I was reading a few days ago from “God’s Loving Presence” by Ignatius of Loyola. Here’s a snippet:

I look at all the creatures of the earth and in space, and I remind myself that God created them, and continues creating them, and dwells within them.  Through eons and eons God has remained faithful to every created thing.  At this very moment, rocks and stones are solid and can be used for building because God is faithful to creation.  Plants and herbs turn to the light, grow, and can be used for food and healing because God is faithful.  Animals have sight and smell and feeling; have instincts and impulses that move herds and flocks to migrate; butterflies and hummingbirds to sip nectar from flowers—all of that because God is faithful and sustains all created things…

Then I think about myself, and I ask what this means to me.  God present at my conception;  God present at my birth and my growth into infancy… (Emphasis mine)

“God present at my conception” pulled me up short. I was adopted at birth by (then) Army Air Corps Captain Norris Ewell and his wife Rudell. I found out in 1986, at age 39, from a conversation with the obstetrician who delivered me (a long story) that my biological mother was a 40-year-old, unmarried, Army nurse. I was her first (and probably only!) child. Therefore, I am the product of an illicit affair, involving at least one, and possibly two, officers in the U.S. Army.

I’m not sure that’s as good a story as my friend, Pastor Bob Kaylor, also adopted, whose biological parents were officers in the Salvation Army (not married to each other)!

But Bob and I are in good company according to Pastor Ed Rowell who presented evidence in a sermon back in 2013 that King David was likely the product of an affair. That would explain why his brothers didn’t like him and why he was relegated to tending sheep (a low-status position). Look it up: David had two sisters, Abigail and Zeruiah (1 Chronicles 2.13 – 17), whose father was Nahash (2 Samuel 17.25, 26). Ed believes that Jesse had an affair with Nahash’s wife, producing David. Later, Jesse must have married her, and she brought her two daughters into the mix. (You can’t make this stuff up!)

But this back story sheds light on a well-known verse:

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51.5, ESV)

We tend to spiritualize the verse as, sure, we’re all born in sin, ever since the Fall. But the language is plain, and David is saying something about himself. And he’s saying something very important: it doesn’t matter what our background is. God can and does use any of us. For that, we can be thankful.

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead… (Philippians 3.13, ESV)

So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose. For he knew all about us before we were born and he destined us from the beginning to share the likeness of his Son. This means the Son is the oldest among a vast family of brothers and sisters who will become just like him. (Romans 8.28, 29, Passion Translation)

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm 139.13 – 16, ESV)

It wouldn’t hurt to have a little positive news, would it? Our friend, Navigator Debbie Friley, lives in the Tampa/St Petersburg area of Florida. In addition to being a marvelous evangelist and first-class disciple-maker, she’s also an artist, including photography and calligraphy. My favorite reads:

You always have time for that which you put first!

I apply that to daily time with God and exercise. But this is about another use of Debbie’s calligraphy. She put together packets of 12 of her cards and gave them to essential workers in her area. Here’s a sample:

Her effort caught the interest of the Tampa Bay Times on May 1. Here are some snippets from that article:

St. Petersburg mission worker and artist Debbie Friley was wondering how she could help the people working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. She was talking to a friend about it, who brought up how much people love the calligraphy greeting cards with inspirational messages that Friley has been making for 30 years.

After praying about which ones to choose out of about 800 variations, Friley said she selected 12 that she hoped would be most encouraging. A group of six friends spent a weekend in April on her large screened-in porch — while keeping six feet apart — assembling the cards into 400 packets. She called them “Life-Giving Words.”

As of Thursday, she only had about 70 packets left. They have been distributed to hospitals, postal workers, grocery store workers and sanitation workers.

Debbie, reflecting on the experience, shared:

Wow! What a great team God provided to make this possible! Not only did we have a great team putting all the cards together but people still keep coming to get cards to pass out! What an answer to prayer! And we made the online Newspaper! We are hoping it will “spur on others” to also give to those that have put themselves in harm’s way for all of us! Please pray that all who continue to receive these cards will know how appreciated they are as well as have their hearts stirred to seek God when they read the cards & the scriptures penned on the letters. May God put many questions in their hearts and send His ambassadors to give them His answers!

It’s a wonderful story, isn’t it? And Debbie is a good example.

Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. (Matthew 5.16, MSG)

“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.  “Bring them here to me,” he said. (Matthew 14.17, 18, NIV)

Continuing our theme of what ought the church to be producing, here’s an uplifting take from Heather Holleman, English teacher at Penn State, whose blog I read daily.

This morning, I’m leading a devotion on some parts of the book of Jeremiah that have resonated with me. I love, for example, the great promise of how the Lord cares for His people. He says, “I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding” (Jeremiah 3:15). It occurs to me that, at my age, I’m the shepherd. I’m not the dependent child who must keep searching for shepherds. At some point, we become the shepherd for others. – Heather Holleman, May 8, 2020

“At some point, we become the shepherd for others.” There’s the goal! Pastors can’t get around to everyone. Ideally, the church should be filled with shepherds. Ideally, all members should be shepherds or should be becoming shepherds. Yes? Yes! Why not?

Today is Mother’s Day so Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers, and a reminder that mothers are co-shepherds of their family (with Dad if he’s there and taking his share of the shepherding role). I’m not the first to think of this: here’s one of many articles I just discovered, encouraging mothers in their shepherding role at home. The Apostle Paul expands the call:

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women… (Titus 2.3, 4, ESV)

And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them. (Psalm 78.72, NIV)

As we continue to think about Finding New Ways, a series that started this past Tuesday, we ought to be thinking about how we measure success. As a statistics guy, I have to say that most churches mainly measure what’s easy to measure: budgets and bodies. How many are coming? How much are they giving?

According to the Barna organization, this trend is continuing with the computer-delivered services. And some are wise enough to call that practice out:

If you’re looking just at attendance numbers, IP addresses or Facebook watch numbers right now, you’re just trying to measure content to consumer. – Kenny Jahng, founder and CEO of Big Click Syndicate

But “content to consumer” is what churches have always measured. John Stonestreet of Breakpoint was lamenting the loss of in-person Sunday worship services and hoping that people don’t get used to just doing it from home. In the middle of that, he inadvertently (I think) identified the problem:

In fact, if we’re not feeling a serious loss right now, we should be worried. If remote services on a laptop feel normal, then church has become nothing more to than a spectator activity, and we have become, well, spectators to worship rather than worshipers. – John Stonestreet

I think “spectators” is precisely what most church-goers have been conditioned to be. And as long as we measure only attendance and giving, spectators are what we’ll produce. The Barna article goes on:

We’ve always been so infatuated with size, but it’s never the measure of impact. What does it matter that you exist? What does it matter what you’re saying? What does it matter to my own life? Those are always the metrics...If it’s about discipleship and spiritual growth,…we should measure actual practice, actual engagement, and actual connection. – Danielle Strickland

To put it even more succinctly, one pastor said to me:

We’re good at measuring how many people come. We need to figure out how to measure how many people go!

I agree, and I wish I had answers. But if we continue to have the right objective (making disciples) and ask the right questions about how well we’re doing that, we may get there. For example from the First Steps that we wrote about two days ago, we can begin to ask and answer important questions:

• How many folks are actually meeting with God most days? What is God saying to them? What are they doing about it? Who are they sharing with?
• Starting with the pastor, who is intentionally investing in another person? What materials or methods are they using? How many of those people are investing in someone themselves? Who and how many are involved in intentional disciple-making relationships (as a growing disciple or as a mentor)?
• How are people engaging at work, school, or in their neighborhoods? How are we doing at modeling godly character, making good work, ministering grace and love, molding culture, being a mouthpiece for truth and justice, or being a messenger of the gospel? (The 6Ms from Fruitfulness on the Frontlines.)

You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. (Daniel 5.27, NIV)

[Church leaders are] to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4.11 – 13, NIV)

To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. (Revelation 3.1, NIV)

Yesterday I mentioned my friend and former pastor Dr. Jim Singleton who has been a faithful disciple-maker for many years. In addition to spending a lot of time together leading a men’s Bible study on Tuesday mornings, we also spent a fair amount of time on the baseball field. Jim loves baseball, and managed our “Over-50” team of “has-beens” and “never-wases.” (I was in the latter group!)

Anyway, the point is, before choosing vocational Christian ministry, Jim seriously contemplated being a sportscaster. When Neil Hudson, author of Imagine Church, an advocate of “whole-life discipleship,” visited Jim’s seminary class a few years ago, Neil posed this question to the class of young seminarians:

“Would Jim have made as big an impact for the Kingdom as a sportscaster as he has as a minister?”

After some discussion, the class reached the conclusion that Jim indeed has had more of an impact as a minister than he would have as a sportscaster. Neil’s response?

This is very troubling.

It’s troubling on several fronts. First, God has used all kinds of people to advance his work, many of whom had “secular” jobs: Joseph and Daniel were prime ministers in pagan countries, David was a king, Joshua was a general, and the list goes on. Second, those in the “secular” workplace often have access to all kinds of people who would never come to church. Who’s to say in which arena Jim would have reached the most people?

Finally, and most troubling the more I think about it is that the young seminarians and many other pastors really believe that their work is more important than other people’s work. One pastor said in a sermon: “My job is to feed the sheep; your job is to serve the sheep, by, for example, keeping the nursery on Sunday mornings.” In so doing, that pastor communicated that his work was Kingdom work. The best you could do is support him on Sundays.

In fact, he had a building full of people strategically positioned all over his town and its university. People who were around people that pastor will never meet. And it didn’t occur to him that he should be fulfilling his biblical mandate to equip them. Don’t miss this:

The pastor’s job is to support the members’ ministries, not the other way around.

The Apostle Paul was clear:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service… (Ephesians 4.11, 12, NIV)

We can cheer the 14th affirmation [of the Manila Manifesto]: “We affirm that every congregation must turn itself outward to its local community in evangelistic witness and compassionate service.” But it does not say that… “Every congregation must turn itself outward in evangelistic witness and service to the communities where their people spend their time [but it should!]” – Mark Greene, Executive Director of LICC, at the Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization, 2010.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. (Philippians 2.14 – 16, ESV)

I ended yesterday with my commentary on 2 Timothy 2.2: “Pass on what you heard from me…to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others.” (MSG)

2 Timothy 2.2: it’s so easy, anyone can do it, even laypeople! It’s so important everyone must do it, even pastors!

Here are three simple “first steps” applicable to pastors or lay people:

(1) Teach people to have daily time with God so that they are connecting with and hearing directly from God.

(2) Pray for God to give you one person to invest in. If you can’t give one person, one hour, once/week, you need to rethink what else you’re doing. This is a critical step for a pastor since the pastor needs to model for the laypeople what to do. My friend and former pastor Dr. Jim Singleton, now a professor at Gordon-Conwell Seminary in Boston, writes:

You can have a realistic expectation that a pastor could do a micro-expression of discipleship every year. I did that for 29 years. Today, we have a discipleship initiative at the seminary, and I am discipling four pastors-to-be now – plus two men in the church. 

Jim has developed his own content, but there are a lot of wonderful tools out there, as I’ve written about before. This page lists a lot of them.

(3) Begin to implement the Imagine Church message of helping everyone make a contribution where they are. Teaching everyone that they are on mission even if they’re not fully-developed “disciple-makers.” This goes to the 6Ms, borrowed from Mark Greene’s book Fruitfulness on the Frontline, which I blogged about beginning February 4, 2019.)

Those steps are doable by anyone starting today.

He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. (Colossians 1.28, 29, NIV)

I wrote yesterday on the need for pastors and churches to find new ways to meet people’s spiritual, emotional, and discipleship needs instead of merely using technology to replicate Sunday morning.

The challenge is that many pastors don’t seem to see the need to find new ways of meeting discipleship needs. For example, several years ago, a pastor, retiring (early) from active ministry, chose for his final sermon instructions from Paul to Timothy. The pastor focused on these four points:

• Be faithful in your duties (1.8)
• Hold on to sound doctrine (1.13, 14)
• Guard your heart and your relationships (2.22-24)
• Don’t be surprised when hard times come (3.12-15)

These are certainly good instructions, and the pastor wanted to make some points to the folks in the congregation upon his departure. But I have to wonder, why did he leave out 2 Timothy 2.1, 2?

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.1, 2, NIV)

As advice for members of a congregation, you can’t do better than “be strong in grace” and “invest in others.”

• Take care of yourself–don’t sit back and wait for the next pastor to feed you. Take responsibility to be strong. And you only become strong by daily training.

• Invest in others–don’t think about whether you’re being fed or not; feed others!

I’m afraid those concepts are not on most pastors’ radars. And it’s hard to preach about what you’re not doing. 2 Timothy is written first and foremost to a pastor. And 2 Timothy 2.2 is clear that the pastor is supposed to invest in others so that they become leaders who invest in others.

I’ll have a couple of simple suggestions tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s my commentary on 2 Timothy 2.2, which reads like this in The Message: “Pass on what you heard from me…to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others.”

2 Timothy 2.2: it’s so easy, anyone can do it, even lay people! It’s so important everyone must do it, even pastors!

If you’re a regular reader of The Ewellogy, you know that I am a huge fan of The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, founded by John Stott in the early 80s (https://www.licc.org.uk/). Here is their vision:

We have a dream that every Christian would go out into their bit of God’s world confident that God can work through them, confident that Jesus is good news for the people they meet, good news for the things they do, good news for the organisations they engage in.

And of course opportunities abound. 98% of Christians spend 95% of their waking lives ‘on the frontline’ – in shops and schools and shelters, in homes and offices and gyms.

Several years ago I hosted LICC’s Neil Hudson presenting the message of his excellent book Imagine Church. In the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, what does LICC recommend for churches? On May 3 they posted answers from pastors to the question: What would you pray for God to do in this context to serve people in this season? They responded:

• Instead of trying to keep old ways and systems going simply by utilizing new technology, pray that we would grasp the direction the Spirit is leading, helping us find new ways to meet people’s spiritual, emotional, and discipleship needs.
• Perhaps there are people who will experience real conversion during this season, coming see to see Christianity as a relationship rather than as religious observance. May we see what God is doing, as he calls his people back to what matters most, to be his ambassadors wherever we find ourselves.
• People have said that they are excited to finally gather together again because it will be “amazing”. Surely every Sunday should be like this?! Pray that we may grow in appreciation and praise through this.

I especially resonate with the first one. It’s nice to use technology to simulate the Sunday gathering, but how can we get on with finding “new ways to meet people’s spiritual, emotional, and discipleship needs”?

I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up… (Ephesians 4.11, 12, NIV)

I wrote yesterday about the importance of a dual focus: the Word AND the Spirit. It’s fitting that we publish this today. It’s Star Wars Day: “May the Fourth be with you!”

If you’re not a Star Wars fan, I’m sorry, but there’s a lesson in thinking about the power (the Force) that was an essential element in the Star Wars stories. Power should be an essential element of our stories too:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1.8, ESV)

OK, back to the Word AND Spirit theme. Here’s a lesson from the world of music. You may know that I’ve played piano all my life, and my wife, June, taught piano as a second career. She is very big on “musicality” – something that is sometimes lost even among today’s concert artists who seem to be playing faster and faster…because they can.

At any rate, there’s a difference between playing all the notes correctly and making music. A few years ago, my son-in-law, a high school band director, was short some players and asked me to sit in with my trumpet. He was desperate because he and I know that I’m not very good on trumpet, especially in a band setting (I’m self-taught and don’t have a lot of band experience). I sat next to another high school band director, a drummer by training, who was filling in on trumpet. He played every note, exactly on time, exactly on pitch, but also all notes at the same deafening volume. It sounded like a jack-hammer. I shouldn’t criticize because he could at least play the notes, but it wasn’t musical.

It reminded me of something Seth Godin wrote about his clarinet experience:

Starting at the age of nine, I played the clarinet for eight years. Actually, that’s not true. I took clarinet lessons for eight years when I was a kid, but I’m not sure I ever actually played it.

Eventually, I heard a symphony orchestra member play a clarinet solo. It began with a sustained middle C, and I am 100% certain that never once did I play a note that sounded even close to the way his sounded.

And yet…And yet the lessons I was given were all about fingerings and songs and techniques. They were about playing higher or lower or longer notes, or playing more complex rhythms. At no point did someone sit me down and say, “wait, none of this matters if you can’t play a single note that actually sounds good.” – Seth Godin, March 2014

It’s the word AND the spirit. You can’t play the clarinet without fingerings and songs and techniques…or complex rhythms (the Word), but you also need musicality (the Spirit).

I wrote about this just over a year ago using the analogy of paint-by-number versus real art. It’s the same principle.

We need Spirit-empowered, Word-directed life and ministry. Jesus knew that:

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20.22, ESV)

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24.45 – 49, ESV, emphasis mine)

I’m still meditating on John 20.19 – 23, and a new thought popped out from verse 22:

After he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20.22, ESV)

You wouldn’t build a theology around the first part of this verse, but here’s what hit me:

• Breathed on them: the Holy Spirit
• Said to them: the Word of God

It’s both: the Spirit AND the Word. Most of our traditions emphasize one or the other. I know many learned Bible teachers who excel at sharing truth, but they’re not so good at the fruit of the Spirit. They’re not open to the movement of the Spirit in others. Some are not very loving or kind, especially to those who disagree with them. Other folks seek ecstatic experiences of the Spirit, but they are sometimes ill-informed on the Word.

One way to capture both is to read the Bible, not in an academic way, but while being open to what God’s Spirit may say to us while we’re reading.

Here’s the Apostle Paul receiving direct guidance from a verse that is clearly Messianic. Isaiah 49.6 is about Jesus…

Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” [Isaiah 49.6] When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. (Acts 13.46 – 49, NIV, emphasis mine)

Tomorrow I want to share an example from music.

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. (John 6.63, ESV)