May 2010

Leadership and Family Vacations

May 27, 2010 by Tony Reinke Categories: Fathers | Leadership | Vacations

Summer is fast approaching. The kids will soon be out of school and families will be loading into the minivans and SUVs and merging with millions on their summer road trips. In anticipation of the coming travel season, C.J. posted a series to encourage husbands and fathers to begin preparing their schedules—and their hearts—to lead their families in a “God-glorifying, grace-filled, relationship-building, memory-making time together.” The series was originally published two years ago.

Here is an index to the three-part blog series:

Leadership + Family Vacations (part 1)
Leadership + Family Vacations (part 2)
Leadership + Family Vacations (part 3)

And perhaps the easiest way to read this series is to download it in one printable PDF file. You can download that file here.

Happy vacationing.

Six New Books on the Gospel

May 20, 2010 by C.J. Mahaney Categories: Book reviews | Cross of Christ | Cross-centered life

“The gospel cannot be preached and heard enough, for it cannot be grasped well enough,” wrote Martin Luther.*

By God’s grace I have been a Christian for 38 years. I agree with Luther—I still cannot hear the gospel enough. Each morning I seek to preach the gospel to myself by my study of Scripture and through the strategic reading of supplemental books about the cross. Over the past several months it has not been difficult to find enough books to fill this role. Six wonderful new books on the gospel have been published in the last five months, and they constitute a portion of my recent reading diet. Here they are:

God the Peacemaker: How Atonement Brings Shalom by Graham A. Cole (Dec 2009), 257 pages. This is a technical but reader-friendly addition in the NSBT series (New Studies in Biblical Theology). And not only is it detailed and readable, but I found it to be deeply moving, too. Many times throughout this book as I read about the atoning sacrifice of our Savior I ceased reading, looked up from the book, and broke into song. (In the interest of full disclosure, this often happens when I read. I am a noisy reader and often break into song while reading.)

God the Peacemaker is a wonderful book that explains why God's intention to restore shalom (peace) to his creation requires the death of Christ. Cole writes in the introduction:

We live in a troubled world. As I write, there are reports of a devastating cyclone in Myanmar, an earthquake in China, fighting in the Sudan and Iraq, shooting death after shooting death on the south side of Chicago. The list could go on and on. The waste of human life is enormous....Yet Christians believe in a good God who as the Creator has never lost interest in his world. The key evidence and the chief symbol of that divine commitment is the cross of Christ....Central to the divine strategy is Christ, his coming and his cross. The troubles and calamities will end. (19)

In recent years there have been many books that emphasize God’s restoration of shalom, but too few that highlight the central role of the cross in this plan.

By Grace Alone: How the Grace of God Amazes Me by Sinclair Ferguson (Feb 2010), 118 pages. Few have taught me more about the gospel of the grace of God than Sinclair Ferguson. I was reminded of the profound influence of his ministry in my life a couple years ago when I did this interview with him about the cross. Through his sermons and writing I am personally reminded of grace, affected by grace, and inspired to lead by grace. His latest book on the gospel of the grace of God is a gem—showing us why we should be amazed by it. Ferguson writes,

Being amazed by God’s grace is a sign of spiritual vitality. It is a litmus test of how firm and real is our grasp of the Christian gospel and how close is our walk with Jesus Christ. The growing Christian finds that the grace of God astonishes and amazes. Yet we frequently take the grace of God for granted. (xiv)

Ferguson writes as a man who is himself amazed by grace.

Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus by D.A. Carson (Feb 2010), 168 pages. In the preface Carson writes,

Nothing is more central to the Bible than Jesus' death and resurrection. The entire Bible pivots on one weekend in Jerusalem about two thousand years ago. Attempts to make sense of the Bible that do not give prolonged thought to integrating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are doomed to failure, at best exercises in irrelevance. (11)

This book is not only not doomed to failure but destined to serve readers in their appreciation of the gospel as he expounds on both the death and resurrection of the Savior. As Mark Dever says in his endorsement, "This professor can preach. These are model messages on crucial passages." They are crucial passages, presented as a model of exegesis and exposition. The book is developed around five core passages: Matthew 27:27–51, Romans 3:21–26, Revelation 12, John 11:1–53, and John 20:24–31. Pastors can easily adapt this structure and use these passages to develop a sermon series to serve their churches.

Atonement by various authors, edited by Gabriel N.E. Fluhrer (Feb 2010), 142 pages. This is a compilation of messages delivered over the years at the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. Contributors include J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, and Ferguson. In his preface, editor Gabriel Fluhrer opens the book with these pointed words: "This is a book about blood and it soaks every page" (ix). And a little later he writes,

Today, along with other great doctrines of the Christian faith, the doctrine of the blood atonement of Christ is under attack. It is derided as “cosmic child abuse” and traded for a grandfatherly sentimentalism that muffles the piercing cries of the Savior being nailed to the cross. The pride of our sin dilutes the simple, clear, and shocking teaching of the New Testament: God killed his perfect Son to save hate-filled rebels from the wrath they deserve. (x)

The messages included in this book were finely chosen.

What Is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert (April 2010), 124 pages. Gilbert's new book on the gospel is clear and compelling. I wrote in my endorsement that I hoped to place this book in the hands of every pastor and church member. And the only thing I would add is that I hope it finds its way into the hands of non-Christians as well. I agree with Mark Dever: "This little book on the gospel is one of the clearest and most important books I've read in recent years." Help me put a copy of this book into every hand. Buy a case of them and begin giving them away immediately!

It Is Well: Expositions on Substitutionary Atonement by Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence (April 2010), 223 pages. This series of sermons was published out of concern over the neglect of the gospel in the life of local churches. In the preface Dever writes,

Have you wondered about the cross lately? Have you wondered where it is in your own church, or in your own life? It's our prayer that these meditations will help you re-center your life on God's sacrifice for us in Christ and join in the celebration that's going on eternally as the saints in heaven praise God for the Lamb who was slain for us. (15)

Like Carson’s, this book can provide a pastor with a sermon series on the gospel. The 14 sermons are presented in canonical order on these texts: Exodus 12, Leviticus 16, Isaiah 52:13–53:12, Mark 10:45, 15:33–34, John 3:14–18, 11:47–52, Romans 3:21–26, 4:25, 5:8–10, 8:1–4, Galatians 3:10–13, 1 Peter 2:21–25, and 3:18.

I am grateful that we have many wonderful (and affordable) books about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need these books because we cannot read enough about the gospel. We cannot read enough about the gospel because we cannot grasp it well enough.

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* What Luther Says: An Anthology, compiled by Edwald M. Plass (St. Louis: Concordia, 1963), vol. 2, pp. 563–564.

Patience, Pace, and Church Planting (Part 3)

May 19, 2010 by Dave Harvey Categories: Church planting

Okay, back to this topic of governors.

A governor is a device that regulates the speed of something. For example, when NASCAR began to realize that their cars were increasing in speed year by year, and this was making accidents more common and more serious, they instituted what was dubbed “the car of the future.” The car of the future was essentially the car of the present with some design modifications that effectively regulated the top-end speed of all the cars in the same way. These modifications served as “governors” on how fast stock cars could go.

What’s interesting is that the purpose of the car of the future was to go slower than what technology could ultimately allow. Other values besides speed were important to NASCAR, so speed was sacrificed so those values (safety, protection of drivers, competition) could be promoted.

Sovereign Grace church planting has governors on the engine of our growth. They help determine the speed of our growth so we can move forward toward the finish line. The next governor I want to discuss is having the right resources.

Governors in Church Planting

2: The Right Resources

This means the right guy with the right stuff is not enough. We need to send him with the right resources. How many people are needed for a successful church planting team? How much up-front cash does a church plant need to get off the ground? What does care look like for the planter after the planting? These are resource questions where wise church planting joins clear strategy. The bottom line? A viable church plant is possible when the right guy is given the right resources for the right needs in the right location.

There seems to be a growing consensus among church-planting movements that a viable church planting team needs to be around 30 to 50 core people. By core we mean people who are committed to both the work and the sacrifices necessary to get a church off the ground. Bigger teams may be attractive, but they’re not always better. If bigger means folks who are coming with their own agendas or self-seeking desires, then run for the hills ’cause you’re planting a weed, not a church. Also, some types of plants—cross-cultural for instance—are better served with smaller teams of experienced or knowledgeable folks.

Likewise, financial investment is subject to the church plant situation. Planting in some urban areas is an experience of sticker shock; everything from meeting space to cost of living is more—actually, much more. And the process of people moving from happy attendees to faithful givers can be unpredictable. So there is a lot of diversity in the church-planting world over the question of how to fund church plants.

In Sovereign Grace we operate with a few basic principles:

• We want a church planter to be focused on planting and establishing a gospel-centered church, not building a funding base. We have found that where a proven man is free to focus on building the church, the Lord’s provision will usually move a plant quickly from outside funding to self-sustainability. And what gets fostered in the process is a spirit of gratefulness and shared mission in the plant, because both the planter and the team recognize the financial commitment of the broader family of churches to help them get established.

• We want a plurality of leaders as quickly as possible. The ultimate goal, where possible, is a plurality of full-time elders. However, until the church is financially capable, we have provisional pluralities made up of lay leaders with proven gifts and character. But a low-risk church plant can actually get extra money to speed a plurality of elders on its way.

• We see financial resourcing as part of our shared partnership in the plant. If you talk to most of our church planters, one of their hopes is to be able to say to Sovereign Grace Ministries, “Thank you for your commitment to us. We’d now like to make a commitment to future church planting through our giving to the mission.” While this transition from receiving to giving doesn’t take place the same way for all church plants, it is a vision that Sovereign Grace church planters hold dear and endeavor to build into their new churches.

The right resources are an important governor in Sovereign Grace church planting, because church planting isn’t merely a growth strategy. It’s a commitment, both to people who are sending and people who are going, that we will do everything we can to make sure a church plant not only survives, but thrives as a faithful expression of the gospel. It takes longer to start stronger. We get that. But we’re in it for the long haul.

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Previous posts in this series:
Patience, Pace, and Church Planting (Part 1)
Patience, Pace, and Church Planting (Part 2)

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Dave Harvey leads international expansion and church planting for Sovereign Grace Ministries and is based in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. For more information about the Sovereign Grace church-planting process, click here.

Come to [CO]MISSION UK

May 14, 2010 by Dave Harvey Categories: Conferences | Sovereign Grace update

One of my greatest privileges in ministry is working with churches in the United Kingdom. Seeing more and more churches planted there is an absolute thrill.   That’s one reason I’m stoked about a conference my buddy Pete Greasley (and his mates at Christchurch) are hosting in Wales this coming July. In moments of unbridled condescension predictably inspired by a pub night, Pete will invite an American to share a conference. I guess that’s how I found myself purchasing tickets to be there and help with the teaching responsibilities. I hope he wasn’t joking, 'cause I'm booked and pretty excited. Here's why.

The conference is called [CO]MISSION UK, and we’re holding it because we want to equip church planters as well as other men that feel called to ministry, and stir ambition for how God could be glorified through their lives.  If you’re a church planter in the UK, or if you hope to plant a church there someday, I hope you’ll come. You don’t need to be part of Sovereign Grace Ministries—the conference is for anyone who wants to see gospel-centered (sorry, Brits, I meant “centred”) churches started in the UK.   We haven’t locked in all the details yet, but here’s a look at some of what we hope to talk about:

Why plant churches?
How do I know if God is calling me to plant a church?
Is ambition a good thing?
How do I build a church-planting team?
What happens after a new church launches?

The conference will be July 8–10 at Christchurch in Newport, Wales. Registration is only £25 if you register by May 31. Plus, students come for free—a pretty sweet deal. You can find more info at comissionuk.org. I hope you’ll join us.

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Patience, Pace, and Church Planting (Part 2)

May 13, 2010 by Dave Harvey Categories: Church planting

In my last post I talked about how Sovereign Grace is committed to being as aggressive in church planting as gospel values allow. But certain values act as governors to cap the speed of our growth (see the previous post for the retro go-kart analogy). Therefore planting churches requires patience to do it well, and the pace to sustain it over the long term.

As a Leadership Team we’ve identified several governors—things that help us pursue opportunities at the speed limit our values will allow. They determine our pace and insist upon our patience. (Warning: For dudes who are missiologically minded—read: rapid expansion—don’t check out. We in Sovereign Grace may be nuts but it’s an informed lunacy.)

I’m going to take several posts to discuss four specific governors. Here’s the first:

Governors in Church Planting

1: The qualified guy

Yeah, yeah, I know. We all believe this. You can’t plant a church without a good candidate. But I’m not talking about a good guy. I’m talking about the right guy. Why? Because for us, the key factor in strategizing when and where to church plant is the man—the church planter. A viable church plant begins with both a need or opportunity to plant and the emergence of a qualified man to lead the plant.

You see, need is relevant, but it can’t determine our pace. There’s just too much of it and too little of us. Is there really any place where you could honestly say, “There’s no church needed there”? Opportunity is also important, and we pay careful attention to it. At any given time there are groups of folks in various locations who are requesting that a Sovereign Grace church be started in their area. And conversations with existing churches looking to affiliate with us are always taking place.

But need and opportunity alone don’t create the call to plant a church. We need the right guy. A qualified one.

What do we mean by a qualified man? A qualified man is one who has sensed a clear and enduring call to plant a church. But there’s more. That sense of call has been confirmed by mature leaders who know the man, warts and all. A qualified man is revealed by the grace on his life. How do we know if there’s grace? Because there are character and abilities that match the eldership qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, and other passages. And not just to attain them, but to maintain them as well.

In Sovereign Grace Ministries, we organize these qualities around five essential criteria, which we call the “e5.” First and primarily there is preaching. That’s the BIG E. A qualified guy must be an expositor who knows how to handle God’s Word in clear and compelling manner. In our experience, the training and evaluation involved in this component just takes time. It slows the process. We realize that dialing this one back, maybe just downgrading from expository skill to sensible Bible teaching, would speed things up considerably. But we’re called not just to win converts but to make disciples. Disciple making requires exposition.

It doesn’t end there; here are numbers two through five. The qualified man displays (2) a leadership gift, (3) faith towards God, (4) a shepherd’s heart that cares for people, and (5) a determination to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5). If reading this list incites a desire to know more, check out our website. Also stay connected to this blog. We definitely want to talk more about the e5.

So how do equip men and evaluate whether they are qualified? Sovereign Grace has, by some measurements, a ponderous training process for church planters. It starts with relationship. You know, being known and coming to know us well enough that we can evaluate each other. Then there’s a ten-month Pastors College commitment, followed by a residence with a local sending church.

Could we speed it up? Sure. But we’re not measuring success in the next five years or in the number of churches affiliated with Sovereign Grace Ministries. We believe growth is fruit of building right, not a goal that should determine our strategy. After all, church planting is a heavy responsibility, and high failure rates are an unacceptable statistic. We’re not doing experiments; we’re reaching people.

When all is said and done, we’ve found that the single most important variable in the viability of a church plant is the man sent to do the plant.

Not long ago a woman came up to me and shared her sincere burden to see a church planted in a certain area. She humbly shared all of the needs and opportunities and evidences of God’s activity in that area. As I listened to her I thought, “Wow, she has enough faith for this thing all by herself!” And then she asked me what she could do to speed things along. I answered with the first step.

“Pray for the man.”

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T4G Breakout Session Audio

May 11, 2010 by Tony Reinke Categories:

The eight panel talks from T4G2010 are now online:

Eric Bancroft: Convincing Christianity: The Implications of a Robust Gospel in Marriage
Tony Carter: Proclaiming the Comfort of the Gospel
Kevin DeYoung: ‘Tis Mystery All, the Immortal Dies: Why the Gospel of Christ’s Suffering Is More Glorious because God Does Not Suffer
Greg Gilbert: What Is the Gospel?
Brian Habig: Fears of the Minister
Joshua Harris: Dug Down Deep: Helping Others Build Their Lives on Christ-Centered Doctrine
Michael McKinley: Unity, Not Uniformity: Diversity in the Body of Christ
David Platt: An Unadjusted Gospel in an Unreached World: Connecting Gospel Theology with Urgent Missiology

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Photo source: Southern Seminary Communications

The Prosperity “Gospel”

May 7, 2010 by Tony Reinke Categories:

During the second panel discussion at T4G2010, Mark Dever asked John MacArthur about his concerns for what is known as the “prosperity gospel” or the “health/wealth gospel.” The discussion followed Al Mohler’s message, “How Does It Happen? Trajectories toward an Adjusted Gospel.” Here’s an excerpt of the exchange:

Mark Dever: I think I heard you say recently in a conversation that you are more concerned about the prosperity “gospel” than you have ever been before, that you see it as an increasing problem. Do you want to talk about that for a moment?

John MacArthur: I think it is a far greater threat than the intellectual issues of modernism and postmodernism, because most people don’t live in those categories. I think it is the single greatest lie being propagated by so-called Christians today, in the sense that it overpowers all other lies.

Promising people they will feel better [therapeutically] will only get them so far. But if you promise them they will get rich—that will trump feeling better every time because you can feel better once you’re rich. I think it is a Satanic doctrine…

It preys on the weak and the weary and the broken and the sad and the poor and the desperate, and it promises them something God will never deliver, Jesus will never deliver. And it is a Ponzi scheme; the guys at the top get rich and everybody else is left in rags shredded everywhere in the name of Jesus Christ. So I think that is the most marketable commodity of all of the trajectories that you were talking about today.

The therapeutic one is always there, but I think we have been through and out the other side of the psychology thing. And I think the people who try to make their ministry some kind of pulpit therapy have probably already changed their approach to that and maybe they have gone off and opted out for the marketing thing.

“The poor you will always have with you,” Jesus said [Matthew 26:11, Mark 14:7, John 12:8]. The desperate are always going to be there. And if you prey on those people, you are going to always have a wide audience.

You can download the entire discussion here.

In the discussion Ligon Duncan mentioned the videos by John Piper, videos like this one titled “Why I abominate the prosperity gospel”:

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Photo source: Southern Seminary Communications

How Expositional Preaching Protects Preachers

May 5, 2010 by Tony Reinke Categories: Hell | Preaching | Sermons | Evangelism

During the second T4G panel discussion Mark Dever and Al Mohler discussed evangelism, preaching, and the hesitancy among some Christians to speak openly on tough subjects like God’s judgment. The conversation moves from evangelism to a discussion of how expositional preaching helps steady the preacher against the temptation to avoid tough topics. Here’s a transcript of the brief exchange.

Mark Dever: In the name of evangelism there are brothers and sisters that we know and love who are attempting to make the gospel something that is more immediately appealing than we are convinced it is in Scripture. So, for instance, you will have people who do not want to talk about hell. They believe in hell as much as you or I do, but they would say that it is counterproductive in our context today. What do we say to folks like that?

Al Mohler: I would say that we can’t accept that logic. Now at the same time we understand how you can be absolutely unbalanced in talking about hell. There are some people, very rare these days, but more commonly in days past, where they would simply celebrate the joy of preaching hell. And their only message was a “hellfire and brimstone” message. There can be an imbalance there.

That is where expository preaching that is verse-by-verse and text-by-text and chapter-by-chapter and book-by-book doesn’t allow you to ride a hobbyhorse. It doesn’t allow you to enter into that imbalance. It takes you on to the next truth, which you then have to prepare yourself to teach and to preach.

I don’t think we are very good, arbitrarily, at setting a sense of balance for ourselves. But you ask a great question. What happens when there is an issue and you recoil from it? I honestly think that means—

MD: And in your own mind you’re recoiling from it because you really mean to be helpful.

AM: Yeah, you could even say it is a well-intended recoil because you love your people and you are trying to reach them for the gospel…

There is a sense in which I think that that means you have got to prepare your heart, and perhaps your message, with a whole new sense of brokenhearted determination to present this text in the larger context of the gospel, the great narrative of Scripture, and God’s purpose to bring glory to himself by the salvation of people through the blood of his Son…

But if, indeed, we recoil and say, “I don’t believe people can handle this,” then we are violating what we say about Scripture. If we are really saying that lost people can’t handle this text and come savingly to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and be drawn even by this text in Scripture, then we are violating what we say we believe about Scripture.

The entire conversation can be downloaded here.

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Photo source: Southern Seminary Communications

On Sermon Application

May 4, 2010 by Tony Reinke Categories: Pastoral counseling | Pastoral ministry | Preaching

In the first panel discussion at T4G, a question was raised about preaching and the priority of sermon application. C.J. asked Mark Dever how he includes application as a part of his weekly sermon research. Here’s a segment from the discussion.

C.J. Mahaney: Mark, how would you help a pastor who devotes the majority of his time in his preparation to the exegesis of the text, to the neglect of the application of the text?

Mark Dever: I would tell him, as your question implies, that he shouldn’t neglect the application of the text.

CJM: How would you help him alter the patterns of his preparation so that his preaching is different in its accent on application?

MD: Once he is confident of the meaning of the text, then he should spend time in prayer and reflection. And that may just be my personality, but I find talking to other people very helpful. If I know the four points I am bringing out [in the sermon], what are the implications of each point:

• for the non-Christian?
• for the mom at home?
• for somebody at work or in school?
• for us as a whole congregation?
• for the individual Christian?

And then do that with each point in the sermon. I find that very useful. It is sort of a structured meditation on each text.

I won’t necessarily put all that in my sermon, but I will make note of all that and a lot of it will get in my sermon.

CJM: But that is an intentional part of your preparatory process.

MD: A very important part.

Ligon Duncan: Is your application grid available at the 9Marks site?

MD: Yes, it is a couple of places. It is on the 9Marks website. It’s also in Michael Lawrence’s new book Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church: A Guide for Ministry. He has a grid that you can fill in with the points of your sermons in these various categories [see page 184].

Later in the discussion Dever said that of the 25–30 hours he invests weekly in sermon prep, around 5–10 of those hours are spent on application. The full audio recording of this panel discussion can be downloaded here.

The sermon application grid is available from 9Marks in two downloadable PDF versions: a blank grid and a sample completed grid.

In his new book Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church, Lawrence highlights four benefits of the sermon application grid:

Having thought through each of the categories, I’m much more likely to avoid repetition and personal hobby-horses. I’m more likely to apply the text beyond the very narrow range most Bible teachers normally operate in: ethical application to the individual Christian life and gospel appeal to the non-Christian. And I’m more likely to apply the text to the corporate life of our church as a whole and to consider worldview implications for the non-Christian. Most importantly, I’m reminded by this grid that one of the most important “applications” isn’t about me or us at all, but simply what the text teaches us about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and how the Trinity has worked together to purpose, accomplish, and apply our salvation to their eternal glory. (page 185)

For more on the grid and its value to the preacher, see chapter 11 in Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church.

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Photo source: Southern Seminary Communications