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The ideal preacher should be able both to convey the truths of the Christian faith clearly and to inspire a wholehearted commitment to living out those truths, but in practice most of us are better at one part of that equation than the other. One teacher who was very good at doing both was C. S. Lewis. In his book The Abolition of Man Lewis offers a clue about how to manage this integration. Lewis says there is an integrative quality in human beings that allows the true things we believe to become meaningful in our lives. He gives this quality a few different names—sometimes it is the quality of “the chest,” mediating between the reason of the head and the appetites of the belly, and sometimes it is magnanimity, which is the quality of having a great soul. Henry Scougal, another great teacher, famously said, “The worth and excellency of a soul can be measured by the object of its love.” The great-souled quality that Lewis described depends on loving and desiring what is worthy and excellent. In this session we discuss ways to preach and teach “into the chest” in ways that awaken such love and desire.
The last few minutes of corporate worship are critical because they frame the entire purpose of worship and its connection to our lives in the world.
Explore how Christians in the earliest centuries of Christianity engaged topics related to wealth and poverty in their preaching, public prayers, offerings, celebrations of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the shaping of buildings and spaces for Christian worship.
How did early Christians understand their illness and pain in their Greco-Roman context?
The last few minutes of corporate worship are critical because they frame the entire purpose of worship and its connection to our lives in the world.
Explore how Christians in the earliest centuries of Christianity engaged topics related to wealth and poverty in their preaching, public prayers, offerings, celebrations of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the shaping of buildings and spaces for Christian worship.
How did early Christians understand their illness and pain in their Greco-Roman context?
Pastors of three Hispanic churches will share what they learned from experiences implementing congregational projects related to the development of new understandings and practices of worship and preaching.
