The key to effective ministry is becoming less and less indispensable.
God Fads
“The more I read, the less I admire modern theology. The more I study the productions of the new schools of theological teachers, the more I marvel that men and women can be satisfied with such writings. There is a vagueness, a mistiness, a shallowness, an indistinctness, a superficiality, an aimlessness, a hollowness [in] the literature of the ‘broader and kinder systems’, as they are called, which to my mind stamps their origin on their face. They are of the earth, earthy.”
~ J.C. Ryle (written in 1864, but how much more true today – especially among those who push their faddish theology under the disingenuous claim that they have no theology, other than their own existential perceptions of Jesus!)
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Generations
Treasures from the Past
This old-world clematis goes back at least three generations in my family.
It originally grew in my grandmother’s yard in Maryland, then was transplanted to my parent’s home when I was a young man, and finally came with me to Virginia when I moved here with my own family many years ago.
In all, I figure it has been cared for by a Wright, in one place or another, at least sixty years.
Bearing One Another’s Burdens
The other morning a young man stopped by the house.
He had been struggling with emotional pain and bondage, and said he hadn’t come earlier because he didn’t want to be a burden.
I shocked him by responding that he and his problems were a burden – that there were other things I could be doing that morning. But, I explained with a huge grin, it was my joy to be burdened by him.
He paused and thought about it, then nodded as he realized I was being totally transparent and real with him. Thus started an amazing time of talking, sharing and ministry.
Organic Church Hypocrisy, Organic Church Reform
Frank Viola, Milt Rodriguez, Jon Zens and Felicity Dale?
Until they stop excusing a history of sexual predation within their ranks, their blogs and books on sexual equality as self-professed leaders in the organic/simple church community ring hollow.
And until they accept local church accountability and warnings about that abuse, their blogs and books on how to be the church likewise ring hollow.
Crossroad Nugget
Perverted Grace: Using God’s love to rationalize vice.
Leadership Abuse
The latest edition of HopeSpeak, a periodical by The Hope of Survivors (a international support network for victims of church sexual abuse), published an article by me on how to deal with leadership sins – including sexual abuse – in the church. It’s titled Leadership Abuses: Private and Public Sins.
Protecting the Victims
I’ve just learned that another international magazine also wants to re-publish it.
Lately, Marianne and I have become involved in more and more church abuse cases – including local private cases and also very public national scandals.
Sometimes our involvement is very confidential, while other times it involves publicly confronting the abuser and warning others under the dictates of 1 Tim. 5:19-21 where there has been no repentance.
Cheap Grace
Christ’s finished work of the Cross doesn’t mean that the work of the Cross is finished in us. Although grace is freely given, without merit or condition, it costs us everything to fully accept. Forget this, and you pervert the gospel.
Crossroad Nugget
So, on Sunday morning, will church be about what happens at some front podium, or about being active participants in living community?
Church or Community: Which Comes First?
That age old dilemma!
Fellow blogger, local church leader and provocateur Miguel Labrador loves to post challenging questions on Facebook.
This morning he posted this:
Does the local church root people in community, or does community root people in the local church?
Here was my response:
The Many Languages of God
God is a polyglot: He speaks to different people different ways.
Some primarily hear Him through the language of their heart and feelings, some analytically through their mind, some through the dynamics of action, some through the identity of relationships, and some through the passion of mercy and justice – among other ways.
Problems often arise among His people, however, when we think that our primary language for hearing God is His only language, or is superior to other languages He uses with others.
Crossroad Nugget
When grace become the ends, and not the means, we create yet one more religion – built around yet one more doctrine taken out of context to validate our own agendas.
Crossroad Nugget
Cultish movements grow by co-opting emerging leaders through carefully orchestrated attention and recognition that feeds their need for validation.
Slander or Coverup?
When Accusations of Gossip Become Gag Orders, by Wartburg Watch
Slander is a lie and the person making the claim knows that it is a lie. Unfortunately, many use the word to mean saying anything negative about an individual – and then accuse others of slander in order to coverup or excuse abuse by church leaders.
Speaking truth and warning about leaders with a history of abusing others in the church or condoning such abuse – whether C.J. Mahaney and his fellow pastors at Sovereign Grace Ministries, Frank Viola and his fellow “workers” in the organic church movement, or whomever – is NOT slander or gossip. Rather, it brings needed light to darkness, protection to others & healing to the hurting.
In fact, where there are multiple witnesses against an abusive church leader, we are commanded to expose and issue publicly warnings in 1 Tim. 5:19-21.
Freedom from Anxiety
Redemption
When we think of redemption we usually think about Christ’s atoning blood which delivered us from our sins. Yes, on the day we personally
surrender ourselves to the Lord and ask His forgiveness, He redeems us and we become His children.
Christ’s sacrifice was vital. We can now partake in His kingdom here on earth and when we die join Him in eternity. However, I believe that Christ’s act of redemption is far more encompassing then simply making a way for us to enter heaven.
Pursuing Love and Spiritual Gifts
Tim Day, a fellow elder here in Virginia, is co-teaching a Biblical Foundations discipleship class with Sheri Warren and me on Sunday evenings.
That class pulls together folks from indigenous, participatory fellowships that are relating together in our county. Through it, the three of us – with help from other local elders – are helping to lay a foundation of sound doctrine in those churches through their emerging leaders.
Over the last few weeks we have focused on spiritual gifts, and the importance of everyone being able to encourage and minister to one another in our local fellowships as we each use the gifts God gives us for our mutual benefit.
Misplaced Empathy: Loving the Perps
Finally… Someone is saying what needs to be said in the ongoing sex abuse scandals involving Frank Viola within the organic church community, C.J. Mahaney within Sovereign Grace Ministries, and others – and those who support them.
Like Marianne and me, licensed mental health counselor Carl Austin (the author of this piece) has ministered to many “perps” and seen amazing grace and redemption, but never without full and open confession and repentance. This is why we remain so resolute in opposing the proud abusers who never come clean. Unlike those who openly confess and repent, they are a blight on the church and remain a threat to others.
Part of the Christian life is being loving and forgiving. These are qualities I pray for daily because they are so much not a natural part of me. In my effort to distill down doctrine and make sense of it for me personally I go with the statement from First John 4: “God is love.” Likewise, I understand that if we don’t forgive others (Mt. 6:14-15) then we are not forgiven. For me, these are two basic tenets of the faith that I have to remind myself of daily. Keeping statements like this utmost in my thoughts simplifies things for me. However I wonder if one can go overboard in trying to live out certain important aspects of the gospel like love and forgiveness, and are there some situations where those qualities were not meant to be applied?
I haven’t read the recent Rob Bell book Love Wins but I know it’s sparked a whole lot of…
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Sound Doctrine
Cultivating Culture
Virtue
A Virginia Morning
It’s a beautiful Virginia morning and I’m watching, coffee in hand, creation stir in Marianne’s garden and on into the yard and woods as the sun rises…
“Morning Has Broken”
Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the word
Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dew fall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass
Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God’s recreation of the new day
~ Traditional Hymn
Crossroad Nugget
Authentic love brings truth, and truth is never neutral.
Crossroad Nugget
To claim that “Jesus is the truth”, while denying the full authority of His written Word, is disingenuous. It means that you want your own sensibilities and subjective perceptions to be the standard by which Jesus Himself, and thus “truth”, is defined.
Christ is All
I came across this quote from professor Karen Swallow Prior:
“Christ belongs in places outside of my heart, too – indeed, in all places.”
Christ is all, because He’s Lord of all.
Yes, indeed –
Over every square inch of creation…
Over all nations, societies and culture…
Over all spheres of human endeavor…
Christ now boldly proclaims “mine!”
Crossroad Junction 