Frank Tasker called the other day, and he is almost excited as I am. It is right at a month that pitchers and catchers report for spring training. [That’s time for baseball to start!] The games are almost two months off, and the season starts in earnest in three months. Frank is one of those die hard Cub fans, and this season, Cub fans have reason for some optimism. Along with Sammy Sosa and a halfway decent pitching rotation, they have acquired Moises Alou as a free agent. Now there’s a fellow who can hit. But Frank’s favorite Cub is Joe Girardi. He says of Girardi, "Now, there’s a throwback."

In baseball, a "throwback" is a keeper. I know that sounds contradictory, but the phrase has more to do with what he does than what you do with him. A throwback in baseball is one who plays the game the way they used to play it, the way it ought to be played. "Girardi," Frank says, "is the hardest worker on the team. He studies the game, he knows his position, and he hustles on every play. What he lacks in talent, he makes up for it in brains and hustle. He plays the game the way it used to be played, the way it ought to be played – not for the money, but for the love of the game."

I know, I have watched Girardi play. Frank has him nailed. Frank said that it reminded him of some of the preachers he knew that came up to Chicago from the south. They would come and expound on the Scriptures for two or three weeks in what was called "protracted gospel meetings." He said that not long ago, he was in attendance at a gospel meeting in Kentucky, and such a preacher spoke. Frank said, "He was real good, too. He was some old guy, and he preached what he called ‘chart sermons.’ He had taken six or eight old bed sheets and painted his sermon outline on those sheets. It was real good and easy to follow. And so simple. I enjoyed it so much that I almost thought I would be baptized again for the sheer pleasure of it." [Frank can get a little worked up. He hasn’t been the same since his vacation to Mangum, Ok.]

I remember preachers like that. My dad used to make charts, but sometimes it was easier to just write on the chalk board. And there is no substitute for emphasizing a point like underlining with chalk and busting the chalk on the board.

For several years I have been using an overhead projector. It’s versatile and the typing is much easier to read than my board writing. It is not as much fun, and the overheads are hard to handle, changing them in and out. And unless you have unlimited funds for the transparency film and printer ink, nearly everything has to be crowded onto one or two pages. You have to be selective as to what you use, for there is only so much space. Now, with the new projection system that I am using, I have been set free to make the charts as they are needed and will be most beneficial in accomplishing there purpose. Technology will be vindicated, I believe.

I remember an old gentleman who held a meeting in Glendale in 1972. He was not a throwback. He was what throwbacks throw back to. Some of you knew our brother J. C. Roady. There was a preacher’s preacher. His lessons were simple and Bible filled – and well prepared. During the meeting, brother Roady would come to the building early in the afternoon and draw out a chart on the board. His was a "chart sermon," using the chalk board where it was more convenient, and bedsheets where it was possible. He would write on the board to supplement what was on the sheet or already on the board while talking, not looking at the board, and not missing the aimed for spot. That took a lot of work.

Frank remembered when he was very young, before the church where he attended could hire a full time preacher, that an "old-timey" preacher stayed with him and his folks. The old man spent the entire afternoon with bedsheets and a paintbrush.

Another throwback baseball player, and for all the same reasons, is Curt Schilling. He works hard at his craft, but he takes advantage of all the technology of today to improve his work. He uses video tape, satellite scouting reports, and computerized charts of every pitch ever thrown to each of his opponents, and what that player did on that pitch. The computer makes that possible. But he uses that technology to accomplish his purpose, and he works as hard as anybody else to do things the right way.

We preachers are blessed with opportunities afforded us by technology. Some preachers use the new gadgets to put on a show, and some less mature church members love it. But others are throwbacks. They understand that what they are attempting to do scripturally is not put on a show, but teach, and the new technology is used to draw people deeper into the text. I heard one old misguided brother once denounce overhead projectors by saying, "If I wanted to see a movie, I’d have gone to the picture show." Pity. I recognize the abuses of technology, but I also recognize the utility of it – and I will make use of it to God’s glory.

"I charge thee in the sight of God, and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching" (2 Tim. 4:1-2). Paul also told Timothy, "But be thou sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry" (2 Tim. 4:5). Then, "And the things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2).

Paul told Timothy, "If thou put the brethren in mind of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Christ Jesus …" (1 Tim. 4:6). Timothy’s job was to teach the word, and put the brethren in mind of the inspired teachings of Paul and the rest of the apostles. That also is my job. From time to time, technology is made available to us to do these things in a way that is powerful and effective to the purpose.

A "throwback preacher" is one who preaches the book, the way it ought to be preached. He discourses on what the Bible says and its applications. It is the center. And he works hard to make the message plain, as best he can, so that it might produce the desired result of belief in the listener. The old-timey preacher is not concerned about charts, chalk-boards, or overhead projectors. They are not the point.

But if they will aid him in getting the message of the gospel out more effectively, being faithful as a good steward, he will not hesitate to use the technology that is available.