Pastoral Advice Worth Repeating – Part 4: Invest in Your Ministry Friends

By / May 25

Sometimes your pastor is not okay. You know that, right?

For some reason, there is a dangerous functional assumption that happens all the time in our churches that the pastor has an unending supply of encouragement and wisdom, always given with confidence and assurance.

If you ask church members if you think their pastor is perfect, more than 90% of them will probably acknowledge that “of course they aren’t.” (Some sweet, naïve souls just can’t be convinced). But functionally, how often do churches act as if their pastors are still very much in need of personal, relational support? How often are church members taking ownership of ministry opportunities off of their pastors’ plates? How often are churches making sure their pastors have sabbatical rest, opportunities for more training, and accountability in their leadership and personal lives? Who is pushing and discipling the pastor to fight for holiness in the midst of church leadership? Who is pastoring your pastor?

Pastors Needed Saving, Too

When any person is overwhelmed—by inordinate discouragement, an intensely stressful schedule, lack of sleep, a threatening sense of failure or insecurity—usually some cracks start to show. In that kind of perfect storm, any person may be short with those they love, unmotivated or withdrawn, or haphazard and unbalanced with their responsibilities. Usually in these times, such a person would turn to their closest friends or mentors for help and encouragement.

This is what pastors need in such times, too. Pastors need friends—long term, all-in friends. Pastors need ministry friends and mentors who will listen and encourage them in the midst of difficulty. But they also need friends who will challenge them, point out their blind spots, and refuse to allow the abdication of their stewardship from God.

Every pastor needs the ministry friend(s) who will kick out the unhealthy pedestal from underneath them, dust them off, and take them to lunch. A transparent and brotherly relationship like this will keep any pastor—any Christian—from some real stupidity (read the Proverbs, for crying out loud). An encouraging and life-giving relationship like this will sustain a pastor through those days that make him want to quit.

In short, every pastor must have the friends that one day might save their ministry, and even their marriage. It’s already a pattern in each pastor’s life to need saving. As we can all say, “Being needy is our basic condition.”[1] We all have the capacity to blow up the stewardship handed to us; we’re capable of much worse than that. That’s why Jesus came. So it’s not only okay for a pastor to admit that he needs help. It’s irresponsible to neglect an investment in these types of friends.

Are you training for pastoral ministry or ministry leadership? Who are these friends for you, and how are you investing in them for the long haul?

Isolation: A Pastor’s Enemy

In previous parts of this series, I have mentioned that we aim to help our students at Midwestern identify roots of sinful behaviors (the deep and dark ones). We want them to know themselves well enough to know what tendencies they have which might run wild and dangerous if those roots are allowed to grow. Is it a desire for control? Is it lust? Is it comfort? Friends help us make those honest evaluations. And then those friends are the ones to help us to chop away at the roots under the surface of the soil before they sprout.

Paul Tripp, in Dangerous Calling, writes of growing up in a privatized, individualized Christianity. These characteristics could be said to be ubiquitous in American Christianity. Think about virtues Americans hold most dear: liberty, autonomy, privacy, individuality. These lie so embedded in the American culture many of us grew up in, that we don’t even see the way they pollute our Christianity.

As a result, Tripp says, “No one helped my father to see through the blindness that allowed him to live a double life of skilled deception and duplicity. No one knew how troubled my mother was beneath her encyclopedic knowledge of Scripture. No one knew.”[2]

Longevity in faithful ministry is our hope for our students and ourselves, for all in church leadership. How many pastors have you heard of who forfeited or were disqualified from their ministry roles? How many of those situations could have been prevented if a faithful ministry friend knew what was developing much earlier and had permission to cut it off at the pass?

Instead, too many pastors either choose or are forced into the great enemy of longevity: isolation. Sure, they have some friends. But no one knows.

How does isolation happen? Well, it can happen in myriad ways. Those sweet naïve church members who love their pastor and think he hung the moon? Well, you know who really hung the moon, and it wasn’t that pastor. He’s now being thrust against his will onto a pedestal he can’t survive. There is a sweet, naïve, and sinister expectation that the pastor—God’s man for us—always has the answers, is always reliable, always stable, and always doing fine. They might again admit that the pastor isn’t perfect—but functionally, who is checking on him? Who is mentoring him? Look, pastors are intended to be examples to the flock as imitators of Christ. They must meet qualifications (1 Timothy 3:1–7; Titus 1:5–9) that substantiate them as examples of Christian living to other church members. But pastors aren’t Jesus. Pretending to be unassailable is about the dumbest thing a pastor can do, and churches mustn’t aid and abet that stupidity. It isolates the pastor, and may destroy him.

Another way isolation can happen is when a pastor lets the roots of sin grow without letting anyone in to know. In these cases, they can either hide their sin, or dominate others into submission through force. They can assert ungodly control over a period of time that keeps distance between the other leaders and themselves. Or they can live the double-life, allowing no one to have a transparent view into their most subtle and private behaviors.

Inside or Outside?

Variations of the following question often arise here. “Should my closest friends be those in my church? Or should I pursue these from outside our faith family?” Or, what does one do in a situation where there are not peers or mentors available to him for friendship at the church? Most pastors I talk to would prefer to have at least one or two of these friends from within the church or serving alongside them as elders; but most of them also would like at least one or two of these friends to come from outside the church. There is great value in keeping someone close who has a clearer view from outside your ministry. Even if you have to go outside the church to find the kind of person who can be trusted with the role of isolation-shattering friendship, do whatever it takes. Longevity isn’t going to happen without these friends.

Pastors in training, this is something to be working toward right now. Put whatever effort is necessary to make sure you have at least one faithful ministry friend who can correct you, rebuke you, mentor you, encourage you, and fight for you, even against yourself.

Who is already doing this for you? Lean in to that relationship with everything you have. It helps when it’s someone whose company you already prefer. But do the hard work of letting them in, and let them see everything.

The stakes are high. After all, which of these hard conversations would you rather have?

“Brother, I have realized that I am (lingering in conversation with ___  in an unhealthy way; tempted to control our meetings and I respond negatively to disagreement; pursuing comfort over ministry; giving in to discouragement…). Can we pray about this? And can you help me take some practical steps away from this?”

Or…

“Honey, I need you to sit down. I’ve done something terrible, and I need to confess this to you now…”


“Church, I regret to inform you that I will be resigning today as your pastor, as I am no longer qualified to serve in this capacity…”

That may seem a bit dramatic, but is it possible that an intentionality with faithful friendship is a primary guard rail to protect each of us from the second set of conversations needing to occur? The privacy, autonomy, domination, etc. that have destroyed brothers’ ministries in the past could have been prevented by faithful friends who were given permission to refuse to accept these behaviors.

Conclusion

Friendship is serious business for pastors. As I write, I am looking at the back cover of Dangerous Calling, on which I see the names of five ministry leaders who were commending the book. Three of those names are no longer qualified for the ministry roles they held at that time.

If you are training for ministry leadership, you need to get real about your capacity to destroy your own ministry. But good news! God designed us for friendship. God designed us to need others, and He provides the strength we need in His Word by His Spirit, and through His people. Faithful ministry friends will help you stay the course and persevere to the end of the race, when the Lord calls you home.

[1] Edward T. Welch, Side By Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 15.

[2] Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 83.

Editor’s Note: This post is a part of ongoing series on real-life advice for pastors and pastors-in-training. Read the previous posts in the series:
Part One – Walk with God
Part Two – Cultivate Humility
Part Three – Learn Patience



The Moon Speaks: A Q&A with Jason G. Duesing

By / May 25

This type of book is different from what you have published in the past. Tell us, what inspired you to write The Moon Speaks?

In my house, my children call me “The Lorax.” The Lorax, of course, is Dr. Seuss’s character who famously speaks in defense of nature: “I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues. My children call me The Lorax because I like nature and the outdoors. My favorite color is green. When my son is building spaceships out of Legos, I build trees. During church services while listening to sermons and taking notes, I also sketch and usually am sketching trees and mountains. 

When I travel, I am always looking for ways to see what is nearby in nature. This is so much the case in our home that my youngest children crafted a song about nature and creation that served as the inspiration for this book. The Moon Speaks has been an enjoyable project for our entire family to work on with the guidance of the great team at B&H Kids.  

Who did you have in mind when you were writing The Moon Speaks?

The Moon Speaks started as a family song that turned into an illustrated conversation about the world God has made. I wrote this book for families of all kinds who have ever looked outside and wondered or were inspired to sing. I hope this book might help them look further upward to see and learn more about the God who made it all and them.

What do you want children to take away from The Moon Speaks? What do you want parents to take away from The Moon Speaks as they read it to their children?

I hope The Moon Speaks will point the youngest readers and listeners, and those reading to them, to God and to aid them to grow in their understanding of God and how he wants them to understand the world around them.

Believers are like the Lorax—they are called to speak for the trees, taking God’s revelation and proclaiming his glory and the good news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. I hope this book will help you and yours find joy in the world God has made and in this grand task of making him known to the world.

Tell us what the process was like working with the illustrator. What is your favorite illustration in the book and why?

Working with the illustrator has been one of the more enjoyable creative experiences I’ve had in writing a book—and I stress “creative.”  Essentially, she would take my words and thoughts and bring them to life with these magnificent portraits of nature and wildlife. 

My favorite illustration, if I had to pick only one, is the mountain lake only because the illustrator captured almost precisely what I described in words. I was inspired by a family summer hike around Lily Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, and without having seen that lake, the illustrator created an almost exact replica.  So much so, when I see those pages, I think immediately of our family experience there, which was a wonderful time.

What is your favorite spot in God’s creation? What happens when you go there?

I enjoy America’s National Parks a great deal primarily because of what has been preserved in those places on such a large scale. Spending extended time in these places, even in a rigorous activity like hiking or fly-fishing that requires intense concentration, I am usually moved to a mindset of great thankfulness to God for the world he has made—and that he came into this world as a man to redeem man from it to restore fellowship with himself. In other words, I love to talk to and with God while active in his creation.

This book is about the theological concept of “general revelation.” Why do you think it’s important for children to understand this concept and to not lose sight of it as they grow up? 

The funny thing is, in our world, trees do have “tongues.” Or at least, Scripture says they can speak and do speak for themselves. Ps 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” Indeed, God’s creation speaks, but there is a limit to what creation can say and about what it can speak. Therefore, what does creation say?  Why does creation say it?

The answers to these questions is what Christians call the biblical doctrine of general revelation. Though God’s revealing himself through creation has limits—it does not show salvation through Jesus Christ—it points humans to God and reveals parts of God’s attributes and character. Romans 1:20 states: “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” God is invisible (1 Tim 1:17), but he has made his invisible attributes known to the world or made visible through what he has made.

For believers in Jesus Christ, general revelation calls them both to praise God and proclaim God. Believers, armed with God’s special revelation, the Bible, are to help others to understand what they see in creation and how that is meant to point them to God. 

For children, who haven’t yet seen fully the effects of sin on the world and throughout humanity, to grasp the goodness of God in what he has made is a strong foundation upon which they can build their faith as they grow.  



Charles Smith on the Key to Developing a Healthy Culture and Healthy Teams

By / May 25

FTC.co asks Charles Smith, Senior Vice President for Institutional Relations and Professor of Christian Leadership at Midwestern Seminary, “What are key items to have in place to develop a healthy culture and healthy teams?”



Faithful Application of the Word of God

By / May 24

Is The Epistle of James Really all that Strawy?

I have had an uneasy relationship with the way application is typically communicated in evangelical preaching ever since the days I was drowning in depression and suicidal thoughts in the midst of the wreckage of my life and I had a notebook full of helpful steps and action points from years of Sunday sermons that when they mattered most helped the least.

So there’s that.

And out of the angst of the attractional church model and its heavy emphasis on “making the Bible relevant” and its promotion of a pragmatic Christianity, some in the “gospel-centered movement” have sometimes veered too much the other way, forgetting that to be gospel-centered does not mean to be law-avoiding. We are a people of polarization – we are on the pendulum swing. To avoid the attractional church’s cool legalism we end up unwittingly embracing a soft antinomianism.

It’s a bit like Martin Luther’s little parable about the drunken man on the horse, who, in order to avoid falling off one side, falls off the other. So that’s American evangelicalism: a drunken horseman.

The Scriptures commend the better way. A person made in the image of God born again into the image of Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, bought and maintained by the gospel of grace and set free from the law of obedience and yet at the same time to the law of obedience in order to work and will according to God’s good pleasure.

Our Lord’s brother James gives us portraits of the gospel-centered Christian in his epistle. Like this one, for instance, in James 1:

My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

— James 1:19-27

It is the distinction between faith and works, and their relation to a sinner’s justification, which of course cornerstones Protestantism, by which we would mean biblical Christianity. And so the letter of James can feel a bit squirrel to us. Few preach it. Even fewer perhaps preach it well. Protestants wrestle with those stunningly direct words in James 2 about works making justification complete. Those of us who take gospel-centrality rather seriously, may feel keenly what Martin Luther meant when he called James’ letter “a right strawy epistle.” That was early in his ministry, and throughout his ministry he sometimes made negative remarks about the book, claiming that there was nothing of the gospel in it.

I don’t think that’s true, as I hope to show you shortly, but in any event, I think it may be helpful to read the book of James like it is the wisdom literature of the New Testament. Like Proverbs, for instance, James show us what the embodiment of gospel wisdom looks like, what a Spirit-driven followship of Jesus consists of.

In short, James’ appeal to works throughout the book is not a legalistic claim that justification is by works but that justification is authenticated by them – this is what I take him to mean by his use of the word “complete” in James 2.

And it’s a well-worn dictum now to understand the composite of the New Testament as teaching that we are justified by faith alone but not by a faith that is alone. “Faith without works,” as James says, “is dead.” Indeed it’s not really faith.

And here in chapter 1 he lays the foundation for the working dynamic in the rest of his book. His primary contrast in this passage is between the one who merely hears the word of God and the one who “does” it – a contrast between the hearer only and the doer.

v.22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only

How does one move from hearer to doer?

This is the question of biblical application. How do we “do application” in a way that is faithful to the Scriptures and representative of the biblical picture of obedience?

In other words, if we’re going to apply the word of God – in our preaching and teaching, and in our lives – what must we understand? At least three things:

1. Faithful application begins on the inside.

Notice that James’ initial focus isn’t purely behavioral. He’s referencing the doer’s character.

(v.19) My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger

These are behavioral traits, of course, but they have much more to do with the manifestation of a disposition than they do with practical application. He does go there, but not yet. He starts with what is on the inside. “An unwillingness to listen, a rashness to speak, a quickness to anger” – these come from (v.20) an internal anger opposed to the righteousness of God.

These qualities of character are in direct opposition also to the fruit of the Spirit, which includes things like gentleness, kindness, peace, patience, and self-control. I find it amazing how increasingly common it is today to see online and in our churches people claiming to defend the gospel who routinely demonstrate no character in step with that same gospel. Their ministry is all externals.

Faithful application, however, begins on the inside. With what? With, v. 21, the implanted word (received humbly).

In fact, “the word” is referenced 4 times in these verses: v.21, v.22, v.23, and v.25. The external that makes the biggest difference is the external word of God. The word from on high. The special revelation of the Scriptures breathed out by God and able to make us wise.

And so Paul says in Philippians 2:12-13, the salvation that we are to work out with fear and trembling has been worked in us by God. We work out what God has put in.

James here refers to the word of God like a seed planted in us that germinates. It’s referential to Jesus’ words about good trees bearing good fruit.

Faithful application begins with the spiritual nourishment of the word from outside put into us, not with good ideas generated on the inside that we work outwards. The heart must be right, or the works will be worthless.

By the way, this means for those of you who preach, if your weekly time with the Scriptures is purely for utilitarian use in your sermon, and not at the same time for personal nourishment in the Spirit, you are not a faithful doer of the word. We have enough preachers who use the word. What we need are preachers who believe it – who feed on it, who dwell in it, who ingest it. As Charles Spurgeon said:

Oh, that you and I might get into the very heart of the Word of God, and get that Word into ourselves! As I have seen the silkworm eat into the leaf, and consume it, so ought we to do with the Word of the Lord—not crawl over its surface, but eat right into it till we have taken it into our inmost parts. It is idle merely to let the eye glance over the words, or to recollect the poetical expressions, or the historic facts; but it is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your very style is fashioned upon Scripture models, and, what is better still, your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord.

And then Spurgeon goes on to commend John Bunyan:

Read anything of his, and you will see that it is almost like the reading the Bible itself. He had read it till his very soul was saturated with Scripture; and, though his writings are charmingly full of poetry, yet he cannot give us his Pilgrim’s Progress—that sweetest of all prose poems — without continually making us feel and say, “Why, this man is a living Bible!” Prick him anywhere—his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him.

Preacher, if I cut you, would you bleed bibline. If I stabbed you in the stomach, would the Scriptures spill out like guts?

As Paul writes in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of God dwell richly in you…”

Quick(ness) to listen, slow(ness) to speak, and slow(ness) to anger – These are character issues, not primarily skills. Which means James is commending our bringing our hearts first to the work of application.

Do you bring your heart to the word of God, or merely your minds?

If you’re not relating to Christ through his word as a real person in need of the grace you hope to deliver, but are constantly in “ministerial technology” mode you’ve (v.22) deceiv(ed) yourselves

Some ministers get so busy using the word, they never stop to see that they believe it.

Faithful application begins on the inside.

Thus:

2. Faithful application emerges from the centering gospel.

The gospel is here in the text. It lies latent under the surface, like an aquifer of grace, similarly to the way grace runs under the fertile soil of Proverbs. I mean, look at v.18, right before our focus passage:

“By his own choice he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”

Look at verse 18, Martin Luther!

And this grace keeps springing up through the ground in little bubbling brooks, as in vv.23-25.

James makes an observation about the hearer and the doer and their sense of identity.

(v.23-24) if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.

The kind of looking here is not a superficial looking, by the way. It is an “attentive kind of scrutiny.” This is not someone who’s not paying attention when the word is before their face. This is the people in your church services who are awake, alert, taking notes, singing the songs, shaking hands, sticking around to ask how people are doing, and then go home and live like God is worthy of 1 day a week’s attention.

James says “It’s like they’ve forgotten who they are.” They are living according to a different identity.

Doing flows from being. Who or what you believe yourself to be will direct how you live. So if you’ve been living a defeated, dreary, weary Christian life

To see ongoing change in what we do, we have to experience the ongoing change in who we are. And the law by itself cannot change who we are. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can do that.

The law on its own has only the power of condemnation. It shows us what to do and – make no mistake – it means for us to do it. But the power to obey can only come from the only thing the Bible calls power – the Holy Spirit working through the good news of Jesus Christ’s sinless life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection.

And if you are sending your people out every week to a war to fight driven only by commandments and no gospel, you send them out to fight a war that’s already over.

Don’t just tell them what to do for God; tell them who they are in Christ.

The gospel must be at the center of our efforts of obedience, at the center of our application, driving it and shaping it.

Get the mirror contrast from v.23 in v.25:

25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.

Why do I say that the gospel is the center? Because this man commended by James doesn’t really stop looking. He doesn’t walk away from the word, he keeps staring at it. He “perseveres” in it. He’s “looking intently.” Kent Hughes points out that he word used here is the same one used twice in John chapter 20, to describe both Peter and Mary Magdalene bent over and looking into the empty tomb.

The fixation is on “the perfect law of freedom,” by which I think we can take James to mean the whole of the Scriptures, not just the law of commandments but the word of Christ – there could be no freedom without the word of Christ.

To call the law perfect is not simply to say it is itself perfect – though it is, because it reflects the very holiness of God – but to say that it has been perfected – completed, fulfilled – by the Son of God himself, who has come in the flesh to obey it perfectly. And to call this perfect law freedom is not to say that we are made free by our adherence to it, but that we are made free by its adherence TO US – indeed, to be justified by faith in Christ is not simply to receive the pardon for our sins but also to receive the imputation of the perfect righteousness of Christ.

The doer who is blessed is the one who perseveres in the word of freedom, who perseveres in the gospel.

And this is why the primary application point of the Christian sermon should be the invitation to “Repent and believe.” If you’re looking in the Bible for your homiletic, to see how they did “practical application” in their preaching, that’s the consistent application point – “repent.” Repent and believe.

Faithful application emerges from the centering gospel.

3. Faithful application terminates on God’s glory.

What makes the difference between a faithful doer and a legalistic doer? They’re both working. They’re both doing good works. But the faithful doer is working for the applause of God alone. The world offers no safe harbor in its fame, acclaim, or credentials.

In fact, this is the chief issue, I think, with the untamed tongues on social media. There is a need to promote or assert one’s self. So many of our social media soapboxers and bone-pickers claim to be concerned with God and the truth, but they don’t seem to take into account copious amounts of Scripture about what a Christlike disposition looks like.

James even says:

26 If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. 

Instead, he commends (v.27) “pure and undefiled religion before God the Father.”

And what are the chief application points of that? What are the 5 steps to that?

Why does James hold out widows and orphans as the objects of pure and undefiled religion? Because they have nothing to offer you. They can do nothing for you.

You can remind yourself of this vital truth by spending time with people who can do nothing for you.

On my visitation circuit I used to make a regular stop at the nursing home to see a woman named Nellie Fitzgerald.  Nellie was a member of our church. She had no family in the church. Nobody knew if I was seeing her or not except Nellie herself. And she was in her 90s, blind in one eye, and constantly referred to me by my predecessor’s name. Even Nellie didn’t know I was seeing her!

But I would go and sit across from her chair which looked out a big window over the parking lot. And I’d read the Bible to her and ask her about her childhood and all sorts of things.

Do you want to invest in something that lasts? Give your time to people who can do nothing for you. They can’t fill a pew. They can’t fill the offering plate. They can’t talk you up to anybody. But they can remind you of the beauty and the bigness of Christ’s precious church.

One day the previous pastor let me know that Nellie likely only had a few days left. So I visited her that night. She didn’t look well. Slumped over, breathing with much labor, coughing, she welcomed me, but she didn’t recognize me. She began referring to conversations we hadn’t had, picking up trains of thought mid-stream that didn’t make any sense. I could see that she was going.

So I held her hand. I prayed for her. I read 1 Corinthians 15 to her, the whole long thing, and she sat in silence. When I was done, I said to her, “Jesus loves you and is proud of you, Nellie.” I told her that even though her body was weak, she was strong as Jesus inside. She looked at me and began reciting Psalm 23 perfectly, in the King James of course. When she was done, she recited it again. Then she said, “Jesus died for me. I love my Jesus.”

Sometimes I don’t know what “joy inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8) means, but at that moment I did. I had no words. So I just squeezed her hand gently and smiled at her through tears and sat there. That’s what you do in the presence of greatness.

Nellie passed away 3 days later.

No fanfare. No gold star for good pastoring.

In fact, I’m probably nullifying my treasure in heaven just telling you about it.

So why do it? Why visit widows and orphans, and why conduct any aspect of ministry that few will notice, that do not have an evidential ROI?

Because there are more important things than doing big things for God.

God’s glory is bigger than you.

And when we look at the perfect Doer of God’s will — the God-Man himself — we see that he spent an inordinate amount of time with people who could do nothing for him. He prioritized people in the margins, people with no social capital, no cultural currency, no clout, no power. He spent time with these kinds of people to the point that all the “important people” began to criticize him, accuse him, even hate him. That’s how invested in the “wrong sort” of people he was.

And thank God for that. Because that’s you and me.

So faithful application is not about self-improvement or self-actualization. Don’t tell your people that if they do steps 1-4 this week, they’ll have a successful life or a healthy marriage or a fat bank account or any other soft legalism quasi prosperity gospel. Tell them the gospel has set them free from working for God’s approval but to working for God’s glory.

If we obeyed for credit, we deem Christ’s sacrifice insufficient. But we don’t even get to take credit. The gospel empowers our works, so he gets the glory. As Paul writes, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.” They’re not even your ideas!

Let your light shine before men this way: that those who would see your good works would glorify not you but your Father in heaven.

Faithful application begins on the inside

Faithful applications emerges from the centering gospel

And faithful application terminates on the glory of God.



A Plea to Worship Leaders: Sing for the Children

By / May 24

Putting together a worship service isn’t always an easy task. There are songs to be selected and volunteer slots to be filled, which means there are songs people won’t like and volunteers who might cancel for one reason or another. And, of course, there’s always the temptation to go through the motions. After all, there are technical errors to sort through, live streams to keep in check, and rehearsals to run.

No matter how many things go haywire leading up to our Sunday services, there is one thing I can always count on: my friend Evie will be in the pews to my left as I lead worship. Evie is three years old. Sometimes she’s dancing. Sometimes she’s clapping. Sometimes she falls asleep, and other times she stands in the pew. On my favorite mornings, she’s trying her best to follow along with “His Mercy is More.”

She is becoming my favorite encourager, even when I bore her to sleep.

Without fail each Sunday, Evie reminds me of one of the most important parts of my job: instilling God’s great truth in little hearts. As I’ve settled into my first full-time ministry position, I’ve learned to sing for the children—and I think more worship leaders ought to consider making this a priority. Here’s why.

Children listen to the songs we sing.

When I first stepped into my role at First Baptist Alcoa, one of the only maxims I gave for myself was a refusal to sing songs that did not make much of Jesus. I wanted to be certain our congregation heard the gospel message proclaimed in our singing just as often as they heard it in our preaching.

Maybe it’s because I don’t have children myself, but I never anticipated being tagged in videos of congregants’ children singing the Doxology or singing hymns from the previous Sunday’s service. I didn’t expect parents to be mildly disappointed on their child’s behalf because they didn’t get to sing their favorite song at church in a particular week. Quite frankly, not even once had I thought to plan the worship service with children in mind.

More than any episode of Kids Say the Darnedest Things or any viral video, leading worship has taught me that our children are always listening to us. More specifically, they are always listening to the songs we sing at church. No matter how squirmy or sleepy they appear, they are inexplicably attentive enough to pick up on the words and melodies we sing. Some of them even learn songs better than the congregation!

Little ears are always absorbing the environment around them, almost like osmosis. When children hear the gospel sung, even if they don’t fully understand what it means, they get a head start on learning the vocabulary of the gospel. They learn things like “Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again,” or, “Behold our God, seated on His throne; come let us adore Him.” If you don’t believe me, ask my niece who has been memorizing Scripture and catechisms by means of song.

Worship leader: part of your job as a leader is to help plant these truths in children’s hearts at a young age. When you are tempted to be thoughtless toward song choice or theological depth, sing for the children—that they may grow up repeating the truth of the gospel to themselves. By selecting theologically rich songs, children are hearing theologically rich songs. Conversely, when we teach our kids songs without meaningful lyrics, we run the risk of actually teaching them that me-centered worship is the point.

Parents need help with family worship.

Another benefit to thinking about the children in your congregation as you plan your service is to serve the parents in your church as they seek to disciple their children.

For many families, whatever picture you have in your head of “family worship” is a big ask. Getting children to sit still for the duration of dinner is enough of an accomplishment for most, let alone trying to get them to listen to a devotional or sing songs. When our churches sing for the children, however, our churches help cultivate a joy for worship in their hearts. “Family worship,” in other words, becomes less of a chore and more of a desire.

It makes me think of a few more kids from my church: I know for a fact that they love the Getty’s “Magnificent, Marvelous, Matchless Love.” In fact, they love it so much that they sometimes won’t go to bed until their mom or dad sings it with them.

Not only are they learning truths about God’s character and how He has saved us; they are excited to sing about these things with their parents. It makes the burden of family worship significantly lighter when children actually get excited to talk about Jesus. It opens up conversations about what songs mean, why we sing at all, and what Jesus has done for us.

As a brief caveat, I recommend giving hardcopy access to the songs in some capacity. At FBA, we have chosen to print all the lyrics in the bulletin even though we have them on a screen so that parents can take them home and discuss or sing the lyrics with their kids. Every publisher has its own rules, but you can likely get in contact with the publisher of various songs and hymns to try to get permission to copy CDs for personal use for your congregants—or, with the rise of streaming, put together a playlist of the songs that are in your rotation so that people can play it throughout their homes.

As a leader, you are responsible for those who have been entrusted to you.

It’s all over the Proverbs: what happens in childhood inevitably carries into adulthood (Prov. 1:8–9, 13:24, 17:6, 22:6, 29:17). You have been entrusted with little hearts as the unique role of “worship leader” in their lives. You are not their parent, and you may not even be a pastor, but they sit beneath your leadership. Do not waste the time that has been given to you. It is incumbent on us worship leaders to seek the spiritual wellbeing of our whole congregation from womb to tomb.

If we take seriously our responsibility of leading God’s people, we will take seriously our responsibility to sing for the children. The lyrics, melodies, prayers, and postures of worship sown in their hearts will, by God’s grace, return fruitful in the years to come and create a generation of worshippers that treasure Him above all else.



Links For The Church (5/24)

By / May 24

Be A Good Christian

The church has the potential to be known for many things. In this post, Christians are encouraged to honor Christ in all they do and pursue a godly reputation.

In Praise of Deep, Slow Study

Glenna Marshall writes about taking Bible study slowly and what benefits and blessings can be found therein.

Are You Looking High Enough?

We love connecting with others in our interests and likes. What about our connection with Jesus? Sylvia Shroeder encourages us to look higher than this earth for our deepest connections.

The World’s Hatred is not a Guarantee that You are Following Jesus

Keith Mathison writes on sins of the tongue and how the world’s hatred of us might be more about bad behavior or unhelpful speech than our obedience to Jesus.

If You Feel Weary in Prayer

“In the same way we depend on Christ for our salvation, we rely on his sustaining grace each and every day, to provide us the strength to persevere.”



Russell Moore On The Church In The New “Exile”

By / May 21

We asked Russell Moore, “What are some practical things local churches should do to be prepared to be on mission in the new ‘exile?'”



An Essential Part of Planning Your Preaching

By / May 21

I am a proponent of planning your preaching.

I plan out my preaching a year in advance.  And I urge other preachers to do the same. But any plan is better than no plan. It may be a plan for the coming quarter or month. Or maybe for the next two weeks. Anything beats the pressure of looking for something to preach each week.

There are multiple benefits to developing a preaching plan. It saves time. It relieves stress. It allows you to work ahead. It enables you to be intentional about the diet you feed your congregation. And it gives you the opportunity to collect resources for effective preparation.

But there is another reason for planning your preaching that may be most important: A preaching calendar helps you to plan when you are not going to preach.

In the first church I served, I had scheduled times when I was not to preach. For instance, I had the month of August off. I rarely sat it out for the month. But the freedom to pick several weeks when I was not in the pulpit was refreshing. I have not been as good about this in my present assignment. Both the congregation and I have suffered for it.

It is not preaching that so drains preachers. It is the sermon preparation process. Sermons don’t grow on trees. If you take your preaching seriously, it will cost you labor in the study. It is like preparing a term paper for every sermon and giving an oral presentation of it. That joyful burden grows if you preach multiples times each week. And it doesn’t include the other personal and ministerial responsibilities the pastor-teacher has each week.

The preacher’s health – both physically and spiritually – requires that he break the routine at intervals. A bow that is always bent will soon break. Muscles grow through a cycle of exercise and rest. If you burn the candle at both ends, you are not very bright.

In a recent conversation with several pastors, one mentioned that he has an agreement with his congregation to preach forty weeks a year. That’s a good plan. But not every pastor can get away with being out of the pulpit that much. Others may not want to. You must determine what is a reasonable amount of time for you to be out of the pulpit.

These planned breaks are not just for the preacher. Your congregation needs a break from you, too. If your church is nurturing young preachers, they need opportunities to preach. It is also beneficial for your congregation to occasionally hear invited guests. If your congregation cannot or will not listen to anyone but you, it is a cult of personality, not a church.

I hope you will seriously consider planning your preaching. As you do so, don’t forget to plan not to preach. Pastoral ministry is a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself for the long haul. Stay in the race. And finish strong.

Editor’s Note: This originally published at HBCharlesJr.com



It’s Only A Church Service

By / May 21

Editor’s Note: The weekend can be an incredibly distressing time for many pastors to enter into. The desire to spend quality time with family while juggling the pressures of an unfinished sermon can be an exhausting reality. What many pastors need are not more tips on how to prepare better sermons as much as some encouragement to better prepare their hearts to preach the sermon they have. Join Ronnie Martin every Friday for The Preachers Corner, where he offers some words of comfort and stories of hope to help preachers enter the weekend encouraged by the gentle and lowly heart of Jesus.

“It’s only a church service,” he said. 

And I looked at him with that “Did you just say what I think you just said?” kind of look on my face that made him smile. He wasn’t trying to be shocking, nor did he care less than I did about our church service. He was simply an older and wiser pastor catching me in a Mary and Martha moment where I was clearly not being very Mary-esque. 

But this line has always stuck with me because I think pastors put an inordinate amount of pressure on themselves to put on a great church service. So let me get the qualifications out of the way because yes, a good and orderly church service is a right and good endeavor. We are worshipping the King of Glory, so our efforts should reflect in awe and reverence of Him. That doesn’t mean we need to be fancy and flashy, it simply means that our posture is one of love, honor, and respect. 

But our motivations don’t always run that pure, do they? Here are some of the dangerous things we pastors can use the church service for:

  1. A Proving Ground. The work of the pastor is largely an unseen work. We labor in relative obscurity all week, and then on Sunday, the congregation gets to see us actually “do something.” Because of the fear that this can breed in us, Sunday can feel like a proving ground of sorts, in that our sermon becomes the make-or-break moment that can seal or steal every ounce of our self-worth and identity. 
  2. The Greatest Show On Earth. Some of us love to be listened to and love to be looked at, so Sunday morning services are that moment to feel a sense of importance and grandiosity. We know that a service isn’t a show, but that doesn’t change how we feel when all eyes are upon us and a deceptive sense of satisfaction and arrival comes to rest upon our glory-starved egos. 
  3. Achieving Perfection. There is so little in our ministry that goes to plan, mainly because ministry is almost 100% relational, and doesn’t operate in the sterile confines of a laboratory or a craftsman’s workshop where every detail can be honed down to perfection. Because of this, pastors can use the Sunday service as that moment where “everything goes according to plan.” Except for the part I just mentioned about people being the ones who actually execute a church service. But it’s this mentality that can make a church service the pastor’s “baby,” and create an unhealthy ownership over it. 
  4. A Job To Be Completed. Some of us have a very workman-like approach to life that probably stems from our family of origin where we had parents who were very practical, methodical, and efficient when it came to running the household. Pastors can take this approach during Sunday services, too. Instead of a liturgy that is flowing, worshipful, and filled with natural rhythms of grace and truth, a pastor can approach Sundays with a sense of duty and obligation, like a weekly lawn service that comes in and landscapes your yard with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of proficiency. 

What have Sunday services personally become for you, pastor? What kind of joy needs to be reclaimed so that Sundays remain what God intended them to be, which is an 

Hour unlike other hours, when the people of God, worship God, as a community redeemed by the blood of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit for good works. 

It’s only a church service when it ceases to be a worship service. 

Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever (Ps. 111:1-3).



Perspicuity and the Pastor

By / May 20

One often-overlooked characteristic of Scripture is its perspicuity (or, to use a more modern theological term, its clarity).[1] According to the doctrine of perspicuity, not only is the Bible divinely-inspired (or “God-breathed,” 2 Tim 3:16), inerrant, infallible, sufficient, and authoritative, it is a clear Word from God. The Bible is “not a dark and cloudy book.”[2] It is neither opaque nor outside of our reach. Instead, as the early Princeton theologian Charles Hodge once put it, the Bible is “a plain book.”[3] It is accessible. It is understandable. It is clear.

Sadly, this generation suffers from “[a] strange combination of theological amnesia and an uncritical acquiescence in the least disciplined forms of postmodernism have made many Christians highly suspicious of hearing any sure or clear word from Scripture.”[4] What a sad indictment this is, considering that Scripture testifies internally to its clarity. In no uncertain terms, the Bible itself declares: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps 119:105); “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple” (Ps 119:130); “in your light do we see light” (Ps 36:9); and “we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Pet 1:19). What each of these passages communicates to us is that God’s Word is clear. Scripture shines light on God’s person, plans, and purposes in the way a lamp—or the moon—shines light on the nighttime traveler’s path.

The central contention of this article is that the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture ought to be a treasured truth for pastors in particular. For those who have been called to “shepherd the flock of God” (1 Pet 5:2), there is a special charge to devote themselves “to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). And the Word that Christ’s undershepherds are called to minister—whether through their own devotional study, their counseling, their discipleship, or in their public preaching and teaching ministries—is a clear Word, a Word that serves as “a lamp shining in a dark place” (2 Pet 1:19). This article traces out how the doctrine of the perspicuity (or clarity) of Scripture ought to shape, influence, and profit the pastor as he commits himself to prayer and the ministry of God’s perspicuous Word.

Perspicuity Promotes Prayer

The doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture benefits the pastor first in his own communion with God – specifically, as he prays over God’s Word and engages in his personal study of Scripture.

First, the pastor who truly appreciates the great gift God has given us in the Word overflows with praises to God for who He is and what He has revealed in the pages of Scripture. He praises God not only for revealing Himself to mankind both through creation and conscience, but also for revealing key aspects of His limitless wisdom, His perfect purposes, and His unfathomable ways in the pages of Scripture. He praises God for the fact that Scripture itself is God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, sufficient, and authoritative. He praises God that His Word convicts, corrects, sharpens, and edifies the follower of Jesus Christ. He praises God that Scripture is a divinely-given instrument (a spiritual “sword,” Eph 6:17), and as such, it is a powerfully-effective instrument. And he praises God for the fact that, as John Owen put it, “all necessary truth is plainly and clearly revealed in Scripture.”[5] He praises God, in other words, for a clear and perspicuous Word—a Word that does not need to be interpreted by a Pope, corralled by a man-centered hermeneutic, or corrected by modernized, anti-biblical notions of “justice.” Instead, what he reads and studies is a clear and a timeless Word which can rightly be understood through the illumination of the Spirit who indwells him.

In addition to promoting praise, the perspicuity of Scripture promotes petition. It does so because what the perspicuity of Scripture does not mean is that every passage of Scripture is equally clear or immediately understandable. Indeed, we know from Scripture that this is not the case. Peter, writing under the direction of the Holy Spirit, recognized that there were “some things” in the writings of his Paul, his apostolic contemporary, which were “hard to understand” (2 Pet 3:16). In the fourth century, John Chrysostom, likened Scripture to a river: “In one part there are whirlpools; and not in another.”[6] According to Section 1.7 of the Westminster Confession of Faith: “All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all.” The aforementioned Charles Hodge noted: “It is not denied that the Scriptures contain many things hard to be understood.”[7] There truly are “hard sayings” in the Bible. “The clarity of Scripture means that understanding is possible, not that it is easy.”[8]

What all of this means is that the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture does not eliminate the need for hard work in the pastor’s study as he seeks faithfully to mine the truths of the text before him. Scripture’s clarity is not to be confused with its simplicity. To the contrary, the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture drives the pastor to his knees as he petitions the Lord for a clearer understanding of what he knows is a sure and clear Word.

John Webster picked up on this link between perspicuity and pastoral prayer when he said: “the very act of interpretation is itself an episode in the struggle between faith and repudiation of God. We can cloak our own darkness by calling it the obscurity of the text; we can evade the judgment which Scripture announces by endless hermeneutical deferral; we can treat Scripture not as the clear Word of judgment and hope but as a further opportunity for the imagination to be puzzled, stimulated and set to work…That is why the promise of claritas scripturae is inseparable from the prayer: ‘Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law’.”[9]

The pastor who understands the parameters of the doctrine of perspicuity—both what the doctrine means, and what the doctrine does not mean—is a pastor who prays.

Perspicuity Promotes Proclamation

Pastors, though divinely-appointed heralds, are still imperfect vessels and fragile earthen jars (2 Cor 4:7). We are known to mumble, we occasionally fumble, and there are times when we trip over our words—just as some of the prophets and the apostles did who came before us. However, though we can be guilty of speaking with a lack of clarity, no such charge can be laid against God’s perspicuous Word. Instead, the perspicuity of Scripture is, in part, what powers our proclamation of God’s Word to others, whether that proclamation takes place in private settings (counseling, discipleship relationships, Sunday patio conversations, interactions over meals in church members’ homes, etc.) or in public settings (in a formal preaching or teaching capacity).

John Wesley, who along with his brother Charles was used by God to spark the Evangelical Revival in England in the 1730s and 1740s, understood this link between the clarity of God’s Word and a pastor’s responsibility to faithfully proclaim the truths of God’s Word. Wesley remarked:

“I want to know one thing—the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself was condescended to teach the way; for this very end He came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it; here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri. Here than I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone; only God is here. In his presence I open, I read His book; for this end, to find the way to heaven. Is there a doubt concerning the meaning of what I read? Does anything appear dark or intricate? I lift up my heart to the Father of Lights: ‘Lord, is it not thy word, “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God”? Thou hast said, “If any be willing to do Thy will, he shall know.” I am willing to do, let me know, Thy will.’ I then search after and consider parallel passages of Scripture, ‘comparing spiritual things with spiritual.’ I meditate thereon with all the attention and earnestness of which my mind is capable. If any doubt still remains, I consult those who are experienced in the things of God; and then the writings whereby, being dead, they yet speak. And what I thus learn, that I teach.”[10]

In his public ministry, as he preaches the Word, counsels the Word, and otherwise ministers the Word, the pastor who has an understanding of the perspicuity of Scripture will be far less prone to dispensing trite platitudes. Instead, he will be able to deliver God’s truth without varnish and without compromise, knowing that the Word he has been charged to minister is not only clear in its content, but it clearly compels a response. Since he is ministering a clear Word, he can, with a clear conscience, call on his people to respond to the Word. As Martin Luther said: “Christ has not so enlightened us as deliberately to leave some part of his word obscure while commanding us to give heed to it, for he commands us in vain to give heed if it does not give light.”[11]

Knowing that he is ministering a clear Word will propel the pastor’s proclamation of the Word, which will be of great benefit to the people he is shepherding, regardless of their stage of spiritual development. As the English Puritan poet John Milton once wrote:

“The very essence of Truth is plainness and

brightness. The Scriptures protest their own

plainness and clarity, calling them to be

instructed, not only the wise and learned,

but the simple, the poor, the babes.”

Conclusion

A recurring theme in the pages of Scripture is the connection between light and truth (Ps 43:3 (“O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me”); John 3:21 (“But he who practices the truth comes to the Light”)). Scripture, having originated with God, is truth. And Scripture is truth which has been clearly delivered by a God who is perfect in all of His ways—including the clarity with which He communicates.

Especially in the confused culture climate in which we live and minister, may we who have been entrusted with proclaiming the riches of Christ remain committed to doing so unashamedly, unapologetically, and prayerfully—knowing that He has given us a clear Word to proclaim.

[1] The word “perspicuity” comes from the Latin perspicuus, which means “transparent, clear, evident, or manifest.”

[2] Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 1: Revelation and God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 346.

[3] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Volume 1 (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1979 repr.), 183.

[4] Mark L. Thompson, A Clear and Present Word: The Clarity of Scripture (New Studies in Biblical Theology, vol. 21) (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006), 9-10.

[5] John Owen, Works of John Owen, Volume 14 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1966), 276 (quoted in Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), 146)).

[6] Larry D. Pettegrew, “The Perspicuity of Scripture,” The Masters Seminary Journal 15/2 (Fall 2004), 213.

[7] Hodge, Systematic Theology, 183.

[8] Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Is There a Meaning in This Text?: The Bible, the Reader, and the Morality of Literary Knowledge (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 317.

[9] John B. Webster, Confessing God: Essays in Christian Dogmatics, volume 2 (London: T.&T. Clark, 2005), 67 (quoting Ps 119:18).

[10] John Wesley, Works of John Wesley, Volume 5 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1959), 2 (quoted in Hermeneutics, Inerrancy, and the Bible, Earl D. Radmacher and Robert D. Preus, eds. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 477-478)).

[11] Thompson, A Clear and Present Word, 14.