Category Archives: Quotes & Excerpts

Supernaturally brilliant.

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“What is merely human, however brilliant, will not pull us out of the ditch we have fallen into. But the words that Jesus spoke to us, they are spirit and they are life.”
—Ray Ortlund, Jr., preface to Supernatural Living for Natural People: The Life-giving Message of Romans 8

In the eighth chapter in his Epistle to the Romans, Paul takes the words, work, will and ways of Jesus to the depths our hearts need. Personally, I cannot get enough of it, and have wore out a few Bibles over the last decade from underlining and revisiting the life-giving words of this chapter.

Luther said our Bibles should be so worn from use that they almost automatically open to Romans, and especially to a crease in the binding at the brilliant eighth chapter.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” —Romans 8:1

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Whenever I need renewal and revival in my heart, I turn to this chapter, drawer from the deep well, plenty of water for this thirsty soul.
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25 things someone learned about church planting (& I’m learning too).

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For our four-month anniversary of embarking on this adventure of RENEW (planting a church), I gave my wife a book that seemed helpful and hopeful.

The Church Planting WifeI knew Kari wouldn’t balk at the idea of encouragement, and it seemed that The Church Planting Wife really carried a dose of what the subtitle promised: “help and hope for her heart.” (Not just a bunch of stories and lists saying “you should do this.”)

Christine Hoover (the author) and her husband Kyle (the so-called church planter), tell of how God led them to plant a church in 2008. She writes:

“Though we had eight years of ministry experience under our belts at an established church, we didn’t yet know all that we didn’t know. We had much to learn and, more importantly, God had much sifting and pruning to do in our hearts.

God has shown me that, more than anything, he wants my heart. He wants a tender, moldable heart willing to obey more than he wants any obligatory service I can give him. As I write in my new book, The Church Planting Wife: Help and Hope for Her Heart (Moody, 2013), I’ve learned a thing or two in this crazy adventure called church planting—and I trust I’ll learn more as we move forward. Here are 25 things I’ve discovered so far.”

(Jeff’s note: I will resist the urge to add to or improve upon these. I could easily bold and underline every one. And we’re a mere six months or so into this. Simply nodding my head, rejoicing in this list, reflecting on them, and smiling right now. Maybe this post is just for me, the church planting wife’s husband.)

25 Things I’ve Learned from Church Planting

  1. Hospitality is essential.
  2. Church planting teaches two things more than any other: that God is faithful and that we must learn how to depend on that faithful God.
  3. Programs matter a lot to some people, especially families with small children. It takes special families who can grasp the vision of church planting to invest in a church plant on the ground level.
  4. On the other hand, some people love the early stages of church planting but become uncomfortable when the church grows to a size where they can no longer know everyone.
  5. Church planting happens one relationship at a time.
  6. Sometimes church planting feels like you’re pretending to be a church. And then one day (after backbreaking work and lots of prayer) you realize God has built an honest-to-goodness church right before your eyes.
  7. You cannot church plant apart from the support and encouragement of others.
  8. The Word is living and active. When we let God speak through his Word, he changes people. Every church plant must gather earnestly around the Word and the Christ to which it points.
  9. The church plant often takes on the personality and passions of the church planter and his wife. This is why it’s important to cling to Christ with biblical vision.
  10. Most people, especially outsiders, don’t know what it means when you say you’re church planting. And they think you’re a little crazy.
  11. One of the church planter’s greatest resources is other church planters and pastors in the same city. These relationships should be cultivated.
  12. Some of the hardest relationships a church planter may have are with other church planters and pastors in the same city. Sadly.
  13. The calling to church plant must be sure since you’ll need to return to it again and again in the face of discouragement, defeat, and uncertainty.
  14. The gospel is everything: it sustains when discouragement comes (and it always does), it keeps a church planter and his wife in their city (because there will be times when they want to give up and leave), it compels its ministers forward (and sometimes it’s the only motivation left), and it changes lives (which makes it all worth it).
  15. A church planter cannot drive by an established church without appreciating what it took to make it that way. And he will first think about the secretaries, the nursery workers, the janitors, and the seats permanently bolted to the ground.
  16. As much as possible, a church plant should be structured according to how leaders want it to look a year in the future.
  17. It’s unhealthy for the church planter, the church, and especially the church planting wife if she’s doing childcare during church each week.
  18. A failed church plant is not failure. Lack of faith is failure. Service in God’s name with a heart far away from him is failure.
  19. Slow and steady growth is healthy growth. Explosive growth can be fragile growth.
  20. A good worship leader is important and hard to find.
  21. Spiritual warfare is real.
  22. Church plants should never be started by someone disgruntled or unable to sit under authority at his former church. Church plants cannot be rebuttals to another pastor’s methods and ideas. They must be built on a clear call from God.
  23. A church planter and his wife must pray for and develop a love for their city—and not just the city but for its people.
  24. The church planting wife’s main role in helping her husband is, like Aaron holding up Moses’ arms in battle, praying for and encouraging him to press on.
  25. There is unimaginable joy and reward in sacrifice and service.
 

Not fools: We exist because of Jesus’s resurrection.

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On the morning of the third day [Sunday] Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus go to His tomb to anoint His body. They expect to find it, and are anxious about how they might roll away the stone that covers His tomb.

And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here.” (Mark 16:4-6)

It’s this moment that allows the apostle Paul to cry out, years later,

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54-55)

The empty tomb shows that the greatest oppression of all—the oppression of sin and death—has been defeated. It’s gospel Judo. In Judo, you learn to use the power and movement of your attacker against them, often in moves that end with your opponent landing headfirst. Jesus takes on all that is plagued—He becomes human, taking upon Himself all the wrath of God against sin and all the attack and oppression of death, turning it on its head to provide life for God’s children.

Why did Christianity arise, and why did it take the shape it did? The early Christians themselves reply: We exist because of Jesus’s resurrection. Were there no resurrection, we would have neither comfort nor hope, and everything else Christ did and suffered would be in vain.
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—Daniel Montgomery and Mike Cosper, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey, 59, “The Gospel of the Cross.”

 

Jubilee: Hymns & Lullabies (feeling God’s thoughts).

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When we sing good theology we feel God’s thoughts about ultimate reality.

It’s a joy to think God’s thoughts, and we get to do that when we read the Scriptures. If you’re reading the Bible and you’re not moved to pray, pause, and go back. You missed it. Go back there and sit and listen. That will lead you to feeling His thoughts too. What if

I’m not much of a music snob. Pretty much find a few songs from a few artists and run with them. Literally, I run with the same mix in my ear over and over, miles and miles. There’s something that happens in your soul when while emptying exerting yourself at the same time you’re being filled. These voices are companions up steep hills and through the rainy runs. During that time I am a worshiper. (Actually, we’re all worshipers all the time, but that’s the topic of another post.)

Even when disciplining my body through exercise and work, I’m free. I could constantly compare my pace to what it was a decade ago (a lot faster back then), or just sit mired in the thoughts of how things used to be. As a pastor I talk to people all the time who long for the “days of old” (a couple decades ago) when music was “good” and told a Gospel story. It’s true that songs these days are often repetitive and sometimes shallow. They long for the hymns of old. What we forget is that we can come boldly and confidently before the throne of Jesus and sing His praises 1, no matter if we liked the “song set” on Sunday.

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There’s a band that has done the hard work of bringing songs written long before the “days of old,” with historic theology meeting future hope and sweet melodies. Page CXVI is a project started with the idea of making hymns accessible and known again. They are some of the richest, most meaningful, and moving pieces of music ever written.

Page CXVI is giving away their entire 74-song catalog of music.

Their entire catalog of music is free for a limited time. Their music is good enough to buy too 😉 Continue reading →

 

What if our churches were generous?

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On this morning’s run I ran past a dozen plus church buildings and many more dozen empty commercial spaces looking for a renter.

Our church is walking through the facilities game, praying and researching what possible spaces we can rent for the future. (Haven’t been entirely received with open arms by other churches, and that is expected.) As Jared Wilson wrote this week, there are three levels of generosity for churches, giving reasons why each one is more challenging than the previous one.
MoneyChurches shall be:

  1. Generous with Facilities
  2. Generous with Money
  3. Generous with People

The simplest and easiest way for an established church is to share their biggest brick and mortar resource: their building. Lots of churches do this, and I am grateful to work with two churches in the last seven years who are immensely generous with their buildings. When Willamette built a new building it was meant to be a blessing for the whole community, and it has. Scores of groups use it freely or for a nominal fee. It’s a regular meeting place for all kinds of good organizations. The city is better for the presence of generous, courageous and wise Christians, and their gathering place.

I recently taught that an implication of “getting” the Gospel is embracing whole-life hospitality. Without it we won’t become who we are. Part of being hospitable is opening our homes and using our stuff to bless others. That’s a first step to opening our actual lives. Yet it’s necessary to resist the first-world urge to splurge on ourselves and skimp towards others. Consider these statistics, shared in Kari‘s newest ebook Faithfully Frugal 1 (to be released next week):

It’s a very sobering statistic indeed that only 4% of Christians tithe to their local churches. That Christians give, on average, only 2% of their income. 2 That of that 2%, only 2% then goes to funding international work—the world. It’s sobering that the total annual income of American churchgoers is $5.2 trillion, that the amount available if each of them gave 10% of their salary is $520 billion. That the estimated annual cost to eliminate extreme poverty in the world is only $65 billion. That the annual cost for universal primary education for ALL children in the world is $6 billion. That the annual cost to bring clean water to most of the world is $9 billion. That the annual cost to bring basic health and nutrition for the world is $13 billion. That, therefore, the total amount needed to eradicate the world’s greatest problems: $93 billion (just 1.8% of American Christian’s income). Quite simply, the world God loves in dying and we are … doing what?

Yep. I might want to ask Jesus why He let all these atrocities happen in the world. Then He might flip the question and ask me the same. We are responsible to steward and provoke ourselves to radical generosity. An explosion of joy can overwhelm your heart when you give your life away for bigger things. Our core emphases with RENEW aim at embracing and embodying these truths.

When a church leadership is courageous and generous, increasing financial gifts to groups and causes beyond their walls, it can become contagious, even leading to a new culture of generosity. This is the second level of generosity, as Wilson continues:

“A church’s budget will tell you what is most important to them, just like our bank statements reveal what is most important to us. It can be difficult for a church to be generous with its money because the drift to inward focus and enhancing the internal experience of the church is automatic.”

While a building is a valuable asset, and cash money is king, there’s something even more valuable in our churches that needs to be given away. And since this level holds more valuable resources, it’s the hardest to open up freely. Wilson concludes on this third and hardest level of giving:

This is the hardest generosity, especially as it pertains to our “best and brightest.” Churches tend to be stingy with their leaders and leadership prospects.
Many churches will not endeavor to plant churches because they cannot trust God enough to send quality missionaries away — or, more bluntly, to drop in attendance.

Many churches will not cooperate with other local churches for fear of losing people to the other church. This stinginess with people is an idolatry very difficult to kill.

But a gospel-centered church will grow into a kingdom-mindedness that is a constant reminder that no local church owns anybody and that what is best for every local church is whatever is best for the expansion of the gospel and worship of Christ.

On this level we become not only generous. More than that, we are becoming courageous in a way that will lead others to taste and see the Lord is good. Grateful for the churches and leaders who have been generous with Kari and I.

  1. Faithfully Frugal: Spend Less, Give More, Live More, releases the first week of March on Amazon Kindle (ebook only at this time). ↩
  2. Research by the Barna Group: “Americans Donate Billions to Charity, But Giving to Churches Has Declined.” ↩
 

Where’s your elephant? Does it have a name?

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“Daddy, I didn’t have these all night. I didn’t. I just now grabbed them.” So said Heidi proudly early this morning as she showed me one of her stuffed kitties and her snuggly koala. It’s a big deal when we find any stuffed animal in this home. These ones weren’t missing, just forgotten out in the loft before settling into bed last night. Somehow she managed to overlook their absence. So happy to see them this morning!

20130206-053314.jpg That got me thinking about the last year of change for our family. And the bigger “Family,” the Church. 2012 may be remembered in the broader Evangelical Church world as the year pastors really got serious about talking about talking about making disciples. Discipleship was the elephant in the room that we finally named. It was like, “This is really important! Let’s make sure we’re making disciples. Really.”

Previous years could be summed up with words like “authentic worship,” and “be missional,” discovering “God’s Kingdom,” “become an influencer,” and whatever you do make it “Gospel-centered.” These are all good emphases.

Yet with all the buzz and new trends, it sort of seems like we’re collecting elephants the same way my kids gather up all their stuffed animals before going to sleep. Missing one is reason to panic. Can’t sleep in peace without them all. But during daylight more than a few are set aside as the kids pursue the days fun.

More than once Kari and I have said at bedtime, “Clackamas (the stuffed leopard) has to sleep outside in the loft. I’m sorry that disappoints you, but he’ll be alright; he’s wild and can fend for himself. In the morning you can see him. And tomorrow night you can be sure to grab him along with all of your animals and bring them to bed before brushing your teeth.”

Having all the animals ready for bed means planning well ahead of the moment you notice they’re missing. For something to be added, something must give.

This got me thinking more about recent trends and the hype and confusion surrounding Christians today. Why do the lives of most Christians look essentially the same as the rest of society? Why are we missing out on the power, the conviction, the joy, peace and creativity God plans for His children? Where is the Kingdom of God we’re told by Jesus has already come? Continue reading →

 

Work: when you need to think.

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20130201-064508.jpgEver get frustrated at your lack of productivity, especially when “work” comes down to coming up with good ideas and implementing them? Feel like you’re constantly running out of time?

Take heart. Doing good “knowledge work” involves approaching one’s work in a different way. Think of it as gathering the right tools for the job. Time is one of the tools, though not the best tool for measuring – or limiting – success. Give yourself (and those on your team) time to succeed. Consider these words from Scott Belsky:

“In a knowledge economy it doesn’t make sense to use time as a measurement for a job well done. Knowledge work requires a different set of assumptions about productivity. It requires fluidity (ideas can happen at any time), concentration (being rested and engaged is more important than being on the clock), and creativity (regardless of the hour).”

Source: Matt Perman, who writes one of my favorite blogs, What’s Best Next.

 

Remembering our purpose in the place He gives us to inhabit.

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“The place He gives us to inhabit.
The few things He gives us to do in that place.
The persons He invites us to know there.
These our days,
our lingering.

It is enough then,
this old work of hands
His and ours
to love here,
to learn His song here,

like crickets that scratch
and croon,
from nooks unseen,

carrying on with
what they were made for,
the night craft of
unnoticed faces,
with our wings unobserved,

until He walks again
in the cool of the day,
to call our names once more.

And we then,
with our stitched white flags,
will from behind His evergreens,
finally unhide ourselves,
unblushed with Him to stroll
once more.”

Excerpt from: Sensing Jesus: Life and Ministry as a Human Being, by Zack Eswine (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2013).

 

A man with a dream for others.

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“When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'”
—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaking during the Civil Rights rally on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.

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Listen to an audio recording, or see video of the speech.

Continue reading →

 

Family first?

Quote

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“If our highest love is our family, we will ultimately choose our family’s good over the good of other families. If our highest love is our nation, we will choose our nation’s interests and ignore those of other countries. If our highest love is our own individual comfort and happiness, we will choose to serve ourselves over the needs of others. Only if our highest love is God himself can we love and serve all people, families, classes, and races.”
—Jonathan Edwards, quoted in Center Church: doing balanced, gospel-centered ministry in your city, by Timothy Keller

(reminded by Kris Zyp)

 

Most moms and dads think they are either the best or the worst parents around (and both are wrong).

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Here’s a fairly typical example of what gospel-centered attempts at parenting can look like in action (by Kevin Deyoung, a pastor):

Me: What’s the matter son?
Child: I want that toy and he won’t give it to me!
Me: Why do you want the toy?
Child: I don’t know.
Me: What’s going on in your heart when you desire that toy?
Child: I don’t know.
Me: Think about it son. Use your brain. Don’t you know something?
Child: I guess I just want the toy.
Me: Obviously. But why?
Child: I don’t know.
Me: Fine. [Mental note: abandon “why” questions and skip straight to leading questions.] Do you think he is having fun playing with the toy right now?
Child: No.
Me: Really?! He’s not having fun? Then why does he want that toy in the first place?
Child: Because he’s mean.
Me: Have you ever considered that maybe you are being mean by trying to rip the toy from his quivering little hands?
Child: I don’t know.
Me: What do you know?
Child: I don’t know!
Me: Nevermind. [I wonder how my brilliant child can know absolutely nothing at this moment.] Well, I think taking the toy from him will make your brother sad. Do you like to make him sad?
Child: I don’t know.
Me: [Audible sigh.]
Child: He makes me sad all the time!
Me: Well, I’m getting sad right now with your attitude! [Pause, think, what would Paul Tripp do?  Thinking . . .  thinking . . . Man, I can’t stop thinking of that mustache. This isn’t working. Let’s just go right to the Jesus part.] You know, Jesus wants us to love each other.
Child: I don’t know.
Me: I didn’t ask you a question!
Child: [Pause.] Can I have some fruit snacks?
Me: No, you can’t have fruit snacks. We are talking about the gospel. Jesus loves us and died for us. He wants you to love your brother too.
Child: So?
Me: So give him the toy back!

Then I lunge for the toy and the child runs away. I tell him to come back here this instant and threaten to throw the toy in the trash. I recommit myself to turning down speaking engagements on parenting.

Read the whole post, which is encouraging. A couple of lines that stood out:

  • The quip cited by Alistair Begg: “When I was young I had six theories and no kids. Now I have six kids and no theories.”
  • And from Kevin’s church secretary: “Most moms and dads think they are either the best or the worst parents around, and both are wrong.”

Here is Kevin’s upshot:

I just know that the longer I parent the more I want to focus on doing a few things really well, and not get too passionate about all the rest. I want to spend time with my kids, teach them the Bible, take them to church, laugh with them, cry with them, discipline them when they disobey, say sorry when I mess up, and pray like crazy. I want them to look back and think, “I’m not sure what my parents were doing or if they even knew what they’re were doing. But I always knew my parents loved me and I knew they loved Jesus.” Maybe it’s not that complicated after all.