Matthew 1:21 – A Familiar Text with Great Truths

I have been a Christian for over 25 years and have read through the Bible multiple times.  I was reading different Christmas texts before the holiday just meditating on them when I came to Matthew 1:21.  I have read this verse multiple times and even memorized it in school and college.  As I was reading these various texts I was thinking about them pastorally (even though I am not currently serving as a pastor) and wondering what I would do if I was tasked with preaching during the Christmas season.

As I came to Matthew 1:21, this text really grabbed me and I have been thinking about it for several days and the profound truths that are contained in this short verse that might be very familiar to many people.  Forgive me in advance if this is not homiletically correct or logical, sometimes it helps me to write/type things out to get them from my brain into written form to be read and meditated upon for future study.  I may not have covered every facet of the text, but rather I am expressing what I have been meditating upon these last several days.

Matthew 1:21 (NKJV)

And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

“And she will bring forth a Son” – this refers to the fundamental truth of the virgin birth.  A truth that some have a lot of trouble accepting and believing, while others believing this truth by faith.  This is a foundational truth to the Christian faith.

“and you shall call His name Jesus” – Jesus,  the name that was appointed by God.  Joseph and Mary did not have a choice in this matter.  This is a divine name and a name of power (See Acts 4:12; Acts 5:31; Luke 2:21; Philippians 2:9-11).

“for He will save His people from their sins” -  For indicates the beginning of the purpose clause.  The divine purpose for which God the Son came to the earth in the form of human flesh. Jesus Christ did not come to bring political reform to the Roman Empire, although some wished that He had.  He came to bring life, abundant life  See John 1 and John 10.   “He will save” - the life-giving act of the sacrifice of the Son of God for the sins of the world (See John 3:16; 1 Cor 15:2; Acts 4:12).  ”From their sins” - it is a universal fact that man is a sinner and this stems from the fact that Adam sinned and that sin has passed down to all generations (See Romans 3:10, 23; 5:8; 6:23) with only one exception – Jesus Christ who was born of a virgin, was born with no sin.  Mankind is hopelessly depraved and lost in sin without Christ.  If you have children, you will definitely see and experience the doctrine of total depravity !  The Gospel is the solution to the problem and ever-present fact of sin.  No one else or nothing else can save me from my sins except the substitutionary atoning death of Christ and His bodily resurrection!

Christ came for a single purpose that was expressed in many different ways.  He came to save His people from their sins.

Have you ever put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ?  Jesus said in Mark 1:15 “Repent and believe the Gospel”  Has there ever been a time where you have done that?  For me, I was converted in 1987 at the age of 17. Share your testimony of salvation in the comments.

 

From My Wife -Part 2

I thought that our earlier question would illicit some discussion.  Even though it did not, I will answer the question from our perspective.

1.  We understand that this represents change from our own tradition of what we are used to.

2.  What we found in our experience was that it created several things

• A competition-type mentality -where the best singers are in front of the congregation.
• A distraction at best because the volume is turned up to the level of a rock concert where one hears and feels the bass and cannot hear the words.
• A plethora of “7-11 songs” – modern songs where we would sing the same 7 verses 11 times.  Not sure of why this was done, but it is the practice of many churches.

3.  We do not attend church for the “worship experience” but rather for the preaching and teaching of the Word of God.  It seems like churches that employ worship teams do so to create some sort of “worship experience”

I understand that some churches have worship teams because they may not have a music director to coordinate the musical aspect of their worship services.

Personally, with what I have seen that I do not prefer a worship team because it blurs the lines of distinction between a church service and a rock concert.

A Good Question – From My Wife

A couple of weeks ago we were visiting a church in the DFW area.  As we were leaving the church, my wife asked me a question that I had never been asked before, but it was one that got me to think and we had a good discussion about it for a while.

The question is/was:

Why do some churches feel it necessary to have a “worship team”?

I would be interested to hear your answers and opinions on this subject before I disclose the answers that we come up with in the course of our conversation that started that day and continued for a while.

Start the conversation here by leaving a comment…

The question is:

Why do some churches feel it necessary to have a “worship team”?

I am interested to hear your answers before I give the answers that we came up with in our conversation.  Let’s

Does it pay to work hard anymore?

Today, I received my pay stub for Friday which is our payday.  Our quarterly incentive bonus was paid on this check.  Let me start out by saying that I am thankful to my employer for paying out this bonus every quarter if we meet certain expectations.

What upsets me is that I paid an unbelievable amount in taxes because of the Federal Government feels that they are entitled to take an additional portion of my money because I did well (could we call it a tax on prosperity?) They withhold at 28% on any residual income (bonuses, etc).  Then withholding is taken for Medicare and Social Security.  Last but not least in my case, the State of Minnesota took $115.00.

Please understand that I am not against paying taxes. I believe that every citizen should pay taxes and the Bible reinforces this in several places as well.

What bothers me is that I worked hard for the bonus that I received only to watch the various Government entities take more taxes than usual and leave me with less money.

The Fair Tax is looking much more attractive right now…

Do you think the Government penalizes people for working hard (earning bonuses, etc.)?

Trying to solve a Catch-22

Here is my dilemma or Catch-22:

I have been searching for a full-time vocational ministry position upon completing my graduate education in 2010.  I have been searching since January of 2010. Recently, a pulpit committee from a church in the Eastern US contacted me and sent me a questionnaire.  I completed the questionnaire and submitted it along with several other pieces of pertinent information.  I received an email back from them after a month that I am no longer being considered a candidate for Senior Pastor.  This did not surprise me because I have been rejected 33 times since January of 2010 for various ministry positions, not just senior pastorates.  I have always wondered what the specific reasons for rejection were.  I have asked and all of the committees have refused to answer this question, except for the one that I just heard from on Monday.

I will summarize the response:

They gave me high marks for being a servant, but said that my background had too much on administration and that there was lack of experience.

I never thought that administrative gifts would be a liability, but that is not the dilemma. Ultimately, I am being rejected or denied opportunities, because I do not have experience. It is true that I do not have any paid, official experience as a pastor. I have served as a pastoral intern, and have served in a wide variety of roles within three different local churches since 1987.  None of them have been paid, official positions.  I currently serve as a deacon in the local church I am a member of now.

The big question is:   How do I ever get experience, if no one is willing to give me a chance to gain the needed/necessary experience?

I have had many good people say, “Go out and start something”  I would, but I know my gifts and abilities and that is not how God has gifted me.  I would not thrive in that environment. I know a college professor who tried to start a church and he was not wired in that way and the church never got off the ground.  He is now in an area where he is thriving and doing well because he is working within his gifts and abilities.

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Last time I checked it was the local church

Recently I have been reading a book that has captured my attention and really helped to mold and change my thinking about the role of the local church in sending men out into ministry.

As you know, I have been praying, looking and searching for a place to serve the Lord in full-time vocational ministry since January of 2010.  Recently, I had the opportunity to pick up a copy of the book Test, train, affirm & send into ministry.  I had the opportunity to speak with the author recently regarding my situation and I had been reading his blog.  I am not writing a book review per se (although I might take on that task at a later date), but I want to share with you some quotations from this book along with my thoughts that will hopefully align your thinking regarding ministry and the local church.

Most of us probably thought that once we completed our training (Bible college or seminary) that it was incumbent upon either of these institutions to place us in ministry.  It seems very logical, but yet it is unscriptural.  ”God has not ultimately commissioned these institutions to fulfill this responsibility” (Croft, pg. 31) Churches have abdicated their responsibilities because of the plethora of institutions that exist to provide training and education for future ministry.  The churches should take the position that they need to partner with these institutions rather than give up what rightly belongs to the church.  I am not against seminaries or colleges, I graduated from two such institutions. What I am against is the local church exempting itself from the testing, training and affirming of men who are called to ministry.  It is easy just to send someone to a Bible college or seminary and hope that they turn out right, but why not take an active approach in that training?

It is the local church that God has appointed to be the agent to test, train, affirm, and send those who are called.  Because of this truth, the local church must embrace this enormous responsibility (Croft, pg. 33)

What does the Bible say about this?  Look at Acts 13:1-3

Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers:  Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away. (NKJV)

By reading this passage, we see that the local church was the sending agent and instrument of affirmation of Barnabas and Saul.  The local church cannot shirk away or deny this crucial responsibility.

Here are some quotations that really impacted my thinking in this area:

“No church, therefore, which neglects the proper education of her ministers, can be considered as faithful, either to her own most vital interests, or to the honour of her divine Head and Lord” (Croft, pg. 52)

“Without the proper instruction of God’s Word in the church, not only will those called into ministry be confused and the church lost in its responsibility in the external call, but spiritual life will also be lacking in the church.” (Croft, pg.53)

The situation I am currently in is a bit unique.  I graduated from Bible College in 1992 and was ordained shortly after graduation (If I had it to do over, I would have not been ordained so soon) I spent 7 years in the secular workforce wondering where I would end up.  I ended up at a mission agency for 3.5 years (1999-2002) and then came to seminary in 2002.  I have been a member of the same local church for almost 10 years now.  I currently serve as a deacon.  I cannot go back to the church that ordained me and expect any help because there are some doctrinal and philosophical differences that exist between us.  We have a great and a cordial relationship,  I go back to visit when I can and the people are always kind and gracious.  At the same time, I recognize that there are differences.

In order to test, train, & affirm a man for ministry it requires tangible involvement on the part of the pastors or elders of that particular congregation and the members of that congregation as well.  How will a local church send a man off to ministry if he has not been given opportunities to exhibit his internal calling within that church?

 

Mentoring or discipleship – Is there a difference?

Recently, I was asked by someone if I would mentor them.  I was flattered by the opportunity but at the same time was overwhelmed with a great sense of inadequacy because of the struggles in my own life.  When I initially responded to the inquiry, I almost turned it down because I was allowing my own struggles to take over.  I realized that no one is perfect and that even though mentoring is a big word and is thrown around a lot in the business world, that it is nothing more than discipleship.  Allow me to make my case

The definition of mentoring is:

Taken from the New Oxford American Dictionary:

Noun – an experienced and trusted adviser; an experienced person in a company, college, or school who trains and counsels new employees or students

Verb – to advise or train (someone, esp. a younger colleague).

We see this word used (or as I said earlier, thrown around a lot).  Doing a quick Google search yielded over 42 million hits on the word mentoring alone.

As I was meeting with my mentee via Skype and we were concluding our time.  I made mention of the fact regarding the word mentoring and that I think that it is essentially the same thing as discipleship.  What does the Bible say about it?

2 Timothy 2:2 (NKJV) And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.

Discipleship or mentoring is just taking what you have learning and pouring it into the lives of other people.  Notice Paul gives a command (commit) and he tells us to whom we are to commit what we have heard – to faithful men.  Why? because they will be able to teach others also.

If someone asks you to mentor them, consider it an honor and a challenge!  Do not get hung up on your own inadequacies and struggles, because no one is perfect or by any means infallible. We all have struggles, some people do a better job than others in hiding and masking them instead of being transparent.

Think back to how you came to Christ, how someone took the time and effort to share the Gospel with you.  They made an investment in your life.  Are you making that same investment in the lives of others?

You may say, okay, I will accept the challenge to mentor/disciple someone else, but what do I do?  I found myself in the same situation, not knowing what to do?  I prayed about it and what we do is quite simple, it works and the best thing is that it can be changed  as needed.

We meet once a week – on Saturdays (we started meeting in the afternoons via Skype) but we have changed recently to early mornings on Saturdays due to our schedules and family needs.

We go through an accountability worksheet – the one we use, I obtained as a PDF from Desiring God  They are the accountability questions that John Piper uses with the elders at Bethlehem Baptist.  We don’t use all of the questions because some of them do not apply to us.  The questions over all are thought-provoking and convicting.  They are a good exercise of mutual accountability.

We are reading a book together, currently we are reading A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D.A. Carson.   This book is a great read on the discipline of prayer and what we should be praying for instead of what we commonly pray for.  We read a chapter a week and discuss it.

We are also reading the Bible together.  We read aloud a chapter of the Pastoral Epistles (today was 1 Timothy 5) and we discuss that in light of us being men who have a desire to return to full-time vocational ministry.

We pray and share prayer requests.

Nothing fancy or formal, but a commitment of time and a commitment of obedience to the Scriptures.  Today instead of doing our accountability questions, I asked for my mentee/disciple to tell me about his week. We also read an article that was a blessing to both of us regarding the search for pastoral ministry opportunities instead of our chapter in the book. My point is do something redemptive and practical.

I think that mentoring is the same as discipleship, even though we may use different terms.  Discipleship as a term may not be a functional term in the business world, but the concept is still the same- investing in others.

Who are you investing your life in?

An unusual day…reflections regarding work

Today started out a bit unusual, because I was able unable to make it to work due to the freaky snowstorm that we had here in the Twin Cities.  I went down and cleared off my car and attempted to back it out of the parking spot, except I was not moving because of the ice underneath the tires and the wet, heavy snow surrounding the car.  I tried a couple of times and decided that it is better not to burn rubber and the transmission at the same time.  The snow won that round.  I went back inside to regroup.  I called into work and left a voicemail regarding my dilemma. I figured that as soon as our parking lot and street were plowed that I could get into work. Well, we did not get plowed until 11:00 am and by that time the traffic was still bad and the snow was coming down.  So I took my first snow day in 9 years. I do not ever remember missing work because I could not get there!

Even though I enjoyed being home with my family, I still felt out of sorts because it was Wednesday and I am normally at work.  I was able to get some things scanned into Evernote and filed and my desk is staying cleaner than usual.  Now that I am almost at the end of the day (church was cancelled for this evening)  I am watching cars out the window come in and out and the road is very treacherous because of the slush and that will only get worse as the temperature drops below freezing.  I have been reflecting throughout the day about work and its place in my life.  I realize that we cannot escape work because work has been a part of our lives since Genesis 3:23.  As we read the Bible, we will see things like Proverbs 11:18 – The wicked man does deceptive work (NKJV) and where God calls people to a specific task (Acts 13:2 – Barnabas and Saul).  We also see in 2 Thessalonians 3 where Paul reminds the Thessalonians about the importance of hard and honest work.

We know that there are extremes with regard to work.  Undoubtedly, either we know someone who is a “workaholic” or maybe we are guilty of being one ourselves? On the other extreme, there are those who are lazy and insolent in regard to work.

I am currently in a position where I am employed by a company where I am not tethered to my job with a company issued laptop or smart phone.  I do not have the capability to bring work home or to work from home on days like today.  When I leave each day, I make a sincere attempt to leave work and its related problems and challenges at work.  They will be there when I return the next working day.

I was also having a conversation with someone earlier in the week with regard to worker productivity.  I shared with this person that it is tough in some areas (ministry) to measure productivity because most pastors do not have an expected output,etc.  Where I work, my work is tracked from beginning to end and there are audits of my work, reports telling how much work I have completed/accomplished, etc.  I think that goals can be set for everyone in the workforce, but they cannot be viewed in a “cookie-cutter” mentality. They have to be attainable, reasonable, measurable,specific, etc.

Work is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is tough when one does not necessarily enjoy what they do.  It becomes more of an economic necessity or as some would term it a “necessary evil.” For me, if I was financially well-off, I would still be involved in some form of work, because I would have a hard time sitting around doing nothing or doing aimless things all day just to pass the time.

All of this to say, that I am glad things happened the way they did.  It gave me a chance to attempt to understand the relationship that I should have with my current vocational employment and possibly ministry employment in the future and how that relationship should be shaped and formed around what the Word of God says.

Response of the week…

I stated earlier this week I received an email from a church where I had submitted my resume for possible consideration for a pastoral staff position.

The response that I received was quite interesting:

‘After prayerfully looking at your resume, it is the conclusion of the Search Team that we would not be a good match.’

Now for the questions that I had after I read this response:

• How did you determine that we would not be a good match merely based on my resume?
• Did I attend a college or seminary that you did not approve of?
• Did I have too many degrees or not enough?
• Were you put off because most of my experiences are based out of many years of service within three different local churches from 1987 through the present time?
• Were you put off that my only formal pastoral experience was a one year internship while in seminary?
• Were you put off that my full time ministry experience (paid) was not in a local church but a para-church organization?
• Am I too old or not old enough?

I could probably come up with more possible questions/objections, but I hit the obvious ones that could be raised.  You see, I will never know the answers to these questions, because the church thought that they were helping me by emailing that short response to me.  In the secular arena, when you are declined for a job or position, you are never told why because most companies are afraid that if they were to disclose the real reasons why you were not hired that they would open themselves up to a lawsuit or expose the fact that they could be guilty of breaking the law.  This is a different situation, we are dealing with brothers and sisters in Christ and if our true desire is to live for the glory of God, then wouldn’t it be a kind thing to decline someone, but also let them know where they fell short so that they would not perpetuate the same mistake when applying for the next ministry opportunity.

Unfortunately, we fail in this area and we resort back to the same tactics that the secular world does when they hire people.

Why is there no difference between the church and the world?

 

History does repeat itself

I was reminded of this disputed fact earlier this week, when I encountered some former seminary colleagues and their inquiries as to what I am doing now. It reminded me of when I graduated from college in 1992 (that seems so long ago – almost 20 years ago).   When I graduated from college, I was ready to head into ministry, after all, I had just finished Bible college and earned a B.A. degree in Church Ministries.  However, the following things were not in my favor at the time:  I was 23 years old, single, and had no formal ministry experience.  The economy was bad all over (like it is now) I had a decent secular job, but my heart was not there at all.  I sent my resume everywhere I knew that an opportunity existed that would possibly suit me.  Nothing happened for six long years. I was active in my local church, not real good in the dating arena from 1992 onward.  I was living in frustration because I felt like there was something wrong with me because I was watching my college friends and colleagues leave Jacksonville for ministry positions and opportunities.  The brief stint that I did have in full-time ministry (1998-2002)was a real eye-opener for me (it was not in a local church ministry, but a para-church organization) and it was some of those experiences and the hypocrisy that I saw that God used to get me to leave the dysfunctional situation and resume my education after a ten year hiatus.  So in 2002, I resigned my position and headed north for the Twin Cities to begin my academic career towards a MDiv. degree at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Plymouth, MN.

Little did I know when I arrived in the Twin Cities how things would change in my life.  I started seminary in the Fall of 2002.  I could not find a job right away (It took 2 months to find a job and I am still with the same company almost 9 years later, but in a different role) I met my future spouse in 2002 and we were married in 2004, while I was still in pursuit of the MDiv degree.  In 2006, our first child was born, Joseph.  We lost his twin brother (earlier) and my mother passed away in September of 2006.  I thought that the convergence of these circumstances would push me to the breaking point and that I would quit seminary.  God was faithful and used several people to encourage me not to quit. As a result, I dropped back into the M.A program and finished the M.A in May of 2008 and then set out to finish the MDiv. which God allowed me to do in May 2010.  I applied to attempt to continue my education but was not accepted for post-graduate work.

Earlier this week, when I was talking with people and they were inquiring about my status (ministerially speaking) and I told them that I had sent out 15 resumes last year and no interviews.  Answering these questions, brought me back almost 20 years ago when I was answering the same questions to college colleagues who came back to the Jacksonville area and I would run into them at Trinity Baptist Church /College functions.

I did not realize how discouraged I had become until I started answering those questions on Monday morning.  By the time I came home on Monday afternoon, I was ready to crawl under a rock.  I asked the usual questions, Why me?  What did I do wrong?  It is also tough because I do not have a mentor or an advocate like so many younger guys have these days.  I could mention instances where guys have gotten their “foot in the door” and eventually obtained a position because of who they were associated with (mentor) or who they worked for or someone who was willing to “go to bat for them.”  I do not have anyone like that.  I thought if I had been accepted to post-graduate studies that kind of a Paul/Timothy relationship would have been fleshed out.  The reason I thought this is because I have heard about these types of relationships from my seminary professors with their mentors and have seen it in the lives of other ThM and PhD students at other institutions.

Now instead of being 23, I am 41 on the verge of being 42, I am married now (7 years in July) and I have one son (Joseph), one in heaven (Jonathan) and a son or daughter due in August. Now instead of being too young and inexperienced, now I am older and married and still do not have any formal experience (most churches do not take into consideration my extensive experience serving in three Baptist churches as a volunteer faithfully since 1987, they want to see that I had a title and/or a paycheck for what I have done and they have come up with the five years of experience as some form of benchmark of success or competency.  I recently saw one church was looking for a pastor that had a minimum of ten years experience!)

Even though time has marched on and now I have three ministry degrees, the pain is still present when I have to answer these types of questions.  20 years ago, Facebook and Twitter did not exist.  Some of the discouragement comes from seeing what others are doing and they are landing some great opportunities to serve God.   The pain is compounded when I returned to the secular  job where I have served honorably for the last eight years, but get no recognition, no career development and the compensation is lacking (when you are the main breadwinner) in an area where the cost of living is high in contrast to the salary that is below the per capita salary for our area.  Then you watch people get promoted who have been with the company less time than I have and with less education.  That does not help.  It would be one thing if I was radically succeeding in the secular workforce and making enough to support my family adequately, but that is not the case.  It feels like a grand failure on both fronts (secular and ministerial).

Charles Spurgeon talked about depression, “Fits of depression come over the most of us. Cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy.”

I am hoping at this point that I will not have to wait another six years before going into full-time ministry, but that is not for me to decide.