There is so much out there for women that flies in the face of biblical womanhood. In fact, much of this is in the church. Much is really just an “evangelical” form of feminism. I want to commend to you a few wonderful resources that help women model biblical womanhood (GirlTalk and Revive Our Hearts). May God bless us all as we seek to rightly imitate biblical forms of manhood and womanhood.

Many of you know that I believe in the total depravity of mankind. This means we needed a new nature (new creation / new birth) because there is not one molecule of goodness in us that is redeeming. We need Christ’s righteousness to replace our self-righteousness. Well, that being true most of you also know that I favor authors / pastors like John Piper, R.C. Sproul, Mark Dever, C.J. Mahaney, John MacArthur and Al Mohler. If you’ll play the video below you will see these two worlds of mine clash together to form something rather amusing. Enjoy and if it just doesn’t make sense as to why this is funny, just chalk it up to your pastor needing to relax as much as anybody!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-GxkAJ1OBU]

This past Sunday night I introduced (in part) a ministry plan to the church body that could help us organize the ministries of the church to be better stewards of our resources and time. We only began the discussion. The next several Sunday nights will be devoted to further discussion on the ministry plan, a proposed ministry schedule and a plan on how we will prepare ourselves to get a much greater percentage of our body involved in ministry leadership.

The ministry plan we began discussing (for those of you not there) is simple and if you’ve navigated our new website you have begun to get the idea already. There is nothing essentially biblical about constructing a ministry plan, but there is much (in scripture) on being good stewards of the gospel in the local church and every member in the local church getting involved, employing their spiritual gifts and passions. From my observation, we are very similar to most other churches and that is we have about 20% of our active congregation actually serving, and too often in multiple positions.

My vision in all of this is not the construction of a ministry plan or the changing of our schedule. My vision is for effective ministry. And my vision for effective ministry is that the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, heard, seen and lived out in the simplest, most God-glorifying way possible. Bottom line, I just want us to be faithful and with all that we have been blessed with, our responsibility to be faithful is great.

I look forward to our further discussions on these issues. Also, let me assure that although I lay this before you, the staff has been involved all along the way in formulating these things and we want all of your input on these Sunday nights so that we can more effectively help equip you for the works of ministry to the glory of God. If you have time, go back and read through Ephesians 4 in its entirety. If you have ever wondered what my philosophy of ministry is, you will find it there.

On Another Note…

Be sure to check out Al Mohler’s Blog today. He gives an exceptional commentary (as always) regarding a phenomenon in Great Britain with an unusual number of doctors refusing to perform abortions.

It is difficult to express an appropriate response to such a monumental tragedy. If we are reminded of anything at all, it is that we live in a world that is more “fallen” than we realize and that God’s glory is more magnificent than we know (or are able to see as clearly as we should). We must pray for the families and friends of the victims and the gunman. There are numerous questions, but may we seek Christ as our single, comforting and purest answer. Instead of offering my words, let me commend to you a blog that John Piper published HERE in response to the tragic Columbine shootings many years ago.

8 days ago, I preached the most difficult sermon I’ve ever preached. Easter Sunday’s message on John 2:23-25 was understandably a curious choice for the day and I have received more feedback from that message than any I have ever preached in the past. First of all, anything I write here is not designed to solicit encouragement or chiding. I only want to communicate with you as your pastor, from a pastor’s heart.

Being committed to expository preaching (the meaning of the text is the meaning of the sermon) does not necessarily mean that you cannot deviate from the planned schedule occasionally, so there is a choice to be made. However, my choice is usually to simply continue on in the text even around holidays. One reason for this is that it exemplifies one benefit of expository preaching and that is the protection of the body from my own plans. Certainly the text in and of itself is difficult as it deals with the nature of saving belief, but it follows on the heels of the cleansing of the Temple where Christ prophesied about his own resurrection, which certainly would fit with Easter. Essentially, I felt it best to continue in the text knowing full well that many who come on Easter are special guests and some only attend church on such days.

My aim in the message was simply to present the weight of the text, which was to say that there is in fact a type of belief that DOES NOT save and there is a type of belief that DOES SAVE. That belief that does NOT save is based on a “spurious” decision that is marked by (usually) emotion and the focus is on the “signs” that Christ give not on Christ himself (to whom the signs point to). The object of our salvation is Christ and it is of eternal value to examine our lives to make certain that Christ knows us, which is even more significant than whether or not we think we know Christ. Matthew 7 is a difficult passage that exemplifies this fact. Many will think on “that day” that they have done much for Christ, but Christ’s response is that He did not know them. The issue here is full and complete dependence on Christ alone to save, not our works. But genuine, saving faith is marked by works. It is in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone that scripture alone reveals as the only way to salvation.

I know the message was difficult and even caused some very difficult Easter lunch conversations. However, I am grateful that many lunches on that day were not around the same family talk that so often garners the very little time we have together as families. It is certainly not my intent to cause this kind of thing, but as a pastor that loves you very much it is my intent to present the whole counsel of God’s word which will cause division at times. Matthew 10 is a very sobering chapter that reminds us that Christ is offensive and often that offense is within our own families.

I pray for God’s all-sufficient grace and mercy to be applied. I know that I will fail you at times and will enter the pulpit on occasion with impure motives. I can assure you, however, that every word on Easter was spoken with love and great difficulty. Please understand, I do not feel “persecuted” or anything of the kind. I just want to encourage you and exhort you to read the passages mentioned above to remember that the Word of God is living, active, sharp and often divisive. But the Word is also the only power of God that leads to salvation (Rom.1:16; 1 Cor.1:18).

If you search around the internet blogging world enough, you’ll find opinions of every kind, and “religion” is at the top of the list. Within that subject a damaging division is spoken of regularly, but it’s nothing new. What is this division? It is the division between being a christian in appearance and jargon vs. being a christian with just your lifestyle. In fact, in many contemporary churches today you can see videos and dramas that disparage the christian that totes around theology books, wear bumper stickers on their cars and dress themselves in basic “bookworm” attire. Now, I am no fan of bumper stickers, and I hope that my dress is simply “normal” and modest. Also, I agree in principle with the greater point of needing to focus on our lives making a difference. However, I very much am opposed to, and regularly battle, the tendency of the church (western contemporary church in particular) to say that you really cannot be a well-thought-out believer and well-lived-out believer at the same time. The historical statement is “(He is) so heavenly minded that he is no earthly good.” Again, I understand the sentiment, but scripture has charged that we be of sound doctrine and practice.

2 Timothy 3 is all about this unnecessary dichotomy. We don’t want to have the “form of godliness” but without its real power and the answer is the word of God (vv.16-17). I refuse to give in to this lie in the church today that we cannot be Christians of head AND heart. That our brains and our hands are engaged. That we realize that our good and sound doctrine makes us realize that our evaluation of genuine conversion by Christ alone at the end judgment will be evidenced by fruit (“serving the least of these” – Matt. 24,25), not a mere adherence to facts.

Honestly, this is my daily battle. I love theology and doctrine. I have failed at being prideful with these things, with pride being best expressed anytime I sin. Paul charged us to live what we’ve already attained (Phil.3:16), but just prior in that same chapter he charges us to always “press on.”

Our striving is always to learn more and practice more for the glory of God through Jesus Christ. As a local church (UBC), let us hold one another accountable and pray for one another to destroy this “division” in the church by being a people who humbly love the whole counsel of God’s Word and its doctrine, while loving to put into practice the power of the Word of God as we obey in our lifestyle, obey in our speech…and may it begin in our homes.

This Sunday night, April 15th @ 6:00pm, we will be concluding our series, “The Spiritually Minded Church”, based on Don Whitney’s, “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Church.” This week’s question for evaluation is “Why Pray with the Church?”. Following our discussion I am going to begin sharing with you a vision for the church that will extend over the next several weeks. I want to encourage you to be there to participate, discuss and pray for an effective, Christ-exalting ministry future for UBC.

These are really exciting times at UBC. I have never experienced such enthusiastic support from a body of believers and I thank God for your being teachable and embracing of expository preaching from your pulpit. Remember, as I have to remind myself daily, increased knowledge is not growth in Christ until that knowledge produces a greater affection and satisfaction in our Savior which results in the gospel being proclaimed. I look forward to our being together again soon, Lord willing.

As I have been preparing for our Easter Sunday celebration, I thought I would post my Easter blog the night before. This may seem “premature”, but I cannot help but think of the disciples as they were sitting around, hiding out from a similar fate as their leader (Christ), and consoling one another having not understood the references to the Temple being raised in 3 days after being destroyed or the suffering servant nature of the biblical Messiah, which was so contrary to the more political, religious one many anticipated. Imagine the questions, sorrow and uncertainty facing these followers.

I anticipate and expect a glorious morning of celebration Sunday morning, but what could compare to the joy of those sprinting disciples once they heard the news; or the “doubting” one’s hope as he held the nail-pierced hands; or the terror of political leaders as they had to pay off the soldiers to lie about what happened at the tomb. The point being, Christ either is our greatest joy or He is our greatest contention. I hope that you are finding that in Him is joy forever. I hope that your passion and your life reflect the joy that can be found only in a Savior that is ALIVE! He is not ‘THERE’! He is ALIVE! Do you live like you possess the greatest event in our history? I pray that you do.

If you’ve arrived here, it’s most likely because you have discovered the new ubcfayetteville.org. As the information is moved over, please be patient as it will take a few days to work out a few bugs mainly related to a few “appearance” items and the sermon downloads (these take a while to move – no comments on their length, please:).

Once it is up and running, you will be able to see descriptions of most of our ministries as well as some instruction and reminders throughout the site on finding your most lasting satisfaction in Christ alone. There is a calendar tool that will help keep you up to date on church-wide events as well as a secured log-in page to view prayer requests from within our church body (more on that later). For those of you who use iTunes (whether with an iPod or not) will be able to subscribe to an actual podcast of the Sunday sermons. For others, you will find that the the sermon series audio is easier to navigate with a media player built in with the option to just click “Download” so you can save it and listen later (no more need to “right click”). Obviously, this blog is an addition as well. We hope to better and more clearly communicate with you, but please understand that, as stated in my first blog, we will be very careful with the information we share and this increased level of communication will not replace the information we share during regular gatherings or church conferences.

We are very excited about the new site and how it can serve the body of UBC. Our ambition is to update the site almost daily and this blog should be added to several times a week. I am thankful for Tommy Morgan for all the work that he has put into this and Tim Challies (challies.com) for the overall design.

Blogging has become something of a cultural phenomenon. It has apparently moved from a fad to more of a mainstay for movements, forums, teenagers, college students, radicals, families and the church (both universal and local). As we begin interacting with blogs, let me communicate a few things about what Blogs should and should not accomplish.

What Blogs SHOULD accomplish…
Blogs have the opportunity to communicate important information to those who choose to view and participate. With that we must understand that the entire church does not observe blogs. Therefore, although Blogs help us communicate, they do not communicate to everyone, just more. Besides communicating information, Blogs exist to help others feel “connected.” Now, community is a very precarious thing and in our culture we have many false forms. For instance, many feel that they go to Starbucks to experience community, yet as you may have already observed, so many go to a coffee shop, plug headphones into iPods or laptops, work on their computers, essentially isolating themselves from others. Now, first of all, I do this myself and rather enjoy it, but I do not claim that this is a communal experience for me, although many wonderful “chance” meetings occur. Blogs can enhance the communal experience, but it can never emulate it or replace it…in PERSON.

What Blogs SHOULD NOT accomplish…
As eluded to above, Blogs should not replace interpersonal community that we experience only when we are together. So, although we can communicate much information via Blogs, we will never communicate all of the information. This means that Blogs will serve to connect the local body of Christ between times of regular weekly gatherings in Worship and special church conferences and meetings. Too often people have a false sense of connecting with the “universal” church by listening to podcasts or watching TV preachers. However, their spiritual gifts are not being exercised and they are not experiencing the accountability of close contact. Certainly those that are physically unable to attend are not really included in this discussion. The problem with community in our contemporary churches is that we create false forms all the time. Blogs cannot do this, or even hint at it.

Certainly the interaction that will take place on this site will be helpful. I will do my best to post relevant, thought-provoking comments, distill information appropriately and foster a greater connectivity with the local body of Christ known as University Baptist Church. As in all things, I seek to see God glorified and the body of Christ edified in my writing and in our interaction so that whether viewed by other believers or even those without Christ, there is honor brought to the name of Christ.

May God richly bless you all in the knowledge of His Word.