Spineless Small-groups, Sycophants and Shallow Saved Sinners

     So, the other day, Twitter showed me this article written by Brian Jones over at the Christian Standard about Small groups and why they (essentially) don't work. The argument is that 90% of all church small groups only ever produce is self confident believers but not missional disciples. The artilce stresses the weakpoints of what I will call "Organized Community" that is, small groups that are organized and you sign up for. these have become pretty standard in evangelical churches. I have personally been a part of about four of these types of groups; two of those, I have led. The one thread that I have realised is that the article is right. Small groups, in an overwhelming majority of cases do nothing or next to nothing to make disciples. Which is a shame, because the heart of Christianity is community and loving others, but that can't be manufactured, it has to be real. The best growth I've seen in my own life has been accidental. 2am conversations in Bible College, impromptu prayer meetings, and the breakfast club that a few close friends and I started a few months ago. Those breakfast meetings are real, we share eachother's burdens, pray for each other, share our successes and failures and fears.

     I'd love to expand on this, but there's nothing I can add to what Jones says. He nailed it.

-Kevin

-edit-

     I have been taught not to complain about something unless you have a solution to offer as well, so here is mine,  let's place less emphasis on small groups the way they are, namley a leader, in a chair, with a curriculum. let us instead preach and teach the value of intentional community and individual growth and discipleship. Followers of Christ need to take responsibility of their own part in the process of sanctification, not to minimize the work of the Spirit, but if we are not open to Him, His words will fall on deaf ears.

With love for Christ and His church
-Kevin

I Will Post This Before February, I Will Post This Before February...2010 Year in Review

 




Is it really true? Have I not posted ANYTHING since August? let's fix that.

It has been a crazy year. Have you ever really sat and thought about the last twelve months of your life? It's a lot...

Good things, Great things have happened, and also horrible things have happened.

So, here, in no perticular chronological or other order is

2010: Year in review

In May of this year, I graduated with my Bachelors, immediatley, of course, the questions followed: "So...when are you atarting your M.Div?"

I celebrated a full year of marriage to a wonderful, amazing woman.

I went to Myrtle Beach and saw the Ocean for the first time in my life.

I experienced the worst road trip circumstances EVER on the way back from Myrtle Beach...

We moved from Cambridge to Kitchener to begin to follow God's call on our lives to plant a church in the city.

I began to understand what true panic was when my wife had a car accident and I wasn't there with her. I don't exactly remember how I got to where she was, but I'm pretty sure it involved stealing my pastor's car and driving fast enough to alter the rotation of the Earth.

As a result of this accident, we bought a newer, better car.

And I learned to drive stick, thus becoming more of a man.

I tranferred to a new store and regained the love I once had for my job.

This was the year that we lost a dear aunt from my wife's side.

We lost a dear friend in South Korea.

2010 was the year, THE YEAR that I have been waiting for all my life. It was the year I got my father back. My dad got sober this past year. I got to go and see him in the late fall and tell him that I was proud of him. Something I never expected, but always hoped I was going to be able to do.

Finally, 2010 was the year that my wife told me I was going to be a father myself.

looks like 2011 will be an interesting year...

-Kevin

Book Review 2: The Jesus You Can't Ignore by: John Macarthur

    

• 

     The Jesus You Can't Ignore is a new book written by John MacArthur. In it he takes the time to go over Jesus' interactions with the religious elite of his time. MacArthur's point is to show the side that he (rightly) believes is largely ignored by Christians Jesus is not the blond, feather-haired hippie we were raised to seem, but a man who embraces conflict when it came to the sins of the religious elite of his day. MacArthur goes through each interaction in its own dedicated chapter and argues his points well. The book itself is very well written and the arguments MacArthur presents are clear logical and easy to grasp.

     There is only one problem with The Jesus You Can't Ignore. MacArthur is technically correct in most of the things he says. Yes, Jesus dealt harshly with the Pharisees and Sadducees but the thrust of this book seems not to be directed at today's religious elite but rather at everyone. Yes, Jesus dealt severely with the teachers and scribes but tenderly with the rest of the people He was tender and gracious. It is here that MacArthur loses the point. MacArthur wants people to contend for the faith and stand up for truth, this is not a bad thing, but like Paul at Mars Hill, we need to know our audience and tailor our response to them. Our response to a hypocritical pastor should be different than our response to an un-believer bad mouthing Christianity. This book is great if it is read with discernment and the proper application of Proverbs 26:4-5

 

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I might have gotten in trouble for this...

*Edit* Wisdom has a funny way of catching you sometimes, I like to rock the boat, I don't like Fred Phelps, or the false gospel he stands for, but rather than throw mud from here, I'd rather preach love from the pulpit.

"The only thing I've ever had to apologise for is my tongue"
-Laurie Kenedy FEBCAST



Thanks Laurie
-Kevin

The Two Kinds of Marriage Redux

Geoff Ashley

I had a recent conversation with a pastor from The Village Church in Texas. (Some of you may recognize this as the church Matt Chandler leads.) Anyway The conversation we had sparked some more thinking on my position on marriage, nothing monumental changed, but I thought I'd share the exchange with you here.

Kevin,
Thank you for writing. I think that the article stands or falls on the strength of the distinction between legal and sacramental marriage, a distinction which is not evidenced within the biblical text itself. As that is our ultimate authority for faith and practice, I would be careful lest we restrict that which was intended as common grace to only those who are believers. Most theological reflection on marriage over the past 2000 years has leaned toward it being a gift to humanity in general and not specifically to the elect. Though there are deeper implications for the elect, the gift is still never restricted in the text. Adam and Eve represent all humanity as our ancestors, not simply Christians. I don't know that we have any biblical merit to limit that which was given to them.
 

 I have never wrestled through the implications of Canadian law in thisarea, but I would want to make sure that giving up the right to

perform marriage was done with pure motives and not simply fear of reprisal(legally or otherwise). That would be where I would be wrestling. We

are certainly called to give up rights at times for the good of others,

but I'm not sure that I see giving up ordination as an example of such atime. What decision best exalts the glory of Christ and the good of

your fellow man (believer and otherwise)?

 I feel for you and for all who desire to be faithful in environments more restrictive than my own. Thanks for writing. Let me know if there is anything else we can do to help.

 Grace and peace.
 --geoff

The guy's name is Geoff Ashley, he raised a number of good points that I hadn't really thought through or articulated fully, so I replied...

Geoff,


Thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly. I wanted to send you a message saying how much I really appreciated your input, you made me 
think through a couple of things and hopefully come up with a better way to articulate some of them.

You're definitely correct that there is no biblical distinction between 
legal and sacramental marriage. There is simply the gift of marriage 
offered by God to His creation. Where I see a distinction is in the 
culture. The marriage God gave was set up as a covenant (See Genesis 2 
and most of the book of Hosea) but our culture sets it up as simply a 
contract which can be broken for any reason (literally, I don't know 
about Texas, but up here, all you need for a divorce is to live apart 
for a year). On this is my heart and the crux of my argument.

The marriage that God gave was set up as covenant. The marriage we as 
clergy solemnize is seen by the solemnizing state as a simple contract. 
Christians then, who are seeking marriage are bound by both; marriage as covenant as God gave, and marriage by contract as Romans 13: 1-2 (and 
any number of practical reasons) dictates. The need for the distinction 
between legal and sacramental marriages, in my view, is becoming more 
pronounced with governments moving away from the biblical standard of 
marriage as covenant.

You were right to challenge my motives as well. It is important that we 
don't compromise scripture for the sake of our comfort. I'd be lying, 
though, if I said I didn't recognize that my stance on this conveniently

avoids the gay marriage question. My motivation though comes not from 
this question, alone, but from what the government has historically been doing to marriage (specifically in the realm of divorce) that has made 
marriage into something that is not the same as what God gave. That 
said, I certainly wouldn't force a "remarriage" on a married couple who 
comes to faith, I'd simply explain that the marriage they have is not a 
contract, but rather a covenant.

It's this fundamental difference (contract/covenant) that motivates my 
position regarding solemnizing marriages as clergy. I believe that we 
(at least in Canada) are sending mixed messages when we will perform one ceremony that is the solemnization of a legal contract while at the same time preach and teach about marriage as a covenant.

I found Geoff's insights to be really thoughtful and I'd value more thoughts on the topic.

Only The Good...

Recently, Pastor Mark Driscoll preached on the calling of the twelve apostles in Luke 6. In one of the key sections of that sermon, he encourages Christians to: "Die with your boots on" The gist of this is:

You're either going to go out like Judas or Jesus—that's how your life is going to end. You're going to go out like Jesus, faithful to the end, whatever the cost, or you're going to go out like Judas, prematurely, tragically, rebelliously, shamefully. I want you to keep your boots on, finish strong, run your race, see it through to the end, be a completer, a finisher, a closer of the things God has given you to do.

He goes on to describe how both tradition and history describe the deaths of nine of the apostles. The full text is available here.

I say this now because it is fitting on a couple of levels. A good friend of mine from college, Craig Simmons and his wife Kristin were in South Korea teaching ESL and living out the great commission. On June 9, Craig was walking home and was hit by a bus. The next week was filled with an outpouring of love, prayer and faithful facebook updates, keeping everyone in the loop. Despite apparent improvement in his condition, this past Tuesday (June 16) Craig Simmons died with his boots on. The reason that the Driscoll sermon is so fitting is that Craig introduced me to Driscoll's ministryback in my first year of Bible College. I owe a lot of owe a lot of who I am to the Spirit's work through Craig.

I miss my friend, and I grieve with his wife and with the friends and family who miss him more than I ever could, but I can't help but be reminded of Philippians 1:21. I know this too, not every man is blessed enough to die with their boots on, and one day, I will see my friend again, I can only pray that I get there with a set of boots too.

Well done buddy
See you soon.

 

Book Review 1: Change Your Church for Good by: Brad Powell.

This review is for: Change Your Church for Good by Brad Powell.




Change Your Church for Good by Brad Powell, is a book written for church leaders and pastors interested in church revitalization. It is a very well-written and logically presented book. Powell seems to be a very organized writer and structures the book into five parts: The first describes (quite accuratley) the state of the North American Church. The second part describes the type of leaders needed to facilitate the change that is needed, the third part describes mission and vision casting, the fourth part is the execution and the fifth is a sort of epilogue.

One thing here is certain, This book was not written for me. I'm in my mid twenties, I'm part of what's called the “emerging generations”, this book is clearly written to pastors and leaders from the Baby boomer and Gen-X generations. I say that , mainly because of the tone of the book. Powell comes across as downright arrogant in certain sections. This, however is where I must confess my own bias. I recently read another book that was written along the same lines but to my generation. Dan Kimball's “They Like Jesus But Not The Church” says many of the same things that Powell is saying but he comes across much more humble (almost annoyingly in some sections) than Powell. Please do not misunderstand me I'm not saying that Powell and baby boomers are arrogant, but the language used is highly propositional and can come across that way to post-modern enculturated kids like me.

One last point. At one place in the book, Powell make the comment: “Everything rises and falls on leadership” I cannot stress enough how much I disagree with this statement. Everything rises and falls on Jesus, and the Gospel. My only real issue with the book is that it reads like a business plan. Much of the advice can easily be transplanted to the business world. The church is not a business, everything rises and falls on the head of the church: Jesus Christ.

Final Word: This is a great book if you are 40 or over and a church leader or pastor of a church that needs revitalization. If you're younger than that, it's good, but you'll get more out of Kimball's book.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”