James MacDonald's Blog, page 3

How Worship Can Amplify Sermon Impact

It surprises me that it is not always apparent to the preacher of the Word that the musical support surrounding his proclamation can significantly amplify and punctuate the message God has given for the congregation that weekend.

For example, I recently spoke on “How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit”. But those who follow the ministry of Walk in the Word would be unable to appreciate the volume of the message’s impact without knowing how it was book-ended by these two Vertical Church Band songs, led here by Meredith Andrews.

COME HOLY SPIRIT

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SPIRIT OF THE LIVING GOD

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Because this blog was created to support pastors who prepare worship services every weekend, I wanted to encourage you to think that maybe the sermon isn’t done when the sermon is “done.” Maybe the sermon isn’t done until other giftedness has been prepared to surround that proclamation with supportive worship.

Let’s keep giving our best to this important task. Preach the Word this weekend.

– James

Treating God’s Glory as a By-Product

 

One of the most educational days I ever spent was in Bakersfield, California, with a man named Bill Bolthouse. A deeply committed Christian originally from Michigan, Bill developed and refined the harvesting of raw carrots into those beautiful little rounded carrots you frequently see on a vegetable tray with cauliflower, broccoli, and some ranch-dressing dip. By the time I met Bill, his company, Bolthouse Farms, was in grocery stores everywhere, and he was one of the largest producers of carrot products in America.

As we toured their massive production facility, we went first to the place where the carrots were washed, peeled, and cut into sections by the truckload. While the scale and efficiency of the operation blew my mind, what really impacted me were the patented processes they had developed for the by-products of those little carrots. They made various items from the shavings, the peel, the end that was too small to use—nothing was allowed to go to waste. Juices, yogurts, breads, and many other foods all from the by-product of making those little carrots you pop in your mouth at a party.

I think the church of Jesus Christ in most locations is confused about what is primary and what is by-product. Getting product/by-product reversed puts Vertical Church and all it means upside down in the ditch, so please allow me to clarify.

A by-product is only derivative. A by-product is generated indirectly through a primary process toward an outcome of greater value. A by-product of harvesting chickens is the feathers, which have less value than the chicken. When sugar is refined, the by-product is molasses, useful in certain instances, but fractionally so compared to the sugar. A by-product of crude-oil refinement is mineral oil, which is worthless compared to the primary outcome upon which we all depend, namely gasoline.

The problem in the church today is that we treat God’s glory as a by-product…

The problem in the church today is that we treat God’s glory as a by-product and the missional activities of the church as the primary thing—when the opposite is what Scripture demands. We don’t proclaim the gospel and feed the poor and shepherd the flock in hopes that God’s glory will be the by-product of those activities. We seek the revealing of the glory of God through the methods He prescribes so that His glory is revealed in the church. When that happens, the lost are converted, the poor are fed, the saints live in unity, and much more, all as by-products of God’s manifest presence in the church. This is not a nuance or semantics.

In horizontal church, missional activities are pursued with a vague hope of God’s glory being a potential by-product. People are commissioned with no fuel to accomplish their activities and no reasonable expectation of success in a venture God never intended them to accomplish alone.

In Vertical Church, we pursue the manifest glory of God as our goal, believing that His revealing brings about the missional by-products. Getting the sequence wrong and forgetting what is the primary and what is the by-product gets the church to where it is today: consumed with influence, constantly diminishing revealed truth in the name of improving Jesus’ PR, and substituting attention-getting entertainment that fills seats for what gets us out of our seats and on our faces.

It’s these horizontal methods that substitute for glory, tricking us into believing God is at work when we are actually assuring His absence through methods that offend His holiness. Where such offense is avoided but God is not sought faithfully we often substitute rote conformity to the code of Scripture without seeking the God revealed in Scripture to reveal Himself.

God’s glory must again be primary in the church and no longer assumed as a by-product of outreach or orthodoxy.

The Tension in the Truth

During the time allotted for sermon prep, pastors frequently feel a growing dissonance about a tension created by the biblical text from which they are working.

To illustrate, if I were planning to speak on abortion, I might begin to feel a growing tension as I prepare. I would sense the need to express grace to those who have had an abortion and assure them of God’s forgiveness. Does that assurance then minimize the impact of the strong warnings? Does the equivocation weaken the strong prohibition against abortion?

Another example: When I’m speaking on what God’s Word says about homosexuality, can I declare the Bible’s unequivocal truth of ‘one man with one woman for life’? Or must I also digress into the neglected area of compassion for those tempted by this sin? Must I circle back to the importance of loving relationships in reaching those battling this sin with the gospel?

Similarly, this Easter we were reviewing the Wordless Book concept, popularized more than 100 years ago by Charles Spurgeon, where various groups of colors have been used to capture the message of the gospel. On Good Friday, we studied ‘green’ for Garden of Eden perfection—life as God intended it. ‘Black’ for the human condition of sin, separation, and darkness. ‘Red’ for the salvation of Christ—the cross. We reserved ‘white,’ the color of resurrection, for Easter Sunday.

As I prepared, I felt an increasing dissonance about using these terms, which are frequently the source of headlines in our society when applied to race. Too often, these same colors are used to inflame hatred between people, and that deeply grieves the heart of God.

I wrestled and wrestled and wrestled with the tension in the truth . . . in the end, I began with this. I hope you relate to “the tension in the truth” and are trying and trying again, as I am, to use great wisdom in matters so very sensitive in our culture.

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Days of Preparation

Monday through Saturday this week is like a slingshot…



The further we pull back into cross reflection, the greater our launch into the Resurrection. Without sorrow and somber meditation, the celebration is faux. God forgive our indulgent, unbiblical, Western-world clamor for coronation without cost.

DAY 1: SORROW AND LOVEx

Check back here every day this week for a powerful look back at previous Harvest Good Friday content from thedayjesusdied.org.

Sign up for one of seven Good Friday services at Harvest Bible Chapel here, or plan to watch the live stream Friday at 8pm central time, here.

Jerry Falwell, Jr., Donald Trump, and the Crisis at Liberty University*

*Note: title may be designed to ignite people’s fondness for negativity /controversy.

JERRY FALWELL

I was hosted this past Wednesday by the incredible David Nasser at Liberty University for what he called a “One Day Revival.”

 

I was privileged to stand in front of nearly 12,000 students and proclaim, “Revival Part 1: Seeing God for Who He Is” from Isaiah 6. More than half the students returned for the voluntary evening session, “Revival Part 2: Seeing Myself for Who I Am,” a truly incredible day—more on that in a minute.

Let me just say, what God is doing at Liberty University is absolutely mind boggling. What must be more than $500 million of buildings under construction, with a similar amount completed since my last campus visit three years ago—just a massive wow—with 3,600 freshman alone and nearly 10x the applicants for each of those spots. The quality of the vision, the incredible favor of God upon all they are trying to build and be . . . just astounding. But then this, as I made my way to Liberty, the announcement rolled out that Jerry Falwell, Jr., had endorsed Donald Trump for president, and the internet was blowing up with a plethora of opinions on that decision.

DONALD TRUMP

As a pastor, I don’t endorse candidates. Last week, I spoke at a caucus event for Dr. Ben Carson in Sioux City, Iowa, but I was very clear before accepting the invitation that my speech would be biblical, direct, and non-partisan. See if you think I hit the mark. My point is that I don’t think pastors should be endorsing any particular candidate, so they don’t alienate the members of the congregation who see these non-eternal issues differently. Further, I don’t believe ‘who a Christian should vote for’ is nearly as obvious or simple as some of us try to make it.

That’s why I was so encouraged to see Jerry Falwell, Jr., (not a pastor) state publicly and without apology his intent to vote for Donald Trump. I haven’t even decided who I will vote for, but I found his arguments sound, even compelling on several levels. We are not electing the best Sunday School teacher, and we need someone who knows how to turn around something incredibly complex that is teetering on the edge of financial collapse. While at Liberty University, I was blessed to sit down with Jerry for a few minutes and found him humble, remarkably capable, and wonderfully centered, given the immensity of what he carries and does.

Speaking of people who carry a lot, I read an article recently that blew my mind. It describes a Cornell University study which directly correlates a person’s skill level with their ability to accurately assess their true skill level in that area. In other words, people who are good at something are also good at knowing whether they are good at it. And that is an immense dilemma. When our country was founded, being the president wasn’t much more complex than running a used car lot—but that has really changed through 240 years. Jerry Falwell, Jr. is effectively building and managing a multi-billion dollar organization, and for that reason he is, according to this study, in a much better place than the average person to assess who is capable of being an effective President of the USA.

I am diametrically opposed (you should be, too) to criticizing members of the body of Christ in public forums, so I can’t give names of those attacking Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s announcement, which is more troubling by far than voting for “X,” no matter who “X” is.  That’s why I was upset to see people who have never carried anything heavier than a book, sounding off about Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s decision to endorse Donald Trump. The fact is that the study referenced above indicates that not only are most of us not capable of discerning the person most able to help our country, but the more sure we are of our ability to make the best choice, the less likely we actually are able.  Further, the study—linked now three times —reveals that any reader unable to assess the soundness of my logic in this post won’t know they are unable and in fact, will feel quite sure that they are. So there!

THE CRISIS AT LIBERTY UNIVERSITY

I was asked by David Nasser (whom Liberty is incredibly blessed to have leading their department of spiritual programming) to preach on revival. I knew he was not asking me to talk about revival from a historical or scholarly perspective, but to actually preach the student body toward personal revival from the Scriptures. As a noun, the word revival is not in the Bible—but the verb is used many times. “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you” (Psalm 85:6)? As a pastor, so much of my preaching seems to tilt toward process topics like “How to Have a Better Quiet Time” or “The Dangers of Legalism” or “The Steps to Victory over Temptation,” but revival is not a process. Revival is a move of God at a crisis moment to get our attention and, right then, draw us back into a fresh and vital relationship with Him. In his wonderful book Why Revival Tarries?, Leonard Ravenhill highlights unconfessed sin as the primary reason we don’t experience a reviving of our hearts.  Over time, our lofty and exalted view of God’s holiness is eclipsed by personal sinfulness that is not brought under the finished work of Christ, and we slip ever so subtly into what Paul calls the ‘carnal’ Christian life. What is needed then, what I have needed in my life in those moments, is a crisis—a specific moment of total repentance and fresh surrender to the Holy Spirit. This is what Hosea had in mind when he pleaded “Come let us return to the Lord . . . “ (Hosea 6:1).

What’s needed is a crisis—a specific moment of total repentance and fresh surrender to the Spirit.

That crisis is something we don’t see very often in our churches anymore. Lots of pastors preaching process, which everyone needs as the regular diet from God’s Word, but not so many anymore preaching for a crisis—or inviting in a ‘revival preacher,’ as we once did, to use those special gifts God gives some to fire up a fresh crisis. That is the road of sanctification: a lot of try and fail and try again process, with a once-in-a-while crisis, where everything becomes clear. Where my gradual slippage over many months gets moved in a moment of God getting my heart back to where it needs to be, through a genuine crisis of clarity and repentance. Several thousand students had a crisis at Liberty University this past Wednesday. I was blown away by their hungry, humble hearts and glad to be there with our Vertical Church Band to see God’s great mercy revealed in a crisis of true reviving. Praise the Lord.

Preachers, a President, and the Damage Done By Equivocation

For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle? (NKJV)

Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle? (NIV)

The context of this wonderful verse from 1 Corinthians 14:8 is the spiritual gift of tongues. Whatever you may believe about that personally, the passage is clearly stating that words spoken with understanding will always be more powerful than words that carry no understanding.

To illustrate this point, the Holy Spirit evokes military imagery. The job of the bugle and the bugler is to play, loud and long, a series of recognizable notes to direct battalions that danger is encroaching—and the time for kin and country is upon them.  How tragic, how unalterably pathetic, that the man given the responsibility to wake the troops from sleep or distraction as the enemy marches in, would fail to sound the warning. With death to the entire army imminent, all hope is hanging on the urgent effectiveness of the trumpeter. Scouts bring reports of enemies marching, generals form strategies to defeat and destroy their foes, but none of it happens if the warning is not sounded, if the trumpeter fails. The prospect is almost silly—was his mouthpiece clogged, did his breath fail, was the trumpet itself unfindable when urgently needed? Soldiers’ bodies litter the landscape as civilizations are ravaged and ruined by heathen hordes . . . why? Only because the one commissioned to warn, to awaken the resistance, to ready the defense was fatally ‘uncertain,’ ‘not clear.’

It’s difficult to see our president fumble with the bugle when the threat is within our own borders.

For those of us who have witnessed decades of American nobility in sending our treasured young men to fight and die in causes that were urgent but not our own, it is especially difficult to see our president fumble with the bugle when the threat is within our own borders. President Obama’s steadfast refusal to recognize the enemy, to accurately label that threat for what it is, to deploy our greatest strength in defeating that enemy is a true A.W.O.L. Recent efforts to raise the clarity of rhetoric slightly seem paltry in the context of lecturing the American people in condescending tones and refusing to reinstate the Terrorism Alert System dismantled by Homeland Security in 2011 with his support.

President Obama (let’s keep praying for him) could solve this so easily by saying:

“Extreme times call for careful words . . . I want to be sure I do not invoke a parallel irrationalism in peace-loving people by equating ISIS with Islam. [We heard that alternate irrationalism yesterday.] Yet I cannot allow that concern to cause confusion about where I stand on this growing threat. I call upon Muslim clerics and adherents in America to denounce ISIS as an evil and abhorrent form of Islam and to work with us to defeat it. I ask all Muslims to understand that equivocation on this point will call into question where their sympathies truly are. We call upon all Americans to join together in vigilance and alertness to possible threats around them, even as we work with our allies to wipe ISIS from the face of the earth.”

IF President Obama said that, it would end all discussion—but sadly the problem goes beyond his faltering, unclear words. The situation is so dire, and his role as Commander in Chief is so universally understood, that his silence causes growing uncertainty about where his true loyalties lie. People speculate, foolish conspiracy theories abound all because President Obama is unclear.  It would be difficult for a father to make the case that he cares about the safety of his family, while carefully wording mild warning sentences that caused no one to run for cover as the glass was breaking and the burglars were entering the residence. In modern times and across all partisan argumentation, our nation always rallies around its president’s firm resolve in a national crisis. (Remember “God Bless America” on the steps of the Capitol Building, right after 9/11?) Urgent times demand clarion certainty to avoid division within the ranks. We are paying a great price for presidential equivocation.



All of this has me thinking about preachers who equivocate. How hypocritical of us to criticize the president for seeming to mince words, when preachers with eternal consequences in their grasp too frequently offer the same kind of fatal equivocations.  Just last week, another preacher resigned from a prominent pulpit, citing his own journey and the need to self discover as his first priority. If you don’t believe hell is a real threat and you don’t believe the atoning death of Christ is the only solution, you have no right to be in a Christian pulpit. You are a spiritual terrorist of sorts, aren’t you? Hiding in open sight, allowing the public to think you are safe, even as you make decisions which put them in harm’s way. If you don’t believe the Word of God, yet people are gathering with the expectation that you do, you have actually hijacked a congregation for ‘parts unknown.’ If you were not so consumed with self, you would see that the ‘passengers’ are terrified and praying you will just land the plane safely and walk away. “It would be better for [you] if a millstone were hung around [your] neck and [you] were cast into the sea than that [you] should cause one of these little ones to sin.” (Luke 17:2)

All of that has me praising God for the brothers who stood up again this past weekend and preached their hearts out—heralding the authority of God’s Word without apology and seeing the Spirit of God use it to the salvation of souls and the building up of Christ’s church. We had a banner day yesterday, declaring the grace and mercy of God from Exodus 34:6-7. That same grace is available to all of us, if we need to repent of failing to “preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2). Let’s get back to our calling and, in His strength, sound the alarm, blow the bugle, and alert every hearer that the cup of God’s wrath has to be getting pretty full.

“For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle?” (1 Corinthians 14:8)

A Compelling State of Affairs

Leaders don’t spend a lot of time on things that are going well. Leaders look for underutilized resources, for new talent. They are constantly on the search for what could improve—and into that, they are speaking a compelling state of affairs.

The subject of leadership is so massive in importance, we dedicated two days this week to training our pastors, staff leaders, and future church planters in an offsite Leadership Bootcamp. Here is a clip from the close of our first session, which illustrates the point above. I hope you find it helpful.

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Happy Birthday, Luke

Today our oldest son, Luke, turns 30 years old. Happy Birthday!

Dear Luke:

I remember the first time I heard you sing — of course, we had sung kids’ songs together many times, but you were really singing . . . In was the summer of 1998 on family vacation, and you were in the back seat belting out the words to Chris Rice’s “Deep Enough to Dream.” Everyone stopped singing to hear the wonderful voice God had given this adolescent, and we all marveled.

On your 30th birthday, I want to talk about the deep, unspoken dreams that I have had for you. Now having three amazing sons of your own, you are in a better position to understand the dreams I have had for my firstborn son. In and around all the laughter, teasing, and immense fun we have together, my dream for you has only been for you to worship God sincerely, love our family loyally, and stand with me personally.

I really must praise the Lord that you continue to surpass my dream for you in each of these. Your passion for worship appeared while you were in high school, first fiddling with a guitar on Monday night dinners when Andi came over. The voice and guitar were put to great use for many unseen years in children’s church and youth group, refining your heart and preparing you to stand before His church. It has been awesome to see the Lord grow you beyond worship leader, to leader of worship leaders, visionary and tireless servant for Vertical Church Band, and cheerleader for other worship leaders across our fellowship of churches and beyond. Your mother cried tears of joy as she read the book your amazing wife Kristen put together from friends, coworkers, and neighbors who have been impacted by your testimony of faith — you truly love God “with a pure heart and sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5).

I don’t see how you could be more loyal to our family. In the toughest of times, with cancer, crisis, or catastrophe, in every season you have been faithful to your siblings and your parents, and our extended family on both sides. Your readiness to give and spend yourself for family is mind boggling at times, your patient nurturing of both Landon and Abby, availability for a call or conference at a moment’s notice, but best of all, the way you have drawn a boundary around your own wife and sons, to firmly establish them as your pinnacle priority — all of this fills my heart with gratitude and joy.

On top of all that, and in spite of many warnings and attempted deterrents, you disregarded my exhortations to “find another line of work,” and responded with enthusiasm to God’s calling to ministry. You then rejected my many suggestions that you serve elsewhere and chose public ministry, with me, as a preacher — just WOW! Wow, your gifts, wow your passion, wow your potential impact for Christ in the years ahead, far far “above all that we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). And wow, I have a 30-year-old, happily married son who worships God sincerely, loves family loyally, and stands by my side with immense giftedness in ministry to Christ’s church.

Think of your own sons, Carter, Reid, and Graham, 24-28 years from now. Dream of them deeply enough to imagine them becoming and doing all that you have allowed the Lord to make you and do through you. Get that clearly in mindand you will just begin to grasp why my eyes are full of thankful tears for the son born 30 Thanksgivings ago, “and oh the love I feel, and oh the peace, do I ever have to wake up.” You are a dream come true, Luke. Happy Happy Birthday!

Unapologetic Preaching and Raising Your Voice

“And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power…” (1 Corinthians 2:4).

Preaching—true biblical preaching, heralding the message as Scripture commands—is becoming less and less common as the anti-authority, “God is my life coach” spirit of the age becomes more and more common.

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions…” (2 Timothy 4:3).

Don’t back off, preachers—do your job with passion and in the power of the Holy Spirit. You are not making a Mary Kay presentation or engaging in reflective dialogue on the set with Oprah or Dr. Phil—you are a man with a message from a King.

Don’t back off, preachers—do your job with passion and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

A king’s messenger would never stand quietly on a street corner, parchment in hand, speaking in passive tones only a few nearby could hear. While modern audio equipment amplifies volume and eliminates the need to shout for hearing, faithfulness to the meaning of terms translated “preach” or “proclaim” demand we find equally effective ways to herald the gravity of the message.

Let me say it succinctly: Bible explanation is not preaching. Exegetical review by itself is not preaching. Speaking the message in a monotone way that wouldn’t engage your mother in the front row on your birthday is not faithfulness to what the Bible commands in proclamation. If you are unpacking your lexical study and dispensing biblical accuracy without Holy Spirit urgency, you are not preaching in the biblical sense, which commands a heralding of the message. A favorite quote of mine is from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, of whom I am told you could not sit under his preaching without being gripped by God’s Spirit and held until you heard what God would say through him.

Lloyd-Jones said: “Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. A true understanding and experience of the Truth must lead to this. I say again that a man who can speak about these things dispassionately has no right whatsoever to be in a pulpit; and should never be allowed to enter one.”

Here is a short example of what I mean.

Let’s bring our King’s message this weekend with the authority of God’s Word and without apology. Some will reject it, to be sure—but by God’s grace, it will be for someone “the power of God to salvation” (Romans 1:16).

A Shot in the Arm (and 5 Other Things)

Time to freshen up the blog, as we bring our busy fall ministry launch season to a close. Here are just a few touch points, to connect my heart with yours and get current . . .

• HARVEST TRAINING CENTER FOR CHURCH PLANTING

Love, love, love the men who have come with their families for several months of training, before they launch out to plant the churches that will take this wonderful missions effort beyond the 150-churches mark, worldwide. These guys are so hungry, and I had maybe the best time ever up at Camp Harvest with them and our pastors a few weeks ago, concentrating our preaching training into a two-day period.

• HARVEST UNIVERSITY

Very excited about the upcoming Harvest University starting Sunday night, and the first-ever Harvest U outside Chicago, on October 25-28, near Toronto with our Canadian Harvest Bible Fellowship partners. The purpose of this event is to connect our wider church family around the world with the principles of Vertical Church. We offer impactful worship/preaching sessions, as well as very practical ministry training workshops.

• VERTICAL CHURCH MEDIA

“The Resurrection of Gavin Stone” is our church’s soon to be released feature-length film. It was recently screened in L.A. by the film’s producers and received great reviews. This motion picture, set to release nationwide in 2016, will be exclusively previewed each night of Harvest University. It is not the typical Christian film, as it’s targeted to impact Christians and non-Christians alike. The movie’s premise is a child star turned bad boy in adulthood, who is forced to do community service in a church to avoid jail time. His introduction to the subculture of evangelicalism is awkward, hilarious and, ultimately, life changing. Please pray with us about this exciting outreach.

• PROPHECY PREACHING

I interrupted the fall preaching schedule with a two-part series called Signs of the Times in the New York Times. I had been so burdened by the encroaching darkness of our current moral climate that I wanted to bring some understanding to our people about how such decline is predicted in Scripture. We studied, in Mark 13, the ten things Jesus said would precede His return with the goal of raising our sense of personal urgency in the Lord’s work. (Watch “Signs of the Times in the New York Times, Part 2”.) I know that abuse of prophecy passages has made it popular to to shy away from such teaching, but I think it really helped our people process some of the massive cultural shifts we all have been seeing.

• A SHOT IN THE ARM!

I recently came across this spoken word piece in my wife’s Facebook feed and was so proud of our Tara Stutes, who committed it to memory and shared on one of our campuses with great impact.

• BASICS ARE BEAUTIFUL

I have cut back on my travel by more than 90% and can honestly say I only wish I had done it sooner. I have been consciously saying “no” to things I know will drain me and de-prioritize our own church family—and frequently saying a glad “yes” to stuff that had gotten crowded out. I have loved preaching on Wednesday nights at our Rolling Meadows Campus, then remaining in the area with Kathy so I can lead a Thursday morning small group for about 20 young leaders on the same campus. Soon, I will have done this for 10 straight weeks (unthinkable by my 2012 travel standards), and I am so grateful. This discipline of personal discipleship has been so integral in my own growth as a believer, I can’t believe I ever let the demands of ministry draw me away from this personal priority.

– Photo cred to Pastor Dave Learned, who co-leads the group

Let’s be “unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Your brother in Jesus,

James