Does the “slippery-slope” undermine the Holy Spirit?

01 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in pneumatology

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As believers study Scripture theological positions become nuanced, changed, or replaced with better or sometimes worse biblical conclusions. Every theological system has weaknesses. As students study the Bible, systems become nuanced as knowledge of His Word matures.

For example, Dispensationalism and Amillennialism changed over the last hundred years as proponents face challenges, issues, and study Scripture. In the course of refining and defining theology sometimes a student argues an unorthodox conclusion. The proponent of said position might have a valid critique of the orthodox position. It forces students to either defend or reexamine Scripture. Sometimes the new teaching seems to handle the text well but does not fit into a systematic theology. To complicate matters sometimes the new position blurs the line between conservative and liberal theology.

When an uncommon conclusion, yet one that seems faithful to the text, is reached, a common objection is heard, “He has opened the door to the slippery slope.” The fear is his followers will take the position further away from orthodoxy.

No pastor wants to lead people into false doctrine. But should pastors worry biblical teaching, especially one that blurs the line a little but is faithful to the text, will open the door to the slope? For example, if we grant God can change His mind, are we relinquishing the providence of God? If we say, “Christ died for all the world,” then are we opening the door to universalism? Do we need to worry, teaching through a specific text will drive people to bad theology?

Is it fair to worry about the slippery slope? Is worrying about the potential “danger” to a theological nuance something pastors should consider? Is this concern placing fear on the wrong object? Believers are told to fear the Lord. Does God say fear the results? The real question should be, “Will God preserve His children to the end and keep them orthodox?”

Will a Christian, who has the Holy Spirit, really depart from Scripture and go into error? “The Gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word I preached to you — unless you believed in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:1-2). Paul presents two important truths to salvation. First, “are you being saved” teaches a habitual, ongoing perseverance regarding a believer’s life. The believer is habitually being saved by God. I was saved, I am being saved, I will be saved — all three are true. Second, “if you hold fast to the word I preached.” A believer will continually cling to the truth of the gospel.

Therefore if a person hears a doctrinal nuance and then begins to blow it out of proportion and two years later is denying the Gospel, then we learn one truth: the person believed in vain and was never really saved. The believer will accept the nuance and accept it even if he or she does not understand how it fits into theology.

Should pastors trust the Holy Spirit? Does not the Holy Spirit teach people and affirm truth? God preserves His children. He teaches them. He opens a person’s mind to understand Him. God gives the Holy Spirit to believers. This is a New Covenant blessing (Ezekiel 36:27).

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.” (1 Cor. 2:12-13). The Holy Spirit teaches believers His truths. He interprets them and helps believers understand the truths. He allows believers to understand and know truth.

God teaches and preserves believers. He who begins a good work in a person, He will bring the believer to completion (Phil 1:6). Believers are completed. In order to grow and be conformed into His image believers have to agree with the truth. God will preserve believers.

God is in the business of bringing believers from dead in transgressions to glory. What is the pastor’s role? The pastor preaches God’s Word accurately. He preaches the meaning of the text (1 Cor. 2:13) and he speaks to please God (1 Thess 2:4). Pastors preach the Word in and out of season (2 Tim. 4:2). God preserves them. Therefore, let pastors preach the meaning of the text and trust the Lord will keep believers off the slippery slope!

Shepherds’ Conference and Serving . . . new year, same story

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Ecclesiology, Service

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Here’s a blog post from a year ago . . . but considering the time and current emphasis of our core group in Vegas here it is again, republished!
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This week 3000 pastors will attend the Shepherds’ Conference. For them, it will be a time of spiritual refreshment, encouragement, conviction, exhortation, and fellowship. Logistically this does not happen without a lot of man hours both leading up to and during the week.

Monday the campus will be transformed with 600+ ants working on different tasks.To the outsider (or from an aerial view) it will look like chaos. But like ants, each one has a task that fits into the grand scheme of things. The result is a well-oiled machine providing meals, snacks, a coffee bar (both espresso and pour-over bar), shoe-shine stations, internet cafe, phone charging station, concierge, bookstores (yes, multiple), educational seminars, and of course worship! Wednesday morning 4000 people will be on campus to either volunteer or participate in the conference.

From an attendee perspective it is overwhelming. But think about this from a pastoral perspective . . . 600 of your people have taken time off from work or their daily lives to serve these men whom they most likely do not know! That is encouraging!!!! One of the unspoken or unthought-about encouraging factors is the volunteers who serve the pastors because they love Jesus.

People serving people in the church faithfully encourages pastors (whether they be your sheep or someone else’s sheep). But does participating in a conference mean you serve the church? Do you have to be one of 600 volunteers to consider yourself involved?

On one hand the answer is yes. Volunteering for an event, hosted by your church, serves the local body. A person loves Jesus, is committed to this particular ministry, volunteers, trains, prepares, and serves others. But does that make someone a servant?  Not necessarily.

Consider, you can sign up, serve on Wednesday, go home, attend every Sunday, and not be involved in your church until next year on Shepherds’ Conference Wednesday. You can simply walk into church every Sunday, sit down, leave, go home and make this your weekly routine. Someone can ask you, “Do you go to church?” “Yes, every Sunday for 20 years. I even serve at our annual Shepherds’ Conference.”

But are you involved? Ask the NT authors what it means to be involved in the local church. They say nothing about filling out a volunteer sheet, just showing up on Sundays, or  having a title or specific task (like greeter, usher, snack coordinator, musician).

Instead, NT authors say things like,

  • “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal 6:2)
  • “But to each one of us a gift was given (grace is translated gift here) . . . for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ . . .” (Eph 4:7, 12)
  • “Encourage one another day after day, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Heb 3:13)
  • “For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. And we desire each one of you (all) show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish (dull) but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb. 6:10-12)
  • “Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” (Heb 10:24-25)

All of these Scripture references command and encourage the believer to be actively involved in other believer’s lives. This means we need to know others and spend time with them. You can not have a friend if you never say hi to them, know where they live, or spend time with them.

God equips every believer for the purpose of working in the church to help mature other believers and thereby maturing the church. Believers are to know other believers well enough to be able to confront sinfulness, encourage, exhort, help, and serve others.

We should know others well enough to contemplate throughout the week who and how we can encourage, serve, and love others. This is not just a Sunday morning thought, but something we spend time praying and thinking about. The Bible emphasizes serving and loving others within your church. Every letter was written to a church to encourage those in the church how to live and love. The author of Hebrews connects serving the church with sanctification (6:9-12). Those who don’t serve and love others will become dull / sluggish. But those who do habitually serve and love others will grow in maturity.

The emphasis on serving is broad enough to include taking time off from work to serve at a conference, but specific enough to indicate both habitual practice and relationship oriented.  Therefore as a pastor I am thankful for those who sacrifice their time to serve at this conference. Yet I am also encouraged by those I know, who cannot take time off to serve, but show up and invest their lives in others within the local church. Their faithfulness and habitual love prove they are full-time servants!

Jason

Pastors: know and worship the Lord

11 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Shepherding

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Every week we stand in the pulpit and declare, “Thus says the Lord!”. It is a treasure and joy to preach the Word and tell people the good news who IS our Lord and Savior! We have the privilege of feeding the sheep Him. We present Him every week. We stand in the gap as ambassadors! Our goal is to be filled with the Spirit communicating the depths of Him. We desire to be filled with His wisdom and understanding so that the people feast on Him not our man-contrived wisdom!

Preaching is a privilege and honor done by men gifted by Him to proclaim Him. He, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, gifts men to preach and proclaim His Word. From the beginning of time God choose the voices that will declare Him to lost, hurt, and saved sheep. Continue reading »

Pastor, take time to train up godly men so that you can devote your time to prayer, the ministry of the Word, and shepherding

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Discipleship, Evangelism, Preaching, Shepherding, Teaching, Uncategorized

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I’m noticing a trend in pastoral ministry that may not be new but it may not be valid. When reading Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor some years ago, I was struck with an aspect of his care for his fold. There would be constant visitation, constant prayer, and constant studying of his word to care for the sheep. I am noticing a trend. The pastoral office is moving away from time in a chair and time with people to a rally-leading, church organizing, administrator who preaches.

Now I know full and well there is an amount of administration that needs to be finished by the weeks end. There is an expectation of the Pastor to constantly organize new events, new programs, and new innovations in order to reach unbelievers. This trend, if I’m seeing it correctly, is not a healthy vision of the ministry. The reason does not reside in the Pastor doing administration, organizing events, etc., but in the Pew’s expectations of the pastor. It’s the pastor’s job to reach the unbeliever. It’s the pastor’s job to organize next months Easter program. It’s the pastor’s job to “you name it.”
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Pastor, love your wife and your children…and your dog

29 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Preaching, Service, Shepherding, Teaching

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The pastoral office is dear to my heart. It is arduous, yet so rewarding. It is painful, yet so fulfilling. It is a wonderful office and the men fulfilling those roles are to be commended. For Paul, those desiring this office, “desire a noble task” (1 Tim 3:1). Slowly, over the course of the following 2–3 months, Jason and I want to provide encouragements to the pastor, provide a basic outline of pastoral duties, and try to be a voice for any church going reader to view the pastoral office from a different vantage point.

Our goal is not necessarily to reproduce various works on the office of Elder or to “recreate the wheel” in describing their role. Moreover, when reading through the Pastoral Epistles, it would be difficult to narrow down a set of “7 Marks of the Pastor.” We don’t want to be reductionists, we don’t want to take the place of other men currently in your life, but we want to be a written voice, from afar, shouting, “Stay the course.”

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Preaching and Planting: The two go hand in hand

24 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in Ecclesiology, Preaching, Shepherding

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Much has happened over the last few months! This has been a time of great blessing for the three authors. Ken has been called into a ministry to those in the Navy. Shawn is now pursuing his doctorate in Louisville (Some fly-over state) :) . In November I was called to pastor a church plant in Las Vegas, Cornerstone Community Church. My transition is still underway, but the desire to get writing again prompts this action.

Shawn and I are currently thinking through a series on pastoral ministry. This issue is extremely prevalent in my mind right now as I transition from part-time to full time ministry. Already the desire and temptation to be stretched in 1,000 different directions is prevalent. Add all the chores involved with moving, and life is crazy. Life right now has three focuses (in no particular order): shepherd the family, shepherd the church, and get moved in. All three can easily be a full time job.

As we move forward with the church plant a few questions seem to come to mind. “Where do we begin?” “What should our focus be on?” “How do we grow?” “Where are you located?” “How can you build a ministry without a premier location?” Considering our (all three authors’) convictions are to minister according to His Word, the natural starting place for me is Scripture. Continue reading »

New Year’s Ambitions: A past year’s reflections, a new year’s anticipations

31 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Shepherding

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A number of years ago, I was cut to the heart by The End for Which God Created the World. This book, to date, outside of Scripture has had the deepest, most influential shaping of my affections, my mind, and the shaping of my theology. Subsequently led me to read other works by Jonathan Edwards. His Resolutions brought more conviction, possibly man-made conviction, than expected. Looking back on his resolutions, I’m thankful for him to do these but they possibly could produce a false sense of guilt.

I’ve never been a person who is interested in New Year’s resolutions. I find that the ones that I make last only a few weeks, at most, and are typically superficial. This media-like phenomenon, because I’ve never really met a person who takes them too seriously, strikes at the heart of behavior modification. A number of years ago, I was pressed with this idea as it crosses sanctification. The affections must change prior to any external change; therefore, a resolve to do something, because it is the New Year, is primarily behavior modification and will most likely not last.
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