Giving Badges to Guys With a Bushy Mustache

    For a man will take hold of his brother
        in the house of his father, saying:
    “You have a cloak;
        you shall be our leader,
    and this heap of ruins
        shall be under your rule”;
    in that day he will speak out, saying:
    “I will not be a healer;
        in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
    you shall not make me
        leader of the people.”
(Isaiah 3:6-7 ESV)

In other words leadership is so scarce in the land that if a guy even looks like he could pose as a leader he is called for the job.  That’s like giving some dude a badge, a gun, and a nightstick just because he has a bushy mustache.  Paper leaders are often a sign of God’s judgment.  Specifically judgment for trusting in indispensable leaders instead of the God that creates these leaders. 

I sure am glad that we live in the New Testament era and we would never struggle with something similar.  You probably picked up on my sarcasm there didn’t you?  If you did, it is because you have been in a church that has crowned a guy youth pastor just because he seems to relate to students and has a couple Bible verses memorized.  Or you have witnessed the church call a man to be a deacon (or elder) simply because he is vocal at a few business meetings. 

Within many churches, service and leadership is so scarce that if someone even shows a faint resemblance of a leader they are immediately propelled into a position of authority.  Often, even foundational offices are selected more by what sucker will volunteer than any semblance of calling. 

Pastoral Idolatry and Discipleship

Is it possible that just as in the days of Isaiah God is displeased with our churches?  Specifically, that he is displeased with our leadership idolatry and so he has stripped us of leaders.  And perhaps He has done so in His grace, knowing that if we had a church filled with solid leaders that we would trust in their wisdom instead of trusting in the Lord Himself.

Is it possible that one of the reasons why churches look eerily similar to Isaiah 3:6-7 is because we have placed idolatrous trust in a CEO model of pastoral leadership?  Is it possible that we’ve somehow convinced ourselves that the church has two heads.  One of course, being our head nod to the Lord Jesus and then secondly our real leader the CEO pastor?  I think Paul Tripp is right, “if Christ is the head of his body, then everything else is just body, including the pastor…” 

Maybe our lack of leaders is a direct result of the unbiblical pedestal that we have placed pastors upon.  Maybe pastors become spent on being CEO of an organization and are never afforded the time or energy to actually do the work of pastoring and equipping saints for the work of ministry.  Yet, we know that we have to have somebody in these positions.  We rightly tell ourselves that the pastor and his staff cannot do everything.  So, we look around and find a few people that carry their Bible and make them Sunday school teachers.  Yet, we continue to have our pastor as CEO and give him only a scant amount of time to actually be about the work of ministry.

When your pastor is predominately a fireman don’t be surprised if people are not being discipled.  At its most basic form discipling someone is teaching them to obey Jesus while you obey Jesus with your life in front of them.  When the pastor is only putting out fires what do you think his “disciples” will be learning?  They certainly will not be learning how to go disciple someone else or how to become a fisher of men.  They’ll learn how to serve church problems.  Not how to draw deeply from the well of Jesus. 

Let’s not make our pastors so indispensable that they become idols.  It’s dangerous for them and for us.* 

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*As an associate pastor I’m part of the the “them” and the “us” in that sentence.

The Googlization of Bible Study

Yes, “googlization” is a word.  If you don’t believe me Google it.  Googlization refers to the rapid spread of Google, the internet king.  It’s affecting my brain.  And it’s affecting my Bible study.  That scares me. 

A couple of days ago I was reading through a particularly difficult passage of Scripture.  Five or six years ago I had tiny personal library and internet access that was slower than a turtle on Nyquil*.  When I came to a difficult section in Scripture I was forced to chew on it for awhile.  I had to think through it and pray through it and then write something out and make my best guess.  Then after about 15-20 minutes my page finally loaded and I was able to test whether or not I was a heretic. 

Now, I don’t need that chew time.  If I have a problem I simply Google it.  And it’s making me dumberer.  If I have an intellectual problem I tip my hat to Mr. Google and get an answer.  Very quickly.  I read through some sort of answer and then move on.  The problem with this, though, is that I have an answer but I do not own that answer. 

Google disseminates information.  That’s great and helpful…when what you need is information.  But the vast majority of what I need in personal Bible study and even sermon preparation is not information.  I need the Spirit of God to enliven the Word of God and transform my heart.  I need to chew on a text and sweat through it.  Google gives me too quick of an out.  It shortcuts my labor.  And as a result it shortcuts my ownership of the truth as well as my heart. 

Therefore, I am going to intentionally not Google unless I chew first.  I am determined to use Google primarily as a fact-checker instead of a fact-giver.  I want to think on my own.  I want to wrestle with passages of Scripture and not cheat by eating the fruit of somebody else’s labor.  I’m convinced that the best worship comes from the labor of scrapping with a text of Scripture instead of simply reading about some other dudes battle with that same text. 

Google is a poor replacement for the Holy Spirit. 

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*In case you are curious I have never actually given Nyquil to a turtle.  But that doesn’t mean I never will.  I’ve just never owned a turtle nor have I ever heard one sneeze.

Today in Blogworld 11.07.12

Marriage With a Chronically Self-Centered Spouse

Brad Hambrick has written an excellent series on marriage to a self-centered spouse.  My wife needs to read this. 

How to Disciple Your Wife

I think this is a very important question that every pastor needs to think through.  I know I’ve erred in going into “pastor mode” instead of “husband mode”.  I appreciate this article by Brian Croft.

It’s Dangerous In There Pastors

Matt Smethurst interviews Paul Tripp on his new book Dangerous Calling.  If you are a pastor you need to put this on your list of books to get. 

5 Leadership Lessons from Abraham Lincoln

I’d prefer five beard growing techniques.  But these are helpful too.  Trevin Wax uses Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book on Lincoln to show us five leadership lessons from Honest Abe’s life. 

Count me impressed.  This girl has talent:

Climbing The Wrong Mountain

I always have a sick feeling in my stomach when little children come up to my wife or myself with those fundraising magazines filled with overpriced candles and summer sausages.  Part of my sick feeling is that I will inevitably have to disappoint a child.  I simply cannot order from one child and not another.  Nor can I afford to order $30 trinkets from every student at church.  So, I get none of them.  But that is not the real reason for my sick feeling.

History.  That is the real reason that my stomach turns every time I see a little kid coming to me to buy $80 popcorn kernels to help out their school.  It pains me to see because I remember when I was that excited little kid with a glimmer in my eye.  You see when I was in first grade we did one of these fundraisers.  I did not yet understand that I was merely a cute little pawn in the scheme of some desperate principal.  I thought that when I sold a candle I would get a chunk of that money.  As the dollars racked up so did my hopes and dreams.  I thought about buying that new bike or maybe even one of those sweet remote control cars. 

I still remember the day of heartbreak when someone explained to me that I did not get any of the money.  Of course, if I sold enough items I could get a keychain with ALF on it.  But that was a paltry prize when my dreams had been so high.  That’s why I get a little sad when I see a happy little kid selling four gummy bears for $12.  I figure that her selling career is matched with a dream that will soon be crushed.  It’s painful to labor for a misguided dream. 

Isaiah 2

As I read through Isaiah 2 this morning my mind went back to the heartache of all the times I’ve built an empire in my mind only to see it crushed.  There is an interesting contrast in this passage of Scripture.  In the first five verses Isaiah paints a vivid picture of worshippers going up to the mountain of the Lord.  It is a beautiful picture of a future day when peace and justice reign and worship of Yahweh thrives in the land.  The first section closes with a call to the people of Israel.  Looking to the climax of the story of Yahweh, Isaiah implores the people:

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Verses 6-22 chronicles the bringing low of all the proud and lofty.  Everything that is high and lifted up is brought low as “the LORD alone will be exalted in that day”.  The picture is of two different mountains.  On one mountain, the mountain of the LORD, all the humble worshippers of Yahweh are exalted with Him.  On the other mountain, the mountain of man, all those trekking up her will be brought low by the terror and splendor of God has he terrifies the earth.  As Isaiah paints the picture of human boasting being brought low he questions the people:

Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?

Which Mountain Are You Climbing?

Isaiah 2 begs a very probing question to its readers.  Which mountain are you trekking up?  Are you laboring with all your energy up the mountain of human regard?  Are you giving all of your energies and staking your identity in a mountain that is going to be flattened by the terror of Yahweh?  Or are you plodding up the mountain of the LORD? 

Isaiah says that in the house of Jacob “there is no end to their treasures”.  It is a land filled with idolatrous riches.  Why do you think they have so many idols?  The flashy allure of the mountain of man has captivated their heart.  They are living to climb that mountain.  The “fortune-tellers like the Philistines” are present in Jacob because they regard the mountain of man as more valuable than the mountain of Yahweh.  These idols help them climb. 

The ESV Study Bible mentions that “Sennacherib, king of Assyria, boasted in terms of ‘the terror-inspiring splendor of my lordship’ in his writings.”  Yahweh laughs at such a foolish claim.  You want to see terror-inspiring splendor?  Sennacherib, you’ll be groveling in a bat cave and hanging out with moles.  When Yahweh wants to terrify there is none that can stand before him. 

That is the story that we are being asked to believe.  Will we be a people that believe Yahweh’s story of redemption or will we believe the Sennacherib’s of the world?  Will we be a people that regard man in whose nostrils is breath (Yahweh created breath)?  Or will we be a people that goes all-in on the story of Yahweh? 

As I ponder these questions for my own life I am also forced to ask them of my children, my wife, and the people God has called me to lead?  Am I a faithful Sherpa leading them up the mountain of Yahweh or am I leading them up inferior mountains that will be squashed before the terror of the Lord? 

May Jesus captivate my heart, so that my life is a trek up the mountain He rules instead of the mountain He squashes. 

One Way to Not Be a Boring Pastor

I am currently reading through Paul Tripp’s book, Dangerous Calling.  I read a statement today that I found to be a tremendous metaphor.  Speaking of the pastor practicing more self-disclosure in preaching, he says:

You quit being a painting that they gaze at, and you start being a window to the One who is your and their hope. 

I do not know if this metaphor is original with Tripp or not, but I find it very helpful.  As I stopped and thought about this metaphor I think it really helps on two levels. 

First, this is a helpful illustration of pastoral ministry because it puts the glory where it needs to be.  With a painting the glory goes to the guy whose name is signed in the corner.  When you look out the window the glory goes to the One whose fingerprints are all over that sunset (or at least it is more conducive to that).  Such is pastoral ministry.  At the end of sermons and other forms of ministry the glory does not belong in our hands.  Any pastor worth his salt points elsewhere.  This is the level that Tripp was using the illustration on. 

Secondly, it keeps the pastor from being boring.  Even the best paintings in the world are exhaustible.  You can only gaze at a painting for so long before you get a tad bored and want to move on to something else; like perhaps looking out a window.  Looking out the same window the scenery changes every day.  It will look very similar from day to day but there will always be something new.  If pastors are paintings they will be tapped out at the level of their own abilities and resources.  But if pastors are merely pointers to the Lord they will be as inexhaustible as the One to whom they are pointing. 

Perhaps the reason why some pastors no longer captivate is because they were always nothing more than a painting.  They’ve been exhausted.  The congregation knows everything about them.  Not in a looking out the window and seeing the same tree type of familiarity but in a I’ve heard this illustration 700 times pastor type of disdain.  Maybe this is why some pastors become like those travelling paintings that stay in one place for only a little while and then get loaded up on a van to go elsewhere.  “I’m no longer useful here” might be code for “people have stared at this painting long enough”. 

I want to be a window and not a painting.