9:45am Prayer & Bible reading this morning.  Reminded of how much I liked our EPIC series in the fall at HCBC that emphasized reading the Bible as one story, not as a collection of moral parables.  I have heard more feedback from people in our church about how that series helped them read the Bible with fresh eyes and understanding than anything we’ve ever done as a church.  It also has helped me – as we are reading through the Bible this year as a church (right now, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Matthew, Romans, and Psalms) to put all the pieces together.  To see not just the differences but the unified story.  If you have never learned how to read the Bible as one story, check out the series on our church website.

10:20am Six leadership shifts we need in the church in America.

10:30am I’ve been reading Eugene Peterson’s memoir, The Pastor, slowly over this study break.  A lot of books I read quickly, but this one is fun and ministers to my soul.  Peterson views the pastoral calling very differently from most leaders today.  He is one of those very thoughtful shepherds who cares deeply for the people under his watch.  I have much to learn from his perspective and his insights, especially if I want to still be doing this job in forty years.  Sometimes I don’t know – the burden is heavy.  But in Jesus Christ, the burden is light.  Thank you, Dr. Peterson, for always shepherding my soul and not just challenging my practice.  A good reminder that a pastor is a Christian first.  Jesus must always be enough for your soul.  And rhythm is important – time to be filled up by God so that you have something to give to those you lead.  I won’t finish this book this week.  I want to read it slowly.  More insights later maybe.  Maybe I will just read it and let it sit on my heart.

10:45am Long-term sermon planning this morning.  Excited to work on the plan for the biblical manhood/womanhood series this spring, the series in Proverbs this summer, and the new goal / series starting in September.  Looking to God for direction and holding all of these ideas with an open hand so the Lord can change our plans at any time.

2:45pm Next two series overviews complete with sermon titles, major passages, and main topics.  Working on the third one now.  So many great passages and ideas to teach.  Thankful to God for the deep well that is His Word.

5:20pm All three sermon-series planned out.  Dreaming about the goal for the 2012-2013 ministry year that starts in September.  Oh, that God would use our church to reach many with the gospel of Jesus Christ in the next year.  Planning for sermon series and intentional strategies that could help us with that goal.  Still very early in the rough draft form at this point.  Will need to be looked over and prayed through by the elders of our church in the coming months.  Hopefully, we can land the plane by May or June to help us in our ministry planning this summer.  What an exciting time to lead this congregation.  Humbled and thankful.

7:00pm Reading Stephen Sprinkle’s book called Ordination, trying to get my views straight on what I think about ordination as a practice and what I believe ordination means theologically.  I don’t think we want to discourage the ministry of lay people in the church in any way, but we also need to have a process whereby we affirm the theological orthodoxy and vocational calling of pastors in the church.  As we send out Nick and Jada to plant a church and hire additional pastoral staff, we must clarify our theology and process for ordained pastors in the local church.  I already have some thoughts on what it means and what it should look like, but I am wanting to read someone’s views from another tradition to see what I can learn from another stream.  We will have our first ordination services this spring, and I’m excited to get this worked out for our congregation.  This is a question we get often in working in international missions – how do make sure a pastor is qualified and called before you send him out to plant a church?  Developing this process will help our church, the churches we plant, and the church-leaders we mentor overseas.

10:30pm Finished Sprinkle’s ordination book.  The book is wordy and overly theological and extremely liberal, but did introduce me to many tensions in the practice of ordination and the views of many different denominations when it comes to ordination.  Finished my working document on ordination for our church with one page on what ordination is, two pages on the process of ordination, and one page on what the ordination service might look like.  I’m excited to start this tradition in our church as we recognize those called out to serve the church in a special way.

7:30am Loving the reading in Deuteronomy right now.  Reminded today that idolatry is not always a turn away from God to another god – it is usually setting up another god right next to God and dividing our loyalties between the two.  Of course, we can’t really do this, which is why God forbids it – we always end up loving our idol and hating the true God.  Challenged by Deuteronomy to root out the idolatry in my heart and worship the true and living God.

8:00am I’ve been reading The King Jesus Gospel by Professor Scot McKnight.  Overall, I really agree with his premise – that we have a temptation to reduce the gospel to the personal Plan of Salvation – sin, cross, faith – while the full gospel of the NT is how the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ fulfills the story of Israel in the OT and rescues people from their sins.  McKnight likes to say that the gospel is the saving story of Jesus as it completes the story of Israel.  I like the emphasis he makes on the biblical narrative – it is similar to the case I made last fall when we preached through the EPIC series – that we have to see the Bible as one story in order to understand the individual pieces.  McKnight makes the same points – that if we don’t understand the OT, the the gospel of Jesus Christ doesn’t make any sense.  I think we must be careful, however, to not swing the pendulum the other direction.  While putting the person and work of Jesus into the full story of the Bible, we must be careful to not discourage people from sharing their grace story (encounter with Jesus Christ’s redemptive work in their own life) until they master biblical theology.  In addition, we must not forget that we still must call people to respond to the gospel story at a personal level.  Jesus’ story is not primarily about me – it is about God and creation and Israel and redemption.  But it does have implications for me.  That is why Jesus looks at his disciples and asks, who do you say that I am?  We must understand the whole story.  AND we must respond to the gospel at a personal, volitional level.  Not either or – both and.  Overall, McKnight’s book is good and extremely helpful – biblical and Christ-centered.  If you are someone who cares about biblical faithfulness in gospel proclamation, I would encourage you to pick up this book.

8:30am I am speaking this morning at 10:00am to a group about my recent missionary trips to East Asia.  I appreciate your prayers for clarity and passion while I speak.  May those who listen be stirred to what God is doing around the world for His glory.

7:00pm My speaking and travel went well today.  Thanks for your prayers.  God has been good to get me through the last couple of days.  I took an antibiotic last week and had a bad allergic reaction to it that blistered my lips.  I switched drugs, but my lips have been very painful – cracking and bleeding – you get the picture.  Lots of Vasoline and lip-care stuff.  They are just starting to look a little better today.  Now, back to study-break work.  Reading and praying and writing.

9:45pm Pray for our brothers and sisters around the world tonight who are facing difficulty for the cause of Christ.  68 churches in New York City face the possibility of losing their meeting space in the NYC Public Schools unless the NY state assembly passes a law quickly to change the state policy.  You can follow updates on the story from World Magazine.  Pray for the millions of Christians around the world who face physical danger at the hands of those who do not even want them to exist.  Pray that they will be able to love their enemies as Jesus taught us to do.

11:10pm  God is good.  Many new thoughts for sermon series starting in September.  I need to work tomorrow on filling up sermon details for the next two series I’m preaching at church.  Excited to do that and get ahead on those series.  Tomorrow I will also do reading and thinking and planning on ordination – more on that tomorrow.  Thursday I will set aside for leadership thinking/reading/planning.  So much ground to cover.  Need God’s grace and help.  Good night.

7:40am Great personal prayer time this morning.  God is renewing my view of His greatness.

7:55am Today’s Bible-reading notes:

• Deuteronomy 15:1-6 – I wonder if people would lend less if they had to forgive debts every seven years.  Interesting that God warns Israel not to borrow from other nations because it will make them servants to the other nations.  Sounds like an application of Proverbs 22:7.
• Deuteronomy 15:7-11 – Give generously to the poor and don’t be stingy with them.  Israel was to give freely because God had given freely to them.  How much more should we as Christians give based on what God has done for us in Christ?  (see 2 Corinthians 8:9)
• Deuteronomy 15:19-23 – Give best and first to God.
• Deuteronomy 16 – Two words repeat in this chapter on the festivals – remember and rejoice.  We are to remember what God has done for us and rejoice in who God is and what He is doing.
• Isaiah 13 – the wrath of God on the earth is what justice demands.  To think what Jesus endured for our salvation, so that we did not have to endure God’s justice personally.
• Matthew 18:10-20 – God sent His Son to go after the lost sheep.  He relentlessly pursues those that are far away from Him in Jesus Christ.
• Romans 15:22-33 – Paul writes of traveling to Spain – ever the missionary.  May we have the missionary zeal to take the name of Christ to every people on the planet.
• Psalm 133 – live together in harmony with your brothers, says the Lord.

8:25am Working on notes/slides for a talk I will give soon on my missionary trips to East Asia.

10:10am So thankful for our partnership in East Asia.  God is doing a great work in that part of the world.  Praying now for our partners there.  Praying for wisdom about when I should go back to East Asia now that baby #5 is on the way.  God, where are you leading?

11:00am Reading Chuck Lawless’ book on church membership.  We already do many of the things he recommends very well.  We require new members to attend our class in order to join the church.  We clearly articulate the beliefs, vision, and values of the church.  However, we need to grow in laying out clear expectations for our members.  Right now, we give them generically, but we don’t give them specifically.  We need to define what the elders expect every member in our church to do and then teach that in the membership class.  Equally important, we need to define how church discipline works with church members so that people know how the elders will hold them accountable as part of the family.  We also need to make sure that we host the membership lab regularly.  In addition, the staff and elders need to work with shepherds and ministry leaders to hold people accountable to their membership covenants.  Reminded by Lawless in this book that while processes and classes are important, assimilation and involved happens most effectively by personal invitation.  Most people who are involved in ministry and growing in their faith are doing so because they were asked by someone.  Just finished the book.  Good stuff – mostly reminders, but also some new ideas.

12:30pm Reading Grafted into The Vine on rethinking biblical church membership. Good notes on the requirement from 1 Corinthians 12 to be in community with other members of the body of Christ.  Good emphasis on the plural “you” in the biblical languages.  Eubanks makes the historical argument that church membership has been the key way to know you are truly a Christian – through making a public confession of faith in Jesus Christ to the members and leaders of the church.  He says that church membership is nothing less than a public profession of faith in Christ.  He then goes on to argue that nothing more that faith in Christ should be required for membership.  I agree with him in theology but not in his practical outworking.  We can clearly articulate that faith in Christ is the only requirement for membership and then also clearly say that those who are converted members are expected to participate in the life of the church.  I think he is merging membership requirements and membership expectations.  These are not the same.  In other words, what is expected of members is not what makes people members – just as what is expected of my children is not what makes them my children.  Overall, a good, short read – reminding me that gospel conversion lies at the foundation of membership.

10:00pm Been on the road a lot today.  Listening to some great podcasts along the way.  Reading has filled up the rest of my time.

3:30pm In my prayer and Bible-reading time, I continued to be burdened for the need to keep God in the right place in my life.  Our readings in Deuteronomy (in our reading plan) have been awesome the last two weeks.  I love that book.  Moses continues to warn the people of Israel that they will face the temptation of picking up the idols of the nations that surround them.  I feel this same temptation, don’t you?  I am an idolater, taking up the gods of the culture around me uncritically.  The problem is that when I do that nothing in my life works as God intended it to work.  Thank God that Jesus came to set us free from our idolatry and to set our hearts on the Father.  I’m praying for an awe-inspiring encounter with the Holy God this week.

3:42pm I like that Psalm 127 was on our reading plan this week – sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord, children a reward.  like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons born in one’s youth.  happy is the man who has filled his quiver with them.  Amen.

3:50pm I have really liked our Bible-reading goal this year – both that it has pushed me to be faithful in my daily time in God’s Word and also that it has created great conversations around the church since people are reading the Bible together.  Our elders have been in a rhythm of doing an outward focused goal one year and an upward focused goal the next year.  Next year we will again focus our eyes on being a people sent on mission with the gospel into the world.  I’m praying this week about what that looks like – how do we equip and encourage each other to be intentionally evangelistic?  Maybe Romans 15:19-20 can be our theme verses for next year – “I have fully proclaimed the good news about the Messiah…My aim is to evangelize where Christ has not been named.”   Powerful.

3:55pm A church on mission must be a church that understands the gospel personally and corporately and a church that is set on fire by the Spirit through faithful prayer.  How do we get the gospel deep so deep in our bones that it naturally comes out in conversation?  How do we create a praying culture that anticipates God-moments every day?  Good questions to ponder.

4:00pm Looking back through my prayer journal from the last year – interesting to see how God has grown me in the last 12 months.  Convicted by commitments that I’ve made repeatedly that I still struggle to follow through on.  Maybe too busy.  Or too stubborn.

4:02pm Started a Word doc to get some book ideas I’ve had in one place.  Always thought about writing a book, but never sure I should.  I love making this list though.  Fun to dream.  And pray.

4:15pm I notice a lot of prayers in my journal over the last year for hurting marriages.  Makes me hopeful because some have been restored but also sad because some have not.  Many have been broken because of pornography and infidelity.  Sigh.  God, help us as a church to strengthen marriages.

4:20pm I’ve been collecting ideas for a while for next year’s goal on mission.  One of the outstanding questions has to do with our leadership development study for next fall.  Do I write a study on missional leadership or use an existing one?  So far, we use DWAP, Bible Doctrine, & Hermeneutics as our three leadership-level studies.  We need one on missionary leadership.  Essential for a movement built on obedience to Acts 1:8.

4:55pm Looks like one of my favorite things to do in 2011 was to write down titles of books I would like to read.  So many books that look interesting.  So little time.

5:05pm 2012 is going to be a year of massive change.  A new plant, a new building campaign, a new baby in our house, new staff members, new people.  I think the last year we experienced this much change was 2006 when we moved twice and had a baby in the same year.  Change can be good if it drives us deeper into Christ and helps us mature.  Or it can drive us crazy if we don’t have a strong foundation.  I tend to be a person of routine.  I like stability.  But I have a risky streak in me, especially if God is leading.  I will follow Him anywhere.

5:20pm Is there a football game tonight?  When do the Rangers start?

5:25pm Found a list of ideas for the missionary leadership study.  I could really get excited to lead that study and grow myself in evangelistic intentionality and effectiveness.

5:30pm I think cancelling cable television in January 2011 may have been the best decision we made all of last year.  Amazing how many patterns we adopt uncritically without thinking.  Who ever told us we had to do that?

8:40pm I’ve been reading the last two hours.  Two books on pornography and purity – one on the porn pandemic in general and one a guide for men to find freedom from pornography.  Both helpful, biblical, and concrete.  I have been sensing the Lord calling me to speak up on this issue more directly in the last several months and ordered these two books to read while on study break.  I have met with too many couples in crisis because of pornography use over the last four years.  Time to go on the offensive on this issue and stop playing defense as the church.  I also just finished a blog post on protecting your family (and yourself) from pornography.

10:52pm Finished The Holiness of God by RC Sproul.  I picked it up after the Pastor Prayer Retreat in January after feeling that my view of God was too low.  Anyone who talks to God and about God regularly can be in danger of becoming flippant or too casual in His presence.  This book has challenged to see God in the fullness of His holiness.  I like Sproul’s chapter on Luther – who encountered the grace of the gospel after almost going insane worrying about the holy wrath of a righteous God.  God is so holy.  If God were fair, we would receive judgment and wrath.  But God has been merciful.  Let us not take it for granted.  We deserve justice.  But Jesus took our justice so that we could receive grace.  The gospel upholds God’s holiness and does not diminish it.  The church today is most likely to present God’s character in light of His love & grace, His plan for our lives (functional & practical).  But we must not forget that God’s holiness of the characteristic which defines all the rest.  God’s love is holy love.  God’s grace is holy grace.  God is holy, holy, holy.

11:00pm  I’m going to bed.  Good night.

This week is my spring study-break, a time of focused prayer and reading.  A time to not work in the ministry, but on the ministry, a time to not talk about God, but to connect with God.  Usually, I take a week early in the year and another week in the summer to get out of the office, away from the daily demands of ministry, to listen.  I attempt to listen to the voice of other pastors and authors and to the voice of the Lord.  Listening is a spiritual discipline.  I appreciate that the elders ask me to take time each year to listen.  As a pastor, I am usually expected to have something to say.  But saying something of consequence only comes after listening to God and listening to others who have spent time listening to God.

You can see the stack of books I will be working through this week.  I thought it might be fun to blog what I’m learning as I read and pray.  Don’t hold me to everything I write this week – most of it will be thoughts in process, not fully formed.  But that’s what will make it so much fun.  Feel free to leave your thoughts as we go.