Equip the Called

God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called.

Like most pithy bumper-sticker theological sayings, this one has a bit of truth to it. God does have a record of using some unlikely people to accomplish His will. However, this doesn’t mean we should put anyone who is willing in any volunteer position we have within the church.

Imagine this with me for a moment:

Your favorite football team is taking the field. The starters are all new players, fresh off the street without much (if any) training. The coaches have not spent much time teaching them the game or analyzing their ability. Further, they have no pads or helmets, just t-shirts and basketball shorts.

How are they going to do? They’ll get crushed, right? In fact, many of them will probably end up with major injuries that may take weeks to years to fully heal.

Now imagine these two scenarios with me:

Your church has a brand new Christian. This person came forward at an altar call a few weeks ago and expressed a new faith in Christ. They have been regularly attending the Sunday morning service as well as a small group every other week, but have had little to no time spent talking with church leadership about their walk with Jesus.

Your church has a person who is a Christian and has been for a few years, but is struggling heavily—and seemingly losing the struggle—with addiction. This struggle is causing them to strongly doubt God’s love and forgiveness. No one in the church really knows about this other than a member or two of church leadership.

Let us say that both these people want to volunteer at the church and are willing to help almost anywhere needed, from stacking chairs at a potluck to serving on the church board. Where do you ask them to volunteer?

Most American churches are small ones in need of any volunteers they can get, and often both of the above people would end up quickly being asked to assume a position of leadership within the church, be it an explicit leadership position (elder, board member, etc) or implicit one (teacher—especially of an adult class or small group, worship team, etc). This is unfortunate because neither of these people has what they need to be in leadership. They are lacking their training, their helmets, and their pads.

Don’t get me wrong—I don’t believe you need to be nearly sinless and/or seminary-trained to serve in the church, even in many leadership positions. That said, many Christians need to be brought up in the faith before they are asked to lead others. Those that are new to Christianity and those that are fragile and barely surviving the struggle to kill sin and keep the faith need the church to train and serve them for a time before they can train and serve others.

To do otherwise is to end up with people bruised and battered and broken by our too-high expectations. They may leave the church; they may stay as the walking wounded.

Neither is good.

So ask the new Christian to attend a new believers class where they can hear the basics of the faith. Ask the barely-surviving Christian to get a coffee with you and talk about your own walk with God.  Come alongside them to help them learn about Jesus. Pray with them and for them. Allow them to volunteer in pressure-free situations – moving tables for a meeting, setting up the church for Christmas or Easter, working in the nursery, attending a church workday, until they are spiritually and emotionally ready to handle the demands of leadership. This is the way a church develops strong people that can lead others in service to God.

Originally posted at The Anon Church blog. Reposted here in its entirety.

Take It Seriously – Speaking about God

**Take It Seriously is going to be a series of posts where I take a look at topics that I don’t see being taken very seriously by Christians. The topics are in no way listed in order of priority or importance.**

How we as Christians speak of God is very important. We believe that God sent His Son to earth to die and rise again for our salvation and eternal life in heaven with Him. We believe that God is powerful enough to raise the dead and kind enough to bestow mercy and grace on His enemies. We worship the One who created the heavens and the earth and who owns everything in them.

And we call him “the Big Guy.”

Christians (myself included) sometimes let loose an “Oh my God” when we aren’t speaking of Him at all.

You can provide your own examples if you have them (and you probably do).

My point is this – when we speak of God, we need to remember who He is and what He has done. Christians are saved from His wrath through the blood of Jesus. This is a serious thing and we should not take it, or Him, lightly. When we do we demean the name of God and lower other’s opinions of Him as well.

Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.  Ephesians 3:20-21

Books and Reading – A Call for Discernment

Last week over at Ref21, Todd Pruitt posted an article about members of the ministry not recommending certain books to congregational members. One quote jumped out at me:

Urging people away from certain books and insisting that ministry staff not recommend them is an important task of the pastor these days. . . It is the pastor’s duty to protect the purity and unity of the flock he serves as shepherd.

I would fully agree with this. One of the problems currently facing the church is a lack of deeper understanding of theology by the man-on-the-street church member, and reading light, fluffy, skirting the edge of orthodoxy (or falling right over it) books certainly doesn’t help matters. Further, if a pastor is aware that the members of his congregation are reading troublesome, wrong, or downright heretical books he should say something to protect his people.

But it doesn’t always work this way.

Unfortunately, when a book is popular many church leaders seem hesitant to speak against it. Worse yet, they may think that a book’s popularity among Christians means that it is a helpful, and therefore good, book for Christians to read. How else can you explain church-sponsored small groups using books like Velvet Elvis (reviewed here) and The Shack (reviewed here and here), and women’s groups within churches passing around books like Heaven is for Real (off a church denomination’s official women’s group reading list, reviewed here and here). I believe the church is full of more examples like this – these are simply examples of which I have first-hand knowledge.

Should pastors tell their ministry staff when a book isn’t fit to be recommended to the people of the church? Yes. Should pastors tell their congregation when a book (especially a popular one) is full of bad theology and potentially dangerous? Absolutely. Sadly, many will not.

Pastor, don’t be so afraid to offend someone that you let your congregation run to the bookstore to grab the latest piece of Christian pop-culture without a warning if one is called for. If a book is suddenly very popular in your church, learn about it. You may be the only person in someone’s life who knows enough to warn.

Christian, the popularity of a book does not affect the truth of the book. A book is not acceptable simply because many people have read it any more than it is not acceptable simply because of low readership. Read your Bible first – then if you need a book recommendation turn to trusted church leaders or theologically knowledgeable friends. Do a bit of research before accepting a book. Remember that the church is 2,000 years old. Brand new theological insights are often heresy (and usually old ones at that).