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January 2008 Archives
"Sibbes never wastes the student's time," wrote 19th century preacher C.H. Spurgeon, "he scatters pearls and diamonds with both hands." The Bruised Reed, written by Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) in 1630, lives up to Spurgeon's words. I can tell a lot about a book by how many pages I've dog-eared. In this 128-page book, I found it hard to go more than a few pages without marking a page for future reference.
The Bruised Reed is an exposition of Isaiah 42:1-3:
Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
Sibbes outlines what it means to be a bruised reed, and the benefits of being bruised. A bruised reed represents us in our weakness. It's necessary to be bruised even after we have grown. "After conversion we need bruising so that reeds may know themselves to be reeds, and not oaks." Christ is not at all impatient with our weaknesses. "He is a physician good at all diseases, especially at the binding up of a broken heart." "No sound, whole soul," after all, "shall ever enter into heaven."
Sibbes also describes what it is to be smoking flax. Smoking flax represents the mixture of grace and sinfulness that exists in all who love God. "In God's children, especially in their first conversion, there is but a little measure of grace, and that little mixed with much corruption, which, as smoke, is offensive; but...Christ will not quench this smoking flax." We should not be discouraged by our weakness. The reality is that even "the purest actions of the purest man need Christ to perfume them." But Christ does indeed perfume us, and a little grace is enough. "Nothing in the world is of so good use as the least grain of grace."
Humility allows us to understand ourselves rightly, and then magnify God's name that he loves us such as we are. It also helps us to understand others who are weak when we remember our own weakness. "The Holy Spirit," he writes, "is content to dwell in smokey, offensive souls."
Sibbes constantly drives our attention to Christ, who "bestows the best fruits of his love on persons who are mean in condition, weak in abilities, and offensive for infirmities, nay, for grosser falls." The strength of this book is that it clearly outlines our weakness, and then expounds the gospel in a way that meets our greatest needs and provides hope even as we continue to encounter more of our weakness.
Oh, what confusion this is to Satan, that he should labor to blow out a poor spark and yet should not be able to quench it; that a grain of mustard seed should be stronger than the gates of hell; that it should be able to remove mountains of oppositions and temptations cast up by Satan and our rebellious hearts between God and us...It must needs be a torment to Satan that a weak child, a woman, a decrepit old man should, by a spirit of faith, put him to flight.
One striking feature of this book: Sibbes often takes aim at "popery." If you have not read a book of this vintage recently, some of these quips will seem surprising, even if one agrees with Sibbes. The book is a product of a different day than ours. Such differences in older books are good, because they force us to think through the way we assume things should be.
I read this book as part of the 2008 Puritan Reading Challenge. If the other books are half as good as this one, I'm in for a good year of reading. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, "The Bruised Reed...quietened, soothed, comforted, encouraged, and healed me." It just may do the same for you.
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"I began this book with a preface which acknowledged that many people today are looking for a 'fresh expression' of the church," writes evangelical statesman John Stott. "My concern has been that in this legitimate process of exploration they will not forget, let alone abandon, certain biblical and history-proven marks of a living church."
John Stott, now in his eighties, has had a worldwide influence on evangelicalism through his writing and ministry at All Souls Church, Langham Place. Time magazine has recognized him as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World." He has had a massive impact on evangelicalism. When I heard that Stott had recently written a book articulating his vision for the global church today, I knew I would have to read it.
Stott is no curmudgeon. He is surprisingly open to newer forms of churches. "It seems to me that traditional and 'emerging' churches need to listen attentively to one another, with a view to learning from one another...We could both afford to be less suspicious, less dismissive of each other."
Stott argues that we need more churches that are radically conservative - "conservative" in the sense that they conserve what Scripture plainly requires, but "radical in relational to that combination of tradition and convention which we call culture." He then outlines a number of characteristics that must be preserved within an authentic or living church.
The first of these characteristics is worship, which he calls "the church's preeminent duty." The glory of God drives the second characteristic of church: evangelism. Of all the forms of evangelism, local church evangelism is "the most normal, natural and productive method of spreading the gospel today." In order to be effective in its evangelism, the church must understand its double identity as people who are both called out of the world to worship God, and sent back into the world to witness and serve. It must also structure itself for evangelism, articulate the gospel in a way that is both faithful and relevant, and live as "God's new society, the living embodiment of the gospel, a sign of the kingdom of God, a demonstration of what human community looks like when it comes under his gracious rule."
Churches must also be characterized by every-member ministry. God calls all of his people to ministry. Churches must recognize that God calls people to different ministries, and allow pastors to be set free from unnecessary administration so the church can flourish.
Stott expounds fellowship, the next characteristic of church. Churches must divide into smaller groups or mini-churches to facilitate ministry to one another.
Churches must also be characterized by preaching, despite the contemporary world's unfriendly attitudes. "My task in this chapter...is to try to persuade preachers to persevere, because the life of the church depends on it...Churches live, grow, and flourish by God's word, but they languish and perish without it." Preaching must balance several tensions: it must be biblical and contemporary, authoritative and tentative, prophetic and pastoral, gifted and studied, and thoughtful and passionate.
Churches must also be giving and must have impact on society, working toward social improvement.
Stott concludes with an appeal for Timothy's in this new century. Echoing the apostle Paul, he writes: "There is such a thing as goodness: pursue it...There is such a thing as truth: fight for it. And there is such a thing as life: lay hold of it." Ministry must integrate doctrine, ethics, and experience.
The Living Church includes three appendices: a paper outlining Stott's reason for remaining within the Church of England; part of a sermon from 1974 outlining his dreams for a living church; and some reflections offered after his eightieth birthday.
The Living Church is not trendy. There is little in this book that will seem new. It is instead a call to the basics, offered with pastoral insight and wisdom. It is a call to turn away from quick fixes and instead focus on the basics of church life. It deserves careful reading and application by all who share Stott's dream of a living church.
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"I can't believe this book is getting published by a big-time publisher," writes blogger Brant Hansen. "This is going to be interesting...This book is going to honk people off."
The book he's talking about is Pagan Christianity, originally written by Frank Viola but now updated with George Barna as co-author. Here, in a nutshell, is the argument of the book:
- The origin of many of our church practices (examples: church buildings, orders of worship, sermons, pastors, tithing, clergy salaries) is non-biblical and inconsistent with the practice of the early church. "Almost everything that is done in our contemporary churches has no basis in the Bible." (p. 4) Much of it was lifted from pagan culture.
- Just because something does not appear in the Bible does not mean it is wrong. However, our non-biblical church practices often hinder the development of our faith and keep us from encountering the living God.
- "The church in its contemporary, institutional form neither has a biblical nor a historical right to exist." (p. xx)
- The church must return to its biblical roots. At a personal level, we must ask questions of church as we know it and pray seriously about what our response should be.
This book threatens a lot that pastors and churches hold dear. But that shouldn't scare us. If they're right, it doesn't matter what it threatens. This book has to be evaluated on the evidence and the strength of its arguments, not on how much it will cost us if they're right.
Most of the book traces the origins of common church practices today. They succeed in showing what should be fairly obvious: many of our practices do not appear in the Bible, which in itself does not make them wrong. Barna and Viola argue, however, that many of these practices are harmful. However, they don't always get the history right, and sometimes overstate the case. Still, they do have a point. We should question practices that get in the way of faithfulness.
It's when you get to their solution that, in my view, the wheels fall off. Viola and Barna argue: "The church in its contemporary, institutional form neither has a biblical nor a historical right to exist." (p. xx) [UPDATE: This quote is from the advance review copy. The final copy reads, "The church in its contemporary, institutional form has neither a biblical nor a historical right to function as it does." Still strong, but a definite improvement.]
Wow! There's a bit of a jump to get to this point, and I'm not sure if I missed a step somewhere. It could be that Viola and Barna are correct, but I don't think they've proved their case. Pointing out problems with a model means that the problems need addressing. It doesn't necessarily mean that the entire model must be scrapped.
It's one thing to argue that there are problems with our existing ways of doing church. I'm fully prepared to accept this. It's also okay to argue that models of church sidesteps these issues, but it could be that they end up encountering a whole set of other issues - as is the case. But is it possible for institutional models to be redeemed? Viola and Barna say no. I'm not so sure.
I'd much prefer to ask questions like these:
- Is there a way to use buildings missionally and in a way that expresses the true nature of the church?
- Can orders of service be structured so that the corporate nature of worship is emphasized, and performance is minimized?
- How can preaching and teaching promote spiritual growth and emphasize the giftedness of the body?
- How can churches move beyond being pastor-driven?
- How can our giving be channeled beyond maintenance to mission and care for the poor?
- How can we recover the biblical emphasis on baptism as initiation into discipleship, and communion as a robust communal celebration?
- How can Christian formation take place that his holistic?
These are excellent questions, and they may or may not lead to shutting down institutional churches. This book, I think, gets at the right questions, but ends up presenting the wrong (or at least insufficient) solution.
By the way, it's theoretically possible to have discovered that pretty much everyone from the church fathers on got it wrong, and that you are right - but it's highly unlikely. This is especially true in this case, because Scripture is largely descriptive (not prescriptive) in how churches can be shaped. Barna and Viola don't make a sufficient case for anyone to say that almost everyone has got it wrong until now.
Boars Head Tavern has posted a great quote from Eugene Peterson:
What other church is there besides institutional? There’s nobody who doesn’t have problems with the church, because there’s sin in the church. But there’s no other place to be a Christian except the church. There’s sin in the local bank. There’s sin in the grocery stores. I really don’t understand this naïve criticism of the institution. I really don’t get it. Frederick von Hugel said the institution of the church is like the bark on the tree. There’s no life in the bark. It’s dead wood. But it protects the life of the tree within. And the tree grows and grows. If you take the bark off, it’s prone to disease, dehydration, death. So, yes, the church is dead but it protects something alive. And when you try to have a church without bark, it doesn’t last long. It disappears, gets sick, and it’s prone to all kinds of disease, heresy, and narcissism. (Eugene Peterson)
The Tavern also has another amazing quote: those who seek to correct the church’s moral failings and produce a "pure" church are "...looking to the Law rather than to the Gospel. We need rather to look at the Gospel. It is not about what we are to do to purify the church (Law), but about bringing the Gospel to the church as she is" (from a lecture by Ron Feuerhahn).
In conclusion: Barna and Viola have raised some valid issues. Some dynamics of church life that should be present often aren't. We need to take these seriously. However, their conclusion ultimately falls short. There is room for all kinds of churches, including the institutional. What matters more than structure is the life contained within, and that can come only from God- who, it seems, is more than willing to give us that life.
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Jack Miller was a pastor on the verge of burnout. In 1970, while pastoring a small church in Pennsylvania and teaching practical theology at Westminster Seminary, he became so discouraged that he resigned from both his church and the seminary. He had failed.
Gradually he came to realize what was wrong. He realized he had been motivated by his own personal glory and the approval of those he was serving. "He said that when he repented of his pride, fear of people, and love of their approval," his daughter writes, "his joy in ministry returned, and he took back his resignations from the church and seminary."
Miller came to a turning point. "He had been relying on the wrong person to do ministry - himself." He began to give up all dependence on himself, and began to learn the basics of doing Christian ministry in Christ's strength. The result was greater freedom and power in his life and ministry.
Over the years, Miller wrote letters to help mentor others and share what he had learned. These letters have been collected in this book, The Heart of a Servant Leader. The letters cover topics such as our motivation for serving, repentance as a way of life, facing unfair criticism, and staying long enough in one place to be humbled. A couple of samples from his letters:
What I finally came to as I walked and prayed for you is the old old story of getting the gospel clear in your own hearts and minds, making it clear to others, and doing it with only one motive - the glory of Christ. Getting the glory of Christ before your eyes and keeping it there - is the greatest work of the Spirit that I can imagine. And there is no greater peace, especially in the times of treadmill-like activity, than doing it all for the glory of Christ.
And another:
Make sure you are enjoying yourself and not taking your work too seriously. You don't have anything to prove to us or to the world. The work is finished at Calvary, and that work alone has unlimited meaning and value. Keep your focus there. And then read Robert Ludlum and/or go on vacation.
This book has echoes of Tim Keller, or maybe Tim Keller has echoes of Jack Miller. It's about as close as most of us will get to being mentored by either one of them. There are few books that are as valuable as this one for pastors to read.
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