Being in ministry means that you have been in the room—ER, family room, or church—where loved ones grieve tragedy. I have never met the guy in that room who feels the urge to speak right away. We want to be there as pastors to hug, hold, and weep with our people just as Christ did with Mary and Martha when Lazarus died (John 11:35).

However, if you are in the room long enough, something needs to be said. Eventually, the grieving want to hear something, if only a few words, from their leaders. So especially young pastors need to learn what to say when the right time comes along. How do we glorify Jesus and comfort the brokenhearted? If you do not know the answer to this question, you are not alone, but let me warn you that day is coming for you if it has not already.

I will never forget 2012 when both my dad and also my sister were going through cancer. My dad went to be with Jesus in August, and my sister is doing well today in 2013. What my family needed most from our pastors was silent presence and respect. But there was a time where we needed to hear words of love and encouragement along with something from God. The people who helped me the most patiently waited through the silence to speak God's Word to us in due time.

Here are three things that need to be said at the right moment:

1. "I want you to know the church is here for you and your family."

Yes, this promise seems obvious as an outsider, but it is what the hurting need to hear and see from their church family. If it is all you say in the time of tragedy, hurting people need to know they have someone to call for help. It is amazing how many details and duties come along with tragedy, such as informing people and providing food for family coming in town. Hurting people need to know that they have somewhere to go with all the extra things that come with hurting.

2. "Can I pray for you?"

It is true that grieving people do not want a sermon, but I have never seen anyone turn down prayer. You are leading them to the place where they really need to go and where they will need to stay in the days to come. Do not be shy about this offer. It is so easy to lose your bearings in time of suffering. We all need help bringing God to the center of our experience.

3. "God's Word says . . . "

This seems difficult to say for many reasons. You as the pastor may feel overwhelmed by their direct experience of pain, which you do not share. So you think it is awkward to speak up at the right time, but that is not what they are thinking. In my experience, the suffering are desperately looking for solid ground to stand on. Give it to them. You don't have to open a Bible, but speak a short passage of God's truth for them to hang on for that day. Trust me, they will.

When we donate Packing Hope resources to missions and churches for the work overseas, we routinely ask for a report back. We often receive great stories and images, which we share with you as time allows. Last week, I received this great report from Jeff Hensley who pastors Heritage Christian Fellowship in Medford, Oregon. I think it really exemplifies the ideal scenario for our collaboration: solid, biblical resources getting into the hands of pastors in Asia, Africa, and South America and being deployed in the context of long-term relationships and mentoring.

Thank you so much for the ESV Study Bibles to our Ugandan mission work in March of this year. We have had a partnership with a church body in Mbarara, Uganda for almost 5 years now. Each year we travel over and do pastoral conferences to train the local pastors in the Word of God, typically by selecting a book of the Bible and teaching through it verse-by-verse.

This year we decided to do something different. Instead of teaching them through a book of the Bible, we decided to equip them with resources, like your ESV Study Bibles, and to teach them how to use these resources to study God's Word for themselves. The results were astonishing. The Ugandan pastors and elders felt as if they had been given powerful weapons that none could defend against! In an area riddled with prosperity theology and Islam, these pastors are now infinitely better equipped to teach God's word to their people and to continue to send pastors out into the unreached people groups of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Congo.

Photos do not adequately reflect the amazement and wonder that was in the heart of each Ugandan as we told them of this gift. Hands trembled and tears fell as they received them. Together, we all used this biblical tool, teaching them how to use the maps, margins, notes, and cross-references, to study through the book of 1 Peter themselves. We believe this has equipped them to carry on with proper biblical exegesis long after the white American missionaries have left town! Thank you for supporting our church, their church, our mission, and God's Kingdom.

Rejoice with us over what God is doing around the world through our partners in mission, and please consider prayerfully these ways of co-laboring with us:

• Praise God with us that in April nearly 200 cases of resources went out to 22 countries.
• Plan for incorporating Packing Hope resources with your next missions engagement.
• Give to our current Relief Project, Piper's book, Finally Alive in English which will be very useful for many regions of the world.
• Read and subscribe to our monthly update.
• Become a monthly supporter of Theological Famine Relief for the Global Church.

The Gospel Coalition invites you to join Leland Ryken in reading and discussing Leo Tolstoy's novella The Death of Ivan Illych. To learn more about our series on Commending the Classics, see earlier reader guides from Leland Ryken on Albert Calmus's The Stranger and "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Phil Ryken on Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead, along with Kathleen Nielson on the short stories of Flannery O'Connor.

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I first read and studied this novella as a sophomore in college. It was my first intense adult encounter with literature. Being a work of Christian fiction, Tolstoy's story also gave me a vision for the integration of literature and Christianity that never left me. I am happy to report that this great Christian classic still appears in The Norton Anthology of World Literature, where I encountered it in college.

In my last posting on Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown," I claimed that while Hawthorne's religious views are important, his short story is universal in its issues and does not require being contextualized in the broader landscape of Hawthorne's religious views. The same thing is true of The Death of Ivan Ilych. Tolstoy is an important figure in any history of modern Christian thought and practice, but knowing about his unorthodox Christian faith is not a prerequisite to understanding his masterpiece on suffering and death. I will therefore concentrate on the story itself, with minimal reference to Tolstoy's tortured religious life.

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian who lived from 1828 to 1910. His biography reads like an adventure story and a tragedy. At the approximate age of 50, Tolstoy reached a point of extreme despair about life. He resolved his despair in what can loosely be called a Christian conversion. The Death of Ivan Ilych was Tolstoy's first major fictional work published after his conversion and belongs to a group of works in which Tolstoy explained his religious views.

Brief Facts on The Death of Ivan Ilych

• Date of writing: 1884-1886 (Tolstoy worked on his masterpiece over a two-year span and made numerous references to the composition of it in his correspondence)
• Date of publication: 1886
• Language: Russian
• Best-known English translation: by Aylmer Maude; the translation used in this discussion guide
• Approximate number of pages: 60
• Format: 12 chapters (representing a symbolic completeness, corresponding to how Ivan's life ended in such a way that "what was necessary had been accomplished, and accomplished rightly")
• Genres: novella (short fiction, but longer than a short story); realism; satire; semi-autobiographical fiction (inasmuch as the spiritual progress of the protagonist is modeled on the spiritual conversion of the author); the literature of dying
• Setting of the action: multiple, inasmuch as the story encompasses the entire life of the protagonist, but mainly St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia in Tolstoy's day
• Chronology of the plot: the story begins with the death of the protagonist at the age of 45 and then (starting with chapter 2) moves back to the beginning of Ivan's life
• Style: simple and matter-of-fact prose (reminiscent of biblical narrative)
• Point of view: the story is told by a reliable narrator who knows everything (including what characters are thinking) and relentlessly forces us as readers to get beneath the surface level of life
• Inferred purpose of Tolstoy: to jolt readers out of living by the shallow norms of modern society and to lead them to face the serious and unavoidable issues of life and death
• Double plot: the story of external action (the level at which most characters in the story live) and the story of Ivan's internal life

Mirror of Modern Life

The Death of Ivan Ilych is a picture of the values by which many (and perhaps most) people live. It is a life without meaning. We need to note a great divide that runs through the story, however. With two exceptions, the characters who inhabit the world of the story are content with the trivial and materialistic life. This includes Ivan before he injured himself and embarked on the process of dying. But the story also pictures an alternative to life without meaning. As a result of his suffering, Ivan repudiates the values of materialism to embrace something more human, more moral, and more spiritual. The ultimate breakthrough comes when he is converted on his deathbed.

One of the great strengths of this story is its satiric portrayal and exposé of modern life. The features of modern society that we confront as we read include the following:

• the triviality of the things that occupy people's daily lives
• preoccupation with material things
• worship of success and prosperity
• social climbing
• careerism
• self-centeredness
• breakdown of families
• social conformity
• sexual permissiveness
• denial of death
• trust in medical technology, and a sense of betrayal when doctors cannot heal a patient

The mere portrayal of these familiar facets of modern life would itself be powerful and convicting, but Tolstoy's master stroke is his narrator. The narrator describes external and internal events in such a way as to heap scorn on the spectacle of living by the norms listed above. One of the best tips for reading is thus to regard the narrator's voice as a helpful tour guide that prompts us to respond correctly to the data that is presented.

Death Is Announced

This discussion guide will divide the story into three disproportionate units. This week's posting will limit itself to the opening chapter. There is no reason not to read more than the opening chapter in connection with this week's posting, since the opening chapter achieves its full meaning when we have the whole story in our awareness.

Tolstoy himself highlighted the opening chapter as a freestanding unit by devoting it to the death of Ivan Ilych and the responses this death elicits (and fails to elicit) in Ivan's family and colleagues. Only afterward does Tolstoy take us to the beginning Ivan's life. It is as though we cannot understand Ivan's life without first understanding his death. The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying correctly observes that structurally this story privileges Ivan's death over his life. By the time we end the story, this perspective will seem entirely logical to us.

Additionally, the opening chapter is the portal through which we enter story, so we should view it as our introduction to what will follow. One commentator claims that as a prelude to the story, the first chapter is designed in such a way as to implicate the reader in sharing the wrong responses made by the characters in the story.

Plot summary of chapter 1: During an interval in a trial in the law courts, someone announces to the assembled lawyers that their colleague Ivan Ilych has died. Immediately the colleagues begin thinking in terms of how the death will benefit their career climb, and then they take stock of the tiresome demands of visiting the widow to pay their condolences. We make the visit to the widow with a specific colleague named Peter Ivanovich. During his visit, Peter learns the details about Ivan's suffering and death. Yet he manages to distance himself from everything that might bring him to perception, including an awareness that death will come to him, too. All responses (including the widow's) remain on the surface level, and Peter leaves feeling lucky when he gets to his scheduled card game only a little late.

Narrative World of the Story

We need to begin by accepting that Tolstoy intended something definite by rearranging the chronology of his story in such a way as to begin with the last event in Ivan's life, namely, his death. One commentator believes this strategy puts us as readers into the story. As various characters respond to the death, we share their inner thoughts. Those thoughts are selfish, unfeeling, distanced, death-denying. We are right there to share Peter Ivanovich's irritation at the inconvenience of a colleague's death.

The opening pages of any fictional story are designed to initiate us into the narrative world that we enter when we commit ourselves to read the story. There can be no doubt that this is what Tolstoy accomplishes by beginning with the announcement of Ivan Ilych's death. Merely by recording what characters thought by way of response to Ivan's death, Tolstoy has plunged us into the world of the story by a kind of shorthand method. Our response to what we observe is double—shock at the attitudes displayed in various characters and at the same time awareness that these are the same thoughts to which we are at least tempted when confronted with the inconvenience and demands occasioned by someone's death. This story is like the Bible in its manner of convicting us.

For reflection or discussion: Since this is our initiation into the world of the story, we need to note the essential features of that world. What leaps out most obviously? How do the features of modern life listed above already establish themselves in our awareness? How do your own experiences and observations confirm the accuracy of the portrait that chapter 1 paints? Taken a step further, how does the narrator's voice get us to evaluate these features? At what points in the account are we particularly aware of the shallowness and deceitfulness of social conventions?

Foreshadowing Things to Come

Initiation is one of the two main items of narrative business that Tolstoy achieves in his opening chapter. The other is a skillfully managed strategy of foreshadowing. The opening chapter is a "teaser" that makes us curious about the rest of the story. Four things in particular are foreshadowed.

The first is embodied in a statement that describes the look on the face of the deceased Ivan: "The expression on the face said that what was necessary had been accomplished, and accomplished rightly." We will not learn what this means until the last chapter, where even the word rightly will explode with meaning. What is here a foreshadowing will be echoed in our memory when this key sentence is explained.

A second piece of foreshadowing is the information that the widow imparts to Peter Ivanovich regarding Ivan's suffering. We learn that Ivan's suffering was so terrible that he screamed for (a symbolic) three days before his death. Again we are teased into wanting more information.

Third, the ease with which Peter Ivanovich and Ivan's widow manage to sidestep the reality of death foreshadows a leading motif in the story as a whole. In the opening chapter, Peter is only momentarily struck by the possibility that what had happened to Ivan Ilych could happen to him. The widow's response to Ivan's suffering is the self-centered statement, "I cannot understand how I bore it."

Finally, in view of what we later come to know about Ivan's servant, Gerasim, we can view our introduction to him in the opening chapter as a foreshadowing. As Gerasim performs his servant's duties, we catch a glimpse of someone who understands what is happening in life. In contrast to Peter's and the widow's denial of death, Gerasim says forthrightly that death "is God's will. We shall all come to it some day."

For reflection or discussion: The skillful use of foreshadowing in chapter 1 is something that subsequent chapters will bring to fruition. Other techniques, though, can be relished in the opening chapter itself. For example, part of the triumph of this novella is its exploiting the literary technique of realism. Writers of realism love the apparently random and trivial detail that make a story lifelike. The pouffe [cushioned chair or couch] with its unwieldy springs takes on a life of its own in the scene set in Ivan's house. What other realistic touches strike you as cleverly managed by Tolstoy? More generally, knowing that Tolstoy worked on this 60-page novella for two years, what evidence do you see of careful craftsmanship?

Summary: The opening chapter is a detailed dramatization of how the death of Ivan Ilych fails to affect his family and acquaintances. By contrast, the story will eventually record how the death does affect Ivan. The story as a whole is arranged in such a way as to encourage us as readers to share Ivan's insight into suffering and death, and to rise above the imperceptiveness of his (and our) society.

Recently, we have begun to see an encouraging trend in Christian circles: a greater awareness of violence and oppression (such as human trafficking), as well as an increased concern for rescuing and caring for victims. We are seeing an explosion of attention to social justice issues in organizations like Passion, International Justice Mission, and the World Evangelical Alliance, and with the publication of books like God in a Brothel and The White Umbrella. Everywhere you look, churches, parachurch organizations, and individual Christians are waking up to the hidden world of injustice, violence, abuse, and slavery around us—and taking action.

The Bible does not hesitate to depict the harsh reality of violence and oppression, and in fact God's people are clearly called to fight for justice and mercy for all people. Throughout the entire Bible, God is portrayed as one who is just and merciful in his dealings with humanity. Psalm 68:4-5 says, for example, that God is "a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows." Theologians from a wide variety of backgrounds—from Gustavo Gutierrez to Nicholas Wolterstorff to Tim Keller—have concluded that God has a special place in his heart for the poor and vulnerable. Indeed, part of Israel's vocation was to enact social justice, not for its own sake, but because in so doing Israel would reveal the character of God to the surrounding nations, as a city set on a hill.

At the beginning of Jesus' ministry, he stood up in the synagogue at Nazareth and declared that these words of Isaiah were fulfilled in him:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (Luke 4:17)

In this declaration and his ministry, Jesus showed that bringing freedom for captives and relief to the poor and oppressed is crucial to his divine mission. His ultimate act of liberation was his substitutionary death and victorious resurrection, which set his people free from slavery to sin and death. Yet his teachings and his example show us that proclaiming the good news of Christ's saving work should be accompanied by tangible acts of love, service, and mercy toward our neighbors if the gospel message is to be recognized in its full power.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus' example revealed God's heart for the despised, the weak, the abused, and the vulnerable. Jesus spent significant amounts of time with children, women, the poor, the diseased, Samaritans, and other outcast and disliked groups, valuing and loving those who were excluded by the society of his day. This paradoxical approach to the power structures of the world is echoed by Paul when he writes, "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God" (1 Cor. 1:27-29).

Apologetic of Mercy

Historically, the Christian church has, at its best, been known for exemplary love and sacrificial service to the poor, oppressed, and marginalized. Such service has provided a powerful apologetic for the gospel. The fourth-century church provides just one example:

In his attempt to reestablish Hellenic religion in the empire, [the Emperor] Julian instructed the high priest of the Hellenic faith to imitate Christian concern for strangers. Referring to Christianity as "atheism," he asked, "Why do we not observe that it is their benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead and the pretended holiness of their lives that have done most to increase atheism?" He therefore instructed the priest to establish hostels for needy strangers in every city and also ordered a distribution of corn and wine to the poor, strangers, and beggars. "For it is disgraceful that, when no Jew ever has to beg, and the impious Galilaeans [Christians] support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us. Teach those of the Hellenic faith to contribute to public service of this sort."

Similarly, in more recent history, Christian churches of the 18th and 19th centuries led the charge for the abolition of slavery, again providing a strong apologetic for the Christian faith and visibly embodying Jesus' mission to proclaim liberty to captives.

Social action is an opportunity for Christian churches to take the gospel to those who are most in need, provide an alternative community centered on Jesus (the church) to the marginalized and oppressed, and show the transformative power of the gospel to the watching world. Moreover, responding to oppression and social injustice in our world and our communities is a way the church can practice the charge of Jeremiah 29 for God's people to seek the welfare of the cities where God has placed us, and to obey the call of James to practice "pure religion" (James 1:27) by caring for the most vulnerable.

In light of the theology of justice that permeates Scripture, we should give thanks that the renewed emphasis on care for victims and the oppressed has helped many Christians better realize a neglected aspect of our calling in the world. As Christopher J. H. Wright says,

Mission that claims the high spiritual ground of preaching only a gospel of personal forgiveness and salvation without the radical challenge of the full biblical demands of God's justice and compassion, without a hunger and thirst for justice, may well expose those who respond to its partial truths to the same dangerous verdict. The epistle of James seems to say as much to those in his own day who had managed to drive an unbiblical wedge between faith and works, the spiritual and the material. If faith without works is dead, mission without social compassion and justice is biblically deficient.

As we preaches the gospel of Christ's atoning work, leading to liberation from sin, we must also apply that liberating and atoning work to the evils of this world. Otherwise we are like the person to whom James refers in his epistle: "and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?" (James 2:16)

Put simply, without embracing both the physical and also spiritual aspects of redemption, Christians will have an incomplete concept of God's mission for the world.

Creeds and Deeds

As we celebrate the church's reawakening attention to oppression and emphasis on action, we must watch out for our historical tendency to swing between extremes. One side focuses exclusively or primarily on meeting material needs—this could be labeled the "deeds not creeds" extreme, with its focus on action at the expense of proclamation. This approach, frequently but incorrectly labeled "social gospel," reduces human beings to merely material beings and ignores the need for spiritual new birth and forgiveness of sin through the work of Christ, received through faith by hearing the word of God's grace.

Fearing this pitfall, we sometimes swing to another extreme, the "anti-social gospel," which could be dubbed "creeds not deeds." This extreme emphasizes sound doctrine and focuses on proclamation, but meets only "spiritual" needs while ignoring or minimizing tangible action. As Michael Horton argues, a "creeds not deeds" approach fails because it is actually incompatible with biblical doctrine:

While it is certainly possible to have a church that is formally committed to Christian doctrine—even in the form of creeds, confessions, and catechisms, without exhibiting any interest in missions or the welfare even of those within their own body, I would argue that it is impossible to have a church that is actually committed to sound doctrine that lacks these corollary interests. With respect to individual Christians in their common vocations, the mercies of God in Christ propel a profound sense of obligation and stewardship. God has given us everything in Christ, by grace alone, so our only "reasonable service" is to love and serve our neighbors out of gratitude for that inexhaustible gift.

To avoid the pendulum-swing between extremes, the church must emphasize both creeds and also deeds, recognizing that Good News results in good deeds. Without that theological center, the church will be tempted to spin off into either deeds only or creeds only. God's grace motivates repentance and change, and only by proclaiming God's gracious, merciful response to our sin and failure will we find the fuel for loving and serving our neighbors in action and in truth.

The rise in awareness of oppression and concern for victims from the church should encourage us. Because of God's lavish grace toward us through the work of Jesus, we are motivated to be agents of his grace to others, especially the vulnerable and oppressed. By responding to oppression and injustice, the church has the opportunity to be a light to the nations and to participate in God's mission by welcoming the weak and powerless to find grace, mercy, and rest in Jesus Christ.

Children's story bibles are not Bibles and, it turns out, neither are they for children.[1] My previous article explores the truth of the first statement.[2] Story bibles are illustrated, abridged, expanded, paraphrased, and fallible versions of the infallible book whose name they bear. They are not Bibles. But nor are they for children, at least, they are not just for children. Several pastors and reviewers recommend both The Big Picture Story Bible and The Jesus Storybook Bible for use among adults.[3]

One reviewer of the latter in Christianity Today says, "I'm hoping to invite my adult friends over for an evening with the Story. It will help some of us (well, me) to retool our theology a bit. We'll pass The Jesus Storybook Bible around and read it aloud, taking time to look at the pictures."[4] Tim Keller goes further: "I would urge not just families with young children to get this book, but every Christian—from pew warmers, to ministry leaders, seminarians and even theologians!"[5] Others make similar claims for The Big Picture Story Bible, which one blog-commenter suggests adding to a list of "Books to Read Before You Start Seminary/Divinity College."[6]

This is a relatively new situation. Prior to these story bibles, it is hard to find any such enthusiastic endorsements. What are we to make of this? On the one hand it could highlight the extent of biblical illiteracy and theological immaturity among Christian adults and, more alarmingly, among seminary students. On the other hand, or perhaps in addition to this, it could speak of the quality of these books, although the lack of any sustained critical engagement with them means that claims of their value are largely untested.

That testing, therefore, is the focus of this article. Although several story bibles have appeared in recent years, the widespread popularity of these two justifies limiting our attention to them.[7] My previous article demonstrates that it is neither an easy nor a quick task to evaluate a story bible. Drawing on the methodology my preceding article develops, this article considers these two popular story bibles with reference to four key relationships:

1. story bible text and Scripture
2. story bible images and Scripture
3. text and image within the story bible
4. the story bible and the child

Not every review of a story bible need follow this sequence, or do so at such length, but I hope in what follows to build on the previous article in two ways: (1) underline the significance and multifaceted nature of these relationships and (2) demonstrate their usefulness as a framework by which to evaluate story bibles.

1. The Big Picture Story Bible

The Big Picture Story Bible (hereafter BPSB), first published in 2004 by Crossway, now includes a companion audio CD (2010) and an eBook edition (2011), reflecting both the book's success and technological advances within publishing.[8] Intended for ages 2-7, it is divided into 26 chapters, 11 covering the OT (201 pages), 15 the NT (225 pages).

1.1. The Relationship between BPSB Text and Scripture

There are four sides to the relationship between the text of a story bible and Scripture: omission, addition, reformulation, and transposition.[9] In other words, we ask, "What has the author left out, added, changed, or rearranged?"

Continue reading at Themelios, an international evangelical theological journal that expounds and defends the historic Christian faith. It is published three times per year by The Gospel Coalition.

This article is written in love and admiration for pastors in North America. It is also written in brotherly concern because pastors in our culture are frequently subjected to gossip, slander, and malicious speech. You probably do not have to attend church meetings for very long before witnessing this for yourself. I remember speaking with a friend who attended a church meeting that quickly turned ugly. His comment to me, as a new Christian, was, "My honeymoon in the church was over." I doubt any of my readers will have trouble imagining what that meeting was like for my friend. While this is naturally a problem for any church in any age, certain tendencies in our culture make it an especially glaring one—and the Internet only makes things worse. I would like to think through the issue of foolish speech in a pastoral context by turning to the book of Proverbs because this book contains rich resources for both understanding and interpreting the roots of foolish speech and responding to it in a faithful way.

I would like to argue that, in the book of Proverbs, one cannot argue with a fool without making things worse. The wise person instead trusts the Lord to intervene by silencing and stopping foolish speech and vindicating those who trust him. I realize this conclusion may seem extreme. In order to recommend it, this article briefly sketches how the major characters in Proverbs speak and examines how the wise respond (or do not respond) to foolish speech. Then it turn to the NT, focusing on Paul's directions to how Timothy and Titus should speak in different situations, as well as Paul's presentation of Christ as the wisdom of God in 1 Cor 1. The essay closes by applying the wise speech of Proverbs to everyday-ministry settings.

1. Major Characters in Proverbs: The Simple, the Fool, and the Wise Man

The first major character in Proverbs is the simpleton, most often identified with the son or the youth in the book. The book of Proverbs portrays a pious Israelite father, guided by Solomon, teaching his son how to engage successfully in the complex adventure called "life." The son or youth is classified as "simple" (פֶּתִי) in the sense of being naïve about how life works and easily fooled (see Prov 1:4). While not morally wrong in itself, the youth's simplicity is dangerous because it is susceptible to influence from either wisdom or folly (9:4-6, 16). If not left behind, the youth will suffer the most terrifying consequences (1:22, 31). Although more could be said about this character, it turns out that the simple youth does not have much to say in Proverbs—he is rather called on to listen quietly to the wise instruction of the father.

For this reason, we turn to the two other major characters in the book: the righteous-wise and the wicked-fool.[1] In making this distinction, I am not ignoring how Proverbs uses a number of words are for different kinds of people. For instance, לֵץ ("scoffer") seems to denote a hardened cynic for whom there is the least hope of change.[2] Nevertheless, it is fair to make a broad distinction between two basic kinds of people in Proverbs: the righteous and the wicked, the wise and the foolish. The entire book of Proverbs is an appeal to the son to leave behind his simplicity and join the ranks of the righteous-wise by describing the life (and especially the speech) of these people and the blessed consequences that meet them under YHWH's hand.[3]

The righteous-wise can be defined, first, as those who "do right by" God and neighbor (1:3, 2:9, 12:17, 21:21, etc.). They discharge all relational obligations, doing what is right in the complex junctures to which every relationship is subject. This righteousness should not be understood only in the sense of fairness or balance, but more extremely as going "over the top" to do as much as possible to enhance the life of one's neighbor. "The righteous are willing to disadvantage themselves to advantage the community; the wicked are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves."[4] Second, this category of people are "wise" in the sense of being skilled at engaging with the complex order God has set up in creation, and especially in relationships (1:2-7). This category of people is consistently portrayed as morally upright and insightful about how life and relationships work.

By contrast, the wicked-fool privileges self over neighbor. His wickedness consists in working for his own advantage to the detriment of others. His folly is similarly seen in the lack of skill with which he lives, despite the disastrous consequences to himself and others. Furthermore, this type of person consistently refuses to listen to instruction or rebuke or advice. The fool is someone who is incorrigibly certain he knows how life works, no matter how he is warned (1:7, 22; 12:15, 15:5). They are the ones who are wise in their own eyes (3:5-8). In contrast, the wise are receptive, open, and listening to wisdom (1:7-8, 2:1-4, 10:8, etc.), even loving rebuke (9:8).

How do these two groups of people talk? Proverbs spends no small amount of space portraying wise and foolish speech.

2. Foolish Speech in Proverbs

We can broadly summarize foolish speech in two ways.

2.1. Constant

First, there is a lot of it: the fool is always talking. Instead of pondering how he should answer, his mouth pours forth wicked things (Prov 15:28; cf. 15:2). He answers before he listens (18:13). He gets involved in arguments not his own (26:17). This kind of person is completely unrestrained: cross him and he explodes (12:16; 29:11). He cannot keep another's secret (11:13; 12:23). He abuses people he dislikes (11:12)[5] and criticizes them to others (10:18). Instead of keeping quiet, his rash words are sword-thrusts (12:18) that spark arguments with others (15:18).

The first-time reader of Proverbs might conclude at this point that people who are naturally outgoing and talkative are closer to folly than those with a quieter personality. Proverbs does contain some sober warnings about talking a lot: "in many words, sin is not lacking" (10:19); "the one guarding his lips guards his life" (13:3). But the biblical portrayal of the fool's unrestrained speech locates its source elsewhere: the fool talks so much because he is someone who has to be right. He will not stop arguing (20:3). If you get into an argument with the fool, instead of giving you the benefit of the doubt and working with you toward a resolution, "he only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet" (29:9). From the very first chapter of Proverbs, gaining wisdom means listening to those wiser than you; one cannot become wise without being receptive. An essential characteristic of the fool is that he will not do so, instead despising יסר, "fatherly instruction" (1:7, 5:23, 10:17, 12:1, 13:1; cf. also the understatement for effect in 15:12). Refusing to accept instruction in how life works, the fool is interested only in airing his own opinion (18:2).

And there is a sense in which the fool cannot accept such instruction. The fool's unwise speech is constitutional: he does not know how to say anything else. The mouths of the wicked know only what is perverse (10:32); when a fool decides to instruct someone, all he can dispense is more folly (16:22). Truths that would otherwise help others dangle like crippled legs in his mouth (26:7; cf. 1:22, 23; 13:19; 17:10; 24:7; 27:22).

As most evangelicals know, pastor John Piper recently retired after more than 30 years of service at Bethlehem Baptist Church. Our family has been there for less than nine of them. But in that time much good has been done  in our family because of how he preaches and interacts with those under his shepherding.

But Pastor John is not unique in any of these traits. Or to put it as he might, they are not his distinctives. Many pastors would fit this full description. Nevertheless, these traits are all important tools by which Pastor John worked toward his ultimate goal—spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.

So here are six reasons I'm glad John Piper has been my family's pastor. All quotes come from his sermons.

1. He is funny.

Pastor John once said that he'd never told a joke in 30 years of giving sermons. I'll admit that I've never heard him tell one. But this is not to say that he never tries to get people to laugh. He does, often and successfully. This makes me glad, because humor is part of life.

I've heard that Pastor John has a reputation as being very serious, and some believe him to be too sober. To these people I suggest that they listen to a sermon or two. Anyone who reads the Gospels can imagine Jesus smiling after speaking some of his declarations and a child giggling with him. It's a good thing to see a son or daughter laugh in the middle of a sermon.

"I've told that story a hundred times and people always laugh. You almost didn't laugh."

"Pride never falls out of a chair in laughter," he would say.

2. He is an actor.

Just to be clear, when I say Pastor John acts, I don't mean that he is in any way fake or false. I mean he doesn't read his sermons straight. He puts much emotion into what he is saying. In a single sermon he might emote anger, sadness, exasperation, confusion, dread, and joy. And much has been said about Pastor John's sermon gestures. It all makes for an interesting experience.

"God can't be boring. The world is boring! Avatar is boring! . . . That's not in the manuscript. It must be of God. You decide."

"I don't want to live in this body for the rest of eternity. I can't see. My wife thinks I can't hear. I can hear, but my wife thinks I can't. It's the fan! It's the fan!"

"I'm scared out of my wits at being a millionaire. That's a weakness. Some people can handle it. I don't have that gift. Like I chew a whole pack of gum immediately. . . Why wouldn't you?"

3. He uses an outline.

When Pastor John preached on the first chapter of John, he said, "It's not wrong to write a story with suspense. This one just doesn't have it." This can be said of Pastor John's sermons as well.

Pastor John not only has an outline when he preaches, he often makes those elements clear from the first paragraphs. And he makes it clear which point he's on, sometimes repeating the previous points. As a dad, I'm grateful for this; it gives my kids an easier way to get a sense of bearing.

"Now, these are going to be a little bit longer. This is going to go up on the Web on Monday afternoon, so you can just relax, you don't need to write this stuff down. If it sounds like it's going to be helpful, just go get it . . . Don't panic."

4. His heart is visible.

We'd been attending Bethlehem about a six months when my nearly 2-year-old son lost part of his pinky in a construction accident. This was a difficult time for our family, and we brought Erik to see Pastor John, who prayed for our son and kissed his bandaged hand. And he told us about a time when his son had been injured.

He can be seen after each sermon ministering, one by one, family by family, to a line of people, some heartbroken, some praising God, some angry, some confused, some questioning. He is unfailingly helpful, gracious, and pleasant.

And when he speaks at our campus there are two young elementary school girls who run to give him a hug right after he gives the benediction. He always greets them joyfully, even when they almost knock him over.

"I'm not saying it's going to be easy," he would say. "I don't have any promises about ease, except that it gets worse. I do have huge promises about joy."

"We want to fly away and be like angels. But we live here, and we change diapers."

"I don't know about you, but I was really helped by my sermon last week."

"Don't think that Jesus is into crowds. Jesus is into individuals. Big time. Like you."

5. He is Bible-centered.

If you listen to a Piper sermon, you can expect to hear the biblical text read right before he begins and at least once more (in parts) during the sermon. He takes apart the Scripture phrase by phrase and word by word and makes it clear that he has wrestled with its meaning. He tries to find texts from the Bible to corroborate what he's saying (starting with the book from which the sermon text is found and going outward), and he makes it clear that we shouldn't trust him if what he's saying can't be found in the Bible.

"In fact, so much is here in verse 31 that I never got to verse 32, from which I took the title to the message."

"When I read things like this in the Bible they jar me. I really love to be jarred by the Bible."

"I don't know what kind of sentimental ideas you have about Jesus. Just read your Bibles and they'll go away."

"Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obediah, Jonah, Micah . . . just struggle around until you find it. The minor prophets are the hardest books to find in the bible. Even for me after 64 years."

"This is what preachers do at 5:30 on Friday afternoon—we pound our heads on the desk and say, 'What does this say?'"

6. He is gospel-centered.

The gospel can be broken down into many parts: Jesus is sinless; you can't make it to God on your own; hell is very, very bad; coming to faith is coming to life; you want to be on God's side; every human is deeply sinful; you must accept the gift; heaven is very, very good (because God is there); God has made a way; salvation is a result of grace; the fact that Christ died for you and me is a good that transcends all other goods.

I defy you to listen to any Piper sermon and not find at least two or three of these ideas highlighted. In this respect he is relentless, he is repetitive, he is predictable.

"I came to Christ when I was 6; I'm 64. I'm not optimistic about getting out of sin."

"The problem is, it doesn't do any good to nudge a corpse. If you do that, you can get a corpse to church, but you can't make it alive."

"We're fondling our little roaches, our little scorpions, our little tarantulas. 'They're so fuzzy and warm' . . . and then the light goes on!"

"That's what it's going to be like in heaven. Skin and bouncing balls and lions and lambs lying down together. Dogs. No cats! Well, I guess the lion's a cat."

Pastor Jason Meyer, the man called to replace Pastor John, recently said that a boring mind is the birthplace of a boring sermon. It's clear that John Piper doesn't have a boring mind. It's also clear that he has an intentional mind. And he intends to glorify God.

My family, along with so many others, are eternally grateful. May God bless Pastor John and his family in retirement. All the way to heaven.

I recently had an exchange with a young church planter who wanted my thoughts on how to address the needs of women within his church. He told me it was clear what women are permitted to do from a doctrinal standpoint, but that he was not comfortable that his responsibility to women ended with simply identifying that list.

I asked him to think about that word—permit. It is a word women in complementarian settings hear with some frequency, and how our male leaders use it shapes our ability to contribute to church life. The challenge for any pastor would be to consider whether he is crafting a church culture that permits women to serve or one that pursues women to serve. Because a culture of permission will not ensure complementarity functions as it should.

Consider the analogy of marriage. Most pastors would counsel a young husband that he must pursue his wife to keep their union strong—that he must make a study of her needs and wants, that he must celebrate her strengths and find ways to leverage them for the good of their marriage. They would warn against the dangers of passivity. I submit that similar awareness is necessary on the part of male leadership in complementarian churches. A culture of permission can communicate passivity and dismissiveness to our women. They long to be pursued.

The negative implications of a culture of permission become clear if we overlay them onto other areas of ministry. Imagine if we swapped the language of pursuit for the language of permission in our church bulletins:

• If you need community, you are permitted to join a community group.
• If you battle addiction, you are permitted to go to Celebrate Recovery.
• If you are interested in serving, you are permitted to serve in the nursery.

Now consider if we applied the language of pursuit to the way we speak about women's roles. We would have to alter our speaking—and our thinking—rather dramatically.

• It is one thing to say women are permitted to be deacons, and quite another to actively seek out and install women in that role.
• It is one thing to say women are permitted to pray in the assembly or give announcements, and quite another to ensure that they have a voice on the platform.
• It is one thing to say that women are permitted to teach women, and quite another to deliberately cultivate and celebrate their teaching gifts.

I am not certain when it became common to speak of permitting rather than pursuing women to serve, but I admit that it grieves me. Yes, there is that well-worn verse in 1 Timothy, but it seems a shame to let one occurrence of a term dominate our language and practice. It may be that permission vocabulary persists because of the unfortunate woman-as-usurper stereotype that sometimes underlies complementarian thought.

And I can't help but reflect on how far removed that vocabulary is from the words of Adam at the creation of Eve: "This is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." Adam's words are a hymn of thanksgiving, a joyful acknowledgment that one has arrived whose contributions will bring vital and necessary completeness to the imago Dei. It is a hymn intoned not in the language of permission but in the language of pursuit. 

How sweet a thing when a woman of apparent ministry gifting elicits from male leadership not "Oh, no," but "At last!" God help complementarians if we spend our energies fastidiously chalking the boundaries of a racecourse we never urge or equip our women to run. I have to think that egalitarians would grow quieter in their critiques if we could point to more women within our ranks who convincingly demonstrate equal, complementary value in our churches.

Women who flourish in ministry can point to not just female leaders who affirmed them but also to male leaders who championed and cultivated them. That has certainly been my story. Glenn Smith asked me to shepherd and teach women even before I knew the depth of my desire to do so. John Bisagno affirmed and mentored me when I had no idea what I was doing. Mark Hartman taught me the beauty of a well-run ministry. Matt Chandler and Collin Hansen gave me a voice. And every day for 20 years, Jeff Wilkin has spoken unmitigated blessing and encouragement to me. Would that all women in the church could know such grace.

So here is the suggestion I offered to that young church planter: Do you desire to leverage the equal complementary value of women in your church? Don't give us a chance to ask permission. Get out ahead of us. You approach us with what you intend to empower us to do. End the culture of permission and you will dispel the stigma of submission. We are not usurpers, we are the possessors of every capacity you lack and the celebrators of every capacity you possess.

Brothers, don't permit us. Pursue us. 

* * * * * * * * * *

For further reading: see Thabiti Anyabwile's insightful thoughts on this subject in a series of four posts:

• I'm a Complementarian, But . . . 
• I'm a Complementarian, But . . . Women Must Be Taught, and They Must Teach
• I'm a Complementarian, But . . . Women Should Pray in Public
• I'm a Complementarian, But . . . Women Can Be Deacons

I was happy in my previous job as a fundraising consultant. I never dreamt of full-time church ministry, and I definitely didn't think of myself as a good fit for youth ministry. I don't have a jazzy personality, and I'm not naturally outgoing. I much prefer to be in the background than in the spotlight. 

But, in an unexpected twist of life, circumstances, and calling—I have now been in youth ministry for nearly four years. In that time, God has pushed me to grow personally and as a minister. He's exposed many weaknesses, yet he's also shown that he is faithful to those who trust in him.

It's been a bumpy road—as those of you who've been in ministry far longer already know, and those of you who are just starting are probably learning. 

In this journey, I've found the apostle Peter to be a great source of comfort and hope. Here's an ordinary man, a fisherman by trade, who heard the call of Jesus and responded with his usual impulsiveness to Christ's appeal.

I admire Peter's zeal and find inspiration in his willingness to put himself "out there" for Jesus. I need to be encouraged and spurred on by his boldness. Yet I really appreciate the way the Spirit not only preserves stories of Peter's zeal and faith but also (and often in quick succession) gives to us stories of Peter's failures, lack of faith, and struggle to overcome his shortcomings.

Bold Talk

Peter was the first disciple to proclaim Jesus as the Christ (for which Jesus called him "blessed"), only quickly to stand in Jesus' way to be the type of Christ the Father required (for which Jesus called Peter "Satan"). 

Peter was the only disciple who asked to join Jesus as he walked across the water, yet shortly after leaving the boat Peter began to sink as he took his focus off of Jesus as his faith failed him.

Peter alone drew his sword and struck one of the men coming to arrest Jesus (being willing, apparently, to die before seeing his teacher taken captive). Yet not much later, this same Peter thrice denies even knowing Jesus, presumably for fear of death (for which he later bitterly weeps).

Peter, through the Spirit's prompting, was one of the first disciples to reach out to Gentiles; yet even after seeing the Spirit's miraculous work—some 14 years after Jesus resurrection—Peter still must be rebuked by Paul for hypocrisy in his unwillingness to associate with Gentiles in the presence of members of the circumcision party.

How often do we begin with the best of intentions and lofty hopes in ministry, only to find ourselves lacking? How often to we feel like we're finally seeing progress in our personal sanctification only to lapse? How often do we talk big but live small in relationship to the gospel?

Imperfect Love

After finishing their breakfast with the resurrected Jesus beside the sea, Jesus twice asks Peter if he loves him (John 21). Twice Peter responds, saying, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Finally Jesus asks Peter a third and final time: "Do you love me?" John tells us this third question grieved Peter. I can almost see Peter's pain as he responds, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Peter owns up to the inadequacy of his love for Jesus; he knows that his love is imperfect—and this he does (likely) in front of the other six disciples. 

After prophesying the awful death Peter will experience because of his faith, Jesus says to Peter, "Follow me." 

And, amazingly, he does.

There are many times in my ministry when I feel like Peter. I know my love is inadequate. I know I fall short of God's glory. I know my witness to the gospel in my thoughts and actions—more often than I'd like—declares my desperate need for a savior.

God knows this about us, just has he knew this about Peter. As Jesus once revealed to the apostle Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor. 12:9).

He can use even me. He can use even you.

Part of the beauty of Peter's witness is that he wasn't perfect—but God still used him in mighty ways. Peter firmly knew God's love for him through Jesus, despite his faults and inadequacies. 

In a letter he wrote near the end of his life, Peter encourages the church to "set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:13). It's a good reminder for those of us in ministry. Peter was confident in God's grace, and that is where our confidence needs to be as well. Peter, like Paul, had learned the truth that God's grace alone is sufficient for our weakness.

I have ministered to adolescents for eleven years, eight of them as a youth minister. Based on my conversations with kids and observations in the culture, I consider these five theological tools essential for parents, pastors, and youth ministers hoping to minister effectively to today's teens.

1. Knowledge about the canonization of Scripture.

Perhaps it is a result of The DaVinci Code or maybe the effects of deconstructionism and revisionism in historical studies, but one of the primary apologetic questions I receive from students involves the formation of the canon of Scripture. In no subject area have I observed more misinformation. Students have told me that their high school English teacher taught that the Gospel of Mary Magdalene was not included in the Bible because Christianity is misogynistic. A kid told me that the Gospels were actually written in fourth century.

If a student does not trust the Bible as God's Word, ministries will have a hard time giving them any confidence in the truths of Christianity; the Bible serves as the authority and foundation for all Christian doctrine. Those ministering to youth must possess a strong understanding of the history and system by which the early church discerned certain books as authoritative and rejected other books as either uninspired or heretical.

Recommended Reading: F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture

2. Developed theology of sexuality, particularly homosexuality.

Questions about premarital sex, gender, and sexuality are increasingly common in youth ministry. For many kids the make-or-break issue about Christianity is homosexuality. Many kids think the actions of anti-gay fanatics, such as Westboro Baptist Church, represent Christian theology regarding homosexuality, and, needless to say, they hold reservations about the faith. Meanwhile, other kids espouse the secular portrayal of homosexuality as a civil rights issue akin to racial segregation.

Youth ministers need a balanced, scriptural theology that neither amplifies homosexuality as worse than other forms of sexual sin nor permits it any more than we condone pornography or adultery. Equally important, they need a humble, gentle, and compassionate tone in dealing with the issue.

Recommended Reading: Wesley Hill, Washed And Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality

3. Ability to teach the Bible in the greater context of redemptive history.

Earlier in my career, people said that postmodern kids had rejected metanarratives and only listened to the micro-narratives of personal storytelling. Some of my colleagues and I now agree that the fatalism of denying a defined metanarrative for life and the world seems to have bottomed out. Kids are more likely today to want to believe there is reason and design behind everything that happens in the world. Students greatly benefit from knowing salvation history.

As a way of taking students through all of redemptive history, I teach each one of my small groups a study on "Top 25 Events from the Bible" that travels from Genesis to Revelation. When teaching Scripture, I make a point to connect the content to the broader context of biblical narrative. It reinforces for kids the belief that a good, sovereign God rules the course of human history, as well as the events of their individual life, at a time when they desire it.

Recommended Reading: Vaughan Roberts, God's Big Picture

4. Theological, not only moral, understanding of sin.

Most students—Christian and secular alike—believe morality is individually relative. Therefore, explaining sin simply in moral terms will not resonate with most teenagers. You may say that all people judge, lust, envy, and lie, but your teenage audience likely can justify any of those sins at the personal level, believing they have ultimate authority over morality.

Consequently, those ministering to teens need a theological understanding of how sin originates from the human desire to live independently from God and to be the "god" of our own lives. Most students will accept that they do not depend on God for all matters of their life, if at all, or that they do not have a relationship with him. (In truth, these matters represent our deeper issue as sinners and the source of our immorality.) Students will accept the theological argument for human sinfulness far more readily than a moral explanation.

Recommended Reading: Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods

5. Understand adoption as an element of salvation.

I charge myself as guilty for neglecting this element of salvation, and it cost me big time. The church often exclusively preaches salvation as an individual matter. In a sense, we camp out on regeneration and justification and stop there. I know I did. The persistent teaching of my colleague, Mark Howard, and the talks from Ray Ortlund and Mary Willson at the 2012 Rooted Conference (recordings from all three can be found here) opened my eyes to this blind spot.

Far more than previous generations, today's teenagers value community. If they do not see how groups or beliefs yield corporate fellowship, they are less likely to embrace it. Adoption represents the aspect of salvation whereby God adopts sinners as his sons and daughters. Our salvation does not simply save us individually but also makes us a part of a greater body of intimate connection. Having a fuller understanding of salvation in both individual and corporate terms will help a person ministering to teens offer the gospel in a way that appeals to their high view of fellowship and need for loving acceptance.

Recommended Reading: Trevor Burke, Adopted into God's Family (in the NSBT series edited by D. A. Carson)