Ray Ortland on One-anothers NOT found in the Bible

Ray Ortland has a short yet profound blog post (aren't those the best?) on one-anothers not found in the Bible:

Sanctify one another, humble one another, scrutinize one another, pressure one another, embarrass one another, corner one another, interrupt one another, defeat one another, sacrifice one another, shame one another, judge one another, run one another’s lives, confess one another’s sins, intensify one another’s sufferings, point out one another’s failings . . . .

The whole post is pure gold.

Consumerism

“We have been profoundly discipled every day by a very sophisticated system called media and advertisement. The goal of which is to create desire. Anyone who comes to Jesus in a Western context is already a well discipled consumer, and it is a religion! Consumerism is defined by what we consume. It is the search for meaning, identity, purpose, and belonging tied to the consumption of products. Consumerism is the alternative religion of our day. You can’t build a church on consumerism. They will desert you at a moment’s notice because they have no commitments beyond their own needs.”
— Alan Hirsch, "Disciple-making"

John Newton on Doctrine & Self-righteousness

“Self-righteousness can feed upon doctrines, as well as upon works; and a man may have the heart of a Pharisee, while his head is stored with orthodox notions of the unworthiness of the creature, and the riches of free grace. Yea, I would add, the best of men are not wholly free from this leaven; and therefore are too apt to be pleased with such representations as hold up our adversaries to ridicule, and by consequence flatter our own superior judgements. Controversies, for the most part, are so managed as to indulge rather than to repress this wrong disposition; and therefore, generally speaking, they are productive of little good. They provoke those whom they should convince, and puff up those whom they should edify. I hope your performance will savour of a spirit of true humility, and be a means of promoting it in others.”
— John Newton (1725-1807)

The Four Primary Tasks of a Senior Leader

Steve Graves has a nice piece of what senior leaders should or shouldn't be doing with their time:

I’m sure you’ve heard of some version of the 80/20 rule. One version is that 20% of the folks do 80% of the work. This seems true to me at times, but that’s not my favorite 80/20 rule. My favorite applies to senior executives.
 
Most senior execs spend 80% of their time doing what someone else could do and only 20% doing the things only they can do.
 
The most successful leaders, however, flip it. They spend 80% of their time on what only they can do.
 
It sounds simple enough, but it’s a fight to get here. Senior execs usually are well experienced and full of opinions, so they find themselves in the weeds daily.

His list of the four primary tasks:

  1. Directional Clarity
  2. Strategic Movement
  3. Culture Cultivation
  4. Resource Stability.

The whole blog post is well worth reading and considering.

Scripture is dangerous

“There is a dangerous risk to your comfort when you begin submitting to Scripture rather than trying to master it.”
— Mark Moore

Mark Moore over at Missio Alliance has a great post on Lectio Divina, an ancient spiritual practice I don't engage in nearly as often as I should. Every now and then groups of Protestants get their knickers in a knot over Lectio Divina, and most of their objections are less rooted in fact, bible, or good research, but instead find their source in rank suspicion of anything that might seem "Catholic."

In any event, I love the last line of Moore's post. Whatever one thinks of Lectio Divina, the quote is a gem all by itself.

Grace

“The fact is, that the solution to restraint-free immorality is not morality. The solution to immorality is the free grace of God. Only undeserved grace can truly melt and transform the heart. The route by which the New Testament exhorts sacrificial love and obedience is not by tempering grace but by driving it home. Charles Spurgeon nailed it when he said, “When I thought God was hard, I found it easy to sin; but when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I beat my breast to think I could ever have rebelled against One who loved me so and sought my good.””
— Tullian Tchividjian

Books by their covers

Fair or not, accurate or not, whether we wish it weren't so or not, the fact is people make snap judgements about the people they want to associate with, or hire, or follow as a leader in an organization, all by how those people look and dress.

Ty Kisel, business writer at Forbes, tells his story:

I had lunch yesterday with an old friend. I’ve known him for over 30 years. In fact, he introduced me to my wife. Unfortunately, we don’t see each other very often and hadn’t sat down across the table from each other for several years.

Let me preface what I’m about to say with, “I’m comfortable with my jeans and sneakers.”

Dave is a corporate attorney. He entered the restaurant immaculately dressed, although he wasn’t wearing a tie. I was dressed as I usually am (I did wear what I thought was a nice button-up shirt—it was even tucked in). Dave hasn’t changed much since we knew each other in our early twenties, while I am decidedly more rotund, sporting gray hair and a nearly white beard. He could pass for 10 years younger than me, although he’s actually a couple of years my senior (it must be all the time he wastes at the gym).

As we left the restaurant together I made an off-handed comment about how I appreciated that he got “all dressed up” to have lunch with me. He didn’t miss a beat, “I guess I just take our friendship more seriously than you do.”

Sadly many people never take matters of dress and appearance into account; sadly for their job prospects or ability to advance, that is. They never realize that dressing for a leadership or professional job the same way one would dress for a barbecue and frisbee game at the local park, is a sure fire way to signal to others one isn't competent, serious, or prepared, no matter how untrue those judgements might actually be.

When these facts are pointed out, many (especially younger) workers and leaders, bristle with indignation. They should, they rebut, be able to dress any way they like. As long as they are competent and can do the job who is anyone to judge them simply because they choose to dress comfortably.

However much they might wish others wouldn't make snap judgments based upon how another dresses it is nevertheless a constant of human behavior. Psychological studies show minor improvements in style, fit, cleanliness, and personal grooming--the subtle difference between a man having well-groomed hair or adopting a more youthful floppy surfer look, or whether a business woman leaves one top blouse button undone or two--can profoundly affect how others view one's intelligence, competence, and trustworthiness. A psychologist writing for Psychology Today observes from the research:

It is important to choose our dress style carefully because people will make all sorts of assumptions and decisions about us without proper evidence. We are unlikely to know what these assessments are too, so it is quite possible that our clothes reveal more than we thought.

Sartorial laziness is an easy habit to slip into. We may think that fashion is just profligate indulgence and our sunny personality will eclipse our dull attire or detract from the soup stains on our anorak. Untrue. What we wear speaks volumes in just a few seconds. Dressing to impress really is worthwhile and could even be the key to success. 

Kimberly Nastasi of the Institute for Organization Management advises young workers,

Young Professionals can be judged quickly and are often times dismissed based solely on their image and the image portrayed by their social media. Your image communicates nonverbally. Yes, we all want to be individuals and no, our performance is not based on the fact that we wear jeans and flip flops, but in today’s lax society young professionals need to dress the part. Last time you were in the airport, how many people did you notice were in their pajamas?  Better yet, what did you think about these people? On surface you could automatically assume they are lazy or indifferent.  Or you could assume they just want to be comfortable for travel, but would you want them on your team at the office? What are you going to do to avoid being judged negatively? How can you make a first impression work to your advantage?

I know a lot of young leaders both in secular and ministry positions who would do well to take a hard look in the mirror in the morning, and maybe make another trip back to their closet to find an outfit that presents them at their best rather than merely at their most laid-back and comfortable.

Heretics & Hypocrites

“Jesus’ focus was on “hypocrisy” more than “heresy,” and it might just be an indication of how far we’ve strayed for us to give so much attention to “heresy” and not enough to failure in praxis. As far as we can see, failure in practice is just as bad as failure in theology.”
— Scot McKnight

On common problems in modern preaching

Andrew Webb has written an insightful and challenging set of lists of the common problems in both non-Reformed and Reformed preaching. I've listened to a lot of Reformed preaching, and commiserate with most of his list.

I have listened to far more non-Reformed preaching in my life, and every church I have attended regularly and most of the churches I have visited frequently have been non-Reformed. After numerous decades of active listening, learning, and observing non-Reformed preaching practices, I'd say Webb's list of the problems in the preaching of non-Reformed churches is staggeringly accurate (which leads me to believe his list for Reformed churches is accurate as well).

Taken as a whole, those who preach would do well to take heed.

Primary Problems in Modern Non-Reformed Preaching:

  1. The topical series rules. There is little or no use of lectio continua and hardly any expository preaching.
  2. Lack of solid exegesis. The text is a leaping off point rather than the basis of the sermon.
  3. Scripture is seldom allowed to interpret scripture
  4. Sermons require little or no understanding of the bible on the part of the listener
  5. Emphasis on entertaining or impressing the congregation rather than exhorting them. Often there is actually a twisted symbiotic relationship between the preacher and the audience – he needs their approval and approbation so he tells them things that will provoke those responses. Too many preachers are actually closer to improvisational actors/comedians.
  6. Unwillingness to say anything most Americans don’t already believe
  7. Little or no law and precious little gospel.
  8. Success is measured by how happy the audience was with the sermon rather than how convicted they were or the good fruit it produced. The goal is usually consumerist – success is making the customer happy so that they will continue to buy your product.
  9. The majority of preaching centers on what the people are supposed to be enthusiastic about, but often these days sin (except the sin of judgment) is never discussed so that people are not offended.
  10. As a result what is too often created is not the church, made up of called out, soundly converted, and assembled together saints, but a franchise that can comfortably be frequented by anyone with a spiritual bent.

Primary Problems in Modern Reformed Preaching:

  1. There is far too little emphasis on connecting with the hearers.
  2. Too many of our sermons are actually theological lectures, and our aim is usually to inform the mind rather than melt the heart.
  3. Instead of an emphasis on impressing the audience with our personality via entertainment, our emphasis is on impressing the audience with our erudition via teaching. We want them to go away thinking, “Wow! I never knew that word had such an amazing semantic range in the original Greek. What a teacher our pastor is!”
  4. We tend to make our hearers do too much of the work, and far too many of our sermons are actually unintelligible to non-Christians
  5. We often forget that our preaching should have the same end as John’s telic note in John 20:31 – ” but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
  6. We eschew Finney’s idea that conversion is the result of “the right use of means” but are sometimes stunningly unsupernatural in our own view of preaching. Instead of conversion being a supernatural work of the Spirit that must be fervently prayed for, we make it the result of the right understanding of information correctly imparted and received. Small wonder that so many of our listeners can explain theological doctrines but have no clue what Christ was really asking Peter in John 21:15-17.
  7. We often act as though it doesn’t matter how good a communicator the pastor is and don’t see being stunningly boring as a problem. Sometimes we even view being uninteresting as a badge of honor, as though boring was the opposite of ear tickling.
  8. Secretly, we also don’t want to upset our hearers, so the majority of our convicting fire is directed towards the sins found outside the church rather than within it.
  9. Often the majority of our preaching follows the via negativa, we spend our time telling people what we are against, but not what we are for.
  10. As a result what we too often create is “Fortress Church” – a dwindling and unapproachable bastion of the saints -  and then wonder why no one from the world is coming to visit us.