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Calvinism: Building Bridges

I asked you Summit members last week to pray for me as I spoke at the "Building Bridges" conference on Calvinism. Some of you have asked if the talks would be available, and they are now, here. I think they've gotten them all up there now.

If you're looking for recommendations, I'd recommend Danny Akin's and David Dockery's for a good overview, and for a deeper look at some of the theological issues, I'd check out David Nelson's, Al Mohler's and Ken Keathley's. 

Leading People (and Yourself) to Potential

Part of my calling as a pastor-leader is to push people beyond what they think they can do. My associate pastor described the process like this: J.D. comes in and tells his idea and we tell him all the reasons it can’t happen. He tells us we’ll do it anyway. We try it, and end up accomplishing more than we thought we could.

But then again, I’ve had staff members tell me that I pushed them too hard… I was driving them to hate their job and want to quit. We are not God, and to remind us of that God made us need a lot of time for rest, family, friends and SLEEP.

How far can you stretch people without burning them? That’s the leadership art. Usually farther than they think, but not as far as you think.

I'm learning that the same thing is true of how I lead myself. I had a chance to meet with a CEO of a Fortune 500 company recently. He told me that what he loved about “working for himself” is that no one told him what to do or set standards he had to reach. What he hated about it is that he couldn’t imagine working for anyone who demanded more out of him than he did of himself. If you don't think this way, you probably shouldn't work for yourself or lead a church.

But the greatest thing I can do for my church is to stay close with God, maintain physical and emotional health, and have a solid family. Plus, before I will answer to God for my "success" as a Pastor, I will answer to HIm as a Christian, husband and father.

The Tarheels and the Sanctification Process

Below is a conversation a missionary friend serving in our Central Asian target area had with his 4 year old son yesterday after he was not very nice to his 23 year old Central Asian babysitter, who is a believer.

My friend: Son, did you know Y*** Z*** knows Jesus and follows Him like we do?

4 year old: Does she like Carolina?

My friend: I don't think so, son. I don't think she knows about Carolina.

4 year old son: Can we tell her about Carolina?

My friend's comment: I guess this is the next step in the salvation process. What have I taught my son????

Building Bridges: Calvinism in the Life of the Church

I'm speaking at a conference about Calvinism and non-Calvinism in the life of the church called "Building Bridges" this Monday-Tues. It's a pretty interesting and timely conference on an interesting issue.

Pray for me. And pray for everybody to be nice. Especially to me.

Is the Multi-campus church concept biblical?

John Piper shared some interesting perspective on this question I thought was worth passing on to you (mixed in with this are some of my own thoughts… so, the parts that don’t make sense you can blame on me…). I found this very refreshing since many of those promoting multi-site don't seem to have wrestled with the biblical implications of the approach... they only have a "this works so it's got to be right and don't criticize me or slow me down with the Bible" kind of attitude.

Let me say right up front: you can’t mandate from Scripture that all churches should be multi-campus. But.. with that said… Consider the church in Jerusalem. Here’s a few salient points to let marinate in ye olde hopper:

1. The Jerusalem church had a massive growth problem: The first few chapters of Acts tell us that within a few weeks well over 10,000 people had come to Christ and that more people were being added “every day.” Acts 2 records the crowd’s response to Peter’s sermon as, “What should we do?," and after Peter's explanation 3000 respond... in Acts 3 it says that 5000 MEN responded to Peter's second sermon... That created a “Holy cow, what should we do?” question for previously small Jerusalem congregation. They went from 120 to over 10,000 in one week! What did they do? They tried to accomodate the growth! (No conscientious Christian ever says “we’re growing too fast” any more than a cancer patient says “I’m healing too fast.” The Jerusalem church scrambled to do what it could to accommodate that growth.)

2. The Jerusalem church remained as ONE church: Three times in Acts a reference is made to the church in Jerusalem, and each time it is referred to in the SINGULAR. Acts 8:1: “There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem.” Acts 11:22: “The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.” Acts 15:4, Luke describes Paul and Barnabas’ return to Jerusalem: “When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders.” Each time, it does not refer to churches, but church. Not once, that I can find, is it referred to as MULTIPLE, independent congregations. Putting that together with #1, that means that the Jerusalem church was one church with at least 10,000 members.

3. That church devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching: Acts 2 says that the new church (singular) gathered around the teaching of the Apostolic team. This is actually important for the multi-site concept, when you consider #4.

4. There is no way the one church could have been gathered as one large group: There was simply no facility that could hold them in Jerusalem! Acts 2 tells us they were meeting to hear the Apostles’ teaching daily “in the temple.” There was no place in the temple that could daily accomodate 10,000 people... plus, this was before microphones and video projection. Thus, for 10,000 to devote themselves to the Apostles’ teaching would take multiple, smaller gatherings. That’s probably why it says they met “daily.” (You see, it never says that all 10,000 met every day, just that every day some portion of them were meeting to hear the Apostles’ teach.) Do you get what that means? A “teaching team” of Apostles were holding multiple services in the temple. And it's reasonable to assume that each Apostle was teaching the same sermon multiple times each week. You can’t tell me that each one rushed home and prepared a new message every day. And you can’t tell me that if they had blogs, video and T-1 internet connections they wouldn’t have been using them.

5. In addition to smaller temple gatherings, the one church met in multiple houses every day to devote themselves to the Apostles’ teaching. This seals the deal for me. One church, meeting in multiple houses. A traveling group of Apostles’ teaching every day in different houses and different locations in the temple or wherever else they could find space.

6. The Jerusalem megachurch had massive organization problems and members who felt "left out." In Acts 6, people were complaining that in the Jerusalem megachurch member-care was not happening. Notice the Apostles’ response. They didn’t start reading Brian McLaren books and declare themselves "post-megachurch" and poopoo the whole idea of a big church. Nor did they read George Barna books, declare the end of the local church and start meeting on the golf course with their Ipods and Jesus golf-club bags. Nor did they complain that as trained ministers they weren’t able themselves to do the member care Jesus had ordained them to do. What DID they do? They appointed another organizational structure within the church to minister to the needs of the growing body. You see, big church is messy. But it’s better than letting people go to hell.

Building Bridges: Calvinism in the Life of the Church

I'm speaking at a conference about Calvinism and non-Calvinism in the life of the church called "Building Bridges" this Monday-Tues. It's a pretty interesting and timely conference on an interesting issue.

Pray for me. And pray for everybody to be nice. Especially to me.

John Patton and Annoying Friends

Here's a great little bit from the biography of John Patton, the missionary brought the New Hebrides islands to Christ. He recounts the opposition he went through when God called him to go:

“I was besieged with the strongest opposition on all sides.  One of my professors of divinity told me that I was leaving certainty for uncertainty.  I was leaving work in which God had made me greatly useful for work which I might fail to be useful and only throw my life away for the cannibals.  Amongst many who sought to deter me was one dear old Christian gentleman whose crowning argument always was, ‘The cannibals!  You will be eaten by cannibals!’”

I replied, “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms.  And in the great day, my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.”

“Indeed the opposition was so strong from nearly all, and many of them warm Christian friends, that I was sorely tempted to question whether I was carrying out the divine will or only some headstrong wish of my own.  This caused me much anxiety and drove me close to God in prayer. But, again, every doubt would vanish when I clearly saw that all at home had free access to the Bible and the means of grace with gospel light shining all around them while the poor heathen were perishing without even the chance of knowing all God’s love and mercy to me.”

As a parent, I know that one of the hardest things you may ever have to watch is your son or daughter getting on a plane to go live overseas in a place you think is dangerous. But remember that a much greater Father watched His own Son come to earth to die. Because of that, we can be saved! Don't deprive some other people group of the chance to know the Jesus that gave His life for you.

Believing God, Staying in America, and Jim Elliot

What a great Sunday! So many of you who boldly stood up asking God to display Himself in some miraculous way through you... I know we will be hearing many of your stories in weeks to come.

I was also moved at how so many of you have responded to believe God's promise that He WILL make His name famous among the nations. As I mentioned on Sunday, our job as intercessors is not to go and "pray" on behalf of somebody else, as if God needed us to fill His ears with news about others He doesn't know. Our role is to go and BELIEVE on behalf of someone else. Intercessory believing connects someone in need to Jesus' overflowing compassion.

In the past year over 1000 of you have gone out from this trip on some type of short term trip to believe God's promise on behalf of someone else. At least 24 Summit members have left our fellowship to serve in one of our church plants overseas, and 20 more actively preparing to go in the next year. Praise God.

But once again I remind you that taking the Gospel to the "nations" is not a "call" that only a few of us receive. It is a COMMAND to ALL of us. We can't say that certain parts of the Bible don't apply to us. We can't dodge Jesus' directs commands by coming up with some manmade doctrine of "calling": i.e. "I'm not called to obey Matthew 28:19 or Acts 1:8." Our roles in living out that command may be different, but ALL of us have to be obedient to the command: giving, praying, and going. So why not make plans to go on one of our short term trips next year? If your Summit Life group has not adopted an overseas church planter, do it immediately! Email Brad O'Brien and he'll make it happen!

I know some might be tempted to say, "Oh, but there's so much NEED in America, how can we focus so much on what's going on overseas?" I understand. We don't do work overseas to the exclusion of work in RDU. But we do believe that the light that shines the farthest will also shine the brightest at home. I have seen in the last 5 years that the more somebody lifts their eyes to the worldwide spread of the Gospel, the more active they become here.

I'll leave you with the words of two great missionaries... Jim Elliot and C.T. Studd:

Jim Elliot, who in his 20's was martyred by the Auca Indians he was trying to reach in Equador, said in his journals (Shadow of the Almighty): "Consider the call from the Throne above, Go ye, and from round about, Come over and help us, and even the call from the damned souls below, 'Send Lazarus to my brothers, that they come not to this place'. Impelled, then, by these voices, I dare not stay home while [the Quichia Indians] perish. So what if the well-fed church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the Scriptures, Moses, and the Prophets, and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bankbooks and in the dust on their Bible covers. American believers have sold their lives to the service of money."

And C.T. Studd, who at 50 answered God's call to go to Africa... He had no money and his doctor and church committee told him not to go... Studd responded, “Gentlemen, God has called me to go and I will go.  I will blaze the trail. though my grave may only become a stepping stone that other younger men may follow.”

So enough of the excuses! Let's get on with it! What part are YOU playing?

E-3

Quite simply, we believe it is time for another great awakening. We expect this to start among students, as the previous great awakenings in this country have, and that it will happen through the local church.

That's what our bi-annual E-3 event, happening this Sunday night, is all about: God's Spirit moving mightily through students in the local church.

Our philosophy with college students is simple:

• Students need to be involved in a multi-generational church, not just a campus ministry...thus, we want to get them involved in the life and ministries of the local church. Christian community is not supposed to be made up of people within 4 years of age from each other, as campus ministries are. Campus ministries should be, in the words of Louie-Giglio, para-LOCAL-church. Think about it this way: during college you make some of the biggest decisions of your life. Do you really only want to be surrounded by people with no more life experience when you make those decisions?  The only guy who did that in the Bible was Rehoboam, and things didn't turn out too well for him! And don't say "I don't like the church. I have other ways of knowing and following Jesus." In the words of Ed Stetzer, "You can't love Jesus and hate His wife!"
• At the same time, we want to keep you focused on doing ministry on campus, and not always pulling you off of campus and into church. The one place you rarely find the Apostles doing ministry in Acts is "in church,"... they are always out in the community doing that. So, we think "less is more" (in terms of 'events to go to') for students.
• We believe students have a unique opportunity during and right after college to experience what God is doing in some of the most exotic and exciting places in the world. God's big agenda right now is the glory of His name among unreached nations, SO WE ARE COMMITTED TO PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS AND GRADUATES TO DO THAT. We have 5 projects going right now. We'd love for all of you to spend 1-2 years after you graduate seeing the Gospel go forward in a place its not yet known. That's what we mean by "Mormonization of our church!" The IMB told us that this year we were 3rd in the country of sending college students and young professionals to the field. Praise God! But there's so much more opportunity out there, and so many more students who haven't seen the vision yet! We have the smartest and most talented students IN THE WORLD come to our area. We want to you to experience what God is doing outside of America! We want you to see that there's more exciting and pressing things happening than chasing a career and money and a Volvo and 2.3 kids and whatever else the American dream is now...

So, all this to say, to our 600 or so college students who call this church their "home" while here... be there this Sunday! Great music, communion, teaching and ministry vision! We only do it once a semester so we're piling up all the good stuff into one night! I'll be speaking at this one and look forward to seeing you there!

Interpreting the Bible

This is for you church planters, pastors, or Bible teachers of any type... a great summation from one of my favorite Bible interpreters, Wayne Grudem.

I take this from Justin Taylor's blog, which is a blog I check often. I like this particular blog because it connects you with a lot of great resources, and he's very well-read and fairly fair-minded. You can access it here.

General Principles for Right Interpretation  

1. Spend your earliest and best time reading the text of the Bible itself.
2. The interpretation of Scripture is not a magical or mysterious process, because Scripture was written in the ordinary language of the day.
3. Every interpreter has only four sources of information about the text [(1) The meanings of individual words and sentences; (2) The place of the statement in its context; (3) The overall teaching of Scripture; (4) Some information about the historical and cultural background.
4. Look for reasons rather than mere opinions to give support to an interpretation, and use reasons rather than mere opinions to attempt to persuade others.
5. There is only one meaning for each text (though there are many applications.
6. Notice the kind of literature in which the verse is found.
7. Notice whether the text approves or disapproves or merely reports a person’s actions.
8. Be careful not to generalize specific statements and apply them to fundamentally different situations.
9. It is possible to do a short or long study of any passage. Do what you can with the time you have, and don’t be discouraged about all that you cannot do.
10. Pray regularly for the Holy Spirit’s help in the whole process of interpreting the Bible.

Keeping the “Big Picture” in Mind: Some Observations about the Whole of Scripture   

Big Picture 1

The Bible is a historical document. Therefore, always ask, “What did the author want the original readers to understand by this statement?”   

Big Picture 2

The original authors wanted the original readers to respond in some ways. Therefore, always ask, “What application did the original author want the readers to make to their lives?”  

Big Picture 3

The whole Bible is about God! Therefore, we should always ask, “What does this text tell us about God?”  

Big Picture 4

The center of the whole Bible is Jesus Christ. The entire Old Testament leads up to him and points to him, and the entire New Testament flows from him. Therefore, we should always ask, “What does this text tell us about the greatness of Christ?”  

Big Picture 5

All history can be divided into several major “ages” or “epochs” in salvation history. Therefore, we should read every passage of the Bible with a salvation history timeline in our minds and constantly remember where every passage fits on the timeline. 

Big Picture 6

Themes: Because the Bible is a unity (it has one divine Author though many human authors), there are many themes that develop and grow from Genesis to Revelation. Therefore, for each significant element in any text, it is helpful to ask, (a) Where did this theme start in the Bible? (b) How did this theme develop through the Bible? and (c) Where is this theme going to end in the Bible?