Prayers for the Church (1)

I was recently reading Mark Dever and Paul Alexander’s The Deliberate Church. There Mark Dever talks about the 4 priorities he had in taking up his ministry in Washington D.C. His priorities were Preaching, Prayer, Personal Discipleship & Patience. His points on the place of pray in the ministry have led me to think for a few weeks now about beginning a series of bible studies on Prayer for the Church. The first is a collection of some thoughts on Philippians 1:9-11.

I’m in a blogging mood today, so here’s what I’ve been thinking:

This prayer in Philippians 1:9-11 teaches us to pray:
1. That we would never be satisfied with the love we already have, but would long for it to deepen.
Verse 9 – “That your love may abound more and more.”
2. The this deepening love would grow, not out of our own possibly wayward thinking, but rather out of a knowledge of the word, and of the character of Christ, which we would seek to emulate, and knowledge of the love that he has shown us.
Verse 9 – “That your love may abound with knowledge”
3. That this love would be willing; willing to be quick to do the right thing, not just thinking about doing something, but to actually do it.
Verse 9 – “That your love may abound with discernment”
4. That this deepening love would result in growing discernment between right and wrong actions, resulting in a pursuit of righteousness and godliness.
Verse 10 – “so that you may approve what is excellent”
5. That this desire for righteousness would be displayed through perseverance and godliness in the life of believers.
Verse 10 – “and so be pure”
6. That there would be a real desire for the good of others, and an active movement away from causing hurt and offence.
Verse 10 – “and so be blameless”
7. That we would all keep the goal – the return of Jesus – in mind, and that we would live in as people looking forward to that.
Verse 10 – “so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ”
8. That the fruit of righteousness, that is the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in sanctification would be evident in the lives of believers.
Verse 11 – “Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Chrsit”
9. That ultimately God would be glorified in this church, through the walk of the saints, as they proceed into deeper godly affections for one another and for God himself.
Verse 11 – “to the glory and praise of God.”

Point 3 probably bears some explanation. It’s a tricky word to pin down, but I’ve taken the meaning not to be limited to the sense of discerment, but more linked to the power or manner in which that discerment actually works. This can be somewhat supported by the appearance of something similar in the following verse – the power to approve what is excellent. The idea is that not merely have a sense, but having that sense sharply tuned is paramount.

Anyway, God willing, the folk at Greyfriars will be encouraged to make these points part of thier prayerlife over the next week or so.

I think the reason pastors don’t do that is becasue they don’t live off the Bible day by day.

I just wanted to share this.

Je suis réprimandé.

Dumbed down Church

I’ve now got a real bee in my bonnet about this – dumbed down church doesn’t make any sense, for so many reasons.

• Scotland’s people are the best educated they ever have been – yet the church is at it’s least literate since before the WWII.
• Most radical secular atheists are repulsed by a dumbed down Christianity that puts subjective feelings over reason – particularly a faith that is happy to profess it has no basis, e.g. those who call themselves Christians, but don’t even accept the Bible to be the Word of God.
• Post moderns, hard to generalise they may be, are astonished with the true depth and – dare I use the word – complexity of the Christian faith. Complexity is perhaps wrong, intricacy is perhaps better. Post Modern Spirituality, new gnosticism, call it what you will, can only be answered by a faith that makes sense in how it addresses real problems. A clearly understood, well kept Christian spirituality fills the very void po-mo’s are looking to fill. Sadly, shallow, poorly grasped faith just adds to the smorgasbord of confused and jumbled ideas making up a fairly typical pm worldview.
• This is further exacerbated by Christians who have no theology themselves – who think theology is a professional business best left to ministers. Their faith is not a reasonable one, and the best answer they can give is a Christianity reduced to something like, “Jesus died for my sins, it’s amazing being a Christian.” You’re left wondering is this why we have an alarming number of young Christians abandoning the faith – if the faith they are taught gives them no rationale for what happens when God’s providence is difficult to bear, and actually sells them an empty chalice of sugar coated dreams?
• Historically, times of blessing have followed not a “simple faith” in terms of knowledge, but a “simple faith” in terms of it’s awed respect and godly fear in light of the massive things we’ve come to know. The Reformation – a rediscovery of Justification. The great awakening – a rediscovery of justification. Today – blank looks when you mention justification, because justification is a theological term disputed by professionals.
• Historically again, after the Westminster Assembly, kids knew the “shorter catechism”. Today, this is the benchmark for the theological understanding of our ministers (candidates nearing the end of their selection process are examined on their knowledge of the WSC) – and we, the Free Church, are probably the most demanding Scottish body of Christians in this regard. We are facing decline.
• We are consistently, in most churches, running children’s Sunday School at the same time as church services, depriving both the kids, but more importantly the teachers of half their regular bible teaching. I’m not disparaging the work of Sunday School teachers, or even the material they are using – but I do wonder about the nett effect of less teaching overall. I’m worried about preaching too, if we are inadvertantly presenting it as something older people listen to, but kids can afford to ignore.
• Most older Christians I know rely heavily on what they learned as youths – many don’t read, and going on the discussions I have and questions I’m asked, I’m not sure a culture of learning is prevalent in our church. Sermons are measured by how much superficial encouragement they give, not the equipping they provide.

I just don’t like dumbed down church.