I read Seth Godin’s blog daily. He’s a marketer, but I am often stimulated to solid ideas about ministry. On September 22 he talked about how we argue for the status quo when comparing something new with what we already have. It ends this way:

Sometimes, we end up simply arguing for or against a given status quo, instead of the issue that’s actually at hand. And the danger is pretending you’re being fair, when you’re not. In this silly article from the Times, the author (and their editors) are wondering if oat milk and pea milk are a “scam.” This is a classic case of defending the status quo. Here’s a simple way to tell if that’s what you’re doing: imagine for a second that milk was a new product, designed to take on existing beverages made from hemp, oats or nuts. Defending oat milk against the incursion of cow milk is pretty easy. The author could point out the often horrific conditions used to create cow milk. “Wait, you’re going to do what to that cow?” They could write about the biological difficulty many people have drinking it. Or they could focus on the significant environmental impact, not to mention how easily it spoils, etc.

Or imagine that solar power was everywhere, and someone invented kerosene, gasoline or whale oil. You get the idea…

There are endless arguments to be had when new ideas arrive. The challenge is in being clear that we’re about to take a side, and to do it on the effects, not on our emotional connection to the change that’s involved. –Seth Godin, September 22, 2021

In the church, new stuff is always compared with old. Music is a classic example. We like what we like and different is, well, different.

If we want to run a Sunday morning church service differently, with interaction, a shorter sermon, and prayer together in small groups, we get a comment like my pastor friend received from one of his elders: “That’s not church.” (This was a blog I wrote way back in back in 2014. It captures this idea perfectly. Check it out!)

Suppose we were used to “church” as coming together in small groups, perhaps in homes, to pray together, share from the word together, even break the bread and drink the wine to remember the Lord, and someone said, “Here’s a better way. We’ll all come together in one big building. I’ll share what I got from the word this week while you all listen. I’ll ‘lead us in prayer’ while you listen. And breaking bread and drinking wine doesn’t count unless I have prayed over it first.” Would we shoot that down as “That’s not church!”?

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43.18, 19 ESV)

This is the last in our series from Isaiah 28: disciple-making according to Isaiah, using a farming metaphor.

He opened with an observation I interpreted to mean: repentance: required, yes; never-ending, no.

Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech. Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? (Isaiah 28.23, 24, ESV)

If we want fruit, we must sow seed. It’s not enough just to clear out the ground.

When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border? (Isaiah 28.25, ESV)

Different seeds, individual differences, and this brings us to our final lesson: there are differences in bringing people to maturity, as with sowing seed, and there is an end to the process, as with repentance.

Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod. Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it. (Isaiah 28.27, 28, ESV)

Sometimes, we are tempted to treat everyone the same. Everyone takes the same course in the same amount of time. Everyone I disciple goes through my favorite tool. Nope. I don’t do it that way. I have my favorite discipleship tools, but not every tool is a fit. So I change!

A more typical scenario is that everyone stays in training indefinitely. After all, it’s been often said, “Sunday School is the one school from which there is no graduation.”

Really? Why? “He does not thresh it forever” is good counsel. Colleges and trade schools don’t keep students forever, they get them to a level of competence and launch them. Why can’t individual disciple-makers and churches do the same?

These are simple concepts, often ignored. Let’s look one more time at the whole passage:

Isaiah 28:23-29 (ESV)
23 Give ear, and hear my voice;
give attention, and hear my speech.
24 Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?
Does he continually open and harrow his ground?

Repentance is important, but it’s not ongoing.

25 When he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,
and put in wheat in rows
and barley in its proper place,
and emmer as the border?
26 For he is rightly instructed;
his God teaches him.

We sow different kinds of seed according to individual differences, led by the Holy Spirit.

27 Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod.
28 Does one crush grain for bread?
No, he does not thresh it forever;
when he drives his cart wheel over it
with his horses, he does not crush it.
29 This also comes from the LORD of hosts;
he is wonderful in counsel
and excellent in wisdom.

There are individual differences in bringing people to maturity also, and God is standing by to lead us in this area, too.

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. (Colossians 1.28, ESV)

Yesterday we began considering Isaiah’s farming metaphor applied to the discipleship process. He opened with an observation I interpreted to mean: repentance: required, yes; never-ending, no.

Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech. Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? (Isaiah 28.23, 24, ESV)

If we want fruit, we must sow seed. It’s not enough just to clear out the ground.

When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border? (Isaiah 28.25, ESV)

Different kinds of seed and different methods of sowing:

• Scatter dill
• Sow cumin
• Put wheat in rows

If I’m using this as a metaphor for teaching others, I must recognize individual differences both in what they need, how I teach, and how they respond. (Again, see the parable of the sower, Matthew 13.1 – 23.) Some content can be picked up from a lecture (sermon) or a book. Skills (how to have daily time with God, how to pray, how to do Bible study) need to be demonstrated and practiced one-to-one or in small groups.

People are different: gospel presentations (e.g., the Bridge, the Four Laws, etc.) don’t guarantee results; discipleship tools (e.g., the 2:7 Series) that are effective for some people will not work for others.

This is why Isaiah is clear that we need to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit:

For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him. (Isaiah 28.26, ESV)

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. (John 16.7, 8, ESV)

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. (John 16.13, ESV)

I’m enjoying my annual reading plan, working my way through Isaiah this month, along with finishing Luke, Hebrews, and Proverbs. Isaiah 28 contains a little section I discovered years ago: relational disciple-making according to Isaiah, cleverly disguised as a discourse about farming. Jesus often talked about seed, most notably in the parable of the sower (see Matthew 13.1 – 23).

Let’s see what Isaiah has to say and how it relates to helping someone move from unbelief, to conversion, to maturity. Here’s the beginning:

Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech. Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? (Isaiah 28.23, 24, ESV)

What does plowing do? Plowing prepares the ground to receive seed. In the context of disciple-making, we’re talking about encouraging repentance. Compare Hosea 10.12:

Break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. (ESV)

And here’s my takeaway from Isaiah’s word: I’ve attended churches where pastors majored on repentance. Every week, week after week, “You sinners need to repent!” Plowing is necessary, repentance is necessary, but neither goes on indefinitely. “Does he continually open and harrow his ground?” It’s a rhetorical question, and the answer is NO.

Individuals can drag out the repentance process, too. They attend those “turn or burn” sermons and somehow feel better about themselves for having been yelled at. But they never actually receive the seed of God’s word into their lives. They’ve done the tearing down but not the building up. We’ll talk about that tomorrow – sowing and receiving the seed.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. (Hebrews 6.1, ESV)

I was struck with a new perspective on this passage in Hebrews 9, which might relate to what I wrote yesterday about the “boat.”

Under the old covenant the blood of bulls, goats, and the ashes of a heifer were sprinkled on those who were defiled and effectively cleansed them outwardly from their ceremonial impurities. Yet how much more will the sacred blood of the Messiah thoroughly cleanse our consciences! For by the power of the eternal Spirit he has offered himself to God as the perfect Sacrifice that now frees us from our dead works to worship and serve the living God. (Hebrews 9.13, 14, TPT)

“Frees us from our dead works to worship and serve the living God.” A lot of our Christian activity is dead works. Church attendance can be a dead work. Even putting on the “church service” that others attend can be a dead work. Believe me – I’ve worked on church staff.

It takes real effort to sustain life (enthusiasm) in any activity. A new activity feels fresh when we begin, but pretty soon, it can become dead. Even daily “time with God” can be a dead activity. Navigator Skip Gray said years ago, “Many people fellowship with a habit, not with God.” 

“You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” (Revelation 3.1, ESV, from the letter to the church at Sardis.) 

I can be dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2.1, 2).

I can participate in dead works (Hebrews 9.14, above).

Returning to the parable of the two sons in Luke 15, of the two sons:

• One was dead in sins

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. (Luke 15.24, ESV)

• The other was involved in dead works

Now his older son was in the field, …(Luke 15.25, ESV)

But he answered his father, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command…” (Luke 15.29, ESV)

Isaiah tells Israel that their religious fasting is a dead work:

³  ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers.
⁴  Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.
⁵  Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD?
⁶  “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
⁷  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? (Isaiah 58.3 – 7, ESV)

It pleases God more when we demonstrate godliness and justice
than when we merely offer him a sacrifice. (Proverbs 21.3, TPT)

My friend Hanh, a Jesuit priest, told me that a lady called to ask his opinion about her attending a church that still uses the Latin Mass, a practice that was supposed to go away after Vatican II. Changes included:

• The widespread use of common languages in the Mass instead of Latin
• The ability to celebrate the Mass with the officiant facing the congregation. (Previously, the priest faced away from the congregation, and the people were said to “attend” Mass, not “participate” in the Mass, according to Hanh.)

These changes…remain divisive among those identifying as traditionalist Catholics. – Second Vatican Council, Wikipedia

Father Hanh is deeply opposed to the continued practice of the Latin Mass, using a language most people can’t understand, intensifying the divide between clergy and laity, making it difficult for people to actually have a relationship with God. Hanh told the lady who asked his opinion:

Do you know about the Vietnamese Boat People? [Hanh himself escaped South Viet Nam with his family after the fall of Saigon in 1975.] The boats were very important. Very important. However, I don’t use a boat today. I drive around in a car, and when I need to travel a long distance, I use an airplane. Just because the Latin Mass was important in the past doesn’t mean it’s important today. – Father Hanh, SJ

What practices do we hang on to? Practices that might have been useful once, but may not be useful anymore?

• We grew up with the “Sunday Night Evangelistic Service.” This is a practice, I’m told, that originated in the early days of gas lights. The churches had them when few others did. So some churches lit the gas lights and had a Sunday night service, attended by curious onlookers, with whom they shared the gospel. The practice continues in some churches despite the fact that a visitor hasn’t been in a Sunday night service in decades.
• Some folks are still tied to the King James Version, an English translation of the bible that was really effective when it was written in 1611. I grew up with it, and there are parts that have a majestic feel and a flow of language that is truly beautiful. However, like Latin, we don’t speak Elizabethan English anymore. “Quit you like men” (1 Corinthians 16.13) means exactly the opposite today of its original intention. And who knows what “I trow not” (Luke 17.9) means? (To be clear, if you understand the KJV and like to use it, I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with your insisting that everyone else use it, which some folks do.)

These are just two examples of “boats.” I don’t know what your “boat” is. It could be related to music or preaching styles, to certain forms of Sunday morning worship, or to programs in your church that are long past being effective. I’m asking God to make me sensitive to the boats in my life.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. (1 Corinthians 13.11, ESV)

So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Mathew 15.6 – 9, ESV)

I usually don’t get into current events, but as a math guy, I can’t let this one go. CNN has posted this headline:

Note that the US population has more than tripled since 1918. The headline should NOT be “despite 103 years of medical advances…” but “BECAUSE of 103 years of medical advances, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed 1/3 the proportion of Americans than were killed in the 1918 flu pandemic.”

In fairness, the fine print of the article does include something like what I just wrote.

What are the percentages? So far, according to the official numbers, we have 675,000 deaths from COVID-19 with a population of 328 million. That’s 0.2 percent. (One-fifth of one percent) In 1918, if we had 675,000 deaths, that’s 0.6 percent. (Just over one-half of one percent)

I’m not trying to minimize COVID-19. I’ve known people who were very sick and friends of friends have died. But a bit of perspective is in order.

Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD, and false scales are not good. (Proverbs 20.23, ESV)

Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. (Isaiah 8.12, ESV)

My friend and former pastor John Ed Mathison put me on to a story I hadn’t seen before. A 31-year-old man, Jerome Moody, drowned at a swimming pool party in New Orleans in 1985. The party was a celebration by the New Orleans lifeguards of a summer swim season in which there had been no drownings. You can’t make this stuff up. Here’s the way the New York Times reported it at the time:

A guest at a party for lifeguards celebrating their first drowning-free swimming season in memory drowned Tuesday, the director of the New Orleans Recreation Department said today. Madlyn Richard, the department director, said the body of Jerome Moody was found on the bottom at the deep end of a department pool as the party ended. She said Mr. Moody, who was 31 years old, was not a lifeguard, but four lifeguards were on duty at the party. – A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 2, 1985, Section A, Page 7 of the National edition with the headline: Victim at Lifeguards’ Party. 

John Ed’s take was something like are we too busy celebrating our success to be doing something significant? Another perspective is this: are we paying attention? And do we have a bias for action?

• Are we sitting in church, enjoying the service, thinking what a fine church we have, while the person sitting next to us or in front of us is drowning in a major life crisis?
• A friend of mine said to me recently that he was disillusioned with his church, and I didn’t even take time to pursue that. (I’m going to try to remedy that one.)
• How are our neighbors doing? Have we asked?

Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul. (Psalm 142.4, ESV)

As he passed by, he saw a man… (John 9.1, ESV)

I can’t leave the subject of passing the baton without thinking about the time I preached this on a Sunday night nearly 20 years ago when I was on church staff. It was a large church, but the Sunday night service had dwindled to about 100 people, mostly older. So I took the opportunity to talk about passing the baton. I even had a baton in my hand to make the point. I reminded them that their generation was dying off. That they needed to be serious about training the generation behind them to follow Jesus. For example:

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. (Titus 2.3 – 5, NIV, emphasis mine)

I will never forget that a few days later, one of the older guys (probably about the age I am now!) came by my office. The conversation went like this:

• “That was a really good sermon Sunday night! You should think about preaching that to some younger people.”
• “Younger people? I was talking to you!!”

Paul took seriously his responsibility to train up the next generation, writing to Timothy:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction… For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4.1, 2, 6, 7, NIV)

I wrote earlier about the bad baton exchange that cost the U.S. men a chance to compete for medals in the 4×100. The application then was teamwork. But there’s another obvious application for the baton: it’s passing leadership on to the next generation. I write often about generational ministry:

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 2.2, NIV)

Paul -> Timothy -> Reliable People -> Others

A superb example of passing the baton, literally and figuratively, occurred in the 2012 London Olympics in which the U.S. Women’s team set a world record in the 4 x 100. If you want to see what a baton pass is supposed to look like, you can see the video here (or click the picture). This picture, capturing the moment just after the baton pass, shows veteran olympian Allyson Felix (right) clapping and shouting encouragement to the runner she’s just passed the baton to. GO! GO! GO!

That’s what’s it’s supposed to look like. I want the people I’ve invested in to be more effective in ministry than I am. I don’t want to just “teach” and have people say what a fine teacher I am. I want them to “go and do likewise.” Jesus did:

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14.12, NIV)