Reflecting on Psalm 89, a Psalm written to lament God’s absence, I asked, “What do we tend to do, instead of engaging with God in the midst of rejection and abandonment?” Answer: we give up hope. Taylor wrote a song about that, with college philosophy professors as his whipping boys:

“Since I Gave Up Hope I Feel a Lot Better” – Steve Taylor – from the album I Predict 1990

Enter the young idealist
Chasing dragons to slay
Exit the hustler
Packing up his M.B.A.

Freshmen scream in a classroom
Was there a sound?
First degree in the vacuum
I’m on college ground

Took a class, big fun
Modern ethics 101
First day learned why
Ethics really don’t apply

Prof says, “One trait
Takes us to a higher state
Drug free, pure bliss
Get your pencils, copy this”

“Life unwinds like a cheap sweater
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better
And the truth gets blurred like a wet letter
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better”

Top of the class sits Ernest
He was brightest and best
Till the professor lured him
To the hopeless nest

Now he lives for the shortcut
Like a citizen should
Tells the class with a wink
“Only the young die good”

He says, “Ideals? Uncouth
Fatalism needs youth
Eat well, floss right
Keep the hungry out of sight

Save face–nip and tuck
Praise yourself and pass the buck
And don’t forget the best advice
Everybody’s got a price”

“Life unwinds like a cheap sweater
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better
And the truth gets blurred like a wet letter
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better”

“While the world winds down to a final prayer
Nothing soothes quicker than complete despair
I predict by dinner I won’t even care
Since I gave up hope I feel a lot better”

Nazis plead in a courtroom
“Pardon me, boys”
Profits fall in a boardroom
Did they make a noise?

Someone spreads an affliction
Company’s nice
Someone sells an addiction
Puts your soul on ice

Half wits knock heads
Candidates in double beds
Good guys defect
“I can’t precisely recollect”

Teacher’s pet theory’s fine
If you’re born without a spine
Can’t you spell wrong?
Sing it to him Papa John

“While the world winds down to a final prayer
Nothing soothes quicker than complete despair
I predict by dinner I won’t even care
Since I gave up hope I feel a lot better”

“Life unwinds like a cheap sweater
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better
And the truth gets blurred like a wet letter
But since I gave up hope I feel a lot better”

If you didn’t discern from the publishing house (Oxford University Press) that Hunter’s book is an intellectually weighty work, his aggressive thesis ought to get your attention – and leave you hoping for some substantive argumentation. Hunter’s contention is that though Christians far and wide are united in their desire to change the world, “the dominant ways of thinking about culture and cultural change are flawed.” The Christian/populist idea that cultural change results from “change to the heart and mind of the person, through the values and ideas that people live by… is almost wholly mistaken… [E]very tactic for changing the world that is based on this working theory of culture and cultural change will fail.” Thus, says Hunter, “If one is serious about changing the world, the first step is to discard the prevailing view of culture and cultural change and start from scratch.”

Starting from scratch is exactly what Hunter is attempting to do. His book is a massive work of deconstruction and reconstruction. He labors to tear down, bit by bit, the dominant Christian paradigm of cultural change and to replace it with a new and better way of thinking. Does he succeed? You’ll have to answer that question for yourself.

Hunter is a very cautious and charitable interlocutor. He is writing as a thoughtful Christian, and he is surprisingly warm and gracious even in his deconstruction. He does not denigrate the efforts of Christians to change the culture through evangelism, political activism, or social renewal. He is simply arguing that these methods do not work. It’s not that Christians lack good intentions or adequate will; it’s that they’re starting from wrong assumptions.

Hunter’s thesis is relatively straightforward. But it’s the robust argumentation he pursues to defend that thesis that makes this book compelling. As a professor of religion and culture at the University of Virginia, he clearly has the research horsepower to deliver the goods. To whet your appetite, I’ll quote Hunter’s own summary of his argument near the end of the book:

I note in Essay I that Christians have long had a healthy desire to change the world for the better, a desire with roots in sound biblical and theological reasoning. In the past, however, they have done so with mixed effect…

The first problem is that the implicit social theory that guides so much of their efforts is deeply flawed. Christians… tend to believe that cultures are shaped from the cumulative values and beliefs that reside in the hearts and minds of ordinary people… This is why Christians often pursue social change through evangelism (and conversion), civic renewal through populist social movements, and democratic political action (where every vote reflects values). The evidence of history and sociology demonstrates that this theory of culture and cultural change is simply wrong and for this reason, every initiative based on this perspective will fail to achieve the goals it hopes to meet. This is not to say that the hearts and minds of ordinary people are unimportant. To the contrary. Rather, the hearts and minds of ordinary people are only relatively insignificant if the goal is to change cultures at their deepest levels.

Against this view I have argued that cultural change at its most profound level occurs through dense networks of elites operating in common purpose within institutions at high-prestige centers of cultural production… Thus, for all the talk of world-changing and all of the good intentions that motivate it, the Christian community is not, on the whole, remotely close to a position where it could actually change the world in any significant way.

Were Christians to be in a position to exert enduring cultural influence, the results would likely be disastrous or perhaps mostly so. The reason, I argue in Essay II, is that world-changing implies power and the implicit theories of power that have long guided their exercise of power are also deeply problematic… In conformity to the spirit of the modern age, Christians conceive of power as political power… they mistakenly imagine that to pass a referendum, elect a candidate, pass a law, or change a policy is to change culture… In so doing, Christians undermine the message of the very gospel they cherish and desire to advance.

Finally, I argued in the present essay, the political agendas of the Christian Right, Christian Left, and the neo-Anabaptists are just the leading edge of larger paradigms of cultural engagement that I call, respectively, ‘defensive against,’ ‘relevance to,’ and ‘purity from.’ Each of these paradigms operates with different understandings of what it is that most needs changing within the contemporary world… In opposition to [these paradigms], I have suggested a model of engagement called ‘faithful presence within.’

As you can see from this excerpt, Hunter’s book offers much to digest. He takes to task all forms of Christian political engagement (not just the Christian Right). He examines wrong ideas about power and counters with what a biblical approach to power might look like. He offers thoughtful support for his contention that culture is shaped by institutions, not individuals. Along the way, he makes complex sociological principles accessible to the average person. For instance: does symbolic power seem like an abstract concept? Well, just think of it this way: an editorial in the New York Times carries more ‘clout’ than one in the Lincoln Journal-Star. That’s because the Times has greater symbolic power – which makes it more culturally influential. It’s those kinds of insights that make Hunter’s arguments plausible not just to sociologists, but to thoughtful Christians everywhere.

Hunter’s book isn’t without weaknesses, and others have offered valid critiques. But for all Christians seeking to thoughtfully engage culture – and especially for Coram Deo members seeking to live on mission and bring renewal within the city – this book is a must-read.

For those who will be called to lead the church either now or in the future: it would be wise not to say or write anything about cultural engagement until you’ve read this book. Why? Because according to Hunter, Christians need to “abandon altogether talk of ‘redeeming the culture,’ ‘advancing the kingdom,’ ‘building the kingdom,’ ‘transforming the world,’ ‘reclaiming the culture,’ ‘reforming the culture,’ and ‘changing the world.’” You may end up disagreeing with Hunter on this point. But you shouldn’t do so until you’ve weighed his argument.

[One of Coram Deo's missional community leaders, Tyler Zach, read Hunter's book with laptop at hand, summarizing the key arguments and assertions. In weeks to come we'll post some of Tyler's summaries to help readers more thoughtfully engage this important tome.]

AP report

BBC report

We are grieving Rashid’s death and praying/hoping for the safety of other Christians in Pakistan. The country is 97% Muslim, and though the government has a good record of protecting religious freedom, some radicals among the population are very hostile to Christians. Sources on the ground are complaining that the blasphemy charges were spurious in the first place. Religious freedom advocates have criticized Pakistan’s blasphemy law for being vague and subject to exploitation by those hostile to Christianity:

Section 295-C: Use of derogatory remarks, etc; in respect of the Holy Prophet. Whoever by words, either spoken or written or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.

Lead 2010 Conference Website

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.

Today Coram Deo says farewell to the converted house on south 87th Street that has been our ministry headquarters for the past three years.

For the first 18 months of Coram Deo’s existence, we officed in the back corner of an office building owned by our mother church. And when I say “officed,” I mean that term loosely, since said church was in the process of renovating the rest of the building. We did our best to write sermons, counsel people, and meet for missional community despite the din of hammer drills and backhoes, the smell of paint, and the regular interruption of construction workers who needed to use our bathroom. Despite the distractions, it was a great blessing to have a sending church who gave us free office space while we got the church up and running. To this day we are grateful.

In the summer of 2007 it was time to cut the umbilical cord, and so we leased the cheapest 1400 square feet of office space we could find, which happened to be on 87th and Center near Canfield Plaza. It was pretty neglected, but thanks to the labor of some Coram Deo folks, we whipped it into shape. For the past three years this space has been the nerve center for the daily operations of the Coram Deo church community. It’s hosted missional communities, Bible studies, counseling appointments, baptism classes, membership interviews, staff meetings, premarital classes, Spring Break teams, preaching cadres, and church planters’ training, as well as facilitating the daily office work that keeps the mission moving forward.

Since 2007 our church has tripled in size, with corresponding growth in leaders and complexity, making this little office-house no longer feasible for many of these uses. God in his uncanny providence gave us a new office (more on that story later). So today, we pack up and say goodbye to 87th Street. We’ll move all of our operations to the new CD headquarters in the Access Bank building on 78th and Dodge.

Thanks for the memories, 2805. I know Kendal thinks fondly of his days fighting the spiders and rats in your dirt crawlspace to change the furnace filter. But alas, those days are behind us now. May the many coffee spills Walker left on your carpet be a nostalgic reminder of our presence.

I thought it would be interesting – and helpful in my preparation – to invite blog readers to give their 2 cents on this question. What should I make sure to talk about in order to give a full and robust answer to the question?

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.

Justin Dean’s Sermon (Core, 6/20/10 – Exodus 4: What Is In Your Hand?)

Erick Whigham’s Sermon (Coram Deo, 7/4/10 – Psalm 131)

One Surge leader explained the vision to me this way: “Right now, a-theological megachurches dominate the landscape of Phoenix and drive much of the religious conversation in our city. But what if, in 10 years, the more Reformed, gospel-centered churches (whether small or large) were driving the conversation? We think that would be a good thing for the gospel, a good thing for church planting, and a good thing for the city of Phoenix.”

Surge revolves around three primary initiatives: a monthly lunch open to all and focused on networking and training; a year-long “Surge School” open to committed leaders who want to develop theologically and missionally; and a small number of church-planting internships and residencies designed to develop and train aspiring church planters. I was invited to speak at the monthly lunch and to teach on gospel-centered ministry for the Surge School.

It’s great to see movements of God like this, where like-minded, gospel-saturated, kingdom-focused leaders come together to advance the mission of God in their city. I wanted to share what the Surge guys are up to in order to urge you to 1) pray for what God is doing in Phoenix and 2) pray for God’s continued grace as we seek to forge similar kingdom partnerships here in Omaha.

[from Coram Deo's eldership training class]

1. They turn secondary issues into primary ones (1 Tim 1:1-7, 2 Tim 2:23)
2. They cause division & dissension (1 Tim 6:3-5, Romans 16:17-18)
3. They prey on the weak (Rom 16:17-18, 2 Tim 3:1-9)
4. They talk a lot but say little (2 Tim 2:16, Titus 1:10)
5. They have un-Christlike character (Titus 1:16, 1 Tim 4:1-2)
6. They don’t call people to repentance (2 Tim 4:1-5, Jer 23:14)
7. They despise authority (Jude 8, Col 2:18-19)
8. They are ultimately tools of Satan himself (1 Tim 4:1, 2 Tim 3:24-26)

False teachers tend to distort the truth along one of two trajectories: legalism (1 Tim 4:1-5) or liberalism (Jude 4, 2 Pet 2:18-19)

It was a great privilege this morning at Coram Deo to have JD and Michele Senkbile back with us. The Senkbiles were an integral part of the original team that founded Coram Deo. They moved to Cape Town, South Africa, in December of 2008 to oversee Acts 29’s church planting work on the African continent. Throughout 2009, the Holy Spirit made it clear that they needed to plant a church in Cape Town as a home base for gospel movement in southern Africa. So in January of 2010, they launched Vox City Church in the heart of Cape Town. The word vox is Latin for voice… Vox City Church desires to be a voice for the gospel in the heart of Cape Town.

If you’re not familiar with JD and the work God has called him to, audio from today’s message will be up shortly on the Resources page or Coram Deo’s iTunes podcast. Keep JD and Michele and their team in your prayers as they seek to shape a biblically faithful, culturally relevant gospel-community-on-mission in this important global city.

(If you’ve never read The Knowledge of the Holy, consider this your invitation to pick up a copy. It’s well worth your time and effort.)

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

For this reason the gravest question before the church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the church… Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on his character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is – in itself a monstrous sin – and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness…

Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place… Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.

Before the Christian church goes into eclipse anywhere there must first be a corrupting of her simple basic theology. She simply gets a wrong answer to the question, “What is God like?” and goes on from there… The masses of her adherents come to believe that God is different from what He actually is; and that is heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind.

• “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

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.

Porterbrook Promo from Coram Deo Church on Vimeo.

For more information on Porterbrook or to download a curriculum sample or an application, please go to this post

The liberal/pragmatist approach to evangelism is to deny the legitimacy of evangelism altogether. By contrast, the conservative/moralist person does believe in proselytizing, because “we are right and they are wrong.” Such proselytizing is almost always offensive.

The gospel is a “third way,” different from both of these, which produces a constellation of traits in us:

1. First, we are compelled to share the gospel out of generosity and love, not guilt
2. Second, we are freed from fear of being ridiculed or hurt by others, since we already have the favor of God by grace
3. Third, there is a humility in our dealings with others, because we know we are saved only by grace alone, not because of our superior insight or character.
4. Fourth, we are hopeful about anyone, even the “hard cases,” because we were saved only because of grace, not because we were likely people to be Christians.
5. Fifth, we are courteous and careful with people. We don’t have to push or coerce them, for it is only God’s grace that opens hearts, not our eloquence or persistence or even their openness.

All these traits not only create a winsome evangelist but an excellent neighbor in a multi-cultural society.

Several weeks ago I was in a bookstore, where I noticed a boy of 10 or 12 thumbing through the most recent Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. His mother stood nearby, her boy and his newfound reading material in full sight. She seemed not to care. It’s a sign of something—decayed community bonds, perhaps, or moral cowardice—that the thought of speaking to her about this made me cringe. Then the boy put down the magazine, and they wandered to another part of the bookstore, and that was that.

Of course that wasn’t really that, because the entire purpose of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, and indeed of most pornography choking the stream of popular culture—be it sexual or violent—is to cast images that are unforgettable. Whether it’s a woman arching luridly, or a film villain carving up his screaming victims, their creators and especially their profit-seeking marketers want you to remember what you’ve witnessed.

And boys do remember. I remember discovering my stepfather’s stash of pornography as a child, and the heart-thumping realization that here was something secret and forbidden. There’s no regaining your innocence once you’ve looked upon obscenity. That’s one reason for obscenity laws, not so much that we might transform the onanist or pornographer, but because once a child sees the vulgar T-shirt or cast-aside magazine, he is forever changed.

The sophisticated will snicker. What’s wrong with a boy looking at women in bathing suits, after all? It’s hardly hardcore pornography, after all. And besides, boys will be boys.

Boys will indeed be boys, but there are a great many varieties of boys, and of men. The person who pretends that seeing women as items of sexual consumption doesn’t shape a man’s behavior is, in fact, the one who is being simple-minded, for all his feigned urbanity.

But we don’t want to talk that way, because it smacks of puritanism, and besides, these lovely women are just proud of their bodies, as are their families. This year’s SI cover girl, semi-topless Brooklyn Decker, reports that her mother cried when she made the cover. Out of pride. Her husband, tennis player Andy Roddick, tweeted his pride as well.

I once saw a talk show on which a porn actress insisted that she wasn’t cheating on her husband because the sex she performed for paychecks was “different.” This personalized truth is inevitable in a world more inclined to follow Pilate (“What is truth?”) than Christ (“Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice”).

It’s distortion that’s essential to the self-esteem of people inclined toward pornography but not yet liberated enough to call it such. Thus are the nearly naked women in Sports Illustrated, or the college girls who pose in Playboy’s periodic college campus issues, simply proud of their bodies. How dare anyone deprive these women of their self-esteem by telling them that, in blunt terms, they’re simply taking off their clothes for money and applause?

One might be tempted to think the damage is limited to the girl who exposes herself for cash, the boy learning to look at women the way a butcher eyes a cut of meat. But the damage is never limited. The compromised woman has taught countless girls that this is how to gain the admiration of men. The boy, meanwhile, has been weakened, and the seeds of a hunger have been sown, and he has started down a path toward the perversion of a man’s natural desire for women.

The libertine scoffs, but I know too many men for whom this is true. I am one of those men. Images are etched into my mind, and they spark a perpetual struggle. Many of my sins, especially those against my wife, are rooted in those illicit hours learning to see women as playthings.

The eyes and ears of children must be guarded—this is common wisdom garnered over centuries and across civilizations. Only recently has it been cast aside. “Guard your son” is what I should have told the mother in the bookstore. “It doesn’t end with this,” I should have said. God help me, I know.

And I must say, we got a heck of a lot done today. Must be something about the professional attire.

Thanks, Randi, for sharing your story on video. And thank you Jesus for your amazing grace that transforms felons into followers and friends.

Redemption Stories – Randi Sima from Coram Deo Church on Vimeo.

Being a culturally engaged church means seeking common ground with the broader culture on issues of “common grace.” Our good friends over at inCOMMON modeled this well last Tuesday night. They brought together many of the city’s nonprofit leaders as well as the indie-film crowd by collaborating with FilmStreams to show the documentary The End of Poverty?

My plans to attend changed at the last minute due to a funeral. But a strong contingent of Coram Deo folks did attend; others were turned away at the door as tickets sold out. Props to our friends Christian and Sonya Gray for their hard work in promoting this event throughout the city. One of their goals was to contribute to the cultural dialogue on the issue of poverty – and certainly this event did so.

The evening wasn’t devoid of tension, mostly due to the content of the film. Filmmaker and scriptwriter Philippe Diaz is an avowed anti-capitalist whose goal in the film was to show that global poverty “is not an accident,” but rather a result of “unfair debt, trade and tax policies — in other words, wealthy countries exploiting the weaknesses of poor, developing countries” (from the film’s publicity materials). This film clearly has an agenda, and more than a few of those who viewed it on Tuesday night found it heavy-handed and unpalatable. One friend called the movie “a Michael-Moore-ish documentary, sans humor.” Some more academic reviewers have agreed, taking issue with the film’s underlying economic and philosophical assumptions. Even the New York Times blithely labeled the film a “guilt trip/history lesson.” As Christians, we affirm that the gospel of Jesus Christ certainly confronts capitalist excess. But it also confronts anti-Western neo-Marxism, which seems to be all the rage these days.

For those of you who attended, or who have seen the film in another context, I’d be interested in your take on it. What did you find thought-provoking, challenging, insightful? What did you find contrived or objectionable?

Not all proposed solutions to poverty are good ones. And not all reasoning about the causes of poverty will be agreed upon. But being aware of poverty – and troubled by it – is a step in the right direction. Kudos to inCOMMON for helping us take that step.

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.

Identifying Potential Leaders from David Fairchild on Vimeo.

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.

Those who serve faithfully in the mission of God leave their fingerprints all over the life of a church – most notably, as Paul notes, on the hearts and lives of those they minister to.

Last Sunday we said goodbye to over a dozen church members who will move to Austin, Texas, to help form the core of a new church there. They go to plant the seed of the gospel in the soil of Austin’s city-culture, and then to trust the sovereignty of God to raise up a thriving church. I love all of these people for the mark they have made on Coram Deo. But two of them leave a stronger-than-normal “fingerprint” on my life and on the life of our church community: Will Walker and Kendal Haug.

I first met the Walkers in 1999 when they joined our staff team working with Campus Crusade for Christ at the University of Texas. Will and I labored alongside each other in the fraternity system seeking to turn alcohol-drenched frat boys into Christ-centered kingdom laborers. When I showed up on campus in 1997, I started asking students which fraternity was most in need of gospel witness. The answer was unanimous: Sigma Alpha Epsilon. It was one of the largest frat houses on campus, known for drugs, drunkenness, and general debauchery. No one knew of a single Christian there. After a couple years of prayer, patience, and persistent ministry, I surfaced a couple of guys who wanted to follow Jesus. Walker parlayed those few contacts into a small army of disciples: by 2004, over 35 SAE members were immersed in gospel community. The entire culture of the fraternity house changed. Many of Seed Austin’s financial supporters – and even a few members of the launch team – are former SAE’s.

That experience made it clear to me that Walker and I were a unique team. Our complementary gifts and strengths and our strong friendship made for great ministry impact. So when God gave me the vision to start Coram Deo, I began to bug Walker about joining us. I lobbied him throughout 2004 and 2005. Finally, in the summer of 2006, he sensed it was time to make a change. He and Debbie moved to Omaha knowing no one except for Leigh and me. The people of Coram Deo – about 90 strong at that time – graciously welcomed him and took my word for it that we’d be better off with his influence.

They’re no longer taking my word for it. The proof is in the health, growth, and strength of Coram Deo. Walker’s fingerprints are everywhere. He honed our missional community structure so that spiritual formation could take place. He co-authored The Gospel-Centered Life, which has sold 40,000 copies thus far and is shaping gospel DNA in churches far and wide. He personally discipled, counseled, and taught countless people inside and outside of Coram Deo. And perhaps most significantly to me, he “had my back.” He called me to repentance when I needed it, yet stood firmly by my side on dozens of occasions when I was slandered, misunderstood, and disrespected. That sort of thing comes with the territory – Jesus promised nothing less (Matthew 5:11-12). But as any church planter will tell you, it’s nice to have some company.

About a year after Walker showed up, we started recruiting Kendal to join our team. We were in desperate need of a generalist – a jack-of-all-trades kind of guy who could set up a sound system, lead a discipleship group, write HTML code, or do theological research. That person didn’t exist within Coram Deo at the time. Kendal was making good money working for (aka running) bible.org. But he didn’t want to be a computer geek; he wanted to develop as a pastor. So he took a pay cut, raised his own financial support, and moved to Omaha to join our team. When he came, we gave him a simple job description: “Just make sh*% happen.” And that’s exactly what he’s done for almost three years.

Kendal’s genius is simple: he discerns needs and meets them. That goes for relationships, for pastoral ministry, and for functional tasks. When he first got here, I was still showing up 90 minutes early on Sunday mornings to help set up the sound system and manage chaos. He took me aside and said: “Hey, we need you to preach. You just worry about that. Let me handle the rest.” During his two-and-a-half years at Coram Deo, Kendal has majored in that sort of thoughtful execution: discerning the “next stage” and getting us there with excellence, precision, and theological rigor. He’s done this in worship (moving us from one small worship team to a diverse worship team with multiple leaders); communication (building a new website, new member’s forum, and new communication tools); liturgy (systematizing and streamlining the flow and execution of our Sunday gatherings); and special projects (most notably, the worship album ‘Doxology’ which he took from concept to completion).

I’ve played basketball with the same group of guys for years. The result is an unspoken chemistry: I sense the move they’re going to make, the shot they’re going to take, or the defensive weakness they’re seeking to exploit. Working with Walker and Kendal is a lot like that. If you’ve ever been on a team like that, you know what a loss it is for me to launch these guys into the work of church planting. But we’ve always said, “The church exists for mission, not comfort.” This is what it means to be serious about the mission of God.

And though their presence is no longer felt in our community, their fingerprints remain. We are a “letter of recommendation” commending their ministry. May we pick up the torch and write our own letters by sowing the seed of the gospel in the hearts of others.

Coram Deo Church has added it’s name to the growing list of churches and artists who love the richness of older hymns and long to make them more accessible to our culture: Indelible Grace, Red Mountain Church, Page CXVI, Sojourn, and so on. This one is getting a lot of play for us and it should be a staple in your house and church. It’s beautiful.

Read the review in full here. Thanks so much to Steve for the thoughtful review and for his efforts in adding his refined voice to the cultivation of good music.

I have also received several requests to download the autotune version of How Great Thou Art that made an appearance a while back. Well, here you go…

How Great Thou Art [B-side]

This Sunday, May 30, there will be no 9 AM worship gathering at Coram Deo. We will have one worship service, at 11 AM, on the lawn just west of Suckau Chapel. Our whole church family will come together for this event – parents, kids, both services… everyone.

This will be a significant Sunday for our church as we culminate our Church Planting series by commissioning new elders and deacons, hearing Will Walker’s farewell sermon, and sending out the Austin church planting team.

Bring a lawn chair or blanket. Also plan to bring food or money for lunch. We’ll have some street vendors on site, including Christian Gray’s favorite taco truck guy from South O. Your ham sandwich is no match for that, so maybe just bring a few bucks!

In case of inclement weather, we’ll meet inside… somehow. Just pray for good weather.