Whether someone is preaching in view of a call, filling in for a vacationing pastor, or performing a wedding, every pastor will have to deliver a "one time" sermon at some point. Deciding what to preach or how to preach can be a challenge, especially if the pastor is young and doesn't have a handy sermon stashed away in his back pocket for these occasions.

I asked Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research and author and co-author of several books, including Planting Missional Churches and Transformational Church, how would he advise pastors to approach a "one time" sermon.

-----------------------

I remember the first time I preached a sermon, though it's unlikely anyone else does. In fact, I'm actually relieved that no record remains of its existence. I was asked to preach one time and, like many other first-time preachers, I brought everything I knew into that message. It was long, painful, and scattered---but a kind group of older adults not only invited me to preach, they also patiently sat through my message---though they never asked me back.

Preaching a stand-alone message can be tricky. For me, they generally fall in between sermon series (as I much prefer to preach) or when I am invited somewhere as a guest preacher.

Sometimes, as a guest preacher you are part of a series. For example, at one church, I simply continued the series (though I was a little bitter with the passage I was assigned). This isn't too difficult---you listen to a few messages before, tie in to those, and help the pastor along the way.

However, it's harder when you are the guest preacher with a single topic. I think you can go about it in two legitimate ways.

1. Preach a text on a topic.

2. Preach a topic with texts.

Preaching a Text on a Topic

A message is supposed to be grounded in the text, but text-based messages can still become exegetically irresponsible if we force a theme onto a text when it really does not fit. For example, if you are preaching on "motherhood" on Mother's Day, it might be better to connect with multiple texts rather than preach a text that touches on motherhood and you make it all about motherhood.

So when preaching a text on a topic, you need to be careful that you don't let the topic mold the text. Rather, the text, if appropriate, will inform and mold your approach to the topic. However, approaching a message in this way means it may look somewhat different from a standard expositional treatment of the passage. If I am preaching a text on a topic, I do not tell everything I would in a verse-by-verse exposition. Instead, I talk about how this verse undergirds the topic, but also that it addresses more than this topic. I say that, but I do not explain that. The topic will limit, to a certain degree, what I unpack from the passage.

For example, when I filled in at another church, I preached from the text, 1 Peter 4:8-11, on "Engaging all God's People in Mission." When I preach a one-week message, after all the study and preparation I wind up leaving a lot on my desk that I don't take with me into the pulpit. Your text will always say more than what you have to say and that's okay. Just ensure that what you do say is faithful to that text.

Preaching a Topic with Texts

On the other hand, one can also responsibly preach a topic with texts.

I recently returned from a church where my job was to encourage people to "live sent." I preached a topic with a few texts. The topic was how we might live as the sent people of Jesus. The texts (as well as the title) were the "Sendings of Jesus." These commissions included John 20:21, Matthew 28:18-20, Luke 24:46-48, and Acts 1:8.

The principles are actually the same. I wound up leaving a lot on my desk, but I worked hard to be faithful in what I brought with me to preach.

Or, once when I preached, the theme was the "seven last words of Jesus." My assignment was forgiveness. My assigned topic was not just that Jesus forgave, but how it affects what God has called us to do. Thus, I made it clear in the title: "Forgiveness: It's Who God Is, It's Why Jesus Came, and It's What Christians Do."

I believe it's easier to be thorough and responsible with the text when you preach through a series. If you are preaching through a book (as I am right now at my church), it is simply following the arguments, themes, and stories of the author. If you are preaching doctrinally or thematically, you can bring the whole counsel of God to a topic by being faithful to what the scripture teaches in its multiple mentions of the topic.

However, you simply cannot be as thorough in a one-shot message.

So, here is what I try to do:

1. Never use verses in way that would result in the apostle Paul (or Moses, Jesus, etc.) to say, "Whoa, that was not my point."
2. Don't share everything you know---leave some things on your desk and tell people you are doing so.
3. Don't preach a single message like a series---you can't do it well. Single messages have limitations and you have to live with them.
4. Point people to Jesus. Don't simply leave them with commands, lead them to the promises of God in Jesus.

I should end with my bias. I don't like single messages. I prefer a series because I find I can present a clearer picture of scriptural teaching on an issue. But do not despise the single message---nobody ever preaches a series in the Bible, and we don't see it much until John Chrysostom in the fourth/fifth century after Christ.

Be faithful with the small things . . . even the small sermons.

What gets you out of bed on Monday morning to go to work? What motivates you to persevere in a job you don't enjoy, that doesn't reward you adequately?

I posed these questions to Matt Perman, blogger and author of the forthcoming What's Best Next: How the Gospel Changes the Way You Get Things Done. We discussed how jobs afford us opportunities to love our neighbors, and how we each multitasked during repetitive work to learn about God and concentrate on his Word.

Especially if you're struggling at work, you'll want to hear Perman explain the doctrine of vocation, which invests everything we do with meaning, because we're living out a God-giving calling. Whether a pastor or plumber, we work in faith as unto God himself (Colossians 3:23-24). Perman explains how even garbage collectors can apply this doctrine to make their work more interesting, challenging, and fulfilling.

It's not easy for evangelicals to talk about art. We polarize into camps: one denies art's value, and the other exaggerates its virtues. We make our own consciences normative, engaging in a sort of theological McCarthyism, judging other Christians guilty by association with art we don't approve. Or we dismiss legitimate questions about artists who presume the role of cultural priests, imposing values antithetical to the gospel.

Scotty Smith, Mike Cosper, and Greg Thornbury discuss these difficulties in a wide-ranging roundtable conversation. Art doesn't work on the typical evangelical timetable, observes Thornbury, dean of the school of theology and missions at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. We want to clinch the gospel decision before the airplane lifts off, but art unfolds at a contemplative pace. We're loathe to recognize beauty that comes from unregenerate sources, notes Mike Cosper, pastor of worship and arts at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky. That's partly because we confuse common grace and special grace, says Scotty Smith, pastor of preaching at Christ Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee.

Watch the video and join the discussion. But try to respect and understand those who hold different views on the arts.

"Don't blame that trash on God." So responds pastor Scotty Smith of Christ Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee, when someone presents him a song "from the Lord" that falls short of a good, true, and beautiful aesthetic.

We evangelicals tend to want our art to be pristine, easy on the eye, as with Thomas Kinkade paintings. Our music and films often reflect this desire. We envision Christian worship as an escape from reality, where life is hard, filled with sickness, death, and lament.

Yet good art, especially the Bible, knows better. Greg Thornbury, dean of the school of theology and missions at Union University, suggests reading a Flannery O'Connor short story to see how art can awaken you to creation's groaning. Even better, take a look at the tortured beauty of the cross. Or see what Mike Cosper, pastor of worship and arts at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky, sees in the Book of Esther: an R-rated tale of sex, murder, and seduction. This is the scene of God's redemption.

Bad art encourages escapism among Christians. Good art, epitomized by the Psalms, helps us long for the new creation even as we learn to love all God's creatures.

[vimeo clip_id="24054170" width="500" height=""]

Editors' Note: Send your theological, biblical, and practical ministry questions to ask@thegospelcoalition.org along with your full name, city, and state. We'll pass them along to The Gospel Coalition's Council members and other friends for an answer we can share.

Dustin B. from Fort Worth, Texas, asks:

Coming from a tradition revivalistic background, I am often weary of the extended altar calls and manipulating invitations I have so often witnessed. However, my desire is not to leave the churches steeped in this tradition but rather to continue to minister with a stronger theology of conversion.

As a seminary student, I have opportunities to preach in churches where it is customary to give an invitation at the conclusion of the message. I am often unsure and uneasy about how to conclude a message, not wanting to commit the errors common to revivalism and without giving unnecessary offense at the same time.

Could TGC offer any principles for retaining a strong theology of conversion when concluding services in churches accustomed to public invitations?

We asked for a response from Jonathan Leeman, editorial director at 9Marks and a PhD candidate researching ecclesiology.

******************

Before I had arrived, the previous pastors had always given altar calls. I was now one month into an interim pastorate, and people were beginning to ask whether I would ever give them. I remember a long, meandering car ride with one sweet brother---a good friend to this day---devoted to the question.

I told this brother and the rest of the elders that I wouldn't do an altar call. Why not?

Because I think altar calls are wrong? No, I think a pastor is free to give one. It's not a sin.

Because I don't believe that people must make a decision for Christ? No, I think people must decide to repent and believe in order to be saved.

Because I don't think Jesus calls us to make a public profession? No, people must publicly profess their faith, which is why Jesus instituted baptism.

Because I think inviting sinners to repent is inherently manipulative? No, I believe preachers should invite non-Christians to repent and believe throughout their sermons. I did this during the interim pastorate, and I did it just last Sunday when guest preaching at another church. I very clearly invited non-Christians to repent and believe in the middle of my sermon, and then told them to speak with me afterwards, or the pastor, or the Christian friend who brought them.

So why wouldn't I give an altar call? In short, I believe that this particular man-made practice, this 19th-century innovation, has produced more bad than good for Christian churches in the West. The altar call relies on the powers of emotion, rhetorical persuasion, and social pressure to induce people to make a hasty and premature decision. And producing professions is not the same thing as making disciples. Surely a number of factors are responsible for the many nominal Christians that typify Christianity in the West, but I believe that the altar call is one of them.

How many people in the last century walked an aisle, and spent the rest of their days convinced that they were a Christian, never considering how they lived!

The alternative to giving altar calls is sticking with the practices we see modeled in Scripture:

• Invite people throughout your sermon to "repent and be baptized" like Peter did in Jerusalem (Acts 2:38). But when you do, don't just stand there waiting with emotionally charged music playing, staring them down until they relent. Rather, make several suggestions about how and where to discuss the matter further.
• Ask people what they believe when they present themselves for baptism, just like Jesus made sure the disciples knew who he was (Matt. 16:13-17; also, 1 John 4:1-3).
• Make sure they understand what following Jesus entails (Matt. 16:24f; John 6:53-60).
• Explain that the fruit of their lives and persevering to the end will indicate whether or not they really believe (Matt. 7:24f; 10:22).
• You might even explain that Jesus has commanded your church to remove them from its fellowship if their life moving forward does not match their profession (Matt. 18:15-17).

Yes, let's pray hard for conversions. But then let's do everything that Scripture requires of us in the long work of making disciples---a work that generally requires lots of teaching, lots of time, lots of invitations, lots of meals together, and finally the commitment of an entire church body.

Are women better listeners? Talkers? Should a pastor counsel women? Only when he's alone? When she's with someone else? When he invites someone else into the office?

These and many other questions pop up when a woman needs the support and empathy of a counselor. David Powlison and Nancy Guthrie address several of them and suggest some practical steps a pastor can take to remain above reproach. But unless a pastor knows why he's in the room during a counseling session, carrying this vision with care and clarity, no safeguards will suffice. He won't be able to help, and he just might fall into sin.

Powlison and Guthrie also discuss the benefits of several different counseling arrangements besides one-on-one meetings. Rigidity can sometimes undermine the potential for fruitful interactions, Powlison cautions.

Diversity seems to be its own reward today. We pursue racial diversity in our schools, events, and communities out of a vague sense that this display confers moral superiority. Monolithic groups endure scorn for belonging to a backward time.

It might be tempting, then, to react by calling for color blindness in our churches and the broader society. But this luxury belongs only to the majority culture who does not so acutely feel out of step with the prevailing language and customs. We might not want or need to always think about race, but we can't avoid it altogether.

As John Piper explains in this interview about his new book Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian (Crossway), stereotypes are inevitable. So how can we ensure they lead us to rejoice in our God-given diversity rather than to wield them in sinful judgment? We spoke about what's at stake in our pursuit of racial and ethnic harmony and why we so desperately need the grace of God to prevail.

There's no sense pretending otherwise: evangelicals, including many prominent Reformed theologians, have left us a mixed legacy of race relations. Respectable church leaders owned slaves. Others fought against this wicked institution with sacrificial zeal. Some sought to undermine and ultimately eradicate segregation. Others assumed it was God's will for harmonious relations between the nations.

Younger generations raised to revere the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. easily forget the consternation he caused many conservative evangelicals with his "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Visitors to Alabama's largest city now arrive at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. We may not recall that the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth (who died last month) was enemy number one for many churchgoers who attributed the racial strife to his agitation.

John Piper can't ignore this history---at least not in good conscience. He lived it and now looks back with regret on what he once believed. Writing in his new book Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian (Crossway), he confesses support for segregation and opposition to interracial marriage as blind spots for him and his family. By the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can confess these sins, which Jesus forgives through his atoning death for people from every tribe, language, people, and nation.

I sat down and talked with Piper about issues raised in his book, including the need to confront the sins of our fathers even as we learn from Christians in other centuries to expose today's blind spots.

To learn more about Bloodlines, read my review and return Monday for another clip, when I ask Piper what is at stake in our pursuit of racial and ethnic harmony.

The resurgence of expositional preaching has contributed to a surge of expositional hip-hop music in recent years. Shai Linne (blog | Twitter) is one of several young artists connecting urban audiences with theology through the language and beat of hip-hop.

Linne's new album, The Attributes of God, centers its lyrics and even the tone of its music on the multifaceted character of God. In fact, each song focuses on a different divine attribute. You can stream one of the tracks, "The Judge of All the Earth (feat. Sovereign Grace Kids)," below. The theme on display is God's justice. (Lyrics can be downloaded here.)

I corresponded with Linne on why he chose to do an album on God's attributes and why hip-hop is an ideal genre for this subject.

*******************

The Attributes of God is your first full-length album since 2008. Tell us how you decided to record an album with this theme.

As I looked around at what has been going on in Christian music lately, I noticed that a lot of it is more about us than about God. Don't get me wrong, there are many songs that make references to God and speak about the implications of the gospel, which is great. But a lot of it is not actually about God himself. The main subject of most of the Christian songs I hear is usually something other than God. That's problematic on a number of levels. As the time came to do another record, I was studying Exodus 33-34, and I noticed that when Moses asked to see God's glory (Ex. 33:18), God responded by describing his character. Jesus says in John 17:24 that his desire for the church is that we would behold his glory by sight in heaven. 2 Cor. 3:18 teaches that we are transformed by beholding God's glory by faith now. I wanted to make an album that would encourage people to behold God's glory by faith, as his character is described in the music.

You've written, "The Attributes of God project is an attempt to use music as a means of communicating truth about the character of God." Why use hip-hop as your musical genre to accomplish this goal?

In many ways, I think hip-hop is actually an ideal genre for a project like this, because the format allows for so many more words to be used than in other genres. Because of this, the potential for transfer of ideas is much greater. Hip-hop lends itself to exposition. The challenge was finding suitable musical backdrops to properly convey the emotional depth of such a glorious topic.

How does this album differ from your previous ones (The Solus Christus Project [2005], The Atonement [2008], and Storiez [2008])? Obviously the thematic focus is different, but what about your style? Has it evolved over the years?

It is different from my other projects sonically. I don't know if that has to do with my style evolving as much as the particular producers I worked with this time around. When we began the process, I communicated that I was looking for an overall sound that was epic and cinematic, like a film score. Once I got the music, I tried my best to adjust my vocal performance to the sound of the tracks. I think the result is a mixture of styles that will strike long-time listeners as both new and familiar.

What books influenced this project?

It came primarily from studying Exodus 33:18-34:14 and comparing that with other passages in Scripture. In fact, if you look at the track listing, you'll find that---except for the song about God's "Omnis"---it corresponds exactly to the attributes referenced in that chapter, in order. However, over the years, I've been helped by books like The Existence and Attributes of God by Stephen Charnock, The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer, The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink, and The Glory of Christ by John Owen. Those books (and more) have definitely influenced my thinking about these things.

Was there a particular attribute that struck you as you worked on the album?

The song that affected me the most in writing is the song on God's jealousy. It says in Exodus 34:14 that God's very name is Jealous. I don't think I had thought very deeply about that before. In my studies, I discovered that in Scripture, God usually speaks of his jealousy in the context of idolatry. The emotion of jealousy is actually the mixture of two emotions: love and anger. The greater the object of love, the greater the anger towards the one who would seek to undermine or threaten that love. When we consider that God rightly values (and therefore loves) his glory above all else, it helps us understand why his wrath is so great towards those who would seek to undermine or threaten his glory by sinning against him. It also helps us appreciate all the more that God poured out his jealous anger on his beloved Son in our place!

What do you want people to walk away with from this project?

The main thing I want people to walk away with is the fact that God is unspeakably beautiful and glorious beyond all imagination. He's worth making a big deal about. He's worth writing albums about. He's worth being celebrated in every cultural context. Knowing him and making him known is what we were made for. All of his attributes are on breathtaking display in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Through faith in Christ, we have the privilege of knowing and enjoying this God for eternity. Nothing that this world has to offer comes close to comparing with that.

*******************

Watch the album's trailer, "The Perfection of Beauty," featuring Shai's wife, Blair Linne.

With the cost of higher education rising ever higher even as the economy sputters, can we still justify this enormous expense? Liberal arts degrees send students and their parents into serious debt---in some cases more than $100,000---with no guarantee of payoff in a stagnant job market.

From a purely practical perspective, the costs of foregoing college have never been higher, as men without college degrees have been hardest-hit by the recent recession in the United States. Theirs have been the first jobs to disappear. But in this brief interview, Wheaton College president Phil Ryken looks at some of the other values of higher education, particularly the benefits of Christ-centered instruction modeled at his and other like-minded Christian colleges.