As I get older I can’t help noticing who is and who isn’t ageing well. Some look like improved versions of their younger selves. Most look like the same people only with more pounds, wrinkles, grey hair and bare scalp. Some age well others don’t.
The other thing that happens as you get older, is you receive clearer evidence that you are a sinner, not resident in heaven and not utterly sanctified. Although the Christian might look back and see the numerous sins before their conversion, they can also see how each day since would add to their sin ledger.
This becomes more important when we get criticized, confronted, and charged by other people. In accounting terms, we can have the data of our sins inputted on an accrual basis. The ledger gets longer as our age gets higher.
For all of the misunderstandings and false accusations, there will also be many exposures of sin which will be accurate and real. Without any way to deal with the accounting of our sin, our debt would continue to multiply. A record of debt stands against us with “its legal demands” (Col 2:14).
As we age, it would be crippling to have the accrual of our sins piled upon us. For those who ignore this accrual, we can see their utter arrogance as they look at themselves in a purely sunny light. But for the sinner without Christ, there is only the growing despair which the sin ledger brings. Our sins don’t age well.
Justification ages well when our sins don’t. There is an evergreen character to justification that never withers or fades. There is no sin in the believer that remains unatoned for at the cross. There is no failure of obligation that is not satisfied by the active obedience of Christ. There is no accusation from earth or heaven which cancels the verdict of God when he declares a sinner just (Ro 3:26).
If you believe in Jesus Christ alone, relying upon his blood and righteousness for the forgiveness of your sins, you have a right standing before God. Then even if you add pounds and wrinkles, you don’t have to worry about ageing badly. You can even have the accrued sins of a long life reckoned as obsolete because God’s verdict never breaks down.
On another Reformation Day, you can know and announce that your justification is ageing quite well thank you.
No one likes affliction. We spend most of our time doing all that we can to avoid it, secure against it and make it go away.
Yet could it be that affliction can be used by God to create beauty? Can we appreciate affliction as art?
Consider that the lustre of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ shines more brilliantly against that dark backdrop of Adam’s fall into damnation. All of the other trials and triumphs of Scripture filter these contrasts with varying degrees of intensity.
Thomas Watson and the Limner
I didn’t know what a limner was when I read about one in Thomas Watson’s writing. A limner is an artist who illuminates manuscripts (like the beautiful work of the Lindisfarne Gospels). A limner can also be a portrait painter, especially of miniatures. Watson said:
As the limner mixeth with his dark shadows bright colours, so doth God mingle the dark and bright colours, his crosses and his blessings, and so causeth “all things to work together for good to them who love him.”
Puritan Gems; or Wise and Holy Sayings of the Rev Thomas Watson AM
So in Watson’s view there was a beauty that could be created using affliction in a Christian’s life. This is important for us to recognize because we can look at the dark colours only. We can forget that the afflictions are used to make the brighter blessings shine.
Monochrome Afflictions?
How frequently do our afflictions become monochrome in our sight? It is as if we are colour-blinded by the cares and sorrows of this world. But if we were to see the dark shades in something other than black and white, we would see the brilliance of God’s blessings in all their vivid tints and textures.
So the intent of these dark colours of affliction are to not to plunge into unrelenting darkness, but to celebrate the light and to point to the one who is the light (John 8:12). Even in the grand contrast of the vessels of wrath and the vessels of mercy which Paul explains in the ninth chapter of Romans, the art of comparison stands out vividly. The intent of God is to craft the dark hues which colour the vessels of wrath for a beautiful purpose. Paul says:
in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
Rom 9:23
The afflictions are intended to cause “the riches of his glory” to be set in contrast. But when they are compared, the conclusion is that that the glory is beyond comparison. As Paul said,
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison
2 Cor 4:17
The wonder of Rembrandt as an artist was that he could show the brilliance of light in contrast to the dark hues. God has an artistry that is incomparable to any other ‘creative’. The darkness of affliction has to be seen as part of God’s whole canvas for our lives.
Marvel and wonder at how God is even able to create art from affliction.
Long before Black Sabbath’s Iron Man or any Marvel comic, Mary Shelley wrote about, “Adam”—a modern genesis story. In her novel, Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus (published in 1818), a god-like scientist named Victor Frankenstein created a human-like machine with artificial intelligence that goes horribly wrong.
Since then, we’ve had two centuries to think about the fearful consequences of technology. Now when we hear about Artificial Intelligence that has gone wrong, it sounds like a story from modern tech journalism more than Victorian gothic fantasy. Yet Shelley anticipated these horrors over 200 years ago.
Horror
When Frankenstein was written (1816), Mary Shelley was travelling across Europe with a small group of friends along with her philandering husband Percy. At the time, Shelley and her small group were living the free love, bohemian dream. They rented a house beside Lake Geneva in Switzerland where they could work on writing and navigate their love triangles. One project was to write a ghost story. The setting was perfect since the weather was especially dreary. It was called the Summer Without Sun (or the Year Without Summer), and all of the Gothic novelists were inspired in their self-indulgent, dark fantasies.
Who could have known that the nineteen-year old’s godless creation myth would become the modern parable of the technological age? Frankenstein is more than a Halloween horror story. It is the horror of fallen humanity creating a fallen world after its own image.
Revival
Six weeks after the Victorian hippies left Geneva, another visitor came to town.
He wasn’t crafting stories, but he did carry another of his own.
Robert Haldane was in today’s terms a billionaire. He had been spiritually awakened after completing an architectural masterpiece at his estate (now part of the University of Sterling). He had sold it and started giving money to missionary work. And that’s why he came to Geneva.
Just after Napoleon’s surrender, Haldane was practically a tourist. He was crossing France and visiting Geneva, in part to see the post-war state of the churches.
When he got to Geneva, he might have expected the rich heritage of live orthodoxy that John Calvin had nurtured in the 16th century. Instead what he found was a climate that was enamoured with the same ideas as Mary Shelley and her circle.
When Haldane toured Geneva, his guide was a seminary student. What Haldane discovered was that this would-be pastor was completely ignorant of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Haldane suggested that the young man meet him for a bible study. As others from the seminary accompanied him, the study grew.
All that Haldane did was work methodically through the book of Romans. The power of the Word of God shocked these students who had been numbed by French philosophers like Voltaire and Rousseau. Many of these seminarians had never read the bible before.
The contrast between Shelley’s home group and Haldane’s couldn’t be more clear. Shelley’s aimed to create without God. Haldane’s aimed to see new creations by God.
Frankenstein and his monster are (in)famous. Haldane’s name is mostly forgotten. But the bible study yielded more eternal significance than an old horror story. Some of the key French Protestant leaders of the 19th century were converted in what some called, “Haldane’s Revival.”
The difference of a few months in one city was the difference between the horrors of fallen imagination and the delight of forgiveness of sins in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now more than ever our world needs Geneva’s revival more than we need new Frankensteins of technology. But can we believe that Halloween fixations on horror can give way to awakening to the gospel of Jesus Christ? Even in Frankenstein’s shadow, God is able to make the dead come alive.
Today is election day in Canada. By this evening it is likely that we will learn who will be the governing party taking on the responsibility to lead our nation.
Choices will be made and consequences rendered. But the one thing that is clear in this unclear political scene is that the consciences of Canadians are conflicted.
The Darkness of Sunny Ways
In a troubled world, many people welcomed the brightness of Justin Trudeau’s retrieval of Wilfred Laurier’s “sunny way” approach. Though lauded among celebrities, Trudeau and his circle have shown the darkness of man-made designs. It has become difficult to view the message of ‘sunny ways’ as sincere when influence peddling and strong-arm tactics against dissenters came forward. Trudeau’s effervescence still signals the wish of many world-weary Canadians. But sadly the darkness of his sunny ways has left their hopes as mere wishful thinking.
Conserving Good and Bad
Andrew Scheer, the Conservative leader offers low-key middle-class stability as his appeal. His aim is to conserve the good of sound principles for fiscal management along with a slightly more ‘sunny’ approach to public relations than his predecessor Stephen Harper. Yet for all of its attempts to conserve the good, it cannot be overlooked that Scheer will aim to conserve the bad as well. There is no intention of legislating to restrict abortions at any stage of pregnancy. Such views would be extreme even among pro-abortion groups in other countries. This is the glaringly conflicted platform which Scheer’s Conservatives offer.
Collective Anxiety
The NDP and Green parties have argued in varying degrees for more collective approaches, and environmental concerns at top of mind. Each offers their own version of the sunny ways that sad citizens are desperate for. Suspicious of big business and desiring to keep the pristineness of Canada’s beauty undeveloped, they offer a vision of protection for ideals that many wish could be achieved. Yet sadly as they offer their plans for protecting the welfare of citizens alongside the welfare of our natural environment, they really offer dreams, rather than wisdom. This mystical ‘sunny ways’ approach has been heightened with the contrasting threat of climate change judgement and the 10-20 year countdown before a planetary crisis. Voters are offered utopian dreams or collective anxiety either way.
I am the light of the world
As citizens of Canada, Christians will feel conflicted. As participants in a democracy, they have the right and responsibility to make choices. Yet their citizenship belongs to a different kingdom, even heaven itself (Phil 3:20). Our Saviour offers to us sunny ways that are true and right and undimmed. He said of himself:
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”
(John 8:12)
That is the most important ‘vote’ of all, and one to which every Canadian is urgently summoned.
If we are immersed in a therapeutic culture, many churchgoers have a question in the back of their minds: Do I need a pastor or a professional counselor?
This is not a simple a question to answer since most evangelicals would argue that you need both. But it is helpful to see a few questions in back of the question of which is needed.
Helping Professions
First, we have to ask ourselves why someone would need to see a professional counselor. Likely it is becaue they have some problem, a habit, a behaviour or something else that they know is wrong or harmful or sinful. So in order to get assistance, many people immediately look to the most dominant ‘helping professions’ in our culture, doctors, pharmacists, therapists and counselors.
On the list of ‘helping professions’ few in society would rate pastors as very important. For Christians who have been steeped in a therapeutic culture which elevates the prowess of these other helping professions, it can seem like pastors are part of a quaint and antiquated system for dealing with problems. So to get in the back of the question about professional counselors or pastors, we have to recognize the therapeutic culture we live in.
Therapeutic Culture
Since 1993, David Wells has exposed the therapeutic culture in a series of books. Specifically, he has outlined how modernity has affected evangelical churches so that Christians desire therapy.
Wells has said that instead of therapy, we need to feel God’s weight at the centre of our lives, not the periphery:
What gives weight to God in our lives is two things. First, he has to be enthroned in the center and not merely circling on the periphery. Second, the God who is enthroned must be the God who has revealed himself in Scripture. This God is not simply the supplier of everything we want, our concierge, and our therapist dispensing comfort as we feel the need for it. He is the God of burning purity as well as of burning love. That God, as he rules our own private universe, will wrench around what happens in that universe to conform us to who he is in his character. The “god” who is there only for our needs as we define them will be a “god” who is light and skinny.
So in the first place, we have to have God at the centre of all that we do, and recognize the powerful effect which modernity has on our own self-perception. We need to see how we perceive the sufficiency of God’s Word, the significance of God’s church, and the strength of God’s shepherds to care for the sheep.
The Context of Care
The second question behind the question is to ask where is the context of care which we all need to live within? There is a big difference between seeking help for problems within the church and seeking help outside the church. When the first instinct for a Christian is to look outside the church for solutions, they are declaring the utter insufficiency of God, his Word and his people. They don’t mean to do that of course. But evangelicals have cultivated church-less habits for nearly a century, so it is natural to look for expertise outside of the local church.
Yet it can be surprising to see how effective the local church context is for someone, even when they have to have help from outside the church. For example, when a young woman in my church had a medical emergency requiring medical professionals, the care and counsel of the church was still immersive for her. Even in the hospital, doctors and nurses were engaged by the church’s care as much as she was.
So the context of care must be understood clearly. There will be times when a Christian must go outside the local church for counseling and medical help. But the dominant context of care will be in the local church so that the pastoral and congregational care that a person receives will follow them.
Pastoral Care as Congregational Care
A third issue behind the question of professional counselors versus pastors, is to recognize that pastoral care is expressed not merely in one-to-one care from the pastor, but in the one-another care of the congregation for each other. In accordance with Ephesians 4:12, the pastors are to “equip the saints for the work of ministry”. If they are equipped, even as co-counselors, then that is an extension of the pastor’s counseling ministry, and makes his work more wholistic and thus more effective.
By contrast, the professional counselor enters into a counseling situation as a sole filter for the person’s problems, offering them an assessment that the counselee can either accept or reject as any consumer can when they have paid their bill.
The pastor, unlike the professional counselor, offers spiritual counsel and care for a person within the context of one-anothering by the congregation. To the covenanted church member, there can be no ‘take it or leave it’ kind of response when the counsel they received is biblical and appropriately conscience-binding. The context of care for the Christian being counseled by their fellow congregants will be an expression of meaningful church membership. This is where our view of counseling is shaped by our view of the local church and what it means to be a member.
The Place of Professional Counselors
For Christians there is still a useful place for professional counselors. Professional counselors ought to be biblical counselors. They have been biblically trained and use the Scriptures not only as a proof text, but as the interpretive mechanism for all human problems.
Certainly, the professional biblical counselor will have some subject matter expertise. But the primary way that biblical counselors differ from pastors (other than the fact that pastors, not professional counselors occupy an ecclesial office) is that biblical counselors are able to offer specialized, intensive and extended care. Pastors offer the same thing. But for people who have multiple complex sin issues, habits, and consequences to deal with, a dedicated helper can be very useful.
This is why it is helpful to encourage biblical counseling generally. When pastors recognize their large role in providing nouthetic care (1 Cor 4:14, Col 1:28, 1 Th 5:12,14, 2 Th 3:15), they will do more than be a personal counselor for people. They will cultivate a culture of one-another co-counseling. The result will be a caring context for every Christian to be helped to deal honestly with sin and the consequences of sin in their lives. Then, even if someone needs some special, intensive, extended attention from a professional biblical counselor, they are immersed within a culture with God at the centre.
All faithful professional biblical counsellors desire this pastoral/congregational context for the people they serve. And all pastors welcome the additional help that they can look to in certain situations that require more attention than their time and space allow.
So to answer the opening question, “Do we need professional counselors instead of pastors?”, no, we do not. Rather we must recapture a sense of what the local church is for (a clinic of co-counselors), what is the role of the pastor (equipping the co-counselors while modeling biblical care), and then we are in a position to value another kind of counselor (professional biblical counselor). At such a re-ordering of priorities, the professional biblical counsellor will rejoice together with the pastor and the local church.
Pause for a second and ask yourself whether you have forgotten that in all your mysteries and confusion and wondering about tomorrow, that God “reveals deep and hidden things, he knows what is in the darkness, ..the light dwells with him” God alone interprets you. He gets you.
And that is the message Daniel went with to the king of Babylon when the king was looking for extraordinary insight— into his dreams.
Daniel didn’t come as another expert. He pointed exclusively to God, saying “but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries” (2:28). This simple saying is a summary of the whole book of Daniel. There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.
Daniel clarified that God had revealed the mystery of the dream to him by grace alone. He said it was “not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king and that you may know the thoughts of your mind” (v. 30).
Only God can interpret the world. Only God gets you. Because only God can explain to you the deep, hidden questions you have not even asked.
Only God Gets You.
Now in verses 31-45 God uncovered to Daniel what the dream was, and what it meant. This was a special revelation, that was true and without error.
And to summarize, the dream was of a succession of historical kingdoms from Nebuchadnezzars’ at the top down through the Medo-Persian to the Greek and the Roman. They are represented as the image of a man and the different materials from head to toe describe characteristics of the kingdoms.
What is important to recognize at this point is two things:
First, this was a supernatural revealing of world history spanning 600 years and explaining it before it happens. This would be like someone in England in 1419 having just won ownership of Northern France in the 100 Years War, being able to see Britain voting on Brexit in 2019. That prophecy would have seen the Reformation, the French Revolution, WWI&II, the Cold War, the Internet and the iPhone. Only God interprets the world
Second, there are only variations on the Babylonian empire from Nebuchadnezzar onward. There is no mention of any Israelite kingdom, no mention of a kingdom of God’s people that is created by human action. Many heretics and false teachers throughout history have attempted to create what is called, “the Fifth Monarchy”. But you can’t create it, or make it with human hands. People can create a Christendom, but only God can bring the kingdom that never ends.
Into all of the confusion about our world, and even about our own personal selves, wouldn’t it be wise to consider God who is outside of our time-space continuum, who created it and created us, as a being the true interpreter of our existence?
In his commentary on Romans, the Scottish theologian Robert Haldane (1764-1842), attempted to unpack what the sonship of the Son entailed. Commenting on the third verse of the first chapter, Haldane wrote:
The gospel of God concerns his Son. The whole of it is comprised in the knowledge of Jesus Christ; so that whoever departs one step from him departs from the gospel. For as Jesus Christ is the Divine image of the Father, he is set before us as the real object of our faith.
Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, 19.
So the sonship of the Son relates to his image-bearing of the invisible God (Col 1:15). His sonship is unique in this way, even if it has been revealed to us in the relational language of Father and Son.
Intelligible, but Unique
The qualities of paternity and filiation, are technical descriptions of the Father and the Son, respectively. As high as these unique descriptions are, they still tell us something intelligible. The persons of the Trinity are not called God 1, 2 and 3, but Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Son’s uniqueness doesn’t mean his sonship is unintelligible. But in our limited comprehension, we must be humble and accept that he is a Son like no other.
On the basis of the uniqueness of the Son in all respects, Haldane argues that he has the same nature as the Father, and differentiates the Son from all other types of sons. He wrote:
“He is the Son of God, his own Son, the only begotten of the Father; which proves, that he is truly and exclusively his Son, of the same nature, and equal with the Father, and not figuratively, or in a secondary sense, as angels or men, as Israel or believers”
Ibid, 20.
Haldane believed that the Son shared the same essence as the Father because he is the only begotten of the Father. So an unpartitioned divine nature was the Son’s. He is equal with Father, which his Sonship proves.
Chalcedonian logic
Rather than viewing the description of “Son” as a lesser title than Father, Haldane noted what the orthodox have always known, that the Sonship of the Son, speaks to his shared, co-equal, divine essence. The Son, is “consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead”, according to the creed of Chalcedon. Yet with this divine nature is added his human nature. As the Chalcedonian creed summarized the relationship:
one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ
Fourth Ecumenical Council, Chalcedon, 451AD.
This Chalcedonian way of speaking was certainly what Haldane confessed. And following Paul, Haldane understood the significance of the title, “Son of God”:
That the Lord Jesus Christ, in his eternal equality with the Father and not merely as God manifested in the flesh, is called the Son of God, flows directly from the fact, that wherever the first person of the adorable Trinity is personally distinguished in Scripture, it is under the title, the co-relative title of the Father.
Ibid, 20.
In the early nineteenth century, it was necessary for Haldane to make these points. He needed to affirm that the Sonship of the Son vindicated his deity.
Haldane’s Caution
Following a century of rationalism, Haldane constantly re-affirmed a high and historic view of the divine Trinity. He cautioned against the temptation to speculate when discussing the doctrine of God. The easiest temptation which Christian’s face is to suppose that the Sonship of the Son is somehow a lesser ‘derivation’. Haldane dealt with this objection saying:
And what is the objection to this doctrine of our Lord’s eternal Sonship? It is simply, that it differs from all our ordinary notions of the filial relation to represent the Son as co-eternal with the Father; or that begotten must necessarily mean “derived,” and that to grant derivation is to surrender Deity.
Exposition, 20.
Haldane wanted to hedge against the temptation to restrain the Sonship of the Son to our human ideas of sonship alone. This ‘derived personality’ was a way for the rationalists to deny the deity of the Son but affirming the language of sonship.
Haldane expressed the objections to sound doctrine and the wrong thinking from which it came from:
To demand that the distinction of persons in the undivided essence of the Godhead, and the mode of their eternal substance shall be made plain to us; or to repugn against the doctrine of the eternal filiation of the Son of God, because it overpasses the boundaries of our notions of Sonship, what is this but the very summit of unthinking arrogance?
Ibid, 20.
As we consider the Sonship of the Son, we need to be careful about our tendencies to be elevated to a “summit of unthinking arrogance”. At the same time, like Haldane, we need to look at Scripture and explore the significance of the ways that God has described himself, all of the predicates and titles.
When a candidate for the office of elder is being examined, it’s necessary for the examiner (likely the senior pastor, or another designated pastor) to have a series of talking points and questions to ask.
Normally an elder candidate will have to do some type of theological project, most likely an exegetical or theological essay which shows his ability to discern biblical truths and articulate them clearly. He would also have to be able to defend his conclusion against other positions and especially false doctrine.
Assuming that the potential candidate has been in a discipling process, having been tested in different ways, these talking points could be used to apply to a potential candidate. They are given as suggestions for a way to further discover the qualifications outlined in 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, and all the rest of the biblical characteristics for elders.
Below are six areas to consider in examining the potential candidate.
1. Personal
Share Testimony
Used Alcohol or Illegal Drugs; Any anti-depressants?
Viewed Pornography [_____]
Marriage:
Honest, objective pastoral assessment of your marriage.
What is your wife’s view of your calling to ministry?
How does your wife’s ministry in the church potentially relate to being married to a pastor (Eg. is she active in women’s ministry; or faithful church member; etc).
What is the spiritual maturity of your wife compared to yourself?
What is your temperament?
What are the scenarios when you are most easily tempted to be angry?
What are the scenarios when you are most easily tempted to be depressed?
Briefly describe your personal prayer life.
Briefly describe your practice of family worship, couple’s devotion or other spiritual leadership in your home.
Is there anything you haven’t told us that could be revealed about you that would be scandalous or potentially disqualifying?
2. Doctrinal
Statement of Faith
Compatibility.
What are the points of the Statement of Faith which you are
More newly convinced of,
Have had a lesser amount of reflection upon?
How different is this church in doctrine, compared with a previous church, and the most influential church your wife has come from?
Influences
Identify the major influences on your theological development (both positively and negatively).
What are the areas of theological study you have given a lot of attention to, and less attention to?
Possible Doctrinal Questions (These can be expanded depending on the candidate, the length of the examination, and the prerequisites completed):
How many wills does the Incarnate Son of God have?
How many wills does God have?
What does divine simplicity mean?
State briefly your view of the sign gifts.
What is your view on divorce and remarriage?
Explain the difference between the Reformed view of sanctification and the Keswick view.
[____________]
3. Ecclesiastical
Compatibility
What are the areas of practice in this church (philosophy of ministry, worship/liturgy, cultural context, etc) which differ compared with a previous church, and the most influential church your wife has come from?
Elder Role
What is your understanding of the application of the elder’s role:
Ideally according to Scripture
In practical application at your local church.
Is your potential role as an elder interchangeable with the role of the current pastor? Explain.
4. Practical
What would the scenario of “serving this church” look like? What would the scenario of “using or exploiting this church” look like?
What are the areas of ministry in which you are likely to be tempted?
When your youth is ‘disregarded’, what is a) your fleshly style of response, b) your Spirit-filled response?
When you have received feedback about the manner of your liturgical leadership or preaching, how have you felt when you received that feedback, and what have you done in response?
How willing are you to adapt your personal preferences in order to promote the mission of the church and the unity of the church? Give examples.
Who have you personally discipled or mentored?
Who has discipled or mentored you?
Explain the ways you are doing the work of an evangelist.
5. Logistical
Capacity
Do you have the realistic physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual capacity for you to undertake the work of a presbyter/bishop/pastor, recognizing your other roles/priorities:
As a husband
As a father
As an employee
Within your church context
6. Prayerful
Describe the life and ministry that you are asking God to cultivate in you.
I was in Montreal for the first time, standing by the sloping shores of the St Laurence River with my friend Paul Martin, shooting a video for Together for the Gospel. We wereinviting Canadians to the conference, which is located in the American state of Kentucky, in order to have a family reunion.
Now it might seem strange for Canadians to travel to the US for a conference. But when those gatherings are understood as family reunions, they take on a different tone and aim.
Church gatherings are like family reunions
Family reunions are casual and comfortable. And they are an opportunity to learn about the lives of distant loved ones.
Anytime the church gathers, it is like a family reunion. Every Christian can testify to the truth of what Jesus said, “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matt 18:20). Christians enjoy the presence of Jesus as the guest of honour in any gathering.
In the apostle Paul’s correspondence, he repeatedly has an emotional, affected longing for reunion. In his first letter to the Thessalonians, he said, “we endeavoured the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face” (2:17) and “you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you” (3:6). We can imagine that Paul would have been the first to sign up when the aunt sends the family reunion email to everyone.
Church gatherings are the reunion of the adopted
Paul repeated celebrated the fact that he was a part of this new family. In his early letter to the Galatians, he highlights the intent of the saving mission of Jesus, “that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:5), telling the Ephesians, “he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (1:5), and to the Romans he said that we have even received the Spirit of adoption (8:15), which makes us offer the same familial cry, “Abba, Father!”
When we gather at church, there is more going on than simply consumption. Just like a family reunion might have great food, and you can overindulge yourself, yet the food is not the point. The point is to bring together different people from different places and reunite them in their common family bonds.
The family reunion this Sunday
Every Sunday in a special way, and also at other times throughout the week, the church gathers to be reunited in those family connections. The same applies to conferences, special events, prayer meetings, and any other gathering where Christians come together. It is a family reunion, celebrating our adoption into God’s own family through the saving work of the Son and the power of the Spirit of God.
Imagine how our attitude would change if we anticipated Sunday’s church gathering like it was a family reunion? Let’s change how we think of church, conferences and other get-togethers. Let’s treat them like family reunions because that is what they are.
“Do you feel like you’re spinning your wheels?” That’s the question I asked my elders last night. I was asking to see if they felt stuck, and not making progress in their ministry, marriages, families, and vocations.
As devotional meditation at the beginning of our elders’ meeting (we always start with prayer and the Word of God), I looked at the issue of “making progress” in Paul’s letters.
For Your Progress and Joy
My first question was to get at what was our reason for being in ministry at all. I asked the men, “Why do we remain and continue in this ministry?” That question is prompted by Philippians 1:25. Paul gave the answer in that verse when he said:
“for your progress and joy in the faith”
Phil 1:25
The Greek word for progress is prokopen (προκοπὴν). The idea likely had an early sense of cutting or slashing forward, but the word gained wide usage to mean simply ‘advance’ or ‘progress’.
So like Paul, the pastors can consider that their purpose for being in ministry at this time is for the progress and joy in the faith of others.
Progress in Sanctification
Another way of putting it is to think that pastors serve the church to promote their progressive sanctification. As pastors shepherd people, they will make progress:
from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor 3:18).
from immaturity to presenting “everyone mature in Christ” (Col 1:28)
So the pastors’ ministry is to serve in this Pauline way for people’s personal, joyous, progressive sanctification in the Christian faith.
The Progress of the Gospel
The personal progress which pastors promote for individual Christians doesn’t remain alone. That individual progress is part of the wider progress of the gospel. Paul outlined in the first chapter of Philippians, that various circumstances in his life were actually designed for the gospel’s progress. The ESV translates this same Greek word (prokope/ προκοπὴν) not with ‘progress’ but ‘advance’ in Philippians 1:12.
As much as we may care for the sanctification of the individual Christian, we can never lose sight of the fact that God is advancing the gospel, and pastors must shepherd people to carry that gospel forward. So as we “equip the saints” (Eph 4:12), we will see the gospel progressively advanced in the ever expanse reaches which Jesus commanded (Matt 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).
Pastors Must Make Progress
In order to serve the progress of others, we need to make progress. Paul exhorted Timothy to undertake a plan of personal development in gospel-born teaching and living. He commanded Timothy saying:
Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. (προκοπὴν)
1 Tim 4:15
As pastors, we aren’t aiming to display our learning, or show off our preaching, or parade our piety. Nevertheless, people should be able to see our progress. They should see that we are changing and growing. They should see that as our lives change, the church changes, and the entire ministry landscape changes, we are making progress.
Some of the areas we should make progress in are:
persevering through trials old and new.
theological knowledge leading to worship, or courage, or humility
skill in handling ministry, preaching, relationships, the brevity of time
Progress in Life and Teaching
There are many areas that Paul outlines in his pastoral epistles, which pastors ought to make progress in by God’s grace. A great summary of them all is stated by Paul in the following verse when he concludes:
Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
1Ti 4:16
These are wide categories. When Paul warns to keep watch on “yourself” it is all of life, inside and out. When he focusses on “the teaching” he intends both the expansive content of the faith as well as the growing ability to communicate it better.
As we ended this meditation on pastors making progress, for the progressive sanctification of Christians and the progress of the gospel, I asked two application questions. Consider them in your own life:
In what area would you like to make some progress this coming year?
In what area do you feel you’ve made progress in this last year.
