2013 is the inaugural year of an innovative biblical commentary series edited by John Walton and Mark Straus (published by Baker Books). It鈥檚 called Teach the Text because that is what it is about: helping people to teach the biblical text effectively. It combines literary, background and exegetical analysis with theological, pedagogical and homiletical discussion. But it does this in a surprisingly concise and accessible manner.
Yesterday I spent about 45 minutes talking and praying with one of my current students. Four months ago he was invited to step into the role of youth pastor in his church, and now finds himself responsible for preparing and teaching a message every Friday and Sunday. Two messages a week! And this for someone who has only done a bit of preaching in the past鈥 He shared with me (and I share this entire post with his permission) that the single hardest thing he has faced in his new role as youth pastor is the agonizing decision of what to preach each week.
Remember 7th grade, when your English teacher taught you how to diagram sentences? You know, 鈥渕ain clause,鈥 鈥渟ubordinate clause,鈥 and all that other stuff you have likely forgotten long ago? I still diagram sentences. And I teach my students how to diagram sentences, too鈥擥reek sentences!
Dave Brunn recently gave a gift to the English-speaking church in his book One Bible, Many Versions: Are All Translations Created Equal? (IVP, 2013). Dave Brunn is a professional translator and trainer of translator-wannabes within New Tribes Mission. To the best of my knowledge, he has never worked on an English-language translation project. His translational claim to fame is a translation of the Bible (done alongside dedicated national co-translators) into Lamogai, one of the multitude of languages in Papua New Guinea. Consequently, Dave Brunn brings an outsider鈥檚 perspective to our recent English translation battles. (You know what I鈥檓 talking about, the 鈥渕ine is the best translation and all others are suspect鈥 battles.) And his outsider鈥檚 perspective is clarifying and challenging. Here is a summary of the book, in the author鈥檚 own words (from pages 189-190), focusing on what translations share, rather than how they differ.
Hace ya varios a帽os escuch茅 una frase que me ha hecho pensar constantemente y que refleja uno de los mayores peligros que enfrentan los l铆deres cristianos. La frase dice as铆: 鈥渆s importante no estar tan ocupado en la obra de Dios que nos olvidemos del Dios de la obra鈥. El problema no es el servicio a Dios sino el enfoque y, en muchos casos, la motivaci贸n que nos mueve al servicio. Estoy convencido que uno de los pecados principales de muchos l铆deres es el 茅nfasis obsesivo por el trabajo y, por lo tanto, el descuido de lo esencial y verdaderamente importante como Dios, la familia y el cuidado personal.
The most recent issue of the Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care carried an article I wrote on the relationship between spiritual formation and mission. Here's an outline...
In response to the ongoing revelations of widespread cheating in professional sports, my earlier blog explored the idea of cheating as compared to New Testament ethics. So much for why athletes should not cheat, and what they should pursue instead. The doping problems in sport raise another question: what is someone responsible to do when she becomes aware of others' cheating? This question extends beyond sport to daily life evils that are preventable if someone in our lives would just speak up once in a while.
Slowly, more top professional cyclists that were rivals of Lance Armstrong are mumbling confessions of the same carefully-worded sort that Lance released last January. Some have been coerced by teams or government inquiries (as with the handful of Americans who testified to their own doping as part of implicating Lance Armstrong). The latest is Jan Ullrich, the German cyclist who placed second to Lance three times in the Tour de France. Like many others, Ullrich used the same worn out excuse that 鈥渆verybody was doing it,鈥 and that his joining the 鈥渕edical program鈥 was just a way to play on a level field. What are we to think of these things?
A recent check on Amazon.com discovered that over 25,000 books are listed under the category of Church Growth. This is an amazing number of books given the fact that the North American Church Growth Movement is only forty-one years old. With such a large number of books written on the topic of church growth, it is only natural to ask if there is any consensus on what factors are found in growing churches in North America. What are those factors? I thought you鈥檇 never ask!
One of the little known facts of church growth is that pastors can stay too long. Long pastoral tenure can actually harm the growth of a church. Generally, the first twenty years of a pastor鈥檚 tenure are quite healthy, but it is very rare for a pastor to lead a church through a third decade with vitality and growth.
驴Por qu茅 las cosas son como son? 驴D贸nde est谩 Dios cuando el mundo lo ignora a 脡l y a sus principios? Cuando Dios act煤a, 驴por qu茅 hace 脡l lo que hace? Todos nos hemos hecho alguna vez preguntas dif铆ciles respecto a Dios y a nuestra fe. En muchas ocasiones, lo que vemos aparentemente no concuerda con lo que creemos acerca de Dios. 驴Qu茅 hacer en estas circunstancias? En Habacuc encontramos un libro b铆blico que nos muestra un modelo para enfrentar estos momentos y acrecentar nuestra fe en el Dios que sostiene el universo con su poder.
Peter Drucker wrote that in our knowledge-based society, information is the key resource and building block for every type of organization. Information is the new money, currency upon which organizations rise or fall. How may a local church respond to the new currency of information in today's world?
Good doctrine, good fellowship, good worship, and good prayer. Do they guarantee the growth of a church? Not necessarily. Sometimes churches do not do well, even though they have the basic ingredients. So, what's the problem? For some, it's a lack of communication to those in and outside the church.
You don't have a second chance for a good first impression. When it comes to first-time guests at your church, that statement is especially true. And it's that first impression guests leave with that determines whether they will be back. So, what is it that goes into a good first impression? Or, for that matter, a bad one?
I love my office. There are many reasons that I love my office. One is that I can store the many books that I own in there. Second, it is a place for study or reading in a quiet setting. But what I love most is that my office is a place for ministry and discipleship to occur. In other words, it is a safe place to meet students who are not only facing the challenges of academia but also the hardships of life. For this reason, the value of my office hours is priceless!
There is a pressure that is constantly battling around us to give people whatever they want. When you are younger it was labeled peer pressure. However, as we grow older the peer pressures continues throughout life, we just call them 鈥淓xpectations鈥濃
Often times it seems that harder the church tries to be relevant, the more irrelevant we become. The Bible is full of this kind of upside down logic. The self-clingers lose themselves, the prideful end up humbled, those jostling to be first end last, and, now it seems, those trying the hardest to be relevant end up most irrelevant. Thaddeus Williams explores what happens when the church puts relevance to culture ahead of reverence to Christ.
Looking over a resume in order to hire a person for ministry can be trickier than one realizes at first. This is especially true because they typically want to give the benefit of the doubt to one鈥檚 accomplishments and experiences as listed on a resume. However, it has been the experience of this writer that what is often listed on a resume may not actually be the truth. There are those who like to 鈥渟tretch鈥 the information or possibly 鈥渆mbellish鈥 the facts to point in favor of the applicant. Then there are those who just flat out lie about who they really are and what they鈥檝e done. This blog will highlight some clues or signs of 鈥渞ed flags鈥 that may show up in ministry resumes.
Esta semana se conmemoran los d铆as m谩s importantes para el cristianismo y, por consiguiente, para todo el mundo. La muerte y resurrecci贸n de Jesucristo marcan el eje central de nuestra fe. Durante la semana santa recordamos la muerte de Jes煤s en la cruz por nuestros pecados y su victoria sobre la muerte a trav茅s de su gloriosa resurrecci贸n.
Can anything good come out of Kansas City? Absolutely! A global event is taking place there now at the International House of Prayer. You are invited to participate in what God is doing.
Breaking up may be hard to do, but starting over in ministry can be scary. No one enjoys change and often our worst mistakes happen in the stress of transitions.
Over the past three years I have had the privilege of serving as a part-time pastor in a local church here in Southern California. Though I鈥檝e been in ministry for several years and have even spent significant time in ministry overseas, these past few years have constituted a re-education in the gospel. Here is what I mean: 鈥淭he gospel鈥 is a phrase that Christians often use without fully understanding its significance. We speak the language of the gospel, but we rarely apply the gospel to every aspect of our lives. Yet this is exactly what God wants for us. The gospel is nothing less than 鈥渢he power of God鈥 (Rom. 1:16). In Colossians 1:6, the apostle Paul commends the Colossian church because the gospel has been 鈥渂earing fruit and growing...among [them] since the day [they] heard it.鈥 The apostle Peter teaches that a lack of ongoing transformation in our lives comes from forgetting what God has done for us in the gospel (2 Peter 1:3鈥9). If we are to grow into maturity in Christ, we must deepen and enlarge our understanding of the gospel as the way God transforms us.
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