Soong-Chan Rah

Now here's a novel idea: a church planter who launches his church with a six-week preaching series based on the Book of Lamentations. Sound crazy to you? It did to me—until I had a chance to interview Dr. Soong-Chan Rah, author of Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times. I was captivated by Dr. Rah's humility, commitment to the biblical text, and his rich understanding of the power and beauty of lament. He offers some profound thoughts that will challenge how you view preaching, the Christian story, and how we do church. Here's a small sample from our interview: "The Bible actually responds to real life. We jump so quickly to everything's going to be fine and awesome. We forget that the Bible actually allows us, and in fact encourages and maybe even commands us, to stay in those places of suffering, to speak the honest truth."

Mark Dever

And if you want to see a model sermon on lament, check out Mark Dever's brilliant sermon—"God Uses Suffering for Our Good" based on Lamentations 3 (all 66 verses!). Dever begins with a fantastic story and then repeats this phrase a few times: "Suffering will find us everywhere." So how do we live in light of that reality? That's why Preaching Today is focusing our summer series on how preachers can address the problem of suffering. Check out Dever's sermon from last week too.

Also, check out these new resources:

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• Featured Sermon: "God Uses Suffering for Our Good" by Mark Dever
• Featured Skills Article: "The Power and Beauty of Lament" by Soong-Chan Rah

Matt Woodley
Editor, PreachingToday.com
mwoodley@christianitytoday.com

Matt Woodley is the pastor of compassion ministries at Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, Illinois.