Saturday Links

Five Great Needs Among God's People

Recently I have been introduced to the ministry of Bakht Singh of India. He died in 2000. Following his conversion to Christ he learned to live and walk by faith. Most of his ministry was done in India. However, he traveled the world as an evangelist and prophet for the Gospel.

During his first visit to America in 1969 he wrote of his observations. He sensed five great needs among God’s people in the USA.

The Top Mistakes I Make in Preaching

I imagine that I’m probably not the only preacher who makes some of these mistakes with regularity, so I thought I’d share them here in case my list ends up helping any of you brothers who are working on preaching evaluation / improvement as well.

Ten Signs of Hope for a Declining Church

1. The leader is preaching the Bible.
2. Somebody is praying.
3. Leaders are willing to face the truth.
4. The leader takes responsibility for growth.
5. The leader still has a vision for growth.
6. Somebody is evangelizing.
7. The leader is investing in someone else.
8. The church is still reaching out to the community.
9. Somebody has a global vision.
10. Leaders refuse to give up.

7 Leadership Paradigms Needed for Church Growth

1. Lead with leaders
2. Prioritize your time
3. Never waste energy
4. Embrace change
5. Make hard decisions
6. Build healthy teams
7. Refuel often

Discipleship as Network

The entire church, when using their gifts for the building up of the Body of Christ, is a network of relationships that produces disciples.

Every Entrepreneur's Least Favorite Question

This applies to pastors too.

You're asked that simple question that often feels like the hardest one:

"How are things going?"

Are you a Church Planting Failure?

Church planters, whose churches do not survive, often feel like complete failures and fear that they might never be effective again in ministry leadership. But this is not the truth.

Five Questions to Discern Ministry Idolatry

How can you tell if you are prone to committing ministry idolatry? Here are five questions I have been considering.

Your Language Matters

Our language can easily isolate or train people to believe God is calling them to set aside one day or evening instead of setting aside their entire lives. We don’t want to confuse those two!

Stop Hustling and Get Your Life Back

I’m adopting a ruthless anti-frantic policy. I’m done with frantic. The new baseline for me: will saying yes to this require me to live in a frantic way?

Scholarship and Warmth: An Interview with Bruce Waltke

Dr. Bruce Waltke is a preeminent Old Testament scholar. His teaching career has earned him a reputation of being a master teacher with a pastoral heart. Dr. Waltke has also pastored several churches, lectured at many evangelical seminaries in North America and has spoken at numerous Bible conferences.

I’ve been impressed by Dr. Waltke’s scholarship, as well as his pastoral warmth. I’m grateful to Dr. Waltke for agreeing to answer some of my questions.

As Professor of Old Testament, what brings you the greatest joy? Is it studying, writing, teaching, or something else?

I wish I could say that I find my greatest joy in my students.  Though I do delight in them and in their ministries, I find my greatest joys in writing and publishing and in teaching. I used to get the most joy out of teaching and preaching, but as I got older I realized more and more how transitory verbal ministries are. As I got older I came to value teaching more and more for  what it built into the lives of my students and its multiplication and its continuation in their ministries. That reward, however, is less direct and seemingly more restricted  than that of writing, for writings touch more lives for more time than students in a classroom. But writings, like all things, will pass away, as publishers undoubtedly will cease to publish my dated works. But unlike Qoheleth I know there will always be a residue of eternal profit, for all ministry participates in the eternal kingdom of God.

Your exegetical work seems to me to combine scholarship and worship, which aren't found together as often as one might wish. How have you been able to maintain both together?

Others note an alleged combination of scholarship and worship. It must be relative, for I am unconscious of it.  My scholarship always seems to be inadequate because knowledge is always imperfect--there is always another book to read on a subject or is being written on it.  As for worship,  though I do not know the full depths of my depravity, I know it well enough to know that my motives are always tarnished by self-interest, not by worship. My spiritual flaw is a carnal perfectionism. I believe God is taking that flaw and sanctifying it by his Spirit in me.  Quintillius said:  “Ambition is a vice but it can be the mother of virtue.”  To become a vrtue must be the work of God's grace.  I have nothing of which to boast. This process of holiness is true of all healthy Christians, isn't it?

Pastors often feel pushed away from theology to be more "practical." What advice would you give to a pastor who aspires to be a pastor and scholar?

I cannot distinguish between theology and practical theology.  If my theology does not change my life, it is not good theology, but an idol. I hope every pastor who stands behind the sacred lectern is a scholar.  By that I mean, I hope the teacher of God's Word will teach it as responsibly as possible within the time available.  Very few are so gifted they can be both an academic in a university or seminary and a pastor. There is by the restraint of time and being human a less than perfect scholarship and of pastoring. What is needed is both humility, a recognition of our limitations, and a commitment to give God the best of what he has given to us. We need to keep our priorities straight, lest we make Success our god. It's hard not to envy those who worship Success and receive worldly rewards.

Knowledge is both a virtue and a vice.  It is necessary and certainly better than ignorance.  Paul frequently says he doesn't want us to be ignorant.  On the other hand, it is a vice: it always puffs up and is imperfect.  By God's grace I overcome its endemic tendency to pride the pure virtue of love and its imperfection by the pure virtues of faith and hope.

It's a joy to see the warmth between you and your friend Haddon Robinson. It's a good example of friendship maintained through years of life and ministry. How have friendships like this sustained you?

Photo courtesy of Chris Brauns

Haddon is so uniquely gifted that I feel unworthy of his friendship.  His warm friendship toward our family  is a mark of his truly godly character. His brilliant conversation always refreshes me.  Bonnie's love is peerless. Elaine and I treasure their friendship.  The sustenance of their friendship brings delight, psychic joy that cannot be fully verbalized. When the four of us are together we  seem to feed on each others thoughts, commitments and basic disposition toward God and others, though Elaine is now suffering dementia. Haddon or Bonnie never interpret us negatively; they truly believe and hope all things;  I do not think they ever think of enduring us.

How can we pray for you?

I have taken a leave of absence from teaching at Knox, to test how I can best serve God without a contract to teach. Pray that I will finish well and have the wisdom to prioritize my time well in this new context. 

Setting Gospel Grassfires

My latest column at ChristianWeek:

There’s no question that ministry in Canada is a challenge. According to Bill Hogg, National Missiologist with C2C Network, that’s not a surprise. “Canada is further down the track in terms of liminality, the marginalization of religious ideas and religious institutions,” he says. “Canada prizes social pluralism and religious pluralism, which is obviously a challenge as you seek to proclaim Jesus.”

Not only is Canada pluralistic, but many churches are stuck. “The reality is that 85% of North American churches have plateaued or declined.” Hogg believes that churches often follow a life cycle that resembles a sigmoid curve. “Something that started, where lives are being transformed, can eventually decline, and needs to experience renewal, refocus, restructuring, or replanting.”

Despite the external and internal challenges, Hogg is encouraged. “There are pockets of hope across Canada. There are little gospel grassfires.” The C2C Network exists as a nationwide, indigenous Canadian church planting and renewal network. “If we want to reach Canada for Christ, it’s going to require fresh, vibrant, innovative, gospel-centred, Spirit-led, mission-focused new churches,” Hogg believes. “But it’s also going to require the established church to get on mission, steward the gospel well, and embrace the mission fields where God has placed them.”

According to Hogg, the Canadian church faces three challenges. The first danger is gospel drift. “A lot of evangelical and charismatic churches are not centred around the gospel,” he says. “There’s a danger that evangelicals are no longer evangel people.” Hogg identifies the danger of preaching the prosperity gospel, or its “kissing cousin success,” moralism, or just old-fashioned legalism instead of the gospel. Churches must continually recalibrate around the gospel.

The second danger is missional retreat. According to one author, the dominant North American ecclesial motif is church as private club. Our challenge, Hogg says, is to first look to Jesus, and then to look outward to the town, village, city, and community in which God has placed each faith community.

The third danger is seeing the church as human enterprise. This means that we often look for technicians, not ministers, and for techniques and programs that promise success. “We have to be Spirit-empowered, Spirit-dependent, and Spirit-led. This is messy and defies the cookie cutter approach.” Our starting posture is important: “It’s not about coming up with a plan. The first order of business is to surrender to Jesus. The idea is not to work a plan but to hear from the Lord, and then from dependance upon Him walk in obedience to what he speaks into the life of the church.”

This underlines the importance of prayer. “Jesus, who commissioned the 72, said that he’s sending them out as lambs among wolves. There is peril and danger. We’re in a spiritual combat zone, and we need the wisdom and power of the Lord.”

Hogg believes that we have every reason to hope. “The gospel hasn’t lost its power. God is still on the throne, and Jesus has not rescinded the Great Commission even for such a time as this.”

Saturday Links

Proud vs. Broken People

Most of the Christian books, sermons and theological material that my father gave me as a boy failed to catch my attention; but, for some reason, I’ve never forgotten Nancy Demoss’ chart contrasting proud/broken people. I need this more today as a husband, father, pastor and friend than when I was young.

The Secular Salvation Story

We are all telling a story, living by a story, evangelizing a story. One story is ancient and rugged. The other modern and banal. One confronts. The other caresses. One truly saves. The other falsely succors. Choose your story wisely. For one starts grim, but ends in life. The other looks cheery and ends in death.

What if Life Was Complex?

What, I wonder, if the conservative evangelical church world came to be dominated by a symbiotic network of high profile and charismatic leaders, media organisations, and big conferences?

21 Skills of Great Preachers

After listening to preachers of many different denominations and having been a preacher for over sixty years, I find the following observations by Keith Drury to be particularly cogent. According to him, these are the twenty-one skills of great preachers.

Why it doesn't matter if people don't remember your sermons

We need to pray that our preaching would be effective and not so much that it would be memorable.

What is Church Planting to You?

Church planting. What is it to you? Make sure you know before you go.

Avoiding Three Big Church Planting Mistakes

1. Planting for the Wrong Reasons
2. Planters who are Not Teachable
3. Planters who Plant Churches in their Heads

Can a Dying Church Find Life? Six Radical Steps to “Yes”

1. A leader must rise and be willing to lead the church toward radical transformation regardless of the personal costs to him.
2. A significant group in the church must admit that they are desperate for help.
3. That same group must confess guilt.
4. The group must have an utter, desperate, and prayerful dependence on God.
5. The church must be willing to storm the community with love.
6. The church must relinquish control.

The Deep Immersion Approach to Deep Work

Notice, this immersion approach to deep work is different than the more common approach of integrating a couple hours of deep work into most days of your schedule, which we can call the chain approach, in honor of Seinfeld’s “don’t break the chain” advice

Ministry in a Post-Christendom Context: An Interview with Barry Parker

Barry Parker serves as rector of St. Paul's Bloor Street in downtown Toronto. He's a capable preacher and leader, and a careful thinker. On top of that, he's a really fun guy to be around.

Over the past few years I've had the privilege of getting to know Barry. I always walk away from our meetings sharpened and grateful for our time together.

Barry has been kind enough to answer some questions about ministry in a post-Christendom context.

The Church is no longer a significant cultural influence. This is often seen as bad news, but is there a bright side to this?

If the Church is busy seeking to influence culture as an end unto itself, it gets distracted from the essential focus of its existence—obedience to the call of Jesus Christ and following Him. Following Jesus (versus following culture) issues in both individual (the believer) and the community (the Body of Christ) transformation. Perhaps there will be collateral impact on the culture, a good thing. I do not believe it is the primary objective of discipleship formation. Without worrying about cultural or societal affirmation, which is a historic cornerstone of Christendom, then the Church doesn’t have to conform to external, secular and ideological agenda’s. It allows the Church to be the Church—a good thing.

What do we need to unlearn in a post-Christendom context?

• Our self-focus and self-regulating engagement with the world. 
• Our innate love (hence very difficult to see, let alone part with) of power, preferment and entitlement. 
• Our myopic worldview that the culture is waiting with bated breath to be “Christian".

What new skills do we need to learn?

• A radical love of the other, no matter who or what the other is.
• Learning to listen carefully and wisely to others all the while letting go what we once gave us meaning, stability and security; i.e. buildings, polity, tribalism, etc
• A radical humility that is grounded in the Saviour of the World because we are not the saviour of anything.

How is reaching the un-churched (people with no church background) different from reaching the de-churched (people with some church memory)?

The closed de-churched, usually those burned by an experience in churchland, need a lot of time and a genuine apology from Christians and the Church. However, I do not think the un-churched and open de-churched require different approaches as both groups, all groups at minimum, need to experience the Gospel and encounter Jesus. Both groups, as loosely defined and boundary-less as they are—operate out of stereotypes of faith, Jesus, the Church and Christians. Both need listening and humble witness that is grounded in a genuine love for them and not for our agenda.

• listening without advice, 
• community without conformity, 
• hospitality that is relational, not positional, 
• service without expectation or exception 
• learning opportunities that encourage active questioning and identity formation. 

How can we pray for you in your role as Rector of St. Paul's?

That I stay close to Jesus in obedience and that we as a particular faith community pay attention to all that is mentioned above.