My United Methodist friends asked me to write an excerpt for a forthcoming book on stewardship. Since they said it could be something already on the blog, I thought I'd put it here to share with you. The blog related to a story involving Cheez-Its.

It also explains that when you use Google Image Search for "Cheese Its," my daughter is well placed! (Yes, it is misspelled-- sorry, Cheez-Its people.) The pic is probably 4 years old now and yet it still shows up.

You can find my original blog post about the sermon here.

Cheesy giving?

Throughout life we are presented with opportunities to exercise good stewardship related to finances. Sometimes we make good decisions and sometimes we make bad decisions, but, as followers of Christ, we seek always to honor Him in the decisions we make. An interaction with one of my children about snack food provides humorous but real insight into this struggle.

Recently, around the time I was teaching on stewardship at our church, I was drawn into an argument with my middle daughter over an empty box of Cheez-its in our cabinet. She was convinced that I eaten all of those tasty little crackers and became obsessed with getting her own Cheez-its to replace them. Her actions were like a person convinced there were no more Cheez-its in the world! The truth was, she did not believe that her father could provide for her by giving her more of this favorite food.

During the teaching series we created a big box of Cheez-its to put on stage to serve as a metaphor. We realized that fear (of not having something) leads to greed (I want that thing) leads to idolatry (I worship that thing) leads to bondage (it rules and imprisons me). My daughter's reaction to the empty box is an example of our own lack of faith that our Father can provide for our needs. It is also illustrates how any thing can derail our willingness to honor God by being good financial stewards.

Tony Morgan's blog is an ongoing source of helpful strategic thinking. Last week, Tony suggested how to preach messages in a series.

I think Tony has helpful wisdom here and reflects an approach I try to take in the places I serve. For example, even as we preach through Philippians this summer, we do it in the form of several series. Our Philippians 1 series was built around the them and title, "Outrageous Joy." Now we are in Philippians 2 with the title, "Humble." Before Philippians, we did a series called "Sleepless-- Questions that Keep Us Up at Night."

Tony's suggestions include:

1. Leverage the seasons when folks are most likely to attend church. I like to launch new series that have a more outreach focus when people are more likely to attend services and invite their friends. Those seasons are cyclical. They depend on where you are located. Obviously, Christmas and Easter are two common times when people are likely to attend church.
2. Find the right balance between "reach people" series and "grow people" series...
3. Use a variety of approaches to begin your series development. Teach on a topic one series. Teach through a book of the Bible in another series. Teach a series of messages on a specific biblical character. Use a series to teach through a specific doctrine. Mix up your approach.
4. Address questions that people are asking...
5. Deliver biblical truth and life application...

Number 2 is particularly helpful. There are seasons in church life that connect with growth and seasons better for depth. For example, I like to do a book series in the summer and winter and often preach a thematic series in spring and fall. Planning around them allows you to continue to help people grow deeper, but also provide a series when new people can "on ramp" into the teaching ministry of the church.

Click here to get the rest of his insights.

I would love to hear what principles you find most helpful in the comment section below.

I had the privilege of preaching at Harvest Bible Chapel a few weeks ago in the absence of their pastor, and my friend, James MacDonald. They have a ministry that turns the sermons on Sunday morning into small group discussion guides. They did a great job with it, and sent me a copy to share with you all. You can download the "pulpit curriculum" here.

I found it interesting that they would turn my message into a study so quickly (before I started Sunday morning, they had it finished from my Saturday message). It is my understand that they use this for one of several forms of curriculum.

Next Sunday, March 13th, I am not preaching anywhere. Since I am starting a church, the time is coming when I won't have as many Sundays free, so I am making them count. I had a great time at Harvest Bible Chapel last week, and it is a great church, but I would like to preach at a more "normal" church next week. (Harvest has 10,000 people on a weekend, which is, well, not normal.)

My article "Preaching Transformation: The Change We Need" is up at Sermon Central. Here's an excerpt:

The church can, at times, communicate the need for change in peoples' lives, and it ends up understood as some low-level therapeutic moralistic deism where a faraway God makes your life better and makes you a better person. But that is not the gospel. We don't want to produce good religious people. We see what becomes of good religious people from the encounters Jesus had with the Pharisees. God wants--as should we--to see people transformed at a spiritual level rather than a behavioral level.

Though often thought of in the same sense as a New Year's resolution, transformation does not come from decisions made on January 1. Instead, it comes from re-creation, the re-creation that comes from new life in Christ. The change people need most is not in their circumstances, but in themselves. It is not the ability to try harder, but it is a life entrusted to Jesus.

So, when you hear change, translate it to mean "gospel change." It is not the same thing as trying harder; in fact, there is no trying involved. Transformation occurs not because we "do," but because Christ has "done."

You can check out the rest of the article here.

I have just finished my time as interim pastor at Two Rivers Church. It was a wonderful opportunity to love on them, and to help them love on the city of Nashville, particularly during the flood. My family attended Two Rivers this morning and I will be back in late July, but here is some information about where I will be preaching for the summer. Below is information about Sundays (only) and not pastor conferences, etc.

A while ago, the folks at Long Hollow asked me to fill when the David Landrith is out of the pulpit. I preached there this morning and will do so for the next couple of weeks (and then a few times later in the year). You can listen to the messages here as they have been walking though the Sermon on the Mount (and I did so this morning and the next two weeks).

I will also be preaching at these churches in July and August:

Desert Springs Church (Albuquerque, NM)
This church is so named because of the climate that they are located in, and they wanted to paint a picture of God's fullness in the gospel being like a spring in the middle of the desert. I will be preaching there on July 18 while I am in New Mexico to spend the week at LifeWay's Glorieta Conference Center.

Cross Pointe Church (Duluth, GA)
My friend James Merritt asked me to come down and preach on August 1 -- and I am always glad to go back and visit Atlanta! James is one of the innovators that has helped bring new thinking into my denomination.

First Wesleyan Church (Nashville, TN)
This church is based in the historic Edgefield area in East Nashville, which is a part of town that is currently being revitalized. I will preach there August 8th.

Church at Indian Lake (Hendersonville, TN). Indian Lake Church is an Assemblies of God church in Hendersonville, TN (where I live). I will preach there August 22nd.

I look forward to opening the Bible and sharing with these good people from diverse backgrounds. Please pray I make much of Jesus, the cross, and God's Kingdom mission.

Yesterday, I posted information about involving all God's people in mission. If you don't mind, I would encourage you to read it as I will be writing more on the subject in the coming days. Yesterday was part one of my series and I will be posting more soon. I dropped in a video interview with the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London and focused on how the church has moved from a preaching point to more of a ministry center in increasingly secularized London.

The church has experienced many changes over the years. I preached through a text on Sunday (they value expository preaching). The worship service was a standard contemporary service to me (though the huge pipe organ was a great addition to the keyboard and drums). The church is now a charismatic Calvinist church, which surprises many who have not followed the changes there.

In my last post, I promised to post my message from Sunday. Here is what I shared with my church yesterday. As you know, our church is on a high spot between Opryland and Pennington Bend. Both Opryland and the Pennington Bend neighborhood have been in the national news due to their flood damage.

Here is my message from Sunday. The outline is below...

My friend Michael Duduit, editor of Preaching Magazine, emailed me recently about the most influential preachers in the last 25 years.

He explained:

Back in February I spoke at the Verge Missional Community Conference on making disciples. My topic was the need for obedience-based discipleship that moves from knowing to doing. Verge was an amazing gathering I was happy to be a part of. The HD versions of the preaching should be available in a few weeks, but for now you can check out my session via youtube.

I am a little behind posting my Sunday messages. This was a few weeks ago focused on "The Journey of Maturity."

Philippians- The Journey of Maturity from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

Here is the outline. As always, use it however it is helpful for the glory of God and the advance of His Kingdom. You have my permission!

I look forward to our services at Two Rivers tomorrow. If you are in Nashville and do not have a church home, I hope you will plan to worship with us.

We will talk about the power of God displayed in the resurrection.

And, I will be mindful of this Stott quote:

Our evangelical emphasis on the atonement is dangerous if we come to it too quickly. We learn to appreciate the access to God which Christ has won for us only after we have first seen God's inaccessibility to the sinner. We can cry 'hallelujah' with authenticity only after we have first cried 'woe is me, for I am lost'. -John Stott

HT: Jeremy Rose

I made an unplanned trip to Orange County this week-- and Donna is along with me. Two weeks ago, Rick Warren asked me to join the team at Radicalis. I spoke yesterday. The Christian Post reported on my message here and Erick did a summary here. As is my custom, I will post the video and my notes at the blog soon.

So, I will be hanging around at Radicalis for the rest of the today, then visiting with the Warrens and others, and finally bringing the message at the weekend services at Saddleback. My message will be, "Forgiving Like Jesus: Why You Should and How You Can."

Please be praying for the closing of the conference as pastors and leaders are encouraged to live radically for Christ and his mission.

As you may know, I am interim pastor at Two Rivers in Nashville. I have been preaching through the book of Philippians and thought I would post them here. Both of these videos are from our 9:15 service.

Here is part 1 with introductory information about the book and its big themes:

Philippians Series- part 1 from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

And, here is part 2, which covers verses 1:3-6:

Philippians- Our Partnership in the Gospel from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

You can subscribe to the vodcast here and the podcast here.

For those who know me, you will note that my 40-45 minute sermons are not suddenly shorter! The reason is that I am taking time in each service to explain to the congregation where we are (ministry, prayer, finances, the future, etc.) as we work together toward the future of Two Rivers.

God has been doing good things as we trust and follow Him. Part of that plan is to communicate with the people as we work through some important things as a church.

We're excited about the future at Two Rivers!

I will be hitting the road at the end this week for a few days. I hope to see you there or, if not, I ask for you to be praying for me and these events.

Here are some upcoming stops this week:

The Conclave Conference in Chattanooga, TN (January 29, 2010)
Conclave, a training event for youth pastors.

Here is some information about the conference:

Conclave is the ultimate Youth Ministry training and worship event in the Southeast for your entire Youth Ministry Team. Send your youth minister, adult leaders, youth minister's spouse, and your core student leaders (grades 9-12) to Conclave 2010 for 3 powerful days full of Authentic Worship, Relevant Training, Honest Conversation, and Personal Encouragement that will help jump-start your student ministry for the new year. There will also be over 60 Breakout Seminars, a student leader tract called "The Core" for your developing leaders (grades 9-12), and over 125 Exhibitors ready to enhance your student ministry in new and exciting ways!

The keynotes for the conference are Clayton King, Ergun Caner, and me. And, Ergun is stalking me. Why do I say that? Well... we are both speaking in Jacksonville, FL immediately after Conclave. (We texted a bit last night and I also will be at Liberty University March 3, speaking at convocation and then speaking at the campus church service that Ergun leads each week.)

Anyway, on to Jacksonville.

The Jacksonville Pastors Conference (January 30, 2010)
The Jacksonville Pastors Conference has a long and powerful history in my denomination. Their theme this year is navigating ministry in uncharted waters. I have been impressed at how they work so hard to serve pastors. Their website includes this section:

• The opportunity for a one-on-one counseling session through our Counseling Ministry and Pastoral staff, available for free upon request


• FREE child care (birth - Kindergarten) to provide ministry families an opportunity to rest and re-energize


• Financial assistance for those who cannot afford to attend the conference. We offer scholarships as well as free housing to ensure that if a pastor is facing financial difficulties we have an opportunity to help and bless him in his ministry

Finally, I am heading to Johnson Ferry in Atlanta (without Ergun Caner!).

Marietta at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (January 31, 2010)
I will be preaching all the Sunday morning services at Johnson Ferry and then leading their leadership training that evening. Then, I am staying over for their staff retreat the next day to talk about how they might be missional in their unique context and situation.

See you on the road... thanks for praying.

Over the past couple of years there has been a lot of passionate discussion about inappropriate language in the pulpit. Of course some preachers do use language they shouldn't when preaching the word, while others aren't using language they should (maybe we'll make another post on that one).

I hope we can agree that God does care about the words we use. Positively, we are called to speak the truth with grace, correcting and reproving one another when needed, and encouraging one another as the day of the Lord draws near. On the negative side, God forbids the misuse of words by way of blasphemy, heresy, lies, gossip, slander, and flattery. These are, I think, relatively easy to spot and most of us would agree such speech has no place on the tongues of God's people.

But, I think more needs to be said. In fact, more has been said. Unfortunately, it has often been little more than spoof texting without real dialog. I'd like us to consider a few of the popular passages that are relevant to this issue and find some direction.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Eph 4:29

Corrupting talk is rotten, worthless, and unfit for use. The word is being used in contrast to words that are useful for building up and extending grace to others. In a practical sense we must not use words that needlessly tear others down, or encourage others to sin.

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
Eph 5:4

Filthiness is ugly, immodest, and inappropriate language. This is largely contextually determined. Some things are entirely appropriate for a conversation between my wife and me, but would be inappropriate between a us and a child. I can speak one way to a man, but would choose my words differently when talking with a woman. Filthiness is ugly talk that is "out of place." Foolish talk is unwise, unprofitable speech, and crude joking is a quick wit (a good thing) used for nothing more than fruitless joking (get over yourself).

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Col 3:8

Obscene talk is shameful, and perhaps abusive speech.

Paul's point regarding godly and ungodly speech is not that some words are never to be used, but that the spiritual and social impact of our words matter, and we must use our words for the glory of God and the good of people.

Now some people use these verses to call words they find distasteful out of bounds. Others ignore these verses and speak without much serious thought about the context or true usefulness of their words. I'd like to offer a little pastoral advice to all Christians, especially those who labor in teaching and preaching.

My advice is simple. Be careful with your words. You only have so many to use in your upcoming sermon, so choose them wisely. Those words may comprise your very last sermon. Have you considered that? What words will be most useful in communicating truth, and the gospel? What words will help you best uncover man's hypocrisy, stubbornness and idolatry while pointing them to the hope of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus? Your words should be appropriate for your audience and context, they should clarify truth, expose error and exalt Jesus. If you are a teacher, then you are not a child, so don't speak like one. Be thoughtful, provocative, and clear. Know your audience. Do not use words that will interfere with the message you are called by God to communicate, but do not neglect to use words that will arrest their attention and display the significance of the message.

Of course, I welcome your thoughts on the subject in the comments. Stick to the issue, my friends. Choose your words wisely, and make the discussion profitable.

This Sunday, I begin a new message series at Two Rivers working through the book of Philippians called, The Joyful Journey of Gospel Partnership. I asked Gabe Posey to create the sermon art for me and he came up with a half sheet, splash graphic and a sermon graphic that has space for Scripture and notes.

Gabe has been doing design work for over a decade. His most recent focus has been on providing professional design work to churches and ministries. His work and blog can be found at jesusapostrophe.com. If you're looking for an artist to create something unique for a sermon or teaching series, or special event head over to Jesus Apostrophe. I am pleased with his work and look forward to starting into Philippians on Sunday. I will post the messages here at the blog as I give them.

As I mentioned recently, I am excited to be helping out Two Rivers while they are without a pastor. We have made to make Two Rivers "our" church and joined this past week.

I am a volunteer there, to love on them and provide some leadership as their interim pastor. I will be preaching two out of three Sundays and working through the book of Philippians. In order to help out Two Rivers, I have rescheduled (with the gracious permission of several churches and pastors) several Sundays.

I am still doing some preaching at other places with the 1/3 of my non-Two Rivers time. The specific dates will be updated to my speaking page by Monday.

A while ago, the folks at Long Hollow asked me to be their regular "fill in" for the first half of the year. I will be preaching there tomorrow. Long Hollow is the 6th fastest growing church in the country (according to LifeWay Research) and is doing some great work with, among other things, their "Crazy Love Campaign").

I will also be preaching at these churches in the first six months of the year:

Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (Marietta, GA)

I will be preaching their Sunday morning services (and will wear a tie in two services!) and then lead their evening leadership training.

Christ Church (Plano, TX).

Christ Church is part of the new Anglican alignment, The Anglican Church in North America. It is the largest "continuing" Anglican church in North America. I will be preaching on Sunday and then staying over to speak at the launch of the Anglican 1000 initiative.

Fairhaven Ministries (near Grand Rapids)

Fairhaven is a church in the Reformed Church of America. I will be up in Grand Rapids speaking at a Classis (similar to a denominational district) and am staying over to preach the next day.

The Chapel (all around Chicago)

The Chapel is a non-denominational multi-site church in Chicago. I am preaching there right before my class at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. That Chapel and their leadership team are doing some amazing and innovative things and I look forward to being with them.

Idlewild Baptist Church (near Tampa, FL)

Ken Whitten is the pastor of Idlewild. They actually call it "Exciting Idlewild" which seems funny to be "exciting," "idle," and "wild" all in the same title. But, it is a great church and Ken is a great guy. I will be doing their missions conference on Sunday morning and then staying a few days with the family on vacation.

Westminster Chapel (London)

I am looking forward to my time in London and will be preaching at two churches. The first is Westminster Chapel in London, the former pulpit of G. Campbell Morgan, Martin Lloyd Jones, R.T. Kendall, and (currently) Greg Haslam. I will be bringing a big leather Bible with lots of notes.

Jubliee Church (London)

On my second Sunday in London, I will be preaching at Jubilee Church in London (a part of the New Frontiers movement). I had the privileged to meet Tope Koleoso, Jubilee pastor, while with Tim Keller up in Manhattan. Tope and famous uber-blogger Adrian Warnock invited me and I am looking forward to it.

Cross Pointe Church (Duluth, GA)

My friend James Merritt asked me to come down and preach-- and I am always glad to go back and visit Atlanta! James is one of the innovators that has helped bring new thinking into my denomination.

I look forward to opening the Bible and sharing with these good people from diverse backgrounds. Please pray I make much of Jesus, the cross, and God's Kingdom mission.

This is the third and final part of my interview with Preaching Magazine (parts 1 and 2 are here and here). It's a discussion that is tied to my book, Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and The Churches That Reach Them. Here we continue on the subject or preaching, and touch on what message I bring to the different groups I'm called to address.

Preaching: One of the things the Heath's talk about in Made to Stick--one principle that makes ideas sticky--is the use of story. As you look at preaching, what do you think about the importance of the use of story in today's environment?

Continue reading Preaching Magazine Interview (Pt. 3).

Here's Part 2 of my interview with Preaching Magazine (part 1 is here). It's a discussion that is tied to my book, Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and The Churches That Reach Them. Here we get into the subject of preaching.

Preaching: You wrote an article for the last issue of Preaching called "Sermons that Stick." Of course, that title relates to a book I think both of us really like, called Made to Stick.

Stetzer: Great book.

Preaching: What do you see as things that will help sermons stick?

Continue reading Preaching Magazine Interview (Pt. 2).