I’ve been reading the book and am challenged on a number of levels. My soul and mind resonate with the subtitle: “A radical reshaping around Gospel and community.”
A helpful quote from Chester:
One of our catchphrases is “ordinary people living ordinary life with gospel intentionality.” It means doing the chores, having meals, watching sports, and so on with an intention to talk about Jesus, to pastor one another with the gospel, and to share that gospel with unbelievers.
May God allow us to serve in the church with this trajectory.
Biblical truth is in the closed hand. (It doesn’t change!)
But changing methodologies and adapting to culture is in the open hand. (It can change.)
Keeping that in mind will be helpful when giving younger leaders are given opportunities to lead in the church.
Mark Driscoll briefly discussed this in preparation to the 2006 DesiringGod conference. He makes a point that if younger men feel stifled and are not able to venture out and lead in creative ways, well, they will probably leave.
If you’ve been involved in “church life” for any extended period of time, you surely know that people are not casual about their preferences. We’ve all heard the horror stories of churches splitting over the color of carpet. Some of you may have actually lived through that. Yet most of us are willing to overlook matters like the color of the carpet, but don’t you dare sing too many “contemporary” songs, or “traditional hymns,” depending on which side of the argument you come from.
One of the things that breaks my heart in this discussion is that, for a good many people, the more theologically informed we become, the more picky we become, when I’ve come to believe it should be exactly the opposite. For many people, the more theology they understand and become convicted of, and as they begin to formulate positions, many of those positions become boundary markers of what their idea of church should be when in reality, there are godly men and women on the other side of that theological conviction who just as strongly believe otherwise. In other words, many of our theological convictions are simply strongly held personal preferences, just (hopefully), with Scriptural backing.
Makes me think.
I have a handful of convictions I’m willing to die for, but many silly preferences that muddy the water making it look like those are more important.
Let’s not make good things into ultimate things. Christ is the one supreme treasure in all the universe.
Is HE my preference?
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Brent and his family recently planted a church in the Phoenix area.
Tim Keller has a new article out in the latest edition of the Vineyard’s Cutting Edge magazine. It’s called "Process Managing Church Growth ." I have seen it before, but the dynamics of my current church life and leadership made me more attuned to what he has to say this time.
A couple excerpts:
"Every church has a ’size culture’ that goes with its size that has to be accepted. Most people probably have a size-culture that they prefer. However, many people ‘moralize’ their favorite size culture and treat other size-categories as spiritually and morally inferior. They may insist that the only Biblical way to do church is to practice a differ size-culture despite the fact that the church itself is much bigger or smaller than they desire it to be."
"Generally, in small churches, policy is decided by many and ministry is done by a few while in the large church, ministry is done by many, and policy is decided by a few."
Damian and Norman over at Christians in Context posted a guest post by me (Jeff) after I won a great new book in a recent drawing they held. I won The Expository Genius of John Calvin by Steven J. Lawson. Looks to be a great book and from what I’m told highly accessible and full of practical helps.
Here’s what they let me say as a promo for their blog/site (read it here or there ):
Last week, after arriving home from a discouraging day attempting to tutor disinterested public high school students, I received an email from Damian saying I had won a book from Christians in Context. I won something? Me? I haven’t won anything since … a GameBoy in middle school. Wow, that was almost two decades ago. Where is that gadget anyway?…
Back to the story … there I was in the middle of my context, thinking about how I’d won a book that links me, a Christian, to the text of God’s Word. Thank you guys for the great gift, and reminding me again of the value of good theology to fuel daily life. (And at that moment it suddenly dawned on me that while tutoring that day, in response to one of the girl’s questions she has provided an open door for explaining the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ. Christ was there in that context.)
About a month ago I stumbled across Christians in Context via a link from the Parchment and Pen blog and theological word of the day . The first post had me hooked, and I’ve had Norman and Damian fired up in my RSS feed reader ever since. A recent post by Damian on John Owen and mortification of sin not only resonated with me personally (read: convicted me), but also helped me to see the great need to be reading good theology and applying it to my life.
The whole idea of being a Christian in one’s context seems to be gaining traction these days. It is almost funny to think of how "contextualization" is a buzz word in the church today, while the Bible [and Jesus] simply calls it "obedience" (Matt. 28:18-20). Some Christians may not like the former word (and I think that is probably just as well, as it’s a bit technical even for leaders), but I think we can all relate to the latter.
Obedience, like love, and motivated by it, involves values and evaluation. We each live in a unique context, a culture that demands our time and resources and often allegiance. And rather than think we can (or even should) escape our culture, we are called to evaluate all things, bringing every thought captive to the mind of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5) and live as sojourners in the tension between two worlds (Phil. 3:17-21). Loving God and loving people as Christ brings His redemption is our happy tension. While we dare not change the unchanging Gospel of Christ, we can seek to change ourselves (1 Cor. 9:22-23), and doing so involves agonizing strain and labor and discipline (vv. 24-27). As the Church, being Christians in Context is not easy, but in a two-second-vapor-of-a-life (James 4:14) we live in that happy tension.
Thanks again guys for reminding us why and how to live in this happy tension — as sojourners in our context, reflecting Christ.
I want to take a moment to share with you a strategy or paradigm of sorts that I have used in seeking to invest myself in the mission God has given me in my workplace. Recognizing that this is something I have been developing in recent months, I know that there are some aspects to be challenged, critiqued, or contributed to, so feel free to share your thoughts.
There are four areas or facets of work that I would like to elaborate in this post. They are: the work of the mind (exegesis), the work of the heart (prayer), the work of the hands (service), and the work of the lips (gospel).
I like that: mind, heart, hands, lips — all for the glory of God, displaying the excellency of Christ and His Gospel, and engaged in the love of people.
Brister’s brief synopsis has a helpful conclusion:
There will be times or days where you will be able to do all four areas of work, but that is not often. Rather, one day you will find yourself given more to the work of the mind in cultural exegesis as you are surrounded by other coworkers; other days, you will be given considerable time alone where you can do the work of the heart in prayerful participation; hopefully, there will be days were you will have opportunity to do the work of the lips in gospel proclamation. But we are to do all four of them and do them well. Do you see the difference between simply showing up for work, doing what is minimally expected of you, collecting a paycheck, and going home–as compared to what I have mentioned above? That is the difference between work and missional work. The former is meaningless; the latter is missional; the former is wasted; the latter is worshipful; the former is ritualistic; the latter is redemptive; the former is self-centered; the latter is God-centered and others-directed.
The two Greek words de ("but") and Theos ("God") are the first two words of Ephesians 2:4: "But God, who is rich in mercy..."
Because of God's great love and grace extending to us in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, redeemed and able to know, love + enjoy God more fully, ever-increasing and forever.
This site contains the thoughts and conclusions and journeys of the Patterson family -- Jeff, Kari and Dutch -- who have experienced the front-end of God's amazing grace, and continue to delight in His unfailing love.
Read more about us, and what we hold most precious.
Damian and Norman over at 
The audio from the 
