Pulpit Voices: What Nazarenes Are Preaching

By James Petticrew

My dad’s garden is a wonderful riot of colour and mixture of fragrances that assault your senses. It is one of my favourite places to be in the summer. I am always amazed by the explosion of growth that occurs from seemingly ordinary and unpromising ground. That garden provoked another amazing thought that now shapes my thinking every time I sit at my desk or enter the pulpit: the same God whose creative power produces such spectacular organic growth also desires to make the ordinary and unpromising soil of my own soul and my congregation witness equally spectacular spiritual growth. “As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more” (2 Corinthians 3:18, nlt).

My dad’s expertise as a gardener creates the right conditions for growth in his garden. I now see my task as a preacher in a similar way. He works the soil, fertilizes the plants, and protects them from parasites. I exegete the text, try to make relevant applications, and preach engagingly. Yet our goal as gardener and preacher are identical—to create a growth-stimulating environment.

The challenge of a new church was the catalyst for these horticultural musings to bear some sermonic fruit. I quickly concluded that my main aim in my first year at St. Matthew’s would be to encourage spiritual growth. As I see it, two main barriers to spiritual growth exist: intransigence, or that some Christians don’t want to grow; and ignorance, others don’t know how to grow. I realized I must address both of these inhibitors of spiritual growth. My aim was to formulate a sermon series that would help my people both understand and apply a viable Wesleyan spirituality to their lives.

I titled the sermon series “Going for Growth.” The series eventually developed like this:

“THE DANGER OF DRIFT”: Hebrews 2:1-4. This sermon was a wake-up call. I wanted people to understand that they were either in the process of growing more like Jesus or drifting away from Him.

“Desire”: Philippians 3:2-14. Desire must be the starting point of all authentic spiritual growth. I wanted my people to grasp that principle. I found Chuck Swindoll’s Intimacy with the Almighty1 inspirational in this way. He helped me want to make knowing and being like Christ “my determined purpose” and preach in a way that inspired others to join me in that desire.

“DECISION”: Ephesians 4:17-24. In Holiness For Ordinary People Keith Drury remarks: “The cause of my spiritual complacency is my decision to remain complacent. If God is not the complete Lord of my life the reason is that I have decided to be my own boss. Here is the essential issue of total consecration: the decision about who will be boss of my life.”2 In this sermon my goal was to confront and challenge believers who had never settled that issue with the call to decision. This was an unashamedly “holiness sermon” in the traditional sense and was the first altar call of my pastorate in Paisley.

“DISCIPLINE”: 1 Timothy 4:7-8. Twenty-first-century Christians seem almost allergic to the concept of discipline, but there can’t be spiritual growth without it. Physical health isn’t possible without a regular program of exercise. Neither is spiritual health. This sermon was a great chance to mine the riches of the various strands of Christian spirituality and introduce old concepts and practices to a new generation.

“DEPENDENCE”: Galatians 5:16-26. In this final sermon my desire was to draw the threads together and show that Christlikeness was within reach of all who will “walk in the Spirit.” I wanted to end the series with that inherent Wesleyan optimism of grace. I wanted to preach Christlikeness not as a harsh “must be” but as an alluring “can be.”

Did our congregation explode with growth after five weeks as my dad’s garden does after winter? The honest answer is no. But I do see some green buds appearing where there were none before.

James Petticrew is senior pastor of St. Matthew’s Church of the Nazarene in Paisley, Scotland.

1. Charles Swindoll, Intimacy with the Almighty (Dallas: Word Books, 1996).

2. Keith Drury, Holiness For Ordinary People (Indianapolis: Wesleyan Publishing House, 1994), 90.