Category: Navigating God’s Crazy and Wonderful Invention, the Church

What is the church like, and how can we make it all that God wants it to be?

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Why and How to Go to Church

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius began his remarkable book Meditations with a reflection on all the people who had shaped him: his teachers, his adopted father, his mother, his grandparents. He recalled the lessons they had taught him—lessons that continued to guide him. That was Book 1.

In Book 2, he turned to a different subject: how to deal with difficult people. He argued that we should show patience and kindness toward them. Why? Because human beings are made for cooperation—like hands, feet, upper and lower teeth, and eyelids. When we live in an uncooperative way, we live contrary to nature. When we resent others or withdraw from them, we contradict what we are.

Marcus presses this even further. If another person refuses to live cooperatively, he says, that person harms himself more than he harms us. We must not allow someone else’s failure to live according to nature to pull us away from living according to it ourselves. That is why we should maintain a gentle spirit, ready to forgive and ready to be reconciled. We are made for one another. Others may frustrate that design, but we must not abandon it.

Why begin a talk about church with a non-Christian Roman Emperor? Because Marcus grasped something we do not—what a human being is. A human being is a social creature—made for fellowship, made for cooperation. We are not designed for isolation.

Everything we accomplish and everything we become comes through others—even if those others lived 1800 years ago and reach us only through a book. None of the comforts or technologies we enjoy exist without the cooperation of millions of people. Try building your iPhone from scratch, including mining and refining the materials. The idea is absurd. Yet we often imagine we can construct our lives independently.

Like Marcus, we are who we are because others have invested in us. And we will grow into better versions of ourselves only through continued interaction with others.

I have watched people attempt isolated lives. They stagnate. They do not mature. Growth happens in engagement. Alone, we reinforce our assumptions. In community, we are sharpened. Our immaturity is exposed. We are compelled to grow into what God intends us to be. The church is the community designed for that growth.

Why Church as the Community?
Why would we say that church is one of those communities we should be a part of? There are at least three reasons.

First, you are a Christian (if you are!). You desire to follow Jesus and worship the Triune God. There is no other setting where you will regularly find a diverse group of people gathered around that shared purpose and committed to helping one another grow in it. You need that community.

Consider 1 Samuel 23. David was hunted by Saul and uncertain whether he would survive from one day to the next. In that dark season, Jonathan came to him and reminded him of God’s promise that he would be king. The text says Jonathan helped him find strength in God. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Life Together, the word of God in the mouth of a brother is often stronger than the word of God in our heart. Continue reading “Why and How to Go to Church”

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Confessions: Why We Don’t Just “Stick with the Bible”?

One of the most common questions that Presbyterians get is, why do you have a confession? Why not just stick with the Bible?

Of course, this is not a Presbyterian issue. It is a Christian issue. Confessions or statements of faith are nearly universal in denominations and independent churches. Whether we are talking about Methodists, Episcopalians, Baptists, or the so-called non-denominational church down the street, they all have their statements of faith.

Why? Because Christians know that they are called to teach the truth. God wants us to explain, summarize, and defend the truth—not merely repeat the words of the Bible. That’s why Christians everywhere do this.

When they confess, there is a remarkable degree of unity in our statements of faith. The Presbyterian theologian Thomas Peck, reviewing Philip Schaff’s The Creeds of Christendom, said that this collection “must impress us also with the real consensus of the Evangelical Churches upon [many matters], and the most important” (“The Creeds of Christendom,” Southern Presbyterian Review 29, no. 2 [April 1878]:218). This is still true. See examples of this in my collection of statements here.

Why Not One Statement for Everybody?
We said there are many. Why can’t we have a single statement of faith that all Christians agree on? It’s rather simple: because all Christians do not agree on all things—even important things. Continue reading “Confessions: Why We Don’t Just “Stick with the Bible”?”

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4 Crucial Qualifications for Church Leadership

“[An elder must be] hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” – Titus 1:8

When we think of a church leader, we often think of someone who knows the Bible or theology well. These are crucial—yet far from sufficient.

In his letters to Timothy and Titus, the missionary and church leader Paul outlines the qualifications for officers in the church, those officially ordained to lead the people of God. His lists give us a picture of what a Christian leader should be. They apply first to officers, but they also describe what all Christian leaders—and really, all Christians—should aspire to.

These qualifications are primarily moral. They describe a person’s character and their way of relating to God and others. Based on Paul’s lists, I want to highlight four key traits: a welcomer of outsiders, pious, community-minded, and self-controlled. Let’s explore each in turn.

Welcomer of Outsiders

The Greek word behind “hospitable” literally means lover of foreigners. It is the opposite of fear or suspicion toward people who are different from us. Our English word “hospitality” can make this sound like simply having friends over. But someone can be very “hospitable” in that sense while never welcoming outsiders.

Jesus expresses this distinction clearly in Matthew 5:

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (vv. 46–47)

Everyone greets their friends. Christian leaders must go further. They must welcome the outsider.

Continue reading “4 Crucial Qualifications for Church Leadership”

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Seven Practices for Effective Church Ministry (Full Version)

[Note: you can read a shorter version of this article here]

Long days. Endless complaints. Burnout. That was Moses’ life in the desert.

All day long, day after day, Moses listened to the people and then explained to them the word of God. Moses was a prophet. Everybody wanted to talk to him. It seemed like a good use of his time.

But someone did not agree—Moses’ father-in-law Jethro. “What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone” (Exodus 18:17–18). Jethro thought Moses was taking on too much himself. He worried Moses would wear himself and the people out. He was probably also concerned for his daughter-in-law.

What happened next is remarkable. Moses could have said to his father-in-law, “You know, I’m a prophet. I think I know what I’m doing.” But he didn’t. He listened. “So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said” (Ex. 18:24).

What Moses recognized is that wisdom—knowing how to pursue the good in the best way—is not the province of the covenant community alone. It will always be surprising how much people in the world understand about creation, organizations, and even God. God’s common grace is a marvelous gift.

Moses was open to it, and we should be, too.

In this article, I want to highlight seven practices I have learned from a variety of sources. They are distilled in a very helpful way in The Seven Practices of Effective Ministry by Stanley, Joiner, and Riggs, to which I am particularly indebted. It is similar to Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. These practices contain timeless wisdom for running our lives and our organizations well. They are the principles that help us be effective and avoid “wearing ourselves out” while accomplishing little.

Before we get into the principles, allow me to expand on why we should think carefully about what we are doing as churches and ministries. It might seem more holy just to rely on the Holy Spirit in the moment and not plan too much. It might seem that love is more spontaneous and that planning inhibits the free flow of love to those who need it.

This is not completely wrong. Every plan can become a straitjacket and an idol. We can turn our plans into self-reliance and forget God. Scripture constantly warns us: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me . . .” (Jer. 9:23–24). This warning is not because wisdom is bad but because it is good. However, it is not as good as knowing and relying on the Lord, who can do far above all that we ask or imagine.

So, why should we even worry about wisdom or strategy in our organizations? Here are five reasons:

First, we need organizational wisdom because churches get bogged down in what matters least. Stanley et al. describe a situation that is all too familiar: “some ministries seem routine and irrelevant; the teaching feels too academic; calendars are saturated with mediocre programs; staff members pull in opposite directions; volunteers lack motivation; departments viciously compete for resources; and it becomes harder and harder to figure out if we are really being successful” (65). When we talk about organizational wisdom, we’re not fixing what already works well. We’re addressing the frustrations, the distractions from real ministry.

Second, we need organizational wisdom because not everything we do is equally important. The distribution of food to widows was quite important, but the Apostles said: “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables” (Acts 6:2). They didn’t say food distribution was unimportant. They said they had a more important task they could not abandon. So, they delegated it to seven deacons. Continue reading “Seven Practices for Effective Church Ministry (Full Version)”

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Seven Practices for Effective Church Ministry

[Note: this is a shortened version of a longer version of this article that you can read here]

Moses knew long days. He sat in the desert, hearing case after case, explaining God’s word to Israel. It looked holy and necessary. But Jethro, his father-in-law, wasn’t impressed: “What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out” (Ex. 18:17–18). Moses listened, delegated, and the ministry multiplied.

The point is simple: God gives His people not only His Spirit and Word but also wisdom to order their life together. Common grace, observation, and practical strategy are gifts. Planning is not unspiritual—it is one way we love well, avoid burnout, and keep the gospel central.

Stanley, Joiner, and Riggs’s Seven Practices of Effective Ministry distills this wisdom. These principles echo Scripture and experience. They remind us that effectiveness requires more than hard work. It requires focus. Among the seven, three stand out as essential for churches that want to see lasting fruit: clarifying the win, thinking steps not programs, and replacing yourself.

Clarify the Win
When Paul said, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22), he showed clarity. Preserving one culture was not the goal; salvation was. That was the win.

Too often, churches confuse the “ketchup” with the mission. Years ago, our fellowship meal was moved to Sunday morning. Everyone stayed. Visitors connected. It was a clear win. Yet the leader in charge worried only about a missing condiment. The food wasn’t the win—the fellowship was.

Every ministry needs the same clarity. What does success look like for your Sunday School class, your youth ministry, your outreach event? If you don’t define the win, people will chase details that don’t matter. When you do, it aligns energy, reduces frustration, and keeps the mission in front of everyone.

Clarify the win—or people will invent their own. Continue reading “Seven Practices for Effective Church Ministry”

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