1. Loneliness (Not enough friends): Who are you confessing to? Who knows your ‘junk’? This is the sin of the poor stewardship of not having an inner circle.
2. Busyness (Not enough slowness): Gordon MacDonald wrote, “If my private world is in order, it will be because I am unafraid to be alone and quiet before Christ.” Are you afraid to be alone with Christ? to be still?
3. Pragmatism (Not enough personal growth): Oswald Chambers said, “I hate to meet a man whom I have met ten years ago and find he is at precisely the same point, neither moderated nor quickened but simply stiffened.” Are you more about growing your church and less about growing yourself?
4. Inefficiency (Not enough diligence): This is the sin of an overabundance of taking in social media, technology, and doing everything but that which really matters throughout the week.
5. Self-importance (Not enough humility): Henri Nouwen called us to embrace: littleness, hiddenness, and powerlessness, yet too many pastors seek bigness, spotlight, and power.

Then my fellow pastor-brothers added more:

1. Indispensable: Acting as if the church can’t do it without you.
2. Escape: Any activities that divert you from the responsibilities you bear.
3. Self-Sufficiency: Doing the work without any sense for need of the Spirit’s power and the grace of God.
4. Approval/Fear of Man: Living for the praise of others instead of the praise of God.
5. Risk: Losing your missional edge as your church finds greater “success” and stability.
6. Self-Righteousness: You’ve forgotten how broken you really are. You lead a pastor-centered church.
7. Using People: You choose task over relationship. People are a means to an end.

What are temptations you believe pastors should be acutely aware of?

[There is a] weakness inherent in the word not. Consciously or unconsciously, the reader is dissatisfied with being told only what is not; he wishes to be told what is. (19-20)

What holds for good writing also holds for good churches. Unfortunately, too many a congregation defines itself only by what it’s against instead of proclaiming what that congregation is actually for. Consequently, churches can easily be mislabeled by outsiders as narrow-minded fundamentalists saddled with whatever-phobic leanings that only reinforce the public’s illusion of them. Primarily defining oneself by what one is against is especially tempting for young church planters; many of who entered planting because they were dissatisfied with the status quo of their prior church experience.

That’s why in listening to them describe their church plant, ministry philosophy, or even weekly sermons, a person tends to hear information framed more in the negative than positive. From “We’re not a seeker church,” to “We’re not a pipe organ-playing, choir-singing, suit-wearing type fellowship,” pastors limit the impact they so desperately desire by reducing what they think or do to only the negative. Why? Like readers, listeners are “dissatisfied with being told only what is not, [they] want to be told what is.” Pastors may needless turn off countless numbers of people who walk through their doors each Sunday not because those people didn’t want want something different but because they never heard what that difference was.

Maturing churches (and the maturing pastors who lead them) spend more time clearly explaining what they are for (e.g., gospel, forgiveness, holiness) than what they are against.

Do you define yourself more by what you’re against or what you’re for?

]]> http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/2011/11/21/what-are-you-for/feed/ 1 http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/2011/09/05/here-is-water/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=here-is-water http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/2011/09/05/here-is-water/#comments Mon, 05 Sep 2011 19:05:56 +0000 Yancey Arrington http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/?p=1834 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
- The Acts of the Apostles 8:35-38

Yesterday we baptized more than 250 adults at my church. To say it was a great day would be more than an understatement. For three weeks we taught on baptism. With nothing spectacular or unique in what we said or how we presented it, the series simply highlighted what baptism means and who it’s for. However, from the beginning we told our congregation, “At the end of this series we’re going to set up a baptistry and baptize anyone who is ready.” And boy, were they ready! When all was said and done, 0ne out of every ten adults who attend our Egret Bay campus on a given weekend went under the waters of baptism yesterday. It was incredibly emotional: joy, laughter, shouts, tears, hugs, hi-fives, and smiles abounded at every turn in a service filled with songs, Scripture and a simple sermon that essentially echoed the words of an Ethiopian ready to demonstrate his union with Christ and entrance into the church, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” Nothing! Let’s do this!

Reflecting on this experience, a few things surface in my mind and heart as a pastor for pastors:

1. Teach the Basics. We are a post-Christian, post-Bible culture. Many don’t know why they believe what they believe and that includes an obscene amount of Christians. Pastors can take too much for granted when teaching their people, believing their congregation is further down the road spiritually/theologically/biblically than is reality.  But if Peter called followers of Jesus to be reminded of the truth (2 Pt. 1:12), it just shows us forgetting the basics is common to all – and I believe especially so in the 21st Century West. Plan your teaching calendar with “101″ messages designed to remind or, more likely, introduce your congregants to the foundational beliefs of Christianity. So when you teach on things like, say, baptism, the people may respond by getting, say, baptized!
2. Have Faith in People. Are there those who come to church for less than honorable reasons, and so, when it comes to actually living for Jesus after they leave on Sunday morning they really don’t? Sure. But should that surprise us? Not at all. Jesus told us in Mt. 13 (e.g., wheat and tares) this would happen! But that doesn’t mean there aren’t scores upon scores of souls who walk through the doors of your sanctuary every Sunday who sincerely want to follow Jesus. And what they need most is not your cynicism or cajoling but a clear understanding of what Jesus asks of them (and what he doesn’t ask of them). I was amazed at the numbers of people baptized yesterday who said, “I’m here because you guys made it clear for me this was what Jesus wants, and I just want to follow Him.” It was a kind encouragement to me which said the Holy Spirit is working in all kinds of people, and a kind rebuke to me when I think I know exactly which kinds.
3. Take Risks on the Spirit. Every church picks its spots to challenge the people. Obviously we chose to put a baptistry (three in all) on our staging area and believed God to bring people through the water. This wasn’t without thought. We did teach on baptism for three weeks. Yet, we had no clue before starting the series how many, if any, would come. We baptize people each and every month. What was one more day going to do differently? For all we knew we could have baptized three people (or less) in our three Sunday services. But we believed God wanted to do a work in our congregation. We believed the Holy Spirit would draw many to the waters. We just needed, to borrow a phrase, to put our baptistries where our faith was. It helped me see we should regularly ask ourselves, “How can we truly demonstrate faith in the Holy Spirit’s work by giving him ‘space’ to do just that?” The spontaneity we provided in the service allowed us the Holy Spirit to bless us in a way like never before. I know for me, it was a day I won’t forget.

Was the service…

1. Gospel-centered: Did we show the glory and sufficiency of the Person & Work of Jesus?
2. High challenge: Did we call people to life under Christ?
3. Bible connected: Did we display the Bible as our final authority?
4. Authentic: Did we give the truth without spin?
5. Male-focused: Would this speak to a man?
6. Missional: Did we call people to live on mission for God?
7. Excellent: Did we do the best with what we have?
8. Next-step: Did we tell people where to go with their commitment?
9. Provocative/Risk: Did we keep the right tensions in the right places?
10. Story: Did we involve the story of others to point to the One Story?

For your context, you may have better/different questions to ask of the intentionality of your services. If so, what would be your questions on Monday about Sunday?

• The notion of  a “worship leader” who leads the “worship” part of the service before the sermon (which, then, is no part of worship!) is so bizarre, from a New Testament, as to be embarrassing. (Carson, 47)

• The New Testament does not provide us with officially sanctioned public “services” so much as with examples of crucial elements. We do well to admit the limitations of our knowledge. (Carson, 52)

• There is no single passage in the New Testament that establishes a paradigm for corporate worship. (Carson, 55)

• Corporate meetings of the church, however much God is worshipped in them, have the collateral responsibility of educating, informing, and transforming the minds of those who attend, of training the people of God in righteousness, of expanding their horizons not only so that they better know God (and therefore better worship him) but so that they better grasp the dimensions of the church that he has redeemed by the death of his Son (and therefore better worship him) – and that means, surely, some sort of exposure to more than the narrow slice of church that subsists in one particular subculture. The importance of intelligibility (in music, let us say) must therefore be juxtaposed with the responsibility to expand the limited horizons of one narrow tradition. (Carson, 56)

• Quoting J.I.Packer: an attitude of “unwillingness to shape the Church in a way that either needlessly cuts loose from the past or needlessly cuts out Christians who would be part of it in the present.” (Ashton, 74)

• The person leading the service must seek to achieve a balance between gripping the interest and attention of the congregation, and communicating the seriousness of what is happening. (Ashton, 96)

• On my worship tradition, moving from the freedom to follow God’s Word to the freedom to do what worked: In short, Free Church biblicism deteriorated into Free Church pragmatism. (Hughes, 147)

• Corporate worship has taken the form of something done ‘for’ an audience as opposed to to something done ‘by’ a congregation. (Hughes, 148-149)

• Calvin wrote that corporate worship must “omit…all theatrical pomp, which dazzles the eyes…but deadens their minds.” (Keller, 209)

• Sloppiness drains the “vertical” dimension out of gathered worship immediately. (Keller, 211)

• Transcendence is served best when both delight and awe are evident in the leaders’ demeanor and heart. Then the congregation will sense that it is being ushered into God’s presence. (Keller, 213)

• In summary, if the Sunday service aims primarily at evangelism, it will bore the saints.  If it aims primarily at education, it will confuse unbelievers.  But if it aims at “praising the God who saves by grace,” it will both instruct insiders and challenge outsiders. (Keller, 219)

• On leaders of corporate worship: We shouldn’t be too charming, cute, or folksy, drawing attention to ourselves. Instead of folksiness, there should be dignity and a sense of wonder. (Keller, 223)

I’m a rebel and just wanted you to know it
- me being a rebel, that is.
Just listen to me and you’ll see how big of a rebel I am:

• I love Jesus but not the church. Pitting Christ against the local church is not only cool to do but it allows me to commit the sin of rebellion with impunity and still feel good about myself. Forget the fact that Jesus died for the church and empowered his people to plant, lead and commit to local churches. Why let the truth of biblical passages like Heb. 13:17 get in the way of my self-indulgence? It’s fun and it gives me my own brand of Christianity. Plus, I get to distance myself from those hypocrites that gather on Sundays. I’m definitely not a hypocrite. I’m a rebel. There’s a difference, you know. Let me explain. Just give me a second…or two. Okay, I’ll get back with you on that one.

• I don’t need any teachers but the Holy Spirit. I can’t stand Bible studies that take an issue and see what the Scriptures say to that topic in an orderly, thoughtful way. That’s such a crutch because you’re using a teacher. You know what that means, right? You’re using someone else’s thoughts about the Bible! Where’s the Holy Spirit in that? I only study Bible passages by themselves without any influence except God alone. (You’ll be lucky if I even join a ‘small group.’ C’mon, that’s so institutional!) I know it seems foolish to ignore the fruit God the Spirit produced in Christians over the centuries who’ve given their lives to understanding the Scriptures but surely I can divine Holy Writ as well as the next person. By the way, do you know of a good commentary for First Corinthians?

• I like to drop four-lettered words. I know I can’t really find much in the New Testament (or Old) about the saints throwing language around, but I feel it’s my mandate to show the world that cussing is truly a cultural phenomenon. I’m a rebel you know. Damn [pause for effect], restraining your tongue from profanity is probably a sign of legalism. I mean, just look at Jesus. Wait, scratch that. Nevertheless, I’m going to sprinkle just enough curse words into my speech to not only give the impression I’ve been set free from that cultural albatross (and treat it like it’s an essential belief – you know, like The Trinity or the Atonement) but also ensure language-teetotalers will feel uncomfortable when we fellowship together. Told you I was a rebel. And seriously, who wants to be known for a clean mouth?

• I need no accountability. Accountability is just codeword for someone else ‘policing’ my life. Remember, I’m a rebel. I don’t need anyone in the church (I don’t really care for ‘them’ anyhow) confronting me about anything – be it the elders, my small group members or other fellow Christians. Listen, if I want to put stuff on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media that would call into question my commitment to Jesus then so be it! It’s my life and I’ll do as I please! So do me a favor and keep your thoughts to yourself because there’s obviously no other reason why you would talk to me about the choices I’ve made outside of just wanting to make me uncomfortable. I’ll live for Jesus (or not) the way I want. Damn [again, pause for emphasis], you guys act like Jesus died for a group instead of just individuals!

So now you know; I’m a rebel. Deal with it!

Hey…come closer…can I tell you the real reason I like being a rebel? I like being a rebel because it gives everyone the impression I’m really moving forward spiritually when, in reality, I’m going backward. Thinking of myself as a ‘Christian rebel’ allows me to pick and choose what I like about Jesus – so all that stuff about accountability, submission, community, personal holiness, etc. can stay on the cutting room floor. I like being a rebel because I get to dress up like I’m spiritually mature when I’m not.

Okay. I’m done. I’m a rebel and thought you’d like to know. At least, I want you to feel like you need to know. Besides, following is so NOT me.

Now what is it Jesus wanted me to do?

He agreed with some of what I said about marriage (e.g., being selfless and loving to your spouse) but disagreed with the why and how of marriage – Jesus and his grace. Basically, in his eyes, my message was good until I leveraged it in the gospel.

It was the best compliment of the day.

It reminded me that if you preach messages which only prop up the things we should do without standing those things upon the essential posts of Jesus and his work of grace, then you may actually be preaching something else than the gospel. If unbelievers can agree with everything you say because you only call them to a morality they either already have or likely could conclude by common sense, I would argue your message is far from being Christ-centered. The imperatives of Christianity (what we do) should never be divorced from the indicatives of the gospel (who Christ is and what he has done for us). It’s the indicatives that make the difference between a message rooted in Christ or merely in morality. The difference is not only huge, but eternal.

It also helps us see that sometimes the best people to evaluate how gospel-oriented our messages are, are the ones who’ve yet to receive that gospel.

So, how much of your sermon would a non-Christian have agreed with today?

]]> http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/2011/02/20/i-liked-some-of-it/feed/ 2 http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/2011/02/11/i-will-let-you-down/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=i-will-let-you-down http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/2011/02/11/i-will-let-you-down/#comments Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:06:31 +0000 Yancey Arrington http://blog.yanceyarrington.com/?p=1582 I think many, if not most, already know this but just in case you stumbled through the doors of our church recently and thought about joining because you heard me preach (as if?). You might want to know from the beginning…

I will let you down.

• I won’t preach “home run” sermons every Sunday. Indeed, somewhere down the road I’ll likely needlessly anger, confuse or bore you from the pulpit.
• I won’t avoid all the landmines of saying or doing something incredibly stupid. You may need to ask my wife on how to cope with me when I step on one.
• I won’t have a great attitude all the time. There are days where I wake up ‘on the wrong side of the bed’ and I’m impatient, cranky or just plain mean.
• I won’t be the perfect husband and father. I’ll probably struggle in my marriage from time to time and periodically yell at my kids.
• I won’t be the perfect Christian either. I’m sure to have seasons where my Bible will stay closed more than it should, where moments of deep, abiding prayer will fall from from my schedule and Sundays where I’ll preach more from what I know than what I’m currently doing.

I hope you get the picture that while the guy you listen to Sundays may not meet your expectations from time to time, he likely doesn’t meet even his own. That’s okay. These guys can still be good (even great) pastors.

They just make poor gods.

If anything, the struggles preachers encounter only highlight the truth that the one in the pulpit needs Jesus and the good news of the gospel just as much as those in the pew and that our faith must rest not upon those who will inevitably let us down but on the One who, by his Person and Work, has never let us down.

The reason leadership likely chooses to speak of itself as a ‘gospel-centered’ church rather than a ‘Jesus-centered’ church isn’t because that specific church doesn’t want Christ at its center. It’s because every other church already believes that to be true of themselves. I would argue any church which labels itself ‘Christian’ probably thinks Jesus is already central to who they are what they do.

Yet there are countless congregations which have abandoned the sufficiency of Scripture, or deny the uniqueness of Christ, or rejected salvation by faith alone and still claim to be ‘Jesus-centered.” For example, a church that teaches salvation is based on some kind of self-merit but works incredibly hard to help the poor, clothe the naked and visit the imprisoned would gladly profess they are a ‘Christ-centered’ congregation. We’re doing exactly what Jesus said to do! So it appears that ‘Jesus-centered’ terminology isn’t as helpful as one might think.

I would argue that referring to your church as a ‘gospel-centered’ is saying that you are a ‘Jesus-centered’ congregation but using a term that indicates to everyone which Jesus you are following. You aren’t following the Jesus who’s sole mission was to make us more moral (‘Talk Show Host Jesus’), or educate us on helping others (‘Social Worker Jesus’), or just showing us how to be successful in life (‘Life Coach Jesus’). You follow ‘Gospel Jesus’ – the One who has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves. It’s the Jesus who lived the life I should have lived, died the death I should have died and rose from the grave so I could be reconciled to God and enter his Kingdom. It’s the Jesus of penal substitutionary atonement, the Jesus that eviscerates moralism and self-righteousness, the Jesus that calls us to help the less fortunate not because it merits grace but because we’ve already received grace. That’s the wake the Jesus of the Gospel leaves.

Criticizing ‘gospel-centered’ churches for missing the centrality of Jesus is like overhearing the Apostle Paul tell the Corinthians, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Cor. 2:2),” and accusing him of being resurrection-averse. The point is to make central what should be central when it comes to who Jesus is and what he has done. At least that’s the hope behind using the term ‘gospel-centered.” Maybe time will cause it to one day be unhelpful as well. For now, at least, I believe it’s a good thing.

So, next time you hear the words ‘gospel-centered,’ please understand those who use the term don’t mean to put Jesus on the church’s fringes; quite the contrary, they want to put him, and his atoning work, right fat in the middle of it all!

Because the gospel (unlike religious moralism) produces people who do not disdain those who disagree with them, a truly gospel–centered church should be filled with members who winsomely address people’s hopes and aspirations with Christ and his saving work. We have a vision for a church that sees conversions of rich and poor, highly educated and less educated, men and women, old and young, married and single, and all races. We hope to draw highly secular and postmodern people, as well as reaching religious and traditional people. Because of the attractiveness of its community and the humility of its people, a gospel–centered church should find people in its midst who are exploring and trying to understand Christianity. It must welcome them in hundreds of ways. It will do little to make them “comfortable” but will do much to make its message understandable. In addition to all this, gospel–centered churches will have a bias toward church planting as one of the most effective means of evangelism there is.

You can read the entire vision here.