Total Church, Leadership, and Mission

  *Note: This interview is transcribed from a Skype conversation in 2011 and reposted here.

For anyone who has planted a church or feels called to do so, there are not many better resources than the work of Steve Timmis. Steve is the Director of Acts 29 Western Europe and an elder at The Crowded House. He has also co-authored several books on the church including Total Church and Everyday Church. Steve was kind enough to spend some time with me and offer his wisdom to our readers.

BRANDON SMITH: Total Church has impacted myself and many church planters. What is the story behind your writing this book with Tim Chester?

STEVE TIMMIS: We were getting some requests from publishers to tell the story of Crowded House, but we didn't want to do that because we didn't want to present Crowded House as being a model or any kind of example. We didn't want to set it up like, "Aren't we great?" What we decided to do was to write a pretty robust ecclesiology but to earth it with our own experience at Crowded House.

I've been doing church this way for years, like decades. I had a man come up to me in Sydney, and I recognized him straight away - he had been in a church I'd pastored when I was like 25 (and I'm no longer 25, as you can see). He says, "Timmis, you're just a one-trick pony. This is exactly what you were talking about doing 25 years ago!" At one level I was slightly hurt, because I hadn't come up with anything inventive. But one the other hand, I was encouraged that the core - and it's definitely changed - but that the core theology, rationale, Christology, ecclesiology, missiology... that was forged way back then.

My principle influences have been Francis Schaeffer, the Dutch Reformers like Kuyper shifted my theology in a big way. I read Calvin's Institutes when I was very young, and got a lot of my ecclesiology from the Evangelical Anabaptists of the Reformation period. Jonathan Edwards and John Owen have been big influences, as well.

B: I had heard you say awhile back that many times it takes guests of the Crowded House some time to get comfortable around your church because of how tightly knit you are. What is it about your church that would make guests feel out of place at times?

S: It would be Christians who would feel a certain sense of disconnect. We tend do church differently than most people, because our leading edge is our "gospel communities" - living life-on-life together on mission is what is distinctive. Most churches struggle to live that out. Just today, I was coaching a senior minister at a large, solid evangelical church and some of the stories that he was telling me is that guys from his church would find it very odd at the Crowded House because of the emphasis of living life-on-life together on mission.

So, when people come and visit from elsewhere, they often comment on how I cope with people always popping in and hanging out at my house and people end up staying. For a lot of Christians, it's just weird.

B: My wife went on a mission trip to England recently, and she told me that she'd never been to such a spiritually dark place. How is your church model particularly working in England? Is this church model of life-on-life more effective in that culture?

S: English people are very private, and so in a lot of ways it's quite counter-cultural. My conviction is that if human beings are made in the image of God, and God is in community, then community is something that is part of our identity as human beings. They might be afraid of it and are undoubtedly are putting all sorts of management techniques that aren't right and godly to satisfy that desire, but it's there. So there's something that is inevitably attractive about the model. I think missionally it's very effective.

B: What are some practical ways that church leaders can encourage their people to actually want to go out and be missionaries in their context?

S: Fundamentally and ambiguously I'd say that it's a gospel issue. If they are averse to the very idea (and there's a difference between that and just being afraid of the experience), then they aren't understanding the gospel properly. Church leadership is all about creating a culture at it's very core, so leaders are responsible for creating, nurturing, and developing that culture. If the recognized leaders aren't doing that, then they aren't leaders whatever their title.

I think there are four principle areas to do this if you have a reluctant congregation, which many men have:

1) Preach it faithfully and biblically. You've got to show that this identity isn't just "my thing" or a "new trendy thing" but that it's core to gospel purpose. I find it quite helpful to use aphorisms or sound bites with substance that help people grasp biblical truth memorably. You have to preach it consistently and publicly from "house to house" to quote Paul in Acts 20.

2) Pray and sing for it. Not just the individual leader only, but he's got to shape the whole prayer life of the church around it. Corporate prayer meetings have got to be missional and you've got to rehearse and pray the gospel out. Even in terms of singing, we've got to sing missionally. Prayer and singing are great ways to capture the affections, and so leaders have the responsibility to put a lot of effort in creativity in those two areas to make sure that we're not only informing peoples minds, but that we're genuinely seeing their hearts captured by the gospel and captivated by Christ. To love Christ is to want to speak of Him and desire His fame. If we don't want to do that, then we don't truly love Him.

3) Model it. You've got to show how the gospel has captured your heart and stimulates your affections and that you're talking about Jesus and commending the gospel to people faithfully and engaging in people's lives. One problem is that leaders love talking about theory but they don't practice it in their lives. They talk about the church, but the reason why their church is institutional is because their leader tends to live institutionally. He lives like a professional, a person with an 8-6 job rather than a person who sees his identity wrapped up in the community of God's people.

4) Build structures. You've got to structure the life of the church around it. I think one of the dangers of the so-called "organic church movement" that we've sometimes been associated with is that it just doesn't appreciate the necessity of structures. All life needs structure - just look at the human body. Build structures that demonstrate and celebrate the centrality of gospel living for the life of the church. Where you put your money, effort, energy, resources, where you release people... they've all got to continue to hammer on that theme.

B: What is your opinion on how elders and church leadership should be structured in a church that is really trying to be missional?

S: I don't buy into the "first among equals" idea; I really believe in a collegiality of leadership where in particular areas one person will take the lead. What I try to do with our eldership, and we have eight in our gathering here, is to keep reiterating the vision and articulating it in different ways and engaging with them as best I can in different contexts. I am very content, not with power, but with influence. I do want to persuade people and be influential, but I can live without institutional power. Then, when the leadership has the same thought in mind, you've got to make sure that it filters through to the different leaders who are engaged with the people. You've persuaded the leaders, and they're persuading others. So, when we come to any big decision we don't just say, "We've decided this, do you agree?" because by the time we've presented it, it's filtered through the life of the church.

My principle strategy for that is generally to have absolutely as much as possible in the open forum. I encourage leaders to talk about things at the leadership level. I'm not talking about personal pastoral issues, but in terms of vision and our whole sense of our direction and who God wants us to be because I think that's the way that people become persuaded. So when it comes to making formal decisions, all the issues have been addressed and all the battles have been fought. We want to be as open as possible, and a value for me is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians, that we don't do anything in secret but that everything is out in the open. Our default is to talk about it openly. Sometimes you can't, but that's our default. For us, a lot of this is going on all the time so that people are aware instead of dumping ideas on them and asking them to approve of it.

B: Do you hold to a strictly elder-led model, or more of an elder-congregation idea?

S: We're definitely elder-led, but my conviction about being elder-led is that you've got to have people persuaded. I'm not a congregationalist, but unless the people are behind it and sign off on it in terms of people being committed to it, then you can make all the decisions you want but it won't do you any good. Leaders have got to persuade. So, if someone pushes back, I won't just accept that, I'll go after them in hopes of persuading them. I want all leaders to be persuasive for the sake of mission, for the sake of the fame of Jesus, for the glory of God.

Your Church Doesn't Need Followers

  Everyone makes disciples of something or someone. Just think about all the disciples that are made each and every fall as college football and the NFL kicks off with a brand new season full of thrills and excitement. It’s not new. It’s the same game played each and every year. But there’s much to be excited about. Why? Because we love it. We throw on our favorite jersey, eat our favorite nachos, and party while grown men war for a trophy. It’s great.

Disciples love the object that is teaching them something. The very definition of a disciple is "learner," though it is not simply a cognitive thing. It’s a life thing. We invest our emotions, desires, affections, money, time, energy in its mission. We’re all followers; we’re all passionate about something.

It is often the case that local churches build disciples around the organization itself. More often than not, this is accidental. We as church leaders and members typically have good intentions. We want people to know Jesus. We think that our pastors and our music and our worship experience are great gateways to meeting Jesus. That's why we invest in that church community, right?

But being a disciple of Jesus means that we are learning from him, walking in his ways. To be a disciple of Jesus means that we take our cues from him, not an organization. If we're not careful, we can get distracted by the organization or event and forget about the reason it exists - for the glory of God.

What happens when we make disciples of the church instead of disciples of Jesus? What might that look like? Here are five signs that we might be making disciples of our church instead of Jesus.

1. We Get Upset When People Are Gone

A prominent temptation of a local church is to root success in attendance on Sunday mornings. This is only part of what it means to be the church. Yes we gather, but we also scatter. If we put too much emphasis on the Sunday gathering and see this alone as “church,” then we’ll get frustrated when people aren’t there. Many pastors and members build their identity around numbers. This is dangerous and is most certainly a sign that you aren’t focused on making disciples of Jesus, but instead, disciples of the church. Disappointment is understandable; we want to see the lost come to know Jesus. But that must be grounded in gospel-motivation toward seeing more and more people become disciples of Jesus.

Disciples of Jesus build their identity around the gospel. Disciples of the church build their identity around attendance.

2. We Criticize Other Churches

We all tend to think that we’re the pure, true, and most correct church. This may in fact be true, but when we demonize others and divide on secondary matters, we are trying to defend Jesus when he needs no defense. When we criticize others, we are making disciples of our church because we want to keep people near to us and away from "them." We're more concerned about them huddling up with us instead of sending them out on mission. Suddenly your criticism serves as a ploy to justify “your church” and all of its perfection. We must remember that, unless heretical teachings exist elsewhere, all churches built on the gospel of Jesus are on the same team. We are fighting the same fight under the same Master. If a person in the church wants to join mission with another church, they should be sent away with joy and prayer. We should love other Jesus-glorifying churches as we all make disciples of him.

Disciples of Jesus are known for their love (John 13:35). Disciples of the church are known for what they’re against.

3. We Invite People to Come but Don't Tell Them to Go

This is a classic - and often overlooked - example. When success is defined by an individual’s attendance and giving instead of obedience to the gospel, we make disciples of the church instead of Jesus. When we over-emphasize “church” activities (Bible studies, Sunday night services, Wednesday night services, age-appropriate services, missional communities, service projects, etc.), it is no wonder a person views church as merely a thing they attend. They tend to embrace the goods and services, pay their money, and leave. We are so busy seeing church as a come-and-see event that people aren’t sent out on mission into their families, groups of friends, neighborhoods, workplaces, and to the ends of the earth. We must equip people in the power of the gospel to take that gospel out into their everyday lives. A lamp under a basket does not offer light to a dark world (Matt. 5:15-16).

Disciples of Jesus are sent on mission and challenged to do so. Disciples of the church just come and sit.

4, We Make Gatherings a Gimmick

When we ignore the mission of making disciples of Jesus, we tend to fill the time with goods and services. Suddenly, the bulk of our teaching becomes a gimmick to “get people to church" instead of a passionate plea for mission through the power and purpose of the gospel. We set up our Sunday mornings to make it as comfortable as possible. This is related to point #3, because instead of freeing up the church calendar for mission, we fill it with entertainment that ultimately distracts people from the real task at hand. Instead of training people for war, we entertain them with pithy paraphernalia. I get it. It’s often easier, because living our lives on full display for a doubting and watching world is hard. But Jesus told us to take up our cross and follow him. This means that church gatherings are a training ground for gospel battle, not a hip place to drink coffee and feel better about ourselves.

Disciples of Jesus long for the gospel, long to see not-yet believers come to Christ, and situate their lives to accomplish this. Disciples of the church long for the newest and best gimmick at church.

5. We Make the Gospel Dependent Upon Men

It's tempting to default toward trying to get people in the doors so that the gospel invitation can be given by the "professionals." We do this with good intentions, hoping that the lost person will come to faith. However, this sometimes turns into us spending more time getting people to acclimate to our church culture rather than familiarizing them with the good news and the grand mission. The gospel then becomes something only “those” people need to "get saved," and not something that is a daily necessity for all people. We tie their faith to a one-time experience based on the teaching of someone other than Jesus. This stunts their lifelong growth in the gospel. The gospel is the very power of God, not simply a fact to be acknowledged one Sunday morning. We must, with laser-like focus, continually point people to Jesus and the gospel as the only perfect goal. People will let them down; Jesus never will. He must be their prize, their hope, and their motivation toward daily striving.

Disciples of Jesus long for the gospel in every moment. Disciples of the church see the gospel as irrelevant in day-to-day life.

Are we making disciples of Jesus and centering our churches around him and his mission? Or are we too busy making our own survival as an organization the most important thing?

_

Jason M. Garwood (M.Div., Th.D.) serves as Lead Pastor of Colwood Church in Caro, MI. Jason and his wife Mary have three children, Elijah, Avery and Nathan. He blogs at www.jasongarwood.com. Connect with him on Twitter: @jasongarwood.

I Hate My Church

  People desire to leave their local church for a variety of reasons. Some are frustrated with their pastor’s preaching or someone in their community group. More often, people simply want to do ministry differently than what their church is currently doing. This frequently leads to frustration and even resentment.

For example, in training leaders around the globe, I often find that many people believe in the idea that gospel communities on mission should be a primary organizing structure for the local church. It excites them. They read the Book of Acts and believe that it describes these types of communities as God's desire for us as his people.

They go through trainings, they listen to resources online, they read articles, and they often come up to me after I teach and say, “I’m ready, but my church just doesn’t seem to get it. I think I am ready to leave and start something new. What do you think I should do?”

First, this is a big deal. This isn’t something that I, a mere human, can truly answer for anyone. But, instead of just staring at someone and making it awkward, I feel like something should be said. Plus, it seems that there is a mass exodus from local church families around the country. Instead of serving a local church, people are leaving to start stuff on their own, living life as a silo without the family of God at all. Some are leaving the faith altogether. (Check out this article on church attendance. I know this doesn’t speak to the issue exactly, but if people are giving up attending a gathering altogether, these numbers do speak into it in a general sense.)

I want to give you some quick insight if you are frustrated with the ministry approach of your local church.

Church Family Is Not an Option

When one wants to give up on the local church altogether and do it on their own, they’ll have to look back to the Scriptures and start asking some questions. At the very least, they must see how God has always formed his people, and for what reason.

We see from the beginning that Adam and Eve were in community with God, and that one of their main purposes was to be fruitful and multiply more image-bearers of God’s glory. Not only that, but God was the one who informed/formed Adam and Eve of their image (stating that they were "very good" before they did anything good or bad). He was their Lord.

When people became what they were not what God intended to be, he sent a flood to destroy mankind. You'll notice what he told Noah and his family afterwards:

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (Genesis 9:1)

God then called Abram out of his land, to be a great nation and to create a large family. Then, God made Israel a nation. In both instances, God’s intent was the furthering of the image of what he was like (not because they were great or large in number as Deuteronomy 7 points out).

God then takes this same understanding into the New Testament. Jesus calls us his Church, his flock, his body, his new family to show off who God is and what he is like. Then we actually see this life lived out in the culture and context of the church in Acts.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

I love this passage because it speaks to what God intended for his people to be all along. Not only so, but it comes right after the Spirit comes upon his church at Pentecost. As we continue to read through Acts, and then the various other letters in the New Testament, we see this church life lived out among God’s people, empowered and guided by the Holy Spirit.

This understanding of being in community, empowered by God for the sake of the mission of God is all throughout God's story. And these are just a few examples.

Who is God and what is he like? One of the aspects of God is that he is triune in nature, meaning, he lives in community. One God in three persons. So, when we live in community, we are pointers to who God is and what he is like.

So, if you plan on leaving the church altogether, you have some serious questions to answer based on the Scriptures given to us by God.

My Church Doesn’t Get It

I started living out missional community life back in 2007 as a youth pastor. I didn’t know what it was called then, but the way I formed the group with our leaders and youth, it’s exactly what we were doing. We had the entire families involved, and the group was growing with believers and unbelievers. It was amazing. We did this for about a year and half, but then I was told by the Senior Pastor that the church didn’t support it because it wasn’t the traditional youth group he was used to. So, not only did they ask us to stop, but they asked me to step down. I was totally cool with it, because I told him I didn’t want to get in the way of the church’s overall vision for how God had called them to.

At that point, he asked me to head up our community groups to see how might be able to implement some of the aspects of what I was doing in the youth group for the church as a whole. I started to implement, but it just got out of hand. I started to get angry and I reacted in ways I wish I could take back. I was purposely preaching, teaching, and leading in ways that I knew was against the local elders’ views. Instead of taking them my thoughts and asking for their wisdom, I just acted. Even though I think the ways I was leading were more biblical, it was doing it in a way that was rebellious.

I’ve learned a lot from that experience. I’ve also learned a lot from others that have done a much better job than I have in submitting to their elders, as they desire to live as a gospel community on mission.

Here is what I’ve learned for those who desire to do ministry differently than their local church:

1. Go to your elders/leaders, tell them some of the things that you are learning, and ask them for wisdom. Most likely, the elders/leaders at your church love Jesus and his mission. They have a lot of wisdom for you to learn from. Seek it and take it to the Spirit. Do not go into any meetings with your elders/pastors as a know-it-all, but as a learner.

2. Ask them if you can start living in this way, under their leadership. Ensure them you do not desire to leave, or take people with you. You want to live in this way to see if God might use it to be a beacon of light to the church, rather than against the church. See how you can be a submissive servant to the church, instead of seen as a grumpy dissenter.

What if I Need to Leave?

There are times where you will need to leave the church to either start something new, or to go and join a new one. Even though I highly recommend going to be part of another church where elders are established, I know this isn’t the reality for many. But, if I may, and if you are still reading, allow me to give you some further insight on this process:

1. Do not dump a list of “why you suck” on the elders when telling them it’s time to part ways. I’ve seen many a people who keep everything to themselves for years, then dump the last 10/20/30 years of things that they hate on the elders, and then leave. That’s just not loving. That’s like your child coming to you at the age of 18 and laying out all the ways you’ve disappointed them and then walking out of your house. Be open and honest with your leaders, but give them time to take it in and time to change. Maybe they’ll give you insight on the ins and outs of why certain things are the way that they are.

Have you ever been around a child that walks all over their parents, are totally misbehaved and you can’t believe it? Then you find out that they have a major behavioral disorder? Sometimes context and insight help us understand. So, I’d tell you that if you plan on leaving, don’t make the decision alone, but take it to the leaders ahead of time and tell them your concerns. Be sure to give them time and space to speak into what you are thinking and seeing. What if God used you as a catalyst for change? What if God used the elders/leaders as a catalyst for change for you and your maturity?

2. If you leave, don’t speak against your church. Think of the apostle Paul in this. When he dealt with the Corinthian church that was seriously jacked up, probably far more so than your church, he had a ton to say about how much he saw the grace of God in them. Look at this:

I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:4-9)

Only after all this does he enter into correction. But, know this: People saw Paul as filled with grace for those he walked with. Most that leave their church are just the opposite. They have nothing good to say and sound bitter, spew slander, and are outright hateful against the church.

Think of this, who does this describe more? God or Satan? Who are you pointing to when you take this stance against your former church? You are not helping the cause of Christ by calling them out and being bitter, but you are aiding the work of Satan in showing that we are just a bunch of embittered divisive haters, instead of a family of missionary servants who understand we all have flaws and are in need of a Savior. Speak of your former church as you’d speak of the very bride of Christ. See the best in them. I am not asking you to lie about them, but every church family must seek to give the same grace that has been shown to them in Christ. Point to that, not the reasons why you think that they are the very sons of Satan. Think through, “How can I further the mission of Jesus in the way that I speak about my former church to others?”

God-Honoring Departure

Listen, I know this is far easier to write than live out. But, we are here to make disciples of Jesus, not further aid the work of Satan to destroy the work of the Church. When we decide to make hasty decisions to leave the local church, or to speak against her, we do just that – we are aids for Satan’s work. This doesn’t mean that we don’t leave the church, but the way we leave can show how we can have healthy disagreements, part ways, and still love each other and hold Jesus high in our lives and words.

The decision is not an easy one when speaking of leaving. But, if you could ask yourself this:

How would I want my son or daughter leave my house when they get older? How would I want them to handle themselves? How would I want them to speak of us, their parents to their friends? What would I want the process to look like?

Start answering these questions, and you’ll be well on your way of leaving, if it’s a must, in a healthy, God-honoring way.

_

Seth McBee is the adopted son of God, husband of one wife, and father of three. He’s a graduate of Seattle Pacific University with a finance degree. By trade. Seth is an investment portfolio manager, serving as President of McBee Advisors, Inc. He is also a MC leader/trainer/coach and executive team member of the GCM Collective. Seth currently lives in Phoenix, AZ with his wife Stacy and their three children: Caleb, Coleman, and Madelynn. He is also the artist and co-author of the wildly popular (and free!) eBook, Be The Church: Discipleship & Mission Made Simple. Twitter: @sdmcbee.

When Being Cool Isn't Enough

  Is it appropriate to communicate the gospel message in a way that's shaped by culture? This question reveals a certain naiveté about culture. The minute we open our mouths we shape the gospel with the cultural, linguistic forms, sounds, and meanings--language. Even the Bible contextualizes. The Bible is written in cultural language, reflects cultural forms of literature (Hittite treaties, Babylonian law codes, and Greek epistles). Everyday Christians swim in cultural forms: wearing pants, speaking in English, singing Amazing Grace (the original version, or Chris Tomlin’s recent offering). As my friend Dr. Alvin Reid likes to say, the very existence of four Gospels, written by four separate voices, to four distinct audiences, nuanced by the audiences who are receiving each message, shouts to us that God values the concept of contextualization. The question isn't whether to contextualize but how to contextualize?

The how of popular contextualization is often code for, "We want to be cool and relevant," a twist from its actual, missiological meaning. Ironically, the loudest proponents of contextualization often get it wrong. I am afraid that too often we seem to think  contextualization is really an effort to make us and our churches into the coolest version we can create. The more I dig into God’s word, the more I am convinced that biblical contextualization is not a planned effort to maximize “cool,” but is a concerted effort to live out the gospel by “dying to ourselves” in order to reach those around us. No text seems to drive this point home more clearly than Paul’s words to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 9.

Great Freedom

Paul begins the chapter by pointing out that he is a man of great freedoms. He understands the gospel rightly that his adoption as a child of God is not dependent on his behavior. As a result, he is free to take a wife, enjoy the comforts of food and drink, and even receive financial gain for his labors. These (and many others) are among the freedoms that are now enjoyed by every Christ follower. However, in spite of his freedoms, Paul advocates for the voluntary restriction of those freedoms for the sake of gospel advance. This passage is a strong reminder that there can be areas in our lives, which are not sin, but which can, at some point, be detrimental to gospel advancement. In order to make this voluntary decision, however, we ultimately must value God and his gospel more than we value our personal freedoms. Verses 14 and 15 expand upon this as Paul offers an explanation for why he gives up his income in his pursuit of the gospel.

Paul explains that his justification for this kind of voluntary restriction is because he has been given a stewardship of the gospel. Faithful contextualization is necessary as we grasp the weighty responsibility of the gospel that is entrusted to us.

Slaves to God

Paul points out that those who love God and love the gospel are slaves to God, and so we preach, as slaves, in an effort to see others respond in faith to Jesus. Verse 19, in particular, is helpful to this end. Paul specifically uses slave language to refer to his relationship with those who do not yet know Christ. We are often comfortable using slave language in respect to God (i.e. a slave to God) or even righteousness (i.e. a slave to righteousness), but the idea of using it in respect to those apart from God is a bit foreign to most of our vocabulary.  Yet, this is exactly what Paul does. “I have made myself a servant to all,” Paul says, in a statement that is speaking specifically of the larger group of humanity who still do not know God. Paul’s efforts to contextualize the gospel rests under this presupposition that he is a slave to God and man as he endeavors to advance the gospel.

Paul points out (v. 20-22) that his efforts at contextualization come out of an understanding that he is voluntarily restricting his freedoms. By doing so he is a living example of the gospel on display. Luke 9:23 says, “And he said to all, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.'”

Biblical contextualization is an effort to live out the gospel call in the ministry setting that God has placed us.

Beyond Comfort

Finally, Paul notes that this effort to contextualize the gospel is not easy. Notice his language in verses 24-27 concerning his efforts. Paul exercises “self-control,” he “disciplines” himself. He keeps himself “under control.” Often we use this verse in an effort to inform our attempts at discipleship, but by doing so, we miss the point. These are Paul’s attempts to describe the process of dying to self that is implicit in biblical contextualization. The act of contextualizing the gospel is an act of self-sacrifice as we die to our own identity and speak faithfully the gospel in a manner that is most easily understood by our surrounding context.

Biblical contextualization is absolutely necessary, but anyone who understands it as an effort to see how far we can push the boundaries with the gospel  is engaging in a theological exercise of  missing the point. Contextualization should be an exercise in living out the gospel, allowing your comfortable identity to die as you find your identity in Christ. This may not result in a church full of indie rocker wannabes, but rather a multi-cultural church. Instead of a hip, cool leader that stands on cutting edge of fashion and music, a faithful contextual leader may look like a bass fishing, pearl snap wearing, southern gospel listening, country boy. They might even be a guy who wears a lemon yellow sweater vest, drives a Vespa or a Prius, and listens to Genesis or James Taylor.

The point, ultimately, is that who we are, and even who we want to be, should not really matter. What matters is that we are walking with Christ, loving those around us and dying daily, as we live out the gospel. We must speak the truth in a manner which may be uncomfortable to us personally, but which communicates powerfully to those around us.

Know your audience, know the gospel, and die to yourself as you preach the gospel faithfully to those around you.

_

Micah Fries is the Vice President of LifeWay Research. He has served as a Senior Pastor in Missouri and a missionary in West Africa, prior to coming to LifeWay. Connect with Micah on Twitter.

The Pastor's Justification

We're excited to have Jared at GCD today to discuss his newest book, The Pastor's Justification, which deals with the struggles that pastors regularly face.

_ BRANDON SMITH: It seems like you've written or contributed to a few books a year over the past few years. What does the writing process look like for you?

JARED WILSON: I am a sadly undisciplined writer but not because I don't write. I find myself not having to schedule writing time week to week, mainly because I can't not write. It just comes out, and always has since I was a kid, actually. My book and article projects are largely deadline driven, so I ramp up my focus time on particular projects the closer I am to something being due. But week to week, most of my project writing is done on Wednesdays and Fridays. Wednesdays is also when I write the bulk of my Sunday sermon.

B: After so many books centered on believers and their relationship to Jesus and the gospel, what led you to writing a book specifically for pastors?

J: The calling and office is so peculiar. Pastors certainly don't need a different gospel or a "bigger" gospel than the laity. The same gospel works for all of us, and is eternal enough for any person. But I think many pastors get so preoccupied in giving advice, counsel, ministry, etc., they neglect to feed themselves. The statistics of pastoral burnout and depression are sobering and revealing. I wanted to take a shepherding approach to shepherds with this book, helping my brothers apply the security and confidence and humility that comes in Christ's finished work to their specific calling and tasks. We lack for lots of resources in that department. Many books for pastors are for the ministerial toolkit. I wanted to write one for the ministerial heart.

B: The description for the book begins with: "Ministry can be brutal. Discouragement, frustration, and exhaustion are common experiences for all church leaders, often resulting in a lack of joy and a loss of focus." What are some major themes that you try to capture in the book?

J: The first part of the book is a general exposition of 1 Peter 5, addressing aspects of the pastor's character and calling. The second part of the book is a general exposition of the 5 Solas of the Reformation tradition, applying these hallmark truths to the pastor's vocation. The biggest themes addressed in every chapter and both sections are the pastor's sense of confidence and security, which is the result of his trust for fulfillment and satisfaction. Those big themes impact all the little matters, from a pastor's daily devotions to how much time he spends with his family or how he spends his money, each of which (and more) is discussed in the book.

B: As a pastor yourself, what part of the book did you need to hear the most?

J: Every iteration of seeking the approval of God, not men. This is tough for pastors of every kind of church, small to big and every point in between, and I've been on both ends of the shrinking and growing church spectrum, but speaking personally, it becomes more difficult to seek God's approval rather than man's as I have led a growing church and as I've begun navigating a public ministry of writing and speaking.

B: What is the greatest encouragement you can give to struggling pastors?

J: God sees, God knows, and God will vindicate you. You are totally loved, totally approved, and totally justified in Christ. _

Jared C. Wilson (@jaredcwilson) is Becky’s husband and Macy and Grace’s daddy, and also the pastor of Middletown Springs Community Church in Middletown Springs, Vermont and the author of the books Gospel Wakefulness, Your Jesus is Too Safe, Abide, Seven Daily Sins, and Gospel Deeps. He blogs almost daily at The Gospel-Driven Church.

[You can order The Pastor's Justification on Amazon.]

Church Planter's Wife: Are You Willing?

  Unpacking in our new home in a new state far from our families, I opened a box marked Fragile in big black letters. Inside, buried under bubble wrap, I found my framed wedding vows. While I searched the master bedroom for the perfect spot where the frame could hang, I read what I had committed to Kyle on our wedding day. Just as it had when I had first written the words, my heart stopped on one line.

I vow to support the ministry that God gives you.

An Overarching Willingness

When I wrote those vows in the weeks leading up to our wedding, I read them several times, each time imagining myself speaking them on our wedding day and, each time, hesitating at the promise to support Kyle’s calling into ministry. Although they were weighty, the other lines about faithfulness and commitment felt right to me; I could confidently make those promises to Kyle. I considered scratching the ministry line because it seemed out of place for wedding vows, but my heart felt unsettled at that prospect, too. I couldn’t pinpoint the difficulty surrounding this one vow. Kyle had a clear call to ministry, of which I was fully supportive. In fact, although I had rarely voiced it, I had felt a similar call on my life from the time I was in high school. I suspected I would marry someone with the same calling. When Kyle told me what he wanted to do with his life, I thought, Well, of course! as if it were silly to consider anything else. We rarely discussed the calling—it was a given, a natural next step for both of us, something we were willing to give our lives for. The hesitation, then, to put my support in writing surprised me. Possibly for the first time, in the middle of writing my wedding vows, I considered what ministry might mean for my life.

As I measured the future with a moment of God-given clarity, I saw what a lifetime of ministry might entail: shouldering heavy responsibilities, giving ourselves away to others, living far away from family, or possibly enduring criticism or defeat for the sake of Christ. Because Kyle had surrendered control of his future to God, my vow of support meant stepping into his shadow and following him where God led. Was I willing? Was my conviction so firm that I would speak those words to Kyle and to God in front of our friends and family?

A Specific Willingness

Eight years after our wedding day, I stood in our new home, holding those vows in my hands. We had just moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, to start a church from scratch. I recalled hearing the term church planter in seminary, but had not known what it meant, certainly not imagining the term would ever describe us. Yet there I stood, dusting off a frame of my wedding vows in a home and a city where we didn’t know anyone. Although much had changed since the day we wrote our promises down on scratch paper—we had three little boys and Kyle’s experience of serving on staff at a church in Texas— the same questions arose in my heart, urging for a silent renewal of the vow I had made to my husband. When I’d first said those words, they had been a general affirmation of the calling on my husband’s life. Now we faced the difficult work of church planting. My support and affirmation of my husband’s ministry would be crucial.

Was I willing?

I said yes on my wedding day, and I said yes to church planting. And—this is very much the key to being a minister’s wife—I have said yes every day since, most of the time with joy, sometimes with reluctance and selfish resentment, but nonetheless a yes.

I vowed a commitment to my husband, but I’ve discovered the commitment, the yes, that sustains is my submission to God. My yes is to Him and will naturally align itself as support of what my husband does as a minister of the gospel.

An Ongoing Willingness

Three years after the day I laid my head down on my pillow in our new home in a new state far from our families, wondering if something could be made out of nothing, God has done it. He has used His people, so broken and weak, to bring light to a spiritually dark place.

Every so often, I stand in front of my wedding vows, hanging framed on the wall. Just as when I wrote the words, my heart stops on one line.

I vow to support the ministry that God gives you.

Clearly, my support and affirmation of my husband’s ministry has been vital. And, clearly, God has moved powerfully around and among us.

But the work is far from complete. The Lord is still calling on me to move forward in faith—loving, serving, discipling, and leading. Church planting—and all of ministry—is a faith marathon, not a sprint. Daily He asks for my heart, that He might cultivate it, so as to produce fruit in and around me.

Am I willing?

_

Christine Hoover is the author of The Church Planting Wife: Help and Hope for Her Heart (Moody, 2013). She is a church planting wife and the mom of three boys. She also encourages ministry-minded women to live and lead from grace on her blog, Grace Covers Me.

[This article is an excerpt from Christine's book, mentioned above. Used with permission from the author.]

Why I'm Tired of Church Planting

  It seems that there are often no churches in our cities worth joining. I say this because I see many people planting new churches rather than coming alongside churches that are already established. It seems to be happening everywhere. I actually come from a smaller town in the Seattle area where it seemed impossible to find a church that I would have called family. So, I do get it. Finding a church that feels like family is hard.

Nonetheless, I'm tired of church planting. Now, notice that I didn’t say, “Why I am tired of church planters.” I love my church planting friends, and I want this to be an encouragement to them. This article isn’t going to be some polemic to rid ourselves of church planting, but I want to ask how we might change our views of church planting and the ways that it often manifests itself. I also want to look at the systems and measurables that we currently use.

I am not a church planter in the ways in which someone would traditionally see a church planter. I look to make disciples in the every day. I am a business owner and a neighborhood missionary. I’ve never been to seminary, I’ve never been to any church planting meetings, trainings, been assessed as a planter, or anything else of the sort. So, actually, I am pretty clueless on what it would take to try and plant a church in that sense. So, I write this a bit from an outsider perspective. I’m not saying it’s unbiblical to plant a service as it were, I just believe that we might be thinking about church planting backwards.

Here is a picture of how effective church planting could happen, and it seems to be in line with Paul’s thinking in 1 Cor. 3:6-9 when he says:

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

For the most part, I enjoy my time with church planters. They are great people who desire to see the cities they are sent to changed for the sake of Christ. This isn’t to call out church planters to say that they are evil, or doing things completely wrong; it is written from an outsider who desires planters to see what I am seeing from the sidelines. I might be totally wrong, but lately, when I see someone is planting a church, I don’t get excited. I finally started to wonder why.

Clarifying the Terms

When I say “church planting,” I want you to know what I mean. What I see around the world as I train and coach is this: a church planter is someone who moves into an area and gathers other Christians in order to start a church service. From there, they seek how they then can impact their community in a myriad of ways, but the main push will come on Sunday morning which will be the “front door” for the church.

Most church planters I see are very courageous. They take some serious risks to try and make this type church planting work. I admire them for their desire go on the frontlines and take this risk. But, what I keep seeing is that many church plants fail and struggle to keep all the balls they juggle in the air. This leads to a ton of stress, burdens, and burnout.

Church planters, consider this: what if we changed how we planted churches and how we measured them?

Please, remember that I will be painting with broad strokes in this article, and I don’t mean to say that all church planters will fit into the troubles that I mention here. But, many do. And I want to serve them.

Here are some things for us all to consider when we think of church planting.

Cart Before the Horse?

I feel as though many church planters are putting the cart before the horse. They quit their jobs, raise funds, gather other Christians, have a preview service, and then shortly start a Sunday gathering. That’s a lot of stress. But does it have to be this way?

What if you did things differently? What if instead of quitting your "day job," you decided to keep it in order to make disciples in your workplace and neighborhood? Instead of gathering Christians to work hard at starting a church service, we gathered Christians for the sake of sending them out to make disciples. This way, as we live life with those in our neighborhood we could ask ourselves, “Do they actually need another church service in this city?” The answer might be yes. But rather than assuming that right from the start and experiencing all the stress of putting together a church service (which requires ample amounts of time and money), you can live a normal life of making disciples where you are.

As the disciple-making happens in an area, maybe the people will decide that they could use you to equip them. They might even offer to compensate you for the training and the time it takes to equip others. All of a sudden, the church is deciding what they need from a needs-based analysis. They can see that they need someone to have more time to devote to disciple-making, rather than immediately assuming that they have to raise a bunch of money to make disciples in their city.

It seems to me that this might be more freeing than the first scenario. This will put you in a place to be a learner, like the disciples in the New Testament. A learner would be part of the city first, for a long time, before he decided what the city needed. A learner would learn the stories of the people and of the city to which he is sent. One would hear where the city and people needed redemption, and then apply the good news in both oral and tangible ways. Maybe one of the tangible ways would actually be a church building and a church service, but how would you know unless you’ve lived among the people first?

Unity

There are cities everywhere that desperately need a gospel-centered church that faithfully proclaims the good news. What I am hoping to see in church planters is that they truly inquire about the other churches in the area they feel called to before they assume that a new one is needed. When we plant another church service, it tells the community, whether we like it or not, that we are not unified. In some ways we aren’t, which is fine. We just want to be careful as followers of Jesus not to make the churches in our city an “us vs. them” mentality. I recently talked to a friend who doesn’t belong to a church and wouldn’t call himself a Christian or follower of Jesus. I asked him why he hates the church, one of his responses was this:

People that represent the church seem to lead with religion, not love. "What church do you go to?" "Are you a Christian?" Instead of just being good.

Another friend of mine responded with this answer:

Christ wasn't about growing an individual group; his concern was for all of humanity. Spread the word, yes, but they don't have to sit in the same building as you at the same hours on the same days of the week for it to count and matter.

We need to be about the Church instead of merely our version of a church. So, in what ways can we show the unity of the Church to our city as we desire to make disciples of Jesus? Moving into a city and starting a church service right away might not be the best flag to raise in some cities. If this is the case, how can we instead come alongside the other churches to see how we can humbly help and lead as servants?

Disciple-Making as Our Measure of Success

There are church planting networks that state that you are not officially a church in their network until you have a certain amount of adults at your Sunday service, or who’d be considered members of the church. Other groups or denominations might look to how many people has a church baptized, how many were at Sunday school, how many families gave money, etc. Many of us know the parameters of success – the three B’s: butts, budgets, and buildings.

If you measure the success of the church based on the fruit that only can be provided by the Spirit you will kill your church planters. What do I mean? I think we should measure what we can actually control, standing amazed at the greatness of our God and the indwelling Spirit when we are blessed with witnessing the fruit that God allows us to see with our own eyes.

What if we measured the success of our churches by asking this question:

How many people’s stories in your neighborhood do you know so intimately that you know exactly where they need the good news?

The reason that this is such a good measurement tool is that this gives everyone a fighting chance. This kind of measurement would require the planter (and all of us) to be doing the work we’ve been called to do: to shepherd people to the only hope we have. It requires the church planter to be involved in his people and neighborhood. It requires him to invest deeply into a few people deeply instead of to many on a surface level. It requires him to train up new people to “go and make” because the planter will not have the time to invest this type of life into thousands. In the end, if we have this as our measurement tool, we can see people being discipled instead of merely “making a decision” or just showing up to a church service.

We might see them actively bringing all areas of their (and others’) lives under the lordship of Jesus by the power of the Spirit through the good news. This is discipleship! This is what we’ve been called to do. Why not make this our measurement tool? It seems as though this was our mission given to us by Jesus. “Go and make disciples…” (Matt. 28:18-20). After this, you baptize. After that, you teach them everything that Jesus has commanded, but not before they have entered into a deep discipleship relationship with you.

The planter could feel freed to do the ministry to which he’s been called if we didn’t measure success through programs, conversions, attendance, and baptisms. These might all come, and we should be thrilled when they do; but statistics are not what they, and we, are primarily called to do. We are called to make disciples.

Discipling Like Jesus

How did Jesus do this? He spent three years with a dozen men, showing them who he was. He intimately knew their stories, and they were aware of his interest. When he called them, he said, “Follow me.” He lived life with them for awhile before ever asking them, “Who do you say that I am?” He didn’t have programs, he didn’t have buildings, he didn’t have any measurement tool besides the very fact that he knew their stories. He knew who he was discipling and for what purpose. Jesus couldn’t be a church planter in most networks today, and he would be a sorry excuse for a planter based on the measurements to which we so often cling.

So, why am I tired of church planting? Because it seems as though we have it all backwards. We are more concerned with seeing the fruit that only God can give (drawing, conversions, etc.), instead of being concerned with the very thing he has empowered us to do: to make disciples.

What if instead of starting a church service, raising funds, having preview services, and sending out flyers in the mail about the next sermon series, we decided to be disciples? I’m not vilifying inviting people to your church gatherings, but this cannot be primary.

We must decide to be learners. We learn from the other churches in the area, we learn from those in our community, we learn by walking in the ways of Jesus in the community. Then, we ask the Spirit what to do next, and actually listen to him. He might tell you to never start a service, but he also might tell you to start a service. Who knows? But, it seems to walk in line more with Jesus’s mission he gave us to focus primarily on making disciples.

Jesus said that he will never leave us alone when we are seeking his will. We’ll see external fruit, but this should not be our sole measurement of success. Our church planters should not be under such pressure to “perform” and to do things that aren’t under their control. I meet too many guys who are burnt out, their families are falling apart, they’re stressed out, and they are quite literally killing themselves because of failure. I don’t care if this is hard to quantify; we need to start dealing with the fact that we can’t always quantify what the Spirit is doing. Again, why don’t we equip our church planters how to disciple instead of how to start a church service?

Jesus created a movement and a new Kingdom where he could tell us:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Is our “kingdom of church planting” creating this type of living, or the one that rewrites Jesus’s words to say:

Come to me all you who are well rested and I will make you weary and burdened. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am merciless and prideful in heart, and you will find work for your souls. For my yoke is hard and my burden is heavy.

 _

Seth McBee is the adopted son of God, husband of one wife, and father of three. He’s a graduate of Seattle Pacific University with a finance degree. By trade. Seth is an investment portfolio manager, serving as President of McBee Advisors, Inc. He is also a MC leader/trainer/coach and executive team member of the GCM Collective. Seth currently lives in Phoenix, AZ with his wife Stacy and their three children: Caleb, Coleman, and Madelynn. He is also the artist and co-author of the wildly popular (and free!) eBook, Be The Church: Discipleship & Mission Made Simple. Twitter: @sdmcbee.

The Ministry Mistress

  "Working for the Church while your family dies You take what they give you and you keep it inside Every spark of friendship and love will die without a home Hear the solider groan, "We'll go at it alone""

Arcade Fire’s song “Intervention” paints the church as a militant institution, driven by discipline and an over-bearing work ethic. The central character sacrifices his family on the altar of “church” or ministry. This is often true. Churches all too often have more in common with Wall Street than they do Scripture. They enforce a merciless work ethic in the name of “mercy” or “gospel” ministry. All work no play.

There’s a Mistress in the House

My first year of church planting I started a new, full-time job, a new city, a new daughter, and a new church. Guess which one got the least attention? Family. As all these new things filled our lives, they began to crowd conversation with my wife. What was once natural—inquiring about my wife’s hopes, fears, and joys—became unnatural, even absent from our conversation. She patiently continued to ask how I was doing, but I was “working for the church while my family died.”

As my wife began to wither without the invigorating love of her husband, she revealed the affair. I’ll never forget her crushing comment: “I feel like there’s a mistress in the house.” I was alarmed and frustrated. How dare she make such a comparison! After all, I made a point of being home by 5:30 and on weekends. I made sure we had good family rhythms—breakfast and devotions, dinner and downtime. How could she say there was a “mistress” in our home? Then it dawned on me—you can be home without being home. I was present but absent. My thoughts, emotions, and concerns were with another Bride while I was home, not with my bride.

I had felt the gradual distance growing between us, but chalked it up to two kids under two and the important demands of church. I was wrong and Arcade Fire was right. The spark of love cannot live without a home. A house isn’t sufficient. Being present doesn’t cut it. What our relationships need is a home, a place where families can laugh, play, cry, and talk deeply together.

Recovering Your First Love

What was once natural became a discipline. I began to discipline myself to turn conversations away from church, work, and ministry and toward my wife and our children. I began to love her by asking about her hopes, dreams, fears, to encourage her hobbies and friendships. I relearned how to empathize and suffer, rejoice and laugh with her. Slowly the spark of love began to kindle. The warmth of friendship began to return in our resurrected home. My thought was that discipline could give way to desire. But discipline wasn’t enough.

What my wife wants, what every wife wants, is not a disciplined, duty-driven husband, but a loving, desire-driven husband. A husband whom, when thanked for a weekend get-away without the kids, says to his wife: “It’s my pleasure” not “It’s my duty”! Our wives want to be desired, cherished, valued. In fact, all people want to be cherished, but until we clear the shelf of our hearts of subtle idolatries, discipline will not give way to desire. We must put away our “mistresses.”

Repentance is Good News

In order to put away our sinful lovers, we need a power outside of ourselves. We need the power of repentance and faith. In Revelation 2-3, Jesus calls the seven churches to repentance. For example, he writes to the church at Laodicea: “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” In love, Jesus calls us to zealously repent.

I repented from loving the worth I received from my work, the significance I gained from serving my church. To repent is to turn. When we turn, we turn away from one direction toward another. The proof of repentance is not in our confession or resolve but in turning from our lovers and turning to our Savior. Where do we get the power of repentance? How do we conquer these lesser loves? By Spirit-empowered faith in the promises of God.

Jesus continues: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. ​If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, ​I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (3:19). The call to repentance is followed by the promise of satisfaction in Christ. Leave your lovers and turn to your one, true Love. Open the door and Christ will come to you, not only that, he will dine with you. Repentance is a call away from the famine of idolatry to the feast of table fellowship with Christ. Repentance is always good news.

All who over-work and under-love need to repent. We need to confess the idolatries of worth-by-work, of significance-by-service, and turn to face the loving, all-accepting, never-ending significance offered to us in the arms of our Savior’s embrace. Through Spirit-empowered trust in the promises of God, we can draw near to Christ and receive his perfect love, acceptance, and grace. It is from this position alone that we can truly love our wives and families. When we are satisfied in Christ, we can satisfy our wives. When we cherished by Christ, we can freely cherish others.

We don’t have to work for the church, the corporation, or the business while our families die. Every spark of friendship and love does not have to die. We can build a home that is filled with love, if Christ takes center place. When we embrace the practice of repentance and faith in Jesus, the idolatries of work can be cleared away with Christ at the center of our affections. Then and only then are we free to truly love others. When we do this, we will adorn the gospel of Christ and restore the reputation of the Church, revealing the glories of the gospel in the gift of marriage.

*A form of this article first appeared at Christianity Today in the Faith & Work section. Be sure to check out The High Calling for other helpful articles on vocation.

_

Jonathan K. Dodson (MDiv; ThM) serves as a pastor of City Life Church in Austin, Texas. He is the author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship and Unbelievable Gospel. He has discipled men and women abroad and at home for almost two decades, taking great delight in communicating the gospel and seeing Christ formed in others.

Why Teach the Bible's Storyline?

Some of you may be wondering why so many people are talking about the Bible’s storyline lately. What’s the big deal? Why is it so important for Christians to be able to connect the dots of the Bible’s grand narrative? Here are four reasons.

1. To Gain a Biblical Worldview

The first reason we need to keep the biblical storyline in mind is because the narrative of the Bible is the narrative of the world. The Bible doesn’t just give us commands and prohibitions. It gives us an entire worldview.

We all live according to a worldview. A worldview is the lens through which we see the world and make decisions. It’s like wearing a pair of glasses. You don’t think about looking at your glasses when you have them on. You look through them to see the world around you. Everyone has a worldview, even people who are not Christians.

Unfortunately, there are many Christians who do not have a Christian worldview. They may display some of the religious trappings of Christianity, but they demonstrate by their choices that they are living by another worldview.

The storyline of the Bible is important because it helps us think as Christians formed by the great Story that tells the truth about our world. It is vitally important that people know the overarching storyline of the Bible that leads from creation, to our fall into sin, to redemption through Jesus Christ, and final restoration in the fullness of time. If we are to live as Christians in a fallen world, we must be shaped by the grand narrative of the Scriptures, the worldview we find in the Bible.

2. To Recognize and Reject False Worldviews

A few years ago, two sociologists studying the religious views of young people in North America coined the phrase “moralistic therapeutic deism.” Those are three big words that sum up the following five beliefs of many in our society today:

1. “A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.” (That’s the “Deism” part. God created the world, watches things, but doesn’t do much in the way of intervening in human affairs.)
2. “God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.” (That’s the Moralistic part. The goal of religion is to be a nice, moral person.)
3. “The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.” (That’s the Therapeutic part. The most important thing in life is to be happy and well-balanced.)
4. “God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.” (Now, we see the Deistic view of God combine with God’s therapeutic purpose. He exists to make us happy.)
5. “Good people go to heaven when they die.” (Salvation is accomplished through morality.)

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. “Moralism,” for short. Our society is awash in this worldview. Even longtime church members are not immune to it.

So, if we are going to be effective witnesses to the gospel in our day and age, we must put forth a biblical view of the world that counters rival worldviews. Just think, if you were called to be a missionary to India, wouldn’t you first study Hinduism to see how it affects the culture and the people’s view of God there? Wouldn’t part of your strategy be to show how Christianity counters the Hindu worldview? Likewise, if you were called to be a missionary to Iran, would you not study the worldview of Muslims and see where Christianity and Islam diverge? A good missionary knows what Christianity teaches as opposed to what the dominant worldview of the culture says, even if that worldview is the moralistic therapeutic deism of the United States.

3. To Rightly Understand the Gospel

Another reason we need to know the story line of the Bible is because the gospel can quickly become distorted without it. The story of the Bible gives context to the gospel message about Jesus.

Too many times, we think of the gospel as a story that jumps from the Garden of Eden (we’ve all sinned) right to the cross (but Jesus fixes everything). On its own, that works fine in communicating the systematic points of our need for salvation and God’s provision in Christ, but from a biblical theological perspective, it doesn’t do justice to what’s actually in the text. Once a person becomes a Christian and cracks the Bible, they’re going to wonder what the big deal is about Israel and the covenant, since that storyline takes up roughly 75% of the Bible. Getting people into that story is important. As D.A. Carson says, the announcement is incoherent without it.

I once spent significant time witnessing to a coworker, one of those “all religions lead to God-consciousness sort of guy.” He and I went back and forth on the gospel. Eventually, he admitted that he believed Jesus had been raised from the dead bodily. Yet his explanation of the resurrection was this: God raised Jesus from the dead because He’d been unjustly condemned, and His purpose in rising was to demonstrate His God-consciousness so He could beckon us to learn from Him. In other words, Jesus was still just Master Teacher and not Savior and Lord. My coworker got the bare facts of the announcement right, and yet the story he was working from was wrong. The story line affected the announcement to the point where he really didn’t believe the gospel at all.

We need the biblical story line in order to understand the gospel of Jesus. Otherwise, sharing the gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection is like coming into a movie theater at the most climactic moment but without any knowledge of the story thus far. You will be able to discern bits and pieces of the story, but you won’t understand the full significance of what is happening unless you know the backstory.

4. To Keep Our Focus on Christ

There has been a lot of talk in recent years about making the gospel announcement of Jesus Christ front and center in our preaching and teaching. As our society becomes increasingly post-Christian, it is critical for us to not assume lost people know who God is, what He is like, and what He has done for us. We need to be clear in what we teach, with a laser-like focus on Jesus Christ our Savior. The biblical storyline helps us do this.

Every story has a main character. The Bible does too. It’s God. Specifically, it’s God as He reveals Himself to us in the Person of Jesus Christ.

Here’s what happens if we learn individual Bible stories and never connect them to the big Story. We put ourselves in the scene as if we are the main character. We take the moral examples of the Old and New Testament as if they were there to help us along in the life we’ve chosen for ourselves.

But the more we read the Bible, the more we see that God is the main character, not us. We are not the heroes learning to overcome all obstacles, persist in our faith, and call down fire from heaven. We’re the ones who need rescue, who need a Savior who will deliver us from Satan, sin, and death. It’s only in bowing before the real Hero of the story that we are in the right posture to take our place in the unfolding drama. Bearing in mind the big story of Scripture helps us keep our focus on Jesus, and off ourselves.

_

Trevin Wax is managing editor of The Gospel Project at LifeWay Christian Resources, a pastor, contributor to Christianity Today, and the author of Counterfeit Gospels, Holy Subversion, and Clear Winter Nights. Trevin lives with his wife and children in Nashville.

[This is an excerpt from Trevin's new book, Gospel-Centered Teaching. Used with permission from the author.]

6 Lessons I Learned as a Rookie Pastor

  “What do you think of me as a human being?”

A few weeks into full-time pastoral ministry, this question was posed to me from a man in the middle of a counseling session. His eyes were full of tears and his face was facing the floor; he was looking to me for any type of help. I wasn’t prepared for the rawness of his question, but there he sat, waiting for me to answer his cry.

My first year of pastoral ministry was like being dropped into a battlefield that I’d only read about. Yet, there I was, in the midst of the destruction of sin and the brutality of a world following the enemy, trying to discern what it actually looked like to be in the trenches, pastoring the people of God. It was terrifying. After a year in the battle, here are six lessons that I learned as a rookie pastor.

1. Soak Yourself in Scripture

In seminary, I'd heard stories of how ministry can become all about the job and not about loving Jesus. Not me, I thought. I was prepared, I was ready, I was confident. But when I became a real pastor with real responsibilities, all of a sudden my personal devotion had screeched to a halt. I became too busy to meditate on Scripture, and I became more anxious, irritable, and impatient with everyone around me. I had become a pastor consumed with the work of ministry and not with Jesus Christ, and I was suffering for it.

Finally, the Lord opened my heart and exposed my lack of devotion to him. Psalm 1:1-3 proclaims:

“Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever he does prospers.”

The busyness of ministry will make you say, “I will get my personal time in tomorrow.” But that will never happen. You must make it happen today. You cannot do the work of pastoral ministry without the nearness of Jesus and the more time you spend in God’s Word, the nearer he is.

If you are reading Scripture but not asking the Spirit of God to press it deep into your heart, you will not be truly delighting in the law of the Lord. The Spirit is the switch that once turned on, can illuminate the majesty and beauty of God’s Word to your heart and mind (1 Cor. 2:9-16). The Spirit brings vitality and freshness to the meditating on God’s Word. Jesus says that “the Spirit gives life” (John 6:33). The life-giving Word of God is what we need in the wars of ministry.

2. Jesus Is a Better Justifier

I feel justified by how many complimentary emails that I receive after a sermon. I feel justified by how many students show up to youth group on Wednesday nights. I feel justified by how many people want to meet with me for counseling. I feel justified by how much input I get to give into senior leadership decisions. I feel justified by... the list can go on. This is the performance-driven treadmill, and it dominated my thinking for a good chunk of my first year.

The first year of ministry showed me how innately destructive the desire to please people can be. I am learning that Jesus is better justifier than anything else in this world; in fact, he is the only justifier. Justification through grace alone is a glorious truth. It penetrates the heart that is driven by justification by works, and this is where the gospel begins to convict and comfort in beautiful ways.

The truth is, the treadmill of performance demands that you keep outdoing your previous effort. The next sermon has to be more profound, the next youth gathering has to be more exciting, and so on. This is absolutely exhausting. I am learning that it is God’s promise, not my performance, which sustains our relationship, and it is the cross of Jesus which justifies me, not the number of “likes” my sermons get on Facebook.

3. Point People to the True Savior

I think many pastors want to be everybody’s hero. I am wired that way. The motivation can be a good one. We long to see people freed from their struggles. However, it’s easy to glorify ourselves rather than Jesus. It’s exciting to hear people compliment our ministerial strengths. In those moments, the pastor-savior complex appears, complete with a sweet cape that we can put on, ready for the next situation to fly in to rescue.

Pastors can also go to the opposite extreme and ignore the gifts that God has given them in order to truly help people. Even a well-intentioned compliment can be turned into a theological disposition. We say, “It was actually the Trinitarian Godhead working in this situation; I had nothing to do with it.” To be sure, it is God who is transforming all people into the image of his Son, but he has called us as pastors to be on the stage of his great theater, with an important role to play in the lives of the people we serve. We are called to point them to the true Savior, while at the same time meeting them in the middle of their mess and doing all that we can to love and serve them in the ways of Jesus.

Entering the mess of people’s lives is where we experience the limit of our ability and the limitlessness of Christ’s ability. It is certainly easier to put bandages on people’s struggles, trying to sew up all that sin has done in their life in a one hour meeting, and then believing you have solved it all with a few words of wisdom. There can be a fine line between shepherding people’s lives under the authority of the true Shepherd, and trying to be the true Shepherd yourself. We must not become fatalistic about what we can do, believing that there is really nothing we can truly do to help people, but we must also guard against a sense of triumphalism and heralding ourselves as the true deliverers of people from their storms. Over and over again, I have seen that one meeting with someone was only a very small part of what the Lord was doing to heal them. My role was to bring the gospel to bear on their situation, to pray with them, and to encourage them to seek help in a variety of other places in addition to me. If we truly believe that sanctification is a God-driven but community-necessary process, then we must not let our counseling with people terminate on time with one pastor. So, I encourage people that meet with me to speak with another pastor if possible, or to join a community group where they can get in the fight with others. It’s also helpful for them to meet with a biblical counselor who can engage them more deeply.

I do want to shepherd people for the glory of God and not my own glory, and it is only in learning my role in the greater theater of God’s redeeming work that I can point people to what they desperately need – the true Savior and Shepherd of their souls.

4. Honor Other Pastors

There is something hardwired into youth which makes us want to change institutions wholesale, ignoring the opinions of those who have spent more time in the field than we have been alive. I am fortunate to serve on a church staff with several pastors who have been in ministry for decades, and I have found myself seeking out their advice and opinions on a variety of ministry and personal fronts. Sure, the context for ministry and the methods for ministry are different. The context may have been different when older pastors were cutting their teeth, but the pastoral wisdom available to you is waiting to be tapped. And it may shock you.

There are few things as important in ministry is a healthy staff culture, and if you are the guy who is continually questioning other staff members’ motives, gossiping about the “direction of the church,” believing in your heart that your sermon would have been better than his, you are helping to create an unhealthy culture that will bleed over into the church itself. Don’t be that guy. That guy can kill your church.

Do I always agree with other pastors on staff? No. But do I respect the motives and opinions of other staff members and honor those men who have a love for Christ and his Church by gladly submitting to their leadership, learning from their experience, and recognizing their collective wisdom and character that is often trying to help me? Yes.

5. Your Wife Is Your First Bride

I work for Christ’s bride and it is easy for her to receive the majority of my affections. But as a married man and a pastor, I am called to love my bride more than the bride of Christ (1 Tim. 3:5). I went through seasons in my first year where I was loving and serving my wife well, and I went through seasons where I wasn’t doing it well. This will always be a battle. Yet, I don’t want to write the book one day with a chapter lamenting about how the first ten years of our marriage were awful because of my obsession with the church. I want to honor my wife by letting her know that she is more important to me than anything else apart from Christ himself.

The health of your marriage will also dictate the health of your pastoral ministry. If you are loving and serving your wife, you will be in a much better position spiritually and emotionally to love and serve your church. Keeping several nights of my week completely free, saying no to people, and sharing about the highs and lows of ministry with my wife are a few things I am learning as I focus on putting my wife first.

As many people will attest, it is through marriage that the Lord shows how deep our need is for the gospel and for the Spirit. It is through sacrificially loving my wife that I honor the Lord with my covenant vows. And it is through loving my wife that I learn how deep the Savior’s love for his bride, the Church (Eph. 5:25).

6. Love Your People

Do you really love the church you serve? Do you love the people to whom God has sent you? I find myself loving the work of pastoral ministry more than I love the people to whom the Lord has sent me. It can be easy to dream up vision for where you want your church to be and forget the actual people who make up your local church. I find myself talking about “the church” as if it is an institution devoid of people; I speak as though it’s nothing more than a means by which I accomplish things “for the Lord.”

But the church is the people of God, called out and commissioned for his great work in the world (Matt. 28:18-20). It is to this end that we labor as pastors. We should desire to see people grow into the fullness of Jesus. It is easy to use people for “the good” of the church, but not truly love them for who they are as human beings. If you are using people rather than loving them, you’ve missed the heart of Jesus.

Look to Christ

If you allow it, pastoral ministry will demand everything from you. Yet, it's in the finished work of Jesus Christ where pastoral ministry finds its flourishing. The gospel of Jesus is the anchor we plunge down deep into our souls, and the treasure that we lay hold of with all our might.

Our flesh seeks to use pastoral ministry as that identity which justifies us. To the degree that our churches are growing, or people are being baptized, or money is being offered, or sermons are being liked – this is the degree to which our identity is secure. But if people start leaving or the money starts drying up, then our identity can begin to crumble. If our self-worth as pastors is built on what we do for God, then we will become tremendously easy prey for Satan. He will continually lie to us about what makes us acceptable in God’s sight.

Preaching the gospel of Jesus to ourselves helps us fight Satan’s lies. Our self-worth is not built on what we do for God, but is built on what he has done for us. Titus 3:5 says that “he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” This verse has been manna to me over my first year of pastoral ministry, and it is this truth that you must bury down deep within your soul. It is through the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ that brings us into God’s presence. It is the very character of God – his loving kindness, his faithfulness, his mercy, his strength, his patience – that we must meditate upon. It is his character which gives purpose and peace to your circumstances. Rest in that glorious truth.

May the cross of Jesus Christ, the promise of God’s saving love through his Son, sustain your relationship with the Father rather than your own performance. May the Spirit of God propel you into a fresh season of gospel-centered worship that stirs your heart and captivates your mind. And, to paraphrase Eugene Peterson, may your life be marked by a long gaze in the same direction.

“One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.” Psalm 27:4

_

R.D. McClenagan is a pastor at Door Creek Church in Madison, WI where he lives with his wife, Emily. Follow him on Twitter: @rdmcclenagan.

Setting the Tone of Discipleship

  This is an excerpt from Jared Wilson's book, The Pastor's Justification, used with permission from the author. Purchase the book here, and check out our interview with Jared here.

_

Be What You Want to See

God forbids pastoral domineering but commands instead “being examples to the flock” (1 Pet. 5:3). Therefore, pastor, whatever you are, your church will eventually become. If you are a loudmouth boaster, your church will gradually become known for loudmouth boasting. If you are a graceless idiot, your church will gradually become known for graceless idiocy. The leadership will set the tone of the community’s discipleship culture, setting the example of the church body’s “personality.” So whatever you want to see, that is what you must be.

This is another reason why plurality of eldership is so important. The most important reason to have multiple elders leading a church is because that is the biblical model. But a plurality of eldership also provides unity in leadership on the nonnegotiable qualifications but works against uniformity in leadership by establishing a collaboration of wisdom, diversity of gifts, and collection of experiences.

Elders must be qualified elders, so in several key areas they will be quite similar. But through having a plurality of elders, a church receives the example of unity in diversity, which is to be played out among the body as well. Every elder ought to “be able to teach” (1 Tim. 3:2), but not every elder must be an intellectual sort (if you follow my meaning). Every elder must be “self-controlled,” but some may be extroverts and some introverts, some may be analytical types and others creative. Every elder must be “respectable” and “a husband of one wife,” but some may be older and some may be younger. The more diversity one can manage on an elder board while still maintaining a unity on the biblical qualifications, the fellowship’s doctrinal affirmations, and the church’s mission, the better.

A plurality of elders can be an example to the congregation of unity of mind and heart despite differences. Pastors are not appointed to a church primarily to lead in the instruction of skills and the dissemination of information; they are appointed to a church primarily to lead in Christ-following.

A different set of traits is needed for pastors than for the business world’s management culture. Paul writes, “But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children” (1 Thess. 2:7). This is not exactly the pastoral image that is most popular today. In an age when machismo and “catalytic, visionary” life-coaching dominate the evangelical leadership ranks, the ministerial model of a breastfeeding mom is alien. There is a patience, a parental affection, a tender giving of one’s self that Scripture envisions for the pastor’s role in leadership. In 2 Corinthians 12:15, Paul announces, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.” That is the pastor’s heart.

Leading the Way

If we want our churches to be of one mind, to be of one heart, to assassinate their idols and feast on Christ, to be wise and winsome with the world they have forsaken, to be gentle of spirit but full of confidence and boldness, to be blossoming with the fruit of the Spirit, we must lead the way.

A pastor goes first. In groups where transparency is expected, a pastor goes first. In the humility of service, a pastor goes first. In the sharing of the gospel with the lost, a pastor goes first. In the discipleship of new believers, a pastor goes first. In the singing of spiritual songs with joy and exuberance, a pastor goes first. In living generously, a pastor goes first. In the following of Christ by the taking up of one’s cross, a pastor goes first. All I am saying is that one who talks the talk ought to walk the walk. Don’t lead your flock through domineering; lead by example.

The pastor ought to be able to say with integrity to others, as Paul says to Timothy, “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:13). It is not arrogant to instruct others to follow you, so long as you are following Christ and showing them Christ and giving them Christ. “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ,” Paul says again (1 Cor. 11:1).

Younger pastors especially are as eager to find role models as they are eager to be role models. But we are not about trying to create fan clubs and clone armies. We are about seeding Christlikeness through the Spirit’s power. “Let no one despise you for your youth,” Paul instructs his young protégé (1 Tim. 4:12), but he provides the way to do this: “set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” The way you prevent others from looking down on your youth is by growing up.

Growing up. That is what God wants for his church.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . . (Eph. 4:11-13)

He is making us fit for the habitation he has already promised us and given us in our mystical union with Christ. He is making us holy as he is holy.

_

Jared C. Wilson (@jaredcwilson) is Becky’s husband and Macy and Grace’s daddy, and also the pastor of Middletown Springs Community Church in Middletown Springs, Vermont and the author of the books Gospel Wakefulness, Your Jesus is Too Safe, Abide, Seven Daily Sins, and Gospel Deeps. He blogs almost daily at The Gospel-Driven Church.

The Spectacle of Preaching

Awhile back, I watched Meredith Viera interview Danny Boyle, last year’s Olympic Opening Ceremony director. Viera posed a difficult question to Boyle. She inquired how Boyle’s ceremonies could ever supersede the Opening Ceremonies from Beijing in 2008. Boyle’s answer was wise. He replied that, in essence, it was impossible to top the Beijing ceremonies, so he would simply attempt to create an Opening Ceremony that was faithful to the heritage and contribution of the United Kingdom. It was, I think, the perfect answer.

But then the Opening Ceremonies began. If you watched the Opening Ceremonies last year, you understand that Boyle’s project was hardly a model of understatement. It was a celebration of the highest order featuring Queen Elizabeth, James Bond, Mr. Bean, and a legion of Mary Poppins battling He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Perhaps Boyle believed that he could not compete with the Beijing ceremonies. But he was, at the end of the day, creating an event that can only be described as spectacle.

Of course, spectacle is the steady diet of those who exist in the 21^st century. We fill our time with the most recent Internet memes, the most outlandish stunts, and the “biggest and the best” of whatever our endeavor is.

Over against the society enamored with spectacle, the church has been given something completely different. The church possesses the gospel of God become human, living and serving among us, dying a sacrificial death on a cross, being resurrected to new life, and giving the gift of His Spirit. On its own terms—God became human!—this truth supersedes any sort of spectacle we might hope to generate of our own effort. But, in practicality, even those of us in the church seem to believe that we need a bit of spectacle. The spectacle of the church focuses on service, hiddenness, the washing of feet, and self-sacrifice. This is exactly opposite of what most of us are used to.

And so we are caught in a dilemma. Pastors step into pulpits each week where both believers and non-believers sit—ready to varying degrees—to hear the good news. They want to faithfully proclaim, but they want to be relevant. They want the lost to hear the good news, but they do not want to bore or alienate the long-time disciple. Simultaneously, they want to make church palatable for those outside of the faith without boring them.

Those of us who are pastors have a very well-founded fear: How do we faithfully proclaim to these sorts of people? How do you preach to the lost and the saved simultaneously, knowing the wide gulf between them?

This is not a new problem, and many blogs, articles, and books have been written attempting to navigate these waters, but I thought I might share three principles that are currently guiding my preaching to our digitally-drenched age, particularly with regard to the rise of spectacle.

1. The gospel has universal application

The gospel is simple. In fact, sometimes it seems too simple to those of us who are too familiar with it. It is: Jesus lived, died, was buried, and was resurrected. His doing so fulfilled God’s requirements for justice, and receiving the gospel makes people in right standing with God.

Of course, this simple gospel has unlimited explanation. It can be applied to every person, from every walk of life. Those who find themselves in worship for the first time ever need to hear the gospel, for they need to know that they will not be saved by moralism or religious activity. Those who are long-time believers need to hear the gospel, as well. Personally, I struggle with achievement and recognition. I can be tempted to need the approval of others. This will often spill into my spiritual life, as I begin to attempt to “achieve for God.” So I need to preach the gospel to myself, as well. I need to be reminded that my requirements for righteousness have already been fulfilled at the cross and the empty tomb. There is no need for me to impress God. My righteousness is as filthy rags. But the cross gives grace.

On weeks when I find myself staring at a blank screen wondering how to preach the Scripture at hand, I remind myself that every passage of Scripture points back to Jesus Christ and his good news of salvation. Let me say that again: Every passage of Scripture points back to Jesus Christ and his good news of salvation. You cannot preach an irrelevant sermon if you constantly circle back to the message of Jesus through the text at hand. Even on weeks when your sermon needs to go a different direction (I preached on service last week, for example), the gospel will always be central to your method (i.e., service is possible because we have been transformed by grace).

Every person in your congregation needs to hear the gospel every single week. It may be in different contexts or situations, but we constantly need to be reminded of the fact that God’s entire message culminates in the person of Jesus.

2. People are hungry to understand the Scripture

Every week I have the privilege of spending hours reading and studying the Bible. And, every week, I learn something new. I have been preaching or teaching on church staff in some respect for the last eighteen years or so. I have three degrees from universities relating to theological and biblical studies. I attended church regularly since I was an infant. And still, I discover something new about the Bible every single time that I study in preparation for a sermon.

Isn’t that incredible? I certainly believe that it is. For several years I think I undersold the beauty and complexity of the Scripture when I preached, because I was afraid that it would be too complex. In short, I sold my church members short. Now I realize that was a terrible mistake. The people of my church love when I clearly and thoroughly exposit the Scripture. They listen intently to historical and theological backgrounds of the Bible each week. They, too, look forward to learning something new about the miraculous Word of God each week. They are hungry to know the Bible.

Most of the world has some frame of reference regarding the Bible. They may not be able to articulate it precisely, but they know that they should be more familiar with the Bible. Over the years, I have preached topically and narratively, but more often than not, I find that the most effective method of preaching is to return to the Bible and to explain it to the church. When they see how the Bible ties into God’s redemptive plan and they learn something new, they have a great experience—whether they are long-time believers or first-timers.

3. Application is not optional

I love theology. In my mind, a sermon that is light on theology is a poor sermon, indeed. One common mistake I made early in my preaching career, however, was to focus too heavily on theology. I loved the theories behind the Scriptural message, and I spent a great deal of time explaining them in my sermons. And, while theology is important, it cannot be the only linchpin of a sermon.

The best sermons will be an arch of sorts: theology will constitute one side, but application will be the other side. The gospel is the place where theology and application come together (hence its regularly recurring role in the sermon). But application cannot be neglected. The best preachers in the history of the church (Augustine, Chrysostom, Luther, Calvin) were excellent theologians, but they also insistent on application. I attended a preaching conference where the keynote speaker asserted that Luther’s sermons were always at least half application. Think of your favorite preachers today. They tend to be those who have excellent theology coupled with relentless application. They have rightly discerned that if the gospel is life-changing, then it must indeed change the actions which make up our lives.

I once read an apocryphal story about Abraham Lincoln listening to a sermon one Wednesday at a church near the White House. He was asked what he thought of the sermon. His analysis was that the sermon was excellent in every respect but one. He is reported to have said: “It failed. It failed because the pastor did not ask us to do something great.”

When you conclude your sermon, you must apply the truth of the gospel to everyone in the room, be they believers or not. They must be called to act on what you have shared. Only then has the sermon been completed.

If your sermon is centered on the gospel, faithfully expositing Scripture, and demanding application, then it will rarely fail. It may not be the sort of spectacle that your listeners are accustomed to digesting, but it may—unlike that sort of spectacle—be the tool God uses to change a life.

_

Steve Bezner is Senior Pastor of Houston Northwest Church. He holds degrees from Hardin-Simmons University (B.A., Bible; M.A., Religion) and Baylor University (Ph.D., Religion). He is married to Joy and has two sons: Ben and Andrew. Follow him on Twitter: @Bezner.

7 Ways to Keep Your Missional Community from Multiplying

A missional community (MC) can be defined as a family of missionary servants who are sent to make disciples who make disciples. When trying to understand what a MC is, it may be best described as people living as a family. So, when one has a question about the function of a MC, most of the time the answer is found by asking, “How would a healthy family answer that question?” One of the major differences found in MCs vs. traditional small groups is this idea of multiplication, which is built in the very story of God from the beginning in the very first family. In the Garden of Eden, we see that as image-bearers of God we were made to be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:22, 26-28). By issuing his first “great commission,” God did not merely intend for us to have more people over for Thanksgiving dinner. Rather, he wanted his beautiful image to fill the entire earth through the multiplication of his image-bearers. But through Adam, we sinned and were separated from God.

In the attempt to author our own story, we sought center stage–pushing God’s goals for aside for our own desires. We sought to multiply our image for the sake of our own fame rather than God’s fame.

When someone repents and turns to God, it is our responsibility to show them their new mission by pointing back to the garden. We must show how their mission is all about multiplying for the sake of God’s glory, not multiplying a life that is all about them and their legacy.

Many small groups in churches believe their goal is to get to know each other or form a close bond. This is not necessarily a bad thing. However, if this is the main goal, multiplication will never be desired. Drawing close to one another is not the primary goal of a MC; rather, making disciples who make disciples is the lifeblood of MC life. Disciples are fruitful and multiply disciples of Jesus. Drawing close to one another happens because Jesus has given us the same Father, and we are a part of the same family. So, forming a close bond is a bi-product rather than the primary goal of living together on mission as family.

If we take this idea of multiplication to how we see a healthy family, you can think of it in this way: A healthy family doesn’t stay a close family unit forever, living in the same house with no expectations of the child leaving the house. We train them up, we teach them, and we disciple them so that when they reach a certain age they are then sent out to start their own life, their own family.

Stunting Multiplication

In my years of planting and leading MCs, I’ve found that MCs struggle to multiply, or sometimes they don’t want to multiply at all. Sometimes they aren’t trained properly and don’t know any better, and sometimes they would rather stay the same group of people year after year without adding anyone new. There are various other reasons why they may not multiply, but after talking with leaders, it’s not long before I can understand why they aren’t multiplying. In this article, we will look at some of the most popular mistakes I’ve seen that keep MCs stagnant.

Before we continue, please know this: I am not forgetting the work of the Spirit or the plans of God. Let’s be honest, God has used a burning bush and a talking donkey, so if he wants something to happen, he’ll make it so. Instead, I am writing this purely from a planning and strategic understanding of leading MCs. No one will multiply without God’s Spirit empowering and leading that multiplication, but multiplication also takes hard work and intentional direction.

Here are some ways to ensure that your MC never multiplies. If you follow these simple steps, you’ll ensure yourself a long life of hanging out with the same people, studying the same things, and never having to actually live them out or teach them to others.

1. Never ask anyone to step up and lead

One of the best ways to ensure that you don’t multiply is to assume the role of end-all leader for your group. Make sure the buck always stops with you. The last thing you want to do is to try and empower anyone for leadership. They should never think that they could actually lead a community on mission someday. So, when you go to trainings, when you are thinking through the next steps for the MC, when you are living your life of discipleship during the week, never invite anyone from the group into your life. Who knows? They might learn from you, apply it on their own life, and get the idea that they could lead too.

2. Don’t have a unified context for mission

The mission is to make disciples, just make sure that your MC doesn’t have a unified context of who you are trying to reach. Stay scattered. Have people do their own thing, then just come back and talk about how things are going. The last thing you want to see is everyone being unified for the sake of mission, because that will only lead to a ton of gospel conversations, tons of idols being exposed in each other’s lives, and the church looking like a body to the outside world. The more unified you are in mission the more people that would attract, and that only leads to one thing: multiplication. Imagine if the world saw a group of people who gave up time, money, and comfort for the sake of a unified goal!

3. Do not have a written vision and plan to make disciples

Keep this all organic. No planning. You don’t want this to look like an organization, or even worse, organized religion. I mean, isn’t that how the Apostle Paul did things? He just got up, went out, and hoped for the best. If you have a written vision or plan, then there are expectations. Where there are expectations, people might feel like they need to get involved. If there is a plan, you have to actually think through your mission and hold each other accountable. If there is a plan, you can see the steps it’s going to take to make disciples in a particular area. Not only this, but these plans give you specifics of how to pray to the Spirit on how he can accomplish this plan or open your eyes to the plan that he desires. Too much planning actually leads to too much dependence on the Spirit, and you wouldn’t want to be one of “those churches.”

4. Don’t interact with unbelievers

Make sure you focus only on the “one anothers” in the New Testament. What does it matter if Jesus taught his disciples how to disciple in the midst of unbelievers? If you interact with unbelievers they get in the way. Unbelievers don’t always believe what you believe, and you want people around you who believe like you so that everyone gets along smoothly. If you interact with unbelievers, they might revile you or hate you. What happens if an unbeliever actually watches your life and sees who the real Jesus is? What if they decide to follow him, too? That messes up your group dynamic that has been together for the last few years. Instead, just take care of each other and pray like crazy that Jesus returns as fast as possible.

5. Keep it an event instead of a rhythm

If you can keep our MC looking like an event each week, then that will make sure that people see it as merely another type of small group. That way, you can just get together, have dinner, study the Bible, and then see each other again in another week. You don’t need to advance the mission; they can just keep coming to your group instead. Plus, if you keep it an event, less people desire to have another meeting in their life or in their home. They will feel overwhelmed to plan everything around this event, and it will add stress to their lives. If you add stress to someone’s life, you definitely will not get all those busy people desiring to multiply the group. Rhythms bring forth the idea of freedom and rest and fun, the idea that it’s part of life rather than a meeting. This is a tempting idea that you don’t want to convey to outsiders.

6. Teach at the meetings like a professional

One of the best ways to ensure that you don’t multiply is to make sure you train and teach those in your MC in a way where they’ll say, “I could never do that.” So, write up your own Bible studies with quizzes, teach from the Greek Bible, and wow everyone with your expansive knowledge that rivals the Apostle Paul. The more you are able to do things in your MC that cannot be transferrable, the better. That way, everyone will know that there is no way they can emulate what their leader is doing. If they can’t emulate, how will anyone multiply? Bingo. Never use material that someone could wrap their minds around or easily teach to others. Always reinvent the wheel and make sure your community understands that if they want to lead an MC, they must get more training than an astronaut.

7. Don’t talk about multiplication or the Spirit

One of the easiest ways to create an atmosphere of never multiplying is by simply never talking about it. Make sure people don’t expect it. Healthy things multiply, and you don’t want to give off that vibe. Talk about how great it is to have the same people in the MC for so long, and remind them that outsiders would mess up the chemistry. Who cares if you haven’t impacted other people’s lives, you’ve impacted the group and that should be enough! The person who is primarily responsible for multiplication is the Spirit, so make sure that he is left completely out of the conversation. Don’t talk about him. He’s dangerous. He has a ton of power and has done things you should only read about in Acts and not experience in your own life.

Disclaimer: Please know that this is purely fun and sarcastic. This is not meant to hurt anyone or to mock anyone. My real hope is that you’ll see some things you can change or start working towards so that you can multiply your MCs for the sake of making disciples of Jesus.

_

Seth McBee is the adopted son of God, husband of one wife, and father of three. He’s a graduate of Seattle Pacific University with a finance degree. By trade Seth is an Investment Portfolio Manager, serving as president of McBee Advisors, Inc. as well as a MC leader/trainer/coach and executive team member of the GCM Collective. Currently Seth lives in Phoenix, AZ with his wife Stacy and their 3 children, Caleb, Coleman and Madelynn. Twitter: @sdmcbee.

Singing as Kingdom Warfare

  Only one more song before I went up to preach. I felt prayed up. Ready. But then a sense of uneasiness came over me. As the first verse began to roll, I prayed, "Lord, help me. Move in your people. May you be glorified. I know the principalities and powers are against us in this place. They are looking for gospel seeds to steal. The enemy is prowling against me and your Bride this day. Help us, Lord. One little word from you is all we need."

The forces of evil (Eph. 6:12) were more real to me in that moment than they had been all week. It was then I realized that there was a snake in lion's clothing slithering through our church (1 Peter 5:8). We were going into battle.

THE COSMIC BATTLE

Singing as Exorcism

I looked to the words of "In Christ Alone" on the screen and joined the church in singing about a Roman cross and an empty grave. The gathered saints of a risen Galilean, the King of Kings, were singing, exalting, and enjoying the gospel of the Kingdom.

"Till on that cross as Jesus died, The wrath of God was satisfied. For every sin on him was laid; Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground his body lay Light of the world by darkness slain: Then bursting forth in glorious Day Up from the grave he rose again!"

 As we sang the beautiful truths of the gospel, we were doing more than reciting words. This was no mere singing. Pagans can sing. We were engaging in exaltational exorcism. We were pushing back the darkness around us, in our minds, in our hearts, and in the air.

Tearing Down Strongholds

Cosmic battles are waged in our little churches. It may appear quiet, neat, and orderly to our eyes, but there are powers over this present darkness, spiritual forces that are tempting, distracting, and condemning—even while we shake hands, hug, sip coffee, and take sermon notes. They want Mrs. Jones to be so wrecked by her sin that she wouldn't dare look to Jesus and believe that she's forgiven. Demons swirl around that teenager in the back row, hoping he won't confess his porn addiction to his youth leader—and especially not his parents.

Something nuclear happens we sing the glories of Christ. We are wielding weapons-grade gospel power to tear down strongholds and cast out every word raised against the word of our Messiah, and we fall down before our Lord and follow him.

“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:4–5).

THE SATANIC POWERS HATE THE GOSPEL

Victory at Calvary

Satan isn't terrified of our electric guitars, live drums, or hip services; no, when redeemed sinners exalt the Triune God and exult in Jesus of Nazareth, that’s the moment demons shriek and whimper back to the darkness from which they came (Luke 4:33-36). When we sing the truths of the gospel, we aren't the only ones being reminded of the victory at Calvary—the satanic powers are freshly reminded that Jesus is Lord, not Lucifer. They follow a loser.

"And as he stands in victory Sin's curse has lost its grip on me, For I am his and he is mine, Bought with the precious blood of Christ."

Jesus holds me; sin doesn’t. My flesh can't boss me around anymore because Jesus isn't laid up in a tomb—he stands in victory. It was on a bloody hill outside of Jerusalem that, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him" (Colossians 2:15). Jesus has not only conquered Satan, he has made a spectacle of him.

As the army of Christ assembles in high school cafeterias, warehouses, theater chair filled rooms, and under thatched roofs, these buildings are more like barracks. We gather to be filled by the Spirit of the King, refreshed by his Word, and we march back out into enemy occupied territory, singing in unison the battle hymn of the Kingdom: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Songs laced with gospel truth, sung in faith, are anti-air missile defense systems against the flaming darts of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16). Read these last lines of "In Christ Alone."

 "No guilt in life, no fear in death, This is the power of Christ in me; From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.

No power of Hell, no scheme of man, Can ever pluck me from his hand; Till he returns or calls me home, Here in the power of Christ I'll stand."

We sing those words to God, Heaven rejoices, and Satan watches on in horror. No power of Hell can pluck us from Christ's hand. "No power of Hell, Satan. Do you hear us? You and all your rotten might are no match for our Jesus." This is why I advocate for loud singing (Zephaniah 3:14-15). War isn't quiet. No soldier mumbles on the battlefield—and especially not at the victory party. Belt the glory of Christ. And know that our Champion sings loudly over us (Zephaniah 3:17).

Crucified with Christ

We focus our hearts and vocal chords on the lifeless body of Jesus and his life being returned to him three days later, to remember that Calvary happened to us too. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). The Dark Snake lost his grip on us when Jesus gave up his life and came back from the dead, because Jesus brought us with him (Ephesians 4:8). We too lost our lives and got them back. We died on that cross. We rose from the grave. We are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37)—and the fallen angels hate it and don't want us to know it or enjoy it. But "here in the power of Christ I'll stand!"

Church singing hacks away at the unrealities we've bought into during the week. A part of spiritual warfare is cutting the heads off of lies with the shovel of truth. The satanic forces work in tandem with our flesh and without noticing it, we start to believe that maybe we have sinned too big or too much this week, and then we hang our heads, and drag our knuckles on the Lord's Day. We think, "Maybe this sin is, you know, just the way it's going to be."

But that's all anti-gospel. That thinking didn't come from the throne, but the ground. We tear down that stronghold and sing, "No guilt in life!" (Romans 8:1).

SING THE GOOD SONG, FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT

War Songs

Some people endure the time of corporate singing, just so they can get to the sermon. Well, there are a lot of dumb things to do in church, and that's one of the big ones. You may not like the style of music, but that doesn't matter. If God wanted one style of music, or even the songs done in a certain way, we'd have sheet music instead of maps in the back of our Bibles. God commands us to sing, “Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name" (Psalm 30:4). And it might be that during those songs we are being made ready to hear their word of our Christ. The belt of truth is being tightened, we remember the righteousness of Christ as our breastplate, the gospel shoes are being laced up. As hands are raised in response, they are lifting up the shield of faith blocking the darts of the Serpent (Eph. 6:13-17). We are confident in the helmet of salvation, and we've heard the sword of the Spirit through our songs. And it is in those verses and hymns, these gospel songs, that the Spirit gives us the spiritual gift of street fighting.

Believe and sing. Sing and believe. You are in the middle of a war. Look at the words, take them in, believe them, and let them soar into the air. Lift up the shield of faith by lifting up your voice.

And sing loudly. Maybe God will use your voice, as you sing a spiritual song, to help a brother or sister look away from lies, cheap thrills, and temptations. Help lift their droopy hands and dwell on Christ (Colossians 3:16).

The Mighty Fortress

Pastors, worship leaders, lead us to the gospel waters. Help us hear, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1).

Select songs that are jam-packed with gospel glories. "His glories now we sing." Is your church singing the glories or a bunch of goofiness? Are we singing about a solid rock of truth or soggy love? If we aren't singing about the cross and the empty tomb, what are we singing about? God's love? 1 John 3:16 much? Take us to Jerusalem, show us Golgotha and that empty grave, and then point us to the clouds that will be rolled back like a scroll.

Martin Luther knew this kingdom warfare theme. In his powerful hymn, A Mighty Fortress is our God, he sings:

“For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; his craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal."

 He knew our enemy and his work against us. Luther's conclusion?

“And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. 

The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.”

One word from Christ, that's all. One truth. The truth. Like Tolkien's elvish waybread, one gospel crumb is enough to sustain the whole church, for a whole lifetime, for a whole eternity.

Sing the good song of the good news. Fight the good fight of the faith—we are in a war after all.

_

J.A. Medders is the Lead Pastor of Redeemer Church in Tomball, TX. He is pursuing his M.Div at Southern Seminary. He and Natalie have one precious little girl, Ivy. Jeff digs caffeinated drinks, books, and the Triune God. He blogs at www.jamedders.com and tweets from @mrmedders.

---

The Walls Are Screaming

Kyle Worley is a connections minister at The Village Church in Dallas, TX. He is the author of Pitfalls: Along the Path to Young and Reformed and blogs regularly at The Strife. He holds a double B.A. in Biblical Studies and Philosophy from Dallas Baptist University. He is currently completing a M.A. in Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and is pursuing a M.A. in Religion at Redeemer Seminary. You can find Kyle on Twitter: @kyleworley. ___

The house had never felt so empty. Don’t misunderstand me; when we had initially moved in there was no furniture, no coffee mugs, no books. But, standing in the middle of what was our house, with all of our possessions packed into a U-Haul in the driveway, it felt like the walls were screaming at us.

The home was a treasure chest of memories. The first home for my wife and I, the first house we had filled with pictures, the house where I wrote my first book, the house where I had spent Saturday nights praying before preaching the Word on Sunday mornings. It was the first thing that didn’t belong to her or to me, but to “us.”

It had also been a place for others to gather. During the three years that we lived there we hosted over a hundred missional community gatherings where we shared our lives with others. People came and went. Some got saved and some got sent. We shared meals and we shared tears. We celebrated and we prayed. There were cookouts, dinners, parties, hymn sings, bible studies, counseling appointments, fundraisers, and arguments in that house.

I had always heard people say, “Boy, if these walls could talk.” And standing in the middle of that empty house this is what they said:

“Live in the Light”

There were countless times where Lauren and I dreaded having our home be an open place. People would randomly stop by when we had been arguing, our missional community gathering would fall in the middle of an insanely busy week, or we would just be in a season where we weren’t fit to lead.

But the walls were preaching to me, “Live in the light…let people in.” It’s as if they knew that the times where we wanted to push people out, were precisely the moment where we needed to let people in. Let them see the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let them see that the pastor struggles with anxiety and anger. Let them see that a healthy marriage doesn’t sweep troubles under the rug, but exposes them to the light of the gospel.

What if the walls of your home could talk? What do you think they might say? Is your house stained with stories? If not, why?

As I listened closer, the walls continued to speak, saying:

“Come to the Table”

We shared our dinner table with the homeless, the broken, and the victorious. The faithful congregant and the committed unrepentant had a seat at our long black table. My wife is a marvelous host and her hands served crying high school girls, brash high school boys, children out of wedlock, and “holier-than-thous.”

Sometimes the food was burnt. Sometimes the coffee was cold. But even when the conversation was stale, the guest was awkward, or we were in a tiff, without fail the Lord used that dinner table as a sacred space. That dinner table never held the bread and wine, but it reminded me that the only qualification for coming to the table during worship is being a repentant sinner who is clinging to Christ.

Who is welcomed at your table? What social capital must one possess to be seated at your right hand? Jesus says, “Come to the table and feast with me. Feast on me.”

While I was walking out of the house, crossing the threshold of our front door, I turned around to lock the door and looked up at the door. There is nothing unique about our door, except that it is painted crimson red. It had become the way we identified our home to those first-time visitors, unexpected guests, and friends visiting from out of town. We would say, “Drive down the street till you see a home with a red door…that’s us.”

As I looked at that red door, I leaned in expecting to hear a whisper, but was surprised by a shout:

“Stay Under the Blood”

Our door welcomed the lost, the believer, the seeker, and the saint. Even when our missional community failed to show compassion to the wanderer, or Lauren and I turned a blind eye on a houseguest desperate for grace, the Lord was moving and working. Our home never saved a person, but we saw salvation. Our home never placed the missionary call on a person’s life, but many were sent out. Our home never put food on a plate that belonged to us, but many were fed.

I was the first person to enter that house and the last to leave, and there wasn’t one day during my three years there that I didn’t have to run to the fountain and plunge myself deep beneath the “cleansing blood.”

I fought demons in that house…under the blood. I preached the word in that house…under the blood. I wronged my wife in that house…under the blood. I laughed in that house…under the blood. I wept in that house…under the blood. I prayed in that house…under the blood. I loved my wife in that house…under the blood.

My good deeds were directed Godward by the blood and my sins were made white as snow by the blood.

What banner do you live under in your home? Is both good and bad received under the blood?

That U-Haul truck might have been packed with possessions, but as I walked through that empty house, I realized it was packed from wall-to-wall with memories.

When you leave your home, what will your walls be screaming? I pray that they are screaming out the glories of grace that have become permanent stains in your home.

Helping Singles Feel at Home in Your Church

Several months ago, two articles caught my attention when I was reading online: Marvin Olasky’s “Early Maturity” and Karen Swallow Prior’s “The Case for Getting Married Young”. Essentially, both writers urge believers to tie the knot sooner rather than later. I find such articles singularly unhelpful. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate Prior and Olasky’s defense of marriage. I too believe that marriage is a gift from God. Yet this is not a gift God has given me. I and many other godly men and women have been given the gift of singleness – some of us for a short time, others for life. For us, the question is not how soon we can be married but how we can best, most wholly participate in the church as singles.

Paul writes that the church was designed to bear one another’s burdens, individual believers coming together to support each other in their walk with Christ. Thus, as God works in the lives of us singles, we naturally want to share the resulting joys and burdens with our married brethren, and we want to bear their burdens in return.

I want to offer a few suggestions for nurturing this kind of relationship in your church. The suggestions I give are born out of my own experience as a single woman in an evangelical church and the experiences of my friends. I hope they will be useful to you.

1. Integrate single people with married people.

When I show up at a new church, one of the things I look for when perusing the bulletin are the weekly Bible study and service opportunities. What I discover is that a lot of women’s Bible studies are scheduled for times like 10.00 AM on Tuesday. I work at 10.00 AM on Tuesdays. Not for years will I be able to take time off in the middle of the day to attend a women’s Bible study.

Yet this experience is hardly an aberration. Most churches today arrange activities and groups by demographic. And there are many good reasons to split groups up by demographic. Young mothers, for instance, need the support of other young mothers. Yet unless the church also has groups that are not split up by demographic, we singles may find it hard to fit in, let alone build the kind of deep relationships that foster mutual encouragement. It’s hard to build relationships with people and minister to them when they’re busy with a parenting group or a young married group and we’re not.

Establishing singles’ groups is not necessarily a solution; especially as we grow older, we age out of singles’ groups peopled mostly by college students. Instead, establishing groups that cross demographic lines will encourage single people and families to build friendships together and support each other in Christ. Nearly all my single friends tell me that it is these friendships, between single and married people, that have been some of the deepest and most fruitful in their church experience.

How can the church integrate married and single people? Schedule two or three Bible studies for the evenings as well as the mornings. Start Bible studies or Sunday school groups that mix married and single people. Invite the single men in the church to the men’s prayer breakfast. Ask single people to volunteer alongside married people at particular church ministries, such as working at the homeless shelter. Start the groups. Then it’s up to us to build relationships with other people in the church.

2. Give us the opportunity to serve in new ways in the church.

When I joined my current church, someone suggested that I assist with nursery duty.  I have not changed a diaper in 10 years – seriously. I am not what you would call good with children. I am sure that this is a personal deficiency. Yet the fact remains that before I can serve in the church, I have to bridge the gulf between what my church expects me to do and what I am actually gifted to do.

I am not the only single believer encouraged to take on roles in the church that don’t really fit who I am. Jenna, a friend of mine single into her late 20s, tells me that her church assumed that because she was single, she was immature and directed her towards areas of service reserved for high schoolers. At other times, the church makes a mistake that can be as easily made with married people: They suggest a particular ministry before they really know us well enough to know what our gifts and talents are. I don’t mean to cast blame. Everyone makes wrong assumptions about other people at some point. Yet when singles are, whatever the reason, directed towards avenues of ministry that they’re not really gifted for, they will be uncomfortable contributing to the church, and the church in turn will suffer.

As long as we singles are part of the body of Christ, we want to use our gifts to support our brethren. The church is strongest when members serve each other in keeping with their spiritual gifts. Thus, encouraging singles towards ministries suited to their gifting has a double benefit: We singles will feel at home contributing to the church, and the church will be blessed as the body of Christ works together in unity.

The best way to get singles involved in areas that we’re gifted for is simply to ask where we’d like to serve. For instance, if asked, I will tell you that I don’t feel qualified for nursery duty, but I’m happy to pass out bulletins. Another option is to make church members aware of what ministries need help and how they can get involved. If we know where the church needs help, we can pick an area that matches how God has gifted us to serve. As with the previous suggestion, it’s important for the church to make singles aware of the opportunities to serve. After that, it’s up to us singles to actually start serving.

3. Give us a voice in the church.

Several months back, two elders at my friend Faith’s^[1] church stepped down. The church held a men-only meeting to discuss the transition and review the future of the church. All the men attended the meeting; married women were represented by their husbands. Yet Faith had no husband and thus no representative at the meeting – no one to ask the questions that were on her mind or report back to her afterwards. The problem is this: Faith’s singleness prevented her from participating as fully in the church as married people. This should not be.

Listening to people is a universal sign of respect, and the church is no different. When a church fails to listen to the voice of its singles, even accidentally, we are likely to be hurt and discouraged. When, on the other hand, you listen to us, you assure us that we are welcomed at the church. You encourage us not only to speak up with concerns but also to invest in a church community that feels we are worth listening to.

Don’t misunderstand me: Giving singles a voice in the church does not have to mean installing women in leadership roles. All I am saying is that churches need to make sure that they do not apply their biblical principles in a way that, even accidentally, relegates single women to the peanut gallery.

There are ways for our voice to be heard without violating biblical leadership patterns. For instance, a church might designate an elder to take questions from single women prior to a men’s-only meeting. A church might explicitly invite single congregants to email the pastor with their concerns about church development. Single men ought to be encouraged to participate in church leadership – perhaps as a deacon or an elder. If singles are to truly be part of a church, they can’t just be doing stuff with the church; they also have to know that the church listens to their voice.

A Word to Singles

I want to close these posts with a word to singles: Encouraging the church to value our participation does not let us off the hook. We too have responsibilities towards the church.

First, be patient with your church. Don’t get offended easily. Almost no churches are deliberately uninviting to singles. Married people, especially those who married young, sometimes have a hard time understanding who we are and what challenges we face. Let your church get to know you. Let them know that you want to be involved. Over time, your patience will help them understand you – and hopefully other singles – better.

Second, be proactive. Don’t wait for your church to magically become the perfect welcoming church. It’s not going to. Start reaching out to its members anyway. Several of my single friends told me how important it was for them to take the initiative. Jenna set aside one night a week to invite people over for supper. Josh, who has served in four churches as a single man, invites married couples over to his tiny apartment for mac & cheese. You don’t have to offer the church something fancy, but you do have to deliberately, obviously offer your support and friendship. If you’ve found a good church, your effort should pay off in stronger, encouraging relationships within the church community.

In Closing

Can singles be a welcomed part of the church? Absolutely! God designed the church so that all kinds of believers could be united in Christ, mutually supporting each other in the faith. Is this vision an easy one to achieve? Absolutely not! It will require hard work on the part of married people and single people alike. But the end result – a community in which everyone, married or single, feels welcomed – is worth it.

---

[1] Name changed by request

M. V. Bergen teaches college writing in the Midwest.  In her spare time, she reads the Church Fathers and science fiction, writes free verse poetry, and runs.

Christ-Centered Reading, Preaching, and Teaching

Why Do We Need Jesus in Our Exegesis? Except for a period in my early twenties, I have been involved in the life of a local church for as long as I can remember. Because I was so involved in various ministries, I made it a priority to study the Bible in preparation so that I could be, in the words of Paul, a workman unashamed. Still, something wasn’t right. The spiritual growth and change I desired wasn’t happening on a notable or consistent basis. I remember doing my “quiet time” one afternoon in my teens and becoming exhaustingly discouraged. Sunday after Sunday I would walk out after the service on a spiritual high only to crash into the reality of my own brokenness within minutes of leaving the church building. I didn’t realize what was missing until later in life. While my salvation and early spiritual growth had come from the work of the Spirit in my heart and life, I began relying less on the Spirit and more on my flesh for my continued growth (Galatians 3:3). Like many believers have confessed to me over the years, I turned to Jesus for salvation, but trusted in myself for sanctification. Most of the teaching and material I was exposed to presented lists of Christian attitudes and actions, along with a call to do these things, and that’s it. I am not saying there is a problem with calling people to act in God honoring ways. Descriptive examples and prescriptive imperatives are all over the Bible.

However, problems arise when you approach examples and imperatives the wrong way. My exasperation found its roots in incomplete exegesis. I was approaching the Bible as if it was primarily about me; the stories just examples of morality that I should try to emulate. As I’ve sought a deeper relationship with my Savior, I’ve come to the conviction that the Bible is not primarily about you and I. It’s about Him. While this does not dissolve our responsibility concerning biblical imperatives, it does change how we approach and apply them to our lives. It fundamentally changes our hermeneutical framework and our method of Bible application. Until my mid-twenties, I approached the bible as a compilation of morally commendable stories. I completely missed THE Bible story. The story of Jesus. This is the aim of Christ-centered hermeneutics - to center everything on the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the Link Between Every Part of the Bible and Us

The Bible is very clear that Jesus is the one and only mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). In light of that, shouldn’t we approach interpreting God’s word as mediated to us through Jesus Christ? I have come to believe that this is the hermeneutical grid that Jesus and the Apostles advocated (John 5:39; Luke 24:27; Luke 24:44-45; 1 Corinthians 2:2; Colossians 2:2-3). Essentially, all of Scripture needs to be interpreted by the definitive person and work of Jesus Christ. I believe Graeme Goldsworthy said it well:

The Old Testament does not stand on its own, because it is incomplete without its conclusion and fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. No part can be rightly understood without him. In this sense it is about Christ. God’s revelation is progressive, moving in stages from the original promises given to Israel, until the fullest meaning of these promises is revealed in Christ…Thus Christ, interprets the New and Old Testaments.[1]

There are thoughtful Christians who are skeptical of Christ-centered hermeneutics because they think it advocates an unbalanced allegorical approach to interpreting the Bible. They would contend for a more strict expository method that doesn’t stray too far from the controls of the immediate context of the passage.

Advocates of the Christ-centered method push back and maintain that they are simply widening the contextual parameters to the entire canon and focusing in on Jesus as the key to understanding God’s word. Therefore, the trajectory of every passage and theme in the Bible points to Christ through type, antitype, promise, or symbol. Tony Merida contends, “the goal for Christ-centered expositors is not to ‘look for Jesus under every rock,’ but rather to find out how a particular text fits into the whole redemptive story that culminates in Christ.”[2] I do not think Christ-centered hermeneutics and grammatical historical driven hermeneutics are antithetical. Combined, these methods give us the proper exegetical approach to reading and applying God’s word focused on the person and work of Jesus Christ. So, if Jesus is the climax of God’s revelation (as we read in Hebrews 1:1-3), how does this change the way we read, preach, and teach the Bible? And why would it have mattered to me in my earlier spiritual development as I was being confronted with the law’s demands and my own inadequacies? Here is where Christ-centered hermeneutics unleashes an ocean of benefits for Christian sanctification.

The Gracious Benefits of Christ-Centered Hermeneutics

First, we need to have a proper understanding of our own struggles and find security in Christ. Too many honest Christians struggle with their own sin nature because they can’t make sense of its place in their Christian identity. If I am a Christian, why am I (still) so broken? I will always be thankful for Bryan Chapell’s book Christ-Centered Preaching on this point. Chapell introduces the concept of the “Fallen Condition Focus” in this work. Our fallen condition is the mutual human condition all believers share when confronted with the demands of God’s law, which in turn draws us towards the grace of God found only in Christ. When we look at the perfection of Jesus, the God-man, we are confronted with our own failures and the failures of people in the Bible. As Ed Clowney once wrote, “Jesus fulfilled the law not only by keeping it perfectly for us, but also by transforming our understanding of it. Christ not only obeyed the law, but also displayed its true meaning and depth.”[3] Therefore we don’t simply approach the Bible as a handbook of life for moral direction, but as God’s word revealing our hideous sin and the beauty Jesus’ perfection. Jesus is faithful when we are failures.

Second, the primary way to respond to our fallen condition as it is revealed in the Bible, and through the Spirit, is faith in the completed work of Christ. Moreover, the implication of Christ’s work on our behalf becomes the motivation and power for faithful Christian living. Graeme Goldsworthy argues that “The ethical example of Christ is secondary to and dependent upon the primary and unique work of Christ for us.”[4] It is from Jesus’ life and work, also his death and resurrection, that the motivation and power for Christian living flows. Relying on our own will power to live the Christian life will leave us devastated. This feeling of hopelessness can often be the result when we jump to an immediate application of a biblical text without first seeing the text through the lens of Jesus Christ. In other words, we don’t approach the Bible with the question: what does this mean for me? without asking prior questions like: How does this text relate to Christ? How do we relate to Christ? Only then can we ask, in light of Christ’s work on our behalf, how can we respond with our lives in worship as gratitude for his grace? Further, we then plead with the Holy Spirit to provide wisdom and motivation for living in a God honoring way.

Third, the good news of the gospel is Christ’s work for us and the fruit of the gospel is Christ’s work in us. Jesus produces fruit in us where our willpower fails us every time. The good news of Jesus is something we need to be reminded of throughout the Christian life. Tim Keller is well-known for saying, “The gospel is not just the A-B-C’s of Christianity but is the A to Z of Christianity. The gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine necessary to enter the kingdom, but the way we make all progress in the kingdom.”[5] The gospel needs to be applied to every area of one’s thinking, feeling, relating, working, and behaving consistently throughout life.  This is why Christ-centered hermeneutics is so important for properly understanding the Bible. When we read and apply the Bible without Christ as the center, we naturally swing towards either religion or irreligion. We either apply the text in ways that send us on a trajectory towards self-exultation because we become the hero of our faith, or self- exhaustion because we cannot consistently live up to the standards of our faith.

Conclusion

A Christ-centered hermeneutic teaches us that in every passage the canonical trajectory points us to Christ as the hero of our salvation and our sanctification. Moreover, we learn that we are to approach the Bible with the posture (As Keller has said on many occasions) that we are more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe, while being more accepted and loved by Jesus than we ever dared hope. Christ-centered hermeneutics not only informs the mind, but also employs the truth to appeal to our emotions and challenge our will to respond appropriately and entirely to the good news of Jesus Christ. Certainly, to understand the Bible correctly requires faith in Christ along with the Spirit’s enlightenment. Jesus is revealed as central to the Bible so that no part can be rightly understood without him. Sadly, many Christians read, many preachers preach, and many teachers teach the Bible in a way that would be agreeable to someone outside the faith. The key question in biblical hermeneutics is: How does this text testify to Christ?

If the reader, preacher, or teacher hasn’t addressed and answered this question in their pursuits, they are not approaching the Bible in an explicitly Christian way.

Further Resources for Understanding Christ-Centered Hermeneutics

• Gospel-Centered Teaching (Forthcoming), Trevin Wax
• Proclaim Jesus, Tony Merida
• Preaching Christ in All of Scripture, Ed Clowney
• How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens, Michael Williams
• Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture, Graeme Goldsworthy
• Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics, Graeme Goldsworthy
• Him We Proclaim, Dennis Johnson

_

Matt Capps currently serves as the Brand Manager for The Gospel Project at LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, TN . Matt is a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and is currently a student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (D.Min.). Matt blogs here.

---

[1] Graeme Goldsworthy, According to Plan, 52.

[2] Tony Merida, Preaching the Forest and the Trees, 2-3.

[3] Edmund Clowney, How Jesus Transforms the Ten Commandments, xiii.

[4] Graeme Goldsworthy, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture, 4.

[5] Tim Keller, The Centrality of the Gospel.

Partnering with Parents as You Mentor Teenagers

Aaron Colyer and his wife Krista have been married since 2006 and have three amazing kids. He has a passion for shepherding young people and their families. He serves as Student Pastor at MacArthur Blvd. Baptist Church in Irving, TX. Born and raised in Texas, he earned a B.S. in Communication Studies from The University of Texas in Austin, and an M.Div. from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. ___

Many of us have not grown in our faith without the help of a mentor. While Christ accomplished everything necessary for our faith at the cross and the Holy Spirit does all the work of sanctification, one of the means that the Spirit uses in our sanctification are the men and women that come alongside to mature us in the faith. Examples of mentoring from the very beginning of the church are numerous, such as Paul’s relationship to Timothy and Peter’s relationship to Mark. One of the greatest joys a Christian can experience is the ability to pour your life into a younger believer and echo the words of Paul, "Follow me as I follow Christ."

In recent years, there many church leaders and authors have rightly emphasized the theology and practice of mentoring and discipleship. One popular work that has been particularly helpful in reference to this model of multiplication is The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman. Yet with all of the available resources on mentoring and discipleship, I have seen very little written about the importance of a spiritual mentor partnering with parents in mentoring teenagers. In fact, I often have heard negative sentiments expressed by some who suggest that parents can actually get in the way of the things the spiritual mentor wants to accomplish.

Developing Relationships

In ten years of student ministry, the Lord has taught me so much about mentoring. It’s been an adventure filled with spiritual fruit and rebellion, victories and failures, celebrations and sorrow, laughter and tears. Much time has been spent in mentoring relationships with students in prayer, with open Bibles, doing evangelism, hanging out, memorizing Scripture, sharing family meals, talking relationships, confessing sin, attending events, and reading books. One area of student ministry that I have come to value more now than when I started is the importance of establishing relationships with the teenager’s parents.

At first, it was intimidating to ask a dad out to coffee, lunch, or have both parents come by the house for dessert. I was a young student pastor in my twenties and was just starting my family. Yet I was reminded that my authority did not come from my experience, but from the Word of God and the calling that He had placed on my life. As these meetings became more frequent, not only did they become less intimidating, I actually started to look forward to them. I began to understand the potential that these conversations carried for the spiritual growth of both the student that I was mentoring and their parents.

Many Christian parents understand that they are the primary spiritual leaders in the home. If not, developing a relationship with the parents gives me the opportunity to encourage them to accept their Scriptural responsibilities as parents.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Deuteronomy 6:4-7

“He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers 
to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments…” Psalm 78:5-7

Walking with Parents

As a student pastor, my desire is to partner with parents and supplement the ministry that they are already accomplishing in the home—namely the process of keeping Christ at the center of their home by praying, reading the Scriptures together, setting spiritual goals with their children, keeping them accountable for those goals, and talking about how their teenager is experiencing the Lord as they walk through the adventure of adolescence. As I walk this path with parents, I’ve found several things to be helpful.

1. Ask for the parents’ permission to be involved in the mentoring relationship with their children. This builds a relationship of trust between you and the parents.
2. As the relationship continues, keep an open line of communication with the parents. This will encourage them as they lead, pray, and fight to stay connected to the heart of their teenagers. It also gives me the opportunity to see how my student is doing from the perspective of someone who spends seven days a week with them. It’s rare that I have the opportunity to see how my student ‘honors’ their mother and father throughout the week, or if they are interacting with their siblings in a loving way, etc. So teaming up with parents is a win for everybody involved.
3. If the student has unbelieving parents, you still can partner with them and have an open line of communication about the spiritual goals that have been set for their student. You also will have the opportunity to share the good news of Christ with the parents themselves. They have a vested interest in the growth of their student and you can talk about Jesus as you discuss that growth. Conversations with parents about their students often allows opportunities to discuss the parents’ spiritual need to respond to the Gospel with repentance and faith.

For the last several years my wife and I have been mentoring teenagers with an emphasis on relationship with the parents. We have also trained leaders to do this. It has opened several opportunities for missional living with unbelieving parents and sparked many conversations with Christian parents as they are continually encouraged and equipped to fulfill the leadership role in their child’s life. It is often the case that the parents call the spiritual mentor asking for prayer and wisdom to handle a situation in their home. Emphasizing relationship with the parents increases the potential impact from one teenager and those he or she will influence to whole families influencing those around them for Christ. May it never be said again that the work of connecting with the parents of those we mentor is distracting or too hard.

Reactionary Christianity: Step Off the Pendulum

I’ve recently started watching The West Wing on Netflix, which I think should be required watching for everyone, but especially every church staff. I’m one of those Netflix viewers who binge on TV shows watching back to back to back…to back episodes and not being able to stop. In season 3, one of the episodes involves a character named Joey Lucas who is hired as a polling consultant for the State of the Union address as President Bartlett prepares for a re-election campaign. In the episode, White House staffer Josh Lyman is reviewing the polls as way of responding to the people and choosing whether or not to push gun control in certain counties based upon crowd reaction.

Josh receives the polls that say it’s not popular in the counties and is deciding to not push gun control there, but Joey Lucas objects to his conclusions from the poll. She tells Josh that he is asking like the French radical who watches his people run by and says, “There go my people, I must figure out where they are going so I can lead them.”

As I watched that episode and heard that statement, it seems clear to me that the church is that rebel leader stuck in a pattern of reactionary Christianity leaving it unable to really lead anyone anywhere.

Following Church Trends vs. Holy Spirit Guidance

Every week of the year you could attend a church conference with a cool name and theme that will try to convince you to follow the latest church trends, doing it just like every speaker has done it in your context (where every speaker does not live, mind you). Our culture is hungry for success, and unfortunately a church culture hungry for success looks to models and methods over the Holy Spirit and God’s revealed will in the Scriptures.

The results are that churches react to not being “missional” enough and embrace a method without thinking it through. Then someone reacts and criticizes the missional movement without fleshing out what missional actually means. Every day people are posting articles, blogs, and sending out thoughts about the way to “do church.”

One example of this idea is with missional living. Anthony Bradley provocatively wrote recently that it is the “new legalism” in Christianity. This was, even according to his article, a reaction to a small number of interactions he had, primarily with Millennials. Instead of embracing reactionary Christianity in response to missional living, we could seek the clear call of the Scriptures that to love God and love others is to embrace a missionary mindset for every area of life. The Scriptures lay out a clear understanding of God's mission and His invitation to join it. Reactionary Christianity causes a stir, but doesn't inspire to action beyond debate. Biblical Christianity cultivates a sustained expectancy as we pursue scriptural living.

Twitter, Feedly, and our favorite writers become battering rams for our arguments about the current state of the church and what should be done about it. This is good only to an extent because while the current must be discussed, God’s plan for the church has not changed dramatically over the last few centuries. Our man-made models and methods have clouded that purpose, and we’ve painted it in our image instead of God’s. It is time that we stepped off this man-made pendulum of reaction.

God builds His church, grows His church, and provides grace to grow a thousand different churches in a few hundred different ways. The wisdom and knowledge needed for leading the church is not a hidden secret only discovered by the leading church growth experts, but has been clearly provided by God in His Scriptures and we as His children have been given the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and teach us what is true (John 14:26).

Bringing the Ancient Truth to a Modern Culture

The invitation to the leadership of each church is to pursue God in prayer and study of the Scriptures to simplify church in an over-programmed and ever-changing culture. The culture changes often, but the gospel of Jesus Christ never changes. The ways to engage the culture have historically been most effective through everyday lives of ordinary people who are transformed by the gospel. These people gather to express their faith in worship and celebrate the preaching of the Word of God.

We are in a reactionary culture and unfortunately Christianity has followed its ways, but God’s call to love Him most and lovingly challenge our societal norms with His ancient truth has not evolved or changed. Modern culture will be different in a decade, but the truth of the gospel will not be. The Scriptures lay out a clear and simple direction for church that will not be different either.

Will we choose to continue the pendulum swing, reacting to culture and church trends, or step off the pendulum to pursue the purposes of God revealed in His Scriptures? The future of the church in our culture may be determined by our answer.

Let Your Students See the World Through God’s Eyes

Scott Douglas serves as Student Pastor at Westside Baptist Church in Murray, Kentucky. He is married to Carrie Beth, and they have a son, Samuel. He is also a Ph.D. candidate in Leadership at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

___

Our student ministry center has a collection of flags hanging from the rafters. Each one represents a place our students have visited on mission trips. We have several from around our area, one from Boston, and some global flags. Each flag represents a life-long memory for students and adults, but more importantly, an opportunity to be a part of God’s work among the nations and our neighbors. They remind us of the words of John Piper in Let the Nations Be Glad when he declares that worship is the ultimate act, and missions is secondary - that one day we will gather with all the nations and praise the Savior, and there will be no more need for missionaries or missions offerings or awkward yard sales to raise money for short-term trips. All will be set before the throne of God in worship. This is the great motivation for mission work.

I am often asked the question, “Why take students on mission trips?” Here are four important reasons that has caused our church to be committed to student missions:

1. To teach them what it means to love God. We often think of love as merely a sentiment or a feeling towards someone, but love is always an action. The feelings are there of course, but the act of love is what truly matters. Jesus makes this very point when he says that the evidence for faith will be the love His followers have for one another. As the band DC Talk once put it, “Love is a verb.” Paul describes love as active in 1 Corinthians, James describes love in terms of obedience (doing the Word), and Jesus defines the greatest love as active (laying down His life). Love for God is always intersected with love/service to others. At its core, mission trips are about love. Love for God means holding the hand of a homeless man with a drug addiction who needs to hear about how Jesus is the only one who can give him the freedom he craves. Love for God means picking up trash in a lower-income neighborhood for the sake sharing the gospel with those who live there. Love for God means serving others with humility - scrubbing toilets, serving meals, and coloring with a child to show her that not all adults will yell at her and that Jesus loves her

2. To give them a heart for the nations and their neighbors. When we think about missions most of us naturally think about international work, as we should. There are over 6,000 unreached people groups, and countless billions around the world who will die and spend eternity in hell. This heartbreaking reality should spur us to care deeply about international missions. Yet, there is another heartbreaking reality the church faces: the United States is 40% unengaged with the gospel. The United States is the 4th largest unreached nation on the planet, and other nations are sending their foreign missionaries to us! We need to be careful not to separate our call to the nations and our call to the neighborhood. We have a responsibility to the ends of the earth and at the same time to our local context. It means little if we’re willing to board a plane to share the gospel overseas if we won’t serve in the food pantry in our hometown. We push missions, have missionary testimonies, support missionaries, and make it a central part of our student ministry for the simple fact that all around us are countless people who do not know Christ.

3. To give them a burden for their school & friends. Sometimes getting away from the distractions of everyday life can be a catalyst for God to work. One of the things we always do on mission trips with our students is set aside some time when we talk about how things will be different once we return home. I’ll ask them to identify people, projects, and opportunities where they can apply what they have learned while on the short-term trip. Short-term mission trips are an eye-opening experience for many students. When they see the great needs out there, it shows them how great the needs are here. By narrowing the distance between students and the overseas mission field, short-term trips become the starting place for students to recognize that the “mission field” begins in the context where God has placed them.

4. To show them how they can be a part of God’s work. The final goal and aim of taking students on mission trips is to expose them to what God is doing to reconcile people to Himself through Jesus. Our goal in every mission trip is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the missio Dei in our students’ lives. This can be seen in every activity of the mission trip – whether knocking on doors, cleaning a park, hosting a block party, or serving a homeless. Most of our students aren’t called to be vocational missionaries, but these short-term trips and projects help give them a vision to see themselves as missionaries even if they serve in another profession. Each trip has the potential to be a catalyst for a lifetime of service in the kingdom of God, regardless of the vocation our students pursue. My prayer for each short-term mission trip has been simple: God, show them what it is you have for them and how this can be the beginning of a life lived for your glory.