JDGreear.com

The Unseen Witness

There is one person whose input you hear every time I preach. This person has more significantly influenced how I see the world, people, and how I understand the Gospel than any other person, without question. This person taught me more about the Bible, more about obedience, and more about spiritual discipline than anyone I've known.

That person is my mother. Tomorrow she turns 60.

My mother filled the atmosphere of our home with the Bible. It was always on her lips and the radio stations we listened to in our home in the afternoon. She formed my mind by devoting a few hours each afternoon to read to me or some other way to teach me to think. She didn't depend on the church to teach me the Bible, she taught it to me. She taught me to value spiritual things by pushing me to be most diligent in my spiritual development, and would not allow me to miss church because she was tired or I had homework or some other school/sports activity. Even though she was academically brilliant, she put her career on hold for several years so she could stay at home to raise me. She taught me spiritual discipline by reading the Bible with me and praying with me. She taught me to love people by opening up our home regularly to strangers and by praying for them with me.

I am more grateful for my mother than I will ever be able to explain.

Parenting is the greatest and most significant calling any person can ever receive. When it comes to "great" people who devoted their lives to doing great things for God, my mother would be at the top of my list. Of all the things I'm doing in ministry, I most hope that I can be half of the parent to my girls that she was to me.

But there are lost people in America...

I had a fantastic night last night with our high school students as we commissioned a ton of them to go out this summer on short term trips. They are going literally all over the world--including NYC, the Pacific Rim, and some here to RDU.

The summer is a time where we send out a huge number of trips--made up mostly of "normal" church members who are using some of their vacation time to proclaim and demonstrate the Gospel. Most are going to places in the world which we have adopted to plant churches.

From time to time I hear people say, "Why would you send people all over the world? Aren't there 'lost' and 'needy' people here at home?" I've even been accused of arrogance in attempting to 'help' other places in the world when our own "backyard" has so many needs. I've heard some pastors say that doing stuff overseas is a way to coverup what we're 'not' doing at home.

I can understand, in part, some of these objections. We are VERY committed to blessing our city first with the Gospel and its benefits. However, we believe that, from the beginning, each church is to be involved not only with its local area, but with the world. It is what Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:8--start in their hometown of Jerusalem, but go on to the ends of the earth. As Acts demonstrates for us, these places were not to be 'subsequent' assignments--they were not to wait till Jerusalem was won entirely, but to, from the beginning, go to the nations of the earth.

I was reading recently in William Carey's (first "modern" missionary and father of the evangelical mission movement) famous Enquiry and noted how that objection was raised to him back in in the late 1700's when he left England to go to India.

He said, "That there are thousands in our own land as far from God as possible, I readily grant, and that this ought to excite us tenfold in our work among them... is a certain fact; but that it ought to supercede all attempts to spread the Gospel in foreign parts is (a non-sequitir). Our own countrymen have the means of grace, and may attend on the word preached if they choose to. They have the means of knowing the truth, and faithful ministers are placed in almost every part of the land, whose spheres of action might be extended if their own congregations were more zealous in the cause. But with the foreign nations the case is wholly different, who have no Bible, no written language (which many of them have not), no ministers... many have not good civil governments (which allow them freedom to hear.)... Pity then, humanity, and much more Christianity, call loudly for every possible exertion to introduce the Gospel amongst them."

We believe each New Testament Christian will have, as a part of his DNA, ministry to the nations. While he labors in the field God has given him (perhaps a local one), he will be involved in some way with the nations. Each of our Summit Life Groups is encouraged to have a missionary from our church that they adopt and support and pray for and that they plan to go and see on a short term trip. We encourage each member, immediately when they join, to get their passport, so that they are ready to go.

As I once heard Tony Campolo say, "Here we are needed. Over there we are irreplacable."

A Christian without a view of the world and God's glory going to the nations is not a New Testament disciple. As my friend Ed Stetzer says, "God is a sending God, and those who see Him live as those who are sent."

My Verbal Gaffe and Helping Other People

Let me first address a misleading statement I made through video at the Brier Creek campus this past Sunday. I was explaining why we were committed to planting other churches in the RDU area as well as multi-site venues. My statement, as it came out, was "We don't want to just be the biggest church in the area, we want to church the area." Read a certain way, that could imply that part of our vision is to be "the biggest church in the area." But being "bigger" than other Gospel-preaching churches has never been, nor will ever be, part of our strategy. What I was trying to say was that being big as a church was NOT our goal, but rather seeing every person in RDU get into a church was a goal. In many ways, we'd love to be the SMALLEST church in the area! If in the process we grow big ourselves then so be it, but our focused goal is not to be a big church in the city but seeing the glory of God come to our city. In case you were confused by that statement, sorry for the poor communication.

Now, here's the main point of this post: There are a number of you for whom this Saturday could be one of the most important ministry skill development opportunities of your life.

• Some of you have a passion to see others around you--children, neighbors, co-workers, small group members--grow strong spiritually.
• Some of you have found that people tend to bring you their problems.
• Some of you would love to know how to speak helpfully into the marriages and families of your children or your siblings.

You should recognize that these things are most likely indications of a spiritual gift (1 Peter 4:10) that God has given you--a way that he will make Himself known through you. It is your responsibility to nurture and grow that gift so that it can be effective. Other people's spiritual lives literally depend on it.

This Saturday we are having the smartest counselor I know, my friend Dr. Sam Williams, come in to do a special 1-morning, 3 hour "training" on how to help people with their problems. Dr. Williams has been a huge help to my own marriage, and has helped me as much as anyone to know how to approach the "problems" in the lives of people I love. This event is open to ALL.

It would be a shame to miss it. You will better understand people, the Gospel, and how to be a more effective minister as a result of it. I promise.

This is part of the core vision of our church: we don't want to simply gather a crowd to benefit from the ministry skills of the pastor, but empower you in your own giftings. Our small group leaders, deacons, and elders will be there. Hope YOU will be TOO.

William Carey's 11 Resolutions

(I hope you are having a fantastic Memorial Day. I hope that you will stop and take a minute to thank God for the soldiers who are laying their lives on the line in the service of the safety our country. I hope you'll pray not only for their safety, but that God will give our commanders the wisdom and conscience to wage only just wars and to do so from a heart in tune with love and justice. Also pray that God will bring many of our military people to Jesus.)

I found this recently in an excellent little biography I am reading, Faithful Witness (a biography of William Carey, the first "modern" Protestant missionary--18th century, to India) by Timothy George. These are the 11 resolutions that Carey's "missional community" in India made:

1. To set an infinite value on men's souls
2. To acquaint ourselves with the snares which hold the minds of the people
3. To abstain from whatever deepens India's prejudice against the Gospel
4. To watch for every chance of doing the people good
5. To preach "Christ crucified" as the grand means of conversion
6. To esteem and treat Indians always as our equals
7. To guard and build up "the hosts that they may be gathered"
8. To cultivate their spiritual gifts, ever pressing upon them from their missionary obligation, since Indians only can win India for Christ
9. To labor unceasingly in biblical translation
10. To be instant in the nurture of personal religion
11. To give ourselves without reserve to the Cause, "not counting even the clothes we wear our own"

Question and Answer 4

Here's a great question from someone at our Cole Mill campus, answered by Pastor Rick:

I really like the multi-site concept. Are we going to launch any new locations in the next few years?

This is one of my favorite questions. YES! We have set a goal to start at least one new campus by the fall of 2009. We’ve also put together a team that will be studying, praying and planning to make that happen. I hope we can start even more than that by then. This could be a great way to expand the kingdom here in the Triangle in the coming years. Three things we need to start a new campus: a Place (facility to meet in); a People (who are coming to one of other campuses from a good distance and would make a good start-up core group); and a Pastor (someone who can lead the new congregation). Of course, a little start up funding, too. Where will our next one be? Mebane? Chapel Hill? Fuquay-Varina? North Raleigh?

We think that the best "Gospel strategy" for an area includes preaching the message of the Gospel to every person in that area, and demonstrating the Gospel (by acts of love and service) to that area. The best way to do both of those things, we believe, is to plant local churches and congregations. If you'd like to check out a little more about our "multi-site" philosophy, here are a couple of helpful articles. 1 2

Question and Answer 3

These are a series of posts responding to questions in a Q&A session after the 2nd service on Sunday (we will have it up soon here). People texted their questions in during the message, on all subjects, and we tried to answer them. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to answer them all. This is a joint effort among me (J.D.) and my 2 fantastic associates, Charlie Dunn and Mike McDaniel.

What version of the bible do you use? Which one should I use? I’m not a scholar.

That makes two of us. Basically, the different versions of the Bible fall into two categories. These categories are based on the approach the translators took in rendering the Bible from the original languages into English. The first approach is formal equivalence. Here the goal is a word-for-word translation. The downside is that this can cloud the meaning, like when there doesn’t exist an equivalent word in English. Good examples of literal translation are the English Standard Version (ESV), the King James Version (KJV), and the New American Standard Bible (NASB).

The second approach is called dynamic equivalence. The goal here is to convey the meaning of the original text most clearly. The emphasis is on readability. The downside is that you are relying more on the interpretation of the translators. Various translations lean more toward literal translation and ease of readability. At the risk of being a little simplistic, the NIV tries to translate sentence by sentence. The New Living Translation (NLT) goes paragraph by paragraph. The Message translation basically reads a page of the Greek, waits a day, and then goes back and jots down what the author remembers from what he read. (That's a joke). But translation like The Message and the NLT take a lot of liberty. Sometimes they nail it and sometimes I feel like they really blow it.

Now that I’ve succeeding in confusing you, let me clarify. There are versions that fall more in the middle. The NIV is a good one. I recommend the English Standard Version (ESV). It’s fairly literal but much more readable than the NASB. (The NASB is great, it's just that the translators forgot people were actually going to read it). To be honest, it’s a good idea to keep more than one version around. That way, when you come to a passage, you can read it in different versions to help you understand. That’s one reason that J.D. uses different versions on Sundays. In this Song of Solomon series, Pastor J.D. has used both the ESV and the NLT, sometimes interchangeably. Sometimes I do my "time with God" from the NLT because of the readability. If I really want to dig in to the text, I will break out my ESV.

Is it okay for a dating couple to spend the night together if they don't have sex?

Sharon Hodde wrote a great blog addressing this question a while back. Check it out here.

Question and Answer 2

These are a series of posts responding to questions in a Q&A session after the 2nd service on Sunday (we will have it up soon here). People texted their questions in during the message, on all subjects, and we tried to answer them. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to answer them all. This is a joint effort among me (J.D.) and my 2 fantastic associates, Charlie Dunn and Mike McDaniel.

How much should you tell your fiancé(e) about your sexual past?

This is a tough question, for several reasons. Sharing your past mistakes can mean reliving memories you would rather forget. It may lead to shameful, even painful moments between you and your spouse. But the real fear is that disclosing your past might cause your fiancé to change their opinion about you, even break off the engagement.

Imagine an engaged couple sitting together in a park. He turns to her and says, "There is something I've got to tell you. Two years ago I had sex with another girl. I've wept over that night many times. But I believe God has forgiven me, and I hope you can too." In the weeks that follow, she forgives him, and they marry. On their first honeymoon night they lie together, and as he looks at her, tears well up in her eyes. He says, "What's the matter?" And she says, "I just can't help but think of that other girl."

Is it worth risking hurting the person you love and changing your relationship to talk about things that are in the past? After all, God has forgiven you (1 John 1:9). In a word, YES, it is worth it. Here’s why. While it’s true that God has forgiven you, it’s also true that your past decisions affect you. Let me be clear. You are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). But most of us are still growing into the reality of that identity. We still deal with the shame of our past. And so Dennis Rainey concludes, “It is better to speak the truth prior to your marriage than to live with the fear, deceit and shame that comes from hiding the truth from your mate.” Even worse than the situation I described earlier is the one in which you are lying together, and one person suddenly asks, “How you ever been with anybody else?” Plus, sharing about your past can be an opportunity for God to bring additional healing in your life.

Now this doesn’t mean that you need to draw them a picture. They don’t need to hear all the sordid details. Focus your sharing on what might affect your relationship today. Think beforehand about what you’re going to share. Make sure you have experienced forgiveness for everything. It might be a good idea to share with a friend first.

And remember the importance of timing. These are not wise things to share in the early stages of a dating relationship. It would be hard, however, to think of an engaged couple who do not know each other at this level.

If you’re on the receiving end of this conversation, prepare yourself by remembering what God has done to forgive you. Remember that part of the beauty of marriage is that the two of you are "naked," body and soul, and not ashamed. Accept your future spouse as Jesus has forgiven you. Make a decision to respond in grace before the conversation. For more advice, check out Preparing for Marriage by Dennis Rainey, from which I’ve drawn heavily.

Question and Answer... from Sunday

After the 2nd service on Sunday, we had a 30 minute Question & Answer session at both campuses (we will have it up soon here). It was an experiment, and went great. People texted their questions in during the message, on all subjects, and we tried to answer them. In addition, people came to some mics and asked some questions live. We got some great questions (and some pretty audacious ones, too!), and unfortunately didn't get a chance to answer them all. So, over the next few days, we'll try to answer a few on the blog. This is a joint effort among me (J.D.) and my 2 fantastic associates, Charlie Dunn and Mike McDaniel.

  1  How do you know if you have the gift of celibacy (or singleness)?

- Al Though this, like any question of spiritual gifting, is deeper than can be answered in a few sentences, this one, at the very least, might be summed up in the statement: If you believe that having ‘the gift of celibacy’  would be more of a cursing than a gift, then you probably do not have the gift. (I used to get a kick in college by telling random girls in our campus ministry that God told me in prayer that they had the gift of celibacy and watching their faces in response... yes, it was an evil thing to do. Of course I told them I was kidding and they rarely trusted me anyway.) In other words, Paul always speaks of spiritual gifts in terms of those things which the Holy Spirit has imparted to believers to glorify God by their enjoyment and for the purpose of edifying others (1 Corinthians 12, 14). Consequently, if not being married and therefore experiencing the benefits of sex in the context of marriage is something that would frustrate, embitter, or leave you prone to sexual immorality, rather than freeing you to do less-encumbered ministry then it is probably not a gift you have. Also, it is my experience that God sometimes gives this gift for a 'season,' and during that time will give you the capacity to handle 'singleness' even if it is not your 'permanent' state.

Do you think it is ok for a couple to have sex if they are in love and plan on getting married eventually?

Though unpopular with the culture of our day, the Biblical answer to this question is a resounding ‘No,’ but not for the reason that many might think…ie: That God is somehow and in some way against sex or really just a cosmic prude. Rather God has ordained sex to be experienced in the confines of heterosexual marriage for our benefit and for his glory, not to punish us. Dr. Daniel Akin, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in his sermon “When Christ is Lord of the Home” outlines three specific areas in which God’s plan for sex benefit us in contrast to our culture’s perspective of ‘anyone, anytime, for your fun and pleasure.’ These areas are our protection, pleasure, and partnership.
In the first area, Akin simply states that if every human being would practice sex as God has outlined it; between one man and one woman, for life, in the context of marriage, every sexually transmitted disease would be eradicated in one generation. Naturally humanity, corporately and individually, would experience a greater degree of health and protection simply by doing sex God’s way.

Regarding pleasure, Akin references various surveys and studies which state that those who enjoy or are most fulfilled in their sex lives are those experiencing it as God has ordained. Furthermore, those who are most frustrated with their sex lives or experiencing the least amount of pleasure are those who have adopted the secular sex ethic as opposed to the Christian.

Finally, regarding partnership, and maybe most directly related to the question, the Bible views sex as a building-block for intimacy. The key word here is building-block. Though it may be a large block, it is merely a block and not the foundation. Rather the foundation of intimacy between two people is spiritual (See Genesis 2:18-25), which comes in the form of covenanting with one another to live life under God for the benefit of the other. Consequently, when sex precedes the spiritual covenant it creates a façade or illusion of intimacy without there actually being the presence of intimacy and true partnership. It is like eating the icing without ever getting to the cake. It is tasty and pleasurable, but eventually, the taste and pleasure are exposed as superficial and without substance. Likewise, when sex is experienced outside the context of Biblical marriage, even under the auspicious of “love” what is really occurring is a joint statement whereby one or both partners are asserting that they merely want to use the other for the “icing” and not covenant to the other so as to take on the “cake” or substance of that person’s being (personality, strengths, weaknesses, etc). Eventually, one or both partners will realize that they may be  accepted sexually or even emotionally by the other, but that they are not really known for who they are. This is superficiality, not true intimacy and partnership. 

The  key in all this is to see that God, as He has outlined sex, has done so for our benefit and well-being and not to punish, confine or frustrate us. After all, he told Adam that it was “not good for him to be alone” (Genesis 2) and regarding Christ himself, Paul says in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” God loves and has proven his love to us in the life, death and resurrection of Christ, such that he is fully trustworthy when it comes to issues like doing sex according to his way.

     (You might also check out weeks 4-5 of the Exposed series on this too...)

Starbucks Offering this Sunday

Guest Blog: Brad O’Brien

Coming up this Sunday (May 18th) we, as a congregation, will give our starbucks offering. Over the past four or five weeks you have heard about this offering, but I wanted to use J.D.’s blog as a platform to explain it to you one more time and give you a glimpse of how we plan on using the money that we give this Sunday.

If you have been around the Summit for a little while you know that each summer we make a concentrated effort to love and bless our community. Our goal for the week of hope isn’t to give you a once a year experience of community ministry. Our goal is that the week of hope each summer will be a launching pad for you to find a way to participate in ministering to our community on a regular and ongoing basis.

As we thought about the offering that will help supplement this effort we wanted to give you the opportunity to experience something special. As a congregation, the Summit is very generous. That is actually an understatement. The Summit has proven over the past six years to be ridiculously generous. But our goal with this offering isn’t just to get you to write a check. We want you to experience the joy that comes from knowing that by sacrificing affordable luxuries in your life, others can be blessed.
What are affordable luxuries? For some of you they may include unused memberships, manicures, pedicures, eating out, going to the movies, $4 coffee drinks, bottled water, new shoes, etc. I am not sure what affordable luxuries means to you, but I know that we as a church regularly enjoy affordable luxuries while many of our neighbors don’t have enough to provide their families with the necessities for daily life. How is God leading you to sacrifice so that others can be blessed?

This summer we have several opportunities arranged for the Summit and other congregations in the RDU area to come together and serve our community. This summer we are working with three of our local elementary schools to meet some of the needs that their principals and staff have identified. At some of these schools we will be repainting hallways and classrooms, scrapping chewing gum off of desks, removing staples from cork boards, refreshing landscaping, and many other tasks. We plan to have more than 1,000 volunteers serve these three schools over two days (July 11 & 12). We are also arranging a free dental clinic and general health care clinic for the community of North East Central Durham. We are working with a couple of our local ministry partners to provide a free car care clinic for people that are in need  and just need someone that they can trust to look at their car and give them some help. We will continue to work on our Habitat for Humanity house that is being built in North East Central Durham to use our resources to provide affordable housing to families in need. An apartment complex in North East Central Durham has approached us and asked us to bless them by doing a beautification project at their property. We are planning to do some exterior painting, window washing, trash pick-up, and landscaping. These are some of the projects that we are currently working on for the body of Christ to mobilize in a concentrated effort to serve and bless our community. These are just a few of the efforts that will be made possible by the money we give this Sunday. Please prayerfully consider how you can sacrifice so that our community can be blessed in an intentional way!

Check for updates of projects and info at www.hopefordurham.com

Our Missions Strategy: 3

(This is the 3rd installment of a working discussion I am having with myself on our church's missions philosohpy. Today I want to consider how we see our relationship to the Southern Baptist Convention and other such parachurch organizations).

There seem to be two extremes when it comes to working with the Convention for the purpose of missions.

The first extreme is when churches depend on the agencies of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) to do church planting and missions for them.This is what I call "bad parachurchism." OK, yes, I totally made that term up. But here's what I mean: there is good parachurch and bad parachurch. GOOD parachurch ministries FACILITATE the ministry of the church. A good parachurch ministry attempts to be a resource to the local church through which the church can do her ministry more effectively. BAD parachurch takes ministry from a local church and does it for her. Bad parachurch says, "Give us money and people and we'll do ministry for you." 

The SBC was born out of the "good parachurch" model: the agencies of the Convention facilitated the ministries of local churches. Local churches led in the ministry, the Convention served the initiatives of those churches-- but it was the local churches that took the lead and got things done. Over time, it appears that some parts of the SBC have shifted into 'bad parachurch' mode. They expect the local churches to turn over resources so the agencies can do the work. Burgeoning bureaucracies were created that basically duplicated what was to be happening in the local church. We, the local church, are to give our money and be happy with the results, and scolded for not giving properly.

Churches are God's vehicle for ministry. Jesus' strategy for reaching and transforming the world was have His Apostles plant churches in every community (this was Paul's entire strategy!); the local church has the potential to provide the most wholistic, community-loving, Gospel-preaching, multi-generational community necessary for fully-orbed ministry.

Local churches are best suited to provide the resources, training, accountability and drive necessary to accomplish church planting. Churches plant churches. For any parachurch organization, including the National and State Baptist Conventions, taking  this initiative out of the hands of the local church is surely doomed to failure. (to note, I am grateful for and in support of some parachurch ministries which, by my definition above, would be considered 'not ideal'--i.e., ministries not directly tied to a local church. I am in support of them because they are doing things that local churches are simply not doing yet. I am grateful for their ministries, and personally contribute financially to them... I am also grateful that many of them are actively seeking ways to participate with the local church. We have representatives of several of these ministries in our church, and I am VERY grateful for them.)

We, the Summit Church, don't just recruit people to work for the International Mission Board (IMB) or take up money to give entirely to them. These church plants around the world are ours. But before I get ahead of myself, let me mention the opposite extreme:

The second extreme is when churches believe they can do it all by themselves and do not need the expert guidance of parachurch organizations like the International Mission Board. The blessing and curse of my generation seems to be an independent, can-do spirit when it comes to mission. I just finished reading Stephen Neill's A History of Christian Missions, and one of the points he makes is that though Protestants have historically been extremely zealous for missions, we often have charged into unreached areas like Lone Rangers with no sense of who else was doing what for the cause of Christ there. Because of our lack of cooperation, we have often repeated easily avoidable mistakes and caused unnecessary chaos in the fields they we are trying to reach. The IMB has full time "experts" devoted to knowing the various fields, studying what methods work, and linking like minded movements together. They provide a wonderful organization through which to plant churches.

We try to avoid either extreme. We don't just give money and recruits to the IMB and ask them to do our church planting for us. But neither do we charge out to it alone. Our church has chosen to cooperate missionally with the Southern Baptist Convention because we believe unified effort between Gospel-loving churches increases our effectiveness in church planting, leadership training, and public witness.

The IMB's massive resources (that are compiled from so many churches working together) make it so that our missionaries do not have to raise support. The IMB makes a great structure for technical training of our missionaries, ensuring their care while on the field, and giving strategic direction. But they are still "our" (the Summit's) churches we are planting. The initiative lies with us; we use the IMB as the vehicle through which we plant churches. To note, the IMB has been great to work with in this regard.