Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear

Pastor J.D. shares some of his thoughts about doing church online, especially in light of the current coronavirus pandemic. A glimpse inside this episode: J.D., most churches are now recording or live-streaming their church services so their people can watch from their homes in light of the coronavirus pandemic. What do you think about that? Is church online really church? In some ways, you’d like to say yes, in these times, God is recognizing this as us gathering together. But it is not ideal. And this is not church in “many locations.” I’m not onboard with those who say this is another variation of the multi-site movement. I’m also not onboard with saying this is just the future and we need to get on board. But don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. The New Testament is not giving exact, prescriptive tasks very often. Instead, most of the orders it gives are ones of idealistic purity. There are even examples of irregularities in the New Testament itself: Church without elders. It’s clear elsewhere in Scripture that churches do need elders. Women starting missionary churches. If gauze is the best bandage, don’t be shy about using a bandaid. What about the ordinances? What about baptism and the Lord’s Supper? Instinctively, my first response was “no.” Right now, The Summit Church has not gotten to a point where we’re baptizing or taking the Lord’s Supper. We don’t feel like the length of time has justified going to some of those extreme circumstances. But the longer it goes on, it makes me think there may be a point where we have to figure out non-ideal ways to participate and observe the ordinances. Philip baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch. There wasn’t a church there. It was better for him to be baptized there than not at all. So there may be a case where there’s something temporary that we do. The essential elements of coming to the Lord’s table: Togetherness Introspection Celebration What about an invalid in their home? The Didache talks about that. What about missionaries who take the Lord’s supper together, without any other believers? Obviously that’s not ideal but it is better than nothing as a temporary solution. If someone’s going to say, “Well, it’s Tuesday and I don’t want to wait until the weekend to baptize my friend, I’m going to do it now,” that’s not a good example of utilizing a temporary solution. But in a circumstance like the one we have now, it may make sense to utilize a temporary solution. Does it have to be bread and wine? There are elements of bread and wine (juice) that are helpful. But if you simply don’t have it, I would say no. And you could take that further — you could say it would be best to crush the grapes yourself to see the symbolism. If you have to get a Ritz cracker and a glass of water, that’s better than nothing. The introspection is most important. In some ways, doing the Lord’s table this way virtually can be more connective than in a room at church with 1500 people. That’s the ideal version, but there may also be a connection online that’s helpful. When it comes to these ordinances, it ought to be done as an entire local church, not certain groups or people or families.   The sponsor for this week’s episode: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams. portablechurch.com/lifeway

With the cancellation of the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, Pastor J.D. Greear briefly answers what that means for him over the next year. Resources: Why canceling the 2020 SBC Annual Meeting is putting ‘Gospel Above All’ 2020 SBC Annual Meeting canceled Baptist Press COVID-19 coverage

Pastor J.D. talks about some key advantages and disadvantages to each type of schooling and how Scripture guides our decision-making. A glimpse inside this episode: My friend Joby Martin says if you want some entertainment, get a home-school mama and a public school mama together and ask what the best educational approach is and then just get some popcorn and sit back and prepare for a UFC bout. Home-school mom be like: Sure, you can send your kid to the place where they outlaw prayer like in the times of Nebuchadnezzar and teach your kid that he came from monkeys and where he might get stabbed in the face by a gang member… that’s fine … but we love our son and want him to develop a biblical worldview so we homeschool. Statistically they are more likely to walk with Jesus if you do that, so clearly homeschooling is the godly choice.” Public-school mom: Yeah, that’s cool. We just want our kids to have things like…  social skills. We think it’s cool that Timmy can churn his own butter and make his own clothes but we want our son to know things like … math. And we think our kids need to learn how to deal with the temptation of the world and not just run from it. After all, Jesus promised he would protect us in the world, not to vacate from it—and if all the Christians flee the public school, where is that going to leave society? How can we be salt and light to the world if we vacate it? Keeping our kids in public school is an act of love for our neighbor. First, Romans 14. Chapter 14 and the first half of 15 are one extended discussion about how to get along with people in the church who disagree with you on something you feel passionate about. Second: We’ve done all three: private school, home school, and public school and saw advantages in each. 3 in private now, 1 in public (Veronica says she couldn’t homeschool all 4 at once because the Bible clearly says Thou shalt not murder. And my wife would’ve killed my kids if they were home-schooled.) Third, I’ll say: It really is ‘by kid.’ There haven’t been a lot of studies on this, but those that are out there indicate that there’s not a significant difference in homeschool and public regarding whether the child adopts the faith if the parent is involved.  “The data also suggest that family climate, especially faithful religious devotion by both parents, delivered in a context of loving nurture, is far more important than where a child goes to school.” Parental involvement is more key than school choice. That’s similar to the studies on how much doing devotions impacts a kid. It is the quality of the relationship more than the amount of the teaching that makes the difference. Here it is: Sociologist Vern Bengston says in his book Families and Faith that studies conclusively show that the quality of the child’s relationship to the father is the single-most important factor in whether the child adopts the faith of the parents. What are advantages to private/home schooling? Studies show that both homeschooled kids and private school kids usually do slightly better on standardized testing than public school students. Private school students may get more intentionally-tailored Bible teaching and Christian curriculum (takes some pressure off), and homeschool parents have all the freedom they want to disciple their kids and teach them the Bible as a part of everyday school. Homeschooling (and private schooling to some extent) allows you the opportunity to tailor your child’s education to that child. If in a public school, it can be difficult to control what they’re exposed to at an early age. Public school curriculum can be notoriously harsh to Christianity–you’ve got to do due diligence. We had our older kids read apologetics books for that purpose. What are disadvantages to private/home schooling? Social interaction (not just a joke) if you’re not careful when homeschooling. Church is a great place to build the kind of community that can compensate for this, by the way, along with things like sports, extracurricular clubs, etc. Exposing them to world. We wanted to have them come home every night and process with us the hard discussions, the temptations, before college. Missional element: be careful with this one. That’s your calling not theirs yet. Private school is really expensive.  It’s a privileged person who even gets to ask a question like this. I understand that. Private schools are really expensive, and not only does that make it impossible for some people … it’s also something that Christians might want to consider even if they can afford it. Do you want your child to only interact with other kids who can afford that kind of school? Or do you want them to have friends from other walks of life, other socio-economic statuses? Homeschooling can be really tough. Sometimes it’s nice to have some help shouldering the load of teaching your kids — especially when it comes to subjects that might be out of your comfort zone (which, for me, would come embarrassingly early in the process). Every kid is different. The sponsor for this week’s episode: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

During this uncertain time, Pastor J.D. addresses a common question Christians have about prayer. He makes it clear that God not only hears our prayers but moves as a result. A glimpse inside this episode: Here are some false answers: Maybe prayer is about changing me? Not true. Lewis. Not, ask and you’ll be changed, knock and the experience makes you different. The parables (Luke 13, Luke 18) about how God answers those who persist in prayer. Or, people wonder, maybe it’s all predestined? AA Hodge: “Eating is the pre-ordained way God has set for living.” What should you do? First, Many have felt this way in history (Job; Psalms; Jeremiah in Lamentations) God rewards persistence: in this way, it does change you. It is good to wait on God. You don’t know all that God is doing: John Piper: at any given point, God is doing 10,000 things, you are aware of only three of them Example: Tapestries at Biltmore House None of your prayers are wasted—God uses them all. Sometimes overruling your answer for a better one! The Spirit intercedes for us. Revelation: God collecting these prayers at his altar.

Pastor J.D. shares four main ways Christians should respond in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. A glimpse inside this episode: The coronavirus is now, according to the World Health Organization, a “world pandemic.” We’ve seen some unprecedented public responses to stop the spread of the virus here in the United States—things most of us have never personally experienced. States (like our own North Carolina) are issuing official states of emergency. In some places, the national guard has been deployed. Colleges have sent students home. Local public schools are closing, too. Every sporting event I’m aware of has been suspended indefinitely or outright canceled. And most churches, now, are not meeting. First, a few weeks ago you quoted Matthew 24 about in the last days there being plagues, etc. Jesus told his disciples that it was not for them to know the times or the seasons, nor the day and hour of his return. What Jesus indicates here is that God uses things like this to wake us up to the fragility of the world and to the reality of divine judgment. They are like birth pains–they can’t tell you the exact moment of new birth, but they indicate that the time is getting shorter and a new reality that is coming. As the time of judgment draws near, we can expect these things only to increase. So, we are wise to hear in these things a divine warning God is trying to give to people on earth: The world we live in is temporary. The things we trust in won’t sustain us. This has been humbling, hasn’t it? When I first heard about this, I thought this would go in the category of “near misses” I’ve grown accustomed to. You hear about an asteroid that comes close to earth, but it always seems to miss and life goes on. Or you hear about epidemics in other places and think, “Our medical system can keep us safe.” But think about how something that none of us can even see; something that a month ago none of us were worried about, or scarcely even aware of, has brought our nation to a screeching halt. Even if the reality of this is not as bad as some of the worser case scenarios, the total shutdown of our country is going to have massive implications. Some are saying unemployment could get as high as 20%. How quickly and easily our whole nation has shut down shows us just how fragile we are. So: How should we, as Christians, respond to this current crisis? 1- Heed wise counsel This is not a time for carelessness or bravado. Nor is it a time for panic. We all have a natural bias–some of us gravitate toward worst case scenarios and doomsday prophecies and overreact. Others tend to brush aside reports as hysteria or some kind of mainstream media political agenda. It’s probably wisest to know our bias, avoid extremes, and listen to counsel. My encouragement to you is to avoid online extremists, particularly those that pander to your bias. We know social media isn’t helping that much. It’s ironic that in an age of unprecedented access to information that during a crisis social media does more to spread disinformation and hysteria. Our disposition as a church, at this point, is to defer to the CDC and our government, neither getting way far ahead of them nor lagging behind. We believe this is why God gave us governing officials, and we’re going to follow them. And let me say something to those of you who feel young and invulnerable, since I know that many of the reports we have heard have indicated that young people are not as much at risk as others. First, don’t take anything for granted. There are plenty of stories of young healthy people developing serious complications, even dying, as a result of contracting this virus. Second, even if you are low-risk, you should take precautions for the sake of your neighbors. It’s like a friend of mine said, “I’m taking CDC instructions seriously, not because I’m afraid of getting it. I’m young, healthy, in Christ and have no fear about the future. I’m taking Covid-19 seriously because I’m afraid of distributing it.” Or, as another Christian leader (Andy Crouch) put it, “Love, not fear, is the reason we should change our behavior. 2- In this season, move forward in faith, not backwards in fear The early church wasn’t known for stockpiling ample food and ammunition for themselves or spreading fear on social media. Or, as I’ve heard said, Mother Teresa’s legacy built on hoarding months of supplies for herself and then berating the poor of Calcutta on why they weren’t as wise as she was. Christian witnesses throughout history have been known for hope, faith, and self-sacrifice, imitating a Savior who ran toward tragedy, not away from it. This is a time of great opportunity for us. Rodney Stark tells the story of how the gospel saw unprecedented expansion in a time of plagues in the 1st Century: In AD 165, while Marcus Aurelius was emperor, a plague struck the Roman Empire, and over a 15-year period, it killed nearly 33% of the population. At this time there were 45,000 Christians in existence, just 0.08 percent of the empire. Despite their numbers, their response to this pandemic won admiration and a greater following. Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, reported: Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy…  Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead. This stood in stark contrast to those outside the church. Dionysius continues: “But with non-Christians everything was quite otherwise. They deserted those who began to be sick, and fled from their dearest friends. They shunned any participation or fellowship with death; which yet, with all their precautions, it was not easy for them to escape.” Stark even points out, in evident irony, that Christian death rates in many of these plagues were substantially lower. By nearly ⅔! Why? Some analysts also say it was because of their strong sense of community, their commitment to care for each other, and their robust hope in the face of death. In their willingness to embrace death, they found life. Andy Crouch explains this: “[If you were a first-century Roman], after you had recovered from the plague, where would you want to worship? The pagan temple whose priests and elite benefactors had fled at the first sign of trouble? Or the household of the neighbor who had brought you food and water, care and concern, at great risk to themselves? When this plague has passed, what will our neighbors remember of us? Will they remember that the Christians took immediate, decisive action to protect the vulnerable, even at great personal and organizational cost? Will they remember that, being prepared and free from panic, the households of their Christian neighbors were able to visit the needy (while protecting them by keeping appropriate social distance!), provide for their needs, and bring hope?” Practically: Check on your elderly Ask about hourly workers Buy gift cards from service places Support the healthcare workers you know. Pray for strength, endurance, rest, and community for those caring for the sick and vulnerable / Send a text or drop off a note of encouragement / Deliver a meal to their home or run errands for them while you are out / Offer childcare for their kids while they work and rest. (An enormous number of healthcare workers are single mothers. With numerous school closures, many of them are unable to work—and this at a time when they are needed most!) See what ministries your church has (bunch on our home page) 3- Proclaim hope I got this message from one of my staff members earlier this week. “While this situation is new, our calling has not changed. The gospel is still the most important message in the world, and we are still called upon to tell it. It is a gospel of love and faith, precisely what we need when society is filled with fear and uncertainty.” In just a few weeks, we are going to celebrate a holiday that has been at the center of Christianity for 2,000 years—Easter. There was never a more hopeless time, humanly speaking, than when the Son of God was in the grave. At that point, it seemed like the end. The disciples themselves were despairing. But Easter is a reminder: He is risen! And as sure as he walked out of the grave, he promises life to those of us living in the shadow of death. 4- Use this season to develop some good habits! Our discipleship team has prepared a small group guide called Don’t Waste Your Quarantine. Family Devotions. Reading. Structured Days. God does some of his greatest work in secret, mundane places. We’re entering a sort of extended “Sabbath,” when most of what we would normally doing we won’t be able to do. Don’t just make it through this time. Redeem this time. Don’t waste your quarantine! C.S. Lewis lived at a point in the 1960’s when a lot of people were genuinely afraid we were going to be destroyed by nuclear weapons, and he was once asked how one could live without fear knowing that at any minute the world could be destroyed. He said, “Well, what I know is that all of us will die eventually, and for most of us it will be sudden and for many of us it will be unpleasant. We may not know when or how death will come, but we know it will come for all of us and it’s very likely to be unexpected and unpleasant. And I know that sounds a bit morbid, but when you resolve yourself to that, you can start to use whatever amount of time you have–whether it’s 6 months or 60 years, to embrace life and capitalize on whatever opportunities God has put in front of you. Our main question should not be when and how we’ll die, but how we’ll live when we are alive.   The sponsor for this week’s episode: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

Pastor J.D. and Matt are joined by special guest, Brian Fikkert, author of the new Becoming Whole: Why the Opposite of Poverty Isn’t the American Dream and When Helping Hurts. A glimpse inside this episode: The answer is clearly no. The gospel is not just for western culture. But the evangelical church’s truncated understanding of the gospel has often resulted in the mixture of the gospel and western culture. Listen to learn more about he means by that. Other questions answered: You talk about the fact that we need a new story. You say “The American Dream is the wrong story, for both poor people and ourselves.” What story are we telling now? And what is the new story we need? You say that this process requires we engage with whole people. How have we, specifically the church, missed engaging the whole person? One big question I feel like many churches and people are wrestling with is how to make their initiatives and ministries geared towards poverty alleviation sustainable. So what are some of the big sustainability obstacles you see? And how can we work towards overcoming them?   The sponsor for this week’s episode: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

Pastor J.D. talks about the need to care for the earth but also remember the purpose of God creating it, especially when it comes to matters like climate change. A glimpse inside this episode: Two Poles: We are responsible to care for creation and … The earth was created for the benefit of humans. We’re not a virus or a cancer. These come from two mandates in Genesis 1: Dominion mandate: earth was made for human Stewardship mandate: we are to care for the heart like a garden Any solution, therefore, must toggle between those poles. Some strategies for ‘creation care’ fail to take into account God created the earth for our benefit and we should use it accordingly, for example–they would harm the economy too much. There is room for disagreement. Undeniable: There has been some warming. Disagreement: For example, is it cyclical? Yes. Christians disagree. We can handle the disagreement, but insist upon the poles. Russell Moore: Scripture does not lay out for us a legislative blueprint for every possible environmental problem. And he points to two extremes: Some Christians shrug their shoulders, cite the dominion clause of the Genesis mandate, and then endorse the bumper-sticker slogan: “Earth First: We’ll Pave the Other Planets Later.” Other Christians, just as casually, wrinkle their brows, cite the stewardship clause of the Genesis mandate, and propose “What Would Jesus Drive?” anti-SUV campaigns. Both extremes are wrong:  To use Jesus as a mascot for a specific a political program dilutes his witness. Dr. Moore says another concern he has is an evangelical utopianism that believes, in the words of one evangelical leader, that we can “restore Eden” through legislative means. I am also deeply suspicious of the kind of doomsday scenarios laid out for us by Al Gore and others in a kind of secular Left Behind series. We live in a cursed universe, and the universe groans under the burden of this curse (Romans 8:19-22). That doesn’t mean that we simply give the earth over to the ravages of its birth-pangs, anymore than we can cite the curse of literal human birth-pangs as reason not to comfort a mother in delivery. It does mean, though, that we understand the limits of “saving the world” in this time between the times. Dr. Moore says: The earth is longing for something, the apostle Paul tells us. But it’s not freedom from man, but the coming of the God-Man, the Lord Jesus…. The earth is groaning for us, “for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). That’s why gospel proclamation is the most farsighted form of environmental activism. The earth is delivered when her rulers are raised from the death curse, when all things once again are under their feet, in Christ. The earth is created for humans. That’s where “Live Aid” was closer to the biblical truth than “Live Earth.” The Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, tell us something secular environmentalism and ideological Darwinism can never accept: “We are the world.” What’s the Conclusion? We ought to support reasonable laws that protect the earth and its resources. We should always make sure they are done under the idea that the world is created for humans, will support it, and any policies should not inhibit human flourishing. We should not attach the church’s name to specific policies. We’ll disagree often on how best to do that. But, in the meantime, we ought not to turn away from what we know to be true in order to support what we think seems to be true. Even if doing so wins us the applause of the rock stars. Dr. Moore: Let’s take care of the earth, protect the natural order. But let’s remember that the world is not ultimately rescued by politicians or musicians or filmmakers or scientists. It’s saved by the Man, the Lord Jesus. Jesus’ blood, not Al Gore. Let’s preach him.   The sponsor for this week’s episode: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.  

Pastor J.D. discusses what’s important to keep in mind when it comes to leaving a church and choosing one. A glimpse inside this episode: There are two tensions to manage here: The no-commitment consumer culture is not appropriate for the church. Consumer culture works for some things. But not for church. Church is a family: The best parts of church come from that; it’s not a show. It is better to be really connected at a mediocre church than partially committed at the best one. I only have one life to live, and I want to invest it where I get the most return.  Hearing the Word. Community that makes you flourish Maximizing gifts: Don’t be a “Lone Ranger Christian,” the one faithful voice in a dead church. You’ll be much more effective working side-by-side with like-minded believers than you will trying to effect change on your own. This matters even more to me now as a father. I want my kids to grow up in a place where they will see and experience firsthand the best community of believers I can offer to them. Gospel-centered ministry is an absolute priority; the spiritual health of my family is too important to have them in a place without it. What are mistakes you’ve seen people make as they approach this decision?  Always thinking about your needs is a sign of immaturity. Paul tells the Ephesian believers to “grow up” (Eph 4:1-16), which he defines as learning to use your spiritual gift in the church, not being fed and having your needs met each week. It is infants and toddlers, not adults, whose primary concern in being fed and having their bottoms wiped by others. Ironically, some of the “seasoned” Christians who complain the most about “not getting anything out of their church” act more like toddlers than mature believers! The church is not about you. This is important for any church, because your church, no matter what it starts like, cannot remain perpetually “the hottest show in town.” Someone younger, cooler, and flashier is right now preparing the next best thing. So, we’ll have ups and downs, cold seasons and hot ones. Thinking you can turn it around. If you are not part of the lead pastoral team, you very likely will not be able to turn the ship around. Pray and wait. Waiting too long. You get the greatest return on relationships when you invest yourself in one place for many years. I’m not sure how to give you a “litmus test” for when to stay and when to leave. I have known people who felt called by God to stay in a dying place and believe God for its resurrection and actually saw that happen. I’ve known others who tried that and, because they were not in a place where they could really effect the change they desire, “wasted” some great years in a dying organization. I’ve known others who left a dying church and went on to serve God somewhere else, and were greatly blessed in the process. And I’ve known still others who abandoned ship when they should have stayed. If you think there’s a possibility of change, I’d say stay and make it happen. When you see that there is not, invest your life elsewhere. Be committed: There’s a difference in how the chicken and the pig contribute to your eggs and sausage breakfast. The chicken makes a contribution; the pig is committed. Be a pig.   The sponsor for this week’s episode: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

Pastor J.D. talks about the nuances of cold-call evangelism and why evangelism is vital to the church today. A glimpse inside today’s episode: This is something very familiar to me. In the church where I grew up, Wednesday-afternoon soul-winning was your first act of sanctification! Not kidding. I got saved on a Friday and went on my first soul-winning cold-call that next Wednesday. For various reasons, most churches have gone away from that. Not as effective at making long-term disciples People don’t respond any more to strangers. Now, bad versions of cold-call evangelism can go terribly wrong, and can potentially even harm someone’s view of the church. But here’s the thing: it provided some great experience, and nothing has replaced it. Door-to-door evangelism was where I learned to share the gospel. Losing that with nothing to replace it has been a pretty significant loss. Are “ordinary” church members equipped to share the gospel? Are they actually doing it? Do they even see it as their responsibility anymore? What can we do? Find the Right Tools; If You’re a Pastor, Teach the Right Tools A lot of people have plenty of drive to share their faith, but are lacking in practical guidance. On one level, it does not take much skill to describe your experience of salvation: “I was separated from God; Jesus saved me.” But there does come a point when instruction and training are a huge help. Having the right tools can greatly improve our confidence when we share Christ with others. Conversation starters Verses to use (I always start with Romans 6:23.) Illustrations Format: 3 Circles, Bridge Asking the question at the end Telling your story Get good at it. You need an elevator speech: Entrepreneurs have what they call an “elevator speech” for their product: even though they could talk for hours and hours about it, they force themselves to condense things down to a 45-second summary (roughly the length of a long elevator ride). We should have an “elevator speech” for our story too: 100 words or less that explain how Christ met our “felt” needs, which sets us up for a sharing of the gospel. It’s important, of course, that we remember that our story isn’t the same as the gospel. It’s just a response to the gospel and, in evangelism, provides an introduction for us to share the gospel. Most importantly, stay in tune with the Spirit. We don’t hear this nearly as much as we should. We don’t build the kingdom for God; we let God build it through us. That’s why the first command given to the apostles in Acts is to wait. Until the Spirit arrived, they could do nothing. This is the only way to keep from being overwhelmed by the massive task of evangelism. God does not expect us to convert people; he invites us to walk with him and be his instrument as he builds the church. Pray it every day. Who’s life are you going to put me in the midst of? Sometimes he’ll provide a wide open door, other times not. Sometimes we open that door. Sometimes it doesn’t turn out well–that doesn’t mean it’s not of God. Honestly, only about 1 in every 5 of my attempts to have a spiritual conversation turns out well. But just because it turns out poorly does not mean that God is not in it. Stephen witnessed to Paul and was stoned, but that was definitely Spirit-filled evangelism! I have heard that the average person has to hear the gospel 12 times before they believe. Sometimes I like to ask what number I am. We may get the joy of being that 12th person, or we may be one link in the chain. But the Spirit has a role for us. How do you not get discouraged, though? Imagine: Running a magnet over the sand. See what metal comes up. A friend says: A true evangelist believes two things: Salvation belongs to God and faith comes only by hearing. The former takes the pressure off of you in all the right ways. The latter puts it on in all the right ways–it shows you your responsibility! How can they hear unless we preach?   The sponsor for this week’s episode: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

Pastor J.D. walks through various views of spiritual gifts today and discusses some general guardrails to keep in mind when approaching gifts like speaking in tongues. A glimpse inside this episode: Now, a little lay-of-the-land: There’s generally 4 positions when it comes to spiritual gifts like tongues and prophecy: Cessationist: gifts (like prophecy, tongues and healings) have ceased. On the other end is the Pentecostal position: i.e. the gifts are in full operation, and normative for every Christian, and if you are not using them there is something wrong with you, and you need to fix it, or start faking it. The charismatic: which is that these gifts are in existence, and part of the normal ministry operations of the church, but not everyone has them. Then there’s a 4th position that doesn’t really have a name, but believes that the gifts have not ceased, but that most of the ways the gifts are being used today is not really biblical/or helpful. I say at The Summit Church we are charismatics with seatbelt. I’ll say right up front, and this may not be popular, but there is a lack of hard and fast clarity when it comes to this issue, but I think that is intentional. God wants us to be open to anything God chooses to do in this area; but he leaves us clear parameters so that we can know when it’s him doing it. Here’s my general guardrails: We should not forbid speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:39). To be clear, I do not have a private prayer language, nor do I think Paul encourages us toward one in this, or any, passage. While not encouraging anybody to speak in tongues, however, Paul stopped short of forbidding it. I think we should stop where he did. In fact, “banning” tongues goes against the entire spirit of Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 14, not to mention being in nearly direct defiance of verse 39. If Paul had wanted to outlaw a prayer language, he would have done so. God is not in heaven, wringing his hands and wishing that he had been clearer in his word. He said what he wanted to say, exactly the way he intended to say it, with the ambiguities and limitations he desired. And if you believe in the sufficiency of Scripture, you should be ok with that. The primary purpose of tongues is to signify the spread of the gospel among non-Jewish people (14:21–22). The primary purpose of tongues is not private prayer. They were not given to make you feel closer to God—for that you have the blood of Jesus! As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:22 tongues are a sign for unbelievers, particularly unbelieving Jews. With other tongues I will speak to this people. This is why I approach a lot of cases of tongues with suspicion. When someone tells me that their private prayer time is filled with speaking in tongues, I always want to ask, “How many unbelieving Jews are present in your private prayer time?” The same is true for worship services where speaking in tongues is common. How many unbelieving Jews attend those services? The spiritual gift of tongues was meant as a signal to the Jews that God is interested not only in them, but that he desires to save people from all tribes and all peoples and all languages. Tongues are a dramatic sign of the new non-Jewish frontier of the gospel. Seeking tongues is not a sign of spiritual maturity (14:19–20). Many talk about it as if it is the “deeper things” of the Spirit. That’s not true. Even if you accept that it is a gift in operation today, a couple of things to realize here. Paul never tells us to seek that gift. In fact, he seems to set up so many restrictions around the practice of tongues that only a truly supernatural work of God could pass the test! Like a sieve. On the other hand, Paul repeatedly tells us to seek gifts that build others up (12:31, 14:1, 12, 39). This is true spiritual maturity—not when we are swept away by ecstatic and unintelligible utterances, but when we interact with the Spirit and offer ourselves to be used by Him for the good of the church. Not all Christians speak in tongues (12:30). Many say they should. I’m not sure how Paul could have been clearer on this one. Not all Christians speak in tongues. Those who claim that speaking in tongues is a necessary sign of the Spirit of God are in direct contradiction with the Word of God. Our worship services should be characterized by much more interaction with the Spirit (14:25–26). True worship occurs when the people of God, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God converge. Too often we settle for two out of three—the people of God sitting and passively listening to the Word of God. We are so afraid of disorder that we essentially reduce church to a Bible podcast. The power of God’s Word is unleashed to communicate His love to real people who are in real pain in real time.  We should each come to church with something to give (14:26). What makes for a Spirit-filled service? A great sermon? The “right” kind of music? No, a Spirit-filled service happens when the Spirit comes in with you. A truly Spirit-filled service can only happen when the people of God come prepared to share what the Spirit has put on their hearts.   The sponsor for this week’s episode: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.