Listening Well

"Every day is an opportunity to listen and to learn--and to pass along what we learn that might be helpful to others" (Quentin Schultze, An Essential Guide to Public Speaking: Serving Your Audience with Faith, Skill, and Virtue, 46).

Benchmarking Spiritual Church Growth Via Community Impact

"Another mark of spiritual church growth is community impact. Some remarkable results followed the ministry of the early church. In Acts 4, Peter and John are in the hands of the authorities as a result of their preaching and healing ministry. After the trial the writer declares that these authorities "took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." There stood the man who had been healed. The miracle was evident. . . . If we imagine that a spiritual impact on a community will always involve social acceptance, we are mistaken. But whatever the response, we must not be satisfied until the neighborhood around us becomes aware of our presence, and as a result, recognizes our relationship to the living Jesus Christ" (Harold L. Longenecker, Building Town and Country Churches, 83).

Longenecker provides a couple benchmarks for ascertaining spiritual growth in a local church:

1. Find out if "the neighborhood around [the local church] becomes aware of [their] presence,"
2. Find out if the neighborhood "recognizes [the local church's] relationship to the living Jesus Christ."

In order to know these, a local church must:

1. Proclaim Jesus to the neighborhood, and--
2. Then listen to the neighborhood.

Human Speech: "Response-Ability"

"Human communication was meant to be based on humans' "response-ability" to God's commandments. In fact, the Hebrew word for "listen" derives from "obedience." Good speakers must first be obedient listeners so they know what they are talking about" (Quentin Schultze, An Essential Guide to Public Speaking: Serving Your Audience with Faith, Skill, and Virtue, 27).

Know Thyself: Note-Taking or Active Listening?

"Many people find note-taking helpful in retaining the teaching of a sermon. An elderly woman told me, "I take thorough sermon notes. When I bow my knees on Sunday evening, I put my notes in front of me, underline those things that I should strive to put into practice, and then pray through them one at a time." For many people taking notes helps them remember specific ways in which God challenges their hearts. Recognize, however, that note-taking is not for everyone. For some people, writing gets in the way of active listening, because it makes them lose their train of thought. In that case, note taking does more harm than good. Do whatever helps you remember and pray over the sermons you hear" (Joel R. Beeke, The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings, 26).

For example: I have a friend who is an artist. When he takes notes for sermons, he draws illustrations pertaining to the sermon's subject matter, points of application, etc. 

Active Listening + Prayer

"As you listen to the Word of God, ask yourself, how does God want me to be different on account of this sermon? Ask what God wants you to know what you did not know before. Ask what truths you are learning that he wants you to believe. And ask how He wants you to put those truths into practice. In every sermon you hear--even those on the most basic gospel-themes--God offers you truths to believe and put into practice. Pray for grace to work at listening" (Joel R. Beeke, The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings, 20-21).

Active Listening

"As you listen to the Word of God, ask yourself, how does God want me to be different on account of this sermon? Ask what God wants you to know what you did not know before. Ask what truths you are learning that He wants you to believe. And ask how He wants you to put those truths into practice. In every sermon you hear--even those on the most basic gospel themes--God offers you truths to believe and put into practice. Pray for grace to work at listening" (Joel R. Beeke, The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings, 20-21).

Listening

"The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love to God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them" (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 97).

Listening to Sermons

"It is a mental exercise, when rightly performed, in which all the faculties of the spiritual man are called into devotional action. Reverent hearing the word [listening to sermons] exercises our humility, instructs our faith, irradiates us with joy, inflames us with love, inspires us with zeal, and lifts us up towards heaven" (C. H. Spurgeon, Lectures To My Students, 53).

Preferential Listening

"Who would you rather listen to: someone who has been around the world three times on a oil freighter, or someone who never came out of his basement - even if he had really sweet bandwidth down there?" (Douglas Wilson, Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life, 66).