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Preaching

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Tag Archives: opportunity

Comment on The EHS Course by R. O. Ogbebor

I stumbled into EHL conference in May 2014 on biblegateway.com website and I immediately signed up to attend online. It was a life changing experience. Since then I have been on your website feeding on every free resource I can find. Having been a Christian for 20years, I have been made to believe that Christianity excludes everything emotions and to make matters worse I am married to an emotionally distant spouse who has been a church leader in one form or another. Though I know there is an element of lie to that belief system, I was so comforted and free when I attended the conference. I believe this knowledge is so lacking in our Christianity today. I would love to become an EHS coordinator to first help myself and also others. I look forward to when I will have an opportunity to become one. I live in Canada. Thank you for the work. Read more.

Emotionally Healthy Preaching

During my summer vacation (or mini-Sabbatical), I had the opportunity to visit a few churches. I heard some well-delivered sermons  with excellent illustrations, sharp deliveries, and technological grabbing support. I had, however, some observations that, I think, are worth pondering about what makes preaching out of a paradigm of emotional healthy spirituality quite distinct. While this is not meant to be an exhaustive list, this is what I would like to say to myself and my fellow-communicators who have the unique privilege to speak for God to His people out of what I heard this summer: 1. This is not about us or our validation. It is not about people moving towards us but towards Jesus.   2. We must preach out of deep place of prayer as foundational to our preparation. 3. Respect complexity. especially as it relates to applications.  What does it mean, “God wants us to triumph?” “Position yourself properly?” Praise God sacrificially?” “Trust. Read more.

Stability, Roots and Community

The Rule of St. Benedict teaches us about the value of  stability, that is, staying in one community over the long-haul. I have been in the New Life Fellowship Church community in Queens (www.newlifefellowship.org) for over 23 years. A lot transpires in 23 years. I have wanted to quit the community more than once and run. I am glad, by God’s grace, that I did not.  My failures, weaknesses, mistakes and sins over these years have all been lived out in our fellowship. I love and am grateful for the opportunity to learn and to be part of such a rich, wonderful group of people. The following is a short video of our past year that we showed at our annual meetings of members last Sunday afternoon. I thought you might enjoy it: NLF Highlights 2009-2010 from New Life Fellowship Plus on Vimeo.

Leading Out of Your Iceberg

Leadership is intense –both inside and outside the church.  The pressure, conflicts, and resistances we encounter touch “raw material” and powerful dynamics deep beneath the iceberg of our lives. We go to seminars and conferences on how to do better strategic planning, cast vision, delegate, better manage conflicts, and hire to our weaknesses. We read books on leadership and listen to podcasts on how to grow and expand our impact. That is good and commendable. I do those things myself.  It is simply not enough. Our executive leadership team at New Life recently had two half-day meetings around a recent difficult event that we experienced together. We resolved the leadership/organizational issue well, but I was painfully aware profound “hot buttons” deep within our icebergs had been touched (i.e. issues coming out of our own early family histories). I knew God wanted me, and us, to stop and listen to Him. These “triggers” needed to be. Read more.