Andrew space: Ministry

SCCCA Leadership Conference 2008

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:44:22 GMT

First time ever - SCCCA is running a leadership conference in Sydney on the weekend of 12-14 September. It'll be awesome! We recommend coming as a leadership team, to make the most of the conference.

Click on the image above to go to the registration page.

[ PS: spaces for this conference really are limited, so get in early! ]

Five things I learnt in ministry

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:45:59 GMT

Over the past ten or so years since leaving IBM and going into Bible college and then full time ministry, I have realised just how important certain things are - and just how easy it is to replace them with inferior substitutes in the hectic bustle of church ministry.

What I have done today is put together a list of these often hard-won realisations. Most of these things have already made it onto the blog in one form or another - but here I'm pulling them all together!

1. Grace, not rules

In comparison with the others, I realised this pretty early on - in fact while I was still at Bible college.

I would often be asked to be a guest speaker here or there, and as I went I would often pull out one of my favourite talks. While it's been given different titles over the years, it's on Colossians 2, and you may have heard it before! What I particularly like about this talk is that it reassures us that God looks on us by grace alone.

Not rocket science I know - but trust me. There are many people out there for whom the focus is on obeying rules. What made me realise this is a trap is that when I went to speak at other churches, the preaching of grace was often like an exhilarating breath of fresh air in a stale room. What I came to realise was that many Christians receive a steady diet of rules, rules and more rules - and are worn down by this. Even leaders fall into this trap - maybe especially leaders. And so we end up thinking we need to read our Bible diligently, and serve a lot, and have a big ministry resume for God to be happy with us - and we forget about grace.

But when people are refreshed by God's grace, it's interesting that they actually become eager to do those very things the rules tried to do. They become eager to pray, eager to serve, eager to read the Bible for themselves. Those things are no longer chores for them!

This is what God's people need to hear again and again: grace, not rules!

2. Human sin and church structures

This one came as a result of social ethics lectures in fourth year of Bible college. That subject got me thinking about the implications of theology for social groups - and particularly for church structures. And I was particularly prompted along by conversations with a number of people who were frustrated with their church leadership and wanted to change things. "We should just have pastors," they would say.

But I realised that theologically, we have to account for sin in our friends and in ourselves - not just those who 'oppose' us. As Luther said, Christians are simul Justus et Peccator. We think we can do no wrong because we are Justus! But because we are et Peccator, it is right to have checks and balances against us. That is only wise, if we believe we are still capable of sin.

Because one day, we might be the ones who threaten gospel ministry - and other people will need a way to prevent us from harming the church.

I ended up writing a paper on this for SCCCA - you can download it from the SCCCA website here.

3. Persuasion, not coercion

This next one came in the course of ministry, as people talk about how to get things done. If there is a problem, I realised that there was sometimes an automatic reaction of making a rule about it. And for some people, this is their normal way of handling problems.

Now, this is not to say that rules are always bad! But when we come to the New Testament, the way things are done is through persuasion, not coercion. The apostles taught people, reasoned with people, sought to persuade people. Because what's important isn't merely constraining behaviour, but growing people in Christian character!

The path of persuasion may seem weaker in comparison with the administrative path of creating rules. The path of administration may also seem an easier way of dealing with problems! But by itself, it doesn't help to grow Christians.

4. Love God, not just obey God

For quite a long while I had interpreted "loving God", as "obeying God". And that was what the Christian life was really all about - obeying God. And so a Christian is someone who now lives under God's rule, Christians grow by learning God's word and living it out, etc. It was all about obedience and sacrifice.

And I think I wasn't alone in this, many evangelicals instinctively talk about obedience as the test of godliness - and shy away from talking about love. I suppose in some way this has been in reaction to the charismatic movement. We don't want to seem to be about emotions, so let's talk about obeying God's word instead.

But love isn't synonymous with obedience or sacrifice - and you can see this in 1 Corinthians 13. In that passage, someone can give their body to the flames ... and yet not have love! Not only that, in the Old Testament God condemns Israel for giving him mere obedience and sacrifices - but not loving him! Instead, they had attached their affections to other things. And today many Christians think they are pleasing God when they obey him outwardly, but give their affections to their careers, their pleasure - maybe even to ministry!

What God demands of us is not merely obedience - but our love. When asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus replied that it was to love God! And we don't need to be afraid of this being an emotion - because it's an affection. For more information read the talks from our 2008 Leaders' Retreat here.

A Christian is not just someone who tries to obeys God, or who makes great sacrifices for God - a Christian is primarily someone who loves him!

5. Apprehending glory, not trying harder

How do you deal with sin? For most people, the answer is simple: you just have to try harder. You just need to be self controlled, and just ... don't do it!

I realised recently that's not the whole answer. Because the problem isn't merely in the doing of the sin, it's primarily in our affection for the sin. That is, people don't just choose to gossip - they love what gossiping does for them. And so a person might control their actions for a short while - but all along they still really love that sin - and at the earliest opportunity they'll snap back to it, like a rubber band coming back to rest.

The answer is not to focus your attention on trying harder - but instead to look at the glory of God. To apprehend him more clearly in all his awesome holiness, and his astounding grace. As we do that, we grow in our love for God and find ourselves satisfied in knowing him, and being known by him. But not only that, you will also find that that sin that once had such a wretched hold on you ... it simply no longer attracts you! It just can't compare.

This is how you beat sin: by apprehending God in all his glory, not by trying harder!

[ PS: what are the big things you have learnt in your ministry? ]

SCCCA English dinner promo #2

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:41:19 GMT

[ PS: this dinner, hosted by SCCCA, is free for theological students and final year apprentices... but you must RSVP! ]

How does Adam's sin affect you?

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:13:49 GMT

The classic text for this is of course Romans 5:12-19. On the face of it, it's quite clear: one man sinned, and so sin entered the world. But there has been a bit of debate about how exactly to understand this passage over the years...

Historically, there have been three main views on this: the first arguing that we fall by imitation (example), the second that we inherit sin by virtue of being in Adam's 'loins' or body (seminalist), and the third that Adam's sin is imputed to us, just as Christ's righteousness is also imputed to us (federalist).

When you're at Bible college, one of the ways people study is you get together in a study group. Then you divide up a subject, and each person writes a study paper on a separate area, and shares it with others in the group. And in second year for Doctrine, I was allocated the topic of "sin". And to escape the stress of study, I put together this quick comic for my study paper, illustrating the three historic views of how Adam's sin affects all of humanity...

It just goes to show. When you've got lots of study to do, you are never too busy to procrastinate... even at Bible college!

[ PS: most evangelicals would argue for either the seminalist or federalist position on this! ]

Breaking the pornography cycle

Tue, 20 May 2008 07:25:19 GMT

How then do you break the pornography cycle (see previous post)?

Most people will suggest a few strategies to prevent yourself from viewing pornography - like putting your computer in a public place, or installing filter software. And these have a useful place - but because it is a pornography cycle we are talking about here, those suggestions only deal with one part of the cycle and not the whole of it! And because the pornography cycle has the force of addiction behind it, when the temptation becomes strong again people tend to find some creative way to get around those strategies they had put in place. And there goes their plan of beating pornography!

It's like trying to stop a runaway truck that is screaming down the road towards you. Take off one of its wheels - and it'll just keep on screaming towards you. But take of all of its wheels all at once, and that truck will come to a screeching halt!

And so you beat pornography not by doing one thing (like putting your computer in a family area). Instead you beat pornography addiction by doing something for every stage of the pornography cycle. This way, you completely de-wheel that truck, and you break every part of the pornography cycle!

So what can you do to counter the four stages of the pornography cycle?

Step 1 - Viewing pornography

Here you put in place all those strategies for preventing yourself from viewing pornography. Things such as putting your computer in a public place, installing filter software, throwing out your collection of pornography, perhaps even disconnecting your internet to your home. Do whatever it takes.

Step 2 - Masturbation and orgasm

You need to know how the pornography cycle works - and particularly that if you masturbate and have an orgasm, you are actually further reinforcing your pornography addiction. And so if you do find that yourself viewing pornography again, then OK, you've viewed it - but you must avoid masturbating to it, because that will provide your body with a chemical reward that behaviour (adrenaline, endorphins ... and that other chemical I mentioned), further trapping you in that cycle!

Step 3 - Guilt

Instead of wallowing in secret guilt, as a Christian you need to give thanks that the blood of Jesus cleanses you from every sin - even things like lust and addiction to pornography. Boldly grab hold of the freedom that sinners have been graciously given in the gospel! If you wallow in guilt, you will only create a stronger need to feel good again.

Step 4 - Need to feel good

And most importantly, as a Christian, you also need to keep feeding your delight in God. Most readers may not immediately understand the power of this, but this is by far the most important step of the four. Around Feb-Mar of this year I wrote some posts about the place of the affections in the Christian life, and the talks from our leaders' retreat this year were about this as well (links to them here). I have found that few Christians understand this, so I refer you to them for more information.

But basically, the more you are amazed and captivated by God in all of his glory and grace, the less you will find yourself being attracted to sin. And so you must urgently and fervently feed your delight in God by seeking out and meditating on passages where the Bible tells us of the awesomeness of God's glory and grace.

Pornography recovery programs sometimes tell you to go and do physical exercise - and the reason being this is that physical exercise generates endorphins in our body, making us feel good, hence negating a need for pornography in the first place. But the contentment and delight in God that Christians can have is far more powerful - it has even emboldened Christians to welcome their own martyrdom.

People often enter the pornography cycle at step 4, for one of two reasons. Either they will have had a tough, stressful day (maybe a bad day at work), and they will therefore feel the need to distract themselves and feel good - and pornography affords an easy answer. Or the exact opposite: they will have nothing much to do, and in their boredom they seek out something to excite and stimulate them - and again pornography affords an easy answer. As an answer, pornography is tragically deceptive - it leads to lasting guilt, and locks you into the pornography cycle!

But this is how you can get out of it.

[ PS: there were lots of hits for the previous post! ]

The pornography cycle

Wed, 14 May 2008 13:54:05 GMT

Addiction to pornography is just that - an addiction. Because it's effect on the person is stronger than just being a habit.

This diagram illustrates the vicious cycle of pornography that leads to addiction.

In stage 1 a person views pornography. In stage 2, this person masturbates to orgasm. In stage 3, the person experiences feelings of guilt. And in stage 4, the person has a need to feel good again - leading back to stage 1.

Pornography becomes an addiction because masturbation and orgasm physiologically provides reward to the viewing of pornography and comfort for the feelings of guilt - but at the same time also creates the need for a new cycle of pornography viewing, because of the feelings of guilt that come afterward.

It is similar to being addicted to a drug - in stage 1 you take the drug, in stage 2 you experience feelings of euphoria, in stage 3 you experience withdrawal, and in stage 4 you desire to feel good again - and since that drug offers the promise of euphoria, you are drawn into the cycle of addiction.

This means that it's harder to stop a pornography habit than we might think - it's akin to coming off a drug addiction! Because you are not merely trying to stop an activity - but trying to break an established cycle of addiction. And because the chemicals you have have become addicted to are not purchased from a dealer - but are created in your very own body in masturbation and orgasm (adrenaline, endorphins and something called phenylethylalanine)!

[ PS: how then do you beat a pornography addiction? ]

Verbal aspect theory

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:15:03 GMT

Warning! This post is only going to be understood by very few readers - probably only those who have been to Bible college! But it's an important subject because not everyone who has learnt New Testament Greek has caught on to verbal aspect theory.

In 1989 Stanley Porter produced Verbal Aspect in the Greek of the New Testament, with reference to Tense and Mood - a revolutionary work in the field of New Testament studies!

The New Testament was written in Greek, and verbs are rendered in various tenses such as present, aorist, perfect, imperfect, pluperfect, future. First year Greek is all about learning that this is an aorist verb, this is an imperfect verb and that is a pluperfect. However second year Greek is all about learning the significance of an aorist, an imperfect, and a pluperfect.

And for many years the predominant way that people understood what these verb tenses was about was with a model called Aktionsart.

This argues that verb tenses (particularly in the indicative) are primarily to do with time (past, future or present) just like English, and outside of the indicative have to do with the kind of action of the verb (progressive, simple occurrence, completed). This Aktionsart theory of verb tenses is what you'd find in intermediate Greek grammars. And technical commentaries would employ Aktionsart by describing this verb here as "punctiliar", or another verb there as having "occurred in the past with present results".

Porter's book challenged the whole theory of Aktionsart. He showed that the exceptions outnumber the rule - you could find present indicative verbs that obviously had past, present, future and even non-temporal time references! And so he questioned whether the tenses had anything to do with time at all!

Porter argues that in fact, rather than tenses portraying the objective nature of the action, its is actually the subjective conception of the action by the writer. The different tenses show us an action through different eyes.

In verbal aspect theory, there are essentially three verbal aspects:

Verbal aspect	Verb tense	The action viewed...
Perfective	Aorist	as a complete, whole act
Imperfective	Present Imperfect	as an act going on
Stative	Perfect Pluperfect Future	in terms of the state or condition of the act

Picture a large parade, slowly making its way through the main street of a city. A writer could use different tenses to portray the action of the parade through different eyes. So for instance the perfective aspect is like being shown the parade as a whole from the vantage point of a helicopter hovering high overhead, where you can see the complete parade all at once. The imperfective aspect is like viewing the parade from the grandstands as first one then another float passes by you. And the stative aspect is like viewing the parade from the organiser's control room, where different cameras and status updates give you the state of every different part of the parade all at once.

This is what is meant by aspect being about subjective conception and not objective nature. In objective reality, the action of the verb may have ceased a long time ago (ie. the actual parade may have occurred five years ago). But as the writer writes his account of the parade, he may do so portraying it for us from the eyes of a person seeing it from the grandstand (hence using the imperfect tense), or perhaps from the vantage point of the helicopter (hence using the aorist).

Verbal aspect theory makes sense of the many head-scratching exceptions of Aktionsart, and you will increasingly see it being used in technical commentaries.

Aside from Stanley Porter, verbal aspect theory is being promoted by Don Carson at TEDS. And in Sydney, Moore College is actually on the forefront of work in verbal aspect theory, with Peter O'Brien having used it in his Ephesians commentary and his soon-to-be-released Hebrews commentary, and Con Campbell with his recent Verbal Aspect, the Indicative Mood, and Narrative (Con classifies the perfect tense as imperfective aspect)!

[ PS: many pastors have been trained to use Aktionsart and quite likely won't have read anything on verbal aspect theory! ]

Google Docs and ministry - part 2

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:29:06 GMT

So Google Docs is useful for sharing information with your ministry team or your Bible study group, and it's also useful for keeping important documents handy if you are sometimes away from your computer (see previous post).

But there is more you can do with Google Docs...

1. Graphs

Numbers in spreadsheets are nice, but people like me prefer to see things in colourful, visual way. One simple way this can be done is by the use of a graph or chart.

The following picture shows a graph of attendance at a Bible study group over the course of a year.

This is not so special, since regular office suites have been doing this for many, many years - although it is nice to be able to do this with your Google shared spreadsheet as well.

2. Gadgets

However Google Docs also has things called Gadgets that can do things that you won't see elsewhere ... one particularly interesting one being their Maps Gadget. Here Google have somehow interfaced Google Earth with Google Docs, and you can create a spreadsheet with a list of addresses, and place names. Then select the data and insert a Map Gadget - and voila, a map appears! with your locations plotted onto it!

In the picture below you can see a spreadsheet with a Map Gadget, showing the locations of Chinese churches in the North and North West region of Sydney.

It's ... not perfect. There's a limit to how many locations it displays, and things don't always map correctly. But that's a Gadget with huge potential.

3. Forms

Something else I tried out recently was the ability to create an empty spreadsheet, and design a form that is emailed out to a number of recipients for them to fill out. When they click 'submit', it sends the data to Google Docs, and updates the spreadsheet for you - a great way to collect information! Google Docs allows you to modify the kind of input fields on the form (text area, check box, drop-down list, etc.) before sending out the email.

Below you see an example of such an email form.

Again, there are a few bugs here and there - the list of people you have sent the forms to seems to disappear once you log out and then log back in to Google Docs, giving you the impression it hasn't been sent... but hopefully they'll sort that out in time.

In the mean time, there's lots of things that are useful for ministry!

[ PS: are there other Gadgets you've found useful? ]

Google Docs and ministry - part 1

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 01:10:15 GMT

In ministry there's often some important document that your team needs to have access to - and it probably gets updated from time to time.

Some people from church have been using Google Documents as a way of managing this (http://docs.google.com), and so far it's worked out quite well. It allows different people to access, and even edit the same document. Google documents allow you to share spreadsheets, Word-like documents, and presentations (which I haven't tried).

It does require that people get a Google account (but not necessarily a Gmail account). But once that's set up, going in to http://docs.google.com will display a list of your shared spreadsheets and documents. From this you can select which one to view or edit, or organise them into folders.

Obviously the capability is not the same as for full-fledged office suites, but for most things, it works just fine. Spreadsheets allow for everyday functions like sum, average, count - as well as much more complex statistical and logical things. Documents allow you to change styles, insert page breaks, pictures, tables - even headers and footers.

This is great for things like:

allowing team members to see the most up-to-date roster / document, instead of having to email around endless version updates.
sharing a contact list from your ministry with your team members.
putting together a roster for your church, where different people are in charge of finding people for different columns (eg. the person responsible for music, the person responsible for the AV team, the person with the preaching roster).
having different team members contribute different sections of one report on how things are going in their area.
accessing an important document / roster when you're away from your own computer.

Team members can even request notification when the document is updated, and you can also export to various formats (even PDF), in case you have some less technologically able team members. If someone accidentally deletes part of your document, you can look at the changes that different people have made, and roll back to a previous revision.

Depending on the quality of your connection however, the speed of updating a document can be frustrating. It does require people to adopt a slightly different paradigm of document handling. And it does requires your team to have Internet access, and log in to Google to get at those documents. But once they work that out, it can make organising ministry a lot easier.

There are some other great features of Google Docs, but more about that later!

[ PS: what have you used Google Docs for? ]

SCCCA English theolog's dinner

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:01:09 GMT

Leaders' retreat 2008

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:12:38 GMT

I've been doing a lot of thinking and reading lately about the heart and it's affections, and you've probably noticed that in a series of posts in January and February. However, my thinking and reading has mostly been for a series of three talks I've been writing for our 2008 youth leaders' retreat...

Well, the leaders' retreat has come and gone (29 Feb - 2 Mar), and the talks are now finished (phew).

In the first talk we looked at "The heart and its affections". This looks at the strange language of the affections in the Bible, and looks at the place the heart plays in lives and in our decision making. We also look at how this fits with the finished work of Christ, and the pastoral effects of ignoring the heart.

The second talk looks at "How to strengthen the heart". If we are to have a heart that loves God, how do we go about doing it? This talk looks at the place of the word of God, the way in which we approach the Bible, and the place of prayer.

The third talk was on "The heart, and how we lead others". And here we look at the implications for all of this for the Christian leader as an individual, and then the content of our ministry. This talk also includes some clarifications, and answers to questions that people may still have on the whole issue of the heart and its affections.

Interested? You can download the talks (and the booklet) from the church website and read for yourself!

Leaders' retreat talks
http://www.ndcccs.org.au/nd_web/english/08-0229-0302.pdf (205kb)

Leaders' retreat booklet
http://www.ndcccs.org.au/nd_web/english/08-0229-0302_booklet.pdf (519kb)

[ PS: were you at leaders' retreat? Which talk struck you the most? ]

What happens when you neglect the heart

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:37:38 GMT

I've been quite overwhelmed lately with writing talks for our leaders' retreat, which is this weekend. Which is why there haven't been a lot of posts lately. However, the talks at leaders' retreat are about the affections (as are these posts), and it promises to be a great series of talks. But since the two kind of coincide, here in advance are some of the fruits of some of my preparation...

Last year I was talking about the place of the heart and its affections with some Christians - and they wouldn't have it. For them, Christianity was more about obedience! It was more about knowing, and acting in obedience on that knowledge!

And that's what we constantly hear - but that's actually quite dangerous. Let me map out for you some of the pastoral implications of ignoring the heart. What can you expect to see in your ministry (or even yourself) when all there is to Christianity is the intellect and the behaviour?

People become dry as Christians. Because for them Christianity has just become about the external actions. Going to the right things. Saying the right things. Knowing the correct doctrine. And for them, that's all that Christianity has ever been about.

People become envious of non Christians. Because they have allowed their love to grow for something other than God. They haven't seen how glorious and lovely God is. And so instead they are captivated by the glory of wealth. Their hearts are stolen by the loveliness of friendships. Of good living. Of sports. Of business suits. Of sex. Of extreme living. Of overseas holidays.

People give up on reading their Bibles. Because after a while, there is nothing more for them to know in their heads. There is nothing new for them to be aware of in terms of behaviour. They know it all. And so they just can't see the point of reading the Bible any more.

People secretly resent having to serve God. They know they must, they have that straight in their heads, and that's what they keep hearing from people at church. But they have no jealosy for God's glory. They do not share God's heart for the lost. And so their service will always driven by guilt, or it will be half-hearted, or it will not have the perseverence and stamina or willingness to lay down one's life.

People often cave in to temptation. They find themselves caving in to pornography. They find themselves constantly engaging in lust. They find themselves choosing to serve wealth and possessions and pleasure again and again and again. Why is that? Because in their hearts, they love the things of the world. Secretly, that's what they really long for. And so, the things of the world have a powerful pull on their choices.

And ultimately, if there truly has never been a renovation of the heart, people's souls may even be in danger. You may have people who know correct doctrine. You may have people who seem to do all the right things on the outside. But in reality, their hearts are far away from God. In Matthew 15 Jesus says, "These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain, their teachings are but rules taught by men!"

For the sake of your people, do not neglect the heart and its affections!

[ PS: still writing those talks for leaders' retreat... ]

How to build a dysfunctional church

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:30:06 GMT

A couple of weeks ago I heard about a book written by a retired pastor. In this book he writes about his life story, his experiences at church, how he became a pastor, and his thoughts on the practice of being a pastor.

His reflection was that in the past, pastors used to spend a lot of time meeting with people and shepherding their flock.

His analysis was that pastors of today have by and large abandoned that vision of the pastoral task and have instead become managers of their flock, spending very little of their time with congregation members.

His contention was that a pastor should spend 90% of his time doing visitation, and only 10% of his time writing a sermon.

And by and large, this is probably what a lot of people in the pew would like, whether they admit it or not - pastors to shepherd us individually, relationally ... time-consumingly! After all, isn't this what the word 'pastor' means?

There's some good things in what that book is saying. It really should be about bringing to bear the word of God onto people's lives - and yes, that can be done from the pulpit, or over coffee. However it would actually be pretty dysfunctional church when all the work of ministry was being done by one person!

In our congregation I don't actually just want one (or two) pastors. I actually want thirty, maybe forty pastors! I actually want lots of people in church to be doing the work of ministry - not just one or two!

And this is in line with the Bible. You see this quite clearly in Ephesians 4. There Paul reveals God's vision of how his church should work. Paul says that,

11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Ephesians 4:11-16 (NIV)

In verse 11 and 12, the role of the pastor-teacher is to prepare God's people for works of service. Verse 12 suggests that it is then God's people who then do the job of building up one another. There's debate about that (it's about whether the preposition just modifies the final clause, or the whole lot), but the debate is actually answered down in verse 16. There in verse 16 we have confirmation that the whole body is doing the work, the whole body is building itself up - not just the one part.

It can be very attractive to have the vision of the pastoral role they found in the book. It really resonates with people - and perhaps also touches some deep cultural chords. However God's own vision of what his pastor-teachers are to do is radically different. Yet he promises it will lead to a church that is mature (v.13) - and healthier.

As pastors are we labouring under an unbiblical view of the pastors' role? This can lead to burnout on our part, let alone an abandonment of the true task God would have a pastor do! And not only that, it leads to a denigration of the work of the body as a whole.

Through our ministry might we reinforcing an unbiblical view of the pastor or the congregation? Often it doesn't come across in official documents and job descriptions - but tacitly, in what leaders expect, what people hint, how they talk about church. Are there subtle tendencies and unspoken expectations that need to be brought out into the light of day and examined under the lens of Scripture?

[ PS: are you building a dysfunctional church? ]

Mind, will and heart

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:27:39 GMT

Over the last short while I've written a few things about the place of the heart in Christian discipleship. But maybe you're not yet sure about the difference between the mind, the will and the heart...

Well, I've knocked up the following diagram that might help illustrate what they are.

We put a lot of emphasis on knowing correct doctrine and living obedient lives - but we neglect the heart. And in doing so, we are actually neglecting quite a lot of the exhortations in the Bible to love the Lord - not merely to know him or serve him!

Moses' exhortations to the Israelites before crossing over into the land wasn't just for them to obey the Lord and keep his commands, but to love the Lord (eg. Deut 11:1, 30:16)! The Psalmists again and again exhort us to "Love the Lord, all his saints!" (Psa 31:23). Jesus himself summarised the first part of the law as "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matt 22:37).

One might argue that "love the Lord" is another way of saying "serve the Lord", since our love for God should go on to show itself in obedience. That is partly true - and in fact our heart is the engine of our behaviour.

But you can also imagine that there is a difference between (on the one hand) an obedient act done out of love for God, and (on the other hand) an obedient act done resentfully and with the do-er full of a love of himself. In fact in the Old Testament sacrifices offered in such a way are rejected by God (eg. Isaiah 1, Malachi 1)!

God does not merely command our minds and our obedience, but our affections also!

[ PS: what do you think are the pastoral implications of neglecting the heart? ]

Leading and the leaders' heart

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:32:50 GMT

"I think I'm burning out," a fellow leader says to you. "Ministry is really taking it out of me - all these meetings and studies to write. And I'm really dry spiritually..."

"...so I'm thinking I want to take a year or so off from ministry to look after my own spiritual growth."

Sound familiar? That's because this is a common complaint of Bible study leaders a few years into serving. And it actually stems from a dangerous misunderstanding...

You see, what the statement reveals is a dichotomy between public ministry on the one hand, and the leaders' private spiritual growth on the other. One necessarily takes time away from the other. And so having a lot of ministry to do will mean spending less time on one's own spiritual growth - leading to spiritual dryness.

However this is wrong. The first job of the leader is not actually to write Bible studies or attend meetings. The main task of the leader is not even to lead their Bible study group!

Their first job is actually ... to love God.

Because the way of Christian leadership is not through programs. Nor is it through setting of policies. Instead, it's through teaching and modelling the Word of God. But note that it's both teaching and modelling!

Most young Bible study leaders think of their role as being all about writing and leading Bible studies - but that's not all there is to it! It's equally about modelling Christian discipleship. And so the leaders' own spiritual growth is not a separate part of their life isolated from their public ministry - but an integral part of their ability to minister!

In 1 Corinthians 11 Paul says, "follow my example as I follow the example of Christ". In Philippians 3 he says, "join with others in following my example brothers, and take careful note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you." In 1 Timothy 4 he tells Timothy to "set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity".

And so when Christian leaders admit to neglecting their own spiritual growth for the sake of ministry, that's not noble and sacrificial ministry. Nothing like it! It's simply a sign of being irresponsible - like admitting to downloading the first study you can find off the internet for your group!

The first job of leaders is not to write Bible studies, or even to lead other people. Instead, it's to love God. To grow in our godly affections. And as people in our groups see that we love God above all other things, as they see us hating sin, and longing for the return of Christ - this will attract them.

This is how Christian leaders lead - not through commanding people to do stuff, but by teaching and modelling Christian discipleship! And so the first job of the leader is to grow themselves in godly affections.

[ PS: have you been divorcing your own private spiritual growth from your public ministry? ]

How to grow godly affections

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:32:30 GMT

So if the affections of a Christian are so important, how then do we go about changing them?

How is it possible for someone to change their own heart? Do we just ... you know ... try really, really hard to love God? Do we simply sqeeze out of ourselves a longing for our heavenly home?

During the early 18th century, revival swept across North America. Thousands of people were responding to the gospel - and their radically transformed lives showed a real love for God. This was known as the First Great Awakening, and in the midst of this heightened spiritual fervour, Jonathan Edwards wrote The Religious Affections (you download it for free here).

In part 3 section IV, Edwards tells his readers about how godly affections come about. And he says that "gracious affections do arise from the mind's being enlightened, richly and spiritually to understand or apprehend divine things."

In Luke 24:32 the hearts of the disciples on the road to Emmaus were set ablaze, not through some secret technique! No, it happened as Jesus opened the Scriptures to them. It was in them looking at the Bible that their hearts were engaged. So the engaging of our affections does start with knowledge - but it's a particular kind of knowledge, a particular kind of understanding.

It's not necessarily about learning new things from the Bible. It actually comes from being confronted again, and again, by the truth of the graciousness and loveliness of God. We do it by keeping ourselves astounded by God's greatness and his compassion as we read about what God is like in the Old Testament - and most of all, what he has ultimately done in the gospel!

Hebrews 13:9 tells us that our hearts are strengthened by grace (not by rule keeping). The writer of Hebrews isn't telling us that God graciously does it (although that is true) - but that when we feed on the stories of God's graciousness, we will actually be strengthening our hearts. At the intellectual level, yes, we already know that God is gracious! But here we're not reading to feed the intellect - we are reading to fuel our heart.

I used to have Christian friends who would only read the Bible to learn new things (they are no longer Christians, by the way). But that's not right - we actually need to hear about the old things in order to feed our hearts. The old things about God being gracious. And compassionate. Things we already know.

Because it's as we read from the Old and New Testaments of God's awesomeness, it's then that we grow in our love for God. We grow in our fear of him, in our hate of sin, in our desire for his word and our longing for the return of Jesus. This is because being confronted with God's grace again and again is like flinging coal into a furnace - it fuels our hearts, it fires up our affections!

Why do lovers who are apart from each other look at pictures of their loved ones? Is it because they've forgotten at the intellectual level what their girlfriend or boyfriend looks like and must be reminded? No, they remember very well! The reason they look is not for their minds, but for their hearts, to fuel their desire for their loved one!

Which is why Christians must never tire of being told that God is awesome and gracious. See, there's nothing new there for us on an intellectual level! But we need that - for our hearts. Consider also the Old Testament. Read properly (that is, using biblical theology), there's often not a great deal of application that applies directly to our wills. Most of it is actually highlighting for Christians that our awesome saviour has already arrived! Again, nothing new there, and people say, 'ho hum'! But God has graciously given us all of that - in order to fuel our hearts. To fuel our love for him. To fire up our longing for heaven. To heighten our hatred for sin.

However it's actually not enough to just read the Bible. See, buried in the middle of Edwards' quote is that one word, 'enlightened'. He says that "gracious affections do arise from the mind's being enlightened, richly and spiritually to understand or apprehend divine things."

In 1 Thessalonians 3 Paul prays that God would strengthen their hearts. In Philippians 1 Paul prays that their love abounds more and more. And in Romans 5, Paul tells us that it is God who pours out his love into our hearts.

Ultimately, we can't actually change our hearts ourselves. God has to do it! And that is why Paul prays that God would engage the hearts of the Thessalonian and the Philippian Christians.

And so we too should pray that God would grow in us a love for him that will overshadow our love for everything else. We should pray that God would make us long for the return of Jesus, and entreat him to grow in us a hatred of our own sin - because God is the one who ultimately changes our hearts!

However God's way of working is consistent. He always works through his word - not in spite of it. In Genesis 1 when God creates, he does so by speaking. When he 2 Peter 3 when God will destroy the heavens and the earth, he will again do so with a word. And when he redeems the world, John 1 tells us that he does so by sending his Word into the world.

And it's no surprise that it's the same again when it comes to God's operation on our hearts (Heb 13:9). While we pray for God to grow out love for him, we must also be reading his word. God's way of working is through his word - not in spite of it.

Do you want to grow in your love for God? Are you troubled that you aren't longing for the return of the Lord Jesus? Dissatisfied with your hatred for sin?

The answer sounds simple: read the Bible and pray. Too simple, really. But the reason is that you're doing these things in order to strengthen your heart, to grow godly affections. And so you read - hungry to feed yourself on God's graciousness and greatness, so as to fuel your love for him, and your hatred for sin. And you pray - longing that your heart is changed, and knowing that God is the only one who can do it.

[ PS: more to come... ]

Godly affections

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 09:11:08 GMT

A lot of Christians think that when we apply the Bible, we do so in one of two ways. We may show how it shapes our thinking or beliefs, or how it shapes our behaviours and actions. That's how most of us think that application is done.

However there is actually more to it than that, and such Christian are actually missing a large part of Christian discipleship...

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was one of the major figures in the First Great Awakening in North America in the 18th century. He probably most famous for preaching the famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. However another of his most important works is The Religious Affections (you can get it for free here).

The Religious Affections is not easy to read - there are huge paragraphs, and a lengthy buildup to the main point which he has buried in the third part of the book. However what Edwards is doing is outlining what the affections are, and how the gospel should shape not only the beliefs and behaviours of a Christian - but chiefly his affections.

What are affections? Affections sounds like emotions, but they are different. They are our longings, our desires, our thirsts. Godly affections include:

loving God
joy in Christ
fearing God
hating sin
longing for the return of Jesus

Take for instance how a parent loves their child. The parent may have different emotions on account of their child (eg. happiness, disappointment, sadness), but their affection for their child remains constant (love).

Affections are not actions or beliefs in themselves, although they are based on belief, and will naturally lead to actions. But those actions that have their root in godly affections (eg. a love for the Lord) will have a strength and endurance to them that will not be found in actions that come merely from rule-keeping, emotionalism, or the expectations of others.

Edwards observes that much of the commands in the Bible are actually matters of the affections: "the holy Scriptures do everywhere place religion very much in the affection; such as fear, hope, love, hatred, desire, joy, sorrow, gratitude, compassion, and zeal." And so Edwards can even be so bold as to say, "true religion, in great part, consists in holy affections."

And these affections are matters of the heart. When the Old Testament looks forward to a day when hearts would be circumcised (Deut 30:6), it is so that we love God with all our heart and all our soul - and this will obviously also then translate into godly actions. The one who loves God does not have to force out of themselves those actions that are pleasing to God. They flow out of a heart that only desires to please God!

And so when we open the Bible with people in our Bible study groups or churches, not only must we address their minds (so as to show its implications for their beliefs), and not only must we address their wills (so as to show its implications for their behaviour) - we must also address their hearts, so as to cultivate godly affections.

[ PS: it's free, so download it and read! But be prepared to persevere through the 18th century language... ]

The place of the heart

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:21:18 GMT

Thomas Cranmer, one of the English reformers (and author of the English Prayer Books), was greatly influenced by the continental reformers. He taught that, "what the heart desires, the will chooses, and the mind justifies".

See the way we think is that we firstly educate our minds, and the educated man will therefore be able to make godly and right choices. It's all about the mind.

mind -> will

But Cranmer realised that, no, that's not actually how it works. Our hearts are actually the key. Our hearts desire and love things - and our wills will always choose what our hearts desire. Our wills are actually captive to our hearts - not our minds! And our minds, rather than being at the start of the process, is actually at the end. Once we've actually chosen what we want to do, we actually go on to intellectually justify our choice.

heart -> will -> mind

And you can quite easily see how this works in our sins... For example, in our hearts we desire to have a boyfriend or girlfriend no matter what. And there is a non Christian boyfriend! So in our wills we choose to go out with that non Christian boyfriend. And then finally our minds kick in, and we use our minds to justify our sinful choice. We come up with all kinds of foolish excuses to convince ourselves it's okay - "oh but this way I can evangelise my friend." "Oh but he's so nice to me, he's practically a Christian anyway." "Oh but we're just going out, it's not like we're married yet!"

We spend a lot of effort educating people's minds, telling them why it's foolish to do such-and-such, we prove from Scripture why it displeases God that we indulge in this-and-that. And we do need that - how else will we know what is pleasing to God? But for someone whose heart is already set on sin, our words will simply bounce off.

Similarly we spend a lot of time guarding people's wills. We do this positively by cultivating godly habits, or negatively establishing accountability structures, all yet again, all of this is good. But again, for someone whose heart is already set on sin, these things are an easily surmountable barrier.

That's because the heart is the crucial battleground in our war against sin - much moreso than our minds, or our wills! In the last short while we've looked at some of the lies, half-truths and false promises of things like materialism and greed, like lust and sexual sin, and most recently gossip and slander. Why do people willingly swallow such obviously feeble lies? They do so because their hearts have already been captured by sin.

Yes, we do need to know what is right and wrong. And we do need to cultivate godly habits. But these things are useless unless we deal with the heart.

How then do we guard our hearts? How do we get a repentant heart that is inclined towards God? That's the subject of another post!

[ PS: I'm now back from KYLC 2008! ]

ACCOE conference 2008

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:18:10 GMT

This year, SCCCA English is helping to organise the ACCOE conference in Melbourne, on 30 June to 4th July 2008.

What is ACCOE? Well, if CCCOWE is the international body, and if SCCCA English is the Sydney body, then ACCOE is the regional gathering for the Australia / New Zealand region.

This year, there will be a separate English and Chinese track at the conference. Mike Raiter will be the English keynote speaker on the theme of "renewal", and there will be other talks and workshops on Chinese church ministry.

Who should attend? This will be a great opportunity for pastors of ABC congregations, theologs and apprentices, and lay leaders to come together and catch a vision of what God can do amongst the Chinese in our region, and network with one another and learn from each other.

We also hope that this will be a great opportunity to share the model of ministry apprenticeships with other church leaders. There is a great need for raising up the next generation of gospel workers in Chinese churches - and ministry apprenticeships (such as MAP and MTS) are a great way to equip future workers of the kingdom. And so we particularly hope that those who are currently going through apprenticeships, and those who have gone through apprenticeships, will come and share their experiences with others!

[ PS: rego information on ACCOE 2008 to come soon... ]

The two parts of preaching

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:23:10 GMT

What is preaching all about? There are actually two things that a preacher is trying to do - and good preaching will always have these two components.

Firstly, a preacher is explaining what the passage is saying. This is probably the most obvious thing, and most preachers know ths should be aiming to do this well.

In doing this, a preacher wants to model to his congregation how to read the Bible. They will be doing their own quiet times, and may be exposed to Bible teaching from other sources (eg. books lent by their friends; websites; Christian shows on TV; personal devotion booklets). How will they know how to read the Bible for themselves? How will they identify good from bad Bible teaching?

As the preacher shows how the passage builds towards the main point, how certain things are emphasised, how repetition and word plays function in the passage and places the passage in its biblical-theological setting, not only are they showing that this really is what the passage is all about, but it models good gramatico-historical exegesis for the congregation, even if they haven't learnt it explicitly at KYLC or AFES NTE.

But there is a second part to preaching - a preacher is also challenging people to respond to the passage. Because we know that God's word isn't just interesting information - it actually requires us to respond in repentance and faith! And so the preacher also wants to show the implications of this passage for our life and ministry.

But notice, the job here is to challenge people to respond. And it's this part of preaching that's most neglected. A lot of people who are just starting off as preachers will state the application - but there's actally more to it that that plainly stating the application. Our job is actually to persuade people about it.

And this is exactly what is reflected in the ministry of the apostles. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul says, "Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men." In Acts 18, we are told that every Sabbath Paul was in the synagogue, reasoning with them and "trying to persuade Jews and Greeks."

Listen to good preachers and you'll notice this - the last page and a half of their sermon is not introducing any new material at all! Instead what they are doing is exhorting people to respond - perhaps by using stories, or talking about their own personal experience, or dealing with the road-blocks that people will face - but however they go about doing it, they are seeking to "persuade men."

A sermon has things in common with a theological lecture, an exegetical paper, and a commentary - they will not be slipshod in how they deal with the passage. They will all highlight how the passage works, and bring out the main point of the passage. But what sets apart theological lectures, exegetical papers and commentaries from true preaching is that preaching also urges people to respond!

[ PS: more on preaching soon... ]

Some SCCCA English dates for this year

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 09:15:27 GMT

Got a 2008 diary yet? Now's the time to start setting aside all those important dates in your diary, before your diary gets crowded out.

And, hot from a meeting today, is a series of SCCCA English dates you'll want to be putting into your diary! Here they are...

PILOT Training day

This is a day for lay leaders from English ministries across Sydney to come together for input and renewing our vision for Sydney. This year it'll be held on Saturday 8th of March at Burwood CPC.

Challenge night 1

A night for those considering full time ministry (or who should be considering full time ministry) to hear again about the serious need for gospel workers, and to think through together with others the issues they need to be considering. Tuesday 13th May, location TBA.

Theolog-minister's dinner

Our second annual theolog-ministers' dinner, following on from the huge interest from last year's event. The idea behind this is to get Asian theological students (and final year apprentices) together with senior ministers from Chinese churches, so they can network and discover the real needs 'out there'. Monday 14th July, location TBA.

Leaders' retreat

A retreat open to lay leaders from any and all Chinese churches across Sydney! Come together to be encouraged from God's word, spend time with leaders from other churches, and get advice on your situation from pastors and ministry workers. Friday 12th to Sunday 14th September, location TBA.

Challenge night 2

Another opportunity (like the one on 13th May) to be challenged from the Bible about vocational ministry, pray about the needs, and get advice on sorting through the issues. Tuesday 14th October, location TBA.

In addition, SCCCA English is continuing to refine and develop the regional training centres in the South, South-West, North-West, North and Central districts. These meet monthly and are an ongoing opportunity for training, networking and support for your ministry. More info about these from the SCCCA website, or at the PILOT day.

SCCCA English isn't about sapping you and your fellow leaders, or stealing leaders for our own ministries. We're on about supporting local churches and local ministries everywhere! So come along and get as much as you can out of these things!

[ PS: hope to see you at some of these events! ]

Choosing a commentary

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 12:59:52 GMT

Just say you've got a Bible study series coming up (or a series of talks), and you want to get yourself a good commentary for reference in your preparations. And just say that there might even be some sales on at Christian bookshops. How do you work out what a good commentary is?

The hard way is to go to Bible college, and learn all about source criticism, form criticism, redaction criticism, canonical criticism and narrative criticism, so when you look at a commentary you'll know what species of commentary it is. Some commentaries emphasise particular critical approaches that can lead you astray if you follow them religiously.

For instance, a source critical commentary can lead you to think that Genesis should be read as a competing collection of theologies from presitly, Yahwist, Deuteronomist or Elohist groups! Although the patterns that source critical scholars point out (for instance) can still be very useful food for thought for evangelicals, you want to have your wits about you as you read such a commentary.

But what about the rest of us? How do we work out which commentary to buy? Here are three options.

Moore Theological College puts out a student magazine called Societas each year (costs around $7). It contains a few articles about college life, profiles of every student at college - and most valuable of all - every few years they also include a reference section.

This is where they get the college lecturers to nominate which commentaries they recommend for each book of the Bible! They include Easy commentaries (for those who don't want to wade through Greek or Hebrew), as well as Advanced commentaries (for those who do, and have the money to spend).
Moore Books, the bookshop attached to Moore Theological College in Sydney has, on its website, a list of those recommended commentaries, again divided into Easy and Advanced. You can clik on the links to order the books from Moore Books. See the list here!
Oak Hill College in the UK has, buried in its website, a list of recommended commentaries as well, for Old Testament and New Testament books. You select which biblical book you want from the drop-down list, and it provides you with their recommendations, again both for expositional (ie. easy) and exegetical (ie. hard) commentaries.

In all this, though, you must remember not to treat your commentary as an indisputable authority. Your authority is the Bible, not the commentary! And so treat it as though you're having a discussion with a friend about a passage. A learned friend, but someone who may still get things wrong.

[ PS: on my list is a Philippians commentary for our upcoming Philippians series! ]

Reaching out to your non Christian parents

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:37:40 GMT

Do you have non Christian parents? If your family is anywhere close to being a normal Chinese family, you'll probably find it quite hard to share the gospel with them. What part can you play in reaching out to your non Christian parents?

They might have been keen for you to go to church earlier on, but now they're not so sure, because you're taking it far too seriously. They hoped that you'd learn some good morals and manners at church - but you've become really serious about Christianity - much too serious for their liking!

Or they were against you becoming a Christian from the very begining. They were horrified when you started going to church, and have put every obstacle in your way ever since.

Opposition from non Christian parents can come in various forms. They give you a hard time every time you want to go to church or Bible study. They even schedule family events to purposely clash with church events so as to force you to choose between family and God. They may even forbid you to go to Bible study, and will most certainly point out all your faults as being hypocritical. "Aha", they say with delight, "is that what good Christians do?"

Sharing the gospel with your parents can be very hard, but there are three important things you must realise.

Firstly, there is a reason why parents find it hard to hear the gospel from you - and that's because you are their child. You are younger than them - and you always will be. They can remember you drawing on walls and biting the furniture. And now you want to tell them which God is real? You want to tell them that the stuff they've been believing all along is completely wrong? Well of course you want to tell them these things - and it's for their own good. But they will find it impossibly hard to listen, for the simple fact that you are their child, and they are not disposed to learn such things from their child. Imagine for a moment that roles are reversed - and your own child is telling you how it is. You would probably also find it hard to believe your child knows better than you!

Secondly, does this mean that it's completely hopeless? No. Because while they will be ill-disposed to hear the gospel from you, they will hear it much better from someone their own age and life-stage. And this is simply how natural relationships work - they are much more likely to listen to their own peers. But how can you transform yourself from being a child, to being a 50-year old person? The answer is that you can't. However, chances are that there are others in your church (maybe even your congregation) that are already at the same age and life-stage as your own non Christian parents.

That's right, the parents and adults in your service are exactly the thing you need to witness to your non Christian parents. And what you (and your church) needs to recognise is that you aren't the only one who reaches out to your parents - instead your church as a whole should be reaching out to your parents. And so what you and your church needs to do is to mobilise the parents and adults in your church / congregation in reaching out to your parents.

How can you do this? If Jon, your good friend at church has Christian parents, why not drop hints to see if your parents would like to come over to meet your friend Jon - and Jon's parents. And as they meet Jon's parents they see that Christian's aren't strange and immature - they are in fact people just like them. And as they build relationships they can hear the gospel explained to them by someone their own age, and their own life-stage.

That's a non-institutionalised way of doing it, but there are other ways that you could formalise it as well. You could make a point of finding out about events that the Cantonese side is running, and telling your parents about them. You could encourage your pastor or older people in your congregation to catch the vision of reaching out to the non Chrsitian parents of youth. But even if they don't go for it - you could still do things on the small scale, like I described.

Thirdly, does that mean that there's nothing for you to do but sit back and watch? No. You play an important part in the process, by witnessing to your parents, showing them what Christians are like in day-to-day life. Jon's parents can explain to them what Christianity's all about, but they can't hang around to live out the Christian life for your parents - only you can do that. And as you make work at being godly at home, as you make gospel-driven decisions, as you repent from your sin, you are witnessing to your parents.

This doesn't mean that you have to be perfect at home - for no Christian will be perfect. And in fact, that's not what a Christian is in the first place! Instead you are showing to them that a Christian is a sinner who has been forgiven, and is growing in godliness. They may still make sarcastic and hurtful comments when they catch you at your worst (and we are all at our worst at home). But if you are turning from your sins, and seeking to walk in righteousness, they will notice.

So that's how to reach out to your non Christian parents. Don't think you can do it all by yourself - make use of your older brothers and sisters at church! And make sure you play your part well - the part that only you can play!

[ PS: ...and Chinese parents do become Christians! ]