Coram Deo ~

Looking at contemporary culture from a Christian worldview

Monthly Archives: December 2015


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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

faith-work-cultureFaith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • parenting-quote5 Productivity Tips for Moms. Tim Challies writes “Together we found a way. We found a way to be productive—me as a pastor and a writer, and her as a stay-at-home mom, mentor, and church ministry leader. We found it and stuck with it. Even better, along the way we found out why it is so important for each of us to emphasize productivity—the best and highest kind of productivity—in whatever it is God calls us to do. My new book Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity tells a lot of what we discovered.”
  • The Counter-Cultural Vocation of Homemaking. Tim Challies writes of his wife “Aileen had options before her and made her choice. She chose the thing she wanted to do and the thing she felt called to do.”
  • Reputation. In this “Minute from Maxwell” John Maxwell talks about our reputations. They take a long time to earn but can quickly be lost.
  • Bringing about Courageous Change. Dr. Kent Ingle writes “In leadership, one of the hardest things to overcome is a person’s resistance to change. Whether it’s your own resistance or opposition from people you are leading, it takes a lot of courage to effect change.”
  • To Be or Not to Be Inspired. This post from Re:Focus suggests “Let’s not aim to inspire only those who we think will be inspired, or who have job titles we think have the possibility for inspiration. Rather, let’s talk about what we believe to everyone and give everyone the opportunity to be inspired and become a part of something that matters.”
  • 5 Things Millennials Need To Learn About Productivity Now. Tim Challies writes “God calls us all to be productive. You can be a productive student, a productive employee, a productive stay-at-home mom or even a productive retiree. If this is all true, there is an important implication: You can be an unproductive student, employee, stay-at-home mom and, yes, an unproductive retiree. So how can you know that you’re living a productive life? You can begin by ensuring you understand what God says about productivity.”
  • What Amazing Bosses Do Differently. Sydney Finkelstein writes “No behavior a boss adopts will guarantee happy employees, but managers who follow these five key practices will find that they will help improve well-being, engagement, and productivity on any team. The common denominator is attentiveness. Pay close attention to your employees as individuals.”
  • Why it is Unfair to Treat Everyone the Same. I always say that I don’t treat everyone the same, but everyone equally fair. Eric Geiger shares eight ways the people on your team are different.
  • mastering change7 Principles to Mastering Change. Dr. Alan Zimmerman writes “Despite the difficulty of not knowing the exact changes headed our way, if you’re leading a family, a team, or a company, people expect you to lead them through the change.  Indeed, it’s one of the four tasks that every leader has to master.”
  • Five Signs Your Team is Not Really a Team After All. Dave Kraft writes “So, is the team you are on truly a team or just a group of people who happen to work for the same organization? Why not ask your fellow team members to honestly evaluate the team?
  • Four Practical Ways to Avoid Burnout. Eric Geiger follows up an earlier article on burnout with those helpful suggestions.
  • Showing Appreciation at the Office? No, Thanks. Sue Shellenbarger writes, “The workplace ranks dead last among the places people express gratitude, from homes and neighborhoods to places of worship.”
  • Dear God, Thank You for This Crummy Job. David Rupert writes “Rather than let my employment challenges drag me down, I’ve decided to take back the workplace for God’s glory, and I’m doing it through an attitude of gratitude. The seed of thankfulness was first planted by scripture, “In all things give thanks.” It was watered by Ann Voskamp, with her book, One Thousand Gifts, where she dares me to “live fully,” right where I am.”
  • 4 Keys to Difficult Conversations. Kevin Lloyd writes “If you’re the type who can slip into bad conversation practices such as: being too emotional, getting defensive or just not having a tough talk with someone, maybe this will help you.”

making vision stickMaking Vision Stick by Andy Stanley. Zondervan. 80 pages. 2007.
*** ½

This small book on vision is one that I recently read for a second time. Stanley is pastor of North Point Community Church in Atlanta, the second largest church in the United States. I have listened to and benefited from his “Leadership Podcast” for the past few years.

He writes that this is not a book for those whose organizations have not developed their vision yet, but rather for those leaders who want to make their vision stick. He has described vision as a mental picture of what could be, fueled by a passion that it should be. He writes that one of the greatest challenges of leadership is making vision stick.

Stanley writes that it is the leader’s responsibility to ensure that those within their organization understand and embrace the vision of the organization. However, when a leader blames their followers for not following, the leader has ceased to lead. The leader has to communicate things in a consistent and coherent manner.

He gives five steps to make your vision stick:

Step 1 – State it Simply Stanley writes that people don’t remember or embrace paragraphs, so the vision must be simple and memorable. He uses the One Campaign as an example. Their vision is “To make poverty history”. He indicates that if the vision is unclear to you, it will never be clear to the people in your organization. For your vision to stick, you may need to clarify or simplify it. The vision that Stanley has for his church is “To create a church that unchurched people love to attend”.

Step 2 – Cast it Convincingly He uses Nehemiah 2 from the Bible to illustrate this step, stating that it is the ultimate illustration of casting vision. The wall had been torn down for a long time. Nehemiah casts the vision for why they need to rebuild the wall now. The three parts to this step are:

  1. Define the problem. People have to realize how serious it is and what is at stake if they don’t get on board.
  2. Offer a solution. A vision is convincing when people are able to see the connection between the problem and how the organization is offering a solution. Every vision is a solution to a problem. Stanley writes that: “Buy-in hinges on your ability to convince them you are offering a solution to a problem that they are convinced needs to be solved”.
  3. Present a reason. This is the reason that action must take place now. This is the answer to the questions “Why must we do this?” and “Why must we do this now?”

If the people in your organization don’t feel the problem, they will not be excited about the solution. You need to craft your vision as a solution to a problem. Organizations need to position themselves as a solution to a problem.

Step 3 – Repeat it Regularly Stanley writes that regardless of how often you think you’ve repeated your vision, it’s not enough. He recommends discovering within the rhythm of your organization when the best time is to cast and repeat vision. At Stanley’s church the best times are each January (when they have their highest attendance) and May (when they are recruiting volunteers for the fall). The repetition is done in numerous ways (sermons, emails, recorded messages on CD, mail-outs, etc.).

Step 4 – Celebrate it Systematically Stanley writes that the leader has to find ways to celebrate the vision. When you catch somebody living out the vision the way you need to celebrate it. Stories do more to clarify than anything. They bring emotion to phrases and sentences in the vision statement. He goes on to state:

“Celebration clarifies the win. People will repeat what is most often celebrated. Every organization celebrates something. But if your vision doesn’t align with your celebrations, I assure you that what’s celebrated will overpower the vision and determine the course of your organization”.

Additionally he suggests that the first question that should be asked in the weekly staff meeting is “Where have you seen (vision statement) lived out this week?”

Step 5 – Embrace it Personally Stanley states that: “Your willingness to embody the vision of your organization will have a direct impact on your credibility as a leader. Living out the vision establishes credibility and makes you a leader worth following. When people are convinced the vision has stuck with you, it is easier for them to make the effort to stick with the vision”.

He concludes the book by discussing how to know if your vision is slipping. He gives two categories of vision slippage indicators (ways to know when your vision is slipping):

  1. Projects, Products and Programs Stanley writes that leaders must keep their antenna up for new things that have potential to distract from the main thing. He states:  “Our approach stands in stark contrast to a practice many church leaders have adopted. I’ve actually heard this taught as a good approach to pastoral leadership. It goes something like this: When somebody comes to you with a ministry idea, tell them, ‘That’s a great idea! Why don’t you lead it?’ This is heralded as an effective way to involve people in ministry. I think it’s a great way for a church to lose focus. Vision, not people’s random ideas, should determine programming. Vision, not a cool PowerPoint presentation, should determine which initiatives are funded by your organization. Vision, not the promise of great returns, should determine which products are launched.”

2. Requests, Complaints and Stories Stanley indicates that requests, complaints and stories reveal a great deal about what’s on the minds and hearts of the people in an organization. He writes: “Consider this: if there was 100 percent buy-in to your vision by the people you work with, what questions would they ask? What kinds of stories would they feel compelled to tell? What would get on their nerves? Begin to listen. Really listen. If the people around you aren’t asking the right questions, telling the right stories, or complaining about the right things, your vision may be slipping.” He goes on to state that what people complain about communicates their understanding of the vision.

This short book contains much helpful information about how to make vision stick.

Quotes about Faith and Work

  • The sign of a professional is someone who makes the difficult look easy. Mark Miller
  • 75% of people are leaving jobs because of their leaders. Bob Chapman
  • Don’t let success go to your head. Don’t let failure go to your heart. Tim Keller
  • Wait for your opportunity to serve and have courage to catch people doing things right. Ken Blanchard
  • Little things make the difference. Everyone is well prepared in the big things, but only the winners perfect the little things. Coach K
  • Fridays are good. But if you are always straining toward Friday because you hate your job you should rethink what you do. Dave Ramsey John Maxwell quote
  • The key to great retention is selection. Mark Miller
  • People won’t care about you until they know that you care about them. Dr. Alan Zimmerman
  • I hate turning down good opportunities, but sometimes our no is more important than our yes. Discernment is a key to being successful. Ron Edmondson
  • The Christian leader is called to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. Henri Nouwen

Faith and Work Book Clubs – Won’t you read along with us?Don't Waste Your Life

Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper. Crossway. 192 pages. 2003  

Other than the Bible, this small book by John Piper has had the most influence on my life. It played a key role in my returning to seminary after ten years in 2005. I have read it almost each year since it was published in 2003. Listen to John Piper describe the book in this less than two-minute video.

This week we look at Chapter 1 – My Search for a Single Passion to Live By

  • This was the story that gripped me more than all the stories of young people who died in car wrecks before they were converted—the story of an old man weeping that he had wasted his life. In those early years God awakened in me a fear and a passion not to waste my life. The thought of coming to my old age and saying through tears, “I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!” was a fearful and horrible thought to me.
  • Another riveting force in my young life—small at first, but oh so powerful over time—was a plaque that hung in our kitchen over the sink. On the front, in old English script, painted in white, were the words:

Only one life
’Twill soon be past;
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

  • The message was clear. You get one pass at life. That’s all. Only one. And the lasting measure of that life is Jesus Christ.
  • What would it mean to waste my life? That was a burning question. Or, more positively, what would it mean to live well—not to waste life, but to . . . ? How to finish that sentence was the question.
  • That is what I heard in Dylan’s song, and everything in me said, Yes! There is an Answer with a capital A. To miss it would mean a wasted life. To find it would mean having a unifying Answer to all my questions.
  • But God was graciously posting compelling warnings along the way. In the fall of 1965 Francis Schaeffer delivered a week of lectures at Wheaton College that in 1968 became the book, The God Who Is There.1 The title shows the stunning simplicity of the thesis. God is there. Not in here, defined and shaped by my own desires. God is out there. Objective. Absolute Reality
  • Here was an absolutely compelling road sign. Stay on the road of objective truth. This will be the way to avoid wasting your life. Stay on the road that your fiery evangelist father was on. Don’t forsake the plaque on your kitchen wall. Here was weighty intellectual confirmation that life would be wasted in the grasslands of existentialism. Stay on the road. There is Truth. There is a Point and Purpose and Essence to it all. Keep searching. You will find it.
  • C. S. Lewis, who died the same day as John F. Kennedy in 1963 and who taught English at Oxford, walked up over the horizon of my little brown path in 1964 with such blazing brightness that it is hard to overstate the impact he had on my life.
  • Lewis gave me an intense sense of the “realness” of things. The preciousness of this is hard to communicate.
  • There was another force that solidified my unwavering belief in the unbending existence of objective reality. Her name was Noël Henry. I fell in love with her in the summer of 1966.
  • We were married in December 1968.
  • In the fall of 1966 God was closing in with an ever narrowing path for my life.
  • Finally she found me, flat on my back with mononucleosis in the health center, where I lay for three weeks. The life plan that I was so sure of four months earlier unraveled in my fevered hands.
  • In May I had felt a joyful confidence that my life would be most useful as a medical doctor.
  • Noël came to visit, and I said, “What would you think if I didn’t pursue a medical career but instead went to seminary?” As with every other time I’ve asked that kind of question through the years, the answer was, “If that’s where God leads you, that’s where I’ll go.”
  • From that moment on I have never doubted that my calling in life is to be a minister of the Word of God.


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4 Reasons Why I See Leadership as a Calling

MaxwellIf you are pursuing a leadership position and someone would ask you why, would you have a good answer for them? Is it for the perceived power, money, prestige, title or status that comes with a formal leadership position? Or do you consider it a calling?

Now I guess I should first define what I mean by “calling”. Dictionary definitions of calling include:

  • A strong desire to spend your life doing a certain kind of work (such as religious work), and
  • The work that a person does or should be doing.

The Bible speaks of calling a number of times. For example, we are called to God in our salvation. A good passage to illustrate this meaning of calling is in the so-called “Golden Chain” of Romans 8:30:

And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.

As I’ve mentioned previously, Os Guinness has written in his excellent book The Call, that our primary calling as followers of Christ is by Him, to Him, and for Him (think of the above verse). Our secondary calling, is that everyone, everywhere, and in everything should think, speak, live, and act entirely for Him. Our secondary callings can be our jobs or vocations. It is the latter meaning of calling that I am writing about here.

Now I never intended to be a leader. It wasn’t something that I pursued. I guess I would call myself a reluctant leader. As an introvert, who tended toward shyness and a lack of confidence, being a leader was certainly a stretch and to be honest, it still can be at times.

When working for a contract cleaning company while attending college, one of the managers reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to take on a little more responsibility. The new assignment would result in a few cents more per hour so I said yes. As time went on I would take on more and more responsibility. And just like that, I’ve now been in a leadership position at a Fortune 100 company for more than 35 years, an elder in my church for nearly 20 years, and have served on the leadership team for two professional organizations. Today, I can say that I see leadership as a calling.

I’m still an introvert and still learning daily how to be a better leader. As a life-long learner, I hope that continues for as long as I live. See my article about what I’ve learned from the leaders I’ve been blessed to work with here. John Maxwell often states that leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less. I continue to strive to be a leader that others will want to follow.

In my “Calling, Vocation and Work” class near the end of my time at Covenant Seminary, we were assigned to write a course paper on a vocation. I chose to write on leadership; in that paper I wrote:

Although leadership was not the direction that I thought I would go while in college (nor was I a believer at that time), it is the vocation that God has placed me in and equipped me for. The Scripture verse that I most associate with my work is Colossians 3:23: Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. (ESV)

Why do I see leadership as my calling? Here are four reasons:

  1. Being a leader, particularly a servant leader, aligns well with my faith (see my article “4 Reasons Why I Aspire to be a Servant Leader”. I enjoy coming alongside people (team members, mentees, etc.) and doing whatever I can to help them solve problems, develop and succeed in their vocations. After all, I see Jesus as the greatest example of being a servant leader. An excellent book to read on this subject is Lead Like Jesus: Lessons from the Greatest Role Model of All Time by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges.
  2. As a leader, I help to drive results. Driving results helps my team or organization to succeed. There is a great deal of satisfaction that comes from leading a team to a goal or achievement.
  3. As a leader, I help people to be successful. Ken Blanchard writes that he tries to help everyone “get an ‘A’. I like to help the members of my team rise to the level or position that they are capable of (and interested in). I also enjoy helping emerging leaders to get into a formal leadership position through mentoring relationships.
  4. As a leader, I help people to play to their strengths. I’ve seen the powerful difference a change in work assignments that better align to an individual’s strengths, can make. People are more energized, excited and passionate about their work when we can find them work that aligns to their strengths.

Those are just a few reasons why I feel that leadership is a calling for me. But we can also have multiple (secondary) callings. Jeff Goins in his book The Art of Work talks about having a portfolio of callings. If someone were to ask you what your calling is, what would you say?


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Movie Review ~ Creed

CreedCreed, rated PG-13
***

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 40 years since 69 year-old Sylvester Stallone first introduced us to Rocky Balboa in the 1976 film Rocky. This new film, the first in which Stallone has portrayed Rocky since 2006’s Rocky Balboa, is also the first that Rocky has not been the lead character or that Stallone had written the script. This film is directed by 29 year-old Ryan Coogler, who also directed 2013’s excellent Fruitvale Station, one of my favorite films of that year. The star is Adonis Johnson/Creed, played by Michael B. Jordan, who also starred in Fruitvale Station.

Adonis, who goes by Donnie, is the son of boxer Apollo Creed, though he never met him. Apollo was killed in an exhibition match against Ivan Drago, a boxer from the Soviet Union, in 1985’s Rocky IV. Donnie was the product of an affair Apollo had when married to wife Mary Anne, played by Phylicia Rashad (best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show). We see Mary Anne visiting the troubled Adonis in juvenile hall and adopting him.

Later we see Adonis, successful in an office job while also secretly fighting in Mexico having won fifteen fights without a loss. Much to his adopted mother’s chagrin, he quits his job to go into boxing full-time, moves to Philadelphia, where he asks Rocky, who he calls “Unc”, to train him.

But Rocky is finished with boxing, living out his sad and lonely days running his restaurant named after his deceased wife Adrian. He is initially not interested in training Apollo’s son, even though he feels guilty for not having stopped the fight in which his father was killed. Eventually, after visiting Adrian’s (who had been played by Talia Shire) and Paulie’s (who had been played by Burt Young) graves, he does decide to come down to Mighty Mick’s Gym and begin training Donnie.

Tessa Thompson (from Dear White People) portrays Bianca, who lives in the same apartment building as Donnie. She is a talented musician with progressive hearing loss. After a slow start (Donnie comes to her apartment asking her to turn her loud music down), they begin a relationship that will have its ups and downs as they each pursue their careers.

Apollo Creed (who had been played by Carl Weathers) is an imposing presence in this film, even though he appears only in old boxing photos. Donnie is mad at his father, and doesn’t use his name (choosing instead to go by Johnson). He wants to make it on his own, and not be looked at as Apollo Creed’s son.

For Rocky fans, there are plenty of tips of the cap to movie moments and places (even Rocky’s turtle) that you will remember. The directing by Coogler, who also co-wrote the film with Aaron Covington, is excellent, as are the acting performances of Stallone and Jordan. Some are saying that Stallone could receive an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

The film is rated PG-13 for some adult language, boxing violence and one scene of sexuality. Nothing explicit is shown, but it’s obvious that Donnie and Bianca have spent the night together. At 132 minutes, the film dragged at times, and could easily have been edited down fifteen minutes.

I really enjoyed this film, with an older Rocky serving as a trainer and mentor to the up and coming Adonis Johnson/Creed; learning from the past yet choosing to live in the present and invest in Adonis’ future.


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MUSIC REVIEWS and NEWS

Behold the Lamb of GodMusic Review:  Behold the Lamb of God 10th Anniversary 2-Disc Set – Andrew Peterson
****

I have to admit that I’m late to appreciate the music of Andrew Peterson. However, since seeing him in concert a few months ago I’m trying to make up for lost time by picking up After All These Years, his latest The Burning Edge of Dawn and this, his Christmas album Behold the Lamb of God.

This 10th Anniversary 2-disc set released in 2009, celebrates ten years that Peterson and friends have been performing the music on this album (recorded in 2004) live in annual Christmas concerts. This edition includes the original album remastered, plus the complete Behold the Lamb of God concert recorded live on the 2008 tour. See the dates for the 2015 tour on Peterson’s website.

Peterson has written that the album is a musical about the birth of Christ; an album that tells a story. The songs have the purpose of telling the true tale of the coming of God into the world.  Justin Taylor of the Gospel Coalition, writes “Here are some YouTube videos for Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb album and live performance–a sort of biblical theology set to song by a talented musician and songwriter.”

He states: “What makes this bunch of songs unique is that I wanted to remind (or teach) the audience that the story of Christmas doesn’t begin with the birth of Jesus. Many people tend to forget or have never even learned that the entire Bible is about Jesus, not just the New Testament.

So the musical begins with Moses and the symbolic story of the Passover (Passover Us) and works its way through the kings and the prophets with their many prophecies about the coming Messiah (So Long, Moses) to the awful four hundred years of silence before God told Mary she’d be having a baby (Deliver Us). After the song called Matthew’s Begats, which lists the genealogy of Jesus, the story picks up in more familiar territory with Mary and Joseph and the actual birth (It Came To Pass, Labor of Love). The final song is called Behold, the Lamb of God, which ties together the Passover and the beauty and scope of the story.”

You may recognize some of the singers and musicians who contribute to this album, including Andrew Osenga, Ben Shive, Sandra McCracken, Phil Madeira, Derek Webb, Steve Hindalong (of The Choir), Laura Story and Fernando Ortega. The quality of the music (including a few instrumentals) and singing is excellent.

This is not your typical Christmas album. I look forward to enjoying this album for many Christmas seasons to come.

musicnews

·       Manola. Watch Trip Lee’s new video of his song “Manola”, featuring Lecrae.

·       What Would People Think If They Knew That I’m a ‘Jesus Freak’ Freak? Joel Heng Hartse looks back at DC Talk’s Jesus Freak album, which he calls “the most important Christian pop album of all time”, released 20 years ago.

·       Sara Groves Interview – Floodplain. Read this interview with Sara Groves about her new album Floodplain.

·       Chick Fil-A (to the tune of the Beatles’ Yesterday). Enjoy this humorous song. I can only say a big “Amen” to this.

·       Jeremy Camp Ups ‘Power’ to No. 1 on Christian Airplay Chart. Jeremy Camp topped Billboard‘s Christian Airplay chart on November 21, “Same Power”. The song is Camp’s eighth No. 1, lifting him into a solo share for the third-most No. 1s in the chart’s 12-year history. MercyMe leads with 13 toppers, followed by Casting Crowns (9). Camp passes Chris Tomlin and Third Day, each with seven number ones.

·       Adore. Watch this video of Adore, the title song from Chris Tomlin’s new Christmas album.

·       Mr. Blue Sky. Jeff Lynn of the Electric Light Orchestra, is back with a new album Alone in the Universe. He recently performed the ELO song “My Blue Sky” on The Tonight Show.

·       Hello. Adele sings “Hello” from her new album 25 (already the top-selling album of 2015) with Jimmy Fallon and the Roots on The Tonight Show.

·       Presidential Medal of Freedom. Congratulations to James Taylor, who will receive the 2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, at a ceremony at the White House.

·       You Can Close Your Eyes. Watch Stephen Colbert sing “You Can Close Your Eyes” with James Taylor.

·       Party Lights. Watch this lyric video of “Party Lights” from The Ties That Bind: The River Collection by Bruce Springsteen.

Music Quotes:

  • Love people. Use things. Never vice versa. Lecrae
  • The world is over. Adele just dropped. My wife is losing it right now. I’ve already heard HELLO 5093498273 times. I ain’t even mad tho. Andy Mineo
  • Many worship song writers use what I call “Yoda-speak”. Eg. “Son of God, you are” or “His righteousness, I am” – Drives me nuts, it does! Fernando Ortega

M. Card Quote

Song of the WeekGood Good Father
by Chris Tomlin

This week we continue our countdown to our annual “My Favorites” listing with our #4 song of the year, “Good Good Father” by Chris Tomlin. Listen to the song here.

I’ve heard a thousand stories of what they think you’re like
But I’ve heard tender whispers of love in the dead of night
And you tell me that you’re pleased
And that I’m never alone

You’re a Good, Good Father
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am

I’ve seen many searching for answers far and wide
But I know we’re all searching
For answers only you can provide
Cause you know just what we need
Before we, we say a word

You’re a Good, Good Father
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am

You’re a Good, Good Father
And I’m loved by you

You are perfect in all of your ways
Perfect in all of your ways
You are perfect in all of your ways to us

You’re a Good, Good Father
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
It’s who I am, it’s who I am, It’s who I am

You are perfect in all of your ways

You’re a Good, Good Father
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

book reviews
The Dawn of Indestructible Joy by John Piper

The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent by John Piper. Crossway. 96 pages. 2014.
****

John Piper released this short book of devotions in 2014. My wife and I used them last year and benefitted from them in our preparations to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I commend them to you as well to aid you in your preparations.

Piper wrote this little book of Advent devotional readings to stir us up or awaken us – it is a book of reminders and stirrings. He states that we usually don’t need brand-new teaching. No, what we need are reminders about the greatness of old truths, or to say an old truth in a fresh way.

Piper titled the book The Dawning of Indestructible Joy, because the joy Jesus was bringing into the world was like no other kind in history. He aims to awaken and stir up our affections for the greatest wonder of all – the arrival of Jesus.

May you be richly blessed by this book this Advent season.

The Songs of JesusThe Songs of Jesus: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Psalms by Timothy Keller, Kathy Keller. Viking. 375 pages. 2015
****

I’m always excited to see a new book from Tim Keller. This is the second book that he has written with wife Kathy, the first being the excellent The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God.

The authors write that theologians and leaders of the church throughout history have believed that the Psalms should be used and reused in every Christian’s daily private approach to God and in public worship. They state that we are not simply to read psalms, but are to be immersed in them so that they profoundly shape how we relate to God. The psalms are the divinely ordained way to learn devotion to our God. The psalms are written to be prayed, recited, and sung—to be done, not merely to be read.

They tells us that most of all the psalms, read in light of the entire Bible, bring us to Jesus. The psalms were Jesus’s songbook. This book is a daily devotional that takes the reader through every verse of the book of Psalms in 365 days, with each devotional providing the reader with a daily reading from a psalm. It also gives the reader a brief meditation on the meaning of the psalm and a prayer to help the reader to actually use it in our heart and as a way to approach God. The authors ask us to look at the prayers as what they call “on-ramps,” not as complete prayers. They ask us to follow the trajectory of the prayers and keep going, filling each prayer out with personal particulars, as well as always praying in Jesus’s name (John 14:13).

They write that the book is structured so that it can be used in three different ways:

  1. The simplest way is to read the psalm and the meditation slowly, and then use the prayer to begin praying the psalm.
  2. The second way is to take the time to look up the additional scriptural references that are embedded in the meditation and sometimes in the prayer.
  3. The third way is to get a blank journal to use along with it. Read the psalm portion twice slowly. Then ask three questions and write out our own answers:
  • Adore—What did you learn about God for which you could praise or thank him?
  • Admit—What did you learn about yourself for which you could repent?
  • Aspire—What did you learn about life that you could aspire to, ask for, and act on?

Once we have answered the above questions, we have our own meditation on the psalm. They state that we should then read the meditation in the book and incorporate its insights into our journal notes.

Lastly, we should turn our meditation—already categorized as adoration, confession, and aspiration—into personal prayer, using the provided “on-ramp” prayer as well. This will take us into the deep level of wisdom and insight the psalms can provide.

Watch Tim Keller’s two-minute video about the book here.

I’m using this in my daily worship. I encourage you to do so as well.

book news

  • Reformation Study BibleReformation Study Bible (RSB) E-Book Edition. After much delay (the book edition was released at the Ligonier National Conference), the e-book edition of the newly revised and updated RSB English Standard Version, was released on November 30. If you purchase the book edition you get $400 worth of Ligonier resources, including the e-book edition of the RSB. The e-book edition includes user-friendly navigation, allowing you to move effortlessly between Scripture and study notes without losing your place. It includes the ability to increase/decrease font size, add highlights, and add your own notes for later reference. This will be the Bible I used daily for reading and study.
  • Tim Keller’s Bookshelf. See what Tim Keller is reading these days and also some of his favorite books.
  • The Book Tim Keller’s Read Every Month for 20 Years. Matt Smethurst interviews Tim Keller about his new book The Songs of Jesus: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Psalms, a book I’m using for my daily devotional reading.
  • Do More Better by Tim Challies. I’m excited to hear about Tim Challies’ new book on productivity Do More Better. As his blog is required reading for me each day, I can’t wait to read this new book.
  • Books for Which I Am Thankful. Rick Phillips lists some excellent books that you may want to check out. I’m currently reading, and being blessed by, Lloyd-Jones The Sermon on the Mount.
  • Don’t Follow Your Heart. Jon Bloom’s new book is Don’t Follow Your Heart. You can download the e-book free from Desiring God.
  • Meaning of Marriage Group Study from Tim and Kathy Keller. Collin Hansen talks about the new six-session DVD Study Guide recently released based on Tim and Kathy Keller’s excellent book on marriage.
  • A Charlie Brown Religion. Tim Challies reviews A Charlie Brown Religion by Stephen J. Lind, calling it “as interesting a biography as I have read this year.”
  • Seven Sentimental Lies You Might Believe. Matt Reagan shares “seven of the most egregiously assumed truth-claims in popular culture today, with a biblical check for each one.”
  • Child in the MangerBest Quotes from The Secret of Teams. I’ve enjoyed a few of Mark Miller’s books and his blog. Here are a few quotes from his book The Secret of Teams.
  • Matt Chandler’s Bookshelf. See what Matt Chandler is reading these days and also some of his favorite books.
  • Child in the Manger. One of my favorite authors/preachers, Sinclair Ferguson’s new book will be published by Banner of Truth in early December.

BOOK CLUBS – Won’t you read along with us?

Tim Keller's New Book on PrayerPrayer BOOK CLUB

Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by Tim Keller

Christians are taught in their churches and schools that prayer is the most powerful way to experience God. But few receive instruction or guidance in how to make prayer genuinely meaningful. In Prayer, renowned pastor Timothy Keller delves into the many facets of this everyday act. Won’t you read along with Tammy and me? This week we look at Chapter 8 – The Prayer of Prayers:

  • None of our three master teachers of prayer, Augustine, Luther, and Calvin, developed their instruction primarily based on their own experiences. In each case, what they believed and practiced regarding prayer grew mainly out of their understanding of the ultimate master class in prayer—the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9–13, in the heart of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
  • In this chapter we will look at the Lord’s Prayer through the insights of our three master teachers, thereby drawing out the fullness of their wisdom—and the depths of Jesus’ prayer itself—on this subject.
  • The Lord’s Prayer may be the single set of words spoken more often than any other in the history of the world. Jesus Christ gave it to us as the key to unlock all the riches of prayer. Yet it is an untapped resource, partially because it is so very familiar.
  • Jesus is saying, as it were, “Wouldn’t you like to be able to come face-to-face with the Father and king of the universe every day, to pour out your heart to him, and to sense him listening to and loving you?” We say, of course, yes. Jesus responds, “It’s all in the Lord’s Prayer.”
  • How do we overcome the deadly peril of familiarity? One of the best ways is to listen to these three great mentors, who plumbed the depths of the prayer through years of reflection and practice.

“Our Father Who Art in Heaven”

  • Calvin explains that to call God “Father” is to pray in Jesus’ name. “Who would break forth into such rashness as to claim for himself the honor of a son of God unless we had been adopted as children of grace in Christ?”
  • Luther also believed the address was a call to not plunge right into talking to God but to first recollect our situation and realize our standing in Christ before we proceed into prayer.
  • Calvin agrees that “by the great sweetness of this name [Father] he frees us from all distrust.”

“Hallowed Be Thy Name”

  • A seeming problem of logic, expressed by Luther. “What are we praying for when we ask that His name become holy?
  • Luther, who joins Augustine when he says it is a prayer that God “be glorified among all nations as you are glorified among us.”
  • To “hallow” God’s name is not merely to live righteous lives but to have a heart of grateful joy toward God—and even more, a wondrous sense of his beauty. We do not revere his name unless he “captivate[s] us with wonderment for him.”

“Thy Kingdom Come”

  • This is the cause of all our human problems, since we were created to serve him, and when we serve other things in God’s place, all spiritual, psychological, cultural, and even material problems ensue. Therefore, we need his kingdom to “come.” Calvin believed there were two ways God’s kingdom comes—through the Spirit, who “corrects our desires,” and through the Word of God, which “shapes our thoughts.”
  • This, then, is a “Lordship” petition: It is asking God to extend his royal power over every part of our lives—emotions, desires, thoughts, and commitments.
  • We are asking God to so fully rule us that we want to obey him with all our hearts and with joy.
  • To pray “thy kingdom come” is to “yearn for that future life” of justice and peace.

“Thy Will Be Done”

  • Unless we are profoundly certain God is our Father, we will never be able to say “thy will be done.”
  • Only if we trust God as Father can we ask for grace to bear our troubles with patience and grace.
  • This is the one part of the Lord’s Prayer Jesus himself prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, under circumstances far more crushing than any of us will ever face. He submitted to his Father’s will rather than following his own desires, and it saved us. That’s why we can trust him.
  • Calvin adds that to pray “thy will be done” is to submit not only our wills to God but even our feelings, so that we do not become despondent, bitter, and hardened by the things that befall us.
  • The beginning of prayer is all about God. We are not to let our own needs and issues dominate prayer; rather, we are to give pride of place to praising and honoring him, to yearning to see his greatness and to see it acknowledged everywhere, and to aspiring to full love and obedience.
  • First, because it heals the heart of its self-centeredness.

“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”

  • Augustine reminds us that “daily bread” is a metaphor for necessities rather than luxuries.
  • For Luther, then, to pray for our daily bread is to pray for a prosperous and just social order.

“Forgive Us Our Debts as We Forgive Our Debtors”

  • The fifth petition concerns our relationships, both with God and others.
  • In the presence of God everyone must duck his head and come into the joy of forgiveness only through the low door of humility.
  • If regular confession does not produce an increased confidence and joy in your life, then you do not understand the salvation by grace, the essence of the faith.
  • Jesus tightly links our relationship with God to our relationship with others.
  • Unresolved bitterness is a sign that we are not right with God.
  • It also means that if we are holding a grudge, we should see the hypocrisy of seeking forgiveness from God for sins of our own.

“Lead Us Not into Temptation”

  • Temptation in the sense of being tried and tested is not only inevitable but desirable. The Bible talks of suffering and difficulty as a furnace in which many impurities of soul are “burned off” and we come to greater self-knowledge, humility, durability, faith, and love. However, to “enter into temptation,” as Jesus termed it (Matt 26:41), is to entertain and consider the prospect of giving in to sin.

“Deliver Us from Evil”

  • Calvin combined this phrase with “lead us not into temptation” and called it the sixth and last petition. Augustine and Luther, however, viewed “deliver us from evil” as a separate, seventh petition.
  • This seventh petition is for protection from evil outside us, from malignant forces in the world, especially our enemies who wish to do us harm.

“For Thine Is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory Forever”

  • Augustine does not mention it because it was not in most earlier manuscripts of the Bible or in the Latin Vulgate. Luther does not treat it.
  • Calvin, while noting that “this is not extant in the Latin versions,” believes that “it is so appropriate to this place that it ought not to be omitted.”
  • After descending into our needs, troubles, and limitations, we return to the truth of God’s complete sufficiency.

“Give, Forgive, and Deliver—Us”

  • Like Luther in A Simple Way to Pray, Calvin insists that the Lord’s Prayer does not bind us to its particular form of words but rather to its content and basic pattern.
  • The Lord’s Prayer is a summary of all other prayers, providing essential guidance on emphasis and topics, on purpose and even spirit.
  • Prayer is therefore not a strictly private thing. As much as we can, we should pray with others both formally in gathered worship and informally. Why? If the substance of prayer is to continue a conversation with God, and if the purpose of it is to know God better, then this can happen best in community.
  • By praying with friends, you will be able to hear and see facets of Jesus that you have not yet perceived.
  • Lewis thinks, that the angels in Isaiah 6 are crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy” to one another. Each angel is communicating to all the rest the part of the glory it sees.

Studies in the Sermon on the MountStudies in the Sermon on the Mount BOOK CLUB

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

This book made a significant impact on my wife Tammy when she read and discussed it with friends thirty years ago. When I picked up my diploma the day after graduation ceremonies from Covenant Seminary last year I was given a copy of this book. After enjoying Lloyd-Jones book Spiritual Depression (and the sermons the book was taken from), I couldn’t wait to read this book, which is the printed form of sermons preached for the most part on successive Sunday mornings at Westminster Chapel in London. This week we look at Chapter 14: The Salt of the Earth:

  • We now come to a new and fresh section in the Sermon on the Mount. In verses 3–12 our Lord and Savior has been delineating the Christian character. Here at verse 13 He moves forward and applies His description. Having seen what the Christian is, we now come to consider how the Christian should manifest this. Or, if you prefer it, having realized what we are, we must now go on to consider what we must be.
  • There are certain senses in which we can say that this question of the function of the Christian in the world as it is today is one of the most urgent matters confronting the Church and the individual Christian at this present time. It is obviously a very large subject, and in many ways an apparently difficult one. But it is dealt with very clearly in the Scriptures.
  • It is put perfectly by our Lord when He says, `Ye are the salt of the earth.’ What does that imply? It clearly implies rottenness in the earth; it implies a tendency to pollution and to becoming foul and offensive. That is what the Bible has to say about this world. It is fallen, sinful and bad. Its tendency is to evil and to wars. It is like meat which has a tendency to putrefy and to become polluted. It is like something which can only be kept wholesome by means of a preservative or antiseptic. As the result of sin and the fall, life in the world in general tends to get into a putrid state. That, according to the Bible, is the only sane and right view to take of humanity.
  • What does this have to say about the Christian who is in the world, the kind of world at which we have been looking? It tells him he is to be as salt; `ye, and ye alone’-for that is the emphasis of the text-‘are the salt of the earth’. What does this tell us? We are to be unlike the world.
  • The Christian is not only to be different, he is to glory in this difference. He is to be as different from other people as the Lord Jesus Christ was clearly different from the world in which He lived.
  • It seems to me that the first thing which is emphasized by our Lord is that one of the Christian’s main functions with respect to society is a purely negative one.
  • Salt’s main function, therefore, is surely negative rather than positive.
  • I wonder how often we conceive of ourselves in this way, as agents in the world meant to prevent this particular process of putrefaction and decay.
  • There are those who say that the Christian should act as salt in the earth by means of the Church’s making pronouncements about the general situation of the world, about political, economic and international affairs and other such subjects. Undoubtedly in many churches, if not in the vast majority, that is how this text would be interpreted. Now, as I see it, that is a most serious misunderstanding of scriptural teaching.
  • I suggest to you, therefore, that the Christian is to function as the salt of the earth in a much more individual sense. He does so by his individual life and character, by just being the man that he is in every sphere in which he finds himself. He can do this, not only in a private capacity in his home, his workshop or office, or wherever he may happen to be, but also as a citizen in the country in which he lives.
  • As Christians we are citizens of a country, and it is our business to play our part as citizens, and thereby act as salt indirectly in innumerable respects. But that is a very different thing from the Church’s doing so.
  • The primary task of the Church is to evangelize and to preach the gospel.
  • I think it is true to say that during the last fifty years the Christian Church has paid more direct attention to politics and to social and economic questions than in the whole of the previous hundred years. But what is the result? No-one can dispute it. The result is that we are living in a society which is much more immoral than it was fifty years ago, in which vice and law-breaking and lawlessness are rampant.
  • Though the Church makes her great pronouncements about war and politics, and other major issues, the average man is not affected. But if you have a man working at a bench who is a true Christian, and whose life has been saved and transformed by the Holy Spirit, it does affect others all around him. That is the way in which we can act as salt in the earth at a time like this. It is not something to be done by the Church in general; it is something to be done by the individual Christian.

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THIS & THAT and Favorite Quotes of the Week

this.n.that-small

CHRISTIAN LIVING:

  • Why Controversy is Sometimes Necessary. Dr. Albert Mohler writes “Is it ever right for Christians and churches to engage in controversy? Of course, the answer is yes—there are times when believers are divided over serious and consequential questions, and controversy is an inevitable result.”
  • A Call for Christian Extremists. Tim Challies writes “We, too, are to be extremists. We, too, are to go to extreme measures to serve our God. And here are our marching orders: Do good. We are to bring glory to God by doing good for others.”
  • 5-Step Strategy to God-Centered Prayer. Newly named Ligonier Ministries Teaching Fellow Derek Thomas writes that we can ensure that our prayers are God-centered by considering this five-step strategy.
  • Pornography: A Perpetual Pastoral Problem. Tim Challies joins the gang at the Mortification of Spin podcast to discuss the problem of pornography.
  • When You Indulge in Pornography, You Participate in Sex Slavery. In this article, Andy Naselli addresses the following questions: What is sex slavery? How does pornography fuel sex slavery? How should men feel about pornography?”
  • Your Testimony Is Not the Gospel. R.C. Sproul writes “We shouldn’t confuse our personal testimonies with the gospel. Sharing our personal testimonies is not evangelism. It’s merely pre-evangelism, sort of a warm-up for evangelism.”
  • The Greatest Thing You Could Do Today. Francis Chan writes “When was the last time you spent meaningful time alone with God? Time so good you didn’t want to leave.”
  • Thirteen Practical Steps to Kill Sin. John Piper writes that we are commanded to constantly kill the remaining sin in us. It is not optional.No-Longer-Slave to sin
  • Satan’s Great Trick. Tim Challies writes “One of Satan’s greatest tricks is to convince you that the sin you are being tempted with is a very small sin and one of his greatest delights is to convince you that the sin you have just committed is a very big sin.”

DOCTRINE AND CHURCH LIFE:

  • What is Meant by the Term “Original Sin”? R.C. Sproul writes “The doctrine of original sin teaches that people sin because we are sinners. It’s not that we are sinners because we sin, but rather, we sin because we are sinners; that is, since the fall of man, we have inherited a corrupted condition of sinfulness. We now have a sin nature.”
  • Doctrine Matters: Eternal Life Depends on It. Kevin DeYoung writes “Christianity is much more than getting your doctrine right. But it is not less.”
  • ‘I’m an Evangelical’: Rescuing the Term. Stephen Nichols writes “To be an evangelical is to be about the gospel, and the gospel is ultimately content-rich.”
  • How Churches can Create a Culture of Adoption. Russell Moore writes “If adoption is to be a priority, it will take congregations mobilizing to do so. After all, it takes more than a village to adopt a child, at least for those of us in Christ. It takes a church.”

    Doug Michael’s Cartoon of the Week

                   Doug Michael’s Cartoon of the Week

GREAT RESOURCES AND CONFERENCES:

  • The Gospel for the Hopeless: An Interview with John Barros. John Barros is director of Who Will Stand, a ministry dedicated to giving a voice to unborn children in Orlando.
  • Unexpected Grace: Nancy & Robert’s Story. For most of her life, Nancy Leigh DeMoss felt strongly that God was calling her to serve Him as a single woman . . . for all of her life. And she knew she could very happily do just that. But after decades of service, God chose to write for Nancy a different love story. Hear how God brought Robert Wolgemuth into her life and the story of their ensuing courtship, about Nancy’s journey to discern God’s will, and how He brought her to a new place of surrender—one of saying “yes” to Robert’s love and to letting her new life as a married woman reflect God’s great redemption story.
  • Loving Jesus More Than Life. In this twelve minute video, John Piper asks four questions about what it means to love Jesus, and leads us, through the words of Jesus himself, to make Jesus our greatest Treasure.
  • You Need the Whole Bible (Even If You Don’t Know Why). See this less than 3-minute clip from Russell Moore’s recent address at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, part of the Page Lectures that he delivered on engaging the culture with the gospel.
  • The Christian Evolution on Homosexuality in One Chart. Niraj Chokshi writes that the chart in this article shows just how much most Christian Americans have changed when it comes to their attitudes toward their gay peers.
  • An Introduction to C.S. Lewis: Writings and Significance. Watch the lectures from this online course from Hillsdale College.
  • Read Scripture Series: Psalms. In this 9-minute video from the Gospel Project, the Book of Psalms is outlined and explained with animation.HESED Conference
  • Biblical Imagination Conference on HESED. Our friend Michael Card’s new Biblical Imagination Conference on HESED will have a Midwest date in June, 2016. Check out the information for his June 3-5 conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. Can’t wait to attend this event!

MOVIES:

  • The Letters. The new film The Letters: The Untold Story of Mother Teresa comes out Friday, December 4. I enjoyed Eric Metaxas’ profile of Mother Teresa in his new book 7 Women. Watch the trailer here.
  • Superb New Film on John Knox. David Murray shares Good dinosaurthe trailer for what he calls “a superbly-produced new film on the life of John Knox.”
  • Before you and your kids go to see The Good Dinosaur movie, read this article. Here’s a comment about the movie from Eric Metaxas – “Must movie studios shove OTHER religions down our kids throats? It’s the double-standard that most bothers me. Yikes.”

CURRENT EVENTS:   isis       

  • ISIS Waging War on Christians. Watch John MacArthur being interviewed on the Fox Business Channel.
  • Should We Pray for ISIS to be Defeated or Converted? Russell Moore writes “We ought, indeed, to pray for the gospel to go forward, and that there might be a new Saul of Tarsus turned away from murdering to gospel witness. At the same time, we ought to pray, with the martyrs in heaven, for justice against those who do such wickedness.”
  • Europe’s Refugee Problem and Ours. Ross Douthat writes “For reasons of prudence, millions of Syrians (and Iraqis, and Libyans, and …) shouldn’t end up in Greece and Hungary and Germany. For reasons of prudence and logistics and democratic politics, they won’t end up in America. So they need to be helped, and soon, close to where they are right now.”
  • Immigration Policy Must be Based on More Than an Appeal to Compassion. Kevin DeYoung, in responding to articles on immigration from Mark Galli and Trevin Wax, writes “My plea is that the conversation reflect the complexity of the situation and goes beyond the familiar dichotomies of love versus hate, inclusion versus exclusion, and fear versus compassion. There are too many important things, and too many human lives, at stake to move quite so quickly from solid Christian principles to simple policy prescriptions.”
  • Finding Peace Within The Holy Texts. David Brooks writes “It’s easy to think that ISIS is some sort of evil, medieval cancer that somehow has resurfaced in the modern world. The rest of us are pursuing happiness, and here comes this fundamentalist anachronism, spreading death. But in his book Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence, the brilliant Rabbi Jonathan Sacks argues that ISIS is in fact typical of what we will see in the decades ahead.
  • Marco Rubio Video. Watch this six-minute short video from the Republican Presidential candidate Marco Rubio talking about God’s ways not being our ways.
  • 10 Questions about Adventism. In response to the significant reaction he got from his earlier article about Seventh Day Adventism, Nathan Busenitz revisits the ten points he made in my previous article in the form of ten questions.
World Magazine Cartoon of the Week

          World Magazine Cartoon of the Week

Favorite Quotes of the Week
Zack Quote

  • Only God can make the depraved heart desire God. John Piper
  • If Jesus didn’t think he could handle life without knowing the Scripture inside and out, what makes you think you can? Tim Keller
  • God so changes empires and times and seasons that we should learn to look up to him. John Calvin  
  • Theology is not simply the pursuit of knowledge about God, it’s the pursuit of God himself. Burk Parsons
  • When you think of what you are, and despair; think also of what he is, and take heart. Charles Spurgeon
  • Upon the cross, the worst about us (our sins) was laid upon Christ and the best about Him (His righteousness) was laid upon us. Steven Lawson
  • Christianity is not useful if it isn’t true. Francis Schaeffer
  • Prosperity and poverty are not signs of God’s favor or disfavor; God’s promised mercy in the gospel is the only anchor in the storm. Michael Horton
  • Salvation is all about the grace of God. There is absolutely nothing that you can do to save yourself or earn God’s favor. Francis Chan
  • Control is an illusion. It becomes the check engine light that reveals where you’ve placed your ultimate hope. Matt Chandler
  • The gospel is like a caged lion. It does not need to be defended, it simply needs to be let out of its cage. Charles Spurgeon
  • Whatever God makes, He owns. R.C. Sproul
  • It is important for our children, and for us, to guard what we watch on television, what we read, and what we listen to. Andy Andrews
  • God is so committed to your ultimate joy that he was willing to plunge into the greatest depths of suffering himself for you. Tim Keller
  • There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice. John Calvin
  • God made us for a glorious purpose, but every day we violate that purpose. That is why we need a Savior who can heal and forgive. Ravi Zacharias
  • When the grace of Jesus sinks in, we will be the least offended and most loving people in the world. Scott Sauls
  • Repentance requires greater intimacy with God than with our sin. Rosaria Butterfield
  • Any theology that does not lead to song is, at a fundamental level, a flawed theology. J.I. Packer
  • When you realize that the antidote to being bad is not just being good, you are on the brink of understanding the Gospel. Tim Keller
  • An invitation to ISIS and Israel. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” 1 John 4:15. John Piper
  • This time of year always leads me to ask one of life’s most baffling questions: Can there be that many people giving a Lexus for Christmas? Kevin DeYoung
  • God doesn’t want us to just feel gratitude, but for us to show it by giving thanks to God with our lives. R.C. Sproul
  • The secret of how to be really boring: be self-absorbed. Michael Reeves
  • Of course we feel out-of-control, vulnerable, broken, insufficient, guilty, fearful, and ashamed. That’s why Jesus is a Savior, not a coach. Scotty Smith
  • Condemning others while also excusing ourselves is what allows us to hang onto both our self-righteousness AND our sin. Tim Keller
  • Religions usually talk about what a person has to do, but Jesus talks about what we can’t do. Paul Miller
  • Some people will only learn to love Jesus as they witness His followers loving like Jesus. Ron Edmondson
  • God wants us to study our disappointments because if we look at our disappointments we will see what it is we love. Ligon Duncan
I enjoyed this sign put up by Georgia Harris County Sheriff Mike Jolley

            I enjoyed this sign put up by Georgia Harris County Sheriff Mike Jolley


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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

christmas giftEvery Square Inch’s Christmas Gift Guide 2015. Bethany Jenkins writes “This Christmas, our faith and work channel—Every Square Inch—wants to celebrate products made by companies founded by Christian entrepreneurs. As entrepreneurs, they created something from nothing and, along the way, have given people jobs, contributed to the economy, engaged in ethical business practices, been generous with their neighbors, and expressed the creativity of God. Gift Guide 2015

  • Sudden Breakthroughs in Subtle Blind-Spots. Dan Rockwell writes “Truth be told, you have blind spots. The most common blind spot leaders have is believing others have them, but you don’t.”
  • More Significant than What You Do? Steve Graves writes “Who you work for is more significant than what you do or where you work.”
  • How to Be a Spiritual Influence at Work. Listen to Dr. Bill Peel on the radio talk show “Dr. Bill Maier-Live!” on how to be a spiritual influence at work.​
  • How to Witness at Work. Tom Nelson, in this article adapted from his excellent book Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work, writes “The excellence of our work often gives us the credibility to speak of the excellence of our Lord Jesus and to share the good news with our coworkers.”
  • 15 New Books to Check Out. Brad Lomenick recommends these new books. I plan to read Intentional Living by John Maxwell.
  • 6 Hacks for Better Work/Life Balance. Dr. Alan Zimmerman writes “If you’re like most people, you probably have some trouble managing your time. You may feel like you’re constantly hurrying or that you’re always short of time. You might even be the kind of person who paces in front of a microwave.”
  • We_Can_Do_It-231x3004 Ways to Better Engage Women in the Workplace. Lauren Hansen continues a series addressing specific questions related to ministry among women through the local church. This time, the question is “Do you have any suggestions about how our women’s ministry can engage professional women more effectively and encourage them as they minister in their workplaces?”
  • Seeking the Prosperity of Our Neighbors. Watch this talk from Amy Sherman, author of the excellent book Kingdom Calling, as she explains how why recognizing our vocational power is so important when seeking the good of our cities.
  • Struggling With Implementing Marketplace Ministry? 50 Ideas to Integrate Faith in the Workplace. The C12 Group asks “Are you looking for ways to transform your organization into your greatest mission field?”
  • How to Respectfully Distance Yourself from Negative People in Your Life. In this episode of his podcast, Andy Andrews answers a listener question on how parenting principles translate to respectfully dealing with the negative people in your business or personal life.
  • How I Work: An Interview with Thomas Kidd. In this edition of the series “How I Work”, Joe Carter interviews historian Thomas Kidd.
  • Benefits of a Common Language. Mark Miller writes “Leaders who create a common language can often make the difficult look effortless.”
  • Faith & Work Prayer Journey. Prayer is absolutely critical in our ability to discern our calling. This winter, the Center for Faith and Work (CFW) is offering two options to deepen your understanding of prayer and vocation with their online Faith & Work Prayer Journey, and their Faith & Work Prayer Nights.
  • Everybody Matters Podcast with Simon Sinek. Simon Sinek joins Bob Chapman on the Everybody Matters podcast.
  • Thriving Cultures Are Built With Recognition and Praise. Marty Fukuda shares five positive behaviors for leaders to immediately acknowledge.
  • 7-signs7 Signs it’s Not Really a Team. Ron Edmondson writes “In my world the word team is used almost on a daily basis. Most of us want to be in a team environment. However, in my experience working with churches – and it was true when I was in business also – more people claim to have it than actually do.”
  • Work Is Worship – Your Worklife is an act of Worship. This video from Work Life asks “Is your work a form of worship? Yes, it is! Worship and work should never become two different things. We worship when we work and we work when we worship, especially when our work is derived from God. It tells us in Genesis that in the beginning God went to work, and what he created was for his purpose and glory.
  • Success. In this “Minute from Maxwell”, John Maxwell talks about success from the perspective of starting with today.
  • Why Work? Because Work Matters. Steve Garber was the speaker at my graduation from Covenant Seminary last May and is the author of the excellent book Visions of Vocation. He writes about Dorothy Sayers book Why Work? “I think it is as a good a statement about work as anyone has written.”
  • Helpful Models. One of the main purposes of the advisory committee of the Oikonomia Network is to provide resources and support to all our network members, to help them develop pedagogical excellence. The first task has been to review syllabi, papers, videos, and other materials produced by our network schools. The first round of the committee’s review has just been completed. The committee has identified 34 helpful models that illustrate success in integrating work and economics in theological education. This got my attention as I respect two of the people on the Advisory Committee – Donald Guthrie, who formerly taught at Covenant Seminary and Tom Nelson, author of the helpful Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work.

Faith and Work Quotes

  • Change is the only constant— tied neck-and-neck with resistance to change. Dan Cumberland
  • Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better. Coach
  • People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing. Dale Carnegie
  • Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you. Augustine
  • Successful people become great leaders when they learn to shift the focus from themselves to others. Marshall Goldsmith
  • There are three actions of being a servant leader: being present, being accepting, and being creative. It’s not all about you! Ken Blanchard
  • Don’t ever get comfortable when you have the ability to achieve more. Coach K
  • Being average means you are as close to the bottom as you are to the top. John Wooden

John Wooden Quote

Faith and Work Book Clubs – Won’t you read along with us?

Don't Waste Your LifeDon’t Waste Your Life by John Piper. Crossway. 192 pages. 2003  

Other than the Bible, this small book by John Piper has had the most influence on my life. It played a key role in my returning to seminary after ten years in 2005. I have read it almost each year since it was published in 2003. Listen to John Piper describe the book in this less than two-minute video.

This week we start by looking at the Preface of the book:

  • The Bible says, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). I have written this book to help you taste those words as sweet instead of bitter or boring.
  • If you are a Christian, you are not your own. Christ has bought you at the price of his own death. You now belong doubly to God: He made you, and he bought you. That means your life is not your own. It is God’s. Therefore, the Bible says, “Glorify God in your body.” God made you for this. He bought you for this. This is the meaning of your life.
  • If you are not yet a Christian that is what Jesus Christ offers: doubly belonging to God, and being able to do what you were made for.
  • Glorifying God may mean nothing to you. That’s why I tell my story in the first two chapters, called “Created for Joy.” It was not always plain to me that pursuing God’s glory would be virtually the same as pursing my joy. Now I see that millions of people waste their lives because they think these paths are two and not one.
  • The path of God-exalting joy will cost you your life. Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel’s will save it.” In other words, it is better to lose your life than to waste it.
  • If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full.
  • This is not a book about how to avoid a wounded life, but how to avoid a wasted life.
  • Some of you will die in the service of Christ. That will not be a tragedy. Treasuring life above Christ is a tragedy.
  • Remember, you have one life. That’s all. You were made for God. Don’t waste it.

The Advantage by Patrick LencioniThe Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Lencioni. Jossey-Bass. 240 pages. 2012

Patrick Lencioni is one of my favorite business authors. His books The Advantage and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team are among my favorites. I recently started reading and discussing The Advantage with two colleagues at work. I’m sharing key learnings from the book and this week we look at Discipline 2: Create Clarity ~

  • The second requirement for building a healthy organization—creating clarity—is all about achieving alignment.
  • For all the attention it gets, real alignment remains frustratingly rare.
  • Within the context of making an organization healthy, alignment is about creating so much clarity that there is as little room as possible for confusion, disorder, and infighting to set in.
  • The responsibility for creating that clarity lies squarely with the leadership team.
  • There cannot be alignment deeper in the organization, even when employees want to cooperate, if the leaders at the top aren’t in lockstep with one another around a few very specific things.
  • All too often—and this is critical—leaders underestimate the impact of even subtle misalignment at the top, and the damage caused to the rest of the organization by small gaps among members of the executive team.
  • Thinking they’re being mature, leaders often agree to disagree with one another around seemingly minor issues, thereby avoiding what they see as unnecessary contentiousness and conflict.
  • What they don’t understand is that by failing to eliminate even those small gaps, they are leaving employees below them to fight bloody, unwinnable battles with their peers in other departments.
  • No matter how many times executives preach about the “e” word in their speeches, there is no way that their employees can be empowered to fully execute their responsibilities if they don’t receive clear and consistent messages about what is important from their leaders across the organization.
  • There is probably no greater frustration for employees than having to constantly navigate the politics and confusion caused by leaders who are misaligned.
  • Since the 1980s, many organizations have centered their clarity and alignment efforts around a singular tool that has been a major disappointment. What I’m referring to is the mission statement.
  • It can’t be denied that most mission statements have neither inspired people to change the world nor provided them with an accurate description of what an organization actually does for a living. They certainly haven’t created alignment and clarity among employees. What they have done is make many leadership teams look foolish.
  • What leaders must do to give employees the clarity they need is agree on the answers to six simple but critical questions and thereby eliminate even small discrepancies in their thinking.
  • Failing to achieve alignment around any one of them can prevent an organization from attaining the level of clarity necessary to become healthy. These are the six questions:
    • 1. Why do we exist?
    • 2. How do we behave?
    • 3. What do we do?
    • 4. How will we succeed?
    • 5. What is most important, right now?
    • 6. Who must do what?
  • If members of a leadership team can rally around clear answers to these fundamental questions—without using jargon and shmarmy language—they will drastically increase the likelihood of creating a healthy organization. This may well be the most important step of all in achieving the advantage of organizational health.
  • Answering these questions, like everything else in this book, is as difficult as it is theoretically simple.
  • It can be difficult, however,for a variety of reasons. First, as we explored in the last chapter, it requires cohesion at the top.
  • Second—and this is a big one—it’s often tempting for leaders to slip into a marketing or sloganizing mind-set when answering these questions, trying to come up with catchy phrases or impressive-sounding statements. This is a sign that the team is missing the boat and has been distracted from its real purpose: establishing true clarity and alignment.
  • Finally, answering these questions requires time.
  • Taking time to sit with the questions and ensure that all members of the leadershipteam understand what they mean and are truly aligned around the answers is essential.
  • There are no right or wrong answers. I mean, who’s to say what is right and wrong when it comes to setting the direction of an organization?
  • Waiting for clear confirmation that a decision is exactly right is a recipe for mediocrity and almost a guarantee of eventual failure. That’s because organizations learn by making decisions, even bad ones.