If you haven’t seen Tina Fey’s “Sarah Palin” on SNL, you should. Very funny.
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What an awesome day out on the Murphy’s Farm for our Fall Fest. Check out the video below of the day’s events:
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The Grace Foothills Youth Group had a unique visitor tonight at their weekly meeting.
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- Sinclair Ferguson - “The Tongue, the Bridle, and the Blessing”
- Driscoll, Ferguson, Piper - Friday Panel Discussion
- Bob Kauflin - “Words of Wonder: What Happens When We Sing?”
- Mark Driscoll - “How Sharp the Edge: Christ, Controversy, and Cutting Words”
- Daniel Taylor - “The Life-Shaping Power of Story: God’s and Ours”
- Kauflin, Piper, Taylor, Tripp - Saturday Panel Discussion
- Paul Tripp - “War of Words: Getting to the Heart for God’s Sake”
- John Piper - “Is There Christian Eloquence? Clear Words and the Wonder of the Cross”
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I’ve been reading Tim Chester’s book, “You Can Change”. Some good thoughts on pastoring one another in the context of a gospel community. Some of his thoughts below:
Pastoral Care in Community:
Churches often have a very professional approach to pastoral care - it’s something done by a pastor or a counsellor. But Paul tells the whole Christian community in Ephesus to speak the truth to one another in love (Ephesians 4:15). The context is the gospel community (Ephesians 4:1-16) and the content is the gospel word (Ephesians 4:17-25).
God has given us the Christian community with all its differences and giftings as the context for change and growth. Paul says Christ ‘makes the whole body fit together perfectly’ (v. 16, NLT).
- you need to help others change
- you need to let others help you change
Pastoral care through the gospel:
We help one another change and overcome pastoral problems:
- by ‘speaking the truth in love’ (v. 15)
- by speaking ‘the truth that is in Jesus’ (v. 21)
- as we ‘put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbour, for we are all members of one body’ (v. 25)
- as we ‘do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.’ (v. 29)
We pastor one another through speaking the truth because our underlying issue is the ‘deceitful desires’ of our hearts (v. 22; see also Mark 7:20-23; Romans 1:18-25). Sin promises satisfaction, meaning, identity. but it deceives. In reality it enslaves and destroys. So we need to speak the truth to one another, calling on one another to repent of our idolatrous desires and turn in faith to the truth that is in Jesus.
Ordinary life with gospel intentionality:
So missional communities need to create a culture in which we encourage one another to challenge, comfort, console, exhort and rebuke one another with the gospel in the context of ordinary life.
If I’m moaning, I need someone to challenge me to find joy in Christ. If I’m anxious, I need someone to exhort me to trust in my heavenly Father’s care. If I’m ashamed, I need someone to comfort me with the grace of God. It might be another leader; it might be a new Christian. It might be in a scheduled meeting; it might be as we tend someone’s garden together.
This is not just about what happens in a weekly meeting. This is about gospel intentionality through the week in the context of shared lives. We need daily exhortation (see Hebrews 3:12-13). And we need it from people who see us in the daily grind of life, not just when we are on our best behaviour. Anger, frustration, bitterness, sulking, jealousy and malice are all signs that are idolatrous desires are being threatened or thwarted. We need people who see us when we are angry, frustrated and so on so they can challenge those idolatrous desires.
We need to create church cultures in which it is normal to comfort and rebuke one another. One of our dangers is that we only do this in times of crisis. As a result, speaking the truth in love actually creates a crisis. We need to think of church discipline not simply as a final act of excommunication - that kind of discipline rarely works. We need to think of it as a lifestyle of discipleship.
As with mission, this speaking the gospel to one another does not happen automatically. Hanging out with people is not enough in itself. If I go to the cinema or do some chores with you, that is not going to change you on its own. Again, we need ‘gospel intentionality’. We need to engage in every relationship thinking, How can I bless this person? What’s the next step for them? What truth do they need to here? It’s about ordinary life with gospel intentionality.
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I’m a big fan of “The Office”. Here’s a little clip to wet my appetite for tonight’s season premiere:
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From “The House of Hunt”:
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more awesome, it goes and get even more awesomer!
Yes ladies and gentlemen, the rumors are true. The Renewed Mind made it on to The Soup with Joel McHale! Amazing. Thanks to Jonny Moore (who really got this ball rolling the first time around) for letting me know. This trancends all levels of craziness to reach a superboss level that combines the goodness of The Muppet Show with ALF’s taste for fried cat. And to think that it all started with the humble little House of Hunt. You can all say you knew the Renewed Crew back when…
Observe.
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Maybe I’m just a Bible nerd, but I’m pretty stoked about the new ESV (English Standard Version) Study Bible that is coming out next month. John Piper seems to be just as stoked:
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In light of what’s happening on Wall Street, here are a few verses that I need to be reminded of:
Psalm 20:7, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”
Isaiah 31:1, Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD.”
Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
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Tonight, Amy and I are going to my 20th High School Reunion in Charlotte. If you want to know what I was like in High School, go rent Sixteen Candles and Teen Wolf. I was a combination of Anthony Michael Hall and Michael J. Fox in those films.
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“When my heart was opened to the gospel as it was preached to me as a child, I came face-to-face with Christ himself. True gospel preaching warms my heart because as I hear it, the Holy Spirit is bringing Christ to me once more, and once more he wins my heart.”
Tim Chester & Steve Timmis, Total Church
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“Sin isn’t only doing bad things, it is more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than on God. Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us. Sin is primarily idolatry.”–Tim Keller
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Next Thursday night, September 18, two friends of mine, Andy Mills and Dennis Mathis, will co-facilitate a round table discussion on Tim Keller’s “The Reason for God”. Check the details by clicking here.
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I’ve been reading a few books that are worth mentioning. The first one is “You Can Change” by Tim Chester. A great book so far that is about gospel centered growth in faith. Tired of “try harder/be better” approaches of growing in faith? Try this book out for a refreshing approach to following Jesus, struggles and all.
I’m also reading “Boundaries” by Henry Cloud and John Townsend. From the backcover:
Having clear boundaries is essential to a healthy, balanced lifestyle. A boundary is a personal property line that marks those things for which we are responsible. In other words, boundaries define who we are and who we are not. Boundaries impact all areas of our lives: Physical boundaries help us determine who may touch us, mental boundaries give us the freedom to have our own thoughts, emotional boundaries help us to deal with our own emotions and spiritual boundaries help us to
distinguish God’s will from our own.
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Last weekend, our friends Pat and Daniel Burke, invited us to a pre-season game as the Panthers romped the Redskins 47-3 (sorry, Pat). It was a great night in my hometown of Charlotte. Amy and I ate nachos and drank a big Coke. We were really living. After the umpteeth touchdown of the game, I shot a little footage with the digital camera:
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Wow, what an amazing week. If you don’t know, Josiah Bancroft and I spent this past week in the Czech Republic speaking to a group of Czech, Slavik, and Polish university students and professionals (with an student ministry called KVZ) on the principles of grace and applying grace to our lives. For me, it was a time of deep reflection of my own heart and how the Person and Work of Jesus is for me (and my marriage and my kids and my church and so on). It was also a time to make new friends with folks who speak a different language than me and whose culture is vastly different from my own. It was truly a blessing. The Czech Republic is the most atheistic country in the world, so the students who follow Christ truly pay a price (awkward relationships with parents mostly). To see their love for Jesus and their love for one another is really amazing and humbling to me. There is so much to say, but instead, enjoy the videos below to get a feel of what this last week was like. You may notice that a few of the videos are somewhat idiotic. I began to notice that by the end of the week, I was more playful with my humor (something the Lord has always given me). The cool thing about the gospel is that it frees me to not take myself so seriously. The last video is something we watched at last night’s large group meeting. It is a short film called “Most” and it was filmed in the Czech Republic and it is very powerful. To see all of our photos, click here.
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What a cool day. I am very humbled and grateful that I have this amazing opportunity to be here in the Czech Republic. Today we went to church, planted in 1996 by a group of grad students who came to faith in Christ through KVZ, the campus ministry organization that we will speaking with this week at their annual summer conference. The culture here is mainly atheistic because of the Communist government that was here through the last half of the 20th century. The Evangelical Christians makeup .05 percent of the population. Pretty different from the South in the USA!
After church, we ate lunch with our host family at the local mall and then went sightseeing around Brno. You can see our photos we took today by clicking here.
This will be the last blog entry I make until next Sunday, so pray for us and the people of the Czech Republic.
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Well, we made it on the first leg of this trip. We fly out of Atlanta at 7:30, on the plane for 9.5 hours and end up in Prague tomorrow morning at 11:00 (5:00 am Eastern Time). Saturday and Sunday will recoop days and then we end up at a camp outside Brno on Monday. The conference officially starts Monday night. Josiah will do the first lecture and then I’m up for the third lecture, which will be Wednesday night. The organization that we are meeting with is called KVZ, which is a Czech abbreviation for Christian Education and Life. I was reading their website which you can read by clicking here.
This may be the last time I have internet access, so the blog may be a little on the light side for the next week. Pray for us and I look forward to writing about my adventures in the next week.
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Last night, Larry King interviewed Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. This past May, the Chapman family tragically lost their 5 year old daughter when their 17 year old son accidently hit her with the family car in their driveway. The Chapman’s go to a sister PCA church in Franklin, TN. Let’s continue to pray for them as they on a daily basis must trust and rely on the Lord. There are 6 parts of the interview on Youtube, part 1 is below.
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Tomorrow, Josiah Bancroft and I are flying to the Czech Republic to speak at a conference for Eastern European university students and university ministry leaders that are part of an organization called KVZ. This is their annual summer conference and we will be staying at a camp outside Brno, Czech Republic. The Czech Republic is the most atheistic country in the world, so your prayers would be much appreciated as Josiah and I speak on the principles of grace and how the gospel is truly good news. This is from the wikipedia site on the Czech Republic:
“The Czech Republic, along with Estonia, has one of the least religious populations in all of Europe. According to the 2001 census, 59% of the country is agnostic, atheist, non-believer or no-organised believer, 26.8% Roman Catholic and 2.5% Protestant.[20]
According to the most recent Eurobarometer Poll 2005,[21] 19% of Czech citizens responded that “they believe there is a God”, whereas 50% answered that “they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force” and 30% that “they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, or life force”, the lowest rate of EU countries after Estonia with 16%.[22]“
Also pray for my sleep. I don’t sleep that great here, so I’m just a little anxious of sleeping several time zones away. Amy and the boys are going to Memphis while I will be gone, so that’s good, near family and all. I won’t have internet access much of the time away, but when I do, I’ll try to blog and give a little update on what the Lord is doing over there. We get back on August 18. Thanks for your prayers.
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As my boys get a little older, I am exposing them to different genres of music. There is only so much “little kid’s music” a person can take. This week, it’s Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Boston’s “More than a Feeling”, and the best song of all time, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”.
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I don’t know about you, but I struggle to pray. It’s like a forget that I have a God who is interested in me and desires to talk and desires for me to listen to Him. My prayer life reflects that of a Deist (someone who believes that there is a God, but He’s not really engaged with the world or it’s residents) and not of someone who has been bought with the precious blood of the Second Person of the Trinity. He calls me a son and I live like an orphan. I need you to pray for my praying. Joe Thorn has a wonderful post on this, read it here.
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If you haven’t seen “The Dark Knight” you really should. Many are calling this film the “Citizen Kane” of comic book films. Man, there is so much there. Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker is mesmerizing. In the Christianity Today Review, Todd Hertz writes,
“Since seeing the movie, I’ve been asked if it was strange seeing the deceased Ledger. But I didn’t see Ledger here. He looks different. He moves different. He sounds different. The actor completely disappears into this bizarre, maniacal, and brilliant mastermind. He brings a devastating calm, a perverse self-delight, and an unhinged disconnect to this iconic character. Many of the Joker’s scenes, especially one with Bale, have “new classic film moment” written all over them. And future lists of great movie villains will now have Ledger’s name on them.”
There is a line in the film that has stuck with since I saw it last week. Alfred the butler and Bruce Wayne are talking about why The Joker does what he does. Is he greedy? Does he lust for power? Alfred says, “It’s not greed or power. Some men just want to see the world burn.” Immediately, I was confronted with my own heart. “That’s me,” I thought. This is how sinful I am, apart from Christ, I “just want to see the world burn”. Of course, there is much redemption in this film as well, but I won’t write any spoilers for those who haven’t seen it yet.
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As we are approaching the Fall, I am reflecting a bit on what Grace Foothills will look like. What is God’s ideal for this church? What does Jesus desire for this rag-tag (of course, I am the biggest example of a ragamuffin) group of folks living in Polk County, NC to look like? These are questions that we must continue to visit as the Gospel Message shapes us and changes us. Here are a few ideas of what a gospel community could look like from The Crowded House, a network of missional churches in London:
1. the priority of the gospel
We are committed to filling ordinary life with gospel intentionality, pastoring one another with the gospel and sharing the gospel with unbelievers. We challenge one another to be sacrificial, servant-hearted, risk-taking and flexible because the gospel has priority over our comfort, preferences, security and traditions. We will not let Christian activity be just one part of our lives.
2. mission through community
We are committed to communicating the gospel message in the context of a gospel community. As we build relationships with people and share the gospel message, we want to introduce them to Christian community. We want people to experience church as a network of relationships rather than a meeting you attend or a place you enter. We will not put on evangelistic missions outside the context of a Christian community.
3. sharing our lives as extended family
We are committed to sharing our lives in Christian community, caring for one another, discipling one another and resolving conflict. We expect one another to make decisions with regard to the implications for the church and to make significant decisions in consultation with the church. We will not let conflict continue unresolved, nor view church simply as a meeting you attend.
4. inclusive communities
We are committed to welcoming broken people and making church accessible to unbelievers. We want to offer a sense of belonging, and be communities of grace in which people can be open and vulnerable. We will not let our welcome be dependent on adherence to any cultural norms not demanded by the gospel.
5. working for county renewal
We are committed to working for neighborhood and county renewal – redressing injustice, pursuing reconciliation and welcoming the marginalized. We celebrate the diversity of cultures in our local contexts while recognizing the need for gospel renewal. We encourage one another to glorify God and serve others through the workplace, business, community projects, government and artistic endeavor. We will not make a division between spiritual and non-spiritual activities.
6. growing by starting churches and church planting networks
We are committed to starting new congregations. We will work together within, between and beyond our networks of missionary congregations. Our vision is to collaborate in a wider church planting movement to litter the world with communities of light. We will not develop into single, large congregations, nor become insular congregations.
7. prayer as a missionary activity
Recognizing that God is the primary agent and orchestrator of mission, we view prayer as a missionary activity. We will offer prayer to unbelievers, witnessing to a living and personal relationship with our sovereign Father. We want prayer to be both a regular community discipline, and an impromptu response to needs and opportunities. We will not assume we are in control of mission, nor rob God of his glory by boasting of our achievements.
8. everyone exercising gospel ministry
We are committed to every Christian seeing themselves as a missionary and exercising gospel ministry in every aspect of life. We shape activities around gospel opportunities we have with unbelievers, and the gifts and passions of church members. We believe leadership is important, seeing leaders as facilitators of gospel ministry rather than those who exercise control. We will not make distinctions between full-time and nonfull-time ministers.
9. shaped by the Bible story
We want our lives and our life together to be formed and shaped by the Bible’s story of redemption. We believe the Bible to be the reliable, authoritative and sufficient word of God, and are therefore committed to good Bible learning. We will not act on the basis of tradition, habit or pragmatism without reflection on the Bible. We will not see Bible teaching as an end in itself, but as that which must shape our thinking and action.
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