Category: Church

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Church Robert Haldane Theology

The Persuasive Use of Authority

Robert Haldane observed in his commentary on the twelfth chapter of Romans that Paul had a special way of using his authority.

When it comes to authority, we might have some assumptions about Paul. We would assume that Paul would only have a commanding tone in his speaking because he possessed the right of authority. We would expect that his syntax would be always in the imperative mood.

But Haldane observed that Paul didn’t use his authority that way. Paul said, “I beseech you” or “I appeal to you” (Rom 12:1). Haldane wrote:

Those whose authority was avouched by mighty signs and wonders, whose very word was command, strive frequently to express commands as entreaties.

Commentary, 566.

Haldane’s observation is that the apostles were not insecure about their authority, even though their authority had been clearly demonstrated. Yet the apostles could choose to entreat people and appeal to them by way of persuasion, rather than command. They didn’t need to be defensive. They had the liberty to persuade when they had the right to command.

This observation is helpful for pastors to know. Often, according to the authority of God’s word, there is the need to exercise authority and make commands (as Scripture requires). At the same time, the aim of persuading by entreating ought to be the norm.

This is where the pastoral requirement of gentleness comes to the forefront (Ti 3:2). Gentleness is persuading, entreating and compassionate, even when the right to command exists.

Paul would nevertheless urge Timothy, “Command and teach these things” (1 Timothy 4:11). These leaders had the right to command and exercised that right. But when they had the opportunity, they would “express commands as entreaties”.

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Church Pastors

Move Toward Elder Leadership By Developing Pillar Men

The guiding ideas for bringing change to the leadership culture and structure of the church will be to re-engage with the realities of the Pastoral Epistles. Some quick emphases will be:

1 Tim 3.1-7

  • Men who are Aspirational (v 1).
  • Male, not Female
  • Character qualifications dominate
  • Well-Ordered Home Life 
  • Not a Novice Convert
  • Can teach (could be private or small group mostly, not just preaching/teaching). 

2 Tim 2:2 “Entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also”

  • Seek Trustworthy Men
  • Seek Teachable and Teaching Men
  • Have in view a Four Generation Ministry

But where do you start?

Here is a simple (but challenging) plan for implementation.

1. Men’s Mentoring Ministry — The Pillar Men

Prioritize the younger men, since they are moldable, teachable, and still have uncluttered aspirations.

De-prioritize the older men who are not already like-minded, since they are set in their views, less teachable, and their aspirations tend to be clouded by other competing motives. 

Nevertheless, esteem any older man who is godly since his character will be a living template for younger men.

This is not done to disregard women, but done as the baby step in a process of reformation. Once pillar men are in place, you can work to reform the women’s ministry. 

The Men’s Mentoring Ministry can’t be an “Elder-in-Training” ministry because otherwise, you will give men unrealistic expectations. 

Yet out of this crop of men, God will raise up the called, qualified men who can be elders.

Those who aren’t elders will be “pillar men”.  They will be godly men with healthy marriages and homes, who are doctrinally informed, but maybe lack teaching ability, or are unable to ‘do the work’ of a shepherd (demands of work, family, etc)

Among the ‘pillar men’, you will have your deacons, ministry leads, and general supporters of biblical reformation in the church. 

2. Make Pillar Men strong churchmen.

Every pillar man should be

  • a member (“meaningful membership”)
  • Serving in a ministry
  • Joining every committee, consultation, or any opportunity for the congregational voice to participate. (Don’t ignore the handbell choir committee or the quilting committee. These ‘non-teaching’ committees can have massive influence in a church!).

If you can’t insert pillar men to have influence on committees and ministries, then the pastor should personally engage those unaligned committees and ministries, while gradually isolating the influence of those unaligned groups.

For example, a pastor chose to preserve a senior ladies’ bible study on Sunday mornings rather than dismantling it, even though they completely changed their Sunday School set up. He didn’t give it large influence, but isolated it without shutting it down. This kept him from having a needless fight, distracting him from the changes he wanted to do. 

3. Turn your like-minded staff into unofficial helpers for committees that they don’t have a right to be on. 

For example, the Associate Pastor offers to type stuff up or send emails or bring food for a committee or board meeting that they are not entitled to sit on or influence officially.  

The goal is to orient the board toward favourable change by persuading them with hospitality first, and argument later on. 

Hospitality toward unaligned ministries/structures is the first plan of approach for soliciting change. I.e. Hospitality accrues relational capital. It prioritizes people first, then persuades them with principles later.

4. Use internships to add to your depth of like-minded pillar men.

One way to bring in men who are potentially elder qualified is to offer internships with financial remuneration. 

A single seminary/post-seminary guy can be brought in for an internship that is under one year long. But in that year (or 6 months, or 4 months), he brings youthful energy, support for your vision, and the appearance in the church that the ministry draws high quality men. 

Persuading your church to adopt your elder-leadership model, will require them to be excited about the appearance of new life, young leaders, etc. Although ‘youth movements’ can be viewed in mere worldly terms, this practical emphasis might assist you in overcoming opposition from ‘the old guard.’

Target young men from bible colleges and seminaries, even from outside your country.

  • Recruit from TGC Africa/Korea/ Latin America/ Brazil/ Australia churches?
  • Recruit from trusted seminaries?
  • Recruit from bible colleges? 
  • Find the like-minded guy from a church in your denomination?

Why would a young guy do the internship?

If there was enough money for him to eat and pay rent, he would jump at the chance to get church experience with a city church, and a likeminded pastor. 

Offer clear learning outcomes to the potential intern. 

Highlight the personal investment from the Senior Pastor. This will make the internship worthwhile. 

The intern can work at any number of needed jobs in the church, but the investment in him from the pastor will be the payoff. 

5. Change the culture of the church to prepare for constitutional changes

More men, becoming pillar men, creates a new voting block in the church.

Pillar men on committees (even seemingly meaningless ones) give organizational support for your vision/plan. 

When you go to vote or change the constitution, etc., you may still have a big fight. But you won’t be alone. You won’t be using a constitutional battle as the first attempt to persuade the old guard. Rather it will be the final stroke of persuasion in a systematic approach. 

When the constitutional fight comes, you will have many pillars who will personally support you and help you to stick to it. This is essential for big changes like you’ll propose. 

And even if you, the Senior Pastor, gets fired, you will have established a growing new culture of pillar men who can support the next pastor to bring the change that is needed.

If you are a man who would like to be invested in to become a ‘pillar man’, then consider coming to Calgary, Canada and joining the church that I pastor. Reach out to me through our website at info [{at}] calvarygrace.ca

We also offer accredited theological education through Union School of Theology, with the Graduate Diploma in Theological Studies and the Masters Degree in Theological Studies. Although we are located in Canada, both degrees are accredited with the UK university system. They are church-based, with pastoral mentorship. Contact me if you are interested in joining us beginning in September 2020.

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unsplash-logoMauricio Artieda

Categories
Church Gospel Society Theology

Evangelical: What’s in a name?


There is a growing disdain for the term ‘evangelical’. This is not merely because evangelical is a pejorative term used by non-Christians. Nor is it merely because there are people who used to identify as evangelicals, but now call themselves exangelicals. But the term ‘evangelical’ has become associated with a political lobby group that is viewed as supporting the Trump presidency, which support is seen as unethical. 

The problem with the label ‘evangelical’ is that it’s pretty elastic depending on who is doing the stretching. On the one hand, there is the scholarly study of evangelicals which trace them back to the Enlightenment (Bebbington), or beyond (Haykin and Stewart). On the other hand, ‘evangelical’ has come to be defined in modern journalism as anyone who is non- Catholic and non-mainline Protestant. Even this latter elasticity can be stretched further to include evangelical Catholics and evangelical renewal movements in liberal mainline denominations. 

So what do we do with this elastic label? Some are ceasing to call themselves evangelical. Others are at least questioning what it means to be self-identified by the label. What is an evangelical to do? Let me offer three ways that over-stretched evangelicals can recover their integrity. 

Pick Theology over Sociology

Nobody would care if evangelicals had no social influence. But in the US evangelicals still have a large, if waning voice in society. So it is tempting to adopt a sociological approach to being an evangelical. This may mean that following social practices but doesn’t require you to confess anything definitive regarding theology. 

Picking theology over sociology is the better move. ‘Prosperity Gospel’preachers have false understandings of the doctrine of salvation, so their ‘gospel’ is not the same as the historic Christian gospel. Therefore, on a theological basis, prosperity gospel preachers are not “evangelicals”, even if the media mislabels them as such. 

Picking theology over sociology works in a different way as well. For those with a distaste for the American (and therefore McDonaldized) evangelical sub-culture, they may be tempted to jettison the evangelical label. Their distaste for middle-America Jesus culture may make them want to be affiliated somewhere else. 

But this is where high church Presbyterians, Anglicans, or others are in danger of denying their brothers and sisters who believe the essential bulk of what they confess. As well, they can deny their own history, or at least be selective about it. For example, the catholicity of Scottish Presbyterians like Chalmers, M’Cheyne and the Bonar brothers was matched with the mission-sending efforts of Calvinistic Baptists, William Carey and Andrew Fuller. The history of revived Calvinism saw the advance of evangelicals from Anglican, Presbyterian and Baptist denominations

Pick the Rabble Outside the Camp

The tough part about belonging to a local church or to a denomination or movement is feeling the crushing reality that your crowd is populated with fools, idiots and goofballs. Such associations are not great for winning friends and influencing people. In fact, the wisdom of today says that you should drop anyone who isn’t advancing you and your interests. 

But when you start pointing fingers at the folly of others it’s easy to have the fingers pointing back at you. Being associated with true-believing evangelicals means that you are in the company of the foolish, among whom you likely are chief. In fact, God “chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise” (1 Cor 1:27). 

So we have to be careful lest we disdain the not-yet sanctified fools who we will spend eternity with. Even in this life, we choose to metaphorically leave the inner ring (CS Lewis) and suffer outside the camp (Heb 13:13). It is in this refuse heap (Ex 29:14) that all of the fools for Christ’s sake congregate. Believers are saved by faith alone, yet such a faith that never remains alone. Therefore we can confidently speak of right doctrine and right practice as indicators for who is suffering outside the camp with Jesus. 

Choosing to Give Grace to Evangelical Folly

When Christians can cherish biblical truths that have been confessed through the ages, they can have the confidence to discuss and debate with each other about the issues that Christians have always been less clear about. This means we have to do something like a theological triage (Mohler), but it means more. It also means that as evangelicals get caught up in temporary manias (from Napoleon as Antichrist, to pro-Trump/never-Trump), we need to extend each other the grace— the undeserved favour, that will esteem the important confessions of faith which we know others possess, while lovingly critiquing their errors as we see them, and welcoming their watchfulness over our own. 

So should we abandon the label ‘evangelical’? I don’t think so. It’s a good term when it is well defined. As we strive for that definition in each generation, we have the opportunity to remember that there are many people going to heaven with whom we disagree. We also know that there are many people who think they are going to heaven, whose gospel is not sufficient to save them. It is for these confused people we must strive to bring true gospel clarity. 

photocredit

unsplash-logoTyler Callahan

 

Categories
Church Clint Gospel Ministry

“Walking in the Fear of the Lord…It Multiplied”

2019 in Review at Calvary Grace Church

It is hard to believe the amount of change that has occurred in the life of Calvary Grace Church since last December. 

Yet through all of the changes, there has been an underlying principle. That principle was described by the apostle Luke in his history of the early church when he recorded:

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. (Ac 9:31)

“Walking in the fear of the Lord”

Calvary Grace has had a season of ‘walking in the fear of the Lord’ in 2019. Many of us have had to count the cost of following Jesus in the midst of a culture that has grown rapidly hostile to our Lord’s truth. In living according to the truth and confessing the truth, we’ve had to have some difficult conversations with friends and fellow church members, in order to hold fast to the truth. We have been tested in 2019 with whether we would walk in the fear of the Lord or the fear of man. Happily, Calvary Grace has continued to walk in the fear of God, even when times have been hard. 

“The comfort of the Holy Spirit”

But we’ve also been walking in ‘the comfort of the Holy Spirit’ too. Palm Sunday of 2019 saw us bid a tearful goodbye to members joining together to plant Grace Cochrane Church. As we sent them off, we trusted that the Holy Spirit would be their comfort in their new work, as we seek his comfort in ours. 

Nobody could ignore the way that God galvanized the congregation of CGC in God-fearing prayer as we interceded for a church member during her hospitalization. Seeing God’s hand of mercy moving dramatically was a profound answer to our prayers. Such comfort from the Holy Spirit reminded us of the supernatural power of God to change things in our created world in ways that defy explanation. 

“It Multiplied”

After the planting of Grace Cochrane Church at Easter, Calvary Grace felt reduced, although we all were surprised that we didn’t feel empty.  The number of people who have come to Calvary Grace has begun to fill the sanctuary once again. 

What is even more encouraging than increased attendance, are the ways in which newer members have become integrated into the life of the church. Among these newer members has been a notable spirit of gratitude to God for Calvary Grace, and a thankfulness toward the members who had a hand along the way in helping CGC get established. 

Looking Ahead to 2020

We praise God for the generosity of church members to partner together in the ministry through the giving of their time, talents and treasure. As we look ahead to 2020, we prayerfully anticipate the path before us, as God wills. 

Stewardship

  • To continue to improve our financial position and pay down our mortgage. This will open up many more opportunities for local and global impact. 
  • To continue to ‘fix’ the remaining building needs now that the roof projects have been completed successfully (!).
  • To continue the retooling of our ministry structure, giving more delegation to deacons and ministry leads, and improving the processes that assist people to become healthy gospel partners, not merely attenders. 
  • To continue to support the Grace Cochrane Church, but also anticipating our next steps as Grace Cochrane becomes gradually self-sustaining. 

Spirituality

  • To get grounded in the gospel and the heart of the gospel, namely union with Christ. This is the theme of our January 24-25 conference featuring Stephen Yuille, Gavin Peacock and Clint Humfrey. 
  • To be equipped to live as exiles in our own land, yet with a heavenly destiny. 
    1. Pastor Josh  will begin January with a short series in 2 Peter
    2. Pastor Clint will resume his Daniel series on the prophetic visions. 
  • We will seek to grow in our Sunday School electives in the new year, with applied teaching, thoughtful questions and a culture of godly learning. 
  • We will aim to support the teachers who are working with our children in Sunday School, and offering to volunteer as needed.
  • We will keep praying together monthly, and having that prayer time as a high priority for our schedules, to seek the Lord– together.
  • To attend and support men’s and women’s bible studies, youth ministry, Oasis/Seniors outreach, mercy ministries, and much, much more.  

Remember that as the early church walked in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. 

We continue to look with expectancy for God to bring revival to Calgary. As we look to God for a special and intense work, we also trust him that he is working in ordinary and regular ways in our midst. All his ways are good and wise!

As 2019 enters its last days, we will celebrate the incarnation of the Son of God together. Let us remember how great a salvation we enjoy. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good works as we enter 2020. (Heb 10:24).

Categories
Church Clint Gospel Ministry Theology

What Does Pragmatism Look Like in Ministry?

Churches will be tempted to give in to a survival instinct and do whatever it takes to increase attendance. They’ll work hard to “just get ‘em in the door’. The result is many different methods of attracting religious ‘consumers’ that might seem contradictory to the message being broadcast. The contradiction is justified because of the possibility of souls being saved. 

Understood in this way, the end— the greatest end– justifies the means to that end. And that is what is called pragmatism in the church.

Pragmatism since the 1900’s

The two largest and most influential of the pragmatic approaches to ministry are these: 

  1. “Decisionistic Regeneration”, i.e. creating psychological distress or emotional euphoria in order to cause someone to make an instantaneous decision in favour of Christ. 
  2. “Seeker-Sensitive” Ministry, i.e. orienting a church’s ministry toward a demographic subset of the community and addressing all of that group’s ‘felt needs’ or preferences as religious consumers. 

Now in both instances of pragmatic ministry, there is a desire to see sinners come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, there is a failure to understand what saving faith really is, as well as a naivete about the danger that giving false assurance to the person who is only temporarily interested in religious things. 

Of course, ministry among real human beings will require wisdom about adiaphora, the things indifferent. This comes into play as we see changes across cultures and centuries. However, we can’t let the wisdom of contextualization give way to pragmatism which pursues results at the expense of fundamental misunderstandings about truth.

What is Faith?

In the examples of decisionistic regeneration and seeker-sensitive ministry, both types of pragmatism had thin understandings of saving faith. They thought that saving faith was merely a mental assent to certain facts about Jesus Christ. Even if repentance was mentioned (which it rarely was), it had more of the character of a momentary emotional regret, than a settled turning away from an old life, to new life in Christ. 

The seeker-sensitive model of ministry misunderstood faith as well. They thought that through the benefits of proximity to Christians, the appeal of Christian community would provide sufficient enough grounds for a person to give assent to the facts about Christ and identify as a Christian. In terms of the classic threefold understanding of saving faith, they would only be asking for knowledge and assent, without trust (notitia, assensus, without fiducia).

Nominalism

What is interesting to observe is that even leaders in the seeker sensitive movement have acknowledged that there should have been more emphasis on discipleship. The result of this neglect was that some of the largest churches in the world were filled with people who had only marginal understandings of the gospel. It became an embarrassment to the Evangelical movement that some of its largest churches were producing ‘nominal’ Christians, the very charge which Evangelicals had put to liberal mainline Protestants. 

As the 21st century enters its second decade, Christians will have to retrieve the lessons of the past, even the recent past of the last century. Pragmatism threatened to ruin the renewal movement of gospel-centred Evangelicals. 

Let us be watchful and careful that we don’t let pragmatism ruin the renewal today. 

Photo Credit: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. George Bellows, Billy Sunday. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dc-8e43-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99


Categories
Canada Church Clint Global Society

The Landslide

The Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote:

Imperceptibly, through decades of gradual erosion, the meaning of life in the West has ceased to be seen as anything more lofty than the “pursuit of happiness” a goal that has even been solemnly guaranteed by constitutions. The concepts of good and evil have been ridiculed for several centuries; banished from common use, they have been replaced by political or class considerations of short lived value. It has become embarrassing to state that evil makes its home in the individual human heart before it enters a political system. Yet it is not considered shameful to make dally concessions to an integral evil. Judging by the continuing landslide of concessions made before the eyes of our very own generation, the West is ineluctably slipping toward the abyss. Western societies are losing more and more of their religious essence as they thoughtlessly yield up their younger generation to atheism.


Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Godlessness: the First Step to the Gulag”. Templeton Prize Lecture, 10 May 1983 (London).

Most of us have never been in a landslide. I know I haven’t. So I needed to look up “how to survive a landslide“. There are only three options:

  • Run at a right angle and try to get to the outside of it
  • Get to the rooftop
  • Cover yourself with something strong

Solzhenitsyn said there was a “landslide of concessions” being made in the West (in 1983!). Those concessions to godlessness or “secularism” as it is more politely known have only multiplied since then. The tremors are unmistakable

The Trees are Tilting

One of the warning signs for a coming landslide is that that trees tilt. Normally, the stability of the ground is able to uphold tall trees, utility poles and any other high structures. When a landslide is going to come the earth beneath the trees shifts and the trees begin to tilt.

Living in a commuter community you can expect that the tremors of change in the cities may take a long time to reach you. But I’ve found that the trees are tilting. An example of this is how I was informed that the public library in my ultra-conservative town is hosting the drag queen storytimes for children.

I cite this, simply to note that in every sphere of public life, reaching beyond the dense urban centres to the family-laden enclaves of the suburbs, an ideology is being promoted that undermines biological nature and the responsibility to protect children from sexualized grooming.

The modest mandate of the public library (to lend books) inflates with ideological purposes foreign to it. So we have to conclude that manipulation of the foundations is sweeping through. The trees are tilting.

Alarmism and Anti-Alarmism

In any natural disaster, whether it’s impending or engulfing you, there is a temptation to panic. Fear of a landslide can cause people to think irrationally. They may see the cracks in the foundations or hear the rumblings, but instead of staying calm and using the time that they have to make a wise plan of action, they shout and scream and rail against the coming landslide. This is the alarmist response. It wastes precious time and energy decrying reality, not dealing with it.

The anti-alarmist impulse can paralyze a person. Since the landslide is so large, and so horrible, a person simple escapes into a false reality. We know that one of the great challenges during wildfire disasters is convincing people to leave their homes. Often, they have let themselves have escapist fantasies that the danger is not that bad, and the alarmists are exaggerating. What they don’t realize is that the danger is real, and their ignorance of it puts them in danger too.

If we take the categories of alarmist and anti-alarmist, they can helpfully clarify how many people are responding to the landslide. For example, there are Christians who see the landslide coming, but their response is to angrily decry it without giving too much thought to how to respond wisely. Their alarmism is not constructive. Their alarm scales up in its confirmation bias as the landslide gets bigger and bigger, but the only positive conclusion they offer is “I told you so”.

Likewise, the anti-alarmist impulse is prevalent among Christians. This has happened among pastors I know. Recently, after hearing a talk on the landslide issues of our day– sexuality and ethics, a pastor confessed that he had been intentionally ignoring the landslide all around him. He was afraid to bring up the reality of how bad things really were. And he was also afraid that his anti-alarmist church would view his attempts at pointing to the landslide as so much hysteria.

So we have to recognize that both the alarmist and anti-alarmist impulses are either misdirected or escapist. For Christians, when parachurch ministries engage in polemics for entertainment, they are merely alarmists who distract from constructive preparations by cleverly shouting the obvious. At the same time, evangelical denominations and institutions tend to be anti-alarmist in bent. They are so quick to tsk-tsk the alarmists, that act blissfully unaware of the landslide, and trust their own self-righteousness as a clever enough solution to any disaster that may come. Sadly they are hopelessly deluded.

Failed Emergency Plans

Not everyone has responded to the landslide in thoughtless ways. Yet many of the emergency responses people have had are flawed or failed.

When you think about a landslide, one failed emergency response might be to run away from the landslide, thinking that if you can just stay ahead of the landslide you’ll be okay.

When it comes to our modern-day, the two groups who are gripped by the “keep ahead of the landslide” plan are the Boomer generation and the corporations (and their politicians of course). Both of these groups (with lots of overlap between them), have successfully run ahead of the landslide up until now. They have been alarmed at the rumblings, but have had false confidence in their ability to outrun it.

If the landslide undermines monogamous male-female marriage, then Boomers and corporations will start with accepting divorce, then move to a series of what Solzhenitzn called, “concessions”, such as co-habitation, then abortion, then intentional childlessness, then gay relationships, then gay marriages, and then gender-fluid ‘unions’. At each point, the Boomers and the corporations have been swift enough to run ahead just enough.

But you can’t outrun a landslide.

This is why noted lesbian activist, the former tennis star Martina Navratilova is being overwhelmed by the transgender movement. She thought she could run ahead of the landslide, but her lesbianism is no longer enough. Her panic is expressed when she hastily offers obeisance and apology toward the trans movement lest she be consumed. Examples are accruing, but a common theme is how Boomers or corporations have successfully run ahead of the landslide, but now are getting completely run over.

Another failed emergency plan is the person who runs toward the landslide, like a child can run into a small wave and hop over its height. This is typified in the bombastic culture warrior who assumes that the good old days are just beyond the shifting ground under his feet. The nostalgia for lost pasts drives a person to irrationally seek to run into the slide, thinking that they have the ability to withstand the wave or to keep their heads above it and exit on the far side relatively unscathed.

The hubris of this approach appeals to many people and might be exemplified the most in the populist movements of Trumpism, Brexit and others around the world. Often the idea is that if a person can only muster up enough resistance to the wave, that person will be able to stand against it and prevail.

But since the landslide is more than a small political wave that laps the beaches of our day, resistance to it is futile. It is a wave of a zeitgeist that is deep and broad that can’t be hopped over, you’ll only be crushed.

What to Do in Disaster

There is no sense wasting breath decrying the landslide endlessly, or acting as if it’s all much ado about nothing. It won’t help to try to stay a few paces ahead of it, nor can you run at it with your fist raised in foolish rage. So what to do?

As the wiki informed me, you can run at 90 degrees from it, get to the rooftops and wait it out, or you can hide under something strong and hope you don’t get crushed or suffocated.

The 90 Degree Run

The first option seems to be the best. Evacuate the area of the landslide with a realistic view of its scope and danger. Run at 90 degrees and try to get somewhere in your life, your church, your society where you can have peace and rest again.

This first option recognizes that things will never be the same again in landslide’s path. This might be the most frightening dread of all for people. When they realize that they must leave everything behind and get away, they become displaced refugees, socially, ideologically, and even perhaps physically.

I spoke with someone who was contemplating leaving his country because of the landslide of social and political changes that are happening. He said that his great-grandparents left their country to come to a better one. Why wouldn’t he consider uprooting and moving too?

Yet even if a person remains in their country, in the same society, they have to make radical decisions about their lives. The 90 degree run must take place in the church they join, the job they do, the schooling they give, and the priorities they hold.

History is full of people who had to make these 90 degree runs. From the earliest days of the Christian church, persecution resulted in martyrdoms, yes, but also in radical flight. The Christians left their homes and in the case of the Jewish Christians, their societal networks, in order to reform them in new ways and new places. Whether it was refugees moving to Calvin’s Geneva, the Huegenot flight from France, or the Pilgrims departure to the Americas, there have been many people who have made radical choices to try to get to the outside of the landslide.

The Rooftop

The second option in a landslide is to get to the rooftop. If you’ve ever seen pictures of people who have been caught in a landslide, the survivors remain on their roofs for long periods of time, while all that is around them lies devastated by floods and mud.

In the landslide of our time, there are people who know there isn’t time to get out. They are trapped. They have either ignored the warning signs, or they have acted irrationally and are now caught.

People who are caught in our landslide are those who tried to ‘manage’ what Albert Mohler has called, “the sexual revolution”. Often people who are caught are those who are Boomers with career capital tied to institutions that are already engulfed in the landslide.

If your salary or pension is tied to one of those “tilting trees” then you likely will be hesitant to flee until it’s too late. However, some people will realize the danger, and all they can do is cut ties with their previous security (salary, pension, career status), and try to survive.

Survival on the rooftop, like all survival will involve a great restriction of life to the bare essentials. The Christian believer will become focussed locally, on their own growth in Christ, their family’s training in the faith, their local church’s order and faithfulness, and a sustainable vocation that meets their basic needs.

Like anyone who is in this position, the rooftop survivor of the landslide is not in a position to flourish. But they can survive. What they need to prepare for is to take enough provisions with them so that they can last through the initial devastation, and also the enduring aftermath. This is similar to what Rod Dreher has advocated as The Benedict Option.

It can be difficult for comfortable Western Christians to imagine a society in the aftermath of the landslide. But history is the best guide. Whether the biblical history of Israel and its fall, or the collapse of the Roman Empire, or more recently, the capitulations under Nazism or the landslide of the Russian Revolution. In each case, the aftermath of the landslide was utterly different than life before it swept through. Christians must use the wisdom of history, and the recognition of the common, fallen nature of mankind, to anticipate the possibility of a landslide that defaces all we have known in our lifetime. Getting to the rooftop might be an option that is still available to us.

Hide Under Something Strong

The most desperate measure is still better than none at all. For the person in a landslide, they might be completely caught off guard. They might be totally unaware of how engulfing the landslide will be. And when it comes, they are swallowed up.

In those brief moments, a person may be able to hide under something strong. Maybe they can have just enough of an air pocket to keep from suffocating. Maybe they can have just enough protection to keep from being crushed. But their hope is that someone else will find them and rescue them.

Thankfully, the gospel message is the strongest shield that anyone can hide under. In our cultural moment, we already see how people who have been engulfed by the landslide have found rescue from the only One who could possibly do so, Jesus Christ. Who are the survivors? The formerly gay, or trans or racists, or exploiters or adulterers. Or as Paul put it:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.

1 Cor 6:10-11 NAS

Already in gospel-shielded churches, there are people entering who had been swept up in the landslide, who had only survived its devastating perversions by a miracle, the miracle of faith in Christ.

Constructing an Emergency Disaster Plan

If you hear the rumblings, feel the tremors and see the cracking foundations, you may still have time to act wisely and make realistic plans to survive and hopefully thrive.

A constructive plan will involve the following:

  1. Seeking after the Triune God, according to the Word of God.
  2. Catechizing yourself and your family with the Scripture, theology and song.
  3. Investing in the local church and it’s biblically mandated mission. Support biblical soundness in pastors, and promoting the training of new pastors.
  4. Believe in God as Creator, and the nature which he has assigned to mankind.
  5. Uphold the unity and distinction of male and female created in the image of God.
  6. Preserve and promote fathers in families.
  7. Protect and prioritize mothers in families.
  8. Untether yourself from institutions or structures that have given you security, but are being engulfed by the landslide.
  9. Develop parallel networks for trade and service which are not dependent on the infrastructure that may be wiped away by the landslide.
  10. Pray for miracles of deliverance from the landslide, and in its aftermath.

May God have mercy on us all.

Categories
Church Clint Society Theology

From Horror to Revival

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.

A version of this post originally appeared at The Gospel Coalition Canada

unsplash-logoMarco Meyer

Categories
Church Clint Ministry Pastors Theology

6 Things to Ask An Elder Candidate

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.

unsplash-logoNik MacMillan

Categories
Canada Church Clint Family

Make Family Reunions a Way of Life

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 were inviting 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.

unsplash-logoSamantha Gades

Categories
Church Clint Gospel Ministry Pastors Spiritual Growth Theology

Are You Making Progress?

“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:

  1. In what area would you like to make some progress this coming year?
  2. In what area do you feel you’ve made progress in this last year.

unsplash-logoEmma Francis