Has entertainment replaced Scripture as the center of our worship?
A Leadership Journal interview with Chuck Swindoll.
A survey in 2009 asked pastors to identify the most influential living preacher. Chuck Swindoll came in second only to Billy Graham. How does one use that kind of cachet? Apparently to call the church back from its captivity to entertainment. (Click here to finish reading)
“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV).
As we approach Good Friday and then Resurrection Sunday in a few days, I thought I would pass along to you some of the “best of the best” quotes that I have come across recently on the Cross of Christ.
As a believer in Christ, these words should fill your heart with joy, gratitude, love, hope and humility. Many of these quotes are theologically deep, not simply some light, pithy, inspirational sayings. We must have a deep theology if our faith is to remain strong during the storms, temptations and doubts that come our way.
Root your faith deep in the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement! Root your faith deep in the cross of Christ and what it means!
Pastors, I hope you can use some of these quotes in your sermons or other writings and teachings in the future.
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That Is How Jesus Died (warning: very graphic)…
“Shredded flesh against unforgiving wood, iron stakes pounded through bone and wracked nerves, joints wrenched out of socket by the sheer dead weight of the body, public humiliation before the eyes of family, friends, and the world — that was death on the cross, ‘the infamous stake’ as the Romans called it, ‘the barren wood, ‘ the maxima mala crux. Or as the Greeks spat it out, the stauros [Greek word for the cross]. No wonder no one talked about it. No wonder parents hid their children’s eyes from it. The stauros was a loathsome thing, and the one who dies on it was loathsome too, a vile criminal whose only use was to hang there as a putrid decaying warning to anyone else who might follow his example. That is how Jesus died.” (Greg Gilbert, as quoted in “The Gospel: God’s Self-Substitution for Sinners” in Don’t Call It a Comeback, by Kevin DeYoung – Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2011 – Page 72)
“At the cross, the love of God and the wrath of God shake hands; the mercy of God and the justice of God embrace; and the holiness of God and the sinfulness of humanity appear in stark contrast.” (William P. Farely, from his book – Outrageous Mercy)
“How dare you approach the mercy-seat of God on the basis of what kind of day you had, as if that were the basis for our entrance into the presence of the sovereign and holy God? No wonder we cannot beat the Devil. This is works theology. It has nothing to do with grace and the exclusive sufficiency of Christ. Nothing. Do you not understand that we overcome the accuser on the ground of the blood of Christ? Nothing more, nothing less. That is how we win. It is the only way we win. This is the only ground of our acceptance before God. If you drift far from the cross, you are done. You are defeated. We overcome the accuser of our brothers and sisters, we overcome our consciences, we overcome our bad tempers, we overcome our defeats, we overcome our lusts, we overcome our fears, we overcome our pettiness on the basis of the blood of the lamb.” D.A. Carson, from his book Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 103
Please, please – let the above paragraph by D.A. Carson sink in!
“My observation of Christians is that most of us base our relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace.” (Jerry Bridges)
“The law discovers the disease. The gospel (the cross and resurrection) gives the remedy.” (Martin Luther)
A Response to Ricky Gervais
Mike Cosper has a thoughtful response to “An (Atheist) Easter Message from Ricky Gervais.”
“Here’s the conclusion: In his abundant mercy, God looks upon the broken, the downtrodden, those crushed by the burdens of Satan, sin, and death, and provides scandalous mercy in Jesus Christ. That’s the starting place of the gospel, and the starting place of any conversation about what it means to be a Christian.
Ricky Gervais looks at the Scriptures and sees only law, not grace, and responds with appeals to legal obedience. There are millions like him, both inside and outside the church. They believe that the essential message of the Bible is, “If you behave, then you belong.” We have a better message and a much richer story, one drenched in grace and mercy. Remember, as many Christians before us have understood, the gospel tells us that we’re far worse off than we ever imagined . . . and far more loved than we ever dared to dream.”
Justin Taylor writes: I highly recommend Joe Thorn’s new book: Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself. It’s proving to be good medicine for my soul. Each “note to self” is short but full of gospel wisdom. In a recent interview he explains something that he also covers in the introduction: we must not only preach the gospel to ourselves, but we should also preach the law (rightly understood):
The law essentially does three things:
1. The law tells us what’s right. God has not left us in the dark about his will and ways. He has graciously revealed himself and his will to us that we might know what is right and good. This is actually grace.
2. The law tells us what’s wrong. Unfortunately, we do not keep God’s commands. The law is held up against our own lives, and what is reflected back is a life of law-breaking, rebellion, and selfishness. The law shows us what’s wrong—ourselves. Through the law we see our sin and guilt.
3. The law tells us what’s needed. The law then shows us that what we need before God is forgiveness, cleansing, and restoration. We need mercy if we are to find life. We need God to rescue us from our sin and his judgment. In this way the law prepares us for the gospel.
“Every time we look at the cross, Christ seems to say to us, ‘I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.’ Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size.” (John R. W. Stott, from his commentary, The Message of Galatians (London, 1968), page 179.
And because of the cross of Christ…
“Ransomed men need no longer pause in fear to enter the Holy of Holies. God wills that we should push on into His Presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to be held, it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day.” (A. W. Tozer)
“Either He bore all our sins, or none; and He either saves us once for all, or not at all.” (Charles Spurgeon)
“My whole theology of gospel preaching rests on the foundation of truth that the quote below illuminates. God’s grace is a beautiful, and scandalously freeing, thing! My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace. If we’ve performed well—whatever ‘well’ is in our opinion—then we expect God to bless us. If we haven’t done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly. In this sense, we live by works, rather than by grace. We are saved by grace, but we are living by the ‘sweat’ of our own performance. Moreover, we are always challenging ourselves and one another to ‘try harder’. We seem to believe success in the Christian life is basically up to us; our commitment, our discipline, and our zeal, with some help from God along the way. The realization that my daily relationship with God is based on the infinite merit of Christ instead of on my own performance is very freeing and joyous experience. But it is not meant to be a one-time experience; the truth needs to be reaffirmed daily.” (Jerry Bridges, from his book Transforming Grace)
One of My Favorite Descriptions of the Christian Life…
“I am not what I ought to be.
Ah! how imperfect and deficient.
Not what I might be,
considering my privileges and opportunities.
Not what I wish to be.
God, who knows my heart, knows I wish to be like him.
I am not what I hope to be;
ere long to drop this clay tabernacle, to be like him and see him as He is.
Not what I once was,
a child of sin, and slave of the devil.
Though not all these,
not what I ought to be,
not what I might be,
not what I wish or hope to be, and
not what once was,
I think I can truly say with the apostle Paul, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”
(Cited in Letters of John Newton, p. 400)
You will not understand, nor will you fully appreciate, the grace, mercy and love of God, until you first understand the holiness, justice and wrath of God! As a believer in Jesus Christ, don’t be afraid of learning and embracing the holiness, justice and wrath of God – let them push you deeper into a full appreciation and embrace of God’s love, grace, mercy and kindness! Listen to what D. A. Carson writes in The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism:
“The point that cannot be escaped is that God’s wrath is not some minor and easily dismissed peripheral element to the Bible’s plot-line. Theologically, God’s wrath is not inseparable from what it means to be God. Rather, his wrath is a function of his holiness as he confronts sin. But insofar as holiness is an attribute of God, and sin is the endemic condition of this world, this side of the Fall divine wrath cannot be ignored or evaded. It is not going too far to say that the Bible would not have a plot-line at all if there were no wrath.”
Knowing the truth of what Carson has just said, we must now remember that on the cross, Jesus took the full wrath of Almighty God, that was meant for you and me, so that we could be free forever from his wrath and condemnation! (Romans 5:1-11, 8:1)
“Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” (Romans 5:9 ESV)
J. I Packer says it this way: “There is unspeakable comfort, the sort of comfort that energizes, in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me. There is, certainly, great cause for humility in the thought that He sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow men do not see, and that He sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself. There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that for some unfathomable reason He wants me as His friend and desires to be my friend and has given His Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose.”
“I’m forgiven because You were forsaken,
I’m accepted, You were condemned.
I am alive and well, Your spirit is within me,
Because You died and rose again.
Amazing love, How can it be
That You, my King, should die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true.
It’s my joy to honor You,
In all I do, I honor You.”
(From Amazing Love – by Chris Tomlin)
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV)
So far in my series entitled “What I Wish (as a Pastor) that I had Known, Understood, Believed and Lived 30 Years Ago,” we have covered SIX of the TWELVE “lessons” in the series.
One of my long time pastor friends from North Carolina was kind enough to remind me that it has been a bit confusing “which lesson you are on” and “how many more there will be in the series.” I apologize for any confusion.
In order to clear up any potential confusion, I have gone back and titled each blog post in this series as “Lesson #1 (or #2, #3, etc.): “What I Wish (as a Pastor)…”
For some of the lessons where I spent more than one week on that particular point (for example “Lesson #3” on “your identity”), I labeled each one as “Lesson 3a”, “Lesson 3b” and “Lesson 3c.” This way you will know which “lesson” I’m writing about and how they all fit together.
Also, as you may have noticed, periodically (like this week) I have done a special blog post that was not part of this “What I Wish…” series. For those posts, I have gone back and labeled them as: “Stand Alone Post” before each title. This way you will know right away that this particular post is not connected to this (or any) series.
Because we are now half way through this series (i.e. “halftime”) on “What I Wish…” (we have finished lessons 1-6), I thought that it would be a good idea to recap where we have been so far in this series and where we are headed.
Also, let me mention a very important point here: These 12 lessons that I have and will be sharing, are not necessarily the 12 “most important” lessons that I think a pastor needs to know for godly, effective ministry (some are, some are not). Rather, these 12 lessons are truths and principles that are very personal to me. These are lessons that I wish I had either known, understood, believed and then ultimately lived out throughout my years in ministry.
Most of these truths I knew from my early 20’s. Someone taught me each of these truths (or lessons). But many of them I really didn’t believe or understand until later on in ministry. For example, Lesson #3 which says, “Your identity is defined by your relationship with Jesus…not your ministry,” I learned and knew very well early in my 20’s. I really thought “I have this one down pat” and therefore thought that I was living it out. But it wasn’t until my mid to late 30’s, after planting a church and being a Sr. Pastor for several years, that I realized that my identity was misplaced (it was through those “four lights on the dashboard,” that I wrote about a few weeks ago, that revealed this to me).
I was deriving my sense of significance from being a Sr. Pastor, not from my relationship with Christ. So even though I “knew” this lesson in my early 20’s, I really didn’t believe and/or understand it until almost 20 years later. And we will never be able to live out a particular truth if we don’t…
First, know it,
Second, understand it, and
Third, believe it.
Now, just to recap, here are the first SIX lessons that I have covered:
Lesson #1: Decide which hills are worth dying on, and which are not.
Lesson #2: Live to an audience of One.
Lesson #3: Your identity is defined by your relationship with Jesus…not your ministry!
Lesson #4: Ministry will always be challenging and (at times) very discouraging. You must fight the temptation to give in to your discouraging thoughts.
Lesson #5: You must remind yourself daily of this simple, but profound and incredibly comforting truth: God is sovereign and in full control of all the circumstances and details of your life and ministry (this lesson was subtitled: Bites from Sheep and the Sovereignty to God).
Lesson #6: The daily habits of your life will be one of the greatest single factors in your own personal spiritual growth, as well as your future ministry effectiveness. Develop good, healthy, God-honoring habits.
In the coming weeks, I will be covering the last six lessons in this series (lessons #7 thru #12).
Just so you are aware, I will still post “Stand Alone Post’s” periodically. I will mark them clearly so that you will know that they are not part of this series.
My writing of these blog posts is not one of the highest items on my priority list (at least at this point in time), that is why many weeks I don’t write anything substantial or simply pass on to you great articles, quotes, video’s etc. My life (as well as Lisa’s) is extremely full and extremely busy with leading Global Training Network. My weeks are typically jammed from end to end. Even though these blog posts typically only take 4-5 hours to write, many weeks I just don’t have the time. I typically write these in my “spare” time (when I have any).
Also, just for your information, in case you are fairly new to my blog posts, I have posted three other complete “series” throughout last year. Those series are:
“Heaven: Living ‘Here’ in Light of ‘There’” (Six parts)
“The Cross-Centered Life: Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing” (Four parts)
“Humility: That Elusive, All-Important, Hard-To-Define Character Trait” (Three parts)
You can click on any of the above titles and it will take you to “Part 1” of that particular series.
A few last thoughts…
Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to let me know (either in person or via email) of your benefit and blessing from these blog posts. I really appreciate it and am genuinely humbled that God has (and still does) use such an inadequate and imperfect “clay pot” (or “jar of clay”).
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”
(2 Corinthians 4:7)
As the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:16, referring to carrying out this great stewardship called ministry, “Who is adequate for these things?” The obvious answer to Paul’s question is “no one!”
The longer I walk with Jesus and serve Him, the more aware I become of my profound inadequacies and shortcomings. In my 20’s I remember thinking (though would never ever say it), “I think I have this thing (ministry) wired! It’s not that hard. I’m up to the task!” I was ready to “charge hell with a water pistol!”
Through the years God humbles us and breaks us – and that breaking is necessary for the “fragrance of Jesus” to be released through us. Every day I wake up with a profound sense of gratitude for God’s amazing grace and incredible kindness in choosing me to be part of his family and calling me to be his servant. Humbled, grateful and overwhelmed by His Grace! Soli Deo Gloria!
I leave you with this quote from Spurgeon…
“Meet me in heaven! Do not go down to hell. There is no coming back again from that abode of misery. Why do you wish to enter the way of death when heaven’s gate is open before you? Do not refuse the free pardon, the full salvation which Jesus grants to all who trust him. Do not hesitate and delay. You have had enough of resolving, come to action. Believe in Jesus now, with full and immediate decision. Take with you words and come unto your Lord this day, even this day. Remember, O soul, it may be now or never with you. Let it be now; it would be horrible that it should be never. Farewell. Again I charge you, meet me in heaven.”
C. H. Spurgeon, All of Grace (London, 1897), page 128.
Subtitle: “The importance of your daily habits.” This week, we continue with Lesson #6 in the series “What I Wish (as a Pastor) that I had Known, Understood, Believed and Lived 30 Years Ago.”
Here is Lesson Number 6:
The daily habits of your life will be one of the greatest single factors in your own personal spiritual growth, as well as your future ministry effectiveness. Develop good, healthy, God-honoring habits!
Develop, pursue and practice daily habits that build spiritual stability and vitality! Never stop growing! Self leadership is the most important leadership that you will give!
“You are responsible for the depth of your life; God is responsible for the breadth of your ministry!”
(Dawson Trotman)
“This much is certain: we will never preach more than we know and we will never preach above our reading.”
(R. Albert Mohler)
If you do not plan into your daily / weekly / monthly schedule time to…
1) be alone with God in prayer and in his Word,
2) to read good, spiritually stimulating books,
3) to rest and refresh yourself physically, mentally and emotionally,
…then your spiritual life and ministry leadership will suffer!
Listen to what John Piper says about the importance of planning time for prayer into your regular routine (this is powerful, rich stuff!)…
“I close this chapter (his chapter on Prayer) with an earnest exhortation. Unless I’m badly mistaken, one of the main reasons so many of God’s children don’t have a significant life of prayer is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to. If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer morning and say, ‘Hey, let’s go today!’ You won’t have anything ready. You won’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned.
But that is how many of us treat prayer. We get up day after day and realize that significant times of prayer should be a part of our life, but nothing’s ever ready. We don’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned. No time. No place. No procedure. And we all know that the opposite of planning is not a wonderful flow of deep, spontaneous experiences in prayer. The opposite of planning is the rut. If you don’t plan a vacation you will probably stay home and watch TV. The natural, unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the lowest ebb of vitality. There is a race to be run and a fight to be fought. If you want renewal in your life of prayer you must plan to see it.
Therefore, my simple exhortation is this: Let us take time this very day to rethink our priorities and how prayer fits in. Make some new resolve. Try some new venture with God. Set a time. Set a place. Choose a portion of Scripture to guide you. Don’t be tyrannized by the press of busy days. We all need mid-course corrections. Make this a day of turning to prayer – for the glory of God and for the fullness of your joy.”
(from Desiring God, pages 150-151)
I’m convince that things and people, when left to themselves, drift towards mediocrity and sloppiness. They become wandering generalities. God calls us to live life intentionally.
As Howard Hendricks used to say, “I have never met a Christian who sat down and planned to live a mediocre life.”
Mediocrity, both in our spiritual life and in our ministry leadership, come naturally. This is why we need to be intentional about growth in all areas of our life.
As Eugene Peterson said in his classic book, God calls all of us to “a long obedience in the same direction.”
“What have I learned in these last six years? That Spirit-motivated disciplines facilitate the Christian walk. Oh, I’m not discounting all the warm feelings along the route, when I’ve sung Jesus-songs and held hands and the rest. But our sensuous age forgets that feelings come and feelings leave you, but the disciplines of life are what get you to where you want to go.”
(Anne Ortlund)
The well known author Elisabeth Elliot wrote these classic words on the importance of planning and personal discipline when it comes to writing (these thoughts also apply well to the preparation of sermons – as a pastor, I’m sure you will be able to relate!)…
“We all have to do things by an act of the will that we don’t really feel like doing. I am often asked, ‘Do you write when you feel inspired?’ My answer is, “No, I write from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.’ I don’t usually feel inspired at any of those times. In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever been inspired for five minutes in my life. But I take myself by the scruff of the neck, march myself into the study, sit myself down in the chair, turn on the computer and write–or chew on a pencil and think about writing. I try, cogitate, meditate and think, and then sometimes something comes out that eventually turns out to be publishable. But it takes a lot of perspiration–not inspiration. If I wrote only when I felt inspired, I would never have written a book, let alone anything else.
So there is a sense in which each of us has to master ourselves…actually, that’s the way I do most of my praying – not because I’m in a spiritual mood or feel particularly pious or heavenly minded, but simply because I need to pray.
“Freedom and joy come on the far side of obedience.”
As George Müller wrote…
“It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were of no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer; whilst the truth is, in order to enjoy the Word, we ought to continue to read it, and the way to obtain a spirit of prayer is to continue praying; for the less we read the word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray.”
Make the reading of good books a high priority in your life! Read biography regularly! I have such a high respect for a “well finished (though far from perfect) life!”
John Wesley, in writing to a young minister, wrote the following about the importance of reading (this was quoted by D. A. Carson and John D. Woolbridge in Letters Along the Way, Wheaton, 1993, page 16)…
“What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear, to this day, is lack of reading. I scarce ever knew a preacher who read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety; there is no compass of thought.
Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian. Oh begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercise. You may acquire the taste which you have not; what is tedious at first will afterward be pleasant. Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a pretty, superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer. Take up your cross and be a Christian altogether. Then will all the children of God rejoice (not grieve) over you, and in particular yours.”
As someone once said,
“Show me a person’s daily habits and I will show you who they will become in the future!”
God uses our daily habits to build our character, develop our mind, strengthen our body and deepen our spiritual life.
The daily habits of your life will determine more about your personal growth and future ministry effectiveness than any other single factor! Develop good, healthy, god-honoring habits.
Rick Warren, at this past years Desiring God National Pastors Conference in Minneapolis, MN (which I was privileged to attend), talked to the thousands of pastors gathered about “The Battle for your Mind.”
One of his main points was “Never let up on learning!” He went on to talk about the importance of developing a good personal library (he has over 20,000 books in his library)! He just finished reading this past year the entire set of “The Works of Jonathan Edwards” (who is his hero in the faith). He recommended pastors read “25 percent of your books from the first 1500 years of church history, 25 percent from the last 500 years, 25 percent from the last 100 years, and 25 percent from recent years.”
We so often think that nothing of any value was written before 1900. The legacy of the great saints of the past can teach us a great deal. I personally love church history and biography. Whenever I read it, it reminds me over and over that there truly is “nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
Tim Challies recently wrote in his blog…
“A couple of years ago I read Warren Wiersbe’s book 50 People Every Christian Should Know and marked a couple of paragraphs that I thought would prove worth sharing. These words come from a chapter devoted to Alexander Whyte. Here they are:
The sales manager of a successful Christian publishing house tells me that pastors are not buying books. “Most of the books sold in Christian bookstores are sold to and read by women,” he said. If our pastors are not using their valuable time for study, what are they using it for? Perhaps Whyte had the answer: “We shroud our indolence under the pretext of a difficulty. The truth is, it is lack of real love for our work.”
Alexander Whyte loved books, and he read them to his dying day. The Puritans in general and Thomas Goodwin in particular were his main diet. But he also thrived on the mystics and the princes of the Scottish church, such as Samuel Rutherford. Whyte constantly ordered books for himself and his friends in the ministry.
Whyte often contrasted two kinds of reading—“reading on a sofa and reading with a pencil in hand.” He urged students to keep notebooks and to make entries in an interleaved Bible for future reference. “No day without its line” was his motto. He wrote to Hubert Simpson: “for more than forty years, I think I can say, never a week, scarcely a day, has passed, that I have not entered some note or notes into my Bible: and, then, I never read a book without taking notes for preservation one way or another.”
It’s important also to remember that a personal library isn’t just about the books that you have read, but also books that you will reference at some point in the future. Having good books to reference when the time comes is vitally important. You can’t always wait a few days for a book to arrive when you need it that “day” in your preparation of a sermon or other written material.
I leave you with these two passages of Scripture…
“My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
(Proverbs 2:1-6)
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
(1 Corinthians 9;24-27)
One of the young pastors that I enjoy reading on a regular basis is Kevin DeYoung. Kevin is an accomplished author and speaker (only in his late 30’s, maybe early 40’s at most). I find that he has a great deal of wisdom and insight on everything from theology to church ministry to Christian living in general. A few months back Kevin posted an article on his blog entitled “The Hole in our Holiness.” I found it to be truly one of the best, most concise treatments of the importance of holiness (or Christlikeness) in the believers life. The blog post is only a page and a half, but loaded with great wisdom and insight! I thought I would pass it along for your encouragement. Click here to read The Hole in our Holiness.
Next week I’ll continue in my series on “12 Things I Wish I Had Known, Understood, Believed and Lived 30 Years Ago.”
Also, in the coming weeks, I will be posting a critique of Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins. In case you are looking for a good, biblically sound review / critique of Bell’s book, take a look at the following articles:
God is still Holy and What You Learned in Sunday School is still True: A Review of Love Wins
Rob Bell’s Bridge Too Far by Mark Galli
David Platt: Do We Really Believe What We Are Saying?
Beginning Thursday, March 31, 2011 from 12:00-1:00 PM (EST) John Piper will be hosting a series of five interactive roundtable discussions with the guys at Bethlehem College and Seminary based on his book Desiring God. And they will be live-streaming it on the web.
This is a great opportunity to reacquaint yourself with Desiring God, or to read it for the very first time (and with John Piper leading the discussion!).
If you’re unable to join in on the live-stream at 12:00 PM (EST), they’re rebroadcasting the video across the nation at 12:00 PM Central, Mountain and Pacific. A perfect lunch break! Or, consider watching the video with a small group in the evenings, working through the book together (the video will be archived on their website).
Click here to find out more information.
Subtitle: “Bites from sheep and the sovereignty of God.” This week, we continue with Lesson #5 in the series “What I Wish (as a Pastor) that I had Known, Understood, Believed and Lived 30 Years Ago.”
Number 5: You must remind yourself daily of this simple, but profound and incredibly comforting truth: God is sovereign and in full control of all the circumstances and details of your life and ministry.
You can’t pastor for very long without feeling the deep sting and pain of “bites”from the sheep. Some of those bites are intentional; many are not. Some from close friends, some from people you don’t even know. Intentional or not, the bites still hurt.
I remember attending the Congress on Biblical Exposition in Southern California back in my early 20’s and hearing Chuck Swindoll say (with some level of jest), “If you plan to go into the ministry, you need to develop the hide of a rhinoceros.”
I remember saying to myself as a young 20-something pastor, “I have a thick hide! I’m sure I can take it!”
It wasn’t more than two or three years into my church plant that I was dealing with a mini “civil war” between feuding factions of moms who vehemently disagreed about how to raise babies right (nothing from anything I had preached or taught, mind you, but by material brought in from the outside)! I said, “This has to stop.” So I stepped in and took leadership to try and bring “calm” to the situation.
Rather than bringing calm, I found myself right in the middle and being “bitten” from both sides! After several weeks of this, I remember sitting alone in my office and weeping tears of heartache, saying to myself, “Lord, Why? What have I done to Your church? How did this happen?” Yes, that “civil war” was finally resolved, but there were always plenty more “bites” as our church grew and developed.
Through all of these experiences, I have come to learn that the doctrine of God’s sovereignty is one of the most, if not the most, comforting doctrine in all of Scripture.
God’s sovereignty means that…
Nothing has happened, is happening, or will happen apart from His permitting it. Your life and your circumstances are in God’s hands…this means every person, every circumstance, every detail, every misfortune, every unjust situation, every sin done against you, every hurt and heartache. ALL of it has been allowed by God for your good and His glory! God’s sovereignty means that nothing has come into your life as a believer that God has not either caused orpermitted! (Proverbs 16:9; Romans 8:28)
Randy Alcorn quotes Margaret Clarkson in his book If God Is Good:
“The sovereignty of God is the one impregnable rock to which the suffering human heart must cling. The circumstances surrounding our lives are no accident: they may be the work of evil, but that evil is held firmly within the mighty hand of our sovereign God.”
“Fly this banner over every wound and every regret: ‘Satan meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.'” (Genesis 50:20) – John Piper
Some of these include “bites” that come because of poor leadership decisions that we have made. Maybe it was our fault and we didn’t handle the situation in the most godly, grace-filled manner. God is still sovereign and promises that He will bring good into your life and glory to himself because of those decisions and events! That’s the promise of Romans 8:28. You must learn to move beyond your mistakes – learn all you can from them and then push forward!
No matter who has hurt you, how they have hurt you or why they have hurt you…God has allowed it for your good and His glory. Yes, Satan meant it for evil in your life, but God meant it for good!
This frees us and helps us to always forgive fully and completely those that have done evil against us!
Nothing will poison your ministry more than harboring an unforgiving spirit. An“unforgiving Christian” is an oxymoron! Refusing to forgive those that have hurt you, offended you, let you down and/or disappointed you is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Beware of the insidious acid of bitterness.(Hebrews 12:15; Ephesians 4:31)
Throughout my life, I have made it a practice to ask myself:
“Is there anyone in my life currently or in my past that I am holding a grudge against? Is there anyone from my past, that, if I suddenly ran into them at the mall, I would want to turn and avoid them instead of moving toward them with Christ’s gracious and merciful love?”
If I realize that I’m still harboring some unforgiveness, I immediately confess it and ask for God’s “all-sufficient grace” to help me to move toward those that have hurt me and offended me, rather than away from them. I ask God to help me to model genuine Christlikeness (who moved toward us – from heaven to earth – when we had sinned against Him and had spit in His face). I ask God to fill my heart with mercy and grace – the kind of mercy and grace that He has shown to me over and over and over!
A verse that haunts me whenever I am even considering acting in an unloving or unkind or even apathetic manner toward another person that may have hurt me, is James 2:13.
James writes,
“…judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful!”
Let that soak in! I ask myself, “Paul, do you want God to show mercy to you?” Yes!!“Then you need to make it a practice to show mercy to others! Yes, even to those that you think don’t deserve it – just like you don’t deserve God’s mercy!”
Do you really believe this promise of God? “Vengeance is Mine,” says the Lord, “I will repay.” (Romans 12:17-21)
Do you really believe Scripture when it says (of Jesus), “While being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously”? (1 Peter 2:23 NASB)
John Piper says it well…
“Who is a better candidate to take vengeance – you or God?
“Consider God for a minute. No wrong ever committed against you, not in the darkest hour of any night, has ever been missed. It is written in a book in heaven. He knows every wrong committed against you. He sees the evil of the wrong far better than you see it. He hates the evil of the wrong 10,000 times more purely and righteously than you hate the evil of the wrong. He claims the right to settle accounts for you. And the big issue, then, is do you believe he will?
“When you are wronged, God is saying to you:
“I saw it. You’re right. They’re wrong. I hate what they did to you. You give me that anger. I’m going to settle this for you, and I will settle it better than you could ever settle it. Justice will prevail. Do you trust me?”
Four ways to battle the unbelief of bitterness:
1) Believe that what the Good Physician prescribes for you is good! (Colossians 3:8)
2) Cherish being forgiven by God! (Ephesians 4:32)
3) Trust that God’s justice will prevail! (1 Peter 2:23)
4) Trust God’s purpose to turn the cause of your anger for your good! (1 Peter 1:6-7)
Always remember: God will always have the final say. Always! Either here on earth, or in eternity!
Always cling to the belief that in the end “God will sort it all out!”Misunderstandings that people have about you, your family or your ministry will one day be set right. Righteousness will prevail. Entrust yourself to him who“judges justly” (1 Peter 2).
Entrust all of the “unknowns” in your life and your ministry into God’s faithful, caring and capable hands!
“God’s sovereignty is no more ‘fatalism’ than grace is cheap or mercy is merited. God is free to be God, thankfully!” Scotty Smith
“But He knows the way that I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held fast to His path; I have kept His way and not turned aside. I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than necessary food.” (Job 23:10-12 NASB)
You must choose each day to believe that…
1 – God is who He says He is;
2 – that you are who He says you are;
3 – and the He will do what He promises He will do!
Remember: We walk by faith, not by sight!
“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” (Isaiah 46:4)
“I have learned that God’s silence to my questions is not a door slammed in my face. I may not have the answers – but I do have him.” (Dave Dravecky)
A final important thought lest I be misunderstood: God’s sovereignty does not release us as pastors and leaders from the responsibility to provide the best leadership we know how. God’s sovereignty does not release us from our responsibility to grow, learn and develop as a pastor and leader. We still bear that responsibility before God.
I realize that for those of you that tend to be “hyper-responsible,” you don’t need to be reminded of the above concept. You already “feel” the weight of your leadership responsibility before God. You know very well that one day you will have to give an account of your life and your leadership before Him. (2 Corinthians 5:10; James 3:1)
I have found that one of the keys to healthy leadership in the pastorate is to always keep firmly grasped in one hand my personal responsibility to grow, learn and develop as a pastor and leader and to firmly grasp in the other hand themassively comforting and peace-giving doctrine of God’s sovereignty!
My “quotes” file was beginning to overflow, so I thought I would pass on some of the best ones I’ve collected in the last few months:
“Only when you know how to die can you know how to live.” – J. I. Packer
“Jesus is the only Lord who, if you receive him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail him, will forgive you eternally.” – Tim Keller
When asked to describe what is “the heresy of modernity,” J.I. Packer described it this way:
“The belief that…
the newer is the truer,
only what is recent is decent,
every shift of ground is a step forward,
and every latest word must be hailed as the last word on its subject.”
(J. I. Packer, “Is Systematic Theology a Mirage? An Introductory Discussion,” in Doing Theology in Today’s World: Essays in Honor of Kenneth S. Kantzer [2], ed. John D. Woodbridge and Thomas Edward McComiskey (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1991), 21.)
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” – John Wesley
“Too many church members are starched and ironed but not washed.” – Vance Havner
“Too many are willing to sit at God’s table, but not work in his field.” – Vance Havner
“The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills, wills.” – Richard J. Needham
”Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” Isaiah 46:4
“I think the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: noise, hurry, crowds … Satan is quite aware of the power of silence.” – Jim Elliot
Five Great Quotes about Prayer . . . And Five Challenges to Pray for the Nations!
Quote 1: “Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure.” D. L. Moody
The Challenge: Let us stop launching movements that we claim will change the world until we have made prayer a sincere and intentional focus.
Quote 2: “I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.” Charles Spurgeon
The Challenge: It is not “either/or,” but it is “both/and” . . . and we could do with a little more praying as we reach out to the lost around the world.
Quote 3: “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness.” Martin Luther
The Challenge: When we look at our broken world, we can easily turn to despair, but God is drawing the nations to Himself and He chooses to work as we pray.
Quote 4: “It is good for us to keep some account of our prayers, that we may not unsay them in our practice.” Matthew Henry
The Challenge: Do you live out your prayers for the nations in your service, your generosity, your education, and your hospitality?
Quote 5: “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.” Abraham Lincoln
The Challenge: Many times our efforts to bless the nations will seem to fail and we fall to our knees out of desperation. However, God wants us in a posture of prayer and He will take our feeble efforts and use them mightily.
(Source: unknown)
“It is very difficult for a minister of God to fall when he is living his life faithfully on his face before God in prayer.”
“It is because of the doctrine of judgment and hell that Jesus’ proclamations of grace and love are so astounding.” – Tim Keller
“Meet me in heaven! Do not go down to hell. There is no coming back again from that abode of misery. Why do you wish to enter the way of death when heaven’s gate is open before you? Do not refuse the free pardon, the full salvation which Jesus grants to all who trust him. Do not hesitate and delay. You have had enough of resolving, come to action. Believe in Jesus now, with full and immediate decision. Take with you words and come unto your Lord this day, even this day. Remember, O soul, it may be now or never with you. Let it be now; it would be horrible that it should be never. Farewell. Again I charge you, meet me in heaven.” – C. H. Spurgeon, from his book All of Grace (London, 1897), page 128
“You are required to believe, to preach, and to teach what the Bible says is true, not what you want the Bible to say is true.” – R.C. Sproul, from his book Chosen By God, p. 12
Randy Alcorn quotes Margaret Clarkson in his book If God Is God: “The sovereignty of God is the one impregnable rock to which the suffering human heart must cling. The circumstances surrounding our lives are no accident: they may be the work of evil, but that evil is held firmly within the mighty hand of our sovereign God.”
“Fly this banner over every wound and regret: ‘Satan meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.’” (Genesis 50:20) – John Piper
“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from his book The Cost of Discipleship
“We are Christians. Radical, full-blooded, Bible-saturated, Christ-exalting, God-centered, mission-advancing, soul-winning, church-loving, holiness-pursing, sovereignty-savoring, grace-besotted, broken-hearted, happy followers of the omnipotent, crucified Christ. At least that’s our imperfect commitment.” – John Piper
“God’s purpose for my life was that I have a passion for God’s glory and that I have a passion for my joy in that glory, and that these two are one passion.” – Jonathan Edwards
“God’s sovereignty is no more “fatalism” than grace is cheap or mercy is merited. God is free to be God, thankfully!” – Scotty Smith
“I have learned that God’s silence to my questions is not a door slammed in my face. I may not have the answers—but I do have him.” – Dave Dravecky
“The law discovers the disease. The gospel gives the remedy.” – Martin Luther
“Grace isn’t God lowering his standards. It’s God fulfilling those standards through Christ’s sacrifice for us.”
“My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace. If we’ve performed well—whatever ‘well’ is in our opinion—then we expect God to bless us. If we haven’t done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly. In this sense, we live by works, rather than by grace. We are saved by grace, but we are living by the ‘sweat’ of our own performance. Moreover, we are always challenging ourselves and one another to ‘try harder’. We seem to believe success in the Christian life is basically up to us; our commitment, our discipline, and our zeal, with some help from God along the way. The realization that my daily relationship with God is based on the infinite merit of Christ instead of on my own performance is very freeing and joyous experience. But it is not meant to be a one-time experience; the truth needs to be reaffirmed daily.” – Jerry Bridges, from his book Transforming Grace
“Malign no one” (NASB); “Speak evil of no one” (NKJV); “Slander no one” (NIV) ~ Titus 3:2.
Lord, make this word true in all of our lives daily!
Subtitle: “Feeling discouraged? Want to ‘throw in the towel?”
Today I continue in the series “What I Wish (as a Pastor) that I had Known, Understood, Believed and Lived 30 years ago.” So far, we have looked at three of the 12 lessons. This week we come to number four.
Number 4: Ministry will always be challenging and (at times) very discouraging. You must fight the temptation to give in to your discouraging thoughts (Acts 20:19-32; 21:13; 1 Corinthians 4:9-13; 9:24-27; 15:58; 2 Corinthians 1:8-11; 4:8-10, 16-18; 6:4-10; 7:5; 11:23-29; 12:9-10; 2 Timothy 4:5-8; Hebrews 12:1-4; James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:6-7; 5:10)!
Just because your ministry is challenging and hard, does not mean that God is not pleased. It’s easy, especially here in America, to think that if your ministry is truly “successful” and “being blessed by God,” that somehow your ministry will be free from hurts and heartaches, discouragements and disappointments, pain and persecution. All we have to do is look closely at Scripture to see that those that God used the greatest, experienced some of the most difficult trials and tribulations throughout their lives!
Marinate your minds in these words from the Apostle Paul:
“For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.” (1 Corinthians 4:9-13)
Did you notice the list?
So often we think that if we are doing things right and living to please God, that somehow the above list will pass us by and leave us untouched.
It’s so easy in our culture today to subconsciously think that if we are living a godly life, praying fervently, and earnestly studying God’s Word each day, that somehow God will look down and make our road smooth and problem free. That cancer will pass us by. That physical and emotional pain won’t touch us. That we will meet Mr. or Mrs. “Right” early in life. That friends won’t walk out on us. That we will never have to worry about not being able to get pregnant and will never miscarry. That our children will never disappoint us and will always make the right choices. We tend to believe the lie that if I am living a godly life and genuinely pursuing Christ as my supreme treasure, that my life and ministry won’t have problems and challenges.
As Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation. But take courage, I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33)
Again, marinate your soul with these words from the Apostle Paul…
“For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers,of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-11)
Notice Paul mentions “afflictions” and being “burdened beyond our strength.” But he doesn’t stop there! He reminds us that God allows these things in our lives so that we won’t rely on ourselves, but on Him. Paul reminds us that it is “on Him [God] we have set our hope.” Notice also the strategic and important part prayerplays in Paul’s life (v. 11).
“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-12)
“…but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; aspunished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.” (2 Corinthians 6:4-10)
“For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn – fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus…” (2 Corinthians 7:5-6)
Did you catch that? Paul says, “…we were afflicted at every turn – fighting without and fear within.”
“Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one-I am talking like a madman-with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I wasshipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, indanger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, dangerfrom Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?” (2 Corinthians 11:23-29)
And then the writer of Hebrews…
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run withendurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Hebrews 12:1-4)
Ministry will always have its challenges. The larger your ministry, the more challenges. No one ever said ministry would be easy! But Jesus did promise that He would be with you no matter what (Matthew 28:20; John 16:33). Scripture constantly reminds us that our reward is in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:10). That life on earth is a “vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (James 4:14). That our real home is in heaven, not here on earth (Philippians 3:20; Colossians 3:1-4). That the God who called you to this ministry is also the God who will sustain you in this ministry (Philippians 1:6)! We must always remember that life and ministry is a marathon, not a fifty-yard dash! Pace yourself!
“Your greatest ministry doesn’t even begin until you have been in one place for at least five to seven years!” (Howard Hendricks)
“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”
When you are in the midst of a dark season and you don’t know what else to do or where else to go, go to your knees. Keep your focus on doing those “daily things”that you know are right!
“The God of the wilderness is also the God of the promised land.”
Make it a practice to regularly climb Mt. Perspective. Get the “grand” view of your circumstances. Get out of the forest and above the tree line!
As a pastor you must learn to deal in a healthy way with hurt and rejection.
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements…It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable…The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love…is Hell.” (C.S. Lewis)
“A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships were built for.”
I leave you with these encouraging words from Scripture…
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain!”
(1 Corinthians 15:58)
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone,especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
(Galatians 6:9-10)
Subtitle: “The dangerous draw of pragmatism.”
This week, we continue with our focus on where we derive our primary identity from…our ministry or from Christ.
Last week we looked at the first two “dashboard lights” that signal that our identity is being derived from our ministry rather than from Christ. Today we look at numbers three and four.
Third Dashboard Light:
My primary focus becomes “pragmatism” rather than what I believe is right and best.
In other words, I become far more concerned with “what works,” than with what is “right”. I begin to compromise what Scripture says and what my own personal convictions are.
We find ourselves preaching on things that we believe will bring “growth” even when we know that it may not be what is best in God’s eyes. We begin to compromise, not only what we say from the pulpit, but also what we don’t say but should say.
For example: We may talk a great deal about heaven, but conveniently never mention hell and its eternal reality. We begin to run every sermon through the grid of “Will this sermon make people want to come back to my church?” Rather than “Is this sermon pleasing to God?”
When Christ is our core identity, we live to please God, not man.
When pragmatism is in the driver’s seat, a person begins to compromise their convictions and possibly their integrity for something that will make their ministry “appear successful.”
Now I realize that there is nothing wrong with being pragmatic in a general sense. But when pragmatism gets put in the driver’s seat in our ministries (rather than God and His holy Word), dangerous things can begin to happen!
One of the best books on ministry leadership that I have ever read is a book by Kent Hughes, entitled: Liberating Your Ministry From the Success Syndrome. I read this back in the late 80’s when it first came out. I always have several copies on hand that I give out to pastors on a regular basis.
In it, Hughes writes the following:
“To me, success in the ministry meant growth in attendance. Ultimate success meant a big, growing church. Certainly there is nothing wrong with the wise use of any of the above principles [he had just talked about various ‘church growth principles’]. They should be part of the intelligent orchestration of ministry.
However, when the refrain they play is numerical growth – when the persistent motif is numbers – then the siren song becomes deeply sinister: growth in numbers, growth in giving, growth in staff, growth in programs – numbers, numbers, numbers! Pragmatism becomes the conductor. The audience inexorably becomes man rather than God.
Subtle self-promotion becomes the driving force. When success in the ministry becomes the same as success in the world, the servant of God evaluates his success like a businessman or an athlete or a politician.
Years earlier, when I began the ministry, my motivation was simply to serve Christ. That was all. My heroes were people like Jim Elliot, whose motto – “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” – was part of my life. All I wanted was the approval of God.
But imperceptibly my high Christian idealism had shifted from serving to receiving, from giving to getting. I realized that what I really wanted was a growing church and “success” more than the smile of God. Subconsciously I was evaluating nearly everything from the perspective of how it would affect church growth.
I realized that in the extreme such thinking reduces people to “beef on the hoof” – a terrible thought. It also enthrones a relentless pragmatism in church planning. And if this happens, it can erode the noblest ideals. It can even corrupt one’s theology.”
Because here in America we “celebrate and elevate” churches that are large and growing, we can begin to feel that if we are not doing the same, we are somehow a “failure.”
The reality is: just because a church is large and growing does not necessarily mean that they are doing “biblical ministry.” It does not necessarily mean that the pastor is “more godly” than the pastor down the street who shepherds a flock of 100 instead of 10,000.
We tend to equate numerical growth with “godliness” and “God’s blessing”…when in fact the pastor down the street who faithfully and biblically leads and shepherds his flock may be more pleasing to God than the pastor of the local mega-church. The reality here in America is that less than 2% of all churches are larger than 1,000 people. 98% of all churches are not considered “mega-churches.” Based on the latest statistics, approximately 80% of all churches in the United States have less than 100 to 150 people in them on any given Sunday.
Now, lest I be misunderstood, I am not in any way trying to disparage pastors of large churches. I have many personal friends who pastor some of the largest churches in the country, and they are truly men of integrity and are certainly godly leaders. What I am saying is: just because a church is large does notautomatically mean that the pastor is “godly” and leading his church in such a way that brings a “smile to the face of God.”
Fourth Dashboard Light:
My passion for God begins to wane and I cover it up (hide it) with my professionalism in ministry.
This is where we become downright dangerous in ministry. We’ve lost our passion. We’ve lost our zeal. We’re simply going through the motions. But let’s face it: if you’ve been in ministry long enough, it’s pretty easy to simply go through the motions without most people ever knowing that our heart is cold and calloused. We know the appropriate spiritual phrases that will make us sound spiritual. The beginning point of change is repentance. It’s taking an honest inventory of our hearts and confessing our callous coldness and asking God to re-light the fire in our souls.
If we want our people to have genuine passion for God, if we want our people to pursue Christ as their supreme treasure, then we need to have Christ as our supreme treasure. We need to have a genuine passion for God. Howard Hendricks said it well: “You cannot impart what you do not possess.”
Those are the FOUR warning signs that I would suggest tell us that our identity is misplaced.
On the other hand, when our identity is rooted squarely in our relationship with Christ (and not in our ministry), I believe THREE things become obvious:
Number 1: We become secure individuals who have nothing to prove and nothing to lose.
Number 2: We care far more about what heaven thinks than with what earth thinks. Our audience truly becomes God rather than man.
Number 3: We freely acknowledge our inadequacy to produce anything of lasting value apart from Christ.
We’re not threatened by admitting that “we are hopeless and helpless” in life and ministry apart from Christ. We’re not threatened to admit, “I have nothing to offer of any significance apart from Christ.” We’re not afraid to admit that “we are not adequate in ourselves for this task of pastoring!”
John Piper, in his excellent book (which I recommend every pastor read!),Brothers, We Are Not Professionals – subtitled: A Plea to Pastors For Radical Ministry, writes the following:
“I was amazed once to hear a seminary graduate say how adequate he felt for the ministry after his years of schooling. This was supposed to be a compliment to the school.
The reason this amazed me is that the greatest theologian and missionary and pastor who ever lived cried out, “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor. 2:16). Not because he was a bungler, but because the awful calling of emitting the fragrance of eternal life for some and eternal death for others was a weight he could scarcely bear.
A pastor who feels competent in himself to produce eternal fruit – which is the only kind that matters – knows neither God nor himself. A pastor who does not know the rhythm of desperation and deliverance must have his sights only on what man can achieve.
But brothers, the proper goals of the life of a pastor are unquestionably beyond our reach. The changes we long for in the hearts of our people can happen only by a sovereign work of grace.
God does all His gracious work in such a way “that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor. 1:29),which means He usually does it in answer to prayer.
Apart from prayer, all our scurrying about, all our talking, all our study amounts to “nothing.” For most of us the voice of self-reliance is ten times louder than the bell that tolls for the hours of prayer.”
Pastors and leaders, may you be encouraged and take heart in the fact that no matter what our “culture” may be saying about your ministry, what matters most is “the smile of God.” Pursue His smile, pursue His pleasure more than all else!
“…so that in everything he [Jesus] might have the supremacy.” (Colossians 1:18)
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