Jul
24
Shepherding and transformation
Filed Under Around the Church, Christian Living, The Church | Leave a Comment
1 Peter 5 says that elders are to shepherd the flock of God. Shepherding the flock involves defending and confirming the Gospel, pursuing lost and wandering sheep, restoring the repentant, equipping and building up the saints, and encouraging practical godliness. These are tasks your elders take seriously. It’s hard work. Our enemy is always on the prowl. Situations can be thorny. Needs are constant. People can be difficult (except for you and me, of course!).
Almost a year ago we began implementing a new shepherding system at FPC Kosciusko with the goal of helping the elders lead and care for the flock in a way that encourages mutual sharing of spiritual gifts and care for one another—in other words, developing a community of elder-led priests. The vision is for each adult Sunday School class to work together, under elder leadership, to identify and address needs. We must transform the “Why doesn’t somebody do something?” mentality into a “Why don’t we do something?” mentality, whether it involves outreach, enfolding prospects and new members, contact with members who are no longer attending and participating, or members with acute or chronic needs.
A year later I see that transformation taking place in some places, and I thank God. I also see areas where we still have our feet nailed to floor and are not moving toward each other and toward our community, and I ask the Lord to be merciful.
This transformation is ground war, not an air war. It involves ongoing effort and attentiveness. It involves elders and everyone else living sacrificially for our brothers and sisters, and not just out for ourselves (1 John 3:16). Take a moment to reflect on some of the people on your class roll: the elder-leader, a close friend, someone who hasn’t come to Sunday school or attended worship in a while, a difficult person you might usually try to avoid, or someone you just don’t know at all (and maybe don’t care to know!). With these people in mind, consider Christ’s grace and service to you. Consider the practical commands of Scripture. Think of ways you can serve these people in the coming weeks.
• Be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10). We are united spiritually to each other through God our Father and our elder brother Jesus. Whom do you need to rally around as if they were “kin”?
• Honor one another (Romans 12:10). Are you treating them as people of value and taking them seriously?
• Accept one another (Romans 15:7). Whom do you tend to exclude? What non-essential, secondary convictions do you allow to get between you and another Christian? Who needs your acceptance right now?
• Bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2). Where do you need to help shoulder someone else’s burden? How might that change the way you spend your time, talents and treasure?
• Bear with one another (Ephesians 4:2). With whom do you get easily irritated? If Jesus is being patient with you, can you be patient with others?
• Forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32). Forgiveness is costly, but not forgiving is more costly (Matthew 18:21-35). If you are a beneficiary of God’s costly grace in Christ, can you practice costly grace toward others?
Finally, regularly pray for and express your appreciation and support to the elder(s) who serves you. Slap him on the back or write him a note or ask how you can pray for him. Such humble service is a mark of the Spirit’s work in you. May it be increasingly evident in all of us as we grow in grace.
May
12
And are we yet alive?
Filed Under Around the Church, Bible, Music, Poetry, The Church | Leave a Comment
A couple of folks have asked for the text of the Charles Wesley hymn I quoted in yesterday’s sermon on Genesis 8. Here it is–a hymn that the eight who emerged from the ark into the world previously submerged beneath the flood would have heartily sung:
And are we yet alive,
And see each other?s face?
Glory and thanks to Jesus give
For His almighty grace!
Preserved by power divine
To full salvation here,
Again in Jesus’ praise we join
And in His sight appear.
What troubles have we seen,
What mighty conflicts past,
Fightings without, and fears within,
Since we assembled last!
Yet out of all the Lord
Hath brought us by His love;
And still He doth His help afford,
And hides our life above.
Then let us make our boast
Of His redeeming power,
Which saves us to the uttermost,
Till we can sin no more.
Let us take up the cross
Till we the crown obtain,
And gladly reckon all things loss
So we may Jesus gain.
Apr
10
I don’t see how…
Filed Under Bible, Christian Living, Culture, Family, The Church | Leave a Comment
“I don’t see how a Christian could…
• Vote for a Democrat
• Practice birth control
• Send his children to public school
• Drink beer
• Play along with the Santa Claus myth
• Allow his wife to work for pay outside the home
• Watch TV on Sunday
• Vacation at a Disney theme park
• Use an epidural during childbirth
• Let someone else care for his child more than ___ hours a week
• Listen to secular music
• Take an antidepressant
• Bottle-feed a baby.”
Over the last twenty years I’ve been around fellow Christians who have voiced those exact opinions, and each time a compelling, confident biblical justification followed. I must admit that in the past I have held some of the above opinions with great confidence. In fourteen years as a minister I’ve also had to let go of some of those things and clean up the mess behind those who won’t.
These are the kinds of things the Apostle Paul calls “disputable matters” in Romans 14:1ff. In that setting the issues were voiced as “I don’t see how a Christian can eat meat” or “I don’t see how a Christian can ignore the Jewish calendar.” To this Paul says, Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind…Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another…And in v.19 he says, So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Even if we have strong convictions about what we think is right, we are to respect the choices that other believers make in them, even if we are convinced on biblical grounds that they are wrong (Rom. 14:1-15:7). Further, we need to come to terms with the reality that we sometimes lack the “clear, biblical evidence” we like to claim. Each one should be convinced in his own mind, Paul teaches us; yet we also must accept one another in order to bring praise to God and not judge our brothers and sisters for whom Christ died.
Did you notice that about half of the items on the list above deal directly with issues regarding women and children? Sadly women are particularly (though not exclusively) prone to divide and despise and devour one another over disputable matters regarding childrearing, work, education and social involvement. My wise wife reminds me, “Women are sensitive creatures. Sensitivity is not a liability; rather, it is an asset for which we should be thankful. It makes us loving moms, daughters, sisters, and friends. Imagine the Church without the love and care of women. Then again, you probably wouldn’t want to do that. What would things be like in time of crisis and celebration if women were not around to carry the load?” The downside of this wonderful sensitivity is that women can live lives full of doubt and anxiety, victim to the opinions of others and threatened when other Christians disagree. Matters of childrearing, work, and social involvement particularly get under our skin.
It reminds me of an incident in Judges 12. In the midst of a civil war, the Gileadites hold the Jordan River, and whenever anyone comes to cross, they ask him to say the word “shibboleth”—a Hebrew word whose meaning is uncertain. The Ephraimites had a distinct dialect in which they can’t pronounce the “sh” in “shibboleth” and say “sibboleth” instead. “Thereupon [the Gileadites] would seize him and slay him.” More than 40,000 Ephraimites fall into this language trap and are killed. (Wouldn’t you think the Ephraimites would have figured this out at some point? They certainly weren’t the brightest of the tribes!)
At those times when modern-day Gileadites whip out their shibboleths, remember Paul’s questions in Romans 14:10: But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Should I judge the Disney vacationing, beer drinking, brother who wears an “Obama for President” t-shirt while listening to “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” on his iPod? Should I despise the brother or sister who has never stood beneath the shadow of Cinderella’s castle and who curses every yellow school bus? The answer to both questions is “no.”
Quarreling over opinions causes division within the church and ignores the immense sacrifice of Christ on the cross in favor of a self-made righteousness. Ladies and gentlemen, we must be very careful about such things, for none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s (Romans 14:5-8).
I don’t see how a Christian could disagree with that.
Mar
18
Resources for Electing Deacons
Filed Under The Church | Leave a Comment
We are currently receiving nominations for church officers. Nominating men for ordained ministry in the local church is one of the biggest responsibilities of a congregation. That is why I was especially thankful for two recent posts from Thabiti Anyabwile on what to look for in deacons.
Jan
23
Because Jesus prayed…
Filed Under Christian Living, Holy Spirit, Prayer, The Church | Leave a Comment
Jesus prayed: he prayed daily, he prayed in the synagogue, he prayed at some critical moments in his ministry. When I think of Jesus’ prayers, I recall a conversation with a Jehovah’s Witness nearly twenty years ago in which he tried to prove that Jesus was not fully God on the basis that God would not need to pray to God. I also think back to well-intentioned teachers who tried to motivate me to pray through the guilt of the ‘Jesus never missed a quiet time; what’s wrong with you?’ line of reasoning.
In spite of those memories, more and more I find that a satisfying and comforting answer to the question ‘Why pray?’ is the fact that Jesus prayed. The eternal Son of God, agent and sustainer of creation, felt a compelling need to pray!
When you piece together a picture of Jesus’ prayer life from the Gospels, you find just over a dozen specific prayers (mostly short utterances, John 17 being the exception), along with parables and teaching and comments about prayer. Five times the Gospels tell us that Jesus would go off by himself to pray.
Jesus’ prayer habits, and especially his turning to prayer in times of crisis and at key events (his Baptism, before choosing the Twelve, at the ‘Mount of Transfiguration’ incident, and in dark Gethsemane), suggest that he found rest, comfort, renewal, and strength from praying to his Father. After an exhausting day of preaching and dealing with people and their needs he would withdraw to an isolated place to pray. There he found something he needed when he was drained. I have food to eat that you know nothing about, he replied when his disciples expressed concern over his physical condition at such times.
Consider what we read about Jesus in Luke 6, when Jesus prayed all night before choosing twelve disciples in whom he would invest so much of his energies. “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles” (Luke 6:12). Actually, Luke’s account is the only example we have of Jesus praying all night. This apparently was not a habit. He slept as every other son of Adam sleeps, but here was a special occasion when he needed to go off alone to pray. He was the incarnation of the wisdom and power of God, but he needed to pray. He was about his Father’s business, but he needed to pray. He had no sin to confess, but he needed to pray. The Father delighted in him and the Spirit indwelt him, but he needed to pray. He had a lot to do, but he needed to pray. No matter how busy he was or how closely he walked with God there were times of prayer which he maintained.
This was a big moment; there were more than twelve from whom he could pick. The task called for power, illumination, guidance. Luke uses a simple phrase to describe Jesus’ intercession; ‘praying to God’, or literally ‘prayer of God’ (only Luke uses it and only on this occasion). Christ spent the night in the ‘prayer of God.’ In other words the emphasis was not on the night-long vigil so much as a praying of divine fellowship—an earnest concentration of heart and mind which was divinely sustained throughout the night. Twelve names were finally fastened on his heart and mind and he went forth that next morning and “called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve, designating them apostles” (v.13-14).
You would think he could say to God, “It’s OK; I can pick twelve–no problem.” Yet if even Jesus, before making such a great decision, needed to go aside and pray, then certainly we do. How can we with our uninformed insight, our own self-confidence, our own overrated abilities for handle life, come to any wise decision if we ignore prayer?
I want you to consider one more thing: how could this group of twelve constitute the answer to any prayer? We would expect the prayer and evaluation to result in an elite team of spiritual commandos fit for the mission. Instead we get a dirty dozen that includes the betrayer Judas, men on the opposite sides of the political spectrum (the Roman sympathizer Matthew and the ultra-right-wing conservative “Zealot” Simon), back-country fishermen (Peter, Andrew, James and John) and the others who do or say little that ever merits mention in the Gospels. More than that, these Twelve regularly disappoint their teacher and master with their cowardice, pettiness, feeble faith and outright stupidity.
This fact makes me hesitant to get so frustrated and put out with Jesus’ followers in my life. And, on the flip side, makes me aware that my wife prayed for a husband…and got me. My congregation prayed fervently over many months for a pastor…and got me. Jesus prayed…and got me. That’s gotta hurt!
Someone has said, ‘Prayer is not a means of removing the unknown and unpredictable elements in life, but rather a way of including the unknown and unpredictable in the outworking of the grace of God in our lives.’
As the Waterboys sing, “I’ve some to say, and I’ve more to tell” re: Jesus’ prayer life…
Jan
1
A prayer for year’s end and beginning
Filed Under Around the Church, Poetry, Prayer, Psalms, The Church, Worship | Leave a Comment
Psalm 107 says, ‘Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.’ This past Sunday evening a good number of the Lord’s redeemed testified as to how goodness and mercy followed them during 2007. Laughter was heard, tears were shed, and God was glorified and enjoyed.
Below is a prayer adapted from The Valley of Vision that we pray together at FPC Kosciusko as the calendar turns.
O God, your love is beyond compare. You are good when you give,
when you take away,
when the sun shines upon me,
when the night gathers over me.
You have loved me before the foundation of the world,
and in love you have redeemed my soul.
You love me still, in spite of my hard heart, ingratitude, distrust.
Your goodness has been with me during another year,
leading me through a twisting wilderness.
Your goodness will be with me in the year ahead;
I launch my boat on the unknown waters of this year,
with you, as the pilot of my future, as of my past.
If you appoint storms of tribulation, you will be with me in them.
If you ordain joy and success, you will receive thanks and honor.
If I die, I shall see your face the sooner;
If I live, I shall walk by faith and not by sight.
Only glorify yourself in me whether in comfort or in trial,
as a chosen vessel suitable always for your use.
Give me your grace to sanctify me,
your comforts to cheer,
your wisdom to teach,
your right hand to guide,
your joy to strengthen,
your law to convict,
your presence to stabilize.
May the fear of the Lord keep me in awe of you,
and may the triumphs of your kingdom be my joy. AMEN.
May 2008 find us all faithful in adversity and thankful in prosperity. Grace and peace to you in the new year.