The Pastor and his Bible

We use a screen for songs and announcements, but when I go to preach I just have my bible in hand and the few notes tucked neatly inside. I find the screen distracting during a preaching time. I do use a screen on Wednesday night with notes to fill in. This however is a more relaxed time done in the Fellowship Hall after we have eaten dinner. I consider it more of a detailed teaching time where the screen proves helpful. I know it is a somewhat silly distinction but it works for me.

BTW, I don't use a pulpit either, not even one on the stage.

 

Most people do not know how to use PowerPoint, and I would count myself in and among those who do not!

I think I have only heard two speeches where I thought the PowerPoint was used effectively. One was done by an opponent when I competed in several speech contests last year. The other was done by a lady in a local organization where I serve on the board.

Having said that, I see nothing wrong with using PowerPoint. I have used it for preaching several times, but my use of PowerPoint is extremely limited.

I think in some instances it could be too much of a distraction. In other cases it could accentuate the speech/sermon. I think people should use them in a wise manner and be careful not to take away from studying the Word of God, or else do not use them.

As far as "Spirit led Sermons"? The First Great Awakening was done primarily with the use of prepared sermons and few rabbit trails. One professor I had once said, "Too many preachers who blame God for their rabbit trail will have to answer to God for these false allegations." Not that rabbit trails are always a "no-no", but they are not always helpful.

From a pure speech standpoint, I never met a world champion public speaker who didn't spend hours if not months preparing their championship speech.

 

What happens when the Spirit leads a preacher away from his prepared message script?

It is the exact same thing. I follow the leadership of the Spirit whether I am using notes alone or I am using notes and power point.

When the Holy Spirit leads differently on Sunday morning than He seemingly led throughout the week in preparation, I follow the Spirit and have. But I control the change in the ppt slides so it is easy for me to switch gears as the Spirit leads.

 

My pastor is an expository preacher. He takes us into the word, and does an exegesis of it from the pulpit. Our bibles get used. I believe using a screen for everything, tends to make people lazy, or ignorant of how to approach scripture with book in hand.

 

If they don't know where Habakkuk is, they haven't studied their bibles enough. I've found that when we use our bible a lot, we pretty much know where things are.

Now, about the remembering thing. People remember when they pay attention and the Lord blesses. They didn't have power point and notes back in the days of Jesus and His apostles, yet I bet people remembered just fine.

 

I like folks to have their own bible at church. I begin each message with, if you brought your bible this morning (or evening), please hold it up. (Some still hold up a hymnal, but I can tell the difference... and I often call them on it.) Most are now bringing their bibles. Some hold up their phones because they have their bible on it.

I tell them the passage (even though it's in the bulletin), then once they've had time to fine it, I ask them, "what page are you on?" All together, they tell me the page number. Some still feel kind of guilty because they've been told all their life not to say a word in church!

Yes, we have fun at church!

 

Ditto!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Fun? That sounds a bit controlling to me.

 

Yea, we wouldn't want that at church now.

 

When I get to preach, I use my bible (of course) to read the main passage. Any other verses (unless lengthy) I will have printed off on a page so I can read them without having to flip for them. I use the bible to back up the bible, so I may have several supporting verses to refer to.

As for using a projector and screen, I would use it if it were available. I would put up the verses I am reading for the benefit of those without a bible as well as those whose eyes are growing older but they don't want to admit it by getting glasses or large print. I would also use illustrations where practical because there is truth in that a picture can be worth a thousand words.

 

Maybe the people who come to your church are all knowledgeable about the OT minor prophets, many of mine are not. And I am thankful for that. We want people who haven't studied the Bible to come to church. That's the first step in getting to know the Bible. And they do.

No, no one had pp or notes in Jesus day. So I guess that's how you have set up your church. If Jesus and the Apostles didn't have it, neither do we. So you can't have pews, AC, sound systems, Sunday Schools, Nursery and your people can't carry a personal copy of the Bible around because they didn't have them to carry with them.

All of these things are tools that we can use to help people remember and then study on their own.

 

I didn't say all the people who attend the church I preach at were knowledgable of the OT minor prophets, but I expect them to spend enough time in their bible to know where to find the book of Zechariah.

I didn't say we couldn't have things that the first century church had. I'm saying that a power point presentation isn't necessary to understand and remember the bible, and certainly fill in the blank sermons aren't either. Simply doing it the bible way is sufficient, which is done through simple preaching of God's word and reliance on the Holy Spirit to bless.

 

My pastor does both. He has his bible and the overhead shows the verse and the sermon points.

 

It is possible to do both. It's not an either or situation.

The idea that if I or anyone else here uses these things that we are not relying on the simple preaching of God's Word not reliance on the Holy Spirit to bless, is really an insult and absolutely wrong.

 

Well, you said that the fill in the blank sermons helped people remember things preached to them. Sounds like you are relying on a gimmick.

 

You ever repeat a statement? you use a gimmick.

You just don't like what I and others use, so you equate it with not relying on the Spirit. You're the one limiting Him, not me. You believe that He can only use tool that you use and that you approve of.

I'm out.

 

Where did I say that? Show me one place where I said that "He can only use tool that I use and that I approve of." You can't because I never said that.

What I did was point to the way things were done in the NT. I haven't seen one instance of a gimmick used in the NT. What I see is this: ministers simply preaching the word of God and relying on nothing but the Spirit to bless.

 

We can be overly pragmatic to the point that we fail to rely on the HG. But truly if the NT church had the tools available to us today would they have used them?

 

I use the screen for my initial reading of Scripture only. But I also point out the page in the pew Bible and encourage people to keep it open (or their personal copy open). Since I'm expository, they need their Bibles open. Most preachers don't give their hearers a reason to follow along in the text since they leave the text after reading it, never to return to it again.

The screen helps the older members of the congregation as well. We should use every tool at our disposal - good mics, quality sound system, good recorders, good visual system - to ensure the Word of God is proclaimed with all the vigor possible. To fail to do so is virtual homiletical negligence.Why wouldn't I want the Word displayed as much as possible? If a pew Bible, projection screen, etc., helps in the public reading of Scripture, isn't it bordering on sinful not to do it? (see 1 Tim 4:13)

That said, that doesn't mean the preacher in the country church with no sound system or PP or pew Bibles can't preach. That's silly to think that. But use all the tools you have. Now, I don't use the screen in the midst of the sermon to do those silly fill-in-the-blank things. However, remember this: we remember 90% of what we see, hear, and write, while it's less than a third each for just one or the other of those.

And we can be so "just rely on the Holy Spirit" to the point where we eliminate tools God can use. The Spirit uses means - He used a donkey after all so I'm sure He can use a piece of electronics. But to think we haven't preached unless we have 10 nifty slides with multimedia bullets doesn't do justice to what preaching really is: an encounter with God in, by, and through His Word that conforms us more to the likeness of Jesus, as enabled by the Holy Spirit.