Monday, April 30, 2007

Southern California Travels

This was a busy weekend, but very fun:

Friday night KMR, Half Pint and a friend picked me up from work and we drove to West L.A. to see a girls high school drama production of The Wizard of Oz. Why? My little sister played in their "orchestra" or "band" or whatever it was. The play was great. All of the actors stayed in character very well and - bonus! - they could actually sing. They put in some additional dialogue that was also very good. Late night, but very enjoyable.

Early Saturday I went out to Hemet for Vikinglord's frosh-soph invitational track meet. I got stuck in traffic in Riverside for a half hour due to construction, so by the time I got there he'd already finished the long jump and ran in the 4X100 relay. His long jump was his best this year, but not his best ever. He was happy though: "I finally got my technique back." I got to see him in the triple jump and also run the first leg of the 4X400 relay. He had a good TJ and ran his best 400 time ever. If I remember right, he got 8th in the long jump and 6th in the TJ. If he'd jumped at or near his best in both events he probably would have come in 2nd in the TJ and 3rd or 4th in the LJ. So right now he's motivated to work on those events over the summer. The meet was sponsored by West Valley HS in Hemet, and they did a terrific job. It was incredibly hot, but they ran the events quickly and the meet was over by 12:30pm - often these meets go until mid to late afternoon. As I drove away I saw a sign saying the temperature was 95 degrees.

From there it was down to Escondido to see if I could catch the last couple hours of our presbytery meeting. They usually go until 3 or 4pm. I got to the church at about 2pm, and the parking lot was almost empty. I called a friend, already on his way up the freeway back home, who said they finished before 2pm. That's pretty unusual, but apparently there wasn't much business to conduct. The MNA Committee, which has oversight of church planting, did report to presbytery about my "preliminary proposal" to do a new church plant in north OC. That's pretty cool. God willing I will meet with them in July, while also continuing to talk with the session at my church. So, all that driving only to miss presbytery, but that's OK.

To back up a bit, on Friday during lunch I looked at a potential place for the new church plant to meet. The father of a co-worker owns some commercial property on Imperial Highway in La Habra. While we won't need it until much later this year, it would be a very good place to start a new church. They can't hold it for us, but if it doesn't rent out between now and then it could be ours. Very exciting!

Saturday night was supposed to be the annual dinner auction for Half Pint's school. But Tia, her sitter, got sick and had to go home. So I stayed with Half Pint while KMR went to the dinner. Half Pint is not as into Little House on the Prairie as she used to be. Lately it's been DVD's of The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. She also likes the Robin Hood series on BBC America. So we're hanging on the couch and flipping through the channel guide and what's on? The classic Robin Hood movie with Errol Flynn. Of course we watched it. After that they had several Robin Hood movie versions, which we recorded on the DVR.

Then Sunday morning we got up early and went out to Palm Desert to visit Providence Presbyterian Church (see at right), and our friends Clayton and Kristi Willis. We hadn't been out there in quite a while, so it was good to see them and the other people at the church. We've been visiting regularly since they started just over 4 years ago, but much less often recently. Clayton preached a very good sermon on Ephesians 2:1-2. It's a small congregation, but maturing strongly in Christ and the Word. If you know anyone who lives out that way, point them to PPC.

Today it's back to work, and then down to Escondido again for class. This may be my last drive down there to attend class, although we may decide to meet for two more weeks. It's hard to believe seminary is almost over.

Many miles and a very busy weekend. But, as I said above, very fun.

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Posted by Martin at 7:10 AM | | Comments

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Trusting God in the Mundane & Practical

Lately I've been reading through the Pastoral Epistles, thinking that they would be a good resource for developing a biblical view of how to start and lead a new church plant. It turns out a friend has been reading them, too, and made the comment that it's interesting how there's really nothing in I & II Timothy or Titus about raising money, renting a facility, advertizing the new church, etc. Paul's concerns are spiritual and very relational. This observation is right on and well worth remembering.

It struck me this morning, in thinking about his observation, that this is pretty much true of the entire Bible. There are no practical instructions for how to sow barley, tend the fields as it grows, harvest it, thresh out the grain, or mill it into flour. I think this is for two reasons.

Firstly, God knows that we know how to do these mundane and practical things. They are part of what is common to men, whether they are God's people or not. The Bible isn't concerned so much about these kinds of things. So, secondly, the Bible focuses on the spiritual. What does the believing barley farmer do that the pagan barley farmer doesn't? He trusts in God. He sows, tends, reaps, threshes and mills in faith. He knows that it is God who causes the rain to fall and the sun to shine. He knows that it is God who will provide for his needs in whatever circumstance of life, rain or shine, or lack thereof. But that doesn't make him lazy. He still sows, tends, reaps, threshes and mills, and he does it to the best of his ability. This glorifies God and shows the farmer's faith in Him and thanks to Him.

The same principle applies to church planting. We know, in today's society, that we need a place to meet, there are certain costs involved in "doing" church, and that we need to plan wisely for these things. But this is not where our hope lies. Our hope and trust is with God, that He will raise up Christ's Church. So Paul in the Pastoral Epistles focuses on the spiritual attitudes, characteristics, habits and disciplines a biblical church ought to have. We need to wisely, prayerfully, and in faith do those practical and mundane things that are necessary, and we also need to wisely, prayerfully and in faith follow after God's wisdom for us given to us through Paul in his instructions to Timothy and Titus, and that wisdom that reveals the ordinary means of grace - God's Word, prayer, the sacraments, etc. - that God has given us for the health and true growth of the body of Christ.

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Posted by Martin at 7:14 AM | | Comments

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Humble Orthodoxy

In re-reading the Christianity Today article on the new young Reformed movement I was struck - again - by the last two paragraphs.

Joshua Harris - the author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye and now a pastor - is quoted in those paragraphs. Harris describes his Reformed views as a "humble orthodoxy" and is described by the author as someone who "reluctantly debates doctrine, but he passionately studies Scripture and seeks to apply all its truth." And then the final paragraph:

"If you really understand Reformed theology, we should all just sit around shaking our heads going, 'It's unbelieveable. Why would God choose any of us?'" Harris said. "You are so amazed by grace, you're not picking a fight with anyone, you're just crying tears of amazement that should lead to a heart for lost people, that God does indeed save, when he doesn't have to save anybody."
Harris' point of view resonates strongly with me. I'm not so keen on debate myself, but do love to discuss theology. It's not that theology shouldn't be debated, but I've realized I'm not the best guy for that task. I'm very thankful for men like the faculty at Westminster Seminary in California who are willing to stand firm for the truths of the Reformed faith. I'm also very thankful for the various men on sessions, in presbytery, or at General Assembly who have the giftedness to understand the intricacies of church polity and make sure we do it right.

My joy - what gets me energized - is teaching and hopefully someday regularly preaching the truths of God's Word, and helping people understand the truly amazing grace that is revealed to us in the work of salvation accomplished for us by God in Christ through the work of the Spirit.

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Posted by Martin at 10:53 PM | | Comments

Monday, January 29, 2007

God's Grace

At Saturday's meeting of the South Coast Presbytery of the PCA I passed the licensure exam. This is a huge relief, something that's been a goal for many years.

Thanks to everyone, family and friends, who prayed and who lent so much encouragement to me during this process! What could have been a very stressful process actually went relatively smoothly - I was much calmer than I expected to be at least.

Yesterday during worship our pastor prayed a wonderful prayer of thanks, and for God's blessing over the next step at presbytery, which would be ordination.

But first things first: two more classes at Westminster and then, DV, graduation in June.

Though it has been a long process (I started seminary way back in 1998!!) KMR and I can look back and certainly see God's gracious hand in all that has happened.

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Posted by Martin at 7:21 AM | | Comments

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Strategic Hoping

I'd like to riff a little on a quote from John Piper posted by Pastorshaun.

Piper, preaching on Ruth chapter 3, says that "only hopeful churches plan and strategize." He claims that churches without hope "develop a maintenance mentality and just go through the motions year in and year out."

In my MBA studies my emphasis was business planning, or as they put it in the school catalog, "Strategic Management." I spent several years of my aerospace career as a financial/business analyst, putting together annual business plans, working on the strategic plan, doing capital planning, project business planning, and working on business plans for new airplanes and products.

Typical church planning is intriguing at best, amusing or frustrating at worst. Churches and Christian ministries love to apply "business" models and come up with mission or vision statements and action plans for how to get there. More often than not it strikes me as a glorious waste of time. John Piper's comments above are very thought provoking in that regard.

I think he's essentially right. What is missing from most church "planning" is hope, hope in the promises of God.

Most church and ministry planning is driven by asking what should be done, or what needs to be done, to accomplish the vision and/or mission statement. This is all too purpose driven, too much focused on "ought" or "should." It is bare, dry and ulimately hopeless. The plans become all too mechanistic, the tasks often burdensome. Buried inside them is the assumption that if we don't faithfully keep to our tasks and plans we will fail in our mission, even if that mission has some expectation for something different or better in the future. Even if that expectation is connected to some valid biblical principle or idea.

This kind of planning is law driven, not promise driven or gospel driven.

Michael Horton, in his article The Purpose-Driven Life, writes:

Law tells us what we should do, whether we’re faced with the wrath of God (full-strength law) or by the fear of not reaching our full potential (the watered-down version). God’s promise, by contrast, creates true faith, which creates true works.
True faith is accompanied by true hope, hope in the promises of God. The works that result, and the plans that accompany them, are driven by the promises of God, grounded in the sure assurance that Christ will build His church. We do what we do, we plan what we plan, knowing that what results is not dependent upon us, but upon God who works through us. We preach and teach God's Word, we make use of the ordinary means of grace given to us by God - the Word, the sacraments, prayer, fellowship - trusting that, as God says of His Word, this work will not return void, but will go out and accomplish what God purposes for it.

We also know that God has prepared beforehand those works that we should do. Each Christian has a calling, or more appropriately callings, from God. Effective church planning and strategizing looks to discover the gifts and callings of the members of the church, so that God's people may be effectively equipped to do what God has called them to do. If this is what we strive for then we can have hope that God will work through us. These kinds of plans are anything but bare, dry and hopeless, mechanistic or burdensome.

When Piper talks of righteousness that is active and strategic, this is what I think of: righteousness that seeks to do what God has called us to do, in hope and in joy, each member of the body discovering his or her gift and using it to God's glory, empowered and filled with the Holy Spirit.

I now work at a Christian organization that thinks of each employee as a divine appointment, someone God has brought to fulfill a particular role and purpose that only he or she can fill. Would that our churches would do the same. What if our churches treated every person who walked through their doors as a divine appointment, someone God brought to them to play a particular role in the life and ministry of that church? Would people feel wanted? Would they feel an appreciated part of that church or just a pew-sitter? And what if each church thought of itself as a divine appointment, chosen and called by God to fulfill a particular purpose in His plans? Would that not provide hope, purpose and "mission?" In this context churches can come up with plans and strategies that actually have worthwhile meaning.

Wouldn't that be just a little bit more fun and worthwhile than sitting around word-smithing vision and mission statements to be published with fanfare only to be forgotten within weeks? Better than planning meetings that list projects and ideas that either drive people with purpose-drive cattle prods, or that result in projects and ideas that will likely never see the light of day?

It would be to me...

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Posted by Martin at 11:34 PM | | Comments

Right With God by Grace Through Faith

Continuing discusion of the second principle: justification.

Previous posts:

Three Principles
God at Work
Scripture is Enough
A Happy Change and Sweet Exchange
Justification - So What?

My first post emphasized the realities expressed in the first two sub-points on justification, that God declares believers forgiven of all their sins because Jesus bore their guilt and penalty on the cross, and that God also declares believers righteous on the basis of having Christ's righteousness credited, or imputed, to their account. This is the sweet exchange of the good news of the Gospel.

The second post on justifiction was a short reflection on the fourth sub-point's two first two sub-points, that understanding justification properly helps us understand and live in the knowledge that God accepts us based on Christ's work, not our own, and that this is the foundation for all the believer's life. A sound understanding of justification helps us avoid both pride and despair; pride in our own "superior" works (or "superior" knowledge of theology), or despair flowing from our accute sense of our own inadequacy.

Here I will try to briefly wrap up the remaining ideas outlined under this second principle.

A key point is that, "Justification springs from God's free grace and is received by faith alone." The Reformed University Ministries instructors emphasized that this principle is foundational for the teaching and preaching of the campus ministries. Young Christians, especially in the South where PCA churches are most numerous, have often been raised in an environment of "do and do and do" (to quote John Wesley Weasel from Walter Wangerin's Dun Cow books). Their spirituality was measured by how active they were in their local church and youth group. The better, more "spiritual" students were the ones who went to Sunday School, Sunday worship, Sunday evening youth group, choir practice, mid-week youth group, prayer group, Friday night outreach, Saturday prayer meeting, etc., etc., etc. This kind of Christian lifestyle leads to the wrong idea: that those who are right with God are the ones most active in spiritual activities and tasks.

Scripture, on the other hand, tells us that salvation is by grace through faith, the free gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast.

Nothing we can do, nothing we fail to do, can add or takeaway one whit from our right standing with God. What matters is faith, faith in the work of God's Son Jesus Christ on our behalf. That work, His work, is offered to us as a free gift - we simply receive it by faith. O sweet exchange...!

However, this does not mean that works are irrelevant to the Christian life. They are necessary. To forget them is to fall back into one of the consequences of forgetting what justification is all about. We may understand what justification is, intellecually, and so forgetting pride and rejecting despair we conclude that works don't matter at all. The false conclusion is that works are completely unnecessary. And so the believer wrongly falls into anti-nomianism, the idea that he or she can do anything he or she wants, because their sin has been imputed to Christ and His righteousness imputed to their account.

However, those who know they are right with God based on His grace received through faith are rightly equipped to understand the commands of God in Scripture. They are necessary. They are required. They are imperative. They are what God has called us to do, what He prepared beforehand for us to do, now that we have received the free gift of grace by faith. And they are eager to do them, not to earn God's favor, but to express their love and gratitude to Him for what He had done for them.

These are simple truths, but the kind that need to be taught and re-taught, emphasized and re-emphasized. They are too easy to forget, too easy to drift away from, as we try to justify ourselves before God by our good works, our "superior" spirituality. Campus groups or new churches do well to emphasize these truths, and I'm convinced that if they do they set themselves apart from the mainstream of contemporary Christianity.

The kind of spirituality that God desires flows from justification and leads to sanctification, the third principle to be understood and committed to.

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Posted by Martin at 10:43 PM | | Comments

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Justification - So What?

Continuing discusion of the second principle: justification.

Previous posts:

Three Principles
God at Work
Scripture is Enough
A Happy Change and Sweet Exchange

At our presbytery meetings candidates for licensure or ordination are asked a series of questions, many to test their knowledge of basic doctrine. The easiest way to give the right answer is to memorize the questions and answers in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Unfortunately, this can also come off as rote memorization, and you wonder what the poor guy really knows and really understands about the doctrine.

Lately presbytery members have taken to asking - after hearing the rote answer to "What is justification?" - the candidate what the doctrine means to them practically, how does it impact his day to day life?

I believe the doctrine of justification has two very important practical implications, summarized in the sub-principle quoted below: "A Christian's understanding that justification is the foundation for all subsequent Christian life and experience." Why is this so?

Understanding what justification is all about protects against two extremes.

The one extreme is pride. Philip Ryken says in his recent commentary on Galatians that the letter was written to recovering Pharisees. And we're all recovering Pharisees. Pharisees think their good works mean something to God, that those works make them better in the sight of God. But justification reminds us that we're all lousy sinners before God and can't do anything to save ourselves. In Christ, God provided all the righteousness we need, crediting Christ's perfect life to our account by grace through faith. Therefore we have nothing to boast of but Christ. There's no room for pride.

The other extreme is despair. The despairing person has the same problem as the prideful person; he thinks what he does - or doesn't do - matters in his salvation. But he despairs because he knows that he isn't good enough; there's no way a holy, righteous God would accept someone like him. But again, in Christ, God took away all the sin we have, crediting it to Christ's account by grace through faith. Therefore we have no reason to despair. It's not about us; it is about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

So practically speaking, justification reminds me not to be prideful and not to despair, but to rest on the mercy and love of God in Christ. Practically speaking then, I can focus on those things God has called me to do (like being a husband, father, employee, student, elder, son, etc.) with gratitude and thankfulness. I can do them to the best of my ability without keeping score of how well or poorly I'm doing, and trust that God will work through me because I'm doing what He's called me to do.

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Posted by Martin at 7:18 AM | | Comments

Friday, October 20, 2006

A Happy Change and Sweet Exchange

The second principle from the Reformed University Ministries campus ministry conference was that "justification is God reconciling sinners to Himself in Christ."

I thought I might be able to cover this in one post. Silly me. I'll simply try to introduce the topic now.

Here's how they outlined this second principle to be understood and committed to:

  1. Justification is God's declaring the believer forgiven of all his sins on the basis of Christ's bearing the guilt and penalty of his sins on the cross.
  2. Justification is God's declaring the believer righteous on the basis of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to him.
  3. Justification springs from God's free grace and is received by faith alone.
  4. A proper understanding of justification leads to:
    • A Christian's continual acknowledgment that his acceptance by God is based totally on the work of Christ.
    • A Christian's understanding that justification is the foundation for all subsequent Christian life and experience.
    • A Christian's knowledge that sanctification necessarily flows from justification.
That's a little more detailed than "just as if I never sinned."

There are two quotes that I love in connection with this doctrine:

So, making a happy change with us, He took upon Himself our sinful person, and gave unto us His innocent and victorious Person; wherewith we being now clothed are freed from the curse of the law.

From Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians
and
But when our iniquity was fulfilled and it had become fully manifest, that its reward of punishment and death waited for it, and the time came which God had appointed to manifest henceforth his kindliness and power (O the excellence of the kindness and love of God!) he did not hate us nor reject us nor remember us for evil, but was long-suffering, endured us, himself in pity took our sin, himself gave his own Son as ransom for us, the Holy for the wicked, the innocent for the guilty, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal. For what else could cover our sins but his righteousness? In whom was it possible for us, in our wickedness and impiety, to be made just, except in the son of God alone? O the sweet exchange, O the inscrutable creation, O the unexpected benefits, that the wickedness of many should be concealed in the one righteous, and the righteousness of the one should make righteous many wicked!

From the Epistle to Diognetus, 2nd/3rd century
Justification is at the heart of Reformed theology - not election, not predestination, not the five points of Calvinism (TULIP). It was emphasized as the heart of campus ministry, and so also it is the heart of church planting. The good news of the Gospel is this happy change, this sweet exchange, and so it should be front and center.

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Posted by Martin at 7:10 AM | | Comments

Monday, October 09, 2006

Scripture is Enough

Now that our computer seems to be virus free, back to regular posting!

Down below I wrote about the three principles I learned at a campus ministry seminar. The first of those principles is that, "The Bible is the Word of God given through men by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit." What does this have to do with campus ministry? What does this have to do with church planting?

This first principle is expanded into three sub-points:
  1. The Scriptures are trustworthy, inerrant, infallible and authoritative.
  2. The Scriptures are sufficient to reveal God, the way of salvation, and the will of God for men.
  3. The Scriptures are clear enough to be understood by any Christian using ordinary means with the aid of the Holy Spirit.

None of the above is rocket science; all of the above contain historic Christian teaching about God's Word.

Where I think they particularly apply in today's world is in the sufficiency of Scripture and its capacity to be understood by any Christian. Not that the other ideas in the above three points are any less important, nor are they any less under attack nor all too easily forgotten. But Scripture's sufficiency in telling us what we need to know about God, salvation, and us, and Scripture's clarity to any Christian seem to be most forgotten, abused or neglected in the modern chuch.

We have methods. We have polling. We have marketing techniques. Use them and your church will grow!! But in the methods, in the pollng, in the marketing we too often forget that God promises to work through His Word.

I find it fascinating, as I read through various books and articles on church planting, that the methods proposed so often are bolstered by quotes from Scripture, as if to justify the validity of the method. What is missing is any sense that we should rely on Scripture rather than method. And what is so disappointing is that all the proponents of various methods emphasize that the "success" of a church plant is ultimately dependent on God. That acknowledgement is refreshing and welcome, but disappointing in that it misses the point of how God promises to work.

How has God promised to work? Through His Word. In Isaiah God states that His Word does not return to Him void, but goes out and accomplished what He purposes for it to accomplish. What does Paul instruct young Timothy to do? Preach the Word, in and out of season.

Today's emphasis on method, polling, technique, etc. betrays a lack of faith that God's Word is sufficient as defined in #2 above, and a lack of faith that God's Word can be understood by ordinary means (i.e., it doesn't need special packaging to be understood!).

Rather than technique or method, a new church plant must put its hopes in the sufficiency and "understandability" ("perspicacity" in theological terms) of God's Word. The new church should commit itself to faithful preaching and teaching of God's Word, but that is not all. If all the new church has is a commitment to preaching and teaching God's Word then all it has commited to is another method. The new church and its leaders must also have faith that God will work through the ordinary means of communicating God's Word. James tells us that faith without works is dead; so also are works without faith, no matter how biblical those works are.

One of the speakers at the campus ministry conference related how another campus minister with a different ministry was amazed at how many students attended the RUM sponsored Reformed University Fellowship. The RUF folks didn't aggressively evangelize. They had programs but seemed to have fewer, or at least different (e.g., small group Bible studies as prevalent as fellowship activities) kinds of activities and programs. He wanted to know how the RUF minister got so many kids to come to their weekly large group meetings. What are you doing? (Read: what's your method?)

The speaker's response? We invite kids to come to our weekly meeting, and there I preach the Word.

God's Word was - is - effective.

When/if I am called to plant a church, I pray that it will be a church that focuses on God's Word and has faith that His Word is effective.

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Posted by Martin at 9:34 AM | | Comments

Thursday, September 28, 2006

God at Work

One of the readings for the class I'm taking this semester is an article by Gene Veith on calling, or vocation. In it he mentions Martin Luther's concept of everyone having a vocation from God and that we are His masks as He does His work through us. God provides us with food, our daily bread, but it doesn't just appear miraculously on the kitchen table. God works through the farmer, the miller, the baker and others to provide that bread for us.

The podcast I posted about yesterday echoes the same theme. Shaun and Matt talk about how it is God who calls out men for ministry and sends them (see Acts 13 where Barnabas and Paul are set apart and sent out). The reason we ought to use the ordinary means that God has given us is because ultimately it is Him who does the work, through us. We need to get out of the way (i.e., quit trying to use our own methods and ideas, and also taking the credit) and let God use His own tools through us.

I think the same idea is behind the three principles from RUM's campus ministry seminar. And not just behind the principles or foundational but, to borrow again from Luther, "in, with and under" those principles.

The first principle is that the Bible is God's Word, given through men by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That couldn't be much more clear. God is at work giving His Word - He initiates and makes it happen. "All Scripture is breathed out by God..." (II Timothy 3:16, ESV, here and following) and "...men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:21) both establish the principle. God doesn't just give His Word, He makes it effective, useful. The Timothy passage speaks to how profitable the Word is, but my favorite passage is from Isaiah 55:10-11. Here God tells us that just as water falls from heaven and brings forth the earth's bounty, "so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." So in the first principle God is at work. We need to let Him work through His Word.

The second principle is that justification is God reconciling sinners to Himself in Christ. Again the statement of the principle affirms that it is God who is working. He's the one doing the reconciling, not us. The Westminster Shorter Catechism (#33) answers the question "What is justification?" with, "Justification is an act of God's free grace..." Justification is God's act, not ours: "...he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (II Corinthians 5:21). God is abundantly at work also in the second principle.

The third principle is that sanctification is God conforming sinners to the image of Christ by the work of His Spirit. Once again the principle itself clearly states that it is God who is at work in re-creating disobedient sinners into obedient servants. We are God's workmanship, His carefully crafted work, "created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). It is God's work that forms us into who He wants us to be, re-making us in Christ so that we are eager to do the things God has already set aside and prepared for us to do. Sanctification also is "the work of God's free grace..." (WSC #35). God is the worker in the third principle as well.

God initiates - He sends His Word as a profitable, fruitful gift. God calls out and separates men and women for Himself - He justifies sinners, reconciling them to Himself. God sends and equips them to do His work - He sanctifies sinners into the image of Christ, who lived only to do His Father's will.

One might ask: if God's doing all this work, why should I do anything? Why not just sit back and take it easy? Because just like with the farmer, miller, baker and others through whom God providentially provides our daily bread, so also in the work of the kingdom God uses the likes of us to accomplish His work.

The principles only make sense if it is ultimately God doing the work. We have a part to share in that work, but it is ultimately His.

A new church plant, a college campus ministry, an established church, a mission work, whatever field we labor in, we do well to remember that it is God's work, not ours. Sometimes I think we try too hard, we get too clever, we want to see results and feel we had some success in our work. As I wrote earlier, it is better to be conscientious than clever. Who is cleverer than God? He gave us the means, and He promised that they would be effective. It is a measure of faith to simply plug away at the tasks God has called us to do, and trust that He will work through them.

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Posted by Martin at 9:58 PM | | Comments

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Ordinary Means Church Planting

This podcast is well worth listening to.

The two commentators are friends and former fellow seminary students, now pastors in Pennsylvania (their congregations are linked at right: View Crest and Laurel Highlands).

They emphasize the reality that all ministry, and certainly church planting, is God's work that He initiates.

This fits well with what I hope to continue with from the campus ministry seminar I attended. I'll try to link the two together in my next post on that topic.

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Posted by Martin at 10:10 PM | | Comments

Three Principles

A few years ago I got to attend the Foundations of Campus Ministry conference put on by Reformed University Ministries, the college campus ministry of the PCA. This was one of the best conferences I've ever been to. There is one interesting testimony to its high quality. At the same time and in the same location there was a church planter training conference being held. A number of former campus ministers, guys who had been living and practicing the ideas we were being introduced to, would skip out on parts of their training to come and sit in on ours. They were looking for a refresher on some great foundational ideas.

During the conference we were introduced to three principles "to be understood and committed to." This was part of what the church planting guys were interested in hearing again. I remember thinking at the time that these principles are applicable to any ministry: college campus, established church, church plant, mission work, chaplaincy, etc.

God willing I'll explore them over the next few days. Just to get started, here they are:
  • The Bible is the Word of God given through men by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
  • Justification is God reconciling sinners to Himself in Christ.
  • Sanctification is God conforming sinners to the image of Christ by the work of His Spirit.

Pretty simple, right? But how profoundly would our ministry be impacted if we worked diligently to keep these principles front and center?

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Posted by Martin at 8:17 AM | | Comments

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Drucker and the Ancient Church

Another Druckerism stuck in my brain: "It's better to get the wrong answer to the right question than get the right answer to the wrong question."

I was reminded of this by Carl Trueman's post at Reformation21.

I originally wanted to attend seminary to get a theological degree that might lead eventually to Ph.D. studies on the early church. I decided to get an M.Div. because in the early church fathers I saw men who, with only a few exceptions, were both gifted scholars and pastors. I figured an M.Div. degree rather than an MA in theology or historical theology would give me better insight into the world and thought processes of the church fathers.

I didn't really know what I'd do after all that education. I reckoned I could figure that out later. Pastoral ministry and teaching seemed equally possible - or even better, both!

But as time has passed and, ironically, the M.Div. gone to the wayside as I try to complete an MA, I have become convinced that my call is to pastoral ministry, in particular to planting a church. A big part of that realization has been the work I've had the opportunity to do with some of our church plants in our presbytery. Another big part is the realization that the historic truths of the Christian faith are valid for any generation in any age, even this squishy post-modern or post-foundational age. The quote Carl Trueman gives reinforces that belief. Those truths need to be preached with boldness, rather than seeking after new language or forms simply so that they might appeal to the post-modern spiritual consumer.

Rather than asking how do attract postmoderns into our churches, we should be asking how those ancient spiritual, biblical, truths answer the questions raised by postmoderns. Will they listen if we don't "package" the answers just right? I think they will. Who doesn't want to hear the answer to their question?

Whether it's The City of God by Augustine or Machen's Christianity and Liberalism, Christian truth is valid and relevant, and speaks to the world around it. How can anyone read either of those works and not see how applicable they are for today?

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Posted by Martin at 10:36 PM | | Comments

Hello? Puritans calling

Monday night I had my first class of the semester. As he always does, and does very well, Dr. Johnson began laying the exegetical foundation of the class by unpacking the early chapters of Genesis on the topic of "calling."

(The first time I took a class from Dr. Johnson I remember thinking, as he spent a good deal of time exegeting the biblical basis for the course, "When's he going to get to the real content of the class?" Then about halfway through I realized, "Wait, this is good stuff!!" and wished I'd been taking better notes. Those were the pre-laptop days. Now I type like a fiend to get as much as possible.)

In the course of his lecture Dr. Johnson referred to the Puritans and their view on God's call and the believer's vocation. A part struck me. In essence he described how the Puritans viewed those with ambition, envy and impatience with suspicion. Their focus was more on perseverance. Those overly ambitious were seen as lacking proper contentment.

There's a lot we can learn from the Puritans on this. Too much of the Church today lacks contentment, whether it's the church growth movement with its tendency to focus on attendance numbers ("If you're not growing, you're not a healthy church." Really?!?), the prosperity gospel with its focus on money, or the megachurch movement with its focus on success. Doing things with excellence for God's glory is one thing, as is seeking to be a good steward of the resources God has entrusted to us. The Puritans didn't have anything against wealth per se, but against covetousness. And against lack of contentment with the place to which God has called you.

But today we're consumed with being number one, of growing bigger, of being viewed as successful by the world. As a result Christian bookstores are full of all sorts of books borrowing from business and management techniques that really haven't passed the test of being biblical, and church and parachurch ministry leaders buy them up like so many treasure maps.

The Puritans had it right on this one. They knew where their treasure was really hidden.

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Posted by Martin at 10:03 PM | | Comments

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Jargon

Recently I decided that if church planting is in my future, and if seminary graduation is around the corner (possibly, possibly, in May), then I should start preparing for it. So, I've been visiting web sites, looking up books and articles, trying to find resources related to planting a church. I figure that if I can whittle away little by little at the pile of stuff I've found I just might learn something over the next several months or so. And it'll have to be done little by little since I'll have my regular classes to focus on in the meantime as well.

One of the things that struck me while reading through some materials at lunch today was the prevalence of certain words and phrases that, quite frankly, strike me as so much jargon. Some of them -- "missional," "ancient-modern," "culturally relevant," "inter-generational," "cross cultural," etc. -- are probably useful in certain contexts at certain times, if well defined and understood.

But this kind of jargon seems to me to be too clever by half. One of the Druckerisms* that has stuck with me is, "It's better to be conscientious than clever." The point? Clever schemes tend to hold the promise of achieving something without the typical hard work of just slogging through what needs to be done. The conscientious person knows or finds out what needs to be done and does it. The clever person looks for the easier path, the whiz-bang solution. (This is how consultants make their money - packaging common sense in flash and sizzle!)

That doesn't mean that there can never be a better way to build a mousetrap. It just has to really, truly be a better way.

The work of the pastor, elder, deacon, lay person in Christ's church is to diligently do the things God has called us to do. We can try new things, to be sure. But we shouldn't let the false promise of a shiny new toy distract us from the hard slogging that is often what's needed. Being conscientious isn't flashy, doesn't typically attract a lot of attention, and probably isn't cutting edge, but in the end I think it is more effective.

Sometimes this church planting jargon seems awfully like a shiny new toy and I wonder: why can't we just do what we've been called to do?

* Anyone who took classes from, sat in on lectures with, spent time with or read books and articles by Peter Drucker collects a few of his oft-repeated sayings along the way.

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Posted by Martin at 2:14 PM | | Comments

About me

  • Martin
  • From Orange, CA
  • Husband; Father; Son; Brother. Ruling elder at church. Loan Officer for Christian lending institution. Seminary student. I hope to be a pastor and plant a church in the near future.
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