At Mountainview, we have worship services on Saturday night and again on Sunday morning. For those of us who teach or preside in some way, that gives us the opportunity to go home and totally rewrite our sermon or communion meditation (not that I've ever totally rewritten a sermon; after folding it up and throwing it away, I usually feel better). Mark Scott and I compared notes last night after the service was over. Mark was preaching and I was giving the communion talk. For my part, I had told what I thought was a humorous story for communion -- and didn't get more than the "I'd better laugh because no one else will" laughs. Mark felt his opening movie clip hadn't connected in the way he had hoped for. So, we decided to revise. I scrapped my story and just shared a few words about my personal "expertise" in…
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When I went through church planting boot camp* with Stadia, I was given a plaque with my name on one side and these words inscribed on the back: "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life" (Proverbs 4:23). It was a reminder to those of us who were about to start a new church that perhaps the most difficult thing we would do would not be finding launch team members or a facility. It would be to guard our heart. To not become overly inflated or unduly depressed. To not become prideful or pitiful. That verse came back to me this morning in my devotional time. It wasn't written just for church planters or even pastors. It was written to everybody who wants to live a life that honors God and pleases him. Simply put, it's good medicine. For when a person doesn't guard their…
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Our elders recently finished a Wednesday morning study of the book of Acts. Each week, we would work our way verse-by-verse through Luke's account of the early church. Our goal was to see what leadership principles we could glean (I haven't used that work in a LONG time) from the history of the church. We ended up with a list of 106 principles. No kidding. But that's not the point of this article. I have been a student of Acts for as long as I can remember. Growing up in the Churches of Christ -- part of the larger American Restoration Movement -- the book of Acts was our fifth Gospel, after Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We went to the book of Acts to find polity and procedures. On topics from baptism to weekly communion, we found our home in Luke's second book. Our approach to scripture consisted of…
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Bonhoeffer talked about "cheap grace." Cheap grace is what offers much but requires little. If we're not careful, we may be guilty of offering a low-calorie approach to discipleship. It may taste great, but eventually it's also less filling. In 1 Peter 3:21, the writer addresses this matter by using a very interesting word: pledge. Here's what he writes: "... and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." When you give your life to Jesus, you are pledging a good conscience toward God. A pledge goes beyond a good intention or even a promise. Peter uses a word that was also used to describe what a Roman soldier did when he joined the Roman army. He pledged to follow the orders…
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I've been working on an upcoming sermon lately regarding the Holy Spirit's role in prompting repentance. In doing so, I came across this great quote from A.W. Tozer on penitence. For those of you who don't know, Tozer was perhaps best known for his 40+ books. Of those, The Pursuit of God is among his best. I have a copy on my Kindle app. In the following quote, he talks about penitence -- a word we don't use much today. It essentially means feeling a sense of sorrow for one's sins (see this definition). Here's the quote: "A growing Christian must have at his roots the life-giving waters of penitence. The cultivation of a penitential spirit is absolutely essential to spiritual progress. The lives of great saints teach us that self-distrust is vital to godliness. Even while the obedient soul lies prostrate before God, or goes on in reverent obedience…
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