preachers, you have enough to give an account for

Charles Spurgeon was once addressed by a young preacher who complained to Spurgeon that he did not have as big a church as he deserved. Spurgeon replied with a question: "How many do you preach to?" to which the young preacher replied "Oh, about a hundred". Solemnly, Spurgeon said "That will be enough to give account for on the day of judgment."

a 19th century description of the 21st century church

“I confess that I lay down my pen with feelings of sorrow and anxiety. There is much in the attitude of professing Christians in this day which fills me with concern, and makes me full of fear for the future. There is an amazing ignorance of Scripture among many, and a consequent want of established, solid religion. In no other way can I account for the ease with which people are, like children, "tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine." (Eph. iv. 14.) There is an Athenian love of novelty abroad, and a morbid distaste for anything old and regular, and in the beaten path of our forefathers. Thousands will crowd to hear a new voice and a new doctrine, without considering for a moment whether what they hear is true.--There is an incessant craving after any teaching which is sensational, and exciting, and rousing to the feelings.--There is an unhealthy appetite for a sort of spasmodic and hysterical Christianity. The religious life of many is little better than spiritual dram-drinking, and the "meek and quiet spirit" which St. Peter commends is clean forgotten, (1 Peter iii. 4.) Crowds, and crying, and hot rooms, and high-flown singing, and an incessant rousing of the emotions, are the only things which many care for.--Inability to distinguish differences in doctrine is spreading far and wide, and so long as the preacher is "clever" and "earnest," hundreds seem to think it must be all right, and call you dreadfully "narrow and uncharitable" if you hint that he is unsound.” JC Ryle from his book, Holiness, 1877

An apt description as well for 21st century Christianity; although there seems to be a growing hunger for old, tried, rugged, plain, confrontational, deep truth

the prime way of honoring God

"This is the prime way of honoring God. We do not so glorify God by elevated admirations, or eloquent expressions, or pompous services for Him as when we aspire to a conversing with Him with unstained spirits, and to live to Him in living like Him." (Stephen Charnock)

In other words, our personal integrity honors God more than our public acts of service.

"We do not study the Bible just to get to know the Bible. We study the Bible that we might get to know God better."

"We do not study the Bible just to get to know the Bible. We study the Bible that we might get to know God better. Too many earnest Bible students are content with outlines and explanations, and do not really get to know God. It is good to know the Word of God, but this should help us better know the God of the Word." Warren Wiersbe

"I know I should do it but I just don't have the desire."

Here's a video I did for our church's 31 Days of Prayer.

"to overflow spontaneously you must be full"

Trevin Wax wrote a recent blog post that is very challenging to me personally and pastorally. In summary, he challenges pastors to cultivate the kind of private life before the Lord, in His Word, that overflows in public ministry. He shared this quote from Charles Spurgeon's Lectures To My Students (p157):

If a man would speak without any present study, he must usually study much. This is a paradox perhaps, but its explanation lies upon the surface.

If I am a miller, and I have a sack brought to my door, and am asked to fill that sack with good fine flour within the next five minutes, the only way in which I can do it, is by keeping the flour-bin of my mill always full, so that I can at once open the mouth of the sack, fill it, and deliver it. I do not happen to be grinding at that time, and so far the delivery is extemporary; but I have been grinding before, and so have the flour to serve out to the customer. So, brethren, you must have been grinding, or you will not have the flour.

You will not be able to extemporize good thinking unless you have been in the habit of thinking and feeding your mind with abundant and nourishing food. Work hard at every available moment. Store your minds very richly, and then, like merchants with crowded warehouses, you will have goods ready for your customers, and having arranged your good things upon the shelves of your mind, you will be able to hand them down at any time without the laborious process of going to market, sorting, folding, and preparing…Take it as a rule without exception, that to be able to overflow spontaneously you must be full.

sermon: approval junkies

Untitled from Frontline on Vimeo.

the schizophrenic young preacher

Before I preach, I always think "I never want to preach again!" Afterward, I always think "I can't wait to preach again!"

premature sermons

Have you ever had that moment at a cookout when someone brings out chicken that's not finished cooking? It smells so good. It looks so juicy and perfectly browned. And then you bite it...and what oozes out confirms the fact that it should have cooked longer.

That makes me think about the sermon preparation process. A good friend of mine and pastor said:

"I've never regretted that I held on to a sermon for too long. I've often regretted preaching a sermon too soon." John McGowan

Sometimes, in our eagerness to share something God is teaching us or has convicted us about, we preach something that needed to cook longer. Maybe it needed to cook longer in the oven of meditation/study. Maybe it needed to cook longer in the oven of our own personal obedience/application.

Either way, we as preachers should beware of preaching premature sermons.

"In many cases the truth is not found in the middle of apparent opposites, but on both extremes simultaneously."

John Stott died today and, praise God, he is now in the fullness of the eternal presence of God. I read a 2004 article written about him in the NY Times and was impacted by this quote:

"There's been a lot of twaddle written recently about the supposed opposition between faith and reason. To read Stott is to see someone practicing "thoughtful allegiance" to scripture. For him, Christianity means probing the mysteries of Christ. He is always exploring paradoxes. Jesus teaches humility, so why does he talk about himself so much? What does it mean to gain power through weakness, or freedom through obedience? In many cases the truth is not found in the middle of apparent opposites, but on both extremes simultaneously." David Brooks

So true: Jesus as God and man, the Trinity as three and one, predestination and human choice, etc.

Charles Spurgeon embraced those biblical paradoxes. He once said, "Two truths cannot be contradictory to each other." Speaking of predestination and human responsibility, he said: "These two truths, I do not believe, can ever be welded into one upon any human anvil, but one they shall be in eternity: they are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the mind that shall pursue them farthest, will never discover that they converge; but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring."

You can't consistently preach hot sermons from a lukewarm life.

"Leaders, if you create a culture of fear you will ALWAYS get the answer you WANT but NEVER the one you NEED." John McGowan

Love is an others-centered action AND an others-centered motivation (1 Cor13:3).

We can easily start to use love as a way of building our self-image. "Look at me, I'm such a loving person."

Love is not PR.

"No matter what you do, your first 200 sermons are going to be terrible." Tim Keller

my rule for Christian living

“My rule for Christian living is this: anything that dims my vision of Christ, or takes away my taste for Bible study, or cramps my prayer life, or makes Christian work difficult is wrong for me, and I must, as a Christian, turn away from it.”

- Wilbur Chapman

this verse should impact the way we view and do ministry

"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all." (John 6:63)

"We just tryin' to get you to hear the real voice of God 'cause some of these preachers be T-Pain'n it" D-Maub

Wow. Sounds cheesy on the surface, but when you meditate on it for a while it becomes incredibly perceptive.

For those who are not familiar with T-Pain, he is a music artist who is known for his extensive use of auto-tune. According to Wikipedia (my trusty research source), auto-tune is used to "correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform perfectly tuned vocal tracks without needing to sing in tune."

D-Maub's point is that so many of today's sermons are "out of tune" with the truth of Scripture but "auto-tuned" to the modern, cultural ear. So you get two pretty common dynamics happening in modern pulpits.

First, many preachers use what I'll call "antics" to make up for the lack of substance in their sermons. Like an audience so used to auto-tune, the congregation is so tuned up to fluff and hype that they don't hear how out of tune the sermon is with God's Word.

Secondly, many preachers, in an effort to make the voice of God (i.e. the Scriptures) more "appealing", distort or downplay truths and characteristics of God that they deem to be harsh to the modern ear. What you end up with is a very sanitized, "auto-tuned", presentation of God that appeals to our modern cultural sensibilities and desires.

The problem is that the Scriptures do not present "off-key inaccuracies and mistakes" about God. The truths of Scripture are in tune with the reality of God. WE are the ones out of tune.

"For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." (2 Timothy 4:3)

"People don't learn what you teach. They learn what you're passionate about." Don Carson

In context, his point was that what really sticks with people over time is what you're passionate about, not necessarily all of the content you teach.

The gospel is not merely the gate through which we walk and leave behind; it is also the ground."

That statement may seem a bit abstract but the more you walk with the Lord, the more you see that the promises of the gospel undergird and motivate all of the Christian life.

Here's a book that has been extremely helpful to me in centering my life on my gospel:

a passage every preacher should memorize

"just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts." (1 Thessalonians 2:4)

I feel like this passage should be memorized and kept visible by every preacher and teacher of God's Word.

Just reflect on those truths for a few minutes:

1. we have been entrusted with the gospel -how humbling is it that God chose to entrust you with such a monumental task? how sobering is it that you have to give an account for how you handled it?
2. we speak not to please man - how does "pleasing man" creep up in your heart during sermon prep or after your sermon?
3. we speak to please God - what pleases God in a sermon? what pleases God in a preacher? after you preach, are you more preoccupied with what God thinks or what your audience thinks?
4. God tests our hearts - people will critique your sermon, but are you aware that God is critiquing your motives?

"Religion starts wars."

Religion doesn't start wars; people do. A sinful heart will use (and pervert) any means necessary to live out its superiority complex.

Saying 'religion starts wars' is like saying 'neighborhoods cause gang violence.' The problem is people.

Leadership and Isolation

My friend Josh Cahan posted this on his blog. I've noticed that church leaders tend to see themselves as 'leading the church' but not really a part of the church. This quote is such a great reminder that leaders need not be isolated from life of the church.

"It is important that leaders see themselves and are seen by others as part of the church. Professionalism is always the enemy of authentic gospel leadership. Leaders are not a special class set apart on their own, having to face burdensome responsibilities and forced to endure a lonely existence. Leaders cannot be detached. They must be visible believers who live their lives openly in the midst of the believing community." (Total Church by Tim Chester & Steve Timmis)

Video: Persevere

A video I shot for our church's leadership conference. We all admire leaders who have persevered through difficult times, but it's must easier admired than lived out.

The overall idea and creative work is the brainchild of Bobby Morganthaler.

Video: Follow the Follower

Here's another video I shot for our church's leadership conference. It's about the paradox that all Christian leaders live in: In order to lead well, we have to follow well.

The overall idea and creative work is the brainchild of Bobby Morganthaler.

Video: Dream Big

Here's a short video I shot for our church's leadership conference. It's about the power of vision and the necessity for Christian leaders to dream big.

The overall idea and creative work is the brainchild of Bobby Morganthaler.

So much of pastoring is praying.

Lord, it's so easy to lean on the wisdom of the world in all of its activity and striving and ingenuity. Please help me to lean first and foremost on your wisdom (1 Cor.3:18-19), to fight with weapons that are spiritual (2 Cor.10:4), and to work according to your divine power (Col.1:29).

hypocrisy and its impact on preaching

It is so difficult to preach, with passion, something that you do not personally live. Why? (1) Because your conscience bears down on you in your preparation (if it hasn’t been seared by prolonged hypocrisy). You have to fight through feelings of condemnation and guilt and that saps you of your confidence. (2) Because you lack the experience necessary to not just inspire but to actually be helpful. It’s semi-easy to get up and inspire people to do something that you don’t do, because you’re inspiring yourself at the same time. It’s the difference though between someone inspiring you to climb Mt. Everest with vague, abstract words (“It’s beautiful. You should do it. There’s nothing like it in the world.”) and someone actually being helpful to you in knowing how to climb. Someone who has climbed it many times can tell you exactly how to pack for the weather, how it will feel when the low-altitude air hits your lungs, how you should adjust your breathing, the discouragement you’ll feel at 15,0000ft. Someone who hasn’t can only describe a picture of a place that they, at best, long to visit.

Ezra, the scribe, gives us the process for great preaching: "For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel" (Ezra 7:10).

Note: I should add that a preacher is always faced with the reality of preaching something that he/she doesn't live perfectly. But there's a difference between not applying something perfectly and not applying it at all. I'd also add that if you find yourself about to preach something that you haven't personally applied, confess it to God, take joy in the confidence that you're accepted by God because of the gospel, make serious plans to apply whatever you're preaching to your life and/or don't preach it yet.

Updates to this post

"No pastor lives up to what he preaches. If he does, he is preaching too low." John Piper

Why do you believe the church is still so divided racially?

I read a blog post by Pastor Ron Edmonson a little while ago in which he asked, "Why do you believe the church is still so divided racially?" You can read the original post here. I decided to post my response. This is an issue I'm extremely passionate about and my thoughts are a work in progress:

i see the problem at two different levels. one is practical and the other is theological. i put worship style, preaching style, homogeneous church leadership, etc as practical barriers. but i think those are only outworkings of deeper issues.

i'll address the institutional black church for example. in many ways, the black church has been a means of SURVIVAL for black people. one of it's primary functions from the beginning was to preserve African/Black culture and protect/advance the people within that culture. i think that's why you can have so many unbelievers who are still actively involved in the black church. and a lot of black churches still exist for that purpose. it's a core value for the black church--sometimes explicitly so--and i think folks just assume it's ok because that's the way it's been, like artie said.

in light of that, i think it goes beyond the practical factors. i think it comes down to a fundamentally flawed or nonexistent "theology of difference" - be it racial, social, or economic. for example, i don't think most christians can answer the question "biblically speaking, is it ok to embrace ethnic identity?" or "in God's created order, where did race even come from?" now, i don't expect the average person to have answers to that stuff. i didn't for a long time. but i'm hoping that pastors (including myself) will equip our congregations to process race through a biblical framework. because i think that what will filter down is an obvious disparity between how we act/react/feel and what we claim to believe. we have to allow the Bible to critique our presuppositions about race and identity and even our preferences. we have to be willing to admit our prejudices (or at least our ignorance) and allow the Bible to confront them.

i grew up in an all black church in an overwhelmingly predominantly black community. when i graduated from college i went to work for a pretty well-known evangelist in the "CCM-esque" christian world (i.e. white lol) and i got a crash course in all things steven curtis chapman. i remember being the only black guy on our staff in the first few cities i worked and having a really hard time being comfortable around older white people in particular (i think because of images in my head of old white supremacy dudes who were suited by day and hooded by night). i remember being at events where i was the only black guy (and youngest guy period) in a room full of wealthy, influential, older Christian white people and in conversations thinking "you're talking to me but you don't want me here or you wonder why i'm here." i remember being CERTAIN that me and the folks on our staff couldn't possibly have much in common. all of that was rooted in deep-seated skepticism. praise God, He changed me...and i'm glad i did because i wouldn't have lasted now in a predominately white church! lol

two last random thoughts:

1 - i think if we want to invite different kinds of people into our churches, we have to be willing to invite different kinds of people into our homes.

2 - the more exposure i've gotten beyond my preferences, the more my preferences have changed. i like acoustic guitars and romantic jesus songs now. :-)

An elder/pastor is called to "care for" the Church, not to simply manage it (Acts 20:28).

we have to teach people what to believe

The church isn't doing its job if it only teaches people how to live and not also what to believe. We have to equip people to think critically and correctly.

my prayer in seminary

Lord, convert what I learn into wisdom and worship.

two of the hardest questions i've ever been asked

my professor, Gregg Allison, asked our class these two questions:

Are you willing to go anywhere, say anything, do anything, and give up everything regardless of the cost for the sake of Jesus Christ?

If you knew that your suffering was God's best for you and you knew that you could not have His best in any other way, would you be willing to suffer for the sake of His honor?

he cautioned us not to answer too quickly.

a God who is in no way mysterious is in no way divine

i was talking to (debating with) a friend this weekend about God. we were talking about the various and often frustrating challenges involved in believing in God. he brought up some valid criticisms and, after a pretty long dialogue, i made this comment:

"i don't have answers for a lot of the stuff you bring up. some if it i'll never have an answer for. i'm not sure i'd want to worship a God who was totally answerable."

after the conversation was over, that thought kept ruminating in my mind.

i think part of what makes God worthy of worship is the mystery surrounding Him. my wife ashley makes a good point that mystery is an indicator that God is bigger than us. there will always be a gap between us as finite creatures and Him as the infinite Creator.

without mystery, there is no worship. i think christians should be more faithful in developing our own critical grounds for believing the Gospel (1 Peter 3:15), but we should also acknowledge and stand in awe of the mystery that makes God, God (Romans 11:33).

many of us want a God with no mystery. i say a God who is in no way mysterious is in no way divine.

a God who feels pain

a few days ago, ashley and i were at the pediatrician with ava. she was getting her 4month checkup, which unfortunately included...vaccinations. yep. if you're a parent, you're already feelin' me.

this wasn't her first time. i was at work when she got her first shot, but right afterward, ashley called me from the doctor's office so that i could listen in on what sounded like a monster metamorphosis as ava was being introduced to pain. so i was dreading the prospect of actually seeing her experience it.

i even said to ash: "i can almost feel the pain."

and then i reflected on that for a moment. i've been guilty in the past of thinking that God is removed from our pain because of His infinite knowledge. in other words, sometimes i've thought that he doesn't waste time feeling our pain, not because He doesn't care, but because He knows that what we're going through is for our good and only temporary. but I had that same knowledge about Ava's pain and yet it didn't stop me from grieving for her, hurting with her. i knew that she'd be smiling again in a matter of minutes and i even knew that looking back on it, she would see good in it. but my heart couldn't help hurting with her...simply because she was hurting.

how much more does God know our pain? He has infinite knowledge (Isaiah 46:9-10), well beyond ours (Isaiah 55:9), yet he is intimately aware of how we feel (Hebrews 4:15) and He cares (1 Peter 5:7).

God's infinite knowledge should bring us great confidence (because He's ordained how it'll all work out) but his ability to empathize should bring us great comfort.

george muller on the importance of scripture meditation

"While I was staying at Nailsworth, it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost, though now, while preparing the eighth edition for the press, more than forty years have since passed away. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as a habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed in the morning.

Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord. I began, therefore, to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord's blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself toprayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus I have been for awhile making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me, that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, very soon after, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.

The difference then between my former practice and my present one is this. Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events, I almost invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually barren, in which case I read the Word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer. But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even an hour, I only then begin really to pray. I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it!) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.

It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow. Now what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.

I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow-believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials in various ways than I had ever had before; and after having now above forty years tried this way, I can most fully in the fear of God, commend it. How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one!"

Excerpt from the Autobiography of George Müller