Do you read journals?

The case is made here for pastors doing so (and not just journals, I guess).

Is mission your idol?

While a vision for serving God is needed, and the desperate condition of our world cannot be ignored, there is a higher calling that is going unanswered in many Christian communities. As shepherds of God’s people, we must not allow our fears of insignificance to drive us into an unrelenting pursuit of church growth, cultural impact, or missional activism. Instead, we must model for our people a first-class commitment to a first-class purpose—living in perpetual communion with God himself. As we embrace the call to live with God, only then will we be capable of illuminating such a life for our people.

Skye Jethani, Has Mission Become Our Idol?

so, so cool

The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

Using Desire Properly

Sometimes you'll listen to communicators who are really effective because they're great at playing on longings and producing emotional responses in people. And that can make a talk really successful, and it can make a communicator really popular. But it can actually damage the spiritual formation because people become dependent on a story or a lofty experience during a sermon to have deep emotions about God. And then when they're removed from that setting, they find themselves not feeling much about God. And part of what spiritual formation involves is the reformation of my desire so that I am freed from desires that lead me away from God, and I am increasingly motivated by desires that lead me toward God and the life God wants me to live.

John Ortberg, Redeeming Authority

how should evangelicals handle the debate over the new perspective?

Tim Gombis has some fruitful thoughts on the subject over here.

Modelling the message

At the end of an article that reflects on David Fitch's proposals for overhauling church planting, Jason Hood reminds us of the important example of the Apostle Paul. Whilst the whole article is worth reading, these words in themselves are solid food for thought:

Paul's own method for ministry was a message: his gospel (1 Cor. 15:1–4; Rom. 1:1–4) and his gospel-shaped way of life (1 Cor. 4:8–17).This message impacted Paul's method of ministry. He did not choose a tent-making approach to ministry for pragmatic or financial reasons, but for pastoral reasons. He used his lifestyle to model the sacrifice and service required of every Christian (Acts 20:33–35; 1 Thess. 2:9–12, compared with 1 Thess. 4:9–11; 2 Thess. 3:6–12; and a point also made in the middle of 1 Cor. 8:1–11:1).

Do you fear living an insignificant life?

Then you might like to read this piece by Skye Jethani.

Here's a taster:

When we come believe that our faith is primarily about what we can do forGod in the world, it is like throwing gasoline on our fear of insignificance. The resulting fire may be presented to others as a godly ambition, a holy desire to see God’s mission advance--the kind of drive evident in the Apostle Paul’s life. But when these flames are fueled by fear they reveal none of the peace, joy, or love displayed by Paul and rooted in the Spirit. Instead the relentless drive to prove our

worth can quickly become destructive.

The 33

one year on.

So, Think Paul You Know, You Do?

Might want to have a looksie at this piece by Tim Gombis then.

Speaking With Authority

As a preacher who is fully human, and clearly not divine, I can't speak as Jesus did. But I do seek to speak truth that carries weight and authority. All of us who preach the gospel aspire to speak under the authority of Jesus.

There's an unmistakable connection between the author and authority. Part of what it means to be made in the image of God is that just as God is able to speak and his words carry weight, so our words can also carry weight.

God speaks, and it is so. Every word that comes from heaven does not come in vain. It comes with purpose. In our own little way, even though as humans our words are distorted by sin, we still have the capacity to think and to speak and to have it be so. When our words shape and interpret reality, that's because we were made to carry authority.

John Ortberg, Redeeming Authority

'Tis the Dandy season

Endings

An ending "insists that life makes sense, that there is an underlying logic". So asserts Paul Ford as he observes how social media robs of context, of boundaries and, especially, of endings.

How important that is for those who believe that history had a beginning, has boundaries of purpose and will have an ending.

pen & paper: the comeback

Over at The Next Web's Lifehacks page, there's an article proclaiming pen and paper to be "possibly the most underrated creativity and productivity tool".

I think I heartily agree; writing sermons (which end up digitised) with pen and paper is, for me, a great help in the creative process. It usually involves isolated sentences on scrap paper, some more coherent paragraphs and quotes in a moleskine notebook and, sometimes, something approaching a mindmap (but more linear) on a piece of landscape A4. Last week, the A4 became A3 and that was a very interesting departure.

These dark cafe days

The last time I saw Richard was Detroit in '68,
And he told me, "All romantics meet the same fate, someday,
Cynical and drunk and boring someone in some dark cafe."
"You laugh," he said, "you think you're immune, go look at your eyes
They're full of moon; you like roses and kisses and pretty men

to tell you all those pretty lies, pretty lies
When you gonna realise they're only pretty lies
only pretty lies, just pretty lies."

He put a quarter in the Wurlitzer, and he pushed
Three buttons and the thing began to whirr
And a barmaid came by in fishnet stockings and a bow tie
And she said, "Drink up now it's gettin' on time to close."
"Richard, you haven't really changed," I said,
"It's just that now you're romanticizing some pain that's in your head
You got tombs in your eyes, but the songs
You punched are dreaming -
Listen, they sing of love so sweet, love so sweet
When you gonna get yourself back on your feet?
Oh, love can be so sweet, love so sweet."

Richard got married to a figure-skater
And he bought her a dishwasher and a coffee percolator
And he drinks at home now most nights with the TV on
And all the house lights left up bright.
I'm gonna blow this damn candle out,
I don't want nobody comin' over to my table
I got nothing to talk to anybody about.
All good dreamers pass this way some day,
Hidin' behind bottles in dark cafes
Dark cafes
Only a dark cocoon before I get my gorgeous wings
And I fly away
Only a phase, these dark cafe days.

Facing criticism?

Then be careful not to respond by speaking with contempt.

Referring to Numbers 20, Tim Keller muses,

God was ready to be gracious, but Moses was in no mood for that. The relentless criticism had made him self-righteous. He held them in contempt. He had wrath but no compassion, and that is the mark of a man who is becoming less like God, not more. (See Isaiah 15-16 where God grieves even as he speaks in judgment.) Moses is a man who has forgotten grace, and the sign of it is a sanctimonious spirit along with words of denunciation without humility and compassion.

Thankful

We sang this song by Timothy Dudley-Smith at communion yesterday, to the tune Penlan. It's probably one of my favourite passion-songs and is posted today as an expression of gratitude for God's grace, on my 48th birthday.

The relevant scripture references are 1 Pet. 1:18-19 (st.1); Isa. 53:3-6, John 1:29 (st.2); 2 Cor. 5:14, 17 (st.3).

No weight of gold or silver
can measure human worth;
no soul secures its ransom
with all the wealth of earth;
no sinners find their freedom
but by the gift unpriced:
the Lamb of God unblemished,
the precious blood of Christ.

Our sins, our griefs and troubles,
he bore and made his own;
we hid our faces from him,
rejected and alone.
His wounds are for our healing,
our peace is by his pain.
Behold, the Man of Sorrows,
the Lamb for sinners slain!

In Christ the past is over;
a new world now begins.
With him we rise to freedom
who saves us from our sins.
We live by faith in Jesus
to make his glory known.
Behold, the Man of Sorrows,
the Lamb upon his throne! 

How to get creative

This will be anathema to the multitudes who worship at the altars of Motivation and its close relation, Productivity. Indeed, when I meet with ambitious young entrepreneurs, I am invariably asked, “How can I get more done in fewer hours? What can I do to jump-start my creativity? How can I keep my edge?”

Here are the three answers I can offer: 1. You can’t. 2. Stop trying so hard—if it feels like work, something’s wrong. 3. Do less stuff.

Motivation, productivity, efficiency—these things are not constants. In my experience, they come in waves. They ebb and flow, and there’s no sense in fighting it. The key is to recognize a productivity surge when it appears, so you can roll with it.

Jason Fried

Come down, O Love divine (Ortega)

Here's a video of Fernando Ortega talking about his latest album (HT: Justin Taylor):

Come Down O Love Divine from fernando ortega on Vimeo.

And if you want to listen to it on Spotify, click here.

The Darker Side of Productivity

Driven onwards in ministry by the need to be effective and yet you have the nagging feeling you're simply being efficient? Reading this might help.

Piper: misperceptions about what is needed in missions.

John Piper has spoken of 4 waves of change in missions - here's the third of them:

I pray that this conference would blow away the notion that missions can stay home now because all the nations have come to us. My neighborhood is currently reported by CityVision to be “the most ethnically diverse single neighborhood in America with 100+ languages spoken.” That changes a lot in the way we do missions. But one thing it does not change is the fact that the Joshua Project catalogues not a few hundred, but 6933 peoples globally without a self-sustaining gospel presence. Another misperception I would like to see blown away is that Westerners should just send money rather than go as missionaries. My paraphrase: Let others give their blood. We give our bucks. Realistically, most of the unreached peoples do not have anyone with better access to them than we have. “Unreached,” in its fullest sense, means: there’s no missionary in the people group to whom you could send money if you wanted to. So wave #3 would result in doing it all: missions to the unreached peoples that are here, support for missions from other sending churches, and especially mobilizing our own people to reach the thousands of people groups without access to the gospel.