Worship: The Completion of Our Affection

By / Jan 12

C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors. One of the most impactful things he has written in regards to worship isn’t about the subject of worship in particular, but it definitely helps my heart to feel and my mind to know what is true. He says this in “Reflections on the Psalms” :

    “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. . . . The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”

Lewis helps crystallize in this short paragraph what I feel immensely when I am leading worship. It’s what I want my church to understand. It’s what I aim for as I am leading. Lewis helps us understand that our affection and our delight is incomplete until it is expressed. Imagine if you never told, showed, or acted upon your affection for your spouse. They would feel dejected, unloved, and unimportant. If we have affections… we act on them. This is true in all of life as we worship and in the corporate gatherings as we sing, feast on the Word, and partake of communion together. If we have affections for the Lord and His gospel, then we will worship Him with all of our lives as we obey His commandments, serve Him in gospel ministry, and join Him on mission. Our affections will be completed as we act upon them.

This is also true when we gather as the church to worship Him corporately. Our affections well up within our souls and we complete the delight by expressing our worship with hands lifted, songs raised, as well as hearts and minds reveling in the glory of our Savior together. I truly believe we are missing out when we stand with arms crossed, sipping coffee, and half-way singing out. Our affections are either dim in our hearts, or we are missing out on completing the cycle by expressing them to the Lord. We don’t do this because the worship leader is singing our favorite song or because all of our preference boxes are being checked. We complete our affection by acting on them because God is worthy… so, so very worthy.

If there are two things I want you to take away from this very short treatise on affections and worship, it is this:

  1. As a worship leader: a major part of our job is to stir people’s affections towards Christ. No, you cannot make them worship… that isn’t your job… but you can (over and over) point people’s affections to the Son of God who came, died, and rose again. Then you can encourage them to complete that affection by expressing their delight in Christ alone. They are missing out if the affection stays hidden in the depths of their heart.

  2. As a worshiper: what if this Sunday you made the worship leader’s job easy? What if you came with your affections having been freshly stirred by your own heart prep in the Word of God, on your knees in prayer, and in just daily delighting in the God of the Bible? What if your affections were bursting in your heart… ready to be completed in their being acted upon through engagement in song, prayer, and the Word? Let your affections lead you to smiling, lifting your hands in victory or surrender, singing with all you have, and delighting in the beauty of your Savior.

There is nothing better than on a Sunday morning standing next to brothers and sisters in Christ and (metaphorically) “to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur”. And instead of having no one to share in the beauty of the Savior with,… to look around with delight in your heart and point to the glory of Jesus in song with others and say, “look at how great He is!” May we find this to be more and more true in our lives: “… we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment.”



A Plea for Sound Doctrine

By / Jan 12

If you could write a letter to someone before you died, what would you say? Many of us would write to our spouses, children, or close friends to remind them how much we love them. Or perhaps some of us would write to that person who we had withheld forgiveness from for so long to try to make amends before our passing. Death has a way of shedding off the insignificant matters of life and highlighting what is most important.

This perspective from death is seen in the life of the Apostle Paul. Thirty years prior to his death, he had an experience that changed his life forever: He met the Risen Lord Jesus (see Acts 9:1-22, 22:3-16, 26:9-18). This encounter opened his eyes, literally and figuratively, and he finally understood the truth of God’s Word revealed and fulfilled in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He understood that God had made a way of salvation for all peoples through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

What good news!

With this good news, Paul spent his life traveling the world to tell as many people as he could of the salvation that is found only in Jesus Christ. He founded many churches. He led many to faith in Jesus. He spoke before the political, religious, and philosophical elites of his day, and he spoke to the down-and-out everyday people. Paul accomplished much for Christ, and His life is an excellent model of faithful living and witness for Jesus.

Yet, like all men, Paul soon found himself face to face with death. Near the end of his life, Paul decided to write letters to two of his dear disciples (Timothy and Titus) to encourage them as he prepared to depart from this world. Remember the question: What would you say? Notice Paul’s main themes in some of his final letters: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus:

1 Timothy 4:6: “In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.”

1 Timothy 4:16: “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching…”

1 Timothy 6:3: “If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing…”

2 Timothy 1:13: “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me…”

2 Timothy 2:2: “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many faithful witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

2 Timothy 3:14-17: “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

2 Timothy 4:2: “Preach the word…”

Titus 1:9: “An elder must be…able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it.”

Titus 1:13: “For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith.”

Titus 2:1: “But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.”

Titus 2:7: “…in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine…”

Do you see the recurring thought throughout these letters? Sound teaching. Sound faith. Sound doctrine. Of course, this list is not exhaustive what Paul says on this topic in these letters, but the point is clear: Paul, more than anything else, wanted ministers to be faithful to the word of God amid a world that would be unaccepting of it. Sound doctrine was the primary focus of his last words. More than anything else, our churches need to heed this plea today, and the responsibility lies with the ministers. 

At this point, two reminders are helpful as we reflect on Paul’s plea for sound doctrine from the pastorals.

First, as ministers, we teach sound doctrine because that is God’s will for our ministry. We often fail to grasp the fact that refusal to do so is disobedience to God. God has given the church His word so they may know Him, and ministers who shy away from the word for a more attractive method of ministry deprive their people of God.

Second, although a commitment to sound doctrine may be difficult and discouraging when so many are unwillingly to hear, we must remember that there are those who will hear, and it is what they need most. I am only a young man in ministry with much to learn on how to be faithful to Paul’s plea, but that should be an encouragement. I am representative of many young men and women in the church who truly hunger for deep truths. Who long to know God deeply.

With these two exhortations in mind, may we hear the plea for sound doctrine, and press onward to answer the call!



5 Books Every Student Should Read Before Graduating High School

By / Jan 10

When I was in high school a pastor put Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper in my hands and it changed my life. It helped reorient my worldview around a sovereign God who called me to spend my life for the things that mattered. That book was a cheap, but enormous investment in my future spiritual life.

As a student pastor I often have parents or mentors ask me what books they should be putting in front of their high-schoolers to help equip them to both grow in their faith and learn to defend it. There are no shortage of books marketed at teenage Christians, but not very many of them are helpful—where some are downright harmful. Over time, these 5 books have become mainstays that I recommend and hope they will for you too!

What is the Gospel by Greg Gilbert

It’s hard for students to get anywhere spiritually if they’re unclear on the Gospel. This small, accessible book is a great entry point to understanding the Gospel. The Gospel is the best news in the world, and this book will help your student understand how to define it.

This Changes Everything: How the Gospel Transforms the Teen Years by Jaquelle Crow

If What is the Gospel defines the gospel for your teen, This Changes Everything will give them an on the ground look at how the gospel changes their life. Written by a teenager for teenagers, it gives a unique and biblically rigorous look at gospel living for highschoolers that I haven’t seen repeated anywhere else.

The Jesus I Wish I Knew in Highschool by Cameron Cole and Charlotte Getz

Teenagers live in a complicated world full of failure, loneliness, anxiety, sin, shame, and more. The Jesus I Wish I Knew in High-School is a one of a kind book that covers everything from rejection and shame to disability and tragedy. It is written by adults who are chronicling how a better understanding of the gospel would have transformed their teen years. This is a new book that is becoming essential reading for my students and leaders.

10 Questions Every Teenager Should Ask and Answer about Christianity

Challenges to the Christian faith have shifted quite a bit over the last 20 to 30 years. Objections have shifted from being primarily scientific to primarily ethical. This leaves a lot of older apologetic resources answering questions no one is asking. The same cannot be said for this book. McLaughlin answers 10 broad questions that every student will be confronted with in this day and age. Written for high-schoolers, it is an accessible resource from them.

Don’t Waste Your Life by Piper

This book was influential for me and it is as relevant today as ever! The American dream still beckons to many of our students. Worldly success at the expense of joy in Christ is a temptation in every culture for every age. Don’t Waste Your Life is a classic work that helps students see the emptiness of mere success, health, and wealth—calling them instead to a life of joyful sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel. Don’t let your student waste their life on success. Help them spend it for joy!

Teenagers today face a host a unique challenges that necessitate unique answers. Books like these manage to confront the specific challenges present with this generation of high-schoolers without compromising the Gospel. They are also readable, applicable, and easy-to-use in a discipling relationship. Getting the right book in a teenagers hand at the right time just might change their life—I know it did mine.



The Other Gospels of Our Day

By / Jan 6

He cuts straight to the point because the issue is that serious. In most of Paul’s letters, he spends some time praying for and blessing the church he is writing. But in Galatians, he says “hello” and gets right to it.

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel…” (Galatians 1:6)

Paul had spent time in Galatia preaching the true and only Gospel to them: Christ died for their sins and rose again so that all who repent and believe can be made right with God and have forever fellowship with Him. And false teachers had crept in, telling the people they also have to be circumcised. Paul calls this a different gospel and a curse (Galatians 1:9).

I don’t know many churches today teaching salvation by circumcision. But we must be on guard against other gospels in our day. What would they be? Perhaps we can narrow them to six.

The Fire-Insurance Gospel

This is the gospel where all that is emphasized is that you make a one-time decision. You walk down the aisle and pray the prayer and you are set to go. You won’t go to hell when you die, no matter what. You “accepted Jesus into your heart” (a phrase that never appears in Scripture).

When this gospel is believed, you get people who pray a prayer at seven at VBS or at twenty-six when an emotional preacher at a revival moved them. And then church memberships have hundreds of people on it five decades later that nobody can identify. But you also have hundreds of people who believe they are going to heaven because they prayed a prayer once, but who are out living unrepentant lives, thinking nothing of God.

The Moral Gospel

This is the opposite of the Fire-Insurance Gospel. This is the gospel where the main point is that you are a good person. Jesus came to give you an example to follow, so you just have to try your best to be an example to others. 

In this gospel, you’re never allowed to struggle again. If you ever slip into sin, you know there will be somebody who condemns you as a hypocrite and says you are the reason they don’t go to church.

This gospel is not about the goodness of God. It’s about your goodness and you can’t be a perfectly good person (Romans 3:10-12). It robs God of His glory and it exhausts you because you can never measure up.

The Social Gospel

This gospel makes our standing with God based on how much we are working to make society better. It’s usually masked behind the idea that we are to love others. God is love, so Christians will be loving others by helping the poor and feeding the hungry. Or fighting against racial injustice. Or serving the pro-life movement. Or political involvement. Or building wells in Haiti. You fill in the blank.

This gospel takes the effect and makes it the cause. The gospel of Jesus Christ moves us to serve the least of these and work for righteousness and justice in society. But that’s not the gospel itself. It’s a result of the gospel.

The Prosperity Gospel

This gospel is dramatically seen in the “health and wealth” movement where God’s will is that you will never be poor or sick and that if you are, you don’t have enough faith. Most Christians know that is silly.

My preaching professor at Southern Seminary, Dr. David Prince, used to say, “Most of us hold to at least a Wal-Mart prosperity gospel.” We don’t necessarily believe we will become millionaires as Christians. But we tend to believe if we follow God faithfully, He will keep us from any hardship or suffering. Things will go pretty well for us. 

But we know that’s not true. Our Savior suffered and so will we. We will one day have a glorious life of no sickness and pain in the New Heavens and the New Earth. But not yet. In this world, we will have tribulation. Our hope is in the One who has overcome the world (John 16:33).

The Sentimental Gospel

“We’ve always done it that way.”

If I did what I had always done, I’d still be dead in my sins. This gospel says that faithful Christianity is doing it the way our traditions say. Any deviation is heresy. 

There is a difference in truth and practices the Bible prescribes and the traditions of man. We hold to those Biblical prescriptions, but we recognize traditions of man are going to change every generation and across every culture.

This gospel makes righteousness before God no longer based on repentance and faith but on whether you wear a necktie to church or sing the right music. 

The Inclusive Gospel

This one has become pretty rampant in the last ten years. It applies wrongly the fact that Jesus welcomed tax collectors and prostitutes. It says the point of the gospel is to welcome sinful people and not judge them. It says we must accept people exactly as they are and never challenge them to change. 

But that’s not what Jesus did. Jesus welcomed sinners and those sinners always left changed. Zacchaeus agreed to repay everyone he had defrauded. The woman at the well found the thirst she had been searching for in men. Jesus welcomed sinners and lovingly called them to repent and we must do the same.

——

Notice that none of these other gospels are flat-out rejections of Christ. They actually take an aspect of the true gospel and make it the only thing that is important. That’s why it’s so easy to be deceived by them.

There is no other Gospel (Galatians 1:7). There are only those who want to trouble you and make you accursed by believing a message inferior to the good news of Jesus Christ. Don’t believe them.



Serving Jesus: Our Effort or His?

By / Jan 5

I have often struggled understanding what I should leave up to God’s sovereignty and what is my responsibility. 

Some people emphasize God’s sovereignty in salvation almost to the exclusion of human responsibility. For example, when William Carey planned to go to India as a missionary, he was told by one minister, “Young man, sit down. When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine.” I disagree. That does not square with my understanding of the Great Commission, nor did it square with Carey’s understanding of God’s sovereignty.

Other people take human responsibility to the extreme. Rick Warren once said, “It is my deep conviction that anybody can be won to Christ if you discover the key to his or her heart.” Really? I don’t even understand the keys to my own heart, let alone others’ hearts. This sentiment places far too much emphasis on human ability to manipulate and persuade.

When it comes to sanctification, or growing in our salvation, some teach a very passive approach. Let go and let God, they say. Proponents of the “Higher Life” movement have argued that to actively strive against sin is to operate in the flesh. Conversely, others stress high standards of spiritual discipline to the Holy Spirit’s work, so that people end up trying to live the Christian life in their own strength. For instance, the Institute for Basic Youth Conflicts boasts of its “non-optional principles of life which, when followed, will result in harmonious relationships in all areas of life.”

It seems I’m not the only one who struggles to reconcile God’s sovereignty and human responsibility.

Where is the biblical balance? Or, more to the point: do I need to get busy working on becoming Christlike, or should I simply pray and ask God to do the work in my heart?

Consider Paul’s words in Philippians 2:12-13. I’m indebted to Steven Cole in his handling of this critical text.

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13 ESV)

Previously, Paul had exhorted his readers to live in a manner “worthy of the gospel of Christ” (1:27). This gospel-worthy life is itself a picture of a life that is at work serving Christ and trusting in God’s sovereignty. It is not passive but active, because of its deep rootedness in relationship with Jesus Christ. Let’s see how Paul describes this lifestyle in Philippians 2:12-16.

Verse 12: Our Human Responsibility

Paul begins with a call to obedience: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence…” (v. 12a).

Paul begins by commending the Philippians for their obedience. He has been discipling them, mentoring them and teaching them how to follow Christ, and he is pleased with their progress.

But what if Paul never returns? That is a real possibility, given Paul’s legal predicaments. So he calls them to obey his teaching regardless of his presence.

Paul is looking for unprompted obedience. I once developed a program at our Christian school with the goal of producing in students what we called “unprompted service.” The goal wasn’t just for students to serve but to develop the habit of serving—of being a person who student who sees needs around them and simply serves, unprompted by a leader. 

This is similar to what Paul was looking for. He wanted his Philippian disciples to follow Christ while he was watching and when he wasn’t. He wanted their obedience to Christ to be free from Paul’s prompting.

Paul’s second call was to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (v. 12b).

The day we put our faith in Christ, we obliged ourselves to obey him too. By embracing Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord, I removed every other god off the throne of my heart and welcomed him to assume the throne of my life. Since then, I have been working out the implications of that decision in my life.

Working out our salvation does not mean we are working for our salvation. No one can receive eternal life by working for it. Rather, as Cole helpfully points out, the only people going to heaven are those who have recognized that they were lost and called out to God to save them through the blood of his Son Jesus. Yet once we receive Christ, we enter the process of sanctification, whereby believers begin adopting and demonstrating their new life in Christ.

In fact, the ultimate aim of evangelism is not simply to avoid hell but to obey everything Jesus has commanded us: “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who died for his stand against Nazism, said, “Only the believer is obedient and only those who are obedient believe” (Stephen R. Haynes and Lori Brandt Hale, Bonhoeffer for Armchair Theologians, 1st edition., Armchair Theologians Series [Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009], 44).

Paul expects his readers to understand that while we are not saved by our works, we are saved for good works (cf. Ephesians 2:10).

“Working out our salvation,” then, means living out the faith we have in Christ. It is virtually the same thing as letting our manner of life be worthy of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27)—a life-long process.

Make no mistake about what Paul desires. He wants real change in the lives of the Philippian believers and he is calling them to obey and work hard to make those changes. This is our human effort side…But wait, look at verse 13.

Verse 13: God’s Side of the Equation

“[F]or it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (v. 13).

Paul just told us to obey and work hard. Now he defines the way in which that obedience and hard work happens. And the ability to obey and work out our salvation is supplied by God himself!

It is God himself that produces both our desire (or will) to live righteously and our ability to work for God’s good pleasure. This is all of grace. 

Sometimes I catch myself thinking, I know that my salvation is from God, but now it’s up to me to do the hard work of living for Jesus. But the Dutch Reformed minister Andrew Murray (1828-1917) had this to say: “No, wandering one, as it was Jesus who drew thee when he spoke ‘Come,’ so it is Jesus who keeps thee when He says, ‘Abide.’ The grace to come and the grace to abide are alike from him alone.”

In other words, the same grace that God supplies for us to come to him in faith is the same grace that transforms believers and enables them to live obediently and righteously.

Paul described his own conversion this way. He went from being a church destroyer to a church planter because of grace (Galatians 1:13-15). So too, Paul calls the Philippians to obedience and good works empowered by God’s grace and not merely their own efforts.

Thus, we return to our initial question: Do I need to get busy working on becoming Christ-like, or should I pray and ask God to do a work in my heart?

The biblical answer is: yes.



Leaving Christianity

By / Jan 4

How an Old Man Helped Saved My Faith

When I was in 10th grade, the Power Team came to my church.  They were a group of powerlifting Christians who went around from mega-church to mega-church, lifting weights and smashing bricks in order to bring “glory to Jesus.” I was excited to see them “perform/preach,” but I was mostly excited that my friends and I got to work out with the Power Team at Gold’s Gym one day between their nightly sessions. One of the members, Eddie “The Gripper” Dalcour, gave me some tips on which whey protein to drink after workouts. The highlight of the week came that night when Eddie “The Gripper” ripped not one but two phonebooks in half and everyone said, “Wow, how amazing!” Of course, the theme verse of the Power Team was Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

This world of white, suburban, prosperity-gospel-lite, Ronald-Reagan-loving evangelicalism was the world I grew up in. I could do anything through Christ who gave me strength. I knew I could do anything because God knew the plans that He had for me and they were plans to prosper me and not to harm me; they were to give me a hope and a future. Besides, even if something bad did happen, I knew that God worked all things together for good for those who loved Him and for those who were called according to His purpose.

What I most wanted to do at that time was play college football for a big SEC school. My dad had played college football for Auburn University and he was my hero. I wanted to be just like him. He hadn’t just been a great athlete, either. He was a great dad, a great husband and a great man, and he was the pastor of our church.  The church had grown rapidly under his leadership, and it seemed like he had been able to do “all things through Christ.” He really didn’t have any weaknesses. So that is what I was going to do – I was going to be just like him. I was going to trust God, get tips from “The Gripper,” work hard, and I was confident that good things would happen and that, one day, I would be able to play college football in order to follow in my dad’s footsteps.

Between 10th and 11th grade, I got a lot faster, bigger, and stronger, and my dream of playing college football was beginning to become a reality. I played tight end on offense and middle linebacker on defense, and seven games into my junior season I was leading the whole city of Huntsville, Alabama in tackles. Schools from all over the country started calling and sending letters.  In the eighth game of the season, I was chasing down a running back on a regular pitch play. In the midst of the tackle, I tore my right ACL and some meniscus cartilage in that knee. It was a big blow, but I knew the Lord had good plans for me. My faith was strong, and I knew God was going to use this bad thing for good. I had surgery on that knee, repairing the ACL and cartilage, and I immediately got back to work. Only this time I was working even harder than I had before. Fortunately, there was enough game film and enough on the stat sheet to keep the recruiting buzz high. Letters poured in that spring and schools began inviting me to visit them during spring games and to attend their summer camps. My rehab was going great, and I was bigger and stronger than ever.  My dream of playing football in the SEC was becoming a reality.

But that May, another blow came. I was lifting weights one day and felt a strange sensation in my head, a “release” of pressure, as I was trying to push out one more rep. I asked my coach if you could tear an artery in your brain and he told me, “That’s called an aneurism and if that would have happened you would be dead.”

For the next few days I had a major headache but obviously wasn’t dead, so I just toughened up and went on with my life. Two days later, on a Friday, I was back in the weight room. After my first exercise, I blacked out and was overcome with pain from my head. After this, my coach told me to go home to see a doctor. That day, I went to my primary care doctor who immediately encouraged me to see a neurologist who did some tests and told me to come back on Monday for an MRI. I got a lot of rest that weekend and was really feeling better by Monday. I went in for the MRI, excited to get it done, finish up the day at school, and join my friends that afternoon for an end of school year pool party over at Katie Flynn’s house. As I was leaving the doctor’s office, they told me to come back later to get the results. This would make me a little late for the pool party, but I hoped it wouldn’t take too long.

When I went back to the doctor’s office, I learned that it wouldn’t be a short trip. The doctor had called both my parents and told us we had to go immediately to the hospital for one more test. The doctor saw something abnormal in the MRI. By this time ,I really was feeling fine – five days after the initial head pain – and I was a little annoyed that they were being so cautious. We went to Huntsville Hospital and, after a painstakingly long arteriogram, the doctors came out shaking their heads saying, “We can’t believe you walked in here today.”

They explained that I had a 2.5 inch tear in the basil artery of my brain. Arteries have two layers and, somehow, the interior layer of the artery had torn and the exterior layer was still intact. At first, I had no idea what this meant and my first question was, “When can I start training for football again?” One of the doctors told me that I would never play football again, and that he was worried I could have a full-blown aneurism or stroke. He told me I had to go on blood thinners immediately and that I couldn’t strain myself in any way. No walking faster than three miles per hour, no lifting more than ten pounds, and certainly no football.

Obviously, I was devastated. Those were the worst words I had ever heard, but I was a part of a loving community and somehow my faith was strong. I believed that “all things worked together for good” and I believed that “God had plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me a hope and a future.” My coaches, friends, and family members were incredibly supportive and kind to me during this season, and I persisted. I also learned a lot about prayer during this time as it seems like everyone I came in contact with that summer was praying for me.

Mine was such a rare case that the doctors didn’t really know what would happen, so the following September, I went back to the doctor to get another opinion to see if the tear had progressed. They did another arteriogram and this time, the doctors came out with huge smiles. My head was okay, there was no tear – whatever had happened was gone. I don’t know exactly what happened that summer, but I walked out of that doctor’s office believing that God had answered prayers and had given me a clean bill of health. I was going to be able to live a healthy and normal life.

Even though I was healthy, that injury ended my football dreams. All the schools that had been recruiting me stopped the recruiting process when they heard about my head injury and, because of the injury, I wasn’t able to finish the rehab on my knee. I was also in really bad shape. When you are used to eating 5,000 calories a day and suddenly stop all activity, it’s not a good combination. But I was grateful.

One dream had died, but I knew others would come.

In fact, the following spring, I was able to get back in shape, and I was thinking about walking on to play football at Auburn. My strength was back and my speed was slowly returning. But then, in a simple game of Ultimate Frisbee after church one Sunday, I tore my ACL again in the same knee. I was even wearing my brace which actually made the tear worse. I knew what happened as soon as it happened because it was the same pain I had felt 18 months before, but I didn’t have the heart to tell my parents. I was just about to go on a graduation trip to Colorado, so I hid the swelling and pushed through it. A few weeks later, I graduated high school and went out to Colorado for a week of mountain biking, rock climbing, river rafting and mountaineering.

It was a great trip. On the last day, I called home and got the sense from my mom that something was wrong at the house. After I pressed her, she finally put my father on the phone. Remember, my dad was my hero; he led me to Christ, he discipled me, he was my pastor and model in all things. But on the phone that night, he admitted to me that for the past several months, he had been having an affair and that he was going to have to resign from the church. In that moment, it would have been easier if someone would have told me that he was dead. I was so crushed, so hurt. He was the greatest guy I knew and now he had done this evil thing to my mother, to his church, to us, and to God. That night in Colorado was one of the worst and longest of my life. My family was in worse shape than my torn up knee, but somehow my faith survived.

Somehow I kept believing that God had good plans for me, that God would work out all things together for good.

Though my football dreams had been taken away and my family was collapsing, I went off to Auburn University with a sense of hope. God was going to do something through this. I had been the SGA president of my high school and I thought, “I will run for SGA president at Auburn and make an impact on this campus for the Lord.” If playing football or being a preacher’s kid wasn’t a secure platform, maybe campus involvement was. So, I joined a fraternity and a bunch of campus groups. Everything was looking up. My parents were working things out, my dad, who was repentant, was eventually able to pastor another church, I had another knee surgery to fix things, and it seemed that all of this was God’s plan.

My junior year rolled around and I announced that I was running for SGA president. I had a great little team of frat guys and sorority girls to help me. On the last day to announce your candidacy, a guy named Jonathan McConnell announced he was also running for SGA president. McConnell hadn’t been involved in SGA, so I really never saw this coming. At first I remember thinking, “Oh this guy is a no name on campus. He will be easy to beat,” until I realized that his dad was the president of the Republican Party in the state of Alabama. His dad had helped the governor at the time, Bob Riley, get elected just a few years before. Coincidentally, Jonathan (the son) ran for US Senate the previous year and made it an interesting race against longstanding Alabama senator Richard Shelby. By this point you might have guessed, as sophisticated as my team of frat guys and sorority girls were, our little campaign had nothing on McConnell’s and I lost. But my faith was strong!

I believed that God knew the plans He had for me and that He was going to give me a hope and a future. I knew all things work together for good for those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.

I went on with my life. That summer I began dating a girl I had met. I remember thinking maybe this is what the Lord had in mind; maybe all of this happened so I could get connected with this great girl. Maybe this is the plan He had for me? About halfway through the next school year, she broke up with me. And in the spring of my senior year of college, as I was facing graduation not really knowing where my life was going and having had so many of my plans spoiled, my faith that had once been so secure began to shake.

I remember praying, “I thought you had good plans for me? I thought you were supposed to prosper me? I thought you weren’t going to harm me? I thought all things were supposed to work for good? Well, none of this feels good.”  For the first time in my life, I felt far way from God. It seemed like I was laying my heart out on the line every time and coming up empty handed. I didn’t vocally reject Christianity or turn to drugs and alcohol, but I did just kind of feel numb to the things of God.  If He was so good and so kind, why, despite my greatest efforts and consistent faith, was nothing working out?  I was the kid who always kept his nose clean, had his act together, and tried to do the right thing.

Why wasn’t I prospering?

During that same spring semester in Auburn, I met an old pastor named Peter Doyle. He was retired, but he really enjoyed hanging out at coffee shops with college students and talking to them about Jesus. A buddy of mine and I started meeting with him and, as the Lord would have it, my attendance was a lot more consistent than my friend’s. It was on these days, when it was just Dr. Doyle and me, that I would tell him about my hurt and even about my numbing faith. The only thing he did in these moments was continue to teach me about Jesus. We were studying 1 John together, but Dr. Doyle just used the book as a spring board to the whole Bible. Through the weeks of meeting for coffee or burritos that spring, Dr. Doyle helped me see that my dreams were too small and my horizons too short. I had small dreams – playing college football and becoming the SGA president. Dr. Doyle helped me believe that God had dreams for me that were so much greater. He really did have good plans for me, and He really was going to work out all of these things for good, but I was reminded that none of that may happen in this life.

As we studied the Bible together, I realized that sometimes followers of God get notoriety and riches, but a lot of times they get dragged outside of the city and are stoned to death. As we studied God’s Word together, I started to really believe that things seem so hard in this world because none of us were meant for this world.  My dreams had been too small and my horizons were far too short. God was and is working out all things together for good, but it may take ten thousand years for me to understand all of that.

I’m grateful for Christianity, I’m grateful for the church I grew up in, I am grateful for Christian music and good sermons, and good books and all that Christianity has produced. But that spring, a shift happened in my life. While I believe I was a Christian before, that spring I looked to Christianity less as something that would serve my dreams and desires, and I started looking more toward Christ. I started to see his power, goodness, and beauty more and more, and that he really was the same yesterday, today, and forever. That spring I took a step away from following Christianity and a step towards following Christ.

I wish I could tell you that since that time that faith has been simple and that fighting sin and doubt have been easy, but that is not the case. I can tell you, though, since that time I really have grown more and more to understand the story that God is trying to tell, and it is not my story, it’s His. I guess I could have told you that before that spring in Auburn, but it took disappointment and pain for me to really understand it. Since then, I’ve experience some pain, but to be honest, my life has been full of a lot of joy, too, and the Lord has given me kind gifts. I have an amazing wife and three beautiful children and, since the fall of that year that I met with Dr. Doyle, I have been pastoring churches, a job that brings me so much joy.

This Sunday, I am leading the effort to start a church in Atlanta, and I guess the only thing I can say about it is that I have learned there is nothing in me that is worthy or qualified to start a church. The story of this church, Christ Covenant, is Jesus’ story to write and it may be a story that people look at in 10 years and say, “Wow, how amazing!” or it may be something people look at and say, “What a joke. I knew they shouldn’t have hired Jason Dees to be their pastor. Either way, I believe that through it all, God really is going to work out something that is beautiful and glorious. I pray He will be pleased, even though I may not understand it all for another ten thousand years.

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared at Jason’s blog, Think Through It.



Unraveling the Riddle of Rejoicing Always

By / Jan 3

Some Bible verses lend themselves quite well to becoming a tweet, a “life verse,” or the inside of a greeting card. But when we read the Bible looking for catchphrases and mottos, we risk mangling the meaning of the Bible and invariably miss out on important truths. Two verses in particular have become slogans for inspirational posters or t-shirts: “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice” (Philippians 4:4), and “In everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Well-meaning people drop these verses on folks in the midst of a crisis, pressuring them to put on a happy face, and burdening them with guilt if they are sad.

Growing up in church, I often heard these verses, and quite often they left me scratching my head. How am I supposed to rejoice always or in everything give thanks? I heard a few preachers along the way try to explain that the preposition solves the riddle. They said we don’t have to give thanks for everything, but in everything. Their explanations left my confusion completely intact. How can I possibly rejoice when my sister is diagnosed with cancer? How can I give thanks when bad things happen? Of course, I’m not thankful for these things, but how can I even give thanks in them? My efforts to muster enough positivity to overcome the negative things I saw and experienced seemed forced and phony.

Several years ago, while meditating on Philippians 4:4, the Lord helped me glimpse why it makes sense to always rejoice—even in hard times—and how it is possible to give thanks in everything. The key is not just the preposition “in,” but the phrase “in Christ.” Nowhere does Paul instruct his readers to rejoice or give thanks in a vacuum, but always in Christ. The key to joy is our union with Christ. In Philippians 4:4, Paul uses the phrase in the Lord and in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, he uses the phrase in Christ Jesus. 

Union with Christ is a major New Testament refrain. Paul uses phrases like “in Christ” or “in the Lord” about 150 times. We cannot unite ourselves to Christ; it comes as a gift through the gospel. The gospel is the only way to experience union with Christ. United to Christ, His joy becomes my joy, and His joy is infinite. Apart from the gospel, joy is more ephemeral than a soap bubble, a mere pretense, an illusion, a vapor.

Without Christ, there is no reason to believe that things will get better. Without Christ, there’s no reason to hope. Without Christ, this world is the best I’ll ever get, and when I die, I face hell. Life is literally a tragedy. 

Because of Christ, I have an entirely different perspective on suffering. With Christ, this world is the closest to hell that I’ll ever be. If I’m in Christ, no matter how bad the situation I’m facing, it isn’t the end of the story. I grieve, but not as those who have no hope. In strict literary terms, life is a comedy, which means the story has a happy ending.

The joy of the Lord has the astonishing characteristic of being compatible with other emotions. Deep joy can co-exist alongside profound sorrow. I don’t need to suppress my pain or sugarcoat my grief. I can weep and lament while simultaneously clinging to the hope-giving promises of God. Because I am united to the One who overcame death, to use Tolkien’s phrase, “Everything sad [is] going to come untrue.”

Union with Christ means the good things I experience now are a foretaste of eternity with Him, and the bad things I endure are temporary. That’s a good reason to rejoice.



After the Manger

By / Dec 30

Christmas is over. The presents were unwrapped, the food was eaten, and the stockings may or may not still be hung. The lights have a leftover glimmer on the trees and houses, and in a few days we might un-deck the halls, then wake up to a new year.

We celebrated Christ born in Bethlehem. Now, life must go on, and so did his.

After the Manger

He “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man,” Luke tells us (Luke 2:52). Readers blink and the gospels transform the infant Savior into the prophet, teacher, miracle-worker, and sacrifice promised for centuries (Matthew 1:21). Luke, however, uniquely different than all the other gospel writers, includes one more chapter in Jesus’ life between the manger and his ministry: his childhood.

Christ the Boy

Jesus was once the baby we sing about in our Christmas carols and see in our nativity scenes, but he was also a child. He learned to walk, talk, read, write, and take care of his household just like any other Galilean boy would have.

In Luke 2:41-52, we find the 12-year-old Jesus making the trek to Jerusalem with his parents, just as they did every year at the Passover. Imagine the Son of God hiking the dusty roads with his people to celebrate a deliverance that would pale in comparison to the one he came to accomplish (Exodus 12:1-28). This deliverance would not come from a runaway prince, ten plagues, parted Red Seas, and dead lambs, but from God in flesh to redeem all flesh for himself. His triumph would not merely be over human kingdoms but heavenly ones, disbanding sin and death, not merely Pharoah’s armies. And yet he, in the form of a 12-year-old boy, made his way with the rest of the Jews to the Passover. The deliverer walked with those needing deliverance.

After the Passover, Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem (unbeknownst to his parents) to listen to the teachers there and ask them questions (Luke 2:46). Why would the omniscient ask questions? Didn’t he know everything? They asked him questions, too, and “were amazed at his understanding” (Luke 2:47). He did not hide his awareness that he was the Son of God, and yet he still took the form of a pupil.[1]

Imagine his temple conversations interrupted by Mary and Joseph’s gasps. After days of looking for him, they finally found their son, though he made it clear that he was not merely their son. The temple was his “Father’s house,” yet it was not beneath him to return his earthly parents’ home and obey them (Luke 3:49, 51).

Lowly Lord Jesus

The boy Jesus, while maintaining his divinity, showed unexpected lowliness—at least, unexpected to us and our own egos.

How often do we truly stoop to the level of the needy and broken for their good, instead of praise for our own charity? When do we look like Jesus walking to Jerusalem, looking like those in need of deliverance and remembering God’s faithfulness?

When do we choose to be humble, listen to others, and be curious with them and about their thoughts, even when we could know as much as they do, or more? The lowliness of Jesus’ posture in the temple is lower than we will ever stoop. Athanasius, in his work On the Incarnation, wrote on the lesson of Christ’s human form: “For as a good teacher who cares for his students always condescends to teach by simpler means those who are not able to benefit from more advanced things, so also does the Word of God,” who is Christ.[2] Christ himself as a 12-year-old boy was the lesson the teachers needed to learn—their long awaited Savior had come for them! And yet, Jesus did not boast about his known divinity. In humility, he listened and asked them questions, as if his greatness was not “a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6). What freedom to listen and ask about the truth without ourselves and our greatness getting in the way.

Do we gladly and willingly submit to our God-given dependencies, like to parents or employers or our basic human needs for rest or work? It was not beneath Jesus to follow Mary and Joseph back to Nazareth. He did not resist the care of his parents, even though he would take care of their eternity on the cross, and neither did he discard their authority over his human wellbeing.

Children of God

In this week that bookends Christmas and the new year, I hope you remember that Christ was not only the baby born for you and the man who died for you, but a boy who lived for you. Our childlikeness, humility, and dependency on God is mirrored in him.

I don’t know what this year has been like for you or what the next year holds, but I do know God did not make us into an image of either helplessness or self-dependency, but the loving care of the Father. He will take care of you this coming year and always, because you are his.

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 3:1)

[1] R.H. Stein, Luke, New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 120.

[2] Saint Ignatius the Great of Alexandria, On the Incarnation, Translated by John Behr (Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011), 65.



10 Tips for Faithful Student Ministry in the New Year

By / Dec 28

Over the past several months I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on my Student Ministry as I plan for the next year. It is easy to lose sight of what is important in your planning and program to impress instead of disciple. Here are some somewhat random but important tips and priorities for you as a Student Pastor and your student ministry in the coming year.

1. Do Less, but Do it BetterOverprogramming is a killer for many student ministries. When things get hard or we want to see growth we just assume more must be better. In reality overprogramming will kill family discipleship (families are already busy) and burn you out. Don’t overschedule the rest of your church. Free students to be involved in other aspects of church life. Find the things you really want and need to do and do them excellently.

2. Involve ParentsParents are great. Find ways to get the involved as volunteers and leaders. If parents are the key disciplers of students we want to create opportunities for parents to invest more deeply in their students, not take away opportunities from parents. If not as volunteers, find ways to hang out with parents, talk to them, communicate with them, and equip them.

3. Don’t Hound Students about Lack of AttendanceYes, attendance matters. Yes, you’re unfairly judged based off of attendance. Yes “what are you running on Wednesdays” is the first question you’re always asked. Often, the lack of attendance is more on the parent than the student. Also, their lack of attendance does not mean you cannot still let them know you care.

4. Do More Lunches and Coffees and Less Big EventsA regular, intentional lunch meeting with a student(s) will do more for their faith than another game night ever will. This doesn’t mean to cancel the game night, but if fun events take up more of your bandwidth than your people you’re missing your best ministry. Budget to be with students and leaders.

5. If You Play Games, Do Something Everyone Can EnjoyMany student ministries have a regular gametime and it becomes one of the most polarizing things they do every week. Students either feel like champions because they always win and are popular or left out because it isn’t something they’re good at. If you have games, make sure they build community not break it down.

6. Plan to Preach WellStudent ministry is busy, fast, and stressful. Make sure you plan time to focus on what matters most—getting the gospel in the lives of students. Let your prep time for your sermons be of paramount importance in your schedule. Discussions, games, etc are great—but God does something special in preaching. Get good at it and prioritize it.

7.Invest in Your Young StudentsIt is a temptation to spend all of your time with the mature older students who are doing well. But make sure you’re investing in your middle schoolers. You cannot just cast the vision to your students one time, but must continually do so to each new group.

8.Take Advantage of Pulpit TimeWhen you get to preach on Sunday morning (or even when you do announcements) take it seriously. You can gain or lose more credibility here than anywhere else. Be clear, give the gospel, be presentable, and take it seriously. Student Pastors should be pastors before they are the adjective that modifies it in the title.

9.Make Hospital VisitsIf you’re a pastor, make sure to visit your people in the hospital if you can. This is one way you can actively be a pastor to your whole congregation. Learn to talk with people, pray with them, and be available. Take a student, intern, or another pastor with you and you can doubly bless the person you visit and yourself.

10.Get EquippedStudent Ministry is serious ministry. We are on the front lines of every cultural shift. We preach to conflicted hearts. We pastor people in their most formative years. Don’t shortchange your people—get equipped. Go to seminary if you haven’t. If you can’t afford it ask your church to help. Find a mentor. Get involved in a cohort. Read good books. We cannot stand to be un-equipped in our faith while trying to equip students.



His Star Appears In The East

By / Dec 25

Throughout history, mankind has sought to develop maps, instruments, and systems in an attempt to rightly orient themselves in the world. From roads to stars, navigation for travel was often aided by landmarks along a traveler’s journey. Yet, even with modern GPS, we have all found ourselves headed in the wrong direction or far from the place we intended to be. If only we had recognized that highway sign a few miles back?

In Matthew 2, the appearance of a star in the east signifies a miraculous event of a God that has intervened in the course of history. The star is recognized by the convinced kingmakers. The star is rejected by the conspiring king, Herod. The star is renounced by the cynical chief priests and scribes. For it is this star, His star, that revealed the advent of the King of Kings.

Yet, while major emphasis must rightly be given to the star’s kingly significance (Numbers 24:17), the star’s significance in relation to its’ appearance in the east allows us to treasure the coming of King Jesus to sinful man all the more.

From Genesis onward, the Bible utilizes direction to not only identify physical location, but to depict spiritual orientation in relationship to God. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden, God banished them to the east (Genesis 3:24). Similarly, when Cain went out from the presence of the Lord after murdering his brother, he settled in Nod, east of Eden (Genesis 4:16). Not only had these biblical characters moved physically, but their sin had revealed their rebellious course and distanced them from communion with God. For man to move eastward appears to be one way the Bible uniquely depicts the rupture of fellowship and disobedient path of sinful man toward a holy God.

Further in the biblical narrative, the connection between direction and heart posture remains, as those who, despite living in the aftermath of the flood, constructed the tower of Babel, first journeying east to settle on the plain of Shinar (Genesis 11:2).

However, as God sovereignly covenanted with Abram, a turning of physical direction in the narrative spotlights a new spiritual direction in relationship with God. With his back toward Ai, a city to the east meaning ‘heap of ruins’, Abram, is headed with his face toward Bethel, meaning ‘House of God’. There in the middle, Abram pitches his tent and builds his altar (Genesis 12:8).

Moreover, direction would separate Abram from his nephew, as Lot journeyed eastward as far as Sodom (Genesis 13:11). Upon the giving of covenant blessing, Abraham sets apart the promised son, Isaac, as the sons of his concubines depart eastward with their gifts to the land of the east (Genesis 25:5-6). Jacob, who wrestled with God, would too find himself in the land of the sons of the east (Genesis 29:1).

Later, God clearly displayed for the Israelites the connection, as the tabernacle would face east calling out to those distant from God, as the Aaronic priests moved west toward the Holy of Holies where fellowship was to be restored (Exodus 27:1-18; Number 2:1-34; Numbers 3:38). Nevertheless, Israel would later find themselves exiled to Babylon in the east (Daniel 9:9-10).

Our world today could aptly be described as one east of Eden. One does not have to travel far to realize mankind’s condition is far from God. Yet, the narrative of Christmas is one that finds a star appear in the east as the magi from the east recognize the coming King (Matthew 2:1-2). Was it not the prophet Ezekiel who saw the glory of God coming from the way of the east to fill the house with His Spirit one again (Ezekiel 43:1-5)?

This Christmas, as you travel far and wide to reach those who you love, remember, recognize, and rejoice, for His star in the east signifies the King who has come to welcome those east of Eden who were exiled so long ago. [1]

[1] Patrick Schreiner, Matthew, Disciple and Scribe: The First Gospel and Its Portrait of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2019), 80.