GOD’S WORD IN EVERYDAY LANGUAGE

“I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.” (Psalm 119:11 NIV)

Peter Waldo, a business-man in Lyons, France, in about A.D. 1170 became intensely curious as to the content of the Scriptures. But he could not read Latin, and so the Scriptures were a closed book to him.  However, he hired two money-minded priests, who, in violation of strict regulations, translated the Bible for him into Provencal, the language of southern France.  The content of the Word of God made such an impression upon this earnest man that he gave up his business, took upon himself a vow of poverty, and dedicated himself to the simple preaching of the contents of God's Word.

The Latin of the Church only mystified its hearers, [but] Waldo's humble preaching edified the souls of men.  His words were not spectacular but powerful, as he pleaded with them to repent.  Much of his preaching and that of his followers consisted in reciting long passages of Scripture in the vernacular.  Many of them could not afford an expensive handwritten copy of the Bible, and the ecclesiastical authorities could too easily rob them of such a book; but they could not erase the words which were treasured in the heart. 

-- Eugene A. Nida in “God's Word in Man's Language”

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THE CHRIST STORY

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  (John 1:1-4 NIV)

Much of our preaching is eviscerated because we tell the Christ story as if it began in a Bethlehem stable and ended on the day of the ascension. When all things began, He already was. His story is a story of a crucified carpenter whose death and resurrection long ago and far away give meaning and purpose not only to our individual lives, but also to the whole created universe. "The whole universe has been created through Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). If that is true, then there is nothing in all creation, nothing in human experience of joy or pain, nothing in the physical world from the galaxies to the atom that cannot be a theophany, a Christophany, a revelation of God in Christ. 

-- Ian Pitt-Watson in “A Primer for Preachers” [1986] 

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VITAL CONGREGATIONS

"Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness." (Psalm 29:2 NKJV)

Show me a vital congregation and I will point to a church that gives faithful attention to its worship. And there is no litmus test for the degree of liturgy. Many churches that experience vitality, faithfulness, and growth are churches that have a high degree of liturgy, and others have hardly any fixed liturgy at all. (And I don’t mean by “growth” just numbers: I often make a distinction to my congregation between “growth” and “swelling.” One is a sigh of health, and one is a clear sign of illness.) Perhaps there are tests of the degree of congregational participation; the extent to which the Bible is used as source book, study book, and a book of enrichment; and the uses of music are, in fact, praise to God rather than a rehearsal for a concert hall performance. 

-- Zan W. Holmes, Jr. in “Encountering Jesus”

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