Category Archives: Ministry

Lord’s prayer: family devotions

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Lurid Lord's prayerBelieve it or not, this is the Lord’s prayer – the form for prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. In this image, it kind of looks familiar and kind of draws attention but we kind of don’t really get what it’s about.

And perhaps that’s just like prayer: as easy as speaking to our Father, mentioned in so many Christian conversations, but not something in which we ever feel mastery.

I decided we’d look at prayer in our family Bible reading. Using the Lord’s prayer, as recorded by Matthew. Here’s how we did it.

Method

Each evening, after dinner (that’s our usual time), I read Matthew 6:9-13. We then discussed one line of the prayer. Then we prayed it together by reading the Bible passage. The next night the pattern was repeated as we moved to the next line of the prayer. By the end, even our youngest non-reader was making a stab at saying the words of this prayer.

To finish the sequence of prayer devotions, we read Matthew 6:5-8 to hear Jesus’ warning about using prayer as a pathway to pride. By this stage we knew the words of the prayer … well, perhaps our five and seven year olds had less accurate recitation!

Content

Here, as far as I can recall, is what I highlighted for each line of the Lord’s prayer. It’s not written in the conversational dinner-time style, but the points are what we talked about.

Our Father in heaven
Prayer starts with God, the Father. We speak to him – we don’t send him a memo or an invoice. He’s Father! What’s more, all who trust him do this, God is our Father. Prayer, then, is a kind of family activity in which the children seek out the Father who is the giver of life. This is very worthwhile, because he is our Father in heaven, the place of real authority –  he is the power above all.

Hallowed be your name
What’s in a name? A person’s character and reputation, that’s what. The name is the whole message and expression of God. And because it’s a word, it is communication. God’s name is spoken to people and received by people. When God’s name is spoken truly, people know God properly. God’s name, in a sense, is all of creation rightly listening to him. That is, God is hallowed, known as holy. That’s exactly what we want to see. So we ask for it.

Your kingdom come
God’s kingdom is not a space on a map. It is God’s rule, unchallenged and right. This line reminds us that God is the only ruler – I am not the king! It’s important to see that these two requests follow on from ‘Our Father in heaven.’ The Father, in the Bible, is responsible for the family. Sometimes even kings are called ‘father’ of their nation. And the kind of king/father we have is holy, because he’s in heaven.

In other words, to pray ‘Our Father in heaven’ is automatically to pray ‘Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.’

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
There’s a third prayer request for something about God. What should we pray for as of first priority? For God’s rule and will and ways. The first good thing about prayer is that it rejoices in God’s name, kingdom and will.

Yet there’s a shadow in this prayer. To make these three requests is a reminder: God’s name is treated as mud, his king is ignored, and his will is flouted. This world is not right. So sad! What can be done!? Major news: Jesus shows that God uses prayer as he fixes this world. It’s a mystery how God does this. But we know what we need to know – that prayer, like the Lord’s prayer, is good in a world that does not yet do God’s will.

We can be confident in all these prayers, because Jesus prayed the same thing – three times! (Matthew 26:36-45) And God answered this prayer, through the cross of Jesus. God’s will was that the death of Jesus forgive us of sin. Certainly now God will hear our prayers, for we are his children.

Give us this day our daily bread
God loves us, because he’s our Father. No detail is beneath him. Our bread is a day by day need. Our bread is also a day by day prayer point. At the same time, this is a prayer that skewers greed. Instead of asking to own 1000s of bakeries, we ask for the day’s food. That’s plenty, for we will let tomorrow worry about itself.

Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors
Debts are what we owe. They’re expensive, and it’s right to pay. The trouble is, we cannot pay our debt to God because our wrongs are so many. All we can do is ask for God to wipe away the debt.

But there’s more! We ask for forgiveness as we also forgive. Forgiveness, we see, is central to God’s kingdom. Everyone in God’s kingdom is a person of forgiveness: we love it. We love forgiveness from God, we love to show forgiveness to people, we love to encourage forgiveness between others. Everyone who loves God’s kingdom loves forgiveness.

Now look at when we ask for forgiveness: it’s after we speak to God as Father. We were already God’s children, as disciples of Jesus. We do not flip-flop into God’s family and out of it depending on ‘sins.’ When we trust Jesus, we are always in God’s family – always – though we will have to keep coming to God for help with our debts.

Lord's prayer

 

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one
After prayer, we keep living. As we live, we face temptation. It’s not bad to be tempted – what are some of your temptations or tests? The bad comes from within us, as we follow temptation and take pleasure in evil (or in the evil one). Since we do not want to dishonour God like this, we ask for his help. ‘Please don’t lead me that dangerous way, but help me go this good way.’

We see that prayer for the whole world is also prayer for me and for us. We will be changed by God, as we pray in the manner Jesus taught us.

 


 

Psychology explains everything, & nothing

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So many conversations involve looking inside someone’s head. Amateur psychologists are everywhere.

In Bible study: “Moses was probably conflicted”; “It must be that Joshua was feeling vulnerable”; ‘Paul’s upbringing made him overly dogmatic.”

In a planning team: “I don’t think she has the right personality to do that job.”

In disagreement: “He must have had a bad experience to think that way”; “I can’t change that, because I need to express myself.”

In these cases, I think the appeal to psychology explains everything (now we know why). And it explains exactly nothing (we don’t have to think about it any more).

My appeal is this: forget the inner forces until we’ve wrestled with the outer detail.

Take the example of reading the Bible. In the modern west, much of our literature concerns the inner life. Novels explore and express the desires, rages, fears, joy and hurts of their characters. We too easily read the Bible as if it’s the same. But the Bible has little comment upon the motives and drives of its rich array of people. It has its own way: plot and narrative, hints and unfolding drama, small details that later become huge. It’s much better if we read the Bible as the Bible. Let its details capture us, instead of forcing it to fit our kinds of writing.

So too with understanding people. Have a look at the screenshot I took from this article. It’s atrocious! The aim of the piece is to help people cope during Christmas. This section is totally superior, smug and self-satisfied. And uses ‘psychology’ to justify arrogance.

What should we do if someone says, as suggested here, ‘We have too many boat people’? I don’t think that statement is true at all, but this author gives me permission to proudly look down on one who holds this opinion.

For a start, the author has already decided it’s bigotry – no reasoning required. Secondly, the boat people opinion is ascribed to deficiency and fear: ‘lack of awareness … often underpinned by a fear of difference.’ Finally, the opinion is scientifically-proven to be dumb: ‘prejudice is linked with low IQ’.

What an arrogant smack-down!

Even better, though, is how the author tells us to exalt ourselves. Once you’ve avoided the topic: ‘be proud of yourself for taking the more worldly, compassionate, self-controlled and educated higher ground and move on.’

All this stuff couched in misused psychological terms, when I could have simply said: ‘I’d like to know your reasons for that, as long as you are open to changing your mind.’

As I said before: forget the inner forces until we’ve wrestled with the outer detail.

When we do this, psychology and the inner life will still be important. And they will be more powerful, I believe. Properly-qualified psychologists will be able to share their insight. Passions in Bible characters will stand out even more clearly (Jesus’ tears in the Garden of Gethsemane, for example). And when everyday folk talk, we will experience true listening and interaction.

 


 

 

Main ministry aim

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Every Christian ministry has many elements. We think some elements are central, primary, or essential. Others are peripheral, secondary, or non-essential (they might still be very good!). When we aim wrongly we run into various potential problems.

If the ministry has a primary aim of:

  • fun/entertainment, then the entertainment industry will do it better than you
  • community, then you are competing with social media and self-selecting common interest groups (sport, bands, camping, …)
  • social justice, then you will soon feel that power lies elsewhere: government bodies or NGOs
  • care for the needy, then frustration will kill you because single-issue care organisations will out-perform you in doing good works
  • counselling, then effectiveness will be limited by the skills of the leaders (and professional counsellors will rightly have some concerns about you)

All these aims are good. I don’t think they’re primary for a church, or youth group, or Bible study group.

But if the ministry has a primary aim of making disciples of Jesus, then:

  • you have no competition from movies or footy or going out for a drink. Their aims are different
  • you are serving Jesus’ plan for the world (Matthew 19:17-20)
  • you have freedom to use methods to help this, and free to toss out methods that hunder
  • you will work with people, as a fellow disciple, rather than at people who are your clients
  • you won’t be able to see the ultimate effects of your work – the day will reveal it (1 Corinthians 3:12-14)
  • you will always feel the pull of one of the alternatives listed above
The end of the year is a good time, for me at least, to look back and see where I’ve drifted. It’s time to re-calibrate. And to pray for God’s help to keep discipleship central better next year than I did this year.


 

 

Dead end questions

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In Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13 collects a number of Jesus’ parables together. They’re all provocative, but I’ve always been fascinated by the parable of the weeds.

Jesus’ story is of a man who sowed good seed, but the field was later oversown with weeds among the grain. The owner forbids his servants from eliminating the weeds, ‘lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them’ (verse 29). The servants must wait until the harvest.

In Jesus’ explanation (verses 36-43), he tells that the harvest is the close of the age. Until then, the kingdom of heaven is growing, but not at all marked by purity.

In other words, until the final judgement of God, this world will be marked by a mixture of good and evil. There will certainly be a division between the good things of the kingdom and the weeds of the evil one. Yet God’s judgement is delayed for a purpose: to provide safety now for those who will be be safe at the judgement.

In a very short story, Jesus directly addresses the problem of on-going evil. Jesus agrees that the presence of evil is awful. Evil remains evil, and must be ‘gathered and burned with fire’. Evil intrinsically prompts God’s servants to ask, ‘Shall we get rid of this now?’ At the same time, the delay in elimination of evil serves a divine purpose.

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For Christians, this is just one passage from the Bible that we draw on to consider the real difficulty known as the problem of evil. It’s one passage among many. Christians have a long history of admitting the pain of persistent evil.

So Christians have many valuable ways to talk with our friends who ask, ‘How can there be a God if evil exists?’

But there’s a surprise. When I hear  people ask this, it’s usually sounds like a an attempt to stop that conversation. Your experience might be different – I hope so. All too often, the question is not asked to seek wisdom. Instead, it’s a question to close down the topic. It’s a dead end question.

When translated, the statement becomes, ‘Look, we all know that evil makes you and God irrelevant, so don’t try to trick me into talking about it.’

That’s sad for so many reasons, but I want to ask one thing: how an we help open this closed door?

Of course, if a friend really is saying, ‘Don’t talk to me’, that’s fine. I am sure, though, that some people would love to talk further. They might have a genuine question, or they might be ready to be intrigued. So here are some ideas about keeping the conversation happening.

  • Be direct. ‘Are you asking that to have more conversation, or because you’d prefer not to talk about it right now?’
  • Be intriguing. ‘It surprises me that people accuse Christianity of ignorance about suffering, because at centre of our faith is a violent injustice.’
  • Be honest. ‘I can tell you how suffering has touched me. And how knowing God was the biggest help of all.’
  • Suggest the future. ‘I feel you don’t want to talk about this now, but I hope one day will will. I’d love to be there for that conversation.’
  • Be caring. ‘Has you been hurt by this kind of pain? Or by people telling you to get over it?’

What would you suggest? Have you had conversations on this topic? I’d love to hear what you learnt. Please add your comments or questions below.

 


 

Church is like a flag

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It’s not news to tell you that, as a minister, I think about church.

Some thought is theological (what does God say about church?). Some is social or cultural (what does church look like in Australia?, what do my neighbours think when they hear ‘church’?). And some is pragmatic (what should we do this Sunday?, how can we better help our leaders do what they do?). These categories overlap, of course, but it helps to know about the different angles or perspectives we can take.

This is a pragmatic post about church: I suggest a way to think about what church does.

My suggestion: we should think that a church service is like a flag. Specifically, a military flag, a battle standard.

(If you click on the image, you can buy your own modern reproduction of a Roman standard. Perhaps every church should have one. No – I’m not spruiking for them!)

As an admitted military innocent, allow me to consider the use of a flag on the battle field.

A flag doesn’t really do anything. It’s not a weapon (except in desperation?). It issues no orders. It does not analyse the ebb and flow of battle. It provides no materiel. It fails to function as a medic. But it does reduce your fighting force – a bloke has to carry it about.

For all that, the military standard appears important. It does not flight, but those who do fight co-ordinate themselves around it. The flag stands central to the battlefield, defining what the war is. Its appearance is a message of motivation: this is who we are, and this is also why we fight. If the flag-bearer falls, it’s imperative that someone else take his place.

Without the flag, soldiers risk being scattered about the field. They can end up expending heaps of energy but to no good purpose. And remember, war is dangerous. It’s cruel to ask people to risk hurt without purpose.

And church?

Church doesn’t really do anything, either. Except exist as church. It sometimes looks like nothing more than a bunch of people gathering repeatedly out of habit. There’s a sameness about church – just as there should be (after all, the theology of church hasn’t changed since the first century AD).

Church does not have a profit motive, like a company board of directors. Church does not aim to win a premiership, like a training squad. It does not even seem to be as useful as other Christian group activity: going door-knocking; visiting the sick; establishing an orphanage.

But for all that, I am convinced that without church Christians would do nothing. Church is a central signal of who we are are whom we follow. Church is necessary, encouraging, motivating, challenging, painful, joyful. The people of God should love the church God has given us.

Who is it that hates church? It is those who hate the military standard on the field of battle: the enemy. I must ask God for strength not to become a traitor to the flag of Christ’s people, the church of which Christ is the head.

 


 

The Slippery Slope

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The trouble with the slippery slope argument is that it is sometimes true.

Sometimes. True.

There are times when one smaller step leads to a larger step. We can become desensitised to crude language, or casual mockery of the opposite sex. And it then we do these things in increasing measure.

  • Because sometimes true, we cannot brush aside the slippery slope argument.

Yet there are times when this argument does not apply. Plenty of people know how to enjoy a beer without falling into drunkenness. We know how to befriend someone without personal compromise, even with profound disagreement regarding God, politics, family life, etc.

  • Because sometimes true, we must be wary of applying this argument to every situation.

 


 

Quick review: pastors in the classics

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Pastors in the Classics is a book about books. Specifically it concerns fiction works that include a pastor or minister as a major character. The authors are interested in what kinds of pastors, and what kinds of pastoral experience, are presented.

There are two major sections. Each of these two are, essentially, a list of books with some comment. Part 1 lists only a dozen books, with extended summaries and reflection, and a series of questions for discussion. Part 2 lists a further 58 novels, with quick precis and reflection.

Reading Pastors in the Classics gives a good sense of how Christianity and Christian ministers are perceived and portrayed. There are cultural stereotypes of pastors and preachers: devoted to service; unworldly; hypocritical; weak yet manipulative; drunkards; sex-obsessed; unmotivated; etc. The novels represented here are likely to be the reason these stereotypes persist (not forgetting, of course, that even clichés have basis in truth!).

Don’t read this book if you dislike plot spoilers. The authors state their assumption that we will have read the relevant novel first (I didn’t, and have only read two of the 12 featured works).

The list of works could provide a great basis for a Christian reading group. Even better, for a reading group of people doing ministry (paid or not) in order to reflect on life and ministry today. You could use the discussion questions from Part 1. Or, if you don’t want to read a book about reading books, you could just work through the list at your own pace.

If you are interested in this latter idea, here are the 12 ‘Masterworks of Clerical Literature’: The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer); The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne); The Warden (Anthony Trollope); Elmer Gantry (Sinclair Lewis); Witch Wood (John Buchan); Murder in the Cathedral (T.S. Eliot); The Diary of a Country Priest (Georges Bernanos); The Power and the Glory (Graham Greene); The Hammer of God (Bo Giertz); Cry, the Beloved Country (Alan Paton); Silence (Shusako Endo); Gilead (Marilynne Robinson).

I read the Kindle edition of Pastors in the Classics.

 


 

FIEC annual conference 2012

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In the last few days the family and I have been at the annual conference of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (www.fiec.org.au). Along the way, I jotted down some notes. These are not minutes or comprehensive, just some gleanings from all that we heard.

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There was a reminder: any and every church or Christian ministry has the basic human need as its basis. This need and problem is not sin, but the wrath of God which all sinners deservedly face. ‘But now, the righteousness of God has been revealed … in Jesus Christ whom God presented as a propitiation’ (Romans 3:21-26).

How could we in FIEC ever be content with so many people unaware of and uninterested in the gospel that offers free and just forgiveness?

One topic central to the conference was the nature of church.

Part of thinking about church is perceiving how Christians and churches are viewed in Australia. There was a suggestion that Christians now viewed in a new way in Australia: not simply wrong, but evil. I’d not heard that before. Do you think it’s true?

Within church circles, evangelical Christians are accused of having no doctrine of church (or ecclesiology). And also accused of being too congregational. It cannot be both, surely. Underlying this criticism, really, is a different view of church.

To do church well, including planting new churches, we do need to be sure of what Bible says about church. We should also be aware current ways the English word brings many non-biblical meanings. We might be the ones who need to admit a need to change.

For the specific doctrine of church, we benefit immensely with reminders of God’s big plan. Obviously, God’s overarching plan encompasses all other plans, including church ones. God’s plan: uniting all things under Christ (Eph 1:10). In this we certainly see individuals saved. Yet more commonly the Bible explains this as church formation. God brings peace for one new humanity (Eph 2:14-16). Jesus has everything under his get for the sake of his headship over the church (Eph 1:22).

Since all true unity is gospel unity, a number of consequences follow. We need to ensure, for example, that the structure of church never trumps the gospel. We must be wary of loyalty to the FIEC, for instance. As long as FIEC exists, we should aim to be characterised by discussion of and contention for the gospel (much more than discussion of and contention for a structure!).

There was more, of course. I hope these snippets give some sense of the conference.

What now? Firstly: I have many ideas to share with folk at church with the aim of growing what we do in Albury. Secondly: I encourage anyone who wants to find out about the FIEC to get to the annual conference (and that includes the Albury leaders – not naming names …).

 


 

Writing the sermon

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There are many preachers, and many many ways to teach the Bible. Sunday preaching is still an important way to came face to face with God’s word. I’m dedicated to it!

I am still learning how to preach, and how to prepare for preaching. Recently I realised a few parts of the process that are important for me (therefore not necessarily important for everyone). I want to write them down so I can keep reflecting on what helps. Maybe in a year I will know myself better and come up with a different list.

For me to preach, I need these four things.

1. Be a Christian
That is, practice the regular and everyday Christian disciplines.

If I am not reading the Bible personally (not in order to prepare something), then preaching preparation seems to go down the tubes. If I pray regularly, I also find I pray more about preaching: about the Bible passages I am preparing, for hearers, for church, etc.

Notably, this ‘step’ of preparation has nothing to do with what I traditionally think of as preparation.

2. Text time
Whatever the Bible passage I am going to preach, I need to get into reading it as soon as I can.

In an average week, I like to do some work on reading the text on Monday morning. This might be an hour or so of reading, sketching out the flow of the argument, looking up some of the words … and then shoving the resultant sheet of notes into a folder. It’s not important to have flashes of inspiration. It is important to start.

3. Wasting time
This surprised me. I think I need to do things that look unproductive and wasteful.

It might be doing a Sudoku. Or pulling weeds from around the hibiscus tree. Or splitting and stacking firewood. Or a million other options. Whatever it is, I find myself thinking, ‘Why am I doing this? I should be working’ and I feel guilty. And, almost invariably, it’s while wasting time that I solve problems I’ve been working on. The big problems. This is when the talk structure falls into place (for me, it’s usually an ‘all at once’ moment). This is when I think of applications to our own lives. Sometimes also relevant illustrations will pop into mind.

This also looks unlike preparation. And I always feel bad about time-wasting. But it seems productive. Perhaps I need to re-think my guilt trips.

4. Page time
I hate this bit. It’s when I actually prepare my notes. I already have the outline, and know the larger points. Now it’s time for details, explanation, connections, as well as start and finish.

This step is where I choose what specifically to explain, and how. Sometimes an individual phrase becomes very important: maybe five words receive five minutes’ attention, because they need to be clear and memorable. Note-writing is when I sense if an illustration will help or distract, and when I struggle to express how God’s word changes our lives. In contrast to step three, step four is all about the details of the sermon.

So what? Two of these four steps feel to me like preparation, and two don’t. The two that do (#2, #4) are steps that deal with details: details of the text or details of the talk. The two that feel less like preparation are still important – even essential – and are much more ‘big picture’, or general.

Next questions. I wonder what might be missing. Have I missed some other steps that are on a different scale? (Eg, how often I have a holiday, or how aware I am of current affairs, or how many books I read per year.) Also, is there some way to make these steps work better?

As the 21st century warning states: YMMV (your mileage may vary). This is my take on what I do. Nonetheless, I’m keen to hear any reactions you might have. Or any thoughts about your own preparation for things. What do you do? How have you learnt to do it better? Any comments will be read with great interest and pleasure!

 

 

Mission work & Olympic TV coverage

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In which a sports-loving blogger finds a link between TV sports and missiology …

Oi! Oi! Oi!

In Australia – and maybe the rest of the world also – Olympic games TV coverage is famously parochial. By this I mean that coverage not only tries to show as many Aussies as possible, but then fawns obsessively on those who gain success. Bleagh! (But we keep watching the sport/advertising, so we all must take some of the blame.)

Let’s assume that we somehow got the coverage ‘just right’ – perfectly pitched and balanced. What would it look like?  Perfect Olympic coverage would be the perfect example of mission practice.

Missiology is thinking about how to do Christian mission – how to announce to all that Jesus Christ is Lord. ‘How’ shows an interest in method. ‘To all’ is required, for mission crosses cultures. ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’ is the message, and also implies the result, the invitation to repent and believe.

But back to what would make great Olympic coverage.

Talk to the local audience

The Olympics on Australian TV should show as many of the Australian performances as possible. It should celebrate victory. It should also cover athletes in obscure sports, or who have no great hopes of success. These team members represent Australia, so it seems wrong to bury them just because they fail to qualify for finals.

If an unknown Australia archer does not appear in Chinese or German TV coverage, fair enough. But if s/he is brushed aside in Australian TV studios that would be terribly rude.

Mission insight: speak the local language and dialect. Celebrate the high points for local people. Your Christian mission might be in Mongolia or in Melbourne. No matter where it is, talk so locals can understand.

Don’t be too parochial

Australia’s obesity problems might be the responsibility of our Olympic broadcasters: a constant diet of sugary-sweet slow-motion success-snippets.

It’s nice that we won that medal. But we don’t need to watch endless repeats of the winning move, do we? Or have inane interviews with every single participant, not to mention their ‘inspirational’ first grade teacher. (There seems no end to the number of ways to ask, ‘How did you feel?’)

This kind of coverage is all too self-glorifying: ‘Look, aren’t we good?’, ‘The whole nation is proud of you’, ‘We punch above our weight’, and so on.

Mission insight: as we love the local culture, the Gospel of Jesus will find fault. Therefore every missionary must have times of un-ease no matter how well they are enculturated. Every place and culture is touched by the ugliness of sin. It’s not love to glorify a human system beyond reality.

Tell the major story

The joy of international games, like the Olympics, if often in seeing huge stories that are not our own. Australia does well at swimming, but the 2008 Olympic pool was dominated by Michael Phelps. Even Down Under, Phelps had to be lauded. Australia had no finalists in the 100m track, yet it would have been our loss if we did not watch Usain Bolt.

Good TV coverage has to tell us the headline news from all sports. If it doesn’t, then we are uninformed.

Mission insight: all missionaries have to tell the world the big news, the account of Jesus crucified, risen and reigning. This is an obvious but essential reminder. Every mission – at home or abroad – has 1000s of opportunities. There is hospitality and care and communication and listening and giving family advice and practising compassion and showing sympathy and … All good things! In fulfilling these, we are to remember to talk about Jesus, because he is the major story.