Hellllppp…

A8 has a tendency to embarrass easily and holds great disdain for the feeling of being in the spotlight. With that in mind, I’ve been thinking and talking with Brian about how/when to have The Talk with her. I suppose how much of The Talk is also on the table. I’m especially interested in finding some materials to use with her so that we can converse about the materials, rather than focusing on her. (Semantics, I know, but I think it might make a difference in her comfort level.) Any suggestions?

(Larger version here.)

I’m going to be working this one out for weeks :

Gospel-centered worship actively recognizes that God has not only provided us with His gracious movement toward us in Christ but also with our responding movement toward Him in Christ as well. God has not only provided that which we must respond to, namely, the gospel, but also our Response, Jesus. The Gospel teaches us that Christ is our acceptable response to the Father given to us by the Father. Christian worship is never simply something we do. It is both something that already has been done in the life and death of Jesus and something that Jesus is doing for us in his High Priestly ministry. As we worship we must be careful to understand Christian worship as participation in what Christ has done in His vicarious life and death and presently is doing as our heavenly High Priest. It is never simply a response to who God is and what He has done.

HT : Eucatastrophe

A week or so ago, Jared Wilson did a post looking at some statements from Mark Driscoll on how he pastors. Great post and great comments - you should read it if you get a chance. The challenges to being a mega-church pastor are many and I think it probably isn’t too odd that a pastor in this situation isn’t, well, very pastoral. At least in the traditional sense.

So I want to bring the question down to a level that represents more of the average church in America. Here’s the context of the church :

• Less than 200 members

• Membership is multi-generational
• May or may not have elders and deacons
• Regardless, the pastor is the de facto leader
• Pastor is full-time, not bi-vocational

My question for you guys is - How should a pastor pastor in this setting? What are his goals? How does he interact with the members. How does he feel towards them. What does he do on a daily basis? What are those telltale signs of a good pastor(i.e. He knows everyone’s name and that Susie lost her guinea pig last week)?

I think you see what I’m trying to get at so please comment and let me know what you think.

As Christians, do we feel the need to put forward a more sanitized version of Christianity to the world? It’s like we have this image to maintain of a “blessed” life that is more attractive to the world. How that blessedness is defined depends on you particular context - money, the right job, well-behaved kids, good marriages, inner peace, joy and smiles through disaster, etc. Whatever they are, we use them to attract those outside the church to the “good” life.

What’s missing is that we are still a sinful people. We’ll admit this behind church walls but we tend to obscure it to the general public. But, I think they kinda know. The iMonk says this in a recent post talking about how young people view Christianity in a negative light :

At the heart of much Christianity is a strange irony: in a faith that requires us to confess, not avoid, the knowledge of our own sinfulness, we make it almost a fetish to find ways to blame unbelievers and non-believers for their low opinion of Christians.

So then, perhaps part of the solution is not to deny what we know to be true. This is not about flaunting our imperfections. But rather being honest that we’ve not yet arrived and it’s looking like a long trip down the road before we do. We need to get past offering principles and steps and move on to Jesus as our source of hope. He is the real difference and it’s too often that he’s treated as a step along the path to success. Paul says in Colossians 1:16-22 :

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

Jesus is not just a rung on the ladder of spiritual success. He is the first and foremost in God’s plan for not just redeeming us, but for all of creation. When we see him in his proper place, we must boast in him. Not in the supposed “blessed” life we feel we have to put forward to look attractive to the outside world. Besides, if iMonk is right that plan’s not working quite like we’d like anyway.

Parts of a conversation with S3 last night while cuddling and putting off bedtime:

Jenn: What can you tell me about Jesus?
S3: Jesus will grow up and be a singer
Jenn: Jesus is already grown up.
S3: God can come to the concert. (thoughtful pause) I like Jesus.

A moment later…

S3: I like you the best and Dad the best and my girls the best!
Jenn: Did you know God loves Sam the best, and Mommy the best, and Daddy the best, and Ty (his friend) the best? God loves everyone the best!
S3: (very excited) God loves Ty the best??? Yes!!! (best said like Tiger Woods) That makes me happy!

Jenn: Tell me more about Jesus.
S3: He had a nose…and hair…and a body.
Jenn: What happened to Jesus?
S3: He died.
Jenn: Did he stay dead?
S3: No. He’s alive!…And he rode on a donkey.

If you’re familiar at all with Ken Myers or Mars Hill Audio and have some free time on April 11th and 12th then consider setting aside some time next weekend.

The Humanitas Forum on Christianity and Culture will be hosting Mr. Myers along with Dr. Jeremy Beer as they speak on the intersection of discipleship, faith, and culture. The weekend lecture series is entitled More Than a Personal Savior :

Before Jesus commanded the Church to go and make disciples, he asserted his authority over everything in Heaven and on Earth. Yet many modern Christians (and their secularist neighbors) assume that Christian discipleship is a matter of private spiritual growth with few earthly consequences concerning the ways we order our time, make and spend our money, and think about our place in Creation.

In four presentations, Ken Myers and Jeremy Beer will look at how modern culture tempts us to shrink our faith, and how we might resist that temptation.

For more information as well as registration information just go here.

From According to Plan by Graeme Goldsworthy (p 50) :

Every word of the New Testament comes from the Holy Spirit’s testimony to Jesus. The New Testament records the central facts of the gospel and explores the implications of the gospel for the lives of God’s people. It shows us that the gospel is God’s one way of bringing sinners to perfection. All the problems and imperfections that we experience are failures to be conformed to the gospel. The only remedy that the New Testament prescribes for our problems is to bring our lives to conform to the gospel.

Likewise, the one problem we have in the interpretation of the Bible is the failure to interpret the texts by the definitive event of the gospel. This has its outworking in both directions. What went before Christ in the Old Testament, as well as what comes after him, finds its meaning in him. So the Old Testament must be understood in its relationship to the gospel event. What that relationship is can only be determined from the witness of the New Testament itself.