"I defy you to read the life of any saint that has ever adorned the life of the Church without seeing at once that the greatest characteristic in the life of that saint was discipline and order. Invariably it is the universal characteristic of all the outstanding men and women of God…Obviously it is something that is thoroughly scriptural and absolutely essential." – Martyn Lloyd-Jones
August 11 2010 | Blog | No Comments »
I’ve already written about “My First Church”, so a large part of this story has been told in previous posts. However, as I reflect back on this season of my life I am again struck by the two facts that have framed this series, 1) I am a great sinner, 2) Christ is a great Savior. Before coming to PMC Church I don’t think I had any idea of how great of a sinner I was, but God continued to prove himself to be a great Savior as He molded and shaped me into a shepherd.
2001 proved to be a momentous year for Amy and I. We were married on March 17 and were planning on Amy finishing her teaching credential, after which I would start seminary. Much to our surprise the Lord moved us up to PMC Church in December of 2001 and started to give me a crash course in shepherding. Having graduated from The Master’s College I came into ministry with a lot of assumptions and to be honest probably a lot of pride. Over the course of the four years that I ministered at PMC Church God broke me down piece by piece and reshaped me into the shepherd that He wanted me to be. God used two primary tools in t
his reshaping process, 1) Pastor Ray DeLaurier, 2) The Master’s Seminary. Pastor Ray was a godsend for my prideful heart. He demonstrated the utmost patience with me and was faithful to instruct me in the art of preaching and pastoral ministry. The Master’s Seminary took the practical lessons that I was learning from Ray and showed me the depth of God’s Word that undergirds every aspect of Pastoral ministry. With these two tools, the Lord went about the gracious work of turning me into a shepherd.
I’ve recorded a number of different experiences from my time at PMC Church, however when it comes to my own personal story one incident stands out above the rest. About a year after I’d started at PMC Church I went into Pastor Ray’s office and broke down. I told him that I felt underappreciated and that I just wasn’t getting the respect that I thought I deserved. The truth of the matter was that I was prideful and had forgotten my own great need of humility in the face of the gospel. As Ray and I talked God worked powerfully to humble me, to mature me and to break me of my pride. That event in Ray’s office was a turning point for me in ministry. I began to realize the truth of Isaiah 66:2 – “This is the one to whom I will look, to he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at my Word.” I finally understood by experience that God does not look to the great, nor the powerful, nor the highly respected in this world. Rather, he looks to and uses shepherds who are humble and who tremble at His Word.
Throughout my time at PMC Church the Lord tenderly called me again and again to remember the fact that I am a great sinner and time and time again He demonstrated Himself to be a great Savior.
December 28 2009 | My Story | No Comments »
One of the sad realities of working with people is that it can be really messy at times. People don’t come with neat and clean problems that are organized and arranged in alphabetical order. They come broken and hurting and frequently seem to be lost in a fog. Part of the job of every minister is to enter into the mess of people’s lives in order to bring clarity and hope. One of the best ways to do that is to be able to distinguish between “loads” and “burdens”. I found this article on “loads and burdens” to be extremely helpful in my own thinking about how to best bring help and hope to those I minister to.
Here’s an excerpt:
A “load” is a light enough pack that someone should be expected to carry it alone. Practically, this means that the typical person needs to find a job, pay their bills, read the Bible, attend church, pursue Christian friends, pray, repent of sin, share their faith, watch their diet, exercise, and look after themselves and their spouse and children if applicable.
A “burden” is a heavy load that is simply too much for one person to bear without the loving help of Christian friends. Practically, the person with cancer or another debilitating ailment, the mother of young children who is abandoned by her husband, the poor elderly widow who cannot pay her bills, and others like them should not feel guilty for seeking reasonable help nor should they be chastised for doing so. Rather, the church exists in part to help lessen their burden by taking some of the financial, emotional, and practical weight out of their pack and carrying it for them.
You can find the whole post here.
November 23 2009 | Blog | No Comments »
When I was a little boy my mother used to read the book “Where the Wild Things Are” to me before I would go to bed. It is the story of a little boy who had been very naughty and was sent to his room where he fell asleep and dreamed of going to where the wild things are and having a “wild rumpus” with them, eventually becoming the king of the wild things. The story ends with the boy feeling homesick and going home only to awaken from his dream and find that his mother had left a meal for him in his room that was still hot.
It’s funny, but sometimes ministry can feel a lot like this children’s book. If you’ve ever attended a tense church business meeting, sat in on a controversial elder meeting, or participated in a church budget meeting you have probably experienced something of a “wild rumpus” with the people of God.
If you aren’t careful, it would be easy to allow these experiences to weigh down your spirit and become a cause of great angst rather than an occasion for your own growth in the discipline of patience. The fact of the matter is that if you’re wondering “where the wild things are?”, the answer is that many of them are here at the church and they are here for a reason.
I was recently reminded of the story of Charles Simeon who was a pastor in the church of England in the 1700’s. Charles Simeon was assigned to a church that essentially despised him because he preached the gospel and called men to live holy lives. The malice of some of the people in the church went so deep that they actually locked their pews (at this time individual people could own pews and refuse to allow others to sit in them) and forced the rest of the congregation to stand in the aisles as Charles Simeon would preach. Now I’ve seen some wild things in my years of ministry, but I’ve never seen something like that. What makes this scenario even more unbelievable is that it went on for 12 years straight.
I’ve been greatly helped by Charles Simeon’s comment on his “wild rumpus” over these 12 years. Simeon wrote:
In this state of things I saw no remedy but faith and patience. The passage of Scripture which subdued and controlled my mind was this, “The servant of the Lord must not strive.” It was painful indeed to see the church, with the exception of the aisles, almost forsaken; but I thought that if God would only give a double blessing to the congregation that did attend, there would on the whole be as much good done as if the congregation were doubled and the blessing limited to only half the amount. This comforted me many, many times, when without such a reflection, I should have sunk under my burden. (H. C. G. Moule, Charles Simeon, [London: The InterVarsity Fellowship, 1948, orig. 1892], p. 39)
If you’re in the church for almost any amount of time you will encounter the wild things and sadly at one point or another most of us will act like one of the wild things. What Charles Simeon has taught me is that in my encounters with the wild things God is actively pursuing my growth in “faith and patience” and that makes the wild rumpus worth it.
HT: Desiring God
October 26 2009 | Devotional | No Comments »
The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat. The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them. [bold added] – Francis Schaeffer, No Little People
May 01 2009 | Blog | No Comments »
October 15 2008 | Devotional | No Comments »
October 13 2008 | Devotional | 2 Comments »
Every year The River Student Ministries goes kidnapping at the end of the summer and picks up the new 7th Graders (Sevies, as we like to call them) and the new Freshman (on a different day) at an absolutely ungodly hour in order to welcome them to Youth Ministry. Here are the videos of this year’s kidnappings.
High School
Junior High
September 13 2008 | Blog | No Comments »
April 08 2008 | Blog | No Comments »
I recently finished reading through Mark De Vries “Family Based Youth Ministry.” While I read the version that was printed in the early 90’s, the ideas that De Vries puts forward are timeless and well thought out.
De Vries essential point is that Youth Ministries need to focus on ministering to parents, in order to most effectively minister to young people. On page 18 he writes: “One of the secrets to a lasting ministry with teenagers is to find ways to undergird nuclear families with the rich support of the extended Christian family of the church for these two formative families to work together in leading young people toward mature Christian adulthood.” It’s wonderful to find a book like this, which so perfectly summarizes what I’ve been thinking about youth ministry for 6 years now. De Vries is passionate about the church and he is passionate about the family. These passions come together in “Family-Based Youth Ministry” to form a vision for young people who are being lead to Christian maturity through the ministry of the church and the ministry of the family.
The book is well written and well organized for the average lay person or pastor to pick up and immediately begin to enjoy. One of my favorite parts of the book were the “Implications for Ministry” where De Vries lists several practical ideas for working out the implications of the chapter. I also appreciated his “Wild Hair” section where he gives one or two radical ideas to implement from the chapter. For example, after chapter 5 he writes: Make it a priority of the youth ministry that all of the parents receive a personal visit from some representative of the church each year to strategize togerher about the Christian nurture of their son or daughter.
“Family-Based Youth Ministry” isn’t without its faults. In reading through the book, it’s clear that De Vries approaches youth ministry from a psychological model and routinely refers to teenagers as adolescents who are not children and not adults, thereby contributing to the Myth of Adolescence. I was also disappointed in the lack of Scripture references throughout the book. This was so disappointing, b/c much of what De Vries is saying is biblical and could have easily been found in Scripture (Deuteronomy 6). The final disappointment was the lack of emphasis upon the preaching of the Word of God. Ultimately any program that we come up with, even a Family-Based program will be a complete failure if we lack the authority of the Word of God through the systematic explanation of Scripture. The danger is that we become self-help gurus who are offering our advice, rather that pastors declaring “Thus saith the Lord.”
Ultimately, there is a lot of good to be found in “Family-Based Youth Ministry.” The bad isn’t germane to his main point, it’s more of a missed opportunity. I whole heartedly recommend this book to anyone involved in or thinking about Student Ministries.
November 14 2007 | Blog | 4 Comments »