I just got back from T4G yesterday. It was a wonderful time of learning, worship, and fellowship with the Berean staff. We got 20 free books, had opportunities to hear from some of God’s most gifted men in the church today, and the corporate time of worship was incredible. Hearing 7,000 men sing praises in unison to the Savior is priceless.
The best part about the conference was leaving it. Throughout the trip, we met so many other pastors and leaders at the conference who, like the Berean staff, returned home yesterday to church ministry. As far as I know, at the moment of this post’s writing, not a single one of those men are sitting where so many of us had been assembled earlier in the week. Why? Because they didn’t come to be “conference” Christians. They came to T4G to be reminded of their calling and subsequently left the conference to labor in the church. That is why I was so appreciative of this post from my friend and fellow co-laborer in the Gospel, Pastor Patrick Cho from Lighthouse Bible Church, San Diego.
I love conferences as much as the next guy. Resolved and T4G have been instrumental in bringing me times of refreshing and learning. With that being said, there’s work to be done and that work is taking place in the church, with real people, real problems, and real sins. Bringing selfishness into the church will impair our ability to faithfully labor and serve in the church. This explains in part the widespread immaturity that people have with respect to the local church.
Of course the church isn’t perfect. Duh, you’re in it.
So while in the church you may not be blown away by the teaching, may lament at the quality of worship, may gripe at the seemingly chaotic form of organizational structure, remember you’re surrounded by brothers and sisters “for whom Christ died” (Rom. 14:15). So learn to love the church, serve the body of Christ, and honor God by committing yourself to a group of people who aren’t exactly like you (and thank God they’re not).
I especially appreciated Mark Dever’s talk at T4G because it hit on this very topic of the church as a display of the Gospel. It filled me with longing to see Berean and other churches reflecting this truth and I’ve found it resonating within me all week precisely because it was a conference message designed to serve the church. Sure, we are not what we ought to be but what we could be by God’s grace is astounding. Though the sermon was directed to pastors, I believe all church members could benefit from it. I commend it to you.
I began a new small group this month with a group of collegians I’ve never regularly met with in a small group context. Though we’ve only just begun to meet, I have high hopes for how the Lord will use the group to help us in learning what it means to love Him more. We decided to spend this week emailing one another a list of things we are thankful for. I’m always encouraged when I read these short lists from other friends’ blogs. Gratitude is good and appropriate because God always provides over-abundantly. Here is a slightly revised form of my list.
1. My Wife. Plain and simple, I love Tina. She is the freaking bomb. She is my best friend, my most reliable and consistent source of prayer, and a darn good cook. Solomon wasn’t lying when he said, “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband” (Prov. 18:22). Brothers, find someone who is attractive, someone who is funny, but most importantly, find someone who loves the Lord and you’ll never regret it.
2. T4G. Thankful that I get to travel across the country and hear from such gifted and able men of God. I went to the last Together for the Gospel conference 2 years ago and it was a huge blessing. I had a chance to visit the Louisville Bat Factory (the day before the conference), chatted with Tim Challies as we waited in the registration line for attendees with a surname beginning with “Ch”, and bought Dr. Mohler a cup of coffee (grande, black). I’m not sure what’s waiting for me this time around but I’m grateful that I can go along with the staff too since we don’t spend as much time together as we’d like. The free books won’t hurt either!
3. College Group. I’m so grateful for the youthful exuberance, excitement, and teachability in our group. We have grown numerically and it has been tough at times to keep up with the changing dynamics but I can’t imagine a better situation for a young pastor such as myself. And best of all, I think we are still improving the ministry that God has set before us so I’m thankful for the potential for real fruit-bearing that I see among the collegians.
4. My Macbook. PC’s suck.
5. The 2010 MLB season. Most prefer basketball but baseball is my favorite sport because I was bred in it as a young child. Baseball cards, going to the stadium, playing softball, are all things that immediately bring me back to my childhood and I really do believe it’s one of the Lord’s evidences of common grace that He provides recreational games for our exercise and entertainment. Now the Angels need to start picking it up!
6. My Bible and the DA Carson reading plan. This is my first time going through the reading plan which usually consists of 2 OT passages and 2 NT passages. It’s been a good experience being exposed to so many different parts of Scripture simultaneously. I’m deepening in my appreciation for the scope of God’s redemptive plan and how it finds its apex in Christ. He is gracious indeed and always has been.
7. My small group. I’m excited for the new group and thankful that every week, I can find accountability and strength through our times of fellowship. Though we’ve only met a few times, I’m already thankful for how they are spurring me on to pray and to love God more.
8. My apartment. It’s really nice. We got awesome amenities even if we hardly use them! I even like the smallest details of our place like the tightly-knit carpet that minimizes dust (and the need for vacuuming). I’m sad I have to move next month but being able to live here for the past year is a product of God’s unmerited kindness to me.
9. Email. I hate talking on the phone and text messages don’t provide enough characters to communicate anything substantial. Proper use of email is a rare bastion of efficiency in the digital age.
10. Sanctification. God is changing me. I know I get in the way and slow the pace of progress far too often but I’m thankful that He’s staying patient and making me more like Jesus. The road to my growth unto Christ-likeness remains rocky at times but I know He’s pruning me in important ways. Praise the Spirit for His patience.
Last week, our Bible study through Hebrews dealt with the utility of Scripture in entering into God’s rest. The passage is familiar:
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:11-12)
As 2010 quickly approaches, I believe this passage is a timely reminder to renewing our energies in becoming more familiar with Scripture. For all the merits of Word-based churches, the general level of biblical literacy among Christians within these churches still remains far below what it should be. Even as a pastor, I don’t consider myself an exception to the contemporary trend. I know my level of biblical competency would be woefully inadequate (relatively speaking) if I were living during the period of Colonial Revival in the Great Awakening or in a community of English Puritans. Most of us understand disparate theological truths but are unable to find their biblical justification. We make arguments, peppered with Scripture as proof-texts, but rarely know the broader contexts of the passages we cite from. We are familiar with the better-known Bible stories, Sunday School flannel graphs firmly embedded in our memories, but are unaware of their theological significance.
QUESTION: Do we view Scripture as an anthology of sorts; a collection of random unrelated stories or do we understand the biblical metanarrative? A fancy word I know but its meaning is simple: the metanarrative of Scripture is the overarching storyline of the Bible, unifying Old and New Testaments into a single, grand narrative. In other words, the metanarrative is the “big picture” of God’s recorded actions, progressively building in crescendo in the Old Covenant until it reaches its pinnacle in Jesus Christ.
The best way to become conversant with the metanarrative is really quite simple: READ THE BIBLE. But as with most other things, it is difficult to apply. Laziness, distraction, and busyness all prove to be formidable impediments. The best way to overcome these anticipated difficulties and ensure daily Scripture intake is anchoring yourself to a Bible-reading plan. And there are a number of good ones to choose from.
For example, my small group guys have picked the following as their personal reading 2010 reading plans:
David Lee: Year of the Bible. This is the plan that I’ve been using this past year and the official reading schedule of Berean Community Church. It consists of a systematic reading of OT and NT, 1 passage in each every day. I’ve been making video notes every week to coincide with the readings and by the end of the year, hope to have an online archive made available through our church website. (3-4 chapters/day)
Alex Yi: Grant Horner Bible-reading System. This plan is made up of 10 lists, organized by genres (e.g., Gospels, Epistles, OT History, Prophets, etc.). Every day, the reader goes through 1 chapter in each list, adding up to a total of 10 chapters of reading a day. It’s quite a large load but the advantage of this plan is that it gives the reader wide exposure through a variety of different biblical genres. This results in a balanced reading diet. (10 chapters/day)
Byron Chu: Chronological Reading Plan. Most people may not be aware of this but the Bible has been organized by genre and not chronologically. The arrangement of this plan has required some guess-work as it’s difficult to date everything in the Bible with exact precision but there are some clear appeals in reading through the events recorded in Scripture in chronological order. (3-4 chapters/day)
Jason Kim: He’s decided not to read the Bible this year. Just kidding. He’s also doing Year of the Bible.
As you can see, there are a number of options to choose from when it comes to selecting a reading plan. In fact, there are others that haven’t yet been mentioned including the M’Cheyne Plan, organized into “family” and “secret” (i.e., private) readings. This could also be easily divided up as “morning” and “evening” readings. Another reading plan I’d recommend comes from the 2-volume D.A. Carson book, For the Love of God, which tracks the reader through the OT once and the NT and Psalms twice each year. Carson provides helpful commentary with respect to each day’s readings, directing the reader’s attention from the daily selection to the larger themes of Scripture.
So as 2010 draws near, I ask: “Are you on a plan?” “What are you doing to get more familiar with Scripture?” Any of these plans can be customized so that it suits your personal reading habits and schedule but the fact remains: we should be aiming to deepen our grasp of Scripture every year that God blesses us to live. I’m thoroughly convinced that it will help us to love Jesus more.
School’s not technically in session for me but for all those that I’ve been called to minister to (i.e., collegians). I enjoy summer vacation as the next guy but I’ve looked forward to the start of this school year for a number of reasons. And here’s a representative sampling of a few:
1) Seeing old faces and catching up.
An interesting thing that God has been doing is leading a lot of people who are originally from NorCal in becoming a part of the college group. This is great except during the summer when everyone goes home for 3 months. Many people that have become familiar friends over the course of the school year are now suddenly zapped from my day-to-day life. But now that it’s late September, it’s good to see many of them back with us in SoCal, which is where I know they’d rather be, so I guess we’re all winners here.
2) Getting busy with ministry again.
Though I got a few weeks to regroup after subbing in for P. Peter during his sabbatical, I’m eager to dive into what the Lord has for me to do this year in the college group. Ever since graduating from seminary, I’ve grown in my heart for teaching, counseling, and shepherding. Nowadays, something seems off if there’s any hiatus from the normal routine of ministry. The start of the school year provides the regular ministry setting that I’ve grown accustomed to and thankful for.
3) Teaching to more than 10 people at Friday night Bible study.
Instructing (and learning) the Scriptures on Friday night shouldn’t really be affected by the number of people who attend any given Bible study but I must confess that it’s nice knowing that I’m preparing a study that will benefit more souls as a result of people coming back down for the start of school. But with that said, I will miss having a more expansive list of post-Bible study dinner options to choose from because of the smaller and more manageable group size during summer break. I guess McDonald’s and Jack-in-the-Box aren’t so bad though.
4) Meeting new freshmen.
Wide-eyed, lost, and generally confused, I love seeing the transformation that God does in young people’s minds and hearts over the course of the school year. They present both a challenge and an opportunity and I’ve already been given a chance to meet several of them. Now hopefully we can come up with enough people to give them all rides to church on Fridays and Sundays. Sophomores, where are your cars???
5) Being filled with abundant opportunities to evangelize.
What I’m most excited about with the start of another fall quarter is the opportunity to share my faith with young people and exhorting people in our college group to live as purposeful evangelists. The university campus remains the gathering place for an eclectic mix of people, where ideologies, political opinions, and religious faiths oftentimes intersect and clash. Amid this chaotic brew is the common denominator of unbelief. Christians were once dying people who were saved by the gift of God’s grace to us in Christ (cf. Eph. 2:1-7). As people who glory and delight in the Gospel, is there any greater privilege than to be called to carry that message to the remotest parts of the world, beginning here with the strangers sitting next to us in the lecture halls and classrooms? Is there any greater Savior to proclaim? Is there any greater love to speak of?
(HT: Zach Nielsen)
(Note: I can’t speak to the accuracy of Pastor Mark Driscoll’s comments regarding the filthy sponge but there is historical precedent, and the basic point remains unchanged)
As I near the end of playing pinch hitter for Pastor Peter during his August sabbatical, I’ve grown appreciative about the unique opportunities that this month brought to me. It’s an immense privilege for a young buck like myself to be handed the reins of the church for a month and though it’s not as dramatic or revolutionary as I hope to make it seem, there are some valuable things that I’ve learned to be grateful for during the past few weeks.
1) Staying busy during the normal lull of the summer break.
As soon as the school year ended and summer vacation began, what was a group of 50 collegians suddenly shrank to a number barely hovering over 10. We had 15 seniors graduate and still await the wide-eyed, incoming freshmen. In the meantime, summer vacation for the collegians in recent years has become a bit of a break for me also, if only for the fewer people I’m able to meet. Preparing and preaching Sunday messages and teaching Bible study twice each week allowed all that extra time afforded from summer vacation to be put into good use. God probably knew I’d be selfish and lazy otherwise so He allowed me to retain some level of utility during this month.
2) BAM Bible Study.
For all the years I’ve been pastoring at Berean full-time (count: 1.5 years) I’ve never taught BAM in a weekly Bible study context. It’s the largest group in the church and comprised mostly by my own peers. BAM is growing in rapid pace but God is supplying people within the ministry to help with the development. As much as I love the dynamic of working with collegians, being with the BAMers reminded me of the huge potential that mobile, single, working Christians can have for kingdom work. And besides, as BAM meets on Wednesday nights, I could use them as a “warm up” for College Bible study on Fridays. 
3) A renewed appreciation of the grit and hard work that ministry requires.
Every career has its challenges. Vocational ministry is no different. Sometimes living in my insulated, college-group bubble means that I forget the difficulties associated with “normal” ministry. However, the last few weeks reminded me that while busyness doesn’t necessarily equate to fruitfulness, the work of helping to shepherd the church is ongoing, unending, exciting, frustrating, and rewarding all at the same time.
4) Multiple chances to sharpen my abilities in the craft, science, and art of preaching.
Preaching is not my natural area of strength and I don’t feel particularly suited for it but as there isn’t any such thing as a non-teaching pastor, I’ve learned to accept it as a responsibility to work on. P. Peter and the elders have been gracious enough to extend preaching opportunities to me in the past but those were primarily topical sermons in lieu of the normal preaching schedule. But as I was able to preach for 5 consecutive weeks and continue through our series in Colossians, I gained valuable experience in expositional, systematic preaching and teaching. There will always be more gifted men but I’m glad that God gave me a chance to improve my own abilities in this area of my calling during the past month.
5) Giving P. Peter a well-deserved rest.
God has gifted Berean with P. Peter. He is a man of conviction, integrity, passion, and joy. He loves Jesus, his family, and the church and this sabbatical was more than warranted in light of all his years of tireless work. The “break” was also in God’s sovereign timing since P. Peter needed to be freed to attend to other duties that required his attention during the past month. Being in his shoes in a limited capacity for a short time served as a reminder that I, and others in our church, should heed what’s written in Hebrews:
Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith…Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. (13:7,17)
Anyways, I think it’s time that I get a sabbatical now. 
One highlight of summer, besides summer itself, is when our church family gathers for three-and-a-half days of worship, fellowship, and teaching of God’s Word. It’s a bit like a Berean version of the Resolved Conference, even being in the same general Palm Desert/Springs area.
This year’s theme is on Holy Affections. It’s an exploration of the biblical understanding of emotions, including love, joy, anger, and sorrow. In the words of our speaker, “the Bible shows God’s experience of these emotions in the OT, Christ in the Gospels, and then applies it to the Christian.”
Intrigued? I am.
As of late, I’ve thought a lot about that very topic. Emotions are an indispensable component of who we are as human beings, made in the image of God, but rarely do we find our emotions being appropriated in light of our new identity in Christ. Emotions often trump faith rather than being shaped by it and can even be misused as an excuse to disobey God. E.g., “I choose not to do _________ because I don’t feel like it.” If feelings have been woven into the very fabric of who we are, we need to see how God desires for us to understand them, beginning first by looking to the Scriptures and our Lord’s own emotional expression and experience.
Our speaker is Dr. Andrew Snider of the Master’s Seminary in Sun Valley.
Dr. Snider even led the Resolved Conference’s worship team, Enfield, in devotions during last weekend’s conference.
Please pray for him and his ministry to us, in addition to his ongoing work as a professor in equipping men to become God’s shepherds to the church.
The summer retreat will take place on Labor Day weekend, September 4-7, and we will begin registrations very soon.
