Becoming the Next Joel Osteen January 16, 2009
Posted by bdennert in Humor, Ministry, Random, Spirituality.2 comments
This morning, through some thoughts that popped into my mind in a conversation with Nathan, I moved closer to becoming my goal of being the next Joel Osteen* by thinking of book titles to complement his best works. Here are my books to follow his:
-”Recognizing a Worse You” (instead of becoming a better you). The way forward is to see your sin more, so that you can see God’s grace more.
-”Your Future Life Now”–the Christian life as grasping more of the promises of God in the future into your life now. Note, you will not have your best life now, it will be later, but I have already heard a sermon series called “Your Best Life Later.”
Now taking contributions to help write these books…as always, make checks payable to me 
*Those who know me well know that this is a joke…I do not want to become Joel Osteen. If I am Batman, he is my Joker.
“A Lighter Note” on Borders December 9, 2008
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My posts tend to be heavy, so here is one that is lighter for today. I heard that Borders isn’t doing well business-wise (or maybe it was B and N…..basically the same, right?). Which made me wonder what would happen if they had to close all the Borders stores. Here are my thoughts:
1. Could I buy the old store as a house so I can truly live in a library with the ladders to get to the top shelf?
2. Would library become the new bookstores and then have coffee shops inside them? “Naperville Public Library…featuring Starbucks coffee.”
3. Will there be a day when all shopping is done on the internet? Would that make me happier?
The Power of Communion November 13, 2008
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Here’s a quick quote for today on the power of communion and how it always draws our eyes back to the gospel and keeps preachers gospel focused in their preaching.
“You can’t preach a sermon on 10 ways to help relieve the stress of your pet and then transition to communion. There are just not words to do that.”
Spoken by Kevin DeYoung, a godly pastor I heard speak today. And right on!
An Open Letter to Joel Osteen September 16, 2008
Posted by bdennert in Humor, Ministry, Spirituality, Theology and Ministry.1 comment so far
Dear Joel,
I have to apologize, I have often ripped your ministry over the past couple of years without listening to a whole sermon of yours or doing anything more than hearing or reading snippets of your ministry. I realized that this was wrong, so I listened to a sermon. It was called “Ancestral Blessings are Coming Your Way.” When I listened to this, I realized that my fears were true. This sermon did not seem to reflect a God-centered, Christ-centered sermon. Here are my problems.
- “Be Blessed”–The center of the message was that God wants us to be blessed. I would point to the fact that God called Abraham and Israel and all of us to be blessed in order to be a blessing. Our goal should not be to hoard blessings up to ourselves but to bless others. I did not catch that in the sermon; it was more about how “blessings” are coming my way and I should be excited about that.
- “Works vs. Grace”–the sermon was built upon the idea that if I am faithful to God, then God wil honor us. However, where is grace in there? What I see in the gospel is that we receive blessings even though we should not. You seem to maintain that everything that we get is because we have been faithful or our ancestors have been faithful. You mention a lot of texts about the OT that refer to the nation as a whole or were taken completely out of context (for example, “living in house you did not build” does not imply that they have ancestor blessings, but that God gives us what we do not deserve). People would probably deduce that God will do things for us if we are faithful, when in fact, God does not serve us, but we serve Him.
- “Faithfulness to God vs. Believing in Christ”–The only time I heard Christ mentioned was at the very end of the sermon. It all talked about being faithful to God, but I don’t think that faithfulness
- “Sin”–I do not think I ever heard that word. In fact, when you asked if people wanted to accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, I would ask what Jesus would be saving us from. Is it sin? How would that factor into everything you talked about?
I am sure there are more but I will stop there. If I have misunderstood what you have said or your ideas, I would love to hear how you would explain them. I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I can’t when I have heard these things.
Sincerely,
Brian
Seinfeld and Sermons July 13, 2008
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As most people know, I am a big Seinfeld fan. In fact, I think I have used a Seinfeld illustration in most of my sermons (and will probably do so on August 3rd, of course I should be working on that sermon right now…but that’s besides the point). What is it that I love about the show? For me, I love how the episode (especially the later episodes) weaves together, how the jokes and situations at the beginning of the episode then resurface in incidents throughout the episode. They tie together; they are one cohesive unit. Everything seems to be intentional; nothing is lost. I think this is something that I also enjoy in sermons, when they weave and tie together; when you see the same things recurring throughout, when nothing is said just “because” but “because it brings the point home.” I am trying to do that with my sermons, be strategic, know why I am saying what I am saying. The other thing I love is how it takes the ordinary things of life, similar experiences that we all have, and uses them. Listening to a number of sermons this week, I realize that this draws me in and closer–while it is good to know the material, I want to see how it relates to life. And of course, the ability to laugh makes all the difference. Just thoughts…not that there is anything wrong with that.
Humor and Ministry from the Reformers November 25, 2006
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“Few things are more terrible in human society than the humorless reformer, and it was fortunate indeed that Knox was not in that number. The humorless reformer is a man who cannot see what he most needs to see, which is his own contribution to the problem. In this vain and fallen world, a man who cannot laugh has no business undertaking to cure the wrold’s ills, because he is chief among them.” (Douglas Wilson, For Kirk and For Covenant: The Stalwart Courage of John Knox, 125-126). How true that is!
