Thursday, August 13, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
What are you Reading?
As a senior teaching pastor I find myself working very hard to stay afloat almost every single week. Throw a funeral or two into the mix and you have yourself a really exciting week. I find it challenging to prepare a Sunday AM sermon and a Sunday PM lesson week in and week out. Pastors have so much to do and so little time to do it in. Thank goodness God does not want us to accomplish these tasks according to human strength or worldly wisdom.
On a weekly basis the most important ministry task I face is the Sunday morning exposition. I find most of my extra reading time is used to supplement my sermon preparation or some other church related ministry.
For example, this past Sunday I preached through Revelation 5:9. Outside of Scripture, Bible Works, LOGOS, and numerous Revelation commentaries I used the following resources: John Gill’s Body of Divinity; R.B. Kuiper’s, For Whom Did Christ Die; D.A. Carson’s, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God; & the opening chapters of Elyse Fitzpatrick’s latest book, Counsel from the Cross.
At night I finished up Mike Abendroth’s Jesus Christ: The Prince of Preachers. This was a very application orientated book and one that I would recommend to our faithful readers. I am ashamed to say that during my first topical series on Biblical Preaching (I delivered these a year ago) that I did not spend a single Sunday talking about the model of Jesus. Abendroth’s book points out how most of the great books on preaching skip over His wonderful example.
Other than that I find myself rereading the books we’re using for our leadership training class (9 Marks of a Healthy Church, The Exemplary Husband, and 10 Questions to Diagnosing Your Spiritual Health) or reading books in preparation for my Sunday PM lessons (The Message of the Old Testament). I am so grateful for the Christian resources that are available today.
On a weekly basis the most important ministry task I face is the Sunday morning exposition. I find most of my extra reading time is used to supplement my sermon preparation or some other church related ministry.
For example, this past Sunday I preached through Revelation 5:9. Outside of Scripture, Bible Works, LOGOS, and numerous Revelation commentaries I used the following resources: John Gill’s Body of Divinity; R.B. Kuiper’s, For Whom Did Christ Die; D.A. Carson’s, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God; & the opening chapters of Elyse Fitzpatrick’s latest book, Counsel from the Cross.
At night I finished up Mike Abendroth’s Jesus Christ: The Prince of Preachers. This was a very application orientated book and one that I would recommend to our faithful readers. I am ashamed to say that during my first topical series on Biblical Preaching (I delivered these a year ago) that I did not spend a single Sunday talking about the model of Jesus. Abendroth’s book points out how most of the great books on preaching skip over His wonderful example.
Other than that I find myself rereading the books we’re using for our leadership training class (9 Marks of a Healthy Church, The Exemplary Husband, and 10 Questions to Diagnosing Your Spiritual Health) or reading books in preparation for my Sunday PM lessons (The Message of the Old Testament). I am so grateful for the Christian resources that are available today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)