Provocations & Pantings

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As you can see, my brother and sister-in-law had their first baby this past Thursday.  He was born at 2:35 p.m. and weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces and was 20 inches long.  I am really excited for them as they are experiencing many of the joys my wife and I had just a few months ago of hold your first-born child.  You can see more photos I took by going to my brother’s Flickr photostream, or you can watch them in a slideshow.

In other news, my father and I travel back to Louisville this week to load up the trailer and head down to Cape Coral.  As a result, blogging will most likely be really light.  But of course, I could attempt to live-blog the 17 hour drive down South, but that would be really boring.  But seriously, if any of you guys in Louisville and are around Wednesday, let me know if you would like to help move some boxes.  I am still needing a few more guys as a couple notified me this week that they would not be able to make it.  You can email me at outpostministries[at]yahoo[dot]com.

This Sunday I will be preaching at a local church that is doing some great work, and I am really looking forward to it.  I also found out what my preaching/teaching calendar looks like for the rest of the summer, and I am really excited about the numerous opportunities I will be given to proclaim God’s Word to His people.  Furthermore, both Dusti and I cannot wait to join the family of faith that is Grace Baptist Church.  Already we have been embraced with open arms and loving hearts and really look forward to diving in to all that God is doing in their lives.

Oh, and yeah, I need to learn Spanish.  Bad. 

Have a blessed weekend!

Comment number 101 on Tom Ascol’s resolution on regenerate church membership comes from a Southern Baptist we all know.  In fact, some really admire him; others have dedicated their blogs to expressing their grief over him.  Some fundies are having a cow, while other Southern Baptists are encouraged by the broad support as seen in the public endorsement of Tom’s resolution (for the record, I find myself in the second camp).  Who is it that I am talking about? 

Rick Warren.

In the comments section of Tom’s blogpost, Warren writes the following:

Hi Tom!
I have been personally urging the adoption of a resolution on Membership like yours for over 20 years. I hope it passes. The restoration of the integrity of membership is an absolute foundation to the spiritual health of a congregation.

Saddleback’s membership class, our covenant, and the accountability to it are the secrets behind our members willingness to sacrifice to reach people for Christ. Imagine a church that went 15 years without a building, setting up and tearing down a church for 10,000 people (at that time in the 90s) week after week, regardless of weather. The way you bring members in is the level of commitment they will live up to.

Most people have no idea- zero- of what is Saddleback Church is really like. They have bought into all the stupid misinformation that circulates on the internet, and in books by people who aren’t even believers and have never even talked to me.

The fact is, for 28 years, from the first day of our chuch, we have dilligently practiced church discipline, used the historic Baptist practice of covenants (we have 4, including a membership covenant), have a required membership class, and have graduated over 15,000 members through a six month Systematic Theology course called “Foundations.” I would match any 1,000 members of Saddleback to any 1,000 members of any other church in terms of spiritual maturity, godliness, Scriptures memorized, serving in ministry, and doing missions around the world.

We take membership extremely seriously at Saddleback Church, and people who don’t abide by the covenant are disciplined and removed. We have no such thing as “inactive or non-resident membership” which is a contradiction.

People probably also don’t know that during the past 10 years, most churches were plateaued or declining, we’ve baptized over 20,000 NEW adult believers, put 28,000 studing the Bible weekly in 3,400 small groups, and sent 7,766 of our members to evangelize and plant churches overseas in 68 countries. There’s not another church in America with a more mature membership. It’s because we stress covenants!

Never believe second- hand sources about Saddleback. They are ALWAYS wrong.

By the way, I am not a hyper-Calvinist. I am a Kuyper-Calvinist! Abraham Kuyper was right about so much. You can see his influence all through Purpose Driven Life. (smile)

Years ago, you may remember a lecture by Mark C at a SBC Founder’s Breakfast that compared the similarities between the “the children of Spurgeon and the children of Warren.” I got a kick out of that lecture since my great Grandfather was led to Christ by Spurgeon, went to Spurgeon’s College, and then was sent by Spurgeon to America to plant churches. I have Spurgeon’s handwritten sermons framed on my office walls- passed down from 4 generations of pastors! Another little known fact is that another part of my spiritual heritage is that my namesake Pilgrim ancestor, Richard Warren, came over on that little boat, the Mayflower to escape religious persecution.

Please forgive any typos in this. I don’t usually participate in blogs but I care deeply about this issue, and so I typed this out quickly.

God bless!

Rick Warren
Saddleback Church

J.I. Packer, in his excellent treatise Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, states:

“The sovereignty of God in grace gives us our only hope of success in evangelism.”

Packer explains (emphasis mine):

“Some fear that belief in the sovereign grace of God leads to the conclusion that evangelism is pointless, since God will save His elect anyway, whether they hear the gospel or not. This . . . is a false conclusion based on a false assumption. . . . So far from making evangelism pointless, the sovereignty of God in grace is the one thing that prevents evangelism from being pointless. For it creates the possibility–indeed, the certainty–that evangelism will be fruitful. Apart from it, there is not even a possibility of evangelism being fruitful. Were it not for the sovereign grace of God, evangelism would be the most futile and useless enterprise that the world has ever seen, and there would be no more complete waste of time under the sun than to preach the Christian gospel.”

The effects of such confidence in the sovereign grace of God should, according to Packer, produce three things:

1. It should make us bold.

“You are not on a fool’s errand. You are not wasting either your time or theirs. You have no reason to be ashamed of your message, or half-hearted and apologetic in delivering it. You have every reason to be bold, and free, and natural, and hopeful of success. For God can give His truth and effectiveness that you and I cannot give it. God can make His truth triumphant to the conversion of the most seemingly hardened unbeliever. You and I will never write off anyone as hopeless and beyond the reach of God if we believe in the sovereignty of His grace.”

2. It should make us patient.

“It should keep us from being daunted when we find that our evangelistic endeavors meet with no immediate response. God saves in His own time, and we ought not to suppose that He is in such a hurry as we are. . . . We are tempted to be in a great hurry with those whom we would win to Christ, and then, when we see no immediate response in them, to become impatient and downcast, and then to lose interest in them, and feel that it is useless to spend more time on them; and so we abandon our efforts forthwith, and let them drop out of our ken. But this is utterly wrong. It is a failure both of love for man and faith in God.”

3. It should make us prayerful.

“Prayer . . . is a confessing of impotence and need, and acknowledging of helplessness and dependence, and an invoking of the mighty power of God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. In evangelism, we are impotent; we depend wholly upon God to make our witness effective; only because He is able to give men new hearts can we hope that through our preaching of the gospel sinners will be born again. These facts ought to drive us to prayer. The knowledge, then, that God is sovereign in grace, and that we are impotent to win souls, should make us pray, and keep us praying. What should be the burden of our prayers? We should pray for those whom we seek to win, that the Holy Spirit will open their hearts; and we should pray for ourselves in our own witness, and for all who preach the gospel, that the power and authority of the Holy Spirit may rest upon them.”

May the God of all grace bless and prosper our labors in the hearts and lives of those who do not know Jesus Christ! May we be bold, patient, and prayerful, knowing that God’s grace is greater still.

For your consideration:

“The Reformed faith provides the strongest and noblest motive for evangelism. Love for unworthy self and love for unlovely man are indeed worthy motives, but neither of these is the ultimate motive. The ultimate, hence the most compelling, motive must be for the altogether adorable God.

The Reformed faith presents the purest and most comprehensive message of evangelism. It emphasizes with unswerving consistency the Scriptural teaching of salvation by the grace of God. On that most significant score it is at complete odds with modernism, but is also surpasses Lutheranism, with its synergistic conception of salvation, and Arminianism, which makes God dependent on man in the personal appropriation of salvation. And it embraces ‘the whole counsel of God’ (Acts 20:27), the seemingly contradictory, yet to the mind of God perfectly harmonious, teachings of particular divine election and universal divine love included.

The Reformed faith proposes the highest aim for evangelism. It is not the salvation of souls. Nor is it the growth of Christ’s church. Nor yet is it the coming of Christ’s kingdom. All those aims of evangelism are important, even of inestimable importance. yet they are but means to the accomplishment of that end for which all things were brought into being and continue to exist, unto which God does all that He does, in which the whole of history will one day culminate, and on which the never-ending ages of eternity will be focused–the glory of God.

In short, the Reformed Christian, of all Christians, ought to be most zealous for evangelism. If he is truly–not just nominally–Reformed, he will be.”

- R.B. Kuiper, God-Centered Evangelism (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2002), 184.

SBC Presidential nominee Bill Wagner recently wrote (emphasis mine),

“I feel that Calvinists have a place in the convention. I am concerned that this theology blunts the cutting edge of evangelism and missions. I have already heard from many who disagree with my last statement. I am waiting for proof that I am wrong. My heart beats for missions and if those who are Calvinists want to prove me wrong and will work to make our convention more evangelistic and missional, let them.”

Horatius Bonar (1808-1889), author of the popular work, Words to Winners of Souls, once wrote:

“What we need as the true stimulus to missionary action, and the true power of missionary endurance and bravery, is not the Arminian dogma of an aimless universal benevolence, but the Calvinistic recognition of an irresistible divine purpose. It is this that must form the basis of our working plans, out missionary directory, our incentive to missionary enterprise, our consolation under failure, and resistance, and reproach.

[ . . .] The Pauline, or, if you like the Calvinistic scheme, which connects all work for God with a definite purpose, and not with an indefinite wish, is that which alone can make us either comfortable or successful. Armed with this divine purpose, we feel ourselves invincible; nay, we are assured of being victorious. Having ascertained God’s purpose, and adopted it as the basis of our operations, we feel that we are in sympathy with God while working for Him. And it is this sympathy, this oneness of mind with God, that cheers us and sustains. He ever wins who sides with God. We shall thus be better fitted for enduring hardness, for ’spending and being spent’; that is, for expending ourselves, till all that is in us is expended.”

- Horatius Bonar, in Christ Is All: The Piety of Horatius Bonar, edited by Michael A. G. Haykin and Darrin R. Booker (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 75-77 (emphasis mine).

Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
2 Timothy 2:10

And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”
Acts 18:9-10

In 1990, Charles Deweese wrote a book entitled Baptist Church Covenants that was published by Broadman Press. This great resource is tragically out of print, and unless you are willing to pay $50 for a used copy on Amazon, you will not be able to benefit from it (note to Broadman and Holman: regenerate church membership is a front burner issue these days, and it would be great it you put it back in print!). The idea of a church gathered together in a covenant commitment articulated in a signed document explaining the responsibilities of church members may be a foreign idea to some today, but church covenants were, in fact, normative and prescriptive for growing and maintaining healthy churches.

I have looked through several websites of Southern Baptist churches to see how many churches provide information such as their statement of faith (confession) and church covenant. To my surprise, a rather large percentage of them provide no information on these important matters. In recent years, Baptist scholars, especially John Hammett, have argued for the necessity of church covenants for the purpose of recovering regenerate church membership. But before we consider what Dr. Hammett has argued, I want to provide an excerpt from Deweese on the practicality and usefulness of the church covenant in years past. My hope is that, by emphasizing the necessity and usefulness of church covenants, more and more churches will desire to work toward a covenantal church membership that better reflects the New Testament commitment of believers in the body of Christ.

Deweese writes,

“Churches tended to use covenants in four main settings: in forming new churches, admitting new members, engaging in covenantal renewal, and discipling errant members. Besides these settings, at least four other features characterized covenantal practices in England. First, churches often adopted and renewed covenants on days solemnized by fasting, prayer, and thanksgiving. Second, churches tended to write their own individualized covenants. Third, members tended to sign covenants when chartering new churches. . . . Fourth, congregations sometimes read covenants aloud while renewing commitments to their contents.

[ . . .] Perhaps the most important value of covenants was their role in constantly reminding church members of the moral and spiritual duties and privileges to which they had initially committed themselves in uniting with a church. Since each church prepared its own covenant and built into it a continuing emphasis upon committed membership, the likelihood increased that each voluntary covenanter would attempt to conduct his life in alignment with his religious vows.”

- Charles W. Deweese, Baptist Church Covenants (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1990), 31-32.

In the coming weeks, I hope to provide some current as well as historical examples of church covenants. If your church does not currently have such a covenant, I would encourage you to check these out and consider developing one for your church.

Two brothers whom I have grown to love and appreciate over the past year are Owen Strachan and Collin Hansen. A couple of weeks ago, The Henry Center (of which Owen is managing director) held a discussion between Dr. Doug Sweeney, professor of Church History at TEDS, and Collin, who as you know, is the author of Young, Restless, Reformed. While the topic of Collin’s book has oft been discussion, perhaps there is no one more historically conscious than Dr. Sweeney to facilitate a healthy and informative time of delving into Collin’s journey regarding the revival within the Reformed tradition.

Allow me to point you to this good discussion between Dr. Sweeney and Collin which is approximately 40 minutes and includes Q&A from the TEDS audience. The discussion is available in both audio and video, so be sure to check it out!

__________________

Related posts:

>> Interview with Collin Hansen, Part One
>> Interview with Collin Hansen, Part Two
>> Interview with Collin Hansen, Part Three

A couple of week ago, I mentioned the great discussion I had with an IMB representative. One of the things I asked him was, “If the 2+2 and 2+3 programs are so effective for assimilating and training missionaries on the field, why aren’t we adopting this strategy for the rest of seminary students going onto the ‘field’, including those preaching/teaching and leading worship?” He thought it was a good idea, so I began thinking about it a little more.

I briefly mentioned the disconnect between seminary and the local church last fall–a disconnect that has spawned the pursuit of theological education in the local church and the development of a blue collar theology. I have been looking at how different churches and ministries address this problem, such as The Pastor’s College (Sovereign Grace), TBI (Bethlehem Baptist), Internship and Weekenders (Capitol Hill Baptist), Internship and Extension (Lakeview Baptist), and elsewhere; but even with the encouraging and promising efforts made by the growth of church-based theological education, the fact remains that the majority of seminary students graduating are leaving with a diploma in their hands and little to no experience under the belts.

The lack of “field training” and experience is evidenced on a continual basis. Furthermore, students are assessed and placed on the basis of educational accomplishment and whatever else a short resume can reveal. Missionaries, however, are given much greater scrutiny and examination. Their theology is examined, their family and personal life assessed, and several years of on-the-field training are provided through a well-integrated program called 2+2/2+3. The first two years are completed at the seminary and includes the core curricula; the second-half of the program is field-based education that emphasizes an ongoing practicum for the remainder of their degree. You can read more about what this program looks like by going here.

SBC President Frank Page recently argued that the SBC could like shrink by half by 2030, and with the reality that many pastors will retire or die without a successor, one has to wonder who and how (and if) they will be succeeded. If we can be so committed to the Great Commission overseas to train and equip missionaries with field-based missiological education, then why can’t we be equally committed to the Great Commission here in the homeland to train and equip ministers with church-based ecclesiological education?

It would be great to see a 2+2 program made available for pastors.  Together with my four years of college, I have now completed eight years of academic training. Fortunately for me, sandwiched in the middle of those eight years was four years of serving on staff at local churches, but even those years were spent in the “school of hard knocks” and trial-and-error, not having the know-how prior to that tenure.  So much that is required for ministerial effectiveness can never be learned at seminary or Bible college, but at the same time, there are many things that the seminary can effectively teach that many local churches simply cannot provide.  Having said that, it is my hope that something can be developed for ministers in a pastoral context where they can experience both excellence in education as well as competence in training so that our churches can succeed and communities better reached with the gospel.

Having wrestled with the doctrines of grace for more than two years as a college student, I became convinced of the sovereignty of God in salvation both through the study of Scripture and the experience in my own life.  Shortly thereafter, one of the most helpful resources I benefited from was the TBI TULIP Seminar which I purchased in cassette form.  These were messages by John Piper on the five points of Calvinism presented in a humble, fair, and faithful manner, and I tended to return to these messages time and again throughout the years.

A couple of months ago, John Piper again held a TBI Seminar on TULIP, and Desiring God has made the messages available in text, audio, and video format.   I want to recommend this seminar to all Blue-Collar Christians because I believe it is one of the most helpful, accessible, and instructive ways of understanding the doctrines of grace.  Here is the links to each session of the TULIP seminar:

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Assumptions - Irresistible Grace
Part 3: Irresistible Grace - Total Depravity
Part 4: Total Depravity - Unconditional Election
Part 5: Unconditional Election
Part 6: Unconditional Election
Part 7: Limited Atonement
Part 8: Perseverance of the Saints
Part 9: Ten Effects of Believing the Five Points of Calvinism

Unfortunately, the majority of what lay people in churches hear these days regarding Calvinism is by those who are vehemently against it, and rarely if ever are the truths accurately and fairly presented.  As a result, those who disagree with the doctrines of grace are not so much disagreeing with the truths so much as they are disagreeing with the caricatures wherein they have been so poorly packaged.  If you want to know what Calvinists believe, listen and read from the Calvinists, such as this seminar by John Piper.  You still might not agree, but at least you will know that your disagreements are with the facts and not with a false representation of them.  For those of you who do believe in the doctrines of grace, you will find this seminar incredibly enriching and encouraging as scores of Scriptures are unfolded for you.  Calvinist and non-Calvinist alike should appreciate the balanced, humble, and accurate approach Piper takes on TULIP.

Desiring God also has two booklets that might be of interest to you (both are $4).  They are:

* What We Believe About the Five Points of Calvinism

* TULIP: The Pursuit of God’s Glory in Salvation (the seminar in booklet form)

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View in Flickr (see it LARGE)

The last two weeks of blogging have been somewhat of a roller-coaster ride. Last week was really discouraging and frustrating, and this week has been really encouraging and interesting. Of course, how can you not be encouraged by reading about Bunyan and his exemplary life of faithfulness in spite of such hardship and trials? The Burma situation, though a terrible disaster, has opened my eyes to the influence and power of the internet today, especially in how such a medium can be used to spread the gospel. Furthermore, an old theological sparring partner, Dr. Terry Tiessen, and I have picked up where we left off on addressing the fate of the unevangelized. Dr. Tiessen is a Calvinist who argues against the exclusivist position (which I hold) and for what he calls accessibilism (which differentiates from evangelical inclusivism). This is a perennial issue that continues to be hotly debated from the halls of academia to the front porch of popular culture.

On Tuesday, we safely arrived back in Alabama where we have enjoyed some down time this week. I created a profile on a website called mapmyrun.com, and I am enjoying the ability to keep up with my cycling and training logs. Plans are today to do a 20 mile ride into the back roads of Alabama (this time with water bottles and a cell phone).

As you can see, Nolan is growing leaps and bounds. That Pooh robe was supposed to fit him, but it won’t even cover his diaper! Oh well. I mentioned recently about the offer on a house we made in Florida. We are still praying about this matter and hoping that things will go well. If you think about it, we would be grateful if you lifted this matter up in prayer on our behalf.

Speaking of moving, I have a favor to ask of any of you guys who might be in Louisville on Wednesday, May 21st. That is the day I am loading the trailer, and I am needing the help of some guys who wouldn’t mind suffering for a while to help me load the truck. Any takers? Lunch will be on me. If you would like to help, email me at outpostministries@yahoo.com, and I will give you directions and details (one detail I should tell you now is that I live on the third floor - meaning three flights of stairs to carry stuff, including lots of books). I’ve got a few signed up to suffer with me, but a couple more guys would be a great help indeed.

In the upcoming days, I hope to write a little more on Bunyan, church membership, and evangelism/missional lifestyle. Have a great weekend everyone!

On a usual day in the evangelical blogosphere, you can expect that about half of your readers are regular readers/subscribers, another third Christians who come due to linkage or Google love, and a very small percentage of folks from outside the little world that is the evangelical blogospheric bubble (EBB).

There have been only a few times in the three years that I have been blogging where something I wrote made it out of the EBB. A few examples from my articles include posts on Anna Nicole Smith, Michael Vick, and most recently the terrible disaster in Burma. Now I don’t mind writing within the EBB; in fact, 99.9% of everything I have written has been tailored to this audience. However, one of the goals I have is to use this medium to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to the broader public. In other words, one of my goals is what I am calling “breakout blogging.”

I was reminded of this last night when I noticed something really unusual taking place. Since about 6:00 p.m. Wednesday night, first-time visitors have been increasing every hour, currently about four times what I average every hour. I thought, “Did JT link to a post?” Nope. “Did Tony ‘Stumble’ a post?” Nope. So what was it? Where was all this traffic coming from. Answer: Search engines.

Here a list of some of the search engine phrases from the past day (some into the hundreds):

burma
burma cyclone
myanmar cyclone
cyclone in myanmar (burma).
cyclone myanmar burma
cyclone burma
cyclone in myanmar burma
myanmar burma cyclone
cyclone in myanmar (burma)
cyclone myanmar
myanmar map cyclone
burma cyclone map
myanmar cyclone map
myanmar (burma) cyclone
myanmar cyclone 2008
cyclone in myanmar (burma)
myanmar hurricane photos
cyclone burma map
cyclone myranmar bodies
cyclone in myanmar
myanmar cyclone destruction 2008
map burma cyclone
cyclone in burma map

The crazy thing about my article on Burma was that “Burma,” “Myanmar,” or “cyclone” was not even mentioned in the title of my post! Anyone familiar with SEO (search engine optimization) knows that a carefully worded title impacts the likelihood of gaining Google traffic. So while my post was not intended to get out of the EBB, apparently something happened, and it has brought in over 1,500 first-time visitors in the last 24 hours.

So this got me asking myself some questions, such as: why don’t I try to get out of the EBB (evangelical blogospheric bubble) more often? If there is the opportunity to engage thousands of first-time visitors with the gospel on current issues, then why am I not seizing it? When am I going to every have the opportunity elsewhere to potentially reach so many people from across the world for the sake of Jesus? Why not change my programming which is 99.9% in the EBB to more like 95%, intentionally seeking to impact the world with the gospel as it speaks to current issues on national and global levels?

Having seen the potential this past week and in previous posts, I am hoping to do just that. Of course, this will require that I learn a little lot more from blogging experts like Abraham and Tony, but this is part of the vision I have had for Band of Bloggers–that we would use whatever influence we have for the sake of breaking into the lives of unbelievers with the gospel by breaking out of our molds with a missional mindset.

I would be interested in your thoughts on this, as I am still wrestling through some issues, including the caution against being market-driven, examining my motives, the whole concern with being deceptive or disingenuous, and what/how this would look like if people really were impacted with the gospel and sought direction/counsel.

If you’ve got any ideas on this matter, or if you have any experiences of breaking out of the EBB yourself, I would love to hear them. Thanks!

Title: What Is a Healthy Church Member?
Author: Thabiti M. Anyabwile
Publisher: Crossway
Release Date: June 30, 2008
Pages: 128
Format: Hardcover
ISBN 13-digit: 978-1433-5021-25
Retail Price: $12.99
Table of Contents: Yes
Intro: Yes
Sample Chapter: Yes

From Crossway:

Biblically and practically instructs church members in ways they can labor for the health of their church.

What Is a Healthy Church Member? takes its cue from Mark Dever’s book What Is a Healthy Church?, which offered one definition of what a healthy church looks like biblically and historically. In this new work, pastor Thabiti Anyabwile attempts to answer the natural next question: “What does a healthy church member look like in the light of Scripture?”

God intends for us to play an active and vital part in the body of Christ, the local church. He wants us to experience the local church as a home more profoundly wonderful and meaningful than any other place on earth. He intends for his churches to be healthy places and for the members of those churches to be healthy as well. This book explains how membership in the local church can produce spiritual growth in its members and how each member can contribute to the growth and health of the whole.

Buy @:

Crossway for $12.99
Amazon for $10.39
CBD for $9.99
Monergism Books n/a
Westminister Bookstore n/a

Table of Contents:

Introduction

1. A Healthy Church Member Is an Expositional Listener
2. A Healthy Church Member Is a Biblical Theologian
3. A Healthy Church Member Is Gospel Saturated
4. A Healthy Church Member Is Genuinely Converted
5. A Healthy Church Member Is a Biblical Evangelist
6. A Healthy Church Member Is a Committed Member
7. A Healthy Church Member Seeks Discipline
8. A Healthy Church Member Is a Growing Disciple
9. A Healthy Church Member Is a Humble Follower
10. A Healthy Church Member Is a Prayer Warrior

A Final Word
Appendix: A Typical Covenant of a Healthy Church

Initial Thoughts:

This little book is the third in a series produced by IX Marks in conjunction with Crossway Books. While there are several good books out which speak to church life and a member’s meaningful participation therein, this contribution by Anyabwile provides a simple, straight-forward, and easily digestible format for understanding what it means to be a healthy church member. It is no secret today that the majority of our churches are unhealthy, and while there are some things that can be done from the influence of an elder/leader, healthy churches are comprised of healthy church members, and any church that wants to become more healthy would find this work grassroots manual for accomplishing that noble and necessary goal. I look forward to reading this important book and passing it on!

Endorsements:

“What Is a Healthy Church Member? fills an enormous gap in the literature of practical Christian living. The book is extremely valuable as a straightforward, easy-to-read user’s guide to the church. It is also a profound and thoroughly biblical digest of practical ecclesiology, written with a compelling sense of passion and urgency. As such, it is a valuable resource for every church member —from the beginner to the seasoned pastor alike. In an era when Christians in general seem confused about what kind of community the church ought to be, here’s a helpful handbook outlining the church’s true biblical priorities, especially as they apply to individual church members.”
— John MacArthur, President, Grace to You

“Thabiti Anyabwile has filled a great void in contemporary Christian literature. Books on how to be a faithful pastor or church leader are common, but it is rare to find a book that speaks so directly about being a faithful church member. With a wealth of biblical insight and practical instruction, Anyabwile calls Christians to do more than just attend church, but to be the kind of faithful, engaged church members that God intends them to be. Given the state of so many of our churches today, this book arrives not a moment too soon.”
— R. Albert Mohler Jr., President,The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“Some books are so simple they are scarcely worth skimming; others are so complex that, unless their subject matter is extraordinarily important, they are not worth the time they demand. But sometimes one finds a book that is simultaneously simple and profound—and this is one of them. In a generation when many people are talking about the importance of Christians living “in community,” few have unpacked, in biblically faithful and personally penetrating ways, just what that means. Thabiti Anyabwile closes the gap. Read it, think about it, pray over it—and distribute it generously around your congregation.”
— D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

“This book provides an excellent and much-needed focus on the individual church member. We can all benefit from this insightful book.”
— R. C. Sproul, Chairman and President, Ligonier Ministries; Senior Minister of Preaching and Teaching, Saint Andrews Chapel, Sanford, Florida

“A faithful pastor is also a good church member. Thabiti is evidence of this truth and thus has written with pastoral insight and personal experience on what it means to be a healthy church member. Any church desiring to strengthen its membership would do well to get this book into the hands of its members. Being a faithful church member in an age of overindulgence and selfish impulses is not easy. Yet, Thabiti not only reminds us it is possible, but he also challenges us with the biblical reality that it is necessary. I continue to thank God for the mind and heart of Thabiti Anyabwile.”
— Anthony J. Carter, pastor; author; editor, Experiencing the Truth: Bringing the Reformation to the African-American Church

“Thabiti Anyabwile’s What Is a Healthy Church Member? asks the right questions about the offer of church membership, calling each local body of believers to cultivate and sustain practices of an assembly formed by the gospel. It is a most practical manual, yet it is free from the religious utilitarianism that often marks seeker-oriented works in this genre. Any leadership and laity that would elect to read this book together and embrace its exhortations would find their life as the family of God increasing in its wisdom, power, love, and witness in the world. What a balm we all will find in the words of this book!”
— Eric C. Redmond, Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Temple Hills, Maryland

About the Author:

Thabiti M. Anyabwile is senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Grand Cayman Islands. He holds B.A. and M.S. degrees in psychology from North Carolina State University. He and his wife, Kristie, have two daughters. Thabiti is the author of The Faithful Preacher: Recapturing the Vision of Three Pioneering African-American Pastors and The Decline of African American Theology: From Biblical Faith to Cultural Accommodation.

One of the greatest blessings of the writing and preaching ministry of John Piper is his commitment to remembering and learning from great men and women in church history. His messages, articles, and books on these saints of old have profoundly affected many today, and we would be well-served to avail ourselves to such pacesetters in the race of faith.

In 1999, John Piper addressed the life of John Bunyan, focusing specifically on his suffering and service. His message can be read or download (MP3) for your benefit. Piper concludes the biographical portion of his message, stating,

So, in sum, we can include in Bunyan’s sufferings the early, almost simultaneous, death of his mother and sister; the immediate remarriage of his father; the military draft in the midst of his teenage grief; the discovery that his first child was blind; the spiritual depression and darkness for the early years of his marriage; the death of his first wife leaving him with four small children; a twelve year imprisonment cutting him off from his family and church; the constant stress and uncertainty of imminent persecution, including one more imprisonment; and the final sickness and death far from those he loved most. And this summary doesn’t include any of the normal pressures and pains of ministry and marriage and parenting and controversy and criticism and sickness along the way.

In the second half of his message, Piper makes five observations from the suffering service of John Bunyan. Here they are:

1. Bunyan’s suffering confirmed him in his calling as a writer, especially for the afflicted church.

2. Bunyan’s suffering deepened his love for his flock and gave his pastoral labor the fragrance of eternity.

3. Bunyan’s suffering opened his understanding to the truth that the Christian life is hard and that following Jesus means having the wind in your face.

4. Bunyan’s suffering strengthened his assurance that God is sovereign over all the afflictions of his people and will bring them safely home.

5. Bunyan’s suffering deepened in him a confidence in the Bible as the Word of God and a passion for Bible memory and Biblical exposition as the key to perseverance.

After reading and listening to the life of such a man as John Bunyan, I cannot help but think of how little I have lived and suffered for the sake of Christ. We need to read about Bunyan in the morning, Brainerd at noon, and Baxter in the evening to keep us sober in the day of spiritual inebriation. May God help us to live for Him that is invisible as we progress to our heavenly home.

I know that the issue of regenerate church membership has primarily been a discussion among ministers, seminarians, and the rest of academia, but I want to speak to the layperson for a moment. You. Yes, you out there who is not a minister but cares about the church and has a great desire to see churches become healthy and experiencing biblical church growth. While there are some excellent resources that are more academic and make great cases for meaningful or regenerate church membership, I want to highlight six books for your consideration as a layperson with the hope that maybe one (or more) of them worth reading yourself.

They are:

1. Life in the Body of Christ: Privileges and Responsibilities in the Local Church by Curtis C. Thomas.

2. Life in the Father’s House: A Member’s Guide to the Local Church by Wayne A. Mack and Dave Swavely.

3. Stop Dating the Church: Fall in Love with the Family of God by Joshua Harris.

4. What Is a Healthy Church? by Mark Dever.

5. Spiritual Disciplines within the Church: Participating Fully in the Body of Christ by Donald Whitney.

6. Membership Matters: Insights from Effective Churches on New Member Classes and Assimilation by Chuck Lawless.

All of these books are affordable (roughly around $10 per book), and all of them would be worth your time to read, especially if you are interested in more than a discussion on meaningful church membership but want to be the kind of member who knows, understands, and practices it in your own local congregation.

Each of these books have their strengths and weakness as well as unique style and format, but they all address the single issue of what it means to be committed to your church as a faithful, devoted follower of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, because membership is considered entry level in the process of discipleship, it is often overlooked or glossed over; yet, I am convinced that if we gain a better understanding of church membership and apply the covenant nature of our corporate identity as believers united to Christ and committed to one another, then the goal of developing healthy churches will have firm footing.

If there are other books, articles, or websites that you have found helpful that you would like to pass along to others, feel free to include them in the comments section. Let us work together that we might give ourselves to the health and well-being of our churches and the members who comprise them.

On the topic of health and growth of churches in the SBC, I want to give you three report cards from three very different churches (no, I will not tell you which church they are). What I want you to do is simply take a look for yourselves and let me know what you think. Ask yourselves such questions as, “Which church is the healthiest and why?” or “Which church best reflects biblical church growth?”

A couple of things to note here. The UCM index is the number of inactive members divided by the total membership for the year 2006 (this research was done prior to 2007 ACP records). The A/A differential is total additions 2000-2006 over total attendance growth 2000-2006 (hence A/A differential). For example if the A/A differential was 500/100, that means during the seven-year period, 500 people were added to the church as members while only 100 are reflected in their attendance growth. [I have researched close to 100 leading churches in the SBC and have ranked them according to these two factors.] The purpose of looking at these figures are a means for considering our need for healthy churches that are experiencing biblical church growth.

Here they are:

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