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.’

Fellowship in the Church

"One of the most notable features in this eschatological people is that of fellowship (koinonia). Fellowship was one of the distinctive marks of the Jerusalem church (Acts 2:42). This is something more than human fellowship or the pleasure people of like mind find in each other’s presence. It is more than a fellowship in a common religion. It is an eschatological creation of the Holy Spirit. Probably II Corinthians 13:14 should be rendered “the fellowship created by the Holy Spirit”; and Philippians 2:1 may be rendered “if the Spirit has really created a fellowship/” This relationships exists between people because they share a common relationships to Christ (1 Cor. 1:9). A bond exists between all who are in Christ that is unique and transcends all other human relationships. From the divine side, those who have entered this fellowship do so because they have been called of God (1 Cor. 1:9). The church is a fellowship of the elect (Eph. 1:4; 1 Thess. 1:4), regardless of social status, education wealth or race (1 Cor. 1:27). The church can be designated simply as the elect of God (Rom. 8:33; Col. 3:12; II Tim. 2:10; Titus 1:1).  This emphasizes the fact that the church is not primarily a human institution nor a religious movement founded on good works or event allegiance to a great teacher or leader; it is a creation of God based on his gracious purpose (Rom. 9:11; 11:5-6)."   

                              --George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, page 543

Prelude to a Church Plant

When we announced our church plant plans to our church I provided a "Church Plant Info Packet" with information about church planting in general and Austin in particular.  This "prelude" was included in the packet.

I love this church. I love the familiarity and blessing of my friendships here. I love being on a pastoral team of humble, gifted men who love God’s Word, preach the gospel, care for God’s people, and give themselves away for the kingdom. I love singing together on Sunday morning, encouraging each other over lunches, gathering together for youth nights and family nights, small group nights and early morning coffee. I love this church. So, why in the world would I propose that we plant a church in Austin, Texas? The most important answer is that I want our church to fulfill our role in the great commission task of planting churches for God’s glory and the expansion of the gospel. But a little personal background might also be helpful…

I still remember it clearly. I was ten or eleven years old. I was playing basketball with new friends—friends I had made when my family was welcomed into a new church. The church was Southside church of Virginia Beach, a church that had been planted a few years before by Steve Shank and a team from Cleveland, Ohio. A number of families had left jobs, homes, and the church they loved—all to start a new church in a different state, with the hope of reaching people with the gospel and a culture of New Testament, Biblical community. During the basketball game some conflict occurred between two of my new young friends from the church. It was a normal kind of fight, started in a normal kind of way. But what happened next wasn’t normal at all, at least not to me. The boys were marched inside, and under the guidance of their mothers, reconciled with each other, complete with full repentance and tears. Before that moment, I thought I was a godly young man. After that moment, I realized I had a lot to learn. Over the next few years I began to experience the joys of living in a gospel-centered church—hearing teaching about the grace of God, engaging in passionate, theologically-rich worship, enjoying the welcome of servant-hearted friendships. Our family life changed, my knowledge of the gospel expanded, and my vision for the value of the local church exploded. All because a courageous church sent out a courageous group of people to plant a church to reach people—and God allowed them to reach me. I was feeling the benefit of church planting.

A few years later my dad had joined the staff of the church in Virginia Beach and, even as we grew more deeply entrenched in the life of the church, he and my mom came to our family with an announcement. We were going to participate in a church plant team heading to Denver, Colorado, with a vision for joining and supporting Sovereign Grace Ministry churches in the western states. The move meant that my dad would have to leave his staff role as a pastor for a season. It meant leaving close friends that I had known for years. But it also meant we would be participating in an adventure of traveling across the country to reach others with the gospel and a vision for a Biblical, New Testament community. A number of our close friends would be going with us. We couldn’t wait. When we arrived in Colorado I experienced the overwhelming spiritual adrenaline rush of participating on a church plant team. My teenage friends and I had real ministry responsibilities.  We were really meeting real needs in a real church plant advancing the real Kingdom of God—and we were loving it! This time I was the one welcoming new friends into our community. I was feeling the joy-filled, risky, breathless, exhilarating adventure of church planting.

Flash forward a few years later. The Lord had brought Lory and me together in marriage over a long distance relationship. When I was in Denver, Lory lived in Juarez, Mexico where her dad was a pastor at a Sovereign Grace Church. She had already experienced her own opportunity to sacrifice for God’s kingdom, following her Dad across the country to receive pastoral training and then literally across the international border to serve in a new language and culture.  We may have been separated by distance, but we shared a passion for the local church and for the gospel. That shared passion meant that Lory was willing to travel across the country with me to receive training for the purpose of future ministry.

After an internship and a year at the Pastor’s College, Lory and I moved to Phoenix to join you—then only distant partners sharing the same vision in a different state. Very quickly we felt that we were home. Now, you are our spiritual family, our brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles in the faith. You are our partners in gospel ministry in the East Valley together. I can’t believe how much God has done among us! Conversions witnessed and suffering endured and ministry expanded and memories made—all gifts from the Lord. He has been good to us. 

Certainly one of the highlights—in privilege and in sacrifice—was in sending out some of our dearest friends, Chris and Tara Daukas, to plant the church in Peoria and in releasing a spiritual pillar, Glynn McKenzie and his family, to serve our sister church in Denver. Grace Church of Peoria and Grace Community Church of Westminster are flourishing through the pain of our investment in church planting and kingdom priorities. We felt the pain and privilege of investing in the Kingdom through the planting and preservation of local churches. I love that we were given the honor of sowing sacrificially for the kingdom together.

Now, three years later, the next chapter is unfolding before us. It seems that God is calling me to plant a church in Austin, Texas. Lory and I are thrilled at the vision God has laid in front of us in Austin, but aware of the cost of that vision as well. The pain of the call is obvious—dear friends, dear mentors, dear partners in gospel ministry will be called to send, and not to go. But over the years the whisper of God’s call to me to lead a gospel-centered, New testament community, a local church, has grown louder and louder. Over the years Rich and I have discussed the potential of a future call on my life to lead a church. However, the timing never seemed right for our church to take up the task of sending me and a church plant team. Over the last two years the season of waiting seemed to be drawing to a close as God began to confirm to our pastoral team that the time had come. 

It seems that this next chapter for me involves a new role, but not a new theme. Lory and I desire to respond to the call and go, even though the familiar ache of kingdom sacrifice is there in our hearts again. But our church is called, too. Our church is called to invest, to send, and some of us, to go. Somewhere in Austin, Texas there are people who need to encounter a gospel-centered, New Testament church.  Their future encounter is our present call. I believed that we should answer. I don’t want to leave. But I can’t wait to go. Somewhere out there in the future there’s another young man and his family who need to encounter a gospel-centered Biblical community—a community like Sovereign Grace Church of Gilbert. And maybe he’ll be called to preach the gospel to yet another city far into the future. I can’t wait to meet him. 

            I love our church. I love it so much that I want to share all that we experience here with a new community of people. Lory and I want to give our lives away for God’s kingdom, despite the cost and risk and uncertainty involved in this adventure. God will be faithful. May the Church continue be built for God’s glory, through the sacrifice and joy of God’s people sending and God’s people going, for the sake of His name.

Interest in Church Planting

  Since making our announcement of planting a church in Austin, I have begun to hear from people in Austin and elsewhere who are excited about a church plant in this city.  These messages of encouragement and support build my faith for the future.  Part of my gratefulness is due to the hope that perhaps some of those interested may join the church plant team, throwing themselves into the labor of launching a new church.  But I'm also grateful because I believe this excitement will become prayers of support on our behalf. 

A church is only built by the strength of the Lord. As the psalmist wrote, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain."  All of our efforts in research, outreach, planning, administrating, and serving will ALL be in vain, unless the Lord makes them effective by the power of his Spirit.  My hope is that anyone who hears of this church plant, both those interested in going and those excited from a distance,  will begin to pray for us.  Without prayer messages will be prepared but will not be effective.  Without prayer neighbors will be greeted but will not be converted to faith. Without prayer jobs will not be found, houses will not be sold, team unity will not last, our church will not be built.  With prayer, our God, who works in us to will and to work for his good pleasure, will continue to build his church for his glory.