pursuing faithfulness to the Word of God and fullness of the Spirit of God
Archive for July, 2007
God is Most Glorified…
Jul 28th
John Piper is famous for the quotation “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” As obvious as it now seems, when I first heard it, it seriously challenged my way of thinking about worship. Before I had the idea that God was most glorified when I did something I really didn’t want to but I did it anyway just because he wanted me to do it. Indeed, the motive of doing something for pleasure was frowned upon by many Christians.
Those who complained of dull worship meetings were deemed unspiritual, because worship is about glorifying God, not about how we feel. This way of thinking, if taken to its logical conclusion would result in us making our worship meetings as miserable as possible, so that by participating anyway we would somehow signal a greater commitment to God.
But John Piper’s groundbreaking book Desiring God changed all that. Suddenly it became clear that passionless worship could never glorify God. In fact it dishonoured him. Churches that were afraid of making their worship more lively or contemporary no longer needed to fear that somehow this was a capitulation to selfish desires.
Twenty years on from the publication of that book, and John Piper’s argument is commonplace in evangelical and charismatic churches alike. We seek after vibrant, enthusiastic (even ‘extravagant’ and ‘undignified’) worship, knowing that the more our joy in God overflows, the more glory we bring him.
But there is a danger. What happens if John Piper’s quotation gets abbreviated very slightly?
“God is most glorified when we are most satisfied.”
I reckon you could say this in many churches and few people would notice the missing words. But it is heresy! And it is becoming the way many are thinking. If this is our guide, then the only criteria for judging a worship service is whether we enjoyed it. Did people dance? Was the worship band on top form?
But God is only glorified if our delight is found in him. Were people’s hearts directed towards him? Was the dancing merely because it was good music or because people were literally overjoyed at the wonder of their salvation?
God is looking for worshipers who will worship in spirit and in truth. Isaiah warned that it was possible to honour God with your lips while your heart was far from him.
Let us therefore not be satisfied with people having “fun” in our worship meetings. Let us press in to ensure that our joy is found in God himself. True worship consists of rejoicing in his truth and delighting in his presence. Good music helps, but can never be a substitute for true worship.
Book Review – Brothers, We Are Not Professionals (John Piper)
Jul 17th
In this provocatively titled book, John Piper urges pastors of churches to focus on what is truly important and be radical in their ministry. He is concerned that so many pastors are getting so caught up in learning professional business techniques that will help them run their churches more efficiently that they lose sight of what they are really supposed to be doing.
But rather than critiquing trends in the modern church, John Piper prefers to write 30 short chapters each giving pastors something to be passionate about. His own remarkable fire and earnestness shines through this book, and you cannot fail to be stirred by it.
He starts off as we would expect with his typical emphasis on the glory of God, calling us to live in “Christian hedonism”, seeking to glorify God by delighting in him.
He controversially urges pastors to tell their people not to serve God. Why not? Because of the potential for a legalistic “debtor’s ethic” – where we attempt to repay God out of gratitude. He states that:
The gospel is not a help-wanted ad. It is a help-available ad. Nor is the call to Christian service a help-wanted ad. God is not looking for a people who to work for Him but people who let Him work mightily in and through them.
Piper moves on to cover a broad range of topics. He makes a plea for the learning of Greek and Hebrew, for reading Christian biography, and for serious study of the biblical text. He urges that we feel the truth of hell, and lead people to repentance through their pleasure, by which he means to point people to God as the source of real pleasure. He warns against fighting sin with “pea-shooter” regulations.
While many of the chapters are about things that a pastor should preach and teach his congregation, the focus is much wider than the Sunday morning meeting. Piper calls his readers to get a passion for mission, to defend the cause of the unborn, to love their wives, to stand up against racism, and to reject materialism.
This book ranks right up there with the best of John Piper’s writings, and I pray that many pastors and church leaders will read it, and heed his call to radical ministry, refusing to be sidetracked by the latest strategies and technologies, and focusing on being who God has called us to be, and doing what he has called us to do.
A Secular Church?
Jul 17th
Dave Bish posted an interesting link to a lecture by Mark Dever on why Jonathan Edwards got fired. In it he quoted J H Thornwell, a Southern Presbyterian Theologian who wrote in 1832 concerning his denomination:
Our whole system of operations gives an undue influence to money. Where money is the great want [i.e. need], numbers must be sought, and where an ambition for numbers prevails, doctrinal purity must be sacrificed. The root of the evil is in the secular spirit of all our ecclesiastical institutions. What we want is a spiritual body, a church whose power lies in the truth and the presence of the Holy Ghost. To unsecularise the church should be the unceasing aim of all who are anxious that the ways of Zion should flourish.
(quote is 32 minutes into the MP3)
Surprising how relevant it seems to our own day (perhaps the ‘church growth’ movement is not as novel as some think). I also like the way he goes beyond a mere diagnosis of the problem to highlight the need of the church to be one whose power is found in “the truth and the presence of the Holy Ghost”. Or as we might say today – a church of “the Word and the Spirit”.
Together on a Mission 07
Jul 13th
I had the chance to go as a day visitor to Together on a Mission yesterday and had a great time. Adrian Warnock and Andrew Fountain have been live-blogging the conference, so I won’t go into great depth, but here’s my report on the sessions I went to.
Matt Hatch – Spiritual Formation in Leaders
This was a fascinating seminar from Matt Hatch who planted Mosaic church in Leeds. He spoke of the crucial importance of developing character in leaders, rather than merely looking for gifting. He also warned of the danger of leaders getting to the place where they know the right things to say and do to make meetings go well, but neglect their own spiritual growth.
What I found most interesting was the way his church were going about helping people to develop. They place a strong emphasis on accountability pairs / triplets, and are ruthlessly honest with one another about their lives. There are also intensive discipleship groups for young men running over a 10 week period, as well as different groups for women and older men.
There were many other ways in which their church was seeking to make disciples, and I was impressed with the way they were focusing on developing character and spiritual maturity. Colin Baron pointed out in the question and answer session that this church were seeing tremendous growth in numbers – demonstrating that a focus on discipleship is not incompatible with growing a church (and may in fact be the best way to do it).
I was also very encouraged to see that there is a place in newfrontiers for an emphasis on spiritual formation – something that the emerging churches are very much into, but is sadly low on the agenda in many charismatic churches.
Dave Stroud – Main Session
Dave Stroud spoke in the first main session of the day and spoke of the values of newfrontiers, based on Acts 13. His five points were that we are to be:
- A people of the Spirit
- A people of the Word
- A people going into the world
- A people with anointed leadership (a reiteration of Eph 4 ministries)
- A people full of confidence
Check out Andrew Fountain’s notes or Adrian Warnock’s notes for more detail. It was a really good message, and I was glad to hear him again underscore the importance of the Word and Spirit together.
Rob Rufus – Main Session
Rob Rufus has become something of a celebrity in newfrontiers circles over recent years, but I must confess to still being unsure about him. Every time he speaks, the main emphasis seems to be on the “anointing” for miracles and power, and this was no exception. It started off with him making the important point that we should not seek God for his power, but for his presence. However, after some fooling around with a photographer he got the giggles and took a long time before being able to continue. He then went on to talk about many of the Pentecostal healing evangelists of last century, telling many stories from their ministries. While I don’t doubt that there were many great miracles, I felt uneasy with some of his stories, especially one involving the miraculous teleporting of jewelry, as it seemed to have the characteristics of an urban legend.
He then said that they had been given an “anointing” which they hadn’t fully used up, and so it was still available for us to use. We could go into the past and bring it into the present. I found this quite a strange concept. The meeting closed with him praying for healings and many people testified to being fully or partially healed. He prayed again for them, and the vast majority fell down immediately as he touched them. Andrew Fountain was one of those who was healed and touched by the Spirit (see his report here), so I’m looking forward to hearing from him about what he felt about that message and meeting.
Prayer Meeting and Offering
The evening prayer meeting was excellent. We had already had two great times of worship led by Matt Redman and Simon Brading, but as we expected, Evan Rogers was the worship leader for the evening event. We sang all the classic lively (& cheesy) worship songs, with lots of South African songs and lots of dancing. The prayer time was powerful, and I found it quite moving as we all listened to people from all over the world praying in their native languages. Terry Virgo then spoke briefly on the privilege of giving, before everyone danced forward to give into the offering and inflatable beach balls were batted around.
You can get a feel of what the evening was like courtesy of Adrian Warnock’s video (footage of the celebration is after the photos):
Newfrontiers theological papers
Jul 13th
Newfrontiers have recently updated their website, and there are two exciting new developments. First is a section for theological papers. There are only four there at the moment, and some of them look more like notes for a talk, but I am hoping we will see a lot more coming in future months.
The other exciting development is that the talks from Together on a Mission 2007 will be made available for free download. This is very generous of them, and the first couple of main sessions are already available (even before the conference has ended!).
