A Brick in the Valley

One of my biggest goals for the next 5 years with the Bricks is to see God develop men as leaders (see these posts).  An excellent summary of this approach can be found in The Trellis and the Vine.  It isn’t so much that this book changed my thinking, as that I found myself agreeing with it.  It did help me organize my thinking and brought my thoughts into clear focus in many areas.  It is an excellent book.

I won’t take the time to write a proper review, but Tim Challies has already given an excellent overview on his blog.

The Trellis and the Vine is a metaphor Colin Marshall and Tony Payne use to introduce a mind-shift in ministry that they insist will change everything. That is no small claim. A trellis, of course, is a structure that is used to support, to hold up, a vine. In this metaphor the trellis refers to the administrative work within a church, those tasks that, though important, are not actually directly related to discipling people. Vine work, on the other hand, is those tasks of working with the vine, drawing people into the kingdom through evangelism and then training them to grow in their knowledge of God and their obedience to him. As the authors say, “The basic work of any Christian ministry is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of God’s Spirit, and to see people converted, changed and grow to maturity in that gospel.” The problem, though, is that trellis work tends to take over from vine work. Perhaps it’s because trellis work is easier and less threatening; perhaps the trellis work looks more impressive. But for one reason or another, many Christians, and pastors in particular, soon find themselves consumed with trellis work, leaving them little time and attention for the vine. “Whatever the reason, there is no doubt that in many churches, maintaining and improving the trellis constantly takes over from tending the vine.”

What Marshall and Payne suggest in this book is that most Christian churches need to undergo a radical re-evaluation of what Christian ministry really is. They need to go back to the very basics to understand the aims and goals of ministry, to learn how it proceeds and to see afresh the part we play in it.

Here to read more from Challies.

I can’t really move forward unless I learn more thoroughly the gospel’s content and how to apply it to all of life. Real change does not and cannot come independently of the gospel. God intends his Good News in Christ to mold and shape us at every point and in every way. It increasingly defines the way we think, feel, and live.  Tullian Tchividjian.

One of our central emphases in leadership development for the “Bricks” is to demonstrate how the Gospel should transform every area of life (see What is the Gospel?).  The Gospel is not just a way to avoid hell – it is the power of God at work in our lives.  Tullian Tchividjian recently wrote an excellent article about this for Leadership Magazine.

I once assumed the gospel was simply what non-Christians must believe in order to be saved, while afterward we advance to deeper theological waters. But I’ve come to realize that the gospel isn’t the first step in a stairway of truths, but more like the hub in a wheel of truth. As Tim Keller explains it, the gospel isn’t simply the ABCs of Christianity, but the A-through-Z. In other words, once God rescues sinners, his plan isn’t to steer them beyond the gospel, but to move them more deeply into it.

In his letter to the Christians of Colossae, the apostle Paul portrays the gospel as the instrument of all continued growth and spiritual progress, even after a believer’s conversion.

"All over the world," he writes, "this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth" (Col. 1:6).

After meditating on Paul’s words, a friend told me that all our problems in life stem from our failure to apply the gospel. This means I can’t really move forward unless I learn more thoroughly the gospel’s content and how to apply it to all of life. Real change does not and cannot come independently of the gospel. God intends his Good News in Christ to mold and shape us at every point and in every way. It increasingly defines the way we think, feel, and live.

Read more here.

Guys –-here is one of the reasons I am making ministry to our men such a priority.

Colin Marshall and Tony Payne in the recommended, The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind Shift that Changes Everything:

But if we pour all our time into caring for those who need help, the stable Christians will stagnate and never be trained to minister to others, the non-Christians will stay unevangelized, and a rule of thumb will quickly emerge within the congregation: if you want the pastor’s time and attention, get yourself a problem.  Ministry becomes about problems and counselling, and not about the gospel and growing in godliness.

And over time, the vine withers.

I have a new Bible in my cupboard.  Once Sabbatical arrives, I will peel the shrink wrapping off and begin devouring it (Jeremiah 15:16).  And, my prayer (Psalm 119:18 –-see here) is that God will speak into my life in new and exciting ways.  When He answers that prayer, I will track up the snow of my new Bible by writing out in the margins what God is teaching me – - meditating with pen in hand – - ready to hear from God in living and dynamic ways. 

Remember, the principle means by which God speaks to us today is through His Word.  When we read prayerfully hear the Word of God, then the Spirit will illuminate it in ways that revive our souls,make wise the simple, give joy to the heart, and light to the eyes (Psalm 19:7-11).

With the fresh white pages of my new Bible, I will feel like our friends in the last Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, who looking at a fresh blanket of snow say to one another, “It’s a magical world, let’s go exploring.” 

After the exploring of Sabbatical is over, I’ll have a marked up Bible that will remind me of fresh tracks on my heart. 

And, the reality is, believers have a new Bible every day.  God’s Word is always living and active.  Let’s go exploring.

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My son will be proud of me for putting in the below link.

Shannon Popkin gives a great description of one of the ways your pastor can bless you.  Read Shannon’s article and consider her question at the end.  I pray that you can give an enthusiastic, “yes.”

When I was in middle school, my youth group went skiing.  Pastor Austin, who loved all things fast, was our slope mentor, darting from one new skier to another.  If you happened to be lying on your back your skis and poles looking like a pile of Pick Up Sticks, he would shwoosh to your side, put out his hand and instantly pop you up in the right direction (remember… I was living in a tiny middle schooler body at this point).  He’d give you a pointer or two, grin, then take off.  You could spot him all the way down the hill by these little puffs of powder with each zig zag he made.

I couldn’t really get the zig zag thing.  Directing my skis toward pine trees or steep looking cliffs made me nervous, so I tried to keep them in parallel lines, pointing toward the bottom of the hill at all times.  This worked beautifully on the hills that were (as another new skier wrote this week) the size of a pimple.  But then I took this approach to the mountain. 

With ski tips pointed toward the lodge below (which looked like a Monopoly-sized hotel), I was shocked at how quickly my velocity doubled and then tripled.  The wind whipped my eyelids back into little squints, so that I could only barely make out a skier just ahead.  It was Pastor Austin.  I was gaining on him and knew nothing else to do but yell out, “I’m commmmiiiiiiiiing!” 

Here to read the rest.

I fully expect to go into an airport sometime and find three rest rooms: one for men, one for women, and one for clergy. Our image—and thus, God’s—is sissified.  Steve Brown.

“Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe (Prov 29:25).”

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If you’re a pastor, and you’re unwilling to be tough, then you answered the wrong call.  And, if you’re a church member who expects your pastor to be some mousy little guy out of a Sunday School paper, then a strong leader is going to offend you.

Pastors are called to teach, rebuke, correct, and train (2 Tim 3:16-17, Titus 3:15).  We are to silence divisive people (Titus 1:10-11, Titus 3:10-11) and contend for the faith (Jude 1:3).  Indeed, we are to let no one disregard us (Titus 2:15).  For sure, we should gently instruct (2 Timothy 2:24-26), still we must contend.

Yet, our culture which is generally unwilling to stand for the truth, increasingly demands that pastors cower in the corner, even when people in their churches are causing conflict.

Here is an excerpt of a classic article from Steve Brown in which he encourages pastors to develop a mean streak.  This article is needed.

I spend a portion of my time teaching seminary students, and one of the pastoral traits I urge my students to develop is, for lack of a better term, a "mean streak." All too often in American churches, pastors have become sitting ducks for neurotic church members (and they are a small minority). If people don’t like the way a pastor parts his hair or ties his tie, they feel free to tell him. If they don’t like his wife’s dress because it clashes with the curtains in the church, they tell him. You wouldn’t believe the comments on my beard I have received over the years! Some people feel free to criticize and correct pastors on things for which they’d never think of criticizing anyone else.

Not long ago I was talking with a pastor in serious trouble with his congregation. He was being second-guessed and ridiculed in a shameful way. As we talked, it became apparent this young man needed to develop a mean streak to survive. He told me he felt he had been called to love his people, to understand them even when they were cruel and abusive.

"While you should be loving and kind," I said, "it’s equally important to be honest and strong. Why don’t you bring the people making those comments before the ruling body of the church and have them justify their disturbance of the peace and unity of the church, or leave."

The young pastor’s reply was interesting: "Steve, I know that’s what I should do, but I’m just not made that way. I feel my ministry is to pour oil on troubled waters, not put a match to it." Needless to say, that young man is no longer in the ministry. He didn’t have enough oil for all the troubled waters, so he is now selling insurance.

Former professional football player Norm Evans told me once about a massive freshman lineman—six foot five—with whom he played. In the lineman’s first game, the opposing lineman kept pulling this man’s helmet down over his eyes. The young lineman went up to the coach and said, "Coach, he keeps pulling my helmet down. What should I do?"

The coach smiled and said, "Son, don’t let him do it."

One of the things we’re encouraging our leaders to do is to write in their Bibles.

• When you read the day’s chapter of Proverbs, paraphrase the Proverb that gets your attention (See here).  So, today is the 27th.  Read Proverbs 27 with pen in hand!

• Journal your prayers.  Write out sentence prayers.  Pray with pen in hand.
• Write out your Scripture memory verses (See here).
• Write the date at the end of a book of the Bible each time you read it (See here).

Stephen Altrogge has a very helpful post on how to meditate on Scripture.

Meditate With Pen In Hand
I first heard of this from John Piper, who said the following:

“A pastor will not be able to feed his flock rich and challenging insight into God’s word unless he becomes a disciplined thinker. But almost none of us does this by nature. We must train ourselves to do it. And one of the best ways to train ourselves to think about what we read is to read with pen in hand and to write down a train of thought that comes to mind. Without this, we simply cannot sustain a sequence of questions and answers long enough to come to penetrating conclusions”

The practice of writing down my thoughts as I read my Bible has had a transforming effect on my devotional times. Writing forces me to think through each verse, and to trace the logic of each passage. It helps me to fight distraction and to focus all my attention on the words before me. Go out and get yourself a Moleskine Watercolor Notebook Large journal and start writing as you read.

Read more of Stephen Altrogge’s excellent thoughts here.

One of our central values as a local church is the preaching of the Word.  The Bible teaches that the proclamation of the Word is God’s appointed means (2 Timothy 4:1) for building up God’s people (Ephesians 4:11-13, Titus 1:3).

The goal for our local church is to increasingly value biblical preaching.  One of our most immediate goals is to demonstrate our commitment to preaching by seeing a group of men consistently pray with me before the sermon.

There is a great deal to be learned by the below article by Al Mohler.

Al Mohler:

Preaching has fallen on hard times. So suggests a report out of Durham University’s College of Preachers. The British university’s CODEC research center, which aims to explore “the interfaces between the Bible, the digital environment and contemporary culture,” conducted the study to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the College of Preachers. The report is not very encouraging.

As Ruth Gledhill of The Times [London] reports, “Sermons, history shows, can be among the most revolutionary forms of human speech. From John Calvin to Billy Graham, preaching has had the power to topple princes, to set nation against nation, to inspire campaigners to change the world and impel people to begin life anew.”

Indeed, preaching is the central act of Christian worship, but its great aim reaches far above merely changing the world. The preaching of the Word of God is the chief means by which God conforms Christians to the image of Christ. Rightly understood, true Christian preaching is not aimed only at this earthly life, but is the means whereby God prepares his people for eternity.

Yet, you wouldn’t know this if you judged the importance of preaching by its place in many of today’s congregations. Gledhill observes, “In many churches this most vibrant of moments has withered to little more than 20 minutes of tired droning that serves only to pad out the gap between hymns and lunch.”

More here.

I keep forgetting this one shared by Daryl Dash.

“A good and sobering reminder from D.A. Carson in The Cross and Christian Ministry:

We follow a crucified Messiah. All the eschatological promises regarding the new heaven and the new earth, all the blessings of sins forgiven and of the blessed Spirit of God, do not negate the fact that the good news we present focuses on the foolishness of Christ crucified. And that message simply cannot be communicated from the haughty position of the triumphalists’s condescension. Until the end of the age, we will take up our cross – that is, we will die to self-interest daily – and follow Jesus. The less any society knows of that way, the more foolish we will seem and the more suffering we will endure. So be it; there is no other way of following Jesus.

Leaders in the church suffer more. They are not like generals in the military who stay behind the lines. They are like the assault troops, the front line people, who lead by example as much as by word. To praise a form of leadership that despises suffering is therefore to deny the faith. (pp. 107-108)

I am having the right kind of fast food for lunch today, meaning I’m having no food at all.  Rather than allowing my stomach to always pound out marching orders, I am using the extra time to focus on prayer (1 Cor 9:27).  Every time my stomach protests, I am going to be reminded to pray.

In Matthew 6, Jesus said that WHEN we fast . . . The Lord assumed that his people would fast.

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.(Mt 6:16-18)."

So, today I am skipping my noon meal in order to focus on prayer.  One of my primary goals today is to follow the model of Jesus in Luke 6:12 when we are told that the Lord prayed all night before choosing the Apostles.  A goal for our church in the next 5 years is to see men grow in a special way as leaders.  And, that won’t happen apart from prayer.

You might chide me a bit for telling everyone on the world wide web that I am fasting.  Isn’t it supposed to be done in secret (Matt 6:1).  But, this is a matter of motivation.  And, there is a place to give leadership in prayer and to challenge God’s people.

Why not fast for at least one meal and really pray?