I just read a great article on Moore to the Point Clothing and the Character of the Child Wednesday, December 31st, 2008. It was a Guest Post by Dr. Timothy Paul Jones about going shopping with his daughter. Not only do I agree with his assessment of the struggles, but also with the cultural environment that exacerbates them and the theological considerations that lie beneath them. I encourage everyone to follow the link above and check out the full article. Here is a sampling of what he has to say:
The jeans that are long enough for Hannah’s ever-lengthening legs seem to have gained this extra length by trimming too many inches off the top. The sweatpants that fit her best have “PINK” emblazoned across the backside. And the messages that glitter on the chests of several otherwise-appropriate shirts lead to immediate vetoes from our household’s executive branch: “I Want What I Want Now,” one hoodie declares, while a nearby t-shirt boasts, “I Have an Attitude and I Know How to Use It.” “Sooner or Later I’ll Get What I Want,” another sweatshirt announces. Interestingly, the brand names on the tags are “Personal Identity” and “Self Esteem”—almost as if Erik Erikson and Sigmund Freud crept in during the manufacturing process and retagged the clothes to resolve adolescent girls’ supposed identity crises. To Hannah’s credit, she takes it all in good humor, knowing from past experience that, once a veto has been declared, her father will not budge.
The clothes that our children wear do not merely cover the nakedness of their flesh; they shape and reflect the contours of our children’s souls. What I encourage my child to wear is a statement not merely of fashion but of theology and axiology—and this link between our theology and our wardrobes is not a recent phenomenon.
Please understand my point here: I am not claiming that clothing, in itself, causes children to behave badly—that would be tantamount to declaring it was the presence of fruit in the garden that caused Adam and Eve to sin. And I’m not suggesting that children’s clothing must be unfashionable for them to be holy. What I am suggesting is that these fusions of cotton, polyester, and iron-on transfers are not values-neutral. They are declarations of what we believe, what we value, and what we expect our children to believe and to value.
He goes on to give a list of 3 things we can do as parents to combat this issue without combating our children. He does not imply that it will be easy, but he makes a stunning case that it will be worth it.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The Incarnation as Virgin Birth: Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 1:26-38
Incarnation; (latin, in carnis; “in the flesh”) Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man in one person, and is eternally so. Though the Scripture does not explicitly use the term, the church has historically used the term incarnation to refer to the fact that Jesus was God and human in the flesh. It is the act of God the Son whereby he took to Himself a human nature (not a fallen, sinful human nature like ours, but one like that of Adam). In Jesus Christ, God became a human being without ceasing to be God. Scripture sets this out most explicitly in the Gospel of John.
John 1:1-5, 9-14
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
How did this happen? Obviously, Jesus’ birth was different than ours!
The Virgin Birth;
Jesus’ birth was different than ours in that His mother conceived and bore Him without the agency of a human father.
Many people today have tried to deny the historicity of the virgin birth. Interpreters of the Bible view the text not as accounts of an historical event, but as theological interpretations of the person of Jesus set forth in story form. Such a view runs counter to the plain sense of Scripture.
Bible;
Specifically, neither Matthew nor Luke say anything which relates the virgin birth of Christ either to His deity or His sinlessness. They make no theological interpretation at all. The reason is that they are more interested in accurate history than in promoting any theological idea.
History;
The early church saw these virgin birth accounts as historical and not primarily theological. Just one generation after the apostles (around 110 A.D.) Ignatius described Christ as “Son of God after the Divine will and power, truly born of a virgin . . . “
The virgin birth was part of the confessional statements of the early church from 190 to 381 A.D.
This shows, very importantly, that those closest to these events in history never questioned the historical nature of the accounts. So, while the Gospels clearly declare that Jesus was born of a virgin, they do not specify why, probably because it has so many theological implications.
Throughout Church History, theologians have tried to answer the question, “why?” Their answer usually relates the purpose of the virgin birth to some aspect of Christ’s nature and character. For example:
1. Tertullian, around the turn of the 3rd century, argued that Christ had to be virgin born in order to be divine. This may be true, but John 1:1 bases His divine nature on His preexistence, not the virgin birth, because He was already God.
2. Augustine, over 100 years later, taught that the virgin birth accounts for the sinless nature of Christ. This, I believe is true. However, the NT makes no specific link between the virgin birth and the sinlessness of Christ (though it may imply it in Luke 1:35).
So, while the virgin birth can be connected to many aspects of the nature and character of Christ, there is no necessary connection between it and any specific doctrine about the nature of Christ. These are matters of theological inference. Again, they may be true, but Matthew and Luke give us no clear evidence, since they are not primarily theological, but rather historical narratives.
Therefore, a more promising solution to the question, “why was Jesus born of a virgin?” may lie in the virgin birth’s role as a sign of grace in God’s history of salvation. That is to say that both Matthew and Luke may be less concerned here about His nature and more about His function.
Matthew;
Matthew interprets the virgin birth as a sign that God had fulfilled His promise to save His people.
18Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel"(which means, God with us).
24When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
The fact that Matthew quotes directly from Isaiah 7:14 is an indication that he saw Jesus’ birth as a direct fulfillment of the prophecy concerning ‘Immanuel.’ In its original context, Isaiah 7:14 refers to Isaiah’s own son who would be born within a few years of his speaking to King Ahaz of Judah. This child was to be a sign to King Ahaz that Judah would be saved from the impending threat of conquest by Israel and Syria. Matthew sites Isaiah’s prophecy of Israel’s imminent deliverance as an event foreshadowing an even greater salvation, the coming of the true Immanuel to save all nations from the captivity of sin. So then Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this typological earlier saving event, which is a picture of a future saving event which surpasses it in greatness. In this sense the virgin birth fulfills Isaiah 7:14 as a sign of God’s saving activity towards His people.
Luke;
Luke interprets the virgin birth as the greater of two extraordinary births; First, the birth of John the Baptist as a sign that the promised messianic age was to come in his lifetime. Second, the birth of Jesus as a signal that the messianic age had arrived!
John the Baptist:
5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. 7But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
8Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared."
18And Zechariah said to the angel, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." 19And the angel answered him, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time." 21And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. 22And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. 23And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. 24After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25"Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people."
The fact that John had elderly parents who had been childless strikes a parallel between John’s birth and the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah in Gen 21. Thus confirming the idea that the age characterized by God’s promise of future blessings to all nations was coming to a close with extraordinary births at both its beginning and end. This parallel marks the end of the age of promise!
What sort of sing, then, would signal the arrival of the messianic age? An extraordinary birth? Another child born to elderly, barren parents would merely duplicate the signs of the age of promise.
Jesus:
26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" 29But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
34And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?"
35And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy— the Son of God. 36And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God." 38And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
The virgin birth was a sign that went beyond the amazing births of Isaac and John. The Messiah, the fulfillment of God’s promises throughout the Abrahamic covenant, would end the patriarchal system by being born without the agency of a human father. In this, the virgin birth testifies to the fact that the age of promise is now past, and the age of fulfillment is upon us.
Conclusion;
Taken together, Matthew and Luke testify that in Jesus God sent salvation greater than anything that was done during the age of promise, thereby fulfilling all the promises given during the age of the old covenant. The coming of God as a man, through the virgin birth, is a sign that God is to fulfill all of His promises by bringing His blessing to all nations.
This witness of the virgin birth to Christ’s function within the redemptive history anticipates the manner in which the entire New Testament addresses the question, “who is Jesus Christ?” and to all of the theological interpretations it makes about Him.
At the end of this long discussion, it may be easy for us to lose sight of what is actually taught is Scripture. It is by far the most amazing miracle of the entire Bible - far more than the resurrection or even the creation of the universe. The fact that the infinite, omnipotent, eternal God the Son could become a man and join himself to a human nature forever, so that the infinite God became one person with finite man, will remain for eternity the most profound miracle and the most profound mystery in all the universe.
John 1:1-5, 9-14
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
How did this happen? Obviously, Jesus’ birth was different than ours!
The Virgin Birth;
Jesus’ birth was different than ours in that His mother conceived and bore Him without the agency of a human father.
Many people today have tried to deny the historicity of the virgin birth. Interpreters of the Bible view the text not as accounts of an historical event, but as theological interpretations of the person of Jesus set forth in story form. Such a view runs counter to the plain sense of Scripture.
Bible;
Specifically, neither Matthew nor Luke say anything which relates the virgin birth of Christ either to His deity or His sinlessness. They make no theological interpretation at all. The reason is that they are more interested in accurate history than in promoting any theological idea.
History;
The early church saw these virgin birth accounts as historical and not primarily theological. Just one generation after the apostles (around 110 A.D.) Ignatius described Christ as “Son of God after the Divine will and power, truly born of a virgin . . . “
The virgin birth was part of the confessional statements of the early church from 190 to 381 A.D.
This shows, very importantly, that those closest to these events in history never questioned the historical nature of the accounts. So, while the Gospels clearly declare that Jesus was born of a virgin, they do not specify why, probably because it has so many theological implications.
Throughout Church History, theologians have tried to answer the question, “why?” Their answer usually relates the purpose of the virgin birth to some aspect of Christ’s nature and character. For example:
1. Tertullian, around the turn of the 3rd century, argued that Christ had to be virgin born in order to be divine. This may be true, but John 1:1 bases His divine nature on His preexistence, not the virgin birth, because He was already God.
2. Augustine, over 100 years later, taught that the virgin birth accounts for the sinless nature of Christ. This, I believe is true. However, the NT makes no specific link between the virgin birth and the sinlessness of Christ (though it may imply it in Luke 1:35).
So, while the virgin birth can be connected to many aspects of the nature and character of Christ, there is no necessary connection between it and any specific doctrine about the nature of Christ. These are matters of theological inference. Again, they may be true, but Matthew and Luke give us no clear evidence, since they are not primarily theological, but rather historical narratives.
Therefore, a more promising solution to the question, “why was Jesus born of a virgin?” may lie in the virgin birth’s role as a sign of grace in God’s history of salvation. That is to say that both Matthew and Luke may be less concerned here about His nature and more about His function.
Matthew;
Matthew interprets the virgin birth as a sign that God had fulfilled His promise to save His people.
18Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel"(which means, God with us).
24When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
The fact that Matthew quotes directly from Isaiah 7:14 is an indication that he saw Jesus’ birth as a direct fulfillment of the prophecy concerning ‘Immanuel.’ In its original context, Isaiah 7:14 refers to Isaiah’s own son who would be born within a few years of his speaking to King Ahaz of Judah. This child was to be a sign to King Ahaz that Judah would be saved from the impending threat of conquest by Israel and Syria. Matthew sites Isaiah’s prophecy of Israel’s imminent deliverance as an event foreshadowing an even greater salvation, the coming of the true Immanuel to save all nations from the captivity of sin. So then Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this typological earlier saving event, which is a picture of a future saving event which surpasses it in greatness. In this sense the virgin birth fulfills Isaiah 7:14 as a sign of God’s saving activity towards His people.
Luke;
Luke interprets the virgin birth as the greater of two extraordinary births; First, the birth of John the Baptist as a sign that the promised messianic age was to come in his lifetime. Second, the birth of Jesus as a signal that the messianic age had arrived!
John the Baptist:
5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. 7But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
8Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared."
18And Zechariah said to the angel, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." 19And the angel answered him, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time." 21And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. 22And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. 23And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. 24After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25"Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people."
The fact that John had elderly parents who had been childless strikes a parallel between John’s birth and the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah in Gen 21. Thus confirming the idea that the age characterized by God’s promise of future blessings to all nations was coming to a close with extraordinary births at both its beginning and end. This parallel marks the end of the age of promise!
What sort of sing, then, would signal the arrival of the messianic age? An extraordinary birth? Another child born to elderly, barren parents would merely duplicate the signs of the age of promise.
Jesus:
26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" 29But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
34And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?"
35And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy— the Son of God. 36And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God." 38And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
The virgin birth was a sign that went beyond the amazing births of Isaac and John. The Messiah, the fulfillment of God’s promises throughout the Abrahamic covenant, would end the patriarchal system by being born without the agency of a human father. In this, the virgin birth testifies to the fact that the age of promise is now past, and the age of fulfillment is upon us.
Conclusion;
Taken together, Matthew and Luke testify that in Jesus God sent salvation greater than anything that was done during the age of promise, thereby fulfilling all the promises given during the age of the old covenant. The coming of God as a man, through the virgin birth, is a sign that God is to fulfill all of His promises by bringing His blessing to all nations.
This witness of the virgin birth to Christ’s function within the redemptive history anticipates the manner in which the entire New Testament addresses the question, “who is Jesus Christ?” and to all of the theological interpretations it makes about Him.
At the end of this long discussion, it may be easy for us to lose sight of what is actually taught is Scripture. It is by far the most amazing miracle of the entire Bible - far more than the resurrection or even the creation of the universe. The fact that the infinite, omnipotent, eternal God the Son could become a man and join himself to a human nature forever, so that the infinite God became one person with finite man, will remain for eternity the most profound miracle and the most profound mystery in all the universe.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Lost Donations Due to Economic Downturn
The second half of this year has been exceedingly tough for us here at Legacy. The difficult economic environment has been reflected in a slowing of dontations. The fact is that this is true for everyone. A new survey from The Barna Group shows that more than 150 million Americans said they have been affected by the economic turbulence, and are now passing on their financial pain to churches and other non-profit organizations by cutting back substantially on their giving during the fourth quarter of 2008.
Barna reports that two out of every three families — 68 percent — have been noticeably affected by the financial setbacks in America. Nearly one out of every four (22%) said they have been impacted in a "major way." Interestingly, the people least affected have been those under 30 years of age — perhaps because relatively few of them have substantial retirement funds — as well as Asian households and those who describe themselves as mostly conservative on social and political issues.
Born-again adults were slightly less likely than were others to have sustained such substantial financial losses in recent months. While 30 percent of the born-again public has lost 20 percent or more of its retirement portfolio value, the same was true for 37 percent of non-born-again adults. Similarly, just 31 percent of the born-again segment had lost 20 percent or more of the value of their stocks and bonds compared to 36 percent among the non-born-again Christians.
During the past three months, one of the ways that adults have adjusted to their financial hardships has been by reducing their charitable giving. In total, one out of every five households (20%) has decreased its giving to churches or other religious centers.
The degree of reduction in giving is significant for churches. Among people who have decreased giving to churches and religious centers, 29 percent dropped their giving by as much as 20 percent, five percent decreased their generosity by 21 percent to 49 percent, 17 percent reduced their giving by half, and 11 percent sliced their provision by more than half. In addition, 22 percent said they had stopped their giving altogether.
The Barna study revealed than many churches have attempted to help their congregants understand and responsibly address the current financial challenges. Among those who attend a Christian church, the survey found that one-third (35%) said their church had offered a special talk about the financial situation; 37 percent said their church had offered opportunities for personal financial counseling; 73 percent of those who were struggling financially were provided with special prayer support, and 52 percent said that their church had increased the amount of material assistance made available to congregants during the past three months.
Visit Barna.org to view the complete report.
Barna reports that two out of every three families — 68 percent — have been noticeably affected by the financial setbacks in America. Nearly one out of every four (22%) said they have been impacted in a "major way." Interestingly, the people least affected have been those under 30 years of age — perhaps because relatively few of them have substantial retirement funds — as well as Asian households and those who describe themselves as mostly conservative on social and political issues.
Born-again adults were slightly less likely than were others to have sustained such substantial financial losses in recent months. While 30 percent of the born-again public has lost 20 percent or more of its retirement portfolio value, the same was true for 37 percent of non-born-again adults. Similarly, just 31 percent of the born-again segment had lost 20 percent or more of the value of their stocks and bonds compared to 36 percent among the non-born-again Christians.
During the past three months, one of the ways that adults have adjusted to their financial hardships has been by reducing their charitable giving. In total, one out of every five households (20%) has decreased its giving to churches or other religious centers.
The degree of reduction in giving is significant for churches. Among people who have decreased giving to churches and religious centers, 29 percent dropped their giving by as much as 20 percent, five percent decreased their generosity by 21 percent to 49 percent, 17 percent reduced their giving by half, and 11 percent sliced their provision by more than half. In addition, 22 percent said they had stopped their giving altogether.
The Barna study revealed than many churches have attempted to help their congregants understand and responsibly address the current financial challenges. Among those who attend a Christian church, the survey found that one-third (35%) said their church had offered a special talk about the financial situation; 37 percent said their church had offered opportunities for personal financial counseling; 73 percent of those who were struggling financially were provided with special prayer support, and 52 percent said that their church had increased the amount of material assistance made available to congregants during the past three months.
Visit Barna.org to view the complete report.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Give Truth for Christmas
Looking For A Thoughtful Christmas Gift for Kids?
Consider The Adventures in Odyssey Truth Chronicles!
The kids of Odyssey are about to find out the answers to life's biggest questions — about God, faith and even truth itself. Eleven new stories — featuring Whit, Connie, Eugene, Wooten and your childrens' other favorite characters — teach valuable lessons about truth, compassion, false gods, intelligent design, worldviews and much more. There's even an episode introducing you to Kidsboro, a new kids-only neighborhood in Odyssey. Your whole family — especially kids ages 6 to 12 — will be captivated by the stories in this album . . . available exclusively (until mid-2009) from Focus on the Family!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
That you might do it . . . Law as a means of God's blessing
I was reading this morning in Deuteronomy and was struck by something obvious.
Deuteronomy is the words of Moses to Israel just before his death as Israel prepared to enter into the promised land. On the first day of the 11th month, in the 40th year since God used Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, Moses began to give a series of farewell speeches that were committed to writing and given to the elders and priest to be passed to the coming generations of Israel. The entire book is a testament to the importance of generational faithfulness. God moved Moses to write down again the law and testimony of what God had done for Israel for the express purpose of passing it down to those who did not come out of Egypt, but for the children born in the desert, who would remember nothing but a land of milk and honey.
The book has no other purpose. It does not really advance theologically - it tells us very little about God that is not contained in the first 4 books and assumes a general knowledge of that revelation. It does not advance historically - the entire book takes place in about one month time. It does not even advance geographically - the scene of the entire book is the encampment of Israel in the central rift valley, on the plains of Moab, east of the Jordan River.
Israel sits for a month and listens to the final words of Moses, as he expounds the law, before they enter into the promised land of God. And what does Moses say? First Moses gives a historical review of the gracious acts of God and encourages Israel to obey the law. Second, Moses begins to lay out the conditions of the covenant between God and Israel established at Mount Sinai. This included the basic elements of the relationship between God and Israel, specific instructions for life in the new land, and the blessing and consequences connected with faithfulness to the covenant.
The epiphany of the obvious came when I reflected on the why. Why did Moses repeat the Law and recite the testimonies of God toward Israel? Well, as I said before, my first response was, "generational faithfulness." God did this so that they would pass this information from one generation to the next. That, for me, begged an obvious question, why? Why was this so important? It is too obvious:
4:1 "And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you."
6:1-3 "Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, "
God says here that by keeping the Law, they would take possession of the blessing that they had been promised. This was primarily characterized in this context by the Promised Land. However, God makes clear that the number of their days, the peace and prosperity of those days and the fruit of those days all depended on keeping the Law. The Law was not a means of punishing the Israelites when they broke the Law. It was a means of blessing them when they kept it. God had Moses repeat the Law to this new generation that they would learn it, in order that they might do it, in order that God might bless them. They were also to teach the laws and history and principles diligently to their children, so that the Lord might bless them, for their good always, and preserve them, and make them righteous.
6:20-25 "When your son asks you in time to come, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?' then you shall say to your son, 'We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.'"
This is of great importance, because the obvious nature of God's purpose here demonstrates the reality of a clear distinction between the people of God -
7:12-13 "And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you."
8:11-17 "Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.'"
We must be exceedingly mindful never to presume upon God or forget Him in His blessings. We must always walk in the reality of His presence by walking in loving obedience. As a result, He will love us, bless us and multiply us. If we fail to acknowledge Him, we will perish.
Deuteronomy is the words of Moses to Israel just before his death as Israel prepared to enter into the promised land. On the first day of the 11th month, in the 40th year since God used Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, Moses began to give a series of farewell speeches that were committed to writing and given to the elders and priest to be passed to the coming generations of Israel. The entire book is a testament to the importance of generational faithfulness. God moved Moses to write down again the law and testimony of what God had done for Israel for the express purpose of passing it down to those who did not come out of Egypt, but for the children born in the desert, who would remember nothing but a land of milk and honey.
The book has no other purpose. It does not really advance theologically - it tells us very little about God that is not contained in the first 4 books and assumes a general knowledge of that revelation. It does not advance historically - the entire book takes place in about one month time. It does not even advance geographically - the scene of the entire book is the encampment of Israel in the central rift valley, on the plains of Moab, east of the Jordan River.
Israel sits for a month and listens to the final words of Moses, as he expounds the law, before they enter into the promised land of God. And what does Moses say? First Moses gives a historical review of the gracious acts of God and encourages Israel to obey the law. Second, Moses begins to lay out the conditions of the covenant between God and Israel established at Mount Sinai. This included the basic elements of the relationship between God and Israel, specific instructions for life in the new land, and the blessing and consequences connected with faithfulness to the covenant.
The epiphany of the obvious came when I reflected on the why. Why did Moses repeat the Law and recite the testimonies of God toward Israel? Well, as I said before, my first response was, "generational faithfulness." God did this so that they would pass this information from one generation to the next. That, for me, begged an obvious question, why? Why was this so important? It is too obvious:
4:1 "And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you."
5:1 "And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them."
God gave the Law to Israel through Moses that they might do it. Wow, what an idea, that people would actually set out to obey God's commands. And why would a people want to do that? That they might live!
6:1-3 "Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, "
God says here that by keeping the Law, they would take possession of the blessing that they had been promised. This was primarily characterized in this context by the Promised Land. However, God makes clear that the number of their days, the peace and prosperity of those days and the fruit of those days all depended on keeping the Law. The Law was not a means of punishing the Israelites when they broke the Law. It was a means of blessing them when they kept it. God had Moses repeat the Law to this new generation that they would learn it, in order that they might do it, in order that God might bless them. They were also to teach the laws and history and principles diligently to their children, so that the Lord might bless them, for their good always, and preserve them, and make them righteous.
6:20-25 "When your son asks you in time to come, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?' then you shall say to your son, 'We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.'"
This is of great importance, because the obvious nature of God's purpose here demonstrates the reality of a clear distinction between the people of God -
7:12-13 "And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you."
8:1-2 "The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not."
and not the people of God -8:11-17 "Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.'"
We must be exceedingly mindful never to presume upon God or forget Him in His blessings. We must always walk in the reality of His presence by walking in loving obedience. As a result, He will love us, bless us and multiply us. If we fail to acknowledge Him, we will perish.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Praying for a President
Well, it took me all morning to work up to posting about yesterday's election. I must say that I had a peace about it most fo the day yesterday. I got up and met with one of the young men I mentor and then went to do my civic duty. After I voted, I resolved not to listen to all of the pundits all day and to not even check the news on line.
I was encouraged by the status of a friend on facebook who simply said "It is such a priviledge to vote on principle." That assured me that I had done the right thing and the only thing I could do. I had prayed for 40 days for reveival and renewal in this country and I had presented truth to all with whom I had interacted with on the subject. So, I had a peace.
By the time I went to bed last night, the outcome was clear. i admit I had a few moments of angst as I tried to get to sleep. Then a confident assurance came over me. God is in control. He raises up empires and appoints their leaders.
This morning, I felt quite meloncholoy. I wondered what the future might hold, not just for me, but for my children and grandchildren. I resolved (in the shower) to just keep doing what I have always done; love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, teach my children the truth of God's word, humbly serve the kingdom of God and give my life away for His glory, love my country, and pray for my new president.
I was strengthened in that resolve when I got to work and read Dr. Mohlers blog America Has Chosen a President. I want to share it with you as an encuragement and as a help.
May God bless you and keep you, and may God bless the United States of America.
I was encouraged by the status of a friend on facebook who simply said "It is such a priviledge to vote on principle." That assured me that I had done the right thing and the only thing I could do. I had prayed for 40 days for reveival and renewal in this country and I had presented truth to all with whom I had interacted with on the subject. So, I had a peace.
By the time I went to bed last night, the outcome was clear. i admit I had a few moments of angst as I tried to get to sleep. Then a confident assurance came over me. God is in control. He raises up empires and appoints their leaders.
This morning, I felt quite meloncholoy. I wondered what the future might hold, not just for me, but for my children and grandchildren. I resolved (in the shower) to just keep doing what I have always done; love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, teach my children the truth of God's word, humbly serve the kingdom of God and give my life away for His glory, love my country, and pray for my new president.
I was strengthened in that resolve when I got to work and read Dr. Mohlers blog America Has Chosen a President. I want to share it with you as an encuragement and as a help.
May God bless you and keep you, and may God bless the United States of America.
Monday, October 20, 2008
See our article on Youth Discipleship in The Alabama Baptist
The Alabama Baptist is doing a series of articles on Student Ministry this month and the most encouraging thing is that the focus has been on discipleship and family ministry. On October 2, Jenifer Martin Siemens wrote and article on Legacy Ministries and our new book Legacy Leadership: Principles for Leaving a Spiritual Legacy, titled 'Discipleship, not event-based ministry,' key to cultivating spirituality of teens. We are excited about the article and the emphasis the Alabama Baptist is placing on Youth and Family Ministry. Check out the article and let us know what you think!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
ApParent Privilege - A Review
ApParent Privilege, the second offering by Steve Wright, with Chris Graves, is a call for parents to rethink what it means to be a Christian parent that is every bit as impactful as their first offering, ReThink, was as a call to churches to rethink student ministry. Steve writes in a powerful, conversational style, as one parent to another, and in a professional, informed tone as a caring pastor to concerned parents.
Steve begins by sharing a little of his personal story as a parent and pastor to students and families. Using his unique ability to meld research and biblical precepts, he makes a strong case for parent’s apparent privilege as primary disciplers and daily mentors for their children. He says, “Our children need mothers and fathers to help them become adults. Childhood is temporary. One goal of parenting is to lay the groundwork to help children become godly adults. We must continually show our children what it means to be a biblical woman and a biblical man. We must teach responsibility, respect, work ethic, spiritual maturity, and life skills that adults must have.”(pg. 40)
What I found particularly refreshing was that the book did not just rest on statistics and antidotal evidence about good parenting. Steve takes the time and care to mark out for his readers what I think is possibly the most valuable information in the book, a theology of the family. I believe the lack of a solidly biblical theology of the family is the root cause of much of the family crisis in our churches today. If we but had a clear picture of who God is and how He has made himself known through the structure and relationships of the family, the attack by the world, the flesh and the devil on the family would have little success among the children of God.
The discussion on the theology of the family is limited to just one chapter in the book and therefore, Steve presents a concise overview in the form of “Seven Foundations of the Theology of the Family:”
1. God created man and woman in His image.
2. God blessed man and woman with the gifts of marriage, sex and family.
3. God gave parents the primary role of discipling their children.
4. God calls husbands to love their wives and calls wives to submit to their husbands.
5. God’s design is for marriage to be lifelong.
6. God seeks to use Christian families to unite and partner with the local church for the mutual purpose of discipleship.(52-57)
As a Pastor to Students, I used to always tell parents, “everyday, good parents have bad kids and bad parents have good kids, but it is the exception, not the rule.” I would say that in order to encourage a parent that just because their child may be in rebellion does not mean they are necessarily doing anything wrong, or just because they may have made mistakes, does not mean there is no hope. Steve gives the same encouragement in chapter 3 of the book, A Parent’s Difference, where he talks about the big picture of parenting with its goal of finishing well. He says, “Biblical parenting is more than keeping our kids from having sex, using drugs, or going to jail. It is about fostering an awe of God in our children. It is about showing our children their need for a Savior and introducing them to Jesus who alone can rescue their lives from sin and give life that lasts forever.”(pg. 62)
The focus is never on raising church kids, but on reaching both traditional and non-traditional families with the gospel, and having the hearts of both parents and children captivated by God. In that light, the book presents four distinctive marks of Christian parenting. He says that Christian parents, “seek to model the Gospel,” “value and protect the sanctity of marriage,” “see their children as blessings,” and “desire that Jesus captivate their children’s hearts,” which he says is the ultimate goal.(65-70)
Steve goes on to discuss how we as parents make time for what we value the most, and that value system is the difference between good parenting and godly parenting. To help us check those values, he gives eight principles from Scripture that must guide everything we do. Principle number seven, “Envision parenting as generational,” jumped out at me for obvious reasons. He says, “We don’t often think about generational parenting. We don’t think about a lasting legacy for Christ.”(92)
What makes the book helpful is that it not only reminds us of our biblical privilege and duty as parents, but it gives us some tools to use in the real life, day-to-day of our families. Steve give us seven of the most impacting habits he has seen in families during his more than 20 years in ministry. He and I agree the most basic and most profound of these is family worship. We also agree that there is a special call to fathers to be the spiritual leaders of their families. He gives six specific calls to fathers, and a job description that I will keep posted for a regular reminder.
ApParent Privilege is a must read for every minister wanting insight into how to talk to parents about their role as primary disciplers and for every parent who has a desire to fulfill that role.
Steve begins by sharing a little of his personal story as a parent and pastor to students and families. Using his unique ability to meld research and biblical precepts, he makes a strong case for parent’s apparent privilege as primary disciplers and daily mentors for their children. He says, “Our children need mothers and fathers to help them become adults. Childhood is temporary. One goal of parenting is to lay the groundwork to help children become godly adults. We must continually show our children what it means to be a biblical woman and a biblical man. We must teach responsibility, respect, work ethic, spiritual maturity, and life skills that adults must have.”(pg. 40)
What I found particularly refreshing was that the book did not just rest on statistics and antidotal evidence about good parenting. Steve takes the time and care to mark out for his readers what I think is possibly the most valuable information in the book, a theology of the family. I believe the lack of a solidly biblical theology of the family is the root cause of much of the family crisis in our churches today. If we but had a clear picture of who God is and how He has made himself known through the structure and relationships of the family, the attack by the world, the flesh and the devil on the family would have little success among the children of God.
The discussion on the theology of the family is limited to just one chapter in the book and therefore, Steve presents a concise overview in the form of “Seven Foundations of the Theology of the Family:”
1. God created man and woman in His image.
2. God blessed man and woman with the gifts of marriage, sex and family.
3. God gave parents the primary role of discipling their children.
4. God calls husbands to love their wives and calls wives to submit to their husbands.
5. God’s design is for marriage to be lifelong.
6. God seeks to use Christian families to unite and partner with the local church for the mutual purpose of discipleship.(52-57)
As a Pastor to Students, I used to always tell parents, “everyday, good parents have bad kids and bad parents have good kids, but it is the exception, not the rule.” I would say that in order to encourage a parent that just because their child may be in rebellion does not mean they are necessarily doing anything wrong, or just because they may have made mistakes, does not mean there is no hope. Steve gives the same encouragement in chapter 3 of the book, A Parent’s Difference, where he talks about the big picture of parenting with its goal of finishing well. He says, “Biblical parenting is more than keeping our kids from having sex, using drugs, or going to jail. It is about fostering an awe of God in our children. It is about showing our children their need for a Savior and introducing them to Jesus who alone can rescue their lives from sin and give life that lasts forever.”(pg. 62)
The focus is never on raising church kids, but on reaching both traditional and non-traditional families with the gospel, and having the hearts of both parents and children captivated by God. In that light, the book presents four distinctive marks of Christian parenting. He says that Christian parents, “seek to model the Gospel,” “value and protect the sanctity of marriage,” “see their children as blessings,” and “desire that Jesus captivate their children’s hearts,” which he says is the ultimate goal.(65-70)
Steve goes on to discuss how we as parents make time for what we value the most, and that value system is the difference between good parenting and godly parenting. To help us check those values, he gives eight principles from Scripture that must guide everything we do. Principle number seven, “Envision parenting as generational,” jumped out at me for obvious reasons. He says, “We don’t often think about generational parenting. We don’t think about a lasting legacy for Christ.”(92)
What makes the book helpful is that it not only reminds us of our biblical privilege and duty as parents, but it gives us some tools to use in the real life, day-to-day of our families. Steve give us seven of the most impacting habits he has seen in families during his more than 20 years in ministry. He and I agree the most basic and most profound of these is family worship. We also agree that there is a special call to fathers to be the spiritual leaders of their families. He gives six specific calls to fathers, and a job description that I will keep posted for a regular reminder.
ApParent Privilege is a must read for every minister wanting insight into how to talk to parents about their role as primary disciplers and for every parent who has a desire to fulfill that role.
Monday, October 6, 2008
The Children of God: Leading to Maturity, Multiplication, and Glory
Moses spent the last third of his life fulfilling God's purpose. In what we would consider his retirement years, Moses led the nation of Israel out of Egypt, through the desert, to the Promised Land. During that time, God used him to deliver His law, to appoint judges over the nation, to purify the nation and to appoint the next generation leader. During this time, we see Moses use all that God had taught him throughout his life to lead his people in a way that would lead them to maturity, lead them to lead themselves, and lead them to glorify God. There are several principles that become obvious during this phase in Moses' life that we can apply in helping us become Legacy Leaders.
The first principle that we see displayed during this period of Moses' life is God-centeredness. That is what Christ as the standard in our lives is all about. God empowers us to lead when He calls us to lead. We do not have to be the best speakers, we do not have to have a position or title, and we do not even have to be perfect people. We just have to depend on the grace of God and the strength of His might. We have to wait patiently for Him and not move out before He sends us. We must also be so ready to move that when He calls our name we are instant. Again, Blackaby says in his book Spiritual Leadership, "He (God) ask leaders to walk with Him so intimately that, when He reveals what is on His agenda, they will immediately adjust their lives to His will and the results will bring glory to God." Legacy is not about me, but God doing great things through me. God told Moses, "I will be with you." At every step of the journey, God gave Moses supernatural influence because Moses was completely dependant on God. Because Moses had established God as the center of his life, Israel heard him when He spoke in God's name, Pharaoh heard him when he acted in God's name, and the Red Sea even heard him when he moved in God's name.
Second, we see the principle of influence displayed in the life of Moses. We have already seen how God gave Moses supernatural influence because He was centered on God. However, we also see Moses use that influence to challenge Israel's old way of life. To lead implies a new direction. The people of God could not stay tethered to Egypt. They could not become free men and women without making the journey through the wilderness. Only then would they have the souls of free men and dwell in the Promised Land. Leaders must challenge the old and anticipate resistance. The journey would not be easy. There would be plagues and elemental barriers. There would be Pharaoh's army and a desert. There would be idols and giants. However, through the leadership of Moses, God would provide gold and miracles, victory and manna, a covenant and a Promised Land.
Third, we see the principle of integrity. Leadership holds people and organizations accountable to the godly standard. Moses ascended to receive the law, and the people quickly forgot the vision and regressed to their old way, corrupting themselves. When God became angry and was set to destroy the people, Moses took responsibility for the people he was leading. Then, Moses went to the people and held God's truth up before their delusion. He showed the people that they must be faithful to the one true God. Moses was responsible to impose fidelity to the original. When the people revert back and corrupt themselves, the leader must intercede, destroy the graven idols and refocus the people on the purpose of the journey—the Promised Land. As a result, God made a covenant with His people.
The fourth essential element we see displayed in the life of Moses is vision. The Hebrews prayed for liberation for hundreds of years, but it was not until God decided to initiate it that the change became a reality. Moses questioned his selection by God as a change agent, his ability to confront the old establishment and his credibility to lead the people—just like all of us do. However, God revealed to Moses what He had purposed to do. The vision, "the land of milk and honey," is the responsibility of the leadership. God showed Moses the vision, and it was up to Moses to keep the vision ever in front of the people. When they were afraid, he had to remind them of the vision. When they were tired, he had to remind them of the vision. When they fell into sin, Moses had to keep the picture God had planned for their future in front of them. By staff, by pillar of fire, by stone tablet, or by temple tent, Moses kept the picture of what God had promised in plain view. Fifth, we see the principle of imitation, as Moses demonstrates an attitude of hope, built on the promises of God. Even after many years, when they've almost achieved their vision, the children of Israel still did not have the heart of free people. The Lord told Moses to send in spies to the Promised Land. When they returned, ten among the leaders of the children of Israel had lost the vision and gave a fearful report. The people of God murmured. Spiritual leadership is always optimistic. Only Joshua and Caleb were optimist. Upon hearing the negative reports of the others, they tore their clothes. The congregation begged to stone them with stones, but God protected them. Of the founding fathers, only Joshua and Caleb ever entered the Promised Land. While the murmuring of the people kept them wandering in the wilderness and their lack of faith in God kept all but the two optimists from seeing the vision with their eyes, the future leaders of the nation were not deterred by giants and were able to savor the reality of the vision in the Promised Land.
Leaders often must challenge the realistic, or pessimistic, majority and offer an unpopular divine perspective. It took forty years for the old generation to die. It took forty years for the next generation to develop, a courageous generation with holy and free souls, men and women who honored God. Then, they were a nation of people who imitated the nature and character of God.
The sixth characteristic of Legacy Leadership we see in the life of Moses is intensity. The people of God cried out to the Lord, and cried out to Moses saying, "We should have stayed in Egypt!" In the heat of battle, the people crumbled under the intensity. They were not always equipped to deal with where God was leading them, but God's chosen leader was. Moses quieted the people, admonished them to have faith and told them the Lord would lead the way. The Lord empowered Moses to part the waters. The children of Israel did not want to let go of the old. Although they wanted to be free, it was too difficult to let go. At the first sign of difficulty, Israel began to complain—better to die in the old familiar world than in pressing on to take hold of a future hope. Of course they took the knowledge of the old with them, and reverted back to it as soon as Moses was out of sight, so Moses had to destroy the old completely.
The people of Israel so lacked an understanding of intensity, that they were willing to be slaves for a few onions and a pepper. Moses understood what was at stake and that God had burned the old bridges back to insure that the people of God would not step in the same river twice. Unless those Hebrews could walk on water, they would not return to the old. They had been led through a parted sea, and they would either receive the promise of God or die in the wilderness.
Seventh, Moses displayed maturity. He had learned the idea of wholeness. What he learned about himself and about life while tending the sheep gave him a unity of purpose in his spirit. He was a strong leader and exercised judgment over the people with great wisdom. Most of all, we see that in the end, Moses was at peace with God.
Moses also displays for us multiplication, though, like most of us, he needed a little help with this one. Moses overburdened himself with the demands of leadership, and had to be instructed to empower those around him. In Exodus 18:13–26, we see a perfect picture of why spiritual leadership is to always be engaged in delegating out both authority and responsibility to the leaders we lead.
Moses had become overwhelmed by the task of serving the people, and he needed someone else to help him see that it was not good for him or the people. His father-in-law helped him see that just because it needed to be done and he could do it, did not mean that he had to or should do it by himself. You do what God has called you to do, what only you can do, and you appoint others to handle the rest. Make them accountable to you, give them both authority and responsibility, and then set them free to serve God and grow in their maturity.
Again, Moses not only shows the value of multiplication, but also the fruit of maturity and wisdom. He shows us a humble and teachable spirit, respect of his father-in-law, and trust in God. In Numbers 11, God orders Moses to appoint elders over the people because Moses could no longer bear the burden of leadership alone. A true leader is more a teacher than a judge. The leader must select those he empowers carefully, but leaders must exist at every level. For Moses, they existed over thousands, over hundreds, over fifties, and over tens.
Finally, Moses shows us spiritual magnification. We see this in his understanding that it was never about him. Moses knew he would not live to enter the Promised Land and asked God for his replacement. Good leadership recognizes the importance of constancy of leadership and bridges his leadership with an effective succession strategy, finding a successor early and passing the mantle over time in the sight of the followers. It is often the new leader, anointed in the wilderness, who leads the people into the new vision.
Change is never easy! Transformational change is the most difficult, and great change requires great leadership. However, the glory of God for generation after generation is a great legacy to leave. As spiritual leaders, we have a unique opportunity to provide some necessary and valuable gifts for the next generation. We are at a sacred moment for transformation—urgency. God desires to do a great and mighty work in the next generation. We must provide great leadership.
Moses mentored Joshua and worked to prepare him to lead the nation into the Promised Land. He understood the folly of leaving our work to untrained hands. Moses understood that the journey was never the purpose, nor was his great leadership. The purpose was moving God's people from where they were to where He wanted them to be. The purpose of God was to move Israel from slavery to freedom, from oppression to promise, from Egypt to the Promised Land.
If our lives are to be about God's purposes and the glory of God displayed for generations to come, we must use our influence to challenge the old, impact our people by providing guidance through the process, and leave a legacy of people in our place who are better than us, born in the wilderness, who will enter the Promised Land and be leaders for the next generation.
The first principle that we see displayed during this period of Moses' life is God-centeredness. That is what Christ as the standard in our lives is all about. God empowers us to lead when He calls us to lead. We do not have to be the best speakers, we do not have to have a position or title, and we do not even have to be perfect people. We just have to depend on the grace of God and the strength of His might. We have to wait patiently for Him and not move out before He sends us. We must also be so ready to move that when He calls our name we are instant. Again, Blackaby says in his book Spiritual Leadership, "He (God) ask leaders to walk with Him so intimately that, when He reveals what is on His agenda, they will immediately adjust their lives to His will and the results will bring glory to God." Legacy is not about me, but God doing great things through me. God told Moses, "I will be with you." At every step of the journey, God gave Moses supernatural influence because Moses was completely dependant on God. Because Moses had established God as the center of his life, Israel heard him when He spoke in God's name, Pharaoh heard him when he acted in God's name, and the Red Sea even heard him when he moved in God's name.
Second, we see the principle of influence displayed in the life of Moses. We have already seen how God gave Moses supernatural influence because He was centered on God. However, we also see Moses use that influence to challenge Israel's old way of life. To lead implies a new direction. The people of God could not stay tethered to Egypt. They could not become free men and women without making the journey through the wilderness. Only then would they have the souls of free men and dwell in the Promised Land. Leaders must challenge the old and anticipate resistance. The journey would not be easy. There would be plagues and elemental barriers. There would be Pharaoh's army and a desert. There would be idols and giants. However, through the leadership of Moses, God would provide gold and miracles, victory and manna, a covenant and a Promised Land.
Third, we see the principle of integrity. Leadership holds people and organizations accountable to the godly standard. Moses ascended to receive the law, and the people quickly forgot the vision and regressed to their old way, corrupting themselves. When God became angry and was set to destroy the people, Moses took responsibility for the people he was leading. Then, Moses went to the people and held God's truth up before their delusion. He showed the people that they must be faithful to the one true God. Moses was responsible to impose fidelity to the original. When the people revert back and corrupt themselves, the leader must intercede, destroy the graven idols and refocus the people on the purpose of the journey—the Promised Land. As a result, God made a covenant with His people.
The fourth essential element we see displayed in the life of Moses is vision. The Hebrews prayed for liberation for hundreds of years, but it was not until God decided to initiate it that the change became a reality. Moses questioned his selection by God as a change agent, his ability to confront the old establishment and his credibility to lead the people—just like all of us do. However, God revealed to Moses what He had purposed to do. The vision, "the land of milk and honey," is the responsibility of the leadership. God showed Moses the vision, and it was up to Moses to keep the vision ever in front of the people. When they were afraid, he had to remind them of the vision. When they were tired, he had to remind them of the vision. When they fell into sin, Moses had to keep the picture God had planned for their future in front of them. By staff, by pillar of fire, by stone tablet, or by temple tent, Moses kept the picture of what God had promised in plain view. Fifth, we see the principle of imitation, as Moses demonstrates an attitude of hope, built on the promises of God. Even after many years, when they've almost achieved their vision, the children of Israel still did not have the heart of free people. The Lord told Moses to send in spies to the Promised Land. When they returned, ten among the leaders of the children of Israel had lost the vision and gave a fearful report. The people of God murmured. Spiritual leadership is always optimistic. Only Joshua and Caleb were optimist. Upon hearing the negative reports of the others, they tore their clothes. The congregation begged to stone them with stones, but God protected them. Of the founding fathers, only Joshua and Caleb ever entered the Promised Land. While the murmuring of the people kept them wandering in the wilderness and their lack of faith in God kept all but the two optimists from seeing the vision with their eyes, the future leaders of the nation were not deterred by giants and were able to savor the reality of the vision in the Promised Land.
Leaders often must challenge the realistic, or pessimistic, majority and offer an unpopular divine perspective. It took forty years for the old generation to die. It took forty years for the next generation to develop, a courageous generation with holy and free souls, men and women who honored God. Then, they were a nation of people who imitated the nature and character of God.
The sixth characteristic of Legacy Leadership we see in the life of Moses is intensity. The people of God cried out to the Lord, and cried out to Moses saying, "We should have stayed in Egypt!" In the heat of battle, the people crumbled under the intensity. They were not always equipped to deal with where God was leading them, but God's chosen leader was. Moses quieted the people, admonished them to have faith and told them the Lord would lead the way. The Lord empowered Moses to part the waters. The children of Israel did not want to let go of the old. Although they wanted to be free, it was too difficult to let go. At the first sign of difficulty, Israel began to complain—better to die in the old familiar world than in pressing on to take hold of a future hope. Of course they took the knowledge of the old with them, and reverted back to it as soon as Moses was out of sight, so Moses had to destroy the old completely.
The people of Israel so lacked an understanding of intensity, that they were willing to be slaves for a few onions and a pepper. Moses understood what was at stake and that God had burned the old bridges back to insure that the people of God would not step in the same river twice. Unless those Hebrews could walk on water, they would not return to the old. They had been led through a parted sea, and they would either receive the promise of God or die in the wilderness.
Seventh, Moses displayed maturity. He had learned the idea of wholeness. What he learned about himself and about life while tending the sheep gave him a unity of purpose in his spirit. He was a strong leader and exercised judgment over the people with great wisdom. Most of all, we see that in the end, Moses was at peace with God.
Moses also displays for us multiplication, though, like most of us, he needed a little help with this one. Moses overburdened himself with the demands of leadership, and had to be instructed to empower those around him. In Exodus 18:13–26, we see a perfect picture of why spiritual leadership is to always be engaged in delegating out both authority and responsibility to the leaders we lead.
Moses had become overwhelmed by the task of serving the people, and he needed someone else to help him see that it was not good for him or the people. His father-in-law helped him see that just because it needed to be done and he could do it, did not mean that he had to or should do it by himself. You do what God has called you to do, what only you can do, and you appoint others to handle the rest. Make them accountable to you, give them both authority and responsibility, and then set them free to serve God and grow in their maturity.
Again, Moses not only shows the value of multiplication, but also the fruit of maturity and wisdom. He shows us a humble and teachable spirit, respect of his father-in-law, and trust in God. In Numbers 11, God orders Moses to appoint elders over the people because Moses could no longer bear the burden of leadership alone. A true leader is more a teacher than a judge. The leader must select those he empowers carefully, but leaders must exist at every level. For Moses, they existed over thousands, over hundreds, over fifties, and over tens.
Finally, Moses shows us spiritual magnification. We see this in his understanding that it was never about him. Moses knew he would not live to enter the Promised Land and asked God for his replacement. Good leadership recognizes the importance of constancy of leadership and bridges his leadership with an effective succession strategy, finding a successor early and passing the mantle over time in the sight of the followers. It is often the new leader, anointed in the wilderness, who leads the people into the new vision.
Change is never easy! Transformational change is the most difficult, and great change requires great leadership. However, the glory of God for generation after generation is a great legacy to leave. As spiritual leaders, we have a unique opportunity to provide some necessary and valuable gifts for the next generation. We are at a sacred moment for transformation—urgency. God desires to do a great and mighty work in the next generation. We must provide great leadership.
Moses mentored Joshua and worked to prepare him to lead the nation into the Promised Land. He understood the folly of leaving our work to untrained hands. Moses understood that the journey was never the purpose, nor was his great leadership. The purpose was moving God's people from where they were to where He wanted them to be. The purpose of God was to move Israel from slavery to freedom, from oppression to promise, from Egypt to the Promised Land.
If our lives are to be about God's purposes and the glory of God displayed for generations to come, we must use our influence to challenge the old, impact our people by providing guidance through the process, and leave a legacy of people in our place who are better than us, born in the wilderness, who will enter the Promised Land and be leaders for the next generation.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Response to "The Iconic Family"
On Wednesday night, Reid gave the Scriptural explanation for Satan’s attack on the family unit. Nothing is more fundamental to the governance of a free and God-fearing society than the integrity of the family. This email is to point out important implications of that teaching.
The integrity of the family:
By undermining the integrity of the family, Satan attempts to destroy the primary institution for the propagation of godly teaching. It is not in the school, or in the media, or in the public arena that a child is first exposed to godly teaching. It is in the home. During the early days of the church, all teaching occurred in homes, as there were no places of public assembly for believers. So, it is not enough for Satan to destroy the place of public assembly. He must also destroy the family.
The integrity of education:
Related to this are a number of important implications. The first of which is the fact that the destruction of the family requires the corruption of numerous other institutions. The most important tool in the destruction of the family is education. Since children spend as much time in school as they do in the home, and since the schools represent an opportunity to indoctrinate children without parental supervision. Satan’s first attack is upon the educational system. This has already occurred. School prayer has been banned, religion is ridiculed, and homosexual indoctrination has begun.
The integrity of the media:
Next comes the corruption of the media. After education (or perhaps even before education), the media exerts the strongest non-parental influence on children. The complicity of the media gives Satan additional cover for his attack upon the family. Never before in the history of the United States has the mainstream media shown such a flagrant disregard for journalistic principles as they have in this election cycle. Never before have they shown such violent opposition to a political candidate (Sarah Palin); and never before have their attacks been so openly directed to her family (to her children, in particular), as opposed to her political beliefs.The integrity of the vote:In spite of the legislative efforts of non-elected judges, the American family has steadfasty maintained is right to participate in public life through the power of the ballot box. But even that right is under attack. In this election cycle we can expect massive voter fraud in the state of Ohio and other states.
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/buckeye-state-or-banana-republic/2/
The integrity of the language:
The final stage in the destruction of a society is the Orwellian destruction of its very language. The prime example is the concept of “gay marriage.” It is not enough for Satan to legitimize gay relationships, or even to legitimize the concept of same-sex “partnerships.” Rather, it is essential that such partnerships be seen as “marriage,” so that there remains no trace of the traditional, scriptural, or linguistic foundations of the family. It is well established that “marriage” has been universally defined in over 80 languages, and that the universal concept of “marriage” derives from traditions that go back thousands of years. In the end, it is Satan’s plan that the concept “family” be taken out of the hands of pastors and Biblical teachers and placed into the hands of politically correct lexicographers who will extinguish any trace of the traditional meaning. When this occurs, “family,” as we know it, will indeed have ceased to exist.
Dr. Larry Fogelberg
Troy, AL
The integrity of the family:
By undermining the integrity of the family, Satan attempts to destroy the primary institution for the propagation of godly teaching. It is not in the school, or in the media, or in the public arena that a child is first exposed to godly teaching. It is in the home. During the early days of the church, all teaching occurred in homes, as there were no places of public assembly for believers. So, it is not enough for Satan to destroy the place of public assembly. He must also destroy the family.
The integrity of education:
Related to this are a number of important implications. The first of which is the fact that the destruction of the family requires the corruption of numerous other institutions. The most important tool in the destruction of the family is education. Since children spend as much time in school as they do in the home, and since the schools represent an opportunity to indoctrinate children without parental supervision. Satan’s first attack is upon the educational system. This has already occurred. School prayer has been banned, religion is ridiculed, and homosexual indoctrination has begun.
The integrity of the media:
Next comes the corruption of the media. After education (or perhaps even before education), the media exerts the strongest non-parental influence on children. The complicity of the media gives Satan additional cover for his attack upon the family. Never before in the history of the United States has the mainstream media shown such a flagrant disregard for journalistic principles as they have in this election cycle. Never before have they shown such violent opposition to a political candidate (Sarah Palin); and never before have their attacks been so openly directed to her family (to her children, in particular), as opposed to her political beliefs.The integrity of the vote:In spite of the legislative efforts of non-elected judges, the American family has steadfasty maintained is right to participate in public life through the power of the ballot box. But even that right is under attack. In this election cycle we can expect massive voter fraud in the state of Ohio and other states.
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/buckeye-state-or-banana-republic/2/
The integrity of the language:
The final stage in the destruction of a society is the Orwellian destruction of its very language. The prime example is the concept of “gay marriage.” It is not enough for Satan to legitimize gay relationships, or even to legitimize the concept of same-sex “partnerships.” Rather, it is essential that such partnerships be seen as “marriage,” so that there remains no trace of the traditional, scriptural, or linguistic foundations of the family. It is well established that “marriage” has been universally defined in over 80 languages, and that the universal concept of “marriage” derives from traditions that go back thousands of years. In the end, it is Satan’s plan that the concept “family” be taken out of the hands of pastors and Biblical teachers and placed into the hands of politically correct lexicographers who will extinguish any trace of the traditional meaning. When this occurs, “family,” as we know it, will indeed have ceased to exist.
Dr. Larry Fogelberg
Troy, AL
The Iconic Family - Ephesians 5:15-6:4
Love and Respect
We spent last weekend at the Love and Respect Conference, where we heard some great teaching on marriage. It got me thinking about how far our so called convictions and teachings (as believers in general) are from our practice. Scripture calls us to a counter-cultural life, as we live out the Word of God and stand for truth where culture violates it.
The question is, where does this attack from culture come from, and how do we face it as believers? If we are to really create a counter-culture that preserves the biblical definition of the family, we must first recognize that culture has not changed in this area as much as we think, and that we have changed more than we would like to admit. We need to be careful not to see the family crisis as a completely new development, or as the result of blind cultural trends.
A Fundamental Attack
Scripture presents a picture of the family as constantly under attack. Family crisis did not begin with cable TV and the culture wars that surround the family are not chiefly the result of Hollywood or Capitol Hill. We need to see through the symptoms to the cause in order to find its antidote.
What we find in the larger context of Scripture is not simply a cultural shift, but an exposure of our own timidity and cultural accommodation. We see why the family is extremely significant as an iconic representations of Christ, His Church, and His Gospel.
In order to rightly understand the family chaos, we must distinguish between what is “from the beginning” and thus created good, and what is the result of the fall. The fall did not just result in individual sin and separation from God, but a disruption in the fabric of creation - including the family relationships established in the garden. In fact, the most immediate disruption in the peace of the garden was the alienation of the one-flesh union of man and woman, as they experienced nakedness and shame in one another’s presence (even before God came an announced the curse). The curse that comes upends every aspect of the calling on humankind.
Adam denies his leadership role and blames God and Eve for his sin.
The woman’s vocation as mother of all now includes pain and anguish in childbirth.
The man’s vocation as the tiller of the ground to bring forth bread for his family now includes toil and sorrow.
The marriage union now includes disharmony and rivalry - resulting in insecurity, guilt and suspicion.
The fruitful and multiply command results not just in new life, but fratricide (brother killing brother in Gen. 4:1-16).
The family chaos is traced by the biblical account East of Eden, through polygamy, rape, violence, blackmail, reproductive transgression to the dishonoring of Noah, the patriarch of the new creation by his own son in Gen. 9:18-27. We see a repeated cycle of family deceit, sibling rivalry, inheritance skirmishes and it becomes clear that the peace of the divine union has been utterly compromised by the fall.
The Christ Perspective
When the Pharisees seek to trap Jesus with a question about divorce, He indicts them for failing to understand the Alpha-point of the story. They start with the consequences of the fall, the Mosaic provisions for divorce, missing that it was not so “in the beginning.” (Matt. 9:1-12)
When the Sadducces seek to trap Jesus with a question about marriage, He indicts them for failing to understand the Omega-point of the story. They start with the consequences of the fall, death and the law that a man should marry his brother’s widow if she has no children, missing the reality of what it will be when human existence reaches its resurrection goal of a new creation. (Mark 12-18-27)
They are veiled to the reality of Christ and so they are veiled to the mystery of Christ in the family order. The gospel of Christ is the key to understanding the meaning of all reality, as we have seen so vividly in the Truth Project. Paul announces in Ephesians that God “in all wisdom and insight” has made known the “mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth,” and that God “raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Christ is the prototype of unity and submission.
Husband and Wife
One key aspect of understanding this created good mystery is that the family structure is not an arbitrary expression of the will of God. It is an archetype, an icon of God’s purpose for the universe in Christ. Our text from Ephesians on marriage makes no sense if it is presented as self-help advice for a happier, healthier marriage. It is part of a larger argument regarding the mystery of Christ that was not revealed to the generations before, that the Genesis 2 mandate to leave and cleave is a mystery that “refers to Christ and the church.” (Eph. 5:31-32)
The husband/wife union is a visible icon of the Christ/church union; a union in which, as a head with his body, Jesus is inseparable from His bride, a bride He protects, provides for, leads, disciples, and sanctifies. Male headship is not indicative of hierarchy or value, but is iconic, pointing to the purpose of the creation. It is not raw sovereignty, but covenantal love that reflects the love of Christ for His bride. The Ephesians text says that the husband loves, “as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” (5:25)
Female respect is not indicative of hierarchy or value, but is likewise iconic, pointing to the purpose of the creation. The headship she honors is not raw sovereignty, but covenantal love. She does so not because she is somehow less dignified than he, but precisely because she is a model, a picture of an assembly that is pursued, protected, led by a spirit-honoring King. Thus, “as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should honor their husbands in everything.” (Eph. 5:24)
Children
The children of the husband/wife union and the interplay between parents and children are also archetypal and Christological. The command to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth, is an icon fulfilled in Christ in the Omega-point of the story when He stands triumphant before His Father and announces, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.” (Heb. 2:13)
The love between the Father and the Son is incarnated. The universe is built around the Father’s joy in bestowing upon His Son and inheritance (Ps.2 :7-8), a great name (Phil. 2:9-11), and the glory of the firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8;29).
The command for fathers to lead, protect, provide for and discipline their children, again, is not arbitrary. It is because the human fatherhood is an icon of the divine fatherhood. (Heb. 12:5-11) Human fathers are to train their children to trust and obey precisely because that is what our heavenly Father does. (Matt. 6:10) Humans fathers are to bring forth bread from the land for their families because God does so. (Matt. 6:11) Human fathers guard their children from evil threats because God does so. (Matt. 6:13) The divine Father/Son relationship is a paradigm of the family structure and the family structure is an iconic archetype of the divine relationship.
This is why the command to honor father and mother is included in the Law of God, and why obedience is tied to inheritance. It is why disobedience to parents is included as among the horrors of a universe in rebellion against God. (Rom. 1:30) This is why a man who will not provide for his family is worse than an unbeliever. These are not mere social controls of a patriarchal society. The breakdown of the iconic family honor is indicative of a larger revolt against the archetypal nature and character of God. Disharmony between parents and children is not simply a cultural problem; it implicitly pictures a false gospel of a Father who does not hear His Son, and a Son who does not honor His Father.
Family Conflict as Spiritual Conflict
Only when we step back and get a view of the big picture of the mystery of Christ behind the family do we understand something of why family disorder is always with us, in every age. Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:10 that the mystery of the Christ/church union is a sign of the “manifold wisdom of God” that is now made known to the “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” It is no accident that Paul writes of marriage in Eph. 5 and children in Eph. 6 in the context of an ongoing discussion of spiritual warfare. (4:14-6:20)
It is no accident that the Serpent’s strategies turn to disrupting the peace of the marital covenant, the integrity of the sexual union, of the parent/child bond, and of the church as the household of God. These are icons of the mystery of Christ, visible images of the gospel. The spiritual conflict aspect of the family is also why the Scripture places such a close tie between family breakdown and idolatry and occultism. This warfare again and again involves the slaughter of children in an attempt to snuff out the line of the messiah and destroy His iconic image. This cosmic rage against the family order is decidedly personal. Proverbs speaks of the pull toward a man who destroys his family through adultery as one who is lead as an animal to the slaughter. (5-7) In forbidding an “unequal yoke” relationship, Paul does not refer to the implications of such a union, first of all, for a couple’s intimacy or the difficulties in childrearing. He ask instead, “What accord has Christ with Belial?” (2 Cor. 6:15) I could go on and on, but the point is that the battle over the family is a battle over the very image of God.
Conflict Resolution
The good news is, like every other aspect of the fall, the curse that tears asunder the family order is absorbed by Jesus, who reconciles the universe “by the blood of His cross.” (Col. 1:20) After absorbing in His body the full measure of the curse against our sin, Jesus raised to announce to the women at his tomb, “Go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and Your God.” (John 21:17) He establishes a community, a household, a family. And as the gospel goes forward through the ages and the nations, He and His bride are fruitful and multiply, and the icon of the mystery of Christ is brought to fullness.
And so we are not surprised when the fallen creation is repulsed by the family order. It pictures Christ for them. They will ask us to deify sex and reject gender, but we will not give up on a culture because they have twisted the family order. The darkness does not overcome the light. (John 1:5)
If the family is under attack by spiritual forces, then the ultimate antidote for hurting families is for churches to offer what frightens and depresses those forces the most: Jesus Christ. We must live the gospel, not as though it were for unbelievers only, but as a comprehensive storyline for life. We must ask if the divorce culture and adultery crisis in our churches is the result if the false image of God in our own lives. This means that family issues must be seen not only as moral issues but as gospel issues - because they have everything to do with God’s pronouncement of Christ and they present a picture of the very Godhead. This means our evangelism and discipleship must be extended to include instruction on how to proclaim the gospel through kept wedding vows and discipled children. This, I believe will mean intentional one-on-one discipleship. Men in our congregation must take responsibility for the discipleship of our boys and young men. Women in our congregation must take responsibility for the discipleship of our girls and young women. Parents taking up their role as the primary spiritual influence in the lives of their children.
Again, I could go on and on, but let our hearts be challenged and encouraged that our families serve as iconic pictures of the nature and character of God.
We spent last weekend at the Love and Respect Conference, where we heard some great teaching on marriage. It got me thinking about how far our so called convictions and teachings (as believers in general) are from our practice. Scripture calls us to a counter-cultural life, as we live out the Word of God and stand for truth where culture violates it.
The question is, where does this attack from culture come from, and how do we face it as believers? If we are to really create a counter-culture that preserves the biblical definition of the family, we must first recognize that culture has not changed in this area as much as we think, and that we have changed more than we would like to admit. We need to be careful not to see the family crisis as a completely new development, or as the result of blind cultural trends.
A Fundamental Attack
Scripture presents a picture of the family as constantly under attack. Family crisis did not begin with cable TV and the culture wars that surround the family are not chiefly the result of Hollywood or Capitol Hill. We need to see through the symptoms to the cause in order to find its antidote.
What we find in the larger context of Scripture is not simply a cultural shift, but an exposure of our own timidity and cultural accommodation. We see why the family is extremely significant as an iconic representations of Christ, His Church, and His Gospel.
In order to rightly understand the family chaos, we must distinguish between what is “from the beginning” and thus created good, and what is the result of the fall. The fall did not just result in individual sin and separation from God, but a disruption in the fabric of creation - including the family relationships established in the garden. In fact, the most immediate disruption in the peace of the garden was the alienation of the one-flesh union of man and woman, as they experienced nakedness and shame in one another’s presence (even before God came an announced the curse). The curse that comes upends every aspect of the calling on humankind.
Adam denies his leadership role and blames God and Eve for his sin.
The woman’s vocation as mother of all now includes pain and anguish in childbirth.
The man’s vocation as the tiller of the ground to bring forth bread for his family now includes toil and sorrow.
The marriage union now includes disharmony and rivalry - resulting in insecurity, guilt and suspicion.
The fruitful and multiply command results not just in new life, but fratricide (brother killing brother in Gen. 4:1-16).
The family chaos is traced by the biblical account East of Eden, through polygamy, rape, violence, blackmail, reproductive transgression to the dishonoring of Noah, the patriarch of the new creation by his own son in Gen. 9:18-27. We see a repeated cycle of family deceit, sibling rivalry, inheritance skirmishes and it becomes clear that the peace of the divine union has been utterly compromised by the fall.
The Christ Perspective
When the Pharisees seek to trap Jesus with a question about divorce, He indicts them for failing to understand the Alpha-point of the story. They start with the consequences of the fall, the Mosaic provisions for divorce, missing that it was not so “in the beginning.” (Matt. 9:1-12)
When the Sadducces seek to trap Jesus with a question about marriage, He indicts them for failing to understand the Omega-point of the story. They start with the consequences of the fall, death and the law that a man should marry his brother’s widow if she has no children, missing the reality of what it will be when human existence reaches its resurrection goal of a new creation. (Mark 12-18-27)
They are veiled to the reality of Christ and so they are veiled to the mystery of Christ in the family order. The gospel of Christ is the key to understanding the meaning of all reality, as we have seen so vividly in the Truth Project. Paul announces in Ephesians that God “in all wisdom and insight” has made known the “mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth,” and that God “raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Christ is the prototype of unity and submission.
Husband and Wife
One key aspect of understanding this created good mystery is that the family structure is not an arbitrary expression of the will of God. It is an archetype, an icon of God’s purpose for the universe in Christ. Our text from Ephesians on marriage makes no sense if it is presented as self-help advice for a happier, healthier marriage. It is part of a larger argument regarding the mystery of Christ that was not revealed to the generations before, that the Genesis 2 mandate to leave and cleave is a mystery that “refers to Christ and the church.” (Eph. 5:31-32)
The husband/wife union is a visible icon of the Christ/church union; a union in which, as a head with his body, Jesus is inseparable from His bride, a bride He protects, provides for, leads, disciples, and sanctifies. Male headship is not indicative of hierarchy or value, but is iconic, pointing to the purpose of the creation. It is not raw sovereignty, but covenantal love that reflects the love of Christ for His bride. The Ephesians text says that the husband loves, “as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” (5:25)
Female respect is not indicative of hierarchy or value, but is likewise iconic, pointing to the purpose of the creation. The headship she honors is not raw sovereignty, but covenantal love. She does so not because she is somehow less dignified than he, but precisely because she is a model, a picture of an assembly that is pursued, protected, led by a spirit-honoring King. Thus, “as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should honor their husbands in everything.” (Eph. 5:24)
Children
The children of the husband/wife union and the interplay between parents and children are also archetypal and Christological. The command to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth, is an icon fulfilled in Christ in the Omega-point of the story when He stands triumphant before His Father and announces, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.” (Heb. 2:13)
The love between the Father and the Son is incarnated. The universe is built around the Father’s joy in bestowing upon His Son and inheritance (Ps.2 :7-8), a great name (Phil. 2:9-11), and the glory of the firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8;29).
The command for fathers to lead, protect, provide for and discipline their children, again, is not arbitrary. It is because the human fatherhood is an icon of the divine fatherhood. (Heb. 12:5-11) Human fathers are to train their children to trust and obey precisely because that is what our heavenly Father does. (Matt. 6:10) Humans fathers are to bring forth bread from the land for their families because God does so. (Matt. 6:11) Human fathers guard their children from evil threats because God does so. (Matt. 6:13) The divine Father/Son relationship is a paradigm of the family structure and the family structure is an iconic archetype of the divine relationship.
This is why the command to honor father and mother is included in the Law of God, and why obedience is tied to inheritance. It is why disobedience to parents is included as among the horrors of a universe in rebellion against God. (Rom. 1:30) This is why a man who will not provide for his family is worse than an unbeliever. These are not mere social controls of a patriarchal society. The breakdown of the iconic family honor is indicative of a larger revolt against the archetypal nature and character of God. Disharmony between parents and children is not simply a cultural problem; it implicitly pictures a false gospel of a Father who does not hear His Son, and a Son who does not honor His Father.
Family Conflict as Spiritual Conflict
Only when we step back and get a view of the big picture of the mystery of Christ behind the family do we understand something of why family disorder is always with us, in every age. Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:10 that the mystery of the Christ/church union is a sign of the “manifold wisdom of God” that is now made known to the “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” It is no accident that Paul writes of marriage in Eph. 5 and children in Eph. 6 in the context of an ongoing discussion of spiritual warfare. (4:14-6:20)
It is no accident that the Serpent’s strategies turn to disrupting the peace of the marital covenant, the integrity of the sexual union, of the parent/child bond, and of the church as the household of God. These are icons of the mystery of Christ, visible images of the gospel. The spiritual conflict aspect of the family is also why the Scripture places such a close tie between family breakdown and idolatry and occultism. This warfare again and again involves the slaughter of children in an attempt to snuff out the line of the messiah and destroy His iconic image. This cosmic rage against the family order is decidedly personal. Proverbs speaks of the pull toward a man who destroys his family through adultery as one who is lead as an animal to the slaughter. (5-7) In forbidding an “unequal yoke” relationship, Paul does not refer to the implications of such a union, first of all, for a couple’s intimacy or the difficulties in childrearing. He ask instead, “What accord has Christ with Belial?” (2 Cor. 6:15) I could go on and on, but the point is that the battle over the family is a battle over the very image of God.
Conflict Resolution
The good news is, like every other aspect of the fall, the curse that tears asunder the family order is absorbed by Jesus, who reconciles the universe “by the blood of His cross.” (Col. 1:20) After absorbing in His body the full measure of the curse against our sin, Jesus raised to announce to the women at his tomb, “Go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and Your God.” (John 21:17) He establishes a community, a household, a family. And as the gospel goes forward through the ages and the nations, He and His bride are fruitful and multiply, and the icon of the mystery of Christ is brought to fullness.
And so we are not surprised when the fallen creation is repulsed by the family order. It pictures Christ for them. They will ask us to deify sex and reject gender, but we will not give up on a culture because they have twisted the family order. The darkness does not overcome the light. (John 1:5)
If the family is under attack by spiritual forces, then the ultimate antidote for hurting families is for churches to offer what frightens and depresses those forces the most: Jesus Christ. We must live the gospel, not as though it were for unbelievers only, but as a comprehensive storyline for life. We must ask if the divorce culture and adultery crisis in our churches is the result if the false image of God in our own lives. This means that family issues must be seen not only as moral issues but as gospel issues - because they have everything to do with God’s pronouncement of Christ and they present a picture of the very Godhead. This means our evangelism and discipleship must be extended to include instruction on how to proclaim the gospel through kept wedding vows and discipled children. This, I believe will mean intentional one-on-one discipleship. Men in our congregation must take responsibility for the discipleship of our boys and young men. Women in our congregation must take responsibility for the discipleship of our girls and young women. Parents taking up their role as the primary spiritual influence in the lives of their children.
Again, I could go on and on, but let our hearts be challenged and encouraged that our families serve as iconic pictures of the nature and character of God.
Monday, September 29, 2008
The House of Jethro: Integrity, Insight, Imitation, Intensity
As Moses sat there by that well, he had no idea of what God had in store for him. He must have thought his life was ruined, finished, over. Yet God was getting ready to take him from the house of Pharaoh to the house of Jethro, from the house of a king, to the house of a priest. In the house of the priest of Midian, Moses would find wholeness, a picture of what God had planned for his future, and his feet on holy ground.
It is no accident that whenever God is getting ready to do something extraordinary in the life of someone, they often have to go through a time of great trial and often "hit bottom." There is no saying why this is for sure. I suspect it has something to do with humility and understanding grace, and the fact that God chooses the least things of this world to make the greatest in the Kingdom. I am sure if we asked Abraham, David, Peter, Paul, or Moses for that matter, they would tell us about coming to understand our dependence on God and that it has to do with God getting all of the glory for what He is about to do. Whatever God's purpose for doing it, He most often does, and this is where Moses finds himself.
Here is our hero, Moses, feeling scared, alone, tired, and desperate. But God was not through with him yet. In fact, he was right where God wanted him. As Moses sat there by that well, the seven daughters of Jethro, the priest of a nomadic Midian tribe, came to water their flocks. Like any desperate man, he helped the ladies out, fighting off shepherds who tried to run them off and then drawing water for them. Is this a great story or what? The daughters went home and told their father about the stranger at the well and he sent for Moses to come and eat with them. I love the Bible right here. "Moses was willing to dwell with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses. Then she gave birth to a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, 'I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.'"
Let's not call it a comeback yet, but God has a way of putting us in a better place. Jethro was a wise man, and in his house Moses learned contentment. Moses would spend the next forty years tending the sheep of Jethro. During this time, he grew close to God. He learned to have integrity and found wholeness in his life. Moses matured as he fought off the wild beast and protected the sheep in the desert. He found a context for his life and most importantly, he found his heart in his wife Zipporah and his two sons.
Meanwhile, the Israelites were crying out because of their suffering, and the king who had made them slaves died. God heard them and purposed to keep the covenant He had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to make them a great nation and give them a land of their own. As Moses was becoming what God created and called him to be, God was developing a picture of his future for him to see. It was time for Moses to learn insight.
We all know that while Moses was tending sheep near Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, he saw a bush burning but not being consumed. The Bible says that the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. Moses saw unbelievable circumstances but he did not yet see God. He lacked vision, divine perspective, purpose, and plan. Seeing this, God called to him.
"Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said also, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Exodus 3:4–6
Moses was about to get a clear picture of what God had planned for his future.
The LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt."
Exodus 3:7–10
There is a lot to learn here about vision and how it works. First, God saw the need of His people. It did not matter that forty years before Moses had seen the need of his people. It is all about what God’s perspective and timing.
Second, God makes it clear that He has come to deliver His people from the power of the Egyptians. He is not calling Moses to set them free. We have to be careful to not take on God's role in fulfilling His plan.
I do not believe that Moses responded with false humility or lack of faith. I believe he simply remembered vividly the circumstances that caused him to leave Egypt. When Moses sincerely asked God, "Who am I?" it is in this wonderful moment that Moses learns the value of imitation. God says, "It does not matter who you are, I am with you." I love how God goes back to the vision to confirm for Moses that He will be with him. "But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain." You will know that I am with you because when you are done doing what I have called you to do, you will worship Me right here!
Moses rightly understands that he did not have influence with his people any longer because he lacked integrity before them in the past. He asked a legitimate question, "Under what authority do I tell them I come? In whose name do I go, for I cannot go in my own name?"
God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations."
Exodus 3:14–15
Only through imitation does Moses have credibility with the people to lead them from where they are to where God wants them to be. It was not Moses, but God with Moses. Moses will not say, "Let my people God." The Lord will say it. It is in the name of God and by His authority that Moses will do battle with Pharaoh. Now God speaks with the intensity of that battle, giving Moses a sense of urgency about what God has called him to do.
Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, "The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, 'I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.'" And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God." But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. Exodus 3:16–20
Here we see God give Moses those three essential elements of intensity. First, God empowers Moses and the children of Israel for the battle by giving them an assurance that He has seen their suffering and that He will act accordingly. God rightly evaluates the current reality, giving them the power of the intensity of their circumstances.
Second, God prepares the people for what He is about to do by giving them a promise for the future. God knew the people would need to be encouraged in order to persevere through the battle. So, He gives them a clear picture of what He has planned for their future in order to prepare them for battle.
Finally, God gives them a plan of attack. He tells them not only what He is going to do for them, but exactly how He is going to use them to do it. "This is what you will do, this is what he will do, then, this is what I will do and this is what will happen! I will work all things for good to those who love me and are called according to My purpose."
It is no accident that whenever God is getting ready to do something extraordinary in the life of someone, they often have to go through a time of great trial and often "hit bottom." There is no saying why this is for sure. I suspect it has something to do with humility and understanding grace, and the fact that God chooses the least things of this world to make the greatest in the Kingdom. I am sure if we asked Abraham, David, Peter, Paul, or Moses for that matter, they would tell us about coming to understand our dependence on God and that it has to do with God getting all of the glory for what He is about to do. Whatever God's purpose for doing it, He most often does, and this is where Moses finds himself.
Here is our hero, Moses, feeling scared, alone, tired, and desperate. But God was not through with him yet. In fact, he was right where God wanted him. As Moses sat there by that well, the seven daughters of Jethro, the priest of a nomadic Midian tribe, came to water their flocks. Like any desperate man, he helped the ladies out, fighting off shepherds who tried to run them off and then drawing water for them. Is this a great story or what? The daughters went home and told their father about the stranger at the well and he sent for Moses to come and eat with them. I love the Bible right here. "Moses was willing to dwell with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses. Then she gave birth to a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, 'I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.'"
Let's not call it a comeback yet, but God has a way of putting us in a better place. Jethro was a wise man, and in his house Moses learned contentment. Moses would spend the next forty years tending the sheep of Jethro. During this time, he grew close to God. He learned to have integrity and found wholeness in his life. Moses matured as he fought off the wild beast and protected the sheep in the desert. He found a context for his life and most importantly, he found his heart in his wife Zipporah and his two sons.
Meanwhile, the Israelites were crying out because of their suffering, and the king who had made them slaves died. God heard them and purposed to keep the covenant He had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to make them a great nation and give them a land of their own. As Moses was becoming what God created and called him to be, God was developing a picture of his future for him to see. It was time for Moses to learn insight.
We all know that while Moses was tending sheep near Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, he saw a bush burning but not being consumed. The Bible says that the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. Moses saw unbelievable circumstances but he did not yet see God. He lacked vision, divine perspective, purpose, and plan. Seeing this, God called to him.
"Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He said also, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Exodus 3:4–6
Moses was about to get a clear picture of what God had planned for his future.
The LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt."
Exodus 3:7–10
There is a lot to learn here about vision and how it works. First, God saw the need of His people. It did not matter that forty years before Moses had seen the need of his people. It is all about what God’s perspective and timing.
Second, God makes it clear that He has come to deliver His people from the power of the Egyptians. He is not calling Moses to set them free. We have to be careful to not take on God's role in fulfilling His plan.
I do not believe that Moses responded with false humility or lack of faith. I believe he simply remembered vividly the circumstances that caused him to leave Egypt. When Moses sincerely asked God, "Who am I?" it is in this wonderful moment that Moses learns the value of imitation. God says, "It does not matter who you are, I am with you." I love how God goes back to the vision to confirm for Moses that He will be with him. "But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain." You will know that I am with you because when you are done doing what I have called you to do, you will worship Me right here!
Moses rightly understands that he did not have influence with his people any longer because he lacked integrity before them in the past. He asked a legitimate question, "Under what authority do I tell them I come? In whose name do I go, for I cannot go in my own name?"
God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations."
Exodus 3:14–15
Only through imitation does Moses have credibility with the people to lead them from where they are to where God wants them to be. It was not Moses, but God with Moses. Moses will not say, "Let my people God." The Lord will say it. It is in the name of God and by His authority that Moses will do battle with Pharaoh. Now God speaks with the intensity of that battle, giving Moses a sense of urgency about what God has called him to do.
Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, "The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, 'I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.'" And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God." But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. Exodus 3:16–20
Here we see God give Moses those three essential elements of intensity. First, God empowers Moses and the children of Israel for the battle by giving them an assurance that He has seen their suffering and that He will act accordingly. God rightly evaluates the current reality, giving them the power of the intensity of their circumstances.
Second, God prepares the people for what He is about to do by giving them a promise for the future. God knew the people would need to be encouraged in order to persevere through the battle. So, He gives them a clear picture of what He has planned for their future in order to prepare them for battle.
Finally, God gives them a plan of attack. He tells them not only what He is going to do for them, but exactly how He is going to use them to do it. "This is what you will do, this is what he will do, then, this is what I will do and this is what will happen! I will work all things for good to those who love me and are called according to My purpose."
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
MOSES: A Legacy Model
We are all familiar with the epic narrative of the life of Moses that runs throughout four books of the Old Testament, from Exodus through Deuteronomy. His story is one that is rich with wisdom and adventure. However, as a leader, there is no one who parallels Moses. From the most humble of beginnings, God brought Moses to a place where he was the most influential person in the Old Testament. J. Oswald Sanders wrote in his book Spiritual Leadership that “God's greatest gifts to Israel, better than the land itself, were men such as Moses and David and Isaiah. God's greatest gifts are always men; His greatest endowment to the church was the gift of twelve men trained for leadership.”
There is so much more of value in Moses' life than we could ever hope to cover here. However, we can look at the life of Moses simply as a model of the kind of legacy leadership that we have been discussing. The best way to accomplish this task is to look at Moses’ life along three natural breaks, which loosely represent the stages of influence, impact, and legacy as I have laid them. Moses was 120 years old when he died on Mount Nebo, and his life can be measured by three forty-year segments.
The House of Pharaoh: Standard and Influence
The story opens in Egypt, where Jacob and his family had settled and lived for four hundred years. In the thirteenth century BCE, a new Pharaoh came to power in Egypt who was a great builder, but who had no respect for the Hebrew people. In order to build his great cities, he made the Hebrew people slaves and put them to work in forced labor camps. He feared they would revolt against him because they became great in number, so he ordered that every male infant be killed at birth.
Moses was born to Amram and Jochebed, who were from the line of priests called Levites. We know how Moses was saved by being hidden for three months and then being floated down the river in a basket. Pharaoh's daughter found Moses and had him fished out of the river. She felt sorry for him and decided to keep him. So, Moses grew up as the adopted son of the Pharaoh. However, Moses was always aware of his true heritage as a Hebrew because God made a way for his mother to be his nurse and to raise him in the house of Pharaoh. This is all-important to us because this is the context in which God established a standard of excellence in Moses' life and gave him influence.
Moses spent the first forty years of his life living in one of the great societies of human history. Living in the house of Pharaoh, he was trained in language, art, law, engineering, and all of the sciences of his day. Having been raised by his Levite mother, he was instructed in the heritage of the Hebrew people and nurtured in a love for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is why the idea of generational faithfulness was so important to Moses, as we read in Deuteronomy 6.
Moses was being given the foundational preparation that He would need to become who God had created and called him to be. However, though he had a position of influence as a member of the house of Pharaoh and was a person of influence among his own people, he was not yet ready to have the impact that God intended for him to have. In fact, in Exodus 2:11–12, we read how Moses tried to use his position to take matters into his own hands. "Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand."
In the very next verse, we see that Moses again tried to use his persona to take matters into his own hands. "He went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender, 'Why are you striking your companion?'" Though Moses had been raised to live up to a standard that called him to defend and lead his people, he did not yet have the integrity and insight to do so. Though he had been given a position of authority, the rest of the passage reveals that his lack of integrity and vision had caused him to not walk in a manner worthy of his calling. "But he said, 'Who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?' Then Moses was afraid and said, 'Surely the matter has become known.' When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well."
Despite the advantages of what God had done in his life to this point, Moses lacked integrity, vision and a godly life. This did not produce a life of impact and legacy, but one of fear, fleeing, and loneliness.
There is so much more of value in Moses' life than we could ever hope to cover here. However, we can look at the life of Moses simply as a model of the kind of legacy leadership that we have been discussing. The best way to accomplish this task is to look at Moses’ life along three natural breaks, which loosely represent the stages of influence, impact, and legacy as I have laid them. Moses was 120 years old when he died on Mount Nebo, and his life can be measured by three forty-year segments.
The House of Pharaoh: Standard and Influence
The story opens in Egypt, where Jacob and his family had settled and lived for four hundred years. In the thirteenth century BCE, a new Pharaoh came to power in Egypt who was a great builder, but who had no respect for the Hebrew people. In order to build his great cities, he made the Hebrew people slaves and put them to work in forced labor camps. He feared they would revolt against him because they became great in number, so he ordered that every male infant be killed at birth.
Moses was born to Amram and Jochebed, who were from the line of priests called Levites. We know how Moses was saved by being hidden for three months and then being floated down the river in a basket. Pharaoh's daughter found Moses and had him fished out of the river. She felt sorry for him and decided to keep him. So, Moses grew up as the adopted son of the Pharaoh. However, Moses was always aware of his true heritage as a Hebrew because God made a way for his mother to be his nurse and to raise him in the house of Pharaoh. This is all-important to us because this is the context in which God established a standard of excellence in Moses' life and gave him influence.
Moses spent the first forty years of his life living in one of the great societies of human history. Living in the house of Pharaoh, he was trained in language, art, law, engineering, and all of the sciences of his day. Having been raised by his Levite mother, he was instructed in the heritage of the Hebrew people and nurtured in a love for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is why the idea of generational faithfulness was so important to Moses, as we read in Deuteronomy 6.
Moses was being given the foundational preparation that He would need to become who God had created and called him to be. However, though he had a position of influence as a member of the house of Pharaoh and was a person of influence among his own people, he was not yet ready to have the impact that God intended for him to have. In fact, in Exodus 2:11–12, we read how Moses tried to use his position to take matters into his own hands. "Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand."
In the very next verse, we see that Moses again tried to use his persona to take matters into his own hands. "He went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender, 'Why are you striking your companion?'" Though Moses had been raised to live up to a standard that called him to defend and lead his people, he did not yet have the integrity and insight to do so. Though he had been given a position of authority, the rest of the passage reveals that his lack of integrity and vision had caused him to not walk in a manner worthy of his calling. "But he said, 'Who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?' Then Moses was afraid and said, 'Surely the matter has become known.' When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well."
Despite the advantages of what God had done in his life to this point, Moses lacked integrity, vision and a godly life. This did not produce a life of impact and legacy, but one of fear, fleeing, and loneliness.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Leading A Legacy
We are called to be spiritual leaders in whatever sphere of influence we may live. Whether we are at school, at work, at home, on the soccer field, or at church, God calls us to be examples of those who believe. It is clear from this calling that God has a purpose for our being here and particularly for our leadership. As a result, I believe our leadership should move beyond influence to having a lasting spiritual impact by becoming spiritual leaders who are not trying to use their influence to get things done, but spiritual leaders who are willing to say with Paul, "follow me as I follow Christ." Our spiritual leadership should move from the level of impact to that of legacy as we intentionally pass on what we have received to those who come behind us, for the purpose of passing it on to others. God has called us all to use our influence for His kingdom, and not just use our influence, but to use it in a way that makes a lasting impact in peoples lives, an impact that is generational and leaves a legacy. He has given us clear principles for living that kind of life in His revelation of His own nature and character, the Bible.
The idea is simple. We have true spiritual influence in the lives of the people around us when we make Christ the only standard of excellence in our lives and we answer the call of God to be examples of what a believer should look like. However, that influence is short-lived and only has a lasting impact when people see us moving from where we are to where God wants us to be. That maturing process is marked by several characteristics. First, we must have integrity in our lives and in our relationships to others. Second, we must demonstrate insight into the purpose and plan of God. Third, our walk must be characterized by the nature and character of Christ as we give ourselves to being imitators of Christ. Finally, that walk should have an intensity to it that reflects the reality that we are engaged in a spiritual warfare of epic and eternal proportions. When our leadership takes on that quality and character, we are ready to lead generationally. That means that our influence will not only have impact, but it will leave a legacy of faithfulness long after we are gone.
One great test of leadership is how well a leader's legacy continues after they leave. Unless we are intentional about developing leaders, it will not happen. This is evident in the well-documented drop-out rates among Christian teens. Some seventy percent of students who grew up active in a student ministry in the United States over the past ten years have left the church without any real indication that they intend to return. These are our church kids, our core group. If we are not raising leaders for the next generation in our churches and in our Christian homes, then we are not going to leave a lasting spiritual legacy. Therefore, we are not fulfilling our role as spiritual leaders. One way that I try to be intentional about developing leaders is through personal discipleship. My primary role as a discipler is to be the primary spiritual influence in the lives of my children. My wife and I, with the help of our church, make an annual plan for the spiritual development of our children. We work to implement that plan each year and expand it as they grow and mature. The main focus is to prepare them to be spiritual leaders even when I am around.
I also work to maintain what is called a Barnabas, Paul, Timothy model of spiritual multiplication. The idea is to have a more mature believer who is mentoring me and speaking into my life spiritually. I like to have two or three of these because I need a lot of work. We do not always meet in a formal discipleship format, but these older men simply pour into me what they have been receiving from God in their own lives, and holding me accountable. In turn, I try to keep about three younger believers into whose life I am speaking. I try to disciple and mentor them. Some are more formal than others, but I mostly try to give them resources and pour into them what God has been pouring into me. That is why I see my life as investing in the lives of those who invest in the lives of others. It is because I believe so strongly in this spiritual multiplication process. This is the model of leadership throughout Scripture and the natural result of our becoming what God created and called us to be.
The idea is simple. We have true spiritual influence in the lives of the people around us when we make Christ the only standard of excellence in our lives and we answer the call of God to be examples of what a believer should look like. However, that influence is short-lived and only has a lasting impact when people see us moving from where we are to where God wants us to be. That maturing process is marked by several characteristics. First, we must have integrity in our lives and in our relationships to others. Second, we must demonstrate insight into the purpose and plan of God. Third, our walk must be characterized by the nature and character of Christ as we give ourselves to being imitators of Christ. Finally, that walk should have an intensity to it that reflects the reality that we are engaged in a spiritual warfare of epic and eternal proportions. When our leadership takes on that quality and character, we are ready to lead generationally. That means that our influence will not only have impact, but it will leave a legacy of faithfulness long after we are gone.
One great test of leadership is how well a leader's legacy continues after they leave. Unless we are intentional about developing leaders, it will not happen. This is evident in the well-documented drop-out rates among Christian teens. Some seventy percent of students who grew up active in a student ministry in the United States over the past ten years have left the church without any real indication that they intend to return. These are our church kids, our core group. If we are not raising leaders for the next generation in our churches and in our Christian homes, then we are not going to leave a lasting spiritual legacy. Therefore, we are not fulfilling our role as spiritual leaders. One way that I try to be intentional about developing leaders is through personal discipleship. My primary role as a discipler is to be the primary spiritual influence in the lives of my children. My wife and I, with the help of our church, make an annual plan for the spiritual development of our children. We work to implement that plan each year and expand it as they grow and mature. The main focus is to prepare them to be spiritual leaders even when I am around.
I also work to maintain what is called a Barnabas, Paul, Timothy model of spiritual multiplication. The idea is to have a more mature believer who is mentoring me and speaking into my life spiritually. I like to have two or three of these because I need a lot of work. We do not always meet in a formal discipleship format, but these older men simply pour into me what they have been receiving from God in their own lives, and holding me accountable. In turn, I try to keep about three younger believers into whose life I am speaking. I try to disciple and mentor them. Some are more formal than others, but I mostly try to give them resources and pour into them what God has been pouring into me. That is why I see my life as investing in the lives of those who invest in the lives of others. It is because I believe so strongly in this spiritual multiplication process. This is the model of leadership throughout Scripture and the natural result of our becoming what God created and called us to be.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Spiritual Training in the Home
The following is a link to a brief discussion by one of America's best known pastors about how he approaches spiritual training in the home. You should take the time to listen because it is a great encouragement.
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/MediaPlayer/3208/Audio/
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/MediaPlayer/3208/Audio/
Friday, September 12, 2008
Expanding the Bogging Universe
I am doing my part to expand the blogging universe!
I have been invited to write a series of guest blogs for my good friend Ty Neal. Ty is the Families Ministry Pastor @ Grace Point Church in North Las Vegas, NV and I have known Ty for almost 10 years and have seen him grow in Christ since his conversion. He was a member of our church in Kentucky and is one of my dearest brothers in Christ.
Ty has just recently entered into the blogusphere and he has asked me to write a series of posts on Leaving a Leagacy. The series will be about 5 posts over the next couple of weeks. I will send the first one today titled Leading A Legacy. I encourage you to check out Ty's blog and look for my post.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Pictures from Legacy Student Leaders Conference
The Conference Room at Morningview Baptsit Church 
Anthony is ready to register participants.
Conference leaders fellowship in the Blue Room
Conference Participants gather in anticipation 
Four Days Late leads a time of worship.
Steve Wright leads the first session.
Conference participants listen and discuss.
Reid leads session two.
Randy Stinson leads the final session of the day.
See more snapshots on Reid's facebook page!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Circle of Champions
Students, faculty, administrators, political candidates, parents, and fans filed into the Kiwanis building in Andalusia as area seniors were celebrated in a night filled with music and fun. Every team in the county was in attendance except for Andalusia High School. 
The evening started with an inspiring message from Covington County Superintendant Sharon Dye who spoke of achieving greatness not only in athletics, but in life. Dye was followed by Program23's Newton Peters who announced the seniors from Florala, Opp, Pleasant Home, Red Level, and Straughn as their football players, cheerleaders and band members were called down front and recognized. Florala and Red Level's bands were both in attendance and played their teams fight songs and their respective cheer teams performed. Each Cheer squad performed a routine and then the seniors were announced.
A short video clip was displayed between each school to help in exciting the players as back ground music filled the arena. After the five schools were finished Peters announced the first ever pre-season Program23 All County Team and the preseason coach.
Reid Ward from Troy, Alabama delivered a challenging message to all the athletes and seniors in attendance after several songs were performed by a local praise and workshop team. Ward's message was inspiration and directed to give the athletes a clear message about sports and life.
The evening started with an inspiring message from Covington County Superintendant Sharon Dye who spoke of achieving greatness not only in athletics, but in life. Dye was followed by Program23's Newton Peters who announced the seniors from Florala, Opp, Pleasant Home, Red Level, and Straughn as their football players, cheerleaders and band members were called down front and recognized. Florala and Red Level's bands were both in attendance and played their teams fight songs and their respective cheer teams performed. Each Cheer squad performed a routine and then the seniors were announced.
A short video clip was displayed between each school to help in exciting the players as back ground music filled the arena. After the five schools were finished Peters announced the first ever pre-season Program23 All County Team and the preseason coach.
Reid Ward from Troy, Alabama delivered a challenging message to all the athletes and seniors in attendance after several songs were performed by a local praise and workshop team. Ward's message was inspiration and directed to give the athletes a clear message about sports and life.
Monday, August 18, 2008
What might God do?
We are very excited about the Legacy Student Leaders Conference and all that God might do as a result. The conferecne went well and I beleive we accomplished most of what we set out to do. More importantly, I pray God will accomplish all that He desires through the conference. We had a good crowd and I thought it was a wonderful day. I had one participant tell me it was the best conference they had been to in a long time and people are already requesting audio and video to share with Sunday School classes, parents and to post online. Stay on the look out for pictures and clips in the near future. Here is a taste of what I talked about at the conference.
How do we define success?
Leading isn’t easy, whether it is at home, in the community, or in the church. Leadership requires a standard of excellence (an example by which we measure success), it requires influence (the ability to move people from where they are to where God wants them to be), integrity (the moral character that allows our influence to make an impact over time), insight (the ability to see a picture of what God has promised), imitation (a walk that follows Christ), intensity (the urgency of spiritual battle), and purpose (clear understanding of why we lead and where we lead).
Our discussion today will center on the question begged by the first point, How do we define success? For over two generations in student ministry we have defined success in a deceptive way. Now we have a long track record and we are able to step back and measure our fruit. Steve has pointed out to us the stark reality of the crisis we face. We live in a time of spiritual crisis when most believers fail to apply biblical teaching to their life in a way that produces biblical living. Students are biblically illiterate and graduating from church, youth ministers are dropping out of ministry, and parents are abdicating their biblical role as primary spiritual leaders. All the while, we adopt a worldly, reactionary approach that essentially says be creative and throw more money at it.
As the family goes, so goes the future of the church. We know that to be true, the Bible emphasizes it, and our enemy certainly acts upon the principle in his attack on the church. Religious life in the home is the most influential spiritual element in a person’s life.
Yet, religious life in the home is nearly extinct. And how much time and resources are we investing to make the home the primary place where faith is nurtured. I believe it is time for the church to return to the biblical model of generational faithfulness we see in the Old Testament patriarchal system and in the New Testament communal discipleship system.
Generational Faithfulness: is the idea of passing down one’s spiritual heritage from one generation to the next as a means of continuing — or beginning, as the case may be — a legacy of God-honoring, Christ-serving, kingdom-advancing faithfulness.
We have poured ourselves into entertaining and educational programs that do little to equip parents for generational faithfulness and have created an enablement, drop-off mentality where parents are actually encouraged to abdicate their biblical role as spiritual leaders.
George Barna says, in Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions, “The local church should be an intimate and valuable partner in the effort to raise the coming generation of Christ’s followers and church leaders, but it is the parents whom God will hold primarily accountable for the spiritual maturation of their children.” How many of our churches reflect that reality?
Unfortunately, this is most often not the case. We are not an intimate and valuable partner and we do not view or hold parents as primary.
What do we do and how do we do it?
There are better people than me to convince you that a problem exist in terms of how we do youth and family ministry, and to convince you that something should be done. I find myself focusing on the question, what can we do about it?
God has begun a movement across this country to return to a more biblical vision of how the two primary institutions that God has established in the Bible , the family in Genesis and the church in Acts, ought to work together. God may be calling you to be a part of this movement, as He did with me in February of 2007, but one thing is for sure, the change must begin with us.
1. Make Generational Faithfulness the priority of your home -
Making Generational Faithfulness a priority in your own home is the most important thing we can do in response to this issue.
It will fulfill our personal responsibility before God.
It will deepen our passion for the biblical concept.
It will give us fruit to share with our people.
It will greatly benefit the people you lead in that it will strengthen your family spiritually.
The greatest blessing for your church will be the benefit you and your family receive as you lead toward generational faithfulness in your home.
2. Make a personal commitment -
You must be convicted that this is something God is calling you to do. If you are not convicted of this truth, you will not follow through. You can not lead where you are not committed to go and the perseverance to endure the challenges comes only by the work of the Holy Spirit through the conviction of the Word of God.
3. Bring your church leadership on board -
After you begin to lead your own family toward generational faithfulness and you prayerfully consider your personal commitment to this biblical role for the church, then you should prayerfully and appropriately seek to share your conviction and vision with your church leadership.
If you are a pastor, begin to share with your deacons or elders, allow the conviction to come through in your preaching, begin to cast a vision to your staff.
If you are on staff, begin to share your conviction and vision with your pastor, talk with parents and youth leaders.
If you are a volunteer in the youth ministry or a parent continue the conversation with your youth minister and help share the conviction with the other church leadership. Above all, be prayerful, appropriate (honor your leadership) and patient.
4. Rethink your current ministry elements -
Again, we do not have to necessarily eliminate ministry elements or create new programs. This is not a call for a programmatic shift, it is a call for a philosophical shift, a change in vision. We have to ask ourselves, “How can we equip parents and promote generational faithfulness in the home through our existing ministries.”
Think, Plan and Pray from the perspective of the Family - We must submit our programs, ministry elements, schedules and numbers to the biblical model for Generational Faithfulness, which is the church and the family in partnership together. That means we have to think about everything from the perspective of the family (traditional and non-traditional), we have to plan according to the needs of the family, and we have to pray like a family for the family. This may upset our corporate leadership style, but we can not pray for our Youth Ministry or church like a businessman prays for his company. We have to pray for the people and families that make up the family of God.
We can all name young couples we know who have come back to church because they now have kids. Most of our churches understand that children and youth ministries are vital evangelism tools for the church. Far too often that is the only value a church sees in these ministries and it is the only outreach they do. However, far too few churches see children as a tool for the discipleship of parents. As soon as they come in, we separate them from their children and try to usher them into an adult discipleship program. They were motivated to come to church by their children and instead of partnering with that biblical view of the relationship between the family and the church, we inadvertently undermine it.
Ask the right questions -
What process do we have for assimilating families into the church?
Do we have a clear, single point of entry?
Do we deal with families as a unit or as a collection of individuals?
What happens when families go home? What are they taking with them?
What are we doing to encourage generational faithfulness?
How do we help parents disciple their own children?
How do we measure participation instead of attendance?
What are we doing to promote generational faithfulness in non-traditional families?
How are we equipping parents? Ask it about everything -
How does our ministry schedule impact the life of families?
What ministry programs at our church intentionally strengthen families?
Is the teaching youth hear reflective of that which their parents hear?
Do we see parents as our partner in ministry or our worst enemy?
Is the youth ministry connected to the ministry of the church or does it function like a para-church ministry?
Do we work in departmental territorialism or do we work together as a church staff toward a common goal? What is that goal? Is it a biblical goal?
Are we more concerned about building a ministry or developing students?
5. Cast the vision -
The key to any type of leadership is the ability to give a picture of where you are going. God gave Israel a picture of the promised land as one flowing with milk and honey. Have you ever wondered, why they did not just trust God that His promise was better than slavery? If Israel did not just trust God himself, I bet your people will not just trust you either. They need a picture. Parents know that the primary responsibility for the discipleship of their children is theirs.
I just read an article last week where Mark Devries insightfully says, “Parents are often coming from a place of their own need– there’s a lot of fear wrapped up in raising (and discipling) an adolescent. And so they bring this anxiety to the table, and we feel like they are attacking us– the truth is, they have a weight about their own kids that we’ll never feel. They’re going to be worried about their kids 10 years from now in ways that we never will. When parents have that level of commitment, we hope they care enough to raise issues. But sometimes we take that as an attack on us.”
They inherently know and they are looking for help. They just do not see how it is possible. We have to help them see generationally. We all understand the power of habit and tradition. We mostly do not even realize we do things a certain way, we just do them. The same thing is true of the church family as well, we just need to help change the habits and make them traditions.
Look at the big picture here. One family begins to change the culture of their home, as you partner with them to promote generational faithfulness. They begin praying together and doing family devotions. That grows to include family worship, the father disciples his son and the mother her daughter. They begin to do service projects together and worshiping together as a family in church.
Other families see the impact that a commitment to Generational Faithfulness has had in their lives, as they grow closer to God and to each other. They begin to participate in this movement within your church family. Those kids will grow up doing those things themselves and teach those disciplines to their own kids because it will be a normal part of their family life.
You do not have to teach kids foundational truths and discipleship disciplines every generation because they will learn it at home as part of life. It becomes part of the normal culture of your church and people without kids become mentors for single parents and kids without believing parents. What started with one event and one family (possibly yours) could impact multitudes of people for generations to come, leaving a spiritual legacy of God-honoring, Christ-serving, kingdom-advancing children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. An authentic spiritual legacy of faithfulness.
Teach and preach Generational Faithfulness: stir the passions of your people
In order to fight against the cultural norms (even within the church), the families in your church will need to hear a clear, constant and consistent message. You will need to constantly encourage them as they start and stall. You have to consistently hold them accountable for being consistent in the practice of the elements of generational faithfulness. You will have to make it clear at every opportunity that you believe in this and that you are willing to do whatever it takes to help them, but that it is not up to you, they have been given a unique opportunity by God to be the spiritual leader of their children, and to instill genuine faith in their kids.
Show the commitment: time and resources
In most churches, the most influential place of communication is the pulpit. So, we must teach and preach generational faithfulness. However, we can not just talk about it.
One of the most concrete and practical ways that we can communicate the value of generational faithfulness is the example of how we invest our time. How you spend your time and energy will make a statement to the people of your church and to your students - and they will notice.
The second way you emphasize the importance of generational faithfulness is the way you allocate resources. If you put your money where your mouth is, families will do the same. That may mean some other things have to go. We all have limited budgets, but if we invest in quality over quantity we also send strong messages about stewardship and priorities.
6. Take your time: be patient -
There is nothing about the terms generational or faithfulness that speak to the short term. We warn our people about the dangers of our instant gratification culture and then we do church exactly the same way. This is the proverbial marathon, not a sprint. You must make your commitment long term. You may not see results in three months. Attendance numbers may actually go down as participation goes up.
Our current crisis did not happen over night. So we can expect that it will take time to change the mindset of our churches, parents and students. However, we need to begin the process of gradual, peaceful growth and development that will result in a spiritual legacy of generational faithfulness in our churches and in our families. You will have to believe in it! You have to trust that what is biblical is right. You may have to accept by faith (for a time) that it is working. But if we do not start now, we will be enabling the same patterns of destruction to continue in our churches and families, and only multiply the problem. It is time for the church to rise up and make a new commitment to youth and family ministry.
It is not about a quick fix, competitive, numbers driven, pre-packaged, mass-produced, entertainment driven, strategy. It is about having a legacy mindset; developing leaders for the next generation by investing in the lives of those who are leading students spiritually today. It is about seeing things fro God’s perspective and choosing a long-term commitment to generational faithfulness that will produce spiritual fruit for generations. It is about allowing ourselves to be judged by what we leave behind. It is transferable to every context and it proves itself over time.
What matters is getting the reality of the presence of God into the homes of people who come to us for spiritual leadership in a way that allows that reality to be passed from generation to generation, to the glory of God.
How do we define success?
Leading isn’t easy, whether it is at home, in the community, or in the church. Leadership requires a standard of excellence (an example by which we measure success), it requires influence (the ability to move people from where they are to where God wants them to be), integrity (the moral character that allows our influence to make an impact over time), insight (the ability to see a picture of what God has promised), imitation (a walk that follows Christ), intensity (the urgency of spiritual battle), and purpose (clear understanding of why we lead and where we lead).
Our discussion today will center on the question begged by the first point, How do we define success? For over two generations in student ministry we have defined success in a deceptive way. Now we have a long track record and we are able to step back and measure our fruit. Steve has pointed out to us the stark reality of the crisis we face. We live in a time of spiritual crisis when most believers fail to apply biblical teaching to their life in a way that produces biblical living. Students are biblically illiterate and graduating from church, youth ministers are dropping out of ministry, and parents are abdicating their biblical role as primary spiritual leaders. All the while, we adopt a worldly, reactionary approach that essentially says be creative and throw more money at it.
As the family goes, so goes the future of the church. We know that to be true, the Bible emphasizes it, and our enemy certainly acts upon the principle in his attack on the church. Religious life in the home is the most influential spiritual element in a person’s life.
Yet, religious life in the home is nearly extinct. And how much time and resources are we investing to make the home the primary place where faith is nurtured. I believe it is time for the church to return to the biblical model of generational faithfulness we see in the Old Testament patriarchal system and in the New Testament communal discipleship system.
Generational Faithfulness: is the idea of passing down one’s spiritual heritage from one generation to the next as a means of continuing — or beginning, as the case may be — a legacy of God-honoring, Christ-serving, kingdom-advancing faithfulness.
We have poured ourselves into entertaining and educational programs that do little to equip parents for generational faithfulness and have created an enablement, drop-off mentality where parents are actually encouraged to abdicate their biblical role as spiritual leaders.
George Barna says, in Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions, “The local church should be an intimate and valuable partner in the effort to raise the coming generation of Christ’s followers and church leaders, but it is the parents whom God will hold primarily accountable for the spiritual maturation of their children.” How many of our churches reflect that reality?
Unfortunately, this is most often not the case. We are not an intimate and valuable partner and we do not view or hold parents as primary.
What do we do and how do we do it?
There are better people than me to convince you that a problem exist in terms of how we do youth and family ministry, and to convince you that something should be done. I find myself focusing on the question, what can we do about it?
God has begun a movement across this country to return to a more biblical vision of how the two primary institutions that God has established in the Bible , the family in Genesis and the church in Acts, ought to work together. God may be calling you to be a part of this movement, as He did with me in February of 2007, but one thing is for sure, the change must begin with us.
1. Make Generational Faithfulness the priority of your home -
Making Generational Faithfulness a priority in your own home is the most important thing we can do in response to this issue.
It will fulfill our personal responsibility before God.
It will deepen our passion for the biblical concept.
It will give us fruit to share with our people.
It will greatly benefit the people you lead in that it will strengthen your family spiritually.
The greatest blessing for your church will be the benefit you and your family receive as you lead toward generational faithfulness in your home.
2. Make a personal commitment -
You must be convicted that this is something God is calling you to do. If you are not convicted of this truth, you will not follow through. You can not lead where you are not committed to go and the perseverance to endure the challenges comes only by the work of the Holy Spirit through the conviction of the Word of God.
3. Bring your church leadership on board -
After you begin to lead your own family toward generational faithfulness and you prayerfully consider your personal commitment to this biblical role for the church, then you should prayerfully and appropriately seek to share your conviction and vision with your church leadership.
If you are a pastor, begin to share with your deacons or elders, allow the conviction to come through in your preaching, begin to cast a vision to your staff.
If you are on staff, begin to share your conviction and vision with your pastor, talk with parents and youth leaders.
If you are a volunteer in the youth ministry or a parent continue the conversation with your youth minister and help share the conviction with the other church leadership. Above all, be prayerful, appropriate (honor your leadership) and patient.
4. Rethink your current ministry elements -
Again, we do not have to necessarily eliminate ministry elements or create new programs. This is not a call for a programmatic shift, it is a call for a philosophical shift, a change in vision. We have to ask ourselves, “How can we equip parents and promote generational faithfulness in the home through our existing ministries.”
Think, Plan and Pray from the perspective of the Family - We must submit our programs, ministry elements, schedules and numbers to the biblical model for Generational Faithfulness, which is the church and the family in partnership together. That means we have to think about everything from the perspective of the family (traditional and non-traditional), we have to plan according to the needs of the family, and we have to pray like a family for the family. This may upset our corporate leadership style, but we can not pray for our Youth Ministry or church like a businessman prays for his company. We have to pray for the people and families that make up the family of God.
We can all name young couples we know who have come back to church because they now have kids. Most of our churches understand that children and youth ministries are vital evangelism tools for the church. Far too often that is the only value a church sees in these ministries and it is the only outreach they do. However, far too few churches see children as a tool for the discipleship of parents. As soon as they come in, we separate them from their children and try to usher them into an adult discipleship program. They were motivated to come to church by their children and instead of partnering with that biblical view of the relationship between the family and the church, we inadvertently undermine it.
Ask the right questions -
What process do we have for assimilating families into the church?
Do we have a clear, single point of entry?
Do we deal with families as a unit or as a collection of individuals?
What happens when families go home? What are they taking with them?
What are we doing to encourage generational faithfulness?
How do we help parents disciple their own children?
How do we measure participation instead of attendance?
What are we doing to promote generational faithfulness in non-traditional families?
How are we equipping parents? Ask it about everything -
How does our ministry schedule impact the life of families?
What ministry programs at our church intentionally strengthen families?
Is the teaching youth hear reflective of that which their parents hear?
Do we see parents as our partner in ministry or our worst enemy?
Is the youth ministry connected to the ministry of the church or does it function like a para-church ministry?
Do we work in departmental territorialism or do we work together as a church staff toward a common goal? What is that goal? Is it a biblical goal?
Are we more concerned about building a ministry or developing students?
5. Cast the vision -
The key to any type of leadership is the ability to give a picture of where you are going. God gave Israel a picture of the promised land as one flowing with milk and honey. Have you ever wondered, why they did not just trust God that His promise was better than slavery? If Israel did not just trust God himself, I bet your people will not just trust you either. They need a picture. Parents know that the primary responsibility for the discipleship of their children is theirs.
I just read an article last week where Mark Devries insightfully says, “Parents are often coming from a place of their own need– there’s a lot of fear wrapped up in raising (and discipling) an adolescent. And so they bring this anxiety to the table, and we feel like they are attacking us– the truth is, they have a weight about their own kids that we’ll never feel. They’re going to be worried about their kids 10 years from now in ways that we never will. When parents have that level of commitment, we hope they care enough to raise issues. But sometimes we take that as an attack on us.”
They inherently know and they are looking for help. They just do not see how it is possible. We have to help them see generationally. We all understand the power of habit and tradition. We mostly do not even realize we do things a certain way, we just do them. The same thing is true of the church family as well, we just need to help change the habits and make them traditions.
Look at the big picture here. One family begins to change the culture of their home, as you partner with them to promote generational faithfulness. They begin praying together and doing family devotions. That grows to include family worship, the father disciples his son and the mother her daughter. They begin to do service projects together and worshiping together as a family in church.
Other families see the impact that a commitment to Generational Faithfulness has had in their lives, as they grow closer to God and to each other. They begin to participate in this movement within your church family. Those kids will grow up doing those things themselves and teach those disciplines to their own kids because it will be a normal part of their family life.
You do not have to teach kids foundational truths and discipleship disciplines every generation because they will learn it at home as part of life. It becomes part of the normal culture of your church and people without kids become mentors for single parents and kids without believing parents. What started with one event and one family (possibly yours) could impact multitudes of people for generations to come, leaving a spiritual legacy of God-honoring, Christ-serving, kingdom-advancing children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. An authentic spiritual legacy of faithfulness.
Teach and preach Generational Faithfulness: stir the passions of your people
In order to fight against the cultural norms (even within the church), the families in your church will need to hear a clear, constant and consistent message. You will need to constantly encourage them as they start and stall. You have to consistently hold them accountable for being consistent in the practice of the elements of generational faithfulness. You will have to make it clear at every opportunity that you believe in this and that you are willing to do whatever it takes to help them, but that it is not up to you, they have been given a unique opportunity by God to be the spiritual leader of their children, and to instill genuine faith in their kids.
Show the commitment: time and resources
In most churches, the most influential place of communication is the pulpit. So, we must teach and preach generational faithfulness. However, we can not just talk about it.
One of the most concrete and practical ways that we can communicate the value of generational faithfulness is the example of how we invest our time. How you spend your time and energy will make a statement to the people of your church and to your students - and they will notice.
The second way you emphasize the importance of generational faithfulness is the way you allocate resources. If you put your money where your mouth is, families will do the same. That may mean some other things have to go. We all have limited budgets, but if we invest in quality over quantity we also send strong messages about stewardship and priorities.
6. Take your time: be patient -
There is nothing about the terms generational or faithfulness that speak to the short term. We warn our people about the dangers of our instant gratification culture and then we do church exactly the same way. This is the proverbial marathon, not a sprint. You must make your commitment long term. You may not see results in three months. Attendance numbers may actually go down as participation goes up.
Our current crisis did not happen over night. So we can expect that it will take time to change the mindset of our churches, parents and students. However, we need to begin the process of gradual, peaceful growth and development that will result in a spiritual legacy of generational faithfulness in our churches and in our families. You will have to believe in it! You have to trust that what is biblical is right. You may have to accept by faith (for a time) that it is working. But if we do not start now, we will be enabling the same patterns of destruction to continue in our churches and families, and only multiply the problem. It is time for the church to rise up and make a new commitment to youth and family ministry.
It is not about a quick fix, competitive, numbers driven, pre-packaged, mass-produced, entertainment driven, strategy. It is about having a legacy mindset; developing leaders for the next generation by investing in the lives of those who are leading students spiritually today. It is about seeing things fro God’s perspective and choosing a long-term commitment to generational faithfulness that will produce spiritual fruit for generations. It is about allowing ourselves to be judged by what we leave behind. It is transferable to every context and it proves itself over time.
What matters is getting the reality of the presence of God into the homes of people who come to us for spiritual leadership in a way that allows that reality to be passed from generation to generation, to the glory of God.
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