Discipleship cannot mean going with the flow; it requires swimming against the current not only of contemporary culture but often of contemporary church life and experience.
Michael Horton in The Gospel Commission.
28February2013
22February2013
How In-house Counsel Helps Churches and Pastors
By “in-house counsel” I don’t mean that churches should have lawyers on staff. That might send the wrong message.What I do mean is that churches should strive to engage in biblical counseling with one another as part of its discipleship ministry, with the pastor serving as chief discipler/counselor. Fortunately, biblical counseling is not its caricature, of a professional setting in which someone reclines on a couch and tries to get in touch with his feelings. As many point out, biblical counseling is “intensive discipleship” or “applied discipleship,” and can occur informally — between believers over coffee — or formally — when a pastor works with a couple to avoid divorce.
Biblical counsel is such a natural part of relationships, that we are counseling much more than we realize (some good, some not so good), especially if we claim to be making disciples of Jesus Christ. In fact, if we are discipling, we are counseling; if we are making disciple-makers we are making biblical counselors.I previously posted the problems that arise when pastors avoid counseling (article). Here are a few of the benefits that result when a pastor and the congregation are faithful and deliberate about biblical counseling:1. We confirm the biblical witness. Scripture encourages believers in our ability to “admonish one another” (Romans 15:14). We are even commanded to engage in counseling one another (Galatians 6:1, Colossians 3:16, 1 Thessalonians 5:14). This is a task that is not to be delegated en masse to “professionals” or to non-member counselors.
2. We affirm the power of the gospel. Scripture teaches that the gospel delivers us from the penalty of sin. But it also teaches that the gospel saves us from the power of sin, now, and the presence of sin, in the heavenly state. We preach the power of the gospel to save men from the penalty of sin on Sundays. Through biblical counseling, we preach on Monday through Saturday that the gospel is able to save men from the power of sin: anger, marital problems, parenting issues, addictions, fear of man, pride, gluttony…
3. We faithfully, biblically, disciple men. I fear that for many of us, “discipleship” is simply a matter of having a daily quiet time: reading the Bible and praying, and teaching others to do the same. But Scripture is clear that one aspect of discipleship is “putting off” sin and “putting on” righteousness. When someone has a need for counseling, there is sin to be put off and righteousness to be put on. Seldom are we able to accomplish that alone, for ourselves, which is where biblical counseling — intensive discipleship — comes in.
20February2013
Report, Re-fuel, Rejoice & Re-deploy
Believers are frequently compared with those in military service in the Scriptures. Paul describes the spiritual warfare that followers of Jesus Christ wage, instructing us to “put on the whole armor of God” (Ephesians 6:10-18). We are told that we are like the “good soldier of Jesus Christ,” and that “no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits” (2 Timothy 2:3-4). Even our thoughts, beliefs and opinions come within the sphere of military imagery (2 Corinthians 10:4-6).
How does that imagery affect our gathering together for services on Sunday and Wednesday, or in small groups and Bible studies at other times?
Jesus sent out seventy-two disciples on a pre-resurrection reconnoissance mission (Luke 10:1-12). The men on this mission were to be very focused, undistracted, and singularly occupied with accomplishing the purpose Jesus gave them. They were to travel light, like military scouts, carrying “no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals.” And while many versions say the disciples were not to “greet” anyone on the road, the King James says they were not to “salute” anyone, which fits the tone of Jesus’ instructions. As he would later tell them, “all authority” had been given to him, and should his disciples be tempted to salute anyone else on the mission — submit to the authority of another — their allegiance to Christ would be diluted, the chain of authority confused, and the mission compromised.Later, the disciples returned and reported to Jesus what they had experienced, and how the mission was accomplished (Luke 10:17-20).
Followers of Jesus Christ today are also on a mission. But too often we allow ourselves to think that our mission happens only on Sundays and Wednesdays, for a couple of hours, and we fail to consider that the entire week, every week, every year, is a mission deployment for the King.
Consequently, when we gather, our prayer requests are about sickness. We rarely report our difficulties with marriage, parenting, employment, relationships, witnessing, evangelism or personal holiness, or even our successes in those areas. But spiritual warfare is happening all the time in each of those areas of our lives.
We can recover a whole-life view of discipleship — following Jesus into spiritual battle — if we remember that part of the reason that we gather together is to Report, Re-fuel, Rejoice, and Re-deploy.
1. Report
It’s easy to report sickness. It’s much more difficult to report our battles in marriage and parenting, personal holiness, or even in evangelism and disciple-making. But when we don’t, we risk treating the vast proportion of our lives as outside the mission we live for Jesus Christ. In practice, we begin to think and act as if the mission isn’t even relevant to those things. We don’t want to hear everyone’s “dirty laundry” every week, but treating daily difficulties (and successes) as part of the mission enhances everyone’s service to Christ.
2. Re-fuel
“Fellowship” for many believers is fried chicken and a devotion. But biblical fellowship involves much more, including encouragement, instruction in the Word, praise and “agitation” to good works (Hebrews 10:23-25). As we fight spiritual battles at work, at home, and within our heart, our hope can be deflated, our vigor drained, and our motivation sapped. Just like the advance scouts who can carry no purse nor money bag, we need to return to “base” frequently to get supplies. Hearing the Word, praying, and praising with other believers re-stocks the tools of our mission trade.
3. Rejoice
When the disciples returned from their advance scouting mission, they rejoiced with each other and with Jesus at what had happened (Luke 10:17). It is crucial for believers to hear how God is working fruitfully in the spiritual lives of others, whether that be progress in killing personal sin, knocking over proverbial idols, reconciling relationships, or proclaiming the gospel to unbelievers. Even when we think we are unable to rejoice in our own situations, we can rejoice in hope, and rejoice that our mission is sure to succeed because the King has guaranteed victory.
4. Re-deploy
Unfortunately, the Christian life is not lived in the sanctuary. Devotion to Christ is not fulfilled in the prayer closet. Worship, prayer, Bible study and fellowship are part of following Christ, but there is a reason that worship services and small group meetings don’t last all week. Our mission is to keep taking assignments and keep deploying into the field of operations. You may have seen the sign, posted above the exit of the sanctuary, that says “You are now entering the mission field.” That’s good, but it’s more accurate to say “You are now starting your mission.” When we leave Sunday worship, or Wednesday prayer meeting, or our small group fellowships, we are re-deploying with a set of mission objectives to accomplish, in our personal holiness, our family life, our employment, our disciple-making.
The mission doesn’t always go as well for us personally as the seventy-two disciples reported that it went for them. But we still rejoice that our “names are written in heaven,” and that we are privileged to serve Jesus Christ in our mission.
19February2013
Why Pastors Should Not Avoid Counseling
A representative of a state ministry agency, which provides counseling services, explained to a group of local pastors how his agency could partner with the local association of churches to provide counseling, once a week, by a counselor from another city. As he described the various types of counseling cases he frequently encountered, one pastor was led to exclaim, “Wow! Who counsels you after hearing about all these people’s troubles?” The counselor responded, matter-of-factly, “I go to my pastor.”
This episode reveals common misconceptions about biblical counseling and about a pastor’s role in it.The good thing about it was that someone realized that church members need counseling. The bad thing was that pastors were too eager to hand off the responsibility for counseling their own sheep to an outsider.
There are many reasons why any given pastor might decide to refer the counseling needs of his congregation to others: a lack of time; a perceived lack of ability and training; or even a preference to spend time and energy doing the more “glamorous” tasks of ministry, such as preaching and evangelism.
Let’s face it: biblical counseling does deal with people’s troubles, which are frequently ugly and reveal sinful hearts, and counseling can take an extraordinary amount of time and energy.
There will be times that the pastor must delegate counseling to others in his church, and there will be times that the pastor needs to enlist the help and support of more experienced, more specialized counselors. But the bible is clear that the counseling task is the responsibility of the pastor (and elders) in the context of the local church. The counseling task is part of the discipling ministry of the local congregation. Stated negatively, various problems arise for the pastor when the counseling ministry of the local church is delegated to outsiders:
1. He proclaims the power of the gospel to save on Sunday, but denies its power to sanctify on Monday. In other words, the image that the congregation — and the world — gets is that the pastor is confident that the Scriptures are sufficient to make men saved, but is not quite so confident that the Scriptures are sufficient to make men holy.
2. He abdicates one element of shepherding the sheep and gives it to an outsider. Regardless how confident the pastor is in the outside counselor’s abilities, biblical foundation, and biblical method, it remains the fact that the pastor has no authority over the outside counselor who is not a member of his congregation. This can have serious implications for shepherding.
3. He avoids knowing the sheep as he should. If the only communication between the pastor and the sheep is the preaching on Sunday, and other formal teaching times, then the pastor naturally will not know the particular issues his sheep face, and won’t be aware of where spiritual warfare is taking place. The role of the shepherd is not only to provide grass to the sheep, but to tend wounds and mend broken bones.
There are, of course, ways for pastors to keep biblical counseling within the church as much as possible, and many benefits accrue to a church’s attempt to be faithful in this area. Look for that discussion in an upcoming post.
11February2013
The Good, the Bad, and the Hopelessly Inconsistent
No one ever accused American society of being consistent.Even so, recent manifestations of our tendency toward thoughtless contradictions in public life are worthy of mention. Here are a few:
BAD for adults in New York to purchase a Big Gulp; GOOD for minors to receive an abortion without parental consent.BAD for an adult to have more than seven bullets in his gun; GOOD for Homeland Security to have a billion bullets (and counting), and the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt to have U.S. tanks and weapons.
BAD that a woman wouldn’t have control over her “reproductive health”; GOOD that U.S. citizens won’t have control over their own health under Obamacare.
BAD for citizens to take on more debt than they can repay; GOOD for government to spend like druken sailors and take on more debt than our grandchildren can repay (my apologies for the insult to druken sailors).
BAD for citizens to have more money than is necessary for basic provisions; GOOD for other citizens to demand more than basic provisions from them.
BAD for Americans to use excess fossil fuels; GOOD for Al Gore to sell Current TV to Al-Jazeera.
BAD for public school students to learn about the Christian religion, which teaches absolutes, the judgment of God, service to others and “thou shalt not kill”; GOOD for those students to curse teachers with impunity and be expelled for making finger guns.
6February2013
Federalism, Money & Fred Mickelson
Celebrity is a two-edged sword when it comes to politics.Those on the right applaud the efforts of the Charleton Hestons and the Kelsey Grammars to weigh in on political issues, but lament the ignorance of Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman when they do. For the left, it is just the opposite.
Nevertheless, not many on either side would typically look to the ranks of professional athletes for serious commentary on weighty matters of the day. “World Peace” would not, ironically, speak with much authority on resolving conflict, nor would Tiger Woods draw many to his marriage enrichment seminars.Unfortunately, the pattern does not work in reverse: Congress, politicians, presidents, and do-gooders of all stripes seek to weigh in on employment and safety issues in, say, professional football.
Occasionally, though, a prominent pro athlete with celebrity does or says something that is a perfect illustration of a political point. Such is the case with Fred Mickelson, who recently came under fire for saying what many are thinking, and announcing his decision to leave the State of California in order to escape its inordinately confiscatory taxes.
There are two points here: the first is that Mickelson was pressured to renounce his comments, which he eventually did. It is unclear whether Mickelson is apologetic for merely having said aloud what was in his head, or that he actually now looks forward to paying more tax. Perhaps he renounced due to pressure from sponsors, but even if that were the case, it is a sad illustration how we proclaim free speech, but only such speech as won’t get you lampooned or lambasted on social media.
The second point is that Mickelson’s options, were he to reach his limit with California’s tax rates, included moving to a state whose tax rates were more to his liking. This is, in essence, a key component of the political structure we call federalism: because there is no [theoretically] all-inclusive national government, states are free to do what their citizens want, and citizens of one state can move to another because he prefers the political, economic, or social climate there better.
A key to federalism is a national government that is not the exclusive governing authority for its citizens. The 9th and 10th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution guarantee this, at least in theory. In other words, because Washington, D.C. does not dictate each state’s income tax rate, I am free to live under the government seated Montgomery, Alabama, or Bismark, North Dakota, or wherever.
But what is disturbing is some of the criticism Mickelson received, which included shame that he would even consider moving to a different state in order to pay less tax, because, well, it is his moral obligation to pay as much tax as he can. This sentiment is dangerously close to a complete enervation of the idea of federalism, itself. We see the same illustrated in efforts to create (new) national gun laws, national policy on health care, and so forth.
The beauty of federalism is that states are free to experiment with policy on a smaller scale than national governments are able to, and other states that are so inclined can emulate successful experiments for their own citizens. And, as Mickelson illustrates, citizens who don’t like their states’ experimenting can move to another. This is not possible when there is national policy on every issue: citizens lose freedom and government power goes unchecked.
For now, enjoy your federalism and freedom to move to another state. Just don’t tell anyone why.
25January2013
Biblical Counsel at the Water Fountain
How often does someone approach you –over the office water fountain, or standing beside your backyard fence, or as you pass each other in the produce aisle — and mention casually that there is a problem in his life and ask that you pray about it? And just as often, we will casually, nonchalantly, reply that Yes, I Will Pray For You but then drink our water, mow our grass or purchase our greens and never give the request another thought, much less the prayer that we so routinely promised.
What is not surprising about these encounters is that the one who mentions the problems and asks for prayer rarely has approached her pastor with the issue. What is surprising is the severity of the issues raised; almost nothing is off limits, even for the produce aisle.Standing right there beside the celery and the cabbage, sometimes with a stock boy in earshot, or right there in the meat market with the butcher in plain view, almost-strangers will tell us of their teen with drug problems, their failing marriage, their addiction to gambling or chocolate or whatever.
And having mustered up the gumption to actually say the public words that describe their private pain, it seems she would hardly be satisfied with our pseudo-promise to “pray for her.”
Don’t get me wrong: believers should, as we are commanded, “pray without ceasing,” even if it is praying beside the pork chops, and we should not undertake any endeavor, especially spiritual counsel, without having first prayed about the matter, without having prayed during the matter, and having prayed after the matter. Additionally, there is certainly a benefit one believer receives from knowing that another believer is praying for him (if he actually is!).
So, prayer must be part of biblical counsel that we offer one another. But while counsel includes prayer, it also includes much more than prayer. When one person approaches another and divulges dark secrets or dire circumstances, it is an opportunity to speak truth and hope into the situation.
Admittedly, not every produce-aisle confession warrants a full-on counseling session. If your friend reveals marital strife to you, it may not be appropriate to give a delicatessen dissertation on God’s original design for marriage and family, and it may not be timely to engage in back-yard Bible study on the first two chapters of Genesis. The Bible tells us to be prepared to give such an answer as is good for “edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
Here are some things to keep in mind to balance the need to give spiritual counsel and guidance with a respect for decorum and timing:
1. Give Timely, Appropriate Words. God is certainly able to inspire us with the right words on the spur of the moment. Yet being prepared means that we would probably need to think about what we would say to people in such situations. Begin by remembering those occasions when someone stumped you with an unexpected confession or request, and think through what an appropriate biblical response to that would have been.
2. Encourage Intensive Discipling. It will be a rare day, indeed, when whatever you say to someone during your water break with constitute the spiritual breakthrough they need, and fully resolve their complex needs. Direct people to receive discipleship on the issue, from a pastor or trusted (and maturing) believer who is willing to do the hard work with them of finding biblical solutions to sinful behaviors.
3. Pray. It should go without saying that prayer should undergird and support our intensive, discipling, counsel. If we promise to pray, we should pray. And our prayer should not merely be the sort that asks God generally to “be with” s0-and-so as she faces her troubles, but the biblical sort that applies specific promises to specific sin issues.
4. Follow Up. Get a phone number, an email address, or, if you are antiquated, a mailing address, and follow-through with the advice you gave, the counselor you recommended, or the commiseration you shared.
The rebuke, exhortation and encouragement that occurs in biblical counsel among Christ-followers does not only — or even primarily — occur in the pastor’s office or on the counselor’s sofa. God uses ordinary believers empowered with the Word and by the Spirit to work sanctification in the lives of others. Be prepared that God might also use you.