Learning to Celebrate Baby Steps

Mike Leake

I just finished reading Jared Wilson’s The Gospel-Driven Church. Solid book. I’d recommend it to anyone. There are many great statements in the book. I think this statement could possibly be the most important:

Remember that simply moving forward is walking in obedience. Don’t assume you aren’t being faithful until you arrive. (193)

The first time a weary pastor picks up a book like Nine Marks of a Healthy Church or a book like The Gospel-Driven Church it’s such a balm to the soul. But it also can make you a tad angry. Angry at systems and structures which have bruised and wounded you. And this is matched with a passion to see things change. And to change them immediately.

“Why are we not doing this!!?!?! Why are we waiting to obey God’s Word?!?!?!!”

I’ve said things like that. To me, regenerate church membership is obvious. There is absolutely no reason why a church should have 70% of their members still on the rolls when they haven’t attended in years. Likewise, church discipline is pretty obvious in the Bible. It’s pretty cut and dry what we are supposed to do about unrepentant sin and how we should handle conflict in the body of Christ.

When you become convinced of these things as a pastor you can feel as if you are being unfaithful when you aren’t yet leading your church towards these things. And Jared is absolutely correct that “it is quite possible to make gospel-centrality into an idol”. Deep discontent can wash over us and we can start loving the church we could be instead of the church we are. We can become obsessed with moving our church towards health…and that’s rather unhealthy. We can sacrifice our calling as pastors on the alter of overseeing and leadership.

God calls shepherds to be tender as well as truthful. And the tender shepherd will learn to celebrate steps towards obedience. And when I say celebrate I don’t mean participation trophy celebrate. I mean your kid just took first steps and you’re amazed because you know it’s the first of many more to come. Hopeful celebration.

I believe much of the discontent within pastoral ministry hinges upon this point. We have become so obsessed with the pilgrims arrival that we’ve lost the ability to celebrate the pilgrims progress. Our goal as pastors is always to be faithfulness. And faithfulness isn’t found only when you get into the Promised Land. Faithfulness is found in that first step out of Egypt and every subsequent one after.

I think we worry that if we celebrate baby steps we’ll stagnate and become content with those initial steps and never be spurred on to greater health. But walking doesn’t work that way. We cheered when our kids took their first steps. And they kept taking more. Glory has insatiable component to it. There is a glory hunger that will keep on walking. And it’s fueled by encouragement. It doesn’t stagnate. It tastes that the Lord is good and it keeps on trucking towards the prize.

Let’s learn to celebrate baby steps of obedience. Like, really celebrate.

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Photo source: here

One Reason You Might Not Be Seeing God Right Now

Mike Leake

There are some things you can only see at night.

And there are some things you should be able to see at night but you can’t because the glow of the city has blunted their glow.

Some of you city folk might not know the glory of being out in a field miles away from city lights and looking up at all the stars. It’s captivating. Breath-taking. God’s promise to Abraham is far bigger when you’re out in the open land. If it’s the right time of the month you don’t need a flashlight, the glow of the moon is enough to light your path. There is something serene and awe-inspiring about seeing all the stars when they aren’t competing with our man-made lights. Isaiah 50:10-11 reminded me of this:

10 Who among you fears the Lord
and obeys the voice of his servant?
Let him who walks in darkness
and has no light
trust in the name of the Lord
and rely on his God.
11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
who equip yourselves with burning torches!
Walk by the light of your fire,
and by the torches that you have kindled!
This you have from my hand:
you shall lie down in torment.

Isaiah 50:3 tells us that God had brought darkness upon the Israelites because of their unfaithfulness. There are things which they would not be able to see unless it was dark. But what did the people do? They complained about God’s working with them and they pursued other avenues of help. They, as Isaiah 50:11 warns against, lit torches.

When I hear the word darkness I tend to think of depression and anxiety. God has brought me an incredible amount of victory in this area, but I still remember days of darkness. I remember groping around for anything to give me even a spark of light. Truth be told, I lit quite a few matches. I was desperate. But a desperate rebel. At times I was angry at God. I didn’t want to wait for His hand. I didn’t want to trust in His means or rely upon His Word when my feelings were all out of whack. I just wanted to feel better. So I started my own fires.

And in the glow of my fire I couldn’t see God as brightly. My fires didn’t warm me. It didn’t provide proper light. It always fizzled and died down. And then I’d get angry with God. Why had he abandoned me in the darkness? Why would he bring rain to douse the feeble sparks I’d labored so hard to generate?

But it wasn’t that he had abandoned me. It was that my own torches blinded me to His redemption. I couldn’t see the radiant stars because of the borrowed glory of my flickering matches. And I, much like Jonah and his silly little plant, became enamored with the sparks from my own comfort. I labored harder and harder to keep those flames going. My, what a fool I must have looked like. Eternal glory, radiant light, every spiritual blessing already mine but I’m playing with sticks trying to manufacture a glimmer of light.

When we find ourselves in the darkness we cannot make having light our goal. This is why being driven by emotions is so dangerous. If emotions are our goal then any ol’ spark will do, so long as we have a bit of light for the moment. Our goal must be to have true light. Ever notice the word “true light” in John 1:9. That means there are no so true lights. Only Christ will last. And even a flicker of grace from His hand is enough to capture us for all eternity. But sometimes we can’t see those sparks because we are so enamored with our own torches.

Don’t grab the matches. Wait for his light.

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Photo source: here

Read This! 03.28.19

Mike Leake

Seven Warnings About Memorials and Plaques In Your Church

I think this is wise.

The End of Discernment?

Yep.

Nacho Libre Leads Muslims to Christ

Haha. Wow. We have serve a beautifully sovereign God.

Fear of Missing Out on God’s Word?

This is a wonderful defense of really soaking up a section of God’s Word.

What is a Reformed Fundamentalist?

I agree.

3 Ways to Overcome Baggage When Preaching

Great counsel.

7 Ways to Preach an Ineffective Sermon

I appreciate the relationship between #1 and #2.

Why “Count it All Joy” Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Grieve

Great point.

So far this is the guy our family is cheering for on American Idol:

That Time We Boycotted E.T.

Mike Leake

Did you know that in 1988 evangelicals, and especially Southern Baptists (*hangs head in shame*), encouraged folks to stop buying VHS tapes of the lovable E.T.? If you’re racking your brain, as I was, trying to figure out what was so offensive about E.T., you can stop now. The problem wasn’t with the little alien, the problem was with the Martin Scorsese film The Last Temptation of Christ.

The National Association of Evangelicals joined together to campaign and encourage Christians to not buy the beloved family film as a show of displeasure over the other MCA/Universal film. Their goal was to significantly impact the profits of E.T., the film which MCA would expect Christians to watch, so that it would garner their attention and voice their displeasure in The Last Temptation of Christ.

Living and Dying By the Boycott

It didn’t work. And I hadn’t even heard of this boycott until a couple weeks ago when I found a gem of a book (Power Religion) tucked away in my library. It’s a compilation of articles written in the late 80’s and early 90’s by prominent Christian leaders. The book is unified around the theme of evangelicals selling out for the sake of power. I find it incredibly intriguing because of it’s date of composition. Reading it thirty years later is eye-opening. And I wish we would have listened. Consider this from Kenneth A. Myers:

If you live by the boycott, you may die by the boycott. If you present yourself merely as one of many patches in the pluralist American crazy quilt, you must behave with the same decorum you require of others. If you try to use coercive economic means to prevent a false Messiah from being presented in 70 millimeter Dolby stereo, then you should not expect the economic freedom to present the true Messiah in cinematic glory, if that presentation is as offensive to some fellow citizens as Scorsese’s presentation is to you. (46)

The Movement Mentality

Thankfully we’ve moved on a bit from boycotting things. But I’m not convinced that we’ve learned our lesson about power politics. If my social media feed is any indication we’re still in the midst of a culture war. And the fear-mongering is perhaps even more pronounced than it was when Myers originally wrote this article. We don’t boycott E.T. anymore. We shame, dismiss, and ultimately destroy the enemy—all in the name of Jesus, of course. I think we evangelicals have wised up a bit and changed our strategy. But we haven’t yet abandoned our hope in a movement in favor of a King and His Kingdom. We still have plenty of chips in on the evangelical counter-culture movement. Again I turn to Myers, and tell me this doesn’t sound just like your social media feed:

Movements succeed by maintaining solidarity and are not friendly to reflective attention to nuance, to the statement of exceptions to generalities, or to criticism within the ranks. Instead of judging one’s orthodoxy by his or her understanding of the Person and work of Christ (theology), the movement mentality judges orthodoxy by one’s position on a particular policy or ideological principle. (47)

God help us. This is far too true. And I see this deeply within the movement  that I find myself within. We’ve splintered over social justice issues. And we now measure our brothers and sisters based upon which particular camp they fall into. “Are you part of my movement?”, we ask. Please, tell me this hasn’t all just been about power!

Myers continues in the chapter to show how a move away from theology to morality and then to mere ideology leads to an emptiness. He asks a probing question, “what is to prevent the evangelical movement from becoming as theologically vacant as the liberalism it once denounced”? Given the recent State of Theology, perhaps we should listen to what Myers warned against so many years ago. Yes, we evangelicals are theologically vacant.

A Path Forward?

Does this mean we’ve lost the cultural war? If we’ve lost the gospel while trying to prevent Christendom does it mean that we lost the battle decades ago? Did we fight for the wrong thing and in doing so let the main thing slip through our fingers? Perhaps. But Jesus doesn’t let his sheep go so easily. We’re broken. We have egg on our face. Maybe evangelicalism is meant to burn to the ground. But the evangel isn’t. The good news will always have a seat at the table, even if it isn’t invited. Because the gospel is always true and it doesn’t bow to any king. It’ll remain.

So what’s the path forward? It certainly isn’t boycotting E.T. nor in changing our strategies. We won’t gain much by taking white-out over our placards and replacing it with more modern quips and zingers. The path forward is likely the slow-plodding path of faithful discipleship. Bold proclamation that isn’t beholden to a party or an ideology, but simply captivated by the never-changing truth of King Jesus.

Maybe our answer should be to drop the petitions and put up Bible study sign-up sheets.

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Photo source: here