Growing in Christ
Commending Christ
DG Conf: Unregenerate Sheep
03 years ago
From the conference, I had the privilege of being in Matt Chandler’s message, A Shepherd and His Unregenerate Sheep (audio and text). The message is from 1 Timothy 4, and has been very helpful in thinking through the text and feeling the immediacy, and teaching, it impresses upon me. Rather than doing a social commentary on how unregenerate people get into, and stay in congregations, he did a more helpful message that centered around “living and preaching in such a way that regenerance is revealed.” Quite a stirring topic mainly because it focused on me, my faith, by treasure, and my growth in godliness before God. I’ve found it increasingly more constructive over time to look at myself on doctrinal and practical issues than to look at others. Yes, there are “Christians” who with one hand hold up the Bible, and with the other hand rip the Gospel out of the Scriptures for the sake of helping God be more inclusive and not so uptight in ancient garb. Sure, there are those people. I know them, I’m friends with them, I used to be one of them. But the main point of many passages about controversy and “wolves in sheep’s clothing” call us to evaluate our own existential standing as a Christian. The main issue in evaluating the regenerate or unregenerate state of another person or institution is to first turn your eye on yourself, we are to “keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:16).
The part I find most helpful in this is that in some measure it relieves the pressure to discern another’s standing. If I am living in such a way that the Gospel, the true Gospel of Jesus Christ slaughtered for sinners to justify them in his righteousness by faith, then in some serious manner, those around me who do not share the same passion will be revealed to be what they are. Now, for pastors, this is an additional charge or preaching in such a way as to make unregenerate people either convert of leave one’s church. But if one’s not, if they’re a coward, they’ll have loads of pseudo-Gospel success and will make the fires of Hell hotter for those they neglect to present the full Gospel to.
I commend his message to you. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Desiring God 2009 Conference for Pastors
03 years ago
I just wanted to mention that I have the great priviledge and honor of not only going out to the Desiring God 2009 Conference for Pastors next week, but going by way of accompanying Steve Burlew of Banner of Truth as his assistant. His gracious offer for me to join him came from a conversation I started with him about the publishing/book world. I feel a call to pastoral ministry, but should that not happen for a while or never happen, I’d like to at least have some thoughts about other occupations – I don’t exactly feel like assembling computers is my life’s occupation! So, I just mention it here to say that I’ll probably post some reflections about the conference pre and post.
It’s going to be on evangelism, which will be great. I’m really looking forward to hearing Matt Chandler. I listened to his message from the Resurgence: Text and Context conference this past fall on Preaching the Gospel in the Center of the Evangelical World and really enjoyed it. Not only was it very well thought out and helpful in general, but it also helped me understand the struggles and frustrations that many of my friends coming out of a fundamentalist background have. I wasn’t raised in a fundamentalist culture (quite the opposite in the United Methodist Church), so this was helpful in thinking through the issues facing the evangelical world as whole, especially those in context saturated “evangelicalism”.
So anyhow, this is all aside the point. I’ll be out at the conference with Banner of Truth next to my wise and gracious friend Steve Burlew. Should the one person who reads this be there, feel free to say hi!
