If for no other reason…

I have always had a love for the politics of the United States. That love was intensified during my years out of the country. I became much more of a patriot as I looked back across the miles between the land of my birth and both Johannesburg and Vancouver. Yet when I returned ‘home,’ I felt more distant and disinterested. In fact, in many ways, I have felt as though I was once again a missionary, an ambassador to yet another “foreign” land.

Missionaries don’t have a political standing in the country to which the Lord sends them. They genuinely are ambassadors to that place, there to support the people, aid their development and otherwise be a blessing. They are not called to enter into political or social life in any way other than the sphere of influence God has appointed for them. It is a blessing for most missionaries not to be involved in the political issues of their host country. It reminds them that indeed their citizenship is in heaven, and that life here in this earth is but a temporary assignment.

That missionary consciousness has rendered me a somewhat disinterested bystander in the current national election process here in the U.S. Of course, I stay informed: I voted in the primaries and am preparing to vote in November. But I genuinely feel that I have no dog in this hunt, as the saying goes. Yet there are issues of monumental importance in this election, some of which have a direct bearing on our lives as Christians. So while I honestly do not want to advocate for any one candidate over another in this blog, I do want to share this video that speaks to one of those important issues for us as Christians.

There may be room for some disagreement within discussions surrounding abortion. Yet surely, there can be no room for tolerance or support of the practice of infanticide. The President of the United States is not a lawmaker, but he can exert enormous influence on the making of laws through his appointment of judges, particularly to the Supreme Court. There are many issues of import to consider in this election; it is not unrealistic fear-mongering to say that the United States stands on a precipice. But how can we as Christians entertain any other issue, if a candidate before us has advocated, supported or otherwise empowered something as heinous as the practice of infanticide?

If for no other reason, this issue should decide the election for us. It should motivate Christians across the land to do everything in their power to insure that no one is ever entrusted with the highest office of our land who would be part of infanticide. May God have mercy on the United States! May God forgive us for all the blood shed. And may God have mercy on us all.

Summer Daze…

My apologies for my light blogging these last few weeks. Life never remains constant in our house, but recently our schedules have changed so dramatically that we may soon have to resort to evening planner synchronizations! At any rate, it is the end of summer and I find it hard to focus. However school is starting, and my biological clock will soon notify my brain to return to full function. Yet, even as I took a break from my usual thoughts, I did observe something that provoked a reflection.

We went to my first-born’s new school for a ‘new family orientation dinner’ last week. Call me old fashioned, but I donned a jacket and tie and forced the boys into khakis and collared shirts. It was a dinner after all, not a cookout or a picnic. Boy, were we overdressed! My sons weren’t that overdressed; most of the children were dressed appropriately for school. But the parents were another issue. Only one other man was dressed in a jacket and tie; that he was quite a few years older than me was a bitter consolation! Needless to say, we shed the jackets quickly to avoid discomfort. Some men were dressed in business casual, yet by far the majority of the parents looked like they had just left the beach.

Which prompted me to ask myself: what’s happened to adults in our culture? Are there any left? When I looked around that full dining hall the other night, I swear there weren’t many adults in attendance! It may be a failing, but I confess that I judge people by the way they’re dressed. It’s not about the clothing per se, its more an issue of the suitably of the outfit for the occasion. And I couldn’t help but wonder, isn’t there supposed to be a difference between the way kids dress and adults dress?

I have teenagers, and there are times when we surrender and let them out of the house looking like… well… like teenagers! However, a time should come when kids mature into adults able to navigate the social responsibilities of life on their own. I always thought that that time came sometime after college, but at the latest it must come by the time of professional employment and/or marriage. By then, shouldn’t guys have learned to tuck shirts in, abandon the flip-flops and put on a decent shirt? Shouldn’t a mom have put away the midriff-exposing shirts? Or am I being just too old-fashioned?

I can’t help but wonder if there is a correlation between these relaxed dress standards and our declining standards in academics and public and private morality. We seem possessed of an anything goes mentality, where rules of personal responsibility and appropriate behavior no longer apply. We’ve even reached the point where individuals and institutions need suffer no consequence to their gluttonous accumulation of debt. How long can we continue as a people when we’ve removed all standards of civil behavior? The nation is beginning to stagger under the cost of this moral amnesia.

Where are the adults in our society? Where are the ones ready to make hard decisions, to put off gratification for the benefit of the future? Where are those who will bear the burdens of life and teach the next generation that while life is unfair, sacrifice, discipline and honor can assure success? When I see a room full of parents—parents of middle and high school aged students—looking like monied refugees from Spring Break, well, I wonder: have we so delayed the onset of adulthood that these folks are still waiting for the call? What standards are being instilled in the next generation? Perhaps this next generation’s adolescent rebellion will take the form of dressing appropriately and adopting manners. But what is the real chance of that happening?

For now I count it all of a piece with the overall decline and fall of the West. It is certainly provides evidence that I am no longer as young as I feel! Selah!

Calvin on the church…

Many in the church think we need new ways of “doing church;” that we need to adapt the church to contemporary Western culture. This thinking has led to the seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven and emergent church models that are flooding North America today. No one would dispute that methods would change over time; technological advancements as simple as electronic sound reinforcement or as sophisticated as PowerPoint™ presentations are welcomed innovations in the church.

Yet while we recognize that technology has changed, we understand that the purpose of the church has not changed. The church continues to be God’s plan for His people. Today’s ‘pastors’ seek help from church management literature, written by consultants who possess an entrepreneurial, technical view of ministry. However, these leaders would do well to incline an ear to the thoughts of theologians of the past. As an old teacher of mine used to say, ‘its not what’s new that saves us, but what’s true.’ Contemporary church management literature may promise new techniques, but true success is found in the purposes of God.

John Calvin spoke on the work of the church in his treatise, The Institutes of Christian Religion. He wrote, “the Church [is] the gathering of God’s children, where they … helped and fed like babies and guided by her motherly care, grow up into manhood in the maturity of faith” (231-32). Unlike most church-growth proponents, Calvin saw the church’s primary responsibility as the care of the saints, not the work of evangelism. For him, Christian sanctification was a life-long process, requiring the church’s constant assistance:

Our ignorance, laziness and vanity are such that we need a great deal of help to bring us to living faith. We also need to grow in that faith. So God has made sure we have enough encouragement by entrusting his Gospel to the Church. He has appointed pastors and teachers to build up his people and has given them authority. (231)

God’s plan for pastors is to teach the Word of God. Calvin recognized the significance of this, for he knew that Christianity was taught, not caught:

The phrases used of the Church by Paul in 1 Timothy 3:15 have real meaning: ‘God’s household’ and ‘the pillar and foundation of the truth.’ In these words Paul shows how the Church is the guardian of the truth, so that the world does not extinguish it. God has chosen to use her to preach his Word in all its purity and so he reveals himself to us as a parent, feeding us with spiritual nourishment and whatever we need for salvation. (235)

It is in the teaching of the Word of God that Christians are transformed into fully devoted followers of Jesus. Sadly, the systematic exposition of the Word is becoming a rarity in many churches as they pursue a seeker-sensitive agenda for church growth. Seeker-sensitive ‘pastors’ rely on the words of man, gathering the substance of their sermons from the self-help literature of pop-psychology. They might use the Bible to prove a point found in a book, but they do not present the Bible as the authoritative source for Christian life and conduct. This has serious implications. It is literally a rejection of the Word of God. And as such, it distances that church from the company of the true church of God:

Wherever the Word of God is sincerely preached and listened to and wherever the sacraments are administered according to Christ’s institution, we can be sure the Church of God exists… (234).

The true Church of God magnifies the preaching of scripture. The Word of God is its full and final authority. Today’s leaders oppose this form of preaching using varied vocabulary, yet that opposition is always rooted in one source:

We must recognize the marks of God’s Church, and see them through his eyes. Satan would love nothing better than to get rid of these characteristics, bring them into contempt and urge us into open revolt against the Church. His wiles ensured that for centuries the preaching of the Word disappeared, and now, with the same evil purpose, he is working to overthrow the ministry. Christ has so structured his Church, that if this is removed, the whole building will collapse. (235)

No church can hope to succeed if it rejects the preaching of the Word. It may grow and become prosperous in this world, but it will no longer be a church of God. Calvin suggests that true success comes from the preaching of the Word and the right administration of ordinances:

The preaching of the Word and the observance of the sacraments cannot happen anywhere without producing fruit and prospering because of God’s blessing. I am not saying that wherever the Word is preached, there are immediate results, but that everywhere it is received and accepted there is always blessing. When the preaching of the Gospel is listened to reverently and the sacraments are observed, the Church is seen in truth and clarity; no one can with impunity reject her authority, ignore her rebuke, go against her advice or ridicule her judgment—far less revolt openly and destroy her unity. (234)

What can we conclude from these thoughts? First, the church is where the people of God learn of God. The church is where God’s Word—His revelation of His will for humanity and His character—is proclaimed and explained. The church is the place where the Word of God transforms converts into fully devoted followers of Christ. The church is where the children of God are equipped to walk in the Spirit. The church is a place of the Word.

We need to pray that today’s pastors recognize that God’s design of the church for His children has not changed since its beginnings. Technologies and settings change, but purpose does not. The church needs to be a learning community; therefore, pastors must teach and preach the Word of God. Let us pray that we may find true churches in which to fellowship and learn.

John Calvin, The Institutes of Christian Religion, ed. Tony Lane and Hilary Osborne (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996, 1986).

What then is the church…?

One of the issues I have with seeker-sensitive / purpose-driven ecclesiology is that it transforms the local church into primarily a center of evangelism. The institutional church has a role to play in evangelism, yet it is individual Christians that have been charged with the Great Commission. As the old saw accounts, sheep beget sheep. The pastor’s work must always be flavored with the evangelistic, even as it seasoned with teaching, governance and the prophetic. Yet he is not an evangelist, but a pastor. His work then is to be primarily directed toward the care and feeding of the sheep, not enlarging the flock.

What does this mean for the local church? The local church should be the place where the needs of Christ’s people who are called to go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature are met. The local church is not for the lost but for the saved, and while the nourishment it stores and distributes is for the feeding of all, it is intentionally designed to house sheep, not lodge goats. In the local church, Christ’s disciples are refreshed, renewed and reinvigorated to return to life in the world. Seeker-sensitive /purpose-driven ecclesiology reverses this order. The apostle of seeker-sensitivity aims to turn mature Christians into “self-feeding individuals,” while remodeling the church into a space for the lost to feel comfortable.

What should the church be—sheep pen or evangelistic center? While the New Testament is silent about church organization, it does speak loudly to the church’s work. From the beginning, the church was a place for Christian fellowship and the learning of apostolic doctrine:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.   —Acts 2:42

The founding apostles recognized that God’s will for salvation was intimately linked to doctrinal teaching:

This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.   —1 Tim. 2:3-4

Teaching the Word was important, because it was seen as the means by which the lost would be transformed into fully devoted followers of Christ:

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed…   —Rom. 6:17

Disciples were encouraged to remain faithful to church teaching:

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.   —Heb. 2:1

To drift away from the teaching was to drift away from the Word. The early church recognized that such movement held dire consequences:

Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.   —1 John 2:24

Therefore, the apostles warned Christians to protect the teaching they had received:

O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.   —1 Tim. 6:20

By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.   —2 Tim. 1:14

The first apostles were not so far removed from Judaism that they forgot the necessity of the systematic teaching of the Word of God. They placed a high value on the teaching of the doctrines of God, Christ, man, sin, redemption and eschatology. The early church emphasized teaching as the antidote to the ways of the world:

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine…   —1 Tim. 1:8–10

What can we conclude from this? From the beginning, the church was a learning center, a place where the Word and the apostles’ doctrine was systematically expounded. The church was a place where people learned of God and His Son, Jesus Christ. They learned about the life, death and resurrection of Christ, and the meaning, import and cause of Calvary.

When the church is a place of teaching, those seeking God will come to learn. The church does not need to redefine or reinvent itself to reach the world, it needs to return to its historic roots and teach God’s people to reach the world. Let us pray for pastors to depart from the strategies of men and return to God and His ways. Let us pray that the church will once again become a place where the sheep of God’s pasture can be fed and cared for with His Word. May God have mercy on us…. 

This supernatural church…

In certain circles there is a great concern for the future of the church. Pastors cast wide nets in hopes of finding tools and techniques to improve their church’s life. They devour management literature and attend conferences to learn techniques to fuel church growth. They appear genuinely alarmed by the specter of postmodern culture sweeping North America.

Some claim that the church must be reinvented if it is to last to the next generation. One pastor compared today’s church to a now defunct retail chain store; he suggested that if the church did not change to meet today’s needs, it too could face a similar fate. The enormity of that prospect obviously weighed heavy on his heart.

But while his concern was sincere, and while the efforts of these other pastors are surely prompted by nothing more than a sincere love for the church, they manifest a startling ignorance of the supernatural character of the church. Matthew’s gospel gives us the seminal teaching of the nature and foundation of the church of Jesus Christ:

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”   —Matt. 16:13–18

The core teaching in this passage is that the church is founded on the revelation that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Yet we learn many other things as well. First, we learn that it is Jesus, the Son of God who builds the church: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” The responsibility for church growth and development resides not with men, but with God:

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.   —Acts 2:46-47

The work of salvation—of translating lost humanity out from under the authority of darkness and into the kingdom of Jesus Christ—is a work done solely by God. Humans do not choose to come to the church; the effectual calling of God draws them. In response to the preached word of God, God gives people the faith necessary to respond to His offer of salvation, and to become members of His church. Therefore church growth and increase is the result of the work of God, not the management or marketing of men.

Second, we learn that the church is built on divine revelation: “And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.’” This last sentence contains a delightful play on words in the original Greek. The name Peter is from the word petros, meaning a rock or stone. When Jesus continues with “and upon this rock,” he uses the word, petra, which means a massive rock formation or bedrock. The revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, is the massive bedrock formation upon which Jesus builds His church. Jesus rewards Simon with a new name that forever associates him with that revelation. Peter is something of a chip off the old block, so to speak!

That the church is founded on divine revelation teaches us that the church lives by the revealed word of God. The Word of God provides health, sustenance and vitality to the church. If a church is weak or failing to address its community or culture, it needs a fresh infusion of the preached word of God. The Word of God is more than mere symbols on a page, it is God Himself, embodied in the language of humanity:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.   —John 1:1-2 (KJV)

Since the Church is born of the Word of God, nourished by the preached Word of God, and increased by God’s daily addition of those who should be saved, we can say that the Church is God’s work, not man’s. That agrees with Paul’s teaching in 1st Corinthians:

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.   —1 Cor. 3:6-9

The church is God’s—it is His organization, instituted, empowered, and enlarged by Him. Ministers—like Paul and Apollos—plant and water: they plant the seed of God’s word (Mk 4:14; 1 Pet. 1:23), and water with the water of God’s word (Eph 5:26; 2 Pet. 3:5). But it is God who gives the increase.

Those that worry about the continued viability of the church in our time need to be encouraged to faith in God. They need to be refreshed through a new reading of God’s precious, holy written Word. They need to be reminded that their task as ministers is to care for God’s people, not grow and develop the church. After all, it is written that he gave, not managers or marketers, but pastors and teachers to equip the saints (Eph. 4:11). These pastors and leaders must have faith in God and His Word. Jesus did not say that the church would have to be reinvented to forestall bankruptcy; instead, He promised that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

When we recognize the supernatural character of the church, we can relax in God. We can trust Him that as long as He ordains for the Church to exist in this earth, it will. People may come and go, cultures change, and businesses will open and close, but the Word of our Lord remains forever! Glory be to God!  

Devout reading…

There are books that challenge me on many levels—intellectual, moral, and spiritual. But there are a few books that always seem to leave me wondering if I am even saved. They are hard to read; not because of any convoluted logic, wordiness or ethereal vocabulary, but because the holy character of God and His expectations for his creatures come forth so clearly. They may not be easy to read, but they need to be read regularly.

Scripture is like that for most of us. There are chapters in Galatians, 2nd Corinthians and Hebrews that hurt. As a minister, I find that much of 1st & 2nd Timothy pierces my conscience. The cavalier response to this is that it “hurts so good.” And it does, in a way. I appreciate the hurt, not because I am masochistic, but because I know that the power of the Living Word of the Holy God hurts as it disciplines, corrects, reproves, rebukes and rebuilds me. God help us if we ever get to a point of being able to read or hear the Word without discomfort!

Scripture reading should be high on our list of daily activities. But we must also make time for devout reading, for the reading of sermons and teachings that open the Word and provoke critical reflection on our walk with God. There are two books that I am (re-)reading right now, and I must confess that I find them painful. The first is The Reformed Pastor by the puritan evangelist, Richard Baxter. This is an excellent book for anyone in ministry. It provides an insightful reminder to check our hearts regularly, and to ruthlessly evaluate the motives behind our ministries. It is also an excellent book for church members, to be encouraged against the incessant urge to criticize pastors and teachers. It offers a compendium of prayer points we can offer up for those who minister to us.

The second book is William Law’s A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. I tell you truthfully, I tremble when I read this book! It takes a while to enter into the cadence of Law’s style and language, but the message of God’s holiness and our obligations as His children penetrate immediately. Nearly every paragraph provokes a spoken prayer to be found in Christ and Christ alone!

These books are not an easy read, largely because of the conviction the Holy Spirit brings through them to our conscience. They remind me of just how desperately I need Christ. They rebuke any thought that I might have grown or matured to a place at which I could merit salvation. They also remind me that we all stand in the same condition before God, that each one of us is in as desperate a need for His grace and mercy as any other. We forget that frequently, and end up evaluating each other after human standards. And we need to repent of that.

We engage in a daily battle of ideas, philosophies, and practices—both within the Church and in all of life. It is a necessary battle for Christians, because Bible truth is actively resisted in this world. The devil’s deception is so subtle that any one can slip and be deluded for a time. But our battle is not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers and rulers of the darkness, and their foul teachings and systems. We must strive to remember that, and guard against the constant temptation to criticize others in the effort to be seen as right, worthy of recognition, power, and approval.

In the theatre of theological disagreement, we can—and will—bump up against each other, bruise one another, and sometimes hurt one another. That is not our goal—it must not be. I certainly repent before God and His people if I have caused harm to any. I pray to God that my focus will be solely to purge the lies of the devil and to edify His people. But I too am a fallen man, needing grace and mercy. That is why these devout readings are good, because they lead one to a place and time of prayer and repentance.

They say that confession is good for the soul, and that is surely true. A dear friend of mine used to encourage me to keep short accounts with the Lord. As difficult as these readings may be, they help remind me to close those accounts quickly. I encourage you to find readings that will help you as well. The time is short, and we know not the hour of His coming. But He is coming, and that right soon. May God have mercy on us all!