Read This! 08.03.17

Mike Leake

When Serving the Local Church Isn’t Fun

I really appreciate this perspective.

John Calvin, The Beatific Vision, and the End of Mediation

This is nerdy enough for my joy.

Are You a Spectator on Sunday Morning?

We need to be intentional about making sure our Sunday morning service isn’t a spectator sport.

Who Were the Galatians?

Tom Schreiner talking about Galatians, means I have to link to it. Also I’d seriously consider enrolling in this class.

Doing More Harm Than Good

Fear of man can make us do more harm than good.

Do Visitors To Your Church Really Feel Welcome?

These are helpful questions to ask.

12 Pastoral Commitments

I like the way Kevin DeYoung turned these descriptors into commitments.

5 Reasons to Consider Online Registration Forms for Guests

This is a really good idea.

It’s pathetic how much I want to do this:

About That Jim Carrey Speech

Mike Leake 1 Comment

The internet and social media has been all abuzz about a speech Jim Carrey gave to a group of former inmates. In the speech he talked about choosing forgiveness for our suffering over resentment. He used Christ as a model of what he was calling the inmates to do. Here are some of his words:

“He suffered terribly and He was broken by it, to the point of doubt and a feeling of absolutely abandonment, which all of you have felt. Then there was a decision to be made. And the decision was to look upon the people who were causing that suffering with compassion and with forgiveness, and that’s what opens the gates of heaven for all of us. I wish that for all of you. I wish that for myself.’

I saw many Christian groups and websites celebrating that Jim Carrey is now representing Jesus in Hollywood. One Christian magazine called the speech, “a pretty powerful—and Christ-centered—speech from Carrey about the power of refusing resentment.”

The only problem with this, however, is that Jim Carrey is not proclaiming in the Jesus of the Bible. Nor, as far as we can tell from his public words, is Carrey claiming to even follow the biblical Jesus. Consider the words of Carrey only a few short minutes after the above quoted words. Carrey said, “Every cell of your body is God. Everything is divine.” This isn’t Christianity it’s a bit of pantheism and Gnosticism.

Consider a similar speech (brief NSFW language) by Carrey a bit before the one that is circling the internet. It doesn’t sound to me like his views have changed all that much from 2013. In this one Carrey was ruminating about how Christ freed the world from sin. His answer? “He freed the world from sin from his perspective we have to do the same.” He went on to tell us the meaning of life. “Love yourself” was the answer he gave.

This Isn’t About Jim Carrey

Friends, this is the opposite of Christianity. Even his Jesus-sounding words that are making the rounds on Facebook are opposite the gospel of Jesus. When he talks about going through the gate of forgiveness or the gate of resentment and the former “leading to grace” this is getting the cart before the horse. This is the type of thing the apostle Paul railed against in Galatians. This isn’t the biblical gospel that grace comes first, and being forgiven by God leads to us forgiving.

Now, I’m not saying all of this to poo poo on what the Lord is (or is not) doing in Jim Carrey’s life. I’m sure that many would read my words as bigoted, because I’m assuming that there is an objective truth and an objective standard that Carrey’s speech is not measuring up to. That’s fine. But I’m really not intending to even speak to Carrey. My goal is to encourage the church to stop getting all excited when a celebrity mentions the name of Jesus. It doesn’t mean they are Christian or now representing the Christian faith.

Ask yourself, if what Jim Carrey said was said by somebody in my church Sunday school class would I be applauding and sharing those words on social media? If you would not then what does this reflect about our hearts? Does it not show that we believe the words of celebrity carry more weight than the common person? And does it not mean that we are weighing their words on a different scale? Friends, this should not be so.

Consider these words from D.A. Carson:

This is a point that our generation cannot afford to ignore. Why is it that we constantly parade Christian athletes, media personalities, and pop singers? Why should we think that their opinions or their experiences of grace are of any more significance than those of any other believer? When we tell outsiders about people in our church, do we instantly think of the despised and the lowly who have become Christians, or do we love to impress people with the importance of the men and women who have become Christians?” D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, p.29

Let’s use a bit of discernment when celebrities start talking about Jesus. It’s no victory for the gospel when somebody promotes Jesus-sounding Gnosticism or pantheism. It’s confuses folks when we share on social media that Jim Carrey is representing Christ when his version of the meaning of life is absolutely contrary to the message of Christ. We must use discernment and make sure the gospel is actually being proclaimed—and this is true whether it’s Ace Ventura Pet Detective or President of the United States. 

Read This! 08.01.17

Mike Leake

Protestants and Catholics Use Same Terms But Different Dictionaries

This is why it is so difficult to witness to Roman Catholics.

Hope When Your Children Stray

I suppose all children will stray in some form or fashion. But there is hope.

When Jesus Didn’t Call God His Father

This is an interesting tidbit that I’d never noticed.

The Lousy Preacher was You

A bit of help when you’ve preached what you feel like was a real stinker.

The 5 C’s of Preaching

A checklist for sermon prep.

Should Christians Cremate Their Loved Ones?

This might be a tad controversial, but I tend to agree with Piper here.

A Crash Course on Leadership Meetings

This is helpful.

Why We Sing With The Lights On

I really appreciate this perspective.

I absolutely love this:

Is Confidence Necessary For Ministry?

Mike Leake

Yogi Berra was correct about baseball when he said “90% of the game is half mental”. You can tell quite a bit about how a pitcher is going to pitch on that day by his body posture on the mound. If he has a ton of confidence in his “stuff” then he is likely going to have a solid outing. But pitching without conviction will get your pitches knocked all around the ball park. You could say the same thing about batting. In order to be successful you have to be confident in your “stuff”.

Does this extend to missions and ministry? In order to preach well, to engage the lost, and to minister to church folks well, do I need to have confidence in my “stuff”?

The way we go about answering this question will determine how we train people for ministry. I will argue today that ministry is both similar and dissimilar to baseball in regards to “having stuff”.

On one hand preaching without conviction isn’t really preaching. It is similar to baseball in this way. Doing ministry without conviction will not get you very far. I think Gardiner Spring was correct when he said, “No preacher can sustain the attention of a people unless he feels his subject; nor can he long sustain it, unless he feels deeply.” (Quoted from Montoya, 51).

To preach without conviction is a poor representation of the powerful words we proclaim. We must have confidence in our “stuff” if we are going to be faithful ministers of the gospel. You cannot do ministry well without confidence in the message you are proclaiming.

Did you notice the subtle switch I made in that last sentence? That is where the baseball pitcher is different than the minister of the gospel. The pitcher has to have confidence in how well he’s throwing his curve. The minister must have confidence in the unchanging Word of an omnipotent God. This impacts the way we train people to have confidence and conviction.

Consider Isaiah the prophet.

Here you’ve got a guy who is going to engage in a very difficult ministry. Nobody is going to listen to him. And he has to keep on preaching and preaching. Rather than leading to revival his preaching is going to lead to rejection. That’s not a very easy gig. So how do you prepare a guy for tough ministry like this? It’s a ministry where he doesn’t get to open up the mouth of the lion but instead he’s going to get chomped to bits. How do you encourage someone to step out into that?

We often take the Stuart Smalley approach. We train folks to have confidence in their “stuff”. Our idea of equipping them is to give them all the tools we can and then boost their self-esteem. “You’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and doggone it people like you”. You can make it because you’ve got what it takes!

But contrast this with how the Lord prepared Isaiah for his ministry. Rather than building him up, God broke him down. He took away every ounce of self-confidence that Isaiah could muster. He left Isaiah having absolutely zero confidence in his “stuff”. He rescued Isaiah from self-focus by overwhelming Him with His glory and grace. That’s how he prepared the prophet to engage in such a difficult task. Brokenness was the means.

So if we are training ourselves and others for the work of ministry it’ll need to come through a similar path. A path which realizes that we have absolutely no competence on our own. One which has no conviction in it’s own stuff. But instead a conviction which comes through being overtaken by the Glorious One. It’s a hungry resolve to do all things for His glory because we know that this mission cannot be stopped.

So, yeah, if you want to do ministry well it has to be with conviction and confidence. You could maybe say it like this:

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:4-6)

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Photo source: here