A Six-Pack of Core Commitments

As I have thought and thought about the core commitments for a new, gospel-centered church in Dahlonega, there are four core commitments that I see guiding the ministry. The original post had four commitments, but in the past few days I have added two more that I think are essential. So here is the six-pack of core commitments:

#1- IMPASSIONED ORTHODOXY
We will be committed to the Bible as our standard for theological orthodoxy, which is not an end in itself, but is a means to knowing and enjoying God.

#2- RADICAL GRACE
We want the radical message of grace to be the central theme that permeates the church’s worship, teaching, leadership, discipleship, mission, etc.

#3- AUTHENTIC COMMUNITY
We long for a grace-saturated atmosphere that communicates to people, “This is a safe place to be real. We are all broken, sinful people who desperately need Jesus.”

#4- INTENTIONAL DISCIPLESHIP
Utilizing both structured and unstructured aspects of equipping believers as followers of Jesus, at the heart of our mission is an intentional approach to grace-centered, life-on-life discipleship.

#5- HOLISTIC COMPASSION & JUSTICE
A holistic gospel compels us to minister holistic compassion and justice, not only serving spiritual needs, but also meting physical and material needs.

#6- ORGANIC MISSION
We will encourage all the folks in the church to see themselves as missionaries, word and deed ambassadors of the gospel living as “salt and light” in the context of their organic spheres of influence.

Encouragement for the Dehydrated

Yesterday during the panel discussion at the GCA church planting conference, a question was asked concerning the most critical factor in church planting. Most of us expected the response to be tactical. There must be some magic "how to" that if perfected would guarantee success. The answer was not tactical. Rather, it was devotional. Ted Powers took the mic and said that the most critical factor for the church planter is his own abiding in the Vine/Jesus/the gospel (John 15:4-5). A church planter wants others to receive and rest in the grace of God in the gospel. However, the most important thing is that the church planter himself receive and rest in the grace of God in the gospel. As I reflected on this, I realized that the application is wider than just for a church planter. It applies to every Christian. For example, the most significant factor in the health of my marriage is whether or not I am abiding in Jesus as my righteousness. The same is true for anyone's role as a parent, student, athlete, etc.  For the athlete, an analogy might be hydration. If I am not hydrated, I will become dehydrated and, eventually, will give out on the field. The same is true as a Christian. As one who finds himself dehydrated far too often, I need to be reminded of my desperate, daily need of the hydration of God's love and grace to me in Jesus through his life, death, and resurrection. My greatest need is not primarily tactical, it is devotional. I need the hydration of the beauty, wonder, and power of the gospel. 

What to Pray

Sometimes I want to pray for folks, but I'm just not sure what to pray. So my prayer often is limited to something generic like, "Bless so and so." Now God knows what to do with that. But if prayer is going to be a means of grace for the one praying (me), then maybe it would be helpful to get a bit more specific, and more Jesus/gospel/grace-centered.  

While I was sitting in a seminar today on gospel-centered preaching, the instructor said that if I was struggling with how to pray for folks beyond, "Bless _______," then I could pray the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 3:14-21 (or any other Scriptural prayer). What a great idea! I think I am going to start praying this for myself, family, and the folks whom I pray, by God's grace, we will reach through the church plant in Dahlonega.

"For this reason I kneel before the Father,from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

Life Out of Death

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (or a scratched CD), I am going to post one more thought from Stanley Voke's Personal Revival. The theme of brokenness has so gripped me that it seems like I have had a gravitational pull toward that topic lately. Don't get me wrong, I do not want to be broken, and there is more to talk about. But having experienced a little brokenness (and being a slow learner who needs to hear the same thing over and over), I find Voke to be so helpful and encouraging. So please forgive the redundancy. 

"God blesses all he breaks. Victory came to Gideon's army when the pitchers were broken to release the light within them. Fulness came to the five thousand when Jesus broke the loaves that seemed so few. Fragrance poured through all teh house when a box of ointment was broken over the Savior's feet. It all happened in the breaking. When the Son of God was broken in the darkness... of the cross, Satan was overthrown, sin was dealt with, the Gospel set free and eternal life released for all the world. Calvary proves the principle that God always blesses brokenness, for he brings life out of death."

The Requirement of Brokenness

Today I heard Tim Keller relate a story about several pastors talking in England about a young preacher who was taking the country by storm. Strong, authoritative preaching. As the men discussed this younger man's success, one of the older pastors remarked, "Yes, but I do not think that he has been broken yet." I suppose he was getting at the idea that grace can only flow through a broken vessel. So is it possible that brokenness is not a liability after all, but actually a requirement for effective ministry? Something to think about. Anyway, those remarks echo the words of Stanley Voke, who, in his book, Peronal Revival, said, 

"God knows how much we need to be broken, so He uses people and situations to humble us that we might be brought wounded and helpless to the foot of the cross." 

Brokenness is painful. No one chooses that path. However, what an encouragement it is to know that God plans those hard things in our lives in order that we might experience more grace, more love, more Jesus... and in turn, be much more effective "witnesses" to the beauty, wonder, and power of the gospel.

My Challenge

There is an article by World Magazine columnist Andree Seu that I keep in my Bible and pull out quite often. She writes, 

"In normal times one tends to derive one's security from notoriously losable things, even while continuing to believe that one has placed one's house squarely on the Rock. If you are a child of His, God will not let that state of affairs persist indefinitely." 

Seu is piggy-backing off of German pastor-martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who said, "The disciple is dragged out of his relative security into a life of absolute insecurity." This is the place from which I tend to run. I want safety. Comfort. Security. But as Seu says, "There is no place than on this scary adventure that we learn to trust Jesus." Whether it is the flood of my sin or the stress of circumstance, I am called to live by the saving and sustaining grace of God. And part of living by grace is learning to live by grace. That is my challenge today: to believe the promises of God in the gospel, experience rest, and walk in the security of the Savior's shadow (Ps. 91:1).

A Gospel Reminder

I received an email today from a friend, Dave McCarty. Some people are preachers, some evangelists, and others leaders, exhorters and motivators. Dave is a gospel reminder. And I am thankful for him and his ministry of reminding me of my need for Jesus.  In his most recent email "reminder," he writes:

"Only the deeply wounded who realize their woundedness, those with a deep sense of failure, can deeply appreciate The Healer... and can experience the ecstasy of His unconditional love, to the point where everything else in this world, pales by comparison. The gift of... His presence is incomparable to the hurting, the needy, the loser, the nobody, the dysfunctional, who is self-aware. The work of the Spirit is to make us self-aware."

This "reminder" reminded me of how spiritually blind I am most of the time. So UNaware of my need, because I am always trying to be strong, able, mature and self-protective... and therefore, I am UNaware of the grace, love and spiritual power that is available to me in the gospel. And so my prayer today is that I would be freshly aware of my woundedness, failure, weakness and need, so that I would find, cherish, and enjoy Jesus as my all-sufficient Savior, Healer, and Lover of my soul. 

Don't Miss Jesus

In his book, Objects of His Affection, Scotty Smith says, 

"It's one thing to go to church, but quite another to go to Jesus." 

Now, these are not mutually exclusive. We can, I hope, "go to church" and "go to Jesus." But I can relate to just "going to church." I know what it is to be compelled by religious duty. This can also happen in the evangelical "quiet time." The point is that I can go through the religious motions, and still miss Jesus—because religious motions are about what I do, while the gospel essentially is about what Jesus has done. So I suppose the distinction between religious activity and true spirituality is that the religious life is driven by guilt and duty, while the life of being a disciple of Jesus is driven by grace. So my prayer today is that whether "in church" or in my "quiet time," or in whatever I'm doing, that I would experience a living, vital, faith-filled, grace-dependent communion, not with a religious duty, but with Jesus. 

Grace Flows Downhill

James Proctor wrote a hymn entitled "It is Finished" that has a stanza which speaks to a very real need in my heart. This is because I am a "recovering Pharisee (legalist)" who by default lives by performance rather than by grace. Sometimes I fall off of the wagon by living as if my "doing" secures my "being" forgiven, accepted and loved by God. However, the gospel tells me that my "being" forgiven, accepted and loved comes before any "doing" on my part. I am reconciled to God, accepted, declared righteous and loved, not because of anything good I have done. I do nothing— no thing. Jesus does it all. He does every thing necessary for my salvation as a dearly loved and adopted son. And so if I think my doing either secures or sustains my position before God, my doing becomes deadly. That is why Proctor's hymn helps to set me free, loosening the chains of legalism, guilt and duty. As if speaking to me, he says,

"Lay your deadly doing down

Down at Jesus' feet

And stand in Him, in Him alone,

Wondrously complete."

The Question for Today

I just can't get enough of Stanley Voke. Here is a bit more from his chapter in Personal Revival entitled, "The Way Up is the Way Down." 

"We have to continually take this lowest place.... [However] we want to be strong in ourselves, popular and powerful like Absalom, rather than poor and crippled like Mephibosheth, who was obliged to live by the grace of King David."

The question for me today is this:  Will I live by the grace of King Jesus? The fact is that I am more crippled than I want to admit—far more crippled. But He is more able to heal than I am able to imagine—far more able... and far more willing.  

The Way Up is the Way Down

I am re-absorbing the late Stanley Voke's book Personal Revival: Living the Christian Life in the Light of the Cross. It is gospel gold. In his opening chapter entitled, "The Way Up is the Way Down, Voke writes:

Zacchaeus had to come down from his tree to find salvation. Peter came down from his boat to walk on teh water to Jesus. Lepers and blind men came down to the Lord's feet to find healing. Prophets and apostles found the fulness of the Holy Spirit as they lay prostrate before God. The last church in Revelation was promised rightousness and riches when she took the place of poverty, blindness, nakendness and need. In each case, the way up was the way down.... This is where we must come if grace is ever to reach us."

Quoting the Old Testament, Peter said it like this, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."  Or as Jack Miller used to say, "Grace flows downhill." 

The Sinner's Place

In Stanley Voke's wonderful book, Personal Revival: Living the Christian Life in Light of the Cross, he talks about the significance of "the sinner's place." He says, "The hardest thing for anyone is to take the sinner's place." Simply put, "the sinner's place is where [I] take blame."It is the place where I am real, honest, authentic, and vulnerable. While I naturally resist that place with all my might, the Spirit guides me (sometimes pushes me) there, not to condemn, but to help me see my need of Jesus as my only righteousness, and therefore, my only glory, boast, and ultimate joy. For the gospel tells me that "the righteousness of God" (as well as the peace, hope, and joy of God) is only given to those who stand in the sinner's place. This is because Jesus has already stood there, or better, was nailed there in my place. So when I am honest with myself, God, and others, about the reality of my sin and need for redemption, the sinner's place becomes "the place of true peace, for here [I] cease my strivings and find [my] God... Here [I] cast away [my] pretense, and admit who I really am. Here [I] come to Jesus to be cleansed by his precious blood. Here the Holy Spirit fills and holiness is found. Here are the springs of revival."  

I've had to stand there this week (as I should every day). It is a painful and humiliating place. I really don't want to fess up to the deeply flawed and sinful McKay. But not to be here is make-believe and a sham. However, as the gospel promises, I am finding the sinner's place to be uniquely liberating, and drawing me to glory in and love Jesus as my Savior more than I could have imagined. Indeed, the sinner's place, for those who will go there, is a place of abundant grace.

"Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling."

The Gospel According to Plato

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato (428-347 B.C.) believed that everything in the material world was a shadow of that which is eternally true, beautiful, and good. While what we see is imperfect, especially concerning humans, there is something about humanity (and all other facets of the material world) that leads us to conclude that there is a commonality among humans. Plato would say that we, like a batch of ginger bread cookies, are all cut from the same mold. I don't think that he would say that humans are created in "the image of God," but the concept is incredibly similar.  

In the remarkable novel, Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder takes a young girl on a tour of the history of philosophy. Concerning Plato's ideas about the material world being a shadow of the eternally true, beautiful, and good, Gaarder says, that even though the cookies possess various flaws, "You are seized by the irresistible desire to see this mold... because clearly the mold itself must be utter perfection—and in this sense, more beautiful—in comparison to these crude copies." As I read that I was struck by Plato's insight, and how stunned he might have been to discover how correct he was, for the mold has been revealed in the person of Jesus, who in his incarnation became the revelation of the eternally true, beautiful, and good, and in his crucifixion, took on my deception, ugliness, and evil, so that—by the wonder of sheer grace—I might be declared eternally true, beautiful, and good (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

As Gaarder said that I would be, I now am seized by an irresistible desire to see the mold— to see and to savor Jesus. So thank you, Plato, for such an unintentional, yet helpful insight into the gospel.

Downloadable Church Plant Information

The Dahlonega Church Plant now has downloadable information (a 2-page Ministry Summary and a full, 12-page Ministry Prospectus) on our website, or directly, here.  

Winslow's Wisdom

One of my favorite authors is Octavius Winslow, a nonconformist preacher in 19th century England. His book The Work of the Holy Spirit has had a deep impact on me, so much so that I named my third child after him (and after Jonathan Edwards' wife). Anyway, one thing he captures so well is the connection between gospel faith and life change. Here are three quotes from that book that I go back to over and over again.

“It is by simple, close, and searching views of the cross of Christ that the Spirit most effectually sanctifies the believer. This is the true and great method of gospel sanctification... The Spirit especially and effectually sanctifies by unfolding the cross of Jesus.”

“Let no man dream of true mortification of sin, of real sanctification of heart, who does not deal constantly, closely and believingly with the atoning blood of Jesus.”

“Self-trust, self-complacency, self-boasting all must be crucified... Our wisdom is to go in our weakness and folly to Jesus. In this lies the great secret of our victory: ‘When I am weak, then I am strong.’”

The Paradox of the Gospel

A paradox is an apparent incongruity. In many ways, the gospel is a paradox. Whatever my "natural" mind thinks, I can be fairly sure that the gospel is going to challenge it. Consider this:

In order to live, I must die. Really?

In order to be spiritually mature, I must become like a child. What?

In order to be first, I must become last. C'mon.

In order to be great, I must become a servant.  Huh?

In other to be strong, I must be weak.  You're kidding?

God's ways typically are not my ways. So by grace, I hope to begin thinking more paradoxically. Of course, this will require me to believe the gospel. 

Failure is a Wonderful Thing

I think I heard it from Jerry Bridges, who said, "God will not love you more because of your success, and will not love you any less because of your failure." His love is perfect and complete. Steadfast. Unrelenting. That is what the cross says to those who repent and receive the gift of the gospel.

I'm thinking about this because of a recent email that I received from my friend, Dave McCarty. He writes:

"When has success or accomplishment, ever driven me to Jesus? Failure is a wonderful thing, because it makes me Jesus-needy, and all that's required for me to run to Jesus, is for the Spirit to open my eyes, convict me of my sin, of wanting something other than Jesus, so that I come to my senses, and return to Jesus, and find rest for my soul, peace that passes understanding, and joy unspeakable."

He is not saying that we should pursue failure, but that even failure has a redemptive purpose in the hands of a loving Father. It enables me to see my weakness and need, and drives me to Jesus. Good reminder, Dave. Thanks.

Beyond Debate

A couple of days ago I was setting up shop in a new, semi-swanky McDonalds (seriously). As I pulled my laptop out of my backpack, an older gentleman next to me asked if I were a student. After sharing with him what I do, he respectfully replied, "I envy you." His reason: "Because you believe in all that angel stuff." To make a long story short, he testified to his atheism and how he envied me because he wished that he could believe in God, but can't. The reason: Christianity is not intellectually credible. To my religious flesh, those were fighting words! And after dialoging about origins and the historical nature of the biblical record, I became convicted. Even though he probably couldn't tell, I found myself wanting to win the debate. I realized that my need to be right was stronger than my desire or ability to empathetically listen to his objections and sincerely understand his doubts. As he spoke, rather than listening well, I was formulating my next line of argumentation. Ugh! I was not living by grace, but out of self-righteous pride. So what am I to do? How will I handle it next time?  I may try to win again, but I hope not. My prayer is that when I sit beside him again, I will not see an opponent, but a fellow sinner, who not only needs grace to see the reality of God, but also to see the beauty, wonder, and power of the gospel—the kind of beauty, wonder, and power that enables a prideful and impatient Christian to care as much about grace as he does about truth (since truth without grace really isn't truth... just as grace without truth really isn't grace). 

Criticism and the Cross

Over the years, I have tended to be sensitive to criticism. And when criticized, my knee-jerk reaction is to become defensive. However, I have realized that nothing criticizes me more deeply than the cross. It tells me that I am so deeply flawed and corrupted that it required Jesus to suffer death in my place. And yet, while enduring the criticism of the cross, my heart is restored, encouraged and sustained by the strongest possible word of forgiveness, acceptance, and love... through the testimony of the very same cross, WHERE JESUS BECAME THE OBJECT OF THE CRITICISM THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LEVELED AT ME! This means that I now can learn from the critical comments of others, since there is usually some truth in every critique. And I no longer have to become defensive, because through faith in the gospel, my identity is no longer rooted to my record, goodness or obedience, but to the record, goodness and obedience of Jesus. So I can be real about the reality and prevalence of my sinfulness, weakness, and need.

I want to be like Charles Spurgeon, who after preaching a particularly earthy sermon, was told afterward by an older lady that he was the most unholy preacher that she had ever heard. Spurgeon leaned over to the man next to him and said, calmly, "And she doesn't even know the half of it." 

Understanding the cross helps me absorb the blow of criticism. After all, if those who criticize don't know even "the half (or even 1%) of it," nothing anyone can say about me is nearly as devastating to my pride and self-righteousness as the cross.  The glorious thing is, that even though I don't know a half of my sinfulness, neither do I know even half of God's forgiveness, acceptance, and love.  

The Fitness God Requires

Joseph Hart wrote the hymn "Come, Ye Sinners" in 1759 describing the kind of fitness that God requires. The truth of this hymn's gospel invitation still stands.  

Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
Bruised and broken by the fall;
If you tarry ‘til you’re better,
You will never come at all.
Not the righteous, not the righteous;
Sinners Jesus came to call.
Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requires
Is to feel your need of Him.

Saved by Works

Christians are saved by works... just not by their own works. 

In Acts 2 the day that the disciples had been praying for finally arrives with the first great outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Jewish Day of Pentecost. Without taking sides on what was going on (I wish we had a video of that scence!), what we do know is what was being heard from the various "tongues" spoken by the disciples. As they were filled with the Spirit, they began "declaring the wonders of God." The word translated "wonder" is from a Greek word with a prefix, mega, which may be why one recent Bible translation renders the phrase "mighty (mega) works." Their day was much like ours. Most folks believed that if they were going to be accepted, forgiven, loved and blessed by God, that it was up to them to do the right religious and moral works. And so folks tried. If they thought they had succeeded, they grew proud. If they failed, they despaired. How I can relate! 

The good news of the gospel is that all the work that needed to be done to make me acceptable, forgiven, loved and blessed by God has already been done through the substitutionary life and death of Jesus. In that sense, Christians are saved by works—Jesus' works. Therefore, what happens when I am filled with the Spirit is that I begin to grasp the significance of God's grace and respond with an overflow of praise to God for his works. When I am filled like that, my eyes shift away from myself (from both my successes and failures) to Jesus, who for the joy set before him endured the ultimate work of the cross. And it is there at the bloody tree that religious pride and despair are turned into gospel humility and hope.  

Prayer is a Sign of Weakness

In Acts 1, after Jesus had told the original disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they had received power for ministry from the Holy Spirit, we read that "they all joined together constantly in prayer..." It was not long before the now famous outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. They were convinced of their weakness and need, so they constantly prayed to the one who is strong and able.

An obvious lesson that I gather from this is that prayer is for the weak and needy, not for the strong and able. And so when I find that my experience in prayer is either formalistic or nonexistent, the red flag that needs to up in my heart is that I am living as if I am strong and do not need the power of Jesus. But as a friend of mine, Becky Long, says, "My ability is the great enemy of grace."

"So Jesus, show me my weakness and need so that I will learn to pray. For as I am beginning to learn, it is only when I am weak that I have any potential of being able, because your strength is made perfect through my weakness, and serves to show me even another dimension of your grace. So Jesus, I suppose what I need to see even more than my weakness, is the power and grace displayed in the cross. Then I will begin to pray."

Education is Not Enough

As we look forward to beginning a new church later this year, I thought that it would be a good idea to read through the book of Acts, the story of the expansion of the early church by the Spirit-empowered preaching of the gospel. Anyway, in chapter 1, just before his ascension, Jesus tells his disciples that they will be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. However, he also tells them not to launch out on the mission. Really? Why not? After all, they had been given the best theological education anyone could receive—three years being taught personally by Jesus before the crucifixion, and then a forty day crash course following the resurrection. What did they lack? Jesus tells them to "wait for the gift my Father has promised." That gift would be the indwelling, empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, who was to fill them with the power they would need to be witnesses of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. 

I do not despise theological education at all. Rather, I prize it highly– and have the degrees to prove it.  But education is not enough (and in some cases it may get in the way if I lean on my knowledge as the power of ministry rather than the simple message of the gospel being empowered by the Holy Spirit). What I need is the continual filling of the Holy Spirit—the Spirit who fills those who are empty of self-power and need the strength of Jesus.

So, if you are following the Dahlonega church plant, would you stop now, just for a minute, and pray that I would grow increasingly aware of my inability to effectively preach and minister the gospel, and that I would become increasingly aware of my need for the empowering grace and overwhelming ability of the Holy Spirit?