Porn and Future Marriage

*Editor's Note: This was #10 on our Top Posts of 2012. _

***WARNING: Certain aspects of this post may be considered graphic in nature

Indulgence in pornography is not a problem that only young, unmarried boys face. It's an epidemic that stretches into the realm of men who are married and women of all kinds (young or old, married or not). However, this post is aimed particularly toward young, unmarried men. The reason I am speaking to this particular group is because I know from firsthand experience the complications that this addiction causes for young men and their future marriage.

The temptation is unavoidable. Half-naked women are plastered on Facebook advertisements. Billboards don the supposed "class" of the dancers at the club the next exit over. Heck, a pretty woman in a parka and sweatpants can cause many men problems. The carrot is constantly dangling in front of you, drawing you in like a starving child lost in the desert.

Paul exhorts the Philippians:

 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

- Philippians 4:8

There are several verses that refer to fornication, lustful thoughts, and worldly passions (Matt. 5:28; 1 Cor. 6:18; Gal. 5:16; Col. 3:5) but I want to hone in on what these activities do to the mind. The mind is a powerful thing as are the memories it keeps. This is why the aforementioned verse in Philippians has been more helpful to me than any passage on lust (not to discount such passages, of course). At the height of my issues, I worked in a kiosk at the mall and my mind was perpetually bouncing from one woman to the next. I was an easy target for Satan and my own fleshly weaknesses. I was severely addicted to women and I knew all the Bible verses about "youthful desires" and "passions of the flesh" but only sought self-gratification. I was no boy scout in regards to females that I dated and saw them as no better or more important than the women I watched on my computer screen. I wouldn't agree with that statement then, but it was true. I was thinking of me. I was thinking of my sexual desires. And truthfully, it didn't matter who fulfilled them or how it happened, as long as I was satisfied. In person or in a movie.

What I did not anticipate was how it would affect my future marriage. I committed many sins in this area, but I assumed that marriage would fix that desire and erase those memories. Unfortunately, my enslavement to sex and pornography dug so deep into my subconscious that I was left with remnants that may last until my final breath. I wish I would have spent much more time thinking on the things of God, as Paul exhorts, but I did not. I am left with baggage that thankfully Jesus has forgiven and is redeeming daily.

There are several destructive aspects of the porn industry, but here are two battles that I have found particularly challenging to my relationship with my now beautiful, godly wife. Young men, I am pleading with you to trust me:

1. Porn damages your ability to be a confident leader in your marriage - For me, my pornography-laden past has caused a fracture in my assurance as a husband. There are times that I feel unworthy of her due to my past sins. There are times that I feel unsure of my ability to please her both in the bedroom and outside. In the bedroom, there's no editing or perfect lighting and you will not always (or ever) be a rock star lover; the bedroom consists of two people that God has joined together, often imperfectly enjoying a great gift that he has given. Pornography does not reflect this truth. Sex was not only designed for procreation, yet it was never designed to be treated as an extracurricular sport. Porn actors are not to be mimicked or modeled. Period. Love your wife the way she wants and needs to be loved - the way that God calls you to love her - and let that be enough.
2. Porn places unfair expectations on your wife - Pornography is professionally done, in a sense. The producers, directors, and stars know what men like to see just like any other film production. There is a false sense of purely carnal excitement and intrigue. You will start to believe that women will do whatever you want and will be excited about hours of endless sexual activity. Then, when you and your wife engage in such marital activities, your mind convinces you that your wife should be a compassionless toy like those portrayed in the movies you watched. In reality, your wife has insecurities, fears, and preferences that are mixed with her foundational desire to be loved and nurtured rather than driven like a Ferrari. These images and ideas that are seared into your mind are physical, mental, and spiritual wars that are not meant to be fought. Let your future wife be your standard of beauty by not cramming more and more images into your head.

There is tremendously good news for those who have struggled with pornography. There is a man named Jesus who lived a perfect, sinless life who was hung on a cross to wipe away the very sins that you commit and will commit. You cannot change your past, but Christ can offer you a new life and a better future. Chase him. Cling to him. Let him be your standard of character and flee the temptation to fix your eyes on anything other than him. Your future wife may come along, as God sees fit to provide her, and you will either understand what I am talking about or you will be thankful that you do not have to know. Brothers, think on these things. Keep your mind, your heart, your soul, and your strength fixed on God.

When you are married, let Christ's sacrifice be the reason that you are a confident leader. The more like Jesus you are, the better husband and leader you are for your wife. If you've struggled with lust in various forms, you will be frustrated with yourself and you may have to fight tooth and nail to avoid slipping into old habits. Deal with sin as drastically and seriously as possible. The Holy Spirit will empower you to do so. Jesus is worth it. Your wife will be worth it.

Above all, know this: The gospel is enough. The war has been won, so go into the trenches confidently.

Date Your Wife - Excerpt

(Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from Justin Buzzard's Date Your Wife.) Men are always measuring themselves. You can’t hang out with a group of three or more men for more than three minutes without hearing them take measurement of themselves. Listen to what men talk about—their accomplishments, successes, and unique experiences that separate them from others. It doesn’t matter if the man is a banker, a plumber, a pastor, a CEO, an artist, an athlete, or unemployed—all men craft a standard of accomplishment by which they measure themselves and measure other men.

Men get this from Genesis 2:15. This behavior stems from a misunderstanding of the mandate God gave men back in the garden of Eden. God gave Adam and God gave us a mission to accomplish. But God never told Adam and never told us to measure ourselves by the mission. God gave us a different standard of measurement. The measure of a man is not how successful or unsuccessful a man is at carrying out his mission.

The measure of a man is not what he says about himself or what other people say about him. The true measure of a man comes from what God says about him.

Adam didn’t believe this. And we don’t believe it either.

Adam failed at his mission. He didn’t keep Genesis 2:15. He didn’t guard his garden and his marriage. That’s why Adam hid from God and hid from his wife behind the cover of fig leaves and excuses. Adam found his identity in his ability to perform Genesis 2:15, to successfully cultivate and guard. Having royally failed in his performance, Adam’s whole identity was at stake. The measurement didn’t look good, so Adam hid, excused, and blamed.

Sound familiar?

Before God gave Adam a wife, he gave him a job—to cultivate and guard the garden. But here’s the really good news: before God gave Adam a job, he gave him an identity. Before God gave Adam a job to do or a mission to accomplish, he gave Adam an identity to embrace. Before God told Adam to do anything, he told Adam who he was—he gave Adam the true way to measure and define himself.

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. - Genesis 1:31

Very good! After creating Adam, God looks down upon Adam and declares him very good. This is the living God speaking. This is God declaring what he thinks about Adam. This is Adam’s identity. What God says goes. If God says Adam is very good, then this is the voice that defines Adam.

Adam = A man created in the image of God and declared “very good” by God.

Adam’s Genesis 2:15 calling was meant to flow out of Adam’s Genesis 1:31 identity. God told Adam what he thought about him; he gave Adam his approval—before Adam lifted a finger in the garden. Adam received his God-approved identity before he had a chance to do anything to prove himself. This is what we call grace, or the gospel—the good news of receiving favor from God that we don’t deserve or earn. But Adam gets it backward. He didn’t listen. Instead of believing, accepting, and living consistently with this God-given identity based on grace, Adam settled for an identity based on works. Adam hid, excused, and blamed in the attempt to reestablish his identity, in the attempt to prove that he was not as guilty and unsuccessful as he looked. Adam settled for a life powered by religion instead of a life powered by the gospel.

This has been the biggest problem of my life. I base my identity on my performance. When I perform well at marriage, fatherhood, my job, cultivating and guarding the garden God has given me, and meeting my goals, I feel good about myself.

I’m happy with my measurements. But when I perform poorly in these spheres, I don’t feel good about myself. I don’t like what the measurements say about me, so I hide, make excuses, and play the blame game.

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Justin Buzzard is the lead pastor of Garden City Church, a new church plant in Silicon Valley. His preaching is featured on Preaching Today. You can also buy his books, Date Your Wife, Why Cities Matter, and Consider Jesus. Click here to view a list of favorite posts from JustinBuzzard.net. Twitter @JustinBuzzard or Facebook

A Six-Letter Word

Lauren Chandler is a wife and a mother of three. Her husband, Matt Chandler, serves as the lead teaching pastor at The Village Church near Dallas, Texas.

*Editor's Note: This was #7 on our Top Posts of 2012.

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We've all heard of four-letter words. You know, the ones we swear we never use (no pun intended) - aloud, at least; or, only when the occasion calls for it - like when we stub our toe, or when we miss a car wreck by milliseconds, or when we're surprised by our husbands who jump out of a closet at us when we think we're home alone, scaring the kitten we're carrying in our bare arms that then proceeds to claw it's way on top of our heads leaving a trail of scratches and scrapes that rivals the result of a rumble with a barbed-wire fence. Not that anything like that has ever happened to me - I've just heard of it happening to someone, somewhere. I dunno.

So, we've established that most of us are familiar with four-letter words, but I propose that there is a six-letter word that is just as controversial, just as cacophonous. That word is SUBMIT. Or, to the prudish, S*****. What's funny is that I keep running across this word over and over again. It lunges at me from behind booths at restaurants and hunts me down in the midst of a populous coffee house. It knows no appropriate time or place - it lacks tact. It even waltzes nonchalantly into my living room while I am spending much needed time with the Lord. How dare it.

Finally, I got to the point that I simply let it come in and sit down with me for a spell. I dove straight in. No fluffy answers. No "how's the weather." I prodded and poked it. I asked it questions on end, never knowing that I was setting up my own inquisition. It answered my questions with questions of its own. Questions that caused me to search deep into my heart - to look nakedly at my own motivations. We finally came to an agreement. In truth, it won. Not even a compromise. Submit - 1, me - 0. I'm actually starting to like it. It's becoming more of a friend to me. It has changed my marriage. It has changed how I interact with others. It has changed how I relate to the Lord. It has changed me.

Now, I can't stop using that six-letter word. I know, I know, just call me foul-mouthed. But I won't apologize for it anymore. Actually, I find myself using it with others. Here's an email I wrote to a friend. Don't let it scare you too much...

"I had a great time chatting with you tonight. Thanks for being so candid with me. I think you're at a beautiful place - difficult - but beautiful. There's a book called Sacred Marriage...the subtitle of that book has spoken volumes to me...Is marriage for our happiness or our holiness? I have learned that marriage is what the Lord chose for me to know Him more intimately...and as an incredibly wonderful by-product, I get to share life with my best friend...we hurt each other but we love each other...there's no other person I would rather be with...ever! I have found no greater earthly joy.

I pray that the Lord gives you a tender heart...a heart full of grace...a heart ready to trust and obey. I know that only He can do that in you. I highly recommend the book by Carolyn Mahaney called "Feminine Appeal." It has a little bit to do with being a mom but mostly to do with being a wife and simply a godly woman. Here's a passage of Scripture that the Lord has been laying on my heart heavily lately:

"1(A)In the same way, you wives, (B)be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be (C)won without a word by the behavior of their wives, 2as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. 3(D)Your adornment must not be merely external--braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; 4but let it be (E)the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. 5For in this way in former times the holy women also, (F)who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; 6just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, (G)calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right (H)without being frightened by any fear. (1 Peter 3:1 - 6)"

I know a lot of those words are frightening and can cause our hairs to bristle a bit, but there is true freedom in them. We can't control our husbands, but we can ask for grace to love Jesus so much that we trust Him in any circumstance...even if we feel our husbands aren't fulfilling their God-ordained duty or if they aren't loving us in the way we want to be loved or if they stumble. There is just something breathtaking about a woman who is clothed in peace and gentleness....a woman who, though her future is uncertain and her present not picture-perfect, can stare fear in the face and be overcome with serenity. Lord, help me to be that woman!

I hope this makes sense. I in no way advocate a door-mat submissiveness but rather a "trust and obey" submissiveness. That we would trust that the Lord has our best in mind and submit to His will and His word. I am praying for you and I loved hearing your heart! I can't wait to see what the Lord is going to do!"

Apparently, even email isn't immune to the six-letter word. No place is safe. Be assured, my friend, it is coming for you.

With much love, Your Foul-Mouthed Friend

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Cross-posted from Them Chandlers.

Voting for a Non-Christian President

Some time ago, Denny Burk posted an interesting piece on his website about Wayne Grudem’s endorsement of Mitt Romney in 2007. He quotes Grudem:

Have we come to the point where evangelicals will only vote for people they consider Christians? I hope not, for nothing in the Bible says that people have to be born again Christians before they can be governmental authorities who are used greatly by God to advance his purposes. God used Pharaoh, King of Egypt, to raise Joseph to a position of authority over the whole country, so he could save his people from famine (Genesis 41:37-57). God used Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, to protect and raise up Daniel and his Jewish friends to positions of high authority over Babylon (Daniel 2:46-49). God used Cyrus, King of Persia, to restore the Jewish exiles to their homeland (Isaiah 45:16; Ezra 1:1-4), and used Darius, King of Persia, to protect the Jewish people as they rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 6:1-12). God used Ahashuerus, King of Persia, to raise up Esther as Queen and to give Mordecai high authority and honor in his kingdom (Esther 6:10-11; 8:1-2, 7-15). In the New Testament age, God used the peace enforced by the secular Roman Empire, the Pax Romana, to enable the early Christians to travel freely and spread the Gospel throughout the Mediterranean world.

Additionally, our own Owen Strachan contributed to the discussion surrounding Romney's Mormonism in a piece at Christianity Today:

What of the upcoming election, which features a Mormon candidate for the presidency? However charitable and even constructive in certain ways, recent Mormon-Christian dialogues have not necessarily assuaged the doctrinal concerns of many evangelicals. The President, however, is not a pastor. As recent books like Could I Vote for a Mormon as President? argue, it is conscionable to support and vote for a Mormon.

Evangelicals might divide over which candidate to support. Yet, even Christians who are impressed by Romney know it may mean a major cultural boost for Mormonism. It would be foolish to ignore this idea—though we should also note that the much-discussed presidency of Kennedy, for example, did not singlehandedly revitalize Catholicism.

What say you?

Leading Joe Blow into Mission

All around the world, pastors and church leaders say the same thing. We need more leaders. We speak about these leaders as though God has sent us on a snipe hunt and is laughing at us as we search for these leaders in the bushes. The fact is you have tons of leaders in your church family right now. The key is to lead your people in a way that effectively trains leaders who also train leaders.

I have an interesting perspective on this topic. I am both a preaching elder in our church and the owner of a business.  To put it bluntly, I am busy.  But don’t let me fool you. I am not busier than anybody else. Almost every conversation I have around the coffee and donut table at church goes like this:

Me: How have you been?

The Entire Church (even the 9 year old playing tag):  Busy.

It doesn’t matter if you're speaking to an executive on Wall Street or an executive of the home (props to the stay at home mom), everybody's busy these days. But if you perceive yourself and others as busy, how can leaders ever emerge from your church to lead others on the mission? How can any disciples of Jesus ever be made? Let me suggest some things.

1. Start with the Gospel

I know this seems very Christian of me to say, but the fact is we, and the people we lead, need to be motivated by the good news, not motivated by what we do. God has given us a new identity, changed us from enemies to his children. He did it all by his work, not our effort.

Not only has God done this in justification, but he does this in sanctification. When we are bearing fruit worthy of repentance, it is because it has been through his power and grace, not our merit and works.

I remember sitting under the preaching of Mike Gunn, Jeff Vanderstelt, and Caesar Kalinowski. I was getting “gospelled” each week. It was like God was taking their words and beating the moralism out of my heart. I was so compelled that this good news wasn’t just for yesterday, but for today and tomorrow. My wife and I naturally asked, “How can we make sure everyone around us knows about THIS good news?”

When we hear truly good news, we want to share it and live in the light of it.  If good news is phony, who cares? Meaning, if the gospel was good for us once upon a time (like when we walked down the aisle or raised our hand when everyone had their heads bowed and eyes half shut) but it isn't even better for us today, then that becomes a burden to carry, not a load that we’ve given to the Savior.

Everything you do as a leader/pastor has to start with the gospel motivation of who God is, what God has done, who we are, and what we need to do. When the gospel is correctly and authentically preached, shared, and lived out in community, people will naturally (by the new Spirit) desire to live it out.

2. Have Realistic Goals for Leaders

Imagine what you want a leader to look like in your church. I’m talking about everyone. The single mom, the single dad, the mentally handicapped, the disabled, the CEO, the college students, the children, everyone.

You see most of us - when thinking of leaders - really have a narrow view. For whatever reason, we think a leader must be someone who can preach, know every dark corner of theology, take over Bible studies, and write a thesis on the Nephilim.

Additionally, many pastors think every leader should be just like them. The problem with this thinking is:

1. If you could raise leaders to be like you, you’d be out of a job
2. Your people don’t have time to be like you. That’s why they pay you - to equip them for the point of all ministry.

So, what is realistic for leaders in your church? The answer is simple. They need to do exactly what God has called all of us to do: make disciples of Jesus who make more disciples of Jesus.

Jesus tells us, in short order that making disciples is done by his power and authority (Matt 28; Acts 1:8). He tells us to do this with the term “Go,” which means more accurately “as you go” (Matthew 28), and tells us that we are his body, the parts of which have many different functions. Your people have been designed and formed by how God wants them to be. He has placed them in the place he desires. The power is not by their will but by God’s might and wisdom.

Think of this. If you tell your people that the goal is to make disciples and to do this where they are NOW, how much of a burden have you just released from their shoulders?

To tell the stay at home mom that she can’t live two lives only one and to live this one life for the glory of God, then she can go to the mom’s group and be a light to them. She can invite other moms over and have a play date and befriend them to show them and tell them about Jesus. She’s probably already doing some of these things, but now she is released to do it in the power of the Spirit for the glory of God to make disciples.

Think of the burden released if you don’t have programs in your church where everyone has to attend, but they live their life with the family of God to show off who God is where they are sent.

Instead of telling someone you need to show up for Vacation Bible School to teach for those 5 days from morning until night, you send them back to their neighborhoods and keep doing the things they do, but to do them with non-Christians and Christians, to fully form disciples who then go and make more disciples.

Just ask your people to take an inventory of what they are doing now and have them start thinking how they can start doing those things with the power of the Spirit with the goal of living out the great commission.

All these things can be turned into times of disciple making. (Don’t let this statement fool you, we are always making disciples. It’s just a matter if we are making disciples of us or Jesus.):

• Coaching sport teams
• Work
• Going to the gym
• Neighborhood Parties
• Dinner at your house
• Hanging out in the front yard
• PTA
• Community Events

The list goes on and on.

3. Share Meals

If you want an easy start, given to me by Caesar Kalinowski, tell your people this:

We eat 21 times per week. Each person in each MC eats one meal with a not yet believer twice in a month. That’s two meals out of 84 meals. If a family has another family over that counts as 1 out of 4. Then come together and share about your conversations and start praying like crazy to know what the Spirit would have you do next with each person you've shared a meal with.

The simplicity of this, and the conversations that come from this will show your people what you mean by making disciples and doing it in the everyday.

The point is, when you release your people back to the areas that God has already place them in, then not only do you have job security as a pastor, but people see the importance of the work God has given them. Some may see what they're doing and adjust because of this simple calling, they might move to be more effective. So discuss what's happening with your leaders as they pursue discipleship wherever God places them.

Think of the power of this.  You have stay at home moms, single moms, dads, working parents, college kids, CEOs, garbage men, teachers, politicians, web designers, and accountants all living out the power given to them by the Spirit to make disciples where God has sent them. Doesn't this sound like a fully functioning body that will show off the entirety of Jesus, instead of one small facet?

This is what it means to fill the earth with his glory. Every part of the earth is seeing Jesus because we empower our people, instead of treating them as though they have to be full time pastors to fulfill the job of making disciples.

Start simple. We are told that he who is entrusted with little can be trusted with much. Give them these simple ideas to live out and watch as God calls them to more and more.

Just as you wouldn’t feed an infant steak, neither should we tell our people that to make disciples they must move to Africa in order to make disciples. Let God show them what they should do.

4. Show them how to lead

You can talk about training leaders all day, but if you don't show people how to lead, they’ll never fully grasp it. I believe that you as the pastor cannot do this alone. Know that the people who are not pastors - yet who are already living this out - are your best allies.

Think of this. 99% of your church receives zero income from the church but are still called to make disciples. If this is true, you should be leading them from that perspective, but you also need folks who can lead by example. In other words, instead of saying 99% are not paid to make disciples, we should be saying that 100% of God’s people are paid to make disciples. It’s just a matter of where God directs that money from. (Thank you Jeff Vanderstelt for that gold nugget.)

When you have a missional community meeting and you start going through a study, don’t draw up some study from Leviticus that you created and spend the whole time  preaching at the group. Who else is going to have time for that? What about those who hate speaking to groups? Lead your people in a way where they can say to themselves, “I can do that.”

Look for material that is easily transferrable to everyone. If every time you have some sort of a study in your missional community you are the one writing up the questions and leading the study, how will anyone have time to do the same? Set them an example of what they can do.

Some easily transferrable studies can be found with both Porterbrook and BILD (First Principles). I use them with my missional community and this is exactly why our communities have multiplied. People realized they could lead just like I do. There was nothing overtly difficult or time consuming. We just kept speaking and living in a way that demanded that we learn with our heads, be motivated by the new heart given by the Spirit, and walk it out with our feet empowered by the Spirit.

You can do this with the meeting portion of your missional community as well as in the everyday life of making disciples. If you are always trying to make disciples on Tuesdays between 10-2pm, you’ll alienate most of your church. You’ll get the old “Well, you have time to make disciples because you’re the pastor.”

Know your church and work to “do the mission” in the same time frames that they are able.   And don’t do it alone…ever.  Always be taking people with you or showing it to them as family.   This way your people are not only hearing it from your lips, but experiencing it with their feet.

Your people will learn how to make disciples by the way you make disciples. If you only do it with deep studies in a formal setting, then they’ll think they have to copy you. If you show them you can only make disciples by having BBQ’s every Friday, then they’ll think that the road to gospel living is paved by Weber grills. But, if you can show them that it happens in everyday life, in every facet of life, with all kinds of people, you’ll show them the ways of Jesus.

Jesus wants everyone to make disciples, but we have set up our people for failure because we only want leaders who look like full time paid pastors or professional party throwers. (Both of those are awesome by the way.)

I highly recommend taking a look at Creating a Discipleship Environment. This video can really flesh this out for you and for your people.

So, in the end, how do we find and develop leaders?

• Motivate people with the gospel. Making disciples doesn’t gain your favor or acceptance from God, but is the natural fruit born of a child of God.
• Tell them that God has placed them where they are now, doing what they are doing now, to make disciples by his power
• Show them what you mean by living your life in the way the other 99% of your people can succeed in making disciples.
• Do all this by starting simply with small steps. And wait on God to reveal the next steps for everyone in your community.

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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 missional community leader, preaching elder with Soma Communities in Renton, Washington, and executive team member of the GCM Collective. In his down time, he likes to do CrossFit, cook BBQ, and host pancake ebelskiver breakfasts at his home. Twitter @sdmcbee

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For more information on taking the gospel to the streets, check out Jonathan Dodson's Unbelievable Gospel.

For more free articles on missional living read: Invite & Invest to Make Disciples by Greg Gibson, Theology is for Everyone by David Fairchild, and The Gospel & Our Neighbors by Alvin Reid.

Redeeming Fantasy Football

This next season it is estimated that some 30-45 million Americans will participate in a fantasy football league of some sort or another. Leagues are formed all over the country through work places, neighborhoods, and family gatherings to give sporting fans a competitive means to be involved in the sport itself. To the world, fantasy football has become a billion dollar idol in which many find identity, purpose, and mission. While some Christians may ignore this opportunity for community or reject fantasy sports altogether, fantasy football should not be dismissed as a pointless activity. With a mind and heart for the gospel, we can use the tool of fantasy sports as a missional activity for the sake of sharing the gospel with unbelievers. Here are a few ways we might go about that:

1. Participate in a league with unbelievers.

Often our tendency in thinking about activities such as fantasy sports is to compartmentalize who we participate with. How many churches have formed their own softball leagues (or play in church softball leagues) when the cities they inhabit already have leagues? Instead of being missionaries into those leagues, we build a Christianized version of the same thing and insulate ourselves from the lives of unbelievers.

Fantasy football is another opportunity for us to think about gospel-intentionality. Form up a league at your office or workplace where you can spend time with your coworkers (off the clock of course) building relationships and developing a deeper understanding of their lives.

 2. Be present at the draft and other activities that involve your league.

Don’t be the guy who allows the computer to draft the team. Show up at the draft party and spend time beyond picking a team to really get to know the members of your league. If you are new to these people find out a little bit more about them such as their vocation, family status, where they live, and other important relational information. Do everything you can to be friendly and interested in their lives. Show up early for the party and stay late.

One of the ways that Christians demonstrate the goodness of the gospel is by being present in the lives of unbelievers. We show them the God who “dwells with us” (John 1:14) by being with them in the ordinary activities of their lives. Offer to meet with the other league members on Sunday afternoons or for Monday Night Football to watch the game and share life with the other members of your league. Find ways to get to know them better so you can naturally share the gospel with them.

3. Host the draft party or game party yourself.

One of the clear marks of the gospel’s impact in the life of a believer is the demonstration of hospitality (Hebrews 13:2). Instead of having the draft at a local restaurant or sports bar, invite the members of your league over and throw the party at your home. Provide plenty of food, drinks, and comfortable places for the members of your league to enjoy one another and the process of drafting a team.

As a way of showing the gospel, don’t go cheap on the food and drinks, either. Provide the best. Invite your community group to throw an amazing draft party for the members of your league, and involve your Christian community with the overall activity of the league itself.  These acts of kindness will only further adorn the gospel of grace (2 Peter 2:12). Additionally, invite members of the league over to your home to watch the games and participate in the weekly rhythms of the football season.

The more hospitality and generosity we show toward unbelievers the more we receive opportunities to share the hope that we have in Jesus. As you establish these rhythms and patterns, invite league participants into your regular community group to see Christian community lived out.

4. Don’t cheat or be dishonest with league members.

Nothing hinders the display of the gospel more than someone who isn’t trustworthy and honest. Proverbs 12:26 tells us that “one who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor but the way of the wicked leads them astray.” Jesus himself is “full of grace and truth.”

One of the temptations in fantasy sports is to manipulate and/or cheat fellow owners through transactions and trade offers that are one-sided and sneaky. Like anything remotely competitive, the desire to win is a strong impulse, but this impulse does not give us permission to be dishonest or underhanded with fellow league members.

Make trades that are fair to both sides. Don’t withhold information (such as player injuries) that would get you ahead in a trade or transaction but would leave your fellow league members in worse shape. Use every opportunity to be honest, fair and respectable towards the members of your league. This includes being an active participant the entire season, even if you haven’t won a game and have no hope of making the playoffs. An active, honest, fair, competitive league member will be one that gains respect among the league and opens doors for the gospel to be shared (Titus 2:10).

5. Pray for the members of your league.

While fantasy football in and of itself is enjoyable, it is not an ultimate thing. Winning the league championship or making a deep run in the playoffs certainly makes it more fun, but our goal isn’t to ultimately be kings of the fantasy sports world. Our goal is to build relationships in which we can live with gospel-intentionality.

Furthermore, the reception and transformation that the gospel brings is something we cannot do through physical means. Gospel transformed lives are the result of the work of the Holy Spirit in an individual’s life. To this end, we should pray for the unbelievers we are in relationship with. Paul urged Timothy to pray for people so that the gospel would advance (2 Timothy 2:1-3).

I know it is not the most natural thing in the world to pray for our opponents in fantasy sports, but if we look at fantasy football as the entry point in which we gain access to the lives of unbelievers for the sake of the gospel, we can see that it would be foolish not to pray for them.

6. Clearly, boldly talk about the gospel with the members of your league.

I’m not talking about some sort of cheesy or unnatural talk that sounds like, “My QB scored a touchdown and saved my season, but he’s nothing compared to Jesus who died and saved my life.” I’m talking about moving beyond the sport and talking with your league members about what really matters.

Take a member out to lunch or invite them over to dinner. Spend some serious time with them and lay out your life before them. Let them know that you gather with others on Sunday mornings to worship Jesus and then hang out with friends (like them) to share life and the gospel of Jesus. Invest in their lives beyond fantasy sports and look for ways to meet needs, share life, and live the gospel before them as well as clearly speaking the gospel to them.

If we focus on being intentional with the gospel, we can use leisurely and fun things like fantasy football - which the world idolizes - to be missional tools for us in building relationships for advancing the gospel. My hope is this season that fantasy football won’t be a consuming time idol of sports but a means by which Jesus is introduced into the lives of many who don’t know him.

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Jeremy Writebol is a Christian who has played fantasy football for almost 20 years. He is the husband of Stephanie, daddy of Allison and Ethan, and lives and works in Wichita, KS as the Community Pastor at Journey the Way. He is the director of Porterbrook Kansas and writes at jwritebol.net.

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For more resources on how to share the gospel authentically, check out Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson.

For more free articles on making the gospel part of your everyday life, read: The Neighborhood Missions Startup by Seth McBee, Messy Discipleship by Jake Chambers, and Plant the Gospel, Plant Churches by Tony Merida.

John Owen, Sin, and Temptation

"Let no man pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation also! These two are too closely united to be separated."

- John Owen

It seems as though our culture has mastered the art of stepping as closely to the edge of the cliff as possible without falling into the canyon. Inevitably, culture can and will creep into our churches, causing Christians to adopt the same ideals about temptation and sin.

Though Jesus was tempted as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15), it is not wise nor beneficial for us to engage in temptation ourselves. As Owen so perfectly states, sin is too closely tied to temptation to be toyed with. It is equally a great danger to be ignorant of temptation, believing that that we are too holy or righteous to stumble. The truth is that, even for the Christian, Satan is able to capitalize on our weaknesses and knows the human race well enough to tap into the darkest parts of our existence.

Paul gives us great hope in this battle:

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

- 1 Corinthians 10:13

Temptation is common to mankind, and there are none special to their situation. Sin is a nasty beast, devouring away at every person from birth. This reminds us quickly to remember that we are just as in need of grace as those whom we love to belittle and judge (Jesus had something to say about that).

Thankfully, Paul doesn't leave us there but reminds us of the gospel's power. Whatever it is that you struggle with (and we all have a multitude of somethings), God makes a way of escape. That escape may look different for everyone, but the point is that we as Christians, with new natures, have the unique ability to step away before we are entangled in sin. The Holy Spirit lives inside of us, and he is constantly at work in our hearts. The gospel liberates us from the shackles of enslavement to self-gratification.

Please, do not isolate yourself from the world. Do not surround yourself with other Christians and "accountability partners" and ignore the Great Commission in the name of piety. We have far too many people who hide from culture and have no real impact for the Kingdom. Simply apply good judgment as a child of God to deal with temptation as seriously as necessary.

Be in the world, not of it.

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While you're at it, go pick up a copy of this book. It will greatly challenge your thoughts on sin and temptation.

Gospel-Centered Community

As humans we desire community. We want to know people and be known. We Tweet to tell others about ourselves and follow others on Twitter to know them. Everywhere in our culture we are creating communities. From social media to coffee shops we have a desire as humans to be living in community with others. We want to have meaningful and lasting relationships with other humans. It is not different in the Christian community. We desire to be in community with one another. There is a lot of talk on what it means to have gospel-centered community. The concept is rooted in Scripture. As pastors, community group leaders, and church members, we need to understand gospel-centered community.

The Example of the Early Church

One of the best places to go to understand gospel-centered community is the book of Acts. Acts has been called the “the Church's missional hand-book.” Acts is the story of what a gospel-centered church looks like. It highlights the Holy Spirit’s empowerment in believers, proclamation of the gospel, conversion stories, persecution of the church, leaders being developed, churches being planted, and missionary journeys of the leaders of the church.

The book of Acts defines gospel-centered community as a community of believers who foster biblical teaching, prayer, worship, equality, generosity, shared experience, and mission. The fountain verses read:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. - Acts 2:42-47

1. Gospel-Centered Communities Devote Themselves to Biblical Teaching

The passage begins, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.”

A gospel-centered community is one where the inspired writings of the Scriptures are taught clearly, accurately, and continually. The driving force of community is the gospel that is revealed in the Scriptures. Gospel-centered communities continue to grow in their understanding of the Scriptures together.

2. Gospel-Centered Communities Pray Together 

As the passage continues, we see the members of early church devoted themselves to “the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Gospel-centered communities pray with, and for, one another. They understand that God has the power to change situations and change peoples hearts. They understand that communion with God and one another is a special thing. Prayer doesn’t get the back burner in gospel-centered community. Rather, prayer becomes pivotal for gospel-centered communities.

3. Gospel-centered communities experience the power and awe of God

“And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.”

Those who are living in gospel-centered community start to experience the power of God and his miracles among them. This might make some people feel skeptical. You might ask “does God still do miracles today?” Answer: YES.

Numerous times in my community group at Vintage 21, we have seen God do awesome things. From saving a family member, to providing a job, and seeing bold prayers answered by our God. Gospel-centered communities become awed by the power of God among his people. They see things happen that only the Holy Spirit can do and in response are in awe of God's power.

4. Gospel-centered communities have everything in common

“And all who believed were together and had all things in common.”

Gospel-centered communities start to have the same God given interests. When a community of people become saturated by God’s gospel and God’s Spirit, they start to have the same common values. This doesn’t mean that everybody in the community group likes a certain food or sport. It means that they have Jesus in common. Jesus is their everything.

5. Gospel-centered communities are generous and sacrificial to one another

“And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.”

This is a beautiful picture of a gospel-centered community. They understand that they have freely been given God’s grace, that they are stewards of his gifts. In response, they are generous to their brothers and sisters in need. They’re not selfish toward one another. Rather, ANY need became met.

6. Gospel-centered communities live life with one another

“And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their home.”

Communities that are saturated by the gospel actually live life together. They love one another, and meet with one another regularly. They eat meals, watch sports events, go on trips, attend church, get coffee, work out, and do other life activities with one another. They enjoy one anothers fellowship and friendship.

7. Gospel-centered communities are missional and reproduce

Finally, we find the early church “praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

Gospel-centered communities are not only inward but outward. They meet the needs of the city. They live on mission in their pocket of the city. They proclaim the gospel to there neighbors, co-workers, and friends. They live out the gospel among the city.

The amazing news is that God actually saves people! He starts to add more people to our communities. More people start to meet Jesus as we live on mission together as a community. What a gift that in Christ we receive all the community we desire. Now, ask God how your community can present the image of heavenly fellowship to your city.

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Garrett Ventry is a church planting intern at Vintage 21 Church in Raleigh. He serves under the regional director of the Acts 29 Network's southeast region.  He is also a student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife Megan live in Raleigh. Twitter: @GarrettVentry

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For more free articles on living the gospel in community, read: The Harmony of Community by Greg Willson, Taking the Long View by Bill Streger, and We Need Five Disciplers Not One by JR Woodward.

Should We Prioritize Place or People Groups?

Many start down the road of desiring to be a missional community (MC), but one of the first things they ask is simply… ”Who should we reach?” There are two modes of thought in this: People Groups

• This could be certain religious groups (i.e. Muslims), ethnic  groups or a local elementary school. The idea is that many can come together, regardless of where they live and be part of the mission in a certain context.

Place

• Where do you live? Where do you work? These are the places you are already at and don’t really get a “choice” of being there.

Now, I am not going to be dogmatic of which one you should choose, because I believe we have examples of each in the Scriptures. Paul definitely prioritized people groups and the local churches in the cities were prioritizing place. I think both are important. I do believe there is a better way to start in your journey of living out the mission of God through missional communities.

Prioritizing Place

I believe that this is the best way to start off missional communities in your current church or as you desire to plant the gospel in an area. Notice I said plant the gospel, as I believe that is what we are called to do, but be expectant that the church will grow out of that seed planted through the power of the Spirit.

Here are some quick bullet points why I believe prioritizing place is a good place to start.

1.    Paradigm Shift

For most, missional communities are a complete paradigm shift. They are shifting from going to church to being the church in the everyday.  Don’t get all up in arms thinking I am trying to downplay the gathering on a Sunday. The point is that most people only see church as a building that sits empty 6 days and 22 hours a week and then is magically transformed into the “sanctuary” where God dwells when we greet people, drink coffee and sing love ballads to him.  (Another article could be written on how we structure the Sunday gathering so it equips the MCs instead of being seemingly a total separate entity all together)

Because of this shift, we need to lead people in the shift and show them the difference instead of merely talking about it.  When we talk about MCs not being event driven we need to give that to our people. When you are prioritizing place, it gives the chance for people to live among their neighbors (or co-workers) with the intention of showing and speaking the good news. It is easier for them to grasp what we mean by natural rhythms of life if we allow them to actually live that out where they already are at.

In those that prioritize a people group, this will add something to their life if they are not already involved. As an example. If you decide that the local elementary school is going to be the context in which you focus, then there will be meetings to go to, events to plan and things not in your everyday that will be added to your life.

This will seem like a stretch for many just starting out and will be hard for them to see much of a paradigm shift, but will more than likely seem like a focus shift instead. Many will show up to the events and things scheduled, but will remain hard pressed to live life on life with the MC or those they are called to.

I am not saying this has to happen in a people group focus, but I am saying it is far easier to happen when people are just starting out in this new shift.

2.    The Everyday

When you prioritize place, mission happens every day. Events don’t have to take place, schedules can be much less rigid, and you’ll notice life on life just happens.

When you start to see your neighbors as image bearers that need to hear and see Jesus and the effects of His gospel, you’ll get to know your neighbors very easily and purposefully. What you’ll notice is that the mission will happen by just being outside, or hanging out where the neighborhood hangs out. (This largely depends on the neighborhood you live in, whether urban or suburban)

Those just starting out will quickly realize why you can’t have church programs, because their lives will be so intertwined with their neighbors’ lives. Dinners, playdates, or merely hanging out -  people quickly realize what the mission looks like when you can actually live it in rhythm instead of in programs. They’ll see that it happens “on accident” when they take out their garbage and the neighbor next door engages them in conversation. They’ll see that if they get angry at a neighbor, they’ll have to ask, “How should I respond as a follower of Jesus?” In a people group context, you can just decide to stop going to that group (many new to the MC understanding will think this anyways). In your neighborhood, you’re stuck unless you pack up and move. It requires some serious thought on holistic living that everyone will see.

So now, instead of only seeing people during events, you see them all the time as your life is full of interruptions, not merely planned meeting times.

Not only this, but if you have neighbors who are in your MC, it makes it far easier to live as family in the everyday. Most of the time, when prioritizing people groups, people are spread out and it makes it very difficult to live as family in the everyday. Most of the time, you only see your MC at meetings or at planned events. To ensure this doesn’t happen, you have to be very purposeful on being family or it will slip into event time as though the MC were distant cousins. Again, this isn’t impossible to do, but we must think through this for those new to the MC understanding.

3.  Transferable

I highly recommend that the first thing an MC does when they prioritize place is to simply start having meals with not-yet believers. Make it a goal for everyone to have at least two meals a month (out of 84) with a not-yet believer. When you come back together for the MC meeting, take time to pray and share about the people that you are engaging and living life with and then ask the Spirit what’s next for each of those people you had dinner with. This will show the paradigm shift in full effect.

Not only that, but think through this. If you desire to multiply MCs, how hard is it for someone to multiply when they see the simplicity of merely eating with outsiders of the faith? We’ve noticed how easy it is to have meals with people that are in our neighborhood. They are going to eat, they just have to walk over. That’s a far cry if you decided to prioritize a people group, let’s say an elementary school, and now the group wants to multiply but has to figure out which school, how to lead tutoring groups, lead events, etc. I’m not saying these things shouldn’t happen, or don’t happen, but when starting new MCs, prioritizing place makes it very easy to transfer that to new leaders and new MCs. This is something I’ve been thinking through with my MCs lately as I don’t want to prioritize events in the place that I live. Back to basics.

Not only does it make it very easy to transfer, but also think of those that the Spirit regenerates. Remember that they are being discipled on what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus.  So, if they see a group of people, sharing life on life in the everyday, what do you think they think a follower of Jesus does? Does this make it easier for them to not only understand what following Jesus entails, but then also lead others in this?

4.    The Power of the Spirit

I almost end all my articles with this: we must believe that this is the Spirit’s work. We plant the good news and the Spirit regenerates souls and grows churches from the seeds we’ve planted. We must continually ask the Spirit who he desires for us to reach and how he’d desire for us to do that.

We must be asking the Spirit what is next for us. Listen to what he says. Then do it. Then we push repeat until we die.

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

Acts 17:24-27

The Spirit has placed us where he wants us to be. I actually think the last part when he states, “yet he is actually not far from each one of us” can be alluding, partly, to his church. The Spirit will direct our steps so that people that are seeking God will find him through the church that is living right next to them. The Spirit usually starts us off small, then keeps pressing.  It might start with dinners and it might lead to being on the City Council. I’m not sure. The Spirit might start us with dinners and then move us across the world to do the same thing. He might start us with dinners, and then move us on to the local school, religious group, etc.

The point is that it is the Spirit’s work, not ours. Let’s make it as easy as possible for people to understand this paradigm shift of being the church so the Spirit can take that seed and make it grow in our people.

I have seen amazing things come through missional communities by the power of the Spirit. The problem is that many of us have these big stories of what God is doing and many don’t realize we started off small and basic.

I started off by asking the Spirit, “What’s next?” and he told me to move my BBQ from my back yard to my front yard so that it was easier to have an “open door” for my neighbors to join us and be part of our lives. From that, he has my family leading a group of leaders, seeing things multiply and probably moving to another state to do it all over again. But the Spirit knew me. He knew how to take me along. He didn’t start by having me move to another state, but doing something very simple.

We are called to be a living sacrifice, but notice that we aren’t told how that is to happen for everyone.

I believe what this means is to yield our lives to the Spirit, ask him what’s next, listen, then do it. Whatever it is. He loves us. He knows us. He’ll guide us. He’ll empower us.

Know that I am not trying to say one is better than the other when it comes to prioritizing our context. Plus, the same “busyness” and event-driven life can happen when prioritizing place. What I do believe though is that it is easier to start off simply and holistically when prioritizing place, then, from there allow the Spirit to keep pressing into us to show off who he is.

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Cross-posted from GCM Collective.

Revival: Ways and Means

Timothy Keller is pastor and founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. He received his bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University, Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Doctor of Ministry from Westminster Theological Seminary. Keller has helped start more than 100 churches throughout the world and is the author of several books, including The Reason for God.  

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How do seasons of revival come? One set of answers comes from Charles Finney, who turned revivals into a "science." Finney insisted that any group could have a revival any time or place, as long as they applied the right methods in the right way. Finney's distortions, I think, led to much of the weakness in modern evangelicalism today, as has been well argued by Michael Horton over the years. Especially under Finney's influence, revivalism undermined the more traditional way of doing Christian formation. That traditional way of Christian growth was gradual – whole family catechetical instruction – and church-centric. Revivalism under Finney, however, shifted the emphasis to seasons of crisis. Preaching became less oriented to long-term teaching and more directed to stirring up the affections of the heart toward decision. Not surprisingly, these emphases demoted the importance of the church in general and of careful, sound doctrine and put all the weight on an individual's personal, subjective experience. And this is one of the reasons (though not the only reason) that we have the highly individualistic, consumerist evangelicalism of today.

There has been a withering critique of revivalism going on now for twenty years within evangelical circles. Most of it is fair, but it often goes beyond the criticism of the technique-driven revivalism of Finney to insist that even Edwards and the Puritans were badly mistaken about how people should embrace and grow in Christ. In this limited space I can't respond to that here other than to say I think that goes way too far. However, this critique trend explains why there is so much less enthusiasm for revival than when I was a young minister. It also explains why someone like D.M. Lloyd-Jones was so loathe to say that there was anything that we can do to bring about revivals (other than pray.) He knew that Finney-esque revivalism led to many spiritual pathologies.

Nevertheless, I think we can carefully talk about some factors that, when present, often become associated with revival by God's blessing. My favorite book on this (highly recommended by Lloyd-Jones) is William B. Sprague's Lectures on Revivals of Religion (1832). Sprague studied under both Timothy Dwight, Edwards' grandson, at Yale and also Archibald Alexander at Princeton. The Princetonians – the Alexanders, Samuel Miller, and Charles Hodge – did a good job of combining the basics of revivalism with a healthy emphasis on doctrine and the importance of the church. Sprague's lectures include a chapter on "General Means" for promoting revivals, and his chapters on counseling seekers and new converts are particularly helpful.

The primary means-of-revival that everyone agrees upon is extraordinary prayer. That's the clearest of all and so I won't spend time on it. The second means is a recovery of the grace-gospel. One of the main vehicles sparking the first awakening in Northampton, Massachusetts was Edwards' two sermons on Romans 4:5, "Justification by Faith Alone," in November, 1734. For both John Wesley and George Whitefield, the main leaders of the British Great Awakening, it was an understanding of salvation by grace rather than moral effort that touched off personal renewal and made them agents of revival. Lloyd-Jones taught that the gospel of justification could be lost at two levels. A church might simply become heterodox and lose the very belief in justification by faith alone. But just as deadly, it might keep the doctrine "on the shelf" as it were and not preach it publicly in such a way that connects to people's hearts and lives.

The third factor I would mention is renewed individuals. Sprague points out how certain church leaders can be characterized by the infectious marks of spiritual revival – a joyful, affectionate seriousness, and "unction" – a sense of God's presence. In addition, often several visible, dramatic life-turnarounds ("surprising conversions") may cause others to do deep self-examination and create a sense of spiritual longing and expectation in the community. The personal revivals going on in these individuals spread informally to others through conversation and relationship. More and more people begin to look at themselves and seek God.

A fourth factor I will call the use of the gospel on the heart in counseling. Sprague and John Newton in his letters do a good job of showing how the gospel must be used on both seekers, new believers, and non-growing Christians. The gospel must cut away both the moralism and the licentiousness that destroys real spiritual life and power. There must be venues and meetings and settings in which this is done, both one-on-one and in groups. See William Williams, The Experience Meeting, a leaders' manual for revival-promoting small group meetings in Wales during the first great awakening.

Finally I would add a fifth factor. Sprague rightly points out that revivals occur mainly through the ordinary, "instituted means of grace" – preaching, pastoring, worship, prayer. It is a mistake to identify some specific programmatic method (e.g. Billy Graham-like mass evangelism) too closely with revivals. Lloyd-Jones points to some sad cases where people who came through the Welsh revival of 1904-05 became wedded to particular ways of holding meetings and hymn-singing as the way God brings revival. Nevertheless, Sprague grants that sometimes God will temporarily use some new method to propagate the gospel and spark revival. For example, under Wesley and Whitefield, outdoor preaching was a new, galvanizing method. Mid-day public prayer meetings were important to the Fulton Street revival in downtown NYC in 1857-58. I'm ready to say that creativity might be one of the marks of revival, because so often some new way of communicating the gospel has been part of the mix that God used to bring a mighty revival.

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Originally posted and permitted for use by Timothy Keller and Redeemer City to City.

Big Book Giveaway (Round 2)

First off, let's announce the winners from Round 1...

• 4-Pack of books ... Martie Mangum!
• The Explicit Gospel ... Jesse Barhart!
• The Hole in Our Holiness ... Aaron Sellars!
• Date Your Wife ... Chris Quinto!
• ESV Student Study Bible ... T.J. Tamer!

*If you entered Round 1 and did not win, simply share the "MORE FREE BOOKS" post on our Facebook or Retweet the new giveaway post to re-enter.

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And now, Round 2.

The Goods

Compliments of Broadman and Holman, we are giving away:

 

Rules of Engagement

Here's how to enter:

• “Like” us on Facebook
• Share the ”MORE FREE BOOKS” post pinned at the top of our Facebook page
• Follow us on Twitter
• Retweet one of our tweets about this giveaway on Twitter
• EXTRA CREDIT: Follow each of our contributors on Twitter

There will be five winners!

• Each study Bible will be given away separately
• Gospel and Embracing Obscurity will be given as a pair
• The Church and Tribal Church will be given as a pair
• Creation Restored and Seven Daily Sins will be given as a pair

May the odds be ever in your favor………

*** Contest ends August 31, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. CST ***

What is Missional Culture & Why Does it Matter?

The Church is called to be a provisional demonstration of God’s will  for all people. - Presbyterian Book of Order

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. - Romans 12:2

I was driving in Columbus, ohio, when I came upon a hitchhiker who alternated between holding his thumb out and clasping his hands together as if he were praying. I picked him up.

His name was Mike, and I soon discovered he was a hardcore Aryan (white supremacist), pointing to a passage in Scripture about being “a chosen people” as the reason for his convictions. I asked if he would be willing to reread the passage in context. He agreed. As I reached in the back seat to grab my Bible, he pulled a gun and pointed it at my head. I assured him I was just getting my Bible, so he put his gun away, and my heart started to beat again.

I realized Mike had no place to stay that night, so I invited him to stay with me.

“You mean you would trust me to stay with you after pulling a gun on you?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said, “because God has given me a love for you that I can’t explain, and he loves you.” As I was saying this, I was saying to myself, Yeah, what am I thinking?

Tears welled in Mike’s eyes.

We got back to the hotel where my roommate Tom and I were staying. I woke up my roommate to ask him if Mike could stay with us, mentioning that he had a gun. He wasn’t favorably disposed to the idea, so I ended up getting Mike another room. Mike didn’t want me to, but I insisted. It gave me the chance to share more of the gospel with him.

We talked until 4 a.m., and I told him about the Jesus the apostles wrote about, this Jesus who had become my hero, my Savior and my example. I told him how Jesus was the liberator of those oppressed, the lover of those rejected and the deliverer of those seduced by consumerism, and Mike responded with tears of surrender.

Later that week he took me to a Chinese restaurant and continued to inquire about Jesus. I told him how Jesus lived his life for the sake of others, how he died so we could live, and how he rose again to show what God was going to do for the world.

Something in Mike changed that evening; he understood in a profound way who Jesus was and what he had done for him and the world. When I left Columbus, Mike had a heart to share with his Aryan friends what he had learned, hoping they would let go of their racism and be part of a community that included people from every race, tongue, tribe and nation.

As I reflect on my encounter with Mike, it reminds me of two realities: we live in a messed-up world filled with violence, prejudice, racism, poverty, greed, pride, envy, lust and gluttony; and Jesus has invited messed-up people like us to partner with God in the redemption of the world.

The Federal Aviation Administration once developed a cannon-like device to test the strength of windshields of airplanes. They actually shot a dead chicken (I’m serious) into the windshield at the approximate speed of a flying plane to simulate a bird hitting a plane while in flight. Well, a British locomotive company heard about this test. So they asked the FAA if they could borrow the device. They had just developed a high-speed train and they wanted to likewise test their windshield.

They loaded the bird up and shot it at the locomotive at its approximate running speed. The bird went through the windshield, knocked over the engineer’s chair and put a dent in the cab of the locomotive. They couldn’t understand what had happened. So they asked if the FAA would please review all the things that the locomotive company had done. The FAA’s final report said, “You might want to try the test with thawed chicken.”

Why did everyone in the locomotive company conclude that a frozen chicken was used in this experiment? There wasn’t even a debate about whether this should be a frozen chicken or a thawed chicken—regular or crispy? No one asked this most basic question.

We often jump to conclusions about how to make the church work better or how to develop a missional strategy—without asking some of the most basic questions. Questions like What does it mean to be the church today? What does it mean to create a missional culture and why does it matter?

Creating a missional culture is more than just adding some outward programs to the church structure. Creating a missional culture goes to the heart and identity of God, to who we are and who we are becoming.

Missio Dei

One of the most influential theologians of the last century, Karl Barth, was instrumental in the reintroduction of the classic doctrine of Missio Dei. We find missio Dei in Scripture: God the Father sends the Son and the Spirit into the world, and the Father, Son and Spirit send the church into the world for the sake of the world. In other words, mission does not originate with the church but is derived from the very nature of God. As Jürgen Moltmann has said, “It is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfill in the world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church.”

When we read the Scriptures, we learn that it is God’s mission to set things right in a broken and messed-up world. God’s mission is to redeem the world and restore it to its intended purpose. The church exists to fulfill God’s mission, and when we participate in God’s mission we become living signs of God’s intended future for the world, bringing glory to God. In other words, mission exists because God is a missionary God. And “a church which is not on mission is either not yet or no longer the church, or only a dead church—itself in need of renewal.”

If we seek to create a missional culture, it is imperative that we understand that God created the church as a sign, foretaste and instrument by which more of his kingdom would be realized here on earth.

Church as Sign, Foretaste, and Instrument

Sign. The church is to be a sign of God’s coming kingdom, pointing people to a reality that is right around the corner. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” We are called to be lights that point others toward God, his Son and his future. So what kind of sign are we? What kind of sign do we want to become?

Foretaste. The church is called to be a foretaste of God’s kingdom, a place where people can get a taste of the future in the present. When the church is a foretaste, it demonstrates what life is like when men and women live under the rule and reign of God, when the people of God love one another, exhort one another, encourage one another, forgive one another and live in harmony with one another. In this way the church becomes a concrete, tangible, though not perfect, foretaste of the kingdom that is to come.

Instrument. Creating a missional culture requires not only understanding that the church is called to be a sign and foretaste of God’s kingdom, but also an instrument. When writing to the church in Ephesus the apostle Paul talks about how the church is God’s chosen instrument to show the manifold wisdom and grace of God to both the visible and invisible world. He says, “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph 3:10-11). We see throughout the letter to the Ephesians that the church is to be like a preview or movie trailer of what is to come. The church is an instrument through which God’s will for justice, peace and freedom is done in the world.

Creating a missional culture helps the church live out her calling to be a sign of the kingdom, pointing people to the reality beyond what we can see, a foretaste of the kingdom where we grow to love one another as Christ loves us, and an instrument in the hands of God to bring more of heaven to earth in concrete ways. For the church is to be a credible sign, foretaste and instrument, it needs to be a community rich with the fruit of the spirit.

The Problem

Yet in our most honest moments we recognize that we aren’t the kind of people that God wants us to be. We aren’t even the kind of people that we hope to be. To be honest, sometimes when I look at the worldwide and local church, including churches I have pastored, I think, God, this is just one big mess! And apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks this.

In March 2009 we received the results from the widest religious survey conducted in the United States, the ARIS (American Religious Identification Survey) study. There is much to gain from this report, which is based on over 54,000 interviews conducted from February to November 2008. This survey was a continuation of the ARIS surveys in 1990 and 2001, which are part of the landmark series by the Program of Public Affairs at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

The report indicates major shifts in the American landscape in the past eighteen years, including the fact that the percentage of people who call themselves some type of Christian has dropped more than 11 percent in a generation. One of the most widely cited results from this survey is the significant rise in the number of those who claim no religious identification or faith. This group has grown from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008. Ariela Keysar, the associate director of the study, says that the none’s (nonreligious) are the only group to have grown in every state of the union.

So why are more and more people in the United States no longer identifying themselves as Christians? What is turning people off to the church, or at least some forms of the church? And why is the digital generation the least involved?

While there is no simple answer to these questions, I want to suggest that at the heart of the matter is the lack of mature missional disciples, not just as individuals but as communities of God’s people. We need to be more like Jesus.

Neil Cole makes a good point when he says,

Ultimately, each church will be evaluated by only one thing—its disciples. Your church is only as good as her disciples. It does not matter how good your praise, preaching, programs or property are; if your disciples are passive, needy, consumeristic, and not [moving in the direction of radical obedience,] your church is not good.

Stanley Hauerwas says the same thing in another way, “[The most important social task of Christians] is nothing less than to be a community capable of forming people with virtues sufficient to witness to God’s truth in the world. . . . [T]he task of the Church . . . is to become a polity that has the character necessary to survive as a truthful society.”

So why do we lack mature disciples and mature communities of faith? One reason is that we fail to understand the hidden power of culture in life transformation.

Individualism saturates American culture to the point that we no longer notice it. Individualism tells us we can become more like Jesus by ourselves, through a self-help program or more effort. But the gospel tells us transformation happens as we embrace the work of the Spirit in our lives together. Becoming more like Jesus is not a matter of trying but yielding, setting the sails of our lives to catch the wind of the Spirit. It happens when we develop a communal rhythm of life—a collection of thick, bodily practices (liturgies) that engage our senses, grab our hearts, form our identities and reshape our desires toward God and his kingdom. As we collectively engage in grace-filled spiritual practices, we cultivate particular environments that help to create a missional culture, which in turn reshapes us. As coworkers with God, we create culture and culture reshapes us. Understanding the transformative power of culture is vital if we want to have mature communities of faith.

Phillip Kenneson, in his book Life on the Vine, gives a vivid picture of what it means to be a mature community of faith. Using the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians, he offers a picture of what Christ is seeking to do in and through us. A mature community cultivates a lifestyle of love in the midst of market-style exchanges: a lifestyle of joy in the midst of manufactured desire, peace in the midst of fragmentation, patience in the midst of productivity, kindness in the midst of self-sufficiency, goodness in the midst of self-help, faithfulness in the midst of impermanence, gentleness in the midst of aggression, and self-control in the midst of addiction.

The Power of Culture

In Theories of Culture, Kathryn Tanner makes this remarkable statement, Although less than one hundred years old, the modern anthropological meaning of “culture” now enjoys a remarkable influence within humanistic disciplines of the academy and within commonsense discussions of daily life. “In explanatory importance and in generality of application it is comparable to such categories as gravity in physics, disease in medicine, evolution in biology.”

In other words, the idea of “culture” shapes everything we do as humans, from our thoughts while alone to how we develop family systems, to our interactions at the workplace, to the ways a specific country does its politics.

Kenneson understands the power of culture in the development of character. Culture has particular narratives, institutions, rituals and ethics that shape us as people. The dominant culture seeks to squeeze us (the church) into its mold of market-style exchanges, manufactured desire, self-sufficiency and addiction. The apostle Paul puts it this way:

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. - Romans 12:2 (The Message)

Paul tells us that the dominant culture shapes who we become. According to cultural theory, culture is largely made up of artifacts, language, rituals, ethics, institutions and narratives. In other words, the language we live in, the artifacts that we use, the rituals we engage in, our approach to ethics, the institutions we are a part of and the narratives that we listen to have the power to shape our lives profoundly.

As we look at the culture around us, here are some questions to help us understand how we are being shaped:

• What is the guiding narrative of our host culture?

• Which institutions most shape our lives?

• What ethics are we developing in light of the stories and narratives that bombard us from every side?

• What rituals, practices and liturgies are we engaging in that shape our desires, our idea of the “good life” and the kind of people we are becoming?

If we take a quick look at American culture, we can see that an individualistic and consumer narrative shapes much of our culture and thereby socialized us. We are all socialized beings.

Socialization—the process of growing up within a culture—involves internalizing our culture’s way of seeing things. . . . The result is that we do not simply “see” life, but we see it in enculturated ways. . . . We are likely to feel good or not good about ourselves on the basis of how well we live up to the messages and standards of culture internalized within us.

Our narrative of growth and success includes the ability to purchase comfort, security and stability. We are socialized from a young age to believe that fulfillment comes through products. Research indicates that children can identify a brand as young as eighteen months, and youth influence about $600 billion of adult spending.

Some of our strongest institutions are chain stores. We create rituals around product consumption and hold closely to our brand-name artifacts.

If we hope to experience transformation, we need to develop a culture in the congregation that encourages people to live in the world for the sake of the world, without being of the world. Gerhard Lohfink, in Jesus and Community, makes a strong case that it has always been God’s intention to work through a visible, tangible concrete community that lives as a contrast society in the world for the sake of the world.

Tim Keller concurs when he says, “Christians are truly residents of the city, yet not seeking power over or the approval of the dominant culture. Rather, they show the world an alternative way of living and of being a human community.”

When we grasp the power of culture, it gives both perspective and fresh hope for transformation.

Leadership and Culture

Leaders of God’s people uniquely contribute to the cultivation of a culture distinct and different from the dominant culture. For it is the role of Spirit-filled leaders to create a missional culture within the congregation. If we hope to create a missional culture, we must understand the power of culture in shaping the life of the congregation, and learn the basic elements of culture.

In addition, we must examine our very approach to leadership. For an individualistic approach to leadership often leads to an individualistic approach to discipleship, while a shared approach to leadership often leads to a communal approach to discipleship with an appreciation of the life-shaping power of culture. To change the ethos of the church we also need to change our approach to leadership.

(Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from JR Woodward's new book Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World)

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JR Woodward is a church planter, activist, missiologist and author of Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World (IVP 2012).  He cofounded the Ecclesia Network where he serves as the Director of Leadership and Congregational Formation. He currently resides in Hollywood, California. Starting in 2013, he will be serving with Rhythm Church Miami, Florida as well as pursuing a PhD at the University of Manchester (UK).  You can find him blogging here.

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For more resources on authentically living out the mission of the gospel, check out Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson.

For more free articles on missional living, read The Neighborhood Mission Start Up by Seth McBee, Street Grace by Jake Chambers, and Living the Mission by Winfield Bevins.

3 Reasons I Moved to a Sermon Manuscript

  Jeff 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.jeffmedders.org and tweets from @jeffmedders.

*Editor's Note: This was #9 on our Top Posts of 2012.

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Preaching to God’s people is a massive honor. Glacial. Shepherding through the proclaimed word is one of my greatest joys and challenges. I am humbled that people at Redeemer Church actually come back — that anyone comes back.

I used to always enter the pulpit with outline in hand; but no longer. I now preach from a full manuscript — 2,500 words or so.

Why did I make the change? Three reasons.

1) Humility

It all began with a blog series by Josh Harris where he posted sermon notes/manuscripts from various preachers.

Some of the great preachers of our day use manuscripts. I had no idea. Mark Dever, Ray Ortlund, C.J. Mahaney, John Piper — all of them are manuscript guys. [click their names for samples]

It seemed that the preachers with thousands of miles on their tires, typically wrote a manuscript.

This left me scratching my head and thinking, “Why don’t I manuscript? These guys are heroes of mine. They must know something I don’t.”

I then noticed that the hyper-gifted pastors of our day and of old: Spurgeon, Driscoll, and Chandler — are outline guys. Again, I began to think, “I’m most definitely not at their level of gifting. Why in the world am I outlining?”

I came to the conclusion — I need a manuscript.

Outlining was I all knew. I didn’t know there was another reputable way. If am I honest, I sneered at the idea of a manuscript. It seemed like a crutch.

A crutch that I needed.

Here’s the deal, this may not be true of you, but it was of me, I was outlining because I subtly thought I might be as gifted as my heroes — but I was in the embryo stage. “Just give me time. Trust me.” Or maybe I knew I wasn’t as gifted, but hey — maybe I’ll turn out to be. Both are stinky.

I had to confess my pride and be “ok” with manuscripting. It didn’t mean I would be less of a preacher. Nor was it going to stifle the work of the Spirit. Rubbish. Have you been blessed by the preaching of Piper or Ortlund? Duh.

I was writing an outline from pride and avoiding a manuscript because of pride. Solution? Repent — and write a manuscript.

And boy — I’m glad I made the switch.

The first descent from the stage, after breaking the manuscript in, my wife leaned over and said, “Do that every week.”

Done deal.

And that leads to the second reason why I ditched the outline and stayed with a manuscript.

2) Sermons with Pop and Bite

This discipline — I assure you, it is a discipline! — improved my preaching.

Writing a manuscript allows me to play with sentences and words — days before I preach — not seconds, like an outline. Preparing a manuscript lets me retool and fortify sentences for their maximum human delivery. Manuscripting lets me work with fresh and new ways to say the same thing; as opposed to saying the same thing in the same way — over and over and over.

Outline preaching, from a shallow well of knowledge, will scrape for words in the preaching moment. And this can tend to many “umms” and “uhhhs”, or you’ll repeat yourself — often. But this can be lessened, nearly eliminated, with a manuscript.

Instead of trying to figure out how to say something in the moment, manuscripting enables me to think of many ways to say a phrase, point, or story, etc.

“Dog Story” in an outline, can turn into a powerful anecdote with exact language to weave throughout the sermon.

Preaching from an outline provides guides and cues; but I will wander from the path, chase something, and maybe wind up in trouble. Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt. No bueno.

A manuscript helps me know exactly where I am headed, how I’m getting there, and what I plan to say on the way there. All the verses I want to reference are there and won’t be forgotten. I’ll think of others while preaching, and I’ll quote those too.

The manuscript is your friend, not the Gestapo.

Writing a manuscript has improved my preaching — especially my desired time frame.

I’m not captivating enough — if at all — to hold a crowd for fifty minutes to an hour. Forty minutes is my goal. Thirty-five would be butter. Writing a manuscript provides a word count. And by trial and error, I know my ‘word count to sermon length’ ratio. 3,000 words is too long. For this reason alone, I’m sure Redeemer Church is grateful for the manuscript!

If you think that a manuscript will hurt your delivery; don’t let it. Pretty simple.

Be familiar with your manuscript. Read it multiple times. By the time to preach, I have probably read my sermon five times. I’ve labored in the writing, editing, formatting (bolding, highlighting, etc.), and preparing my Keynote slides. By Sunday, I know my manuscript pretty well.

Be so familiar with your manuscript that you could preach without it — but won’t.

3) Readily Transferable

I don’t know how many times someone has asked for my sermon notes and until I had a manuscript, with every reply I felt like a dunce.

“Well, I guess I could give them to you. Though they wouldn’t help you much — it’s just an outline.”

Wow. That’s helpful. *Facepalm*

But by having a manuscript I can provide a helpful resource. And now we are able to post my manuscript along side the sermon audio on our church website.

Say you get invited to preach somewhere on the book of Jonah. Hey — lookie there! — you already have sermons ready. You’ve already spent the hours in exegesis, reading, illustrating, and applying the text. You’re ready to rock-n’-roll.

So. . . What Are You Waiting For?

When I have a busy week, sure — I regret being committed to writing a manuscript — but I don’t regret it Sunday afternoon. I’m glad I made the switch.

What do you think? What do you use and why?

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Cross-posted from Jeff's personal blog.

To the Anxious Parent

Do you ever feel anxious as a parent? I do. I’ll be the first to raise my hand. I’ll raise both hands!

All kinds of things contribute to this anxiety. Our culture encourages us to work ourselves to death and work our children to death so we can be successful. But this drive to succeed and consume more and more stuff can make us spiritually sick inside. Some have called it “affluenza”.

We’re so focused on earning money and spending money, meeting deadlines and reaching goals, that we drive ourselves crazy.

Anxious Toil

God has a word for us anxious parents. Psalm 127:3 says, “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.”

Have you ever wondered why God made us in such a way that we have to sleep away a third of our lives? Isn’t that crazy? Think of how many hours we could be doing other things. Why did he make us that way? Why do we need sleep? Sleep is a gift from God. It reminds us that we are not God. God wants us to rest in him.

Rest in God

We are dependent little children. Isn’t that humbling? Our most important identity as parents is that we are children. We are children first and parents second. Let that sink in.

You are the Father's beloved child. And he is your gracious parent. He loves you, and because he loves you, he has given you the gift of sleep. He has given you rest. We need rest as parents, don’t we?

A couple weeks ago, my oldest daughter was having trouble sleeping. She was hot and needed to change into something cooler. Then she needed a drink of water. Then she needed to go to the bathroom. Then she needed me to tuck her in—again! I wanted to sit down and talk with my wife. I was done parenting for the day! But she kept whining and saying, “My blanket doesn’t feel right, and there’s birds chirping outside.” I finally yelled up at her, “It’s not going to be perfect until heaven! Get to sleep for crying out loud!” I reacted in anger because I wanted to rest. I deserved that, right?!

God knows what we need. He knows that we need sleep and rest to remind us that in the day-to-day struggles of parenting. He’s God, and we’re not. And he’s at work even as we sleep to parent us as we parent our kids. So, in times of anger, in times of anxiety, he’s helping us to depend on him as broken and beloved children.

Depend on God

We are dependent children. That’s our identity. Seems humbling, I know. But we’re just following after Jesus. Paul Miller, in his book, A Praying Life, says, “Jesus is without question the most dependent human being who ever lived” (p. 45).

We know that because he said things like, “I can do nothing on my own” (John 5:30). He depended on his Father and the Holy Spirit for everything. And he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed - even going away to desolate places to be alone with his Father in prayer.

As parents, Jesus calls us to follow his example and pray and come to him for rest. I love his invitation in Matthew 11:28: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Remember the Son

Jesus offers a different kind of rest. Rest in the finished work of Christ on our behalf. On the cross, Jesus, the perfect King, took our unrighteousness and gave us his perfect righteousness so that by faith we are his beloved children (2 Cor. 5:21).

That truth changes how we parent. When Christian parents build their lives on who they are in Christ – it changes everything. Instead of “eating the bread of anxious toil,” we can rest.

• We rest because we are declared to be right with God on the basis of Christ’s righteousness, not ours
• We rest because he has called us his holy and beloved children
• We rest because we are forgiven and he has covered our many failures and will remember our sins no more
• And we rest because He has accepted us and looks on us as perfect parents because of our bond with His perfect Son

Feel that. Rest in that. Stop eating the bread of anxious toil. You’re a child first and a parent second. Depend on him, meditate on Christ's work, and find real rest.

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Doug Wolter served for eight years as family pastor at LaGrange Baptist Church in Kentucky. He is now senior pastor at Oak Hill Baptist Church in Humboldt, Iowa. He has an amazing wife and three incredible kids who continue to humble him and fill him with joy.  He enjoys drinking coffee, reading, exercising, and blogging at life2getherblog.com.

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For more resources on gospel-centered family life, check out Winfield Bevin's A Beginner's Guide to Family Worship.

For more free articles on parenting, read: A Child's Gospel by Ben Connelly, Finding Christ in the Family Room by Luma Simms, and Becoming a Parent and Discipling Children by Jonathan Dodson.

Everyone Proselytizes

While we were in Manhattan, we saw two people proselytizing (proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ) using a megaphone in Union Square and another in the subway. They were both preaching the warnings of sin and the impending judgment. It was disappointing that Christ Himself appeared to be less exalted than the sins of man. At Union Square people were watching, listening, ignoring, but all looked completely uninterested. In the subway, people just walked on by as if it wasn’t happening. This is the typical image people have of evangelism, proselytizing the coming judgment of God on people for their sins and it’s typical because most street preachers focus on this. For most people who don’t believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, this seems ludicrous and most would rather he be silent and simply live out his faith, but I believe the reality is that everyone proselytizes about something, some cause, some event, some show, something.

Amber found this quote from C.S. Lewis that I think outlines perfectly what I’m trying to say:

But the most obvious fact about praise – whether of God or any thing – strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise-lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game-praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least . . .

I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise what ever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can’t help doing, about everything else we value.

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.

-C.S. Lewis

I’ve never met anyone that doesn’t proselytize, I think the question is now whether the thing you praise is truly worthy of infinite value? If you’re a Christian, you are proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the ultimate value of your life. Is that reflected in what you praise?

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Cross-posted from Gentrified.

Don't Waste Your College: An Essay on Adolescence

The American college experience occupies a vaunted place in the mind of many an adolescent.  College, overworked high schoolers assure themselves, will be a place of freedom, experimentation, video games, and goofing off.  And that’s just in class.

The system of delayed adulthood or prolonged adolescence or unmitigated disaster (choose whatever term suits your fancy) is by now a part of American culture.  It starts young.  Parents baby their children, allowing them to live luxe lives at home, chores and work and duress a thing of the bygone past.  They give them all kinds of gadgets and diversions to stave off their ever-shortening attention spans.  Kids are expected to be immature and silly.  This is true even in churches.  We don’t train them to sit through a worship service–perish the thought!–but rather entertain them during the most serious and needed hour in the week.  As a parent, you tolerate all sorts of backtalk and laziness and worldliness, which leads into high school, where it is assumed (stupidly) that children should hate their parents, work even harder than before to avoid responsibility, and learn from their equally immature and uninformed peers.  All this leads to the beulah land of college, where whatever surly bonds of constraint remain are slipped off in pursuit of hedonistic excess and childlike gratification.  As Diana West and others have essentially said, we are training our children to be, well, children.

All of which makes me grateful for Alex Chediak’s superlative Thriving at College: Make Great Friends, Keep Your Faith, and Get Ready for the Real World! (Tyndale, 2011).  Chediak is an Associate Professor of Engineering and Physics at California Baptist University, a school that in my experience turns out some great students.  He has written about courtship, and he has a great blog that you should check out.  Thriving at College is written to counter precisely the kind of culture I’ve just ranted about.  In my humble estimation, it succeeds on all counts.

There honestly is too much to cover here.  I told Alex in an email after receiving this book that if I had my druthers, I would buy 1,000 copies of this book and give them out to every college student or will-be college student I know.  That’s not endorsement bluster; I mean those words.  Alex emphasizes Christ-centered responsibility, hard work, and planning throughout.  He gives excellent spiritual advice for young students who have been trained in Christian homes and may meet with ideas counter to their faith.  He sets forth in compelling, compassionate prose the need for young men and women to pursue marriage, though not as an end in itself.

Here’s an excerpt on time management that shows Alex’s blend of wise biblical counsel and personal care:

For starters, your parents shouldn’t remind you when to study, sleep, wake up, read your Bible, exercise, or eat.  You’d be insulted if they did!  They can encourage you in these areas if necessary, but the actual implementation and balance is something young adults must own from day one of college.  Remember, whatever you don’t rule will rule you.  This is equally true for those still living at home, though in that case adult children need to be respectful of any household rules their parents deem appropriate (such as a curfew or a requirement to eat dinner with the family on occasion).  Parents’ house, parents’ rules. (124)

This is the kind of sane, wise advice that populates Thriving at College.  There’s loads of it in the book.  To help students avoid the vagaries of delayed adulthood–a state I’m proud to note that many of my Boyce College students are skipping–buy them this book and work through it with them.  That’s the funny thing about the text–in the end, it’s not really just about college.  It’s about a life of Christocentric virtue accomplished through attention to biblical wisdom.  Taking dominion for the glory of the Savior who took dominion of our lives–this, and not more wasted time and wimpy expectations, is what our youth need.

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Cross-posted from Owen's personal blog.

Encouraging Leadership

When it comes to leadership, I can be intimidating. At least, that's what people tell me. My engine runs at high RPMs, and I tend to be on the type A side of the personality spectrum. I approach most issues in a black-and-white fashion and pursue excellence. Most leaders exhibit similar characteristics. That's why we're drawn to leadership. People want to follow because you are confident, strong, and know what you want and how to get it. But these characteristics can ruin your people (and you) if you're not careful.

Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. - Prov. 16:24

Leaders can give you a list of ways you can improve. They know the areas that need adjustment, correction, or improvement. This is a necessary ability in leading anything well. They will not long tolerate the status quo, or the organization becomes stagnant, and we all know what happens to water when it remains stagnant. It starts to stink.

However, if this is true, how can we lead well without constantly harping on our people? Herein lies the power of encouragement.

The concept of withdrawals and deposits has been helpful for me when it comes to excellence in leadership. You will inevitably have tough conversations with those under your direction - you know, those conversations that start, "Hey Mike, can we chat about something?" You both know that you are about to take a relational withdrawal from him in the form of a suggestion for how Mike needs to grow, change, repent, or whatever. But, following the bank analogy, is there money in the bank from which to draw? Or is your relational/leadership check going to bounce?

Money is deposited into the leadership bank via encouragement. If there is no consistent deposit into the bank of Mike's life, he is going to burn out quickly, grow to hate you, or simply leave the relationship without warning.

Encouraging Leadership

There are three areas in my life that need my continual focus on encouragement: my wife, my kids, and the people under my care at The Vine. Recently, my wife and I have been talking about our oldest child and his need for constant correction. He is having a bit of a bad attitude about school, and it seems to be a persistent thorn in my wife's side as she homeschools. She feels like she has to be "on him" all the time.

We chatted about this concept of deposits and withdrawals and renewed our focus on making deposits of encouragement in our children. If all they hear is correction with no words of encouragement we run the danger of provoking them to anger (Eph. 6:4).

Think of people who have led you in the past. Who are those leaders you loved following? I would be willing to bet that for most of you, the leaders you most loved were those who excelled at encouraging you even as they challenged you to grow.

Now think of those people who have lead you in the past who you didn't exactly enjoy following. I would be willing to bet that those leaders were probably not strong in the encouragement department.

Growing as an Encourager

Obviously, this is a simple concept but quite difficult to master. To grow as an encourager, consider three actions points to implement in your rhythms of life and leadership:

• When you walk into a room with your spouse, your kids, or those under your care at church - really, any leadership setting - try and make a discipline out of speaking words of encouragement in short bursts of improvised blessing. Just make a habit out of it. Make the first thing that comes out of your mouth a simple word of encouragement.

• Many years ago at a conference, I remember Bill Hybels saying that every day when he came into the office he would start the day by writing out five hand-written notes of encouragement to five of the hundreds of people who were under his pastoral authority. This stuck with me for a reason. It's powerful.

• Have parties with your people. And when you do, make a habit of publicly blessing those under your care with words of life in the presence of all those gathered. This will set an amazing tone for the whole group and the person being recognized will be immensely blessed.

What other ways could you think of?

As a leader, withdrawals are going to be necessary. Are you making sure there is money in the bank? In what ways could you be a much more effective leader by pursing continual encouragement of the people under your care?

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up. - 1 Thess. 5:11

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Zach Nielsen is one of the pastors at The Vine Church in Madison, Wisconsin, where he serves in the areas of preaching, leadership development and music. He is a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa and Covenant Theological Seminary and blogs at Take Your Vitamin Z. Twitter: @znielsen

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For more resources on leadership, check out Tony Merida's eBook Proclaiming Jesus.

For more free articles on leadership, read: Spiritual Strength Training by David Murray, The Gospel Grid by Jeff Medders, and 5 Ways to Keep Church Discipline from Seeming Weird by Jared Wilson.

Superhero Films and Human Longing

I was nearly eight years of age when I rose early on a Saturday morning to watch the premiere of  Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. My Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fascination was coming to a close and I needed a new fix. The Red Ranger was the fearless leader, and my friends and I would argue over who would pretend to be him and who would get stuck as the nerdy Blue Ranger. (Of course, back in my day, we went outside to play!) On top of that, I loved superhero comics and television/film incarnations, especially those starring Batman. Let's not forget that Emmitt Smith was a superhero in his own right, seemingly invincible on the football field. I was a boy's boy, not much different than your average boy today. But is this superhero fixation merely a boyhood fantasy? Shouldn't we grow out of this?

The Transcendency of Superhero Worship

In the past decade, superhero worship has been revived largely due to the plethora of films starring such characters as Batman, Superman, The Avengers and related characters, and Spider-Man. Since Spider-Man dominated the box office in 2002, superhero movies have amassed double-digit billions in ticket sales. Most recently, The Avengers and Dark Knight Rises have combined to gross $1 billion in just three months and are not near finished. These crowds have not consisted of only forty-something comic book junkies and young children. These spandex-clad giants of the big screen have transcended gender, age, race, religion, and socioeconomic status. At the midnight showing of Dark Knight Rises, I saw a black man wearing a Batman costume and a high school girl dressed as Joker. I witnessed a family including children and elderly saving seats for the corporate affair. There we were, all over the map demographically, begging Bruce Wayne to convince us how "anyone can be Batman."

Beyond the action, comedy, and cinematic wonderment exists a much more telling indictment of the human condition. There is a reason that the intrigue of superhuman ability surpasses all demographic boundaries.

The fantasy world of superheroes acts as a window to the soul. Mankind, made in the image of God and given the keys to creation, has not scratched the surface of its original design. Even at our highest, we will always crash into the ceiling of reality in a broken world. We claw and scratch for that which we cannot be. We make idols out of anything that brings us self-worth or offers a glimpse into an otherworldly opportunity for perfection and unyielding power. We intrinsically know that we are feeble, unable to repair the most base-level fractures in life. Should we be surprised that the first appearance of Superman was during the Great Depression?

What Shall We Say Then?

The skeptic may argue that Christians exalting Jesus is no different than any other infatuation with the uncanny. It is certainly true that the person and work of Christ is an appealing story to fallen mankind. Not only did he do the impossible in so many ways, but he presents us with an opportunity to join him in glorification. He offers hope beyond the depravity of the world around us. Indeed, Tim Keller might say that Christ is the true and better superhero. However, beyond archaeological and scientific apologetics that can be used as foundational proof for belief in Christ (as they justifiably should be), we must believe in our hearts and confess with our lips that God did in fact write a much more exceptional storyline than Christopher Nolan could ever conjure up in all his worldly genius. Faith takes us beyond the delusion. In light of this, we must exhibit this habitually in the fruit of our character and on the mission field of life.

Let's be clear, watching and enjoying superhero films is not wrong or sinful; what is wrong and sinful is believing that you can accomplish any feat that matters for eternity apart from Christ. You see, where superheroes fail is that they all have weaknesses and baggage that they carry along with them into any mission. The people of God, on the other hand, carry with them the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. With God, not only can "anyone be Batman" - anyone can make Batman look like a schoolgirl. Christians have the ability to accomplish that which no man can do on their own. Christ has conquered sin and death, the greatest foes that have or will ever exist. Through him we have the opportunity - the obligation - to be his ambassadors to this world; to bring restoration.

As Christians engage the world, we must understand the fundamental contamination that exists. The human heart will quickly incline toward Superman's ability to fly or Batman and Iron Man's fortune-funded gadgets. Beyond the screen, Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and offers real escape from death and the limitations of our battered minds and bodies. May we leave behind all apparitions of potential completeness and hook ourselves to the anchor of our souls, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And above all, may we share this truth with a society clamoring for a world outside of themselves.

Laying Foundations for Spiritual Growth

When my two sons were young we went to Atlanta for the groundbreaking of one of the more famous skyscrapers. We had been reading about the project for months in the local papers and were excited to watch the construction of the “tallest building in the South”. As we arrived on the scene, the bulldozers were already clearing the site, but there was a viewing area for spectators with an architectural rendering of the completed structure emblazoned on the side of the construction fencing. “Wow!” my oldest exclaimed, “It’s humongous!” And indeed it was, soaring nearly seventy stories above Peachtree Street, it certainly promised to be a focal point of the city skyline. We faithfully trekked to the site and watched trucks haul away dirt and debris while other trucks delivered steel girders and other building materials. After several weeks of this vigil, one of the boys exclaimed in frustration, “Dad, when are they going to start working on the building?” (It was a question that I had pondered myself, because all that existed was a large hole and lots of mud.) Approaching a worker with a set of plans under his arm, I inquired, “Can you give us some idea when the building is going to begin?” His chuckle made it obvious the question had come up before. “It’s hard to believe it,” he said, “but this hole is the most important part of the building. We have to dig down several hundred feet and build a solid foundation to support a structure that’s over seventy stories tall. It will take several months to pour the concrete and sink the steel pillars, but then we’ll start going up. Once we start, it will rise pretty fast!”

The Bible compares living the Christian life with constructing a building. Just as there are phases in building a building, there are phases in the growth of a Christian, and the first phase is: “laying a foundation.” Our initial salvation experience is the beginning of a process of growth that lasts a lifetime. The success of our spiritual growth is determined by the strength of our spiritual foundation. Matthew 7: 24-27 asserts that the Christian life built on a solid foundation will withstand the storms of life. The tallest building in the South is still standing today. Believers who lay solid foundations are more likely to stand tall than those who fail to establish a solid base for growth. This foundations phase actually consists of four interconnecting parts:

1. relating to God,
2. relating to other Christians,
3. understanding truth, and
4. applying truth so that it transforms us.

Let’s explore these together!

Relating to God

Unlike other religions, the essence of Christianity is a relationship with God, not a set of rules. In John 17: 3 the Scripture affirms that eternal life is all about knowing God. It is thrilling to remember that God desires a relationship with us that will never end. The great news is that believers don’t have to wait for heaven to experience this. It begins the moment we accept Christ!

Having a relationship with God is not all that different from having a relationship with anyone else. As we relate to others, we get to know them better and the relationship deepens over time. There are specific situations that will help believers better experience a relationship with God. The first of these involves setting aside time for personal devotions, a quiet time each day devoted to prayer, Bible reading, and personal meditation. The Scripture promises in James 4: 8 that as we “come near to God, he will come near to us”. This “coming near to God” is not a religious duty, but a time for relational development. Of course just as good disciplines and habits can be beneficial in other areas of life, the more we remain faithfully committed to our quiet time, the more benefit we derive from it.

Another aspect of developing a relationship with God is attending public worship in a church that exalts him. Although we can worship God any place, any time, worshipping with other Christians deepens and develops our ability to relate to God. There are many different public worship experiences and not all churches structure them in the same way.

Worship that focuses on the greatness of God and includes times of singing praise, prayerful meditation, and Biblical preaching should be a priority. Ask God to help you find a church in your community and become a part of the fellowship. This leads to another important part of laying a good foundation: relating to other Christians.

Relating to Other Christians

God has placed us in his spiritual family, the Church, to encourage us, protect us, correct us, direct us, and provide for us. Again there are specific situations that help believers experience relationships with other Christians. Each of these plays a unique role in helping to form a spiritual foundation and each will require some effort. But they all are incredibly beneficial. Christians who do not have connections with other Christians tend to stop growing. (cf. Hebrews 10: 24-25)

In the first century there were very few church buildings. Mostly the believers met together in private homes for Bible teaching, prayer, and fellowship. There are benefits to meeting with large groups in public worship, but there is also an advantage gained from being part of a small group. The intimacy of the setting provides a place for relationships to flourish. Many modern believers have learned that meeting together in small groups helps to forge close relationships as members discuss Scripture, pray for each other, and share personal matters.

The term “mentoring” was coined by the modern business community to describe a relationship where a seasoned executive tutors a younger colleague in commercial practices. But long before mentoring was introduced to the world of commerce, it had already existed in the spiritual community as “one-to-one discipleship”.

In this case it describes an intentional relationship between a young believer and a more mature Christian who models the Christian life, answers questions, gives counsel, and helps the younger Christian stay focused on the priorities of spiritual growth.

Understanding Truth

One important priority for growth (and the third part of laying good foundations) involves developing an increasing understanding of God’s truth. The Bible is the Book of Truth for Christians, but it can appear overwhelming to a new learner. It was Jesus who proclaimed that knowing truth sets people free from the bondage of sin. Therefore, it is helpful to have a basic plan of study for learning the truths that we need to build upon, a plan that focuses on specific themes and principles of foundational development. A good beginning series of studies for young believers should include the themes mentioned earlier: truth that helps someone to know more about God, truth that helps people understand other people, and truth that helps someone to grow spiritually.

There are specific approaches to gaining an understanding of these foundational truths. The first is a curriculum of systematic instruction. This is the first of a series of “Pocket Principles” that are designed specifically for helping new believers lay solid spiritual foundations. If you received this “Pocket Principle” from a mentor or small group leader, continue to work closely with that person to discover and apply the other truths in this series.

Another way of gaining insights into living the Christian life is by reading. There are many excellent materials and resources available in Christian bookstores, libraries, and on the Internet. Your own informal reading will supplement your spiritual growth. But be sure to focus on the foundational themes mentioned above as a starting point.

Your local church is also an excellent source of content. Besides the weekly sermon delivered by the pastor or other teacher, many churches offer small groups devoted to helping new believers get established in the faith. Consult the churches in your area for opportunities to learn foundational truths.

Applying Truth

But as important as truth is in the growth process, it is not the information alone that transforms us. In fact other parts of Scripture warn us that knowledge by itself can be dangerous, leading to spiritual pride and the deadening of our hearts to God. This particular sin characterized the Pharisees who were enemies of Christ. It is only truth that is obeyed or applied to our lives that changes us and causes growth. Romans 12: 2 reminds us that it is a life consecrated to obeying God that is impacted by truth. When our minds are transformed in this way we help establish the will of God on earth. This is more than just knowing the truth, it is actually doing truth.

A skyscraper is an engineering marvel, but soaring high means digging deep and laying solid foundations. A maxim of the Christian life asserts that “you can only grow as tall as you grow deep”. Laying good foundations takes time and effort, but the benefits are worth it. The new believer needs to embrace experientially the truths related to knowing and understanding God and other believers.

The Foundations of Spiritual Growth

Applying truth will require becoming involved in specific situations that facilitate foundational growth. Establishing a time for personal devotions, joining a small group, locating an older believer who can come alongside you as an encouraging mentor, setting up a systematic plan of study , and participating in public worship are layers of spiritual brick and mortar that form this foundation. But these situations without a heart commitment to obey the truth will not suffice. Blessings to you as you grow!

• So where are you laying foundations?
• Where do you find is the best place to find a mentor?
• Have you made time for studying God’s word?
• What are some of the things you have done to help lay foundations for growing in your faith as a Christian?

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Robert D. (Bob) Dukes is the President and Executive Director of Worldwide Discipleship Association (WDA*) headquartered in Fayetteville, Georgia. He is the author/co-author of many educational publications and articles including: A Biblical Framework for Disciple Building; A Practical Strategy for Disciple Building; Disciple Building for Small Groups; and Disciple Building for Life Coaches.  He serves as a founding member of The Steering Committee for The Pierce Center for Disciple Building at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston, MA.

WDA is an international training organization specializing in Christian discipleship. WDA establishes interdenominational training centers on university campuses, seminaries, and in communities around the world, and forges partnerships with other Christian organizations. WDA staff and associates equip current and emerging generations of leaders, and offer seminars and training resources to help local churches develop progressive discipleship strategies.

Editor's Note: This article is reposted with permission from WDA's Laying Foundations. This is the first Pocket Principle in the Knowing God Series. For more resources on digging deeper into a creative & restorative relationship with God through the gospel of Christ, check out Grow: Reproducing Through Organic Discipleship by Winfield Bevins. For more free articles of applying the gospel to your everyday life, read: Making Disciples is Not Just for Super Christians by Nathan Creitz, Meditating on God's Word - Memorization by Tony Merida, & Discipling the Disillusioned by Andrew Byers.

What a Cuban Refugee Taught Me About Christ

Juan Baldor, a Spanish professor at Dallas Baptist University, came to America with his parents and brother at the age of 11. Fidel Castro had risen to power in Cuba not long before, promising freedom from oppression and equality for all. Baldor went with his father to Castro's rallies, he collected Cuban revolutionary cards like American kids collected baseball cards, and his family thanked God that dictatorship in Cuba was gone. It did not take long for the Baldor family to learn that Castro was full of lies and was beginning a regime that would rob his countrymen of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

With a sack full of belongings, a change of clothes, and empty pockets, the Baldor family came to America, just months before the fiasco of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Free to pursue his dreams once again, Baldor's father landed a position mowing highway medians with the City of Dallas and eventually climbed the ladder to head of one of the city departments. It was a modest wage, but for the senior Baldor this rise to leadership represented all of the reasons why his family left everything they owned back in Cuba. The Baldor's were free.

I spent nearly two and a half hours listening to and speaking with Professor Baldor about Cuba, politics, and the true price of freedom. My patriotism was bolstered as I contemplated my own freedoms that I take for granted so effortlessly. More importantly, though, Professor Baldor stirred in my soul a deep appreciation for Jesus.

"If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:32).

True Freedom

For all the ways that Christianity is belittled and mocked in our country, we are still free to assemble, to promote, and to believe openly in Christ. We are truly blessed to have such liberty. Make no mistake, even if all of these freedoms were ripped away from America in an instant, we would still have the beautiful, ultimate, eternal privilege of knowing and being known by the Creator of the Universe.

Satan packages sin as freedom, convincing people that there is something to be gained. Much like a lying politician seeking to deceive the masses, we are fed that holy living is bondage. These false freedoms are veiled slavery that robs human beings of the privilege of seeking real truth.

Countries rise and fall, as do their leaders, but our Triune God reigns and rules forever. Life in Christ, this new creation, is the only real hope that we will ever have. Professor Baldor put it this way: "When you lose ambition, something to hope for and work toward, you lose a part of your soul." Our souls are lost without Christ, headed for certain destruction as we trade God's presence for a bite of temptuous fruit. As the Baldor's tasted life when they stepped on American soil, they were experiencing only a shadow of the true freedom that comes from Christ himself. The misery of slavery to sin is much more powerful and poignant than anything Castro, Hitler, Stalin, or any other evil human being can extend.

May we thank God not only for political deliverance, but even more so for the great mercy and grace that he pours out upon his adopted sons and daughters.