Month: September 2018

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God Is Our Ultimate Source of Value, Love, and Provision

I have accomplished many things that give me satisfaction. When I put together a small group program and see people connecting, I feel good. When I am able to help someone get involved in an area of service where they flourish, I am thankful to God. When I finish a paper and hand it in, it gives me a sense of accomplishment, especially if I get a good grade!

God has also blessed me with many friends, an amazing wife, children who value me, parents who care about me, and various mentors, counselors, and advisers. When I think of all the people in my life, I am truly grateful for the love that comes my way.

I am also financially stable. I have money in the bank. I’m putting money toward retirement. My church takes good care of me.

The problem is that sometimes I try to do things and fail. Sometimes people hurt me or are not there for me. Sometimes I get a huge bill, and I’m not sure how I’m going to pay for it. If I lean too hard on any of these things for value, love, or provision, they fail me.

And that reminds me that all of these gifts cannot be the ultimate source of my value, love, or provision.

The ultimate source of my value, love, and provision is God Himself and the promises in His Word that He loves me, values me, and will take care of me.

Most of our great sins and pathologies arise from trying to take God’s good gifts and make them the ultimate source of our love, value, and provision.

It is only when we trust in God’s promises that we have an unshakable foundation of value, love, and provision. It is only when we trust in God that we can value His gifts for what they are and not turn them into an idol.

For example, if God is my ultimate source of love, then I can take my children’s love for what it is, a small but wonderful reflection of God’s infinite love. But what if I try to make my children the ultimate source of love? They will always disappoint. It will also probably crush them by placing on them a burden too great for them to bear.

If we can trust God as our ultimate source of love and let humans just be humans, then everyone will function better and have the opportunity to flourish.

Trust in God, then, is necessary for human functioning and flourishing (for a fuller discussion of this issue, see my article here).

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Responsive Call to Worship from Psalm 103

Psalm 103 is one of the most beautiful expressions of God’s love in the Bible. This Sunday, I’m preaching on Ephesians 3:14–21. I thought this would be an appropriate call to worship. This is simply an arrangement of the verses from the NIV. Please feel free to copy and use it in your service.

Reader: Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—
Congregation: who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Reader: Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Congregation: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

Reader: Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will.
Congregation: For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Reader: Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion.
Congregation: The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

All: Praise the Lord, my soul.

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Why Community? Seven Important Perspectives on Community

It is not good for a person to be alone. That’s what God said about Adam when He created him. So, He created Eve.

God made human beings for community.

It’s easy, especially in this society, to isolate ourselves and think we can make it on our own. The irony is that we use more things that involve more people than at any time in history. The reason we can isolate ourselves is because of a huge amount of cooperation by thousands and thousands of people to give us the conveniences that enable us to “make it on our own.”

However, it’s not merely our physical well-being that is dependent on others. Our psychological and emotional well-being is dependent on interactions with others.

We need community.

Here are a few reflections on what this looks like in light of the biblical revelation.

1. Community reflects the image of God. Each individual is made in the image of God, but God is not merely one. God is three–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is a community, and so human beings in their rational and emotional interaction with one another reflect that image.

2. Community manifests the glory of God when people come together in love, trust, and cooperation. To the degree that hatred, distrust, and tribalism characterize community, to that degree it does not reflect the glory of God.

3. Community that reflects God’s glory encourages diversity without compromising the truth. Truth is the foundation of the community, and humanity in its diversity is what reflects God’s glory most effectively. Both are needed.

4. Community must distinguish between primary and secondary truths. Primary truths are those that are necessary for the essence of the community. Secondary truths are areas where people can disagree and still be part of the community. It’s easy to confuse these things, and this confusion limits community.

5. Community is the only way for human beings to reach their full potential. Humans do not attain their potential without the influence of others, and humans are created for the love and service of others.

6. Community is worldwide but is manifested locally. It’s easy to love humanity in general. It’s harder to love individual human beings. However, it’s in real contact with real people that community is constructed and reflects the glory of God.

7. Community requires short-term and long-term connections. Community is established by thousands of short-term interactions. These are crucial. However, the depths of our hearts can only receive love and give love in long-term interactions. So, it is good to be part of community organizations, neighborhoods, and local churches.

All around us, there are message of self-fulfillment. God’s vision is much larger–corporate fulfillment and worldwide community. That is the heart of the mission of the church, and that is what reflects the glory of God most fully.

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The Advantages of Being Part of a Church

It’s easy to take people for granted. When people are present in our lives, it’s easy for us to miss the contribution they make, the support they give, and the comfort they provide.

The church is like that, too. It’s easy to miss its significant contribution to our lives.

An outside perspective can help us appreciate the things we take for granted. Dr. Roberta Gilbert is a psychiatrist and family therapist who has written a number of books on family relationships. She sought to apply these insights to the clergy in a series of seminars done at the request of several church leaders. You can read the substance of what she taught in her book Extraordinary Leadership.

In one of the chapters, she explains the benefits of being part of a congregation, and I found it very helpful and encouraging to me as a pastor.

Here’s what she says.

First, the congregation provides a unique support system. Family is probably our most important support system, but it has its limits. A congregation can provide an additional support system through the ups and downs of life. It can be a life line for anyone who is in times of great distress.

Second, in times of high stress and key turning points in our lives (she calls them “nodal events”) such as births, weddings, sickness, and funerals, the congregation and pastor provide a crucial calming influence and moral, social, spiritual, and even financial support. Continue reading “The Advantages of Being Part of a Church”

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An Unlikely Friendship

I first met Greg in September 2004 in the small town of Pollock, South Dakota. He was the Pastor of a church in Mankato, MN, in the Presbytery of the Siouxlands, a regional group of churches in Minnesota and North and South Dakota. I was seeking to join this group and become a Pastor in Spearfish, SD.

In the years that followed, I got to know Greg and the other Pastors and Elders in the Presbytery better. We met three times a year, and I always enjoyed those meetings. Greg’s church was a church plant, and, when they needed some extra funds, our church gave to support him.

Then, our denomination got embroiled in controversy over some theological issues known as “the Federal Vision” (If you know what that is, fine. If you don’t, it won’t take away from this story).

I was quite adamantly on the side opposed to “the Federal Vision.” I thought Greg was on the other side, and I called him one day to ask about it. At our next Presbytery meeting in January of 2008, I asked the Presbytery to look more carefully into his views.

When the Presbytery refused, I took it to the higher court of our denomination, and they ruled in my favor.

What followed that was a long series of charges and counter-charges, attacks and counter-attacks. It deeply divided our Presbytery. Sometimes, I felt like Presbytery was more like two armed camps ready to take each other out.

In 2012, while all that stuff was still going on, God did a new work in my heart. God was teaching me something different about local ministry. To make a long story short, I felt like I needed a greater emphasis on the simplicity of the Gospel and a ministry that was more geared toward reaching the lost and working together with other Christians. In my mind, I did not connect this to the ongoing conflict in the broader denomination or Presbytery.

In September of 2012, I shared with the Presbytery how the Lord had been working in my heart and how that had begun to change our church for the better. Many were encouraged, and Greg approached me to say how much he appreciated what I had to say.

I then said to him, “Why don’t we go for a walk and talk about it? At this point, what do we have to lose?” He agreed, and we spent the next hour talking together in a way that we had not done since before all the controversy.

That conversation continued with fits and starts over the next year. As I thought about it, I began to see how some of the issues we had been arguing about could be resolved. He was somewhat skeptical, but he agreed to talk.

Eventually, I concluded that it was important enough for me to take the 10 hour trip from Spearfish, SD to Mankato, MN so we could talk in person. We met at Panera Bread there in Mankato and began to hash out the issues. We made progress, but we still needed to talk further.

Then, something happened that made our conversations much easier. Greg resigned from his church and took a call as a Chaplain in the U.S. Air Force. And to what base did they assign him? Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City, SD, an hour away!

This was especially ironic because the churches in our area had been quite opposed to Greg and his “side.” It was probably the last place that he would have wanted to be stationed. But the Lord had his plans.

This move enabled Greg and I to continue to meet and have conversations. Eventually, we came to an agreement on the theological issues. We proposed a consensus statement between us as an alternative to any further charges or counter-charges in our Presbytery.

The Presbytery did not ultimately agree with our idea, but it was still a good and helpful exercise for us. Our relationship also began to change from just reconciliation to friendship.

In another irony, I moved away from South Dakota to Tennessee at the end of Greg’s first year in SD. This might have been the end of our friendship, but it wasn’t. We kept in touch.

I remember one day when I was really struggling with some issues and needed to talk. I went down my list of friends, and I came to Greg. I called him. He answered and was somewhat surprised that I would confide in him with a deep struggle. This really began a new level of friendship. We had moved beyond the theological issues, and we now began to help each other as friends and colleagues.

We now talk to each other at least monthly to help each other think through how we can grow as Pastors, Fathers, Christians, and human beings. I count him as a close friend.

I’ve also walked with Greg on his own journey as he has sought the next step in his life which has taken him all over the country from Colorado to Texas and back to South Dakota.

I’m pleased to report that he has now been approved for a call to a church in Louisville, KY. Louisville is a short four hours away. I get up there from time to time, so I’m looking forward to being able to visit face to face with Greg, my unlikely friend.

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