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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 12, 6/27/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
Table of Contents:
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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 12, 6/27/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
Leading through Difficulties - - - - - - - - - 1
Catastrophic Loss - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2
An Agenda for Dying Well - - - - - - - - - - 3
Exegetically Speaking- - - - - - - - - - - - 5
Living out the Living Word- - - - - - - - - - 6
Points to Ponder - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8
The Story behind the Song - - - - - - - - - - 9
Church Builders - - - - - - - - - - - - - 9
Counselor’s Corner- - - - - - - - - - - - 10
Book Reviews- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 11
News Update- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -11
Sermon Helps - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 13
Puzzles and ‘Toons- - - - - - - - - - - - -15
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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 12, 6/27/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
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Leading through Difficulties
By Pete Charpentier
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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 12, 6/27/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 12, 6/27/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
Someone has said, “Life is filled with storms: You’re either in a storm, coming out of one, or heading into one!” While this statement sounds pessimistic, pastors know it’s true. Many days they walk into their office holding their breath and bracing themselves for difficulties.
This should not be a surprise. After all, pastors themselves and everyone they lead are all imperfect people living in a fallen world. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The reality is that pastors will always be called upon to lead through difficulties, and God is faithful to supply the wisdom they need to lead courageously according to Scripture (James 1:5-8).
Even a cursory glance through the Bible confirms the above reality of leadership. For example, Moses faced a relentless flow of problems from the grumbling Israelites. Joshua navigated a barrage of battles during the conquest of Canaan. God raised up judges to deal with a continual cycle of oppressive enemies. David endured painful struggles as he transitioned into leadership and ruled as king. Paul labored daily under the pressure of the churches. Yet God granted wisdom and strength to all the leaders He called into His service.
Of course, pastors experience both enjoyable and excruciating moments in leadership. Calling God’s people to follow Him in faith and seeing them receive His blessings is rewarding, and many pastors can lead through life’s bright, mountain-top moments. However, fewer pastors can lead through the shadowy paths which inevitably wind through life’s valleys. The bottom line is that many pastors desire the titles of leadership but flee from the trials of leadership. Many covet the positions of leadership but cower before the pains of leadership. Many long for the accolades of leadership, but they desperately seek to escape the adversities of leadership.
So how can pastors not only face the inevitable trials, pains, and adversities of leadership but also lead effectively through them? Scripture reveals at least three important truths pastors need when God calls them to lead through difficulties.
I. Pastors Must Define Biblical Convictions.
Convictions are powerful. They hold leaders to their course whenever the storms of difficulties crash against them. Convictions issue a clarion call to leaders, and as they follow this call, the noise of distractions around them does not divert them from their course.
But what is the basis for convictions? If pastors follow their own flawed thinking or the latest cultural fads, they are violating God’s command to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Prov. 3:5). Therefore, pastors must base their convictions on the rock-solid foundation of obedience to God’s Word.
Biblical convictions will sustain pastors through every storm. Jesus taught that “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” (Matt. 7:24-25). Also, James wrote that “the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:25). Lastly, Paul told young Timothy that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
Clearly, pastors must base their leadership decisions on biblical convictions. The Scripture is their compass, and so they confess with the Psalmist, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105).
II. Pastors Must Develop a Practical Course.
Once pastors have made the commitment to base their convictions on God’s Word, they must implement its truth according to a practical course of action. In other words, they must have clarity in applying biblical convictions.
This aspect of pastoral leadership requires two essential elements. First, pastors must seek to lead with constant prayerfulness. Paul emphasized the importance of prayerfulness as it relates to discernment when he commanded: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil” (1 Thess. 5:16-22).
The significance of prayer in making decisions is also underscored in the fact that Jesus prayed all night before selecting His twelve disciples (Luke 6:12-16). The Apostles likewise relied on the Scripture and prayer when they chose a replacement for Judas (Acts 1:15-26). Pastors must prayerfully rely on God’s Word as they lead through difficulties.
Second, pastors must seek to lead according to godly counsel. Many times pastors find themselves at a loss concerning how to lead in complex situations, and they may simply need a different vantage point. They may not see all the available options because they are overwhelmed in the midst of a difficulty. They need a fresh, “outside” approach. Of course, they can readily find different perspectives in godly counselors when they follow the guidance of Proverbs 15:22: “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”
As pastors bathe difficult decisions in prayer and seek godly counsel, Christ will show them how to develop a practical course. This may involve arranging steps for leading through difficulties, including appropriate people in this process, and applying facets of accountability.
III. Pastors Must Demonstrate Christ-like Courage.
Pastors are called to lead courageously at all times, especially when facing difficulties. There will always be temptations for them to lead in the fear of men instead of the fear of God. Paul said in Galatians 1:10, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
So pastors must lead with Christ-like courage. This type of leadership is not coarse; rather, it’s compassionate. Courageous leadership is not the proverbial “bull-in-the-China-shop” approach nor the egotistical “my-way-or-the-highway” mentality. Instead, pastors who lead with Christ-like courage are like velvet hammers: They are solid on the inside, and soft to the touch on the outside.
Paul instructed Timothy about Christ-like courage when he wrote in 1 Timothy 2:24-26 that “the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” While Paul never counseled Timothy to budge on his biblical convictions, he basically challenged this young pastor to “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15).
Courageous pastors understand that they are not politicians who serve a constituency; they are preachers of the Gospel who serve their Creator and God. They “preach the Word” and are “prepared in season and out of season” because they embrace their call to “correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Tim. 4:2). Like Jesus, pastors seek to surrender to God fully so that His Spirit will enable them to strike the delicate balance between conviction and compassion in their leadership.
As long as pastors lead God’s people in this fallen world, they will always encounter difficulties. But they can take heart in the hope that God has promised to supply wisdom abundantly to everyone who asks Him. So as long as pastors base their convictions on the truth of Scripture, consult the advice of godly counselors, and walk in the power of the Spirit as He fills them with His love and boldness, they will experience the assurance of knowing that God will lead them as they lead others through any and every difficulty.
Pete Charpentier serves as the senior pastor of Woodland Park Baptist Church in Hammond, Louisiana, and he is the author of the new discipleship resources entitled “Reaching the Next Level”.
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Catastrophic Loss: A Local Picture of a Global Tragedy
By Curtis Brickley
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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 12, 6/27/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
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Disciple Magazine, Vol. 3, # 12, 6/27/2011—Printer-Friendly Version
A Local Picture
Buildings gone, children missing, and lifeless bodies thrown effortlessly about like dry leaves in an autumn’s breeze; this is “catastrophic” and it is the current reality for many in the American South and Midwest who were recently slammed by devastating tornadoes that swept through entire towns like dry brooms on dirt floors.
How do we define a “catastrophic loss”? Usually with some difficulty, but we generally know one when we see one. In legal terms, they are “those cases where there has been a life changing or life ending injury. The injury might be quadriplegia, brain damage, wrongful death, or multiple wrongful deaths. They are emotionally charged, sympathy evoking cases...”
Even the natural man is moved when, upon sight, catastrophic events breaks violently into his circumstances; when he or those closest to him are touched personally by these events outside of human control.
But what of the man who walks not in the flesh; those who walk according to the spirit? It is here where you see the Body of Christ functioning as God intended. Here you see an unnatural unity in the selfless and sacrificial pursuit of another’s good. It is here where the Samaritan gives comfort and aid to an injured man in his hour of desperate need. It is here where the individual’s pursuit of personal peace, prosperity and private comfort are set aside for the greater good of those in the greatest need.
It is in this hour where the man or woman, walking in the spirit, loves his neighbor more than himself and the incomprehensible love of the Lord Jesus is laid bare before a watching world. This love cannot be produced by man but is instead initiated by God in man, as he walks yielded and surrendered to the new life of Christ that dwells mightily within him.
A Global Tragedy
In the face of such tragedies and triumphs, it is easy for us to forget that every day there exists a global catastrophic loss of eternal significance, much greater in scope than the first. Another important difference is that this catastrophe remains out of sight for most of us.
More than 2,000 years after the Lord Jesus Christ told us to proclaim His freedom to every tribe, tongue and nation, there are still almost 4,000 people groups representing 2.5 billion people with little or no access to the freedom the Good News brings; untold billions walking in darkness, staggering to the slaughter, being taken away to death, like sheep without a shepherd, and no one has gone looking for them!
And to paraphrase pastor and author John Piper, surely this same new life, or Christian impulse, that breaks our heart for the catastrophic losses at home would also break our hearts when we consider unreached people who have no Christian advocates for these same eternal, global catastrophic losses that happen daily. The same love of Christ and the same sense of justice that burdens us at home, where we live and work, should also burden us for the very same needs in people groups in faraway places where absolutely no Christian impulse exists at all.
“If you are slack in the day of distress, your strength is limited. Deliver those who are being taken away to death and those who are staggering to the slaughter. Oh hold them back. If you say, ‘see, we did not know this,’ Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to a man according to His work?”(Proverbs 24:10-12).