Eric's Blog - Entries tagged "The Bible"
MonMondayDecDecember21st2009
Harvest "Bible" Chapel
Last week was an eventful one at the Training Center. We are now in the Leadership phase of our training; we’re hitting that topic from a number of different angles. The church will rise or fall because of godly or ungodly leadership. What one godly leader can bring about is amazing! Consider: Augustine, Athanasius, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, DL Moody, Charles Spurgeon, George Mueller etc… Godly leaders tend to produce godly disciples and ungodly leaders produce ungodly followers. We must be careful who we choose to follow! In the Scriptures, the Lord reveals His high standards for leaders. I’m thankful that these high standards are taken seriously at my place of training – HBC Fellowship.
Below is a summary of my training last week and then following are some thoughts on our position on the Bible at HBC –
Summary
- Various discussions of leadership
- Shepherding
- Building and maintaining relationships
- Being trustworthy
- Managing
- Taking initiative
- Making wise decisions
- Finances in the church
- Facilities (types and fees)
- Case study of a church issue that needed resolution (we acted as an elder board and sought to come up with a resolution)
- Successful Christian businessman Earl Seals gave his testimony and a talk on leadership
- Examples of attendance and offerings from other HBC churches
- Discussions on creating a budget
- Discussions on qualifications of an elder (1Tim 3 and Titus 1)
- James MacDonald taught us on outlining a passage for a sermon
- Tony Caffey, the pastor of HBC Arthur spoke to us about leading his church
- Ryan Hall, the pastor of HBC Palos Hills spoke to us about the process he went through to get his church launched in Sept 2009
Scripture
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
We call ourselves Harvest “Bible” Chapel for a reason. The Bible, or the Scriptures, or the Word of God are central to everything that we seek to do. Without the Bible I ultimately have nothing of substance to say. My words cannot ultimately change anyone – that’s what the Scriptures are for. Here are some key things that we believe about the Bible at HBC:
- There is no single book in the world like - the Bible
- The most important book in the world is the Bible
- All people should seek to know the Bible above all other books
- God Himself wrote every single word in the Bible “through” prophets and apostles
- The Bible is without error in the original manuscripts
- God reveals Himself through the Bible
- God confirms to readers that He wrote the Bible by the Holy Spirit
- Since God is a loving God, everything that the Bible teaches is for our benefit
- The things in the Bible that society agrees with are true
- The things in the Bible that society does not agree with are – true
- The teaching of the Bible is in line with logic and reason, and never contrary to it
- As people made in the image of God, we have the ability to understand what He has written for us
- Regular exposure to the Bible will make:
- The discouraged encouraged!
- The confused sure!
- The blind see!
- The enslaved free!
- The depraved pure!
- The hopeless hopeful!
All ministry that flows out of Harvest Bible Chapel Joliet will have God’s word as the foundation. This is The Book that changed my life – by God’s grace it will do the same for many others who join us at HBC Joliet!
MonMondayDecDecember14th2009
Preach the Word
Preaching is on my mind. I just finished my second phase in the Training Center on it. During this phase we covered numerous things regarding preaching: studying and preparation time, boiling down the main point of a passage, outlines, explaining the text, illustrating the text, applying the text, intros and conclusions, delivery and most importantly having a heart for the Lord through the process. Believe it or not it is possible to study the Bible, prepare a sermon, and even preach a sermon, and not be focused on the Lord! It is absolutely crucial to guard against that. A preacher’s heart needs to be aflame with God’s truth! There are two other phases coming up. The phase that I’m currently in is on leadership in the church.
Here’s a little summary of some of the things that happened last week in my training:
Summary
- Discussion with spouses on marriage and ministry
- All 6 of us in the Training Center put together a 1 hour service where someone gave announcements, worship was led, and we preached (video taped)
- Christmas party at HBC Rolling Meadows
- I counseled a young couple
Scripture
“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” 2 Timothy 4:2
One of the 4 pillars at Harvest Bible Chapel has to do with preaching the word of God. As the pastor and preacher for Harvest Bible Chapel, God has given me the role to publically communicate what the Bible teaches. There are some things in the Bible that many people like: be a good listener, be a wise person, be generous, be faithful, love your spouse, love your children, love your neighbor as yourself. There are others things in the Bible that many other people don’t like: all people are sinners, everyone will be judged after death, Jesus Christ is God, we are utterly hopeless apart from Jesus’ death and resurrection on our behalf, hate sin and love righteousness, be willing to be mocked for Christ etc...
God has called me to teach everything that the Bible has to say – whether it is popular or whether it is not. God has a message that He wants the whole world to know. My job is to proclaim that entire message. I am not to pick and choose what seems best to me. Sometimes people will immediately like what I preach about. Other times, people will dislike or even hate what I’m preaching on. This should not be a surprise to me since Jesus and the apostles experienced the same thing. If every single person likes what I preach about, I’m not communicating everything that God wants me to communicate. My job is not to try to figure out what will make people most comfortable when it comes to preaching God’s word, my job is to simply preach it and allow God to work and allow people to respond. Yes - I am to preach with love, but love doesn’t always mean that people don’t get offended.
The Truth is what changes people, the Truth is what brings people to God, the Truth is what leads people to heaven – the untainted Truth is what I plan to preach at Harvest Bible Chapel – “God help me!”
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