Comments on God Delighting in Small (New England) Churches

From Paul Buckley in Methuen, MA (check out his excellent, Christ-exalting blog)--

"I pastor a Sovereign Grace Ministries Church in New England, King of Grace Church. Thanks for your encouraging post! Pastoring in New England has been a wonderful adventure of learning to glory in Christ and the precious folks he does give us and not in our relative church size. It is one thing to say I am pastoring for God's glory, it is another to be tested with small success yet still labor. There are many here as Josh said who have labored faithfully for years (far beyond mine). They are my heroes.

I trust their faithful prayers and labors will indeed be answered in time with new converts, new church plants and a region full of disciples who will surpass them in zeal, knowledge and faithfulness. We intend to labor for Christ and His glory regardless of outcome yet we continue to ask for a greater harvest."

From Mike Freeman in Ohio (formerly of Maine)--

"Having grown up in a Maine small church, I agree with Owen. Additionally, I have labored as a lay youth leader for the past six years at at a church in southwest Ohio. I can say with certainty that the folks in Maine, by and large, "get it." In Ohio, the bible belt, many people go to church because that's what you are supposed to do- even fundamental evangelical churches. In Maine, most people don't go to church; the ones that do come actually seem to want to be there."

Are there other pastors out there who want to comment on the original blog I wrote? I would love more testimony on what it is like to pastor a small church and how you handle it.

To my knowledge, this subject is not often talked about. Small churches are something of the elephant in the room in many evangelical circles. We all know they're there (in large numbers), but as our environment is suffused with notions of success and grandiosity, we don't want to talk about them much or really even acknowledge they're around. We'd much rather talk about the "success stories" than the churches who are, in their quest for faithfulness, achieving a certain numerical mediocrity.

This (extended) blog is no attempt to demonize large churches. Far, far from it. I give thanks to God for large churches that are faithful to the gospel. God often uses them in special ways. God blesses many, many people through them. For Bethlehem and Covenant Life and other churches of similar size and gospel focus, I am thankful to God. But we must not think that these churches alone are faithful and glorifying to God. If our definition of God's glory is measured along metric lines, we are surely off. If faithfulness must in some way equal numerical prosperity, we are certainly wrong. The very message of the Bible is that God takes pleasure in the few. God, unlike men, does not need recognizable size and prosperity--in terms of His followers--to be delighted. The message of the Bible is that God loves His people. He loves the few. He loves the remnant. He delights in the faithful, self-sacrificial lives of His people. It is not massive size that He searches the earth for. He searches it for faithfulness.

The Bible is rife with stories that support this basic idea. Try it out--test this theme out. Read through your Bible, and see how often God delights in a people who are small in number but great in devotion. See how little emphasis there is on the mere size of things. Tiny Israel, puny David, Gideon's 300, the faithful remnant, the mustard seed, the scattered disciples, the overmatched apostles, the slain martyrs--this is just a tiny selection of biblical matters that show with clarity the joy God takes in the few. In so many of these things, in fact, it is God's explicit design for His numbers to be small.

When a church is small, then, we must not rush to feel bad for it, or wonder what has gone wrong, or contrive many ways to fix it. Perhaps change is needed. But it may well be that God is delighting in the small size of the congregation, taking joy in their gathered worship, smiling as they evangelize and celebrate His supper and struggle to fill an oversized room. Knowing God's character from the Bible, wouldn't it be just like Him to do so?

One of the Most Helpful Posts on Guidance I've Read: Dever on Subjectivism

Update on 2/21/08: Apparently I linked to the wrong blog yesterday. Thankfully, Mark Dever caught my error and corrected it, as you can see in the comments. I'm pretty sure that this is the first time he's ever seen this blog, so I'll have to err more often.

I came across a very helpful little piece on guidance today. It's by Mark Dever and it can be found at the Together for the Gospel blog." (HT: Justin Taylor) The post is titled "The Bondage of "Guidance" and it is well worth the five minutes it takes to read it. Here's a helpful excerpt from it:

"I do believe that God's Spirit will sometimes lead us subjectively. So, for instance, I am choosing to spend my life here on Capitol Hill because my wife & I sensed in 1993 that that is what God wanted us to do. However, I realized then (and now) that I could be wrong about that supposition. Scripture is NEVER wrong. I was free in 1993 to stay in England, or teach at a seminary, either of which would have been delightful opportunities. I understand that I was free to make those choices. But I chose, consulting Scripture, friends, wisdom, and my own subjective sense of the Lord's will, to come to DC. And even if I were wrong about that, I had (and have) that freedom in Christ to act in a way that is not sin. And I understand my pastoring here not to be sin. So I am free. Regardless of the sense of leading I had."

And here's another:

"A subjective sense of leading--when we've asked for it (as in James 1:5 we ask for wisdom) and when God freely gives it--is wonderful. The desire for such a subjective sense of leading, however, is too often, in contemporary evangelical piety, binding our brothers and sisters in Christ, paralyzing them from enjoying the good choices that God may provide, and causing them to wait wrongly before acting."

This is great stuff. I've encountered a good many Christians who are genuinely confused about this question. In fact, I've been one of those Christians (and still am, sometimes). Those of us who tie ourselves up in knots over the issue of discovering God's will go beyond the Scripture, I think. That is to say, the Bible does not expect us, I think, to perfectly know God's will for every decision we make in our lives. It is no bad desire to want such leading--in fact, I think it shows a healthy respect for the sovereign will of God as applied to our lives--but the Bible does not prescribe any sort of process by which we may automatically discern what it is that God wants for us. We are to pray, clearly, and we are to take counsel, and search the Word, and use wisdom conformed to biblical thought patterns, but beyond these things, as Dever writes, we are free to make what we believe to be the godly choice. This is a strange concept for some of us, this idea of freedom, but we must remember that this is a gift that Christ has graciously given to us. We must remind ourselves of the scriptural truth that the blood of Christ has not subjected to us a decisional bondage, but liberated us to live freely and joyfully under the reign of Christ. Hopefully, we'll be able to remember this truth as we live, and so free ourselves from a paralysis of will that, however well-intended, ultimately loses sight of the Christ-given gift of freedom.

New Series at Said at Southern: Seasons of a Seminarian, Part One

I'm itching to write a number of things this week, but I first want to tell you about a series of articles I'm writing at Said at Southern, the SBTS metablog, about seminary. If you've ever wanted a kind of overview of the seminary experience from a student's perspective, you might find this series interesting. It's nothing special, but in it, I do seek to tell the seminary "story" generally, though I do so from my own experience, mixing in my own anecdotes and memories. I think it does a reasonable job of recounting the average seminarian's experience. Though I tell it from my own personal history, one need not have gone to Southern to resonate with its ideas and happenings.

Here is a paragraph from the first part of the three-part series.

"We come to seminary from a wide range of backgrounds. Some have worked in campus ministry, some in local churches, some have been missionaries, some were accountants or lawyers or investment bankers in past times. This is part of what makes seminary a profitable experience: the wealth of diversity accrued to a campus that pursues a common goal, namely, training for the ministry of the gospel. I came to Southern after an action-packed year in Washington, DC, where I interned at Capitol Hill Baptist Church and the U. S. Department of State. Like many seminarians, I had thought it best to take a bit of time off from school following college graduation, as I was a bit weary of books and quizzes and papers and classes. After a year in “local church bootcamp” (I assure you, an affectionate moniker for the CHBC internship and church experience), I felt ready for the Christian academy. Like many prospective seminarians, I knew some theology and had read through the Bible, but I had little sense of the bigger picture behind it all. I wanted to really know the Bible, to be able to read it for myself in the original languages, and to learn the history, philosophy, and theology that it birthed. I was old enough to know a little, but young enough to be aware of the same. I was young and hungry, and seminary was the answer."

I'll have more on this series in days to come.

The Week-est Link, Dec. 21

Okay, so it's not actually December 21, but I was out of town the past few days taking care of job stuff so I'm giving you my links a couple of days after they were originally scheduled to hit. The "Spiritual ambition" stuff picks back up tomorrow.

1. I highly recommend this strange and at times hilarious video depicting the internship program at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. I did this internship under Dr. Mark Dever, and I can only say that the interns are a good deal more technologically savvy than my group I ever was. If you've ever wondered what the CHBC internship is like, you won't find out in this video. You will, however, watch something very funny, and that's worth your time. Funniest line: Mark Dever saying, "Where did you get the idea I would answer that question?"

2. I just read God's Harvard by reporter and writer Hanna Rosin. Rosin is a liberal Jew. Her book is about Patrick Henry College, the home-school haven in Virginia. It's an academically challenging school and has a young but tumultuous history. Rosin's work is valuable primarily because it allows evangelicals to see how liberals view them. Rosin makes some good points along the way, and some of her critiques land, even if she is as heavy-handed as she accuses evangelicals of being. I'm hoping to write a fuller review of this book on this blog. Fascinating stuff if you like pop sociology as I do.

3. If you don't have Michael Buble's "Let It Snow" Christmas ep, you have a couple of days to buy it and enjoy it. Our family gave it to Bethany and me, and we play it constantly, in part because it's only six songs long and in part because Buble makes every room warm with his rich voice.

That's it for now--I'll be back tomorrow, and hope that everyone has a nice Sunday.

The Gospel Growth Conference

I've mentioned this once before on this blog, but I want to do so again. Matthias Media and 9Marks Ministries are hosting the "Gospel Growth" conference in about a month's time. If you are interested in going, all you need to do is click on this link and read about the conference. Here is a blurb from the website:

"It's hard for pastors not to be mesmerized by church growth. Who doesn't want their congregation to grow? Who doesn't want to see numbers and budgets increasing year by year? And who isn't greatly interested when the latest growth model comes along, the latest research, the latest insight that promises us the key to such growth?

But there's growth and there's growth.

Understanding what the New Testament means by growth, and how that growth happens, sets us free. It liberates us from anxiety and self-doubt, and from the slavery of chasing the latest program."

I might also note for my extensive seminary audience (all six and a half of you) that you get a reduced rate, as do pastors of small churches (this is true). If you are a seminary student and also a small church pastor, then 9Marks actually pays you to come, and gives you a gift bag full of hard-to-find nicknacks--a used J.I. Packer sock, a piece of lint from Charles Spurgeon's coat, and a quill from Richard Sibbes's pen. Okay, I'm kidding about this last benefit, though it would not surprise if one were to find at least one of the trinkets in the neo-Puritan halls of Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

In all seriousness (and there's not much left here as we head into fall break, bless its name), you should go to the conference. It is on a great topic, and it will I'm sure be an enriching and challenging opportunity to think hard about the motives and methods of evangelical ministry.

New 9Marks Conference on Church Growth

One of my least favorite ecclesiastical ideas is that of church growth.

I personally see the very idea of church growth as a pragmatic invention of the twentieth century by which pastors and church leaders focus more on numbers and programs than on individuals and piety. There is very little of the church growth movement that is remotely positive. It's had a harmful effect on the local church, and will be judged in history as a worldly shift in the church's thinking.

With that said, how welcome is the following banner: "Gospel Growth vs. Church Growth". This is also the name of a conference to be held at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC in late October. The conference is co-sponsored by 9Marks Ministries and Matthias Media. Speakers at the event include Tony Payne, Phillip Jensen, and Mark Dever. As a former CHBC intern and a current contributing writer to 9Marks, I cannot encourage you more to attend this conference. It is confusing to try and figure out how much of a church growth focus is appropriate. I have found the ministry of Mark Dever to be no less than illuminating on this point. If you are a pastor, or if you know a pastor who is struggling, or leading a small church, or merely in need of instruction on this issue, tell them of this conference. If you are a blogger, I encourage you to link to this conference as I have. Let's get the word out in hopes that the health of the church might spread.