Point, Shoot, Forget

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

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

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

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

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

Breaking Free 

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

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

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

Feeding Authenticity

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

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

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

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

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

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

[3] Gen. 3:4-5

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

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

[6] Phil. 3:19.

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

[8] Phil. 4:8.

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

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

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

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

[13] Heb. 4:12–13.

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

Content taken from 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke, ©2017. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Il 60187, www.crossway.org.

The Problem of Unity in the Church

It was time to eat, or so I thought. I came home at 5:30pm, ready for dinner with my new bride. She had agreed to make dinner, yet when I came home she was not scurrying around the kitchen putting together a meal that would impress Paula Dean. Instead, she was sitting on the couch, watching a show, and recovering after a long day of work. “When’s dinner?” I asked with obvious frustration that the meal was not ready.

“Dinner?” she replied, “It’s only 5:30. No one eats dinner at 5:30.”

Oh, I beg to differ, I thought, but thankfully I did not say it. In my home growing up, dinner was always ready at 5:30. It did not matter who was preparing the meal, unless something unexpected happened, the meal would always be ready like clockwork at 5:30.

Not only did I assume this was when dinner should take place, but I also preferred it that way. I enjoyed skipping breakfast, eating an early lunch, having dinner at 5:30, and grabbing a snack before bed. Surely, I thought, others had figured out the clear benefits of structuring their eating habits in this way. I mean, who wouldn’t?

My new wife—that’s who wouldn’t. Growing up, her family ate dinner at 6:30. Her dad’s work schedule hindered him from getting home earlier so they ate later. I came home that day ready for dinner, and she was just beginning to think about what to cook.

Marriage exposes these types of preferences. Some prefer a live Christmas tree, and some a fake one. Some prefer the sound of a TV or music playing all the time, while others love silence. Some want their toilet paper to greet them over the top of the roll and others from the bottom. Some want the house to remain in pristine condition throughout the day, and others could not care less. Some want a big family, and some only want one little princess. The list could go on and on.

Certainly, we are all united with God through the glorious gospel. Yet, preferences are inescapable—a God-given facet of what makes you, you and me, me. In most cases preferences are not right or wrong either. It is not “right” to eat dinner at 5:30 and “wrong” to eat at 6:30 (as I quickly learned). These preferences are based on our life history, our experiences, our gifts, and the uniqueness of our personality and they drive hundreds of decisions we make each day.

No two people’s preferences are exactly alike. Marriage provides a unique case study for the way two people with preferences are forced to work together to achieve unity. Either you find a style of life that will work for you both, or you are in for a miserable marriage. It doesn’t much matter if you eat at 5:30, 6:30, or somewhere in between, but you’d better pick one and make it work.

Christians are no different. We are all different—shaped by a vast array of circumstances that God has used to draw us to himself. We come to our roles with different sin propensities, influences, backgrounds, training, senses of calling, and experiences in the church.

These preferences make it challenging for diverse people to unite in the church. At times these preferences may move along stereotypical lines, with certain generations preferring a defined form, structure, or ethos within the church. But this is not always the case.

Certainly, not all seasoned pastors prefer a liturgical worship style and not all younger pastors preach in jeans. All people do, however, prefer certain things, and the intersection of these preferences is a potential battlefield for unity.

A Divided Church

Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth was written to such a church. Paul responds to the issues that he has heard that are hindering the mission of the church. The first, and perhaps the most important, was that the church was deeply divided.

To this church, Paul writes, “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10).

Paul warned that preferential matters can undermine and hinder the work of the church. The unity that should be seen by virtue of Christ’s work can be veiled through needless divineness, likely the result of the following four factors.

#1 – The Voices that Influence Us

The preferences of Christians are often shaped by the voices that speak into their lives.

We are all prone to parrot voices of those around us. At first, this can be a good thing. When we begin our discipleship journey, few of us have any clue what we are doing, so we find other Christians we admire and mimic them. Over time, however, we can become a rote, thoughtless, caricature of someone else.

This reality is not as dangerous if you are modeling the preferences of a personal mentor or trusted friend with whom you have spent countless hours. But, in our day, this is often not the case. Rather than modeling the voices of mentors, we often imitate famous leaders that we only know via their podcasts, blogs, books, or sound bytes on Twitter. We respect them, so we try to become like them.

I’ve noticed this tendency in my own preaching. If I’ve spent too many hours listening to Matt Chandler preach, then I often find the tone of my preaching changes. If I listen to David Platt, I begin my sermons with “If you have a Bible and I hope you do. . . ” If I read Piper, then the frequency of the words “supremacy,” “exaltation,” and “glory” goes through the roof.

We admire certain people, pattern ourselves after them, and judge others who don’t fit this style as well. The fact that you respect these leaders is not wrong, but when you expect others to be like them to win your approval, then you needlessly isolate yourself from others. Not only that, but you squander the privilege of being yourself, choosing to become merely a replica of someone else.

#2 – The Theology that Compels Us

Theology can have a similar divisive effect. Here it is critical to make a distinction. Truth matters, and false teaching should be aggressively exposed and rebuked in the church. It is important that the church work to think rightly about God.

We should scour our Bibles in an effort to discern the faith that was once and for all handed down to the saints. We should work to align our preaching, teaching, and leadership to the revealed Word of God. Sloppy, trustless unity is not biblical unity.

Theological concepts compel Christians to take risks, love the marginalized, and pursue pastoral ministry, church planting, or international missions. For example, the idea that men and women around the world who have never heard the gospel are destined for an eternity apart from God has incited in many a passion for international missions.

In stunning irony, the very words that we use to speak about God and the way in which we use those words can be a tool Satan uses to cause division in his church. Christians often size-up others based on the particular words they use to speak about God and the theological camps in which they stake their claim. Many align themselves to certain theological systems or concepts, join forces with others who hold similar ideas, and avoid all those who don’t see things the same way. Such theological snobbery serves to divide God’s church.

Recently, I attended a meeting with a group of pastors and church leaders that included leaders from diverse generations. As the meeting concluded, one of my younger peers raised his hand and said, “This is great and all, but you guys have forgotten the gospel. Without the gospel, none of the rest of this matters.” This guy’s heart was in the right place (I think), and he wanted to remind us of the need for gospel centrality in our ministry.

What he missed was that these leaders had been talking about the gospel–they simply had not said it the way he would or used the same buzzwords that were important to him. Because they did not say it his way, he thought they had not said it at all. The result was that these established pastors felt undermined by a younger leader who had publicly shamed them for missing the gospel.

#3 – The Neglect that Angers Us

Preferences can also be formed negatively. We see something wrong and want to do something about it. A broken world certainly has enough pain and suffering to provoke anger in us all. From sex trafficking to malnutrition and unsafe drinking water to racial discord, we have plenty of pain to address. Christians often embark on their respective ministries in direct response to some unmet need in the church. From stale religious traditions to a lack of evangelistic intentionality to sloppy theology, we are all responding to something.

They are then stunned to learn that not everyone shares their passions. The person with a particular passion for orphan care may not understand why others are not heartbroken for these children as well. The individual with a passion to propel the church to think outside of the church’s walls may not understand those who have a passion to help the church formulate accurate theology. We are prone to forget that God has sovereignly orchestrated our lives, our circumstances, and our passions to prompt us to care about certain needs while doing the same in other people in order to prompt them to address other needs.

I had a wonderful experience in seminary. My time at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary was rich, and I was taught a deep love for disciplined theological insight. This, combined with my introverted and contemplative personality, means that trite, illogical, or unreflective teaching and preaching uniquely frustrates me. This is not true for others.

Many pastors were trained during a time when seminaries were far from a bastion of conservative theology, and they saw their peers fall prey to social gospel liberalism. For them, academic theology does not conjure up positive notions. Those who spend hours debating seemingly minuscule theological notions only to neglect the practical aspects of loving others and sharing the gospel anger them. If I am not careful, I can quickly fall prey to a sterile intellectualism that divorces theological reflection from a life on mission. For this reason, it is vital that I consistently acknowledge this propensity and repent when it hinders my leadership of God’s people.

#4 – The Mission that Drives Us

Finally, Christians should be those who are compelled to action. We see something broken and want to be a part of God’s work to fix it. God plants a mission in our hearts and we act. This passion often consumes younger believers who are just awakening to the beauty of the gospel and the mission of the church. Many are overly confident while still naïve, immature, and often foolish. They have a passion to experiment—to try things even though they may fail.

For example, a teenager in the youth group may notice the apathy in his church and determine to give his life to church-planting to counter this complacency. His passion for this mission may isolate him from the leaders who are laboring to bring change in local churches where apathy reigns supreme.

The seasoned believer may understand his mission differently. He has invested countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears into seeing a group of people conformed to the image of Christ through the local church. It may appear to those on the outside that all he cares about is the institution of the church, but in his heart he understands his mission to love these people faithfully. He may, unintentionally, feel threatened by younger men and women who come along—fearing that they may not love people the way that he does or harm the church he’s invested in for decades.

These factors shape every leader and make him or her unique and produce Christians with a unique set of preferences. The danger is when these preferences become ultimate—making us abrasive to others, dismissive of their counsel, and increasingly prideful—thinking that we have somehow mastered the art of doing church.

Unity does not mean that we relinquish our preferences, but that we have the wisdom and maturity to love and serve others in spite of our preferences. Through genuine effort and honest conversation, they can work to see beyond preferences and find a person who may love Jesus and his church just as much as they do.

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Matt Rogers is the pastor of The Church at Cherrydale in Greenville, South Carolina. He and his wife, Sarah, have three daughters, Corrie, Avery, and Willa and a son, Hudson. Matt holds a Master of Arts in counseling from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary as well as a Master of Divinity and a PhD  from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Matt writes and speaks for throughout the United States on discipleship, church planting, and missions. Find Matt online at www.mattrogers.bio or follow him on Twitter @mattrogers_

Adapted from a chapter Matt wrote with eight other leaders from Unite: Connecting Leaders from Diverse Generations, representing diverse generations and exhorting the church to find practical ways to forge unity.

Making Disciples at Home

Make disciples. That is what Jesus has called the church to do. Making disciples means reaching the lost and equipping believers to declare and display the gospel in all of life—even parenting. God has entrusted parents with children to raise and nurture in the gospel.

The church partners with parents to make disciples of the next generation by encouraging and equipping parents in this task and investing into the lives of their children through gospel-centered children and student ministries. The church’s mission to make disciples informs and encourages the parent’s pursuit of being a disciple and making disciples at home.

In turn, the parent’s pursuit of making disciples at home furthers and strengthens the church’s mission of making disciples. Making disciples is the mission of the church and it must help parents pursue it faithfully at home.

Churches and Parents Partnering Together

Making disciples of the next generation must be a partnership between churches and parents. Churches cannot replace parents and parents cannot be independent of the church.

Within our own church, we have tried to think through avenues of partnership that promotes discipleship through the church and in the home. Here are some categories that help us navigate this partnership:

– Encourage Parents

Parenting is not easy. There are countless decisions and situations parents face that bring them to an end of themselves. They are regularly reminded of their insufficiency and inability to change the hearts of their children. As much as they need equipping to be more faithful parents, they also need encouragement both as parents and disciples.

Every believing parent is at the same time a disciple and needs to be reminded of who God is, what he has done, and who they are in him. They also need to be encouraged to stay faithful in serving, disciplining, and loving their children. As leaders in the church, we must not undervalue the importance of making a phone call just to check in with a parent or having a lunch meeting to encourage them in their pursuit of Christ and discipling their children.

In the past, our church’s student ministry has invited parents to a quarterly event called Parent Connect. This time is designed to both encourage and equip parents in their task of making disciples at home. Being with other parents while sharing both the challenges and joys of parenting can be a great blessing. It also provides a time for our leadership to hear directly from parents regarding the challenges and questions they have as parents, which in turn helps us better equip them as parents and disciple-makers.

– Equip Parents to Make Disciples at Home

While it is vital to enter into the challenges of parenting and speak life-giving, gospel-rooted encouragement, it is also essential that the church calls parents to make disciples at home and equip them to do so. There is not one particular way the church accomplishes this; however, through a multitude of ways the church can both emphasize this calling and equip parents to carry it out. Consider the following ways:

• Remind parents of their calling as parents through faithful biblical preaching
• Speak directly to the challenges and opportunities of parenting in your sermons
• Devote a sermon series, discipleship class, or retreat to the issues of parenting and disciple making in the home
• Host parent events that focus on specific parenting topics (e.g., Parent Connect)
• Provide parents with resources in your newsletter or ministry update

Ask yourself: What avenues of ministry does my church have that we can use to better equip parents in making disciples at home?

Sometimes it can be the small things that help parents most. For example, each month our student ministry sends out a monthly update. Within those emails, we have a “Parent Connect” section that provides links to various topics that aim to provide parents with resources to help them better raise and disciple their children.

As a student minister, there is nothing more encouraging than hearing how a particular resource encouraged a parent or helped them work through a situation or have a difficult conversation.

– Reach, Equip, and Send Students

Another significant way churches partner with parents is through having a faithful student ministry. While most churches have student ministries, it is important how a student ministry understands its mission and how it carries it out.

A faithful student ministry does not aim to replace parents or entertain students. It aims to reach students with the gospel, equip them to be disciple-makers, and send them on mission. A faithful student ministry does not isolate itself from the rest of the church, but reflects the mission of the church and helps foster that mission within the lives of students and families.

When a church’s student ministry carries out its ministry with parents in mind it can strengthen the ministry of parents by echoing the same gospel and promoting the same mission in the lives of their students.

From Church to Home: Parents Making Disciples

If you are parent, how do you make disciples at home?

How do you help your children come to faith in Christ? How can you help your student take the next step in their walk with Christ? How do you make disciples when you are so busy already? How do you make disciples when there are so many other influences in your student's life?

Making disciples at home isn't a cookie-cutter process. It won't just happen if you love Jesus and pray before your meals. It won't work to hope that someone else will do it. Making disciples at home will only happen as parents pursue making disciples with intentionality and great dependence on God. Let me give you three categories to help you think about how you can more faithfully make disciples at home:

– Be A Disciple

Making disciples at home begins with being a disciple of Christ. Many parents put their children in church because they want them to have a positive influence in life. Ironically, what they hope for their children, they fail to pursue themselves.

Other parents want their children to follow Jesus and make wise decisions, but they simply don't hold themselves to the same standard. The goal we should desire for our children is that they know Christ and submit their lives to Him. This is the hallmark of a disciple. If we desire this for our children, we cannot help them get to where we have not gone ourselves.

Ask yourself:

• How is your relationship with God?
• How are you doing at prioritizing time in God's Word?
• How are you working out your faith in the office? In your marriage?

I challenge you to so live for Christ as his disciple in every area of your life that your children cannot help but take notice.

– As You Go

Deuteronomy 6:4-8 is a key text in thinking about what making disciples at home looks like. How do you help your children love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength? Deuteronomy 6:7 says, "Talk about it when you sit down in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

In other words, as you go throughout each day and week, talk about the Lord with your children. Talk about it on the ride home from school, on the way to practice, around the kitchen table, as you get ready in the morning, or before you go to bed each night. These conversations don't have to be formal or equate to a Bible study. Ask them questions and listen to the struggles and problems they face. Think through gospel truths your student needs to hear. Find ways to connect those truths to their life.

While your child might now want to hear it from you or may appear not to listen, these words and moments can have lasting impact long after the awkwardness or silence of these conversations. The beauty of a church committed to making disciples is that parents and pastors have the opportunity to echo the same truths into the lives of children and teenagers through a mosaic of relationships. Think of your parenting as having a cumulative impact on the direction of your child's life. It most likely won't be one particular conversation that changes everything, but it will be the everyday, as you go, ordinary moments that shape and mold who your child is in Christ.

– Family Worship

There are multiple ways families make time for family worship, but the most important point is that you make time for it. I'll be the first to acknowledge this can be difficult to do consistently. However, its value is worth the difficulty of figuring out how to do it. The mistake many people is making it more than it has to be.

In Donald Whitney's Family Worship, he encourages a simple plan: read the Bible, pray together, and sing. Take time to reflect on a passage of the Bible (maybe from Sunday's message or your student's small group), pray together (ask your student about the things on their heart/mind), and sing (see if your church has a Spotify playlist). In this interview, Whitney provides detailed information about family worship.

We cannot relegate making disciples to Sunday. It must be woven into our daily life. Let me encourage you: this will not go as you would like. You will fail. You will have funny attempts to connect God's truth to your teenager's life. In the midst of this pursuit, don't grow weary in doing what is right. Don't lose sight of the goal. Don't forget this is ultimately a work of God's grace through his Spirit.

God has given us his Word to might pass it on to our children "so that a future generation-children yet to be born-might know. They were to rise and tell their children, so that they might put their confidence in God and not forget God's works, but keep His commands" (Ps. 78:5-7).

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Michael Guyer is the Minister to Students at Open Door Church where he has served for the last five years. He gets most excited about good coffee, enjoying friends and family, making disciples, engaging culture, and planting churches. He writes to help others delight in, declare, and display the gospel in all of life. Connect with Michael on Twitter or his website.

Creative Father, Creative Children

I’ve heard more than once that creativity is a genetic trait, and I think that’s probably true. I’ve seen it in my own childhood when my mother, a police officer, would spend her scant free time painting and sketching. Both of her kids eventually followed in her footsteps, with my brother becoming a natural artist like her. He would come home from school with piles of drawings, pottery dishes, and guitar chords for songs he was writing.

I, on the other hand, usually expressed myself by sewing my own mall-goth attire and writing bad poetry that I think may have put me on the school counselor’s watch list.

My creative mother gave birth to creative kids. I’m beginning to see this emerge in my own children too; my oldest has already shown an aptitude for piano, a gift of musical creation that could have come from his father or my brother.

However, my youngest has disabilities that will probably prevent her from ever reading sheet music. She may never sit in a college lecture and hear about the work of Renoir or Kahlo, or even write angsty, cringeworthy poetry like I did.

And yet, she seems to have this innate understanding that the creative process is gratifying, and that being a creator is something to take joy in. Every day when she returns home from preschool, our daughter drags her backpack to us and gestures for us to open it and pull out her artwork.

Day after day, Katherine brings home pieces of art that have no real explanation, purpose, or professional qualities to them. And day after day, she is extraordinarily proud of herself. She takes great joy in her art.

Maybe it’s in her genes too, but the desire to create runs deeper than my immediate family tree. The imaginative works that my brother, my kids, and I produce may be genetically influenced by my mother, but ultimately they are gifts from the Father.

A Creative Father

The first few words of the Bible establishes God as a creator and ex nihilo (“out of nothing”) is the term most commonly used to describe his artistic process. God created the universe and the planet we live on—out of nothing. The earth, water, and the skies are all his craftsmanship.

But only one piece from his collection was a self-portrait: humanity. In Genesis 1:26-27, God is described as creating man in his image and likeness, and from that day forward, men and women continued to bear the imago dei. He gave his image bearers dominion over the rest of his created work and commanded us to care for it.

The first and ultimate Artist created more artists—from builders and designers to painters and poets. Christians worship and serve a creative God.

What art tells us about ourselves and our Father

Part of my ministry internship responsibilities include spending time at an art gallery that my church sponsors. It’s not unusual to have patrons walk in for a few minutes to marvel at the art, only to make a confused face when they see cards for our church on the counter.

Staff members often get asked, “Why would a church sponsor an art gallery?” For us, supporting the creative arts in our city is a matter of aligning our interests with God’s. He clearly values creativity; he is the author of it.  Shouldn’t Christians value it too?  Why wouldn’t we support image-bearing artists as they express and create in a manner representative of their Creator?

The reason creativity resonates with us so strongly is because we bear the imago dei. Artistry is what we are made of, so it calls to us and pulls us in. We fuss over each drop of paint and each written word until we get our own creations just right. We are moved by works of others and deeply satisfied when we finally finish our own.

This intense care we have for our created work mirrors the care God has for his own creation and the joy he took in making it all. He was pleased with what he made.

Any time we see thoughtful workmanship—a painting, a song, a hand-knit sweater or a beautifully-prepared meal—it should serve as a reminder of the creative God we serve.

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Rachelle Cox converted from Mormonism six years ago and is now passionate about helping women understand God's good word and good theology. She is a women's ministry intern at Karis Church, and is beginning her theological education at Boyce College. She loves serving her husband and two children, and writes at http://eachpassingphase.com 

Adapted with permission. Originally posted at “Creative Father, Creative Children.”

Here I Raise My Ebenezer

I was raised in the cessationist tradition, which means I was taught to never believe God was speaking to me other than through His words in the Bible. No seeing signs in the shapes in the clouds, no hearing calls from Jesus. I might feel like God was saying something specific about His love for me whenever I got the fitted sheet the right way on the mattress on the first try, but I knew better.  But last year, a remarkable providence (that’s cessationist code for “miracle”) reminded me of how God often tells us in His Word that He wants us to tells others how we’ve experienced that what He says about Himself is all gloriously true. He even leaves us tangible objects to stir our memories, and prompt our words. On the morning of our wedding, my husband gave me a diamond solitaire necklace, made from his grandmother’s engagement ring. For my birthday six months later, he gave me a small pair of platinum hoop earrings. I waited what I hoped was the right amount of time before our first anniversary to confess my lingering discomfort with owning or caring for expensive, sparkly things after growing up in a family who could barely afford the basics. But I thanked him for his generosity, and promised I’d do my best to take care of what he’d already so kindly given me.

I kept that promise for fifteen years. Then on one particularly hectic morning when I was late for work, I slipped the necklace and earrings into the inside pocket of a small, black purse, thinking I’d have time during my morning commute to put them on. But then I promptly forgot about them, and at the end of the day the purse went on its shelf with several others. When I next went to my jewelry box to get my necklace and earrings, and saw they weren’t there, I scoured the house with what felt like Luke 15:8 zeal. But several days of searching didn’t lead to finding. I quietly berated myself for my carelessness after so many years, and sat under what felt like the chastisement of the Lord for my bad stewardship.

One Saturday afternoon, my youngest daughter Kate burst through the back door after a morning running errands with her Dad. “Look what I found in the trunk of car, Mommy!” she said with delight.  In her hand was one, small, platinum hoop earring. Gasping, I asked her how she had found it. “We took those bags of giveaway things to Goodwill, and when Daddy was closing the trunk I saw it sparkling!” My heart sunk to the bottom of my stomach. A vague memory surfaced  of a recent closet purging, endin with my tossing my purse into the top of a garbage bag filled with clothes, then the bag into the trunk of my car. I thought I’d remembered to search all the pockets. I obviously hadn’t.

My middle daughter offered to ride with me to the Goodwill to make a last, surely impossible, attempt to find my jewelry.  Before I pulled out of the driveway, I prayed out loud, asking God to show me undeserved mercy in helping me find my jewelry, and to give me His peace if I didn’t. As I drove, I talked with my daughter about what God might be teaching us, almost certain that it had to do with things like trusting Him when hard things happen, the futility of valuing material things that can be so easily lost, the importance of being a good steward of the material blessings He gives us, and on. And in my heart, I spoke to God about what He was teaching my daughter as she watched events unfold, and prayed for His help to be faithful.

We pulled into the drop off area behind the Goodwill, and the sight of rows and rows of barrels overflowing with the discards of an entire city made my heart sink.  A worker named Bob heard my plea as I showed him the earring my littlest girl had found. He chatted away as my daughter and I walked amongst the barrels, desperate to catch a glimpse of a garbage bag that looked like ours. “We get someone like you here every week,” he said. They’re looking for prescription glasses, jewelry, money, a passport one time. They never find ‘em.”

With Bob’s encouraging words ringing in my ears, I decided our search was futile. I gave him my business card, with a note on the back promising a cash reward if the contents of the purse were ever found, and my daughter and I headed back to the car.  On the trip home, we talked some more. What had God meant by letting my little girl find one earring, but not the purse with the rest of it? With our question unresolved, I dropped her back home to finish homework, and then drove on the Container Store, suddenly inspired to pick up some decorative boxes I’d been thinking about buying to better organize my closet.

I was standing in line when my phone rang.

“Mrs. Starke, this is Bob. We found your purse, and your jewelry is in it. When do you want to come pick it up? I gotta tell ya, I’ve worked here five years and this is the first time this has ever happened.”

I burst into unashamed tears of gratefulness, and told him I’d come right away. I didn’t even wait for the people around me to ask what had happened. Filled with Luke 15:9 joy, I just told them. “I accidentally left the jewelry I wore on my wedding day in a purse I donated to GoodWill, and someone just found it! The man at the store said it was impossible, but I prayed, and God did it! Because that’s. what. God. does! “

The strangers made affirming noises of varying kinds at the crazy lady having a personal “praise Jesus” moment in the checkout line, and the checker hurried me through paying for my things, so I could be on my way and out of her store. Twenty minutes later, after stopping at an ATM for the promised reward, the diamond necklace and other earring were back in my hands. A few minutes after that, I opened the back door of my house, and stood in the entry way silently, waiting for my girls to see me and what hung, sparkling, around my neck and in ears once more. They squealed, and stared in amazement, questions and exclamations tumbling over each other.

That afternoon, my daughters and I lived out David’s exhortations in Psalm 105 and Psalm 145 - we commended God’s works to one another, and reminded each other of God’s goodness and mercy to us. We’ve done it every time I’ve worn my jewelry since then. My necklace has become my personal “Ebenezer”, a reminder of a day when God taught me to trust Him with circumstances totally beyond my control. My necklace holds no power in and of itself. But it points me to the One who has it all, Who upholds the universe with it, and who can and does work mightily on my behalf.

I learned that day how God works through ordinary circumstances and ordinary things, and that the ordinary objects in our lives can be used to bear witness to our extraordinary God, and the good things He has done.

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Rachael Starke has lived and worked in Silicon Valley for over 18 years. She writes about the intersection of the gospel with technology, gender, food, and other cultural artifacts. You can connect with her on Twitter, LinkedIn or her blog. 

The Gospel Doesn’t Accommodate

The gospel is unaccommodating. That is not to say that the gospel isn't powerful, but it isn't putty to be formed in our subjective hands. God didn't send Messiah to come and barter a deal with partisan politics—you know, the "reach across the aisle" sort of thing. Jesus wasn't crucified so that his potential and actual followers could make up their own version of why that particular substitutionary atonement was important (or not). As a pastor I find this to be one of the most difficult things about my ministry. Not only does my own heart battle, I'm called to shepherd others whose hearts are battling. Living in Christian community is challenging because so many things are vying for our attention. In the middle of it all is this temptation to want to bend on the demands of the gospel.

Jesus's yoke is easy, his burden light. But that's not the same as saying that there is no burden—the call is hard. The gospel will have all of you, or none of you. Christ's Kingdom doesn't settle for partial dominion. There are no spots in your life—in my life, too—where Christ will say, “That's for someone else.” Yes, the battle in the heart is hard, for we are quick to fashion idols. But the demands of the gospel are comprehensive because the world is in comprehensive sin. Wherever sin goes, the gospel goes deeper.

The Gospel Doesn’t Accommodate

It doesn't work the same way as booking a vacation. You don't get to choose your amenities and ask about the fridge in the room. You either come, or you don't. The terms and conditions are set, and negotiations are completely off the table.

And yet what do we see happen in evangelicalism? We see compromise on the demands of the gospel. We see alterations on the fabric of the gospel. We see disputes over the content of the gospel. We see attempts at making the gospel more palatable, more accommodating. Is this our gospel? More to the point, is this Christ's gospel?

Jesus said in Matthew 10:24, "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master." Which means that, for example, you don't get to rule yourself. The gospel doesn't let you govern your heart, for clearly sinners are incapable of doing so. And yet how many want their Christ and their idols?

"Ah, but we have room in our hearts for both!" No, you don't. You can't serve two masters, and serving no one isn't an option. As Bob Dylan has taught us, "You've gotta serve somebody." Either we will be slaves to sin, or we will be slaves of Christ (Rom. 6:6ff).

The Weight of the Gospel’s Demands

Part of the problem stems from a failure to see the weight of the demands of the gospel. Whether it's intentional or not, we gladly look the other direction. Jesus says, "Take up your cross," and we say, "That was only a metaphor." Jesus says, "Follow me," and we say, "Well he’s in heaven. That doesn’t mean anything for me now." Jesus says, "You must hate mother and father!" And what do we say? "Jesus couldn't have meant that."

Why are we so willing to set aside the hard sayings of Jesus and opt instead for a Jesus of our own creation? Perhaps C.S. Lewis was right after all, we're half-hearted creatures.

A part of me wonders if we're just plain insecure. We're insecure about admitting our failures, doubts, questions, and concerns. We're insecure about looking foolish for having failed Jesus (somehow). We're insecure about the light shining in the darkness, after all, the cockroaches scurry about when the light finds them.

At a root level, we all want to be liked, treasured, and adored. (All the things the gospel provides, mind you.) We want some tangible sense of being appreciated, loved, and accepted. We long for someone to come alongside us and affirm that we're not that stupid. Like a man stuck in the desert, we thirst for acceptance.

The Religious Idolatry 

We want to be liked in all the wrong ways and all the wrong places. Idolatry is a fight for reconciliation. We want something other than the triune God to help us get closer to God. I mean, come on, even Aaron dedicated the idol to Yahweh (Exod. 32:4-5)!

At the risk of coming across rather incredulous, the most dangerous idols aren't the ones that stand in stark contrast to God, they are the ones that stand most closely to God. The religious people who read their devotional several times a day. The religious people who proudly flaunt how much they tithe. The religious people who are proud about their humility. You know what I'm talking about.

I said above that idolatry is a fight for reconciliation. Here's what I mean: If we will be people reconciled to Christ, we must be unreconciled to idols. You can't serve two masters. You cannot hang on to all the gods, no matter how beautiful the pantheon paint looks.

The person who wants the gospel to be more accommodating to their terms and conditions is the person whose world is unreconciled (or at least unrecognizably reconciled). After all,

"For in [Christ] 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 1:19-20 (emphasis mine).

The heart becomes divided. Idols appeal to our flesh. We question the gospel's demands. All of this is an issue of reconciliation. Will we give ourselves to Christ on his terms? Or will we sabotage our reconciliation in him by trying to reconcile ourselves to our idols? A duplicitous heart is a heart without rest.

There’s No Manipulating the Gospel

The gospel doesn't allow for manipulation. The good news of Christ crucified doesn't have a footnote. The empty tomb doesn't have an alternative ending. The gospel demands all of you, and leaves no room for silly trinkets in the heart.

Dear reader, the call is simple: Resist the urge to craft an idol to suit your comfort. Resist the urge to make God into your image. Resist the urge to want to placate your pleasure seeking with false piety. Resist.

Know that the gospel won't accommodate your cute decorative idols. It won't accommodate your crafty sensualities. The gospel is unaccommodating to your imaginative attempts at making its message more palatable. And for that, I'm grateful.

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

You can read all of Jason’s articles here.

A Fate Worse Than Eating Dog Food

There’s a haunting scene in the newest season of The Walking Dead that has stuck with me. After being captured by enemies, Daryl, a beloved character, is placed in a small cell. He is fed—and viewers are intentionally shown—dog food that is haphazardly spread on white bread. The dehumanizing effects of captivity are well portrayed. His captors want him to understand: he is not human, he’s something less, and he’s not worthy of human meals. His rights are no more than a dog in a cage. But it is not the diet alone that distinguishes humanity from beasts. More brutal than his daily lunch is his unrelenting isolation. The dirty, concrete cell is shown to be devoid of all light. Alone with nothing but his thoughts, his tormentors deprive him of any sense of dignity or community.

The detrimental effects of solitary confinement are well-documented. Yet, it is not uncommon for God’s people to live their lives as if they are ignorant of his Words: “It is not good that man be alone” (Gen. 2:18).

Marriage and Family Are Good

After God created all forms of animals to roam the land, sky, and seas, he makes man in his own image. However, none of the animals were a fit companion for this solitary man. So he makes another human utilizing parts from Adam himself, like him but different—complimentary.

God gives us the gift of lifelong companionship to combat the not-goodness of being alone. But companionship in marriage is not the only gift God gives to prevent aloneness. Shortly after joining the two in marriage he commands them: “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28).

While marriage is not insufficient in itself, love often multiplies and expands beyond the initial parties. Similar to how God himself, lacking nothing, created others to share in his love (1 Jn. 4:8), he calls man who bears his image to multiply as well.

God gives us the gift of children who will outlive us and further our impact. Or as the psalmist puts it: “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth” (Ps. 127:4).

Marriage and Family Aren’t Guaranteed

So far my examples have been idealistic. While marriage is good, it is not promised to everyone. While children are good, the effects of living in a fallen world sometimes includes couples who are barren. Tragically, sometimes parents end up burying the children that were intended to outlive and out influence them.

As good as spouses and children are, they are common graces. A good marriage or a good family is not necessarily a distinguishing mark of God’s blessing. It is possible that a righteous man may lose his wife or family, and a wicked man’s family may prosper.

While marriage and family are important, they are not ultimate. While they are excellent, they are not eternal (Mt. 22:30). The kingdom of God, on the other hand, is.

The Church Is Better

The now and not yet of God’s kingdom is a difficult concept to grasp. Graeme Goldsworthy offers a helpful way of thinking about God’s kingdom: “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule.”

Using this definition, God’s kingdom was fully realized in Eden, but then shattered after humans rebelled against him. This way of thinking also helps us to make sense of all the times Jesus refers to the kingdom during his earthly ministry. It is in our midst (Lk. 17:21) where people are willfully submissive to God. This is why the Church’s importance cannot be overstated.

In the Church, we get the clearest picture of the kingdom of God before it is fully realized. In it, people joyfully submit to God in worship and reverence. Sure, the Church is made up of various marriages and families, but it is of greater importance and longevity. In its walls, today’s families are united with those of some 2000 years ago as they place themselves under God’s rule as the benevolent father who has adopted a family for eternal life (Eph. 1:3-5). The saints perfected in heaven look down upon those being prepared for a future day where they will join them (Eph. 1:10).

The Church is also a home and a refuge for those that do not have spouses, children, or families. We are tasked to take care of the orphaned, the widowed, the barren, and the unmarried (Js. 1:27). And it is a primary sign of true religion.

The Beauty of the Bride

If marriage and offspring were essential, then Jesus would be less than perfect because he had neither. The profundity of this is full of warnings as well as encouragement. Warnings for those who deny the necessity of life in community. The “one anothers” of Scripture, as well as our commission to make disciples are impossible for the hermit. Jesus does not call hermits, but disciples who will make, mature, and multiply other disciples. This warning is just as needed for the introverted layperson as for the pastor that is tempted to neglect relationships in favor of study.

The encouragement is for those who desire a spouse or a family but don’t yet have one. For the single among us, they have an example in Jesus who lived a full life while never participating in the covenant of marriage. Similarly, the infertile inherit a family that transcends the bounds of their own blood as they are absorbed into the Church family that was bought by the blood of Christ (1 Pt. 1:18;19). Additionally, they imitate Christ when they adopt children and raise them as their own (Gal. 4:5).

The Kingdom Feast

Jesus further models for us how life in community is to be lived out. He chooses twelve disciples. Our influence in discipling relationships cannot be spread too thin or it will decrease in potency. He then shares life with them. The humanity of Scripture is worth noting here. My wife laments that so much of modern television and movies neglect to show the characters eating. (Even more lamentable is the pain they go through to show them fornicating—it is clear what appetites drive ratings.) But Scripture, as truth, accurately portrays humans as social creatures in need of sustenance. There is no shortage of bread broken among Jesus and his disciples.

Food, perhaps more than anything else, brings people together. “The Last Meeting” would be far less memorable in our minds than “The Last Supper.” It was over a Passover meal that Jesus chose to reveal the things of ultimate importance (1 Cor. 15:3) to his inner community of twelve disciples. A master teacher, he utilizes the meal as a prop to appeal to the kinesthetic, and visual learners, as well as the auditory ones. He would leave them, but not alone, they would have each other. No, instead he would be alone. Unaccompanied by his community, he would go to the cross.

Worse yet, he’d be forsaken by his Father (Mt. 27:46). We get a glimpse into one of the greatest mysteries of the faith when the Son suffers the Father’s wrath on behalf of sinful mankind. There, on the cross, he’d be stripped of his dignity (Heb. 12:2) as well as his clothes. His blood would be drained on behalf of humanity, and he’d be exposed to the elements, thirst (Jn. 19:28), and hunger. All to join us together as a redeemed community (Jn. 19:26; 27) under his lordship.

His last supper foreshadowed all these events. Even his betrayer, was welcomed at his table. He’d die alone, so that those who were once his enemies (Rom. 5:10) would not have to dine alone. He’d give us a glimpse into the future fully realized kingdom where unlikely guests are welcomed into the great feast (Mt. 22:10).

There at the feast, in the fully realized kingdom of God, we will dine on the finest food and drink the best wine (Jn. 2:10). But better than the food will be the fellowship of the redeemed with the Redeemer. For the distinguishing mark of the kingdom is not food (Rom. 14:17), but love. Solomon’s wisdom tells us that an unsatisfying meal with love is better than a great feast where there is no love (Prov. 15:17).

In other words, there is a fate worse than eating dog food—eating alone.

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Sean Nolan (B.S. and M.A., Clarks Summit University) is the Family Life Pastor at Christ Fellowship Church in Forest Hill, Maryland. Prior to that, he served at a church plant in Troy, New York for seven years and taught Hermeneutics to ninth and tenth graders. He is married to Hannah and is raising an army of toddlers. He blogs at Family Life Pastor.

You can read all of Sean’s articles here.

Following Christ in the Age of Authenticity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christ: The Only Agent of Change

Recently, my small group decided that we needed to renew our efforts to dig deeper into community with one another. Two of the primary ways we planned on doing this are by praying toward that end and by learning to ask one another questions rather than offer advice. We want to take a stab at being men and women who are quick to hear and slow to speak (Jas. 1:19), that we might create space to make much of Christ, the only agent of change. If you’ve been around the church, much of that probably sounds cliché and, in one sense, I suppose it is.¹ That’s because collaborative attempts “to dig deeper into community” and the practices that accompany it are some of the more stereotypical small group efforts; however, they are also simple acts of obedience to Jesus. For us, the decision to dig deeper into community wasn’t cliché—It was simply born out of obedience to Jesus as well as a response to the state of our small group.

Falling Short

Apart from our recent efforts, most of our time together has been characterized by disproportionately shallow, even unhelpful, conversations and weekly attempts at corporate encouragement, rebuke, repentance, and prayer have been short on practical, Christ-centered wisdom. In fact, most of our conversations have been dominated by an irreverent post-share rush to offer one another advice, instead of the forbearing work of asking and answering what David Powlison describes as “X-ray Questions.”²

In short, our small group has been caught trafficking in pop psychology and truisms. For example, instead of responding to statements like “My boss has been such a jerk lately . . . I think I want to quit my job” with questions, we just change the subject. Typically, people reply with some tired version of “I know how you feel, Rob” or “Just keep at it” or “Geez, well here’s how I deal with my boss, Sydney.” Sadly, this pitiful practice has closed doors to gospel application and furthered feelings of frustration, estrangement, and disillusionment within the group.

Perhaps worst of all, though, is the reality that our previous efforts have caused us to make much of ourselves, instead of the very One in whom we are found, healed, and made whole (Matt. 9:12; 1 Pt. 2:25). When communities find themselves in this situation, Bob Thune and Will Walker remind us, “The good news of the gospel is not that God makes much of us, but that God frees us to make much of Jesus.”³

That means we need to spend less time peddling worldly wisdom and more time making much of Jesus if we really want to change.

What’s Wrong?

My best guess as to why our communities lack deep community is that we have exchanged the deep things of God and heart for the world’s favorite form of wisdom: advice. As many have observed, it takes just five minutes in the local bookstore to conclude that we are an advice-obsessed culture. We crave quick tips and seek out superficial sayings. And the internet has made this kind of advice even more accessible. In fact, today it seems like we’re just as likely to use Google to seek out pithy proverbs as we are to find ideas for our next DIY project. But it’s not just us.

Together, the world, the flesh, and the devil have been operating a murderous joint venture since the first Adam’s fall from grace, peddling a false view of humanity and its condition. Over the last couple of centuries, this clandestine cartel has given rise to a dangerous preoccupation with the psychologized self and moralistic advice that has permeated every nook and cranny of our culture. If you don’t believe me, just tune in to the nearest TV between the hours of noon and 4:00pm!

Like the proverbial fish that doesn’t know it lives in water, our communities have been operating as a microcosm of the larger culture in which we live. We have been far too satisfied with counterfeit hopes and unbiblical theories of change, giving in to what Tim Lane and Paul Tripp describe as “hollow and deceptive theories of change that masquerade as biblical wisdom.”⁴

Admittedly, those hollow and deceptive theories of change are hard to see, “because they borrow some aspect of biblical truth”⁵ and then operate just below the biblical horizon. Ultimately, though, “they are hollow because they miss the center of biblical wisdom, which is Christ.”⁶

So what needs to change? And how can our group learn to see Christ better, and what would seeing him better enable us to be and do?

Christ: The Only Agent of Change

At the most basic level, our community groups have forgotten who and what we are in Christ. We have failed to point one another to him and the resources that are available in and through him by the Spirit (Rom. 8:9-11; Gal. 4:6-7). Of course, there is more to the change process than simply reminding one another of Jesus.

That’s because the rubber meets the road only when we learn to live into the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and to apply it to every area of life. One of the primary ways that happens is through small groups, especially ones that spend time praying and asking questions instead of giving advice.

Moving forward, our group plans to do just that. Rather than continuing to anesthetize one another with the worthless words of worldly wisdom, we will make a habit of praying and asking questions. Those habits will teach us how to celebrate and apply Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to every area of life, which will in turn empower us to grow into thoughtful brothers and sisters who are free to encourage, rebuke, repent, and pray authentically.

For our group, that will mean responding to statements like “My boss has been such a jerk lately . . . I think I want to quit my job” with questions. For example, “Can you tell us more about that?” or “Has his behavior caused you to respond sinfully?” or “Would you be willing to share anything about specific points of tension?” Answers to questions like that create space for honest self-reflection, and self-reflection is the hinge by which the doors to gospel application are always opened.

In other words, groups that fail to ask questions fail to open hearts. And closed hearts aren’t interested in Jesus. When we gather, we will look to Christ. We will claim all that is already ours in and through him (1 Pt. 1:3-5), even as we long for the day he will complete in us what is yet unfinished (1 Jn. 3:2).

1. David Powlison, “X-ray Questions: Drawing Out the Whys and Wherefores of Human Behavior,” The Journal of Biblical Counseling 18:1 (Fall 1999), 2-8.

2. Robert H. Thune and Will Walker, The Gospel-Centered Life: Leader’s Guide (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2011), 35.

3. Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp, How People Change (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2008), 20. For more, see Timothy J. Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters (New York: Penguin, 2011) and Edward T. Welch, “Who Are We? Needs, Longings, and the Image of God in Man,” The Journal of Biblical Counseling 13:1 (Fall 1994), 25-38.

4. Lane and Tripp, How People Change, 20.

5. Ibid., 20.

6. For more, see Lane and Tripp, How People Change and Tim Chester, You Can Change: God’s Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010) and James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2016).

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Grayson Walker teaches American history at Casady School in Oklahoma City. Prior to teaching, Grayson worked for Cru and Providence Church in Austin, Texas. You can follow him on Twitter @graysonpwalker.

The Resurrection Seed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mathew B. Sims, Managing Editor

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

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

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

Christ’s Kingship and House

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Occupants of the Lord’s House

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

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

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

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

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

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

Obedience Fit for The King

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All You Have to Offer

The weight of disappointment was so heavy my knees almost collapsed. My feet wearily stumbled down the steps on the side of the stage. My eyes burned with tears, and I couldn’t shake the image of the young blonde girl in the front row, just looking up at me with confusion. Her confusion communicated more to me than words could. Confusion. That’s what I offered her. I had heard of people blowing opportunities, being embarrassed by what they said on stage, or fumbling over their words. It wasn’t just that I was embarrassed, it was that I had one chance to authentically lead these students towards worship, and instead I used it as a platform. On the way up that stage, each step was a question of what I could offer them.

“Will I be relatable?”

“What’s a captivating story?”

“How can I add humor to this piece?”

Marketing Me

I needed to manipulate my stories enough to make them fit. If only I could manufacture some laughter, then maybe they’d like me enough to listen. My attention was on my heart, my stories, and my wisdom. I bought the lie that if I marketed myself just right, then I would make an impact. I was tricked into believing that I had more to offer than Jesus. Instead of him, my audience got confusion. That’s what I left them with.

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” – John 15: 4

We don’t reject God, but we do forget him. We forget that he can use us in supernaturally powerful ways, so we settle. We settle for what we’ve always done, or what we have always seen. I don’t know what it looks like for you to abide, but crazy awesome things happen in ministry when we do. It’s easier for people to abide during their quiet time, then during ministry. For some reason, we feel like it’s too risky to offer all that God gives us. When we prepare, we think of the message we need to give and withhold the one we need to receive. We don’t let God speak into the moment. That’s what I did, and it’s what I’ll never do again.

Offer Them Your Own Intimacy with God

I looked up from my feet just high enough to see my friends gathered around a table at the back of the dark auditorium. My heart grieved as it sent shameful pulses throughout my body. My thoughts considered the circumstances, as I longed to walk past them, through the auditorium, and out the back doors of the church. The mere thought of looking into their faces after what I just did sent a shiver of fear down my spine.

Could I walk home?

Would that make things worse?

The darkness around me helped, it comforted me like a blanket in my shame and disappointment. The bright fluorescent church lights were too much, as long as I stayed away from them I’d be okay. Maybe if I really did kneel down I could forget her confused face, surely that would help. My boyfriend speaks at things like this far more often that I do, and he knew me well enough to recognize my shame. His hand touched my head as he pulled me into an embrace. I couldn’t look at him, but he took me outside and onto a big couch in the foyer. As he told me a story about the first time he bombed an opportunity like this, he explained the same regret that I was feeling. The piece that was more than just embarrassment, but an authentic aching for what I failed to give. He explained this quote, passed down from generations of pastors far wiser than us, and said “All you have to offer them is your own intimacy with God.”

That’s it. That’s what I failed to give, and it’s what I failed to prepare with. I didn’t prepare my heart for intimacy with God. My attention was on the stories that would connect with these students, not with the Spirit that could connect with these students. I didn’t consider the God closest to my heart, but settled for the words I wanted to sell. When I tried to manufacture impact, I gave and received confusion. I can’t settle to offer to other people anything less than the intimacy that God has offered to me.

The good news is that God doesn’t see me as a failure. He isn’t disappointed or ashamed of me. He is patient and gracious in my shortcoming, which reminds me that Jesus is the only One who carries the mantle of perfection. He gently reminds me that faithfulness is enough. This faithfulness is a raw, unfiltered, unrelenting belief that Jesus is worthy.

The Church is Not the Marketplace

There is a biblical story that resonates in my own. A story of people who believed they had the right to sell offerings in God’s Church. People who wanted to market their craft for many people, and manufacture offerings acceptable to God.

In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. – John 2:14

He said to them, "The Scriptures declare, 'My Temple will be called a house of prayer,' but you have turned it into a den of thieves!" – Matthew 21:13

His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” – John 2:17

We are deceived when we believe we can do anything without the power of the Holy Spirit. We have to stop believing we can pull anything across the line, because Jesus can and will flip some tables if we begin to manufacture stuff in the house of God.

The temple is a place of offering, not bartering. A place of worship, not a place of market. How would our ministry change if we were consumed with zeal for the Lord? How would the way that we disciple, communicate, teach, write, and counsel be transformed? Manipulative stories, lofty knowledge, judgemental bias, and counterfeit emotion are not acceptable.

These offerings will be thrown out, overturned, and confused. God only wants our heart, and if we can genuinely offer him that, then I think people notice a difference in us. People are more likely to follow a leader who is authentically surrendered, then a leader who is perfect. We settle for ourselves when we barter for good stories and catchy phrases. We transform lives when we offer God’s intimate Word.

I won’t forget the palpable look of confusion on the young girl's face. I think about it often before I speak, not because I need to feel shame, but because it reminds me of what I have to offer. By myself, I leave people confused. If I offer the intimacy of God’s powerful Spirit, then I have the grace to transform people’s paradigms, beliefs, and lives.

I believe that Jesus is raising an authentic generation who desire authentic intimacy with God. I believe that if we’re faithful to disciple people with the authentic intimacy of God, we will see a growth of healthy disciple makers. Ask yourself these questions,

• Are you leading your family, your church, your ministry in this way?
• What kind of leverage do you have to share your intimacy with God?
• How can you let your heart be what you offer in discipleship?
• How can your intimacy lead others to greater intimacy with the Lord?

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Chelsea Vaughn (@chelsea725) has served a ministry she helped start in the DFW Metroplex since she graduated from college. She received her undergraduate degree at Dallas Baptist University in Communication Theory. She does freelance writing, editing, and speaking for various organizations and non-profits. She hopes to spend her life using her gift for communication to reach culture and communities with the love of Jesus.

Two Shall Become One—Now and Not Yet

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

Over the years, I’ve had the joy of officiating a number of wedding ceremonies where we celebrate two people committing to the journey of oneness. Often during the ceremony, I will read, or refer, to the passage above from Genesis. Then, usually towards the end of the ceremony, I have the privilege of pronouncing a new identity over the couple. No longer are they two individuals, but one. In that moment there is a new, present reality for them.

NOW OR NOT YET?

However, recently the language God uses in Genesis struck me; “They shall become one flesh.” It sounds more like a promise than a pronouncement. The two shall become one. Not, the two are now one. The oneness here that God speaks of seems like a future to be realized, more than a present reality.

In an honest moment, this feels like my journey in marriage too. My wife and I have been married for almost 12 years, and we have not arrived at oneness yet. I don’t believe it took very long after our wedding ceremony for us to realize that although we had been pronounced one we didn’t feel or live out oneness very well.

NOW AND NOT YET?

So, which is it? Once married, are two souls one? Or, in the journey of marriage do two souls progressively become one? Yes. Both.

When I graduated college with a degree in accounting, was I an accountant? In some ways, yes; and in many ways, not yet. When I was ordained in ministry, was I a pastor? In some sense yes; and in many ways, I still had a lot to learn. When I was pronounced married, was I a husband united to my wife? Yes, and yet there was a journey of cultivating oneness ahead of us.

COVENANT TO CULTIVATE

When we think of cultivating in the agricultural sense, we think of creating an environment suitable for the growth of something; we think of caring for something so that it can flourish. Do we think of cultivating oneness in our marriage so that two people can flourish?

What my wife and I have realized in our twelve short years of journeying together is that our marriage covenant is a commitment to cultivating oneness between us. One of the main aims of our love and marriage is oneness.

And that journey has been hard, yet good. It has been challenging and rewarding. It has been a journey filled with joy and sadness; fear and love. Now we are more in love and closer to oneness than we’ve ever been. How have we arrived here?

CULTIVATING ONENESS

Perhaps it is helpful to offer two things that we have found beneficial. One is a bigger, annual event; and the other is an everyday journey. But the thought here is that oneness is something that we need to continually cultivate. Oneness doesn’t happen without work.

– Annual Retreat

From the beginning, we have taken two to three days every year to retreat, to get away from the regular rhythms of life so we can assess how we are doing as husband and wife. This time allows us to re-engage the daily rigors of marriage afresh. With children, we’ve realized how critical this intentional time is for us. Yes, it is hard to make the time. But, without a retreat, we would either remain stagnant in our journey, or we would drift apart. To cultivate oneness between two people, we need intentionality.

We’ve helped coach numerous couples through installing this time in their marriages. The important thing is to make this a priority and begin. The idea of retreating is more daunting than actually retreating. We spend time on each of these retreats relaxing, enjoying each other, and also having honest conversations about our marriage.

– Regular Confession and Forgiveness

I am reticent to write this because I don’t want to imply or give the impression that we do this daily, or do this well. We have struggled our way through this. We still do. Times of honest confession, matched with forgiveness are turbulent waters for us. At the same time, I am not sure there has been anything in our marriage that has brought us closer together than when we confess to each other and forgive one another.

The journey of oneness is really hard. Marriage is the union of two broken people, who are called to bear one another’s burdens.

Genesis tells us the fruit of two becoming one is that both can be naked and unashamed in the presence of the other. Nakedness—physically, spiritually and emotionally—all without shame. I don’t know about you, but this is not natural for us. Being naked and unashamed before the other, or truly being known, by each other is fraught with fear and shame. If my wife really knows who I am, how I feel, and what I think—certainly, she will reject me. Right? Far too often, we paralyze ourselves by listening to this voice. And the more we listen to it, the more we allow fear to cultivate isolation.

The greater voice that we must hear is one that reinforces our commitment to love. Love is greater than fear. Our marriage covenant to each other is a commitment to forgive one another. Forgiveness cultivates oneness because it cultivates a safe place to be vulnerable. Forgiveness replaces the fear of rejection with the security of acceptance. As spouses, are we cultivating an environment that encourages us to confess to one another because of our willingness to forgive one another?

Often forgiveness is hard. It takes time. Our willingness or ability to forgive each other is rooted ultimately in the faith that Christ has already forgiven us. My role as a husband to my wife is not to withhold forgiveness, but to point her to the forgiveness Christ has already secured for her. Likewise, when my wife, who knows my brokenness more acutely and intimately than anyone else, forgives me—the truth of Christ’s forgiveness gets pushed into the depths of my soul even more.

One of the greatest roles we play as a spouse is the role of reminding each other of Christ’s forgiveness through the act of offering our forgiveness.

Forgiveness points us to Christ and cultivates security, safety, love, and oneness between us. It begins to remove fear from one of our greatest longings—to be really known by another person.

THE SECRET SAUCE

Why is this journey so hard? Why is this so difficult for us? I think because we cling to our individual lives. Self-preservation too often motivates us more than self-denial.

The secret sauce to becoming one is death. Sacrificial death. It is dying to one’s self for the sake of the other. To arrive at oneness with our spouses requires each of us to die to our former, individual selves.

NOW AND NOT YET

This is why the phrase “two shall become one” is beautiful. Yes, it is a present reality. This new identity is the foundation of our marriage covenant that keeps us grounded. Here we remain steadfast when the going gets tough. And some days, this reality and truth must trump our feelings.

At the same time, the phrase calls us to a life of cultivating oneness. It points to the promise of a future reality that compels us to keep laying down our life for the other’s sake. In so doing, we have found we flourish. We don’t lose our love for each other, but we deepen our love. We find it safer and more secure. We move closer to oneness.

—

Paul Gordon has been following Jesus in faith for about 25 years. He’s been married to Nicole for 11 years and he has one daughter and one son. He has been serving in pastoral ministry since 2009 after he completed the pastoral development process at Terra Nova. Paul is now transitioning to being the Lead Church Planter for Terra Nova Berkshires and the Executive Pastor for the Terra Nova Network.

An Honest Confession of a Contrite Heart

I have a confession to make: I love me. Out of this fixation of self flows a daily desire to build, fight, protect, and expand my own kingdom. I love me and my kingdom. It’s simply the natural inclination of my heart. I see it in my politics. I observe it in my desire to manipulate people to do stuff I want them to do in the name of serving Jesus. I feel it when, in false humility, I reject compliments for a well-written blog, a nugget of wisdom I may have dropped during a conversation, or preached a sermon that may have resonated gospel rhythms in the heart of the very individual paying me said compliment. Every day and in every possible way, my heart is hard at work trying to convince me that I am, well, awesome. It is in this space of self-deception that sin does its finest work in me. And without fail, whenever I choose my own kingdom, I am always left empty and wanting. In perhaps one of the greatest sermons ever preached, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, Thomas Chalmers surmised that there must be a greater love, a greater affection placed in the regenerate heart that usurps the rule and reign of all lesser loves. Chalmers attested:

It is then, that a love paramount to the love of the world, and at length expulsive of it, first arises in the regenerated bosom. It is when released from the spirit of bondage with which love cannot dwell, and when admitted into the number of God’s children through the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the spirit of adoption is poured upon us—it is then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and predominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former desires, in the only way in which deliverance is possible. And that faith which is revealed to us from heaven, as indispensable to a sinner’s justification in the sight of God, is also the instrument of the greatest of all moral and spiritual achievements on a nature dead to the influence, and beyond the reach of every other application.

You see, if I am uncomfortably transparent with you, I must confess that my heart is a tyrant in need of a new affection placed in it daily. Frankly, so is yours. Our desires must come under the rule and reign of a greater love, a love that dethrones all others, with self above all being dealt the final death blow.

As I have journeyed towards the daily discipline of dying to self, I have found that the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6.9-13 plays a crucial role in properly orienting my affections godward. As it has served me well, I extend the invitation to you to pray with me in the same way.

OUR FATHER, WHO IS IN HEAVEN (Matthew 6.9a)

I confess to you, Father, today I do not believe you are my Father. I am fully aware that you are Father to the hurting, to the broken, and to those who you have freed through the work of Jesus to love you.

It is available to everyone you have freed, and it is available in abundance. You have freed me, but I do not feel free. I feel trapped by my own sin. I feel unlovable. And I feel as though I do not love you. I know these things aren’t true, but they feel true. I feel the weight of it today.

Would you help my unbelief? Would you help me to understand that you are my Father and you love me right now? Father, overwhelm me with the love I first felt when the gospel was the best news I had ever heard.

HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME (Matthew 6.9b)

Father, only you make your name holy. You do not need me to do that. I need you to do that on my behalf. If holiness isn’t your nature and you are not about the business of making your name revered, then Jesus died in my place for nothing. I’ll never be holy without the work and the person of Jesus.

I cannot work enough to please you. It’s a fool’s errand I run every day. And it has left me wanting. I confess that my most sacred moments are riddled with my own sins of lust, power, need for approval, and pride. And my pride tries to convince me daily that I can achieve holiness apart from the finished work of Jesus. I am not holy. I am the furthest thing from it.

Today, I need the good news that Jesus took my sin and clothed me in all of his righteousness. Without Jesus’s intervention, I will never see you, Father. And if I never see you, I’ll always be self-deceived. Oh, make my heart believe!

YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN (Matthew 6.10)

Father, I confess that I say I want your kingdom. Truth is, I want my kingdom. I want it every day. It burns inside me. I want, I want, I want, I want, I want…. I want all the advantages and benefits of the rule and reign of your heavenly kingdom here on earth, but I want to be king.

Yet, my heart is often foolish, always steeped in its own selfish ambition, greed, and lust for control. My heart craves it. And it isn’t good news—not for me, not for those who love me, and it is utterly damning news for those I say I love. I’m a crummy king. I repent.

Jesus, give me the faith to believe that your kindly rule has dealt the death blow to the curse of sin's tyrannical kingdom that is prone to rule my wondering heart.

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD, AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS (Matthew 6.11-12)

It is my sin that causes me to perish. I glut myself on so many different sources of bread that aren’t life giving. I eat my fill of death. Only you give life Father through Jesus. Forgive me for seeking satisfaction in everything else but you.

The sin debt I owed with my life is the sin debt Jesus paid with his life. Through the person and work with Jesus, by the regenerating power of Holy Spirit, I have been united with you in death and in life. You have clothed me with the very same dignity and honor that I have so longed to thieve, doing so without restraint.

Father, change my heart towards other glory thieves. Grant me the compassion to invite those who have sinned against me to the same table of mercy that you have extended to me in your gospel. It is our only hope for you are the gospel and in it, you give us what we truly need: All of yourself.

Let us, smiling sinners who have been forgiven of so much, glut ourselves on the Living Bread—the very finished work of Jesus on our behalf.

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL (THE EVIL ONE) (Matthew 6.13)

Father, one of the greatest sins of my heart is my quick protest when convicted of sin that the enemy forced my hand. If I am being honest, I was undone before I engaged. I confess that there is darkness in my heart, a darkness that longs for my kingdom. I beg you not to lead me into the temptation of believing my kingdom is better.

Rather, protect me from the craftiness of the evil one who is desperately trying to convince me that I am okay. Deliver me from myself, oh God. Free me through believing and resting in the finished work of Jesus on my behalf.

A so very amen in the precious, beautiful, wonderful and gracious name of the one true King, Jesus.

—

Scott Fitzgerald Scott Fitzgerald is the Executive Pastor of Metro Church of Northwest Arkansas. He is currently pursuing his MDiv at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and blogs at thethrillofhope.com.

God Saves Sinners

“God saves sinners.” That’s the truest sentence I know. I believe it’s the truest sentence in all the world. And that’s really, really good news for a sinner like me.

Someone recently asked what I thought I’d be doing now, at thirty, if Jesus hadn’t saved me. That’s easy, whatever (old Whitney would add “the hell”) I wanted. Even if it meant my own destruction.

You see, before Christ, I was your classic “sinner” type. I was young, wild, and worldly in every sense of the term. I lived for myself and for the moment. Everything I did served those two ends. By seventh grade, I was getting drunk in the backyard on cheap vodka and Kool-Aid. By eighth, I was messing around with guys in the back seat of their cars. By ninth, well, I was just getting started. As each year passed I threw off more and more inhibitions to discover new paths of pleasure.

In theological terms, I was a sinner. Of course, mentored by MTV’s The Real World and the magazine Cosmopolitan, I didn’t know that. But it was true. I was dead in my sins, I was following the course of the world, I was living in the passions of my flesh, and I was carrying out the desires of my body and mind (Eph. 2:1-3). What I thought was the path of life (i.e., living for myself) was actually the road to death. I was on a fast track to destroying my life and didn’t even know it.

But then the wildest thing happened, God saved me—MTV-watching, mini-skirt wearing, boy-crazed, foul-mouthed me. To this day, I’m shocked as I think back on my salvation experience.

The Scope of His Salvation

One day my cousin, a youth pastor at the time, showed up on my doorstep as if out of thin air. He inserted himself into my life, relentlessly telling me about how God saves sinners through Jesus. He picked me up for church on Wednesday’s and Sunday’s and talked to me about Jesus as we listened to Relient K.

At the same time, what I valued most was stripped from me. I made a mess of my relationships through lots of sin. I became disenchanted with the perpetual pursuit of beauty. My hedonistic activities stopped delivering on their promises. I felt empty. Bottomlessly empty. When I sinned to get that quick pleasure, I actually felt worse. It was miserable! For the first time in my life, I wasn’t enjoying sin.

Not only was I not enjoying my sin as I had before, I started to realize that I was a sinner, both by nature and by choice. And it bothered me. I felt guilty. The gospel messages I heard at the time told me that apart from Jesus’s work I was condemned before God. My inner conscious confirmed that this was true. It’s like I saw this big gap between me, the shallow, self-absorbed sinner and God, the perfect, righteous Judge of all the earth. There was nothing I could do to bridge the gap and I knew it. I was definitely a sinner and my sin separated me from God.

But 1 Timothy 1:15 says, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” Oh, how those words pierced my soul. Indeed, I was a sinner, but it turns out that Jesus Christ came to save people just like me—sinners. He saves whores and addicts, he saves old people and young people, he saves black people and white people, he saves broken people and abused people, he saves shallow people and prideful people, and he saves rich people and poor people.

But how could this be true?!

The Power of Jesus’s Blood

It’s true because Jesus came and lived the perfect life that sinners couldn’t live then died the death that sinners deserved to die. On the cross, he substituted himself in the place of sinners and poured out his blood as an atoning sacrifice for sin. God accepted this payment for sin and raised Jesus to life on the third day proving that his work was sufficient. When sinners look to Jesus and his work, they are forgiven. His precious blood has the power to cleanse them from all sin and shame.

That summer I learned that there was power in the blood of Jesus. Power to save me from Satan, sin, and death. Power even to save me from myself! The words of the apostle John, “the blood of Jesus his [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn. 1:7) seemed too good to be true. And yet, it was true. Not because I deserved to be saved, but because the merciful, gracious God delights to save sinners through the blood of Jesus.

This lavish grace overwhelmed me. I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to give into the powerful conviction of God’s Spirit. It didn’t matter if I had to change my life or leave my sin. I had to be close to Jesus! I responded to the gospel in faith and repentance. I turned away from my sin and self and turned to God by trusting in Jesus’ work and was baptized in my local church.

There were a lot of up’s and down’s but, somewhere along the way, God saved me that summer. He gave me a new heart and a new life and a new story. And now I know…that I know…that I know God saves sinners. It’s the truest truth in all the world.

The Truest Truth 

What’s the truest sentence you believe, the one you think to be true? The one that undergirds and defines your life? Take a few minutes and think through your story. How would you sum up what you believe most in one sentence?

I have to ask, do you know it to be true? Are you 100 percent positive that it is the truest truth in all the world?

It’s quite unfashionable today for anyone to act as though they have the market on truth, but much like my cousin inserting himself into my life to share God’s truth with me, I’m going to (with much humility and trepidation!) insert myself into yours and offer you the truest truth— “God saves sinners.” He really does. Through Jesus, God can save the dirtiest of sinners.

That’s why I shared my story. If he can save me, he can save anyone. I don’t enjoy airing before the world the embarrassing, shameful things I did, but I do enjoy sharing Jesus and his salvation. Christ Jesus really did “come into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15). The sentence, “God saves sinners” is as real and true to me as the air I breathe. I know it to be true because it is God’s truth, the final and authoritative truth.

And I want you to know it too. If you are staring at that monstrous gap like I was, wondering how in the world you could ever make your way to God because of your sin, you need to know that God has made a way for you through Jesus. The apostle Paul declares that, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

Oh, how I want you to know that! To know that there is power in the blood of Jesus to save you and cleanse you from all of your sin and shame. There is power to give you a new heart, a new life, and a new start. All who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved. And isn’t that really good news for sinners like you and me?

The Way Forward  

If you have never looked to Jesus in repentance and faith, I pray that you will consider the sentence, “God saves sinners.” Think on it. Ask friends or family about it. Find a local church and listen to what they have to say about it. Read more articles about it. Better yet, open up the Gospel of John in the Bible and read all about it. Pray and ask God to reveal the truth to you. If this is true, then ask him to help you believe it.

If you are a Christian, I pray that you will continue to share the gospel with people who don’t know it. I often think about how my cousin was loving enough to confront me with the truth. Let’s be loving enough to share God’s truth with others. Be bold knowing that God’s Spirit is at work in people’s lives, just like he was mine, preparing them to receive the word of truth. It is his work that brings them to saving faith. You just get to share the good news, so share it boldly!

If you don’t know where to start, share your story with them. Tell people how Jesus saved you. Talk about how loving and merciful God is. You could even send this article and ask to talk about it afterwards. Ask what they think about the sentence, “God saves sinners” and dialogue about it. Most of all, always share that there is hope for all who will repent of sin and look to Jesus because God saves sinners.

—

Whitney Woollard is passionate about equipping others to read and study God’s Word well resulting maturing affection for Christ and his glorious gospel message. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Biblical Studies from Moody Bible Institute and a Masters of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies from Western Seminary. Whitney and her husband Neal currently live in Portland, OR where they call Hinson Baptist Church home. Visit her writing homepage whitneywoollard.com.

God Has Come to Be With Us

Emmanuel is not not merely “God sent to us” or God doing something for us, God healing us, or even God speaking to us. Emmanuel goes beyond some function of God to his presence. God with us. This is actually the entire trajectory of the Christian Bible and the message of Christianity: Humanity can only thrive, be what it was supposed to be, healed and whole if it is with God. God with us . . . this is the blessing, this is what made the holy-lands holy, the chosen people chosen: God’s dwelling presence among his people, in that place.

Moses and burning bush, pillar of fire from heaven, and as Sharad so eloquently taught on last week, God in the whisper to the downtrodden. God’s redemption is about nothing less that estranged refugees being brought home yet again in the presence of God, with us. God’s resurrection is about nothing less than the sick and dying meeting the power of life in God’s presence.

This is the power of the name given Jesus: Emmanuel, God with us. This is the line that makes the restoration and recreation of the world in Rev 22 worthwhile at all: “The dwelling place of God has become the dwelling place of humanity.” God with us.

This is what Jesus came to be and came to make possible. Everything that was done was bringing that hope into reality. The healing of the sick, the teaching of the way to abundant life, the combating evil, the seeing, the hearing, and the touching the downtrodden, the oppressed, the heartbroken, the world crying out for a savior was experiencing the savior with us, in our world. The Incarnation is God with the depressed, the sick, the tired, the unorganized, the humble, the poor, the downcast.

Jesus said: “Blessed are the poor, the merciful, the mourners, the hungry, the pure, the peacemakers, the persecuted: for there’s is the kingdom of God and they shall see God and be satisfied.” Jesus clearly came for the humble.

GOD WITH THE AMBITIOUS?

What about the ambitious? What about the put-together? The task oriented achiever? What about the driven? The proud? What does it mean for God to come to us in our ambition? Does he come? Is he even needed?

Ambition put plainly: the drive to achieve goals, to move up, to better our lives, our standing, or our perceived self. The belief that we can make things better, at least for ourselves. Ambition is the deep belief that we can gain what we must and gain the things we desire: Whether it is a new position, new possession, or a new persona. Does God come to this person? More direct, does God come to us?

This is what Eugene Peterson wrote on the subject:

The one temptation that is dressed-up to the point of acceptance, with special flourishing in America, is ambition. Our culture encourages and rewards ambition without qualification. We are surrounded by a way of life in which betterment is understood as expansion, as acquisition, as fame. Everyone wants to get more. To be on top, no matter what it is the top of, is admired. There is nothing resent about this temptation. It is the oldest sin in the book, the one that got Adam thrown out of the garden and Lucifer tossed out of heaven. What is fairly new about it is the general admiration and approval it receives.

Our hearts and minds struggle to see this pride as an issue at all. This ambition, after all, is what New Year’s is all about: make some plans to improve your house, your body, and your life. Then, go after it. This is what it means to be American, and it works out well, doesn’t it?

This my own personal, seemingly, lifelong struggle: the drive to achieve, produce, and make a name for myself is what got me where I am. I pursued this life and took initiative to do and be what I wanted, without ambition, I wouldn’t have this life. To which Peterson responds:

It is difficult to recognize pride as a sin when it is held up on every side as a virtue, urged as profitable and rewarded as achievement.

This celebrated “virtue” gives credence to the struggle. That’s exactly what it is, a struggle to be self-sufficient. That’s what this life has really been all about. Our attempts to escape the pain of dependence on others. Or rather, the messing up of our lives, or even further still: our ambition is to rid ourselves of the pain of being let down by others. Our ambition is a shield from an unreliable world.

Only, sporadically, we take time and effort to step into this unreliable world and improve it. We step outside of our lives to help others gain what we have gained. This makes us feel even more secure.

AT GREAT COST GOD’S PRESENCE COMES

How does God with us sound in those ears? Is God’s presence necessary? How does the incarnation of God with us fill, engulf, transform, and bring hope to the self-filled, the self-engulfed, the self-improved, the self-reliant?

In our sickness we might think: “Yeah! God is here to help me make myself and my world better.” Or, in our ugliest: “God’s presence is the cherry on top of a pretty well made cake, if I have to say so myself.”

You might think: “God’s presence probably passes over people like that, God moves on to the ones who really need him.” But not so, God comes to the ambitious.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. – Philippians 2:3-8

Each of the four gospels of Jesus spend a disproportionate amount of time with Jesus speaking to the pharisees, the epitome of: “Let’s help God do something wonderful by fixing ourselves, by ambitiously making ourselves whole and helping others do the same.” Jesus engages them, he goes to them, he directs teachings and even piles of stories to them. Perhaps the best story is the one about a father and two sons, famously referred to as the Prodigal Son.

The hinge of this story for the ambitious is at the end, after the younger son has returned and been welcomed home, the story focuses in on the older brother and his stewing over his newly, and for the second time, lost inheritance. His plan was working and the father didn’t keep his end of the bargain—aside, this is usually how we know where our ambitions lay, when we are angry at God for his withdrawal or withholding of their success. This son refuses to partake in the party with his father and brother because his way of achieving acceptance, security, and success has been vanquished.

And yet, the father goes to him. The father walks to him and leaves his party to sit down next to the pouter and ask: “Why are you angry?” After hearing his sons pain of dashed dreams and worthiness the father says: “But I’ve been with you the whole time . . . this whole time you’ve had me, me with you is the blessing."

Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.

God with the ambitious is found in Jesus giving up equality with God, emptying himself, taking our form which always leads to death, but Jesus goes further to the humiliating and wretched death on a cross. God comes to the ambitious, not with a more powerful voice or a show of power, but by being like us, by being a servant. By dying. By coming to our hurried and overwhelmed lives asking, listening, and speaking.

GOD WITH US INTERRUPTS AND EXPOSES

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

God comes to the ambitious, the same as he comes to the meek and persecuted: he comes bringing life, he comes with death, he comes to you with glory. His coming into your world induces worship of someone other than yourself.

He comes the same, but the impact is different. To the naked, hungry, and burdened his coming is like a much need rob, a much needed meal, and a quick rest. To the ambitious, prideful, and self-confident he comes like a wake-up call: “You are naked, hungry, thirsty, and burdened. You are in chains.” In the same way that the younger brother’s arrival home exposed the older brother’s ambition and self-bondage, Jesus’ inescapable arrival in the world exposes you.

"God with us" interrupts our ambition and exposes our fantasy, our lie, our bondage.

– God With Us Interrupts and Exposes Our Fantasy

The fantasy is you can somehow attain a world of security, peace, and prosperity for yourself. The fantasy of a world and each person in it conspiring to give you what you need or directly conspiring against you. Jesus’ arrival in the world alerts you that none of that is true.

The world is not about you: it’s about him, everything is made in and for him. His power and love is what sustains everything. Your feeble attempts to manipulate the ones you love, scheme to get the response, things, and relationships, prove to be nothing short of fantasy.

– God With Us Interrupts and Exposes The Lie

It exposes the lie: I can save myself. I can save them. I can save us. If I love enough, if I live well, if I do my bit I can save everyone. God with us awakes us to the terrifying mystery, power, and salvation and it isn't you! It's Jesus. God is with us to free us from the self-deception that we are God, too.

This reminds me of the Empire Strikes Back: Luke Skywalker abandons his training with Yoda to save Han, Leia, Chewy, C3PO in the cloud city. He goes full of belief that he can not only single handedly break into the city and find them, but also rescue them from Vader and hundreds of storm troopers. Upon arrival, he realizes the whole thing was a trap. His friends were only in danger because of his ambition to be the savior. His predictable desire to play hero is what created their horror. He also arrives to the reality, that it was a lie: he can’t save them.

God with us, destroys that lie. Why? Because we see the true savior and he looks nothing like us. We see Jesus with all his humility, grace, love, and power to pull back death by stepping into it. The incarnation shows us what real humanity looks like as much as it shows us what God is like. We see ourselves truly and God truly.

– God With Us Liberates Us from Bondage

Last, it frees us from bondage. We live in a cage of our own making. We are confined by our ability to love, forgive, and move. From the bondage, we are welcomed home to be with God. We are bound up in chains and don't even know it. The incarnation breaks these chains and ushers us into reality.

Similarly to the moment when Neo is awoken out of the Matrix to experience life as it really is not as it is nicely constructed to be. Except for us, instead of being liberated into a dark, metallic, and gloomy world, we are awoken into a world in which the God of heaven has condescended to make our gloomy world thrive.

This is the power of the gospel. This is the message of the gospel. This is the beginning of humility. This is very thing Paul is exhorting the Philippians in. God with us, is the only remedy to pride. This is the only invitation back to humility. The 19th century South African pastor, Andrew Murray describes this so well in his classic work, Humility:

When God created the universe, it was with the one object of making the creature partaker of His perfection and blessedness, and so showing forth in it the glory of His love and wisdom and power. God wished to reveal Himself in and through created beings by communicating to them as much of His own goodness and glory as they were capable of receiving. But this communication was not giving to the creature something with it could possess in itself, a certain life or goodness of which it had the charge and disposal. By no means. But as God is the ever-living, ever present, ever-acting One, who upholds all things by the Word of His power, and in whom all things exist, the relation of the creature to God could only be one of unceasing, absolute, universal dependence. . . . As truly as God by his power once created, so truly by that same power must God every moment maintain.

The life God bestows is imparted not once for all, but each moment continuously by the unceasing operation of His mighty power. Humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is, from the very nature of things, the first duty and highest virtue. And so, pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin and evil. It was the first sin. The first evil. In sin we lose humility.

Hence it follows that nothing can be our redemption but the restoration of the lost humility, the original and the only true relation of the creature to its God. And so Jesus came to bring humility back to earth, to make us partakers of it, and by it to save us. In heaven He humbled Himself to become man. The humility we see in Him possessed Him in heaven; it brought Him, He brought it, from there.

Here on earth, “He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death;” His humility gave his death its value and so became our redemption. And now the salvation he imparts in nothing less and nothing else than a communication of His own life and death, His own disposition and spirit, and His own humility as the ground and root of his relation to God and His redeeming work. Jesus to the place and fulfilled the destiny of man as a creature by His life of perfect humility. His humility is our salvation. His salvation is our humility. (emphasis mine)

God with us is our ransom. God with us is our liberation. The proclamation that God has come into your world means that you are not the God of it. At the conclusion, Paul says, “every knee will bow and confess Jesus as lord.”

Our response to this salvation and liberation through Christ’s humility will and is nothing less than worship. In that “one day” Paul describes, our confession will likely be this sort of prayer. May this be our confession, our hope, the beginning of our adoration of Jesus, God with us:

Jesus, you are worthy [we are not], our Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for you have created all things and for your pleasure they are and were created...Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! — Revelation 4:11, 5:11

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

Connecting Prayer to Mission

This article is adapted from our latest release Small Town Mission: A Guide for Mission-Driven Communities. Get your copy today! —

What does the Bible say about the connection of prayer and mission? Here are some thoughts about it based on Ephesians 6:19-20 and Colossians 4:2-4.

Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. – Ephesians 6:19–20

Paul asked his friends to pray also for me, then he went on to detail how they could specifically pray for his mission. Stop right there. Did you see what Paul did? Paul, of all people, asked his friends to pray for his mission! If you know anything about Paul, he seems like the kind of guy who was naturally talented at sharing his faith and wasn’t fearful at all when sharing the gospel.

Paul realized that, even on his best day, he desperately needed his friends to pray for him and for the grace of God to empower his mission. Think of the most naturally talented evangelist in your church. Just like Paul, that man or woman is in desperate need of the grace of God and for others to pray for them. The same is true for us. What friends should you start sharing prayer requests with for the sake of your mission?

Paul goes on to ask his friends to pray that God would give him words to say whenever he opens his mouth to talk about the mystery of the gospel (Paul calls it a mystery because until this point people in the Old Testament didn’t know when or under what circumstances Jesus was going to arrive). This is interesting because Paul’s sermons in the book of Acts were phenomenal, he was an incredibly talented public speaker, and he was awesome at advancing the mission.

But even with all his natural talent, Paul was convinced that he needed God to give him words whenever he opened his mouth to talk about the gospel. Paul knew that fruitful and effective words only come from God. This makes me breathe a sigh of relief because it’s comforting to know that powerful and effective words don’t come directly from my natural talent, but directly from the grace of God in response to prayer. This is good news for those of us who aren’t naturally talented at sharing our faith.

Paul then twice asks his friends to pray that he would fearlessly declare and make known the gospel. The Greek word for fearlessly means “to have a free and fearless confidence” and it’s the same Greek word that is used for boldness in Acts 4:29. Proverbs 29:25 says, “Fear of man is a snare but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.”

In this proverb, the fear of man is contrasted with trusting the Lord. Fear, in the biblical sense of the word, includes being afraid of someone but it also extends to holding someone in awe, being controlled or mastered by people, worshiping people, or using them for our personal sense of value, dignity, and worth.

In other words, the fear of man can be summed up in five simple words—we replace God with people. Instead of fearing the Lord, we fear people.

Think of if it this way: Jesus is the only one who should sit on the throne of your heart and mind. But when we fear people, somebody other than Jesus sits on that throne. Consequently, we care about that person’s approval of us at least as much as much as God’s approval. We want to please and appease them and we want them to never leave us nor forsake us. You know what that’s called? Worship. That’s because the most important relationship we have is with whoever sits on that throne.

The fear of man will paralyze your mission because you can’t witness to someone that you’re trying to worship. Do you see how worship and mission are so deeply intertwined with each other? The most basic solution for the fear of man is the fear of the Lord. That’s why, like Paul, we need friends who will pray for us to be fearless in our mission and have God as the only one competing for the throne of our heart and mind.

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. – Colossians 4:2-4

Paul urges his friends to devote themselves to prayer. “Devote” is such an intense word! Would your closest friends say you’re devoted to prayer? Keep in mind that being devoted to prayer isn’t necessarily the same thing as being devoted to God, which is kind of like when someone is devoted to talking but doesn’t pay attention to the person they’re talking to. I think we all know people like that.

If you ever do a brief study on how Jesus prayed you’ll quickly notice that when he prayed he focused his attention on the Father. This is often in contrast with how many of us pray because we usually focus on prayer instead of the Father, which is kind of like focusing on the windshield when you’re driving instead of focusing on the road. Those are the kind of people who cause accidents!

We’re also to be watchful and thankful in the midst of being devoted to prayer. At the very least, being watchful and thankful is the opposite of going through the motions. Do you tend to go through the motions in life? If so, then you’re probably going to miss lots of opportunities for mission. That’s why it isn’t a coincidence that Paul immediately proceeds to ask his friends to pray that God would open a door and provide opportunities for him to share the gospel.

Is that the kind of request you ask your friends to pray for, or do you usually just ask them to pray for things like your Aunt Ethel’s broken hip? I mean no offense towards Ethel or her hip, but are tragedies and physical health the only things we’re called to pray for?

Look at your church’s prayer chain; I can almost guarantee that it’s filled with prayer requests concerning tragedies and physical health. It’s obviously good and right for us to pray for these things, but when was the last time your church’s prayer chain overflowed with prayer requests like those in this passage? According to this passage, we are missing opportunities to share the gospel when we fail to pray for open doors. When it comes to prayer requests, are there imbalances like this that should we repent of?

Lastly, Paul asks his friends to pray that he would proclaim the gospel clearly. We should be eager to explain the gospel in a way that our non-Christian friends can understand. Unfortunately, many Christians talk about spiritual topics in a way that doesn’t make sense to the average non-Christian.

Often it’s like we’re speaking Klingon to them. This is unfortunate because almost no one understands Klingon except Klingons. Similarly, nobody understands Christian lingo and clichés except Christians. We also must conclude from this passage that clearly proclaiming the gospel is something that we should actively be praying about.

This is crucial to remember because it’s easy to think that the biggest reason why our mission isn’t going well is because we don’t know how to share our faith. While I certainly think that many of us would benefit from being better trained in how to share our faith, this passage leads us to believe that being trained will amount to nothing if we aren’t devoted to praying.

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

The Gospel and How We Grow

This article is adapted from our latest release Renew: How the Gospel Makes Us New. Get your copy today! —

Our culture has many approaches to helping people change. Pick a topic, and do a quick search online. You will see thousands of suggested ways to overcome a struggle. We all have our approaches. Do you want to know what your own personal “theology” of change is? Easy. When you see someone caught in a struggle, how do you complete this sentence: “If only they would __________”? Whatever you fill in the blank with exposes how you think people change.

The Morality Approach

Many Christians fill in that blank with something like “try harder.” This approach is the morality-based approach to change in which discipleship strategies are aimed at equipping us to understand God’s commands to live rightly, then we should simply do what is expected of us. In fact, the word “should” shows up a lot in this approach.

Growth is equated with obedience and measured based on performance (usually in pass/fail terms). The role of a disciple-maker in this strategy is similar to being a boss—communicate expectations and point out needed correction. The gospel rarely shows up in this approach beyond a type of gap-filler that bridges the difference between our performance and God’s expectations. This try-harder strategy often leaves us utterly defeated and ashamed.

The Therapeutic Approach

Others embrace the therapeutic approach to how people change. In fact, this one may be the most popular model today in our churches today. With the therapeutic approach, we try to understand how our life experiences shape or misshape us and contribute to our own dysfunctional behavior (which is rarely called sin).

Our role in the therapeutic model is to apply wisdom principles (usually a blend of man-centered approaches and biblical proof texts) to enable us to overcome our problems. Growth comes about with “break-throughs” and deeper insight into you, with our disciple-makers acting like quasi-therapists (or the more popular term “life coach.”).

The therapeutic model focuses on felt needs and wants you to become a better you. It tends to celebrate confession without ever pointing to repentance. Like the morality-based approach to change, the therapeutic model puts you in the driver’s seat. The gospel is applicable only in a general sense. We have the good news of God’s love but no bad news that brought about our need for good news in the first place.

The Hyper-Grace Approach

This approach calls into question the very idea of spiritual growth, seeing growth as something that may or may not even happen. This is the hyper-grace approach (“let go, let God”). The focus here is on God’s unconditional approval of us as we are, without regard to whether we ever change. This approach may mention the grace of God, but it is a very anemic grace that rarely calls a man or woman to come and die. It espouses a half Gospel that justifies but never empowers us to be sanctified.

An Incomplete Approach

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

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

The Gospel Approach

What then is the distinctly Christian model for how people change? One that is built around and upon the gospel. Only the gospel provides us with practical, effective and God-glorifying means to change. The gospel is the good news concerning all that has been accomplished for you through the life, death, resurrection, ascension and ongoing reign of Jesus Christ and applied to you through the regenerating and indwelling work of the Holy Spirit. And because of the good news we have the heart and the means to be changed.

As disciple-makers, we constantly toggle our conversations between gospel need and gospel provision. The fact that sin is our fundamental struggle in this life is our most basic gospel need. It is sin that causes brokenness in us and chaos within the rest of creation. We lack any real power on our own to control our sin, just like we lack any real power to undue the futility that sin has caused in creation. The same dark force that makes you want to look at porn is also what causes tornadoes to rip through subdivisions and tsunamis to submerge islands. No part of the created realm has been untouched by sin. A disciple-maker is clear that the fight against sin is a spiritual battle that requires spiritual weapons. We cannot use our self-will to overcome sin.

For the person who does not have saving faith in Jesus Christ, who does not have the Spirit of God living in them, the greatest gospel need is for conversion to occur. Any discussion of change which side-steps this most crucial need deprives a person of our greatest advocate (Christ) and the only means by which we can truly change (his grace). So a disciple-maker begins the change conversation with this fundamental need.

But believers also have an ongoing gospel need. Yes, because of our faith in Christ, we have been brought from death to life and the Spirit of God now lives in us. We are no longer enemies of God, but have been reckoned righteous by the goodness of Christ himself. The Apostle Paul sums this up by declaring that because of the work of the gospel we are now a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). Yet, we still have old sin tendencies as well. The “flesh” still inhabits us and leads us astray. Believers, therefore, have not moved past their need for the gospel. But many Christians struggle to see how the gospel plays a practical role in their ongoing growth.

Here’s what I mean. Christians share a confessed hope that after we die on some glorious day in the future Christ will return and he will instantly bring our dead, decayed bodies back to life into a glorious state. We know it sounds far-fetched. But we believe it by faith and are certain it is true. If we don’t believe it, Paul says we are to be pitied the most. But it is true!

So, knowing that we have already believed what may seem the hardest to believe, what if I were to tell you that the same gospel which assures you of a bodily resurrection also promises you the means to fight against every day sin? Do you believe that is true in the same way you believe the resurrection is true? Sadly, too many Christians would say that the God who resurrects dead bodies offers no practical help with porn, broken marriages, anger, alcohol abuse, etc.

But what does scripture say about God’s willingness to meet your Gospel need to fight against sin? Paul writes this is in Ephesians 1:19-20:

And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

Paul is telling us that the same power that resurrected Jesus and vindicated him before God and seated him at God’s right hand is now available to us. The power of God, his grace, brings the dead back to life and enables the believer to fight against sin and to grow up into the image of our savior. God graciously meets our gospel need with gospel provision. As disciple-makers, that is the primary content of our proclamation. “Your needs have been met in Christ Jesus—all of them.” Denying that truth leads to sin.

Fundamentally, our role as disciple-makers is not to be a life coach or a therapist. It is to be evangelists. We share the good news with those who have never heard it, but we also remind those who have received it that they must never move on from it. We must stress the need to repent of all of our ways that we reject God’s promises to us and to once again have faith that all we need for life and godliness has been given to us in Christ (2 Pt. 1:3).

That is how people really change. And that glorifies God.

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

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

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

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

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

Mathew B. Sims, Managing Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Importance of Coaching

Church planters, think about your leaders. Maybe it’s your ministry team leaders or small group leaders or other pastors in your denomination or network. Take a moment to think about their giftedness, abilities, and skill. Consider their maturity level, ministry experience, and aptitude. Reflect on their personality and strengths. Now if I gave you a blank whiteboard and asked you to start brainstorming a list of all of the characteristics for all of the leaders you lead, it wouldn’t take you long to fill up every square inch, would it? Most likely you are working with a large group of leaders with an even more sizeable collection of attributes and experiences.

As you know, this is how God designed his church. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6,

There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

The leaders you lead are unique and as Paul reminds us in the rest of the chapter, this uniqueness is important for the body’s health and effectiveness. God has designed the church to flourish and be effective in it’s calling through its unique gifts being used in various ministry roles. However, this uniqueness is also what makes leading leaders such a challenge. How does one go about effectively equipping and empowering a group of people with such diversity?

In the church, our approach is typically to provide teaching and instruction then delegate responsibilities and tasks, which makes sense when you think about it. We have a lot to do, especially in the early stages of church planting, and this methodology allows us the opportunity to maximize our time and resources. Not only that, but this is how most of us were taught so it’s natural we would do this with others. But we can’t treat every leader the same. If we are going to train leaders so they are equipped to carry out their God-given roles, using their unique God-given gifts then we cannot rely on direction and delegation alone.

Enter Coaching

Now coaching enters the conversation. The word coach develops in fifteenth century Hungary town called Kocs (pronounced “kotch”) where carriages were made to transport people and mail from one place to another. These carriages made their way into England in the nineteenth century and soon after took on the additional meaning of a private tutor or sports trainer. Coaching most basically is transporting a person from point A to point B in some area of life.

My introduction to coaching came when Acts 29 hired Bob Logan to train church planters in our network. He defines coaching as “the process of coming alongside a person to help them discover a greater agenda for their life and work, and to see that agenda become a reality.” Coaching allows you to meet them where they currently are, in their experience, giftedness, development, and calling, then walk alongside them to help them advance to the next point on their journey. Instead of just giving the same direction and delegation for every leader with the hope that they will be able to apply and practice, you are recognizing both the unique place God has them currently and the direction he wants them to go.

Ongoing & Intentional

Keith Webb, author of The Coach Model for Christian Leaders, says coaching is “an ongoing intentional conversation that empowers a person or group to fully live out God’s calling.” Notice the words “ongoing” and “intentional.” Coaching requires more than random or one-time conversations. It is a process of multiple discussions honing in on that leaders unique situation.

One more thing needs to be mentioned for coaching in a Christian context. It’s very easy to focus only on what you do and ignore who you are, yet both are vital for a disciple. In John 15, Jesus mentions “bearing fruit” seven times, so achievement does matter, but it must be noted that it is always intended to flow out of abiding in Christ. Doing is important, but it should always flow out of being.

As we coach our leaders, we must keep this in mind. Especially in the early stages of church planting when the demands of ministry and the daily to-do list feels insurmountable. The temptation will be to focus solely on doing that is motivated entirely through the direct and delegate model. But if you can take the time to walk alongside leaders, coaching them through the current leg of their journey as a leader and disciple, you will not only be building into their effectiveness, but you will also be developing leaders who are able to do this with others—which is paramount for a healthy, growing church plant.

Coaching in Context

What might coaching practically look like in your context? While there isn’t time to discuss coaching in-depth for every context, I’d like to suggest a few best practices that can be applied immediately. You don’t need extensive training as a coach for these, just a little practice and experimentation, and you’ll grow in proficiency and effectiveness.

– First, a coach needs to connect personally with the leader they are coaching.

The coaching relationship is one to cultivate, not a project to manage. As you walk together, take the opportunity to get to know them. Hear their story. Listen for passions. Look for giftedness. Remember what they’ve said. Take an interest in them.

– Second, ask powerful questions that help both of you listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying.

Questions will help you unearth what’s right, wrong, missing, or confused currently in the leader’s life. Ask questions that help a leader think deeply. A great example of this is with your children. How many times have you asked, “How was your day” and gotten the same answer: “Fine”? Try reshaping the question to “What was something you learned today?” or “What was the favorite part of your day?” and see if you don’t get a deeper response.

Here’s an example of asking a question in an increasingly more powerful way:

• Are you happy with your ministry?
• How do you feel about your ministry?
• What about your ministry do you find most satisfying?
• How does your ministry connect to God’s calling in your life?

– Third, practice active listening.

Active listening involves paying attention to the person, not just what they are saying. Non-verbal communication can be just as telling as verbal. You will also need to defer judgment. Listen to all of what they are saying and hold off on forming an opinion or response until they are finished. Finally, listen to gain clarity by repeating what was said to make sure you have received it correctly and asking follow up questions to gain understanding.

As discoveries are made and obstacles are overcome, we must chart a plan. A coach works with the leader to set a course and clear action to move forward. Coaching takes a person from point A to B, so figure out where B is and the path to get there. Force them to be specific and realistic, so that, when they leave the conversation, they know where they are going and have a very clear and attainable plan to get there.

Use powerful questions and active listening as your primary tool so you aren’t telling them how to get there. There might be times to step in and put on the mentoring hat, but don’t do that too quickly. Help them to think through their path forward.

– Finally, celebrate new discoveries, steps taken, and markers hit.

A good coach will stop the leader along the journey to celebrate development and draw attention and hopefully affection to God whose gracious leading has made it all possible.

Jethro and Moses

To tie some of the above together, let’s see how these principles were practiced in the interaction between Jethro and Moses (Ex. 18). Often when pastors teach this passage, they emphasize the direction Jethro gives and the work Moses does in response.

However, if you pay attention to how the story unfolds you’ll notice that Jethro uses many coaching principles to help Moses lead God’s people more effectively.

• V7-8 – Jethro takes the time to listen to Moses share all that God had done through him and for the people.
• V9-12 – They take time to celebrate and worship God together
• V13 – Jethro watches Moses do his work
• V14-16 – Jethro asks him a penetrating question about his work and why he is doing all the work alone.
• V17-23 – He then works with Moses to come up with a solution that will be more sustainable and will allow others to share the weight of the work.
• V24-26 – Moses put the plan into action.
• V27 – Only after the plan was in motion did Jethro depart.

Church planter, think again about the leaders in your church, networks, or denomination under your care. As Jethro’s involvement in Moses’ life shows, coaching is an instrumental tool for helping others develop in their unique gifting and growth while also helping them move forward in the calling God has placed on their life. Who might you begin doing this with today?

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Jason Roberts is the founding Pastor of Crosscurrent Church, an Acts 29 church in Virginia Beach, VA.  Fourteen years ago while working for Spanish River Church in Boca Raton, FL, God began to lay the church planting calling on his heart and after some time of investigation and holy arm twisting, he packed up the family, moved back to “the Beach” and planted in the fall of 2002. For the past eight years, he has also given considerable time to coaching and training church planters and pastors. This past fall he transitioned into the corporate world where he now works as an Executive Coach for CACI, International, coaching senior and mid-level managers at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. He still lives in Virginia Beach, with his wife of 23 years, Aimee and his five children.