mean the gift of foretelling the future, but as in 1 Corinthians 14:3 the science of the interpretation of Scripture, so that a prophet is the interpreter of the divine will... Let us understand prophesying to mean the interpretation of Scripture applied to the present need.”

 

Personally, I think that there are men that need to step up to the plate here and preach because they do have gifts in this area and they are not using them.  This is two found though the elders and the pastors encouraging and allowing men to do this as well as men sticking up their hand to do this.

 

For me I think that I would be well suited to an ‘executive/management role’ but not a counselling one.  Sometimes small churches don’t allow people to use their gifts and sometimes it pushes everything on to the plate of one man – generally the pastor.

 

2. SOUND TEACHING

So running on from the previous section sound teachers I would say are preachers.  I am also not saying that a Pastor has one bad sermon and you throw them out.

 

3. IS THE MEGA CHURCH EVIL? – ONLY IF JESUS IS

I think that there is a part of evangelicalism that is far too legalistic and conservative when it comes to church size.

Jesus preached to thousands – yes live (Matthew 14 & 15; Mark 6 & 8; Luke 9 & 12; John 6). So did the disciples (Acts 2 & 4).

There is no way, as you said, one preacher can take care of personally that many people.  I think this comes to a flaw in the thinking of church.  The preacher does not need to be the one dealing with each church member one on one.  Elders and other Pastors (whether that is a counselling pastor, small groups pastor, “site pastor”, etc) have to step up the plate here.  To be honest I love the thought of freeing up the “Preaching Pastor” to focus on preaching and not having to worry about the other items.

There is something fantastic about building teams that allow people to focus on an area of ministry (and I think that this is very Biblical both OT and NT).  This is what happens with Dave H being the Youth Pastor he can pour his time into this and why a small groups pastor would have been great for Willows.

Getting back to Jesus, He NEVER cared for the masses on a one on one basis (as a broad generalisation) he focused on a small group of men, his disciples.  It is even highlighted in Acts 6 where the apostles were set apart to pray and minister the Word (preach) putting other men into those roles.

 

I am not opposed to small churches but the reality is that if you have one full time staff (assuming you have supportive and active elders) I still think that you can probably only minister to no more than 150 ppl.

  

4. APPLICATION IN PCQ

I think that there are some great opportunities to tie various congregations through technology and more importantly to get those that are out west plugged into a church community via a TWO way video feed (we see them, they see us).  This allows two way communication.

 

I think that there is application here in here to presbyteries. Lets break congregational boundaries and employ at a presbytery level with staff allocated across the churches.  Allow people to focus on a particular area and build ministry teams in various churches.  I do not see this happening anytime soon though due to stubbornness, hurt and the current differences.

 

 

Summary

 

Someone said to me that they think that it is sinful when people are opposed to large churches (selfish) I am not sure where I stand on this comment but I do think that there is some truth to it, though general.  The reality is that you cannot say there should not be big churches - it is unbiblical.

 

They also said that you have good and bad large and small churches – it is not about size but health.  

I agree with him entirely.  

 

To put it simply I believe (and think that I have shown from the bible) that large churches are biblical and so are ministry teams with specialist is particular areas (particularly for preaching).

 

Video Preaching

My comment on a blog about Video Preaching.

Photos - Bribie Island

Please head to Dave Miers' blog and check out some photos that I put into his SNAPSHOP series.

Find it here.

Sitting on a $USD 5 million asset

Well I have had a very big surprise today I aparantly am sitting on a $USD 4 million asset.

I could not believe it, I am still surprised and am not sure that it is quite true.

What is this asset you ask?

.

.

.

.

It is right in front of you ---- my blog.

I always look at Nathan's Blog and often check out the links. A recent blog discussed Stimator, which values the website you have. Nathan's was worth about $USD 551 so I thought mine would be a few dollars. But apparently not.

Now putting aside the fact that this may be the value of blogspot. I am pretty happy right now...

 

CHANGE....

Here is something interesting from Mikey Lynch... 

13. The pivotal point is succession. You always need a contingency plan, even when you're young. Don't be 'all windshield no rearviewmirror'. Will the movement outlive one leader. What will you honour - the founder or the future? How do you make sure that you do both? [that's exactly what we need to do in Australia!]. When a new movement leader rises up, the whole board should resign and allow the new guy to choose a new team!Sometimes the plan is to shut down the movement and disperse into tribes, that's fine, it just takes a huge amount of humility. The worst is to try to hold it together without a clear leader, for then it gets ugly.

How does this apply to Willows and the Pressie Church?? Does it apply at all?

Night Photo

I took this the other week and only took it off my camera today. 

How is this?

Completely manual. NO tripod!!!! 

My Post

A post on Christian Reflections

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I really like your questions from Murray. 

As someone at the other end of the country from Melbourne - Townsville. I wonder how we can and will be apart of this.

I think the most important question is

How will the Church Planting network help bringing forth the Gospel through planting churches?

Personally I do care what we call it but what we do. As someone from Townsville I would hope that it would not be Sydney-Melbourne centric and to me this plays out into structure, communication and events.

Theologically I am going to be controversial and say that we should set the bar high, which is probably the wrong terminology. My thinking is that we don't make it so broad that it is just "Evangelical" but that we are planting churched that are focused on holding to certain beliefs. I think that this is something that needs a group to sit down and nut this out identify the controversies and where the network would stand. Some of these won't even be core gospel things but might be things like complementarian and egalitarian. I think it is the Gospel Coalition that has a list of things that they DO and DON'T stand for I think this is a good approach as it clarifies the boundaries on both sides. But after saying all that I think it shouldn't be too smaller a door that we don't get anything done. 

TOPH

Christian Hipster

 I saw this on Nathan's Blog (his response) and broke it down for me. 

ü  it is true for me

û   it is not true for me

¡  have no idea what they are talking about

?    not sure / not bothered

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ü  prefer “Christ follower” to “Christian”

ü  can’t stand the phrases “soul winning” or “non-denominational,”

ü  could do without weird and awkward evangelistic methods including (but not limited to): sock puppets, ventriloquism, mimes, sign language, “beach evangelism,” and modern dance.

ü  don’t really have that big of a problem with old school evangelists like Billy Graham and Billy Sunday and kind of love the really wild ones like Aimee Semple McPherson.

 

Things Christian hipsters don’t like:

?     megachurches,

?    altar calls,

?   door-to-door evangelism

ü  John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart 

?   youth pastors who talk too much about Braveheart

ü  Mel Gibson

û  The Passion for being overly bloody and maybe a little sadistic

¡  people like Pat Robertson, who on The 700 Club famously said that America should “take Hugo Chavez out”; and they don’t particularly like The 700 Club either, except to make fun of it.

¡  evangelical leaders who get too involved in politics, such as James Dobson or Jerry Falwell, who once said of terrorists that America should “blow them all away in the name of the Lord.”

¡  TBN, PAX, or Joel Osteen. They do have a wry fondness for Benny Hinn, however.

û  contemporary Christian music (CCM), or Christian films (except ironically), or any non-book item sold at Family Christian Stores

û  warehouse churches or churches with American flags on stage, or churches with any flag on stage, really.

 

Things they like:

ü  music, movies, and books that are well-respected by their respective artistic communities—Christian or not.

¡  Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon

¡  Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ron Sider

¡  God’s Politics by Jim Wallis

¡  The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis.

û  thinking and acting Catholic, even if they are thoroughly Protestant/evangelical.

û  Pope, liturgy, incense, lectio divina, Lent, and timeless phrases like “Thanks be to God” or “Peace of Christ be with you.”

û  enjoy Eastern Orthodox churches and mysterious iconography, and they love the elaborate cathedrals of Europe (even if they are too museum-like for hipster tastes).

ü  taking communion with real Port, and they don’t mind common cups.

û  poetry readings,

û  worshipping with candles,

û  smoking pipes while talking about God.

 

ü  breaking the taboos that used to be taboo for Christians.

ü  piercings,

û  dressing a little goth,

ü  getting lots of tattoos (the Christian Tattoo Association now lists more than 100 member shops),

û  carrying flasks

û  smoking cloves.

ü  skateboarding

ü  surfing,

û  many of them play in bands.

?   working for churches, parachurch organizations, non-profits, or the government.

ü  on the whole, a little more sincere and idealistic than their secular hipster counterparts.

 

They tend to be fans of any number of the following authors:

¡  Flannery O’Connor,

¡  Walker Percy,

¡  Wendell Berry,

¡  Thomas Merton,

¡  John Howard Yoder,

¡  Walter Brueggemann,

ü  N.T. Wright,

ü  Brennan Manning,

ü  Eugene Peterson,

¡  Anne Lamott,

ü  C.S. Lewis,

ü  G.K. Chesterton,

¡  Henri Nouwen,

¡  Soren Kierkegaard,

¡  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,

¡  Annie Dillard,

¡  Marilynne Robison,

¡  Chuck Klosterman,

¡  David Sedaris,

?   or anything ancient and/or philosophically important.

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 Overall I must be half hip I guess... I think my youth group guys would question that... :P