Gary Millar on Application

Gary’s tips on application

• Know the context of the passage and the context of your people.
• Know the people you’re teaching the Bible to – people keep changing. We have to keep reading the culture.
• We have to know individuals and know the challenges facing every stage of life.
• “We need therefore to know every person who belongs to our charge… we should know deeply every person in our flock.”
• We have to be able to apply the gospel to teenagers, to grandparents… to every member of the flock.
• Start where people are rather than where you think people ought to be.
• We need to be prepared to spell things out – and keep spelling things out. We only want to have one thing to say – the gospel. And we need to be prepared to keep saying it. We don’t need to be original.

Our challenge is to preach and teach for people’s good and God’s glory.

Questions to ask when applying:

1. Is my teaching applied specifically enough?
2. Do I know my culture and context well enough?
3. Do I know the individuals in my church well enough?
4. Do I know the unique challenges facing the individuals in my church well enough?
5. Do I care enough to find out?
6. Is my speaking health promoting or damaging right now?