Renewal For Life

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Renewal For Life

• Good News For Life!

So Whats Next? Practical Applications
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Hittites
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So Whats Next? Practical Applications
Introduction
What makes us a threat to our pro-life
teaching is that we are generally failing to
follow up our theological convictions with real
day-to-day ministry work. (Dr. David Adams)
All theology is practical theology. (A beloved
seminary professor whose name I have forgotten!)
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So Whats Next? Practical Applications
A. A Plan to Teach
B. A Plan to Care
C. A Plan to Witness
(From Implementing a Pro-Life Theology in a
Lutheran Congregation LFL)
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So Whats Next? Practical Applications
A. A Plan to Teach
A congregational pro-life ministry will look for
ways to instruct Christians about the value of
life at every opportunity.
(From Implementing a Pro-Life Theology in a
Lutheran Congregation LFL)
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So Whats Next? Practical Applications
A. A Plan to Teach
1. Youngest Children
2. Confirmation Class
3. Youth
4. Adults
5. Elderly
(From Implementing a Pro-Life Theology in a
Lutheran Congregation LFL)
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So Whats Next? Practical Applications
B. A Plan to Care
Pro-life ministries not only help people
understand pro-life ideas, they help them do
pro-life things.
1. Caring for women Pregnancy Centers
2. Caring for Elderly
3. Caring for Post Abortive
(From Implementing a Pro-Life Theology in a
Lutheran Congregation LFL)
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So Whats Next? Practical Applications
C. A Plan to Witness
The mission of the Church is the proclamation
of the Gospel . . . not to force society to
conform to Gods Word.
(From Implementing a Pro-Life Theology in a
Lutheran Congregation LFL)
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So Whats Next? Practical Applications
C. A Plan to Witness
Pro-life congregations need to plan to help
Christians understand their role as citizens and
their responsibility to work for laws that
protect the weakest and most endangered of their
neighbors.
(From Implementing a Pro-Life Theology in a
Lutheran Congregation LFL)
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Bringing Good News to Life to the Life Issues in
Preaching
Life Issues
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Connecting through Preaching
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,        and proclaim
to her        that her hard service has been
completed,        that her sin has been paid
for,        that she has received from the
LORD's hand        double for all her sins.
(Isaiah 402)
God
Matters of the Heart
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Connecting through Preaching
Preachers, as a rule, imagine that they have
fully discharged their office, provided what they
have preached has been the Word of God. That is
about a correct a view as when a ranger imagines
he has discharged his office by sallying forth
with his loaded gun and discharging it into the
forest or as when an artilleryman thinks he has
done his duty by taking up his position with his
cannon in the line of battle and by discharging
his cannon. Just as poor rangers and soldiers as
these later are, just so poor and useless
preachers are those who have no plan in mind and
take no aim when they are preaching. Granted
their sermons contain beautiful thoughts they do
not, for that matter , take effect. They may
occasionally make the thunders of the Law roll in
their sermons, yet there is no lightning that
strikes. Again, they may water the garden
assigned to them with the fructifying waters of
the Gospel, but they are pouring water on the
beds and the paths of the garden
indiscriminately, and their labor is lost. . . .
May God help you in your future ministry not to
become aimless prattlers. C.F.W. Walther.
The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel.
99-100.
C.F.W. Walther
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Connecting through Preaching
Dr. Hoffmann preached the Gospel right into my
life.
Dr. Oswald Hoffmann
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Connecting through Preaching
Know Your Sheep
1. Political issues do not belong in church
2. You tell em pastor!
3. Personal issues, we shouldnt judge
4. Pro- choice (abortion)
5. Post abortive or end-of-life decision.
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Connecting through Preaching
Aim Law At
1. Political issues do not belong in church
2. You tell em pastor!
3. Personal issues, we shouldnt judge
4. Pro- choice (abortion)
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Connecting through Preaching
1. Law is not yelling and screaming!
2. Speaking the truth in love.
3. Call wrong things wrong.
4. Crank it up a notch! Moral to Spiritual
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Connecting through Preaching
Why are you so careful, so tender of this one
wrong and no other? . . . There is no place where
you will allow it to be even called wrong! We
must not call it wrong in the Free States because
it is not there, and we must not call it wrong in
the Slave States because it is there we must not
call it wrong in politics because that is
bringing morality into politics, and we must not
call it wrong in the pulpit because that is
bringing politics into religion. . . There is not
single place, according to you, where this wrong
thing can properly be called wrong. (Collected
Works of Abraham Lincoln, Roy Basler, ed. vl. 4
p. 13.)
Abraham Lincoln
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Connecting through Preaching
We need to call wrong things wrong so people will
know what God in Christ has done about wrong
things.
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Connecting through Preaching
The Gospel is the greatest, most powerful and
positive For Life message in the universe
especially for those who have sinned against life.
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Connecting through Preaching
Know Your Sheep
1. Political issues do not belong in church
2. You tell em pastor!
3. Personal issues, we shouldnt judge
4. Pro- choice (abortion)
5. Post abortive or end-of-life decision.
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Connecting through Preaching
Which to preach?
1. Sanctity of Human Life Sunday
2. Sanctity of Human Life
Life Thoughts in the Church Year
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Connecting through Preaching
For Life Preaching Tips
1. Preach as Christs undershepherd, servant,
fellow sinner, fellow redeemed.
2. Be open and honest. I know that this topic
is politically charged and controversial. But
its also a spiritual issue and we as Christs
Church need to address it.
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Connecting through Preaching
3. Be sensitive to the fact that the Law may
already have done its work in post-abortive women
and men.
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Connecting through Preaching
4. Be a rebel! Do Gospel-Law-Gospel
Example Im aware that there may be those here
who have participated in an abortion decision and
perhaps are feeling uncomfortable. Let me speak
a word just to youwelcome. Welcome here with
the rest of us sinners. It is not the sin of
abortion that separates us from God. It is sin
that separates us from God. We all stand equally
guilty before Him. So you are not alone. And
stayed tuned. God has some Good News for all of
us about forgiveness for all sins.
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Connecting through Preaching
5. Do what you do so well

• Sin and Grace

• Law and Gospel

• Theology of the Cross

6. Remember the foundation . . .
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We are Gods Handiwork!
Created by Gods Hands
Redeemed by Gods Hands
Held by Gods Hands
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Addendum
Be sure to ask me about my tie!
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Questions
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