Save the date for an evening of fun and fellowship. The name says it all — it will be a party on our front lawn. This is a great event to invite a neighbor, friend, or family member. It’ll be a relaxed atmosphere with good food, live music, fun things for the kids, and a great evening to hang out as a church family while welcoming others. We’d love for everyone to make it to this event. Saturday, Sept. 30th starting at 5pm.
We are pleased to announce that the Session has called Ben Tharp to serve as Minister of Youth & Family.
Ben will begin his tenure on September 1st! Ben is married to Elisa and both are recent graduates of Covenant Seminary. Ben and Elisa will be with us for a short visit beginning this Sunday. All parents of Trinity Youth and their children are invited to a special Meet & Greet with the Tharps this Sunday night at 5pm at Trinity Church. Normal Junior High youth group will follow at 5:45pm. The Tharps will also be present for the Senior High youth group meeting this coming Wednesday night. Join us in thanking the Lord for the addition of the Tharps and for the Hawkins who have done a wonderful job ministering to our youth over the last three years.
On the Value and Dangers of Tradition
From time to time we receive anonymous feedback in the church office on questions or concerns that members of our congregation have concerning church practices or ministries. Recently we received some feedback that essentially was asking a question about the appropriate dress code in worship.
First off, we are grateful for meaningful feedback and dialogue about important matters pertaining to church ministry and our elders and pastoral staff are happy to engage questions.
So, with that said, there are many levels of application regarding this question. One level has to do with what the preacher is expected to wear. Another level has to do with what the worship leaders or musicians or ushers or other ministry leaders (i.e. SS teachers, Nursery workers, greeters) are expected to wear. And still a third level has to do with what regular congregants are expected to wear.
To enter into this question we need to first note that the Bible itself has very little to say about what was worn by anyone in worship with the exception being the detailed and intricate notes about the garb worn by the priests in the Tabernacle in Exodus 28 and the exhortation to women regarding head coverings, jewelry, braided hair and fancy clothes in I Timothy 2.
The Exodus passage belongs to the ceremonial law of the Old Testament and is therefore of limited direct applicability today. The I Timothy passage was largely about women who had been involved in the fertility cult of Diana transitioning into Christianity either as authentic worshipers or frequent attenders of Christian worship services that Paul felt needed some guidance and instruction. This NT passage then has some applicability for us when it comes to our own dress codes in worship, but again, the applicability is in many ways more by principal than exact practice. In other words, it means something like this: people should not draw attention to themselves in worship since worship isn’t about them, its about God.
There is one other NT passage that we need to pay attention to before beginning to attempt to address the question that was recently raised. It’s found in Matthew 15:1-11.
15 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
In this text Jesus is taking up the concerns raised by a number of Pharisees regarding Jesus’ disciples dishonoring the tradition of the elders. Now, the “traditions of the elders” here probably means something more formal, like: the words and laws that have been formally written down by Jewish Elders over time and expected to be honored by participants in Judaism.
So, the Pharisees particular concern was that Jesus’ disciples weren’t going through the ceremonial washing of hands before they ate. This washing wasn’t like our mother’s exhortations to “wash up before dinner!” Instead, this washing was ceremonial and intended to bring those who practiced the washing into line with the kosher food laws that had been instituted by the Jewish elders over time, food laws that the NT makes abundantly clear have been abrogated (Acts 10).
Now Jesus takes up the concerns of the Pharisees by telling them that they are missing the point when they insist on honoring the “traditions of the elders” and actually going well beyond the requirements of scripture, and in so doing, are actually breaking the commandments of God themselves.
He elaborates further by calling to mind the words of Isaiah and focusing the Pharisees on the matter of the heart. Without hearts completely focused on God, their worship was in danger of being offered in vain.
So, Jesus is fairly critical of the traditions when they are elevated to an improper place and used to impugn the spiritual lives of those who do not observe them in the same way as generations before.
Paul certainly agrees with Jesus but he argues, in some ways, that traditions can be honored for the sake of the higher purpose of winning people to Christ (i.e. I Cor. 9:19-23). That is, it may sometimes be wise to adopt a tradition in order to show people the way to Christ. In Acts 18:18 Paul goes so far as to take what seems to be a Nazirite vow and shave off his hair for some reason pertinent to his ministry or spiritual life.
So, the scriptures are both affirming of traditions (when they are done for higher purposes) and critical of traditions (when they are artificially elevated to the level of God’s truth).
These are excellent boundary markers for us whenever we need to work through tough questions of application regarding something like appropriate dress for worship. On the one hand, we should be sensitive to cultural values and on the other we should not allow cultural values to distract us from the matter of the heart of a true worshipper.
One test that we might apply to discern whether or not our view on something that goes on at church is a tradition or a mandate is whether the thing in view is able to be universally practiced in the church. So for instance, should and can churches everywhere have something akin to a sermon? The answer is clearly “yes.” Should churches everywhere sit in pews? The answer is clearly, no. Many churches cannot afford pews and many others must meet in homes for reasons of persecution. Should churches everywhere sing? Yes! The Bible calls us to sing. Should churches everywhere use electric guitars or organs? No. Its just not possible.
So, in this illustration, preaching and singing are not matters of tradition, they are biblical mandates that can be observed in some basic sense. Sitting in pews or using certain musical instruments are clearly traditions that vary from culture to culture and cannot be elevated to the level of mandated application.
I think the same is true for a dress code in a church. Clearly, there is no biblical mandate for how a minister or musician or greeter should be dressed, therefore we must hold this matter lightly and without judgment. That said, the way a person dresses does carry a message of its own and should be carefully considered according to the principle of the weaker brother in Romans 14.
In terms of trying to live our ideas about dress codes out in a modern church setting, I might suggest that we wrestle with the following five ideas.
Pastor Chris
The Missouri Department of Transportation has begun renovations on the Big Bend bridge over I-270. Currently, crews are closing one lane overnight between 8pm and 5am through late May to prepare the bridge for work. Crews may also close one lane across the bridge between 9am and 3pm during the day for preliminary lighting work.
Crews will close the bridge in late May for three months to remove the driving surface of the bridge and replace it. The bridge is slated to close on May 25 and should reopen before classes begin in August. While the bridge is closed, drivers will be able to use the ramp from the east side of the bridge to northbound I-270 and the ramp from southbound I-270 to the west side of the bridge. For more info you can visit the MoDOT website.
I am always very reticent to speak directly into current events for fear of being misunderstood, but from time to time, a pastoral reminder is needed. I don’t issue this pastoral reminder from a position of pride, but one of human weakness and failures in my own efforts to do what God calls me to. In this regard, I am reminded of the promises of the gospel of grace for me and for all of us who are clinging to the cross of Christ alone as we try to make our way through confusing and difficult matters.
This week in our congregational prayer meeting we read the words of the Apostle Paul as he gave counsel to Timothy, the young pastor of the church of Ephesus, regarding a number of things. In particular, the section we were focusing on had to do with Paul’s counsel to the church regarding how it interacted with the power structures of its day.
Before we look at the words of I Timothy we should take a moment to recall that the power of the day was the Roman Empire which history tells us was, along with some of its virtues, riddled with the worship of false gods, gross sexual immorality, violence and injustice.
In light of this, one might have imagined that Paul would’ve called the church to stand up and fight for its rights and make demands for changes to public policy through public protestation. But notice what Paul actually says to the believers in Ephesus in I Timothy 2:1-5.
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Let me just point out a few important things.
First, he exhorts believers to pray for everyone, including pagan and unjust powers. Second, he indicates that it is the quiet and peaceful life accompanied by holy living and dignity that is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior. And third, the reason that he proscribes this course of action in the face of injustice and ungodliness is that it is the very best route toward winning the attention of the unbeliever to a hearing of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Fast forward to today.
We too are living in a secular age and we are governed (in large part) by secular thinking and, at least, secularized people. In many cases we are witness to clear injustice in the systems of our society. We also see gross immorality and violence and bigotry. Our age, I think we could agree, is not significantly different than that of the first century Roman empire in terms of its moral quality.
But as I look around today, I am seeing fewer and fewer Christian people taking the counsel of Paul in regard to how we position ourselves within this world. Instead of living quiet and godly lives full of the protest of prayer, more and more Christian people (especially in the younger generations) have determined that the way to real change is through public protest, placards, facebook diatribes and civil disobedience. Earnest and faithful christian people are joining in protest movements more than ever while at the same time church prayer meetings remain miniscule in size.
I applaud the deep convictions of those who are willing to join in these protests and do not wish to question their motives at all but what, may I humbly ask, is the impact of this on those on the opposite side of various issues than us when we protest?
Consider the answer for yourself. When you see someone holding a pro-abortion sign or refusing to stand for the national anthem or blocking city streets to traffic (let alone perpetrating an act of violence) to protest government positions on refugees or the rights of minorities does it make you feel empathy and concern for the movement being represented? No! Even if you agree with the concern, the method of drawing attention to it often makes you more rigid and more angry and more unwilling to listen. Dare we consider that the reverse may also be true? When a pro-abortion advocate sees christians marching for life (the right cause for sure!) and carrying placards decrying the sin of abortion do we think it softens their heart toward us and the rights of the unborn or makes them more rigid?
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not against marches or carrying signs and I surely and certainly am not for abortion, racism or the mistreatment of refugees. What I am against is the insipid conviction that it is marching and protests and placards and civil disobedience (even to the point of violence) that are going to win people’s hearts to good and righteous causes let alone the grand and glorious cause of the gospel of Christ Jesus.
Instead of a movement of protest, we need a fresh movement of prayer. Instead of a movement of angry marches we need a movement of dignified godliness (I Tim. 2:1-5). Instead of publicly marching to plead for our civil rulers to change the system we need to plead with God to change their hearts and ours (2 Chron. 7:14). And if we believe that marching and carrying a sign can go along with this, then carry on! Only, make sure you do not, as a believer, allow yourself to be confused with those who are radically opposed to the cause of Christ in their conviction and methods (2 Cor. 6:14).
What Paul says to Timothy above is that what will truly change hearts is when people who do not agree with you on an issue see you bowed in humility, gentleness and authentic care and service of others. Perhaps then they might actually be willing to let you speak instead of shouting you down. And if they do shout you down, Jesus has spoken about that too (See Matt. 5).
Aside from death and taxes there are very few things in this life that come to us automatically, not the least of which is a meaningful and intimate relationship with God.
This is an important reminder to us whenever we make the effort to refocus on spiritual formation as it can be easy to conclude that if we simply read a few books on personal spirituality and increase our bible reading and prayer time that we will, automatically, find a deeper connection with God.
Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.
As A.W. Tozer writes in The Pursuit of God…
“The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and the abnegation of all things.”
Later, in this same book, he expands this thought, focusing on the immense barrier that exists between us and true and meaningful intimacy with God. He calls it an ancient curse, by which he is referring to the spiritual pride and arrogance that constantly suggests to us that we know better than God.
“The ancient curse will not go out painlessly; the tough old miser within us will not lie down and die obedient to our command. He must be torn out of our heart like a plant from the soil; he must be extracted in agony and blood like a tooth from the jaw. He must be expelled from our soul by violence as Christ expelled the money changers from the temple. And we shall need to steel ourselves against his piteous begging, and to recognize it as springing out of self-pity, one of the most reprehensible sins of the human heart.”
Tozer’s prescription for spiritual intimacy with God is hardly one that most of us would choose to undertake willingly. Nor should or could we. One cannot simply choose to undergo a painful trial, this is God’s work to do and the truth is that He will use whatever means He deems most appropriate to jolt us out of our spiritual malaise and more often than not this jolt is, indeed, going to be jarring.
Jarring experiences are often the most effective means to wake us up to our spiritual malaise. As C.S. Lewis says in The Problem of Pain…
“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
In my own life I can think back to a few jarring and painful experiences that the Lord used to deepen my faith. One was the divorce of my parents. Another was a devastating knee injury. Still another was the end of a long-term relationship. My list could go on but what all these jolting experiences had in common was that they made my soul desperate enough to listen for God.
Let me invite you to think back with me to the most recently jarring experience you’ve had in your own life. What did you hear from God in the midst of it? If you recall nothing, have you wondered why? If you heard something, what has happened in your life in response? Did you change?
Tozer leaves us with a painfully insightful question about these jarring moments…
“So we will be brought one by one to the testing place, and we may never know when we are there. At that testing place there will be no dozen possible choices for us; just one and an alternative, but our whole future will be conditioned by the choice we make.”
Are you ready for God to change you?
(Written by Pastor Chris)
One of the great heroes of Christian faith in the last century was C.S. Lewis, whose words still feed the souls of many today. Some may not know that while Lewis was born into a family of faith, by the age of fifteen he had rejected it all and become a convinced atheist. That atheism even led him, temporarily, into the pursuit of the occult and other mystery religions while studying at University. Later, having now graduated to a professorship at Oxford, he was engaged directly by Christian members of the faculty like JRR Tolkien and author’s like G.K. Chesterton. The more he allowed himself to enter into meaningful conversations on this most important topic, the more he could feel the approach of God. Finally, God’s approach became so imminent that Lewis had no recourse but to bow. He tells the story of his conversion this way:
“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen (Oxford), night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words “compelle intrare,” compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.” C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
Lewis’ “restlessness” prior to this experience was only attributable to the simple fact that he was not yet converted. Now, this may not be the reason for the restlessness that most of us feel, but we must pay homage to the fact that it could be the reason for some. Unless we are truly converted, we can never be truly at rest!
The 23rd Psalm is about God and his people, but it parallels the experiences of shepherds and sheep. Phillip Keller, who grew up in East Africa, and labored as a shepherd there and later in Canada wrote a wonderful little book entitled, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. I want to quote him at length as we begin our yearlong meditation unpacking one great line from that Psalm, “He restores our souls.” Just what does this mean?
Keller connects the restoration of the soul by God to a shepherd’s lifting up of a “cast sheep.” A cast sheep is one that has fallen over and cannot stand itself up. Listen to what he says as we enter into a year long consideration of the various ways in which Christ Jesus, the Good Shepherd, restores our souls.
“As soon as I reached the cast ewe my very first impulse was to pick it up. Tenderly I would roll the sheep over on its side. This would relieve the pressure of gases in the rumen. If she had been down for long I would have to lift her onto her feet. Then, straddling the sheep with my legs I would hold her erect, rubbing her limbs to restore circulation to her legs. This often took quite a little time. When the sheep started to walk again she often just stumbled, staggered and collapsed in a heap once more.
“All the time I worked on the cast sheep I would talk to it gently, “When are you going to learn to stand on your own feet?”—“I’m so glad I found you in time—you rascal!” And so the conversation would go, always couched in language that combined tenderness and rebuke, compassion and correction.
“All of this pageantry is conveyed to my heart and mind when I read the simple statement, “HE restores my soul!”
“There is something intensely personal, intensely tender, intensely endearing, yet intensely fraught with danger in this picture. On the one hand, there is the sheep so helpless, so utterly immobilized though otherwise strong and healthy and flourishing; while on the other hand there is the attentive owner quick and ready to come to its rescue—ever patient and tender and helpful.
“One of the great revelations of the heart of God given to us by Christ is that of Himself as our shepherd. He has the same identical sensations of anxiety, concern and compassion for cast men and women as I had for cast sheep. This is precisely why he looked on people with such pathos and compassion. It explains his magnanimous dealing with down and out individuals for whom even human society had no use. It reveals why he wept over those who spurned his affection. It discloses the depth of his understanding of undone people to whom he came eagerly and quickly, ready to help, to save and to restore.”
Phillip Keller, A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm. 63-64
Our 2017 preaching theme is “He restores our souls (Ps 23:4).” But how will the Lord do it? Will he send a bolt of lightning from heaven? All things are possible with God, but this isn’t probably the means that He will use to sharpen each one of us spiritually. More likely, if there is going to be substantial spiritual growth in 2017 for any of us, it is going to occur in that mysterious place where God’s sovereignty and human responsibility meet.
Now I don’t mean to suggest that God’s sovereignty and human responsibility are two utterly separate things…they are not. They are intimately interwoven, like the threads in a tapestry. On the one side you see the beauty of God’s overarching plan and on the other the seemingly chaotic intermingled and intertwined multicolored threads. We human beings are normally confined to seeing that chaotic underside while only God is privy to the masterpiece on the other.
So, when I speak of the mysterious place where divine sovereignty and human responsibility meet, I am speaking of the moments in which God reveals to us what He wills (most often by His word) and in which we must correspondingly act.
One great example of this is in the book of Joshua where in several places we see God laying out the plan for Joshua, but Joshua still needing to put together the details of how his army will accomplish it (i.e. Joshua 8:1-29).
With that background in mind, I want to ask you, “What’s your plan for 2017?” Even more specifically, “What’s your plan for spiritual refreshment in 2017?” That God desires us to each have a deep and intimate relationship with Him is undeniable. That God is at work weaving a tapestry to accomplish this is also indisputable. But the fact remains, we each are called to pursue a plan toward this end.
I like the way that A.W. Tozer says it in the book that we will all be reading (Lord willing) this year. He says…
“What God in His sovereignty may yet do on a world scale I do not claim to know: but what He will do for the plain man or woman who seeks His face I believe I do know and can tell others. Let any man turn to God in earnest, let him begin to exercise himself unto godliness, let him seek to develop his powers of spiritual receptivity by trust and obedience and humility, and the results will exceed anything he may have hoped in his leaner and weaker days.” A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
So, “what’s your plan?” Will you read through the bible? Will you re-commit yourself to praying regularly, will you join a bible study that you’ve been neglecting, will you take that mission trip you’ve been putting off, will you seek out that person from whom you are estranged in order to confess and/or forgive, will you forfeit some time doing something you enjoy in order to create more space for spiritual reflectiveness?
There are a 1000 different ways to pursue God and we can’t do all of them. But we can do something.
So, “what’s your plan?”
This is the second year that we’ve attempted an over-arching preaching theme for Trinity. Last year our theme was “Who is my neighbor?” This year our theme is “He restores our souls!”
Now some have asked me whether or not its a good idea to have an annual preaching theme that becomes so central to the pulpit ministry of the church.
It’s a good question!
The heart of the question arises out of a fear of preaching becoming too eis-egetical. That’s a strange word, so let me explain.
Ex-egesis is reading out of something. Eis-egesis is reading into something. So, the fear is that when a church has an annual preaching theme the preacher is going to be compelled to be eis-egetical, that is, he will be forced to read his theme into every text he preaches, even if it is not there.
So, does an annual preaching theme risk too much eis-egesis?
My answer is a qualified “no.”
My qualification is that some themes can indeed be too eis-egetical. For instance, if I made the theme “Being good parents” it would be very tough to not become allegorical in interpreting certain texts. This is because “being good parents” is only a narrow part of the Bible’s message. On the other hand, if the theme fits a more fundamental biblical theme (i.e. grace, showing mercy) then it already appears in almost every part of the Bible anyway.
In terms of more specific reasons why I think a big picture preaching theme is ok, here are just a few thoughts.
First, the big theme must first be subservient to the local theme. We must place the local theme in its context and then prove, from the text, how that theme connects to the over-arching theme.
Second, there is a difference, in every sermon, between exegesis, illustration and application. Exegetical insights on a text should be fairly standard. Illustrative demonstration of a text’s teaching is going to vary, preacher to preacher. This is because the application of almost every text of scripture is manifold and tuned to the hearers particular context.
For instance, if we are teaching about sexual faithfulness from Matthew 5 and our audience is a youth group, the way we illustrate and apply the text will be very different than how we might do so at a marriage conference or even a mixed morning worship setting.
This applies to theme in the fact that often thematic preaching is aimed at contextual application. This is perfectly acceptable so long as the text has been adequately and contextually exegeted.
Third, the Bible still presents overarching themes, no matter what the narrow or local situation in a given text. Whether talking about Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac or the fall of the wall of Jericho, the bottom line is that both of these stories still speak of the grand overarching theme of God’s covenant faithfulness to His people. And not only this, but also his love for his people, his provision for his people (even miraculous) or even his attentiveness to the needs of his people.
This is why you could sit in ten different churches over ten different weeks and listen to ten different sermons on the same text and still come out every week with new and fresh insights to what a text means in a range of different applied contexts. Fundamental exegesis may not vary much but focal point of exegesis can. In other words, a preacher preaching on the fall of the wall of Jericho may take an angle focused on God’s call to faithfulness for his people or, an angle of the unfaithfulness and resistance of the people of Jericho. He might zoom in on Joshua’s role as the leader of God’s people or the particular function of the priests in wartime. The possibilities are quite wide, so long as the fundamental and over-arching purpose of the text is not mistaken for a particular point of preaching emphasis.
Fourth, its very possible to pursue an annual preaching theme either aggressively or passively. What I mean by this is that some weeks the theme may be heavily underlined in a direct way in a specific text. Other weeks, the theme may simply float overhead of the text, like a puffy summer cloud…always in our vision, sometimes casting a shadow, but never directly raining on us. It’s simply reminding us by its occasional shadow, that it is there.
This is the way that I think of annual preaching themes. Some weeks they will be heavy and close and specific, other weeks they will be like that puffy cloud.
I hope and pray that this year’s annual theme “He restores our souls” will resonate with us precisely because it echoes and enlightens the theme of God’s restoring grace for souls that feel sometimes adrift and thin. And at the same time, I pray that each text we preach will come alive with time tested exegetical and contextual insights that were acutely germane to the specific situation in which they were originally delivered. Both of these must be true in biblically faithful preaching.
