Poverty and God's new community

Been working on something for home group tonight where we are going to be thinking about our response to global poverty. Came across a helpful website where you can work out your wealth in global terms, it is sobering. Here is the link http://www.globalrichlist.com/index.php

You simply enter your annual income in pounds and it will tell you where you rank out of 6million and in terms of a percentage.

Married for God

In light of what I have been studying this week preparing to preach on Sunday about marriage and divorce from Malachi 2. I have found myself reaching yet again for Christopher Ash's book 'Married for God'. It is a brilliant book to read with young couple preparing for marriage and for those of us who are married and have been some time.

I will be recommending it on Sunday, and recommending that people read it together as a couple and discuss the questions. We may even start a Sunday evening group to discuss each chapter and the study questions if there is a need. The book depository have copies for less than £6 each at the moment.

The EX generation

In preparation for the next bit of Malachi we are looking at on Sunday I've been working on the Biblical Theology of marriage and divorce and in my wider reading came across a great article in The Briefing on the children of divorced parents. I found it both challenging and helpful as I think about preaching God's word to a congregation affected by and living in a broken world.

"They are statistically more likely to do poorly academically; to suffer from depression, anxiety and low self esteem; to abuse substances; to be sexually active earlier; to participate in delinquency; and to experience divorce in their own marriages..."

"Divorce is not just an isolated incident in a child's life; it tends to affect everything in the years that follow..."

"...As more children from broken homes enter adulthood, we should expect to see a higher incidence of divorce, more people with mental health problems, more substance abusers and more individuals with relational issues."

It is not saying that all children of divorce experience this just that the statistics show they are more likely to. The article helpfully gives advice on how, as a church, to love those going through this:

1. Preach and teach the truths of the Bible to everyone.
2. Share the gospel - it alone saves.
3. Work hard at our own marriages (I've added this, the article assumes it, but I don't!)
4. Model good relationships and have people in and out of your home to see them in action.
5. Provide support.

Praying for your leaders

Having spent last week studying Malachi it raised a useful list of things to pray for leaders of the church and those who preach and teach:

1. That their service of God is always viewed as a privilege, never a burden.
2. That they enjoy and develop their own relationship with God, never take it for granted.
3. That they are newly amazed at the grace God shows in the gospel daily.
4. That they teach the truth and instruct the people.
5. That they do not become populists but honour God's name.
6. That their studies and love for God is seen in an every more Godly lifestyle.
7. That their ministry and leadership turns many from sin.

Marks of a good leader(s)

Studying Malachi 2:1-9 this week it is striking the marks it gives as those of a good priest:

"My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave that them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. True instruction was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin."

It is a telling passage to weigh ministry and leadership by.

Enjoying preaching

Over at Pure Church (see link in right hand side bar) they were blogging on how we enjoy church and the dangers of evaluating all the service in the same way. To whet your appetite here is an extended quotation from it:

"To enjoy a sermon or prayer, it seems you really must enjoy:

1. Thinking. Songs carry thoughts (increasingly the choruses only carry one thought). And if we sing well, we sing with understanding. But songs tend to be commercial-length thinking. Sermons tend to be at least sit-com length, and perhaps even drama length. The level of thinking required in the sermon can feel like a tax if you actually don't want to think that much. And so enjoyment may be weakened by a resistance to thinking.

2. Argument. Sermons not only demand thought, they actually demand some level of argument. There is sustained reasoning, illustration, advancement of points, anticipation of objections, and so on. If you don't like thinking, you probably won't like following arguments. You probably won't like the Pauline epistles. You'd probably prefer narratives and the "stories" of the Bible. And you probably won't enjoy preaching that much as a general rule. In fact, you probably don't like the good hymns either, since they often advance an argument of some sort. But to enjoy a sermon, a person must enjoy a well-made argument and be able to follow it.

3. Reflection. Sermons and prayers often insist on a fair amount of introspection and application. Songs and music are outstanding for leaving you with good feelings. And feeling good after singing truth is good. Yet, it takes quite a bit of skill to turn music and singing into extended reflection and lasting change. That's the role of the sermon and to some extent good prayer. In prayer there is confession and repentance and dependence and resolution. In the sermon there is application and teaching and correction and encouragement and rebuke and so on. If you don't want your sins to find you out, if you don't like to be spiritually challenged, if you don't want to reflect on how you think, feel, live and so on, then chances are you don't enjoy sermons very much. To enjoy a sermon, you must be willing to reflect on the implications of what's being said for all of life.

4. Listening. All of what I've said above presumes an ability and willingness to practice disciplined listening. Most people listen differently when they sing. Again, they listen for harmony, melody, rhythm... pleasing sounds that are intuited rather than cogitated (unless you're a musician or can read music). With prayer and sermons, there must be some cogitation; and that requires skillful listening. In a day and age where "huh" is a complete thought, listening may be a rare jewel. Listening is not particularly valued in a culture where laugh tracks cue all our "spontaneous" giggles and "outbursts." But if we would enjoy and really benefit from public or private prayer and sermons, we must enjoy (or at least not mind) listening.

5. Praise. Perhaps the most unfortunate thing about how we talk about public services is we limit "praise" only to the portions of the service where we sing or hear music. We even talk about "praise music." So, for many people, in subtle but real ways, "praise" is not what you're doing when you pray or listen to a sermon or give (there's something else that has a different standard for enjoyment). For many people, sermons are not praise because we think we're not "doing anything" when we listen, think, argue, and reflect. "We're just sitting there," we tell ourselves. But I like Piper's definition of preaching as "expository exultation." The aim of preaching is to help our people exult, revel, delight in God. Nothing is more appropriately considered praise than being led by the preached word to exult in the God of all creation who redeems sinners by the loving sacrifice of His Son and seals them until the day of redemption by His indwelling Spirit. We'd both exalt preaching and discover more enjoyment of it if we understood preaching and listening to be acts of praise."

A gospel response to redundancy

How should we respond in light of the current financial situation in Britain to those in our congregations and friends who are made redundant?

1. Show friendship, love and care for the person. Pop in, spend time listening to them, encourage them, value them and their families.
2. Find out if there are anyways you can help practically - transport, money etc... (We need to get over our very British hang ups about this!)
3. Pray for them and with them. Email, ring or text to find out what you can pray for, and follow up prayers for job interviews etc... by finding out how it went.
4. Listen to them and help them talk through what they may like to do if they want to change vocation.
5. Remind them of their status in Christ. So much of our self esteem is wrapped up in our work - we so often have work as an idol. But encourage them that to know Christ is what matters, that they are a child of God, he is not unaware of them and he has his plans for them and he can be trusted!

We need leaders who will lead

Leadership is a big task, it is one we should aspire to but as we have studied Malachi we have been reminded that it is one we should not take lightly. In Malachi the shock is that God says they would be better off shutting the temple doors and stopping all the sacrifices. Basically close the doors of the church and pack up your home group. Why?

Because the leaders do not honour God's name they treat it with contempt. They would never say they do, their words and theology would be orthodox, but their actions are anything but. They allow manky offerings, anything goes, you can bring God your left overs they say to the people and that is exactly what the people do. The contempt of the priests is quickly transferred to the people.

It is a challenge for those of us in leadership how personally am I treating God with contempt? Have I begun to doubt God loves me or that he is almighty? If so I need to deal with it and wrestle with God's word and in prayer before that infects my ministry. Because the attitude and actions of the leaders will be transmitted to the people who follow.

It lays bare all our failings: failings of thought, heart, word and deed. Father forgive, Father remind us, and Father equip us to lead your people we pray.

Living life as worship

Having looked at Malachi 1:6-14 on Sunday there are some questions that it poses for us:

1. Do I rely on the perfect sacrifice of Christ my Saviour or attempt to make my own sacrifices sufficient for salvation?
2. As a response to the love and rescue that God enacts on our behalf in Christ do I live my life for him?
3. Do I treat God with honour or contempt?
4. Do I treat God with reverence or dishonour?
5. Do I offer parts of my life or all of my life?

Does God love us?

That is the question behind so many of our questions. It is at root why we ask why me when it comes to suffering, or where was God on... The question behind it is was God loving me at that point when that happened.

Studying Malachi opens up that whole question as God says to Israel "I have loved you" and they look at their circumstances and say we don't see any evidence of that. Its exactly what we do - we know in our heads that God loves us because of his actions in salvation history and also because his word tells us. But all too often we allow circumstances to overrule that and overawe us so that we end up asking does God love me. What is the antidote -a healthy dose of Malachi which reminds us of God's love in action in salvation history and in Christ and the future that is in store for his people.

Evangelists conference 2009