Ever since I began blogging about a 18 months ago I have tried to get my pastor, Rod Harris, to join me on The Plowman and write a post every once in a while. He is the one who got me started reading web logs in the first place. I know he is a voracious reader of blogs, and remembers everything he reads. I often hear things in his messages, that I have read the previous week or two on someone’s blog. He has a very keen wit, so I know he would be interesting to read. We discuss often what we read on the blogs about SBC life, so I know he is very knowledgeable of the machinery of the state and national conventions. I just can’t seem to get him to write anything for me. Listening to his Wednesday message earlier today made me realize that he does his blogging from behind the pulpit.
As some of you may know, I record, edit, and post pastor Rod’s sermons on a podcast called Bulldogs and Piggies. As I listened to this Wednesday’s message, getting it ready for publication, I realized how relevant it was to what is going on in SBC life. Simply titled The Church: Why? and What?, pastor Rod first discusses why the believer needs the Church, what is the Church, and what makes a church. It was so clear and succinct, and the application at the end was brief, but to the point. By way of application he laid out three things that the Church needs to do in a rapidly changing world:
- We need to make sure we live out the truth we profess.
- We need to work on incarnating the gospel daily, making the gospel flesh and bone as we meet people.
- We just need to be the Church, who God called us to be. Easily said, but difficult to carry out.
I figure as long as he is going to preach like that, then I am going to comment here, and try to provide a simple outline. Maybe two things will happen: You’ll be curious enough to follow the sermon or podcast link in the right margin, so as to benefit from this sage’s vast knowledge and insight. And hopefully someday I will irritate my pastor enough to cause him to jump in there and represent himself on The Plowman, or on his own blog.