The Alter: Not the Finish Line

“Marriage is not about two single people moving into one house but otherwise continuing to live their lives as before. Marriage is about the complete unification of two very different individuals — two sinners who, no matter how strong their attraction to one another, no matter how strong their Christian commitment, will get on one another's nerves in the years to come in ways no other person will.”

3 Great new missions blogs. Check them out by clicking below.

Almost M
Missional Space
Reconsider Europe

Mission Space in particular has some really great missions content:

“Few can dispute the impact of the 10/40 window concept coined by Luis Bush in 1990. As we closed in on the new millenium it became the rallying cry for all involved in missions. Not only was it a brilliant marketing idea and educational… it also helped to redefine strategies for mission agencies all over the world...Sadly there have been a few side effects of this focus....”

Late breaking news from Portugal prompted an update as it will be our home (Lord willing) next year. The Portuguese High Court today rejected the challenge brought by a lesbian couple seeking to force the observance of homosexual “marriage” in Portugal. (Story continued here) I have written on this previously but today’s decision, while sure to be challenged, is a great victory for those wishing to preserve culture and population against a liberalist agenda.

Tags: Jots

Sending out our support cards over the past few months has provided a heavy reminder of how dependent we are upon God for our entire enterprise. Most missionaries during the support process focus mainly on the financial side of support because without money, missionaries cannot go. However, as Larry McCrary reminds us, the prayer supporters are just as, if not more important than financial supporters.

Looking back nearly 8 years ago I still vividly remember needing a reminder of this the third week on the field. Why it took three weeks I do not know but I still remember that I was on the bus going to language school in Madrid and I was overwhelmed by several thoughts. On one hand I could not believe we were finally here. Then it hit me that I did not know anyone here. I cannot speak the language. I could barely order a cup of coffee. The list could go on. But then it struck me that I had to have a total dependence on the Lord. I could not do this on my own.

Even though we’ve lived through a cross-Atlantic move before, the process is still daunting. After we arrive in Portugal we will be settling into a new home, learning our way around, making new friends, obtaining things like drivers licenses, turning on utilities, learning how and where to shop for groceries, opening bank accounts, getting lost on public transportation, being dragged to all of the local tourist destinations, learning cultural do’s and don’ts, changing our wardrobes to match the culture and the weather, getting involved in the local Christian community, learning the Portuguese language, learning holidays and celebrations, and finding out where to get great coffee, just to name a few. Some of these will be made easier through sufficient financing but none of these can be accomplished without prayer and supplications to the Father. As missionaries, there is simply no way to live in all of these moments and remember to pray for strength to accomplish them at the same time. We need people lifting up these individual issues to God and covering them with prayer as we’re trying to live through them and come out unscathed on the other end. That is where prayer supporters come in and that is why they are so important. Thanks for the reminder Larry.

Tags: Missions

Sometimes media has the power to smack a person into reality; this one smacked me into why we’re pursuing ministry in the first place. I remember one Friday evening sitting in our car this past winter as Angelina and I were debating our future telling her that I didn’t want to look back and the end of our lives regretfully saying “I wish we’d done that...” I had a sense of dread that after only 5 years on the ministry road we were heading towards an existence called “safe Americans” and that we had become another ministry statistic; 8 out of 10 church planters, ministers, missionaries burnout within the first 5 years. That is a haunting statistic. What was our experience at SIBI about? What were those 3 years in Ireland for? Had God called us into ministry just to quit after we had our fill of ministry experience? Had we become one of the statistics?



Just as Satan works through sexual sin, divorce, money trouble, gossip, division, and heresy to break a ministry he also uses the tried of true method of safety to woo us into complacency. Somewhere many of us bought the lie that God’s purpose for us was to be safe. You can hear it in our prayers:

“Jesus, please take this away from me.”
“Jesus, please keep them safe.”
“Jesus, please send someone else.”

God promised to work together all things for our good, including the difficult and the bad. He might have promised eternal fellowship but he never promised blanket safety. I’m not suggesting that we don’t implore God for his protection, but that we refuse to settle for the mundane, mediocre, and padded life. On the day I face eternity, I don’t want to look back on a safe life with nothing to show for it. (more like the unlived life) I want to finish across that line panting, sweating, triumphant, humble and filled with joy to finally hear those words from Jesus, “well done, well done.” This is why on that winter’s day we decided to go for it, to get back into the adventure of missions and to let God use us. So far, it’s been an adventure with much more to come. Will you join us?

Tags: Missionary Life

Music doesn’t equal worship. Having just preached on this very idea last Sunday, with all of the study I did throughout all of scripture, I concur.

Debtor Paul over on “I am a debtor” has posted a very interesting series on the coming Missionary Support Crisis. Click here to read his first post about the coming crisis and here for his solutions.

I’ve just stumbled across a huge treasure trove of missions information at http://www.worldmap.org. Click here to check it out or take a look at the updated Portugal information on our homepage outpoured.org.

Tags: Jots

“Do you think everybody should be a missionary?” was the question posed to John Piper:

“Here's the way we like to say it at Bethlehem. You have three possibilities in relation to missions. You can be a goer, you can be a sender, or you can be disobedient. There is no other option but those three. That means that there are no coasters.”

Click here to read the rest of his answer...

Tags: Missions

On the A-Team blog this morning (Speak the truth, but do it in love fool!) David Nilsen wrote:

“I’m the sort of person who puts 5 dollars in the offering plate. This is partly because I don’t ever carry much cash on me. If I’m thinking ahead I’ll write a check for 15 or 20 dollars, but that isn’t very often. I’ve been in the “starving student” cruise control mode for 6 years now. Then last Sunday I had an eye-opening experience. I glanced over at the family sitting next to me and saw a check for 400 dollars! I had always had a vague idea that I wasn’t giving as generously as I should, but this experience brought that vague idea home in a vivid way...

Speaking as someone who definitely does not tithe as much or as often as I should (I am now a sad statistic!), I would encourage all of you to reflect on how much you give back to God.”

I wonder where the idea of giving back to God came from. Yeah, I know this is normal church talk usually mentioned at the end of communion, but something about that phrase didn’t sit well with me today. This isn’t a knock against David and I understand the principle that God has blessed us financially and we are giving back a portion to him but I read in Psalms that everything belongs to God:

“For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.” Psalm 50:10

I also read Jesus explaining that we are mere stewards of the riches of God denoting that we don’t really own anything, he simply allows us access to his giant storehouses to meet our physical needs and that he cares how we handle what we’ve been given. How can we give something back to God that was never given to us to possess in the first place? This isn’t simply semantics, I think that this type of language is contributing to the idea in our pews “I guess I can afford to throw in a few bucks this week.” As David stated in his blog, there were many weeks that he couldn’t put more than a few dollars for the contribution because money was tight. I’d like to propose a new way of thinking about money. What if we thought of our contribution, not as “giving back to God” but instead as “taking less from God” for myself in order to leave enough to pass on for use in other areas of need? Let me explain it this way:

Old Thinking - God gave me $1000 to spend this month. I took the whole $1000 for use in my own life and whatever was left over I gave the remainder back to God. Sometimes there’s not enough left over...

New Thinking - God provisioned me $1000 to use this month, I took $900 dollars to live on and the rest was left to bless others in the name of Jesus. Always some left over to be used in the kingdom...

The application of this new way of thinking is that if I use less than offered on myself, I am free to apply the top portion of my provision right back into things that glorify God and his generosity. I am never left in the position of being a bad steward because the first-fruits were set apart to God so that I never saw it to begin with. We pay our taxes and handle our investments this way, money is routed to the appropriate places before we ever see it. I am not suggesting that our giving to God is a tax but I am saying that it might help to think of our giving in the same way, as first-fruits that are offered for God’s use before we ever see the rest. Think about it, if you joyfully make a conscious decision to leave 5, 8, or 10% for use in the name of Jesus you will never find yourself at the end of the month having squandered more that you should have and given nothing.

Perhaps changing our thinking about “our” money will change our giving? I hope so. One thing I am sure about, we need to continually clarify who’s money it is in the first place.

More Reading

Tags: Giving

John Piper explains his take on Jesus’ discourse in Luke 11:33-36 where he defines the eyes as the lamp of the body:

“‘Be careful!’ This is the only imperative in the text. Be careful what you see! Be careful what you regard as bright and attractive and compelling. If it is not Christ, you will be filled with darkness—no matter how bright it seems for a season. Candles seem bright until the sun comes out. Then they are useless and put away.”

Does Europe have a voice in the world? Dominique Moïsi contends that because of England and France’s continued existence on the UN security Council, its voice is diluted and fractured. This type of comparison flies in the face of the sovereignty of nations and reveals what many European elitists really desire for Europe, the dissolving of many sovereign countries into one government, ruled from Brussels. Click here to read her argument.

I came across “Young Men: Learn Self Control” (via Tim Challies) and was encouraged by the comparison between a son’s little-league game outburst and Tom Watson’s gracious, gentlemanly defeat at the British Open. This is epitome of Christlikeness in every endeavor, one that many men never grasp, and the rest of us take a lifetime to learn.

Tags: Jots

Having been missionaries before, and even now as we’re raising support, we’ve become experts at knowing how much we’ll need to survive and support our ministry but sometimes it’s easy to forget the tough questions congregations have to ask themselves if they want to support our work. Kevin DeYoung writes 4 “Questions for your missions budget” for congregations to consider when thinking about their missions support: (via between two worlds)

1. Are we supporting 1 Timothy 4:16 kind of people?

The command to keep a close watch on your life and doctrine may have been first of all for Pastor Timothy, but it is important for all of us. We are all called to be examples of godliness. We are all called to believe what accords with sound doctrine. This is true for our missionaries as well. No one gets a free pass on life and doctrine, no matter what they are doing or how difficult their surroundings. Each church will need to decide how much doctrinal uniformity is necessary, but surely every evangelical congregation will want to support missionaries that believe in the full trustworthiness of the Bible, glory in Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice, feel the weight of heaven and hell, and affirm justification by faith alone, just to name a few of the most important doctrines.

Likewise, though our missionaries don’t have to be perfect (and we shouldn’t expect them to be), they must be growing in godliness and live lives above reproach. We certainly don’t want to create an adversarial relationship with our missionaries by constantly checking their life and doctrine, but by some mechanism (e.g., through an annual report, through personal contact, through denominational oversight) we want to make sure we are sending out the sort of people we would be happy to have serving in our own churches.

I found the four questions he asked refreshing because it seems he’s after the character of the missionaries as much as the viability or successfulness of their work. As missionaries preparing for our own work our goal is not to raise the support we need but rather to be the kind of missionaries worthy of that support in the first place. There is a strong temptation to fudge through the redemptive process that God is doing in our lives and instead focus on the money needed to get to the field. It’s important for those of us preparing for the ministry field (and those on it) to remember that ultimately, God is as much interested in our faithfulness and sanctification as he is the salvation of those we’re ministering to.

Ministry is a like a furnace, exposing the impurities and refining us into a purer form; overlooking the refinement of our own hearts because we’re focused on the work will always result in brokenness and burnout. Missionaries and the churches supporting them who forego the refining process because it seems to be an obstacle in their way will suffer greatly once engaged in ministry. Ask the questions Kevin asks, they will bless your decisions and your future ministry. Trust me, I know...

Tags: Missions

Reverse culture shock is a tough experience to go through. We went through it when we returned to America after leaving Ireland for about a year. Everything was “wrong” and we didn’t want to let go of the traits we had picked up on while living outside of our culture. Eventually it wore off and people stopped making fun of the way that we were pronouncing things. Musings from a French-Fried Texan has a great article today on Reverse Culture Shock having returned to Texas for a short time while away from their home in France. It’s a funny, resonating read and a little painful. The next time you’re around a missionary going through this, give them a hug, offer a prayer, and just listen to them. (via missionaryconfidential.com)

You don’t normally experience a church in silence together unless it’s at a funeral but Mark Dever over at 9Marks explains why sitting in silence a little each week might be a good practice to adopt.

Is unifying a language as widely spoken as Portuguese a good thing? Daniel Mingas, dean of Higher Institute of Education Sciences in Luanda Angola, believes that it is. Portuguese, like English is spread out over large distances and spoken by millions and millions of people but cultural styles persist. Should cultures dictate the spelling of a particular language or should there be a unified spelling?

Tags: Jots

Jared over at Gospel Driven Church alerted me to a Microsoft ad that was pushed out but pulled so fast I didn’t have a chance to see it. During the advertising campaign for their new Internet Explorer 8 internet browser they let one ad slip that tarnished the rest of the ad campaign as well as the company image. The ad is below and it is extremely offensive, watch it at your own risk:



Microsoft has since pulled
the ad but they got what they wanted from it, buzz. However, the fact that this ad was made in the first place, that someone thought it was funny, cute, novel, or helpful in any way demonstrates yet again how right Jesus was when he spoke about the human heart. Jesus said in Matthew 5:28:

“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

To Jesus the problem wasn’t just the lustful look (behavior) but the heart behind it (character). The fact that Microsoft (or any other company) thinks it funny to laugh about degrading women, or husbands abusing their wives through viewing horrific material online demonstrates how sick this world really is. And the fact that they are highlighting inPrivate a feature who’s sole purpose (according to their ad) is to hide one’s internet tracks from their spouse is even worse. Mark Driscoll spoke to Christian men about this subject a few months ago:



If you’re a Christian man sinning in this area I understand but I won’t excuse you. It’s time to get help and let God heal you and the relationships you’re in. It’s time to put an end to the continual cycle. It’s time to let the “you” on the outside, match the “you” on the inside. It’s time to be a real man. Don’t let Microsoft define you with their warped, twisted, immature sense of reality. Let Jesus define you as the man God wants you to be. By the way, let me recommend an internet filter to help keep the trash out, Netnanny on the right under technology links and a different, more superior internet browser, Firefox.

Tags: Culture

If you read my last post on wanting to become a missionary, meditated on the 15 questions and answered “yes” to most of them, you’re probably wondering about what comes next. When you’re a missionary at heart the excitement of traveling to another country is intoxicating and in the emotion of working towards your goal it is easy to forget the logistical and practical implications of what you’re doing. Below is a few starting points to help you in your new found excitement. If you’re going to start, consider starting here:


Start Praying
Start praying now! Much of the preparatory work that goes into becoming a missionary takes place in your own heart. People often jump over this step and straight into support raising, planning, etc and don’t do the heavy work of allowing God to minister to you in prayer.

Seek Council
The first thing you should do is talk to your friends and family to get some feedback and council from them. You need to then talk to an elder or leader at your church to get their feedback as well. The insight of mentors and family will prove invaluable to your process especially those who are older and more mature.

Study Up
What do you know about mission work? Have you ever travelled overseas? If you don’t know much that’s okay you can always learn but don’t take learning for granted. Talk to former and current missionaries, read missions blogs, read international newspapers, get familiar with current international events, etc.

Short-Term Consideration
Short-term missions is a great way to gain insight into the life of a missionary and the lives of people in a different culture. If you haven’t spent a lot of time outside of your home culture this is an eye opening experience. Don’t expect to change the world on a short trip though. Short-term trips are usually more life changing for the person going than the culture someone is going to. This is also a great opportunity to learn the art of support raising. Learning to explain your goals and your desires to potential supporters for a short trip is invaluable for future endeavors later.

Stay in Communication
How well have you conveyed your desires to the people around you? You’ve told them once but have you told them twice? People are busy with their own lives and they easily forget. Once you’ve studied the subject of missions and the place you want to go you’re now the unofficial “expert,” don’t expect people to remember the details of what currency is being used in Macau, or what the population of Christians are in Queensland. It’s your job to know that information, but it’s also your job to remind your potential supporters of why that information is important.

Share Your Experiences
People love pictures and video so take lots of them. Seriously, glue a camera to your hand, or at least carry one with you everywhere. Detail your entire experience from start to finish and your short-term supporters might become supporters for life. Sharing your experiences with your supporters shows that you honor them and are thankful for their gift. It also re-enforces their role as senders in God’s plan and shows that without senders, going is impossible.

Becoming a missionary is a life changing experience so it’s important to start slow. There are many facets to beginning down the road of missions that I didn’t include here. Let God take the lead and don’t rush in. Do your preparatory work early and often and prepare for a fruitful life serving God in missions. If you’re interested in reading further, missionaryconfidential.com has his own list, that’s worth reviewing. You can also read his answer about the effectiveness of short-term missions. If you’re serious and looking for a short-term agency to talk to, stop by and say hello to Rob at KontaktMission’s GoConnect. He’ll be glad to answer any questions you might have. Whatever you do, begin by asking God where you can serve, that’s always the best place to start.

Tags: Missions

People really are different. As a missionary you’ll learn this the first time you realize you’re a foreigner living in a strange land. There was a period of time when we first moved to Ireland where I didn’t get this. You see, my name and my family’s heritage is Irish. If you flip open the Dublin phone book you will find about 2 full pages with different spellings (including mine) of my last name on the pages. It was an odd feeling for once in my life being a “Smith.” For a while I lived under the odd assumption that I was “home” and that I simply fit in among the Irish population. After all, my name was Irish and my looks are Irish and my family had sailed from Ireland to America only a few generations prior; I blended in like a chameleon... until I opened my mouth. The second I said anything I was immediately discovered to be out of place and the startled looks on people’s faces was priceless. They had been under the same impression, as me, that I was Irish and local until my American accent gave it away that I was a foreigner. After a while the newness wore off and the realization of being different set in.

People deal with being “the odd man out” in different ways. Some blend in trying to be cool and in with the culture they find themselves in; some forcibly stand out becoming so different as to be labeled weird. There is a danger in either extreme because while wanting to be attractive for the sake of the Gospel to those around us we must not become like those around us. It is a very difficult balance to strike but it is the obligation of the Christian, “in the world but not of.” Bottom line, be who you were redeemed to be. As Christians we are always going to be different in many ways and that’s not a bad place to be.

Below is an article by Mike McKinley about the desire to be cool to a fault. Hopefully this doesn’t describe anyone reading...if so, please shave.

Contemplating Cool

By Mike McKinley
Show me a grown man with a goatee and I’ll show you a major league baseball player. Show me a grown man with a goatee wearing sandals and I’ll show you a youth pastor.

When I was a kid, I remember that the youth pastor at our church was totally different than any other pastor I’d ever seen. He quoted rock bands and wore blue jeans to church. He was cool in a way that the other adults in my life were not. I was proud to invite my friends to church and see their negative stereotypes of Christians get blown up. The youth group thrived and “unchurched” kids were reached. The one thing that distinguished our group from others was that our pastor was cool.

As the youth pastors and youth of the 1990s become the head pastors and congregants of the 2000s, it seems like the phenomenon has only grown. It is now an unexamined assumption in many quarters: the best way to reach people is to be like them. In order to reach our culture, we must embody what the culture defines as acceptable and valuable. We must be as “cool” as we can possibly be while still retaining the gospel. That way, people will see us and not be turned off by us. Maybe they’ll even want to be us.

This shows up in both the private lives of pastors (you missional guys, I’m talking about you and your emo eyeglasses) and in the church’s corporate worship, where we seek to remove everything that might seem foreign to the unchurched visitor.

In some ways, I think being connected to the culture around us is helpful. But there are ways in which a commitment to being cool can ultimately conflict with the call of a pastor. As the resident cool guy on the 9Marks docket (which is roughly like being the ladies’ man at a Star Trek convention—damning with faint praise), here are a few thoughts:

1. Being connected to the culture is a double-edged sword.
In a sense, we all carry a set of unique interests, talents, characteristics, and strengths around with us. These can both serve the proclamation of the gospel and hinder it. So, for example, yesterday the copier repairman stopped by the church which I serve. He is a young guy who is into cage-fighting. We built a connection over that fact (one of the guys in our church also does MMA—mixed martial arts), and he was pleasantly surprised to find that a pastor could be heavily tattooed.* I shared Christ with him, and he asked for a Bible. Score one for enculturation.

But there are other ways that my appearance might be a hindrance to the gospel. I have been sharing Christ with a strict Muslim man that I see in the sauna at the gym once or twice a week. We have built a friendship and talked about spiritual matters quite often. I have little doubt that the fact that I have a large weasel tattooed on my bicep does not make him more attracted to the faith. Score one for not having tattoos. This is why I wear sleeves on Sunday mornings. In one situation my ink serves me well; in another it can make things more difficult.

2. We must always be on guard against pride.
How much of a pastor’s desire to be perceived as cool or connected to the culture is motivated by vanity or pride? Knowing the depth of our depravity and self-deception and pride, we must examine ourselves. Am I motivated to dress a certain way or listen to certain music for good reasons? Or does part of me at least want to avoid being the butt of Ned Flanders jokes? We must beware that our quest for cool doesn’t feed the vanity and pride which we need to be choking to death every day.

In fact, I fear (and here I am speaking from what I see in my own heart) that oftentimes we are at least partially motivated to reach people by pride. How much of our desire to be cool is a desire to reach people, not only for the gospel, but also for our own glory? Here’s a diagnostic question for everyone who is a pastor: if the Lord called you to shepherd sixty uncool saints until they were safely home, with no spectacular revival or ministry explosion, would you consider that beneath you? Would it seem unworthy of your gifts and a waste of your life? If so, you are being motivated by pride.

3. Much pastoral ministry is profoundly uncool.
Don’t sign up to be a pastor if you want to sound reasonable to most people or if you want to affect a cool detachment from people and ideas. The preaching of the cross is foolishness and a stumbling block to your average art community hipster. We must love the Savior more than we love the respect of others.

Also, the ironic detachment that cool requires finds little place in the work of a pastor. At times, you must be embarrassingly earnest and enthusiastic. You must love difficult and extremely mockable people with a real and true love that never seeks a laugh at their expense. You need to cry with people when they suffer unspeakable tragedy. Much of being a pastor is profoundly uncool.

4. We must never despise our brothers and sisters.
There is a real danger in becoming so puffed-up over our freedom in Christ to wear black t-shirts that we begin to look down on the Ned Flanders-style Christians who love the Lord and have served him faithfully for years. In fact, it may be that the Lord is more pleased with their humble walk (though not as sophisticated) than he is with yours. The fact is, love for other Christians is a hallmark of a true believer (1 John 2:10). Even more it must be the mark of a pastor. We have more in common with a believer in Myanmar and a believer in Duluth (even if they don’t know a pilsner from a stout or Operation Ivy from Crimpshine) than we do with the people we’re trying to reach for Christ.

The fact is, we can’t choose who will be in our flock, nor should we try. Should churches go after the “manly man” with gimmicks and mocking disdain for the average wussy church going guy? If I read Ephesians properly, the church should consist of all kinds of people: cool and square, macho and sensitive, punk rock and emo. Frankly, in my experience a sensitive guy who is not trying to be cool is about ten times more likely to fit the biblical profile of a man, even if he doesn’t ride a Harley and watch contact sports on television. Pastor your people, thank God for the diversity in the body, and love people who aren’t like you.

5. With a few exceptions, Christians who try to be cool are terrible at it.
When I was in middle school, a well meaning youth worker attempted to perform what came to be known infamously in Radnor Junior High School lore as “the Jesus rap.” These were the earlier days of hip-hop, and the genre was still trying to find its sound. Well, this youth worker, a slightly pudgy white guy of about 28 years, put the effort back ten years in five excruciating minutes. I later came to find that this well-meaning man hadn’t written this material himself (thank heavens!) but that it was later recorded as part of a song called “Addicted to Love” by a man named Carman.

The point is this: not many Christians can pull it off. A few can, but you probably can’t. Seriously, ask your wife. She’ll tell you the truth. Don’t try to be something that you’re not for the sake of impressing unbelievers. It’s bad theology and it will fool no one. It’s this kind of thinking that has gotten us Christian rock music. Please, stop it. No, really. Now. I insist.

6. Being like the culture can make it hard to see the gospel.
The more we understand the world (and its definition of what is compelling and cool), the less attractive we should find it. In fact, in a society that is increasingly morally and spiritually bankrupt, it may be our incongruity with the culture that serves to highlight the gospel. David Wells says this much better than I could in his book God in the Wasteland:

By this late date, evangelicals should be hungering for a genuine revival of the church, aching to see it once again become a place of seriousness where a vivid otherworldliness is cultivated because the world is understood in deeper and truer ways, where worship is stripped of everything extraneous, where God’s Word is heard afresh, where the desolate and broken can find sanctuary [emphasis mine].

Let’s pray that our churches recover that quality of vivid otherworldliness, even if it is not cool.

The conclusion of the matter is this: be who God made you to be. If you lean hipster, run with it. Be a hipster to the glory of God. If you lean in another direction, that’s great too. But Christ must be central to all who will pursue the calling of a pastor. That means putting to death our pride and scorn for others who are not like us. That means evangelizing across the boundaries of taste and preference. In the long run, it might even mean that we’re not cool.

Michael McKinley is the pastor of Guilford Baptist Church in Sterling, Virginia, and the 9Marks lead writer on church membership.

Tags: Culture

Really cool series going on right now over on Resurgence.com called “Men: Masculinity Reclaimed.” Follow it here

Considering elders? Here is an interesting discussion over on 9Marks concerning the move towards biblical elders.

Is there evidence for David’s palace? I didn’t think there was a discussion about this but after reading the article I guess there was/is...

“How Jewish is Jerusalem? You might think that's a silly question, but in the world of academia, revisionist history and even biblical archaeology, scholars have cast the shadow of doubt over Judaism's intrinsic connection to Jerusalem.”
Click here to read the rest of the article.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said, “I hope and pray that there won't be decisions in the coming days that could push us further apart,” speaking today of the Episcopal church’s decision to allow Homosexual clergy to practice within the confines of the “church” walls. What a sad day.

Yesterday was 12 July when Northern Irish protestants march through Catholic neighborhoods celebrating William of Orange. They didn’t march yesterday, in honor of Sunday, so they did it today. It doesn’t appear they made many friends. 12 July always bothered Angelina and I when we were living in Ireland. Not only because of the hatred and bigotry of the event but also the supposed “Christian” nature of the exercise. Paul said that as Christians our task is to do everything in our power to live peacefully but that is not the case in “Christian” Northern Ireland.

Tags: Jots

C.H. Spurgeon once penned the most accurate picture of hell I have ever read. In the “New Park Street Pulpit” October 30, 1859 he wrote:

“It is the iron crown of hell, for Christ reigneth there supreme. Not only in the dazzling brightness of heaven, but in the black impenetrable darkness of hell is his omnipotence felt, and his sovereignty acknowledged; the chains which bind damned spirits are the chains of his strength; the fires which burn are the fires of his vengeance; the burning rays that scorch through their eyeballs, and melt their very heart, are flashed from his vindictive eye. There is no power in hell besides his. The very devils show his might. He chaineth the great dragon. If he give him a temporary liberty, yet is the chain in his hand, and he can draw him back lest he go beyond his limit. Hell trembles at him. The very howlings of lost spirits are but deep bass notes of his praise . While in heaven the glorious notes shout forth his goodness; in hell the deep growlings resound his justice, and his certain victory over all his foes. Thus his empire is higher than the highest heaven, and deeper than the lowest hell.”

Can’t you just feel the weight of that truth? “The fires which burn are the fires of His vengence...” Like molten metal pounded against an anvil so Satan and his minions will wring out their punishment for all eternity for the glory, joy and praise of Jesus Christ. I long for the day when all things will be placed under the feet of Jesus and the last breath of rebellion crushed forever.

(thanks 9Marks)

Tags: Jesus

Who are the “worst behaved tourists in Europe?” It may not be who you think...

Ray Ortlund posted about Jesus Jr. a few days ago. Who are you following, Jesus Jr. or the real Jesus?

The Preeminence of Christ (Colossians 1:15-23)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by [6] him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation [7] under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Independence Day took place last weekend here in America and many churches used their Sunday morning assembly times to celebrate and honor the independence of the United States. Everything from flag ceremonies to historical sermons about the founding fathers to “freedom” concerts took place in “houses of worship” all across America. WorshipMatters.com posted an interesting question on the 4th entitled Should July 4th Affect Our Sunday Planning? Whether you witnessed one of these ceremonies or actively opposed them the question is a good one and the post is worth reading.

Tags: Jots

Lately when talking to people and sharing our story of preparing to move to Portugal we’ve heard the phrase over and over again “I would love to be a missionary!” This usually comes after talking about the beaches of Portugal, sharing our travels to different places in Europe, or sharing pictures of our life in Ireland. Exciting right? For many, the idea of living as a missionary and traveling the globe is glamorous, a perception of living as a jet setter and moonlighting the world. Others see the lifestyle of a missionary as poor, dilapidated, and difficult, scraping by just to make ends meet. Living as missionaries we’ve never really felt like either of those two extremes...and to be honest, I’m not sure if we’ve known missionaries that have. The missionaries and ministers we’ve known over the years have all taken their ministries in stride; being a missionary is just something we are, sharing the message of God in good and bad, living out the particular gifting God has given us. That isn’t to say that our lives have been easy or that we haven’t been blessed to visit amazing places, it hasn’t and we have. The truth is it’s really easy to build up the life of a missionary as mysterious and exotic. We missionaries can easily fall into the trap of thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to in order to make ourselves seem important and daring. When someone says that they want to be a missionary it would be very easy to talk down the idea and discourage them in order to make ourselves seem important. “Oh no, don’t consider missionary work, it’s dangerous...leave that to the professionals.”

The truth behind the emerald curtain however is that mission work isn’t glamorous, it’s simply another gift bestowed by God for certain people for building up and encouraging the world-wide body of Christ to grow in numbers and maturity. That’s it. Sometimes it’s hard but so is getting up and going to work on the oil rig trying to live out your Christian faith. Sometimes it’s an adventure but so is navigating ambassadorial allegiances for a foreign government and King Jesus. We missionaries are regular people who saw a need, had the opportunity, and went. None of which would be possible without the senders who saw a need, had the opportunity, and sent. So if you feel the desire to go and serve, do it if you can. If you can’t go right now, you can always send. If you are thinking about mission work, here are some questions to ask yourself to see if mission work is right for you.

1) Are you a Christian who loves Jesus?

2) What about mission work makes you want to get involved?

3) Are you interested in visiting new places, meeting new people, and eating new (strange) things?

4) Do you like studying your bible and sharing what you’ve learned with others?

5) Are you frequently approached for advice or counsel? Does your counsel generally help when heeded?

6) Do you have the opportunity in your life to pull up and leave to start again?

7) Do you like other cultures and other languages?

8) Are you currently serving your local congregation?

9) Would you be content serving in your area if you couldn’t move somewhere else? Are you serving right now? If not, why?

10) Are you passionate about doing something else with your life? (other than ministry) What is that thing?

11) Have you ever travelled outside of your home country for extended periods of time?

12) Do you think about missions, church structure, church planting, the Bible, scripture, and other languages frequently?

13) Has anyone ever told you that you would make a great minister, Bible teacher, church planter, evangelist, church strategist, youth leader, and/or preacher?

14) Have you ever been asked to lead, preach, teach, counsel, plan, strategize, or oversee something in your local congregation?

15) If you’ve done #14 have people responded well to what you did?

These are some hard questions to seriously consider if you feel like going into foreign mission work. They are not meant to discourage those gifted for ministry but to encourage and build up. If you don’t have the gift to go however, there is plenty for you to do. You can pray, encourage, and give financially to those who do thus fulfilling your part in God’s great plan. Whatever your gift, God can and will use you in some great capacity if you let him.

Goers click here, we need your help

Senders click here, we need your help

(Updated) I hope this article was encouraging and uplifting to those who see the life of missionaries and think of someday doing the same thing. Mission work is fulfilling and amazing, something I wouldn’t trade for the world. As I get older and grow in my maturity I am beginning to understand my gifting at a deeper level which leads me to a greater understanding of the significance of the calling we’ve been given. If you have desire, the opportunity, and the gifting for missions let me encourage you to pursue it. If you don’t that’s okay, figure out where your gifting lies and pursue that with the strength God provides.

Tags: Missions

Finally someone said what needed to be said. Deifying MJ into some freaky Christ-like figure reveals just how lost, blind and helpless this western culture is.

Love the American Office? Then you’ll love the interview with John Kransinsky who plays Jim on the show.

According to the Beeb, self-help is really no help at all. In fact, according to a recent study, it makes you feel worse. (via Challies.com)

Tags: Jots

Michael Jackson who? Ronaldo gets 80,000 fans just for showing up! Plus it doesn’t hurt to have a €94,000,000 paycheck either.



Is Europe still relevant? That’s the question asked by John Vinocur at the New York Times today. He seems to read tea leaves a bit in trying to deduce his conclusion from the words of politicians but still manages to ask a very relevant question. In light of the recent economic downturn and the lack of follow through with Russia and Iran, it would seem that Europe is struggling to find its voice and a collective spine. While she may be struggling on a political stage her ideology of liberalism and degraded morality is still a strong commodity on the world stage. Is Europe still relevant? Depends on what you’re talking about.

Tags: Jots

“Give me liberty or give me death” were words uttered by Patrick Henry in 1775 leading ultimately to the sending of troops from Virginia to fight in the Revolutionary War and a delegation to the Continental Congress to argue for independency. His were the words that spawned a nation and galvanized many into one. On this day, July 4th, we Americans celebrate the political liberty those early fathers gained for our nation in the form of fireworks, hot dogs, picnics, BBQs and family. But at the end of the day, they are only words... from whence does true liberty come? Political freedom only goes so far when the soul remains in bondage. For Christians in America, political freedom obtained by the early American fathers was a prelude to a deeper freedom, a freedom used providentially by God to affect their salvation and their eternity. I am one such person; a former prisoner to sin, ransomed by Jesus and set free from sin’s penalty. It is not the freedom from taxation without representation that I am most grateful for nor the liberties of being an American, it is the freedom that I have from the first soldier of liberty, Jesus.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1

Sadly, many American’s only know of a political freedom and they remain captive in bondage and don’t even know it. Only in Christ is true freedom found and that makes political freedom that much sweeter. Maybe today will be the day you share with someone true freedom? I hope so.

Semper Libertas! Happy 4th of July!

Tags: freedom

I haven’t eaten fast food with any sort of regularity for nearly 6 or 7 years. The problem of putting that kind of food into these sorts of creations is that it still tastes the same. (via Challies.com)

Christian ladies, what you wear matters. Thankfully I am married to a wonderful Christian woman who measures her wardrobe carefully because of her love and honor for God. (via Challies.com)

As I mentioned several weeks ago, European politics is changing. Portugal’s center-right party Social Democrats (SD) just triumphed in the last election. I am shocked.

How should Europe respond to Iran? “Europe used to be the good cop with Iran, engaging with the regime on tricky issues like its nuclear program while the bad cop, the U.S., rasped that Tehran was part of an "axis of evil." But the European Union's moderating stance has done it few favors in the wake of last month's disputed Iranian elections.”

9Marks latest eJournal is all about missions and is now online. Grab a copy here. (via Betweentwoworlds)

Tags: Jots

Caitlin Flanagan, a woman familiar with controversy, wrote a new article in the latest Time Magazine about the importance of marriage and the importance of what we’re losing in Western society as we continually chip way at the institution. It is a well written piece worth your time reading. While not without her critics, she does make some very strong points.

“The one thing both men refused to admit was that, back in the heyday of these affairs, they must have been having a blast. These were two middle-aged, conservative Republican men who had said, To hell with being part of the Cialis generation (midlife sexuality depicted as an aging husband and wife reclining in ... side-by-side bathtubs? What is the drugmaker worried about — that randy Pa might jump in Ma's bath and break her hip?). Their actions were so willful and blatantly self-centered that the two of them could have credibly fashioned themselves as rebels, possibly even as heroes, if they could have just stopped crying. They weren't a couple of tools stuck in sexless marriages and making up for it with Internet porn. These guys had embarked on dangerously erotic rampages with real-life, unencumbered women, women who decidedly weren't ... Jenny and Darlene. The long-suffering wives, Fun Busters in Chief.”

Marriage is something I have written about in the past, something that we will live to regret losing once the last vestiges of the societal glue are removed. Western society cannot afford to lose this institution and anyone willing to fight for it is someone to keep nearby.

Tags: Culture

The Festa do Espirito Santo is a world-wide Portuguese celebration honoring the memory of Portuguese Queen Isabella who fed the starving masses out of her treasure. When the money ran out she pledged to give the last remaining item of worth, her ornate crown, to the Roman Catholic church if the Holy Spirit would intercede. Legend has it that the Holy Spirit did respond and ships filled with grain and food arrived in the harbor of Lisbon to feed the people. Today Portuguese communities around the world celebrate her memory with a festival (a festa), a parade, lunch for all, dances, music, and the naming of a queen.

Scripture tells us that there is one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ and that all who trust in him will receive eternal life. Festivals like the Festa do Espirito Santo are a great reminder to us to be in the world and not of the world. We look forward to the opportunity of sharing the message of hope in Jesus with the people of Portugal. If you’re near a Portuguese community this weekend check out a festa, you’ll love it!

Selma, California Festa
Santa Cruz, California Festa

Tags: Portugal