Beeson Wraps up Innovate
Some quotes from Mark’s final session…
- Every now and then God calls a leader to dance the fine line between insanity and radical faith.
- I have a grave concern that church in America has become just a building. It has become like wallpaper that you pass and don’t even notice.
- Let me ask: What are you doing in your church to raise up and mentor young leaders?
- There are five stages of innovation…
- People deny innovation is required.
- People deny innovation is effective.
- People deny innovation is important.
- People deny innovation will justify the effort required to adopt it.
- People accept and adopt the innovation, enjoy its benefits, attribute it to people other than the innovator, and deny the existence of stages 1-4.
- A: Many preachers/teachers start with the Bible, then Exegete the text, then Apply, then Illustrate. Nothing wrong with that method. But culture has shifted. Many (maybe most) question the veracity of the Scripture. It is no longer positioned by the majority of Americans as the authoritative guide for life.
- B: Another way to teach: Start with real life (the human condition), then Exegete life, then go to the Bible to see what it says about the human condition, then Apply/Illustrate.
- I can only find one place in the Bible where Jesus used method A. In every other place, he used method B. And in that one place, he was driven from the temple and chased out of town!
Within the next week or so, you’ll be able to watch this session (and ALL the sessions) at InnovateConference.com for free.
Posted by Tim Stevens | 3 comments
Tim Stevens
Point taken. And corrected! (Thanks)
Simon Harvey
With you 100% on the points about biblical and cultural exegesis. Eugene Lowry’s “The Homiletical Plot” is brilliant on this.
JCMasterpiece
The majority of Christ’s ministry was to the masses as street corner ministry. Not in the temple (church) ministry. When He was in the temple (as a child and in His adult ministry) where the scriptures were readily available He used exegesis. Also, most of the masses knew the Torah and other scriptures better than the vast majority of those in the church do today, so applying the scriptures they knew did not require nearly as much exegesis as it does now.
Not only that, but Christ’s teaching fulfilled the prophecy about hearing they would not understand and seeing they would not perceive. His role was not to exegete for the masses. It was to show them the truth in a clear and vivid way that the majority of them would not fully understand anyways. It was to the extent that even His disciples needed translation to properly understand.
After He died, rose again, and met with His disciples, He explained all that had happened to Him from Moses through the rest of the scriptures (exegesis) to the disciples. Then in Acts and through the rest of the NT the disciples / apostles (including Peter, Stephen, Phillip, Paul, etc.) went through the scriptures as they were preaching. They thereby fulfilled His command to them to go and make disciples (not just wow the crowds). The early church was continually devoted to the apostles teaching (examples show clear scriptural basis), and to fellowship, etc…
As such, it seems that unless you are planning on only doing street corner ministry to people who already know the scriptures very well and are intending on teaching them in a way that they are to see without perceiving and hear without understanding, and if you are intending to make disciples of Christ, then a scriptural basis is probably a very important starting point rather than a pickup point.