Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 1:11 pm

My Time

Posted by Jamin Goggin | Comments (1) |

I have found that time is quite an interesting thing in my life.  I may be wrong, but I have come to realize that it perhaps is the thing which I most pridefully attempt to possess.

"It is the unexpected visitor (when he looked forward to a quiet evening), or the friend's talkative wife (turning up when he looked forward to a tete-a-tete with the friend), that throw him out of grear.  Now he is not yet so uncharitable or slothful that these small demands on his courtesy are in themselves too much for it.  They anger him because he regards his time a his own and feels that it is being stolen.  You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption 'My time is my own.'  Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours."-C.S. Lewis, the ScrewTape Letters.

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interuppted by God."-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together.

Who is the Lord of your time?

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Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 6:28 pm

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Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 11:18 pm

Temptations in Preaching: To Be Significant

Posted by Jamin Goggin | Comments (2) |

For those of you who have been following this series of posts we will be diving into what I believe to be a third temptation in preaching, to be significant.  Thus far, we have explored the temptation to be original and the temptation to be masterful.  As I have stated in previous posts each of these temptations will have a certain degree of overlap, but nonetheless I believe each to have its own distinctives and symptoms. 

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Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 10:19 pm

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Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 12:11 am

Temptations in Preaching: To Be Masterful

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Perhaps you find the title of this series a bit odd, but as mentioned in my initial post, I have discovered that there are great temptations in pastoral ministry when it comes to preaching.  Last week, we explored the first temptation, to be original.  This week we will explore the second temptation, to be masterful.

As with originality, it must be noted up front that mastery in ones vocation can be couched in a very positive and in fact admirable sense.  I have no doubt that there is great virtue in truly honing one’s skills and learning to be as effective and accurate as possible when preaching.  That being said, with each virtue I suppose there may be a potential vice.  So, I would like to explore the ways in which mastery can be a dangerous temptation leading the preacher away from dependence upon God.  In essence, to be masterful in our preaching is born out of an unhealthy desire to be in control.  We will investigate this temptation by exploring how it plays out in three areas of preaching. 

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Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 7:07 pm

Temptations in Preaching: To Be Original

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As I noted in my introductory post a few days ago, I will be exploring what I believe to be temptations that pastors face in the ministry of preaching.  Much of this has been born out of prayerful reflection on my own preaching life.  I have found that many of these temptations have surfaced for me, and it has struck me that perhaps others are tempted in the same ways. 

Our first temptation is, to be original. 

How many sermons have we heard?  How many Bible studies have we walked through?  Many Christians could create a database of sermons they have heard based on topic.  Of course, depending on their background and church affiliation this may vary.  Sometimes churches themselves recycle a particular sermon series every couple of years.  I would imagine that pastors have perhaps heard even more sermons, lessons, studies, etc. than your average parishioner.  So, as we approach a passage or a topic which will take center stage the following Sunday through our sermon I would imagine many of us experience "preaching schizophrenia".  We hear the voices of other pastors, seminary professors, commentary writers, evangelists...In fact, if we have been preaching for several years we hear our own voice.  Whether we have been preaching on the exact passage in front of us or not, chances are we have covered similar concepts.  We may feel like we have used up all our "good stuff".  So, we wade through the litany of angles, interpretations, illustrations, etc from others and even from within ourselves.  

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Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 4:52 pm

Temptations in Preaching

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So much is said about how a pastor should preach.  So many thoughts have been poured onto paper, and now onto blog pages, offering insights as to the right techniques, the right methods, the right interpretations...  Don't get me wrong there has been a need for much of this, and in fact I would imagine it has had a positive impact on the "quality" of preaching in many churches.  However, I wonder if we aren't missing something in our discussion of preaching. 

Having been a pastor for the last several years I can understand the validity of books, blog debates and conferences revolving around the concept of preaching, and why they have been met with great interest.  Although, while I am sure there are many positive reasons for such interest, I also have no doubt that the interest at times has been born out of fear.  It seems that regardless of tradition or denomination preaching is seen as important, namely "good" preaching-whatever is meant by that.  There is a fear that as a pastor I am not correctly interpreting the text, powerfully impacting those listening, creatively crafting my message and on and on and on. 

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Friday, January 15, 2010 at 8:43 am

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Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 12:22 am

Book Review: Glittering Vices

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I have not pondered the seven deadly sins in quite some time, so when I noticed that Baker had published a new book entitled Glittering Vices by Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, I was interested.  It is an area of study I have been fascinated with, but I must confess I have spent little time exploring the history of the vices and the implications of their potential value in the spiritual life.  They provide a conceptual framework that has been met with little to no interest by evangelical Christians.

I found DeYoung's book to be very accessible and helpful as an introduction to the vices.  She does a wonderful job of tracing theological and philosophical concepts that impact both the history and the formation of the list of seven deadly sins, while at the same time maintaining a very practical tenor.  The reader will find her elucidation of the origins of these categories and their subsequent use throughout church history to be insightful.  The lion share of the book is given to exploring in detail the nature of and dynamics involved in each of the seven vices-envy, vainglory, sloth, avarice, anger, gluttony and lust.

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 11:05 pm

Thoughts for Advent: Brennan Manning

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Yet another thought for us this Advent...

"The Bethlehem mystery will ever be a scandal to aspiring disciples who seek a triumphant Savior and a prosperity Gospel.  The infant Jesus was born in unimpressive circumstances, no one can exactly say where.  His parents were of no social significance whatsoever, and his chosen welcoming committee were all turkeys, losers and dirt-poor shepherds.  But in this weakness and poverty the shipwrecked at the stable would come to know the love of God. 

Sadly, Christian piety down through the centuries has prettified the Babe in Bethlehem.  Christian art has trivialized divine scandal into gingerbread creches.  Christian worship has sentimentalized the smells of the stable into dignified pageant...

Pious imagination and nostalgic music rob Christmas of its shock value, while some scholars reduce the crib to a tame theological symbol.  But the shipwrecked at the stable tremble in adoration of the Christ-child and quake at the inbreak of God Almighty.  Because all the Santa Clause and red-nosed reindeer, fifty-foot trees and thundering church bells put together create less pandemonium than the infant Jesus when, instead of remaining a statue in a crib, he comes alive and delivers us over to the fire that he came to light." (Watch for the Light, Brennan Manning 188-189)

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Friday, December 18, 2009 at 12:34 pm

why we want to know about Mr. Woods

Posted by Jamin Goggin | Comments (4) |

I suppose you would have to live in a monastery not to know something, if not everything, about Tiger Woods' personal life.  Even with intentional action given to avoid the consumption of such information/gossip you will inevitably see, hear or read something.  Just beyond the echos of juicy details offered by the media I hear conversations about Tiger in the grocery store, at work, etc.  Of course, everyone has their own answer to the question of "why"?  As sports talk radio hosts and television personalities attempt to craft their "take", we are all ears to further ascertain the true answer to "why" Tiger has done what he has done.  This question interests me as well, but with a different subject in mind, Me.  "Why" do I want to know about Tiger Woods?  Why are we so consumed with knowing as many details as possible and with uncovering the depth of his hearts desires and beliefs which have led him to such sinful action? 

I am still exploring the answer to this question prayerfully with God.  But, what has struck me thus far is that this desire to know about Tiger Woods is for me a fundamentally unhealthy curiosity.  What is this curiosity birthed from?  What does the reception of further salacious details and analysis offered by a round table of "experts" do for me?  Why have we sought after a steady diet of gossip into our lives about this man none of us truly know? 

I have a few inklings in regards to these questions that simply lead to more questions...

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Friday, December 18, 2009 at 3:48 pm

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Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 11:50 am

Thoughts for Advent: Karl Rahner

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Yet another reflection for us this Advent season...

"You promised that you would come, and actually made good your promise.  But how, O Lord, how did you come?  You did it by taking a human life as your own.  You became like us in everything: born of a woman, you suffered under Pontius Pilate, were crucified, died, and were buried.  And thus you took up again the very thing we wanted to discard.  You began what we thought would end with your coming: our poor human kind of life, which is sheer frailty, finiteness, and death.

Contrary to all our fond hopes, you seized upon precisely this kind of human life and made it your own.  And you did this not in order to change or abolish it, not so that you could visibly and tangibly transform it, not to divinize it.  You didn't even fill it to overflowing with the kind of goods that men are able to wrest from the small, rocky acre of their temporal life, and which they laboriously store away as their meager provision for eternity.

No, you took upon yourself our kind of life, just as it is.  You let it slip away from you, just as ours vanishes from us.  You held on to it carefully, so that not a single drop of its torments would be spilled.  You hoarded its every fleeting moment, so you could suffer through it all, right to the bitter end." (Watch for the Light, Karl Rahner 71-72).

What a mystery the incarnation truly is.  Praise Him for coming!

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Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 1:01 am

Thoughts for Advent: Bernard of Clairvaux

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As we are in the midst of this Advent season I thought I would offer a series of posts that might bring us pause in reflecting on the birth of Christ.

Bernard of Clairvaux offers this reflection,

"That you celebrate the Lord's coming with your full devotion-delighting in such consolation, amazed at such condescension, and inflamed by such love-is appropriate, brothers.  Yet you must ponder not only that coming at which he came to seek and to save what was lost, but also and no less the one at which he will come and take us to himself.  If only you would constantly mull over these two comings, ruminating in your hearts how much he performed in the first and how much he promised in the second!  If only you would sleep between the middle allotments!" (Sermons for Advent and the Christmas Season, 27)

He has come.  He is coming!

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Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 10:12 pm

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