People like Barnabas are always needed in the church. They are peacemakers, the go-betweens who seek no glory for themselves but only seek to bring out the best in others. But “would-be” Barnabases of today need to hear a further lesson from this outstanding biblical figure. Barnabases want everyone to be happy, but sometimes it simply is not possible to please everyone without serious compromise of one’s basic convictions. Barnabas found that out later at Antioch when, in order to placate the conservative Jewish Christians “from James” (Jerusalem), he withdrew from table fellowship with those very Gentile-Christian converts we see him witnessing to so enthusiastically (Gal 2:11-13).

John Polhill, Acts (The New American Commentary Vol. 26), p 272

HT: A.W. Hall

I love this advice from C.S. Lewis:

The way for a person to develop a style is (a) to know exactly what he wants to say, and (b) to be sure he is saying exactly that. The reader, we must remember, does not start by knowing what we mean. If our words are ambiguous, our meaning will escape him. I sometimes think that writing is like driving sheep down a road. If there is any gate open to the left or the right the reader will most certainly go into it.

In another writing, Lewis expands on this advice:

(1) Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentences couldn’t mean anything else. (2) Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them. (3) Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean ‘More people died’ don’t say ‘Mortality rose.’ (4) In writing, don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is ‘terrible,’ describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was ‘delightful’; make us say ‘delightful’ when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, ‘Please, will you do my job for me.’ (5) Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‘infinitely’ when you mean ‘very’; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

(both quotes are as published in Excellence by Andreas Köstenberger)

This is probably the best advice I’ve seen lately for writers (aside from Stephen King’s). It’s elegant in its simplicity—which of course means its extremely difficult to put into practice. “Know what you want to say, and . . . [say] exactly that.” Use plain, simple language, be direct, don’t wax eloquent, be direct… Oh, that authors—especially those who are pastors—would take this to heart! There is little that is more frustrating to me than reading poorly crafted writing. Whether your work is overly technical and full of abstract language or simply trying too hard to create an emotional response in your readers, it’s not only forgettable, but it’s boring.

Köstenberger says it well, “There is nothing particularly Christian about dullness or lack of effort in presenting one’s message attractively and memorably. Creativity means appreciating God’s role as creator and sees creativity as a way to bring glory to God and to bring others to him.”

Let’s keep that in mind, shall we?

What is the one thing that will kill your ministry faster than anything else?

Consider that question as you read. I frequently love to read Proverbs. Reading these principles of life and godliness often serves as a corrective for me as I work and pursue ministry. Something I mentioned a few weeks back was a tendency toward performancism—that is, a tendency to turn the gifts and abilities that God has given as the measure of my worth. So when I’m doing lots and being productive, then I’m great and God’s favor is upon me. When life starts to turn to a subtle shade of Milhouse, well…

As I look around the “celebrity pastor” scene, it seems I’m not alone. One pastor’s Twitter feed has turned into a commercial for his current book. Another shares on his blog how many baptisms his church has seen since its inception whenever criticism starts to come his way. A third’s staff mocks a blogger who voices concern about their boss’ theology. I could go on, but you get the idea and probably have your own experiences.

But this isn’t really a post about celebrity pastors. Other men like Mike Cosper and Thabiti Anyabwile have written on this in the past and I’d commend their work to you. Instead, let’s get back to the question I asked about two paragraphs ago—what will kill your ministry faster than anything else?

Pride. 

This should come as no surprise to anyone who has a passing familiarity with the Proverbs. There is nothing that kills effective ministry faster than pride (even if that ministry seems to be thriving on the outside). Consider the following:

1. Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Prov. 16:18)
2. Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin. (Prov. 21:4)
3. “Scoffer” is the name of the arrogant, haughty man who acts with arrogant pride. (Prov. 21:24)
4. The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. (Prov. 8:13)
5. When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. (Prov. 11:12)
6. Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor. (Prov. 18:12)
7. One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor. (Prov. 29:23)

Seven times in these passages, God’s Word says the same thing:

• Pride is an abomination.
• It leads to destruction.
• It brings disgrace.
• It humiliates.
• It is hated by God.

We dare not pass over these words quickly. If God truly hates pride this much, then we must consider our actions in the face of criticism and in light of success. If we follow the wisdom of Scripture we see that seeking celebrity will kill our ministries. Bad company will kill our ministries. And failing to listening to wise counsel will kill our ministries.

Do we get the picture, yet?

To be proud in ministry is to jeopardize our ministry—to risk God, in his loving kindness, humiliating us if we start foolishly believing that the number of people who show up matters, how many copies of our books are sold or that we’re above being corrected (even by nobodies who apparently attend Star Trek conventions and live in their moms’ basements). Brothers in ministry, let this never be said of you. Surround yourself with godly men who love you enough to tell you the truth, accept criticism well and fear God above all else. Wisdom and humility will save our ministries—pride will destroy them.

What does it take to interpret Scripture correctly? Education? A seminary degree? Learning Greek and Hebrew? These are great and helpful things, but argues Curtis (Voice) Allen, they’re not the secret to becoming a good interpreter of Scripture. The secret is imitating Jesus. “Interpretation of Scripture, followed by right application, is the primary way that we are to be like God,” he writes in his new book, Education or Imitation?: Bible Interpretation for Dummies Like You and Me. “This is not an issue of education. It’s an issue of imitation” (p. 21). And through the book’s five short, but powerful chapters, Allen unpacks how “the call of imitation will walk hand in hand with interpretation” (p. 18).

Our problems with obedience begin not with a lack of education, but with bad interpretation. This has been mankind’s problem from the beginning, Allen argues, as he explains how Adam and Eve’s failure to rightly interpret God’s word led to their—and subsequently our—fall into sin.

“The first sin was an arrogance of interpretation,” he writes. “Ever since, mankind has suffered a continual plague of arrogance—the arrogance to act on our own view of what’s good and what isn’t. Adam and Eve chose to take upon themselves a false authority to interpret right from wrong. You and I regularly choose to act on the basis of that same false authority. In a way, we really have become like God, but it’s a cheap, shabby imitation” (p. 28).

By trusting in themselves that the serpent was right and that God was wrong, Adam and Eve took on an authority for themselves that they never truly had to begin with and the result was the interpretive chaos in which we now live. Our first parents’ folly is revisited throughout Scripture in the example of Saul who openly defied God’s command to devote everything to destruction in facing the Amalekites and ultimately in the ultimate earthly foes of Jesus, the Pharisees. The only way to correct our error? By interpreting as Jesus does.

This might seem like a “well, I should hope so,” kind of point, but consider how frequently we try to make the Bible about us, rather than about Jesus? What should I do in this or that situation, we often ask. Yet in doing so, argues Allen, we fail to imitate the primary interpreter of Scripture—who happens to be its primary object. ”Jesus alone knows what all Scripture means because it is about him,” he writes (p. 44). Going deeper into this point, Allen draws a strong parallel between evangelism and discipleship, and interpretation and application. He explains:

We could boil the focus of Jesus’ life down to evangelism and discipleship, both of which he accomplishes by communicating accurate interpretation and urging right application of God’s Word. This reality is often dismissed when it comes to imitating what Jesus did, but some of the most amazing things recorded in Scripture are not actual miracles but the instances when God explains his own Word to people and then shows them how to apply it. This is the pattern of Christian discipleship, and one of the primary ways in which we should imitate our Lord. Interpretation and application of God’s Word is of the highest importance to Jesus. (p. 44)

This is a really helpful way to help people understand the purpose of proper interpretation—it’s a discipleship issue. Jesus gives His disciples the tools we need to correctly interpret the Scriptures; they are not hidden in the whitespace of the Bible, nor are they in some obscure passage. They exist plainly as we see Jesus again and again correct the Pharisees’ wrong interpretation of Scripture and offer right interpretation instead, by pointing back to Himself. This is the pattern we see in Matthew 12′s Sabbath encounters and even in Jesus’ rebuke of the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. It’s also what we see in the Apostles’ teaching and the Church’s mission to evangelize and make disciples, both of which require interpretation and application of the Scriptures (see p. 79).

The book’s final chapter is one of its strongest as Allen seeks to break our me-centered perspective of Scripture, which reveals itself in selfish expectations (like interpreting God’s promise that He works all things for our good according to His purposes means we get our best life now) and selective attention (reading only the parts that “mean” something to us—see chapter five). We constantly need to be reminded that the Bible is not about us and that if we are to be disciples, we need the whole counsel of God, not merely the parts that give us a warm-fuzzy.

As I’ve considered the message of Education or Imitation, only one concern has really come up—and it’s (perhaps ironically) one of interpretation. I wonder if, despite his insistence that education is good and beneficial, some might seek to use the book as further fuel for some parts of Western Christianity’s love affair with anti-intellectualism. There were a few times where I found that Allen risk’s call to “imitation over education” was perhaps a bit overstated as education is a part of imitation. The most clearly Allen gets to this is on the closing page of the book, where he writes:

[E]ducation isn’t bad. I encourage you to pursue it if you can. It will make a huge difference in helping you to interpret Scripture. I’m not calling for picket lines in front the local Bible college. If you feel called to that kind of education, go! But if you can’t go, may you grow to read, interpret, and apply God’s Word rightly, for if you are a Christian there is nothing standing in your way. (p. 93)

Regardless of this concern (which is a very minor one), I believe Education or Imitation will be a great benefit to anyone who reads it—especially those who think they’re not “smart” enough to understand the Bible. “If you are a Christian, there is nothing standing in your way” of interpreting and applying the Scriptures. Rejoice and be encouraged!

Title: Education or Imitation?: Bible Interpretation for Dummies Like You and Me
Author: Curtis (Voice) Allen
Publisher: Cruciform Press (2012)

photo by Piotr Bizior

What’s the purpose of having a sense of calling? A sense of calling—understanding that God has put you where you are for His purposes—is important because some days, it’s the only thing that will stop you from going on a rampage or quitting and going to work at Starbucks (I hear the benefits are great, incidentally). A sense of calling is important, but we have to be careful that we don’t hyper-spiritualize the idea.

Even typing that seems odd, though. I mean, how can you over-spiritualize a sense of being called by God?

The answer is by limiting it to ministry.

Because I work in a ministry context and I’m around a lot of Christians every day, I see this happen a lot. Well-meaning people try to motivate their co-laborers by appealing to calling. “Anyone can have a job, but in this place, you need to be called,” they might say. Here’s where they’re right: To work in ministry and survive, you need to have a sense of calling. It doesn’t matter if it’s church or para-church ministry—if you are there running on your own steam, it will kill you. And, let’s be honest, your coworkers won’t want to work with you either.

But the same is true for “normal” work, too. As a Christian, you can’t do it and excel under your own power, not indefinitely. Perhaps that’s why I found this passage from Excellence so helpful (and yes, I am aware that I’ve been talking about this book a lot lately):

Every Christian, regardless of his or her particular job or career, should view that assignment as a special calling from God, a vocation. In that vocation, whether or not it is the job they would most like to have, believers are to pursue excellence in order to fulfill their calling effectively and to bring glory to God. Every duty we have as Christians must be discharged with all our strength, because ultimately we are serving God, not other people (Eph. 6:5–8; Col. 3:23)

Here’s the point and I hope it’s helpful as we start a new week: All work is inherently spiritual. You are called to your job because God has placed you there. And by virtue of this, you are called to do your work with excellence. It doesn’t matter if you work in a church, a coffee house or at home and regardless of how long your season in that place lasts—your work is your calling. Rejoice (even if your job isn’t your favorite)!

Desiring God is giving away a free eBook based on three sermons he’s preached on abortion. Here’s a sample from the book:

God is calling passive, inactive Christians today to engage our minds and hearts and hands in exposing the barren works of darkness. To be the conscience of our culture. To be the light of the world. To live in the great reality of being loved by God and adopted by God and forgiven by Christ (yes—for all the abortions that dozens of you have had), and be made children of the light. I call you to walk as children of light.

Is There Enough Teaching in the Church?

Good question from Kevin DeYoung:

I know this sounds like a crazy notion. I’m not 100% convinced myself. But I’ve begun to wonder if there might not be enough public teaching in today’s church.

That probably sounds nuts to many churchgoers, not to mention most pastors. Plenty of ministers already feel swamped with some combination of morning service, evening service, Sunday school, catechism, and midweek teaching, not to mention extra preps for weddings, funerals, and special events. I also realize I’m swimming up stream against the current of contemporary church thought which says the one thing we certainly have enough of is teaching. We are already stuffed full with Bible studies, services, small groups, conferences, and classes. The last thing we need is another opportunity to get our brains crammed with more information.

Ministry: Picking the Right People

Work: Myths of the Working Mom

Christian Living: Joe Thorn recommends some resources for discipling your children

Discernment: Making Necessary Distinctions

Interviews: Recently I was interviewed about getting published on the How to Be Awesome podcast and sat down to talk about Awaiting a Savior with Cory McKenna on The Cross Current radio show. Check them out.

In Case You Missed It

Here are a few of this week’s notable posts:

Book Review: Die Young by Hayley and Michael DiMarco

He Descended into… Hell?

Why is Narnia Okay, But Not Princess and the Frog?

R.C. Sproul: How Can We Love a Holy God?

Octavius Winslow: Beware of Him and Obey Him

The Non-Negotiables

In Defense of Neatniks

Our Lord’s whole life was a continuous sanctifying of His Father’s Name. Everywhere, and in every act, He acknowledged its divinity, upheld its authority, vindicated its sanctity, magnified and illustrated its greatness. God’s Name was in Him–and the solemn consciousness of being the sacred depository of so great, holy, and awesome a treasure–invested with the beauty and perfumed with the fragrance of holiness, every thought, word, and act of His life. His obedience to God’s holy law, His zeal for His Father’s honor, His jealousy of His Father’s glory, His full redemption of the Church, entrusted to His hands by God, was a living comment on the petition He daily taught, “Hallowed be Your Name.”

Reader, beware of Him, and obey Him, for God’s great and holy Name is in Him! You approach not a mere creature, you deal not with a finite being in your transactions with the Lord Jesus Christ. Beware of Him! It is not a human Name you profane, it is not a created being you deny, it is not a subordinate authority you denounce, when you deny His Deity, reject His Atonement, and trample His truth and claims to your love, faith and obedience, in the dust. You tear the robe of dignity from an infinite being; you pluck the crown of royalty from a kingly brow; you trample in the dust the sacrificial work of a Divine Redeemer. Oh, beware of His anger, beware of His power, lest, at last, you be numbered among those who will hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and exclaim, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?”

Octavius Winslow, The Lord’s Prayer, as published in The Works of Octavius Winslow (Monergism Books, Kindle Edition)

One of my favorite passages from R.C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God:

The simplest answer I can give to this vital question is that we can’t. Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him. He is the One who takes the initiative to restore our souls. Without Him we can do nothing of righteousness. Without Him we would be doomed to everlasting alienation from His holiness. We can love Him only because He first loved us. To love a holy God requires grace, grace strong enough to pierce our hardened hearts and awaken our moribund souls.

If we are in Christ, we have been awakened already. We have been raised from spiritual death unto spiritual life. But we still have “sleepers” in our eyes, and at times we walk about like zombies. We retain a certain fear of drawing near to God. We still tremble it the foot of His holy mountain.

Yet as we grow in our knowledge of Him, we gain a deepe- love for His purity and sense a deeper dependence on His grace. We learn that He is altogether worthy of our adoration. The fruit of our growing love for Him is the increase of reverence for His name. We love Him now because we see His loveliness. We adore Him now because we see His majesty. We obey Him now because His Holy Spirit dwells within us.

Over on Facebook, I’ve been asking readers what they think are the non-negotiables of the Christian faith. The discussion thus far has been really helpful, so I wanted to bring readers here into the discussion as well:

What, in your mind, are the non-negotiables of the Christian faith? What are things that, if you don’t believe them, are indicators that you might be outside the faith and what things can you be severely wrong on but still probably scrape through as though snatched “out of the fire”? 

Some of the points that have been hit so far include the nature of God, the person & work of Jesus Christ (this encompasses things like the virgin birth and his life of perfect obedience), justification by faith alone and the Bible as the only inspired and authoritative word of God. So what I’d like to know from you is what else?

Is there anything would you include that hasn’t been included? Anything you’d take away? Do you believe there are such things as non-negotiables at all?

My sister asked this question over the weekend—and it’s a good one. Why are we okay with allowing our kids to watch The Chronicles of Narnia, but not okay with The Princess and the Frog? In her mind it seems strange and understandably so. On the surface, it might seem inconsistent, given that both have magical elements and a basic “redemptive” storyline and both have some scary elements. So why do we let our oldest watch the former and not the latter?

Outside of personal experiences that play a huge role in our decisions in what to and not to watch, we’ve found that there are some pretty clear differences:

1. “Pretend” versus “real” magic. The more fantastical elements of the Narnia films are exactly that—fantasy. Magic healing potions, glowing swords and enchanted dragon treasure are very different than practices which can be and are performed in reality by practitioners of voodoo. This is a particularly important aspect for us as Emily and I have both had experiences dealing with the occult.

2. Worlds and worldview. The Princess and the Frog offers a worldview where all is one. “Good” magic and “evil” magic are flip sides of the same coin, and man and nature are on equal terms. This is a worldview that is antithetical from Christianity’s necessary distinction between Creator and creation, mankind from the rest of creation and a clear distinction between good and evil.

3. The nature of redemption. In The Princess and the Frog, redemption is found within—the lead character discovers that all she has to do is believe in herself and if she tries hard enough, she can make her own dreams come true. In Narnia, while the movies are less strong on this point than the books in later installments, redemption comes outside the self. This is most clearly seen in Aslan’s sacrificing himself to pay the blood debt Edmund owes to the White Witch—and as a result breaks her hold not only on Edmund but on the people and land once and for all. Edmund’s redemption comes not from his penitent attitude, but from the sacrifice of another. Even in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, for all its flaws in translating Eustace’s storyline, gets one thing right: Eustace is restored to human form not by his changing his ways, but by the intercession of another.

All this said, we don’t believe the Narnia movies are perfect films that we can just plop the kids down with and say “have fun.” Prince Caspian is far too intense for our oldest to handle, so we’ll be holding off on that one for a while. They also goof on a number of the things that make the books great (this is something Trevin Wax has helpfully pointed out in his assessments of Prince Caspian and Dawn Treader). But here’s why they’re still far more helpful at this stage than a lot of other films—they offer us a more natural opportunity to both explain the similarities and differences to what our family believes in a way that allows us to consistently point our children back to the gospel and focus primarily on what we’re for rather than what we’re against.

Question for readers—if you’ve got kids, how do you determine what is and isn’t appropriate for your kids to watch?