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Like most preachers, I grossly overestimated the importance of my part in the sermon. When I thought of preaching, I did not consider it to be a congregation’s reception of the word of God, but a speaker’s command of the Bible’s hidden meanings and applications, which were served up in a way to showcase the authority and skill of the preacher. In those days the gospel lived or died by my personal performance. My preaching was a small cloud of glory that followed me around and hung like a canopy over the pulpit whenever I occupied it. How ludicrous I must have appeared to my congregation.

Among Lutherans, ecstasy may take the form of a slight twitch of the eyebrow or the pursing of lips in order to suppress a smile. Sometimes a knowing glance between farmers must pass for the “Hallelujah! Preach, brother!” that is in there all right, but will never come out in this life.

A crash course in ministry philosophy from Kathy Keller:

  • From Major in the Majors (but get to everything):
    1. Redeemer’s philosophy was that preaching on Sunday mornings and evenings had to major in the majors—that is, establish that Jesus Christ was God come to save us, not just one more teacher showing us how to save ourselves.
    2. One of Redeemer’s guiding principles was this: "Remember what it was like not to believe, and talk to people the way you would have liked for someone to talk to you when you didn’t believe.”
  • From Lessons Learned from 30 Years in Ministry:
    1. Church as usual will not work: We couldn’t just import the rural or suburban template from our previous church in Hopewell, Virginia, even if it had been successful in its time and place. In fact, nothing could be done simply because it had been successful somewhere else, or because churches had always done it that way. We had to ask, “Did it fit New York? Would people understand it? Would it get in the way of non-Christians hearing the gospel?”
    2. Precedent means nothing: If you try something, and it doesn’t work, scrap it. Do not feel that you have to stick with something just because you’ve put a lot of time and energy and money into a plan. If it stinks, don’t do it. Don’t listen to the people who say, “If we do that then we’re committed to continue doing it.” No, you aren’t. If you do it, and it doesn’t work well, you just don’t do it again. Precedent means nothing. That was true right at the beginning with the name of our church.
    3. Excellence is inclusive: We believed that excellence in music and all the other public faces of Redeemer was inclusive, and that meant childcare, that meant the bulletin, that meant coffee hour — everything was more inclusive if it was done excellently, because even if you weren’t a believer, you could appreciate the music, or you could be impressed by the nursery, or you could say “They’re offering bagels and cream cheese at the coffee hour. Wow.”
    4. Spontaneity was alarming to New Yorkers : Other communities may be more tolerant of spontaneous events than the Manhattanites we were reaching, but that’s why contextualization is so important. You have to learn what will create difficulties for the non-Christians who need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ, and remove those, whatever they are, and however precious they may be to you.
    5. Carefully screening our language is the most critical thing we can do: I can’t find enough words to stress how important this is. We must have a care for how we choose our words, our images, and our ideas when we communicate, no matter what we’re communicating—whether it’s donor updates, lectures, or emails about events that are coming up. You absolutely must comb out all of the Christian subcultural phrases that clutter up so much of the Christian church. This is vitally important, and perhaps it’s even more important today than it was 30 years ago, because the cultural moment that we’re in now loathes evangelical Christians, and we don’t need to give them any more reasons to disrespect and dislike us.