The Successful Church

Milton makes an important point about success and church. The following quote will get you started...

North Americans are fond of success, and Christians here are prone to think of how to make our congregations successful. We measure success with different numbers: doors knocked, baptisms done, new members welcomed, service rendered, dollars donated, posteriors planted in pews. Οur standards of measurement vary, but no one seems to doubt that the church ought to be successful.

Isn't it interesting, then, that the New Testament never uses the word “success” in relation to the church?

Click here to finish reading Milton's brief comments.

[HT: Transforming Sermons]

Who's In Charge Here?

"The Scriptures are clear that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. Jesus is the Apostle who plants a church. Jesus is the Leader who builds the church. Jesus is the Senior Pastor and Chief Shepherd who rules the church. And it is ultimately Jesus who closes churches down when they have become faithless or fruitless. Therefore, it is absolutely vital that a church loves Jesus, obeys Jesus, imitates Jesus, and follows Jesus at all times and in all ways, according to the teaching of his Word."

~ Mark Driscoll in On Church Leadership

Logos Bible Software

I just added a link on my blog list to the Logos Bible Software Blog.

I've been using this Bible study software for years and have greatly benefited from the Camp Logos training seminar (Levels I and II). This is a powerful study tool that is accessible to the person in the pew, provides artillery for the preacher in the pulpit, and has enough academic muscle for the professor behind the podium.

If you haven't tried it, click on the logo below for a free demonstration:

When The Church Is Really Parachurch

I have a good friend who thinks that what we typically refer to as our "church" is really just a parachurch organization. I tend to agree with him. Here's what he means:

Generally speaking, what we refer to as "the church" is an organization with a paid and volunteer leadership who develop and direct programs in which the members of the organization participate in a particular place or building. (Notice that this definition includes churches of all sizes, from the small, rural church with one bi-vocational pastor to the urban or suburban mega-church with a staff of hundreds.) But biblically speaking, the church is the body of Christ, the people, the organism that lives and moves and has its being within the structure provided by the organization.

Think about it. What do you and I call the place to which we travel for worship on Sundays? Have you ever said something like, "Our church is having VBS this week" or "When is the church going to replace those old choir robes with new ones?" or "Have you been tithing to the church?" or "There sure are a lot of churches in this part of town." True, we could be referring to the group of people who are members of our local body, but it seems all too easy to slip into the mindset that the organization is the church and not the people.

If the people of the church (the organism) are really the church, then the organization of the church as I have defined it is really a parachurch organization. Para- means "alongside" and parachurch is a term that has been given to groups and organizations who "come alongside" the church to aid her in her mission. We typically think of groups like Young Life, Chirstian schools and seminaries, and mission boards as parachurch organizations because they do not claim to be churches, but rather servants of local churches and of the Church at large.

So then, the organization with a paid and volunteer leadership who develop and direct programs in which the members of the organization participate in a particular place or building is really a parachurch organization. The structure that has developed in order to organize the life and activity of the organism is meant to come alongside the people to equip and encourage them to be the church. When we rightly define the people as the church, then it becomes clear that the organization that we commonly call "the church" is really parachurch.

This is an important disctinction to make because as I just mentioned, the purpose of the church organization is to serve the organism. However, all too often we pastors and church leaders treat the organism (the people) as if they exist to serve the organization (leaders and programs).

Why do we feel the need to pressure people to give or give more? Because if they don't give, the organization will not survive and our staff, missionaries, and bills won't get paid. Why do we so easily become numbers-centered and spend so much time and energy figuring out ways to get more people in the pews? Because if they don't come our programs won't run, our paid and volunteer staff will have nothing to do, and people will go to other "churches" whose programs "meet their needs." When the organization begins to depend on the organism to prop up or perpetuate itself, the church (the body, the organism) is in danger of being devoured. What might have begun as a church organism being served by its church organization quickly and subtly becomes a group of people who exist to serve the organization.

I'll give two examples of this organization-devouring-the-organism phenomenon: one broad-brushed and one in which I am the guilty party.

• When church growth experts tell us that we must build and maintain "excellent" programs for youth and children because that will attract and keep their parents, I believe we are in danger of sacrificing our children on the altar of church growth. We're using children to get something we really want...their parents in our pews. That's the organism serving the organization.

• A personal example: When I was a Middle School Youth Pastor in a large suburban church, I asked a certain couple to join our volunteer team of leaders in the middle school ministry. I wanted them on board because of their love for Jesus and for people. They said no, and in so many words explained that if they joined our team of volunteers they wouldn't have time to lead the weekly Bible study that they had at their home with friends of their middle school son. Yikes! It hit me hard. I was asking them to give up THEIR ministry to teenagers in their own sphere of influence so that they could serve in MY ministry to teenagers. I was asking the organism to serve the organization. What I should have done was ask them how I could help equip and resource them for the ministry that God had given them in their own neighborhood.

I have much to learn and unlearn. These thoughts are in process, not completely settled. I am not saying that the organization is bad or unnecessary, indeed it is necessary and good, but I'll save that thought for another post. However, I am more and more convinced that Jesus has called the organization to serve the organism and that I have spent most of the last 20 years operating the other way. The question becomes: how can the organization of our churches do a better job of coming alongside our people to equip them to do the work of their ministry? Are we willing to sacrifice the perpetuation of our organization in order to better serve the people, the church for whom Jesus sacrificed Himself?

What are your thoughts?

A Warning to Married Pastors

Attention married pastors: watching this video may save your marriage.




[HT: The Point]

The Bible: Story or Systematic Theology?

Are we to read the Bible as a story or as a systematic theology? It depends on whom you ask. The "emergent" types will emphasize the narrative character of God's Word and some will eschew any approach to the Bible that systematizes its teaching into categories or creeds. On the other side of the table the "traditionalists" will fend for the faith by emphasizing doctrinal purity and a passion for propositional truth while sometimes missing the dramatic forest for the didactic trees.

I often find myself defending one view or the other. When talking with those who over-emphasize doctrine, I remember how I lost the big picture of God's story while immersed in doctrine during my seminary days. When talking with those who bad-mouth theology and down-play doctrine, I am reminded that the New Testament is loaded with the stuff (see Romans) and that the early Christians were devoted to it (Acts 2:42).

Lately, I've found two sources that have helped me understand that God's revelation is a theological story...both/and, not either/or:

First, in a talk available at Resurgence.com, Tim Keller uses an illustration that has helped resolve this tension for me. He refers to J. R. R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy as an example of a story that has such rich depth that it is enhanced (not inhibited) by encyclopedic tools. For example, on my bookshelf at home I have the three volume paperback version of the LOTR triology. Sitting next to those volumes is a one volume paperback edition of The Complete Guide to Middle Earth. A quick search on Amazon.com reveals a myriad of resources that systematize information gleaned from the LOTR story as well as Tolkein's other tales from Middle Earth. These guides help me engage and enjoy the story more than I would if I only read the story. But at the same time, these encyclopedias, dictionaries and atlases would have little impact if I neglected the bigger picture of the whole story.

In his lecture (which is well worth listening to), Keller describes two ways of reading the Bible. When we read the Bible diachronically, we read the text "along the chronos...along the timeline of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, in which case the Gospel (read diachronically) is: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration." We might also read the Bible synchroncially that is "across the grain...you can look at it topically: what does the Bible say about God?...about sin?"...etc. If you read the Bible in this way, says Keller, "the Gospel is: God, Sin, Christ, Faith, not works." Keller argues that "you've got to read the Bible both ways."

I recently found a second confirmation of this "both/and" view in Paul David Tripp's new book A Quest for More: Living for something bigger than you:

The Bible is essentially a narrative, a story. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that the Bible is a theologically annotated story. It is a story with notes for the reader's understanding...

The way the Bible is organized is that the main body of the content is the unfolding drama of the story of redemption. But as I said before, it is a story with notes. On one side of the narrative are propositions. In the propositions, the great themes of the story are distilled down into universal truth statements. The purpose of these statements is to help you understand the plot of the story.

On the other side of the narrative are principles. The principles apply the story to the situations and relationships of everyday life. The purpose of the principles is to help you know what it looks like to live within the plot of God's story.

We need to read and preach and teach the Bible as a narrative-with-notes that helps us to more deeply love and live in "the old, old Story of Jesus and His love."

UPDATE: Another helpful thought along these lines can be found here.

Are We Seeking Disciples or Crowds?

We’ve been seeking crowds, not disciples. We’ve considered every possible means of getting the most people into our buildings and keeping them there, and we’ve attracted people on the basis of mere self-interest, so that what we have are congregations ecstatic to belong to some place that, in the name of the Lord, takes their self-interest as seriously as they do.

Read the entire article "To Follow Jesus: Counting the Cost of Discipleship" by T. M. Moore.

[HT: Breakpoint]

The Heart of Teaching & Preaching :: Part Six

[Read Part One]

[Read Part Two]

[Read Part Three]
[Read Part Four]

[Read Part Five]

Standing Firm in Appraising Grace
What matters most when all your teaching and preaching is said and done?

As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. 1 Timothy 1:3-17


Like Ezra, the Apostle Paul had cream-of-the-crop credentials. Before his conversion Paul knew the advantage of training, talent, and top billing as a leader and teacher in Israel (Philippians 3:4-6). It could be argued that after his conversion Paul possessed more training, talent, and top billing than his apostolic colleagues, but in the spirit of Ezra (more importantly, Jesus) Paul did not rely on his scholarship, skill, or status, but on the appraising grace of God in Christ.

Paul warned Timothy that his people would encounter teachers and preachers who think they know the law they teach, but who have failed to apply that law to themselves, considering themselves righteous (1 Timothy 1:3-11). By contrast, Paul wanted folks to learn from his example as one who knows his law-breaking heart is being transformed into a law-keeping heart by the mercy of God in Jesus, the Savior (1 Timothy 1:12-16). It is interesting to note that teachers and preachers who fail to apply the Law and the Gospel to themselves will fill the ears and hearts of their hearers with empty, speculative talk (vv. 4, 6). If we focus on the proper proclamation and application of the Law and Gospel, we’ll have no time for “vain discussions” which will never engender a “love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (vs. 5).

At the end of his life of preaching and teaching, Paul still stands firm in the appraising grace of Jesus. A man who once called himself the “least of all the apostles” and then the “least of all the saints,” now considers himself the worst of sinners, the one most in need of the good news of God’s grace in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:9, Ephesians 3:8, 1 Timothy 1:15-16). Paul gave Timothy an inside look at what kind of preparation led the aged apostle to be the Church’s premiere preacher/teacher. Paul shows us how to properly apply the Law of God to our hearts, setting them on Jesus as He is offered in the Gospel, aiming them at the studied pursuit of loving God and others, and practicing that faith-expressing-itself-in-love as an example to others.

Think over the teaching and preaching you have offered to others: Has it been filled with the proper application of the Law that leads to powerful proclamation of the Gospel? Do you spend too much time on secondary teachings without laying a solid foundation of the Gospel which is “of first importance” (1 Corinthians 15:3)? Think over your preparation for teaching and preaching: Are you regularly applying the truth and grace of Jesus to your own heart? Can your people look to you as an example of how to do this in their own lives?

Confessions of a Home Church Planter

I've launched a series of posts over on our Riverside Church website called "Confessions of a Home Church Planter" in which I confess that "I have been pursuing a worthy end by the wrong means...."

Over the next few days these "confessions" will give you some insight into the development of our vision for "a family of home churches," plus some thoughts on how we sometimes substitute the church's goal of "conforming to Christ" with a driving desire to "make something happen."

I will close comments here so that you may leave your thoughts there instead.

The Heart of Teaching & Preaching :: Part Five

[Read Part One]
[Read Part Two]
[Read Part Three]

[Read Part Four]

Present the Word
How will your preparations transform your presentation?

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. Ezra 7:10

As we’ve seen this week, the heart of teaching and preaching begins and flows from the heart of the teacher or preacher set by faith on the grace of Jesus. John Piper once said to a group of ministers, “The main battle of ministry is in you, not in them. The main battle for my people is in me.” Ezra knew this.

Ezra also made sure that his teaching was not all abstract but accessible as well. He taught the statutes of the Law, its content and broader applications, but he also taught the rules, the application of the Law to specific situations. Our teaching and preaching must do the same. Paul was a master at this. Consider the common structure of epistles such as Ephesians: a lengthy discourse on the Gospel and its broader, Kingdom implications (chapters 1-3) followed by more specific commands that illustrated how the Gospel will and must impact our relationships in marriage, family, community, and at work (chapters 4-6).

Ezra was able to see the transcendent truth of God’s Word make an imminent impact on his listeners because he had allowed it to do so in his own life first. The preachers and teachers whose hearts are prepared and altered by the grace and truth of Jesus will more effectively proclaim and apply that grace and truth to their hearers.

Evaluate the progress of your people in their faith in and practice of the Gospel. How might your progress in faith and practice be affecting theirs?

Coming up next:

Part Six: Standing Firm in Appraising Grace

Together for the Gospel '08 Audio

The folks at Together for the Gospel 2008 have begun posting the audio of the main session speakers. You can find them here. Speakers include: John Piper, R. C. Sproul, Mark Dever, C. J. Mahaney, John MacArthur, Thabiti Anyabwile, and Albert Mohler.

If this year's messages are as good as the 2006 T4G Conference (scroll down past the 2008 links), then we're in for a treat. The panel discussions were my favorite.

Enjoy!

[HT: Justin Taylor]

The Heart of Teaching & Preaching :: Part Four

[Read Part One]

[Read Part Two]

[Read Part Three]

Practice the Word
Are you sharing the content of the Law and Gospel in the context of Law-and-Gospel-driven relationships?

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. Ezra 7:10

“Just do it” may have been a fitting bumper sticker on Ezra’s camel. Ezra studied with the intention of practicing before he preached. Before Ezra taught the people to love God and love others as the Law commanded, he purposed to practice these lessons of love as a living illustration from which the people could learn. As we learned yesterday, Jesus warned His disciples to be wary of leaders who do not practice what they preach. No doubt Jesus would have approved of Ezra’s ministry.

The “Apostle’s teaching” that we proclaim (Acts 2:42) reminds us that though the Law lays out a good and holy path for us to follow, only faith in Jesus as He is presented in the Gospel gives us the feet to walk in love for God and others (Romans 3:19-31; Galatians 5:6). Our people need to hear us teach “faith expressing itself in love” for God and others even as they see us learning to live it. Like Paul, we must give our people “not only the Gospel, but our lives as well” (1 Thessalonians 2:8). People don’t need perfect pastors and teachers, but pastors and teachers who practice believing the very Gospel they preach.

Do your people see you pressing on to obey God by repenting and believing the Gospel? How will you let them learn from your life? What do you ultimately want them to learn from your lessons and life: self-dependent, self-improvement or Spirit-dependent, Gospel-transformation? When was the last time your people saw you repent and believe the Gospel?

Coming up next:

Part Five: Present the Word
Part Six: Standing Firm in Appraising Grace

The Heart of Teaching & Preaching :: Part Three

[Read Part One]

[Read Part Two]

Pursue the Word
Are you in hot pursuit of what it means to love God and others?

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. Ezra 7:10

After preparing his heart, Ezra then studied the Law of God. Don’t let the word study mislead you. The Hebrew word indicates not merely the gathering of information about God’s Word but a hot pursuit of the Law of Love for the purpose of transformation. Ezra intensely pursued the Word of God with the intention to practice loving God and others. He was not like the teachers of the Law whom Jesus exposed in Matthew 23:2-3: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you— but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice.”

If we’re willing to linger in their light, Jesus’ words will expose us, too. Preachers and teachers are prone to pursue God’s Word for the purpose of proclaiming it to others more than for the personal practice of loving God and others. Paul said that the “aim of our instruction is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5). We, too, must pursue the transformation of the hearts of both preacher and people, not merely the transmission of head-knowledge from preacher to people.

As you study, are your sights set on powerful preaching more than personal practice? Are you aiming for transformation or merely airing information? How will this understanding of study change the way you prepare to preach or teach this week?

Coming up:
Part Four: Practice the Word
Part Five: Present the Word
Part Six: Standing Firm in Appraising Grace

The Heart of Teaching & Preaching :: Part Two

[Read Part One]

Prepare Your Heart
What if the heart of teaching/preaching begins with the heart of the teacher/preacher?

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. Ezra 7:10

Before teaching, Ezra took three preliminary courses of action. Before Ezra presented the Word of God to others he prepared his own heart to pursue and practice that which he would then put forward.

Before he sought to share the Word with others, Ezra set his own heart to seek the Lord. This Hebrew concept of setting, establishing, or directing one’s heart in and toward God is commonly commanded in the Old Testament (Proverbs 21:29; 1 Samuel 7:3; 2 Chronicles 19:3). God holds accountable those who do not “set their hearts” and shows us the disastrous legacy left by spiritual leaders whose hearts are not set in faithfulness to Him (Psalm 78:8; 2 Chronicles 12:14, 20:33). Though we are required to participate, this preparation of the heart is not something that we can do in our own power (Jeremiah 10:23). We must plead with God in prayer to establish our hearts in Him and direct our hearts toward Him (1 Chronicles 29:18; Psalm 119:133). Solomon, whose heart was pulled in a thousand directions, learned from experience how crucial it was to “keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

Ezra prepared his heart before he prepared his lessons.

Have you neglected the preparation of your heart in your preparation for teaching or preaching? How does prayer permeate your teaching preparations? How will you improve this practice as you prepare for your next preaching or teaching assignment?

Coming up next:
Part Three: Pursue the Word
Part Four: Practice the Word
Part Five: Present the Word
Part Six: Standing Firm in Appraising Grace

The Heart of Teaching & Preaching :: Part One

Starting with Appraising Grace
What credentials qualify you to teach and preach the Word of God?

This Ezra went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord the God of Israel had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him…

For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. Ezra 7:6, 9-10

Like many of us, Ezra was blessed with the responsibility of being the primary teacher of God’s Word in his sphere of influence. But what qualified him for this position of leadership? Did his learning license him to teach the holiest of subjects? No doubt a “scribe” like Ezra was blessed with an excellent education. Was it his proficiency in the pulpit or theological prowess? After all, he is described here as not merely schooled but also “skilled in the Law of Moses.” Or maybe he had the advantage of the resources that attend a prominent position? Perhaps Ezra was qualified because he was recognized by human authorities like the king who “granted him all that he asked.”

I propose that Ezra’s education, expertise, and eminence, though helpful, were not the credentials that ultimately qualified him to teach God’s Word to God’s people. The phrase that Ezra most often uses to describe himself is “the good hand of his God was on him/me” (Ezra 7:6, 9; 8:18, 22, 31). The credential that Ezra counted on most was the firm grip of God’s grace on his life. The same is true for us: the cross is the crux of our teaching credentials.

As you consider your teaching role in the church, what credential do you count on most: your training, your talent, your top billing? Or do you lean most on the love of God?

Coming up next:

Part Two: Prepare Your Heart

Part Three: Pursue the Word

Part Four: Practice the Word

Part Five: Present the Word

Part Six: Standing Firm in Appraising Grace

Interviews with Sinclair Ferguson

Sometimes the best nuggets of truth and words of wisdom are found in interviews and Q & A sessions with authors/teachers/preachers rather than in their lectures. C. J. Mahaney of Soveriegn Grace Ministries has recently interviewed Sinclair Ferguson. I've been listening to the audio of these interviews, basking in the Christ-centered truth and ministry wisdom that flows out of Ferguson as he and Mahaney talk together about the gospel, ministry, preaching, sanctification, and about the centrality of Jesus in all things.

You can find links to the text of these interviews, and/or download the audio files here. It will be well worth your time to do so.

[HT: Sovereign Grace Blog]

Piper on "Preaching What You Don't Feel"

Short and sweet words of wisdom about preaching and the preacher's passion.

[HT: Desiring God Blog]

Pastors Should Blog...

...at least that's the advice of Abraham Piper at the Desiring God Blog. Piper (yes, he's the son of Pastor/Blogger John Piper) suggests 6 advantages to pastoral blogging, plus some links to helpful resources for beginning bloggers.