5 Attributes to Grow Leadership Influence

By

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January 13, 2020

We know certain traits are common among good leaders.

For example, strength, decisiveness, courage, drive, and resilience. These are just a few of the desired attributes of a good leader. All are needed and admirable.

We need leaders who have the ability to help the church forward. Without them, we can spin our wheels and get stuck.

But is progress the only issue on the table? What about how you get where you want to go?

The destination is incredibly important, but the journey matters.

The purpose of your church sets the direction, but the leaders set the culture.

Candidly, I’m not going to follow a weak leader, but I’m looking for more than just strength. And I’m fortunate; I’ve been blessed to follow leaders who possess the attributes that aren’t always championed.

They are traits ascribed more to the heart of a leader and make that leader not only someone you are willing to follow but fully trust respect and are willing to serve.

They are the attributes that connect the human heart to another heart. They draw people closer to the leader, and thereby, closer to the vision.

I admire traits like courage and decisiveness, but I’m drawn to traits like humility and grace. It is almost certain that people relate to you in a similar way.

Humility and grace are not skills that you can practice and improve like communication or recruiting, but as attributes of the heart, you can embrace and live them out intentionally.

These attributes do not require special gifting, a certain IQ, specific education, or a unique personality. They are available to anyone who decides to intentionally adopt them.

5 Attributes to Grow Leadership Influence:

1) Compassion

Jesus’ leadership modeled a heart of compassion for others, a genuine empathy that led to action.

Compassion seldom makes the headlines or gets the limelight, but it carries the light of Christ’s love into the world.

It may seem counterintuitive or even strange that compassion might heighten a leader’s influence, but if we embrace a servant-leadership model, it makes perfect sense.

When we demonstrate compassion and express our empathy with action, God adds his presence and the power of the Holy Spirit to our life and leadership.

2) Receptivity

The leader who is open to other’s opinions, ideas, and solutions will always have greater influence than those who are not.

Receptivity does not represent careless or undisciplined thinking, but instead, a disposition of partnership, inclusion, and fluid thinking.

Most leaders are generally receptive in nature; you can see that largely in their relationships. But when faced with a weighty price tag (what they must actually do) attached to a new idea, change in program, or more complex solution, etc., it’s not resistance you experience; it’s the result of exhaustion. They simply have no margin for anything more on their plates.

Unfortunately, this makes the leader seem closed, lacking openness to suggestions, perhaps even rigid or controlling when often that’s not the case at all. Sadly, they lose influence.

In contrast, the leader deemed more receptive, gains more influence.

3) Humility

The longer I lead, the more I’m convinced that humility is the cornerstone of spiritual leadership.

There is something special about a genuinely humble leader. And you just can’t fake humble, at least not for long.

For a more in-depth article, you can read about the 12 traits of a humble leader here.

Here’s a short excerpt for you now.

Humility is based more on the idea that you don’t feel superior or better than others because of what you have, your status or power, and equally, it’s not about feeling inferior to others.

Humility is not about your place on the org chart; it reflects the disposition of your heart. You can be the CEO and be humble or full of pride. You can be among those with the least formal status or authority in the organization and also be humble or prideful.

Humble leaders live for others more than they live for themselves. Humble doesn’t mean insecure. Don’t confuse the two. Humility is an attractive virtue; insecurity is not. Humility is directly connected to strength; insecurity is tied to fear and our weaknesses.

4) Generosity

We often think about generosity in terms of the financial realm, but that’s a limited expression of a generous leader. Generosity runs deeper and carries a wider scope; it is an attribute that begins in the heart of a leader.

A generous leader not only gives to others financially but for just a few examples, is generous with his or her time, expresses words of encouragement, opens doors of opportunity, is quick to offer help, and leads for the benefit of others.

We are not generous for the purpose of increased leadership influence, but it is one of the results.

5) Kindness

Human kindness softens the heart and bonds people together. It naturally encourages those it touches as well as reducing tension and diminishing conflict.

Like the other attributes, influence is not the goal or motivation for kindness, but it is one of the results.

I’ve written an article dedicated entirely to this one attribute that includes the four “thieves” of kindness, and you can read it here. But let me give you a brief excerpt for now.

Kindness is an essential human quality that allows trust, connection, and genuine exchange to take place.
Kindness brings peace and joy into pressure-filled situations.
Kindness is not a new idea, but it’s often underdeveloped as a leadership trait.

God delights in kindness.

… but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:24

You can see the balance: justice, righteousness, and kindness.

Kindness alone will not sustain you as a leader, but without it, you are overlooking an attribute close to the heart of God.

This article originally appeared here.

Christian Declaration on Caring for Refugees: An Evangelical Response

By

Ed Stetzer

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January 12, 2020

On December 17, a number of evangelical leaders gathered together to meet about how churches might engage the refugee crisis in a Christlike way. At our meeting, we drafted and signed the following statement:

Impacting nearly 60 million people, the global refugee emergency is a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented size. Never have so many people been recorded as being displaced, put in danger and sent on the move. In Syria alone, more than 13 million children and their parents need humanitarian aid. Nearly 4.4 million have been forced to flee to neighboring countries for safety.

Moments like these are when Christians cannot remain silent and still. In light of this crisis, we commit ourselves and our churches to actively care for and minister to global refugees with mercy and compassion, both here and abroad, based on God’s compelling concern for all people in need and especially refugees.

In light of these concerns, we affirm the following:

Refugees possess the image of God and, as such, are infinitely valuable to God and to us. We are commanded to love our neighbor, and it is our privilege to love refugees. As Christians, we must care sacrificially for the refugee, the foreigner and the stranger. We will motivate and prepare our churches and movements to care for refugees. We will not be motivated by fear but by love for God and others. Christians are called to grace-filled and humble speech about this issue.

In light of these Christian principles, we cannot allow voices of fear to dominate. Instead, we commit to actions of love and compassion for refugees who have been admitted into our nation(s) in refugee status.

We acknowledge that there are genuine security concerns and encourage governments to be stewards of safety, but we also observe that choosing to come to North America as refugees would be among the least effective ways for those who intend to do us harm.

So, as governments oversee matters of security, we will care for the hurting, calling Christians to embrace refugees through their denomination, congregation or other nonprofits by providing for immediate and long-term needs, such as housing, food, clothing, employment, English language classes and schooling for children.

We distinguish that the refugees fleeing this violence are not our enemies; they are victims. We call for Christians to support ministries showing the love of Jesus to the most vulnerable, those in desperate need and the hurting. This is what Jesus did; He came to the hurting and brought peace to those in despair.

Critical moments like these are opportunities for us to be like Jesus, showing and sharing His love to the hurting and the vulnerable in the midst of this global crisis. Thus we declare that we care, we are responding because our allegiance is to Jesus, and we seek to be more like Him, emulating His compassionate care for the most vulnerable.

The document was drafted by the following:

Ed Stetzer, Executive Director of LifeWay Research
Rich Stearns, President of World Vision
Stephan Bauman, President & CEO of World Relief
Jo Anne Lyon, General Superintendent of The Wesleyan Church
Frank Page, CEO of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention
Alton Garrison, Assistant General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God
Jamie Aten, Director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute
Sue Elworth, Vice President of Development, Marketing & Communications of the Willow Creek Association
Paul Ericksen, Interim Executive Director of The Billy Graham Center for Evangelism
Jenny Yang, Vice President of Advocacy & Policy of World Relief
Amanda Bowman, Director of Church Mobilization of World Vision
Micah Fries, Vice President of LifeWay Research

On January 20, we are holding the 2016 GC2 Summit on the Church and Refugees, which I wrote about earlier this week. Please join us on January 20 in Wheaton, Ill., if you can. Click here to learn more about our gathering.

The Storms of Life by Priscilla Shirer

By

Megan Briggs

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January 12, 2020

12 Must-Know Tips for Senior Pastors

By

Alan Danielson

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January 12, 2020

In 2000, I became a senior pastor for the first time, and it was much harder than I thought it could ever be! Then I enjoyed being on staff at LifeChurch.tv for four years where I led small group ministries. Just over a year ago, I went back to the senior pastorate when I accepted a position at New Life Bible Church in Norman, Okla. I thought to myself, “It’ll be easier this time. I’ve got more experience, and I learned a TON about leadership at LifeChurch.”

Indeed, it’s been a fast and rewarding year. Although God is blessing our church, I’m reminded once again that being a senior pastor is harder than I thought it would be. Over the last year, I’ve been reminded of 12 practices that I must never forget and that I must discipline myself to leverage:

1. Don’t Forget the Personal Touch

It’s important to make sure that I stay rooted by connecting with real people in real time. I must shake hands, write hand-written notes, take volunteers to lunch, return phone calls and value people’s time. There’s no substitute for valuing people and being personal.

2. Do What You Do … Better

I must resist the urge to lead our church to be a “full-service church.” We do better to focus our time, energy and resources on doing what we already do, only better. To a great extent, adding programs is futile when we can make massive improvements to existing ministries and systems.

3. Appreciate Financial Constraints

Financial challenges will always exist in a growing church. I do well to remember that financial constraints force me to think creatively. More importantly, they stretch my faith and make me seek God more earnestly.

4. Think Long-Term

I remind myself daily that I should not overestimate what can be accomplished in a year and underestimate what can be accomplished in a decade. Patience, steadiness and focus will yield great results in time. Impatience and distractibility lead to frustration and stagnation.

5. Do Less

I must do less. This does not mean I work less, but that I do fewer things. I must delegate often. I must delegate responsibility rather than just tasks. When I don’t do these things, I spread myself too thin and show that I don’t trust my team. I must live by my “stop doing list” as much (or more) than my “to do list.” In fact, this is why I haven’t blogged in over a month. I had to put it aside for a while in order to be better at other things for a season.

6. Re-Vision

Re-vision is different from revision. When the people I lead stray from the vision, it is not because the vision needs to be revised. It’s because the vision needs to be revisited. Vision leaks, and people easily lose sight of the goal. I must regularly point our church back to our vision in order to keep us on the path God has laid out before us.

The Mission Statement of Jesus

By

Andrew Hess

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January 12, 2020

When You Feel Like You Love God More Than Your Spouse

By

Jennie Allen

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January 11, 2020

Hi friends—in just three days Anything is being re-released with a Bible study.

As I have heard from many of you over the years since writing Anything, one of the biggest questions and tensions from those who are married on surrender and obedience is some version of this:

“I am all in! But my spouse (who is a believer) is not on the same page.”

And for many who are not married, it has often been … “I am all in! But my parents or friends do not get it.”

Today we wanted to address how that has played out in marriage, but many of the thoughts can also apply to your family and close friends if you are not married. Last night we got in a date … a movie and a good talk over queso, and one of our kids even took our photo—never happens!

I begged Zac to talk about his perspective on the process of aligning on mission as a couple. Nobody can address this better than my husband, Zac. We have worked through this tension from both sides multiple times.

From Zac:

I am married to a zealot of a girl. She is emotional and deeply connected to God and easily shares her feelings and thoughts.

I am more steady. I am slower processor. I also deeply love Jesus but haven’t always had the tools to share openly about it.

I remember in our early years of searching for my purpose and calling, Jennie would feel so clear on God’s call for our lives. And …

“Please stop sharing what you think we should do—those are your convictions, not mine.”

What began as two years of asking God and one another where we could be used for His purposes, turned into a deep place of conflict in our marriage … because as God’s calling for us began to get clear for Jennie, it was murky for me at best for me.

Jennie kept telling me, “I look at your gifts and our passions and I sense God is calling you to be a church planter.”

Her confidence only exacerbated my uncertainty, and I had to finally tell her to stop. And she did.

Because I carry this huge weight of responsibility for our family, I know the weight of commitment and impact of big radical decisions. I want to make a decision based on what I know, so that I can move our family in a healthy way and not be impulsive. And I bet that is true for a lot of your spouses.

For Jennie, even if she thinks God is calling us, it’s simple. You jump, you go, you do it. But for me, it felt more complicated.

I am sure, looking back, when I shut down this conversation, I seemed practical and disconnected and unwilling to make sacrifices to follow God. But it was just the opposite—I wanted deeply to obey God … I just needed some space to figure that out, and it would look very different than Jennie’s passionate and emotive ideas of surrender.

Time + Thought + Space + Prayer is not disobedience.

Several months after I told Jennie to stop talking about planting and leading a church, I sat down with a mentor who said to me, “Zac, I look at your gifts and passions, and you are made to plant a church. Why are you scared to plant a church?” Haha! God was on the move, and what started through Jennie’s passion and belief in me, with space and time, God was now revealing to me and making it my conviction.

That the God of the Universe lives inside a believer and leads each of us into obedience is a miracle. But when you stop and think about it, for the Holy Spirit to lead a husband and wife in the same direction at the same time is incredible!

So for those of you who are married but are not aligned on mission, here are a few things to consider.

1. Don’t assume a lack of emotion is a lack of love for God.

Trust: God is sovereign over your spouse’s heart and can lead in His time. Proverbs 21:1

Consider: Writing your husband a letter and sharing what God is teaching and revealing to you, at the same time praising your husband and telling him how much you trust his leadership. The letter then serves as your release to allow God to lead your husband. I can promise you that those words will not be forgotten, and your husband’s heart will move toward you, not away.

2. Though what you are saying may be from the Holy Spirit, you may not be the voice God uses for those words to sink in.

Trust: The Body of Christ has many parts and many functions, but one Lord. I Cor 12:4-6

Consider: Going to dinner with a few couples and the question of the evening being, “Where is God leading your family?” You and your spouse may not have the same answer, but you each get to voice your thoughts and dreams in safe company so others can ask questions and know how to pray and walk alongside you.

3. Your spouse is not the obstacle to your obedience.

Trust: God has placed me right here, right now for my good and His glory. Acts 17:26

Consider: Reflect on the numerous ways you are aligned on mission, rather than the few you aren’t. And praise God for those blessings.

**************

See why I wanted him to address it? Bottom line, my man is married to a hot, dramatic, passionate mess, and following God together has taken a lot of communication and work and time and prayer, and it is so worth it!

Many of you wish this was your problem. Maybe your spouse isn’t even a believer, or perhaps is even hostile toward your faith. Zac and I are praying for all of you today who find yourself in that category. Do not lose faith. Feel free to post anonymously if needed, but let’s pray for each other here. Look forward to hearing your stories and thoughts on this. What advice would you add?

Also, don’t forget to share your Anything story Here. And join the Summer Study starting June 15 Here, Maybe ask your spouse to do it with you!

Unchurched or Unsaved? What Our Vocabulary Reveals About Our Beliefs

By

Trevin Wax

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January 11, 2020

In 1914, Ernest Henry Shackleton led an expedition to cross the entire continent of Antarctica but wound up shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. To rescue his team, Shackleton sailed a tiny boat across 850 miles of rough seas to South Georgia Island. Despite the choppy waters and gray skies, Shackleton was able to safely navigate the boat to their destination. If his coordinates had been off by even one-half of one degree, his team would have missed their destination by hundreds of miles and perished.

Ship captains, airplane pilots, and astronauts will be the first to tell you that the tiniest navigational error can have disastrous consequences. The same is true for those of us who have been commissioned to lead our churches. A seemingly insignificant shift in direction can have major implications.

In recent years, leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention have bemoaned the falling number of baptisms. Pastors, missionaries, professors, and analysts have all offered a variety of reasons for why our numbers are declining, along with advice for how we might get back on track.

Don’t Miss

But I wonder if one of the main reasons for the dwindling number of baptisms is a subtle shift in vocabulary—so subtle that we might overlook it.

There was a time when we spoke of unsaved people as “lost and dying and on their way to hell”—a phrase that painted a vivid picture of the stakes of being outside of Christ. We spoke of unsaved people in this way for so long that such terminology became something of a cliché.

Today, it seems that many pastors and church members tend to shy away from terms like “lost,” “unsaved,” and “unbeliever.” Instead, we speak of the people we are trying to reach as “unchurched.”

I believe that this change in terminology betrays two mistaken beliefs:

1. First, it indicates that our people believe the goal of the church is to grow the church.

Evangelism becomes less about reaching the unsaved in order to see them get saved and more about reaching unchurched people in order to get them churched (or even worse, reaching other-churched people in order to get them to our church). Outreach becomes little more than an attempt to sell people on the benefits of coming to church.

Church-focused outreach is easier than Christ-focused outreach. In many places in the South, church attendance is still woven into the fabric of the culture. Many unchurched people already assume that they should go to church. So our outreach merely reinforces the cultural assumption that church attendance is important.

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The Art of Getting Rejected

By

Ben Arment

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January 11, 2020

I’m the king of getting rejected. For every one incredible “yes” I get, there are at least eight “no’s.” Yesterday was quite the monumental day for that. Three things are going on here:

1. God has a better plan.

For God to carry out his better plan, he has to get rid of our mediocre plan. God put the word “no” on their lips.

2. A great dream requires thick skin.

Unfortunately, we don’t develop thick skin by resolving to have it. We get it by being rejected over and over again.

3. Rejection keeps others from achieving your dream.

If all you got were easy “yes’s” then anyone could go after your dream. Those “no’s” keep your dream a treasure.

My heart weighs heavily for those in Dream Year because they’re destined for a year of set-backs, close-calls and rejections. My job is to help them not lose heart and keep their eyes fixed on Jesus. When you get rejected, you have to quickly regroup, not compromise, and go after the even-better plan.

How to Leverage the Super Bowl for Gospel Outreach

By

Stephanie Martin

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January 10, 2020

For many Americans—whether football fans or not—Super Bowl Sunday has become a national holiday of sorts. Throughout the country, people gather to eat, cheer, critique high-priced ads, and sing along to a big-name halftime show at the Super Bowl.

Not only is the crowning of the NFL champion the year’s most-watched TV event, it’s also a great outreach opportunity for faith communities. Some churches host viewing parties while others collect soup or other donations for people in need. Other Christian groups use the game to raise awareness about sex trafficking and pornography.

Now a campaign devoted to game-day outreach is encouraging churches to impact not just their local communities on Super Sunday but to help transform the world.

Football Sunday’s Goal: Encounters With Jesus With the Super Bowl

Five years ago, Football Sunday kicked off as an effort to introduce people to Jesus on a day traditionally dominated by sports. The game plan involves various media resources, including a 30-minute video that can replace the day’s sermon or be shown during halftime.

Footage includes testimonies by Christians currently on the rosters of NFL teams—including the two teams squaring off on the gridiron that day. Viewers discover how the pro athletes are using their platforms to glorify God and how their personal relationship with Jesus gives them strength.

So far, about 5 million people have seen the Football Sunday evangelism materials, resulting in an estimated 20,000 first-time faith commitments. The resources from Sports Spectrum are designed to spark conversations, leading to ripple effects throughout congregations and communities.

New Partnership Adds to the Impact

This year, to expand the program’s reach, more than half of the purchase price of Football Sunday resources will go to the ministry of Compassion International. Steve Stenstrom, president of Pro Athletes Outreach, calls this a strategic shift to help churches connect to other locales and then to transform communities around the world. “There’s nothing more powerful on planet Earth than the mobilized body of Christ,” says Stenstrom, a former NFL quarterback.

By partnering with Compassion, Football Sunday believes its life-giving evangelism resources will change the physical lives of millions of impoverished children throughout the world. “These children deserve our immediate attention,” Stenstrom says, “and our team is hopeful that churches around the country will join together to do more than we could do alone.”

Resources that come with the $199 Football Sunday package include a 30-minute ad-free video, marketing tools, an Outreach Playbook, faith testimonies from NFL players, bumpers, playlists, promotional files, a teaser video, and 50 copies of Football Sunday Magazine.

Inviting People Comes Naturally on Super Bowl Game Day

The fellowship-oriented nature of Super Bowl Sunday—February 2 this year, in Miami—facilitates Christian outreach, say many church leaders. Gary Molander, creative director for Football Sunday and a former pastor, says the resources are designed for people to “become inviters,” something that feels more natural on game day. After all, he says, the Super Bowl matchup and festivities are already on people’s minds, in their conversations, and on their calendars.

February is also ideal for creating momentum in churches, say Football Sunday representatives. End-of-winter doldrums often have set in, leaving churchgoers and non-churchgoers alike eager for meaningful personal connections. Taking advantage of a national cultural event such as the Super Bowl to form relationships—including relationships with God—is a win-win situation.

“February is normally a lower-attended month in many churches because it’s between Christmas and Easter,” as the program’s website points out. “But Football Sunday offers a chance for February to become a month filled with momentum, not a digression.”

Churches can build on that momentum by opening their doors and encouraging community on Super Bowl Sunday and beyond. “The church is one of the few places in our country where people in a community still gather together each week,” says Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “But the Super Bowl has become an event that also brings groups together.” That means churches must decide whether to “compete with the game, incorporate it somehow, or ignore it,” he says.

What Does It Really Mean to ‘Deconstruct’ from Evangelicalism?

By

Jessica Lea

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January 10, 2020

This week on the Gravity Leadership podcast, pastor and author Skye Jethani explored some of the factors influencing why people are “deconstructing” from American evangelicalism, whether they are rejecting all or part of it. Jethani believes that one key factor influencing this rejection is the moral failures that people are witnessing in the church.

“One of the dilemmas that pop American evangelicalism is having,” said Jethani, “is a lot of especially younger people…are looking at the leaders they’ve put on these pedestals, and they’re recognizing they have really rotten fruit…And then what ends up happening is you meet someone from another tradition, whether Christian or otherwise, who holds very different theology, and you go, ‘Oh my goodness. They have more compassion and love and grace and maturity and fruit of the Spirit than I’ve found in my evangelical tradition, so I’m going to jump ship from that one to this one.’”

Deconstructing from American Evangelicalism

It’s helpful to note that people use the term “deconstruction” in different ways. Some, like Joshua Harris, have used the word “deconstruction” to mean leaving Christianity. Another author defines it this way: “Deconstruction is a careful and deliberate examination of one’s beliefs from the inside. It’s about coming to terms with what you believe outside of your inherited beliefs. It’s about growing INTO your faith, not out of it.”

So at its most simple definition, deconstruction is a modern way to describe doubting or questioning. Whether or not it means leaving a belief system entirely seems to depend on the person using it.

American Evangelicalism, the Marketplace and the Medieval Roman Catholic Church

Jethani believes the word “evangelicalism” “has been problematic for a while because it’s become associated with a certain cultural expression of Christianity that is not solely gospel-centered.” In the same way that social media reveals the negativity that has always existed in human nature, evangelicalism has always had what Jethani calls “ungodly undercurrents.” Now, certain events in culture have revealed evangelicalism’s unhealthiness.

According to Jethani, the evangelical church in the U.S. has somewhat ironically fallen into some of the same errors as the medieval Roman Catholic Church. “The abuse of power, the exaltation of leadership, the financial shenanigans that went on, the selling of indulgences,” he said, are all abuses of which we can see parallels today.

One example of what he is talking about is the celebrity pastor. During the Reformation, the Protestant church got rid of the Catholic priesthood and replaced it with the priesthood of all believers. But, said Jethani, “We have completely abandoned the idea of a priesthood of all believers, and so many American evangelicals now live their faith vicariously through their celebrity pastor.” So when a leader like that dramatically fails, as many have, the consequences are devastating.

We can see an unhealthy focus on money and power, says Jethani, because American evangelicalism tends to value pastors for their charisma, influence and giftedness, instead of their spiritual maturity or their strength of character. Jethani said that when he was involved in Christian publishing a little over 10 years ago, an executive once told him, “In today’s Christian publishing environment, Eugene Peterson never gets a publishing contract.” The reason was that, while he might be doing good work as a pastor, Peterson did not have the kind of influence modern evangelicalism values, such as a megachurch or a lot of followers online.

Complicating this problem is the instability that pluralism has introduced to our society. It is healthy to question assumptions and to allow for diverse points of view. But the fewer common, assumed values people in a society have, the more choices they have to make about what they believe and, therefore, the more anxiety this introduces into their lives.

Eventually, people can get to the point where it’s easier to choose fundamentalism (whether on the liberal or conservative extremes) instead of thinking through their doubts and questions well. So some of the problems we’re seeing in evangelicalism simply arise from a desire for stability.

Help When Deconstructing

Jethani was careful to point out that all traditions have their own “unique problems.” Sometimes leaving a tradition is the right choice, but, “It isn’t just like, white American evangelicalism is toxic, and everything else is ok. We just have to diagnose the toxicity in each of these traditions and recognize and disciple accordingly.”

For those struggling with the state of American evangelicalism, he recommends seeking out connections with brothers and sisters who are following Jesus and who will show you grace as you struggle with your questions. This in fact was an enormous help to one of the podcast hosts when he was in seminary, something he called “a desert experience.”

“I remember meeting Dallas Willard,” he said, “at a time of really a big deconstruction for me, and just thinking, ‘I don’t know how I answer all these old questions that I used to be certain about, but what I do know is, I want to know the Jesus Dallas knows…I had never met somebody in whom the fruit of the Spirit was so palpable and thick.”

“In my experience,” said Jethani, “what has helped dramatically is to root your faith far more in immediate, incarnate, intimate relationships, rather than merely hitching your wagon to an institution.”

Alzheimer’s Association Partners With AME Church to Fight Disease

By

Stephanie Martin

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January 10, 2020

Thanks to a three-year partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is working to combat Alzheimer’s disease and to support patients and caregivers who face it.

The AME Church, America’s oldest historically African-American denomination, has more than 2 million members in the United States. Research shows that African Americans face an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s, as well as a decreased rate of securing a diagnosis. Through its partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association, the AME Church aims to help the communities it serves learn more about the disease, its risk factors, and the many resources that are available.

AME Church Venture Covers Six Key Areas

For the first year of the partnership, leaders from both organizations plan to engage AME Church members in activities such as:

1. Increasing concern and awareness of Alzheimer’s and other dementias
2. Providing care and support programming to individuals and families impacted by Alzheimer’s
3. Expanding research and scientific opportunities
4. Supporting state and federal advocacy efforts affecting Alzheimer’s
5. Participating in Walk to End Alzheimer’s and other community-based events
6. Engaging AME Church volunteers in the delivery of programs and activities

On its Health Commission website, the AME Church is posting educational materials from the Alzheimer’s Association and linking to various services that are available, including a 24/7 national helpline: 800-272-3900.

An estimated 5.5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, or about one in every 10 Americans age 65 and older. Experts say that number could rise to 16 million by the year 2050. Alzheimer’s is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States and the only cause of death in the top 10 that can’t be prevented, slowed, or cured.

‘For me, it’s very personal’

Bishop Harry L. Seawright, president of the AME Council of Bishops and chairman of the denomination’s Health Commission, says his church body looks forward to the partnership. “I know how devastating this disease can be,” he says. “My mother passed away 13 years ago from Alzheimer’s, and my sister, who is one of my biggest cheerleaders, has dementia. So, for me, it’s very personal. It’s important that we connect our community with information about Alzheimer’s and where people can go for help.”

Seawright adds: “Many in our [African-American] community suffer with hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and other illnesses that can increase the risk of Alzheimer’s. We want to encourage our community to learn more so they can reduce their risk. We also want to support our caregivers, who struggle with such loss, including a loved one who may no longer remember them.”

As the partnership developed, Seawright says, he became “enlightened” by the “magnitude of services the Alzheimer’s Association provides.” The joint venture, he adds, “will help connect our community with more of these services, so people can get the help and information they need.”

Rey Martinez, chief diversity and inclusion officer for the Alzheimer’s Association, says the partnership is extending his organization’s reach “into communities served by the AME Church, providing more families care and support services, while engaging church members in all our work to end Alzheimer’s.”

Watch TobyMac’s Song About His Son Who Died at 21

By

Megan Briggs

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January 10, 2020

Christian artist TobyMac and his family were dealt an unexpected blow in late October of last year when their 21-year-old son and brother, Truett McKeehan, was found dead. Now, TobyMac has released a song about his late son, titled “21 Years.”

“God has you in heaven, but I have you in my heart,” TobyMac sings in the chorus for the song.

In the song, TobyMac implies that Truett referred to himself as a prodigal son. He also brings up a question many parents feel when they lose a child, perhaps before they have a chance to see that child return home. Many parents in similar circumstances wonder if that homecoming has happened in heaven.

You said you’d turn, you would turn it around
Thought that you had time to straighten it out
Told me that you were my prodigal son
But this isn’t home

Did he see You from a long way off
Running to him with a Father’s heart
Did You wrap him up inside Your arms
And let him know, that he’s home

TobyMac leaves a clue to the answer of this question with a visual reference. Toward the end of the song, we see John 14:6 carved into the trunk of a tree. The verse reads “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” In other statements, TobyMac has referenced Truett’s faith in God, implying that his son had a relationship with Jesus.

At the end of the video, the prodigal son comes up again with these words at the bottom of the shot: “…and while he was still a long way off, the Father saw his son and ran to him.”

The artist explained in a Tweet that the song had helped him process his grief.

getting some of my thoughts and feelings about losing my firstborn son down on paper, ended up a song. “21 Years” is a song I never wanted to write. I hope it’s for someone out there, or maybe it’s just for me. Out Tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/BJABoGXcCs

— TobyMac (@tobymac) January 10, 2020

As ChurchLeaders reported earlier, TobyMac’s eldest son passed away in late October in the Nashville area at 21 years of age. Officials are still investigating the cause of his death, although reports say Truett experienced cardiac arrest. The family held a funeral for Truett just before Thanksgiving.

Shortly after his son’s passing, TobyMac started a foundation in Truett’s honor, dedicating it to children who do not have the finances to pursue their love of music. The foundation’s website says, “We want to use this fund to help kids…get an education—to pursue music—to get the chance to chase their dreams. Truett would love that.”

You can read the lyrics of TobyMac’s “21 Years” below:

Woke up cuz the light poured in
Day 2 let the flood begin
Day 1 left me in my bed
I can barely remember it
Heart shattered in a thousand ways
They tell me pain gonna come in waves
They tell me I’m gonna be ok
I’m still waiting for the first to break

Why would You give and then take him away
Suddenly end could You not let it fade
What I would give for a couple of days, a couple of days

5 Keys for Leaders to Read the Bible in a Year

By

Scott Cochrane

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January 10, 2020

I am just completing my 22nd year in a row reading through the Bible cover to cover. This practice is one that fills my spiritual tank and which provides the fuel that drives my leadership.

But like many others, I found it to be a very challenging discipline at first. Simply starting at Genesis and plowing my way through was cumbersome, and many of the “bible-in-a-year” plans that I looked at didn’t seem much better.

But then around my third year, I realized that if I was going to stick with this discipline I would need to re-arrange the reading order in a new way. And so it was that I developed my own bible reading plan that has served me well ever since.

The key, I discovered, was to assemble a plan.

5 Important Principles of Reading the Bible In One Year:

1. Jesus’ story needs to be read…often.

Early on I realized that I want to revisit the life and ministry of Christ throughout the year. My plan places the four gospels in each season of the year.

2. Name the elephant in the room – Some parts of the bible are boring.

Plowing through some sections of the Law or the minutia of genealogies can suck the life out of bible reading. I intersperse these sections with regular “bursts” of Psalms and Proverbs.

3. The Prophets come to life when they’re matched with their history.

I like to provide context for the major and minor prophets by positioning these readings as near to their corresponding history book as possible.

4. Grouping the Epistles creates context and texture.

I love working through the Pauline epistles, taking a “gospel break” then tackling the other letters a bit later in the year.

5. Have a strong finish line.

I’ve always had a special appreciation for “the disciple Jesus loved”. I end the year with John’s gospel, followed by his epistles, then the Revelation. To me, this provides a wonderful year-end conclusion to the journey.

Reading the bible all the way through is not in and of itself spiritually significant. But the discipline of spending time in scripture can yield marvelous results.

If you want to check out my plan click here.

Whatever plan you use, stick with it, and watch as God’s Spirit breathes His life into your leadership in 2020.

This article originally appeared here.

Old Testament Redemptive-Ethical Concessions

By

Nicholas Batzig

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January 10, 2020

Recently, I preached on the devastating consequences of Jacob’s polygamous and incestuous marriage to Leah and Rachel. This was not the first time the Old Testament confronts us with the sticky problem of polygamy. It first appears in the genealogical record of Cain’s reprobate descendants, where we read of Lamech’s polygamous marriage and subsequent boastful defense of his murderous aggression (Genesis 4:19-24). We also read about Abraham’s relationship with Sarah and Hagar. We see the problem of polygamy unraveled in the narratives of other godly saints in the Old Testament. If the creation account in Genesis 1-2, the teaching of Malachi 2:15 and the clear testimony of the New Testament is that marriage is to be between one man and one woman, what are we to make of the fact that the patriarchal narratives seem to teach that God tolerated polygamy in the Old Testament?

Old Testament Ethics

In his Christian Theistic Ethics, Cornelius Van Til sought to explain Old Testament redemptive-ethical concessions by means of the analogy of a sick child who was not able to receive, all at once, all the medicine that he needed in order to live. He wrote,

“The case of polygyny being tolerated in the Old Testament is the classic illustration of the supposed low type of Old Testament ethics. Yet…Jesus himself interprets this as a pedagogical measure on the part of God in order to lead Israel on to the absolute ideal. It was for the hardness of man’s heart, and for the blindness of man’s eyes that God was willing to come down so low as to tolerate for a time that which is ideally out of accord with the absolute standard, so long as it was a stepping stone toward the absolute ideal. God frequently set the absoluteness of the ideal before men very vigorously. And that might lead us to ask why he did not do this consistently and at once set up the absolute ideal along the whole front of the ethical life. If God expects Abraham to be so absolutely submissive as to be willing to sacrifice his only son, why does he not also demand absolutely monogamous marriage on the part of Abraham? The answer to this, we believe, must be found in the analogy of the convalescent child. The convalescent child needs strong medicine in order to live. It may need many varieties of strong medicine. But if these were all administered at once the child would die. So too if God had maintained the absolute standard at once along the whole front of the ethical life, we can see that he would not have attained his purpose. It was the all-wise physician who was healing his patient slowly and giving him just the medicine that he could bear and no more.

Congregational Singing Dysfunction: 4 Ways to Fix It

By

Worship Leader

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January 9, 2020

There are times when sitting in a sanctuary or community center or reissued movie theater on a Sunday morning is nothing less than an affront to the ears. All around us our brothers and sisters mumble and slur their way through the songs, while everyone tries to keep from being distracted. There is a lack of quality singing in churches each week. So do we need to give our congregations singing lessons? That would be hilarious! By quality singing, I don’t mean vocal excellence. What they need is not singing lessons but rather the permission to sing. Just like in “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” “Happy Birthday,” and “The Star Spangled Banner.” If your church doesn’t sing it’s probably because of one of two things: either they haven’t been invited to sing or the obstacles to their singing have not been removed. I have identified four things that hinder congregational participation.

4 Dysfunctions of Congregational Singing:

1. Not realizing the congregation is present
Great communicators, actors, comedians, professional singers and yes, great pastors are aware that there are actually people in the room. As in any gathering the crowd must feel welcomed and comfortable. So is the case with congregational worship. An intentional, warm welcome is important. I am not saying that a “greeting” has to be the opening of the worship experience but a nice smile goes a long way, then clear direction as to who is singing and who isn’t. Though the trend is not to over direct people, clear direction as to sitting and standing is surprisingly important. Corporate reading of Scripture is also an important activity toward congregational participation.

Note: It’s my opinion that in an intergenerational congregational context, that 12 minutes is a good amount of time for people to stand. Standing longer than that will affect the concentration level for many people. In a crowd filled with younger age demographic this really doesn’t matter.

2. Vanilla song choices
The process of finding great songs is extremely important. Oh it’s easy to follow the normal path to find songs, but to find great songs that are congregational in their appeal is an entirely different story. I have a friend who is a photographer with National Geographic and he told me that to get 30 pictures for a National Geographic article, he took 14,000 pictures. Finding great songs requires a lot of time. The lesson here is, don’t settle on the easiest way to find good songs. Recruit people to help you and take the time to find great songs. As well, do not just depend on your own personal tastes in choosing songs. You will be fooled.

3. Bad key choices
Really? Why does this matter? Well it doesn’t matter at a rock concert or in an auditorium filled with 18 to 35 year olds, but church has wider age span. So the rule of thumb is that men sing higher than women and women sing lower than men. Crazy? Oh but it’s true. Just take note the next time a female is leading worship. The songs will, for the most part be in keys that are more singable for the intergenerational congregation. Most male worship leaders, in order to sing more comfortably put songs a higher range. When this happens, the congregation often is left behind. This rule does not apply for well-known worship artist concerts. In this case everybody in the room knows all the songs and can sing them in any key. Be intentional about key choices for your congregation.

4. Music that is too “busy”
In a contemporary worship band there is a tendency for everyone in the band to play too many notes at the same time. This can be helped by “thinning out” the arrangement. Change the parts that band member plays from verse to verse, chorus to chorus. Add things, take things out. Be creative with this. But most of all avoid the “sameness.” This takes a lot of thought and experimentation, so most of these ideas need to come prior to the rehearsal. But the congregation needs to hear themselves sing. And the congregation needs to be inspired by the music. Just like in the movies, music embellishes the moment. But playing “too busy” causes numbness, and boredom sets in. As the jazz legend said, “It’s not the notes you play; it’s the notes you don’t play.”

Theologian, John Calvin says, “singing subdues the fallen heart and retrains wayward affections. St. Augustine says, “Singing is praying. When one sings one prays twice. While singing in the front of the Lord, we are in touch with the deepest center of our heart.”

Col: 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

Breaking The Silence

By

Pete Wilson

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January 9, 2020

And David declared…

Psalm 32:1-5

¹ Oh, what joy for those
whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
² Yes, what joy for those
whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt,
whose lives are lived in complete honesty!
³ When I refused to confess my sin,
my body wasted away,
and I groaned all day long.
⁴ Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.
Interlude

⁵ Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.”
And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.

There is so much incredible truth in his words. When it comes to our faults, our failures, our screw ups, the reality is we’re quick to want to cover up, to want to deny, to want to avoid, to want to blame someone else. We work really hard to shake off feelings of guilt and shame by minimizing and covering stuff up.

There are a lot of things in our lives we keep silent about. Things we feel ashamed of; family problems, compulsive habits, sexual addiction, and while silence in the moment seems like the best, the safest way to handle it, silence always leads to more pain and guilt festering inside. It always corrodes away our soul. It corrodes away our spirit, and it always, always, always begins to affect other parts of our lives.

You’ll say things like “Well the past is the past.” Listen, you past isn’t your past if it’s still impacting your present.

However, the good news is the very moment humanity fell into sin, God’s plan, God’s passion has been to redeem us and restore us to the life for which we are made.

This act of grace, of forgiveness, of restoration God wants to give, it cannot be forced on you. Like anything from God, it has to be received like a gift, freely, willfully, and intentionally. So how do we do this? How do we receive this gift of grace God wants to give?

In a word, confession.

Confession isn’t doing something about our sin; rather, it means admitting that we can’t do anything about our sin. It’s admitting we need a savior. We need what only Jesus can bring us, which is healing.

Boko Haram Kidnaps Christian Leader in Attacks in Northeast Nigeria

By

Morning Star News

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January 9, 2020

A leader of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN) pleaded for help on a video released on Sunday (Jan. 5) after Islamic extremists with Boko Haram kidnapped him last week.

The Rev. Lawan Andimi was abducted by terrorists of the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP, known as Boko Haram before affiliating with the Islamic State) on Thursday (Jan. 2) in attacks on Michika County and a nearby area in northeast Nigeria’s Adamawa state, sources said.

Pastor Andimi, area EYN district chairman and chairman of the local chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, pleads with church leaders to ask Adamawa Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri to intervene for his release in the video.

“I have never been discouraged, because all conditions that one finds himself is in the hands of God—God who made them to take care of me and to leave [me with] my life,” Pastor Andimi says. “I am appealing to my colleagues, reverends, particularly my president, Rev. Joel Billy, who is a strong man, a man of compassion and man of love. He can do all his best to speak to our governor, Umaru Jibrilla [Fintiri] and other necessary agents for my release here.”

Pastor Andimi says he has been treated well with food and a comfortable place to sleep.

“I believe that He who made them to act in such a way is still alive and will make all arrangements,” he says. “By the grace of God I will be together with my wife, my children and my colleagues…If the opportunity has not been granted, maybe it is the will of God. I want all people close and far, colleagues, to be patient. Don’t cry, don’t worry but thank God for everything.”

The video was released via Twitter by Ahmad Salkida, a Muslim journalist who has released previous videos from Boko Haram captives.

Area resident Vandi Hosea told Morning Star News by text message that armed Boko Haram members attacked Michika and Bassa communities at about 6 p.m.

“They attacked Michika and Bassa communities just a day after we celebrated the New Year,” Hosea said. “Our people had to flee into the surrounding bushes, while others ran to the hills around here.”

Zakariah Nyampa, a member of Nigeria’s parliament, the National Assembly, representing the Michika/Madagali area, issued a statement saying the army killed Boko Haram militants when they attacked.

“When the Boko Haram attacked Michika on Jan. 2, the army quickly swept into action, killing most of the terrorists, and pursued them towards Lassa River, where they lost one of their trucks to the Nigeria army,” Nyampa said. “Our people had to run helter-skelter when they heard that the terrorists were approaching the town. We thank God for their lives, but the only civilian casualty is the missing pastor whose whereabouts are still unknown.”

He called on the government to intensify efforts to find Pastor Andimi.

The Rev. Sansom Ayokunle, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), issued a statement on Monday (Jan. 6) in Abuja urging the Nigerian government to take necessary steps to rescue the Brethren pastor and all other captives held by the terrorists.

“We were told that the troops repelled them but not until they had successfully forced Rev. Andimi into their Toyota Hilux and took him away,” Ayokunle said. “The innocent cleric, in video footage released by his captors, has been making an appeal to the federal government, the Adamawa state governor and the leadership of CAN to come to his aid.”

Ayokunle also called on the United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom and other developed-world countries to assist Nigeria in “securing our lives before it is too late. They should help our security agencies to live up to the expectations before the situation gets out of hand by stopping these killings and abductions with impunity.”

He said that CAN and other Nigerians wish to assure those in captivity and those facing religious persecution that their prayers are with them.

“Our God who delivered the people of Israel from the Egyptian bondage will surely deliver them,” he said. “They will not die in captivity in Jesus’ name.”

Ngida Zakawa, a Christian community leader in Michika, welcomed Adamawa Deputy Gov. Crowther Seth and other government officials who visited the area on Saturday (Jan. 4).

“The whereabouts of CAN chairman the Rev. Lawan Andimi is unknown, except that some women claimed they saw him boarding a Hilux van,” Zakawa said.

Nigeria ranked 12^th on Open Doors’ 2019 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit MorningStarNews for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

Forgetting What Is Behind?

By

Andrew Kerr

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January 9, 2020

I thought it might be appropriate, as we move on into 2020, to consider, briefly, Paul’s zeal for “pressing on” with the Lord.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting WHAT IS behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus – PHILIPPIANS 3:7-14 ESV

Like many biblical statements, it should not be absolutized, particularly when it comes to forgetting what is behind.

The apostle almost certainly takes this metaphor from the arena – the length of the course in Athens was 607 feet from starting blocks to finishing post.

In order to get the prize, runners must not get distracted – looking back not only spelt danger but also made athletes decelerate: dithering delay would result in defeat.

To reach the racer-goal, and receive the 1st-prize call, needed total mental focus, eyes fixed on the finish, motivated by smell of success, to make sinew-strain worthwhile.

When we translate this metaphor into the spiritual arena, it is helpful to think of the following when applying it to ourselves:

It is good to look back in the following circumstances:

To commemorate what God has done – in redemption, in history, in revivals, through heros, for churches and in believers.
To reflect on God’s work of grace in our own lives – predestined, called, justified, progress to date in sanctifying grace, and all that precedes the glory that awaits.
To repent or deepen repentance of unconfessed or superficially confessed sins.
To repair relationships which should have been put right long ago – it is tragic when a brother or sister dies to whom we main unreconciled.
To lead us from contrition to the promises of the Gospel, for grace and glory which is located in Christ, in the pursuit of holiness.

3 Marks of the Spirit’s Guidance in Preaching

By

Ron Forseth

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January 9, 2020

As preachers, we welcome and enjoy the presence of God in our preaching. At least sometimes we do! The Holy Spirit supports us in the sermon preparation and delivery process. He doesn’t leave us alone but is there to help us along the way.

A sermon involves various decisions, beginning with what to preach on, when to preach it, and ultimately, how to preach it. There is much to consider in the complex process of sermon preparation—but the primary determining factor in effective preaching is the Holy Spirit’s guidance. How we want him to guide us!

Undoubtedly, you’ve carefully planned a sermon, yet delivered it without connection or power. Somewhere along the way, you got disconnected from the guidance of the Spirit. On the other hand, you likely have gone into the pulpit ill prepared and yet been swept up by the Spirit’s power in the delivery. (The point here is not ill preparation, but rather that power comes from God and not us.)

It’s one of the great thrills of preaching—to respond to the guidance of God’s Spirit and then to sense God himself flowing through our words to impact our audience. Spirit-guided preaching depends on one thing: faith. Faith in preaching is the confidence that God is there, working with us in the sermon process. At times, we can behave as deists, handling sterile theological concepts with a virtual disregard for the presence of God. Or we can live and prepare and deliver our sermons by faith, sensitively following God in our preaching.

God, the Holy Spirit, guides us to the passages we preach, he opens our eyes to understand the meaning of his living Word, he shows us how he wants to apply it to our own lives and to the lives of our hearers. He even assists us in the discovery and selection of illustrations through which he desires to communicate his Word. From beginning to end, we have the ongoing opportunity—and compelling assignment—to preach by faith, to include God in the process. It’s exciting, and at times frightening, to follow God in preaching. But what’s even more frightening is to depart from God in the process, to go our own way, to cease depending on him, and to lean on ourselves in our preaching. For power is not rooted in the best of illustrations, nor in our intellect, nor in our skillful delivery, nor even in our command of a passage. All of these things are good, but insufficient for a truly powerful sermon. Transforming power in preaching is found only in God himself—and God is pleased to “show up” when we preach by faith, by including him in each step of the way: “God, what are you saying in this passage? God, how shall I communicate this? How must this be applied? God, show me a clear illustration.” And beyond this kind of faith conversation with God, we also develop an intuition about God’s leading, which direction he wants to take us in our preaching, being prompted by him to say—or not to say–something.

What are the marks of the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our sermons? I’ll share three:

1) The Holy Spirit loves to exalt Jesus. We’ll find him regularly prompting us to do the same in our preaching.

2) The Holy Spirit loves the Word of God. We’ll find him directing us often back to the Word, bearing witness to the truths we’re teaching through multiple supporting and confirming passages.

3) The Holy Spirit is powerful. When he guides us, he also imparts his power to us so that with him we accomplish things that simply couldn’t happen without him.

When we respond to the Spirit’s guidance in our preaching, we’ll notice our preaching marked by these things.

Jesus is the ultimate preacher. He’s our example in Spirit-guided preaching. As he himself said, “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” (John 5:19) If we are to preach as Jesus preached, we must acknowledge what Jesus acknowledged: We can do nothing, at least nothing that counts, on our own. Sure, we can preach from the flesh, without satisfaction and without power. We do well to remind ourselves that “whatever is not from faith is sin.” We must preach from faith! We must preach out of a connectedness to God.

There’s the common temptation to lean on the illustration rather than God. But experience bears out that even in the best of illustrations, the power comes from God and is tapped through faith as we include and obey God in our preaching. But our goal is, by faith, to keep in step with God’s leading by his Spirit. And when we do, we and our hearers experience his transforming power.

Again, Jesus was emphatic about trusting God in his preaching. He said, “I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” (John 8:28-29) What a delight it is to do and speak what pleases God!

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are Spirit and they are life.” (John 6:63)

As we preach to others about following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, how appropriate it is to model what we teach by keeping in step with the Holy Spirit in our preaching!

God grant that we connect by faith with him in the preaching process. He himself is our trainer and can show us how to do this.

Originally published on SermonCentral.com. Used by permission.

The Rule and Songs of Puritan Worship

By

Joel Beeke

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January 9, 2020

When we build on the foundation of the Gospel in our worship, what rule should govern our building? By “rule” I mean what controls, regulates, and fills what we say and do in worship. Again, to appreciate the Puritan stance on the rule of worship, we must begin not with the Puritans but with the Reformation. Though Luther had allowed practices to remain in the church so long as they did not seem to contradict the Bible, the Reformed movement taught that worship must only include that which the Word of God authorizes and warrants.

Worship service is given to the King of kings for His pleasure and honor. Christ alone is King of the Church; all our worship is obedience to His Word. Calvin taught that the Church has one King, our Savior Jesus Christ, and He is “the sole lawgiver of his own worship.”[i] For the Puritans, too, cleaving to Christ as our Lord means submitting to the rule of His Word in our worship, and opposing humanly-devised worship.[ii]

This idea today is called the regulative principle. Robert Godfrey writes, “In its simplest terms the regulative principle holds that the Word of God alone regulates, directs, and warrants all elements of worship. . . . We may worship God only as he has commanded us to do in the Bible.”[iii] As the Puritans saw it, the basic form of biblical worship was three-fold: Word, sacraments, and prayer. Each of the three elements can be divided into two parts: the Word (read and preached), the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper), and prayer (spoken and sung).[iv]

The Puritans found the regulative principle taught throughout Scripture. Christ said to the Samaritans in John 4:22, “Ye worship ye know not what.” God repeatedly told Moses that he must build the tabernacle according to the pattern revealed to him (Ex. 25:9; etc.). Hildersham concluded that no one can know or serve God rightly “without the direction of his Word.”[v] Burroughs similarly noted how in Exodus 39 the text repeatedly says that they built the tabernacle exactly as God commanded.[vi] Hildersham concluded, “See how precise God would have us to be in sticking close to the direction of his Word, in the matter of his worship. Yea it is certain, when we do him any service that he hath not appointed us in his Word, we serve not him, but we serve an idol.”[vii] Perkins quoted Deuteronomy 12:32, “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” To add or subtract from God’s instructions for worship, Perkins said, is to deny that the Holy Scriptures are “all-sufficient” for doctrine and obedience.[viii] Numbers 15:39 and Ezekiel 20:18 warn us that in our worship we must not follow our own hearts or the ways of our fathers. Our Lord Jesus, in Matthew 15:9, quoted the words of Isaiah 29:13, to admonish us, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Paul taught us in Romans 12:12 that reasonable worship requires knowing God’s will.[ix]

At the bottom of the regulative principle is a profound sense of the holiness of God. The Lord killed two of Aaron’s sons for offering Him incense in a way He had not authorized. God’s word of explanation for their surprising death appears in Leviticus 10:3, “Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.” The Lord was saying that those who worship Him must do so in a manner that lets people know He is the holy God, indeed a consuming fire.[x] God’s holiness implies that we cannot approach Him in any way that we please. We must offer up to God only what He commanded.[xi] As John Owen (1618–1683), one of the greatest Puritan theologians, said, only God is the Judge of what pleases God.[xii]

So we might summarize the rule of Puritan worship in these words adapted from Owen’s writings:

What does God require of us so that by faith we glorify Him and He accepts us?

He requires that we worship Him in the ways that He appointed.

How does God make known to us these ways and means of worship?

He makes them known by the written Word of God alone, which is the full and perfect revelation of the will of God for His whole worship.

May the church add religious activities or images that help people worship?

No, because all acceptable worship is by faith, and faith always looks to the promises and laws God has given us through Jesus Christ.[xiii]

The regulative principle produced reverence and simplicity in Puritan worship. It also enabled them to focus on Christ instead of ceremonies and physical objects. Charnock said, “There is no need of a candle when the sun spreads its beams in the air; no need of those ceremonies when the Sun of righteousness appeared.”[xiv]

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3. Appreciate Financial Constraints

4. Think Long-Term

5. Do Less

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5 Important Principles of Reading the Bible In One Year:

1. Jesus’ story needs to be read…often.

2. Name the elephant in the room – Some parts of the bible are boring.

3. The Prophets come to life when they’re matched with their history.

4. Grouping the Epistles creates context and texture.

5. Have a strong finish line.

Old Testament Ethics

So we might summarize the rule of Puritan worship in these words adapted from Owen’s writings:

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