Vacation Bible School 2009

June 20, 2009 Stephen Jones Leave a comment

Here are a few of my favorite photos from this year’s VBS Summer Camp. We had 47 kids this year, and when adding all youth volunteers, summer missionaries, and adult workers, we had a total of 73 people involved in the program. What a joyous week of ministry. We are all exhausted, but praising God for His sustaining grace and for the many gospel seeds that were planted.

Tonight was our second time doing a “Family Fun Night” to close out VBS, and we had a great time. A total of 101 attended! Once again, the slide show was a huge hit, and the kids did an amazing job singing all their songs, remembering motions, and reciting verses. We were able to make a few adjustments to last year’s program that allowed things to run a little more smoothly. One of my favorite improvements was that the summer missionaries helped “patrol” the bounce house so that I was better able to mingle with all the parents. (Delegation is so important!) Also, we gave out award certificates to all the kids this year, and that went over really well. Everyone got a certificate for participating, and then we handed out two special awards for each class: The Golden Rule award, and the Listening award.

Teaching

Mishnah madness

June 12, 2009 Stephen Jones Leave a comment

Sometimes, pastors and teachers rely on the Jewish Mishnah to give historical background to the New Testament. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the Mishnah was the “collection and codification of Jewish oral laws, systematically compiled by numerous scholars (called tannaim) over a period of about two centuries” (see Mishna (Jewish laws)). This effort was done by the rabbis at the end of the second century AD.

For many reasons, Mishah studies and citations should be used very cautiously in biblical studies and preaching. It should not be assumed that everything in the Mishnah accurately describes the situation in New Testament Palestine 150 years earlier.

Case in point: the Jewish trial of Jesus Christ. Most people point out how illegal the proceedings of the Sanhedrin were during Jesus’ trial. It certainly was unethical, and it may have been illegal, but it is anachronistic to simply cite the Mishnah in proof that the Jews violated their own law. Robert Thomas explains,

Possibly the Jewish leaders were so obsessed with quickly disposing of Jesus before the Sabbath and Passover Week that they knowingly violated their own procedures. This has been the traditional Christian exploration. More likely, however, the provisions of the Sanhedrin tractate were not operative in Jesus’ time. The Mishnah was a collection of orally transmitted laws drawn up toward the close of the second century. By this time the ruling Sanhedrin, as it had existed historically, had ceased to exist and was only an academic institution having no authority. The regulations of the Sanhedrin tractate conflict with other Jewish sources closer to the first century, and its provisions are probably not a reflection of actual Sanhedrin procedures in the first third of the first century. Consequently, it is probably wrong to accuse the Sanhedrin of illegal procedures… (Thomas, A Harmony of the Gospels, p. 336)

Just a little word of caution to help us accurately handle the Word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). Don’t ignore the Mishnah, but do use it with caution and integrity.

Somewhat-related posts:

SBC

Imprecatory prayers

June 10, 2009 Stephen Jones 2 Comments

Wiley Drake is a Southern Baptist pastor in California who recently appeared on The Alan Combs Show and made some shocking comments about praying for President Obama’s death.

In response, our state convention president Walter Price had this to say:

Imprecation is, in essence, putting a curse on someone or asking God to curse them. Nowhere in the Bible are Christians encouraged to curse anyone, especially those with whom we disagree or those who would do us harm. In fact, we are commanded not to do so and to do just the opposite.

You can read more of Walter’s excellent response here.

How, then, do we approach the “imprecatory” prayers found in the Bible? Does God intend us to do the same toward our leaders? Commenting on Psalm 58, Steve Lawson explains:

Government leaders are appointed by God for the good of the people. They are to serve as his agents through whom he works to provide law and order for society (Rom. 13:1-6). But leaders often become corrupt, and they minister injustice to good people. What are God’s people to do in such a situation? The Bible calls them to leave vengeance with the Lord in the face of wicked leaders. They are to pursue peace with all men, submitting to those over them as much as possible. They must not take matters into their own hands. Ungodly leaders is an issue with which God must deal. But we can pray that the Lord will rebuke and remove such people.” (Holman Old Testament Commentary: Psalms 1-75, p. 298)

To this we should add the prayer for repentance and salvation. No leader, regardless of the amount of wickedness and injustice he has committed, is beyond the reach of God’s amazing grace. Just look at the king of Ninevah (Jonah 3:6). Or Ahab (1 Kings 21:27-29). Or Manasseh (2 Chron. 33:11-13). Or Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 4:34-37).

This is a far different response from the comments made by Pastor Drake. Thank you, Dr. Price, for speaking up on this issue and not letting Drake’s interview represent all of us in the convention.

Shepherding

Reflections on my first years as pastor

June 4, 2009 Stephen Jones 2 Comments

This month marks the three-year anniversary of my role as full-time pastor of our church. These have been some of the most wonderful years of my life, because my wife and I have finally been able to fulfill our calling and devote ourselves entirely to the church, using all the gifts and training God has given to us.

This morning, I feel the need just to jot down a few thoughts on a young man’s first years of ministry, including some things to do and things to avoid:

Be loving. It is often said that people “don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” This has been proven again and again. Most laypeople could care less about my seminary degree, and even less about my GPA or the number of commentaries on my shelf. They simply yearn for a shepherd who is going to know, love, pray with, talk with, and visit them. Sometimes, it takes a card of encouragement, a home visit, a hospital visit, or even the funeral of a loved one to win the affection and trust of some of your members.
Keep learning. Seminary is a wonderful “seed bed” for developing theologically-minded pastors, but your learning has only just begun by the time you graduate. Then begins the “school of hard knocks.” I have found my knowledge and awareness have increased dramatically since seminary through books, blogs, conferences, online sermons, and the people I talk with. Pulling out old college and seminary syllabi and textbooks has also been invaluable. I have learned to appreciate the history of my church and my denomination, highlighting its strengths rather than complaining about its weaknesses. Learning can be very exciting, because now it has immediate application in your ministry.
Form partnerships. I have made great efforts to cultivate relationships with other pastors in our area, both those in the SBC and other evangelical denominations. I participate in the local ministerial, and do my best to attend pastors luncheons, associational meetings, and state conventions. I want to be known as a team player, not a lone ranger pastor. I believe this is a great way to support the larger Body of Christ, encourage one another in gospel ministry, and model Christian unity to our congregations.
Change carefully. All change is not bad. Sometimes, a church is waiting eagerly for their new pastor to cast a vision and make some changes, wondering, “What’s taking him so long?” But other times, the church can feel like, “He has no idea how important this is. How dare he change this!” I have tried to make changes in a slow and gracious manner. The bigger the change, the more prayer, discussion, and research has preceded it. I have used our deacon meetings and church council as sounding boards to throw out ideas — sometimes very bold ones — and then try to discern if a change would be wise or foolish. However, I did make some early mistakes on trying to make a couple of bold changes too quickly. At the time, I thought the people were ready, but I later discovered that there was still a lot of grassroots resistance that undermined the unity of our church. When major changes are involved, be very patient and almost resist change. Even if you know it is a good change, don’t just assume it is right thing and the right time to do it. Much prayer and teaching is necessary before that change is made.
Be forbearing. This is a tough one, and I want to be very careful in how I explain this. In the early years, a pastor must learn to be tolerant of certain sins in the church. We as young pastors have the zeal of Phineas and want to crush all disobedience and get people on fire for God. But a new pastor is just going to have to hold his nose at some things that stink, and learn to minister in spite of certain programs, people, and even doctrinal beliefs in the church that he knows are wrong. In most churches, where church discipline has not been taught, and where a context of loving leadership has yet not been developed, it is just too early to rebuke and exercise church discipline, except in very gross cases of immorality or heretical teaching. Know your people, choose carefully the hills you are willing to die on, and let love cover a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8). Remember that Christ did not unleash all His teaching and rebuke to His disciples at once, but spent three years with them, and even then He said there was more to say, but they were not yet ready to bear it (John 16:12).
Start discipling. As soon as possible, I identified some men and started discipling them. We cannot afford to wait in “entrusting these things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). After researching what some other churches are doing, I developed a discipleship program and started assigning books to read, Scriptures to memorize, and/or lectures to listen to and discuss. Our group has been a mix of current deacon/leaders and potential future leaders. This has been a special time of sharpening and is crucial for the long-range health of our church. Identifying and training new leaders should start as soon as possible, even if it begins one-on-one with one other man in the church.

These first three years of ministry have included many joys and trials, exciting testimonies and painful lessons. Our church is not yet where I would like us to be, but we also are not where we were. I believe God has allowed us to make some progress toward maturity in Christ, and I pray this will momentum will build in the years ahead.

Like farming, ministry can be very difficult and labor-intensive early in the season, with heavy plowing and sowing and minimal results. But as we continue to serve the Lord and depend upon Him for results, I believe He will bless His Word and bring a great harvest for His glory.

Gospel

Steering a conversation toward the gospel

June 3, 2009 Stephen Jones 1 Comment

Years ago, when I worked in a customer service call center, we were instructed to always “control the call.” In other words, as salespeople, we were to steer the phone conversation as much as possible through questions and suggestions to help lead the customer along and determine what product would best suit them. Some customers were notorious for just “chatting” on the phone, not realizing that other customers were often on hold, waiting to be served.

In our evangelism, the stakes are infinitely higher, because souls are involved. We too as Christians must learn to better “control the conversation.” I don’t mean forcing the gospel into a conversation in an inappropriate way, but learning through questions and answers to steer a conversation in the right direction, toward spiritual things and eventually toward a presentation of the gospel.

As I said last week, there are four common steps in evangelism: raising awareness, initial contact, pre-evangelism, and evangelism. For those who are not particularly sociable, and who struggle to make conversation, or perhaps are just terrified of being confrontational, it can be very daunting to move from pre-evangelism (relationship-building) to evangelism (actually sharing the gospel). Here are a few tools that may be helpful.

Years ago, in an evangelism class, I learned the acronym ROCI. This is a helpful way to facilitate conversation in any setting, and stands for:

Residence – Are you originally from this area? How long have you lived here? Where did you grow up?
Occupation – Where did/do you work? What’s your dream job?
Children – How many kids do you have?
Interests – Do you have any hobbies? What do you like to do in your free time? I noticed you like…

Some of these may naturally lead into a conversation about church, religion, values, and spiritual beliefs.

In the book Building on Firm Foundations, New Tribes Missions list many possible topics that can be intewoven into conversation and prepare a person for the seed of the gospel:

Creation (ask their beliefs about the world, its orderliness, bad things that happen)
God (ask their beliefs about His existence, location, activities, attributes, requirements)
Unseen spirits (ask their beliefs about their existence, what they’re like, relationships with people, requirements)
Human beings (ask their beliefs about origin, differences, characteristics, sinful behavior)
Life after death (ask the reason for sickness and death, their beliefs about place of the dead, basis of knowing where a person goes, contact between living and dead, resurrection)

Finally, here are ten great questions from Donald Whitney that can help turn a conversation toward the gospel:

When you die, if God says to you, “Why should I let you into Heaven?”, what would you say?Are you interested in what the Bible says about your answer?
If you were to die tonight, where do you think you would spend eternity? Why? Are you interested in what the Bible says about this?
Do you think much about spiritual things?
How is God involved in your life?
How important is your faith to you?
What has been your most meaningful spiritual experience?
Do you find that your religious heritage answers your questions about life?
Do you have any kind of spiritual beliefs? If what you believe were not true, would you want to know it? Well, the Bible says . . . .
To you, who is Jesus?
I often like to pray for people I meet; how can I pray for you?

Pinch Of Clay