Preacher's Magazine Volume 61 Number 04 Wesley Tracy (Editor) Olivet Nazarene University
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Olivet Nazarene University Digital Commons @ Olivet Preacher's Magazine Church of the Nazarene 6-1-1986 Preacher's Magazine Volume 61 Number 04 Wesley Tracy (Editor) Olivet Nazarene University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_pm Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, International and Intercultural Communication Commons, Liturgy and Worship Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, and the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation Tracy, Wesley (Editor), "Preacher's Magazine Volume 61 Number 04" (1986). Preacher's Magazine. 597. https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_pm/597 This Journal Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Church of the Nazarene at Digital Commons @ Olivet. It has been accepted for inclusion in Preacher's Magazine by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Olivet. For more information, please contact [email protected]. JUNE, JULY, AUGUST, 1986 MAGAZINE BtNNER LIBKART OLIVET NAZARENE COLLEGJ KANKAKEE, ILLINOIS IICAL PREACHING....................... 6 JOHN WESLEY AND SCRIPTURE.................. .12 CONGREGATIONAL SINGING................ ..30 PARSONAGE OR HOUSING ALLOWANCE?.. ..3 2 A PUBLISHING EVENT.................................... ..38 TEACHING LIKE JESUS.................................. .4 4 Quitable Framing Wounded Hands by Charles R. Carey I beheld a horseman, riding. Perhaps the thunder Was the crashing of the hooves Of His fiery steed, And perhaps the lightning Was the flashing of His sword. He wheeled about And His sword was held high. His eyes were as burning coals, And His feet were polished brass. And perhaps His garment Was the finest white linen and Perhaps it was light. Hooves came crashing down And my vision cleared And my knees became water. His sword came before my face And it was a two-edged sword. The edge of it was exceedingly fine And it seemed as white-hot steel— Perhaps it was light. The horseman said, "Take the sword and handle it." I said to Him, "How can a man touch it and live, For the edge of it is exceedingly fine?" "Take it," He said, "For you are My chosen vessel. And My blood will heal your wounds, And My Spirit will lift you up, And it will not be the end of you. But the beginning." So then, Those of us who would take up the sword Must gain the handle by way of the blade, And thus it is that He will know His own. For we shall be like Him. EDITORIAL GOD IS LOVE AND CHRIST HAS DIED Being an Apology to the Not-Yet Sanctified Believers to Whom I Have Preached by Wesley Tracy I’m out of filing space in each of my three offices— had delivered you from the guilt and power of sin, I could something has to go. Perhaps those files and files of old think of nothing but what you still lacked. Some of you sermons is the place to start making space. Going had been delivered from the most enslaving habits, through them, I fling many into the old clothes hamper some from the most degrading sins— yet instead of cel doubling as a wastebasket. As I peruse the file full of ebrating that with you, I wanted to jerk you on into the “holiness” sermons reaching back nearly 35 years, I see “sanctified life.” that I am in debt. I need to apologize to those born- It seems that I could by my tone of voice and pulpit again, walking-in-the-light believers whom I tried to yank presence make “This is the will of God, even your sanc on into Canaan. tification” sound more like a threat than the invitation it I do not apologize for preaching the second blessing. is. At times, in my anxiousness to correct what was lack I do not think that I was preaching about erroneous fan ing in your faith, I treated you as though you had no tasy. Far from it— behind all the rhetoric of holiness religion at all. Yet your life had already been revolu preachers like me, behind all our confusing attempts to tionized by the blood of Jesus! And I majored in dire explain it, there is a reality of sanctifying grace. It is warnings about the subversion remaining within and taught in the Scriptures and verified by Christian experi even more dire predictions about what would happen to ence. you if you did not get sanctified “tonight.” In spite of all the foibles of the holiness folk, entire Of course remaining sin in the believer’s heart is a sanctification is a gracious reality. There was some re reality that must not be trivialized. Still, how I wish that I ligious craziness that went on in some quarters that has had tried harder to lead you instead of drive you. If I taken some “living down." When I was growing up the could do it over, I would say to the not-yet-sanctified, test of true sanctification championed by the more-heat- “Rejoice, rejoice. God has saved you and created you than-light zealots was to: “shout, ‘Hallelujah’ when the anew. And since God is love and Christ has died, won clothesline breaks.” Then there was the often-told “true” derful things are waiting in the wings— you shall be story of the sanctified sister who was serving a fried sanctified through and through.” chicken dinner to the pastor, evangelist, and their as sorted family members. They bowed their heads for a Second, I apologize for rushing some of you into a boisterous “grace” by the evangelist. At the “Amen" the premature profession of entire sanctification. I am afraid family cat took a flying leap and landed squarely in the that I strong-armed some of you into the profession of I gravy bowl. The saintly hostess burst into ecstatic stac- an experience that you neither understood nor felt a ; cato “Hallelujahs.” She passed the test. Of course such need for But you, new converts that you were, were silliness would not pass muster today. And in spite of tenderhearted and could not resist me when I urged: that kind of violence done to the truth of holiness, the “You do want all that God has for you, don’t you?!” And I reality of the doctrine and the life of holiness persist. so you bravely professed a grace that God had not yet prepared you for. Apologies Please I was not as wise as John Wesley. He taught his peo But no more stalling— I must get down to apologizing. ple to be quick to seek the blessing but slow to profess ! First, I apologize to you, the not-yet-sanctified be- it. Instead of rushing them into a profession, Wesley I lievers to whom I have preached, for trivializing your ex- waited on God’s sovereign grace. He taught the folk to [perience of regeneration, justification, and adoption. seek it and expect it at any moment. But he told them I didn’t mean to, but I did. Like a person who builds not to be discouraged because they had not yet been [himself up by putting someone else down, I sometimes sanctified wholly. There is no condemnation to the justi {enhanced sanctification by unintentionally minimizing fied, he said, you are not guilty because sin remains in ■justification. What a marvel Christian conversion is! Yet your heart, for though it remains it does not reign. It is ■sometimes instead of marveling with you at how God yielding to inbred sin that brings condemnation, not its (Continued on page 4) 1 IN THIS ISSUE FEATURE ARTICLES PREACHING 6 Lay Partnership in Preaching John C. Bowling CHURCH ADMINISTRATION 10 Publicity Works! .. Clint Eastman HOLINESS HERITAGE 12 John Wesley and the Wholeness of Scripture Timothy L Smith PASTORAL CARE 16 Hospital Visitation: A Patient’s View Fred Wenger 17 Spiritual Nutrition.............................. .. Ted Nissen CHURCH GROWTH 19 HU Revisited Donald Hohensee CONTEMPORARY SERMONS 24 The Believer’s View of the Cross.................................................................................... Milton S. Agnew URBAN MINISTRIES 26 Table Talk at the Bledsaws....................................................................................................... Nina Beegle CHURCH MUSIC 30 Principles for Congregational Singing.............................................................................. Keith Schwanz CHURCH FINANCE 32 Parsonage or Housing Allowance?.................................................................................... Dean Wessels WESLEYANA 34 A Warm Heart and a Cup of Cold Water.................................................................................. Bob Black THE CHURCH 37 The Church Must Have Dreamers........................................................................................Neil Hightower HOLINESS 38 A Publishing Event........................................................................ J. Kenneth Grider and H. Ray Dunning THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 42 “Stay Where You Are” .......................................................................................................David Vardaman CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 44 Teaching like Jesus................................................................................................................Gerard Reed PASTORAL CLINIC 46 Dying for a Drink...............................................................Anderson Spickard and Barbara R. Thompson BENNER LIBRARr OLIVET NAZARENE COLLEGE KANKAKEE, ILLINOIS THE MINISTER’S MATE 48 A Sufficient Salary . or Is It? ......................................................................................Barbara Bouldrey FATHER’S DAY 50 Dad Is Not Bulletproof...................................................................................................J. Grant Swank, Jr. EVANGELISM 52 Tangled in the Underbrush of Scant Results?.................................................................. J. V. Langford