Review of The Pastor’s Justification by @JaredCWilson

“That was terrible. I totally blew that sermon. Nobody was paying attention. Heck, I almost fell asleep..and I was the one preaching.”

There I was wailing and moaning and discouraged by a sermon that didn’t go the way that I thought it should have.

Then my sweet wife lovingly rebuked me. I don’t think she meant to really rebuke me, but she did. She quietly said, “Mike, I wish you wouldn’t speak that way after a sermon. Because when you do it makes me not believe what you just preached. Nor do I think you really believe what you just said.”

Ouch.

She was right. I had probably been preaching on the sufficiency of Jesus, the benefits of the gospel, the power of the risen Christ, etc. etc. and I left the pulpit not believing a one of them—at least not applying them.

It’s not always that way. Sometimes I exit the pulpit floating on cloud nine. I know that I knocked it out of the park. Everything that I wanted to say, I said eloquently. No slip ups. I preached passionately. I did it the way that you are supposed to. (Minus the pride of course). Totally faithful to the text. Centered on Christ (except for that pride thing again).

For some reason fewer people seem to have been impacted—but it’s probably because they are just soaking up my awesome sermon.

Both of those episodes betray a heart of unbelief. A foolish heart of unbelief. And I could replace preaching with counseling, planning, living, leading, loving, and a host of other things and it would be the same. We pastors (we disciples) vacillate between moments of pride convinced of our awesomeness and moments of despair convinced of our complete unworthiness.

Enter the Pastor’s Justification

This is why a book like The Pastor’s Justification is so helpful. Jared Wilson is a good writer. One of the things that sets this book apart from the others is that Jared can just flat out write. But more than anything Wilson keeps the gospel front and center. That is important—no, that is vital.

It is vital because the same gospel that strengthens and encourages the discouraged pastor is the same gospel that rebukes and humbles the puffed up pastor. Both need the gospel. In both of these foolish responses we need the sufficient Christ to remind us of who we actually are—not awesome and not scum. We are His. The gospel brings the lofty low and exalts the humble—bringing both to the place of Christ.

Wilson writes as a pastor. This means that he is not afraid to speak in a prophetic voice, as when he speaks to younger pastors:

Young men, be teachable. You do not know everything. And your theology and your position are never licenses for authoritarianism. If you don’t want others to look down on your youth, don’t look down on their age.

Yet, Wilson also speaks with pastoral tenderness and encouragement. After listing a myriad of questions that bring to light our sinfulness, he writes this:

You and I both know that you have transgressed over and over and over again. And you’re going to stand before a holy God to be judged by these things, according to a stricter standard than all other because you are a pastor, and he will ask you to give an account. And looking back over the failures of your life and ministry, you will grasp at straws. What do you think he will say to you?

“Justified.”

In this book Jared does what a good pastor does, he points to Jesus at every corner. He uses the glaring holiness of Jesus to expose our pride, sinfulness, and foolish ways that we pastor. And He uses the wide mercy of Christ to comfort weary pastors.

The Pastor’s Justification is a book that every pastor would do well to purchase. It has some of the same benefits as Paul Tripp’s, Dangerous Calling, and reads like Eswine’s Sensing Jesus. Those were two books that really benefited me in 2012. This book stands toe to toe with those immensely helpful books. But Jared’s writing has a tendency to stick in my brain and rattle around in my soul better than many other books on pastoral ministry.

You can buy it here. And you probably should.

Putting Online Shepherding In Its Place

“Shepherd the flock of God that is among you…”

When Al Gore invented the internet* a new opportunity for “pastoring” was also invented. With a few strokes on my keyboard and a click of the mouse I can sit under teaching from all around the world. I can be “pastored” by a guy that I’ve never met and live in a “community” filled with people I’ve never actually seen. 

I believe God inspired Peter to add those little words, “that is among you”, for a reason. You cannot rightly “exercise oversight” if you’ve never actually sat across from a person. That is why Peter exhorts the elders to shepherd the flock that God has placed before them…not some other dudes flock, and not the one that is in your imaginary dream world. The flock that actually exists, right under your nose.

1 Peter 5:2 is an important word for those of us that have an online writing ministry. Our audience (oh, how I dislike that word), is not our flock. We aren’t their shepherd. They are not our sheep to tend. As much as I love the people that read this blog and appreciate their readership I have to remember that unless they are also members of FB Jasper, I’m not their primary under-shepherd.

Why do people seek online shepherds?

There are three major reasons that I believe people are drawn to an online “pastor” and community instead of the real thing.

The first reason is that there really are bad shepherds out there that are starving their sheep. Not everybody can just move to a new church—as some may not have a biblical shepherd for hundreds of miles. Hungry sheep desire food and so they go to the internet to be satiated.

Secondly, some sheep are discontented and shouldn’t be. Their pastor won’t be speaking at any conferences, writing any books, or much else that would make him a Christian celebrity. He loves Jesus, is as faithful as he knows how to be, but Joe Pewsitter isn’t satisfied with him or his teaching so he goes to the internet to listen to his favorite celebrity. He’d likes the way that Pastor Superstar preaches and teaches so he’ll follow him instead.

Lastly, it’s easier to hide. You can get what you want online. You don’t have to deal with the messy of actual relationships. If you don’t like what somebody says just click on another link. If you don’t want to be confronted on sin then don’t type your sin into a search engine. Just follow the speakers that you like, read the articles that agree with you, and keep yourself safe. You can’t do that in a real community.

What 1 Peter encourages me to do in response

As one of those online writers I feel that I have responsibility. If someone is following me because he/she is surrounded by unfaithful shepherds then I’m truly thankful to the Lord for using me to feed His sheep. At the same time I readily acknowledge that I’m not the ideal pastor for this person. I will encourage him/her to pray that God would give him/her a faithful shepherd. Either through changing the hear to the current pastor(s) or bringing new ones. I’m thankful that God uses me in the interim but I have to remember that is exactly what it is.

If somebody is following me simply because they are discontent with their pastor I need to be careful. That can really stroke my ego. I can go off thinking that I’m doing a better job than Pastor X at shepherding his flock. Even if that were true (and it probably isn’t) God has called someone else to be their shepherd. My responsibility is to help them love the shepherd(s) that God has given them.

I also need to be aware that people like the comfort of an online community and pastor over the real thing. This will help me to encourage people that I “counsel” online to actually pursue a local church.

If you have an online writing ministry you need to make certain that you keep it in it’s proper place. You are not a replacement pastor. You are a supplement, a help, a voice, to encourage people to love Jesus more. And as such you know that one of the best ways that people grow in loving Jesus more is by growing in their love for the under-shepherd(s) that God has already given to them.

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*I’m sorry, I can’t stop making that joke no matter how old it gets.

The Stooping Christ and Social Media

“…their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.” –Nehemiah 3:5

All of the returning exiles were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Everybody is wearing a tool belt and getting their hands dirty. Nobody is immune from serving…except for the nobles of the Tekoites. Not these guys. These guys are leaders. Leaders lead, they don’t stoop.

Nehemiah is already leading this gig, so the only position left along the wall is to strap on a tool belt and get to work. The nobles are obviously above doing such a menial job. They remind me of Michael Scott, from The Office.

In an early episode, a sensitivity trainer (Mr. Brown) has to come to the office because of an offensive Chris Rock joke that Michael retold. Mr. Brown very kindly puts the entire office through the training so as not to single out Michael. Towards the end of the episode we are informed that the only signature needed is that of Michael Scott, yet he refuses to sign. His reason?

“I can’t sign this because I didn’t learn anything. I could maybe sign something that says that I taught something”.

Michael Scott couldn’t stoop.

Jesus does.

One of the most astonishing claims of the Bible is that God Himself took upon human flesh. He not only “made himself nothing” by taking on human flesh, but he also “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death”. And this was no ordinary death, this was “even death on a cross”. Jesus, the King of all kings, the most noble of all nobles, would stoop to any depth to serve the Father.

Do we?

There is a common theme that I observe on Twitter that bothers me. I fear that some pastors today are following the way of the Tekoite nobles instead of the way of Jesus. They appear to be more concerned with being epic than with stooping to serve.

Everyday Twitter dutifully informs me that I have new “followers”. Almost every day I am followed by a leader-man that is obviously destined to be epic. He’s got a rockin’ ministry name. His hair is amazing. His smile could win a beauty pageant. Everything about this guy screams out that he is put together. His bio reads something like this:

Pastor. Disciple of Jesus. A leader that leads other leaders to lead others into Awesomeness. I’m a leader. I encourage others. Check out my website: awesomeleadershelpingawesomeleaders.com

I’m expected to follow Captain Awesome. When I don’t (and I seldom do) then I am quickly unfollowed. I’m not cheesed by them dropping me; I’ve learned to grow content with whatever audience the Lord gives me. But this pattern bothers me still.

For one, it bothers me because I see my own heart in these descriptions. I write so much against “being epic” because deep within me is a drive to be a difference maker. This is an idol that the Lord is uprooting from my heart. So, I’m sensitive to this.

Secondly, it makes me throw up in my mouth a little because it is so opposite the way of Jesus. Doing things like following a ton of people so as to get re-followed might be winning the social media game, but I’m convinced that it’s a wrong-hearted focus that looks more like a Tekoite noble than our humble Messiah. 

It is my prayer that we might use social media to help us become more like Christ and not less. I pray that pastors, ministers, and disciples of every ilk increasingly become more like Christ and less like nobles that refuse to stoop.

Why Were Job’s Friends Rebuked?

Don’t be like Job’s friends.

I’ve said that quite a few times when encouraging people not to be miserable counselors to suffering people. In the face of a hurting and destitute Job—who at times was even suicidal—all these friends did was spout theological truths and tell Job that if he would repent then things would get better for him.

Finally in Job 42:7 we hear what we have been longing for throughout the entire book; namely, the rebuke of Job’s friends. The LORD said to Eliphaz, “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”

What did they say that was untrue?

The core of their theology was that God does not punish the righteous. Suffering comes because of discipline from the Almighty. “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.”

All suffering is a punishment for sin. All prosperity is a reward for righteousness. God is just and He does not punish the righteous. Therefore, Job must be sinning or else he would not be suffering. If he repents the Lord is gracious and He will heal and restore Job.

Before we dismiss their theology we should consider a key verse in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 28 the Lord outlines what will happen if the Israelites faithfully obey the Lord. “All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God”. Prosperity is the reward for righteousness.

“But if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” Suffering is the punishment for sin.

Job’s friends passed their Old Testament class in seminary. Sort of. They got the multiple choice questions correct but they blew it on the essay where they were to apply their theology.  The problem is that they take something that is true and offer it as the only explanation for Job’s suffering. This is where I get an axiom that I teach my students: good theology that is wrongly applied, stinks.

Proverbs 22:6

It is a general principle that if you “train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it”. Except sometimes they do. And the parents did everything they could to train up their child. They were good and godly parents just like Job was a righteous man. But for some reason their child departed from the faith.

Those that follow in the stead of Job’s friends will assume that a rebellious child must equal ungodly parents. It might. But it does not have to; assuming that it does will cause one to speak things that are untrue of God.

There are some things that are always true no matter the context; i.e. Jesus Christ is the only way to God. But there are some things that are generally true but shouldn’t be applied as if they are always true. The wise counselor won’t flatten truth the way Job’s friends do. Instead the wise counselor will hold the hand of suffering people as they, as Job, grope to find the One that is Truth and in whom is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

My Thoughts on James MacDonald’s “Resignation”

Last week James MacDonald resigned. Not as pastor or anything like that. He resigned his post as “fixer”:

No more setting people straight, helping others see the light. No more putting people on a program or convincing them to look in the mirror and see what they refuse to believe. Helping? Yes. Praying? For sure! Preaching? Always and with increased power, I pray. But fixing people individually? I’m done!

I first read MacDonald’s article after reading the response from Dan Phillips. Others on Twitter expressed concern over MacDonald’s words. Personally, I think this could serve to spur us on towards a helpful conversation.

The first time that I read through the article I was put off by what MacDonald was saying. I wondered if he was completely resigning from doing the messy stuff of pastoral ministry. It seemed to me that he was essentially saying, “I’m not going to be in the business of trying to help people anymore, nobody appreciates me anyways”. It sounded like an angry tirade.

Then I read it again and realized that MacDonald’s central point is that he is no longer going to try to fix people that don’t ask for it. Some of the anger that I had picked up was directed towards his old way of doing things. So now he is resolved to not offer counsel unless asked. As MacDonald says,

“Where the fixer is uninvited and the receiving heart is unreceptive, it’s far better to pull up and kneel down—interceding for a better reception, a more timely time, or a more worthy messenger.”

What I take from MacDonald is that he is going to stop initiating “fix you” conversations. He’s going to be more concerned about the things that he is called to do and less concerned about other people—unless they ask him for assistance.

Where I Agree

As I read through MacDonald’s post I think he actually has a solid point. We are prone to worry about taking the speck of dust out of our brothers eyes without looking at the log in our own. There is a certain type of person that goes about trying to fix everyone as if he/she is helping along the Holy Spirit. I believe MacDonald is saying that he no longer wants to be this guy.

This is good. We shouldn’t be that guy. If this is all MacDonald says, then I’m in agreement with him. I wish he would have been a little more careful with his words and tried making the point in a little less shocking way—but that’s forgivable. I know there have been times when I’ve let art get in the way of clarity.

Where I Might Disagree…

While I find some agreement with Macdonald, his post still causes me to be unsettled. There is some truth in saying “if people don’t want to change there is no use trying to help”. But it’s also an incomplete truth because God’s Word is more powerful than our foolish resistance. The powerful word of God is the means that God uses to “fix” people.  

As ministers of the Word of God occasionally we are called to bang our head against a wall that probably shouldn’t budge. We do so because we know that there is power in the Word of God. Worldly wisdom says that the heart of kings isn’t supposed to turn, yet Nathan boldly proclaimed truth to a King that didn’t want to face his sin. In the same way it’s a solid axiom that you cannot help people that do not want to help themselves. But isn’t the Word more powerful than this axiom?

We must proclaim God’s Word humbly and lovingly. Yes, as we attempt to restore those that are “caught in transgression” we must do it with a “spirit of gentleness” while also “keeping watch on ourselves”. But simply being prone to hypocrisy and having a tendency to botch “pulling specks out of our brothers eyes” doesn’t necessitate the pendulum needs to swing to silence.

Yes, there might be a time to “shake the dust off our feet” but that should not be our default position. And this is what still has me unsettled about MacDonald’s “resignation”. It seems as if his default position goes against the Scriptural admonitions to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching”. That charge doesn’t seem to be something reserved for a Sunday morning sermon. And if you keep reading in that passage in 2 Timothy he is charged to do those things in the context of those that “will not endure sound teaching”.

Now if MacDonald is simply saying that he will continue to exhort, reprove, and rebuke but not try to play the role of the Holy Spirit, I agree. And it’s a good point—that I believe he made somewhat poorly. But my concern is that in embracing something good (not thinking you are deity) MacDonald is adopting something that is not good (being silent when we ought to speak).

What are your thoughts? At one point do we “resign”? Can we?

A Leadership Lesson From @JohnPiper

In preparing a training session on hospitality I found myself wading through a few older John Piper sermons. In one particular sermon from 1985 I read this quote:

“When I am dead and gone and another man stands in this pulpit to candidate as your pastor, O how I pray that you will ask: Does he relate everything to God? Or is he content to simply promote morals? Is there distinctively Christian theology in all he says? Or could his messages be spoken by a tender-hearted secular psychologist with keen insight into how to get along better?”  -John Piper, sermon from 1985

That was 1985. Fast forward to 2012/13. The day has arrived when “another man stands in the pulpit” of Bethlehem Baptist Church. That man is Jason Meyer. Of whom Piper has said:

I joyfully and expectantly commend him to you with all my heart. Not only because of a long list of gifts and graces and competencies, but also because I believe God has chosen him and anointed him for this role. May the Lord confirm this with a hope-filled, happy, unified vote of the Bethlehem family.

It is because of the mercy and goodness of God that Bethlehem Baptist Church is supplied with a godly pastor. The means that God used to accomplish that purpose can be found in Piper’s statements from 1985. For 30 years he gave his flock a vision of what his successor should look like. It was not by accident that Piper could say, “I joyfully and expectantly commend him to you with all my heart”. Piper had labored for that moment for three decades.

The lesson for us?

The second that you step into the pastorate begin preparing the congregation for your successor and being praying for him.

It is not that you do not intend to have staying power. You prepare for your successor because you are not in control of your stay. Unless the Lord returns, the church you now serve will someday have someone else as their shepherd. A faithful shepherd prays that his sheep are fed for their entire life—not just for the season in which he has the title of her pastor.

How Would You Spend $100 on Pastoral Ministry Resources

I’m a new pastor. I’ve got about $100 and not much of any library. I want hard copies—non of that e-reader stuff. When I was ordained last week a former professor bought me 5 books from your preaching list. Now I need to focus on building a few resources to help me with pastoral ministry. What do you suggest?

Here is my answer:

1. Dangerous Calling by Paul Tripp for $12 
2. The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter $8
3. 9 Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever $11
4. The Conviction to Lead by Albert Mohler $15
5. Brothers We Are Not Professionals by John Piper $10
6. Instruments in the Redeemers Hands by Paul Tripp  $12
7. Download this letter from John Newton $FREE

That’s about 70 bucks. Take the next $30 and take your wife out on a date.

Also there are a couple of books that you can get online for free that are great classics. I know you like hard copies so maybe you can save up a little money and print these off somewhere. Lectures to My Students by Spurgeon is an invaluable resource as is Charles Bridges’ The Christian Ministry.

I would also advise you to find an older pastor that is willing to mentor you. He’ll be really helpful also when you have questions about how to do a baptism, how to train a Sunday school teacher, etc. And he will talk you off the ledge when you want to give up after a few Monday’s on the job.

Lastly, find another pastor from history and make it your life ambition to follow him as he follows Christ. I’ve begun a lifelong friendship with John Newton—I just wish he knew it. You can get his 6 Volume works online for about $100.

How would you answer this question?

A Word to Weary Pastors

“75% of pastors report severe stress causing anguish, worry, bewilderment, anger, depression, fear, and alienation.” –Pastor Burnout

In the loneliness of the pastors office, with the walls closing in around him, the pastor mumbles to himself. “Why do I even do this?” With complaints and unhelpful criticism assaulting his fraying mind he stares at a stack of papers and books that cry for his attention. As he sits down on Friday afternoon to begin sermon preparation, his mind wanders to all of the ministers that are faltering, marriages crashing, teenagers rebelling. It’s no wonder that he asks the question—“Why am I doing this”.

Isaiah 50:4 tells this weary pastor why:

“The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary”.

Sustaining the weary with a word from Yahweh is why this weary pastor will press on. The labor of study, pouring over Greek texts, boring commentaries, and difficult verses has a purpose. The pastor sweats in his office so that he might have “the tongue of those who are taught”. He does this because he knows that weary sheep need fed.

But what does the pastor do when he is weary?

Sometimes a pastor simply needs to buck up, stop whining, and get to the business of feeding the sheep. At other times the darkness is too deep. In either case what the weary pastor needs is a word from the Suffering Servant.

Pastor, Isaiah 50 is not fundamentally your song. It is the song of Another, known as the Suffering Servant. You and I are the weary in this song. The one who sings this song has already given his beard to be plucked and his cheeks to be struck. He has already set his face like a flint and climbed upon a Roman cross. And He has already been vindicated by the Lord. You and I need the finished work of the Suffering Servant in order to be faithful servants that suffer well.

As weary pastors we can press on because Christ has secured not only His own vindication but ours as well. Because of His work we too can “set our face like a flint” and get about our work of “sustaining with a word him who is weary.”

Pastor, you can endure because He already has. You know weariness. So also do the sheep under your care. Heal them with the words that have healed you. “The tongue of those who are taught” is crafted in the kiln of affliction.

May he “awaken our ears to hear as those who are taught”.

Feeding Sheep, Even If They Don’t Want to Be Fed

This is too good not to share. William Still brings it to a group of pastors:

If you think that you are called to keep a largely worldly organization, miscalled a church, going, with infinitesimal doses of innocuous sub-Christian drugs or stimulants, then the only help I can give you is to advise you to give up the hope of the ministry and go and be a street scavenger; a far healthier and more godly job, keeping the streets tidy, than cluttering the church with a lot of worldly claptrap in the delusion that you are doing a job for God. The pastor is called to feed the sheep, even if the sheep do not want to be fed. He is certainly not to become an entertainer of goats. Let goats entertain goats, and them out in goatland. (Still, The Work of the Pastor, p10, emphasis mine)

Shepherds are called to help sheep die to themselves and find true life in Christ. That isn’t always popular. Yet our call remains “feed the sheep, even if the sheep do not want to be fed”.

Still’s book is phenomenal and a very quick read. It is one that every pastor ought to read and heed. You can get it here.

Six Tips for Helping the Busiest of Pastors to Start Writing

In his book, 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters, Albert Mohler states that, “Leaders who want to make a difference, and to make that difference last, must write.”

I am passionate about writing. I’ve often wondered if I’m a pastor who writes or a writer who pastors. In actuality I don’t think these two can be easily separated. Writing is a huge part of my pastoral ministry. It’s easy for me to heed Mohler’s advice to write. Other pastors have to work harder at writing. For those of you that read my article yesterday on 7 Reasons Why Pastors Should Be Writers, and immediately thought to yourself, “no way, man”. This article is for you.

Here are Six Tips for Helping the Busiest of Pastors to Start Writing

1. Write out your sermons and edit them for the public. You don’t have to go into the pulpit with a full manuscript if that isn’t your bag. But it does help to be intentional about your thoughts and really flesh out the right words. Once you write your sermons you could easily turn one sermon into a week of blog posts.
2. Prioritize. It is essential that you are convinced that writing is a vital part of your ministry. If not it will get thrown aside quickly. Force yourself to write at least something every day.
3. Make it part of your devotional time. Do your daily devotionals with a pen and paper. Write out your thoughts and prayers. Go back to them a week later and try to craft them into an article.
4. Avoid procrastination, today. This is especially for those of us that have deadlines to meet. If you don’t take captive every moment then sure enough you’ll be called out for a hospital visit when you had planned on writing.
5. It’s okay if you aren’t Stephen King. You don’t have to be the best writer in the world. Just write something. If it’s not good enough for publication then keep it between you and your aunt Maude. Or perhaps try a blog. That’s where us not-ready-for-primetime players get our feet wet and actually get gooder…I mean better.
6. Read Good Writers. You will get better at communicating if you take the time to read those that have mastered the craft. Don’t spend all your time in commentaries. One of the most helpful things that you can do for your preaching and ministry is to read a good novel. (Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I know that the power is in the Word preached and not the preachers eloquence. But we don’t necessarily have biblical promises attached to the words that we choose in business meetings. Those can be made better by reading helpful communicators).

7 Reasons Pastors Should Be Writers

“You need to stop writing so much and start doing more ministry”.

I’ve heard that criticism several times. And it always comes from the same place. Myself. I’m not alone in that criticism, though. I hear the rumbling throughout evangelicalism. (See here for an example). “Writing isn’t doing”.

To fight this voice of discouragement I’ve come up with seven reason why pastors ought to be writers. In fact I believe that writing is one of the most important things that a pastor can do with his ministry. Here is why:

1. Writing assists thinking. Forcing yourself to put thoughts to paper will assist in bringing clarity to all the ideas floating around in your head.
2. Writing makes for better communicators. Being an intentional in writing will hone the way you use words. This will make you a far better communicator in the pulpit and elsewhere.
3. Writing leads to more thoughtful reading. If you intend to interact and write about, review, or recommend something you are reading then it will make your reading that much better.
4. Writing gives you an outlet. Pastors often have an overflow of content in sermon preparation. We also need an outlet for the many things we deal with each day. Writing (even if it’s not intended for publication) will create an outlet.
5. Writing makes your blood visible. What I mean by this is that writing often helps you to know what you are passionate about. It shows you what gives you life. Often you have things bubbling inside of you that you aren’t even aware of until you connect your heart to a pen.
6. Writing will last. I have a library filled with books that I access all the time. Even though I can access a ton of sermons online I seldom do. Writing lasts in a way that the spoken word does not.
7. Writing demands attention. Al Mohler says that “the written word can do what the spoken word simply cannot do—sit flat on a page and demand attention”. It’s hard to ignore the written word, which you can read over and over again without it changing forms.

For these reasons I believe writing not only assist my wider ministry but it is a vital part.

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Daniel Darling has given 5 Reasons Why Pastors Should Write
The DG Staff has given 6 Reasons Why Pastors Should Blog

A Noble Goal For Every Church and Pastor

There is a goal that I believe every pastor, and in turn every church, ought to shoot for. Ready for it?

To never have to file another Help-Wanted ad in search of a pastor.

This isn’t to assume that the pastor stays until the church closes its door or Jesus returns. (Although that latter one would be acceptable). This does however mean that the pastor stays long enough that he has trained many men to take his job from him.

Such a goal would take an intentional discipleship and mentoring plan. The pastor and the church would have to intentionally seek young men to train for pastoral ministry. Perhaps rather than shipping them off to seminary to get an education and then pursue pastoral ministry elsewhere the church could develop the young man. That’s not to say that for some churches part of this development wouldn’t be some element of seminary training.

I’m not really saying that it’s wrong for a church to file a help-wanted ad. But I’m dreaming of a day when churches are shepherded in such a way that they become equipped to train up their own pastors.

What do you think? Am I crazy?

Review of Sensing Jesus by Zack Eswine

What does it say about the way we’re approaching the ministry if we who have been trained for it do not know how to follow Jesus when we have our pajamas on? –Sensing Jesus, page 286

That quote encapsulates what Zack Eswine’s book, Sensing Jesus, is all about. His desire is that we learn how to do life and ministry as human beings. Eswine is real about his own humanity and the humanity of many of our ministry heroes (noting at one point that Jonathan Edwards passed gas).

Eswine believes that “the stale waters of celebrity, consumerism, and immediate gratification” (17) has infiltrated pastoral ministry. As a response he has written a poetic and autobiographical book with the aims of guiding our hands into the nail-scarred hands of Jesus.

After the two introductory chapters, the book is divided into two sections. The first section exposes our temptations. Here Eswine tackles our desire to be everywhere, to fix everything, and to know everything. In the second part Eswine examines our mentoring. This is where the title sensing Jesus comes from. Here he considers the physicality of ministry and confronts such cultural idols as celebrity and immediacy. The book closes with a conversation with a young minister that serves as an apt summary of the book.

My Take:

Zack Eswine is not an old man. But he has been doing ministry for over twenty years. He is a seasoned pastor that we can learn from. The book reads as if this gracious and battle-tested pastor has agreed to meet with us once a week over a cup of coffee to discuss life in the ministry.

He writes poetically but it does not feel forced. It feels like a wise sage picking up a dandelion, blowing it in the wind, and teaching us about life as he does so. Here is an example. Read as Eswine describes a bagpiper at a funeral:

…the bagpiper stands as if ugly and holding a goose. He breathes in and out into a moaning that wheezes air into a haunting melody of ‘Amazing Grace’. A swan of music emerges and takes flight. Sobs and whimpers accompany the tune with red eyes, along with tear-stained mascara bleeding on cheeks. The wind ripples through the fall leaves…

The writing style makes the reader pause and feel. You can almost smell the coffee (if I drank coffee) rise to your nose as you listen to this pastor tell of his journey and the lesson that we can learn. Eswine forces pastors to feel. Which is something that many of us have perhaps given up on years ago.

I believe the book will stick with me. Much like meetings with pastoral mentors that I have had in the past. I might not even remember where it came from but as I guide others into an everyday relationship with Jesus, or shepherd other young men into pastoral ministry, I’ll be drawing from these encounters.

Should You Buy It?

Pastors really ought to buy this book. But not only pastors, any church leader would benefit from a month of Thursday’s over a coffee with Pastor Eswine. But not only church leaders, every disciple would benefit from thinking through doing life in Jesus as a real human being. The draw to celebrity snares far more than just pastors. We all need the message of doing life and ministry as human beings.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It is not a quick read but it is a necessary read. I imagine I will be revisiting this one a few more times in the upcoming years.

Get it today.

Here is an interview that Zack Eswine did with Justin Taylor on his book Sensing Jesus:

Singing to the Deaf

Yesterday I looked at the Mystery of “God Moves in Mysterious Ways”. In my research for this I read through John Piper’s biography of William Cowper again. There was a statement that Piper used that came alive to me. One of his section headings reads: Never Cease to Sing the Gospel to the Deaf.

Piper writes,

Let us rehearse the mercies of Jesus often in the presence of discouraged people. Let us point them again and again to the blood of Jesus…Don’t make your mercy to the downcast contingent on quick results. You cannot persuade a person that he is not reprobate if he is utterly persuaded that he is. He will tell you he is deaf. No matter. Keep soaking him in the “benevolence, mercy, goodness, and sympathy” of Jesus and “the sufficiency of the atonement” and “the fullness and completeness of [Christ’s] justification”…Pray that in God’s time these truths may yet be given the power to awaken hope and beget a spirit of adoption. (Piper, The Hidden Smile of God, 117-19)

This is what John Newton did in the life of William Cowper. Newton was very discouraged and perplexed at Cowper’s ailment. Yet he remained by his side, even at times foregoing vacation so as not to leave his dear friend alone. Newton never ceased to sing the gospel to the deaf. It took a toll in Newton too.

On one occasion Newton wrote to John Thornton of the toll it was taking on him:

Mr. Cowper’s long stay at the vicarage in his present uncomfortable state, has been upon many account inconvenient and trying. His choice of being here was quite unexpected; and his continuance is unavoidable, unless he was to be removed by force…I make myself easy by reflecting that the Lord’s hand is concerned; and I am hoping weekly for his deliverance…The Lord evidently sent him to Olney, where he has been a blessing to many, a great blessing to myself. The Lord has numbered the days in which I am appointed to wait upon him in this dark valley, and He has given us such a love to him both as a believer and as a friend, that I am not weary; but to be sure, his deliverance would be to me one of the greatest blessings my thoughts can conceive.

Why it was so taxing on Newton?

Sometimes when I read through tattered pages from days long ago I slip into a type of fairy tale thinking. People stop becoming real. John Newton becomes a hero without warts. I rejoice in the fruit of his ministry but I do not accurately reckon the toil that such fruit entails. I say things like—and will say again in a moment—that we need more pastors like John Newton. But I forget the travail that Newton must have experienced as he bled with William Cowper.

Consider this letter from Cowper and how it must have pained Newton. Keep in mind this is written in 1784. That is eleven years after Cowper’s second bout with madness (first under the watch of Newton). Now it is happening again after a brief respite. Listen as if you had received this letter from a dear friend that you had been counseling and bleeding with for years:

Loaded as my life is with despair, I have no such comfort as would result from a supposed probability of better things to come, were it once ended ... You will tell me that this cold gloom will be succeeded by a cheerful spring, and endeavour to encourage me to hope for a spiritual change resembling it—but it will be lost labour. Nature revives again; but a soul once slain lives no more ... My friends, I now expect that I shall see yet again. They think it necessary to the existence of divine truth, that he who once had possession of it should never finally lose it. I admit the solidity of this reasoning in every case but my own. And why not in my own? ... I forestall the answer:—God's ways are mysterious, and He giveth no account of His matters:—an answer that would serve my purpose as well as theirs that use it. There is a mystery in my destruction, and in time it shall be explained.

Do you hear what has happened in the mind of Cowper? His mind has become so set upon destroying him that his precious hymn written in 1773 is now darkened. “There is a mystery in my destruction, and in time it shall be explained”. He has somehow believed that the mystery of God’s ways is that he will be damned even though he is one of the elect. He theologically agrees with everything that Newton is saying but he is, as on biographer said, “utterly deaf” to “every consolatory suggest” because he had “concluded that God had rejected him”.

Yet Newton never abandoned his friend.

We Need More John Newton’s

Some would probably consider Newton’s soul care of Cowper a failure. After all he never really found healing. We like magic words that somehow fix everything. But Cowper wouldn’t be “fixed”; not on this side of Eden.

Newton couldn’t be Cowper’s savior. But he could be his friend. Though it’s a mystery and not something I would really want to write a theological dissertation on, it seems that at times the Lord calls people like John Newton to hold the hand of his friend while simultaneously holding the hand of Jesus. His dear friend was in such despair that he could no longer cry out for mercy. It seems that Newton interceded for Cowper when he was too weak to even plead for help.

Newton’s ministry to Cowper was a ministry where he continued to “sing the gospel to the deaf”. He did it as his friend not as his fixer. He loved William Cowper, madness and all. He was never a project but always a brother in Christ. To this end Newton never gave up on his friend. He pleaded for Cowper’s stake in Christ even when Cowper was confident that he had been forsaken.

Ministry success isn’t defined by the number of hands we heal but the hands we hold. Healing belongs to the Lord. Holding on is our sacred duty as fellow sojourners. We need more pastors like John Newton. Pastors that aren’t discouraged because their “projects” fail. But pastors that ache because their friends hurt. Pastors that stay and preach, and plod, and proclaim the excellencies of Christ even when it seems that we are only holding a symphony for the deaf.

Jesus is pleased with such faithful husbands, daddies, friends, and pastors. I pray that I am one.

Being an Animal Cracker Pastor

“Seriously?!?!”

This is what I grumble as I open up my $1.29 bag of six potato chips. I know that bags of potato chips are known for looking full but delivering mostly air. But six chips?

Don’t get me wrong, they are luscious. Just as the little jingle says I can’t eat just one. But if this degenerating trajectory of chips per bag continues it looks like I am going to have to learn to eat just one chip. A bag of chips looks like it ought to be a filling snack. It only taunts me and makes me have to look elsewhere.

This isn’t true of animal crackers. You can buy a bag of animal crackers at Wal-Mart for under two bucks. Opening these bags has a different disappointment attached to them. When you open this bag of joy typically 40-50 animal crackers fly through the air and onto the floor. They are so filled to the brim that they can’t help spilling out everywhere. Yeah, some of their treasure is wasted; especially, for you wimpy germaphobes that don’t follow the five second rule. But they fill you up.

I want to be an animal cracker pastor instead of a potato chip pastor.

A potato chip pastor projects much and offers little. He’s alluring. He’s somebody you want to bring with you to the Super Bowl party. But at the end of the day he’s really only filled with hot-air. Yeah, he might satiate a few people. But he doesn’t fill anyone. At the end of the day he leaves his congregation having to look elsewhere for sustenance.

The animal cracker pastor might be a little bland and boring to some. But he will fill you up. He’ll do what a pastor is supposed to do; namely, “feed my sheep”. He is so overflowing with the gospel that some of what he says will just spill onto the ground. I’d rather be a little bland but overly helpful than scrumptious but disappointing.

There is probably a lesson in here too about under-promising and over-delivering instead of the other way around. But for me when I think about a bag of chips filled with hot-air I pray that my ministry isn’t similar. I pray that the Lord so overwhelms me with His love and gives me such a vision of Himself that I can’t help but overflow in the lives of others.

Be an animal cracker pastor.

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The potato chip illustration is an extension of a point that Zack Eswine makes in his book Sensing Jesus. Give him all the credit and me all the blame.

Review of Dangerous Calling by Paul Tripp

In recent days the Discovery Channel has honed in on a few of the worlds most dangerous jobs; namely loggers and deep sea fishermen. These jobs are arduous and hazardous. According to Paul Tripp one other “job” that ought to be put on the list is pastoral ministry. In his book, Dangerous Calling, Tripp highlights the unique challenges of pastoral ministry.

Tripp believes that “there are many pastors who have inserted themselves into a spiritual category that doesn’t exist” (23). This false spiritual category is confirmed and strengthened by the pastoral culture in which pastors live. Seminaries are often the breeding grounds for such “self-swindiling” (33) pastors. The downward spiral begins with a “distant, impersonal, information-based handling of the Word of God.” (52)  Eventually “brains become more important than hearts” and pastors fool themselves into thinking that because they have correct theological answers they must be doing okay.

After graduating seminary this knowledgeable and skilled seminary student will become the pastor of a church. A church of which the pastor will largely not be known by. Given the present pastoral climate in churches he will lead them from above practicing an “intentional culture of pastoral separation and isolation” (70). There he will die. Most pastors never truly become a part of the body of Christ. We were never meant to lead or live this way. This culture must change.

Such a culture breeds pastors that forget. They forget who God is and they forget who they are. Pastoral ministry, then, is a war zone. Even if the culture of pastoral ministry would change pastors would still fight their own selfish hearts. But given our current climate of pastoral ministry many pastors are not even aware of the necessity of fighting. And slowly they slip into familiarity and mediocrity. Eventually they forget who they are and begin preaching a grace that they themselves are not partaking in.

My Take

I deeply appreciate this book by Paul Tripp. I am not a lead pastor (only an associate pastor) but I still see every danger that he is talking about in my own life. From my experience Tripp is correct in his assessment of seminary. I believe that I attend one of the best seminaries around (SBTS) but I have heard in my classes from fellow students and felt in my own heart a type of head knowledge that is not matched to heart knowledge. For the most part faculty and staff at SBTS take great pains to be pastors as well as professors, but there are times when academia seems to rule the day.

According to Tripp his central point in this book is to give a “detailed exposition of what happens in the life of a person in ministry when he forgets to preach to himself the same gospel that he gives to others”. As such this book is a little light on practical application. This book is like reading a book that explains your disease in great detail and then points you to other resources for treatment. Some may give Tripp negative marks because of this. I think it is one of the strengths of the book.

If at the end of the day pastors read Dangerous Calling and drop to their knees pleading for mercy from King Jesus, then Tripp has done his job. Sadly, it can be a difficult task to truly convince us pastors that we are desperately in need of Jesus every moment. We will give that truth lip service but at the end of the day when it comes to “spiritual things” many of us assume that we’ve got this down.

Do not misunderstand me, though. There is practical help smattered throughout the book. There are helpful things that churches could adopt to help their pastors. Their are suggestions that pastors could implement that would strengthen them in the middle of this war zone. There is practical stuff, but that does not appear to be Tripp’s major aim in this book. He wants to hold a mirror up to pastors and compare what they see to God’s Word and His wisdom. He wants us to realize that many of us are dying and we need help.

For this reason Tripp’s book is invaluable to pastors. Speaking as a pastor to pastors he is in an adequate position to expose our pastoral pride. He does it with humility and as one that is in the midst of the struggle himself. Reading this book will lay you bare. But it will not leave you there. Tripp will help every pastor to remember the God of mercy anew. He lifts up our All-Sufficient Savior and encourages pastors to run to him. Drink deeply from the grace that we are to proclaim every Sunday.

Should You Buy It?

I agree with Joshua Harris, “pastors needs this book”. This book may be The Reformed Pastor of our day. It is weighty and necessary. If you are a pastor you really ought to purchase this one.

What if you are not a pastor? I would still suggest it. It will help you to help your pastor. You are called to minister to him as well.

The book can be yours for under $13 and I cannot recommend it enough. The promo video is below:

Dangerous Calling from Crossway on Vimeo.

6 Signs You Identify More as an Instrument of Grace Instead of a Recipient of Grace

I am almost finished reading Paul Tripp’s book Dangerous Calling. I need to review this book within the next couple of days. But I also need to let this one soak for a little while. In the meantime I want to share with you a helpful section.

In his chapter on “Always Preparing” Tripp notes that “there is no grace that we offer to others that we don’t at once need ourselves”. He then gives a few signs that “indicate your work as an instrument of grace has caused you to forget or deny your identity as a recipient of that same grace.” Here are six:

1. The Bible has ceased being a mirror
2. Worship morphs from private quest to public duty
3. Christianity becomes a system rather than a relationship
4. Your desire to master content is not coupled with craving
5. You have more concern for the sin of others than for your own
6. The pride of knowing replaces the humility of being known

This book has proven both convicting and deeply helpful. I would recommend it to any person in ministry.

Get it today.

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.

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. 

Twelve Things I Doubt Pastors Will Hear in Heaven

I’d really hate to waste my life on things that aren’t significant.  Occasionally it is good to step back and wonder about the types of the things you probably will not hear in heaven.  So I imagine a scenario where someone that the Lord has called me to shepherd walks up to me in heaven and says, I sure wish that you’d have…

Here are 12 things I doubt would fill in that blank. 

1. I wish you’d have shown me more rapture charts
2. I wish you’d have told me steps to making more money
3. I wish you’d have prepared me for what heaven looks like
4. I wish you’d have settled those theological debates
5. I wish you’d have done funnier skits in our worship service
6. I wish you’d have pushed for a bigger building
7. I wish you’d have talked more about politics
8. I wish you’d have preached much shorter sermons
9. I wish you’d have worn ties (or cooler jeans for our postmodern crowd)
10. I wish you’d have given us better pop-culture references
11. I wish you’d have made our worship ambiance better and the transitions smoother
12. I wish you’d have spent the money to fix that pot-hole in the church parking lot

I could probably keep going.  Some of these things might be important and they might even be a means to serve and assist people in worship.  But they are not ultimate.  What I don’t want to fill that blank would be, “I wish you’d have pointed us to Jesus more.  I wish you’d have prepared us for heaven better.  I wish you’d have preached more to root out sin and unbelief.  I wish you’d have encouraged us to lay down our idols more.”  Those are the things I don’t want to hear. 

What I do want to hear is the sweet and grace filled words of the Chief Shepherd, “well done good and faithful servant”.