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Wise words on discipleship

Marty Duren — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:09:05 +0000

This is something Sonya, my wife, posted on her Facebook this week. I thought it pretty profound, and thoroughly biblical.

(For those of you who do not know her, my wife is not in this picture.)

Discipleship is not easy. It is time-intensive. It is labor-intensive. It will cost you. it is not done in a day or a week. Throwing out spiritual platitudes is not the way to disciple someone. Criticizing their legitimate questions is not discipleship; it just drives those questions underground. Admitting you still have your own questions shows that you, also, are still a disciple and still in need of growth. Guess what? If you are still walking this earth, you haven’t arrived yet. In a good discipling relationship, there is no room for spiritual pride.

It rather reminds me of something else I read a while back from this missionary guy named Paul. Writing to believers in Thessolonica, Greece, he said,

Although we could have been a burden as Christ’s apostles, instead we were gentle among you, as a nursing mother nurtures her own children. We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. For you remember our labor and hardship, brothers. Working night and day so that we would not burden any of you, we preached God’s gospel to you…As you know, like a father with his own children, we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. (1 Thessalonians 2:7-9, 11-12, HCSB)

How long is too long when preaching a sermon?

Marty Duren — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 23:06:26 +0000

A recent post by pastor Brian Croft asks, “How long should my sermons be when I preach?” He listed three criteria: 1) Based on where your people are, not where you think they should be, 2) Based on how good and seasoned a preacher you are, and 3) To leave your people longing for more, not less.

A reader of his blog, Curt, suggested this humorous methodology he borrowed from another pastor:

1. The minister should rate themselves on a scale of 1 – 10 (with 10 being excellent).
2. Subtract one from that number (because most ministers/preachers have an inflated view of how good they really are).
3. Multiply that number by 5 (that’s the number of minutes a sermon should be).
Example: Rate myself a 7 – 1 = 6 x 5 = 30 minutes

I still like and would agree with that – but I’m also almost to the point that I think we should subtract 2 from the original number because it seems like the guys I listen to think they’re a lot better than they really are.

How long a pastor should preach is a pretty important subject for church goers. I’ve suffered along with many of you while attempting to listen to someone who has little to say but doesn’t seem to realize it. (There are probably some who would say the same of me.) I believe preachers/teachers are given time by their congregation as a trust, and it is a trust that should be respected. It’s an insult to a congregation and an abuse of my trust from God, to act as if people should listen just because I am talking.

Brian’s post got me to thinking about the subject of preaching, with which I have some experience. I’ll add these thoughts for your consideration.

1) Actually study enough to have something to say. Going into the pulpit (or onto the stage) week after week without being prepared is truly a sin. To preach God’s word is, as it always has been, a sacred trust to be taken with the utmost of seriousness.

2) Commit to only preach/speak as long as the Holy Spirit is using you in that moment. Simply because a pastor feels comfortable with the sermon he has prepared does not mean God intends to use all of it, most of it, or any of it.

3) Stop when you are done even if you have more notes. Sometimes it just isn’t happening. I believe it is better to be respectful of your people’s time. If you will stop when you have nothing to say, they will stay with you when you have more to say than normal.

4) Be willing to preach/teach the best you can do even if you “aren’t feeling it.” Some of the greatest affirmation I’ve ever received was after delivering a message I was sure had bombed. God’s Word is what has power. You’ve always been an instrument. Don’t live as if it depends primarily on your exceptionable abilities.

5) Don’t fake it. There is nothing wrong with saying to your congregation occasionally, “I had a very hectic week and did not have as much time a usual to prepare. I realize this will be much to your chagrin, but the message will only be about 20 minutes or so this morning.” Nobody ever leaves early from a 20 minute sermon. (It should be noted that recurring hectic weeks that interfere with sermon preparation indicate a need to create a different schedule.)

6) If you know the message will be longer than normal, let your people know at the beginning. “You all know that I try not to preach just to hear myself talk. After studying this week, I know this message will be a little longer than normal. If you’ll try and hang with it, I think you’ll be glad you did in the end.” When people begin to think, “I wonder if he knows how long he’s been talking?” you’ve quenched the Holy Spirit all by yourself.

7) If you are actively reaching lost, unchurched and de-churched people, you cannot only evaluate a sermons length based on the spiritual maturity of the believers. Some consideration must be given to whether you can connect with a newcomer after their butt has gone to sleep.

8) Be honest about your abilities as a communicator (from Brian’s #2 above). Some people are not gifted speakers, and, although it is a skill that can be honed and improved, care should be taken to accurately recognize one’s gift. If you are slowly developing or have reached a limit, then preach to that point and not further until your skills increase. God can use a short, Biblical, prayer drenched sermon on one or two verses just as good as He can use a 90 minute oration over a paragraph in the original languages.

The most vivid example of knowing giftedness came from a pastor I heard in Brazil. After preaching a powerful messsage, he reached the invitation portion and stopped. He then turned over the entire invitation/response to his associate pastor, who was obviously gifted to present the gospel. I’ve never seen any other pastor, in any church or continent stop a message at the beginning of the invitation and turn it over to another pastor. But this was his practice because his associate was gifted in this way.

9) Don’t chase rabbits; shoot’em.

10) Only use new, fresh illustrations at least 99.9% of the time. If your people have been saved any length of time at all, they’ve heard all the preacher stories. Using old worn out stories–especially theological urban legends–is a sure way to kill the power of the message. If you must use an oldie but goodie, let your congregation know that you know it: “I know this is an old illustration, but it perfectly shows the point.” Even then, make them a rarity. As soon as your listeners think, “He said this last Sunday/month/year” you’ve lost them.

The righteousness He requires

Marty Duren — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:39:40 +0000

An April 1928 mug shot of Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel.

Yesterday I stood with other believers and sang It Is Well With My Soul. We were doing the version with the updated chorus:

It is well; it is well. Through the storm I am held. It is well, it is well with my soul.

We arrived at one of the later verses and sang:

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought; my sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, oh my soul!

As we sang this, I began to think about the absence of bliss at this thought.

It seems we often do not praise because we really do not think that our sin is so bad after all. We are moral, we vote “right,” involve our kids in sports leagues, join some community group to pick up roadway trash and go to church regularly. We live perfectly according to the righteousness that we have determined, but not always according to the righteousness that God’s character reveals.

If God’s righteousness is the standard, my righteousness will never be enough. Jesus taught as much when he instructed us to “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 5). Paul affirmed it in a personal way, writing, “not having a righteousness of my own” (Philippians 3). In spite of this instruction and warning my tendency is to look at the righteous standard I have erected, compare it to my life and say, “It is very good.” Then, quite inadvertently, my desire to praise God fades; after all, I’m measuring up, my life is where it needs to be.

Which is all well and good, except that my standard is all wrong.

Praise fades when I forget how great God is and it is easy to forget how great God is when I forget how evil my sin is before God. If I’m reaching the attainable goal of my righteous standard, my tendency will be toward the self-satisfaction of a job well done, but if I’m pressing toward the goal of God’s righteousness, then my satisfaction is in his job well done, a righteousness I could never attain but can always enjoy since God has bestowed it upon me in Christ.

The resultant situation then is in singing, “My sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,” I will only find bliss and glory if there is some understanding of the benefit I am experiencing because all my sin has been nailed to the cross in Christ. If my own righteousness is the standard, then I cannot help but miss the bliss since I do not see my sin as the affront to God’s standard that it actually is.

After all, I’m not as bad as Bugsy Siegel.

When my righteous standard is how I measure my behavior, it also becomes the platform for self-promotion, even if only internally. When God’s standard is how I measure my behavior, it becomes the motivation for self-denial. I cannot simultaneously promote and deny my own righteousness, nor can I simultaneously seek and ignore the righteousness of God.

Years ago a start up company called Living Epistles shook the Christian world by emblazoning T-shirts with bold and, occasionally, theologically profound messages. One of them read,

The righteousness He requires is the righteousness His righteousness requires Him to require.

This is true and, since it is, there literally is no room for a righteousness of my own. And I am filled with bliss at this glorious thought.

Stressed? Under pressure? You’re not alone

Marty Duren — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:47:06 +0000

Image: jokes123.com

Stressed out? Does the weekend bring as much anxiety as Monday? Do you dread the alarm clock for more reasons than being a night-owl? You are not alone.

Consider these recent items from the April 2010 edition of Fast Company magazine:

According to a psychological survey done in 1938 and again in 2007, anxiety and mental-health issues are 5 times more common now among high-school and college students than they were toward the end of the Great Depression.

Two-thirds of spoken curse words are a result of stress. Swearing accounts for 80 of the 15,000 words typically spoken per person per day.

In Sweden, mental illness, including stress and anxiety, accounts for 41% of total sick pay, up from 15% in 1990. The nation has one of the world’s most generous sick-leave laws–workers can get up to 75% of their salary for years.

One in four Americans admits to having taken a “mental-health day” to cope with stress. The costs employees $602 per worker per year.

Sixty-two percent of Americans are stressed about work, according to the American Psychological Association.

Eating 1.4 ounces of dark chocolate every day for two weeks was shown to reduce stress. [In a study conducted by Nestle...no lie!]
One third of American children ages 8 to 17 say they worry about their family’s finances. Two other major sources of childhood stress are homework and testing.

Globally, more thna three out of five doctor visits are stress related. In the US alone, more than $22.8B is spent on anxiety-related health care each year.

Each year, more than 275M working days are lost in the US because of absenteeism resulting from stress.

Only dead people do not experience some type of stress. I’m reminded of the words of Jesus Christ given to some of his followers during a very stressful time; words that have helped alleviate stress in my own life inumerable times:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many living places; if it were not so, I would have told you.

I am going to prepare a place for you and, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will return and receive you to myself, so that where I am there you also can be.

I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [The New Testament book of John, chapter 14, verses 1, 2, 3 & 6]

Stress is inevitable in almost everyone’s life. Allowing stress to crush you, however, is optional.

Chris Tse and the strange workings of God

Marty Duren — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:29:22 +0000

The painting Living Water by Simon Dewey.

“The Lord moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.” So wrote the poet William Cowper, though it seems each time He moves in a mysterious way there is a rushed disclaimer that it was not the Lord after all.

Yesterday, I posted a short note and a video by a young Canadian man, Chris Tse, entitled, “I’m sorry I’m a Christian.” There was some discussion on this site and I participated in a lively discussion on the Facebook page of a friend, Michael Ray Kear. Saying anyway what goes without saying, opinions were sharply divided.

This writing is neither to explore, examine or defend Chris’ poem. It speaks for itself. The deeper question for followers of Jesus seems to be, “How do we respond when God breaks through in a way that we are not expecting?” We can even take this question farther as ask, “What happens when God breaks through in a way that I’ve always believed was not something God would do?”

In opening this particular Pandora’s box, there are two specific biblical examples that will suffice. The first comes from the life of Isaiah; the other from the life of Jesus.

Imagine if you will walking down the street to the loud call of, “REPENT!! JUDGMENT IS COMING!” Ambling over to a gathered crowd you see a naked, adult male (not covered with sandwich boards) preaching that the Lord is angry with some country and is about to send judgment to it. Upon further questioning, you find that the nude dude has been about this for two and a half years and thinks he probably has about six months to go on his assignment. Tactfully keeping your eyes averted you ask, “Uhm. And why is it necessary to be preaching without benefit of your clothes? Do you think God really is pleased by this?”

He replies, “Who do you think told me to preach naked? The devil? God’s point is that He is going to shame [insert sinful country] like one who walks around with his/her backside exposed should be shamed!”

Now consider Isaiah 20, verses 2-4 (HCSB):

During that time the Lord has spoken through Isaiah son of Amoz saying, ‘Go, take off your sackcloth and remove the sandals from your feet,’ and he did so, going naked and barefoot-the Lord said, ‘As my servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a sign and omen against Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks, to Egypt’s shame.

At this point, I’m sure someone will hurry to say, “WAIT! He wasn’t really naked! He had his underwear on.”

That will not fly and here’s why. The Hebrew word translated naked is used more than 40 times in the Old Testament. Each time it means unclothed. Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:25). Moses saw the children of Israel were naked to their shame (Exodus 32:25). Saul stripped off his clothes and lay down naked (1 Samuel 19:24). Job came naked from his mother’s womb and supposed his naked return (Job 2:21). Are we to assume that Eve was strolling around in her best Victoria’s Secret ensemble or that Job was born with his boxers on?

God even clarified it by noting their “bared buttocks.” He’s talking nekkid.

The fact is that God commanded Isaiah to do something so far out of the box, so far against what most modern Christians cannot conceive is holy is significant. Many conservatives would say, “God would never command someone to preach naked; it’s against His character.” Well, He did it. Talk to Him about the character issue.

No life has been more appreciated by unbelievers than the life of Jesus Christ and no life has been more glamorized by believers than the life of Jesus Christ. When you get right down to how some conservative Christians view Christ it is little more than the ethereal goofiness of Deepak Chopra.

One of the most celebrated passages in all of the gospels is Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4. We trumpet that as the love of God to a prostitute, talk about “divine appointments,” wonder at worship not attached to a place, rejoice that everyone everywhere can know God and, being 2,000 years and thousands of miles removed from the context, miss the scandalous, disreputable things that Jesus did in this story.

It is necessary to remember that Jesus was a rabbi. Rabbis were not supposed to speak to women. They were not supposed to speak to women alone. They certainly were not supposed to speak to sinful women. Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. In at least four ways, Jesus did what was unthinkable.

In fact, if a pastor today did exactly what Jesus did, he’d probably lose his job. John wrote (John 4:4), “[Jesus] had to go through Samaria.” Why? To have an isolated meeting with a prostitute-not for sex, but for salvation.

This woman’s eternal destiny was more important that His own reputation so Jesus was willing to face the wonderment of the returning disciples who knew He was violating protocol (4:27). Jesus made Himself no reputation, which is more than a philosophical, theological pondering. It was a practical reality. Virtually everything He did shattered the preconceptions of “what God would and would not do.” What would God do? EXACTLY what Jesus did in every situation.

The very incarnation of Jesus Christ was God pulling a Chris Tse on the entire world. Jesus arrest and trial was based on a charge of blasphemy–”that he being a man claimed to be God.” Is it so hard to see that God saved the world through appearing to violate the tenets of His own law? It was a sin, punishable by death, for a man to claim to be God. So what does God do? He appears as a man and claims to be God.

There is your all-eternity, all-universe stumbling block.

I’m not saying or even implying that God sins. I am saying that God has regularly done things throughout history that religious people-even His people-did not believe could come from God.

If we are not careful, in our quest to be right in all things we may inadvertently miss righteousness in the process.

So I cannot say whether Chris Tse was being obedient to God; no one can. But I can say that it’s just like something God might do.

The gospel to the poor

Marty Duren — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:33:31 +0000

Photo: Kevin Carter/AP

I’m sure I had never seen the above photo before this week. That is to say, I hope I’m not so calloused as to have forgotten such a sight: A lone vulture stalking a starving Sudanese child as she crawls toward a food center more than half a mile away. For the photo famed South-African photographer, Kevin Carter, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography on May 23, 1994 at Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library. Carter’s joy, however, was short lived. A mere three months later in the midst of a severe depression Carter killed himself near Johannesburg. His suicide note mentioned “vivid memories…of starving or wounded children” as a factor for his decision. He was 33.

The child survived the situation, but to what end no one knows.

For many years, many evangelicals did not give a second thought about the poor; after all, Jesus had told us the poor would always be with us. What were we supposed to do?

Lately I’ve been thinking about the poor and the responsibility that Christ-followers in the richest nation in all of history have toward them. This morning I went to a familiar passage, Matthew 11, to read these words:

When John heard in prison about the deeds of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’ And Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them.’ (vs. 2-5, ESV)

Almost without delay I saw a connection that heretofore had eluded me. The question asked by John the Baptizer was, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” In other words, “Are you the Messiah?”

Jesus response was to give proof of his Messiahship: people are healed, the dead are raised, the poor hear the gospel.

The poor hear the gospel. The gospel is preached to the poor.

Evidence of Christ’s kingship, evidence of His Messiahship, evidence of His anointed reign is that the gospel is preached to the poor. If an evidence of Christ’s kingship is the taking of the gospel to the poor, should that not be an unqualified proof of who is a Kingdom subject? Shall the King be elevated theoretically without being followed practically?

It might be easy to overlook two clear connections Jesus is making; I have done so for a long, long time. First, there is an obvious reference to Isaiah 61:1, the text of Jesus first synagogue sermon,

The Lord has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

The second is an obvious allusion to the Minor Prophets, nearly all of whom railed against Israel/Judah for injustice regarding the poor.

That the gospel transcends socio-economic boundaries will get no argument from the most conservative of evangelicals. There is no person too rich nor too poor to need the gospel or to receive it.

What we acknowledge about the gospel’s reach, however, is not the issue. The issue is, What do we do about it?

The clear question is whether followers of Christ are as eager to see converted the smelly street dweller who pushes a Publix cart to church as the cologned stock broker who powers a Porsche to the same location?

The Apostle James was well aware of the tendency of Kingdom subjects to ignore the ways of the King when he wrote:

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. (vs. 1-9)

Haiti awaits

Marty Duren — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:47:16 +0000

People awaiting care at the Helping Hands Clinic on January 27, 2010. Photo: Aaron Reigner

Sunday morning will see a team of five leaving Atlanta for Port-au-Prince to assist with medical care to Haitian earthquake survivors and logistics related to the Helping Hands Clinic outside the city. The team, part of Helping Hands Foreign Missions, has been assembled from different states and anticipates two days of traveling–including a 156 mile, 13 hour bus ride–just to arrive in the stricken area. Minuscule amounts of supplies will be taken in air travel-most will be purchased in the Dominican Republic. The goal of Helping Hands Missions is to sustain the ministry of the clinic through a continuous flow of teams into the country, at least until regular supply channels are re-opened. The teams will stay in tents they must pack in and pack out, as there are no hotels available, and, really, who would want to stay in one? There are still daily aftershocks.

A HHFM team member already in the country, Damon Whitlow, posted Monday on the Helping Hands Haiti blog,

This morning we awoke and began building our medical clinic. Within an hour we had 100 plus patients lined up waiting to see the doctors. People were patient. We moved thru 45 patients before lunch.

Awake in the morning with no clinic, build clinic, see 45 patients before lunch. Not a bad day’s work.

Helping Hands is an example of a number of small organizations who are able to respond quickly to massive needs not having a large, cumbersome bureaucracy through which it must work. While governments are able to move equipment to effect clean-up of rubble and burial of the deceased, flexible organizations like Helping Hands minister to the physical and spiritual needs of survivors. Already having working relationships with organizations in areas like Haiti and the Dominican Republic have expedited Helping Hands’ ability to put together a meaningful response. These are not a bunch of crazed Americans running around willy-nilly giving away flags and spreading good cheer, but laser focused followers of Jesus Christ who are taking his love to a desperate place.

I will be on this trip and I hope to post some updates while I’m gone, but there are no guarantees of internet availability for me or time to do updating. If you have not yet friended me on Facebook or would like to follow me on Twitter you may do both at the “Social and Online” widget in the right sidebar.

‘Do It Anyway,’ a poem by Mother Teresa

Marty Duren — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:58:43 +0000

Agnesë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa, with some of her friends.

People are often unreasonable, illogical,
and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you
of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some
false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone
could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

When faith strengthens faith

Marty Duren — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:37:11 +0000

A few thoughts on the subject of faith, an excerpt from my Keeping Company With God prayer journal.

It seems to me that faith is a long term deal more than a short term solution. Less “I’m praying for a good deal on a house,” and more “I’m confident that God is in control of the universe, regardless of what happens to me.”

It is obvious that there is a “day-to-day” faith that sees us through decision making, relationships and storms. This seems to be the kind of faith that pervades our prayer times-”Lord, make my child well.” Our longer term faith is less expressed in prayer than it is lived out over the course of years. It becomes a disposition of our existence-not fate-but trust in the all seeing, knowing and caring God of the Bible.

In this life, the long-term faith must always inform the short term faith and not vice-versa. When long term faith is experienced as contentment in the actions of the sovereign God, then short term faith is encouraged. When the struggle of short term faith becomes the foundation of long term faith, then both waver and may collapse. We cannot, nor are we expected to go day-to-day without the assurance that God is for us in the end. In the end we are helped when we view our short term trials and persecutions in the light of a yonder star, not the flashlight in hand.

Paul wrote, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8). God’s view is always the long term view and that should be ours as well.