Sep
29
Resources: 9marks.org
Filed Under Resources | Leave a Comment
I’m taking another Friday post to highlight a web resource we have listed in the links section of our website. Today I wanted to bring your attention to 9 Marks ministries. It is a ministry headed up by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church. The site idea grew out of the book that Mark Dever wrote, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. These nine marks are principles that define what a healthy church looks like. They are
- Expositional Preaching (preaching through the Bible)
- Biblical Theology
- Biblical Understanding of the Gospel
- Biblical Undrestanding of Conversion
- Biblical Understanding of Evangelism
- Biblical Understanding of Church Membership
- Biblical Understanding of Church Discipline
- A Concern for Promoting Church Growth and Discipleship
- Biblical Church Leadership
While a Presbyterian is going to disagree with a Baptist on certain points of church government and worship, there is an overwhelming amount of commonality we share in the Biblical need, design, and function of the church. So stop by 9marks.org and take a look around, you won’t regret it. I leave you with 9marks.org’s own justification for why they exist and what they are after:
The mind-boggling flood of recent literature and conferences acclaiming innovative ministry methods has sent many churches reeling with methodological vertigo. Pastors get spun from one model to another in search of a meta-method that ties it all together and enables them to see “success” in doing God’s work. The Aqua-Church, The Alpha Course, Mosaic, FAITH, The Emerging Church – how do you sort through all the alternatives without becoming hopelessly disoriented? How do you evaluate them? How do you know which one is right for the local church in which you serve? And once you settle on implementing one, what are the criteria for “success”? Increased numbers? Indicated decisions? Emotional intensity? A well-funded diversity of programs? How can we navigate the method maze?9Marks wants to help local churches re-establish their biblical bearings and re-think their ministry methods. We exist to help local church pastors and leaders in the discovery and application of the biblical priorities that cultivate health and holiness in the local church. Kick around below and to the right to learn more about the people of 9Marks, how they understand the problems confronting the church today, and the solutions they propose.
Sep
28
Do you want God to be rich?
Filed Under Christian Living | Leave a Comment
I don’t do a lot of re-thinking about sermons I have recently preached. The upcoming deadline for the next one tends to crowd out such thoughts. However, I have thought more about Theft at Its Worst, my second sermon on the 8th Commandment, You shall not steal [Listen or download here.] The question on my mind has been the same one raised on the cover of a recent issue of Time: “Does God want you to be rich?”
The Lord promises abundant blessing on those who ‘bring the whole tithe into the storehouse,’ according to the Malachi 3 passage. Certain teachers, such as Joel Osteen (whose views are the focus of the Time article), are claiming that being rich is a sign of God’s blessing and thus a worthy goal of a child of God. Click here for a review of Osteen’s book Your Best Life Now.
I’ll cut to the chase. We want to be rich, but I don’t think our Heavenly Father cares about our net worth any more than I care about whether my son wears a green shirt or a gray shirt to school tomorrow. What I care about is what my son does when he is at school. In other words, asking the question ‘Does God want me to be rich?’ says a lot more about you than it says about the ever-blessed God our Father. Here is a better path:
Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
-Proverbs 30:7-9
The question is not Does God want you to be rich? The real question is Do you want God to be rich? Is he your greatest treasure? Is he the strength of your life and your portion forever (Psalm 73:26)? You and the entire universe were made to show the riches of God. You were made to see and savor the glory of God. The world is so messed up because we have exchanged the glory of God for a thousand other things (Romans 1:23).
What does Jesus ask the Father to give us: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me” (John 17:24).
P.S. For my money (pun intended), I’ll take ‘Reverend Ike’ over Joel Osteen any day! (If you need me to tell you which one is which, well…never mind.)
P.P.S. A minister at FPC was recently praised by a visitor for his resemblance to Joel Osteen: a free peppermint for you if you can guess the identity of that minister…
Sep
27
Bringing up children and young folk in the faith
Filed Under Christian Living, Family, Prayer | 1 Comment
From The Rev. William Still, late pastor of Gilcomston South Church, Aberdeen, Scotland:
Every autumn I have a spate of letters from fond parents, teachers, guardians, and monitors, appealing to me to follow up on such and such a youngster who is away from home at college for the first time, and who has to be hunted, followed, shadowed, intercepted and driven to Christian meetings. I have scarcely ever know this desperate technique to work. I understand the panic of parents and guardians, but it is too late then to try high-pressure tactics. Prayer, example and precept, in that order, are the means of bringing up children and young folk in the faith. Nor will high pressure tactics and brainwashing techniques avail when young folk have gone off on their own. Some young folk, alas, will have their fling and sow their wild oats, and come at last to heel, sadly, like the prodigal son. It is where Christains pathetically put their trust in external techniques and artificial strategems that young folk go astray. Nothing takes the place of the realism of holy living and secret wrestling before God in prayer for our youngsters.“
Sep
26
Means of Grace: Church Discipline
Filed Under Christian Living | Leave a Comment
This will be the fourth and last installment of our tour through the means of grace. Church discipline is considered by many not to be included as a means of grace. This is probably due in part to the misunderstanding that grace and discipline are incompatible when in reality they are sisters. Consider briefly the difference between discipline and punishment. Punishment is the payment due for trespasses. In this sense there is no punishment due for the Christian. Christ has paid the punishment due for our trespasses. So what is disicpline? Discipline is correction for growth in grace. Godly discipline is training in holiness. By this definition, Christians desperately need discipline. Though Christians are redeemed they are not sinless (1 John 1:8). It is God’s grace in our life that he disciplines/corrects us so that we grow as Christians (Hebrews 12:3-17). The main avenue through which God disciplines us is through our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially elders (Matthew 18:15-20), holding us accountable to the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16).
Do you want to grow as a Christian? If so, you desperately need to be a member of a church where you invite, even encourage, your brothers and sisters in the Lord to hold you accountable to the faith you proclaim. Love is not the absence of correction but rather love is the boldness to speak hard things to people we love for their good and growth. Discipline within the church is a means of grace.
Sep
25
LarkNews.com
Filed Under Fun | Leave a Comment
At the risk of revealing too much about myself and what I think is funny, here is a link to LarkNews.com.
Sep
22
Good Music
Filed Under Music, Resources | Leave a Comment
Its been a while since I highlighted one of the many good links we have over at our website’s links section. Today I wanted to bring your attention to the RUF Online Hymnal. Reformed University Ministries has been instrumental (literally) in the revival of hymnody by setting old hymns to new music. Our own senior minister, Phillip, has himself written some new tunes to go with old hymns. The RUF Online Hymnal is a collection of these hymns with their lyrics, music (chords and sheet), hymn background story, and a sampling of how the hymn sounds played to the new tune. This is a tremendous resource to the musician as well as the musical novice. My suggestion is that you stop in some time on the RUF Online Hymnal and take a look around. You might find and old friend that has been spruced up with a new musical setting.