(resonance of reforming)
the blog of Jerry Bolton
The Primacy of Preaching in Worship
Nov 4th
Currently listening to: “Get Me Right” by Dashboard Confessional
Chris Carrabba is a bit of a tough one to pin down. It’s difficult to know, in his songs, whose voice he speaks from – his own, or those of various characters he creates or whose stories he tells. The answer to that question would seriously uncomplicate the question of what precisely it is that he believes. What he believes is an interesting question because, before he was “The Famous Chris Carrabba – King of All Emo and the man behind Dashboard Confessional”, he was the unknown frontman of Further Seems Forever, an essentially Christian technical rock band. This song is remarkable because it’s the first one (as Dashboard) in which Chris talks in fairly straightforward terms about faith, Jesus, doubt, sin, depravity, and such things. I’m still processing what’s going on – there’s a lot of history to reckon with, and there’s a lot of voices on this record (and all his Dashboard records, for that matter).
There are about 50 blogs on my feed reader. I read most of them in their entirety every day – it’s a part of my morning routine. One that I recently added was CJ Mahaney’s blog over at Sovereign Grace Ministries. Although I disagree with CJ on some points (and really, we could all say that about anybody if we’re being honest!) I’ve really appreciated his ministry – both in book form and in his preaching.
I had the opportunity to attend CJ’s breakout session this past April at the Gospel Coalition 2009 National Conference and it was, in many ways, a pivotal point for me. Through CJ’s message entitled “The Pastor’s Charge“, God sparked in my heart a desire for pastoral ministry. Does this mean I’m hoping to be a “Pastor” someday? God only knows. Right now, I’m just working through what it means to be pastoral in character and daily practice – both internally and externally. I firmly believe that all believing men are called to strive toward the standards required of all “overseers” as laid out in Titus and Timothy and such. So, in this season of life, one of my particular concerns is to nurture and develop in those areas – striving toward being (as Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 3) above reproach, faithful in monogamy, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not an addict, gentle, not violent, not a money-lover, a good father and husband, dignified, mature in the faith and constantly pursuing humility.
With that as background, you’ll understand my excitement over today’s post on CJ’s blog, made by his friend Jeff Purswell, entitled “Preaching vs. Worship?” (entitled so as to question the false dichotomy). I’d encourage you to read it. Here’s something that stood out to me:
Why? Why so much preaching? Why all this talking? Because the primary way we encounter God in worship is through the preaching of the Word of God.
Think about it this way. Normally, in what we call “worship,” we spend significant time—perhaps the whole time—addressing God, singing to him, praising him, extolling him, praying to him. Wonderful! But in preaching we are no longer addressing God; he is addressing us. Nothing is more important than this moment. And this is why the most important worship leader in your church is your pastor.
That really gets to the heart of preaching. The Bible is not simply a book that we talk about. When God’s Word is faithfully preached, God is addressing us. God is speaking. We hear not merely a man’s voice. We hear the voice of God.
And when God addresses us, what is the appropriate response? We respond with glad and reverent hearts, with voices that proclaim his praise, and with lives that increasingly reflect his character.
God addresses us with a saving Word. We respond to him with faith, praise, and obedience. That is the rhythm of worship.
This article caught me, striking me as both true and unnoticed. As I reflect on my week-to-week experience of preaching (thanks to my Pastor, for whom I am becoming more grateful constantly), I resonate with the above sentiments on a level I can’t really express at this point. Rare is the Sunday afternoon that I don’t feel at least a little weak at the knees because of the awareness that, despite all of the flawed humanity in the preacher, God spoke to me through the faithful preaching of his scriptures. Further, as I reflect on CJ’s message at the Gospel Coalition in April, I realize the same thing – God spoke through CJ’s exposition of scripture in preaching. He called me to greater faithfulness to Him and His truth. He called me to sacrificially serve and love His church. He called me to grow and mature in Christ. He called me to repent of myself. He called me to teach and learn, to suffer and wrestle, to counsel and to seek counsel. He called me to deny myself, take up my cross daily, and follow Jesus – the author and finisher, the perfecter, the archetype, the God-man, the dread warrior, the Holy One. He called me to lay down my life.
It’s not that He hadn’t said all of those things before – they’re all over Scripture. But, God spoke to me that day in a way I hardly understood at the time, and hardly do now. He spoke through the Bible. What an amazing gift!
May those who preach do so faithfully, and may those of us who listen to their faithful preaching worship with our lives faithfully in response. Amen.
…a gracious response to criticism
May 16th
Current Tunage: Braille – Heart of God
“Why should you listen to me, when I don’t listen to the Holy Spirit?”
Braille brings some heavy but important words in commentary on the juxtaposition of art and faith.
A lot of the Evangelical (particularly Reformed) blogosphere has been abuzz lately about the various attacks upon the preaching and character of one Mark Driscoll. I’ve never really hidden my love of Mark – his sermons have been used of God consistently to bring me to repentance, greater understanding, and faith. He has been unashamed to take the Gospel to numerous dark places and on top of it all, he’s a really fun guy. I met Mark briefly at the recent Gospel Coalition National Conference 2009 and was struck by his friendliness and grace in being willing to meet random people (such as myself and my friends) despite being very obviously exhausted. Consequently, it’s been interesting to follow the firestorm that seems to follow him wherever he goes – attacked on one side by Liberals who are horrifically offended by the Gospel that he preaches (and rightly so – the true Gospel IS an offense!), and on the other side by extreme right-wingers who can’t deal with the methodology he employs in his preaching and teaching.
I’m not really intending to weigh in here, only to say that there’s plenty of story to read up on if you’re interested in what it looks like when brothers attack brothers.
The reason this “matters” is because recently, an extremely influential and respected pastor and scholar (whom I myself have benefitted greatly from) by the name of John MacArthur posted a four-part series which, essentially, is an attack on Mark Driscoll. You can read them here: 1, 2, 3, 4. What I found troubling about this is primarily that MacArthur has, on the record, said that Driscoll’s “soteriology is exactly right”(source here). In other words, they agree completely on the means, basis, and outcomes of Salvation and the Gospel. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that sounds like a good working definition of Christian brotherhood (or at very least, grounds for treating each other with civility). What doesn’t make sense to me is the outright assault – certainly, since it’s MacArthur, it’s biblically informed… but the tone is more akin to a heresy takedown than the admonishment of a fellow believer. Please understand that I’m not necessarily trying to defend or endorse Mark’s choice of words and approach to dealing with sexual issues from the pulpit – those are objects for another discussion as far as I’m concerned (an important one, but a separate one!).
Let me be clear – I look up to both of them as godly examples and as skilled preachers and pastors – sinners as I am, but beloved brothers. I’m concerned about why guys like MacArthur and Phil Johnson (and many more, though most of the rest are inconsequential in terms of their influence by comparison) feel as though their concerns about Driscoll’s preaching merit lambasting him publicly.
Two things that I’ve come across in the last day or so have really been encouraging to me in light of this. First off is Steve Camp’s recent post. Please check it out: here.
Second is this video – as far as I know, it’s the only existing instance of Mark responding to a critic directly. I think you’ll understand why I appreciate it once you’ve seen it. Check it out, drop a comment, whatever you like:
…lest we drift away
Apr 29th
Current Tunage: Jars of Clay – Faith Enough
“Poor enough to gain the treasure / Enough a cynic to believe.”
I’ve started my way through Hebrews, in part spurred on by Josh Harris’ workshop last week at The Gospel Coalition 2009 National Conference.
One of Josh’s main points was that ‘loving the local church’ is a matter of obedience – or, in other words, it’s not optional for followers of Jesus. His texts for this were mostly in Hebrews and hearing the passages coupled with his exposition and thoughts was something God really used to bring clarity to me on something I’ve really been disobedient in for much of my life as a believer.
Let me explain that a bit -
I was saved at a very young age. By saved, I mean that I realized and accepted that there was no hope for me in this life outside of Jesus and his atoning sacrifice on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins. I made him boss, God, and saviour and have never really looked back (other than the very human doubts and cynicism that plague myself and most others). This happened so early in life because I grew up in a Christian home, with loving and godly Christian parents who really wanted me to know what’s truly important in life – Jesus.
Consequently, I grew up in the local church. Particularly, in what most would term a ‘fundamentalist, theologically and practically conservative, local-church-oriented denomination’. If it sounds like I’m deriding it there, please disregard – I still have a lot of respect and love for where I’m from, it’s just that those who have been inside something tend to see its problems most clearly – the challenge is often how to apply your vision of those issues.
Anyhow, all of my life I’ve struggled with ‘loving’ the local church. This is despite the ones I attended being populated by godly, loving Christian brothers and sisters who really loved me and, as best as they were able, strove to be like Jesus and live lives that please Him, conduct church in a way that pleased Him, and so on.
So why was it a struggle? It’s pretty simple actually – I realized as I was listening to Josh that for all of my life, with very few and momentary exceptions, my attachment to the local church has generally been one of mere “obedience” (read: doing it because its ‘the right thing to do’ and because ‘the Bible tells me so’) – not of “love”. Which, if I’m reading Hebrews correctly, and if I understood Josh correctly, means that I wasn’t really being obedient with regard to the local church. What God calls us to is to passionately love and serve the local church – to love and serve His people and His body. I haven’t really done that a whole lot. It’s not that I was wrong to go out of ‘obedience’, it’s that I didn’t understand what ‘obedience’ entailed – a passionate love for, servanthood to, and focus upon my fellow believers in the local church.
Check out one of Josh’s primary texts:
Hebrews 10:19-27 ESV
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
Isn’t it remarkable how the writer to the Hebrews talks about our individual right to enter the ‘holy places’ by the merit of our saviour’s blood, and about how that right, that way, is open to us via the torn and murdered body of our great high priest Jesus? Isn’t it amazing how we can enter such a solemn and holy place with a ‘true heart’, ‘full assurance of faith’, and ‘a heart sprinkled clean”? Doesn’t it just make the writer’s admonition to “hold fast hope” hit home?
How is it, then, that for so many years I missed the connection between all of the above, and the command to “consider how to stir up [fellow believers] to love and good works … encouraging one another” as well as “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some”? How is it that I’ve managed to make a disconnect for so long between the obedience of “holding fast hope” and the obedience of the habit of meeting together with other believers? The two seem to be inextricably interconnected.
Josh put it this way (what follows are some point form notes I took from his workshop):
- Holding fast is vitally connected to being committed in a local congregation.
- To hold fast, we need fellow Christians to spur us on, stir us up, and love us.
- To hold fast, we need to ourselves be spurring other believers on, stirring them up, and loving them.
- We will not be faithful without connecting the Gospel to the local church – it’s the only way to hold fast hope.
- The local church is vital for so many areas of obedience and growth: Giving, acquiring counsel, worship, teaching and input, service, accountability, and the regular giving and receiving of testimony. Others help you grow and obey, you help others grow and obey.
- 1 Thesselonians 5:14 – Admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all. Another passage that requires obedience of us, to love the local church.
- God works through a people to put his glory on display – Jesus came to save a church.
- 1 Peter 2:9 – All the language is pluralized. We are a ‘chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of the darkness into his marvelous light”. It’s a group plan!
- If you can’t get excited about Christ’s bride here on earth, you won’t enjoy heaven.
- Hebrews 3:12,13 – We are called to ‘exhort one another every day‘ so that ‘none of [us] may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin’.
- We are called to counsel one another with truth.
- Something irreplaceable happens when we gather and worship, serve, and give together.
- It is through the church that the Gospel is proclaimed and demonstrated, and disciples are made.
- Do I know and feel my need for the Body of Christ (and express it in my actions)?
- We can’t hold fast to the gospel without the local church.
Today, as I was studying in Hebrews 2, I was really struck by the first four verses, which read as follows:
Hebrews 2:1-4 ESV
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
For so long, I haven’t been paying “much closer attention” to what I have heard in God’s word my whole life – that the church is vital for growth and obedience, and that I must learn to love it. My connection to the church cannot be simply one of cold “obedience” and habitual involvement, but it must be genuine obedience that flows out of a passionate love for the local church – for the people of God, believers, that I meet with regularly. I know from experience that when I haven’t been paying this kind of closer attention to God’s Word in this area, I do drift away. Much of the past 24 years has been spent drifting away from Him and His people. Clearly and unmistakably, I see so much of His gentle (and at times, forceful and strikingly corrective) hand of discipline over especially the past decade.
So, what I’m considering this morning, and this week, and this life… is how I can better love, serve, and give myself to the local church. I know how fleeting my hope in Christ can be, and I know how quietly drifting my love for Him is. The question inevitably must be this: “Do I love the local church?”
Hebrews 10:23-27 ESV (emphasis mine).
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
…gospel coalition national conference 2009
Apr 20th
Current Tunage: Tunnel Rats – Line Finish
1 Corinthians 9:23-27 ESV
I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? so run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Please pray for myself, Noah, Todd, Ben, and Alex as we drive down to Chicago today for the Gospel Coalition National Conference 2009. Over the next three days we will be hearing from the likes of John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, CJ Mahaney, Josh Harris, DA Carson, and others. It promises to be a time of challenge, of exhortation, and of great fellowship. Pray for safety as we make the 10+ hour drive, for God to move in our hearts as we hear from His Word and His people, and for a renewed passion to bring His gospel to the world. All of us are at that in-between stage of “figuring out what’s next” and so I think it’s safe to say we’re all looking for God to do some amazing things in and among us as we gather with folks from around the world for teaching, prayer, and fellowship.
…oh happy day
Feb 15th
Current Tunage: Celldweller – Outland
Instrumental record from Klayton (aka Celldweller), entitled “Soundtrack for the Voices in my Head vol. 1″. Very, very good.
So, who’s going to The Gospel Coalition 2009 National Conference?
Jerry and friends are going to the The Gospel Coalition 2009 National Conference.
What does that mean?
It means:
-Funtime Road Trip with 4 buddies to the Windy City aka Chicago.
-Free ESV Study Bible (woo!).
-Challenges from the likes of Piper, Driscoll, Mahaney, Harris, Keller, Carson, and many others.
-Wonderful way to cap off my joint BA’s from Trent (which will be complete as of the week prior!).
-Time of sharpening and forward vision: examining what God has in store for the weeks, months, and years to come for myself and those I am responsible for (self, wife, children, friends, family, church, people in general).
-Good, good times.
Pray for safety, wisdom, and blessing as we plan, prepare, and traverse this adventure in April… for His Glory.
…disconnection imminent
Jan 31st
Current Tunage: Decahedron – Delete False Culture
Today, Jerry is in a Math Rock / Spazzcore mood. Decahedron and other Frodus-related projects fit the bill kindly.
I apologize for the dead air. Eight weeks of classes left, something like 8 million deadlines to meet between papers and projects and presentations. Lots of great plans formulating in the meantime – for example, in April I will be attendingThe Gospel Coalition 2009 Conference near Chicago, which I plan to attend with the strangest and most amusing batch of friends imaginable (T, N, and B). It promises to be good, good times. Other happenings of late include job applications (some governmental – imagine that), copious amounts of rocking out, and more than a little trepidation.
In the midst of it all, God is God – the Life, the Boss, the Maker, the Music, the Effervescent, the Truth, the Fighter, the King of Kings, the Shepherd, the Servant, the Master, and the only Way… home.
Recently I was reading in the Psalms, where I oft find myself in times where the simple act of trusting my God and King to be the most difficult action imaginable. I read these words, and have been pondering them in my heart since:
Psalms 139:2-6 ESV
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me – oh, that I would be mindful of it with persistence, ponderous of it with tenacity, and act upon it with courage.