Jon Nielson is the senior high pastor at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, and he has come up with a list of reasons why you should be using expository preaching to your students.

First we must understand that expository preaching is moving sequentially through a book of the Bible, seeking to discover the main point of the text, and making that the main point of the message  Many guys that I know will say that this can’t work for high school students . . . can it? They would aruge: don’t they need something more attention-grabbing, flashy, and topical?

In response to this thinking, which dominates youth ministry circles, here are Nielson’s top reasons for expository preaching:

1. They can handle it.

Adults in the church have pitifully underestimated the capacity of young people to grasp biblical truth revealed in the very structure of the biblical text. This failure has led us to summarize the message of biblical texts. We water down each passage and mold it into easily digested morsels that the students can take home and apply. In short, we do all the work for students in our teaching. We move from observation to exegesis to exposition to application to “kiddie-size” translation all in course of preaching from one text.

In so doing we have stripped our young people of the opportunity to think with us as we take them through the logic of a text. First we observe how the writer has carefully put it together. Then we lead listeners to the main point that the passage’s author sought to get across to his original readers. High school students can follow that kind of careful exegesis. We simply haven’t invited them to try it.

2. It helps them learn to read the Bible.

While topical teaching can be helpful at certain times, a steady and unbalanced diet of it undermines students’ understanding of God’s Word. God’s Word does not come to us in one-sentence blurbs, laid out under various topical headings, like an extended concordance. God’s Word comes to us in stories, parables, poetry, prophecy, and song. Students who have been fed a constant stream of messages on “What the Bible Has to Say About Relationships” will be in for a nasty surprise when they open up the book of Leviticus. We youth leaders have a blessed responsibility and opportunity to teach students how to read, receive, and understand the Bible as it is put together in the way that God ordained: book by book and chapter by chapter.

3. It protects us.

A commitment to expositional preaching protects youth ministers from students and from ourselves. Unless we commit to preach through a book of the Bible, we have two choices. We can poll the students and hear what they want to learn. They’ll likely mention relationships, sex, dancing, or maybe even free will and predestination. Or we can teach a topic of our own choosing. Both of these options could be much more closely linked to a human agenda than to God’s agenda. Only by elevating the Word of God in our teaching, letting each passage along the way dictate what we teach our students, do we ensure that we consistently and faithfully teach the revealed Word and will of God for students’ benefit.

4. It makes you a model, not a celebrity.

It will not be difficult for a witty, good-looking, fashionably dressed youth pastor to entertain a group of high school students with dating stories and relationship advice as part of a catchy series on “Guys, Girls, and SEX!” The question is what such a pastor has modeled for the students. They may learn truth from a biblically based topical series. But do they learn how to handle the Bible for themselves? Or do they learn to cling to their pastor for the answers? In faithful, clear, and interesting expositional preaching, a youth pastor has the opportunity to demonstrate and model to his students how to approach, understand, teach, and apply the Bible. Then they can actually begin doing exactly that for themselves.

In other words, a biblical goal for a sermon to youth might be to teach a passage carefully and faithfully, so that students listening say to themselves: I see what he did! I could get that from this passage! This model shapes the way the students do devotions, listen to sermons, and one day teach Sunday school and lead Bible studies on their own. As youth pastors discipline ourselves to teach the Bible in this way to our students, we take what we have learned and pass it on to faithful Christians who will be able to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2).

A powerful video here from Darrin Patrick and Re:Lit related to the new book Church Planter:

More info on the book—including a related Acts29 boot camp—here. Here are a few blurbs from pastors about the book:

“Darrin Patrick has done an amazing job detailing out what we are called to not only as church planters but as pastors and men of God. Whether you are considering planting a church or have been a pastor for decades I couldn’t more highly recommend this book to you.”

—Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor, The Village Church, Highland Village, Texas

“Now here is a clever idea—ask an experienced church-planting pastor how church planting should be done. In Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission by Darrin Patrick, an experienced church planter speaks from deep theological conviction, pastoral experience, and missiological vision. Church planting is one of the most important movements of our era—and one that follows the pattern set by the apostles. This book will be welcomed by all who celebrate the renaissance of church planting in this generation.”
—R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“I like being pushed, and Darrin Patrick is a careful thinker and a hard-working pastor. Here he has written a clear, carefully considered, well-illustrated introduction to the pastor and his ministry. In reading it, I’ve been challenged, provoked and encouraged. I disagree with some things, like Darrin’s correlation between the resurrection of Christ and the transformation of cities, but this book has been exciting and helpful and I appreciate a great deal. I happily commend this book to you, and pray that God will use it to help establish churches that take the gospel of Christ to the end of the world.”
—Mark Dever, Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington DC; President, 9Marks

“Darrin Patrick is a friend to church planters. He is widely known as a strong leader and good thinker in church planting today. In this book, Darrin brings together his biblical understanding, theological insight, and pastoral wisdom on what it takes to plant a missional church. For those who are planting or thinking about it, this book will help you to see if you are prepared—with the message and for the mission.”
—Ed Stetzer, President, LifeWay Research

“Church Planter: The Man, the Message, and the Mission is a superb work. Darren Patrick combines the mind of a careful theologian, the heart of a compassionate pastor, and the passion of a missional Christian. As someone heavily invested in training church planters in a seminary, this will be a must-read for those we teach and send out to penetrate lostness in the unreached and underserved cities of our nation and the world. Thank you Darren for this labor of love. You have rendered a valuable service to the body of Christ.”
—Daniel L. Akin, President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

“Church Planter comes from the heart of a real man sharing the real gospel from real experience leading Christ’s church. Powerful, helpful, hopeful!”
—Bryan Chapell, President, Covenant Theological Seminary

“If you are called to church planting, Darrin Patrick gets you. More importantly, he understands what it takes to connect you to the gospel, the gospel to the church, and the church to the mission. This book is packed with insight; it’s a boot-camp-in-print. If God has enlisted you, then read it and let the training begin!”
—Dave Harvey, church care and church planting, Sovereign Grace Ministries

“Darrin Patrick gets ministry. He understands it’s not a career for those of us trying to do something for God. It’s a calling that can only be fulfilled faithfully when built upon the foundation of scriptural norms. This is not only a great book for anyone involved in church planting—it’s also a great book for anyone involved in pastoral ministry. It will help you (and your team) keep your life, message, and mission aligned with God’s vision and calling.”
—Larry Osborne, Pastor and Author, North Coast Church, Vista, CA

“If I were beginning the journey of starting a church, and I could only choose two books to take with me. They would be the Bible, and Church Planter by Darrin Patrick.”
—Matt Carter, Lead Pastor, The Austin Stone Community Church, Austin, Texas

“This book is a weapon. Church Planter is one of the more important pieces of equipment that a church planter (or a man aspiring to any level of church leadership) can own. Darrin Patrick writes out of biblical conviction and proven experience, not preference or pragmatics. I trust Darrin. I trust what he’s written here. I hope this book is placed in the hands of men all over the world.”
—Justin Buzzard, Pastor, Central Peninsula Church, San Francisco Bay Area; author, BuzzardBlog.com

“Darrin does a great job describing the challenges of planting and directing the planter toward gospel solutions. Whether you’re in the midst of planting or thinking about planting page 25 alone is worth the cost of the book.”
—Eric Simmons, Pastor, Redeemer Church of Arlington, Arlington, VA

Russell Moore, Southern Seminary professor, has a necessary word here for evangelicals excited about Glenn Beck’s God-and-country revival in Washington, DC, this weekend. An excerpt:

“Beck isn’t the problem. He’s an entrepreneur, he’s brilliant, and, hats off to him, he knows his market. Latter-day Saints have every right to speak, with full religious liberty, in the public square. I’m quite willing to work with Mormons on various issues, as citizens working for the common good. What concerns me here is not what this says about Beck or the ‘Tea Party’ or any other entertainment or political figure. What concerns me is about what this says about the Christian churches in the United States.

“It’s taken us a long time to get here, in this plummet from Francis Schaeffer to Glenn Beck. In order to be this gullible, American Christians have had to endure years of vacuous talk about undefined ‘revival’ and ‘turning America back to God’ that was less about anything uniquely Christian than about, at best, a generically theistic civil religion and, at worst, some partisan political movement.

“Rather than cultivating a Christian vision of justice and the common good (which would have, by necessity, been nuanced enough to put us sometimes at odds with our political allies), we’ve relied on populist God-and-country sloganeering and outrage-generating talking heads. We’ve tolerated heresy and buffoonery in our leadership as long as with it there is sufficient political ‘conservatism’ and a sufficient commercial venue to sell our books and products.

“Too often, and for too long, American ‘Christianity’ has been a political agenda in search of a gospel useful enough to accommodate it.”

I encourage you to read the whole article.

If you want a classic case of this in action, see this post by the head of a Christian ministry defending the “fruits” of Glenn Beck but showing a tragic willingness to twist biblical teaching in favor of advancing a political agenda.

The Gospel Coalition council members Mark Driscoll and Joshua Harris sat down with Francis Chan and asked why he resigned as senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California, and what he plans to do next. See what Francis Chan had to say:

Batman & Robin custom Nike sneakers designed by Brass Monki.

Via:

Today is the day! LOST: The Complete Series is now available on DVD!

Lately, there have been numerous articles discussing how the younger generation is failing at becoming responsible young adults. The New York Times wrote an interesting article on how long it is taking for the younger generation to grow up. Pastor and Church Planter, Darrin Patrick, created a new term, “Ban“, which describes those guys who are not really boys, but by no means are they a man either. Here is a good example of a “Ban”, but doesn’t help in proving these articles wrong:

This Friday, Bethlehem Baptist  Church and Desiring God will be showing the film premiere of “Don’t Waste Your Life Sentence” in Minneapolis August 20 at 7:30pm CT), Desiring God will also be streaming the whole thing live on the Don’t Waste Your Life Sentence webpage.

If you are confused as to what is going on and what “Don’t Waste Your Life Sentence” is all about then here is a short summary from DG’s site:

The Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, is the largest, and historically, one of the bloodiest maximum-security prisons in the
United States.

In 2009, John Piper and Desiring God were invited to Angola to learn about prison life, hear from men who have been radically changed by the gospel and minister to many of the 5,000 inmates.

In “Don’t Waste Your Life Sentence,” meet men who have lost their lives of freedom but seem to have a greater grasp on the concept of eternity than those on the outside.

The “Don’t Waste Your Life Sentence” premiere will be held at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN on August 20 at 7:30pm. After the screening, we’ll host a live Q & A with crew members and production staff, offer refreshments, and invite you to connect with groups and individuals who are interested in local prison ministry.

Since my dad is a Prison Warden in Georgia, my family and I are really excited about the premiere of this film and I ask that you continue to pray and get involved in helping spread the gospel in your local prison!

Below is the trailer for the film:

To graphically illustrate that we, those who have been redeemed by Christ and put their hope and trust in Him, are the Church.

(via Sojourn Church)

Darrin Patrick writes:

We live in a world full of males who have prolonged their adolescence.

They are neither boys nor men. They live suspended between childhood and adulthood, between growing up and being a grown-up.

Let’s call this kind of male Ban, a hybrid of both man and boy. This kind of male is everywhere, including the church and even vocational ministry.

Neither Boys Nor Men

Ban is a frightening reality in the church, but he is the best thing that ever happened to the video game and porn industries.

• Half of American males between the ages of 18 to 34 play video games every day—for almost 3 hours.
• The average video game buyer is 35 years old.
• Every second, $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography, 28,258 Internet users view pornography, and 372 Internet users type adult search terms into search engines.
• To no one’s surprise, men make up nearly 75% of Internet pornography traffic.

He continues…

I have a son, Drew, and because of my keen awareness of and pastoral interaction with Bans, I know that my work is cut out for me when it comes to raising a godly man. I recently wrote a little prayer that reflects the kind of men we need. Drew and I pray this prayer together almost every night, for him and for me.

“God, make me a man with thick skin and a soft heart. Make me a man who is tough and tender. Make me tough so I can handle life. Make me tender so I can love people. God, make me a man.”

The Man, the Message, the Mission

The lack of godly men in our world is now a cultural crisis. We are not going to solve the problem by ignoring Ban and hoping that he eventually grows up. We are not going to solve the problem by encouraging women to take up the slack.

We might solve the problem by modeling biblical manhood and calling adult boys to forsake their youthful lusts and become the men that God is calling them to be.

We have Bans in our city, our neighborhoods, our churches, and our families. Ban needs godly men and women to show him that there is more to life than what he is currently experiencing. Ban needs to be more than just a male. He needs to be becoming God’s man who is being transformed by God’s gospel message and is wholeheartedly pursuing God’s mission.

R.C. Sproul’s answer may surprise you:

It is common to say that hell is the absence of God. Such statements are motivated in large part by the dread of even contemplating what hell is like. We try often to soften that blow and find a euphemism to skirt around it.

We need to realize that those who are in hell desire nothing more than the absence of God. They didn’t want to be in God’s presence during their earthly lives, and they certainly don’t want Him near when they’re in hell.The worst thing about hell is the presence of God there.

When we use the imagery of the Old Testament in an attempt to understand the forsakenness of the lost, we are not speaking of the idea of the departure of God or the absence of God in the sense that He ceases to be omnipresent. Rather, it’s a way of describing the withdrawal of God in terms of His redemptive blessing.

It is the absence of the light of His countenance. It is the presence of the frown of His countenance.

It is the absence of the blessedness of His unveiled glory that is a delight to the souls of those who love Him, but it is the presence of the darkness of judgment.

Hell reflects the presence of God in His mode of judgment, in His exercise of wrath, and that’s what everyone would like to escape.

I think that’s why we get confused. There is withdrawal in terms of the blessing of the radical nearness of God. His benefits can be removed far from us, and that’s what this language is calling attention to.

—R. C. Sproul, The Truth of the Cross (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2007), pp. 157-158; my emphasis.

(via JT)