It’s funny how you can read a verse over and over again throughout the course of your life and all of a sudden one day it pops out of the page like you’d never seen it before. That happened to me the other day as I was reading Proverbs 18:1 – “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.”
One of the clearest signs that a member of my congregation is being severely tempted by sin is that I don’t see them around the church anymore. After all who wants to be in a place that talks about sin as if it’s a bad thing when you’re enjoying it so much. You see sin is inherently anti-social, it naturally draws our attention in upon ourselves and drags us out of community with other believers.
So what’s the solution to the temptation to isolate ourselves and pursue our own desires? In a word “community.” We desperately need to be engaged in an authentic community that simply will not let us go when we try to isolate ourselves and “break out against all sound judgment.”
TheTrellis and the Vine is a powerful metaphor for the church. The trellis represents the structures of the church (buildings, committees, etc.) while the vine represents the actual work of the church which is making disciples. It is not that we don’t need the trellis, but rather that trellis work often takes over for vine work. Vine work is people intensive and is very hard to measure, while trellis work is measurable because it deals with things, structures, finances, etc., which is why it’s so appealing to work on the trellis.
What I loved about this book is that with every page I found myself saying, “That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking!” There is something intuitive about the metaphor of The Trellis and the Vine that just makes sense. The authors write:
We will be arguing that structures don’t grow ministry any more than trellises grow vines, and that most churches need to make a conscious shift – away from erecting and maintaining structures, and towards growing people who are disciple-making disciples of Christ.
At it’s heart The Trellis and the Vine is a call for Christians to be involved in the ministry of making disciples. The following quote from pages 26-27 is really worth the price of the whole book and is a perfect summary of what the authors are calling their readers to:
Imagine a reasonably solid Christian said to you after church one Sunday morning, “Look, I’d like to get more involved here and make a contribution, but I just feel like there’s nothing for me to do. I’m not on the ‘inside’; I don’t get asked to be on committees or lead Bible Studies. What can I do?”
What would you immediately think or say? Would you start thinking of some event or program about to start that they could help with? Some job that needed doing? Some ministry that they could join or support?
This is how we are used to thinking about the involvement of church members in congregational life – in terms of jobs and roles: usher, Bible study leader, Sunday School teacher, treasurer, elder, musician, song leader, money counter, and so on. The implication of this way of thinking for congregation members is clear: if all the jobs and roles are taken, then there’s really nothing for me to do in this church. I’m reducted to being a passenger. I’ll just wait until I’m asked to ‘do something’. The implication for the pastoral staff is similar: getting people involved and active means finding a job for them to do. In fact, the church growth gurus say that giving someone a job to do with the first six months of their joining your church is vital for them to feel like they belong.
However, if teh real work of God is people work – the prayerful speaking of his word by one person to another – then the jobs are never all taken. The opportunities for Christians to minister personally to others are limitless.
So you could pause, and reply to your friend, “See that guy sitting over there on his own? That’s Julie’s husband. he’s on the fringe of things here; in fact, I’m not really sure whether he’s crossed the line yet and become a Christina. How about i introduce you to him, and you arrange to have breakfast with once a fortnight and read the Bible together? Or see that couple over there? They are both fairly recently converted, and really in need of encouragement and mentoring. Why don’t you and your wife have them over, get to know them, and read and pray together once a month? And if you still have time, and want to contribute some more, start praying for the people in your street, and then invite them all to a barbeque at your place. That’s the first step towards talking with them about the gospel, or inviting them along to something.”
Of course, there’s every chance that the person will then say, “But i don’t know how to do those things! I’m not sure I’d know what to say or where to start.”
To which you reply, “Oh that’s okay. Let’s start meeting together, and I can train you.”
I loved every part of The Trellis and the Vine and would highly recommend it to anyone involved in church leadership. It really is a must read book for church leaders.
Here’s a video of Mark Dever introducing the book.
1979 was a big year for a lot of reasons. In 1979 George and Donna Buell gave birth to their first son (me). In 1979 a man named Ed Kelley began a life calling of working in Youth Ministry. In 1979 a small church in Cool, CA was established where God has recently called me to minister.
The following video is a conversation between myself and my old Youth Pastor Ed Kelley about transitions, specifically about Ed’s transition to his current church in Federal Way and my upcoming transition to Cool Community Church.
Kevin DeYoung has a great three part series (1, 2, 3) on Dealing with Disappointment in the Church over at his blog. He gives some wonderful practical advice to church leaders and to church members on how to relate to one another. Here are some of the key points.
First, leaders should ask:
Do we have some mechanism for personally knowing our sheep?
Do we have some way of knowing when people are not showing up at church?
Are we confronting cliquishness in our church?
Are there easy, identifiable ways for the shy, the non go-getters, and the more culturally reserved to get involved and be known by others?
Is it at least possible that we are more at fault than we think?
Have we made promises we didn’t deliver on?
Are these critics generally critical?
And church members should ask:
Did I ever ask for help?
Have I overlooked opportunities to fit in and get to know people?
Is it realistic for the leaders to give to every person in this church the kind of care I expect?
If I really wanted to be loved and noticed why did I stop showing up?
Am I willing to consider that I may be at fault more than I realize?
Is it possible I’ve overlooked ways the body has cared for me because I was hoping a different part of the body would care for me?
In general have I found this church and these leaders to be unloving and unsupportive?
DeYoung wraps up the series with this convicting challenge:
For both sheep and shepherds the indispensable requirements for living together are love and humility. Love to treat others as we want to be treated. Humility to consider how we may be at fault. Disappointment in the church is bound to happen. But it doesn’t have to destroy the unity of the body. The Lord can use our hurts to make all of us slower to speak and quicker to listen.
There are few issues in the church that are as controversial or as emotional as worship. Having served as a worship pastor for a number of years I’ve seen some of the best and some of the worst from God’s children when it comes to worship.
When it comes to worship Bob Kauflin is one of the most knowledgeable, humble, and sincere men I know of who has written on the topic. That’s why I appreciated this video of a conversation between him and his senior pastor CJ Mahaney on some of the lessons they had learned from there 30 years of leading worship together.
This is a longer video, but if you’re involved in church leadership at all or are connected with your church’s worship ministry watching this video would be an hour well spent.
A church is a delicate thing, like a bubble, easily burst. Inside that bubble is a safety zone of immense significance for people. Inside that bubble sinners can receive grace according to the biblical gospel. They can start seeing God in a new way, they can see themselves in a new way, they can grow and change and enjoy the adventure.
The deal-breaker inside that bubble is not personal sins. They don’t have to burst the bubble. The deal-breaker, such that a pastor and elders must intervene, is making the internal dynamics of a church indistinguishable from the surrounding worldly environment of blame-shifting — what we see constantly in political discourse, for example. The thin film of differentiation, our true “separation” from the world, is the gospel of grace in both our theology and our sociology.
A wonderful place to be, a precious treasure to guard, and, for all its weakness, a mighty force for good.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost five years since I first came to EBC to serve as the Pastor of Student Ministries. Many things have changed in the last five years, most notably the size of my family. When Amy and I first came to Mount Vernon, we brought ourselves and our luggage. Over these last 5 years the Lord has added to our family first with the birth of Micah in 2006, then with Cody in 2008 and this April we will be expecting our third boy, Luke.
While many things have changed over these last five years, one thing has remained the same: we still have a deep love for Emmanuel Baptist Church. In fact, that’s why we came here from California in the first place. I still remember my first conversation with the search committee and the unexplainable love which immediately welled up inside of me for this church.
As a pastor, my desire has always been to shepherd whatever flock God places me in. Over the course of the last few months the Lord has made it clear to Amy and me that He is calling us to care for another flock back in California. For us, this parting is a bitter sweet providence as we look forward to what God will do in the future and as we say our goodbyes to beloved friends.
In June, we will be packing up our house and our 3 kids and moving back down to California to take on a Senior Pastor role at Cool Community Church in Cool, CA (yes, the name of the town is “Cool”). Cool Church is a warm, loving body of believers located about 45 minutes outside of Sacramento and about 90 minutes from Lake Tahoe in Gold country. Cool reminds me a lot of Conway because it is in the country and yet relatively close to the city. Cool Church was started as a Village Missions church 30 years ago and recently joined the Evangelical Free denomination.
The last five years here at Emmanuel have been filled with joy for both Amy and me. We will always look back on our time at EBC with great love and affection and we look forward to visiting in the future to catch up with all of our friends. In the meantime, please continue to pray for us as we work to sell our home, get ready to have our next baby, and continue to minister through the rest of this school year.
Few individuals in contemporary evangelicalism have thought as much, as hard or as well about the church as the author of 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, Mark Dever. I was fist introduced to the ministry of Mark Dever at a Shepherds’ Conference while I was in seminary. Dever is the pastor of Capital Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C. and is a highly sought after conference speaker.
9 Marks of a Healthy Church is Dever’s best known work and for anyone involved in church leadership it really is a must read book. That is not to say that other Christians won’t benefit from this work, because they will, but church leaders will benefit especially from Dever’s wisdom in these pages.
9 Marks is organized around 9 distinguishing “marks” of a Biblical church. It’s important to note that Dever is not proposing that these are the only marks of a Biblical Church, but rather that they are 9 of the most neglected or misunderstood marks of a biblical church. These 9 Marks include:
Expositional Preaching
Biblical Theology
The Gospel
A Biblical Understanding of Conversion
A Biblical Understanding of Evangelism
A Biblical Understanding of Church Membership
Biblical Church Discipline
A Concern for Discipleship and Growth
Biblical Church Leadership
Having spent my entire life in the church and having spent the last 8 years in church leadership, I believe that Dever has hit the nail on the head with these 9 marks. Any church seeking to find it’s identity in the Bible will be blessed by this book. I’ll close with one of my favorite quotes on the mark of Expositional Preaching.
“Living as we do after the Fall but before the Heavenly City, we are in a time when faith is central, and so the Word must be central – because God’s Holy Spirit creates His people by His Word! We can create a people by other means, and this is the great temptation of churches. We can create a people around a certain ethnicity. We can create a people around a fully-graded choir program. We can find people who will get excited about a building project or a denominational identity. We can create a people around a series of care groups, where each feels loved and cared for. We can create a people around a community service project. We can create a people around social opportunities for young mothers or Caribbean cruises for singles. We can create a people around men’s groups. We can even create a people around the personality of a preacher. And God can surely use all of these things. But in the final analysis the people of God, the church of God, can only be created around the Word of God.”
Week One: Walk into church today and think about how long you’ve been a member, how much you’ve sacrificed, how under-appreciated you are. Take note of every way you’re dissatisfied with your church now. Take note of every person who displeases you.
Meet for coffee this week with another member and “share your heart.” Discuss how your church is changing, how you are being left out. Ask your friend who else in the church has “concerns.” Agree together that you must “pray about it.”
Week Two: Send an email to a few other “concerned” members. Inform them that a groundswell of grievance is surfacing in your church. Problems have gone unaddressed for too long. Ask them to keep the matter to themselves “for the sake of the body.”
As complaints come in, form them into a petition to demand an accounting from the leaders of the church. Circulate the petition quietly. Gathering support will be easy. Even happy members can be used if you appeal to their sense of fairness – that your side deserves a hearing. Be sure to proceed in a way that conforms to your church constitution, so that your petition is procedurally correct.
Week Three: When the growing moral fervor, ill-defined but powerful, reaches critical mass, confront the elders with your demands. Inform them of all the woundedness in the church, which leaves you with no choice but to put your petition forward. Inform them that, for the sake of reconciliation, the concerns of the body must be satisfied.
Whatever happens from this point on, you have won. You have changed the subject in your church from gospel advance to your own grievances. To some degree, you will get your way. Your church will need three or four years for recovery. But at any future time, you can do it all again. It only takes three weeks.
Just one question. Even if you are being wronged, “Why not rather suffer wrong?” (1 Corinthians 6:7).
