The purpose of this site is to comment on and call for the ongoing reformation of the discipleship culture of the evangelical Church. Today, on Reformation Day, I am reflecting on the five solas for the Reformation.
This is also an entry in Tim Challies' 3rd Annual Reformation Day Symposium, and at his site, you will find many other thoughts and reflections on Reformation Day from other great bloggers.
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Evangelicalism is at a crisis point.
The number of large churches is increasing, but the number of professing Christians is decreasing. And is it any wonder, when the ministry and proclamation of so many of our churches is only marginally Christian?
By some statistics, young adults are dropping out of the Church at a rate of 70%. And the ones who stick around are burnt out on both the legalistic fundamentalism of their grandparents and the licentious modernism of their parents. In limbo between a graceless gospel and a therapeutic gospel, this generation suffers from evangelicalism fatigue.
The REVEAL survey and others have revealed there is a staggering discipleship vacuum in the Church.
The Church is divided between those whose passion is reserved for political power and prestige and those whose passion is reserved for popularity and personality.
The opportunity before is awesome. The Church is God’s plan for the world, God’s only venue for the proclamation and embodiment of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pluralistic, pessimistic, problematic—lukewarm and loving it—Western culture and the churches that capitulate to it are as much like Jesus’ day as any time before us. This means the time is ripe for the impact of the gospel.
All is not lost. The Spirit of the Lord is upon us and he has anointed us to preach good news to the captives. Both outside the Church and in, the gospel is now most scandalous, which makes this the perfect time to continue pressing lovingly but boldly for the ongoing reformation of the discipleship culture of our churches.
And on this Reformation Day 2008, we may continue this pressure by calling for a fresh embrace of the Five Solas—the five treasures—handed down to us by the Reformation.
Sola Scriptura
We are suffering from the practical disrespect of God’s written revelation. It has become, at best, a guidebook. Our pastors use it like it’s Bartlett’s. Our communities don’t drink deeply from it; indeed, we hardly read it. We don’t know it.
It is time now, and the tide is turning even in unexpected places, for a return to word-centered preaching and sermon-centric worship gatherings. It is time to preach Christ in the Bible, the sufficiency of both Scripture and the Christ of Scripture, and to preach it as authoritative over our opinions, our alliterations, our cutesy stories, our polls, and our personalities.
It’s time to put down Who Moved My Cheesy Parachute? and Your Best Idolatry Now and pick up the Bible (for extended periods of time). Our churches are starving for the revelation and the authority of Scripture.
Sola Gratia
We hear a lot about grace in our churches but most of them have little to no idea what they’re talking about. Grace is not being nice, nor is it “not being judgmental.”
Grace is for sin, and so if we’re not talking about sin, we’re not really talking about grace.
If we’re talking about seven steps to success, we’re not talking about grace.
If we’re overloading on application, we’re not talking about grace.
If we’re not talking about the sufficiency of Christ, we’re not talking about grace.
It is time to ditch the self-help and the motivational pick-me-ups that is really just made over works salvation—legalism in blue jeans—and embrace the scandalous message of salvation by grace alone.
Sola Fide
From one corner of the evangelical Church to the other, we are preoccupied with whose Christianity is bigger, better, and badder. I show you my spirituality by my conference Calvinism. You show me yours by your social justice initiatives. But we are all baptized into one faith, and anything we add to Jesus for our comprehension of salvation diminishes our faith and makes us idolaters.
Our flesh cries out for works; we are all legalists at heart. We are constantly tempted to trust our productivity and our propaganda as self-justification, when Scripture bids us return to the self-reducing, God-exalting truth that we are justified by faith.
Solus Christus
The only worthy object of our faith, God’s only Son, is noticeably marginalized or even absent from many of our churches. We’ve traded in his way, his truth, and his life for his suggestions, his quotes, and his style. I received e-mails last spring from some churchgoers who didn’t even hear about his death-conquering resurrection on Easter Sunday.
We must repent of having Jesus as our role model and return to beholding him as, the author of Hebrews says, “the radiance of God’s glory.”
Christ is all that matters. Living is Christ. Dying is Christ. One day God will put all things in subjection to Christ. Every knee will bow and tongue will confess that he is Lord over all.
Surely we ought to be embarrassed at what little honor we show him even in our so-called “worship” services.
This problem only means that the call to discipleship to Christ is even more radical than we realized. It is more uniting and more divisive than we knew.
But it is still as necessary as when we first believed. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith; surely he deserves a reorienting of our hearts around his all-surpassing awesomeness.
Soli Deo Gloria
As we are starving for the revelation of God in Scripture, we are starving for God’s revelation period. We are starving for the glory of God.
Habakkuk tells us that one day the glory of God will cover the earth like the waters cover the sea, and Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that someday God will be “all in all.” The glory of God is the end game. It is the climax of the story. It is the point of human existence.
What in the world are we doing offering anything less in our discipleship and our worship gatherings than awe-filled enjoyment of the glory of God?
We must repent of seeking our own glory, of pursuing the glorification of our own cleverness, our own innovation, our own knowledge, our own talents, and our own efforts.
We must decrease; he must increase. This is a tall order for the evangelical Church, but with God all things are possible.
We can reform, and we will. It may take trial and trouble. Or it may take revival. Or both. But evangelicalism must repent of its self-idolatry and return to its first love. We can begin that journey by reclaiming the five solas of the reforming Church and dedicating ourselves to them.
Friday, October 31, 2008
95 Theses for the American Church, Part 5: Purpose
The first 19, on discipleship, are here.
The second 19, on community, are here.
The third 19, on the Church, are here.
The fourth 19, on the pastorate, are here.
On the Purpose of the Christian Life
77. The purpose of Christian worship is not momentary music but total submission to God and consecration for life.
78. The purpose of worshiping through music and the arts is not emotional reaction but the exaltation of God.
79. The purpose of preaching is not motivation but the proclamation of the gospel.
80. The purpose of teaching is not information but edification.
81. The purpose of evangelism is not recruitment but reconciliation.
82. The purpose of service and justice is not achieving or demonstrating righteousness but obeying Christ and demonstrating his righteousness.
83. The purpose of salvation is not self-improvement but resurrection.
84. The purpose of prayer is not accumulation but intimacy with God.
85. The purpose of ministry is not imparting knowledge or a spiritual impression but knowing and sharing Jesus Christ and him crucified.
86. The purpose of discipleship is not self-actualization but conformity to the will of God.
87. The purpose of the gifts of the Spirit is not self-fulfillment but the common good of the church.
88. The purpose of Scripture is not education but transformation.
89. The purpose of community is not fellowship but “follow-ship.”
90. The purpose of the pastorate is not impressing an audience but feeding the sheep.
91. The purpose of love is not reciprocation but the glory of God.
92. The purpose of grace is not vanity but the glory of God.
93. The purpose of the Church is not itself but the glory of God.
94. The purpose of the gospel is the glory of God.
95. The point of human existence is the glory of God.
Soli Deo Gloria
The second 19, on community, are here.
The third 19, on the Church, are here.
The fourth 19, on the pastorate, are here.
On the Purpose of the Christian Life
77. The purpose of Christian worship is not momentary music but total submission to God and consecration for life.
78. The purpose of worshiping through music and the arts is not emotional reaction but the exaltation of God.
79. The purpose of preaching is not motivation but the proclamation of the gospel.
80. The purpose of teaching is not information but edification.
81. The purpose of evangelism is not recruitment but reconciliation.
82. The purpose of service and justice is not achieving or demonstrating righteousness but obeying Christ and demonstrating his righteousness.
83. The purpose of salvation is not self-improvement but resurrection.
84. The purpose of prayer is not accumulation but intimacy with God.
85. The purpose of ministry is not imparting knowledge or a spiritual impression but knowing and sharing Jesus Christ and him crucified.
86. The purpose of discipleship is not self-actualization but conformity to the will of God.
87. The purpose of the gifts of the Spirit is not self-fulfillment but the common good of the church.
88. The purpose of Scripture is not education but transformation.
89. The purpose of community is not fellowship but “follow-ship.”
90. The purpose of the pastorate is not impressing an audience but feeding the sheep.
91. The purpose of love is not reciprocation but the glory of God.
92. The purpose of grace is not vanity but the glory of God.
93. The purpose of the Church is not itself but the glory of God.
94. The purpose of the gospel is the glory of God.
95. The point of human existence is the glory of God.
Soli Deo Gloria
Kill Your Idols, Part 2
My latest piece is up at SearchWarp:
Kill Your Idols, Part 2: Anxiety and "God's Will"
A taste:
Kill Your Idols, Part 2: Anxiety and "God's Will"
A taste:
We make anxiety an idol when we are really not as concerned about knowing God's will as we are protecting our own comfort.
We really want to be comfortable. So when we agonize over some decisions, we're not really saying, "God tell me what you want me to do," we are really saying "God show me the route that will be easiest and happiest for me." But many times God's will is for us to be very uncomfortable, afflicted even. It's a mistake to assume that, for instance, if you go into business with your friend and the enterprise goes belly up and doesn't pan out that you obviously stepped out of God's will. It's a mistake to assume that if you go across the country to take that scholarship in order to be close to your boyfriend and then he dumps you that somehow this decision was out of God's will.
It is the mistake of assuming that Christians are not meant for difficulty or trouble, and that if they somehow enter that, they are outside of God's will or have made a mistake. This is based on a Christianity that promises comfort and ease, though, not the real Christianity of the Bible.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
95 Theses for the American Church, Part 4: The Pastorate
The first 19, on discipleship, are here.
The second 19, on community, are here.
The third 19, on the Church, are here.
On the Pastorate in the American Church
58. The elders and pastors of the church, as ministers of the gospel, are charged by Jesus to feed the sheep.
59. The trend within the American church of orienting the worship gathering around seekers while simultaneously demanding sheep "self-feed" is therefore a sin in need of repentance.
60. Leaders in the church must watch their life and their doctrine closely.
61. Leaders in the church must not remove themselves from the community life of the church, as if they are somehow, by office or giftedness, above it.
62. The pastors of the churches in American have ceased serving as their church's resident theologian.
63. The qualities necessary for church leadership are clearly outlined in Scripture. These include self-control, ability to teach the Word, and gentleness.
64. The qualities most in demand in the American pastorate are frequently foreign to the qualities made most important in Scripture.
65. The professionalization of the pastorate is stunting the discipleship culture of the American Church. This is not to say that pastors should not receive pay for their service, only that the influence and predominance of professional business and marketing skills and "types" have overtaken the biblical office of church overseer so that the pastorate is more about management than it is about shepherding.
66. Churches should protect their pastor's livelihood and integrity by both providing for his needs and lovingly demanding he feed them the Word.
67. The pastors who direct the church are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.
68. The pastor who preaches not the incarnate Word in the revealed word, who teaches the satisfaction of good works (or anything but Christ) is serving dishonorably.
69. If any pastor preaches no gospel or a different gospel, let him be accursed.
70. The American pastor must repent of ambition.
71. The American Church must repent of its idolization of the celebrity pastorate.
72. The American pastor is right to seek to contextualize the gospel, but he must repent of the idolization of innovation and technology.
73. The American pastor must pastor more than he programs.
74. The American pastor must trust the Spirit, not statistics.
75. The American pastor must repent of the idolization of numbers and results.
76. The American pastor must above all be faithful to Christ, passionate about the gospel clearly articulated, devoted to the Word and the sacraments, and motivated by what is right, not what is expected, popular, or even productive.
(Tomorrow: 19 theses on "purpose.")
The second 19, on community, are here.
The third 19, on the Church, are here.
On the Pastorate in the American Church
58. The elders and pastors of the church, as ministers of the gospel, are charged by Jesus to feed the sheep.
59. The trend within the American church of orienting the worship gathering around seekers while simultaneously demanding sheep "self-feed" is therefore a sin in need of repentance.
60. Leaders in the church must watch their life and their doctrine closely.
61. Leaders in the church must not remove themselves from the community life of the church, as if they are somehow, by office or giftedness, above it.
62. The pastors of the churches in American have ceased serving as their church's resident theologian.
63. The qualities necessary for church leadership are clearly outlined in Scripture. These include self-control, ability to teach the Word, and gentleness.
64. The qualities most in demand in the American pastorate are frequently foreign to the qualities made most important in Scripture.
65. The professionalization of the pastorate is stunting the discipleship culture of the American Church. This is not to say that pastors should not receive pay for their service, only that the influence and predominance of professional business and marketing skills and "types" have overtaken the biblical office of church overseer so that the pastorate is more about management than it is about shepherding.
66. Churches should protect their pastor's livelihood and integrity by both providing for his needs and lovingly demanding he feed them the Word.
67. The pastors who direct the church are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.
68. The pastor who preaches not the incarnate Word in the revealed word, who teaches the satisfaction of good works (or anything but Christ) is serving dishonorably.
69. If any pastor preaches no gospel or a different gospel, let him be accursed.
70. The American pastor must repent of ambition.
71. The American Church must repent of its idolization of the celebrity pastorate.
72. The American pastor is right to seek to contextualize the gospel, but he must repent of the idolization of innovation and technology.
73. The American pastor must pastor more than he programs.
74. The American pastor must trust the Spirit, not statistics.
75. The American pastor must repent of the idolization of numbers and results.
76. The American pastor must above all be faithful to Christ, passionate about the gospel clearly articulated, devoted to the Word and the sacraments, and motivated by what is right, not what is expected, popular, or even productive.
(Tomorrow: 19 theses on "purpose.")
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
95 Theses for the American Church, Part 3: The Church
The first 19, on discipleship, are here.
The second 19, on community, are here.
On the Evangelical Church and Its Congregations
39. The New Testament designates God's elect "The Body of Christ," and therefore the Church's role in the world is to do what Christ did: proclaim and embody the gospel of the kingdom.
40. Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church.
41. Much of what passes for church in America will be prevailed against by hell.
42. The local church is intended to be a loving community that truly treasures the gospel.
43. The Church in America is generally not community-oriented and mostly treasures itself.
44. The American Church loves itself more than its neighbor.
45. The message of the evangelical American Church has shifted from bold proclamation of Jesus to an inordinate application of "biblical values."
46. The American Church loves the spirit of the age and idolizes relevancy.
47. Consequently, the American Church has lost its courage to preach repentance and its faithfulness to the gospel.
48. The American Church needs more and more bold elders and ministers willing to be missionaries for the gospel to evangelicalism.
49. The number of large churches has increased, but the number of professing Christians has decreased. This means what we are being told is working isn't.
50. Churches are spending lots of money on unnecessary and selfish things.
51. The Church must repent of its idolization of personality and business principles.
52. The Church must repent of its idolization of political power and prestige.
53. The Church must repent of its idolization of the self and its failure to find Christ sufficient.
54. The Church must repent for its neglect of and casual approach to the sacraments.
55. The Church must repent of its idolization of "cool," in which we dishonor our parents, spite our brothers and sisters in the faith, and merely set ourselves up for the sins we perceive in them -- appearing "of the times."
56. The Church must return to feeding its gathered people the Word of God, not therapeutic motivation, on a regular basis. The Church must return to cultivating community, not maintaining programs.
57. The tide can turn in American evangelicalism if we will return to our first love.
(Tomorrow: 19 theses on the pastorate.)
The second 19, on community, are here.
On the Evangelical Church and Its Congregations
39. The New Testament designates God's elect "The Body of Christ," and therefore the Church's role in the world is to do what Christ did: proclaim and embody the gospel of the kingdom.
40. Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church.
41. Much of what passes for church in America will be prevailed against by hell.
42. The local church is intended to be a loving community that truly treasures the gospel.
43. The Church in America is generally not community-oriented and mostly treasures itself.
44. The American Church loves itself more than its neighbor.
45. The message of the evangelical American Church has shifted from bold proclamation of Jesus to an inordinate application of "biblical values."
46. The American Church loves the spirit of the age and idolizes relevancy.
47. Consequently, the American Church has lost its courage to preach repentance and its faithfulness to the gospel.
48. The American Church needs more and more bold elders and ministers willing to be missionaries for the gospel to evangelicalism.
49. The number of large churches has increased, but the number of professing Christians has decreased. This means what we are being told is working isn't.
50. Churches are spending lots of money on unnecessary and selfish things.
51. The Church must repent of its idolization of personality and business principles.
52. The Church must repent of its idolization of political power and prestige.
53. The Church must repent of its idolization of the self and its failure to find Christ sufficient.
54. The Church must repent for its neglect of and casual approach to the sacraments.
55. The Church must repent of its idolization of "cool," in which we dishonor our parents, spite our brothers and sisters in the faith, and merely set ourselves up for the sins we perceive in them -- appearing "of the times."
56. The Church must return to feeding its gathered people the Word of God, not therapeutic motivation, on a regular basis. The Church must return to cultivating community, not maintaining programs.
57. The tide can turn in American evangelicalism if we will return to our first love.
(Tomorrow: 19 theses on the pastorate.)
"Unvarnished" Snippet
Formatting the Jesus book for the publisher this week. Thought I'd share this clip on Jesus preaching that the kingdom is at hand.
Truly, none of us will really know eternal relief and feel total blessedness until the kingdom is consummated at the end of times, but in the kingdom now present, under the reign Jesus really did bring with real-world impact, this blessedness has begun, as a furious foretaste of glory to come. Some may argue that Jesus was only foretelling the kingdom’s arrival, not really heralding its arrival in himself, suggesting that when he said the kingdom was at hand, he only meant it would come someday soon. This is a bit like saying the light at dawn isn’t really sunlight.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
95 Theses for the American Church, Part 2: Community
The first 19, on Discipleship, are here.
On the Necessity of Christian Community and Its American Bankruptcy
20. The culture running counter to the kingdom is neither sympathetic to nor conducive to the experience of real community.
21. The American Christian, immersed in self-idolatrous consumeristic culture, is in his attitudes and behaviors unresponsive to the biblical call to Christian community.
22. The evangelical Church in America, having capitulated uncritically to the values of the surrounding culture, is unwittingly supporting the idolatry of Self and thereby suffocating the community it professes to desire.
23. Discipleship is designed to be experienced in community, but we have privatized our faith.
24. The legacy of legalism, gossip, condemnation, and bigotry in the fundamentalist church suffocates community by removing the gospel-honoring security of bold confession and relational authenticity.
25. The legacy of license, corruption, and theological superficiality in the modernist church suffocates community by affirming the Self and its prerogatives as the Christian's real gods.
26. There is no such thing as "virtual community." Technology is a valuable tool in the contemporary church, but it is a powerful one that is used too often uncritically.
The uncritical use of technology by the Church only fosters individualism and facilitates separation from incarnational community.
27. Christian community requires that Christians submit themselves to the benefit of the community.
28. Every Christian is endowed by the Spirit with gifts and talents for the edification of the Church and the glory of God, not only or primarily for the fulfillment of self.
29. When a Christian refuses to submit to community, he is saying "I have no need of you" (1 Cor. 12:21) and therefore is spiting the exhortation of Scripture and despising the purpose of giftedness, which is "the common good" (1 Cor. 12:7).
30. When a Christian refuses to submit to community he is declaring himself better than others -- even if he is abstaining because of elitism or arrogance in the Church -- and is guilty of hypocrisy.
31. Christian community ought to be oriented around the treasure of the gospel and purposed around the proclamation of the kingdom.
32. The American Church's occasional attempts at community are oriented around superficial interests, hobbies, self-actualization, and the livelihood of the church organization.
33. Christians need gospel-oriented community because we are sinners and constantly need to have our brothers and sisters speak and be the gospel to us, and because we constantly need to speak and be the gospel to our brothers and sisters.
34. The gospel is about reconciliation; therefore, to orient around the gospel means (a) to enjoy and to proclaim the good news of the sinner's reconciliation with God through Christ's finished work and (b) to enjoy and to embody the good news of the sinner's reconciliation with other sinners through Christ's finished work.
35. Christian community is primarily about "the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5), not mere fraternization.
36. Thousands of churches holding out Acts 2 as the ideal picture of the Church do so while simultaneously, in the context of their message and their methods, subverting the likelihood of their church resembling what is seen in Acts 2.
37. Our triune God exists in community, so the American Christian's refusal to submit to community is disobedience to the first commandment.
38. Because Christian community reflects reconciliation with God and reconciliation with our neighbor, the American Christian's refusal to submit to community is disobedience to the Great Commandment.
(Tomorrow: 19 theses on "church.")
On the Necessity of Christian Community and Its American Bankruptcy
20. The culture running counter to the kingdom is neither sympathetic to nor conducive to the experience of real community.
21. The American Christian, immersed in self-idolatrous consumeristic culture, is in his attitudes and behaviors unresponsive to the biblical call to Christian community.
22. The evangelical Church in America, having capitulated uncritically to the values of the surrounding culture, is unwittingly supporting the idolatry of Self and thereby suffocating the community it professes to desire.
23. Discipleship is designed to be experienced in community, but we have privatized our faith.
24. The legacy of legalism, gossip, condemnation, and bigotry in the fundamentalist church suffocates community by removing the gospel-honoring security of bold confession and relational authenticity.
25. The legacy of license, corruption, and theological superficiality in the modernist church suffocates community by affirming the Self and its prerogatives as the Christian's real gods.
26. There is no such thing as "virtual community." Technology is a valuable tool in the contemporary church, but it is a powerful one that is used too often uncritically.
The uncritical use of technology by the Church only fosters individualism and facilitates separation from incarnational community.
27. Christian community requires that Christians submit themselves to the benefit of the community.
28. Every Christian is endowed by the Spirit with gifts and talents for the edification of the Church and the glory of God, not only or primarily for the fulfillment of self.
29. When a Christian refuses to submit to community, he is saying "I have no need of you" (1 Cor. 12:21) and therefore is spiting the exhortation of Scripture and despising the purpose of giftedness, which is "the common good" (1 Cor. 12:7).
30. When a Christian refuses to submit to community he is declaring himself better than others -- even if he is abstaining because of elitism or arrogance in the Church -- and is guilty of hypocrisy.
31. Christian community ought to be oriented around the treasure of the gospel and purposed around the proclamation of the kingdom.
32. The American Church's occasional attempts at community are oriented around superficial interests, hobbies, self-actualization, and the livelihood of the church organization.
33. Christians need gospel-oriented community because we are sinners and constantly need to have our brothers and sisters speak and be the gospel to us, and because we constantly need to speak and be the gospel to our brothers and sisters.
34. The gospel is about reconciliation; therefore, to orient around the gospel means (a) to enjoy and to proclaim the good news of the sinner's reconciliation with God through Christ's finished work and (b) to enjoy and to embody the good news of the sinner's reconciliation with other sinners through Christ's finished work.
35. Christian community is primarily about "the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5), not mere fraternization.
36. Thousands of churches holding out Acts 2 as the ideal picture of the Church do so while simultaneously, in the context of their message and their methods, subverting the likelihood of their church resembling what is seen in Acts 2.
37. Our triune God exists in community, so the American Christian's refusal to submit to community is disobedience to the first commandment.
38. Because Christian community reflects reconciliation with God and reconciliation with our neighbor, the American Christian's refusal to submit to community is disobedience to the Great Commandment.
(Tomorrow: 19 theses on "church.")
Filthy Rags
“Before you can ever make a clean and unamended confession of your sin, you have to first begin by confessing your righteousness. It’s not just your sin that separates you from God; your righteousness does as well. Because, when you are convinced you are righteous, you don’t seek the forgiving, rescuing, and restoring mercy that can be found only in Jesus Christ.”
-- Paul David Tripp, Whiter Than Snow
I know a guy who is passionate about service but is constantly and unwaveringly angry about other Christians' lack of service. He despises his brothers and sisters for not doing as much as he does and looks down on them.
He has turned service into righteousness and therefore revealed his own lack.
(HT for the quote: Of First Importance)
Spiritual Movement
The biblical words for spirit (ruach in the Hebrew, pneuma in the Greek) both bear the basic meanings of "wind" and "breath." This shouldn't just inform our understanding of spirit; it should inform the implications of spiritual reality.
Like wind and breath, spirit is something invisible that has visible effects. We can't see the wind, but we can see leaves rustling. On an extremely gusty day, you can look up into the sky and see nothing extraordinary, but if you ran up a kite, the force of the lift would require some real strength to temper.
This is simplistic, I know. But the illustration makes a very serious point:
The Christian's Spiritual life is the invisible having visible effects. This is a tough reminder for all the cheap gracers with Jesus as their MySpace hero: If your spirituality doesn't have a visible effect, it's crap.
Like wind and breath, spirit is something invisible that has visible effects. We can't see the wind, but we can see leaves rustling. On an extremely gusty day, you can look up into the sky and see nothing extraordinary, but if you ran up a kite, the force of the lift would require some real strength to temper.
This is simplistic, I know. But the illustration makes a very serious point:
The Christian's Spiritual life is the invisible having visible effects. This is a tough reminder for all the cheap gracers with Jesus as their MySpace hero: If your spirituality doesn't have a visible effect, it's crap.
Monday, October 27, 2008
95 Theses for the American Church, Part 1: Discipleship
I am fully aware of the arrogance inherent in offering my own 95 theses. But it's not like I haven't been nailing this stuff to the door of this blog for over a year.
19 a day for the next five days, each (more or less) on a different area of focus.
On the Discipleship of the Individual Christian
1. God saves us as individuals, but he does not save us to an individual faith.
2. The Christian's faith may be personal, but it should not be private.
3. Life is not about us.
4. The Church is not supposed to be about us.
5. The American Christian takes for granted the convenience of the availability of God's revelation in the Holy Scriptures.
6. When a Christian abandons the discipline of the study of Scripture, he spites and dishonors the men and women who toiled, sacrificed, and died to increase the availability of God's written word.
7. Moreover, when a Christian doesn't read Scripture, he spites and dishonors God who graciously reveals himself to us in and through it.
8. The Christian who does not devote himself to Scripture but yet expresses frustration over not hearing "God's will for my life" is either confused or stupid.
9. The Christian who devotes himself to Scripture in order to achieve a knowledge that puffs up is storing up a harsh rebuke from the Holy Spirit.
10. The aim of devotion to Scripture is our transformation, not merely our information.
11. The American Christian and the churches that train him are adherents to the syncretism of biblical values and the self-idolatry of consumer culture.
12. This syncretism is suffocating the discipleship culture of our churches, which are mostly predicated on therapeutic gospels and self-help which make do not glorify God and which make the disciple the center of Christian faith rather than Christ.
13. The American Christian is often offended by or secretive about the message of the gospel, which puts him dangerously in league with those who find the message foolish and are perishing.
14. The Christian in the American Christian ought to affirm and embrace the cost of discipleship, but the American in the American Christian hesitates to deny himself because Self is his highest value.
15. The modern disciple is currently being spiritually deformed by leaders in the Church who do not make that which is "of first importance" the most important thing.
16. The modern disciple compartmentalizes his life and does not realize that even a large compartment for "faith" or "church" or "God" is not healthy discipleship. The American Christian's schedule and routines reflect he believes his days belong to himself and not to God.
17. The American Christian finds Jesus' command to sacrifice and serve abhorrent.
18. The American Christian has forgotten how to pray.
19. Discipleship is best cultivated in the active participation in and contribution to the culture of a gospel-embracing Christian community.
(Tomorrow: 19 theses on community.)
19 a day for the next five days, each (more or less) on a different area of focus.
On the Discipleship of the Individual Christian
1. God saves us as individuals, but he does not save us to an individual faith.
2. The Christian's faith may be personal, but it should not be private.
3. Life is not about us.
4. The Church is not supposed to be about us.
5. The American Christian takes for granted the convenience of the availability of God's revelation in the Holy Scriptures.
6. When a Christian abandons the discipline of the study of Scripture, he spites and dishonors the men and women who toiled, sacrificed, and died to increase the availability of God's written word.
7. Moreover, when a Christian doesn't read Scripture, he spites and dishonors God who graciously reveals himself to us in and through it.
8. The Christian who does not devote himself to Scripture but yet expresses frustration over not hearing "God's will for my life" is either confused or stupid.
9. The Christian who devotes himself to Scripture in order to achieve a knowledge that puffs up is storing up a harsh rebuke from the Holy Spirit.
10. The aim of devotion to Scripture is our transformation, not merely our information.
11. The American Christian and the churches that train him are adherents to the syncretism of biblical values and the self-idolatry of consumer culture.
12. This syncretism is suffocating the discipleship culture of our churches, which are mostly predicated on therapeutic gospels and self-help which make do not glorify God and which make the disciple the center of Christian faith rather than Christ.
13. The American Christian is often offended by or secretive about the message of the gospel, which puts him dangerously in league with those who find the message foolish and are perishing.
14. The Christian in the American Christian ought to affirm and embrace the cost of discipleship, but the American in the American Christian hesitates to deny himself because Self is his highest value.
15. The modern disciple is currently being spiritually deformed by leaders in the Church who do not make that which is "of first importance" the most important thing.
16. The modern disciple compartmentalizes his life and does not realize that even a large compartment for "faith" or "church" or "God" is not healthy discipleship. The American Christian's schedule and routines reflect he believes his days belong to himself and not to God.
17. The American Christian finds Jesus' command to sacrifice and serve abhorrent.
18. The American Christian has forgotten how to pray.
19. Discipleship is best cultivated in the active participation in and contribution to the culture of a gospel-embracing Christian community.
(Tomorrow: 19 theses on community.)
Total Church Conference Audio
I'm still reading Steve Timmis and Tim Chester's Total Church (which starts out phenomenal and only gets better as you go), but I was happy to see the audio is now available from a conference I didn't even know existed!
Justin Taylor highlights the audio for main session messages and breakout talks from the recent Total Church Conference.
I look forward to digging in!
(HT: Frank Turk)
Justin Taylor highlights the audio for main session messages and breakout talks from the recent Total Church Conference.
I look forward to digging in!
(HT: Frank Turk)
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Anyabwile Blogs
Was searching for some of his sermon audio online and made a great discovery.
Thabiti Anyabwile has a blog.
It's been added to my roll.
Thabiti Anyabwile has a blog.
It's been added to my roll.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
GDC Video Blog - New Technology to Take Your Preaching to the Next Level
Pastors, are you constantly on the lookout for the latest innovations to take your preaching to the next level?
Look no further.
Gospel-Driven Church Vlog 3 - A New Product to Revolutionize Your Preaching from Jared Wilson on Vimeo.
Look no further.
Gospel-Driven Church Vlog 3 - A New Product to Revolutionize Your Preaching from Jared Wilson on Vimeo.
Blogworthy
My brother Jeremy is a high school pastor in Houston and an all-around awesome dude. He's also smart and hilarious. (And single, ladies!)
Check out his new blog, The Wilsonian Institute.
It already rocks.
Check out his new blog, The Wilsonian Institute.
It already rocks.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Kill Your Idols, Part 1
Started a new series at SearchWarp today. Check it out:
Kill Your Idols, Part 1: Spiritless Spirituality
Each piece will be loosely based on an Element sermon series I did about a year ago.
A taste:
Kill Your Idols, Part 1: Spiritless Spirituality
Each piece will be loosely based on an Element sermon series I did about a year ago.
A taste:
We were made to worship. We can't not worship. Attribute it to that "God-shaped hole" or whatever, but because God made us for relationship with him, and since God designed us to desire connection with something outside of ourselves (ideally, other people), we come hardwired with the desire to follow, to tap into something larger, to connect. And the fall of mankind didn't eradicate this need, it only perverted it.
By design, we want to worship. And this is why we are all idolaters . . .
Gut Check: Five Questions for Pastors
Pastors, ask yourselves these questions.
1. How often do I get out of my office and serve somewhere in the community?
2. How often do I read my Bible other than for sermon preparation?
3. How integral is Jesus to my sermon? (How often does he appear in it? One mention? Two? Is he an illustration? A quote? Is he the point of the message? Could the same sermon be preached to Muslims if you substituted "Allah" for "God"?)
4. If someone from my church is in the hospital or dying, is it likely that I will visit them? (If it's not likely, is it possible?)
5. What is the chief indicator of the spiritual health of my church?
1. How often do I get out of my office and serve somewhere in the community?
2. How often do I read my Bible other than for sermon preparation?
3. How integral is Jesus to my sermon? (How often does he appear in it? One mention? Two? Is he an illustration? A quote? Is he the point of the message? Could the same sermon be preached to Muslims if you substituted "Allah" for "God"?)
4. If someone from my church is in the hospital or dying, is it likely that I will visit them? (If it's not likely, is it possible?)
5. What is the chief indicator of the spiritual health of my church?
Reformation Day @ Element
Element is taking a break from our Lovers series this Sunday evening for our annual Reformation Day service.
If you're in Nashville and looking for a place to worship, come be our guest for this special time of teaching and worship. We'd love to have you.
If you're in Nashville and looking for a place to worship, come be our guest for this special time of teaching and worship. We'd love to have you.
Bold As Love Profile: Immanuel Church
Bold As Love is Element's missional budgeting initiative, which stipulates that 60% of all money given to Element goes back out the door to our neighbors in need, near and far.
The 60% figure comes from 50% designated to local and foreign missions and 10% dedicated to church planting and support. For this first phase of Bold As Love's implementation, we are giving this 10% to Immanuel Church.
Immanuel Church is a Nashville community pastored by Dr. Ray Ortlund. This church and this pastor have been incredibly gracious and servant-minded to us. Dr. Ortlund has been meeting with me on a regular basis, and has met with other members of Element's board of directors, providing friendship, wisdom, guidance, and mentorship. His investment in Element and its leadership has been a huge blessing.
When Element suddenly lost its meeting space with only a month or so before returning to weekly worship, Dr. Ortlund and Immanuel came through in the clutch to intercede for us with Otter Creek Church of Christ, the owners of the building currently leased by Immanuel Church. This is why Element meets on the campus of Immanuel Church.
They have asked for a bare minimum for rent, so these additional monies are also a thank you for their generosity.
They continue to encourage and inspire us.
In addition, there are not many pastors in the Bible Belt regularly preaching the sufficiency of Christ from the pulpit. Ray Ortlund is one of the few pastors in Nashville regularly and diligently teaching as though the gospel is "of first importance," and because Element seeks to support gospel-driven churches, blessing them in this way is our duty and privilege.
When Immanuel Church first took to their current facilities, Element provided many items needed for their nursery as a part of one of our monthly service projects. Since then we continue to look for ways to serve and partner with this great community so that we can experience the unity of the Body (across congregations) in a city we wish to reclaim for the gospel of Jesus.
The 60% figure comes from 50% designated to local and foreign missions and 10% dedicated to church planting and support. For this first phase of Bold As Love's implementation, we are giving this 10% to Immanuel Church.
Immanuel Church is a Nashville community pastored by Dr. Ray Ortlund. This church and this pastor have been incredibly gracious and servant-minded to us. Dr. Ortlund has been meeting with me on a regular basis, and has met with other members of Element's board of directors, providing friendship, wisdom, guidance, and mentorship. His investment in Element and its leadership has been a huge blessing.
When Element suddenly lost its meeting space with only a month or so before returning to weekly worship, Dr. Ortlund and Immanuel came through in the clutch to intercede for us with Otter Creek Church of Christ, the owners of the building currently leased by Immanuel Church. This is why Element meets on the campus of Immanuel Church.
They have asked for a bare minimum for rent, so these additional monies are also a thank you for their generosity.
They continue to encourage and inspire us.
In addition, there are not many pastors in the Bible Belt regularly preaching the sufficiency of Christ from the pulpit. Ray Ortlund is one of the few pastors in Nashville regularly and diligently teaching as though the gospel is "of first importance," and because Element seeks to support gospel-driven churches, blessing them in this way is our duty and privilege.
When Immanuel Church first took to their current facilities, Element provided many items needed for their nursery as a part of one of our monthly service projects. Since then we continue to look for ways to serve and partner with this great community so that we can experience the unity of the Body (across congregations) in a city we wish to reclaim for the gospel of Jesus.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Twitter Wisdom
A couple of trenchant tweets from this morning.
In response:
Yup and yup.
"Just went to a very popular Christian twitterer/blogger's web site and searched for "Jesus". Zero results. I think you're missing something."
-- @DustinDK (a deacon-in-training at Mars Hill Church Seattle)
In response:
"Isn't that funny/sad? Allot of fame in the church is inversely related to talk bout Jesus."
-- @culturalsavage (a Portland, Oregon photographer and graphic artist (who happened to have designed Element's current "Lovers" series graphic)
Yup and yup.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
GDC Video Blog - The Reconcilable Difference
Well, I don't know how much more polished this one is, but it is 2/3 shorter than the first one, so I managed to keep that promise.
It's kinda Rated PG-13, by the way. Not really, but kinda.
Gospel-Driven Church Vlog 2 - The Reconcilable Difference from Jared Wilson on Vimeo.
I like how the preview still frame up there looks like I'm wincing from a punch to the gullet.
Anyhoozle, let me know what you think.
It's kinda Rated PG-13, by the way. Not really, but kinda.
Gospel-Driven Church Vlog 2 - The Reconcilable Difference from Jared Wilson on Vimeo.
I like how the preview still frame up there looks like I'm wincing from a punch to the gullet.
Anyhoozle, let me know what you think.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Have Mercy
Today is Blog Action Day, and I don't really even know what that means, but I gather it has something to do with motivating people to do something about poverty.
Two things:
a) I've been writing all day and I'm tapped out. I've got nothing motivational to say to you about combating poverty today, except that if you're a follower of Jesus you should be doing something about it. (And I suspect most of my readers are doing something already.)
b) If you're not inclined to help out, I seriously doubt a blog post will change your heart. Especially one as short and unmotivational as this one. :-) But, seriously, if you say you're a follower of Jesus and yet you're not interested in this aspect of Jesus' teachings, you got bigger problems than a blog post can solve.
Anyhoo.
I do some different things in this regard, with my family and with my church and with my own dang self, all of which are pretty simple, none of which make me some kind of awesome humanitarian along the lines of Mother Theresa or Angelina Jolie-Pitt, but the one thing I'd recommend to you, especially if you've got children, is sponsoring a child through Compassion International.
Believe the hype. Compassion is awesome. And what they do works and it works well.
My family has sponsored a little girl named Lorena from El Salvador for about six years, since about the time our oldest was 1. So we have literally seen Lorena grow up (in pictures). The best part is trading letters and photos, and our daughters now have a pen pal from a completely different walk of life in a completely different part of the world. We get to teach our kids about helping kids who don't have lots of money or stuff or opportunities, and Lorena gets an advantage socially, financially, educationally, and spiritually.
It costs about 5 trips to Starbucks a month (or something like that). Go for it.
Two things:
a) I've been writing all day and I'm tapped out. I've got nothing motivational to say to you about combating poverty today, except that if you're a follower of Jesus you should be doing something about it. (And I suspect most of my readers are doing something already.)
b) If you're not inclined to help out, I seriously doubt a blog post will change your heart. Especially one as short and unmotivational as this one. :-) But, seriously, if you say you're a follower of Jesus and yet you're not interested in this aspect of Jesus' teachings, you got bigger problems than a blog post can solve.
Anyhoo.
I do some different things in this regard, with my family and with my church and with my own dang self, all of which are pretty simple, none of which make me some kind of awesome humanitarian along the lines of Mother Theresa or Angelina Jolie-Pitt, but the one thing I'd recommend to you, especially if you've got children, is sponsoring a child through Compassion International.
Believe the hype. Compassion is awesome. And what they do works and it works well.
My family has sponsored a little girl named Lorena from El Salvador for about six years, since about the time our oldest was 1. So we have literally seen Lorena grow up (in pictures). The best part is trading letters and photos, and our daughters now have a pen pal from a completely different walk of life in a completely different part of the world. We get to teach our kids about helping kids who don't have lots of money or stuff or opportunities, and Lorena gets an advantage socially, financially, educationally, and spiritually.
It costs about 5 trips to Starbucks a month (or something like that). Go for it.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
"There is No Act So Mundane That it Lies Outside the Scope of the Gospel"
The title is a line from Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, and it helped inspire my latest piece at SearchWarp:
The Sovereignty of God and the Washing of Dishes
An excerpt:
The Sovereignty of God and the Washing of Dishes
An excerpt:
If every day and every space within that day is subject to the lordship of Christ, there is no such thing as holy space and less holy space. In fact, what many of us really need to do is not drop changing diapers to go into the world and "make a difference," but submit our changing of diapers to the lordship of Christ. Every act, no matter how menial, should be an act of worship, and it can be if we are doing it in gratitude and prayer and committing it to the glory of God.
The work of the Christian, in a million subsequent echoes of the Incarnation, is to make sacraments of our moments, infusing the spiritual into the ordinary and treating the ordinary as spiritual. The idea, Sinclair Ferguson writes, is that we are "doing the Spiritual thing naturally and doing the natural thing Spiritually."
Abraham Kuyper famously preached:There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'"
And therefore there is no square inch of our daily lives over which we should not cry, "His!," and act as if it were so.
Dreams Come True
So yesterday morning I was at Dunkin Donuts working on this book project for one of the pastor clients of Docent, and it occurred to me how good God has been to me. It dawned on me that I was getting paid to listen to a sermon podcast and take notes, something I enjoy doing and do for pleasure anyway. And today I was back at the Double D (it's the only place in my little town with free wifi) getting paid today to write an article about how awesome Jesus is.
Then I got an email from the editor at a magazine I really like, asking to see the article I pitched to them last week, so I was already humming with excitement over that possibility when I came home and in my mailbox was the contract from a publisher for my book, The Unvarnished Jesus. I just initialed and signed a bazillion pages and am going to put it back in the mail this afternoon.
I'm getting published!
This is a dream come true for me. Some of you have been following my writing online since I first started, with The Thinklings in 2003 and then with my original solo blog, Mysterium Tremendum, which I actually shut down with the resolution that I wouldn't return until I could say I was a published author.
Of course, at the time I was writing novels (and still am, technically). Then Element happened, and one of the first series I preached there was called "Old School Jesus," a 12 week epic that sought to put "historical Jesus" studies into a more pastoral, devotional, and -- above all -- gospel-centered context. Less than a year into Element's ministry, when I got the final, stinging rejection on the novel I consider my greatest work, my passion project, I turned my disappointment into opportunity by thinking about turning that Jesus series into a book. So I did.
I told my agent that I knew it might be tough to sell me as a non-fiction writer, but most of the people who have been reading me for 5 years know me only as a non-fiction writer. But I was a novelist, and that's how we'd been trying to sell me to the publishing world. I'm not a big name pastor or Christian celebrity or specialized "expert," and it's hard to get a non-fiction book published if you're not any of those things. But I am a pastor who is passionate about Jesus and I have been told I'm a pretty good writer. So I got some great endorsements from friends (and recognized names and authors) like Ray Ortlund, Mark Bertrand, Michael Spencer, Glenn Lucke, and Joe Carter, and sent the manuscript in.
And now Kregel wants to publish it.
I was kind of laughing on the phone with my agent the other day, saying, "Who woulda thought I'd start out writing fiction and get published on my first non-fiction manuscript?"
I told him I was just as surprised as he was. I certainly didn't expect it would go this way.
But God did. And I'm thankful that he has allowed me this opportunity. When I was 5 years old, in a little kindergarten questionnaire that asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wrote "author." Not policeman, not fireman, not doctor. Not even writer. But "author." This is a dream come true for me, and it is sweeter for knowing that even when I was depressed, when I believed in my heart that I was a failure as a husband and a father and a man and a pastor and a writer and a Christian, God was still good and still God.
Thank you, long time readers especially, for your friendship and your encouragement.
Take nothing for granted!
To God be the glory.
Then I got an email from the editor at a magazine I really like, asking to see the article I pitched to them last week, so I was already humming with excitement over that possibility when I came home and in my mailbox was the contract from a publisher for my book, The Unvarnished Jesus. I just initialed and signed a bazillion pages and am going to put it back in the mail this afternoon.
I'm getting published!
This is a dream come true for me. Some of you have been following my writing online since I first started, with The Thinklings in 2003 and then with my original solo blog, Mysterium Tremendum, which I actually shut down with the resolution that I wouldn't return until I could say I was a published author.
Of course, at the time I was writing novels (and still am, technically). Then Element happened, and one of the first series I preached there was called "Old School Jesus," a 12 week epic that sought to put "historical Jesus" studies into a more pastoral, devotional, and -- above all -- gospel-centered context. Less than a year into Element's ministry, when I got the final, stinging rejection on the novel I consider my greatest work, my passion project, I turned my disappointment into opportunity by thinking about turning that Jesus series into a book. So I did.
I told my agent that I knew it might be tough to sell me as a non-fiction writer, but most of the people who have been reading me for 5 years know me only as a non-fiction writer. But I was a novelist, and that's how we'd been trying to sell me to the publishing world. I'm not a big name pastor or Christian celebrity or specialized "expert," and it's hard to get a non-fiction book published if you're not any of those things. But I am a pastor who is passionate about Jesus and I have been told I'm a pretty good writer. So I got some great endorsements from friends (and recognized names and authors) like Ray Ortlund, Mark Bertrand, Michael Spencer, Glenn Lucke, and Joe Carter, and sent the manuscript in.
And now Kregel wants to publish it.
I was kind of laughing on the phone with my agent the other day, saying, "Who woulda thought I'd start out writing fiction and get published on my first non-fiction manuscript?"
I told him I was just as surprised as he was. I certainly didn't expect it would go this way.
But God did. And I'm thankful that he has allowed me this opportunity. When I was 5 years old, in a little kindergarten questionnaire that asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wrote "author." Not policeman, not fireman, not doctor. Not even writer. But "author." This is a dream come true for me, and it is sweeter for knowing that even when I was depressed, when I believed in my heart that I was a failure as a husband and a father and a man and a pastor and a writer and a Christian, God was still good and still God.
Thank you, long time readers especially, for your friendship and your encouragement.
Take nothing for granted!
To God be the glory.
Bold As Love Profile: LUO (and Jess Mulvaney)
Bold As Love is Element's missional budgeting initiative, which stipulates that 60% of all money given to Element goes back out the door to our neighbors in need, near and far.
Each Sunday evening during the announcement time for the next few weeks, I will be highlighting the different recipients of Bold As Love funds designated for our first quarter. I have already profiled Cottage Cove, and last weekend at Element we profiled a foreign missions agency called LUO.
15% of Element offerings at this time are going toward the sending of our very own Jess Mulvaney* on a LUO-orchestrated trip to aid the poverty-stricken in South Africa. Here, from Jess's own blog, are the details:
Element is proud to support one of our community members as she obeys the Great Commission. Not only do we get to fulfill the purpose of the Bold As Love Initiative, we also get to, in a more short-term way, fulfill one of our vision goals of sending out Element missionaries.
This is just the first step. As many of our folks feel God's call to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and as Element grows, we hope to someday send and support a full-time missionaries.
Each Sunday evening during the announcement time for the next few weeks, I will be highlighting the different recipients of Bold As Love funds designated for our first quarter. I have already profiled Cottage Cove, and last weekend at Element we profiled a foreign missions agency called LUO.
15% of Element offerings at this time are going toward the sending of our very own Jess Mulvaney* on a LUO-orchestrated trip to aid the poverty-stricken in South Africa. Here, from Jess's own blog, are the details:
Luo - (v) to set free.
Luo is a Greek word. It is also the name of a non-profit organization that I was introduced to last spring at Orange Conference. Luo exists to improve the lives of impoverished children and set them free from the bondage of poverty. They are dedicated to promoting economic sustainability and improving quality of life through: Biblical and academic education, financial support, medical care and nutrition.
The goal of LUO is to partner with locally-based agencies in impoverished countries that have first-hand knowledge of the needs and the culture. By providing resources to these local organizations, they hope to empower them to effectively provide needed services to the children in their communities . . .
When I learned of Luo's work at Ithemba, a day center for orphans in Jeffery's Bay, South Africa, our family began sponsoring this little boy from Jeffery's Bay, South Africa for the year.
I am so excited that in November (7th-17th) I will be going with Luo on a missions trip to Ithemba. We'll be working with the kids there, as well as spending some time with the local church that Luo is partnering with. If Luo is able to raise the needed funds before our trip, we may even be able to begin construction work on the orphanage. They plan to expand the orphanage to have room for sleeping quarters. Right now these sweet kiddos are sleeping in the streets.
If you would like to be a part of helping these children in South Africa, you can support my trip financially. I need to raise $3000 by Oct. 15. All gifts can be sent directly to LUO Inc. 729 Princeton Mill Run Marietta, GA 30068. Please put "Jess Mulvaney" in the subject line of the check. All donations and trip support is tax deductible. You will receive a receipt for any gifts. You can also support Luo in general using this same address or through their website.
Element is proud to support one of our community members as she obeys the Great Commission. Not only do we get to fulfill the purpose of the Bold As Love Initiative, we also get to, in a more short-term way, fulfill one of our vision goals of sending out Element missionaries.
This is just the first step. As many of our folks feel God's call to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and as Element grows, we hope to someday send and support a full-time missionaries.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Comforting Discomfort
While Matt Chandler is on the brain, I should mention that God favored me enough to tune into the Catalyst backstage live feed mere minutes before he was interviewed and took questions off the chat. I submitted a question, the moderator posed it to Chandler, and his answer brought me to tears.
It wasn't that I didn't know the "right" answer. It's just that I needed someone to say it to me; I needed someone else to say it to me. I needed someone like Matt Chandler to say it to me.
In a similar vein, this piece by Michael Horton is like getting a big hug and a reassuring pat on the back.
A lengthy excerpt:
Read the whole thing.
I've linked to it on here before, I think, but I'm grateful to the BHT's Bob Myers for reminding me of it again.
It wasn't that I didn't know the "right" answer. It's just that I needed someone to say it to me; I needed someone else to say it to me. I needed someone like Matt Chandler to say it to me.
In a similar vein, this piece by Michael Horton is like getting a big hug and a reassuring pat on the back.
A lengthy excerpt:
Whereas Peter organized the diaconal office so that the apostles could devote themselves to the Word and to prayer, ideal ministers seem increasingly to be managers, therapists, entertainers, and entrepreneurial businesspeople.
Open up the average issue of Christianity Today to advertisements for pastoral positions and you’ll find descriptions like “team builder,” “warm and personal style,” “outgoing,” “contagious personality,” and “effective communicator.” (Catholic friends tell me that something like this affects Catholicism, too.)
I think they’re looking for a Director of Sales and Marketing, whom they may (or may not) call “Pastor.” I’m not against directors of sales and marketing; I just don’t think that this is what we should be looking for in the way of shepherds . . .
We wouldn’t have had Paul, for example. Who, having advertised for an outgoing team builder with a contagious personality, would have hired a pastor who openly disclosed the fact that he was not a great communicator, suffered everywhere he was sent, was nearly blind, and lacked the natural charisma of the “super-apostles,” who were only too happy to point out these weaknesses themselves?
Perhaps, like the immature and sectarian Corinthians (1 Cor. 3:5–9), we celebrate the extraordinary minister more than the ordinary ministry of the gospel.
Read the whole thing.
I've linked to it on here before, I think, but I'm grateful to the BHT's Bob Myers for reminding me of it again.
Buzz(un)worthy?
Most of the high profile bloggers who attended the Catalyst conference blogged and tweeted up a storm about the event, and most of the speakers merited their own posts from bloggers offering commentary on and reaction to the messages.
But mention of Matt Chandler's address is essentially non-existent.
I have heard he was the last speaker of the conference. Maybe most of the big name bloggers had left before he took the stage?
But mention of Matt Chandler's address is essentially non-existent.
I have heard he was the last speaker of the conference. Maybe most of the big name bloggers had left before he took the stage?
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Revisiting Values
Was just re-reading and reflecting on Element's stated values. We just wrapped up tonight's service 2 hours ago and I'm exhausted, but reminding myself of the heart of our ministry already has me excited about next Sunday night and all the prep I will do in the days leading up to it.
Does your church have stated values? If so, what are they?
We value:
THE GLORY OF GOD
With the Westminster Confession of Faith, we agree that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Our highest value and greatest good is that God be glorified in all we do, that His name be renowned and hallowed, and that He would increase and we would decrease. We look forward to the day when "the knowledge of His glory fills the earth like the waters cover the sea."
(Hab. 2:14; 1 Cor. 10:31; Rom. 11:36)
THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ is the King over all kings, the Lord over all lords, and the mighty Savior of sinners. As Jesus is God incarnate, our advocate and sacrifice, risen three days after death to glorified bodily life, and as He sits at the right hand of the Father and at the head of the Church, we treasure Him above all things. We believe the authentic Christian life is one that trusts all life and death to Jesus and is completely satisfied in Him alone.
(Col. 1:15-23; Eph. 2)
THE GOSPEL
"We will not be ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of salvation for all who believe," and consequently, our worship and our discipleship and our missions and our fellowship will be exercised in the joy and power of the amazing grace God has lavished on us in Jesus. We affirm a robust gospel that affects all areas of life, a kingdom gospel that both satisfies the poor and the poor in spirit and the hungry and those hungry for righteousness. In word and deed, we believe that the good news that Jesus Christ has died and risen to save sinners and reconcile them to God is, as Paul says, "of first importance."
(Romans 1:16; 1 Cor. 15:1-10; 1 Cor. 9:23)
OUR NEIGHBORS
Obedience to Jesus means first and foremost obeying the Great Commandment: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." We believe that a living faith in Jesus is made manifest in a selfless love and care for our neighbors, in a sharing of the grace that has been given to us, and in our "being all things to all people that we might win some." In fulfillment of the Great Commission call to go into all the world and proclaim Jesus and make disciples, we will embody the kingdom call of the Sermon on the Mount, which calls for grace-filled relationships with all men.
(Mark 12:33; James 1:27; 1 Cor. 13:13; Mt. 5:1-10)
THE CHURCH
We believe the Church universal and the local church as her agents constitute the spiritual Body of Christ and are to embody the gospel of love and sacrifice of Jesus to the glory of God. We believe the Church is to testify to and model the kingdom of God being made manifest in the world and that it is to be a living picture of the good news of reconciliation with God and with each other. The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, and it is in the community of Christ that disciples of Jesus are best equipped, trained, nurtured, and empowered. God's plan for the spread of the gospel places the Church at the forefront of the Great Commission.
(Mt. 16:18; Eph. 3:10-11; Heb. 10:24-25; Rev. 5:9-10)
Does your church have stated values? If so, what are they?
The Attractional Horror of the Cross
The curious paradox of the atoning death of a bloody Jesus rising above the plane of human history with a mocking crown of thorns is that he is offensive in an attractive way.
It is the utter horror of the cross that cuts through the chatter, noise, and nonsense of our day to rivet our attention, shut our mouths, and compel us to listen to an impassioned dying man who is crying out for the forgiveness of our sins and to ask why he suffered.
Tragically, if we lose the offense of the cross, we also lose the attraction of the cross so that no one is compelled to look at Jesus. Therefore, Jesus does not need a marketing firm or a makeover as much as a prophet to preach the horror of the cross unashamedly.
—- Mark Driscoll, Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches
(HT: Of First Importance)
Christ crucified gets my attention. It's when he bids me join him on the cross that I am tempted to walk away.
The Real Litmus Test for Your Worship Service
This was inevitable in the consumer-driven church, I guess. (HT: Justin Taylor)
If you're going to church today, I'm not going to tell you that impressive facilities and five-star service aren't important to your "experience," but the number one think you should look for at your church's worship service is who the attention is really on.
If it's not you, I'm sorry. But was it at least Jesus?
Because if the music doesn't center on the awesomeness of God and the wonder of Christ's work, it doesn't matter how polished or energetic or slick the worship time was. And if the message doesn't focus on Jesus and the centrality of the gospel, it doesn't matter how great a speaker the pastor is or how cool or funny or dynamic he is.
Following Jesus means denying yourself. This means when you go to church, it shouldn't be about you, and you shouldn't mind if it's not.
And it means you shouldn't "test" your worship service on how well it caters to you.
Is your church focusing on Jesus this morning? (A mention isn't an automatic yes to the question.)
If not: What are you going to do about it?
There's nothing wrong with clean facilities and friendly greeters and all that, and indeed, we should all hope for those things. But, man, are they beside the point.
If you're going to church today, I'm not going to tell you that impressive facilities and five-star service aren't important to your "experience," but the number one think you should look for at your church's worship service is who the attention is really on.
If it's not you, I'm sorry. But was it at least Jesus?
Because if the music doesn't center on the awesomeness of God and the wonder of Christ's work, it doesn't matter how polished or energetic or slick the worship time was. And if the message doesn't focus on Jesus and the centrality of the gospel, it doesn't matter how great a speaker the pastor is or how cool or funny or dynamic he is.
Following Jesus means denying yourself. This means when you go to church, it shouldn't be about you, and you shouldn't mind if it's not.
And it means you shouldn't "test" your worship service on how well it caters to you.
Is your church focusing on Jesus this morning? (A mention isn't an automatic yes to the question.)
If not: What are you going to do about it?
There's nothing wrong with clean facilities and friendly greeters and all that, and indeed, we should all hope for those things. But, man, are they beside the point.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Another "Best" Blog You're Not Reading
Except perhaps you are.
Either way, start (or continue) reading Of First Importance, the finest compendium of gospel-centered quotations in the blogosphere.
That site is a satisfying well I return to constantly for soul stirring, laser-like focus on the gospel from the finest writers and pastors Christianity past and present has to offer.
Either way, start (or continue) reading Of First Importance, the finest compendium of gospel-centered quotations in the blogosphere.
That site is a satisfying well I return to constantly for soul stirring, laser-like focus on the gospel from the finest writers and pastors Christianity past and present has to offer.
GDC Video Blog - Relational Legalism
It's pretty rough, but here is my first stab at video blogging. I'd like to make this a regular feature on the site, but I promise two things. Future installments will be:
1) shorter
2) more polished
In the meantime, see if you think my rambling is worthy of becoming a GDC staple, and let me know what you think in the comments.
Gospel-Driven Church Vlog 1 - Relational Legalism from Jared Wilson on Vimeo.
1) shorter
2) more polished
In the meantime, see if you think my rambling is worthy of becoming a GDC staple, and let me know what you think in the comments.
Gospel-Driven Church Vlog 1 - Relational Legalism from Jared Wilson on Vimeo.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Self-Righteousness and Idolatry
Your badness is not as great a barrier between you and God as your goodness.
-- Ray Ortlund
The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison, but apple pie.
-- John Piper
-- Ray Ortlund
The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison, but apple pie.
-- John Piper
Challenge to the Church: Renounce Self
The man I consider my mentor-pastor, Mike Ayers, once said in a message, "To be a follower of Jesus you must renounce comfort as the ultimate value of your life."
That was burned into my brain and I've never forgotten it.
Why does that statement sound revolutionary?
Yes, it challenges our natural bent toward self-interest. Yes, it chalenges our cultural premiums on pleasure and independence.
But within church culture, why is it so challenging?
Some friends of ours visited a church recently and in relaying the quality of the message, one of them said that, teaching from Philippians, the pastor announced that the normal Christian life is characterized by suffering. My friend, a big smile on his face, concluded, "Which, you know, was good to hear."
It's not about being joyless or gluttons for punishment. It's partly about not saying to believers who are growing through some terrible, terrible things "You are abnormal; something is wrong with you or your faith because this is happening."
And yet that is the message many of our churches send.
The more Scripture I read, the more alien to it much of the modern church's message seems.
At its root, this renewed call to Scriptural consistency, this turning back to the message of repentance from our ego, pride, self-interest, and self-satisfaction is actually about being more ourselves, more real. I don't trust anyone who says following Jesus means everything should go great for me, because nobody who's ever lived has ever had everything go great. It is not honest to say one can avoid suffering and defeat and failure.
So which is greater? A message that dishonestly preaches that with Jesus everything can be "total victory" or a message that honestly preaches that in life crappy things happen but because of Jesus' total victory those crappy things are given meaning and significance? One message urges victory in avoidance, which isn't even possible; the other urges victory in the experience.
The following is from Matt Kleberg's great, gospel-blaring post at Common Grounds this week called Real Love is Transparent:
For His power is made perfect in my weakness, not my prosperity.
His grace is sufficient for me, because my successes are not.
When I am weak, then I am strong.
The message of self-empowerment is the antithesis of the gospel and must be challenged.
That was burned into my brain and I've never forgotten it.
Why does that statement sound revolutionary?
Yes, it challenges our natural bent toward self-interest. Yes, it chalenges our cultural premiums on pleasure and independence.
But within church culture, why is it so challenging?
Some friends of ours visited a church recently and in relaying the quality of the message, one of them said that, teaching from Philippians, the pastor announced that the normal Christian life is characterized by suffering. My friend, a big smile on his face, concluded, "Which, you know, was good to hear."
It's not about being joyless or gluttons for punishment. It's partly about not saying to believers who are growing through some terrible, terrible things "You are abnormal; something is wrong with you or your faith because this is happening."
And yet that is the message many of our churches send.
The more Scripture I read, the more alien to it much of the modern church's message seems.
At its root, this renewed call to Scriptural consistency, this turning back to the message of repentance from our ego, pride, self-interest, and self-satisfaction is actually about being more ourselves, more real. I don't trust anyone who says following Jesus means everything should go great for me, because nobody who's ever lived has ever had everything go great. It is not honest to say one can avoid suffering and defeat and failure.
So which is greater? A message that dishonestly preaches that with Jesus everything can be "total victory" or a message that honestly preaches that in life crappy things happen but because of Jesus' total victory those crappy things are given meaning and significance? One message urges victory in avoidance, which isn't even possible; the other urges victory in the experience.
The following is from Matt Kleberg's great, gospel-blaring post at Common Grounds this week called Real Love is Transparent:
Last summer a certain friend of mine weighed heavy on my heart. I made a point to pray for him and love him whenever and however I could. That same friend later shared with someone else that he simply could not relate to me. In his eyes, I had put on a glossy façade, feigning invincibility and faultlessness. I never revealed my weakness and humanness and thus was not a real person. He saw me as a fake, like a mannequin in Christianity’s window display. My friend’s assessment was right on- my pride and fear kept me from really loving him at all.
I internalize and cover up my sin and weakness because I fear that any failure on my part implies a failure of Christianity. I must be perfect; otherwise Christianity is just a big flop, exposed as an elaborate hoax. The pressure is on and I must perform so that Christianity looks like a good buy.
This assumption is the exact opposite of the gospel. It is anti-gospel. To say that my failures somehow discredit Christianity completely disregards the cross! What pride and hypocrisy! Out of death we are made alive in Christ and our new identities are not bound up in our own righteousness, but rather the righteousness of Christ. It is by His perfection that we are presented as spotless before the Father. And while the Spirit does begin its healing work on our hearts, it is forever the work of Jesus that makes us children of God. I no longer have to disguise my sin for fear of nullifying the gospel. The gospel, rather, nullifies my sin, and frees me up to live as though transparent. The world can see through me- can see that I am needy and that there is a savior who triumphs over my brokenness.
For His power is made perfect in my weakness, not my prosperity.
His grace is sufficient for me, because my successes are not.
When I am weak, then I am strong.
The message of self-empowerment is the antithesis of the gospel and must be challenged.
Matt Chandler: Voice in the Wilderness?
According to the Twitter reacts, Matt Chandler is killing it at the Catalyst Conference right now.
I love me some Matt Chandler. His preaching and ministry has blessed me from afar for many months.
I was actually surprised to see he was scheduled for the Catalyst event. It isn't exactly the kind of crowd I associate with him. He's an Acts 29, younger Gospel Coalition sort of Reformed Baptist continuationist "don't drink the church growth kool-aid" kind of guy; while Catalyst strikes me as more for the nouveau attractional pastorpreneur "go big or go home" sort of crowd. Although I know there's overlap, and we shouldn't stereotype, and Ed Stetzer's there talking missional for goodness' sake, etc.
But looking at the speaker lineup, I just knew Chandler's message was gonna be different from just about everybody else's. And it sounds like it is. (One Twitter reaction describes his message as an ass-kicking.
Can't wait to hear his message. I expect his is a prophetic voice at that conference.
I love me some Matt Chandler. His preaching and ministry has blessed me from afar for many months.
I was actually surprised to see he was scheduled for the Catalyst event. It isn't exactly the kind of crowd I associate with him. He's an Acts 29, younger Gospel Coalition sort of Reformed Baptist continuationist "don't drink the church growth kool-aid" kind of guy; while Catalyst strikes me as more for the nouveau attractional pastorpreneur "go big or go home" sort of crowd. Although I know there's overlap, and we shouldn't stereotype, and Ed Stetzer's there talking missional for goodness' sake, etc.
But looking at the speaker lineup, I just knew Chandler's message was gonna be different from just about everybody else's. And it sounds like it is. (One Twitter reaction describes his message as an ass-kicking.
Can't wait to hear his message. I expect his is a prophetic voice at that conference.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Converting the Churched to Gospel-Centrism
The Jollyblogger has a good post up today called Eclipse of the Gospel in the Church. He builds off this Marcus Honeysett quote:
Um, yep.
Expanding this beyond an individual congregation, I would say this is a predicament for all gospel-centered churches in areas where the attractional church is king, particularly here in the Bible Belt, where Christianity is "cultural" and the church with the most toys wins.
The Jollyblogger follows up:
We are in a weird -- but frequently exhilarating -- position where the gospel is scandalous even to Christians.
So many of our brothers and sisters want the compartmentalized spirituality (putting in their religious time on Sunday mornings), the six steps to such-and-such messages, and the superficiality of apathy towards real community, that missional thinking and living, gospel-saturated and Jesus-centered messages, and the demands of relational intimacy freak them out. This stuff is a foreign language to them, and I see it constantly here in Nash Vegas, where "everyone" is a Christian, "everyone" goes to church.
A couple of weeks ago, reading on a Nashville church shopper's blog, I noticed a commenter urging her to look for a church that focuses on Jesus. Her reply was, "I've already found Jesus."
This is the default mode of Bible Belt Christianity. I've got my ticket punched, just give me the show now. I need a dynamic speaker on Sunday mornings, a rockin' band on the stage, a full service childcare facility, a big youth group, a coffee bar near the sanctuary, etc.
I've got Jesus already; give me something that matters to me now, something "relevant," something applicable.
And there is a never-ending appetite for this stuff because this stuff doesn't fix or fulfill anything. Seven steps to conquering conflict in your marriage won't eradicate conflict. So there's always demand for seven more steps next time around.
What I find especially ironic about the churches catering to ungospelized Christians is that they claim they exist for the unchurched. They are the ones actually reaching lost people, they say.
The data does not support this, of course. The number of megachurches has increased; the number of Christians has decreased. This does not compute. And when folks like Sally Morgenthaler start looking at the research, what they find is that the attractional machine, which purports to be for the lost and unchurched, basically just ends up attracting Christians from smaller or less "exciting" churches.
Should missional church pastors care? Do we want these folks?
Speaking for myself, yes. Except, I want to win them. I don't want them as they are. And frankly, as they are, they don't want what we've got anyway. To the cultural Christian, there is nothing attractive about a small church that expects relational community, practices regular neighborhood service, highlights the cost of discipleship in every message, has no menu of programs to partake from, and gives 60% of its money away (precluding a "nice" facility and assorted bells and whistles). But I want to reach them. All Christians are family. I love the big-C Church dearly. She is my passion, and I desperately want her to reform. (If you haven't noticed, that's the theme of this site.)
There are some who would say the missional communities should just write off their attractional brothers and sisters and focus on reaching the lost. I defy false dichotomies. And while I never poach (I've never invited members of other churches to Element before they themselves have first expressed interest in visiting), I pray and preach and try to live a life of witness so that my churched brothers and sisters will begin to crave the gospel and gospel-centrism in their congregations.
The more churched converts gospel-centrism receives -- we're talking about revival here, by the way -- the greater impact for the kingdom among the lost and "least of these" there will be.
"At some point in the life of most local churches a critical point is reached when the core fellowship of those committed to gospel vision are outnumbered by a fringe who are there for quite different reasons, be it spiritual comfort, kids activities, personal support, or whatever. Regardless of the particular type of church government, all fellowships struggle to maintain focus around core vision when the fringe, be they believers or not, outnumber the gospel-oriented core. It is very hard to maintain focus, or alter any aspect of church life to reflect the gospel needs of a fresh generation, when the majority are committed to maintaining their comfort. When this happens "Christians" have been replaced with "churchgoers" who assume they are Christians."
Um, yep.
Expanding this beyond an individual congregation, I would say this is a predicament for all gospel-centered churches in areas where the attractional church is king, particularly here in the Bible Belt, where Christianity is "cultural" and the church with the most toys wins.
The Jollyblogger follows up:
That seems to be the nature of the beast when it comes to the church. The Exodus people of Israel quickly forgot their redemption and pined for their leeks and onions and devolved into complaints and idolatry. So much so that God had to let a generation die out before they could enter the promised land. And, if you read through the history of Israel it's easy to see how quickly the pattern that Honeysett describes here happens. The people of God forget or jettison their identity as redeemed people, and they jettison a redemption-driven agenda for other agendas. The church in Corinth is a good New Testament example of this.
It's probably just something we have to accept and accept that getting the gospel into the church is an even greater priority than getting it into the world. I remember vaguely hearing Tim Keller talk about Redeemer in Manhattan. Redeemer is well known around the world as a leading light in gospel based, missionally driven ministry, yet if I remember correctly Keller said there were probably only a third or a little more at his church who were really getting the whole gospel-missional thing . . .
So the point is that our first and greatest battle is to gospelize the church.
We are in a weird -- but frequently exhilarating -- position where the gospel is scandalous even to Christians.
So many of our brothers and sisters want the compartmentalized spirituality (putting in their religious time on Sunday mornings), the six steps to such-and-such messages, and the superficiality of apathy towards real community, that missional thinking and living, gospel-saturated and Jesus-centered messages, and the demands of relational intimacy freak them out. This stuff is a foreign language to them, and I see it constantly here in Nash Vegas, where "everyone" is a Christian, "everyone" goes to church.
A couple of weeks ago, reading on a Nashville church shopper's blog, I noticed a commenter urging her to look for a church that focuses on Jesus. Her reply was, "I've already found Jesus."
This is the default mode of Bible Belt Christianity. I've got my ticket punched, just give me the show now. I need a dynamic speaker on Sunday mornings, a rockin' band on the stage, a full service childcare facility, a big youth group, a coffee bar near the sanctuary, etc.
I've got Jesus already; give me something that matters to me now, something "relevant," something applicable.
And there is a never-ending appetite for this stuff because this stuff doesn't fix or fulfill anything. Seven steps to conquering conflict in your marriage won't eradicate conflict. So there's always demand for seven more steps next time around.
What I find especially ironic about the churches catering to ungospelized Christians is that they claim they exist for the unchurched. They are the ones actually reaching lost people, they say.
The data does not support this, of course. The number of megachurches has increased; the number of Christians has decreased. This does not compute. And when folks like Sally Morgenthaler start looking at the research, what they find is that the attractional machine, which purports to be for the lost and unchurched, basically just ends up attracting Christians from smaller or less "exciting" churches.
Should missional church pastors care? Do we want these folks?
Speaking for myself, yes. Except, I want to win them. I don't want them as they are. And frankly, as they are, they don't want what we've got anyway. To the cultural Christian, there is nothing attractive about a small church that expects relational community, practices regular neighborhood service, highlights the cost of discipleship in every message, has no menu of programs to partake from, and gives 60% of its money away (precluding a "nice" facility and assorted bells and whistles). But I want to reach them. All Christians are family. I love the big-C Church dearly. She is my passion, and I desperately want her to reform. (If you haven't noticed, that's the theme of this site.)
There are some who would say the missional communities should just write off their attractional brothers and sisters and focus on reaching the lost. I defy false dichotomies. And while I never poach (I've never invited members of other churches to Element before they themselves have first expressed interest in visiting), I pray and preach and try to live a life of witness so that my churched brothers and sisters will begin to crave the gospel and gospel-centrism in their congregations.
The more churched converts gospel-centrism receives -- we're talking about revival here, by the way -- the greater impact for the kingdom among the lost and "least of these" there will be.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Pastoral Care
Sobering stats from various sources:
From Thabiti Anyabwile (HT: Justin Taylor):
Previously:
Encourage Your Pastor
1. Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout or contention in their churches.
2. Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
3. Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
4. Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years. Ninety percent of pastors said their seminary or Bible school training did only a fair to poor job preparing them for ministry.
5. Ninety percent said the ministry was completely different than what they thought it would be before they entered the ministry.
6. Seventy percent felt God called them to pastoral ministry before their ministry began, but after three years of ministry, only fifty percent still felt called.
7. Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.
From Thabiti Anyabwile (HT: Justin Taylor):
Hey, have you prayed for or encouraged your pastor today? At the risk of sounding self-serving, could I suggest that every Christian church member consider one of their main ministries the ministry of encouragement for their pastors and elders. I received an email from one brother stating that he knew of over 20 pastors leaving the pastorate in one region of the U.S. I've had opportunity to interact with at least three pastors experiencing deep struggle. That doesn't include the normal battles for encouragement, joy, and perseverance that are just normal to pastoral ministry. So, have you prayed for your pastor(s) today?
Previously:
Encourage Your Pastor
Kostenberger on Church Mission
Andreas Kostenberger's 12 theses for church missiology are excellent.
How can we get stuff like this to the pastorpreneur crowd?
How can we get stuff like this to the pastorpreneur crowd?
Tuesday was for the Ha Ha
But today will do.
How big a doof am I? I thought this one-note sketch from last weekend's SNL was the funniest of the night. I laughed so hard I cried. Seriously.
Will Forte's song about the congressional bailout vote on the "Weekend Update" segment was also brilliant.
How big a doof am I? I thought this one-note sketch from last weekend's SNL was the funniest of the night. I laughed so hard I cried. Seriously.
Will Forte's song about the congressional bailout vote on the "Weekend Update" segment was also brilliant.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Bold As Love Profile: Cottage Cove Urban Ministries
Two weeks ago Element's board of directors voted in a specific recipient plan for "Bold As Love," our missional budgeting initiative. We decided to act retroactively, so not only will 60% of all future offerings to Element go back out the door to those in need, we began cutting checks to give away 60% of all we had in the bank, everything we'd saved in about a year of independent ministry.
Each Sunday evening during the announcement time for the next few weeks, I will be highlighting the different recipients of Bold As Love funds designated for our first quarter, and last night I began by profiling a local Nashville mission agency that we have helped out with in different ways since our days as BCC's young adult ministry.
Cottage Cove Urban Ministries is a fantastic ministry to at-risk kids (and their families) in the Wegewoood area of inner city Nashville. Their primary operation is an after-school program that, among lots of other things, helps kids with their homework, teaches them computer skills, offers arts and crafts classes, trains kids in spiritual formation and Bible memorization, mentors and counsels, and basically loves on some awesome kids.
After school is the prime time for trouble for kids in this demographic, and the loving, intentional ministry of Cottage Cove is really working at breaking the cycles of poverty, unemployment, drugs, crime, and gang involvement. They run some great programs (Christmas With Dignity comes to mind) and maintain a regular Sunday morning worship service for the neighborhood, and the tiny staff of 4* includes a family of 3 who have dedicated their lives to this mission.
If you're looking for a place that does a lot of good for the local "least of these" and the glory of God, maybe you could look into some ways to help.
Element has up to this point done several on-site service projects with Cottage Cove -- yard work, playground maintenance, cleaning, painting, working at the Christmas With Dignity store, etc. -- and made some financial contributions, but beginning last week we sent Cottage Cove a check for 25% of everything we had, and for the foreseeable future, 15% of all giving to Element will go to Cottage Cove. We are just so excited about what they do and how they do it.
And I am very proud of the Element community for getting behind this effort to love our neighbors as ourselves with our money as well as our time. I am honored to be a part of a community that hopes to be as bold as love.
* This is staff. Cottage Cove could not do all it does without the steady help of volunteers and occasional interns.
Each Sunday evening during the announcement time for the next few weeks, I will be highlighting the different recipients of Bold As Love funds designated for our first quarter, and last night I began by profiling a local Nashville mission agency that we have helped out with in different ways since our days as BCC's young adult ministry.
Cottage Cove Urban Ministries is a fantastic ministry to at-risk kids (and their families) in the Wegewoood area of inner city Nashville. Their primary operation is an after-school program that, among lots of other things, helps kids with their homework, teaches them computer skills, offers arts and crafts classes, trains kids in spiritual formation and Bible memorization, mentors and counsels, and basically loves on some awesome kids.
After school is the prime time for trouble for kids in this demographic, and the loving, intentional ministry of Cottage Cove is really working at breaking the cycles of poverty, unemployment, drugs, crime, and gang involvement. They run some great programs (Christmas With Dignity comes to mind) and maintain a regular Sunday morning worship service for the neighborhood, and the tiny staff of 4* includes a family of 3 who have dedicated their lives to this mission.
If you're looking for a place that does a lot of good for the local "least of these" and the glory of God, maybe you could look into some ways to help.
Element has up to this point done several on-site service projects with Cottage Cove -- yard work, playground maintenance, cleaning, painting, working at the Christmas With Dignity store, etc. -- and made some financial contributions, but beginning last week we sent Cottage Cove a check for 25% of everything we had, and for the foreseeable future, 15% of all giving to Element will go to Cottage Cove. We are just so excited about what they do and how they do it.
And I am very proud of the Element community for getting behind this effort to love our neighbors as ourselves with our money as well as our time. I am honored to be a part of a community that hopes to be as bold as love.
* This is staff. Cottage Cove could not do all it does without the steady help of volunteers and occasional interns.
The Best Blog You're Not Reading
Or maybe you are reading it, I don't know.
In any event, start (or continue) reading The Spyglass by pastor Rob Harrison (aka The Ancient Mariner to Thinklings readers).
You won't be sorry. Consistently awesome.
In any event, start (or continue) reading The Spyglass by pastor Rob Harrison (aka The Ancient Mariner to Thinklings readers).
You won't be sorry. Consistently awesome.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Gospel Intentionality: Programs vs. "Ordinary" Life
Another good quote from Total Church by Chester and Timmis:
A community whose culture is gospel-intentioned is the antidote to programmed discipleship, where "church" is fit into schedules.
The Church is the Body of Christ, and we need it. We need community. We need the sustenance the community provides.
Jesus asked Peter a question: "Do you love Me?"
Peter said yes.
And Jesus didn't say, "Then teach my sheep how to self feed."
What this means is not an end to churchly provision. What it means is an end to The Program as key to spiritual growth. What it means is we cannot install an event, and when we see it doesn't work, install another event and hope it succeeds.
Discipleship is about following Jesus. And people have to want to do this.
Rather than attempt to program churchgoers into discipleship, why don't we try this:
a) proclaim and exemplify the gospel as often as possible.
Isn't it odd that for so long we have begun with the idea that we must demonstrate how practical and applicable to every day life Christianity is, yet so few people are actually being matured by the process that begins that way? I think it has something to do with the fact we aren't beginning by addressing the real problem. We assume it is dysfunction or lack of success, when really it is sin.
b) express and exemplify the need for community as often as possible.
Many churches are finding that simply introducing a small group program doesn't magically make their folks want to do small groups. You have to demonstrate the need for it to them by authentic preaching in worship gatherings and by setting up opportunities between people to share their hearts, arranging mentor relationships, etc. Maybe this means testimonials from the stage. Maybe this means returning to an on-campus small class structure with the aim of eventually transitioning them into home groups. But this is something that has to be cultivated, not just programmed.
c) focus on, center on, orient around Jesus and worship him as God.
What good is it to win people to the life of a church's programs if they aren't in love with Jesus? We have been stunning failures at Christ-intoxication. Exalt Jesus as more than a role model who teaches how to handle your finances, and those who see him as the Door rather than merely the doorman to success will be all the more ready to follow despite the cost.
d) trust the Holy Spirit.
This something that convicts me personally, and I lump myself in with shame: We don't pray enough.
Are we trusting our programs, or are we trusting God?
I don't believe the right response to "the programs aren't working" is to conclude the life of the Church is not the place for Christians, new and "old," to be fed. I don't believe the right response to "our goods and services aren't having their desired effect" is to work on creating more independent Christians.
We just have to further and more fully devote to the proclamation of and the living out of the Gospel of Jesus. In community. Feeding each other. Having all things in common. Caring for the least of these.
That's life together.
The need for gospel intentionality means that leaders must work hard to create and reinforce this gospel culture. I remember speaking at a conference about ordinary life with gospel intentionality. Questioner and questioner asked me about the structures that needed to be in place. But you cannot program ordinary life! "When do you do evangelism?" people asked. "When do you pastor one another?" "While I do the washing up" did not seem to satisfy them, but it was the only answer I could give! All this requires people who are proactively committed to speaking the gospel to unbelievers (and other Christians).
A community whose culture is gospel-intentioned is the antidote to programmed discipleship, where "church" is fit into schedules.
The Church is the Body of Christ, and we need it. We need community. We need the sustenance the community provides.
Jesus asked Peter a question: "Do you love Me?"
Peter said yes.
And Jesus didn't say, "Then teach my sheep how to self feed."
What this means is not an end to churchly provision. What it means is an end to The Program as key to spiritual growth. What it means is we cannot install an event, and when we see it doesn't work, install another event and hope it succeeds.
Discipleship is about following Jesus. And people have to want to do this.
Rather than attempt to program churchgoers into discipleship, why don't we try this:
a) proclaim and exemplify the gospel as often as possible.
Isn't it odd that for so long we have begun with the idea that we must demonstrate how practical and applicable to every day life Christianity is, yet so few people are actually being matured by the process that begins that way? I think it has something to do with the fact we aren't beginning by addressing the real problem. We assume it is dysfunction or lack of success, when really it is sin.
b) express and exemplify the need for community as often as possible.
Many churches are finding that simply introducing a small group program doesn't magically make their folks want to do small groups. You have to demonstrate the need for it to them by authentic preaching in worship gatherings and by setting up opportunities between people to share their hearts, arranging mentor relationships, etc. Maybe this means testimonials from the stage. Maybe this means returning to an on-campus small class structure with the aim of eventually transitioning them into home groups. But this is something that has to be cultivated, not just programmed.
c) focus on, center on, orient around Jesus and worship him as God.
What good is it to win people to the life of a church's programs if they aren't in love with Jesus? We have been stunning failures at Christ-intoxication. Exalt Jesus as more than a role model who teaches how to handle your finances, and those who see him as the Door rather than merely the doorman to success will be all the more ready to follow despite the cost.
d) trust the Holy Spirit.
This something that convicts me personally, and I lump myself in with shame: We don't pray enough.
Are we trusting our programs, or are we trusting God?
I don't believe the right response to "the programs aren't working" is to conclude the life of the Church is not the place for Christians, new and "old," to be fed. I don't believe the right response to "our goods and services aren't having their desired effect" is to work on creating more independent Christians.
We just have to further and more fully devote to the proclamation of and the living out of the Gospel of Jesus. In community. Feeding each other. Having all things in common. Caring for the least of these.
That's life together.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Sounds Good Till You Actually Have to Do It
I'm reading Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis right now, and it is as awesome as I expected it to be. (I'll probably post a review when I'm done.)
Here's a money quote from my reading yesterday:
Yup.
And in my experience, people are often enthusiastic about community service until they have to give up a few hours on a weekend. :-)
Here's a money quote from my reading yesterday:
In our experience, people are often enthusiastic about community until it impinges upon their decision-making.
Yup.
And in my experience, people are often enthusiastic about community service until they have to give up a few hours on a weekend. :-)
Spiritual Maturity = Greater Gospel Awakening
What is spiritual maturity? I think that is a really important question.
So much of what so many of us do in the church toward maturing people spiritually presupposes a unified answer to that question. But our answer is generally unspoken.
Remember REVEAL? The REVEAL survey, which is now a bona fide phenomenon, having produced a startling confession from Bill Hybels, asks a variety of questions, the aim of which is to gauge "where churchgoers are." My former church participated in the survey, and I was one of the 500 or so respondents from my congregation to answer the survey, so I've seen the questions personally. They generally come from two angles:
a) How involved are you in your church and how satisfied are you with your church?
b) How do you feel about the quality of your spiritual life?
Some of the individual questions are quite pertinent to an honest assessment of one's spiritual maturity. "How often do you read your Bible?" and "How often do you pray?" and "How often do you participate in community service or charity work?" are good questions.
But generally speaking -- and here I'm not at all picking on the REVEAL survey but on the evangelical Church's approach to gauging spiritual maturity in general -- our measuring stick amounts to Participation and Feelings.
And here's where I get hung up: I'm not sure spiritual maturity can be quantified that way.
I do think that the more spiritually mature a person is, the more connected and invested in Christian community they are, and I do think that the more spiritually mature a person is, the greater sense of their own maturity they may have. But the way this gets boiled down so often amounts to "How much church stuff do you do?" and "How do you feel about yourself?"
And frankly, some of the most spiritually mature people I know are very insecure about their sin and their own brokenness and are struggling to find their place in the modern church.
This is an extension, I think, of the Church's previous equation of discipleship with knowing more information. We are better these days at realizing that people who know their Bibles inside and out, or who have all their theological p's and q's minded, aren't necessarily any more spiritual than anybody else.
And yet we persist in measuring spiritual maturity by how further invested in church programs a person is. Someone who only attends a weekend "open community" service is considered new or young or shallow in their faith, while someone who's at the church every time the doors are open is considered farther along. This may be generally true, but it's still not a reliable measurement.
And I'm not sure there is one. I think spiritual maturity = "new faith" + time. And a program can't add years to someone's faith. Faith must be time-tested to mature. Life is what matures us. Nothing has matured me more spiritually than to be married and have children. And that's a program I can't get in a theology book, Bible study guide, midweek service, small group, or discipleship program.
Can we even measure something like that? What is the Bible's measurement for spiritual maturity?
I think this comes closest:
Increasing natural tendencies toward those qualities of character are fruits of life in the Spirit. I don't know how those can be effectively quantified.
I'll admit the whole idea of treating people like projects to be managed turns me off anyway.
I tend to think real spiritual maturity derives from the realization that what I need today and will need fifty years from now is the same thing I needed on day one of my spiritual journey (indeed, minute one of my life): the grace of God in Jesus covering my sin. I think a really spiritually mature person realizes the Gospel is not the ABC's of the Christian life, as Tim Keller says, but the A-Z.
And I think our spiritual maturity is directly correlated to our love for God and to our love for others. I'd be interested in how to translate that to data.
So much of what so many of us do in the church toward maturing people spiritually presupposes a unified answer to that question. But our answer is generally unspoken.
Remember REVEAL? The REVEAL survey, which is now a bona fide phenomenon, having produced a startling confession from Bill Hybels, asks a variety of questions, the aim of which is to gauge "where churchgoers are." My former church participated in the survey, and I was one of the 500 or so respondents from my congregation to answer the survey, so I've seen the questions personally. They generally come from two angles:
a) How involved are you in your church and how satisfied are you with your church?
b) How do you feel about the quality of your spiritual life?
Some of the individual questions are quite pertinent to an honest assessment of one's spiritual maturity. "How often do you read your Bible?" and "How often do you pray?" and "How often do you participate in community service or charity work?" are good questions.
But generally speaking -- and here I'm not at all picking on the REVEAL survey but on the evangelical Church's approach to gauging spiritual maturity in general -- our measuring stick amounts to Participation and Feelings.
And here's where I get hung up: I'm not sure spiritual maturity can be quantified that way.
I do think that the more spiritually mature a person is, the more connected and invested in Christian community they are, and I do think that the more spiritually mature a person is, the greater sense of their own maturity they may have. But the way this gets boiled down so often amounts to "How much church stuff do you do?" and "How do you feel about yourself?"
And frankly, some of the most spiritually mature people I know are very insecure about their sin and their own brokenness and are struggling to find their place in the modern church.
This is an extension, I think, of the Church's previous equation of discipleship with knowing more information. We are better these days at realizing that people who know their Bibles inside and out, or who have all their theological p's and q's minded, aren't necessarily any more spiritual than anybody else.
And yet we persist in measuring spiritual maturity by how further invested in church programs a person is. Someone who only attends a weekend "open community" service is considered new or young or shallow in their faith, while someone who's at the church every time the doors are open is considered farther along. This may be generally true, but it's still not a reliable measurement.
And I'm not sure there is one. I think spiritual maturity = "new faith" + time. And a program can't add years to someone's faith. Faith must be time-tested to mature. Life is what matures us. Nothing has matured me more spiritually than to be married and have children. And that's a program I can't get in a theology book, Bible study guide, midweek service, small group, or discipleship program.
Can we even measure something like that? What is the Bible's measurement for spiritual maturity?
I think this comes closest:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Increasing natural tendencies toward those qualities of character are fruits of life in the Spirit. I don't know how those can be effectively quantified.
I'll admit the whole idea of treating people like projects to be managed turns me off anyway.
I tend to think real spiritual maturity derives from the realization that what I need today and will need fifty years from now is the same thing I needed on day one of my spiritual journey (indeed, minute one of my life): the grace of God in Jesus covering my sin. I think a really spiritually mature person realizes the Gospel is not the ABC's of the Christian life, as Tim Keller says, but the A-Z.
And I think our spiritual maturity is directly correlated to our love for God and to our love for others. I'd be interested in how to translate that to data.
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