Cultural Rhetoric

Theme : Chapel/Sermon Alaina: Confidence in God Caleb: In Any Circumstance Christian: God Loves Everyone Claire: Putting God First Court: Being Angry with God Darcy: Little by Little David C: Respect for Life David J: When an Enemy Needs a Friend Hysheem: Shocking Youth Message Jake: Weight of Glory Jason: Turn the Other Cheek? Jeremy: God Who Gives Lexie: My Sanctuary Maddie: Called to Glory Mike: Freedom Village Riley: Motivated by God Sam: Falling Madly in Love with God Sarah: Resurrection Soo: The Glory of God Sophie: Falling Madly in Love with God Wade: A Resilient Follower

Last Sunday, I decided to go to church with Young. I had a thought if i do not go this week, I am a such a horrible person who claims to be Catholic/Christian. It was absolutely awful when I first got there, because I have not seen Koreans with various ages. There were elders, young children, parents, and teenagers. There was me sitting awkwardly next to Young. And instantaneously, pastor Lee came up to podium, and he read 1 Corinthians verse 31. It says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” He read verse 31, and he started to preach how people are indifferent about what they have for their present. Occasionally, people sometimes tends to not appreciate to God about their situation. For instance, they wanted pasta for dinner but it was just a bread. There are so many children who can not eat in many countries. Vast amount of people tend to take what they have now for granted, however, they don’t deserve it sometimes because of sins. Theref...

This past Sunday, my pastor decided to create a sermon based off of the idea of how God is a sanctuary for Christians. He taught from Isaiah 8:9-9:7. In chapter 8, the author describes how Israel suffered from Assyria’s attack and rejected God because they were angry. My pastor pointed out that this was Israel’s worst nightmare coming to life. He related this situation to our own lives by challenging and questioning us. He asked us if we believed that God will always remain faithful to us, restore, and rebuild us even when our worst nightmare becomes our reality. He challenged us to praise God through the trials in our lives instead of being paralyzed by fear, like Israel. They forgot that God is their sanctuary and security at all times. In chapter 9, the birth of Jesus is prophesied. Our pastor emphasized that the birth of Jesus is our hope and his birth, crucifixion, death, and resurrection is the answer to everything that has ever threatened us. My pastor splits up his sermons in...

Amy Banka’s sermon titled "Turn the Other Cheek? Really, Jesus?" was outstanding. She took the Matthew 5:38-42 and brought pack to its original cultural implications. Which ended up being don’t fight back but passively resist. The verses in that were culture references that would either force the person to indirectly acknowledge them as an equal or get them in trouble. The prior was the acknowledge you as an equal. In Hebrew culture to slap someone with the back of ones hand was to make them lesser than you, while slapping with the palm of the hand was to acknowledge them as an equal. She spoke with passion and enthusiasm. So much so that one couldn’t help but listen to what she had to say. She genuinely cares about people understanding her message for their own growth and benefit. She also shows what the verses meant in their original cultural context such as “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.”. During that time in history a Roman soldier could onl...

This past Sunday, my pastor spoke about something that to me was very convicting.  Pastor Ryan spoke all about what it truly means to trust in God through any circumstance.  In church we are going through a series discussing waiting for God, and this is appropriate as we have entered into the Christmas season. My pastor told a story about a real group of missionaries in the 1800’s who had traveled for months over seas to get to a group of people they were trying to reach. Records show that everyone in this group of people had died from the cold and starvation. There were no survivors at all.  But years later there was a journal found on this ship.  In it one, of the people who was sailing wrote about how much he believed that through all the trials they were going through; freezing cold, hunger, and loss, God was still right there beside them.  Pastor Ryan elaborated on all this and talked about how this is something we should all be striving for as Christians. ...

This past Sunday (12/11/16) my pastor did a sermon on 1 Thessalonians 1:10 “and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead- Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.” His message centered around how if Jesus is coming back then he must have resurrected from the dead. If he is coming back and is bringing wrath then he will not inflict that wrath upon the righteous. Even though this is not explicitly stated in this verse we know this is true from past events. In Genesis 18 Abraham pleads with God to spare Sodom for the sake of the righteous. In the end God does not spare Sodom, but he does spare Lot’s family, the only righteous family in the city. If God would spare the righteous from his wrath then, who’s to say that he would not spare the righteous now. If Christians are being true to God’s word and following his path then we will be pared from the coming wrath. Still we need to be ready, and we need to wait for the Son to return. My pastor delivered a great serm...

My church is in search for a preacher, but at the moment, John Mark Niehls has been preaching. On November 11th, he started a 4 week series titled “Called to Glory; Gender in the Eyes of God”. His purpose for this title is simply because traditional/biblical marriage has fallen apart since the roles of men and women have been misunderstood. The world has the wrong idea of who plays what role,and it is very important to understand each role in order to be able to give God full glory. He designed man and woman to work together, each having their own role, so that they can be unified as one and honor God in the way He deserves. John Mark did an excellent job throughout the four weeks of showing why traditional marriage and gender role is so important. He started off with week one talking about how the world has distorted the designed roles, that control has shifted away from allowing God to lead, and then he went on to mention why it is so important to try and resort back to the traditi...

My Pastor on Sunday preached on confidence in God. He asked the question, "Do we really display full confidence in God?" He gave the passage Isaiah 8:9-9:7. The people mentioned in this chapter did not really trust in God. He talked about the Assyrians bringing fear upon everyone but God is the true light in that darkness. When we go through tough time, we tend to want to fix it ourselves so we forget that God has ultimate control over what happens. We have to realize that whatever happens is God's plan and if we focus on fixing it or controlling it on our own, then we are disrespecting God's sovereignty and will for our lives. We do not do it purposefully, its rather an instinct that we cannot shake, but when you give God ultimate control it gets easier. This is a great point and helps me understand how things will only get better if we display full confidence in God and His righteous plan. Our Pastor emphasized that Isaiah was saying to stop focusing on  the current...

This past Sunday my pastor did a sermon called “A Resilient Follower.” The sermon was based off of 1 Thessalonians 3:1-13. It talked about a time of great anticipation and of 3 wishes and two prayers that Paul had for the members of the church of Thessalonica. My pastor introduced these separately so that the congregation could track easily. He laid out each point and verses that went with it. During the presentation he looked throughout the crowd and used his hands effectively. He mentioned members of the congregation and the occupations that they had when referring to a wall being weak or strong. My pastor used the podium on stage for power rather than hiding behind it. He seemed casual in his delivery but also had an important message. He used his volume well and was very keen on keeping the audience involved. His organization helped the audience along. He used a relatable style and his delivery was good as well.

Just this past Monday in chapel, a man named Ty Fischer, came to speak at the school, and as he walked up he said, rather awkwardly, “Well…I see it says ‘Ty Fischer’ up there, and…that’s my name, so I guess it’s my turn to speak.” This was a rather awkward kickoff to an equally awkward presentation I was not particularly moved by. I understand that this could have been at least a mildly amusing joke to break the ice and establish ethos with us, the audience, but it was poorly executed, and ended up working against him. He continued on as normal, but he seemed very disorganized, cobbling together a bunch of common Bible messages that you hear frequently, then trying to make it more relatable to students by tying it in to homework, saying that we should be more motivated knowing what God has done for us. After he had finished, I found myself more baffled as to what his intended meaning was than contemplative of what he had said. I found his lack of organization distracting, and his fai...

During chapel on last Monday, Derrick Whitmore came to preach to our secondary school. He introduced himself as a leader with the Christian organization named Shattered Studios. This developed his ethos as someone who is involved in the Christian community and works with teenagers. He shared the message that God loves everyone and we should also show love to everyone around us. He encouraged us to show love throughout our day because it could have a great effect on someone else. We reaffirmed his ethos by sharing that he had chosen to donate money a child from China and that is one way he shows love to others. He also told a story of a young girl who needed help after being abandoned by her parents. A doctor saw her in the streets and decided to bring her to the clinic because she knew that the young girl was made in the image of God and she was loved by God. The young girl grew up and was adopted and was able to share her testimony across the United States. This developed Pathos bec...

My blogpost is about a recent sermon from my pastor at my church. Quite recently, one of his sermons called, “When an enemy needs a friend,” was one that was interesting to me. It was about when people change from bad to good, and how they can be trusted. To start off his sermon, my pastor did something very effective to be able to catch the audience into paying attention, which I think a lot of speakers do. He began with a funny story with loads of visuals and gestures so that he could grab the audience’s attention. The story of Saul is a good example of an enemy who became a friend because he was feared by almost anyone he came near. When he had changed, it was hard for people, even the disciples, to trust him as a Christian. It’s not easy to put trust in someone like that even when it happens in times like today. Forgiveness was the big argument here. In a way, my pastor was persuading everyone to be more forgiving towards people who may or may not deserve it. I think that his argum...

The sermon I’m writing about is found on youtube where a woman makes somewhat of a rap about putting God first in your life. This speaker is talking about how no one will ever be satisfied until they put God first in their life. She refers to multiple famous people and tells how even they are going to one day be judged by God. It does not matter who you are, because one day you will be face to face with the God in charge of your fate. She wants to make us believe that we will never be above God and should remember that throughout our daily lives. The point is for people viewing her sermon to take a step back and reevaluate what they consider most important in their life. The argument was most definitely reasonable because it is true that God is above all and he should be our highest priority. Her rhetorical techniques were very influential because she targeted people who did specific things such as watching Wheel of Fortune in a lazy chair or watching Days of Our Lives. These are daily...

A couple weeks ago, the Priest at my parish got up and spoke passionately about something that seemed quite odd for a normal Mass. It was about abortion, which is a quite controversial topic. It seemed weird that a Priest would decide to deviate from a normal sermon to speak about abortion. As soon as the Father spoke, the atmosphere of church completely changed. It became serious, the Father’s tone of voice was more emotional than it had ever been before. First, the Father talked about the problem that American’s faced and could solve if we worked together. Then he began to explain why abortion was such a large issue today. It stemmed from one thing, a lack of respect for life.  The Father urged everyone to respect life, not only by opposing abortion but by caring for each person we encounter. The those three words, “respect for life”, have stuck in my mind for over a month. Not only because the are true and important but because of the way they were delivered. The Priest, by vi...

For this observation of rhetoric, I opted to analyze a sermon by one of my personal favorite preachers, Francis Chan. The message I chose to listen to was the last sermon he preached to one of his past churches. This particular lesson addressed how to understand the love of Christ and why it is important to be able to do so. He spoke from Ephesians 3: 14-19 where Paul talks about how the Holy Spirit is essential to fully comprehending the love Jesus Christ has for his children. Throughout the message, Chan notes that this is a topic that is new to him. He admits that he is prone to addressing only symptoms of this issue instead of the full heart issue Paul points out; he tries to fix things rather than pray as Paul did. Chan is entirely aware that the message he speaks is useful and knowledgeable for himself just as much as it is for his congregation. The main points that Chan has come across while recently diving into this unexplored topic begins with God’s love for us being wholly un...

I found a sermon that talks about a “God who gives” on sermoncentral.com. This sermon was by Brian Bill.  He starts the story by having us reflect on how people do not say Merry Christmas any more.  They say Happy Holiday’s instead.  I agree that the Savior gets lost as people prepare for the holiday.  He talks about the story of Christmas and how people only tell the story once a year. He begins his sermon with a story that is about a school in New Jersey that cancelled a field trip to go see “A Christmas Carol.” Instead of going to “a Christmas Carol” they went to a play called “Great railroad race.” Great railroad race is a play that promotes diversity.  They thought it would offend some people because there would be christian themes.  Cal Thomas tells us that A Christmas Carol is not a Christian show but it does talk of charity, kindness and goodwill.  He then says TV shows and santa’s avoid saying the word christmas. They greet you with Happy Holi...

For the second quarter, we had to analyse rhetoric in a sermon. I chose a sermon by Todd White that is called “Being angry with God”. In the sermon, Todd White talks about how bad stuff happens and results in us being angry with God. He preaches that this is not God’s doing. He used many examples of rhetoric. Todd White talks in low style throughout the whole sermon to relate more to the audience. This made it much easier to pay attention and not find distractions. He used pathos throughout the whole sermon, telling jokes and stories. He told a story about spreading the word of God to a young girl at a clothing store. He told her that Jesus loves her and she replied “No, I don’t believe in any of that stuff.” Todd then told her that she is mad at God because of tragedies that had happened in her life. She looked at him and cried and realized that he was right. It was a really powerful story that had a big effect on emotion. He made plenty of jokes and made people laugh throughout th...

The sermon I chose is called, “The Shocking Youth Message” by Paul Washer. He uses many rhetorical techniques to get the audience to get his point that there are many false prophets and how bad Christianity has become in the world today. He wants the people to believe that the things that go on in the world as far as christianity is completely thrown off. Before he even started his actual speech he began using repetition. He kept repeating, “and i will preach….”, to get the audience to listen to what he has to say or just for emphasis. The things he said that he would preach was to basically grab the audience's attention, and the points he started making were very attention grabbing from my perspective. When Washer does this he gets the audience's trust despite him already being a famous person and being known for doing sermons. The use of facts throughout the speech were another key. He didn't just go off the top of his head and express his opinions. He actually referr...

I noticed rhetoric being implemented in a sermon given by a young man from Freedom Village while our basketball team was at the Ross Corners tournament in Vestal, New York. Freedom Village is a small school in New York where young men are sent to be introduced to God after they get involved in dark actions. The boy's name was Christian, and he stood up during chapel and gave a message about how he came to find God after falling into some undesirable things earlier in his life. He spoke about how he became distanced from God and that Freedom Village had helped him get his life centered back to Christ. He mentioned how the comaradary with the boys helped him become less selfish and that basketball had especially helped him express himself in a positive way. He emphasized that everyone deserves a second chance and that he has learned to accept the challenges that will present themselves in his life, as they are all a part of God's plan for him. In this sermon, Christian used rheto...

The Osteens (Joel and Victoria) are powerful leaders in Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Their sermons at their church are broadcasted on TV. I’ve seen Joel Osteen’s sermons before but I have always had a critical opinion on their view of God and what he put us on earth for and so on. So I was intrigued when I found a YouTube video of Victoria Osteen called Little by Little because I had never seen any of her sermons. It is a 10 minute sermon about how to use God’s strength to persevere through every situation. She mentions how we suffer so we turn to God for his help for comfort and that every person on earth goes through the same challenges/struggles. She said that God provides everything and everyone to do everything that is a part of his plan. She also said that we give up on things or miss opportunities because we don’t feel like we are good enough. But, God opened the right doors for us to do what he wants so if we are feeling too scared to do something we should use God’s st...