8 Tips for Short-Term Mission Trips

Mark Hampton is currently a student at Criswell College pursuing a B.A. in Biblical Studies. He also works as an intern at Metrocrest Community Church in Coppell, TX where he plays a role in music, media, and missions. Last June, he returned from a six-month mission trip to India and will be returning this summer to work with pastors in rural environments. Follow him on Twitter: @markismoving. ___

As summer approaches, churches across the nation prepare to send out teams for their summer mission trips. Those who are going on trips typically go through some type of training, but as flawed individuals, it’s more than easy to make some mistakes. Some are only minor and will lead to a good laugh and a great story to bring home; however, there are others that can have more collateral damage than meets the eye, and could prevent the work we do as missionaries from being effective.

Here is my list of eight important things that I have learned from doing mission work and I hope that it helps all of us going on trips this summer to have a greater impact, realistic mindset, and do the least damage to others and ourselves.

1. Serve Incarnationally

One of the foremost things to remember when going on mission is that you are there to serve. Whether you are evangelizing, teaching, or building a house, it will mean more to someone if it comes from a servant’s heart. Keep in mind the attitude of Christ who “came not to be served but to serve” (Matt. 20:28). Also, be incarnational when you do so. By incarnational, I mean that we should strive to be as much like those we are serving. As Paul wrote, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22b). Embrace your host culture in every way that you can; eat they eat, wear what they wear, do what they do. This is what Christ did to come in the flesh and take “the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:7). Trust me, you’ll do more to reach people from a different culture if you can empathize with them, rather than trying to maintain your American identity.

2. You Don’t Have to Be ‘Called’

That’s right! So, if you happen to be waiting for a great sign from God for you to go on mission you can quit waiting. You don’t have to be called because you have already been commissioned (Matt. 28-18-20; John 20:21; Acts 1:8). As a new creation in Christ, you have the authority to go and proclaim the Gospel to all nations (2 Cor. 5:17-19). You can go and serve out of obedience to Christ’s commands without having received some specific "call.". As a disclaimer, prayerfully consider what God would have you do though. There may be a specific reason He does not want you to go and you should concede to stay home. On the other hand, God may specifically call you to go somewhere and likewise, you should obey what God has put on your heart.

3. Support the Stayers

Most of us who go on summer trips aren’t going to pack up and move there. However, we will probably be working with someone who has committed to a specific area or people group for a long amount of time. Keep in mind that they have more experience in the area and that they will build relationships with people that will extend outside of a 1-2 week period. Often, encouraging and serving them is as vital a part of missions as working with the unreached. Your support can help them press on in difficult working conditions. Cleaning their house, watching their kids, or any other behind the scenes work can help them be better servants to those you are collectively trying to reach. Try to build into the ministry they have to help create something long term, rather than just performing hit and run ministry.

4. Don’t Build Things That Won’t Last

This is probably one of the easiest and most dangerous things that we can do on mission trips, and I must admit that I am guilty of it. This most often happens with the relationships we form, especially with children. In missions where you work with children, they are probably the less fortunate. They have probably been abandoned or experienced some type of loss before, and they do not need to form a bond with someone who is going to leave them never to be seen again. Now, I’m not saying to avoid children when you go on mission, but bear in mind that you do have a flight home. Don’t make promises you can’t keep, but rather, try to lead the people you work with into better relationships with those who are there for the long haul.

5. Embrace the Awkward

Get out of your comfort zone and practice doing so! Seek out a community that is different from your own somewhere near where you live. Take a team member and go visit them and talk with them. Sure, it’s not going to feel natural, but if you go with a genuine interest to get to know the people you may be surprised how quickly the walls can come down and how quickly relationships can begin to form.

6. Have a Stay-at-Home Mission Partner

Remember, not everyone you come home to has had some awesome experience over the past few weeks. Realize that life has carried on as normal for them and that they won’t have the same enthusiasm as you do when you come home. Get a close friend (preferably someone who has been on a mission trip before) to be there to talk about everything you did, hear all of your stories, and look at the 3,000 pictures you took. Have this person praying for you every day from the moment you know you’re going to the day you come home. Try to send them a postcard if you can and bring them home a small gift. When you tell them of everything God did they will know that they were also a part of what took place.

7. Manage Your Expectations

The key word here is YOUR. By YOUR, I mean YOUR expectations about YOURself. God will be God, and He will do amazing things, but you are not God. There are going to be times when you are worn out, spiritually exhausted, tired of the living conditions or the food, and are frustrated. I recommend memorizing a specific Psalm you can say to yourself when these moments occur. It’s also important to keep your expectations realistic for when you come home. It’s easy to come home with the “Mission High”, and again, I’m guilty of doing so. We think we’ll be completely different when we come home, but it just doesn’t last. God works on us over time. Yes, going on a mission trip can fundamentally change you, but understand that there may be more subtle things that have changed about you as a result that may take a while before you see what they are.

8. Pray for the Ridiculous

Surround your mission trip in prayer! Enlist others to pray, as many as you can, and don’t be afraid to pray for God to do things that seem absurd. Our biggest vulnerabilities can turn into God’s greatest victories if we are obedient and trust in Him to do the work. Pray for your time on mission from every angle possible and don’t let one detail escape being prayed for. Invite the Holy Spirit into every facet of the task at hand and pray constantly before, during, and after your trip.

I hope and pray that this list will challenge, encourage, and inspire those who are going on mission trips this summer. Certainly, this does not cover everything that could be said about missions. This list merely comprises what have been some of my greatest (and hardest) lessons that I have had to learn both on and off the mission field. Remember, that in our weakness God’s strength is perfect (2 Cor. 12:9), and because of that promise we can take hope in what God will do through us to reach the lost and hurting of this world. Therefore, be bold! Go and serve and you will see what amazing ways God can use His people!

Can Marriage and Mission Mix?

“I can’t wait to be done with college; then life will slow down.” Over the last decade of working with college students, that’s one my favorite recurring comments. Every time I hear it I chuckle under my breath, trying to resist outright laughing. You likely know as well as I do: life never seems to slow down! Most of us find ourselves stressed, stretched, and spinning out of control. We can’t even seem to find time for a hobby, or to keep ourselves in shape – or if we’re married, at times even the time to connect deeply with our spouse! Add kids to the mix, with their added busyness, and the craziness increases exponentially! That seems to be the reality of today’s culture.

But there’s a greater reality, which has applied to every culture in which Christians have lived: God sends us into that culture, despite our busyness, as a “minister of reconciliation” (2Cor 5:18), to “seek its welfare” (Jer 29:7) and to “make disciples” (Matt 28:20). That call and command rests on all of us, no matter how busy, but the question for this article looks specifically at married people: how can God use my marriage for his mission?

DIVERGING STREAMS?

Many married people reading this are well versed in two streams of Christian thought: the first stream is that we are God’s people sent into God’s world to carry out God’s mission. From Abraham on, God sends his people into the world – not to be enveloped by the world, but to live – as St. Augustine put it – as the “city of God,” living among the “city of Man” and seeking its good. The other stream is that marriage is the best reflection of the Trinity, and of God’s love for and pursuit of his Bride. Orthodox theology for the past 2000 years has affirmed Paul’s words in Ephesians 5, that the blessed relationship between a husband and wife is the clearest picture of “the mystery” of “Christ and his church.” We’ve heard both those streams; we know both principles; we even believe and strive to live out those truths.

The problem is that we often hear, know, believe, and live those streams separately from each other, while God designed them to be one strong, flowing, unified river. We try to live as missionaries and as couples as two distinct compartments of life. As Paul Tripp has said: “But they’re not naturally divided. That’s why you don’t have a huge discussion in the New Testament of the tension between ministry and family. It’s just not there. We have set that up, because we naturally look at these two things as separate dimensions.” Here’s the truth for every Christian couple: marriage is the clearest picture of the gospel in the world today, and your marriage is one of the best forms of evangelism in the world today. We can no longer keep our marriage and our mission in separate, parallel streams – they must unite.

How can God use our marriage for his mission? We can learn much from the Bible’s brief glimpses of one couple, Aquila and Priscilla, in Acts 18.

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. -Acts 18:1-3

GOD’S MISSION THROUGH YOUR IDENTITY

Aquila and Priscilla were not pastors and they didn’t have seminary degrees. They made tents for a living, working a culturally-normative profession. Yet they saw themselves as ministers of the gospel by opening their lives to Paul. We see at the end of 1 Corinthians that they hosted the local church in their home. Later in Acts 18 they go with Paul on mission for the gospel. In some circles today, Christians refer to “tent-making” as the honorable use of a “secular” job for ministry. For this couple, tent-making carried no great honor; it was simply their job, and a means of God’s provisions, as they lived their lives for the gospel! They were a married couple with a normal life, who used their marriage and life for God’s ministry. Whoever you are, and regardless of your job, city, or profession – or marital status! – you are a minister of the gospel!

The God who saved you “by grace through faith” now has “good works, prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:8-10). “God… through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:18). If you're married, you're probably busy. Whether you’re paid by a church or by Starbucks, FedEx, an ISD, or the government, and whether we’ve been married one week or 50 years, and whether you have 10 kids running around the home or are empty-nesters, and whether you deal with the normal messiness of life or struggle with deeper issues, you’re still (primarily) God’s people sent on God’s mission to God’s world. That’s your identity in Christ: you’re a minister of his gospel.

GOD’S MISSION THROUGH YOUR HOSPITALITY

As part of Aquila and Priscilla’s gospel ministry, they opened their home to the Apostle Paul. He didn’t just crash on their couch for a few nights but moved in with them. Their home was also the meeting place for the local church. If you look at the normative life of the early church in Acts 2, you know that folks didn’t just wander into their home at 10am on a Sunday, stay for an hour, then go to Chili’s. Instead, “day by day, [they attended] the temple together and [broke] bread in their homes” (Acts 2,). They were likely in Aquila and Priscilla’s home a lot.

There’s an old episode of Everybody Loves Raymond in which Ray’s parents purchase a new couch, and won’t remove the plastic wrap for fear of getting it dirty – that’s a great picture of how many of us view our homes. Today we often view our homes as a “refuge” or “retreat” from the difficult world “out there.” That thinking misses part of the point: our homes, like everything God gives us, are gifts to steward for the sake of God's mission! Aquila and Priscilla had a home, and used that home as a generous blessing to others.

Aquila and Priscilla lived as God’s ministers, and in doing so, they used their home as a ministry. In the familial mess of opening your home, doors open for deep conversations. In denying the comfort and convenience a home can provide, others are blessed and cared for.

GOD’S MISSION THROUGH YOUR DECISIONS

Put yourself in Aquila and Priscilla’s shoes: you’re new to town, and you're only there because you got kicked out of your last town. If the local church needs a place to meet, would you volunteer your home? Paul shows up and asks to live with you. While your first impression today might be excitement: “The most famous Christian in the world, the guy who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, the greatest missionary of all time, wants to live with ME?!” We must see the other side too: Paul was also one of the most persecuted, “most wanted,” most despised persons of his day. “Inviting him in” was a massive danger to yourself!

When we think of “hospitality,” we often mistake it for what the Bible calls “fellowship.” At times it’s easy–or at least, easier–to open your home to other followers of Jesus. But true, biblical hospitality is opening your home to strangers, caring for the hurting and the “least.” Biblical hospitality means blessing folks who could never bless you back. Hospitality is initiating with others and loving people because God first initiated and loved us.

The rubber meets the road in marriage and ministry through the decisions you make each day. Those decisions display what you and your spouse value, love, pursue, and fear. Your decisions display what you and your spouse worship. And those you’re ministering to will watch your marriage and learn from it. How you use your home as a couple is one of those daily decisions.

The Fears We Have

What are our biggest fears with using our marriages for mission? That we’ll be unsafe? That we won’t be successful? That our child will experience a tragedy or they won’t have the best opportunity to succeed themselves? None of these fears are inherently evil, but if they become a greater fear than “the fear of the LORD,” which “is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov 1:7), they have become evil. If they become the primary motivation behind our marital and familial decisions, above obedience to God, then we are listening to our culture over our God. In the decisions we make, we must discern whether we’re placing our hope in God or something else. Are we trusting a certain neighborhood for safety more than God? Are we placing hope in a certain job to provide better than God?

Here’s the point: in Romans 16:3, Paul literally says, “Priscilla and Aquila risked their necks for my life.” Why would they do that? This couple valued God’s mission and ministry over any cultural norm, distraction, or idol. There would be no other reason to risk their lives except that their values and goals were different than those of the world around them. Throughout Jesus’ own ministry, he called people to fight against their inward-focused, selfish, consumerist lives. He called them to battle the natural currents of culture and to fight Satan’s subtle temptations to convince you – among other things – that following God is too risky.

GOD’S MISSION THROUGH YOUR STEWARDSHIP

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:9: “if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” If Jesus hadn’t risen, and there’s no hope for the future, then we should be more pitied than anyone in the world! The reason our lives should invite pity from people who don’t know Jesus is that our lives should look so strange, illogical, and even crazy. People should think we’ve lost our minds! Is that true of the decisions you and your spouse make? What values and priorities do your neighbors see in your marriage? What goals and pursuits does the world around you see in your life?

If God is using our marriages for his mission, it looks completely illogical. For example you might be able to afford the best private school in town, yet send your kids to the less-esteemed, local public one because your family places obedience in mission above an educational reputation. It makes no sense to deny a higher paying job, for one with better hours – but you pursue mission by dwelling with your family and mission field longer. Might we give up a club, hobby, organization, Xbox, or even one of our many Bible Studies, to free up time, money, and energy for those God sent us to? Might we even “cold-call” our neighbors and invite them over for dinner? Would we let them see our imperfections, and bless them without expecting a return? This is the call to display the weird life of gospel implications in marriage.

The key to each of these– living as a minister, opening your home and marriage, and living a counter-cultural lifestyle – is seeing yourself as a steward of your life, possessions, and even family, rather than an owner. Here’s what Aquila and Priscilla understood: everything we have is a gift from God. Everything we have is his; everything is given to us to use and cultivate and use on his behalf. We are the servants in Matthew 25, and one day our Master will look at all he entrusted us with. Will our master be pleased or disappointed in our stewardship?

GOD’S MISSION THROUGH YOUR PROCLAMATION

Our marriages, like everything else God gives us, are gifts from God to steward well for his purposes. Do we take his gift and make it about ourselves? Do we trade his purpose and mission for our selfishness and safety? Do we take marriage – the best display of the gospel to the world – and hide it away rather than using it to proclaim the glory, grace, and goodness of God? Aquila and Priscilla were so sold out on God’s mission that they later moved to Ephesus with Paul. They stayed there when Paul continued on, and as a “husband-wife team,” directed their ministry into a young convert named Apollos.

After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila… And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus… Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. -Acts 18:18-26

The scriptures that speak to this point in history show that that, as a couple, Aquila and Priscilla “discipled” this young man for a season just as they had opened their lives to Paul and the church at Corinth. And like Paul, God used Apollos to produce great fruit and bring himself great glory through the known world.

A CONVERGENCE FOR SAKE OF THE GOSPEL

By their actions, decisions, lifestyle, and their words, Aquila and Priscilla were a couple who proclaimed the gospel. What your city be like if it was filled with couples devoting their lives and marriages to helping others understand the good news of Jesus? What would your church be like if it was filled with families who opened their homes to literal life-on-life discipleship? What would it look like to see our marriages as gifts from God, for the sake of his mission, rather than our own selfish desires?

It is difficult! It battles everything in us that wants comfort, convenience, privacy, and silence. If we deny ourselves for his mission, we should be pitied if Jesus didn’t raise from the dead. But he did! In doing so, he transforms both our marriages and our mission; he gives us the only reason for living this way; he becomes the only reason for “intentionally illogical” decisions. In Jesus’ death, resurrection, and call on our lives, his mission and our marriages converge into a story that’s bigger than our own – the writing of which took a greater sacrifice than we’ll ever be asked to give.

In our marriages, we have the opportunity to put that story on display every day. Will we continue to live as married people, who separately, occasionally in our busyness, pursue ministry? Or will the gospel transform our time, priorities, and relationship, and unite those diverging streams into one, as we live out our new identity and God’s mission through our marriages?

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Special thanks to Ross Appleton for the foundational concept this article is built on.

Ben Connelly lives in Fort Worth with his wife and daughters. He started The City Church in 2010 and lives on mission by teaching public speaking at TCU. Ben sits on the board of a few city-focused organizations, trains occasionally across the country, and writes in spurts at benconnelly.net. Twitter: @connellyben

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Read more about the implications of the resurrection in the free e-book Raised? by Jonathan Dodson and Brad Watson. 

Living the Resurrection?

This is an excerpt of the book Raised? Doubting the Resurrection. Get the entire e-book for free at www.raisedbook.com. --

Once we make our way through doubt, come to understand the gospel story and saving faith in the risen Christ, these questions arise: How do we practice the resurrection? What difference does it make in you and me? How do we live this new, or raised, life?

The last lines of Matthew’s Gospel belong to Jesus himself. Believers in the resurrection cherish them because the final words of their Savior explain how to live the resurrected life. After his resurrection, and just before his ascension to the Father, Jesus tells his disciples how to be fruitful and multiply with their new, abundant life. He describes a life characterized by a new authority, a new identity, and a new mission.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. - Matthew 28:16-20

A New Authority: Follow Me

Jesus has all authority on heaven and earth. His authority eclipses the kings of Israel and the leaders of nations. All other kings die; Jesus vanquished death. All rulers are made, but all things were made by and for Jesus. His rule extends beyond the earth into the heavens, where he deposes powers and will bring all who are in opposition to surrender, establishing never-ending peace. Paul poetically describes his lordship:

[Jesus] is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. - Colossians 1:15-20

In short, the risen Jesus has all the authority in the universe. Christ is profoundly great and good. He deserves our worship and obedience. Those who possess resurrected life joyfully acknowledge that Jesus is in charge and follow him. We listen to what he says, by reading his teachings, and we follow what he says, by lining our lives up with his teaching. A disciple learns to submit to Jesus in every facet of life. From waking up to going to bed, everything falls under his authority. Short-term plans and long-term investments are decided by his instruction. Living the resurrected life means placing yourself under Christ’s rule. He is in charge and he is good at it. So know this—Jesus is no tyrant. He does not abuse his power. Rather, he is a loving and serving master. He is the master who washes his disciples feet. He is the king who lays down his life for his friends and, yes, even for those who doubt him. You are not cheated. You can run the cost-benefit analysis a million times, but it always comes out the same. The cost of submitting to Jesus pales in comparison to the rich relationship and future you have in Christ.

Four Ways to Follow Jesus

• In Community. Following Jesus is communal. You need others and they need you. You share in struggle and daily remind each other of the abundant life and precious savior you have in common. Christians gather on Sunday to sing not only to God but each other: “Jesus rose from the dead!”

• In Prayer. Have you ever wondered why Christians pray? They pray because they know how dependent they are on God. Prayer is an invitation to know God and join his grace agenda for our lives.

• In Repentance & Faith. Repentance and faith are integral to the Christian life. Repentance is not feeling sorry to get on God’s good side. It is turning from the fleeting promises of sin to the superior promises of the Savior. It is seeing that, by grace, we are already on God’s good side and nothing else can compare to him.

• In the Story. Despite its age and apparent obscurity, the Bible is the story and inspired texts of God. It teaches us how to follow Jesus. We read it not to learn about extinct cultures, but to know and follow our Savior who was raised.

New Identity: In Christ

Resurrection life is nothing short of an entirely new identity. An identity is formed by what defines you. In American culture, your sexual orientation, your political party, your race, your religion, or your home state may define you. You can find identity in your occupation, your alma mater, your hobbies, and even your clothes. You can locate your identity by filling in the blank with “I am ____” statements.

• I am an accountant
• I am a Buddhist
• I am an alcoholic
• I am a vegetarian
• I am a Longhorn
• I am a skater
• I am white
• I am a democrat
• I am gay
• I am beautiful
• I am a hipster
• I am a disciple
• I am a Christian

Sometimes our identities are a composite. However, there some are typically stronger than others. How do you know which is strongest? Think about the one you just couldn’t live without. If you can’t imagine life living without it, you may have found your deepest identity. Each identity has a hidden mantra that goes something like: I am what I eat, who I sleep with, how I make money, what I wear, what I look like, or where I came from. Others are defined by their addictions and failures.

The interesting thing about many identities is that they come from what we do. The resurrected life is different. Instead of being named by the things we have done, we are named “in the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” We no longer have to be defined by our rise and fall in success and failure. Instead, our identity is defined by God’s utter success over our sinful failures and his gift of new life. We have a new identity. The New Testament describes our newfound identity in various ways:

• Child of God
• Friend of God
• Servant
• Sent one or missionary
• Disciple
• Blessed
• New Creation
• Saint (Holy One)

This list only scratches the surface of our new identity in Christ. This is God’s grace in the resurrected life. We don’t deserve these wonderful identities. Yet, Christ’s work is to give them to us. They all spring from grace—what he has done for us, not what we have done for him. He is Father to the child, Friend to the friend, Master to the servant, Ultimate Missionary to the sent one, Savior to the disciple, Resurrection to the new creation, Holy to the saint.

Empowered by the Presence of God

Jesus’ final words make it clear; we will not be abandoned: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” The resurrected Jesus is not in a distant universe or looking down from the clouds to see how well we are doing. He is with us and will be forever. The resurrected life is a continually restored relationship with God. We will not be exiled. We will not be alone. This is the ultimate benefit of following Jesus: Jesus himself. We can enjoy him daily. Like Adam and Eve before their rebellion, we can always walk the garden with God.

The promise of God’s presence isn’t a fleeting greeting on the inside of hallmark card. It is real comfort and power. As Jesus was preparing his disciples, he told them he would send them the Holy Spirit. In the Bible, the Book of Acts tells the story of how the Holy Spirit empowers normal disciples to follow Jesus. We see the Spirit empower ordinary people like you and me to speak the gospel boldly, obey Jesus commands, heal the sick, make disciples, give generously, and care for the poor. The Holy Spirit is the power of the resurrection for Jesus and for us: “And the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). The power of the resurrection is in us through the Spirit!

Now, we could easily read this think, “Okay, let’s get to work...maybe I can do this.” But if you set off in your own resolve, you will fall flat. I do. When Im not living out of resurrection power (depending on the Spirit through prayer), I end up relying on emotional power. If I feel good that day, I’ll attempt to live out of my new identity and follow Jesus. If I don’t feel good, I’ll struggle to follow him. Either way, I miss the vibrancy of the Spirit. I quickly tire out, snap at others, or silently take credit for good things. I amass self-righteousness through self-dependence. However, when I begin the day with utter dependence upon the Spirit, drawing near to God in prayer, asking for his power and guidance throughout the day, it changes things entirely. Instead of tiring out, I’m filled up. Instead of snapping at others, I find a hesitating nudge from the Spirit to love and forbear. Instead of taking credit, I’m quick to give glory to God. The Holy Spirit enables you to live the resurrected life. He bears the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control, even in difficult circumstances. You don’t have to muster up the strength to follow Jesus. Instead, you get to rely on the strength of the Holy Spirit.

New Mission: Make Disciples 

Matthew 28:18-20 is what Christians call the Great Commission, the dominant marching orders for all who have faith in Christ. It can sound a bit militant: “Take God’s authority and make disciples.” But remember, these orders are from the one who lays down his life. Ironically, our orders are to invite through imitation. The mission is to make disciples through our words and actions. Or, as Jesus said, “teach and obey.” In fact, it is when we experience the riches of renewal through Christ that we become, as Eugene Peterson says, “God’s advertisement to the world.” We make disciples by living resurrected lives and telling people about the resurrected Christ.

There’s not a hint of coercion here. It’s a life of love. Jesus wants us to spread the gospel throughout the world by spending our lives intentionally with others. Resurrection doesn’t stop with us but travels through us. The commission is to invite. We get to invite others to join his redemptive agenda for human flourishing and the remaking of the world. We are sent to share the good news that Jesus has defeated sin, death, and evil through his own death and resurrection and is making all things new, even us. Jesus calls his followers to participate in his work of renewing the world.

Distinctive Discipleship

Part of what makes this command great is its scope—all nations. When Jesus spoke these words, he was orienting a primarily Jewish audience to a distinctly multi-ethnic mission. We get the word, “ethnic” from the Greek word for nations, which doesn’t refer to modernist geo-political states, but to non-Jewish ethnic groups (Gentiles). The commission is not calling disciples’ to Christianize nation-states, but to share the good news of what Jesus has done with all ethnic groups. Christ does not advocate Christendom, a top-down political Christianity. Instead, he calls his followers to transmit a bottom-up, indigenous Christianity, to all peoples in all cultures. The command is to make disciples of all nations not from all nations. So, we aren’t meant to exchange our rich culture for a cheap, consumer, Christian knock-off culture. Andrew Walls puts it well:

Conversion to Christ does not produce a bland universal citizenship: it produces distinctive discipleship, as diverse and variegated as human life itself. Christ in redeeming humanity brings, by the process of discipleship, all the richness of humanity’s infinitude of cultures and subcultures into the variegated splendor of the Full Grown Humanity to which the apostolic literature points Eph 4.8-13.

What we should strive for is distinctive discipleship, discipleship that uniquely expresses personal faith in our cultural context. Disciples in urban Manhattan will look different than disciples in rural Maehongson. These differences allow for a flourishing of the gospel that contributes to the many-splendored new humanity of Christ. Simply put, the message of Jesus is for the flourishing of all humanity in all cultures.

The Call of Resurrection

Jesus tells those who follow to leave all they have behind, to give their lives to the poor, to love their enemies, and be a blessing to the world. The resurrection enables us to follow Jesus. In this we risk for the sake of humanity and out of belief in the gospel. We do not hold back because we live with the certainty that death and sin have been defeated. His death and resurrection has become our death and resurrection. We have a new authority, identity, and mission.

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This is an excerpt of the book Raised? Doubting the Resurrection. Get this eBook for free at www.raisedbook.com.

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

Brad Watson serves as a pastor of Bread&Wine Communities in Portland, Oregon. He is also the director of GospelCenteredDiscipleship.com. His greatest passion is to encourage and equip leaders for the mission of making disciples. 

Raised? Doubting the Resurrection

We wrote this book out of our love for skeptics and respect for the questions they help us ask. We also write as believers who oscillate in real belief in the resurrected Christ. We hope it proves to be an insightful, stirring reflection on the resurrection. 

We are giving this book away in the hope that churches will make the eBook or hardcopy available to their people, especially to all their visitors on Easter. We are praying God would use it to spark gospel conversations, equip believers, and help people meet the risen Jesus.

Download artwork, slides, and the book at: www.raisedbook.com

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One in five Americans don’t believe in a deity. The “none” category in religious polls has doubled over the past ten years. Less than half of the population attends religious services on a regular basis. As statistics rise on the decline of Christian faith in America, you may find yourself wondering if Christianity is really worth believing? After all, the Christian faith makes some audacious claims.

Audacious Claims of the Gospel

Some of the most audacious claims are made right at the center of the Christian faith—in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Though some particulars may vary, the gospel is something all Christians agree on: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Now, there are some big assumptions made in this verse: that we sin; that Christ was strong enough to deal with sin, and that he was stronger than death—he was raised from the dead!

If this is all true, Jesus calls us to respond by faith in him to receive forgiveness of sin and the gift of eternal life (John 3:16; Romans 6:23). Here we have four big concepts—sin, faith, Christ, and eternal life. Followers of Christ have, at times, communicated these concepts terribly. As a result, there is a general misunderstanding, even among some Christians, as to what these terms mean. For instance, eternal life (or resurrection life) is often mistaken as an escape from life in order to get into a cloudy eternity. How boring! While we address this error throughout the book, it gets particular attention in chapter four. In chapter three, we examine the meaning of sin, faith, and Christ. These are misconstrued to mean bad behavior, wishful thinking, and great teacher. Way off target. All of these concepts lack deep appeal apart from a greater narrative to fit into. In chapter two, we trace the bigger story of Scripture to see if it resonates with human longing. In this chapter, we hone in on an audacious gospel claim—that Jesus was raised from the dead.

At first glance, the death of Jesus is easy enough to embrace. It is well documented and the Roman authorities crucified people regularly. The god-sized claim beneath his self-sacrifice is what ruffles feathers. The claim that his sacrifice was on behalf of all humanity troubles both our pride and our intellect. Jesus, represented all of us? What gives him the right? Who says we need a representative or sacrifice anyway? The gospel gets crazier. The bull’s eye of the gospel is the death and resurrection of Jesus. We don’t have to dive deep to surface doubt with the resurrection. Its surface value is, well, incredible. The notion that a first century Jewish man, crucified between two common thieves, was actually God and rose from the dead is unbelievable. To the modern mind, resurrection is utterly implausible. People don’t beat death, especially after being in the grave three days. In light of recent horror trends, we might be more inclined to believe in a zombie emerging from the dead than a resurrected and fully restored person. Yet, at the center of historic Christian faith is the belief that a Jewish man named Jesus was “raised.”

If you doubt the resurrection, I’m glad. Anything worth believing has to be worth questioning, but don’t let your questions slip away unanswered. Don’t reduce your doubts to a state of unsettled cynicism. Wrestle with your doubts. Find answers.

If you call yourself a believer and a skeptic, don’t settle for pat proofs, emotional experiences, or duty-driven religion. Keep asking questions. Those who haven’t questioned their faith can easily become doctrinaire, even detached from the everyday struggle of faith. Whether you are a skeptic, believer, or somewhere in between, press into your faith or push into your doubt. Question your faith and question your doubts. Determine good reasons for believing or not believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If he really did defeat death, it changes everything. Doubt well and you can walk away from skepticism, cynicism, or blind faith into perceptive belief, intellectual security, and deeper commitment. You can know that you have honestly questioned the resurrection.

Others Who Struggle to Believe

You aren’t the only one to struggle with belief in the resurrection. The story of the resurrection includes many doubters. The resurrection story is rooted in an historical account of events in first century Palestine (modern day Israel). The Gospels (written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) report these events from four different vantage points, narrating the life, ministry, death, and alleged resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel authors tell us that Jesus predicted his death and resurrection years before it occurred (John 2:22). He knew what was coming and went along with it. He didn’t run. One evening, Jesus met his disciples in a garden to pray. Suddenly, he was interrupted by clanging armor and flaming torches. Roman soldiers appeared to arrest him at the behest of the religious right (the Pharisees). The Pharisees charged Jesus with sedition, a charge most unsettling to the Roman Empire. As his disciples scattered, Jesus was left to face trial alone. He was quickly tried in the wee hours of Friday morning and crucified that afternoon. He was buried that night. On Sunday, grief stricken women went to visit Jesus’ tomb. As devoted disciples, they were shocked to find his tomb uncovered. Other disciples joined them, entered the tomb, and found his body gone, with his grave clothes lying there. This is where doubt begins to creep in.

Some claim the body was stolen. Mary thought the same thing, until Jesus appeared to her. Other disciples disbelieved her resurrection report, even after Jesus appeared to them (Luke 24:36-43). They mistook him for a ghost, so Jesus took it upon himself to prove his physical existence. He ate a piece of fish before their very eyes and they all believed, except doubting Thomas. Thomas saw all of this and remained incredulous. He heard the news, saw the man, and even watched Jesus perform an experiment proving he was real. Now, if God really is Jesus, and he’s risen from the dead standing right in front of you, proves he’s not a spirit, and you still doubt, how do you think Jesus should respond? You’d think Jesus would smack him down for doubt, rebuke Thomas on the spot, and call him to fall in line with his now believing friends. But he didn’t. Instead, Jesus entertains his doubts. He invites Thomas to press his hands to his tender crucifixion wounds, charging him: “Do not disbelieve, but believe” (John 20:27).

If you doubt the resurrection, you’re in good company. To the solidly skeptical and those struggling with doubt, Jesus remains ready to receive our questions. Jesus entertains doubts. He also implores belief. (Wouldn’t you if you died and rose from the dead, appearing to your disbelieving family and friends?) And to those who do not see the resurrected Christ, and still believe, Jesus confers a particular blessing (John 20:29). Though a blessing from God sounds nice, it can still be hard to get past the implausibility of someone rising from the dead. Many believe in the historical Jesus, but fewer believe in the resurrected Jesus.

The resurrection is like a river that parts a road. People are on the road approaching the river. Arriving at the river of the resurrection, you look across it to where the road continues, and see quite a few cars are parked there. In your doubt, you can’t imagine how people got to the other side. How did they get across the river? How can rational people come to the belief that Jesus died and rose from the dead?

The Global Perspective

Truth be told, the parking lot on the other side of the resurrection is overflowing. Resurrection-believing Christians are all over the world. Today there are approximately 2.2 billion Christians in the world, almost a billion more Christians than Muslims (who adhere to the second largest world religion, Islam). Christians around the world claim a personal encounter with Christ and a relationship with a resurrected Jesus. Many of them are so devout they have suffered for their belief in the resurrected Christ. These believers are from a broad array of cultures and ethnic backgrounds. What are we to conclude from this?

Because Christianity is the world’s largest (and incredibly diverse) religion, should you jump ship on your unbelief or switch religions? The sheer number of believing, praying, suffering Christians does not make the resurrection true, but it should make it possible. It is possible that Islam is also true; however, Muslims do not put hope in a resurrected messiah. Allah is not a God who suffers for humanity and conquers death. In Jesus, however, we find God crucified and raised to life. According to the Bible, the resurrection is also a preview of things to come (1 Corinthians 15). Resurrection isn’t restricted to Jesus. All who have faith in him will eventually gain a resurrected body to enjoy a “resurrected” world. This certainly is hopeful. If billions of people and thousands of cultures have found hope in the resurrection, then perhaps there is something to it? How did all those ethnic groups come to believe a claim as implausible as the resurrection of Jesus?

The majority of the Christian population has shifted away from the West to the South and the East.The current statistical-geographical center of global Christianity is, quite literally, Timbuktu, Mali. That’s Africa. The largest Christian nation is China. Now, the interesting thing about the current center of global Christianity is that it is in cultures that affirm the supernatural. In fact, the global south encounters inexplicable, supernatural events on a regular basis. Not so in the West, we have ruled out the supernatural. We rarely see such extraordinary things. We begin with the assumption that the supernatural is not possible. Is this position critical or biased? To be sure, some Americans are willing to believe in the supernatural the teachings of Buddha, Vishnu, and Eckhart Tolle, but are we willing to believe in Jesus, risen from the dead? If we are to consider the plausibility of the resurrection, we must begin with its possibility. Critical of our default cultural position, this is the only intellectually honest place to begin. Is it true, as the Apostle Paul summarized: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)? Let’s consider this central tenant of a historic world faith. We will begin by asking other skeptics who were alive at the time of Jesus’ alleged resurrection. Did they find the resurrection plausible? How did some of them get across the river of doubt?

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In what was somewhat surprising to me, as of this moment, every response I have received - all of which came from conservative Evangelicals - agreed with my sentiment at some level. Conservative Christians have, for millennia, objected to homosexual practice, primarily on two grounds. First, there is the belief that it is explicitly described as sin in scripture. Additionally, however, there is a basic belief about marriage that stipulates that marriage exists as a reflection of Christ's relationship with the church. Gender, roles in marriage, its permanence, and more, all point to the purpose behind marriage, namely to communicate to those watching an image of the gospel story. Unfortunately, for many Christians, we have abandoned that moral high ground long ago with our acquiescence to the prevalence of sexual infidelity and divorce within heterosexual marriage, among other breakdowns in the traditional model. I am convinced that our protestations concerning homosexual marriage often ring hollow to those who disagree with us because it appears less and less likely that we take our own marriages that seriously.

Having said all of that, I am beginning to believe that a couple of things are possibly upon our doorstep. The first, as I queried above, is whether or not the GOP, on a wholesale level, will soon publicly abandon their commitment to heterosexual marriage as the only appropriate model; and secondly, is it even possible for someone to be elected President of the US while holding to traditional marriage only, while substantial swaths of the American populace disagree with him, and that number only seems to be climbing? All of this leaves the church in an important, but certainly tenuous, situation. It certainly places the American church in a situation they have never been in before. How does the church position itself when they stand on the wrong side of the popularity vote? What does the church do when the political systems that they have been so engaged in have left them behind? Is the church able to speak with clarity and compassion to those who they disagree with, even when those across the aisle will view the church as outdated, at best: bigoted and hateful, at worst?

The answers that the church provides to these questions, and many more like them, are radically important to the cause of the gospel. May we be found faithful.

The Single Guy and Pursuing a Wife

Chris Crane currently serves as a College Intern at First Baptist Church in Irving, TX and in leadership of Dallas Baptist University's Encounter Ministries. He is also completing his B.A. in Biblical Studies with a minor in Philosophy at DBU. From there, he plans to pursue his M.Div. in Biblical Spirituality from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Follow Chris on Twitter @cmcrane87. ___

Over the past several years, I have become increasingly aware of the need for men to be godly, myself included. I have seen the devastating effects of the neglect of biblical manhood in churches and in the lives of people I care about. However, if we want to see God raise up men who are going to love their wives and serve the church, we have to begin the discussion early, namely, when men are still single. While I have no doubt that God can redeem broken marriages and mend fractured relationships, my primary focus here is to examine how, as single men, can we faithfully pursue biblical manhood, under the banner of the gospel, for the glory of God and the good of the Church. There are many points to be made, but I will list five.

1. Examination and Repentance

Real men love Jesus. As tiring as that old cliché may be, it's true. We must heed Paul's exhortation to examine whether we are in the faith or not (2 Cor. 13:5; see also Phil. 2:12-13; Eph. 4:1). Godly women want to be loved by godly men and you can't be godly if you don't know Jesus. In fact, if you do know Jesus, your life will be marked by a distinct characteristic: repentance. Repentance is not simply what you do to be saved, but it is the fruit of those who belong to God. In order to be the men we were created to be, to paraphrase Martin Luther, "All of life must be one of repentance."

2. Find Community

Modern Christians often emphasize “a personal relationship with Jesus,” but Christianity is actually quite corporate. That’s not to say that Jesus isn’t concerned about the individual. He is. However, that doesn’t negate our need for each other. If you look at 1 Corinthians 12, Paul’s analogy of the body would make absolutely no sense if Jesus’s desire was to build an individualistic Christianity. Instead, what we see in this chapter is Jesus uniting people in the gospel by his Spirit for his mission. Each person in the body has their own spiritual gifts and natural talents that God has given them to serve his purposes. Embrace that; don’t flee from it.

Additionally, we need each other for encouragement and correction. True joy is fought for. It’s warfare. But how often in history do we hear of a soldier going to war by himself? There’s always a group of men fighting with him, watching each other’s backs. This is where biblical community comes in. We should “stir one another up to love and good deeds” (Heb. 10:24), “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2), as well as remind each other to “only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil. 1:27). It’s in the context of community where the examination I mentioned above should take place. It keeps us from being overly introspective and, instead, keeps our eyes on Jesus Christ. Jesus will use community to shape us into godly men, especially if we take the time to get counsel from older and wiser godly men.

3. Take Responsibility

God calls men to bear responsibility. It hearkens all the way back to Genesis 2:15, where God gives Adam responsibility and a job to do before he gives him a wife to lead. If you want to work towards being a godly man, there are some practical steps to take as well.

If you can’t pay for your dates, you probably shouldn’t be going on them. Your days spent playing with young ladies’ hearts or sleeping all day won’t make you a man. In fact, it will further your “boyishness.” God is so concerned about men stepping up and taking responsibility that, in 1 Tim. 5:8, we read, “But if anyone does not provide for this relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Men, feel the weight of that text. This is not something to play with. If you want to be godly and respectable men, stop playing around and take responsibility. Be ready to provide for your future family before you actually have a family.

4. Be a Gentleman

For the record, chivalry is not dead. It may be wounded, it may be sleeping, but it surely isn’t dead. However, there’s a difference between being a gentleman and being a flirt. A godly gentleman serves women out of the kindness of his changed heart. He seeks after the lady’s welfare above his own. An ungodly person often flirts in hopes of getting a woman into bed with him or to be the trophy on his arm.

In 1 Tim. 5:2, we are told to treat our sisters in Christ with “all purity.” In other words, we should treat our sisters in Christ with the same relational reverence and respect as we would our own biological sisters. If what you’re trying to do with that woman is something you wouldn’t do with your sister, then you need to check your heart and leave her alone.

5. Don’t Look for a Girlfriend, Look for a Wife

I’ll be honest and say that this point is still the one I have to remind myself of the most. It’s easy to forget because it’s so counter-cultural to the entire American idea of dating. As men pursuing godliness, do not simply “date for fun.” You should be intentional and make your intentions known up front. Don’t leave her guessing about what you want out of your time together. You need to be mindful of her love for Jesus and her maturity as a woman.

And if she’s beautiful, that’s great, but what’s her character like? Her physical appearance may constantly change, but her character is what’s going to matter in the long run. Let me give you an example. As someone who is pursuing pastoral ministry, I want to be very careful who I choose to intentionally seek out to develop a romantic relationship with. So, while yes, I want her to be physically attractive, more than that, I want to know if she fears the Lord. I want to know that Jesus is her hope, not me. Will she be patient with me, especially if I pursue more theological education? Will she respect me and let me lead? Do I see anything in her life that shows she’s growing into the godly woman revealed in Prov. 30 and 1 Pet. 3? These are things you want to look for the seeds of in a potential wife. Now, don’t freak her out and talk about marriage on the first date, however she needs to know and you need to tell her what your intentions are, so the sooner she knows that, the better for both of you.

The God of Grace

Remember, my brothers, that God is a God of grace. You won’t do all of this perfectly. I sure don’t. But we have been given the Holy Spirit, who comforts us, convicts us, and guides us into all truth. Therefore, let us be bold in chasing after Christ together and let him inform our masculinity. I leave you with Paul’s charge to be godly men found in 1 Tim. 6:11-16:

“But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony beforePontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”

How Kids Learn to Follow Jesus

One of the questions we get many times at the GCM Collective is, “What about kids? How do you have time to disciple your children during all this mission stuff, and what does it look like?” I have three kids, a 10 year old, a 7 year old, and an 16 month old. I own a business, elder in the church, preach, and participate as an executive team member of the GCM Collective. Not to mention I coach leaders around the world and travel for speaking and training events. How do I have time? I learned early on, from my brothers at Soma Communities, that I only have one life, and mission has to be part of my everyday life, not some other life that I need to live. I don’t have time to get into all of that teaching, but it transformed how I see mission and discipleship. (To see an illustration of this look here: We Have Been Given One Life). Needless to say, I've decided to serve and leverage my life as much as I can. I'm busy and you are probably busy, too. How can we disciple kids in the midst of such hectic community and mission filled lives?

Holistic Discipleship

What is the goal of children's discipleship? Are we just trying to teach them stuff? See, the goal is not that our children will merely know the right answers on their Bible College theological entry exam, also know as Sunday School. We certainly want them to know God and understand the gospel in their minds. But, discipleship cannot stop at intellectual assent of biblical truths in their heads alone but must penetrate their hearts, too. In the same way, the goal is not for children discipleship cannot stop at their hearts, but must be evidenced in their lives. Certainly our children's discipleship is not only about getting them to behave and use proper manners. The Bible speaks to parenting and disciple making more holistically than this:

You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. - Deuteronomy 11:18-20

This passage tells us two fundamental principles in parenting. One, discipleship is for the head, heart, and hand. We are to teach our children to know the gospel, believe the gospel, and obey the gospel. Two, the discipleship process is happening all the time, in everyday life. Every moment of the day is a chance to speak, teach, and demonstrate the gospel. My aim with this article is to offer some easy handles and ideas for parents to obediently live Deuteronomy 11 with their kids.

Head

We want our kids to know theology.  We want them to know who God is, what God has done, who we are and how we should live. The issue is our kids get bored with the many ways we have tried to do teach this in the past. Memorize this verse, sit here for Sunday school, or listen to mommy and daddy read from the Bible. None of those things are bad, but what if we could do all those things in ways that they’d actually love and look forward to and ask to do?

• What TV show does your kid love to watch?  Watch it with them and tell them that at the end we are going to discuss questions in which we see ways the characters are living out their identity, how are their lives looking like Jesus, how are their lives showing who/what they are trusting, etc. For my kids, it’s Phineas and Ferb. We sit down and watch it, then discuss. The night before I wrote this article, we spoke about servanthood, identity, idols, fears, anxiety, the Imago Dei, etc. After we discussed, we prayed as a family for very specific things that we discussed. Guess what the kids are always asking to do? “Daddy, can we do Phineas and Ferb and theology?” They desire to learn because it is something they enjoy.
• Teach them from material they will enjoy and let them teach and dialogue through it. I personally use two resources: The Jesus Story Book Bible and the Story of God for Kids. When we go through these resources, I am always asking questions to get their insight. These resources are great because there are pictures and questions and really gets the kids involved, instead of just sitting there and listening. I also allow my 10 year old to lead through this so he can learn what it looks like to lead and create discussion. In this I am able to disciple him in what it looks like to lead by allowing him to do it himself.

Heart

Not only do we want our children to learn theology and mission through teaching, but we want them to believe it and know it in their hearts. We want it to go from information, to transformation. Know this: you have to be faithful in this and there will be many times we try this with our kids and it will sail over their head. We will articulate the gospel in eloquent ways and they will have no reaction. We have to be faithful. Find out how to affect their heart by seeking the Spirit and continue to do it, even if you don’t get the reaction you were hoping for.

• Discipline like you believe the gospel. I learned this from John Piper some years ago. He simply asked, “Does your discipline mirror grace and the gospel or legalism?” My kids never know when they are going to be punished for a sin. I try to sit them down after they have sinned and walk through grace and mercy and the effects of sin. We get to the heart of the issue of their sin, instead of saying, “stop it!” There are times when they are not punished for their sin, and we speak a lot about grace. There are also times when their sin causes natural consequences. For example, they might leave a favorite toy outside when they were supposed to bring it inside and it gets ruined. When this happens, we merely point out the consequence and pray together for forgiveness and reconciliation. When you spend time demonstrating in discipline what grace, the gospel and reconciliation looks like, it hits the heart.
• Demonstrate. I got this idea from my buddy Caesar. One of the discipleship issues we had with our older child had to do with his behavior while he was playing outside. We decided that if he was having issues playing outside, he would have to come inside or face punishment. The punishment was to sit on the wall for 20 minutes. Lots of fun. Instead, when the time came for him to receive his punishment, I told him I’d take it for him. We talked about Jesus and the good news and how he has done this for us. This sounded great, but he listened, and then ran back outside like nothing happened. I still do this, because I think at some point, it will sink in. But you have to know: they are kids and they won’t always react in the ways you were hoping.
• When you see your child do something that reminds you of Jesus, tell them and praise them for it. Not to the point where they get all the credit, but as a pointer. When they see how their actions depict God’s character, it really freaks them out. My 7 year old last night asked, “God works through me to show who he is?” It really hit him. Our kids need to hear about God, not only when they are doing things that are disappointing, but also when they are showing the fruit of the Spirit. Recently, my 10 year old came up and told me that his little brother made him lunch for school. He was stoked! I told him, “Caleb, where do you think he learned that?” He replied, “God?” I said, “He learned it from you as you have been serving him. And you learned it from God as Jesus served and serves you. You have been showing your brother Jesus. Isn’t it amazing that he does those things he sees in you as you show him Jesus?”
• Continue to remind them they are loved by God and you, no matter what. We do this in both their sin and their praise. We want them to continually know that God loves regardless of their actions. Their identity and acceptance is not wrapped up in what they do but in who God is and what he does. I do this when they do something that requires discipline and I do this when they show off who God is.

Hands

Not only do our kids need to know about God in their head, and know what he’s done in their heart, but they also need to work this out as disciples and missionaries. We have to know that our children are not missionaries only when they get older. They are missionaries now.

• Involve your kids in the mission. Rarely do we do things that don’t involve our kids. When we do events, most of the time it is with families. The reason is I want my kids to see that it is totally normal to be around those that don’t believe like us and what it looks like to hang out with them. I don’t want them to ever think that our job is to do things so we’ll get something in return. We merely show others what God is like, we plant, we water, but God causes the growth. The best way to do this is to model it for them in life on life.  So, at neighborhood BBQs or neighborhood breakfasts, they have jobs before and after. We talk about why we are doing these, what their thoughts are, and their struggles with it. They get to walk this out and deal with the consequences of following Jesus: when their toys get broken, when they have to clean up after others, etc.  When all this happens, we get to talk about what it means to serve and show off Jesus without expecting anything in return.
• Make your house the “hang-out-house.” Our kids know that they can always have friends over and invite them in for dinner, etc. Because of this, they are actively sharing their lives with those around us. They see what it means to have an open home, to be hospitable, to believe that our possessions are God’s and not ours. They also know that to open our home means there will sometimes be kids they don’t want to play with, but we open our home anyway. We love our enemies, we don’t hate them or shun them. The more you allow your kids to have people over and just hang out and play, the more they will be able to understand mission in the everyday.
• Invite their friends and parents out to your activities. Recently, I took my boys to a movie and dinner, so I asked them who they wanted to bring. I then invited their friends and their family to go out with us.  Again, this is simple. Their friends and families came and hung out. We were already going to do it, why not do it with others? This doesn’t mean we eat dinner and ask the other Dad, “You see the bread on your kid’s plate? That reminds of when Jesus said he was the bread of life.” Be a good human and hang out with others, be friends, show your kids what it looks like to be hospitable in all areas of life.
• Ask your children what charity they’d like to help on their birthday. We have done this with both our older kids. We tell them, “Mom and Dad will buy you a gift, and so will your grandparents, but what if we had your friends bring something for a charity?” We have had food drives, blanket drives, and more for one of our missional communities that helps the homeless in our town. Our kids actually love doing this! They get to help others and participate in serving.

Normal Life with Intentionality

I know these things aren’t earth shattering ideas. They are simple everyday life type of activities. That’s the point. We don’t need some program to raise our children for us, we can do this in normal, everyday life. That way our kids will understand what following Jesus looks like and will desire to do it, too. Some days are better than others, some things work better than others. You know your family. A simple way to start is just to look at your schedule with your family and start asking, “How can we be more intentional with these things we are already doing so our children can better understand who God is, what he has done, who he has made us?” What can we do to holistically disciple our children, their head, heart, and hands?

Just think if your parents taught you about God while watching cartoons? Pretty cool parents, pretty fun way to learn theology.

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Seth McBee is the adopted son of God, husband of one wife, and father of three. He’s a graduate of Seattle Pacific University with a finance degree. By trade Seth is an Investment Portfolio Manager, serving as president of McBee Advisors, Inc as well as a missional community leader, preaching elder with Soma Communities in Renton, Washington, and executive team member of the GCM Collective. Twitter @sdmcbee.

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Get the excellent resource: A Beginner's Guide to Family Worship by Winfield Bevins

Read these free resources: How Parental Authority is Good News by Tim Chester and Raising Gospel Centered Children by Luma Simms.

Your Baby's Ugly

Hershael York is Victor and Louise Lester Professor of Christian Preaching and Associate Dean of Ministry and Proclamation in the School of Theology of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Senior Pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church. He is married to Tanya and they have two sons. ___

I often have to answer the strangest question anyone could ask a preaching professor: “Do you think preaching can be taught?” I always want to respond, “No, I’m just going through the motions for the money.” Of course I never do, not only because it’s best not to say the smart aleck things I sometimes think, but because I know what they mean when they ask. It’s not really an unfair question.

No one denies that a preaching class and some coaching can help anyone become better. What we question is the possibility that someone with no natural giftedness and ability can be taught well enough that he can become really good.

For the last sixteen years I’ve sat in a seminary classroom, listening to student sermons on an almost daily basis, and I’ve heard every kind of sermon and every level of preacher. I’ve seen guys so nervous that they had to stop and vomit during the sermon, and I’ve been so moved by a student’s sermon that I felt I had been ushered into the presence of the risen Christ. I’ve seen guys who were no better the fifth time they preached for me than they were the first time, but I’ve seen guys whose initial sermon was depressingly awful turn it around so radically by the end of the semester that I almost couldn’t recognize him as the same preacher.

On the first day of the semester or the first time I hear a student preach, I have no way of knowing if he has what it takes or is willing to do what he must to be the preacher he needs to be, but I can usually tell by the second sermon if he does, because that is when he has to act on what I told him after his first sermon. What makes the difference?

1. Calling

The most frustrated preacher is the one who has a sense of duty but not a burning calling. Preaching is not just another helping profession, a Christian version of the politics or the Peace Corps. The call to preach is a definite demand issued by the Holy Spirit that ignites a fire in one’s bones that cannot be extinguished by the hard-hearted, stiff-necked, or dull of hearing. A preacher who has been called must preach what God has spoken simply because God has spoken it. The success of one’s ministry will depend on the strength of his calling. His willingness to work at his preaching will be proportional to his conviction that God has called him to preach and to be as fit a vessel for God’s use as he can be. The Holy Spirit must undergird everything else from preparation to delivery, and that will not happen apart from that calling.

2. Teachability

Being a preaching professor is like getting paid to tell a mother that her baby is ugly. It might be the truth, but it’s not a truth anyone wants to hear. Most guys I have taught dread my comments and cringe when I tell them they missed the point of the text or seemed unprepared. They tire of hearing me tell them they lack energy or failed to establish a connection with the audience. Every now and then, however, someone smiles gratefully as I offer corrections and suggestions. Someone may even say, “I want you to be really tough on me. Tell me everything I’m doing wrong because I really want to do this well.” That guy is going to be fine because his spirit is teachable and he’s willing to pay the cost of personal discomfort in order to be effective. He understands that he is a vessel in service of the text and his feelings are not the point.

3. Passion

Almost all my students are passionate about Christ, about reaching the lost, and about the Word of God. The problem is not that they don’t feel passionate but rather that they do not show passion. What I feel is never the point, whether good or bad, but rather how I act. If my delivery of the Word does not convey that passion, then my audience will not be moved to be passionate about it either. The prophets were all passionate. The apostles were passionate. Jesus was passionate. Why else would farmers, fisherman, and housewives come stand in the Galilean sun for hours just to hear Him?

I once heard a missionary preach at the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference. He was dynamite, preaching a great expository sermon with incredible energy and moving the entire audience by his treatment of the Word and his testimony of baptizing tens of thousands of Africans. Astonished by his great preaching, I approached him and held out my hand to introduce myself. “Hershael.” he said, shocking me that he knew my name, “we went to seminary together.” Embarrassed, I admitted that I did not remember him. “You had no reason to,” he explained, “I was very quiet, never spoke in class, and never went out of my way to meet anyone.” I asked him to explain what happened. “When I got on the mission field, no one would listen to my preaching of the gospel. I was putting them to sleep. When I came stateside and preached in churches, they were bored to tears. Finally I realized that the only way to be effective was to preach the Word in the way it deserved to be preached, so I became willing to go beyond my natural personality and comfort zone and allow God to make me effective. I prayed for the Word to so grip me in the pulpit that I would never be boring again.” His teachability led him to show a passion that was not natural to his introverted personality. It was supernatural.

4. Reckless Abandon

The generation of students I now teach have grown up with the written word—on screens, smart phones, blogs, Kindles, and now iPads. Through video games they have raced cars, built civilizations, won wars, destroyed zombies and killed hundreds. They communicate orally far less than any previous generation, and when they do so, they typically do it with less passion. Yet God still uses the preaching of His Word—an oral event—to edify the church, encourage the saints, and engage the lost.

So to preach the Word, a young man has to be willing to get completely out of the comfortable cocoon he’s built in his personality and habits, and recklessly abandon himself to risk being a fool for Christ. I tell my students, “That little voice inside your head saying ‘That’s just not who I am’ is not your friend. Sanctification is the process by which the Holy Spirit overcomes ‘who I am’ and shapes me into who He wants me to be. So if I need to preach with a reckless abandon that is foreign to my natural way, I will beg the Holy Spirit to help me do it for Christ.”

Pay the Price

Frankly, very few students I teach fail to get the meaning of the text. They often demonstrate an exegetical and hermeneutical sophistication that astounds me. They are serious about the Word. But they make the mistake of thinking that if they just feel that way, and if they just say the words, the preaching will take care of itself. And if they keep thinking that, if they insist on “data dump” sermons that just concentrate on the content and not also the delivery, there’s not much I can do for them. They will be the kind of preachers they want to be.

But if someone has a burning calling, a teachable spirit, a passionate heart, and a reckless abandon to pay the price to preach well, then not even the limitation of their own background, personality, or natural talents will keep them from preaching the Word of God with power.

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*Editor's Note: For another helpful post on preaching, check out our interview with Jared Wilson and Tony Merida.

Interview: J.D. Greear on "Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart"

You will be hard pressed to find a book with a more compelling, if not controversial, title than J.D. Greear’s new book, “Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart." For those of you who may not know J.D., he is the Lead Pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina. J.D. has pastored The Summit since 2002, when he led the church to relaunch itself (formerly known as Homestead Heights). At the time of the relaunch they were running close to 300 people, and now are exceeding 6,000 regularly. For the past few years they have been recognized by Outreach Magazine as one of the 25 fastest growing churches in the country. J.D. is kind enough to stop by the blog today to speak with us about his new book. I am thankful for his willingness to give us a bit the inside story behind the book, and to help us understand the content of the book a bit more.

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1. J.D., thanks for stopping by the blog today. I appreciate the effort. Your new book has a provocative title. I am confident that it is stirring interest in those who are reading it. So, give us a quick synopsis. What is the book all about?

My main thesis in this book is that reducing salvation to a sinner’s prayer gives assurance to some who shouldn’t have it, and keeps assurance from some who should. I wrote this book because there are a lot of people who can’t seem to find assurance no matter how many times they pray “the prayer,” and others who have a false assurance based on the fact that they went through a ritual with their pastor.

You could say I wrote the book to bring comfort to the unnecessarily troubled, and to trouble the unjustifiably comforted.

2. Your story is similar to mine, though I haven’t been baptized as many times as you. However, you talk about your struggle with assurance and the fact that you have been baptized four times. You also point out that false assurance, which is the flip side of the coin, is a serious danger. Of the two, which do you think is a bigger plague in the church?

Based on statistics that those like the Barna Group have run, the larger numerical problem is probably the falsely assured: 51% of all American adults believe they are going to heaven, even though most of that group never attends church, reads the Bible, or lives in any recognizably Christian manner. But the flip side of the problem is a huge issue that I have encountered repeatedly in my time as a pastor.

In the end, it’s less important to figure out which side of the coin is the “bigger” plague, but to focus on the remedy. And I believe that part of the problem comes from the shorthand, clichéd ways we speak of the gospel. The usual evangelical shorthand for the gospel is to “ask Jesus into your heart” or to pray the “sinner’s prayer.” Shorthand is fine insofar as everyone knows what the shorthand refers to. But in our day “the sinner’s prayer” has often become a substitute for repentance and belief.

To be clear—I am not trying to say that the sinner’s prayer is wrong in itself—after all, repentance and belief are in themselves a cry to God for mercy. Jesus presents the repentant tax collector being converted through the prayer, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). Some of the greatest evangelists in history—even Reformed ones—used a sinner’s prayer, including John Bunyan, George Whitefield, and Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon would plead with people to pray the words of a sinner’s prayer after him as part of the conclusion to his sermons. I would go so far as to say that if you do not press for a decision when you preach the gospel, you haven’t fully preached the gospel, because the gospel in its very essence calls for a response. I’m not even against the language of asking Jesus into your heart, because—if understood correctly—this is a biblical concept (cf. Rom 8:9–11; Gal 2:20; Eph 3:17)!

I am saying that the sinner’s prayer has become a Protestant ritual that people often go through without considering what the prayer is supposed to embody. God doesn’t give salvation in response to a prayer; repentance and faith are the instruments that lay hold of salvation. You can express repentance and faith in a prayer, but it is possible to repent and believe without a formal prayer, and it is possible to pray a sinner’s prayer without repenting and believing.

3. In chapter 2 you mention that every religion in the world, except for Christianity, uses doubt to compel one to obey. However, in my experience, doubt is one of the most often used reasons for many Christians to obey. Instead, you suggest that the gospel of God’s grace creates a desire to obey. What’s the difference? As long as we are obeying, that’s all that should matter, right?

God is not simply after obedience; He’s after a whole new kind of obedience, the obedience that grows from desire. He wants the intimacy of sons, not just the service of slaves. Unfortunately, far too many Christians use doubt as a catalyst for obedience. The Roman Catholic Church of Martin Luther’s day, for instance, believed that people would only obey when threatened with harsh consequences for rebellion. Luther did not mince words when he called this the “damnable doctrine of doubt.”

We are supposed to relate to God as a father, not as a strict task-master. A faithful father does not leave his kids wondering whether or not he knows and loves them. When I go away on a trip, I don’t say to my kids, “Daddy will be back soon . . . or maybe he won’t. Maybe I’m not really your daddy at all. Maybe my real family lives somewhere else. You’ll just have to wait and see if I come back. Sit around and think about that while I’m gone, and let that compel you to become better children.”

That would not produce love and loyalty in my children. It might produce a little fear-based obedience, but it’s only a matter of time until fear-based obedience turns into father-loathing bitterness and rebellion. I don’t want my children feeling like orphans, and neither does God.

4. At the beginning of chapter 3 you suggest that assurance, in one sense, is as easy as asking the question, do you believe in Christ? Your rationale is supported by John 3:36. However, many who worry over assurance will, with great fear, point back to Matthew 7:21-23 that says:

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’ 23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’

How do you balance the simple truth of John 3:36 with the fearful tone of Matthew 7?

The verses from Matthew 7 were part of what threw me into the first of my many spirals of doubt. I remember during my 9th grade year, when my Sunday school teacher told us that according to Matt 7, many people who think they know Jesus would awaken on the last day to the reality that he never knew them. I was terrified. How could I know I wasn’t going to be in that group?

My advice to those who fear that they will be among those to whom Christ says, “Depart from Me, I never knew you,” is this: rest in His promise to receive all who hope in His finished work. Jesus’ warning often makes us look inward and find plenty of reasons for God to reject us. But for every one look we take at our sinful heart, we should take 10 looks at Christ. Once Charles Spurgeon, reflecting on those whom Christ turns away in Matthew 7:21–23, said (and I paraphrase), “Never knew me, Lord? How could you say that? When I had no hope of salvation, I rested all my hope on you. When I despaired in my struggle against sin, I looked to you for strength. Jesus could never say to me, ‘I never knew you.’”

None who lean the weight of their soul on the truth of the testimony God gave about Jesus as their hope of salvation will ever hear the words, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” To rest in Christ’s finished work is, you see, to be known by Jesus.

5. I love the statement you make in chapter 4, in reference to our own assurance. You say, “Present posture is better proof than a past memory.” In other words, your present position before God is more important than whether or not you can remember the time, date, location of your conversion. I’ve said it this way, “The question is not so much, have you believed, but rather are you believing?” Having said that, are you suggesting that salvation does not have to be tied to a “moment?”

Certainly not. Salvation does indeed happen in a moment, and once you are saved you are always saved. My point is that conversion is not a ceremony you go through but a posture of repentance and faith that you assume. The posture does indeed begin in a moment, but it continues for a lifetime.

Salvation happens in a moment: I don’t want to confuse or downplay that. But in that moment, you merely enter a posture of submission to the lordship of Christ and trust in his finished work. That is a posture you maintain for the rest of your life. And the way you know you made the decision to get into that posture is that you are there now.

In the book I compare conversion to sitting down in a chair. If you are seated right now, then you know that at some point in the past you made a decision to sit down—your posture proves it. If you are right now trusting in Christ’s finished work and submitting to his Lordship, that proves you are saved. If you are not, then it doesn’t matter what “ceremony” you went through. Assurance doesn’t come through a memory of a past event, but through our present posture. “Believing,” as it relates to assurance, is almost always presented in the present tense (e.g. 1 John 5:13).

6. Further along in this chapter you speak about helping your children to know Christ. You mention the tension parents feel about not pushing their children to make a hasty decision. I know I have greatly struggled with this. However, you encourage parents to begin appealing to their children to respond to Christ at an early age. How do you do that, and not encourage what would become your testimony, and mine, that of multiple “conversion stories,” multiple baptisms, etc.?

As a father of 4 young children, I have often reflected on the best way to lead them to faith. I want their decision to follow Jesus to be significant, but I also don’t want them to go through what I went through, constantly questioning my previous religious experiences. I know that when you present kids with a “don't you want to be a good girl and make daddy happy and accept Jesus and not go to a fiery hell?” of course they say, “Yes.” “Praying the prayer” in such a situation may have little do with actual faith in Christ and have more to do with making daddy happy.

For that reason, many parents don’t want to push their child to make a decision for Christ. What if we coerce them into praying a prayer they don’t understand, and that keeps them from really dealing with the issues later when they really understand it? Might having them pray the prayer too early on inoculate them from really coming to Jesus later, giving them false assurance that keeps them from dealing with their need to be saved?

I understand that fear. At the same time, I know that children are capable of faith. (In fact, Jesus tells adults that for them to be saved they must become like children, not visa versa!) And Jesus says that those of us who make it difficult for little kids to put faith in Him ought to have a millstone tied around our necks and be thrown into the sea (Matt 18:1–6). So I don’t ever want to discourage my kids from faith.

The dilemma is resolved, however, by seeing salvation as a posture toward Christ and not as a ceremony. There is only one posture ever appropriate to Christ: surrendered to His Lordship, and believing that He did what He said He did. From the very beginning of their lives, I want my kids to assume that posture! So I explain to them often what Christ has done and encourage them to pin their hopes of righteousness on His work and not theirs. Whenever they think about their hopes for heaven, I want their minds to go to what Jesus did on Calvary. And when I encourage them to walk in holiness, I want the motivation—from day one—to be the finished work of Christ on their behalf.

Again, it’s like sitting down in a chair. If you’re sitting down now, that is proof that at some point you made the decision to sit down even if you don’t remember the moment. There was a moment you sat down, but the proof is in the present posture, not the past memory. The same is true with my kids and the Lordship of Jesus and his finished work. They can only be in one of two postures with him. So whenever I talk to them about Jesus, I encourage them to assume the posture of repentance and faith. Why would I ever want them to have a different posture in relationship to Jesus? Whether they can explain later the exact moment they sat down in repentance and faith is less important than the fact that they do it.

7. In chapter 6 you speak about the doctrine of eternal security. You say, “It’s not incorrect to say ‘once saved, always saved.’ It’s just incomplete.” What do you mean by that?

I do believe in eternal security, the idea usually summed up with the phrase you mention here: “once saved, always saved.” But the way that I heard eternal security described in Baptist churches growing up is not the way it is described in the Bible. It’s not even the way that some of the great Baptists of the past—I’m thinking of Charles Spurgeon and John Bunyan, among others—described eternal security.

Neither the great Baptists of the past nor the Bible describes eternal security as a one-time ritual that produces a guarantee of salvation no matter how you live your life. They described it as the knowledge that if God had started a true work in you, he would complete it. And the way that you show your salvation is genuine is by persevering for the rest of your life.

Persevering in the faith is proof that you have the salvation you could never lose; failing to persevere shows that you never had it to begin with.

8. In chapter 7 you address the biblical signs of genuine faith. You even go so far as to say, “the presence of the struggle [with sin] itself can be affirmation that God’s Spirit is at work within you.” I know many will find this difficult to believe. Can you elaborate on this point?

Struggling with sin or its consequences isn’t proof by itself that a person knows God. But I have known a lot of believers who live on the brink of despair because of the presence of sin in their lives. They know the attitude of their hearts, and they recognize strong undercurrents of selfishness, idolatry, apathy, and unbelief. And they begin to wonder, “Can I really be saved and still have these sinful desires?”

The simple answer is, “Yes.” The Apostles all testify to a never-ending and intense struggle they had with sin (cf. Paul’s words in Rom 7:21, and John’s in 1 John 1:8). James says that we sin (even as believers) because we are “drawn away by our own lusts and enticed” (James 1:14). I assume he says that from experience. And I find my own heart prone to unforgiveness, resentment, jealousy, and selfishness more often than I care to admit.

Believers can and do struggle with just about any kind of sinful lust. This is why the struggle is so affirming. Before God’s Spirit came into you, you didn’t struggle with sin—you ran toward it eagerly! But now God’s Spirit lives in you, and you feel the tension of that struggle every day. The strongest evidence of my growth in grace is not absence of struggle, but the growing recognition of my need of grace.

9. As we close this up, if you had 30 seconds to speak to a believer who was greatly struggling with assurance. What would you say to them?

It would, of course, depend on the situation of the person I was talking to, as a wayward believer needs to be treated differently than a humble seeker, but essentially I would ask them if their present posture is one of submission to Christ’s Lordship and trust in his finished work. If so, they are saved, even if they don’t remember the prayer or the moment they got into that posture. If not, then it doesn’t matter what prayer they prayed.

Second, I would ask them to consider whether the signs of eternal life are present in them. As John explains so thoroughly in 1 John, conversion does not bring sinless perfection, but it does begin to make fundamental changes in the human heart.

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If you would like to purchase “Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart" click here.

If you would like to see other books by J.D. Greear, click here.

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Cross-posted from Micah's personal blog.

How do We Respond to Pain?

In my early years of professional football, I played without wearing gloves. Not wearing gloves as an offensive lineman was definitely out of the ordinary; most linemen wore gloves for their own protection and safety. I rejected this protection for several reasons. First, back then I thought it proved how tough I was; it didn’t. Second, I found wearing gloves made me feel hot (temperature, not appearance) and as a ‘husky’ fellow I was always trying to keep cool. Third, I thought that bare hands helped me hold opponents better. And even though technically offensive linemen aren’t supposed to hold, we did and thus sought any advantage we could get. Finally, and most importantly, I found that very early in a game I would, without exception, hurt my hands.

Why would hurting your hands be a good reason to not wear gloves? Good question. You see, I found the pain that I would experience when my hand was smashed between a shoulder pad and a face mask would help me engage in the game. Getting my digits stomped on in a pile would help me get focused for competition, and I would get focused in a hurry. This pain-induced focus and the resulting engagement in the game was the main reason I didn’t wear gloves.

Now consider how much aggravation a simple hangnail causes. Think of the seemingly disproportionate amount of pain that come from a small tear in your fingernail. A small paper-cut can cause adults to whimper, and hitting a thumb with a hammer will bring men to their knees. There is something about the hands and fingers that make them especially susceptible to pain. And I would intentionally seek these aching, stinging, and throbbing sensations to promote a fixated intensity in the game of football.

I was not alone. Using pain as a preparatory mechanism is quite common in football. Before a game, in the locker room or on the sidelines, you will often see teammates hitting each other or slapping each other on their shoulders. Many football players claim that they can’t really get into a game until they receive or deliver their first hit. There is something about the pain that brings purposefulness and clarity in combative sports.

Detach or Engage?

It seems that pain in ‘real’ life, whether physical, emotional, or physical, does the exact opposite of what it does in football. For many people, pain leads to paralysis instead of performance. Pain doesn’t help us engage; it causes us to detach, disassociate, and disconnect from life. When the life gets tough, genuinely tough, the accepted response is to quit. We do not regain focus on the end and purpose of our lives. Instead, we abandon engagement in life.

One of the most profound studies of pain in the Bible occurs in the book of Job. In it we see an individual who finds purpose in pain. It propels him forward. We also see an individual, Job’s wife, for whom pain evokes passivity.

Both Job and his wife were subjected to an incredible amount of pain and suffering. We often overlook that Job’s wife also lost her children, her wealth, and likely the provision and protection a husband could provide. Job’s demise would likely be her demise as well. But these two people had opposite reactions to the pain.

The pain caused Job’s wife to exclaim, “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). She was done. She was beat. She was in shut-down mode.  Job replied, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). What accounts for this difference?

Why can pain cause Job to engage, to fight, to persevere? Why was his wife ready to quit? What about us?

We will never, on this side of eternity, be free from pain. We will never avoid suffering. The pain and suffering of this life is relentlessly real. But the witness of the Word seems to be that we will persevere in it, grow through it, and eventually outlast it.

I believe Job hints at the answer to our earlier question regarding why pain caused him to dig in and hold on instead of shut down and quit. In chapter 19, Job speaks these faith-filled words despite the difficulties he was experiencing:

For I know that my Redeemer lives,

and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

yet in my flesh I shall see God. - Job 19:25-26

Job indicates that prevailing over pain is a process of perceiving a person. Job's view of who God, that he was the redeemer lives forever and rules, sustained him. Suffering reveals our theology, what we really believe about God. For Job, God was good and worthy, the giver and the redeemer. We cannot even stand, much less move forward, in the presence of pain without the Good News of Jesus.

Long View of Pain

Paul locates the essential element to overcoming pain as the end-result of the gospel. The Apostle Paul was no stranger to pain; his list of sufferings is well-known:

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. - 2 Corinthians 11:25-27

Paul went through all manner of anguish, agony, and affliction. He experienced pain, endured it, and engaged in life like few others in recorded history. This was a man that pain could not subdue. He, like Job, found the motivation and means for overcoming pain in the Good News of Jesus.

Consider the words this veteran of misery and misfortune used to describe pain. He called suffering “light” and “momentary affliction” (2 Corinthians 4:17). This is incredible. Or is this incredulous? Paul was not naive. Nor was he in denial. To understand his approach, and what ours should be, notice that his reference to suffering as light and momentary is in light of something else. The verse reads, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,”  (2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV).

Paul did not respond to pain and suffering by shutting down and turning off. He leveraged his pain into praise and engaged in life. He contrasted the comparatively slight strain of temporal tribulation with the “eternal weight of glory” won for us by God’s Son and our Redeemer. Paul looked to the end which those who have believed in Christ are assured; it is nothing less than eternal glory.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great preacher who preached from the pulpit of Westminster Chapel for more than 30 years, notes the key to Paul’s attitude was found in the comparison: “He does not say that it was light in and of itself but that when you contrast it with this “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” on the other side it becomes nothing.”

I mentioned at the start of this article that pain could be a mechanism for engaging in a game of football. I also suggested that pain could, in fact should, be a mechanism for engaging in life for those of us who have been born again. For the Christian this is possible because of the gospel. The incarnation of Christ, his perfect life lived, his death and resurrection, all ensure for us massive glory-an eternity spent with God-forever and ever. As we reflect on this glorious truth, our pain becomes light and momentary. Thus, pain becomes a life-engaging blessing when we perceive in light of the glory of the gospel. With every wound, scar, and loss our hearts are fined tuned to hope for and trust in the eternal presence of God. Christ's death and resurrection secures a future without tears and separation (Revelation 21-22). Pain reveals that day hasn't come yet. The suffering of Christ on the cross confirms the certainty of that day's arrival.

When we experience pain, and this is sure to happen, will we “curse God and die?” Or will we look to the “eternal weight of glory” won for us by Christ? I pray that we will look to our Savior and look to what he has saved us to and feel the life-crushing burden of pain become light and temporary. I pray that pain will be a signal not to withdraw or wilt but to praise our God and persevere to the end as messengers of hope.

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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 Luma Simm's book Gospel Amnesia: Forgetting the Goodness of the News.

Read more in Abe Meysenburg's article: Grief and the Gospel

Creating Culture in Your Living Room

Richard J. Mouw wrote a book on culture and common grace called He Shines In All That’s Fair. Philip Graham Ryken has a similar book called He Speaks To Me Everywhere. The idea, of course, is that there are glimpses of God everywhere, especially in culture. But what if you live in a cultural context which seems to lack any distinctive rays of individuality, creativity and especially God’s glory?

The Cultural Void

In Jeremiah 29, God tells His people to seek the welfare of the city of their captivity. For me, that is suburbia. Not cool suburbia where gentrification has transformed the past-its-prime strip mall into vintage clothing stores and hip coffee shops. We have Chili’s and Target and if it’s crowded, don’t worry because there’s another one just a couple of miles down the road. Our color palette is various shades of beige and the term “cookie cutter” adequately describes our home architecture. One day, when we moved back to Phoenix in 2008 to plant our church, we visited some friends in a neighboring subdivision. Turning into their neighborhood, one of my boys said: “We’re home!”

I live in Suburbia and I love music, especially live music. Suburban exile means that live music has been stripped from the fabric of our culture with the exception of the occasional lip-sync act at the mall food court. It’s as if the Taliban came in silencing the music, but the special forces are outside the camp trying to drive us out by pumping in “lowest-common-denominator, auto-tuned, mid-era power pop” until we snap. I have to drive close to an hour for quality live music venues.

My first reaction to such an obvious injustice was to blog about it. Once I had done that, I want to do something about it. Though I was tempted to simply complain about my lot in life, Andy Crouch had already pulled my card. In Culture Making, he argues that instead of simply “critiquing” or “copying” culture, we should “create” culture. If our surrounding culture lacks flavor, we should be the salt.

One way to think about the gospel is in terms of “fall reversal.” When Adam and Eve mistrusted and disobeyed on our behalf, they cast everyone after them and all of creation into slavery to sin, decay, disorder, and death. Yet their task to “subdue the earth,” or to bring order from chaos, was not nullified; it just became more difficult. As Adam and Eve wandered from the garden, they left remnants of order behind them, glimpses of God’s character. They were still charged with the task of bringing God’s image to bear in and through a now-broken creation. This charge extends to God’s people to this day, primarily in and through the Gospel.

This is true on several different levels. As the Holy Spirit awakens rebelliously dead souls to life in Christ, the fall is being reversed. The dead are brought to life and God’s people are sent into every sphere of life to show who God is and what he’s like. Likewise, when we bring order from the chaos of life, when we seek justice, when we build community, or when we pursue beauty we are bringing God’s image to bear on the world he created. Therefore, those who have been brought from death to life ought to be at the forefront of creating culture.

A friend and I decided to do something about our city’s musical barrenness. We started hosting concerts at our homes. Not like those sketchy house parties you used to go to where that one band from high school rocked teen angst out of hand-me-down amps and you tried to protect your Dixie cup from the mosh pit in the backyard (no, wait, maybe that was just me). We host musical performances where community is built around artistic expression and we do this for a number of reasons.

We Believe In A Creator God & Culture Is Important

Our God is a creator god who spoke creation into existence and created us in his image.This means that we have creative capacities like God. We can’t create out of nothing but we can take what God has given us and shape it into new statements. We can bring order from the chaos. Not only is this what our God did (Genesis 1 and 2), it is what he has charged mankind with as well.

Many refer to Genesis 1:28 as the "cultural mandate.” We are to shape the world around us, extend God’s order and beauty, and bring order to chaos. It’s telling that the biblical story does not end with a return to the Garden. It begins in a garden but ends in a city. We are commanded to create culture.

The idea of “culture” has taken on various meanings. At its root, the word culture is derived from the Latin cultura, which is a form of colere, meaning to “plow or till.” The idea was one of “cultivation,” particularly in an agronomic context. Hence, the word agriculture. God’s command to “subdue the earth” was also a command to create culture.

Culture is about more than worldview and ideas. Culture is, as Andy Crouch argues: “the name for our relentless, restless human effort to take the world as it’s given to us and make something else” (p. 23). It includes artifacts, music, television shows, newspaper articles, sporting events, origami, that last great meal you had and everything in between. Culture is everywhere and it matters. More than we realize.

When we create culture, we are showing the world what God is like; who he is and what he values. He has brought order from chaos, beauty from tumult and he has charged his people to do the same. When we bring a moment of comfort to a friend’s sorrow, when we create a piece of art from the left-over magazine scraps, when we open our homes, when we have a yard-sale for a friend, when we create music or just open up a space for that to happen, we are creating a culture that demonstrates the character of God. The culture that we leave behind says more about the God we worship than it says about us.

If all we leave behind is a choked thoroughfare of strip-mall banality, dotted with chain stores and microwaved restaurants, what are we telling the world about the God we worship? That he is willing to make things just tasty enough to get people through the door but not spicy enough to drive anyone away? What are we communicating when our “art” competes with the starving artists’ clearance sale this weekend at that shady motel?

Christians should make the best culture because we have the least to fear and the most to celebrate because we have been given life! I worship a God who brought order from the chaos and continues to do so in every area of my life and has given me a desire to see beauty spring forth from the parched ground of suburbia.

We have been called to celebrate the creator through creating. We cannot create out of nothing, but we can point to the God who can as we make new discoveries out of what he has left us. Culture matters because the culture we create says a lot about the god(s) we worship. Our mediocre art says, “our God is comfort.” Our reality T.V. shows say, “our god is at-least-I’m-not-that-messed-up.”

My friend and I were not content with the various shades of beige culture of our suburbia so we set out to create a better story pointing to a God who is beautiful and spurs me on to love, appreciate, and create beauty.

God’s People Are Called To Better the City Of Their Captivity

While establishing His covenant with Abram, God says He is blessing Abram and his descendants “so that you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12). God shows his love not just to his people but through his people.

Society should be better because we, his people, are present. This extends to our enemies. In Jeremiah 29:7, God tells his exiled people to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” Our love for God should manifest itself in the betterment of our cities.

We have not only been called to “preach the gospel” (the message of reconciliation), but to be ‘salt and light,” making things better (the ministry of reconciliation). I wonder, if my church family disappeared overnight, would our city even know the difference? We don’t seek to better the city just for our “best life now” but to reflect a God who has not left his creation abandoned.

The city should be filled with creativity, celebration, and community. House Shows, when seen through this lens, become a kaleidoscopic. They give us a glimpse of something more, something that resonates with the way we know things ought to be.

Jesus Brought The Better Wine

When considering culture, most of the attention is focused on the “cultural mandate” of Genesis 1. This is important because it is the foundation of interacting with culture. But there is more to your home than a foundation. From a Christian perspective, we should ask how the cultural mandate is changed (if at all) by Jesus.

Not only did God call his people to seek the welfare of their captors, he accomplished this through Jesus who entered into the sinful world to bring freedom. Jesus didn’t just enter culture, he made it better. He used community to bring people towards belief instead of using belief to exclude people from community. He brought the better wine. He made people consider their motives. He listened. He healed. He left behind not only words that people could remember but a different culture they could experience.

We don’t host concerts just because we love good music. We belong to a God who not only commanded us to go to the ends of the earth to create culture but primarily to make disciples. Though we do not use the concerts as evangelistic events, we make sure that we have friends there who can listen, declare, and demonstrate the gospel as the Spirit leads. Jesus demonstrated that this sometimes means creating spaces where those who don’t believe feel more comfortable than those who already do. Music is an important way to bridge these boundaries.

Music Brings Us Together And Lowers Social Boundaries

Music can be powerful. People who love the same music often feel a bond. People who have experienced the same music live together often feel a bond. A good performer can encourage self-examination and discovery while also being entertaining. House shows provide a unique opportunity to engage people in the realm of the creative while also being accessible. As people attend more than one of our house shows, we wee deep, meaningful discussions arise in the context of relationship. Music can be a powerful tool in building a community that wants more than what the current version of life seems to have to offer. House shows provide a valuable, non-threatening way to build community.

Artists Are Often Our Prophetic Voices

Not only can music lower social barriers, it can also make us acutely aware of the world’s problems in a unique way. Artists in general, and musicians in particular, are often the prophetic voices of a generation. Songwriters are often the ones saying what the rest of us innately feel: something’s not right. Though the musician may not be a Christian, we are able to enter one another’s story knowing that we agree that things are not the way they should be. This is a great opportunity for people who not only realize that things are broken but who have also been touched by the Great Physician.

Other Ideas

Music certainly isn’t the only way to pursue this vision. You might consider hosting a poetry or spoken word night, craft night, wood carving fire-pit nights, or sponsoring artists. You could even partner with local restaurant/coffee shop to host an artist’s opening night, song writer groups, film makers’ night, etc. You don’t even have to have any talent yourself. But you must believe that God gives us glimpses of himself when we bring order from chaos and beauty from the broken.

How has God called you to seek the welfare of your city?

What does it look like in action?

Here is video of Aaron Spiro (Soma Tacoma) performing at one of our house shows.

Tips on how to start a house show movement in your city: House Show Tips

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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 more in Proclaiming Jesus by Tony Merida

Read more free articles on mission in Mission is Where You Live by Jeremy Writebole and Sonnets and Discipleship by Deborah Murphy.

Women Teaching in the Church?

It may be better to sleep on the corner of the rooftop than live with a quarrelsome woman, but friends, educate that woman and there is hardly a limit to what she can do with her mouth and mind—for good or evil. God created woman as a helper knowing Adam would need help. What that help was exactly will be up for debate for centuries; we only know that the command to both man and woman at that point was to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth. A friend of mine confesses that at times he fears exposing his weaknesses to women in his life for various reasons. To which I replied that a woman was born to see a need, to come and encompass that need, nurture it until the time is right for it to be birthed into something more beautiful than he could imagine. We are built to help in ways men will never be able to help. That is our good design.

Disciplers on the Rise

Another friend and I were talking recently about the droves of women coming out of seminary in the coming years. These women have or will have studied biblical texts, learned Hebrew and Greek proficiently, interacted with scholars, and written theses. They have a deep and true abiding love of God's word, and the inerrancy of it. A few quick internet searches show women make up more than 51% of seminary students, and we should expect that number to grow as the Church at large is increasingly heavy on the side of female presence.

These women have taken the command to be fruitful and multiply seriously, and for many, in the absence of their own children, they have become incubators of God's word. They meditate on it, murmur on it, pray it, speak it, and teach it. They are poised for a gracious reception of hungry souls, souls weary of milk, starving for meat. They are disciples.

And even more, they are disciplers.

They may hold a collective Master of Divinity, they may give their brothers a run for their money in both their drive and grace, but over all of it, they see a distinct need in the world and want to help it. They are like the hen who gathers her chicks, finding the odd ones out and pulling them close, covering over, receiving the broken and disillusioned. And brothers: They should not be a threat to you.

Send Me, I'll Go

As the culmination of all things draws near, we grow more poised for a more holistic picture of what Paul said when he said, "Neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28)." Why? Because these women are perfectly situated to teach women. They are the Naomis, the marginalized taking the faces of future women in their hands and saying, "Here is how we see the Kingdom built, and it will take daring women who trust and believe the word of God, who will do beautifully vulnerable things to see the birth of a King brought forth."

As secular feminism is on the rise, more and more women within the Church will be looking for strong female voices. They are not looking for poor theology, but many of them haven't been taught how to study their bibles, or how to discern good theology from bad. Our culture is not the same as when the New Testament was written—more women than ever are without husbands or godly fathers, so there is more of an opportunity than ever for us to be like the women Paul wrote of in his letter to Titus: teaching what is good (Titus 2:3). Culturally it may look different than the first century Christian women looked like, but the message is still the same: the gospel comes in, fills out, changes us, and sends us out to make disciples.

• Has God given you the opportunity to learn the biblical languages? Teach other women so they might rightly discern what is true.
• Have you studied Church history? Teach women so they might help change history.
• Have you been given the gift of a discerning eye and mind? Teach women to exegete the Word, instead of the proof-texting all too common in studies meant for women.
• Has God radically transformed your heart in regard to the gospel? Extol His name to others in everything you say and do.

The question should not be, "Why can't we teach men?" but, "Who will teach the women who want to be taught?"

And our response should be, like Isaiah, "Here am I, send me!"

Will We Have Hobbies in Heaven?

Recently, I had the pleasure of completing a year-and-a-half long labor of love: a fully illustrated version of one of my favorite books, Richard Sibbes’ The Bruised Reed. It was a hobby project. One question I’ve been getting a lot since the book went live is: “Where on earth did you get the time?” I want to explore where I got the time. Specifically, I want to make a case for the cultivating of hobbies as a way of remembering where we’re headed. A hobby as work that is fully restful. As fully restful work, hobbies give us a glimpse of work in Heaven, where we are headed in Christ.

RETHINKING HEAVEN

Before we get started, we need a better view of heaven. For many, heaven remains the big white puffy thing in the sky. It's where we sport goose wings, and smiling in a prozac induced stupor, pluck three-stringed harps, snoring ourselves gently to sleep. This is the third death: eternal boredom. Let’s rid ourselves of this conception of the afterlife

If we start with Jesus, we get a very different notion of heaven. His resurrected body is a preview for ours (1 Corinthians 15:20-21). Far from floating along trailing fairy dust, these heavenly bodies will eat breakfast (John 21:12-13; Luke 24:30), go for long walks (Luke 24:13-35), and be made up of real flesh and bone (John 20:26-29). So forget a future as Casper the ghost. Our resurrected bodies will be altered, but they will be human.

In addition, the prophecies concerning the New Heavens and New Earth describe a very earthy place. Isaiah 33 and 35 tell us our destination is the earth brought to flourishing. The majesty of these prophecies are lost if they’re speaking of something akin to an alien planet — neat, but nothing like what we’ve known so far. No, biblical prophecy speaks of a New Earth, where everything we know and love is redeemed.

One of those things redeemed appears to be work. Isaiah 65 says of Zion, “the wealth of the nations shall come to you, a multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense,” (vv. 5-6). The list goes on, and the best of what the nations have to offer are present: livestock (v. 7), transportation (v. 9), wealth (vv. 9, 11). Note that these things would have no meaning whatsoever in anything in psuedo-reality. All this implies work but changed work. Redeemed, restful work. Foreigners build up the walls of Zion (v. 10); the building materials of all the land are upgraded, and the people themselves will no longer work under oppression (v. 17).

FUTURE "WORK"

In other words, in the very earthy New Heavens and New Earth, the curse is lifted, and the precious gift of work, creation, and cultivation is returned to humanity cleansed of it’s trappings of sin and decay.

The implications are staggering. It means we haven’t begun to see the potential of what human dominion can look like. Just because you know how to use your your limited edition Chemex to brew single-origin, hand-ground beans in unbleached filters doesn’t mean you’ve ever tasted real coffee. We’ve only begun to ply the trade. Give it a hundred thousand years or so, and see what the coffee tastes like then.

It means our failures and frustrations with daily life now may one day have an outlet. In Chicago, I can be frustrated when train breaks down, even as I dream about Zion, where the El will always run on time. It means we have to get rid of our strange vocational concepts like genius and prodigy. Calling the work of a fallen human genius is like calling the drawings of a three-year-old genius. Who can say what genius really looks like when human life is cut so dreadfully short?

Not that the redemption of work is the central point of the greater story of redemption. But if the redemption of work is part of what Jesus has done (and based on the above, I believe a strong case can be made), it’s also something that Scripture asks — demands — that we dream about.

HOBBIES AS RESTFUL WORK

This is where hobbies come in. A hobby, by nature, is work you do restfully. It’s not cleaning out the septic tank. It’s not playing space invaders with your inbox, answering one, or even as twenty more invade. It is restful work. A hobby is work that has zero conflict with joy and peace. As such, the hobby offers us a glimpse of work fully redeemed.

Hobbies give us a taste of work in eternity. When do you work on a hobby? Not on Monday morning. Not on Hump-day. You work on a hobby on Saturday. You do it on your day off. You do it when your time is free. That’s the beauty. We can pick hobbies up, and put them down, and maybe even take a nap in between.

The rest of our work is crammed into seemingly impossible schedules. We till the cursed earth in a panic to survive. If we don’t answer the email, then our bosses will notice, and if it happens too many times, then he’ll take away the emails for good, and our food and shelter along with it. (When managers talk about a “sense of urgency,” this is what they mean). We work at hobbies in a fundamentally different frame of mind. When we work at hobbies, it’s as if we have all the time in the world. And our work in Heaven will be the same.

Hobbies give us a taste of work as pleasure. Why work at anything in our time off? We work at hobbies because something in us knows that, though work is broken, it is a good thing. Work is not our enemy, and the eternal hammock sweet redemption. Rather, work is what were are made for; work that is not toil is blessed.

So we humans build little model planes, and paint pictures, and bone up on our golf games, and knit those ever-needed Christmas sweaters. We do these things because we want to, not because we have to.

What better description for what happens when hearts of stone are made hearts of flesh? All our have to’s become want to’s. All our duties become desires. Work is no exception to this glorious facet of the gospel. In eternity, no one will be forcing us to punch the clock. Hobbies give us a small glimpse of that glorious day.

Finally, hobbies give us a taste of work that thrives. The world out there is complicated beyond recognition. Systems break. Markets collapse. In spite of the motto, "We build to last," we are awestruck if something survives more than a decade. Thieves break in. Moths and rust destroy. Built-in obsolescence seems the order of the day.

Hobbies offer a different kind of work altogether. Hobbies typically offer us closed systems. "Place Axle A in Hole B. Apply glue. Let Dry." Hobbies let us work on things where actual progress is possible, where we may build relatively free from the complexities of work after Adam. Not perfectly free, of course, but more free. And work in eternity will be free from decay and frustration altogether.

WHAT ABOUT ENTERTAINMENT?

The sad truth is, when most people ask where I got the time to illustrate my favorite book, they usually aren’t taking seriously the possibility that someone might sacrifice entertainment time. A few thoughts here.

Media vs. Hobbies. Challenging the American’s right to television is about as safe as giving a pill to the wrong end of a horse, but here it goes. I think we spend too much time with our televisions. I’m not aiming for no T.V., just less. We live in an age where some pretty decent stories are told through what was once an unsophisticated medium — I get that (though if we think we can just turn our brains off while watching, we’d better think again). What I don’t like about television is that it reinforces what most of us want to believe already: that work is bad. Work is not bad. Work is good. We need help seeing this. Spending 28 hours per week in front of a T.V. screen doesn’t help at all.

Video Games vs. Hobbies. I’m fairly certain that video games will become a top-level moral issue for the church in the coming years. The way things are going, video games will far outrun T.V. in terms of addiction and temptation to sexual promiscuity. Already in many countries, games allow main characters to realize every fantasy they’ve ever had: orgies, rape, incest, murder.

We must ask not only how video games can lead us to sin, but also why they are appealing in the first place. I haven’t seriously played since the 8-bit glory days of yore, yet I think the answer to the latter question is still the same: video games offer un-cursed progress. That is the appeal. When I found a heart-container in the Legend of Zelda, nothing could take that away. The game had a save feature. There is much more to be explored here (perhaps in a future article). For now, I’ll simply state that I think video games should be taken with much moderation, as they are more entertainment than work. For proof, I offer nothing more than the sweat stains on the gamer’s couch.

Other Games vs. Hobbies. I’m a fan of board games (Eurogames to be precise). Games bring people together. They too are closed systems, and often restful for the mind. Families playing games can have great fun (also great sorrow, should a sibling acquire Boardwalk and Park Place). I’m all for putting games somewhere in the Sabbath routine. Yet again, hobbies fulfill a longing in the human heart that no game will satisfy. Games exercise our desire to rule, but not our desire to build. Games exercise our powers of decision, but they do not allow us to image creator God.

A SHINING VISION

Hobbies can help us cultivate a shining vision of future glory. I have about a half-dozen serious hobbies going at the moment.

Rather than merely playing, my son Ezra (5) and I are developing a video game using MIT’s programming language, Scratch. This Christmas, I gave my family the first chapter of an illustrated children’s book about rats in the city called The Owl’s Eyes. It will probably be a five-year project. I also have a card game in the works. The first version of this I’ve made on paper. The second will be real illustrations on actual playing cards. If I live long enough, I want to turn it into a heritage toy, and create the entire thing from hand-carved wood tiles. And, if it does well financially, my Bruised Reed project will become a whole line of books called Illustrated Puritans (with future illustrating accomplished by an army of friends).

I say all this not to boast in myself, but to boast in the Lord. Jesus has saved the whole world. Everything you and I love rightly will be redeemed. The wonders of what is coming we cannot currently comprehend. Yet we get glimpses, small and precious glimpses. They are graces come down from the author of grace.

Every Saturday the Youngren family wakes up to pancakes, then sits down in the living room, assembling tools of trade. Markers, felt, and many-colored papers line the table. Phones are off. Laptops closed. Everyone’s in pajamas. The conversation rises and swells with excitement.

This is the Sabbath. We know what we are about. The Youngren family is getting to work.

It makes our tired hearts glad.

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Aaron Youngren pastors The Line and is a husband and father in the heart of the Windy City. He writes at Unbound and is the author of the Two Cities book series. Former lives have involved writing for theater and managing a global team at Amazon.com. Aaron make pancakes.

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Further Reading: Gospel Amnesia by Luma Simms

It Takes All Kinds: The Unique Challenges of Church Plants and Established Churches

Steve Bezner has pastored established churches and planted a church. He serves as Senior Pastor at Houston Northwest Church, an 40-year old congregation with a vision to plant churches throughout Houston. He holds degrees from Hardin-Simmons University (B.A., Bible; M.A., Religion) and Baylor University (Ph.D., Religion). He is married to Joy and has two sons: Ben and Andrew. ___

Answer quickly: Are church plants or established churches more important?

You’re right. It’s a trick question. But to listening the way some people talk, you’d think one is more essential to the success of the Kingdom than the other. I’ve met pastors of established churches who are threatened by church plants or even find new churches unnecessary. Likewise, I know church planters who direct exceptional amounts of contempt at established churches, accusing them of everything from greed to laziness.

I love the church, in all of her expressions. I love her because she is the Bride of Christ.

Over the years, the Lord has seen fit to let me love and pastor a variety of churches in a variety of seasons. While I would steadfastly argue that each church is essential to God's Kingdom, I would also readily admit that each church requires a unique approach.

In other words, leading a church plant and an established congregation have similarities, but they also require different approaches and skills.

Here are three things that I've learned regarding the difference between leading a church plant and leading an established church.

1. Creating vs. Reinvigorating: Church plants demand “ex-nihilo” work; established congregations need fresh insight.

Creating

Planting a church was the single most difficult thing I have ever done in my time as a vocational pastor. I have served in churches almost half of my life (yes, it’s odd to say that), but no other ministry activity I have participated in compares to the emotional and spiritual will necessary to plant a church. Student ministry, college ministry, transitioning/re-planting a church, and educational ministry are all exceptionally valuable for the Kingdom of God. But from the perspective of difficulty, they are all much easier to navigate than church planting.

The reason? Plants, by their very nature, are in a perpetual state of creation. They have nothing from which to build. From checking accounts to governing documents to discipleship processes to sermons to ministry teams, those who are leading church plants find themselves starting something from scratch almost every day.

Personally, I found that task exhilarating. I like to create new things. I always have. But the consistency and demand of constant creation is also exceptionally challenging. If I found myself in the shoes of a church planter today, I would frontload as much of the creative process as possible prior to officially beginning. The more you can decide prior to setting out, the further ahead your fledgling church will be.

Reinvigorating

By contrast, established churches face a different challenge. With existing facilities and structures, it can be difficult for established congregations to recognize the need to re-create structures and patterns within the church. I served 10 years in a county-seat downtown congregation that is almost 140 years old. Today that church is reaching new families, churning out Kingdom disciples, and sharing the gospel at an impressive clip. Three years ago they baptized 100 new believers! Yet that church is in a rural setting in a town of 6,000. Before it could experience growth, it needed to be reinvigorated.

My current church is quite different. It is young by comparison at a mere 40-years old. But, like any church, it needed fresh vision and direction in order to reach its community. The congregation loves its city, but it needed a clear path to share the gospel. Despite having many things that a church plant would absolutely love to have—facilities, by-laws, elders, excellent Bible teachers, and a top-notch staff—the church was frustrated by its inability to move forward. My first priority was helping the congregation discover its God-given DNA and to set an invigorating vision that would help the church receive its mission.

We began by praying for 40 days for three things: 1) Who we ought to reach, 2) How we ought to reach them, and 3) Unity around that vision. I am scheduled to share the new vision this Sunday, and the church is excited.

2. Recruiting vs. Persuading: Church plants require bold challenges; established churches require the subtle art of persuasion.

Recruiting

As a church plant pastor, I constantly found myself casting vision. Everyone was curious as to why I would start a new church. They asked questions like, “Why do we need new churches?” “How is your church different?” “Will you church fit a person like me?” As a result, I regularly found myself drawing napkin diagrams and re-explaining what our church plant was about.

The point was rather bold: Church plants need leaders. And most leaders are already engaged in existing ministries. As the Lord brought us leaders who considered joining us in our endeavor, we were forced to recruit.

I know that may seem rather crass. We don’t recruit; the Lord calls. This, of course, is true. But Jesus himself asked people to follow him. Many did. But some chose not to do so. I never felt ashamed to share my heart for the city and to explain why we were doing what we were doing. And, if people seemed interested and if I sensed the Lord at work, there would come a moment when I would ask, “Would you like to join us?” I received all sorts of responses, and some of them were ego-bruising. But those who are church planters learn quickly that recruiting new leaders is essential to the mission of the church.

Persuading

By contrast, in an established church leaders are already present. There are elders, deacons, ministry leaders, group leaders, Bible teachers, and a host of other leaders already present. And, honestly, they love their church just like it is. If they didn’t, they would have left years earlier. They have relational ties to the church. They have invested significant financial resources into the church. And their hunch is that they will be there long after you have moved on. Harsh? Perhaps, but it is a common sentiment.

How, then, is the new pastor of an established church to proceed? I think the loving art of persuasion is essential. I am currently reading Doris Goodwin’s multi-biography of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, Team of Rivals. The book is replete with pastoral lessons. Lincoln, through deft diplomacy, recruited his primary political rivals (William Seward, for example) to campaign for him and then join his Cabinet. How? By explaining that the common cause they shared was more important than personal gain.

Pastors of established churches would do well to exemplify such a spirit. By emphasizing the common cause (reaching the city with the gospel) and by taking the time to have loving conversations, the vast majority of church members will gladly join you. But if you fail to take the time to listen and discuss, you will find yourself fighting battles that will prevent the church from moving forward.

3. Marching vs. Strategizing: Church plants require a pastor in the trenches; established churches need a pastor who can move the army around the map.

Marching

Let me describe a typical church planting Sunday:

Arise at 6:00 a.m. to review my sermon and pray for the day. Help my wife get the children up and ready. Load the SUV with materials necessary for this Sunday. Meet my team members at a local school at 9:00 a.m. Set up tables and chairs, unload a trailer, and set up a sound system. Join my children’s ministry in discipling kids. Preach. Visit with newcomers. Help load the trailer and reset the school. Head home for lunch and then have any necessary leadership meetings.

Sound tiring? Good. It was. But it was necessary. During our church planting days, I worked alongside my congregation each week in the work of ministry. I discipled new believers and we hosted Community Groups in our homes. We met with people, we prayed with people, and we did the work of the people alongside the people.

Why? Because church planting is exceptionally intimate. The members see their leader up close and personal. They will smell a phony immediately. If you are not willing to work as hard—even harder, in fact—than those you are planting with, then they will resent you. You must never elevate yourself above the team.

We regularly heard from our church plant members how they were grateful that we worked hard. They knew it was difficult. But we knew it was most effective. How could we ask people with children, community activities, and full-time professions to volunteer time if we were not willing to do so ourselves? A church planter unwilling to be in the trenches will not be a planter for long.

Strategizing

Larger established churches value hard work, as well. But they do not expect the Senior Pastor to be greeting in the parking lot or creating the newsletter. In fact, they would be dismayed to find their pastor doing so. They would see a pastor who did so as one unable to wisely lead his team and manage his own resources.

I find myself more regularly engaged in strategic conversations in my current context. I must be able to see the strategy, and then effectively lead our various ministries to engage in the right way at the right time.

Honestly, I struggled with this initially. I wanted to earn the respect of my church, so I would volunteer to help or serve in a way they did not expect. While they appreciated my willingness, they clearly expressed their desire for me to focus my time on the tasks that only the Senior Pastor could do: Lead the staff, cast vision for the church, and teach the Scriptures.

And they are right. It’s the best plan.

The Truth of the Matter

Bottom line: The church is necessary in all of its expressions. And God has uniquely gifted individuals for both planting and pastoring established congregations. No matter the path He has called you toward, it is challenging, but in its own beautifully unique way. Never be ashamed of it, but never cast aspersion on another expression of His Body, either. Simply walk with what He has given you.

On Blog Attacks and Having a Conversation

The rise of social media and blogging over the past decade has opened the door to a new avenue of public discourse. As I've said on this site before, we should not stifle the right to be heard. Freedom of speech is crucial. And social media is a unique, powerful mode of ministry. However, problems inevitably arise because anyone can write a blog post or status update, send it out to the world, and for all intents and purposes move on without repercussion. In light of this, there is a tendency to write "hit pieces" -- attacks on an individual or group -- under the guise of free expression of opinion.

And why not write sensational pieces? You can attract a lot of attention to your work. A recent example is the article written by Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports regarding Tim Tebow, Robert Jeffress, and FBC Dallas. Doyel extracted quotes from Jeffress's sermons, likened him to a mild-grade version of the Westboro group, and started the frenzy that caused Tebow to skip out on his scheduled appearance. (Oh, and Gregg Doyell got a lot of pub for himself.)

This kind of work is no stranger to the Christian world of social media. In fact, it's disappointingly common. Some were upset about Kevin Ezell's now-infamous critique of "bloggers who live with their mother and wear a housecoat during the day," but he's been given ample ammunition to make that sort of claim. Let's face it: Blogs are used as bully pulpits far too often.

Now, we may expect this from professing nonbelievers. But when this happens in the Christian community, a disconnect occurs.

Scripture and Conflict

Most people are aware of Jesus's command in Matthew 18 that begins with, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother." And we've probably heard Paul's exhortation in 1 Corinthians 5: You should expel a person in the church who sins without regard.

But how should a people respond when a brother (or sister) writes, says, or does something that they don't like? It's not sinful, it's not an offense against you -- you just simply disagree.

When dealing with online dialogue -- whether sinned against or not -- the two parties should mimic the new life Paul describes in Ephesians 4:

²⁵ Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. ²⁶ Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷ and give no opportunity to the devil. ²⁸ Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. ²⁹ Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. ³² Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Remember: It's not a sin to publicly or privately disagree with someone, nor is it evil to show concern about something they've said or done. When these conversations are healthy and informative, they can be truly helpful. But tone is important. Snark, misrepresentation, and attack on another's character should disappear when we ponder our redeemed lives, the reality of Satan, and the implications of Christ living in us (Gal. 2:20). The cross levels the playing field and demands grace as the immediate response.

Practical Tips for Online Disagreement

Imitating Christ should be our foundational aim. This ought to bring pause to our knee-jerk reaction to assault another. (And might save our keyboards a little stress, too!) Beyond that, here are some thoughts to remember when engaging in online dialogue.

• Those you cyber-fight are real people. A fact lost on many is that you're dealing with a real person, with real feelings, a real family, and real flaws -- just like you. Treat them as such. Take a step back, do your homework, and make a fair attempt to understand their position.
• It's much easier to blast someone from your computer screen than actually talk to them. Our first inclination should be to speak with that person about the issue. You might find that the person meant something else, regretted their decision, or has a legitimate explanation for what happened. It's not holy or helpful to shoot arrows across the interwebs.
• God searches the heart. Scripture is full of reminders that God knows our motives (Ps. 139:1; Jer. 17:10; Rom. 8:27; 1 Thess. 2:4). There are likely not many pure reasons for publicly attacking another, so pray for the Holy Spirit to reveal your intentions.

May we all glorify God in our public, and private, disagreements.

Christians on Stage & on the Go

The guy in the white, skinny jeans was staring at my wife from the concert stage. He bounced in rhythm behind his electric guitar and gave his best "smoky eye" looks her way as she stood next to me on the front row. She thought it was funny. Not me. I thought he looked weird and uncomfortable.

The lead singer sounded better than ever. However, she tugged on her dress, spilled water on her piano, and led the crowd in a few awkward moments between songs. Well into our thirties and on the front row, that night we saw humanity in a super star. We'd long admired her songwriting skill and silky clean voice. We assumed her life was just as silky and clean, with very few mess-ups. Seeing her perform live that night, we didn't get that feeling.

Humanity is a funny thing. When we pull people off of our stages and screens, we realize we hold a lot of basic things in common---breathing, being hungry, and experiencing pain. This levels the playing field. We have days where we feel on top of the world, and we have (more) days where we just feel the grind. We feel tired. We find out a friend is hurting. A relationship gets fractured. We procrastinate about a difficult decision. I have more days when I'm just trying to walk next to Jesus and it’s all I can do to breathe in and out and put one foot in front of the other.

Mission and Humanity

Being human puts us on an equal playing field with the people on the platforms. That’s good news. But, there are also some really beautiful things associated with the gospel that level the playing field for spiritual influence as well. That’s even better news.

After Jesus rose from the dead and before he went back to be with the Father, he stood on a hill and shared something with his disciples that changed everything for the rest of us. He said, “Go.” He told them to rise and live a life of mission. My life would look differently today had it not been for a collision with the grace of the gospel. It’s not always pretty for me, and it wasn’t always pretty for the disciples, who got much needed help when the Spirit showed up. The gospel has a way of causing a ruckus and moving forward, and we get to play a part in the advancing story.

Not only is the superstar on stage just as human as we are, but so is the spiritual giant who always says the right thing and has all the best stories. We are all equally desperate for God’s grace, and equally capable of greatness. Not the kind of greatness that makes the Huffington Post  but the kind that shouts a giant shout in the halls of eternity.

In other words, each of us can have the most profound impact possible. You and I can have the most significant conversation ever possible: a conversation where the gospel message moves across the line and takes root in a person’s life, transferring their heart from darkness to light. The greatest conversation of all time can be had by any of us, and there’s no need for a guitar or super-tight jeans, which is really good news for me.

God talked about Jesus through Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. -Colossians 1:17-18

Jesus was before everything that is, and he holds everything together as it continues to be. He’s in charge of his people, work, and plan. He’s preeminent. He’s above all things. With the lifting of his finger, the universe would jump off of its rails and become a disorganized and utter mess. Jesus’ power is comforting to me, but it’s also unnerving. If it's true that Jesus is preexistent and preeminent, then I’m in need of a gut check every day. It also means that there are a lot of people who are in a bad spiritual space.

Mission with Love and Trust

Paul wrote to one of the more disheveled cities, reminding them of the why behind “Go.” He said,

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. - 2 Corinthians 5:14-16

It’s the love of Christ that moves us toward people. His love controls us because we have experienced it. I was quite a mess when the gospel took root in my life. I was confused and unhappy. The ground below me seemed like it was constantly moving. I felt like a shell of a person, and I wasn’t sure what to believe or who had the answer. I had a family who loved me and friends who exposed me to Christians, but it wasn’t until I actually heard the words of the gospel that things started to make sense. My life didn’t start to change until someone sat me down and said: “I care about you. And you need to know this.” I experienced God’s love in the fact that he moved toward me when I wasn’t moving toward him in any way. He reached out to me and set my feet on ground that was finally solid, not shifting and unsure. I hope you know that kind of love. That same love is what now compels us to share the great news of who Jesus is, what he has done, and what that means for us.

Missional Living

Living missionally isn’t recognized by spell check but it sure is talked about a lot in our carved out, Christian part of the world. We make missional living out to mean so many things that I wonder if it’s lost it’s meaning. One thing we easily forget in all of our missional talk is the importance of the gospel moving out, verbally, from one person to another. Of course, there are times when a person discovers the gospel on their own. And God is the only one who can change a heart. But most often another person is the medium for the message -expressed through language- in the context of love and trust. When the gospel is shared in the context of a relationship where love has been expressed and trust has been earned (at least in some form) big things can happen. Sometimes love can be expressed and trust can be built rather quickly, as fast as a few minutes on some occasions. Sometimes it takes longer. Somewhere along the way, however, the actual information has to be presented. The gospel message has to come across the wire and be heard by the person on the other end.

I'm part of an organization that talks a lot about going. We like to say that "go" is in our DNA and flavors most of our tactical moves. We work mainly with students who are 18-24, and it’s a privilege to engage a person in that window of time when they are so full of passion but still wondering if they are buying the God (or non-god) that's been sold to them. Sold to them by their parents, taught to them by a pastor, or shared by their grandma on their social feed. Whatever goods on faith they’ve been sold, they’re finally on their own and deciding for themselves what they really believe.

These young people are walking around their campuses with their backpacks full of academia, but life just doesn’t make sense apart from Jesus. Without Christ, they’re in a bad space even if they don’t realize it. Come to think of it, so is my neighbor who leaves their trash can at the curb too long, my kid’s coach who yells too much, and the young person working behind the counter at the grocery store with the tattoo that I can’t read. Apart from Jesus Christ, life is coming off its tracks. They’re in a bad space. We’re in a bad space. And here’s something I wish I thought about the night of that concert with my wife...the same is true for that skinny-jeaned, bouncing guitar guy with wandering eyes.

A heart without Jesus is a dark heart. Darkness is darkness. A dark heart is a sick heart, and a lonely heart. Without Jesus life just doesn’t make sense.

Mission and the Next Generation of Leaders

I like thinking about the future, and I love the idea of being part of a leadership engine for the body of Christ. After all, sometime soon, a creative young leader will make something that will change everything for the rest of us. Do you remember what life was like before seeing a hashtag in the corner of your TV? I have a feeling that right now that future leader isn’t coming up through the ranks of youth group fame. Maybe they are. However, I think it’s equally likely that the future spiritual leader is rushing around their campus dropping f-bombs when they meet with their professors. Or it’s the young lady who last week slept with her boyfriend and can't imagine anything greater. The student organizer who is motivated by self-promotion. Or, the inebriated fraternity guy who is out for revenge. What if, before they changed the world, that young person’s life collided with the grace of the gospel and everything changed for them?

I think that would affect a lot of people. After all, there are certain things that are already reaching the world:  technology, the arts, and media to name just a few. I wonder what would happen if a few of the top leaders in these parts of our culture were Spirit-led leaders with a foundation in Christ and a vision for making disciples? And what might happen if they didn’t use their platform to shout through a megaphone, but instead used it to generate meaningful conversation and intrigue about Jesus Christ? I think we’d see a serious ripple effect of life- change and kingdom expansion. Maybe even one that could change the whole world.

I have a friend who makes reality TV shows. He's good at his job and his shows fill up my DVR. He laughs when he thinks about his work and that's worth something in itself. He also tries to develop a thread of redemption while producing these humorous, real-life dramas. His passion is crafting good art that tells some piece of the story of God. He’s living a life of meaning. Not just in what he’s creating, but in how he loves people, builds trust, and shares with them what he’s learned about Jesus. I think my reality show-making friend is changing the world.

I have another friend who battled cancer early on in his college career. Even before I knew him, I heard stories about dozens of young men shaving their heads to support him through the rigors of chemotherapy. I've always said that my friend understands the urgency of the gospel better than me. He’s tasted suffering and considered life and death in a deeper way than I’ve ever had to do. He wants to love people and share Jesus with them because he understands the brevity of life in a very personal way. Currently, he is leading significantly on a college campus and taking the grace of the gospel to young people every week. He also recently got married. I think my cancer-free buddy is changing the world.

He Is With Us

So where are you with all of this missional talk? Have you really considered how loving it is for God to come after you when you weren’t really that interested? Have you thought about the collision that took place when you first understood what the gospel meant for you? Have you thought through how you might establish (or re-establish) love and trust with a friend? How could you do that in just a few minutes with a stranger, a neighbor, your kid’s coach, the grocery worker? Is there a re-orienting of priorities that you need to make?

Right after Jesus told the disciples to “Go,” he added, “I’ll always be with you.” It’s hard to overstate the calming effects of this part of the Great Commission.  He sent out his people and followed it up with a promise to be with them at every step. When God says, “I’m with you” He means it. That shouts a great shout in the halls of my heart. Thank you, Jesus.

You and I are human. We’re not God. We’re not superstars. We’re also not inadequate ministers of the gospel because Holy Spirit is at work through us. Unfortunately, my humanity can create the feeling that there’s not a level playing field with the people on our platforms and screens. We’re all equally human. Yet, the gospel of grace that has taken root in us has changed everything. That same grace makes it possible for you and me to have the most significant influence that could ever be. Because of Jesus, we’ve experienced the collision of the gospel with our very humanity. And we get to take part in that beautiful collision in the life of someone else, too. Even if they’re in a band. And bouncing.

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Shawn McGrath is a husband, dad, friend, marketer, strategist, baseball coach, and wannabe anthropologist. He serves as National Director for Leadership Development with Cru- giving emphasis in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Follow Shawn on Twitter @shawn_mcgrath and catch his blog at http://ShawnMcGrath.net. 

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To learn more about speaking the gospel in love, read Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson and Proclaiming Jesus by Tony Merida.

Be the Church: A New eBook on Mission and Discipleship

One of our contributors, Seth McBee, has teamed up with Caesar Kalinowski to write a new eBook. Here's a snippet:

As the conversation around being “missional” has come front and center within certain church circles in recent years, it seems that many of us struggle to grasp and/or explain the basics to others. This short book of simple pictures and conversations is meant to offer a starting point–a way to get, or keep, the dialogue going around some of the key issues surrounding who we are as the Church and what our mission really is.

Grab a copy HERE.

Parenting According to the Minor Prophets

Five minutes with my kids is all it would take to validate that what follows is a prayer for the future, and not a present reality. My wife and I have three children, ages 12, 11, and 6. We are now in our 40’s. We’re tired. My kids misbehave. They fight with each other and they disobey me.

But here I am sharing a few thoughts on parenting gleaned from a minor prophet. Weird. Though I am not an Old Testament scholar who spends combing the original language for various insights that others fail to notice, I am a dad who reads the scriptures hoping for any glimpse of Jesus. As I read Micah I am not only finding Jesus, but also our Father who is the example for parents. What if I fathered like our heavenly Father?

Acting Contradictory to the Character of God

One quick way to get me angry as a dad is when our children willingly and boldly talk or act in a manner that is contradictory to how we—my wife and I—have instructed them and attempted to model before them. When we have placed a particular focus in an area over a long period of time—including a conscious modeling before our children—and then our children act in defiant opposition of what our family stands for...it is frustrating to say the least.

At the core of that frustration is the strong, DNA-level desire for our children to act in a manner that is congruent with and reflective of the DNA of our family. Now, I’m well aware that often our children’s misbehavior is merely an image-bearing reflection of me and my sin. But still, it’s frustrating. It’s maddening. It’s aggravating. I mean, we’re talking about core values, attitudes, or actions that we’ve worked on over and over. When those not only get ignored, but rebuffed, that’s a sure-fire way to incite anger.

Now, I believe that anger can be a righteous reflection of the kind of anger God had over Israel throughout their history. He makes in known through prophets like Micah. In Micah 2:2, we see a description of how God’s family is behaving.

They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away;

they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. - Micah 2:2

At first blush, I was tempted to roll right past this description and assume, as is often the case in the minor prophets, that God was talking about some foreign nation under some foreign god. Then, the Spirit reminded me that this description is a description of God’s covenant family, Israel. That gave me reason to pause. His family, his treasured possession, was acting lik this.

God is a gracious, perfect provider for his people’s needs. And yet, here is his own family wasn't satisfied and coveted more. Here they are, not only wanting more toys, but forcefully ripping them from the hands of their brothers and sisters. Do you see the thought process? “I want it. They have it. I will use whatever power I have and take it. I will use my bigness, and sit on you, and rip that toy right out of your hand.”

In contrast, God gives graciously to his people. They have received more than enough. In fact, God has intentionally blessed them for the express purpose of being a blessing. Instead, they demand “It’s not enough." God is a ‘gladdener of hearts’ not an oppressor. I feel like I need to say that again, because the reality is, I often don’t believe it: God is a gladdener of hearts. He seeks to make our hearts and lives happy. When God shows up, life gets ‘gladder’, not sadder.

When God looks at his family, Israel, and sees coveting and oppressing, this rightly angers him because his family is acting in direct contradiction to his character; rather than reflecting it.

Providing Gracious, Consistent Discipline

Therefore thus says the LORD: behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster. - Micah 2:3

With God as an alert and active Father/parent, the result is, you cannot avoid him as a disciplinarian. There’s no hiding. His people cannot sweep this under the rug. There’s no loophole. There’s no secret tunnels or passageways to get around him. I picture many a ‘hallway’ football games with my big brother. Growing up, we’d often play football in the narrow hallway of our home. And there he would stand, looming a few feet away. And there was no getting around him. He was unavoidable. Now, I’m not so sure my brother’s unavoidable-ness was born out of love for me. I’m guessing it had another root. But God’s unavoidable-ness is born out of love.

You see, God hates covetousness and bullying. He will not stand for it. He will not allow his family to treat each other that way. Why?

1. Because of his own nature and character. He created this covenant community to be a new kind of people/family, one that would show the world what it looks like to live in God’s ways. Coveting does not accomplish this purpose.
2. He cares about each member of his family and he will not put up with coveting (I want what you have, that I’m convinced I deserve) or oppression/bullying (I’ll use my power or bigness to take advantage of your powerlessness or smallness). We often find ourselves saying this to our older kids in regards to their younger siblings, “How did Jesus use his power and bigness towards us? Did he use it to hurt us and harm us, or did he use it to serve us and love us?”
3. He cares about those outside of his family who are looking in and making judgment calls about who God is based the behavior of his family.

Now, those are three great reasons we should regularly share with our kids. “Why do mom and dad care about your behavior and the heart behind it? The same reason God cares about his family’s behavior and the heart behind it."

The Challenge

First, am I actively, lovingly, graciously, consistently unavoidable in my discipline when my children act in a manner contradictory to our Father? Have I communicated why this is important and worth discipline—not simply because it’s important to dad, but because it’s important to God!

Too often, I’m inconsistent, too tired, or too lazy to step in to correct and to explain. In addition, I also think somehow that grace competes with consistency, as if I must choose between the two. But our Father doesn’t. He is graciously consistent because the most unloving, ungracious thing he could do would be to passively ignore our destructive behavior.

Second, am I aware and moved by the incongruence of my kids behavior and the character of the Father? Do I care enough about his reputation, his DNA, his life-giving character to step in?

Or do I even know enough? Better yet, have I experienced enough of his gracious, beautiful character to be moved to intercede when my children fail to act in line with who he is?

The Good News

The answer to the above is a resounding NO. No, I don’t step in consistently and graciously. And no, I don’t have a heart-level compulsion based on my own experience of his Fatherhood that moves me to act. So now what, Micah?

I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel;

I will set them together like sheep in a fold,

like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.

He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it.

Their king passes on before them, the LORD at their head. - Micah 2:12-13

Well, now our Father calls an assembly, which he himself assembles. Who’s invited? Myself, along with all of the other parents who have failed. So, what can we expect at this assembly? A guilt-soaked lecture? A lashing? No. A gathering like sheep, into the fold of a gracious shepherd. A flock of noisy, but satisfied sheep in a green pasture. King Jesus leads the way, the Good Shepherd who willingly lays his life down for his sheep. Jesus provides a way of salvation. The Father cares so much about his own reputation, about how his family treats one another, and about how outsiders view him, that he breaches the gate by sending his Son for our failure. Now, that’s a great dad. That’s a Great Savior, and King, and older brother. He has gone on before us and made a way.

It’s only when I believe and taste and experience what truly makes God a perfect Father, that I’ll be motivated to step in when my kids fail to act in accordance with his character.

May the love of the Father compel us, the sacrifice of the Son free us, and the power of the Spirit move us to graciously, consistently, and lovingly parent our children to reflect him.

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Robby Fowler is a Pastor & Elder on a great team at Fellowship Jonesboro in northeast Arkansas—part of the Soma North America family and a member of the Acts 29 network. He is a husband to Kelly for 18 years, and father of three: Colby Grace, Cade Robert and Carson James. He is not a particularly great parent, but his hope rests in Jesus for his kids. 

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Read A Beginners Guide to Family Worship by Winfield Bevins

Other related articles: How Parental Authority is Good News by Tim Chester and Gospel Centered Parenting by Will Walker.

Eugene Peterson on Pastoring: Vocation, Not Job

I’m reading through Eugene Peterson’s pastoral memoir, The Pastor (HarperOne, 2011). He offers some great insights and scriptural reflections on the work of the pastorate throughout the text. I don’t agree with some of Peterson’s theology, to be sure, but I have found myself resonating deeply with his conception of the Christian pastor–and work more broadly. This isn’t a book to tear through; it’s one to read slowly, carefully, turning over sentences in your mind.

Here’s a selection that stood out to me:

But a vocation is not a job in that sense [that it's easy to tell if its done well or badly]. I can be hired to do a job, paid a fair wage if I do, dismissed if I don’t. But I can’t be hired to be a pastor, for my primary responsibility is not to the people I serve but to the God I serve. As it turns out, the people I serve would often prefer an idol who would do what they want done rather than do what God, revealed in Jesus, wants them to do. In our present culture the sharp distinction between a job and a vocation is considerably blurred. How do I, as a pastor, prevent myself from thinking of my work as a job that I get paid for, a job that is assigned to me by my denomination, a job that I am expected to do to the satisfaction of my congregation?

The book is worth purchasing and thinking through. I’ve also really enjoyed Peterson’s un-modern view of the importance of place, the silliness of worrying about congregational size, and the need to actually nurture people. These are overlooked yet powerfully needed contributions.

It strikes me that “job as vocation” is a helpful way to think of work as a Christian. I appreciate how much more deeply this perspective goes than a shallow, task-driven conception of our work. As a professor training students for ministry, the idea of vocational teaching, teaching unto God, is clarifying and enlivening. I’m not merely rendering services to my school; I’m working unto the Lord, giving him glory, growing in piety through my job, using all my faculties for his kingdom (see Colossians 3:23).

That’s a helpful way to think about all of work, I think.

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Cross-posted from Thought Life.