Year: 2013

  • Be Fueled by Love

    Today I was reminded of just how important it is to be motivated by overflowing love from God.

    When you preach and teach and lead musical worship, are you loving your congregations and those you are communicating with?

    When you engage in one-on-one discipleship, is love fueling your leadership?

    Are your efforts to evangelize emerging from a profound love for those that haven’t yet heard the Good News about Jesus?

    All effective ministry, and indeed all ministry that is pleasing to God springs from deep wells of love that can only come from him.

    Why do anything, if not for love?

    Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. (1 John 2:10, ESV)

  • What is the Path to Spiritual Growth?

    It’s hard for me to believe that it’s taken me this long to pick up and read Richard Foster’s classic on essential tools for spiritual growth, Celebration of Discipline. Although I’ve studied the disciplines for quite some time and have read other books on spiritual formation that took cues from Foster, I finally got around to diving into the original. It’s clear why this book has been such an influential work on so many.

    Foster writes with eloquence and practicality, eager to challenge the reader but never pressing too hard. There’s a certain pastoral sensitivity in his prose that is a joy to read Foster’s progression through the inward and outward disciplines is logical and thoughtful, thorough without becoming verbose.

    I loved this book and plan on re-reading it with some frequency. Some of my favorite thoughts and quotes:

    When we despair of gaining inner transformation through human powers of will and determination, we are open to a wonderful new realization: inner righteousness is a gift from God to be graciously received…the demand is for an inside job, and only God can work from the inside. (p. 6)

    The Spiritual Disciplines are intended for our good. They are meant to bring the abundance of God into our lives. It is possible, however, to turn them into another set of soul-killing laws. Law-bound Disciplines breathe death. (p. 9)

    Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God’s voice and obey his word. It is that simple…It involves no hidden mysteries, no secret mantras, no mental gymnastics, no esoteric flights into the cosmic consciousness. The truth of the matter is that the great God of universe, the Creator of all things desires our fellowship. (p. 17)

    Service as a substitute for worship is idolatry. Activity is the enemy of adoration. (p. 161)

    In the spiritual life only one thing will produce genuine joy, and that is obedience. (p. 192)

    If you were to read only one book on growing in your faith as a disciple of Christ, this is the one.

    Buy it on Amazon

  • Is Radical Christianity A New Legalism?

    Is the kind of “radical” Christianity advocated by the likes of Francis Chan and David Platt just another way for Christians to rely on and emphasize their own efforts over the grace of God? For Anthony Bradley at WORLD the answer may be yes. For those of you that are interested in the new wave of “taking Jesus seriously” I highly recommend reading the article.

    Bradley offers two valid criticisms:

    1)      There’s a lot of “shaming” going on around “radical” living. Some of the popular books can come across as a guilt trip. While I think this critique holds weight, I’d hate to see the Christian culture throw out what is of value in writings of Platt and Chan.

    Although these books are pretty reactionary (as the author notes) they do address what I perceive to be an issue for many Christians: an unwillingness to follow Jesus even when it means being unsafe.

    In my own life I’ve been challenged by this thinking. If living in a “safe” neighborhood is outside my means, should I live there? If it is within my means, but would prohibit me from being able give generously to those that hungry in my community, should I live there? These are not questions with black-and-white answers, of course, but they are questions that need to be asked, and I’m afraid many Christians never ask them, much less consider the risky answer as viable. Books like Crazy Love remind us that our faith is not that is adverse to danger and sacrifice.

    2)      The push to urban centers weakens the Church elsewhere. We need Christians in cities, no doubt, but I agree with the author that this shouldn’t mean we act as if this is a higher calling than rural or suburban Christian life.

    The author talks about a possible solution to the pendulum swings between “comfy Christianity” and “radical Christianity” is a recovery of the doctrine of vocation. Learning about the Lutheran view of vocation was huge for me personally a few years ago, so I get where he’s coming from. I think it has to be part of a larger push toward renewed discipleship in the church at large, though. A doctrine of vocation won’t do it without understanding all of the teachings of Christ along with their implications for doctrine and community life.

  • A Devotional to Help You Hide the Word of God in Your Heart

    I’ve not made Scripture memorization the priority that I should have in the past. As part of my attempt to rectify this, I bought Scripture by Heart: Devotional Practices for Memorizing God’s Word by Joseph Choonmin Kang. He’s a new pastor/author to me, but I saw that he runs with the Dallas Williard/Richard Foster crowd. That and the positive reviews on Amazon convinced me to give this book a try, and I’m very glad I did. Read More “A Devotional to Help You Hide the Word of God in Your Heart”

  • How to Discuss Theology — Without Losing Friends

    ...

    • Pray before, during, and after conversations
    • Listen
    • Be humble
    • Have an open mind
    • Don’t interrupt
    • Think before you speak
    • Squash your insecurities
    • Avoid defensiveness
    • Realize your need to be right is wrong
    • Know that you could be mistaken, misinformed, or simply ignorant on some topics
    • Seek to understand
    • Ask many questions
    • Become skilled at articulating your own convictions
    • Assume the best of conversation partners
    • Recognize when to stop
    • Have a Bible handy
    • Take care with your tone of voice (both in-person and especially in writing)
    • Remember that if we do not love each other, we do not love God (1 John 4:7-8).

  • The Importance of Theological Conversation

    I’ve had some fantastic discussions lately with friends and acquaintances around theology. Over the past few days I’ve been able to really dig into difficult topics like defining the Gospel, the doctrine of Justification by Faith, and the peace teachings of Jesus.

    It’s become readily apparent that these conversations are incredibly important for everyone involved. Not only does speaking about the Bible and God ignite interest and promote learning of new things, it also helps to ensure that we are not reading the Scriptures in a “vacuum.” Read More “The Importance of Theological Conversation”

  • You’re Too Busy And So Am I

    Our culture is obsessed with busyness. The more and more I live and work here in the United States, the more apparent this becomes. A “strong work ethic” means basically working yourself to death. It seems that in many places it’s just expected that you’ll be sacrificing friends and family when you enter “the real world.” Perhaps we save enough to pay for our kids’ college education, but I’m not sure we’ve counted the cost of losing precious time with them. Maybe we can afford that TV and even a bit of travel with our spouse, but we’ve lost everyday connections.

    And God forbid you take a break and have fun once in a while. As a society we’ve developed a sense of guilt over taking vacations, asking for time off, etc. To balance work with rest seems to be received as lazy by many.

    Why? None of this is necessary, unless you buy into the rest of the lies American culture tells you about what an “acceptable” standard of living is and what you have to do to get there.

    Going deeper: being busy all the time is also another way to avoid conflict, live in denial, and keep yourself from becoming vulnerable to other people.

    A life marked by constant busyness, with no rhythm of rest, is a sure way to love people less.

    It seems like we Christians are some of the worst at this too. We expect our clergy to be on the clock 24/7 and bury ourselves in programs “for the Kingdom.” The destructive effects of this on our ministries and families is painfully obvious…just do some research on “pastor burnout.”

    Shauna Niequist posts over at the Storyline blog:

    Today, I want to communicate to my kids, through my words and my actions, that we don’t always have to be hustling, plates don’t always have to be spinning, balls don’t always have to be in the air.

    Me too.

  • Press In or Give Up

    You have two options today.

    Option Number One: act as if you believe what you say you believe. Press into the truth and your values. Commit. It’s difficult, maybe the most difficult thing you ever do. I try and fail, daily…but this is what perseverance is about.

    I’m convinced that trying and failing is better than the alternative.

    Option Number Two: Keep talking about and dressing up like and reading up on what you believe, but don’t actually do anything. Look, if you live like this, I don’t think you really believe what you think you believe. You certainly don’t value it, and you won’t ever live in light of the truth if you don’t pursue the truth. You’ve given up.

    For those of us that claim the name Christ, this means–at the most basic level–really believing that he is the end-all, be-all, ultimate prize of life. It means living like he is God and that God is love. It means returning to and sharing this Love when you’re elated, happy, excited, angry, stretched-thin, left out, exhausted, crushed, or just plain busy. It means saying yes to crazy things, and no to perfectly sensible things. It means Truth over safety.

    You have two options today. Press in or give up.

     

  • Worship is Doing

    There was a time when many in the Church objected to the laity simply watching a special class of people “performing” worship. After all, liturgy means “the work of the people.” The movement that emerged from this framework has paradoxically created a culture where pro-level musicianship is a practical requirement in order to be seen as appealing.

    The last time you participated in corporate worship service, could you hear yourself singing? Could you hear your neighbor singing? The answer for me is often “no.” If not to hear the sounds created, why sing? Respectfully, why not simply think the songs to yourself?

    Even when people are engaged in singing the songs of faith, we too often limit role of the congregation to that portion of the service. Where can we facilitate response via corporate prayers, recitation of Scripture, and even silent reflection? Those of us in mainstream Evangelicalism must realize the power of worship for spiritual formation, and that the biblical model is participatory. We  miss out when we perform in front of people, instead of lovingly leading them to engage alongside us.

    Worship is something we do, not something we watch.