Category: Pastoral

On True Church Growth

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Pastoral, Quotes4 Comments

The growth of the gospel happens in the lives of people, not in the structures of my church.

Or to put it in terms of our opening metaphor, the growth of the trellis is not the growth of the vine.

We may multiply the number of programs, events, committees and other activities that our church is engaged in; we may enlarge and modernize our buildings; we may re-cast our regular meetings to be attractive and effective in communicating to our culture; we may congratulate ourselves that numbers are up. And all of these are good things!

But if people are not growing in their knowledge of God’s will so that they walk ever more worthily of the Lord, seeking to please him in all things and bearing fruit in every good work, then there is no growth to speak of happening at all.

Questions for Reflection

  1. How do you measure growth at your church?
  2. Do you seek to fill the pews, or to fill people’s hearts with the truth of the gospel?

Resources

Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine, 82.

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On Felt Needs

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Pastoral, Practical, Quotes2 Comments

The newscaster gives us the awful truth, which is reality; the Bible gives us the revealed truth, which is revelation; psychology has given us the hidden truth, which is a rip-off.

America is the psychological society, and the language and philosophy of need have seduced the church.

Therefore the people in the pew ask all the wrongs questions, based on cultural programming:

  • What can the church do for me?
  • Can I get my needs met here?
  • Do I feel good when I leave here?
  • Does the pastor make me feel guilty?
  • Will I have to do what I don’t feel like doing?

These questions and more reflect the corruption of self-idolatry primarily fostered in our society by the secular psychological community.

This has led to the development of a “need theology” that finds its roots in gratifying the desires of the flesh. Therefore, the most popular theologies of today are directed toward immediate need gratification.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Can the church meet the needs of its congregants without being a felt needs church?
  2. How would you suggest a pastor meet the needs of his congregation without being a felt needs pastor?

Resources

Bill Hull, The Disciple Making Pastor, 42.

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Resources for Growing Christians

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Leadership, Pastoral6 Comments

Increase Faith

I recently put a list of resources together for my church members. It is a list to encourage Christian growth.

Books

Gospel

  • Gospel by JD Greear | Designed to introduce you to a gospel-centered perspective.
  • What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert | Short yet informative. Answers the question posed in the title.
  • Stop asking Jesus into your heart by JD Greear | Weird title but great book about salvation, repentance, and growth.
  • The Transforming Power of the Gospel  by Jerry Bridges | How the gospel, not trying harder, changes us.
  • Counterfeit God’s by Timothy Keller | Dealing with idolatry from a gospel-centered perspective.

Christian Living

  • Living the Cross Centered Life by CJ Mahaney | A short yet challenging read about living for Christ.
  • Hard to Believe by John Macarthur | A hard hitting book on following Jesus.
  • Who do you think you are? by Mark Driscoll | Deals with identity.
  • Work Matters by Tom Nelson | He shows us how to connect Sunday to the rest of the week by answering the question: How can we be a Christian the rest of the week, especially at work?
  • Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller | A book that connects Christianity to the work place. It is thought provoking and deep, really good.
  • I Am A Church Member by Thom Rainer | A short informative book discussing what it means to be a church member.
  • What is a Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti Anyabwile | A short informative book from 9 Marks on church membership.

Evangelism and Apologetics

  • Show me how to share the gospel by Larry Moyer | A short informative and practical book on evangelism. Walks you through different gospel presentations.
  • Questioning Evangelism by Randy Newman | Shows you how to do evangelism through everyday conversation by asking the right questions.
  • The Reason for God by Timothy Keller | An apologetic resource helpful when talking to post-modern or modern people.
  • Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer | Deals more with the theology of evangelism, but has some practical advice.
  • The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever | A short informative book on evangelism.

Family and Marriage

  • Shepherding A Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp | How to discipline your kids from a gospel-centered perspective.
  • The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller | An excellent book on marriage. Written for both married couples and singles.
  • The Shepherd Leader at Home by Timothy Witmer | Information on how to lead your family well.

Theology

  • Big Truths for Young Hearts by Bruce Ware | An easy to read and informative systematic theology.
  • God’s Big Picture by Vaughn Roberts | A easy to follow overview of Scripture. It answers the question: What is the story of the Bible?
  • Basic Christianity by John Stott | A classic book on the Christian faith.

Studying the Bible (Interpretation)

  • Living by the book by Howard Hendricks | Provides Bible Study techniques.
  • 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible by Robert Plummer | Answers question about biblical interpretation.

Preachers

  • Timothy Keller – Redeemer Church | New York City
  • John MacArthur – Grace Community Church | California
  • Mark Driscoll – Mars Hill | Seattle
  • John Piper – Retired recently DesiringGod.org
  • Alistair Begg – Truthforlife.org
  • Matt Chandler – The Village Church | Flower Mound, TX
  • Kent Hughes – Preachingtheword.com 

Radio Program/News 

  • The Briefing – It’s a daily podcast of news from a Christian perspective. You can find it on the iTunes Store or through the Podcast app on your iPhone.
  • KCBI 90.9 – Christian radio station out of Dallas, TX.

Blogs

Magazines

  • Table Talk Magazine by Ligonier Ministries | A devotional magazine exploring important Christian topics and Scripture. It is designed to help you grow in your knowledge of God’s Word.

Question for Reflection

  1. What resources would you add?

Resource

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6 Marks of A Missional Church

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Evangelism, Leadership, Pastoral2 Comments

Missional Church

To be “Missional” is all the rage these days. I am not knocking it. I believe it is a good thing. I would even identify as “Missional” I believe we need to live as missionaries in our own communities, recognizing we live in a Post-Christendom society.

What, however, does a “Missional” church do? Timothy Keller sketches an idea for us in Center Church.

6 Marks of a Missional Church

(1) A Missional Church must confront societies idols

Missional churches recognize those in our society are searching for happiness and self-actualization. Everything is about fulfilling our talents and our dreams. Others do not matter.

A Missional Church must be able to confront this idol. As well as they must be able to diagnose and confront other societal idols, if they want to free those in the community from bondage and make an impact for Christ.

(2) A Missional Church must contextualize skillfully and communicate in the vernacular

Missional churches recognize the need to understand their context so they spend time learning the cultural narrative. They know the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of their culture. As well as they understand the nuanced meanings certain concepts have in their culture.

Not only that, but they recognize concepts such as God, sin, and redemption may not mean what they think they mean to those they are trying to reach.

As a result, they spend time examining their cultures understanding of these concepts and gaining a deeper understanding of the gospel, so they might accurately present it to those they are trying to reach.

Since those in Post-Christendom usually have different ideas of God, sin, and redemption than those in Christendom, our most popular gospel presentations need to be adapted to the context and vernacular of the people. That is not to say, the gospel needs to be changed to match the cultural ideas. No matter the culture, the gospel must remain the gospel.

(3) A Missional Church must equip people in mission in every area of their lives.

Missional churches recognize the laity needs to be equipped to:

1. Be a verbal witness to those they know.

2. Love their neighbors and do justice within their neighborhoods and city.

3. Integrate their faith with their work in order to engage culture through their vocations.

As a result, a Missional Church finds ways to support its people outside its walls, whether that is at work, home, abroad, or in leisure activities.

(4) A Missional Church must be a servant community and counterculture for the common good.

Missional Churches present a strong alternative society in which sex and family, wealth and possessions, racial identity and power, are all used and practiced in godly and distinct ways.

Missional Churches also pour out their resources sacrificially for the common good of the city.

While they exist as a distinct counterculture, they situate themselves within society, so their neighbors can observe a separate but servant community.

(5) A Missional Church must itself be contextualized and should expect nonbelievers, inquirers, and seekers to be involved in most aspects of the church’s life and ministry.

Missional Churches know how to welcome doubters and graciously include them as much as possible in community so they can see the gospel fleshed out in life and process the gospel message through numerous personal interactions.

In order to make that happen, believers in the church must be contextual – that is, culturally like yet spiritually unlike the people in the surrounding neighborhood and culture.

A missional church, then, doesn’t depend on an evangelism program or department for outreach. Almost all parts of the church’s life are ready to respond to the presence of people who do not yet believe.

(6) A Missional Church must practice unity.

Missional Churches define themselves more by contrasting themselves with the world instead of other denominations. They seek unity across denominational lines when appropriate, showing the surrounding community Christ unifies instead of divides.

Question for Reflection

  1. What other marks of a Missional Church would you include?

Resources

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Post adapted from Timothy Keller’s, Center Church, 271-74.

On the Disappearance of Theology

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Pastoral, Practical, QuotesLeave a comment

The Stats

What does it mean, for example, when 91 percent of evangelicals say that their beliefs are “very important” to them, when 93 percent say that they believe in divine judgment, when 96 percent say that they believe in miracles? It does not mean all that much.

Theology is Peripheral and Irrelevant

Even in churches that are active and among believers who are religiously observant, it is possible that theology (i.e., a set of beliefs that refers beyond the experiencing subject to the world “out there, “natural and supernatural) has become peripheral and remote.

Even “those who count themselves as believers, who subscribe to the tenets of a Church, and who attend services regularly, ” Bryan Wilson has observed, “nevertheless operate in a social space in which their beliefs about the supernatural are rendered in large part irrelevant.”

Wherever modernity has intruded upon the Church, there the social space even of believers who give assent to the full range of credal elements will be emptied of theology.

Even the beliefs of such individuals will have been pushed to the margins of life, the central and integrating role they once had commandeered by other interests.

Theology on the Periphery Can’t Define Evangelical Life

It is in this sense that it is proper to speak of the disappearance of theology. It is not that the elements of the evangelical credo have vanished; they have not. The fact that they are professed, however, does not necessarily mean that the structure of the historic Protestant faith is still intact.

The reason, quite simply, is that while these items of belief are professed, they are increasingly being removed from the center of evangelical life where they defined what that life was, and they are now being relegated to the periphery where their power to define what evangelical life should be is lost.

Practice Reveals What Polling Can’t

This is not the sort of shift that typical polling will discover, for these items of belief are seldom denied or qualified, but that does not mean that the shift has not occurred. It is evangelical practice rather than evangelical profession that reveals the change.

Questions for Reflection

  1. What do you think of the state of the church? Has care for theology been moved to the periphery?
  2. If theology is moved to the periphery, what affects will that have on the church?

Resources

David Wells, No Place for Truth Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?, 107-108. (NOTE: Paragraphs are Wells; headings are mine)

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On God’s Word

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals, Pastoral, Preaching, QuotesLeave a comment

God’s Word is bold, honest, and direct, cutting across the grain of popular culture. It penetrates hearts, illuminates minds, and transforms lives. Our circumstances and preferences don’t inform or liven up the Bible, dictate its meaning, or determine how it applies to our lives.

It is eternal truth, living and active, and it cuts to the heart of every issue.

Its meaning is fixed, and applicable to everyone, everywhere. Scripture speaks with absolute authority as it guides believers, confronts error, and brings clarity to even the most confusing theological questions.

There is simply no substitute for Scripture. Nothing else is as trustworthy and steadfast as the Word of God. Church tradition changes over time. Authors and pastors make mistakes. Even your own conscience can be wrong.

All believers must be like the Bereans Paul describes in Acts 17:11, measuring everything we hear, read, and see against the perfect, unchanging standard of the Bible.

The authority and power of God’s Word is unmistakeable and unforgettable.

Question for Reflection

  1. What do you think about God’s Word?

Resources

John MacArthur, John MacArthur: Servant of the Word of the Flock, 240.

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