The Church: Myths and Misconceptions (Part 1)
South City Church
July 30, 2017
The Church: Myths and Misconceptions (Part 2)
South City Church
August 6, 2017
These sermons are a part of a series on the foundational principles of South City Church’s philosophy of ministry. See all content from this series.
Some pastors and preachers are lazy and no good. … They do not pray; they do not study; they do not read; they do not search the Scripture. …
[T]he [pastoral] call is: Watch, study, attend to reading. In truth, you cannot read too much in Scripture; and what you read you cannot read too carefully, and what you read carefully you cannot understand too well, and what you understand well you cannot teach too well, and what you teach well you cannot live too well.
Therefore, dear sirs and brethren, pastors and preachers, pray, read, study, be diligent. Truly, this evil, shameful time is not the season for being lazy, for sleeping and snoring. Use the gift that has been entrusted to you, and reveal the mystery of Christ.
–Martin Luther, What Luther Says: An Anthology, comp. Ewald M. Plass (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), entry no. 3547, 1110.
The following is an excerpt from my sermon The Church: Myths and Misconceptions (Part 1) delivered at South City Church, 7.30.17.
The Biblical reason we join and are a part of a church isn’t because a particular church offers the “goods and services” we want and like — making the church into something like a business, and us into its customers or consumers. The church is a people, a community. And the reason we join and are a part of this church community is for the sake of advancing our collective Christian mission — together.
When we become consumers, church becomes about “what I get out of it.” And when that happens, what determines “how I chose to do church” (or, as we might say, where I choose to “go to church” — as if church is something you “go to”) is what suits my preferences, what I like, or what meets my perceived needs.
In such a model, the church becomes a place where I come to be served. The pastors and the staff are the ones who do the ministry (rather than everyone). “It’s their job. They’re the ministers,” we say. “My job is to receive and be served.”
Amidst the Pokémon Go craze, Hal Koss, one of my former classmates at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, made this quiz. Check it out.
Serious Church: Taking the Christian Life Seriously through the Church’s Practice of Discipline (Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13)
South City Church
July 9, 2017
This sermon is a part of a series on the foundational principles of South City Church’s philosophy of ministry. See all content from this series.
Kirk E. Miller 