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Dangerous Calling Email – The Danger of Familiarity and Humility

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Here’s the email I sent the elders and deacons of Crestview today:

In Chapter 8 of Paul Tripp’s book Dangerous Calling entitled Familiarity, he warns his readers of the dangers of becoming overly familiar with the things of God.  We have an awe-of-God crisis that must be engaged.  Later in the chapter, Tripp highlights what the awe of God will produce in the heart of a pastor that are vital for effective, God-honoring, productive ministry.  One area he points to is humility.
Here’s how Tripp introduces this idea: “There is nothing that will put you in your place, nothing that will correct your distorted view of yourself, nothing that will yank you out of your functional arrogance, or nothing that will take the winds out of the sails of your self-righteousness like standing, without defense, before the awesome glory of God.” 
He continues: “Somewhere along the way in ministry, too many [church leaders] have forgotten who they are.  They have a bloated, distorted, grandiose view of themselves that renders them largely unapproachable and allows them to justify things they think, desire, say and do that simply are not biblically justifiable.  I have been there and at times fall into being there again, and when I am there, I need to be rescued from me.  When you are too much in awe of you, you set up to be a self-righteous, controlling, overconfident, judgmental, unfalteringly opinionated, ecclesiastical autocrat, unwittingly building a kingdom whose throne will be inhabited by you, no matter how much you are able to convince yourself you do it all to the glory of God.” 
This week, we transition on Sunday mornings into Revelation 4-5.  Take some time and read through seeing how great God is.  As you see that reality, realize that this awe is meant to drive you in ministry.  Have a great week living out of this reality.

Dangerous Calling Email – War of Kingdoms

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Here’s my email for the week to leaders at Crestview from Paul Tripp’s book, Dangerous Calling:

Today, we’re back in Tripp’s Dangerous Calling book thinking about Chapter 7, War Zones.  In introducing this idea, Tripp writes, “It took God employing pastoral hardship to get me to embrace the inescapable reality that everything I did in ministry was done in allegiance to and in pursuit of either the kingdom of self or the kingdom of God.  This truth is best exegeted for us in Matthew 6:19-34 (Please grab your Bible and read the passage).  I’m convinced that this passage is an elaborate unpacking of the thoughts, desires and actions of the kingdom of self.  Notice the turn in the passage in v.33, where Jesus says, “But seek first the kingdom of God.”  The word “But” tells us this verse is the transition point of the passage.  Everything before it explains the operation of the other kingdom, the kingdom of self.  This makes the passage a very helpful lens on the struggle between the two kingdoms that somehow, some way, battle in the heart of everyone in ministry.” 
Tripp then unpacks 4 ministry treasure principles that are helpful in seeking to examine the motivations of our heart in ministry:
1) You will be treasure oriented in your ministry.
2) Your ministry treasures will command the allegiance of your heart.
3) What captures the allegiance of your heart will shape your ministry actions, reactions and responses. 
4) Your functional treasures are always attached to either the kingdom of self or the kingdom of God.
Today, will you ask God to shine the light on your service and ministry so that you may seek out whether you are serving the kingdom of self or God?  And, remember to run to God as your refuge.  

Dangerous Calling Email – It’s Bigger Than Just You

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I’m writing some weekly emails to my fellow leaders at Crestview.  Here’s the email from 4/24:

As we keep working through Dangerous Calling, we are doing so in the hope that God would engage our hearts to make us holy.  We want to be servants of Christ who honor Him with our lives.  In chapter 6, “The Missing Community,” Tripp begins by explaining a transformation that took place in his heart and life when he understood that Christianity isn’t just Jesus and me but relational community.  Here’s his explanation, which is helpful for us seeing how our hearts need to change: “I have now come to understand that I need others in my life. I now know that I need to commit myself to living in intentionally intrusive, Christ-centered, grace-driven, redemptive community. I now know it’s my job to seek this community out, to invite people to interrupt my private conversation, and to say things to me that I couldn’t or wouldn’t say to myself. I have realized how much I need warning, encouragement, rebuke, correction, protection, grace, and love. I now see myself as connected to others, not because I have made the choice but because of the wise design of the one who is the head of the body, the Lord Jesus Christ. I cannot allow myself to think that I am smarter than him. I cannot allow myself to think that I am stronger than I am. I cannot assign to myself a level of maturity that I do not have. I cannot begin to believe that I am able to live outside of God’s normal means of spiritual growth and be okay. I cannot allow the level of my spiritual health to be defined by my ministry experience and success or by my theological knowledge. I cannot let myself be lulled to sleep by the congratulatory comments on ministry weekends by people who mean well but really don’t know me. I cannot let myself think that my marriage can be healthy if I live in functional isolation from the body of Christ.” (p.84)

Do you understand these things to be true in your life?  Are you aware of the danger of individualized Christianity?  Today, let this be a reminder to escape the clutches of rugged American individualism for the amber waves of community that God has allowed to surround you in the church.  Let’s embrace this for His glory and our good. 

Dangerous Calling Email – Fears

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Here’s the email I sent church leaders today, 4/17:

Today, we continue working through Dangerous Calling as weekly reminders of the high calling of local church leadership.  We are getting into Chapter 9 “Dirty Secrets”.  I think we probably all resonate with Tripp’s 4 Debilitating Pastoral Fears: 1) Fear of Me – illustrated in Gideon’s fear of Gideon, 2) Fear of Others – illustrated in Peter in Galatians 2:11-14, 3) Fear of Circumstances – illustrated in Abraham and Sarah’s situation, and 4) Fear of the Future – being paralyzed by the “what ifs.”  The remedy?  1) Humbly own your fears.  2) Confess those places where fear has produced bad decisions and wrong responses.  3) Pay attention to your meditation.  (what are you thinking about?)  4) Preach the Gospel to yourself. 
Let’s engage our fears so that we may be men of faith who courageously lead our people to deeper expressions of faith.  

Dangerous Calling Email – Daily Intervention

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Here’s the email I sent leaders at Crestview today, 4/3…

As we continue to think about Paul Tripp’s Dangerous Calling and follow up on Sessions 3 and 4 of the DVD, I turn my attention to Chapter 5, Joints and Ligaments.  I don’t know if you realize this or not, but, as Tripp says in this chapter, 100% of people reading this are deceived by sin.  “The blinding ability of sin is so powerful and persuasive that you and I literally need daily intervention.  What the writer of Hebrews is crushing with this warning and call [that none of us are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin] is any allegiance we might have to an isolated, individualized “Jesus and me” Christianity.  He is arguing for the essentiality of the ministry of others in the life of every believer. 
“And what is this daily ministry of intervention protecting us from?  The answer should sober every one of us: the grace of having our private conversations interrupted by the insight-giving ministry of others is protecting us from being spiritually blinded to the point of hardening our hearts.”  (both of these quotes are found on p.73)
I don’t know if any of you let anyone into your life with this kind of transparency but this isn’t a call for the zealous or the extrovert.  It’s a call for anyone who tends to be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (which would be all of us).  Next time you get defensive or push back when someone appears to be prying into a personal area, why not realize that it’s God’s grace rather that some pushy person that coming to rescue you. 
For us to be godly leaders, men, we must embrace the daily intervention required to bring sin to the light.  Let’s embrace this for the glory of God and the good of those we are privileged to serve. 
Have a great week.

Dangerous Calling Email – It’s About The Heart

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Here’s an email I sent to our Elders and Deacons this week:

We enjoyed a great Elders/Deacons meeting this past Monday and watched Sessions 3 & 4 of the Dangerous Calling DVDs.  As usual, Tripp delivered pointed and Biblical counsel.  And, as we follow up on the suggested reading, we end up back in Chapter 4 entitled “More Than Knowledge and Skill.”  If you’ve had time to interact with this chapter at all, you know that what Tripp is driving at is that ministry isn’t so much about what we know or what we’re able to do, but the nature of our heart relationship to God.  That heart nurtured before the Lord makes all the difference, for instance, in how we care for our wives, parent our children, relate to our coworkers and a host of other countless little things.  The heart processes our engagement with others. 
So, how is your heart this week?  If we go by Jesus’ standard that out of the mouth the heart speaks, what have your words revealed about your heart?  Might you need to repent and return again to Jesus?  Your ministry is about the impressive acts of service you can muster or what latest and greatest theological piece you’ve mastered.  It’s about your heart in right relationship to Jesus.  Nurture that this week, for the glory of God and the good of His people. 
Have a blessed weekend.  

Dangerous Calling Email – Forsake Mediocrity

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Here’s the email I wrote for leaders in our church on Wed, 3/13:

As we continue moving through the chapters from Dangerous Calling that go along with sessions 1 and 2 of the DVD, we move ahead to Chapter 10, “Mediocrity.”   The big point here is that mediocrity in our service of ministry is a sign of our awe of God.  Yes, much of this chapter is addressed to me, the primary teaching pastor who, quite simply, must prioritize the preaching of the Word and fight against all the things that would distract me from it, but there are also applications for each of you.
Tripp writes, “Mediocrity is not a time, personnel, resource or location problem.  Mediocrity is a heart problem.  We have lost our commitment to the highest levels of excellence because we have lost our awe.  Awe amnesia is the open door that admits mediocrity.  Awe of God is fear-producing, inspiring, motivating, convicting, and commitment-producing.  There is no replacement for this in the leadership of the church of Jesus Christ.”  And the remedy, again, is “…run in humble confession to your Savior and embrace the grace that has the power to rescue you from you and, in so doing, to give you back your awe.”  “Run to your Redeemer.  Bask in his glorious grace.  Seek the forgiveness and empowerment that only he can give.  And commit yourself, by his grace, to the disciplines of excellence that will only ever happen as he rescues you from you and gives you back your awe once again.”
The challenge for most of us is that we’re more committed to our jobs or work than to the church.  This is reflected in mediocrity.  What we wouldn’t dream of doing in our work (failing to return a phone call or email, taking care of our responsibilities, working in accordance with our job title) easily happens in our ministry in the local church.  And, what Tripp is getting at, is that this is an issue of your heart.  So, maybe reflect on your ministry practices at Crestview.  Have you drifted into mediocrity?  Run to Christ and find the forgiveness He offers so that you can respond with excellence once again. 

Dangerous Calling Email – Heart of the Matter

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Here’s the email I sent leaders at my church this week related to Paul Tripp’s Dangerous Calling book, Chapter 4:

Did you grow up watching Bugs Bunny cartoons?  It seemed that ever so often the plot involved Bugs being very tired and drained in a desert, only to see an oasis of rest in the distance.  He would run up and start drinking what he thought was water only to have sand in his mouth.  This mirage deceived him.  In Dangerous Calling, Paul Tripp unpacks the mirage of ministry for us in Chapter 4: “More Than Knowledge and Skill.”   He begins with an illustration of a church that hired a pastor only to learn that he didn’t end up being what they thought he was. 
Here’s a great summary paragraph: “I’m convinced that the big crisis for the church of Jesus Christ is not that we are easily dissatisfied but that we are all too easily satisfied.  We have a regular and perverse ability to make things work that are not and should not be working.  We learn to adjust to things that we should alter. We learn to be okay with things we should be confronting.  We learn how to avoid things we should be facing.  We would rather be comfortable that to hold people accountable.  We swindle ourselves into thinking that things are better than they are, and in so doing we compromise the calling and standards of the God we say we love and serve.  Like sick people who are afraid of the doctor, we collect evidence that points to our health, when really, in our heart of hearts, we know we are sick.  So we settle for a human second best, when God, in grace, offers u so much more.” 
Wowzer, that’s definitely the case often isn’t it?  Tripp continues saying that our ministry is never just shaped by our knowledge, experience and skill.  It always shaped by the true condition of our hearts.  On pp.61-62 there are some great questions that might reveal our hearts.  I commend those to you for study.  The solution is so simple: we “must be enthralled by, in awe of—can I say it: in love with—[our] Redeemer so that everything [we] think, desire, choose, decide, say, and do is propelled by love for Christ and the security of rest in the love of Christ.”  “The heart is the inescapable X factor in ministry.”  So, today, what’s being revealed in your heart?  This chapter, for me at least, is one in which I need to put away my “inner lawyer” (Tripp’s words again) and ask for a tender spirit before the Lord.  What’s being revealed out of your heart today?  Find encouragement in the glorious Gospel.

Dangerous Calling Email #1

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Last week, we had an Elders/Deacons Meeting and began to take some time looking at Paul Tripp’s Dangerous Calling book.  Here’s the first of weekly emails I’ll be sending our leaders from last Wed entitled Suspect Yourself:

As we jump into thinking about Dangerous Calling this year, I was reminded of a Sherlock Holmes case in which the inspector asked Holmes if he had any suspects yet and Holmes replied, “I suspect myself—for jumping to conclusions too rapidly.”  Really the Introduction and Chapter 1 of this book highlight the importance of tender hearts before God.  In the Intro, for instance, Tripp clearly lays out his aim: “This is a diagnostic book.  It is written to help you take an honest look at yourself in the heart-and-life-exposing mirror of the Word of God—to see things that are wrong and need correcting and to help you place yourself once again under the healing and transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ” (p.11). 

In Chapter 1, Tripp recounts “three underlying themes that operated in [his] life…”
1) I Let Ministry Define My Identity.
2) I Let Biblical Literacy and Theological Knowledge Define My Maturity.
3) I Confused Ministry Success With God’s Endorsement of My Lifestyle.
Here’s some good diagnostic questions for this first chapter:
“What about you?  How do you view yourself?  What are the things you regularly say to you about you?  Are there subtle signs in your life that you see yourself as being different from those to whom you minister?  Do you see yourself as a minister of grace in need of the same grace?  Have you become comfortable with discontinuities between the gospel that you preach and the way that you live?  Are there disharmonies between your public ministry persona and the details of your private life?  Do you encourage a level of community in your church that you give yourself to?  Do you fall into believing that no one has a more accurate view of you than you do?  Do you use your knowledge or experience to keep confrontation at bay?”
There’s great hope for us because of the Gospel, so, let’s remember that God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble and bow our knees (and lives) in awe before this God we serve.