Video of the Week: Andy Stanley on Christian vs. Disciple

I've been following Andy Stanley's latest sermon series, "Christian" he's preaching at North Point Community Church. It's a really good series where he helps people take a second look at what it means to be a "Christian." Here's a good clip from the first week, and I think it really relates to youth ministry:



Now, consider what you tell teenagers it means to be a "Christian" in your church and youth ministry. Is how you're leading them, is your definition of being a "Christian" based on following Jesus, being a disciple of Jesus, or is it based on something else entirely?

YouthWorker Journal: Teaching as Jesus Taught

I wrote a short article for this month's (March/April 2012) Preaching and Teaching issue of YouthWorker Journal on "Teaching as Jesus Taught: How to Engage and Inspire Teens." Since I love teaching and preaching and am always trying to learn how to do a better job speaking to teenagers, it was a fun article to work on, and the whole issue offers great advice on preaching and teaching from youth workers who are tons more experienced at this stuff than I am. Here's an excerpt of my article:

One of the hallmarks of Jesus' teaching is His parables or stories, which make up roughly a third of His teaching. By teaching using stories, we engage teenagers in a way that cannot happen during an information dump.

Sermon: Faith when things are desperate

I had a good time preaching this past weekend on 2 Chronicles 32:1-22. It was a tough subject, and hopefully I didn't offer any cookie-cutter responses (such as, "Have faith; things will get better!").

"Desperation"_Feb. 5, 2012 from The Heights Community on Vimeo.

Sermon: Do For the Least of These

Our senior pastor Roy gave a great sermon yesterday on Matthew 25:31-46, "Do For the Least of These." Take about 25 minutes and watch it all:



One cool opportunity Roy gave at the end of the sermon was for people to purchase tickets for homeless folks and others in need in our area to attend our annual Christmas Theater program this week. After all, how silly is it to have a great theater program and a nice dinner, but only let people come who can afford it?

Video of the Week: Matt Chandler on Mark Driscoll's Preaching

I referenced this video in a post on speaking earlier this week, so I thought I'd share it here:



QUESTION: In what ways have you struggled to simply do what God has given you to do ("fulfill your ministry" as Chandler puts it) rather than trying to be someone else?

Some tips on speaking from a guy who has stage fright part 2: Delivery

Credit: Thomas Hawk (Creative Commons)

As I shared in part 1, public speaking (or rather, being in front of people at all) is not something that has come naturally for me. However, I've gotten used to it, and actually enjoy the speaking part of my role as a pastor. In part one I shared a few tips on preparing for a talk or sermon. Here are a few tips on the actual delivery:

1. Trust God with the delivery. You'll notice this is just about the same place I started in part one. Trust the Holy Spirit to guide you as you speak. If you feel prompted to add something that you hadn't prepared, do so. If you feel like something that you had planned to say just isn't right, listen to that nudging if it's from God. I've found that I'm able to be more open to God as I speak if I 1) have prepared well enough that I'm not freaking out, and 2) if I spend some time in prayer before I speak.

Some tips on speaking from a guy who has stage fright part 1: Preparation

Credit: Thomas Hawk (Creative Commons)

For most of my life, I've pretty much always hated to be in front of people. As a pianist, I would avoid recitals like the plague, even in college when my grade depended on me playing in a certain number of public performances. And speaking in front of people? The few times I couldn't avoid it, I would either read a prepared speech word for word like a terrible version of the speech-to-text tool that came with my family's Macintosh Performa 6200 series computer or just bumble through the whole thing. I'm not sure which one was preferable. In any case, the point is this: I am anything but a natural when it comes to preaching and teaching.

For some of you, speaking in front of people is something that comes naturally. Give you a topic, and you could speak convincingly for 20 minutes without preparing or even thinking. For others, speaking in front of people can sometimes be a painful experience. For those of us in the latter category, I've compiled a list of tips that have helped me along the way. Some are things others have been kind enough to share with me at some point, and others are simply things I've learned the hard (and painful) way. Today's tips are on preparing a "talk" or sermon. Later on this week, I'll post some tips on the actual delivery (update: you can read part two here).

1. Trust God with the process. Like any spiritual gift, there's this strange mix in preaching and teaching of how much of the process is God working and how much of it is the speaker. Some people believe that preparing for a sermon extensively (or at all!) squelches the working of the Holy Spirit. The fact is we all  are wired differently. Some people need a decent amount of time to prepare. In seminary, our preaching professor recommended 10-15 hours if we had it. Mark Driscoll prepares about one hour for an hour-long sermon. Whatever you feel is right with you, spend plenty of time in prayer, and trust God with the process rather than relying only on your own abilities.

Sermon: Stuart McAllister, Taking the Great Commission Personally

This weekend, we were blessed to have Stuart McAllister of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries preach at all our English-speaking services. Here's the full sermon:

"Taking the Great Commission Personally."_Sept. 11, 2011 from The Heights Community on Vimeo.

Sermon: Joy in Christ Alone (or, Religion vs. Relationship with Jesus)

I preached this sermon this past Sunday at our Washington Heights campus. Definitely one of those sermons I was preaching at myself:

"In Christ Alone"_July 31, 2011 from The Heights Community on Vimeo.

Why I Love Teaching Through a Book of the Bible

Since last Fall, we (our high school ministry) have been going through the Gospel of Mark on Sundays, and we'll continue to do so until we get through the whole thing. We've taken a couple of breaks for short series, but have stuck to the schedule for the most part. By the end of the summer, we'll be halfway through, and my goal is to be done with the book by next summer.

It's been great to go through the entire Gospel of Mark. I like this approach in teaching our students, and here are some big reasons why:


It forces me as a pastor to work through some tough topics personally and publicly. When I only teach topically, I typically stick (sometimes subconsciously, sometimes not) to my "sweet spots." Teaching exegetically through a book makes me consider and teach on some issues I might not have ever thought of addressing. In the case of working through a Gospel, I am forced to deal with some parts of Jesus' life and teaching that perhaps I'm a bit uncomfortable with. This past Sunday, we were in Mark 6:1-6 where Jesus is mocked by his hometown and couldn't do as many mighty works there as other places. Definitely not a quick and clean passage!

Video of the Week: Are there multiple paths to God?

Our family's on vacation this week, but I wanted to make sure I posted this great sermon preached this past Sunday by our junior high pastor, Chad Holladay (Twitter):

"Are there multiple paths to God?"_June 12, 2011 from The Heights Community on Vimeo.

Theology and Youth Ministry - The Doctrine of Hell

Last weekend, I preached (in our main services) probably the toughest sermon I've ever preached: "Would God Really Send a Good Person to Hell?" It was tough not because I wasn't sure what I was going to say; it was tough because I wasn't quite sure how to say it.

Let me pause here and recognize that some readers of this blog will disagree with my view on hell--namely that hell exists, that it is a place of eternal and real suffering and torment, and that hell is not empty. In fact, when I posted a simply reminder of our summer service schedule plus what I thought was a harmless teaser about the sermon the day before I preached, a lively discussion ensued on my normally quiet Facebook page. So while I welcome that sort of discussion, my point here is for those who do affirm that the Bible is God's inspired Word (and you can't pull the I-place-more-weight-on-what-Jesus-said card on this one; Jesus talked about the reality of hell quite a bit), how do we teach teenagers about hell?

By now, at least a few of you have images of a well-meaning Sunday school teacher coercing young kids into conversion (or at least the appearance of conversion) through scary stories of people burning alive in hell. Or maybe that's just me. But whatever images (or personal experiences) we have in mind of manipulative (when it comes to speaking on hell) teachers or preachers, let me suggest that we approach this with a clear head.

Teaching and applications--putting the ball in their court

I had coffee with a high school student this week. He had a very interesting comment regarding the preaching at our church. He said that he really liked how we always preach on the Bible, but that he wishes sometime it were a little deeper. I pressed him to define what he meant by deeper (because I think the sermons in our main worship sermon are almost always theologically deep yet accessible), and he said that he wishes that after learning a whole lot in a sermon, he would be told what to do with it. As he put it, "You know, sort of like a 'The ball's in your court' kind of thing."

Sermon on Hell

We've been doing a series called, "Why I'm not a Christian" which has addressed several common objections to Evangelical Christianity, and I preached last Sunday (May 29th) on "Would God Really Send Good People to Hell?" It was a very difficult sermon to work on and preach, but it was fun to partner with Chad Holladay, our jr. high pastor (we each preached at separate campuses), in developing it. Here it is in full:

"Would God really send people to hell?"_May 29, 2011 from The Heights Community on Vimeo.

Video of the Week: Sermon on Suffering

Roy, our lead pastor, preached this sermon this past Sunday. I'm excited about this series, titled "Why I'm Not a Christian." (Our Jr. High pastor and I get to preach--at separate campuses--a sermon on hell during the series on May 29th.) The idea is to answer common objections to following Jesus. Roy's sermon, called "The World's Too Bad to Believe in a Good God" was great. If you don't have the time or desire to see the whole sermon, at least check out the story of the woman who lost a husband and a daughter, which begins at about 33:45.


"The World is too bad to believe in a good God."_May 1, 2011 from The Heights Community on Vimeo.

Video of the Week: Mark Driscoll Easter Clip

Mark Driscoll on Easter Sunday at Qwest Field. Enjoy!

Video of the Week: Zac and Mandy Smith's Story from Newspring Church

If you haven't seen NewSpring Church's January 30th and February 6th sermons on "Why do bad things happen to good people," You really need to watch both. I watched the February 6th sermon on the airplane when I went to visit my brother in Ohio last week, and I was sitting there in my seat crying pretty much the whole time I watched it. It's well worth your time.

The following is the story (two parts, part one is on top) of Zac and Mandy Smith, which was included as a part of NewSpring's February 6th "Why do bad things happen" sermon.

The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

A Story | Tears of Hope from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

Video of the Week: The Pride Test by Mark Driscoll

I believe this is especially applicable to those of us who are in a leadership position in youth ministry:

Sermon: The Tower and the Tree

I preached this past Sunday at our Ogden campus on Luke 13:4-9. Credit for the structure, "big idea," and some of the wording goes to our lead pastor, Roy Gruber, who developed the sermon and preached the same week at our Bountiful, UT campus. It was convicting to me, and a really fun Sunday.

"The Tower & the Tree,"_Jan. 30, 2011 from The Heights Community on Vimeo.

Video of the Week: Sermon on Parents Discipling Their Kids

Usually I post shorter videos on Fridays for the video of the week, but I loved this sermon that Roy, our lead pastor, preached this past Sunday. It's well worth your time, and I'm so thankful that he articulates so well a huge part of our philosophy of ministry: that ideally, parents are to be the primary disciplers of their children.

"Starting Well"_Jan. 16, 2010 from The Heights Community on Vimeo.