Given my love for sports I have an obligation to publish a public service announcement to prepare you for the impending Super Bowl…

O-V-E-R-R-A-T-E-D

The Super Bowl is the most overrated sporting event in the history of all sports, dating back to the very first Olympics. The NFL thinks so highly of itself, the Super Bowl is assigned Roman numerals.

Yet despite the hype, year after year this game rarely delivers. With few exceptions, most of these games are neither exciting nor memorable (unless your team is participating). With Peyton Manning and Drew Brees in the Super Bowl, there is at least a chance that Super Bowl 44 will be entertaining, but I doubt it.

For me, the only good thing about the Super Bowl is that it means MARCH MADNESS is fast approaching! Don’t get me started on March Madness and college basketball because year after year college basketball always delivers.

Tips for watching the Super Bowl

I’ll give you a Super Bowl game prediction later but for now some things to keep in mind while watching the Super Bowl (or any televised sporting event). If you chose to watch the Super Bowl, here are four tips for watching the game for the glory of God.

1. Strategically assign the remote.

Some prefer to turn off all the commercials; other prefer to just keep an eye on it and turn off the offensive ones. Either way, be proactive about what shows up on your TV screen. One way to do this is to assign one person (someone with both discernment and quick reflexes) to remote-control duty.” This cannot be just anybody. Throughout the game viewers are assaulted with commercials—immoral commercials, commercials that assault and offend one’s intelligence, and commercials with immodestly dressed women (which both tempt men and belittle women). These are as much a part of the Super Bowl as the game itself.

Working the remote requires skill and coordination as well as discernment. This person needs to be paying attention and anticipating commercial breaks. While everyone else enjoys the game, this person is working and always aware of what’s on the TV.

I recommend you establish on the remote an alternative channel that presents no temptation (C-SPAN for example). Turning to C-SPAN will ensure that conversation will take place.

2. Watch proactively.

I encourage fathers to watch actively and discerningly, never passively and superficially. There is no doubt that throughout the game you will hear one superlative after another attributed to the skill of the athletes. The accent throughout the game will be on skill, not character.

Nowhere is the word great mentioned more often in our culture than in the context of professional sports. If you watch any game this weekend and listen to the announcer’s commentary, then like a mantra you’ll probably hear the word great repeated throughout—great, great, great. Yet it may well be that nowhere in our culture is the absence of true greatness more evident than in professional sports. So be careful about cultivating an excessive love for professional athletics in your child.

Without minimizing the skill as a gift from God, I want to direct my son’s attention to character as theologically defined. So as Chad and I watch the game, I will draw his attention to any evidence of humility or unselfishness I observe, as well as any expression of arrogance or selfishness. I will celebrate the former and ridicule the latter.

3. Foster fellowship.

We need to make sure a room full of people are not simply passively watching the Super Bowl. Commercial time can be time redeemed with the right leadership and by a simply changing of the channel to C-SPAN.

Don’t misunderstand. It’s perfectly legitimate to watch and enjoy the game. I’m not advocating that you invite those who have no interest in the game and who want to distract your attention from the game. You can arrange to meet with those people at another time.

No matter who we invite to our homes on Sunday, let’s not just stare at the TV, paying little attention to our families and our guests. Watching the game should involve building relationships.

4. Draw attention to the eternal.

Sometime after the game—that same evening or the next day—it’s helpful for a father to draw his child’s attention to the game in light of eternity. It’s also helpful for us as fathers to be reminded of an eternal perspective.

Apart from those few who listen excessively to sports talk radio, this game will be quickly forgotten. Let me ask you this—who won the Super Bowl even five years ago?

The day before the 1972 Super Bowl, Dallas Cowboy running back Duane Thomas said, “If it’s the ultimate game how come they’re playing it again next year?” Some players seem to get it. Sadly, many fans don’t.

More recently Tom Brady, quarterback of three Super Bowl championships, is quoted in a 60 Minutes interview saying,

Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, “Hey man, this is what is.” I reached my goal, my dream, my life. I think, “God, it’s got to be more than this.” I mean this isn’t, this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be.

I anticipate that in a week or two, after the Super Bowl has been won, the champions will experience this same dissatisfaction. As Augustine said, “You [God] made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace till they rest in you.”

We must impart this eternal perspective to our children.

Super Bowl XLIV predictions

Okay, on to predictions.

Who will win? I predict the Indianapolis Colts. No surprise there.

Who do I want to win? I want New Orleans to win because of my friends at Lakeview Christian Center, the Sovereign Grace church in New Orleans.

How can the Saints win? The Saints can win only if they can force turnovers and make some big offensive plays. They will do the latter but not the former, or at least not enough to win. And the Saints’ defense is average at best.

How can the Colts win? Unless Peyton Manning gets hurt before the game or during the game, Indianapolis wins.

I’ve got a friend named Jim. He’s an evangelist. An evangelist is a guy who takes his wife to a romantic restaurant and then spends the meal witnessing to the waiter. That’s Jim, and that’s a true story, but probably for another time.

In my world, Jim exists to help me—and the other guys on our pastoral team—break out of the church and into the world. Jim’s on a mission to make sure our community hears the gospel and that every member of our church is sharing it. Each week, Jim arranges for one of the pastors to go out witnessing, and that’s what put me on a local campus standing in front of a student—I’ll call him Jesse.

As a philosophy student, Jesse was wired for God-talk. As for me, …umm, I was trying to remember my name, how to string words together to form complete sentences and, oh yes, the gospel. Eventually I fumbled through it and Jesse appreciated the conversation. But I don’t think he walked away impressed by my power or presence.

Church planters can relate. Sure, the field is ripe, but the worker feels weak, alone, and ill-equipped for the moment. But even when we feel like we’re laboring alone, our mandate—the Great Commission—fills the field with one magnificent promise.

Check it out in Matthew 28:20: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Our commission is great (always!) because it comes with the promise of God’s enduring presence.

God’s Powerful Presence

Think about it: we are sent by the risen Savior to do his ministry in the earth. So we spill out of the locker room with the Great Commission, the greatest pre-game speech ever delivered, ringing in our ears. Through the tunnel of planning and preparation we run, ready to burst out on the field of church-planting opportunity. But then we realize something: we’re on the enemy’s turf and there is opposition everywhere. Suddenly our numbers seem puny and our playbook pathetically thin and predictable. It is for this moment that Jesus ended his Great Commission with these words:

“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We can tend to extract this verse from the context of the Great Commission and slap it on all kind of situations. The primary context of this promise informs us that God is with us as we go. As we seek to plant churches, God is with us. As we stammer to share the gospel with guys like Jesse, God is with us. As we huddle up, looking to call the first play on our launch Sunday, God is with us.

Jesus doesn’t toss out this promise as a stray thought—“And dude, by the way, I’m always around if you need me.” No, when he says, “behold,” he means, “Listen up, you need to know this!” “Behold” typically precedes a payload. And the payload is his permanent presence as we go.

In other words, what he’ll do is always more important than what we’ll do.

Go into all the world and make disciples? That’s great.

Jesus with us? That’s greater.

Baptize and teach? Seriously great.

Jesus with us? Amazingly greater.

Planting churches? Exhilaratingly great.

Jesus with us? Even greater.

God’s Enduring Presence

And this isn’t a time-determined promise. He isn’t going to be with us for three quarters of the game and then hang out in the luxury box for crunch time. He is with us always…even to the end of the age. He is with us every moment in equal measure. And he will be there when the final whistle blows, when the final trumpet sounds. It’s at that time that the mission will be done and we will be with him in glory. Always and without end.

There are eight, or maybe it’s now nine, church planters connected to Sovereign Grace Ministries starting churches over the next year. Can anything strengthen their hearts more than Jesus’s words?

“I am with you always.”

To Dave who is breaking ground for us in Sydney, Australia; Toby in urban San Francisco; Songhwan in South Korea; Kenny in suburban Philly; David planting a church in an unreached region in southeast Asia; Eric in Arlington, Virginia; Wilbroad in Zambia and others already in the field or just preparing to launch—Jesus reminds you:

“I am with you always.”

How about you? Do you have any doubts about your participation in the Great Commission? Christ is with us. Do you have any doubts that your church can make a difference, that your church can actually raise the number of conversions? The Savior is with us. Do you have any doubts that your people can gain an enthusiasm to actually become a church-planting church? The Savior is with us in our going.

Part of the reason I was sharing the gospel with Jesse is because I want to do something great for God. I want to play in the game and score something for God’s glory. But the Great Commission dwarfs any idea of my contribution. The Commission is great in spite of me. It’s great because it comes from one with great authority. It’s great because it is entrusted to a great church. It is great because it graciously allows even people like us to participate in it. It is great because it carries a great promise…even to the end of the age.

That’s truly awesome. So next time you’re planning to share the gospel (and I hope it’s soon!), remember the promise: God is with us in our going. That’s what makes it a GREAT commission!

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Dave Harvey leads international expansion and church planting for Sovereign Grace Ministries and is based in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. For more information about the Sovereign Grace church-planting process, click here.

Today, pro-choice sports columnist Sally Jenkins wrote that we need more Tim Tebows. Her column in The Washington Post titled “Tebow’s Super Bowl ad isn’t intolerant; its critics are” (2/2/10) has left me stunned and grateful.

Where did this come from? I can only imagine this is the fruit of the gospel displayed in the life of Tim Tebow. Tebow is humble. He is a model of self-sacrifice for the good of others. And he is committed to remain a virgin and to experience the gift of sex as God intends in the context of marriage. His testimony does not go unnoticed, even by a columnist who “couldn't disagree with Tebow more” on abortion.

You can find Jenkins’ column here.

Conflicts are to be expected in marriage. But why do they happen in even the most mature marriages?

At a recent monthly gathering with the Pastors College students and their wives, C.J. abbreviated his sermon on James 4:1–3 and shared a recent example of how the passage protected his marriage from conflict during a date night.

Listen to C.J.’s 7-minute message here:


Cravings, Conflict, and Marriage
C.J. Mahaney
Dec. 4, 2009
7 minutes
Download here (7.9 MB)

Welcome back to the conclusion of my interview with Carl Trueman, Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Read part one of the interview here.

Carl, what single piece of counsel (or constructive criticism) has most improved your preaching?

From my wife, my most faithful supporter and most astute critic: be aware that when you preach, there are children in the congregation and I must neither make them stumble nor preach over their heads. I think particularly of a time when I preached on 1 Corinthians 1 and referred to the church in Corinth as probably containing the first century equivalent of “pole dancers.” My wife rebuked me afterwards for using a term which could have provoked embarrassing conversations for parents over a Lord’s Day family lunch. Point taken. Never done it again. Other times I have used pretentiously technical vocabulary which kids (and some congregants) would not understand. At such times, I did not preach Christ, I preached Trueman and how clever he is. I now try never to do this, and confess it when I think I may have slipped. As a professor, this is always a temptation, so now I assist my wife in teaching the 4 year olds in Sunday School. That has helped me—and humbled me—more than anything with regard to how I communicate in the pulpit.

What books on preaching, or examples of it, have you found most influential in your own preaching?

Examples: the godly pastors I have been blessed to sit under. Iver Martin (now in Stornoway Free Church of Scotland) and John Currie (who now works at Westminster but who was my pastor in Philadelphia for 6 years).

Books: Peter Taylor Forsyth, Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind. Simply the best book on the theological practice of preaching ever written.

What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your effective use of time?

Two things. One is not a piece of counsel but a perk of my job as Academic Dean. I have a delightful lady who works as my assistant and looks after my schedule for me. That has helped. I am an organizational retard, as she, and her longsuffering predecessor, will confirm.

The second was the insight that, if you wait for an extended period of time to get a project done, it never comes along. Make constant use of the fragments of time you get on a regular basis. Use that fifteen minutes before a meeting to read or to write a paragraph. Use your time driving to work to think through the passage you are going to preach on at the weekend. Use the little bits of time and you find they really add up to something more substantial. To quote Bruce Springsteen: “You spend your life waiting for a moment that just don’t come; don’t waste your time waiting.”

What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your leadership?

Again, I have to plead to be allowed to break the rule and list four things.

(a) Pick your battles. Not every hill is worth dying on; and not every battle is something you are competent to fight. As a younger man, I wanted to fight all comers and win every battle. Neither necessary nor possible.

(b) Be part of a team who care for you and whom you trust to tell you when you are going the wrong way or crossing a line that should not be crossed—and listen to them. Yes-men are fatal to good leadership. A trustworthy colleague who is prepared to oppose you to your face is worth his weight in gold.

(c) Understand that leadership is lonely; being liked by everyone is a luxury you probably cannot afford. Deal with it and get on with the job. If you want to be liked, be a circus clown; if you want to lead and lead well, be prepared for the loneliness that comes with it. This is why, for me, a happy home has been crucial for it has been a place where work is, as far as possible, kept far away. Home is the one place I can go each night and know that I am loved, and I guard it fiercely. I have even banned my kids from Googling my name—if there is nasty stuff out there about me, I deal with it at work; I do not allow it into my house.

(d) Don’t waste time defending your own name for the sake of it. If Christ’s honour is at stake, or the innocent are made vulnerable by some attack on your character, you need to respond; otherwise, let it be. If I responded to every wannabe crank who thinks I’m arrogant, hypocritical, lying etc. etc., I’d never have the time to do anything else. The secret is not caring about your own name except as it impacts upon others.

Where in ministry are you most regularly tempted to discouragement?

Have I failed as a husband and a dad? Have I preached the whole counsel of God? Why do I still struggle with the same sins with which I fought on the day I first believed? Do I really care enough for the people in my church? Is my teaching leading people to Christ or away from him? Am I driven solely by a desire to raise my own profile? These kind of questions periodically strike me down.

Do you exercise? If so, what do you do? If not, why not? (Please be specific.)

Fanatically. I spin, cycle, and especially I run distances. I’m a consistent sub-4 hour marathoner (but only on Saturday races—I am a Presbyterian, after all!), and hope this year to run a 50k ultramarathon with a friend who is a Presbyterian pastor in Colorado.

Currently, what sport do you like to play and/or watch?

I run. I love to watch rugby. Every summer, I spend three weeks watching the Tour de France on television (even had to switch my cable provider this year when the Tour switched channels!). Above all, I like to watch my sons compete in their sports, particularly middle distance running.

What do you do for leisure?

I run. I read, especially history and pulp detective fiction. I enjoy a good glass of brandy with close friends and conversation. I like to spend time with my wife and boys as I can.

If you were not in ministry, what occupational path would you have chosen?

Tough one: I like to write, so journalism would have been a desirable path; but I also like to argue, so maybe a trial lawyer. If I had enough money to just do whatever I wanted, I think I would want to work as part of a Tour de France team, a park ranger in the mountains somewhere far away, or the owner of a traditional English public house, with open fire, horse brasses, fine ale, and a dart board. I could just stand behind the bar, pulling pints, and complaining, in good English fashion, about the weather, the cricket, and the fact that nothing tastes quite as good as it did when I was young.

Carl, reading your final answer and these alternatives makes me freshly grateful for the call of God on your life, that you are called to serve the academy, the church, and the next generation with the gospel.

If you haven’t met Carl Trueman you are in for a ride that will take us, well, nobody knows. All we can be certain of is that Bruce Springsteen will likely appear at some point.

Dr. Trueman’s official title is Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He describes himself as a British round peg jammed into an American square hole.

He has written, contributed to, or edited a library of books. He is also the author of many “critical writings” and “unpopular essays” that appear online and have been published in two books: The Wages of Spin: Critical Writings on Historic and Contemporary Evangelicalism (2005) and Minority Report: Unpopular Essays on Everything from Ancient Christianity to Zen Calvinism (2007).

You can keep up with his most recent essays at the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals website here.

In his essays Carl teaches lessons from history and pokes a bit at the evangelical church’s fondness for therapeutic leanings, entertainment, celebrity culture, and flippancy. And he stabs away with one index finger tap at a time. Carl writes:

I take some perverse pride in the fact that I can only type with one finger on each hand, romantically seeing this lack of polish as making me the modern equivalent of the 1930s hack journalist, cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth, glass of bourbon on the bedside table, hammering out copy on an old typewriter in a dingy motel room.

That’s Carl. And with quotes like this we can be certain that 200 years from now there will be a Carl Trueman Society where enthusiasts gather to exchange favorite lines and lament that they could not meet the man in person. This interview is for them.

Meet Carl Trueman.

Carl, thanks for your time. Please describe your morning devotions. What time do you wake up in the morning? How much time do you spend reading, meditating, praying, etc.? What are you presently reading?

My children have to be at school by 7:30, so I rise at about 6:15 to 6:30. I usually wait until I arrive at work, ca. 8 a.m., to have devotions. Westminster offices do not open till 8:30 so this gives me a half hour of peace and quiet. I typically read four chapters of the Bible. I read continually from Genesis to 2 Chronicles; from Ezra to Malachi (excluding the Psalms); from Matthew to Acts; and from Romans to Revelation; I finish with a Psalm or two, reading continually through the Psalter. At this precise moment, I am in Numbers, Job, John, and 1 Corinthians, with the daily Psalm being 143. Prayer then involves adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. The simple ACTS pattern that I learned at college.

What book(s) are you currently reading in these three categories: (a) for your soul, (b) for pastoral ministry, or (c) for personal enjoyment?

(a) I have recently reread Pilgrim’s Progress. A brilliant, deceptively simple masterpiece whose characters never cease to amuse and provoke. I’m also about to start Tom Schreiner’s Magnifying God in Christ: A Summary of New Testament Theology, just released by Baker.

(b) Pastoral Theology in the Classical Tradition by Andrew Purves. A student recommended this book to me after a class I gave on the pastoral manuals written by John Chrysostom and Gregory the Great. It is a study of these men, plus Gregory Nazianzus, Martin Bucer, and Richard Baxter, as they reflected on the task of being a pastor. Much that they have to say (for example, how to handle criticism) is of perennial relevance; and they also focus on what is of lasting significance in the ministerial task, not the kind of managerial/consumerist impulses which drive much pastoral theory today.

(c) Ian Ker’s biography of John Henry Newman, Fergus Kerr’s Twentieth-Century Catholic Theologians and Ruth Rendell’s Portobello (I’m a sucker for hard-boiled and psychological crime fiction—anything by Raymond Chandler, Ian Rankin or Ruth Rendell).

Apart from Scripture, what book do you most frequently re-read and why?

This is easier to answer in terms of authors: I constantly dip into Martin Luther’s writings; I appreciate James Packer’s books; I enjoy John Henry Newman’s writings, especially his sermons; and I find the great creeds and catechisms of the church to be a great source of delight—they keep my faith simple, focused on the essentials, and in touch with the church throughout the ages.

When you finish a book, what system have you developed in order to remember and reference that book in the future?

Generally, I read with a pencil in hand and underline key passages. Never a pen, mind you—that would be too permanent and spoil it for whoever owns the book next. I also carry a moleskine notebook with me to make any extended notes on a given book, and, indeed, on any conversation or thing I see or hear that may be useful. I chose moleskine because I gather that Ernest Hemingway used them. A vain indulgence, I’m afraid. I also keep a daily journal where, if a book is particularly important or insightful, I will make note.

If you could study under any theologian in church history (excluding those men in Scripture), who would it be and why?

Yikes. That is a tough question. Luther would be an obvious choice because of his passion for the gospel and his sense of humour; Thomas Aquinas was no doubt a great teacher, though, as a Protestant, I would clearly have issues with him on key points; and Gregory Nazianzus would have been a remarkable figure to work under, especially on the issue of connecting the doctrine of God to worship. But, on balance, I think I’d have to opt for John Owen: massive learning, keen theological insight, passionate churchman, and fine preacher.

To be continued in part 2...

Gaithersburg, MD—The strength of Sovereign Grace is hitched to the strength of the local churches. And the strength of the local churches is hitched to the health of its preaching.
 
That was the gist of the opening exhortation from Pastors College dean Jeff Purswell as he opened our first Expository Preaching Practicum last week (Jan 12–14). The Sovereign Grace Pastors College hosted the practicum, a modestly sized three-day preaching lab with 22 senior pastors invited from various regions including the suburbs of Phoenix, north Philadelphia, California, and Wales. The men gathered to sharpen their preaching skills through instruction, preaching, evaluation, and discussion.
 
Jeff Purswell led the practicum. He opened the week with these words:

I have an intense excitement about this week. We [Sovereign Grace] participate in a lot of conferences, but this is just a small gathering of a few of us, and hardly anyone knows about this. But the potential effects of this week will be vastly disproportionate to its visibility. I'm not sure that we can do much that is more strategic… Why are we doing this? As preaching goes in your church, so goes your church. If preaching declines, your church will decline. And more broadly the same is true. If preaching declines in the churches of Sovereign Grace, Sovereign Grace will decline.

After the brief exhortation the work of preaching and evaluation began. Ten of the men were prepared to preach a sermon before the group. After each sermon was delivered, the other 21 men completed detailed sermon evaluation forms covering everything from faithfulness to the text, the use of illustrations and application, clarity of organization, and strength of delivery.
 
Jeff then led a 90-minute period of discussion and instruction for each sermon. The group discussed the sermon’s strengths first, then its weaknesses. At C.J. Mahaney’s request, Jeff offered sermon structure alternatives and instruction on various aspects of preaching and Bible interpretation. C.J. added comments on the sermon and on pastoral leadership in general.

In attendance for the practicum was Eric Turbedsky, senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Orange County (Pastors College class of 2001). Eric was one of the ten fortunate men selected to preach. When asked if he was nervous to preach before the dean, a sage who can spot exegetical bloopers like a hawk spots field mice, he said, “Are you kidding me? I was terrified. I want to know who drafted me to preach! But seriously, who is going to complain about Jeff, C.J., and 20 guys who preach regularly, devoting concentrated time to encouraging you in your strengths and to offer hope for your weaknesses? It was clear from the very outset of the week that everyone in the room was for me…and about half of them were feeling the pain, too. I left way more aware of the grace available to preach and the joy of partnering with a hawk like Jeff.”

Although hosted in a classroom, the format was anything but merely academic. “The type of learning that occurred is something that could never be gleaned from a book or a lecture context,” Jeff said. “It was both stimulating and encouraging to hear such a wide range of types of preachers with different styles and different gifts, all effective in their own ways. It is encouraging for a guy to know that he can preach within the framework of the unique character and gifting that God has given him. And just by watching the diverse preaching styles and strengths it was suggestive and instructional for guys.”

Ian McConnell, who serves as pastor for preaching and vision at Grace Bible Church in north Philadelphia, was surprised by the format. “I was surprised that although it was in an academic environment, it was so much more than that,” he said. “It turned out to be an environment where God’s Spirit met with us through the preached Word and ministered grace to our lives in some very dynamic and discernable ways. I heard nine exceptional messages that filled my heart with greater faith and deepened affections for the Savior! I was not only challenged to preach better, I was challenged to live my life in deeper conformity to the Word of God for the glory of God.”

To Jeff, the most unexpected fruit of the week was watching relationships nurture. “Unlike a conference when you catch up with friends between sessions, the practicum enabled guys to build relationships as they worked together,” he said. “The week was intense. These men put themselves on the line by preaching and by receiving evaluation from other men. They were engaged together, working together on text after text, getting their hands dirty together. This relationship building during the week was of a different kind than I’ve experienced before in a typical conference setting.”

Collectively the week was a great success according to C.J. “This practicum was eight years in the making,” he said, “and it was a peculiar joy to see this dream come to fruition. I sat in the classroom listening to the sermons and the valuable feedback and imagined the thousands of sermons these men will preach in the future and how those sermons—and my sermons!—will be affected and improved by our investment this week. In seeking to strengthen the local church, our week could not have been more strategic or significant for the health of the local churches represented.”

The Pastors College plans to host future practicums with the goal of hosting all the Sovereign Grace senior pastors and later hosting all the pastors.

When asked what he would say to pastors who will experience the practicum in the future, Ian said, “The week was a very helpful time of receiving evaluation and instruction for my preaching. And it was a wonderful means of fellowship, encouragement, and God-magnifying joy! I expected the week to be great—and it was. I left thinking to myself, ‘I needed this—big time.’ I think you will leave saying the same thing.”

The next set of senior pastors will soon receive invitations to practicum #2, which is tentatively scheduled for June.

In the olden days of Sovereign Grace, a funny phrase would occasionally pop up in our sermons. Do you remember this?

“Don’t hear what I’m not saying.”

The double negatives were so puzzling that it almost passed for profundity. But it was really just a way to appeal for careful listening. Careful listening was vital when confusing young preachers like us were learning our craft—but I’m getting off-message here.

I resurrect the phrase now as we return to the Great Commission and discuss the delicate topic of “apostolic ministry.”

The Apostolic Mission

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. (Matthew 28:16)

The target group of the Great Commission is the eleven disciples. As we discovered in a recent post, they received it as representatives of the church throughout the ages. Yes, you and I were represented in the audience at the premier of the Great Commission. But the disciples also received it as apostles who would actually carry the gospel to the world.

There’s that word again, apostles. Let’s go to a wide-angle lens and take in the big picture.

Jesus gave the commission to ordinary men—men who would receive a unique commissioning as Apostles by the risen Christ. Joined by Paul of Tarsus, they would be the essential human agents in the proclamation of the gospel and the establishment of the church after the ascension of Christ. These men would play a unique and unrepeatable role in redemptive history. There are no contemporary reproductions of these men and their role. They are long gone.

Yet the mission they undertook remains. So the question: did “apostolic ministry” cease with the passing of the first apostles?

If we’re talking about the writers of the Scriptures, yes. Apostles of that brand are done, gone, they’ve left the building. However, this does not mean that they were the last men God would call and grace to extend the mission of the gospel through church planting. Such men are still around and quite essential. Here’s the thing: the continuity between the original recipients of the Great Commission and the present practitioners who extend it on behalf of the church is not one of office, authority, or anointing. It is function. As Jeff Purswell, the other guy (the smart one) sharing C.J.’s blog, says, “The function of first century apostles finds its ongoing expression in the efforts of those called and gifted to lead the church into missions.”

Mobilized for Mission

This “apostolic function” persists primarily to help the church reach the world with the gospel. This requires leaders whom the church sends to break new ground or explore new mission opportunities. Their function can be rooted in the Great Commission, but we can readily see a pattern for their labors in the missionary strategy of the Apostle Paul. “And thus I make it my ambition,” he said, “to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named” (Romans 15:20). Elsewhere Paul states to the Corinthians his impassioned gospel-goal: “to preach the gospel in lands beyond you” (2 Corinthians 10:16).

The take-home point? The function fulfilled by men following in Paul’s (and Timothy’s, and Silas’s, and Epaphras’s, etc.) footsteps is primarily missiological, not ecclesiological. The accent rests on gospel mission, not church maintenance. And the specific expression of that mission is church planting. “[Paul’s] more functional understanding of apostleship,” says Gordon Fee, “would certainly have its modern counterparts in those who found and lead churches in unevangelized areas.”*

The Apostolic Aim: Mobilizing Everyone???

Make no mistake: the church is sent to the lost. No one is exempt from this responsibility. But God doesn’t send everyone in the same way. God sends most locally (reaching their community with the gospel) and a few globally. I think that is why we don’t find Paul just moving through New Testament churches recruiting missionaries. Nor do we see the Great Commission applied in the New Testament in a way that mobilizes all believers to go to the uttermost parts of the world.

Here’s a summary: The Great Commission is entrusted to the church. But the church is called to identify, send, and support those graced specifically to extend the apostolic mission. Such men are called and gifted by God to provide leadership for mission and to orchestrate the planting of churches. Just because a man is a great pastor, or a great preacher, or a great evangelist, or a great leader doesn’t mean he is called to this apostolic function. But if a man can theologize, strategize, mobilize, and organize with a view to where the gospel hasn’t gone, then maybe we need to set him apart to do just that.

Why? Because mission activities are closest to the pattern in Scripture when they flow out of this Great Commission strategy: missions flowing from the church and stewarded by gifted, theologically informed church leadership.

The Apostolic Mission: Don’t Hear What I’m Not Saying

Does this mean that the activity in foreign fields that is not defined this way is not legitimate? (How about that for some double negatives!) Not at all…don’t hear what I’m not saying! There are certain areas of expertise—medicine, translation, business, disaster relief, etc.—that make a vital contribution to the mission field. It’s not like every time a medical team is formed we think someone with apostolic-type gifts should be on the team—actually, most folks would rather just have a doctor. And by the way, just because Hudson Taylor, David Brainerd or John Paton didn’t think in terms of apostolic function doesn’t mean that they weren’t doing it. We can recognize right out of the gate that they had more apostolic game than anything we are bringing to the court!

But here is the challenge: It would seem like the church’s mission ministry could function more scripturally, and therefore more strategically, if it were married to a biblical vision for this apostolic function.

May God give us men gifted for this function so we can go further into the fields!

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Dave Harvey leads international expansion and church planting for Sovereign Grace Ministries and is based in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. For more information about the Sovereign Grace church-planting process, click here.

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*Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Eerdmans, 1987), 397.

Before we conclude this series featuring Ken Sande, I want to highlight two other resources for pastors he has written on two often-neglected topics: approachability and accountability. Let me explain why they are important.

Approachability

To be wise is to be “open to reason” (James 3:17). And one way a wise pastor cultivates others’ trust is by proving himself to be approachable. “An approachable leader makes people feel safe,” Sande writes; “they know they are welcome to come to you with questions, concerns, or even criticism.” So am I approachable? Well, if the evaluation of myself is left to myself, my answer will typically be a flattering one. In order to assess myself accurately, I must humbly invite others to give me their observations and perspective.

Ken has made it easy for us in his paper Approachability: The Passport to Real Ministry and Leadership. This document has been a valuable tool for me personally. I recently gave the document to ten different people who work with me and eagerly asked for their evaluation. I assumed they would all agree with my private appraisal of myself—that I am approachable.

But I was wrong.

Accountability

Assuming that a pastor is receiving helpful observations and correction from those who care for him, how does he respond to unfriendly criticism? And how does his pastoral team respond?

Pastors must be approachable, but they must also be accountable to their eldership or pastoral team. This is why I find Ken’s corresponding document so helpful: Accountability: The Mark of a Wise and Protected Leader.

Ken writes that churches can under-protect their leaders by “allowing gossip and rumors to spread unchecked, jumping to conclusions about a leader’s guilt, or failing to give him a meaningful opportunity to defend himself.” On the other hand, churches can wrongly over-protect their leaders. “They develop a self-confidence and blind loyalty that compels them to become defensive and automatically ‘circle the wagons’ when a leader is questioned or accused of wrongdoing.” Both approaches are wrong.

Approachability and accountability are two important topics that rarely occupy the pastor’s attention. If we neglect them, we do so to our personal detriment. Growing in approachability and accountability will not only make your ministry more effective, but will also change your heart and your life. Pastors, you will benefit greatly from the time you invest in studying and applying Ken’s theologically informed counsel on these topics.

‘Tis the season for New Year’s resolutions—for examination, for new beginnings, for fresh resolve, for (at least momentarily) facing things we’re dissatisfied with and want changed. Ah, that’s it, isn’t it? So much of what captures our culture’s collective imagination at the annual turning of the calendar is the hope of change. Few things animate our imaginations like the prospects of a better future.

There is surely a biblical warrant for such impulses. Following Christ involves a constant process of self examination, of “putting off the old self” and “putting on the new self.” And obedience to the imperatives of Scripture inherently involves a Spirit-born resolve. Much of Paul’s prayer life was apparently taken up with requests that God “fulfill every resolve for good” in the lives of those he served (2 Thessalonians 1:11).

As I reflected upon the new year and my own hopes for change, my annual exercise was interrupted by a stark reminder of the difference between myself and God: I change, but God does not. “All flesh is grass,” Isaiah proclaimed, barely sprouting up before it withers and dies, but “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6). Regardless of my resolutions for the new year, it is only “the purpose of the LORD that will stand” (Proverbs 19:21). I have no idea what tomorrow holds, but “the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:6-8).

For a pastor all too aware of his own sin and deficiencies (though surely underestimating the extent of both), this news was beyond good—it was transforming, and it was bracing. I then emerged from my study and entered the classroom to teach homiletics to a group of future pastors; I did so with a treasured conviction newly strengthened.

Let me ask a question I asked those men concerning the preaching of God’s Word: “What do you believe about how God works in his church and in the world?” Not, mind you, “What do you believe about Scripture’s truthfulness, or sufficiency, or inerrancy…?”—all important attributes of Scripture which it certainly claims for itself. But one can produce orthodox formulations of all of these and still lack confidence in the power of God’s Word to convert hearts, to change lives, and to build the church.

So at the outset of this new year, here’s an invitation to pastors charged with preaching and teaching God’s Word. We may be in the process of evaluating our ministries, identifying areas that need change, seeking to learn and change and grow, and so we should. But let there be one area—one cluster of convictions—that does not change. Let’s not waver in our conviction that God brings about his sovereign purposes through his Word. As in creation and throughout salvation-history, so it is now in the church and in the world: God’s Word is uniquely his creating, preserving, governing, saving, and sanctifying instrument—as Calvin put it, it is his scepter by which he rules creation and his people.

Let’s not waver in our conviction that the preached Word is living and active. It’s not merely information to interest the mind or spiritual principles to apply to life: God’s Word personally addresses us, illuminating eyes and eliciting faith and transforming hearts, affections, and perspectives.

Let’s not waver in our conviction that the pastor’s peculiar call is to bring God’s Word to bear upon his people. Amidst all the responsibilities and duties that clamor for the pastor’s attention, none transcends the call to teach God’s Word. If you are a pastor, your governing priority, whatever your specific responsibilities are, is an unflagging, ever-strengthening, ever-growing devotion to the teaching of God’s Word, be it in the pulpit, the Bible class, the training seminar, or the counseling room.

There’s much I’d love to see change in my life this year. However, my primary resolve at the outset of 2010 is to bind myself to the unchanging—to the immutable purposes of our God whose has pledged his power to his unfailing Word.

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Jeff Purswell serves as the Dean of the Sovereign Grace Pastors College and a pastor at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD.