Transfer: God's Presence

What if God were just an idea?  What if all the rest of our practices and beliefs stayed the same, but God was just an idea, not personal, not a being.  Of course God the idea would still be all that the Bible says he is–holy, just,  loving,  merciful, and eternal–all in our religious imaginations. We could have conferences describing what the Bible says God the idea is–that He is a trinity, that his righteousness must be vindicated, that he will finally punish all those who reject his offer of forgiveness.  And of course heretics to these ideas would be excluded from our orthodox religion of God–the idea.  In the end it would all matter–since ideas influence our lives.  After all, ever other belief system is basically grounded in…ideas.

Here’s a tragic scenario.  What if God were treated as an idea by those who know He is a personal Being? What if we functioned as religious philosophers–full of orthodox vigor–and moralists–full of righteous zeal, but we never desired to know God, the Triune Being?  What if we were content with ideas but never hungered for a person, never thirsted for the nearness, the reality of God? This would be the Christian faith emptied of its core, void of its heart, bereft of its hope.  This, this lifeless orthodoxy, this moral travesty,  is what we desperately want to resist by transferring a passion for God’s presence.

God is not an idea, He is a personal Being—three Persons, one God.   His unveiled presence is our final eternal hope; the ache in our souls is meant to be satisfied only by the eternal glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  Our current oxygen is enjoying the Holy Spirit, given to transform our lives from ordinary mortal experience to supernatural vibrancy, to reveal heaven touching earth in the heart and life of each believer.   So, let’s ask, evaluate, and change.  Is God more like an idea, or…God, in our lives right now?

*Originally posted at www.thetransfer.org

Praying For Newtown

Father, please bring the comforting presence of your Holy Spirit to the hearts of the surviving children.  Lord, these are little children--please remove the fear from their hearts, help them to sleep peacefully, remove all nightmares,  bring them quickly back to a sense of peace and security and joy.  Lord Jesus,  please be present with the parents and family of those who have died. Please send your Spirit to them to bring comfort that no other person could provide.  Lord,  you understand the depth of pain and suffering that they are experiencing even though I do not.  Show them that you understand their grief, that you are present to offer comfort and eternal hope in the face of darkness and death.  

Lord Jesus, come quickly to remove all evil from this dark world.  Save many by the good news of your grace.  Bring us into the joy and peace of heaven, where violence and death will be no more. Amen. 

Worship as Mission

A few posts ago I included worship as part of our new church's definition of mission.  I included it because it seems possible for a church's missional definition to focus only on the evangelistic part of our purpose, or perhaps to attempt a balanced purpose statement including community and outreach.  But worship must not be an assumed part of our corporate identity, or an afterthought of our mission.   Worship is at the core of our purpose. Indeed we might say that worship is the river out of which all other missional tributaries flow.  We preach the gospel to unbelievers because we first love the God of the gospel.  We build community with each other out of love for our Triune God.  Proselytizing is not unique to Christians, nor is the building of community. Every religion seeks to gain converts and almost all organizations seek to cultivate community. But Christians do all that they do out of love for and obedience to God.

Worship has both a corporate and private dimension.  It is corporate when we gather together as a church to worship God in song and in prayer, to worship God by sitting in submission under his Word, to worship God by encouraging one another, to worship God by remembering His gospel in baptism and the Lord's Supper.  Our Sunday morning gathering certainly builds community and certainly shares the good news with unbelievers, but underneath these goals is the purpose of bringing God glory--of worshiping God.

Worship is also our purpose when we "scatter" as a church to worship God throughout the week.  Our daily lives are to be a sacrificial offering to the Lord (Rom. 12:1-2) and we are to do every activity for His glory (1 Cor. 10:31).  And certainly as we live on God's Word as our spiritual bread, and drink of His Spirit as living water, and live out our gospel calling by loving the Lord with all that we are  (Luke 10:27), we are worshiping God. 

All can certainly affirm John Piper's clarion sentence: "Missions exist because worship does not."--We are missional so that others may become worshipers of God.

The reverse is also the case:  True missions exist because worship exists.    We preach the gospel, and build community, out of love for God.

And one more clarifying point is worth making.  We want to be neither 'pietists' or 'pragmatists' in our worship of God--neither claiming that God is only worshiped through song, prayer, and "devotional" activities, nor claiming that God is only worshiped in activities like evangelism or practical service.  The Bible defines both as worship and so should we.

What we must insure is that in all that we do, our affections are set on the Lord of glory, that our motive would be to know Him more deeply and serve Him more fully.  We do this because,  "he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." (2 Cor. 5:15)

Transfer: God's Word

I’m not a big fan of honey. My children love it and my wife says it’s a more healthy sweetener than sugar. Of course, in my mind, sweet and healthy have no real need to hang out together in the same sentence…or food. So, its slightly harder for me to appreciate David’s heart in Psalm 19:10 when he says that God’s Word is “sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.” I have to go back in time and imagine life in David’s world—no flavored coffee, ice-cream, Oreos, Skittles, or Snickers. Just, honey.

Honey represented the sweetener of life. The sweetest food to be imagined.  Back then honey must have seemed like a gift directly from heaven to transform the diet of a fallen world. From a food standpoint, honey was experiencing the joy of heaven on earth. And that, I think, is what David is getting at when he says that to him God’s Word is sweeter than honey. So, now, I ask, is it that sweet to me?

Of course most of us believe in the authority of God’s Word; we know it should be part of our regular spiritual diet. But too often we feel towards it a bit more like…eating our vegetables than…enjoying honey. When we talk about transferring the value of God’s Word, of course we mean upholding its authority, sufficiency, clarity, and inerrancy. Of course we want to trace the storyline of redemption and obey biblical commands. But in all of these disciplines, we want to transfer and receive something else. We want an uninhibited,  emotional, passionate joy in God’s Word. We want it to be more than nourishing, more than only truth. We want it to be delightful and joy-inspiring. Like honey for our souls.

*originally posted at thetransfer.org

Mission: Worship God

In recent weeks I've been writing about the theological vision of our church, walking through the following sentence: 

Under the authority of God's Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be a gospel centered church that worship God, loves one another, and proclaims the gospel to the world. 

To this point I've discussed God's Word, the Holy Spirit, and gospel centrality.  Now, let me continue by considering our mission of worship.

A Church that…Worships God (Exodus 20:1-6, Psalm 1, Psalm 16, Psalm 63, Jeremiah 9:23-24,  Matthew 22:37, Romans 12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 5:15, Philippians 3:8, 1 Peter 2:9, Revelation 5)

I love how Augustine begins his famous Confessions. “You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.”  To be grounded in God’s Word, empowered by God’s Spirit and centered on God’s gospel is to have this as our glorious goal—to live passionately for the glory of God, ever growing in our relationship with God and reflecting his righteousness in our lives.  We want to be a church that does not assume this vertical dimension of our calling, this most important mission.   As Jesus said, our calling is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37).  Or as Paul said we “count all as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:8).  Practically, this means that our Sunday gathering will always prioritize worshiping the Lord in songs that describe who God is and what He has done in salvation and that express a heart of awe, affection, and gratefulness toward Him.  And since all of our lives are intended to be offered as worship to the Lord, our sermons will have an aim toward real growth in our knowledge of God and real transformation of our character into the image of our Savior.  To be a church that worships God also means that each of us will seek to prioritize our relationship with God in private worship and that our small group meetings will seek to encourage us onward in our growth in godliness.  We will seek to live up to our spiritual ancestors who said that the chief end of man is “to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

Jon Payne: Church Planting and Misplaced Glory

Jon Payne: Church Planting and Misplaced Glory 

Lessons from History

I like reading biographies of dead people. Actually, biographies of dead people are just about all I read for fun. Some of my friends consider me weird and wonder why I don't have any good hobbies. But I love getting to know a person from a former era, someone history has chosen to remember for some victory or office, some heroic act or unique accomplishment. I especially enjoy reading biographies of leaders who abandoned themselves to the opportunities of their time, hoping to make a difference for good. Men like John Adams, Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, George Marshall, and Abraham Lincoln have taught me countless lessons about leadership, courage, vision, and endurance.  

Temptations to Pride

However, reading biographies of leaders comes with one gigantic temptation, one enormous risk. The risk: In reading about the men history considers great, I'm enticed to be great in the eyes of history. On some future date, perhaps one hundred years from now, I hope that someone will read about me. Of course I don't hope to be a great politician or military leader, like these men were. I am a pastor. Next year, Lord willing, I will plant a church. My course in history tends in a very ecclesiastical direction. But I hope, in my own little evangelical world, to make a big enough mark in history that someone will read of me, of my church, of my preaching, one hundred years from now. I'm envious of those men, my own age, who already seem on track to have a hundred-year-old name. And church planting comes filled with temptations to desire prominence--to make my church a platform for my reputation. Deep down I want a hundred-year-old name. A ridiculous desire, unrealistic, considering my gifting and capacity. But it's present all the same. 

Ambitious for God's Glory

Why? Why this disgusting, pathetic desire? Not because I am ambitious, not because I am driven, no. Far from it. My heart is too easily satisfied with the glory that comes from men. Instead of wanting the truly valuable, the honor of living and giving and sacrificing for God, I want a worthless hundred year name. Instead of wanting the eternal honor of His reward, I am focused on the cheep blue ribbon of a hundred-year-old biography. I see this scrap of desire blowing around the back alley of my heart, almost every time I read or hear of a famous man. And, ironically, every time I meditate on this worthless scrap of desire, it turns into a great weight of anxiety, fear, and worry. But Jesus has created in me a greater longing, more powerful still. He has planted in me the desire that His name would be glorified in me, and me in Him, according to His grace. (2 Thess. 1:12) He has paid in full for every prideful desire and bestowed His own nature of humble service within me. Because I am in Him, I can have my eyes set on eternity and the glory of God, not on the acclaim of this earth. All that I need for life and godliness and endurance and motivation and pastoring is found in Him. I have all that I need in Him to kill my ambition for earthly fame and cultivate a hunger of His glory.

Helpful Reminders

So, to my fellow church planters. To any who share this sad desire for a hundred year name, let me encourage all of us with the following reminders:

• The Lord has already written our biography, whether famous or forgotten in history
• The Lord's approval is all we need, all we want
• Service in secret receives heavenly acclaim
• The Lord remembers what man often forgets, and honors what man often disdains
• The Lord's sheep are more valuable than our reputation

The Lord has called us to live for his glory. Let us not trade loving His glory for craving a hundred year name on earth.
After all, a hundred years from now, we will be with Him. 



*Originally Posted at www.sovereigngraceministries.org

Mission: Gospel-Centered (Because We Must Be)

In my last post I spoke to the center of our mission as we plant a church in Austin, Texas.  Our "center" is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I want to clarify why this is the case.  We are not going to build a gospel-centered church because we believe it is a preferred option out of a number of legitimate options in church mission focus.  It's not as though we went to the "church building fair" and visited a number of different booths, one labeled "community focused", another "evangelism centered", a third "worship driven", a fourth "mercy ministry emphasized" and finally came to the "gospel-centered" booth, liked what we saw, and plunked down our mission money.  Neither are we choosing to be gospel-centered because we believe it is the fastest way to attract people or to have an international platform or to create a buzz in the city.  Actually, one way of saying it, is that we don't feel we have a choice at all.  We are gospel centered because we believe the Bible is and what the Bible is we must be.

Now to clarify this clarification, to say the Bible is gospel-centered doesn't mean that it is gospel-exclusive---as though the facts of Jesus life and death and resurrection and the results of His work are just repeated in their simplest form over and over in the Scriptures.  The Bible does indeed talk about community, and evangelism, and worship, and mercy, and a host of other topics that are not in themselves the basic message of Jesus Christ, the good news. However,  the storyline of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation centers around the person and work of Jesus Christ in saving sinners and redeeming mankind for God. 

Let me give a few examples, working from the end, back to the beginning, since newer revelation should always interpret older.

• Revelation chapter five makes it clear that the Lamb, who is also the Lion, is the one given the charge of all of God's purposes for redemption and judgement.  And the worship song he receives focuses on his atoning death to pay for sinners. History pivots on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• The epistles focus on extolling and applying Jesus death and resurrection.  We are reminded of our lost estate without Christ, encouraged by our inheritance in Christ, and exhorted to live worthy of our calling from Christ. Many diverse letters, but the epistles proclaim Christ as the center. If you are uncertain of this, simply peruse through the epistles focusing on the phrases "in, with, or through Christ",  or "in the Lord."  They are everywhere, connecting everything we do to who He is and what He has done.  
• The gospels culminate in an extended meditation on Jesus death and resurrection.  Yes, they celebrate His birth, His teaching, and His ministry, but the accent in all four, is on his Passion Week. 
• The prophets lament the sin of God's people, rebuke their faithlessness, and look forward in hope to a new day, the day of the Lord.  In the New Testament, these Old Testament needs and hopes are applied to the fulfillment of Jesus ministry and His provisions for His people.  He is the hope of the prophetic word.
• The historical books chronicle the tragic laps of the people into sin, with an emphasis on the sinful leadership of the Israelite kings. The march toward exile, despite the patient grace of God, makes clear the need for a more transforming redemption, and for One who will baptize His people with the Holy Spirit and write His law on their hearts.
• The books of the law, with all of their prescriptions for dealing with sin and placating judgement, are shadows, interpreted by the New Testament to be foretelling the better ministry of Jesus Christ.  He is our priest, our sacrifice, our temple. If we follow the course of the New Testament writers, and we should, the Old Testament is intended by God to be exegeted toward fulfillment in Christ.
• The tragic, treasonous blasphemy of Genesis 3 is also the context of God's promise, that a great Child would come who would crush the head of the Serpent and who would also experience his own "wound" in the process.  The prelude sets up the story.  Jesus would destroy the destruction of Satan through suffering the wounds that should have been ours on the cross.

The Bible is gospel-centered, it is Christ centered. And what the Bible is, so must we be.

The Mission: Gospel-Centered

Anticipating our church plant next year in Austin, I've been walking through our theological vision. So far we've looked at the first two phrases of the vision statement below.  The next phrase is the center point, the pinnacle, of our identity.  Nothing is more important to us than being centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Here is the statement I have been working with.

Under the Authority of God’s Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be a gospel-centered church that worships God, loves one another, and proclaims the gospel to the world. 

Let me expand on this third phrase. 

 A Gospel-Centered Church (Gen 3:15, Isaiah 53, Psalm 110, Luke 24:27, John 1:14-18, Romans 1:18, Romans 3:21-26, 1 Corinthians 2:2, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4,  Ephesians 1:3-14, Revelation 5)

If I could only pick one of these phrases to share with someone about the vision of our church, it would be this one.  All of these other priorities are vitally important, but there is a reason that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the center of our mission.  We believe that the good news of Jesus life, death, and resurrection is the center of the Bible’s message and should be the priority in our church’s identity.  The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived a perfect life and died in our place to save us from God’s judgment and unite us to himself for eternity.   To ‘center’ our church on the gospel means: 1)  all of our Sunday preaching will consistently highlight the centrality of Jesus’ person and work; 2)  our teaching will celebrate the amazing grace of God in salvation through Christ; 3) our counseling will direct people to the promises we have in Christ Jesus for hope and for growth in godliness; 4) our outreach will prioritize telling our neighbors about the offer of salvation in Jesus;  5) our community will find its model and strength through our union to our crucified and risen Savior.  To center on the gospel means that we reject the popular cultural idea of universalism, in which all beliefs and ways of life are equally acceptable to God. The gospel requires that we proclaim the Biblical truth of the holiness of God and his just condemnation of sin, and present faith in Jesus as our only hope.  To center on the gospel also means that we are not centered on other very worthwhile elements in our church life, such as outreach, or community, or study groups, or passionate worship, or social impact, or family discipleship.  All of these aims are good and Biblical and should be a part of our mission, but none of them can displace the gospel in the center. The gospel must be the center that defines and fuels all the other aspects of our calling. Finding our center in Jesus Christ means, finally, that all of our lives have been purchased for his glory and that as blood-bought saints we will run our race and build his church for his glory, keeping Him as our cornerstone.

If Any Should Accuse

"If any should appear before the throne of God--even Satan himself--to accuse us of being unfit for the kingdom, God will simply send him away. God, by his grace, is bringing us to his kingdom and he has secured our justification."   --J.I. Packer

The Mission: Empowered by the Spirit

Looking forward to our church plant in Austin, next year, I want to emphasize six crucial foundations for our church. These are foundations that I hope to lay well in the early years of our church plant.  These will define our success, our faithfulness, as a church.   They also will define our priorities.  The overarching value statement is:

Under the Authority of God’s Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be a gospel-centered church that worships God, loves one another, and proclaims the gospel to the world.

 Let me expand on that second phrase now.

 By the Power of the Spirit (Ex. 33:16, Psalm 51:11, Zech. 4:6, Mark 1:8, Acts 1:8, Rom. 8:15, 1 Cor. 2:12, 1 Cor. 12:1-11, Galatians 5:22-23, Eph. 5:18) 

We want to be a church that is desperately and confidently dependant on the power of the Holy Spirit for all that we do.  Christians, and churches, are not intended by the Lord to be self-sufficient. We will delight in his promises of Spiritual strength to carry us onward in the calling he has given us.  Practically, this means that our Sunday gatherings will delight in and respond to the reality of God’s promised presence in our midst.  We do not worship a distant God or merely recite truths to one another out of God’s earshot.  We encounter a God who is living and active and among his people, enlivening their praises and empowering them to serve Him and one another.  We believe in the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in spiritual gifts, to be used under the authority of God’s Word, for the edification of his church.  This conviction about God’s Spirit also means that we will be a church of prayer—dedicating ourselves in private and in public to ongoing prayer as a declaration of our need for God’s presence within us and among us.

Amen!  May the Spirit work powerfully in us and through us for the glory of Jesus Christ. 

 

The Mission: God's Word

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In casting a vision for our new church, launching north of Austin next year, I have been considering the following definition:

Under the Authority of God’s Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit,  we will be a gospel-centered church that worships God, loves one another, and proclaims the gospel to the world. 

 

This may or may not be the final wording of our mission statement, (I'm hoping we'll have a more succinct way of summarizing our vision), but the principles here will remain unchanged.  The reason The principles will stay the same is due to the first principle.  Our church will be under the authority of God's Word and therefore our vision will be grounded in the Scriptures.  We are delighted and sobered by the responsibility to build a church that matches the church blueprints that God has established in his Word.  Sadly, in our culture, and even in the world of modern Christian churches, the ultimate authority of God's Word is increasingly questioned.  I desire our church to be unashamed and explicit in grounding our purposes in the Scriptures.  The following paragraph expands on this crucial opening value:

 Under the Authority of God’s Word.  (Genesis 1:3-30, Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm 19, Psalm 119, John 1:1, John 6:68, 2 Tim. 3:16, 2 Pet. 1:21, Heb. 4:12)

We want to be a church that actively and intentionally emphasizes the life-giving authority of God’ Word.  Our beliefs and practices will be grounded in Scripture and our heartbeat will be to read, hear, and proclaim Biblical truth.  Practically, this means that our Sunday meetings, small group meetings, pastoral care, and private devotions should be grounded in the Bible. We will not avoid proclaiming the whole counsel of God, centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ. The highlight of our Sunday meeting will be the preaching of God’s Word and our normal Sunday diet will be to preach straight through books of the Bible, taking one section of Scripture at a time and explaining and applying its meaning to our lives.  Our small group discussions and interpersonal care and counseling will be about sharing the truths of Scripture with one another and allowing its life giving nourishment to refresh our souls and direct us toward righteousness.  We want our church to be passionate about God’s Word!

The Mission

In just a few short months my family and I, along with dear friends from around the country, will be moving to the north side of Austin, Texas to start a church. It's an exciting, daunting, humbling, motivating, captivating task---I can't wait to get started.

So, what kind of a church do we want this to be? To cast a vision for the church is an exhilarating and dangerous task.  It’s exhilarating because the calling to plant a church is a calling to lay solid foundations, to serve future generations of a church by building well from the start.  The calling to plant a church is like coming to an empty field and imagining a future glorious structure through the eyes of faith—except this structure is not made of brick or stone.  It’s a temple of human beings, captivated by God’s glory, converted by God’s gospel, filled by God’s Spirit, passionate for God’s mission—a temple that will be a platform for God’s Word to reach the city of Greater Austin and beyond.  Even to play a small part in such a calling is exhilarating.

But casting a vision is also sobering—since the blueprints for our church have already been written and we are called to follow their designs exactly.  A vision for a new church is not an invention or primarily about human creativity.  We are not free to create a church in any way we choose. Our task is much more glorious than that. Our church has been in the mind of the Lord since before we were born.  Its purpose has been declared in his Word and we are called—exhilarated and sobered—to work under His direction and for His glory.

So, what mission have we received from the Lord. What are His blueprints for our church? 

  

Under the Authority of God’s Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be a gospel-centered church that worships God, loves one another, and proclaims the gospel to the world.

Over the next few blog posts, I'll consider that calling one phrase at a time. 

Sending My Very Heart

This morning I was reading in Philemon about Paul sending away his new friend Onesimus.  The letter makes Paul's motive very clear--he is doing this to be above board, to insure that all of Onesimus' obligations have been met, but NOT because he wants to part ways with Onesimus.  On the contrary, his new friend has become, "his very heart."  In other words, he is sacrificing for the sake of serving.  His service to the Lord of holiness and his service to Onesimus' reputation and to his friend Philemon dictates that Onesimus must go--but his heart, his affections, his desires, his personal needs, all shout for Onesimus to remain.  Considering Paul's choice, I find myself asking the question: What is my "heart" and would I give it up to serve? What is closest to my interests,  dearest in my affections, deepest in my emotions? What good gift has the Lord given to me that I would be deeply pained to give up for the sake of service?  To say with Paul, "to live is Christ" is not difficult--at least saying the words causes little pain.  But if Christ is my life I must also be able to say "I am sending my very heart" when a greater service for Christ is in view. So, grimmacing at how I'm still so earth-bound and jealous for my precious treasures, I pray,

Be thou my Vision o Lord of my heart 
Not be all else to me save that thou art
Thou and thou only first in my heart
Waking and sleeping my treasure thou art

Take my life and let it be 
Consecrated Lord to thee
Take my moments and my days
Let them flow in ceasless praise

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Being a Branch

There are few things in life more designed to created a feeling of weakness and vulnerability than planting a church.  Moving to a new city with few relationships on the ground, no church building, new homes, new jobs, and no earthly guarantee that people will want to join the church--all of these factors incline the church planter to see his need.  However, the reality is that all of my life is dependent on the strength of the Lord.  I am at my strongest when I am weak--depending on his strength and not my own.  I might prefer to feel like a trunk, or a vine, but in reality I am a branch.  I can't create inspiration or vision in the souls of people in a new city, to want to participate in a church plant.  I can't guarantee them that this will be the church they've always wanted to be a part of.  I certainly can't promise that I will be a perfect pastor--quite the contrary!  I will certainly be weak and ineffective in many ways, not impressive in others, and always in need of the forbearance of the congregation that does choose to hear my preaching week after week!  But this is how God has made me to be--a branch that must abide in the vine. Apart from Him I can do nothing.  He is the source of my life in Christ Jesus--sending spiritual strength flowing through the means of His Holy Spirit.

Forgive me Lord, for how frequently I seek to be a branch on my own. Teach me to abide in you, breathing in your Spirit, and living on your Word.  Show yourself strong in my weakness.  Bring many to this church plant in your sovereign wisdom and may all encounter the message of the gospel every week, not in lofty words of wisdom but in the preaching of Christ and him crucified.  Glorify yourself through the planting of this church and may the city of Greater Austin be spiritually awakened through your salvation.

Jon Payne: Union with Christ and everyday pastoring (Audio)

RE-POST: Jon Payne: Union with Christ and everyday pastoring (Audio)

“Union with Christ is that driving principle that transforms our gospel ministry."  - Sinclair Ferguson

The treasure of our union with Christ glitters throughout the pages of the New Testament. The massive New Testament emphasis on this golden doctrine should be reflected in our own study and, for pastors, in our ministry. It is because Christians are united to Christ that all of God's promises are "yes" and through this union that we have received every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Jon Payne encourages pastors to dig deeply into this doctrine for the benefit of their own souls and to infuse its driving principle into their pastoral ministry. He taught this breakout at the Pastors Conference: Union with Christ and Everyday Pastoring.

The Schoolmaster

"Teachers would shout to no effect if Christ himself, inner Schoolmaster, did not by his Spirit draw to himself those given to him by the Father."  --John Calvin, Institutes

The Call

Below is the link to a message I spoke Sunday to my home church, Sovereign Grace Church of Gilbert.  The message was about the call of Jesus Christ to every Christian to spend our lives for his glory. I specifically referenced the opportunity that church planting is to be entrusted with the mission of Jesus Christ to proclaim his gospel to the world.

http://www.sovgracechurch.com/2012/09/church-planting-2-thessalonians/

One year from now, Lord willing, our church on the north side of Austin, Texas will be starting our public meetings.  I pray that Lord give us faith, desperate prayer, and faithful preparation over the next year. 

May the Lord establish the work of our hands. 

Does Your Church Pray Together?

Does Your Church Pray Together? (From Justin Taylor...)

Sinclair Ferguson on some of the things that concern him about churches today:

There is the lack of prayer and of the Church praying. This is to me the most alarming, for this reason: we have built apparently strong, large, successful, active churches. But many of our churches never meet as a congregation for prayer. I mean never! What does that indicate we are saying about the life of the Church as a fellowship?
By contrast, the mark of a truly apostolic spirit in the church is that that we give ourselves to prayer and the Word together (Acts 6:4). No wonder “the Word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied” (Acts 6:7). If this is so, it should not surprise us that while many churches see growth, it is often simply reconfiguration of numbers, not of conversion. I greatly wish that our churches would learn to keep the main things central, that we would learn to be true Churches, vibrant fellowships of prayer, Gospel ministry and teaching, genuine mutual love. At the end of the day, such a Church simply needs to “be” for visitors who come to sense that this is a new order of reality altogether and are drawn to Christ.

Foundations

Next year my family and I are anticipating the exciting adventure of planting a new church in a northern suburb of Austin, Texas.  Over the summer we have been meeting with dear members of our church who are earnestly praying about joining us.  This last Friday we enjoyed our third church plant interest meeting together and I spoke about the primary foundations of our new church.  I laid before the team the reality that a call to plant a church is like coming upon a field and catching a vision for a future glorious structure, one that isn't there right now.  This structure is not a physical one--its the spiritual temple of a local church which we pray will exist for many future generations until the Lord returns.  For the sake of those future generations,  we want to ensure that we lay the foundations rightly, so that those who come after us can continue to go forward in the work with confidence. 

The following are the six foundations that I outlined.  In future posts, I'll explain further what I mean by each one.  By God's grace we will build a church that is:

1. Gospel-Centered
2. Word-Saturated 
3. Spirit-Empowered
And a church that is devoted to:
4. Passionate Worship
4. Deep Relationships
6. Personal Evangelism

In the future I will post thoughts on each of these foundations and draw out what they will look like for our church plant.

 May God establish the work of our hands.

The Grace of God

Does the grace of God wake you up in the morning?  Does it give you the gift of sleep at night?  Does it sustain you during the long hours of the day? Without the grace of God, God's favor toward those who deserve only punishment,  we find other things waking us up in the morning and keeping us up at night, and burdening us during the day.  We wake to the reminder of our failures of the day before and the load of uncertainty about our upcoming responsibilities.  We face the day with increasing restlessness knowing that we have more to accomplish than our strength can handle.  Then we face the night certain that we have fallen short during the day and lacking hope that tomorrow will bring any improvement of our situation.  Without God's grace we would only anticipate greater fruitlessness and pain, with occasional temporary joys and pleasures followed by the deep ache of eternal uncertainty.   With God's grace we wake up every morning with every sin forgiven and assured of God's sustaining love available to us throughout the day.  With God's grace our burdens during the day are invitations to draw near to the God whose burden is easy and whose yoke is light.  With God's grace we conclude the day resting all in the hands of our Father and trusting that he has separated our failures from us as far as the east is from the west. 

Lord God, turn me away from self-reliance, self-effort, and self-affirmation and toward the humbling, sustaining, and exalting truth of your grace.  May your grace be my refuge in the morning, during the day, and every night. 

Planting In Weakness

Planting a church is about being willing to feel weak.

For over 20 years I’ve heard stories of church planters starting brand new churches, launching themselves and their families into an adventure for God’s glory. These men, their families, and the teams that follow them have been my heroes.  They sacrificed the comfortable surroundings of outstanding local churches for the certain sacrifice of establishing a new church from the ground up.  For years there was a certain assumption of inevitability in this process.  Surely this level of faith and joy and partnership and support could only conclude in another outstanding church in the future.  But then I heard, for the first time, about a church plant that had to close its doors. Now I know that church plants close their doors all the time. The attempt is not inevitable after all.   Perhaps planting a church is not about feeling strong.

Now I am preparing to lead a church plant.  The adventure, the vision of serving and sacrificing for the glory of God has lost none of its attraction. To my maturing eyes, God has only become more glorious, the gospel more worthy, the need more desperate, the adventure more honorable. But now nothing seems inevitable at all.  I am peering into the future and realizing what all of those teams faced.  Planting a church is about being willing to feel weak. 

Weakness in the Bible is not cultivated immaturity, nor celebrated laziness, nor whining self-pity.  It is the reality of life as a creature and as a sinner.  We are not self-existent.  We do not create ex-nihilo.  We cannot save.  Being weak is not an occasional experience but the condition given to us by the Lord.  A church plant magnifies the normal weaknesses of everyone involved and invites us to see close up just how vulnerable we are.  A church planting pastor can’t save the unbelievers who listen to his messages. He can’t ultimately preserve his dear friends from wandering into unbelief and sin. He can’t bring spiritual revival to his new city home.  But these are the reasons he is planting a church.  A church planter is called to do, desires to do, what he cannot do.  The mountain is too high but we are called to climb, the stream too wide but we are called to swim. 

Of course we could give up, turn away, and applaud others from a distance.  Or we can be willing to be weak, so that the power of Christ may rest up us.  The more we desire to see of his power, the more weak we must be willing to feel. The more impossible the task we accept, the more weak we will feel, and the more we will see the glory of God’s power and the inevitability of his promise. 

God is not weak. God’s gospel is inevitable—it will reach the nations. Church planting means be willing to feel weak in myself.  Church planting is believing that God desires to reveal the glory of his power, the strength of his gospel. To see that sight, I am willing to feel weak. I am willing to plant a church.

Planting Lampstands

I love the "church as lampstand" image from the book of Revelation. 

"Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man ....the seven lampstands are the seven churches." Revelation 1:12, 20

The apostle John describes Jesus as the one who walks among the lampstands--who is personally present with the churches that are faithful to him. The greatest warning offered to any of the churches is that their lampstand would be removed from its place before the Lord because of turning away from Him. As a church planting ministry, and as a future church planter myself, this image is full of faith-building insights as we plant new churches.

We are reminded that our church plants exist before the presence of the Lord. This reality is both comforting and sobering. Our light of gospel witness and faithfulness is not unnoticed by the Lord. The same God who calls physical light into being, who has shone into our hearts the spiritual light of the gospel, has given us the ability to shine into the surrounding darkness of our world with His Word. This is true despite our perspective that a church plant's witness often seems to flicker. At times the newness and inexperience and weakness and vulnerability of a church plant doesn't seem like a strong, brilliant light. At times on a church plant, it seems that the slightest gust of trial or conflict could make our light go out. But since our Lord is among us, we have confidence that he is tending to our flame. He is ensuring that our witness will be faithful, will be preserved. He has committed himself to the faithfulness of His church, and church plants stand under His watchful, loving, protective gaze. Remembering His nearness helps me as I contemplate the weaknesses and vulnerability of my ministry and of a new church plant. 

Yet the image is also sobering--because the same Lord who called our church plant into being is observing our faithful witness to His gospel, His truth. Our Lord is not willing that any of his lampstands, however new, however inexperienced, should succumb to the darkness of compromise. Neither our message nor our example should blend into the darkness of a world seeking to hide themselves from the gaze of the Lamb. We should be warned that his gaze is what we are living for--not the appearance of social prominence in our community, nor the popularity of large numbers, nor compatability with the pluralistic message of our culture. We live for the gaze of the Lamb, it is His approval of our lampstand that defines our success as a church plant.

And we look forward to gospel success with great confidence since, “what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:5-6

The same Lord who has shone in our hearts and created our lampstand, the lampstand of each church plant, will shine his light through our witness into the darkened hearts of unbelievers. His gospel will be successful even as it sounds forth from our stammering lips. His light will shine brightly even from our trembling hearts.  

May the Lord give us faith to keep planting new lampstands—comforted, sobered, and emboldened by His presence among us. And may His gospel light shine more brightly into the world with the message of grace.

Church Planting Interest Meeting #2

Tomorrow night we are having our second church plant interest meeting for our church.  I am looking forward to enjoying a meal together and talking about some of the factors that go into the decision to join a church plant team.  The people in our church who are praying about joining this plant are such examples of faith and godly sacrifice--their willingness to even pray about giving up their jobs, their homes, and their local relationships is an amazing statement of their desire to live for God's glory.  Certainly some who desire to go will not be able to. Others who never thought they would move will feel that God is calling them to go.  In the end, God knows exactly who should be a part of the team that becomes the core of the new church.  The journey to that moment will be one of many tears, prayer, hopes, fears, surprises and faith. Thank the Lord for the unstoppable gospel in its onward march in this world and in each of our lives.

"The peace of Christ"--From Ray Ortlund

The peace of Christ

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.”  Colossians 3:15
The tsunami of sin flooding the world today touches us all.  We add to it.  We suffer from it.  It is flooding our churches.  And many people are suffering for it.
If somehow we could all get together and gently swap stories, my hunch is we would be shocked at the mistreatment that has been dished out to many of us by churches – both by abusive leaders and by abusive members.  There is, of course, a difference between being hurt and being harmed.  I am not thinking of people who get their feathers ruffled and then howl their complaints.  I am thinking of people who have been harmed and wronged, people who have suffered slander, lies, loss of position, loss of reputation, loss of friends, and more.  Many reading this post have suffered in these and other ways.  It is shocking what churches can do – both leaders and members.
Wouldn’t life be easier if we fought our battles on only one front at a time?  But we usually fight on two fronts at once – not just conflict with others but also conflict with ourselves.  We need God’s help to be especially aware of all that endangers us within.
What can a sufferer easily lose sight of?  Keeping himself, too, under the judgment of the Word of God.  A sufferer looks at the wrongs done to him, and he brings them under the judgment of God’s Word.  Good.  But it is easy to be so focused there that the sufferer doesn’t notice how, in his appropriate indignation, he might mistreat those who mistreated him.
Never mount a campaign to correct those who wronged you.  The Bible says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God” (Romans 12:19).  The wrath of God is all the wrath this world needs.  It would be nice if unjust people finally owned up.  But they don’t have the self-awareness to do that, which is what makes them unjust in the first place.  They will never see it, until God opens their blind eyes.  But he will.  And only he can.  If you appoint yourself the one to open their eyes, you are putting yourself in the place of God – which is what your abuser did to you.  Don’t let your abuser make you an abuser.  Sit tight, and trust in the Lord.  This is extremely difficult.  But your own moral fervor will inevitably make things worse.  So, the extremely difficult choice you are left with is this: a bad situation (of their making) versus a worse situation (of their and your making).  That really stinks, doesn’t it?
Heaven will be a relief.  But for now, while we’re still in this mess, our primary business is with God.  In fact, our primary battle might even be with God.  My recommendation, as a pastor, is that you wave the white flag of surrender to him.  Not to them, but to him.  Rather than be frustrated that he isn’t fighting for you the way you’d like, why not do what the Bible says and trust him to deliver you in his own time and way, and maybe not until we are all standing before him above?  There is no danger in trusting the Lord.  If you’re going to err, err toward waiting on him to vindicate you.  When he does – not if he does, but when he does – it will be much more satisfying.  What could be greater than for Almighty God to rise up and say about you, “This one you mistreated is my beloved, my friend, my servant.  Back off“?  That moment is coming.  “He will deliver you” (Proverbs 20:22).  He really will.
Trust him.  Trust him.  Trust him.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your heart.

Inevitability in the life of a church

Inevitability in the life of a church... from Ray Ortlund

“Whenever a change occurs in the religious opinions of a community, it is always preceded by a change in their religious feelings.  The natural expression of the feelings of true piety is the doctrines of the Bible.  As long as these feelings are retained, these doctrines will be retained; but should they be lost, the doctrines are either held for form sake or rejected, according to circumstance; and if the feelings again be called into life, the doctrines return as a matter of course.”
Charles Hodge,  “Address to the Students of the Theological Seminary,” Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review 5 (1829): 92.
Hodge is not asserting that feelings are more important than doctrine.  He is observing that feelings precede doctrine by creating a bias toward certain doctrines.  If a church’s heart is tender and warm toward the Lord, that church will love the Bible as his Word.  If a church’s heart cools off toward the Lord or becomes simply distracted, that church will be doctrinally unstable.  The heart works with such power that it creates inevitability in a church’s theological future, for good or ill.
It’s why we pastors work so hard to help our churches love the Lord, above all else.

Celebrating Salvation

I have learned from Jerry Bridges, C.J. Mahaney, and many others to "preach the gospel to myself every day."  The lesson has now extended many, many years.  But still my heart wanders away from gratefulness and confidence in my salvation.  Sometimes my sin seem greater than my Savior. Sometimes my idols seem more pleasing than meditating on mercy.  Most of the time my affections are sluggish and cold in comparison to the blazing glory of the cross.  But He gives more grace. Grace to approach his throne of mercy again, asking again for a new sight of Calvary.  He calls cold hearts to be warmed at this fire,  wandering minds to be fixed on this wisdom.  He invites weary souls to come here and find their rest.  The gospel is God's invitation to those who need to be invited every day. And the more I come, the more I want t come, considering again the majestic agony and piercing beauty of the Lamb of God, slain for my sins. 

Boasting in Weakness

This was an earlier post, but I find it an ongoing lesson I perpetually need. 

 

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

To boast in weakness is an elusive honor reserved for broken men and women who have been rebuilt by grace. I find that I'm always searching around for some fragment of strength to boast in, always hoping for God to change his mind about showing his power in my weakness. I don't mind weaknesses as an addendum to a history of strength. As in, "And he did all of these in spite of his inability!...." But no, God isn't looking for a way around my weaknesses, but rather to magnify himself in them. The Bible is one long narrative of God's intention to bless the poor in spirit, to comfort those who mourn, to be with the contrite, to remember those who cry out for help, to deliver the prisoners, to heal the sick, to ransom the captives, to atone for the guilty, to resurrect the dead.

Help me, Lord Jesus to boast in my weaknesses. Help me to love your glory more than my own--to run forward risking all and giving all for you, all the while admitting that I have nothing to offer that you don't first give, then empower, then sustain, then preserve, then render eternally useful. Jesus, keep me near your cross of power in weakness, glory in shame, hope in death. And make my boast only in you.

Pastors: Fight for the Time to Read! From J. Taylor's Blog

Pastors: Fight for the Time to Read!

Charles Spurgeon, reflecting on 2 Timothy 4:13 (where Paul said to Timothy: “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments”):

We do not know what the books were about, and we can only form some guess as to what the parchments were. Paul had a few books which were left, perhaps wrapped up in the cloak, and Timothy was to be careful to bring them.
Even an apostle must read.
Some of our very ultra-Calvinistic brethren think that a minister who reads books and studies his sermon must be a very deplorable specimen of a preacher. A man who comes up into the pulpit, professes to take his text on the spot and talks any quantity of nonsense is the idol of many. If he will speak without premeditation, or pretend to do so, and never produce what they call a dish of dead men’s brains—oh, that is the preacher!
How rebuked they are by the apostle!

He is inspired, and yet he wants books!
He has been preaching for at least thirty years, and yet he wants books!
He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books!
He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet wants books!
He had been caught up into the Third Heaven and had heard things which it was unlawful for a man to utter, yet he wants books!
He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books!

The apostle says to Timothy, and so he says to every preacher, “Give attendance to reading” (1 Tim. 4:13).

The man who never reads will never be read.
He who never quotes will never be quoted.
He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains proves that he has no brains of his own.

Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers and expositions of the Bible.

Here’s how John Piper put it in his chapter “Fight for Your Life” in Brothers, We Are Not Professionals (new edition coming from B&H in February 2013):

I agree with Martyn Lloyd-Jones that the fight to find time to read is a fight for one’s life. “Let your wife or anyone else take messages for you, and inform the people telephoning that you are not available. One literally has to fight for one’s life in this sense!”
Most of our people have no idea what two or three new messages a week cost us in terms of intellectual and spiritual drain. Not to mention the depletions of family pain, church decisions, and imponderable theological and moral dilemmas. I, for one, am not a self-replenishing spring. My bucket leaks, even when it is not pouring. My spirit does not revive on the run. Without time of unhurried reading and reflection, beyond the press of sermon preparation, my soul shrinks, and the specter of ministerial death rises. Few things frighten me more than the beginnings of barrenness that come from frenzied activity with little spiritual food and meditation.
The great pressure on us today is to be productive managers. But the need of the church is for prayerful, spiritual poets. I don’t mean (necessarily) pastors who write poems. I mean pastors who feel the weight and glory of eternal reality even in the midst of a business meeting; who carry in their soul such a sense of God that they provide, by their very presence, a constant life-giving reorientation on the infinite God. For your own soul and for the life of your church, fight for time to feed your soul with rich reading.

Roosevelt and the Talents

I love the following quote by Theodore Roosevelt.  Unfortunately, he did not know to apply this passion to the gospel and the glory of God.  However,  reading this quote from a Biblical perspective makes it all the more valuable, since we are involved in the most worthy cause of all. 

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." --Theodore Roosevelt

It reminds me of the following parable. 

The Parable of the Talents

Matthew 25:14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, tto each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’