Bob Kaufman on Worship

One of the drums I will never tire of beating is this: All biblical worship is rooted in and made possible by the cross of Christ. Most churches could stand to be much clearer and more consistent when it comes to highlighting the gospel in song. I said it this way in my book, Worship Matters:
The gospel is not merely one of many possible themes we can touch on as we come to worship God. It is the central and foundational theme. All our worship originates and is brought into focus at the cross of Jesus Christ.
Glorying in Jesus Christ means glorying in his cross. That doesn?t mean looking at some icon or two pieces of wood nailed together. Nor does it imply that every song we sing has the word cross in it. It has little to do with church gatherings that are more like a funeral than a celebration.
The cross stands for all that was accomplished through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God. It focuses on his substitutionary death at Calvary but includes everything that gave meaning to that act. His preexistent state in glory. His incarnation. His life of perfect obedience. His suffering. His resurrection. His ascension. His present intercession and reign in glory. His triumphant return.
I will always plead that worship pastors lead gospel-centered worship that is characterized by:
? an awareness that the cross/gospel should be referenced somewhere in the time of singing.
? viewing the gospel as our primary motivation for praising God.
? helping people understand that only Jesus enables us to approach God - not music, musicians, worship leaders, or particular worship songs.
? encouraging congregations to be most enthusiastic about the theme the Bible is the most enthusiastic about - the Lamb of God who was slain.
When the Gospel Loses Its Power
But I?ve learned that we can practice gospel-centered corporate worship in a way that is more obligatory than faith-filled. What once magnified the glory of Christ becomes lifeless repetition. My friend, Jon Payne, shared some thoughts with me on this topic that I found helpful. He pointed out that a formulaic approach to gospel-centered worship can lead to some of the following problems:
? thinking every song should be exclusively about justification, boldness before the throne, or our sins being completely forgiven.
? thinking every song list should climax with a ?gospel? song.
? an inability to reference or articulate uniquely other aspects of the gospel - adoption, reconciliation, union with Christ, etc.
? a scarcity of other themes in our songs such as the wisdom of God, the eternity of God, the power of God, the incarnation, the kingship of Christ, heaven.
? worshiping a doctrine rather than allowing that doctrine to lead us to a living Savior. We are not ?crowning the gospel with many crowns.?
Leading gospel-centered worship in a faithless way can lead to some bad fruit:
? the gospel and the Savior lose glory in the eyes of bored worshipers.
? People develop a limited view of God and his attributes.
? People don?t learn how to apply the gospel to other areas of life/Biblical themes.
? The gospel becomes a crude, repetitive tool of truth rather than a lens for all of life.
? People think an explicit reference to the gospel reference makes their worship acceptable, rather than trust in a crucified and living Savior.
? Rather than expecting to encounter God because of the gospel people come expecting to repeat faithless facts.
The gospel of our Savior must never cease to be amazing in people?s eyes. It?s our responsibility as leaders to make sure, as the Puritans said, that we always ?labor to be affected by the cross.? That?s the best way of insuring that the gospel will never lose its power in our songs, or more importantly, in our lives.
May our understanding, practice, and leadership always cause people to have a greater love for the Savior who died to redeem them and reconcile them to God.

Marcus Honeysett on Church

Here are some highlights to whet your appetite ?

1. The church forgets who we are and what we are for ? When we forget that we are the community of disciples for declaring God?s greatness and making disciples, mission quickly becomes just one among many activities rather than the defining vision of who we are as a community.

2. The majority of believers are no longer thrilled with the Lord and what he is doing in their lives. When questions like ?What is God doing with you at the moment?? cease to be common currency, it is a sure sign of creeping spiritual mediocrity.

3. ? In my view, the single biggest cause of stalled churches in the UK is the belief that material comfort can be normative for Christians. It is the opposite of radical commitment to Christ.

4. When [Christians] see church as one among many leisure activities, usually low down the priority list. They are unlikely to see the Christian community as God?s great hope for the world and unlikely to put commitment above self-interest.

5. ? Where people take no personal responsibility for their own spiritual growth a stalled church becomes more likely.

6. ? When preaching, teaching and Bible study become ends in themselves rather than means to an end, something is badly wrong.

7. A church becomes afraid to ask radical questions ? The danger is that people start to equate serving the church with living out the gospel. Few churches regularly evaluate every aspect of church life against their core vision.

8. Confusing Christian activities with discipleship ?

9. Not understanding how to release and encourage everyone in the church to use their spiritual gifts for the building up of the church ? There are two types of DNA in churches. One type of church says ?we exist to have our personal spiritual needs met?, the other ?we exist to impact our locality and the world with the gospel of the grace of God in Christ?. The first type is a stalled church.

10. ? No church was stalled at the point that it was founded. At the beginning all churches were adventures in faith and daring risk for God. No one actively decided for comfort over risk, but at some point the mindset shifted from uncomfortable faith and daring passion for the Lord to comfortable mediocrity ? The mantra of the maintenance mindset is ?if it ain?t broke don?t fix it?. But just like buying shoes for growing children, if structures don?t take account of future growth then fellowships end up stunted and deformed.

Tim Keller on Idols

We never imagine that getting our heart?s deepest desires might be the worst thing that can ever happen to us.

we know a good thing has become a counterfeit god when its demands on you exceed proper boundaries.

The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one.

The secret to change is to identify and dismantle the counterfeit gods of your heart.

Jesus must become more beautiful to your imagination, more attractive to your heart, than your idol.

Todd Wilken on Gospel Preaching

A sermon that mentions Jesus but still has you driving the verbs is still about you, not Jesus. The Gospel is all about what Jesus does for you. A sermon about what you do for Jesus isn?t the Gospel. For the Gospel to be preached, Jesus must be driving the verbs.? (Ask) ?Who is driving the verbs?? Is Jesus active or passive? Is Jesus doing the action or is He being acted upon? There is a difference between a sermon that says ?I love Jesus,? and a sermon that says ?Jesus love me.? One is talking about you, the other is talking about Jesus. There is a difference between, ?Give your life to Jesus,? and ?Jesus gave His life for you.

Mark Driscoll on Preaching

Hard words produce soft people, and soft words produce hard people.

Peter Brain on Leadership

Great quote from George Carey (in Peter Brain "Going the Distance" p16):

Churches die when leaders die. Churches die from the top downward. Show me a growing church and you will show me a visionary leadership. It is leaders who make growth. When you have spiritual leaders, men of prayer, women of prayer - imaginative, alert, intelligent - there we have growth



I have three questions to pose from that:

1. are the leaders in your church given the time, resources and freedom to lead (pray, bring vision, develop strategy) as opposed to manage or keep all the activities running?

2. are the leaders in your church given the time, resources and freedom to bring on the next generation of leaders? If they are too rushed off their feet it will never happen

3. what are the main reasons why your church and its leaders don't develop more new leaders than they do, if there are possible candidates to work with?

Marcus North on Discipleship

Does your church actively train people individually or in groups to do any or all of the following:

?pray
?read, understand and apply the Bible for themselves
?give joyfully
?forgive
?fast
?sacrifice
?seek God for grace
?worship that involves the whole person, affections as well as mind
I guess the answer is likely to be some but not all of those things. If the answer is no to most then you don't currently give a great deal of emphasis to discipleship

Marcus North on Leadership

authentic Christian leadership is closely linked to:

?The nature and person of God
?The worship of Christ
?The Work of the Holy Spirit
?The mission of the church
?The nature of mature discipleship
?The character of Christ
?The nature of the body of Christ

J.I. Packer on Ministry

?It has often been said that Christianity in North America is 3,000 miles wide and half an inch deep. Something similar is true, by all accounts, in Africa and Asia, and (I can testify to this) in Britain also. Worshipers in evangelical churches, from the very young to the very old, and particularly the youth and the twenty- and thirty-somethings, know far less about the Bible and the faith than one would hope and than they themselves need to know for holy living. This is because the teaching mode of Christian communication is out of fashion, and all the emphasis in sermons and small groups is laid on experience in its various aspects. The result is a pietist form of piety, ardent and emotional, in which realizing the reality of fellowship with the Father and the Son is central while living one?s life with Spirit-given wisdom and discernment is neglected both as a topic and as a task. In the Western world in particular, where Christianity is marginalized and secular culture dismisses it as an ideological has-been, where daily we rub shoulders with persons of other faiths and of no faith, and where within the older Protestant churches tolerating the intolerable is advocated as a requirement of justice, versions of Christianity that care more for experiences of life than for principles of truth will neither strengthen churches nor glorify God.?

He goes on:

?The well-being of Christianity worldwide for this twenty-first century directly depends, I am convinced, on the recovery of what has historically been called catechesis?that is, the ministry of systematically teaching people in and coming into our churches the sinew-truths that Christians live by, and the faithful, practical, consistent way for Christians to live by them. During the past three centuries, catechesis as defined has shrunk, even in evangelical churches, from an all-age project to instruction for children and in some cases has vanished altogether. As one who for half a century has been attempting an essentially catechetical ministry by voice and pen, I long for the day when in all our churches systematic catechesis will come back into its own.?

He then speaks about the old Anglican dictum: ?There are three priorities in pastoral ministry: the first is, teach; the second is, teach; and the third is, teach.?