The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water, yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.
Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.
Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul. I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue.
If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened; He has attended to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!
Psalm 34:18, 66:12, Proverbs 11:2,12,14, Psalm 66:16-20 (ESV)
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Legacy: A Focus on Lasting Impact
I have been reminded this past month that leaving a spiritual legacy is about focusing on lasting impact, not on immediate results. Talking to several ministers about transitioning to a family equipping discipleship model, I have come to realize that there is often a disconnect between our personal motivation and the motivation of our ministry and the people around us.
Most of the guys that we work with have a real sense of conviction that family equipping is a primary role of the church. They see a biblical mandate to invest in parents for the benefit of generational faithfulness. However, the questions they ask are much more pragmatic. They wonder about how to implement smoothly to avoid pushback, how to communicate in a way that gets the most buy in from parents, and how long should this process take.
These are all legitimate questions. However, they reveal a pragmatic approach to ministry that is largely perpetuated by the expectations of their people. We have created that expectation with two generations of corporate model driven ministry that has the ministers playing the role of the professional, and ministry being measured by production numbers and consumer appeal. Timothy Paul Jones has recently reminded me that even our motivation for moving to a family ministry model may be motivated by pragmatism if we are moved primarily by statistics like the legendary drop-out rate.
I have always taught parents that the first step to implementing family worship is that family worship must be born of conviction: “You must be convicted that this is something God is calling you to do as a parent. Ephesians 6:4 says, Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. If you are not convicted of this truth, you will not follow through.” The same thing must be true for our churches implementing a family equipping model as well.
At the conference I attended this past month; Dr. Mohler laid out 8 Trajectories Toward and Adjusted Gospel: Modern Trajectory, Post-Modern Trajectory, Moral Trajectory, Therapeutic Trajectory, Aesthetic Trajectory, Materialistic Trajectory, Pragmatic Trajectory, and Emotional Trajectory. In the panel discussion that followed, John MacArthur said he thought the most dangerous trajectory for our conservative, Bible believing churches is the pragmatic.
We must be mindful, as we develop leaders for the next generation, that we teach them to live with the Bible as our ultimate rule of faith and practice, and not just to say that we believe it should be so.
Legacy Letter: Vol. 7 Issue 5, May, 2010
Most of the guys that we work with have a real sense of conviction that family equipping is a primary role of the church. They see a biblical mandate to invest in parents for the benefit of generational faithfulness. However, the questions they ask are much more pragmatic. They wonder about how to implement smoothly to avoid pushback, how to communicate in a way that gets the most buy in from parents, and how long should this process take.
These are all legitimate questions. However, they reveal a pragmatic approach to ministry that is largely perpetuated by the expectations of their people. We have created that expectation with two generations of corporate model driven ministry that has the ministers playing the role of the professional, and ministry being measured by production numbers and consumer appeal. Timothy Paul Jones has recently reminded me that even our motivation for moving to a family ministry model may be motivated by pragmatism if we are moved primarily by statistics like the legendary drop-out rate.
I have always taught parents that the first step to implementing family worship is that family worship must be born of conviction: “You must be convicted that this is something God is calling you to do as a parent. Ephesians 6:4 says, Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. If you are not convicted of this truth, you will not follow through.” The same thing must be true for our churches implementing a family equipping model as well.
At the conference I attended this past month; Dr. Mohler laid out 8 Trajectories Toward and Adjusted Gospel: Modern Trajectory, Post-Modern Trajectory, Moral Trajectory, Therapeutic Trajectory, Aesthetic Trajectory, Materialistic Trajectory, Pragmatic Trajectory, and Emotional Trajectory. In the panel discussion that followed, John MacArthur said he thought the most dangerous trajectory for our conservative, Bible believing churches is the pragmatic.
We must be mindful, as we develop leaders for the next generation, that we teach them to live with the Bible as our ultimate rule of faith and practice, and not just to say that we believe it should be so.
Legacy Letter: Vol. 7 Issue 5, May, 2010
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