Mark Driscoll Is Not My "Homeboy" and Why I Am Praying For Him

For a long time I have watched the "Christian celebrity" phenomenon blast off before it eventually crash landed on top of the American evangelical church.  What this celebrity phenomenon illustrates, among many things, is that evangelicalism as a whole has very little spiritual discernment.  We want 'results' even when it means succumbing to worldliness, pragmatism, or you fill in the blank.  We desperately want to be viewed as relevant, hip, innovative, and successful.

In this vein, Phil Johnson wisely notes- Dr. Trueman is right to point out that it is a uniquely American evangelical phenomenon to foster these cults of celebrity and to encourage each wave of superstars to push the limits of sobriety and propriety further than the last superstar did. American evangelicalism has become a large jingoistic freak show. Sadly, some of today's evangelicals seem to think that's something to gloat about. The Evangelical church seems more than willing to justify questionable behavior and/or salacious speech if the person or church in question are popular enough.

Before I get into that issue let me first say this.  As in all areas of life it is very difficult not to fall into an "extremist ditch" when fleshing out the Christian faith.  For example, some envious "no name" pastors have been hypercritical of any "well known" pastor, any "best-selling" Christian author, and every local church larger than their own.  It comes as no surprise then that these same jealous critics have been skeptical of even the most orthodox of mega conferences such as Together for the Gospel, Ligonier Conference, or the Shepherds' Conference.

On the other hand, quite a few Christians believe popularity equals not only "success" but also ministry "fruitfulness."  People in this camp often assume that big buildings and large crowds validate someone's theology (note 1 Corinthians 1-2) as well as their ministry methodology (note 1 Corinthians 3-4).  Popularity and fame have provided certain choice "evangelical celebrities" and/or mega churches a free pass on valid critiques from within the larger body of Christ.  From the Elephant Room debacle to you fill in the blank.   After all, "God must be blessing so and so."  "Look at how fast his church has grown!"   "Look how many books they've sold."   "Look how many unchurched people attend there satellite services; etc, etc."  Pastor Jerry Wragg and Dr. Carl Trueman have voiced some of these same concerns here and here.  Dr. David Wells also addresses this problem in his classic work, The Courage To Be Protestant: Truth lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World.

The Backbone of the Church: Faithful Lay Leaders

"Lay leaders are the backbone of the local church."  This ministry mantra has been one of my main points of emphasis during the church revitalization work at the First Baptist Church of Freeport.  The Apostle Paul shared this same conviction for he instructs Titus in Crete to "appoint elders in every town."  Titus was to appoint "qualified," servant-leaders who would help him shepherd, protect, govern, and feed the flock of God (note Titus 1:5-16 and 1 Peter 5:1-4).   Paul gave similar marching orders to Timothy (note 1 Timothy 3 and 2 Timothy 2:2) in Ephesus.  As a young pastor Timothy was specifically told to train faithful men who in turn would train and teach others.  2 Timothy 2:2, The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many faithful witnesses; entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.   

In my judgment, the second most important thing a Senior Pastor does, after the faithful exposition of Holy Scripture, is to train, develop, and raise up faithful lay leaders.  After all, faithful lay leaders are the backbone of the local church.  I wholeheartedly concur with the assessment of Dr. Harry Reeder who said, "If you and I die, or move on from our present pastoral ministry, and we do not have other leaders trained and ready to take our place, then we have not been good leaders.  Period.  ...Great leaders develop more leaders; they multiply themselves continually and intentionally."  By the grace of God, I have very intentionally devoted a lot of time into the men's leadership training and discipleship ministry at First Baptist Church and have witnessed God bless our Church through these faithful men.

"The Pulpit is the Rudder of the Church"

"As the pulpit goes, so goes the church." This straightforward quote explains why so many local churches are weak, shallow, immature, and in desperate need of spiritual revitalization.  "Successful" churches seem very content to be an inch deep so long as they remain a mile wide.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was right when he said, “The most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and the most urgent need in the Church, it is the greatest need of the world also.”

In this vein, Dr. Steve Lawson adds some insightful commentary, "If a reformation is to come to the church, it will be preceded by a reformation of the pulpit. A return to preaching—true preaching, biblical preaching, expository preaching—is the greatest need in this critical hour. If we are to see God usher in a time of reformation, there must be a significant alteration of the pulpit. Today’s preaching, which is light, shallow, trivial, man-centered and devoid of Scripture, must become once again weighty, profound, God-centered, and saturated with Scripture."

One of the most important tasks of a pastor is to faithfully preach the Word of God.  Sadly their is a famine in the land for the hearing and preaching of holy Scripture.  Much of what is called Biblical preaching is nothing more than shallow, evangelical principlizing.  Droves of American Christians seem to prefer preaching that is easy on the ears and not too demanding on the Sunday Daytimer.  Even during a time when many contemporary praise songs extol a high view of God many preachers still present a user-friendly Deity.

So what is true preaching? How can one know whether they are hearing an expository sermon or something else?

Dr. Walt Kaiser Jr explains, Expository preaching and teaching begins and remains with the biblical text throughout the whole sermon. Rather than beginning with a human need or concern as the impetus for the sermon, the expository sermon deliberately reverses the action and has the sermon originate in the exposition of the Biblical text itself. Exposition starts with the Biblical text and holds fast to that text throughout the sermon or lesson. —Preaching and Teaching from the Old Testament, p. 50

How the Doctrines of Grace Aid Church Revitalization

In this short video Dr. John Piper explains how the doctrines of grace aided the work of church revitalization at Bethlehem Baptist Church.

http://www.desiringgod.org/doctrinesofgrace

What you need to know about me and my blog

Show Us Christ!!!

In Colossians 1:28-29 the apostle Paul beautifully summarizes his philosophy of ministry with these inspired words; We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me. 

I am thoroughly convinced that every reformation work or revitalization effort that is of God is always grounded in Christ-centered preaching.  Yes, the whole counsel of God is to be systematically taught, but above all else, faithful ministers of the gospel preach Jesus Christ!  To borrow language from the pen of J.C. Ryle, "The true shepherd of the souls is he who enters the ministry with a single eye to Christ, desiring to glorify Christ, doing all in the strength of Christ, preaching Christ's doctrine, walking in Christ's steps, and laboring to bring people to Christ."

I came to Freeport with this core conviction and have made every effort to make Christ-centered preaching and God-centered worship the defining marks of our local church.  In other words, it is no accident that I choose the Revelation of Jesus Christ as our first expository series when I started pastoring this local church.  This verse by verse study was followed up by a in-depth study of the Lordship of Christ in the book of Colossians.  Recently I have preached 58 sermons highlighting the glories of Christ in the gospel of John.  

Why?  Because God is jealous for the glory of His Son!    

The goal of my expository pulpit over the past six years is perhaps best summarized in the wonderful worship song Show Us Christ.  

Be Faithful and Trust God With the Results

We long to see thy churches full, That all the chosen race. May, with one voice and heart and soul, Sing Thy redeeming grace.   

Jesus promised to build His Church and articles like this one by Meredith Flynn remind me He is doing this very thing in America and around the world.  We should all rejoice when we hear of a "Word-centered ministry" flourishing in the Lord!

You’ll never believe what’s drawing Millennials to church…

Article by Meredith Flynn —  June 19, 2014

"A 16-page church bulletin leaves little to the imagination. At Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., worship attenders know exactly what they’re getting into from the time they walk into the split-level, high-ceilinged sanctuary, less than a mile from the U.S. Capitol.

The order of service, printed neatly on the inside cover page, lists every hymn, prayer, and Scripture reading. Every song is there in entirety – not just lyrics, but actual music.

Even the Nicene Creed gets its own page, with three paragraphs of explanation about where it came from and why we recite it. (“I said this in church for 28 years,” said one visitor, “and nobody ever explained it to me.”)

Your first impression is that this church is good at welcoming new people. They remember well that not everyone who walks in the door has been here before, and maybe they’ve never been in any church before. But it’s more than that. There’s a shrewdness here (in the nicest sense of the word), and an attention to detail that may be best matched just down the street under the Capitol Dome.  Capitol Hill Baptist Church is a church for its very unique city.

What’s most interesting is that there are Millennials here – that elusive generation that’s giving churches fits around the country. A variety of ages are represented at Capitol Hill, but the congregation skews young. A few families sat in “bulkhead” seating at the back of the sanctuary, with a little extra leg room to accommodate a fidgety toddler. The rest of us were packed into crowded pews – between 900 and 1,000 are here for worship on Sunday mornings.

Capitol Hill isn’t doing what most churches do to try to reach Millennials. Lately, the normal prescription is a relaxed dress code, coffee bar in the lobby, and maybe a violinist in the worship band.

Are We Really Together For The Gospel? (pt 2)

In my previous article I mentioned how a local pastor actively encouraged his church family to recruit members from other local churches under the banner of biblical "missionary" activity.  Some of my friends had a hard time believing me when I told them this.  This post is for you. 

For the record, the "Reformed" minister who wrote this letter transitioned to another ministry context some time ago.  Even more encouraging, the current pastor of this local fellowship is a godly, like-minded, minister of the gospel.   

As a result of these experiences here are some questions that I have been asking myself recently:  Are we really together for the gospel?  What does it look like to be together for the gospel?  How can pastors and churches that really are T4G come alongside one another in more intentional ways?  How can I better demonstrate to our people that our local church is not the only ministry that is doing things "God's way?"  How do we fight against the kind of behavior that destroys relationships between like-minded churches and pastors? 

The following note is an actual letter:   "As you heard during my presentation, Grace is now entering an exciting stage in it’s early ministry—where the stakes are high! In this stage, we must all start seeing ourselves as “missionaries to Freeport—recruiting other missionaries to Freeport.” Large churches like Crossroads can survive for quite some time based on size, budget, different-ness, and momentum. Park Hills can survive based on size, multiple staff and a broad, mainstream evangelical culture, and migration from broad evangelical churches. 

How One Area Pastor Helped Revitalize Our Local Church

On June 8th, 2014 a small group from First Baptist traveled to Rockford to pay our respects to Pastor Bob Bixby and Morningstar Church.  The special service we were participating in was not a funeral rather it was a special "commissioning service" for Bob Bixby.  We were attending this service in large part to show our appreciation for a selfless servant of God.  Our group also wanted to thank Morningstar Church for what they have meant to our congregation over these past six years. 

For a long time I have wondered if conservative evangelicals are really "Together For the Gospel"?  Yes, I know more and more local churches now say they embrace the chief tenants of biblical Calvinism and I realize that pastors come together in droves today for mega conferences telling the world along the way that we are gloriously united in the truth (see the Gospel Coalition and Together For the Gospel for example).   However, I have witnessed and experienced first hand many actions that seem to tell a much different story.  I have found that professing evangelical churches often function as if we embraced religious Darwinism.  It's the survival of the fittest. It's lets grow my ministry even if it's at the expense of undermining yours brother-pastor.  It's your loss is our gain (praise the Lord). It's, can I say, a dog eat dog world out there!?! 

In one 'real world' situation a former lay leader left our local church, after trying to secretly run me out, only to be welcomed by another evangelical pastor the next Sunday.  No follow up phone call ever came even though this pastor knew me and was fully aware that this member use to joyfully serve at our church.  This whole situation saddened me but honestly it really did not surprise me because I have experienced similar situations like this many times before and I am guessing most of my pastor readers have too.   My favorite story is the (former) "missional" pastor in town who was actually teaching his local church that being a 'missionary' involved actively recruiting Christians from other local church congregations (including ours) to come and join the mission at ___ church.   In a previous ministry context I remember when our senior pastor received an email informing him that in a few weeks a new, like-minded, church plant was going to start up just a few blocks away from our location.  A few months later one of our pastor's fellow elders left to join the "Harvest team" down the street.  With interactions like this, are we really together for the gospel?

Thankfully I/we have also  had the joy of meeting some amazing pastors and local churches.  These shepherds truly care about the spiritual health of local churches that they don't even pastor!  They actually look out for one another and serve one another in the joy of the Lord.  They contact each other if a member from another local church starts attending their ministry just to make sure everything is above board.  Some of them even pray for one another's ministries by name on Sunday morning.  I have briefly written about this refreshing experience in a previous blog post. 

No pastor has modeled this spirit more than Pastor Bob Bixby (pictured above).  Bob was greatly blessed to have a plethora of gifted preachers at the church he "planted" many years ago.  Of course some of these men were the direct fruit of Bob's ministry labors.  Rather than hoard these gifts Pastor Bixby willingly shared these men with like-minded ministries that were in need of assistance.  He even commissioned two of his best men to go pastor other needy congregations.

Six Years Later

Six years ago the Lord brought our family to Freeport, Illinois to shepherd the flock at First Baptist Church.   The revitalization work here has never been dull.  Despite my mistakes as a Lead Pastor God has shown Himself to be faithful and good during this roller coaster journey (Joshua 1:8-9).

The following archived Journal Standard article by Hilary Matheson brings back a lot of memories. 
Posted Aug. 6, 2008 @ 12:01 am

Freeport, Ill.

The son of a pastor, Caleb Kolstad is now into his sixth week as senior pastor of First Baptist Church. Kolstad joined the church after serving First Baptist Church in Carmel, Ind., as an associate pastor for three years.  Witnessing the highs and lows, challenges and blessings, as a pastor’s son was a great learning experience, Kolstad said. “There’s a great group of people that make up the congregation and a great staff – Steve, associate pastor, Sandy, the children’s director – so it seemed like a perfect fit,” Kolstad said.

Becoming a pastor was a change in Kolstad’s plans of becoming a sports broadcaster. He gets different responses from friends who remembered him talking about being a sportscaster since junior high.

The responses vary from those who tell him he should use his intelligence in another job and those who give him a lot of  respect for his decision.  “It depends on really what the perspective of the Christian ministry is. For those who are Christians, they think, as do I, it’s the highest calling God can give to a man,” he said.