Preach the Gospel!
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PRIDE and Prejudice
Posted By Joe Haynes on August 18, 2010
Since my recent post in which I referred to the article in the National Post by Kelvin Browne, a homosexual, I have received some interesting feedback from various sources. I’ve talked to people who have known the pain caused by homosexual sin and its consequences. I’ve talked to people on both sides of the controversy: those who accept that the prevailing culture has the authority to redefine how we interpret the Bible on this moral issue and those who accept that the Bible has the authority to define how we respond to the immorality of homosexual sin. I’m glad to say that in my conversations, since that post, people of both camps have expressed compassion for people who struggle with homosexuality. Not one person spoke with bigotry or disrespect.
I was also heartened to see the short essay by Denny Burk in Themelios entitled, “Why Evangelicals Should Ignore Brian McLaren: How the New Testament Requires Evangelicals to Render a Judgment on the Moral Status of Homosexuality” (Vol. 35, Issue 2, July 2010, PDF source here). In this essay, Dr. Burk makes a very convincing case that the Bible is very clear in denouncing homosexuality as a sin, but that the Bible is also very clear in its call for Christians to respond to sin with evangelistic compassion—the sort of compassion I witnessed by people on both sides of the question in my recent conversations. Thus the real question facing Christians is not, “What does the Bible say about the morality of homosexual orientation?” but, “How should Christians apply the Bible’s moral teaching concerning homosexuality in a way that is compassionate and respectful?”
At the end of his essay, Dr. Burk cites a 6-point statement prepared by John Piper for his church, in which he offers a framework for biblically faithful AND compassionate ministry to homosexuals. Having listened to countless sermons by John Piper, in which his heart for sinners and love for God’s Word more than makes up for his sometimes humorous quirkiness, I’m not surprised that Piper manages once again to win my agreement for his biblical stance while also challenging me deeply with a vision for a loving and respectful ministry. It’s a good thing to be stretched by godly men to love sinners more while also being stretched to love the authority of God’s Word more than we already do. I think we face—I face!—a great obstacle if we are ever going to do a better job of living out and articulating a winsome, convicted witness of the Gospel to our lost and confused world. This obstacle is prejudice. Not that we pre-judge homosexuality as the sin it is; rather that we—I—often pre-judge how we/I ought to respond to homosexual sin in the context of our/my personal ministry/ies. It is nearly impossible, I would like to suggest, to win a sinner to the Gospel of Jesus Christ when we are treating him like an enemy in a Cultural War. Truth, not tolerance, should guide our thinking. But compassion, not PRIDE, should guide our witness.
Here is Piper’s six-point statement:
- We believe that heterosexuality is God’s revealed will for humankind and that, since God is loving, a chaste and faithful expression of this orientation (whether in singleness or in marriage) is the ideal to which God calls all people.
- We believe that a homosexual orientation is a result of the fall of humanity into a sinful condition that pervades every person. Whatever biological or familial roots of homosexuality may be discovered, we do not believe that these would sanction or excuse homosexual behavior, though they would deepen our compassion and patience for those who are struggling to be free from sexual temptations.
- We believe there is hope for the person with a homosexual orientation and that Jesus Christ offers a healing alternative in which the power of sin is broken and the person is freed to know and experience his or her true identity in Christ and in the fellowship of his Church.
- We believe that this freedom is attained through a process which includes recognizing homosexual behavior as sin, renouncing the practice of homosexual behavior, rediscovering healthy, non-erotic friendships with people of the same sex, embracing a moral sexual lifestyle, and in the age to come, rising from the dead with a new body free from every sinful impulse. This process parallels the similar process of sanctification needed in dealing with heterosexual temptations as well. We believe that this freedom comes through faith in Jesus Christ, by the power of his Spirit.
- We believe that all persons have been created in the image of God and should be accorded human dignity. We believe therefore that hateful, fearful, unconcerned harassment of persons with a homosexual orientation should be repudiated. We believe that respect for persons with a homosexual orientation involves honest, reasoned, nonviolent sharing of facts concerning the immorality and liability of homosexual behavior. On the other hand, endorsing behavior which the Bible disapproves endangers persons and dishonors God.
- We believe that Christian churches should reach out in love and truth to minister to people touched by homosexuality, and that those who contend Biblically against their own sexual temptation should be patiently assisted in their battle, not ostracized or disdained. However, the more prominent a leadership role or modeling role a person holds in a church or institution of the Conference, the higher will be the expectations for God’s ideal of sexual obedience and wholeness. We affirm that both heterosexual and homosexual persons should find help in the church to engage in the Biblical battle against all improper sexual thoughts and behaviors.
Mistaken Identity?
Posted By Joe Haynes on August 16, 2010
You have to work hard to offend Christians. By nature Christians are the most forgiving, understanding, and thoughtful group of people you will ever deal with. They never assume the worst. They appreciate the importance of having different perspectives. They’re slow to anger,quick to forgive, and almost never make rash judgements or act in anything less than a spirit of total love…………No, wait—– I’m thinking of golden retrievers!!! (Contributed by my mother from the Daily Bread, Aug.16,2010 issue written by Cindy Kasper.)
A Gay Man Defends Israel from Bigotry: Kelvin Browne in the National Post
Posted By Joe Haynes on August 10, 2010
A very interesting article appeared in today’s National Post online (link here). Mr. Kelvin Browne shone the light of reason on the increasingly common anti-semitism in Canada which hides behind a thin guise of political correctness. It seems to be fashionable to tout well-worn arguments pretending to be in the know regarding Israel’s supposedly harsh bullying of its poor Palestinian neighbours. But Mr. Browne, a man who has suffered no small amount of prejudice himself, went to Israel to see first hand the realities on the ground in both Israel and Palestine. He hints, in his article, of a Media-led deception portraying living conditions in Palestine as worse than they are. In this I fully agree with him.
I wonder, though, if there is something of a Media-led deception at work behind the public portrayal of religiously-fueled bigotry against homosexuals? There seems to be no doubt that a great majority of orthodox adherents to the world’s major religions disapprove of homosexual practices. There also seems to be no doubt at all that there are far too many orthodox Jews, Muslims and Christians—both Catholic and Protestant—who have acted with prejudice and hate in their treatment of homosexuals… in Canada and certainly elsewhere. But I wonder if the Media has so spun this hot-button social issue so that when one holds convictions about the immorality of homosexual behaviour, one is automatically pre-judged himself as a bigot?
I for one want to go on record as grateful to Kelvin Browne for a good, thought-provoking article in defense of Jewish people and the right for survival of a Jewish nation taking refuge for over 60 years in the besieged State of Israel. As he argues himself, a disproportionate number of Jews have historically fought in defense of fair treatment of minorities (including homosexuals). As a committed follower of Christ holding the convictions of a Reformed, Evangelical, Protestant, I am a minority myself in the Canadian socio-political landscape. As such, I am happy to also go on record as defending the rights of all homosexuals to live free of persecution. More than that, in keeping with the teachings of the Bible, I am committed to a lifestyle, not of political correctness, but of love for all people, whether or not I agree with their lifestyles.
I don’t think it’s “tolerance” to shout down people who hold “Traditional” moral values. I don’t think it’s “tolerance” to shout down Bible-believers who believe in an absolute right-and-wrong moral Law rooted in the very nature of God as He has revealed Himself in the Bible. Neither do I think it’s “tolerance” to despise the Jewish people for defending themselves with legitimate force, against all odds and overwhelming opposition, from the deadly hatred of radical Muslims on record calling for the destruction of the entire State of Israel. But I would not want to say that it is in the name of “tolerance” that I stand up to thank a homosexual man for his well-reasoned plea for common sense. I still do not agree with homosexual practice; nor do I agree with lying, adultery, theft or idolatry. It is not “tolerance” to treat liars, adulterers, thieves or idolaters with respect and dignity. It is love. Love that dares to hope that the God who sent His Son to die for such people—bearing the penalty both for their sin-guilt and for mine—is gracious enough to draw the hearts of all sinners to recognize their rebellion against God and cry out to Him to save them from His holy wrath otherwise in store for them.
…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:9-13 ESV)
Sermon Prep in Mark 1 – Part 1 Featuring Bibleworks
Posted By Joe Haynes on August 6, 2010
I’m working on a series of sermons in Mark chapter 1. And as I mentioned some time ago, I will be using Bibleworks, the premium software for studying the biblical languages, and featuring Bibleworks in a series of posts blogging through my sermon preparation. The nice folks at Bibleworks provided me with a complimentary copy of the latest version of their software, for which I am very grateful. The new features in version 8 are not only helpful but a lot of fun to discover and work with. For more on Bibleworks and where to get it, click here.
Software for Biblical Exegesis and Research
One of the first things I do when I begin to exegete a text of Scripture is to diagram the syntax of the passage, in Greek, on paper. Bibleworks has had a diagramming tool in previous version, but I found it a lot quicker to use a pen and paper. Version 8, however, has a module containing Leedy Greek New Testament Diagrams. So I thought, “why reinvent the wheel?” Studying the diagram for Mark 1, I noticed first how similar are the constructions, “John appeared” (verse 4) and “Jesus came” (verse 9). In fact, not only are the grammatical constructions very similar, the words, “appeared” (v 4) and “came” (v 9) are the same word in Greek—even the same form of the same Greek word (indicative, aorist, middle, 3rd person, singular). Hmmm. Is it just coincidence that when Mark penned this text, he introduced John and Jesus using the same word and the same sort of construction? I think not.
That little discovery led me to wonder, “What is Mark’s point in comparing or contrasting John’s entrance with Jesus’?” I noticed that, in verse 4, “John appeared baptizing and proclaiming…”; in verse 9, “Jesus came… and was baptized…”. But in verses 7-8, John was proclaiming / preaching about Jesus. So the passage reveals that John began his ministry “baptizing and proclaiming” while Jesus began His ministry being baptized and proclaimed.
The simple but profound point I drew from this is that while John was the last and greatest of the Old Testament era prophets (Mat 11:11), Jesus was his infinitely greater subject.
This is borne out, in the text, by another interesting observation from verses 2-3. I noticed that the phrase about John as the forerunner of Christ (“who will prepare your way”) uses a somewhat unusual word for “prepare” (i.e., kataskeuazo). Looking this word up in the various lexicons supplied with Bibleworks yielded some helpful results. The word is used in ancient Greek literature, a) to describe making guest rooms available for a visiting senator, b) to describe making a room ready by furnishing it, c) to describe the construction of a city gate, and interestingly, d) to describe the route built for a procession to get to a pagan temple (VGNT Dictionary, p. 332). In verse 3 we read exactly what the Old Testament said John would do to “prepare” the way for Christ: “make his paths straight.”
If you read that verse you will notice that it’s talking about preparing the way for “the Lord”. The quote comes from Isaiah 40:3, where “Lord” is the Hebrew name, Yahweh, and where He is identified further as “God” (Elohim). Why does God need John the Baptist to make His path straight? I thought about that for a bit and it occurred to me to ask, on the other hand, would God condescend to walk a winding, crooked path? Would He go around obstacles or go through them? What would happen to anything standing in God’s way? Like a road crew building a highway, when confronted with a tree, they wouldn’t build the road around the tree. They would uproot the tree to accommodate the road. So then, in this metaphor, what are the “paths” of God?
We can deduce what God’s “paths” are by observing what John the Baptist did to prepare them.
"John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." (Mar 1:4 ESV)
John preached to people and how did people respond?
"And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins." (Mar 1:5 ESV)
The people who heeded John’s preaching moved their “trees” out of God’s way: they confessed to God that they were guilty of rebelling against Him so that He would not destroy them at His coming. John also pointed forward to the means of forgiveness for sin—(repentance alone cannot obtain the forgiveness of sin)–:
"And he preached, saying, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."" (Mar 1:7-8 ESV)
Faith in the Messiah, the Christ, whom the Old Testament had promised and whose paths John was preparing by his preaching, was and is the only way to find forgiveness of sin. You can resist Him; you can refuse to admit you’re a sinner; you can choose to believe you’re basically a good person; you can prefer to believe that God is not the sort to punish sinners. But unless you repent, confess your sins, and put your trust in Jesus Christ, He will destroy you. The bad news is bad. But the Good News is great.
“Now I live to bring Him praise”
Posted By Joe Haynes on August 3, 2010
My wife and I took our kids to church weekend before last to the Connection, Willingdon Church’s Saturday evening service (www.willingdon.org). It was a wonderful evening. As I once heard John Neufeld say, “I felt like I was in Church.” The message was on the assurance of salvation; part of an “I believe…” topical series on doctrine for the Summer months. If you’re looking for a good sermon to help you work out what the Bible has to say about whether one can lose his salvation, look no further. Click here for the sermon link at Willingdon’s site. Though it was all good, one refrain in one song in particular made me think. Here it is:
“Now I live to bring Him praise.”
I don’t know who the author is, who penned the lyrics or wrote the tune, but the doctrine behind these words is deeply biblical. Think about it. How can I live to bring God praise? It’s like saying a kid can mow the lawn, do his chores, clean his room so that his twin brother can take all the credit (just a hypothetical example—I’m sure that never happened to me!). But when we’re talking about God this is precisely true.
- The Apostle Paul said, in Athens, that in God, “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
- Job asked, rhetorically, "In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind?" (Job 12:10)
- David exalted, “Who keeps us in life, And does not allow our feet to slip” (Psalm 66:9).
- Again from Paul, we read of his theological insight into the prevenient and providential power of Christ: “And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Col 1:17).
Indeed, in receiving of the grace of my God in Christ Jesus my Saviour, and living henceforth to worship Him and bring Him glory, I am dependent utterly on Him for every breath, every energy of sinew and muscle, ever thought, every good inclination of my heart. What is my hope of glory? “Christ in me”! (Col 1:27)
What marvelous grace that as I work, labour, tire and strive daily for the sake of the Gospel, my work brings God praise for it is God Himself who alone gives me what I owe to Him. I love Him because He first loved me (1 Jo 4:19).
Recommended Resource: “The God Who Is There” series – by D. A. Carson
Posted By Joe Haynes on July 31, 2010
I’m not a fan of the Alpha Course. It does not give adequate weight to the whole message of Scripture, particularly on what the Bible has to say about why the Gospel of Jesus Christ is “good news”. (There’s more to say about Alpha, but that’s another blog post.) I am a fan of the Christianity Explored and Discipleship Explored courses (http://www.christianityexplored.com). CE is a course for un-churched people introducing them to the Christian Faith by walking them through the Gospel of Mark—it lets the Bible present the Gospel. DE is a course for new or immature believers introducing them to the reality of living as a disciple of Jesus Christ by walking them through Paul’s letter to the Philippians—it lets new believers hear what the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to teach to the new believers in Philippi. I’m glad to be able to recommend another Bible-centred resource for introducing the un-churched to Christianity and for helping believers become grounded in their faith—it lets both sorts of people discover the whole story of the Bible so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ becomes very clear in its biblical setting. This new series, by biblical scholar Don Carson, is a real gift to pastors wanting to reach the lost and teach the found. Here’s an introduction from the Gospel Coalition Blog:
On February 20-21 and 27-28, 2009, Don Carson presented a 14-part seminar entitled “The God Who Is There” at Bethlehem Baptist Church’s North Campus in Minneapolis. This series will serve the church well because it simultaneously evangelizes non-Christians and edifies Christians by explaining the Bible’s storyline in a non-reductionistic way.
The series is geared toward “seekers” and articulates Christianity in a way that causes hearers either to reject or embrace the gospel. It’s one thing to know the Bible’s storyline, but it’s another to know one’s role in God’s ongoing story of redemption. “The God Who Is There” engages people at the worldview-level.
And now MP3s (full) and video (10-minute previews) are available for Carson’s 14-part series:
- The God Who Made Everything | MP3 | Video Preview
- The God Who Does Not Wipe Out Rebels | MP3 | Video Preview
- The God Who Writes His Own Agreements | MP3 | Video Preview
- The God Who Legislates | MP3 | Video Preview
- The God Who Reigns | MP3 | Video Preview
- The God Who Is Unfathomably Wise | MP3 | Video Preview
- The God Who Becomes a Human Being | MP3 | Video Preview
- The God Who Grants New Birth | MP3 | Video Preview
- The God Who Loves | MP3 | Video Preview
- The God Who Dies—and Lives Again | MP3 | Video Preview
- The God Who Declares the Guilty Just | MP3 | Video Preview
- The God Who Gathers and Transforms His People | MP3 | Video Preview
- The God Who Is Very Angry | MP3 | Video Preview
- The God Who Triumphs | MP3 | Video Preview
[The above is re-posted from the Gospel Coalition Blog. Read the rest of the original blog post by Andy Naselli here.]
What would happen if…?
Posted By Joe Haynes on July 24, 2010
What would happen if modern civilization was destroyed by a lethal virus and nuclear war, thrusting the surviving population back into a time of medieval technology and brutality? What would happen if all knowledge was lost, including the knowledge of God’s Word? What would happen if one couple, far from home, running for their lives, four centuries from now, discovered a copy of the Bible, preserved and hidden for posterity by a dying Christian in “ancient” times?
This is what Bryan Litfin imagined and developed into a new novel, The Sword, published by Crossway Books (2010).
This book took me by storm. Litfin captured my imagination with the post-apocalyptic, futuristic/medieval setting. The interplay of action, romance and sound biblical doctrine resonated in me with every page as I couldn’t stop myself from continuing to read late into the night to find out what would happen next. In one sense I’m glad I’ve finished The Sword, because I need a good night’s rest. In another sense, I’m disappointed it has come to its end because I feel impatient at the thought of having to wait until next April (2011) to buy the sequel.
This book is one, I think, men will enjoy. It’s not that a female audience won’t enjoy it too, but that men in particular will relate to some of the book’s themes and the struggles of the characters. Call it “masculine-friendly”. But a caution to parents: this is not a kids’ book.
I’m glad for books like this (though I’ve never read a book quite like this!), because I think there is a need for good story-telling by theologically savvy writers. After reading books like The Shack, where story-telling comes at the cost of sound biblical doctrine, The Sword is a breath of fresh air. The quality of writing isn’t the best, though I hope to see Litfin’s writing improve with each new novel, but the originality and relevance of this, his first novel, more than makes up for his lack of experience writing fiction. Nevertheless, it’s hard to find good fiction that doesn’t toss deep and trustworthy biblical teaching out the window. It seems like many writers of so-called “Christian” novels have a very low view of their audience’s ability to think deep thoughts. Not so Shannon Van Roekel, in her novel I recommended recently, and not so Bryan M. Litfin.
For a long time, Maurice rubbed his shaved head in his palm, until at last he looked up at his student. “Teo, I think you have to let Deu be the God he is, not the god you want him to be.” (Bryan M. Litfin, The Sword, p. 247)
Where there’s smoke is there fire?
Posted By Joe Haynes on July 22, 2010
Maybe I’m just feeling a bit grumpy? Maybe it was the bag of vegetable chips I just ate? But when I saw a tweet talking about the 10-10-10 Initiative (http://www.101010initiative.org/) my stomach turned over a little bit.
I really hope I’m just irritable right now and that my concerns with this thing are totally unfounded and overly pessimistic. But as I read through the steps for how anyone from an individual to a denomination can “get involved” in the 10-10-10 Initiative, I got a bit gassy. When I joined 10-10-10 as an individual member and read through the resource materials, well… you get the picture.
An example: on the website, 10-10-10 urges pastors to preach a four-week sermon series using packaged sermon outlines and other resources on the theme of “transformation”. That in itself isn’t exactly a wrong thing to do, but no where could I find any encouragement for pastors to preach sermons in which the exposition of Scripture is the focus. In fact, I used the website’s search tool on words like “expositional”, “exposition” and “exposit” and got zero results. Then, thinking perhaps I’m being too narrow, I tried searching on the word, “gospel”. I got three results—none of them really relevant. None of these three actually said what the Gospel is, or that the content of the Gospel message should be the message of 10-10-10 participants in this campaign. I simply find it shocking that the purpose of the Church (to spread the Gospel) was overlooked in this campaign to galvanize the Church to plant churches. Here’s what the 3 results for “gospel” did show:
- http://www.101010initiative.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19&Itemid=21 This page talks about the Gospel as the purpose of church-planting and says that it’s important to find fresh ways of spreading the Gospel. That’s pretty good.
- http://www.101010initiative.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11&Itemid=11 This page gives reasons why one should participate in 10-10-10, listing as one such reason that it could be helpful in figuring out what one should do next to help spread the Gospel through church planting. A little vague, but not bad.
- http://www.101010initiative.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12&Itemid=13 This page mentions, “gospel” in a quote from Ed Stetzer, author of Planting Missional Churches (a good idea by the way!). Here’s the quote: “When Great Commission Christians decide to plant Great Commission churches, that’s good news. We need to plant thousands of gospel-centered, scriptural churches, and my prayer is that churches will be multiplied to a new level on 10-10-10 and beyond.” Hey it’s a good quote. I fully agree with what he says here, and it’s my prayer too that “churches will be multiplied to a new level” on October 10, 2010 “and beyond”, but I think Ed is on the money when he says that these must be “gospel-centered, scriptural churches”!
If 10-10-10 results in a whole lot of hype about wonderful stories of how people’s lives were changed when they got connected to a group of Christians in a church plant, how they finally found a place where they belonged, or where they found new meaning in life by serving others instead of themselves, but produces no “gospel-centered, scriptural churches”, I just might be sick all over my keyboard. Because Jesus did not have to die on the cross under God’s wrath against sin for us to hug gender-confused people and sing “kumbaya” after a potluck. And it’s not the kind of results that should define Christianity either. All it is is what has been called “Therapeutic Moralistic Deism” (click here for a church planter’s blog article on what that means!).
So my prayer is that a) I’m way off the mark on my brief analysis of the 10-10-10 Initiative and that the movement will result in just the sorts of churches Ed Stetzer prayed for in the quote above; or b) that someone with some credibility talks some sense into the 10-10-10 organizers so that instead of telling pastors to whip up their churches by talking about transformation, they will exhort preachers to stand up on 10-10-10 and on every single Sunday and preach sermons that exposit the Bible, passage after passage, pointing at Jesus all the time and proclaiming the Gospel message in every page of Scripture. Because that is God’s plan for causing transformation. Talking about transformation instead of preaching the Word that transforms is like making a lot of smoke, hoping the smoke will start a fire.
"…Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." (Rom 10:13-17 ESV)
How can I make sure I am individually shepherding my children? – by Brian Croft
Posted By Joe Haynes on July 21, 2010
I’m just going to shamelessly copy and paste Brian Croft’s blog post from the Gospel Coalition Blog, found here: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2010/07/21/how-can-i-make-sure-i-am-individually-shepherding-my-children/ . What a challenge! But what a worthy goal!
How can I make sure I am individually shepherding my children?
Most pastors would affirm our priority is first to shepherd our family, then to shepherd the church. Yet, I fear many pastors are laboring hard to shepherd the church to the neglect of their family. The Lord in His kind providence challenged me several years ago about this as my neglect in this area had become known. However, it was not another pastor that challenged me. It was through an out-of-town friend who is a pharmacist and faithfully serves as a deacon in his local church that exposed my neglect. His effort and model to shepherd his seven children both individually and regularly in addition to their regular family worship challenged me, convicted me, inspired me, and put my pathetic efforts I had made thus far to shame.
This faithful father shepherded his seven children by taking one morning a week to meet individually with each of his children. Seven days in a week–each of the seven children got one morning each week with their dad. They prayed, read scripture, talked, and read a book of that child’s choosing. Inspired by his amazing example, I came home and established a similar model in our home that I remain faithful to this day. Here is what I do to individually shepherd my four children regularly in addition to our regular time of family worship, as well as implications attached to it:
1) Monday through Thursday each child gets a day and on his or her appointed day stays up 30 – 45 minutes later than their siblings to meet with me before bedtime. I thought they would be excited about it for a few times, but then grow bored with it. Not so. Years later, they look forward to that time more than anything, which provides a natural accountability when you are tired from the day and are tempted to skip for that evening.
2) We read the passage I am preaching for that week, discuss it a bit, then we read a chapter from a book they have chosen to read. At the end, I take time to ask them how they are doing and how I can pray for them. This is a great way to see how they are really doing and teach them what are good things to be praying for others. Then, I pray for them and take them to bed.
3) One of the greatest joys to my wife is her watching my effort with our children and lead our family in this way. The last thing she feels is left out (just in case you were thinking that). Our wives’ desire for us to make regular, deliberate, spiritually meaningful efforts to care for our children will mean more to her than I think we realize or understand. I find this especially true for our wives who are stay at home moms who labor hard in this task of shepherding their little hearts all day with little break.
4) My efforts with my children have put me in a position to challenge other men in my church to do something similar. It has been amazing the way our fathers in our church have embraced this and the way it has empowered many of them to see they can spiritually lead their families with deliberate efforts. Fellow pastors, the obvious needs to be acknowledged that you cannot challenge the men in your church to do anything you are not making a faithful effort at. Regularly and individually shepherding your children’s hearts is certainly one of those efforts that we must model for the men in our local church. Their failure to do it could be a reflection of your failure to model it.
Fellow pastors, leaders, and faithful men in the church, may the Lord use this blog post to bring a similar awakening that I needed that the Lord brought through my dear friend many years ago. Then, dear brother, act upon it and start today to back up what most of us as pastors and fathers acknowledge with our lips, but too few actually do.
