Assessment: Day One
Jo, Gus and I are in Atlanta this week for assessment with the Presbyterian Church in America’s group that helps start new churches. There is no way I have the energy to go over all the stuff that happened today, but I can give a quick overview of some of the highlights (in no particular order):
1. We had a counseling session with Phil Drake. It was really good. We looked at where our blind spots are, and it confirmed to us that Jo and I are working well together. It also revealed some potential challenges for church planting and pastoral ministry in general.
2. I preached a 10 minute sermon and then Jo and I talked about our call to church planting. The format was such that there was no dialogue as much as they ask and we answer. It was a bit wearing, but an important step.
3. We’ve already got to talk to some great couples about ministry they are excited about. Its interesting to find that alot of the people here are looking for affirmation and they didn’t necessarily wait till after assessment to start talking praying and planning for church planting opportunities.
On a side note I need to thank my Mom who is staying with us all week, and all those other folks who contributed to let us get here.
Calvin on Curiosity
“We are naturally prone to curiosity. Hence, neglecting altogether, or tasting but slightly, and carelessly, doctrine that tends to edification, we are hurried on to frivolous questions. Then there follow upon this — boldness and rashness, so that we do not hesitate to decide on matters unknown, and concealed.”
John Calvin
Dear Christian, Stop Being a Jerk
One very sad trend among many Christians is how quick they are to throw other Christians under the bus to prove they are better and more thoughtful about their faith. This often comes into clear focus when you read comments that Christians post around the web.
I don’t think most Christians realized that they only have two options when they are speaking about people:
1. The person is connected to Christ, and therefore we are connected to them, they are family.
2.The person is not connected to Christ and is what John Newton calls an”object of [our] compassion”
John Newton who is most well know for his hymn amazing Grace, was a pastor and wrote many letters. In one of these letters he spoke about how Christians disagreements should be characterized.
I wish more Christians would take Newton’s advice when he says “before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord’s teaching and blessing.”
Questions:
Are you really so short sighted as to assume that you are the only one who is a critical thinker?
How often do you pray for people that you publicly or privately disagree with?
You can read Newton’s entire letter here.
Coding Can Be Fun
I love it when I get to use my talents in a fun way that is not bound to some job duty. Right now I’m designing a wordpress theme for my brother and sister-in-law as a Christmas present.
Here is a very small glimps at the site.
5 Reasons I Appreciated Seminary
by Sam
Tags: Christianity, History, Mark Driscoll, RPTS, Seminary, Theology
3 Comments
I know that not going to seminary is coming back into fashion with many Christians, while others are arguing for their own seminary-esque training. I thought it might be helpful to share with you 5 things I got out of my time at seminary.
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Stop Feeling Guilty And Start Praying
I would tend to bet that many people think prayer is very important, but those same people feel guilty that they don’t do it enough.
We should remember that prayer is a way of talking to God. It doesn’t need to be overly formalized. Prayer when when you can, and look for ways to pray more often.
The problem I have is that when I think about prayer is that I often think about all the things I should be praying for, and it exhausts me. I get so stressed thinking about the things I’m not praying about that I rather just ignore the whole thing.
I needed a basic framework where I could spend time in prayer each day without feeling guilty that I was forgetting something.
So what I did was make a small spread sheet that I’ve put in the back of my Bible. I’ve broken it down day by day. Each day I pray for different things in a few categories: Family, Friends, Neighbors, Concerns or Ministries. So for instance today is Thursday and I prayed:
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Gus in the Fall
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Augustine has been alot of fun recently. Here are a few pictures from the other morning when Jo was taking a shower and Gus and I were hanging out.
What Can Starbucks Teach the Church?
Ed Stetzer recently posted a little twitter proverb which says: “If you can learn to order at Starbucks, then you can learn theological language at church.”
At first I thought it was insightful and funny but the more I think about it the more I think it reveals some of the problems with Christianity today.
Here are a few of my thoughts:
- I enjoy Starbucks, but I never say grande, I say medium. I think Starbucks can get away with charging you twice as much because you believe that they are intellectually superior when it comes to coffee. I’d hate for people that visit my church to think that we are superior because we use big words.
- I appreciate what I think Dr. Stetzer is getting at, the fact that when people want to learn something they will. Think about all the information that we use, just when it comes to technology in our daily life. My 50 year old mother knows how to post photographs to facebook, but do most of us know anything about where the Apostle’s creed comes from. I appreciate him bringing this up.
- Words are important, but its not ok for pastors or church members to develop or use jargon for the sake of jargon. In fact we should be seeking to remove all the unneeded church-slang that we can, so that people don’t feel as if they need an advance degree to participate in our churches.
- Id rather go to a Dunkin Donuts than a Starbucks. You can get the same quality coffee at Dunkin Donuts, but with out the meaningless jargon and the self-inflated pretense that is apparent at most Starbucks.
Everybody Has Hard Weeks
When I was considering becoming a pastor no one ever said to me: “Dude thats the happiest job in the world!!” Its often unrewarding and difficult work. My bet is that most jobs are just as frustrating and hard as mine.
Everybody has hard weeks. People are mean, the weather can suck, and you just aren’t treated the way that you think you should be.
The question is: how do you respond to hard weeks? Are you a total jerk? Do you take it out on your family? Do you have some way of getting rid of all that junk that has built up over the last week? Or do you just push it down?
The Purpose Of The Church: Take 2
As I’ve been thinking about it a bit more, I realized that some of the specifics of my post on the purpose of the church might have been a bit nebulous.
I want to explain my thinking on mission, by comparing the church to driving a car. As we drive a car we check the gauges, and make sure that we are going the proper speed. We speed up and slow down, we look in our mirrors, and shift gears (if we are driving a manual). We might even pick up some friend along the way. All of this is part of driving the car, but at the same time, when I was a kid sitting in my dad’s driveway doing most of these things I wasn’t driving. So whats the difference between driving and sitting in the driveway? Well, its the journey. All of those things are part of driving but alone they are out of place.
In a spiritual sense, driving is the mission. We worship, we pray, we fellowship, we confess, we share our faith, we do all of these things, and many more. But all of these things should be done while on mission, all are things the church should do, but without the great commission we are still sitting in the driveway.
To take this idea one step further, as we drive the car we have a destination in mind, for the drive: to glorify God, but we have to remember that the destination isn’t the drive.
I hope this explains a bit more about my thinking on the issue.
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