Category Archives: Pastoral Ministry

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A Panel of Wisdom

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I’ve long been something of a conference panel aficionado. I love the interactions on matters of Scripture and the opportunity to hear seasoned saints give sound wisdom to younger generations.

However, in my experience many panels prove to be rather disappointing. Sometimes it’s the lack of thoughtful questions, other times it’s that one speaker unnecessarily dominates the conversation, or that every panelists weighs in on every question resulting in an hour panel only covering three questions.

But every once in a while my panel “connoisseurment” uncovers a diamond of discussion. One such occasion came last week when I was scrounging around the resources from the Basics Conference put on by Alistair Begg and Parkside Church.

FROM ACROSS THE ATLANTIC THEY CAME

At the third annual Basics Conference in 2002 Alistair Begg invited three men who had a significant influence on his ministry as a pastor and preacher – Derek Prime, Eric Alexander and Dick Lucas. Begg said, “[These men] are supremely men of the Word. Their enduring effectiveness for the Lord is grounded on the steady conviction that the Bible is God’s one and only means of making His voice heard in the church and the world today.”

Do you know Alexander, Lucas, and Prime?

Eric Alexander was for many years Minister of St. George’s Tron, a Presbyterian congregation in the city center of Glasgow. He continues to bring Bible expositions to numerous conferences and conventions, where a strong passion for Christ pervades his winsome and powerful preaching. When you listen to Alexander you can’t help but notice the effect he’s had on Sinclair Ferguson.

Dick Lucas is an Anglican evangelical who was rector of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in the city of London for 30 years. There he taught the Bible to large congregations of students on Sunday evenings and businessmen at Tuesday luncheons. In 1986 he founded The Proclamation Trust, which equips and encourages pastors in faithful proclamation of the Word. Begg said Dick’s insistence that “listening” to the Bible is the key to speaking its message profoundly changed his preaching.

Derek Prime pastored an independent evangelical church in London and Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he served for 18 years and where Begg was his assistant. Derek has written extensively and helpfully, and his warm pastoral wisdom and effectiveness as a leader have influenced many pastors throughout the UK and abroad.

At the end of the conference Begg sat down with his three mentors for a panel entitled, “Fatherly Advice to Younger Ministers” and the ensuing discussion was lively, informative, and warm. Pastors young and old will welcome the accented and thoroughly biblical wisdom these brothers provide. Listen below or download here.

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Be Serious

Serious Joy

In The Courage to Be Protestant David wells wrote, “The conventional wisdom is that seriousness is the death knell of successful churches. In an age of entertainment, such as our age is in the West, we have to be funny, likeable, and light to succeed. So, seriousness must be banished.”

He’s right; the contemporary culture turns up its nose at seriousness, finding its stench to be less than pleasant.

But the Bible tells us a different story.

THE SMELL OF SERIOUSNESS

One of my best friends growing up was a guy named Cary Wicker. For thirteen straight years we played on the same soccer team, so we were around each other a fair amount of each week. I spent many days and nights at the Wicker home, and theirs was a home that had a distinct aroma. Looking back on it now, I’m pretty sure it was mostly due to the cigars that Mr. Wicker was known to enjoy throughout the week. Whatever it was, wherever Cary went he always carried the Wicker aroma around with him.

The summons of Christian ministry is one that has a distinct flavor. Theologically, it has Trinitarian smell: God’s glory in Christ as revealed by the Spirit. Practically, according to the the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, it smells of the grace and knowledge of the Good Shepherd. Ministerially, it smells of serious joy in a Sovereign Savior.

Preach the Word. Shepherd the flock of God. Do the work of an evangelist. Train yourself for godliness. Set for the believers an example. Be ready in season and out of season. Fulfill your ministry.

These are commands, not considerations, for gospel ministry. Obedience in these matters requires a peculiar level of seriousness from a pastor who longs to be faithful. Our people need gravity, not levity to mark our ministry. A ministry of godly gravity anchored to Christ is one that even the storms of life cannot blow away. But lighthearted levity? The wind of the world will quench that flame with astounding ease.

THE SOUND OF SERIOUSNESS

The danger of talking about seriousness in a 21st century context is that the noun is viewed as a vice, not a virtue. To our culture, seriousness not only stinks, but it’s also scary. I’ve seen godly saints model sobriety in life and heard younger people turn it upside down by thinking “seriousness” is just a way older generations make “snobbery” more palatable. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just consider what the average person thinks about classical music.

I find that most people today view classical music as a relic of high culture that’s inaccessible to modern tastes. The orchestration is too complex and tone too somber. What we really want in our music is a jingle to lift the the spirit, not a soaring score so rich it will take you dozens of listen before you will fully appreciate it.

So it is with seriousness. “Reverence is outdated,” cries the culture, “Casual familiarity is in.” Simplicity in tone stirs the soul, while weighty complexity stifles the heart. But is that really the case?

A LONG LINE OF SERIOUS MEN

If we could go back to the first century, I’m pretty sure we’d find the descriptor of “seriousness” to be most apt of our Lord’s apostles. They were men zealous for the things of God, humbled before the majesty of God, and satisfied in the life of God. But we dare not accuse them of having no joy! Too many doxologies flowed out from their hearts. We could then take a trip through church history and discover all the great saints of old still revered today are those whose lives embodied “serious joy.” I mean, would anyone dare tell Luther his zeal for reforming the church left him void of joy? His students who received the original “Tabletalk” would think you silly if you questioned the German’s joy. Would someone question Spurgeon’s gravity before God because he seemed so prone to jokes and humor? Ask any member of the Metropolitan Tabernacle and they’d look at you askew, for week in and week out he preached a serious Christ with serious passion.

Read about the lives of Augustine, Calvin, Owen, Edwards, Whitefield, M’Cheyne, and Lloyd-Jones and you’ll get the sense that God has blessed serious joy in peculiar ways.

ANOTHER PARADOX?

Paradoxes about in Scripture: the weakest are the strongest (2 Cor. 12:10); the last shall be first (Mark 10:31); the humble are exalted (Luke 14:11), you must lost your life to find it (Matt. 10:39); we die to live (2 Cor. 4:10). Although I don’t think “serious joy” is a biblical paradox, it sure seems to be a cultural paradox.

We are very good at erecting false dichotomies and I wonder if many of our church members would see seriousness and joyfulness as standing against one another. Well, pastor, go shatter than notion in your life and ministry. Show them the attractive weight of seriousness and the beautiful coloring of joyfulness.

Be “serious joy” on display.

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An Embarrassment of Riches

Continuing Education

Healthy pastors are growing pastors. And growing pastors are those regularly increasing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What are you doing to grow in the knowledge of Christ?

The ordinary means of grace (word, prayer, sacrament) are the non-negotiables of growing in Christ. They are the spiritual waters for the soul, you can’t go very long with them and survive. And just like every person’s diet builds on the foundational need of water so too must a pastor’s spiritual feast include various and more occasional means.

I want to highlight just one item you might welcome to the table of your soul: the University of iTunes.

A HIDDEN GEM

Do you make use of iTunes U? When Apple revamped iTunes U in 2012 it was already reaching over 700 million downloads. A tech magazine said, “It has always been one of iTunes’ hidden gems, providing access to lectures, course material, presentations and more from top universities. Today, iTunes U is offering over 500,000 free lectures, videos, books and other content from institutions across 26 countries, says Apple.”

In recent years a few seminaries (particularly Covenant Theological Seminary, Westminster Theological Seminary, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Dallas Theological Seminary) have seized on this educational opportunity and are putting whole courses on iTunes U for free download. Pastors, church leaders, and interested lay members can now listen to gifted teachers and legendary professors without leaving their home and without emptying their bank account. These free courses are a treasure trove for pastors continuing their education and growth in biblical/theological/historical/practical knowledge. Make sure to check out everything offered from the seminaries above, but here a few courses you’d be silly to pass up:

mza_8187391329897104788.170x170-75The Reformation by Carl Trueman. There isn’t anyone from whom I rather learn church history than Carl Trueman. His wit, wisdom, and piercing conclusions make him one of the few professors we could rightly label “Maddeningly Brilliant.” Few eras of church history are as interesting and pivotal as the decades occupied with the Reformation. This course offers 33 lectures on everything from Luther, to Calvin, and on to the English Reformation.

mza_7953614672765780867.170x170-75Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World by Tim Keller and Ed Clowney. Before everything “gospel-centered” was popular in broader evangelicalism, Clowney and Keller embodied everything soon to become in-vogue. Originally taught as a Doctor of Ministry course, Dr. Keller and Dr. Clowney ask, “Is Jesus made visible in every sermon or only talked about?” By analyzing and deconstructing other models of preaching that either exhort on moral levels or attempt to evoke an emotional response, Dr.’s Keller and Clowney provide a model of preaching that is Christocentric. This model of preaching focuses on three aspects to guide the listener and preacher: First, how does this text tell me about Christ? Second, how does this text show that the listener’s life is poor without Christ. Third, how to lead the listener to worship and adore Christ.

mza_1891100271890704331.170x170-75The English Puritans by JI Packer. 20 or so hours of Packer riffing on the Puritans? What a gift! This course is an introduction to the English Puritans that includes an examination of historical context, theological contributions, cultural and community impact, and literary output of several prominent Puritan thinkers. Both informative and engaging, this course invites you to set aside the typical Puritan stereotypes and embrace the lives and legacies of some of the greatest minds and preachers in Church history.

mza_6338291738921363735.170x170-75Calvin’s Institutes by David Calhoun. Dr. Calhoun is too little remembered in many circles today. He is a master of his field and a consummate teacher. The Professor Emeritus of Church History at Covenant Seminary guides this course in the reading and analysis of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, emphasizing the Reformer’s method, material arrangement, and biblical-theological content.

d2_160Christian Apologetics by John Frame. This one is for all you who love defending the faith – which should be all of us. In this course John Frame, The Triperspectivalist himself, seeks to formulate the rational basis for believing in Christian theism, with responses to objections and critiques of competing worldviews. In the first part, the student examines what Scripture says about human knowledge, particularly the process by which a non-Christian comes to know Christ. In the second part, the primary focus is on the controversy over how to do apologetics, with attention given to differing apologetic schools. Finally, the third part discusses issues under debate between Christians and non-Christians, such as the existence of God, the truth of Scripture, the problem of evil, and the currents of modern and postmodern thought.

And just for grins . . .

tns.otwwgcqd.170x170-75The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877 by David Blight. If you’ve ever wanted to get a sense of education at Yale University, here you go. Blight is a master lecturer and, I think, will keep anyone interested in this most fascinating and important era in our nation’s history. This course explores the causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War, from the 1840s to 1877. The primary goal of the course is to understand the multiple meanings of a transforming event in American history. Those meanings may be defined in many ways: national, sectional, racial, constitutional, individual, social, intellectual, or moral. Four broad themes are closely examined: the crisis of union and disunion in an expanding republic; slavery, race, and emancipation as national problem, personal experience, and social process; the experience of modern, total war for individuals and society; and the political and social challenges of Reconstruction.

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The Cemetery of Ministry

Cemeteries and Sanctification

“Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.” – Edwards

It doesn’t take anyone long to notice I live a life of routine. The less charitable might call me predictable, while the more understanding call me disciplined. I’m sure the reality is somewhere in between.

For the majority of my pastoral ministry I’ve been in a more traditional church setting, replete with church buildings and offices. Those structures are great friends for habit and routine. It was easy to do the same thing, at the same time, in the same place. Those were the good ol’ days.

MOVING IS MY ENEMY

Since we started Imago Dei Church at the beginning of last year my grip on routine was dealt a mighty blow, as we have neither a church building nor office. For much of the last two years my daily routine was everything but routine. Where I was on a given day depending on any number of factors. Sometimes I would move to three or four locations in a given day based on what work I had on my plate. I imagine that those of you who love changes in scenery would think that workflow would be fun, but to me that constant movement is an elusive shadow that haunts my soul. Yes, it is that grave.

So it was to my profound joy and comfort that my parents purchased a townhome – now popularly known in our family as “The Townhouse” – in McKinney earlier this year (they live in Bryan, TX) and asked if I’d like to use it as an office when they weren’t around (which on average is about three weeks a month). “Let me think about it . . . uh, YES!”

Routine returned and productivity flourished.

A CHANGE OF SCENERY

The still silence of The Townhouse has allowed my mind to focus, but I’ve realized in recent weeks how my soul is feeling less energized. Maybe it’s because I’m not around a consistent conversational banter during the day or because the lonesome structure can easily amplify Lone Ranger feelings in ministry. Whatever the reason, I thought to myself this week, “I need to find another place where I can consistently go; a place that will fuel the soul.”

After thinking for a few minutes of options nearby the proverbial “Ding! Ding! Ding!” went off in my mind.

I needed to go to the cemetery.

TRUST AMIDST TOMBSTONES

Two things in this created world seem to have unique power to stir my soul: mountains and cemeteries. We don’t have any mountains in McKinney, but we do have cemeteries.

Walking amongst the tombstones always does something powerful. I am reminded of: my mortality, God’s gracious provision of life, the fleeting nature of time, the impact of faithful generations, and how much I long to do something with this vaporous moments that remain.

Pastoral ministry is a ministry of life and death. Our gilded age celebrates the life-giving nature of faithful ministry, but what of the death-demanding side of things? We must give ourselves over to death so our people might live. We must die to the flesh, the world, and the devil. We must prepare our people to die trusting in the kind arms of the Father.

Sitting under a tree at the cemetery reminds me of all these things. It helps me pray with perspective. It helps me read and write with purpose.

In short, it feeds my soul.

WHAT’S YOUR PLACE?

While not every pastor has my possibly morbid attachment to cemeteries, I’m sure every one of us has a particular place or setting that stirs the soul. What’s yours?

Know it, find it, and then use it to propel you to greater faithfulness in the ministry to which He’s called you.

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Leading in Worship

Leading in Worship

In For the Glory of God: A Biblical Theology of Worship Daniel Block defines true worship as “reverential human acts of submission and homage before the divine Sovereign in response to his gracious revelation of himself and in accord with his will.”

In light of this definition he concludes, “Therefore, promoting worshipers’ awe and reverence before God must be a primary goal of those who lead worship.” And so he concludes the book with a series of exhortations for anyone that would lead God’s people in worship. These exhortations are brilliant and well worth pastoral meditation.

8 EXHORTATIONS FOR THOSE WHO LEAD WORSHIP

  1. Worship leaders must first offer their entire person as a sacrifice of worship to God and maintain purity of life worthy of acceptance with God.
  2. Worship leaders must conduct themselves before God and in the company of the saints in keeping with the glory and majesty of the One they serve.
  3. Worship leaders’ conduct, their performance of duties, and their entire bearing as representatives of God must enhance worshipers’ awe and reverence before God.
  4. Worship leaders must aim above all to ensure that divine revelation is transmitted to worshipers. Whether through reading and expounding Scripture, musical performance, or other cultic acts, leaders must ensure that everything in the service contributes to the clear, unequivocal, and truthful communication of divine truth.
  5. Worship leaders must make every effort to deflect attention away from themselves to God. Whether through dress or public demeanor, drawing attention to those leading worship borders on idolatry.
  6. Worship leaders must promote the engagement of the congregation in worship. In communal worship, people should instruct and exhort one another, sing to one another, and intercede on behalf of one another. The role of worship leaders is to develop this kind of community and to promote the genuine participation of all believers in corporate expressions of homage and submission.
  7. Worship leaders must identify with the worshipers, not only by leading them in confessing sin and praising God for forgiveness and acceptance, but also by walking with them through the week and feeling their pains and joys.
  8. Worship leaders must recognize that access to God is made possible only through the work of Christ himself. Worship must be focused on Christ rather than on the preacher of musicians and the performance of liturgy. When people assemble for worship, they gather for a meeting with God, not for a meeting with the preacher or other leaders.
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Perpetual Prayers

Pray Constantly

A healthy pastor’s prayer life is one that is faithful to the “New Testament Adverbs of Devoted Prayer”: he prays constantly (Rom. 12:12), persistently (Eph. 6:18), steadfastly (Col. 4:2), and unceasingly (1 Thess. 5:17).

If you are anything like me it’s easy to consume your prayer time with immediate needs. These are things for which you depend on God alone, but are also somewhat passing in nature. Maybe it’s the health of a church member, an upcoming decision in leadership, or the lifting up of requests you’ve received. There is a danger, I think, in letting the temporal matters dominate your prayer life. It makes it all the more harder to exhaust the soul in the kind of prayer Jesus advocates for in the Parable of the Persistent Widow.

We would do well to have a list of things to “always to pray and not lose heart.” Every pastor would benefit from making his own list, but to help you along the way, here are seven items that make up the “Perpetual Prayer” category in my prayer list.

7 PERPETUAL PRAYERS

Love. It all begins here doesn’t it? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27) Furthermore, above all the individual parts of godliness we are to “put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col. 3:14). I pray for God to increase my love for His glory more than my own, for the sacrificial love for my wife to which I am called, the tender love of a Daddy for his children, and that our church would make good on John 13:15, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Faith. We live by faith and not by sight, but oh how I desperately want to often see. It’s therefore quite normal for me to channel my inner Peter and cry, “Lord, help my unbelief!” I pray that He would give me faith to move mountains, that our church would be a community vibrant and in faith, and that God would bring many people faith through our ministry of preaching the word. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? . . . So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:14-15, 17).

Sound Doctrine. The truth of Scripture, illuminated by the Spirit, is the ordinary way in which God sanctifies His people (John 17:17). I want to always be “increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:11) and thus enabled more and more to wield the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17). I long to be a pastor who is faithful to “teach what accords with sound doctrine” (Tit. 2:1) and that our church would not perish because we have so deeply loved the truth (2 Thess. 2:10). I also pray for my wife and young boys to cherish the words of God and to feast daily upon them for nourishment and life.

Wisdom. To be honest, I’m not sure I prayed much for wisdom before we planted IDC. But every since the church began my immediate response when members ask how they can pray for me is, “For God to give me wisdom.” Everyday I feel like Solomon in 1 King 3:8-9 when he says to God, “Your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” Left to my own designs I will make a wreck of my home and church. But if God would increase my fear of Him, that would would be the beginning on immovable wisdom (Prov. 1:7, 9:10).

Holiness. I want to be holy as He is holy (1 Pet. 1:16), and I must be. I need to strive for that “holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). I echo so many towering pastors of old in the belief I have no reason to expect my family’s and church’s holiness to rise above my own. May the Lord conform me increasingly and supernaturally to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29)! I long for a growing distaste of the word and a sweeter savor of Christlikeness. I pray that God would make our church into the “holy nation” that it is (1 Pet. 2:9). May the Spirit move in my family to help us love nothing more than to please God and so experience His happiness through holiness.

Unity. Aside from the prayers for wisdom, few items more dominate my petitions for our congregation as this one. “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Psa. 133:1) I pray our church would reflect to glorious unity of the Triune God as we “maintain the spirit of unity in the bonds of peace” (Eph. 4:3). I hope we would increasingly lay aside secondary and tertiary preferences for the sake of unity in the gospel. May we be one even as the Godhead is one (John 17:20-22). I want this unity to permeate my “little church” as well, that our home would be one of joyful harmony in the Spirit.

Evangelism. I must do this work (2 Tim. 4:5) and we – as a home and church – must do this work as well (Matt. 28:18-20). I pray he gives us all confidence and courage in the gospel, “for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). I want to be ready in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4:2) with the words of life. I pray He would make me – and us – not only faithful in evangelism, but fruitful in evangelism as well. He “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4) and so want the faith to expect Him to fulfill this desire through our collective faithfulness in evangelism. There is always an familial accent on this point as our children are all young and, as best we can tell, unconverted. May God give me winsome boldness and may He raise their dead hearts.

UNTIL DEATH OR GLORY

I love these seven prayer categories. Until I die or Jesus returns these prayers will necessarily need to occupy a perpetual place in my ministry.

What other ones would you add?

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10 Special Helps Against Satan

Armor of God

On weeks when I don’t preach, like this one, I aim to place myself on unusual watch against Satan’s schemes. He rages at all times, but in my own experience it’s weeks like these that he bears his lion-teeth with uncommon fervor.

In addition to the word, prayer, and fellowship I have found Thomas Brooks’ classic Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices to be of great help. His final chapter on “10 Special Helps and Rules Against Satan’s Devices” worth revisiting whenever you feel the Worm is raging. Consider these helps and rules this week as you strive against Satan.

10 WAYS TO FIGHT AGAINST THE ENEMY

Walk by rule of the Word of God. (Prov. 12:24; Gal. 6:16) He who walks by rule, walks most safely; he who walks by rule, walks most honorably; he who walks by rule, walks most sweetly. When men throw off the Word, then God throws them off, and then Satan takes them by the hand, and leads them into snares at his pleasure.

Take heed of vexing and grieving of the Holy Spirit of God. Ah! if you set that sweet and blessed Spirit a-mourning, who alone can secure you from Satan’s depths—by whom will you be preserved? Man is a weak creature, and no way able to discover Satan’s snares, nor to avoid them—unless the Spirit of the Lord gives skill and power.

Labor for more heavenly wisdom. It is not the most knowing Christian—but the most wise Christian, who sees, avoids, and escapes Satan’s snares. ‘The way of life leads upward for the wise,’ says Solomon, ‘that he may depart from hell beneath’ (Prov. 15:24). Heavenly wisdom makes a man delight to fly high; and the higher any man flies, the more he is out of the reach of Satan’s snares.

Make immediate resistance against Satan’s first motions. He who will play with Satan’s bait, will quickly be taken with Satan’s hook! The promise of conquest is given to resisting, not to disputing: ‘Resist the devil, and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7).

Labor to be filled with the Spirit. He who thinks he has enough of the Holy Spirit, will quickly find himself vanquished by the evil spirit. Therefore labor more to have your hearts filled with the Spirit than to have your heads filled with notions, your shops with wares, your chests with silver, or your bags with gold; so shall you escape the snares of this fowler, and triumph over all his plots.

Keep humble. An humble heart will rather lie in the dust than rise by wickedness, and sooner part with all than the peace of a good conscience. Humility keeps the soul free from many darts of Satan’s casting, and snares of his spreading; as the low shrubs are free from many violent gusts and blasts of wind, which shake and rend the taller trees. He who has a gracious measure of humility, is neither affected with Satan’s offers nor terrified with his threatenings.

Keep a strong, close, and constant watch (1 Thess. 5:6). A sleepy soul is already an ensnared soul. That soul that will not watch against temptations, will certainly fall before the power of temptations. Shall Satan keep a crafty watch, and shall not Christians keep a holy spiritual watch? Watchfulness is nothing else but the soul running up and down, to and fro, busy everywhere. Watchfulness is the heart busied and employed with diligent observation of what comes from within us, and of what comes from without us and into us.

Keep up your communion with God. Your strength to stand and withstand Satan’s fiery darts is from your communion with God. A soul high in communion with God may be tempted—but will not easily be conquered. Such a soul will fight it out to the death. Communion with God furnishes the soul with the greatest and the choicest arguments to withstand Satan’s temptations.

Do not engage Satan in your own strength—but be every day drawing new virtue and strength from the Lord Jesus. Ah, souls! when the snare is spread, look up to Jesus Christ, who is lifted up in the gospel, as the brazen serpent was in the wilderness, and say to him, “Dear Lord! here is a new snare laid to catch my soul, and grace formerly received, without fresh supplies from your blessed bosom, will not deliver me from this snare. Oh! give me new strength, new power, new influences, new measures of grace, that so I may escape the snares!”

Be much in prayer. Prayer is a shelter to the soul, a sacrifice to God and a scourge to the devil. There is nothing that renders Satan’s plots fruitless like prayer; therefore says Christ: ‘Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation’ (Matt. 26:41). You must watch and pray, and pray and watch, if you would not enter into temptation.’

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Balanced Preaching

Feed My Sheep

A clean conscience is a wonderful thing.

Just ask the great apostle. The joyful confidence Paul has in a clean conscience seeps out of almost every one of his letters. But not only his letters, also Luke’s recounting of his missionary ministry in Acts. One pertinent reference is Acts 20:26-27, where Paul told the Ephesian elders, “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” In other words, “My conscience is clean before you because I declared the whole counsel of God.”

Preacher, if you have been at your church for any length of time, would you be able to say with Paul, “My conscience is clean?”

A PLEA FOR BALANCE

Preaching the whole counsel of God means giving due attention to the fundamental nature of our Sovereign and Holy God, the sinfulness of man, the way of salvation in Christ, and the life we now live by faith in the Spirit. At the risk of employing an increasingly vapid buzz-phrase, a” gospel-centered” hermeneutic in preaching is essential to preaching the whole counsel.

But mere gospel-centrality is not all. What “whole-counsel preaching” means is actually preaching the whole counsel of God’s words; the old and new testaments, the predictions and expositions of Christ, prophecy and poetry, truth from the narrative and apocalyptic. If someone was to look at your church’s preaching calendar over the last few years would they see this kind of balance? Or would they see lots of similar studies? Something like five out of seven years occupied with Pauline epistles, or eight out of ten years spent in one of the testaments.

Brothers, this should not be so.

A SIMPLE SCHEME

When we planted IDC at the beginning of 2013 we did so with at least one burning conviction when it came to preaching: Striving for balance between the testaments and the genres in the annual sermon calendar. Coupled with that was a commitment to rarely, if ever, spend more than twelve months in one particular book. I regularly tell people that I’m much more willing to be accused of going through a book too quickly than too slowly. The length of a series is like the length of a sermon; people will rarely forget the long, but will almost always forgive the short.

At IDC we minister in a context where a fair subset of our congregation will come and go within five years. My hope then is that when people leave after a few years of attending our church they have a real sense of the whole counsel of God. Certainly there are worse things than faithfully expositing Romans for three years, but I think we can – and ought to – give our churches a fuller diet of Scripture.

Here’s how our aim for balance in the preaching calendar has worked itself out so far:

  • January-May ’13: 1 Timothy
  • June ’13: Ruth
  • July ’13: Haggai
  • August ’13 – June ’14: Mark
  • July-August ’14: Summer series on the means of grace
  • September-December ’14: Job

Next year our plan, Lord willing, is:

  • January-April ’15: 1 John
  • May ’15: Jonah
  • June-August ’15: Genesis
  • September ’15 – May ’16: Romans

Whether or not it works out exactly that way, it should give you a picture of how we try to practice our striving for balance between the testaments and genres. Such a pursuit has at least two advantages.

TWO ADVANTAGES OF BALANCED PREACHING

First, it gets the preacher out of his comfort zone. Every preacher I’ve met has his personal comfort zone when it comes to preaching. For some it’s narrative, for others (like me) it’s the epistles, or for guys like John Macarthur, it’s the New Testament. Pursuing the kind of balance I’m advocating for will, I think, in the end make the preacher more well-rounded than he would naturally be. I’m currently preaching through Job and it is stretching me in ways I’ve never before experienced. That stretching has to be inextricably related to the fact I’ve never preached an entire book of wisdom. The growth curve is also due, I think, to the fact we are covering 42 chapters in 14 weeks. I’m learning what it means to preach huge chunks of Scripture in one setting. I trust this whole endeavor, of which I would never naturally gravitate towards, is making me a better preacher. It’s definitely getting me out of my comfort zone.

Second, it gets the church out of her comfort zone. This reality came to me so clearly after last weekend’s service. A dear older saint in our church came up to me after the sermon and said, “I want you to know I’m so excited about Job. I can’t remember the last time I’ve looked forward to a series this much. I think it is because I don’t know Job as well as the gospel of Mark or the book of Ruth. It’s all fresh to me!” Based on the responses I keep hearing from our church, this member’s experience is not unique. A preaching diet that is wisely scattered across the whole canon will often place church members among new vistas of truth. And newness usually breeds excitement. It not only gets them out of their personal comfort zone, it also let’s them see how all Scripture is God-breathed and useful.

IS IT CLEAN?

Our churches need the whole counsel of God; they need a preaching diet that balances the vast and varied unsearchable riches.

So preacher, how’s your conscience in preaching the whole counsel?

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Looking for Elders

Finding Elders

It is the sine qua non of eldership in a local church: “He must be able to teach.” That aptitude singles a man out for shepherding service in a way no other qualification does.

Therefore, discerning a man’s aptitude to teach is always of utmost importance.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

No small amount of ink has been used to define what it means for a man to “be able to teach,” but thankfully we really don’t need to get ourselves into a tizzy trying to interpret the phrase. Paul functionally defines the qualification in his parallel instruction to Titus. In Titus 1:9 he writes, “He must be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” That’s it: he must be faithful in instruction and refutation. Not one or the other, but both.

9 CONSIDERATIONS FOR FINDING TEACHERS

The question then becomes, “How do we find these faithful teachers?” In his wonderfully wise book Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons Thabiti Anyabwile gives the following nine considerations:

  1. Pastors must look for ways to provide men in the church opportunities to teach in order to assess giftedness and ability.
  2. Assuming a man has had a number of opportunities to teach, how capable is he?
  3. Does the man show pastoral sensibility in his teaching?
  4. Is the prospective elder committed to exposition (or the church’s preaching philosophy)?
  5. Are others edified by his teaching?
  6. Does the man disciple others?
  7. Is the man theologically mature and supportive of the church’s theological distinctives?
  8. Can the prospective elder defend the faith?
  9. Is the man himself teachable?

Yes and amen to each one.

HIS CONVERSATION IS SATURATED WITH SCRIPTURE

The older I get the more I’m convinced there is another consideration we must keep in mind when looking for potential elders: Does he speak with the language of Scripture in ordinary conversation? Yes, a man’s aptitude to teach is so easily seen in his preaching, but many elders – particularly lay elders – will do most of their teaching in a conversational or dialogical contexts. And what we want are men, like good Mr. Bunyan, that we can prick anywhere and increasingly find their blood to be “bibline.”

We should then ask questions like: Does the man answer common questions with relevant quotations and applications from Scripture? Or is his counsel largely taken from personal observation on the world and experience? Can he naturally converse about the things of God? And does his involvement in such conversation reveal a depth of understanding uncommon to the average church member? Or does he reveal a lack of familiarity with God’s word by its ordinary absence in his common conversations?

The man must be Bible-man in every station and with every person. And I just think if he is indeed gifted with skill in instruction and refutation (Titus 1:9) we would see it and hear it.

Could it be that a man’s ability to speak Scripturally is the initial non-negotiable of the elder’s sine qua non?

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Owen’s Advice to Preachers

In his day John Owen was called the “prince of the English divines,” “the leading figure among the Congregationalist divines,” “a genius with learning second only to Calvin’s,” and “indisputably the leading proponent of high Calvinism in England in the late seventeenth century.”

Have you read any of his works?

“HEAVY AND HARD TO READ”

owenIf you haven’t, you are in the vast majority. Owen is notoriously hard to read. Spurgeon said, “I did not say that it was easy to read [Owen’s works]!—that would not be true; yet I do venture to say that the labour involved in plodding through these ill-arranged and tediously-written treatises will find them abundantly worthwhile.” To discover Owen’s abundant usefulness you simply need to read his timeless work The Mortification of Sin. Just how helpful is this “little” book?

Jerry Bridges said, “John Owen’s treatises on Indwelling Sin in Believers and The Mortification of Sin are, in my opinion, the most helpful writings on personal holiness ever written.” JI Packer feels indebted to Owen, for he once wrote, “I owe more to John Owen than to any other theologian, ancient or modern, and I owe more to this little book [The Mortification of Sin] than to anything else he wrote.”

Around this time last year I had a few dozen men in my church read The Mortification of Sin (the Puritan Paperback version from Banner) a good handful of them said something to the effect of, “This is one of the most useful books I’ve ever read!”

Indeed.

LAY DOWN THE AXE

The book is also oh so useful for pastors in their personal pursuit of holiness and faithfulness in pastoral ministry. Here’s what I mean. Chapter seven closes with a luscious aside directed to preachers who aim to be instruments of mortification in the hearts of their hearers. The Prince of Puritans warns,

Let me add this to them who are preachers of the word, or intend, through the good hand of God, that employment: It is their duty to plead with men about their sins, to lay load on particular sins, but always remember that it be done with that which is the proper end of law and gospel;—that is, that they make use of the sin they speak against to the discovery of the state and condition “wherein the sinner is; otherwise, haply, they may work men to formality and hypocrisy, but little of the true end of preaching the gospel will be brought about. It will not avail to beat a man off from his drunkenness into a sober formality.

A skillful master of the assemblies lays his axe at the root, drives still at the heart . . . To break men off particular sins, and not to break their hearts, is to deprive ourselves of advantages of dealing with them.

. . . Can sin be killed without an interest in the death of Christ, or mortified without the Spirit? . . . If such directions should prevail to change men’s lives, as seldom they do, yet they never reach to the change of their hearts or conditions, they may make men self-justiciaries[sic] or hypocrites, not Christians.

I believe the margin next to this section in my copy reads, “Boom! and Amen.”