In our Gospel-Centered Life series, we have defined the gospel as:
The good news…
…that God saves sinners…
…through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The gospel is news, not advice. It is news concerning the nature of God (his holiness, perfection, and glory) and the nature of humanity (sinners separated from God by our rebellion and self-worship) which reveals our need for salvation. And it is news about how God has provided for that salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who lived the life we should have lived, died the death we deserved to die, and rose in victory over all His enemies and ours.
Last week Justin quoted Martin Luther’s famous saying that the gospel is “the principle article of Christian doctrine… most necessary is it that we know [the gospel] well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.” As we think about developing a “gospel-centered life” – a life rooted in and continually centered on the good news of who Jesus is and what he’s done – this quote is a good way to assess our progress. Some of us are still at the place of learning the gospel well (and we need to stay there as long as it takes for us to truly know it well). Some of us know it well and need to teach it to others (while reminding ourselves of it constantly). And after we have known it well and taught it to others, we still need to “beat it into their (and our) heads continually” by making sure that all our teaching, all our discipleship, all our counseling and leadership and influence constantly comes back to the gospel.
Americans have lost the ability to rest. Statistical studies have shown that we now spend more hours at work than at any time since World War II: in fact, each year our work year increases by one day. And the proliferation of communication technology only exacerbates the problem by ensuring that we can bring our work home with us.
Our inability to rest affects even our approach to vacation. For many of us, vacations end up being stressful and harried as we rush to pack in as many amusement park rides, family visits, or leisure activities as we can. We come home needing a vacation to recover from our vacation!
After my sabbatical a few years ago, my wife and I decided to intentionally develop a rhythm of rest in our lives. Our definition of “vacation” has adjusted accordingly.
Last week was vacation week. Some generous friends gave us the keys to their lakeside cabin in the Ozarks. We packed up our four kids and the dog and spent 6 glorious days doing mostly nothing.
We fasted from media – no email, no cell phones, no internet, no movies.
We took off our watches and refused to keep track of time.
We slept when we were tired and ate when we were hungry.
We spent most of our days swimming in the lake, fishing, playing board games with the kids, reading books, and taking naps.
We lived simply and enjoyed it: a family of six in a 900-square-foot cabin with one bathroom. And it was fine. (People have lived this way for most of human history, you know. Only in America does a newlywed couple “need” a 2000-square-foot house.)
Our kids LOVE this sort of vacation. They would rather go to the lake than to Disneyworld. The rhythm of rest is refreshing not just to us, but to them: no schoolwork, no video games, no set bedtimes, no schedule to keep. And the answer to most everything is “yes.” Can we stay up late? Yes. Can we swim across the lake? Yes. Can we drive the golf cart? Yes. Can we have ice cream for dinner? Yes.
Rest is God’s gift – and His command. If it’s been a while since you unplugged… get out your calendar and plan some time away. Your soul needs it.
Readers of this blog will be especially interested to note the responses of Dr. Al Mohler, who argues that the local church is the most important training ground for future ministers, and of one of my own mentors, Dr. Richard Pratt, who admits: “After 22 years of teaching in a seminary, I slowly began to realize… we were not preparing the kinds of leaders that evangelical churches in North America need.”
As previously mentioned, I have been invited to travel to northern New England this fall to speak at a conference on the centrality of the gospel. This is a cool opportunity for me and a significant chance to plant gospel seed in some of the hardest soil in north America.
Any cultural observer or missiologist will agree that the northeastern U.S. is the hardest place on American soil for church planting and renewal. The home of the Great Awakening has now become a bastion of stale, liberal religiosity littered with dead and dying churches. But God is doing something. A resurgence of gospel interest is taking place among many young church leaders. God is calling church planters to forsake ‘safer’ soil in the South and move to New England to labor there. And within established churches – many of them hundreds of years old – a desire is growing to rediscover the centrality of the gospel, the mission of Jesus, and the work of church planting.
Please pray for my role in the Lead Conference to further the work God is already doing, for His kingdom and glory.
In the past few weeks I’ve listened to two sermons by aspiring church planters here in Omaha. In both cases these men tell personal stories of how God has used the Acts 29 Network – and our process for training, assessing, and developing future leaders – as a key resource in their own development.
People ask all the time what exactly our process is for raising up and training church planters. Listening to these stories might help you have a better understanding of why we believe the gospel, mission, and community come together to have a formative influence on young leaders – and how we try to steward what God is doing in their lives for greater influence.
Justin Dean is a church planting resident at our sister church, Core Community… he tells the story of how his first meeting with Ethan and me at an Acts 29 bootcamp in Louisville last year became God’s means of calling him to Omaha for a season. Erick Whigham is one of our emerging leaders at Coram Deo… he tells the story of how God used a conversation with me to temper his expectations and give him patience.
Every summer, Acts 29 lead pastors and their wives from across the country gather in Colorado for 3 days of rest, refreshment, and reconnecting. At these retreats we dive in deeply with each other and often hear “off the record” from some of the key leaders and influencers within the Acts 29 movement. Here are the five best quotes from the teaching time at this year’s retreat:
“How many of you guys are in your 20′s? [Pause to let audience raise hands] You don’t know ANYTHING!” – Mark Driscoll
“Why don’t you stop blogging about election and go find some elect people?” – Mark Driscoll, lambasting Calvinists who love doctrine but don’t share the gospel with anyone
“Don’t come up in here talking about yo’ Reformed theology if God ain’t sovereign from your waist down!” – Eric Mason, talking about young black men in his church committing sexual immorality
“My elders be flankin’ me… if you want to step to a girl in my church, you gotta come through a FLEET of dudes!” – Mason, talking about protecting his flock from irresponsible young men
“God, I know you sometimes take your people home early… I’m just praying you wouldn’t do that with my daddy.” - Matt Chandler describing his 7-year-old daughter’s prayer for him at bedtime one night
Last month the women of Coram Deo (along with guests from many other churches around Omaha) welcomed author and filmmaker Carolyn McCulley for the Radical Womanhood Conference. The audio from Carolyn’s sessions is now uploaded and available either on the Resources page or on the Coram Deo podcast.
If you weren’t there, you can catch up on the content you missed. Or, if you attended, you can revisit the material that most interested you.
One of the best kept secrets in the Acts 29 Network is David Fairchild, lead pastor of Kaleo Church in San Diego. At the first Acts 29 bootcamp I ever attended, David went off on a room full of dudes about why they needed to LOVE theology… and I immediately realized, “This is a tribe of men I want to run with.”
David is a dear friend and partner in ministry who has family in Council Bluffs and is therefore very excited about what we’re doing at Coram Deo. In this video post he explains the tri-perspectival understanding of spiritual leadership which Kaleo and Coram Deo share. For those of you who want to understand how we think about leadership… watch and learn.
The leadership of Christ’s church is a matter of crucial theological importance. Scripture cautions us to be on guard against church leaders who teach false doctrines, promote controversies, and turn aside to meaningless talk (1 Tim. 1:3-7). In spite of these warnings, we live in a day and age when the average Christian’s understanding of biblical church leadership is anemic at best and nonexistent at worst. So at Coram Deo, we spend a lot of time talking and teaching about biblical church leadership to counteract the apathy and confusion that exists in American Christianity. Here’s a summary…
The most important leader in the church is Jesus. As Mark Driscoll writes:
The Scriptures are clear that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. Jesus is the Apostle who plants a church. Jesus is the Leader who builds the church. Jesus is the Senior Pastor who rules the church. And it is ultimately Jesus who closes churches down when they have become faithless or fruitless. Therefore, it is absolutely vital that a church loves Jesus, obeys Jesus, imitates Jesus, and follows Jesus at all times and in all ways, according to the teaching of his word. Human leadership in the church is little more than qualified Christians who are following Jesus and encouraging other people to follow them as they follow Jesus. Because of this, church leaders must be good sheep who follow their Chief Shepherd Jesus well before they are fit to be shepherds leading any of his sheep (On Church Leadership, p. 12).
Serving under Jesus are three types of human leaders in the church: elders, deacons, and church members. Church members are Christians who are following Jesus wholeheartedly and have therefore made the transition from consumers to contributors. Driscoll calls them “Christians whose eyes are capable of seeing beyond their own navels.” They have died to themselves, they see their lives as existing for the mission of God, and they give of their time, talent, and treasure to advance God’s kingdom in the world. They recognize that Scripture calls them to be part of a local church (Heb 13:17, Phil 1:1), and so they have committed to a local church body (which shouldn’t be optional according to the Bible, but sadly is seen as optional by many cultural Christians). At Coram Deo we have about 150 covenant members, as well as many new Christians who are in the process of sorting out their relationship to God and moving toward church membership.
Deacon and elder are formal offices of leadership in the church that are to be filled by church members who meet stringent biblical qualifications (1 Timothy 3). As we investigate the teaching of Scripture, we see the following principles:
Elders are appointed first, then deacons. The first step of organizing a local church is to appoint qualified elders. This was Paul’s consistent practice in New Testament church planting (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5). It seems that the office of elder/overseer/pastor (these terms are synonymous in the NT) is given primacy because of the importance of sound doctrine and biblical teaching in the life of a young church (1 Timothy 1:3-7). Elders must be raised up as soon as possible in order to guard the gospel and refute error (Titus 1:9). Deacons may be appointed later as the practical ministry needs increase.
The main task of elders is theological oversight; the main task of deacons is practical ministry. Only one important qualification distinguishes elders from deacons: elders must be “able to teach” (1 Tim 3:2) and “able to… refute those who contradict [sound doctrine]” (Titus 1:9). There is no such requirement for deacons; they simply “must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience” (1 Tim 3:9). Elders, then, are charged primarily with the theological, doctrinal, and moral leadership of the church, focusing especially on the faithful teaching of Scripture. Deacons are charged with the practical leadership of the church under the oversight of the elders. Elders serve by leading, and deacons lead by serving.
Elders delegate tasks to deacons. While the New Testament outlines in copious detail the practical duties of elders, it offers almost no teaching about the roles and responsibilities of deacons. Based on the primacy of eldership and the apostolic pattern in Acts 6, it seems that the job of a deacon is to serve as a “pastoral assistant” under the oversight and direction of the elders. The elders delegate practical ministry to the deacons as the size and needs of the church increase. This is certainly the way the early church understood the office of deacon: “Deacons… are to be honorable and sincere in performing the duties assigned to them by the presbyters [elders],” wrote Theodore of Mopsuestia.
This past weekend Coram Deo installed two new elders and twelve new deacons. These leaders have proven themselves over time and have been carefully examined against biblical criteria. We always say that deacons and elders are recognized, not appointed; we look for people who are already serving well and leading others, and then we develop and train them for further leadership. The most recent crew of deacons spent five months in formal training to prepare them for the office. Our two new elders progressed through an even more extensive vetting process that included a series of written essays, written and oral Bible/theology exams, a family finance assessment, a husband/wife interview with current elders as well as outside advisors, and the drafting of a major theological position paper.
I’m grateful to God for His grace in raising up good, godly, qualified leaders for His church. May they have your utmost respect and confidence, and may you follow them as they follow Jesus, so that in all things Christ might be glorified.
