I just returned from a one day retreat with the leadership team of East Point Church.  As I grow closer to these men and sense their passion for God and the vision that is East Point Church, I continue to be amazed that God has been so gracious and loving to me so as to put me in with such good men.  Even as I witness their grow in the gospel, I am challenged and encouraged to be growing as well.  I really get a sense that I am loved by them, and I pray that they will know that the feeling is mutual. 

The retreat was for a brief time of vision casting, priority setting, relational accountability, gospel encouragement, and extended prayer for and with one another.  By God’s grace we were able to accomplish all we desired and more.  One of the items on the agenda was to share the need to stem the tide of professionalism in the ministry.  One of the great temptations for a church plant is in seeking to do things well and have people desire to join, you may find yourself seeking to please people more than God.  You find yourself promoting what you are doing more than the gospel and who Christ is. 

One brother in our group reminded us that professionals do two things:  1).  They seek to impress people; 2). The seek to promote themselves.  Falling into these two dangerous pits is easy for church plants because you so need people, and thus you try to impress them with your professionalism.  Also you need to distinguish yourself from other churches so you promote what you do as more professionally done than others.  To this end, we really had to search our hearts and motivations.  We praised God for keeping us from this pit thus far, but we also admitted that in many ways we were creeping closer and closer and could easily fall in if we did not intentionally pull back.

Rather than impress people and promote ourselves, we need to take some biblical admonitions to heart concerning the ministry.   Paul reminds us in 2Cor. 4:5-7 that as faithful ministers “we proclaim not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and with ourselves as servants for Jesus’ sake….For we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”   In other words, we reminded each other, according to the grace of God, “Brothers, We Are Not Professionals.” 

Yes, that is the title of a book by John Piper, which provided some inspiration for our discussion.  The following quote from Piper challenges us to remember our calling, and to be willing to live worthy of it:

We are fools for Christ’s sake.  But professionals are wise.  We are weak.  But professionals are stong.  Professionals are held in honor.  We are in disrepute.  We do not try to secure a professional lifestyle, but are ready to hunger and thirst and be ill-clad and homeless.   

This evening, I am more thankful to God for the men and women of East Point Church than I have ever been.  God uses them to love me, stretch me, challenge me, and remind me that He is in control.  Church planting is hard enough without trying to be a professional about it.  Thank God someone reminded me that the church has only one professional, namely Christ himself.  His professionalism as Lord and Savior is profession enough for me. 

I have mentioned my brother in this space before.  I mention him again because he continues to be an enigma (though we know that there really is nothing enigmatic about sin).  He is a man who lived his life full of passion and the pursuit of desires such that they finally lead him to prison with a life sentence.  Yet, his passion for writing and communicating has not wained.  In fact since I built him a blog, his pursuit seems to have been inflamed.  Good for him.  Today I received in the mail an autograph copy of his latest novel, The King of Pearl.  To my surprise, this is what he writes on the Dedication Page:

“This book is dedicated to my first child – aborted in 1971.  Words cannot absolve me, his mother, nor the madness that visited us.  Now sorrow visits with me.  It is a sorrow like no other in that it grows by the year.  One day, it may be overwhelming.”

Would you pray with me that the sorrow and burden so overwhelms him that like Christian he flees to the cross where mercy is great and grace is free?  Might his sorrow be unto repentance and might he come to see that what words can not do Christ is more than able and willing to do.

I have the privilege of occasionally contributing to Comment Magazine, a publication seeking to build a Christian intellectual, artistic, and culture-making community animated by the gospel: serving the people of God seeking the shalom of our cities (Jeremiah 29).  Comment is a good publication and well worth your time and investment.  To wet your appetite for the magazine, allow me to point you to an interview I recently did with them.  Hopefully it will spark your interest in some of the other, even more edifying, articles as well.  Here is part of the interview:

Comment: You are part of a fresh church plant in East Point, Georgia. We know you endorse the general argument for planting new churches offered by Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, but what in particular drew you and your family to the hard work of church planting?

AC: You speak rightly when you say hard work. Church planting is proving to be the most challenging and yet most rewarding venture of my Christian pilgrimage. When we first began, it was mostly out of a desire to see God’s kingdom spread and more people to come into the knowledge that is the grace of God in Jesus Christ. While this still motivates me, I also see the need for a continuing transformation and sanctification of my own heart. I am matured through church planting. I pray that God will use this church plant to change lives for his glory. God knows he is using it to change me.

(read more)

I think the most delightful and wonderful aspect to the creation account in Genesis is found in 2:21 – 23.  Here God had determined that Adam was not going to be fulfilled by himself.  Adam needed a partner, a companion, someone to share the days and nights with.  Thus, God caused a deep sleep to come over Adam and while he was sleep, God performed the most wonderful of surgeries.  He took from Adam all that was necessary to create for him a partner, a beautiful, attractive, and compelling companion.  When Adam awoke, God brought what he had created to Adam and in a word Adam said, “WOW!”  I can’t imagine what Adam saw or felt in a world that had not been touched by sin.  A woman today is enough to make us men say, “Wow.”  I can’t imagine what Eve would have made Adam say and feel.

As a church, it is our desire that we would have a church filled with WOW.  It is our desire that the women of our church would be beautiful, attractive, and compelling ladies.  Not because they are adorned in fine clothes or the latest accessories, but because they are Women Of the Word (WOW).  I pray that when people are exposed to the women of East Point Church, they inevitably say, “WOW.”  I pray that every husband would look at his wife and say “WOW.”  I pray that the younger ladies would look around at the older ladies in our fellowship and say “WOW.”  I pray that men would come to our church and not just look at our women, but listen to our women and say, “WOW.”

A church filled with WOW is a most glorious and good thing.  It brings glory to God and is good for His people.  Today I am really encouraged because I know our women desire the same thing.  This coming weekend is another opportunity as I our ladies seek to grow in their knowledge and understanding of Christ and the gospel.  As they meet monthly, the desire is to develop a community where we all are praising God for the blessings He has given us in the women of EPC.  As this continues to grow, like Adam all we can say is, “WOW!”

Someone recently interviewed me and asked the question, “What made you and your family take up the hard work of church planting?”  Part of my answer included the fact that initially it was the desire to see a church, which through the proclamation of the gospel, changed people lives.  While this is still a desire of mine, I am finding that God is using this church plant even to change me.  While my focus was and continues to be on the hearts and lives of others, God is doing a work in me that I did not anticipate.  He is changing me by bringing about so many unanticipated changes in our plants direction and scope. 

The one thing I can say has been absolutely consistent in every stage of this plant is that things change frequently.  It seems every week we are met with new faith-testing, God-ordained, Christ-glorifying challenges.  And as we meet these challenges by the grace of God, God strengthens us even as he stretches us.  When the old saints would say, “I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow,” I can not help but wonder if they had church planting on their minds. 

Today I am thanking God for the changes – in our church plant and in my heart.

The year long Modest Calvin Catechism Blog is blogging right along.  Today I posted commentary on Question Forty-Nine:

Before the birth of Christ, the angel announced to Joseph that Mary, his espoused wife, would bear a son and that the boy’s name would be Jesus, because he would save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). When the Son of God came into the world, his title was Christ, the anointed one, yet his name was Jesus, Jehovah saves. From the time of his birth to his resurrection and ascension on high, his anointing and appointing was for the glory of God in the salvation of his people.

His name meant salvation, and salvation is what he did. We are reminded in the Word of God that the blessed Son of God took on human form, humbled himself and became obedient unto the sacrifice of himself on the cross (Phil. 2:8). His sacrificial death was as the Lamb of God for the sin of the world (John 1:29). Yet, it was not his own sin, for he had none. Rather, he took on flesh and suffered the agony and pain of death for others. Or as the Scriptures say, “He died for us” (1Thes. 5:10). And in his death, resurrection, and ascension he has accomplished all things necessary for our salvation:   the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7), a clean conscience (Heb. 9:14), the cancellation of debt (Col. 2:14), reconciliation with God (2Cor. 5:18-19), access to the Father (Heb. 4:14-16), peace with God (Rom. 5:1), victory over this present age (Titus 2:11-14), the promise of eternal life (1Cor. 15:51-57), and every other spiritual blessing not mentioned by yours truly, but decreed by Heaven (Eph. 1:3).

No wonder they call Him savior!

One of my favorite Puritan titles is Richard Sibbes’ The Bruised Reed .  The metaphor is so vivid and illustrative of Christ and his mercies and grace toward sinners.  It is taken from Isaiah 42:3 and applied aptly to Christ in Matt. 12:20.  I love it because it reminds me of how Christ is with me, bruised and battered by my sins and how I should be with others, bruised and battered by sin as well.  No pastor should be long without a faithful reminder of the words of this little book.  Yet, even more, no Christian should go too long without being challenged by the way Christ is with him, and thus he is to be with others.

Just how is Christ with us?  Here is how Sibbes described it:

See the gracious way he executes his offices. As a prophet, he came with blessing in his mouth, `Blessed are the poor in spirit’ (Matt. 5:3), and invited those to come to him whose hearts suggested most exceptions against themselves, `Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden’ (Matt. 11:28). How did his heart yearn when he saw the people `as sheep having no shepherd’ (Matt. 9:36)! He never turned any back again that came to him, though some went away of themselves. He came to die as a priest for his enemies. In the days of his flesh he dictated a form of prayer unto his disciples, and put petitions unto God into their mouths, and his Spirit to intercede in their hearts. He shed tears for those that shed his blood, and now he makes intercession in heaven for weak Christians, standing between them and God’s anger. He is a meek king; he will admit mourners into his presence, a king of poor and afflicted persons. As he has beams of majesty, so he has a heart of mercy and compassion. He is the prince of peace (Isa. 9:6). Why was he tempted, but that he might `succor them that are tempted’ (Heb. 2:18)? What mercy may we not expect from so gracious a Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5) who took our nature upon him that he might be gracious? He is a physician good at all diseases, especially at the binding up of a broken heart. He died that he might heal our souls with a plaster of his own blood, and by that death save us, which we were the procurers of ourselves, by our own sins. And has he not the same heart in heaven? ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?’ cried the Head in heaven, when the foot on earth was trodden on (Acts 9:4). His advancement has not made him forget his own flesh. Though it has freed him from passion, yet not from compassion towards us. The lion of the tribe of Judah will only tear in pieces those that `will not have him rule over them’ (Luke 19:14). He will not show his strength against those who prostrate themselves before him.

Apparently some scientist are being persuaded that one of their ancestors, ”neanderthal man,” may have had the ability to speak.  Fascinating, huh?  Well, if they would be so bold as to ask, I can tell them what the man said when these scientist found him.  He said to them, ”God have mercy on you unbelieving neanderthals!”

This morning we introduced a new book to the men of EPC.  The book is  A Call to Spiritual Reformation:  Priorities from Paul and His Prayers by D. A. Carson.  If you have been around EPC for any length of time, you discover that we are a people committed to prayer for and with each other.  This aspect of our church plant has been a huge (I mean really big) encouragement to me.  None of us pray as we ought, but as a church planter I know that I do not pray as much as I should.  So being around people who pray and pray expectantly has been both a challenge and an encouragement.

Yet, even though we are committed to praying, we don’t always pray rightly.  Rightly praying, if it involves anything it involves saying in our prayers what God says in his word.  In other words, we pray most rightly when we pray the scriptures.  While our prayers can be filled with many things, we must at least make sure they are biblically based, with the priorities of God’s word.  Carson has stated the case well by looking at the prayers of Paul in the epistles and highlighting the apostle’s priorities and challenging us to have the same ones.  According to Carson:

...by and large, our thanksgiving seems to be tied rather tightly to our material well-being and comfort.  The unvarnished truth is that what we most frequently give thanks for betrays what we most highly value.  If a large percentage of our thanksgiving is for material prosperity, it is because we value material prosperity proportionately.

Guilty as charged!

Compare this with what Paul says to the Thessalonians:

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.  Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring (2Thess. 1:3-4)

I am praying that we would continue (even increase) in our prayers with and for each other.  Yet, I am also praying that our heart’s priorities in prayer would line up more with the priorities of heaven.

I recently heard the story of a man who was wondering how he was going to pay for his children’s tuition at the private School that they attended.  As he picked his children up from school, he was sharing with another parent that the troubling economy was hitting them hard and he was not sure how much longer his kids could continue in the school.  His kids enjoyed the school and he was pleased with it as well.  However, with money being tight they were going to have to look at some other options.  The gentleman with whom he share this information, understood well the situation.  The two men prayed together as they picked up their children and headed home. 

On the way home, however, something happen that put everything in its proper place.  As the man was driving home, no doubt still wondering what the next step for his family was going to be, suddenly out of no where a car sideswipes him, causing him to fear for his safety and the safety of his children.  The on-coming vehicle hit him in the left front and continued down the left side of the vehicle, and never stopped.  Before he knew what was happening he realized that he had been the victim of a hit and run.  After he collected himself and made sure the children were safe, he called the gentleman who had just prayed for him and thank him.  Thanked him for praying.  He told his friend that tuitions and fees don’t really matter, nor does the nature of the economy.  God had just saved them alive and with the blessings of faith, family, and friends, what more can a man ask for. 

This morning I am reminded that the things for which we are most concerned usually amount to nothing in the grand scheme of things.  The items that take up so much energy today, are but afterthoughts tomorrow.  They become items over which we laugh and wonder how we could have been so anxious when God has promised to take care of us so graciously and mercifully.   

Jesus said:  “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matt. 6:26)  Indeed we are!