Many of you are already familiar with Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, a book on church health written by Mark Dever.  But if you thought the “nine marks” was a club name for Mark Dever and eight interns… the following short videos are a great primer on these important issues.

Why These Nine Marks? from 9Marks on Vimeo.

1-Expositional Preaching from 9Marks on Vimeo.

2-Biblical Theology from 9Marks on Vimeo.

3-Good News from 9Marks on Vimeo.

4-Conversion from 9Marks on Vimeo.

5-Evangelism from 9Marks on Vimeo.

6-Membership from 9Marks on Vimeo.

7-Discipline from 9Marks on Vimeo.

8-Discipleship & Growth from 9Marks on Vimeo.

9-Leadership from 9Marks on Vimeo.

I am a Calvinist.  I love the glorious truths of God revealed in His word.  I praise God for His mighty works in creation, redemption, and providence.  I live, I trust, for the glory of God in all things.

I am a Pharisee.  I shouldn’t be.  How can anyone claiming to be a Calvinist living for the glory of God also be a peevish, joyless, and fearful little Pharisee?  It’s a shame.  But I’m a Calvinist and I’m a Pharisee.

Narrowness for the letter and not the spirit, suspicion of joy, and fear are not the only things that make it possible for me to be a Calvinist and a Pharisee.  There is a fourth reason why these two things blend together more often than they should, and why they blend together in my heart.  Anger.

I’m an angry man.  I don’t want to project on anyone else.  This is about my heart.  But I think there’s a lot of anger among us “Reformed” types.  So much so, some of us–let me just say I–need to be sent to reform school.  No I don’t mean Westminster or some place in Scotland.  I mean we need to be sent to a school that helps us deal with our anger, that makes us “positive members of society.”  We need help.  I need help with my anger.

You don’t believe it?  I have one word for you.  “Blogs.”  That’s exhibit A for the rampant anger in Reformed circles.  What a naked display of raw and random anger splattered across the virtual world landing on anyone with a keypad.

I’ve had my part in that.  Oh, you couldn’t tell?  Or only occasionally?  You see, really, more problematic than the displays on blogs is the respectable anger I nurse.  I’m not given to loud outbursts.  If that happens, we’re at Defcon 1.  We don’t go there.  We try never to use the red phone.

But beneath the poker face lives a small volcano regularly seeping lava over the lip of its opening.  That’s in the heart.  While on the outside… the slightly reserved and seemingly dispassionate face of the Pharisee.

Anger comes in many colors.  There is red magma of violent outburst.  As I said, that’s not my style as a Pharisee.  Resentment is a kind of anger.  It’s the warm orange anger that comes from the blend of disappointment, self-righteousness, and entitlement.  The anger of stinging words wrapped in religious jargon.  There is the parakeet yellow of angry backbiting and gossip, tale bearing and kindling strife.  James tells us this is murderous.  There is the green of jealousy and evil eyes.  There is also the swooshing blue of those who run when angry.  That’s the flight response.  There is the indigo of depression, which is sometimes a symptom of deeper anger.  Next is the violet of grudges and “silent treatments.”  Then there is the icy white of “cold war” anger.  Violet is close to “cold war,” except “cold war” arms itself for more serious retaliation.  I’m a good Pharisee.  I think I hang out somewhere between violet and orange, silent anger and resentment with occasional depressive moods.  Any of these sound familiar?

Of course, resentments and silent treatments are the preferred combination because it maintains the semblance of respectability.  I am, after all, a Pharisee.  I’m wearing expensive robes, long tassels, wide phylacteries, and I sit in the best seat in the house, where I may be seen.

I know there is such a thing as righteous indignation.  I know we’re to be angry and not sin, neither let the sun set on our wrath.  But the Pharisee that I am has lost count of the sunsets.  And isn’t there a difference between righteous indignation and being indignant because our “rights” have been trampled?  Too often, I don’t always see that difference.  That’s what makes me a Pharisee.  That’s what makes me angry.

As a Pharisee, I know it’s not polite to talk about anger.  Even now, there’s the sense that admitting anger is unpleasant.  Respectable people don’t get angry.  They’re cucumber cool, calm, and collected.  But Pharisee-ism is about wearing masks that hide inner realities.  It’s about pretension and show, being seen and applauded by men.  There’s no way to stroke that beast without becoming victim to it.  The voice in my head screams, Don’t tell on us!  Don’t remove the mask! But the High and Lofty One says, “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Is. 57:15).

If the truth were told, I’ve been angry for a long time.  I’ve been angry about a lot of things and angry about nothing in particular.  I grew up in an angry-sounding house.  With eight children, somebody somewhere was always angry.  I was angry when my father left the family.  I was angry when arrested as a teenager.  I was angry with “friends” who distanced themselves after my arrest.  I’ve been angry about all the “racial” mistreatment I’ve experienced.  Then I was angry that so many people denied it.  I was angry as a Muslim.  I played basketball angry–but we called it “intensity.”  I’ve been influenced at points in my life by angry men, some of them prominent political and historical figures. Worked for a while in state government, where many of the longest-serving people were simply masters of anger.  That patient, slow boil, I’ll-out-live-and-out-scheme-you-because-I’m-a-civil-servant-and-you-can’t-fire-me anger.

Would you be surprised if I told you that somewhere along the way, Anger became a companion?  Not the kind I’d walk with in public.  Most of the public can’t handle angry black men.  I’m angry about that, too.  Instead, Anger became a secret confidant.  The friend I’d call up when threatened.  The friend most ready to reassure me when I felt inadequate or insecure.  The friend that kept others at a distance or bullied them into submission.  A body guard of sorts.  I could control Anger; summon him at will.  I could justify Anger.  Someone did this or someone did that.  This was threatened or that injustice committed.  Something had to be done.  I had to strike back.  Pharisee.

There is such a thing as righteous indignation.  Absolutely.  We must oppose injustice, of course, because God uses means.  Pharisee.

God uses means, not mean people.

God is sovereign.  He even uses mean people.  Of course he does.  Pharisee.

But is that justification for your anger?  The anger of man does not work the righteousness of God.

You can control your anger.  Everyone gets angry.  ‘Tis true.  Pharisee.

Wouldn’t it be more godly to conquer your anger rather than coddle it?

I’m aware of the conquering presence of God’s Spirit in my life.  When the Lord saved me, one of the things He graciously did was rid me of so much anger.  He freed me from so much bitterness and even hatred.  It’s one Ebenezer I raise in remembrance of God’s gracious redemption.  Yet, sanctification is progressive.  He’s still working.  And the Pharisee is kicking and screaming, “Leave me this little anger!  Let me hold onto this grudge, this charge, this resentment!”  Old friends tend to stick around the longest.  They’re often the most difficult to ditch.

But I’m reminded of another Calvinist Pharisee (speaking anachronistically, of course) who did battle with his Pharisaical anger.  He writes to me: “In this [new birth, coming salvation] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Pet. 1:6-7).  What is greater than the trials of this Pharisee’s anger?  The glories and power of my God’s salvation.

Oh Lord whose anger is holy and righteous, make us more aware of and dependent upon the great power of your salvation.  Nail afresh the sin of my anger to the cross of your wrath, that I might be freed from its power, pull, and guilt.  We need Thee every hour.  Amen.

“Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted” (Gal. 6:1).

Joel Beeke in 365 Days with Calvin selects this comment from Calvin:

The opposite sin in rebuking one who has fallen is excessive harshness.

Hypocrites often use this kind of rebuke, for when they see a speck in their neighbor’s eye, they cry out in alarm, yet they have a large beam in their own eye that they do nothing about, as our Lord Jesus says (Matt. 7:4). Since many people enlarge their consciences to swallow an entire camel yet strain at a gnat when it comes to the faults of others, we must guard against being too harsh or too severe when we reprove others. It seems to some that they are only correctly doing their duty if they loudly sound the trumpet when another person falls. (Pharisee.)

How many cautionary words today spring from righteous concern? If a person sees his neighbor doing evil, he should, if he has an opening and an opportunity, show him his fault, yet we see nothing of this! For if each one spies on his friends and listens as he keeps watch to see if he can find anything to reprove, then he will be severe in the extreme. (Pharisee)

However, those who are severely dealt with in this way certainly cannot complain. After all, why else has evil become so prevalent in today’s society? Indeed, few people are admonished in private anymore to bring them back to God; rather, the sins that were hidden are slanderously published abroad.

Why? We cannot bear to hear the truth about ourselves. We want to cleave to our sins, as if no one has any authority or jurisdiction over us. True community cannot exist among us without such mutual correction, in which we all willingly submit to one another.

This morning, I’m headed to the Lord’s true community, the church of saints called FBC, to have the log removed from my own Pharisaical eyes by the preaching of the word and to then show some corrected-vision-concern for the brethren. To be restored and to restore. To be reproved and to reprove.  To be a genuine part of the community of the redeemed.

Why are you going to church this morning?

Bob Kellemen at RPM Ministries offers a gracious review of Glory Road: The Journeys of Ten African-Americans into Reformed Christianity.  Kellemen is a good student of African-American theology and church history and offers a warm critique of Glory Road.

For my part, I think Glory Road could be one of the most important, helpful, and encouraging books published in the last ten years on African-American Christianity.  I think its warmth, humor, honesty, and theological integrity

could be a winsome tool in capturing the hearts of many people who have not come to know the wonderful truths and history of the Reformed tradition.  If you haven’t read this book, rush out and make it a stocking stuffer or New Year’s read.  It’ll reward you.

HT: Phoenix Preacher

Today I want to pick up our periodic series on “The Cost of Following Jesus.” This is a series where we present a case study usually involving new converts to Christ who will face significant “costs” for following the Lord.

In our opening posts (here, here, and here), we considered the case of “Brad” and his long-time live-in girlfriend and three children. We considered the cost of Brad following Jesus and how the church should help him to pay that cost.

We’ve been thinking of Luke 14 as one foundation text for this series. There, the Lord says:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28″Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

31″Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

So, we’re left to understand that those who turn from the broad path of the world to the narrow path of the Kingdom will need to count and pay the cost of following Jesus.

Scenario 2: Angela and Andy, Divorcees Wishing to Remarry

Today, I want to introduce a different scenario. Meet “Angela” and “Andy.” They’ve been dating for about a year now. Both are professing Christians; they understand the gospel and give evidence of loving the Lord. They’re in their early thirties and are active parts of two different local churches.

“Andy” is a member of your church. They’ve decided to marry and have come to you/your church seeking marriage counseling and to have the wedding there. As you speak with Andy you learn that both have been divorced. This will be their second marriage.

In Andy’s case, his first wife had been unfaithful and they eventually divorced over the adultery. Andy and his first wife were professing Christians. In Angela’s case, she had been unfaithful to her husband, leading to a divorce. At the time, neither Angela nor her husband were believers.

Andy’s first wife has gone on to remarry and now lives with her second husband and four children across town. Angela’s first husband has not remarried.

The Questions:

Can Angela and Andy remarry? If so, both of them, or one of them? Why or why not?

In your opinion, what are those costs in this situation? And how can you and your church help them bear those costs?

You don’t have to be a pastor to answer these questions. I welcome your thoughts as a church member who might be called upon to help in a situation like this. The more the merrier!

If you’ve been following the posts on “The Costs of Following Jesus” (here and here), you’ve read about a fictional man named “Brad,” a new convert to the faith, father of three with a live-in girlfriend of 13 years. Obviously, Brad has some things to think through if he is going to faithfully follow the Lord. We’ve been discussing our views.

Today, Carson shared an email post written to a young church planter on this very issue. HT to one of the commenters here. This is very thoughtful, and I hope you’ll read it.

A couple days back, we began a new series of posts on “The Cost of Following Jesus“. Thanks to all those who shared wisdom and thoughts regarding our scenario from yesterday: Brad, a new convert with a long-time live-in girlfriend and three children depending on his income. The reason I’m thankful for the comments and the reason I’m enjoying this series is that such situations are real human dramas for so many people and so many churches. Learning to respond biblically and with an understanding of the “costs” that will be paid to follow Jesus is a big part of shepherding well in these cases.

I don’t pretend to have the “air tight” answers. So, my responses aren’t meant to “settle” all open questions and be some kind of “advice from on high.” I’m a fellow elder looking to be faithful and to think out loud about some hypothetical situations before I have to work through some real ones. And I’m hoping this exercise is a means of grace to us all. So a few thoughts.

The Costs Brad Will Pay

Obviously, Brad will need to figure out how to live faithfully before the Lord. And that means at least two things: no more sexual immorality, but also continuing to faithfully care for his children who need both his presence and his financial support.

Does he leave the family? If so, does he take the children with him? Does he leave the children and continue providing financial support?

Does he break off the 13-year relationship with Jill? Or, does he marry her? Since she is not a Christian, can he marry her (1 Cor. 7:39)? If he doesn’t marry her, are we helping him to defraud her (1 Thess. 4)?

A father is more than a paycheck, so we don’t want to weaken or harm the family as we help this brand new Christian discover how to follow Jesus. And Jesus’ glory and our love for Him trumps all other loves, so we don’t want to leave Brad putting Jill and the children before the Lord. Nor is the love and commitment shared over decades between a man and a woman a small thing to trifle with. All these things are risks associated with helping Brad follow the Lord and bear the costs.

And there are risks to the church and to Jill and the children. How this is handled communicates a lot either accurately or inaccurately about the nature of God’s grace and Christian love. Jill and the children are not believers. We desire the family to see the gospel worked out in a winsome way that commends holiness as beautiful. Responding poorly will hurt one or more people in this family.

So what to do?

An Approach

What would be the strengths or weaknesses of the following approach? What would have merit and would should be re-thought? With all of this, I’m talking a couple weeks, not a few months or years.

With Brad:

1. Encourage perseverance and sanctification. Avoid giving assurances based on unbiblical criteria. Instead, exhort the brother in those marks of the Christian life we see described in the Bible: love for the brethren, obedience as love to Jesus, sanctification, and so on. Help Brad to see the work of Christ in the Christian’s life as extraordinary and extensive rather than small and trivial. That includes understanding that Jesus is Lord of his sex life as well. There are no intimacies over which the Lord does not say, “Mine.” In short, work to give Brad a solid biblical view of what a Christian is.

2. Study with him a book like Ephesians or 1 Thessalonians. This is a practical way to approach #1 above. The books are short enough to cover in a couple weeks, and rich enough theologically and practically that a good picture of the Christian life emerges. Ephesians has the advantage of giving an exalted, Christ-centered view of marriage, something Brad and his girlfriend need. I Thessalonians has the advantage of addressing sanctification and sexual purity directly (chap. 4) and of pointing to the coming of Christ. Both give helpful instruction on the church and its role. As you study, let the Bible ask questions of Brad. Rather than launch a lot of imperatives at Brad, let the Lord’s Spirit in His gentle and effective way use the word to address Brad. Ask good questions about the text, and prompt Brad to bring the text to his life.

3. Develop a plan with Brad to pursue marriage quickly. There may be a lot of work that needs to be put into this one. Brad and Jill don’t esteem marriage. They have fears about it working. They’re comfortable with their current commitments and arrangements. And Jill, at least, doesn’t think their relationship is sinful. So, there’s a lot of patient teaching that must be done here. There’s a lot of exploration and shepherding that needs to be offered in order to help them make wise decisions. But, the aim would be to have a plan for getting Brad and Jill through their issues and to the marriage altar in good shape. Repentance for Brad looks like marrying Jill, which would be strengthening his commitment to her and the children. But the plan should also include some definite thoughts about leaving the relationship if Jill is unwilling to live with Brad as a believer or if she remains opposed to marriage.

4. Baptize Brad after steps 1-3. Teach the brother with all patience. Affirm his decision to follow the Lord and deepen that decision with instruction, rather than questioning the commitment and undermining his faith. Brad’s mind needs to be renewed (Rom. 12:1-2) about a lot of things, but that doesn’t happen over night. We all entered the baptismal waters in need of some continuing sanctification. Baptism pictures our union with Christ in His death and resurrection, not our glorification and perfection. Build up to the baptism in such a way that the baptism marks a decisive break with the world, but also a decisive beginning with Christ and the church. Avoid making “complete sanctification” the entry fee for the baptismal waters, but protect baptism by counseling the brother thoroughly.


With the Church

All of this, of course, depends on helping the congregation see this as precisely the kinds of opportunities we want to be helpful in, rather than the kinds of things we want to fix quickly, squash, or pretend doesn’t happen. A couple of thoughts:

1. With Brad’s support and testimony, before baptism and membership, explain Brad’s situation at members’ meeting, and share the highlights of the plan to help him live faithfully before the Lord. Call on the congregation to bear the brother’s burden (Gal. 6:1-2) and to practically help wherever possible. Ask the congregation to faithfully pray for Brad, Jill and the children. Encourage the congregation to bring Brad into the family under the special care of the church. Have Brad make definite statements about the sin of cohabiting and fornication. Be clear, too, about the expectations for Brad should the counseling and efforts toward marriage not work. And be clear about the congregation’s responsibility in loving correction should Brad refuse to listen to the church in the counseling and efforts at growing in grace.

2. Be an ally in helping to share the faith with his family. Encourage the church to involve Brad, Jill and the children in hospitality, church activities, and so on. Make the relationship with Brad about partnering in the gospel to win his family, rather than about separating Brad from the family as enemies. Love Jill and the kids in any practical way possible. Help her find better work, if that’s a need. Babysit so they can have time to talk through things or attend relationship counseling. Work to make them think that Brad really has entered into this wide and caring family that cares for them all and wants the best for them all. A couple sisters from the church should be asked to develop a relationship with Jill with sharing the gospel and being a general source of support a main priority.

Conclusion

Well, those are my thoughts right now. Let me eat lunch and I may want to change some or all of this. I’m thinking through some of these things wanting to be clear but patient and sensitive as well. I don’t know that these comments get the balance correct. So, what do you think? Help me out here.

Yesterday I began a series of posts on the cost(s) of following Jesus. We would all agree that following Jesus is costly. And I suppose we would all agree that faithful evangelism and preaching must be clear about the cost of following the Lord. But what I’m interested in here is how that truth affects pastoral ministry, especially as we welcome new converts into the fold fresh from the world.

And to think about that a little, I want to sketch a series of scenarios and ask you all to share thoughts about how to care for people in these cases. With each case, I’ll do two posts. The first post will offer the scenario and the main questions. The second post will, quite frankly, steal from your good suggestions and comments and a few of my own to attempt an answer of sorts. I really want to learn from others in all of this. So, “bring da Book!” Bring your experience. Bring other resources. Let’s think together about this issue.

Scenario 1: “Brad,” the Unmarried Father of Three

Imagine a single man in his mid-thirties, let’s call him “Brad”. He’s been attending your church for several weeks now, listening attentively and showing interest in spiritual things. You have opportunity to get to know Brad a little bit. He works at a construction site nearby. He received his GED after dropping out of high school in the 10th grade. His father left the family when Brad was about 13 and he hasn’t seen him since.

Today, Brad tells you he thinks he has been born again. He trusts the Lord Jesus and wants to follow him. You ask a few questions, and it seems Brad understands the gospel clearly. He gives you a pretty good God-man-Christ-response outline. You ask him about repentance and faith. He speaks to some particular ways he is repentant and joyfully speaks of giving himself over to Christ in trust.

Next week, Brad comes to church and takes up an entire pew with a young woman and three children. After the service, he excitedly introduces the woman to you as his girlfriend, “Jill,” and the three children as his sons and daughter, “Brad, Jr.”, “Thomas,” and “Zoe.”

They’ve been living together for 13 years. The oldest child is 14, about Brad’s age when his father left. The youngest child is 3. The mother works as a waitress. The family primarily depends on Brad’s income, which sometimes has seasonal ups and downs. Brad is the only believer in the family.

Neither Brad nor Jill really value marriage, since they’ve seen a lot of heartache in abuse, abandonment, infidelity, and divorce. They’ve lived together 13 years and they’ve worked it out okay; they’re happy. Because they love one another and are committed to one another, they don’t think their relationship is sinful nor do they think “a piece of paper” matters that much.

Brad wants to be baptized and join the church.

The Questions:

How do you counsel Brad? Do you baptize him and admit him to membership?

What specifically are the costs you think he may have to pay to follow Jesus? And how do you and the church help him to pay those costs?

One of the things I appreciate about Mark Dever’s view of evangelism is his insistence that we tell people who are not yet Christians that it will be costly to follow Jesus, but it’s worth it. As preachers and evangelists, we can be guilty of stressing the “worth it” aspects of following Jesus, while feel the pressure to share honestly the costs of following the Lord.

When Mark talks about the costs of following Jesus, he is, of course, only paraphrasing the Lord’s own teaching. When one teach of the Law cried out, “Teacher, I will follow you anywhere you go.” The Lord didn’t grow giddy with the thought of “one more” in his corner. He told the man to count the cost in these words: “Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of man has no place to lay his head” (Matt. 8:18-19). Which basically means “welcome to a life of homelessness and costly sacrifice.”

Even more explicitly, the Lord discusses the cost of following him in Luke 14, where he says:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

²⁸“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? ²⁹For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, ³⁰saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

³¹“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³²If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ³³In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

Giving up everything is a consequent part of following the Lord Jesus. Bonhoeffer’s famous words ring true: “The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ” (Cost of Discipleship, p. 51). And, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Death and cost-paying are constituent parts of discipleship.

Now, I don’t suppose many readers of this post will have difficulty with the truth of these words, even if we all experience the difficulty of living these words. Dying is a hard process. And for many Christians, the subjective experience of that death which leads to life may properly be called “excruciating”–both for its pain and for its cross-related reality.

One thing I’ve noticed in my own young pastoral ministry is I’ve not given enough thought to cost-paying. What I mean more specifically is I’ve glimpsed something of the reality of these words in the lives of men and women who have by God’s grace been converted to faith in Christ, who are following Him as best they know how, and who are paying a cost to do so. It’s not as though they want to avoid the cost and solely experience the “worth it” of discipleship. Most are not looking for a cheap grace experience. But the cost is heavy.

And I’m convinced that I need to spend more time thinking through how I provide pastoral care and instruction to various people coming fresh out of the world into the life of Christ and paying the cost of following.

It seems to me that most evangelicals think of conversion as so magically wonderful and radical that once the sinner “prays the prayer” most all–if not all–of their problems are solved. The “hard part” in the minds of many evangelicals is just getting the person to commit. But Jesus’ words remind us that committing to follow is when the hard part begins. And if that’s true, the people of Christ need thoughtful ways of entering into the inevitable suffering and difficulty that is part of the tax and cost of joining Jesus in repentance and faith.

Put simply: How do we more effectively help people pay the cost of leaving the old life of sin and taking up their cross to follow the Lord? How do we help the very sexually active person bear the cost? How do we help the person with an unbiblical divorce pay the cost now that they’re following Jesus? How do we labor with the person needing to end destructive relationships pay the cost?

In a series of posts over the next little while, I want to take up this question by looking at a few cases where we call people to follow Jesus and perhaps we need to think more about the costs they’ll pay and how we can help.

From Ajith Fernando’s The Call to Joy and Pain: Embracing Suffering in Your Ministry. He’s meditating on Colossians 1:28–”Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

Note that full maturity is not for just a few people. The goal is to “present everyone mature in Christ” (Co. 1:28, emphasis added). “Everyone” (literally, “every man,” panta anthropon) appears three times in the Greek and in the ESV. In practice it may be that not everyone grows, as they should, to maturity. But that should not be the case. It is not excusable. We cannot rest until all are discipled to maturity. This is a problem with large churches unless there is a concerted attempt to ensure that everyone in the large church is in a small group. Otherwise it would be easy for people to come just as consumers. They get lost in the crowd as anonymous recipients of the programs offered by the church.

Numbers are important because they represent people who have come within the sound of the gospel. This is why Acts twice mentions the number of people who had joined the church (2:41; 4:4). But our focus should not be simply on numbers. We must ensure that everyone has an opportunity to grow. Each individual is important to God and thus to the local church also.

A minister, visiting a family in his congregation, noticed there were many children in the house. He asked the mother, “How many children do you have?” She began to count off on her fingers saying, “John, Mary, Lucy, David….” The minister interrupted, “I don’t want their names–I just asked for the number.” the mother responded, “They have names, not numbers.”

Everyone must be cared for, and we must not rest until that is done. As a church or Christian group grows, structures have to be set in place to ensure that individuals are not overlooked. If that is not done, even thought the church may claim to have grown, it has not grown in the biblical sense. It has just become fat!

Reading this in my quiet time this morning, I was left with three questions:

1. How many churches are simply becoming “fat” and not attending to the biblical vision shared here?
2. Much is made of the decline in attendance at mainline protestant churches over the years. But if groups like the SBC were more faithful in their membership practices, how much different would the decline between evangelical and mainline churches really be?
3. How is every one of the persons in my care growing spiritually? Are they? Do we have a coherent plan for their growth?

I’ve long been struck by the vision of pastoral ministry that comes through in the Apostle Paul’s letters. He’s consistently to grow both the size of the church and the depth or maturity of the church. He has a broad kingdom-sized concern for the entire church wherever she gathers, and a laser-like, motherly/fatherly concern for every individual believer in his care. Here’s just a few statements in from his letters:

Eph. 4:11-13 –”And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ….”

Col. 1:28-29–”We proclaim Him, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me.”

1 Thes. 2:9-12–”For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.”

Acts 20:18-21–”You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in pubic and from house to house….”

It’s challenging. But pastoral ministry ought to maintain a focus on the entire body and a keen interest in the development and growth of each saint.

How many are in our care? How many can we account for? How many are making progress in the faith? How many do we pray for by name? How many need a fatherly or motherly admonition and exhortation? How many do we really want to know in these ways?

Many of us will no doubt consider the numbers of people in our charge and instantly feel discouraged at the prospect of ever serving them all individually. We’ll feel the “impossibility” of serving a large church this way. And we’ll be tempted to shrink back to “manageable” activities and settle for “realistic” goals for contacting our people.

And yet, as Paul points out, we don’t do this in our strength. It is His mighty strength at work in us. And even if we should fail to serve all as fathers and mothers, that’s no reason to not serve any or to settle for serving a small few.

Think of it this way. The Lord himself gave His blood for each and every one of His sheep individually. Can we really imagine negotiating terms with the Savior that allow us to care for a few of that number? Can we imagine ourselves looking into the Savior’s hands and side and saying, “Yeah, I think it’s reasonable that we only target this number or this cluster of members for pastoral care. Let’s aim at 50% and hope for the best with the rest.”

No, we can’t imagine that, can we? The Lord calls us to great things and places before us great challenges. Let His men rise up in faith and dependence upon His gracious aid, and strive with all His might to care for every sheep in our care so that we will deliver them mature and unblemished on the day of Christ!

Disciples are made, not born. And they’re made by men who heed the Lord’s call and give themselves shoulders to the plow in this great work.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20).

Related posts:
By the Numbers
Toward Reforming Membership Practices
Shotgun Churches
Mutual Belonging As Local Church Membership