Free to Serve

What are you looking forward to?

Let these words from The Valley of Vision  encourage you to look forward to a place and a time where whom you loved while on earth matters much, much more than what you accomplished.

I hasten toward an hour when earthly pursuits and possessions will appear vain, when it will be indifferent whether I have been rich or poor, successful or disappointed, admired or despised. But it will be of eternal moment that I have mourned for sin, hungered and thirsted after righteousness, loved the Lord Jesus in sincerity, gloried in his cross.

Amen.

Reflections from Sunday

As I reflect on Sunday's text from Joshua 5:13-8:35, I'm especially struck just how clear it is that God is the one leading the way and granting the victory. It was true about the fall of Jericho. The people simply marched. It was God who caused the walls to tumble down, exposing Jericho. It was true of the fall of Ai, too. Joshua was told by God to hold out his javelin, and God assured him Ai would be delivered into his hand--and it was.

The kingdom of God is like that--it is God's work. Thankfully, he uses us! But it is fundamentally God who is at work. It makes me think of the famous Luther quote, as he describes how the Reformation took place:

I simply taught, preached, wrote God's Word: otherwise I did nothing. And then, while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my Philip of Amsdorf the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it. I did nothing: the Word did it all. Had I wanted to start trouble . . . I could have started such a game at Worms that even the emperor wouldn't have been safe. But what would it have been? A mug's game. I did nothing: I left it to the Word.

This is such an encouragement to me as a pastor and as a Christian. God is at work. Using me--and more fundamentally--using his Word to build his church. I want to be a part of that.

A New Website

If you are reading this blog post, you probably found it by going to www.mvbchurch.org. In and of itself, that is remarkable. Pardon me for being way behind the curve in making this observation: the world wide web is remarkably helpful and harmful. It can bring unwanted words and images into our homes and minds. But it can also helpfully bring biblical teaching to our iPhone. Wow. At Mount Vernon, we want our website to be helpful.

My first email account came in 1992 at the University of Oregon. It was basic text. Dialup service with AOL came next. Then came Netzero. I switched to Gmail early enough to have my username be my last name only. Hardly a day goes by that I'm not on the Web. If I do abstain, it will be Sunday--but I check my mail every day. Life is now online.

I can't think of the last time I went to a church without visiting the website first. Granted, I don't visit a ton of churches--I'm usually preaching at MVBC! I am sure the the majority of our visitors--and I know the vast majority of our new members--came to know the church through our web presence. Maybe they googled "conservative Southern Baptist church." Others found us through the ministry with which I'm associated, 9 Marks. 

I've been here since June of 2008 and Brad Thayer, our pastor of administration has been here since October of that same year. We both wanted to update our website, but being the savvy tekkies we are (okay, Brad being the savvy tekkie he is) we knew we needed to do it right. That meant taking some time to understand the church well enough to represent it online, crystalizing a sense of mission well enough to communicate it properly, and giving adequate time to create a presentation that is honest, effective, and Gospel-centered. That's what we've tried to do. 

So this is what we've come up with. Kudos to Brad for all the hard work--it is still a work in progress, but it is good work. 

At the heart of the site are three words that sum up our mission: know, equip and send. If we are going to be a biblical church, we have to know one another. Jesus said the world will know who his disciples are by the love they have for one another. We are hardly a success yet. Too often I hear of someone who does not have the relationships he wants and needs. Nonetheless, it is our intent to see that we are all connected in relationships that are biblical, honest, and open. 

We also need to equip one another. From the preaching of the Word to the leading of a small group to a special conference on evangelism, we want to be a church whose members are well equipped to stand firm in their faith--for Christ--in a world running away from the Savior. This is hard but glorious work. We are an equipping ministry.

Send. We don't exist, finally, for ourselves. We believe the way we glorify God is by sending one another into our homes, workplaces, and ultimately the un-reached portions of the earth with the Gospel. Sending includes raising up missionaries and pastors to plant churches and evangelize the lost. Sending includes helping other churches become sending agencies themselves. Sending includes serving our community in the name of Christ. 

If you have the opportunity, thank Brad Thayer and Bert Neal for their work helping MVBC have a good presence "out there" in cyberspace. In the meantime, it is my prayer that we will continually find ways to use this site to know, equip, and send one another--for the worship and glory of God.