Biblical Character Qualifications for Church Leaders

Hey everyone, Derek here (a.k.a. “Mr. THEOparadox“).

One of the oft-overlooked qualities essential for any pastor is that he “must have a good reputation with those outside the church.” (I Timothy 3:7). This past Sunday I heard a testimony that demonstrates the fruit of possessing this qualification.

In our men’s Sunday School class, our pastor’s neighbor shared the reason he recently started attending our church. He said that he had waited two years before coming to the church because he wanted to “see if this man really was who he claimed to be.” After observing and interacting with my pastor during that time, including a spirited dispute over a fence line, he saw something authentic and impressive (no doubt it was the image of Christ, unobscured by human pride). My pastor passed the reputation test, and he’s won the opportunity to effectively share the Gospel as a result. God uses the qualifications He requires.

For several years, I was part of a very solid family of Reformed charismatic churches. There, I discovered a peculiarly strong emphasis on the Biblical qualifications for church leaders. I saw these qualifications accurately described and defined, and I watched as my pastors were held accountable not only to attain the qualifications at the start, but to maintain them all the way through. I know of specific cases where church discipline was applied because leaders failed to remain “above reproach” in areas like finances and family discipleship. All of this was very refreshing, especially in light of my Pentecostal background. Back in my Pentecostal days,

Saved From God

Hey everyone, Derek here.

This week I listened to C.J. Mahaney’s sermon, “Christ Our Mediator.” (Click here to download it free from Sovereign Grace Ministries)

C.J. quoted three definitive Gospel summaries . . .

“The glory of the Gospel is this:  the One from Whom we need to be saved is the One who has saved us.”   – R.C. Sproul

“Divine love triumphed over divine wrath by divine self-sacrifice.”   – John Stott

“The debt was so great that while man alone owed it, only God could pay it.”   – Anselm

The results: God’s holy wrath is satisfied, so believers have peace with God and no condemnation from God.

Got nothing to add to that. Thank God.

Zero-Sum Games, Parenting, and Theology

Paradoxes can be a great tool for parenting.

Last weekend, I had a lot of yard projects to get done, so I told my kids (ages five and eight) that we would be spending the day together working. They looked excited, and started holding out their hands at me. Somehow, without trying to, I’ve given them the impression that this type of work should always be compensated. Or maybe they’ve given themselves that impression, I’m not sure.

Either way, I found myself staring down at two very expectant youngsters. I didn’t want to pay them, so I proposed decreed the following:

1. Everyone who works will get paid (including Daddy).

2. The payment scheme will be as follows: I will pay my daughter $1.00 for her work. She will pay her little brother $1.00 for his work. He will pay me $1.00 for my work.

3. If any of us doesn’t work, that person will still have to pay, but won’t get paid.

We were left with the perfect paradox: everyone gets paid, but no one gains anything. And no one loses anything, either. And we all have a motivation to work. Most importantly, Daddy doesn’t lose his shirt on the deal.

Worship: A Cross-Centered Balance

The following quotations are from William P. Farley’s excellent book, Outrageous Mercy: Rediscover the Radical Nature of Christianity.

. . . all true worship is a response to God’s revelation. God initiates worship by speaking to us . . . Worship is not something that we fabricate or produce. God reveals some aspect of His moral beauty – His love, mercy, or holiness – and we respond with worship. In other words, to the degree that God communicates His proper nature to us we respond with worship. “Worship is dialogical,” notes Michael Horton. “God speaks and we respond.” (p. 166)

Where do we find the revelation that produces worship? The cross is the Bible’s greatest revelation of God’s goodness and mercy. In other words, the more we see God’s goodness and our bankruptcy at the cross, the greater our capacity for worship. God initiates worship by revealing Himself, and the cross is the pinnacle of all worship-inducing revelation. (p. 171)

Let us consider the worship of the Old Testament saints. 

A Bad Heart and a Good God

One of my blog friends, Derek Ashton, and I recently decided to team up on our respective blogs.  My appreciation for Derek has grown immensely as we’ve gotten better acquainted in the last few months, and I highly recommend his blog, THEOparadox, where he will continue to write. In this post, he introduces himself.  Please welcome Derek Ashton to the ‘who am i?’ blog team.

I’d like to briefly relate a part of my journey with Christ . . .

As a young man studying in a Bible College, I had a decidedly low opinion of the American Church, and a profoundly high opinion of my own place in relation to it. Nowadays, it’s easy to see why I took such a severe and self-centered view of things: I hardly trusted God, and loved myself far too much. And due to my stubbornness, I didn’t know much about His great, merciful heart, or the blessings He gives us in fellowship with other believers. Frankly, I was a graceless, self-righteous moron.

More than 10 years have passed. These days,