I recently had the privilege of attending The Resurgence Conference 2012 as a member of the media. I wanted to capture every bit of information as I live-blogged so that I could then turn it into a series of summaries for the readers here at ChurchMag.
Greg Laurie was the first speaker to start the conference–in his own words he felt like the “sacrificial lamb.” I thought that was pretty funny. As a local church pastor who is responsible for a ministry that has preached Jesus to over 4,405,000 people, I can’t think of anyone better to talk about preaching. Well, maybe Billy Graham, but nonetheless, Greg is more than qualified to speak on the subject!
Greg Laurie
Greg begins by stating that for him, there is nothing worse than bad preaching. Like a great musician who hears bad music, he cringes when he hears bad preaching. He then recounts his journey from being a Graphic Designer with no desire to hear the Gospel (let alone preach it) and a fear of public speaking. To make a long story short– he found Jesus and decided he would use his graphic design skills for Jesus. He thought he would become a Christian Cartoonist. God had different plans for him.
Preaching is the primary way that God reaches lost people.
He uses the example of Paul in Athens (Acts 17). Paul gave the perfect example of how the Gospel is primarily spread– preaching the Word of God.
Greg then gave 6 principles of good preaching:
1. We must have a burden for lost people. Jesus said to be salt and light.
The Holy Spirit will move [people] after first moving you.
2. We must be culturally relevant.
We need to be current in our communication. Sometimes we would rather let the patient die than change our methodology.
If we don’t relate to our audience we can unnecessarily alienate them. The important thing to remember though is to never trade reverence for relevance.
3. We must be Biblical.
Never build a sermon on an illustration– build an illustration on the text. Let the word unfold and watch the word of God do it’s thing.
4. We must focus on Jesus Christ– risen and crucified.
That’s where the power of the message is. There’s no such thing as an evangelical message without a mention of the cross and the resurrection.
5. We must present the who Gospel
“One of the central features of perching is a confrontation and call to repentance.” -Mark Driscoll
6. We must leave the results in God’s hands.
Always remember that it is the work of the Holy Spirit that changes people and compels them to say “Jesus is Lord.”
“Conversion is God’s work. Our job is proclamation.”
Greg’s talk was a great reminder that the Gospel needs to be a focus in not only our actions but in our words. As a former youth pastor, I know the importance of preaching the good news of Jesus. I hope these notes from his talk at R12 are as helpful to you as they were for me.
Does anything here stand out to you?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
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