Ministry

The Relationship Between Worship and Culture (the Nairobi Statement)

Kirk E. Miller

The Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture (available for free here), prepared by the Department for Theology and Studies of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) via Lift Up Your Hearts web site, states,

The reality that Christian worship is always celebrated in a given local cultural setting draws our attention to the dynamics between worship and the world’s many local cultures.
The Nairobi Statement helpfully organizes the dynamic relationship between worship and culture in terms of four dimensions:

  1. Transcultural – Having the same substance for everyone everywhere, beyond culture.
  2. Contextual – Varying according to the local situation.
  3. Counter-cultural – Challenging what is contrary to the Gospel in a given culture.
  4. Cross-cultural – Sharing elements across cultures.

Continue reading →

Why I Aspire to Be a Pastor

Kirk E. Miller 6 Comments

1 Timothy 3:1 says something like, if anyone wants to be a pastor, they desire a noble task.

I aspire to be a pastor. Let me give you a few reasons why.

An introductory comment

As far as many of you are aware, I was currently preparing and planning on entering academia. For some time now, I have wanted to be a professor. However, that has recently changed. I want to be a pastor. Now, in one sense, not a whole lot has changed. Originally I wanted to be a professor and a lay elder (pastor). That is, I wanted to make my living teaching in the university but serve (unpaid) as an assistant pastor of sorts in the church. However, now I desire to be a pastor full-time so to say. This is a change in direction. Maybe not a terribly drastic change. It’s certainly not a abrupt change; this has been developing over a long period of time, even prior to my noticing it. But it’s a change nonetheless.

Continue reading →

The Gospel & How to Present It

Kirk E. Miller

The following is an outline of my teaching notes for a course I taught at Lake Lundgren Bible Camp in the early summer of 2012. The course was a part of the summer staff’s pre-summer camp training.

This teaching material was later slightly developed and expanded upon for teaching the following year in the Sunday School at Lake Drive Baptist Church. It is this final form that is provided below.

Download – The Gospel & How to Present It.

Download Appendix – Acts ‘Gospeling’ Accounts Content Chart.

Application and the Authority of Scripture

Kirk E. Miller

One of the areas of study that I find absolutely fascinating is what I call “hermeneutics of application.” Hermeneutics is the science of interpretation; it’s the discipline of study related to the methodology and principles of interpretation. So when I say, “hermeneutics of application” I mean the study of how one properly moves from interpretation of the text to application of the text.

Hence, when I read this quote many years ago, I’ve never been able to forget it:

Every time we derive an interpretation and application from a text that is not consistent with its contextual sense—no matter how biblical the truth itself may be–we rob that text of the meaning and application that God intended when He gave it. In the process, we rob ourselves and others of that text’s truth from God. … Worst of all, we rob God of His voice in that verse. – Layton Talbert, unknown source.

Continue reading →

Are “Authorial Intent” and “Christ-Centered” Mutually Exclusive?

Kirk E. Miller 2 Comments

As interpreters, teachers, and preachers of God’s word we desire to be faithful to the Biblical text. We know that this entails interpreting Scripture according to the Biblical authors’ original intent, historical context, and literary context, among other things. We don’t want to be guilty of eisegesis–reading our own thoughts and ideas into the text rather than getting our conclusions from out of the text (exegesis).

But at the same time, we know that Christ said the entirety of Scripture speaks of Him (Luke 24:25-27; cf. 1 Pet 1:10-12; Rom 1:2). And so as Paul, we would love to say that even in our expositional preaching “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2).

But what about the majority of texts where Christ is not mentioned? How do we preach Christ then? Do we preach the authorial intent and then sort of arbitrarily jump to Christ at the end, tack on an altar call or two with some repeated “Just as I am” choruses?

We want to avoid moralism; so we want to preach Christ. We don’t simply want to draw conclusions like, “don’t be like Saul,” “don’t be like the Israelites,” or “be more like David,” as if this alternative is somehow more honest to the authorial intent. But how do we preach Christ-centered in passages that have seemingly little to do with Christ at all?

I think you get my drift.

Continue reading →