Authors: Elvin K. Mattison

Incarnational Preaching

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Incarnation is most often discussed as a theological term describing God’s Son, Jesus Christ, clothing Himself with humanity. John’s description of the Incarnation is, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”1 Jesus was God living temporarily among men in a human body, for the purpose of revealing God and His redemption plan to mankind. Paul’s more vivid discussion of Christ’s incarnation was, “Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”2 

A Call for Relevance

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The need for relevance is a problem faced by most Christian workers today. However, this struggle is not new to our time. Even the Apostle Paul dealt with it. Historically, it has been the more liberal theologians who made relevance a key concern in the ministry. They cared more for people and their needs than for the Truth of God’s Word. Now it has become a significant factor in conservative theology. One of the more recent evidences of this change has been the ascension of relational theology and the decline of transactional theology.

What Happened to Christmas?

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Reader’s Digest asked this question in its August 1992 issue and concluded, “Christmas, once a purely religious holiday, now mostly means Santa Claus and stockings, sleigh bells and candy canes—and seems to have little or nothing to do with the birth of Christ.” Schools are forbidden to celebrate the birth of Christ. Community property may not be used for scenes of Christ’s birth. Businesses make it their greatest profit period for the year. Churches have downgraded it in their program to a musical and a sermon or two.

Where is the God of Elijah?

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The exciting days when God worked with fire and God’s servants worked with faith appear to be gone. Elijah’s day was exceptional in that he ministered with boldness and the blessing of God was upon him. He prayed, God answered. He preached, people responded. He acted, kings trembled. He worked, fire fell from heaven. Today our books on preaching and pastoral theology stress such things as marketing, meeting people’s needs, programming the ministry, multi-staff management, mission clarification, organizing for action, interpersonal relationships, financial skills, personality traits of leadership, and similar subjects.

Faith Baptist Seminary…A Distinctive Graduate School!

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“Seminaries are all alike. They all prepare students for Christian ministries, so it really makes little difference where you attend seminary.” These statements represent the way some people respond to the idea of seminary training. It is true, seminaries do have many things in common and yet they are very distinct from one another. You do not choose a seminary because of location but because of its distinctives that will meet your academic and ministry goals. All seminaries are the same in that they are graduate schools, dedicated to preparing men and women for Christian ministries.

Biblical Preaching in the Twentieth Century

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Preaching is foremost in the minds of those who teach homiletics classes. They love to preach, and they like to talk about preaching. Such was the case recently as another teacher of homiletics and I met for breakfast to discuss how to be more effective in the classroom. Our conversation was side-tracked from methodology as we began to deal with the dearth of expository preaching today. This weakness is readily observable in many recent books on homiletics. The emphasis is away from exposition to “inductive” or “life experience” preaching.

Jesus’ Birth…An Act of God or an Accident of Man

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Understanding the “how” of Jesus’ coming into this world has been the subject of discussion since the time of Paul the Apostle. Every generation has made an attempt to explain His birth in human terms rather than a miraculous act of God. One school of thought supposes that Joseph and Mary entered into an intimate relationship before their marriage rites were completed and Jesus was born as a result of that action. More recently liberal theologians have speculated that Mary and a German soldier engaged in immoral activity that produced Jesus.