Free to Serve

"It's like a small group meeting, with the whole church"

A few years ago, we started a Sunday evening service at MVBC. I got a lot of strange looks when I told people we'd being doing this. In an evangelical world where some churches have literally created a drive-through service, and another church is dubbed the drive-in church, what we were doing actually adding a service where people would come, sit, listen, learn, pray, and sing? I had more than one conversation with a local church pastor who said, "Ya, we got rid of that service years ago."

Our Sunday evening service is not an pm version of the am service. It is shorter (we meet for an hour),we open in song (about ten minutes), we devote most of the time to prayer (we pray for about 35 minutes of sharing and actual prayer), and we hear from God's Word (a 15 minute devotional). 

It's kind of like a small group meeting for the whole church!

Last night we heard about a couple guys heading to Central Asia on a missions trip. We heard from a new member who is in college and is looking forward to getting involved at MVBC this Summer. We heard from a young woman who just graduated from high school, and we prayed for her next steps. We reflected on a wedding that was held the previous day. We prayed for an Elder who is battling leukemia. We prayed for a member going through marital difficulties. We got a report from a brother who is stationed in Hong Kong for a few months--and prayed for a new believer he is starting to meet up with regularly. Then, we humbled ourselves and ended the Lord's Day in just the right place--by having the Word of God applied to our lives.

It's kind of like a small group meeting, just with the whole church.

The Nature of Christian Community

Mark Seifred is a New Testament Professor at Southern Seminary. In the follow quotation, he explains what we all need to understand when we gather as the church. Namely, church is more than growing closer to one another; it is about growing closer to Christ:

The church thrives and grows, then, not by binding individuals ever more tightly to its earthly form, as if they existed only in order to come to our meetings and carry out our programs. We must not confuse the present, visible manifestation of the church with our eternal rest. Rather, the community thrives by binding each one more closely to Christ and to his will for her or him. We gather to worship and serve Christ, who sends each forth to different deeds of discipleship and witness in the world, and who will continue to do so until he comes again. In tasks such as these the life of the community is strengthened. Since it is Christ alone who is the basis of our fellowship, our participation in gathered community will depend on how firmly each of us is intent on Christ's purposes and not our own (Phil. 2:2-4).

Culture Change

We talk a lot about culture change at MVBC. That's what we want to see. We want to be a community that can both articulate the Gospel and model the Gospel. We want to both contend for the faith (Jude) and live a life of faith (1 Thess 2:8). 

This doesn't happen through organization. Organization is hugely important, but you can't organize conviction and love. Both are works of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The book to read on this is The Trellis and the Vine. The video below, by Timothy Lane, is helpful, too. He argues that before programs work, there needs to be a climate (i.e., culture) of godly communication, redemptive love, and practical burden-bearing.

So if you want to see community lived out the first thing to do is pray that you and your brothers and sisters are so gripped by the Gospel that you just can't help but model it.

 

"I'm a Sinner Saved" -- Gerry Chatham

A few weeks ago, one of our elders at MVBC was diagnosed with Leukemia. He immediately went on a round of chemotherapy in the hospital, and now visits a clinic each day for several hours for treatment. In a few days he will get the results of a test to see if he is improving or if the cancer is having its way.

Gerry is 73 years old. He grew up in Georgia, played baseball at Georgia Tech before majoring in journalism at Georgia State. After working as a reporter for what was then the Atlanta Journal newspaper, Gerry spent most of his life in publishing.

He married Carolyn in 1962 and they are getting ready to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Gerry came to Christ as a young man, and has been a member of Mount Vernon since 1999. In my brief time here, he has been a real encouragement. He is hungry to know the Word better, has organized evangelistic bible studies, and poured himself into dozens of boys through children's basketball. He has labored to see relationships built between younger and older members in the body. He is a faithful shepherd, one of our first elders.

At least for now, Gerry can't come to church--too many people carrying too many infections for his weakened immune system to tolerate. So at our last Church in Conference (a members' meeting) we decided to show a brief recording. In the following, three-minute video, Gerry says how he's doing, talks about the sufficiency of God's grace through this trial, the beauty of marriage, and the call for believers to rejoice in suffering. After all, as he put it, "I'm a sinner saved."

Gerry Chatham Interview from Mount Vernon Baptist Church on Vimeo.

 

 

Sunday Morning Reflections

1. I am Mephibosheth.

The day began for me with a great study from 2 Samuel 9. Dustin Butts taught on David who elevated the crippled son of his friend, Jonathan, to the table of the king. Mephibosheth was the outcast. He was lame. His family had lost the dynasty. Most kings would have cut off his head. But, instead, King David gave him a seat of honor at the table. As Dustin pointed out, what a tremendous picture this is of the gospel. I am undeserving and lame--yet God gave me a seat at his table. Amazing! 

2. Love is supreme.

Tony Carter preached from 1 Corinthians 13:8-13. Love is eternal--great things last. Love is universal--it never fails. Love is incomparable--faith and hope ride in the backseat, love drives! The message challenged me to love God and the congregation I serve more than the exercising of my own gifts. If we are really going to love one another, we need to know the love of Christ crucified and resurrected first. Many listening to the sermon may have appreciated Tony's reference to John Coltrane's 1964 album, "A Love Supreme." One of the greatest Jazz albums of all time.

 

Anthony J. Carter @ MVBC

Anthony Carter is preaching at MVBC this Sunday Morning. He is the pastor of East Point Church right here in Atlanta. He visited MVBC a couple of years ago, and I'm very glad that he's coming back to preach from 1 Corinthians 13. He sermon is entitled, "The Supremacy of Love."

Tony has produced a number of books including Experiencing the Turth: Bringing the Reformation to the African-American Church. He has thought a great deal about preaching. Here he encourages all churches to reclaim biblical truth in the Christian pulpit:

During the Reformation, the Protestant church developed five key phrases that defined the biblical faith. These five phrases have since served as a rallying cry for biblical Christianity. They are sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), solus Christus (Christ alone), sola fide (faith alone), sola gratia (grace alone), and soli Deo gloria (glory to God alone). These five phrases are not the sum total of the Christian faith, but they can serve as a worthy reminder and adequate guideline for the content of our preaching. One of the glorious ways in which the light of biblical truth could shine upon the Christian pulpit in general and teh African-American pulpit in particular would be for the light of the Reformation to be recovered in our pulpits. This could principally be done through a conscious consideration of the five solas in our preaching. Biblical, Reformed, experiential preaching will take them all into account. To do so faithfuly can do nothing but enhance and strengthen the preacher and the congregation.

 

9 Marks in Atlanta

My good friends from 9Marks are coming to Atlanta in October, but registration is already open. I was in DC when Mark Dever and Matt Schmucker first brainstormed this ministry. It has born fruit in my own life. I look forward to this time. Please join me in praying it will be an encouragement to all those who attend. More information to come!

Why Care About Elders and Deacons?

This Sunday morning I'm preaching through 1 Timothy 3:8-13. The text is about deacons. Last week we thought about elders. Why should you listen? Why should you care about this topic? Ten reasons:

1. Because we all need models. Kids need a mom and dad from whom they can learn about life. Christians need elders and deacons to learn about shepherding and service.
2. Because it shows God’s heart for the world. Elders shepherd and deacons serve without discriminating on the basis of economics or ethnicity or for any other reason. The church is a diverse body with elders and deacons committed to the each and every one in the body. 
3. Because church leadership can reflect the gospel. As elders shepherd, they exemplify the righteous, loving, good authority of Christ our king. As deacons serve they exemplify the humble, sacrificial service of our savior. We must understand authority and sacrifice to make sense of the gospel. We are accountable to God (authority) and it is the blood of God (sacrifice) that saves us. 
4. Because good church leadership preserves the church for the next generation. Paper documents can be destroyed or ignored. Statements of faith are only good if there are living, breathing, loving human beings willing to stand for the truths they contain. Elders and deacons are called to be in the public eye of the church and the world as individuals who stand by the truth of Scripture. It is only as these truths are passed on, person to person, that the fidelity of the church to God’s Word is assured.
5. Because the quality of the church will rarely rise above the quality of her leaders. If we ignore the character qualification in our leaders, we can expect the church to follow suit. If we hold elders and deacons to the biblical standard of holiness, we can expect the church to follow suit.
6. Because leaders are evidence of God’s love for the church. The Holy Spirit raises up men to serve as elders of the church. The Lord gives the Spirit in a great measure to those called to deacon for the church. The presence of godly elders and deacons is evidence of God’s love for his church.
7. Because God inspired 1 Timothy 3. God cared enough about the structure and governance of the church to ordain that we establish elders and deacons. God’s decision to reveal this plan should be sufficient to incite our interest.
8. Because so many of us have seen the devastation wrought by ungodly leadership. It is, thus, imperative that we go to the Bible and ask, “How should our elders and deacons then live?”
9. Because God gifts those who serve well with spiritual honor and confidence. It is both a challenge and privilege to serve in the office of elder or deacon. Those who do serve can expect that Satan will seek to do them harm. But, should they serve well, God will gift them with a generous measure of joy and satisfaction.
10. Because most of us are inclined to look for the wrong thing in our leaders. We want charismatic, personable, humorous, approachable, and skilled leaders. But God wants us to want respectable, dignified, holy leaders. We are tempted to make the “successful” community leaders our church leaders as well. God calls us to test the character first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

On Sunday morning we looked at 1 Timothy 2:8-15. Here Paul described the roles of men and women in the church. God has designed us differently. Neither gender is better than the other. Each has been made by God to uniquely reflect his glory. Men are to model initiative. Paul addressed the men first, he called upon them to lift up holy hands in prayer. They are to take the spiritual lead. Women are to model modesty, both in what they wear and in how they learn in the church.

In many quarters of the church, this passage is controversial. Mainline churches refused, long ago, to accept the God-given differences between the genders. They wrongly opened up the office of pastor to women, contrary to the clear teaching of 1 Timothy 2:12.

God did not inspire this text to give birth to controversy but to inspire worship. How could this be?

Last Sunday morning, I ended the sermon listing three ways the different roles of men and women in the church should lead us to worship Christ:

First, we get to see what God values.

Think about biblical manhood. Brothers, God values men who pray with holy hands (v. 8), men who take the initiative to spiritually lead their family and church. God values men who are willing to model for others a passion for the lost and for God’s glory.

Think about biblical womanhood. Sisters, it is not your physical appearance that God values, it is your heart. Are you adorning yourself with good works (v. 11)? Are you learning quietly and in all submissiveness (v. 11)? Don’t let the world sell you a false bill of goods and tell you that to really be successful you need to be Martha Stewart and Angelina Jolie rolled into one. No, true beauty is a life lived for the glory of Christ.

Second, we get to see God’s wisdom.

As I read 1 Timothy 2:8-15 and learn that women are not to teach men in the church because God made Adam first, I’m left wondering, “Why?" Paul doesn’t say. So all I can do is trust God’s wisdom, even when I don’t understand it through and through. The Christian life is like that a lot, isn’t it? We are constantly faced with truths in Scripture and facts of life that we have a hard time understanding. Instead of using them as an excuse to run away from God, we should count in an opportunity to remember that God is not like us. He is different, he is wise, and he is good. Our job is not finally to understand him, but to praise him.

Third, we get to see God’s grace.

How many men feel like they do a good job leading spiritually, initiating in worship at home and at church? How many women struggle with modesty, and have a hard time accepting that God has given men and women different roles in the home and in church?  

It is easy to be presented with these differences and get discouraged because we have failed to embrace them the way we should.

Thankfully, the gospel does not begin with you being a biblical man or a biblical woman. The gospel begins with you being a sinner, who deserved God’s wrath and judgment. It is because we were not the men and women we should have been, that Christ came. Men, Christ had to come because you refused to lead. Ladies, Christ had to come because you refused to follow.

But Christ did come, and this is grace. There is hope for you and for me and for each of us. God doesn’t want us first to godly men and women; he wants us first to be humans who see our sin and our need for the blood of Christ to save us. It begins with grace. God isn't calling on us first to embrace biblical manhood and womanhood but biblical grace! As Charles Wesley wrote about our Savior:

 

He purchased the grace which now I embrace;

O Father, Thou know’st He hath died in my place:

His death is my plea; my Adovcate see,

And hear the blood speak that hath answered for thee.

 

Raising Up Teachers

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

                                                                                                        --Jude 3

One of the most important things a church can do is raise up Bible teachers. There are so many different formats in a church for teaching the Bible. There is the Sunday school format. This is usually more of an inductive approach, meaning the teacher should use a lot of questions to bring the group along. There is the sermon format. This is a longer study with one person doing the speaking. There is the small group format. This may be like a sermon, it may be like a Sunday school class, it may be teaching the Bible with the help of a solid, Christian book.

Then there is the Christian devotional. It is good to be able to teach a Scripture passage in ten to fifteen minutes. These are the kinds of lessons that you might use to open up a meeting with, share with your family, or, as we do at MVBC, encourage the body of Christ on Sunday evenings.

This Wednesday night, after our Equipping Matters classes, I'll be leading a brief session on how to teach a Bible devotional. I'm excited to do it because I see the Lord raising up more and more men with a love for the Word and a desire to teach it clearly and passionately.

I'm going to target my discussion toward men who will be leading a Sunday evening devotional--but all teachers are welcome to come and listen and, Lord willing, learn and grow.