Category: Thoughts

ideal church
Know the Ideal Church. Commit to a Real Church.

Know the Ideal Church. Commit to a Real Church.

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The doctrine of the Church is one of the most glorious, practical, and discussed doctrines in the New Testament. Simply looking at the metaphors the New Testament authors use to describe the Church gives you a sense of it’s importance. The Church is the “body of Christ,” the “bride” of Christ, the “household of faith,” a “holy temple in the Lord,” and much more. The ideal Church as laid out in the New Testament overcomes the gates of hell and overcomes the world through faith in Christ, the Church’s chief Shepherd.

But how do these realities guide you in choosing a particular local Church to attend? How do they give you wisdom for deciding if and when to leave a Church? After all, the glorious vision of the Church in the New Testament is not lived out in its fullness within every local body. So what should you, as a normal believer, do when you struggle to find the “ideal Church?” In this post, I want to lay out three practical steps for applying the doctrine of the Church to your life.

Know the local Church ideal as laid out in the New Testament

If you and I only knew and believed the truths about the local Church as laid out in Scripture, how many of our problems would be solved? The local Church is not merely a Sunday morning service you sit through once a week. If you want to start getting excited about the local Church and having a Biblical view of it’s importance, the first step is to study and internalize what the Bible says about the Church.

I would recommend taking a month or two to read through the book of Acts. Pay attention each time Luke mentions the Church, what it does, and how it grows. Acts 2 in particular has one of my favorite passages on the “ideal Church.”

 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42-47, ESV emphasis added

Why do I recommend studying the New Testament Church?

You will never make the right decisions about where to go to Church, what to look for in a Church, or what to value in the Church if you don’t first understand the Church as presented in the New Testament.

Everyone can give you different opinions on where you should go to Church and what your role should be in that Church. But only in Scripture do we have the authoritative record of what God expects of local Churches and you as a Church member. So remind yourself of the glorious doctrine of the local Church as expounded in Scripture.

Commit to a local Church that partially lives up to that ideal

Once you have a biblical vision of the ideal Church, find a local Church that approximates that ideal. What do I mean by this? You will never find a local Church that perfectly exhibits all the desired traits given in the New Testament. In fact, local Churches in the New Testament time didn’t even exhibit those traits perfectly (see 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and the letters to the 7 Churches in Revelation). So when you are looking for a local Church to join, look for one where you see its members and leadership who are aware and are striving for the New Testament ideal.

Others have developed countless resources to determine whether a Church is healthy or not. But at the end of the day, all the “tests”, “marks”, or “criterion” for a healthy Church are simply ways of answering the question “is this local Church aware of and pursuing what the New Testament teaches about the Church or not?” And in the end, whatever Church you end up joining will have some strong areas and some weak areas. That is expected in a fallen world. As I said, even the first generation of local Churches had some areas of strength and other areas where they needed correction.

The key point here is to commit to a local Church that partially lives up to the New Testament ideal.

It will do you no good to memorize every passage on the local Church if you never actually formally join one.

An analogy is helpful here: you might have an idea of what you want in an ideal spouse, but if you never actually marry a real human being, your ideal will do you no good. And, as every married person discovers, the person you marry will at the best only approximate the ideal spouse you conjured up in your head. So don’t spend your whole life looking for that “perfect New Testament Church.” Commit to the best option God provides for you locally, then move on to the final step.

Work to make that local Church better reflect the ideal Church

As soon as you are a member of a local Church, you are now partially responsible for ensuring that local collection of believers obeys what Scripture teaches about the ideal Church. You, not someone else. As you stay committed to a local body over the years, you will see more and more clearly the ways in which your Church falls short of the New Testament teaching. When this inevitably happens, the temptation will be to either complain, or to leave to find a different Church.

Now, there are certainly situations where you should leave a local Church. But in modern America, most reasons people give are neither Biblical nor wise. Your default when you notice an issue in your local Church should be:

  1. Do not complain or sow discord
  2. Seek to understand the problem
  3. Prayerfully seek to find a way to help fix the issue

If every Church member had a selfless, serving-others-before-myself mentality, a lot of issues in local Churches would evaporate. Seek to lead in working to help your local Church better reflect the ideal Church. Take responsibility. You don’t have to be an elder or a deacon or a particularly wise or smart person to make your Church more holy and godly.

If you are a local Church member, you are part of a body. And every part of the body is sovereignly knitted together by God to serve a purpose.

In conclusion, don’t over complicate the local Church. Understand clearly from Scripture what the local Church is and should be. Then commit to a body in your local area that approximates this ideal Church. And then spend your days seeking to help that local body better reflect what the ideal Church is in Scripture. Being an average Church member is a high calling. So go and serve your local body for the glory of Christ and the edification of the saints.

Click here to read other reflection pieces that I have published. If you found this post helpful, share on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more content.

book quote of the week
An Easy Way to Edit a Sermon

An Easy Way to Edit a Sermon

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When I decided to go back to school to get my Master’s degree, I realized I had probably forgotten how to do well in an academic environment. So, I picked up a book from one of my favorite authors Cal Newport entitled “How to Become a Straight-A Student.” If you are a student at any level, (especially if you are in College) I recommend this book highly. For today’s “Book Quote of the Week,” I want to look at Newport’s advice on editing academic papers and how it provides an easy way to edit a sermon as well.

Solid editing requires only three careful passes

The Argument Adjustment Pass: Read the paper carefully on your computer to make sure your argument is clear, fix obvious errors, and rewrite where the flow needs improvement.

The Out Loud Pass: Carefully read out loud a printed copy of your paper, marking any awkward passages or unclear explanations.

The Sanity Pass: A final pass over a printed version of the paper to check the overall flow and to root out any remaining errors.

“How to Become a Straight-A Student” by Cal Newport pp 211

What the quote means

Newport gives these three editing passes in a section on how to write an excellent college-level paper. In particular, he is concerned with avoiding two pitfalls: under-editing a paper and over-editing a paper. Newport argues effective editing really only takes three passes. The first focuses on the logic of the paper, the second pass corrects any grammar mistakes and ensures effective language, and the final pass checks that you didn’t miss any errors in the previous passes.

In the “Argument Adjustment Pass” the main goal is to add sentences or subtract sentences based on the paper’s flow. If a point is not clear, add a sentence or two to clarify. If a sentences isn’t necessary, cut it. During this phase, Newport also recommends analyzing the structure of your paper to check that you make a coherent, well-ordered argument. Newport recommends you complete this pass on your computer rather than on a printed out copy of your paper.

The “Out Loud Pass” is simple: read through your entire paper out loud to make sure your language is clear. For this step, Newport recommends you have a physical print out of your paper and note any necessary corrections as you go. Even though this process takes a larger chunk of time to complete, there is no substitute for reading a paper out loud if you want to ensure the language is effective.

Finally, the “Sanity Pass” is a final quick read through of a printed copy of your paper. You can always miss some small errors in the previous passes, so this final skim ensures you didn’t let anything slip through the cracks. After completing this pass, the paper is then ready to turn in.

Why it is important

What I love about this method of editing is how straightforward it is. There are dozens of editing checklists you can find online and in books. But they often take hours to go through and they don’t leave you with the feeling of “I’ve done enough.” By breaking down editing into three simple passes, Newport gives an effective and efficient editing technique.

Now, as helpful as this method is for academic papers, I think it really shines as a way to edit a sermon manuscript. Oftentimes, editing your sermon is either the last thing you do in a rush or you skip it entirely. And that makes sense: to edit a sermon takes time and it can feel daunting depending on how long your manuscript is. But Newport’s three step editing technique is not burdensome and provides a predictable process you can go through for each sermon.

I think the “out loud” pass might be even more important for a sermon than for a paper. You want to make sure your language flows and isn’t too flowery or complicated for a spoken message. As tedious as it might seem, you will notice a dozen improvements to your sermon if you simply complete the “out loud pass” before you preach. Additionally, I personally always make time the night before or the day of my teaching to complete the “sanity pass” with my printed manuscript or outline.

Takeaways

1. Budget time in your Sermon preparation for editing through your manuscript

It isn’t a complicated point but to edit a sermon you need to make time to actually complete the editing process. Editing should not be an “extra bonus” that you do “if you have time.” I have not met a single person who has complained their sermon got worse when they spent more time working on it. So, as you plan your schedule for preparing a sermon or teaching, budget time to complete Newport’s recommended three passes. The quality of your sermon will increase. Guaranteed.

2. Go through your Sermon manuscript three times and then entrust the result to the Lord

A common pitfall in editing is not knowing when something is “good enough.” That is one reason I appreciate Newport creating an editing process that has three steps and then is complete. You should certainly edit your sermon manuscript before you preach. But you also shouldn’t obsessively edit your sermon to the point that you aren’t ready to give it. For Christians preaching or teaching, you must end your editing process with trusting the Lord.

Sermons are made better through editing but no sermon is made effective by editing. God alone can save and sanctify.

So go through the three-step editing process with your sermon. Then, prayerfully trust the Lord with it because God has promised His Word will not return to Him void.

Click here to read previous “Book Quote of the Week” posts. More tools to help you study the Bible, click here. If you found this post helpful, share on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.

not just a sunday sermon
Church is More than a Sunday Morning Sermon

Church is More than a Sunday Morning Sermon

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When you hear the word “Church” what image pops into your head? A sanctuary full of pews? Pews filled with people? People with their Bible’s open listening to God’s Word? “Church” is most commonly used to describe the Sunday morning sermon and accompanying service. You go to Church in order to hear a sermon.

But the Church is so much more than a Sunday morning sermon. In fact, if you equate Church to a worship service between the hours of 10-12 am, then you are going to miss out on a lot of the joy and excitement that the Church is. In this post, I give you a three “mindsets” to develop. Each will help expand what you think about when you hear the word “Church”.

1. The Body Mindset

The Church is a dynamic gathering of Saints

You might have heard the phrase “the Church is not the building, it is the people.” Someone could also say “Church is not the Sunday morning sermon, it is the people.” Men, women, and children who are redeemed by Christ, united by the Holy Spirit, and who have covenanted together in a local assembly. When you drive to Church on Sunday, you are driving to gather with that “body” of people.

Having this “body mindset” keeps you from what I will call “movie theater mindset.” When you go to see a movie, you come in and sit together with a bunch of total strangers. This random group made up of different families and individuals watches the movie together but then leaves to return to separate homes without ever interacting or acknowledging each others’ existence. “Movie theater mindset” is coming to Church to listen to the Pastor preach alongside a bunch of strangers who you do not know and who you do not interact with after service is over.

In contrast, the Church as laid out in Acts is a completely different type of gathering:

44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Acts 2:44-47 ESV, emphasis added

You don’t “go to Church”; if you are a Christian you are a part of the Church, this dynamic body of believers. This means you gather together with fellow Saints past 10-12 am on Sunday morning. It means you see yourself as a part of their lives and realize each Church member is an important part of your life. You have to fight “movie theater mindset” and seek to know those in the pews next to you.

Thinking of the Church as a body changes how you come to Sunday service and how you plan your weeks.

2. Warfare Mindset

The Church equips the Saints to do ministry

Passive listening is the enemy of Christian preaching. I have written about getting more from your Pastor’s sermon and created tools to help you stay engaged during a sermon. Why? Because a sermon is not a motivational speech, a lecture, or entertainment. Preaching is training grounds for the spiritual battle you face each day of your life.

Paul says in Ephesians 4 that the Church “equips the saints for the work of service.” One of the main means God uses to equip you is the Sunday morning sermon. But “equipping” implies not just a passive listening to preaching. It implies that you go out an apply what you learned to your life as you go throughout the week.

Each time you go to Church, God is arming you to go out and fight the good fight of faith the rest of the week.

This simple shift in thinking will completely change how you approach Church. You aren’t driving to an old building on a Sunday morning while scrambling to get kids fed and in the car merely to have a few “positive thoughts” before starting your week. Equipping, not entertainment, is the goal of preaching. Equipping you as a Church member to leave Sunday morning service ready to serve the Lord wherever He calls you that week: at home, at work, with family, interacting with unbelievers. Go into Church to prepare for going out and ministering to others.

3. Eschatological Mindset

The Church is the bride of Christ from every tribe, tongue, and nation

The whole reason I write on this website is because I love the local Church: the average Christians who live their lives week by week seeking to glorify the Lord in their specific, small corner of the world. But sometimes a local Church mindset can lead you to imagine the Church is small. It isn’t. Your little local Church is one piece of a much bigger puzzle. And you see how the puzzle fits together in one of the greatest passages in the whole Bible:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

Revelation 7:9 ESV, emphasis added

You need an “eschatological mindset” when you come to Sunday service. This means you see clearly that your local body is a part of God’s plan from all eternity to save a group of sinners through Christ for His glory. Sure, there are problems and difficulties within your body. I am sure it is a struggle some Sundays to get to Church or stay awake during the sermon. Maybe your Church is small and seemingly insignificant. But remind yourself that there is nothing insignificant about a part of God’s plan.

It does not matter if your local congregation is small. It is a part of God’s infinitely wise and glorious plan.

Coming to Church knowing that each Sunday is fitting you and your fellow Church members for an eternal weight of glory puts you in a much more worshipful state than if you come to Church merely thinking about the here and now. Open your eyes to the beautiful Scriptural truth that God is sovereignly saving sinners from every corner of the earth for an eternity with Him. And you, as a Christian, get to be a part of that plan in your little Church.

Conclusion

To summarize, come to Church with these three mindsets:

  • Body Mindset-you aren’t there to just listen to a Sunday morning sermon, you are there to interact with a dynamic body of Saints
  • Warfare Mindset-you go to Church to get equipped by the Word of God to go out and live for His glory throughout the week
  • Eschatological Mindset-your Church, no matter how small, is a part of God’s cosmic plan of redemption

As you cultivate these perspectives, you will find how you think about Church will change from something static and dull to something glorious and exciting.

This post is part of an ongoing series of reflections called “What I learned from…“. If you found this post helpful, share on social media below and subscribe below if you want new articles delivered directly to your inbox. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.

book quote of the week
Extracting Patterns from Scripture

Extracting Patterns from Scripture

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I recently started my Master’s Degree and one of the classes I am taking this quarter is “Introduction to Data Analytics.” It is shaping up to be one of my favorite courses, and I find that some of the concepts in data analytics are helpful for the average Christian studying his or her Bible. One of the goals of data analytics is to extract patterns from a set of data to get actionable insights. This got me thinking: Christians do the same thing by extracting patterns from Scripture and then meditating on how those insights impact their lives.

But what patterns should a Christian look for as they study a Biblical text? A helpful answer comes from one of my recommended readings for my Master’s class: “Data Science” by John D. Kelleher and Brendan Tierney. If you want a high level introduction to data science, I highly recommend it. Early on in the book, the authors give four different types of patterns that data analysts look for in a data set. These four categories of patterns are helpful to keep in mind when extracting patters from scripture.

Clustering- “identifying groups…exhibiting similar behavior”

Association-rule mining- identifies connections

Outlier detection- “identify strange or abnormal events”

Prediction- “identify patterns that help us classify things…it is best to think of prediction patterns as predicting the missing value of an attribute rather than as predicting the future.”

Summary of excerpt from “Data Science” by John D. Kelleher and Brendan Tierney

What the quote means

These four different pattern types are listed in a section of the book which asks “What is Data Science?” The authors answer this question by arguing data science analyzes data to find patterns that are not obvious to then turn into actionable insights for a business. These four different pattern types are given as typical patterns one notices when analyzing a set of data.

“Clustering” is an easy concept to understand. It is simply grouping data points together based on their similarities. The example the authors give is a business (like a grocery) analyzing their customers. “Clustering” might show which customers buy the same things or shop at the same times or behave similarly. Another term the authors give for “clustering” is “customer segmentation.”

“Association-rule mining” is a related pattern, but deals with connections between data points rather than finding large clusters in the data. In our grocery store example, if customers frequently bought eggs when they bought milk, you could conclude that those two items are associated. “Outlier detection” is probably the easiest pattern to recognize: you simply find any strange or abnormal data points. Maybe in your grocery store one customer buys a high percentage of your inventory of one of your products. This customer exhibits abnormal purchasing behavior compared to your other customers.

Finally, “prediction” is a pattern which I had trouble wrapping my mind around at first. Typically, prediction means forecasting a conclusion about the future. But these authors use “prediction” to mean the ability to fill in missing attributes of some data based on other data you have. In the grocery store example, if you have a person who is a 30 year old male and you know that in the past 90% of 30 year old males purchase pretzels when they shop, you could predict that this other 30 year old male would do the same.

Why it is important

Pattern recognition is essential to Biblical exposition.

Rarely do you hear a Pastor speaking about extracting patterns from Scripture, but practically speaking, a lot of expositional tools rely on the Pastor noticing patterns in the text, bringing those patterns to the congregations attention, and then showing how those insights impact their Church member’s lives. In one sense, every single Christian who studies their Bible is a “data analyst.”

Now, Scripture is so much more than a mere data set: it is the living, inerrant, and active word of the sovereign, all-knowing God. But the Bible does contain patterns and some of these patterns are exactly the same as the ones given in “Data Science:”

  • There are “clusters” of texts which deal with a single topic. Systematic theologians often use “clustering” to see what the Bible teaches on a certain topic.
  • Texts “associate” with other texts. Biblical theologians are often interested in how a phrase used in one section of the Bible is associated with that same phrase used in another section. Additionally, Biblical authors often associate different concepts together, like how faith in Christ produces a changed life.
  • There are verses in Scripture which the Biblical authors cause to stand out (i.e. an outlier). Pastors oftentimes look for these “outliers” because they often reveal the main point of the original author. An example of an “outlier” would be the Song of Moses in Exodus after Israel parts the Red Sea. The “Song of Moses” is an outlier because it is a poetic section contained within a narrative.
  • Finally, “pattern recognition” makes sure that Scripture interprets Scripture. When you see “God is love” in a text, you also should “Fill in” the idea that “God is just” from other texts in Scripture. Your knowledge of Scripture as a whole enables you to fill in patterns as you study other texts.

At the end of the day, you as a reader of Scripture want to gain insight into who God is and what true reality is from the text. Whether you notice a connection between texts, or whether you remember something you read in a different section of Scripture and use that to fill out a passage you are currently studying, pattern recognition is a vital tool for seeing and understanding the truths given in the Bible. Therefore, if you want to study Scripture better, you must become better at extracting patterns from Scripture.

Takeaways

Today’s takeaways will turn the four different patterns given above into four questions you can ask of a Biblical text:

1. What other passages in Scripture address this same topic?

As an example, if you are studying a text of Scripture which deals with the holiness of God, you should ask where else in Scripture the holiness of God is discussed.

2. Where else in Scripture is this same language used?

This question allows you to trace a theme or an idea throughout Scripture. An example would be the crushing of the serpent from Genesis 3. You might trace this language of God crushing the serpent through the entirety of Scripture to see how the idea develops through time.

3. What stands out in this passage of Scripture? Why? What is the significance?

Oftentimes, if a phrase is repeated over and over again in a passage, that probably means the author is emphasizing something. Repetition is one way Biblical authors create “outliers” in the text, but there are other ways. Look at the passage to find what things stand out and why.

4. What truths from other places in Scripture fill out/clarify/expand on the truths given in this text?

This question is non-negotiable for Pastors who preach expositionally. To “expound” a text, you must fill out and clarify it with other Scripture. The Puritans did this excellently in the way they structured their sermons. An example of this might be when you are teaching the Philippians 3 text “Our citizenship is in heaven.” A text which expands on this idea might be “Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth.” Using the second text to expand on the truths given in the first text is a necessary skill for any teacher or preacher of God’s Word

Click here to read previous “Book Quote of the Week” posts. More tools to help you study the Bible, click here. If you found this post helpful, share on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.

benefits of a men's retreat
7 Benefits of a Men’s Retreat

7 Benefits of a Men’s Retreat

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My Church held a men’s retreat this past weekend. This was my Church’s first men’s retreat in years and, as the lead planner for the weekend, I did not fully know what to expect. Would the weekend be spiritually profitable or a waste of time? Thankfully, the Lord blessed the weekend and it was an incredible time of fellowship and focus on God’s word. Now that the weekend is over, I have been thinking about the many benefits of a men’s retreat. 7 in particular come to mind.

1. A focused time of worship

Most Christian’s would agree that worshiping Christ should be a daily priority. However, oftentimes in the busyness of the week, worshiping the Lord can take second priority over more “pressing” concerns. One of the benefits of a men’s retreat is you have time to simply worship. There are little distractions around you. You can’t make excuses. You are stuck in a singular location with other believers for the sole purpose of listening to the Word, praying, and singing.

One of my favorite things about my Church’s men’s retreat was the singing. At Church, you might sing 4-5 hymns on a given Sunday. But at the men’s retreat, we sang 5 hymns each teaching session. There is something about praising the Lord loudly from the heart with a group of believers over and over again that revives your soul. It lifts your affections and reminds you of the surpassing value of Christ. The sheer amount of focused worship which takes place when you set aside a weekend for a retreat is one great reason to schedule one.

2. A structured context for fellowship

As I have written before, most people even within the Church are somewhat lonely and crave connection with other believers. But where to start? Oftentimes, a quick conversation before or after morning worship is not going to cultivate the deep closeness that you crave. A men’s retreat gives the men of your Church a structured context to simply talk and be around one another. Although it can feel “forced” or “artificial” at first, sticking a bunch of Christians together for a weekend of mealtimes, singing, preaching, and free time is fertile ground for growing closeness among your congregation.

The closeness you cultivate with others during a weekend retreat sticks around long after the retreat is over. Those shared memories, those unexpected conversations, those fellow Church members you talked with for the first time suddenly become fuel for future conversations and meet-ups in the future. Shared experiences are powerful means to connect people together. Creating a context for those memories to be made is one of the greatest benefits of a men’s retreat.

3. A temporary step-back from daily responsibilities

Personally, my normal week-day is one long list of responsibilities. I have things I need to get done at work, I have chores that must get done, I have projects to complete and a hundred other things I “need to do.” While responsibilities are good and given by God, sometimes the urgent cares of the day can get your mind stuck on “things below” rather than “things above where Christ is seated.”

A retreat gives you the chance to temporary set aside your daily responsibilities. This isn’t so that you can forget about them. Rather, this temporary break is so you can seek the Lord and ask that He revive your soul. Then you can then go back and do those daily responsibilities with even more zeal for His glory. You can think of a retreat as a time of refocusing and revival. By removing the normal, daily responsibilities which choke your schedule, you have a whole day or two free to seek the Lord with your whole heart. The excuse of “I don’t have time” no longer applies; you have nothing on your “to do list” but to get your mind re-focused on Christ.

4. Teaching that can deal directly with a pertinent topic

Expositional preaching through a book of Scripture is the best way to consistently expose a congregation to the Word of God. However, every so often a “deep dive” into a pertinent topic addressed is needed. It can be difficult for Pastors to pause an ongoing series to deal with specific topics. But one of the benefits of a men’s retreat is you can choose a single topic to focus on for a weekend.

For my Church’s men’s retreat, we had a guest speaker give three sessions on Biblical manhood. The first session was the “theological foundations of manhood,” the second was “manhood in the context of the home”, and the final session was “manhood in the context of the Church.” Then we had a question and answer session with the Elders to directly address some of the pressing issues brought up. All of the teaching was needed, practical, and edifying for the men of the congregation and there was no better time or place to address such a topic than at a men’s retreat.

5. Time for long and lingering spiritual conversations

Is there anything more edifying than conversations amongst believers? I have taught before on how conversations with other believers are mutually encouraging and impart spiritual blessing to all parties involved. But the most beneficial spiritual conversations often require lingering and long discussion. Dealing with tough theological questions or meditating on applications of a text or sharing a specific spiritual struggle all take time. A normal Sunday service does not provide adequate time to talk about some of these necessary things.

A men’s retreat provides time for believers to talk and to talk long. In the course of a weekend, I had multiple conversations on personal difficulties I have been having, discussed what doctrines Christians should divide over and which ones they should not divide over, thought through the different aspects of God’s character, shared my thoughts on what it means for a man to protect his home, and a host of other conversations. I can’t remember every detail or conclusion these conversations reached, but I can still feel the closeness that came from talking openly with fellow Church members.

6. A time to re-prioritize Christ and His Church

Jesus warned that the “cares of the world” and the “desires for other things entering in” could choke the Word and cause it to become unfruitful. One of the benefits of a men’s retreat is it gives you a chance to “clean house” within your own hear, so to speak. What idols have you picked up during the course of living in this sinful world? What desires do you need to crucify? What excuses have you been making for sin that need to be removed?

I believe revival is a sovereign work of God that cannot be manufactured. But simply setting aside a weekend to seek the Lord as a group of believers can revive your heart in a lesser sense. By focusing your mind on Christ and His Church for an entire weekend it reminds you that nothing in your life is half as important as the Gospel. You are reminded of the value of Christ and your heart longs to return to “your first love.” A men’s retreat can be a very convicting time, but that conviction gives you opportunity to repent and refocus your mind and heart on Christ and what He did for you on the cross.

7. Growing friendships within your congregation

On any given Sunday, there are about a dozen people I want to talk to and need to talk to. The question always comes after the last hymn plays: should I find and talk to the people I already know but need to talk to? Or do I go talk with someone I do not know? A men’s retreat gives you enough time to reach out to believers in your body who you seldom connected with. Suddenly a person who you only swapped a few sentences with before becomes a new friend.

Certainly believers are spiritually united in Christ and Church members in particular are committed to loving and serving one another. Yet having real friendships among believers makes all of this easier and more tangible. A men’s retreat gives your congregation the time and space to either develop new friendships or grow old ones. The hope is that these real friendships would continue past the retreat and grow your body closer together.

Conclusion

These 7 benefits of a men’s retreat are by no means exhaustive. But if your Church has not tried to do a men’s retreat or any other type of retreat (women’s retreat, family retreat, elder-deacon retreat, etc.), I would encourage you to start planning something annually. It can be tough to plan and coordinate a retreat, but the spiritual benefits of a men’s retreat far outweigh any difficulty you might have getting it set up.

This post is part of an ongoing series called “What I learned from…” If you found this post helpful, share it on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more content.

ways to reach out to your neighbors
3 Easy Ways to Reach Out to Your Neighbors

3 Easy Ways to Reach Out to Your Neighbors

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I would guess if you are reading this post that you either live in an apartment or neighborhood. That means there are dozens of individuals, couples, & families who live incredibly close to you. How are you striving to get to know your neighbors better for the purpose of sharing the Gospel with them? Getting to know your neighbors can be intimidating, which is why in this post I want to go through 3 easy ways to reach out to your neighbors.

You will rarely get a good opportunity to share God’s truth with your neighbors if you don’t know them, hardly talk to them, or don’t sacrifice some of your time & open up your home for them to get to know you. The things I recommend in this post are easy in the sense that they are straightforward. You could do any or all of them today or tomorrow without needing some sort of fancy plan. But they are hard because they require valuing outreach to those around you more than you value personal time and personal space.

With that said, here are some of the most practical ways to reach out to your neighbors that I have found.

1. Invite them over for dinner

Of all the ways to reach out to your neighbors, this one is essential. There is no way around it: if you really want to get to know someone you leave close to, you are going to have to invite them over for dinner. Don’t expect to have too many deep conversations with your neighbors until you have made the first step of opening up your home. A dinner invitation is not only a necessary first step: it is also a perfect foundation for a continuing relationship with your neighbors moving forward. Your neighbors will remember the tangible, visible love you showed them by initiating and scheduling a time to get to know them.

The first dinner is the hardest, but after you actually get it on the schedule and commit to it, you’ll leave that dinner knowing your neighbors so much more than you did before. Dinner will break the ice and make both parties are more comfortable in future interactions in conversations. Not only that, but you will get a chance to clearly communicate to your neighbors that you are a Christian through blessing the food and dinner conversation. But the key here is you must initiate. Don’t wait around for your neighbors to invite you to dinner. Take the first step, as awkward as you may feel. After the first dinner, you will find it easier to extend dinner invitations in the future.

2. Leave them a baked good (and perhaps a note)

A Christian can turn baking into an indispensable tool for outreach. The simple act of sharing a delicious bread, cake, or cookie with another person is a thoughtful gesture which causes people drop their guards. I have known people who have started entire relationships by knocking on people’s doors and leaving giving them a set of cookies they have made. If going door to door is not your style, maybe leave a note with the baked goods introducing yourself.

This way to reach out to your neighbors also works after you have already had a dinner with them. Baking something has a lower time commitment then hosting a meal and it still shows that you are thinking about your neighbors. Leave a Gospel tract with a note explaining why Jesus is so important to you with your baked goods. Or write a personal note telling them how much you enjoyed your last dinner together. The possibilities (and opportunities) are endless.

Next time you are baking anything for your family, why not double the recipe and make an outreach opportunity for yourself? There are very few things people appreciate more than home-baked goods; leverage them for your neighbors’ spiritual good.

3. Invite them to join you during normal things

You perform dozens of tasks each which alone which you could easily do with a neighbor. To put another way, turn ordinary things you do throughout the week from a solitary tasks to an evangelistic opportunities. Here are just a few ideas of things you can invite another person to participate in:

  • Working out
  • Grocery shopping
  • Evening walks
  • Yard work
  • Cooking dinner (as an added bonus, you can then invite your neighbor to dinner)

What is keeping you from inviting your neighbors to participate in these activities? Most of the time it is either a personal preference (“I’d rather do these things alone”) or a cultural bias (“No one I know invites other people to do these things with them”). But if you honestly want to reach out to your neighbors, you are going to have to shift your mindset from “my home or my time after work is for me and my family only” to “my home and time are tools God has given me to use for the advancing of His kingdom.”

There are prime opportunities for outreach each week that you don’t even realize. Next time you are planning your weekly activities, go through your list and ask of each task “could I invite someone else to do this with me?” As I have written about before, you should have a list of potential people to invite to cycle through. That way if someone turns you down, you can invite someone else.

Conclusion

Reaching out to your neighbors can be scary at first. But you don’t need some grand gesture to initiate a relationship with those around you. These three ways to reach out to your neighbors are not complicated or difficult but they are some of the best ways to develop a relationship with the people who live closest to you.

It is only through opening up the home God gave you and investing the time God has allotted to you into the lives of others that you can start getting to know your neighbors. And by getting to know your neighbors you are creating opportunities so share the Gospel with them and to show them Christ’s steadfast love.

If you are interested in becoming better at hospitality, read other posts on my page “Practicing Hospitality.” Share this post on social media below if you found it helpful and subscribe so you don’t miss future posts. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more content.

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How Do You Think About Your Job?

How Do You Think About Your Job?

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How you think about your job will directly affect how you work day to day. Sadly, many people have a very wrong perspective about their vocation. There is good reason for this: modern culture finds much of it’s identity in their 9 to 5 job. Additionally, countless books have been written on how to improve your work, how to land your dream job, and a host of other work-related topics.

For Christians, the primary source for how you think about your job is Scripture. Proverbs in particular is incredibly instructive when it comes to how to perform your vocation. But recently I read a book that I think helpfully deals with this question of how you view your work: “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport. Of the different secular books I have read on the topic of work, I find Cal Newport’s analysis both the most helpful and the most consistent with Biblical principles.

Today, I want to look at a quote from “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” that summarizes the thesis of the book. The quote deals with two mindsets: the “passion mindset” which most people in our culture adopts and the “craftsman mindset” which is the mindset Newport argues for. As we will see, it is also the mindset which best lines of with Biblical teaching.

The craftsman mindset focuses on what value you are producing in your job while the passion mindset focuses on what value your job offers you.

“So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport

What the quote means

This quote summarizes the entirety of Newport’s book. Newport wants to correct the common modern mindset that the key to enjoying your job is to find a job you are passionate about. He calls this the “passion mindset.” I am sure you have often heard this mindset expounded by those around you in various forms:

  • “Do what you love”
  • “Follow your dreams”
  • “If you love what you do, you won’t work a day in your life”
  • “Why waste time in a job you don’t like?”

And so on. The entire book Newport writes is spent exposing the flaws with this mindset and offering an alternative: the “craftsman” mindset. In the quote above, Newport says the fundamental issue with the passion mindset is it focuses on what your job offers you instead of what value you are producing for your job.

The reason Newport uses the word “craftsman” to describe the alternative mindset is craftsmen focus on how they do their work. The focus is on creating an excellent product, not primarily on personal enjoyment. Certainly craftsmen get enjoyment from their work, but this enjoyment is an organic outcome of doing their work well. In short, the craftsman mindset focuses on the work itself and how to do it well while the passion mindset’s primary question is “do I enjoy this work?”

Why it is important

Newport gives two very helpful categories, and most people I know (including myself) have fallen into the trap of the passion mindset. When all of your focus is on how much you enjoy or do not enjoy your job, your perspective is on yourself rather than on the work. Certainly some jobs are “better” than others but it is a dangerous cultural assumption that your job is primarily about your fulfillment or enjoyment.

Christians can take further issue with the passion mindset: God is ultimately in control of what job you end up in. Therefore, the Christian is less concerned with the question “do I enjoy this job” and more concerned with answering “how can I glorify God in the job He has given me?”

Christians find fulfillment in the Lord. Therefore, they should be less susceptible to the modern worldview that makes one’s job the end-all-be-all of one’s life.

Furthermore, Christians should be concerned with how they do their job. The “craftsman” mindset is just a new name Newport puts on an old Biblical concept: what your job is matters far less than why you do your job and how you do your job. The “why” of Christian work is tied to a theology of God’s glory in all things:

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

“How” Christians work is tied very closely to Newport’s “focus on the value you are producing” mindset. Where do I find this? Scripture consistently praises skillful work. Proverbs 22:29 has the most explicit statement on the topic:

Do you see a man skillful in his work?

    He will stand before kings;

    he will not stand before obscure men.

Proverbs 22:29, ESV

In the Old Testament, the Lord also used skilled workers to build the tabernacle and the temple:

And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work.

Exodus 36:2, ESV

You have an abundance of workmen: stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and all kinds of craftsmen without number, skilled in working gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Arise and work! The Lord be with you!”

1 Chronicles 22:15-16, ESV

Finally, in the Psalms musicians are called to worship the Lord skillfully:

Sing to him a new song;

    play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

Psalm 33:3, ESV

“Skillful” work is focused on the quality of the work, not on the amount of pleasure the work brings you.

Takeaways

1. Ask yourself “how can I do my job better? How can I increase the quality of my work? How can I make my work more valuable?”

If you want to wake up and go to your job excited, you need to change the way you think about your job. Focus on what value you will add to your place of employment that day, or think about what you can do to increase the quality of your work. Pray the Lord would show you ways to perform your job excellently. Go to work with an eagerness to improve how well you do your job.

There will certainly be bad days along the way and days you don’t want to go into work. But once you accept this is the job God has provided for you currently, you are free to do that work excellently. Accept God’s will, then work for God’s glory. If Christians are constantly complaining about their job, if they are always seeking a different or “better” job, what does that say about the Christian worldview?

If you want a better visible testimony at work, “do all things without complaining or disputing” and work unto the Lord in all you do at your job.

Most people complain about their job and don’t do their job particularly well. Christians can stand out by joyfully serving well in the job the Lord provides. What does that practically look like? Develop a craftsman mindset, focus on doing valuable work, and improve each day how you do your job.

2. Derive pleasure from the quality of the work you do, not the job in which you are currently employed

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,

Ecclesiastes 2:24, ESV

Enjoying your work is a gracious gift from the Lord. But in 21st century America, enjoyment and fulfillment at work is demanded as a right rather than received as a gift. The result? If you find yourself not enjoying what you are doing, you either complain about your job to no end or you leave it to find greener grass elsewhere. But notice what the author of Ecclesiastes says: “There is nothing better for a person…(to) find enjoyment in his toil.”

You aren’t just to find enjoyment in your perfect dream job. Biblically, you can enjoy toil, hard labor, wearing effort. This is good news for the Christian: you don’t have to make a big career change to enjoy your job. The Bible says God graciously gives people enjoyment even in toilsome labor. How is this perspective lived out?

When God created the world, He spoke, saw what He had made, and then pronounced it “good.” In other words, God enjoyed the goodness of what He had created after He created it. This is the same pattern you see in Newport’s “craftsman” mindset: you derive pleasure from the quality of the work you do. Don’t get stuck wishing for a better job. Do your work excellently every day so that when you leave, you can say that day’s work was “good”. Then pray that God would grant you enjoyment in your labor.

There is much more that could be said. Newport’s contrast between the craftsman and the passion mindset is helpful for Christians to think through in light of Scripture. In the end, the most important mindset a Christian needs to have with regards to their work is a God-glorifying mindset.

Click here to read previous “Book Quote of the Week” posts. For more of my thoughts on Christians and work, click here. If you found this post helpful, share on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.

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How to Get More Out of Your Pastor’s Sermons

How to Get More Out of Your Pastor’s Sermons

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I always enjoy reading and recommending books on how to become a better Church member. There are many books on becoming a better preacher, counselor, or pastor but not as many focused on the average Church attender. Many believers don’t fully understand what their role is as a normal Church member. One outworking of this uncertainty is how people respond to their Pastor’s sermon. A question commonly asked is how to get more out of your pastor’s sermons?

One of my favorite books to recommend for instructing normal Church members is “Duties of Christian Fellowship” by John Owen. It is short, accessible, and intensely practical. If you have not read this book, I recommend you do so and then purchase a few dozen to give out at your Church. It truly is gold and I cannot possibly recommend it enough. Drop whatever you are currently reading and get through this book first; it is that important.

The first section of the book deals with the question of how to get more out of your pastor’s sermons. The quote below is worthy of consideration, particularly the last sentence.

The failure to consider these principles is the cause of all the negligence, carelessness, laziness, and indiscipline while hearing the world, which has taken hold of so many these days. Only a respect for the truth and authority of God in the preaching of his word will bring men to hear it soberly and profitably. It is also the case that men grow tired of hearing the word only after they have grown tired of putting it into practice.

“Duties of Christian Fellowship” by John Owen, emphasis added

What the quote means

“Duties of Christian Fellowship” is organized around “rules” for Church members. The first 7 deal with how Church members should interact with the Pastor and the second set of 15 focuses on how Church members should interact with each other. The quote given above comes after the very first rule Owen gives: Christians should regularly attend a local Church to listen to preaching and to partake in the ordinances.

But as in every era of Church history, not every person puts a high emphasis on the public preaching of God’s word. Owen’s answer is given in the quote: most of the time believers tire of hearing the word preached because they have long since stopped trying to apply the sermons they here. In other words:

If you fail to correct your life based on the sermons you hear, you will eventually become a passive listener.

What Owen does here is shift the focus of the question “how can you get more from your pastor’s sermons” from the pastor to the Church member in the pew. If you aren’t “getting anything” from the faithful preaching of God’s word, the first problem to examine is in the mirror, not the Pastor. What Owen writes is right in line with the first chapter of James:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

James 1:22-25 ESV, emphasis added

Why it is important

It is easy to approach Sunday morning as a consumer rather than as a worshiper. This means going to Church thinking to get some type of “product” whether that is a “good sermon” or “authentic worship”. If you are not pleased with what you get, then the consumer-mindset blames the Pastor or the worship leader or someone else. And there is no aspect of corporate worship in which it is easier to think as a consumer than preaching.

In today’s culture, congregants can often attend Church wanting entertainment, a “positive, inspiring message”, or a practical self-help type talk. When you come to service with any of these expectations and those expectations are not met, you naturally blame the Pastor. “That sermon wasn’t his best,” you might say or “It was alright, but I wish it was more relevant or practical.” Worst of all, you can give the Sunday sermon the epitaph of “I just didn’t get much out of it.”

What I love about this Owen quote is it directly challenges anyone who listens to a sermon as a consumer. There are only two questions for you to ask after listening to your Pastor’s sermon:

  1. Did the sermon faithfully and clearly explain the truth of Scripture as God has communicated it?
  2. If so, how does my life need to change based on what God has communicated to me through the pastor?

Owen says to the person who “didn’t get much out” of their Pastor’s sermon that the problem is most likely a passive, rather than an active mindset. A believer with an active mindset goes to Church to hear the Word preached so their lives can be confronted and conformed to Scripture. A passive mindset leads to a “eh, I’ll take it or leave it” response to preaching.

Your heart as you drive to Church on Sunday should be brimming with anticipation not because you expect some entertainment or life-changing emotional moment. Rather, you should be excited that God is going to teach you through your Pastor so that your life can change to better reflect Christ in the coming week.

Takeaways

1. Spend more time reflecting on the sermon than on critiquing it

If you want to get more out of your Pastor’s sermon, step one is humility: your job is not to be the resident “sermon reviewer”. Rather, your job is the mull over the Pastor’s exposition in your mind until you are gripped by the truth of the text. To get really practical, watch closely how you talk to other people about your Pastor’s sermon. If you find yourself saying things along the lines of “this is how well I think my Pastor preached” instead of “this is what God taught me through the Pastor”, you might be taking on the role of sermon critic.

Focus your energy on reflection rather than critique and you will begin to get more out of your Pastor’s sermons.

2. Set aside times during the week to remind yourself of what your Pastor preached on Sunday

One of the reasons I have spent time designing tools to help you reflect on your Pastor’s sermon is most of the time you forget what last Sunday’s sermon was about by the time you get to the next week. Humans are forgetful, especially when we don’t use the information we hear. So if you want to better remember what your Pastor preached on, start building in times throughout the week where you revisit the sermon text, your sermon notes, or even listen to the sermon itself a second time.

This is also a great action to take with others. If your Church has a small group, that is a great context to reflect on the previous Sunday’s sermon. Perhaps you meet up informally with Church members during the week. That is also a great time to reflect as a group on what God is teaching you corporately.

3. Prayerfully consider what God wants you to start doing, stop doing, or continue doing based on your Sunday sermon

There are dozens of sermon application questions out there to help you practically live out the truths you hear. But if you want three simple and memorable questions to ask after a sermon, look no further:

  • What do I need to start doing in light of the sermon?
  • What do I need to stop doing in light of the sermon?
  • What things should I continue to do in light of the sermon?

I love this list because it is so easy to remember and gets at three aspects of God’s word: it instructs us what we should do, it corrects our behavior when it is sinful, and it encourages us to persevere in doing what is right. By thinking in terms of “start, stop, continue”, you can figure out what God’s word is communicating to you each week. Like I discussed above, both the Epistle to James and John Owen make it clear if you stop trying to apply God’s word, you are going to forget what you heard or think there was “nothing in it for me”.

If you want to get more out of your Pastor’s sermons, come to your Sunday service ready for your life to change.

Don’t get tired of hearing sermons every week: even on your Pastor’s worst Sunday preaching there is some truth God is sovereignly ordaining you to hear. Let us be doers of the Word when we hear it for there is no greater stewardship then obediently responding to God’s glorious Word.

Click here to read previous “Book Quote of the Week” posts. If you found this post encouraging and insightful, please share on social media below and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to keep up with the most recent posts.

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How to Read Scientific Papers Intelligently

How to Read Scientific Papers Intelligently

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As an engineer, I read scientific papers quite frequently. I am convinced most people do not know how to read scientific papers intelligently. This doesn’t need to be the case: you don’t have to be an expert to think critically about a study and its results. In a society which is obsessed with scientific discovery and “scientific truth,” Christians in particular need to be wise when engaging with modern science.

If you want to better engage with scientific findings, you are going to know certain questions to ask as you read scientific papers. Additionally, you are going to have to get a good grasp of the uncertainty inherent to any good science. Recently, I read a book that gives both a series of questions to ask of a scientific paper as well as a good analysis of the uncertainty inherent to science in general.

The book is called “Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth” by Stuart Richie. Although written by a non-Christian, it is an essential read for any Christian working in a STEM field and is useful for any believer who finds themselves looking up the latest “scientific study.” For today’s Book Quote of the Week, I want to look at questions Stuart Richie says you should ask when reading a scientific paper.

Is everything above board? Authors from reputable universities, companies, labs? Journal published in look professional?

How transparent is it? Can you find data set online anywhere?

Was the study well designed? How was the control group treated? When seeing headline claim, should ask “compared to what”

How big is the sample? How many subjects were included from the final sample and why?

Are the inferences appropriate? Causal language when only a correlation study? Experiments on animals jumped to humans?

Is there bias? Does the study have obvious political or social ramifications and do the scientists write about these in such a way that seems less than impartial? Where was the study funded?

How plausible is it really? If study involves human participants imagine yourself having taken a part…did the environment of the study even approximate the setting that the scientists want to know about?

Has it been replicated? Stop relying so heavily on individual studies

Questions from “Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth” by Stuart Richie

What the quote means

These questions come at the very end of “Science Fictions.” The entire book looks at the ways researchers intentionally or unintentionally publish results which are misleading in one way or the other. The results can be over-hyped, they can ignore important data, or the conclusions can be impossible to replicate in a future study. All of these questions laid out by Richie are designed to help you as you read scientific papers to ask the simple question “is this true?”

Some of these questions are harder to answer if you don’t have a STEM background. But the basic questions of “how was the study designed? Who were the people who did the study? What were the conclusions of the study and do they make sense?” are always useful to have in the back of your mind when reading a “scientific conclusion.”

Now, the goal of these questions isn’t to cause you to never trust another scientific conclusion again. Rather, they are tools for you to more intelligently discern whether an article like “10 Superfoods which reduce aging instantly” is something you should read and take to heart, or not. These questions help you sort the “wheat from the chaff” so to speak.

Why it is important

The scientific method is a gift of God’s common grace. Many of the good things in the modern world would not be possible without science and scientific discovery. As Christians, it is important to remember one of the assumptions of the scientific method is that the universe is designed in such a way that observation and testing is possible and yields valid conclusions.

It is the Christian worldview that has the foundation for scientific discovery.

However, like all of God’s good gifts, humans make science an idol. Unbelievers consider scientific discovery “the way, the truth, and the life” rather than Jesus. A practical outworking of this is a society that accepts any sort of “scientific discovery” at face value. And if you aren’t in a STEM field and familiar with the uncertainty and approximations inherent to the scientific method, it is easy to think “science says it, that settles it.”

Christians value science as a useful tool God has given mankind. But Christians do not get their wisdom and insight exclusively from scientific conclusions.

All things must be compared with infallible Scripture. And what I think “Science Fictions” does best is show that science really isn’t infallible and was never meant to be. Scientists are humans like anyone else with motivations for funding and to publish “breakthroughs” in order to climb in their field. That doesn’t mean you should never trust a scientist. It just means you accept that science is oftentimes fallible and an always changing body of data.

Therefore, if you are a Christian, you should leverage the questions Richie gives to better engage with scientific papers. Again, the goal is not to discredit any scientific discovery. Many great scientists in the past were Christians who understood that the universe was created by a glorious, powerful, wise Creator.

Takeaways

1. Christians should not reject science. Rather, they should model intelligent, thoughtful engagement with scientific research

In a culture that idolizes science and elevates it over the Word of God, it is easy for Christians to simply reject it outright. But there is a better way.

The scientific method is not the problem: sinful human hearts are.

Therefore, Christians, especially those in STEM fields, should model humble engagement with scientific findings. Christians should not pretend that science is a perfect, objective, infallible source of truth. But they also shouldn’t have cynical attitude every time a scientific discovery is made.

Again, Christian scientists in the past have seen the theological foundations of the scientific method. It is a good gift from God, although it should never be elevated over God’s revelation. If you want to live in this tension practically, use the questions from “Science Fictions” to start thinking through different scientific conclusions you read. As you read scientific papers, write down answers to the questions above so you can model thoughtful engagement with the findings, rather than blind acceptance or blind rejection.

2. For the Christian, science is an avenue for worship of God

I really don’t know how anyone in STEM disciplines can remain cynical about the idea of God. When you see the order, the beauty, the detail in the world around you, it really is “awesome” in the most literal sense of the world. To think that people can live in the scientific world amongst wonders every single day and still attribute those wonders to “random chance” is beyond my comprehension. But Romans 1 clarifies what is going on:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Romans 1:18-20 ESV, emphasis added

Truly any scientist who does not see evidence for God all around him is without excuse. But what about for the Christian in a STEM field? Don’t ever think your job in a scientific field is separate from your Christianity. As you carry out the scientific method in your job, you should be worshiping God every step of the way.

  • Stand in awe at the creation God has made
  • Thank the Lord that He allows scientific breakthroughs to benefit sinful humans
  • Mediate on how your specific work displays God’s “eternal power and divine nature”
  • When you see the chaos and curse within the created order, remind yourself of the new heavens and new earth God will create free from the effects of sin
  • Ask yourself “what kind of Being could and would create something like this?”

Christian, read scientific papers intelligently. The questions “Science Fictions” gives are a helpful starting point. And as you see God’s glory revealed in Creation, let that lead you to worship and to giving God thanks. Being a Christian employed in STEM is a high calling and a difficult one in our current culture. But it is truly a glorious field to be in as a believer in Christ.

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Life Lessons from Emma

Life Lessons from Emma

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My wife and I have always enjoyed Jane Austen books. While “Pride and Prejudice” will always be a favorite, I personally really enjoy the story of “Emma“. I recently watched the most recent movie adaptation with my wife and it brought to mind the many reasons I thoroughly enjoy the story. As a Christian, I think there are several valuable life lessons from Emma.

As for a quote to analyze, I can’t do much better than the opening line from the book. Austen had a habit of writing some of the wittiest and most enjoyable opening lines of any author I have read. This opening quote tells the reader a great deal about the book’s main character in a single sentence.

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.

Emma by Jane Austen

What the quote means

If you have not read Emma, I suggest you make time to do so. Like all of Austen’s books, there is a ton of analysis written about Emma, it’s characters, and every detail you could think of. For this post, I want to focus on lessons from Emma the character. One of the great benefits of reading fiction is you can learn from characters going through experiences that you have never gone through yourself. Emma is no exception.

This opening quote really sets the stage for who Emma is. In the first half of the quote, you read that Emma seemingly has all that a person could want: wealth, comfort, beauty, and a great personality. What is the result of these blessings of station and personality? Emma had lived her life with very little suffering or difficulty.

As the story continues, you see that who Emma is and her life circumstances cause her to make several mistakes and poor judgements with respect to those around her. She has an inflated view of herself and limited life experience, so she ends up hurting people around her while trying to help them. It is only when she is confronted with how she has treated those around her that she finally sees herself for who she truly is.

Why it is important

The dangers of self-satisfaction are rarely emphasized in our culture. According to the culture, most of your problems are caused by not having high enough self-esteem, not believing in your dreams enough, not having enough money or power or whatever else you might think of. Reading a story like Emma is helpful because it shows having every life advantage will not make us behave rightly towards others.

Due to her station and power, Emma is incredibly self-satisfied for most of the book. This self-satisfaction is not a neutral thing or a virtue; her high view of her self causes her to hurt others. It is only after Emma is humbled and confronted with how she was treating those around her that she grows up as a person. The pathway to her growth was not more pleasure or higher self-esteem. It was humility. Only when the mirror was held up to her and Emma saw how she was treating those around her did she begin to evaluate herself soberly.

This is a valuable lesson for you and I today. If you have a high view of yourself and your abilities, if you live a life devoid of suffering and growth then you will not treat others better by default. Self-satisfaction makes you proud and pride causes you to treat others poorly. It was only after Emma was humbled and “repented” that she could move forward and grow. There are several lessons from Emma and her character progression that Christians should make note of.

Life Lessons from Emma

1. Cultivate humility or the Lord will humble you

One of my all time favorite hymns is “I asked the Lord that I might grow“. Each verse contains profound insight on the Christian life. The basic thrust of the hymn is God uses suffering and difficulty to break our dependence and love of self.

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and ev’ry grace,
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.

(God speaking)

“These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

I Asked the Lord that I Might Grow, John Newton

You and I are always fighting self and pride. Just like Emma, in our modern ease and comfort, it is easy to think very highly of ourselves and to be very self-satisfied. But such an attitude causes us to behave poorly towards God and towards those around us. So, our loving Father brings us through trials to humble us.

Like Hebrews says, no discipline is pleasant at the time. But if you and I don’t cultivate humility in our hearts, then God will grow it through suffering. Each time you come to the end of yourself or each time you are confronted with a sin or each time you realize you hurt someone or think you can’t go on, it isn’t pleasant. But these situations remind you that you aren’t God. You don’t have all wisdom, power, knowledge, insight, or goodness.

It is only when you see how weak and sinful you really are that you stop relying on yourself and run to the all-powerful God.

Don’t despise His discipline. Each time He humbles you, it is out of love so that you become more like Christ. Just like Emma, you and I need to see ourselves for who we are so we don’t have an inflated view of ourselves.

2. How you view yourself will affect how you treat others

Having a high view of yourself is a virtue in modern culture. Everyone is obsessed with “living my truth” and being their “authentic selves.” The Christian worldview sees the fundamental danger in this: your authentic self apart from Christ is a sinner who rebels against God in word, deed, motivation, and feeling. So your probably don’t want to live your authentic self out. But beyond the theological problems with having a high view of yourself, one of the lessons from Emma is pride will cause you to hurt those around you.

In the case of Emma, she hurts her best friend multiple times and insults a lady who considered herself a friend of Emma. Emma’s high view of herself causes her to treat the people around her almost like toys rather than real people with feelings. How easy it is for us all to fall into the same trap!

Pride can make you view people as characters in your own personal life story rather than individuals made in the image of God.

How did Christ view people? He came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. He washed His disciples feet. When a leper asked to be healed, Jesus was moved with compassion, touched the leper, and cleansed him. Jesus and His disciples were going to go away and take a break but when Jesus saw the crowd around Him, He stopped and ministered to them.

Jesus actually was all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-wise. Yet Jesus used that power to directly show love to those around Him and to point them to Himself, the fountain of living water. Rather than comparing yourself to those around you or cultivating a high view of your own abilities or status, compare yourself to Christ. See how Jesus treated those around Him.

When you look at Jesus and who He is, you will be humbled like Emma was and start seeing yourself properly.

For the Christian, it is looking to Christ that causes growth.

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