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Contents

Editor’s Note

Jonathan Leeman

For the Pastor

The Obvious and Not-So-Obvious of Staff Management

Some of the wisdom that pastors need for managing their staff is basic proverbial stuff; but some of it requires a little more spiritual discernment.

By Mark Dever

Senior Pastor as Servant’s Servant’s Servant

In order to figure out how to serve his staff, this senior pastor—get this!—actually asked his staff.

By Jeramie Rinne

Do You Disciple Your Staff?

What goes around comes around, so disciple your staff to disciple you.

By Mark Mullery and Vince Hinders

Pastors’ Forum: Staff Meeting Best Practices

We asked a host a pastors to give us their best ideas for leading staff meetings. This email correspondence ensued.

FOR THE PASTOR AND HIS STAFF

Dear Senior Pastor, Sincerely, the Associate Pastor

Senior pastors are not islands. This associate has several insightful tips for reminding senior pastors how much they have to benefit from the rest of their staff.

By Andy Johnson

Dear Associate Pastor, Sincerely, a Former Associate Pastor

The church isn’t yours, it’s his. Then again, it’s kind of yours, not just his. Then again, it’s neither of yours, it’s His.

By Michael Lawrence

Dear Staff, Sincerely, the Senior Pastor

Here a few ways a church staff can bless the whole church body by blessing their pastor.

By Jeramie Rinne

MISCELLANEOUS BOOK REVIEWS

Book Review: The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor

by John Piper and D.A. Carson

Reviewed by Fred Zaspel

Book Review: Missiological Models in Ministry to Muslims

by Sam Schlorff

Reviewed by Doug Coleman

Book Review: MissionShift

by David Hesselgrave and Ed Stetzer

Reviewed by Bobby Jamieson

Book Review: The Intentional Church

by Randy Pope

Reviewed by Ben Wright

Book Review: The Gift of Church

by Jim Samra

Reviewed by Bobby Jamieson

Book Review: Many Colors: Cultural Intelligence for a Changing Church

by Soong-Chan Rah

Reviewed by Geoff Chang

Audio

Church Planting and the Great Commission with Mark Dever

The Great Commission requires Christians to plant and cultivate healthy churches, says Mark Dever in this 2011 conference address. *Listen online Now »

Posted on July 1, 2011

International Church Planting with Mack Stiles and Dave Furman

Two founders of a bustling new church plant in the United Arab Emirates discuss how to create a culture for church planting, how to leave the sending church, and other lessons for new planters. *Listen online Now »

Posted on June 1, 2011

* This audio might not be supported by your particular device

Jonathan Leeman

Editor’s Note:

Think for a second about how crucial it is for basketball team to work together as a team. Who calls the play? Who sets the pick? Who makes the assist? Who takes the shot? Every member must know his part. And every member knows the team’s success depends on rightly playing that part.

The same goes for tennis doubles, and army platoons, and political campaigns, and business partners, and on and on we could multiply the examples. Success depends on every part rightly relating to the other parts.

The same lesson applies to church staffs. For the sake of the church and the kingdom, we hope to help church leaders take a few moments to think through staff dynamics. In fact we’re devoting this Journal and the next one to the pastor and his staff.

Mark Dever, Jeramie Rinne, Mark Mullery, and Vince Hinders get the ball rolling by helping senior pastors think about managing the staff, serving the staff, and discipling the staff. Andy Johnson, Michael Lawrence, and, again, Jeramie Rinne then offer some wise counsel for every member of the staff.

In the next issue, we’ll get into more of the nuts and bolts of everything from hiring and firing to setting salaries. For now, let me personally commend the wisdom that each of these brothers have to offer. Reading though each of the articles, I find myself asking God to grow me in such wisdom. I pray the same for all of us.

By Mark Dever

The Obvious and Not-So-Obvious of Staff Management

Full disclosure: My staff may think it’s funny that I’m writing an article on wisely managing the staff. Not everyone would say that this is one of my strong suits. That said, I’ve been doing it for the better part of two decades now, and even I’ve learned a few things, if only by mistakes.

So here are some common tips, some obvious tips, and a few, perhaps, not-so-obvious tips.

COMMON TIPS

Much of staff management is simple wisdom. Read the book of Proverbs and follow it. For that matter, many secular books on management will tell us things that we should know. But let’s make sure we’re not assuming that we have all the basics down. So let me highlight four common matters:

1. Select Your Staff Carefully

First, select your staff carefully. Some people need little management. They’re the ones that I most want to hire. They are motivated self-starters, well equipped for what you’ve hired them to do, with a good track record of character, gifts, marriage, and perhaps family commending them.

“Hire people with raw gifts and work to develop them.”

However, they don’t necessarily need to be accomplished in exactly what you’re hiring them to do. Hire people with raw gifts and work to develop them.

2. Draw Clear Lines of Responsibility

Second, draw clear lines of responsibility. Conflicts and confusion will arise on any staff. Clear expectations and explicit authority will help to contain and channel conflicts, to reduce frustration, and to redirect such unexpected “energies.”

3. Have Fun with Your Staff

Third, have fun with your staff. Enjoy them and let them enjoy you. You are probably part of the reason that they are there. You help to motivate them by giving them time and attention.

4. Give Them Honest Feedback

Fourth, give them honest feedback. This will come as no shock, but the temptation for at least some pastors (me included!) will be to manage the staff’s affection for us more than managing them for their own good. Sometimes caring for them well will mean giving them clear critique, while still affirming their overall sense of direction in ministry.

OBVIOUS TIPS

Caring for the pastoral staff also means pastoring them. Remember that the people on your staff are more fundamentally Christians than they are members of your church, and that they are more fundamentally members of your church than they are members of your staff. Love them. While you will have to evaluate them in their work, care even more about them as fellow disciples of Christ. You want them to spiritually prosper during their years under your immediate care and leadership.

Some of these ways of caring for pastoral staff are more obvious, others less so. Let me begin with the more apparent ways. I’ll mention five.

1. Pray for Them

First, pray for them. In a well-staffed church, praying for those who serve the church in this special way is time well spent. Pray for their personal walk with the Lord, their friends and family, and their own ministry, as well as their job. Never allow “professionalism” to obscure your responsibility in this area.

2. Model, Instruct, and Teach

Second, model, instruct, and teach. Show them what it means to be a pastor. Let them see things you are struggling with, and that you are uncertain about. Also let them see and ask questions about decisions you make. Don’t be slow to explain. Repeat yourself. Remember Paul’s words in Philippians 3:1: “It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.” Realize that one of your roles is teaching them.

3. Trust and Delegate

Third, trust and delegate. You get more things done by getting more people to do things. Staff cuts up ministry in bite-size bits for others to be able to handle. And that means that one of the chief ways you can build up a local congregation is by handing off more and more duties to others. Some things are at the core of your role as senior pastor. But many things can be handed to others.

We should lead the staff to be enablers and facilitators of the ministry of others, rather than doing it all ourselves. To the degree you are able to be a leader of ministers, you will be able to draw around you quality leaders in their own right. Don’t wait for these folks to earn your trust, but extend them trust and set up contexts in which they can spend it, confirm it (in your eyes and the congregation’s) and spend more. Help to make them a success by giving them opportunities to teach and lead the congregation well.

4. Forgive Quickly

Fourth, forgive quickly. Other people make mistakes as much as I do. Therefore, I must exemplify the same kindness and mercy to others as I myself have known from God, my family, and my congregation. Any “scores kept” must only be for the good of the staff member or the congregation. Personally, you should have pure and unhindered affections for those who work with you.

5. Encourage Them

Fifth, encourage them. When Paul began his letters, he often commended God’s work in the Christians he was writing to. In doing this, he both acknowledged thanks to them, and at the same time exemplified being a student of God’s kindnesses in life. So in terms of your staff, pastor, never flatter them, but regularly cherish God’s work in and through them. Be openly grateful. Make generously acknowledging and thanking others normal among your church staff. God has been at work in them, and you should be one of God’s chief students in their lives, noting his work and drawing others’ attention to it.

MAYBE NOT-SO-OBVIOUS TIPS

All of the above are fairly obvious observations. So I could forgive you for skimming the article and coming down here to find what I would consider less obvious ways that you should pastor your staff. Let me mention five.

1. Care for their Wives

First, care for their wives. If the pastors who work around you face the same kind of challenges that you face, they will find themselves pressed. For your married staff, that will inevitably mean that some pressures fall upon their wives. The senior pastor is in a unique role to make sure that family times are encouraged, and that sufficient money is provided to care for them. If this is not done, the staff member’s job can begin to make their spouse feel that the church is a problem, even their adversary. And that can leave a bitter legacy for a lifetime. Do not alienate the affections of the wives of your fellow elders and pastors. Making sure the church cares well for staff families is one of the best ways you can work to build up your local church, and other churches they may serve.

2. Build the Team

Second, build the team. I only say that this is less obvious because sometimes we tend to think of pastoring as a fairly individual thing—one pastor caring for one other person. But if we’re going to have several folks working with us, building a team will help them in ways that we could never plan. The team can make up for my mistakes; help each other to heal up after bruises, mistakes and afflictions; and care for, encourage, challenge, and spur each other on. The team can multiply the effects of your pastoring. Staff meetings can be times not of one-way communication from you to them, but of you facilitating a conversation together. Encouraging people to take initiative and responsibility will prepare them for whatever God is calling them to do now and later.

“If there’s a bullet to be taken, often it’s the senior pastor who should take it. If a decision you approved has met with the opposition of another staff member, throw your weight behind it or else reconsider it entirely.”

3. Humble Yourself to Receive Direction from Others, Even to the Point of Inviting Criticism

Third, humble yourself to receive direction from others, even to the point of inviting criticism. I have established regular times in our weekly or monthly calendar for giving staff the opportunities to give and feedback on everything from my preaching and song selection to pastoral care and weighing in on speaking invitations. It’s both good for me to do this and good for other leaders to see me doing this. Humility for me as a senior pastor means realizing everything that I am not, realizing what gifts I don’t have. Knowing the truth about my own limitations helps me to know what staff we need to hire. And it also helps me to trust them, even as I solicit ideas from them about how I can better minister God’s Word.

4. Be Willing to Take a Bullet for the Good of Others, and for the Health of the Staff as a Whole.

Fourth, be willing to take a bullet for the good of others, and for the health of the staff as a whole. If there’s a bullet to be taken, often it’s the senior pastor who should take it. If a decision you approved has met with the opposition of another staff member, throw your weight behind it or else reconsider it entirely. But either way, make it clear that the person who made the decision was acting with your approval. While it’s not always the case, the senior pastor will often have more credit with other staff and with members. We’ve got more to spend. So if it’s helpful for the direction of the church, or the good of office inter-relations, we should be happy to let our credit be spent. We have it to use it, brothers! My flesh too often avoids this, but I know it’s right, and I pray that I would do it better, and more.

5. Note their Strengths and Make Allowances for their Weaknesses.

Fifth, note their strengths and make allowances for their weaknesses. You have strengths, and you need people to see those strengths and encourage you in them. You also have weaknesses, permanent limps that, no matter how hard you try, just don’t seem to go away. And you need people to be gracious with your limps, whatever they are, and not define you by them. Now, do the same for your staff members. Be the guy in their life who always seems to see their best. That doesn’t mean you’re a pushover, letting sluggards be sluggards. But it does mean you’re the first to rejoice over the gifts God has uniquely given them. It also means you show understanding when they cannot always keep pace with others, whether intellectually, physically, or otherwise.

STEWARD YOUR STAFF WELL

Finally, appreciate how important it is to manage your staff well. As my brother Garrett Kell reminds me, we’re not in competition with our staff. If God has entrusted us with gifted team members, we want to encourage them. They are gifts of Christ to his church. Cherish them.

Remember, pastor, when you’re looking at your younger staff members, you’re looking at the future of the church. Praise God that he gives us teams to work with, and that, for a season, he allows us to pastor others whom he’s calling to be pastors. Whether it’s such future pastors, or other staff members that God commits to your care, thank him for this stewardship and “discharge all the duties of your ministry,” even—especially—to those around you on staff.

About The Author

Mark Dever is the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and is the author of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (Crossway, 2000).

By Jeramie Rinne

Senior Pastor as Servant’s Servant’s Servant

How can a senior pastor best serve his staff? To answer that, I did the unthinkable: I asked my staff what they needed from me as the senior pastor. Below you will find a few of their responses. Who knew such a simple question would lead to such helpful wisdom for the lead minister?

1. Model prayer. Make prayer a central feature of your staff culture. My team treasures our weekly staff prayer gathering. We meet for an hour and a half to humble ourselves together, carry one another’s burdens, and cry out for God to work in our church members’ lives. I’ve come to believe that these regular prayer times are the single most important factor in our staff’s cohesion and effectiveness.

2. Love them. My team overwhelmingly told me they wanted me to care about them as people. That caring includes things like hearing their concerns, helping them guard their family time, checking in with them regularly, and even sharing my own life. While they don’t expect me to be their best friend, they seem to want their senior pastor to be a pastor.

3. Dream and develop. In a closely related point, my youth pastor expressed his desire for me to support his further ministry development. My staffers apparently aren’t satisfied being cogs in a ministry machine. Imagine that! They want to grow in response to God’s call. Where could each of your team members be in five years? We can serve them by dreaming about their futures with them, and then shepherding them toward those callings.

4. Flee favoritism. God hates partiality (Deut. 10:17; 17:19; Jas. 2:1-10). Your staff won’t like it either. While there will be different levels of responsibility and accountability among staff members, we must lead and make decisions with impartiality and justice.

5. Be stable. I was surprised to find how many of my co-workers said that my emotional and spiritual health is vital to them. My consistency, or inconsistency, in walking with Christ, nurturing my family, and protecting time for my own rest impacts the staff. When I watch my own soul well, I become the kind of leader who brings health to my associates. It seems the senior pastor needs to be the most stable person in the room. Don’t make your staff wonder which version of the boss is walking through the door today.

“If you want more suggestions, just ask your own staff, ‘How can I serve you better as your senior pastor?’”

6. Empower and unleash. Believe it or not, none of my staff wanted me to control and micromanage them. Instead, they wanted a level of guidance and direction, but also freedom to run with their ministries. Now that I think about it, that’s how I prefer to be led as well.

7. Be clear. Speak the truth in love, but speak it nonetheless. Make goals and expectations clear, address problems quickly and frankly, and communicate often. If one person needs correction, take it up with him or her rather than lecturing the whole team and hoping that one person will get the drift.

8. Get off the bridge. Sometimes I challenge my staff members to get out of their little ministry compartments and join the senior pastor on the “bridge” of the church to look out at the congregation’s overall direction. But the senior pastor also needs to come down from on high and be familiar with the challenges of his team’s ministries. Hang out with the youth group one night. Serve in Vacation Bible School. Pop in on a worship team rehearsal. Let someone else preach next week and go hold a baby in the nursery.

9. Use their gifts. God has given complementary spiritual gifts to the congregation (1 Cor. 12:27-31). You see this in microcosm in a church staff. Serve your staff not only by celebrating their unique gifts, but also by leaning on those gifts to fill in for your deficiencies. Help them see that your own ministry can easily become warped without their gifts balancing yours.

I could easily go on. If you want more suggestions, just ask your own staff, “How can I serve you better as your senior pastor?”

When we senior pastors serve our staffs well, we not only bless them, we also demonstrate humble, Christ-like leadership to the entire church family. Many people have been so wounded by selfish leaders that they can’t imagine authority being used to give life. But there is a kind of leading that heals and produces joy. Our Lord taught us that the one who wanted to be first must be the servant of all (Mk. 9:35). If Jesus would stoop to wash our feet, then his under-shepherds can do no less (Jn. 13:12-17).

Gregory the Great, the influential sixth-century bishop, strove to lead the church in his day with a kind of humility that would mark him as a “servant of the servants of God.” May we senior pastors lead our teams in such a way that we will be marked as servants to the servants of the servants of God.

About The Author

Jeramie Rinne is the senior pastor of South Shore Baptist Church in Hingham, Massachusetts.

By Mark Mullery and Vince Hinders

Do You Disciple Your Staff?

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. (Col. 1:28)

Pastors help Christians grow, and effective pastors understand that proclaiming Christ is the great power source for progress in the Christian life.

But how do pastors grow? Is the path to maturity different for a pastor than for a church member? The short answer is “No.” But just as a plumber’s house may have dripping faucets—he’s too busy working on everyone else’s—so the soul of a pastor may suffer from neglect.

For this reason, a pastor must disciple his staff. And he must make sure that the flow of discipleship runs from his staff back to him, and from his staff members to each other. The doctrine of progressive sanctification must be applied to pastors as well as to the rest of the church.

This requires humility. Pastors, like all disciples, need to hear again about Christ. They need to benefit from the “one another” of Christian community. And they need to be encouraged for progress made and to be warned of dangers ahead. Let’s consider why and how.

“But just as a plumber’s house may have dripping faucets—he’s too busy working on everyone else’s—so the soul of a pastor may suffer from neglect.”

WHY SHOULD A PASTOR DISCIPLE HIS STAFF?

We who are pastors must remember a simple but important truth: pastors are sheep, too. We are the proclaimers of Colossians 1:28, yes, but we are also hearers implied by Colossians 1:28. We are tempted just like other Christians. We grow through the means of grace just like other Christians. And we can be spiritually blind just like other Christians.

Paul Tripp captures this brilliantly when he says, “I need you in order to really see and know myself. Otherwise, I will listen to my own arguments, believe my own lies, and buy into my own delusions. My self-perception is as accurate as a carnival mirror” (Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, 54). Pastor, who is helping you really see and know yourself? Who has your permission to adjust your self-perception?

Discipleship of pastors is vital not only because pastors are sheep, too, but also because we pastors qualify for our vocation through our character. My doctor doesn’t need to disclose to me whether he’s leading well at home or whether he’s being hospitable. But pastors must be godly examples who are both above reproach (1 Tim. 3:2) and growing (1 Tim. 4:15). Pastoral failure is traumatic for churches and has sad consequences for their testimony to the gospel.

For these reasons, pastors need to disciple the other pastors who are serving with them. The senior or lead pastor should be responsible for this, though he need not do it all personally. The man leading the staff or the team of elders won’t likely be more mature and knowledgeable and gifted in every area, so why should he lead everything? This is where the benefits of team ministry are significant. More on that later.

WHAT ARE KEY AREAS OF DISCIPLESHIP FOR PASTORS?

Pastors must keep a close watch on their own lives and also on the doctrine they teach (1 Tim. 4:16). So it might be helpful to think of discipleship and growth in three areas:

1. Character: marriage, parenting, spiritual life, personal evangelism, putting sin to death, cultivating the fruit of the Spirit, and so on.

2. Ministry skills: leadership, preaching, counseling, use of time, administrative skills, care for people suffering or in crisis, developing leaders, and so on.

3. Doctrine: biblical knowledge, biblical theology, systematic theology, church history, and so on.

HOW SHOULD A PASTOR DISCIPLE HIS STAFF?

There are many variables here. Some pastors serve as the only staff member, some have lay elders, some serve on teams with other pastors who are bi-vocational, while others may have a larger staff serving together vocationally, as is our situation. There is no one structure that works for everyone, but the New Testament provides a principle that can serve us all, and that is the plurality of elders.

As the apostolic church grew and spread, the practice of having teams of elders serving local churches was commonplace. This creates an excellent context for the discipleship of pastors. A team of elders provides one setting in which pastors can care for one another, encourage one another, and spur one another on to growth.

If you are in a small church or a church plant you’ll need to be creative, and you may need to seek help from trusted brothers outside your church for a time. But we would encourage you to seek ways within your church, and alongside a few key leaders in your church, to position yourself to grow and to lead others to grow.

PRACTICES FOR DISCIPLING PASTORS

What might discipleship of pastors or elders look like? We’ve got lots to learn, but here are some practices and structures we have found helpful.

Care Group

We ask all members of our church to be involved in a small group for the purpose of fellowship, relationships, and sharing spiritual life. Our pastors do the same.

We meet twice a month in one another’s homes. Our wives our included because our marriages are of first importance, even more fundamental than our calling as pastors (Eph. 5:25-33), and the opportunity to share our lives as couples is wonderfully helpful in strengthening our marriages.

We gather to sing, pray, discuss a message, share needs, and give and receive counsel. We each leave our titles at the door when we walk in.

Accountability

We meet in men’s and women’s groups (of 3 to 4 people) once or twice a month. Here we can seek help in areas related to personal issues difficult to bring up in a larger mixed group either because of the topic (e.g., lust) or the situation (e.g., a parenting issue that is somewhat complicated).

We can also confess specific sins and make ourselves accountable to change. It’s also a good venue to check in with each other about personal evangelism.

Studying together

Just yesterday we spent time studying the book of Leviticus during our elders meeting. We’ll be preaching from this book in the fall, so we’re studying it together now. We also read books together that address topics (e.g., polity, discipleship, preaching) that are timely for us.

Retreats

Twice a year we get away for a three day elders retreat where we can study, pray, discuss, strategically plan, and dream together. We also take a yearly couples retreat for the elders and their wives to be refreshed in the gospel, grow in our relationships, and focus on our marriages and parenting.

Classes and Conferences

Attending seminary-type classes or conferences together can be rich times. The conversations that arise out of these times have far outweighed the costs of registration and travel.

Mentoring and Discipling within the Team

Each team has men with a variety of gifts, and those gifts can be put to work to help others on the team. Perhaps one man can help another with a parenting issue. Or two guys might meet together for a time to help a man sort out a sense of calling to church planting.

Team ministry, flowing from a plurality of elders, relieves the senior pastor of the burden of having to always lead. We want the wide diversity of Spirit-given gifts to influence and aid the rest of the elders in their growth.

I (Mark) am the senior pastor, but I’m in a care group led by someone else, and in an accountability group led by someone else. Yesterday I led a discussion on Leviticus, but next month a younger pastor will lead a discussion on the book of Psalms. This kind of arrangement also provides opportunities for younger men to lead, and it promotes the benefits of multi-generational ministry.

PASTORS ARE SHEEP, TOO

How does a pastor disciple his staff? Pastors are sheep, too. Pastors need gospel-centered, Christ-exalting instruction and exhortation and relationships. Pastors must not only be the source of Christ-centered ministry, but also the objects of it.

A senior pastor will do well to seek to create structures and identify gifting that will allow for Colossians 1:28 to be carried out not only to the church, but also to himself and the other pastors.

About The Author

Mark Mullery is the senior pastor and Vince Hinders is the executive pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Fairfax, Virginia.

Pastors’ Forum: Staff Meeting Best Practices

We asked a group of pastors for their best ideas for staff meetings. What follows is an adaptation of the email exchange that ensued.

Paul Rees

1. Each staff person shares evidences of God’s grace in the past week in the church and in their lives.

2. We signed up the pastoral staff team to study CCEF’s online “Dynamics of Biblical Change” course together as a way to develop a common language for pastoral care and to assist each other in sanctification.

3. We intersperse intense conversations with lighter questions like, “Who is the most famous person you have met?” and “What is the strangest conversation you had with someone this past week?”

Paul Rees is the senior pastor of Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dennis Newkirk

Vocational ministry is hard on our spiritual lives due to overexposure to church problems, the temptation to use the disciplines of Bible study, worship, and prayer in a utilitarian way, and the stress of the schedule.

We use staff meetings, in part, as times for the ministry of the Word, prayer, and spiritual encouragement in order to encourage progressive sanctification among the staff members.

Dennis Newkirk is the senior pastor of Henderson Hills Baptist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma.

Bob Johnson

Great! So, on Monday, at staff meeting, I am supposed to ask my staff, “What is the best staff meeting idea that I have ever had?” And other than one of them saying, “When you cancel it,” I have to endure a long, awkward silence. Hope you guys have some good ideas, because if you do, the staff here will be sending you Starbucks gift cards.

Bob Johnson is the senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Roseville, Michigan.

Thabiti Anyabwile

Brother, I’m on the floor laughing because that would definitely by my staff’s reaction—“When you cancel it!”

Who enjoys staff meetings? I guess that’s what makes the question ultimately useful, huh?

Well, here’s my one idea. I think it was a good idea based on reactions, and it’s definitely not original to me:

From time to time, I pick one staff member from the team. All the other staff share one or two specific things they appreciate about that person. It can be light or serious, but it’s usually something spiritually encouraging. It starts off a little awkward because people feel funny sitting in a room with everyone talking about them. But by the end, not only is the individual encouraged, but the entire room is, because we get to hear of God’s Spirit and grace at work among us. Then we spend time giving thanks in prayer for our colleague.

Thus endeth any potential wisdom on staff meetings from this brother!

Thabiti Anyabwile is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands.

“Great! So, on Monday, at staff meeting, I am supposed to ask my staff, “What is the best staff meeting idea that I have ever had?” And other than one of them saying, “When you cancel it,” I have to endure a long, awkward silence.”

Ryan Fullerton

I too enjoy missing a good staff meeting.

However, one thing we have done that I enjoy is reading books together. We read and discuss about a chapter a week. I find the discussions very helpful.

We also read a chapter of the Bible. Right now we are reading 1 Corinthians and I am starting to preach on the same book. Reading and discussing the text with other staff pastors and assistants lets me hear people’s thoughts, questions, and reflections on the text and the congregation. This is a great blessing as I prepare to teach.

Ryan Fullerton is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

Mike Lumpkin

Reading through a book at the beginning of each meeting has proven beneficial. We’re currently going through Paul Tripp’s meditations on Psalm 51. Also, we open our staff meetings up to everyone to share during the first 30 minutes, speaking about our devotional lives as well as matters such as building concerns and calendaring.

However, nothing beats cancelling the meeting on the morning of.

Mike Lumpkin is the senior pastor of University Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

John Folmar

I read aloud a few entries from George Whitefield’s journals after opening prayer, and ask staff members to comment on them as they pertain to the Christian life and our ministries. Previously I’ve read some of Samuel Rutherford’s and Jack Miller’s letters. We have found this to be good fodder for discussion as we begin the meetings on a devotional note.

John Folmar is the senior pastor of United Christian Church of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Ryan Kelly

I don’t lead our staff meetings. Our administrative pastor does. That was the model when I came to Desert Springs Church, and after seven years I have seen a lot of benefits to this arrangement. Granted, many church staffs are not large enough to have an administrative pastor, and, thus, may not have a good alternative to the preaching pastor. But in staffs where there is a gifted, godly, and wise administrative (associate) pastor, it might be best for the preaching (lead/senior) pastor to support the leadership of his brother and co-laborer.

It’s good for the lead pastor to sit in meetings in a secondary role. It teaches us to practice deference and quietness, gives us more time for observation and reflection, and enables us to jump in with a fitting reminder or exhortation as needed. I am certain that I would not have said half of the helpful things that I have said in staff meetings were I leading. I would not have seen the need for it.

Ryan Kelly is pastor for preaching at Desert Springs Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Robby Gallaty

When I came to Brainerd two years ago, our staff meeting was a 2.5 hour business meeting. I decided to change the focus by reading the Word together and holding the staff accountable to memorize Scripture. So I devoted the first hour to quoting Scripture out loud in the group. The staff have responded well to the change. Sometimes we spend our entire meeting in the sanctuary praying.

Robby Gallaty is the senior pastor of Brainerd Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Michael Lawrence

I’ve only been at it for 5 months, but here is what has been helpful so far:

1. Opening each meeting by praying through our membership directory. This is helping the staff think more and more like shepherds.

2. Reading a book together and discussing it. It’s been helpful for building a common vision and for bringing disagreements to the surface.

3. Eating lunch together once a month with both ministry and administrative staff and using that time to teach and build vision.

I think everyone likes it when we cancel. But so far they also appreciate the opportunity to discuss things and be heard.

Michael Lawrence is the senior pastor of Hinson Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon.

Aaron Menikoff

Our staff meetings are once a week and last an hour. We try to use other, less formal times to check in with one another and dig deeper. At the weekly staff meeting we have three goals:

First, we pray. We always pray for church members and often pray for one another.

Second, we coordinate. This is the time to pull out the church calendar and make sure we are functioning as a team and not as isolated individuals. This is very important because we can be doing our own thing and forget how we affect or need others.

Finally, we read something together. It may be a short devotional. It may be something related to current events. The purpose is to get our minds off ourselves and even off of the work in our church and to think about what God is doing elsewhere.

Aaron Menikoff is the senior pastor of Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Sandy Springs, Georgia.

Eric Bancroft

The best staff meetings we have had were times when everyone contributed to valuable, ministry-shaping conversation. I have tried to cultivate this by having all the staff slowly read a book together over a period of many months.

Since I’m teaching in so many other contexts, using a book allows an outside author to teach, leaving me to facilitate the conversation and learn along with everyone else.

I provide a list of books, all of which contain resources that I know will benefit us, and then let the staff pick which books to read. This allows them to have a say. These discussions have been a rich time of growth that have influenced each of their ministries in ways far beyond what my direct leading could have accomplished.

Eric Bancroft is the senior pastor of Castleview Baptist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Juan Sanchez

Our primary focus in staff meetings is staff development and encouragement. We do take care of calendar items and such, but we spend time praying for the needs of the congregation and one another at the very beginning. We conclude our staff meetings with a devotional book study in which each staff member takes turns facilitating a discussion on one chapter. Right now we are reading A Praying Life by Paul Miller.

Like Ryan Kelly, I have chosen not to lead our staff meetings. We have an administrative pastor who is able to put some thought into planning the meetings for maximum benefit to all. He selects a theme for each meeting and asks various questions related to that theme. Each staff member in turn answers the question(s), and the staff is greatly encouraged by learning about one another from the answers given.

Since these activities make our staff meetings longer, we only meet every other week.

Juan Sanchez is preaching pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas.

Al Jackson

One of the best things we do at Lakeview is call off staff meeting every five to six weeks and go as a staff to do personal evangelism on the Auburn University campus.

Al Jackson is the senior pastor of Lakeview Baptist Church in Auburn, Alabama.

By Andy Johnson

Dear Senior Pastor, Sincerely, the Associate Pastor

Some writing invitations feel like an offer to walk through a minefield. The title for this article, which was given to me, should tell the reader that’s exactly how the invitation to write this piece felt. What do I as an associate pastor wish the senior pastor knew? I’m sure no one will try to pick through this article looking for veiled criticisms and complaints against my boss. Which editor at 9Marks do I thank for setting me up?

So let me state up front: I love my church and the pastor I currently serve. But I’ve been around churches long enough, and have enough friends in church staff positions, to have picked up on a number of tendencies worth noting.

Here, then, are a few thoughts for the senior pastors and would-be senior pastors out there who work or will work with associate pastors.

“Senior pastors have a special and wonderful role in Christ’s church, but like folks in leadership everywhere, they face a sinister temptation to massively overvalue their uniqueness in a way that isolates them from accountability and input and burden-sharing.”

YOU ARE NOT AN ISLAND

The first is that you are not an island, so don’t think that the uniqueness of your role somehow isolates you from others.

Senior pastors have a special and wonderful role in Christ’s church, but like folks in leadership everywhere, they face a sinister temptation to massively overvalue their uniqueness in a way that isolates them from accountability and input and burden-sharing.

It’s not just pastors. I’ve known managers who thought this way—I should know, I struggled with this when I was one. I’ve known business owners who thought this way—I should know, I struggled with this when I was one. I’ve known government officials who thought this way— yes, I was tempted to think this when I was one. And I’ve known senior pastors who thought this way. No, I don’t know that from personal experience, but twenty years of consistent observations allows even me to spot a trend.

So, senior pastors, don’t buy into the fallacy of thinking that your role is so unique, your sense of responsibility so singular, that “No one can really understand my perspective and the burden I bear.” This line of reasoning often comes with a satanic corollary: “So no one here can really know me and share my burdens and speak into my life.” That is not true for angst-ridden 15-year olds. It’s not true for bosses, business owners, or politicians. And it’s not true for senior pastors, either.

I’m writing rather sharply right out of the gate because this is the most important point in this article. I’ve seen this faulty line of thinking cause senior pastors—often unconsciously, I think—to wall themselves off from the very people God has placed in the middle of their lives. Maybe they haven’t attained total isolation. Maybe they do talk to a few other senior pastors they got to know in seminary because “they understand what it’s like.” But, of course, these folks aren’t in their daily lives. And, even if they do try to be transparent with each other, they only know what the other wants them to know. That’s very dangerous. That kind of relationship lets you check the “transparency” box without ever really risking critique. This is not a recipe for the correction and input that we all need, especially senior pastors.

“My second piece of advice to senior pastors is to chill out: the congregation’s affection for your associate is an asset, not a threat.”

So resist the urge to think that, because people around you may not understand everything about you, they can’t understand anything, or the most important things. True, no one will perfectly understand your perspective: welcome to being just like every other human being. But I’ve often found in my own experience that even those who “don’t know what it’s like to be the guy where the buck stops” can still surprise me with their understanding, insights, and corrections. Solomon was incisively wise in Proverbs 27:10: “Better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.” Those are good words for every senior pastor to take to heart.

CHILL OUT: YOUR ASSOCIATE IS NOT A THREAT

My second piece of advice to senior pastors is to chill out: the congregation’s affection for your associate is an asset, not a threat.

I’m sure this is hard. In our flesh we want people to like us best, to appreciate us the most. And when we learn that someone actually looks forward to the associate preaching, or prefers his counseling, or wants to attend his Bible study class, our flesh can at least feel disappointed, if not threatened.

But senior pastors should realize what a blessing this is. You want your people to love and appreciate the ministry of your associate, as well as all the other elders. And, yes, this even means that some of them may prefer the ministry of the other guy. That’s a good thing. For one thing, it shows you’ve led well to the degree that you were responsible for bringing the guy on. It also means that you have a useful yokefellow in the ministry. And the more you actually work to help your congregation grow in their affection for the guy, the more useful your coworker will be.

If you love your flock, you’ll be happy when they are well fed and cared for—regardless of the source.

THEY KNOW YOU’RE NOT PERFECT

Third, your fellow pastors and elders know you’re not perfect. Complementing your limitations is a joy, not a burden.

I love the scene in the movie “Patriot Games” where the character of Jack Ryan (played by Harrison Ford) tells a frantic group of political types who are trying to suppress a crisis that already happened that it’s seldom effective to try to diffuse a bomb after it has gone off. It seems obvious, but it’s amazing how much time all of us (senior pastors included) spend trying to hide or deny areas of incompetence even though they are painfully obvious to everyone who knows us. Realize that your associates are especially aware of these areas, and that they respect you despite their knowledge of your limitations.

Now, senior pastors need to grow and improve, like everyone else. But hopefully you’ve realized that where your associates excel in areas of your weakness, it is a joy for them to love you and the church by filling in for your weaknesses, whether it’s administration, or music, or counseling, or whatever. Whether these are areas you need to delegate or grow in can be a complicated question, but know that the decision to delegate it is not necessarily failure. It may just be a chance for someone else to love you and the church in a more pronounced way.

MAKE IT EASY FOR YOUR STAFF TO GIVE INPUT

Fourth, make it easy for your staff to give input. You need—and your church needs—a culture of giving and receiving godly criticism and encouragement.

Certainly there are unique things about being the senior guy. For one thing, you are the one who is best positioned to build or kill various aspects of the culture of your staff. And your influence will be felt especially in the culture of encouragement and critique. You are the one who needs to lead out in giving and receiving godly encouragement and giving and receiving godly criticism.

The senior pastor at our church has led in this by establishing a time every week for the rest of the staff to give feedback on his sermons and other aspects of the public services. About 30 minutes of that time is devoted to feedback on the morning sermon. And while there is always a lot to encourage, our senior pastor makes the staff feel safe when they give some pretty specific critiques, too. We would never be able to do this if he didn’t invite this feedback and make the time happen. And I think he would say that his preaching has consistently grown through the weekly feedback the staff provides.

You may want to structure this time differently, but know that your associates are not going to stick their necks out to give feedback—at least not too many times—if you don’t specifically invite this input. But if you do this, I think you will find it to be both a blessing for you and an instructive way to foster an honest and loving culture of critique and encouragement that blesses the ministry of your church.

“In other words, your staff wants to be pastored. This means that relationships are the best management structure and strategy.”

YOUR STAFF WANTS TO BE PASTORED

Finally, I have a quick news flash for any pastor-as-CEO types reading this article: If your staff really wanted to work for a slick, streamlined corporation, they’d likely be pulling down way more money than you could ever pay them, working in a nice office at Microsoft or Ford. But they don’t want that. They want to be a part of pastoring a local church, the bride of Christ, a body, a family. And pastoring a local church ultimately means building relationships, not organizational charts and well-worked-out strategies.

In other words, your staff wants to be pastored. This means that relationships are the best management structure and strategy.

Certainly churches will benefit from organization, but your staff, especially the other pastors, still want to be pastored, not just managed. And they want to pastor the church with you, together. If you’ve established a plurality of elders, and the elders all regularly shepherd one another, this may be easier to cultivate among your staff. But even without that, you are the one who can set the tone of pastoral concern and relational leadership.

So pray with your associates. Ask about your associates’ hearts and families. Labor and shepherd with your associates. That will likely mean more to them than anything you are likely to teach them from the latest management book.

Even more challenging, let your associates pastor you. That’s part of why God put them in his church that you are leading for this brief time. You want the members of your church to show their submission to God by submitting to the elders. Likewise, therefore, you can show your submission to God by submitting to the other elders you work with day in and day out. Remember, whatever it means to be the main pastor in a church, your associates will be called on by God to give an account for you. Hebrews 13:17 is for all of us, senior pastors included: “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

SOME OF GOD’S BEST BLESSINGS MAY BE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK

Over the years it has been a joy to me that the senior pastor with whom I serve is amazingly cognizant of all these principles. I learned several of them directly from him. And I think I can say for him that he has known great benefit in his life and ministry by living by them—even though God has humorously given him an eclectic and rag-tag group of associates.

I hope the same for every senior pastor. I hope that as you give attention to these things, you will know greater protection and freedom and encouragement and fruitfulness and rest. God is so good, and some of his best blessings may be closer than you think.

About The Author

Andy Johnson is an associate pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC.

By Michael Lawrence

Dear Associate Pastor, Sincerely, a Former Associate Pastor

So you’ve been called by a congregation to serve as an associate pastor. Now what?

Chances are the church has attached a tagline to your title: associate pastor for _________. This allows everyone to know the scope of your responsibility.

Yet at least as important as what follows the word “pastor” in your title is the word that comes before it: associate.

To be associated is to be closely connected to someone. It means you’re there fundamentally to help the senior/lead pastor in his work, rather than simply accomplish an independent job.

I spent about ten years serving as an associate before taking on the responsibilities of a senior pastor. What follows are three things you should remember in order to serve your pastor, regardless of the specifics of your job description.

IT’S THE SENIOR PASTOR’S CHURCH, NOT YOURS

When a church calls a senior or lead pastor, they call a man who will not only preach regularly, but who will set the overall vision and direction of the church through his preaching and leadership.

“Your job is to protect and foster the congregation’s support of the senior pastor, rather than develop your own independent following.”

Now before you cry foul and hold up the biblical doctrine of a plurality of elders—a doctrine I gladly affirm—let me add that I’m simply making a practical observation. Most churches can afford to have only one elder in the employ of the church, and he’s the elder who carries the main burden of the pulpit ministry. Therefore, his preaching and leadership will decisively shape the direction of the church.

When a church grows to the point of adding another elder to the staff, the preaching elder’s job description usually doesn’t change, except for the few things he can now take of his plate. The congregation will still expect the now “senior” pastor—rightly—to carry on with his preaching and leadership. After all, it was his leadership that grew the congregation to the point of needing another pastor.

What that means for you, his associate, is that you are not called to steer the congregation in a new or better direction. Rather, your job is to help him better lead the congregation in the direction he’s already going. Your job is to protect and foster the congregation’s support of the senior pastor, rather than develop your own independent following.

That might seem obvious, but it’s harder than you think. No matter how close you are to your senior pastor, there will be points where you disagree. And the temptation of your heart will be to envy the love and affection the congregation has for him.

If you are not convinced that the most important priority for the congregation is their ability to hear and profit from the senior pastor’s preaching, and if you’re not convinced that he’s the man for the job, then you will inevitably begin to compete with him for leadership or affection or both.

When that happens, no matter how well you’re doing other parts of your job, you are failing to serve as an associate pastor. Instead, you have become a rival pastor in the midst of the congregation, and that will not serve anyone well.

Of course, if the senior pastor is guilty of immorality or serious doctrinal error, then his leadership in the church is forfeit. In that case, you’ll need to very carefully bring the matter to the attention of the other elders. But they must take the lead, lest the appearance of insubordination obscure the real issue.

But in most cases where insubordination wrecks the relationship between senior and associate pastor, immorality and error are not the issue. Pride is.

If you’re an associate pastor, never forget that, in the providence of God, it’s his church, not yours.

IT’S NOT JUST HIS CHURCH, IT’S YOURS TOO

There are two words in the title “associate pastor” but only one of them is a noun. That means if you’re an associate pastor, you may not be “The Pastor” but you are definitely a pastor, an elder and overseer in your local church. The New Testament is full of instructions for elders, and those instructions apply to you as much as they apply to the senior pastor.

As an associate pastor, it’s all too easy to take on the mentality of an employee. You may think you’re there to do a job, to carry out instructions, to accomplish set tasks. But that’s not the mentality of an elder. According to Hebrews 13:17, overseers are men who keep watch over the flock and who will give an account to the Chief Shepherd (not the personnel committee) for their work. Ephesians 4:11-13 tells us that elders prepare and equip God’s people. And 1 Peter 5:1-4 reminds us that elders must be eager to serve and to provide examples for others to follow. These aren’t the attitudes of employees, but owners. You’re not just minding the store, you want to see the church grow and flourish. You’re not babysitting someone else’s kids, you’re raising a family.

As one of the elders, and particularly as an associate pastor, you want to develop significant ministry within the church. Not ministry that competes with the senior pastor, but ministry that obviously complements and extends his overarching ministry of the Word. At Capitol Hill Baptist, where I served for almost nine years, I was called to be the second teaching pastor of the church in order to provide help and rest for Mark Dever. Fairly quickly and as much to my surprise as everyone else’s, I developed a counseling ministry that complemented what Mark was doing from the pulpit. As that ministry—in addition to my own preaching—impacted the congregation, I was able to function more and more as a pastor and elder, and not just a staff member. And that served the senior pastor. It not only lightened his burden, but it extended his work. He had a fellow stake-holder working with him, not just another employee he had to manage.

So take some initiative. Don’t give in to the temptation to laziness or the fear of failure. As one of the elders, grow and develop the ministry of your local church. It’s not just his church, it’s yours too. And the day will come when you have to give an account for it.

IT’S NEITHER HIS CHURCH NOR YOURS, IT’S CHRIST’S

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul quotes from Psalm 68:18, “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” In the verses that follow, Paul makes clear that among those gifts that Christ has given to his church are men: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers. The purpose of these men is that the body of Christ would be built up into maturity, “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:7-13).

“So put aside the pride, the petty jealousy, the jockeying for position that too often characterizes the relationships between senior and associate pastors. Find your joy in the church’s love for Christ, not you.”

So whether you’re the senior pastor or the associate pastor, at the end of the day, you are a gift from Christ to his bride, the church. In some ways, what John the Baptist said of himself applies to us as ministers. “The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete” (Jn. 3:29).

It’s so easy to become jealous for the bride’s affection and to see other pastors as competitors for her esteem. But we need to remember that the local church we serve is not our bride. She is Christ’s bride, and we are only one of the engagement gifts he intends to give her in preparation for the big day of his coming.

When that’s our perspective, our joy is made complete whenever we see the bride grow in her affection for Jesus. If that happens through our ministry, then we are blessed. But if it happens even more through another pastor’s ministry, then our joy is not diminished, but increased.

So put aside the pride, the petty jealousy, the jockeying for position that too often characterizes the relationships between senior and associate pastors. Find your joy in the church’s love for Christ, not you. And pray for the day when your joy is complete, the day on which you, together with the local church you serve, are presented to Christ as “a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:27).

About The Author

Michael Lawrence is the senior pastor of Hinson Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church: A Guide for Ministry (Crossway, 2010).

By Jeramie Rinne

Dear Staff, Sincerely, the Senior Pastor

Several years ago a pastor friend invited me to fill his pulpit. I told him that I would preach a sermon to his church that he couldn’t preach. The title: “How to Love Your Pastor.”

It’s a sermon that church members need to hear, but which most pastors would feel uncomfortable preaching to their own congregations.

Now 9Marks is letting me do it again, except this time I’m writing an article that church staff need. The title: “How to Bless Your Boss.”

By God’s grace, I have served as a senior pastor for over thirteen years. In that time I have had the privilege of working with over twenty paid staffers, from full-time associate pastors to quarter-time nursery directors. In light of this experience, I’ve pulled together a few thoughts on how a church staff member can effectively serve, encourage, and help the senior minister. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Pray daily. “I urge then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority” (1 Tim. 2:2). This includes your lead pastor. Do you pray for him? Daily? Serve the senior pastor with a hidden ministry of faithful intercession. And pray for him publicly at ministry team meetings or when you lead congregational worship.

2. Seek the Lord. Maintain your own personal fellowship with Christ. Haven’t you found that people are easier to lead and work with when they are living in obedience to God? And don’t problems arise whenever we fall back into pride, selfishness, and fear? Your boss faces the same dynamic in trying to lead you. Make yourself easy to lead by following Jesus.

3. Be honest. Don’t be a “yes man.” Have the courage to challenge your boss’s thinking or approach. At first, he may not respond like you’re blessing him, but a wise leader will eventually listen. You have a perspective he needs in order to lead effectively. Of course, speak respectfully and lovingly, and at the right time and place. But speak up nonetheless. As you speak the truth in love, you will help your whole staff team grow in Christ-likeness (Eph. 4:15).

4. Be loyal. Don’t undermine your boss. Speak well of him and his decisions to church members and other staffers, even if you disagree with him. If you have an issue with him, address it directly. If you think he has sinned, don’t gossip. Speak to him in person. And encourage disaffected church members who have concerns with him to do the same. The last thing any senior pastor needs is an associate playing Absalom at the gate with disgruntled members.

5. Work hard. You know how invaluable a dedicated, diligent volunteer can be to the work of your youth ministry or your hospitality committee. Be that same hard-working person for your boss. If he asks you to do something, just do it. And do it quickly, well, and joyfully. And even if your senior pastor doesn’t inspire heroism, remember you are working hard for Jesus: “Whatever you do, work at it all your heart as working for the Lord, not men…It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Col. 3:23-24). May your boss brag about your diligence the way Paul often boasted of the hard work of his co-laborers.

“Help your boss in the ministry of peacemaking by courageously intercepting rising rancor instead of always passing the buck.”

6. Absorb shocks. When churches experience conflict, members often want to take their beefs “straight to the top.” Help your boss in the ministry of peacemaking by courageously intercepting rising rancor instead of always passing the buck. Be a shock absorber for him by working out issues with other staffers directly. Don’t be the repeated cause of brushfires that he has to extinguish. Work for unity and peace in the body, so that he might be free to devote himself to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:6).

7. Visit the bridge. Church staffers often toil away in one compartment of the ship. They can easily become preoccupied with the needs of their particular ministry area, whether for finances, volunteers, or space. These can be valid concerns for vital ministries. However, your boss must stand on the bridge and guide the whole ship. Bless him by standing watch with him on the bridge, so to speak, and sharing his concern for the church’s overall direction. Then align your ministry efforts with the church’s mission. Don’t be a squeaky wheel, but be a champion for the vision God gives your boss and the elders.

“Senior pastors are still flesh and blood. They need encouragement just like everyone else. Tell him when he makes you proud to serve with him.”

8. Encourage often. Finally, tell your boss when he does well. Encourage him in his preaching. Let him know when he stepped up and led effectively in a meeting or handled a sticky situation adroitly. Senior pastors are still flesh and blood. They need encouragement just like everyone else. Tell him when he makes you proud to serve with him.

One final thought: When you bless your boss like this, you end up blessing the whole body by modeling a godly response to authority. They will see in you what a biblical relationship to pastoral leadership can look like. And you will bless the body as they see their staff members loving each other. Just as parents brim with joy when they watch their children playing together happily, so the congregation will delight in seeing their staff work in unison. “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity” (Ps. 133:1). May your relationship with your senior pastor display the gospel’s power for the whole church family to see.

About The Author

Jeramie Rinne is the senior pastor of South Shore Baptist Church in Hingham, Massachusetts.

Reviewed by Fred Zaspel

Book Review: The Pastor as Scholar and The Scholar as Pastor

John Piper and D.A. Carson, The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor. Crossway, 2011. 128 pages. $12.99

I have to admit that when I first saw this book I smiled. I was reminded of something a fellow elder pointed out to me a dozen or so years ago. He was reading D.A. Carson’s Exegetical Fallacies and came across a remark to the effect that, “This is not only a mistake pastors make; it is a mistake scholars make also.” My fellow elder was laughingly and not so gently putting me in my place—one can be a pastor or a scholar, but not both! This book, however, as the title implies, is a call for pastors to be scholars and for scholars to fulfill the pastoral dimensions of their calling.

Of course, there is a sense in which Carson’s dichotomy must be allowed. Few pastors indeed will ever be able to keep up with all the current literature in various fields—something that is essential to the classroom. But the point of this little volume is to see the gap narrowed in meaningful ways. And to challenge us in this regard we could scarcely find more appropriate men than John Piper and Don Carson.

And “challenge” is the right word. It would be much easier for the scholar to neglect the “practical” dimension of the theological enterprise and for the busy pastor, caught up in the daily grind of people-work, to coast along producing sermons and Bible studies that allow him to get by. But the Christian ministry in both of these domains demands better.

In his “The Religious Life of Theological Students” Warfield addresses the all-too-common sentiment that “ten minutes on your knees will give you a truer, deeper, more operative knowledge of God than ten hours over your books.” He famously responds, “What! Than ten hours over your books on your knees?” His point was that learning is not opposed to godliness but complementary to it. Here Piper and Carson similarly remind us that learning (scholarship) and ministry are likewise complementary—the one is necessary to the other.

PIPER: RIGHT THINKING IS ESSENTIAL FOR TREASURING GOD

Piper spends more than half his essay reviewing his own life experiences that brought him to ministry and that shaped his own practice and goals in ministry. It is enjoyable reading, and those who have read Piper will find much familiar ground. Something of a “romantic rationalist,” he expresses his drive to think and understand things accurately and to experience life fully. This sets him up well for the point he wishes to stress: that we must bring together the notions of thinking and feeling. We are meant to enjoy God. This emphasis is familiar to all who have read Piper: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” But his emphasis here is more specific: we will not enjoy God deeply or treasure him adequately until we understand him more accurately and more fully. And we will not understand him accurately or adequately until we learn to think well and deeply. “Christ exalting joy depends on right thinking about God” (50). Our learning—scholarship applied to the study of God—is necessary to a deep enjoyment and worship of him.

“In brief, Piper reminds us that God has revealed himself in a book. To know and understand God, then, we must ever give ourselves to a deeper and increasingly more accurate understanding of that book. And we must do that in order to convey the same to those who hear us.”

Piper deplores not only “ministry” which lacks doctrine. He deplores also ministry which can present high and wonderful truths about God in a way that miss the affections. “Too academic” is is not a problem. Merely academic is a problem. It ought to be the pastor’s goal, he says following Edwards, not just to heighten the affections of his hearers, but to raise their affections as far as possible by means of truth rightly understood. And this will not come except through hours of meditative, increasingly learned reflection on the Scriptures.

It is incumbent on all Christians and pastors in particular to learn and think well in order to experience and glorify God rightly. Piper does not set himself up as the model here, but he does express the passions of his own heart that have shaped his view of ministry.

Piper’s challenge is needed. This is something which all of us in pastoral ministry would do well to heed in order to fulfill our ministry.

Piper then provides several pages of clear and vivid exegetical grounding for his thesis. Space does not permit even a listing of his arguments here, so I will just note that his biblical analysis and application is compelling and is “must reading” for pastors. It will certainly prove helpful in shaping our own view of ministry.

In brief, Piper reminds us that God has revealed himself in a book. To know and understand God, then, we must ever give ourselves to a deeper and increasingly more accurate understanding of that book. And we must do that in order to convey the same to those who hear us.

CARSON: SCHOLARS MUST BE MORE THAN MERE ACADEMICS

Carson’s essay is directed to the professional scholar. He provides five introductory points that bring the discussion into focus. He wisely notes that God gifts his children sovereignly and in varying ways, and that no single mold should be considered standard. But he also notes that Christian responsibility remains, whatever the scholar’s particular areas of giftedness. The scholar’s subject matter demands more than merely academic attention.

Of foundational significance in this section is his brief but insightful exposition of the great commandment. The responsibility to love God with our entire being, including our “mind,” calls us to diligence in academic work, to be sure, but it requires much more. To heed this command the scholar cannot content himself with being merely an academic.

The burden of Carson’s essay is developed in a series of twelve exhortations. Space here allows mention of only a few. The professional scholar must involve himself in the church, in evangelism, and in front-line ministry of various kinds outside the classroom. He must not be a quartermaster only. Not only is this the responsibility of all Christians, but in doing so the scholar will improve his classroom effectiveness also. “Unless you are actively involved in pastoral ministry in some sense or other, you will become distant from the frontlines and therefore far less useful than you might be” (84).

Moreover, the scholar must recall at all times that however specialized his work, it is after all the Word of God that he studies, and he must never assume a position of superiority. “The aim is never to become a master of the Word, but to be mastered by it” (91). And whatever the particular area of specialization, the gospel must never become peripheral.

In terms of the scholar’s own role as teacher, “a scholar with pastoral concerns will be more than a dispenser of information” (94). He works with and serves men and women made in God’s image, and men and women for whom Christ died. And to be faithful he must shape his work accordingly.

Throughout this section Carson’s exhortations are pastorally wise and sensitive, and if heeded will only enhance the scholar’s effectiveness in service to the glory of God.

Carson writes to a narrower audience than Piper, but his essay is a delightful read throughout. The counsel of both men is marked by mature Christian wisdom and will be valuable reading for pastor and scholar alike.

About The Author

Fred G. Zaspel is one of the pastors at Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia, PA, and adjunct professor of Systematic Theology at Calvary Baptist Seminary in Lansdale, PA.

Reviewed by Doug Coleman

Book Review: Missiological Models in Ministry to Muslims

Sam Schlorff, Missiological Models in Ministry to Muslims. Middle East Resources, 2006. $19.95

Of all the books on Islam and ministry to Muslims, Sam Schlorff’s Missiological Models in Ministry to Muslims appears unique in purpose. Most such books tend to address Islam itself or propose various methods or approaches to sharing the gospel and planting churches. But Schlorff pushes the discussion back to more foundational questions like these:

• What is the fundamental object of Christian mission to Islam: total displacement, fulfillment, dialogue, or something else?

• How do we evaluate other religions such as Islam, and how does this evaluation affect our approach?

• Is there anything within Muslim culture that provides a valid starting point for evangelism?

SUMMARY

Part one of Schlorff’s work provides a brief but helpful review of six historical models or approaches taken by missionaries to Muslims. These range from the nineteenth-century imperial model to the dynamic equivalence or translational model prevalent today. In addition to a brief description, Schlorff defines the key elements of each model and notes strengths and weakness.

In the second part, Schlorff more closely examines some of the methodologies and tools of these models. For example, his discussion of approaches to use of the Qur’an occupies three chapters, culminating in the “new hermeneutic,” which views the Qur’an as in some sense revelatory. Schorff finds much that is problematic here. This section concludes with a consideration of the C5 or “dynamic equivalent” approach to church in ministry to Muslims. Schlorff briefly discusses the history of its development, the three basic theories behind the model, and mentions many of the key contributors to the debate.

In the final and most substantial section of the book, Schlorff lays the groundwork for his own proposal, the “betrothal” model. While the section is divided into chapters addressing separate aspects of the model, Schlorff notes that these constitute an indivisible whole:

How one defines the objectives is influenced by one’s theology of religions, one’s contextual or theological starting point, and the cross-cultural hermeneutic one uses in communicating the biblical message. And the contrary is also true; these constituent elements of the contextual model influence one’s definition of the objective. (93)

Schlorff clearly views gospel proclamation as primary in mission, even though he finds an element of truth in Bosch’s objection that evangelicals wrongly avoid socio-political involvement. In regard to Islam specifically, Schlorff suggests that in light of Muslim misunderstandings about Christian mission, we should adopt the kingdom of God as a central theme in the formulation of our mission objective. This is an interesting proposal, especially given the fact that advocates of highly contextualized approaches—to which Schlorff would strongly object—have adopted this theme as their paradigm for Muslim ministry as well.

“What is the fundamental object of Christian mission to Islam: total displacement, fulfillment, dialogue, or something else?”

When it comes to theological evaluation of other religions, Schlorff takes a negative position, largely agreeing with Reformed Dutch missiologist Johann Bavinck, who emphasizes non-Christians’ repression of the truth which Paul speaks of in Romans 1. Rejecting the claim that certain biblical passages provide justification for starting with the Qur’an (such as Mt. 5:17; Jn. 1:1, 14; Acts 17:23, 28; and 1 Cor. 9:22), Schlorff concludes that the Bible is the only valid theological starting point for evangelism, not the Qur’an or Muslim culture. This is not to say that all reference to the Qur’an is off limits, but the purpose and manner must be carefully considered. Next Schlorff critiques the “synthetic” approaches to Qur’anic interpretation which seek to bring its perspective and that of the Bible closer together. He concludes that no biblical evidence suggests such an approach, and offers principles to guide the interpretation of both the Qur’an and the Bible.

Missiological Models concludes with an overview of Schlorff’s “betrothal” model (2 Cor. 11:2-3), a combination of the author’s approach to mission, theology of religions, the theological starting point, cross-cultural interpretation, and church strategy. A lengthy appendix describes a U.S.-based ministry consistent with the betrothal model, Church Without Walls, founded by Dr. Anees Zaka.

EVALUATION

Missiological Models offers helpful and thoughtful reflection on critical aspects of ministry to Muslims. Schlorff rightly notes that our understanding of the basic objective of mission and our evaluation of religions will inform our approach. And in reaching his own conclusions on these questions, Schlorff demonstrates a clear allegiance to biblical priorities, patterns, and emphases.

For example, while highly contextualized approaches focus on ambiguous biblical references which supposedly indicate that God is somehow at work in other religions (Melchizedek, Naaman, Balaam, etc.), Schlorff follows the strong biblical emphasis on man’s repression and suppression of truth.

Also helpful is Schlorff’s discussion of key passages that are often cited as justification for using the Qur’an as a starting point, Acts 17 being perhaps the most significant. Regarding Paul’s reference to pagan poets, Schlorff concludes that Paul only cites them as evidence of the availability of general revelation, not to “prove doctrines that, according to the Bible, are given or understood only by means of special revelation” (121). Although he never mentions them directly, this conclusion places Schlorff in opposition to approaches such as the Camel Method or the Insider Movement.

As mentioned earlier, Schlorff proposes adopting the kingdom of God as a primary theme in ministry to Muslims. The two main reasons he offers for this are the centrality of the kingdom of God in the Bible’s view of mission and the fact that Muslims often interpret Christian mission as political in nature. This proposal is perhaps helpful and reasonable, although it remains to be seen whether the Muslim concept of the kingdom of God as an essentially political entity will render this proposal just as challenging as traditional discussions of conversion to Christianity.

On a related note, Schlorff clearly affirms the formation of churches, although he does not mention the church in relation to his proposal on the kingdom. Given some of the more radical, and ambiguous, approaches to the use of the kingdom paradigm in highly contextualized models, a clear statement on the priority of the church and its relationship to the kingdom would have been helpful.

CONCLUSION

Missiological Models in Ministry to Muslims is a valuable resource for those engaged in reaching Muslims with the gospel. However, it will likely be a challenging read for those without basic knowledge of Islam and issues of contextualization. Interacting with a wide range of authors, Schlorff demonstrates his competency as a scholar while also writing out of many years of experience in the Middle East. Missiological Models may be obtained by contacting the author.

About The Author

Doug Coleman is a missionary in Central Asia. He holds a PhD in missions from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Reviewed by Bobby Jamieson

Book Review: MissionShift

David J. Hesselgrave and Ed Stetzer, eds., MissionShift: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium. B&H Academic, 2010. 312 pages. $26.99

I don’t know about you, but I’m generally a fan of roundtable discussions. Sometimes the cut and thrust of live interaction can uncover issues which wouldn’t surface in a monologue. It can also reveal agreements—and disagreements—which otherwise might not have shown themselves.

On the other hand, roundtable discussions can sometimes be frustratingly shallow, just scratching the surface of a topic before jumping to something else.

A LIVELY ROUNDTABLE ON ISSUES IN MISSIOLOGY

The recent book MissionShift: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium, edited by David Hesselgrave and Ed Stetzer, is basically a lively roundtable discussion on current issues in mission.

Imagine that seventeen Christian scholars and leaders get together for a couple day long summit on the subject of mission. (The editors don’t mention any in-person meetings that went into this book’s production—remember, we’re imagining.) There are presentations on the past, present, and future of mission by distinguished senior missiologists: Charles Van Engen, Paul Hiebert, and Ralph Winter (the latter two have since died). Four scholars are invited to respond to each proposal, and sometimes to the other respondents. At the end of each round, Ed Stetzer provides a summary and evaluation of the conversation. Finally, David Hesselgrave evaluates the proceedings of the entire conversation.

A SUMMARY IN BROAD STROKES

It would be tedious to track too many details of individual essays, so I’ll try to sketch the conversation in a few broad strokes.

Charles Van Engen examines mission’s past through the lens of the search for a definition of mission. Issues raised in Van Engen’s chapter and the responses to it include the relationship between evangelism and social action, the history of the ecumenical missions movement, and the theology and missiology of Karl Barth.

Paul Hiebert’s chapter provides a simple taxonomy for thinking through the issue of contextualization, advocating a stance of “critical contextualization” between the extremes of “minimal contextualization” and “uncritical contextualization.” Responses to Hiebert address issues of epistemology, linguistics, translation philosophy, and the contentious recent discussion of contextualization in Muslim cultures along the “C-1 to C-6” paradigm proposed by John Travis.

Ralph Winter was tasked with forecasting the future of evangelicals in mission. However, as his respondents almost uniformly note, his essay was more an appraisal of the history of evangelicalism and an apologetic for the “kingdom mission” which Winter came to advocate in his later years. One of Winter’s key contentions is that evangelicals must give far greater attention to destroying “all forms of evil, both human and macrobiological” (190) in order to make the gospel credible to contemporary people. And so, from a slightly different angle, the respondents to Winter’s essay return to the issue of the relationship between evangelism and social action. They also discuss the nature of the gospel itself and the extent to which Christians should expect to be able to undo the effects of the fall in this age.

“The great strength of this volume is that it serves as a fairly accessible introduction to a number of critical issues in contemporary evangelical missiology.”

Finally, David Hesselgrave’s concluding chapter traces the personal trajectories of Donald MacGavran and himself in order to shed further light on the issues in play in the book. He then provides his own assessment of the three main essays along with some thoughtful prescriptions for future evangelical missiological efforts.

AN ACCESSIBLE INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL ISSUES IN MISSIOLOGY

The great strength of this volume is that it serves as a fairly accessible introduction to a number of critical issues in contemporary evangelical missiology. Further, the diversity of viewpoints represented charts the spectrum of opinion among evangelicals on some of these issues and points toward further reading.

One area where I would have liked to see greater depth and specificity was the discussion of contextualization in Hiebert’s essay and the responses to it. Here it seemed the format was most limiting, though it was still a useful introduction to the current state of the conversation.

In my opinion, the essays by Andreas Köstenberger and Cristopher Little were particularly compelling, as were David Hesselgrave’s concluding reflections. Without taking anything away from the other contributors, I would suggest that Hesselgrave’s evaluations of the three major essays were the most theologically incisive.

Hesselgrave and Stetzer have performed a helpful service to the evangelical missions community—and evangelical churches more broadly—by facilitating and evaluating this conversation. While cross-cultural missionaries and other vocational mission workers will likely profit most from these discussions, this book could also sharpen pastors’ missiology.

Contextualization, the relationship between the gospel and social action, and the role of the church in mission are all issues that are relevant to local church ministry. David Heselgrave’s Paradigms in Conflict and Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert’s forthcoming What is the Mission of the Church? may provide more detailed biblical analysis of some of these issues, but for a look at the state of the conversation from a wide variety of perspectives, MissionShift is a helpful starting point.

About The Author

Bobby Jamieson is assistant editor for 9Marks.

Reviewed by Ben Wright

Book Review: The Intentional Church: Moving from Church Success to Community Transformation

Randy Pope, The Intentional Church: Moving from Church Success to Community Transformation. Moody, 2006. 224 pages. $14.99

Let’s begin with how to read The Intentional Church.

HOW TO READ THIS BOOK

Simply put, turn to the conclusion first. There, Pope clearly states that “a transforming church is the by-product of the power of the gospel, not of outstanding ministry planning” (221).

Otherwise, a reader might take Pope’s advice on robust ministry planning as the pivotal factor to make your church the transformational church God really wants—one that leaves “an indelible spiritual imprint” in the community (20). Unfortunately, Pope himself implies this when he writes, “Any success we have [at Perimeter] is due to being an intentional church” (17, emphasis original).

Instead, read The Intentional Church as providing insight into one aspect of church leadership. Pope speaks to a pastor’s godly impulse to set an agenda that accounts for the vastness of God’s plan, not to the pastor who’s looking for a magic bullet in the “_________ Church” genre.

SUMMARY

Pope’s central idea is that senior pastors bear a unique responsibility to cultivate transformational ministry that impacts not only individual lives, but also the whole church culture and ultimately the secular community. Transformational ministry requires the senior pastor to hear God’s plans for the church, articulate that vision, and implement strategic life-on-life investment in potential leaders to equip them to carry out the mission.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Pope takes the Lordship of Christ seriously, speaking frequently to the high price church leaders and consumeristic congregations must pay to pursue transformational ministry. Though his ultimate objective is evangelism, he recognizes that a strong emphasis on discipleship toward maturity and service advances that goal. And Pope understands that discipleship doesn’t happen simply by talking about the Bible, but by intertwining our lives so that we spur one another on to live out our mission.

The book is permeated with talk about how pastors should equip believers for the work of the ministry. Within that context, Pope portrays the church as an offensive weapon for God’s kingdom. He models initiative and innovation, but not merely for the sake of multiplying programs. He repeatedly argues that the stuff your church is doing—even if it’s good stuff on paper—won’t necessarily produce the fruit you want. Instead, we must identify goals and implement strategies that clearly pursue those goals. And all these exhortations are welcome and helpful.

CAUTIONS

Pope anticipates that some readers will be unconvinced by his emphasis on strategic planning: “[Y]ou may believe that I am advocating that you should run a church like a company runs a business. I certainly understand that ministry is not a business, but I do believe that the application of time-tested principles may help us increase our effectiveness at fulfilling our God-given visions” (186). Nevertheless, the pervasive emphasis on implementing best practices borrowed from business culture blurs this distinction and runs the risk of decentralizing what’s most essential for transformational ministry.

“Too often the Word seems necessary, but not central—perhaps just one among many concerns.”

Assumptions can be dangerous, and Pope seems to make several that are open to question.

• Should we really think of the unchurched as “customers” (122-124)?

• Do we have biblical warrant to conclude that the senior pastor hears directly from God, especially in a way distinct from other elders?

• Do we have the freedom to shape our services to appeal to non-Christians? Might some cultural forms or evangelism strategies undermine the essence of the message?

• And most importantly, is a church sufficiently analogous to a business to import business methodology without reservation?

These and other unanswered questions keep me from offering an unqualified endorsement. Though Pope sometimes hints at conclusions, his argumentation is too sparse to be persuasive. That’s not to say we should discard insight gained merely from experience rather than Scripture. But this book falls short of a relentlessly Scripture-driven agenda. Too often the Word seems necessary, but not central—perhaps just one among many concerns. Though I expect Pope would insist that the Word is absolutely foundational to his theology and ministry, he assumes that his readers will share that foundation. I’m not sure we should make such an assumption.

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK?

Pastors who are haphazard planners or ineffective strategic thinkers will benefit from the discipline Pope advocates. Pastors who have built churches around their personality and have experienced rapid growth may just now be feeling things slip out of control. They, in particular, will be challenged to fulfill their obligation to invest strategically in other potential leaders toward cohesive objectives.

As you read this book you’ll see that, by the grace of God, Randy Pope has accomplished tremendous work for the sake of the gospel, and his approach to ministry planning has borne abundant fruit. You won’t encounter methods that are timeless and universal because they’re shaped by a biblical agenda. Still, this book may well create useful conversations for church leaders not gifted in administration or communicating vision.

About The Author

Ben Wright is associate pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas.

Reviewed by Bobby Jamieson

Book Review: The Gift of Church

Jim Samra, The Gift of Church: How God Designed the Local Church to Meet our Needs as Christians. Zondervan, 2010. 160 pages. $14.99

Some Christians grew up in churches that seemed irrelevant to real growth in godliness. Some Christians—sometimes the same ones—were converted or grew significantly through a parachurch ministry during college. Some Christians have been burned by churches that abused authority, tolerated scandalous sin, or split over superficial issues.

Add all this up and you’ve got a lot of Christians who are ambivalent at best about the local church. Thankfully, many Christians today are rediscovering—or discovering for the first time—the centrality of the local church in Christian discipleship. And some, like Jim Samra, senior pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, are serving us all by writing about it.

Samra’s personal experience fits much of what I’ve described above. This prompted him to spend years wrestling with the question, “Why church?” including writing a doctoral thesis on the role of the local church in Christian growth.

“WHAT BENEFIT IS THE CHURCH?”: SIX BIBLICAL ANSWERS

In his new book The Gift of Church, Jim Samra brings theological reflection, long personal experience, and the warm heart of a pastor to bear on the question, “What benefit is the church?” (17). In six crisp, colorful chapters, Samra builds a compelling case for why we as Christians need the local church.

In chapter one, Samra sketches a brief biblical theology of the assembly and establishes that God is present with his assembled people in a special way. One quibble: his metaphor “God in concert” tilts a little too far to the experiential, subjective side, and it could lend weight to a wrongly emotion-centric account of corporate worship. However, Samra balances this with a spot-on discussion of what to do when we don’t experience God’s presence in church.

Chapter two is an excellent discussion of the sanctifying power of diversity in the local church. Samra writes, “The best demonstration of Christian love, according to Jesus, is loving those who are not like you” (45). He further points out that when faith in Christ is the only thing (except location and language) joining diverse people together, as should often be the case in a local church, Christ is magnified (46). And Samra rightly warns against the temptation to deliberately build a homogenous church. He points out that God’s purpose for the church is that it would be a body made up of many different members, not a body in which all are the same (47).

Chapters three and four provide reasons why the local church rather than, for example, a parachurch ministry, must play the central role in Christian discipleship. In chapter three Samra writes,

If your only experience of Christian community is in a fellowship of Christian college students, this group will be well equipped to comfort you through the struggle of choosing your classes or dealing with persecution from a professor. But where would you turn if you were diagnosed with cancer? What is the likelihood that someone else in your college group has faced that? The church that God has created is multigenerational, allowing us to draw from the experience of Christians in every stage of life. (70)

In chapter four, Samra biblically expounds the traditional doctrine of the church as the mother of believers. In this section he kindly boils down some of his doctoral research to an easily accessible level, exploring the role of the local church in the believer’s maturation. And again, as in chapter three, Samra aptly argues for the unique role of the local church in discipleship. Samra reminds us that it is the local church that is biblically prescribed to celebrate the ordinances and practice discipline, which are vital, God-ordained means of sanctification (87, 90-91).

Chapter five discusses how believers can accomplish qualitatively and quantitatively more through the church than they can on their own. And chapter six explores the church’s role in making God’s grace in the gospel visible and tangible to the watching world.

WHAT ABOUT OBEDIENCE?

My only substantive critique of the book is that Samra omits calling Christians to membership and faithful service in the local church as a matter of obedience to God’s Word.

Early in the book, Samra mentions how some people would quote Hebrews 10:25 in response to his questions about why Christians should go to church, but he didn’t find this one prooftext to be a persuasive case for regular church attendance. That’s an understandable initial response, but I wish that Samra would have picked this issue back up later in the book. After all, if Hebrews 10:25 does command Christians to assemble together regularly as local churches—and I believe it does—then Christians need to be reminded not merely of the benefits church brings, but of the divine mandate upon us to regularly assemble as local churches.

“Samra pastors the reader on every page, gently leading stray sheep back into the sheepfold where God wants them to be.”

Granted, Samra’s stated purpose is only to discuss the benefits of church, not offer a comprehensive rationale for participation in church. But the issue of obedience is not unrelated to the benefits of church. When Christians live as supreme, autonomous consumers and so refuse to submit ourselves to the authority of a local church, we cut ourselves off from our primary source of accountability, instruction, and guidance. The benefit of obedience in this area, then, is that it humbles us and forces us to submit to authority—both God’s and a local church’s—and so opens the door to all the benefits Samra so richly describes throughout the book.

A FEW OF THIS OUTSTANDING BOOK’S STRENGTHS

However, this is a relatively minor omission in an outstanding book. Here are a few of the book’s greatest strengths.

First, the book is a pleasure to read. It’s concise. It’s full of vivid illustrations. And it’s written in a warm, gracious tone. Samra pastors the reader on every page, gently leading stray sheep back into the sheepfold where God wants them to be.

Further, Samra repeatedly and clearly explains why the local church and no other institution holds the central place in the Christian life. I’m sure that some church leaders have struggled to find a compelling answer for the campus ministry devotee who says, “Our Wednesday night meeting has teaching, worship, prayer, and fellowship. Why do I need to come to church, much less join the church?” This book provides solid, biblical answers. Many of them, in fact.

A final strength of this book that is of particular benefit to pastors: Samra sees the local church in the New Testament. We tend to read the New Testament through individualistic lenses, so we often fail to see just how definitive the local church’s role in the Christian life really is. But Samra’s carefully trained eye helps us to see what’s really there on the pages of Scripture (see, e.g., pp. 81-82). Following Samra’s example, pastors who read this book should be better equipped to teach about the church through the course of their regular expositional preaching. This will, in turn, help the people in the pew understand and embrace the centrality of the local church in their discipleship.

A WINSOME, COMPELLING INVITATION

The Gift of Church is a winsome, compellingly biblical invitation into the life of the church. Pastors, active church members, and church skeptics alike will be well served by this loving reminder of the centrality of the local church in the Christian life.

About The Author

Bobby Jamieson is assistant editor for 9Marks.

Reviewed by Geoff Chang

Book Review: Many Colors: Cultural Intelligence for a Changing Church

I’ve been thinking a lot about cultural diversity in the local church these days. Since I’m a young, Chinese Texan who has spent the past four years living on the East Coast and am currently pastoring an older, Caucasian congregation in the Pacific Northwest, I find the topic to be quite relevant.

So it was with great interest that I read Soong-Chan Rah’s Many Colors: Cultural Intelligence for a Changing Church, in which he proposes a way forward for churches dealing with the challenges of cultural diversity.

MOST USEFUL PART: CATEGORIES FOR CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

Perhaps the most useful part of this book is the section where Rah provides categories for understanding the spectrum of cultural differences. Here, he lists ways in which cultures might have differing views on identity, communication, wrongdoing, authority, and more, and the impact these differences can have.

Rah also shows how these various differences tend to group in certain ways, and he challenges churches to consider their culture, in order that there might be greater awareness and sensitivity to others.

TWO NOTABLE WEAKNESSES

However, this book has two notable weaknesses.

Fails to Grapple with the Reality of Sin

First, it fails to adequately grapple with the reality of sin as it manifests itself within different cultural expressions.

“To talk about differing cultural views of identity (individual vs. community) without addressing how sinful human nature can pervert those views (selfishness vs. abdication) is to fail to recognize the overriding reality of our sinful nature.”

This book rightly claims that culture, with all its attendant diversity, is part of God’s good plan for his creation: “Cultures… are not inherently evil, but rather are an expression by fallen humanity to live into the high calling of the Imago Dei…Our goal in cultural intelligence, therefore, is not to erase cultural differences but rather to seek ways to honor the presence of God in different cultures” (29). True enough. And yet, we must remember that it is fallen humanity that is giving expression to culture. To talk about differing cultural views of identity (individual vs. community) without addressing how sinful human nature can pervert those views (selfishness vs. abdication) is to fail to recognize the overriding reality of our sinful nature.

This point is made particularly clear in some of the stories Rah gives to illustrate these differences. In one story, a worship leader grows impatient at the tardiness of one of the vocalists (89). In another, a group of Westerners on a short-term mission trip vent their frustrations in a heated exchange (96). Are these simply morally neutral, cultural expressions of identity and communication? Or is there sin involved? If we deal with such incidents merely as cultural differences, then we miss the deeper problem of sin. At the end of the day, we understand ourselves best not by knowing culture, but by knowing what God has revealed about us in his Word.

Fails to Show how the Gospel Affects Cultural Differences within the Church

Second, this book fails to show how the gospel affects our cultural differences within the church.

For a book on unity within the church, there is little sustained meditation on the unifying work of Christ. Rather, mixed in with Bible passages are frequent references to sociology and business.

“But is the unity of the church of Jesus Christ to be based on our ability to give balanced cultural expression? Or does the gospel have something more to say about our unity?”

And what is the main solution that Rah advocates? Equality of cultural expression. “We want to create a culture where all the notes on the scale are accepted and welcomed… [a church culture] that develops an ability to encompass the full spectrum of culture” (108). Only by having “a visible and explicit expression of the range/spectrum of cultural expressions” will those from differing cultural contexts feel welcome (88).

But is the unity of the church of Jesus Christ to be based on our ability to give balanced cultural expression? Or does the gospel have something more to say about our unity?

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, having just described how Christ has united Jew and Gentile (talk about differing cultures!) in the local church, Paul goes on to describe how they are to live together in humility and love, keeping the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Eph. 4:2-3). But how is this possible? Only the glorious truths of what God has accomplished through the gospel: bringing all of us into one body, with one Spirit, uniting us under one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all (Eph. 4:4-6).

The unity of the local church is something that cannot be imitated by the world, because it flows from the supernatural work of the gospel. We also see this when Paul encourages Christians to “consider others better than yourselves” and to look “to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:3-4). In other words, we should be delighted when cultural barriers are removed for the sake of others’ spiritual good, even if that means we have to bear the burden of adapting to a different culture. Such counter-cultural love and humility is only possible as we embrace the saving work of Christ and follow his example. There, we see One who did not fight for his rights, but came into our world in order to give himself for us (Phil. 2:5-11). Having been saved and transformed by such love, we are no longer driven by our preferences, but by sacrificial love.

To put it in a nutshell, worldly unity is found by giving everyone an equal shot at self-expression. Assure the crowd, in other words, that everyone will get a chance to speak. We can all be equally selfish here. Gospel unity, on the other hand, is found by calling everyone to sacrifice their preferences. Assure the crowd that everyone will get to take up their cross and follow Jesus. Ironically, both methods might produce similar temporary results in terms of what a church looks like and sounds like when you walk through the door (the songs we sing; the clothes we wear). But how different those methods are, and what different long term results will follow.

CONCLUSION

Many Colors can be a helpful tool for pastors as they seek to understand the cultural makeup of their own churches. But ultimately, its usefulness is limited by how little it focuses on what Christ has done. We have a much more powerful tool for pursuing unity in our congregations than mere celebration of diversity, namely, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Only as our lives are transformed and united by the gospel will our churches become a display of the wisdom of God to the watching universe (Eph. 3:10).

In the last weeks of his life, the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was cut off from all contact with his friends. Yet in the Gestapo prison, Bonhoeffer found joyful fellowship with other Christians, “men and women of many nationalities, Russians, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Italians, and Germans.”[1] As Bonhoeffer found, we see the essence of Christian community not in our various cultural expressions, but in our mutual faith in and union with Christ:

One is a brother to another only through Jesus Christ. I am a brother to another person through what Jesus Christ did for me and to me; the other person has become a brother to me through what Jesus Christ did for him… Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us.[2]

About The Author

Geoff Chang is associate pastor of Hinson Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon.

July/August 2011

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[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community, trans. John W. Doberstein (New York: HarperCollins, 1954), 13.

[2] Ibid., 25.