What's Wrong With This Picture?

Isn't it just a bit ironic that the man holding this solid gold staff and whose vestments contain jewels should criticize people for their pursuit of wealth? (which is what he did on Monday)

New Book

Agree with him or not, there is almost never a dull moment with Scott Clark, professor at Westminster Seminary California.  Scott has just come out with a new book entitled "Recovering the Reformed Confession."  I should be receiving my copy any day now and plan on interacting with it here on my blog.  If interested, you can order your copy here.

Mortgages and the Prosperity Gospel

There's an interesting article from TIME magazine here on the prosperity gospel and its connection with the current mortgage mess.

Not My Normal Week

This morning, I was reading a particular blog that I check in on regularly, and the author of this blog was dealing with the question of, "What does the normal week look like for the pastor of a 50-100 member Reformed church?"  This is a man who is much more seasoned in the ministry that I am and who has far more interactions with other ministers than I do, so I don't doubt that what he writes is pretty accurate.  But as I read this particular post, it made me realize how blessed I am in my particular church.  He wrote much more than this, but here are just a few snippets of what he had to say about a pastor's normal week...

Monday:  Crisis brewing with elder

Tuesday:  Meeting with very unhappy elder; works on church website

Wednesday:  Work on bulletin

Thursday:  Do tax forms for 501 c 3 status; long lunch with disgruntled elder; call church grounds committee to urge them to do yardwork

Saturday:  Phone call from one member who is unhappy with another member; mowed the grass at church because the grounds committee didn't show up; member calls wanting a more "contemporary" service

Sunday:  Set up for church; set up for communion; pianist didn't show up; emergency meeting with elders over the one elder who is really unhappy

I look at these and realize how blessed I am:  

(1) My elders and I have a great working relationship; there is always harmony and charity in our discussions (even when we don't agree with one another, which is rare); we are on the same page regarding the ministry of the church; our meetings are always enjoyable with lots of laughs (but with seriousness when it is called for).

(2) I don't really have much to do with the church website.  There is a very gifted member of our church who has set that up and who maintains it.  Another one of our members makes sure that the sermons get on there each week.

(3) I don't put the bulletins together.  We have a member who has volunteered her time to do that.

(4) The deacons of our church handle such things as filing papers for tax status.  I wouldn't know the first thing about doing that and am thankful that we have people who are taking care of those kinds of matters.

(5) While we do not have our own building, one of our members is the point person in any dealings with the school that we rent on Sundays.

(6) While we are certainly not the perfect church, our people, I believe, have a tremendous amount of unity.  I'm not aware of any interpersonal relationships where one member has it out for another.  And if that were to happen, I'm sure that they would follow Matthew 18 and go directly to that person.

(7) I'm thankful that our members are not constantly pushing their agendas about new ideas for the worship service.  They entrust the oversight of the worship service to the elders, which is where it belongs.

(8) While I am part of a rotation of men who set up the church each week, I am not involved in that every single week (perhaps once every 8 weeks).  In addition, all of the members pitch in Sunday night when everything needs to be taken down.  Also, we have a couple in our church who handles the setting up of communion.

(9) We have been blessed with 2 extremely capable pianists, and I have never, for one minute, worried about their reliability.

This Monday (October 6) will serve as the 6-year anniversary of our church.  What began as 45 people planting a confessionally Reformed church in a city where none existed, the Lord has seen fit to grow to 145 people.  We are very blessed and I, as the pastor, am very blessed to have elders who take the responsibility of shepherding the people, freeing me to prepare sermons, meet with prospective members, teach my catechism class, and do the things that ministers are called to do.  I am also very blessed to have members who are very active and involved in the life of the church (as is evident from the 9 points I have listed above).  At the same time, we need to pray for those men who can really relate to that "normal" week.  I can just imagine the huge burden that places on a man and the tremendous stress that places on him and his family.  And as history tells us, when a pastor has to be involved in all these other things, what usually suffers is (1) His family and, (2) His pulpit.

This Sunday (October 5th)

Morning Service

Songs

#37 (Blue hymnal)

#121 (Blue hymnal)

#92 (Blue hymnal)

#380 (Blue hymnal)

#280 (Blue hymnal)

Sermon

Numbers 18:8-32:  "Grace-Driven Giving"

Evening Service

Songs

#327 (Blue hymnal)

#396 (Blue hymnal)

#135 (Blue hymnal)

#204 (Blue hymnal)

Sermon

Romans 13:1-7:  "Called to Submit"

This Sunday (September 21st)

Morning Service

Songs

#36 (Blue hymnal)

#79 (Red hymnal)

#11 (Blue hymnal)...to the tune of "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise"

#668 (Red hymnal)

#7 (Red hymnal)

Sermon

Numbers 16:41-17:13:  "The Cure for Complaining"

Evening Service

Songs

#282 (Blue hymnal)

#75 (Blue hymnal)

#484 (Blue hymnal)

#310 (Blue hymnal)

Sermon

Romans 12:9-10:  "Called to Love"

Coming Soon

On October 15th Crossway will release the ESV Study Bible.  Some of the finest evangelical Christian scholars today have contributed to this Bible.  More information can be found here.  An interview with Steven Baugh (Westminster Seminary), who contributed the notes for Ephesians, can be found here.