Fully Man and Fully God

December 24, 2015 Stephen Jones Leave a comment

The young woman staggered backward. Standing before her was a shining visitor named Gabriel.

The angel was at once both terrifying and beautiful. But even more surprising than his appearance was the message he delivered.

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:30).

Favor with God! What a wonderful thought! The God of the universe had bent down to notice this average young woman, from the unremarkable village of Nazareth, and was handing her a free gift of kindness.

But there was more. “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:31-32).

Gabriel announced the incarnation (God becoming flesh) that we now celebrate at Christmas. Only once in human history has a virgin conceived. Who would this miracle baby be? The angel tells us two important truths about this child.

First, we see that Jesus is the son of God. “He will be called the Son of the Most High.” God enjoys many names including Jehovah, Rock, and Good Shepherd. Here he is called the Most High. No mortal man would dare to claim such a title.

God is a being unlike any other. He is one supreme essence, yet three distinct persons. These two ideas do not contradict. As Jesus grew older, he would call God his Father. Many Jews were shocked, knowing this was a claim to be equal with God (John 5:18). But it was the honest truth. Jesus should be called both God and son of God. His relationship with God resembles a son toward a good father. There is love, intimacy, respect, submission, and a desire to honor his father’s name. For that reason, we call him son of God.

Second, we see that Jesus is the son of David. King David lived a thousand years earlier at the summit of Israelite history. He was a man after God’s own heart, who was promised that the kingdom would always stay in his family.

With the arrival of Jesus, God made good on that promise. Jesus is a direct descendant of King David and rightful heir to the throne. You can investigate the family tree for yourself in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. This is very good news, because it means Jesus is not only fully God, but also fully man. Because Jesus is a human being, he is able to represent the human race. He is “one of us.” Frail and mortal, but without the stain of sin. He was able to obey God’s law where we could not, and to stand in our place as a substitute, taking God’s punishment on the cross that we each deserved.

Son of God. Son of David. A single person with both divine intimacy and royal ancestry. No wonder Mary found favor with God. The Savior was about to be born. Merry Christmas!

This article first appeared in today\’s Minister\’s Message of our local newspaper, the Hi Desert Star.

Writing

Pinch of Clay

August 20, 2015 Stephen Jones Leave a comment

Here I am pouring dirt into a sieve during a one-day archaeology dig in Maresha, Israel. Spring 2000.

Clay. The land of Israel is littered with it. Millions of shards of pottery that whisper of ancient people and their everyday lives. Could there be any better metaphor for something brief and ordinary?

Yesterday, as I was preparing for Wednesday Night Bible Study, I came across a verse in the Book of Job I’d never seen before. Elihu says, “Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from a piece of clay” (Job 33:6).

You and I are nothing but clay. Humble, fragile, and quickly forgotten. But in the hands of a Perfect Potter, we become useful, dignified, even priceless.

I’d already been thinking of changing things up on my blog, and when I saw this verse, I knew it was time. My heart still beats for church revitalization and leadership development. But looking at my schedule, I can see God has not called me (at this stage anyway) to spend a lot of time blogging about ministry training and leadership development. There are other sites such as 9marks.org and practicalshepherding.com that tackle the subject far better than I could.

So I’m closing up shop at my old blog, “Pass the Cloak.” All those articles have been copied over to this site and are still available to view. This blog, however, returns to the original meaning of a “blog.” It is a “web log.” A journal, of sorts. Simple thoughts from an ordinary pastor, serving the Great Potter. Nothing too polished or refined here. Just the sort of thing you’d expect from a pinch of clay.

Church

9 Practical Steps in Church Revitalization

May 15, 2015 Stephen Jones 1 Comment

A friend of mine shepherds a small church, and by small, I mean less than 50. They’ve faced some unavoidable changes recently, and he asked me if I have any advice for doing a Church Evaluation. Think of it as a healthy church check-up. Here’s what I told him…

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I agree this is a strategic time to take a step back and evaluate the ministry. I can’t say I have one particular evaluation method, but here are some steps I would recommend…

Listen to Lance Quinn’s message “Small Church, Big Impact” from the 2014 Shepherd’s Conference. It will get you pumped and give you a general direction to move in.
Read the book The Trellis and the Vine or the shorter booklet Mission Minded to understand the mission of the church and its main components of evangelism and discipleship, with a focus on people (not programs). Using the Great Commission as a starting point, you want to personalize your own mission statement. The one I came up for our church is, “Our mission is to magnify Christ by making disciples with truth and love.” I’ve seen other churches use missions statements like, “We exist to glorify God through our worship, work, and witness,” or “We are disciples making disciples.” Pray, be creative, and make it your own.
After step 2, make a list of every program/ministry in your church and ask, how does this ministry fit uniquely within our mission? Where are there gaps? Where is there overlap? Where do we see gospel growth? Where do we see stagnancy or decline.
On your own or with one or two men in the church, do a SWOT Analysis – What are the church’s Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats? Brainstorm and be brutally honest with one another.
Make a list of everyone who has joined or left the church in the past three years. Why do you think they joined? Why do you think they left? This may indicate some of the strengths/weaknesses of your church, or at least tell you something about your church culture (e.g. economy, demographics, lifestyle, etc.).
Church Discipleship is inextricably linked to family discipleship. How is the health of your families? What could you do to improve this? (e.g. men being spiritual leaders at home, families worshipping/serving/praying together).
From conversations you’ve had with people in the community who do not attend your church, do you have any sense why? Is there anything you could do to better serve/accommodate them while staying faithful to your doctrine and mission?
Consider doing a demographic study of your area and ask, what are we doing to effectively reach this area for Christ? If a new church were to be planted here, what would it look like? What prevents us from being that kind of church now?
Consider an all-church survey. I’m not completely sold on demographics and church surveys, but sometimes helpful ideas do come out of them, and can give you a finger on the pulse of the congregation. I think people appreciate being asked for their input. Take all the results and put them into a spreadsheet to discover any trends, common problems, interests, etc.

Even small changes can be difficult in a small church, but I think it becomes easier as you love the people, earn their trust, make changes slowly (often on a “trial” basis first), and trumpet the cause of your mission (the reason why we need to change).

SBC

More SBC Nominations Needed

April 7, 2015 Stephen Jones Leave a comment

Today’s post is a guest post by Jason Blankenship, pastor of Ojai Valley Baptist Church in Ojai and Chairman of the CSBC Committee on Board Nominations (update: he is now Director of Missions for the Mid-Valley Association). This article first appeared in our SBC state newspaper in December 2014 and explains the need for more people to nominate leaders to our denominational boards.

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I have been blessed to see the involvement of younger leaders in our cooperative efforts to reach California for Christ.

Those efforts resulted in 104 new churches added to the California Southern Baptist Convention in 2013. Serving together has also resulted in 11,520 professions of faith in Christ directly through CSBC ministries in 2013.

Why should I be involved in the Cooperative Program? Churches are being planted and souls are being saved. As our next generation desires to participate in forging California\’s future, understanding our process is important. I\’d like to explain the process we undertake to fill our 40-member Executive Board and how your part is vital.

California has been divided into nine regions. These regions compose the 40-member board. Each region seats from three to six members depending on the church population of each regain: 25 percent of the board must be composed of laypeople. The selection of candidates comes from a nomination process.

You know someone who you think would serve our state well so you submit their name either online or by mail. When we receive your nomination, we mail that candidate a packet for them to complete and return, which is the same process for seeking candidates for our committees as well as for the California Baptist Foundation and California Baptist University boards.

Each year, the Committee on Board Nominations reviews the groups’ needs and makes selections from the returned resumes.

All that might sound straightforward, but due to this process, some confusion can be created. Let’s say you submit a name from your area, and then your Director of Missions (DOM) gets a call from our committee asking for recommendations because we “have none” from the region he’s in. What happened to your recommendation? Because the regions do not follow associational lines, there’s a chance your DOM is being asked for a seat in a different region. You might have also recommended a pastor, while the open seat to fill is a layperson.

Executive Board members serve a four-year term with the opportunity to serve another four years, which means there might not be a seat open for your nominee for that year’s needs.

This process has served the Convention since the mid 1990’s, but here’s a new problem: fifteen years ago, we were receiving more than 200 nominations for board and committee needs, but this last year we received fewer than 20.

This is where your part is vital. We need you to send in nominations. Please take a moment and submit a name of someone you think would serve us well. Together, we can do far more than we can alone.

Church

Stepping Forward into Biblical Eldership

March 30, 2015 Stephen Jones Leave a comment

At a recent congregational business meeting, I answered some of the common questions I expected people might have in moving to biblical eldership. It’s not that we’ve had a lot of pushback; in reality, everyone has been gracious and things are going quite smoothly. But we do want our members to make an informed decision when it comes time for vote, and I realize eldership is new to some of our people. We’ve deliberately taken this slowly, and I believe God has rewarded our patience.

Today, I’m posting the last two questions I prepared ahead of time for our business meeting. (You can read my earlier posts explaining what eldership would look like in our church). In a future post, I hope to recap some of the questions raised from the floor during the meeting itself.

Q. What if I want things to stay the way they are now? Perhaps you’re still not convinced about biblical eldership and see no need for change. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” We appreciate your honesty, but ask you to carefully examine your heart and try to identify the main concern. Do you have a specific reason for opposing eldership? Do you think it is unbiblical? Against church tradition? Your personal preference? Are you concerned about a specific candidate? Are you afraid it will be abused?

Please bring your questions or concerns to myself or the other leaders in the church. You may also want to go back and listen to my sermons on Titus 1, which are posted online.

We value your input, and want to answer all questions as satisfactorily as possible. But we also are convinced the time is approaching for us to take this step of obedience and to structure God’s church in a more biblical way. On the day of the vote, we would love to have a 100% churchwide affirmation of biblical eldership as an expression of unity on this issue.

Q. What is our timetable? We still need time to finish our elder training and to revise our bylaws, but I image we should be ready for vote by late summer or early fall. In the meantime, I hope to give more opportunity for our deacons and future elders to help in areas such as prayer, teaching, counseling, and visitation.

Pinch Of Clay