How to Rock Twitter Like a Pharisee

Mike Leake

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 6:1 ESV)

I wonder what it would look like if the Pharisees had a Twitter account. It would probably look a little like this:

smug.trumpet

fast.smug

camel.smug

smug.disciples

Maybe it isn’t so hard to imagine…

There is a fine line between facebragging and giving God-honoring information. I’ve been working through taking the log out of my own eye before attempting to take the specs out of my brothers and sisters.

I started out by making a list of a few rules for determining if it’s God-honoring or facebragging. Then I realized that sounds too much like what a Pharisee would do. In reality it all comes down to my heart. Am I posting stuff in the hopes you’ll wake up to my awesomeness or to somehow praise the Lord and point to Him?

Here is the central question: Do I want to be seen by men or do I want to be a window by which people see the beauty of Jesus?

That is a question that I want to ask myself before I tweet things that tip-toe towards facebragging.

—

By the way that “My new ride” link works.

I should also mention that Twister is a crazy fun way of creating fake tweets like the ones above.

Today in Blogworld 03.05.13

Mike Leake

The Problem with Arrogant Pastors & 5 Ways Not to Be One

Ed Stetzer and Jonathan Howe have listed five warning signs that you are headed down the road of arrogance.

Embracing Weakness Will Change Your Life

“When we embrace weakness, it means we’ve looked at ourselves long enough to know we can’t make it without looking to Another.”

Wormtongue at the Listless Wheel

With a little help from Lord of the Rings, Jared Wilson makes a salient point that “we can learn nothing from the heterodox about navigating ‘the future of evangelicalism’ except how to shut the engines off and drift”.

Are Rewards in Heaven Based on Our Effort or God’s Grace?

Michael Patton answers. Sort of…

Pure awesomeness:

How Often Should I Post On My Blog?

Mike Leake 2 Comments

I’ve been asking myself that question recently.

I started with a few general thoughts. 5 to be exact:

  1. Write daily
  2. Don’t post everything I write
  3. Post quality
  4. Post frequently (enough that people don’t wonder if I’ve died)
  5. Always keep people wanting more…

Then I charted posting frequency of some favorite blogs that are also widely read.

  • Challies 16.3
  • Ed Stetzer 12.8
  • Trevin Wax 11.0
  • 22 Words 65.6
  • Zach Nielsen 30.8
  • Desiring God 14.0
  • Jared Wilson 4.7
  • Justin Taylor 7.5
  • The Gospel Coalition 14.9
  • SBC Voices 14.2
  • Kevin DeYoung 6.5
  • David Murray 14.5
  • Aaron Armstrong 13.3

I compared this with my blog: 15.2

I asked myself, “What type of blog do I want to be”?

Zach Nielsen and Abraham Piper post so much because they seldom right original material. Jared Wilson and Kevin DeYoung post so little because almost all that they post is original material. DG, SBC Voices, and TGC post a couple times per day because they are group blogs filled with original material. Challies posts 16 times per week because he’s Challies. Folks like David Murray, Stetzer, Trevin Wax, Aaron Armstrong and myself post 13-15 times per week because we share content and post original stuff.

Then I asked myself, “What do I want to accomplish with my blog”?

At core I want to write in such a way that Jesus is the only boast of this generation. I want to accomplish that goal by sharing Christ-exalting resources. I also want to accomplish that goal by writing quality Christ-exalting resources myself.

I have secondary goals, like having fun, making sports picks, creating a community, sharing humor, etc. But all of that is to ultimately point people back to Jesus.

I came to this conclusion:

My 15.2 article per week is too high. I cannot post at a high quality level by posting this much. Furthermore, I am not fulfilling my goal of keeping people wanting more. Therefore, my new goal is to post 12 times per week. This means no more than 14 and no less than 10.

I will share quality content M-F in my Today in Blogworld segment. That takes up 5 posts. On Saturdays I will attempt to compile a resource list. On Sundays I hope to pull something out of my archives. This leaves 5 original posts to be written Monday-Friday. I believe this will help me accomplish my goal and focus on better content.

A Word to Weary Pastors

Mike Leake

“75% of pastors report severe stress causing anguish, worry, bewilderment, anger, depression, fear, and alienation.” –Pastor Burnout

In the loneliness of the pastors office, with the walls closing in around him, the pastor mumbles to himself. “Why do I even do this?” With complaints and unhelpful criticism assaulting his fraying mind he stares at a stack of papers and books that cry for his attention. As he sits down on Friday afternoon to begin sermon preparation, his mind wanders to all of the ministers that are faltering, marriages crashing, teenagers rebelling. It’s no wonder that he asks the question—“Why am I doing this”.

Isaiah 50:4 tells this weary pastor why:

“The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary”.

Sustaining the weary with a word from Yahweh is why this weary pastor will press on. The labor of study, pouring over Greek texts, boring commentaries, and difficult verses has a purpose. The pastor sweats in his office so that he might have “the tongue of those who are taught”. He does this because he knows that weary sheep need fed.

But what does the pastor do when he is weary?

Sometimes a pastor simply needs to buck up, stop whining, and get to the business of feeding the sheep. At other times the darkness is too deep. In either case what the weary pastor needs is a word from the Suffering Servant.

Pastor, Isaiah 50 is not fundamentally your song. It is the song of Another, known as the Suffering Servant. You and I are the weary in this song. The one who sings this song has already given his beard to be plucked and his cheeks to be struck. He has already set his face like a flint and climbed upon a Roman cross. And He has already been vindicated by the Lord. You and I need the finished work of the Suffering Servant in order to be faithful servants that suffer well.

As weary pastors we can press on because Christ has secured not only His own vindication but ours as well. Because of His work we too can “set our face like a flint” and get about our work of “sustaining with a word him who is weary.”

Pastor, you can endure because He already has. You know weariness. So also do the sheep under your care. Heal them with the words that have healed you. “The tongue of those who are taught” is crafted in the kiln of affliction.

May he “awaken our ears to hear as those who are taught”.