Archive for the 'Church' Category
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Kevin DeYoung:
It’s sexy among young people — my generation — to talk about ditching institutional religion and starting a revolution of real Christ-followers living in real community without the confines of church. Besides being unbiblical, such notions of churchless Christianity are unrealistic. It’s immaturity actually, like the newly engaged couple who think romance preserves the marriage, when the couple celebrating their golden anniversary know it’s the institution of marriage that preserves the romance. Without the God-given habit of corporate worship and the God-given mandate of corporate accountability, we will not prove faithful over the long haul.
What we need are fewer revolutionaries and a few more plodding visionaries. . .
Read the rest here.
Pastor-theologian Tim Keller on the relationship between the church and the kingdom:
What is the relationship of the church to the kingdom? On the one hand, the church is a “pilot plant” of the kingdom of God. It is not simply a collection of individuals who are forgiven. It is a “royal nation” (1 Peter 2:9), in other words, a counterculture. The church is to be a new society in which the world can see what family dynamics, business practices, race relations, and all of life can be under the kingship of Jesus Christ. God is out to heal all the effects of sin: psychological, social, and physical.
On the other hand, the church is to be an agent of the kingdom. It is not only to model the healing of God’s rule but it is to spread it. “You are . . . a royal priesthood, a holy nation . . . that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). Christians go into the world as witnesses of the kingdom (Acts 1:6-8). To spread the kingdom of God is more than simply winning people to Christ. It is also working for the healing of persons, families, relationships, and nations; it is doing deeds of mercy and seeking justice. It is ordering lives and relationships and institutions and communities according to God’s authority to bring in the blessedness of the kingdom.
—Timothy J. Keller, Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road, 2nd ed. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R), 54.
Collin Hansen summarizes an interesting conversation between Tim Keller, Michael Horton, and Matt Chandler.
As the church grows, so do the demands on church leaders. They implement new programs and recruit new volunteers to staff them. Cradle to grave, everyone has somewhere to go.
This might be the typical pattern, but is it inevitable? What are the costs of bigger and better church programs for every stage of life? What is the pastor’s role in relation to the members?
It’s popular for evangelicals to say every member is a minister. But Matt Chandler, Michael Horton, and Tim Keller discuss in this video whether that idea truly reflects Scripture and the best interests of the church. Indeed, Horton argues that the office of the ministry is in trouble. Watch the video for his explanation why along with responses from Keller and Chandler.
People Want a Pastor from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.
Justin Taylor offers a sobering post for long term churches:
Sean Lucas, drawing on some of the lessons he is learning while researching the history of the First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, MS, writes:
As part of the research work that I’ve been doing, I’ve tracked down various churches that are mentioned in biographical sketches or represented in various events. Just today, for example, I tried to find information about Point Breeze Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh (where Harold Ockenga ministered); Central Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga (where Wilbur Cousar pastored); United Presbyterian Church in Wheeling, WV (where John Reed Miller served for a time) and Central Presbyterian Church in Jackson (where R. E. Hough pastored). What do these congregations have in common? They were all thriving, large, significant churches, pastored by conservative, talented men: and they no longer exist today.
Now, the reasons why these churches no longer exist are as various as the congregations themselves. Still, as late as the 1950s, they all were thriving congregations; and if congregational death can happen to these congregations, it can happen to my congregation and to yours. God’s mercy has been evident in the fact that FPC Jackson, a downtown church, has continued to thrive and prosper even as the city of Jackson, Mississippi, has changed several times through the decades.
But it would only take a generation for a church to show signs of decay: perhaps a. . .
Read the rest here.
From Peacemaker Ministries:
In responding to an angry reaction, remember that “a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Prov. 15:1). Respond to anger with a gentle voice, relaxed posture, and calm gestures. Communicate in every way that you take the other’s expression of anger seriously and want to help resolve the problems that prompt it. Plan ahead how to respond to possible objections and deal with them specifically and reasonably.
Taken from The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict by Ken Sande, Updated Edition (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2003) p. 178.Food for Thought
If you’re counting on excellent self-control or a naturally sunny disposition to keep you from responding harshly to a burst of anger from someone else today, you’re drawing from an awfully shallow well. Chances are your “well of gentleness” will run dry … at exactly the worst moment.The source of the “gentle answer” to anger that’s recommended in Proverbs . . .
Read the rest here.
The biblical concept of submission is a beautiful one. God works in and through submission and uses those over us to shelter us from some of the storms of life.
Non-Christians regularly throw around words that should not be part of a believer’s vocabulary. No matter how flippantly people may say, “Oh my God,” Christians should never use our Creator’s name irreverently.
You already knew that. What is interesting, is that there are words in the Christians vocabulary that society treats as swear words.
One such word is “submit.” Depending on where you say the, “submit,” people may look at you like you just used profanity. Say “submit” and the hair on the back of culture’s neck stands straight up.
Christians, on the other hand, should treasure the word “submit” and talk about it often. Repeatedly, the Bible tells Christians to submit. Wives should submit to their husbands. Children should submit to their parents. Employees should submit to those over them in the work place. Citizens should submit to the government. Church members should submit to their pastors and leaders.
The New Testament word for submission is the Greek word, “ὑποτάσσω / upotassō.” It means “to voluntarily yield to in love.”
We submit for our own benefit. God tells children to submit to their parents that it may go well with them. When we submit, when we place ourselves under the authority of another, we stand underneath a shelter that God Himself has built.
This discussion took place in the context of a church planting discussion. But it relates just as directly to church in general. I wish all our people could watch this.
At The Gospel Coalition, Mike McKinley discussed the centrality of the word and preaching in the planting of a church. McKinley says, “The word is the church planters biggest tool.”
2:20: God uses his word to build the church.
6:00: How does God’s word drive the agenda of the church?
6:45: What displaces the word in the life of a church plant and/or church planter?
8:15: My main job is to prepare to feed God’s people on Sunday morning.
The Word (TGC) from Crossway on Vimeo.
Pastor Jeremy Carr reflects on the various ways Satan attacks and how we ought to respond.
Spiritual warfare comes in many forms: false teaching, divisive spirits, deception, roadblocks to the Gospel, and yes even physical attack. I’m not prone to seeing every physical discomfort as a direct attack from the enemy, but there are times when it seems like the forces of evil are pouring it on. The last couple months have been like this in our family, our church staff, and our church. I can’t remember another time when this many physical issues were taking place in the people around me.
We’ve had two different people from our church told they are “one in a million” for being so young and having serious health issues.
The rest here.
