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Introduction: Pastor AJ Thomas spent some time on staff in a couple of churches mainly doing youth ministry and worship leading. 5 years ago he led a team out from a church in the suburbs to daughter a church in the downtown core of the city of Halifax Nova Scotia. The culture of Halifax is very post-Christian and pluralistic with lots of universities and a vibrant arts scene. Deep Water is a church of about 250-300 people. About 90% of people in the church are between the ages of 18-35. Most are young in life and faith, and are well educated. AJ’s advice to preachers is “your job is to make scripture clear, compelling, and applicable – nothing more and nothing less.”

Lenny: Why do you feel it was necessary to address the issue of homosexuality at this point in the life of Deepwater Church?

AJ: This sermon was part of a series called “For the Record.” The idea behind the series was to take a bunch of issues that are frequently misunderstood or confusing. This is the single most hotly contended moral question of our day and we have buckets of folks with non-biblical views on the subject. So, I thought we would be remiss not to address it.

Lenny: I love the way you build rapport in the beginning of the sermon by making some important disclaimers like “the Bible disagrees with the loudest voices on both sides of the issue” and “while what I say might offend I hope that how I say it will not be offensive.” Whenever we preach on hard topics that are controversial, rapport-building disclaimers can give the sermon a chance to get off the ground for people on all sides of a given issue. Tell us why you voiced these disclaimers and describe the response you perceived while voicing them.

AJ: For the first one, the big danger in entering a debate with two clear sides is that people will almost instantly make a judgment about which side of the issue you are on and assume everything you say is in keeping with that side’s viewpoint. I just wanted to roll a grenade into peoples’ system of mental categorization so they had a better chance of hearing what I actually said not just what they think people on “that side of the issue” always say.
For the second, I guess I just genuinely meant it. I wanted to be clear that the tone of this message was gracious and that it was not an attempt to bash, dismiss, or otherwise devalue anyone, even if we saw the issue differently.

Lenny: When I have preached on a hard topic I have often come away wishing that I said this or, more often, that I didn’t say that. While your sermon is, without doubt, one of the best I have heard on this important topic, I suspect there are one or two things you might change about the content or delivery of the message. What are those one or two things you would do differently if you had the chance to preach this one again for your congregation?

AJ: I can totally empathize with that feeling. I have it almost every week. To be completely honest though, I was really quite happy with the way this one came out. There are no doubt improvements that could be made but this was a day when I brought my very best. I spent months in study, preparation, percolation, and refining and I took about 4 times the amount of notes “into the pulpit” as normal because I wanted to make sure I said this stuff exactly the way I had planned.

Lenny: John 1:14 asserts that Jesus came from the Father “full of grace and truth.” It would be easy in a sermon like this one to over-emphasize grace and ignore truth, or to over-emphasize truth and ignore grace. The premier strength of your sermon is that it struck the delicate blend of grace and truth. Of course, this makes both truth-without-grace people and grace-without-truth people upset. How did people in the church respond to your message? Did some think you offered too much grace or too much truth?

AJ: I was the most shocked by this. I totally expected to spend the next couple weeks putting out fires but I only received one piece of feedback that could be perceived as having any negative component. This person said they were very happy to hear some of what I said and respectfully disagreed with some other things. That said, giving a whole lot of feedback good or bad is not really part of the culture of this city, so who knows what people were saying about me over lunch. Several people were very happy to hear a clear articulation of the issue because they knew the biblical truth laid somewhere between the PRIDE parade and Fred Phelps but weren’t sure exactly where.

Of course very few people in the congregation would be looking at this from the lens of grace vs truth. They would be looking at it from the perspective of truth or not truth first and foremost, and how graciously it was said would be a distant second. That’s worth remembering too. Sometimes when we preach on issues like this it’s tempting to try assume everyone agrees with our truth and so we pile on the grace. That can easily come across as condescending and patronizing to those who hold a different view point. When we say stuff like “as we all know…” it also gives the impression that you can’t be a part of this community until you agree with us.

Lenny: In the middle of the sermon there was a climactic high point in which you moved from the topic of homosexuality and into the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, this was not just a talk about a topic, the kind we might get from a talk show panel. This message moved toward a proclamation of the Gospel. How did the part of the sermon come to you? Why did you feel the need to include it?

AJ: I guess it just seemed stupid to talk about sin without talking about salvation, and wrong to talk about grace without acknowledging that we all need it. The answer to homosexuality is not straightness; it’s Jesus. Homosexuality is such a divisive issue I felt like we needed to end up in the same boat at some point and the gospel is the thing that does that. The most consistent common ground we have with the rest of humanity is our need for God’s grace.

Emerging Young Preachers (EYPs) have unique needs and advantages in the feedback process. The early years of preaching development include a lot of adjustment and we change our approach to preparation and delivery, much more than those who have 15+ years of experience. EYPs should seek feedback with far more frequency and implementation than an old pro. If we don’t, we’re liable to get stuck in our own heads, abandoning our more promising approaches to preaching, or failing to avoid the approaches that might lead us to less effective preaching.

We’ve taken a look at the identity temptations (LINK) and also at the unique opportunities (LINK) of the early years of preaching development. Now let’s look at the feedback strategies we can use as EYPs:

FEEDBACK STRATEGIES

Smell the praise perfume but don’t drink it.

Jim Watkins once told me, “Praise is like perfume, you can smell it, but don’t drink it.” EYPs will get some encouraging words—often people are trying to “encourage us” beyond the impact they receive from the message. Because of this—we must be careful not to fully ingest the perfume. Sometimes we need the encouragement, yes, but we can’t let it get to our heads. One of the ways I do this is to store praise sent to me all in one box in my office. I don’t re-read these when I get them, but instead save them for that “blue Monday” when I feel horrible about my preaching—and I smell the perfume a bit and get back on the horse.

Ask for feedback

“We have not because we ask not.” No one will give you helpful feedback on your sermon unasked (and if they do then perhaps they aren’t the ones you want feedback from!). We get the feedback we ask for. Our potential “feedbackers” trust that we are getting advice somewhere else—but they notice we are not improving and begin to wonder. Here are two systemic ways to get feedback:

1) Routine – Some EYPs develop a weekly cycle of feedback from a few trusted individuals. Whether a spouse, a teaching team, or a wise advisor, the key to this kind of feedback is to ask people for a sustainable system of feedback.

2) Intense – Some EYPs sense that in certain seasons they need to work on one part of their preaching—or that they need to grow up quick in all areas intensely. This is a big ask, so you have to be clear on who you’re asking to give feedback.

Implement the feedback

We often get feedback without implementing it. I might get feedback that I jingled my keys in my pocket in a distracting way 21 times in a sermon, but then the next time I preach I end up doing it 22 times. I might hear that my altar call seems manipulative—but then I continue to use the same tricks every week. I could be told I’m mispronouncing Melchizedek and then I still mess it up for the entire series on Hebrews. This is emotionally defeating for the feedbacker. Asking for advice I won’t follow is like asking for a prescription from the doctor and never going to the pharmacy to get it filled.

Feedback on the feedback

We EYPs should point out what parts of the feedback were most instructive. This shows that we are not just “making a show” of our feedback process. Recruiting people to invest in our preaching does indeed influence them to take ownership of our development. However, it is manipulative to do that merely for political reasons. Feedbackers sense this. I know of a pastor who had an extensive system for routine and intense feedback, but they never changed as a result of the feedback. They were defensive on each point, and over time everyone just stopped saying much. This will happen to us as EYPs if we don’t take feedback to heart.

Self-corrective feedback

Over time we learn from our feeedbackers and we start to develop a self-corrective eye and ear, a more in-tune heart and mind for preaching. I know at 37 I don’t ask the same questions from feedbackers that I asked when I was 27. For instance, I used to have feedbackers count my “Um’s” in a message, and my other verbal pause distractions. Through many years of correction, I was able to eliminate them almost entirely—and when I hear one every once in a while in my videos it’s like nails on a chalkboard for me. At this point we can move on to other more intense and focused feedback to become better and better at communicating the holy word.

Getting a variety of feedback

It helps to get more than one kind of feedback. Each kind gives us a different angle and helps focus the feedback.

1) Live feedback – By giving someone a special feedback sheet of paper with certain questions we can get feedback right away. We did this in our teaching team at Spring Lake Wesleyan Church (www.slwc.org) and it was a great method of routine feedback.

2) Audio feedback – It’s easy for the feedbacker to listen on an iPod or in the car, and their feedback is more about the word choice and content than the delivery.

3) Video feedback – Many of us get weekly video recordings of our preaching, and at College Wesleyan Church (www.collegewes.com) it goes online every single week. Few things help your feedback better than “rolling the tape.” TV adds 10 pounds they say. I would say it also adds 10 minutes to how long a message feels, it add 10 nervous tics I don’t notice otherwise, and adds 10 mispronunciations and 10 odd gestures or repetitive actions I don’t remember doing. Video exposes so much. For the last seven years I’ve watched the video of every single sermon I’ve given at my church. What’s more, I recently sent video to some pastors who hadn’t seen me preach in more than 5 years, and to another that hadn’t for 10 years, so they might advise me on how I’ve improved or hadn’t improved over the years. I’ve even sat down with Pastor Steve DeNeff, a true master of the art of preaching, and analyzed video of one of my sermons with intense moment-by-moment feedback.

4) Delivery feedback – Sometimes we need an old pro to point all we are doing to distract from the message. My wife is helpful for this kind of feedback in particular. She notices the things I do repetitively, and helps me eliminate them. A good trigger question for this is: “What are the things I always do that could be distracting?”

5) Manuscript feedback – By working on delivery, we end up “saying things good,” but still don’t have “good things to say.” In manuscript feedback, without all the verbal and visual helps to communication, a feedbacker can incisively show us logical flaws, inherent contradictions, and push us to go deeper into the text and history behind the subject, pointing out our stream-of-consciousness gibberish and elevating us to poetic word choices and powerful truth.

These are many of the ways EYPs are ensuring they have feedback strategies to grow as preachers. How about you? How do you ensure you are getting feedback to develop your full potential as a preacher? What other ways you invent to get evaluated with more effectiveness as EYPs?

So, here is the question: What are the most pressing topics that need to be addressed immediately through preaching for people in your ministry context?

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Introduction: Jared serves as the Assistant Pastor of United Wesleyan Church in Alexandria, VA. As a bi-vocational pastor, he also serves as a one-on-one English tutor at the International Monetary Fund for economists from around the world. In this capacity his time is spent in personal conversation with people of every religion and culture. This experience has sharpened his faith and given him a deeper understanding of the meaning and importance of the gospel. His simple advice for fellow preachers is to spend more time with unchurched people and preach in a way that would be meaningful to them.

Lenny: Jared, I like the way you helped us to engage the atonement through the lens of a narrative that is “both true and meaningful.” Why was it so important for you to develop those concepts before moving into the body of this sermon on the atonement of Christ?

Jared: The more I meditate on Jesus, the gospels, the cross, and the resurrection, the more I realize how interconnected all of the pieces are to history itself. As a father of two small children, I fully understand the value of telling children simply that Jesus is God’s son and the he died for our sins; this is a good starting point. However, as adults, we need the fuller and more complex story that Scripture provides. In the incarnation, God stepped into history. The cross was the result of concrete historical events. The Holy Spirit then inspired the gospel writers to present a multi-layered historical drama. We cannot fully understand Jesus—nor what He means for our life— without this context. Historical context is what separates Christian theological truth from mere mythology.

Lenny: This was the type of sermon that sought to bring people into the story of God instead of bringing God into the story of our lives. There is a huge difference between these two homiletic approaches and perhaps both are necessary to reach a variety of people. The reason why I think your sermon aims to bring people into God’s story is the enormous amount of time you devoted to unpacking the historical background of the text and its theological implications. Some of the people who listen to your sermon might suggest that perhaps you spent too much time on the history (true) and theology (meaningful) of the biblical story. How would you respond?

Jared: I would agree that I spent a lot of time developing and unpacking this background in this particular sermon. There are two things I would say in response to those who question this approach. First, many people do not have a solid grasp of this narrative. While it certainly should not be explicitly presented in every sermon, it does need to be presented at some point. Second, it is very difficult to talk about the multiple layers of meaning found in the cross without this historical background. A penal substitution view of the atonement (i.e. God punished Jesus for our sin) is easiest to present without any historical narrative, though other equally biblical views require far more context. As this was part of a series called “Groundwork,” I was intentionally investing in laying a firm foundation.

Lenny: What makes a good sermon a good sermon is not just a matter of biblical exegesis but contextual exegesis. Tell us how this sermon addresses the particular needs of people in your preaching context.

Jared: Peoples’ needs were represented in the bookends of the sermon. At the beginning, I attempted to connect with real questions, feelings, and doubts of people through a fictional journal entry. At the close, I sought to answer these questions by showing how, through the cross and the resurrection, Jesus is our mercy, our example, and our victory. I then brought this home by describing how I personally find a deep sense of forgiveness, a model for how to live, and a great source of hope and confidence in the cross when viewed through the lens of the resurrection.

Lenny: I encourage my preaching students to view their sermons in order to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their sermons on a frequent basis. As you reflect upon your sermon, what do you think were its strengths and areas for improvement?

Jared: I always struggle with time and would prefer to keep it to 20-25 minutes, which I was not able to do in this case. Nevertheless, when preaching a dense and multi-layered sermon like this, I use a manuscript so that I can carefully choose each word; when listening to it again I am happy with the words I chose. However, I think the sermon would be strengthened by a couple more illustrations, especially something stronger at the end to more clearly show what it looks like in real life to have Jesus as your mercy, example, and victory. Despite this, I received strong feedback that the sermon really helped people understand the cross more deeply than they had before.

Lenny: As you know, we met and had some great times together when we were Master of Divinity students in seminary. We both believe in the importance of ongoing education in the formation of ministers. Here is a big question but, I think, a significant one for those who might be considering further education: How has education prepared you for pastoral ministry, in general, and the preaching life, in particular?

Jared: I would say that education connected me to specific resources (authors like N. T. Wright, commentaries, and software like BibleWorks) and trained me on how to find new ones. I use these skills and resources every time I preach. I approach each text and topic with confidence. My time at seminary also significantly raised my own standards and stretched my capacity. When writing a paper for a world-class scholar you are motivated to dig deeper and read material that may intimidate you at first. More personally, listening to and talking with world-class scholars and hearing them articulate clear answers to very difficult questions gave me confidence that good answers and deep understanding are available to those who diligently seek them. This has paid off a thousand times over as I encounter people’s most difficult questions. I find that people draw confidence from a wise and knowledgeable pastor/preacher. While education can never provide all the answers, it certainly encouraged me to dig deeper rather than settle for shallow and unsatisfying answers. From a different angle, the time spent in Christian community profoundly shaped my soul. Chapels, Bible studies, classes, and conversations impacted my personal discipleship.

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Introduction: Pastor Thad Spring serves as the Pastor of College and Outreach at the College Wesleyan Church in Marion, IN. Thad has been a pastor for 21 years and has served in staff positions focused on Christian Education, Children, Youth, Family Life, College, and Outreach. In 1998 Thad and his family were called to plant a church in Marysville, MI where he served as Lead Pastor for 10 years. Thad and his family have been at College Wesleyan now for four years and recently became the first Outreach Pastor for the church. Thad advises preachers,“If the message doesn’t challenge you, correct you, or call you to something more…it won’t do that for your congregation either. You have to own it first.”

Lenny: You have been a Lead Pastor who preached every week and now you serve as an assistant pastor who preaches at the Sunday morning worship gathering every 6 weeks or so. What are some of the advantages and challenges of preaching for a staff pastor?

Thad: Along with the preaching on Sunday mornings, I often preach for our college ministry, so it gives me many more opportunities to be behind the pulpit. The advantages for Sunday mornings are more time in study (especially following someone who spends more time than any other pastor I know), an idea of where the series that we are in is going, and more support from the staff in other areas during the week that I am preaching. I never had that as a solo pastor.

Lenny: Your sermon introduction about the rule and by-laws of the motorcycling culture was engaging but lengthy. Some might say that the introduction was too lengthy. Why did you feel the need to spend so much time framing the sermon with this particular sermon illustration?

Thad: My agenda was to help our congregation understand that every sub-culture has rules and by-laws that others don’t understand. Because College Wesleyan is not known for being a Biker church, I wanted to illustrate and educate our congregation on that culture. The goal was for them to understand that just because the church accepts each other, there may be those we are leaving out who we don’t understand or recognize. As lengthy as it was, I still get emails and responses from individuals (just this week) who are still challenged to see others differently because of the “Biker Wave.”

Lenny: Thad, your sermon was biblically thoughtful and contextually relevant. First, how do you tend to tackle exegesis of the biblical text? Describe the exercises and tools you utilize to wrestle with the text for the sermon? Second, how did your particular preaching context impact the shaping of the sermon? Describe your congregation and how this sermon intersected with their unique needs.

Thad: Tackling the exegesis for me means saturation. It takes me more than a week to study and dissect the one point or theme of the passage. I usually start about three weeks out with word study and historical background and let that simmer for a while. I then exegete the congregation; who they are, where they are at in the season of life, and where I believe God is taking us all. I then work through an outline very similar to the one Andy Stanley uses in his book, Communicating for a Change, which is close to Eugene Lowry’s work, The Homiletical Plot. Illustrations usually come after all the study and theme has been worked out. It has really helped me to stay with a one point message over the last 6 to 7 years. I can have points within the big idea, but I can always bring it back to the main message, which on this occasion was, Your Theology Needs a Place.

College Wesleyan is a strong church made up of leaders from all walks of life and has strong connections to Indiana Wesleyan University and Taylor University. So in many ways the challenge is how to “preach to the choir.” This particular message and series was so relevant because God is moving our congregation outside our walls and outside the evangelical education bubble to minister in local schools, create after-school programs, sit on boards for many non-profit agencies, partner with housing agencies, mentor in the jails, etc. Showing no favoritism is a great step for College Wesleyan and I believe the message either confirmed the change for many or challenged individuals to join in God’s work in Marion and abroad.

Lenny: I really appreciate the way you repeatedly and strategically emphasized that Peter’s “conversion” toward inclusion of Gentiles was the result not of human moralism but divine initiative. Why did you sense the need for this theological emphasis?

Thad: Christians need saving too! I think the church can settle into complacency and think that just because God is doing things inside our congregation that we have all that God intended. Peter, I believe, would have been satisfied with Jerusalem, Judea, and maybe Samaria…but God’s initiative was stated both in the Old Testament and through Jesus and Peter needed to be nudged or called to something bigger. Our congregation and perhaps many others are finding wonderful experiences within their context, but I’m often challenged to think more globally and I believe we need to be nudged or called to something more.

Lenny: You challenged the College Wesleyan Church to move out from safe Joppa and toward unsafe Ceasarea. This was a vision-shaping sermon for the people of the church. What is the relationship between preaching and kingdom vision in the life of the local church?

Thad: I think Kingdom vision comes first. Where is God moving? What is He all about in our context? What is He doing in the lives of our people? Preaching, for me, follows that. It is a means to expose the Word of God in all it’s fullness or narrative when it comes to the issues that we as a people are facing. It’s not that our preaching is relevant or not, it is the fact that the Word of God is relevant and by hearing the messages we preach, it becomes transformationally relevant to our people.

When I preach in a context that is unfamiliar, I always ask two questions that reveal much about the people to whom I will preach. I inquire, what is the appropriate sermon dress and length? How long I preach and what I wear are factors that, despite their less than spiritual significance, can help or hinder the reception of the sermon. While some preachers may claim a certain sermon length or style of dress as God-ordained, these considerations are determined more by the preaching context than any other factor.

Sermon length and clothing must not only fit with the people in the preaching context, they must also match the personality of the preacher and the community that surrounds the preaching context. So, whether preaching in the local church I serve or as a guest preacher in unfamiliar territory, I aim to be in close proximity to people in the church, to people in the community around the church, and to my personality in terms of what I wear and how long I preach.

Match the Preaching Context

Wherever we preach, we want to be sensitive to the particularities of the context. Although I am quite comfortable preaching with jeans, I wouldn’t even think about doing so in a church with a large number of senior citizens. I own a few suits, but I wouldn’t dare sport mine when addressing teens or twenty-somethings. I saw a well known Christian author speak at a conference for mostly mainline pastors. He was a white young man donning dread-locks and a long skirt-like shirt. His dress did not distract me from the important and impactful message he shared, but it did become an obstacle to several of my colleagues in attendance. It was unfortunate that some allowed the preacher’s clothing to keep them from hearing his message, but I wonder if he could have done more to prevent his dress from blocking his Gospel message.

Sermon length is another contextual issue. I preached as a guest at a multi-ethnic church in Queens, NY that asked me to preach a 45-60 minute message. The suburban, mostly white congregation in the Midwest that invited me to preach wanted a 25-30 minute sermon. The preacher who stays within the bounds of contextual expectations regarding sermon length is more likely to be heard than the preacher who totally ignores these boundaries.

Match the Preacher’s Personality

While ignoring the preaching context is disrespectful, ignoring your personality is inauthentic. As much as possible within the parameters of your context, be yourself. If you are a 23 year old preacher, my guess is the three piece suit is not your style even if it fits the context. If you are a 75 year old preacher, you may not want to wear baggie jeans and a t-shirt even if that dress aligns with the style of most of the people in the preaching context.

I tend to be a 25-30 minute preacher, perhaps because I am a product of my sitcom culture. Unless I’m invited to speak longer or shorter, this is the sermon length I hit every time. You probably have a default sermon length too, along with convictions to support your modus operandi. The point is, know yourself.

When a local church hires me to be their pastor or someone invites me to be a guest preacher, I assume they want me to be me and not a clone of some other preacher. However, in an effort to be myself I must also be sensitive to the context. In some instances, we preachers have to find a compromise between the context and our personality. For example, you may be a jean wearing preacher in a congregational context that expects and desires a suit wearing messenger. Perhaps you can compromise by wearing a shirt and tie without a suit coat. If you prefer to preach 25 minutes and the context expects 45, perhaps you can stretch to 35. Know yourself, know your context, and preach in a manner that is sensitive to both.

Match The Community

The community around the preaching context matters too. If you are a local church pastor you will likely want to wrestle with the question: What kind of dress would foster a sense of welcome to people in the community who do not yet attend the church? One of the churches I served was attracting people from the lower social classes within the community. Few of them owned or could afford a suit. Our pastoral staff and most lay leaders dressed in a manner that the economically challenged could adopt for themselves.

The preacher must also consider the community when it comes to sermon length. One church I served as pastor was in an area consisting mostly of Roman Catholic churches. Many of the people moving into the community were from a nominal Roman Catholic background. So, most people from the community who visited our church were used to the 10-15 minute homily of the Roman Catholic liturgy. I didn’t want to overly exhaust them with a 35-40 minute sermon so I tended to go about 25 minutes, which fit with my personality. The preacher’s sermon length and style of dress should not be a needless barrier to community people who visit the church and are processing the decision to return.

QUESTION:

How does or how should your personality, local church, and community context impact how you dress and how long you preach?

Dr. Luchetti blogs at lennyluchetti.blogspot.com

As always, please leave your comment below and share your answer with the wesleyansermons.com community!

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Introduction: Jeff has been the Pastor of The Voyage Church over the past 5 ½ years. Prior to this, he served for 3 years as a Youth Pastor at a United Methodist church in East Brunswick, New Jersey. His current ministry context is suburban, with a large mall right down the road. Those within the congregation are low to middle class with a good mix of newer Christians to those more mature in their faith. The average age within the congregation is also very diverse – a good mix of young and old. Jeff shares about his preaching journey: “The thing I’ve learned (continue to learn) is that every preacher should be themselves. It’s easy to emulate those you grew up under, or those who seem to be getting all of the love and attention. Nevertheless, it’s important not to get too caught up in that. Learning to be myself has been a tremendous help!”

Lenny: Jeff, I appreciate your willingness to talk about politics in the context of the sermon. Some might push-back and assert, “you should never talk about politics while preaching.” How would you respond to them?

Jeff: Right now, if Facebook is any indication, politics is on nearly everyone’s radar. I’ve listened to the Democrat in my congregation tell me why they support the current administration and I’ve also heard the voice of the Republican tell me why they vote the way they do. If God’s Word was silent on politics and the social issues that politics often seeks to solve, I suppose that preaching on it would be a stretch. However, God’s Word is filled with a care and concern for others, and the prophets of old were not silent about their disdain for what they saw as injustice and a lack of concern. Therefore, it’s important to preach on a topic like this one, especially in a season when politics is fresh on the minds of people.

Lenny: There are a number of hard topics upon which to preach and politics is one of them, especially while candidates are campaigning. Do you have any general principles, or rules, that guide you when preaching on hard topics?

Jeff: On the whole, I would say the only rule is that I turn to God’s Word for the answer as opposed to another person’s view on the topic. As a pastor who reads a lot, the temptation is to pick up another author’s views on a certain topic and then run with it. However, I’ve had to step back a time or two and make sure what I’m saying is clearly God’s Word.

Lenny: Your sermon, in my estimation, walked the tightrope between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of people in the political sphere. Tell us more about how the local church can both trust in the sovereignty of God and engage responsibly in politics.

Jeff: A tightrope indeed! Within God’s sovereign plan, my belief is that we are active participants in bringing about his plan. In saying that, we have been called out time and time again by the prophets of old to do something about sin within us, evil around us and injustice that seems to prevail at times. Through our political involvement, then, we can have our say in electing and supporting those who have God’s best interests in mind. Once elected, however, I believe that it is our duty as the church to pray for our elected officials, to praise what they’re doing right but also be willing to call them out in those areas where we see them missing the mark. Generally, the church has spent far too much time on the “calling them out” part and not enough time supporting and praying for them.

Lenny: The prophets of the Old Testament really are political cynics, to an extent. Their preaching is understood best in the context of the politics of their day. In other words, while preachers today might be inclined to separate church and state, the prophets of the Old Testament did not. Do you think the preaching of Old Testament prophets is a model for preaching on politics today?

Jeff: Great question! Honestly, I haven’t thought through each of Scripture’s prophetic works in a political way, so I’ll say this. While it may not act as a complete model per say, what it does model is God’s sovereignty and the big picture that we so easily lose sight of. If God is in control, why such anger? Why such fear? Why such a divide politically?