As ministerial students, your view of Christian ministry is shaped by many influences and experiences. Without even giving it much conscious thought, a picture of the nature and work of the ministry is being formed in your minds. Some of your own desires, expectations, assumptions, hopes, dreams, and (believe it or not) misconceptions contribute to your developing expectation of the ministry.

What role is the cross of Jesus Christ playing in the shaping of your view of the ministry? That may sound like an abstract question. In reality, nothing should contribute more concrete substance to the thinking and development of the minister of Christ than the cross of Christ. Above all else, the minister of Christ must know a real, personal, growing and abiding apprehension by faith of both the objective and subjective realities of the cross. He must know Christ as Savior for himself, of course. But he must also know the soul-shaping, pride-crushing, ambition-checking, love-generating power of the cross- the implications of the cross for the man and the ministry- applied deeply to his own mind, heart and life.

Think of the vast implications of the cross rightly understood and applied in the Christian ministry:

What warrant do sinners like us have to serve Christ and His people? The cross.
What is the great motive of our ministry? The cross.
What is the main message of our ministry? The cross.
What is the power of our ministry? The cross.
Why should we keep loving these people? The cross.
Why should we endure all things for the sake of the elect? The cross.
Why should we forsake worldly ambition and dedicate ourselves to Christian ministry? The cross.
Why should we seek and promote peace and reconciliation? The cross.
What can kill our native pride and selfish ambition even in the ministry? The cross.
What compels us to evangelize and promote the cause of missions? The cross.

I know we are to be men of the whole Bible. We must not be simplistic or reductionistic in the Christian life and ministry, even in our emphasis on the cross. But in our desire to be faithful to the whole counsel of God, we must never marginalize the cross. D.A. Carson, in his excellent book The Cross and Christian Ministry (Get it! Read it!), makes the following helpful observation, which also serves as a warning:

“I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry.” (p. 26)

So, brothers, whatever else we are studying, whoever we are watching, whatever we are expecting from the Christian ministry, let Christ and His cross shape who we are as men and how we view our work as ministers. We all bring our unique personalities, gifts and burdens to the ministry. But our dear Savior’s person and His finished work on the cross is the fine tool in our Master Sculptor’s hand that shapes and fashions us more than anything else.  What does the minister look like who is single in his devotion both to carry and to proclaim the cross of Jesus Christ? Perhaps it’s what Paul had in mind when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20)

May God help us to be men who, in the best of senses, know nothing except Christ and Him crucified. And in the blazing glory of His cross, let us cheerfully and willingly spend and be spent for the spread of His fame and for the beauty and glory of His dear bride, the Church.

Someone sent me a link to this post on elders meetings and recommended I post it here on the fishermen blog.  I really enjoyed the post, and the elders meetings that they describe sound like something I would definitely want to be a part of and something that could really be used of the Lord.  Let me know what y’all think.

http://www.ccwblog.org/2009/11/elders-meetings-that-do-something.html

Today I read a blog post that lists 41 questions that a pastor asked his church when they had invited him to be a pastor at Ballymoney Baptist Church.  Here is the original post.  I thought some of y’all might like to read these so you can use them in the future if you have the opportunity.   

Here are the questions this pastor asked:

A. Theological Questions

1. What is the church’s statement of faith and how did the church devise it?

2. What has been the most vexed theological question the church has faced? Has there ever been a church split over theology or practice? Why?

3. On the wider scene, what theological trends and strands of false teaching would the elders at Ballymoney be particularly concerned about at the moment?

4. What are the key functions/roles of an elder at Ballymoney?

5. What is the elder’s relationship to the pastor? (For example, is the pastor an elder? Do the elders perceive themselves as, in some way, subordinate?)

6. What would the church’s position be on the role of women?

7. What is the church’s position on the function of charismatic gifts?

8. Is there a different kind of membership for someone differing on secondary issues? Would it ever be considered?

9. What kind of church government structure is practiced? How does it work out in practice?

B. Ministry-Philosophy Questions

10. What is the process of being baptised and becoming a church member? How is baptism and membership encouraged?

11. What are the expectations laid upon church members?

12. How does the church practice church discipline? (What sort of discipline has been practiced in the past?)

13. Do the elders have any plans for expansion of the building or church planting?

14. What, if anything, would the elders want to see change or develop in the future? (each elder might want to answer individually!)

15. Do the church members generally (and happily) follow the lead of the eldership?

16. Can the elders give evidence of an openness to growing in their role? (by eg. reading resources on eldership, attending conferences, having a weekend away with pastor, etc)

17. In what ways (if at all) do you think my young age might affect my reception both in the church and among the eldership?

18. What would be the minimum and maximum expectations be of the frequency of the pastor’s preaching? (ie. is one Sunday evening off in preaching a month the minimum acceptable; on the other hand, would preaching every service without fail be deemed unhelpful)

19. What items in the current services are non-negotiable? What other items are deemed acceptable and have been featured in the past? Is the pastor responsible for putting together all orders of service?

20. Is the current practice of communion (format, timing, gap between service and communion) set in stone?

21. What sorts of things do the Ballymoney elders feel the pastor should not be doing with his time?

22. What are the congregational/eldership expectations (these two may be different) regarding pastoral visitation?

23. How often are business meetings conducted? Does the pastor moderate this? Are they productive and generally positive? What is typically discussed?

24. Does the church have a yearly budget and if so, how is it put together?

25. What is the church’s attitude and approach to missionaries?

26. Who is responsible for the website and library and how easy would it be for the pastor to make a significant input into each of these areas? (Note: I believe these resources would have some relation to my teaching function as a pastor)

27. Has the church ever had Fellowship Groups? If so, what is the leadership’s feeling about their significance?

28. What are the leadership’s views concerning counselling?

29. How would you sum up the spiritual health of the congregation in qualitative terms (against measurements like prayer, heart for evangelism, love for one another)?

30. What kind of impact have ‘the troubles’ and its aftermath had on the Ballymoney congregation?

31. Pardoning the expression, are there any ‘sacred cows’ in the church?

32. Would the congregation consider adding an additional paid staff member at any point?

C. Personal Questions

33. Would the elders have any objection to the pastor working from a church office? (my preferred place for sermon prep)

34. What is the view of the elders regarding the pastor resourcing himself? (conferences; the odd retreat to read & plan, etc)

35. Are there any expenses for things?

36. What is the rationale regarding days off and holidays?

37. Is there any scope for ‘preaching away’ from Ballymoney? (Note: I would be very cautious about doing much of this, especially early on, however)

38. Do you think it would be relatively easy for a young family to settle into the church/town? What challenges might Nicki and the children face?

39. What role would the pastor’s wife be expected to have in the church?

40. What are the schools like in Ballymoney?

41. How easy might it be to buy an affordable house in the Ballymoney area?

As a rule, I take lengthy introspective criticisms like this one in doses. Christ has to be the focus of our efforts to serve Him. If we focus on how imperfectly and inconsistently we labor, we will naturally become downcast and unbelieving. If stories in the Bible such as the fall of Jericho, Gideon’s tiny band, and David and Goliath teach anything, it is that God is of sufficient power to bring miraculous results in the presence of what might be humanly speaking fairly feeble and misdirected efforts. The secret of our power lies in the strength of Him in whose Name we undertake them, not in the apparent wisdom of the plans. Like David in his last moments, our introspective tendencies should always terminate in the promises of God: “Although my house is not so with God, yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered all things and secure. For this is all my salvation and all my desire; will He not make it increase?” 2 Sam. 23:5.       

God can and will make the RB’s increase as it pleases Him. I should not be understood to mean that RB’s cannot improve or should not want to improve. Of course we should. But those suggestions must first be real improvements. When we who are younger confidently take up the task of stating how we would reinvent the wheel, we invariably prove why God in His Providence has not yet put us at the helm. Let it be known that we will hear the Al Martins, Gary Hendrixs, Randy Pizzinos, and Greg Nichols. But too often men that have accomplished far less seem to be the ones that consistently make the loudest  and boastful criticisms. But if these up and coming critics are expert church planters, why are they not busy building up their own metropolitan RB mega-church? Why spend all this time talking about it on the web?

Christ said, “on this Rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,” Matt. 16:18. Let us not err as the Roman Catholics do, and think that Jesus has delegated the ultimate responsibility of building His Church to Peter or to anyone else.  He is the One building it. We have stewardships and responsibilities in our own spheres of course. If we are not faithful to them, God will find someone else who will be. But let us be content to trust the final outcome of all to Him.

New Blog update. “CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN!!” http://casey-consideringgrace.blogspot.com/

I Just posted a new blog update. “YOU’VE STOLEN MY HEART!”

http://casey-consideringgrace.blogspot.com/

Please continue to pray that the Lord will bless this effort in trying to reach out to family members and friends.

I’ve been reading R.L. Dabney’s discussion on “The Uses and Results of Church History.” Here are a few quotes that I found interesting, and its style is characteristic of Dabney’s rugged strength: 

I may illustrate the importance of history as a school of experience by its warning and purifying effect upon the moral judgments of men. It teaches us to beware of the estimate which the seductive brilliancy of present success might entice us to make of the doubtful acts of our contemporaries, by pointing us to the end of similar acts and principles in others…

The man who undertakes to teach, to legislate, or to govern, either in church or state, without historical wisdom, is a reckless tyro. His wicked folly is like that of the quack who should venture upon the responsibilities of the physician without having either seen or read practice. For, a series of human generations constitute but one lifetime of a political or ecclesiastical institution. The incidents of one human lifetime, or one era, constitute but a single “case,” a single turn of the diseases of society. And no man has experience of those diseases who has not studied the symptoms and results through many generations…

Man has no pole star and no compass, by which he may boldly break away from the track of experience and navigate the ocean of the future. The province of his wisdom is to follow the ways explored by previous voyagers, and only to venture into the uncertain storms of the untried so far as the light of the past is reflected forward upon it. All the safe and successful progress which has been made in human institutions has been from changes made under the guidance of history…

Fishermen!  Remember to check out the “Upcoming Events” link on the right of the blog.

I’m putting all the preaching opportunities of the fishermen that I know about on the calendar.  The upcoming events section will give you a heads up as to who will be out in the world doing the Master’s business.

So, let me know when you’re preaching (or add it to the calendar yourself) and check the “Upcoming Events” often, and keep praying for each other.

It is wonderfully exciting to see the Fishermen going out to preach!  May God grant many more opportunities! May the Kingdom be expanded by these labors!  May the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be exalted in all the Earth!

God bless you in your labors.  Hold Fast!

Hello Fellow Fishermen!

Thanks to Brad, you all have the upgraded security access of “Editor”  that means that when you are logged in you can view everyone’s “Private” posts.  What does that mean to you?

It means that when you mark a post as private only those users that have logged in will be able to view it.  So, if you would rather control who will be able to see your post, mark your post as private, then you’ll know that only your brothers will be able to see it.

It also means you need to log in each time you come to visit so you can make sure you see everything.  If you’re not logged in you can’t see the private posts!!!

But HOW DO I POST PRIVATELY?

First, you need to log in!   If you haven’t found it, the “Log In” link is just below the sober gaze of Henry Martyn on the right-hand side of the page. (Don’t trifle!  Be in earnest!)

Second, click on the “Site Admin” link that displays after you log in, it should display just above the log in link.

Third, click on the “Add New” link in the “Posts” box on the upper left-hand side of the page.  Enter all the text of your post.

Forth, in the Publish box on the upper right-hand side of the page, click on the “Edit” link next to “Visibility,” click on the “Private” radio-button which displays, and then click the “OK” button.

Fifth, click “Publish”  you’re done!

P.S.  I’ll post a private post next, please comment on that post if you can see it.  Thanks!  Remember, you have to be logged in to see private posts!  So log in to make sure you not missing any of the posts!

Dear Fishermen,
I just posted a new blog update. “Glorious Freedom = Glorious grace”
http://casey-consideringgrace.blogspot.com/
Please continue to pray for this outreach effort as I seek to reach friends and family members with the gospel.
Made Willing In The Day Of His Power!
Casey