Kevin DeYoung's Blog, page 47

Magnify Conference at URC, November 20-21

The Magnify Conference is a two-day conference at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MI taking place November 20-21, 2015. This conference is a great opportunity to meet other brothers and sisters from mid-Michigan and beyond, as well as hear excellent teaching from my good friend Ligon Duncan (and that’s not just a throwaway line, we actually are good friends!). Dr. Duncan, the Chancellor and CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary, will speak three times on the topic of sanctification; I will also give a plenary address.

A leader’s breakfast (designed for pastors, elders, and other church leaders) will be offered on Saturday morning. Seating is limited and we always fill up, so sign up soon. You can register for the Magnify Conference here.

There will also be a pre-conference dinner with Ligon on Friday evening at 5:30pm, for individuals interested in a seminary education. This event is free, but please register so we can order the right amount of pizza.

Ligon will also be preaching at our church on Sunday morning, November 22 (that service is free, and no registration is necessary!).

Conference Schedule

Friday, November 20

7 pm – Session 1

Ligon Duncan

“Work Because God is at Work in You” (Philippians 2:12-13)

8:30 pm – Session 2

A Conversation Between Kevin DeYoung and Ligon Duncan

Saturday, November 21

9 am – Session 3

Ligon Duncan

“Kill or Die” (Romans 8:12-13)

10:30 am – Session 4

Kevin DeYoung

“Sanctification Struggles: What We All Agree On, and What We May Not Agree On”

11:30 am – Lunch break



1 pm – Session 5

Ligon Duncan

“The Marrow, Marshall, and Murray Oh My! How Reformed Theology has Wrestled with Sanctification in the Past”

2:15 pm – Session 6

Question and Answer with Ligon Duncan and Kevin DeYoung

We will wrap things up by 3:00pm (which should give people time to get home and watch the Michigan State-Ohio State game!). Come join us November 20-21 for the Magnify Conference at University Reformed Church.

Book Briefs

So many books, so little time. But here are a number of books I’ve managed to read in the past weeks and months. There are also several bonus books I haven’t read, but hope to use in the days ahead.

Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divide by Politics and Religion (Vintage Books, 2012). Don’t let the size (500 pages) scare you off. It’s only 371 pages minus end notes, bibliography, and index. More importantly, the writing is accessible, the subject matter is fascinating, and the author is surprisingly honest and disarming. Haidt–who can best be described as fair-minded liberal who has come to appreciate conservatives–makes a number of compelling points in this provocative book. Like: humans are more rationalizing than rational, that people act more ethical when they think their reputation is on the line, and that liberals have a moral matrix dominated by issues of harm and oppression and do little to consider issues of fairness, loyalty, authority, and sanctity. Haidt’s non-religious, thoroughly evolutionary worldview get in the way at times, but his insights and arguments are too important (and just plain interesting) to ignore.

Douglas Wilson and Randy Booth, A Justice Primer (Canon Press, 2015). I thought this was a book on social justice, economics, and big picture politics. It’s actually a book about how the Bible would have us judge each other (or not) in the mad, mad world of blog warriors and internet vigilantes. This book is full of refreshing wisdom. I hope it reaches a wide audience. And if you already know that Doug Wilson is a good-for-nothing scoundrel (and I don’t know him personally and do strongly disagree with him at times), then that’s an indication that you really need this book.

Jason Helopoulos, The New Pastor’s Handbook: Help and Encouragement for the First Years of Ministry (Baker Books, 2015). My blurb: “I wish I could have read this book when I was just starting out in ministry. This personal, practical volume will serve as a valuable guide for many young pastors, and quite a few older ones too.”

 

 

Marilyn J. Westerkamp, Triumph of the Laity: Scot-Irish Piety and the Great Awakening 1625-1760 (Oxford University Press, 1988). I don’t mention many of the PhD-related books I read, but I thought this might have some interest to a wider audience. While I don’t agree with Westerkamp’s insistence that the struggle within the Presbyterian church was a struggle fundamentally between piety and reason, it was helpful to be reminded of the Awakening’s antecedents in Scot-Irish tradition and in the fervency of regular churchgoers. This is a good study that connects the revivals in the New World with the patterns of the Old World.

Daniel Strange, Their Rock Is Not Like Our Rock: A Theology of Religions (Zondervan, 2014). Here’s the thesis explained and defended in this book: “From the presupposition of an epistemologically authoritative biblical revelation, non-Christian religions are sovereignly directed, variegated and dynamic, collective human idolatrous responses to divine revelation behind which stand deceiving demonic forces. Being antithetically against yet parasitically dependent upon the truth of the Christian worldview, non-Christian religions are ‘subversively fulfilled’ in the gospel of Jesus Christ” (335). Yeah, that’s a mouthful. I hope Strange, who teaches at Oak Hill College in London, will consider a more user-friendly volume without as much ground clearing and academic jargon. But the thesis, steeped in Reformed theology and rooted in evangelical convictions, is well constituted and well worth considering. Strange is surely right to note that evangelicals need to do more work in “theology of religions.” This book is a very good start.

The Ancient Martyrdom Accounts of Peter and Paul, Translated with an Introduction and Notes by David L. Eastman (SBL Press, 2015). An impressive (and sorry, expensive) work of scholarship. Most pastors, and quite a few Christians, know something about the tradition of the deaths of Peter and Paul. Very few of us have every looked at the literature (and there’s quite a bit of it) surrounding their martyrdoms. Eastman has done the heavy lifting of not only providing the relevant texts (in Greek, Latin, and Syriac), but also translating them, introducing them, and providing a rationale for why they matter. While this book is mainly for libraries and specialists, I’m glad to have it on my shelf to consult when studying the history and traditions of the early church.

New and Noteworthy

Here are several other new releases that I plan on using and may be of interest to readers of this blog.

Richard Lints, Identity and Idolatry: The Image of God and Its Inversion (IVP Press). This series (New Studies in Biblical Theology) has been terrific (and Lints was one of my professors at Gordon-Conwell).

Thabiti Anyabwile, Reviving the Black Church: A Call to Reclaim a Sacred Institution (B&H, 2015). I always look forward to reading Thabiti’s books, especially on this topic.

Bob Kauflin, True Worshipers: Seeking What Matters to God (Crossway, 2015). I’ve learned a lot from Bob about worship. He practices what he preaches.

Steve Beirn, Well Sent: Reimaging the Church’s Missionary-Sending Process (CLC Publications, 2015). I gave this to the chair of our missions committee and he said he’s going to use it with the whole committee.

Essential Evangelicalism: The Enduring Influence of Carl F. H. Henry, edited by Matthew J. Hall and Owen Strachan (Crossway, 2015). I’m glad to see renewed interest in Henry’s ideas and legacy.

Reformational Readings of Paul: Explorations in History and Exegesis, edited by Michael Allen and Jonathan A. Linebaugh (IVP Academic, 2015). Looks like  a good collection of scholarly essays.

Julius J. Kim, Preaching the Whole Counsel of God: Design and Deliver Gospel-Centered Sermons (Zondervan, 2015). I don’t think I’ve ever read a preaching book without learning something. I’m sure this book will be no exception.

Thank God for Your Normal, Boring Life

Earlier in the year, when I seemed to getting on a plane every week and I was dealing with some mysterious health symptoms, I remember thinking to myself: “If I could be at home, in my usual routine, doing all my ordinary work, going to the same grocery store, running the same running route, dealing with the same squabbles, tucking in the same six kids, sleeping in the same bed with my same wife, and doing this feeling relatively fine, I’d thank God each and every day for my wonderfully boring life.”

Of course, those sort of vows disappear all too quickly. I know I’ve had some normal, boring days since then and didn’t stop to thank God for the blessing of the same-old, same-old.

But I do so more than I used to.

Talk to the parents whose house was flooded or whose kids won’t sleep through the night. Talk to the friend who has been sitting by the bedside of a loved one in the hospital for days or weeks. Talk to the baby-boomer who has made special trips to take care of an aging parent. Talk to the family whose kitchen remodel is dragging on another month. Talk to the young women who keeps going from doctor to doctor looking for a definitive diagnosis that hasn’t come. Talk to the dad who has been on the road more days than he can remember. Talk to the mom who can’t shake her anxiety or her headaches. Talk to anyone who feels like the chaos of life is spinning and spinning, without any routine or regularity in sight. Most of us don’t learn how precious normal is until it’s gone.

If your life feels ho-hum and humdrum, if you struggle to find contentment in the ordinary and mundane, if you are tempted to break free from the predictable routine of life with stupidity or sinfulness, consider for a moment that your boring life is the envy of almost person sitting right now in a hospital bed or a refugee camp. Consider how many friends and family members would gladly trade in all their frenzied commotion and uncertain schedules for a single day of your plain-jane normalcy. The only people bored with boring are those who have never had to live without it.

To be sure, in one sense there is no normal. All of us suffer. All of us face interruptions, delays, disappointments, and unwanted surprises. Almost everyone with kids is living on the far side of crazy. And yet, there is a difference between crazy busy and catastrophe. If this week is a lot like last week, which is itself likely to be a lot like next week, enjoy the sanity that comes with sameness. Do not despise the days of small things, for they add up to more than you know (Zech. 4:10).

Thank God for your normal, boring life.

And have mercy on those around you who wish they had their boring back.

Monday Morning Humor

I’m assuming the guy is ok. What an advertisement for the Boy Scouts! Although it might be helpful to have a merit badge on whom to call first in an emergency.

The Reformation Gave Us a Seat at the Table

Next to justification, there was no issue more fiercely debated during the Reformation than the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. Although the Reformers did not always agree among themselves as to the meaning of the Supper, they were unified in their opposition to the Roman Catholic notion of transubstantiation. Using categories from Aristotle, Catholic theologians taught that the substance of the bread and wine were changed, while the accidents remained the same. Thus the elements were transubstantiated into the actual body and blood of Christ, but still retained the outer appearance of bread and wine.

According to Catholic teaching, when Jesus held up the bread and said “this is my body” he meant “this loaf of bread is my actual, real physical flesh.” The Reformers all agreed in deriding this view as nonsensical (the seventeenth century preacher John Tillotson was the first to speculate that there was a connection between the Latin phrase hoc est corpus meum [“this is my body”] and the magician’s formula hocus pocus). Protestants have argued that Jesus was employing a figure of speech in the Upper Room. Just as “I am the good Shepherd” did not mean Jesus tended little animals that go baa-baa, and “I am the gate” did not mean Jesus swung on hinges, and “whoever believes in me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” did not mean that the disciples would rupture a valve with H20, so “this is my body” did not mean “this loaf is my Aristotellian defined flesh and bone” (cf. 1 Cor. 10:4).

Luther and his followers rejected transubstantiation, but they did not completely reject a real physical presence of Christ. In affirming consubstantiation, Lutherans have argued that though the bread remains real bread and the wine real wine, nevertheless the physical presence of Christ is there also, “in, with, and under” the elements.

A third view of the Lord’s Supper, called the memorial view, is often attributed to Ulrich Zwingli, though it’s not clear this captures the fullness of his thought. In this view, communion is simply a feast of remembrance. There is nothing mystical and no real presence to fuss about. The bread and wine remain plain old bread and wine. They serve as a reminder of Christ’s sacrifice, a memorial to his death for our sins.

The fourth view—and in my mind the correct view–is normally associated with John Calvin. Calvin believed the Supper was a feast of remembrance, but he believed it was a feast of communion too. He believed in a real presence, a real spiritual presence whereby we feast on Christ by faith and experience his presence through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As the Heidelberg Catechism puts it, by faith, we “share in his true body and blood” (Q/A 79).

No one doubts that the Lord’s Supper is, at least in part, a memorial. We remember the Last Supper and remember Christ’s death (1 Cor. 11:23, 26). And as we remember his passion in the past, we proclaim his death until he comes again in the future. But the Lord’s Supper is more than mere mental cognition. 1 Corinthians 10:16 says, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation (koinonia) in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation (koinonia) in the body of Christ?” When we drink the cup and eat the break, we participate in, and have fellowship with, the body and blood of Christ. We are joined to him and experience a deep, spiritual koinonia with him. We gain spiritual nourishment from him (John 6:53-57) and unite as believers around him (1 Cor. 10:17). Christ is truly present with us at the Table.

A Meal, Not a Sacrifice

As important as it is to understand the significance of the Lord’s Supper, it’s just as important that we understand it is a supper we are celebrating. The sacramental feast is a meal, not a sacrifice. The last sentence in the previous paragraph is essential, not only because of the first clause (about Christ’s presence), but also because of the last word. In celebrating Communion, we come to a table, not to an altar. Among all the critical rediscoveries during the Reformation, it is easy to overlook the importance of recovering the Lord’s Supper as a covenantal meal (not a re-presenting of Christ’s atoning death) with all the elements (bread and cup) distributed to every believer (no longer withholding the cup from the laity). The Lord’s Supper acts as a family table where we can enjoy fellowship with each other and with our Host, partaking of the rich feast of blessings purchased for us at the cross.

I fear that in too many churches the Lord’s Supper is either celebrated so infrequently as to be forgotten or celebrated with such thoughtless monotony that churchgoers endure it rather than enjoy it. The Lord’s Supper is meant to nourish and strengthen us. The Lord knows our faith is weak. That’s why he’s given us sacraments to see, taste, and touch. As surely as you can see the bread and cup, so surely does God love you through Christ. As surely as you chew the food and drain the drink, so surely has Christ died for you. Here at the Table the faith becomes sight. The simple bread and cup give assurance that Christ came for you, Christ died for you, Christ is coming again for you. Whenever we eat the bread and drink from the cup, we not only re-proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes again (1 Cor. 11:26), we re-convince ourselves of God’s provision on the cross.

Don’t discount God’s preferred visual aids—baptism and the Lord’s Supper—and jump right to video, drama, and props to get people’s attention. What a mistake to think these “signs and seals” will be anywhere as effective as the ones instituted by Christ himself. Pastors who ignore the sacraments or never instruct the congregation to understanding and appreciate them are robbing God’s people of tremendous encouragement in their Christian walk. What a blessing to hear the gospel, and eat it too

Of course, this eating and drinking must be undertaken in faith for it to be effectual. The elements themselves do not save us. But when we eat and drink them in faith we can be assured that we receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. More than that, we get a picture of our union with Christ. As we eat the bread and drink the cup, we have communion with him, not by dragging Christ down from heaven, but by experiencing his presence through the Holy Spirit. Let us not come to the Lord’s Supper with drudgery and low expectations. If you shed a tear at the Table, let it not be out of boredom but out of gratitude and sheer wonder and delight. “While all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast, each of us cries, with thankful tongue, ‘Lord, why was I a guest?'”

Choosing the Right Seminary

Every single year, for the twelve years I’ve been the pastor at University Reformed Church, I’ve advised young men on where to go to seminary. They haven’t all been looking for the same things, and they haven’t all gone to the same place. But they all were looking for the school that would be right for them.

As a soon-to-be faculty member at Reformed Theological Seminary, I am always eager (and have been eager long before I had a formal relationship with them) for students to give RTS serious consideration. But the point of this post is not to tell anyone where to go to school. We are blessed in this country with many faithful, evangelical, Reformed (and reformed) seminaries that I readily give thanks for. I have friends at a number seminaries and have gladly sent out students to several of them. I can’t tell you what decision to make, but perhaps I can help you think through the right questions to ask.

Here are seven questions to ask before choosing a seminary.

1. What do I want to do with a seminary degree? I am a firm believer in the value of a seminary education. But I don’t encourage Christians to jump into seminary simply because they are eager to learn the Bible. It’s an expensive way to study the Scriptures if you don’t have a definite end goal in mind. So think to yourself, and talk to other people, and try to determine if you need seminary? If so, what for? To be a pastor? To be a missionary? For some other kind of vocational ministry? To go into the academy? What you are looking for will help determine where you go.

2. Is the seminary fully committed to the authority of the Bible at every level of the institution? I suppose in rare instances you could make a case for going to a mainline school if your end goal is to get a PhD and serve in a secular environment (although there are many evangelical schools whose degree would not hurt your chances of getting into the best doctoral programs). But in almost all cases, you will do much better to go to a school firmly rooted in the inerrancy of Scripture and the doctrines of the Reformation. This is not the time for testing out new theories, especially if you are studying to be a pastor. Find a school whose theology you trust, from top to bottom.

3. Have you thought about the tradition you want to be a part of? Seminary does not set your trajectory for life, but it will immerse you in a certain culture and tradition. Southern is a good seminary, so is Westminster, so is Trinity. But one will put you in the middle of SBC life, another into the Presbyterian and Reformed world, and another more broadly into evangelicalism (and the Evangelical Free Church). Think about where you’re from and where you want to end up. The people you train with in seminary may be your ministerial traveling companions for life.

4. What is the community like? No seminary aims for lousy community, but some schools are largely commuter campuses while others have a dorm atmosphere that feels like an extension of college. Do you want to share meals with other students in a cafeteria? Do you want to go to chapel regularly? Would you prefer married housing? Are you fine living off campus and driving in for class three or four or five days a week? Know what you’re looking for.

5. Who will be teaching you? It’s hard for seminaries to be much better (or much worse) than the faculty they employ. Think about whom you respect and want to be with for 3-5 years. Find out not just who the big name scholars are, but who actually teaches the classes and whether they are accessible to students. If you can, try to talk to current students and find out whether the famous faculty are effective classroom instructors. Good scholarship, good writing, and good teaching are three different gifts that don’t always reside in the same person. If you are training for pastoral ministry, you’ll want to see how many of the professors have real world experience in the nitty-gritty of local church life.

6. What courses will you be required to take? Seminary catalogs don’t always make for scintillating (or simple) reading, but it’s well worth the effort to try to make sense of each school’s basic requirements. The curricula can vary widely, both in total credit hours and in emphases. I would look for a school that is strong in the original languages, can teach exegesis, doesn’t skimp on systematic theology, and knows how to translate academic preparation into ministry readiness.

7. What are their graduates like? Granted, no seminary can be responsible for the way in which every student turns out. But on the whole, you should be able to get an excellent idea of how well a school will train you for ministry by looking at those it has already trained. Are they men of character? Are they biblically sharp and theologically sound? Are they doctrinally balanced? Are they good with people? Can they preach? Can you think of several graduates you’d gladly have on staff at your church? The proof is, as they say, in the pudding. Or, in the case of seminaries, in the pastors.

Monday Morning Humor

I hope your Monday is off to a better start than this.

A Theology of Worship

There is nothing more important in life than worship. We all worship something or someone. The only question is whether we will worship the right One in the right way. At University Reformed Church we want all of life to be worship to God (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 10:31). He is worthy to receive glory and honor and power (Rev. 4:11). In particular, we want our worship services on Sunday to be pleasing to Him. We want our corporate worship on Sunday to inspire and instruct our all-of-life worship Monday through Saturday. To gather with God’s people on the Lord’s Day to worship at God’s throne under the authority of God’s word is our solemn duty and joyful privilege.

It is with that supreme goal in mind that our church holds to a number of values when it comes to corporate worship. The list below is far from comprehensive or complete. Rather, it is meant to provide a brief summary of the most important principles undergirding our theology and philosophy of worship. Please consult the numerous appendices to see many of these points spelled out in further detail.

1. Glory to God – Worship is ultimately for Him. He is the most important audience at every service. Corporate worship is meant to be an anticipation of the heavenly gathering of God’s people. The grand scenes of heavenly worship in Revelation are both present and future. We too should direct all our attention to the throne. We too should sing of Christ’s work. We too should be earnest and uncompromising in our devotion to God. Our weekly gatherings—whether small or large, beautiful or forgettable—are meant to be a sweet foretaste of the heavenly worship we will one day experience for ages unending.

2. Focused on the Gospel of Christ – The gospel—Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection— is what makes worship possible. The gospel is what we proclaim in worship. The gospel is what we sing in worship. The gospel is what calls a people together in worship, inspires a people to praise in worship, and sends a people out in a life of worship. Every Sunday is another opportunity to sing about the cross, glory in our Redeemer, and marvel at the good news that is Christ for us and in us. Jesus Christ is at the center of all biblical thinking about worship. He is the mediator between God and man. His substitutionary sacrifice on the cross is the propitiation for our sins. He is the procurer of salvation and blessing for the nations. He is the new temple in which and around which all true believers gather. Christ draws us to himself in worship and through him a new relationship with the Father is made possible. While our corporate worship is not specifically focused on unbelievers (as if they were the audience we need to please most), our focus on Christ means that we certainly want the gospel presented credibly and intelligently to non-Christians. We are privileged to have visitors every Sunday, some of whom are not converted. One of our prayers each week is that unbelievers would hear Christ’s call to faith and repentance, and that God would seek and save those who are lost.

3. Biblical – The whole service teaches God’s people, so everything—the prayers, the songs, the preaching—must be biblical. In corporate worship we read the Bible, preach the Bible, pray the Bible, sing the Bible, and see the Bible in the sacraments. Every element in the service must be evaluated based on God’s revelation in the Scriptures: are we singing, saying, and hearing what is true? Because of this conviction, we also affirm that “the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will” (WCF 21.1). This “regulative principle” should not be the source of endless conflict and idle speculation, but an opportunity for God’s people to find unity and freedom in worshiping God as he wants to be worshiped.

4. Edifying to God’s people – Corporate worship is set apart from all-of-life worship in its focus on edification. Because of this focus, there are many activities that are appropriate for the Christian in all of life that aren’t appropriate in a worship service. There are many art forms that can be practiced and performed to the glory of God which would nevertheless not be suitable for corporate worship. Paul’s principle in 1 Corinthians 14 is that corporate worship must strive for maximum shared intelligibility. This means, among other things, that the worship service will not only be Word-centered, but also full of words.

5. Emphasizing the ordinary means of grace – God can work in many ways, but he has committed to being with us and transforming us through certain “means of grace.” He communes with us through prayer, through the word, and through the sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. Our services emphasize these ordinary means whereby God promises to give us more grace. We come to worship to give God glory, but even more so to meet with him and receive a blessing from his hand (Num. 6:24-26). The central act in the worship service is the preaching of God’s word. We believe this is best accomplished through the careful, Spirit-filled exposition of Scripture. Normally, this means working verse by verse through a book of the Bible. No matter the approach, every sermon should flow manifestly from Scripture and proclaim the gospel of God. Through all this, we hope that every worshiper will want to cry out, “Surely the Lord is in this place” (Gen. 28:16).

6. Congregational Singing – Choosing the appropriate musical composition and lyrical content for corporate worship is a task which requires careful attention to musical principles and even closer attention to theological fidelity. We believe there are new songs to be sung to Jesus. We also believe there is a great heritage of church music that we should embrace. We have no problem projecting words on a screen. But we also believe in the abiding value of using and learning from a good hymnal. Our services use music from different genres and different centuries. We use a variety of instruments, everything from guitars and drums to the organ. In all this, the most important sound is that of the congregation singing.

7. Liturgical (Worn Lightly) – Almost every church has an order of service and a familiar pattern of doing things, which means almost every church has a liturgy. Even though we wear our liturgy lightly, we still want it to be rich, rooted, and biblical. Our service has four parts: praise, renewal, proclamation, response. We see this pattern in the covenant renewal ceremonies of Scripture and in various divine encounters. In Isaiah 6, for example, Isaiah comes before God and praises him; then he confesses sin and seeks renewal; God then speaks his word to Isaiah; and finally Isaiah responds with commitment to God. This is also a gospel pattern: we approach God in awe, we see our sin, we hear the good news, and we respond in faith and obedience. Our services do not look the same every week, but neither are we trying to invent something new every Sunday. Within these four “acts” (praise, renewal, proclamation, response) can be found basic liturgical elements like a prayer of confession and assurance of pardon, a long pastoral prayer, Scripture readings, and flexible forms used for Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

8. Reformed – The Church has been thinking about how to worship for centuries. We want to learn from our spiritual ancestors and build on their models. To that end, we are eager to employ the Ten Commandments, creeds, confessions, catechisms, responsive readings, and other forms that have been common in church history. We want our services to be comprised of more than an opening worship set, a sermon, and a closing song. As a PCA church, we resonate with the guidelines outlined in The Directory for the Worship of God (see the PCA BCO, Chapters 47-63). We want our worship to be winsomely—that is to say, not archaically or obnoxiously—Reformed, rooted in history and true to the Scriptures.

9. Prayerful – Our services include many different prayers. Often you will find a prayer of confession because we sin every week and need gospel mercy every week. We usually have a longer congregational prayer, which is an important time to pray for the needs of our church family and for the world. Other prayers are common too: a prayer of adoration at the beginning of the service, a prayer of illumination before the sermon, and a brief prayer after the sermon. We typically have a prayer service on the first Sunday evening of the month. It will be hard for God’s people to know that they must pray, or see that they can pray, or learn how to pray if prayer is not a significant part of what we do when we gather for worship.

10. Undistracting Excellence – In corporate worship, the focus should be on the gospel and the all-surpassing glory of Jesus Christ. If the guitars are out of tune, and the sound system screeches, and the preacher fumbles over his sentences, and those leading up front make everyone else feel a bit nervous, then our focus will be in the wrong place. Because doing things decently and in order is helpful to others and pleasing to God, we should seek to “do worship” with excellence (1 Corinthians 14:40). But it must be undistracting excellence (to borrow John Piper’s phrase). If the guitarist goes off on some fantastic riff, and the sound system includes sub-woofers under every seat, and the preacher waxes overly eloquent, and those leading up front make everyone else feel a bit like they are enjoying a performance, then our focus will be equally in the wrong place. The goal is to lead in such a way that we are neither so clumsy nor so clever that the glory of God is all but forgotten.

NOTE: You can find a longer version of this document on our church’s website. The full document is 25 pages and includes nine appendices which flesh out many of the specific points found above.

What Is Love?

No one can hate you as much as they hated Christ.

No one will ever be mistreated as unfairly as was our Lord.

He was stricken, smitten and afflicted. He was despised and rejected by men—his own creatures. He was a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, like one from whom me hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. When reviled, Jesus did not revile in return. He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. When he rode in on that donkey on Palm Sunday, he did so knowing that he would bear the punishment to bring us peace and that by his wounds we would be healed.

In other words, he showed his great love for us in this: that while were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So we will not know what love is like unless we know Jesus.

The world will not know what love is truly like until it sees it in Christ. Everything else is a pale imitation, maybe even a deceptive imitation. Christ is our substitute and our example. And with Christ as our example, our command is this: we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. This is why love is so much more difficult than the bumper stickers make it out to be. It requires so much more than a general sentiment of good will. It is so much deeper and better than unconditional affirmation.

What does unconditional affirmation require of you by way of sacrifice? Nothing. All it requires is a wave of the hand–“Whatever you do, I’m fine. However you live, that’s fine.” The problem with unconditional affirmation is not that it is too lavishly loving, but that it is not nearly loving enough. When God tells us to love our brothers he means more than saying, “I’m okay. You’re okay. Whatever you do is fine and I don’t judge.” To really love your brother is to lay down your life for him. It requires you to die to yourself, which may mean a sacrifice of your time, a sacrifice of your reputation, and a sacrifice of your comfort. Unconditional affirmation only asks that you sacrifice your principles.

Love is harder than we think. Of course we love our kids and grandkids and those who treat us well. We love nice people. But Jesus says even the pagans do this. That’s not hard. People love people who love them. But will we keep on loving when it means bearing burdens we would rather not be bothered with? Will we love when the people we love do not love us in return? Will we lay down our lies for those who are unlovely, undeserving, ungrateful?

Isn’t that what Christ did for us? When we were unlovely and undeserving and ungrateful, Christ died for us. He loved us not because we were holy, but so that we might be holy. His love was self-sacrificing, sin-atoning, and life-transforming.

He loves us with a love that world does not understand. And it is so much better than unconditional affirmation.

Monday Morning Humor

Having watched all three debates, I think that about every fourth or fifth question should be “And how will you pay for that?”