The Pastor and Evangelism

This video is helpful in thinking about your pastor and evangelism.  I know many people who have been frustrated by their pastor's lack of immediate involvement in the evangelism ministry in the local church, and I think Mark Dever gives some insight into the pastor's role in evangelism and why you may not see your pastor on the front lines...

Now, that being said - we ought now to seek to take what our pastor's have equipped us with each week, and apply that to our own evangelism ministry in and outside of the church.  Much of the pastor's job is to equip YOU to do the things you wish he was doing for you.  And don't assume that if you don't see it, it isn't happening!


HT: Unashamed Workman

First Snow of 2008

It's a little after the fact, but it's been awhile since I posted here and I wanted to share these.
So there it is. :-)


It was an unexpected storm... we got about 8 inches or so. But not the damage that occurred in other ares near us. Where we used to live, a tree fell across the street and crushed 4 cars!
It was a very heavy and very wet snow...


Abby didn't care about any of that. She was absolutely thrilled to be out in it. She knew what a snowball was somehow, since even before she was dressed to go out she was yelling "snowball! snowball!" And she was throwing them at us as soon as she could get it in her hands.






A fun morning...

hoo boy... Convicting

HT to JT

I confess I have had mornings like that and then stepped into the pulpit... it's sad, it's wrong, and I take full responsibility. May God have mercy on me to love my family better, and not just Sunday mornings... and thanks be to God through the Lord Jesus Christ that His grace abounds to cover far more than bad mornings.

Ask and You Shall Receive...

Me No Speak - You Watch, Listen... Run 'Way

Surpised by ... Hip Hop?

I have not listened to rap music in quite some time. I was seriously into in my last year or two of High School (think Special Ed, Heavy D, and just on the scene gansta rap NWA... wow). I got back to my Rock roots in college, but rap was not off the table, and I still listen to some of my favorite tracks every once in a while (protect ya neck - Wu-Tang - clean version of course), but hip hop has not been on my radar very much at all in the last few years. Even the Christian Rap I had heard in recent years, while decent in content has not really grabbed my attention musically.

Now, because of my exit from the rap music scene, I apparently have missed out on a few really good Christian Rap artists. I could not list them here, but here is something I came across through JT's Blog (where else?) that I really like.

Enjoy this track from Lecrae - I just bought the album on iTunes. (Thanks to the Siebolds!)

If you have given up on Rap for one reason or another, you might want to peek in again. The 1:16 Clique is probably the first place you should look, which includes Lecrae, Trip-Lee and others.
(Romans 1:16)

There is a short written interview and a longer video interview with Lecrae here.

The 2:4 Principle

Below I am just going to repost Justine Taylor's recent blog.

I have posted before on this and similar topics - but again, in my opinion, what Piper and Welch are getting at is the biggest obstacle to really engaging in the life of the church, and therefore, really accessing the Christian experience. I've said it before, Life in Christ IS life in the church. There is no other place to learn to be who we are called to be, or better place to actually try to live it out.
Anyone who is in the church that does not have this mindset will be continually disappointed, and hurt, and lonely - never satisfied with any body of believers they join, no matter what is available for them in the church. But enough from me, here is the post:



John Piper's latest sermon, The Mind of Christ: Looking Out for the Interests of Others, is well worth your time. Here's an excerpt:

Why do Christians walk through life feeling a humble sense that we owe service to people, rather than them owing us? The answer is that Christ loved us and died for us and forgave us and accepted us and justified us and gave us eternal life and made us heirs of the world when he owed us nothing. He treated us as worthy of his service, when we were not worthy of his service. He took thought not only for his own interests but for ours. He counted us as greater than himself: “Who is the greater,” he said, “one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:27).

That is where our humility comes from. We feel overwhelmed by God’s grace: bygone grace in the cross and moment-by-moment arriving grace promised for our everlasting future. Christians are stunned into lowliness. Freely you have been served, freely serve.

So the crucial relational mark of the culture of our church should be Philippians 2:4: “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” This is the “mind” or the “mindset” that we should have in life together. This is the relational atmosphere where God will grant wisdom for the perplexing work of living in this world.

I was reminded of a quote from Ed Welch’s book, Running Scared:Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest (pp. 184-185), which I've excerpted here before:

Which do we really need—to give love or to receive it? We resist the question because we want to say both.

Yet Scripture seems to favor the imbalance. Not that we aspire to have our friend or spouse love us less, but that “in humility [we] consider others better than [our]selves” (Phil. 3:4). When the kingdom of God is ruling our hearts, we aspire more to serve than to be served, honor more than to be honored, and love more than be loved. This doesn’t mean that we don’t care about being loved; it simply means that we always want to outdo others in love.

Do we run the risk of a lopsided relationship? Absolutely. That is the relationship we have with God—he always loves first and most. . . . Throughout Scripture God is the one who loves more than he is loved. He always makes the first move. He advertises his extravagant affection for us even when we are indifferent or opposed to him.

When Jesus Christ, God incarnate, walked the earth, the pattern continued. Through his life Jesus was rejected by his people and misunderstood by his disciples. At the most difficult point of his life, he was betrayed, denied, and abandoned. But through it all his love was unwavering. In this, he established the pattern for true humanness. This is the way we were intended to be. This is life in the kingdom. It wants love, but it wants even more to love others deeply. Its treasure is to grow in the fruits of the Spirit, foremost of which is to love others.

This is Greg again: If we as a people, in our churches, in our marriages, in any other relationship we find ourselves in... If we could really live this out we would be far more content, far more at peace, and far more in tune with the life that God would like for us to live. We'd probably suffer a lot more too - another positive.

People Will Get Mad at You if You Do it Right

Here is an interesting clip from an interview with Tim Keller on the Pastor and his family.




This is probably one of the hardest aspects of being a pastor. I can see it from my own perspective, just starting out as a husband (our 4 year anniversary is Thursday) and as a Father (Abby turns 2 in November) - but I can also see it through the eyes of my mentor, who is much further along in his life and ministry.

I hear how others 'get mad' - both at myself and at him - when the balls drop, as they are bound to do. But Mr. Keller is right... if you are doing it right - not to say that I do, or that my mentor does - but if you are doing it right, people are going to get mad at you.

And it is so incredibly difficult to balance your calling as a husband and as a father, with that of your calling as a pastor - the shepherd of God's people... We want to be all things to all people - we are called to be that - but there is an order and a priority of the three which comes from God. And as angry as your people may get at you for doing it the right way - by not doing so you are disqualifying yourself from making the congregation happy anyway...

May as well have them mad at your for a good reason...

This is one of many reasons why it is so important to have a wise and strong session.

HT: Unashamed Workman

Finger Painting... Oh Yeah

These speak for themselves...

You Know You are Too...

I Would Be Remiss...

If I made several posts today and did not add an Abby post...

Here are a couple of vids of she and I playing with a lollipop and talking with mommy...

In the next video, when I ask "Who made you?" - It sounds like she is saying Da-ddy, (which is not entirely wrong) but she is in actuality saying "God Did".
:-)

Until next time...

Tidbits to Share

If you haven't found or been pointed to "First Importance" let me be the one to send you that way. I recommend you add it to your feed-reader, if you have one... and if you don't... shame on you for wasting so much time! (said the man on his third blog post of the day...)

Anyway, I just wanted to share two of the more recent postings I thought were excellent:

“We conclude, therefore, that a Christian lives not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor.”

- Martin Luther, On Christian Liberty (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2003), 62.

“A man is not saved because he believes in Christ; he believes in Christ because he is saved.”

- Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Philadelphia, PA: P&R Publishing, 1965), 101.