Prayer for pastors
April 9, 2009
“From moral weakness of spirit, from timidity, from hesitation, from fear of men and dread of responsibility, strengthen us with courage to speak the truth as our ministry requires, with the strength that can yet speak in love and self-control; and alike from the weakness of hasty violence and the weakness of moral cowardice; save us and help us, we humbly beseech thee, O Lord.“
~courtesy of Philip Ryken and Reformation21.
Dew of Hermon in Fort Lauderdale
March 24, 2009
Back in January I blogged re: the possbile merger of Coral Ridge PCA and New City EPC in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with New City Pastor Tullian Tchividjian as pastor of the united congregation. You can read about the approval of the merger and the call of Coral Ridge to Tullian here.
Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.
A word from the original Sweet Dropper
March 13, 2009
This is from Richard Sibbes‘ The Bruised Reed:
Christ’s work, both in the church and in the hearts of Christians, often goes backward so that it may go forward better. As seed rots in the ground in the winter time, but after comes up better, and the harder the winter the more flourishing the spring, so we learn to stand by falls, and get strength by weakness discovered—virtutis custos infirmitas (weakness is the keeper of virtue). We take deeper root by shaking. And, as torches flame brighter by moving, thus it pleases Christ, out of his freedom, in this manner to maintain his government in us. Let us herein labor to exercise our faith, so that it may answer Christ’s way of dealing with us. When we are foiled, let us believe we shall overcome; when we have fallen, let us believe we shall rise again. Jacob, after he received a blow which made him lame, yet would not give over wrestling (Gen. 32:25) till he had obtained the blessing. So let us never give up, but, in our thought knit the beginning, progress and end together, and then we shall see ourselves in heaven out of the reach of all enemies. Let us assure ourselves that God’s grace, even in this imperfect state, is stronger than man’s free will in the state of original perfection. It is founded now in Christ, who, as he is the author, so will he be the finisher, of our faith (Heb. 12:2). We are under a more gracious covenant.
Pardon my Greek…
January 27, 2009
Last night I watched Travel Channel’s curmudgeon/culinary tourist Anthony Bourdain‘s program on his visit the Greek islands. While on the isle of Crete, his host said to him at the table in heavy Greek accents, “If want to speak to the English, speak English. If want to speak to God, speak Greek!” This opinion is not too far off from what many in the church believe as well: that people who have studied the original biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek) have a special “in”–special access to the meaning of the biblical texts. This is nonsense at best and dangerous at worst. It begins, as most nonsensical and dangerous ideas do, with a bit of truth. We need an educated ministry, and study of the original languages is a vital part of that education. It takes at least a working knowledge of Hebrew or Greek to work with the substantial commentaries and language helps. But to believe that “if you want to speak with God, speak Greek” inevitably involves exalting the preacher as the definitive interpreter of the Bible. How can an untrained person disagree with an “expert”? George Bernard Shaw wrote in Act 1 of Major Barbara:
“Let me advise you to study Greek, Mr. Undershaft. Greek scholars are privileged men. Few of them know Greek; and none of them know anything else; but their position is unchallengeable.”
That being said, I need to come clean and admit that although I made good grades in seminary in languages, I am by no means a scholar of Greek or Hebrew and certainly not Aramaic. Frequent flaunting of my supposed knowledge Greek in a sermon is nothing less than false advertising and pride. As a result, I studiously avoid Hebrew and Greek discussions in my sermon. On the rare occasions that I do bring it forward, it is because I think that we can gain some significant insight or illustration of the meaning of the text by so doing. I think there is no place for placing the weight of novel or controversial interpretations on alleged nuances and subtleties of Hebrew or Greek studies.
Dr. Bill Mounce, who is a true scholar in biblical languages, recently blogged about this subject. He has outlined some principles for preachers to follow. I wholeheartedly subscribe to his views and found them to be good encouragement and correction. I never want someone to say to me after a sermon, “Well, I never would have gotten that out of that text.” But my heart rejoices when someone says, “Of course, there it is! I could have drawn that out of the text.” Baffling people with Greek exegesis and erudite presentations makes much of the preacher. However, it rarely makes much of Christ. Here is Mounce’s warning:
…people want to put you [the preacher] up on a pedestal. They want to think that you are different from them. But as I have told people many times from the pulpit, we are all gifted people in the same body, and only Christ is the head. My gift puts me up front and puts me in a position of leadership, but I am still just one gift in the midst of other gifted people.
Pray for your pastor(s)
January 22, 2009
I am still humbled and encouraged when people tell me, “Pastor, I pray for you.” Some remember us every day. In 2007 I shared with the prayer meeting group some suggestions as to how people can pray for the pastors (and John Piper’s influence is all over this piece). Here is the outline:
Pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ…that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak (Colossians 4:3-4).
1. Pray that we would be single-minded and united in our work: being resident theologians and missiologists, discovering the meaning of Scripture, developing a life of prayer and holiness, cultivating, and working for the cure of souls. Many little things conspire against this.
2. Pray for our purity. Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41). Pray that our minds and bodies be pure. If they are not, we become weak and useless. Who wants to drink water out of rusty cup?
3. Pray for our doctrinal faithfulness. Never take this for granted. An elder must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it (Titus 1:9). Keep a close watch on…the teaching (1 Timothy 4:16). Pray that a hundred years from now the leaders of FPC will believe and love and teach and obey the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27).
4. Pray for joyful, Christ-exalting marriages—marriages that set an example for others, that ease the burdens of the ministry, that display the mystery of Christ’s love for the Church, that bless our children, and that protect us all from scandal. It is easy for pastors to neglect this (1 Peter 3:7; Ephesians 6:4).
5. Pray for boldness and earnestness in proclaiming Christ and him crucified. Pray that no difficulty would deter us and no disappointment dishearten us. Pray that we would fear God more than we fear people.
6. Pray that we would be “unbusy.” What I mean is that we would work hard but not vainly crowd our day with conspicuous activity nor let others fill our schedules with imperious demands. Being “unbusy” frees us to do our proper work–for visionary, creative energy. Pray that we not be lazy or domineering or cynical. Pray that we would be sharp and unhindered. Pray that the edge of our blades will not get dull (Ecclesiastes 10:10)
7. Pray for the Spirit’s power. We do not want to counsel and pray and lead and plan and teach and preach without power. Ask the Lord to open hearts and change people through our ministry. Pray that we will be sharp instruments in the Redeemer’s hands–part of a great, global awakening of doctrinally mature, Christ-exalting, God-centered reformation of worship, teaching, nurture and reaching.
Decline and fall of charity
January 15, 2009
Here is an article called “The Decline and Fall of Charity.” The author notes some troubling statistics and trends in the giving habits of American churchgoers and troubling statistics and trends in the way that churches spend money. Here is an excerpt:
…fewer than 5 percent of churchgoers actually tithe 10 percent of their income; the average, according to numbers from Empty Tomb, a Christian research group that puts out annual reports on church giving, is now 3.4 percent, or 21 percent less than what dust-bowler counterparts gave during the worst of the Great Depression. Figures show that churchgoer contributions have been cascading downward since the 1960s. Religious conservatives do give more. Problem is, they only give nominally more and other groups give next to nothing.
May God deliver us from the consumeristic mindset (READ: idolatry) that is corrupting us all.
Orthodox, catholic, and charismatic
January 6, 2009
Is your church orthodox? Is it catholic? Is it charismatic? Around these parts, those words aren’t typically used to describe the church. In our ordinary usage, those terms mean something like this:
- Orthodox: dead, sterile and formal OR the kind of churches Greek people attend
- Catholic: affiliated with or sympathetic to the Church of Rome
- Charismatic: possessing magnetic charm OR tongues-speaking, pew-jumping worship that values spontaneity at the expense of decency and order
I agree with Dr. Donald Macleod that every authentic church must be orthodox, catholic and charismatic. Such words rightly understood would mean:
- Orthodox: professing and defending biblical truth (1 Timothy 4:6; Titus 1:9; 2:1; Jude 3)
- Catholic: belonging to the one church that Jesus has established and continues to build (Matthew 16:18; Acts 9:31; Ephesians 1:22; 5:23; 1 Timothy 3:15)
- Charismatic: depending upon the power, gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit for our survival and growth (John 3:5; 16:13; Romans 8:2, 9-11; 14:17; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 12:4ff; Galatians 5:5; Ephesians 2:18-22; 4:4; Revelation 22:17).
Make her wastes rejoice
December 29, 2008
As 2008 passes, The Sweet Dropper hopes that, whatever “bane and blessing, pain and pleasure” has come your way, Christ Jesus is more precious to you now than he was a year ago. Thanks to the digging and blogging of Tullian Tchividjian, here’s a glorious hymn by 19th-century Scotsman Horatius Bonar:
The Church has waited long,
Her absent Lord to see,
And still in loneliness she waits,
A friendless stranger she.
Age after age has gone,
Sun after sun has set,
And still in weeds of widowhood,
She weeps a mourner yet.
Saint after saint on earth
Has lived, and loved, and died;
And as they left us one by one,
We laid them side by side;
We laid them down to sleep,
But not in hope forlorn;
We laid them but to ripen there,
Till the last glorious morn.
The serpent’s brood increase,
The powers of hell grow bold,
The conflict thickens, faith is low,
And love is waxing cold.
How long, O Lord our God,
Holy, and true, and good,
Wilt Thou not judge Thy suffering Church,
Her sighs, and tears, and blood?
We long to hear Thy voice,
To see Thee face to face,
To share Thy crown and glory then,
As now we share Thy grace.
Should not the loving bride
Her absent bridegroom mourn?
Should she not wear the signs of grief
Until her Lord return?
The whole creation groans,
And waits to hear that voice
That shall her comeliness restore,
And make her wastes rejoice.
Come, Lord, and wipe away
The curse, the sin, the stain,
And make this blighted world of ours
Thine own fair world again.
Ave atque vale: Drew Blackwell, Sr.
December 4, 2008
Two weeks ago I had the privilege of proclaiming Christ at the funeral service of a friend in Macon, Mississippi. Drew Blackwell, Sr. and his family are precious to me and mine, and his unexpected death at the age of 53 brought us back together to weep and to remind each other that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. Drew was a good friend and a worthy deacon in the church there.
This week I sat down to write his wife a note, and I thought about a letter of sympathy in The Life and Letters of James Henley Thornwell, which I had read in 1993. Some echo of that letter rattled around my brain, and I was able to find it rather quickly. For a painfully brief bio of Thornwell, click here.
March 9, 1859
My dear Mrs. Bishop: I have just this moment received the painful intelligence of your husband’s death. Little did I dream, when I left him on Thursday morning, and when he so confidently expected to visit us in May, that my eyes should never more behold his venerated form…I need not say to you how deeply I sympathize with you in your sad bereavement. You have reason to weep. You have lost one who has left few equals on earth. He was a man of God; a man whose heart was in heaven, while his body freely mingled among the sons of men. He was a man of prayer, full of the Holy Ghost, full of zeal in his Master’s cause, and full of charity ot his fellow men. None knew him without loving him; and the more they knew, the more they loved him. I always esteemed his intimacy and friendship as among the richest blessings of my life.
Your loss is great. But in the midst of your sorrow you have much to be thankful for. You should be thankful for the many years you were privileged to enjoy the society, guidance, confidence, and love of such a man. It was a rich boon, and a boon conferred upon very few of your sex. You should be thankful for the precious memories which you are permitted to cherish of his conversation, his charities, and his zeal. You should bless God for the noble legacy he has left you and your children, in a pure example, a treasury of prayers, and a hearty consecration of you all to God. Depend upon it, you have been highly favoured; and you must not forget that, if your affliction is unusually severe, it is only because your blessings have pre-eminently great.
You know, too, that you shall see him again. Those who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. He is not dead, but sleepeth; and the Saviour, at the proper time will assuredly wake him; and you shall then see that his death, at this precise juncture, was the for the glory of God. In the meanwhile you are not a widow; for the Lord Jehovah promises to be your husband. Trust in Him, make His promises you portion, and, above all things murmur not against His will. His ways may be in the dark; but infinite wisdom, and goodness, and love, regulate all the dispensations of His providence to His children. What He does, you may not know now, but you shall know hereafter; and when you come to understand it, you will cordially approve it. Trust, therefore, in Him, and commit yourself and your children into His hands. Could your husband speak to you from the skies, this is what he would say to you…
The Lord bless you and keep you, and be the Guardian, Friend, and everlasting portion of you and yours.
Most truly your friend,
J. H. Thornwell
“I am busy because I am vain/lazy.”
November 15, 2008
Eugene Peterson’s The Contemplative Pastor grabbed me by the throat as I read it on vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains in September, 1994. One of the re-orienting thoughts he pressed upon me was the assertion that the adjective busy should not modify the noun pastor. He then made two simple observations:
- I am busy because I am vain.
- I am busy because I am lazy.
The first statement exposes the heart of business for the sake of pleasing and impressing other people, especially elders and influential people in the church. In subtle ways I can use my busy-ness as leverage to make people feel sorry for me (“You have such difficult work to do and so much of it!”) or to lower their expectations of me (“I understand if you don’t call me back; I know you’re busy.”). I’ve learned which people in our congregation are quick to respond in these ways. I’ve also learned that I must not use them to feed my vanity. With these folks I am quick to wave off their pity or low expectations. My job has difficulties I would not wish on many other people; however, everyone’s job has peculiar difficulties. My job puts me “on call” 24/7; however, there is a high degree of flexibility in my schedule as well for which my family and I are thankful. The bottom line: I need to work hard–not for the sake of appearing busy so I can impress people, but because my calling as a minister of gospel demands it.
The second assertion (“I am busy because I am lazy.”) seems contradictory. C.J. Mahaney is examining this phenomenon at his blog these days. See “Are You Busy?” and “Confessions of a Busy Procrastinator” (and the promise of related posts to follow). Peterson explains the apparent contradiction like this: if I do not know what I am supposed to be doing, other people and the old “tyranny of the urgent” will be glad to tell me what I am supposed to be doing. As a result, I run from one crisis to the next and avoid the more important, and perhaps unpleasant, tasks I ought to be doing. Again, this strategy feeds my idolatry: approval of others or love of convenience and comfort.
On my Facebook profile I describe part of my job as “working hard without appearing busy.” That phrase is a reminder to me about these thoughts. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ [Galatians 1:10].
