C.J. Mahaney's view from the cheap seats & other stuff

ESV Study Bible Giveaway Winners

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:45:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone who submitted a note of appreciation and entered the ESV Study Bible giveaway. The giveaway generated 200 entries, and this stack of entries represents a bunch of fruitful churches, faithful pastors, and grateful members like you. C.J. selected the winners, choosing four entries to read and randomly selecting another seven winners. To see if you’re one of the winners, watch this 8-minute video:

ESV Study Bible Giveaway from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

Each winner will be notified via email.

Thanks again for entering the giveaway!

Posted by Tony Reinke

Preaching vs. Worship?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:39:00 GMT

I am no musician. I play no part in a choir or a musical team. I do love words, and as a sidebar to my job I get to participate in editing worship song lyrics. But there you reach the limits of my musical gifting.

Even so, my friend Bob Kauflin recently invited me to speak at the WorshipGod09 conference and to address an audience populated by faithful servants engaged in leading worship, singing, and serving musically in diverse ways. These are gifted people and we benefit from their example, leadership, and service each Sunday in our local churches.

But as much as I appreciate what they do, I told them the following: What you do each Sunday is important, but it’s not most important.

Musical worship is inspiring, informative, and a wonderful privilege, but there is nothing more central to Christian worship than the preaching of God’s Word. Notice I did not say preaching is a great and necessary follow-up to worship, or that preaching is an optional extra in worship. Preaching is central to worship each Sunday.

Let me illustrate this point through a few great worship services in your Bible.

Think of Mount Sinai where God rescues and gathers his people specifically. He says, “Let my people go so that they may worship me.” So in that gathering to worship, what is the climax? It is the giving of the Law.

A few books later, in Deuteronomy, the people are gathered beside the Jordan. Their wanderings are finally at an end. They are on the cusp of the Promised Land, and Moses renews the covenant with the next generation. What is at the heart, what is the substance of this gathering? It is the reiteration of the Law of Moses, and we read page after page of preaching, explanation, application, and exposition.

When Joshua brings the people finally into the land, he gathers them together (Joshua 8). What was the climax of that gathering? Was it the singing? No. He read the Law to the “assembly.” (The Hebrew term is regularly translated in the Greek as “church”—the church is the assembly, the gathering of the people of God.) Joshua read the Law to the gathered assembly. And he read it all: “there was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them” (Joshua 8:35). Let’s not miss a thing. Let’s not miss a word. Let’s not miss a stroke.

After the return from exile, Nehemiah gathers the people into a great assembly. What do they do? Ezra reads the Law and then explains it—he exposits it to give the sense of message.

And we could go on through the Bible…

Throughout salvation history, all the way into the new covenant, God’s Word is at the center of worship. The early church devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and every church was nourished on God’s Word, all the way down to the last chapter of the last book that Paul wrote, where he tells Timothy to preach the Word “in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2).

Why? Why so much preaching? Why all this talking? Because the primary way we encounter God in worship is through the preaching of the Word of God.

Think about it this way. Normally, in what we call “worship,” we spend significant time—perhaps the whole time—addressing God, singing to him, praising him, extolling him, praying to him. Wonderful! But in preaching we are no longer addressing God; he is addressing us. Nothing is more important than this moment. And this is why the most important worship leader in your church is your pastor.

That really gets to the heart of preaching. The Bible is not simply a book that we talk about. When God’s Word is faithfully preached, God is addressing us. God is speaking. We hear not merely a man’s voice. We hear the voice of God.

And when God addresses us, what is the appropriate response? We respond with glad and reverent hearts, with voices that proclaim his praise, and with lives that increasingly reflect his character.

God addresses us with a saving Word. We respond to him with faith, praise, and obedience. That is the rhythm of worship.

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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.

Posted by Jeff Purswell

Christian Hip Hop [interview]

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:33:00 GMT

My friend Mark Dever recently sat down with two musically gifted, and theologically informed, hip hop artists—shai linne and Curtis Allen (aka Voice). I am a fan of both of shai and Curtis.

Curtis graduated from the Sovereign Grace Pastors College, served as a pastoral intern at Covenant Life Church, and currently pastors at Solid Rock Church. Curt’s albums include The Crucible, Progression, and a Theist.

shai linne is an artist out of Philadelphia, where he serves as a lay leader in his local church, Epiphany Fellowship. There he leads the prayer ministry, writes worship songs, leads a monthly outreach, teaches a men’s group, and occasionally preaches. shai’s albums include Storiez, The Atonement, and The Solus Christus Project.

In the recent interview, Curtis and shai talk about their personal testimonies and a diversity of topics related to music. You can download and listen to the 72-minute interview here: “Christian Rap with Shai Linne and Voice” (10/01/09).

Posted by C.J. Mahaney

ESV Study Bible Giveaway

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:35:00 GMT

The Cheap Seats blog recently got ten copies of the ESV Study Bible (retail $75) to give away.

If you haven’t seen it before, the ESVSB has wonderful study aids for young and mature Christians alike: book overviews and outlines, detailed illustrations, 50 articles, 20,000 study notes, and about 80,000 cross-references. It’s something we’d recommend for every Christian hoping to understand their Bible more, so it’s exciting to have a few to share with our readers. As C.J. wrote in his endorsement, “I can’t imagine a greater gift to the body of Christ than the ESV Study Bible. It is a potent combination indeed: the reliability and readability of the ESV translation, supplemented by the best of modern and faithful scholarship.”

Since the Study Bible was created to serve the church, this giveaway is built around highlighting God’s grace in your particular local church. We want to hear from you about what God is doing. To enter the drawing, just write a note describing what you most appreciate about your pastor or your local church.

Email this note to us and—voilà—you are entered in the drawing.

RULES—

• The deadline for submission is 11pm on Wednesday night, November 4.

• Entries must be at least three sentences but no longer than a page.

• Include your first name, last initial, hometown, and the name of your church.

• Please submit one entry per person.

• Email those entries to blog AT sovgracemin DOT org with the subject line: ESVSB entry.

OTHER FINE PRINT—

• We’ll only ship the Bibles to addresses in the United States or Canada.

• If we like your entry a lot, we might post it (or part of it) online.

• Winners will be selected at random and announced on the blog on Friday (Nov. 6).

• We’ll appreciate it if you reference a Bible verse to frame your entry, but it’s not necessary and won’t affect your odds of winning.

• Winners will choose between these seven editions:

TruTone Classic Black

TruTone Natural Brown

TruTone Mahogany, Trellis Design

TruTone Brown/Cordovan, Portfolio Design

TruTone Forest/Tan, Trail Design

Bonded Leather, Black

Bonded Leather, Burgundy

Thanks for participating in the ESV Study Bible giveaway!

Posted by Tony Reinke

Why Plant Churches? (1)

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:41:00 GMT

Today’s topic is “why plant churches?” I’m going to answer this question in two posts, or maybe three. Or maybe 40.

In my first post, I mentioned that church planting is part of our DNA. That’s worth explaining because it goes to our history. I’m going to get to the more important reasons from Scripture in my next post, but let me first tell you a brief version of our story.

Way back in the 1970’s, before rock was classic and when disco still had shreds of respectability, there was a teaching ministry in the Washington, DC, area called Take and Give (TAG). For several years, TAG’s weekly meetings attracted up to 2,000 people, most of them young and eager for genuine encounters with Christ. C.J. Mahaney was one of the primary teachers.

I’ve heard C.J. say that season was the closest he’s ever come to experiencing authentic revival. Hundreds upon hundreds of young people were powerfully converted to Christ. But as TAG’s attendance grew, there was a concern among some in leadership about the limitations of regularly gathering people for teaching in a non-church context.

The Lord was blessing the teaching meetings, but a mere teaching meeting seemed insufficient. People needed care, training, and meaningful relationships in a loving but accountable context. They needed pastors who would teach them and care for their souls. This cast them back upon Scripture. Through study, the TAG leadership began to see that their approach to teaching and caring for Christians lacked a biblical context. They began to gain a burden and a vision for the local church.

So imagine this scene. One evening, at the height of TAG popularity, the TAG leaders stun the large crowd by announcing that the Tuesday night meetings are ending. I wasn’t there, but I’m told it was quite the evening. Why would these men possibly tamper with that kind of success?

It’s simple. A conviction had reached critical mass. The TAG leaders were convinced that God’s appointed means of caring for his people was the local church, not simply a teaching meeting. Soon thereafter, Covenant Life Church was born. And soon a passion for church planting developed.

Our church in Philadelphia was a first fruit of that passion. A small group of families and singles relocated to the Philadelphia area in 1984 for the express purpose of starting a church. As we became established, the vision for church planting was internalized through study and a growing awareness of how God had blessed us through the sacrifices of our sending church. Covenant Fellowship has since planted other churches (ten, to date!) and helped train many other leaders for church plants. And, now, some of those churches are themselves beginning to explore and enjoy the adventure of church planting! Similar patterns have emerged elsewhere within the Sovereign Grace family too.

Early in our journey, it became apparent that our churches needed a stronger link than name and common doctrine. A leadership team was formed to help establish strategies for future missions direction. Sovereign Grace Ministries—then called People of Destiny International and later PDI—was formed. The result has been slow, intentional growth from a single church to, as of this writing, more than 85 churches…including eight being started right now. We also work in 22 nations worldwide by helping leaders catch a biblical vision for planting gospel-centered churches. By God’s grace, these churches are joined by a commitment to the gospel and a passion for the local church and missions, which itself spills over from our love for the gospel and the application of God’s Word.

Sovereign Grace owes its existence to the grace of God through church planting. That’s why it’s in our blood. But more importantly, it’s in our Bible.

Join me next time to examine why Scripture compels us to plant churches.

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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.

Posted by Dave Harvey

New Book: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:19:00 GMT

A compilation book of the messages delivered at the 2008 Together for the Gospel conference is now available. Titled Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009), the new book is authored by Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, Albert Mohler, and C.J., with contributions by Thabiti Anyabwile, John MacArthur, John Piper, and R.C. Sproul and one additional piece by Greg Gilbert.

What follows is a glimpse at the contents, a link to each original conference message audio recording, and a brief comment on each message/chapter taken from Dever’s introduction to the new book.

Chapter 1: Sound Doctrine: Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry (Duncan). Message audio. Dever: “Ligon Duncan begins this volume as he began that conference. He entered the lists asserting that systematic theology is a worthwhile task. Indeed, in days when the narrative form of biblical theology is attracting great (and deserved) attention, it is too often being pitted against systematic theology. Ligon defends the usefulness and necessity of systematic theology with clarity and vigor. A pastor must remember the truths in this chapter or risk losing the gospel itself” (pp. 12–13).

Chapter 2: Bearing the Image (Anyabwile). Message audio. Dever: “In his address at Together for the Gospel, Thabiti challenged us to recognize that the category of ‘race’ is irredeemable. It brings far more confusion than light, more contention than understanding, more prejudice than impartial judgment. As you turn to that chapter—perhaps the most explosive of the conference—open your mind and get ready to think” (p. 13).

Chapter 3: The Sinner Neither Willing nor Able (MacArthur). Message audio. Dever: “John MacArthur delivered a message on human depravity that was a model of clear thinking. In it, John masterfully assembled the witness of Scripture (in the very way Ligon had encouraged us the previous day) on this vital topic. John showed that a mistake here is a mistake in the foundation of understanding the nature of our problem. He laid out challenges currently facing this doctrine and concluded by calling us to be faithful to this aspect of the message, no matter how hard we may find such faithfulness” (p. 13).

Chapter 4: Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology (or) Questioning Five Common Deceits (Dever). Message audio. Dever: “The next message was mine. I had been mulling over for some time the confusion about the content of the gospel. The message came together as I reviewed notes I had made some months earlier about various issues that needed ‘addressing.’ I began to notice that each one evidenced a distortion of the gospel. With encouragement from my T4G brothers—and the Capitol Hill Baptist congregation—I worked and reworked the material until I felt I got close to saying what I wanted to say. I wanted to get evangelicals talking about what the gospel is exactly” (pp. 13–14).

Chapter 5: The Curse Motif of the Atonement (Sproul). Message audio. Dever: “R.C. Sproul brought to the conference what many felt was the most devotionally rich meditation on the sacrifice of Christ. And he did it by meditating upon the curse motif in the Old Testament! In his own inimitable conversational style, with wide learning and profound biblical understanding, R.C. took us on a tour of Old Testament practices, verbally painting scenes before our eyes. Again and again, as we stared into the depth of those practices, we began to see the cross of Christ more and more clearly until, well, let me simply encourage you to read what I heard many call ‘the best I've ever heard R.C.’ And, I promise—it's not R.C. you'll be glorifying when you're done” (p. 14).

Chapter 6: Why They Hate It So: The Denial of Substitutionary Atonement in Recent Theology (Mohler). Message audio. Dever: “This conference in many ways was birthed out of our concern that the atonement is being misconceived and mistaught in too many evangelical books and churches. It was Al who decided to wade into the sea of literature and explain to us what has happened. With a mastery of the literature that is both exceptional and yet typical of our well-read friend, he led us to see the lines of misunderstanding—of attack—that have been laid down against Christ's death being in the place of sinners. His conference message, now here in print, should serve as a guide to the literature and, even more fundamentally, to thinking carefully about the atoning work of Christ” (p. 14).

Chapter 7: How Does the Supremacy of Christ Create Radical Christian Sacrifice? A Meditation on the Book of Hebrews (Piper). Message audio. Dever: “The last day of the conference, John Piper brought the cross into our own lives and ministries. He posed the question, ‘How does the supremacy of Christ create radical Christian sacrifice?’ Looking through the last few chapters of Hebrews, John called for us to live radical lives so as to have radical ministries. He called us to be God's men. He called us to be certain that in such a ministry suffering will come” (p. 15).

Chapter 8: Sustaining the Pastor's Soul (Mahaney). Message audio. Dever: “The final message was once again given by the conference pastor C.J. Mahaney. C.J. preached a wonderful message titled ‘Sustaining the Pastor's Soul.’ He presented Paul as an example of one who suffered without complaint and served with obvious joy, regardless of the circumstances. And he called us to be ‘happy pastors,’ too. What was it he repeatedly said? ‘How striking that the one with the most responsibility was the one with the most joy.’….Even though this message appears as the book's last chapter, if you're a pastor and feeling particularly pressed, let me suggest that you begin there” (pp. 15–16).

Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology is a follow-up to the first volume, Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007), which developed out of the messages delivered at the 2006 T4G conference.

Posted by Tony Reinke

What Precisely Is the Gospel?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:04:00 GMT

I was having a wide-ranging conversation with a friend the other day when we wandered onto the topic of the gospel. I casually observed how frequently the word gospel was freighted with elements that belong more precisely to the realm of discipleship or ethics—e.g., what we do in response to the gospel, or how we live in light of the gospel.

My friend responded with puzzlement: “Aren’t those things part of the gospel? Didn’t Jesus say in the Great Commission, ‘teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you’?”

A lively and edifying conversation ensued in which we found ourselves largely in agreement, but also in which a crucial issue surfaced: what precisely is the gospel?

Perhaps it’s foolish to tackle such a question in a medium that militates against nuance and formulaic clarity. No doubt my comments will be parsed and found wanting by many who discern neglect of this or that biblical theme or emphasis—ah, well, such are the joys of blogging. It is, however, a question that lies at the very heart of our faith, and therefore at the heart of pastoral ministry.

So what does the New Testament present as the gospel?

A good place to begin is Mark’s gospel. At the outset of the book, the author immediately alerts us to the significance of what will follow: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). Syntactically, this heading flows directly into the remainder of the prologue (Isaiah’s prophecy, John the Baptist, and Jesus’s baptism/temptations)—indicating that these introductory events are the “beginning of the gospel,” while the balance of Mark’s narrative presents the rest of the gospel.

What’s the point? For Mark, the gospel is the story about Jesus—the good news of all that Jesus did in his life and ministry and death and resurrection.

We see a similar idea in the early preaching of the church. When Peter is summoned to Cornelius’s home and discovers that God is behind this miraculous chain of events, his presentation of the gospel (“proclaiming the good news of peace”—Acts 10:36b) is an outline of Jesus’s ministry, beginning with John the Baptist on through to his resurrection and commissioning of the apostles to proclaim forgiveness through his name (Acts 10:36-41; cf. 2:22-24; 3:13-15). As far back as C.H. Dodd, commentators have viewed this as a summary of apostolic preaching and noted its basic agreement with the structure of Mark’s gospel. Once again, the gospel is the news of what God was doing through Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection.

Paul uses the term gospel more than any other NT writer. Of course, one of the most familiar renditions of “gospel” in the NT is Paul’s summary statement in 1 Corinthians 15:1ff: “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you...For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…” Again, the gospel consists of what Jesus did to save us. Paul’s presentation is more narrow, focusing on the pinnacle of Christ’s work—his substitutionary death and resurrection—but that focus is also embedded into the very structures of the canonical gospels themselves, which reserve far more space for, and place the greatest emphasis on, the death and resurrection of Jesus.

So what is the gospel?

Although this brief survey is far from complete, it consistently reveals that the gospel is good news concerning Jesus and what he did to accomplish salvation for sinners.

In other words, the gospel is objective. It tells us what God has done to save his people. It consists of concrete, historical events, rooted in Old Testament promises, types, and institutions that were fulfilled in Jesus. It promises that all who trust in Christ and his work will receive forgiveness and life. Of course, this isn’t merely a catalogue of events of only historical interest; all of this has massive implications for our lives. But we must not confuse the gospel message itself with the outworking of those implications.

So, for example, although the gospel calls me to respond to what Jesus has done, strictly speaking it doesn’t include my response—repentance is not the gospel. Although the gospel introduces me to a life lived in glad obedience to God, strictly speaking it doesn’t include that life of obedience. Our existence as Christians involves unspeakable privileges, significant responsibilities, and untold promise. But those things themselves are not the gospel.

Why is all this important? It’s important because the very nature of the gospel is at stake—and there is no higher priority for the pastor than to guard the gospel from neglect, distortion, or redefinition (1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 1:14).

If the gospel message expands to include “discipleship in the kingdom,” then the objective nature of Christ’s work is minimized. When the gospel is redefined as a call to a social or political movement, Christ’s work is replaced with ours. When the gospel includes my response, then the ground of my assurance lies in me rather than in Christ. Indeed, anytime we shift the definition of the gospel from God’s objective accomplishment to our subjective appropriation, the rock-solid foundation of our faith is misplaced—and the glory of God in the gospel is obscured.

Of course, we can be clear on the gospel message and make other mistakes. We can neglect the entailments of the gospel (a life of self-denial and obedience to Christ). We can focus only on spiritual salvation to the exclusion of any concern for the material or physical well-being of others. We can so focus on a heavenly home that we neglect our responsibilities of loving others in a fallen world, and that our ultimate future lies in a “new heavens and new earth” that have been fully renewed by God’s power.

None of these mistakes, however, minimizes the importance of holding fast to the gospel of our salvation. For it is through the power of the gospel that we are transformed to live new lives by the power of the Spirit. It is through the gospel that we are freed from selfishness to give our lives in service of others. Sure, the scope of Christ’s redemption is the whole cosmos (Colossians 1:20), but at the center of his redemptive concern are rebellious image-bearers whom he is ransoming to be his children. But all of these entailments, implications, and promises are founded upon the rock-solid, unchanging accomplishment of God through the gospel of his Son. It is this message that is God’s power to save sinners, to comfort the grieving, to motivate the listless, to encourage the downhearted, to assure the guilt-stricken.

This message never changes; this message is always true; and so our hope is always secure.

And it precisely when those erstwhile rebels grasp God’s accomplishment in the gospel—the greatest display of “the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love”—that they will be “filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19) and marvel with wonder at the gospel’s display of God’s glorious grace.

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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.

Posted by Jeff Purswell

What’s Happening in Sovereign Grace

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:59:00 GMT

There are regularly more stories of God’s grace in Sovereign Grace churches than we have space to tell. It seems each month new ministry opportunities continue to develop around the United States and in various countries around the world. Recently C.J. recorded a video to provide a brief overview of a few of the latest developments and give a shout out to all those who make it possible. You can view the update from C.J in this eight-minute video:

A Debt of Gratitude from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo. HT: Citygate Films.

Note: This film forms one piece of our 2009 Mission Presentation. Two of this year’s films are available online. To view the other film (“Kingdom Life: Bahamas”), see this post from last week.

For more Mission Presentation films from this year (or previous years) click here.

Posted by Tony Reinke

Hi, My Name Is Dave

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:43:00 GMT

So my buddy C.J. says, “Why don’t you contribute to my ‘view from the cheap seats’ blog a couple of times a month?” This was a real honor, ’cause C.J. has been a dear friend and mentor for over two decades. Still I did wonder if I should hold out for a blog from better seats. Maybe the guy who blogs “from the box seats” or “from courtside” will extend an invitation. Probably not. I should probably just be grateful to blog from anywhere in the arena. I mean, if C.J. sees things from the cheap seats, then I’m outside in the parking lot—much further away, but delicious if you find the right tailgaters.

Really, my first thought was, what an honor to serve my dear friend by speaking to the people we both love and respect the most—pastors!

Okay, let’s move to introductions. I’m Dave Harvey. I’ve pastored in the same Sovereign Grace Ministries church for 23 years. But I’ve also worked in Sovereign Grace Ministries for a good part of that time, kinda on the side. This past October, I turned the senior pastor role over to a 28-year-old man named Jared Mellinger. I’m going to tell you all about that in upcoming blogs, but let’s press through this one first.

Because we love proclaiming the gospel, Sovereign Grace Ministries created a new role and asked me to fill it. We’re not big on titles around here so I’m the “person-responsible-for-church-planting, international-expansion-and-church-care-in-Sovereign-Grace.” People typically start yawning about halfway through my title, so I often grab attention by also throwing in “bomb disposal.”

I live in Philadelphia, home of the world champion Phillies and some pretty awesome cheesesteaks. If you don’t know what a cheesesteak is, then eating one someday should immediately go on your prayer list. Many young men feel called to plant churches in Philly after eating one.

But I digress.

The church in Philly where I am based (Covenant Fellowship Church) hosts the SGM Church Planting Group. You’re going to hear a lot more about them as I write, as well as how they partner with our regional leaders to plant healthy churches. But here’s a quick overview on the Church Planting Group. They are a team assisting Sovereign Grace pastors in the recruiting, assessing, training, and launching of church planters. It’s a wonderful job since we’re in the process of planting eight churches right now. One of them is being planted by a good friend of mine named Kenny Lynch, who was just sent from our home church last month.

I can’t believe I get to do this kind of stuff; it’s epic sweetness.

Sovereign Grace Ministries defines success partly by planting gospel-centered churches. It is so important to us that we dedicate an enormous amount of time, training, resources, and personnel to it. We’ve been doing it for 25 years…it’s in our DNA, our genes, our blood, it’s…well, you get the picture. But here’s the neat thing: It still feels like we are just getting started. There’s still so much to do, so much to learn. And then we’ve got to effectively transfer the whole thing to the next generation so that they can continue the mission in strength.

I hope this is important to you as well. But sheer enthusiasm is not enough. We need to understand from God’s Word why we as a ministry are called to plant and build gospel-centered local churches around the world.

Wow, I get excited just writing about this stuff. And I hope my blog contribution will encourage those of you with the same burden for church planting.

Next time we’ll get started by answering the obvious and foundational question: Why plant churches in the first place?

So log on, grab a cheesesteak and join me next time.

Posted by Dave Harvey

Adopted! (9): Certainty

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:02:00 GMT

Today we end our study of Galatians 4:1–7 with the final verse: “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

In this passage we see a change from the plural (“sons” in v. 6) to the singular “a son.” Paul brings his argument down from an address to the Galatians in general, to individuals in particular. The doctrine of God’s adopting grace is deeply personal.

In this passage God is making eye contact with you! He is looking into your eyes because he wants you to be certain of his love for you. He wants you to be convinced of his adopting grace. He wants you to receive his love, experience his love, and rest certain in his love.

But I am not worthy of his household, you may say. True, you are not. I am not! No one can be a son through human effort or merit. We can be his children only “through God,” only through his initiative and sovereign grace.

Here we conclude our study of adoption: by looking to God. Adoption is not about drawing attention to ourselves, it is about God and his activity, his initiative, and his love. He sent his Son to die for us. And he sent his Spirit to dwell within us for the purpose of convincing us of his love.

Reaching Back

Our sinful condition is not unlike the two boys we met at the outset of this series. They were destitute and without hope. They could not initiate a relationship with their adoptive family. They did not ask to be adopted. They could not conceive of adoption. In fact, they were afraid of being adopted and taken away from what they knew.

Those boys could not earn adoption. And neither can we. Yet we are tempted to reach out, to reach back, to grab at the familiar life of sin. Yet God, in his mercy, has adopted us.

And he is taking us home, to a place of unimaginable beauty and pleasures forever.

Posted by C.J. Mahaney

Adopted! (8): The Greatest Sorrow

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:49:00 GMT

Puritan John Owen penned an unforgettable statement about God’s love: “The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him, is not to believe that he loves you.”*

Stop for a moment and reflect on that sentence—it could change your life.

Now, let me ask you three questions: Do you believe in God’s personal and passionate love for you? Are you delighting in God’s unconditional love? Or have you laid a sorrow and burden upon your adopted Father by questioning his love for you or refusing to believe that he loves you?

If you are uncertain of God’s love for you—or simply unfamiliar with the gift of adoption—I want to encourage you to restrict your spiritual diet for a season so that you might experience the greatness of God’s love. This is more than an academic exercise; this study is a means to experiencing God’s affection, closeness, and generosity as Father. Immerse yourself in an extended study of this topic, this passage (Galatians 4:1–7), and other passages on this topic.

Allow a godly scholar to hold your hand as you study, explore, and experience this topic. I would recommend three resources, ordered from the easiest to read to the most technical:

• J.I. Packer, Knowing God (IVP, 1993), 316 pgs. Especially note chapter 19: “Sons of God.”

• Sinclair Ferguson, Children of the Living God (Banner of Truth, 1989), 144 pgs. Especially note his chapter: “Delighting in the Father’s Love.”

• Trevor J. Burke, Adopted into God’s Family: Exploring a Pauline Metaphor (IVP Academic, 2006), 233 pgs.

Why devote so much time to studying the doctrine of adoption? For fresh motivation I close with words from J.I. Packer:

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.…Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.**

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Notes:
* John Owen, Communion with God (Banner of Truth, 1991).
** J.I. Packer, Knowing God (IVP, 1993), pp. 201–202.

Posted by C.J. Mahaney

The Pastors College Experience

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:37:00 GMT

Cedric Moss serves as the senior pastor of Kingdom Life Church in Nassau, The Bahamas, and graduated from the Sovereign Grace Pastors College in 2008. We’ve just released the first of our annual Mission Presentation films, which profiles Cedric and his wife Alexine. In this short video, they share their Pastors College story, including their expectations of their sojourn in Maryland, the hurdles they faced, and the fruit of their PC experience.

Watch the ten-minute video here:

Kingdom Life: Bahamas from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo. HT: CityGate Films.

To watch Mission Presentation videos from previous years, click here.
Posted by Tony Reinke

C.J. Mahaney’s Office

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:33:00 GMT

The T4G video crew films C.J’s office, library, work habits, and captures a few distinguishing features of a “pastor-athlete” in this 7 minute video:

CJ Mahaney – Study Video from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo HT: Justin Taylor.

Posted by Tony Reinke

Core Convictions Behind Theological Training

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:05:00 GMT

A couple of months ago C.J. invited me to begin contributing posts to the Sovereign Grace blog, of which this is the first. Those who don’t know me will surely wonder why; those who do know me will no doubt grasp the irony, given my blustering tirades against the general blog phenomenon (which I’ll spare you, since including them here would be self-defeating). In any event, let me stress the privilege it is to share this space with C.J. and, as of next week, Dave Harvey, and provide a bit of background for future posts.

My main responsibility in Sovereign Grace is overseeing the Pastors College, which is the primary mechanism by which we train pastors for ministry in our family of churches. Many components go into this training. We teach our students Greek so that they might have access to the original text of the New Testament. We ground our students in the text of Scripture in both its specifics and scope. We endeavor to provide our students a solid theological framework for grasping God’s revelation in its various parts and proportions. We provide pastoral care and structures for personal growth to encourage and support our students’ progress in godliness and the process of sanctification. We teach ministry skills such as preaching and biblical counseling to help them bring God’s Word to bear upon the lives of the people they will one day serve. And we do all of this in the context of a particular local church—Covenant Life Church—which provides the students both a church home and a functioning model for the material they are learning in the classroom.

Underlying these facets are certain core convictions we have concerning theological training—convictions derived from Scripture’s profile of a pastor and the local church which he’s called to serve.

For example, with the exception of the gift of teaching, the biblical requirements for eldership (e.g., 1 Timothy 3 & Titus 1) all speak to a pastor’s character; there’s nothing about personality types, educational levels, or social standing. Transcending all other considerations, a pastor is to be an illustration of the transforming effects of the gospel he proclaims, and an example of sound Christian living to those he serves. We therefore give much attention to, and invest resources toward, encouraging and cultivating progress in our students’ spiritual lives. In our training, we never want to neglect the very characteristics that qualify a man for ministry in the first place.

The local church context also plays an important role in the Pastors College. Since we are training pastors called to “shepherd the flock of God,” we want to expose them to an actual “shepherding” context—a model of ministry where God’s people are being taught, cared for, and nourished. Therefore, we never want the training of our students to be disconnected from the context for which they are being trained—the local church.

In addition to character and context, there’s the substance of our training. When asked to describe the nature of our training, I frequently use this description: we’re training men to do theological ministry—ministry with a self-consciously theological rationale, where every methodology employed flows from and is informed by theological conviction and appropriate biblical warrant. Far from being innovative, this is simply a reflection of the radically Word-centered nature of the pastor’s call that pervades the New Testament. From the apostles’ disciplined devotion “to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4) to Paul’s insistent pleas that Timothy devote himself to the proclamation of Scripture and its teaching (1 Timothy 4:6, 13, 16; 2 Timothy 1:13; 2:2, 15; 4:1-2, et al), God’s Word places a claim on both the content and methodology of pastoral ministry: Scripture and its teaching must be the standard and substance of the pastor’s ministry.

Now, that’s easier said than done, for at least two reasons.

First, perhaps more than ever before, pastors are vulnerable to competing visions for ministry, to measuring ministry “success” by business metrics rather than faithfulness to Scripture, to grasping for some heretofore undiscovered insight that will make the decisive difference in their church. Even for the most earnest pastor, the promise of immediate success is a powerful enticement to pragmatic measures.

Second, it’s a challenge because Scripture doesn’t speak specifically to every facet of church life and ministry. It requires an ever-deepening understanding of the Bible, a grasp of its details and overarching unity, a sensitivity to the “pattern” (2 Timothy 1:13) and proportionality of its truth. More than anything, it requires a firm grasp of the gospel and its entailments for the Christian life individually, and for the church’s life corporately. Of course, faithful pastoral ministry will look different in different contexts, and no one will execute theological ministry perfectly. Our perception is never perfect, our motives unclouded, or our actions flawless. It is, however, something to which Scripture calls us to aspire.

Well, that’s a glimpse of what we’re endeavoring to instill into our students in the Pastors College, and that’s what I’ll be thinking out loud about in upcoming posts: theological and biblical reflection, particularly as it impinges upon the glorious work of pastoral ministry—proclaiming the gospel, expounding God’s truth, and caring for those for whom our Savior died. The thought of that privilege is staggering.

Posted by Jeff Purswell

Meet Jeff Purswell and Dave Harvey

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:06:00 GMT

I’d like to introduce you to two friends: Jeff Purswell and Dave Harvey. These men are more than friends; these men are partners in the ministry of the gospel here at Sovereign Grace Ministries. And over the next week these men will begin contributing to the Cheap Seats blog.

I’ve asked Jeff Purswell to write on theology as it relates to pastoral ministry. He is a man who thinks clearly, carefully, and biblically. He is a combination of the academic and the pastoral, blessed with both a scholar’s head and a shepherd’s heart. Jeff serves as the dean of the Sovereign Grace Ministries Pastors College, where he has been entrusted with the training of our future pastors and church planters, and as a pastor at Covenant Life Church. Each week the Pastors College students ask Jeff questions about theology and pastoral ministry. Through this blog, we can listen in on a few of Jeff’s answers.

I’ve asked Dave Harvey to address church planting. Dave is a church planter with gray hair. To this blog he will bring over 20 years of pastoral and church planting experience, a distinct writing gift, and a heart to help young church planters. At Sovereign Grace, Dave is responsible for church care and domestic and international church planting.

As you can imagine, both of these men are quite busy. I am humbled that they would make time in their schedules to contribute to this blog.

For years I have benefited from Jeff’s and Dave’s friendship, teaching, and counsel. Through their blog posts I think you will benefit too. Be watching for posts from these men each week on a rotating cycle.

Posted by C.J. Mahaney

Adopted! (7): Unnecessary

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:39:00 GMT

Today's post will be short, not simply to take less of your time, but because at the end I would encourage you to pause for a moment of reflection.

In the ancient world a father's inheritance was passed along to his son. If a father had no son, he had no heir. Necessitated by this dilemma, a son-less father would search for a suitable son to adopt. This adopted son would become the father's heir.

Now think about this: God had a Son. And not only did the Father have an heir, He had a perfect Heir, a beloved and well-pleasing Heir (see Matthew 3:17, 17:5; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22, 9:35; 2 Peter 1:17).

Reflect on this: God had a Son—a perfect Heir.

Which means that under the shadow of the ancient custom:

Your adoption was unnecessary.

My adoption was unnecessary.

Posted by C.J. Mahaney

Adopted! (6): Clashing Voices

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:25:00 GMT

Not long ago we looked at God’s initiative in our adoption. The more aware we are of God’s initiative the more amazed we are of grace. Our position and status as adopted sons and daughters was secured by God’s initiative in sending his Son.

Today I will focus on the work of the Holy Spirit in our experience of adoption. “God’s purpose was not only to secure our sonship by His Son,” John Stott writes, “but to assure us of it by His Spirit. He sent His Son that we might have the status of sonship, and He sent His Spirit that we might have the experience of it.”*

In other words, God first sent his Son to die for our sins and then God sent his Spirit into our hearts. The immediate cry of the Spirit within our hearts is “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:15).

The Spirit’s Call

This cry—“Abba! Father!”—is the precious privilege and common experience of all Christians. This cry is evidence that we have received adopting grace. This cry assures us of God’s love. It is a means of certainty that God loves you!

I never tire of reading the following illustration from the ministry of Charles Spurgeon:

I once knew a good woman who was the subject of many doubts, and when I got to the bottom of her doubt, it was this: she knew she loved Christ, but she was afraid he did not love her. “Oh!” I said, “that is a doubt that will never trouble me; never, by any possibility, because I am sure of this, that the heart is so corrupt, naturally, that love to God never did get there without God’s putting it there.” You may rest quite certain, that if you love God, it is a fruit, and not a root. It is the fruit of God’s love to you, and did not get there by the force of any goodness in you. You may conclude, with absolute certainty, that God loves you if you love God.**

Let me ask: Are you aware that God loves you, if you love God? You can be. You can be assured of God’s love for you. That cry did not originate with you. That cry is a gift from God. That cry is an evidence of adopting grace. That cry is a means of assuring you of God’s love for you.

Yet it’s possible to grow less aware of this cry. It is possible to hear only the voice of slavery and fear and grow insensitive to the cry of the Spirit.

This was happening to Christians in Galatia. In Galatians 4, Paul writes people who have been seduced by legalism and no longer enjoy adopting grace and have grown deaf to the cry of the Spirit within.

Many voices cry out for our attention each day and seek to distract our attention from the voice of the Spirit. The cry of indwelling sin is one voice. So is the cry of legalism. And the voice of condemnation can be consistently noisy, too. These are loud and distracting voices.

Which voice are you most aware of?

If you are distracted by these voices and the noise in your soul created by sin and legalism and condemnation, this cry will be muffled.

If this is you, I would recommend a pair of divine noise-cancelling earphones. What I mean is that I would encourage you to memorize Galatians 4:1–7. What is revealed in these verses about adopting grace and the Spirit's work within revealing and applying adopting grace will protect you from the voices of sin, legalism, and condemnation. And it will help you to better hear the Spirit’s cry—“Abba! Father!”—for yourself.

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Notes:
* John R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians (IVP, 1968).
** Charles Spurgeon, sermon: “The Relationship of Marriage” (sermon No. 762).
Posted by C.J. Mahaney

Expository Faithfulness

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:16:00 GMT

Last Friday evening C.J. Mahaney spoke at the God Exposed conference organized by 9Marks and hosted at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

C.J.’s text: 2 Timothy 4:1-5. His title: “Expository Faithfulness.” His audience: 360 pastors and seminary students.

For 80 minutes he encouraged the men to labor to be found (1) faithful to the message, (2) faithful to their respective ministries, and (3) faithful to their Savior.

The MP3 of his message can be downloaded here. The video recording is available on Vimeo. Or you can watch it here:

Conference Audio

Audio recordings for all six of the God Exposed sessions are now available at the SEBTS website. Where applicable the Q&A sessions have added to the end of the preceding message recordings.

(1) Mark Dever, “The Power of God’s Word” (Mark 4:26-34). Listen/download.

(2) Daniel L. Akin, “The Preacher on Preaching” (Ecclesiastes 12:9-14). Listen/download.

(3) Michael McKinley, “The Centrality of the Word” (Luke 10:38-42). Listen/download.

(4) C.J. Mahaney, “Expository Faithfulness” (2 Timothy 4:1-5). Listen/download.

(5) Thabiti Anyabwile, “Will It Preach? Exposition in Non-White Contexts” (Nehemiah 8). Listen/download.

(6) Mark Dever, “Expositional Preaching: A Defense and Charge.” Listen/download.

Conference Recap

The conference was covered by Melissa Lilley for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Her summary can be read here. A collection of conference photographs is avaliable here.

Posted by Tony Reinke

Adopted! (5): Justified or Adopted? Which Is Greater?

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:21:00 GMT

This is a question for Dr. J.I. Packer. And here is his answer:

That justification—by which we mean God’s forgiveness of the past together with his acceptance for the future—is the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel is not in question. Justification is the primary blessing, because it meets our primary spiritual need. We all stand by nature under God's judgment; his law condemns us; guilt gnaws at us, making us restless, miserable, and in our lucid moments afraid; we have no peace in ourselves because we have no peace with our Maker. So we need the forgiveness of our sins, and assurance of a restored relationship with God, more than we need anything else in the world; and this the gospel offers us before it offers us anything else...

But contrast this, now, with adoption. Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship—he establishes us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with the God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.*

-----------
Note:
* J.I. Packer, Knowing God (IVP, 1993), pp. 206–207.

Posted by C.J. Mahaney

Adopted! (4): The Basis of Adoption

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:13:00 GMT

Understanding adopting grace will protect us from the enchantment of legalism. This is the lesson we learned from Paul as he addressed the distortions of the gospel caused by false teaching in Galatia.

Paul responded to the error of legalism by reminding the Galatians of God’s gracious activity. Paul reminded them that their relationship with God was the result of God’s initiative.

Paul writes about this in Galatians 4:4–5:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

In these words we encounter the most important point in redemptive history. Apart from these words and the saving events they describe there is no hope of reconciliation with God and no hope of adoption by God.

God has intervened. He has intervened to address our sinful condition and to provide us with the Savior we so desperately need. And if that wasn’t amazing enough, Paul tells us that this was all determined by God in eternity past.

God-Sent Son

While we were slaves to sin, God sent forth his Son. From heaven to earth, from Galilee to Jerusalem, from the manger to the cross—God sent forth his Son. Here we behold the love of God revealed through the initiative of God in sending forth his Son for those enslaved by sin.

Charles Spurgeon writes:

Observe, concerning the first advent, that the Lord was moving in it towards man. ‘When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son.’ We moved not towards the Lord, but the Lord towards us. I do not find that the world in repentance sought after its Maker. No, but the offended God himself in infinite compassion broke the silence, and came forth to bless his enemies. See how spontaneous is the grace of God. All good things begin with him.*

Yes! When the fullness of time had come, God broke the silence and acted. He acted by sending his son.

The Suitable Mediator

Before God the Father adopted us we were not merely orphans, we were slaves. We were slaves to sin. We were captive to the power of sin. It was humanly impossible to be freed from sin or its penalty. And we all deserved the appropriate penalty for our sin. We were law-breakers living under the curse of the law and the wrath of God.

We needed a Savior. We needed a Redeemer. And in order to save us, our Savior must be like us (“born of woman”). But he also must be unlike us (God). He must be fully man and truly God. And he must give his life as a ransom for our sin. And that is what he did! God the Son, born of woman, perfectly kept the law and died a unique death as a substitute for sinners on the Cross. He liberated us from our sin. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (3:13).

This is grace—amazing grace!

Yet as amazing as this is, if we stop at this point we miss something important. Because of our Savior we are not only redeemed, we are adopted.

Adoption

Redeeming us out of our slavery to sin and from the penalty for sin would have been sufficiently astounding! But God’s purposes extend beyond the redemption of slaves and include the adoption of those slaves as sons.

Here we encounter what J.I. Packer calls “the deepest insight into the greatness of God’s love.”

And God initiated it all.

Justification and Adoption

Over the years I have become aware of how easy it is to focus on justification and fail to prioritize the doctrine of God’s adopting grace. Historically, in my own ministry, and in Sovereign Grace in general, we have tended to emphasize the doctrine of justification over adoption. Please don’t misunderstand; we must never teach less on justification. The doctrine of justification must always remain primary because all the saving benefits (including adoption) depend upon justification by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone.

Justification provides the foundation for adoption. And, rightly understood, justification positions us to fully appreciate adoption. We cannot speak of the Fatherhood of God apart from the cross.

But adoption is also distinct from justification. Without separating them, we need to distinguish between them.

So you may be asking yourself, so what is the difference between justification and adoption? And why is understanding this difference of such critical importance?

I’ll allow J.I. Packer to answer this question for us in the next post.

--------

Note:
* Charles Spurgeon, sermon: “The Great Birthday and our Coming of Age” (sermon No. 1815).

Posted by C.J. Mahaney