Posted by: krandolph | April 29, 2012

Paul, a Volunteer…?

Volunteer is a word often associated with ministry. There are lots of articles about “mobilizing church volunteers” and such. If by volunteer we mean “unpaid”, I get that. However, I am afraid that volunteer is a term often used to mask an attitude which is roughly equivalent to “don’t bust my chops about how I do this ministry,  you’re lucky to have someone filling this slot.” For instance, to emphasize showing up on time, being prepared, and giving your best energy to a ministry is often met with surprise. “I’m a busy person. Don’t you know I’m a volunteer?”

It struck me last week as I was studying Titus 1:1-4 how often Paul frames his life in terms that make us “volunteers” cringe. We read things like, “Paul, a bondslave of God…” The Greek term doulos is defined in one lexicon as follows:

a slave, bondman, man of servile condition

  1. a slave
  2. metaph., one who gives himself up to another’s will, those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men
  3. devoted to another to the disregard of one’s own interests

A bondslave doesn’t set his own agenda. He or she serves at the pleasure of the master with the interests of the master as their primary focus. It is hard to imagine Paul opening one of his letters with, “Paul, a volunteer for God…” Whether he is tackling marriage, parenting, work, or ministry, Paul consistently frames the discussion in terms of the service of the believer to Christ. Christ is the Master, we are his servants.

I don’t think this is just quibbling over terminology. If I view my ministry in the church primarily in terms of volunteerism, it will affect the way I think about and practice ministry.

  • Volunteers sometimes come across as though ministry is an imposition. Servants approach ministry as a privilege.
  • Volunteers sometimes cut corners when it comes to the quality of preparation. Servants prepare to give their best to Christ.
  • Volunteers will cut ministry if something else competes for their time. Servants prioritize ministry.
  • Volunteers may be offended if they are not recognized for their contribution. Servants deflect the glory to Christ.

It is disappointing when Christians treat their ministry responsibilities in ways they would never dream of treating their secular responsibilities. They wouldn’t think of showing up late or not at all to work. They wouldn’t turn in a half-baked report to their boss. They wouldn’t “wing it” on an important presentation with little or no prep work. Yet, these kinds of things are all too common in local church life.

This kind of behavior betrays a volunteer mentality rather than a servant mentality. Let’s restore the biblical vocabulary of servanthood when it comes to the way we think about and practice ministry.

Posted by: krandolph | April 21, 2012

Mohler on Digital Church

Al Mohler on the limitations of digital churches:

Christ clearly intends for his people to be gathered together into congregations. The fellowship of the saints is a vital means of grace for the disciple of Christ. We can be enriched by means of listening to sermons online and by delving deeply into the ocean of knowledge found within Christian websites, but these cannot replace the authenticity that comes only by means of the local church and its ministry.

Believers need the accountability found only within the local church. We need to hear sermons preached by flesh-and-blood preachers in the real-time experience of Christian worship. We need to confess the faith together through the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We need to confess our sins and declare forgiveness by the blood of Christ together. We need to be deployed for service in Christ’s name together.

Without apology, we can learn much from preaching heard or seen over the Internet. Churches should engage digital technologies with the same eagerness that we use jet aircraft, copy machines, the printing press, and the telephone. At the same time, none of these can replace the fellowship of the saints and the centrality of the local church.

A digital preacher will not preach your funeral. The deep limitations of digital technologies become evident where the church is most needed. Don’t allow the Internet to become your congregation. YouTube is a horrible place to go to church.

Posted by: krandolph | April 21, 2012

Preaching Like a Dying Man to Dying Men

Makers of Puritan History

Marcus L. Loane provides a brief but powerful description of the preaching of Richard Baxter. Baxter himself stated that he preached “as a dying man to dying men.” Loane writes several memorable sentences which support this view of the gravity of Baxter’s preaching.

All his sermons were aimed at heart and conscience and were preached with a fire and passion which could not be ignored. The fire might burn at white heat, but it shone with a clear flame…(p. 182)

Men who did hear him felt that he spoke as one who had come from the unseen presence of God and they listened as men would listen for the voice of eternity. (p. 182)

His words were like point-blank-gun-shots fired at the breast of a startled congregation: men had to be forced to listen when the stake was nothing less than their souls. (p. 183)

Thus his warnings were forged with the thunder of wrath and the terror of hell, but they were matched by the persuasive tenderness with which he strove to win men back for God. (p. 183)

Baxter was a man who toiled and preached with heaven and hell before his eyes…(p. 183)

Baxter’s passion burned so fervently in preaching because his heart and mind were gripped with the eternal realities about which he spoke from the pulpit. May it be so in my life and preaching as well.

 

 

Posted by: krandolph | April 19, 2012

Isaiah 5:20 in Action

Planned Parenthood launches their 40 Days of Prayer campaign for abortion. This is simply appalling. Read the article and weep.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/religious-right-now/post/planned-parenthoods-abortion-prayer/2012/04/18/gIQABL46RT_blog.html

 

Posted by: krandolph | March 28, 2012

Calvin on Miracle-Driven Faith

Calvin’s comments on John 4:48 where Jesus chided the Galileans for their insistence miracles:

And first, it was exceedingly wicked that they were so stupid and carnal as to have no reverence for doctrine, unless they had been aroused by miracles; for they must have been well acquainted with the word of God, in which they had been educated from their infancy. Secondly, when miracles were performed, they were so far from profiting aright, that they remained in a state of stupidity and amazement. Thus they had no religion, no knowledge of God, no practice of godliness, except what consisted in miracles. 

To the same purpose is that reproach which Paul brings against them, the Jews demand signs, (1 Corinthians 1:22.) For he means that they were unreasonably and immoderately attached to signs, and cared little about the grace of Christ, or the promises of eternal life, or the secret power of the Spirit, but, on the contrary, rejected the Gospel with haughty disdain, because they had no relish for any thing but miracles. I wish there were not many persons in the present day affected by the same disease; but nothing is more common than this saying, “Let them first perform miracles, and then we will lend an ear to their doctrine;” as if we ought to despise and disdain the truth of Christ, unless it derive support from some other quarter. But though God were to overwhelm them by a huge mass of miracles, still they speak falsely when they say that they would believe. Some outward astonishment would be produced, but they would not be a whit more attentive to doctrine.

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