Read This! 05.21.19

Mike Leake

Stained Glass and Shoddy History

I’m glad Bart Barber took a brief moment off his sabbatical to address this.

How Do I Evangelize Someone Who Says They Don’t Trust the Bible?

Yep. Spot on.

6 Keys for Pastors in Maintaining Mental Health

For me the key is to put things in perspective. The more I meditate on the character of God the better off I am.

The Feel-Good Gospel

This is a really good reminder.

31 Day Counseling Devotionals

Wow, these look incredibly helpful.

How to Call Christians Out on Twitter

There are few people I’d listen to on this, Thomas Kidd is one of them.

Most Abortion-Minded Women Aren’t Calculating Killers. They’re Afraid.

I’m thankful for this perspective.

The Year My World Fell Apart

Bob Kauflin shares his story.

Tim Conway died last week. I’ve always loved his humor, and I had never watched this:

IS Finding Deacons/Elders Like Prince Charming Looking For Cinderella?

Mike Leake

Therefore, brothers and sisters, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. –Acts 6:3

There are two different ways they could have went about finding these men. First, they could have been like Prince Charming looking for the Cinderella who dropped her glass slipper. In this instance you have a particular form in which you are looking and you test everyone to see if they fit the mold. Sorry buddy, your foot is a bit too chubby. Sorry tiny, your baby feet aren’t going to fill this shoe.

Or they could have been a bit more like a treasure hunter with a basic guide. If your map says twelve paces left of the big rock, then you’re going to get excited every time you see a big rock. This “men of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom” is like searching for all the c’s in a word search because your word, catatonic, starts with the letter c. You’re still looking for something specific but your starting point is a bit different. As I’ve said before the foundation of discernment is hope, and I don’t think that is different when it comes to selecting deacons and elders.

I’m convinced that we read these lists in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 with the wrong eyes. We’re reading them as if they’re a glass shoe given to help Prince Charming find his Cinderella. And it makes us view these lists in a rigid way. It makes us lazy. We try to make a form fit a man, rather than using these lists as hope-fueled question starters. And it causes us, I believe, to lay hands too swiftly upon some and wrongly pass over others.

I say this as one who firmly believes that character matters deeply. One of the worst things that can happen to a local church is to call an unqualified man to the office of deacon or elder. So this isn’t a call for less discernment it’s a call for better discernment.

What I’m talking about here is more about starting points. If you use the glass slipper method then you’re not really going to be looking for potential leaders until it comes time for the annual ball. Then you’re going to find all the potential candidates—the obvious people—and you will run them through the tests of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. So long as nothing really stands out as disqualifying (the shoe fits) then you’re going to bring them on for a year or so trial as a deacon/elder (or in less healthy communities you won’t even give them a trial period).

But what if instead we used these lists of qualifications year around? What if we were constantly on the look out for those who exhibit particular qualities? (That’s a big rock there, I wonder if THIS is the one the treasure map is talking about?) This will help us take note of the young man who has a hunger for attending things like business meetings. And it will encourage us to sit down and ask hopeful questions. We are still looking for a specific person (i.e.“full of the Spirit and wisdom”), but we’re starting with hope and not suspicion. And it helps us to be better disciple-makers.

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A phenomenal resource to help us ask better questions is Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons by Thabiti Anyabwile. He, I believe, comes at these lists from the perspective of hope and because of this he helps us ask good questions that we can be asking year-round.

Photo source: here

Read This! 05.16.19

Mike Leake

4 Keys to Conquering the Sneaky Enemy of Your Ministry

Or how to keep from getting distracted.

The Making of Amazon Prime

Interesting long form story of how Amazon changed online shopping forever.

A Censorious Spirit

Nick Batzig with a bit of help from Jonathan Edwards.

Making the Faith Your Own is Not Making Up Your Own Faith

A vital distinction.

I’m Thankful For Therapy

I’m praying about sharing my own story with receiving biblical counseling. I’m thankful for stories like Courtney’s.

10 Things You Should Know About Complementarianism

Sam Storms’ view is similar to my own.

101 Small Ways to Share the Gospel

I really appreciate lists like this one.

A Sermon Notes Sheet for Older Children

Good work!

Does God turn his face away from Christians?

Real Discernment Knows When to Be Silent

Mike Leake

If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the Devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. –Martin Luther…supposedly

What a dangerous little quote this is in our outrage culture. There are battles being waged every day. There are many “little point” and I can pick and choose among several. And if that little skirmish doesn’t satiate me on Monday I can rest assured that by Friday I’ll have a new slate of battles to take up.

Now part of the problem with this quote is that it likely wasn’t even said by Luther. It likely came from a 19th century novel written by Elizabeth Rundle Charles. It sounds like Luther. It’s not necessarily inconsistent with Luther. But it’s not directly from his pen.

Secondly, when Luther did talk this way he was talking about boldly standing for Christ on essential doctrines like justification by grace alone through faith alone. Of course he did at times turn secondary issues (like Lord’s Supper) into primary issues. He was bull-headed and that came out at times. But I wonder how many of our social media spats would have Luther shaking his head.

Regardless of Luther’s response I’m confident that the apostle Paul—or better yet the Holy Spirit who inspired the apostle Paul—wouldn’t be pleased. I’m convinced we’ve missed the boat on discernment. What is needed in our day and age is actual discernment but that word has been hi-jacked by those who show little evidence of actually having discernment.

I say this because to be truly discerning means that you know what battles are worth fighting. True discernment knows which “little points” are actually being attacked by the enemy and what is merely being fanned into flame by misery-induced demonic forces. This is what Paul prays for the church at Philippi.

In Philippi you’ve got @Euodia and @Syntyche battling it out over who knows what. And you can almost guarantee that both of them are confident that they are doing the Lord’s work. But in reality their a couple of deer who are going to get mauled by a lion because they’ve locked horns over something stupid and they’ve forgotten the actual battle that is taking place.

So Paul prays that their love would abound more and more and that it would be that discerning love that is grounded in real knowledge of who Jesus is. And he prays this so that they can approve what is vital. In other words stop fighting about stuff that isn’t essential and get about the business of advancing the gospel. (Philippians 1:9-11)

I don’t know all the answers when it comes to women in ministry, social justice, and a host of other things that has our attention these days. But I do know that the way we argue about these things says more about us than what we say in all of this. 

True discernment would perhaps say it might not be the best time to hash out the role of women in the pulpit when we’ve (SBC) just been exposed and dragged through the mud with our own #metoo movement. Is that really something essential, right now? And is social media the place for that? Or would it not be wise for a denomination which believes deeply in local church autonomy to hash this out on a local church level while we in the big tent be about the task of getting the name of Jesus to the nations?

Ah yes, but someone is wrong on the internet! There is a breach in the wall and gospel fidelity (according to “Luther”) demands that we put all of our effort into this one particular doctrine in this one particular season.

But love takes a different tone. Love learns to shut up for a season—to be quick to listen and slow to speak. Love has a happy confidence in the sovereignty of God because love is intimately tied to hope. And love is patient. That means you don’t have to stamp out every spark that you see or correct every error. Discerning love says, “we’ll get there.”

This is why I say we need real discernment; discernment which learns to pick the right battles for the sake of love. I’m not the biggest fan of the old “preach the gospel and when necessary use words”, but I think we certainly would do well with less words and more humble listening.

(And I’m not blind to the irony of writing on our need for silence). 

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Photo source: here