PREACHER OR MINISTER?

I have been a "preacher" for quite a long time. Later this year I'll observe the 30th anniversary of my ordination (and I was preaching for some time prior to that date).

Quite recently, however, I started to learn what it means to be a "minister" as opposed to a "preacher". My early experiences as a pastor were major disasters because of my status as a "novice" combined with total ignorance as to what it means to minister to God's flock.

Most of the N.T. references to "minister" in the King James (usually rendered "serve" in the ESV) are instances where Paul used the word διακονέω (diakaneo)--the same word from which "deacon" comes, and with the same import: servant, serving. Interesting to muse on the weakness of the King James there in that it has allowed countless readers, myself included, to consider "serving" something done by the deacons whilst us preachers carried on nobler work.

My preaching for years, after my pastoral failures, took on a drive-by approach. Preach at 'em and run. Let the Holy Spirit finish the message....No one-on-one contact, no involvement with individuals. God has been changing me with regard to this over the past few years. I had a couple of very influential experiences recently and as I was mulling them over, I received this quote from an internet source I subscribe to:

We do God’s work for our brothers and sisters when we learn to listen to them. So often Christians, especially preachers, think that their only service is always to have to "offer" something when they are together with other people. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking. Many people seek a sympathetic ear and do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking even when they should be listening. But Christians who can no longer listen to one another will soon no longer be listening to God either; they will always be talking even in the presence of God. The death of the spiritual life starts here, and in the end there is nothing left but empty spiritual chatter and clerical condescension which chokes on pious words. Those who cannot listen long and patiently will always be talking past others, and finally no longer will even notice it. Those who think their time is too precious to spend listening will never really have time for God and others, but only for themselves and for their own words and plans.

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Those words, even upon an eighth or ninth reading, still affect me like a slap in the face (deserved, too). "...clerical condescension choking on pious words...." Ouch!

Two experiences in the past 10 days reinforce the lesson Bonhoeffer teaches: 1.) In our Tuesday night Bible study at a prison, my brother Elvis is teaching through Matthew. We got to chapter 19 which begins with the discourse on divorce. This is a sensitive area for inmates, particularly Christian inmates. Most are divorced. Most have been subjected to the preaching and teaching of the modern-day Pharisees and often condemned to Hell because of their marital mess. The believers are broken over their past sin and infidelity and divorces. As we got into that reading, God gave me the chance to minister His grace to a dozen or so men in a way I have seldom if ever experienced before. I am convinced that He changed lives that evening; that He drew some of His children closer to Himself; that He lifted some burdens; and that Grace became more than a word, became a force in the life of more than one man.

2.) I'm a poor counselor. So, I try to avoid getting into situations where I have to counsel anyone. But.....I got into one, a serious one, and I decided I needed help getting help for someone. I located someone I thought was right for the job and gave him the details and anxiously awaited the much-needed help. What I got was a plethora of platitudes smothered with generalities. My first reaction was: What? Did you not read what I wrote? The response was almost totally irrelevant to the case at hand. Now, I see in the Bonhoeffer quote, what I got was the "clerical condescension," the non-response from a non-listener. He never stopped talking long enough to hear what I was saying, what I needed.

Oh, LORD, I beg you, don't ever let me be like that again. I know I have done that countless times, missed countless opportunities to minister the Grace of Jesus Christ because my mouth was engaged and my heart was closed. Please.....for His great glory, Amen.

FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONTROLS US...

Did you ever experience something which was radical and life-changing then wonder if anyone else ever experienced that, or if you were the only one in the world?

Then, as time goes on, you find out that it is not a unique phenomenon but that it happens to others, and they even have a name for it--a Latin name, even! (No, it's not a mental disorder, thank you.)

Now that I've started this I've got to deal with another problem. I learned the name of the phenomenon by reading an article in Christianity Today (bad enough) written by Richard Foster (unthinkable!) So, there it is: public confession. I read it; I even learned something from it; and still, I am not Emergent. Please don't bother writing to tell me what an ogre he is....thanks.

You see, the first 25 years or so of my Christian experience were quite orthodox, maybe hyper-orthodox if there is such a state. It was all about Doctrine (and Standards, in one phase). It was decidedly not about feelings or emotions, ever. I "grew up" (as a 30-something) in churches where if someone said "Amen!" the rest of the congregation would pop a vertebra craning around to see who let in a charismatic. The idea of one lifting his hands in praise during singing or preaching (or anytime other than to wave bye-bye in the parking lot) was totally unacceptable, probably considered heresy.

Now, this isn't about that kind of expression but something much deeper. I said that only to set the tone for what follows. I was Dead Orthodox with emphasis on the Dead. I was to "love not the world, neither the things which are in the world" and occasionally I worked on not loving the worldly "stuff" which I still loved. My orthodoxy enabled me to trash the social-gospel practitioners who went about feeding the hungry, treating the sick, but not giving them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "Do-gooders" trying to earn a place in Heaven.....

Then God put me into prison ministry. Five years down the road of working with these guys whose lives are or were totally disrupted by their criminal actions and the consequences, families destroyed, futures dimmed, worldly hopes weak to non-existent, I find myself weeping over their plight. My heart is more aligned with "pastoral ministry" than ever before, even when I was a "real" pastor. These men have wayward children at home whom they wish to keep from following in their destructive footsteps; they have wives and mothers and fathers who are sick, broke, angry with them, or any combination thereof.

Today, I find myself not just teaching and preaching Doctrine, which I certainly do, to a fault probably in the eyes of some who disagree with my dogmatic presentation of Scripture, but writing to and speaking with wives and parents, seeking churches to minister to parolees, looking for Christian workers in this town or that town to go visit the wayward son of an inmate and tell him about Christ.

An internet friend, a Godly brother-preacher, wrote recently of his heartbreak over starving children in Africa, the down-and-outs of America, and all the miserable, hopeless fellow-humans across this globe who are generally and royally neglected by those of us in this wealthy, comfortable tiny corner of creation. He wondered if he was being untrue to his theological bent, seeing as how he is one of those cold, calculating calvinists like me. You can read his article here.

And that's where Richard Foster stepped in....What he describes as the "cultural mandate" begins with contemptus mundi..
"being torn loose from all earthly attachments and ambitions" OK, I have a strong dose of that. "In the beginning God plucks the world out of our hearts......we experience a loosening of the chains of attachment to positions of prominence and power...We experience a glorious detachment from this world and all it offers." Not wholly there, but I'm closer to this point than even 5 years ago.

Foster goes on: "And then just when we have become free from it all, God hurls the world back into our heart--amor mundi ...We deepen in our compassion for the bruised, the broken, the dispossessed. We ache and pray and labor for others in a new way, a selfless way, a joy-filled way."

Now, I might want to totally disregard much of what Foster says in this article and most of what he writes in general, and I'd like to pick at him over the two different meanings of "world" as in "For God so loved the world....." and "Love not the world...." Nevertheless, he has given me some insight into what I've experienced in recent years and I'm grateful for it. And now, when I find myself with passionate interest in the lives of my inmates and their families, and excited by my brothers who are working with the "street people" in Nashville, feeding and clothing them as well as preaching to them, I take some comfort in knowing that it's more than just me "goin' liberal" in my old age.

SPEAKING OF MONEY....

Well, I was in Kroger's today and had sent a clerk into the storeroom to see if they had any Ginger Ale since none was on the shelf. To while away the time, I opened a letter from one of my congregants. In it was a check from the State of Tennessee drawn against the inmate's account, payable to the prison ministry. So, the clerk comes back, says "no ginger ale" and seeing the tears in my eyes must think this guy really wanted that ginger ale.....

I went down the dog food aisle and spent a few minutes scrutinizing the labels on the bottom shelf......had to get on my knees to do that. God continually reminds me of His great power to change men, to re-create them. I am not only grateful that He does this, especially that He did it for me, but that He constantly parades His trophies of Grace before me, blessing me with their testimonies and the evidences like this of what He does with those who were once dead in trespasses and sin.

What does it mean that I see so much more of this behavior from my convicted felon brothers than I see from the respectable, pillars of the community church members? We've had an inmate who gave his tithe every month, in the form of postage stamps, to the prison work. We have inmates who because of their poor vision get large-print periodicals by mail and when they are through with them, give them to us to place in nursing homes. I've told you the story of the paroled men who pooled their funds to pay the deposit at a half-way house for one of their brothers who had no money (He is there; arrived the 31st).

I'm trying to figure a way to compare the generosity of these men to the experience we've had with free-world churches, but don't think I can do it without being misunderstood as a whiner or seeming to hint for a handout. Suffice it to say, this brother who sent that check surpassed the total amount we have ever received in support of this prison work from all churches, ever. That's fine in that God has always provided in His own way and I've learned enough to look to Him rather than depend upon men in any way. But that's quite a commentary in my on-going rant on churches and money.

MONEY: The Central Idol of the "Church"

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matt 6:19-21)

What do you suppose that means?

Obviously, it cannot mean what it says, literally, or about 90% of the pastoral leadership of modern churches would be in serious trouble, along with 99% of their congregations.

As I think about the inroads made into "sound churches" by the pervasive, perverted "prosperity gospel" at one moment I am befuddled at how this could happen, then the next moment, it seems no mystery at all. The so-called "church" of the Western world, the US in particular, is populated by people who are absolutely in love with comfort, and that comfort is provided and maintained by their great god Mammon.

I'm having one of those spells where it is just beyond me to understand how any body of professing believers with even a superficial knowledge of the Word of God can justify their extravagant lifestyle at the expense of a world where the other 98% of the population is starving for both the Gospel and/or a good meal.

We have reached the point, the degree of compromise, the level of rationalization, of self-justification, that we think nothing of paying pastors $250,000 a year to reign over congregations which meet in $25 million buildings. And so glibly excuse such actions by saying: "...worthy of double honor..." "maintain the standard of living of the...." etc, etc. That's life in the culture here....Gotta compete.......Just like top executives.......ad nauseum.

Now, I refer only to "sound churches" with regard to doctrine. The clown-led entertainment centers featuring Cashflow Dollars, Ken $opeland, and that bunch, are not worth discussing. There's nothing right about them; they preach "another gospel which is not the Gospel." But how about these churches where the Gospel is indeed preached? There's this great gulf between Doctrine and Practice!

So many have the Doctrine down...they are puttin' out the Word, regularly. Great....but how do they live? Extravagantly. Why? Because we love Comfort. We love Luxury. We love Stuff. More is better than Less, much better. Comfort is Expected; it is Deserved; it is Our Right as Americans!

So, I pose a few questions, first to Pastors/Elders/Evangelists:

How can you look yourself in the mirror after taking that $150,000. or $250,000. salary when you know there are struggling pastors/church planters risking their lives, living in huts, scraping out a living in the jungles and in the ghettos of third-world countries as they minister the Gospel to their mission field?

And to you, Mr Church Member:

How can you support this idolatrous practice of building multi-million dollar palaces and paying pastors and staff corporate-level salaries? It is so self-centered, self-perpetuating, almost incestuous. Take a church with a $3 million dollar budget. Often 60-70% of that goes for salaries and benefits for all the staff/employees. Most of the rest goes for debt service. A mere pittance might go for outreach of some kind.......maybe.

So, for $3 million, who is reached? "Oh" you say "We baptized 50 last year..." Great! Lots of those baptisms are "internal".....church family children, members who were recently converted after years of membership, etc. How many are from really reaching outside, from actually obeying the Great Commission? I'm gonna mark it on the wall here: very few.

Of course, there are exceptions. Thank God for the exceptions. I'm not about the exceptions; I'm talking about the vast majority of these self-sustaining, self-perpetuating, modern, doctrinally-sound churches which maintain a facade of evangelicalism, but in fact are mostly internalized and nearly worthless.

You know, you could take one of these places where they spent $2 million on staff salaries/benefits, cut that in half...poor pastor--now only making $100,000/year!--and for the $1 million freed up by that action, you could support 200 indigenous pastors in various third-world countries; or, you could build 100 church buildings in some of those countries; or, you could build 200 decent homes for those pastors who are living in huts, etc, etc....and that's from one church budget, in one year.

Don't even ask me what could be done with the difference in money between that $25 million building program and a $1 million utilitarian building without the basketball court, sauna, and coffee bar.

I know that this will probably never happen...rarely at best. Comfort is our goal; Mammon is the god who provides. We have an image to maintain. This is America. We have to treat our pastor right. We need a fine building to attract (fill in the blank).

I've been called an ascetic for this kind of thinking. More mockery is probably forthcoming. Simple living is un-American, I guess. I know this: we live on a whole lot less than $250,000. a year...about 90% less. We have decent vehicles (too many), a fairly warm house, air conditioning, running water, electricity, insurance, satellite tv, computers, internet, real estate, more food than we need, medical care, and do this without being on the dole. No one will ever convince me, I'm sure, that this idea of the church living up to the standards of the world is justifiable in any way. It's compromise. It's shameful. The Western church is spared judgment only because of the long-suffering of God. May he grant us repentance, and quickly!

Re: MARK DRISCOLL

I am not a big Mark Driscoll fan but have to give him credit for a great explication of the Gospel in this excerpt from his book DEATH BY LOVE:

See this at Andy Naselli's blog here

TIME FOR ANOTHER REFORMATION?

An anonymous commenter responding to an old post here has got me thinking some radical stuff! It was a comment on the nearly-year-old post on congregational singing versus solo performances and he/she said, among other things, "At times I'm asked to sing solos in church, and I don't mind singing because it's something I'm passionate about, but what disturbs me so much is the feeling of being judged by the congregation because of my 'performance'."

That led me to some thoughts about the nature of the church in general. No doubt I am going to ramble on in this post; I hope you'll bear with me. We have today this dominant attitude of going to church to be an audience. The congregation is audience for the preacher; we are audience for the "performers" who sing (choir, instrumentalists, soloists). This is wrong, for starters. This wrong is either born out of or promoted and sustained by, among other things, that platform or stage upon which our "performers" do their act. Have we not copied that physical arrangement from the entertainment world?

Even the pulpit....Oh, you may say: That puts the Word of God at the center of our attention! I say it puts the Preacher at the center of our attention....and we sit there in the audience waiting to see how well he performs on any given Sunday.

We're approaching the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. That reformation was born out of a spiritual awakening to the truth of salvation by grace alone apart from works. It separated the church from the man-centered corrupt theology of Rome. Unfortunately, the reformers despite their sound soteriology brought a lot of baggage with them. Many of the trappings of Romanism were carried over and still influence the idea of what "church" and "worship" should be like.

Lately, I have been wondering if we are not making a mistake in modeling the worship assemblies of the church so closely after the practices of Tabernacle/Temple worship of the Old Testament. I think this is what Rome did in the beginning (and continues to so do) and this concept has been maintained by the reformers, thus dominates in Protestant churches today.

The Tabernacle/Temple was the place where God came to meet with men. All the nation of Israel was commanded to worship there. Those assemblies were ceremonial in that they looked back in history to God's work among them and looked forward in type to the coming Messiah. They were not meetings of God's church in the same sense as in the New Testament. (This may be related to the conflation of Israel/Church which occurs to varying degrees in reformed theology. I'm not going there today!)

Anyway, it goes without saying that the OT services were filled with pomp and circumstance, very elaborate and liturgical. But...when we look at all that is given us regarding the New Testament church, there is none of this. No great choirs, no trumpets, no parades of priests, no palm-waving.....The church met together house-to-house; their focus was on prayer and fellowship, and the Word of God. God gave teachers and elders to those congregations to guide them and lead them, but there is no indication that those individuals "ruled" over congregations in the manner we see today....quite the contrary: humility and servant-hood are the main characteristics of the elders God ordains.

"I went into church and sat on the velvet pew. I watched as the sun came shining through the stained glass windows. The minister dressed in a velvet robe opened the golden gilded Bible, marked it with a silk bookmark and said, "If any man will be my disciple, said Jesus, let him deny himself, take up his cross, sell what he has, give it to the poor, and follow me." -Soren Kierkagaard

I'm not a big Kierkagaard fan, but that's pretty near the mark, isn't it? We have gone from the church of Acts 2 to the modern-day iteration which meets in a 25 million dollar building, has a 5 million dollar annual budget (70% of which goes for salaries/benefits of "employees") and feels content that their obedience to the Great Commission is fulfilled by their 10% annual donation to the Cooperative Program. They have no local outreach. Jails, nursing homes, homeless shelters, food kitchens, all that stuff is left to the "liberal, social-gospel" churches.

The "audience" of 2500 comes once or twice a week to be entertained by the talented orator (preacher) and the great singers, then goes home to their niche in the world, happy to have done their bit for the Kingdom of God.

I wonder what it would be like to attend a real N.T. church? Imagine no stage, no performers, but a group of believers hungry for the Word, gathering together regularly to pray with and for one another, to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (even if off-key) without all the smoke and mirrors, bells and whistles, and velvet-covered pews? To have God-ordained elders stand in the congregation and say: Thus saith the Lord...and teach the Word as God gifted them to so do. To see and be among brothers and sisters whose hearts are truly broken over their sin and broken over the state of a lost world in which they live, those who have been made new creations in Christ and genuinely care nothing for the trappings of this life, easily giving whatever they might have that another has need of......To be a part of taking the Gospel to the streets, to the undesireables, to the social outcasts, the poor, the dirty, the wicked denizens of our cities, just exactly whom we would be like but for the Grace of God.

something to think about.......

A LITTLE LEAVEN......

A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
(Gal 5:9)

Good ministries are being undermined. Not new, not a surprise, but still disturbing. First let me say what I mean by "good ministries" I'm talking about churches and other ministries which adhere to the fundamentals of the Christian faith, are evangelistic, own the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture, and hold to the doctrines of Grace, eschewing decisional regeneration and works-based salvation.

The other "ministries"--those compromised by the church-growth movement, entertainment theology, and living their best life now--when they go further astray, I'm not much bothered. It's seeing churches where I've always thought: That's my kind of church/preacher/ministry--seeing them polluted by the leaven of this world's perversion of Christianity--that's disturbing, saddening, and maddening.

Recently I've blogged a bit about seeing the "Prosperity Gospel" making inroads into "good ministries" There's so much of this stuff being peddled on TV and in the Lifeway Stores that the infection finally has been transmitted to formerly-sound Baptists, I guess. And, I suspect part of the reason is that Success Sells. Everybody wants to get a piece of the pie....

Now, I find a new virus infecting another "good ministry"--not really "new" but new with respect to its appearance in the part of the world where I live. Someone wrote me the other day and asked what I knew about Neil Anderson. Well, I'd never heard of him. I've managed pretty successfully to miss all the trendy "new idea" theologies for the past 30 years or so. They come and go without appearing on my radar. I'm still reading stuff written in 300-400 A.D.

Neil Anderson is a demon-hunter. He sees Satan everywhere. He is more impressed with Satan's power than with Christ's from what I can see. I'm not going to repeat a lot of what I've read since hearing the name, but here's a good place to get some background:

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/neil_anderson2.htm

Anyway, that called my attention to the leader of a "good ministry"--one I am (was) very much supportive of, impressed by, blessed by, etc, this leader quoting Anderson and touting his specious theology of demonology. The Anderson "method" includes believers having to repent for their ancestors' sins of idolatry since they are, because of the ancestors, under the "curse of God."

I have to ask: What are these people thinking? Do they not recall certain admonitions about forsaking Grace and returning to the bondage of the Law? Have they forgotten the "Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin"?

From that website I noted above:

These demonization ministries are Satan-centered, with Christ brought in to save the situation. If they were Christ-centered they would seek to minister the two aspects of the Christian life: death to sin (the old man, the law, the world, and Satan), and Christ as Life, with the Christian life hidden with Christ in God. Romans. 5-7 comes before Romans 8. All ascended life is predicated upon death. The believer is to be taught to count himself dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11).

Both these sets of error--prosperity gospel and the demon business--were born (or revived) in the Charismatic movement; they thrive in the Charismatic movement. Seeing them make inroads into formerly-sound, non-charismatic churches and ministries is frightening. It's another step down the road to the final apostasy. Biblically sound churches have been few and far between for the past 30 years in my personal experience, and obviously will become more scarce as time goes on.

It is imperative that we take a stand for the Truth. The cost is going to be increasingly high. Are we prepared to pay?...or will we allow just a bit of leaven for comfort's sake?

BROKEN HEART, BROKEN LIVES, BROKEN CHURCH

I guess every ministry has its special tragedies. In prison work, the worst thing I can think of right now is seeing an inmate who has done his time or been paroled, gone home, get in trouble again and return to prison. Of course, overall that is the way the System works. It's called "recidivism" and the percentage is about 85%--that is, 85% of all inmates, once released, will "re-offend" and end up back in prison.

Still, those of us who work with these men and get to know them and love them, and know the testimonies of God's grace working in their lives, do not expect to see any of them back in prison. It does happen, however. This past weekend was a particularly rough one for me. Friday night we were holding our regular service in a facility which has about 150 men in a special program for parole violators so our "congregation" is mixed between those fellows who are in a 6-month program and regular inmates doing time.

We had a big turn-out and some new faces and I was wandering around greeting the guys when a familiar face appeared--familiar, but out of place. Brother Spencer, who had been a member of our group in another prison until a couple years ago when he was paroled, was back. He was embarrassed and I was stunned. This fellow would be voted "Most Unlikely To Reoffend" if I were the voter. Soft-spoken, dignified, intelligent, reserved, about 50 years old......looks like a college professor. As we talked, he told me his parole was violated for "Failure to Report"--meaning he skipped his mandatory meetings with his parole officer, probably habitually to get violated for it. Without knowing for sure, I'd guess he got back on drugs and in that messed-up state, did not care or know whether he reported.

Then Sunday night, at the prison where I first met Spencer, the Chaplain's Clerk (an inmate) asked: Do you remember Brother Hamm who used to sit back in that corner pew? Sure I remember him, I said. "He's back....." This hit me hard, maybe because I was still suffering from the Friday night episode; it was like being punched. "Where is he?" I asked, since it was obvious that he was not in the Chapel. The clerk explained that Hamm was back in the living area because he was ashamed to show himself to me or the other guys in the Chapel service. I told him to go ahead with the singing service and that I'd be back in a few minutes....

Down in the living area, I asked the officer which cell was Hamm's and was directed to 119. As I headed in that direction, I saw him watching me...."I guess you came after me, huh?" he said "Who told you I was here?" Through his embarrassment, he was smiling and happy to see me, at least on some level. We walked back to the Chapel together, he tried to express how ashamed he was and how difficult it is to face his brothers after such a fall. And I, probably pretty lamely, tried to tell him that we loved him none the less and wanted him to rejoin our group and worship with us. We had a small group in that service, most of whom knew Hamm from before, and they welcomed him warmly and sincerely, leading me to think that it will benefit him to associate with them, that they will genuinely minister to him.

It breaks my heart every time this happens. Yet, it will always happen so long as men are in this sinful flesh. It's good for me to see how quickly one can fall. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (1Cor 10:12)

This prison system is a self-perpetuating monster. I'll try not to get started on that. But I will start on this: We minister to these men while they are incarcerated. There are lots of good ministries, doing a good job of preaching the Word, faithfully getting the Gospel to these inmates. While the guys are locked up, they can go to services almost every day. Some services are not doctrinally sound, to be sure, but many of them are. Men are converted while in prison, and Christian inmates are brought back into fellowship with the Lord during their time behind bars. This part works pretty well, if not problem-free.

The problems begin when the men leave prison--at sentence end or on parole. We encourage them to find a good church home, even give them recommendations to visit specific churches in the area where they are going to live. Sad fact is that many churches do not want these "convicts" in their congregation. Yes, it is the individual believer's responsibility to find a place to worship, but it seems to me that the church ought to reach out to these men willingly and lovingly rather than the men having to go through rejection after rejection from uncaring, unconcerned and even frightened congregations.

Right now, I have four former members of my "congregations" in half-way houses in Nashville. I have actually "advertised" for a church to minister to these men. Currently these guys are wandering from church to church, attending all sorts of off-the-wall, undoctrinal assemblies just because they don't have any guidance. From my advertisement, I got one response. After that fellow managed to get the approval of the elders for these men to visit, he apparently was unable to find anyone to arrange transportation for them. I've not heard any more from him after the initial flurry of interest.

Overall, the "church" has made it clear to me that: 1. They are not interested in ministering to "those people" at all. 2. For those of us who do go and carry the Gospel inside, fine. Just keep it to yourself. 3. If those inmates are saved while in prison, or are restored to a walk with Christ, when they come out, they are still "those people" and not welcome in "our church"

With that heart, I guess the "church" is relieved when the guys end up back in sin, back in crime, and subsequently back in prison. That's where they belong, right?

EXPOSITORY PREACHING--A NECESSITY

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word;....(2 Timothy 4:1,2)

Recently I was again exposed to the negative aspects of "topical preaching." So often, I am tempted to say "always" but won't, so often, the preacher takes his heart's Topic and drags in every scripture verse he can find in support of his own view as he builds his "case."

The result is a man-made conglomeration of error and half-truths and the Word of God lies mangled at the preacher's feet. I speak as one who has fallen into this trap more than once. I have hobby-horses just like most men do. I have "proof-texts" too. But that imperative "preach the Word" does not mean: preach what you think is right and torture the scriptures as necessary in order to support your theme.

The art of expository preaching, where one preaches through a text verse-by-verse, protects both the preacher and the hearers from much of the error which can come from the work of sinful men, even regenerated sinners. The Word acts as a restraint upon our passion to promote our own ideas and pet theories. We should be, by this framework, held close to the intent of the Holy Spirit Who penned the words of the text. It is so easy to grab a verse somewhere because it "sounds good" in support of our topic when in fact, it is being used out of context, either grammatical or historical, or both.

"Preach the Word" means preach His Word, not ours.

MY FAVORITE RAP VIDEO

LOSING THE GOSPEL

I am reading and being greatly influenced by Michael Horton's new book CHRISTLESS CHRISTIANITY and am stunned to find aspects of the "prosperity gospel" theology creeping into what were previously considered "sound" churches via the preaching/teaching of men previously considered "rock solid" This is genuinely frightening.

I'm going to quote at length from the book here, particularly from a sub-chapter titled "From Riches to Rags: Losing the Gospel by Taking It for Granted" It seems more sensible to me just to quote his text rather than try to restate it in my own less succinct way.

"We got in by grace but now we need to stay in...by following various steps, lists, and practices. There was this brief and shining moment of grace, but now the rest of the Christian life is about our experience, feelings, committment, and obedience.

Across the entire spectrum from conservative to liberal, we are being told that we need to focus on our deeds, not creeds. Of course, Christ's person and work are important; but we already believe that, right? That's doctrine, we are told; not helping people where they live. Now, we have to save America and the world through our holy actions....

The worst thing that can happen to the Church is to confuse law and gospel. When we soften the Law, we never give up on our own attempts to offer our rags of "righteousness" to God. When we turn the Gospel into demands, it is no longer the saving Word of redemption in Jesus Christ alone....

No longer threatened with hell or comforted with heaven, the new legalism is the upbeat and cheerful hum playing in the background. It's still a form of works-righteousness, with its carrots and sticks. Follow my advice and you'll really "connect" with God's best for your life. If you are not happy, perhaps you have fallen out of God's favor and blessing. Only those who are "completely surrendered" can be confident that they are in God's Plan A. Now here are the steps to living the victorious Christian life. Are you following the steps? Do you have enough faith? Are you praying enough, reading the Bible enough, witnessing enough, serving in the church enough, loving enough? This diet of imperatives becomes just as burdensome and human-centered as the older legalism; it's just Legalism-Lite....

We need the Law and the Gospel, but each does different things. When we confuse law and gospel, we avoid both the trauma of God's holiness and the liberating power of His grace. We begin to speak about living the gospel, doing the gospel, even being the gospel, as if the Good News were a message about us and our works instead of about Jesus Christ and His works.

And since our faith in every moment is threatened by our natural tendency to be distracted from its object--Christ--we need the gospel to be placarded before us not just at the beginning but throughout the Christian life. The gospel is for Christians too. We need to be evangelized every week. It is not by following Christ's example but by actually being inserted into Christ, clothed with Christ, united to Christ--as the Spirit creates faith through the gospel--that we are not only justified but sanctified as well....

So there are really only two religions in the world: a religion of human striving to ascend to God through pious works, feelings, attitudes, and experiences, and the Good News of God's merciful descent to us in His Son."

(CHRISTLESS CHRISTIANITY by Michael Horton, c. 2008 by Michael Horton, published by Baker Books)

How often do we hear this formula?-- OK, now you're saved through the Gospel. It's time to start living like a Christian. You need to "move on" by means of proper behaviors and actions.

Matthew 6:33 is presented as a "moving on" message. "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness" then, after you have so sought, work hard, be honest, and God will give you all those blessings!

What a travesty of the Gospel!.....what "another gospel, which is not the gospel."

"Seek first the Kingdom of God...." does not mean a one-time conversion experience after which we are blessed by God for our pious actions. We are to seek first the Kingdom with our every breath, every day, in every way. The Gospel is not a pill we swallow, then go on with our lives, getting the occasional "boost-up" from God's hand. The Gospel is Christ, the Way, the Destination, the Journey, now and for evermore.

WHAT'S TO CELEBRATE?

Day After Election news pundits are nearly all telling us that regardless of how we voted, we should be celebrating the forthcoming presidency of Barack Obama....that this is an event of monumental historicity.

Just what is it that we are celebrating?

That this country has just given a mandate to an unknown quantity......a Mystery Man?

That we have just elected the Novice of Novices to lead the most powerful nation in the world?

That a man whose entire adult life has been guided and influenced by the philosophers and activists of the far Left is promising "change"? (Change from free-market capitalism to Euro-style socialism, an idea merely dabbled in by the recent Republican floundering, can become the legislated Way very quickly)

That a man professing a pseudo-christianity but demonstrating utter disregard for human life in the unborn now seems to be the personification of the American culture?

That we have elected a man who sees no problem in expanding the concept of marriage to include homosexual couples?

That we have elected a man who not only condones and supports the sinful behavior of our government in years past but is anxious to expand government granting legal permission for and protection of practices which are an abomination to God?

.........Well, no, not exactly.

That's not what we are to be celebrating.........

We should be, they say, celebrating the fact that Barack Obama is Black.

That's it folks. We have elected a Black man as President, so congratulate yourself! Never mind all the characteristics listed above......We have done a Great Thing!

Well, pardon me if my "celebration" is a bit subdued.

Is the best thing you can say about Obama "He's Black."? Maybe.....

And we're getting these celebration suggestions from the very same source, the news media, which for over a year has been telling us that we should not allow race to be a factor in our decision-making process.

Don't vote for him because he's Black. Don't vote against him because he's Black. But now, we've elected him and we need to celebrate the fact that he's Black.......?

Are we as a nation that stupid? Maybe.....

I can think of some guys (mostly not politicians) who would give me a lot greater inclination to celebrate were they President-elect: J C Watts, Alan Keyes, Voddie Baucham, Eric Redmond. Hey, they're Black, too....but I wouldn't be celebrating because they are Black, but because they have a worldview which honors God and would incline them to keep our country on the path laid out in the Constitution.

Four years or eight years hence will we look back at our country in ashes, economy wrecked, society in shambles, and take comfort in: Well, at least we elected a Black man! ? ? ?

Believe me, the tragedy would be just as tragic if we were led down the road of destruction by a white man. This seems like some kind of Orwellian brain-washing campaign--telling us how wonderful it is because the skin-pigmentation of our new President is somewhat darker than his predecessors.

Eric Redmond wrote of his personal conflict in deciding which way to vote, since he is Black. I can understand, considering history and man's nature, the inclination to vote for someone who looks like you and has had similar cultural experiences because of that skin color. The question is: Are those considerations weighty? Are they more important than other issues? Redmond decided "No" and said this about his decision:

If a person would allow himself to be pigeonholed into becoming a person of a nationalistic or ethno-centric thought out of the fear of being viewed as an Oreo or Uncle Tom, then Reformed Theology is not for that person. But neither is the Gospel, for the Gospel calls each of us to stand against an ethnic-centered philosophy of one's own race, for such a philosophy is naturally conformed to this present world and is in need of redemption. If you cannot stand against your own culture where it does not square with the Scriptures, you are the one who is ashamed of Christ, and such shame has nothing to with philosophical or ontological Blackness; it only has to do with your view of the majesty of the God who calls you to deny yourself in order to follow Christ. ("Sovereign in a Sweet Home, Schooling, and Solace," in Glory Road: Our Journey Into Reformed Christianity, ed. Anthony Carter [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, Wheaton, forthcoming])

(You can read his entire article here
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Nothing to celebrate here, folks......move along! Let's not be caught up in taking cues for our behavior from the press or television pundits. Let's not give ear to the blind guides......

There are some real mandates regarding our human government, however, and they come from a Source to which we must give ear: the Word of God.

1. We are to pray for those in government, local and national, regardless of how we feel about their policies. They are ordained of God according to His purposes. That means we need to pray for Obama; pray that God changes his heart; pray that God be glorified in all that is done in this forthcoming administration.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
(1Tim 2:1-2)

2. We are to be obedient to the government and courteous toward the governors and others.

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
(Titus 3:1-2)

3, Not just being obedient to the government but doing so because we recognize that it is ordained of God!

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
(Rom 13:1-2)
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What??? You still want to celebrate?.......Celebrate this:

"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin."
(Rom 4:7-8)

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
(Rom 5:8-11)

WHAT ABOUT MINISTRY?

"And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: 'The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. "'I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
(Rev 2:18-19)

There's that word διακονία (diakonia) again.....here rendered "service" but often translated "ministry" and from which the word "deacon" is derived. Obviously, it's meaning is related to service or servant-hood. There's a lot of talk about "ministry" in the local church today but I am having a tough time finding anyone really interested in doing it. In the passage from the Revelation quoted above, the Lord Jesus is telling a local church "I know your ....service...." That gets my attention. It should get the attention of some of the pastors I've had dealings with recently.

I know without asking that a lot of my "problem" derives from the fact that I work in prison ministry and my "congregations" are convicted criminals, felons, some guilty of really ugly stuff. The "church," including the pulpit, is jam-packed with folks who think they are far and above more holy than "those people" who are incarcerated. That's probably the root of my problem....

Nevertheless, it is really frustrating to call upon "fellow ministers--servants" and find that they are totally unable, unwilling, to remove themselves from their book-lined offices and mingle with the common people. Let me give you a couple of stories from my recent experiences:

We had an inmate in a 6-month "boot camp" program for first-time felons, a program designed to send men deemed by the state to be "salvagable" home on parole rather than spending 5-8 years incarcerated, learning how to be more successful criminals. A high percentage of these guys are under 30 and locked up for various drug charges. This particular young man was 25, had a good testimony of conversion and said he felt God's call on his life to be a preacher of the Gospel. He was from a city where there is a church which fellowships with my home church so I called the pastor to ask him to visit the man's mother who lived within rock-throwing distance of his church building, to meet the young man when he got home, etc. I had given the inmate the church's address and phone number, and although his early church attendance had been in pentecostal circles, his Bible study had pretty well given him an understanding of the doctrines of Grace, so he was excited about going to a doctrinally-sound Baptist church.

So, I called this pastor and told him what was going on, gave him the guy's name and the date when he'd be home and the first words out of this preacher's mouth are: What was he locked up for? Now, in a way, that's a legitimate question, but what does he think.......I'm gonna send him a serial-rapist, axe-murderer? The man had absolutely no interest in ministering to any ex-convict, no matter what. That telephone conversation was brief, centered on the Big Question. It had taken me two weeks to even get him on the phone because he never returned my calls prior to me finally catching him. After that conversation, I resorted to e-mail have never received any response to any communications since that day.....nor have I heard from the young inmate who, if he met with the same level of "ministry," probably drifted back into his pentecostal world or abandoned the idea of "church" altogether. Well, pastor, Jesus Christ says: I know your service.......

Another story: In another prison, another congregation, I have a faithful "member" who has a wonderful testimony and a heart of the type which can only come from God. He and I have spent many a time praying and weeping over his family over in East Tennessee, which includes a wheel-chair-bound sister and her mother-in-law with Alzheimers--a family where most of the men are in prison right now. This sister for whom the inmate was providing most of the care and assistance had attended a local Baptist church for some time until her disabilities further restricted her ability to get around. I talked with her on the telephone several times and kept her brother apprised regarding her surgeries, etc. The inmate, I'll call him "Bob" has a real burden for her soul and for that of others in the household and because it's too long a trip for me to make over there, I decided to contact a nearby congregation to see if they would send a minister to visit this family and share the Gospel with them. Once again, this is a congregation with close ties to my own church--people I should be able to have confidence in, right?

After two or three tries to get any of the pastoral staff on the phone, I got an associate pastor during a week when the rest of the staff was out of town for various reasons. I gave him all the information: phone numbers, addresses, names, situations, my contact numbers, etc. He said that on Monday of the coming week, he'd be on the case, as soon as some others were back to cover the office. That's the last I ever heard from them. Bob's sister never had a call, never had a visit, nothing. (I will state right here that I did not call them back to find out why....just the way I am--like Barney Fife, I don't chew my cabbage twice. I have no confidence that the second promise from them to "help" would be of any more value than the first)......and, Mr Associate Pastor: Jesus Christ says "I know your service......."

Well, Bob's folks still need ministry and in a subsequent phone call his sister told me that the local congregation had helped them several times and she really liked that church. I looked at their website and saw that it was probably the largest congregation in the town, about 600 and their doctrinal statement hinted that they might be more than just a First Baptist Entertainment Center so I decided to call the pastor there. It happens that I knew his father back in dinosaur days and the old man was a fine, Godly pastor. Pastor Son had absolutely no interest in taking my phone calls. His incoming calls are filtered through 2 secretaries and I never got him on the phone.....in 3 weeks of trying! I won't take up space with all the reasons proffered as to why he could not come to the phone, even when he was in the office. Some light entered last week as Secretary #2 asked "Who are you with?"....and I said "Aha, he thinks I'm trying to sell him something...." Though I had told them before, at one time or another, all the following: my name, location, that I was a volunteer prison chaplain, a Baptist preacher, a friend of Pastor's father, a Baptist missionary.....Even when I told her again "who I was with"......no soap! After I hung up from what I had decided was my last effort, I had the brainstorm.......and called her back: Hey, does Pastor Son have an email address? Yep, so I got it and sent him an email with all the details and my hope for some help.

And, surprise, surprise......I got a reply, and he had actually done something! Their phone had been disconnected so I had been unable to check on them for 6 weeks or so. He sent a deacon out to the house and reported that they were "all right" and gave me a new phone number. Now that's all I got, far short of what I asked for or feel like I needed with regard to health reports, etc, but I can now get them first hand. He also gave me a litany of what the church had done for these folks over the last year or two.....which I already knew. But the tone was: We tried to help these bums and they came to church for a while but haven't been there for 5 months so we're washing our hands of them. The two emails with which he responded to my lengthy, detailed inquiries totaled 3 sentences. Maybe I'm hypersensitive, but I read a clear: Now, don't bother me about this any more....

I have to give this fellow credit for at least doing something but am still disappointed in the way he isolates himself, or at least isolated himself from me. I cannot understand that kind of behavior in a pastor. "I know your service........."

I've always felt that too many churches are populated with people who hold in disdain the "great unwashed" populations of the backroads and sidestreets of our communities, the down-and-outs, and no group is more in that class than the families struggling with incarcerated members. We love to look down on the criminals who got caught. It seems impossible for the average church member, even some pastors, to realize that it is only the restraining Grace of God which kept them (and keeps them) from the same end. We have modified "servant-hood" to exclude service to those who are "not deserving" those who are too far gone into sin and depravity......no need to waste our time or resources on those ne'er-do-wells. (And, yes, I am quite familiar with the types who thrive on fleecing churches and other charities, and do not disdain the use of discretion and stewardship principles).....BUT,

To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
(Luke 6:29-36)

Get THE Point?

"God saves sinners—and the force of this confession may not be weakened by disrupting the unity of the work of the Trinity, or by dividing the achievement of salvation between God and man and making the decisive part man’s own, or by soft-pedaling the sinner’s inability so as to allow him to share the praise of his salvation with his Saviour. This is the one point of Calvinistic soteriology which the “five points” are concerned to establish and Arminianism in all its forms to deny: namely, that sinners do not save themselves in any sense at all, but that salvation, first and last, whole and entire, past, present and future, is of the Lord, to whom be glory for ever; amen."

J. I. Packer, “Introductory Essay” to John Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (London: Banner of Truth, 1959)

TRADING AWAY THE GLORY OF GOD

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
(Romans 1:22-23)


Recently I was invited to preach a Sunday morning service in a small country church pastored by a friend. He's a wonderful fellow with a real heart for the downtrodden and is a faithful worker in prison ministry.

In a month of study on the Glory of God in Preaching (using Piper's book as a guide), my heart was greatly impressed by the absolute primacy of God's Glory in all that we do, preach, how we live, how we conduct ourselves among other people, in church and out. I guess that's stating the obvious....but it's one thing to believe that in one's head and quite another thing to have God impress it upon one's heart.

So, I delivered the message and as much as one can tell, it seemed well received by both the pastor and the congregation. We had the traditional "dinner on the grounds" (It was Homecoming Day) and after lunch returned to the auditorium for the traditional "singing."

The first group to perform make the oft-heard remarks of how their goal was to "lift up the Name of Jesus" and "glorify Him" etc. Immediately following these protestations of piety came 7 songs totally bereft of any mention of the Gospel, the Work of Christ, or the Glory of God. At that time I thought I'd remember all seven titles and record them somewhere for posterity, but my failing memory leaves me only with a hint of the first 3 titles: "I'll Never Be Ashamed" "I'll Never Turn My Back" and "I Need One More Miracle" (or words to that effect). Three more equally Christ-less examples followed, capped off with a popular chorus, "On Holy Ground" which does have at least a hint of the Lord of Glory......but only a hint.

We were able to escape after that set and I drove back home really stunned by what I had just experienced. Now, these people are not evil; they are local folks, good church members, moral, honest, friendly, and would tell you in a heartbeat of your need of Jesus Christ. I love that pastor out there for his testimony of God's great grace intervening in his wicked life at nearly 40 years of age, for his burden for the outcasts of our community, for his devoted ministry to prison inmates.

But they, like the fools Paul excoriates in Romans 1, have traded in the Glory of God for an idol. Rather than a stone or carved wooden idol, this 21st century group has an idol not just "resembling mortal man" but, in fact the mortal man himself. We are so often the focus of our worship. In the vernacular of this culture: It's all about me!

As I discussed this situation with my wife the Monday morning following the event, I wept over the state these folks are in. They simply don't get it.
This is dangerous territory. I do not want to sound "holier-than-thou"...for me, I barely get it. I'm just beginning to understand a little of God's view of His glory. I've been trying to put together an analogy which would picture how I feel.......

I am driving my car through a dark valley. A friend sits beside me in the front seat. Now and then, in between the peaks of the hills which surround us on all sides, I catch a glimpse of the brightness, the radiance, the glory of the Sun. It is overwhelming! There are no words adequate to describe to anyone what I see during those too-brief seconds of Light.

I turn to my friend to share the wonder of what I've seen......Wow! Did you see that? "What" he says. "I saw nothing. What are you talking about?"

And, he doesn't see it. They don't see it. Why does someone not see what is evident to me, and to others? I do not want to use the word "blind" in my analogy here because of the spiritual implications. "Blind" people are lost. I don't want to label any of these people as "lost"; I don't think they are all lost. But, why do they not see? Maybe my friend has the sun visor down and it blocks his view. Maybe he is reading a newspaper and will not look up. Are they distracted? Is something blocking their view?

What will it take to clear their view?

Where will we see the Glory of God?

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.