"The Scent of a Flower We Have Not Found"
Almost all our modern philosophies have been devised to convince us that the good of man is to be found on this earth. And yet it is a remarkable thing that such philosophies … themselves bear reluctant witness to the truth that our real goal is elsewhere.
The Gospel-Centered Life... In Russian
Jake Knotts is a church planter in the Ukraine. A year ago he sent me an e-mail expressing appreciation for The Gospel-Centered Life and asking if he could translate it into Russian.
The Sacrament of Communion
One of the important debates during the Reformation centered around the sacrament of communion (also called the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper). The Roman Catholic Church had come to teach the doctrine of transubstantiation: that when the priest blessed the bread and wine, they were converted into the actual body and blood of Christ. The Reformers argued that the Roman church had departed from historic practice and from biblical orthodoxy. Calvin asserts: “Transubstantiation was devised not so long ago; it was unknown to those better ages when the purer doctrine of religion still flourished” (Institutes, IV.XVII.14). He painstakingly documents the fact that his own view is in line with the great church father Augustine, and charges Rome with veering from ancient practice: “If the power of the mystery as it is taught by us, and was known to the ancient church, had been esteemed as it deserves for the past four hundred years… the gate would have been closed to many foul errors” (Institutes, IV.XVII.33).
Missional Ecclesiology: Problems and Pitfalls (Part 4)
...If Christians do their job well – making disciples – but elders do not lead the mission and equip the saints, the church as a whole will not have a missional culture. People will grow increasingly frustrated with the church’s lack of clarity and direction. Effective disciplemakers will begin using their gifts outside the church... Furthermore, churches that lack good elder leadership usually tend toward a shallow, gospel-deficient theology that fails to stir people’s affections for God and his glory.On the other hand, if the elders do their job well – defining and directing the mission and working hard to equip God’s people for ministry – but individual Christians and missional communities don’t take responsibility for making disciples, the church will plateau or decline as it reaches its leadership ceiling. With the pastors carrying the entire burden of discipleship, the church’s capacity for growth and multiplication will be severely restricted. New leaders will not be raised up and new churches will not be planted...
Missional Ecclesiology: Problems and Pitfalls (Part 3)
...Elders define the mission by answering the who question: “Of whom we are seeking to make disciples?” Elders direct the mission by answering the how question: “How are we going to make disciples? What specific ministry philosophy, structures, and processes will we use to apply the unchanging truth of Scripture to this particular people group?” By answering these questions, elders create a context for discipleship. They build a structure – a specific local church – within which the work of discipleship can take place. When elders do their job well by creating a healthy local church, Christians can do their job well by making disciples within the context of that church community.
Missional Ecclesiology: Problems and Pitfalls (Part 2)
...Unhealthy MC’s see it as the elders’ job to make disciples; as a result, the MC becomes little more than a social group to keep people connected to the church until someone else makes them into disciples. Healthy MC’s are gripped with the realization that 1) Jesus has commanded them to make disciples, 2) the Holy Spirit has gifted them to make disciples, and 3) they will answer to God for their faithfulness in making disciples. They view themselves as a vital disciple-making community and they expend every effort to faithfully accomplish that work. Their commitment to making disciples keeps them from rigidity. But the weight and importance of disciplemaking helps them honor biblical authority and avoid going rogue.
Missional Ecclesiology: Problems and Pitfalls (Part 1)
Combining a high view of eldership with a decentralized ministry model creates the possibility for two opposite errors at the missional community level: MC’s can go rogue or become rigid.The Rogue MC is a missional community (or missional community leader) that operates without elder accountability or oversight...The Rigid MC is a missional community (or missional community leader) that can’t (or is unwilling to) function without constant elder/staff oversight...We’ve seen both these mistakes in our church over the past six years. We’ve learned that to avoid both rogue and rigid missional communities, church leaders must clearly answer three questions...
Penance vs. Repentance
There are many Christians who are convinced - based on their despair, regret, and self-loathing - that they are repentant. But in reality, they are not repenting at all. Jack Miller helps to elucidate the difference in his excellent little book on Repentance......You may say, "But you don't know how earnestly I pray for God's help. I have shed many tears over my sins." But friend, this cannot work, because at bottom you are still asking God to baptize your sin - to Christianize an essentially lustful heart by making you a little less nervous and a little more patient. The Heavenly Father, however, does not hear your prayers, because you are in reality asking Him for help so that you can continue to live a life which is independent of God...
Community Idolatry
Will Walker and I are hard at work on a follow-up study to The Gospel-Centered Life which will be published next year by our friends at New Growth Press. This new study looks at how the gospel reshapes our involvement in community. Below is a chart from one of the lessons, exploring how our heart idolatry gets expressed in the context of community. (Walker posted this chart on the Providence blog last week).
The reason our attempts at community are often shallow, stale, and unfulfilling is that we have made community about ourselves. Perhaps we could call this “community idolatry.” Instead of worshiping God, we worship idols. We jump into the vehicle of community and use it to chase our own false gods. The chart below outlines some of the ways our idolatry plays out in community...
Assurance of Salvation?
This past Sunday we studied the confidence of Romans 8:31-39: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" I have been greatly helped in my understanding of salvation by the Westminster Confession of Faith's robust paragraph on "Assurance of Grace and Salvation:"...True believers may have the assurance of their salvation diverse ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted...