Musings on Spiritual Matters

Posted By Matthew on May 17, 2012

There are authors, and then there are mentors.  Dennis Jones is more than an author within the churches of Christ; he is one of the best encouragers and leaders in the church.  He is the President of Heritage Christian University, one of the best schools I ever attended.  Dennis is one of those individuals who inspire those around him to “make life count.”  As a young student at HCU, there were countless occasions on which President Jones would wrap his arm around me to instill confidence and hope within me. There is within me a deep appreciation for his daring me to do better.

The book, How to Make Your Life Count, is excellent because it flows from Mr. Jones’ strengths.  In his first chapter on “believing that you will live forever,” he uses a little counter-cultural wisdom to focus on making choices that will influence one’s eternal destiny.  Often in self-help literature, the author will implore the person to seize life because of one’s mortality.  However, President Jones brings the heavenly perspective to the book thus producing an increase in the sense of motivation to make one’s life count.

In the next section on principle two, Mr. Jones refers to a little wisdom from my hometerritoryofNova Scotia.  He uses a quote which states, “Here lies Ezekial Aikle, Age 102. The good die young.”  These lines are from a gravestone in theEastDalhousieCemetery.  He uses this Maritime wisdom to implore Christians to make a difference in this world while there is time.  All men will die but do something while you are here.

One of the most powerful lessons is principle four.  In this chapter Mr. Jones encourages people to take responsibility for themselves.  He gives seemingly contradictory advice in taking control and relinquishing control.  But his point is that we must control that which is in our power and stop stressing about those elements that we cannot influence.  He lists some areas in which we must take personal responsibility, which are: our behavior, our attitude, our goals, and our decisions.  In a culture of blame, this is a highly needed chapter.

Principle six is “Find and Develop Your Gift.” Too many people spend life worrying about weaknesses instead of developing their gifts or strengths.  In this chapter Mr. Jones gives various areas in which people are gifted.  The gift might be in leadership or encouragement, but whatever the area is, a person will discover increased productivity through tapping into his strengths.

In one of the last sections, Dennis Jones writes a section on empowerment.  This is not shocking as this is one of the author’s best gifts in leadership.  He empowers people around him.  And this is what he ultimately does in the book.  He empowers people to “Make Your Life Count.”

There are numerous motivational books on the market, but this book is written with a divine perspective.  The book would be excellent for encouraging a Bible class.  Sometimes the first step for an entire church is to get motivated to make a difference in this world.  I would encourage people to not just read this book for the personal benefit, but to teach this book to others.  This book takes me back to the days in which Dennis would put his arm around me to motivate me to be the best minister possible.  It felt good.

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Posted By Matthew on May 16, 2012

Yes, I read two volumes of this book.  The first one was excellent and the second one was just as excellent.  The only downside to this text is the last section with the reflections of the kids, not that the kids did a bad job, but rather you just love hearing Don tell stories.  For those in America, Don Cherry is a Canadian icon.  He is one of the hosts of Hockey Night in Canada, and specifically the Coaches Corner section.  He is a controversial character, but funny as come be.  I still love his line before the Canada-USA gold medal game.  ”Ryan Miller is going to see more rubber than a dead skunk on a New York Highway.”  This is a great book.  You get some insight information on the NHL and some of the traditions and unwritten rules of the game.  Cherry was mostly a minor league player for years, and played one game in the NHL.  He really struggled through life for a while, but now he is a huge deal in Canada.  The stories are great in the book.  They are short, and many of them just make you laugh out loud.  So if you are a hockey fan, this is a fun book to read.

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Posted By Matthew on May 10, 2012

The young minister graduates from a seminary within the churches of Christ.  He is excited about his first work.  He is highly trained, gifted in leadership, and realizes quickly that the weakest link on the eldership has more authority in the congregation than he does.  He submits to this because he is still young.  Years pass, his training increases until he becomes a doctor of ministry.  He has 15 years of experience helping congregations grow.  To all who see him, he is gifted in spiritual leadership, and God has been increasing his ministry throughout the entire church.  He speaks on outreach and leadership at various events throughout the year.  But at his home congregation, the man who is an elders, who is obviously not gifted in leadership has the ability to always stop his plans in their tracks.  Even after 4 solid years of service in the congregation, the uneducated, untrained, un-gifted elder can overrule him each and every time.  He is powerless after being trained to be powerful for God.  Bitterness begins to enter his heart.  He is the highly trained professional answering to the amateur.  So he develops a plan to “go around the eldership” as he seeks to expand the churches influence in the town.  He places the eldership on the shelf of old relics of the past.  He does this easily, the eldership is no match for his skill set.  But after 165 people from a 200 member congregation align themselves with the minister, the amateur elder realizes he has lost control, and begins the process to have him fired.  The rest of the eldership realizes that their authority has been supplanted, willingly terminate the minister.  He is left bruised by the process.  He seeks an eldership that will allow him to use his gifts blaming the former elders for a lack of vision while over looking his lack of submission.  While the former elders complain about his unwillingness to follow poor leadership.  And the story is repeated over and over again.

There must be a better way.  And there is!  The answer is the art of using spiritual authority.  Authority is not from position, skills, education or experience.  All authority is from God the father, and through Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Leaders in the church are to lead from the authority that is granted to them through God.  All leaders ultimately are under authority of another.  Until ministers, elders, deacons, or rogue church members realize and submit to this authority, all attempts of leadership will be self-destructing.

Here are some insights into spiritual authority:

1. God’s delegated authority does not belong to the person exercising it–that person is a channel.

2. Subjection to authority means that a person is subject to God himself and not to the channel through which the authority comes.

3. Rebellion against authority means that a person is not subjecting himself to God.

4. Spiritual authority is never exercised for one’s own benefit, but for those who are under it.

5. A person in spiritual authority does not have to insist on obedience–that is the moral responsibility of the follower.

6. God is responsible to defend spiritual authority.

Elders and ministers that are not mutually seeking the will of God together will quickly polarize over some external issue.  There are going to be occasions in which the will of God would have the elder submit to the channel of authority coming through the minister while other times the minister must submit to the channel of authority through the elders.  Instead of “who is right”, the question must be “what is right.”  But submission will be tested in all leaders.  There are going to be occasions of differing opinions, submission is easy in times of agreement, but in times of discord, submitting to authority is an act of spiritual maturity.  If ministers and elders cannot learn to submit, their leadership and ability in the kingdom will be limited.  The first practice of leadership is submission to leadership.

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Posted By Matthew on May 9, 2012

As a restorationist, there is this goal to restore the 1st century church to the 21st century world.  I believe in a pattern that is given in the inspired text to follow in order to be the church for this present culture.  You can call me a patternist, a primitivist, or a legalist, just not lifelist.  But this pursuit is a difficult goal to accomplish.  The church has always desired to follow the pattern of the New Testament text, but we have picked some to follow and some to overlook because of culture.  As children of this movement, if one has not wondered why we do not give the “holy kiss” which is mentioned numerous times in the text, but boys cannot wear hats in church because of one reference in 1 Corinthians, but the entire purpose of that section is for women wearing veils, which we do not follow because of the classic culture argument, but those boys better not wear the hats, if you have never dealt with the inconsistency of some of these patterns, you probably have not studied them much.  There are some who always have an answer for all of these cases, good, glad you are so smart.  The point is that this can be hard work.  And this causes people to be so focused on the 1st century that one never considers the culture of the 21st century.  One is so intent on restoration that he never wonders how this will be experienced in the 21st century.  The influence of culture never influences these people.  But sometimes culture should influence, and has lead the way for the church.  It was culture that seemed to be more accepting of racial unity before the church was.  Wicked nations in the past of been used by God to judge his people.  The world can judge the church!  Even a fish disciplined Jonah because he was not faithful to the business of the Lord.  When a church so isolates itself, it loses the mission of God to reach the lost.  And if the church is so worried about getting the bubble right, and never looks out to see what is happening around it, it loses its sense of mission in this world.  The purpose of restoration is not one in and of itself, but one of being faithful to accomplish the work of the Lord.  On the other hand, there are those who are constantly crying out “look at culture, we need to change.”  To what, we need to change to reach the culture, ok, how?  If there is no biblical foundation to lead this change, you will become just like the wicked nation that enslaves you.  If there is no pattern to be guided by in this process, the natural outcome is total adaptation to the culture.  The distinctive of the churches of Christ were given to shape people into the image of Christ.  They were not given for doctrinal islands, but to create people into faithful followers of Christ Jesus.  Baptism, weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper, singing without the instrument, these are commands to be obeyed because these are best for man.  They help man be rooted in transformational worship, not culturally relevant baby food.  There is always this need to think about what is working, what is not, so that we accomplish the work of the Lord.  Sometimes this is hard, but the work must be done.  Those who fight everything that is new have missed the mark, those who chase all that which is new have missed the mark as well.  The Restoration plea is valid, and guides us on this journey, we are the 1st century church in the 21st century world.  There is tension always with specifics, expedients, additions, but instead of throwing this conservation out, we must always be having it.

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Posted By Matthew on May 8, 2012

Jeremiah 12:5 proclaims “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses?  And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?”  I love this verse.  All ministers go through difficult times.  It might be a “firing”, or betrayal from an elder or friend or wife, but it was painful.  Your heart bled within you.  And you wondered, “how could God allow this to happen?”  But these difficult times, these times of testing produce character in the leader. Because as the verse says, if men have wearied you, how are you going to compete with horse.  If you cannot handle the stress, pain, and agony of life, you will not deal with ministry well.  God is actively involved in developing leaders.  And a leader is strong in character.  Your character is what counts.  You will face all forms of persecution, some members will turn on you, there will be elders that have it out for you, the reality is that it takes character to fulfill your ministry.  When you are called into ministry, you are called into suffering, the servant is no better than the master.  Some congregations believe that it is their job to make preachers suffer, unfortunately.  What is funny is that preachers fake being happy.  There are always men that must put on the smiley face  before the congregation and others.  Of course it is wise to be positive, but it is sad when churches never see how unhealthy they are.  The reason is that churches hire preachers who they like.  A church wants resumes, and it hires the man that seems to be the best.  And the church expects the minister to keep them happy.  When we are no longer happy, you will be asked to leave.  So the preacher is trained to fake happiness because no one likes a negative and sad spirit, and heaven forbidden it be the churches fault or the eldership’s fault.  So we are creating fake atmospheres in our congregations.  Now some preachers need to quit whining like over paid babies, and realize that the work of the Lord is not easy.  If you cannot handle some church issues, you will never handle Jordan, and your ministry will never increase.  God cannot trust you.  God will not increase your influence because your influence means more attacks on you.  You are dangerous to Satan, and he will be coming after you.  God is going to try to protect you from the thickets.  So do not be shocked when you remain in the same level of influence in the church.  If you cannot be trusted with a few, you will not be trusted with many.  So whatever the present attack on you is, rise up, face Satan in the face and overcome.  God will reward your faithfulness with fruitfulness!

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Posted By Matthew on May 7, 2012

You feel that this book was written in 2012, but in reality it was penned 1984.  The content of the book is so relevant to the religious culture in America; you feel that the author had the ability to predict the future.  Even in the 1980’s the author was discussing the moral decline of the country.  Needless to say the situation has not improved in the following years.

Francis Schaeffer spends the majority of the book reflecting on the decline of convictions in the Evangelical world.  But what was happening to denominations in 1984 is presently happening within the church.  He notes the watershed principle in which, at one point, water will flow in either direction.  Those in Colorado understand this dynamic well, as the Continental Divide is located in the state.  On one side of a mountain range the water will find its way to the Pacific Ocean, while on the other side of the range the water will flow to the Atlantic Ocean.  The author indicates that the watershed in Christianity is the issue of the inspiration of the Bible.  During the 1980’s, the Evangelical world was compromising on inerrancy of the Word of God.  Certain leaders were not denying a level of inspiration of the Bible, but were denying that the Bible was inspired in all areas.  These teachers would believe that the Bible was correct on spiritual matters, but could be erroneous on details concerning history, science, and other disciplines.  But this step is a huge chasm in Christianity.  To reject complete inspiration is to reject that God’s Word is perfect.  It seems odd that God would communicate with his people perfectly on spiritual matters, but get history incorrect.  If a man compromises on the inspiration of the Bible, the pathway to error is essentially paved.

In the next section of the book the author laments the decline of morality in society, but points the finger of blame back to the church.  Church people have mourned the decrease in ethics in culture, but seem to place the responsibility on the world.  The author calls the church back to pure living.  He realizes that the church is the “salt of the earth, and the light of the world” and for the world to be increasingly more wicked means that the church has been unfaithful in its call to holiness.  The church must practice radical holiness and purity.  Sadly, the church’s morality in marriage can often be statistically the same as those in the world.  For the world to get right, the church must be right first.

One of the best aspects of this text is his insightful understanding of the foundational thoughts that influence society.  In one area he calls much of philosophy “religious mumbo jumbo.” He applies this insight into the nature of man.  He says that conversations over the definition of man are ridiculous.  How smart, how old, how something, these are just attempts for people to confuse the issue over abortion and the sanctity of life.  Defining humanity is not that difficult.  He also mentions the slogan “do not rock the boat.”  He indicates the high level of individualism in culture.  But in reality it means that no one takes responsibility for anything.  This attitude is even pervasive in the church.

The last great insight from this book is concerning the balancing of holiness and love.  He proposes the idea of what to do in a culture or church in which people are polarizing.  He notes that both love and holiness must be in tension.  There is always complexity in knowing the balance between love and holiness.  The author noted changes that were happening in 1984, and as one reads this book, you realize the changes are now reality!

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Posted By Matthew on April 30, 2012

Often a preacher believes that the job of preaching is finished by merely stating words.  As long as he preaches truth, God is pleased and the congregation is happy.  Any focus on style or form is needless because the passing of information is all that it takes to preach.  This is a short sighted idea.  Jesus did not just throw out the information, he packaged the teachings in parables or metaphors.  He took into account the creativity process.  A lot of preachers do not think through these issues or do not believe these issues are important.  But for those who desire to truly communicate, like Jesus it is important to form the sermon.

So how does one do this?  Well, the first step is to preach the truth of the text.  It is best to develop and study the text the week before processing it into a form.  Do all of the exegesis for the text one week.  So pull out the commentaries, studying the word meanings, discover the major point or points of the text, and create the focus statement or whatever you want to call this one liner.  And leave the sermon a lone.

The next week, after times of prayer and reflection, come back to the text.  You have the one liner, so the question is how are you going to communicate this thought to the congregation.  This is where it is good to have some various forms that you can use.  You can do the university style (three points), the narrative style, four page style, the loop style, and maybe the post liberal style.  Then look at a overriding metaphor that you can use in the sermon.  What is the major imagine you are using to detail the main point.  Whatever it is, try to use illustrations that fit this.  Next, what about media, or props that can be used to continue to teach this point.  Are there any fig trees around?  For an example, if you are preaching on the destruction of sin, use car accidents as a metaphor, tell stories about car accidents that destroyed families, or whatever.  Begin the sermon with a video of a car crush.  Use language that blends sin and car crushes, like he totaled his life, it create a family pile up of consequences.  Connect the two imagines in the sermon.  In this stage, you are looking for creativity ways to communicate the Biblical truth.  But give this some time after you have come up with the truth.  It will allow the creativity to increase.

Hope this helps.  Also a little plug for Wayne Roberts and Dale Jenkins.  Wayne in the Denver area has hosted opportunities for preacher improvement.  And Dale Jenkins and his brother are providing a opportunity for preachers to learn more about the art of preaching.  It is called 8 ways to improve your preaching.  I highly recommend this.  Just go to his site, it is listed on the side of this site and sign up.  You will be blessed.

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Posted By Matthew on April 26, 2012

There is always this advice from preachers to preachers about always allowing the cross to shine through in preaching.  It is usually given by saying “never stand in front of the cross.”  ”Good preaching removes the preacher.”  This advice comes from one’s metaphor for the preacher.  A metaphor is someone’s under-riding idea of the role of the preacher.  There are three classic metaphors that people use for a preacher.  The first is herald.  This idea is that the preacher proclaims the word of God.  He is the voice for the Lord.  The message is from the word itself with little human personality or influence.  Someone with this image would dislike stories or humor.  There is no need for creativity, just preach it.  This is the metaphor that influences the advice on “getting out of the way of the cross.”  The second metaphor is Pastor.  This idea is one that provides solutions to human needs.  It is the idea of someone that is tailoring the message for the needs of the audience.  The herald metaphor merely looks to the needs of the text, while the pastor metaphor looks to the needs of the members than to the text.  The three major metaphor is storyteller.  The storyteller is most focused on communication with the members of the congregation.  How do people hear?  This metaphor is focused on the art of preaching.  This is the idea of Fred Craddock of overhearing the gospel.  You share the story of God with the people.

Probably instead of having one overarching metaphor for the preacher it is best to have a combination of these ideas.  Our sermons must be first and foremost rooted in the text of the Bible.  This has to be the beginning point of sermons.  But to preach equally on some obscure passages of scriptures that have remotely little to do with the human condition is not an effective use of time in the pulpit.  Also, to merely deliver the word, without taking into account the styles and patterns of how people listen seems short sighted.  There is a time to totally remove oneself from the message, if this is truly possible, which can happen if one preachers a totally text based sermon.  I feel that it is good to read the sermon in Acts 2 or 17 for the Sunday morning worship hour and say amen.  On the other hand, it is also wise to not stand in front of the cross, but stand at the side and invite people to stand with you.  And invite them to see what you see.  It is not that you are in the way, but you are creating community as fellow believers witness the cross together.  It is the invitation of Nathaniel all over again.  There is an element of preaching in which the preacher gives the sense to the text.

Next post of preaching will deal with creating creativity in the form.

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Posted By Matthew on April 25, 2012

Probably few noticed.  Maybe the one or two people who check out this blog, but it has been a while since the last post.  It was not that I stopped blogging, which is the case for some bloggers in this world, rather it was because I have been on vacation.  This year the whole family went to Disney World for a week.  We were blessed to stay at the Maingate Hotel, which for some who do not know is free for the preacher.  At this location, the Concord Street church of Christ has a mission world.  Each week the hotel is host to a service, and the preacher is allowed to stay for free at the hotel.  Yes, this is a sweet deal.  The Hotel is excellent.  We were blessed to be the preacher for this past Sunday.  We had a great time in the magic kingdom.  My children are 4 and now 7.  My girl, Gabrielle actually had her birthday Friday at the park which was cool because she

got to wear a button that said that it was her birthday.  A lot of people wished her a Happy Birthday.  We had a ton of fun riding the various rides.  We hit each park, and Magic Kingdom a couple of times.  This is needed, there is a lot to do.  I was a little at how quickly we got to do stuff throughout the day.  There did not seem to be bad lines, of course this is tempered with Disney lines.  I read a great book on ministry.  But best of all, we spent time together has a family.  This was precious.  My wife and I had a great time too, it was just not for the kids.  We really enjoyed the parks as well.  Well, this is what I have been up too.  Even when we got picked up, one of my former interns had the van all washed and details.  This is class, first class.  I am glad to be back home, teaching tonight, and maybe an elders meeting, so might not get home until 12pm from getting up at 2:30am, but glad to be home.  We miss Castle Rock people.

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Posted By Matthew on April 16, 2012

This was a wonderful weekend for the Castle Rock and Tri-Lakes congregations.  We partnered together to bring in Aubrey Johnson who is a well known speaker and author in the church.  He has written many books which are published by the Gospel Advocate.  He addressed the deacons on Friday and Saturday.  During this time, my wife and I had the honor of hosting in our home with his wife Lisa.  She also spoke to the ladies on Saturday morning.  This time together was a huge encouragement to the men and ladies.  Aubrey has a wonderful talent of moving to the core of the issue.  He is very strong in breaking down information and sharing that which is most needful.  He did five sessions with the men, and he could have lead the seminar even more, but he dealt with the areas that are most in needed for leaders in the congregation.  He pulled some thoughts from the text concerning the role of deacons that are often overlooked.  One of his best points was that deacons are to bring joy to the eldership.  This was a needed idea because sometimes there can be conflict between the deacons and the elders.  A deacon can rebel against the authority of the eldership and create more problems than one can solve them.  There should not be an adversarial relationship between these two groups.  Another strong area was his work on motivation.  Deacons are some of the best men in the congregation, but sometimes these men will lose the energy to work or serve.  At this point, a deacon can become a “in bulletin only” deacon.  Aubrey really inspired our men to “get the job done.”  It was amazing the amount of positive comments that the deacons provided to me.  You could tell the deacons felt honored that the elders invested in them by having Aubrey come.  This creates a positive dynamic in and of itself.  People will serve more if you are serving them.  He also did some role playing with the deacons.  One specific area was concerning “how to recruit” to your ministry.  He did something funny by touching a man’s pulse, and said “you will do.”  Unfortunately, if a person is alive he or she can serve in the church.  But Aubrey modeled for the men the way to recruit people.  Aubrey did a awesome job of providing some new skill sets, and motivating the deacons to “serve well.”  This was one of the best events that we have had here at Castle Rock.  He did a great job.

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