Russ in Epping

Glad to see Paul Tripp has joined the columnists at The Gospel Coalition. His first post is a cracker!

Ministers of Grace in Need of Grace

Steve Kryger on the always-worth-reading Communicate Jesus blog directs us to some helpful words from Eugene Peterson in ‘The Contemplative Pastor’ on using our calendars well.  Thanks Steve!

“The appointment calendar is the tool with which to get unbusy. It’s a gift of the Holy Ghost (unlisted by St. Paul, but a gift nonetheless) that provides the pastor with the means to get time and acquire leisure for praying, preaching, and listening. It is more effective than a protective secretary; it is less expensive than a retreat house. It is the one thing everyone in our society accepts without cavil as authoritative. The authority once given to Scripture is now ascribed to the appointment calendar. The dogma of verbal inerrancy has not been discarded, only re-assigned.

When I appeal to my appointment calendar, I am beyond criticism. If someone approaches me and asks me to pronounce the invocation at an event and I say, “I don’t think I should do that; I was planning to use that time to pray,” the response will be, “Well, I’m sure you can find another time to do that.” But if I say, “My appointment calendar will not permit it,” no further questions are asked. If someone asks me to attend a committee meeting and I say, “I was thinking of taking my wife out to dinner that night; I haven’t listened to her carefully for several days,” the response will be, “But you are very much needed at this meeting; couldn’t you arrange another evening with your wife?” But if I say, “The appointment calendar will not permit it,” there is no further discussion.

The trick, of course, is to get to the calendar before anyone else does. I mark out the times for prayer, for reading, for leisure, for the silence and solitude out of which creative work—prayer, preaching, and listening—can issue.

I find that when these central needs are met, there is plenty of time for everything else. And there is much else, for the pastor is not, and should not be, exempt from the hundred menial tasks or the administrative humdrum. These also are pastoral ministry. But the only way I have found to accomplish them without resentment and anxiety is to first take care of the priorities. If there is no time to nurture these essentials, I become a busy pastor, harassed and anxious, a whining, compulsive Martha instead of a contemplative Mary.

A number of years ago I was a busy pastor and had some back trouble that required therapy. I went for one hour sessions three times a week, and no one minded that I wasn’t available for those three hours. Because the three hours had the authority of an appointment calendar behind them, they were sacrosanct.

On the analogy of that experience, I venture to prescribe appointments for myself to take care of the needs not only of my body, but also of my mind and emotions, my spirit and imagination. One week, in addition to daily half-hour conferences with St. Paul, my calendar reserved a two-hour block of time with Fyodor Dostoevsky. My spirit needed that as much as my body ten years ago needed the physical therapist. If nobody is going to prescribe it for me, I will prescribe it for myself.”

I was trained to lead a Growth Group in the late 90s. Back then we were on the tail end of the popularity of the Dialogue Meeting for evangelistic strategy. And so this was a feature of how I was trained as a Growth Group leader. A Dialogue Meeting is a small gathering of Christians and their unbelieving friends. They gather for a BBQ, light meal or dessert/coffee. The gathering includes a short gospel talk and an opportunity for questions. I have been to several Dialogue Meetings, spoken at a few and led my first Growth Group in running 2. All of these have contributed little to evangelistic gospel growth. I don’t know of anyone who became a Christian through these Dialogue Meetings or in the follow up. However I am still almost-convinced of the Dialogue Meeting… or really what it’s trying to do. Let me explain why.

My latest post at Determined Gospeling is here

I’m reading through 1 Thessalonians – slowly… and here’s some questions I’ve asked myself after reading Chapter 2:1-12.

1. What is my real motivation for preaching and ministering?
2. What do I really expect in return?
3. Am I gentle?
4. Am I a genuine encourager?
5. Am I devout, righteous and blameless?

Dear Gracious Father – please help my brothers and I serve Jesus and your people with an expectation of being owed nothing. Make us gentle like mothers and father-like encouragers. And may the glory of Christ be our motivation in all things. Amen!

Do Growth Groups contribute to the evangelistic efforts of church? Can they? How?

I’ve recently read ‘Gospel Centered Church’ by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester. It’s a short book of short chapters, designed for use in a discussion group (I highly recommend it). It describes effective evangelism as low key, long term and relational. I think this is true most of the time.

This is link to my latest article about evangelism through Growth Groups on the Determined Gospeling blog

A hard hitting post for pastor-dads by Paul Tripp

This blog was originally posted here

Determined Gospeling was launched in January 2011 to encourage persistent evangelism in our ministries that is consistent with the Gospel.  There are weekly posts about evangelism in the Sunday gathering, preaching, Growth Groups and our personal lives.

Long term Growth Groups: are they good for gospel growth?

I don’t think I have THE answer to this question. This post is a handful of observations and reflections about long-term Growth Groups. How do these groups promote and hinder evangelism? I’m keen to hear your observations and critique of the ones I’ve mentioned here.

What is a long-term Growth Group? This is a group that has met together long enough without changes in membership that no one really remembers not being in this group. Nor is there an expectation of belonging to any other group in the future. Some groups might reach this stage after 5 years. Other groups may take 25 years to feel like this.

Some groups set out to create a long-term commitment to one another. Some just evolve.

Most of us (young guys) are aware of the benefits of periodic changes in Growth Group membership. But I can also appreciate there are definite strengths to long-term Growth Groups. What about in relation to evangelism?

Benefits: How does the long-term Growth Group promote evangelism?
1. Strong and settled base. Well-established Growth Groups can be better placed for concentrated effort on praying for evangelistic opportunities and consistently encouraging individual members in their evangelism across the years.

2. Deeper involvement in one another’s lives and lives of unbelieving contacts. As Growth Group members grow in relationships with one another members can be more aware of the contact group members have with unbelievers. Through sharing life together (including outside the group meetings) there is opportunity to be in occasional (even regular) contact with these unbelievers.

3. Harvesting in new paddocks. An established Growth Group might make a decision to seek out new contact with unbelievers as a group. The group might join a club or organisation together with the purpose of sharing in new relationships with unbelievers for the purpose of evangelism.

Difficulties: How does the long-term Growth Group hinder evangelism?
1. Exhausted contact with unbelievers. As the years pass, a Growth Group may feel like they have exhausted evangelistic endeavours with the unbelievers group members are in contact with. This may lead to complacency about evangelism in the group and unhelpfully discourage the individual from persistent prayer for salvation and speaking about Jesus. Changes in Growth Group membership gives new opportunity to hear about ‘old’ contacts. Hopefully this encourages group members to persevere in personal evangelism and may create fresh options for evangelism around the edges of the group.

2. Jargon. There is a danger in long-term Growth Groups that such familiarity with one another evolves that groups are no longer accessible to new members (believers or unbelievers). The way group members relate to one another becomes the norm for how they think about relationships in general. They are marked by a particular set of values, language (jargon) and history. Over time individuals become less and less able to speak with unbelievers about the gospel in an engaging way.

3. Closed membership. The Growth Group can become so settled in its membership they are no longer able to or willing to accept and welcome new members. New members threaten the stability of the group that members have known and loved. The group may not be opposed to evangelism. But evangelism has to happen outside the group and any new believers directed

Summing up. Any of the hindrances I have raised can be avoided if a group makes a deliberate effort to compensate for them. However the reality is that most of our Growth Groups (even the healthy ones) have enough to think about week to week. If we are are committed to determined gospeling in our ministries and the role that Growth Groups play… should we discourage long-term Growth Groups?

Well… I’ve finally given in. I’ve embraced the whole Santa thing. Here’s why.

1. Last year my kids used to look blankly at people who asked what will Santa bring you.
2. Now… though I have NEVER told my kids that Santa brings them presents they are convinced he does.
3. My kids won’t believe me that we can have Christmas AND even presents without Santa. (Yet surprisingly and thankfully they believe me when I tell them that Jesus rose from the dead).

So… on the weekend I embraced Santa. I even went to a Christmas shop with the boys – marveled at the strings of LED lights in the shape of reindeers and snowmen, played with all the Santa toys (did you know there’s a santa who farts when you pull his finger?), and joked about how many darts it would take to deflate a 3m inflatable Santa. It was only my aversion to spending money that we didn’t head home with the station wagon loaded.

Anyway… while we were there we came up with a new ‘family tradition’ that goes with embracing this Santa thing. It’s called ‘Sack-a-Santa’.

Every year we’re going to make our own Santa pinata – stuff him with lollies and paint him red. Then we’ll hang him up on Christmas Day and ‘Sack-him’. Because afterall once he’s delivered the presents… who needs him anymore? Santa is no help to me on Boxing Day or New Year’s Day, on the 19th May or the day the cat dies, on the first day of school or any other day.

But there is someone who is with us and for us and able to help us on EVERY day. Praise God that Jesus doesn’t just serve us for ONE purpose ONCE a year.

‘[Jesus] is ALWAYS able to save those who come to God through Him, since He ALWAYS lives to intercede for them.’ (Hebrews 7:25)

Merry Christmas and Happy Santa Season

Bring on the sacking. Instructions and photos will be posted in due course.

Russ

Many of us have implemented the Connect Grow Serve pathway. And we praise God for moving people along the pathway.

But there are several people around each of our churches who don’t fit the pathway – e.g. those who have been serving for years, but aren’t believers; those who are believers and committed to serving, but resist joining a Growth Group (or other fellowship opportunity around God’s Word) and show no signs of growth in their life. What do we do?

The Gospel Coalition has asked a helpful and more specific question:
Do Non-Believers Play a Public Role in Your Church Services?
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2010/12/02/tgc-asks-do-non-believers-play-a-public-role-in-your-church-services/

What role do unbelievers play in your Sunday gatherings?

I have begun reading ‘The Cross of Christ’… again. Like ‘Knowing God’ I have started many times, but never gotten very far.

Stott-y sharpened my understanding of the Cross this week – and in particular my sensitivity to a Roman perspective on crucifixion.

Knowing the OT we are aware that for a Jew – crucifixion (on a tree/cross): ‘anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse’ (Deuteronomy 21:23).

For the Roman Gentile I had suspected crucifixion was just another method of execution. But Cicero regards it with greater severity: ‘crudelissium taeterrimumque supplicum – a most cruel and disgusting punishment.’

Knowing both the Jewish and Roman aversion to crucifixion, sheds a new perspective on Paul’s bold (and seemingly ridiculous) statement in Romans 1:16: ‘I am not ashamed!’

This is what else Cicero had to say about crucifixion:

‘To bind a Roman citizen is a crime, to flog him is an abomination, to kill him is almost an act of murder: to crucify him is – What? There is no fitting word that can possibly describe so horrible a deed [...] The very word “cross” should be far removed not only from the person of a Roman citizen, but from his thoughts, his eyes and his ears. For it is not only the actual occurrence of these things (sc. the procedures of crucifixion) or the endurance of them, but liability to them, the expectation, indeed the mere mention of them, that is unworthy of a Roman citizen and a free man.’

It makes me think… Paul must have been pretty certain the cross of Christ is essential to the gospel.