Categories
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.

photocredit

unsplash-logoMauricio Artieda

Categories
Spiritual Growth Theology

The Gravity of Glory Not 15 Minutes of Fame

In 1968 Andy Warhol said that in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes. Today with Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat, and reality tv it seems that Warhol’s prediction has come true, even if he overshot the fame part by 14 minutes and 30 seconds. In those 30 seconds of modern fame, a person today has the significance of their person, their character, their ability and reputation pressed down into the experience of others. Their fame flees after 15 seconds or so because they don’t have the ability to sustain their momentary glory. So they move from significant to insignificant, influential to irrelevant, and impactful to inconsequential.

The Gravity of Glory

In the Scriptures, the word for this significant, influential, relevant, impactful and consequential emanation is called khavod, or glory. We normally associate this kind of glory with mega-experiences like the first glance of the Rockies, or the seas of the Pacific, Atlantic, or Arctic. These experiences are so massive they feel heavy like we are being overwhelmed with the weight of beauty, expanse, and wonder that is pressing on us. But that is what the biblical notion of that Hebrew word means. Glory is heavy.

The trouble with mountains and oceans and beauty and wonder is that we get tired and even a little bored of feeling the heaviness of their glory. That’s why people go camping and still look at their smartphones. Our fallenness and finiteness make us incapable of sustainable glory gazing.

So when we look at glory, we get bored and self absorbed. And in this way we can quickly take the beauty and glory of creation and turn it into being all about us. Instead of seeing an idyllic lake or rocky cliff pointing us to the greater glory of God, we flip it. As the early Christian leader Paul said, people “worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator” and the result is that we’ve “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images”(Romans 1.251.23).

This means that everyone in this world needs to stop being a gravity-denier. God’s glory, his heaviness has a gravitational pull on all of us. We can say it isn’t so, but we’re denying reality and so denying God.

Getting Glory Crushed

One of the classic examples of an awakened recognition of the gravity of God came to the ancient prophet Isaiah when he had a supernatural vision of the khavod of God. Isaiah saw that God was morally pure– triple deluxe pure so that angelic beings could not view God directly because their creaturely eyeballs would fry if they looked at God’s holy purity. And these angels sang out, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies— the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6.3).  

That vision of moral purity was not merely significant, it crushed Isaiah. He was crushed under the weight of God’s holy gravity. He had to confess, “I am undone. For I am a man of unclean lips and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of heaven’s armies” (v.5). What was a glory crushed guy to do?

He needed to have his sin taken away by the God of holy gravity. In the vision it was pictured as a burning briquette from a holy-fire-altar. It was touched to his lips to cleanse his sin-spewing outlet (v.6-7).

Fast forward to Good Friday when the holy gravity of God’s moral purity came crushing down on the sin and guilt of the glory-exchangers. Yet those folks weren’t hanging on the cross. Jesus the Son of God was. He took the gravity of God’s holy glory, and actively received its crushing effect in just wrath by substitution for glory-exchangers that should have been hung there. As Paul said, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5.21).

Jesus didn’t stay dead but rose from the gravel bed. He rose and returned to ‘the glory he had before with the Father’ (John 17.5). So now, the gravity of Jesus’ glory in the gospel presses on all who believe through the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1.8). This motives his disciples to see the nations submit under the weight of his holy gravity (Matt 28.19-20), that he might lift them up (Col 3.1Eph 2.6Rom 6.4) and ‘bring many sons and daughters to glory’ (Hebrews 2.10).

That’s a weight of significance that will last much longer than 15 minutes.


This post first appeared at The Gospel Coalition Canada.

Plan to attend the 2020 TGC Canada National Conference, May 27-29 in the Greater Toronto Area.

Categories
Society Spiritual Growth Suffering & Trials

How to Prepare for Persecution

Albert Mohler has said: Convictions are not merely beliefs we hold; they are those beliefs that hold us.

How to prepare for persecution, we have to have this in mind. We might know what beliefs Daniel held, but what beliefs held Daniel? 

Reading Daniel 6:10 we discover that when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. 
Daniel didn’t suddenly change his beliefs and his lifestyle because the persecution document had been signed. 

In fact, he continued on in his public witness, knowing that everyone would see him. 

(When you’re with clients, or with team-mates, or with certain relatives, do you hesitate to pray openly before a meal, even though you always pray before a meal? )

You see Daniel had an ordered life. He had been regularly sharpened day in day out, three times a day, repeatedly, same time, same place— and the order of his life was put to the test at this moment. 

If you are worried about the loss of cultural power or influence in society, you can calmly let go of your worry, and instead, prepare for being a Christian witness.

As David French wrote, “We want easy when Christ never promised easy. It’s time to learn to live with (somewhat) hard.”

The ability to be calm and free of anxiety when it’s hard will only come from this kind of orderly discipline of prayer.

Of course no one is calling for rote ritual. Mindless chants and euphoric mantras. This is not what is needed. Rather it is the discipline of the closet (Mat 6:6), that holds true no matter what is going on outside your door.

What you may realize is that the persecution, opposition or social shame isn’t as big of a deal as you initially feared. Or it may be significant and costly, but you will find that God has prepared you for it.

The preparation has nothing to do with political power, but everything to do with the power of the prayer closet.


image: “Praying Hands” by Albrecht Durer, 1508


Categories
Society Spiritual Growth Suffering & Trials Theology

Like Augustine’s Grocery Bag

In our day Christians are being stretched. With every distraction and every demand of our full calendars, we are being stretched in all our capacities.

Who among us is not feeling spread thin by the repetitious news cycle which demands our attention second to second and so creating in us the dreaded “fear of missing out”?

Our desires are being stretched too. Careers that offered fulfilled dreams have been ended with mere severance. Or they continue to demand time and, toil yet our desire is not slaked.

All people in the West possess great convenience epitomized in the power of our fingertips on ready touchscreen apps. Who has not felt tired but wired with all of this instant power, yet less and less instant gratification?

Stretched Thin or Just Crushed?

This stretching we feel is not a capacity that we are growing in, but a sense of being flattened or crushed. Crushed by the desire for relationships. Crushed by the desire for justice. Crushed by the need for meaning.

As Douglas Murray noted in The Strange Death of Europe, “one of the notable characteristics of Western culture is precisely that it permanently fears itself to be in decline”.

This fear acts like a double-drum compactor rolling over the happiness and hope of people like they are so much asphalt. Radical calls for justice in this life show how heavy these fears can be. It is easy to be flattened with frustration that there is no sufficient justice in this world. We can agonize at the question, “why does the way of the wicked prosper?” (Jer 12:1Psa 73:3Job 21:7Ecc 8:14).

At the same time, there is the weight of fear which crushes the comfortable and the privileged. It is the fear that their status and privileges will be lost. The fear of losing power, prestige or influence can turn the comfortable life into a life of panic.

In the culture wars of the West, we fear the loss of power and influence on the right, and we fear unaddressed injustice on the left. Both can be easily captive to the concerns of this-world and think little of the world to come.

Fear and Panic in Renewal Time

Christians can also get paranoid at what they see as they assume the worst. Fear rolls over them. Even as the small reformed renewal enters into its intermediate to mature stage, Christians can see the expansion of churches and the few renewed institutions in Evangelicalism and be rolled over with the fear of its collapse. It is easy to be disillusioned when someone sees the sins of their heroes within the ‘gospel-centred’ movement.

Likewise Christians can be suspicious of the visible success of the reformed renewal, and have the uneasy feeling that they must divert its strength to address the more relevant concerns of society. Then a ‘gospel-centred’ movement is no longer enough. It must also be a movement to mimic the issues in the news cycle.

Fears about losing the big conferences, the public champions, and the mass of Christian publishing can be so crushing that people can be anxious to shut down refining critiques, or overinflate the importance of the movement as if it is too big to fail.

Either way, fear dominates many of us, so that we can’t see the gospel good being done, nor see that the renewal is neither a full-on revival, nor is it heaven.

All of this kind of fearful stretching is bringing a fatigue to churches. It is not the kind of stretching that we need. Instead, today more than ever, we require a renewal of our desires. We need to be stretched heaven-ward.

Of Springs and Soap Bubbles

Our desires have lost their elasticity and vigour, because they have been attached too long and too tightly to the world that is. “This-world” desires have overstretched us and our spring is unsprung.

In the church, it started with good intentions. There was the recapturing of the doctrine of vocation, rendering to God worship through the work of one’s hands. But as Michael Allen writes in his book, Grounded in Heaven:

“Too often a desire to value the ordinary and the everyday, the mundane and the material, has not led to what ought to be common-sense to any Bible-reader: that heaven and the spiritual realm matter most highly.”

Nowadays we are trying to find meaning in our work, but struggling to suffer in it, mistakenly assuming that emphasis on “faith and work” brings more heaven on earth.

On the one hand, there has been an increase in books that revel in the ‘ordinary’. This may have started with Anne Voskamp’s best-seller and her extended meditations on ordinary things like soap bubbles. On the other hand, even the books on heaven have been reduced to “tourism” to gain lessons for what really matters, life in the now. Allen goes on to say:

“Too rarely do we speak of heavenly-mindedness, spiritual-mindedness, self-denial, or any of the terminology that has marked the ascetical tradition (in its patristic or, later, in its Reformed iterations).”

It is not to say that we shouldn’t see the dignity of God’s creation, nor value the mundane work we must do as an opportunity to glorify God according to the priesthood of all believers. But we need to re-calibrate where our strongest passions and deepest desires are directed. Are we conscious of the will of God being done in heaven first and fundamentally? Then we can reset our desires to pray that God’s will be done, “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10).

Augustine’s Grocery Bag

Augustine offers a picture of the ways that we need to be stretched and it offers a compelling alternative to the chase-your-own-tail existence of the modern social media feed. Augustine likens our desires to something like a grocery bag. It is folded and narrow to begin with, but when it is stretched wide, it can receive a large capacity of things to put in it. He says:

“so God, by deferring our hope, stretches our desire; by the desiring, stretches the mind; by stretching, makes it more capacious.”

Our desires are to be stretched heaven-ward, to the beatific vision of being in the presence of God.

As John put it in 1 John 3:2-3, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

There is a pressing need to be stretched. Christians need to be stretched in our desires for heaven. Such stretching will deliver us from the emptiness of Your Best Life Now, and the exhaustion of the news cycle’s incessant demands.

Our fear of catastrophe can be dispelled by this invincible hope, not in movements or men, but in the Lamb and his eschatological kingdom, which shall have no end.

As Augustine said, “Let us desire therefore, my brethren, for we shall be filled.”


A version of this article was published at The Gospel Coalition Canada on April 8, 2019 under the title, Being Stretched.

image: Vittore Carpacaccio (1502)

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
Clint Creation Family

Reversing the Absence of Adam

It has long been recognized that Adam was nearby to Eve in Eden, yet he was absent in attention, duty, protection, and care. Adam permitted the serpent to tempt Eve, spread lies, and usurp God’s well-designed order. Adam knowingly (1 Tim 2:14) ate the fruit that was forbidden. Though he was present, he was absent in heart, head and hands. 

Since the connection between Adam and the whole human race carries so much theological weight, it can be easy to ignore other illustrations of the absence of Adam.  Consider the sad declension of the story of Cain and his descendent Lamech. Cain commits the first murder (Gn 4:8), while Lamech becomes the first bigamist (Gn 4:19). Adam is nowhere to be found. 

We know that Adam was alive because he fathered Seth at the robust age of 130 years old (Gn 5:3). But where was he when Cain was growing in bitterness, and losing strength to fight off the sin that was “crouching at the door” (4:7). Where was Adam when Lamech mused about breaking the monogamous one-woman-man pattern and taking a second wife? Did Adam aim to influence Lamech to hold fast to God’s design? Possibly Adam had to travel to Cain’s house and send that warning down the genealogical line. 

We don’t know the reason for the absence of Adam from the days of Cain and Abel to the birth of Seth. The Scriptures don’t tell us what Adam was doing. But that’s the point. Adam was not acting in any significant way to warrant inclusion in the Scriptures. Adam had abdicated his responsibility as the patriarch of the human race, and as the patriarch of his immediate family. 

Absent Adamic Fathers. 

The pattern of absentee fathers is evident from Adam to the present day. Although they may be present physically, they are practically absent in their head, heart and hands. This absenteeism leads to devastating consequences. The Cains and Lamechs of the world lack fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers who provide leadership, security, instruction, and correction. 

Since Adam’s responsibility, and duty to provide and protect were mandated before God’s judgement, Adam’s duty to be ‘present’ was baked into the creation’s design. This is why many people today are able to recognize the need for fathers, even if they don’t have biblical commitments (such as the author of this Walrus article). It is in the nature of human beings that families need fathers (as well as mothers). 

The Adamic Abdication

When Adam was physically present but unengaged with his duty as a husband, he abdicated his God-ordained responsibilities.  This abdication is the plague of fallen fathers ever since. Fathers are forsaking their proper role in their families, while also neglecting the practical leadership, correction, protection and direction which fathers must give to their children. 

Again, the problem is not that a father may be merely away from home. Many jobs require the father to be physically absent for stretches of time. If such jobs keep the father away too much, then he needs to reconsider his employment. He might have to sacrifice his preferences or status in order to take a job that keeps him closer to home. 

But the frequent problem is that fathers are ‘around’ but unengaged. They are always distracted by other demands. The demands may be legitimate (work), or unimportant (sports, social media, hobbies). 

The absenteeism can extend to the emphasis on organized sports or other calendar-plugging activities. Often a father can give the appearance of attention given to a child by driving them to practices and games where others will direct them. This commitment can be admirable in some ways. But it can also hide the fact that a father is not engaging with their son or daughter in a way that is directly guiding them. A simple test is to see what the father and child can talk about once the sport or hobby can’t be played any longer. 

New Fathers

For fathers to take ownership of their responsibilities, they need to actively guide the development of their families. Fathers need to be present in their head, heart and hands, not just their feet. Adam’s absenteeism can be reversed. Father’s need to repent of their sinful tendency to care about things that don’t matter, more than they take action in their children’s lives. But the hope of the gospel is that there is forgiveness of sins among fathers. By God’s grace, fatherless fathers can know the guiding care, instruction and correction of a loving heavenly Father. 

Fathers can aim to reverse the Adamic legacy and begin a legacy of the Last Adam as they share the gospel with their families. No other responsibility compares to that duty. 


unsplash-logoPriscilla Du Preez

Categories
Christel Clint

Top Posts of 2019

Looking back on 2019, we launched this blog together after posting on our own blogs for a while. It’s been fun for us. We hope that what we’ve written has been a little helpful for you too.

The most-read posts of 2019 are quite different from each other. Let’s take a look:

Christel’s Top Post of 2019:

John Newton, Marie Kondo and Reflections on the 10-Year Challenge

Christel summed up the conflicts of Instragram-produced comparisons when she said:

I see this John Newton quote cycle through social media every so often. Each time I see it, my scrolling finger is forced to stop because Newton’s words resonate so deeply. They express a healthy understanding of how both sin and grace inform Christian identity.

I am not what I ought to be,

I am not what I want to be,

I am not what I hope to be in another world;

but still I am not what I once used to be,

and by the grace of God I am what I am.

For those of us who feel our “ten-year challenge” photos aren’t up to Instagram standards, all is not lost. If we have grown in godly character, the deeper lines on our face are not something to mourn. We are a decade closer to who we ought to be and want to be. By God’s grace I am what I am and His grace is enough (1 Cor. 15:10Rom. 8:1).

You can read the rest here.


Clint’s top post of 2019 was a little different:

The Gilded Glory of Canada as a “Moral Leader”

Here is an excerpt:

The result of this immoral leadership is that Canada has the ignominy of standing in defiance of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC). According to the website, WeNeedALaw.ca, the UNCRC preamble states, “Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, “the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth”.  

With no abortion law, Canada refuses to protect the most vulnerable people in Canada – the pre-born.

Is it cowardice or just some combination of ideology and pragmatism?

There are many reasons why Canada’s glory is merely gilded. The pastor in me thinks that the absence of any abortion law is a Canadian way of psychologizing an atonement for our sins.

By not even talking about the slaughter of the innocents, Canada can be at peace. To speak about the sins is to deny the psychological atonement that is held onto so desperately. Canada, therefore, is reconciled with itself, blotting out of its collective mind any of its sins.  But it cannot remain good.

Any such leadership is propaganda at best and tyranny at worst.

…[I] wish to thank God for his grace to Canada and his mercy. It is evident how God has blessed Canadians with people of warmth and welcome and lands of expansive beauty. How long will God withhold the application of his just verdict against our sins?

The only moral hope for Canada is in the blood of the Lamb slain for sinners like us.  In His goodness alone can we be truly good.

You can read the whole thing here.


Thank you to all of our readers, those who pray for us, and those who have shared our content through social media for the benefit of others.

May God bless you all in 2020!

Faithfully,

Christel and Clint

https://www.instagram.com/christelhumfrey/
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
Clint Gospel

The Radiance of Christmas Hope

This was a post I had up at The Gospel Coalition Canada. It is a relatively new network that resources Canadian Christians for gospel-centred ministry. If you would like to support this work, donate here.

Could we be any more stressed out? Probably. In the long view, we can’t be more troubled by crises in society than in Germany’s Weimar Republic, Quebec’s FLQ crisis, or the morning of September 11th in New York. There is no ‘turning back time to the good old days.’ But there is room for a lot more expectancy. We’re all looking for some hope, life, and light to dispel the gloom.

No doubt our situation is like the ancient lands of Zebulun and Naphtali, the land beyond the Jordan and even Galilee. They were described by the eighth century (BC) prophet Isaiah as “her who was in anguish” (Isaiah 9:1). There was even a sense of ‘gloom’ that had cast a shroud over the people. Isaiah had recorded that “they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness” (8:22). This is how you might feel after following a Twitter thread, reading a Facebook feed, or after a hard day’s work. Or worse: after a diagnosis, a death, or a disaster.

Gloom

No gloomy life lost in confusing times and a confusing mind can contemplate a life of light. That is why depression and melancholy can be so debilitating. The idea of a life of clarity, purpose, joy, and laughter remains unimaginable to the one stuck in the anguish of gloom. Gloom and anguish choke our desires for truth, beauty and goodness. Our sin-collapsed nature makes our desires for God crumble to dust. None seeks for God—not one (Romans 3:10-11; Psalm 14:1-3).

Only the inbreaking of dawn gives hope to the gloomy who walk in darkness. That kind of inbreaking is what Isaiah prophesied would come to “the nations” (9:1). If the wonder of conversion is inexplicable, then the description of this ‘dawn’ is close to it:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone; You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with the joy of the harvest, they are glad when they divide the spoil” (Isaiah 9:2-3).

Dawn

The great thing about the early light of dawn is its promise. Even though it can still be relatively dark out (especially on Canadian winter mornings), the inbreaking dawn assures us that the brightness of the day is coming.

Just as the Gentile nations were lifted from their gloom with the ministry of Jesus Christ (Matthew 4:15-16), we see God’s initiative to bring dawn to the darkened.

That is what our Advent celebrations should remind us about—the expectancy of the Light. John testified that “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:9).

From that first dawning of the incarnation of the Son, adding to himself a human nature, he brought the light of the gospel to be witnessed by those in anguish and gloom.

In our stressed-out society and harried holiday confusion, we can relish the fact that Christ’s brilliance and warmth bring infinite lumens to sinners’ shroud of darkness. His inbreaking kingdom—the already of the not-yet—is pushing back the darkness, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

This Christmas we don’t have to let the presence of darkness, smother our expectancy of Christ’s radiance. Instead let us luxuriate in his light, knowing our joy is to look upon him by faith now, and ultimately by sight. For it was truly said, “Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.”

Categories
Canada Clint Gospel Pastors Reformers

3 Reasons You Should Preach Through Galatians

This article is published at 9Marks.org

The key takeaways are:

1) GALATIANS TEACHES US TO BUILD OUR LIVES ON A RIGHT UNDERSTANDING OF THE GOSPEL

2) GALATIANS CONFRONTS OUR DRIVE TO COMPARE OURSELVES TO OTHERS

3) GALATIANS TEACHES US THE SIGNIFICANCE OF OUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST

9 Marks is a great ministry that has helped me immensely. I highly recommend their massive journal on Complementarianism.