Terry Pruitt's Blog

The Jollyblogger points out.... "My point, ..., is simply that a church that is driven by an expository ministry will be more biblically grounded. If the ministry is expository-centered it should produce a hunger for the Word of God and sense of accountability to it in their lives." I guess after a period of assessing what the essence of ministry should be, I am coming to terms with the limits of the main activity, preaching. I, of course, am stealing my title from Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones . I read his classic while I was 18 the first time. I was looking for the wrong thing at that time in my life. Now that I re-read it in my 40's, I see how vital preaching is to the church. You are right in your comments. I was dealing with more of a self-centered issue for myself, that is how does one address those who are sitting in the pews but not following the excellent exposition. The temptation for myself is to look at the limitations and get...

"Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out." Proverbs 20:5: "They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them , and the heart, is deep." Psalms 64:6: In 1 Samuel 6 , the Philistines set up a little truth test. They were suffering plagues, they thought it was a result of the presence of the ark of the covenant. While this is their suspicion, they want to check it out for sure, so they tied a cart to cattle who had calves. Cattle who have calves will not normally wonder far from their young. They put the ark on the cart. If it returned to the Israelites, the God of the Israelites was the cause of their trouble. If it did not, there was another cause. In this way they tested their theory. While the Philistines in this passage are evil examples for the most part, the principle of cross checking really isn't a bad one. Our hearts are co...

Reading Spencer Burke in his chapter in the Stories of Emergence: Moving From Absolute To Authentic , he defines Christian Ghetto. He says it's "where real people with real problems are kept at arms length". That is a little different than how I defined it earlier, but I'm not arguing against his, I'm even affirming his idea. The Presley song about the Ghetto talks about an "angry young man". Burke echoes the same anger and disdain I have seen in the underprivileged. While he may have, humanly speaking, things to be angry about, I see expectations as part of the issue. But the other issue is simply the phrase that children use when a sibling, perhaps a year or two older, becomes pushy. They shout in a very emphatic tone, "YOU ARE NOT THE BOSS OF ME". That seems to be a lot of what I'm reading in the emerging church literature. While they are seeking to be authentic, they are authentically independent. A part of genuine Christian c...

I wonder what kind of software pastors need in other countries where mission work is being done. Pastors in overseas countries are often balancing another job. They work extremely hard at both jobs to make it all work. I wonder if a church management software suite would help them or if they would say they would rather have a pastor's library on a CD-ROM. Gathering the data of needs on the mission field would be difficult and would take wisdom. A lot of times I find that when you are attempting to define a software requirement, people have an extremely difficult time understanding their own needs. They also have a difficult time understanding the cost associated with a whim. Articulating what they desire is a challenge. No answers today, just questions.

I encourage you to check out the Jollybloggers tribute to Pat Tillman . The part in the creed which says that a Ranger will never embarrass his country is something I found especially true. While in a Middle Eastern country I asked a young Ranger some questions to find out about some rumors. He was extremely polite, and extremely professional. Being in the Rangers is hard work. It requires true dedication. I'm impressed with the organization and the professionals within.

Reading Jollyblogger's entry on "Another Sign of the Apocalypse" , he addresses the issue that if a church is in conflict, then there may be a lack of biblical expository preaching. The preacher, as a messenger of God, has a tremendous responsibility. But the amount of time that the preacher has to exposite the Word of God is limited. The "drip method" of instruction is something that my wife and I use in our homeschool. The drip method comes from an illustration where an Israeli kibbutz farmer saw that an orange tree was growing under a leaky faucet. He later developed a drip system for irrigating the orange grove. As the story goes, it was very successful. I'm not sure if this story is true, but that's the way I heard it. I attempted to find the source but could not. In our homeschool we have several subjects where we do a small amount each day. For instance, we use a grammar text called "Daily Grams". Little by little the k...

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." Matthew 5:14 ""Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" 1 John 2:15 Today on the way to work I listened to a radio story about Noi , a film about a Icelandic student who is trapped in his isolated village. The story mentioned that the father in the movie is an Elvis fan and " The Ghetto " figures big in expressing how the boy is caught. Since I had just written about a Christian ghetto, I started thinking about another ghetto I had visited. While in Germany I visited the Juda Gasse in Worms . Worms was as a part of the SWM; Spyer, Worms and Mainz, the three cities along the Rhein which had sizable Jewish populations. I can't remember whether it is Yiddish or Hebrew but SWM means "onion". The Juda Gasse was a Jewish Ghetto. The Jews in Worms did not choose to l...

A few years ago, Christian ghetto was a common term for the state of Christian books, music, radio and other media. Searching the web on google , the term is still being used, I just don't hear it (read it) in my normal wanderings. The term is complex and multifaceted, but one aspect of the concept is that Christians have attempted to create their own baptized versions of the worlds media and products in order to step out of the mainstream media. The criticism is that these baptized versions of media lack creative excellence. I think that some of that has changed. Personally, I think Contemporary Christian Music ( CCM ) has improved (i.e. identified or deveoped more creative excellence) but the book market has gone down hill by over emphasizing trendy books. Obviously romance is a Christian topic due to the inclusion of Song of Solomon in the scripture, but I don't believe that should give rise to the Christian romance novel industry in it's current form. The world w...

The New Perspective on Paul is new to me. I was assigned to write a paper on the topic on it. You can find a copy on my website .

" 4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. 5 And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. 6 And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. 7 And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. 8 And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you:" Luke 10:4-8 (KJV) Talking yesterday, a woman mentioned that her church is debt free. Her church is considering building an additional structure on their property and they intend to remain debt free. Debt and real estate are common in the American church. The church has a lot of its wealth tied up in real estate. A years ago I read a book called Problem of the Wineskins: Church Renewal in Technological Age by Howard A. Snyder. The writer advocated using the wealth of the church ...

My good friend the Jollyblogger has inspired me by his blog. I've been reading someone else's log, its not a blog because it was prior to the days of computers, but none the less it is a discussion his thoughts and life, Augustine's Confessions . If he could Augustine probably would have had a blog. He would lead the bloggers.