iCrucified

Posts Tagged ‘Preaching’

Installment #7 was my assignment for this weekend’s worship services. My title for this message was “Preventative Maintenance: Creating and Maintaining a Healthy Biblical Community.” As is my custom, I have included the manuscript, sermon outline, and small group discussion questions along with the audio file. I am always interested in constructive critique and feedback.

download manuscript (.pdf file)

download outline and sm.grp. discussion (.pdf file)

2010FEB14 ChristianJourney 7jb by valleychapel

Send article as PDF to

Installment #4 was my assignment for this weekend’s worship services. My title for this message was “Rules of the Road: God’s Way of Loving Ourselves and Loving Others.” As is my custom, I have included the manuscript, sermon outline, and small group discussion questions along with the audio file. I am always interested in constructive critique and feedback.

download manuscript (.pdf file)

download outline and sm.grp. discussion (.pdf file)

2010JAN24 ChristianJourney 4jb by valleychapel

Send article as PDF to

It’s always a joy to share God’s Word…

It was my privilege to “kick off” the first message in our new series The Christian Journey this past Sunday. My message topic was to share the goal of the Christian Journey and to set the stage for the remaining eight weeks of this study. My manuscript can be downloaded here and I’ve included a link to the small group discussion and sermon outline here. As is my practice, I am including the audio file here for streaming or for download.

2010JAN03 ChristianJourney 1jb by valleychapel

Send article as PDF to

Here is an embedded player that has all the audio files updated into a single player. Scroll through the list to select the sermon/message you’d like to hear.

Send article as PDF to

Yesterday was my rotation for leading the congregation in hearing the Word of God. I felt strongly inclined to “do something different.” Something in my deepest self feels a sense of remorse over the lack of attentive reverence given to Scripture. I’m not an advocate of Bibliolatry…pushing for the worship of God’s Word; however, it seems to me that since the Holy Scriptures are a primary means that God speaks to humanity, we should give more attention to it…reverence, awe, and worship for the Giver of the Word. It is for this reason that I do not care of the typical (at least what I am used to) contemporary worship service…if you can call it that. It seems almost sacrilegious to call it “worship.” Sorry…it’s a pet peeve, but I take it as an affront to Christ for people professing to “love him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength” to give Him such little attention. Here’s an example; the typical modern service lasts approximately 1 – 1.5 hours in length. This service will generally consist of a welcome, announcements, a few hymns/choruses, and a brief reading of the Word and sermon. The sermon, most often, is more of a devotional thought (at least in the contemporary setting) with a few “relevant” points and a “what I’m supposed to do with this” to do list for good Christian boys and girls. I know I’m sounding cynical…but we’re talking about the CREATOR of the UNIVERSE here! I hear of people sitting down and watching an entire DVD series of a TV show at one time, playing console games for hours straight, and/or waiting in traffic jams and long lines for a sporting event and then sitting through inclement weather for hours to watch said event. Conversely, we are told repeatedly that people don’t have the attention spans to sit through much more than a 25 minute sermonette in a worship service. Baloney; people will sit through what they want to sit through provided they find there is value in it. Personally, I cannot find anything of more value than hearing the words of my God…He is indeed, the Pearl of great price.

Enough of my rant…

So, yesterday I read a letter, a letter to the church. This letter was compiled by me from eleven of the church letters and epistles comprising the New Testament Scriptures. There were thirty-four passages of Scripture taken from the letters each annotated and foot-noted in my manuscript. I believe the letter is contextually true and is as relevant for us today as it was when it was originally written/read.

I shared with the congregation that the ancient church would often go months or longer before they might hear from one of the apostles and when they did it would be with great excitement they would gather to hear the reading of the letter. This is the letter I read to my church family yesterday. A copy of the letter (here) and small group discussion points (here) are included  for download.

My thinking for this letter was to simply let the Word of God do what it does; teach, inspire, challenge, rebuke, correct, and convict. I assumed that God did not need me to tell the people what to think on this occasion. I know this is a lot of information in one letter, but I am under the conviction that people would walk away hearing only what God the Holy Spirit wanted them to hear. Time will tell; feedback from this Sunday was rather sparse…dunno what to make of that, but I feel I was true to what the Spirit laid on my heart. Amen.

2009NOV29 DearChurch jborden by icrucified

Send article as PDF to

Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional by Jim Belcher

I couple or more weeks ago I completed the book Deep Church by Jim Belcher. There have been a number of very detailed and thoughtful reviews for this book, so I don’t feel compelled to echo what has already been shared (Google Deep Church or check the amazon.com site for more in depth reviews). One thing I can say about this book is I connected with it in a big way…although I may have missed the point; maybe.

The book is about, in several ways, the history of the emergent-emerging church movement in North America; it is also about something more, and that something more is what appealed to me so much. The subtitle of the book is “A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional,” and many reviewers and much more knowledgeable people than myself have agreed that Belcher’s proposal in Deep Church is a “third way” (opposed to the traditional church and the emerging church). I, on the other hand, do not think of it as much as a third way as much as the way. Let me share my thoughts on why.

First, my thoughts and conversation may seem somewhat out of context to talk about without some knowledge of the book, so let me say that a working knowledge of the emerging-emergent movement as well as the orthodox evangelical movement is needed if you plan to track with my thinking.

Moving on…

Jim Belcher has done a wonderful job on the research end of this proposal. Much of the opening dialogue of the book shares Belcher’s personal testimony and “insider’s look” at the formation of the emerging movement. Not only does he share experiential insight, but Belcher is well-read and well-informed outside his personal experience. I find his (seemingly) unbiased and educated insight very helpful in filling in some gaps in my own understanding. The book is extremely well documented and the endnotes are a treasure trove of resource references.

More to my personal connection with Deep Church was the heart with which Belcher conducted his study. It seems, if I am not mistaken, that he has a deeply passionate love for the Church, the Living Bride of Christ. I do not know Jim, although I traded emails with him, but I get the impression his motivation is sincere and God-pleasing…with a desire to help grow the church into becoming the glorious spotless bride the Bible ultimately proclaims that She will be. Read the rest of this entry »

Send article as PDF to

Was honored to share the third message in our (my local church) latest sermon series on the Beatitudes. My lesson was on the third beatitude; “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” I have included the audio file, outline with discussion questions, and my manuscript. Blessings!

Outline and discussion questions here |||||  Manuscript here

2009OCT04 WGWUTB humble by valleychapel

Send article as PDF to

This was a sermon I shared in yesterday’s continuation of our “One Church” Core Values teaching. My contribution to this was centered on our core commitments of Growing through Spiritual Development and Loving & Encouraging One Another. I am including the audio file as well as my sermon notes. I always enjoy feedback and discussion!

Sermon Transcript ||| Outline and Small Group Discussion Questions

2009SEPT06 OneChurch Pt2 by icrucified

Send article as PDF to

We recently began a new teaching (Sermon) series in my local church, titled “Basic Questions.” Yesterday was my teaching date. The question I addressed to answer was “How Do I Serve?” Here is the audio file from the second service and below it is a link to the sermon manuscript.

Sermon Manuscript “How Do I Serve?” 

Send article as PDF to

Our home church is currently in the middle of a teaching series entitled “Focus on Your Family;” the message this week was my responsibility. I shared from my heart on the topic of a Household of Faith. The following is an audio recording of that message shared in yesterday’s worship services. I have also provided a link to the sermon manuscript in .pdf format. There is also a link to an embedded YouTube clip that I used as an illustration during the teaching.

“A Household of Faith” (manuscript in .pdf)

Send article as PDF to