I'll admit it - I spent some formative years in the 70s. One of the songs that was popular in '72 was Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway's "Where is the love"? If you are dancing, it's one of those songs you are better off humming to your girlfriend instead of actually singing the words, because Roberta and Donny are two lovers who oh-so-smoothly hurl accusations at each other throughout the song.

In the last two weeks, as I've become aware of four extra-marital affairs among pastors in our near and distant community, I've thought of that song.

You read that right - four couples - all in vocational ministry and all in the span of two weeks. This seems to go way beyond the Tiger Woods headline du jour.

My reaction is complex - first, shock and disbelief. Then, sorrow, anger, confusion. Eventually I would like to get to - hope -, but honestly, I'm not there yet. I think of the spouses that have been left (both women and men). The kids that are now questioning. Their congregations, now wounded and grieved. I think of the time, courage and work it will take to recover.

Wouldn't this be a good time for cursing and railing in frustration at our brokenness?

In this kind of offense I am left pondering how this happens and, invariably, I think of myself. Perhaps because I've always been scared to death that this would happen to me - whether as offender or offendee, it doesn't matter.

For 28 years I've been known and loved by my wife, and I've prayed that I would never break my vow to her. But it seems to me, I've broken my vow over and over again by not loving her well, by being self-centered, by overworking and pouring myself into ministry; in short, by running from soul-intimacy with her and also by isolating myself from others. Because we've never suffered an outright "affair," it is easy to think we are somehow "better" than these other couples but we may not be - there is mystery here. I hear people pontificating about these couples: how the "signs were all there from the beginning," and "if only they had been confronted and received care earlier." To me, the words ring hollow; the solutions overly facile. I have known too many who DID have accountability and discipleship but they hid anyway. The temptations came upon them and they refused to stop hiding. Accountability, community, vulnerability can be a great gift, if you find Christ in it. But it doesn't change you on its own, and I propose that it's not enough to stop a soul that is moving toward a sexual partner outside of marriage.

May I suggest that, actually, infidelity has nothing to do with lack of discipleship, with sex or lust or the internet? In my experience, this issue revolves around a lack of intimacy, and also a loathing fear of it.

In the most atomized, individualistic society in world history, don't we long for true friendship - to be known, to belong, to know our place; even as that strikes fear in our deepest soul? Because "to be known" is to give another the power to see your shame and to despise you, just like you may despise yourself; or that intimacy can enable them to see the real you and walk with you toward the healing of shame and growth toward who God created you to be. Honestly, I know very few pastors who are engaging with others on this level.

Unfortunately, we complicate intimacy by always linking it with sex. This is apparent all the time in film, and I'm sure, you've observed this personally: someone in a crisis begins to open up to another. The other responds by becoming vulnerable as well. They share their real selves. Soon, they?re in each others' arms. Why? Well, we're told, isn't that what happens when souls touch? Sex is almost expected in that kind of situation, right? Not at all! That would make intimacy nothing more than foreplay. Intimacy itself is so much more.

Many guys that I know are longing for the "Band of Brothers" kind of connection; yet, they hold back, deathly afraid of same-sex intimacy, not to mention heterosexual intimacy. Why? You know why. When you read "same-sex intimacy," I bet you aren't thinking 'guy friendships' or "best friend" or "a significant, vulnerable relationship with my brother-in-Christ." It just sounds like a sexual relationship, right? We've been conditioned to think that intimacy demands a sexual expression.

Intimacy is what we're made for. (Seriously, how many times have you either said or heard that in a sermon?) We all say it, but how many of us recognize that a marriage is not big enough to bear the relational freight of our immortal souls? We don't need more sex. We need more beings with whom to be intimate friends. We need healthy vulnerability with people other than our marriage partner - with both our same gender and the opposite. "Doesn't that set you up for greater temptation?," you ask. "Aren't you just opening the door for a similar fall?" No. Actually I think you guard yourself against sexual temptation when you experience friendship-intimacy with the opposite sex outside of your marriage partner - with other men and women. If we were "made for intimacy" as we keep saying, doesn't it make sense that we would "act out" inappropriately when we that basic relational need isn't realized? With all the lonely and isolated pastors and spouses in the U.S., is it any wonder that we're seeing this problem?

As Christians begin to explore relational intimacy with people of both genders, as we learn to love others in more meaningful ways, and to separate that love from sexual expression, we will find that we experience stronger marriages, genuine loving intimacy among the non-married, and, as Francis Schaeffer used to insist, a more full expression of the "final apologetic" (love) of Christian faith to the world.

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In 1970, Sidney Greidanus wrote a dissertation on the Dutch controversy "exemplary versus redemptive-historical preaching". This controversy started in the 1930s, when a number of men in the Reformed Churches raised objections to the usual practice of preaching, in which the preachers would display the person mentioned in historical texts as models to be imitated, drawing parallels between the experiences of the Bible saints and the struggles of believers today. This so called exemplary approach was set over against the redemptive-historical approach, in which the preacher interprets the meaning of every character and event in the Bible in connection to the one redemptive history and its central character, Jesus Christ. The controversy over preaching brought to light at least six dilemmas, which Greidanus in his dissertation sought to overcome.

 1. Overcoming the relevance-truth divide

The motive of proponents of the exemplary approach was a concern for relevance, while the motive of proponents of the redemptive historical-approach was a concern for sola Scriptura, the desire to preach the Word of God and that only. The objections raised by the exemplary side to redemptive-historical preaching is that it tends to lack relevance. The redemptive-historical side objected that, in his laudable attempt to be relevant, the exemplary preacher tends to be more about the man in the book and the man in the pew than about Christ. 

To overcome the divide, Greidanus asserts that historical texts are texts. Sermons must seek their point of departure not in the man in the pew nor in the history of redemption but in the historical text. One cannot detail the meaning of a particular text until one has listened attentively to that text. Because the exemplary method views the biblical stories as recorded to illustrate and depict concretely certain timeless "truths" that must be believed or certain timeless "ethics" which must be lived, it does not really need a preaching text form the Bible. But the redemptive-historical approach is liable to similar consequences in that it seeks to reach the facts behind the text to the detriment of the preaching-text. The text becomes a window through which to view the panorama of the upholding redemptive history. The text itself is no longer taken seriously.   

2. Overcoming the objective-subjective divide

The redemptive-historical side objected that the exemplary side is subjective in that the preaching tends to be more about the man in the pew than about Christ. The exemplary approach, on its turn, criticizes the redemptive-historical approach for turning every sermon into a lecture about the history of redemption and the objective work of Christ. Again, Greidanus observes that are wrong. The subjective preacher speaks about only one dogma: the order of salvation, the application of redemption to the individual; and so does the objective preacher, speaking only of the dogma of Christ. The way toward overcoming the objective-subjective dilemma is sought in the view that historical text are proclamation.   

We can overcome the defect of the objective-subjective scheme only when we fully recognize that preaching is a moment of living intercourse between the Lord and his people. Scripture is address, appeal, kerugma. Seen in this light, the sermon is not a piece of objective dogmatic or ethical truth, nor a subjective sketch of the condition of my soul, but a living word of the God who comes to his people in speaking his Word to them. Preaching is not merely a lecture about redemptive history, nor a lecture about the order of salvation, it's the presentation of the gospel, the making-present of Christ. It's not merely a narration of historical events, nor a description of what one has experienced, but a powerful happening which gains effect for good or ill. Whenever preaching takes place in accord with God's command, it becomes a redemptive event and the Kingdom of God moves forges ahead.

 3. Overcoming the explication-application divide

The redemptive-historical side objects to the exemplary side that it neglects the historical context in the interest of preaching in an applicatory way. The exemplary side objects that redemptive-historical preaching lacks application. The historical context of text is not to be neglected in the interest of preaching in an applicatory way. As a matter of fact, it is usually through the perception of a text's relevance in the past that it begins to speak all the more relevant in the present. Even the presentation of the past relevance of the text aims at disclosing its present relevance. In that sense the whole sermon is applicatory explication.  Besides, preaching is not just reproducing. Theocentric explication is the first step op application. The preacher's task is not to add application to the Word, but to proclaim that Word today in all its relevance - a relevance which is already contained in the theocentric application.

 4. Overcoming the believer-unbeliever divide

In trait preaching, a sub-form of exemplary preaching, the preacher focuses on the distinguishing marks by which a person may know whether or not he is in Christ. while the purpose of this form of preaching is to provide assurance for the child of God and to unmask the hypocrite in the congregation, the redemptive-historical side objects that, in fact, it may have just the opposite effect: the hypocrite may come to false assurance and the true believer may become disquieted. On a similar note, discerning preaching - preaching with separate applications for each of the different categories of people in the congregation - seeks to cause the objective truth to be subjectively appropriated by each of the different varieties of spiritual life present. Again the divide may be overcome by viewing the historical text as proclamation. Holwerda says, "Let the preacher preach the gospel to all! Only then does he swing the ax of Christ. Woe the preacher who presupposes divisions in the church and directs the word of the text to only one group. He must preach it to all and by that means Christ shall make the divisions... The stumbling block lies in the Gospel itself." (p. 100)

 5. Overcoming the head-heart divide

Another division is made between the faculties of man, the intellectual, the volitional and the emotional moment in the sermon. Through the proclamation of the gospel, God grip the heart of man. The Word of God that is preached is directed at the heart of man. The word is not addressed to a part of man. It calls man to serve the Lord with his heart. Preachers are not learned people who must convince others with their knowledge. They are not moralists who must try to elevate the virtues of man. They are heralds. They bring a message that does not call for a reflection, and "I'll think about it", it calls for the total man to respond at once. (p. 167)

 6. Overcoming the private-public divide

Through the proclamation of the gospel, God lays hold of life. It calls man to serve the Lord with his whole life. Preaching is not merely concerned with some internal sector of a person's life; on the contrary, through the heart the whole of a person's life comes into view. From the heart, rooted in Christ, reborn through the Spirit, our whole life is being renewed and the communion with God is extended into all the relationships and functions of life. The church is not in politics, it is not a clinic for marital problems. The preacher is not the expert on social and economic problems, but he preaches the Word and that Word has implications for all of life. Preaching does not mean that one can busy himself with spiritual things only. Preaching the gospel discloses to us the meaning of all things. The preacher who holds this broad view of preaching need not worry about relevance. Because God speaks to us in all our relationships and functions, the relevance of the Word is as broad as life itself. The relevance of the Word can come to expression in any area of life, for no area is off-limits to the renewing Word. (pp. 231-232)

When considering the rising 'urban class', we often bring up Nietzsche and Freud as people who have played a key role in determining their philosophical outlook on life. Yet, perhaps we are missing out other thinkers who need to get a look in, if our understanding is to become even more robust. For instance, few people could claim to represent the cynicism and mild (hedonistic) nihilism of the modern urbanite more than Oscar Wilde. Few people could claim to represent the restlessness of the modern urbanite more than Oscar Wilde.

Oscar Wilde was easily one of the finest brains ever to grace the British Isles. Not only was his mastery of the English language supreme, but his clarity of thought and ability to gauge the 'reasons behind the reasons' was second to none.

This post constitutes an attempt to rehabilitate Wilde, for I think that in many ways he may help us to understand our context far better than many Christian commentators are able to. So, on the one hand, even though he most certainly rejected the very ground that Christian belief stands on by building his tent solely on a self-referencing reality: "But whether it be faith or agnosticism, it must be nothing external to me. Its symbols must be of my own creating", I'm not so sure that Wilde's preferred vision of religion was so far removed from the kind of religion that Christ actually produced. Today I came upon this gem:

When I think of religion at all, I feel as if I would like to found an order for those who cannot believe: the Confraternity of the Faithless, one might call it, where on an altar, on which no taper burned, a priest, in whose heart peace had no dwelling, might celebrate with unblessed bread and a chalice empty of wine. Everything to be true must become a religion. And agnosticism should have its ritual no less than faith. (De Profundis, letter written in 1905)

If we unpack this statement, it proves to be quite revealing. Let us examine each statement in turn and compare it to the religion imagined by Jesus

1) Wilde: "I would like to found an order for those who cannot believe: the Confraternity of the Faithless"

Christianity: The basic prerequisite of a Christian is not someone who has accomplished something great by believing but someone who has failed to trust in God their whole life and has only come to Jesus when they realised how 'faithless' they really are. In Christianity, since faith is a gift given only to those who have realised just how faithless they really are, Wilde is basically - and uniquely - describing true Christianity. There is no other system that resembles Wilde's suggestion here apart from Christianity. Modern secularism is hardly a 'confraternity'; it is rather a selection of individuals who are united less by their system than by other factors.

2) Wilde: "on an altar, on which no taper burned"

Christianity: This is where it really starts to get interesting. The reason why Christianity does/should not have altars is because the fire has already been spent. On the cross, Jesus passed through the fire of God's judgement so that those who turn to him would not have to. The sacrifice has been offered on the altar that is the cross of Calvary. What this means is that, in stark contrast to every other religion, both secular and non, Christianity is the only religion where its followers are not in the business of the daily grind of justification. The altar and the sacrifice upon it denotes just this grind, where people are constantly engaged in the struggle to justify their existence, their actions, their place in this world. When Christ passed through that fire, he made it possible for his followers to have "an altar on which no taper is burned"

3) Wilde:: "a priest, in whose heart peace had no dwelling"

Christianity: Jesus is called the great High Priest in the letter to the Hebrews. This great High Priest, before going to the cross, states, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death." Then, on the cross, he uttered a fateful cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." This, more than any other, was the cry of "a priest, in whose heart peace had no dwelling." On the cross, Jesus suffered the utter desolation and upheaval of his soul, so that peace everlasting could come into the hearts of those who trust in him. On the cross, he gave up his peace and perfect relationship with God the Father, so that it might be given to mankind as a free gift by faith. This is the religion Christ created, a religion whose great high priest became a man in whose heart peace had no dwelling.

4) Wilde:: "might celebrate with unblessed bread and a chalice empty of wine"

Christianity: The only reason that a Christian believer has to celebrate is through the cursing of Christ, in his body, on the cross. Christ's body - the bread he speaks of - was the most "unblessed bread" in all of history. It was broken so that those who trust in him would be able to celebrate in the new creation with the blessed bodies that he won for them through the cursing of his own. The resurrection is confirmation that this was done in the power of God and that the power that warred against the body had been defeated. Similarly, the chalice of wine (symbolising God's judgement) is empty because Jesus drank it all on the cross - every last drop. The Christian is able to celebrate because the wine he or she drinks speaks of life when it should speak of death. We deserved to drink this chalice, but Christ drank it instead; that is why the chalice is 'in remembrance' and always pointing to Christ's sacrifice on the cross; not our own offering to God, but that which he offered in our place.

In the end, we see that Oscar Wilde's desired "alternative religion for the faithless" is actually a description of the Christian faith. When people reject Christianity in favour of a fleeting "alternative religion for the faithless", is is perhaps possible that what they have in mind is the very thing they are rejecting? The onus is on us to show this to them so that the Holy Spirit may convince them it is true.

The Word GOD is an English word consisting of three symbols or letters. Each of these letters has a forever, fixed location within the English alphabet containing 26 letters. 

The postioning of letters in the alphabet are forever etched in stone. You, nor I, will never change their positions.

The fixed position of G is 7, O is 15, and D is 4. These three postions exactly equal the total number of letters that the English mind and brain use for thought.

The Letters G O D were with GOD in the beginning. These letters are the three measures of meal that will leaven the whole loaf of letters that the mind moves through the brain and the body, for their positions are as one with the whole.

When the human mind grasps the true significance of G O D, His Spirit will begin to move and rise within the body that is housing that mind as the mind has made a significant connection, or revelation within itself.

Have you ever wondered how lively, great, God-fearing, life-changing churches lose their verve, miss their groove and slowly fade away?

It's rarely one thing, but a 1,000 missteps, all taken one a time. It's a slow transformation from being led by God to adopting the ways of man.

I kind of liken it to the slow creep of the price of a cup of coffee. Do you rembember when it never cost more than a buck? Now, we have people regularly shelling otut $4 bucks or more -- and thinking nothing of it.

Stealthily, without warning, we were inexorably sucked into the vortex of some mad coffee conspiracy, perpetuated by Juan Valdez, his burro and the coffee cartel.

While we were looking away, the baseline; the cost of a single cup of coffee -- began inching its way up. I remember the day clearly when I bought a cup of coffee at a 7-11 and innocently handed over a dollar bill. The clerk looked at me like I was an alien... "Like it's $1.14, man," she said. I choked as I grabbed some change and handed it over.

Once it went over a dollar, it was all over. Now, the sky is the limit.

Frothy, steamy, murky concoctions with shaved chocolate and cinnamon are brewed with milk -- steamed, whipped, or stirred. By the millions of cups we shell out two, three and four dollars apiece because it's different than plain old "joe." We never noticed the incremental, upward shift of prices.

Our church passion works much the same way. I have allowed the slow creep of things I once opposed to bully their way into my life. What I once called a lie I now call a slip of the tongue. What society once called sin is now emancipation and freedom. What was once reprehensible and wrong is simply another lapse of good judgment.

Oh, for the day of a dollar cup of coffee and an innocent heart

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1. La iglesia local tiene que apoyar la creación de cultura. La mayoría de jóvenes evangélicos interesados en integrar su fe con el arte cinematográfico, el periodismo, la financiación empresarial, etc., reciben apoyo e instrucción de redes de contacto informal u organizaciones para-eclesiales. El libro de Michael Lindsay Faith in the Halls of Power muestra cómo muchos cristianos que se encuentran en lugares desde los que se puede ejercer alguna influencia cultural, están alienados de la iglesia, porque en los mejores casos, no reciben apoyo de la iglesia por vivir su fe en el espacio público y, en el peor de los casos, lo que reciben es oposición.

A nivel teológico, la iglesia necesita ganar un mayor consenso sobre la manera de relacionar fe y cultura. Todavía existe bastante conflicto entre quienes quieren discipular a los cristianos para la vida pública, y quienes piensan que todo lo que sea "involucrarse en la cultura" al final conlleva su riesgo y [acaba por] distraer de la predicación del evangelio. Lo que hace [especialmente] difícil este debate es que ambas partes hacen una buena presentación de sus puntos de vista y presentan buenos argumentos.

A nivel práctico, incluso las iglesias que de entrada valoran la importancia de integrar fe y ocupación laboral, en realidad hacen muy poco a la hora de equipar a la gente para que ese sea el caso. A quienes estamos en el ministerio, el seminario sólo nos preparó para discipular a la gente sólo en la medida que los vayamos sacando fuera del mundo y metiéndolos cada vez más dentro de las paredes y ministerios de la iglesia. Así que, ¿cómo puede una iglesia ayudar realmente a sus miembros en esta área? Aquellos líderes que quieran empezar a trabajar en esta cuestión deberían echar un vistazo al Center for Faith and Work de Redeemer. 

2. Necesitamos renovar nuestra apologética.  En estos momentos hay una gran resistencia, por parte de líderes evangélicos más jóvenes, en contra de la apologética. Nos dicen que ya no necesitamos argumentos porque la gente [ya] no [sigue una lógica] racional. Lo que necesitamos es comunidad de amor. En mi opinión, éste es un planteamiento corto de miras por dos motivos.

Primero, los cristianos occidentales acabarán teniendo que hacer frente al reto que durante años muchos misioneros se han encontrado--cómo comunicar el evangelio a musulmanes, budistas, hindús y seguidores de otras tantas religiones populares.  Todos los líderes jóvenes deberían tomar cursos en y leer textos de las otras principales religiones del mundo. También deberían estudiar la presentación del evangelio escrita por misioneros que han estado interactuando con esas religiones. Una comunidad de amor será extremadamente  importante, tal y como siempre lo ha sido, para alcanzar a nuestros vecinos que tienen otras creencias; pero si han de venir a la iglesia, lo harán trayendo con ellos toda una serie de preguntas que un líder de hoy tiene que ser capaz de dar respuesta.

Segundo, existe un verdadero vacío en el pensamiento secular de occidente. Al morir Derrida, me sorprendió ver cuántos de sus antiguos alumnos admitían  que la Alta Teoría (lo que los evangélicos llamamos 'post-modernismo') es vista como un callejón sin salida, principalmente porque es tan relativista que no provee de ninguna base para la acción política. Y un importante intelectual británico como Terry Eagleton, en unas recientes conferencias en Yale (publicadas por Yale Press bajo el título Religion, Faith, and Revolution) no tuvo miramientos a la hora de cargar contra el viejo ateísmo científico de Dawkins y Hitchens al calificarlo también de estar en bancarrota. Eagleton sugiere que el optimismo de la Ilustración sobre el progreso de la ciencia y de la humanidad está muerto. No importa lo popular que sean los libros de Dawkins, pues el pensamiento occidental ya no va por esos caminos. Además, el postmodernismo no puede producir una base [sólida]  para los derechos humanos ni tampoco para la justicia. 

[Todo] esto es realmente una apertura, apologéticamente [hablando], para alcanzar a no-cristianos con inquietudes intelectuales, especialmente aquellos que son más jóvenes y que tienen conciencia social. Necesitamos pensar en nuevas maneras de entablar contacto, preguntar a la gente cómo pueden justificar sus inquietudes por los derechos humanos y por la justicia social. (Una excelente ilustración de este tipo de planteamiento se puede leer en  "Does Naturalism Warrant a Moral Belief in Universal Benevolence and Human Rights?" de Chris Smith en el recientemente publicado The Believing Primate: Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Reflections on the Origin of Religion(Oxford, 2009.)

Durante los últimos veinte años mi predicación y enseñanza se ha beneficiado mucho del esforzado trabajo de leer filosofía, especialmente la obra de viejos filósofos y eruditos cristianos (Plantinga, Wolterstorff, Mavrodes, Alston) y también de los más jóvenes. Un [predicador] tiene que ser capaz de escoger y dar unidad a varios argumentos [del pensamiento contemporáneo], presentándolo después de una manera que sea fácil de entender tanto al predicar como a la hora de evangelizar.

Estoy de acuerdo con los críticos que dicen que eI viejo racionalismo de las 'evidencias que exigente un veredicto' es algo que  hoy día no despierta el más mínimo interés. Pero ello no significa que la gente ya no haga uso de la razón o incluso construya argumentos. En estos momentos hay una gran grieta en la armadura del pensamiento occidental. La gente no quiere volver a la religión, todavía les asusta; pero tampoco le entusiasman tanto las implicaciones y los efectos de no-creer.

3. Necesitamos una gran variedad de modelos de iglesia. En su libro, Models of the Church Avery Dulles realiza un gran trabajo a la hora de delinear los varios modelos de iglesia [que se han dado] en occidente a lo largo de los siglos.  Después de dejar claro que estos son modelos que muy rara vez se dan en su forma más pura, nos presenta cinco modelos. Cada uno estresando o enfatizando: a) Doctrina, enseñanza y autoridad, o b) un profundo sentido de comunidad y vida compartida, o c) alabanza, sacramentos, música y arte, o d) evangelismo, proclamación, y predicación dinámica, o e) justicia social, servicio y compasión.

Muchos evangélicos hoy día, en su deseo de llevar a cabo su ministerio en una cultura occidental post-cristiana, se han decantado por uno o dos de estos modelos. De manera que los que, por ejemplo, creen en una aproximación del tipo 'encarnacional' más que la que [descansa en la capacidad de atracción de la iglesia], enfatizan el hecho de estar y de servir puertas afuera en medio del vecindario, la creación de pequeñas iglesias en casa y [experimentar] una comunidad más intimidad (una combinación de los modelos b y e que Dulles nos propone).  Por otro lado, muchos evangélicos que no se fían del liberalismo tan sutil de la iglesia emergente, lo que enfatizan es la combinación más tradicional de los modelos a y d. Cada uno de los bandos es bastante serio en cuanto a lo acertado de su modelo y procura hacer uso del mismo en todas partes. 

Creo que nuestra situación cultural es demasiado compleja como para tener una perspectiva tan genérica. Hay demasiados no-cristianos que nunca han ido a una iglesia. Árabes en Detroit, hmongs en Chicago, chinos y judíos en la ciudad de Nueva York, anglos en el Noroeste y el Noreste que han sido educados por padres seculares--algunos de ellos son artistas e innovadores, otros trabajan en el mundo empresarial. Todos estos son varios grupos de un creciente número de gente que no conoce lo que es la iglesia, y cada uno de estos grupos son muy diferentes entre sí. De manera que aunque no hay un modelo que pueda llegar a todos y cada uno de ellos por igual--al menos cada modelo  sí puede llegar a alguno de estos grupos.

4. Tenemos que mejorar nuestra teología del sufrimiento. Los miembros de las iglesias occidentales no saben cómo reaccionar ante el sufrimiento y la dificultad. Esto es un serio problema, especialmente [si tenemos en cuenta el tiempo de transición que vivimos y toda la incertidumbre que ello genera] --aunmento de la marginalización social--y tal vez más inestabilidad social y económica. Existen una gran cantidad de libros sobre '¿por qué Dios permite el mal?' pero su principal objetivo es sacar a Dios de en medio con la impaciencia [característica] del occidental que cree que la [única] ocupación de Dios es darle una vida [lo más segura posible]. La iglesia en occidente debe [ser capaz de superar este gran obstáculo], preparando a su gente para que sean capaces de hacer frente al sufrimiento y a la persecución.

En esta cuestión también podemos conectar con el Nuevo cristianismo global. Tendemos a pensar '¿qué podemos hacer por ellos?'. Pero en una cuestión como ésta es cuando podemos dejar que sean ellos los hagan algo por nosotros. Gran parte de la la iglesia en el resto del mundo está acostumbrada al sufrimiento y a la persecución. Ellos tienen un tipo de fe que no languidece, al contrario, crece cada vez más robusta frente a la amenaza. Necesitamos que nos instruyan en esta área. 

5.Necesitamos un gran número de iglesias en las ciudades más grandes del mundo.

¡Sé que siempre se espera de mí que diga esto! Pero no se trata simplemente de un añadido a las otras medidas para hacer frente a los grandes retos [que hemos ido mencionando]. De alguna manera, esta es la 'Gran Idea' que nos ayudará a ir avanzando en todos los frentes.

Si hubiera un rápido y vital crecimiento de varios movimientos de iglesias--de teología ortodoxa, ministerio integral y comprometido culturalmente--en las grandes ciudades globales, de manera que entre un 5% y un 10% de los habitantes de las 50 ciudades más influyentes fuesen creyentes, a) ejercería un gran impacto en la creación de cultura, b) ayudaría a que la iglesia aprendiera nuevas maneras de alcanzar a quienes nunca han tenido contacto con la iglesia (puesto que tienden a concentrarse en las ciudades), c) conectaría de una forma más inmediata a las iglesias occidentales con las nuevas iglesias del resto del mundo, d) uniría iglesias de diferentes tradiciones y modelos.

- Puedes leer original (en inglés) aquí

1. The local church has to support culture-making. Most of the young evangelicals interested in integrating their faith with film-making, journalism, corporate finance, etc, are getting their support and mentoring from informal networks or para-church groups. Michael Lindsay's book Faith in the Halls of Power shows that many Christians in places of influence in the culture are alienated from the church, because they get, at best, no church support for living their faith out in the public spheres, and, at worst, opposition.

At the theological level, the church needs to gain more consensus on how the church and Christian faith relate to culture. There is still a lot of conflict between those who want to disciple Christians for public life, and those who think all "engagement of culture" ultimately leads to compromise and distraction from the preaching of the gospel. What makes this debate difficult is that both sides make good points and have good arguments. 

At the practical level, even the churches that give lip-service to the importance of integrating faith and work do very little to actually equip people to do so. Seminary only trained us ministers to disciple people by pulling them more out of the world and inside the walls and ministries of the church. So how does a church actually help its members in this area? Leaders who want to get started should look at Redeemer's Center for Faith and Work.

2. We need a renewal of apologetics. There is a lot of resistance right now among younger evangelical leaders toward apologetics. We are told we don't need arguments any more because people aren't rational. We need loving community instead. But I think this is short-sighted for two reasons.

First, Christians in the West will finally be facing what missionaries around the world have faced for years--how to communicate the gospel to Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and adherents of various folk religions. All young church leaders should take courses in and read the texts of the other major world religions. They should also study the gospel presentations written by missionaries engaging those religions. Loving community will be extremely important, as it always is, to reach out to neighbors of other faiths, but if they are going to come into the church, they will have many questions that church leaders today need to be able to answer.

Second, there a real vacuum in western secular thought. When Derrida died I was surprised how many of his former students admitted that High Theory (what evangelicals call 'post-modernism') is seen as a dead end, mainly because it is so relativistic that it provides no basis for political action. And a leading British intellectual like Terry Eagleton in recent lectures at Yale (published as Religion, Faith, and Revolution by Yale Press) savaged the older scientific atheism of Dawkins and Hitchens as equally bankrupt. Eagleton points out that the Enlightenment's optimism about science and human progress is dead. Serious western thought is not going back to that, no matter how popular Dawkins' books get. But postmodernism cannot produce a basis for human rights or justice either.

This is a real opening, apologetically, in reaching out to thoughtful non-Christians, especially the younger, socially conscious ones. We need to think of new ways to engage, asking people how they can justify their concerns for human rights and social justice. (For a great recent form of this approach, see Chris Smith's "Does Naturalism Warrant a Moral Belief in Universal Benevolence and Human Rights?" in The Believing Primate: Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Reflections on the Origin of Religion (Oxford, 2009.)

Over the last twenty years my preaching and teaching has profited a great deal from doing the hard work of reading philosophy, especially the work of older Christian philosophers and scholars (Plantinga, Wolterstorff, Mavrodes, Alston) and the younger ones. Ministers need to be able to glean and put their arguments into easy to understand form, both in speaking and in evangelism.

I agree with the critics that say the old, rationalistic, 'evidence that demands a verdict' makes people's eyes glaze over today. But that doesn't mean that people don't still use reason and still make arguments. There is a big chink in the armor of western thought right now. People don't want to go back to religion, which still scares them, but they are not so sanguine about the implications and effects of non-belief.

3. We need a great variety of church-models. Avery Dulles' book Models of the Church does a good job of outlining the very different models of churches in the west over the centuries. After qualifying his analysis by saying these are seldom pure forms, he lays out five models. Each one stresses or emphasizes: a) Doctrine, teaching, and authority, or b) deep community and life together, or c) worship, sacraments, music and the arts, or d) evangelism, proclamation, and dynamic preaching, or e) social justice, service, and compassion.

Many evangelicals today have bought in to one or two of these models as the way to minister now in the post-Christendom west. So for example, those who believe in the 'incarnational' (vs. 'attractional' approach) emphasize being and serving out in the neighborhood, smaller house churches and intimate community (a combination of Dulles' b and e models.) Meanwhile, many evangelicals who are afraid of the 'liberal creep' of the emerging church, stress the traditional combination of a and d emphases. Each side is fairly moralistic about the rightness of its model and seeks to use it everywhere.

I feel that our cultural situation is too complex for such a sweeping way to look at things. There are too many kinds of 'never-churched-non-Christians'. There are Arabs in Detroit, Hmongs in Chicago, Chinese and Jews in New York City, Anglos in the Northwest and Northeast that were raised by secular parents--some are artists and creative types, some work in business. All of these are growing groups of never-churched, but they are very different from one another. No model can connect to them all--every model can connect to some.

4. We must develop a far better theology of suffering. Members of churches in the west are caught absolutely flat-footed by suffering and difficulty. This is a major problem, especially if we are facing greater 'liminality'--social marginalization--and maybe more economic and social instability. There are a great number of books on 'why does God allow evil?' but they mainly are aimed at getting God off the hook with impatient western people who believe God's job is to give them a safe life. The church in the west must mount a great new project--of producing a people who are prepared to endure in the face of suffering and persecution.

Here, too, is one of the ways we in the west can connect to the new, growing world Christianity. We tend to think about 'what we can do for them.' But here's how we let them do something for us. Many or most of the church in the rest of the world is used to suffering and persecution. They have a kind of faith that does not wilt, but rather grows stronger under threat. We need to become students of theirs in this area.

5. We need a critical mass of churches in the biggest cities of the world.

I know I'm always expected to say this! But this is not a mere tack-on to the other measures for addressing the Big Issues. In some ways, this is the 'Big Idea' that will help us move forward on all fronts.

If there were vital, fast-growing movements of churches--orthodox in theology, wholistic in ministry, and committed to culture-making--in the great global cities, so that 5-10% of the residents of the 50 most influential cities were gospel-believers, a) it would have a great impact on culture-making, b) it would help the church learn new ways of reaching the never-churched (since they concentrate in cities), c) it would connect western churches more readily to the new churches in the non-western world, d) it would unite churches across traditions and models.

My King came down and paid my debt I owed to Him. He came down as a servant to pay in His own blood the debt I owed to God because of my sins against Him and others. The debt was infinitely great. Even if I gave all I owned a millions times over and gave every good work a million times over, my debt would still be unpaid. So an infinite debt required an infinite payment. I am thankful for this servant who is also my King. I am thankful that Jesus in His grace has forgiven my debt and removed my guilt by giving Himself.

See forgiveness cost. It will either come at the expense of the one injured or the one who did the injuring. In death, on a Roman cross, my forgiveness was purchased at the cost of the one whose glory had been injured. Jesus Christ nailed my debt to the cross, forgave me of my sin and sent me free to rejoice in the gracious gift of life with others who have received the same.

This motivates Christian forgiveness. How great it is, that Jesus did not withhold this gift from those of us who are known by Him. With this knowledge of God?s work in our lives on the cross, the Holy Spirit prompts us to forgive those who have injured us in order that we would display the great work of God in Christ. In forgiving others, we pay the cost and take some measure of suffering. We will be bearing our cross and demonstrate to the world the power of the Gospel.

NLF Avatar Church is a non-denominational church in the Bandra-Khar area in Mumbai.  It is part of the New Life Family of Churches. 

Avatar was established in early 2009 with a vision to help bring Christ centred transformation to the city of Mumbai.  Avatar Church desires to join in bringing spiritual renewal to Mumbai in a way that transforms the very fabric of life in the city and impacts all of its people with the love of God in Jesus Christ.  You are welcome and invited to our meetings!

Vision Statement: Heroes Church is a community for imperfect people who need a safe place to experience love, discover relationships, and find relevance in the city.

notreVISION

La raison d'être de l'Église réformée St-Jean se trouve résumée dans notre devise : « Une bonne nouvelle pour la métropole. »

BONNE : nous désirons vivre dans la grâce et la joie que nous donne Jésus-Christ ;

NOUVELLE : nous recherchons la vérité et l'authenticité de Jésus-Christ, telles que transmises par la Bible à travers les siècles ;

METROPOLE : nous voulons que l'évangile de Jésus-Christ contribue à transformer la vie spirituelle et sociale de notre ville.

En termes pratiques, notre devise se traduit de diverses manières :
- nous insistons sur les valeurs de l'évangile qui contribuent à créer un esprit de service et de réconciliation entre les divers groupes sociaux, ethniques et linguistiques de la métropole et nous nous engageons à collaborer avec d'autres chrétiens afin que l'évangile puisse y jouer un rôle moteur ;
- nous insistons sur le rôle transformateur de l'évangile au sein de notre culture, sur son appel à l'excellence dans les métiers, les professions et dans l'exercice de la réflexion théologique ;
- nous nous efforçons d'aimer la ville, d'y vivre et de nous investir dans la transformation de nos quartiers, tant sur le plan de la vie spirituelle que sur celui de la justice sociale.

Citylife Church exists to expand God's Kingdom with the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that hearts and lives of Bostonians who live and work in the city might be transformed. Since we believe the Gospel has the power to change all things, we hope to see comprehensive renewal in every sphere of our city life. Our desire is to create a community of love that reaches out with the historic Christian truths of the Gospel and to attract and welcome both skeptics, seekers, and those who share the church's vision to be a Gospel-oriented, outwardly faced community of God's grace.

The evangelical church Breccia di Roma is living its launching phase. Regular services started in January 2010.

We are a congregation within the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches in Italy (Chiese Evangeliche Riformate Battiste in Italia). Our vision is to glorify the Triune God by living the Good News of Jesus Christ in Rome so that a Gospel breakthrough may take place in the city and in the nation. Our name recalls the "breach" in the fortress that needs to be done in order to take the city. We want to serve the city as prophets by proclaiming the Gospel, as kings by promoting a culture of responsibility, as priests by blessing our neighbors.

1. La oportunidad (por lo menos en los Estados Unidos) de influir en el devenir de la cultura. En una entrevista, el sociólogo Peter Berger opinaba que los evangélicos en los Estados Unidos están dando un giro, de ser mayoritariamente clase obrera a tener formación universitaria.

Su pregunta es-- Todos estos cristianos preparándose en letras, empresariales, política, medios de comunicación y artes escénicas a) ¿serán asimilados en la ya existente narrativa cultural, de manera que en sus puntos de vista y valores pasará a ser el mismo que el del resto de las elites y profesionales seculares? o b) ¿se encerrarán en sí mismos y harán de su fe un asunto privado [sin ingerencias en su trabajo], de manera que, a todos los efectos, no realicen su trabajo de una manera especialmente distintiva? o c) ¿trabajarán de forma lo suficientemente creativa desde una perspectiva cristiana en sus campos para que las cosas cambien? (Ver Peter Berger)

2. El avance del Islam. ¿Cómo se relacionan los cristianos con los musulmanes cuando les toca vivir codo con codo en una misma sociedad? ¡Lo datos que recogemos de lugares como África y Oriente Medio no son muy alentadores! Este es un problema que afecta más a la iglesia en Europa que a la iglesia en Estados Unidos, pero sin duda será una preocupación creciente también para América

¿De qué manera pueden los cristianos, en relación a los musulmanes, ser a) buenos vecinos, procurando su bienestar indistintamente de si se convierten o no, y aún así b) de forma atractiva y efectiva invitarles a considerar el evangelio?  

3. El nuevo cristianismo global no es occidental.  El centro de gravedad demográfico del cristianismo [a nivel mundial] ha girado, y ya no se encuentra en Occidente, sino en Asia, América Latina y África. Las iglesias urbanas que están despuntando en China podrían llegar a ser particularmente influyentes en el futuro. Aún así, Occidente todavía tiene las instituciones educativas, el dinero y un poder significativo

¿En qué términos debe desarrollarse la relación entre las antiguas iglesias occidentales y la nueva iglesia no occidental? ¿Cómo podemos utilizar nuestros bienes para servirles, de una manera que no sea paternalista? ¿Cómo podemos aprender de ellos más allá de lo superficial?

 4. El creciente distanciamiento cultural con respecto al evangelio.Los conceptos básicos del evangelio -- pecado, culpa y tener que rendir cuentas a Dios, el sacrificio de la cruz, la naturaleza humana, la vida después de la muerte -- están llegando a ser una rareza en nuestra cultura occidental por primera vez en 1500 años. Tal y como Lesslie Newbigin ha escrito, ahora es tiempo de 'pensar como misioneros'--para formular maneras de comunicar el evangelio que por un lado confronte, como también sepan conectar con nuestra crecientemente-descristianizada cultura occidental.

¿Cómo hacemos que el evangelio sea culturalmente accesible, sin poner en compromiso su integridad? ¿Cómo podemos comunicar el evangelio y vivirlo de manera que sea comprensible para gente que carece de la estructura mental básica para al menos ser capaces de entender las verdades esenciales de la Biblia?

5. ¿El fin de la prosperidad? Con la crisis económica, la cuestión que se nos plantea es -- ¿volverá a crecer el valor de las viviendas, seguros, comisiones, salarios e inversiones, al mismo ritmo que lo han hecho durante los últimos 25 años? O, por el contrario ¿el crecimiento será relativamente nulo por muchos años? Si es así, ¿de qué manera la iglesia occidental --que se ha acostumbrado a dar de unos activos que crecían a gran velocidad-- se ajustará en la manera en la que lleva a cabo el ministerio? Por ejemplo, el ministerio en los Estados Unidos hoy está altamente profesionalizado --los empleados de una iglesia son mucho más numerosos de lo que lo eran dos generaciones atrás, cuando de una iglesia de 1.000 se esperaba que quizá tuviera dos pastores y un par de trabajadores a medio tiempo. Hoy día esa misma iglesia seguramente tenga entre 8 y 10 trabajadores a tiempo completo.    

También a tener en cuenta, ¿cómo ajustamos el mensaje sobre la mayordomía? Si los activos se han reducido a la mitad, [nos encontramos con la paradoja de que] un ofrendar más sacrificado y con mayor riesgo será necesario para poder realizar menos ministerio del que hasta ahora hemos estado llevando a cabo.

Si, además de todo esto, sufrimos un atentado nuclear o de terrorismo biológico en los Estados Unidos o en Europa, podríamos tener que vernos obligados a dejar de un lado toda nuestra asunción más básica sobre el progreso social y económico que hemos ido construyendo durante los últimos 65 años. En la primera mitad del s. XX, tuvimos dos guerras mundiales y una depresión económica. ¿Está lista la iglesia para hacer frente a una situación similar? ¿De qué manera? ¿Qué puede significar todo esto?

 - Puedes leer original (en iglés) aquí

His question is--will Christians going into the arts, business, government, the media, and film a) assimilate to the existing baseline cultural narratives so they become in their views and values the same as other secular professionals and elites, or b) will they seal off and privatize their faith from their work so that, effectively, they do not do their work in any distinctive way, or c) will they do enough new Christian 'culture-making' in their fields to change things? (See http://www.virginia.edu/iasc/HHR_Archives/AfterSecularization/8.12PBerger.pdf)

2. The rise of Islam. How do Christians relate to Muslims when we live side by side in the same society? The record in places like Africa and the Middle East is not encouraging! This is more of an issue for the western church in Europe than in the U.S., but it is going to be a growing concern in America as well.

How can Christians be at the very same time a) good neighbors, seeking their good whether they convert or not, and still b) attractively and effectively invite Muslims to consider the gospel?

3. The new non-western Global Christianity. The demographic center of Christian gravity has already shifted from the west to Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The rising urban churches of China may be particularly influential in the future. But the west still has the educational institutions, the money, and a great deal of power.

What should the relationship of the older western churches be to the new non-western church? How can we use our assets to serve them in ways that are not paternalistic? How can we learn from them in more than perfunctory ways?

4. The growing cultural remoteness of the gospel. The basic concepts of the gospel -- sin, guilt and accountability before God, the sacrifice of the cross, human nature, afterlife -- are becoming culturally strange in the west for the first time in 1500 years. As Lesslie Newbigin has written, it is time now to 'think like a missionary'--to formulate ways of communicating the gospel that both confront and engage our increasingly non-Christian western culture.

How do we make the gospel culturally accessible without compromising it? How can we communicate it and live it in a way that is comprehensible to people who lack the basic 'mental furniture' to even understand the essential truths of the Bible?

5. The end of prosperity? With the economic meltdown, the question is -- will housing values, endowments, profits, salaries, and investments go back to growing at the same rates as they have for the last twenty-five years, or will growth be relatively flat for many years to come? If so, how does the western church, which has become habituated to giving out of fast-increasing assets, adjust in the way it carries out ministry? For example, American ministry is now highly professionalized--church staffs are far larger than they were two generations ago, when a church of 1,000 was only expected to have, perhaps, two pastors and a couple of other part-time staff. Today such a church would have probably eight to ten full-time staff members.

Also, how should the stewardship message adjust? If discretionary assets are one-half of what they were, more risky, sacrificial giving will be necessary to do even less ministry than we have been doing.

On top of this, if we experience even one significant act of nuclear or bio-terrorism in the U.S. or Europe, we may have to throw out all the basic assumptions about social and economic progress we have been working off for the last 65 years. In the first half of the 20th century, we had two World Wars and a Depression. Is the church ready for that? How could it be? What does that mean?

VOX City Church is a new church being planted in the city bowl of Cape Town. We seek to be a church that proclaims the Gospel, experiences the transforming power of the Gospel and demonstrates the Gospel in our city through practical expressions of mercy, justice, compassion, and restoration.

Pacific Crossroads Church is not a place. It is a people. A people called to worship the living God and sent to give witness to the good news that God accepts us as we are, not as we should be. Our vision is to be an authentic community manifesting the presence and reign of Jesus Christ throughout Los Angeles through personal transformation, social justice, and cultural renewal.

Take for example the shopping center 1.2 miles from my home where we do all of our grocery shopping. There is a Target, Barnes and Noble, Kroger, Caribou Coffee, Best Buy, Lowes, Rue Sans (Sushi), Wachovia (Bank), and a Smoothie King, not to mention several upscale ($200 or more a pair)shoe stores, shops, and boutiques. It possesses all of the qualities of the "rough" areas of Seattle, so by my general definition, it is no longer a depressed area - except, because of gentrification and trend changes, for this situation, my definition is blown, why? The liquor store three blocks from this shopping center was robbed, and the clerk was shot to death just two month's ago. Just this past Sunday, a shoot out between two vehicles occurred in that same shopping center just a few hours after my family and I finished buying groceries there.

The point to this discourse is that the dividing lines between rich and poor, safe and dangerous, hood and hip are no longer so clear. This is a changing landscape that as a Pastor to this city I am going to have to carefully examine to understand, so that we can most effectively and faithfully engage and reach this entire area that does not in anyway lend itself to homogeneous ministry, if we are being true to engaging the whole of the community. How we will reconcile our culture clashes, I do not fully have an answer to yet, but for anyone else seeking to move into and work for the welfare of any major city through Gospel transformation, this is a question that has to be answered.

"I just visit a different church each week, that"s what I do."   In her early 50's, the woman making this statement to me had a sweet smile and warm eyes.   She had come very early to find the location and made herself comfortable in a cushioned seating area.  I found her to be a very friendly person.

That was until I started to try to move some of the storage boxes with our church supplies.  You see, we meet in an off Broadway theater.  And like many churches that rent where they gather to worship, we use storage bins to hold the basic items that we need.  If you come early enough on a Sunday morning you'll walk into a room filled with large plastic bins of supplies for all of the assorted things that we do in a service.

Our friend had found the corner where most of the bins were stacked and promptly nestled herself behind them.  The moment that I began to move some of the bins to put them away prior to the service, her demeanor changed; she became agitated.  The agitation started graciously at first, "Oh no, you don't have to move these for me.  I don't mind them at all."  I was very gentle at first, explaining that it was no trouble at all.  She would be able to see the service if I moved the bins.

She countered, "Please don't move these bins.  I can see just fine."  In New York, space is a premium, so I had to explain to her that we would probably need the seating area as people arrived.  This did not deter her.  In fact, she actually became more adamant.  As I put my hands on one of the bins, she grabbed it to keep it in place.  I found myself playing a little tug-of-war with this sweet woman!  Except now, she wasn't looking so sweet.  Then it dawned upon me - she sat there so no one could get close to her.  I did have to move the bins and we were pretty full, but she had to let me take down those walls.  Fortunately, a young lady in our congregation came over to meet this woman.  The distraction was wonderfully helpful.

After the service I thought on this awhile.  Isn't this a story for all of us?  We are attracted to what God can do in community, yet we are scared to be known.  Like a moth attracted to a flame, we are made for relationships. Yet like this woman, we want community to be on our terms.  But community on our terms is not really community, it's manipulation.  We keep building our walls of plastic bins to try to control the very people who can help us.

I think about the plastic bins that I use to keep people away while I'm in the middle of community.  Busyness, position, there are a lot of ways that I create artificial divides between me and those directly around me.  To go from anonymity to relationships can be a terrifying process.

Yet that is where God constantly takes us.  Christianity has doctrine, but that doctrine is about a relationship with God.  The fountainhead of our faith is relationship.  Why would we be surprised that the Holy Spirit keeps taking us to expressions of community?  The church is not man's idea; it's mandated in Scripture as God's plan for the world.

I'm praying for my new found friend.  I pray that she comes back to Grace, but if she doesn't I'm praying for people around her who won't let her stay hidden behind plastic bins.  We all need people to come and take those walls down.  It may be terrifying at first, but it is ultimately liberating.

Isn't that what Jesus came to do?  To set us free so that we could be free indeed?

I went to Seattle recently to visit my boy's at Mars Hill and get my retrain on, and me and Mike Anderson had an interesting conversation. We were talking about crime, impoverished neighborhoods, and the gospel. He then told me about the ghetto in Seattle, and some of what are considered the rough areas. You may notice that I have placed both ghetto and rough in quotations, it is indeed to show sarcasm, because what I discovered in seeing these areas made me come to the conclusion that if these were the rough areas of Seattle, then Seattle truly had no ghetto.

You see, in true hood areas, there are things you find and things you don't. Banks, Grocery Stores, Coffee shops, Sushi Bars, Target, Barnes and Noble etc. you do not find in the ghetto why Because these businesses generally do not feel they can be profitable in depressed areas of the city. What you do find in depressed areas of metropolitan cities are Liquor Stores, Pawn Shops, Corner Stores (that charge 80 cents for one pack of Kool Aid, true story, a couple blocks from my house), Burned out or Abandoned Buildings, and masses of people standing on street corners. The rough areas of Seattle had all of the former and none of the latter.

Something interesting seems to be taking place in recent years though in some major cities. As Young Professionals, and Urban Hipsters are moving back into cities, and gentrification is happening in once depressed areas, we are starting to see some light and some severe culture clash. Example...I live in Grant Park (Downtown Atlanta) Atlanta's oldest and most historic neighborhood. I live off of MLK, and everyone I know who doesn't live here or isn't familiar with what has taken place here always asks me,you living in the hood now? Well technically, yes, but conventionally, no. I live in what was once an abandoned warehouse turned chic overpriced loft space, with gated parking. More directly, I am living in what I would consider a mostly gentrified neighborhood. And it is diverse by race, ethnicity, culture and class. It is amazing to me to see $40,000 BMW's drive past homeless guys pissing in the street, and yet, I see it everyday. We have what is now a culture clash, and it is starting to spill over in more severe ways.

to be continued

As more and more ministries and churches are pushing forward into serving their communities, I just wanted to highlight some practical lessons from my time in an urban context.

1. Christ must be primary. The Savior of the people is Jesus Christ and not us. In our efforts to help others who are in need, many times we can unintentionally put forth the perception we are here to save and the name of Christ can be obscured. So be intentional and look forward opportunities to graciously point people to Jesus Christ.

2. Communication with God. Prayer is the most invaluable privilege afforded to believers. There are many things that are unknown when you minister and so it is important that you go before the Lord in prayer. The Scriptures state, that the prayer of the righteous availeth much. The disciples prayed that the Lord would stretch forth His hand to do healing and signs and wonders. So take opportunities to walk the community and pray. Pray for the things that you see and don't see.

3. Compassion. Jesus saw the people and had compassion on them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. I have found people who are desperate in life and chase after things that more than likely will be damaging to them. Now you could throw the Bible at them with all your Scriptures while they are in their drunkenness, smoking weed or absolute anger because their bicycle wheel was taken by the neighborhood trouble maker. Or you can walk in the compassion that Christ continually demonstrates. It really goes along way and it will speak so loud that eventually the one you have been compassionate towards will listen to what you have to say.

4. Courage. Let's be real. There are many areas that some people just can not go. Some areas in our city are just crime magnets and it takes a depth of wisdom and discernment to go into dangerous spots. At the same time, I have understood that Christ said He would never leave nor forsake and that the Holy Spirit is the Comforter who dwells within those who are born again. Armed with that knowledge, many of us have been equipped by God to be courageous and bring the hope of Christ into areas that are just not safe. Courage is not seen in the presence of safety but the absence of it.

5. Confidence in God who saves. There are a lot of cool things to catch people's attention. There are many cool ideas that we can come up with to serve the needs of people. The Psalms said, some trust in chariots, horses or princes but true confidence is found in the Lord God. Do we dismiss chariots, horses, community lunches or medical outreaches? No, because God has gifted many to use such things. But let us never forget our confidence must be in the Lord who saves and who heals and delivers for the sake of His name.

I was reflecting today on Jesus Christ being the Good Shepherd. Obviously a shepherd has a flock of sheep as Jesus says of Himself in John 10. The Gospel writers point out that Jesus saw the people as sheep not having a shepherd and He had compassion on them. Surely shepherds have the aroma of their sheep that they spend so much intimate time with. So my question to myself was how did Jesus smell? The second question I then had was how should shepherds (pastors) smell?

The Gospel writers point consistently to how Jesus Christ spent the majority of his time with sinners. This reality angered the religious folk of His day, as they tried to use this as an argument to discredit Jesus ministry. Jesus pointed out to them that it was the sick that needed a doctor. It was the unrighteous He was calling to repentance.

So what would tax collectors and sinners smell like? What is the aroma or odor of a prostitute? As He moved through the crowds and the woman with the issue of blood touched Him. Was her fragrance worthy of being bottled by Bath and Body Works? (She did have an awfully long menstrual cycle) The leper that Jesus touched, was his aroma fragrant like a rose or the aroma of decaying flesh? I wonder what Jesus smelled liked, as He went in and among the people that needed repentance and hope and then left them to travel to others?

Is it possible that Jesus wasn?t the fragrance of Cool Water, Nautica or Usher? Yes I know, he was anointed with the fragrance from an alabaster box, but up until that moment, that was ushering in the preparation for His death and resurrection, Jesus surely smelled liked the people He served, touched and ate with.

So my second question is this, ?How should we shepherds smell?? Have you ever walked away with the smell of beer on your clothes? Have you ever sat in a smoked filled room of marijuana or tobacco; walking away thinking you took part in the inhalation? Do you smell like the hidden issues that exist in marriages that are falling apart, children who are in need of their father?s attention or men who wrestle with their sexual identity? Should we not follow in the steps of our Great Shepherd?

While we may walk away with the fragrance of sins that are not our own, let us leave men and women with the aroma of Christ Jesus. The aroma of Christ is described as fragrant and sweet to the Father as He died on the Cross. The sweet smelling fragrance of Christ not only in death but in triumphant resurrection is the aroma we bring to men and women, leaving with their aroma on us, reminding us how to pray and care for those whom God has given us to shepherd.

Just today I was discussing how trials bring about our good with a friend of mine. After I got home I realized that James already wrote about this in an incredibly clear manner...

James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

What a sweet and comforting truth! We are to count it all joy when we suffer because it produces steadfastness. The reasoning here is just awesome. James tells us to be joyful when we meet trials because we already know that when our faith is tested we become more steadfast. He is rooting this on previous knowledge and experience, hence him saying "for you know". The reason this can be said to any Christian is because every new convert goes through the trial of persecution. It does not necessarily have to be grievous persecution, but it will no doubt come. So from the very early days of our faith, we have been tried and our faith has grown and increased steadfastness is the result. So, Christian, fuel your joy with the knowledge that every trial has made you more steadfast. James concludes his thought on being steadfast in verse 12...

12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

More emphasis on how remaining steadfast is linked to our joy. We will be blessed and receive the crown of life if we remain steadfast. Despair is a wild spiral down from this glorious truth, and joy is a lifted head of steadfast faith.

Algunas impresiones de Tim Keller sobre el best-seller La Cabaña de W. Paul Young:

Durante las vacaciones leí una buena (y devastadora) crítica de La Cabaña  de William P. (Paul) Young en la última edición impresa de Books and Culture: A Christian Review (Jan/Feb 2010). Fue algo que me recordó que yo era una de las últimas personas en el mundo que no había leído el libro. Así que lo leí. ¿Por qué escribir un artículo al respecto? [El libro en cuestión] vendió 7.2 millones de copias en poco más de 2 años, a mediados de Junio de 2009. Con esas cifras, seguramente ejercerá alguna influencia en el imaginario popular de lo religioso. Así que exige una respuesta. Esto no es una reseña [o crítica literaria], simplemente algunas impresiones:

El libro es un noble esfuerzo, en forma de narración, de ayudar a la gente moderna a entender por qué Dios permite el sufrimiento. El gran argumento que Young presenta en varias partes del libro es el siguiente: Primero, el mal y el sufrimiento en el mundo es resultado de nuestro abuso del libre albedrío. Segundo, Dios no ha impedido el mal, para así alcanzar un bien mayor y más glorioso que ahora los seres humanos no podemos comprender. Tercero, cuando tenemos amargura hacia Dios por alguna tragedia en particular, nos sentamos en la silla del 'Juez y Dios del mundo', y no estamos cualificados para ese trabajo. Cuarto, debemos adquirir una 'perspectiva eterna' y ver a todo el pueblo de Dios [lleno] de gozo delante de su presencia por siempre. (Al padre en la historia le es dada una vision de su hija muerta viviendo en gozo en la presencia de Cristo, y [esta visión] cura su dolor.) Todo esto es una teología pastoral bastante standard y ortodoxa (aunque un tanto excesiva en su defensa del libre albedrío). [Todo ello] es bastante accesible al lector por el uso que hace de la narrativa. He escuchado muchos testimonios de medio-creyentes y de no-creyentes diciendo que este libro les había dado respuesta a sus mayores objeciones a la fe en Dios.

Sin embargo, a lo largo del libro [se puede ver cómo] la historia de Young mina unas cuantas doctrinas tradicionales del cristianismo. Muchos se han metido de llenos a debatir sobre las creencias teológicas de Young, y yo tengo mis propias reserves. Pero este es mi principal problema con el libro. Cualquiera que haya quedado influenciado por el imaginativo mundo de La Cabaña  no estará en absoluto preparado [para un encuentro] con el Dios, realmente mucho más multi-dimensional y complejo, de la Biblia. En los profetas el lector encontrará un Dios que constantemente condena y jura juicio sobre sus enemigos, mientras que las Personas del Dios-Trino de La Cabaña no paran de decir que el pecado no les es ninguna ofensa. El lector del Salmo 119 es lleno de entusiasmo por los estatutos, los decretos y las leyes de Dios, mientras que el Dios de La Cabaña insiste en que él no nos da ninguna norma o ni tan siquiera tiene ninguna expectativa de los seres humanos. Lo único que quiere es una relación. El lector de las vidas de Abraham, Jacob, Moisés e Isaías aprenderá que la santidad de Dios hace que su presencia [sin ningún tipo de mediación] sea peligrosa o incluso fatal para nosotros. Alguien podría argumentar (tal y como Young parece hacerlo en la página 192) que a causa de Jesús, Dios es ahora sólo un Dios de amor; lo que hace obsoleto cualquier discurso sobre santidad, ira y ley. Pero cuando Juan, uno de los amigos más íntimos de Jesús, ve mucho tiempo después de la crucifixión al Cristo resucitado en la isla de Patmos, 'cayó al suelo como muerto' (Apocalipsis 1:17). La Cabaña deconstruye de forma eficaz la santidad y la trascendencia de Dios, Simplemente no están presentes. En su lugar, simplemente, amor incondicional. El Dios de La Cabaña no tiene nada de la estabilidad y la complejidad del Dios bíblico. Un Dios a medias no es de ninguna manera Dios.

Existe otro libro moderno que [también] busca comunicar el carácter de Dios a través de una historia. [Este libro] también intentó 'encarnar' la doctrina bíblica de Dios de una forma imaginativa que pudiera trasmitir el corazón [mismo] del mensaje bíblico.  Aquella historia tenía una figura de Cristo llamada Aslan. Sin embargo, al contrario que el autor de La Cabaña, C.S. Lewis siempre se esmeraba en mantener la tensión bíblica entre el amor divino y su abrumadora santidad y esplendor. En la introducción a su libro El Problema del Dolor, Lewis citaba el ejemplo del libro infantil El Viento en los Sauces en el que dos personajes, Rata y Topo se acercan al divino. 

"¿Miedo?" Murmuró la Rata, con los ojos brillando de amor. "¡Miedo! ¿De él? ¡Nunca! Y, sin embargo... ¡Oh Topo, tengo miedo!"

Lewis buscó trasmitir esto a lo largo de sus historias de Narnia. Uno de los momentos más memorables es la descripción de Aslan.

"¿Seguros? ¿Quién dijo algo de estar seguros? Por su puesto que él no es seguro, pero él es bueno. Y es el Rey."   

Esto está mejor.

Over the holidays I read a good (and devastating) review of William P. (Paul) Young's The Shack in the most recent print edition of Books and Culture: A Christian Review (Jan/Feb 2010.)  It was a reminder that I was one of the last people on the planet not to have read the book. So I did. So why write a blog post about it? It had sold 7.2 million copies in a little over 2 years, by June of 2009. With those kinds of numbers, the book will certainly exert some influence over the popular religious imagination. So it warrants a response. This is not a review, but just some impressions:

At the heart of the book is a noble effort -- to help modern people understand why God allows suffering, using a narrative form. The argument Young makes at various parts of the book is this. First, this world's evil and suffering is the result of our abuse of free will. Second, God has not prevented evil in order to accomplish some glorious, greater good that humans cannot now understand. Third, when we stay bitter at God for a particular tragedy we put ourselves in the seat of the 'Judge of the world and God', and we are unqualified for such a job. Fourth, we must get an 'eternal perspective' and see all God's people in joy in his presence forever. (The father in the story is given a vision of his deceased daughter living in the joy of Christ's presence, and it heals his grief.) This is all rather standard, orthodox, pastoral theology (though it's a bit too heavy on the 'free-will defense').  It is so accessible to readers because of its narrative form. I have heard many reports of semi-believers and non-believers claiming that this book gave them an answer to their biggest objections to faith in God.

However, sprinkled throughout the book, Young's story undermines a number of traditional Christian doctrines. Many have gotten involved in debates about Young's theological beliefs, and I have my own strong concerns. But here is my main problem with the book. Anyone who is strongly influenced by the imaginative world of The Shack will be totally unprepared for the far more multi-dimensional and complex God that you actually meet when you read the Bible. In the prophets the reader will find a God who is constantly condemning and vowing judgment on his enemies, while the Persons of the Triune-God of The Shack repeatedly deny that sin is any offense to them. The reader of Psalm 119 is filled with delight at God's statutes, decrees, and laws, yet the God of The Shack insists that he doesn't give us any rules or even have any expectations of human beings. All he wants is relationship. The reader of the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Isaiah will learn that the holiness of God makes his immediate presence dangerous or fatal to us. Someone may counter (as Young seems to do, on p.192) that because of Jesus, God is now only a God of love, making all talk of holiness, wrath, and law obsolete. But when John, one of Jesus' closest friends, long after the crucifixion sees the risen Christ in person on the isle of Patmos, John 'fell at his feet as dead.' (Rev.1:17.) The Shack effectively deconstructs the holiness and transcendence of God. It is simply not there. In its place is unconditional love, period. The God of The Shack has none of the balance and complexity of the Biblical God. Half a God is not God at all.

There is another modern text that sought to convey the character of God through story. It also tried to 'embody' the Biblical doctrine of God in an imaginative way that conveyed the heart of the Biblical message. That story contained a Christ-figure named Aslan. Unlike the author of The Shack, however, C.S. Lewis was always at pains to maintain the Biblical tension between the divine love and his overwhelming holiness and splendor. In the introduction to his book The Problem of Pain, Lewis cited the example from the children's text The Wind in the Willows where two characters, Rat and Mole approach divinity.

"Afraid?" murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. "Afraid? of Him? O, never, never. And yet -- and yet -- O Mole, I am afraid."

Lewis sought to get this across at many places through his Narnia tales. One of the most memorable is the description of Aslan.

"Safe?...Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

That's better.

Do you wish to honour the body of Christ? Do not ignore him when he is naked? Do not pay him homage in the temple clad in silk, only then to neglect him outside where he is cold and ill-clad? He who said:"This is my body" is the same who said: "You saw me hungry and you gave me no food," and whatever you did to the least of my brothers you did also to me. What good is it if the Eucharistic table is overloaded with golden chalices when your brother is dying of hunger? Start by satisfying his hunger and then with what is left you may adorn the altar as well. -John Chrysostom

This quote is from the 3rd century, and interestingly this quote seems to be addressing something the Church then was struggling with, and it seems it is not different from how she struggles now. There is this tendency we have to adorn the altar while the sick, hungry, and helpless remain that way all around us. To quote a modern poet and scholar/rapper, my friend Sho Baraka, "the churches gettin bigger, but the block don?t change."

Essentially these two men, from different era's, different centuries, different cultures, are saying the same thing. The Church, as a whole, is an internally focused hospital for the well while the sick and dying continue to be sick and die. Jesus said that he came for the sinner, that those who are well needed no physician. Jesus came making wrongs right, crooked straight, and broken whole. Healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding the hungry, healing the broken hearted, and clothing the naked.

So what are the gospel implications? That the gospel is bigger than saving us from our sin sickness. There are social, ethical, and justice related indictments that are inherent in Christ' gospel, and if we are not involved in them, but our "alters" are covered with "gold" then we have failed to incarnate the Jesus of the bible, at least fully.

One of the challenges of pastoring people in a city center, is the amount of time people spend in their workplace. Unlike other parts of the country, people seem to live at their places of work. Rather than becoming frustrated that people are not available to serve in our church programs, we should see the time spent in a place of work as an opportunity to see the kingdom of God leave the confines of traditional church programming, come to the workplace, begin to do its work of industry and city renewal.

In order to move toward this vision, our church has been hosting industry roundtables for the last year for so. These roundtable discussions are designed to bring people from various industries together and help them form a theology of kingdom renewal for their respective career fields. Some of the questions we ask at these luncheons are...

What drew you to your industry?
What do you love about your industry?
What do you struggle with in your industry?
What ethical dilemmas do you often run into?
To what scripture do you turn to formulate a theology of your industry?
What are some of your doubts and uncertainties about how God could move in your industry?
What do wish that we as your pastors/leaders, knew about your industry?
How can the church help you live more missionally in your industry?
What is our church doing that is hindering you from being able to bring the kingdom of God to bear in your workplace?

I have been surprised and overwhelmed by the response of people in our church to these events. People have felt empowered, encouraged and have been given a new vision for what they do all week. Many of them now sense that it is making a vital difference in the world, and that it is important to God. I have also had several people comment on how good it is to hear that the church has a vision for something outside of itself, and how good it is to know that a pastor "gets" what they do Monday through Friday.

I have found that having an awareness of what it is people love, struggle with, are tempted by and need encouragement in, makes me a more effective pastor. My counseling is more empathetic, my preaching more informed, and the word of God more contextualized to do its work. I am not simply projecting my life and wishes onto their work-week, but am able to help bring the gospel to bear on the temptations, trials and joys they live in every day.

In order to really see a movement of the gospel through a city, it is going to take the equipping of our people to live and share the gospel where they spend most of their time: the workplace. Hosting an industry roundtable is a small step in that direction, but also an important one to see a local congregation begin this work.

Dimas Salaberrios, lead pastor of Infinity - a church planting project in the Bronx - has been in Haiti for the last week with a team of 4 men from his church. The team members include two medical doctors from New York City .

You can follow the progress of Dimas and his team here and you can donate to support them here. Please join us in praying for them.

Nuevo artículo de Tim Keller. En esta ocasión, el Dr. Keller nos habla de los motivos que han llevado a Redeemer a ser una iglesia de esas que se conocen como multi-sitio. Es decir, iglesias que se reúnen en múltiples localidades dentro de una determinada área geográfica; en este caso, tres vecindarios del distrito de Manhattan.

Hace poco Redeemer fue presentada ocupando un lugar prominente en un artículo de USA Today sobre [el fenómeno de las] iglesias multi-sitio. Aparte de mencionar el hecho de que Redeemer no utiliza la video conferencia,  [el artículo] no se refirió a las diferencias que existen entre nuestro enfoque y el de otros. Y en la consiguiente discusión online después del artículo, era evidente que a todas las iglesias multi-sitio se las ponía en un mismo montón [sin diferenciar unas de otras].  Para aclarar cualquier duda, puede que sea de alguna ayuda saber por qué y cómo Redeemer es una iglesia que se reúne en múltiples localidades.

1. Primero, no adoptamos el ser multi-sitio porque fuera más económico o más eficiente para nosotros. Cuando hace diez años empezamos a reunirnos en varias localidades, ya teníamos un culto por la mañana y otro por la tarde en un mismo local que era bastante grande. Hubiera sido menos costoso y a la vez efectivo simplemente incrementar los cultos, hasta cuatro o cinco, en ese mismo lugar. Trasladarnos a otro local significó un aumento considerable en gastos de alquiler, servicios de atención para niños, música y muchas otras cosas.

2. Segundo, no nos convertimos en multi-sitio para alcanzar más deprisa a más gente. El auditorio donde empezamos a reunirnos hace 10 años tiene capacidad para más de 2.000 personas sentadas, y otros espacios del mismo tamaño no están disponibles. Los lugares que hemos alquilado en otras partes de la ciudad son bastante más pequeños. Si hubiéramos continuado en aquél lugar y hubiéramos multiplicado allí mismo las reuniones, podríamos haber alcanzado a un número mayor de gente de forma más rápida.

Así pues, ¿qué nos llevó a adoptar el modelo del multi-sitio?

 1. Primero, extendemos nuestras reuniones a diferentes lugares para que la gente pueda celebrar el culto cerca de donde viven. La gente puede involucrarse mucho más en la comunidad e invitar a sus amigos [a la iglesia] con mucha más facilidad si los encuentros son en su vecindario. [En realidad esto lo hicimos a sabiendas que iba] en contra de la mentalidad típica de la mega-iglesia, puesto que las grandes iglesias generan un gran número de miembros que recorren grandes distancias para asistir a la iglesia. Nosotros queremos frenar esta tendencia y arraigar más a la gente en su contexto local.

2. Segundo, el modelo del multi-sitio es algo que hemos diseñado como una transición. Redeemer tiene un plan para convertir cada uno de los sitios en los que se reúne en una congregación o iglesia en sí misma para el vecindario en el que se encuentra, con su propio liderazgo pastoral. Yo he sido el predicador principal en todas las localidades, pero hace dos años pasamos de cuatro a tener cinco reuniones en tres lugares distintos, [con sus respectivas predicaciones], algo que resulta excesivo para mí en un solo domingo. Pero en lugar de proyectarme en video, decidimos que otros pastores en el equipo pastoral predicasen siempre al menos en esa quinta reunión. Cuando lleguemos a seis y a siete cultos, en unos dos años, en cada uno de los lugares habrá un pastor al frente que compartirá el peso de la predicación conmigo. 

Entonces pasaremos del modelo 'multi-sitio' al modelo 'colegiado'. Y aunque todavía continuaremos unidos bajo un mismo consejo de ancianos, cada iglesia tendrá su propio equipo pastoral, ancianos y líderes laicos. Otros modelos colegiados que podemos encontrar en nuestra denominación (PCA) serían Harbor Presbyterian en San Diego y Brooklyn Presbyterian también en la ciudad de Nueva York.

Durante la entrevista con el periodista de USA Today, me cuide mucho de no criticar a otras iglesias muIti-sitio. No sé qué es lo que motiva a otras iglesias a usar el modelo del multi-sitio, pero lo que aquí he expuesto es lo que nos motiva a nosotros.

___________

* Artículo original (en inglés) aquí

It has got to be the third person in the last two weeks that has asked me about the existence of God in light of the tragedy in Haiti. The last words I heard before I walked out of that Starbucks were "How can a good god exist and allow these things to happen, a god like that has no place in this world". As I reflected upon what I judge to be an honest angry statement I was reminded of another episode just last week. It happened here at my own church during a presbytery meeting.

At that meeting a Haitian movement leader updated us of the situation in Port Au Prince in the aftermath of the 7.2 earthquake. At the occasion he said that the situation was much worse than what has been reported by the American TV networks. Out of his own suffering he shared the fact that he had lost 10 of his pastors, all of their church buildings and many of their church members. He said that there was no food, scarcity of gas to transport whatever supplies they could gather from the DR or other immediate towns, tons of orphans roaming the streets and a lot of violence. But in the midst of all the destruction around them the church remained strong. He said that every single night sounds of prayers and songs are heard through out the desolated streets of the city. That in the midst of immense suffering people are turning to God more than they are turning to nations and to other human beings.

Interesting. Here we have one of the greatest catastrophes of history and then we have two kinds of people. Those who are mere spectators and those who are living in it. On one side you have those, like myself that can drive into a Stbx and pay $4 for a cup of coffee and then go home and watch what's going on on TV and then you have those who are actually there. A fool like the one I encountered today who can afford to have a comfortable life asks the question that the homeless, orphan, hungry, mutilated is not asking on the other side. They usually never do. On this side of the tragedy people are using what happened to run away from God while victims are desperately running to God. To me if someone had the right to ask the question; it would be the Haitian people. Except, they are not.

I've heard it say that "atheism ends at the grave" and I guess that's true for both types of people.

The Grace City Vision　

Revealing God's Glory through a Church Planting Movement, seeking to renew peoples' lives, restore the city, and build God's Kingdom, through proclaiming Christ's Gospel of Grace in city center Tokyo.

Mission 2020

To establish at least 3 Churches, each with its own characteristics and different style of worship, and 1000 Worshippers.

Core values

 (1)    Gospel-centered　

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a power of God's grace that can renew whole our life and transform city and community. We work together not according to authority of this world, law, and morality, but by believing in the kingdom of God and the Gospel which gives us forgiveness, healing, revitalization of life, and repentance.

 (2)  City-Focused

We believe that the God has special interest in cities since the Garden of Eden in Genesis to the kingdom of God in Revelation. We love, serve, and learn from the city so we can spread the gospel. We carefully observe the gift and sin of the city with the guidance of the Bible and work accordingly.

  (3)  Outward-faced

We respect and serve everybody, regardless if they are Christians or non-Christians, as we all are made in the image of God. We respect the unique culture of the city, both traditional and contemporary, and contextualize the Gospel to the Japanese culture so the Gospel-transformed people can serve others and the city most effectively.

 (4）Community

We learn to grow ourselves and serve others by learning love of God in the vital community of Jesus Christ. Groups of small number of people, called "community groups" will provide counseling and support for people. Our relationships to each other will deepen in the community groups by giving love and support to each other. 

（5）Serving

We will serve the society for its needs and recovery in accordance with our own ability and talent give by God. We not only spread the words of God, but also provide the work and service of love and grace as Jesus healed and provided food for poor and give himself for us to restore our life.

（6）Renewal

Renewal by the Gospel greatly effects not only on our faith and church, but also on our job, workplace, culture and art. We can glorify God by doing our best in our workplace. Art and cultural activities are to serve for God's re-creation. We aim for renewal of the city culture through the Gospel so eventually it will renew the whole city to become the kingdom of God.

（7）Movement

Grace City Church would like to be a movement that serves for God's kingdom with Holy Spirit, rather than a system and organization. Especially we devote ourselves to church planting as it is necessary to plant new churches constantly in order to spread the Gospel to Tokyo, Japan and the whole world.

God raises up leaders to care for His flock. It is important to realize that the Church is God's flock and not the leaders. He purchased the flock, the Bride with His own blood. Out of this redemptive work, the Holy Spirit raises up leaders who care for His people.
This flock is extremely and infinitely precious because they were purchased with perfect and precious blood.

Matthew Henry stated, "the flock of God ought to be dear to us, for it is dear to him, because it cost him dear.."

Servant leadership calls also for an attentiveness to ourselves as well as the flock of God. Before we can care for others, we must bring ourselves into the presence of the Lord in order that He would renew our own minds and hearts first. Baxter stated, "it is easier to chide at sin, than to overcome it." So let us go to the Lord first and have Him deal with us gracefully. In doing so, leaders will serve the flock in the same manner. From there, the Holy Spirit actively works in our lives to wash the feet of the flock, feed the flock and protect the flock of God.

If you are a leader in your local church remember; the flock of God does not belong to you but to the Lord Jesus Christ. As well, the Holy Spirit has raised you up and so have a godly and humble jealously for the flock of Jesus Christ.
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"I heard my momma cry and heard her pray the night Chicago died...".

It was a decision made for me but not by me. Like many other Anglo Christians in the 1960's my parents fled the "difficulties" of the city for the safety of the suburbs. It is not my place to judge the reasons why but I do think the decision came in part due to a lack of theological commitment Romans 3:23. It wasn't so much that they thought there wouldn't be any sin in the suburbs, but more that they thought they could control it and keep their three children from delving too far into it.

Unfortunately while they worked hard to keep us from long hair, dancing, rock music and the other cultural shifts there was a failure to look under the covers of our lives and see the hypocrisies of self righteous arrogance, loveless separation and those other things that Jesus would describe as dead men's bones. The whitewashed tomb looked good but not even the suburbs could keep us safe from the evil that lurked within.

As a parent I have tried to apply the truth of Romans 3:23 into the lives of my two sons. By God's choosing my wife and I have raised our family in a rural community in northern New York. This is a vacation spot, a place people from the city come and assume would be great place to raise a family. In many respects it is and yet something lurks under the covers of rural America. Recently I was in a conversation with our county D.A. and asked him what the top three issues were that he had to deal with. The list he gave me sounded a whole lot like the reasons my parents gave as they fled Chicago and moved to the suburbs. His answer: Sexual crimes against children, Drugs and Alcohol abuse. If I have learned one thing in the twenty-two years of living in the country is this - sin may be more evident due to the density of the city but no place outside of the protection of the eternal fellowship will be safe from the effects of the curse.

As the movement of church planting grows in the city I pray that I may be able to make a return to the city of my birth. I love Chicago and will wait for God to open whatever doors may need to be opened if He desires me to join the effort. There is one thing for certain though - Theologically sound, Bible teaching, Gospel-holy-Gospel-missional churches are desperately needed in rural America. I will end with this observation. I was speaking with a pastor in Georgia not too long ago. He told me that in the two adjoining counties (both rural) there were 83 baptist churches. I asked him about the spiritual impact. He regretfully stated that the place was as pagan as any other place. I wonder why? Perhaps someone needs to look under the covers.

What does God want us to be and do, and where does he want us to go? These are questions that every church (plant) has to answer for itself. The answers given constitute what I refer to as "the foundations of the church".

Various terms are used to described the elements of these foundations: identity, vision, mission, strategy, core values, core capacities, core competences. Whatever terms one would like to use, these concepts rank - together with leadership - as "one of the most observed but least understood" concepts in the area of ministry. Of course I don't have the final answer, but maybe I can get shed some light. Before discussing the question "which foundations?", let's look at the "why" and "what" of the foundations of the church.

The "why" of the foundations of the church
A few decades ago, you'd hardly ever hear someone about the "vision" or "mission" of his church. Today, however, every self-respecting church has at least one of these "statements." What happened? What changed?

First, there is an element of shifting paradigms. From time to time, changes in our environment and changes in our thinking lead to a fundamental paradigm shift. Within today's churches, there is a growing dissatisfaction with the paradigm of the inward-faced church, operating from a majority position in society. The church has to become dynamic, open, and mobile again. Such a new starting point compels us to reconceive and redefined everything we used to think and do. (David Bosch, Transforming Mission)

Second, confessions have lost their function of formulating at the local level why we are a church with these characteristics. The church needs something that makes it move, a shared commitment at the local level, a vision to which everyone in the church can contribute. The foundations of the church seek to recover this function of the confessions. (Cees Haak, Church in the 21st Century)

Third, the Reformed confessions have been written to defend the church against heresy. The reformers build a wall around the church, to keep falls teaching out. They did not develop build a bridge to the world, to invite lost people in. Today we are called to look at different aspects of the Scriptures and apply them to our times. We have to read the Bible through a different lens. (Cees Haak, Church in the 21st Century)

Fourth, there is an element of increased church size. In larger churches, the distinctive mission and vision of the church become increasingly important. "A key reason for being in a smaller church is relationships. A key reason for putting up with all the changes and difficulties of a larger church is to get mission done. People join the larger church because of the vision, so the particular mission needs to be clear." (Tim Keller, Leadership and Church Size Dynamics).

The "what" of the foundations of the church
People speaking about "vision" or "mission" are bound to add adjectives like "clear", "compelling" and "unique". But what's essential for the church when it comes to its foundations?

First, foundations have to biblical. That is, in their concept as well as in their content. Not all of the terms mentioned above (vision, core values etc.) are biblical terms, just like there is no biblical term for 'officer'. But that does not mean that the concept cannot be found in the Scriptures. The point is that, after defining the concept of 'vision', we need to develop a biblical understanding of 'vision' before we can seek to create a truly biblical 'vision'.

Second, foundations have to be contextual. Because (large) churches in (global) cities are much more like other urban churches much of the foundational framework developed by one church can be meaningfully transferred to another church. But - and that's the point - every church will still need to come to 'own' the framework and flesh it out with specifics.

Third, foundations have to be logical. That is, there must be a relation between the various elements and between the various parts of each element. This is crucial, but rather difficult. How do you get from belief to commitment? How do you translate a theological vision into a practical one?

The "which" of the foundations of the church
As mentioned above, there's a wide range of terms used to described the foundations of the church. Thus, the question arises, which terms should be used? To create a framework that is biblical, contextual and logical, I would suggest to start with the question: 'What is the gospel about?'.

First, the gospel is a message that has a cognitive content that must be understood (Mat. 13:13-15) and an affective referent that we must attach ourselves to (Marc. 10:17-22). One of the things Jesus sought to do was to redefine people's "vision" of what the kingdom is all about and reorient people's life toward the kingdom's "core values" ("the things of God"). He did so by telling stories revealing the kingdom's "identity" (the kingdom is like..).

Second, the gospel is a plan that we are called to participate in. It sends people on a "mission" and tells them which "strategies" to us (cf. Mat. 28:19-20).

Third, the gospel is something that must be lived according to (Phil. 1:27). It presents Jesus and his church as sharing a certain behavioral "profile", which we may conceptualize as their "core competences".

Thus, the gospel has a theological logic, an strategic logic and an ethical logic. Which terms we use to describe these logics is less important than knowing why we use them and how define them.

Currently in pre-launch phase. Beginning to meet up with prospective members of the launch team in early 2010. The link above takes you to the 'mother church'.

Our "Core Values" are those commitments that guide our vision and strategy. These values define who we are and what we want to become. The core of North Shore Community Church are built around The Gospel. They shape us in our mission to Celebrate, Communicate and Cultivate the glory and love of God in the North Shore community.

The "gospel" is the good news that Jesus Christ has entered history to usher in the kingdom of God and redeem the whole world (Galatians 4:4-7). Through the person and work of Jesus Christ we live out the legal rights (justification) and personal delights (sanctification, adoption and mission) of our relationship with God. We believe that as our church Celebrates, Communicates and Cultivates the gospel we will be characterized by these biblical realities:

Celebrate

Prayer is fundamental, not supplemental. - Prayer is the breath of the soul. Our corporate and personal ministry must be born out of prayer, bathed in prayer, and moved forward by prayer (Luke 18:1). We experience immediacy, intensity and intimacy with our God.

Worship of God is our delight. - The glory and praise of God is our chief end. Let the peoples praise Thee, O God; let all the peoples praise Thee! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy! (Psalm 67: 3 - 4; John 4: 23-24; Revelation 15:3-4). Where passion for God is weak, zeal for ministry will be weak. Private worship, family worship, and corporate worship will be ?to the praise of his glory? and the glory of his grace? (Ephesians 1:6, 12).

God's Word is our guide - The Bible is our guide for faith and practice. We want to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly (Colossians 3: 16). We are confident that the benefits will be wisdom (2 Tim. 3: 16), guidance (Psalm 119:105), personal growth (1 Peter 2:2), faith (Romans 10:17,), spiritual power (Ephesians 6:17) and true knowledge of Jesus Christ (John 5:24, 39; Luke 24: 44 - 47).

Communicate

Outreach - We are Christ's witnesses to the world (Acts 1:8). We communicate the love of God for the world. We embrace the missional nature of the church. The gospel gives us deep respect and great hope for every non-Christian. It frees and empowers us not to live for ourselves but for our friends, neighbors and associates who do not believe. We are eager for the privilege of drawing many people to God. The gospel makes us a people and a place where non-Christians are expected, welcomed and respected. Their questions and objections are invited. Their struggles and doubts are taken seriously. They are loved, not that we might evangelize them, but we evangelize them because we love them.

Service -- The gospel calls each of us to serve. The Bible says: "Christ's love compels us" to live for others (2 Corinthians 5: 14 - 15). To claim we believe and yet not be engaged in the needs of our church and our world reveals that our faith is not in the living, powerful gospel of Christ (James. 2: 17).

We minister from weakness. - The gospel makes us into weak - strong people, people weak before God, deeply conscious of our sinfulness, but also strong in the continued, fresh discovery of the pardoning grace of God as revealed in the cross. Our weaknesses do not hinder God's power working through us in ministry and, in fact, God's power is actually manifest and perfected through them (1Corinthians 1: 27; 2 Corinthians 12: 10). Therefore, we will not hesitate to confess and even boast in our weaknesses in such a manner that will show the all surpassing power is from God and not from us. We also believe that through this confession a style of repentance and servant leadership will be conveyed to those we touch and seek to train in gospel living and ministry.

Passing the Gospel to the next generation-- We want the children of our church and young people in the North Shore community to grow in the knowledge, grace and service of Jesus Christ. Therefore we will train families to be the central context of discipleship, and will develop ministries that assist parents in the Christian nurture of their children. We will strive to make our ministries engaging and accessible to young people.

Cultivate

New Life comes from vital union with Christ - The gospel brings new life (Acts 5:20). When the gospel comes to us and faith unites us to Christ, we are "a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). We become stewards of this new life, using all our resources -- our time, our talents and our treasures, which God has entrusted to us. We will provide preaching and teaching that calls and instructs God's people to put off the old man, and by faith, put on the new.

Community -- We cultivate the life of Christ in each other. We want to be a loving, maturing, discipling church. Christianity is not merely a private religion. We want families and households learning to worship, study God's word, pray and serve together. We will give priority to attending the corporate gathering of the church for the purpose of worship, teaching, and participation in the sacraments. We will be relationally connected (adults, teenagers and children) to each other in loving relationships through small groups for the purpose of mutual encouragement, pastoral care and support.

Every member ministry - We are a body composed of interdependent members, each uniquely fitted by the holy spirit for the purpose of building up the body and furthering the ministry of the church (Rom. 12:6 - 8; Eph. 4:12). We want to help every person discover, develop and deploy these God-given gifts and abilities in community, outreach and service.

Giving - Christians give. We realize that we have been bought with the price of Christ's blood, and that everything we are and have belongs to him. We are what the Bible calls stewards of the spiritual and material resources God has entrusted to us. We will give generously. Will give proportionally, seeking to give as high a percentage of our income as possible, recognizing the tithe (10 percent) as a long-established benchmark which may well be exceeded as we prosper. We will give regularly, as resources flow in, offering the ?first fruits? back to God, honoring him before any others.

We will strengthen marriages and families. - In a day when marriages and families struggle to survive we want to cultivate families that live together with Jesus Christ. We will learn and live out the practical ways in which we may follow God's way and God's will for our families.

Last week I was able to hook up with an old friend of mine who happens to be a pastor as well. He's not a senior pastor, a youth pastor, a ministry pastor, a worship pastor nor a, family's pastor. He's an "Availability Pastor."  Have you heard of such thing? I hadn't 'till then.  When I first heard him state his new title I had two feelings. One of disturbance and another one of compassion. Let me try to flesh my reactions out.

Disturbance - It's quite disturbing to me at times that the Church of Jesus Christ has institutionalized to the point that ministers perform according to labels. If you're a worship pastor you sing - can't preach. If you're a senior pastor, you preach and so why would you want to visit with someone who's sick? It disturbed me that I've followed this flow and that the western American church has become so industrialized that ministry roles have been created according to an organizational system and a personal profile to the point of naming someone "Pastor of Availability." I've never found these labels while reading the New Testament. Plus, what's this guy supposed to do anyways?

Compassion - To me it sounded like they had created "the bench pastor position." Now, I know my friend and I know the church he has worked for for many years. He has been instrumental not only in my spiritual formation but in the life of many godly men and women to this day. My wife included. Why would you put someone like him on the bench? He's a strong player! Much stronger than some of the "starters" I know they have. That's how I felt. For a minute I felt sorry for the guy and sorry for his church.

But then it dawned on me that if there was a title to define who he was and what all pastors are supposed to be, that was it! - Pastor of Availability. While in the New Testament you can't find the titles we've created for pastors, you find that pastors were available to people and to whatever Jesus required of them at the time. If healing the sick was needed they were there, if preaching was required they were there, if counseling was required they were there. They ministered to children, to the youth, the elderly and to people in prison.They were not bound to a tittles except that one of availability. Which to me is one that communicates both humility and boldness. Humility because they existed to serve as Jesus served and boldness because no challenge was a challenge. I could never imagine Paul saying to Jesus: "-Lord, send John, he has the gift compassion. He's our outreach pastor!" Nope. They did whatever came their way. They faced demons, incredulity, diseases, conflicts and, crisis whenever and wherever needed.

So- what at first was source of disturbance and compassion latter became a source of fascination and reflection. I started to ask myself: why am I not a pastor of availability as well?  I know from my own experience that the title I have received has many times handicapped me to truly be what Jesus wants me to be. I recall myself saying "I won't see him. That's not my job!" or "I don't have time to sit with that couple, I have to sermonize." I know that there's always a risk of being distracted off of our focus/ responsibility but is it possible that sometimes Jesus wants us to be available to meet random needs of people? And is it possible that we have hidden behind titles and have used them as an excuse to minister spontaneously? I'll say yes. What about you?

Recently Redeemer was featured prominently in a USA Today article about multi-site churches. Outside of the fact that Redeemer doesn't 'do video,' the differences between our approach and others were not referred to. And in much discussion on line after the article, it was clear that all multi-site churches were being Lumped Together. Just for the sake of clarity, it might be helpful to know these facts about why and how Redeemer does the multi-site.

1. First, we did not go to multi-site because it was more economical or efficient for us. When we began meeting at multiple sites ten years ago, we were already holding a morning and an evening service at a single site that was quite large. It would have been much more cost-effective to multiply to four or five services in that single location. Moving to other sites meant greatly increased costs for rent, for children's ministries, for music and many other things.

2. Second, we did not go to multi-site to quickly reach more people. The auditorium where we began meeting 10 years ago seats over 2,000 people, and other spaces that size are not available. The spaces we have rented in other parts of the city are far smaller. If we had stayed in that space and multiplied services there, we would have reached greater numbers more swiftly.

So what were the reasons that we adopted the multi-site model?

1. First, we sent our services out into different locations so that people could worship closer to where they lived. People can become more deeply involved in the community and can more easily bring friends if they attend services in their neighborhood. This was an 'anti-mega-church' move, since huge churches create a large body of commuters who travel long distances to attend church. We wanted to resist this tendency and root people more in their locales.

2. Second, the multi-site model is a transition design for us. Redeemer has a timetable for turning each site into a congregation in its own neighborhood, with its own pastoral leadership. I was the main preacher at all sites, but two years ago we went from four to five services at three sites, which is too many for me to preach in a Sunday. Rather than beaming me in by video, we determined that other pastors on the staff would always preach at least that fifth service. When we get to six and seven services, about two years from now, each site will have its own Lead Pastor who will share the preaching with me.

We will then transition from a 'multi-site' to a 'collegiate' model. Though still under one unified board of elders, each church will have its own pastoral team, elder team, and set of lay leaders. Other collegiate models in our PCA denomination include Harbor Presbyterian in San Diego and Brooklyn Presbyterian here in New York City.

I was careful in my interaction with the USA Today journalists not to criticize other multi-site churches. I do not know what motives other churches have for using the multi-site model, but those are ours.

Christmas eve I found that the innocent growth in my leg was actually a tumor. New Years eve, I was told the "benign" tumor, had cancer cells.  When I told my family and friends they were shocked, sad, afraid, and concerned. I, however, was not.

No, I'm not some fanatical sadist. Strange, yes. Dark sense of humor, yes. "But to be perfectly honest," I explained to my husband as we were walking to church last Sunday, "I'd rather have cancer then plant another church."  He cautioned me to not use that expression around the women with whom I work who are currently in plants. I reassured him it would be no problem. "If they are planting, they already know how hard it is."

You see Cancer and Church planting share a lot of communalities. Both are foreign substances forced upon a culture that doesn't want them and where they don't belong. Both require a fight. Both come with tons of ambiguity. Both can leave you feeling sick to your stomach. Both require a complete change of life, as you currently know it. Both imply you will never be the same after this. Both take you for a roller coaster ride of emotions. "Both can kill you" my son calls from the couch. And neither one is something you choose. Or if you happen to willingly choose church planting or cancer for that matter, I know a psychiatrist I can highly recommend.

But there are also a ton of differences.

With cancer, just mention the word and everyone knows what you're talking about. You get a lot of support. People ask how they can help, when can they bring meals, what they can do. But with Church planting, you might as well be speaking Pashto plus you won't get much support. "Did you say you're in Church Planning?" Or if you live in a city like NYC, you might get a response like, "What the hell is that?" You quickly learn to come up with phrases people might remotely comprehend. "I'm in ministry."  "Oh, you mean state ministry?"  "Well, you could call it that," I've been known to comment.

How about, "I work with starting new churches" ?  Even in the south I would get responses like, "Why would anyone think there is a need for more churches. Haven't they caused enough problems already?"

Added to the confused responses I get from my non-Christian friends, try saying something among Christians. For, I'm not just in church planting. I'm a woman in church planting. I still get responses such as, "You mean your husband is in church planting."  "Well yes, he is but so am I."   "Well in our circles it's best to say he's the church planter. People might misunderstand you."

I soon learned they were going to misunderstand me anyway and a slight twist of phrases wasn't going to make that big of a difference.

One thing that makes church planting so difficult is those whom we expect to be in the trenches with us often have little comprehension of the tremendous battle taking place on a daily basis. Also, while my husband was "officially" the planter, that was part of the problem. We were both planting but rarely did others in the plant seem to understand that. And I won't deny some of that confusion was our fault. Sure we had different roles but without both of us completely committed and in this together, we didn't stand a chance of making it. We are fighting for the hearts and very lives of people. We were fighting unseen forces, bringing order out of chaos, building a spiritual community in enemy territory. The evil one does not want us to succeed. To be perfectly honest, sometimes I didn't either. It would have been much easier to just quit. But like cancer, this wasn't something we chose. It was chosen for us. Oh, don't get me wrong. When we were young and hopefully more naïve, we too thought it was our choice. But Church-planting is something to which you are called. It's not just a career you one day decide to chose.

And implicit in this calling is a call to battle and to suffer. Whether or not spouses have formal training in church planting, tons of people stream through our doors seeking counsel. We start new ministries. We cook. We teach bible studies. We lead worship. We wipe snotty noses. We often do sermon prep. We train leaders. We clean houses. We work other jobs to make ends meet. We impact what people think about the church. And hopefully somewhere in that mix, we love our spouse. But in the overwhelming confusion we receive little encouragement and less help. And we often forget we are cherished, chosen, called, and loved beyond our wildest imagining. For in Christ Jesus, we have already received the ultimate word spoken over us from our Heavenly Father. "In you, I am well pleased."

Tears came to my eyes when I was sitting in the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center last week waiting for another series of tests. I let them drip down my cheeks and splash on to my arms. But they weren't for cancer as much as they were for the many years in church planting when I needed the kind of care and attention I was now getting among strangers. They were for the many women who are in church planting right now who feel alone, unnoticed, scared, and with questions they don't know where to get answered.

What if we said to people with cancer what we say to women in church planting? Just in case you're wondering what I mean, I took the liberty of translating some comments I've received in the past about planting to see what they would sound like in the context of cancer.

"Oh, I thought you had breast cancer. I was only interested in helping if it was a more serious kind of cancer."
"You just aren't going to make it!"
"Cancer is consuming your life! You never spend time with me any more."
"What's so hard about cancer?"
"Cancer! Come on, isn't there enough of that going around?"
"So I know your spouse has cancer. But what about you? What do you do with your life?"

Surely, some theological minds are spinning with counter arguments they'd love to throw my way, appalled that I'd dare compare starting churches to cancer. And I'm sure they are right.

But you see I can get away with a lot right now because, well, I have cancer.

Note from web admin:  As of today, January 12, 2010, Shari is recovering at Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital after a successful surgery to remove the tumour in her leg.

Level: Intermediate. 23 Lessons with Questions, Leader's Notes and 8 Topical Teachings.

Available as a PDF download from Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

Christians reading Judges today must ask: how can we be sure to follow God rather than the idols of our society and neighbors? How can we renew ourselves when we fail or fall?

Level: Intermediate. 5 Lessons with Questions and Leader's Notes.

Available as a PDF download from Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

Some time ago, after enjoying a scrumptious dinner with the family at the MickeyDs in Fort Lee, NJ, something kinda funny happened.  As I pulled out of the parking lot on Lemoine Ave (9W), a pedestrian was passing by on the sidewalk but stopped at the driveway to let me pass.  Well, I'm all about pedestrian (and bicyclists for that matter) right of way, so with a smile on my grill I wave-gestured the guy to make his way across the driveway.

Now, what happened next as he passed by in front of my minivan was what kinda took me aback for a moment.  The guy, a younger (twenties/thirties perhaps?), very white male, looked over in our direction, smiled, and then he bowed to me - at least it was his slightly unusual and awkward attempt at a bow.  At this, I looked over to Diane and asked her a bit incredulously, "Did that dude just bow to me?"

Immediate thoughts:  What in the world was that?  How un-politically correct was that move?!  Immediate feeling:  indignation.

Granted, according to city-data.com, of the 36,275 Fort Lee denizens 38% are of East Asian (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino) descent.  Although had he known anything about me, the bow would've been the last thing he?d have done because the fact of the matter is I grew up "whiter-than-white," as the All-American kid who played wall/box stickball at Tamblyn Field and two-hand-touch football on Addison Ave. and other streets of Rutherford, NJ - a mostly WASPy middle-middle-class town in Bergen County NJ where I was raised.  I was what some would refer to as a twinkie, or banana - white as can be on the inside, but yellow on the outside.  And back in my younger days, if anyone made any issue of my oriental heritage (sorry to all you PC folks out there as I am fully aware "oriental" has taken on offensively racist overtones but it simply is the Latin word for "Eastern"), it was an opportunity for immediate fisticuffs.  I was a diminutive kid but extremely irascible.

With that being said, at this point I will divert your and my attention to the Gospel.  Why?  Because we are sinners in the basest of ways due to our depraved nature.  I quote R.C. Sproul in his tremendous classic, The Holiness of God:  "We are not sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners."  The good Word makes it crystal clear that we have inherited the sin of Adam and that it is a corruption that emanates from the core of our being.  The Bible declares that all our sin is an offense against God and that this sin is both in the flesh and the nature.  But thanks be to God, we have been ransomed with the precious blood of Christ, the perfect Lamb of God who was slain <1 Peter 1:18-19>, as Jesus "Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By His wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls" <1 Peter 2:24-25>.

Despite my initial "knee-jerk," but nonetheless sinful response in mind & heart, by God's grace I was able to salvage something out of the experience.  Reflection on my reaction to "the bowing white dude" brought J. Hudson Taylor to mind as well as the many missionaries who are persecuted as they seek to incarnationally contextualize, and immediately I was reminded of how vital it will be for our mission, our church plant, Maranatha Grace Fort Lee, to be comprised of folks who have both an understanding of what it means to be missional and a desire to grow in missional practice & lifestyle.  We must be a church that obeys both the Great Commandment  and the Great Commission .  In fact, a proper understanding of and application of obeying the Great Commandment will naturally lead God's people to a posture, a readiness, a willingness to obey the Great Commission which is explicit in all the Gospel accounts.

So what is missional?  Well, here are a couple definitions from a missiologist and a church planting pastor:

Ed Stetzer > "Being Missional means actually doing mission right where you are. Missional means adopting the posture of a missionary, learning and adapting to the culture around you while remaining biblically sound" (Ed Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches, 19).

Mark Driscoll > "It is imperative that Christians be like Jesus, by living freely within the culture as missionaries who are as faithful to the Father and his gospel as Jesus was in his own time and place" (Mark Driscoll, The Radical Reformission, 40).

The word "missional" is the adjective form of the word "mission," and it simply means "of or pertaining to a mission."  Now in contemporary missiological-speak/jargon, the word has amassed and accumulated baggage due to the Emerging Church Movement that really has no orthodox doctrinal backbone.  But we will utilize the word in the rightful way to describe our mission to be missionaries who contextualize without compromise.  At the foundation is a Christ/Cross-centered Gospel that informs & drives our missiology/missionality.  This involves being Gospel-centered & driven in our church community as we become sanctified, Christlike, thru discipleship - "body-building" thru teaching and engaging in all the "one anothers" (gathering & growing)  while never dare neglecting our call to be a city on a hill "shrewdly, compassionately preaching the Good News to our community after listening to our community, learning about our community" - the language, the interests, the music & arts, the demographics, the pervasive idols, and then sacrificially investing our time/talents/treasures into our community, and thereby loving our community.

In essence, we are following the examples of Paul & Peter and the rest of the rag-tag band of disciples.  Ultimately, we are simply following our Savior's lead as He gave us the ultimate example of being missional when He came from heaven to be a missionary here on earth - talk about contextualization!  And perhaps that?s what ?the bowing white dude" was doing?  Just trying to be friendly and sensitive to me and what he believed was my cultural context and heritage...who knows?  But thank You, Lord for the much needed reminder.

Recientemente, varias personas me han preguntado: "¿cómo afrontas la crítica?" En cada uno de los casos, quienes me han hecho la pregunta han sufrido lo que ellos han considerado ataques injustos contra su persona. En esta era de internet, cualquiera puede tener sus puntos de vista censurados de forma injusta por gente que ni tan siquiera conoce. Por lo tanto, ¿qué haces cuando eso ocurre? He aquí la esencia del consejo que suelo dar cuando me preguntan al respecto. Por muchos años he encontrado de gran ayuda una carta de John Newton, normalmente, titulada "Sobre la Controversia."

El mayor peligro [que corres] al recibir crítica no es para tu reputación, sino para tu corazón. Sientes la injusticia [de la crítica] y sientes lástima por ti mismo, y ello te tienta a no sólo despreciar a la persona crítica, sino a todo el sector o grupo al que pertenecen. "Esa gente..." susurras por lo bajo. Todo esto con el tiempo puede hacer de ti una persona más orgullosa. Newton escribe: "Cualquier cosa que nos haga pensar de nosotros mismos que somos, comparativamente, más sabios o más buenos, de manera que tratemos con desprecio a quienes no comulguen con nuestras doctrinas, o sigan a nuestro partido, es una prueba y fruto de un espíritu de justicia propia." Newton argumenta que cuando quiera que el desprecio o el [sentimiento de] superioridad acompañan a nuestros pensamientos, es una [clara] señal de que las "doctrinas de la gracia" están actuando en nuestras vidas "como simples conceptos y especulaciones" sin "ninguna influencia saludable sobre nuestra conducta."

Así pues, ¿cómo puedes evitar esta tentación? Primero, tienes que mirar a ver si hay la más mínima señal de verdad incluso en el más exagerado e injusto de los ataques. Normalmente, esa mota de verdad está ahí cuando la crítica viene de amigos, y a menudo también está ahí cuando la censura viene de gente que realmente te conoce. De manera que aún cuando la censura esté parcial o incluso mayormente desenfocada, aún así mira por aquello que efectivamente hayas podido haber hecho mal. Quizá simplemente actuaste o hablaste de forma imprudente. Tal vez la crítica es parcialmente correcta por motivos totalmente equivocados. De todos modos, identifica tus faltas , arrepiéntete de corazón ante Dios por lo que seas capaz [de identificar], y deja que ello produzca una disposición humilde en ti. Entonces será posible aprender de la crítica y tener una actitud de gracia hacia la persona que te critica aunque puedas [continuar estando] en desacuerdo con lo que él o ella haya dicho.

Si la crítica viene de alguien que no te conoce de nada (y éste es a menudo el caso en internet) es posible que la crítica no tenga ninguna base y esté completamente equivocada. A menudo soy ridiculizado no sólo por puntos de vista que defiendo, sino también incluso más a menudo por puntos de vista (y causas) que de ninguna manera asumo o defiendo. Cuando esto sucede, es incluso más fácil dejarse llevar por un sentimiento de superioridad y reírte de lo equivocados que están tus críticos. "Patético..." tal vez te sientas tentado a decir. No lo hagas. Aún cuando no haya ni la más pequeña brizna de verdad en lo que quienes te critican dicen, no debes burlarte de ellos [ni siquiera] en tus pensamientos. Primero, recuérdate a ti mismo ejemplos de tus propios errores, imprudencias e inexperiencia en el pasado, situaciones en las que realmente metiste la pata. Segundo, ora por quien te critica, que él o ella maduren en gracia. Newton habla de esto mismo de la siguiente manera:

"Si consideras a tu oponente como creyente, aunque seriamente equivocado sobre la materia de debate entre vosotros, las palabras de David a Joab sobre Absalón son aplicables: 'Por amor a mi tratad bien al joven Absalón.' El Señor le ama [a tu oponente] y es paciente con él; por lo tanto, no debes despreciarle o tratarle con dureza. El Señor te trata con la misma paciencia a ti y espera que muestres ternura con otros como muestra de que [realmente has entendido] lo mucho que tú mismo necesitas ser perdonado. En poco tiempo os encontraréis en el cielo; entonces [tu oponente] te será mucho más preciado que el más intimo amigo que ahora puedas tener en la tierra. Anticipa ese tiempo en tus pensamientos; y aunque encuentres necesario oponerte a sus errores, mírale personalmente como un alma hermanada con quien serás feliz en Cristo por siempre."

Así que cualquier cosa que hagas, haz todo lo que puedas para evitar el engreimiento y sentirte superior a quien te critica. Incluso si te dices a ti mismo que no te afecta y que no vas a responder a la critica, de todos modos puedes llevar a cabo toda una defensa y refutación en tu sala del tribunal mental, en la cual demuestras con éxito lo mezquinos y maliciosos que son tus oponentes. Pero eso es una trampa espiritual. El comentario de Newton a este respecto es convincente:

"Un hombre puede tener el corazón de un fariseo mientras su cabeza está repleta de nociones [muy] correctas sobre la persona y sobre las riquezas de la Gracia. Sí, yo añadiría, que ni los mejores de entre los hombres están completamente libres de esta levadura; y por lo tanto están demasiado dispuestos para actuar de manera que ridiculice al adversario y, en consecuencia halagarse de tener un juicio superior. Las controversias son tratadas, en la mayoría de casos, de manera que uno da rienda suelta, en lugar de reprimir, su mal carácter; por lo tanto, hablando en términos generales, producen más bien poca cosa buena. [Las controversias] provocan a quienes deberían convencer y llenan de soberbia a aquellos a quienes deberían edificar. Espero que [en medio de la controversia] saborees un espíritu de verdadera humildad, y que seas un instrumento que promueva [esta humildad] en otros."

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* Puedes leer el original (en inglés) aquí

Why is moving such a hassle? Well we are about to move in the next few weeks to Cliftonville Road to the house of the Living Room. Yet moving it is like flipping a coin in the air, there are two sides to every coin, in my case there is a side that is excited about the move and the other side is not very excited because of all the things that have to be packed, stored and yes moved.

But, I am relieved that I am not on my own in this, since I know that there is a story written in the Bible, which is the Word of God, that tells the story of a people that is always on the move. These people were on a journey to the promise land that God had promised. They moved from one place to an another till finally they settled.

They had to pack all of their possessions and move. So like them, moving for us means moving toys, clothes, furniture, electrical things and many of those things and of course many books!! Put all that into boxes and ... Well you can imagine.

Yet there is a positive side to this, you get the chance to delete, destroy, and dispose of all the rubbish and clutter accumulated over the years.

Moving means basically to change from one place to another, yet we can also experience an emotional move, we can change emotionally from one minute to the next and particularly during a big move we tend to change emotionally, that is my tendency, my stress level goes up and I tend to worry about the move and all that it involves.

It seems to me that we were created for change and never created for purposeless settling.

Settling is to be rooted somewhere, it is a place of arrival and it seems always in the present tense. Has anyone asked you this: Are you settling in okay? It could be about work, it could be about relationships, it could be in our case moving house. I am always under the impression that when asked that question I should answer: yes!! It is great!! But may be in my case it is not that great to move! I will leave behind all that it is familiar to me and start again. Sometime changes are difficult to handle.

The other side of this reality is more positive and full of hope. Since everything is new you get the chance to start again.

I may not be very familiar with the house, neighbors, the local shops, the post office, schools, well you can add to the list... and I can be feeling lost with all the changes that are happening around me or be excited and taking everything as an opportunity to learn.

Settling without a purpose is like dying while you are still living. We have not moved yet, but our move is guided by a calling, a vision and a mission.

We are moving to the North of the city of Belfast believing that the God we serve has called us there. Our vision is a vision to connect people to God through Jesus, God's Son. He is the hope of any change and our hope is that we are changing every day into the likeness of God's Son. That is our hope, not in the change itself but in God's Son. Now I don't believe that we can change by our own initiatives and best wishes, just think about Christmas and New Year's resolutions and wish lists, have they worked? In my case they have not.

That is why we are moving to plant this church - The Living Room - it is a place where you are welcome to be you and allow you the space to be changed by God.

Dario Leal

In his days, Jonathan Edwards was one of the theological instructors most sought after by Presbyterian students and missionaries preparing for the work of ministry. Today, he's still relevant. His significance for churches planting stems mainly from (1) his preaching during the Great Awakening, (2) his emphasis on prayer in his missionary writings, and (3) his understanding of the purpose of history. Let's briefly consider each of these.

Preaching  

As part of his attempt to re-arouse his congregation in Northampton, Edwards preached thirty sermons which constitute the History of Redemption. Although Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is the most famous of these sermons, only a few of his sermons are of the threatening, imprecatory sort. A much larger percentage is typed as evangelistic, theological, spiritual (i.e. dealing with the Christian experience) and ethical (i.e. dealing with personal and social ethics). Most of his sermons were not threatening, but had a positive theme: the beauty of holiness, the joys of heaven, the rest of the believer in Christ, and the practical virtues of Christian living.

 To understand the place of sin and grace in Edward's preaching, we must keep in view his testimony of his own spiritual life. Edwards was able to portrayed the depths of human sin against the highest reaches of divine beauty and holiness, because his own sins were that of every man and his own sense of the beauty and holiness of God could be that of every man who sought it earnestly.

 Once, as I rode into the woods for my health, in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God, as Mediator between God and man, and his wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek an gentle condescension. This?continued, as near as I can judge, about an hour; which kept me, the greater part of the time, in a flood of tears, and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to lie in the dust, and to be full of Christ alone; to love him with a holy and pure love; to trust in him to live upon him; to serve and follow him; to be perfectly sanctified and made pure, with a divine and heavenly purity. I have several other times, had views very much of the same nature, and which have had the same effects.

 By this kind of vivid personal experience of grace Edwards communicated to his hearers a sense of the awfulness of sin and judgement and a fervent desire for forgiving grace.

 Many did indeed found forgiveness through Edward's preaching, as attested by those who came for counsel to his study each Monday as well as by the fact that one Sunday a hundred new members were received.

 Prayer

Edwards' writings wielded a still greater influence than his preaching. During his early ministry, he felt a growing concern for the advance of Christ's kingdom and the conversion of men, and through extensive correspondence he supported a number of Scotsmen in their institution of regular prayer meetings for the coming of Christ.

In 1748, Edwards published A Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God?s People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth, a work that became, on both sides of the Atlantic, one of the most potent means of missionary education and support. Based upon Zechariah 8:20-22, the appeal is for fervent, concerted and constant kingdom-centered prayer: prayer that Christ will "advance his spiritual kingdom in the world", prayer "for the promised glorious and universal outpouring of the Spirit of God." 

In his Thoughts Concerning Revival (1742) Edwards again proposed that ministers should actively encourage God's people "to abound in united fasting and prayer."

He proposed "to keep a day of fasting and prayer" with all God's people in America, who are well-affected to "the work of the promotion of religious revival; wherein we should unite on the same day, in humbling ourselves before God... that he would continue and still carry on this work, and more abundantly and extensively pour out his Spirit."

While some may think that all fasting and praying on the same day is "a circumstance of no great consequence", Edwards could not be of that mind. "Such a circumstance makes the unison and agreement of God's people in his worship the more visible, and puts the greater honour upon God, and would have a great tendency to assist and enliven the devotion of Christians. Christ delights greatly in the union of his people, as appears by his prayer in the 17th of John".

Many were stimulated by Edward's writings to begin prayer meetings and monthly Concerts of Prayer for mission.

Purpose

A key missionary text is Edward?s History of the Work of Redemption (1774), "a body of divinity in an entirely new method, being thrown into the form of a history". The thesis of History of Redemption is the unity and purpose of history. Redemption began before the fall in the Trinitarian "covenant of redemption" and will end with "a new heaven and a new earth." The revival of seventeenth-century America is seen as part of this history of God?s saving work.

God's plan is progressively realized in three stages. In the first period of history, from he fall to the incarnation, the keynote is the preparation for Christ's coming. Much went wrong in this period, but God wonderfully worked things so that whatever happened was ordered for good to his general design, and made into a means of promoting it. The very decline itself, was one thing that God employed as a further preparation for Christ's coming.   

The keynote to the second great period, from the incarnation to the resurrection, is "procuring and purchasing redemption." Christ's full act of humiliation from the cradle of the womb to that of the grave paid the whole account. "Then was finished that great work, the purchase of our redemption, for which such great preparation had been made from the beginning of the world."  

In the last period of world history, from the resurrection to the end of the work, the keynote is accomplishment. This period is that of "the kingdom of God", "the latter day's". Edwards comforts the church living in these days with "the constancy and perpetuity of God's mercy and faithfulness towards her, which shall be manifest in continuing to work salvation for her "and carrying her safely through all the changes of the world, and finally crowning here with victoryand deliverance." 

Lessons learned

The Reformed theologian Hans Burger recently designed a framework for understanding "being in Christ", consisting of four moments: representation, substitution, union and participation. Within this framework, Edward's contribution may be summarized as follows:  

Representation. God, not willing that man should remain in misery, sent his Son to take our nature. Heaven came to earth in Christ. His life and death became the foundation of a new earth. The church on earth is inseparable from that in heaven and the embodiment of God's redemptive purpose in and beyond time. Corruptions threatens the kingdom of God and its growth in the world, but the resurrection of Christ holds the promise that grace will revive, that death and decline itself is the one thing that God employs to bring life and multiplication. This is the church (re)planter's essential hope in doing the work of mission.   

Substitution. Edward's theological pattern was typical in demonstrating that man's moral judgements and his seeking of God cannot earn God's favour. Only God?s saving grace can rescue a sinner from judgement. Christ came to be our Mediator, to die for our sins on the cross, and thus to redeem us from the curse of sin and the power of the devil. Pardon in Christ is full and free. Justification in Christ is complete. The giving of his life was the deepest and the highest of satisfaction for the human sin. In the death of Christ, our redemption was purchased and God's work of redemption was in principle finished. This is the church planter's essential message to the world.   

Union. The moment of substitution is necessary but insufficient for a concept of being in Christ. Doctrinal knowledge of sin and grace is necessary but insufficient. Even the devil knows doctrine. What is needed is the Holy Spirit illuminating souls, turning them to Christ. A subjective sense of the beauty and holiness of God gives man a new discernment of scriptural truth, brings him unto vital union with Christ, and moulds his affections into exquisite harmony with the divine. This is the church planter's essential ministry within the church. 

Participation. God's work converts and justifies particular souls but this effect upon individual subjects is taken up into the corporate and the universal as there is participation in God's work: Christians enter actively into the work of advancing the kingdom of Christ, rich men generously contribute temporal goods, God's people abound in united fasting and prayer, and Christians attend to the duty of true love for their neighbour. The eternal kingdom has already begun, and one day it will be made complete. Then love begun on earth will be fulfilled in heaven. Fellowship with believers on earth becomes communion with the saints of all history. Great acts and small acts will all be taken up in the great design of redemption. This is the church planter's essential contribution to the city, equipping the saints for their work of ministry.   

Hay "iglesias" por internet en EEUU (léase en El Mercurio), no sólo compartiendo los sermones, sino también ofreciendo los sacramentos vía online. La verdad es que ya no pueden llamarse iglesias. De no haber discipulado, Santa Cena en comunión, una comunidad en la que recibir miembros bautizados, entonces no es iglesia, y miles de personas están siendo engañadas.

No critico el uso de la tecnología, lo fomento; con twitter (@iprovidencia), facebook (Iglesia Providencia), pero eso no debe reemplazar el valor y definición Bíblica de la iglesia; un grupo de personas, miembros de una comunidad, que se reúnen frecuentemente para adorar a Dios, en la predicación de Su Palabra y la celebración y buena administración de las ordenanzas (Santa Cena y Bautismo).

Los animamos a todos a "Seguir animándonos a las buenas obras" y a "no dejar de Congregarse" (Hebreos 10:24-5). Todo verdadero discípulo es parte de una comunidad real (no virtual) en la que debe participar, sirviendo a otros con sus dones, y reuniéndose para celebrar las maravillas de Dios.Con mucho cariño...

Felipe Chamy.

PD. Gracias Pame Figueroa por el link.

Are you a Spanish speaking church planter? Do you speak Spanish or do you know someone who does? Are you looking for Spanish resources that resonate with Redeemer's vision and mission to the city? Here you have all of Tim Keller's posts directly translated from this site as late as the day after they're published.

Falsos dioses

Xavier Memba

As I was reflecting on the Prodigal God and discussions about younger and elder brothers, I got to thinking about elder brothers and how they impact church planting.

At first, I thought about how elder brothers lack the desire to go after younger brothers and how often they complain about those who do. As Keller has said, "our churches are full of elder brothers". And, I am afraid that I thought about them pretty much as lost causes.

But then it struck me that one of the greatest church planters ever, was also one of the worst cases of "elder brother(ness)", Saul of Tarsus. I often wonder if any of the early church prayers included the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. I think most prayer that concerned him would have been of a different kind. And yet, God reached out the grab hold of Saul and turn him into the apostle Paul. God used all of that theological training and passion for good.

So, as I think of the many elder brothers who warm pews or chairs in North America, I pray that many of them will "see the light" and become wonderful servants in reaching other elder and younger brothers. It seems to me that this is a "mission field" that should not be ignored.

I'm a sports fan and for a while I've been wanting to write a short piece on it. Specially about where sports interacts and intersects with spirituality.

I've often found myself comparing what happens in my soul when I play a soccer match, read the sports section of an online paper and, watch one of my country-men fight an MMA match with what I experience in worship, preaching a sermon or reading my Bible.

There are some similarities. If there wasn't Paul wouldn't have compared his ministry focus with a race or a boxing match.

I don't know about you but, every time I go to a stadium or an arena of any sort it's very clear to me that there's a spiritual experience taking place. Worship is evident in the chants, emotional reactions, community expressions and, the feasting. I could even throw the offering element in there if you want me to.

It's funny how people will criticize organized religion because of all of the above and yet still pay their yearly tithe to their teams of choice, shout the name of their deities till they bust all their vocal cords, hug and drink with strangers and, practice apologetics to prove the existence of their team/ group/ player's superiority. In many ways there's no difference between a hard-core sports fan and a pentecostal christian.

We all have a longing to belong, an urge to triumph and a need to escape the boredom of reality. Sports therefore, become a great outlet for these needs. From this standpoint entertainment is extremely important for life in society. The Romans understood it well as their famous slogan of "bread and circus" revealed.

As with every good thing given by the Father of Light, sports were given to us so that we would enjoy and stimulate these soul cravings. Like sex and food, sports point us to a greater reality. A reality where we can solve our crisis of belonging, quench our thirst for everlasting victory and find true meaning in the midst of the repetitiveness of reality.

Though Sibbs and Baxter had a good deal to say about the redemption of the world, they were never involved in an actual church planting effort. John Eliot, on the other hand, was the founding pastor of a church in Roxbury, from where he further worked to plant an Indian church.

It took Eliot almost 25 years to establish a self-sustaining Indian church. The process was accomplished in four stages and has been well-documented in a number of missionary tracts.

1643: Early fruits and help sought. The first missionary tract, New England's First Fruits (1643), indicates that already during the first decade of the plantation in Massachusetts, concern for the Indians was present and that individuals were concerted, and at least one and perhaps more were admitted into membership of the church. These initial blessings were considered as an earnest of the greater harvest to come. For this gathering, help from England was sought to support full-time church planters among the Indians.

1646: Preaching to groups and dealing with individuals who responded and sought further counsel. The second tract, The Day-Breaking, If Not the Sun-Rising of the Gospel with the Indians in New-England (1647), gives increasing hopes for advance in the Indian work. Four meetings between the English and a group of Indians are described.

There were five parts to these religious exercises: (1) After an opening prayer, (2) Eliot catechized the children. Then, (3) Eliot preached and taught a sermon and applied it unto the condition of the Indians present. Following the sermon, (4) the Indians asked questions. The meeting ended with a prayer of fifteen minutes. Moved by the gospel, some Indians came to Eliot for (5) further personal council and admonition, to which the Indians submit themselves reverently. (6) After encouraging the Indians in their purpose, the English went home.

Prayer. Eliot was known for his love of prayer. At visits with friends, meetings with ministers, and gatherings in the church, one could expect an encouragement to prayer. "Come let us pray..." was often heard by him.

Preaching and teaching. Eliot emphasizes the preaching of the simple truths of the gospel and the teaching of the history and doctrine of the scripture both in winning converts and in their growth in grace. His manner of preaching and teaching was simple and plain so that even children and unbelievers could understand.

Questions. During the Q&A, the Indians asked many questions, some philosophical, others ethical or practical. "How may we come to know Jesus Christ?", "What does 'humiliation' mean?", "Why do the English call them 'Indians'?" "What is the Spirit?", "Should we believe dreams?", "Could they have a place for a town and learn to spin?" "How may one know wicked men, who are good and who are bad?", "Why did not God give all men good hearts that they might be good?", "How should we know when our faith is good faith, and our prayers good prayers?" "Why did not God kill the devil that made all men so bad, God having all the power?" "Why did the English wait twenty-seven years to teach the Indians about God?", "Since I am still so sinful and perhaps may fall back into sin, is it wrong to wish that I might now die?" "What happens to our children when they die?" "What must we do when we are sick, now we go no longer to the powwow?" "Should a man whose wife commits adultery and runs away receive her again when she repents?", "Why does God, who loves the repentant, still afflict them?", "What do English men think of Mr. Eliot because he associated with wicked Indians to teach them?" (prompted by a sermon on Eph. 5:1, "Have no fellowship with unfruitful workers of darkness")

Answering some of these more philosophical questions demands a learned gospel ministry; answering practical questions requires a decision whether or not to grand the request and how to provide for it. Thus, an important "obstacle to the gospel work among the Indians" was the lack of money to hire translators, preachers, teachers and ministry managers, which could not come from the poor Indians themselves.

The third tract, The Clear Sun-shine of the Gospel Breaking Forth upon the Indians in New England (1648), therefore, consisted of a straight-forward request to all English churches to give prayers and assistance. "Let those who have tasted God's mercy, be merciful." The sixth missionary tract, Strength out of Weakness (1652), was a further request for sacrificial giving on the part of the English.

Counseling. Many of the Indian converts wrestled with faith and doubt, with sin and assurance of pardon. To Eliot, these "recurring attacks of doubt and temptation" could only mean one thing, " a greater need for the means by which God strengthens those weak in faith": the means of grace.

1651: Encouraging the formation of a community of believers and community development. Although word of the Christian faith spread and aroused, the Gospel, as the Puritans understood it, was a way of life, not simply a few doctrines to be accepted. Many Indians accepted the doctrines as "gospel truth." (Who were they to deny that the English, who were so obviously superior in nearly everything, were not also superior in the knowledge of God?) But the "gospel way of life" they did not easily accept. What was necessary was the creation of a community with a patterned way of life which would both be Christian in its structure and provide opportunity for unbroken training in the Christian doctrine of life.

Eliot was not only concerned with the spiritual welfare of the Indian. He also responded with mercy to individuals in need, and worked for justice.

Mercy. An old Indian, who regularly brought his wife and children to the meetings, came naked to Eliot in the cold. Eliot gave him some cloths. At this the Indian was overcome with emotion and responded, God I see is merciful.

Justice. Eliot regularly brought cases to court to prevent defraud of Indian land, sought to secure lands for Indian use, pleaded clemency for convicted Indian prisoners, and fought the selling of Indians into slavery.

Community Development. Because of the unsettled way of life that the Indians led, Eliot believed that he should first bring the Indians to some form of a more settled way of life, with their own civil government and school system, before he could gather them into a formal, organized Indian church, with its own officers and teachers. Therefore, he worked with English volunteers to build bridges, erect houses, and establish schools for the Indian adults and children.

1660: Developing leaders and organizing local churches. Eliot agreed with Baxter that Christians should remain in their own parochial churches and be salt to others. This he has insisted upon for his Indian converts rather than they should leave the Indian villages and join the spiritually stronger English churches. "No, rather let them keep Sabbath: worship together, and the strong help the weak."

This was not needless to say, because (1) the first Indian church members were not those organized in an Indian church but those worshipping in an English church, and (2) in reforming their lives, some Indians left all of the Indian customs, rejecting their names and abhorring to dwell with the Indians any longer.

Leadership Development. Because the Indians were "not furnished with any to be an able pastor and elder over them, by whom they might be directed and guided in all the affairs of the church, and administration of the household of God", Eliot put much work in developing native leaders: training Indians men and youths that had begun to speak to one or the other of the things they had heard to become elders and evangelists.

Eliot feared an underestimation of the significance of the office of ruling elders. Eliot not only assigned traditional duties to the presbytery (receiving new members, calling new officers, disciplining offenders) but also duties that concerned the execution of the mission task of the church. The presbytery was (1) to fast and pray for fit laborers for the service of Christ, (2) to send forth ministers to carry the gospel, and preach Jesus Christ unto the unconverted, and (3) work with these ministers to gather and plant churches among them.

For example, the Indian church was established during a public day of confessions, before the Lord and a council of elders and other 'messengers' from the nearest churches. After the public meeting the messengers met together and unanimously declared the confessions satisfactory and the Indians fit matter for a church-estate. Many adults and children were baptized, the Lord's Supper was celebrated with many Englishmen also participating. Two teaching elders were ordained to serve as pastors. Ruling elders and deacons were chosen, and encouragement was given for the planting of two new churches.

Lessons

As New England has become one of the least churched parts of the United States (see the item Church Planters target New England on this web site), let's notice a few important lessons.

First, new churches don't come falling from heaven. They must be planted and require help from established churches. First fruits require workers to bring in all the harvest. I think of the help that New York pioneers sought from the Mission to North America (before Redeemer could be planted) or the first letter to the RCPC from the Reformed churches in Amsterdam (before Via Nova could be planted). The missionary task of the local church concerns more than just an occasional or annual contribution. Church planting require sacrificial giving on the part of the established churches. And more than money, it requires prayer and "presence ministry", from the presbytery as much as from regular members or a special committee.

Second, those who seek to evangelize their city (planters or pastors) do well to understand the inextricable connections between evangelism, counseling, community formation and social work. Preaching prompts existential questions and practical requests. Time is needed to express or share these concerns and capacity is needed to respond to them properly. Without it, preaching and teaching will be in vain.

Third, becoming a Christian (community) means leaving an old way of life and developing a new (corporate) way of life. This process must be planned for and guided. In recent years, missiologists have developed excellent manuals for doing this. Both planters and pastors do well to make use of them.

Richard Baxter, though perhaps best know as author of the Reformed Pastor, was not just a caring, loving Christian pastor but also an evangelist whose 'Call to the Unconverted' was heard far beyond the bounds of his life. What can we learn from him?

Baxter on Evangelism

Begin with the essential truth that God is good. According to Baxter, we must begin our communication of the gospel with that which is clear and fundamental truth, namely that God is good. We must not permit later matters (such as judgment) to qualify this first principle.

I have found this very helpful in answering questions from people struggling with the 'negative' side of the Christian faith, as well as in meditating on passages in which God or Jesus seems to "offend our Western sensibilities". Some difficulties will always remain, but for many people it can be a liberating thing to start theologizing from the principle that God is good.

Teach all that is of flat necessity to salvation and as much of the rest as possible. According to Baxter, we must distinguish between the essential necessary truths and the smaller controversial truths, and keep the later in the background. "God has made the points that are of necessity to salvation to be few and plain," yet "so few of the multitudes of Christians have a clear idea of the real grounds of faith."

I have often sat with people who had mostly grown up in the church but did not know what the word "gospel" meant and could not summarize the message of the church in a few sentences (while they could comment in length on the reason why one particular (way of being) church was better than another!). A friend recently pointed out to me that an important question left unaddressed by many Christians is: what is the good news of the gospel for me, personally?

The first duty of ministers is to preach to the unconverted in such a way as to accomplish their conversion. According to Baxter, it is simply "the work of faithful ministers, to have men's soul saved." True pastors thirst after the conversion of men to Christ and present the words and works of God in such a way as to accomplish this. The Commission to bring people out of the world into the church is "the first great business of the gospel and ministry in the world." It is necessary because the far greatest part of the world is without the gospel today, and because even where the gospel has long continued, for most part there are many still that are unconverted.

Two things may be noted. First, in the church's use of the metaphor of the pastor, the focus is often on the pastor as the man who spends time with the sick and elderly. As important as this role is, it must not lead to a neglect of the role of the pastor as the one who spends time with the lost. Second, the key indicator of successful preaching is not the number of seats filled but the number of people changed.

The believer's plain and urgent duty through the church is to do all he can for the conversion of others. In several lengthy passages Baxter sets out the believer's duties for the conversion of others. Three "duties of the tongue" are (1) to pray for conversion, (2) to communicate the love of God, and (3) to repeat the truths taught by faithful pastors. Three "duties of the hand" are (1) to procure faithful ministers where they are lacking, (2) to bring others to pastors who teach sound doctrine, and (3) to bring others into the fellowship of believers (e.g. placed in good families, married to a believing wife, steered away from bad into good company). Every Christian bears these duties and ought to exercise them: there is a "common obligation on all men to do their best in their places to propagate the gospel and church, and to save men's soul."

Several things may be noted about Baxter's instruction here. First, while every believer is made instrumental to the conversion of others, not every believer is called to be an evangelist. The first duty of the tongue is not to evangelize, but to pray for the conversion of others. The third duty is not to teach by yourself, but to repeat or explain the teaching of pastors. Second, all the duties of the hand are focused, not on private communication, but in bringing men to profitable relations. Every Christian should work to draw the unconverted and weak in faith to large and small group meetings of Christians where (1) the gospel can be lived out in interaction between (many) people of and (2) explained to them by those who are gifted to do so. This instruction takes the pressure of ordinary Christian who want to be obedient to the duty to be instrumental to the conversion of others but do are not particularly gifted to communicated the gospel verbally.

Baxter on Christian & Community Formation

There are three parts to conversion: mind, will, and behavior must be changed. The first is the change of the mind. When the Spirit illuminates our understanding, ignorance is put away. The Spirit opens the eyes to faith, causing the mind to know the ugliness of sin and the loveliness of God. The second is the change of the will. The will receives a new inclination. It chooses right ends, commits to everything the Lord has commanded and changes affections from material to spiritual objects. The third is the change of behavior. A life of habitual works, witness and compassion for those in need.

I've found this teaching especially helpful with regard to the vision of the church. A theological and ministry vision is not only a particularly renewed understanding of God, self and world (expressed in the church's core values), but also consists of a renewed commitment to new "priority areas" (expressed in the church's mission fronts) and a renewed practice (expressed in the church's core competences).

Unchanged people are a great hindrance in evangelism. Hypocrisy and evil conduct of Christians is the great stumbling block for the conversion of heathens. The wicked and scandalous lives of Christians is the grand cause that they abhor Christianity. Baxter points to the fact that Satan capitalizes on people's natural weaknesses and defects of character to hinder the advance of the gospel. Christian character formation has a missionary thrust.

Baxter on Lay Ministry

The duty to minister to others consist first in getting one's heart affected by the misery of others, being compassionate towards them (affinity), second in taking every opportunity that you possibly can to help others to attain salvation, and third in increasing your ability to do so effectively through instruction. Right performance increases success, we must especially learn how to minister in a way that suits the character and situation of the person.

Baxter on Mercy & Justice

Faith is exercised in works of charity and justice. Love for God cannot but bring well-being to man. The believer's plain and urgent duty through the church is to exercise compassion for men's bodies as well as their souls. The expression of love to God necessarily involves a love for others. "Love is the most powerful preacher in the world."

We please God when we readily share his gifts to us with others. We must share our goods with men of all sorts, high and low, rich and poor, old and young, neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies, good and bad, none excepted that are within our reach. There are to be no bounds to our endeavors to seek the good of multitudes and to exercise a healing love to all mankind.

Human trafficking is one of the worst kinds of thievery in the world. "To go...and catch up poor negroes or people of another land, that never forfeited life or liberty, and to make them slaves and sell them, is one of the worst kinds of thievery in the world; and such persons are to be taken for the common enemies of mankind."

Baxter on Faith & Work

All the believer's work is characterized by "heart work" and "heaven work". The Christian, in his love for God, will show a hearty love and a heavenly disposition in all his work...

Baxter on Movement

The church's unity of spirit fortifies and fits it for the conversion of the world. "A united army is likest to be victorious." We must pray and labor for the reformation and concord of all the Christian churches as the most probable means to win to Christ the world of unbelievers. Baxter regrets that many pastors care only for their own particular churches, rarely giving a thought to other reformed churches. "Are we to pray only for our party as if it were all of the church? Is God so narrow as we?"

"Tell me," said I.

"To start a campaign to privatise music," he said.

"No chance," said I.

"Just give me a chance," he said. "I'm not a fan and it's everywhere these days. You can't escape it. But if I have my way, we'll change all that."

"But why?" said I.

"Surely you can see," he said. "Music stimulates fanaticism, encourages all kinds of weird behaviour. It stops people thinking clearly, stirs up emotions and passions. Music is subjective. There's nothing solid about it, nothing measurable. You can't analyse it. It's not real."

?" know you can measure sound scientifically. But it's not sound that people value; it's those abstract things like melody, rhythm, poetry, sentiment. These are just figments of overactive imaginations."

"So what's the plan?" said I.

"Oh simple," he said. "It has five parts.I know it will take a while but I think it can work.

"Part One: I find a few people like me. They will think that music is an undesirable force in our society that we'd be better off without. But since there's no chance of that, we'll do the next best thing; we'll make it a private affair.

"I will find influential people in various sections of society. We will start talking about how music is a very personal thing so it would be better kept for private places. We won't criticise music per se, just point out how people have different tastes in music, different ideas about what is good and what is not. It?sall about preference. So with such a subjective force it's better to confine it to certain areas and not have it freely available."

"Ok,? said I. "I understand part one, but I still don't see it working."

"Part two," he said, "is to work with the musicians, the songwriters, the singers. We convince them that their music would be better off played to the real fans, the people who believe in them. Why make it accessible to critics and cynics when you can keep it for those who really loved it?

"Then we convince them that their musical work should focus on... music. We persuade them to stop writing songs about real things like love, politics, tragedies, triumphs, cheating lovers and second chances. Instead we persuade them only to write songs about music - how good it is, valuable, interesting and so on. Then music will begin to turn in on itself. Eventually music and normal life will be separated. They will be two different and unrelated categories, one real and one imaginary."

"You have me worried," said I. "What's next?"

"Third," he said, "we remove music from the academic world. Instead of studying music itself, people will only be able to study about music, the history of music, the different music traditions. In public colleges you will be able to study anything to do with music except music itself. If you want to study music itself you'll have to go to a private college, a place set up by enthusiasts for one type of music.

"Fourth, we would reduce music in the media. We won't be able to remove it altogether but it should be easy enough to confine it to certain narrow areas. A paper might have a weekly column called "Thinking musically." Radio or television programmes on music will be at unusual hours. They would be quaint, ethereal or even bizarre - anything but normal.

"In time part five will come into play. It will become offensive to play music in public. People who do it will be seen as intolerant and insensitive, imposing their musical tastes on others. People will only discuss music in official "music gatherings" or while visiting a professional musician. Playing music will be confined to private places or specially built halls. No one else will ever go near them."

"What do you think?" he said. "Will it work?"

"Will it? said I. "Perhaps it already has."

Is Calvinism basically a theology of the elect for the elect or is it a theology of redemption for the world? This is the question Sidney Rooy addressed in The Theology of Missions in the Puritan Tradition: A Study of Representative Puritans - Richard Sibbes, Richard Baxter, John Eliot, Cotton Mather, and Jonathan Edwards.

Let's look at the first one, Richard Sibbes, who was a Puritan minister at Cambridge whose writings were among the most read and quoted by the Puritan fathers of New England.

Sibbes on the Ministry of the Gospel

All of salvation is in Christ. For salvation to be achieved, there must be concurrence between heaven and earth. Heaven came to earth in Christ. His life and death became the foundation of a new earth. All of salvation is in him.

Christ comes to us through preaching. "Preaching is the chariot that carries Christ up and down the world." We must hear the gospel to know Christ, experience the converting power of the Spirit and be saved. 

Christ is the purpose of preaching. The purpose of the ministry of the gospel is (i) to win souls for Christ and (ii) to renew Christians.

Christ and only Christ is the object of preaching. To minister the gospel is to show the sinner his true state, to "lay open Christ" and his riches and then sweetly persuade the sinner to come to Christ.

Preaching must be inclusive. Sometimes by ekklesia the Word of God intends all under the regular hearing of the gospel: believers and unbelievers are included. Other times it is used more narrowly in referring to the bride of Christ: only believers are included. Sibbes' conclusion: ministers must address both sorts of people.

Preaching must address the mind. The knowledge of theology and liberal arts go hand in hand. Theological spears strike harder, go in deeper, when soundly brandished by logic and rhetoric.

Preaching must address the heart. In the ministry of the gospel, the Spirit of God stirs up the heart. Motives of fear of judgement or damnation are usually short-lived, but motivation based on an attraction to God is lasting.

Sibbes on Personal Change

Salvation requires change. Through fire and brimstone preaching is infrequent in Sibbes' sermons, his view of the implications of human sin is plain. There is necessity for change. No one can be saved without the change of a new birth.

All of salvation is grace. Salvation, from beginning to end, is all grace. Faith is the first grace of the Spirit, the one that precedes and stirs up all other graces. Glorification is the final grace, which completes and surpasses all other graces. But all is grace.

Sibbes on Community

The church is a community. This community is a precious thing, a preserver, a necessary act. Isolation halts grace. Sibbes refers to the Christ's prayer in John 17 and to the trinity as the "pattern" of our community.  

The church is a paradoxal community. The church of God is his house, but it often bears a contradictory character because there is a mixture of good and bad in it. First, in every church there are many in the church who are only Christians in name, who profess the gospel but are not in Christ. Our thoughts are not to stray far away when we think of lost people. Second, churches are made up of imperfect Christians. Even without unbelievers in it, the church would still be imperfect.

Sibbes on Serving

Because God has a gracious good will toward all men, we most love mankind. If Christ has compassion with all men, shall we see so many poor people and not have compassion?

Sibbes on Lay Ministry

God makes common Christians ministers. Not only ministers, but everyone must labor to enlarge the kingdom of God. The individual Christian should be at the heart of the gospel's spread.

The gospel is to be spread wherever the Christian is to be found. Sibbes places a heavy responsibility upon all Christians to spread the gospel where they are. Every Christian in his place must employ his talent to answer his calling.

Sibbes on Movement

God's love is a spreading love. Because love is by nature diffusive, we must be of a spreading disposition. The love and grace received must flow out to others. Sibbes often uses the metaphor of sunshine and light. Those not heated with grace cannot kindle others. God shines first, and we shine consequently on others.

The end of election is mission. Rather than just weeping over their own sins, Christians should mourn for any sins that may stand in the way of others' salvation. The end of light is not to shine in our hearts to no purpose, but to shine to others.

God is the sovereign Lord of mission. God has done great things. He still does. He is working his victory for us and in us. His name be praised!

I often get asked how I personally became acquainted with the pervasive influence of idolatry in the human heart.

Like many younger ministers I worked far too many hours, never saying "no" to anyone's request for my pastoral services. When salary increases were offered to me, I turned them down. When administrative help was offered to me, I declined. I was quite proud of being the kind of person who worked very hard, never complained, and never asked for any help. This regularly brought me into conflict with my wife, who rightly contended that I was neglecting my relationships to her and to my young sons. It also led to health problems, although I was only in my early thirties.

Nevertheless, I continued to feel that the way I was living was noble and good. I believed I was sacrificially committed to the ministry of the Word. I was especially delighted to make sacrifices that nobody saw -- not my people or even my family. That made me feel most noble of all. If all this created some problems for me personally, wasn't that just evidence of how truly devoted I was? It was a very dangerous situation. My future was bleak, though I didn't know it. In the short run, this kind of ministry workaholism is often rewarded by admiring people all around.

Some well-meaning friends, however, saw the problem and literally "laid the law" on me, showing me that I was violating the commandments of taking Sabbath and of honoring my family. I usually responded with incremental changes that never endured. Others used the modern technique of self-esteem -- "You need to think of yourself; you need to do things that make you happy." I despised that advice as terribly selfish. I valued self-sacrifice.

It wasn't until I began to search my heart with the Biblical category of idolatry that I made the horrendous discovery that all my supposed sacrifices were just a series of selfish actions. I was using people in order to forge my own self-appreciation. I was looking to my sacrificial ministry to give me the sense of "righteousness before God" that should only come from Jesus Christ. People make idols out of money, power, accomplishment, or moral excellence. They look to these things to "save them" -- to give them the sense of purity, value, and acceptability that only Jesus can give. In my case, I was using ministry (and my own people) in this way.

I remember sitting through a sociology class in my high school in Brazil as the teacher presented to us students the rural exodus phenomenon. His negative tone to the presentation connected well to our contextual reality for as many of you know, there are many urban problems in Latin America such as high crime, favelas (slums), and unemployment. All world cities face variations of these issues.

For a long time I saw the urbanization of the world as something inherently bad. After all, God had created the world rural. In my imagination heaven was a place for plants, animals and human beings dressed in long white robes. While those things will probably exist in heaven (except for the white robes, of course), the Bible portrays heaven as an urban place with a main boulevard, streets, buildings and tons of people. Density, diversity and creativity are overtones of this depiction. Don't believe me? Go read Revelation 21-22.

History does start in the garden but it ends in a city. A city that God is building and that one day he will bring down from heaven. A city that will fuse into our Metropolis (New York, Sao Paulo, Seoul...), will bring them all together into one mega-mega-mega Metropolis, will eliminate what's bad in them and enhance to the maximum what's already beautiful in them.

This changed things for me.

I guess for this reason its not all that bad that more and more people in the world move to cities. Its inevitable that this rural exodus intensifies. The reason why the world is becoming more and more urban is because history is moving us to the biggest and the greatest city of all -- The City of God.

In the time being this makes me appreciate more and more where I live (God forbid I move to a farm town in the middle of nowhere!). It makes my adrenaline levels rise with the thought of engaging the mission of beginning this urban-fusion process here and now.

I've been contemplating writing a book about my experience as a Hmong-American who meets Jesus then poor urban Detroit then secular-pluralistic university life then Reformed Theology then Church Planting then Globalization then his own Hmong people again. Seriously! I mean you could use it in either church planting or anthropology classes!

As interesting as my life has been, I don't know if it has the same appeal as let's say the storyline to Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino! (Which by the way was filmed practically in my backyard! My aunt, brother-in-law and practically half my circle of friends were casted as extras.) Church planting among urban Hmong gangstaz! Now that's uber-cool! Right?! Well, probably not to most American planters.

Really I'd like to provide insight on a slice of America for planters and planting networks with hopes that we'd see more consideration and resources poured into what Dave Gibbons calls Third-Culture people. Second generation immigrant Americans have the unique circumstance of still being connected to their native people in their native land. So in a sense, the idea of globalization (glocal Kingdom work) seems just that much more logical and feasible to them. That's because by situation (not necessarily by choice) they are a glocal people. America is browning/yellowing no doubt. The world is coming to America's doorstep like never before. (Even though our political system is trying to prevent that. Ha!)

So, do you think planters would read this book? Better yet, do you think there are any Reformed-leaning churches/networks interested in being a resource for church planting among 2nd generation immigrant Americans?

Lord willing, I'll be leaving Detroit for a few years to part-take in a residency program at a church that does a great job of church planting out of Fort Worth, Tejas. It'll be interesting how a Hmong from the hoods of Detroit will survive in the burbs of Texas. Ooooo, but that could be material for a sequel to the first book. ;)

In my blog post on Willow Creek, I said that many Reformed evangelicals think of sound, expository preaching as something of a 'magic bullet.' We may think that as long as we are preaching the Word--preaching the law and the gospel rightly--that everything else in congregational life will somehow take care of itself. We may give lip service to the other two marks of the church--the administration of the sacraments and discipline--but we don't give them proper weight. Fully considered, the administration of the sacraments includes pastoral care, education, and discipleship, while the ministry of discipline means rightly ordering the community, that is, pastoral leadership.

I have often seen many men spend a great amount of time on preparing and preaching lengthy, dense, expository messages, while giving far less time and energy to the learning of leadership and pastoral nurture. It takes lots of experience and effort to help a body of people make a unified decision, or to regularly raise up new lay leaders, or to motivate and engage your people in evangelism, or to think strategically about the stewardship of your people's spiritual gifts, or even to discern what they are. It takes lots of experience and effort to know how to help a sufferer without being either too passive or too directive, or to know when to confront a doubter and when to just listen patiently. Pastors in many of our Reformed churches do not seem to be as energized to learn to be great leaders and shepherds, but rather have more of an eye to being great teachers and preachers.

I'd point us to the example of John Calvin himself. No one put more emphasis on expository preaching as central to ministry. And yet Calvin sat nearly every Thursday in the Consistory, hearing hundreds of practical pastoral cases each year brought by the elders of the city to the council of pastors and other elders. He applied his theology to the intimate details of "adultery and fornication, disputed engagements and weddings, family quarrels, incest, rape, sodomy, buggery, prostitution, voyeurism, abortion, child neglect, child abuse, education disputes, spousal abuse, mistreatment of maids, family poverty, embezzlement of family property, sickness, divorce, marital property disputes, inheritance..." (Witte and Kingdon, Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva, Vol 1, p. 15.) Also, Calvin's voluminous correspondence shows what a forceful and wise leader and statesman he was. Because Calvin was not only a preacher but also a great shepherd and leader, he built up the church in a way that changed the world.

I pastor a church with a large staff and so I give 15+ hours a week to preparing the sermon. I would not advise younger ministers to spend so much time, however. When I was a pastor without a staff I put in 6-8 hours on a sermon. If you put in too much time in your study on your sermon you put in too little time being out with people as a shepherd and a leader. Ironically, this will make you a poorer preacher. It is only through doing people-work that you become the preacher you need to be--someone who knows sin, how the heart works, what people's struggles are, and so on. Pastoral care and leadership (along with private prayer) are to a great degree sermon preparation. More accurately, it is preparing the preacher, not just the sermon. Through pastoral care and leadership you grow from being a Bible commentator into a flesh and blood preacher.

By Scott Sauls, Senior Director of Community Formation

Redeemer Presbyterian Church of New York City

Building an Atmosphere that is "Full of Truth"

This section is the second of two sections dealing with what it means to cultivate the "aroma of Jesus" in our ministries. We will consider how specifically to encourage a Jesus-like ministry atmosphere that is "full of truth" (John 1:14), to the end that people of all stripes (whether Christian or not) become convinced that there is nothing more wonderful, nothing more exciting, and nothing more life-giving than being an obedient follower of Jesus.

As we think about forming Christ-centered messages, we must keep in mind several key attributes of a message that is truly Christ-centered and therefore "full of truth," we must consider several factors with regard to our use and presentation of the Law of God. As was the case with Paul, our mission and primary dream for those under our ministry is that "Christ be formed in (them)" (Galatians 4:19), meaning that their character as well as ours become conformed to His, that they become obedient to God's commands as a way of life. But this is tricky, because true obedience that aligns with Jesus as "the truth," is obedience from the inside-out - the kind of obedience offered not to use God and put Him in our debt, but rather to experience in greater depth the riches of His loveliness and worth. In short, we must encourage an obedience that responds to the love of Jesus. Any other kind is religion, not Christianity.

First, it is important to discern and to reject the three primary misuses of the Law of God.

Following are three "misuses" that we would do well to discern and reject:

The liberal misuse of God's Law. Those who come from this perspective tend to be resistant to the actual commands of God. Instead, liberally-minded people will see God's commands as oppressive and will replace them with a new law - the law of tolerance. For the liberal person, the only real "absolute" is that there are no absolutes. All people should be tolerated and accepted, except for those who are intolerant! The problem with this approach to ministry should be obvious - to add to or to take away from the Word of God puts one in great danger (Revelation 22)!

The conservative misuse of God's Law. Those who come from this perspective tend to view the commands of God primarily in terms of duty. If you keep the commands, you have done your duty. If you don't, you will be judged and things will not go well for you. Period. God's Law by conservatives is viewed almost exclusively in legal terms and little if at all in relational terms. For the conservative person, there is generally very little if any dancing in the heart over the beauty of God's commands. In some conservative circles, a primary sign that you are in the center of God's will is that you are miserable and grumpy! The Bible gives such a different picture, however. Psalm 1 teaches us that the Law of God is the believer's delight! The writer of Psalm 119 says (you can almost hear him shouting it!), "O how I love Your law!" He absolutely adores God's commands and in no way sees them as a "burden that must be kept" or "a duty around which I must center my life." While the Law is duty, it is so very much MORE than duty! If we or those in our ministry are consistently burdened by our presentation of God's commands, then it is likely that we are missing the heart of the Law altogether. 1 John tells us that for the rightly-motivated believer, God's commands are not burdensome!

The antinomian misuse of God's Law. Those who come from this perspective tend to view the commands of God as being optional. Antinomian means "against law" - the thought being that one can receive Jesus as Savior yet refuse Jesus as Lord. The problems with this are obvious from Scripture. Jesus Himself said, "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord' and not do what I say?" James reminds us that "Faith without works is dead." Martin Luther, the champion of grace himself, said that we are saved by faith alone, but never by a faith that is alone.

The following chart attempts to distinguish between the various uses (and misuses) of God's Law. We do well to labor passionately to present the Law of God, but to do so from the Christ- and Gospel-centered approach and none other.