Church's Mission

Excerpt from Trevin Wax: Why Mike Wittmer Thinks You Should Be a Worldly Saint

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Trevin Wax: There has been some conversation in recent years about the extent of the church’s mission. Some say our mission is broad (encompassing the good deeds we do in the world) while others view the mission as more limited (focused on the proclamation of the gospel verbally)? How would you define the church’s mission?

Mike Wittmer: I like how Abraham Kuyper put this together. The gathered church’s main task is to promote redemption by worshiping God, proclaiming the gospel in both Word and Sacrament, and edifying one another in the body of Christ. This gathered church then takes the kingdom with them as they scatter into the world to serve creation. As they do their various callings for the Lord Jesus, individual Christians will have opportunity to talk about Jesus and invite friends to church. These worship services emphasize redemption and send believers back into creation, and the virtuous cycle continues.

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God's Perspective

Don Carson post:  GENESIS 43; MARK 13; JOB 9; ROMANS 13

CHRISTIANS HAVE OFTEN DISAGREED over the precise interpretation of Mark 13. But whatever disagreements prevail, we cannot fail to note the stunning contrast between the perspectives of the disciples when they look around the temple complex and the perspectives of Jesus himself.

The disciples are impressed by the “massive stones” and by the “magnificent buildings” (13:1). What draws their attention is the architecture, the product of human creativity and ingenuity. But Jesus thinks on another plane. He evaluates the patterns of evil in this world, the false religious pretensions, the persecution of his disciples, the judgment that will fall. As for the stones and the buildings, he foresees judgment: “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down” (13:2). A mere forty years elapse before this prediction is literally fulfilled.

This passage is reminiscent of another. In Acts 17:16ff., Paul finds himself in Athens. What is striking is his reaction to the city. Luke does not say that Paul was impressed by the spectacular architecture, by the history of sheer learning, by the literature that its citizens had produced, or by the glory of her heritage. Far from it. Paul looked around this venerable old city and was “greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols” (17:16).

In neither case, then – neither in Jesus’ estimate of Jerusalem, nor in Paul’s estimate of Athens – was the analysis superficial. In both cases, the evaluation looked at things from God’s perspective. Those who are impressed by mighty buildings and spectacular human accomplishments could profitably think through the account of the tower of Babel (Gen. 11). Doubtless there were some then who were impressed by the edifice. But God, looking at the human heart and the reasons for the building, saw it as one more evidence of insufferable hubris.

In much the same way, we too are called to understand and evaluate our culture from God’s perspective. Because human beings are made in the image of God, there is much that we can do that is worthy and admirable. Theologically speaking, this is the product of “common grace.” But it is possible to be far too impressed by wealth, power, architecture, fame, learning, physical prowess, and technology, with the result that we do not think through the moral and spiritual dimensions of the world around us. We may see the glory, and overlook the shame; we may detect human accomplishments, and neglect the undergirding idolatry; in short, we may be impressed by all that impresses God’s fallen image-bearers, but fail to assess these realities in the light of the cross and in the light of eternity. We would do far better to follow the examples of Jesus and Paul.

I Trust You, God

Matt Smethurst:  On My Shelf: Life and Books with Lauren Chandler


On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. I talked with Lauren Chandler about what’s on her nightstand, what she’s learning in her walk with Jesus, and the books that have shaped her.

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What are you learning about life and following Jesus?

Obedience brings joy. When Matt and I were newlyweds, a sweet young couple treated us to lunch at a restaurant in our college town. Their preschool-aged daughter was precious and so full of life. At one point during the meal, she deliberately disobeyed her parents. Matt and I sat awkwardly, feeling for the daughter but also understanding the love those parents had for her to not let her get away with it. The wife gently took her daughter to the restroom. When they returned, the mother looked into her daughter’s eyes and said, “Obedience brings . . .” The daughter finished her sentence: “joy.” That small interaction has been forever seared on my heart. 

I’ve been in Genesis 2 this week and marveled at God’s great care in creating and ordering the world. Jen Wilkin points out in her study of Genesis that, from the beginning, God has been a God who separates. He separated light from darkness, the waters above from the waters below, day from night, and so on. He calls his people out from the other cultures and customs to be holy as he is holy. I am so grateful that Christ’s holiness makes me holy. I know all my righteous acts are but filthy rags in God’s presence (Isa. 64:6). Still, he calls us, as followers of Christ, to be holy. To stand in stark contrast to the surrounding culture not by wearing different clothes or shutting ourselves into communes, but by trusting he knows what’s best for us—by freely obeying him. Our culture screams, “Figure out what’s best for you and do it.” And so many in our culture are miserable. But joy? It comes from obedience. Not a white-knuckled self-righteousness, but a life surrendered to Christ. A life that says, “I trust you, God, because you made everything, you made me, and you know how to squeeze the greatest amount of joy out of life!”

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Making His Manifold Wisdom Known

Deepak Reju: 2 Factors to Consider Before You Move

A church member or friend comes to me and says, “I’ve got a job offer in another town,” or “I’m ready to do more education and have applied to a few different schools around the country,” or “We’re shopping for a home.” That's not surprising for a mobile society. In the 21st century, people often move for jobs, or education, or buying a new home. Long gone are the days when a person stays in the same town and maybe even takes over the family business. The average American is said to move as many as 11 or 12 times in his lifetime, most of which come before his mid-40s.

So for this mobile society I'd like to suggest two principles to consider before moving. 

1. If you are considering moving, make sure there is a good church in your new location before you make the final decision to move. 

If the local church is one of the key sources for your spiritual growth (Eph. 3:10; 4:11-13; Heb. 10:24-25), why would you take a risk and go some place without knowing first if there would be a good church near you?

Don’t make your decision to move based solely on criteria like:

• This new job will be good for your career.
• Education will give you better job prospects in the future.
• You’re dissatisfied with your current job so you need to move on to somewhere else.
• You’ve outgrown your current house, so you want to move to a bigger one.
• You want a bigger home just because you can afford it.
• You are about to start having kids and want to move closer to your family.
• You would rather live in a city or the country or where the pace of life is different.

Here is what’s troubling to me—folks are usually not making church a first priority in their decision to move. Either they haven’t thought about what church they would go to in their new location, or they just assume there will be a good church near them no matter where they move. After all, this is America, where a church can be found on every street corner, right?

What you shouldn’t do is pick a new career or apply for an education opportunity or buy a new home and not consider where you are going to church. To do that is to make your spiritual life secondary to your career, educational choices, or home purchase. As best you can, build your life around a church where you are prospering spiritually.

2. Consider, at some point in your life, committing to a church long-term. 

If you’ve found a church where you are growing spiritually, then you’ve found a good thing. Why give it up? If you stay in your church over the long-term, you have the benefit of:

• Getting to know the leadership of the church much better and allowing them to get to know you.
• Getting to know the local community better (which will help your evangelism).
• Sitting consistently under preaching that is benefiting you spiritually.
• Building a kind of depth to relationships, which you achieve over 10 or 20 (or even 30) years that you don’t get if you move every 5 years.
• Being known by others who have had the chance to see your needs, challenges, and sin patterns over time, which in turn enables them to speak meaningfully into your life and care for you in a way that those you just met couldn’t.
• Earning trust among leaders in the church so that you might be assigned various responsibilities.
• Earning trust among leaders and others generally that you might speak into their lives in significant ways.
• Having the opportunity to minister to the children of others as they grow from infancy to adolescence to adulthood, and having the ability to help form in those children’s minds a model of godly adulthood.
• Building greater unity within the church by growing up with the church.
• Providing a kind of stability in the church by staying and giving an example of commitment through thick and thin.
• Being sanctified through being at the same church during different seasons:
  • In life—single; married; with kids; retired;
  • Personally—when thriving and when struggling.
  • In relation to the church—contentment, discontentment.
• Witnessing long-term spiritual growth—what it is like for God to make people more like himself over decades.

I know this might sound far-fetched, but at some point, it is okay to say “no” to new job possibilities or education or a bigger home because you don’t want to give up your church. I’ve known folks who did that, even in their 20s or 30s. I have a friend who has turned down promotions because he knows the next level of responsibility will make it hard to stay involved in his church or force him to move to another part of the country. I’ve known college students who picked a school in their own community because they loved their church, or have said “no” to good schools because they couldn’t find a good church in the same town. I’ve known folks who stuck with the same home, even though they could afford a bigger one, so that they could live near their church and invest in the same community that their church resides in.

Because the local church is the way in which God plans to make his “manifold wisdom” known to the world (Eph. 3:10) and because a local church is a key to your spiritual growth, you should consider committing to one church long-term.

He Is At The Center

David Mathis:  Back to the Heart of Worship

We are creatures of habit. If we don’t find ways to remind ourselves why we do what we do, we’re prone to just go through the motions, if not adopt some new underlying motivation altogether. Which can be especially dangerous in worship.

For songwriter and worship-leader Matt Redman, this lesson came in a remarkable experience that was both personal and corporate. In the late 1990s, the preaching pastor at Redman’s church in Watford, England, sensed that their worship gatherings were going flat spiritually, that the congregation was going through the motions, and worship wasn’t flowing from the heart, like true Christian worship must.

“There was a dynamic missing,” says Redman, “so the pastor did a pretty brave thing. He decided to get rid of the sound system and band for a season, and we gathered together with just our voices. His point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip everything away.”

More Than a Song

During this season, the pastor challenged the congregation to be participants in worship, not consumers. To come ready to engage with God for themselves, from the heart, not just watch with their eyes. He wanted them to come as worshipers, not as concert-goers. With the band and sound system gone, it made for an unforgettable time in the life of the church as they sang a cappella only — and for an unforgettable lesson about worship.

“Before long,” says Redman, “we reintroduced the musicians and sound system, as we’d gained a new perspective that worship is all about Jesus, and he commands a response in the depths of our souls no matter what the circumstance and setting. ‘The Heart of Worship’ simply describes what occurred.”

All About Jesus

Imagine that experience as you sing, “When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come. . . . You search much deeper within. . . . You’re looking into my heart.” Good music, catchy beats, talented musicians, even the friends and loved ones with whom we worship — these are all good things, and wonderful in the context of corporate worship. And yet when we focus on them, rather than Jesus, we are losing the heart in our worship.

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman in John 4:24, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The essence of worship is not the many good externals, but heart and head. Spirit and truth. Our spirit, stirred by the Holy Spirit, in worship over true things about God, his Son, and his gospel.

The heart of worship is our heart, delighting in Jesus and expressing praise to him for the true things the Scriptures teach us about who he is and what he has accomplished for us. It is, then, “all about” Jesus, not us. It involves us, but we’re at the periphery. He’s at the center. He’s the focus. It’s his commands we consider first, not our preferences. Redman’s song is about refocusing, and re-centering, and reminding ourselves why we worship — and who we worship.

Coming Back

It is also a song of repentance and re-consecration, not just in worship, but all of life. Periodically, we all need a soul check. “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). We’re so easily distracted from the main things — especially from the main person, Jesus. Hear these words in a spirit of worship and with a heart of repentance for how prone we are to wander and how often this has been not just Matt Redman’s story, but our own story.

Jesus is greatly honored when we bring ourselves, with the Holy Spirit’s help, back to the heart of worship again and again.

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“The Heart of Worship”
written by Matt Redman

When the music fades
and all is stripped away
and I simply come.
Longing just to bring
something that’s of worth
that will bless Your heart.

I’ll bring You more than a song,
for a song in itself
is not what You have required.
You search much deeper within,
through the way things appear,
You’re looking into my heart.

I’m coming back to the heart of worship
and it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus.
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it
when it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus.

King of endless worth,
no one could express
how much you deserve.
Though I’m weak and poor,
all I have is Yours,
every single breath!

I’ll bring You more than a song,
for a song in itself
is not what You have required.
You search much deeper within,
through the way things appear,
You’re looking into my heart.

I’m coming back to the heart of worship
and it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus.
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it
when it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus.

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Desiring God partnered with Shane & Shane’s The Worship Initiative to write short meditations for more than one hundred popular worship songs and hymns. The Worship Initiative is an online platform devoted to training musicians for songwriting and worship-leading. “Heart of Worship” is included in The Worship Initiative, Vol. 9. 

God's Sovereign Love for You

Marshall Segal:  God Works All Things for Your Good  

What’s your favorite promise in the Bible?

For many, it would be Romans 8:28. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.” It calms a thousand fears, comforts a thousand pains, and yet raises a thousand questions.

What does “good” mean?
Who really loves God?
How does God work?

Look at the Book was created to help you answer hard, but critical questions like these. We want you to see glorious, practical things for yourself in God’s word. Whether you are asking a specific question or just needing spiritual food for the day, this tool will help you take the next step as you seek to know, enjoy, and share Jesus.

In this three-part series through Romans 8:28, John Piper mines layer after layer of comfort and strength from this dense promise. If you’ve never reflected on this verse, you will be stunned by its power and relevance for your life. And if you have known it, maybe even memorized it, we believe you will discover new depths of God’s sovereign love for you.

Part 1: All Things Work Together for Good

Romans 8:28 is one of the most important and most treasured verses and promises in the Bible. In this lab, John Piper begins a series of three labs pulling apart the critical pieces in these twenty-four words for understanding and embracing our sovereign and good God.

Part 2: Do You Love God?

The Bible makes promises to those who love God. But how do we know if we do? In this lab, John Piper digs into the relationship between saving faith and loving God. He goes on to show why and how God works all things for good for those who love him.

Part 3: Called According to God’s Purpose

When God calls a man or woman, what happens? In this lab, John Piper draws in several other verses to try and understand the call of God. He explains why those who love God should rest secure in his sovereign care.

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9 Ways

John Piper:  9 Ways to Pray for Your Soul

Here are some ways to pray for yourself so that you're praying in sync with the way God works.

1. For the desire of my heart to be toward God and his Word.

Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to gain. (Psalm 119:36)

2. For the eyes of my heart to be opened.

Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law. (Psalm 119:18)

3. For my heart to be enlightened with these “wonders.” 

[I pray] that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. (Ephesians 1:18)

4. For my heart to be united, not divided, for God.

O Lord, I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name. (Psalm 86:11)

5. For my heart to be satisfied with God and not with the world.

O satisfy us in the morning with Your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. (Psalm 90:14)

6. For strength in this joy, and endurance during the dark seasons.

[I pray that God] would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man. (Ephesians 3:16)

7. For visible good deeds and works of love to others.

[I pray that you] will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord...bearing fruit in every good work. (Colossians 1:10)

8. For God to be glorified.

Hallowed be thy name. (Matthew 6:9)

9. In Jesus’ name.

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? (Romans 8:32)