Monthly Archives: August 2018

A Strategy for Delaying the Baptism of Young Children

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Article by Scott Daniel, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Holden, Maine – Original source here

It doesn’t get more nerve-wracking than flying with young children. Now let’s imagine you’re on a flight with your fussy two year old and, right before takeoff, the flight attendant comes over to inform you that you and your daughter will have to switch seats. You would probably assume this “request” was due to your daughter’s bad behavior—and so you might find yourself getting defensive: “Mrs. Flight Attendant, I understand why you want us to move, but she’s just had a long day and she’s only two and a half, and I really think she’s going to calm down once we’re in the air.”

But imagine she stops you mid-sentence and says, “Oh, it doesn’t have anything to do with that. You’re sitting in an exit row and she’s simply too young to carry out the responsibilities required of her.”

Relief, right? The flight attendant wasn’t saying anything bad about your daughter or your parenting. Simply, to no fault of her own, your daughter is too young to perform the required task for her position.

Now let me explain what this has to do with explaining to young children and their parents why they should hold off on baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and church membership until their child is older.

I’ll unfold the explanation in three steps.

STEP #1

The New Testament is clear that church membership, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper all go together. In other words, the person who participates in one should participate in the other two, and the person who isn’t ready for one isn’t yet ready for the other two.

Baptism brings someone into church membership (Matthew 28:19–20, Acts 2:41). The Lord’s Supper maintains that membership (1 Corinthians 10:16–17). This explains why there’s no New Testament category for someone who is baptized, but not a church member—or someone who’s a member, but isn’t taking the Lord’s Supper. All three go together.

STEP #2

The New Testament gives a single, one-size-fits-all description of church membership. There’s no female membership vs. male membership. There’s no Gentile membership vs. Jewish membership. There is no slave membership vs. free membership. And there’s no young children membership vs. adult membership.

There is, simply put, “membership.” And here’s the rub: New Testament membership includes tasks that are an unnatural fit for children. For example:

Submission to elders (Hebrews 13:17, 1 Peter 5:1-2)[1],
participation in the church discipline process wherein someone not only submits his own life and doctrine for congregational oversight (which can always lead to excommunication), but where he’s expected to be part of this process for others (which oftentimes requires hearing a certain degree of detail about these situations)
participation in the more common situation wherein a member is commanded to point out sin to another member (Galatians 6:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:14).
These tasks and more are commanded by the New Testament for all church members.

STEP #3

Therefore, if someone isn’t yet ready for the New Testament’s understanding of church membership, then they’re also not ready for baptism or the Lord’s Supper.

So, pastor, when a set of parents wants their child to be baptized or to receive the Lord’s Supper, don’t put the parents in the position of having to defend their child (the same way you’d have defended your daughter to a flight attendant). Instead, go the church membership route.

Along that route, you simply don’t have to make any judgment about their child’s relationship with Jesus. You don’t have to make a judgment about his or her spiritual maturity or love for the church. All you’re saying is that he or she is simply too young to carry out the responsibilities required of church members in the New Testament.

My flock is small, and I’ve only been pastoring for four years. But I hope you’ll find this approach to be as helpful as I have. If you approach the conversation with pastoral care and patience, then it’s likely families will come to the same conclusion as you.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Notice that, even though the Lord loves the way he’s set up the family where the husband is in charge of the household and the husband and wife are in charge of the children, he doesn’t paint a picture where pastoral care for certain members is mediated through a husband or father. Every church member is connected to the elders with a straight line, not one that zigzags through a parent or a spouse.

What Does A True Move Of God Look Like?

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What does it look like when there is a move of God in a Church…? in a locality?

Some people think the following is what it might look like (this is a direct quote from a recent meeting in Australia this week):

“It was really a beautiful night with Holy Spirit! We worshipped for a while and it was just nice, but we had a bit of a silent moment which turned into roaring laughter, at which point (two people named) started handing out chocolates that they had bought the day before! So of course that caused even more joy! The chocolates were Lindt ‘champagne’ flavour!! Haha. We were discussing later the prophetic symbol of champagne being a drink for royalty, it was so special. There was also lots of dancing! So much joy, I haven’t heard that kind of holy laughter since I was young, in Rodney Howard Browne meetings.”

Really? This was the Holy Spirit at work?

Forget the fact that absolutely NONE of this stuff can be found in the Bible… nothing of the kind happened in the Book of Acts.

I was a Pastor involved in this silliness for far longer than I should have been (in the 1990’s). People were always seeking the next new thing – the next novel experience. Some chased across town, states or even countries to find churches that said they had seen angel dust in the meetings. Some chased the “laughing” thing, flying to Toronto where “revival” had broken out in the Airport Church there – wanting to be “drunk” on God rather than intoxicated by an alcoholic beverage – hours on end were spent rolling on floors, laughing hysterically. The weirder it was (there were accounts of people ‘barking” and acting like animals), the more people thought God was surely at work.

Some of you (readers) have never heard of such things and this is all very strange and weird to you. That is because – IT IS VERY STRANGE AND VERY WEIRD. Its good you have not encountered this – but believe me, this was a “thing” in the 90’s, and some people still seek these kinds of manifestations as proof of God being among them.

No one wanted to say this was strange (out-loud anyway) because…. well… no one wanted to “grieve” the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees were guilty of blaspheming the Holy Spirit when they saw Jesus in action, saying that the power behind the miracles He was doing was the devil… and for sure, no one wanted to be a Pharisee.

But ladies and gentlemen – there is nothing wrong with asking “are any of these manifestations found in the Bible? Can you assure me that any of this has a basis in Scripture?” Nothing wrong at all!

In fact, if anyone were to ask Jesus or the Apostles to show where they were getting what they were doing by the Scripture, I don’t think they would have been in any way offended. When the Apostle Paul was teaching the Bereans, they were commended for checking his teaching out by the Scripture – commended, not rebuked. Here’s what we read:

Acts 17:10 The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed…

Paul could have said “Hey, I am an Apostle, trust me…” But he didn’t. He was very happy to find people who would test his teaching by the standard of the word of God, knowing this was the entire basis of his ministry anyway. He knew that Scripture was the basis for all he was doing and so he wasn’t fearful or threatened when people would go to the Scripture to examine his claims.

And the result was this – BECAUSE what Paul was teaching had its foundation in the word of God, those who checked this out, found his teaching there, and came to believe the message he brought – not because Paul was a super apostle, or had charisma coming out of his pours – but because what he taught was Biblical.

Just on the so called “Toronto Blessing” let me say this. The fruit of a move of God is seen over time. We can look back and see fruit – either good fruit or bad fruit. And sadly, when I see the leader of Toronto Church (John Arnott) embracing the Pope (and with him, his doctrines) as a brother in Christ… that for me in one photo op is the lasting fruit of Toronto – the gospel is unimportant – false gospels are embraced – all in the name of love, unity and the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit was at work – he would have made the gospel clearer to people, not fuzzy or blurred and certainly not discarded.

The Holy Spirit does indeed bring unity among brothers and sisters in Christ. No doubt of that. But never at the expense of the Biblical gospel.

There is a New Testament book entirely given over to this theme – the book of Galatians. And guess what? It is the Holy Spirit who inspired the book.

The book reveals false brothers, who add one work (happens to be circumcision) to the gospel (chapter 2) and at the same time says, “the fruit of the Spirit is love” (chapter 5). Yes, both of these concepts are found in the same book (Galatians). That is because there is no contradiction between the Holy Spirit giving people a love for the true Gospel and pointing out a false one and the fruit of the same Holy Spirit being love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and so on.

So if the silliness described is not a genuine move of God what does a real one look like?

A move of God is when people are awakened to their need of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. It is when they see the one true Sovereign and holy God as majestic, their sin as the treason it truly is, and, cut to the heart, are brought to a deep repentance and faith under the word of God by preachers who herald the word of God (because that is how faith comes, Romans 10). It is where preachers and congregants long for the word of God without dilution, without distraction, without replacement… where children in Christ are urged towards becoming adults in their understanding (1 Cor. 14:20) and can endure sermons which are more than a few minutes of pep talk or success principles, and entire communities are awakened to their need of God, wanting the true God for who He is, not a made up version that allows self to retain its rule on the throne of the heart.

Actually, a true move of God looks a lot like the Protestant Reformation. Without any fear of contradiction, the Reformation (while never perfect) was the greatest and most far reaching move of God outside of the book of Acts. Entire countries were brought under the powerful preaching of the word of God. Kings and Queens, Emperors and Rulers were shaken to the core as the people under their rule came to understand who was truly in charge… the Lord Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, who has all authority in heaven and earth. In a move of God the true gospel becomes center stage, based on the sure foundation of the Bible alone, justification (to be declared right in God’s sight by God) is by grace alone received through faith alone in Christ alone, all to the glory of God alone.

My observation – none of those who advocated the silliness described above – none… could articulate the biblical Gospel… and here is the big deception – they thought and continue to think – they are real pals with the Holy Spirit.

But the fact is, they have absolutely no interest whatsoever in what the Holy Spirit has inspired – no interest in the background information on the New Testament (check the bookshelves of the proponents – you won’t find any useful study material, and if you ever do, these kinds of books have not been opened in decades), no interest in hermeneutics (“what’s that?” they say) and no interest in making sure they are taking a passage of Scripture in its proper context. No – that kind of thing is just for folk who believe in “Father, Son and Holy Bible” as one man wrote to me.

BUT – here is the good news. God is doing much in the middle of all this. All over this world He is giving people a hunger to know Him truly, with open Bibles and with good study tools and prayer – asking God to open the Biblical text to the understanding, and to reveal the true God and true Gospel – one that saves sinners from the wrath to come. Yes, over and over, God is doing this on a global scale.

King’s Church is just a small local expression of what the Lord is doing in many churches, in multiple villages, towns and cities, in manifold countries in our world. He is raising up ‘ordinary churches’ who through the ordinary means of grace are making disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

No one is falling, rolling, laughing… and no one is bothered by that… it is not on their radar. No one is saying “the Lord told me this or that” unless with the next breath they recite a verse from the Bible.

And that is the point. All the sheep want is to be fed by the Great Shepherd and to know Him intimately through His word. Don’t get me wrong – these people are seeking – seeking with a passion, to know the true God and the true Gospel. When discovering His truth they seek to make the necessary application to their lives. They are caught up in the treasure of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, intimately, in and by and through His word. They want and seek nothing else.

When you or I encounter such a phenomenon – understand this my friends, we are witnessing a true move of the Holy Spirit of God.

It is happening. May it happen more and more!

For the fame of His name and His glory. Amen!

Why I Abandoned Seeker Church

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The testimony of Pastor Paul Carter – original source here.

I began pastoring in September of 1994 – right in the middle of the seeker sensitive craze. The first two churches I worked in were 100% on board with the program. We were contemporary, we were targeted, we had good signage and all our core values started with the letter ‘G’ – we were as seeker friendly as it was humanly possible to be.

Both those churches are gone now and the movement itself appears to be in terminal decline.

It was a season of my life but I am very glad that it is over.

There were a lot of good people in the movement and some very admirable motivations behind it but as I reflect on my experience it seems to me that the model was always doomed to fail for at least these 7 simple reasons.

1. Because you get what you fish for
The basic logic of the seeker sensitive movement was that we would get people in the door by playing contemporary music, singing contemporary songs, speaking contemporary jargon and addressing contemporary issues. Then at some unspecified point in the future we would transition into more meaty and substantial things.

It was your basic bait and switch operation and as you might imagine it never really worked out in practice.

The bottom line is that what you win people with is what you have to keep people with. If you market yourself as a church for people who don’t like church, then you can’t do churchy things without expecting significant pushback.

This is why most seeker churches never managed to exit the theological merge lane. If you sell them on Christianity Lite then you need to continue to offer Christianity Lite week after week after week. The logic of seeker church traps you in a spiritual reenactment of Waiting For Godot.

Count me out.

I’m all for front doors, but I’m also all for kitchens, hallways and dining rooms. Eventually you have to get to the meat but in the seeker churches I was a part of, it seems like we never did.

2. Because small groups aren’t the church
Of course the theory was that we would get to the meat in Small Groups. That was our mantra. We said that Sunday church was for visitors now and Small Groups would be for us. That’s what we said, but in truth I’m not sure how many of us ever believed that.

I must confess that I have had very few positive experiences in a Small Group. Most of the Small Groups I was forced to be a part of followed the same basic script. We got together, somewhat begrudgingly, once every other week except over the summer and anytime our meeting fell within 5 days of a Statutory Holiday. Which meant practically that we met 14-16 times a year.

We’d spend 15-20 minutes chatting and eating small cookies. Then there would be “a study”. The study was usually led by someone who had prepared while we were eating small cookies. His or her leadership usually involved reading the selected passage and then asking some version of the question: “So what do you guys think about that?” What people thought about that was often deeply disturbing. Thankfully the content portion was inevitably interrupted by the high needs person who insisted on turning every Small Group gathering into a personal therapy session. I usually zoned out during this portion of the meeting and fantasized about playing in the NHL.

After that we prayed, ate more cookies and went home.

It was generally not a transformative experience and it was certainly not a legitimate experience of church.

Small Group is not church.

Small Group is small and groupy – most of the Small Groups I was part of were organized around geography and demography – meaning we were all the same age and we all lived in the same middle class suburban neighbourhoods.

That’s not church.

Church is young and old, rich and poor, black and white, well educated and working class sitting side by side under the preached word of God and responding with praise, prayer and repentance. Continue reading →

Church Membership – The Necessity

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“Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people…” (Isaiah 56:3).

Wilhelmus à Brakel The Christian’s Reasonable Service vol. 2, pp. 55-60.

It is the duty of everyone who desires to be saved to turn to the church, making diligent effort to be accepted as a member of the church community.

First, this is God’s way whereby He leads the elect unto salvation. “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47); “Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from His people” (Isa 56:3).

Secondly, this has been the task of the apostles in accordance with their commission (Matt 28:19), as is to be observed in the entire Acts of the Apostles.

Thirdly, this is consistent with the nature of God’s children. As soon as they are converted, they cannot rest until they have been received into the bosom of their spiritual mother (Gal 4:26).

Fourthly, this is the consistent confession of the church of all ages, and particularly of churches of the Netherlands. In article 28 of the Belgic Confession we read: “We believe, since this holy congregation is an assembly of those who are saved, and that out of it there is no salvation, that no person of whatsoever state or condition he may be, ought to withdraw himself, to live in a separate state from it; but that all men are in duty bound to join and unite themselves with it.” We have elaborated on this in chapter 24.

Fifthly, the church is the glory of Christ. It is there that Christ is confessed and proclaimed throughout the world, being held forth as a banner upon a hill around which one must gather himself. This is the city upon a hill, and a light shining in the darkness. She is the means whereby the truth is made known and preserved, and the means unto the conversion of souls. Everyone is therefore obligated to facilitate this by joining himself to the church.

Motives for Joining the Church
In order that you may be stirred up and be active concerning this, calmly consider first of all that there are but two kings in this world, each having a kingdom: the kingdoms of Christ and of the devil, which are mortal enemies to each other. A third kingdom does not exist. Every person upon earth is either a subject of King Jesus or of the devil, the prince of darkness. No matter who you are individually, you are truly a subject of one of these two kingdoms. You are neither neutral nor a subject of both kingdoms simultaneously. Therefore, to which kingdom do you presently belong? What do you have to say for yourself? If you neither know nor have ever given this any thought, come and sit next to me for a moment; let us consider this matter, and then make a heartfelt and eternal choice. Whose subject do you wish to be? Whom do you choose to be your king?

If you choose the devil to be your king and to be subject to him—to do his will, to indulge in your lusts, to wallow in your sins as a swine in the mire, to seek those things which are upon earth, to satisfy your lusts, as well as for leisure and entertainment—o let it be. Enjoy it to the fullest as long as you have the opportunity. “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes” (Eccles. 11:9); “…love the world…all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life…” (1 John 2:15-16). If therefore by your very deeds you reveal yourself to be a subject of the devil, be also not ashamed to bear the name of such a subject. Own, acknowledge, and confess the devil to be your lord and master. Trust in him, and delight yourself in the fact that you will eternally be with him in the lake that burns with brimstone, where the smoke of torment will ascend forever and ever.

Someone may think, “This is stated too blatantly. Christ must be our King. Even if we seek our own pleasure, conform to the will of Satan, and live a distinctly worldly life, the devil is not therefore our king.” To this we respond, “He most certainly is!” If you in turn respond, “Christ is nevertheless our King,” we reply, “He most certainly is not!” Listen to what Paul says: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness” (Rom 6:16).

Therefore, if in truth you neither wish the devil to be your king nor to have your portion with him in outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 25:30), then resolutely, without reservation, and without recantation resign from his service, and with all your heart bid the devil’s kingdom farewell, forsake all sin and the lusts of the flesh, and enter into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus. Receive Him as your sole and sovereign King. Do this not only verbally, externally, by way of approximation or by way of sudden impulse, but consciously and in truth. Continue reading →

Biblically Directed and Informed Worship

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Dr. Ligon Duncan:

The congregation that aims to be biblically directed and informed in its approach to public worship will gather weekly on the Lord’s Day for Bible reading, Bible preaching, Bible praying, Bible singing and biblical observance of the sacraments. These things will be at the core of what they do in public worship. This means the following for biblically-directed congregational services of worship.

They will read the Bible in public worship. Paul told Timothy “give attention to the public reading of Scripture” (1 Tim. 4:13) and so, a worship service influenced by the teaching of Scripture will contain a substantial reading of Scripture (and not just from the sermon text!). The public reading of the Bible has been at the heart of the worship of God since Old Testament times. In the reading of God’s word, He speaks most directly to His people.

They will preach the Bible in public worship. Preaching is God’s prime appointed instrument to build up his church. As Paul said “faith comes by hearing” (Romans 10:14, 17). Faithful biblical preaching is to explain and apply Scripture to the gathered company, believers and unbelievers alike. James Durham put it this way: “This is the great design of all preaching, to bring them within the covenant who are without, and to make those who are within the covenant to walk suitably to it. And as these are never separated on the Lord’s side, so should they never be separated on our side.” This means expository and evangelistic preaching, squarely based in the text of the word of God.

People who appreciate the Bible’s teaching on worship will have a high view of preaching, and little time for the personality driven, theologically void, superficially practical, monologues that pass for preaching today. “From the very beginning the sermon was supposed to be an explanation of the Scripture reading,” says Hughes Old. It “is not just a lecture on some religious subject, it is rather an explanation of a passage of Scripture.” “Preach the word,” Paul tells Timothy (2 Tim 4:2). “Expository, sequential, verse by verse, book by book, preaching through the whole Bible, the ‘whole council of God’ (Acts 20:27), was the practice of many of the church fathers (e.g., Chrysostom, Augustine), all the Reformers and the best of their heirs ever since. The preached word is the central feature of Reformed worship.”

They will pray the Bible in public worship. The Father’s house “is a house of prayer” said Jesus (Matthew 21:13). Our prayers ought to be permeated with the language and thought of Scripture. Terry Johnson makes the case thusly: “the pulpit prayers of Reformed churches should be rich in Biblical and theological content. Do we not learn the language of Christian devotion from the Bible? Do we not learn the language of confession and penitence from the Bible? Do we not learn the promises of God to believe and claim in prayer from the Bible? Don’t we learn the will of God, the commands of God, and the desires of God for His people, for which we are to plead in prayer, from the Bible? Since these things are so, public prayers should repeat and echo the language of the Bible throughout.” The call here is not for written and read prayer, but studied free prayer. Gospel ministers will spend time plundering the language of Scripture in preparation for leading in public worship. Continue reading →

Use Commentaries and Check Out Church History

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In one of his many books, Spurgeon made a comment well worth hearing. It comes from the preface to his book on commentaries. A book he wrote for pastors to convince them of the need to use commentaries and to engage in deep study for their sermon preparation. Spurgeon well knew the value of reading for preaching. He had a personal library of around 25,000 books. And this in the eighteen hundreds! And what’s more, he actually read most of them.

Well, in the preface to his book, he speaks to an objection to using commentaries. The objection goes something like this: As a Christian, I have the Holy Spirit. And I have his wonderful work of illumination. I don’t need commentaries, I don’t need to rely on the thoughts of others, I can go right to the source.

Now, here’s Spurgeon’s answer to that objection. And I quote, “I find it odd that he who thinks so highly of what the Holy Spirit teaches him, thinks so little of what the Holy Spirit teaches others also.”

In this quote, Spurgeon reminds us that the Holy Spirit is not an individual gift. The Holy Spirit is a corporate gift to the body of Christ, and he has taught others, and uses others to teach us. So Spurgeon’s argument reaches the conclusion: use commentaries. Don’t be arrogant, and don’t think you have a corner on the market of the Holy Spirit—you don’t.

Now, let’s expand Spurgeon’s argument and apply it to the church today and its relationship to church history. Here’s my paraphrase of Spurgeon’s argument: I find it odd that the church of the 21st century thinks so highly of what the Holy Spirit has taught it today that it thinks so little of what the Holy Spirit has taught the church in the first century, the second, the third, the forth, and so on, and so on.

The Holy Spirit is not unique to our age. The Holy Spirit has been at work in the church for the past 21 centuries. We could put the matter this way—it is rather prideful to think that we have nothing to learn from the past. And remember, pride is a sin. And also remember, as Scripture says, “pride comes before a fall.” We need a little humility. Enough humility to say we may not have all the answers in the present. Enough humility to say, we need the past, and enough humility to visit it from time to time, even if it is only for 5 minutes.

– Dr. Stephen Nichols

HT: Casey Peter Sandberg