The influence of psychology on pastoral ministry

This is an excellent analysis of how secular psychology has invaded a fundamental responsibility of the Christian faith. This takeover was really pretty overt when you listen to Powlison's analysis. CCEFs mission statement becomes more compelling after you listen to this.

Restore Christ to Counseling and Counseling to the Church.

The Center of the Universe: You, kind of...

About a year ago, John Piper received a sort of exhortation from a woman in his church whom he really respected and which he heeded. He talks about it here. The crux of the matter is that in all of his (right) emphasis on God being the main point, he unintentionally downplays how God feels about us. One way he often puts it is this: do you feel most loved when God makes much of you, or when you are allowed by God to make much of him? This is a good distinction, especially as ballast in our boats as we sail through the frothy seas of our culture's "self-esteem" talk (though my sense is that the current of the self-esteem movement from the 80s and 90s is ebbing and being replaced with other currents to achieve self-actualization). But the question still lingers a bit--God is gospel and therefore our chief hope in heaven ought to be union with him and not merely the absence of pain, reunion with loved ones, etc; however, how do we experience some of God's massive affection for us and do so joyfully in a way that doesn't ultimately make much of us? Or to put it yet another way, how do we seek God in a way that sees him as an end and not as a means to other ends for which we might seek him?


I don't exactly know the answer, but this post (thanks RP) by Kevin DeYoung points to a biblical way to think a little more about it:

Do not think that salvation comes to sinners because God has a cosmic purpose for the universe and individual sinners happen to be a part of that universe. The movement of salvation is not from everything to individuals, but from individuals to everything. Don’t mistake regeneration, redemption, and adoption as byproducts of the larger work God is doing to restore creation. That logic is backwards. Biblically, it’s the renewal of all things that rides in on the coattails of the salvation of sinners. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:19-21). The creation is waiting to experience the freedom and glory we already experience as the children of God. The next time you are tempted to feel sorry for yourself, or feel unappreciated, or imagine yourself ignored by God, remember: In Christ, you have what the universe is after.

More on Biblical Counseling

As I listen to David Powlison's lectures, I am more and more convinced of his approach and more and more aware of how much secular psychology we have swallowed in the church. And it is really unhelpful--even harmful--to do not correct our wrong thinking here.

Here is an example of some of his wisdom, "couched" in a little humor. (Video only below.)

Some Resources to Help Us Think About Forgiveness

The Forgiveness Project (Tim Keller)
Relating to Someone who Really Hurt You (John Piper)
The Forgiveness Quiz (Chris Brauns)
Forgive us our Debts as We Forgive our Debtors (Piper--a less practical approach than the aforementioned)
So Far as it Depends on You (Piper)
Keller Audio -- Several Messages. Free if you click on the Titles, pay if you click on the "listen" links.
Ligon Duncan message audio or manuscript.

And, well, a bunch of good ones over at Gospel Coalition

Are we excited about the gospel?

"There are some wonderful instances of ordinary Christians, not least the young, who are concerned to preach the whole gospel unabashedly and do good first to the household of God and then, as much as is possible, outside as well. That has got biblical mandate behind it. . . .
My warning would be to those who are coming along and talking a lot about, “I want to be faithful to the gospel, but I also want to do social justice and good works.” My warning would be: it is not just what you do, it is what you are excited about.

If I have learned anything in 35 or 40 years of teaching, it is that students don’t learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again. That had better be the gospel.

If the gospel—even when you are orthodox—becomes something which you primarily assume, but what you are excited about is what you are doing in some sort of social reconstruction, you will be teaching the people that you influence that the gospel really isn’t all that important. You won’t be saying that—you won’t even mean that—but that’s what you will be teaching. And then you are only half a generation away from losing the gospel.

Make sure that in your own practice and excitement, what you talk about, what you think about, what you pray over, what you exude confidence over, joy over, what you are enthusiastic about is Jesus, the gospel, the cross. And out of that framework, by all means, let the transformed life flow."

– Don Carson, lecture, “Is the Culture Shaping Us or are We Shaping the Culture?” delivered at the CBMW Different By Design Conference (Feb. 2, 2009, Minneapolis, MN)

(HT: CJ Mahaney via Tony Reinke via Desiring God)

Tools for seeing and preaching Christ in/from the OT

Here.

Holiness--currently un-hip.

Francis Chan talked in his message at Desiring God's THINK conference about the connection that James speaks of between our righteousness and our prayers being answered. This article draws that out more. And excerpt:

When is the last time we took a verse like Ephesians 5:4–“Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving”–when is the last time we took a verse like this and even began to try to apply this to our conversation, our joking, our movies, our you tube clips, our t.v. and commercial intake? The fact of the matter is if you read through the New Testament epistles you will find very few explicit commands that tell us to evangelize and very few explicit commands that tell us to take care of the poor in our communities, but there are dozens and dozens of verses in the New Testament that enjoin us, in one way or another, to be holy as God is holy (e.g., 1 Peter 1:13-16).

Another false gospel exemplified.

Extreme Gospel Makeover

Under Authority: The Bad with the Good

Please give the Scripture authority over you in the areas that you don't want to hear because of you don't how will he ever heal you? [...] What's going to happen when your heart is broken and you feel like a failure (condemnation) and the bible says "when our hearts condemn us he is greater than our hearts"? How can God come in and give you hope and give you love unless you give the bible the authority over you to give you the good things? If you don't let God have authority over you to tell you the bad things, how will he ever heal you? -Tim Keller

Good point. If we can't trust him with the "bad" things, it diminishes our ability to trust him with the good things. Trust and obedience in what is hard makes trusting the great and precious promises plausible.  If we reject his authority over us, we will eventually reject his benevolence upon us.

Kevin DeYoung on being an ordinary Christian.

"In the grand scheme of things, most of us are going to be more of an Ampliatus (Rom. 16:8) or Phlegon (v. 14) than an apostle Paul. And maybe that’s why so many Christians are getting tired of the church. We haven’t learned how to be part of the crowd. We haven’t learned to be ordinary. Our jobs are often mundane. Our devotional times often seem like a waste. Church services are often forgettable. That’s life. We drive to the same places, go through the same routines with the kids, buy the same groceries at the store, and share a bed with the same person every night. Church is often the same too — same doctrines, same basic order of worship, same preacher, same people. But in all the smallness and sameness, God works..."

Two Chapters that Go Great Together

On a fluke that I won't try to explain here, I ended up listening to Luke 16 and Luke 24 back to back. Try it, paying attention to the themes of resurrection, and Moses and the Prophets.

A Needed Corrective to My Achellies Heel

This is an important observation. I think it is safe to say that the gospel-centered movement has as it's main "prefect" Pastor Tim Keller. And while I really doubt that he is liable to make the error described in said article above, it is entirely possible for those of us who see (rightly) the value of gospel-centeredness to forget the vary things that this article talks about. Namely, don't forget the God of the gospel we are excited about nor forget about his work in those who are not necessarily gospel-centric in the sense that we understand that term. They still love the gospel and the God of it. Don't overlook that. [Last phrases to be said in front of mirror.]

Flying Car for the Gospel

What does this have to do with the gospel?
Well, it could be used for missions.
And it will be.

Poem from Newton

From DG:

Prayer Answered by Crosses
By John Newton
I asked the Lord that I might grow 

In faith and love and every grace, 

Might more of his salvation know, 

And seek more earnestly his face.

‘Twas he who taught me thus to pray; 

And he, I trust, has answered prayer; 

But it has been in such a way 

As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that, in some favoured hour, 

At once he’d answer my request, 

And by his love’s constraining power 

Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, he made me feel 

The hidden evils of my heart, 

And let the angry powers of hell 

Assault my soul in every part.

Yea, more, with his own had he seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe, 

Crossed all the fair designs I schemed, 

Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this? I trembling cried; 

Wilt thou pursue this worm to death? 

This is the way, the Lord replied
I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I now employ 

From self and pride to set thee free,
And break they schemes of earthly joy, 

That thou may’st seek thy all in me.

Erik Raymond

So I ran across his blog today and so far I like what I see. Below in an excerpt from one post that really resonates with why I even post anything here on Gospel Media Tour.

The pastor still shows God’s requirement (law) and exposes our shortcomings (sin). However, instead of bidding the Christian to look inward for righteousness, the pastor lovingly and faithfully raises his brother or sister’s eyes to Christ and what he has done for us.
Don’t get me wrong. I am NOT saying that pastors should not preach the commands of Scripture. I am not even saying that Christians should not feel guilty when they sin. But what I am saying is that when we experience this guilt we are not to look inward for our righteousness but outward. The guilt is not a dark cloud of despair that we sit under until we outrun it through our good works and obedience, instead guilt over sin is to be a divinely dispatched chauffeur that drives us to the cross where we see the culmination of Jesus’ obedience for us.

Imperative vs Indicative

"The challenge, often times, is to make certain the indicative (what Christ has done) before unloading (or confusing) the imperative (what we must do)." -Erik Raymond

I need to find somewhere that unpacks that more, but it is such a crucial distinction.

UPDATE: Thanks to RP for his comment below, which I bring up here to provide the link to more on this idea.

Get the gospel in there.

The Gospel is what we are to proclaim. Obviously, it ought to be central then to our lives and message. In numerous places on this blog I have referred to what it is, so I won't reiterate it here. No, what I want to talk about here is how central the message of the gospel of the cross of Christ needs to be in preaching. There are a ton of reasons for this, but here is just one.

The Bible is not our message, though the message is in our Bibles. It seems to me that we who are passionate about getting our exegesis right forget a cardinal rule: context--specifically, context at a macro level. We are quick to make sure that the verse we are looking at is understood in light of the sentences around it, the flow of the rest of the book and the intent of the author in that book (especially in the epistles) and as long as we have our exegesis right within that scope we've done our job. And this is right and good to do. But at a macro level, we have to not only look at the context of the verse in the chapter in the book; but also the context of the book in the Bible.

What is the Bible about? We cannot preach rightly without taking that into consideration. In numerous places we find Jesus telling people that the Bible is about Him. On the road to Emmaus after his resurrection Jesus said the scriptures were about him. To the pharisees in John he scolded them for studying the scriptures because they thought the right understanding of them gave them eternal life but they missed it because they didn't see that the scriptures were about him. In 1 Corinthians 15, the gospel is outlined "according to the scriptures"--that Christ's death was foretold there. Paul reminds us that his central message was the cross and that he wanted to know nothing more than Jesus and him crucified among his hearers. In 2 Corinthians, the ministry of every believer is the ministry of reconciliation--the gospel of God restoring his relationship with man through the cross. This is what the bible is about. This is what we ought to be about. It is the only hope for those sick with sin.

When our preaching does not drip with blood of the Lamb, what then have we proclaimed? The blood of Christ must splatter upon those who hear our message or our message is not the message of the Bible. Lord give us blood-soaked preachers.

More Old News

This time in song. You may have to imagine the melody. Because of a gifted friend, I don't. If he finishes what he's started, others will get to hear it too. I'm looking forward to that day but this song points to an even better one. Oh what hope we have!

Let us love and sing and wonder,
Let us praise the Savior's Name!
He has hushed the law's loud thunder,
He has quenched Mount Sinai's flame.
He has washed us with His blood,
He has brought us nigh to God.

Let us love the Lord Who bought us,
Pitied us when enemies,
Called us by His grace, and taught us,
Gave us ears and gave us eyes:
He has washed us with His blood,
He presents our souls to God.

Let us sing, though fierce temptation
Threaten hard to bear us down!
For the Lord, our strong Salvation,
Holds in view the conqueror's crown:
He Who washed us with His blood
Soon will bring us home to God.

Let us wonder; grace and justice
Join and point to mercy's store;
When through grace in Christ our trust is,
Justice smiles and asks no more:
He Who washed us with His blood
Has secured our way to God.

Let us praise, and join the chorus
Of the saints enthroned on high;
Here they trusted Him before us,
Now their praises fill the sky:
“Thou hast washed us with Your blood;
Thou art worthy, Lamb of God!'

Hark! the Name of Jesus, sounded
Loud, from golden harps above!
Lord, we blush, and are confounded,
Faint our praises, cold our love!
Wash our souls and songs with blood,
For by Thee we come to God.

The Old Good News--Again

This is why I try to find the things I try to find and post on this blog.

The Gospel and Ministries of Mercy

An article by Tim Keller on the gospel and how it plays out in ministry to the poor. An excerpt:

So what does it mean to be committed to the primacy of the gospel? It means first that the gospel must be proclaimed. Many today denigrate the importance of this. Instead, they say, the only true apologetic is a loving community; people cannot be reasoned into the kingdom, they can only be loved. "Preach the gospel. Use words if necessary." But while Christian community is indeed a crucial and powerful witness to the truth of the gospel, it cannot replace preaching and proclamation. Nevertheless, the primacy of the gospel also means that it is the basis and mainspring for Christian practice, individually and corporately, inside the church and outside. Gospel ministry is not only proclaiming it to people so that they will embrace and believe it; it is also teaching and shepherding believers with it so that it shapes the entirety of their lives, so that they can "live it out." And one of the most prominent areas that the gospel effects is our relationship to the poor.

Chan: Preaching and Teaching Preparation

From the DG Blog:


In his message at the National Conference, Francis Chan highlighted the importance of loving the people to whom he preaches. He mentioned seven questions that he asks himself in preparing to preach. Here are the seven questions:

1. Am I worried about what people think of my message or what God thinks? (Teach with fear)
2. Do I genuinely love these people? (Teach with love)
3. Am I accurately presenting this passage? (Teach with accuracy)
4. Am I depending on the Holy Spirit's power or my own cleverness? (Teach with power)
5. Have I applied this message to my own life? (Teach with integrity)
6. Will this message draw attention to me or to God? (Teach with humility)
7. Do the people really need this message? (Teach with urgency)

Theological Triage

Al Mohler on prioritizing which doctrines are essential, which are important, and which are less important.

Biblical Counseling

I actually can't believe I didn't post this link given that I spent so much time listening to these this summer. David Powlison did a seminar at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. It is four parts. Here is part one. You can poke around on the site for parts 3-4.

Sin so that grace may increase. Well, maybe not. But...

 Adding to Our Sins While Repenting of Them

Spurgeon, writing reflectively on Ephesians 2:8-9--

What does faith exclude? Well, I am sure it excludes boasting. 'He that believeth is not condemned' (John 3:18). Oh, if it said, 'He that works is not condemned,' then you and I might boast in unlimited quantity. . . .

No, Lord, if I am not condemned, it is Your free grace, for I have deserved to be condemned a thousand times since I sat down to write this. When I am on my knees and I am not condemned, I am sure it must be sovereign grace, for even when I am praying, I deserve to be condemned. Even when we are repenting, we are sinning, and adding to our sins while we are repenting of them. . . .

Our best performances are so stained with sin that it is hard to know whether they are good works or bad works. . . . Ah, then, we cannot boast! Be gone, pride! Be gone! Quit boasting, Christian. Live humbly before your God, and never let a word of self-congratulation escape your lips.

--Charles Spurgeon, Faith (Whitaker House 1995), 88
 Thanks RP.

The Importance of Ignoring Your Wife

That is--ignore her in order to worship Christ. Here is what I mean...

As men placed in nurturing authority over our families and homes, we often fail to do what we should to lead well. Sometimes we do poorly, and sometimes we do really poorly. And to one degree or another, our/my failures in this area result in a kind of amplification of my wife's insecurities (which is not at all to say we men don't have our own insecurities). Her discontent or discouragement may lead her to be more open to the temptations to find comfort or security in other things--perhaps a more certain financial situation, or a better-suited home, or more money in the emergency fund, or some new clothes, or any other number of things. Then, when we men become aware of these desires for these kinds of things, we can aim to remedy the situation by working in whatever way to provide the very things she wants to feel more secure or desirable.

At least two problems arise at this point. First, we may not want to do those things. We may not have energy or resources even if we did want to. Second, we're enabling her fall into the temptation and sin of seeking security outside of Christ. And furthermore, give it enough time and you'll see (or you already know)--this simply doesn't work. She doesn't grow more secure.

So the remedy is this: ignore your wife. That is, ignore these messages that she may overtly or subtly send and instead, worship God every chance you get. Sing to God. Pray to God. Confess to God. Read the Word of God. Get into meaningful relationship with another man of God. Worship God. Worship is the only way we'll be transformed into the kind of men and husbands who will be courageous enough to be humble enough to pray with our wives (though we haven't in years), and to lead in our homes, and teach the Word in our homes and live and love sacrificially in our homes, and lovingly guide our wives in the gospel that will save both them and us from finding security and meaning outside of Christ.

So ignore--or better yet, wage war to keep your sights on the real battlefield--your worship, and not on the side skirmishes that sap your energy for the real fight of faith.