My Earthly Father & Perseverance

This Sunday (June 19) is "Father's Day". I refer to such days as 'Hallmark Days'. However, this particular day has merit from a Biblical perspective. Fathers are vital. They provide us with our first image of our Heavenly Father. By design they make us who we are, for good and for ill.

This photo is my Mom (Leora) and my Dad (Howard). I focus on Dad in this piece for obvious reason.

First the 'ill'. My Dad gave me the wonderful gift of 'grousing'. When he got started no mere earthly power could shut him down. One of my favorite memories of this glorious skill focused on the rabbits in his garden. When he retired he purchased a lot and a half, a new house on an acre. The half lot became a weed free testimony to his agricultural skill. The succulent spears attracted rabbits - by the dozen. At the break of dawn you could find "Hats" in his jockey shorts stalking these furry little vermin with a pellet gun - POW! This was just the beginning. For the rest of the day he recounted ad nauseum the details of his 'safari'. While I did not affirm this skill - I got it in spades - - the grousing, not the rabbit hunting. Thanks Dad.

The good - Perseverance. When I was 12 my Dad purchased an additional 60 acre farm. It had been neglected for many years. It was covered with dead fruit trees, weeds and rocks, tons and tons of rocks. Systematically we removed the trees, stumps and brush. As the ground was tilled for planting, the rocks emerged. We had a two wheeled utility trailer. Hundreds of loads, tons and tons of rocks. It took years and unrelenting diligence. The end product was an emerald green island of productivity that evoked great satisfaction.

The application. For the past 27 years I have worked with Pastors and local churches. The goal is to see them become Healthy & Effective, making disciples fully formed in the image of Christ. Those tons of rocks barely register compared to the challenges in this endeavor. Pride, strife, biblical illiteracy, abject cowardice and more. Giving up is not an option. That green utility trailer, rocks, sweat, blisters and my Dad's example of PERSEVERANCE makes completing the task however difficult what I must do.

That field now belongs to a man that I grew up with. I get no reward other than the satisfaction of knowing that I had a role in transforming it from a patch of scrub brush to a highly productive farm. The work I do with churches lasts forever. Changed lives formed in the image of Christ.

Thanks Dad. I love you miss you and look forward to heaven and eternity.

Congregational Government is From Satan

Congregational Government is From Satan
June 09, 2011

NOTE: the tone of this post is intentionally aimed at engaging those who are engulfed in this system of church government that neither honors the Scriptures nor advances the gospel.

That’s right! It’s actually the title to a book I have had percolating in my mind for a long time. After almost 30 years in ministry I have come irreversibly to this conclusion: congregational government is an invention and tool of the enemy of our souls to destroy the church of Jesus Christ. So there, I have said the strongest part of the message first; now some commentary.

1) Congregational Meetings Are Forums for Division:

When church life is going well, the leaders of a church struggle to get a quorum for decision making. When things are going wrong, every carnal member lines up at a microphone to spew their venom and destroy the work of Christ in the church. I saw it growing up, and I have seen it since in churches that are fighting to survive and do something courageous for their future. Good people being held hostage by bad people, minorities hijacking the majority because a set of ‘by-laws’ get higher regard than the Scriptures. Satan does want to rip church unity to shreds like a devouring lion (1 Peter 5:8). He is accomplishing that again and again through a system of church government which elevates the fleshly and the worldly—often even those who no longer attend—to a status of influence equal to the most spiritually and biblically-minded in any congregation.

2) Voting Is Not Biblical

The right to vote may be an American right given by the Constitution, but it is not a kingdom right given in the Word of God. It may be a tradition of some wonderful streams of church history, e.g. Baptist, but it is not biblical. There is not a shred of biblical evidence for a congregation voting on what its direction should be, but many church members believe it is their ‘God-given right’ to stand in judgment over the Pastors and Elders that are seeking to lead them. Even Mark Dever, a personal friend, champion for congregationalism, and credible scholar admits, “But the functioning of a purely congregational system is both unwieldy and lacking biblical support. Instead the establishment of a body of elders to serve in the day-to-day leadership in spiritual matters, serving at the pleasure of the congregation, enables us to maintain both the traditional distinctive of congregational life and the clearly biblical structure of elders.”

3) Eldership Is Sometimes Unpopular

Elders are responsible to “shepherd the flock” (1 Peter 5:2), which is often a very dirty job. Calling out sin, dealing with those who have fallen and seeking their restoration (Galatians 6:1-4), these responsibilities put Elders in positions where doing the right often means doing the unpopular. To then force the Elders to submit to a referendum on their actions is crushing to good men and destroys the work of God in a church. Rather, coming under a group of godly men will always be the best opportunity for a church to live in submission to God’s Word and Spirit. In recent years we have seen many churches taken captive by a few vocal people who, like Alexander the coppersmith exposed by Paul in 2 Timothy 4:14, do “much harm.” The Elders spend the majority of time trying to keep these blasphemous enemies of the gospel in line and often finish their term of leadership crushed by the weight of unrelenting criticism.

4) Congregationalism Crushes Pastors

Statistics tell us that Pastors move every 2-3 years and that a pastor typically leaves a church because of 8 people. If you wonder how just eight people can so resist and refuse and ruin the calling of a gifted and trained messenger of the gospel then you have not spent much time in congregational settings. Just one elder’s wife, or one women’s ministry director, or one chairman of the building committee can consume a pastor and erode the support he needs to serve the church well. A lot of the men writing today in favor of congregational government defend it as a tradition, and are so effective as leaders that they are able to suppress the inevitable uprising of carnality—but that is not so in the vast majority of small congregationally-stifled churches. I could retire now if I had banked a hundred dollars for every time a Pastor wept to me on the phone or in person about the crushing weight of a local ‘church boss’ who would not listen to Scripture or reason or God’s Holy Spirit. Many of the Pastors who have come into Harvest Bible Fellowship these past years have come seeking a new model of church government that frees them from the tyranny of the untrained and untrainable.

5) Priesthood Not Eldership of All Believers

A significant plank in the platform of biblical protestantism has been the priesthood of all believers. This is the idea that all of us as followers of Christ have equal standing before God and do not need a clerical intermediary in our relationship with the Lord. Sadly, though, this has led in many congregations to the Eldership of all believers—where each person, regardless of training, giftedness, fruitfulness, experience, etc., considers their thoughts about the future of a given congregation to be of equivalent value. Satan uses this expectation to create in people a demand to be heard, an insistence that their thoughts on the future of a church—no matter how quickly formed, or singularly held—receive validation equal that of a Pastor/Elder. When the vote takes place people are polarized, and factions sit back and wait for the plans they did not support with their vote to fail. (Sadly similar to the way most people view a president for whom they did not vote). It’s impossible to reconcile that process with:

Hebrews 13:17 “Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.”

Down with congregational government. Not the people who believe in it or appreciate its history, not the good or bad people who try to function well in a bad system—down with the system itself. It’s unbiblical, unhealthy and too often a tool of Satan for the discouragement of good Pastors, godly Elders, and local churches everywhere.

You are welcome to engage in this discussion. Let’s stick to biblical defenses of congregationalism (which should be a short section) and anecdotal evidence of its effectiveness. I expect also to hear from Pastors who have suffered under its tyranny.

http://jamesmacdonald.com/blog/?p=7552 James McDonald Vertical Church

Dr. Death Dies

This week Jack Kevorkian died. In one sense he never truly lived.

It is always a cause for grief when an Image Barer dies. Death is not normative in the Creative Order. Adam brought death to all men when he sinned. So this death is one in millions that pays the price through the imputation of Adam’s flagrant disobedience. This is not cause for celebration. It is however cause for reflection and analysis.

Dr. Kevorkian championed a posture on death that is clearly and absolutely contrary to Christian Theism. He merely reflected a growing perspective in the culture of the West. Life & death are the purview of God alone. He spent time in prison for his crimes against humanity. On Friday I visited an aunt & uncle in a care facility. It is indeed sad to witness the scores of emaciated and dysfunctional people simply waiting to die. That said, wait we must.

As a nation we are reaping the judgment of God for embracing a perspective on life that is contrary to Truth. We have aborted over 50 million Image Bearers since 1973. Those little people, and YES they are people, are no less deserving of life than those that Kevorkian went to prison for killing. Schizophrenic to the max.

Dr. Kevorkian, as all men, will face the Creator of life. My understanding of Scripture indicates he already has. I am not called to pass judgment on his eternal state. I am called to do so on his conduct while living. He was a killer. He blasphemed the Author of life in his theological and philosophical postures. He deserved to die. Scripture views muder as a capital offense.

Life is the purview of the Giver of Life, Jehovah God. Do not be deceived. What a man sows he also reaps. Tragic is the best description of this man’s journey. He died never having lived. I encourage my readers to live. He that has the Son has life. Do you?

Theological Metrics for Minnistry

Yesterday (05/27/11) we produced a Video containing instruction for the application of the 14 Effectiveness Criteria developed by IgniteUS. This is even more joy-filled because it is being done collaboratively with the Columbia Metro Association. Our prayer is that this will guide pastors and leaders to take the first step in 'Measuring ministry by Transformation and not mere activity'.

I saw a great quote posted on the 9 Marks web site that speaks to this issue. As you read these few words Pastor, ask yourself with level 1 honesty - - "How am I doing in ministry when measured by this standard? God's best as you press toward this excellence.

by Jonathan Leeman

Great post from Michael Oh over at Desiring God on the Danger of "Fruitfulness" in the minister's life without his own purity. Here's an excerpt:

The second “cardinal sin” of leadership is mistaking “fruitfulness” for holiness. We can often become easily enamored with the shininess and abundance of “fruit.” “Successful” ministry is not measured by numeric indicators. When Christ addresses the seven churches in Revelation, does he commend the larger churches and rebuke the smaller? Does he compare growth rates and highlight numbers? No. Instead, he hits at the heart of character, faith, endurance, compromise, idolatry, and immorality.

Refreshing Humility

This past week I enjoyed an exchange with a friend and Seminary Professor. Our perspectives were quite different on an issue. There were 3 or 4 back & forth exchanges. The paragraph below was his final post. How absolutely refreshing to find a truly learned man display such grace and humility.

I agree completely with the spirit of your penultimate paragraph, though I cannot help but think we are closer to each other than it seems on this issue. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m guessing that one of us (probably me) isn’t communicating as clearly as preferred. But maybe we are in disagreement, and if so, I await the day that all will be clear. Since we weren’t raptured today, I’m guessing that day will be in the future.

Blatant Insult to God

Blatant insult to God
Letters to the Editor
By Tom Fillinger, Columbia
Published May 12, 2011


Pastor BRYANT Wright is quoted as saying, “Jesus Christ loves all mankind. He loves homosexuals who are engaging in homosexual activity ...” (“At USC, gay students protest SBC president’s honorary degree,” April 28).

Psalm 5:5 and Psalm 11:5 are without ambiguity or confusion. Literally, Psalm 5:5 says, “God hates all the ones working (present tense) iniquity” (Barnes on the OT, Psalms Vol. 1, p.42).

The Scripture makes clear that homosexual activity is iniquity/sin, and those practicing such conduct are excluded from heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

In the interest of the authority of Scripture, which we in the Southern Baptist Convention claim to embrace, and the honor due the God we serve, I appeal for a correction to be posted on this assertion. It is false, incorrect and a blatant insult to God and his Word.

Editor’s note: In the interest of clarity, here are Southern Baptist Convention president Bryant Wright’s full remarks as presented in the April 28 Courier article:

“It’s really a false charge that when you simply teach what the Bible says about sin, that you’re a hateful person. Jesus Christ loves all mankind. He loves homosexuals who are engaging in homosexual activity. He loves heterosexuals who are engaging in immoral heterosexual activity.

“But he does call on us — because he has paid the penalty for our sins on the cross — to be willing to repent of sinful behavior. We’re just teaching what God’s standard is for sexual purity. The gospel is a wonderful message of good news, but it is a message of truth, and sometimes people are not always open or perceptive to God’s truth.”

World Population Growth & Missions Startegy

May 9, 2011

One of the significant improvements in the ministry of the Local Church in the past two decades has been the issues of Strategy & Focus. We have been more intentional. That is good.

The link that follows provides graphic evidence for the growth of populations around the Globe. We should be shaping our endeavors to take the gospel to the areas that project the greatest growth. We should invest the greatest resources in areas that provide the greatest challenge and potential kingdom results.

What say you?

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/05/world_population_forecasts?fsrc=rss