Chad Holtz and some others have dropped by my blog and shared their disagreements with a post I wrote about the way pastors handle hard truths about themselves and fraught topics in church.
Their comments have added a lot to the discussion. You might want to revisit that post if you have not been there since it first went up.
I am a part-time local pastor serving Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church and a participant in the Indiana Conference's Wesleyan ConneXion. I teach business communication at Indiana University in the Kelley School of Business.
I also blog at Luc means light and contribute to The View from Here blog at Next Step Evangelism.
My wife, Lisa, and I have been married 23.5 years. Luc, 8, lives with us. Zach, 22, and JillAnn, 18, are off at college much too soon for my liking.
Contact me at johnmeunier at Gmail.
The doctrine of original sin is surely more humbling to man than the opposite: And I know not what honour we can pay to God, if we think man came out of His hands in the condition wherein he is now.
— John Wesley
UM Portal ‘Methodist’ news Bishop Willimon Christian Century
RNS blog
The pastor should never, no never, do anything that would take away from the Gospel. If the people leave discussing a sermon illustration of any kind, joke, personal testimony, etc, then that takes away form the purpose of preaching. The Truth that preachers are to proclaim is that of Jesus Christ as the way to life and salvation.
If the church has a difficult time with other matters of honesty that is different and the sermon is NOT the right place for that.