Praying Past Our Preferred Outcomes

Found this challenging post by Nancy Guthrie courtesy of Scott Sauls,  Here is an excerpt, but read it all here.

If we really believe that God is purposeful in suffering, that our suffering is not meaningless or random, shouldn't that affect how we pray about the suffering in our lives and in the lives of others? As it is, we pretty much only know how to pray for suffering to be removed---for there to be healing, relief, restoration. Praying for anything less seems less than compassionate. But shouldn't the purposes for suffering we find in Scripture guide our prayers more than our predetermined positive outcomes? 

The Dangers Of Faking It In Ministry

Kathy Keller sounds an important warning for ministry professionals about the dangers of "faking" it. Here is an excerpt:

After a while you hardly even admit to yourself that you are faking your interest in the other person, you are faking your enthusiasm for Christ and his Gospel, you are faking your entire Christian life, because you don’t even remember what it was like to have a close relationship to God. You have become hollow. You may still look and sound good on the outside, but inside the reality of God’s presence is gone.

Read the whole post here.

Rihanna & The Self-Deception Of 'My Truth'

In a compelling piece in the Her*meneutics section of Christianity Today, Sharon Hodde Miller comments on Rihanna's explanation of reuniting with her former abuser, Chris Brown. Miller breaks down an increasingly popular--though spiritually dangerous and even physically dangerous in Rihanna's case--phrase among celebrities.

The phrase: "My truth."

Miller notes that since the 2009 Grammy-night assault by her then (and now) boyfriend Brown,

Rihanna has been candid about her feelings for Brown and revealed that they were together again in a Rolling Stone article aptly titled "Crazy in Love." Knowing the rest of us are wondering how she could re-enter a relationship with a man who beat her, Rihanna offered up this defense: "Even if it's a mistake, it's my mistake…I'd rather just live my truth."

Miller goes on to give example after example of the phrase's use by several--all troubled--celebrities. She also indicts many in the Christian community for using the phrase in their own, more insidious way.

 In fact, it is even present in churches. Among Christians the "my truth" mantra tends toward a more spiritualized form, repackaged as "God told me" or "I know this is what God wants for me." At times, these statements are true, but when wielded in opposition to Scriptural teaching or community counsel, they reveal the same individualistic core as the celebrity sound bites.

She goes on to examine two views of humanity that render the phrase "my truth" nothing but self-deception: a flawed view of human uniqueness and the underestimation of human depravity. 

Read the whole piece, but here is Miller's conclusion:

The doctrine of human depravity entails a universal susceptibility to the "my truth" lie. None of us is stronger or smarter than Rihanna, Britney Spears, or any other adherent to the "my truth" mantra. Each of us is just as likely to self-deceive. That is why the pursuit of truth begins with humility. Until we acknowledge the personal truths that have supplanted God's truth in our lives, we too will join the throngs of foolish journeying toward folly. 

Advice For Parenting Young Kids

Eli

Schaeffer

Melissa and Beckett

We have three wonderful boys: Eli (7), Beckett (5), and Schaeffer (2). Melissa and I are decent parents (we think), but we are always looking for advice. Sometimes we find it in books, sometimes we find it through conversation with other parents, and sometimes we find it through observation of parents who have kids we would want our sons to be like some day. Sometimes we even get advice on parenting our young boys from the dog obedience class I'm taking with our Carly...don't judge.

Here is the intro from a helpful piece by Steve McCoy. Read the whole thing here.

This is probably most ideal for parents-to-be, new parents, and parents with kids under 10 years old. This isn't exhaustive, ordered, etc. It's not my top 10. There are some crucial ones that most who read this already believe and do to some extent, so I'll assume them (read Bible, pray, etc). What I will do is give one angle on each of those rather than convince you to do it in general. And while many tips are built on biblical ideas, I'm going to talk very practically and simply and not make this merely a "from-the-Bible" list. Also, I'm not dealing much with rules vs grace, an important topic. There are many things that could be added to this list, including things I failed remember. So your comments are welcome if you'd like to share your advice.

10 Reflections On Church Consulting

Church consultant and missiologist Chuck Lawless has compiled a list of ten things he's learned from ten years of coaching churches who desire to grow numerically and spiritually. Below are some the points that stood out to me, but I encourage you to read the whole post over at Thom Rainer's blog.

Churches often wait too long to address decline. Some churches don’t do regular checkups, and thus they have no means of knowing they’re sick. Others recognize the symptoms but choose to ignore them. By the time they admit decline, the pattern is so entrenched that reversing the trend is not easy.

Prayer in unhealthy churches is reactive rather than proactive. A problem develops, and then the church members pray. A marriage struggles, and then they pray. A young person wanders, and then the church prays. Prayer in an unhealthy congregation is often a response of desperation rather than a marker of the DNA of the church.

Most churches aren’t ready for conversion growth if God were to send it. The biblical call to make disciples demands a discipleship strategy (Matt. 28:18-20), but few churches have one. They do not have the “nursery” of discipleship ready for baby Christians. Seemingly, they assume new believers will grow simply by showing up each week.

God is still growing His church. I’ve worked with churches that, to be frank, I thought would never grow. Churches so divided that their communities know them as a combat zone seldom give you hope for Great Commission growth. Nevertheless, I’ve seen God work miracles by restoring unity, strengthening and refocusing leaders, and sending members into the community to share the gospel.

An Interview With My Predecessor

Sunday, February 3, 2013, we launched the Together Campaign at Grace Church. In the weeks leading up to the launch I talked a lot with my friend and director of communications at Grace Danny D'Acquisto about the history of Grace, going all the way back to the church's founding in 1854 to my first Sunday in September of 2011. We were taking ideas and language regarding church and holding them up to the past to see if there were similarities and where and why there might be differences. We started to notice similar language, going back to the earliest days of the church when the tag line was "The Simple Gospel of Jesus Christ."

As we talked, we realized that there was one person that really needed to be a part of the conversation, the man who served as senior pastor for 35 years and saw Grace through the largest period of growth and expansion in the church's history, Pastor Jerry Worsham. Jerry was the one who handed me the baton of leadership that Sunday in 2011 when I assumed the helm here. He is the person who knows the most about this church, my job, and the challenges I face in leading this large congregation.

So we started to talk to Jerry, and as we did, it became clear that this was a conversation that a lot of people needed to hear. So we asked Jerry if he would be willing to have the same conversations in front of a couple cameras so that more people could hear the stuff we're talking about.

He said yes. So I'm sharing it with you.

Before you watch though, you should know that when I took the role of lead pastor at Grace, all the things I read about leadership transition and many of the people I talked to about the position had me very concerned about my relationship with Jerry. After all, the thinking went, a guy who led the church for 35 years has quite a bit of influence and if I wanted to be seen as the leader maybe I needed to set some serious distance between us.

Let me say that if I'd distanced myself from Jerry Worsham it would have been a huge leadership mistake. Why? Because Jerry is one of the most amazing men I've ever met. His heart for the Lord is as clear as I've ever seen in anyone, and his desire to see me do well probably exceeds my own. Jerry loves me, he roots for me, he is quick to call me his pastor, and he is there when I need him. I love Jerry and he loves me.

I think you'll see all of that in this conversation. I can't wait to see what God will do in this season of Grace's history!


Pastor Jerry on the Centeral Focus of Grace Church from Grace Church on Vimeo.