C.J. Mahaney's Blog, page 8

01: The Pastor and Personal Criticism

I have often been asked what it was like to pastor at Covenant Life Church for 27 years. Here is my immediate response: It was an unspeakable privilege and joy to serve this remarkable church. I’m not sure a single day passed that I did not receive encouragement from a kind member of the church.

And my experience is not unique. To pastor in Sovereign Grace Ministries is to be on the receiving end of encouragement every week and often every day. We have the privilege of serving grateful folks who love us and excel in communicating gratefulness. We simply do not deserve their support and encouragement. They make pastoral ministry a pure joy.

Well, most of them do.

In every church there will be those who are not particularly grateful, who normally communicate with you only in the form of criticism. And to some degree this is the norm for every pastor.

If you are a pastor you will be criticized. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually you will feel the sharp sting of critique.

Those within your church may criticize you, those who leave the church may criticize you, and even complete strangers may criticize you. The criticism will come from enemies and from friends. Some of the criticism will be true, some of it will be false, and some may be outright malicious. But it’s coming—if it hasn’t already arrived.

And there are many reasons why we can expect criticism:

A pastor can expect criticism because of his own sin, which will inevitably be present in his heart and service, no matter how mature or well meaning he is (James 3:2).
A pastor can expect criticism because there are limitations to his gifting, meaning there will always be weaknesses in his leadership. 
A pastor can expect criticism because we often preach below-average sermons. (After one sermon, a guy asked me, “So where do you work during the week?” My sermon apparently gave him the impression that preaching wasn’t my vocation.)
A pastor can expect criticism because people can be proud and ungrateful. 
A pastor can expect criticism because, well, it is a sinful and fallen world.

But we as pastors often forget one more important reason:

A pastor can expect criticism because it is part of God’s sanctification process—a tool that he uses to reveal idols and accelerate the pastor’s growth in humility.

God enlists many to serve us to this end.

Puritan Richard Baxter got this. In his book to pastors, The Reformed Pastor, he wrote,

Because there are many eyes upon you, therefore there will be many observers of your falls. If other men may sin without observation, so cannot you. And you should thankfully consider how great a mercy this is, that you have so many eyes to watch over you, and so many ready to tell you of your faults, and so have greater helps than others, at least for the restraining of your sin. Though they may do it with a malicious mind, yet you have the advantage by it.*

According to Baxter, the critique of many is actually a great advantage to pastors. This is a great mercy—at least I keep telling myself it is. And I have to keep reminding myself because criticism isn’t my personal preference.

I would prefer to mature through less painful means. I would prefer to mature through a flood of sanctified encouragement—that’s what I’m talking about!

But the reality is that I have grown far, far, far, far, far more from criticism and correction than from all the wonderful encouragement I have received over the years.

So God uses correction to mature pastors. That seems to be the norm. And this is God’s great mercy to help me see my own pride and sin. (If you’ve discovered a way to avoid criticism and still grow, please give me a call!)

Conclusion

So if you are a pastor, you will be criticized and corrected. It’s coming. We must be prepared for it, and we must see it as God’s means for our sanctification. How we respond to criticism (both from friends and from less-than-friends) is absolutely critical. I regret the many times I haven’t responded humbly to correction. I desire to grow in perceiving correction as a great mercy from God.

So for the next several days I will be writing out some of my thoughts, biblical reflections, and personal experiences in this series: “The Pastor and Personal Criticism.”

[Note: In this series I will use the terms criticism and correction interchangeably. I recognize the distinction between these two terms: criticism is a voiced disapproval of faults without a concern for resolving those faults; correction is feedback to rectify an error. The difference seems to be in the intent of the observer: the one simply points out apparent flaws, while the other points to apparent flaws and seeks to help bring change. However, because the pastor’s response is similar in either case, I think a careful distinction between the words isn’t necessary in this series.]

* The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, vol. 14, The Reformed Pastor (London: Paternoster, 1830), 64–65.

Posted by C.J. Mahaney

Reading Newton's Mail

John Newton (1725–1807) referred to himself as “an apostate, a blasphemer, and an infidel,” and he wasn’t joking. Although he was born to a Christian mother, Newton’s early adulthood was marked by atheism, witchcraft, and blasphemy so vulgar that sailors blushed.

Newton was a sailor and spent much of his life on the sea, eventually working his way up to captain of a slave-trading ship. While on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in 1748, his life was jostled by a violent thunderstorm at sea. The storm nearly sunk his ship—it did wreck his pride.

That experience shook Newton to the core. He was eventually converted and would later write an autobiographical hymn, “Amazing Grace,” that focuses on God’s kindness that “saved a wretch like me.”

God’s dramatic call on Newton’s life pulled him out of darkness, into the light, and eventually placed him into full-time pastoral ministry. Without formal training or education Newton entered the ministry, faithfully serving two congregations in and around London for 43 years. In these years Newton penned hundreds of hymns, sermons, and stacks of pastoral letters on topics of great value to the Christian life.

“Newton was indubitably one of the three greatest eighteenth-century evangelical leaders,” J. I. Packer writes. “As a warm-hearted pastoral counselor, in groups and by letter, he had no peer."

Those peerless letters cover a wide variety of topics and are biblically rich, pastorally wise, and—like Newton himself—street smart. These letters continue to offer rich pastoral counsel to any patient reader who is willing to snoop around in someone’s old outbox.

Beginning this week we are launching a new blog series titled Reading Newton’s Mail. The series will feature a few highlights from Newton’s published letters. Although I plan to write most of the posts, C.J. may join the fun and contribute a post to the series on occasion.

Watch for Reading Newton’s Mail on Fridays here on the Cheap Seats blog.

Tony Reinke serves as C.J. Mahaney’s editorial and research assistant.

Posted by Tony Reinke

Is Small Talk Worthless?

In conversations I often want to dispense with small talk—let’s just get to the point. But underneath this haste is an assumption that small talk or casual conversation is superficial and worthless.

No so, according to my friend David Powlison.

A while back I interviewed David about his ministry and writing, and at one point I asked him to explain the purpose of his book Speaking Truth in Love. As a way of summary, David made a point that I have returned to on many occasions since. David said:

When I use the word counseling I don't mean a Ph.D. in psychotherapy in an office. I mean the way the Bible talks about counseling, which is the effect of the tongue, and the effect of our lives on each other. We are changed by relating to each other when we relate wisely. And that may happen in an office. Every pastor is going to make appointments and there will be times that you sit down with someone, or you just say to a wise friend, “Can we get together?” You talk and counsel happens. Or it could be just the most casual kind of conversation.

In God's view there is never an inconsequential word that anybody ever says. Every word counts. We are not always aware of that. Jesus says you will be judged for every careless word you utter (Matthew 12:36). That means that when you climb into anything a person ever says you find profound things revealed about what they are about: what they are after, what their intentions are, what their worldview is. Even in small talk there is a revelation of the heart that God is searching out, and he weighs the intentionality of small talk.

Small talk: it is either a way for me to say, “I don't want to know you and I don't want you to know you and so I am going to keep it light and make it as quick as possible and see you later.” Or small talk is a way to say, “I care about you. I would like to get to know you.” We can talk about a football team or the weather and it is actually an expression of two human beings making that connection, but it is because we love each other or want to know each other.

Small talk is going to be judged by God for the kind of deep intentionality it is. In other words, small talk is counsel.

Then David introduced Ephesians 4:29: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Thus, he says,

Let no word be spoken that is not nutritional, constructive, timely, appropriate, grace-giving. Every word. Never anything else. The Bible sets a very high bar. The way that we converse with each other is meant to be a means of grace so that we influence each other unto faith, unto joy, unto love, unto gratitude, unto honesty, and unto confession. All those things are meant to happen in daily life interactions.

David then referenced our dinner conversation earlier in the week, where we talked about the history of baseball (and of our mutual disdain for the New York Yankees!). He said,

We were not trying to avoid each other by talking about baseball. We are actually enjoying each other. It’s part of the pleasure of two men being friends that we had a ball talking about baseball for about 20 minutes and then we talked about lots of other things—yes, that were more substantial—but the baseball part of the talk was not inconsequential. It was part of our pleasure in being friends.

An excellent point! And David’s point is one that has changed my perspective of small talk and my practice of engaging in it.

You can listen to my full interview with David here.

Posted by C.J. Mahaney

Biblical Priorities For Personal Productivity

January is a great month for personal planning. It’s the one time of year when a majority of us study our twelve-month calendar and put some thought into how to best structure our time. And this means January is a good month to think carefully about our personal priorities and goals. Hoping to help Christians think through how roles and goals impact scheduling, C.J. wrote a blog series that can now be download as a 36-page PDF by clicking here: "Biblical Productivity" (0.6 MB).

Posted by Tony Reinke

Disturbing Christmas

Re-posted from December 21, 2009

The days before Christmas can be a tiring season of preparation, planning, shopping, and wrapping. But I think as we prepare for the Christmas celebrations, dinners, travel, and gift giving, it’s equally important that we pause and prepare our souls for Christmas.

During this time of year, it may be easy to forget that the bigger purpose behind Bethlehem was Calvary. But the purpose of the manger was realized in the horrors of the cross. The purpose of his birth was his death.

Or to put it more personally: Christmas is necessary because I am a sinner. The incarnation reminds us of our desperate condition before a holy God.

Several years ago WORLD Magazine published a column by William H. Smith with the provocative title, “Christmas is disturbing: Any real understanding of the Christmas messages will disturb anyone” (Dec. 26, 1992).

In part, Smith wrote:

Many people who otherwise ignore God and the church have some religious feeling, or feel they ought to, at this time of the year. So they make their way to a church service or Christmas program. And when they go, they come away feeling vaguely warmed or at least better for having gone, but not disturbed.

Why aren’t people disturbed by Christmas? One reason is our tendency to sanitize the birth narratives. We romanticize the story of Mary and Joseph rather than deal with the painful dilemma they faced when the Lord chose Mary to be the virgin who would conceive her child by the power of the Holy Spirit. We beautify the birth scene, not coming to terms with the stench of the stable, the poverty of the parents, the hostility of Herod. Don’t miss my point. There is something truly comforting and warming about the Christmas story, but it comes from understanding the reality, not from denying it.

Most of us also have not come to terms with the baby in the manger. We sing, “Glory to the newborn King.” But do we truly recognize that the baby lying in the manger is appointed by God to be the King, to be either the Savior or Judge of all people? He is a most threatening person.

Malachi foresaw his coming and said, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.” As long as we can keep him in the manger, and feel the sentimental feelings we have for babies, Jesus doesn’t disturb us. But once we understand that his coming means for every one of us either salvation or condemnation, he disturbs us deeply.

What should be just as disturbing is the awful work Christ had to do to accomplish the salvation of his people. Yet his very name, Jesus, testifies to us of that work.

That baby was born so that “he who had no sin” would become “sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The baby’s destiny from the moment of his conception was hell—hell in the place of sinners. When I look into the manger, I come away shaken as I realize again that he was born to pay the unbearable penalty for my sins.

That’s the message of Christmas: God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, man’s sin has alienated him from God, and man’s reconciliation with God is possible only through faith in Christ…Christmas is disturbing.

Don’t get me wrong—Christmas should be a wonderful celebration. Properly understood, the message of Christmas confronts before it comforts, it disturbs before it delights.

The purpose of Christ’s birth was to live a sinless life, suffer as our substitute on the cross, satisfy the wrath of God, defeat death, and secure our forgiveness and salvation.

Christmas is about God the Father (the offended party) taking the initiative to send his only begotten Son to offer his life as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that we might be forgiven for our many sins.

As Smith so fitly concludes his column:

Only those who have been profoundly disturbed to the point of deep repentance are able to receive the tidings of comfort, peace, and joy that Christmas proclaims.

Amen and Merry Christmas!

Posted by C.J. Mahaney

Home for the Holidays

On Sunday morning, December 21, 1856, Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon to prepare his growing church for the coming Christmas season. He titled it “Going Home,” and the aim of the message was to encourage each member of his congregation to humbly, wisely, and appropriately find opportunities to share their personal testimony with family and friends.

Spurgeon had become the pastor of New Park Street Church in April 1854. At that time the church had 232 members. By Christmas of 1856 the membership had risen quickly to around 4,000. A large number of newly converted Christians needed to be prepared for their return home for Christmas.

Spurgeon’s sermon text was taken from the dramatic account of Jesus healing the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5:1–20. Spurgeon focused his attention on Jesus’s commission to the man after he was healed: “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you” (v. 19).

After explaining the demoniac’s radical life-transformation by Christ and his commission to go home, Spurgeon commissioned his church to return home. In the remainder of the sermon Spurgeon develops several practical points:

Christmas is suited for sharing the gospel with family and friends.
Aim to share the story of God’s grace in your life.
By sharing we edify believers.
By sharing we reach lost friends and family.
Be alert for one-on-one opportunities to share your story.
Don’t expect this sharing to be easy.
Overcome this fear by sharing to honor your Savior.
Share your story with gratitude to God.
Share your story with humility.
Share your story truthfully—don’t embellish it.
Tell your story seriously—don’t share it flippantly.
Don’t neglect your personal devotions during Christmas.
Rest upon the Holy Spirit’s help to share.
Remember that this story you share over the holidays is the story that will be on your lips eternally.

What follows are a few excerpts taken from the message that have been slightly modified and rearranged for readability.

A pdf of this post is available here (7 pages). You are free to download, email, print, or copy this file as you wish.

May the Savior be glorified this Christmas season as we gather with friends and family.

Going Home: A Christmas Sermon
C.H. Spurgeon
December 21, 1856

The demoniac’s story

This poor wretch, being possessed with a legion of evil spirits had been driven to something worse than madness. He fixed his home among the tombs, where he dwelt by night and day, and was the terror of all those who passed by. The authorities had attempted to curb him; he had been bound with fetters and chains, but in the paroxysms of his madness he had torn the chains in sunder, and broken the fetters in pieces.

Attempts had been made to reclaim him, but no man could tame him. He was worse than the wild beasts, for they might be tamed; but his fierce nature would not yield. He was a misery to himself, for he would run upon the mountains by night and day, crying and howling fearfully, cutting himself with the sharp flints, and torturing his poor body in the most frightful manner.

Jesus Christ passed by; he said to the devils, “Come out of him.” The man was healed in a moment, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, he became a rational being—an intelligent man, and what is more, a convert to the Savior.

The demoniac’s commission

Out of gratitude to his deliverer, he said, “Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. I will be your constant companion and your servant, permit me so to be” [Mark 5:18].

“No,” said Christ, “I esteem your motive, it is one of gratitude to me, but if you would show your gratitude, go home to your friends and tell them of the great things the Lord has done for you, and how he has had compassion on you.”

Christmas is suited for sharing the gospel with family and friends.

True religion does not break the bonds of family relationship. True religion seldom encroaches upon that sacred—I had almost said divine—institution called home. It does not separate men from their families, and make them aliens to their flesh and blood.…

Christianity makes a husband a better husband, it makes a wife a better wife than she was before. It does not free me from my duties as a son; it makes me a better son, and my parents better parents. Instead of weakening my love, it gives me fresh reason for my affection; and he whom I loved before as my father, I now love as my brother and co-worker in Christ Jesus; and she whom I reverenced as my mother, I now love as my sister in the covenant of grace, to be mine for ever in the state that is to come.…

For my part, I wish there were twenty Christmas days in the year. It is seldom that young men can meet with their friends; it is rarely they can all be united as happy families….I love it as a family institution, as one of England’s brightest days, the great Sabbath of the year, when the plough rests in its furrow, when the din of business is hushed, when the mechanic and the working man go out to refresh themselves upon the green sward of the glad earth.

Aim to share the story of God’s grace in your life.

It is to be a story of personal experience: “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.”

You are not to repair to your houses to preach. You are not to begin to take up doctrinal subjects and expatiate on them, and endeavor to bring persons to your peculiar views and sentiments. You are not to go home with sundry doctrines you have lately learned, and try to teach these. You are to go home and tell not what you have believed, but what you have felt—what you really know to be your own; not what great things you have read, but what great things the Lord hath done for you; not alone what you have seen done in the great congregation, and how great sinners have turned to God, but what the Lord has done for you. And mark this: there is never a more interesting story than that which a man tells about himself.…

Go home, young man, and tell the poor sinner’s story; go home, young woman, and open your diary, and give your friends stories of grace. Tell them of the mighty works of God’s hand which he hath wrought in you from his own free, sovereign, undeserved love. Make it a free grace story around your family fire.

By sharing we edify believers.

If you want to make your mother’s heart leap within her, and to make your father glad—if you would make that sister happy who sent you so many letters, which sometimes you read against a lamp-post, with your pipe in your mouth—go home and tell your mother that her wishes are all accomplished, that her prayers are heard, that you will no longer chaff her about her Sunday-school class, and no longer laugh at her because she loves the Lord, but that you will go with her to the house of God, for you love God.…

Cannot you imagine the scene, when the poor demoniac mentioned in my text went home? He had been a raving madman; and when he came and knocked at the door, don’t you think you see his friends calling to one another in affright, “Oh! there he is again,” and the mother running up stairs and locking all the doors, because her son had come back that was raving mad; and the little ones crying because they knew what he had been before—how he cut himself with stones, because he was possessed with devils. And can you picture their joy, when the man said, “Mother! Jesus Christ has healed me, let me in; I am no lunatic now!”

By sharing we reach lost friends and family.

I hear one of you say, “Ah! Sir, would to God I could go home to pious friends! But when I go home I go into the worst of places; for my home is amongst those who never knew God themselves, and consequently never prayed for me, and never taught me anything concerning heaven.”

Go home to them, and tell them, not to make them glad, for they will very likely be angry with you, but tell them for their soul’s salvation. I hope, when you are telling the story of what God did for you, that they will be led by the Spirit to desire the same mercy themselves.

Be alert for one-on-one opportunities to share your story.

Do not tell this story to your ungodly friends when they are all together, for they will laugh at you. Take them one by one, when you can get them alone, and begin to tell it to them, and they will hear you seriously.…You may be the means of bringing a man to Christ who has often heard the Word and only laughed at it, but who cannot resist a gentle admonition.

Don’t expect this sharing to be easy.

For I hear many of my congregation say, “Sir, I could relate that story to anyone sooner than I could to my own friends; I could come to your vestry, and tell you something of what I have tasted and handled of the Word of God; but I could not tell my father, nor my mother, nor my brethren, nor my sisters.”

Overcome this fear by sharing to honor your Savior.

I know you love him; I am sure you do, if you have proof that he loved you. You can never think of Gethsemane and of its bloody sweat, of Gabbatha and of the mangled back of Christ, flayed by the whip: you can never think of Calvary and his pierced hands and feet, without loving him, and it is a strong argument when I say to you, for his dear sake who loved you so much, go home and tell it. If Christ has done much for you, you cannot help it—you must tell it.

Share your story with gratitude to God.

No story is more worth hearing than a tale of gratitude. This poor man’s tale was a grateful story. I know it was grateful, because the man said, “I will tell thee how great things the Lord hath done for me.” A man who is grateful is always full of the greatness of the mercy which God has shown him; he always thinks that what God has done for him is immensely good and supremely great.

Share your story with humility.

It must be a tale told by a poor sinner who feels himself not to have deserved what he has received. Oh! when we tell the story of our own conversion, I would have it done with deep sorrow, remembering what we used to be, and with great joy and gratitude, remembering how little we deserve these things. Why, then, my eyes began to be fountains of tears, those hearers who had nodded their heads began to brighten up, and they listened, because they were hearing something which the man felt himself and which they recognized as being true to him, if it was not true to them.

Tell your story, my hearers, as lost sinners. Do not go to your home, and walk into your house with a supercilious air, as much as to say, “Here’s a saint come home to the poor sinners, to tell them a story.”…

Do not intrude yourselves upon those who are older, and know more, but tell your story humbly; not as a preacher, but as a friend and as a son.

Share your story truthfully—don’t embellish it.

Do not tell more than you know; do not tell John Bunyan’s experience, when you ought to tell your own. Do not tell your mother you have felt what only Rutherford felt. Tell her no more than the truth. Tell your experience truthfully, for one single fly in the pot of ointment will spoil it, and one statement you may make which is not true may ruin it all.

Tell your story seriously—don’t share it flippantly.

Let them see you mean it. Do not talk about religion flippantly; you will do no good if you do. Do not make puns on texts. Do not quote Scripture by way of joke. If you do, you may talk till you are dumb, you will do no good, if you in the least degree give them occasion to laugh by laughing at holy things yourself. Tell it very earnestly.…

Perhaps when you are telling the story one of your friends will say, “And what of that?” And your answer will be, “It may not be a great thing to you, but it is to me. You say it is little to repent, but I have not found it so; it is a great and precious thing to be brought to know myself to be a sinner, and to confess it, do you say it is a little thing to have found a Savior. If you had found him too, you would not think it little. You think it little I have lost the burden from my back; but if you had suffered with it, and felt its weight as I have for many a long year, you would think it no little thing to be emancipated and free, through a sight of the cross.”

Don’t neglect your personal devotions during Christmas.

When you are at home for Christmas, let no one see your face till God has seen it. Be up in the morning, wrestle with God; and if your friends are not converted, wrestle with God for them, and then you will find it easy work to wrestle with them for God.

Rest upon the Holy Spirit’s help to share.

Do not be afraid, only think of the good you may possibly do. Remember, he that saves a soul from death has covered a multitude of sins, and he shall have stars in his crown forever and ever.…Let your reliance in the Holy Spirit be entire and honest. Trust not yourself, but fear not to trust him. He can give you words. He can apply those words to their heart, and so enable you to “minister grace to the hearers” [Ephesians 4:29].

Remember that this story you share over the holidays is the story that will be on your lips eternally.

When we go home to our friends in Paradise, what shall we do?

First we will repair to that blest seat where Jesus sits, take off our crown and cast it at his feet, and crown him Lord of all. And when we have done that, what shall be our next employ? We will tell the blessed ones in heaven what the Lord hath done for us, and how he hath had compassion on us.

And shall such tale be told in heaven? Shall that be the Christmas Carol of the angels? Yes it shall be; it has been published there before—blush not to tell it yet again—for Jesus has told it before, “When he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.”

Poor sheep, when you shall be gathered in, will you not tell how your Shepherd sought you and found you? Will you not sit in the grassy meads of heaven, and tell the story of your own redemption? Will you not talk with your brothers and sisters, and tell them how God loved you and has brought you there?

Perhaps you say, “It will be a very short story.” Ah! It would be if you could write now. A little book might be the whole of your biography; but up there when your memory shall be enlarged, when your passion shall be purified, and your understanding clear, you will find that what was but a tract on earth will be a huge tome in heaven. You will tell a long story there of God’s sustaining, restraining, constraining grace. And I think that when you pause to let another tell his tale, and then another, and then another, you will at last, when you have been in heaven a thousand years, break out and exclaim, “O saints, I have something else to say.” Again they will tell their tales, and again you will interrupt them with “Oh, beloved, I have thought of another case of God’s delivering mercy.” And so you will go on, giving them themes for songs, finding them the material for the warp and woof of heavenly sonnets.

Posted by Tony Reinke

A Gift Idea

Christmas provides a wonderful opportunity to give gifts to those I love. I enjoy doing all I can to surprise them with a particular gift. I am sure you do as well.

But here’s what I’ve come to realize: too often I can put more thought into the gifts I buy them than I do the content of my conversations with them at Christmas. In fact the content of my conversation can be a gift of greater substance and of more enduring value.

By using words that are carefully and skillfully chosen, we can give the gift of grace to others. And Christmas provides us with many opportunities for conversations with a variety of friends and family. But are you prepared?

The Apostle Paul writes, “let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).

This promise is stunning! By carefully choosing my words I can give grace to those I care for.

Yet as Charles Spurgeon once noted in a sermon, “I consider that one of the great lacks of the Church nowadays is not so much Christian preaching as Christian talking.” In fact, a preacher may invest more time in carefully thinking about the words he will use in one sermon than most of us will invest thinking about the words that will come from our lips all year.

And the result is that we often waste our words. Corrupt talk is a daily temptation. Rarely do we consider the decay that we spread through our speech. And rarely do we consider the grace-giving potential of our speech. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21).

So what words fit a particular occasion? Consideration for one we are conversing with must inform our words. So before I speak I must observe and listen. I must ask questions. I must take an interest in them.

If they are Christians, are there evidences of grace I can draw their attention to?
If they are not Christians, are there evidences of common grace in their life?
Is this person experiencing prosperity?
Or is this person experiencing adversity?
If they are suffering I want to give them comforting grace through my words.
If they are weary, I want to give them sustaining grace through my words.
And to all, when and where appropriate, I want to share the gospel, for that is the most effective way to give grace through my words.

So here is my point. Buying the appropriate Christmas gift for someone requires that we know and study them. But this is no less true of our conversations.

So as you consider certain individuals, and seek to buy meaningful gifts for them, also consider how you can give them grace through your words.

Posted by C.J. Mahaney

What Is the Mission of the Church?

Kevin DeYoung’s message “Rethinking the Mission of the Church” is the best I’ve heard on this topic, which is why I asked him to deliver it at the recent Sovereign Grace Pastors Conference.

Kevin provides sharp theological discernment on this topic. In the conclusion of his message, Kevin said,

So what is the mission of the church?

The mission of the church is to go into the world and make disciples by declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit and gathering these disciples into churches, that they might worship and obey Jesus Christ now and in eternity to the glory of God the Father.

In other words, the mission of the church is not equal to everything God is doing in the world, nor is it everything we do in obedience to Christ. The mission of the church is the Great Commission. As Andreas Köstenberger says, “The church ought to be focused in the understanding of its mission. Its activities should be constrained by what helps others to come to believe that the Messiah, the Son of God, is Jesus.”*

Very well said!

Download and listen to the message here.

It is also worth noting that Kevin and Greg Gilbert are writing a much-anticipated book on this topic, What Is the Mission of the Church? Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission (Crossway). It will be out sometime next year.

* Andreas Köstenberger, The Missions of Jesus and the Disciples according to the Fourth Gospel (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 219.

Posted by C.J. Mahaney

The Advantages of the Small Church

John Loftness is among the finest pastors I know. Between 1981 and 2007 he pastored at Covenant Life Church. I treasure the time of service with John over those years and I am deeply grateful for his friendship that continues to this day.

In 2007 John became the senior pastor of Solid Rock Church (Riverdale, MD). So what was it like moving from a church of a couple thousand to a church of 200? John talked about the transition to a smaller church, and the advantages of a small church, in his message at our recent Pastors Conference: “The Advantage of the Small Church.”

John identified three specific advantages:

Small forces you to focus on the fundamentals, but with flexibility.
Small allows you to build one interconnected community.
Small allows you to expand.

Here are few selected quotes from the message:

“What is a small church? I don’t think it is about numbers. I think it is about relationships. A small church is a church in which every member is able to participate personally with every other member.”

“My purpose is not to advocate for small churches or to label large churches as inherently bad. Both have their strengths and their weaknesses. I am here to address small church pastors. And here is my big point: In a large church the opportunity is excellence, but the challenge is relationships. In a small church the challenge is excellence, but the opportunity is relationships.”

“Small church pastor, my advice to you is to see that your church—by virtue of its size—has tremendous advantages that allow it to further Jesus’ mission in the world. You can build a God-glorifying, gospel-proclaiming community of interdependent people who bear fruit in the world for Jesus. You can do it with wonderful fruitfulness. You are in no way hindered from effectiveness because you are lacking in people or in certain qualities of excellence. Exploit your relational advantages. And in the meantime I would urge you to drop any program-driven, large-church-wannabe mentality that may be filling your dreams.”

I highly recommend John’s message to any pastor of a small church.

And I highly recommend John’s message to any pastor of a large church. John will help you think carefully and theologically about how you build.

Download and listen to the message here.

Posted by C.J. Mahaney

Happy Thanksgiving

Because of my sinful tendency to complain, I study the topic of gratefulness regularly. What a fitting time of year to be reminded of what theologian Peter T. O’Brien writes:

Paul mentions the subject of thanksgiving in his letters more often, line for line, than any other Hellenistic author, pagan or Christian. The eucharisteō word group turns up forty-six times in the Pauline corpus and appears in many important contexts of every letter except Galatians and Titus. The apostle’s thanksgiving terms consistently express the notion of gratitude which finds outward, and often public, expression in thanksgiving. By mentioning what God has graciously done in his Son, other Christians are encouraged to thank him also. As thanksgivings abound, so God is glorified (2 Cor 4:15; cf. 2 Cor 1:11).…

The grounds for the offering of thanks are wide-ranging: from the personal expression of gratitude offered to Christ for showing mercy to Paul (1 Tim 1:12), to the triumph over sin and death which Christ has effected on behalf of his people (1 Cor 15:54–55, 57; cf. Rom 7:25) and to the ultimate gift of God’s Son (2 Cor 8:16; cf. 2 Cor 8:9).*

To encounter Paul was to experience gratefulness.

* Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin and Daniel G. Reid, eds., Dictionary of Paul and His Letters (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 69, 71.

Posted by C.J. Mahaney