Best Books of 2009
January 5, 2010 at 5:43 pm | In Books | Leave a CommentThis past year was a slow one for reading; I didn’t do near as much as I would have liked. Too much Rockies baseball on the radio, too many sudoku puzzles, rather than books, in the quiet moments. But here’s the best or most interesting ones I recall. If the title appears as a link, it connects you to my blog about that book.
I read, for the first time, some of Michael Crichton’s novels. Jurassic Park, The Lost World, and The Andromeda Strain. There are some men in the congregation who really like Crichton, so I thought I’d read his most famous to see what he’s about. They were all fun reads – hard to put down – but I was disappointed that everyone was a lesson in evolutionary theory.
The Shack. Wm. Paul Young. It wouldn’t be on this list of favorites except that my review of the book is the most read post I’ve ever written. Just don’t miss the addendum to it, as I hardened my opinion after further review.
Simple Church. Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. Our Elders have worked through this one together. I found the details and statistics boring, and sometimes they didn’t really seem to support what the authors were saying. But the main emphasis of a church committed to one simple process of making disciples was great. Village is a complicated church, by the author’s definition, and the leadership is struggling with how to simplify.
Angel in the Whirlwind. Benson Bobrick. (This book got a second blog) A too long and detailed history of the American Revolution. But still profound and thrilling.
Swimming to Antarctica. Lynn Cox. My family read this one together, and it was by far the most fun book of the year.
Transforming Grace. Jerry Bridges. As Christians, we often believe that salvation is by grace, but that living the Christian life is on our own merits. Bridges counters with the biblical truth that all of the Christian life, from new birth to heaven is by grace. Though the repetition on the theme got a little long the truths presented were very valuable.
John Calvin, A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology. Burke Parsons, ed. (This book got two blogs also) The best Christian book of the year for me. Both insightful and inspiring. The title says it all.
A Fun Film
December 31, 2009 at 9:34 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTotally entertaining. It was, for us, the best movie of the year: Amazing animation, very funny, deeply moving, an awesome adventure, good morals, pro-family, no bad language, and no sexual overtones. My family just watched “Up,” and it is all of that which I’ve described. Certainly the best all around entertainment on film we’ve seen in a long time. We laughed, we cried, we cheered. From Pixar Animations Studios, I’ve seen Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Wall-e, and Finding Nemo. All of them have been fun entertainment, excellent movies in my estimation, but Up surpasses them all.
Some lessons that could be discussed from this movie include: Faithfulness to keep promises; faithfulness in marriage; moving on after major life changes – especially to continue investing in significant things. If you need some great New Year’s entertainment, try this fun film.
Joy to the World!
December 24, 2009 at 7:24 am | In Theology, Worship | 1 CommentOn the way home from a worship service one day, the preacher’s son complained that church music was boring. His father challenged him, “If you think you can do better, then you write a song for us to sing.” Young Isaac, who had a propensity for rhyme, took on the challenge, and the result so impressed his father that he taught it to the congregation, and they also loved it. So he wrote a new song for the church every week for the next two years! Thus began the career of Isaac Watts (1674-1748), often called “The Father of English Hymnody.” He published hundreds of songs which influenced all English speaking churches for generations. We still sing some of them in churches today. Many of Watts hymns present his Puritan, Reformed theology in profound or memorable ways.
Possibly Isaac Watts’ best known song today is “Joy to the World.” The lyrics of the later, probably lesser-known, verses present great theological thoughts for Christmas. Notice the Reformed themes of glory, sin and grace:
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
Have a glorious, Christ-filled Christmas!
Some Thoughts on the “Senior Pastor” Idea
December 21, 2009 at 12:10 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentPJ Tibayan has written a number of posts on the idea of a “senior pastor” in church. I just ran across these today. I agree with most all his arguments and conclusions. Here is an article that links many of his thoughts.
http://pjtibayan.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/resources-on-the-biblical-basis-of-senior-pastor/
I had to comment because of the unique roll I play here at Village:
These comments and links are great. For years I’ve disagreed with the senior pastor idea for many of the reasons you cite here. Currently I am the “Preaching Pastor” at a Baptist church in Colorado. We are an elder led church with four lay elders and two pastor or full-time elders. The other full time pastor handles education, counseling and administration. I teach and preach. I also lead the staff meetings and prepare the agenda for the elder meetings. I’ve been here for over seven years, and so far, it has worked well. I have three observations about this arrangement that you might find interesting.
First, no mater how often it is explained, I am viewed by many as “the” pastor or as the “lead pastor,” because I am the one up front. Some people have even challenged the arrangement saying, “but certainly you are (or in some cases, must be) the leader of the others.” The idea of lead/senior pastor is so engrained in the minds of Christians in this culture, that they can’t understand what we believe is the biblical model.
Second, some church growth experts will tell us that this team approach to ministry is a slow and inefficient way to make decisions. With that I must agree. However, I have seen too many abuses of the one-man-in-charge approach, and I know the depths of my own depravity, so I don’t want to be the one man in charge. I would rather be inefficient and right, than efficient and wrong.
Third, for this model to work, everyone must be a team player. Any pastor who thinks he is in charge, or thinks he should be in charge, could never work in a real elder-team environment. Unfortunately, I have met way too many men in ministry who take a “God called me, so I am the leader” approach to the church. That attitude ignores the seriousness of sin.
Blessings in Jesus,
GG
No Profound Thoughts
December 18, 2009 at 12:37 pm | In Devotional thoughts, False teaching | Leave a CommentI haven’t written in this blog because I haven’t had any profound thoughts in over a week. Now that’s a horrible thing for a teaching pastor. Imagine that! The preacher has nothing to say! But I realize today that not everything a preacher says needs to be exceptionally profound. A lot of what a preacher says should be reminders of the same old truths. One of my life verses is Matthew 13:52, which reminds me of this matter. Jesus said, “Every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” New treasures as well as old. Sometimes we need to give up the idea of profound or novel or new and just remind people, and ourselves, of the fundamental doctrines of God and grace. Of course, even our profound thoughts must be tied to the fundamental doctrines. Too many preachers look for only the novel.
A Psalm for Christmas
December 8, 2009 at 11:04 am | In Devotional thoughts | Leave a CommentThis weekend I read Psalm 78, the second longest psalm and second longest chapter in the Bible. It occurred to me that this psalm is a great Christmas reminder. There are three sections I noticed, and each has a nice holiday teaching. Verses 1-8 talk about passing the faith on to the next generation. Examples include verse 4 “We will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.” The purposes for passing on the faith are these: “That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments, and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation.” What better time is there than the holidays and the traditions we build around them, to teach the great Christian truths to our children and grandchildren. Let’s make sure the traditions we emphasize and those we build anew are ones that teach Jesus.
The second section (verses 9-39) is really a few sections together that form a pattern of God’s goodness to his people, their rebellion against him, and his mercy in spite of their rebellion. Over and over the passage mentions the rebellion and stubbornness of the people in the face of God’s goodness. He brought them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, but “they still continued to sin against Him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.” (13-17) He gave them water from the rock and bread right out of heaven, then he gave them the meat they craved, yet, “in spite of all this they still sinned and did not believe in His wonderful works.” (20-32) Instead the people “would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues.” (36) Even through all of this “he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.” (38) That is our story of rebellion also, and in spite of us, God shows us his mercy. Christmas is a reminder that God offers his grace to us as sinners.
The third section (40-72) again tells a story of God’s goodness, demonstrated by the plagues in Egypt, followed by his people’s rebellion. But in this section, God’s mercy was shown in a different fashion; here he gave the people a shepherd. “He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people.” God gave them a good shepherd to lead them. So too in our situation, God, in spite of our continued rebellion against him, sent us the Good Shepherd, his Son Jesus. Christmas is the time to remember God’s mercy in sending us a Shepherd.
Making the Gospel More Attractive
December 5, 2009 at 12:24 pm | In Devotional thoughts, Theology | 1 CommentIn Titus 2:9-10 Paul says we should make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. That comment is in an interesting context. So often, in our world, making the teaching about God more attractive means either changing the content of the message or changing the methods used to present that content.
The first of those two means I strongly oppose. In fact, this book of Titus is all about sound doctrine; the theme verse is 2:1 – “speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.” If we change the content of the gospel, it really isn’t any gospel (i.e. good news) at all. This is seen especially in the matter of sin. Too many presentations of the “gospel” water down the fact that we are utterly sinful, but without establishing the matter of our sinfulness, the necessity of the cross is done away with, and Jesus becomes just a friend or helper in our spiritual journeys or a guide who helps reveal God to us. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus died for our sins. Thus watering down our sin, to make the gospel more attractive, is not presenting the gospel at all.
The second way Christians make the gospel more attractive is by changing the methods we use to present it. I am in agreement with doing this, as long as it is the gospel we present and as long as we don’t violate scriptural principle with our new methods. However, in Titus, it is not the methods that Paul is talking about when he says to make the gospel more attractive; it is character. Notice the entire sentence of that phrase: “Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.” What makes the teaching of God our Savior attractive is the character of the slave toward his master; not back talking, not stealing, pleasing his master with his work, and proving trustworthy.
Maybe we should concentrate more on our godly character than on changing our methods of presenting the gospel. Maybe that concentration would make for more effective evangelism in the long term.
Vacation Thoughts
November 30, 2009 at 5:59 pm | In Devotional thoughts | Leave a CommentI was on vacation with my family last week. We spent the first part of the week in a mountain cabin owned by some friends of ours (a better description would be a nice mountain home, but they call it a cabin). It was a great time of rest and sabbath — no phone or Internet. We slept in, read all morning, got out for a walk or cross country ski trip in the afternoon, played games in the evening. Here is one journal entry from that time and another related devotional thought:
Psalm 76:4 This morning while I was walking my daughter’s puppy, he suddenly stopped still and smelled the air staring off into the trees. I noticed some mule deer there. I picked the little guy up so he could see better, and he watched for a long time. When we returned to the cabin, I watched the hill where we’d been walking and, from that vantage point, saw a four-point buck and seven does. We pulled out the binoculars, and my family watched for a long time too. It was indeed majestic. However, the majesty of this world is only a glimpse of the real majesty of God. “You are resplendent with light, more majestic than mountains rich with game.”
In his blog this morning, John Piper quoted Spurgeon, in Lectures to My Students, about the need for those in ministry to take such sabbaths:
A day’s breathing of fresh air upon the hills, or a few hours, ramble in the beech woods’ umbrageous calm, would sweep the cobwebs out of the brain of scores of our toiling ministers who are now but half alive. A mouthful of sea air, or a stiff walk in the wind’s face, would not give grace to the soul, but it would yield oxygen to the body, which is next best.
Amen! I sure appreciated my time away in the mountains. I hope the cobwebs are out of the brain!
Pine Painted to Look Like Marble
November 27, 2009 at 8:55 am | In Devotional thoughts, False teaching | Leave a CommentWhen we visited the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City, our guide pointed out the pillars in the tabernacle. They are white pine painted to look like marble; the pews also are white pine, but painted to look like oak. She seemed strangely proud of that. What a commentary on the religion. Everything on the outside is made to look pure and holy, but the inside story is something different. We were told, by those who studied the demographics, that Utah has one of the highest suicide rates in the country and one of the highest pornography rates in the country. The outward purity is all show, but they are sinners just like the rest of us. All their rules don’t change the heart. In fact, those who claim to be righteous but are not are worse than those who don’t know any better. This is the intent of Jesus’ words to the Pharisees, which I ponderd this morning, in John 9:41. “Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.’”
Of course, I can’t point this out without confessing my own sinful nature. Otherwise I would be completely hypocritical. I all too often see my utter failure to measure up to God’s standards. However, the beauty of true grace is that we can confess we are sinful and accept God’s complete forgiveness knowing we don’t have to be good enough, knowing, in fact, we can never be good enough but God offers forgiveness anyway. When questioned about grace, our guide said, “Grace becomes effective when we’ve done our best.” She was certain she’d done her best. That is not grace; that is pine painted to look like marble!
Utah
November 20, 2009 at 11:01 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentI just returned from a one-day “vision” trip to Utah. I went with some other pastors from Converge Rocky Mountain to meet two new church planters we have appointed and to see the areas where they will be planting. It was an absolutely fascinating trip, and I could write pages about it. Here is the brief summary of my biggest impressions.
We first attended part of a seminar for pastors and church planters in Utah at K-2 Church in Salt Lake City. WOW! God is really working in northern Utah. The testimonies of the men there indicated how God has been softening hearts of people in recent years. One church, less than five years old, has over 1,000 in attendance each week; one pastor reported 450 baptisms in the past two years; long-term pastors told how much more open the area is to the gospel now than ever; one man said God is thawing the spiritual coldness of the state. Utah is an unreached people group – less than 2% of the population attends a Bible–believing church. But that is changing, and we have an opportunity to get in on the amazing things God is doing.
Second, we traveled to a Mormon temple on a hill overlooking some communities south of Salt Lake where Charles Hill has located and plans to begin his work. We saw an area with about 100,000 people now and over 20,000 homes scheduled to be built in the next few years. There is not one Protestant church in the area – not one! That would be like our communities of Thornton and Westminster together (200,000) without a church.
We also traveled to Centerville, north of Salt Lake, where Loren Pankratz is looking to plant. We stood on a plot of ground he has purchased for a family home. He showed us all the homes being built within just a few blocks of his. The population is 20,000 and expected to grow by 20,000 more in just a few years. Again, there is not one Protestant church in that town and in the adjoining community.
Between these two stops we visited the Temple Square in the middle of Salt Lake City. To hear Loren gently question the young missionary lady that approached us was an education in itself. Certainly God has raised up this young man for just such a ministry.
May God continue to work in Utah, raising up laborers for the harvest and drawing people to himself.
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