what to do with announcements

Tim Scheiderer writes about the various ways local churches present their announcements on Sunday morning: "The problem with these delivery styles is that the stated motivations don’t match the glory and weight of what the congregation is being asked to participate in. The magnificent blessing of the event or service opportunity is masked by the mediocre delivery system. Churches shouldn’t take an event intended to display the truth of God and serve it on a platter of mediocrity. We can do better."

Read "Make Church Announcements Great Again"

And a long-time friend and fellow-pastor in New England recently sent the following out to his congregation:

Sometimes I feel like our Sunday mornings are becoming a stream of commercials or recruiting infomercials for favorite ministries. We are even probed more and more to “book” ministry teams from all kinds of good and profitable outreach organizations—even asking for a whole Sunday morning service to promote their ministry or share their experiences. They will even demand a certain minimum offering in order to come to our church to do this! All of this places me in a feeling of some conflict. While I very much desire our church to be a hub for supporting all kinds of creative outreaches and missions (and we are), at the same time I feel like our Sunday morning worship should be completely devoted to directing focus to Him, our God, our Savior, our King and our Head. Worship is a unique experience for Christians. He is worth giving Him our complete focus, and that focus should be individually prepared for, entered into carefully and not too casually. Ideally preparation for Sunday morning could begin Saturday night, and then also not be rushed by other Sunday commitments. Indeed, we tread a fine line between legalism, rigidity and formalism on the one hand, but sloppy relaxation on the other. You will see me up front before the services, praying, settling my mind, singing the prelude song and re-calibrating my spirit. I sit up front to minimize distraction before we begin and to enjoy our worship team prelude song (not because I view myself as the head honcho). I try to get all my visiting and hello-giving done before that song begins. I usually wear a tie on Sunday mornings. Isn’t that funny? When I came to Christ in 1972 I was very much NOT that kind of guy. I don’t expect any other men to do that, but I just don’t feel completely comfortable without one. It is a tiny gesture towards the process of worship which says, “hey this is a special thing we’re doing, and it is a thing I rarely do for any other event.” I suppose I am expressing my desire that we all privately and individually go out of our way to place the focus on the Lord on Sunday mornings. New Christians will learn this from us. Our kids will learn this from us. Just a thing that is on my heart…

clement quotes hebrews

Clement of Rome wrote to the church in Corinth around AD 90. This is perhaps the same Clement, companion of Paul, mentioned in Philippians 4:3. Many hold him to be the first bishop / pope in Rome, aka St. Clement I. Clement quotes from the letter to the Hebrews. Origin suggested that Clement was in fact the writer (as transcriber or amanuensis) of Hebrews. Perhaps this letter began as a "word of exhortation" given by Paul at the synagogue (Heb 13:22; cf Acts 13:15) which then became a circular letter for the churches. Other possible authors of Hebrews include Luke, Barnabas, or Apollos. The theology is Pauline, but the transcriber is obviously second-generation (Heb. 2:3-4). At any rate, this early church leader in Rome, is already quoting Hebrews in his letter in AD 90: CHAPTER 36 ALL BLESSINGS ARE GIVEN TO US THROUGH CHRIST This is the way, beloved, in which we find our Savior, even Jesus Christ, the High Prie...

Howard Hendricks on OT books chronology

When I was in seminary, Howard Hendricks (aka "Prof") gave us a little card with the books of the OT chronologically arranged. The scanned copy I have was a bit blurry and I wanted to make something like this available for our church class in OT theology ("Story of Redemption"). A few minor edits and here it is...

sword and trowel

"From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me." (Nehemiah 4:16-18 ESV) The great London preacher, Charles Spurgeon, published a monthly magazine called The Sword and The Trowel; A record of combat with sin and of labour for the Lord. It was published from 1865 to 1892. The cover of the journal had a drawing taken from Nehemiah 4, which included both a trowel (representing the work) and a sword (representing the fight). The sword was necessary to protect what the men with trowels were building. These citizen-soldier-builders would successfully complete the wall aroun...

my burg

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