Wesley on Small Groups

I’m taking my annual trip through C.J. Mahaney’s Why Small Groups and came across this rather spectacular piece of history I’ve missed before. If you are familiar with church history, you probably have heard of the Wesley brothers. John may be the larger figure in history, but Samuel Wesley is our focus today. Most small group fanatics know Samuel Wesley is basically the architect of what we now call “accountability groups.” He started groups called ” Band Societies that Mahaney refers to in calling small groups towards a correct understanding of how the community of saints is involved in the sanctification process of each individual in the community. Check out the questions you had to answer “yes” to if you were going to join one of these small groups:

1. Have you peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ?
2. Do you desire to be told of your faults?
3. Do you desire that every one of us should tell you, from time to time, whatsoever is in his heart concerning you?
4. Consider! Do you desire that we should tell you whatsoever we think, whatsoever we fear, whatsoever we hear, concerning you?
5. Do you desire that, in doing this, we should come as close as possible, that we should cut to the quick, and search your heart to the bottom?
6. Is it your desire and design to be on this, and all other occasions, entirely open, so as to speak everything that is in your heart without exception, without disguise or without reserve?

Whoa. Down to business hu? The reality is, if God’s plan A for how we grow in Christ’s likeness is through the collective ministry of the saints to one another, then these questions are not so far off are they? The primary way the gospel is going to reach into the deep recesses of your life is if you are open to allowing others to peer in and show you, through the scalpel of scripture, what it really looks like in there. So get serious in your small group…if you can take it.

Chan on the Holy Spirit

“I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit.

“I don’t believe God wants me (or any of His children) to live in a way that makes sense from the world’s perspective, a way I know I can ‘manage’. I believe he is calling me – and all of us – to depend on him for living in a way that cannot be mimicked or forged. He wants us to walk in step with his Spirit rather than depend solely on the raw talent and knowledge he’s given us.” (143)

“God wants the praise for what we do in our lives. But if we never pray audacious, courageous prayers, how can he answer them? If we never follow him to positions where we need him, how can he show up and make his presence known?” (150)

No matter where you live and what your days look like, you have the choice each day to depend on yourself, to live safely, and to try to control your life. Or you can live as you were created to live – as a temple of the Holy Spirit of God, as a person dependent on him, desperate for God the Spirit to show up and make a difference. When you begin living a life characterized by walking with the Spirit, that is when people will begin to look not to you but to our Father in heaven and give him the praise.” (156)

“A few months ago I was speaking at a summer camp, and I was speaking to one of the organizations there that sponsors children. This volunteer told me about a 16-year-old girl there at the camp who sponsors 14 children, on her own. I was astonished by this. Fourteen children (at about $30 a month for each child) is a lot of money for a high school student to come up with. I talked to this girl and asked her how she did it. She told me that she works year-round and she works three jobs in the summertime to pay for the child support. While other teenagers are saving for a car, she’s saving lives! Instead of spending her hard-earned money on herself and her future, she gives it to these 14 children because she believes God loves them just as much as he loves her. My prayer is that churchgoers will not dissuade her from this calling.” (163-164)

“Instead of thinking and telling people they are crazy when they feel like the Spirit is leading them into something that doesn’t necessarily make sense to us, we should join them in the discernment process. Instead of discouraging people, we should pray for more insight and boldness. Instead of deadening people to the Spirit’s leading with our words and our actions, we should celebrate and join the Spirit’s movements in and through them!” (165)

Piper on Languages and Preaching

What happens to a denomination where a useful knowledge of Greek and Hebrew is not cherished and promoted as crucial for the pastoral office? (I don't mean offered and admired. I mean cherished, promoted and sought.)

Several things happen as the original languages fall into disuse among pastors. First, the confidence of pastors to determine the precise meaning of biblical texts diminishes. And with the confidence to interpret rigorously goes the confidence to preach powerfully. You can't preach week in and week out over the whole range of God's revelation with depth and power if you are plagued with uncertainty when you venture beyond basic gospel generalities.

Second, the uncertainty of having to depend on differing human translations (which always involve much interpretation) will tend to discourage careful textual analysis in sermon preparation. For as soon as you start attending to crucial details (like tenses, conjunctions and vocabulary repetitions), you realize the translations are too diverse to provide a sure basis for such analysis.

So the preacher often contents himself with the general focus or flavor of the text, and his exposition lacks the precision and clarity which excite a congregation with the Word of God.

Expository preaching, therefore, falls into disuse and disfavor. I say disfavor because we often tend to protect ourselves from difficult tasks by belittling or ignoring their importance. So what we find in groups where Greek and Hebrew are not cherished and pursued and promoted is that expository preaching (which devotes a good bit of the sermon to explaining the original meaning of the texts) is not much esteemed by the clergy or taught in the seminaries.

Sometimes this is evident in outright denunciation of schoolish exposition. More often there is simply a benign neglect; and the emphasis on valuable sermonic features (like order, diction, illustration and relevance) crowds out the need for careful textual exposition.

Another result when pastors do not study the Bible in Greek and Hebrew is that they (and their churches with them) tend to become second-handers. The harder it is for us to get at the original meaning of the Bible, the more we will revert to the secondary literature. For one thing, it is easier to read. It also gives us a superficial glow that we are "keeping up" on things. And it provides us with ideas and insights which we can't dig out of the original for ourselves.

We may impress one another for a while by dropping the name of the latest book, but second-hand food will not sustain and deepen our people's faith and holiness.

Chester on Leaders

In Philippians 1 Paul says he is sure he will survive his imprisonment “and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith” (25). It is an intriguing glimpse into how Paul saw the goal of his ministry. His goal was to make people happy, to bring them joy. This, of course, we much more than merely enjoying happy circumstances. Paul himself expresses joy in the midst of persecution, imprisonment and opposition (12-18). This joy is joy in Christ. And for Paul this ministry begins with his own joy in Christ. He himself says, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (21) “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all tings.” (3:8) Our aim is to treasure Christ above everything so we naturally and sincerely extol Christ to our communities so that they might find joy in Christ. Then as they treasure Christ, they too will extol Christ to a lost world so that other join us in treasuring Christ.

We might express this through the following diagram …



The exciting thing is that when we extol Christ we do so to oursevles as well as to other so we nurture our own treausing of Christ. In the same way when our communities extol Christ they do so one another and to us so together we extol Christ the more. These “feedback loops” create virtuous circles.



Consider again our simpler diagram. It highlights our starting point and therefore our main task as leaders: to treasure Christ. My main task is to nurture my own joy in Christ. Everything else flows from this point.

Owen on Holiness

Holiness is nothing but the implanting, writing and realising of the gospel in our souls.

Amen!!

Augustine on the Law

The law commands; grace supplies the strength to act.

The law was given to accuse you, that accused you might fear, that fearing you might beg forgiveness.

Wesley on Faith

Preach faith until you have it, and then because you have it, you will preach faith.

Trueman on Argument in the Church

1. Polemic is no monopoly of the Reformed. Talk to Catholic, Orthodox, Anabaptist, and Episcopalian friends. They too have their struggles. This does not in itself make any particular polemic, or any particular polemical technique, correct; but it does rather highlight the fact that the church was born in controversy and, if her beliefs are important, there will always be such struggles. The day the polemics die out you will know that (a) Christ has returned or (b) people no longer care about doctrine and the church has ceased to exist.

2. The criticism of polemics often comes from those who enjoy the space that polemics have carved out for them and the safety that polemics provides them. Such critics are like those who use their right to freedom of speech to decry the use of armed force by police and army, not realising that the very right they enjoy in this regard is positively connected to what they are attacking. Don't tell the world that the Trinity or justification by faith are important doctrines and then lament the existence of polemics; you can only have a coalition based on the gospel because every element of that gospel has been first hammered out in the furnace of controversy and then defended in the same way. Sure, not all polemics are good polemics, in form and/or substance -- so be discriminating in your criticisms and drop the stereotypes. Failure to be so is simple ingratitude to those who have put reputations and, in the history of the church, often lives on the line for the preservation of the truth. Penning an anti-polemic polemic may help the author sleep well at night, confident that his hands are clean and his conscience clear; but he can only do so because somebody has first made the mean streets outside his house safe for women and children.

3. Closely related to point 2 is the fact that, 99 times out of a 100, a nasty controversy only ever erupts because, at an earlier point in time somebody, somewhere took the easy way out and chose to turn a blind eye to a peccadillo, moral or theological. Think of David and Adonijah, the son who rebelled. We are told in 1 Ki. 1:6 that his father had never checked his behaviour as he had grown up, surely one of the most eloquent verses in the Bible. What had presumably started with Adonijah throwing toys out of the pram or not observing a teenage curfew ended with full-scale rebellion. In my limited experience in both local churches and institutions, all of the major conflicts in which I have been involved could have been avoided if somebody at some point in the past had had the backbone -- and the love for an erring brother or sister -- to check them gently when they first showed signs of wandering. Dare I say it? It is pretty rich to criticise those involved in major polemics if those polemics actually involve cleaning up significant messes created by the fact that others failed to do what was right when the problem was much easier to address and the stakes were much lower. Anti-polemic polemicists should reflect as much about how the events of the present -- not least their development of the next generation of leaders -- will impact the church for good or for ill -- as they do on the allegedly over-polemical attitude of some. Polemics in one generation are often as much, if not more, the fault of the lack of discernment or moral leadership in the previous generation as they are of any innately combative personalities in the present.

4. Finally, I simply don't recognise the pictures drawn by the Reformed evangelical critics of Reformed evangelical polemicists.

Sproul and Holiness

We tend to have mixed feelings about the holy. There is a sense in which we are at the same time attracted to it and repulsed by it. Something draws us toward it, while at the same time we want to run away from it. We can’t seem to decide which way we want it. Part of us yearns for the holy, while part of us despises it. We can’t live with it, and we can’t live without it.

…

Only once in sacred Scripture is an attribute of God elevated to the third degree. Only once is a characteristic of God mentioned three times in succession. The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. Not that He is merely holy, or even holy, holy. He is holy, holy, holy. The Bible never says that God is love, love, love; or mercy, mercy, mercy; or wrath, wrath, wrath; or justice, justice, justice. It does say that he is holy, holy, holy that the whole earth is full of His glory.

…

If ever there was a man of integrity, it was Isaiah ben Amoz. He was a whole man, a together type of a fellow. He was considered by his contemporaries as the most righteous man in the nation. He was respected as a paragon of virtue. Then he caught one sudden glimpse of a holy God. In that single moment, all of his self-esteem was shattered. In a brief second he was exposed, made naked beneath the gaze of the absolute standard of holiness. As long as Isaiah could compare himself to other mortals, he was able to sustain a lofty opinion of his own character. The instant he measured himself by the ultimate standard, he was destroyed—morally and spiritually annihilated. He was undone. He came apart. His sense of integrity collapsed.

…

It’s dangerous to assume that because a person is drawn to holiness in his study that he is thereby a holy man. There is irony here. I am sure that the reason I have a deep hunger to learn of the holiness of God is precisely because I am not holy. I am a profane man—a man who spends more time out of the temple than in it. But I have had just enough of a taste of the majesty of God to want more. I know what it means to be a forgiven man and what it means to be sent on a mission. My soul cries for more. My soul needs more.

Trueman (Quoting Luther) on Being a Theologian

`A doctor of the Scriptures ought to have a good knowledge of the Scriptures and ought to have grasped how the prophets run into one another. It isn't enough to know only one part -- as a man might know Isaiah, for example -- or to know only one topic of the law or of the gospel. Now, however, doctors are springing up who scarcely have a right comprehension of one topic.

`Teachers of law can humble their students when the students try to put on airs about their learning, because they have a court and get practical experience. On the other hand, we can't humble our students because we have no practical exercises. Yet experience alone makes a theologian.'

Set in context, Luther's statement is clearly about those who whose task it is to study the scriptures, i.e., theologians; and his concern is to underscore the need for practical, personal engagement with the word of God. Thus, the experience that makes a theologians cannot be reduced to pure subjectivity: it is experience of the external word of God impacting upon the individual. Further, he is using `experience' here to refer to such work of the word in actual, practical, real-life settings, presumably and primarily pastoral contexts but, given his notion of the priesthood of all believers (of which more tomorrow) by implication the work of the word on each and every believer in their daily lives. One might say that his comment here reflects the perennial concern of all involved in training pastors: classroom and library learning is not enough in and of itself; only real-life engagement with the word of God can someone truly a theologian in the church sense of the word.

Thus, the third mark of the theologian, experience, is really a reference to the experience of the individual of the word of God in the context of their everyday life. Further, to state the obvious, this experience is therefore based upon a text, indeed, a clearly defined and delimited text; but it is not overly narrow because of that -- rather, it is wide ranging, touching on all areas of human experience: the word touches human beings as whole human beings. The voices of the Psalmists are thus great examples of the theological development brought about by this experience: it involves joy, sadness, setbacks, disappointments, triumphs etc etc. And experience is definitely not to be set in opposition to scripture, as both pietists and intellectualists tend so to do, albeit from opposite ends of the spectrum. Experience is caused by, grounded in, and defined by scripture.

One final point: this kind of experience takes time. For Luther, the growth of the theologian is gradual; it is not the equivalent of learning a logarithm table or a set of facts; it is the slow process of being interpreted by -- in fact, mastered by -- the word of God. Further, the passive nature of experience -- that it is the external word of God working on us -- indicates that there are no shortcuts, no educational programs, no techniques -- in short, no actions, nothing we ourselves can do -- to make this happen for ourselves. It is the work of the word, acting upon us, gradually making us that which we should be, in and through the lives we live. though Luther does not put it in quite these terms, we might say that the human contribution to such is patience in both the common and the more technical sense of the word.

Challies on Idol of Communication

Idols are typically good things that seek to become ultimate things. Communication is just the kind of good thing, the kind of very good thing, that can so easily become an ultimate thing. How would we know that there is an idol in our lives? It may be the kind of thing we look at right before we go to sleep and the first thing we give attention to when we wake up. It may be the kind of thing that keeps us awake even in the middle of the night. A 2010 study by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research sampled the the habits of 1,605 young adults. The researchers found that one third of women between the ages of 18 and 34 check Facebook when they first wake up, before they even head to the bathroom; 21% check it in the middle of the night; 39% of them declare that they are addicted to Facebook.

We might also know we serve an idol when it is something we carry around with us at all times. A Pew Research study found, not surprisingly, that cell phone use is nearly ubiquitous today. Three-quarters of teens and 93% of adults between ages 18 and 29 now have a cell phone. Cell phone use has grown substantially among pre-teens so that 58% of 12-year-olds now own one. Lisa Merlo is a University of Florida psychiatrist who studies digital addictions—addictions to the Internet and other technologies. She finds that for a growing number of people the need to be in constant communication is so powerful that they cannot even turn off their cell phones in order to sit through a two-hour movie. Their obsession with their phones resembles any other form of addiction. “As with traditional addictions, excessive cell phone use is associated with certain hallmark patterns of behavior, including using something to feel good, building up a tolerance and needing more of it over time to get the same feeling, and going through withdrawal if deprived of it.” Meanwhile a recent Japanese study found that children with cell phones tend not to make friendships with children who do not have them. And all of this is really just the tip of the iceberg. Communication is just what we do today.

By all appearances we have made communication into a kind of cultural idol. In most cases it is not Facebook or the cell phone that is the idol. Instead, they serve as enablers, as enhancers, of the greater idol of communication. Christians have proven to be far from immune to this idol, from following along as the culture around us becomes obsessed with communication and dedicates vast amounts of time and resources to it. Christians will do well to remember that in God’s economy communication is but a means to the far greater, far more noble end of enjoying God so we can bring glory to him. Communication can detract from this purpose just as easily as it can serve this purpose.

When words serve God, they draw hearts to what is of greatest importance. Such words are full of meaning, full of life. When words serve an idol, they distract, they damage, they focus on quantity over quality. Thus words call us not just to use them sinlessly, but to use them to share what is substantial, to say what is best, to encourage, to bless. In an age that can be almost unbearably light, frustratingly anti-intellectual, woefully unspiritual, words have the ability to draw people to what matters most.

Chan on Intimacy with God

“It’s breathtaking to picture Almighty God saying, ‘I know Francis Chan. He’s my son. I love him.’ Are you confident this is what God would say if I asked him about you?” (105)

Having cited Galatians 4:4-7, Chan writes:

“Maybe you are reading this and thinking, ‘Well, I just don’t experience that kind of intimacy with God. The Spirit in me never cries ‘Abba, Father’.” If this is you, I don’t have a four step guide to connecting with the Holy Spirit. I would, however, like to suggest two potential obstacles for you to consider: comfort and volume.

“1. Comfort. Maybe your life is too safe. From my own experience I have felt closest to God when nearness to him was a necessity. The Bible says the Spirit comes through in situations where we would normally be afraid (Luke 12:11-12) …

Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the ‘Helper’ or ‘Comforter’. Let me ask you a simple question: Why would we need to experience the Comforter if our lives are already comfortable? It is those who put their lives at risk and suffer for the gospel who are most will often experience his being with you always even to the end of the age as Matthew 28:20 says …

“2. Volume. Maybe your life is too loud. Multitasking has become the norm. When was the last time you have an uninterrupted conversation with anyone … In my quest to accomplish much I have lost the art of focusing on one thing or one person. This in turn has affected my prayer life as I’m sure it has affected yours. I find it harder to be simply with God, to focus only on him, while spending intentional time with him … Jesus certainly understood what it means to have multitudes of people pursuing at once … Because of the priority of his relationship with his Father, he found ways to escape. He took the time to focus and be quiet (Mark 1:35). He was willing to remove himself from people’s reach in order to pray and commune with the Father. Our lack of intimacy is often due to our refusal to unplug and shut off communications from all others so we can be alone with him … For some of you reading this book may be a form of noise that keeps you from him. You may already hear lots of sermons and read lots of books. What you need is direct communication with him.” (106-109)

Murray on Better Preaching

. Preach to make a point not to reach a time limit.
Vigorous writing (preaching?) is concise. ~William Strunk Jr.

2. Help another edit their preaching.
I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~Elmore Leonard
3. Write something every day that you do not intend to share
This is a bit strong. However I think it is worthwhile, especially for students at Seminary, to regularly set apart some time to prepare sermon themes and outlines, even when they may have no opportunities to preach them.
4. Outline before drafting your sermon
If any man wish to write (preach?) in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
5. Don't get caught up in re-stating the obvious
The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. ~Anaïs Nin
I want to be a bit careful about this, because one task of the Gospel preacher is to keep re-stating the same truth (2 Peter 1:12). However, we don't need to re-state the same truth the same way every time.
6. Befriend a dictionary

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug
. ~Mark Twain
Again, care required here so that we do not start using words that no one else understands. But, we can refresh our vocabulary with simple words also.
7. Keep a little notebook for moments of inspiration
Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable. ~Francis Bacon
8. Not having a pen in hand does not mean that you are not writing

The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes. ~Agatha Christie
Or as the writer of this article put it: "There’s no such thing as writer’s block. But there are times when washing dishes is a better use of time than staring at an empty screen!"
9. Be kind to yourself

Every writer (preacher) I know has trouble writing (preaching!). ~Joseph Heller

Rutherford on Prophecy

One of the main authors of the Westminster Confession on prophecy:

There are four kinds of revelation:
Prophetical (scripture)
Illumination
Facts peculiar to godly men (words of knowledge, etc)
False and Satanical

On facts peculiar to godly men, Rutherford explains that there is a revelation of some particular men who have foretold of things to come (ie. Luther, Hus, Wycliffe, Wishart, Knox) ever since the closing of the canon.

Grudem adds that the report of such things is prophecy. Hence, it is not contrary to the Westminster Confession that such a revelation (not inerrant, but always to be tested against the straight and truly inerrant, final and authoritative rule of canon) can be given to the people of God from time to time.

Pearcey on Integrating Worldview

Amongst other things, firstly we need to understand that we have a clear command to shape and order culture from God’s command in Genesis 1 to “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue and have dominion over it”, and secondly that our work is not some curse, to make our lives painful and sad, but rather a good thing created by God for our benefit.

So how do we re-integrate our lives and understand our work from a biblical point of view? Nancy Pearcey in her book “Total truth” has developed a model of analysing our work (or any aspect of life) through the frames of Creation, Fall and Redemption.
• Creation. How did God originally create things to be?
• Fall. How has sin corrupted how things are?
• Redemption. How can things be redeemed back to reflect better how God originally intended them to be?

In the workshop of the Gospel and Work Seminar (Leeds:2010), people gathered in work types and asked the following questions.
• What aspects of my job reflect the way that God originally created things to be?
• How has my job been distorted and corrupted by the fall?
• What can I uniquely do to redeem my work place back to something that God originally intended things to be like?

Hesketh on Enthusiastic Dualism

Every Friday (or whatever day your church youth meet) and Sunday young people will lift hands in worship to God, sing the songs and do the “church thing”. Then on “none church” days do as their friends do smoking, drinking, swearing and be sexually active with people who are not their husbands or their wives. They do each with enthusiasm and see no problem; hence “enthusiastic dualism”. Now clearly this is a generalisation as there are lots of young people that live passionately for Jesus and do not engage in the same things as their friends but live counter-culturally to them. Enthusiastic dualism is not only evidenced in young people but adults as well…

As social networking gathers increasing pace such as Facebook, Twitter, Bebo etc they are one way in which I see this demonstrated which has prompted this post. As a local church pastor it is actually quite concerning to see what people who are Christians say and do on what is a great tool to keep in communication with people. The applications, language and status updates are a dead giveaway for those who are enthusiastically dualistic. Now again it is dangerous to make generalisations but it happens when there is a disconnect between the good news of Jesus and everyday life.

Why does it happen? I believe it happens most when people are entrenched in church tradition and not Jesus. When we understand who Jesus is and what he came to do we cannot fail to see our lives in light of this and his light exposes our darkeness. However. His exposure of our darkness enables us to see how far we have fallen from God’s original plan. Jesus is the answer to this problem and provides us a way out in and through Himself in the cross.

It’s not that dangerous though is it? Well actually I think it a dangerous virus that will kill the effectiveness of the church in the days ahead. As followers of Jesus we are called to be different and stand out to those who do not know Jesus. Those who claim to be Jesus followers yet do not stand out as his disciples cause confusion amongst those who do not know Jesus. If those who do not know Jesus do not see any difference in his supposed followers then why turn from living selfishly and for ones self?

Chan on Living Christ

And maybe you are called to be called to where you live, but if you say you are called to be in the place where you are a few questions need to be consider. For example, how would you be missed if you left this place? What would change? Basically what difference does your presence here make? Or as my youth pastor once asked me, what would your church (and the worldwide church) look like if everyone was as committed as you are? If everyone gave and served and prayed exactly like you, would the church be healthy and empowered? Or would it be weak and listless? …