4 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Planting

This post also appears at NewChurches.com As the entrepreneurs of the church world, we church-planters tend to have strong opinions on the kind of church we want. So once we get the idea of the future church in our heads, we go after it. We raise money, find the venues, and organize the team to get to the goal that (we hope) was given to us by God.

While this goal-oriented nature can be a huge blessing in the life of the planter, it can also be his demise if his goals aren’t good. I’ve had the privilege to train, equip, and coach a lot of godly planters with godly goals. I’ve also seen a few whose goals were suspect. So how do you know if your goals are godly? Try answering these four questions:

1. Why are You Planting this Church?

If I had a dollar for every guy I’ve met who had a bad answer for this question, I’d be able to buy myself at least two Ed Stetzer books. “There’s nothing like this church in my town,” or, “There’s no Reformed (or charismatic, or missional, or whatever your thing is) church around here,” are bad answers. Also unacceptable are, “I’m ready to be the boss,” “I’ve got a great vision for how church could be done better,” or my personal favorite, “I’m not really sure what else to do.”

The only correct answer to this question sounds something like, “Jesus has commanded me to go make disciples. Planting a church seems like the way God wants me to do that.” If you’re not doing this to form and fashion followers of Christ, you’re not doing it for a good reason.

2. What are You Reacting Against?

Many a church planter has a bad PH balance in his soul. You’ve probably met them — guys in their 20’s and 30’s who are reacting against their mega-church leading, boomer Pastor dads. Such reactivity makes their work acidic, dripping with the “I’ll show so-and-so,” attitude that may doom their work. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what you’re reacting against? What way of doing church, or denomination, or leadership style, or theology are you determined to avoid? Do you want to lead a house church on its merits, or because you just hate how “corporate” church has become? Is ancient/future worship your preference because you’re listening to the leading of the Spirit or because you heard about it through a podcast?

Church planter, don’t be reactive. All things are yours in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:21). Take the best, leave the rest, and don’t succumb to the pressure to form opinions on other church’s methods or leaders.

3. How Will You Make Disciples?

Do you realize its entirely possible to gather a mass of people without ever actually making a disciple? That’s the scary thing about church growth techniques — most of them work really well. When I’m coaching planters I always want to know how their why (Question 1 above) connects to their how (How they make disciples). Now I’m no anti-church-growth guy. Who doesn’t want the church to grow!? I simply mean that attendance and decisions are not the metrics Jesus asked us to track. He told us to make disciples. If you can’t figure out how to do that, you’re probably in the wrong business.

4. Who is Pastoring You?

Church planting is difficult, soul-draining, devil-fighting, marriage-stressing, and financially-challenging work. You need a pastor. Scratch that, you need pastors — individuals committed to telling you the truth, asking you about your marriage and kids, and keeping your soul healthy. Ideally they will be older and wiser than you — people to whom you’ve given permission to speak into the deep, dark recesses of your soul. Our church is doing really well right now, but I’m convinced I’d have wrecked it at least three times without the men who pastor me. Church planter, who is pastoring you?

Answer these questions, planter. The future of your work — and probably your soul — depend on it.

2014 Prayer and Fasting Guide

I wrote a little book about fasting and prayer. Each year, our church takes about 7 days at the beginning of the year to fast together, pray together, and seek God together. We do this in our small groups, as a church family, and individually because if we're going to fish for men and women then we have to follow Jesus. If we're going to love our neighbor then we've got to love God. And, if we're going to show the world how great Jesus is, then we must be progressively transformed into the likeness of his image.

So, here it is as a PDF. I hope you enjoy. If you'd like a printed copy, let me know and I can send you a link.

DOWNLOAD HERE.

Church Planting and Me: A Love Affair

I've got a slobbering love affair with church planting. Not the conferences, books, and accouterments of American evangelical church planting culture, but church planting — the actual doing of it. I'm a bit of a purist. I love the start up riskiness, the way it forces the planter to trust God, and the way it creates new platforms from which to do it all again. Like most purists, I don't care much for trends. Every season (here please read that Christian word we all use for an unknown period of time) there's a "new" idea that's really going to revolutionize everything about planting. It's incarnational missional attractional monastic youth-oriented family-oriented purpose-driven seeker-sensitive ... well, you get the idea. Church planting isn't new, and it isn't easy. But if you're called by God to do it, it's still great. And I still love it for at least these 4 reasons:

Church Planting is still the best way to make disciples. Disciples are followers of Jesus and fishers of men, and nothing forces someone to live that rhythm like the planting of a new church. Like weight on the bar, you can't lift it and not get bigger. All the stresses of a start-up are the same pressures that make a great business leader. Church planting works very similarly, and it can produce some amazing disciples.

Church Planting is still hard work. I love the work of planting — the actual tasks involved. Heck, I even love teaching others how to do it. Any method that makes planting look easy, less costly, or overly simple is therefore wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. It takes a ton of work, and I love the work it takes.

Church Planting still takes great faith. Both in quantity and quality, church planting has increased my faith in God. The work is up to me, but the results are very much up to God. I love that.

Church Planting still shrinks me. I'm on my third plant (fourth if you count the new site of our current church, but I digress...). Every time something good happens — salvation, reconciliation, healing — I am struck with just how great God is. I decrease in those moments, because God gets bigger. That's a good thing.

So here's to church planting, and my deep love for it. If you feel inspired, maybe come on up and do some church planting with me.

Kill the Christian Criticism Culture

The crazy culture of Christian criticism has to stop. Alan Noble recently wrote a piece on the Evangelical Persecution Complex — essentially offering insight into our odd, self-identification as people under persecution. It seems to me, however, that given the regular number of hit pieces from Christian leaders on other Christian leaders, we like to dish out the hate about as much as we take it.

That is a problem. And, it's probably sin.

"But Adam," you say, "some Christian leader that I vaguely dislike is being scorched online. I need to let all my friends (most of whom aren't Christians) know that I have a disagreement with this fellow." Well, that's a pretty compelling reason to cheer on his or her public demise, isn't it? Oh wait, no. No it's not.

Not surprisingly, we're not the first generation to vent our intramural disagreements outside the walls of fellowship. The Corinthians did it too. And when Paul found out, he was so thrilled about it that he wrote this encouraging little "ataboy" to them:

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteousinstead of the saints? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? (1 Cor 6:1, 5-7)

To answer Paul's rhetorical question, we would rather not suffer wrong because we don't believe him. We don't believe that it might be better to be quiet publicly about our offense with someone else. We do what the Corinthians did — we air our grievances against our brothers and sisters outside the family. This is, according to the Spirit who I believe inspired this text, to our shame.

"But Adam," you might protest, "someone needs to let the world know these people are wrong!" I get that. I get that from the inception of the church, Christian leaders have had to fend off heretics, rebuke the wolves in sheeps' clothing, and all the rest. I'm not suggesting we stop defending against bad doctrine. But the social media feeding frenzy that occurs when a leader screws up is nothing like Iraneaus' Against Heresies, for example. You aren't Augustine battling Pelagius. You have a Facebook page. Settle down.

Not one to simply complain, let me suggest five ways we can kill the Christian criticism culture, and just act like Christians:

1. When You Have a Problem with Someone you Know, Have the Guts to Tell Them, Not the Internet. Crazy idea, right? But go with me for a minute.

I pastor a growing church in Boston and Cambridge, MA. I preach a lot, which means I offend people. One of my favorite things in the world, however, is when someone in our church loves me enough to tell me about it. I feel so loved! So cared for! Why? Because someone in my very own church had the guts to have an uncomfortable conversation with me for my good, and the good of the church. They didn't blog about it, tweet it, snapchat it, or make it a "prayer request" (which often is a Christian euphemism for gossip). They just put on their big kid britches and acted like a Christian.

2. When You Have a Problem with Someone You Don't Know, Have the Character to Pray for Them, Forgive Them, and Reach out to Them if you Can I disagree with all kinds of Christians leaders all the time. I read their books and hear their sermons with reactions ranging from, "Hmm, I wouldn't have said it that way," to "Heresy!!"  So what's a Pastor like me to do? Whatever I should be doing, I almost certainly shouldn't be echoing the stories of their humiliation in public. I most definitely shouldn't be jabbing them with my most pithy and piercing 140-character line. And, I certainly shouldn't be merrily celebrating their problems in front of a world that watches how Christians treat each other.

I probably should pray for them. And I try to, I really do. I want the current Christian rockstars to look progressively more like Jesus. But when Mark Driscoll, Rob Bell, John Piper, N.T. Wright, Pope Benedict, Brian McLaren, Tim Keller, Bill Johnson, T.D. Jakes, or anyone else of the Pro-Preacher class have a problem in public, we should not be among the crowd chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" like adolescents in the school yard. We should weep. We should pray. If we know them, we should call. And, we should hope to God in Heaven that some of them will call each other, too.

3. For Sake of the Gospel, Stop Reposting, Retweeting, and Otherwise Dancing Around the Graves of Fallen Christian Leaders by Echoing the Stories of their Screw Ups I wonder if there is nothing left of the fear of the Lord in us. Does no one remember the story of Noah's kids? Go back and read it. God's not cool with publicly shaming his people — especially when his people shame each other. We don't need to echo the horrible stories of someone else's sin. We should be telling good stories of gospel glory, not salivating over the demise of a popular preacher we don't like very much. That impulse is called hatred.  It is to be avoided.

Just stop doing it. With the measure you use it will be measured back to you. Think about that before you hit the repost button next time.

4. Be Free from the Obligation to Judge I think it wonderful news that I do not need to judge other leaders. Jesus will hold me responsible for my family, my leadership, my words, and my church. Mine. He will not hold me responsible for anyone else's. Therefore, I do not need to be in charge of the social media trial and execution of anyone. I don't even have to show up for it. I can just ignore it. When a whiff of weirdness comes across my nostrils from another leader, I can call them, pray for them, and then trust Jesus to govern his church just fine. It's really quite freeing.

5. For the Love of God, Celebrate the Good Because it's not my job to judge another man or woman's work, I'm actually free to appreciate the grace of God in them, despite them. Do you get how great this is? That means I can appreciate my favorites and my not-so-favorites amongst the Pastoral Illuminati, by God's grace. I can actually look at someone with whom I wildly disagree and honor God's grace in them enough to be private and discreet about my problem with them. How lovely.

Let's all join together and kill the Christian criticism culture. If we could, that would be a great story to retweet, and an entirely appropriate grave around which to dance.

God Doesn't Need Me

Most Sundays when I approach the pulpit, I'm prepared. I believe in hard work, study, and spending hours getting ready for the preaching and teaching that I do at church. But, this Sunday I was not. Emotionally, I was a wreck. Mentally, I was clouded. Physically, I was tired. Spiritually, I was dull. "This is going to go terribly," I thought. The music faded, I took the pulpit, I prayed, and I opened my mouth.

What followed was nothing of Adam Mabry. It's a little difficult to explain. I was involved, obviously. I was present, and I was active. But the power of the words, the effect they were having on the people, and the results which flowed from my preaching, were so obviously not from me that I was quite literally dumbfounded. People came to faith in Jesus. Repentance flowed as tears streamed. Sicknesses were healed. It was as though, for a moment, the veil between Heaven and earth was pulled back, and we experienced a small expression of the glory of God.

This experience of my desperate inadequacy and God's gracious sufficiency afforded me a few insights:

God Doesn't Need Me Theologically, I knew that God didn't need me before yesterday. But the experience I had yesterday of being completely at the end of my rope mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually — and God doing so much anyway — solidified what I knew.

God Loves His People How crazy is the love of God for people that he'll simply meet with his people directly?! My preparation is not the pre-condition for God's manifestation.

God Loves Me Again, a fact I knew, but not an experience I walked in. Yesterday, across our three services, we had the best attendance we've had all summer. We had the most response to God we've ever seen. We had the most dramatic experience of worship that our gatherings have ever achieved. I watched it and all I felt was God saying, "See, I love you. I've got this."

God Wants Me This one is the most mind-bending of all. I "love" a lot of people that I don't want to be around much. That's because I'm still selfish and self-preferring. God's not like that. God actually wants to use me. He wants to be around me. He wants to meet with me, and my people. He doesn't need to, that's obvious. The only other option is that, for some reason, he really likes to. And that's crazy.

I've read God's words to the Apostle Paul a thousand times, "My power is made perfect in weakness." But yesterday — yesterday I saw it.

Yesterday I was weak. And God — God was so strong.

News and Views Roundup

Here are some stories and articles that have garnered my attention this week.

Marriage for the Common Good

James K.A. Smith is a Philosophy Prof at Calvin College, and a generally stupendous fellow who spins a solid stream of social commentary. Over at Cardus he wrote a great article called Marriage for the Common Good. Challenging the concept of Wedding, Inc. to the expense of martial success, he writes:

If we want to raise up a generation passionate about the common good, perhaps we should say "No" to the dress—and all of the spectacular trappings of Wedding, Inc.—and instead plan for a marriage with open doors, honest in its vulnerability, even eagerly dependent.

There's a Christian Holocaust in Iraq

The terrorist army ISIS has systematically been killing thousands of Christians, forcing most of them to convert, die, or be displaced from the home their sect of Chaldean Christianity has called home for thousands of years — 700 of which were before Islam existed. Here's a quote from one of the many articles that no one in our government seems to care about.

When U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003, there were at least 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. Over the last ten years, significantly in the last few months with the emergence of ISIS, that figure has dropped to about 400,000.

In a region where Christians predate Muslims by centuries, over one million Christians have been killed or have had to flee because of jihadi persecution, while America is basically standing by and watching.

This shouldn't surprise us, but it does. We Western Christians have allowed the relative ease of life for the past few centuries to feel a certain homey warmth about this world which makes us shocked at persecution. But Jesus told us to expect it, and embrace the responsibility of suffering well. Pray for our brothers and sisters in Iraq, and across the world who are suffering.

The Prince of Preachers' Lost Sermons

Charles Spurgeon was an amazing preacher, leader, and teacher of the 19th century. His influence still reverberates today. How often I myself wonder through his words, picking up wisdom like gold from the ground. Well now there's good news for people like me, we've found more of his sermons! Most of these sermons are from his early years — years full of struggle, mistakes, and pleas for grace. As a young pastor, you can imagine I can't wait to get my eager hands on this multi-volume set when it arrives.

A Beautiful Bible is Blowing Up on KickStarter

As a font nerd and a dude who really loves the Bible, this is like some sort of cosmic convergence of awesome things. A book designer/graphic artist/GENIUS named Adam (Coincidence? Of course not) has launched an effort called Bibliotheca. He wants to give the world a Bible that's beautiful to hold, read, and feel in your hands. I will be buying one or more of these.

Ethnic Unity v. Wishful Thinking

I pastor a multi-racial, multi-ethnic church. That fact, by the way, is a complete miracle. I don't know how it has happened, except for two factors: (1) I prayed a lot that God would make our church ethnically broad, and (2) by grace I actually try, for real, to care about people who aren't from my neck of the woods (as we say where I'm from). God has been pleased to do what I've asked, and I'm really grateful for that.

But in the broader church world, we're not quite as together as we could be. Oh sure, we'll have the odd unity service. The black pastor and the white pastor who've hardly ever met stand on the front row, awkwardly embrace, pretend they have something to talk about afterwards, and the praise then Lord as they walk away that neither one of them has to endure such an event but once a year.

Maybe that sounds harsh. Some truth is harsh.

Then there was yesterday. Yesterday I spent a few hours with a friend of mine who happens to be the leader of a large, fruitful denomination of African American churches. In Ron Burgundy speak, he's kind of a big deal. Ever since I arrived to plant Aletheia, this man has gone out of his way to make me feel welcome. He's invited me to address gatherings of largely black pastors. He's sent me texts encouraging me. He's bought me lunch, prayed for me, given me advice. He's even sent me and my wife cards on our anniversary. We're totally different. We come from very different Christian traditions, different parts of the world, and different upbringings. But, as I sat in his office yesterday, I was struck with the realization, "This is what unity looks like. It's when I love this man, and he loves me."

Our country is beleaguered with racial brokenness. In the church, it's not much better. Sure, we've tried to make it better. We've tried unity services. We've tried ecumenical counsels. We've sworn to be more diverse. But here's the deal — it's just hard. Real love is always hard. Real love is always costly. It certainly was for God, wasn't it?

But therein lies the difference between ethnic unity and wishful thinking. Wishful thinking looks to events. Real love looks to the cross. Wishful thinking thinks programmatically. Real love thinks sacrificially. Wishful thinking doesn't work. But real love ... well I think it does. It's working really well for this man and me.

Maybe that's a start.

5 Must-Haves of a Spiritual Family

I love my spiritual family. For me, that phrase has tons of meaning. It goes beyond the church I attend or the denomination I'm in. Spiritual family speaks to the deep relationships that are forged in a family of men and women called to walk out their faith in Jesus together. It's spiritual and family. Here are five must-haves I've observed in my decade walking with the leaders of Every Nation. Unity We must be clear and unified in at least three ways: theology, relationships, and practicals. As God gives us great unity in those areas, almost anything becomes possible. Without unity, almost everything becomes impossible.

Vision Where are we going? If we're all going in different directions, then there's not much "we" to speak of.

Strategy How are we going to accomplish the mission God has called us to. If we don't have a good strategy then the family business won't get done.

Diversity Unity is not uniformity. Diversity of gifts, backgrounds, and perspectives make real unity beautiful.

Grace For any movement to stay together, God must be supplying abundant grace.

What do you think? Did I miss something?

We Give Thanks

(This blog was originally posted at aletheia.org. It's an update on our progress in 2013 at Aletheia) Thankfulness is a discipline. In a society that conditions coolness to mean cynicism, honest thankfulness and hopeful praise is as rare as hens’ teeth (to use a southern expression). But around here, we’ve got a lot to be thankful for.

In 2013, God helped our growing church plant in some amazing ways. Here are a few of them…

Dozens Met Jesus In our services, in our groups, and in our normal relationships, God is saving many. Watching people who’ve never followed Christ repent of their sins and trust him is the reason we planted this church.

Discipleship is Happening We set out a goal to have a community group for every 15 attendees at Aletheia. While we haven’t quite hit that mark, the number people regularly engaging the Scriptures in a group has increased greatly this year.

We’ve Given Away Around 20% of Our Budget to Missions, Mercy, and Church Planting It may sound crazy, but we fundamentally believe that we are given resources to give them to Kingdom causes. This year, we as a church gave away over 20% of all funds we raised to missions, mercy, and church planting. Praise God for such an opportunity.

One Service to Three Services This year, we’ve given our city three different opportunities to join us to worship Jesus. That’s up from just 1 at the beginning of 2013.

One Location to Two Locations This year, we’ve planted a new congregation in downtown Boston. It’s started well and we are expecting 2014 to be a year of breakthrough for this new site.

More Leaders are Leading The group of men and women who lead (Ministry Team leaders, assistants, Community Group leaders, interns, etc.) has increased in the last 12 months.

New Staff are Joining In 2013 we set out a goal to see a few new staff members join our team. First, a campus minister to help us reach and disciple college and high school students. Then, an administrator to help us keep all the plates spinning with excellence. By God’s grace, we’ve added both those staff members!

We’ve Doubled in Size Each year we expect to grow. But to double in size is an amazing grace. The average American church plant does not pass 100 attendees after 4 years. In three quarters of that time we’ve seen 5 times the average. That’s all from Jesus and a great grace to celebrate.

Here’s what this does not mean: we’re awesome. This very clearly means that God is gracious and kind. He loves Boston so much that he’s happy to work with flawed people like us to accomplish something greater than we could ever bring about.

And of course, these are just the church metrics. None of this speaks to the countless stories of breakthrough, life change, miracle healing, provision, and grace in all our people. Those stories are too many for a little blog post.

So, we give thanks to Jesus for these graces in 2013. And, we look forward with eager expectation to see all the graces that are available in 2014. It’s an awesome adventure. We’d love you to join in.

We've Gotten Sex all Wrong

This past weekend we kicking off a new teaching series at Aletheia called Sex, Money, Politics (and a few other things you're not supposed to talk about in Church). Leading us off, Nick Nowalk (a good friend and teaching fellow for Christian Union) tackled the topic of sex. Sex is a personal decision, right? I mean basically, sex is like food. Your body wants it, so you satisfy your desires with whatever feels best. There's nothing moral or immoral about that, is there? Such is the current cultural mood about sex.

It's just not a popular time to hold onto Christian sexual ethics—I mean, they just seem outdated, don't they? How in the world is it good news Jesus is lord of sexuality.

Christians Usually Get the "What" of Sex Right, but the "Why" of Sex Wrong "Don't look at porn!" "Don't sleep around!" "Don't ___________ (insert your own sexual deviancy here)!"

In the church we're pretty good at telling everyone what not to do with sex, but not so good at why. But knowing the why is critical. If we only learn the rules and not the reasons, we become morally stunted, unable to navigate the sea of grey all around us. We come off judgmental when we should come off gracious. We seem unloving when we should be understanding.

Taking for granted that most people understand that (despite the exegetical acrobatics of some modern preachers) God's vision for sexuality is to be only legitimately expressed between a husband and a wife, let's ask, why?

Your Physical Body Matters to God For all kinds of reasons we won't go into, most of us think that the physical world just isn't the most important world. Our "true" selves are somehow disconnected from our bodies. If you believe that, then your view of sex will necessarily be skewed. If, for example, you believe that any second now God's gonna throw all of creation into some cosmic trash can and start over, then what you do with your body, the earth, and pretty much anything physical just doesn't matter. If the physical world doesn't matter, then neither do sexual ethics.

But the physical world does matter. It matters very much.

In 1 Corinthians 6:9-20, Paul lays out a theology of sex. His basic argument (to a church that was engaging in all kinds of sexual craziness) was, "Listen, God raised Jesus from the dead, and He will raise you too. Therefore, your body matters." Ask anyone today if we should recycle and they'll say some variation of, "Yes. After all, the earth will be here for a long time." How ironic, then, that we treat our bodies like brain transportation devices, subjecting them to whatever sexual experience that our flesh demands we give it. What we do today echoes into eternity.

Sex is Greater Than You Thought Sex is not about sex. Sex is a sign and symbol of a greater reality. When we reduce sex to a physical activity like hunger or thirst, then we've missed the grandeur of sex altogether. First, sex is about covenantal one-ness. In Genesis 2, the author writes that the two (man and wife) are to become one (echad). This, by the way, is the same kind of one-ness with which God describes his own inner life. Therefore, we must see that in God's eyes, sex points to a much greater reality than desire. Nick summarized this in four basic ways:

• Monogamous - Sex is to be enjoyed exclusively with the covenant partner (husband or wife). This echoes of God's exclusive commitment to us.
• Different - Sex is to be experienced by opposite genders together. This speaks of God's relationship to us—we are not the same as Him, nor is He the same as us.
• Committed - Sex is a sign and symbol of our covenantal commitment to our spouse. This reflects the covenant love of God and his people—God never leaves us, therefore we never leave our spouse.
• Life-Long - Sex is to be enjoyed in a progressively greater way in this relationship for all of life. This reality reflects the permanent commitment that God makes to his people.

Any and every kind of sexual brokenness the world deals with today is a violation of this positive, beautiful vision of human sexuality.

What we Do with Sex Reveals what we Believe about Jesus Sexuality tells a story. For the Christian, we live according to a whole new and different story—the gospel. The gospel vision of sexuality celebrates the good news that Jesus Christ is lord of sex, and I am not. Our big problem with sex isn't that we don't know what's right. Our big problem with sex is that we fundamentally do not believe that Jesus lordship over sexuality is better than ours. We do not trust him. Whenever we live out a different sexual story than the one Jesus gives us, we say to the world, "I do not trust that Jesus is better than I am." The testimony of our lives is, "I am better than Jesus."

At bottom, any disagreements we have about sexual ethics aren't really about sex. They are about Jesus. The question which faces us is simply and only, "Do I find Jesus, and his vision for human sexuality, better than me and my own?"

We would all do well to ponder that question. For Christians, this question should make us patient and gracious. For, experience Jesus as better than self may take some time. Just as God is patient but resolved to lead us into progressive abandonment of sin and pleasure in Christ, we must do the same for others. For non-Christians, this question should clarify the argument. Disagreement about sexual ethics is not (for the Christian, at least) about bigotry, hatred, or "why can't you understand God made me this way..." It's about lordship. And for the Christian, Jesus is lord of everything, including sex.

And that is really, really good news.

Resources:

• Nick's Sermon on Sex.
• My book, Sex, Love, and War.

When our Gospel is Muddy

(I had the privilege of writing for my buddy Trevin Wax recently. This article appeared for him over at his blog for The Gospel Coalition) Missions and church planting is pretty much the only thing I’ve ever done (which means I’ve made plenty of mistakes!). Space doesn’t permit me to share all the occasions where my zeal stiff-armed wisdom. For many in ministry, this is a job hazard.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only passionate pastor though. Every ministry conference I attend, I find dozens of other wild-eyed church planters, pent-up preachers, and inspired ministers – all adrenalized by visions of revival in their cities.

But lurking behind passion is danger—ways in which we, the impassioned proclaimers of the gospel can muddy the message. If we are truly passionate about Jesus and his Kingdom, then we must become passionate about making the message of that kingdom as clear as possible to our hearers.

Here are four common ways I see us missing the mark and muddying the gospel:

Bad Language I’m not talking about cussing in the pulpit. Our problem is the tendency of the theologically-minded to use language that your neighbor who’s never come to church before doesn’t understand. So cloistered can we become in our own reformed, or baptist, or charismatic, or (fill in the blank with your favorite Christian subculture moniker) language that we’ve lost the missionary edge to speak to everyone else.

I’m not just talking about the pulpit speech. I’m talking about all your language—website, bulletin, announcements, etc. If you’ve got a bad website that can’t be viewed on a mobile device in 2013, you’re using bad language. If your church artwork looks like a poor imitation of Hollywood, you’re using bad language. It’s the essential equivalent to preaching in New York using Elizabethan English. People may understand you if they really try, but you’re not making it easy on them.

Biblical Shallowness Just because you know how to make a few vague redemptive-historical connections in your preaching does not make you biblically deep. We need to know the Bible inside and out. The rays of light which beam forth from the Scriptures burn away the fog which veils our gospel. That’s why we need to more deeply saturate ourselves in it.

Laxity with language is a sign of biblical shallowness. If you read the Scriptures well you can’t help but notice all the great many ways God has set about telling His redemption story. Denying ourselves the richness of God’s literary genius and creative narrative is death to the minister—the sodium pentothal of our preaching.

Why? Because the minister must be more than literate with the Scriptures, he must be fluent. If you’re fluent in the language of the Scriptures, then translating their message into the language of the culture becomes second nature. But if you’re foggy on the Bible, then you’ll fog up the lens of the onlooker, making it impossible for him to see and savor the gospel.

Idolatry of Preference We are masters at enforcing our preferences as if they were biblical norms.

You like hymns because “they’re biblical, after all.” You prefer your music quiet because you read in a book it should be that way. You prefer your music loud because you’re pretty sure worship at the head of the Israelite procession was loud, right? You like your pastor in a trendy shirt, or you don’t.

My point here is that when we make dress code, music, style, meeting times, graphics, and carpet color objects of great concern, we elevate them to a status of importance beyond what they deserve. These are preferences that must be subject to the Scriptures and our mission to clarify the gospel to the culture.

We must be vigilant to resist our preferences in ministry. We mustn’t look not to our own interests, but to the interests of others (Phil. 2:4). Jesus did ministry this way. We probably should too.

Moral Duplicity Pastor, you are not called to be edgy, but holy. When our tongues speak too loosely or our eyes wander too freely, we become guilty of moral duplicity.

Test yourself in this. Is there behavior that you engage in regularly throughout the week that you’d be embarrassed to tell your church about? That feeling you’re having right now probably says enough.

The world doesn’t need worldly ministers. The world needs heavenly ministers who speak their language. Jesus is our great example.

Passion for Jesus should translate into a passion for clarity. When we get out of the way, the world can see the Gospel clearly. The simple question is, are we willing to agree with John the Baptist that Jesus must become more, and we (with our preferences, problems, and proclivities) must become less? For the sake of the gospel, I sure hope so.

Why I Love the Gospel Project

Recently, I had the privilege of spending some time with Ed Stetzer, Matt Capps, and Trevin Wax in Nashville, TN to talk about The Gospel Project.

First, I want to say how grateful I was to get to discuss this awesome curriculum with these men. The team at LifeWay has done an amazing job with this. The curriculum is so expansive that it's mind-blowing. We initially adopted TGP for Aletheia Kids. But now we're looking at ways to work this curriculum into our groups and discipleship process.

Here are five reasons I love The Gospel Project

Our Kids Love It Look, if your kids don't like kids' church, that's just not a win. The curriculum is so fun, in fact, that at home my kids are begging me to do the lessons. BEGGING ME. That's just plain awesome.

Jesus is the Hero Our kids are learning how to read the bible in its grand, redemptive-historical themes. Now this isn't the only way to read the Scriptures, but it's a hugely important one. I didn't learn to do this until I was about 22 and already in ministry.

It's Church Plant Friendly We are a church plant. We meet in a YMCA. We need a curriculum that is awesome AND doesn't require a Ph.D., $250,000, or a miniature sized Disney film set to pull off. TGP hits the mark between quality and execution for us.

Our Kids Team Loves It Our awesome Kids Director absolutely loves this curriculum, as do the teachers. Translation: they have fun teaching our kids! When anything is taught with enthusiasm it's automatically better.

It's a Great Discipleship Tool For us, Kids Church isn't about giving the kiddos a fun experience and lots of snacks while the grown ups do the important stuff. We're trying to disciple our kids, and this curriculum helps us do just that.

Here's a brief interview I did about TGP. If you're looking for a great resource for your church, you should definitely explore this one.

Faithing

Yesterday at Aletheia we jumped back into our teaching series in Genesis, having a look at Abram. In the first nine verses of chapter twelve, we found a goldmine of faith. There is some debate these days amongst preacher like myself which asks the question, "Should we preach as though men like Abram are examples to be followed?" My answer to that question is yes ... and no. That is, the story of Abram shows us some powerful principles of what faith does—what faithing looks like (to invent a verb). In fact, here are a few of those principles...

Faith Obeys I find it fascinating that for Abram (the archetype of faith), his faith immediately showed up in obedience. If we really trust God then we'll simply do what he asks—even if it sound crazy. Like moving from your hometown at the age of 75 with all your stuff and your weird nephew and his weirder wife.

Faith Journeys In these nine short verses, we're told three times that Abram "journeyed on." In fact, his whole walk with God was 99% journey. He never actually saw with his own eyes what God promised him. Yet, because God is worthy of trust, Abram journeyed with him.

Faith Goes for the World God made a huge, gracious promise that Abram totally didn't deserve. "I'll bless you and make your name great ... so that you will be a blessing." Abram's journey of faith wasn't primarily about Abram. It was about God's purposes in the nations. Good to remember that our faith journey has more riding on it than our personal fulfillment.

Faith Goes All In When God called Abram out of Ur, he moved. Everything. Out. That is, he didn't keep a condo in Ur. He didn't leave a little bit back, just in case God didn't make good on his promises. He left Ur to follow God. Have you gone all in with God? Or, are you trying to go on the journey without leaving the "Ur" of your former life? Trusting God means going all in with him.

Faith Feasts in Worship The journey of faith is done best when we worship along the way. Twice in these verses we see that Abram stopped to build an altar, remember the promise, and worship God. Worship isn't the duty of the faithful, like some extra burden to carry for the journey. Worship is the feast... the fuel! We worship so we have endurance for the journey.

So back to the debate. Should we preach this story as a "be like Abram," kind of example? Yes and no. These principles are great, but all by themselves they're insufficient. We need something more ... someone more. In Christ, we have a truer Abram. Jesus, like Abram, left Heaven to journey in a land that wasn't his home. Like Abram, his journey ended in death, but not before giving birth to a new line of God's people. But unlike Abram, Jesus didn't just die, showing us what faith looks like. He rose, enabling true and transformational faith. We look back on his life not just to inspire faith, but to enable it. Jesus' life, death, and resurrection is the ultimate example of God's faithfulness. We know we can trust him because he's shown himself to be ultimately trustworthy.

Jesus' life is more than an example, it's transformational.

The Smoke Clears: On Tragedy and Mission

As I stood and sang with hundreds of other Christians, "It is well with my soul," my heart was filled with hope. I was, along with other pastors, praying for the grace of God to shower our hurting home. In solidarity we were gathered, keenly aware of the presence of God with us. It was a great experience... interrupted. Leaving, I walked through the streets of downtown. An eery hush marked a city known for noise. The place seemed abandoned, except for military and police personnel—like something out of a sci-fi movie. The church meeting felt full. The city felt empty. This contrasting experience caused me to wonder what the church's next step should be. Honestly, I felt something like frustration. "Surely," I wondered, "there must be more Christians can do than pray and sing. Surely we can scatter as powerfully as we gather." I wasn't the only one felt this way. A friend in our church who came from the same event, through the same streets, summed it up by saying, "A simple 'is everyone here okay?' elicited streams of conversation from a shop clerk, a waiter—those who watched hundreds wander through their doors on Monday. Boston is aching and has no idea how to really, truly make it better."

So as the smoke clears, what's the church's move? Walking through downtown I found myself asking, "Lord, show me what you want us to do." I walked. I wondered. After some waiting, a thought occurred. Perhaps it was memory, perhaps divine guidance. I'm not skilled enough to parse between the two. But the thought came as though God himself were saying, "I've already told you what to do. Go." I knew what that mean. For the Christian, "go" is a very meaningful word. "Go" is the standing order that Jesus himself gave to the church which, until he returns, is in effect. We're to go to the hurting, empty streets. We're to go to the aching who can't make it better.

Going, by the way, doesn't mean simply showing up with water, blankets, and medicine. I mean, this is Boston. The best hospitals in the universe are here. It's a world-class city. The people don't lack for much, materially speaking. So when we go, what—or more accurately, who—do we bring? Well, put simply, Jesus. The city doesn't need my stuff, they need my savior.

Tragedy has a unique power to open the human heart to its frailty—to true need. If that is true, then should we not bring truest grace to truest need? The dramatic contrast between the prayer meeting and my street walking shook me. My city is hurting. Could it be that his people have a moment to speak to the pain that we're all suddenly aware of? Isn't it possible that God, in making beauty rise from ashes, is opening an opportunity to speak this truth? I think it's more than possible, it's what God does. The gospel of Jesus' death and resurrection shows us that God is able to make the greatest good arise from the most torturous evil. The emotional whiplash I felt between my two experiences last night showed me at least this: Boston should get a shot at singing, too. The church has to go into this city.

Yes, I will sing "It is well with my soul." And as the smoke clears from this tragedy, I'm going work harder than ever to invite Boston to sing along with me.

Sunday Post-Game (April 15, 2013)

Last night I tweeted that I am amazed at what God seems to be doing before my eyes. Amazed is a good word to describe how I feel about what I see. And I'm not just talking church size. While I am encouraged by our numerical growth (which is somewhere between 6 to 8 times the national average) I'm more encouraged by the stories I see God writing in our little chapter of redemptive history. A Harvard grad student gets radically saved and discipled and begins reaching his friends. Young men are led to real freedom from sin. The scriptures are being studied each week in a dozen-plus groups, often for the first time. And there are more stories. What do stories like this do for us? First, they should cause to thank God. Worship should always be the outcome of blessing. Second, they should inspire us to work harder than we ever have. If God has really opened a vein of gold in the granite of our city, then we'd better dig with all our might.

From yesterday, here are a few more thoughts...

Boston = Babel Maybe that sounds too simple. Or maybe our need for nuance is just symptomatic of our misunderstanding of each other, proving the point. I think we're just like the people of Genesis 11. (1) We've run from God, just like them. (2) Absent God's presence, we now build towers to get us up out of the muck of our situations. Success, intelligence, authenticity, or even religious obedience... we attempt to rise above our fallenness and return to heaven on our own. (3) God, knowing that such an enterprise is doomed, has come down to us. He's shown up in history in his Son. He's shown in up in Boston by his Spirit. (4) Just like the people of Babel were scattered out, he means to break our little towers and send us out into the world, too.

Tower Building is Tempting My how I do love to build my towers. I love the sense of accomplishment. My flesh likes to rise above others. It's good news to my soul that Jesus didn't come to help be build a better tower of self-sufficiency. He came to free from from the Sisyphus-like meaninglessness of self-helping myself (forgive me for that sentence, grammarians...)

We Need Practical Training If we're serious about taking the gospel out of our church walls, then we've got to be trained to do that. Evangelism, changed lives... these aren't things that come naturally. The leaders and I must put some practical tools together for living out this commitment. Got ideas? Great. Send them along.

I am amazed, but I'm also challenged. We must beg God for more grace to see more truth change more people for more joy for us and more glory for God.

So Lord, give us more.

Sunday Post-Game (March 25, 2012)

Yesterday was a milestone in our history as we kicked off two services! And by God's grace it went really well.

Our Volunteers are Awesome Our church has grown to the size now where there are a great many of our volunteers that I've never actually met. So, when I find someone who's face I know but name I don't turning up quite early on a Sunday to setup, I'm struck with gratitude. Our teams (and their leaders) did an outstanding job. It looked like we'd been doing this for years.

Pruning Hurts but It's Necessary I'll admit, part of me wasn't looking forward to two services. I mean, a full house just feels better than a less full house. But full houses can also make you lazy. "Oh look at us, we're so full this Sunday..." and motivation to scatter is sapped. In going to two services, we're not only creating more room for more people to worship Jesus. We're creating a small visual reminder that we all have a role to play in that. Prune the fruitful branch and what happens? Pain. But after the pain, more fruit.

Thank our Teams All our teams worked hard(er) yesterday. So, when you see someone next weekend carrying a gigantic speaker, teaching our kids, or welcoming guests, thank them for their service. Heck, invite them out to coffee, get to know them. Show some love to those who show it often.

You probably don't know this (because there's no reason you should) but the story of Cain and Abel was the very first text of Scripture I ever preached. Since first thinking about this story, it's never ceased to amaze me just how unapologetically real, raw, and uncensored the Bible is. Here are some lingering thoughts for your perusal.

Cain Thought God Owed Him You can see Cain's heart in the way he reacted to a "no" from God. Cain thought (like many of us) that God is obliged to accept us. We deserve a shot. We deserve acceptance. Cain was wrong, and so are we. God owes us nothing. That he gives us goodness at all should tell us what kind of good, loving, gracious sovereign we actually have.

Self-Pity is Sin When Cain was told no, first he got angry. His anger gave way to a puddle of self-pity in which he wallowed. Anger and self-pity are emotions we experience when we feel that someone has wronged us. Cain felt like God wronged him. Abel wronged him. He deserved to be angry. He deserved to be pitiful. This is the blindness that sin creates. It covers our ability to see that we, yes us, are the problem. Self-pity is sin.

No one Else to Blame Cain murdered Abel. Cain. It wasn't like he was from a bad part of town. There wasn't a bad culture. No poor schools to blame. No bad group of friends. We're so quick to look around at something other than our nature to blame for depravity. But this story won't let us. It's just the nature of this fallen human, one generation from paradise. The problem isn't (primarily) school, government, sex, drugs, rap music, friends, mom, dad, him, or her. It's you. It's me.

The Righteous Guy Died I realize that at any given moment there's someone on TV with a great suit and a plexiglass pulpit who'd like to sell you his book all about how if you're righteous and live by faith nothing bad will ever happen to you. The Bible, however, knows nothing of such nonsense. Abel was the first guy outside of Eden who was righteous by faith. And he was murdered. Doesn't seem fair? Not what you thought? How could a loving God? Remember, the inheritance of righteous in the next life is good enough to overshadow his temporary suffering in this one. It's a shadow and the sun. The sun shines the shadows away and the shadow leaves nothing but a memory.

The Righteous Guy (Figuratively) Rose Cain's line turned out to have lots of culture and no righteousness. Where was the promised redeemer of Genesis 3 coming from? From the line of Abel. Abel died, but Seth was born in his place. Figuratively speaking, the righteous line rose from death. Sound familiar? It should, because just as Cain killed Abel in sin, we killed Christ. Just as the ground opened to receive Abel's blood, Christ when into the ground. And just as Seth was born to take his place, Jesus came back to life so that all who might call on the name of the Lord would be saved.

Sunday Post-Game (March 18, 2012)

In the book of Jeremiah, the message of God was described as the burden of the Lord. Approaching the topic of the fall, that's exactly how I felt—burdened. Having spent a good amount of time thinking and praying through the roots of our fallenness, a few thoughts occur...

If Sin Doesn't Break our Hearts, then our Hearts are Already Broken. That is, if we are not emotionally moved by what we encounter in Genesis 3, then there's something wrong with us. Everything we hate, every injustice, and every sad fact is rooted in the rebellion and curses of Genesis 3. If we don't feel the weight of that, then something has happened to our capacity to feel anything.

Modifying Behavior will Never, Ever Work. The religious response to sin will never succeed in dealing with it, because sin is deeper than our actions. Sin is rooted in our autonomy and foolishness.

All Sin Begins with Autonomy Contrary to popular opinion, autonomy is not a virtue, but a damnable vice. Autonomy ("self-law") is the insistence that our own, individual capacity to reason is as authoritative as God's revelation. It's living life unhitched from God's lordship and leadership. This is the exact opposite of the way our minds should work. It's unreasonable to reason out from under the source of all reason (God). Yet, for us to sin, that's precisely what we must do: think independently from God. Eve did this when she saw that the fruit was desirable with her own eyes. Not God's eyes. Hers.

Autonomy Makes us Fools Once we've decided—even implicitly—to be our own masters (autonomous), then all our best wisdom will be foolishness. The Scriptures say that Christ is the wisdom of God by which the world was founded. True wisdom is found in the fear and reverance of the Lord. If we reject him, then what we think will make us wise really ends up making us fools. Eve thought the fruit would make her wise, but in the end she just became a fool, and we followed her.

Disobedience is the Visible Fruit of Autonomy and Foolishness On the surface, sin looks like all the bad things we do. Yet, we can't make it to bad behavior before we become autonomous fools. To change, something must be done about that deep, fibrous root of autonomy.

Jesus Rescues Autonomous, Foolish, Lawbreakers Jesus is better than Adam. He passed the test of temptation. Adam did not. He perfectly obeyed the law of God. Adam did not. He was not autonomous, but only did what his Father said. He lived his life submitted to God, full of wisdom, acting in obedience. If we trust him and ask him, all his perfection can be ours by faith.

The coming weeks hold great momentum and growth for all of us. But our growth will require faith and hard work. I can't wait until next week when we kick of two services at Aletheia!

Sunday Post-Game

Yesterday at Aletheia we kicked off our new teaching series in the book of Genesis. It was a great start, and I'm more excited than ever to dig into this crucial book. But the fact is, the scope of the book of Genesis is beyond what sermons and Sundays can capture. This 50 chapter book covers more time than any other book of the Bible. Taken in its most natural sections, I could happily find myself preaching through this book for 7 years. Let's be honest. No one really was begging me to do that. So, we wrote a book for you, hoping it would empower and encourage you to do some digging yourself.

The Point The main theme of Genesis 1-2 is simple: God creates. In those two words lie volumes of theological beauty, some of which we explored yesterday. These two words confront us with the fundamental reality of God, and his rights as creator to write our story. None of us get to self-define. None of us get to take God's good gifts and redefine them. Creation, humanity, marriage, sex, and work—all of these are good gifts, made by a good God, for a good purpose, within a good context. If God creates, then we don't get to change them, because they are not ours to change.

Secondary Issues There are some other issues that we bring to this text that—in my opinion and those of my commentators—are not the main point of the text. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't ask these questions, but it does mean that when we do, we must realize that the text wasn't written to answer these questions, primarily.

• Age of the Earth - This is an interesting in-house debate among Christians. What does Genesis teach regarding the age of the earth? Broadly, there are two camps: young earth and old earth. While there are dozens of varying theories within each heading, a few issues come up. Young earth advocates will point out that the text, read most naturally, leads us to think that God made the earth in six, literal, 24-hour-day periods. The best arguments I've seen for this position come from Answers in Genesis. More popular these days is the Old-Earth position. This view tends to synthesize some degree of evolution and modern cosmology with the biblical witness. Good work on this view can be found from Reasons to Believe. This is an old, often passionate debate. Before you dive in remember: unity in the essentials (creation, christology, the gospel), diversity in the non-essentials (age of the earth), and in all things charity (love those with whom you disagree).
• Evolution - Not surprisingly, neo-darwinian synthesis, DNA, and the exact date of the Cambrian Explosion are not mentioned in Genesis 1-2. Why? Because this work was written to Israel en route to the promised land, not to the director of the NIH. However, the scriptures do give us some guidelines on how to think about evolution. If God creates, then we cannot think of evolution in the way our atheistic counterparts do. It cannot be blind, merciless, and infinitely creative. (Creativity, by the way, can never be the product of a process, but only of a mind...) A lot of good work has been done on this topic. My favorite few books that open this up are Signature in the Cell (Meyer), Three Views on Creation, and Darwin's Black Box (Behe). Before you grind your axe over your favorite view, read. Always a good idea.
• The Goodness of Sex, Love, and Marriage - The Scriptures have a lot to say about sex, love, and marriage. These are all good gifts that God gave us for with a good context. Last year, I wrote my first book on the topic, and I'd like to shamelessly self-promote it to you.

Growth Recently, we've experienced a real surge of numerical growth in Sunday attendance. For that grace, I'm grateful. This has caused us to launch a second service, and think more about the future. Here are my thoughts about our growth:

• Everything good comes from God, and I'm not him. While your pastors are God's people, this growth is a gracious gift from our King, not due to primarily to any awesomeness on our part. So, make Jesus your rockstar, not your leaders.
• This increases our responsibilities. More people means more lives to steward and more disciples to make. So don't just sit back and watch the show. Get involved, get trained, and make disciples.
• Growth must always be rhythmic to be sustained. We must grow toward God in holiness, sanctification, and worship, and toward others in love, mission, and discipleship.
• Pray. Pray all the time. Pray that we'd make disciples, plant churches, reach campuses, and do more for the Kingdom as God gives more to us.

I'm pumped, people. Simultaneously grateful and more determined than ever, I'm ready for a great week alongside you.

Prayer & Fasting, Day 40: God Will.

I am watching over my word to perform it. (Jeremiah 11:12) I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose, (Psalm 51:6).

I, the Lord, do not change. (Malachi 3:6).

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20).

Have you ever worked on a project with someone who wasn’t dependable? Because they were flaky, you couldn’t depend on them. When they worked, their work was good, but you couldn’t really depend on them to be the same person or do the same job from one day to the next. Sound familiar? Maybe you know someone like that. Or, maybe you are someone like that.

We began be seeing that God is, and today we end by remembering that God will. All the different attributes of God, all of the acts of God, and all of the will of God will be accomplished. We do not have to doubt. We do not have to fear. There is no need for worry. God will be himself forever, and he will never, ever stop accomplishing his will.

This has two implications. First among them is this: because God will, we can. Who wants to work for a company that’s crashing? Who wants to sail a sinking ship? The fact that God will always remain fully himself gives us great confidence when we seek to do his will. He won’t leave us. He won’t change his mind. He is watching over his word to perform it. Therefore, working with him is always 100% guaranteed to bear fruit.

Additionally, we can rest. Because God will never change; because his plans never fail, we don’t have to be anxious. Rest is possible, because God will. Even when we don’t God will. Even when we fail, God will. Even if we’re incapable, God will. He looks into the world and says with full assurance, “My counsel will stand. I will accomplish my purpose.”

The life, death, resurrection, and promised return of Jesus are proof positive that God will. Will what? Will save, will love, will be uncompromisingly himself ... will stop at nothing to see his people redeemed. As we stare wonderingly into the attributes of God, may our hearts be ever convinced that the God we’re coming to know is the God who will never change, forever reign, and will always be fully himself.

Only when our hearts are captivated by the God who will can we fully be what he’s calling us to be. We can work because he will work. We can rest because he will accomplish. We can know him because he will always be the same.

Eternal God, thank you for doing and being all you will do and be. Thank you that you do not change. Thank you that you will always reign. The more I see of you the more I know I can work, because you will work with me. The more I work with you the more I can rest, because I know it is you who will accomplish your will. So God, I rest all my hope and peace in you. You will, so I can. 

Praise you, God. Amen.

Prayer & Fasting, Day 39: God is Truth.

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Number 23:19) Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. (Psalm 51:6).

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14).

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6).

Our culture is preoccupied with truth. We’re the kind of people who love to get to the bottom of things. We like our 20/20 exposé specials. We want to know the inside scoop. We value people with lots of degrees who’ve studies the facts. In short, we want to know that what we know is true.

But what about who we know? Are we as concerned that who we know is true?

This question may sound strange to you, but it wouldn’t sound strange to Jesus. Jesus introduced himself to humanity using a word that up to that time had never been attributed to a person. He called himself truth.

This makes us squirm a bit. We’re used to fact-truth. Truth comes in bullet points. We read truth on paper. We can’t know truth as a friend, can we? After all, truth is definitely propositional. That 2+2=4 is a fact that is true, but impersonal. I’m not friends with 2. I don’t get angry at 4. But Jesus says something fundamentally mindblowing. He says that he is truth.

God is not like us. He doesn’t lie. He doesn’t exaggerate. He tells the truth, because he is the truth. All truth derives from God, because God is the truth. He doesn’t just know truth “out there,” as though “2+2=4” was hanging out before he got around to creation. He is truth. And this fact is extremely important to us.

First, it means that any real search for truth will find its fulfillment in Jesus. Jesus has revealed himself to us full of grace and truth. That means that he’s knowable, and is inviting us to know him too.

This also means that lying is a big deal, because it isn’t just something God doesn’t like, it’s opposed to his very nature. Therefore, God wants his people to be gracious truth-tellers, just as Jesus was.

Finally, God’s truth-ness means that we can truly know him. Knowing God isn’t a game. It’s not a religious manipulation. We don’t have to worry about the next 20/20 special uncovering something false about him. If we know Jesus, we can be at peace in our souls. We know the truth, and in knowing him, we are now free.