The Church Planting Wife: A Book for Every Man's Wife

I recently read Dangerous Calling by Paul Tripp, where he pulls back the curtain on pastoral ministry. In his book, he confronts the notion that pastors have their lives perfectly put together, never fail, and have different needs from every other Christian. Many books have been written for church planters and for pastors, but few have been so directly applicable to the hearts and lifestyle of pastors. What Dangerous Calling is to pastors, The Church Planting Wife is to every pastor or church planter’s wife.

It is a breath of fresh air, reviving the soul with truth while sympathizing with the challenges that church planter’s wives face, but rarely feel the freedom to discuss. It is written to the woman who has the difficult task of ministering to the man who ministers to everyone else.

Christine Hoover is married to Kyle Hoover and in 2008 they moved to Charlottesville, Virginia to start a new church to bless the people of Charlottesville and the students at the University of Virginia. Her new book is candid, transparent, and direct in teaching to church planter’s wives about the joys and struggles, trials and triumphs of church planting. It combines storytelling, teaching, and counseling to care for the heart and life of the church planter’s wife.

The book begins with her recounting the difficulties of the first year and how they brought her to question God’s plan as they lost their meeting place one year into their efforts. While every person in ministry I know has come to this crossroads, Christine highlights God’s purposes so well as she unpacks God’s work in her life.

“God allowed the difficulty of church planting to sift me, to bring the issues of my heart to the surface. I realized that if I didn’t address these things, my marriage, my family, and my own heart were in danger. God was refining me, cleaning me out, and teaching me dependence rather than self-reliance. I could continue my attempts at controlling and relying on myself, or I could submit myself in dependence on Him…I chose to trust Him with my heart and let Him do – through church planting – the work He needed to do in me.” The Church Planting Wife, p. 19-20

Christine goes on to expose her heart and the lessons she has learned along the way. From wrestling with the role of the church planter’s wife as she hears God remind her “Follow Me. Serve your family. Love people.” to dealing with the sacrifices every church planter and pastor’s family face along the way.

She takes us along her journey to understand friendships in this new world of church planting, how she has learned to stay encouraged amidst discouragement and criticism, and provides practical wisdom connected with powerful truth to guide wives through their own challenges.

Impactful for Any Believer

I found myself incredibly encouraged and challenged simply by being reminded to be dependent on God, trusting Him, and letting faithfulness be my banner of success. This book is refreshing for any believer, but certainly powerful for every church planter’s wife. I would also recommend it to any pastor and his wife as well. The insights are spot on for what every pastor and his wife that I know have and are facing.

She includes interviews from other church planter’s wives, such as Lauren Chandler, Yvette Mason, Ginger Vassar, and Jennifer Carter. Women, who like her, have learned through joy and challenge the blessings of dependence on God in church planting.

A Book for Every Man’s Wife

As I read this book and heard Christine describe all she has learned while supporting her husband and family in church planting, I couldn’t help but see it as beneficial for every man’s wife. Church leadership and church planting have a unique way of reminding those involved that they are on God’s mission, but the call for every Christian is no different, we just don’t always see ourselves as sent by God to that new job in a new location.

I’ve seen many wives follow their husbands to new cities and new careers face some of the same struggles and challenges, and they would all benefit from Christine’s wisdom as she learned to trust God, support her husband, care for her family, and love her neighbors.

I’ve known the Hoovers for over a decade, they did our premarital counseling, and Kyle officiated my wedding. It is no surprise to me to see their faithfulness to God being used to start a church that loves people and serves their city well. It is also no surprise to see such a fantastic book filled with truth, grace, and wisdom be written and published to bless God’s church.

***You can buy it on Amazon here: The Church Planting Wife. You can also read more from Christine Hoover on her blog, gracecoversme.com.

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Cross-posted from Gentrified.

The 50/50 Divorce Rate and the Christian Example

Note: I spoke about this post (originally at For Christ and Culture) with Dr. Barry Creamer on 90.9 KCBI in Dallas. Listen HERE. ___

It has long been stated that 50% of marriages in America lead to divorce. If you ask most Americans how many marriages they believe end in divorce, they would probably point to this number. I’ve heard it all my life and it shaped my views on marriage early in life. When my parents divorced in my mid-teens, I remember thinking, “If two people don’t get along, divorce is a normal outcome. It makes sense.” In fact, I was pro-divorce in the case of my parents. As I grew older and learned much more about the biblical truths regarding marriage, I still never really doubted the statistic and have even quoted it in sermons and conversations more than once.

Encouraging Statistics?

Recently, Dr. Kalman Heller posited that his studies shed a more accurate light on divorce rates in America. He notes that various demographics apply and using specifically broad numbers is mostly unhelpful, but I do like the generalization that he is willing to make:

Rather than viewing marriage as a 50-50 shot in the dark, it can be viewed as having a 70 percent likelihood of succeeding.

Again, throwing around a 70% success rate does not do justice to the raw numbers, but what if marriage in America is not lost? Dr. Heller interestingly points out that divorce rates in first marriages particularly have overall decreased since the ‘70s. This is encouraging and should spur us on toward resiliency in support of marriage rather than lamenting at the seeming decline of lasting covenants.

(By the way, Kirk Spencer did a fine job addressing this topic last summer with more detailed statistics and Ed Stetzer has some helpful thoughts here.)

Christian: Play Your Part

There has been a significant amount of discussion, and dare I say venom, in evangelicalism regarding laws endorsing homosexual partnership and a diversion from traditional marriage. Indeed, the Bible is entirely clear on God’s one woman/one man design for marriage. However, where Christians often lack proper gumption is promoting the beauty of God’s intention.

In today’s culture, marriage is defined several different ways with many people not possessing a solid stance on what the marriage relationship should objectively be. Christians have the unique advantage and calling to shed light on the truth of marriage. God joyfully placed man and woman together (Gen. 2:20-25) and gave them specific roles that mirror Christ and the Church (Eph. 5:22-32). These two texts alone give us great confidence in our own marriages and counseling others’ marriages.

In a confused culture, here are two very basic ways that we can play our part in an attempt to improve the statistics and to present a commendable view of marriage:

1. Be a biblical example – Scripture has much to say about man and wife complementing one another, serving one another, praying for one another, and being faithful to one another (Eph. 5:22-32; 1 Pet. 3:1-7; Titus 2:1-6; Col. 3:18-19). We should honor God in word and deed via our marriages so that others (children, family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, church members) might see what marriage is supposed to be.
2. Refrain from hate speech – There is always a time and place to stand on biblical truth, but Christians have a tendency to let their passion for marriage paint a false picture of grace and mercy. We should certainly spend much more time demonstrating true marriage than railing against homosexuals, teen moms, and others who do not fit the conservative Christian checklist for marriage. It might be more helpful to love others with patience as God does with us (Rom. 2:4) and show them truth in your own marriage and life.

The Un-American Church: Discipleship Community

Alan Wolfe, though not a Christian, is an astute social critic of “American Christianity.” In his insightful 2003 book The Transformation of American Religion, he notes that, far from being a socially transformative movement, “American Christianity” has far too often been the one transformed by American culture:

In every aspect of the religious life, American faith has met American culture – and American culture has triumphed. Whether or not the faithful ever were a people apart, they are so no longer. - Alan Wolfe, The Transformation of American Religion.

One of the areas where we see “Americanism” infecting Christianity is individualism. We Americans love to believe in the rugged individual who never needs anyone else. This notion has infiltrated American Christianity so that we primarily think of our faith in “personal” terms. We think of our “personal relationship” with Jesus and our private “spiritual walk”. We often attend Christian events with lots of other Christians, but we’re not necessarily involved in anyone’s life to the degree that the skeletons are not only out of the closet but in the living room. We can attend a worship service with thousands of other people, yet live out the bulk of our faith isolated--just us and our bibles.

We Exist for More

We forget that not even the Lone Ranger was alone and that individualism does not seem to match the expectation God gives his people in the scriptures. God shows us that love, demonstrated in and through sacrificial, gospel-fueled community is the center of missional discipleship. God expects his people to live and grow in community. Joseph Hellerman argues in his book When The Church Was A Family:

Spiritual formation occurs primarily in the context of community. People who remain connected with their brothers and sisters in the local church almost invariably grow in self-understanding, and they mature in their ability to relate in healthy ways to God and to their fellow human beings. This is especially the case for those courageous Christians who stick it out through the often messy process of interpersonal discord and conflict resolution. Long-term interpersonal relationships are the crucible of genuine progress in the Christian life. People who stay also grow. People who leave do not grow.

It is a simple but profound biblical reality that we both grow and thrive together or we do not grow much at all.

We exist to reflect the image of God, who himself dwells eternally in community. This is why God can shockingly say: “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). God was not saying that he was not enough for Adam, but that Adam was created to exist not only in relationship with God (vertically) but also in relationship with others like him (horizontally). Adam was created for relationship and for community because God exists in community. Though God saves us as individuals, He saves us into community. Many of the admonitions of the New Testament seem to assume that community is the primary context in which the Christian life is to be lived. Consider Paul’s admonitions from Romans 12:

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. - Romans 12:9-13

Continue reading just a few verses later:

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. - Romans 12:16-18

Reputation of the Un-American Church

Love is the summary of the Law--what God expects of us (Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:28-34; Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:14, etc.). It is not, Jesus says, by our political affiliation, not by the movies we boycott, not by the “family-friendly” music we listen to, nor by the “faith-based soccer league” in which our children play that the world will know that we belong to him. It is our love for one another. That’s how people will know that we belong to Jesus (John 13:35). In other words, as we live in community we are also on display. Joyful, humble, self-sacrificial love for one another overflows toward and invites in friends, family, neighbors and cities. This love of the community on display shines like light in the darkness and as we spur one another on to maturity we also invite others to come along.

Jesus tells his followers that they are a “city on a hill”  that cannot be hidden (Matthew 5:14). Imagine traveling through the desert for days. You’re nearly out of water and your sunbaked skin is beginning to ache. You ran out of food this morning, now it’s already dark and the heat gives way to the biting chill of the night breeze. Then, you see lights, city lights, on a hill! Your step quickens as you begin to get closer and as excitement, anticipation and relief well-up inside you. You can’t wait to be there. Rest. Refreshment. Company.

I wonder if our neighborhoods think of our church families or even our individual families this way? The New Testament assumes that: Love, demonstrated in and through sacrificial, gospel-fueled community is the center of missional discipleship. By “missional discipleship,” I simply mean that “discipleship” is the entire trajectory of the Christian life, including coming to faith. It does not begin “at salvation,” nor does it end at some point of spiritual maturity. “Discipleship” should be understood in terms of “mission” because we exist to make, mature and multiply disciples. The very nature of “discipleship” is always striving to bring people closer to Jesus, no matter where they might be at on the spectrum. Discipleship is joining in the missio dei, the mission of God.

One of the reasons so much of modern church community is not missional discipleship is because, in practice, we require people to “believe” certain things before they can “belong” to our community. We use belief to exclude people from community. They, the outsiders, must cross these church-made cultural or doctrinal barriers to be part of us, the insiders. Sometimes this might be as well-intentioned as wanting someone to declare publicly their saving faith in Jesus, but oftentimes, it is over our unique approach to particular doctrines and practices. After all, isn’t the point of most church membership classes to make sure you believe like we do so you can really belong.  While we use belief to exclude people from community, Jesus did the opposite. He used community to bring people to belief. Remember, this is why the religious leaders were so upset with Jesus: he ate with sinners and tax collectors. It wasn’t just cleanliness issues of the Old Testament law, though that was certainly part of it. Jesus was opening God’s community, allowing people to belong, in order to bring them to faith in himself. I am not saying we should do away with theological distinctives. Instead, I am saying that we should use community to bring people to belief rather than use belief to exclude people from community.

As my own church family looks ahead to the coming year, we are looking for more ways to involve those who don’t yet believe in our community life. This requires intentionality and may force some people to re-examine their own boundaries. I am reminded of our experience with “Tim” (not his real name, just for his privacy). Tim is a phenomenal drummer who was dating a girl in our church family. We slowly began to involve him in community life by engaging him in something he loves; we asked if he would drum for our gathered worship. Initially, we just asked for once a month, then twice a month, and then he became our primary drummer. Though this made some people uncomfortable (how can we have a non-Christian lead our worship music?!), Tim seemed to enjoy drumming with the band and gradually began paying more attention during the teaching time. As he began to develop relationships, he and his girlfriend got plugged in to a missional community and he began asking lots of questions. We were able to baptize Tim as a follower of Jesus last year. We are now humbled to truly call Tim family, even as he’s been living in our community for several years.

Church discipline struggles in individual-centric church, too. Church discipline has so little sting in the life of an unrepentant sinners because the original bite of church discipline was the exclusion from community. You could no longer be with people who loved you like family. The people who loved you regardless of where you came from and who loved you so much that wouldn’t let you keep on sinning. However, so many of our churches have so little community that we’ve lost almost all the intended impact of church discipline. Individuality robs us of the treasures (both comfortable and uncomfortable) of community.

Joseph Hellerman argues: “Spiritual formation occurs primarily in the context of community.” We need each other in order to be transformed. And it is as we learn to accept being wronged instead of insisting on our own rights (1 Corinthians 6:7), when we learn the humble confidence of considering others more important than ourselves (Philippians 2:3), when we learn to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:1-5), and as we strive to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3) in front of and with those who don’t yet believe that we live as a city on a hill, as we “shine like lights in the world” in the midst of a “crooked and twisted generation (Philippians 2:15). Love, demonstrated in and through sacrificial, gospel-fueled community is the center of missional discipleship.

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Brent Thomas (MDiv) and his wife Kristi live in Glendale, AZ with four biological sons and one foster child. Brent pastored in KY and TX before moving back to AZ to plant Church of the Cross which exists to make, mature, and multiply disciples through gospel, community, and mission. He sometimes writes at Holiday At The Sea and hosts house shows with The Habañero Collective.

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Read Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson

Read free articles: Gospel Community and Being Ministers of Reconciliation. 

Planting Churches vs. Planting Services

Josh Cousineau is church planter of Redemption Hill, located in Auburn, Maine, and core team member of the Gospel Alliance New England. He enjoys spending time with his high school sweetheart – now his bride since 2002 – and their four children. Josh blogs at JoshCousineau.com.  

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As a church planter over the last year, I have been blessed to interact with many different guys who are planting churches. They come from many different denominations and networks, with just about as many different styles of church that they are seeking to do. I have noticed that as I have talked to these planters and guys who are future planters, many of them are not planting churches as much as they are planting services. I know that may not sound like much of a difference, but trust me there is a big one. However, what we have done with Redemption Hill is attempt to plant a church which will have a service; but the service is not the end goal, the church is.

Planting a Service

Most people I know that are church planters actually end up planting a service. What I mean by this is that they spend their time, energy, effort, and money on the starting of a weekly meeting of some sort. This is usually called “church” and it happens on Sundays. There is music, offering, and a message, to name a few things. Once they have planted their service, they then gauge the success or failure of their plant based on the attendance to this service, how much people gave, how many people come back each week, etc. This has been the common plan on planting churches throughout the United States (and beyond). For example, I have talked to organizations that have “practice services” or “preview services” for people to come and get a taste of what church will be like. If the service is not the end goal, then why are they giving a taste of the church by showing them a Sunday service? The reason is that we have boiled down church to an hour and a half meeting, once a week.

Now I am not opposed to having a Sunday service. We started Redemption Hill with a core group meeting in August of 2011, and then we developed two missional communities that met weekly for a meal and discussion from August to January. When January came, we started gathering weekly as a church family on Sundays. We had music, a message, kids ministry, offering – all the things that you would expect to find in a ‘church.’ However, when we started this Sunday time of worship, it was without much fanfare. No press release, no promotional effort whatsoever. Actually, if you wanted to learn when and where we gathered, you would have to know someone who went and ask them. We didn't even put it on our website or Facebook page.

The reason was that we were seeking to plant a church, not a service. There is a difference. Our goal was to spend time pouring into the church (which we define as the people who are part of Redemption Hill and the global church). We wanted to help them better understand the Gospel, what it looked like to live in community as part of the family of God, and how these two things lead to us living on mission for those who knew Jesus. We were planting the church and preparing them to be the church, not just simply encouraging them to attend church. We were cultivating a heart and passion for disciples who make disciples.

Planting a Church

Planting a church will include a service that meets on Sundays (or maybe Saturdays, or who knows, maybe a Monday afternoon… okay most likely not Monday) to gather, to celebrate, and to worship Jesus – but that is not the main focus of it. Planting a church is not gauged by how many people attend the launch service or your special Easter service, nor is it a failure if you don't have explosive growth on Sunday. Why? Because the goal is not to make a great service with amazing music that draws hundreds of people to hear your amazing oratory skills; the goal is people who are built up as disciples who actually make disciples rather than just attend a killer service. Let me explain.

When one plants a church, they are actually working with the end in sight, meaning that they have a view of what the church should look like. They are working towards the future and growing people and building the team to help them facilitate that goal. When one properly understands ‘church,’ they will see that it is the people that are the church. So building a church means helping the people to see this truth and live in light of this truth. It means that the pastors’ time, energy, and effort should be poured into the people who are the church, not simply the service which is a part of the church life. Even though those who plant a service have the best of intentions, they are in essence putting all their eggs in one basket. What has happened is that they have attempted to accomplish everything a church should be in one swoop on Sunday and have failed. We likely do not have churches that are overflowing with elder qualified men and we don't have men and women who are disciples who are making disciples. One of the main reasons is because the time has been invested wrongly. It is possible to plant a service and have some people who will fulfill these things, but let’s be honest about how much time, energy, and effort it is to have a killer service with lights, projectors, fog machines, etc. Our time is often put into these tings, not the life-on-life training that comes when your focus is on the church and not the service.

I want to reiterate that there is nothing wrong with having a service, focusing on the service, or even investing time, money, and energy into it. We spend (limited) time each week working on the flow, the message, the music, and all the other elements of our Sunday gathering. But I think we miss the point if this is the main focus of church planters.

Measure Your Efforts

I am extremely grateful for the renewed passion and the many young men who are being called to plant churches throughout the world. I am excited for what is happening in networks like A29, SBC, E-Free, and others. But if a church plant is simply defined by setting a date for an event, inviting a bunch of people to that event and calling it ‘church,’ we have missed the point. This is not what Jesus called us to do. He called us to make disciples who make disciples (Matt. 28.19-20). If we measure success when or if people show up, and failure if people don't, we are in grave danger. The church is not an event, it is a called out people – a people that Jesus died for. As church planters we should be willing to invest the time into the people rather than the service.

My hope is not that you would cancel your Sunday service and go all ‘super-organic’ and neglect the gathering of the saints for simply hanging out with people as you drink beer and coffee and then call it church. No, my hope is that you would take a real honest look at your investment as a church planter. Measure the time you spend each week, the way your budget is broken down, and where the people’s time is being invested and ask: Have I planted a church or a service?

How to Avoid Brain Meltdown & Increase Theological Vision

This past year I’ve learned a lot about leadership. One lesson can be summarized as follows: “Don’t plant more tomato plants than you can carry water to.” As an apostolic leader, I tend to start new ministries. Over the past five years, I’ve helped start five—too many tomato plants. Fortunately, God graciously brought capable men alongside me to help water these gospel works. I can’t imagine the fruitfulness of GospelCenteredDiscipleship.com without Ben Roberts (Managing Editor for eBooks) and Brad Watson (GCD Executive Editor). The ministry just wouldn’t exist.

What eBooks are Coming Out this Year?

Yet, 2012 was our strongest and first full year of publishing resources to help make, mature, and multiply disciples of Jesus. The “make, mature, and multiply” mantra guides our publishing. Our aim is to publish a mix of resources year after year that help you in the evangelism (make), sanctification (mature), and reproduction (multiply) of disciples. We're shooting for deep and diverse. You can expect eBooks in all three categories. Here are a few of the titles coming this year:

• 12: Making the Gospel Viral in Life by Jonathan Dodson
• Gospel Amnesia: Forgetting the Goodness of the News by Luma Sims
• Sound Words: Uncovering the Meaning of Scripture by Jeremy Carr
• Gospel Advance by Alvin Reid

We’re excited to get these titles out, and we’ll also be increasing our print publications. We hope they are a blessing to you, your churches, ministries, and disciples of all kinds.

Steering Clear of Doctrinalism & Pragmatism

As we forge ahead, we are leery of two things: doctrinalism and pragmatism. GCD.com is committed to avoiding the two extremes. We don’t want to create resources that beat a single doctrinal drum (with no practical orientation). Nor do we want to publish stuff that harps on best practices (with not theological grounding). We are committed to creating resources with what Richard Lints calls “theological vision.”

Theology is not inspired. It is the formulation of doctrinal beliefs culled from Scripture. When these beliefs respond to cultural values we end up with theological vision. Tim Keller describes theological vision this way:

It is a faithful restatement of the gospel with rich implications for life, ministry, and mission in a type of culture at a moment in history. - Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City

In March we will begin a series of articles called Questioning the Gospel. This series will query the gospel with present cultural and ministry questions in an effort to equip the reader to make disciples with theological vision. For example, article titles will include:

• “What Should I Say to My Gay Friend about Christianity?”
• “What Should I Do When My Neighbor Says He is Getting a Divorce.”

We want to strike a blend of gospel faithfulness and cultural shrewdness. We’re very excited about this series, but more importantly about honing our commitments for content. Instead of content dictating us, we aim to direct content in line with our vision to produce resources that make, mature, and multiply disciples with theological vision. If this is sparking some article ideas, send us an article query.

Blogs are Melting Your Brain

As you can imagine, articles with theological vision will require space. This lines up with our long-form commitment. You may have noticed that we don’t publish short-form blogs with fancy graphics and space to comment. That isn’t accidental. We’d like to think we are rescuing some readers from the deleterious practice of typical Internet reading. At Duke University, full-length books are infrequently assigned to students. Studies show that students write internally coherent paragraphs but can’t track with a sustained line of argumentation. They are losing their ability to focus. Why? Our brains are being rewired by our use of the Internet and social media.

In his bestselling book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains, Nicholas Carr states: “The Net may well be the single most powerful mind-altering technology that has come into general use.”

The Net encourages rapid consumption of information. When skimming (not reading) an internet article, we may also be viewing a rotating advertisement, reading a pop-up chat box, and responding to an email, and clicking away from the page and back, all while listening to Arcade Fire. Neuroscientists are showing us that the neurons in our brains are actually rearranged to respond to rapid consumption of data. While short-term memory may be improving, short-term memory is failing. Perhaps worse, instead of reading for in-depth reflection, we are being rewired for shallow consumption. Extensive reading, and therefore theological reflection, has become difficult and uninviting. Why read when you could surf the Net?

I know; we’re delusional, but we’re also hopeful that longer and better articles could actually rewire, not only our brains, but also our hearts. So pull up an article, grab a cup of coffee, and settle into some long-form reading on discipleship. It just might change you, and the disciples you make. And if you like what you read, be sure to Facebook, tweet, and blog on it so you can join us in rescuing others from brain meltdown. Who knows, it might even lead to a changed heart.

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Jonathan K. Dodson (MDiv; ThM) serves as a pastor of Austin City Life in Austin, Texas. He is the author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship and has written articles in numerous blogs and journals such as The Resurgence, The Journal of Biblical Counseling, and Boundless. He has discipled men and women abroad and at home for almost two decades, taking great delight in communicating the gospel and seeing Christ formed in others. Twitter: @Jonathan_Dodson

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Read the newly released book, Gospel Amnesia by Luma Simms.

Read free articles: Sanctification: The People We're Becoming by Jeremy Carr and Gospel Amnesia in the Local Church by Luma Simms

Of Sonnets and Discipleship: the Beauty of Limits

“. . . our human and earthly limits, properly understood,are not confinements but rather inducements to formal elaboration and elegance, to fullness of relationship and meaning.” “Faustian Economics,” Wendell Berry

Our assignment in my poetry class was to write a sonnet–English or Italian, our choice. But when it comes to sonnets, that option, in many ways, is where the freedom seems to end. You can’t write as many lines as you want (has to be fourteen, of course). You can’t make it rhyme–or not–however you might like (must be abab, cdcd, efef, gg for the English kind).  Line length is non-negotiable, either: five “feet” of “iambs” (unstressed syllables followed by stressed ones). Sonnets and the poets who write them take their metrics very, very seriously.

My classmates and I were a little freaked out. Writing formal poetry–poetry that adheres to form (e.g. sonnet, sestina, villanelle, tanka, ode)–seems the exclusive purview of the professionals. Plus, isn’t formal poetry too often, well,formal, in the other sense of that word: stuffy and standoffish?

Who wants to write a formal poem?

Not us, we all said. How can we say what we want to say when we’re so restricted? What is the point of writing a poem if you feel all hedged in–if the form itself seems intent on cramping your style, stifling your self-expression, limiting your freedom?

Yet here’s the thing:

Freedom, genuine freedom, (in any context) can be exercised only within limits. This seems counterintuitive, of course, especially in a culture founded on the idea of breaking free from all constraints (the sky’s the limit! no rules! live free or die!). America’s revolutionary war sloganism has had its inevitable end in modern advertising jingles that signal the swapping of one form of tyranny for another: in two hundred years we traded subjugation under King George for the slavery of the self to the forces of consumer-capitalism.

And so the so-called free individual finds it harder and harder to feel truly free. As theologian Philip Kenneson has put it:

How many people feel free not to buy a new car every three or four years? (Or not to buy one at all?) How many people feel free not to dress in the latest styles or fashions? How many people feel free not to look like, talk like, walk like and think like everyone else? In short, how many people feel free not to desire what everyone else desires?

As I often ask my brightest, most accomplished students: How many of you felt free not to come to college right after high school?

Unlimited freedom, it turns out, can be pretty limiting. Without a telos–an ultimate end or aim–and without a community of some kind in which such a purpose is given shape and substance, focus and direction, freedom can feel a lot like bondage.

Freedom and Constraint in Discipleship

But determined by a telos that has to do with the well-being and flourishing of all (and not merely the wish fulfillment of the unencumbered individual), genuine freedom is exercised in relationship and reciprocity. Etymologically related to “friend,” the word “free” carries the sense of “dear” or beloved,” and, as Wendell Berry notes,

We set our friends free by our love for them, with the implied restraints of faithfulness or loyalty. And this suggests that our ‘identity’ is located not in the impulse of selfhood but in deliberately maintained connections.

In Christian discourse, freedom is bound up (now there’s a theological oxymoron) in the freedom to love, to serve, to know and be known. We exercise our freedom for the sake of a life directed toward love of God and neighbor, not merely (or not really at all) as freedom from hindrance or constraint.  Freedom understood theologically is generative, fecund, prolific; its goal is not the casting off of encumbrances but fullness of life.  Freedom as free rein, by contrast, is narrow, small, often paranoid and suspicious—it fences out the neighbor, it feeds our narcissistic whims.

Fullness of life suggests that we live necessarily within certain kinds of restraints, certain disciplined practices that make evident what counts as a life lived fully before God and neighbor. Consider, for example, the Ten Commandments.  For Israel, the law given at Mount Sinai came as gift, as a liberating word to help the covenant people of God learn how to thrive in their new life together. Where we might see the keeping of the commandments as a way to earn God’s favor and escape God’s wrath (and even as a curtailment of our freedom), the biblical writers are clear that the law comes after Israel’s salvation and in response to it; keeping it, living it is how the people of God express their gratitude freely. And as Dietrich Bonhoeffer observed (from prison, interestingly), “nobody experiences the mystery of freedom unless through discipline.”

So disciplined, formal, speech like the Decalogue (and the creeds and the Lord’s Prayer) doesn’t restrict our freedom; in fact it makes genuine freedom—fullness of life and living—possible. As it turns out, astonishing complexity flows from the forms we adhere to.

What About Poetry and Freedom?

In the end, writing a sonnet wasn’t easy but it was surprisingly freeing.  The constraints of the form were not, after all, limitations to creativity but their necessary precondition. Once the boundaries were acknowledged not as confinements but as “inducements to elegance, to fullness of relationship and meaning” (Berry), it was possible even to strive for and discover beauty: in choosing this word and not that one,  in making the rhyme scheme work, in finding a fitting image or metaphor.

The discovery of beauty in words, in life, in a life directed toward love of God and neighbor: What is our freedom for if not for that?

Editor's Note: This is a repost of Of Sonnets and Discipleship: the Beauty of Limits by Debra Dean Murphy. It appears here with the author's permission. 

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Debra Dean Murphy is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at West Virginia Wesleyan College. She likes books, movies, music, art, politics — and she likes to think and write about how religion intersects all of these arenas. She serves on the board (and is an avid fan) of The Ekklesia Project.

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Read the new e-book Gospel Amnesia by Luma Simms.

Read more free articles:  Redeeming Worship by Matt Oakes and How to Respond to Religious Pluralism by Jonathan Dodson

Is the Bible Anti-Wealth? No!

A few months ago, I wrote a review of David Platt’s Radical Together. I strongly commended the book. Here’s one major strength: its exaltation of and dependence on a sovereign, awesome God:

Platt wisely grounds human action in the sovereignty of God. There has been a great deal of discussion in certain circles over whether certain strands of theology kill missions. Is embracing God’s comprehensive sovereignty like a nail gun to the head when it comes to evangelism and discipleship? Not if Radical Together has anything to say about it. As the Bible does (see Job 38-41, for starters, or Isa40-48), Platt exalts a massive, awesome, authoritative, majestic God in his book. But he doesn’t end there. He knows that God is great and also good and so desires to extend his goodness to sinners. Platt therefore calls for holistic personal commitment to the Great Commission (see ch. 5).

God is using David Platt to help change the priorities of a whole generation of believers. That is truly remarkable.

I registered one concern with the book: that we not think that the Bible is anti-wealth. Actually, in some instances, wealthy Christians used their money to build up the church. Working off of 1 Timothy 6:17-19, I wrote this:

So Paul does not, in this passage, malign wealth, possessions, or even what you might call a “nice lifestyle.” We are tempted to look down upon such things, but it seems fairly clear to me that the biblical authors did not do so. In fact, as Richard Bauckham has shown in his book Gospel Women, wealthy women connected to the imperial court and possessing mind-bending wealth provided major funding to the apostles. It is not always right, then, for the wealthy (and, globally speaking, relatively wealthy folks like the American middle-class) to sell their homes and cars, or for churches to sell their buildings and end sports leagues. It might be. We want to feel that tension, in accord with Prov 30:8 (“give me neither poverty nor riches”).

There’s much to engage here, and I’ve only scratched the surface.

Evangelicalism desperately needs Platt’s laser focus on the gospel and missions. The church exists to make disciples for the glory of God, both locally and abroad. I would only point out that I think that wealth and philanthropy can actually be our friend here. In other words, if you want to apply the “radical” model–with its many strengths–I can think of few things more radical than using one’s wealth for gospel purposes. Maybe the most spiritual thing to do to support the promotion of the gospel is this: stay in your job, save and invest scrupulously, and keep pumping out money to support missionaries and pastors.

Here’s just one example of thousands we could give on this point. A forgotten man named Henry Parsons Crowell made vast amounts of money through the Quaker Oats company. Did he hoard it? Nope. He gave away 70% percent of his massive income and helped bankroll Moody Bible Institute, the school that Joel Carpenter has shown in Revive Us Again (Oxford, 1999) has sent out thousands upon thousands of missionaries in its century of ministry. Yes, every time you eat Quaker Oats, you’re paying masticular homage to a man who–merely by giving money–helped catapult the gospel all over the world. Read a full free book about this inspiring man here.

This is a testimony to what wealth, including but not limited to truly fabulous wealth, can do if committed to the Lord. It’s one of countless others we could share of evangelicals of great or small means who tucked money away not for themselves, but for the work of Christ’s church.

Let this also be said: beyond support of missions, I don’t think the Bible is against using money for other purposes, either: buying cars or houses or air conditioners or running shoes. Where, after all, are we going to draw the line on this issue–you can’t have indoor plumbing? You shouldn’t buy ground coffee beans from Starbucks? You’re in the wrong if you pay a photographer for family pictures? Where are such directives in Scripture? And wasn’t Job, for example, wealthy and prosperous as a sign of God’s blessing (Job 1, 41)? This is a pretty slippery slope, as one can see. It can lead to false guilt for leading a normal life. Platt has already given us all the foundational motivation we need in Radical Together: the greatness of God and the mercy shed abroad in the cross of Jesus Christ.

So Platt’s fundamental message is sorely needed and personally challenging: are you and I making and using money as if there is no such thing as the work of the gospel? Is the promotion of Christ in the 10/40 window to people who will never hear of him if we don’t send folks important to us? Do our church budgets reflect this reality? Do our home budgets?

Read Radical Together and Radical. Be challenged. Reorient your spending, even as you avoid false guilt. Homes, cars, coats, paved driveways, dark chocolate raisins, and good books are gifts of God. Let’s hear Platt’s sorely needed call and his powerful solution and subordinate all things to the kingdom of Christ and its advancement over all the earth.

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Cross-posted from Thought Life.

Similitudes: Truths from Everyday Life

I may have been taping my wrists, or perhaps I was adjusting my game-socks so the proper amount of white showed below my knees. Though I do not remember exactly what I was doing, I do recall I was sitting at my locker preparing to take the field for a football game as a member of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. This was my rookie season in the Canadian Football League and I was about to learn a valuable lesson. Mike Kerrigan, a Northwestern football alumnus and one-time New England Patriot quarterback, strode confidently into the locker room. He was not only announcing to the Christian athletes that the pre-game chapel was starting, but he was also doing his best to encourage the non-Christian players to participate in our weekly ritual.

Mike approached my locker and reminded me of the chapel that was about to start. Then he looked at the man in the locker beside me. “Dale, you coming to chapel today?” he asked. Our starting offensive center, a product of Tennessee's football program, looked up from adjusting his knee braces with a mischievous grin. “What does Jesus have to do with hitting, slapping, punching, pain, blood, sweat, and tears?” he replied half-serious, half-joking.

Kerrigan's profound response was, for me, unforgettable. It is etched in my memory and I have found myself replaying this veteran quaterback’s reply many times over the ensuing 14 years of my professional football career and beyond. With complete seriousness, and with a passion that indicated the gravity of his words, Mike said, “Jesus knows more about hitting, slapping, punching, pain, blood, sweat, and tears than you or I ever will."

His answer indicated to me one way I could honor God in my profession; I could allow my job to preach God’s truths to me. I could, and I believe should, be watching for God's truths in and through my chosen vocation: professional offensive lineman. It wasn't until I was retired that I would read about, and hence be able to articulate for myself, this enriching discipline of discerning theological truths from everyday situations.

Similitudes

In a sermon by C. H. Spurgeon, I came across the concept which had, and continues to have, a powerful impact on my Christianity. From a sermon entitled “Everybody's Sermon” I read,

Now it struck me that God is every day preaching to us by similitudes. When Christ was on earth he preached in parables, and, though he is in heaven now, he is preaching in parables today. Providence is God's sermon. The things which we see about us are God's thoughts and God's words to us; and if we were but wise there is not a step that we take, which me should not find to be full of mighty instruction.

Spurgeon articulates the sanctifying habit of looking for gospel truths in our everyday lives. He promotes a dynamic discipline for discipleship; searching and seeing God’s gracious truths in the daily rhythm and routine of life. He calls these edifying reflections of God and his Word “similitudes.”

A similitude is a likening or comparison in the form of a simile, parable, or allegory. A similitude compares two dissimilar things for the purpose of emphasizing something they share in common. A similitude is experienced when we apprehend God’s grace in the ordinary living of our lives. A carpenter might recognize the cross in intersecting lumbers as he frames a house. A homemaker might see the cleansing work of Jesus’ blood in a load of laundry that comes out clean. A truck driver might reflect on the narrow road while stuck in traffic on the interstate.

Spurgeon explains what Mike Kerrigan had recognized and what I applied throughout my playing career; the things that happen to us and around us can declare God's truths to us. Mike Kerrigan saw in the physical punishment of a football game a glimpse of the suffering of Christ.

Many of us are, as Spurgeon says, "engaged in a business which allows [us] to see but very little of nature, and yet even there God has provided [us] with a lesson." He gives the example of a baker who is warned by the heat of his ovens that the wicked will be consumed in fire. Spurgeon imagines the butcher contemplating his own plight when an animal is slaughtered; where would he be if Christ had not been the sacrificed lamb in his place? What mundane piece of life is God using to teach the gospel to you?

Providence is God's Sermon

Thus we see that the everyday providential occurrences of our lives are fodder for God's “mighty instruction” if we are open to seeing these things. The very fabric of our existence, our vocations, our relationships, and our experiences all have potential to teach and re-teach us biblical truths and encourage Christ-centered meditation.

Eventually, everywhere I turned as I played football professionally I could also see theology. And as I reflect on that part of my life, now over as a result of a forced “retirement,” God was and is able, by the Holy Spirit, to use everyday situations and scenarios to bring edifying truth to me. This daily devotional experience was, and continues to be, incredibly uplifting and educational.

For example, as an offensive lineman it was my job to provide a refuge for the quarterback. This would propel my thoughts to the refuge Christ provided when he propitiated the wrath of God with his death. Similarly, I enjoyed watching my young son gain access to a player’s sacred domain, the locker room, because of his relationship to me. My affections for Christ were consequently raised as I perceived that my relationship to Christ and his identity as Son of God gains me access to the very throne of God.

In many ways football is a ridiculous sport. They took a round ball that would bounce and roll with uniformity and consistency and made it oblong to remove its predictability. They drew lines on a field and decided that between those lines players could physically assault one another. The fact that God could teach me his gospel truths in the ridiculous world of football should be both enlightening and encouraging. Enlightening because this type of discipleship is available to anyone and everyone; and encouraging because if I could learn of grace on the gridiron, than God can certainly teach you truth on your turf.

I think it is our fallen nature, and the sin that so easily entangles us, that leads us to believe there is a discontinuity between what we do every day and what we do on Sunday. But this type of thinking neglects the fact that what we do, whether our jobs or our hobbies or anything else, is intimately related with who we are. And we are Christians, adopted into God’s family through Christ. And we take that identity with us wherever we go and in whatever we do. No believer should ever think that God is not intimately involved in every aspect their lives; seeing similitudes will assure the believer of God’s presence.

The Practice of Seeing Truth in the Everyday

This practice of seeing similitudes in our comings and goings is a practical way to remind ourselves of the all-pervasive power of the gospel; it applies to everything. Whether you are a dentist or a dock-worker, retired, just hired, or unemployed, this discipline will remind you that there is a Person at the center of your life that relates to everything you do and is relevant to who you are.

The first step to seeing sanctifying similitudes is to understand what they are and where they can be found. What they are, as Spurgeon has suggested, is God’s instruction in everyday life. They are the doctrines of the Bible illustrated in the regular routine of living. Jesus saw the Kingdom of God in the scattering of seeds, the hiding of treasure, the settling of accounts, the hiring of labourers, and many other day-to-day activities. We will be richly blessed as we are reminded, exhorted, and instructed  in the tenets of our faith through the moments of our lives. Don’t miss this everyday education; seek to see the spiritual in the spot God has placed you.

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Jude St. John (@judestjohn) played football professionally in the Canadian Football League for 14 years and currently teaches English at Saunders Secondary School in London, Ontario, Canada. Jude is married to Nicole and they share their lives with their 5 children: Ena, Adele, Mara, Judah, and Arwen.  He blogs at quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com. 

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Read more in Jonathan Dodson's book Unbelievable Gospel.

Read more free articles: The Daily Gospel by Matthew Sims and Meditation by Tony Merida.

Leading Ladies Everywhere

Current trends in faith intrigue me because I'm a blogger and I'm a blogger because I'm innately curious. Trends interest me but they do not capture me, and I think this distinction is important. I have had times where I have been momentarily distracted by ideas and methodologies, shoes and styles, but at the end of all things, I think we can agree these momentary pleasures are best if they pass away. And good riddance, too. I am, however, still interested in faith trends. I'm lured by them because I love the culture of heaven and I think it ought to affect the culture of earth, and what are trends if not culture's response to heaven's delay?

Leading Lady

One such trend that has gotten less airplay in recent years is the Emergent Church Movement (ECM) (some of you are rolling your eyes here, having already moved on past that old thing and fancying some new thing these days), but I'm still paying attention to it because the effects and the sustainability of it are just now beginning to show their true colors. You only thought the effects of it were things like Love Wins and the rise of feminism, but they were only catalysts. The true effects are where are all those people now?

Phyllis Tickle is a leading voice in the emergent movement, a Christian-mystic, a contributor to USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, PBS, and NPR. I've often been drawn to Tickle's voice because there's a sense of reverence, the Holy, I've found lacking in much of evangelicalism these days. She's gentle and lulling, and of course she is—if there's anything the ECM is known for, it is half of the whole of love—the gentle passive half void of the justice of God.

The Death of Feminism?

In the recent Emergence Christianity Conference, Tickle spoke. (And I'm getting to the point about all this and why it matters.)

The audio for the conference is not available, but the blogs of attendees are in plenty. One such attendee-blogger wrote of how disappointed she was by Tickle's talk. This leading lady of the movement who has brought a voice to equality in the church, primarily in gender roles, spoke of the downfall of modern faith being the lack of women at home, bringing up babies and such:

"Phyllis described the freedoms working outside the home in WW2 and the ability to control our cycles the Pill brought women and argued that such things led to the destruction of the nuclear family and therefore the foundation of the civil religion of Christendom. While it is a narrow assessment of causality, I can agree with the descriptive observation that such things changed our culture. But then she jumped from these changes as that which brought an end to Christendom to describing how such changes led to the destruction of the ways the faith is passed on to new generations which thereby resulted in a biblically illiterate society. As she described it, when mom is not at home weaving the stories of scripture and the church calendar into her day to day activities in front of her children, they do not receive the basics of the faith. One cannot apparently have a sacred family meal over Papa John’s pizza picked up on the way home from work the same way that one can if one is baking bread, doing family crafts, and eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. Phyllis ended the session by encouraging us to discover ways to be back in the kitchen with our children and finding crafty ways to import the rhythms of the church year to them. Essentially to focus on the family and all that. That is the great emergence. The end."*

Because the audio isn't available (and I wish it was so I could not only give you a fuller picture, but give myself a fuller one too), I don't know if any of this was a direct quote from Tickle. However, I know the general thrust of her argument sent the bloggers into a tizzy, so I would guess this paragraph is fairly close to the original.

Passing Away

Here is my purpose in sharing this quote. It is not to raise the flag of complementarity, or to espouse the incorrect view that Biblical-Womanhood is home/baby-making and nothing else. My purpose is not to say the Feminist Movement got it completely wrong or dinner around the table is the answer to all the world's problems. My purpose is to highlight trends in the Church are trends; they are as temporal as the dew on the morning grass and the oak leaves on the tree in my back yard. They are not only passing away, but they are also not important enough for us to get waylaid by as they pass.

There are moments to confront with truth, to stand firm when the waves threaten to knock down what we hold most dear. Riding trains and beating drums of passing movements, though, is not as helpful as simply adoring Christ and preaching the simplicity of the gospel in every area of our lives.

Douglas Wilson shared this from his book Five Cities that Ruled the World recently:

"Truth and error will get sorted out in the long run, and probably much quicker if we just let it rip rather than try to manage the whole process. Somehow the managers of the process are frequently found to be an essential part of the problem, and it turns out they tend to manage the discussions in such a way that that interesting fact never comes out" (pg. 191).

Movements will pass away. Error will be seen. History might repeat itself, but it will always do so with a little more hindsight and a little more abandon. Things might not get better and we may feel the negative effects of feminism for a long, long time. But truth works itself to the light with the help of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of God.

What Lasts Longest

What we see in that snippet of a commentary on Tickle's talk is an acknowledgement that what a movement once espoused as best, was perhaps not best. And I think, in some ways, we all see a bit of ourselves in that. Ways we once thought were ultimate now pale in comparison to the bigger, more full picture of God's grandness we have.

Stay your eyes on Christ in these days, meditate on the truths of the Gospel, on the sufficiency of His word and the delight of the Father toward you. Do all of this with the help of the Holy Spirit and be not distracted by the morning dew.

It is passing away.

Sanctification: The People We’re Becoming

I love the movie A Beautiful Mind. The acting, story, and music are all superb. The first time I saw the movie, I was caught by surprise by the twist at the end – the revelation of what was really going on in the life and mind of the main character. With this new insight, A Beautiful Mind became one of my favorite movies. Having knowledge of the ending and understanding the truth in no way lessened my enjoyment of the movie, but rather excited me as I was able to watch the movie numerous times to see evidences of the truth that I had previously missed. Similarly, the doctrine of illumination is not only initial, but ongoing – a continuous work of the Holy Spirit giving believers insight and wisdom through Scripture. While initial illumination is involved in regeneration, ongoing illumination is involved in sanctification. Sanctification is the process of being made holy and set apart for holy use. Millard Erickson explains,

Although regeneration is instantaneously complete, it is not an end in itself. As a change of spiritual impulses, regeneration is the beginning of a process of growth that continues throughout one’s lifetime. This process of spiritual maturation is sanctification. Sanctification is the ongoing transformation of character so that the believer’s life actually comes to mirror the standing he or she already has in God’s sight.

Sanctification is the work of God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in us (John Murray, Redemption: Accomplished and Applied). The Word is the primary means of the work of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification, therefore, is the work of the Spirit with the Word. Sanctification is a work of the Holy Spirit that has both happened and continues to happen. As a completed event, Scripture teaches definitive sanctification in that believers have been “sanctified through the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:16), “were washed” and “were sanctified” (1 Cor. 6:11), and “were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30). Likewise, sanctification is a continual process as believers live in holiness (1 Thess. 4:7-8) as the word of God “is at work in you” (2 Thess. 2:13), for obedience to Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:2). Sanctification is both an event and a process of the Holy Spirit whose principle means is Scripture.

The Holy Spirit enlightens the mind of the believer enabling him to see “all the great doctrines of the Bible concerning God, Christ, and things spiritual and eternal . . . revealed by this inward teaching of the Spirit” (Charles Hodge). The Holy Spirit operates through the Scriptures, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). This active work through the Word grows our understanding of Scripture through interpretation and obedience, both personally and corporately.

Interpretation

“Longview made dookie go gold.” This statement may sound nonsensical, ridiculous, or even profane out of context. However, this is a quote from the punk rock documentary One Nine Nine Four referring to the album “Dookie” by the band Green Day whose single “Longview” launched the band to international fame and gave the album gold status. Context is important, not only for this musical quote, but more so for our understanding and application of Scripture. Apart from the Holy Spirit working in our hearts and minds, Scripture will not make sense and achieve within us the author’s intent.

The work of the Holy Spirit through Scripture in illumination, both in initial regeneration and ongoing sanctification, has both personal and community implications. How believers understand these implications involves interpretation. The text has one meaning that the interpreter must understand and apply. That meaning is whatever the author intended the meaning to be (Walter Kaiser, Toward an Exegetical Theology). Theology cannot be separated from the text.

Illumination involves the work of the Holy Spirit “assisting the reader to achieve clarity in understanding the content of the Word.” (R.C. Sproul, The Internal Testimony of the Holy Spirit). This assistance happens personally to the individual as well as to the community. This conviction is not against reason, but beyond reason.

The Holy Spirit illumines the mind and inwardly teaches so that the Word renders faith “superior to all opinion.” Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit will “guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). We therefore act in obedience with faith; we are to trust and obey. While we have “faith seeking understanding,” our understanding is not a prerequisite for obedience. Often in and through obedience we grow in greater understanding as the Holy Spirit’s work of illumination brings forth our sanctification and empowered obedience.

The Holy Spirit’s inward work happens to individual hearts and minds. Working simultaneously through the Word and in the heart and mind of the hearer, the Spirit does not operate independently from the Word in illumination. To dismiss personal illumination is to neglect the Holy Spirit’s work through the Word.

Both the Means and the Result

Sanctification is characterized by ongoing understanding of and application of the Scriptures. Paul writes, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Cor. 2:12). John writes, “But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge” (1 John 2:20). Jesus states, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13-14). We see, therefore, that regeneration is the motivation for obedience. Indeed regeneration is necessary for fruitful application of Scripture.

Scripture is the root for both faith and practice. When God speaks, man is required to obey. Authority implies obedience. The authority of Christ and Scripture is both bestowed and inherent, therefore we submit to God’s authority. We are to obey even if we do not understand because the authority of Scripture rests not in our minds or perceptions, but in God’s Word. Scripture is God’s authoritative and revelatory Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit who also illumines the believer so that the truth of God can be applied.

Application of Scripture is for both personal and corporate sanctification. Colossians 3:16 instructs, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Likewise Paul writes in Ephesians 5:19, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.” Growing in holiness is both a personal and community occurrence.

Empowered Obedience

Paul writes in Titus 2:14 how Jesus Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” As people for Christ’s own possession, redeemed and purified, we are increasingly given opportunities for good works. As disciples, we experience personal redemption in the context of community on mission. In this we grow as disciples as well as forward the gospel in making disciples.

Obedience gives evidence to both personal and corporate sanctification. Paul writes in Philippians 2:12-13, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” This admonition follows the promise, “that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). This is understood in the context of the Philippian believers’ “partnership” as “saints” in gospel mission.

Illumination, both in regeneration and sanctification, shows us that it is the believer  and the community of believers who are changed, not Scripture. The Christian life, therefore, is not only doing transformative things, but being a transformed people. Paul writes to Titus,

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. - Titus 2:11-14

Transformed identity, both personally and corporately, results in obedience. Murray writes that Scripture confirms “this great truth that regeneration is such a radical, pervasive, and efficacious transformation that it immediately registers itself in the conscious activity of the person concerned in the exercises of faith and repentance and new obedience.”

The application of Scripture to the believer’s life is the work of the Holy Spirit. Like sanctification, this is an ongoing process. This ongoing application of the Word by the Holy Spirit affects the intellect as well as the will. The result is obedient action rooted in faith. Scott Hafemann connects faith and obedience with God’s Word: “Faith is trusting God to do what he has promised because we are convinced by his provisions that God is willing and able to keep his word.”

As Scripture reveals the nature and character of God our rightful response is to obey. Hafemann continues,

Faith in God is an active dependence on his word that always expresses itself in action. The reason for this unity of faith and obedience as two aspects of our one response to God is the promises of God are always organically linked to corresponding commands. Every command of God is built on a promise from God. Therefore every divine call to action (obedience) is, at the same time, a divine summons to trust in God’s promises (faith) . . . trust in God’s promise would mean obedience to his commands.

The Holy Spirit works in and through Scripture to actualize our faith and empower obedience, therefore we must depend on the Holy Spirit. Scripture testifies to both initial and ongoing illumination, both of which are closely tied to the Word. Faith and obedience depend on the continued work of the Holy Spirit with and through Scripture.

Mission

The mission to “make disciples” is an act of empowered obedience. Jesus states in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” The disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit, were on mission locally, regionally, and globally to “make disciples of all nations . . . teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). The mission is under the authority of Christ, empowered by the Spirit, and saturated with Scripture. This is consistent with God’s instruction in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (which Jesus quotes as the greatest commandment):

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 

In this passage, Israel is instructed in missional discipleship. Reminded of their identity as God’s people and His authority as their God, they are instructed to “teach” what God has “commanded.” They do so in all areas of life: personally (“you”), family (“children”), community (“house”), and culture (“gates”). This missional rhythm is as they go about life: “when you sit,” “when you walk,” “when you lie down,” “when you rise.” Likewise, a missional rhythm is included in the great commission. The imperative to “make disciples” is by “going, teaching, and baptizing.” As this mission continues for us today, D.A. Carson writes, “The Kingdom of God advances by the power of the Spirit through the ministry of the Word.”

Sanctifying Discipleship

We must ask ourselves: Are we growing in holiness personally? Are we growing in holiness in community? As we increase in information and application, are we growing in transformation?

Sanctification is not just knowing about holiness and doing holy things. Sanctification is about being and becoming holy people. Illumination is both the means and result of transformation and missional obedience gives evidence to this transformation. We return to 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” We must not overlook the truth that this equipping is a work of the Holy Spirit who, through “the sacred writings . . . make[s] you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15) which then identifies one as a “man of God.” We see that this is not about making oneself good, but about being redeemed. Redemption is an identity change, not just behavior modification. 2 Timothy 3:16 is about righteous faith and character that manifests in obedience.

Since the Holy Spirit works through and with the Bible, we have a permanent need for His work.

We do so with confidence in Scripture as the written promises of God.

Scripture is a generous gift from the generous Father revealing the generous Son by the generous Holy Spirit to people transformed to be His generous church: saints in partnership in the gospel. The new community of disciples relates in the gospel and grows in understanding and interpretation of Scripture. Likewise, we grow together in obedience and application of Scripture as a community on mission with the gospel.

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Jeremy Carr (ThM, MDiv) is lead teaching pastor and co-founding elder of Redemption Church in Augusta, GA. He has been a member of the Acts 29 network since 2007 and has written for the Resurgence. Jeremy is husband to Melody and father to Emaline, Jude, Sadie, and Nora. His book on Scripture will be published by GCD Books this spring. Twitter @pastorjcarr.

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Read more in the e-book, Gospel Amnesia: Forgetting the Goodness of the News by Luma Simms

Read more free articles: The Love of God and the Local Church by Brandon Smith and The Gospel Gives us a Secure View of Self by Jared Wilson

Hospitality and the Great Commission

The twelve of us sat in silence, on the edge of our seats. You could have heard a pin drop. I had pilgrimaged from Minnesota to muggy Orlando, and her stifling August humidity, for a weeklong intensive course on evangelism with Steve Childers. Fortunately, Reformed Theological Seminary is as air-conditioned as it is Reformed.

With only a dozen students on board for five 9-hour days with one of the country’s top church-planting strategists, it was a rich week, to say the least. During these precious hours, the Beijing Olympics were playing second fiddle to learning about the advance of the gospel around the world and in personal conversation.

Time and again Childers had thrown us curveballs. He knew how to keep us on our toes. But now he had us nothing short of captivated.

The Key to 21st-Century Evangelism

“You know what the key to evangelism in the 21st-century will be, don’t you?”

He wasn’t talking Global South, but the Western hemisphere — and America in particular.

I’m sure he could see on our faces how eager we were for his answer. Wow, the key, we were thinking. This is huge.

He paused and smiled that memorable Steve Childers world-evangelism grin. He waited. Still waiting. Still paused. Still nothing. Hold it . . . hold it. I was almost ready to burst with, “Just c’mon already!”

Finally he lifted the curtain.

“Hospitality.”

Then another long pause to let it sink it.

Hospitality and Post-Christendom

In a progressively post-Christian society, the importance of hospitality as an evangelistic asset is growing rapidly. Increasingly, the most strategic turf on which to engage the unbelieving with the good news of Jesus may be the turf of our own homes.

When people don’t gather in droves for stadium crusades, or tarry long enough on the sidewalk to hear your gospel spiel, what will you do? Where will you interact with the unbelieving about the things that matter most?

Invite them to dinner.

For several of us in Childers’s class, the lights went on after his dramatic revelation. Biblical texts on hospitality were springing to mind. A theme we’d previously thought of as a secondary fellowship-type-thing was taking shape as a significant strategy for evangelism in a post-Christian milieu.

Love for Outsiders

The New Testament word for “hospitality” (Greek philozenia) comes from a compound of “love” and “stranger.” Hospitality has its origin, literally, in love for outsiders.

One of the more memorable texts is Hebrews 13:1–2: “Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Yes, love the brothers, says Hebrews, but make sure you don’t forget this. Don’t neglect to love strangers as well.

Love for fellow Christians is important, essential — some call it “the final apologetic,” based on John 13:35 — but there’s a way in which it may not be all that impressive. Loving those who love you — “Do not even unbelievers do the same?” asks Jesus (Matthew 5:47). But showing love to outsiders, now that rings of life-change. That has the fingerprints of your heavenly Father all over it.

Seeking to Show Hospitality

In Romans 12, as the apostle Paul points us to important flashpoints for how our lives should look when claimed by the gospel, he says, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:12–13).

It could be that this charge to hospitality is another way of saying “contribute to the needs of the saints,” but it seems more likely to be a summons to demonstrate kindness to outsiders — like the kind Publius showed Paul in Acts 28:7 on the island of Malta: “Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days.”

Outsiders from Around Town

Keep thinking through the New Testament mentions of hospitality, and see that it’s no peripheral theme. Hospitality even finds its way into such a prominent place as both lists of elder qualifications.

An elder “must be . . . hospitable.” 1 Timothy 3:2

An elder, “as God’s steward, must be . . . hospitable.” Titus 1:8

Are we listening? When was the last time we turned down a man from joining the council because he wasn’t hospitable? It’s important enough in Paul’s mind to mention it to both Timothy and Titus for their elder selection.

It matters tremendously how the elders orient toward “outsiders.” The elders set the tone for how the church will engage with nonbelievers. The church of yore may be taken aback to read that an elder “must be well thought of by outsiders” (1 Timothy 3:7), but as Christendom crumbles, we begin to see this value in new light. If the elders who are to be “examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3) don’t themselves show up on the front lines to engage with the city’s unbelieving, it’s unlikely the flock will embrace the mission the shepherds are avoiding.

Inviting in the Believing As Well

Lest we swing the pendulum and think the charge to “hospitality” no longer enjoins us to care for fellow believers, 1 Peter 4:9 and 3 John 5–8 stand ready to balance things out. See 1 Peter 4:9 in context with verses 8–10:

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace . . . 

So full Christian hospitality includes inviting in other believers as well, caring for each other, “washing the feet of the saints,” “contributing to the needs of the saints,” and so on. Not just for making converts, but for the Great Commission task of making disciples as well. And there's more.

Strategic Hospitality

Christian hospitality serves Jesus’s global mission by inviting in traveling missionaries. John’s third epistle commends this kind of care.

Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers,strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth. - 3 John 5–8

So let your hospitality include not only unbelieving neighbors and co-workers, but also furloughing missionaries sent out for global gospel propagation. John Piper calls it “strategic hospitality.”

Strategic hospitality . . . asks: How can I draw the most people into a deep experience of God’s hospitality by the use of my home . . . ? Who are the people who could be brought together in my home most strategically for the sake of the kingdom? . . .

Strategic hospitality is not content to just have the old clan over for dinner again and again. It strategizes how to make the hospitality of God known and felt all over the world, from the lonely church member right here, to the Gola farmers in Tahn, Liberia. Don’t ever underestimate the power of your living room as a launching pad for new life and hope and ministry and mission!

Why We Love Strangers

So Christian hospitality makes room for fellow believers and global gospel carriers, but the note we’re striking here is the evangelistic one — inviting in the outsider, welcoming unbelievers into our space, in hopes of bringing Jesus into theirs.

The reason this is no minor biblical theme is because the streams of hospitality flow deeply from the well of God. Christians love the stranger, because we have been loved by the Father when we ourselves were strangers. Hospitality rises in its purest form when we heed Paul’s counsel, “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).

In Jesus, we find ourselves now to be the enemy who has been loved, the sinner who is saved, the stranger who is welcomed. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And welcomed strangers should be quick to learn to welcome other strangers.

Our love for outsiders runs deep as it flows from remembering ourselves to be outsiders who have been dearly loved by a lavishly hospitable God.

Editor’s Note: This is a repost of “Hospitality and the Great Commission“ from the Desiring God blog. It appears here with the author’s permission.

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David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor for John Piper and Desiring God, and elder at Bethlehem Baptist Church in the Twin Cities. He and his wife Megan have twin sons (Carson and Coleman) and live in Minneapolis. David is editor of several books, including Thinking. Loving. Doing. and Finish the Mission.

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Read the e-book Gospel Amnesia: Forgetting the Goodness of the News by Luma Simms.

Read related articles: Paul's E-mail to Ephesus by Ben Roberts and Street Grace by Jake Chambers.

Is Forgiveness a Viable Option for the Justice System?

Conor McBride shot his fiancee in the face. He immediately confessed and turned himself in. Through a process called "restorative justice," discussed at length in this New York Times article, he received a much lighter sentence than usual as he, his family, and the victim's family all three came together to offer apologies and forgiveness. Instead of the typical life sentence, McBride was sentenced to 20 years with 10 years of probation following his release. The story relates the following anecdote from the victim's hospital room, as her father sat by her bedside and she, in a comatose state, was being kept alive by modern technology:

Ann’s face was covered in bandages, and she was intubated and unconscious, but Andy felt her say, “Forgive him.” His response was immediate. “No,” he said out loud. “No way. It’s impossible.” But Andy kept hearing his daughter’s voice: “Forgive him. Forgive him.”

Struggling to come to grips with what the father believes was his soon to be deceased daughter's plea, he was moved to do something unusual - extend forgiveness and grace to the one who shot her. However, that was not enough for this victim's family. They believed that the murderer, the one who killed their daughter, should have his sentence affected by their forgiveness and his own contrition.

While the Bible clearly calls followers of Christ to forgive those who harm them, should this same offer of forgiveness play a part in the judicial system? Is it more effective than the typically applied penal code? I'm not sure I am smart enough to know the answer, but I'll be honest: the family's response of forgiveness and grace is astonishing and Christ-like. What is more, their forgiveness has not only changed the life of the young man who took their daughter's life, it has helped change a community. Consider this from the end of the article:

As much as the Grosmaires say that forgiveness helped them, so, too, has the story of their forgiveness. They’ve spoken about it to church groups and prayer breakfasts around Tallahassee and plan to do more talks. The story is a signpost in the wilderness, something solid and decent they can return to while wandering in this parallel universe without their youngest daughter. Kate Grosmaire keeps asking herself if she has really forgiven Conor. “I think about it all the time,” she said. “Is that forgiveness still there? Have I released that debt?” Even as the answer comes back yes, she says, it can’t erase her awareness of what she no longer has. “Forgiving Conor doesn’t change the fact that Ann is not with us. My daughter was shot, and she died. I walk by her empty bedroom at least twice a day.”

I am curious to hear your thoughts. Is restorative justice a viable option in the American justice system? Should a Christian ethic of grace and forgiveness change the way in which we apply justice? What do you think?

What is a Follower of Jesus?

As I read the early chapters of the Gospels, I see Jesus speaking the same command to almost everyone he meets: follow me! For decades Christians have understood this to mean “say a prayer of repentance and commitment to Jesus, attend church regularly, and live a generally good life”.  There is a problem with this. Jesus never led someone through a ‘sinners prayer’ followed by a command to attend church services.  No, he said, "follow me."

What he meant was "forsake all that you have put above and before me; devote yourself to living life my way, according to my teachings, and my example. Become my disciple. Let me show you a better way to live – free from the trappings of hypocritical living and dead religion. Follow me into a life of service and love of God and others.”

We see this through all four Gospels – Jesus sought to bring transformation into people’s lives. He wanted them to live a life that was all about him – a life that says “It’s not me that’s living my life now – it’s Jesus."  To follow Jesus is to put him at the center and to make him the supreme ruler of all that you are and all that you do.  It is to allow him to lead you, by his Spirit, out into the world as an agent of transformation in the lives of others.

Jesus gave the keys to following him to his disciples.  They are found in Matthew 28:18-20:

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Being a follower of Jesus means:

We recognise his authority in and over our lives

We allow him to be Lord. We acknowledge his complete control and relinquish our dilution of control. We let him lead us. We follow him – he does not follow us!

We make disciples

Notice that disciples are commanded to go and make disciples. Following Jesus means calling others to follow Jesus. We are his witnesses given the mission of sharing the gospel and showing the world what he is like. Disciples mature and multiply.

We get baptized

We align ourselves to Jesus publicly through the act of baptism. He asked his followers to baptize new followers. This was the ritual for new believers in the early Church when they put their faith in Jesus and became his disciples. As we look at the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the epistle writings we cannot help but conclude that baptism was not an option – it was an expectation Jesus had upon those who would follow him. Followers of Jesus are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We obey Jesus’ Commands

The disciples were told to both teach and obey Jesus’ commands. Followers of Jesus will take joy and great delight in obeying Jesus teachings.  It is essential that to teach others to obey Jesus, we must first be doing obeying him. Every follower of Jesus is by nature a leader – we are to lead others into obeying Jesus and surrendering to his way of life – which is the best and most fabulous way to live life!  To lead others we must first be doing.

Jesus expects his followers to obey what he taught – it is not an add-on to our faith or for the over zealous. We need to apply the Bible to our lives in a way that honors Jesus and places him at the centre of our lives.  Simply put, followers of Jesus obey him!

We go to the world

We share Jesus with a lost, broken, and hurting world. Throughout his life, Jesus took the gospel into public spaces. Today, we seem dedicated to keeping the gospel inside church buildings, but Jesus did the opposite. He shared God’s good and practical love in markets, next to bathing pools, in town centers, on mountain tops, on beaches, at a watering hole, on a road; at meals, at parties, sitting in the temple courts, and more.

Jesus expects us to take the Gospel practically and verbally to all the nations of the world. Are you seeking Jesus in order to hear where he wants you to serve him: Is it in your own community longterm?  Is it abroad?  Is it to move to another town that has little or no Gospel influence and voice? We are to take the Gospel where it is needed.

We Follow

Jesus’ disciples sought his wisdom, insight, and direction.  They went where Jesus took them and went where he told them to go. They trusted him enough to submit to his discipline. They didn’t always understand him. They messed up. They learned. They grew. They walked and talked with him. They preached the gospel after his ascension. They took him out to the world.

We are only two weeks into 2013, why not start the New Year by re-reading the Gospels to see what Jesus taught and how he lived. Then, continue on in the New Testament by reading Acts to see how the first disciples followed Jesus and stayed devoted to him and his teachings.

Perhaps there is a need to get back to the basics and consider our own commitment to Christ. Jesus is looking for disciples who will follow him and make him the most important part of their lives so that he is in control of every part.  It’s not always easy – you could say it’s a discipline at times – but it’s also the adventure of your lifetime.

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Stuart McCormack has worked as a shelf stacker, bingo caller, archivist, Youth Minister and is currently living out his calling to missional living in the secular workspace as a Targeted Youth Support Worker/mentor.  He co-leads “Vintage,” a missional community which is part of Kairos Network Church based in Harrogate North Yorkshire.  He is husband to Jenna and father to Noah, Bella and Sophia. In his spare time he tweets @missionalrev and blogs at www.missionalrev.wordpress.com

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Read more on this topic in Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson. 

Read other free articles on this topic: Patience and Discipleship by Jeremy Writebol and How Jesus Made Disciples by Winfield Bevins.

Into All the World: Count Zinzendorf and the Moravian Missionary Movement

Winfield Bevins serves as lead pastor of Church of the Outer Banks, which he founded in 2005. He is the author of dozens of several popular eBooks including Grow: Reproducing through Organic Discipleship. He also recently wrote Creed: Connect to the Basic Essentials of the Christian Faith. He lives in the beautiful beach community of the Outer Banks with his wife Kay and two daughters. _

“I have but one passion—it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field, and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ." - Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf

North America has become the new mission field. There are 120 million unchurched people in the United States, making it the largest mission field in the Western hemisphere and the fifth largest mission field on earth.[1] On top of all of this, nearly 4,000 churches close every year in North America. And nearly 8o% of all evangelical churches in the U.S. have either stopped growing or are in decline![2]

What does this mean for the church in North America? Simple: We are not reproducing disciples. Despite this uncertain future for the church in North America, all is not lost. God is not surprised by these statistics or the spiritual state of our nation. The West can be won again.

All we have to do is look to the pages of church history to find great examples of missionary disciple-making movements that reached the nations for Christ. What we need now is a missionary discipleship movement that will reach the 120 million unchurched people in North America and beyond.

The Rich Young Ruler Who Said Yes

One of the greatest missionary movements of all time began with the rich young ruler who said yes. Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf was born into a wealthy noble family and belonged to one of the most ancient of noble families in Austria. Six weeks after young Ludwig’s birth, his father died of tuberculosis and his mother married again when he was four years old. At this time, he was sent to live with his pietistic Lutheran grandmother who did much to shape his character and faith.

He fell in love with Jesus at the age of six and continued to mature in Christ throughout his school years. He grew up with regular times of prayer, Bible reading, and hymn-singing. His dearest treasure next to the Bible was Luther’s Smaller Catechism. Zinzendorf was a star student, and by the age of 15 he could read the classics and the New Testament in Greek and was fluent in Latin and French.

Zinzendorf eventually pursued his university studies at Wittenberg, which was a strong hold of Lutheran theology. Once he finished his studies at Wittenberg he embarked grand tour of various centers of learning throughout Europe. Then in 1720, he went to Paris where he stayed for six months. He toured Versailles, and even formed a friendship with Roman Catholic Cardinal Noailles Roman.

Despite all the beauty of Europe, nothing could compare to  an encounter that Zinzendorf had in the art museum at Dusseldorf where he encountered the Christ in an amazing way. While viewing Domenico Feti’s painting “Ecce Homo,” a portrait of the suffering thorn-crowned Jesus, and reading the inscription below it, “I have done this for you; what have you done for me?” Zinzendorf said to himself, “I have loved Him for a long time, but I have never actually done anything for Him. From now on I will do whatever He leads me to do.”

In May 1721, Zinzendorf purchased his grandmother’s estate at Berthelsdorf. He married Countess Erdmuth Dorothea von Reuss, sister of his friend Henry on September 7, 1722. She was a strong believer and devoted to Pietism. For a time, Zinzendorf devoted himself to matters of state in Dresden.

Everything would change one eventful day when a Moravian refuge ended up at his door in Dresden. The man’s name was Christian David. He had heard that Zinzendorf would open his home to oppressed Moravian refuges. Zinzendorf agreed to the request and a group of ten Moravians arrived in December 1722. His manor became known as  “Herrnhut”, meaning “the Lord’s watch” or “on the watch for the Lord.” This was only the beginning. By May 1725, 90 Moravians had settled at Herrnhut. By late 1726, the population had swelled to 300.

Trouble eventually began to enter the group over differences in liturgy, economic pressures, language difficulties, and other issues. Zinzendorf began meeting with different families for prayer and counsel and helped regain a spirit of unity and love.   He drew up a covenant calling upon them 'to seek out and emphasize the points in which they agreed' rather than focusing on their differences. This started a process of reconciliation and revival among members of the community. On May 12th, 1727 they all signed an agreement to dedicate their lives to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. At this time, small groups were organized to provide the people with a special spiritual affinity to one another.

100-Year Prayer Watch

1727 was an important year. It marked a spiritual turning point in the Moravian community where a spirit of prayer began to spread among them. They covenanted together to meet often to pour out their hearts in prayer and hymns. On August 5th, the Count spent the whole night in prayer with about 12 to 14 others following a large meeting for prayer at midnight. Then a few days later, on Wednesday, August 13th 1727, the Holy Spirit was poured out on them all. The Moravians experienced a powerful “Pentecost” during a communion service where the Spirit came upon Zinzendorf and the community. This experience radically changed the community and sparked a flame of prayer and missions that would burn for decades to come. Looking back on that day, Zinzendorf later recalled: “The whole place represented truly a visible habitation of God among men.”

This marked the beginning of the Moravians' commitment to a round-the-clock “prayer watch” that continued nonstop for over a hundred years. On the 26th of August, 24 men and 24 women covenanted together to continue praying in intervals of one hour each, day and night, each hour allocated by lots to different people. The next day, 24 men and 24 women covenanted together to spend at least one hour each day in scheduled prayer. Others joined the intercessors and the number increased to 77. They all carefully observed the hour which had been appointed for them and they had a weekly meeting where prayer needs were given to them.

The spirit of prayer was not just for the adults of the community, but even spread to the children as well. The children were also touched by God and began to pray a similar plan among themselves. The children's prayers and supplications had a powerful effect on the whole community. Parents and others members of the community were deeply moved by the prayers of the children for revival and missions.

From that time onward the Moravians prayed continuously for revival and the missionary expansion of the gospel. As members of the Moravian church continued nonstop in this "Hourly Intercession" they became known as "God's Happy People." Their prayers became the catalyst for one of the world’s greatest missionary movements.

Into All the World

Within a short time, Herrnhut became a missionary launching pad that would send out missionaries throughout the world. They gathered small groups of individuals who gathered for prayer and Bible study and traveled across Europe sharing the gospel with everyone they met, especially the outcasts of society. Out of this grew a network of small groups that eventually became known as the "Diaspora."

Under Zinzendorf’s leadership, Moravian missionaries went out to into all the world in an unprecedented way that had never been seen before! On Sunday, December 13, 1732, after almost ten weeks at sea, the ship sailed into the harbor of St. Thomas to reach slaves for Christ. This was a difficult time where many of the missionaries died. Twenty-two of the first 29 died, forcing them to retreat from St. Croix for a time. Despite trials and difficulties, missionaries continued to go out from Herrnhut into all the world.

By the time Zinzendorf died in 1760, after 28 years of cross-cultural mission, the Moravians had sent out 226 missionaries and entered 10 different countries. Mission stations had been established in Danish St. Thomas, in the West Indies (1732); Greenland (1733); Georgia, North America (1734); Lapland (1735); Surinam, or Dutch Guiana, on the north coast of South America (1735); Cape Town, South Africa (1737); Elmina, Dutch headquarters in the Gold Coast (1737); Demarara, now known as Guyana, South America (1738); and to the British colonial island of Jamaica (1754), and Antigua (1756). In 1760, there were 49 men and 17 women serving in 13 stations around the world ministering to over 6,000 people.

Moravian passion for mission was grounded one thing, and one thing alone. Zinzendorf said, “I have but one passion—it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field, and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ."  Over the years his passion for Jesus grew, as did his passion for the lost. He was determined to evangelize the world through raising up and sending out Moravian missionaries who were equipped only with a  simple love for Jesus and the spirit of prayer.

A seal was designed to express their new found missionary zeal. The seal was composed of a lamb with the cross of resurrection and a banner of triumph with the motto, "Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him." The Moravians were missionaries of the gospel. They followed the call of the Lamb to go preach the gospel to all nations. In 1791, the Moravians beautifully explain their motivation for missions: "The simple motive of the brethren for sending missionaries to distant nations was and is an ardent desire to promote the salvation of their fellow men, by making known to them the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ.”

Influence on John Wesley

The Moravians had a great impact on John Wesley when became acquainted with a group of Moravians on his way to Georgia, during his stay, and on his return to England. The Moravians demonstrated a simple faith and assurance of salvation through the inner witness of the Spirit. He was impressed with their confidence, piety, and assurance of faith. On February 7, 1736, while in Georgia, a Moravian leader by the name of August Gottlieb Spangenburg began to question Wesley’s faith. Wesley recounts the dialogue:

He said, “My brother, I must first ask you one or two questions. Have you the witness within yourself? Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit, that you are a child of God?” I was surprised, and knew not what to answer. He observed it and asked, “Do you know Jesus Christ?” I paused, and said, “I know he is Savoir of the world.” “True,” replied he; “but do you know he has saved you?” I answered, “I hope he has died to save me.” He only added, “ Do you know yourself?” I said, “I do.” But I fear they were vain words.”[3]

They were instrumental in leading him to search for an inward Christianity of the heart. On the way back to England, John wrote, “I went to America to convert the Indians; but oh, who shall convert me? Who, is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of unbelief?” This was no doubt written in comparison with the assurance that Wesley witnessed among the Moravians.

When he returned to England, Wesley spent several months in spiritual distress and deep introspection. He was challenged by the example of simple faith in Christ that the Moravians had demonstrated before him. John and his brother Charles met another Moravian by the name of Peter Böhler in England. He convinced John further that conversion happened in an instant and that a real Christian would have an assurance of their salvation.

The Moravian’s impact upon Wesley cannot be overestimated. From the Moravians he learned faith, assurance, and Christian experience, which are rooted in the experiential work of the Holy Spirit. Their lasting influence can be seen in Wesley’s concept of the “witness of the Spirit” which can be found throughout his writings especially in his sermons.

Later Years

Missionary success came with a price to Zinzendorf and his followers. His opponents sought to undermine him and his ministry and in 1736, he was banished from Saxony. He took the family with him west to Wetteravia, near Frankfurt, and found residence in an old castle called the Ronneburg. Here a new settlement, Herrnhaag, would thrive nearby, surpassing Herrnhut in size. Over the following years, the missionaries' endeavors continued to spread throughout the world. In 1747 alone, 200 missionaries went out to posts of duty as missionaries to the New World among the Diaspora. Zinzendorf spent the remainder of his days leading the growing Moravian movement, traveling, teaching, and encouraging others to follow Christ.

Zinzendorf lived out his last days at Herrnhut. The year 1760 marked 28 years in Moravian missions. In the final days of his life he became weak and feeble. Nearing death on May 8, 1760, he said to Bishop David Nitschmann at his bedside:

“Did you suppose in the beginning that the Savior would do as much as we now really see, in the various Moravian settlements, amongst the children of God of other denominations and amongst the heathen? I only entreated of him a few of the firstfruits of the latter, but there are now thousands of them. Nitschmann, what a formidable caravan from our church already stands around the Lamb!”

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[1] George Hunter, "The Rationale for a Culturally Relevant Worship Service," Journal of the American Society of Church Growth, Worship and Growth. 7 (1996): 131).

[2] Win Arn, The Pastor's Manual for Effective Ministry. Monrovia, Calif.: Church Growth, 1988. 16.

[3] Thomas Jackson, The Works of John Wesley. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1979), 1:23.

Remember Whose You Are

As I began my walk through the New Testament this year, the first reading was, quite obviously, from Matthew 1. I was struck anew with a sense of awe as I read it and the words came to life for me like never before. Just last month, my wife and I had our third child (and Jonathan begat Micah). Because of this recent life event, fatherhood had been on my mind more than usual. When I read over is familiar passage, two things stuck out: our parenting doesn't affect just our kids but also generations to come, and it matters whose you are.

Trickle-Down Parenting

We see it over and over again where one sin causes peril for generation after generation. Cain, Akin, Abram, etc., are prime examples of this.

The genealogies in Scripture should serve as a minder of how much our actions do matter for those yet to come. And when applied to parenting, this increases all the more.

My responsibility as a father to Ethan, Micah, and Parker is the train them for godliness. They will be most significantly influenced in matters of both faith and lifestyle by my actions, words, and training. That is a heavy responsibility, but a welcome one. God has chosen me as a father to these three boys. That in itself is quite humbling.

But He provides me guidance as I provide them guidance.

Through both Scripture as well as the example of my own godly father, I am blessed with a firm foundation on which to live my life as an example to my boys. I can rest in the grace God has extended to me and show that same grace to my boys.

My prayer is that they see that grace, respond to Christ in faith and do the same for their children, they for theirs, and so on.

Remember Whose You Are

When I was a youngster, the last thing my dad would tell me before I went out with my friends was, "Remember whose you are." I knew the meaning of that quite well. He wasn't just telling me to not do anything to embarrass him or my mom. He was reminding me to act in a way that represents the character of Christ. It's one of the most vivid memories I have from my childhood.

Reading these genealogies brings that memory rushing to the forefront once again.

Something that seems as boring as a genealogy was comfort to me and should be a comfort to you as well. For we are to remember whose we are. We are bought with a price. Heirs.

Sons.

We know who our heavenly Father is. Let us not forget that. We are His, and He is ours. And we are to pass that on.

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Jonathan Howe serves as Director of Strategic Initiatives at LifeWay Christian Resources, the host and producer of Rainer on Leadership and SBC This Week. Jonathan writes weekly at ThomRainer.com on topics ranging from social media to websites and church communications.

Should Christians Be Concerned About the Environment?

Jonathan Merritt is author of A Faith of Our Own and Green Like God. He has published more than 350 articles in outlets such as USA Today, The Atlantic, National Journal, and CNN.com. He holds an M.Div. from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Th.M. from Emory University. Connect with Jonathan on Twitter.  

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People often ask me for a reason why I believe Christians should care for the environment. They are often taken aback when I respond, "Because of the Gospel." While these two might not immediately strike one as connected, I’ve come to believe they are inextricably so. Let me explain.

Creation care is a launching pad for the Gospel. I continue to get correspondence from missionaries around the world who are relieved to find American Christians championing “creation care.” In many foreign countries, missionaries don’t begin with Jesus, who is unknown. Rather they begin with the creation and Creator, who is clearly evident to all (Rom 1).

Creation care strengthens our Gospel witness. In Western countries like ours, where there is a growing sensitivity to environmental problems, people see environmental stewardship as the mark of a “good” person. When people see Christians selflessly caring for this planet and advocating for those who depend on Earth’s resources, our message becomes convincing. That’s why church planters across the U.S. are beginning to incorporate stewardship practices into their congregation’s DNA.

Furthermore, foreign peoples carefully observe the historically Christian West, and based on our lifestyles and witnesses, they form opinions about our faith. Take paper consumption, for example. America comprises only 5% of the world’s population, yet we consume over a third of Earth’s paper products. How does this effect the Gospel in countries like Nicaragua, Honduras, and Ecuador, where deforestation causes so much injustice?

Living out the Gospel includes caring for creation. It is inappropriate to claim that creation care — or any social issue — comprises the foundation of the Gospel. But we must accept that the Gospel calls us to a radically sacrificial, compassionate lifestyle. Even the Great Commission commands us both to “make disciples of all nations” and to teach others to “obey everything I have commanded you.” This includes the commands to love our global neighbors, care for “least of these” and uphold the creation care mandates replete throughout Scripture.

Ignoring environmental problems heaps shame on the Gospel. Part of missional living is truth-telling. That means we must be honest about our world’s problems. When we blindly follow Christian lobbying groups and “alliances” that ignore global injustices, the Gospel suffers. St. Augustine cautions against this in The Literal Meaning of Genesis:

It is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, while presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense. We should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn . . . If they find a Christian mistaken in a field, which they themselves know well, and hear him maintain his foolish opinions about the Scriptures, how then are they going to believe those Scriptures in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven?

I could offer a number of reasons why Christians should care about creation: Because the “earth is the Lord’s” (Psalm 24), because it reveals the attributes of God (Psalm 19; Rom 1), because God asked us to care for it (Genesis 2:15), and because Christ’s death began a process of cosmic redemption in which we are called to participate (Col 1; Rev 11). But more than any of those, we must care about creation because we want the Kingdom of God to reign on earth and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to take root among all people.

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A version of this article first appeared in Christianity Today.

He Will Draw Near to You

It all hit at a time when life was going really well. My husband and child were wonderful, jobs were set, my first EP was just released, and we were on our way to a triple date with some of our friends.  July 20^th, 2012 started out as a perfectly normal day.

We chose to go see a movie that night and in the theatre I began to feel something unfamiliar. I was certain it was the beginning of a heart attack. It continued to get worse – the burning, the racing pulse, the shaking, the difficulty breathing. I was feeling frantic, and that’s putting it lightly.

All I wanted to do was go home or go to the hospital. Something was wrong and it wasn’t going away. As hard as I tried to figure out what was going on with me, I couldn’t.

After a visit to the ER, four days of agony dealing with anxiety, an uncontrollable shaking episode, a visit to the doctor, and Xanax, I found myself sitting on our bed on a Tuesday night.  What was all of this? Where did it come from? I decided to take a look in my journal where I record thoughts and prayers. Tears began streaming down my face.

Here are a few of the excerpts I read that night:

June 5, 2012

I feel that if I discipline myself in prayer and listening to God, I could really be who I'm supposed to be and do what I'm supposed to do.

June 13, 2012

Not sure what is next on the agenda for me, but I have a hopeful feeling that God is going to give me something new and different and better.

June 14, 2012

Being helpless is what creates a deep prayer life.  God, how do I become helpless?  I need to be that.  I need to be less.  I need to feel weak.  I need to feel like I can't control or do things on my own.  Help me do that.

June 19, 2012

I need to have faith - not rely on optimism and answered prayers.  No matter what happens, God is still God and God is still good.

Answered Prayers

I was absolutely floored and didn’t remember writing any of it. My desire was to feel a closeness and nearness with God that I hadn't felt before. I longed to feel him on the other side of my prayers. I wanted to be dependent on him and know that I truly was.  I wanted to give up control of my life.  I had asked him for this.

God allowed me to do, feel, and know all of those things. He allowed for this great pain to overwhelm my body, something that I have always been very good at controlling.  He allowed me to feel completely alone in my own mind.  He allowed me to feel helpless, weak, and out of control.

This is a part of God that some find troubling (including myself at times). Yet, God wasn't sitting in heaven on a comfy chair while zapping his hands at me and making me suffer through this pain.  He was allowing me to experience this pain, knowing all along that he would bring me out of it and I would come out a better person--a dependent child of God.

Although this was truly anxiety, there was also a deeper problem - a spiritual problem.  I believe that the outpouring of this pain came from a longing and emptiness in my soul.  I was supposed to uncover all of this truth about God and myself.

I asked my husband, "But would God really allow all of this to happen to me and for me to feel so much pain just so I could realize these things?"  "Yes.  That's how much He loves you," he said.  My eyes filled with tears as I thought about this love that I had blocked out of so many parts of my heart. I had finally let it all in.

I sat there that night crying, reading through my journal, and thanking the Lord through prayer. It was as if a cool breeze had fallen on my entire body and a huge burden had been lifted. I was free and the pain was gone. Gone.

Good News

I was reminded of this verse:

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.- James 4:8

I fell asleep praying that night.  I fell asleep feeling like the Spirit of God was wrapped around me like a blanket.  As if I could never escape it.  I didn't want to escape it; this was home.

I’ve learned so much from all of this.  The list seems unending. But how it has affected my understanding of people around me, the good news of Jesus, and the reality of God as Provider have proven to be the most significant.

I have to take time to understand where people are coming from. I had my definitions of “anxiety” and of “those people” with mental health issues nailed down in my mind until it happened to me. I have a deeper understanding now. I know what it’s like to feel like your life, as you once knew it, was over. Everything around me was dark and hopeless. I can now empathize with others walking in that same valley.  I am working on showing compassion and offering grace to others.

The good news of Jesus is true, living, and active. He did something amazing thousands of years ago. One remarkable result is it allows the Holy Spirit to live inside of us. We have access to this God! I am just now understanding what that really means and how powerful it truly is.  When I felt alone in a place of darkness, he was there.  He was all I had.  I leaned on him even though I didn’t feel like I even knew how.  When he came that night to reveal those truths to me, I not only had a new understanding of the good news of Jesus in my mind and heart, but I could feel it.  It swept through my body and provided healing.

Ask. Seek. Find

If you want something from God, then ask. Ask over and over. He does provide. I knew there was something I was lacking in my relationship with God and understanding of him. I asked for that many, many times, whatever “that” was. I asked him if he’d help me break through whatever was stopping me. He did. He did in a way that I would’ve never asked for myself, but it was so worth it.

God is legitimately listening and acting.  If you find yourself disagreeing with that statement, I encourage you to do one thing:  talk to God genuinely.  Tell him how you feel. Ask him for help. Be genuine and open in your interaction with him and I believe he will do more than you can imagine.  I'm not saying that if you ask for a new refrigerator that a new refrigerator is going to show up on your doorstep. I am saying that God takes care of us in ways we couldn't have come up with on our own sometimes. Trust me; his ways always end up being better than anything we could have planned.

I am not perfect and I am not struggle-free. I am still dealing with anxiety and fear in a way I’ve never had to before. (My old, in-control self would marvel at the fact that I now see a counselor regularly!) I get weary and even the journey seems too hard at times.   But I know, like that night God’s healing rushed through me, that he is with me.  He is making me new.  Draw near to him and he will draw near to you.

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Claire Westbrook (@clairewestbrook) is wife to Colt and mother to 14-month-old Duke. She lives in Oklahoma City, OK and spends her time being a stay-at-home mom, teaching piano lessons, and writing music. Claire blogs at My Devising.

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Read more on this topic in Winfield Bevins' e-book, Prayer Life.

Read more free articles: The Daily Gospel by Mathew Sims and Gospel Diagnostic Questions by David Fairchild.

Why I'm Not Reading in 2013

Josh King is Lead Pastor of Sachse's First Baptist Church and a graduate of Criswell College and Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. He lives in Wylie, Texas with his wife Jacki and their two young boys.  

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Personally, I think New Year's resolutions get a bad rap. Many people portray them as almost unbiblical and at odds with Jesus and the Gospel. I disagree. I find them to be useful, at least in terms of assessing one's life. I think it is healthy to look back, evaluate, and move forward.

Instead of adding things like diet, exercise, and reading, I am cutting stuff out. The most life changing, for me, will be reading. I have decided that in 2013, I will not read any new books. Crazy, right? I know, like most resolutions, I will probably fail at this sometime mid-February but my motivation is centered around changing my personal attitude through an attempt at reading less.

Those who know me know that I am an avid reader. I love books - especially eBooks. There is something mind blowing about someone that I have never met packing up his mind and transferring it to me. I love the experience and the possibilities. But over time it has waned from learning and growth to acquiring and flaunting. To me, reading books has been no different than someone who might collect cars, watches, or electronics. I read to "stay in the know" and to let others know that I was. I was devouring without contributing.

This year, I am seeking a new approach that looks like this:

1. I will look to talk with people who know. Instead of picking up a book on revitalization, I will sit down and buy coffee for a revitalizer.
2. I will re-read what I've read. There are a few books over the past few years that stand out. I don't remember every detail, but I remember thinking and being engaged by the author and the content. This year, if I do read, I am going to go back and re-read those with a pen and paper. I will interact and look for real ways to apply what I've already learned.
3. I will seek balance, or better yet, priority. This is a tricky part. Should I read my Bible more than I read other books? Should I write more than I read? Just trying to answer those questions in the affirmative is going to be a challenge.

I am clearly not against books or new books. I am sure this year will be filled with great works by great men; all of which I can read... next year.

As We Fight for Faith

In almost every epic story there is a moment that is so dark you are unsure how the characters or your own soul will ever recover. You can’t see the road out. Very few cruel stories ever leave you there but the best of stories always go there.

Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise. - Victor Hugo, Les Miserable.

We have been in the darkest hour in Austin, Texas. The moment when you turn in each direction on this earth and you physically shudder. My friend Sarah can barely move and can’t speak, her three very young children have been told they may not see their mom again or it will be a really long time. Four weeks ago she had several strokes that resulted in a major brain surgery. She is 34 years old and also in the midst of a difficult divorce. Brokenness breaks everything all at once sometimes.

Lately, hope mostly exists in the form of heaven and laughter exists in inappropriate jokes that thankfully usually surround my darkest moments due to many inappropriate friends.

I got dressed for church last Sunday and we got there just a little bit late and I was so down. So, I dropped my kids off at church where my husband pastors and I went to Target to get a few last minute things for Christmas. I probably shouldn't publicly admitted that, but it happened.

As I pushed the cart my mind went places it has rarely ever gone. Places of wrestling with God and saying things like, “if this is how you roll God I want off.” As I retold this moment to a friend recently, she asked, “Then what did you do?” As if I were telling her a fascinating story before bedtime. She didn't want to be left hanging. There had to be a brilliant conclusion to such angst. I get it; we all want to know:

What do you do in the darkest hour? How do you fight for faith?

Here is my answer as I currently fight:

First, go there. Go to the darkest place. Something about facing what I am most afraid of; facing the worst case; facing the underbelly of God helps me. I am not good at pretending. I have no rugs where all dark things wait for me. It’s all out in the open and there is something refreshingly healthy about that. God’s grace has always been big enough for me to question him; I don’t go to him and pretend we are ok when we are not.

Second, We need people. As I pushed my shopping cart that day I skiped church, a Spirit filled friend called me and fought for me. She begged for me to not give up, that God was at work and this dark hour would not define this story. I cried walking aimlessly through Target as she preached, but when I got off the phone, I laughed at God’s timing.

We tend to isolate ourselves in the dark moments. DO NOT. We have kept a 10 person text stream running through the last few weeks since Sarah’s strokes. In it we have prayed and celebrated and cried and fought for each other. I call it our sisterhood. It is beautiful. God has gifted us with his family.

Thirdly, I fight for faith. Faith comes easily for some, I envy them. Mine is fought in the trenches of me on a regular basis. I fight to believe that God is real and good and all-knowing, especially when all hell feels loosed. I think it is ok to have to fight for it.

I fight by remembering. I remember that God did not promise to make this all right now. But he promised to make it right. I remember that Jesus didn’t live a posh life. It began a few weeks after he was born in a barn, being chased by baby genocide as he fled to Egypt. That was what Christ did after the first Christmas-he fled a genocide. I remember that in heaven the darkest hour will seem like a moment, a second.

And I fight for my friend! She is fighting to come back and we are fighting beside her! We believe our God can heal! Pray with us!

I kind-of think we are in the best of stories here. The kind of story that goes to the darkest place but for the best of reasons and doesn't leave us there in despair. A story written by and for a God who suffered first and is rescuing us from the darkest moments.

Editor’s Note: This is a repost of Fighting for Faith. It appears at GCD with the author’s permission.

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Jennie Allen’s passion is to communicate a bigger God through writing and teaching. She is the author of Anything and serves in ministry alongside her husband, Zac. They have four children and live in Austin, Texas. Jennie’s blog can be found at www.JennieAllen.com.

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Read more free article: Grief and the Gospel by Abe Meysenburg and Long Live the King by Jake Chambers

Read the e-book, Prayer Life by Winfield Bevins.

Give Your Pastor a Break

Pastors, for the most part, work hard. They love people, love the church, and serve out of a sense of divine responsibility. They generally do it out of this love and commitment, and not because of any financial benefit, as most pastors work for far less money than they could earn elsewhere. Pastoring is a highly stressful vocation and one which requires an often absurd amount of hours. Pastors put their weekly hours in at the office, are usually “on the job” multiple nights throughout the week, and generally have responsibilities on many weekends, with Sundays obviously being consumed with commitments. Beyond that, the nature of the job means they are also almost always available. Phone calls in the middle of the night, emergencies at the hospital on weekends and holidays, as well as days off interrupted by well-meaning people who have a pressing (and often not-so-pressing) need. I know, in my situation as a pastor over the last 10 years, if I put in less than 60-65 hours in a week I considered it a light week and one to appreciate. Pastors work a lot.

The Tasking Work of the Pastor

Beyond the fact that pastors work a lot, the kind of work they do is tasking. Not only does the job require a lot of hours, it also requires a high level of emotional, mental, and spiritual commitment. I can personally attest to the fact that a pastor almost never has meetings with people to discuss all the good things that are going on. Instead, the pastor typically invests their time dealing with sin, struggle, and pain. Counseling sessions with people in need, lunches with people who are unhappy, emails, Facebook messages, etc. All of this adds up to an often weighty amount of time and responsibility that can suck the life out of our pastors, often before we realize it. Pastoral work is not only hard, it is incredibly draining.

In August of 2010, the New York Times said, “Members of the clergy now suffer from obesity, hypertension and depression at rates higher than most Americans. In the last decade, their use of antidepressants has risen, while their life expectancy has fallen. Many would change jobs if they could.” The statistical realities that support this conclusion are often staggering.

With all this said, I would like to suggest a simple, easy to implement idea that should cost little to nothing, but could bring about significant benefits for both your pastors and your church: Give your pastors a break. Seriously. Move quickly to increase their vacation time. Now, before you quickly write me off, according to experts quoted in the same New York Times article, taking a bit of time off may be the most significant remedy to keep your pastors and staff from burning out and walking away. What is particularly great, from a church budget perspective, is this benefit costs little or nothing at all! Cheers all the way around! 

The Importance of Vacation

Over the years, I have spoken to a more than a few pastors who are at churches who give tiny vacation allotments to their pastors and staff. Often this is done by well meaning folks who model their compensation packages after secular packages without giving thought to the fact that pastors rarely work a 40-hour workweek and are always on call, not to mention the emotional and mental demands of the job which lead to higher-than-average burnout/dropout. Giving your pastors one week of vacation, or 10 days of vacation, is simply unfortunate and unnecessary. What makes this even more important, in my mind, is that churches are often operating as tightly as they can financially. Typically they are not flush with cash and, as such, struggle to find ways to compensate their pastors and staff in appropriate ways. Providing for them extra vacation time is an easy, affordable (if not free) way to bless your staff and, in doing so, builds a culture of love and respect among them that leads to even greater commitments to your church. In my mind, it makes little to no sense to offer them tiny, limited vacation packages. Moving their vacation time to three weeks, or even a month, could literally change their life and radically change the life of your church as well.

Thankfully, I can speak to this from personal experience. I have had the privilege of serving in churches that understand how important this is and who have blessed their staff with sufficient time off. I cannot tell you how much of a blessing that was, and how that led to a healthy ministry environment for me and my family.

So, do you want to bless your pastors and staff? Do you want to keep them around, keep them satisfied, and engender their greatest commitment to you while seeing them provide the highest level of service to you? Give them a break. Literally. I think you may be surprised at how well it could pay off for you and for them.

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Cross-posted from Micah's personal blog.