General

This is a popular thought in the Black Church. The Lord is not only "going to" bless me, but the Lord already is currently blessing me. The song betrays an attitude of gratitude on behalf of the worshiper. We don't come to God only to request things from God, but to acknowledge the "goodness of Jesus and all he has done for me."

One might wonder what has God done, but the singer of this song answers "he woke me up this morning and started me on my way. Certainly the Lord will bless me, but any adequate understanding of God must begin with an acknowledgment of what God has already done.

As we continue to preach and teach in the Black tradition, we must always keep in the mind of the listener that God has already done so much for us that should elicit praise and works of Love. (Galatians 5:6)

I just listened to a worship service where an associate minister was given an assignment. However, instead of attempting to support the worship service, the associate attempted to turn his part into a chance to "preach."

The Role of the Associate

I have seen it many times before. The associate is called to read the morning scripture or announce the hymn. Instead of following proper protocol, the associate started adding some remarks that continued on. Then 20 minutes later the associate sat down. Sometimes this problem is a training issue. The associate needs to be taught that his or her role is not to add another sermon to the worship service, but to support the service and the preacher. Sometimes it is just an associate who will not follow directions.

Associates support the service by knowing the theme of the service and our part in it. If you have not been assigned the morning sermon, do not take it upon yourself to add one. That unnecessarily lengthens and detracts from the service that worship planners have put together. When it is your turn to give the Word, how would you feel if the 3 or 4 other associates had added 30-45 minutes of distracting additions? Get up, do your assignment, and sit down!

Know Your Role

Keep in mind that associates are used as they support the pastor and the service. Associates who sacrifice the service to gratify their own desire to preach out of season will ultimately limit their future possibilities. Do what God has assigned you in this service and sit down. Your turn will come, and when it does, you will hope that the other associates will follow that simply rule.

SoulPreaching.Com was launched on September 1, 2006. Since that time we have had a number of articles and audios on preaching. In addition, we have provided a free ebook that taught the reader how to create an effective sermon in the African American tradition. We now have over 400 articles on preaching.

A few months ago we kicked off the newsletter and it has been well received, however some wonder what are the benefits?

Well here are the current benefits:

1. The newsletter is delivered once a week most of the time on Monday Morning you will receive an email to encourage you in the preaching task.
2. Links to important websites that may or may not be on the main SoulPreaching site.
3. Articles that have not appeared in SoulPreaching.Com or have been expanded for the newsletter. For example we had an article on how to use another person's sermon. We also had an issue where we examined the Jeremiah Wright issue. And finally we had an article entitled "Learning to Whoop" that was only available to email subscribers.
4. Links to important posts in the past. In the last couple of issues we have had a theme where we linked to posts on "whooping" and on "preaching without notes." Here you can learn about some articles that are on SoulPreaching.Com that you may not have read.

What are some of the future benefits?

1. Discounts on SoulPreaching.com merchandise. We are very close to releasing some Audio-Book training systems and all email subscribers will learn about the programs first and also receive special discounts.
2. Sermons and Outlines.
3. Other important benefits that will help you to preach.
All of this is available to the SoulPreaching newsletter subscribers. Please subscribe to the list at the bottom of this post.

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Early in the morning I turned on the television to hopefully cure some insomnia. On this day, I found what looked like one of those Psychics. Only upon further reflection, I found some well known Christian personalities supporting the person. Then I found out that although the preacher was using the techniques of psychics he was a Christian minister, a "prophet."

The prophet told us that if we give him a call, he will tell us our personal prophecy. If we call him, we will be assigned a personal prophet who will help us. The program told us that we should not ever have want for financial resources. God would take care of us if we would only follow the instructions that God had provided in God's word. Then a well known Christian author supported the "prophet."

Using the Devil's Formula

There were two things that really surprised me about this. First was the use of the psychics formula to sell these aleged prophecies from God. We see the prophet asking us to give him a call for his personal "prophecy," Very much like the personal "reading" that the psychic gives those who call. It was a very disorienting thing to see a prophet using the mechanisms of the demonic to prop up and sell his prophecies.

In addition, what was surprising was the belief that when you are right with God you will be right with your money. These "prophets" are telling us that if you have money problems you are doing something wrong. When you get diseases you have done something incorrect. When everything is not right in your life, then you need to straighten up so that God can "bless" you.

No One Wants to Hear the Truth

These prophets will always have an audience because no one wants to hear the truth which is that sometimes you can follow all the principles and laws of God that you should, and you still don't get the new car. Sometimes you can cast out the demon of poverty and find that your bank account is still empty. Certainly we should pray without ceasing, but grandma may still die. That is the simple truth. We know it experientially, but we still hope that the new "prophet" can give us the word that sidesteps the Biblical word that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (2 Timothy 3:12)

Yes there will be those who can guarantee money, fame, and fortune, but one must always be careful, for Satan himself promised fortune and a kingdom to Christ in the temptations in the wilderness. One must be careful of the "prophets" that you listen to for even Satan himself shall be transformed into an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:14)

God With Us not Someone's Empty Promise

God's promise is that God will be with us in the pain and heartache. Let's accept this truth as the Psalmist who said, "yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...thou art with me" (Psalm 23:4). I would rather have the true God with me in the shadow of death, than an empty belief in a flimsy promise by a so-called "prophet."

SoulPreaching is proud to announce that it is a finalist in the Black Web Awards. I would encourage all of our visitors who enjoy this site to go and vote for us at the Black Web Awards site.

The New York Times is reporting that that the Church's search committee has unanimously recommended Dr. Brad Braxton to replace Dr. James Forbes at the historic Riverside Church in New York. Soul Preaching wishes to congratulate Dr. Braxton and pray for the church as it votes on that recommendation.

Dr. Braxton is a pastor, preacher, and scholar. He has greatly helped me in my preaching and I am very happy to have learned from him. I am sure that God will continue to work through him in his future endeavors.

I invite you all to head on over to the Reflections of a Jazz Theologian website. The web minister of that website is exploring the use of Jazz as a metaphor for understanding Christianity. The posts are often enlightening and powerful. He has a book coming out soon entitled: Finding the Groove.

The Empowerment Church: Speaking a New Language for Church Growth By Carlyle Fielding Stewart III / Abingdon Press How can the church bring people to salvation in Christ? Through the personal revitalization and transformation of God's people! Writing from an African American perspective to pastors and laypeople of all backgrounds, Stewart advocates cultural relevancy and evangelical fervor while offering effective strategies, spiritual guidelines, and practical insights. 136 pages, softcover from Abingdon.

Ok. You have less than a day. You have waited until it is very late. At this point you have a few options and none of them are good.

1. Try to piece something together very quickly. I know of preachers who read a text superficially and then put together a sermon that was "decent" in an hour. Sometimes even a truly great sermon can come together at the last minute, but often it does not. I would encourage you to look at our Last Minute Preacher's Guide for an approach to doing this. Keep in mind, however, that this is not the idea.
2. Copy a sermon. Replace the illustrations or add illustrations from your own life. If you want to do this, I would suggest the following procedure. First, read the sermon, mark the stories and note their purpose. Then look in your life for stories that could serve the purpose of each story that is already in the sermon. Replace each story with your story. Then, practice the sermon.
3. Copy a sermon verbatim and give credit to the original author. I would suggest that if you do this you follow two rules. First you let the people know that you are using someone else's sermon. One preacher had a very ingenious way of doing this. He told the people that it was a "Christian History Sunday." Then the preacher simply read one of the sermons from history. You can find someone like Charles Spurgeon's or John Wesley's sermons on line. Then simply preach it. Another preacher said something like: "I read this very helpful sermon and thought it would be helpful to you." One should recognize that one cannot do this often or the people will not go along with it, and rightly so.
4. Copy a sermon verbatim and do not give credit. This is the most common approach as well as the worst possible approach. This is problematic in that it is the least honest method. It is problematic because it attacks your creativity. And it is problematic because people have lost their job doing this. It is put here simply for completeness, but DO NOT TAKE THIS OPTION.

Preachers are paid to give a word that God has given to them. In addition, God has called them to give a message. To simply copy a message is wrong for many reasons. However there are times when our back is against the wall and we need to give a message and we did not spend as much time as we should have spent in preparation. In those very few cases, let us ask God for forgiveness and make the best of the situation. In addition, I would encourage preachers who find this happening too many times to make use of your assistants. Letting an assistant preach more often can take some of the pressure off of the preaching pastor to be creative. And on top of it all, that is why they are there, to assist the preaching pastor.

Do you want to gain access to seminary and Bible school level education online? There are a number of inexpensive options. However, there are also some completely free options. For example, why not try the Biblical Training website or Theology.edu

BiblicalTraining.Org

This website has a large number of Lay-level, Bible-College Level, and Seminary-level courses. The courses consist of the lectures given by credentialed professors to students. This is actually a goldmine of information for the new preacher who has not had the opportunity to study apologetics, Christian history, homiletics, theology, and even Biblical studies. There are even Bible language courses. So head on over to Bible Training to get the information.

Theology.Edu

The next website is the Quartz Hill School of Theology. BiblicalTraning provides audio lectures, but this one provides text lectures as well as the assignments and syllabi for various courses. Once again you have access to apologetics, Christian history, homiletics, theology, Bible studies, and Bible language courses. There are a large number of very helpful courses here.

Conclusion

Many preachers have not had access to Seminary education. The great thing about the web is that you can now gain access to much of this information with a click of a button. I am sure that there are other resources, if you know of any, do not hesitate to email them to me so that I can post links to them.