Pursuing Excellence

Soap box time! This particular post has nothing to do with preaching, evangelism, or theology per se. However, I do believe that pursuing excellence in everything comes from a God-centered worldview. Most of us strive for excellence in our preaching. We spend time being careful to exegete; we are careful to present the gospel clearly; we seek to understand the whole of scripture and not just one isolated text. We pursue excellence in these areas. But what about the small things? Do you pursue excellence in your speech? I am not talking about profanity, but grammar. Do you speak correctly, or do you perpetuate the stereotype of a southern preacher (Ain't God good!)? Why is it important to edit your bulletins and handouts to make sure there are as few mistakes as possible? It is important because those things reflect upon you. They are also an extension of your church to your community. It is important because if you are a believer then you believe there is a right and wrong, a correct and incorrect way. Two plus two always equals four; it is not left up to a group consensus as is being subtly taught in schools. Correct spelling is important because communication is important. I wonder if Edwards would be appalled at the way we talk, write, and teach. Let us learn from the ones who have gone before us who believed that God was a God of precision, and sought Him out in science, math, and english. You will probably never receieve a compliment for speaking correctly or having faultless bulletins, but people will definitely notice if you do not. Pursue excellence for the glory of God!

9Marks

9Marks has just released their May/June Newsletter and it is excellent. For those not aware of the 9Marks ministry by Mark Dever, I encourage you to check out their website here. In fact, the 9Marks ministry was one of the motivating factors for beginning this blog. Those who frequently post here believe that there are certain "marks" of a healthy church: biblical preaching, biblical evangelism, biblical theology, biblical membership, etc. We believe that if you want your church to have vitality, then these ingredients are musts.

New posts are on there way that will hopefully generate some conversation among us. Feel free to comment. Also, direct other pastors and student ministers to the site. Our aim is to be a sounding board, a resource, a Network for Church Vitality!

The Pastor's Counselors and Friends by Anders Lee

There is no doubt that as ministers and men of God we have prayer, we have the Holy Spirit, we have the bible...etc... Spiritual we are loaded with options and oh how sweet to walk with Jesus... no arguements on that level. Yet we are human and we need friends. Jesus had an inner circle if you please. Three of His disciples He obviously spent more time with, then you see Him eating and hanging out with others like on the occasion of John 12. My point...my question to you... who do we as pastor's and youth pastors hang with...who do we grow close to...who do we seek counsel from in our personal lives and in ministry...who are we staying accountable to? Gentlemen... your thoughts...

Why...

Expositional sermons? Check out this great article here to find out the answer.

Hiring Biblical Preachers

A question posed to all pastors who read this blog: what do you look for when hiring a student minister, college minister, or kid's minister. What are your non-negotiables as far as the ministry aspect is concerned? Degree? License? Direct calling? Correct handler of the Word? Experience? Able to teach (and how do you gauge that anyway)?

I think this is an important question for us to discuss because so many times pastors have not considered what would be best for their culture and church. Instead, they just call the local Christian college to see if there is anyone willing to serve. I do believe that route can be helpful in a "getting the ball rolling" phase, but we must have some other criteria to go by. It is so easy to hire someone because they are willing. But this is not best. It is easy because it immediately takes a workload off of many pastors, but in the long run it can be damaging because you may not get the disciple production you would hope. Maybe that would be a good question to ask a candidate: What is your strategy for reproducing disciples? Here is another one: What do you want a student to know about Christ and the Bible after they have spent 6 years under your teaching?

Let's raise the standards of what we expect out of our ministers (pastors included). I think a good example of how lowering the standards does not help matters is in the questioning process of ordaining ministers or deacons. Can you find scripture to back up this practice? Probably not chapter and verse. Is it a good idea to know what they believe? Absolutely! How many of us experienced an arduous questioning before we were ordained? I know I wasn't. But that process could be very beneficial to a candidate. For one thing it drives him to scripture. It makes him think deeply about eternal matters and how to apply those to whoever his audience may be.

So anyway, let's raise the standards for ourselves and then call on others to follow us.

Church Requisites

Simple question: What constitutes a church?

What are the biblical requisites for being considered a church? (ie. believers in covenant with one another, ordinances, etc).

At what point can a church lose its status as a church? (beyond disbanding).

Further, what is necessary to begin a church? Can anyone begin one? Does it have to be a mission of an established church? etc.

Membership Process

Recently we began a "membership class" at our church. We ask each prospective member to attend the 5 week orientation before joining. So far, I have been very pleased with the class. Every person who has joined after attending has been very committed and seems to have a good understanding of our church's mission. At the same time, I think the class has also helped prevent some people from joining who would never have been committed in the long run.

All of this makes me curious to hear about everyone else's membership process. How many of you utilize some sort of class? Is it for prospective members or new members? What topics do you cover? What kind of commitment is asked for?

Does someone have a way to orient new people without using a class? What are the pro's and cons?

I am anxious to hear everyone's thoughts and hopefully get some good ideas and insight.

Biblical Preaching and Student Ministry--Do the two Mix?

Have you ever noticed that the majority of people describe the weekly youth pastor’s presentation as being a “lesson” or “talk” to the students? Often even the Youth Pastor is reluctant to call his presentation a “sermon” or “preaching”. People tend to see a big difference between what the lead pastor does on Sunday morning and the youth pastor does on Wednesday night. The question is, “Are they different?” The problem is that you can’t go chapter and verse to find a description of what a Youth Director is to do. However, you can go chapter and verse to see what a Pastor is to be. There is no description of a “director” in the early church age that organized pizza parties for the youth. But, there are plenty of descriptions of pastors who shepherd their flocks of people, and that is what we are! We are spiritual shepherds of teenagers. The most important flock that teenagers can belong to is a believing family. The second most important flock is the church as a whole. Then, I would say that the flock of the church youth ministry comes third. We must see our shepherding responsibility in light of the bigger picture. We are in a sense under-shepherds to parents and senior pastors.

If we are shepherds of teenagers, then all the verses pertaining to pastors pertain to us. We, as youth pastors, love to preach 1 Timothy 4:12 -16 to our youth because of the “Let no one despise your youth” phrase. However, Paul is not writing to teenagers, he is writing to a young pastor.

1 Timothy 4: "11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Paul’s words here relate much more to youth pastors than teenagers. What is the theme in those verses? First, we are to set an example in “speech, conduct, in love, in faith, in purity”. Second, we are to devote ourselves to the public reading of scripture. We are to use the scripture to “exhort” and to “teach”. It also says we are to “guard the teaching”. As youth pastors, we are called to place the word at the center of who we are, and what we say to the youth. Though a youth sermon may look different than a Sunday morning all age inclusive sermon, it must not be any less dependant on the word of God. Apart from the word of God, we have absolutely nothing to say that carries any power. If we are just giving “talks” or “lessons”, we need to sit down and be quite. However, if we stand and proclaim the words of God, then we will save both ourselves and our hearers.

Biblical Preaching and the Bones of Jesus

Where does preaching intersect with the news? For example, should preachers spend time this Sunday on the controversial subject that just so happened to pop up right before Resurrection Sunday of the finding of the tomb of Jesus and His family?

One approach that I appreciate is Phillip Ryken's. I believe he presents a "Window on the World" each Sunday night in order to keep a biblical worldview mindset in front of his people.

2 Categories of Preaching?

Here's a question. I would love to hear everyone's input.

Is preaching only for elders, or is preaching for lay people as well?

The word "preach" simply means to "proclaim" or "speak with conviction."

I Peter 2:9 says, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

Here is sounds like anyone who is saved is called to "proclaim" or "speak with conviction" about the "excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

In the qualifications of an elder found in I Timothy 3, we find the phrase "able to teach." This sounds like it is a responsibility connected to an official office of the church.

So are there two "categories" of preaching? Perhaps we could call them "general preaching," which would refer to the daily conversation of believers (the overflow of the heart...), and "specific preaching," which would refer to the intentionally prepared message regarding a selected text.

Also, if this is true, what are the implications? Does this mean that traditional "preaching texts" such as II Timothy 4:6-8 are now for everyone -not just the pastor? In the past, I have always heard this text preached as meaning that PASTORS must be instant "in season and out." But it looks like this is an admonition for all believers (especially since Paul has told Timothy to take this teaching and entrust it to faithful men who will be faithful to teach others -surely all of those men aren't elders!

Books on Biblical Preaching

I have found two great lists of books on biblical preaching here and here at Amazon.com. I would add the follwoing books to the lists:

The Passion-Driven Sermon by Jim Shaddix
Preaching, the Art of Narrative Exposition by Calvin Miller

I am anxious to hear from you guys about some books that have helped you in your craft of preaching.

What to do when you are a church refugee

Jonathan recently responded to the "I'm Not Lovin It" post. He basically asked what should church members do when they realize they are in a church that panders to the consumer mentality. This is an attempt to discuss that great question.

If a person came to me and asked what should be done about their consumer church, I would suggest to them the following course of action:

1. Go to the leadership of the church.
This is going to be hard. Sometimes going to your pastor about this issue is not going to be ideal because the leadership is ultimately not going to listen. For example, several months ago I had a family come to me for counsel on this very subject. They were members at a prominent Southern Baptist Church in town and had been for years. Their concern centered on the fact that they had begun, over the past several years, to notice a change in the philosophy of the church. This average layman's words to me were, "Their just not preaching about the cross anymore. It's all about marriage and parenting." My advice was for that layman to go to his pastor and express his concern. He honestly tried. The pastor turned a deaf ear.

I think that members have a certain responsibility to hold the leadership accountable to Biblical teaching. Although this would be hard to do, my encouragement to anyone in a consumer driven church is to go and attempt to exhort (in love and humble respect) your leadership. Do not let the fear of man keep you from sharing your concerns. Fear God and what His word says. Perhaps the Lord will cause you to be a Biblical change agent in that church? If your first attempt to reconcile with your brother/pastor fails, then you have a decision to make. Are you to stay and be a positive influence, or should you go and find a church that is more Biblical in its methodology? That is different for each person. If you cannot stay, then I would suggest the next step:

2. Begin to search for a church that meets Biblical criteria, but be prepared to go to great lengths.
Forrest Gump told us that best friends are hard to find because their not on every corner. Biblical churches are in the same category. Unfortunately you will not find them on every corner, but they are essential and vital to your spiritual growth. Therefore, I would suggest that you go to great lengths to find a church where the pastor is preaching Biblicaly and the vision is Biblical. I have heard of people actually moving to a new location for the sole purpose of attending a Biblical Church. Our society does such things all the time for the sake of careers. Why not begin to adopt that attitude for a Biblical church? I certainly would consider it (As a pastor I did that very thing...I moved to a church I felt was on the road to being Biblical). You would want to investigate and find a place that meets the criteria of a Biblical, healthy, church (see ninemarks.org). If you find it you have found gold (in my humble opinion). A Christ-centered church would be worth a tremendous amount of effort. Think of how your children, family, and spiritual life would benefit. How valuable is that to you? So, you may have to drive an hour verses going down the street.

That would be my first response to someone who came to me about this issue. I would suggest these two major steps. Both present no easy solution, but both are reasonable.

The purpose for writing the "I'm Not Lovin It" was due to a Long Range Planning Committee meeting I had with church members. The meeting made me realize how consumer driven our church culture can be. I have never read the David Wells book Jonathan mentioned (but it sounds good).

Biblical Preaching--Articles

Here are some articles I have come across on Biblical or Expository Preaching. I hope they are a good resource for you.

Expository Preaching by Wil Pounds
Expositional Preaching by Mark Devers
Preaching as Worship by John Piper
Expository Preaching in a Postmodern World by John Macarthur
Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures by Tom Ascol

There is a plethory of resources at PreachingToday.com but you have to be a paying member in order to view most of the articles.

Here is a link to Covenant Theological Seminary Course lectures by Bryan Chapel on Christ-Centered Preaching;

MP3 Lectures

Biblical Preaching

Biblical Preaching—what is it? Every preacher that fills a pulpit thinks they are preaching biblically, but are they? And who are we to say whether or not someone is preaching biblically?

Paul instructs Timothy to preach the word and not to satisfy itching ears, to guard the deposit entrusted to him, and protect sound (healthy) doctrine. Handling the Word of God is a delicate task, a high calling, and a humbling experience. The thought of standing before a people with the orders to explain and apply a text should cause us to bow before the throne of God because He entrusts His word to feeble men, and it should cause us to tremble before God because we will be held accountable for how we present His word.

Biblical preaching is proclaiming the same message that the author of the text is teaching. If what you say a text means is not what the author meant, then it cannot be biblical from that particular text. The present day meaning must be the same as the original author’s. Therefore, it seems that the best way to uncover that meaning is to preach expositionally, line by line. By doing so you are constantly dealing with context, which brings light to the author’s intent. Expositional preaching seems to me to be the best way of presenting the truth-meaning of a text, but I will say it is not the only way. Other methods can be employed such as topical or textual.

Here are some good questions to ask during preparation:
What is the author’s original intent?
How would the original audience have interpreted this text?

Oppurtunity to Contribute to Church Vitality in Nicaragua

Wyatt Baptist Church will be going to Nicaragua at the end of March. Our church is Sponsoring Hardcover MacArthur Study Bibles for the pastors there. I have located a spanish version of the 9 Marks of the Healthy Church booklet. I was hoping our Network could purchase at least 20 of these booklets to be given with the Study Bibles. We need $80. I will pledge the first $20. EMAIL me if you are willing to pledge money to this cause.

Are We Out of the Locker Room?

Imagine the church as a professional football team. The team meets in the locker room every week. In fact, the team is so used to locker room, they never get on field. Each week, when they leave the team meeting, they walk past the field on the way home, but they never play the game.

Even though they have no intention of playing, the team talks about new plays, studies the game film, talks about the legendary players who have passed on, and gives huge pep talks. They’ve gotten to the point they believe the “game” is in the locker room.

They get excited about the new pep-band songs. They honor “perfect locker room attendance” with pins. They give plaques for twenty years of Locker Room Superintendent service. It’s a major event when someone brings a visitor to the locker room –in fact, it is applauded as a “good hustle.”

One of the highlights of the season is viewing the new game day program. Everyone remarks, “isn’t this great! Surely this will bring more people in.” Of course from time to time squabbles arise. Perhaps its over the team meal, new locker room decorations, or uniforms. Sometimes debate rages over what plays the team will practice. Players have even been known to nit-pick over meaningless details about how each play works. For some reason the debate never surrounds getting on the field. Occasionally, these riffs send players packing their bags and heading for a new team. At this time, it is not uncommon to overhear a player remark, “we’re running low on players… let’s get some more from another team’s locker room… I heard the team across town is having trouble… maybe we’ll get some of their players!”

Once, a fairly young player asked “why don’t we recruit some rookies?” Quickly he was reprimanded and informed that recruiting takes too much time and energy. “Besides,” an assistant coach told him, “if I ask our existing players to help recruit, they might get scared and leave because they will think we have a “work based” team…” imagine that!

To everyone’s surprise the young player responded, “But isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing?”

Struggling to find a reasonable answer, an old veteran gave comforting advice. “You’re right, let’s get a new drill to train and get started.” Sadly, after weeks of practicing the new drill, it became evident that all is vain. The new drill becomes just as unsuccessful in recruiting new players as the old ones. Perhaps it is because the drill was never executed on the field.
However, the constant drill work did provide great conversation when the owner called to check on the team’s progress. Or maybe it just made the team feel like they were doing something important.

Over the years, more efforts have been made to bring people into the locker room. A new stadium was built, new equipment was purchased, a state-of-the-art halftime show was produced, giveaways were offered, and a new scoreboard was installed. And for a while, some of these ideas worked. But none of the effects lasted. Somehow, people got a sense that the team was too “fake” and would eventually leave. Surprisingly, no one could figure out why.

One day, a player from a very successful team in a neighboring town was called in to consult on the recent attendance problems. After days of analysis, his report shocked the team. According to the consultant, the team wasn’t much of a team at all. He explained that one of the major marks of a football team is actually playing the game!

Likewise, evangelism is a major mark of the church. The problem lies in the fact that very few churches are evangelizing. Instead, they huddle in their locker room each week for team meetings without ever stepping out on the field. The irony is that they take themselves very seriously –even though they don’t take God’s command seriously.

Here’s the scary part: Pastors are the coaches who enable this. Some even hope their members aren’t evangelistically-minded, so they won’t have to participate! Maybe they are scared they will lose their job if they rally they begin to expect evangelism from their congregation. Maybe they are simply too lazy to evangelize.

The Church in Black

Recently, I used Johnny Cash as an illustration in one of my sermons. I asked our youth how many of them had Johnny Cash on their IPOD. Several hands went up. Recently, I was riding with one of our deacons that is approaching 80 years old. I looked down at his floor board and saw just about every Johnny Cash tape that has ever been made. I had to think; what is it about this man that wins the affections of both teenagers and the elderly? How can both the MTV crowd and the Southern Baptist crowd esteem the same man? I believe it is his honesty. Here is a man that has been in the miry pit of drug addiction who single handedly destroyed his first family. In the depths of his depression, he crawled into the bottom of a cave to die, but instead was shown mercy by God. God slowly but surely pulled him out of the miry clay. The difference between Cash and others is that he never forgot the miry clay. He never forgot the darkness of Nickajack Cave. He didn’t trade in his black suits for white ones.
Could the church learn a few things from Cash? Are we losing our audience with our potpourri safe for the whole family Christianity? Have we forgotten what life is like in the miry clay of sin, or are we just too prideful to admit that we experience that miry clay daily? After all, we are Christians, and we have it all together. Right? I think far too often we think that the world wants immediate answers for all their problems, when really what they want is honesty and a little hope. I think it’s time that we as pastors lead the way in being honest about our struggles. After all, on this side of eternity there is a little of the man in black in all of us, we might as well be honest about it.

I am not loving it

We are needy people! Believers need one another if they are to successfully live out the Christian life. Christianity is impossible to live out in a singular, individualistic fashion. There are many reasons why that is true, such as the need for sharing spiritual gifts with one another (1 Cor. 12), the need to spur one another on to show love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24), the need for exhortation and admonishment (Col. 3:16), and the need to be part of a body that gives you fellowship and support (Ephesians 4:12-13). You simply cannot live out the Christian life without other people. Therefore, if you forsake meeting and gathering with your church, then you are denying your spiritual life a basic need that should be present. Some deny this need and suffer spiritually for it. Malnourished Christians are those who do not meet regularly with other believers for prayer, support, encouragement, and admonishment in the Word of God.

We all have a decision to make concerning church. In the last few decades, church in America has somewhat become another business competing for clients. This is not the fault of the church entirely. The church membership is equally at fault. Why? Because some families see church very similar to a McDonald's restaurant. You go when you want to or you go when you can. You go as long as the family is happy with the choice and the play land keeps the kids happy. If there is a sports event, Saturday late night activity, gymnastics, or hunting trip, then "McJesus" can wait. If everyone else in the neighborhood decides to go to Burger King, then your family may as well join them. No need to commit to anything at "McJesus." After all, it is just a business. The problem with this new trend in Christianity is that it is not Christian at all. Church is the body of Christ, not the place for bodily consumption. Therefore, we have a decision to make as believers. What attitude are we going to adopt, that of the culture or that of the Scripture?

Every family is going to have to tackle some hard questions on this issue at some point. For example: Are we going to turn this national church trend around by committing to one another and to one church? Do we see the value of our family going to the same church and not various churches due to another church offering a new "toy?" What are we teaching our children about church when we adopt a consumer mentality? How can they grow up to respect a "McJesus" anyway? Are we contributing to consumer church or are we teaching our family that we must be accountable to others?

The point is that we need one another for spiritual nourishment of our souls. You will not get the good Biblical nutrition needed if you turn church into a fast food outlet of consumerism. We need one another. I pray we all set our priorities in line and come together for church. It really is not optional if we are to grow up in the faith.

By Mark Livingston, First Baptist Keltys, Lufkin, TX