We have all likely heard of the public ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. However, his private ministry in his home may be even more compelling as he gives a profound example of what it means to pastor your first church body—your family.

Spurgeon says:

“If we want to bring up a godly family, who shall be a seed to serve God when our heads are under the clods of the valley, let us seek to train them up in the fear of God by meeting together as a family for worship.”

Susannah, his wife, describes the nightly scene at their house:

“After the meal was over, an adjournment was made to the study for family worship, and it was at these seasons that my beloved’s prayers were remarkable for their tender childlikeness, their spiritual pathos and their intense devotion. He seemed to come as near to God as a little child to a loving father, and we were often moved to tears as he talked thus face to face with his Lord.”

A visitor tells of his evening in the Spurgeon home:

One of the most helpful hours of my visits to Westwood was the hour of family prayer. At six o’clock all the household gathered into the study for worship. Usually Mr. Spurgeon would himself lead the devotions. The portion read was invariably accompanied with exposition. How amazingly helpful those homely and gracious comments were. I remember, especially, his reading of the twenty-fourth of Luke: “Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.” How sweetly he talked upon having Jesus with us wherever we go. Not only to have Him draw near at special seasons but to go with us whatever labour we undertake...

...Then, how full of tender pleading, of serene confidence in God, of world-embracing sympathy were his prayers... His public prayers were an inspiration and benediction, but his prayers with the family were to me more wonderful still... Mr. Spurgeon, when bowed before God in family prayer, appeared a grander man even than when holding thousands spellbound by his oratory.

Spurgeon, despite a schedule that would crush most and physical ailments that would cause the rest us to tap out, maintained this time with family regardless of his circumstances or company. It was his great joy to do so. May it be the same with us.

Sources and Further Reading:

• Family Worship: In the Bible, in History & in Your Home by Donald S. Whitney
• C.H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography by C.H. Spurgeon, Susannah Spurgeon, and J. W. Harrald.
• Spurgeon: A New Biography by Arnold Dallimore

For a great resource to help you lead your family in worship, check out the Rizers—fun, original music that helps kids memorize Scripture. Listen to the Rizers here.

The Rizers

A band that sings Scripture verses in the form of upbeat, kid-friendly music. Check out The Rizers.

The Church We Want

When pastors and church leaders read Acts 2:42-46, they get nostalgic for something they never had. Who can read these words and not wish that their church looked like this?

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Not Just To Be Imitated

But the question that we often incorrectly ask after reading this is, “Why do these early Christians have this quality of church?” We see this quality as merely something to be imitated, but miss the roots of their devotion. We tend to see the first church as prescriptive, but it is actually descriptive of something deeper.

The mistake we make is thinking we can recreate this quality of church by pursuing the things they did. We think, “If we just gave ourselves to the apostle’s teaching, if we ate together, if we sold our possessions and shared, then the kingdom would break in again to our churches.”

A Church That Is Aware

But this is moralistic at best. The real power behind the quality of the early church was the awareness that they had killed Jesus only a few months before. They realized that they had crucified the Son of God and were granted mercy. Their love and devotion flowed from their stark denial of Jesus and his subsequent forgiveness of them.

2 Peter 1:9 says, “If any man lacks these qualities, he is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from past sins.” We lack qualities of love and learning because we first forget that we are sinners for whom Christ died. But when we remember and live off of our justification, we will find ourselves learning from the apostles, fellowshiping with believers, and even being generous with our possessions.

Logos Bible Software

Get a Resurgence discount of 15% off anything in the Logos Bible Software library. Check it out here.

In my previous post, I spoke of the importance of regular times of family worship. I have three daughters aged 5, 6, and 8, and I have failed as much as succeeded. Here are a few things I've learned:

1. Keep it short

I would recommend 15-30 minutes, as a general rule. If things are going well, you can always keep the conversation going, but the goal should be brevity. If you make a discussion too long, it will become tedious and can actually turn your kids away from God. This time should be an overflow of all the Scripture, prayer, and discussion going on in the rest of your lives—not the only place where it happens.

2. Read

Most importantly, family worship is a time for Scripture. Make sure to read small chunks, maybe only a verse or two, at a time and then unpack it together. You can go through a book of the Bible, pick a verse that applies to the day’s events, or choose something topical. The important thing here is connecting Scripture to life in a way that your kids can understand. For younger kids, the The Jesus Storybook Bible is pretty hard to beat.

3. Pray

Everyone should pray together. Thank God for what he has done and how he has provided. Take requests. Pray for each other. Pray for your city and specific lost people in your lives. Remember that you are building a rhythm, which is just as important as any specific prayer.

4. Sing

It doesn’t matter if you can play an instrument or your voice curdles milk—we should all sing songs to God. Scripture is full of song, and our families should be as well. Truth be told, you are probably more of the problem with this than your kids. Young kids naturally sing all the time without any self-consciousness. Get over your hang-ups and desire for perfection and just sing together. My girls and I are making family songbooks as a creative project, and they’re stoked.

5. Keep it regular

The sum is greater than the parts. You will have off days. You will miss days. You may even question your call to ministry. Whatever happens, just keep at it and God will make you equal to the task.

6. Older kids set the example

If your oldest kid is not engaged, your younger ones will follow. Challenge your oldest children to set the example for their siblings. Give them a bit of ownership and a role in how you structure these times, and it will be a huge help.

7. Limit TV

I’m not saying kill your television completely, but there is no doubt in my mind that excessive TV rots the attention span. If your kids, or you for that matter, can’t pay attention to anything for more than two minutes, then think about what other entertainment might be captivating your senses.

For a great resource to help you lead your family in worship, check out the Rizers—fun, original music that helps kids memorize Scripture. Listen to the Rizers here.

Red Letter Music

Music from the Mars Hill band Red Letter. Pay what you want and download the full album now from Re:Sound.

Social Media

John Calvin wrote that the human heart is an idol factory. He was right.

Throughout history, we have bowed down to golden cattle, celestial beings, stone animals, and even human body parts. The passage of time has only increased the number of ways we exchange the worship of the One True God for lesser, false gods. Today, we can sadly add yet another idol to the list—social media.

Social media (blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), as technology, is neutral and harmless. Social media can and should be used for the glory of God and the advancement of the gospel in every possible way. But natural-born idolaters like you and me are no more than a few clicks away from making this good thing a god thing.

Tainted Meals

Social media carries a unique set of temptations. Much like the adulterous temptress described in Proverbs, social media offers us the invitation to come into her house and enjoy the choicest foods, only to find the meal poisoned.

The most dangerous of these tainted meals is pride. Few other creations in history have allowed us to see how "important" we and our thoughts are with such tantalizing immediacy as our blog and tweet stats. There are times we check our stats because we are more concerned with the applause of man than the affirmation of Jesus, and we forsake the true justification of who we are in the gospel for the false justification of who we are in the eyes of our followers. We do the opposite of what we set out to do in the first place; we serve ourselves instead of God and his people.

Check Your Hearts

Pride creeps in through tweets and status updates. Though there is nothing inherently wrong with mentioning where we are having lunch or who we are with, we would be well served by checking our hearts before we do. Are we sharing this information to give people a helpful window into our lives as we seek to live out the gospel, or are we unwittingly (or even quite wittingly) enticing our friends toward coveting the life we are living? Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth tweets.

So what's the answer?

1. Think before you post.

It sounds simple, but stopping to think about why we are about to do what we are about to do is an amazing sin-killing weapon. Use it and use it often. It has been a great help to me.

2. Consider "fasting" from social media for a season.

While this may seem extreme, in light of Jesus' counsel about tearing out our eye if it makes us sin (Matthew 5:29), fasting seems like the least we could do to expose the true condition of our hearts. If we are flatly unwilling to consider it, that tells us something.

3. Believe the gospel.

Make your solid theology soundly practical in daily life. If, when we are tempted to go to the fleeting approval of man to shore up our insecurities, we instead go to the approval of God that is ours in Christ, the approval unaffected by the abundance or absence of re-tweets, we, our followers, and the kingdom are better for it.

Calvin was right. The heart is an idol factory.

But at this intersection of technology and idolatry, pull the plug on the bad and keep the good.

Luke Sermon Series

The current Mars Hill sermon series traces the life of Jesus through the Gospel of Luke. Watch the preview.

What do record company executives do in their spare time? The question may conjure up images of excess and debauchery, but in one case the answer is a little different.

Scripture-Pop for Kids

Tyson Paoletti has helped run Tooth & Nail Records in Seattle for the better part of the last decade. He and songwriter, freelance designer, and friend Greg Lutze came up with the idea for an album of Scripture based, guitar-pop worship songs for kids. Both members of Mars Hill Church, they are artists and fathers trying to figure out ways to establish Scripture memory as a value in their families. What began as a series of jingles to help memorize Bible verses became a full-length album of music you can’t get out of your head, joined to lyrics of straight Scripture.

Listen to the Rizers:

Pay What You Want

Re:Sound exists to show music that is theologically unified, stylistically diverse and musically excellent. Today we make good on the stylistically diverse part of the equation. We are offering four songs from The Rizers’ first album for whatever you think they are worth. Check out these songs here and the whole album on iTunes. Also stay tuned in the coming weeks for lots more info on this project, family Scripture memory, and what it means to lead your family in worship in a regular basis.

You can get the full album from the Rizers here:

1. iTunes
2. Amazon MP3
3. Physical CD

The Rizers

A band that sings Scripture verses in the form of upbeat, kid-friendly music. Check out The Rizers.

Doctrine: Click | View Series

The mutual indwelling that God's people enjoy in corporate worship is essential to our growth personally, joy collectively, and witness culturally. God's people gather because, in the depths of their regenerated nature, the Holy Spirit gives them deep desires to worship God with his people. We want to see God's people, we want to hear of God's work in their lives, we want to know of ways we can lovingly serve them, and we want to be part of something bigger than ourselves that reaches beyond the mundane details of life and connects us all together despite our differences in age, race, gender, and income to seek and celebrate evidences of God's grace.

Regarding how God is to be worshiped, God must be worshiped as he wishes, not as we wish. The Bible is clear that God is to be worshiped in ways and forms that he deems acceptable. This explains why God judges those who seek to worship him with either sinful forms externally or sinful hearts internally. This is incredibly important. Some churches care more about what is in people's hearts than about what they do in their lives, whereas others are more concerned about doing things the 'right' way and care little about the motivations behind those actions. When it comes to worship, which is all of life, the God of the Bible cares about both what we do and why we do it.

From Doctrine, Chapter 11. Worship: God Transforms (pg. 351). Doctrine is out now.

Doctrine Book

Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe is available now. Read a free chapter and find out more.

When I came to Mars Hill Church over ten years ago, I had never owned an electric guitar or been in a real band. I was an acoustic guitar-playing, worship-leading youth group poster-child with hippie tendencies. This didn’t go over well when I showed up at Mars Hill. At that point Mars Hill was known for dim light, incense burning, and experimental rock bands. Virtually every musician was a new Christian who had been in many bands, worked in music professionally, and even toured.

A huge musical shift began for me. Instead of my previous diet of Dave Matthews, Bruce Cockburn, and Phil Keaggy, I started going to local shows and was drawn to the Seattle indie-rock scene. I got my first electric guitar, nerded out on amps and effects, and started a band. My acoustic guitar lived an isolated existence for the next 8 years.

Recently, this changed. Over the past year, I have led many small groups in song with just an acoustic: at staff meetings, for students in Re:Train, during community group training, for Acts 29 events, during family song nights, and on and on. During the reawakening of my acoustic guitar, I’ve learned a few things:

Turning Down the Effects Turns Up the Music

If a song can’t stand on its own with an acoustic guitar and a few voices raised together, it needs more work. Effects and instrumentation shouldn’t be used to cover up a poor song. If you can’t strip it all away, and still have substance that moves hearts to worship Jesus, then you’re relying too much on technology, tricks, and gear.

You Learn to Lead, Not Perform

Worship leaders exist to lead others in song; not to perform for them. If you can’t stand on your own and sing your guts out with just a guitar and lead others to do the same, then you need to grow as a leader. I’ve been leading worship for a while now, but leading more in small groups on acoustic has given me significantly more confidence and insight in how to lead others than leading with an electric.

Acoustic Lets You Try New Things

When it’s just you and your acoustic, you can be more sensitive to the people you are leading and, most importantly, the Holy Spirit. If you want to be able to “go with the Ghost” you have to practice and grow in your confidence just like anything else. This year I’ve seen spontaneous prayer, words of prophecy, healings, and rich times of fellowship with God—all in small groups raising their voices in song. Now, by God’s grace, these things are starting to make their way into our main services. Coincidence? I think not. We’re almost charismatics!

I’m still a fan of large bands and worship teams leading God’s people in fist pumping shouts of praise to our great God. But no matter how big your church, seek the opportunity to lead small groups of people in song—and don’t forget your acoustic!

For any questions or comments go to our Facebook group or follow me on Twitter.

Re:Sound

The musical arm of the Resurgence offers music that is theologically unified, stylistically diverse, and musically excellent. Find out more.

By the time your Sunday services begin, thousands of decisions have been made—both macro and micro. In each of these deciding moments is an opportunity to be faithful, or not, to the purposes God has called us to. If we are to be faithful, we must set our priorities in order long before even the smallest decision is made.

Priority #1: Truth

As Paul says in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Truth from Scripture must be the framework and standard by which every other priority is subjected. If we have a gathering with killer music but no truth, we have a pointless gathering: we’ve led people astray by placing their focus on something far less important and valuable than a God who redeems broken sinners.

The songs that we sing need to not only have the ability to stir affections (any pop song can do that), but also to teach. The choice of song can be as simple as “Agnus Dei” or as deep as “Before the Throne,” as long as it is shows our people who God is or who we are in light of him.

Priority #2: Corporate Response

If the songs we play are only true, but not singable, memorable, or enjoyable, our people will be far less likely to have their hearts stirred by the truths we are presenting. They will be distracted with trying to get around the music instead of into it. Songs that teach and admonish are best when they are SUNG!

Jonathan Edwards says that what we see on the outside “is no sign one way or the other, that religious affections are very great, or raised very high.” Responsiveness is hard to gauge. Just because hands are in the air doesn’t mean hearts are being changed. At the same time, if everyone in the congregation is staring at your lyric slides like zombies, chances are their hearts aren’t being changed either.

God looks at the heart, and whether corporate worship is a true reflection of the lives within our church or not, it will be seen by the fruit we bear in our day-to-day worship.

Priority #3: Musical Style, Arrangement, and Execution

When we gather to sing, the “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” are the means by which truth is prompting people to respond. Though this is our third priority, it is only because it is in subjection to priorities 1 and 2. The music serves truth and responsiveness.

I say all of this because the medium matters. If you are a New Calvinist you would likely agree that truth and the response to it are the most important priorities. In my next post, I will expand on why the music is so important.

Re:Sound

The musical arm of the Resurgence offers music that is theologically unified, stylistically diverse, and musically excellent. Find out more.

The South is such a good place! Our food is great; there is nothing like real southern BBQ and a tall glass of sweet tea! The climate and geography of the South are unmatched anywhere in the country; we actually have 4 distinct seasons, 80-degree ocean temperatures, and beautiful mountain ranges. Our people are the friendliest folk on the planet and when you visit, count on complete strangers talking to you on street corners. In the midst of this great goodness, we have been poisoned. The poison has been expertly disguised and consumed endlessly.

Poison Disguised

The "expert disguise" of the poison is that it has the appearance of health. How many times have we fallen for that same trick? As humans we long for goodness, satisfaction, and fulfillment, causing us to launch headfirst into almost anything that claims to offer those. We are lured by things that provoke lust in our souls and make us feel pseudo-fulfilled.

The obesity crisis in our culture is a perfect example. We are killing ourselves with things that have the appearance of health but in actuality are destructive. No one has ever become obese from eating vegetables! No doctor has ever said, "Your consumption of grapes is going to be the end of you." No, it's the 2000-calorie hamburger with sausage and bacon on top that is making us obese. Commercials, web advertisements, and billboards depict our favorite indulgence, causing us to drool like Pavlov's dog before we consume to our own death. These foods have the appearance of health but they poison us.

The Poison of Quaint Moralism

The South has been poisoned, and the poison is "quaint moralism." This poison has systematically infected tens of millions in the South and we are now in the midst of a moralistic pandemic. Who has dispensed this quaint moralistic poison? The blame lies with Christianity! We have blared from pulpits, on radio waves, even in movie theaters that "it's good to be good." We have taught that when you do what the Bible says, your wife will obey, your dog will obey, and your kids will obey. For decades now we have filled churches by declaring that those among us who are ethical churchgoers will be accepted by God and those of us who don't go to church will burn, burn, burn.

Our churches are full of good-looking, upright, moral people. The tragic irony is that our goodness is our poision. A great many Southerners claim Christianity as their religion, mimicking righteousness on the surface while their hearts remain unchanged by the gospel of Jesus. I understand the gravity of that statement and do not make it hastily. Here in the South, the gospel has either been ignored or foolishly assumed. We have satiated our desire for God through quaint morality, allowing people to ignore their need for Jesus.

The outcome is disastrous; we are witnessing an exodus out of the local church and away from faith in Jesus. The words of Jesus to the church of Laodicea haunt me, "I know your works: you are neither hot nor cold…for you say, I am rich, I have prospered and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked" (Rev. 3:15–17).

A New Movement

Yet we have great Hope! Many pastors in the South believe Jesus is stirring a new movement for his glory. As I talk to pastors, professors, and experienced leaders, there is a universal sentiment that God is up to something. Many believe that Jesus is raising up churches, lay leaders, pastors, businessmen, and a multitude of believers to join the mission of God. Will you join us? Will you pray? Will you risk everything—influence, money, importance, tradition, denominational allegiance, and especially moralism—for the sake of the gospel?

This conversation is happening all over the South. Join in at AdvancetheChurch.com.

Religion Saves

Pastor Mark answers the top nine most-asked questions in Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions. Find out more.

Here is the full video of our interview with Dr. Michael Horton.

To watch or share shorter clips from the interview, use these links:

• What Is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism?
• Why You Can't "Be" the Gospel
• What We Should Learn From the Mainline Denominations
• Is the New Perspective on Paul Dangerous?
• Why Is the Resurgence of Reformed Theology Encouraging?
• Michael Horton's Advice to the Young Reformed
• What Is the Greatest Theological Challenge Facing the Next Generation of Pastors?
• Building a Kingdom vs. Receiving a Kingdom
• The Gospel-Driven Life

Re:Train

If you want to be in missional ministry, you need training. World-class theological and practical ministry training at four strategic locations: retrain.org.