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Check out this interview with Matt Chandler from the SBC Pastor's Conference. He talks about how a pastor can refocus his church on the gospel and how cancer has affected his family.
Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe is available now. Read a free chapter and find out more.
From the recent sermon John the Baptizer, Part 2.
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Discerning God's Call series: Click | View Series
There are two ditches that the church can fall into as they help confirm a person’s calling to gospel ministry. First, they can uncritically accept the internal call, or the subjective sense of calling, which is usually driven by emotions. Too often the church’s motto is, “Just let the boy preach!” The danger here is that we produce ministers who rely strictly on gifts and fail to develop godly character, all but ensuring future disqualification.
The other ditch is when the church makes it too difficult to be affirmed in gospel ministry. Such churches set the bar too high with regard to skill development (being a great preacher) or with regard to education (candidate must have finished seminary). There are many gifted pastors who started successful ministries even though they had never been to seminary, like Mark Driscoll or Matt Chandler. We need to be careful not to set the bar so high that we exclude from ministry those whom God is genuinely calling.
How should the church test whether or not a man is called into pastoral ministry from a skill perspective? There are at least two tests a church should consider. The first test involves a man’s understanding of Scripture. Questions that should be answered might include:
The second test involves inspecting the fruit of his ministry. Questions might include:
All three of these confirmations—heart, head, and skill—must be present in a genuine call. The pentecostal/charismatic camp tends to focus on heart and the supernatural calling from God, the reformed/evangelical camp tends to focus on the head, and the mainline churches often focus on skills—but in a genuine call, all three are present.
Above, I posed some questions the church should ask when considering a candidate’s call. Here are some questions for you to consider as you discern God’s call in your life:
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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: What Christians Should Believe is available now. Read a free chapter and find out more.
For pastors in a country like Haiti, conferences like the recent Churches Helping Churches gathering are extremely rare. I had the privilege of sitting in on this event, and it was clear that these men enjoyed the opportunity to worship and connect with others dealing with similar challenges.
Here is a glimpse at some of the unique trials and temptations that confront pastors on a regular basis in Haiti—and no doubt many other countries suffering from poverty and natural disaster:
Every pastor in Haiti is dealing with major physical and emotional needs. One pastor lost 27 people in his congregation. Others are trying to take care of children orphaned by the quake.
In most cases, these pastors represent the only leadership for their church, and they now face the long-term challenge of training additional leaders amidst multiple crises demanding immediate attention.
Pastors in Haiti face numerous social demands. For the most part, the role of pastor is a well-respected position within the community. The temptation to abuse this status increases when disaster strikes; in Haiti, aid resources are often distributed through the church structure. What can be a great opportunity to show the love of Jesus can also be a temptation to personally benefit at the expense of those who need help.
Most of the pastors in Haiti are bi-vocational. The churches are filled with impoverished members who can give very little, so the pastor must work multiple jobs to feed his family and care for the church. To make matters worse, in a cash and commodity-driven economy, bribes are everywhere. The pastor needs much wisdom and discernment to lead well amidst socially acceptable corruption.
In Proverbs 20:5 fashion, the teaching team at the Haiti Conference did a wonderful job of drawing the pastors out and calling them to respond to Jesus, to find their hope in his finished work on the cross. Jesus is our common Head, and the church in Haiti shares our same need for his redemptive work done on our behalf.
Sin and temptation may vary from pastor to pastor and culture to culture, but the answer is always the same: Jesus. In this way we are more alike than different, but now that you perhaps know something more of their specific struggles, please pray for our brothers stewarding the gospel under particularly difficult physical circumstances.
You can see more photos from the CHC pastor's retreat on Flickr.
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Who will help local churches in the wake of catastrophes? You can. Learn more here.
This is a series on 11 Leadership Lessons from 12 Disciples, based on the recent sermon Jesus Calls the Twelve, on Luke 6:12-16.
Mars Hill Church is a big team. Ten campuses, a couple dozen services, forty-something elders and growing. I don't know how many hundreds of deacons, hundreds of community group leaders. There are a lot of big teams that need smaller teams within the teams.
Jesus has the seventy. They're mentioned as a number in the Bible. There are twelve that he's appointing as apostles, and within that team he's got Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Peter's the senior leader, but the inner team of leaders is Peter, Andrew, James, and John. They're listed together. They get special access to Jesus. They get special training from Jesus, and they make certain decisions that others don't get to make. So big teams need teams within the teams.
To be continued.
Prosperity theology is a marketing scam. Learn about prosperity theology's dirty little secret.
Discerning God's Call series: Click | View Series
Ministry is more than hard. Ministry is impossible. And unless we have Holy Spirit-inspired fire inside our bones compelling us, we simply will not survive. Pastoral ministry is a calling, not a career. It is not a job you pursue to advance a career or a position that is preferable because you like attention. You don’t go into ministry because you liked your youth pastor or because your mom thinks you’d be good at it or to avoid manual labor. I am continually shocked at how many people are trying to do ministry without a clear sense of calling.
So what is a call? What does it look like?
To begin, let’s learn from those who have gone before us.
Martin Luther, the 16th-century church reformer and theologian who helped spark the Protestant Reformation, listed eight qualities that a minister must have:
John Newton, the 18th-century Anglican clergyman and writer of the famous hymn “Amazing Grace,” noted three indications of a call. First, a call to ministry is accompanied by “a warm and earnest desire to be employed in this service.” Second, a call to ministry is accompanied by “some competent sufficiency as to gifts, knowledge, and utterance.” And third, a call to ministry is accompanied by “a correspondent opening in Providence, by a gradual train of circumstances pointing out the means, the time, the place, of actually entering upon the work.”
George Whitefield, the 18th-century evangelist, gives this advice for those considering a call: “Ask yourselves again and again whether you would preach for Christ if you were sure to lay down your life for so doing? If you fear the displeasure of a man for doing your duty now, assure yourselves you are not yet thus minded.”
Charles Hodge, the 19th-century Reformed theologian, distinguished between intellectual qualifications, spiritual qualifications, and bodily qualifications, all of which must be present in a genuine call.
Robert L. Dabney, another 19th-century Presbyterian theologian, lists these qualifications:
Though these men’s perspectives are culturally conditioned, you get the point: Examination is imperative. Confirmation is required. Calling matters.
As you discern God’s call on your life, consider the advice of those who have gone before. In the next three posts, we will look at three areas that I believe are crucial for discerning God’s call on your life: heart confirmation, head confirmation, and skill confirmation.
To be continued.
In this book, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears discuss the essentials of what it means to be a biblical church. Find out more.
This is a series on 11 Leadership Lessons from 12 Disciples, based on the recent sermon Jesus Calls the Twelve, on Luke 6:12-16.
The disciples, the apostles, they're a team. Obviously, their leader is Jesus. Ultimately, he's the leader of every team, in any ministry or any Christian group, but the human leader is Peter. How do we know? Every time that the apostles are listed in Acts and the Gospels, and they appear many times, here's what happens: Judas is always listed last—not a lot of enthusiasm for Judas. Peter's always listed first. You know why? He's the leader. He's the first among equals. Every team needs a leader.
This is a sick world that hates leadership. Everybody thinks they should be able to text message the president and boss him around. It's a weird day, from social networking to continual comments to consumerism. People don't want to follow a leader, all they want to do is criticize a leader. They don't want to even recognize leadership. And some Christians will even say, "I don't believe in leadership." Really? Do you believe in God? Because God's in charge. So you've got to recognize at least one leader.
And even the way God has organized himself in the Trinity: one God, three persons, all equal but submissive, is that there's God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. God the Son submits to God the Father and recognizes him as the leader. Though they're equal, there's what is called relational subordination. Jesus submits himself. He says, "The Father sent me. I speak what the Father tells me to say. I do what the Father tells me to do." And even when Jesus prays, he says, "Father, not my will," but what? What's the line? "Your will be done." That's submitting to the leader. That's what it is. And then the Bible says in John that God the Father and God the Son sent God the Holy Spirit. So, in the character of God, there's leadership within the Trinity.
So this plays itself out in the government of a home. Mom, dad, the kids are equal, but dad's supposed to lovingly, humbly, sacrificially lead. In the church, elders, members, deacons are equal but the elders are supposed to lead. In a community group, everybody's equal, but the community group leader is supposed to lead. In a redemption group, everybody's equal, but the redemption group leader is supposed to lead. On a worship team, everybody's equal, but the team leader is to lead. In a serving team, everybody's equal, but the team leader leads. So there are teams that have leaders, and leaders, according to ministry, they do doctrine: what do we believe and not believe? Direction: where are we going and not going? And discipline: what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior? That's what a lot of leadership is: doctrine, direction, discipline.
Peter's always listed first. He's the leader. Jesus appoints him as the leader. And when the day of Pentecost comes after Jesus dies on the cross and rises from the grave, it says that all the apostles are together. Jesus ascended into heaven. And the Bible says it this way in the opening chapters of Acts, "Peter stepped forward to preach." You know why? He's the leader. We don't make leaders, we recognize the leaders that the Holy Spirit has chosen. Some people, you're following them, you're listening to them, you're learning from them—they're the leader.
So every team needs a leader. In this day when authority is jettisoned and leadership is despised, and everybody thinks that they're smart, and everybody thinks that they should be obeyed. Everybody still believes in leadership, they just think that they should be the leader. So we have a day of complete anarchy. It's like the days of the judges, everybody did what was right in their own eyes.
And biblically, what we see with Jesus is that every team needs a leader. So every team at Mars Hill has a leader. At the campuses, the campus pastor is the leader. Within certain areas, community groups or kids or student ministry or redemption groups, there's a leader. There are leaders within all the teams and nobody leads all the teams at Mars Hill, particularly among the elders, and there is no one who's the leader of every team of leaders that they're on. So I'm on different teams, and I'm not the leader on every team. On some teams, I am down the chain of command and not the senior leader. On other teams, I am the senior leader. We intentionally have a structure whereby everyone in authority is also under authority, without exception, including myself. Every team needs a leader, and nobody's above the law, gets to do whatever they want. That's not the way Jesus set it up.
To be continued.
How do you pastor your family? A practical article by an A29 pastor and dad. Read it here.
In my last post I talked about the need for simplicity and focus. Here are 7 things I'm doing about it.
It’s not easy living “simply” in a culture that demands more, rewards competition, and admires power and position. But, by God’s grace, I’m going to live in biblical simplicity.
How are YOU doing? Do you need to do some spring-cleaning in your life and ministry? How about a retreat to think through some things and be reminded of who you are in Christ and the “few themes” he wants you to be about?
Too many Christian leaders stumble, burn out, or veer off track. Learn how to endure from a seasoned pastor and leadership coach in Leaders Who Last.
This is a series on 11 Leadership Lessons from 12 Disciples, based on the recent sermon Jesus Calls the Twelve, on Luke 6:12-16.
In Luke 6:12–16, it uses two words: disciple and apostle. It says, "He took those who were disciples, and he commissioned them as apostles." A disciple literally means a humble follower, a servant. Jesus is teaching, they're listening. Jesus is commanding, they're obeying. Jesus is leading, they're following. They're under authority. And Jesus had a lot of disciples, hundreds, thousands of people come out to hear him. They're all part of the come-and-see, and he picks those who are under authority, and he appoints a handful of them into authority.
And here's why this is so important: some people love to be in authority, but they don't like to be under authority. They want to boss other people around, but they don't take orders well. We've had this situation at various times at Mars Hill where somebody's like, "Okay, I'm a leader now. You can't tell me what to do." No, everybody's under authority—I'm under authority, everybody's under authority. We're all sinners, we all make mistakes. We all need to be under authority. God opposes the proud. He gives grace to the humble, so humble yourself.
So the Bible says, "Come under some authority." Those who are above the law, those who are the exception to the rule, those who get to do whatever they want, they're dangerous. They're very dangerous. They like sheep, but they bite shepherds. They like being in authority, they don't like being under authority, and you've got to be good at both to be a leader, because when you go into authority, you still need to be under authority. Being under authority is something for everybody, including the leaders. And if you're going to be in authority, you've got to be under authority.
So he takes those who are under authority, disciples, and he gives them a new title and job description and office. He calls them apostles—that means one who is sent. This is like an ambassador. The language here is like a king who rules a mighty kingdom, and he selects someone to be his emissary or his ambassador, and sends them on a mission into another nation, into another kingdom representing his authority and speaking on his behalf.
So let me explain "apostle." This is very important. First of all, Jesus is the apostle. Hebrews 3:1 says, "He's our apostle." So when God the Father wanted to send a representative, ambassador, emissary from heaven to earth to represent his kingdom, he sent God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our apostle. He's the sent one. That's why it says repeatedly, particularly in John's Gospel, "The Father has sent me." He's the apostle, the sent one.
And then there's the office of Apostle. We'll call this capital "A" Apostle, and those are the twelve hand-selected by Jesus. So their number's fixed. Ephesians 2:20 says, "They set the foundation of the church with the prophets and apostles," that's who's at the foundation of the church with Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. The apostles included Judas. He's going to betray Jesus and hang himself. Another man will be selected early on in the book of Acts. One of the requirements is that he would need to be an eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus. Paul is later added as an apostle, Jesus comes down and commissions him as an apostle as well.
We see that the apostles are a set number of people hand-selected by the Lord Jesus, eyewitnesses to his resurrection, given a very special authoritative designation, some of them actually writing books of the New Testament. That's the level of authority they enjoy. To that degree, there are not apostles today like that. No one has that kind of authority. No one could say, "Well, you know, Peter and I, we're at the same level. John and I, we're at the same level of spiritual authority." No, you're not.
But under the capital "A" Apostle, there's the lowercase "a" apostle and that's not the office, but the gift. And the gift of apostle is one that the Bible includes. You can read the gifts lists. It does list it, 1 Corinthians 12–14, Romans 12. It's listed in the various gift lists. It's a gift. It's a spiritual gift like serving or teaching or administration. It's a capacity. It's a capacity that God gives to men and women. God gives spiritual gifts to men and women, teaching, leadership, whatever it is. And there's a difference between the gift and the office. And so the gift of apostle includes a couple things, like the ability to do cross-cultural ministry, so he could go into another country and be a missionary, start a church plant, start a campus plant. Sometimes it's a movement leader who works across multiple churches, multiple pastors, writes, travels, preaches, speaks, teaches, sometimes internationally. This is one of my gifts.
Okay, but just because you have the gift of apostle doesn't mean anything unless you qualify to be an elder or a deacon, because you can have a gift and not have character. You can have a gift, and not be qualified. So we hold the offices are different than the gifts, but the gift of apostle does exist. We believe in that.
And then there are false apostles. The Bible talks about false apostles, people who are sent by Satan, not Jesus. They minister by the power of demons, not the Holy Spirit. They tell lies, not the truth. They lead people astray, not toward God.
So he takes these twelve who are under authority. He positions them into authority. "You are now Apostles, and you're going to lead," and then there are gifted people under them that have the gift of apostle, and part of our job is to keep people from false apostles, leading people astray.
Here's the big idea. Some of you bounce from church to church, ministry to ministry, because you just don't want to be under authority. You don't want anybody to know you, or what you're doing. You don't want to become a member. You don't want to join anything. You don't want to be held accountable to anything. You just want to live in this come and see, come and see, come and see. But let me tell you, it's an immaturity. It's an immaturity, and today I invite you to go and die, to settle in somewhere, to commit to something, to make it ours and yours, and to come under authority, and then grow and be trained, and maybe one day God would have you to be in authority.
I mean, I can't tell you how many hundreds, there may be thousands of people at this point that I've met, they bounce from church to church to church, ministry to ministry to ministry, because they want to be in authority, and they don't want to qualify. They don't want to get trained. They don't want to prove themselves. They just want to walk up to the leader and say, "You need to do this. Obey me. I'm in charge." They don't say it, but they act like it.
Really, you walk in off the street and start bossing people around? It doesn't work like this anywhere else in the world. You can't do this in the Marines. You can't do this in a college. Can't just walk up to your professor, "I disagree with the degree. We need to do it this way, now." No. Sit down, learn. Be under authority, prove yourself. If you demonstrate faithfulness, someday you can be in authority, and when you get in authority, you can make some changes. Some of you love the idea of being in authority. You resist the thought of being under authority. Please don't pursue being in authority until you've had a season where you've proven yourself under authority.
To be continued.
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