James

I may have told this story before. When I was candidating for my first senior pastor position, which would be the last one, this is number two, I was asked to explain my philosophy of ministry on one of the candidating visits and I’m sure this wasn’t original to me, I had picked it up…

Father in heaven, we come, not simply because we usually do so at the beginning of a sermon, but because we need Your help, for to hear Your Word we’re prone to wander. Lord, we feel it. I need Your help if I’m to speak with the power of Your Spirit, and to do so…

Father in heaven, we pause now to pray, not because that’s how we think sermons must begin, but because we need Your help. We don’t want to be hearers only of the Word, with this text in particular, with all texts. We want to be doers, we want to be changed, we don’t want to…