GospelDrivenLife

A Time for Focus, 2

Our church is about to enter our new facility -- really! It has been a journey of many obstacles and we have found that God has been faithful even when our faith has faltered.

That is amazing grace.

I am still stepping back from blogging for a while.  There are many loose ends to wrap up and the church calls for my attention. It is to this church and these fellow pastors that God has called me.

Would you dare say this?

The word of God often surprises me, but none so much as last week when I was studying 1 Thessalonians 4: 1-12.   Clearly a passage about sanctification (the word and its lexical friends occurs all through the passage) -- Paul begins it in a way that was -- well, shocking, outrageous.  I think he actually undermines his whole argument -- but I imagine Paul, under the inspiration of God, knows better what he is talking about than I.

Pastoral care and the Gospel

I have been meditating in 1 Thessalonians.  This is what I have been preaching lately.  It is a very different book -- the most personal and intimate and affectionate of the NT.  It has been hard to see the Gospel in the book -- because it is so historical and personal. Paul is "forward" in the second and third chapter -- his example, his love, his anxiety, his joy. Where is the Gospel in that except that he preached it?

Then the Gospel became clear and the nature of pastoring -- all at the same time.

Pastoring as though God is the One at work

For the last two weeks I have been spending time with an old friend -- Eugene Peterson.  His writing have shaped me powerfully for years.  I am aware that there are reasons to be discerning with him -- gender issues for one -- but I would say that few have a clearer grasp of the history of soul care than Peterson.  Read him carefully, but benefit from his wisdom.  He has read widely -- some of his sources may not be the ones I would point people to -- but he also finds help in unusual places (like learning pastoral ministry from Dostoevsky!).

I first met his works when I was finishing my DMin thesis at Trinity, Chicago.  I wrote on pastors as physicians of the soul and the church.  Peterson helped me navigate pastoral confusion and managerial pastoral models that are so present in our day. He is a counter cultural model in an age which reduces ministry to the pulpit or distorts it to church growth.

Of the making of many tangents?

I believe it was Spurgeon who said that truth is like a portrait of a face.  It must be presented in proper proportions or we have a caricature that is grotesque or humorous.  I am not Spurgeon, but I would agree.  It takes much prayer and skill to present the word of God each week in a way that is proportioned, with emphases on those points which are emphasized in the Bible.

It is difficult because we all have pet peeves in our hearts . . . and my pet peeve is of far more interest to me than than the heart of the Bible.  So, how do I avoid tangents?  How do I guard my heart and my people from tangents?