Great Answer

John Piper gives an explanation as to how to be relevant with the gospel. “Amen” to it.

[HT: JT]

“I’m Changing a Tire”

There was a great panel discussion today at 930 Mary Street including Al Mohler, Mark Dever, David Platt, Ed Stetzer, Danny Akin, and Daniel Montgomery. I thought everyone who spoke gave thoughtful answers to some great questions.

Maybe more importantly, however, were the actions of my buddy Lee as he was on his way to meet me at the panel. I was waiting for him to arrive, seats saved and everything, but he was yet to arrive as the panel began. I called him to see where he was and his reply was, “I am on the side of the road, helping a lady change her tire with another guy. We’ll be there in a bit.” I was so glad he stopped to serve this lady even though he had an appointment elsewhere. How weird would it have been to go listen to a panel discussion on the great commission after having passed a woman who was clearly in need of help on the side of the road?

I think little things like that are how we can tangibly show the compassion of Christ and share the gospel.

“Churched” or “Unchurched”?

Take a gander at my buddy Lee’s post on whether or not we should use the language of “churched” or “unchurched”. Good thoughts, good comments. You should throw in your two cents.

I Want You to Serve My Ends

This morning, during elder training with a couple elders from Sojourn, we discussed the idea of servant-leadership. We discussed various perversions of what leadership is thought to be in light of what Scripture says about Jesus’ leadership (”The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”). It was sobering to say the least.

As I went to get lunch for the office today with some of these thoughts on my mind, it occurred to me that most people I meet or cross paths with, are seen through my eyes as a means to achieving my own ends. I want them to serve my ambitions and desires. The way this manifests itself for me, most of the time, is my desire to be well-liked by everyone. So whether I’m passing by or making an acquaintance, my first thoughts are usually scrambling for affirmation from that person: “I hope they think I’m great.” “I hope they think I look good.” These thoughts are equal to saying, “I hope they worship me.” My first thoughts are usually never, “How can I help this person? How can I build them up? What might their needs be?”

Of course, this points out the usual: I’m a wretch and Jesus is a great Savior. I’m glad I have elders at Sojourn who are willing to walk through this stuff with us.

What about you? Do you have any practices that help keep you focused on serving others instead of using people to meet your own ambitions?

Are you prideful? (And everyone raises their hand…)

“The proud church leader [or anyone for that matter] is an offense to the gospel of Jesus Christ, a prime target for the Devil and — no matter how talented and indispensable he may think himself to be — an unfit leader of God’s people.” – Alexander Strauch, Biblical Eldership

Great to Hear

My Opa (grandfather) has had some health trouble recently, and I called him to catch up on how he was feeling, etc. As of the last three years, the content of our conversations has blessed me more and more. He does a lot of thinking about Jesus. Here are a couple quotes from our chat tonight.

“When you get into your 70’s, you begin thinking about how to die well…at least I do. I think about that a lot lately. How can I live every day in light of God’s grace? How can I glorify Him?”

“Man’s institutions are nothing but a flabby piece of garbage. The more I watch what’s going on, the more I see that our power amounts to nothing. I’ve GOT to believe that it is better to be with Christ than it is to live in this current world.”

Update on Catalina

This is from Elise on the Chripczuk’s family blog:

For those who don’t know…they removed the brain tumor and found it to be benign. Awesome. However, the recovery from the surgery was awful. She started swelling really bad and less than 24 hours they had to go back into surgery and remove half of her skull to allow for the swelling. At this point they didn’t know if there was major brain damage or if she would ever wake up.

She is slowly, slowly waking up. she still cannot open both eyes and cannot speak. Her whole left side is paralyzed. However some good things are happening every day….

Some highlights….
–she squeezes our hand and shakes it as a response.
–she waves
—she gives a thumbs up
—she can point to things when they hurt
—she knows who we are and knows our kids
—she knows she had surgery
—she can write sentences in Ukrainian, Spanish and English

The doctors say that the recovery process can take a year. So we have a lot of waiting to do. Meanwhile, we are so thankful that she is alive.

Soma Top Five Experiences

So what the heck is Soma School anyway? This is a legitimate question, considering I just started posting quotes without giving the context for what Soma School is. Sorry about that. Here’s the skinny: Soma is a body of believers in Tacoma, WA that has been influential for Sojourn as we seek to be the church in Louisville. The Lord is doing great things through them in the Northwest, as they seek to be the church in a more “organic” (for lack of a better term) way. I’m not sure I can put their whole philosophy of ministry into a nutshell, though it is quite simple to hear them explain it. They are a church of small “missional communities”, on mission together to love and serve their neighbors (and one another) as they preach the gospel through word and deed; a very “grassroots” understanding of the mission of God (which I’m stoked about!). I could say so much more about them, but I’ll stop there (hopefully more can be drawn out of what I write below).

Jeff Vanderstelt and Caesar Kalinowski, two elders from Soma, have devoted time to our body of believers down here in Louisville, dialoguing with our pastors and our people to help everyone understand what the church is and how that plays out in the world. Soma School is a week-long immersion into Soma Communities, and below are my top five experiences from that.

1) Biblical Theology – Caesar and Abe (another elder) walked through the “Story of God” with us over the course of three days. It is a condensed history of redemption, told in dialogical narrative. The elders of Soma labor to see that their people are on the same page concerning God’s big picture of history. I find this invaluable — invaluable. Having a cohesive, unified understanding of God’s story plays directly into how we form a Christian worldview. I think that many most churches are lacking this, as their members know bits and pieces of Scripture, but don’t know what it has to do with their place in history or their understanding of the entire world around them. Everything (and everyone) at Soma is grounded in God’s overarching history of redemption.

2) Family – Five of the church planting residents were graciously hosted by several people in the church. My own hosts were Lloyd and Stephanie Brown, who immediately accepted both myself and Dave Richards as family. I felt as though I left my family in Louisville only to be welcomed by my family in Washington — what a great feeling! I didn’t have to earn their love; they gave it freely. The same can be said for their missional community. We were able to talk and relax as though we’d known these people for years. I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced such an immediate attachment, all of it rooted in the love of Christ.

3) Make Disciples – You won’t hear typical “church growth” language from these folks. They seem to be utterly unconcerned with their church being large, but wholly concerned with making true disciples. This was a breath of fresh air. I heard someone comment, “This church has the highest amount of trained individuals I’ve ever seen.” They truly believe that the job of the pastors is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Their sights are set on a person’s long-term devotion to Christ, his church, and his mission, not just the “initial” step of conversion. At a couple points I was able to hear Jeff’s heart on this matter in a more conversational atmosphere, and I was stunned at the amount of energy he pours into proactively training up other men to be humble ministers of the gospel. I ate it up.

4) Pastoral Care – The way Soma is structured allows for more intimate pastoral care. They try to stay geographically specific with their missional communities and larger gatherings called “expressions”. Therefore, there is not a lot of commuting. If they get a lot of people commuting from one area, they merely start a new expression in that location. The crowds stay smaller and the ratio of pastors to people is more manageable. They also train their people to be equipped to help one another understand how the gospel intersects in every area of life. Shepherding happens at multiple levels.

5) Mission – Soma’s understanding of mission permeates everything. In fact, instead of “core values”, they have “identities and practices”, and one of those identities is “missionaries”. By making “missionary” part of their identity, it cuts the legs out from under the idea that missions is something you go and do, and then return to normal life. For them, mission happens all the time. When they hang out with their lost friends, they don’t go into “missionary mode”, because they are always missionaries. From what I witnessed, this made evangelism much more natural, an overflow of who they always are as opposed to something they tack onto their life when they see opportunities to share the gospel.

To be sure, the elders of Soma would tell you they have their own problems as a church, so I don’t want to make them seem as though they have it all figured out (they’ll repeatedly tell you they don’t). However, I took great joy in being with them up in Tacoma, and they have changed the way I understand the church (for the better). I came home greatly encouraged in the gospel and more excited than ever about church planting. I love these people.

Urgent Need for Prayer

Read about Catalina Chripczuk here.

My best friend Mark’s mom, Catalina, came out of brain surgery on Monday, and she’s not doing too well. Mark informed me that the doctors say her brain stem “folded over” and she is currently in a coma. They’re unsure if she’ll wake up, or, if she does, what sort of condition she’ll be in.

This is the confronting reality of a fallen world, where pain and suffering abound. But praise God for Christ, the Reverser of the fall. If you would, please take a second and call upon the Father, through Christ, and ask him to heal Mark’s mom. Additionally, ask that Mark’s dad would depend on Christ during this time. I am extremely thankful that they love Jesus and have him to turn to for understanding and comfort.

Home Again

I have a lot to post from my trip to Tacoma, but for now I just wanted to give praise to God for getting me back home to my wife (and not-yet-born firstborn). I really am so thankful.

Stay tuned…