Gina Dalfonzo 8/3/17 Gina Dalfonzo 8/3/17

Welcoming Singles In Your Church

The church has to engage and connect with singles. We’ve found this new resource from Gina Dalfonzo to be very helpful for showing the church a way to love, care, and serve singles within the church.

— The Team at GCD

If you're interested in helping single Christians to integrate more fully into your church — or simply in connecting with your single brother or sister in Christ in ways that will bless and build up both of you — here are some practical steps you can take.

Look.

Train yourself to see—really see—the single people in your church. Don’t ignore them as you make a beeline to talk to others who are just like you; don’t glance past them at the family walking or sitting just behind them. Make it a point to look for them and look at them. Practice this at every church service, every Bible study, every worship team or choir practice, every congregational meeting. Pay attention. The more you train your eyes to notice and your mind to recognize that they’re among you and they matter, the more they will matter to you.

Listen.

Don’t just stop at looking, of course—that would be pointless and a little creepy. When you notice a single person at church, make the effort to go over and talk. And to listen. You’d think the two—talking and listening—would automatically go together, but the truth is they don’t always. Ask questions, and really listen to and consider the answers. Remember that people can tell whether you’re talking just to hear yourself talk or you really want to also hear what they’re saying. Bob and Nancy were friends and mentors to me at my former church. I remember one time when Bob simply said to me, “How are you?” and I froze, lost for words, because I honestly could not remember the last time someone had said that to me in that way—a way that indicated they actually cared how I was. Be that person. Be the person who asks, and cares, and listens.

Learn.

This is, of course, very closely related to listening, but it goes deeper. To learn, you have to listen with your defenses down, or at least a little lowered. You have to be willing to acknowledge that there are people in your church who are different from you, who have experiences and memories and points of view that may be very different from yours—and that this is okay. We may pay lip service to that idea, but few of us are really comfortable with it when confronted with it head-on. You may feel an overwhelming urge to correct, to override, to corral the conversation and bring it back to where you feel safe. Don’t do it. Resist the urge to react. Even if you feel that you’re hearing something wrong or unfair or naive—and perhaps you are—practice the art of restraint. You can make your points or your arguments another time, perhaps after you’ve gotten to know the person better and established an actual relationship. And bear in mind that, on issues of singleness and marriage, yours is most likely the mainstream point of view in your church. The single person has already heard your point of view from the pulpit and from the congregation and from all over the church, but has anyone heard his or hers? Maybe you’ll be the first. Don’t squander the opportunity.

Love.

This is where you take what you’ve learned and put it into practice, both by reaching out in friendship to the single Christians around you and by helping the church incorporate their ideas and meet their needs. This is how you demonstrate the love of Christ for your single brothers and sisters in the church.

I’m not saying it’s easy; it’s not. It takes time and effort and genuine concern for their welfare. Why make that effort? Because of the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:40: “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”

Single people in church too often have been relegated to the role of “the least of these.” You can start to change that. In doing so, you can paint a truer picture of Christ, not just for single people but for the church and the world.

Gina Dalfonzo is the editor of BreakPoint.org (website of The Colson Center), as well as an occasional writer for BreakPoint Radio. She is also editor of Dickensblog and a columnist at Christ & Pop Culture. Her writing has been published in The Atlantic, Christianity Today, First Things, National Review, The Weekly Standard, Guideposts, Aleteia, The Stream and OnFaith, among others. She earned her BA in English from Messiah College and her MA, also in English, from George Mason University. Dalfonzo lives in Springfield, Virginia.

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Erin Straza 7/20/17 Erin Straza 7/20/17

Absorbed

But even in the much-publicized rebellion of the young against the materialism of the affluent society, the consumer mentality is too often still intact: the standards of behavior are still those of kind and quantity, the security sought is still the security of numbers, and the chief motive is still the consumer’s anxiety that he is missing out on what is “in.”

Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

Of the many discussions I’ve had with people about comfort addiction, most inevitably land in what Wendell Berry calls the consumer mentality. While comfort in the form of emotional distance (chapter three) or everyday egomania (chapter two) may be easier to hide, comfort in the form of lifestyle choices is rather obvious. Identifying the materialistic among us is easy enough. It’s always someone whose lifestyle is more expansive than our own. At least that’s what I’ve always thought. Which may be why I once fancied myself part of the youthful rebellion Berry speaks of. The standard I had raised to measure materialism placed me well under the judgment bar.

Still, the what am I doing question prodded me over the years, inquiring about actions and motives I had excused in myself. Consumer mentality was alive and well in me, lurking beneath the surface of my life pursuits.

Awareness (and admission) of my consumer mentality was yet another result of The Shredding. The living conditions I saw in India reframed my previous definition of a normal life. I was forced to acknowledge the truth about my normal and the sort of life I was able to live. In light of that truth, I could see materialism as an iceberg of Majority World society: the tip you see is nothing compared to the girth below the surface. Even the rebellious youth who aren’t obviously materialistic are yet driven by an unseen force to seek comfort through consumption and maintaining the illusion of relevancy. None of us is immune.

Why are we so driven to consume and achieve? I think it’s because egomania and emotional numbness cannot provide the sort of lasting comfort we crave. When they don’t satisfy, but comfort addiction encourages us to feast on the opportunities before us to have, be, get, and pursue more. And here in the United States? There is always more to be had. Our society produces new ways to be “in” every day.

The painful truth is that I have been way too consumed by the consuming I do. That sort of addiction busies me with tending to the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I. That’s why in this third detox stage we need to put down our self-made measuring sticks. Becoming aware of the motives and values lurking below the surface is necessary if we are to find the true comfort our hearts crave.

THE DREAMER IN ALL OF US

The invitation was a surprise. A couple Mike and I knew only casually invited us over for a visit. Because it was one of the first social invites we had received after getting married, it felt significant. I tried to muster all the maturity I could from my insecure, recently married, twenty-year-old self.

Upon arriving we were welcomed into a cozy family room with overstuffed couches, where a few others were already seated. Greetings were extended. Refreshments were offered. And then a more formal introduction began for a man seated near a paper flip board. That’s when I realized the evening had some sort of agenda. In a flash I concocted a whole theory: Maybe they are Christians! We will get to bond over shared faith! They are going to share the gospel!

Icebreaker-like questions ensued. “What are your favorite things to do, outside of work? If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? Do you like to collect things? What do you like to buy when you have extra money to spend? What sort of car do you dream about owning?” It was easy, energetic conversation. It felt a bit like making a Christmas list, something I had not done in years. Sharing these preferences was fun, and to be honest, my heart was all in. I was starting to dream about things and experiences. I figured that after we shared our answers the discussion would transition to finding true meaning and purpose through Jesus Christ.

I cannot explain my disappointment when the discussion leader promised that all our dreams were indeed possible. Not because Jesus had something greater for us, but because this guy was extending an exclusive invitation for us to get in on the ground level of an exciting and fast-growing business opportunity (AKA multilevel marketing). This was not about the gospel.

We did not accept the exclusive invitation that night. Looking back, I’m amused by my naive evangelism theory. But something else has stuck with me that isn’t as amusing: my ability to join the chorus of voices proclaiming all the stuff I want. Wanting things is not inherently wrong. Giving voice to our preferences is not wrong. Dreaming about what could be is not wrong. The bothersome part is how easy it was to conflate worldly based dreams with gospel hope. How could icebreaker questions about hopes and dreams lead to either the best news humanity has ever heard or the opportunity to join an MLM team?

Part of that answer lies in the very foundation of our society. At the birth of the United States, the founding fathers constructed a framework for our country’s values and pursuits. The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The pursuit of happiness is part and parcel to being an American. Comfortable living has been all but promised, since being unhappy is anything but comfortable. For centuries now people have equated the United States with the place where dreams come true. It’s where you are free to work hard, increase your wealth, and enjoy the good life. We call it the American dream.

The phrase “the American dream” was first used in James Truslow Adams’s 1931 book, The Epic of America. Adams says it’s “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.” Part of what makes the United States unique is the freedom—theoretically open to every individual—to obtain a better, richer, fuller life.

More than eighty years later, talk of the American dream is still going strong (especially during election season). Although definitions vary by person, a core component of the American dream is wealth, as confirmed by a September 2015 article in TheAtlantic titled “Who Still Believes in the American Dream?” A reporter traveled the country asking people to share what the American dream meant to them. When kids were asked, they gushed about future happiness rooted in fame, glory, and fortune. The adults responded with much less enthusiasm. Many were discouraged by the lack of opportunity they had for achieving their dreams; few were hopeful for the life Adams described back in the 1930s.

Since the American dream has always been connected with prosperity, we have tied our happiness to our ability to collect material possessions and immaterial opportunities. It’s no wonder people are disillusioned and discouraged.

ALL IS VANITY

Despite the broken promises of the American dream, our society still runs on that founding premise. We adhere to its values of working hard and striving for more. We do this by participating in the agreed-on system: work, play, eat, sleep. Get a better job. Get a better house. Get better clothes. Get better gadgets. Then repeat. And repeat, and repeat again. The system tells us happiness increases as our creature comforts grow. Pseudo comforts beckon us to seek more of what we already have, because more is always better.

It takes a strong soul to stop the madness and call the futile cycle to the carpet. That’s exactly what Solomon did almost three thousand years ago. As the son of the most accomplished king on record, Solomon had everything—wealth, intelligence, and people. But the book of Ecclesiastes records the comfort his heart longed for:

Smoke, nothing but smoke. . . . There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke. What’s there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? One generation goes its way, the next one arrives, but nothing changes. . . . There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing. . . . Nobody remembers what happened yesterday. And the things that will happen tomorrow? Nobody’ll remember them either. Don’t count on being remembered. (Eccles 1:2-11 The Message)

Every time I read these words my chest tightens a bit. Solomon’s hopelessness is so complete, so brutal. All our attempts to achieve something meaningful result in nothing substantial. We gain no ground. The comfort we seek in life—at least, the kind that’s easy to get—is fleeting at best.

Eugene Peterson’s rendition of Solomon’s lament uses the phrase “Smoke, nothing but smoke” to signify the evanescent nature of life’s pursuits. Traditional Bible versions have, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity”—which I prefer, actually. Vanity has a weight of loss connected to it. A note in the ESV Bible explains, “The Hebrew term hebel, translated vanity or vain, refers concretely to a ‘mist,’ ‘vapor,’ or ‘mere breath,’ and metaphorically to something that is fleeting or elusive.” Vanity is what our hearts can sense when everything we are pursuing and consuming in life leaves us empty. Vanity is the fear that pounces when we are bored, unsure of what we should be doing with ourselves. The Question tries to jolt us out of vain pursuits, out of the consumerist cycle that leaves us empty despite all the filling.

Although Solomon wasn’t an American, his lament is fitting for those of us caught in the American dream today. We work hard to gain more. We follow our tired routines every single day. We look for amusement to stave off boredom. We seek power, status, riches, and accomplishments to quiet The Question, for if it lingers, we will face the same despair as Solomon: life is nothing but vanity.

But face this truth we must, if we are to rebel against the false comforts that have been on the prowl for centuries. The ones that Solomon denounced are the same ones we must denounce today.

Erin Straza is a contemplative writer, heartfelt speaker, and redeemed dreamer. She is managing editor of Christ and Pop Culture Magazine and host of the Persuasion podcast. As a freelance communications consultant, Erin helps organizations tell their stories in authentic and compelling ways. She lives in Illinois with her husband, Mike.

Alvin Reid 7/13/17 Alvin Reid 7/13/17

What Does Hollywood Have to Do with Calvary?

What’s your all-time favorite movie? Think of just one. Why do you love that movie? I’ve asked that question of thousands of teenagers and college students over the years. Young people love movies, after all (so do I). I get all kinds of examples, from action movies (think The Avengers or Star Wars), to great epic tales (Lord of the Rings), or romantic comedies. We love movies and the stories they tell. What if I told you the very reason novels grip us and movies move us is directly related to the grand gospel story of the Bible? We live in a world that has lost the story of the Bible (and many in the church have as well). I have found explaining the gospel story helps unbelievers to see the big picture of God’s salvation, but it does more: it encourages believers to share this great story with others. Missionaries overseas have done this a long time with people who don’t know the Word. We tend to put the gospel in such overtly religious and ecclesiastical categories many lost people don’t see its beauty and wonder.

Stories follow plotlines. I want to review three popular storylines for you. We see these in books and film again and again, each told with its own nuances.

1. Man falls in a hole.

This storyline (often called Overcoming the Monster) starts off with the main character doing well, but he falls in a hole of some sort, that is, he gets into a predicament, he has some evil thing or person cause him distress, or he finds himself in some other version of calamity. He cannot save himself, so ultimately a rescuer comes to get him out of the hole and back to well-being. Think of the Die Hard movies, any of the Marvel films, or any other action adventure film. We love stories that depict the evil and brokenness we see all around us, but we love even more the rescue and restoration that follows. Good storytellers take that simple storyline and rivet our attention and affections with how they tell it.

A version of this story is Kill the Dragon, Get the Girl, where some evil creature or person wreaks terror among people but at the end a hero kills the creature and rescues the damsel in distress. My daughter, Hannah, and I loved the movie Taken with Liam Neeson, which followed this storyline.

2. Boy meets girl.

This is the classic romantic story, made extremely popular in recent days with romantic comedies like Hitch, The Proposal, Along Came Polly, and a host of other often-cheesy movies featuring actors like Ben Stiller, Will Smith, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Jennifer Aniston, Sandra Bullock, and others. (I’m not endorsing them; just saying.) It includes romantic dramas such as The Vow.

There’s a guy and a girl who somehow meet. A chemical reaction begins between them. Then you see two things depicted in these films. First, guys are dumb. Really dumb. The guy doesn’t get the girl’s hints, or does something dumb to hurt her feelings. They named a movie titled Dumb and Dumber about two guys, after all. Then you realize a second feature: girls are crazy. The girl overreacts, goes drama queen, and the movie continues with the two almost figuring things out, until the end when they actually do, and, to quote another movie in the genre, Love Happens.

3. Rags to riches. This is the story of Cinderella, or The Princess

Diaries, or the favorite of Hannah’s and mine from years ago, What a Girl Wants. Sadness ultimately leads to a rescue and restoration beyond the wildest dreams of the star of the story.

Why do I use these examples when talking about sharing the gospel? Matt Chandler, Josh Patterson, and Eric Geiger help us to see why through the eyes of two literary greats, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien:

A conversation once held between colleagues C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien speaks to this innate human desire for being part of larger-than-life stories, quests, and victories—the draw of our hearts toward “myths,” which Lewis said were “lies and therefore worthless, even though breathed through silver.”

“No,” Tolkien replied, “they are not lies.” Far from being untrue, myths are the best way—sometimes the only way—of conveying truths that would otherwise remain inexpressible. We have come from God, Tolkien argued, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they do contain error, still reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily toward the true harbor.

These stories touch us because they speak to us, albeit imperfectly, where the gospel has the power to change us, to move our hearts toward the one who truly rescues and restores. We want a life of joy. We know something has gone wrong. We love and admire a rescuer, and we want a happily ever after, a rescue and a restoration. These stories touch us because they relate our lives to “the greatest epic the universe will ever know—God reconciling all things to himself in Christ.”

You can see that sharing Christ is helpful when we relate the gospel to truth we can see every day, whether in the stories we love or the design we see. This is so vital for a culture that no longer knows the story of the Bible. We don’t need to choose between the specific, propositional statements of gospel truth and the glorious story of the Bible. But we do need to help people see both the truth of the gospel and the great story of God’s redemptive plan.

My friends at Spread Truth Ministries (spreadtruth.com) have developed a wonderful tool to help believers see the whole gospel story of the Bible and share the good news of Jesus with others. The booklet they created called The Story has been a helpful tool for me.

Read more about The Story at viewthestory.com or download the app.

A few years ago I began realizing in my own witness how people I talked to didn’t seem to get the point of the gospel. It seemed more “churchy” to them than a message that would impact all of their life. I wanted to help people—especially young adults I interact with a lot—to see the great big picture of God’s plan and how their life related to God’s glory. In recent years I’ve seen more unchurched young adults come to Christ through sharing the whole gospel story than with any other approach. The gospel story offers a guide to help explain the gospel based on where the person you are talking with is at the moment. I will be unpacking this throughout the book, but let me walk you through this here.

There are many wonderful tools and apps you can use to help you share Jesus more confidently. Unfortunately, sometimes evangelism training unintentionally focuses too much on doing the evangelism program just right, rather than really knowing the gospel so you can share it in a conversation.

If you are at a church that uses a certain tool, such as “The Gospel Journey” by Dare2Share Ministries, “Two Ways to Live,” any of the free tools from The Way of the Master Television, or the courses offered by Christianity Explored, for instance, the principles in this book can help you share Christ using any of these and more. I also use the Life on Mission: 3 Circles conversation guide from the North American Mission Board (SBC). It’s another way of using the gospel story through circles. I’ve often drawn the three circles on a napkin at a coffee shop, and earlier this month I led a young man to Christ doing just that. My friend Jimmy Scroggins first developed this excellent approach while reaching unchurched people in South Florida. I want you to learn the gospel is more than a tool, although tools that center on the gospel can help grow our gospel fluency. We all need a baseline of gospel understanding to have conversations about Jesus, and tools like these can help.

Knowing and Sharing the Gospel Story

When you put a puzzle together, you start with the border, since a framework makes the rest of the image make sense. The grand narrative of the Bible follows the plotline of creation, fall, rescue, and restoration, the framework of Scripture that “frames up” our world and our greatest need as well as God’s

Alvin L. “Doc” Reid serves as Professor of Evangelism and Student Ministry at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, where he has been since 1995. He is also the founding Bailey Smith Chair of Evangelism. He is the author of several books including Gospel Advanced: Leading a Movement That Changes the World.

Ryan Huguley 7/6/17 Ryan Huguley 7/6/17

5 Ways to Pray For A Sermon

Prayer is a natural progression from the priming we just discussed. Any preacher would be foolish to preach a single word without first petitioning God to do what only He can do. While I never set out to make a recurring prayer list for Sunday morning, here are a few requests I pray regularly.

God, guard my speech.

I have a tongue that tends to run quicker than my mind, and I communicate for a living. This is a dangerous combination. A quick tongue and a faulty filter go together like fire and gasoline. Some of my greatest regrets are times when I’ve said something “off the cuff ” in the pulpit that was questionable. It may be an unplanned comment, a phrase that lacks clarity and causes confusion, or even something that may in some way lack godliness. I’ve prayed the heart of Ephesians 4:29 more times than I can count: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” That’s what I’m after. But to be honest, I have so much room to grow here. I need God to sanctify every part of me, including my speech. God forbid we ever speak even one word that is biblically inaccurate or pastorally insensitive. I need help in this area, so every Sunday, without fail, I ask God to guard my speech.

God, soak my heart in the sermon I’ve prepared.

I never want my sermon to sound like I’m trying recite lines I’ve written. Some preachers are so ill prepared or overly concerned with rhetorical precision that they end up sounding like a prepubescent boy trying to remember lines in his first juniorhigh play. It’s awkward, unnatural, and distracting. I want to prepare every word yet preach in such a way that it flows naturally, spilling from the overflow of my heart. This is why I ask God to soak my heart in the sermon. Each week, I ask Him to press the notes I’ve prepared deep into my heart and mind so I can remember what I’ve prepared. I don’t want to be buried in my notes when I’m preaching to people.

The first step is to get the sermon on the page. You may not write a word-for-word manuscript—though I do commend this to new preachers—but you should write out the vast majority of what you plan to say. Roughly 90 percent of my sermon is written on the page. The second step is to get the sermon in my heart so I can then preach it to others. Like everything else, I need the Lord’s help in this. Like a needy child, I ask my loving Father for help in this intensely practical and absolutely important aspect of my preaching.

God, protect my tone.

One of my great fears is saying the right thing the wrong way. I’ve heard my friend James MacDonald say, “If you’re wrong in the way that you’re right, you’re wrong even if you’re right.” This has major implications when it comes to tone in preaching. How you say what you say is as important as what you say. As I’ve said, it’s critical that our tone mirrors the text. Saying what God says but missing the heart from which He says it is as damaging as misrepresenting what God has said. For instance, the New Testament contains many hard sayings of Jesus, but He is not harsh. In Matthew 11:29, Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle” (emphasis added). If we repeat a hard saying that Jesus said and say it harshly, we are misrepresenting His heart and character. Furthermore, if we are cold in the way we address sin or call people to repentance, we misrepresent the compassionate heart of God. Psalm 78:38 says, “Yet [God], being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath” (emphasis added). Faithfulness to the text is a non-negotiable for Bible preachers, and faithfulness to the text demands that we be faithful in our tone. To do this, we need God’s help, so we ask Him to protect our tone.

God, prepare the hearts of those listening.

The parable of the sower in Matthew 13 has to be one of the most humbling stories for preachers. It highlights that not everyone will be receptive to the word of the gospel when preached. No matter what you say or how you say it, some will respond and some will not. Paul reminds us that “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Cor. 3:7). And in John 6:44, Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” People’s receptivity to the gospel rests in the hands of God, not in the hands of preachers. This alone should drive us to our knees quickly and constantly. You can preach like a man on fire, and people may even clap and affirm your passion with an obligatory “Amen.” But no one other than the Spirit of God can open a heart to receive His Word. That’s why every Sunday I ask God to prepare people’s hearts in whatever way is necessary for them to welcome what God says and to leave changed.

God, grant me unction.

The word unction simply means “anointing.” The Puritans and Reformers understood unction to be the type of powerful and passionate preaching enabled by the Holy Spirit. As preachers, we are desperate for the Holy Spirit to rest on and work in and through us as we preach. Unction—the Spirit of God using the Word of God—makes preaching pierce the hearts of those listening. Unction is not about being inspirational or loud, and it’s far more than mere excitement about the topic or text being preached. Unction doesn’t comes from inside us. It comes only from God and thus demands that we beg Him for it. Charles Spurgeon put it this way:

One bright benison which private prayer brings down upon the ministry is an indescribable and inimitable something, better understood than named; it is a dew from the Lord, a divine presence which you will recognize at once when I say it is “an unction from the Holy One.” What is it? I wonder how long we might beat our brains before we could plainly put into words what is meant by preaching with unction; yet he who preaches knows its presence, and he who hears soon detects its absence.

I want this. Per Spurgeon’s point, unction may be difficult to define, but I know I want it. I want the Spirit of God to work through my preaching, because if He does not, what’s the point of preaching?

I can’t overstress the fact that this “unction” is from God and comes to us through prayer. Methodist minister and Civil War chaplain E. M. Bounds wrote,

This unction comes to the preacher not in the study but in the closet. It is heaven’s distillation in answer to prayer. It is the sweetest exhalation of the Holy Spirit. It impregnates, suffuses, softens, percolates, cuts and soothes. It carries the Word like dynamite, like salt, like sugar; makes the Word a soother, an arranger, a revealer, a searcher; makes the hearer a culprit or a saint, makes him weep like a child and live like a giant; opens his heart and his purse as gently, yet as strongly as the spring opens the leaves. This unction is not the gift of genius. It is not found in the halls of learning. No eloquence can woo it. No industry can win it. No prelatical hands can confer it. It is the gift of God— the signet set to his own messengers. It is heaven’s knighthood given to the chosen true and brave ones who have sought this anointed honor through many an hour of tearful, wrestling prayer.

The only true power a preacher has is that of the One preached. We need His help, His power, His unction. So let’s storm the throne of God and humbly ask Him to supply it.

Ryan Huguley planted Redemption Bible Church in Arlington Heights, IL in 2009 and served as lead pastor for seven years. In 2016 he accepted a call to become the senior pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in Hickory, NC, a growing congregation of 1,000. Ryan has worked in church planting since 2001 and has a passion to help the next generation know Jesus and make Him known. He helps assess, coach, and train church planters and hosts a podcast called In the Room.

Taken from 8 Hours or Less: Writing Faithful Sermons Faster by Ryan Huguley (2017). Published by Moody Publishers. Used by permission. www.MoodyPublishers.com.

Lydia Brownback 6/29/17 Lydia Brownback 6/29/17

Finding God in my Loneliness

Giving way to panic has proven helpful in a crisis—said no one ever. Yet panic is the natural response of those who fixate on their circumstances rather than on Christ. Didn’t Peter prove this when walking on water? So long as he kept his eyes on Jesus, he made forward progress, but the minute he turned his gaze to the wind and the waves, he began to sink. Peter panicked (Matt. 14:22–30). We often do the same thing when the wind and the waves of loneliness threaten to sink us. If we aren’t fixed on Jesus—and if we don’t view life through a biblical lens—we’re going to try to fight those waves ourselves, and eventually we will go down. Panicked swimmers often drown.

Lie: Loneliness Is Pure Evil

Heightening the waves of loneliness is this myth: “Loneliness is a result of something bad, and therefore no one should have to experience it.”^[1] If we believe that, we’re going to use everything we’ve got to fight against it. We will have no peace, no joy, and no delight in the Lord. And we will never find our way out of the water.

Let’s take a closer look at that myth. Is loneliness really the result of something bad? On one hand, God did say that it’s not good for man to be alone (Gen. 2:18). So in that sense, yes, aloneness—and its accompanying loneliness—is not good. Yet we can’t escape the fact that it was God himself who made Adam and then put him in the garden all alone. Sin hadn’t even entered the world yet. In other words, Adam’s aloneness was God’s doing, and God did it so that Adam—and all human beings after him—would yearn for companionship. God went on to provide a wife for Adam; however, “he never designed marriage to fulfill the incompleteness or eradicate the aloneness. Rather, it more fully reveals our need for our ultimate destiny—to be in union with him.”^[2] So from the beginning man’s aloneness wasn’t good per se, but that wasn’t the end of the story. No, God went on to provide the remedy for it. So there’s no need to panic. The emptiness that so often accompanies aloneness—loneliness—is meant to be filled to the full with Christ.

Lie: I Shouldn’t Have to Be Alone

So aloneness isn’t all bad after all. And since that’s the case, we can’t really claim that no one should have to experience it. To the contrary, since God designed us to yearn for connectedness, it stands to reason that we must experience loneliness. Apart from that, we’d be prone in our natural selfishness to isolate ourselves so we can have everything in life our own way, never having to bend to the wishes and needs of others. Without a biblical perspective, we will see loneliness as utterly bad, as something to avoid at all costs. And we will panic.

The voice of panic says,

I’m the only one who’s home alone tonight.

He’s less than ideal, but if I don’t marry him, I might never have another chance.

Being alone is going to ruin my health.

If God were truly good, he wouldn’t leave me in this lonely situation.

God says,

Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. (Josh. 1:9)

I will never leave you nor forsake you. (Heb. 13:5)

And Jesus said,

Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matt. 28:20)

What happens when we panic? Our heart races; we can feel the blood pound. A sense of desperation rises up in our throat—we can almost taste it. And then our mind scrambles to latch on to a way out, and at this point, any way will do. If you’re like me, those moments occur most frequently after sundown. Sometimes I dread the night. How will I make it through another one all alone? And why must I? That’s what it comes down to, isn’t it? Panic so easily morphs into rebellion. Once that happens, we’ve turned away from God rather than toward him. We reject God’s comfort and turn to whatever escape is nearby—television, Facebook, food, alcohol, sleep. We don’t want comfort on God’s terms, so we say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Yet if we insist on life on our terms, we will only entrench our loneliness.

Lie: I Can Fix This Myself

Sometimes our escape methods are significantly more sophisticated. We don’t settle for that simple evening escape; we strategize a radical life-turnaround. And indeed there are times when undertaking a significant change might be a wise approach. God’s blessings often come to us by means of our own activity, and a pressing weight of loneliness might be the very thing God is using to redirect our path. But if the only available options for change are biblically questionable or if godly friends express reservations about our plans, then we are wise to reconsider. And even when it’s all systems go, there is no guarantee that our loneliness will be remedied as a result. The bottom line is, we can’t fix our loneliness; we haven’t been created with that capability. We can alter our aloneness, but not our loneliness.

The Light of Truth

So what’s our goal? That’s a good question to ask ourselves if loneliness is compelling us to consider a major life change. If we are believing the lies—aloneness is bad, I shouldn’t have to be lonely, and I can fix my loneliness—then those lies are going to drive us. That relocation we’re considering might open all kinds of new doors, but it won’t necessarily solve loneliness. Signing on with Match.com might result in a relationship, but there’s no guarantee it will remedy loneliness. The church across town has a lot more people, but leaving a small church for a larger one can backfire as a loneliness remedy. On the other hand, if we’re lonely because we have no Christian fellowship or Bible-believing church to attend, then making a change is a wise plan.

[1] Barnes and Bock, “5 Myths and Truths in Loneliness.”

[2] Ibid.

Lydia Brownback, author of several books and speaker at women’s events internationally, is passionate about promoting biblical doctrine with a high view of God. Lydia works on the editorial team at Crossway Books, and before that she served as writer-in-residence for Alistair Begg and as producer of The Bible Study Hour radio program with James Montgomery Boice.

Aaron Morrow 6/22/17 Aaron Morrow 6/22/17

Small Towns Need Missionaries

This article is adapted from Aaron Morrow’s Small Town Mission: A Guide for Mission-Driven Communities. Get your copy today!

I grew up on a farm.

Tractors, cattle, crops, big machinery, freezing cold winters, too many cats, and a marathon bus ride to school every morning. That’s right, I grew up on a farm. And that farm was next to a small town that my family and I called home. I’ve lived in small towns for most of my life, even after I moved away from the herd of cats. The small towns I’ve lived in may not be as cool as Austin or have the trendy conveniences of Seattle, but small towns will always be a part of who I am. If you live in a small town, you might know what I mean.

According to the US census, just over half of our population lives in towns, boroughs, villages, and townships with fewer than 25,000 people or in rural areas. Meanwhile, thousands of Christian books are published every year and hundreds of these are about mission and reaching people for Christ. Many of them have insightful and helpful ideas about mission that can be applied anywhere, but many of their ideas don’t seem to work in small towns. We should be thankful for resources like these, but we also need resources written specifically for mission in small towns.

A friend at my church has said that books about reaching people in closed countries in the 10/40 window relate best to mission in small towns because residents often have hardened religious mindsets and impenetrable circuits of relationships. My friend is probably exaggerating the comparison, but I understand what he’s saying because mission in small towns can be incredibly difficult and complicated.

KEEPING THE END IN MIND

Mission is not the ultimate goal of our lives. Pastor John Piper writes,

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.

We are designed to be worshippers of Jesus who find our identity in him. Imagine if you found your identity in being on mission and successfully winning people to Christ. If that’s you, eternity will jolt you because there are no unbelievers in heaven. Let’s keep the perspective that being on mission is a temporary necessity. From now through eternity, Jesus should be the focus and goal of everything we do, including being on mission to reach people with the gospel. While mission isn’t the ultimate goal of our lives, worshippers of Jesus are on mission because it’s the indisputable by-product of worshiping him. My hope and prayer is that many people in your town will turn to Jesus and worship him with you.

REGULAR FOLK

Small towns are in desperate need of missionaries. When I say missionaries, I’m not referring to the pastor of your church or people who suffer for Jesus by building huts and preaching to native islanders. No, I’m referring to regular people. Small towns desperately need normal, everyday people like farmers, factory workers, teachers, secretaries, and small business owners who think and act like missionaries to reach their friends, neighbors, co-workers, and extended families for Christ. Pastors in small towns should be deeply respected for their incredible hearts to advance the gospel. However, the responsibility of mission is given to all believers, not just pastors. If you are a Christian, you are sent to be on mission regardless of where you live or what your job is.

BUILDING FENCE

Almost every resource about mission is based on a certain way of doing ministry. Some resources seem to take a self-righteous tone by telling us and our church how to do ministry in our town. That’s not my goal. We’ve all read books or articles like that and found them a bit off-putting. My goal is to help you better understand principles of mission in small towns instead of offering a rigid prescription for you and your church. In the matter of mission in your town, remember to follow the lead of your church’s leaders because Scripture is clear that they are the ones you must submit to (Hebrews 13:17). My hope is to come alongside your church, not to replace the authority of your church’s leaders.

One of my least favorite jobs on the farm was building fence. My dad always said he felt great satisfaction after making a well-built fence. I have no idea what he was talking about. If you’ve never built a wire fence, it’s actually much harder than it seems. But I did manage to learn that an important part of successfully building a wire fence is to have a series of anchor posts that will support the rolls of wire. Similarly, our study of mission in small towns requires a few unique anchor posts to support it.

– Anchor Post #1: Gospel-Centered

The gospel is the good news of God’s grace invading the darkness of this world. It is the grand narrative of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation ordained by God and orchestrated through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Christ’s crucifixion is the heart of the gospel. His resurrection is the power of the gospel. His ascension is the glory of the gospel.

But what does it mean to be gospel-centered? When people talk about it, they’re often saying it in one of two ways. First, people use it as a lens to view all of our spiritual growth as dependent on the gospel. At the end of the day, all spiritual growth happens in the midst of our ongoing struggle with sin and our ongoing need for grace through Christ to invade the darkness of our hearts. Dane Ortland says,

This is why Paul constantly reminds people—reminds Christian people—of the Gospel (Romans 1:16–17; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 15:3–4; Galatians 1:6). We move forward in discipleship not mainly through pep talks and stern warnings. We move forward when we hear afresh the strangeness of grace, relaxing our hearts and loosening our clenched hold on a litany of lesser things—financial security, the perfect spouse, career advancement, sexual pleasure, human approval, and so on.

Second, people use it to refer to how the gospel shapes our outlook on everything in life and ministry. This would include how we understand politics, social action, ethics in the workplace and elsewhere in the public sphere, being on mission in a small town, and countless other related examples. In this sense, the gospel is actively forming how we look at and understand everything in our lives and the world around us.

Being on mission to reach non-Christians is obviously important because hell is hot and forever is a long time. But more importantly, we must be on mission in a gospel-centered way if we want mission to be healthy and sustainable. Growing in a gospel-centered way gives our mission authenticity and frees us from the burden of “do better and try harder.” Mission in light of the gospel is intrinsically found in God’s nature; knowing this helps us see mission as something to be naturally integrated into our lives as followers of Christ, as opposed to just another thing to add to our already busy schedule.

– Anchor Post #2: The Local Church

If we aren’t committed to a local church, that’s a big problem. It’s impossible to reconcile mission apart from the local church because the New Testament constantly emphasizes mission in the context of the local church, not makeshift spiritual gatherings. If we want to be aligned with the New Testament, we can’t be on mission to our friends, neighbors, and co-workers without also aiming to prioritize the flourishing of our local church. And even though some local churches are more challenging than others to be invested in, the Holy Spirit can empower us to be patient and loving to any group of people, just as he is with us! In the end, the gospel needs to form how we think and feel about the local church.

Furthermore, I embrace a missionary understanding of the local church. This doesn’t mean that mission is the only thing that a church does, but it does mean that mission must be prioritized. That’s because mission is an essential element of a local church’s identity as an outworking of the gospel.

– Anchor Post #3: Equipping People

Churches that are committed to seeing their people as missionaries should also be committed to equipping their people for being on mission. Equipping means discipling and training people to think and act like missionaries and sending them on mission in their spheres of influence (i.e., where they live, where they work, where they play, what their kids are involved in, etc). In Ephesians 4:11–12, the Apostle Paul says,

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.

Pastor J. D. Greear has said that, in light of Ephesians 4:11–12, the day he became a pastor was the day he left the ministry because God gave pastors to the church to equip people for the work of ministry.

Greear is obviously overstating his point for effect, but I generally agree with what’s he’s saying.

The discipling and training process for sending people on mission is crucial for a church that wants to be on mission. It’s also worth noting that most churches who are committed to this process aren’t overly committed to getting non-Christians to attend the church’s programs and facilities. Granted, getting non-Christians to attend a church’s programs and facilities can be good and helpful, especially in small towns that are filled with non-Christians who have a more traditional mindset about how churches function. However, if this strategy isn’t accompanied by a primary strategy of discipling, training, and sending, the church will probably and eventually be filled with people who expect pastors and programs to do the work of mission for them.

– Anchor Post #4: Mission in Community

Ministry is meant to happen in the context of relationships because all of us, whether we realize it or not, have a deep need and desire to know and be known by others. We have been made in the image of God, who has eternally existed in community as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are designed to be in relationship and community with others. This is why we should do mission in the context of relationships and biblical community as much as possible.

Making disciples who are on mission together is (or should be!) one of the priorities of the local church. That’s why you should go through Small Town Mission with someone whom you want to be on mission with. This might include Christian neighbors, co-workers, members of your small group, or anyone you meet regularly with for discipleship. If you’re married you might consider going through it with your spouse, because married couples who follow Jesus are on a permanent mission trip together. Even if you’ve been married for thirty years or more, don’t underestimate what the Holy Spirit can do when it comes to aligning both your hearts and minds for the sake of mission.

After all, mission isn’t just something that must be prioritized globally and in big cities; it must also be prioritized locally and in small towns.

Aaron Morrow (M.A. Moody Bible Institute) is one of the pastors of River City Church in Dubuque, Iowa, which was planted in 2016. He and his wife Becky have three daughters named Leah, Maggie, and Gracie.

R. York Moore 6/15/17 R. York Moore 6/15/17

Dreams of Another World

I don’t usually wake up laughing, but that morning I did. Head pressed deeply into the dense pillow, I awoke to my own laughter. The room was cold, which had caused me to sleep more deeply than usual. My legs were numb, but I was warm all over, except for my nose. A single beam of dusty light revealed an unfamiliar room of placard signs, mass-produced art and sterile chairs. Hotel room curtains never fully close, do they? A strip between the two panels allowed that beam of light to poke me in my sleepy head. I had slept so deeply that my first thought in that refrigerated state was, Who am I, and how did I get here? I wanted to disappear under the thick comforter, to roll my head between the three pillows and just dream. But I had laughed myself awake. I have no idea what I dreamt of that caused such morning hilarity, but as I flopped over, sitting next to me—also laughing—was my new bride. We had been married just three days.

“What were you dreaming of?” she asked, snickering. “I watched you toss and giggle for ten minutes before you woke up.”

“I wish I could remember,” I said with a laugh. Though the details of the dream were lost, I knew I had tasted another world. The dream had trailed off as light hit my head, and it was gone. Nothing left now but bad breath, a lined face and a deep sense of rest and peace. Though the dream had vanished, I lay there in the bed on my honeymoon with contentment and joy.

I wish I could have held that moment forever. It was a moment between two dreams—one an unconscious dream of peace and joy, and the other a waking dream of marriage with my new wife, Jodi, where everything was new and exciting.

What is it about a dream that beckons us, ever entangling us in its web of hope and longing? The elusive dream of our hearts fades out of reach each morning. With each sunrise, with each knock on the door, we awake with a realization that real life awaits us. But we long to go back, to pull the covers over our faces, to tuck our heads between the pillows and just dream.

Though the elusive dream of our hearts fades, we search for it because we’ve tasted it in small doses over and over again. In the breathtaking beauty of a sunset, the oblivious, innocent laughter of a child, through forgiveness and kindness, in expressions of love and selflessness, we’ve tasted a world we were meant for and want more of. Our soul remembers the aftertaste of a world we were destined for, because we have tasted it in small measure our whole lives. The taste is unmistakable. We know this taste of the world more viscerally than anything else, because it is at the core of what it means to be human. The dream is a foretaste of another world, a better world, a world where things are the way they’re supposed to be.

We are dreamers, every one of us. John Lennon’s song “Imagine” described a dream where the world would one day live as one. The dream Lennon sang of—though many would disagree with him—is a reflection of this other world, a world where greed, possessions, hunger, violence, nationalistic and religious beliefs no longer drown out love, companionship and peace. Lennon’s dream was very close to the dream of God, though Lennon himself would likely dismiss this. The amazing thing about the dreams of some of the people furthest from God is that their desire for a better world mirrors the ultimate dream of God to make all things new. We are dreamers because God is a dreamer.

Though we are often not able to articulate it fully, what we dream of is the same dream that God has dreamt since time began. The dream of God is at the heart of our dreams. We can know a great deal about our dreaming God by looking at our own dreams and the dreams of humanity throughout the world.

Dreams are powerful, but because the world is not the way it’s supposed to be, our dreams are often twisted—mere shadows of what they once were. Dreams can become misguided—expressions of exploitative power, excessive material acquisition, sensual indulgence. There’s no limit to how badly dreams can run amuck. Dreams can become nightmares, ruling and eventually ruining our lives. The longing to escape the struggles and disappointments of this world often tempt us to escape “reality” artificially. Drugs, alcohol, shopping, sex, pornography—anything to escape and “just be.” To be alone with ourselves, at peace with our mind, free from worry and pain—we just want to dream.

The longing to be transported from where we are to where we were meant to be is also powerful. Most people will risk everything they have and all that they are to reach for a dream. Some people do this in ways that are healthy and life giving, but most people settle for the easy substitute. We settle for a cheap version of the dream in a one-night stand, in dancing erotic pixels in dark rooms. We want a quick fix, and we find it at the baked-goods section at the grocery store, the bottom of a bottle or the pulsating floor of a dance club. We often pursue a dream in selfish and destructive ways, ways that are incompatible with God’s dream.

We long to go to that other world that lingers in our hearts. We are called to it in small ways each day. For me, it is the small “magical moments” of life that call me back, the little things that pull at my heart: a wispy meadow in late August, the sound of cicadas buzzing in the trees, the smell of dense, warm air before a storm. All of a sudden, my mind wanders away from my son’s orthodontics bill, the fight I’m having with my wife, Jodi, or the diaper that needs to be changed. Another world pokes in as I smell bacon in the morning or catch a glimpse of a hummingbird hovering over the lilies outside my office window. We live in a world where “real” is limited to what we can see, hear, smell, touch and taste. But these are hints of a world more real than what all our senses can tell us. Our dreams point us to another world.

The world we live in is caught between two worlds—a dream and a nightmare. But the good news is that the dream of God will come to pass and is coming to pass all around us. It will one day replace the nightmare of this world. In many ways, God’s dream is already breaking in. Every time a well is dug for a community, food is provided for the hungry, nets protect those at risk of mosquito-borne malaria or those who traffic in the flesh of prostitutes are brought to justice, the nightmare ends and the dream begins.

When we join God in bringing his dream to the world around us, we are fulfilling his plan and purpose for our lives. Joining in God’s dream is the most significant thing we could ever do. It is what we were created for. God’s plan for us begins and flourishes as we allow our dreams to merge into the great dream of God.

R. York Moore is a passionate and visionary leader. York deeply values spiritual formation, relational intelligence, innovation, and collaboration. An effective communicator and orator, York casts vision and leads change through his communication skills on-line, in publications, and with live audiences. York has traveled the world, working with organizational leaders and academic institutions in their context to mobilize constituents to more effectively engage their mission. He has led change organizationally in large not-for-profit organizations and in the local church. York is a published author and blogger in magazines like Outreach, Preaching Today, and EMQ . He also is a Cabinet member for Luis Palau’s ‘Next Generation Alliance‘ and is a Compassion International speaker. York holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of Michigan and an MA in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary. R. York Moore lives in Canton, MI with his wife and three kids.

Wendy Alsup 6/8/17 Wendy Alsup 6/8/17

Is the Bible Good for Women?

Is the Bible good for women? Growing up in the conservative South, I never considered that question. I didn’t understand anything of women’s rights except the caricatures I saw on the news during attempts to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. But I was one of three daughters, no sons, born to a Christian dad who valued his girls well. Though I experienced my fair share of struggles growing up, female oppression in a patriarchal society did not seem to be one of them. As I got older and watched the news with a more critical eye, a different view of women came into my line of sight. There were countries where women couldn’t vote? There were cultures that would put victims of rape to death in honor killings? Then I moved to Seattle, where women’s rights and feminist issues are often center stage in local news and conversation. I couldn’t hide from these issues anymore. Female mutilation, legal oppression, and culturally accepted rape were much bigger issues affecting many more women worldwide than I had ever under- stood. And domestic abuse, the blaming of sexual abuse survivors, and discrimination in the workforce occurred closer to home. My experience of being valued as a female by the men in my life was not the norm worldwide, but I also came to realize it wasn’t the norm in the conservative South either. I was bombarded by women’s issues. As a believer in Jesus since childhood and one who loved and valued the Bible, I was barraged with criticism of the Scripture around women’s issues as well. Does the Bible address oppression of women in helpful ways? Or does it only perpetuate such oppression among its followers? In a world that is quite often very bad for women, does the Bible help or does it make it worse?

HARMFUL WORLDWIDE PRACTICES

National Public Radio recently highlighted a disturbing practice in western Nepal in which young women are banished to outdoor sheds when they are on their periods.1 The families interviewed believe that the girls could cause illnesses among the family’s elderly if they touch them while menstruating. The humiliation and stigma those girls endure is worth public outcry.

Hinduism is the primary religion (81 percent) in Nepal.2 Al- though Judaism and Christianity have made small inroads into the country, this practice of barring young menstruating women from their homes does not seem to have a direct relationship to Old Testament Law. Yet I can’t help but think of similar instructions in the Law (see Leviticus 15:19–33) when I hear of the Nepali practice. I know from Scripture that despite the similarities, the Nepali practice is a perversion of God’s intent in the Law. The Nepali tradition attributes to girls on their periods something Old Testament Law never does, it does so without the Law’s corresponding instruction to men, and it perpetuates a practice that Jesus said two thousand years ago was brought to completion through Him. (We will work this out in greater detail in chapters 6 and 7.)

But the comparison puts a question to us, one that many women ask themselves: Is the Bible good for women? How can a book that includes instructions on where a woman can sleep or sit when menstruating be trusted by women today when similar modern practices like that of the Nepalese are clearly harmful for women?

We have not always been suspicious about the Bible’s take on women’s issues. For long periods in history, people viewed the Bible and Christianity as powers that lifted the downtrodden and demoralized to new places of respect. During the twentieth century, the first wave of feminism gave voice to women whom society had long marginalized. In 1920, women finally won the right to vote in the United States, due in large part to the efforts of Christians. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union led this movement, seeking to apply biblical principles of social justice to larger society.3 Based in part on their understanding of Jesus and the Bible, men and women of faith fought together for women to have the right to vote. This first wave of feminism resulted in women’s right to vote and inherit land, along with subsequent benefits to both women and children as women gained a voice in legislation.

But as the century wore on, there came a fork in the road in which orthodox Christianity seemed to go in one direction concerning the rights of women, and second-wave feminism (which focused on birth control, abortion rights, and equal pay) in another. In the last few years, many pro-women authors (for lack of a better name), even Christian ones, have painted a picture of women in the Bible that is troubling, even referring to certain pas- sages concerning women in the Bible as “texts of terror.”4 According to many books and popular blogs, the view in our current culture is that an orthodox understanding of the Bible is threatening and even downright harmful to women. The similarities be- tween Old Testament Law having to do with women on their periods and the Nepali practice that results in shaming menstruating girls seem to only reinforce such a distrust of Scripture.

Other books have dissected the history of evangelical Christianity and the secular women’s movement.5 Rather than looking at how we arrived at the twenty-first-century general mistrust of the Bible regarding women, I would like instead to simply challenge it by encouraging us to discover and use a Jesus-centered under- standing of Scripture when reading the Bible. In turn, this gives us a Jesus-centered understanding of how the Bible speaks about women and to women in its pages. I believe this process will give us all a life-giving perspective of our gendered selves in God’s kingdom. It will help us see the profound difference in the shame that fathers project onto menstruating Nepali daughters and the dignity God places on His.

Editor’s Note: To find the answer to these questions and more pick up a copy Is the Bible Good for Women by Wendy Alsup where she dedicates a chapter to answer a single difficult question in-depth.

Wendy Alsup is the author of Practical Theology for Women, The Gospel-Centered Woman, and By His Wounds You Are Healed. She began her public ministry as deacon of women’s theology and teaching at her church in Seattle, but she now lives on an old family farm in South Carolina, where she teaches math at a local community college and is a mother to her two boys. She also writes at gospelcenteredwoman.com. She is a member of a local church in the Lowcountry Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America.

Excerpted from Is the Bible Good for Women by Wendy Alsup Copyright © 2016 by Wendy Alsup. Excerpted by permission of Multnomah, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Ben Connelly 6/1/17 Ben Connelly 6/1/17

Existing for Our Mission Fields

We are releasing Ben Connelly’s A Pastor’s Guide for Everyday Mission—which is about how not to forget the great commission and how to make, mature, and multiply disciples. You can buy a digital copy for $4.99 or a paperback copy for $8.99. Below is an excerpt from the book.

Peter writes the following, to Christians living in a society that did not regard Christianity any more highly than our own does:

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on m the day of visitation.” – 1 Peter 2:11–12

Peter’s imagery is poignant. Every Christian is a “sojourner” and “exile”; we live in a land not our own; our language, culture, goals, motives, and hopes are different than the inhabitants of this land. As ministers, we are the leaders of these sojourners and exiles modeling and helping God’s people live out their faith in this foreign land. Peter tells us how to model that well: on one hand, we “abstain from the passions of the flesh.” We do this by fighting sin and for holiness; and for ministers, we lead others in the same. On the other hand, we don’t do this by hiding away from the world where God has sent us. Instead, God’s people live out our faith “among the Gentiles”—the first century word for “not-God’s-people”! That means we display our true hope in Jesus and declare the gospel in the midst of that society who doesn’t believe in either; and, for ministers, we lead others in the same.

Several years ago, I attended a conference session called “for the city.” The presenters—a local church pastor and a non-profit leader who partnered with that church—described four different postures that ministries and leaders often take toward their mission field.

In the city – This posture simply exists in a certain locality, but has little impact on it; this leads to apathy toward the world God sent them into.
Against the city – This posture has a mentality that says “the church is good; the city is bad”; this leads to isolation from the world God sent them into.
Of the city – This posture look so much like the city that the gospel seems to make no difference; this leads to being taken over by the world God sent them into.
For the city – This posture seeks the shalom of the city or its overall welfare which is found most fully in Jesus; this leads to a deep care for the world God sent them into.

The world around us is broken. Sin and disbelief in God run rampant. Idols seem to be erected everyday. But rather than run from the souls God put us in the midst of, rather then give up our convictions and live like the culture around us, and rather than apathy toward the brokenness we see, we must lead our people to engage it—no matter how hard.

GOD’S MISSION; THIS CULTURE

The US Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling for same-sex marriage prompted an outcry from conservative American Christians: this may be overstated, but the theme of the mourning and anger (against both God and man) seemed to be that there had never been anything as evil or reprobate anywhere on earth or at any point in history.

Canadian pastor Carey Nieuwhof responded to the American Outcry with a blog post outlining five poignant perspectives from ministering in one of the twenty plus nations where similar laws had already been passed. His words are a helpful case study as we consider answering the needs that exist in our culture today:

The Church has always been counter-cultural – Regardless of your theological position, all your views as a Christian are counter-cultural and always will be. If your views are cultural, you’re probably not reading the Scriptures closely enough.
It’s actually strange to ask non-Christians to hold Christian values – Non-Christians usually act more consistently with their value system than you do. Chances are they are better at living out their values than you or I are. Jesus never blamed pagans for acting like pagans. But he did speak out against religious people for acting hypocritically.
You’ve been dealing with sex outside of traditional marriage for a long time – If you believe gay marriage is not God’s design, you’re dealing with the same issue you’ve been dealing with all along—sex outside of its God-given context. You don’t need to treat it any differently.
The early church never looked to the government for guidance – Rather than asking the government to release him from prison, Paul wrote letters from prison talking about the love of Jesus Christ. Instead of looking to the government for help, Paul and Jesus looked to God.
Our judgment of LGBT people is destroying any potential relationship – You were saved by grace. Your sins are simply different than others. And honestly, in many respects, they are the same. People don’t line up to be judged. But they might line up to be loved.

Nieuwhof says in his opening, “Even the first 72 hours of social media reaction [since the decision was publicized] has driven a deeper wedge between Christian leaders and the LGBT community Jesus loves (yes, Jesus died for the world because he loves it).”

I mention the 2015 decision and Nieuwhof’s response, not because of the issue itself but for two reasons. First, it’s simply one example among many of our shifting culture. Second, it contrasts typical responses that ministers—and Christians in general—can have, with some examples of thoughtful, biblical truths. Jesus’ followers need to be reminded of these as we learn to wrestle with our status as “sojourners and exiles” in a land not our own. Similar truths are needed for every issue, sin, and struggle—in our own lives and in society.

The response to an increasingly-pluralistic culture isn’t to retreat; it’s to advance. Christians are light into the darkness, ministers of reconciliation, humble servants of God and man, lovers of neighbors and enemies, and priests who declare the excellencies of Jesus to the world around us. And ministers must lead others to live as if that’s all true.

POINTING OUR CULTURE TO THE ONE TRUE ANSWER

May I close this chapter by musing a bit? Maybe Christianity truly is losing a cultural war. But maybe—just maybe—we have the wrong view altogether, and the realities of a shifting culture are awakening a giant who’s been sleeping since the days of Constantine. Maybe Christendom actually cheapened the true faith and life Christians are called to live. Maybe Christian values were never intended to thrive as an interwoven reality with government. Maybe culturally-accepted religious practice and the “return to Judeo-Christian values” many yearn for have done more harm than good to peoples’ pursuit of true holiness and understanding of the life of following Jesus.

The second chapter of Peter’s first letter—right after Peter charges Christians to live out their faith in the midst of people who disregarded and even hated them—specifically tells us that part of this counter-cultural life is submitting to the authority of “every human institution, whether it be to the emperor or to governors [or even] to your masters”—even when they’re “unjust” (2:13-18). First Peter 3 tells us that a Christian view of marriage is different than that of a pleasure-seeking world, who pursues its own definition and expression of beauty and self-fulfillment (3:1-7). And the rest of Peter’s letter explains that Christians will suffer, for our views and our lives that look different than those around us. We’ll be rejected, persecuted, and hated by the very people among whom God calls us to live out our faith.

If we didn’t know better, we might think that these words were written about today’s society. And yet they were written 2000 years ago to Christians like you and me, sent to a culture unlike their own just like you and me, and called to display and declare the gospel to that culture just like you and me, so that “they may see your good deeds and glorify God”—so that God might use our lives, lived publicly for him, to draw some to himself.

The truth of Peter’s words—to Christians then and now—is that Christians are freed to follow human authorities, because our hope lies in One True Authority; we can hold a biblical view of marriage, because we realize that it reflects something far greater than ourselves; we can suffer well, even for the sake of others, because we know we follow a true King who suffered on our behalf!

“What’s the world coming to?!” It’s coming to the same place as always, but rarely known: a desperate need for Jesus. And while that need may have seemed hidden, subtle, or buried during Christendom’s reign over our culture, the need is becoming more and more clear (if it isn’t already). Who are we, ministers? We are God’s missionaries and we have the answer to every need of the culture in which we exist. Let’s go into the darkness and by God’s grace help our world find the answer to its every need.

Ben Connelly, his wife Jess, and their daughters Charlotte and Maggie live in Fort Worth, TX. He started and now co-pastors The City Church, part of the Acts29 network and Soma family of churches. Ben is also co-author of A Field Guide for Everyday Mission (Moody Publishers, 2014). With degrees from Baylor University and Dallas Theological Seminary, Ben teaches public speaking at TCU, writes for various publications, trains folks across the country, and blogs in spurts at benconnelly.net. Twitter: @connellyben.

Josh Shank 5/30/17 Josh Shank 5/30/17

New Book Release | A Pastor's Guide for Everyday Mission

We are releasing Ben Connelly’s A Pastor's Guide for Everyday Mission—which is about how not to forget the great commission and how to make, mature, and multiply disciples. Here’s a description of the book:

After fifteen plus years of vocational ministry, Ben Connelly had an epiphany. He had missed the great commission. He was really good at keeping Christians happy and really bad at making disciples. A Pastor’s Guide to Everyday Mission helps those in paid ministry positions rediscover—and live—their life as God’s missionaries, even as they minister to God’s people. Without burdening you with the guilt and shame he once felt, Connelly charges his peers in ministry to look over the walls of our Christian castles and realize that there are always more people “out there” than there are “in here.” A Pastor’s Guide to Everyday Mission will free you to let down your drawbridge, go out to the people to whom God sent you, and lead others across the bridge and into the world with you.

You can buy a digital copy for $4.99 or a paperback copy for $8.99. Below is an excerpt from the introduction. We will share another selection from this book on Friday!

Mathew B. Sims, Managing Editor

“I’m really good at appeasing Christians, and really bad at making disciples.”

In 2009, this crippling epiphany overwhelmed me. I was in “vocational ministry” since I was a freshman in college. While reading the New Testament for a seminary class, I started to get the nagging feeling that something was off. I didn’t know what exactly, but clouds gathered at the horizon of my mind. As I read over and over about the New Testament Church and compared its life and ministry to the ministry of the churches I’d worked for, everything seemed to get eerily still. As page after page showed disciples made and sent, the church loving its neighbors and those in need, church leaders called to love not-yet-believers in their midst, and even Jesus’ prayer that his Father not take Christians out of the world, I became disoriented; everything seemed to go into slow-motion.

Then I read the Great Commission.

I’d read it maybe two-hundred times before. But not like this. A tidal wave rose from nowhere. Looming. Rushing toward me. It crashed down: I’m really good at keeping Christians happy and really bad at making disciples. We had a decent-sized college ministry and praise God, he used even our lack of missional intentionality to bring some students to himself. But by and large, I felt like I was paid to keep Christian students liking our church’s ministry more than other churches’ ministries.

But the Great Commission isn’t to appease Christians. It’s to “go make disciples” (Matthew 28:19)! Whether in our hometowns, across the world, or somewhere between, my calling—long before I was a pastor—was to be a missionary! The wave crushed me. Drenched in shame and remorse, I began to question my purpose in life and ministry. I wondered if, in God’s eyes, I was a total fraud.

Following that season, I walked through the feelings of shame, remorse, and hypocrisy. I realized that some of the feelings stemmed from emotion; others, however, I rightly repented of, and have come to rest in God’s grace. (At least most of the time.) But the principle stands: whatever role we play, every follower of Jesus on earth is a missionary, sent to make disciples. And that’s especially true for those of us in paid ministry positions.

Mark Sayers 5/18/17 Mark Sayers 5/18/17

Technology and Lost Art of Livedness

Another border to transgress is the border erected by emerging technologies between life and our online, disembodied lives. That Christianity could have anything to say about our approach to technology may seem legalistic at first, but an essential dimension of following Christ is participating in His body, and this is a flesh-and-blood existence. One of the most beautiful aspects of Christianity is that the incredible truth that Christ saves us in His body of flesh by the Spirit is not something we apprehend only spiritually. We meditate on it, we receive it, we build our lives on it, yes, but we can also have dinner with it. I’m talking here about the church.

The church is the body of Christ. Local assemblies are designed to bear witness to Him—to be His hands and feet. As Christ is love and lives His life in the Spirit, so the church is love and lives its life in the Spirit. “Such a community is the primary hermeneutic of the gospel,” declares Newbigin, for “all the statistical evidence goes to show that those within our secularized societies who are being drawn out of unbelief to faith in Christ say that they were drawn through the friend- ship of a local congregation.” Just as the temple was the magnet people were drawn to, the life of the Spirit lived in the temple “of a collective body” becomes magnetic itself. Faithfully proclaiming Christ and patterning our lives after Him—imitating His love, embodying His teachings, inviting outsiders to the table—this is how the world sees Christ.

The very lived nature of Christian communal life increasingly becomes rare in the twenty-first-century world, for livedness is downplayed in our culture. The organs of power increasingly communicate to us through the digital world. We rarely meet politicians; rather, we see their digitalized forms daily. We do not experience the influence of celebrities, sports stars, and the titans of business in an enfleshed form. Rather, to experience their impact we must consume images and information about them via the Internet or television. Less and less do we get to know our local bank teller, find out how their kids are, or chat with the cashier in our favorite store. Such interactions now hover in digital form on our screens, ensconced in a part of our consciousness.

One day, after entering this online consciousness to consume the news, I was confronted with a social landscape stretched to the breaking point. Divisions between left and right, angry tweets, indignant punditry, terrorism, tensions over the place of Islam in the West. Putting down my iPad and heading out the door to pick up my daughter from school, I reenter the lived world.

There I feel awareness of my body moving, my legs stretching as I walk down the hill. The sun warms the back of my neck. Entering the school, before me runs the gamut of Western multiculturalism. A myriad of different ethnicities and religions, all acting in a wonderfully mundane ballet of wiping kids’ noses, dragging along toddlers, holding basketballs and footballs under their arms, lugging scooters and schoolbags. Instead of a fractious, fragmented, fiery online reality, there is calm, peace, a pleasant parallel universe. Friendly nods, waves of recognition, the hum of small talk.

I watch a young mum arrive, holding in her arms a newborn baby. Smiles break out. Quickly she is surrounded by a handful of other mothers, all beaming at the new arrival, kisses and hugs of congratulations are exchanged. Women in tank tops and yoga pants, some in jeans and tattoos, others in multicolored Islamic scarves. There is no tension, no arguments, no flaming tweets, just a group of humans, interacting face-to-face as we have always interacted. United in the small bandwidth of mundane activities humans have always engaged in. This is the real world. This is the enfleshed world.

Despite all of the adulation given to the digital landscape, despite its increasing incursion into our lives, we still live in the enfleshed, ordinary world. Just look how we crane our necks, uncomfortably walk with our gaze set on our screens, commune with sofa and at screen. It is not our home, but a temporary place of residence for our attentions, a distraction, an echo chamber of opinions and vain words.

At risk of seeming to tell a sentimental story in which a newborn baby unites humanity and undoes all of the problems I have outlined in this book, I wish to clarify my point. We live most of our lives in the real world. We live part of our lives in the feverish, hovering space of the digital world. Such a world can overwhelm us with its immersive power, leaving us ill-equipped for the reality of livedness. The influence of the online world, with all of its divisions and distractions, can lead us even as believers to take it as normative. Fretting and fearing at our cultural turn. However, there is a hope that many have missed. Christians, formed by the church, shaped by its relational rhythms, abiding with Christ, fighting flesh and living in the Spirit, are built for the real world. It is the realm in which the church flourishes and creates community with a heavenly destination.

The church provides good news. Re-centering life around the worship of God, it is the perfect environment for human flourishing. It gives needed, but also tough, medicine for those formed and shaped by the contours of our digitized, consumer-driven world. For the change we are living through wrought by social media and the digital world is a technological one, yet it is shaped by an ideology, a dogma of techno utopianism.

The initial designer of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, states that the web is not so much a technological invention but a social one. It was a platform to create social change, one whose supporting pillars were radical individualism, mystical faith in the power of technology and innovation, and the Californian counterculture’s resistance to authority, which is soaked deep in the soil beneath the industrial parks of Silicon Valley.

The original visionaries of our online worlds, observes tech commentator Andrew Keen, “imported the sixties’ disruptive libertarianism, its rejection of hierarchy and authority, its infatuation with openness, transparency and personal authenticity, and its global communitarianism into the culture of what has become known as ‘cyberspace.’ Their vision was to unite all human beings in a global network linked by computers.” This vision is a digital non-place. It believes that digital networks and online worlds can offer us community and connection while preserving our individual autonomy and freedom. It is this ideology, not the technology itself, which does the damage to our psychological, social, and spiritual selves.

The anxiety that hums like a computer in the background of our contemporary lives alerts us—not to the inherent danger in technology—but rather the inability of digital networks to deliver human flourishing and the deep connection for which the human soul desires. Yes, the new digital landscape has delivered handy ways to connect, as well as unparalleled access to information. Yet its technological utopianism, now monetized and designed to elicit consumer desires at a neurological level, has profoundly formed us. To move from the pure “livedness” of this digital, consumeristic, constantly connected state of being, into the pure “livedness” of the church, can be a jarring one. The gospel invitation into the community of discipleship, which is the church, can seem far from good news. It can feel like a cold shower.

Mark Sayers is the Senior Leader of Red Church, and the co-founder of Über Ministries. He is particularly interested in the intersection between Christianity and the culture of the West. Mark lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife Trudi, daughter Grace, and twin boys Hudson and Billy.

Jared Wilson 5/11/17 Jared Wilson 5/11/17

Curing the Taste for a Shiny Death

I remember walking into an adult bookstore for the first time. (This was before high speed-internet connections were common and you could get the crack delivered to your home in five seconds or less.) I wanted to be there; and yet I didn’t. I was trembling inside and a little bit outside. When you walk into one of those places, you are clearly crossing a line, and it’s as if that line demarcates a wall of glass. The porn shop is under a dome, keeping all the germs inside, and when you cross that boundary, it slices you in half. If you’re someone who claims to follow Jesus, you walk into a porn shop a totally bifurcated person—discombobulated, deluded, divided. I was driven there by a compulsion—to see, to get things I shouldn’t have, to know things I shouldn’t know. There are sections inside an adult video store, organized according to category; I hope you didn’t know that. Some of these categories repulsed me. Can you imagine that? Walking around a porno store and avoiding the “gross” stuff? As if it wasn’t all disgusting?

I knew I should not have been there but I wanted to be. Everything inside of me said it was wrong, and everything inside of me said it would be okay. Just push through, get what you want, and get out. Before you become numb to this battle and stop fighting it you must ignore the clapper of conscience clanging against the walls of your soul and push through it.

Was I in that store by my orientation? Absolutely. Was I in that store by my choice? Yes. The answer to this multiple choice question is yes.

And when I put Genesis 3:1 (“Did God actually say . . . ?”) together with Romans 7, I see why I believed it was ultimately better at the time to feel good doing what I wanted instead of suffering the internal agony of not being who I was. It felt so much better to give in than to fight. Which is why so many porn users don’t fight it at all. The porn promises release. The abstinence promises pain. And then there’s this voice saying, The pain means you shouldn’t be trying to change who you are.

But there’s nothing else in me God wants to change except who I am.

This change comes through the cross—Christ’s cross becoming my cross. What is better? To be warring all the life in Romans 7, denying urges and not feeling good inside, or doing what we feel is right simply because it feels good, better? One voice answers the latter, and it strokes the ear. The other strikes terror sometimes—okay, many times—but it takes us from Romans 7 to Romans 8.

Don’t believe the lie that struggling always to obey God is a worse lot in life than disobeying him with peace. God did not make us to “feel good inside” (or outside) all the time this side of heaven; he made us to share in the sufferings of Christ, that we might share in his resurrection. And the reality is, for many, the resurrection kind of life in these areas of death isn’t always postponed to the life to come. But you won’t know that until you’re willing to go to the cross for as long as it takes to die.

I was preoccupied with and perversely interested in pale imitations of glory. I was committing clear sins in engaging in this behavior. And staying away from the porno shop would be a good decision to make. But it was the allure inside of me—the desire for the glory that was being falsely promised—that just avoiding pornography wouldn’t kill. I didn’t simply have a behavior problem but a belief problem, a worship problem. And what eventually served to cure my taste for this shiny death was not “getting my act together,” but finally, truly seeing the glory of my crucified Savior.

In the warp and woof of this struggle every day, we cannot rely on the law to empower its own implications. We need the more glorious vision.

So long as we are living in the bittersweet limbo of Romans 7 through 8—simul justus et peccator, as the Reformers so nerdily put it in the Latin (righteous and at the same time a sinner)—we will be struggling to see the glory. We will always be fighting this battle. When I say it is better to behold than to behave, I do not mean that we are to be lazy Christians, ambivalent about personal holiness or actively following Jesus. I just mean that our ability to actively and persistently follow Jesus will be centrally driven by our comprehension of his glory.

Beholding Christ’s glory is the number one directive for following Jesus. And in fact, it’s sometimes the only effort us lousy disciples can muster up.

I think of that fateful Sunday a young Charles Spurgeon got waylaid by a snowstorm into a little Methodist chapel where a guest preacher filling in at the last minute was making a plainspoken appeal from Isaiah 45:22—”Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth!” He was not a great preacher; Spurgeon presumes him to be “a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort” and actually refers to him as “feeble” and “stupid,”6 but he recalled the man’s invitation thusly:

Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pains. It ain’t liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just, “Look.” Well, a man needn’t go to College to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn’t be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look.¹

That Sunday morning, with snow clouding the view outside, this simple message captivated the young Charles Spurgeon who for the first time looked at the glory of Christ and saw it.

Sometimes people are so busy trying to do great things for God they forget to look at his glory and therefore they never quite behold it. And sometimes looking is all the rest of us have the energy for. We are, whether spiritually or physically, out of “get up and go.” But as this stupid preacher reminds us, any ol’ fool can pick his head up and look.

[1] The Autobiography of Charles H. Spurgeon, Vol. 1, 1834–1854 (Cincinnati, OH: Curts and Jennings, 1898), 106.

Jared C. Wilson is the Director of Content Strategy for Midwestern Seminary, managing editor of For The Church, and author of more than ten books, including Gospel Wakefulness, The Pastor’s Justification, and The Prodigal Church. You can follow him on Twitter at @jaredcwilson

Guest User 5/5/17 Guest User 5/5/17

Point, Shoot, Forget

The high-resolution cameras built into our phones are simply one of the most incredible blessings of the digital age—convenient, portable, and potent. But they also raise three questions. First, we need to think about the social capacity of our phones and how that capacity shapes our impulses. What is true of our cameras is true of every smartphone behavior—the power to immediately share anything we see or do conditions what we capture in the first place. In Donna Freitas’s extensive study of the social-media habits of college students, one sharp female student told her: “People used to do things and then post them, and the approval you gained from whatever you were putting out there was a byproduct of the actual activity. Now the anticipated approval is what’s driving the behavior or the activity, so there’s just sort of been this reversal.”¹ Phones with social connections transform us—and our friends and children—into actors. That’s huge.

Second, we need to rethink our memories. What if the point-and-shoot cameras in our phones make us less capable of retaining discrete memories? One psychologist calls this camera-induced amnesia the “photo-taking impairment effect,”² and it works like this: by outsourcing the memory of a moment to our camera, we flatten out the event into a 2-D snapshot and proceed to ignore its many other contours—such as context, meaning, smells, touch, and taste.

If the cameras in our pockets mute our moments into 2-D memories, perhaps the richest memories in life are better “captured” by our full sensory awareness in the moment—then later written down in a journal. This simple practice has proven to be a rich means of preserving memories for people throughout the centuries. Photography is a blessing, but if we impulsively turn to our camera apps too quickly, our minds can fail to capture the true moments and the rich details of an experience in exchange for visually flattened memories. Point-and-shoot cameras may in fact be costing us our most vivid recollections. But until we are convinced of this, we will continue to impulsively reach for our phones in the event of the extraordinary (or less).

Third, and most insidious of all, I wonder if this unchecked impulse exposes something deeper and darker in us, a certain unbelief that drives us, something more similar to the lie that maybe a given moment is our last opportunity to get close to greatness. In essence, this was the scam that targeted Adam and Eve, and it has been the heart of every human dupe ever since.³

Sin lies about the future. If I don’t grab this chance at glory now, sin tells me, it will be lost forever. So we point our phones at celebrities, which only points out our forgetfulness. We forget eternity. We so easily lose the faith to imagine that one day we will inherit the world and be more renowned and wealthier than Johnny Depp could ever imagine in this life.⁴ We want our share of glory now, instead of waiting for our “glory that is to be revealed.”⁵ What if our rhythms of Snapchat selfies and our star-studded Instagram feeds are exposing the dimness of our future hope?⁶

Breaking Free

How, then, can we walk (and click and share) with wisdom? First, we must humbly admit that we are targets of digital mega-corporations that can make us into restless consumers with strategic intermediated content. We cannot be naive here. Our attention spans have been monetized, and getting us hooked on our phones is a commercial commodity measured in billions of dollars, not in kiosk change. The hook often comes in visual allurements. Again, this medium is not inherently wrong. Digital art and messaging can be done for God’s glory, and done well. But we must see that we are being conditioned to turn to our phones when we want to be amazed and wowed, and in turn, we are being milked for corporate profit. Likewise, social-media platforms are huge businesses with public stock prices, and they can grow in value only if they condition us to become actors in front of our phones.⁷

Second, we must learn to enjoy our present lives in faith—that is, to enjoy each moment of life without feeling compelled to “capture” it. A growing trend among touring musicians is to ask fans not to record concerts on their phones. Keep the phone in your pocket and enjoy the moment, they say. This direction parallels something of the Christian enjoyment of God’s good gifts. Get off your phone, go camping, gaze at the stars, hike in nature—whatever brings creation closer and richer than pixels.

Third, we must celebrate. We cannot suppress our souls’ appetite for what is awe-inspiring. The goal is not to mute all smartphone media but to feed ourselves on the right media. We were created to behold, see, taste, and delight in the richness of God’s glory—and that glory often comes refracted to us through skilled artists. Our insatiable appetite for viral videos, memes, and tweets is the product of an appetite for glory that God gave us. And he created a delicious world of media marvels so that we may delight in, embrace, and cherish anything that is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, or worthy of praise.⁸ This will keep us very busy marveling at Scripture, at nature, and at God’s grace in the people he created.

Feeding Authenticity

Filled with mediated reality from God, we become eager in our celebration and shrewd in our discernment of intermediated art. For our online networks, we become filters—salt and light—as an act of love in what we publish, share, and like. We refuse to be brainless carriers of the most recent viral meme. Instead, we live as Christians offering “dialogical resistance”—which means that we filter the messages of the world through our individual discernment and then share online through a robust theology of reality, possibility, and meaning in God.⁹

To do this, we must escape the trap of the intermediated world of the produced and step away to live our own lives. On the nine-month anniversary of her social-media sobriety—completely off Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter—my wife turned to me and said, “Compulsive social-media habits are a bad trade: your present moment in exchange for an endless series of someone else’s past moments.” She’s right about the cost. Our social-media lives can stop our own living.

Or, as Andy Crouch says, our smartphone addiction leads to creational blindness. It is only in the absence of constant digital flattery that we can feel small and less significant, more human, liberated to encounter the world we are called to love.¹⁰ We inevitably grow blind to creation’s wonders when our attention is fixed on our attempt to craft the next scene in our “incessant autobiography.”¹¹ Instead, says Crouch, “All true, lasting creativity comes from deep, risky engagement with the fullness of creation.” So “get out in the glorious, terrifying creation and let it move you and break your heart. Then you’ll have something to offer in the dim mirror that is ‘social media’—and in the full, real world that demands the engagement of all of our heart, mind, soul and strength.”¹² Yes, step away from screens, and let the glories of creation break your heart and let the handiwork of God’s creative genius wash you as you ski mountains, hike trails, and scuba dive into oceans. But don’t stop there. Climb the summits of Scripture, too. Let God’s Word pierce your intentions and cut down into your truest motives, and let yourself be convicted, broken, and remade—which is the feeling of standing in the breathtaking presence of God.¹³

Then take all of God’s created and revealed gifts to you and make all of them into a life that shows the world how glorious and satisfying God really is. This is the secret to “creating” great digital art of all forms and types.

[1] Donna Freitas, The Happiness Effect: How Social Media Is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 4.

[2] Je Jacoby, “Free Your Eyes from the Shackles of the Shutter,” The Boston Globe (Oct.4,2015).

[3] Gen. 3:4-5

[4] Ps. 37:11; Matt. 5:5; 25:21; 1 Cor. 3:21–23; 2 Tim. 2:12; James 2:5; Rev. 2:26; 5:10.

[5] Rom. 8:18; 1 Pet. 5:1.

[6] Phil. 3:19.

[7] Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, “How Seth Godin Manages His Life—Rules, Principles, and Obsessions,” The 4-Hour Workweek, fourhour- workweek.com (Feb. 10, 2016).

[8] Phil. 4:8.

[9] Oliver O’Donovan, Ethics as Theology, vol. 2, Finding and Seeking (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014), 83, 87.

[10] Andy Crouch, “Small Screens, Big World,” Andy Crouch, andy-crouch.com (April 8, 2015).

[11] C. S. Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), 101–3.

[12] Joshua Rogers, “Five Questions with Author Andy Crouch,” Boundless, boundless.org (June 15, 2015).

[13] Heb. 4:12–13.

Tony Reinke is a journalist and desiringGod.org staff writer who hosts the popular Ask Pastor John podcast. He is the author of Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books and Newton on the Christian Life.

Trevin Wax 4/12/17 Trevin Wax 4/12/17

Following Christ in the Age of Authenticity

In a recent issue of New York magazine, Heather Havrilesky, the columnist for “Ask Polly,” says readers should not see the millennial generation as “spoiled,” “entitled,” and “overconfident.” The millennials she hears from “feel guilty and inadequate at every turn.” They “compare themselves relentlessly to others. They are turned inside out, day after day, by social media.” Guilty. Unworthy. Anxious. Failing to meet society’s standards. A secular generation may not talk much about sin and judgment, but guilt and anxiousness lurk in every human heart. And it’s not just because of social media, although our online interactions do magnify the problem. Feelings of unworthiness won’t go away.

What should we do? The world says pursue happiness, whatever the cost, by becoming the best version of “you” possible. Look inside for salvation, and then look outside for affirmation. The problem is, “the curated version of you that lives online also feels hopelessly polished and inaccurate,” Havrilesky writes, “and you feel, somehow, that you alone are the inauthentic one.” Show your true self and you’ll be shamed.

Another problem is that this pursuit of happiness—finding yourself and being true to whatever authentic person you decide to be—turns out to be rather exhausting. “Merely muddling through, doing your best, seeing friends when you can, trying to enjoy yourself as much as possible, is, according to the reigning dictates of today’s culture, tantamount to failure. You must live your best life and be the best version of yourself, otherwise you’re nothing and no one.” In other words, if you’re not happy, you’re to blame.

So what does Havrilesky suggest? Millennials should get over their feelings of guilt and shame by accepting themselves as they already are: “enjoy exactly who you are and what you have, right here, and right now.” In other words, if they’re not happy with themselves, they need to look deeper within and become happy with themselves. This, to me, is like giving fatty foods as the medicine for someone who has high cholesterol. It’s compounding the problem by doubling down on what is actually causing the issue.

So, here is the question we as Christians should ask: do we have a better story than this? What if Jesus’ counterintuitive call to lose our lives, to deny ourselves, to pick up our crosses, is actually the invitation to happiness that goes far beyond anything we could conjure up in our own hearts?

If the gospel tells a better story of salvation, it’s only because it first tells a starker story of sin. First, we have to note the severity of our sinfulness. We have to take a stark look inside to discover the dark depths of our own hearts. The problem we have is not that you feel guilty, but that you are guilty. The problem is not that you feel unworthy of happiness, but that you are unworthy of any good gift that comes from our Creator. Scripture doesn’t brush off feelings of guilt, anxiousness, and unworthiness. It presses deeper into them.

Secondly, we need to recognize that “following your heart” is more complicated than it sounds. Who really knows what the heart wants? As G. K. Chesterton wrote: “The self is more distant than any star. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, but thou shalt not know thyself.” Figuring out what your heart wants is actually harder than pursuing what your heart wants. “The heart is more deceitful than anything else,” said the prophet Jeremiah,” and incurable – who can understand it?”

Thankfully, the gospel has a fresh word for the weary and guilt-ridden. We don’t look inside ourselves for salvation, but up to God as the Savior. The gospel should come as a relief to people, not as a burdensome list of moral regulations we are now to fulfill. We are relieved that the pursuit of happiness is not something we must attain on our own, but that the God of all joy and love has pursued us, into the depths of our wicked hearts. We are relieved that we are not the center of the universe, but that God is at the center and we find our fullness in loving and enjoying Him. We are relieved that the gospel tells us of a Savior who cried out “It is Finished!” so that His accomplishment is where we find our peace.

To be authentic, as a Christian, means I am to be true to the person Christ has named me, not the person I think I am inside. I am to live according to what God says I am—His redeemed child, a person remade in the image of Christ— and I now act in line with that identity. As a Christian, saved by grace through faith, I am not authentic when I sin. I’m sinning against my newfound identity. I am being inauthentic when I choose to disobey God, when I give in to temptation. I’m rejecting the identity God has spoken over me. True authenticity is not accepting my own self-expression but accepting the self-expression of God through Jesus Christ.

To be a conformist, as a Christian, means we are seeking to have our minds renewed and our lives transformed. We want to be conformed into the image of Christ. But this conformity means we look like rebels to the rest of the world. The true rebellion is in the heart of the Christian who follows Jesus by swimming upstream against the currents of the world. That means, when everyone else is following their hearts, we will follow Jesus.

What is our ultimate goal in life? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The Christian’s hope is for our greatest desire to meet our greatest Delight. That’s what sets us out on our adventure.

Trevin Wax is Bible and Reference Publisher at LifeWay Christian Resources and managing editor of The Gospel Project. You can follow him on Twitter or receive blog posts via email.

Adapted with permission from Trevin Wax’s This Is Our Time: Everyday Myths in Light of the Gospel

Guest User 4/5/17 Guest User 4/5/17

The Resurrection Seed

This article is excerpted from our latest release A Guide for Holy Week: The Last Days of King Jesus. Get your copy today!

The events of holy week were a roller coaster ending in a terrifying dip into darkness. The Savior was killed. He was buried by Joseph of Arimathea in his own tomb.

His followers were dejected, but even in the midst of this hopeless there was a seed of hope. It lay dormant for three days, but it sprout soon enough.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her. – John 20:11-18 (see also Matt. 28:1-10, Mk. 16:1-8, Lk. 24:1-12)

The Apostle John shares a story of mistaken identity. Mary and other women arrive at Jesus’s tomb on the morning of his resurrection. The synoptics recall the women conversing among themselves to the effect of “Who’s going to roll the stone away?” But when they get there, the stone is already rolled back and as one might expect they are afraid and confused. Now the synoptics and John’s gospel report that the women went into the tomb and an angel reports Jesus’s resurrection. John then fills in the story with additional details.

The women leave and tell the disciples about the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene returns with the disciples who see the empty tomb, and as the men are leaving, she stays and weeps outside the tomb. Jesus (unknown to her) approaches her, “‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’” As is often the case after the resurrection, Jesus is unrecognized in his risen state. She replies, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” What I love is his simple reply to her. Jesus says, “Mary” and immediately she knows. He’s her Lord. This scene is so intimate. You can sense the care Jesus has for Mary.

Part of what makes this passage compelling is Mary’s mistaking Jesus when we all know it’s him. Even though the section is short, I always find myself screaming, “It’s him Mary! He’s alive!” John tells us she thinks he’s the gardener. She’s wrong in a way, but in another way she’s profoundly right.

God places Adam and Even in the garden to tend it. They failed. Sin enters the world. Time passes. Lots of time. Humankind fails miserably at pleasing God. We constantly screw things up, but the promise (Gen. 3:15). The Seed would come!

Jesus finally does arrives and enters the Garden Tomb. He crushes the serpent’s head, not before the serpent bites his heel and Jesus dies. It’s a death blow for both. However, Jesus doesn’t stay dead. While the writhing serpent will still cause chaos until his final breath, the King, a man named Jesus, now sits on the throne of his Father in heaven. And at the end of all things, God’s temple, an eschatological temple-garden, will arrive and all things will be made new--including us.

How is all of this good news for us this season of holy week?

Jesus is the the eschatological Gardener. He plants our bodies into the ground and one day those resurrection seeds will grow into a tall a tree. Paul reminds the Corinthians of this truth,

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. – 1 Corinthians 15:35-38

Our bodies are seeds. We will die and be planted. We will rise up—just like Jesus, the first fruit of the resurrection. So as we meditate on the death and resurrection of Jesus this week, fear not saints. He did rise, and we will rise with him. We are the resurrection seed and he is the gardener.

One with the Father, Ancient of Days, Through the Spirit who clothes faith with certainty. Honor and blessing, glory and praise To the King crowned with pow'r and authority! And we are raised with Him, Death is dead, love has won, Christ has conquered; And we shall reign with Him, For He lives: Christ is risen from the dead! – “See What a Morning (Resurrection Hymn)”

Mathew B. Sims is the Editor-in-Chief at Exercise.com and has authored, edited, and contributed to several books including A Household Gospel, We Believe: Creeds, Confessions, & Catechisms for Worship, A Guide for Advent, Make, Mature, Multiply, and A Guide for Holy Week. Mathew, LeAnn (his wife), and his daughters Claire, Maddy, and Adele live in Taylors, SC at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains with their Airdale Terrier. They attend Downtown Presbyterian Church (PCA). Visit MathewBryanSims.com!

Josh Shank 4/4/17 Josh Shank 4/4/17

New Book Release | A Guide for Holy Week: The Last Days of King Jesus

Today, we release the newest book from GCD Books A Guide for Holy Week: The Last Days of King Jesus—which is a compilation effort from our writing team as well as some of our favorite freelance contributors. Here’s a description of the book:

Between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, the drama of redemption unfolds in a powerful way. For centuries, Christians have meditated through the duration of Holy Week on the suffering and passion of Jesus. Each reflection generates a sense of wonder at both the person who suffered and the meaning of his suffering. From the midst of Jesus’s crucifixion is encapsulated powerful statements that unfold the mystery of his nature and suffering.

Walk with us through the Holy Week and reflect on the work of grace that Jesus brought about through his life, death, and resurrection. This collection of essays, Scripture meditations, and songs will serve you during Holy Week as you seek to grow as a disciple of Jesus.

We’re also offering a giveaway! Purchase a paperback or digital copy of Jonathan K. Dodson and Brad Watson’s Raised? Finding Jesus by Doubting the Resurrection and email info@gospelcentereddiscipleship.com proof of purchase, and we will send you a FREE digital copy of A Guide for Holy Week.

You can buy a digital copy for $4.99 or a paperback copy for $8.99. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction by Joshua Torrey. We’ll have another full excerpt Thursday!

Mathew B. Sims, Managing Editor

My wife and I recently celebrated the birth of our fourth child. The arrival of our third girl was marked with extra joy as my place of employment recently extended the policy on Paternity Leave from 14 days to 30 days. The children had dad in the home for thirty-two straight days.

In spite of this nice treat, I missed one thing about work—returning home to thundering applause. All right, so maybe it isn’t always thundering, but it’s usually noticeably loud. Most of my children stop in the middle of their tasks and express some form of welcome. The two-year-old rushes to the door shouting daddy”demanding I pick her up even when my hands are full.

Like my own children when I arrive home, Jerusalem erupts in thunderous worship when Jesus enters. Christ’s Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem is a story most Christians know. During Palm Sunday, a lot of churches have their children involved in some rendition of palm leaf waving in church. But much like my arrival home from work is for my older (more distracted) children, many Christians treat the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem as the reigning King like it’s boring. Yet, if we stop, this event which kicks off holy week is an exciting story. Let’s revel in Christ to get a glimpse of that.

Christ’s Kingship and House

I am not an animal person. I can handle dogs and cats but that’s my limit. While the idea of farming and being among wildlife is mentally enticing, I know it is not a viable reality—I’m a city boy. So the idea of Christ requesting an obnoxious donkey always makes me laugh a little. And yet, “The Lord needs” it to fulfill Scripture (Matt. 21:5). Jesus rides into Jerusalem to thunderous applause as the reigning King of Israel,

This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” – Matthew 21:4-11

Christ does not become King when he ascends to Heaven. He does not become King when he is raised from the dead. The “holy week” leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion is something akin to a kingly inauguration. The Virgin Mary carried Christ into the “city of David” (Lk. 2:4). The donkey carried Christ into the city of King David (2 Sam. 5:9). The people’s praise reflects this truth. The praise for their King comes from Psalms 118 as they acknowledge the “Son of David.” Imagine the raucous nature of this event. How uncivilized and esoteric the expression must have been to leave the entire city wondering who this Jesus Christ was! Like my children when I return home, the children of Jerusalem could not help but scream and shout “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (Matt. 21:15).

Yet, for all the expressions of joy and excitement, this King did not have a place to “lay his head” (Matt. 8:20). He did not have a palace within Jerusalem. He had no throne to ascend. In fact, the narrative indicates that Jesus leaves the city every evening to find shelter (Matt. 21:17-18). So where does the King go upon his triumphal entry? Here, Jesus turns the kingship motif in a divinely messianic direction. The King returns to the temple and calls it “My house” (Matt. 21:12-13). Psalm 118 echoes that this too was a fulfillment of Scripture,

Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. – Psalm 118:2-26 The King’s entry into his city is not complete until he takes his people into the “house of the Lord”—the very house that has been turned into a “den of robbers” (Matt. 21:13). Who resides in the house of the Lord?

The Occupants of the Lord’s House

When I’m smothered upon entering my home after work, it takes an act of Herculean strength to set down bags and food containers while picking up children. With children in tow, I visit the restroom and the fridge for a beer. Eventually, as the king of my castle, I collapse onto the couch. Or if I am being good, I get to work in the kitchen.

As King, Christ gets right to work in his house. One can imagine the confusion of the Temple occupants as Jesus rifles through tossed tables and chairs. “Money-changers” were taking advantage of people in Jerusalem for the feast. Christ cleans his house of these “robbers” and makes space for the his people. And the “wonderful things” that Christ did was to allow the blind, lame, and young into the temple with him,

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant – Matthew 21:12-15

The people the King brings into his house are the rejected and outcast. In this regard, Christ reflects the mercy of King David who brought Jonathan’s crippled son Mephibosheth to his house and table (2 Sam. 9). The King of Israel, in lieu of his pending crucifixion, brings the young and the broken into his house (Matt. 21:14-16). These events set the stage for holy week and result in the plot to kill Jesus (Matt. 26:1-5).

And doesn’t Jesus do this still today? As we celebrate the Passion of our Savior, are we not reminded that the joyous entry into Jerusalem still pales in comparison to the triumphant procession that awaits us all in the final resurrection? Christ would tell multiple parables about the people who would reside in his house. And these parables, though originally about Jews, apply to us today. We are the people on the roadside in Christ’s parable of the wedding feast (Matt. 22:8-10). Or more pertinently, we are those who reject God (Matt. 21:29) only to be found the obedient son due to the King’s mercy and grace (Matt. 21:28-32; 43-44). So what kind of obedience does our King demand?

Obedience Fit for The King

What does discipleship under the reigning King look like? Thankfully the events of holy week illuminate our path. An underdeveloped event of holy week is the testing of Christ on paying taxes. Most individuals use this passage to communicate some type of political statement, but our Lord used it as a decisively non-political teaching moment,

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. – Matthew 22:15-22

The Pharisees enter this scene infuriated with Jesus. They have been upset since his entry into the city and are now looking to get a political conviction out of him. But in the middle of this curious question about politics and taxes, Jesus Christ makes a statement about rendering obedience to the true King. Christ’s answer to render taxes unto Caesar is based upon the coins bearing his image. If it bears the image, it is owed to that ruler. Christ’s insight is that men are made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26). Render your money to the local authority, but render your allegiance and obedience to your God. It is on the heels of this indictment that obedience is owed to our True King that Jesus condemns the religious “obedience” of the Pharisees (Matt. 23:1-36).

Over the course of Christ’s final week, the Pharisees prove that they do not understand how they bear the image of God and owe obedience to Christ. Further, in a moment of profound irony, they offer Christ the ultimate image bearer to Caesar (Col. 1:15). All of this convoluted rejection of Jesus is set in contrast to the final anointing of Christ. The Gospel of Matthew places the Pharisees’ decision to kill Jesus right alongside the anointing of Christ for his death (Matt. 26:1-13),

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” – Matthew 26:6-13

Much like Christ’s triumphal entry, the story of Christ’s anointing often loses its impact to our religious ears. Yet, our Lord says that wherever the “gospel is proclaimed” so also this act by this woman will be remembered. In contrast to the Pharisees plotting to kill Jesus, this woman anoints him for death. In contrast to the Pharisees rejecting the broken and weary, this woman humbles herself to anoint a soon-to-be-dead-man. Even the disciples of Jesus are unable to see that she has sought the greater gift of her King’s impending death.

Holy week teaches that obedience fit for our King ust revel in his death. We are to celebrate his triumphal entry into heaven. We are to celebrate his conquest of death. And all of this is done by the simple means of the Lord’s Supper. Christian discipleship in holy week focuses on the death, burial, and resurrection of the King. It is to proclaim “Hosanna in the highest” and his resurrection every Sunday in corporate worship.

And when we do this each Sunday, we are waiting for the final return of Jesus Christ. Then we, not unlike my small children, will rejoice and be glad at the return of their King. We will shout and laugh. We will joyously run to our King because our obedience is found by resting in him.

Joshua Torrey is a computer chip designer and editor of Torrey Gazette. He lives with his wife Alaina and their children (Kenzie, Judah, Olivia, and Cora) in Austin, Texas. Together they serve their local body—Redeemer Presbyterian Church. He authored The Lord's Prayer: A Family Devotion and edited John Calvin's Geneva Catechism and contributed to GCD Books’s An Advent Guide and A Guide for Holy Week.

Josh Shank 3/7/17 Josh Shank 3/7/17

New Book Release | Renew: How the Gospel Makes Us New by Jim Hudson

Today, we release the newest book from GCD Books—Jim Hudson’s Renew: How the Gospel Makes Us New. Too often we limit the power of the gospel to its blessings for us in the afterlife. We fail to see how the power of God, which raised Jesus from the dead, fuels our day-to-day battle against sin in this life. Renew shows us the grace of God is able to change us now.

For those looking to break specific sinful habits and temptations as well as those looking to gain a better grasp of how a Christian grows Renew speaks to the power of the gospel today.

You can buy a digital copy from the GCD Bookstore for $4.99 or get paperback for $8.99. Here’s a bit about the book from the introduction. We'll have a full excerpt Thursday!

Mathew B. Sims, Managing Editor

—

So how exactly do we grow spiritually? Is it simply a case of willpower and conquering our sin through perseverance and effort? In many parts of Christianity that is exactly what is believed. Growth is simply equated with obedience. We read the Bible and go to church to understand how we are supposed to live rightly and then our job as Christians is to try and do just that. God’s grace is rarely mentioned here.

In other parts of the Christian church, the therapeutic model is what is taught as the model for change/growth. Under the therapeutic model we try to understand how our wounds and dysfunctional family systems hinder our God views and contribute to our own dysfunctional behavior (which is rarely called sin). Our role is to apply wisdom principles (usually a blend of man-centered approaches and biblical proof texts) to enable us to overcome our problems. God’s grace is hard to find here too.

Still other approaches call into question the very idea of spiritual growth, seeing growth as something that may or may not even happen. This is the “let go, let God” approach. The focus here is on God’s unconditional approval of us as we are, without regard to whether we ever change. This approach may mention the grace of God, but it is a very anemic grace that lacks any power. Instead, it is a false grace that can often lead to permissiveness.

Each of these approaches has some parts that are true. God’s word does indeed give us a template for living, and throughout Scripture there are exhortations for us to engage in personal effort to live rightly. And it is also true that the wounds we receive from the sins of others affect us and can shape our own sin tendencies. And it is also true that, in Christ (an important caveat), we are loved by God apart from our growth as a Christian.

Yet all of the above approaches to growth are incomplete and, at some level, plain wrong. If we have the ability to overcome sin through our own effort, then Jesus died for no reason. And our wounds are not our greatest problem—it’s our own sin. No wisdom of man can overcome that problem. And God clearly cares about our growth. In fact, Romans 8:29 says that he has predestined us to be conformed to the image of his son. It would be unloving of God to not care about our daily fight against sin because it causes so much suffering in us. Because God loves us, he wants us to grow and to experience victory in our fight against sin. In fact, the Bible says he wants us to be dead to sin (Rom. 6:11).

This study is aimed at showing how the gospel, the means by which God initially brings us to salvation, is also the means by which God continues to save us for our ongoing growth, which the bible calls “sanctification.” Because of our faith in the completed and perfect work of Jesus Christ (through his life, death and resurrection), the power of God (grace) has been made available to us to fight against sin, to grow into the image of Christ and in so doing to glorify God. My hope for you is that through this study you will see how much God loves you and all that he has done for you in Christ. That will in turn cause you to love him more and love your sin less. Love God and hate sin. That is how we grow.

—

Jim Hudson (MA, JD) serves as a pastor and elder at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. His ministry passion is to help others see the wonderful truth that through the Gospel we have all we need for life and godliness. Jim lives in Little Rock with his wife Leigh. While they have no children of their own, in Christ they have many spiritual children and grandchildren.

Sean Nolan 10/17/16 Sean Nolan 10/17/16

The Gospel Between the Lines: an Interview with Rommel Ruiz, Illustrator of Golly’s Folly

Editor: We are excited to share an interview with Rommel Ruiz, illustrator of Golly’s Folly. Described as:

“Everything is meaningless”, King Solomon writes in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Inspired by this message, Golly’s Folly is a thrilling, adventurous story, dispelling the notion that things can satisfy.

The vibrant illustrations will carry your child along on Golly’s rollercoaster attempt to fulfill his desires with stuff. Share this much needed story about what truly matters, perfect for reading aloud.

Sean Nolan, Staff Writer GCD: Tell us about yourself?

Rommel Ruiz: I was born in the Dominican Republic and met my wife, Anny, there. She moved to the U.S. to study physical theater about ten years ago. I followed a couple of years after and also studied physical theater, and we married in 2008. We have two daughters: Bel and Lyz and our church home is Reality L.A.

GCD: What path led you to become an illustrator?

RR: As many of us growing up, I drew since as early as I can remember. I daydreamed at school while doodling in the corners of my notebooks. I credit growing up in the Church with my interest in the arts. Going to school for theater, I was inspired by my Christian worldview to use my gifts and talents to express it. At one point [my wife and I] even auditioned for Cirque du Soleil.

I compare my early years in the U.S. to the “three paths” in Lord of the Rings. I was pursuing my passion at the time, theater; while working as a freelance graphic designer; and trying to figure out marriage. I only considered illustration as a backup plan if theater didn’t work out. Even though I went to school for graphic design (years previous to coming to the U.S.) I didn’t have a direction for it. Then when my first daughter was born in 2013, I knew my life would change. I started focusing on illustration and working in my home studio.

I also should mention that I was working as a visual arts teacher at a middle school during most of these events. That was the most stretching endeavor of my life so far. At some point, my brother, Eleazar, approached me about helping him create a character to be a mascot for his studio. This eventually turned into Golly and the book.

GCD: With your background in theater, and as a creative, what do you think of the “Christian” film industry that has arisen in recent years?

RR: Oh man. I often wonder what kind of message those movies send to those who don’t identify as Christians. So many of them seem unrealistic and oversimplified. I have a hard time relating to them—and I am a Christian! They’ll try and depict someone praying and having all their problems solved. That has not been my experience. The Christian life is not that black and white.

On the other hand, there are movies that don’t portray a religious theme but ask questions that are far more universal and compelling to those who embrace the gospel. Take Contact starring Jodie Foster, for example. I think a film like that asks more universal questions about belief and faith that people can relate to than a lot of the things in the “Christian” market.

Another movie along these lines is The Book of Eli. It makes no effort to be overtly Christian but gives us much to think and talk about. Even the recent “Noah” movie, had a lot of good content for discussion, regardless of the criticism it has received from the Christian community.

Francis Schaeffer once said “Christian art is the expression of the whole life of the whole person as a Christian. What a Christian portrays in his art is the totality of life. Art is not to be solely a vehicle for some sort of self-conscious evangelism.”

There’s not such a thing as “Christian” or “worldly art,” there is just “art.” What we express in sound, word, movement and hands it's our worldview, what we believe and live for is the real catalyst for art. Often, the Church is guilty of being really unimaginative.

Like we’re afraid of people with questions, who don’t think like us. But God is big enough to handle questions and thoughts other than our own. The more I read God’s Word, the more questions are raised. I’m not afraid of the unknown, in fact, and I believe God owns the unknown.

GCD: Along those lines, when it comes to the creative process, how do you see your faith influencing it?

RR: My desire has always been to affect culture. Even when I practiced theatre, I wanted to make art that appealed to people outside of the Church—humanity as a whole. Yet, I’ve been changed by the gospel, so that would always be my foundation. I wanted the quality of my work to be so good that the world couldn’t ignore it.

The world has seen a lot of Christian art that was a poor reflection of the God it claimed to represent. As image bearers of God, anything we create should be awesome. Not because we are awesome, but because God is. That’s part of what drives Patrol Books. We want to do good stuff. It’s pushed us out of our comfort zones, but God calls us to use our gifts and talents for his glory and to affect the culture at large.

I take comfort in following in the footsteps of men like Tolkien and Lewis; they weave faith in between the lines

When I dive into the process of creating something, I take comfort in following in the footsteps of men like Tolkien and Lewis; they weave faith in between the lines. Life is not straightforward, I’ve told God: use me as you want. In this season of my life, I cannot fully devote myself to do exactly what I want because of natural constraints from life, but I told him to use me to the full—I want to do that for him.

But I don’t see the whole picture. It’s his story—not mine—it’s not black and white. I want to make art that brings that struggle. That is real. I want to communicate a beautiful truth…but it’s a truth that has many layers. It’s not an A-B-C super organized truth, real life is messy. I am a Christian first, and then I make art.

GCD: When you have clients paying you to make artwork for them, do you find it difficult to incorporate your faith into the project?

RR: Interesting question. No, I always try to bring my best and work with integrity. Which in itself is an outflowing of my faith and obedience to Christ (Col. 3:23).

But, when I take paying clients, they’re paying me to make visuals that will communicate their brand and message—with excellence and honesty. I don’t see a conflict in making it for paying clients as a living.

GCD: Have you found other Christians in the art community you look up to?

RR: Wow, too many to mention.

I’m currently being mentored by Matthew Bates, animator and character designer who has worked for Disney Animation and many other studios. Another amazing artist working at Disney is Armand Serrano and painter, writer, and thinker Makoto Fujimura.

I get a great degree of inspiration by guys like them, not just because of their incredible skills but because of their humility, character, and testimony in and out of their industries.

Also, I love the work of Don Clark, of Invisible Creature, Luke Flowers, and Josh Lewis, among many others.

GCD: What other influences have affected your art?

RR: Ufff, this one is hard as inspiration comes literally everywhere. But here we go:

From the top: Epic fantasy from Tolkien, like The Lord of the Rings and Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Even though it’s used for horror, there are interesting elements of transformation in there. Anything by Dr. Seuss. And I love the book, Where the Wild Things Are.

I’m influenced a lot by mid-century design. I also like Charley Harper, Martin and Alice Provensen, Ronald Searle, Eyvind Earle, Mary Blair, Maurice Noble, Jim Flora, and a lot of 1940s/50s animators. A lot of illustrators are being influenced by this time frame of illustrators. I’d like to explore other styles as well in the future.

GCD: Well it shows in the final product. The artwork in Golly’s Folly is impressive and beautiful. How long did it take you to finish it?

RR: It took three years because I had a full-time job and a family. It shouldn’t take more than a year normally, but I wanted to do my best and not compromise quality due to other commitments.

GCD: What sort of influence does being a father have on your work?

RR: The other day I took my family to Disneyland, and it was breathtaking to see my daughters just marvel at this world. Bel (my oldest daughter) was elated when Ariel (a parade actress) waved and smiled directly at her. I said to myself: I want my daughter to melt at the beauty of the gospel. So I want to create work that points her towards the beauty and awesomeness of our Creator.

When it comes to children’s books, it’s sort of a new world to me, I’m just soaking it in. I didn’t geek out on children’s books prior to now. Having kids is what has thrown me into the world of children’s literature. I know of a few children’s books that are distinctly Christian and also amazing.

But I wasn’t overly impressed with the art. It’s hard to find ten children’s books that are all incredible. Not that I’m saying our book is amazing, but that’s what we’re striving for. We want to merge really good art with really good theology, that’s our aim.

Because the gospel is beautiful, there should be no divide between truth and beauty. That’s where the vision for this first book came from.

GCD: A few fun questions: If you got stuck in an elevator with one famous/influential person (living or dead), who would it be? Why?

RR: Dietrich Bonhoeffer. While it’d be cool to sit with CS Lewis or Tolkien, something about Bonhoeffer during such a dark time in history and his radical response of faith is awe-inspiring. His understanding of being a light in the dark is so interesting to me.

GCD: The kids want to know: who would win in a fight—the Minions or Olaf and Elsa?

RR: [Laughing] As a father of two girls, Olaf and Elsa for sure.

GCD: What projects are you currently working on that you’re excited about? What should we expect from you in the future?

RR: Right now, I’m working on several projects; one is a graphic novel. I’m also in talks with a couple of children books.

GCD: Since our interest here at GCD is laser-focused on making, maturing, and multiplying disciples, when you create artwork, how do you think it can influence your viewers positively or negatively? Do you think it’s possible to nudge people closer to God via visual mediums?

RR: It would be a little arrogant for me as an artist to say that I could accomplish that. You need that spoken word, to best encounter God (Rom. 10:17). You need all senses engaged to properly experience God. If you remember the brazen serpent in the wilderness for Israel, they weren’t saved by it; it was just a symbol to represent the God who did save them (Num. 21; Jn. 3:14). It’s a checkpoint.

To be sure, God can use a movie, theater, dancing, a photograph, a painting. Anything that engages your senses can connect you to the one who created you. It’s a form of communication, but people place way too much expectation on art for being able to speak to someone.

There was a time when I thought art could transform someone in a way that was unrealistic. And to be sure, sometimes that can happen, art can bring us to look beyond what can be seen, but I think that is the exception and not the rule. While art is powerful, it isn’t a means in itself. When used correctly, it brings people beyond itself and points us to something greater.

One reason I’d love to influence and disciple creative types is to help them see that their identity is more than just the art they create. I’ve been stuck in the performance trap and getting depressed when my production of art didn’t fulfill me. And I’d love to point other artists beyond what they create to the Creator that made them and the Savior that died to redeem them.

GCD: Rommel, thank you so much for your time and for the sweat and blood you put into this book. I look forward to reading it to my kids some day!

Note: Golly’s Folly is available Tuesday, October 18th worldwide. It is the debut release by Patrol Books.

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Rommel Ruiz was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and strives to create good works with joy, imagination, and curiosity. He is driven by telling a memorable story and crafting powerful messages for clients and audiences.

With over thirteen years of experience working as an in-house and freelance designer/illustrator for a variety of industries, Rommel brings diverse talents and artistic perspectives to every project.

He is a happy husband to Anny (also a designer) and a thankful father to two joyful girls.

Brad Watson 10/11/16 Brad Watson 10/11/16

Why Missional Coaching

Coaching is essential for a sustained missional community movement. If you are committed to decentralized discipleship, you must make ongoing investments in leaders. We call this coaching.

Training has Limits

Classroom equipping and observation can only take you so far. Eventually, leaders have to start taking steps to lead away from the training ground. As they do this, they need accountability, encouragement, and equipping around real scenarios when they are in positions of responsibility and servant leadership.

I will never forget when our community sent Kory and Emily Oman out to start a new community in their neighborhood. The Omans were incredibly equipped through extensive experience and education. They had been to seminary, conferences, and read stacks of books on missional living. Furthermore, they experienced life on mission overseas and within our community for over year. They were prepared to lead. However, our conversations took on a whole new dynamic when they began to lead. We weren’t talking theory anymore. There were no hypotheticals. They had real people with real stories and real challenges to discuss when they came to coaching sessions. Kory and Emily didn’t have to think about praying and following the Spirit; they actually had to do it. It was in this environment that they began to listen and obey like never before and they learned to pray all over again.

They began throwing the books out the window. Their lives became messy as disciples came into their midst with issues. Their community ended up looking nothing like the ideal or any other missional community Bread&Wine ever had before. Their core consisted of families scattered across the suburbs. Their neighborhood and community wasn’t walkable. Their neighbors didn’t value BBQs, art camps, or any other previous strategies our community tried. Kory had to work nights four days a week. Yet, they took steps forward. They opened themselves up to the possibility of failure. They tried different things and prayed prayers like: “Help us be the church here . . . we want to be the church.” In the end, through prayer, patience, and listening to the Spirit, they established a thriving family of servant missionaries that cared for homeless teenage moms, foster babies, and they helped each other speak the gospel to their kids. They became a diverse community, declaring the gospel, and demonstrating it on the outskirts of the city. Their lives became immersed in the needs, pains, and blessings of community. They got started with books but moved forward through prayer, faithfulness, and processing with coaches. Coaching bridges the gap between books and real life.

EVERY MISSIONAL COMMUNITY AND LEADER IS DIFFERENT

Communities are not carbon copies. Every community is different because every neighborhood is unique, every group of people is unique, and every mission is unique. Each city has different idols, culture, and barriers to the gospel. The relational dynamics within each small community is special. Each missional community’s shared mission brings unique obstacles and opportunities for the gospel. In other words, disciple-making is not a reproducible formula or recipe. Forming and developing a discipleship environment like a missional community is very different from making a cake. Primers, books, and curriculum are all helpful in getting you started and laying a solid foundation, but you can’t just follow instructions. You simply can’t write a step-by-step guide and hand it to people.

Why? This is real life, with real people. The challenges, opportunities, and growth curve for every group of people is different. Furthermore, each leader is uniquely gifted and called. Missional coaches come alongside leaders to be a sounding board, source of gospel truth, partner, and real-time advocate for your missional community. That means a coaching relationship enables the leader to stay focused and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit forward through its dynamic hurdles and calling. Coaches help leaders discover and take the next step in faithfulness. Coaches ask leaders: What does God want us to do now? Coaching is a relationship where unique next steps are discovered and followed.

LEADERS NEED TO BE REMINDED OF THE GOSPEL

Kory and Emily experienced barrier after barrier like all missional community leaders. Our job as coaches was to remind them of the gospel. Coachers are a voice calling leaders to remember who they are, what they are called to, and how discipleship is an act of endurance. As a coach, I spend a large portion of my conversations with leaders reminding them of Jesus, who they are in Christ, and what it means to be a leader of disciples. In the chaos and mess of community, mission, work, and family it is easy to forget where you are and what you are doing. It is also easy to forget what is in your control and what is not. This is why some coaches feel their primary role is to remind leaders of their own calling and its limitations. Coaches ask the questions: Who does God say you are? Why are you doing this? What is true about God in your current situation?

LEADERS NEED TO KNOW THEY AREN’T ALONE

Leadership is lonely. While everyone shares the calling to be discipled and to make disciples, the leaders of communities carry a unique burden of shepherding, encouraging, and facilitating growth in the gospel. This often leads leaders to feel isolated. It is easy for them to forget they belong to a whole, and they are loved. It is even easier to believe they are the only ones that care.

Coaches meet with leaders, in part, to let them know they are not alone. Within the coaching relationship leaders are supported, cared for, and experience friendship. In a coaching relationship, leaders learn that someone else cares about these disciples, and prays for them. Without coaching, leaders experience burnout as they carry increasing burdens on their own.

COACHING IS ESSENTIAL BECAUSE OBEDIENCE IS EXPECTED

Make no mistake, we are all called to live in obedience to who we are and what God has called us to. The gospel propels us into a new identity where our work doesn’t save us or make us acceptable. In the gospel, we are free to obey our one true Savior-King. The message of Jesus reshapes our entire life: our inner life, our schedules, our hobbies, and our vocations. The gospel changes everything and calls us into his grace in every situation; from the mundane to the spectacular. The gospel saves us into a life of joy that results in obedience. This is clear throughout Scripture:

Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded. – Matthew 28:20

Being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts. – James 1:22-25

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. – Ephesians 2:10

Coaching helps leaders understand the things God has called them to do obediently and take steps toward faithfulness. Coaching is the crucial discipleship element of a missional movement that asks: What does obedience look like? What is required to obey? How can I help you? How will you obey?

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Brad Watson (@bradawatson) serves as a pastor of Bread&Wine Communities where he develops and teaches leaders how to form communities that love God and serve the city. Brad is the author of Raised?, Called Together: A Guide to Forming Missional Communities, and Sent Together: How the Gospel Sends Leaders to Start Missional Communities. He lives in southeast Portland with his wife and their two daughters. You can read more from Brad at www.bradawatson.com.

Excerpted from the final installment in our Together book series Multiply Together: A Guide to Sending and Coaching Missional Communities

Aaron Morrow 7/31/16 Aaron Morrow 7/31/16

4 Differences Between Small Towns and Big Cities

Significant differences exist between small towns and larger cities when it comes to being on mission. Below are four factors that significantly affect mission in small towns. Some of these have a positive effect on mission; others, a negative effect. This list isn’t comprehensive, but it’s a good starting point for analyzing and discussing the unique factors that affect mission in a small town.

Small towns desperately need normal, everyday people like farmers, factory workers, and small business owners who act like missionaries to reach their neighbors for Christ

Factor #1: Religious Non-Christians

Not many people in small towns are atheists, Muslim, or new agers. Instead, small towns tend to be loaded with religious non-Christians. They may not go to church very often, but they generally believe that God exists and the Bible probably has something to say about him. Small towns tend to attract and retain people who are more traditional in their outlook on life compared to those in larger cities.

Religious non-Christians are generally receptive to talking about God and church, but it’s fair to say that they are also inoculated against the gospel. When a person is inoculated they receive a vaccine that is a weak strain of a virus. The body’s immune system then proceeds to adapt so that when it comes in contact with the real strain of the virus, it can easily fight it off.

Similarly, religious non-Christians grow up in churches that give them a weak strain of the gospel and, consequently, they build up an immunity to the real gospel. That’s why conversations with them about the gospel and faith often end with them nodding their head in agreement with everything you say, even though they don’t truly understand what you’re talking about.

Practical Advice

Mission can never be done in the absence of prayer, but you’ll especially realize this when you’re on mission to religious non-Christians in a small town. Patience, taking a long-term approach to mission, is important. You won’t typically see many “microwave” conversions among religious non-Christians; instead, you’ll usually see “crockpot” conversions because it typically takes a long time for them to realize they have a weak strain of the gospel.

But take heart, because the Holy Spirit is sovereign over the crockpot! This is why it’s wise to avoid relying too much on short presentations of the gospel. More often than not, mission among religious non-Christians takes extended examinations of the lordship of Christ and the nature of the gospel before those concepts start to click in a meaningful way. This is why you should consider inviting people to your church, your small group, or to go through an extended one-on-one or couple-to-couple evangelistic Bible study.

People are often starving for a place to belong before they believe. This belonging kind of environment should be a safe place for religious non-Christians to enter into community and see—up close and personal—how their weak strain of the gospel contrasts with the power and abundant life of the true gospel.

Religious non-Christians also tend to have a high regard for the Bible. That’s why they’re generally not freaked out by opening the Bible at church, reading it in small group, or talking about it casually. However, even though they have a high regard for the Bible, the vast majority of them don’t know what it says because they’ve rarely been encouraged to read it for themselves. Therefore, don’t be afraid to conversationally use Scripture to discuss the gospel and faith. You’ll be surprised at how effective this is!

Factor #2: Change and Conformity

For a variety of reasons, people in small towns are not typically open to change in comparison to people who live in larger cities. But this isn’t necessarily bad, because when people actually do change, they aren’t likely to change back to their old ways. This is often the case when someone becomes a Christian in a small town: they aren’t likely to turn their back on Jesus after they’ve switched their allegiance to him.

Similarly, the lack of change in small towns often leads to a high degree of conformity. For better or worse, there is a relatively narrow range of acceptable behaviors, choices, and ideas that people are generally expected to adhere to in a small town. And the smaller a town is, the narrower the range! For people who have odd personalities or embrace non-traditional behaviors, it’s often difficult to be respected in the goldfish bowl of a small town. In fact, Christians like this might even have a reputation that is ultimately at odds with their mission.

Practical Advice

A veteran pastor in a small town once told me, “You can’t be weird in a small town. You need to be normal. You can’t scare people and expect to advance the gospel. You can maybe get away with being weird in Seattle or Chicago and still be great at evangelism but that doesn’t work in a small town.” If you think this might describe you, I would suggest talking with your pastor or a trusted friend and get their advice so that mission can advance in your spheres of influence.

Factor #3: Reputations Are Hard to Shake

It’s often said that newspapers in small towns don’t report the news, they confirm the news. That’s because people know who you are and parts of your life are common knowledge around town (which wouldn’t be the case in a larger city). In fact, many people who live in small towns end up being celebrities without trying, and for all the wrong reasons. Even your police record will be common knowledge because all the citations are listed in the newspaper! For better or worse, people tend to know about the details and integrity of your marriage, family, and business. That’s why reputations are hard to shake in small towns and they tend to follow us around like our shadows.

Practical Advice

The reputation of the gospel is strongly tied to the reputation of our marriage, family, and business. This is especially true in a small town. This reality can be a helpful asset to your mission, or an incredible liability. If you are committed to being on mission in your town, it might be helpful to sit down with your pastor or a trusted friend and reverse-

In other words, if you want the reputation of your marriage, family, and business to point to the gospel, then you’ll need to decide on the series of steps you may need to take to make that happen.

However, as you go through this process, don’t accidentally make your reputation into an idol. If you do, you probably won’t take meaningful risks for the gospel, because your deepest desire will be to protect your reputation instead of advancing the mission.

Factor #4: The “Ten and Done” Principle

A veteran pastor in a small town made a simple but insightful observation to me a few years ago about relationships in small towns. He called it the “ten and done” principle, and it forever changed the way I understood social dynamics and mission in small towns.

The “ten and done” principle is when people in a small towns typically make room for ten slots in their life for friendships, and once their ten slots are filled, then they are done building friendships. They aren’t necessarily done being friendly, but they are done inserting new friends into their slots. Each person’s slots consist of permanent and non-permanent friendships.

The permanent slots are friendships that are poured in cement. These permanent friendships usually consist of a person’s family, a few friends they grew up with, or other people they’ve grown close to along the way. The non-permanent slots may rotate depending on circumstances and stage of life.

For example, when a young mom has little kids she might have some of the young moms from her play group in some of her non-permanent slots. However, when her kids are older and play on a high-school soccer team, she might have different parents in her non-permanent slots from that group.

Keep in mind that this is only a principle, and not a rule, because it’s not equally true for everyone who lives in a small town. Some people might have a meager amount of non-permanent slots while others might have an abundance of them. Some might have considerably more than ten slots but they’re all permanent, while others might have far less than ten slots, due to their personality and social sensibilities.

Moreover, the cultural climate in some parts of the country can breed unspoken expectations for people to have higher or lower amounts of slots. But even though each person and place is different, the “ten and done” principle generally holds true for small towns across America. Many of us who have lived in small towns have certainly seen it in practice!

Practical Advice

The “ten and done” principle creates a diversity of challenges when it comes to mission in small towns. If relationships are the foundation of mission in small towns, how should we do mission with this principle in mind? Below is a collection of thoughts that address this question.

New people tend to be the “low-hanging fruit” for mission in a small town, because not many of their slots are filled. Longtime residents need the gospel as much as anyone, but new residents are often the easiest people to connect with for the sake of mission.

Make room for non-permanent slots in your life for the sake of mission. If you don’t have non-permanent slots open, take account of your relationships and ask God how he wants to organize and prioritize your friendships. If you do have non-permanent slots open, be devoted to praying about which non-Christians God might place in your slots.

Don’t assume you know which non-Christians have non-permanent slots open. Be prudent in praying for wisdom and don’t jump to conclusions about who’s interested and available to build a reciprocal friendship with you.

For a variety of reasons, people who are single typically have more time and availability than their married counterparts. And they also tend to have a higher number of slots available than those who are married. Singles often have the potential to be some of the best missionaries in town. If you are single, consider leveraging this season of your life for the sake of mission.

The “ten and done” principle often means that being on mission at our workplaces is remarkably strategic. Many people in small towns have their extended families living in the area and they fill up each other’s slots. Consequently, some extended families in small towns could virtually be considered unreached people groups! One of the most strategic ways to reach these families is to be on mission in our workplaces, because people from these families are forced to be around their Christian co-workers for eight hours every day.

Some non-Christians have all their permanent slots filled with family and childhood friends. Therefore, consider strategically praying that God would boldly bring individual people like this to Christ so that they can be on mission to the rest of their family and childhood friends. This is one way that God infiltrates closed networks of family and friends in small towns. There are many people in small towns who have testimonies where God saved them and powerfully used them to reach their closed network of family and friends. Let’s pray that this would happen more often!

If your family takes up all your slots and they are already Christians, consider holding a family-wide discussion about what doing mission in your town should look like. Family is good and a blessing from God, but is your family’s mission focused on community with each other or are you a community that’s focused on mission?

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Excerpted from Aaron Morrow’s Small Town Mission