What Is The Greatest Need Of The Church Today?

The following quote is from Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his sermon on Acts 2:42 which says, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” The following sermon was delivered in August 1969 in Pensacola, Florida.

They also continued in prayers. The old preachers always used to say that the way to test a church is to examine its prayer meeting. They said, '“That’s the powerhouse. The thermometer by which you can measure the warmth of the life of a church is the character of its prayer meeting.” What are the prayer meetings like in our churches? Are they powerhouses? Do you meet with others to pray? Pray for what? Pray for your preacher. Pray for your pastor. Here is a man weak in the flesh, as we are reminded by the apostle Paul: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Cor. 4:7). Do you pray regularly week by week that the Holy Spirit may come upon him? I have a fear that the members of our churches are beginning to think that only certain people can evangelize. They will prepare only for some special effort. But do you pray daily and week by week for your own minister? The Spirit can come upon him at any moment. Do you pray that He may do so? That is the only hope. We need revival. We need the Holy Spirit’s power upon us. Nothing will avail until we get it. Are you praying for this?

Is Jordan Peterson the "Priest of the Secular Age"?

If you don’t know about Jordan Peterson then it’s a name that you should be aware of. His book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos has sold more than 3 million copies. His YouTube channel has nearly 2 million subscribers. He is a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto. He is quickly becoming one of the most influential voices in the world. Whether directly or indirectly, the masses of popular culture are being influenced and challenged by what he says.

In light of this, Bruce Ashford wrote a helpful reflection on how evangelicals should view the influence of Peterson. Should we look out for him or look up to him? Should we draw away from his writings or draw near? These questions and more are answered in the blog post. Here is a brief excerpt:

In our secular age, Peterson’s status as a social scientist gives him the effectual status of a high priest. As religious authority has been diminished and decentered, social science has moved to the center. Economists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists—each uses “hard data” to draw their conclusions about human beings, personal identity, and social order. As a clinical psychologist, therefore, Peterson’s life-coaching combines the cultural authority of the social sciences with the spiritual appeal of vague religious intimations.

Peterson’s disposition adds to this mystique. He is a deep reader who is able to penetrate to the essence of ideologies such as Marxist intersectional identity politics or alt-right ethno-nationalism. But he is also a deep listener; his interviews and Q&A sessions reveal him as one who listens, sympathizes, and communicates in a way that often fosters genuine respect and dialogue. Indeed, commentators often note Peterson’s resemblance to a religious prophet, priest, or pastor.

Thus, it’s unsurprising to learn of Peterson’s popularity among 20-something males and other disaffected castaways of secular modernity. These are the people who hunger for the security of meaning and significance. And they seem to sense that Peterson has found it.

The irony in all this, however, is that unless Peterson buys wholesale into the Christian faith, his solution is insubstantial; metaphysically, it is little more than a banquet of crushed ice and vapor. Indeed, even though Peterson wisely taps into the power of the Judeo-Christian tradition in the West, he guts it of any real power when he treats it as functionally helpful rather than transcendentally true.

For the full article, click here.

Youth Ministry Sermons & Chapel Messages Now On Podcast

I have learned that there are fewer people who sit down to listen to sermons on their computer than there are people who download them on their phone to listen to them while they drive, walk, or workout. Knowing this, I have decided to start uploading all the youth sermons, chapel messages, FCA talks, and anything that is recorded onto this podcast. I have given the podcast an overly simplistic name to keep it simple and to make it distinct from Pear Orchard’s normal sermon podcast for the Sunday sermons. When you download the Apple “Podcast” app (which is free), you then can search for “Wilson Van Hooser” or “Wilson Van Hooser Audio” to find the audio recordings. Hopefully, this will make these recordings easier to access and also easier to pass along to others.

I will give a slight warning to all listeners: Since I am speaking primarily to youth, sometimes I make loud noises. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy.

Will This New Technology Catch The Church "Off Guard"?

Dear Local Church Member, What Can You Do To Support The Youth Ministry?

I was recently at a lunch with someone and he asked me a great question that not many people ask. “What can I do to support the youth ministry?” The interesting part was that this was not a youth parent who asked this question. This person was primarily asking as a church member on how to be a good fellow church member. Instead of asking him to volunteer, although we love volunteers, I gave him a quick two-fold answer that I will expand here. These answers are primarily a response to someone who would be a parent.

1. To be a church member who supports the youth ministry, teach your family to love Jesus.
   This might sound obvious but I wonder if it is obvious to the people who are around us a lot. In other words, is Jesus our primary love? Yes, insert here all of our failures because we all mess up and we all ruin our witness at some point. Still, this should not deter us from pursuing this. If you want to support the youth ministry, love Jesus in such a way that people know this about you. Fire begets fire. Passion begets passion. Have you ever been around someone who cheered for a certain sports team too much that you were enticed to cheer for them too? Have you ever been tempted into peer pressure because someone tried passionately persuading you to do something with them? Peer pressure never works if the person “selling” the argument is boring or unpassionate. Eeyore would be a terrible “peer pressurer”. If passion tends to entice and persuade people, how much more so would our youth be enticed to love Jesus if they see what Jesus means to you, how Jesus has changed you, and what hope Jesus gives you (1 Peter 3:15)? Why would anyone want to become a Christian if all they know are people who only like Jesus on Sunday morning? Without a love for Jesus, how can we expect to send students off to college who won’t get sucked into the culture of binge drinking, constant sexual hook ups, temptations for unbelief amidst an atheistic world, and peer pressure for substance abuse? How can we really expect students to go to bed on a Saturday night to go to church Sunday morning if they don’t love Jesus? How can we encourage someone to keep pursuing holiness if they don’t love Jesus? We need to make sure we come back to the most basic of foundations. What our youth need now more than ever is not all the correct answers to every apologetic, philosophic, and theological questions they are asked (although we should keep pursuing these!). Rather, what they need is to be surrounding by a church who loves Jesus in such a way that they are wooed, enticed, and persuaded to love Jesus with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. But, how can we expect our children to love Jesus if we look exactly like the culture? How can we expect our students to love Jesus if He isn’t a significant presence in our lives? How can we expect our students to love Jesus as He deserves to be loved if we don’t love Him the way He deserves? You fail. I fail. We all fail. I know that I have lived in such a way before where I was not the most attractive Christian and I made Jesus to look more ugly than more beautiful. We have all been like Peter before and epicly failed. But, here is the grace that Jesus gives us: He tells us to get back out there and keep pursuing Him and keep preaching Him. What a Savior! He isn’t looking for the healthy but for the sick who know how to keep running back to the doctor. Jesus didn’t call the rabbis and religious teachers of His day to follow Him. Jesus called the weirdos, the uneducated, and the ungifted. Jesus does not tell us to do this under our own strength but rather He empowers us to do this! If the almighty God empowers us to do this then why should we not pursue this? I briefly conclude with the first half of the answer by saying that if you want to support the youth ministry then love Jesus and teach your family to love Jesus. Without Him, there is no eternal life.

2. To be a church member who supports the youth ministry, teach your family to love the church.
   One of the biggest growing statistics is that more and more students who grow up in the church are leaving the church when they go to college. Why do they leave the church? First, they leave the church because they don’t see the importance of the church. The church, for them, is another party competing for their schedule. As long as the church is seen as just another thing to do, why should they go to church when they have homework, fraternity and sorority parties, dates, campus ministries, friends to hang out with, and class to go to? If the church is just another thing that their family did “just because” then how can we expect them to go to church when they become in charge of their own schedules? This is even seen already when students are in middle school and high school. For the most part, they don’t show up on a regular basis to youth ministry because the church is not important to them. Besides, there are games, homework, practices, Netflix, projects, hobbies, friends to be with, video games to play, rest to catch up on, and even para-church ministries (as helpful as they can be!). Of course they won’t show up when they don’t think church is important because who wants to come listen to someone preach for 35 minutes, hang out with fellow believers, and support and be supported by others going through the same struggles as you? Sure, there is an argument that can be inserted about a past history with the church, bad relationships, bad youth workers, or because the preaching stinks. Nevertheless, this is the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. This is a community that is still learning to repent! But again, why would I want to come listen to someone talk to me about somebody name Jesus and about my soul for 35 minutes when I could be catching up on homework or staring at a screen playing Fortnite or watching another episode on Netflix if the church is not important and no one has shown me that the church is important? If my parents (or even other church members) don’t act like the church is important, why should I act like it? Secondly, they leave the church because they don’t have an accurate view of the church. The church is not important because they don’t rightly and biblically understand the church. It’s the same when students neglect youth ministry in their own local church. A lack of understanding of the what church really is shows in its being neglected. Parents, pastors, and youth workers should be teaching our children an accurate “ecclesiology” (the study of the church). You don’t have to teach an exhaustive doctrine of the church but we should teach them a robust and healthy doctrine of the church. Only when our students see the beauty, majesty, plan, purpose, identity, mission, and the worthiness of the church will they then prioritize church. The only reason why a student in college goes to class is because her teacher told her that if she doesn’t go to class then she will fail her class. In other words, the teacher showed her that there was a lot riding on her showing up to class. In much the same way, unless we show, teach, and remind (a good summary word for this is catechize which is a lost form of teaching in the Church today) our children and youth the importance and value of the church in this world, in our lives, and for the glory of God then they will not prioritize church. For the most part, our students will not go to church in college if they don’t love Jesus and if they don’t know the value of the church. The goal is not merely to go to church; the goal is to worship God in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit as the Church which is expressed in the local church. In my own experience of being a college student and working for 5 years in youth ministry at some level, the children who grow up in a home that has not taught them the value of the church (no matter how many times they went to church or were apart of some ministry) are most likely not going to go to church when they go to college. This does not mean everyone who grows up in a family that undervalues church won’t go to church in college but there is typically a pattern. There are also children who grow up in a home where church is valued and parents love Jesus and yet they still don’t go to church. For the most part, this is my story and I am sensitive to the fact that this does happen. Nevertheless, when Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it”, it cannot mean anything less than these two answers. It certainly would imply more but it never implies less and never gets beyond this. Once again, Jesus is not calling the perfect parent who is also the perfect church member to produce the perfect child. Jesus is calling the repentant sinner who belongs to a community of worshippers of God to depend on the Spirit in order to faithfully raise up children to love Him and love His Bride. Jesus doesn’t want perfect parents; He wants repentant parents and a repentant church. You and I might have failed our entire lives up to this point but as long as He has given us His Spirit we can get back up and pursue this by His power. Dear church member, if you want to support the youth ministry, love the church in such a way where others are attracted to the church.

Some Recent Stats On Youth Culture

Stats are not everything but they are something. We should look at statistics with wisdom and discernment without over-relying upon them nor over-dismissing them. It is wrong to read this and go into a “hyper-worry” state of mind and it is also wrong to say, “Well, this is only true for those not in our church or not in our city.” Take these as they are and use them to look to our need for more of Jesus. The following stats are taken from recent works by Jean Twenge, James Emery White, and other recent surveys.

• “There are more than four former Christians for every convert to Christianity.”

• “The pattern is indisputable: The younger the generation, the more post-Christian it is.”

• At 25.9%, Gen Z is the most populous generation. “By 2020, Gen Z will account for 40% of all consumers. They will not simply influence American culture; they will constitute the culture.”

• The average teenager in Gen Z averages 9 hrs/day absorbing media.

• 91% go to bed with the device that opens the whole world up to them.

• Only 41% of Gen Z attend weekly religious services.

• 70% struggle with anxiety and depression (highest by 15%).

• This generation is also known as Gen “Me”; FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) Gen; iGen (compare to iPhone and iPad).

• There is a considerable portion who are more afraid to live than to die.

• Sexual fluidity is a standard for high morality.

• Massive sleep deprivation is prevalent in many of Gen Z.

From an experiential standpoint of speaking with our youth, these seem very accurate and even too low at some points. The greatest need of this generation is for parents, pastors, mentors, coaches, teachers, leaders, and youth directors to overflow with a deep love for Jesus onto this generation so that they might love Him and follow Him. Without Jesus, there is no hope for change which means that if we seek to “fix” this generation with anything or anyone other than Jesus then we will only lead them astray even further.

Don't Waste Your Mind (CCS National Junior Honor Society 2019)

This morning, I had the privilege of speaking at the award ceremony for Christ Covenant’s inductees into the National Junior Honor Society. The audience was made up of upper elementary and middle schoolers plus several of the parents and faculty. This audio is only 11 minutes long which means that you could knock it out on a lunch break or on a car ride. Below the audio, I have included the manuscript that I tried to follow along but (as some of you might laugh at) I went “off script” at some points.

First off, I would like to say thank you to Cheri Creel for asking me to deliver this charge to those of you inducted into the National Junior Honor Society. Secondly, I want to congratulate those of you who are being inducted today and those of you who have been inducted already. Just to give you a fair warning, all of you have already achieved more academic awards than I have and I only know of there being one award which you have achieved.

But, what I do know is that those of you who have been inducted and are being inducted in the Society have done so mainly in two ways: Hard work and thoughtfulness. Interestingly enough, these are two of the biggest qualities that seem to be lacking in the world today. You are growing up in a society that no longer treasures wisdom and discretion but rather places value on what’s trending, following your heart, and finding your own inner peace.

Your generation, Generation Z, is the largest generation in America and in twenty years you will not just be the biggest influences in the country but you will control the ideals and values of the country. This could be tragic because the average teenager spends an average of 9 hours online every day. These 9 hours are not filled with much wisdom and discretion but rather they are filled with things like Fortnite videos, Kylie Jenner’s Instagram, sports highlights, Snapchat pictures, Spotify music, and more group texting than you can keep up with. If you lived for 60 more years and spent only an average of 5 hours online or on technology a day, you would spend 12 and a half years on your technology. If you stayed with the average hours of today then you would spend 24 years on technology. The problem with this is that very little of we look at today adds wisdom or discretion to your life.

Now, why do I say all that? You are all around 10-14 years old right now. The average American lives 78 years. If you lived to the average age, you would only have 65 or so years left. But none of you are guaranteed to live that long. Your clock is ticking and you only have a few years left to live this life before you meet your Maker at your death day. You will have to answer to God on that last day what you did between now and then. God has given you one life to live and that life is meant to be lived for His glory at all times and in all ways.

The fact that you are being inducted into this society shows us that God has given you a mind to think, a work ethic and drive to pursue more knowledge, and a desire to discover truth. What a tragedy it would be to spend 12 years or 24 years of your life wasting away before your phone looking at things that have no eternal value when the God of all glory and beauty and majesty offers you a life to glorify Him in the world He has made.

God created this world. He created your mind. He created your personality. He created the era and culture into which you were born and He purposefully put you in this age at this time for a specific purpose. Your ultimate purpose for being on this earth is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. One of the ways you must pursue this is in the offering of your mind to God.

God has given us right thinking in order to produce right living. He has shown us His glory in the world and in the Word and given us minds to think about each one so that we might live out our purpose in our lifetime. When we waste these gifts that God has given us, we don’t just look bad in front of others. Rather, we reveal in our hearts that we could care less about glorifying God and we would rather ourselves get the glory. The fact that God would even allow you to receive this honor is for the purpose of reminding you that you have the capability and responsibility of pursuing Him with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. For, we also need to remember this: What does it matter if you gain the entire world and yet lose your soul?

Wasting your academic gifts can happen in several ways. First, you can immerse yourself in all the studies in the world and yet never seek to know God. Second, you can go a little season of your life reading about God and staying in His Word to only then get busy with other things and go on as if your fine because of your past experiences. Third, you can even seek to know everything God says in His Word and yet never submit to Him in your heart. All of these are a tragedy and far too common in the world and the Church today.

Now, why do I say all that in this way? There have been few things that have discouraged me more than to see students grow up in the church and in solid Christian schools to only grow distant from God in high school, abandon the church in college, and deny the faith altogether. It is also a tragedy, and maybe even a bigger tragedy, to see students who have all the mental capabilities in the world and yet to never open their Bibles to dig into the deepest knowledge that the world has ever known.

God has given us logic for the sake of loving God and loving others. God has given us reasoning skills for the sake of rejoicing in His glory and His gospel. God has given us the ability for reflection and meditation for the sake of gazing upon His beauty. The head is meant to serve the heart. There is no subject so beautiful, so amazing, so majestic, so worthwhile, so jaw-dropping, so gripping, so astonishing, and so breathtaking as the good news that Jesus, very God of very God, became just like us in order to take God’s wrath so that we could actually live a life of glorifying and enjoying God. Jesus died so that He could redeem your mind and mental abilities in order to see and savor His infinite worth and glory. If you are a Christian, you don’t only have the entire world open to you to study but you have all of heaven opened up for you to study! Jesus died in order that you might think, meditate on, reflect on, be challenged by, have your worldview shaped by, and become convicted by the glory of God and your life in this world. You were meant for more than binge watching Netflix, endless Instagram scrolling, and Fortnite marathons.

What this world needs now more than ever is a generation of Christians who use their minds to become enamored by the glory of God. We need a generation who have some sense of the infinite weight of the glory of God and the brokenness of their own sin and the grace that is found in Jesus Christ. We need teenagers in this room to be known as people who are influenced by the greatness and majesty and the glory of God as He has revealed Himself in the Bible. We need people who use their minds to think about how God has revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We need people who know how to think about Christ as the universal ruler over all creation. We need humble students who understand what it means to live all of life for the glory of God at all times. We need people who understand the weight of responding to God’s grace in Jesus Christ and that those who don’t respond will have to be banned from His presence forever. We need teenagers who would use their minds above all things to see that the brief little life that they live on this earth will either end in everlasting joy or everlasting pain based on their response to Jesus Christ in His gospel. We need teenagers who will turn this world upside down with the gospel-centered thinking. We need teenagers who will take this gospel into the homes, schools, neighborhoods, churches, and even to foreign countries. We need people who are passionate to use all their mind to pursue knowing God and making Him known.

I challenge you to be this. I challenge you to not take your life lightly. I challenge you to see that even in an award like this God is calling you to a greater life of devotion to Him and for you to go out and call others to devote their lives to HIm. This is what you’ve been made for.

Suffer From "Screen Addiction"?

Cal Newport. He’s an influential writer and researcher whose name is getting more and more popular. He is someone who you should at least be familiar with when you hear people talking about him or his works. He is most widely known as the author of Deep Work where he passionately makes the case that to accomplish the best work we can we must limit our distractions. Now, his newest title is about taking the next step to limiting the biggest distraction in our lives right now—our phones.

Here is an excerpt from a recent article that interacts more deeply with Newport’s newest book:

Newport’s case against digital maximalism is based on a familiar but important observation—many tech users feel anxious, distracted, and frustrated, but seem unable to do much about it. As he writes:

“The source of our unease . . . becomes visible only when confronting the thicker reality of how these technologies as a whole have managed to expand beyond the minor roles for which we initially adopted them. Increasingly, they dictate how we behave and how we feel, and somehow coerce us to use them more than we think is healthy, often at the expense of other activities we find more valuable. What’s making us uncomfortable, in other words, is this feeling of losing control—a feeling that instantiates itself in a dozen different ways each day, such as when we tune out with our phone during our child’s bath time, or lose our ability to enjoy a nice moment without a frantic urge to document it for a virtual audience.” (8)

If you see yourself in this paragraph, take a number and get in line behind me. Many of us know painfully well what it’s like to feel that our digital habits don’t even help or entertain us; they just exist, immovable, swallowing up time and attention as quickly and mysteriously as vanishing Christmas money . . .

In a world that is flooded with technology, including the technology that you’re using right now to graciously read this blog post, we need to learn how to steward our devices more faithfully. If the secular world is seeing a growing need for this, how much more so should the Christian world? In a recent survey, I saw that the average teenager spends 8-9 hours online every day. Seeing our youth up close, there are times when I think that number is too low. Newport has introduced his newest book at a time we need it most. I highly recommend you taking a look at it and the rest of this blog here.

The Most Overlooked Mission Field In America...It's In Our Backyard

The following is written by Dean Inserra concerning Christianity in the Southern “Bible belt”:

I felt like a sellout. It was time to leave seminary and begin pastoral ministry, and I was taking the easy road by moving back to my hometown in Northern Florida. My seminary neighbor, I thought, was the true missionary, heading to plant churches in Northern California. I had “missional insecurity,” the way Christians feel when they plan a spring break trip to some resort before learning their friends are going on mission trip. All of this good education and knowledge about the urgency of the gospel . . . and I was going to be a pastor in the Bible Belt?

I tried to make myself feel better by letting my neighbor know how much I admired his boldness. I threw in some self-deprecating jokes about sweet tea, but he quickly interrupted my pity party. “Where I am going,” he said, “people know they’re not Christians. The starting point is clear, whether unbelief, secularism, or some sort of humanistic spirituality. But where you’re going, everyone thinks they’re a Christian. It’s like you have to get people lost so they can see they need to be saved.”

That was all I needed to hear, and he was right.

My neighbor described the largest mission field where I live. It’s called cultural or nominal Christianity. This mission field is primarily made up of people who’d quickly answer “yes” if asked whether they are Christians. But ask any questions about their faith, and you’ll soon realize you’re hearing something other than the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, if you asked a nominal Christian why he is a Christian, Jesus Christ himself would likely have little bearing on the answer. For many people, good standing with God is related to heritage, rites of passage, or general morality. Jesus just happens to be a nice mascot.

This disparity requires our attention, because it isn’t unique to the American South. Across the nation, the most dominant religion doesn’t show up on a census, poll, or survey—it’s impossible to detect by those methods. The most common practiced religion in America today is a generic theism that mingles biblical concepts with a hope that one is a good person—all while maintaining autonomy over personal decisions and lifestyle. In this religion, good people go to a “better place” when they die. Going to this better place doesn’t depend on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, yet somehow these beliefs still get classified as “Christian.”

In this way, thousands of people are overlooked in outreach efforts because they may already be sitting in pews. Yet their lives show no evidence of saving faith. Whether the disconnect is the result of poor gospel communication by churches, fear of telling the truth, or a general misunderstanding of what the Bible says, the need is there, and it’s urgent. It can be easy to conclude that cultural Christians just need to get more serious about their faith, and so problems with cultural Christianity are declared discipleship issues.

I don’t believe this to be the case. I believe cultural Christians need evangelism before they need discipleship, since they may be unsaved altogether.

Inserra is a rare bird making an obvious point in our day today in the Bible belt. I have seen by experience that many of the schools that I have been to are filled with “Christian” students who have tried to live a Christian life without any relationship to Jesus. Jesus is not a passion. Jesus is not a model. Jesus is a sidekick. Jesus is a means to a greater end.

This is certainly something that would be wise for us to reflect on in our church, parenting, work relationships, schools, and wherever we interact with others in our lives. Is our mission to bring other people to know the glory, majesty, grace, and love of Jesus and to be devoted to Him in every aspect of life (which is what it means to be “holy”)? Is our “gospel” detached from Jesus or is Jesus the gospel? Is heaven glorious to us because Jesus gives us all we want there or is heaven glorious because it is there where we experience Jesus to the full for eternity? When we ask these questions and more, we might begin to see more of a dividing line in our cultural Christianity and therefore evangelize and disciple more effectively.

For the full article from Inserra, click here.

God vs Pharaoh (Sermon by Dr. Mike McKelvey on Exodus 7-11)

Last month, the youth ministry had the privilege of having Dr. Mike McKelvey come to preach one of the sermons from this semester’s sermon series on the book of Exodus. Dr. McKelvey, Old Testament professor at RTS Jackson and a frequent favorite of seminary students, preached on Exodus 7-11 on the Ten Plagues. Some of the responses I received afterward from students were:

Best sermon I’ve ever heard.

That rocked me.

The Bible was so clear tonight.

I’ve never seen Jesus like that before.

I would encourage you to listen to this sermon on God vs Pharaoh.

TGC Blog Gives Good Response To A Bad Book

Recently, author and blogger Rachel Hollis has gotten very popular with her new books titled Girl, Wash Your Face and Girl, Stop Apologizing. Both of these books are, unfortunately, popular in evangelical circles. Both promote self-esteem and self-centeredness rather than Christ-esteem and God-centeredness. This may sound harsh but there are times when we must communicate in black and white what some authors say in a very persuasive way. Thankfully, people with more knowledge and writing ability than me have written about this. Here is what a recent article from The Gospel Coalition has said:

In her latest book, Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals, Hollis has gained momentum. She wants you to believe in yourself, to take great pride in your hard work and accomplishments, and to do so without shame and with gusto. She wants you to go hard and unapologetically after your dreams.

Hollis’s message this time around is, “All that really matters is how bad you want those dreams and what you’re willing to do to make them happen” (83).

For a woman who claims Christ, I’m afraid this is in direct opposition to his words:

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? (Luke 9:23–25)

This article is very much worth your read especially since there might be several of us who have been influenced by Hollis or have friends who have been influenced by Hollis. Someone might ask, “Is this worth splitting hairs over?” I would wholeheartedly answer yes.

For the whole article, click here.

Quote of the Day

If a commission by an earthly king is considered an honour, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?

David Livingstone

What Do You Pray For?

“Maintenance prayer meetings are short, mechanical and totally focused on physical needs inside the church or on personal needs of the people present.  But frontline prayer has three basic traits: a) a request for grace to confess sins and humble ourselves, b) a compassion and zeal for the flourishing of the church, and c) a yearning to know God, to see his face, to see his glory.”

Tim Keller, “Kingdom-centered Prayer,” Redeemer Report, January 2006.

2 Resources That Have Changed My Devotions

Is it hard for you to “get anything” out of your devotions? Is it frustrating to understand the Bible? Is it difficult for you to apply the Bible for your life today? Why is it often difficult to set aside time for our devotions? For many of us, the lack of familiarity with what the Bible says and realization of how the Bible applies to us is often what hinders us from growing in our devotional lives.

There have been various seasons of life where I have come across a resource that has greatly aided me in studying the Bible during my morning devotions. I remember my mother purchasing for me a copy of Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the whole Bible that I began to eat up during my college years. I remember coming across the commentary series called “God’s Word for You” (whose writers are Tim Keller, Tim Chester, Steven Lawson, Al Mohler, and others). I also have recently come across my new favorite commentary series from Banner of Truth called “Let’s Study” (whose writers are Sinclair Ferguson, Derek Thomas, Derek Prime, Mark Johnston, Iain Hamilton, Dennis Johnson, and others) which seems to be a perfect portion of reading for morning devotions. All of these resources have greatly helped me grow not merely in a knowledge of the Scriptures but in a devotional heart for the truth of Scripture while seeing it applied to real life.

If you’re anything like me, you often go through different phases of using different resources to aid your devotional studies. For much of my years since being a Christian, I have done more study of Scripture focusing on shorter sections at a time. I have not done so well of a job about reading bigger portions alongside that. Recently, the iPhone app “Read Scripture” from The Bible Project has helped me do just that. It has been the best big portion Bible reading structure for me. Other people have found better use out of other structures but for several reasons the “Read Scripture” app has worked well for me. It is easy to access and helpful to go at one’s own pace. The short video overviews of each book and some of the biblical themes in Scripture also help me to “see” the truth of Scripture better.

But, there is often a lingering thought that I have after reading massive portions of the text. How am I supposed to sink this reading into my heart more effectively? The last thing that we should want from a Bible reading plan is to get in the habit of merely completing the reading and checking off the section. Our Bible reading must go from head to heart. This leads me to the second resource that I recently discovered at the RTS Jackson bookstore that has become one of those studies that has changed my devotions.

Reformation Heritage Books has produced one of the best and most unique resources out there called the “Family Worship Bible Guide”. If I am honest, the title makes the resource sound more limiting than what it really is. This resource is an aid to applying the Bible to our lives. In very short reflections, with only 1 to 3 reflections per chapter in the Bible, the writers show what the point of the chapter is and how it affects our lives today. It is way more than merely a family worship guide, although certainly a phenomenal resource for family worship, but it is also a great resource for your own personal Bible study.

The Family Worship Bible Guide seeks to show how the teaching of Scripture changes your life. What it is trying to do is to show how the Bible reaches out and grabs the realities of life today. It has been a great way for the big chunks of Bible reading to sink into my heart more on a daily basis. For example, here is what you would read if your devotional reading this morning was on John 1:

1. When John called Jesus “the Word,” he implied that Christ not only brings us a message from God but is Himself the Message. Jesus is God in the flesh, the infinite glory and grace of the Father dwelling among men in the tabernacle of a human body. Therefore, to believe in Christ is much more than trusting Him to teach us or help us; saving faith is receiving Him as our God, our very life. What difference does it make to the Christian faith that Christ is God?

2. John the Baptist shows us that a preacher’s calling is to point away from himself to Christ and to lift the Savior high before men’s eyes. A minister can do this only by having a low view of himself and a high view of Christ. A Christ-centered ministry is particularly a cross-centered ministry, focusing regularly (though not exclusively) on Christ’s death as the Lamb of God. How can you pray for your ministers that they would be more like John in this manner?

3. To find Christ is the most wonderful discovery of all. It is too good to be kept to oneself. How can you become more like these early disciples who eagerly told their family and friends about Jesus?

Ed. Joel R. Beeke, Family Worship Bible Guide (Reformation Heritage Books: Grand Rapids, MI 2016), p. 718

That is one of the longer portions of what you would read for one chapter. Most are one to two insights for each chapter. It is a small book and easy to carry around with you anywhere you go (it is like a small Bible). It is also very reasonably priced considering what you would get from it (only $14-17 depending on where you look). In my opinion, it has been one of the best resources I have ever bought and certainly one that will aid in my devotions, sermon prep, counseling, blogging, and Sunday school. I would highly encourage you to consider using this resource for personal and/or family devotions.

16 Rules of Wisdom for Social Media and Technology

The post is orignally from Kevin DeYoung’s blog hosted by The Gospel Coalition. DeYoung appears to have been reading Senator Ben Sasse’s new book Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How To Heal which is what lead him to re-post some of Sasse’s thoughts. These were so helpful for me to think about for my own home which made me think that you might find these helpful as well.

1. Your thousandth social media friend won’t make you any happier. Your fourth real real friend will.

2. Uninterrupted time is life’s most valuable limited resource.

3. Most news isn’t news.

4. Envy isn’t good therapy. Rage isn’t good therapy. Working out is good therapy.

5. Do something now you’ll want to talk about at the dinner table tonight.

6. Political addicts are weird. (And there aren’t that many of them. They’re just loud.)

7A. I’d rather be with the people I’m with right now than with the people I’m not with.

7B. If #7A isn’t true, then spend more time with the right people.

8. Develop the right addictions. (Another word for addictions is habits. Habits determine character.)

9. Not every bad thing in the world requires a response from you.

10. Not every mean thing said to you requires you to acknowledge it.

11. You’re not omniscient. Don’t assume your bubble of information is the whole story.

12. You’re not omnipotent. Taking in bad news you can’t do anything about doesn’t help anyone.

13. Sports Twitter is infinitely better than political Twitter.

14. Lots more social media is fake bots than social media companies admit.

15. The little old lady on your block probably has an important unmet need today.

16. Social media isn’t great for deep stuff. It’s great for humor. Let’s be known as a family that laughs hard. (p. 199)

How To Be Truly Human

The following message is a chapel sermon delivered for the 5th and 6th graders at First Presbyterian Day School on 1/16/19 on John 15:1-7:

Cooking, Cookbooks, and Jesus' Love For Meals

During one of the seasons of life when I was a youth intern under Kurt Cooper at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Montgomery, Alabama, the evening worship sermon series was titled “Meals With Jesus”. From what I understand, some of the ideas flowed from a book by author Tim Chester (whom I thoroughly enjoy) called “A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission around the Table”. Chester is a great author who brings out something that we should see: Jesus loves to share a meal with people.

There are some things that happen around the dinner table that are special. There is an intimacy and a warmth that is often very difficult to duplicate in other situations. The senses of smelling and seeing along with tasting and texture surrounded by a company of friends brings about rich experiences. Often times, meals are a good place for strangers to gather together and get to know each other beyond the greetings. There are few things that match what smoked brisket, spicy gumbo, or a perfect broccoli casserole can do to a gathered group. Stories emerge, laughter is shared, and hospitality is valued when a meal is served.

Sure, we all know of those awkward dinners with family, friends, co-workers, or strangers that we have had but if we examine it as a whole I think we would see some of our friendships were made over a meal. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that this is one of the reasons Jesus valued gathering in someone’s home over a meal. It’s the place where Jesus brought together His closest friends on the night before He was betrayed. It’s the place where He taught some of His most rich truths. It’s also the place where His enemies seemed least hostile. For these reasons, I think we should also raise the value that we place on sharing a meal with others.

This brings me to my own story of getting into cooking. I’ll put it simply. I played a lot of football. I ate a lot to play a lot of football. I like food. I don’t just like food but I love good food. There are certain dishes that readily come to mind when I think about good food and good memories:

• My dad’s greens on New Years and freshly caught and grilled Red Snapper with a crawfish sauce on top (My father is a talented veterinarian but he might be even more talented as a cook.)

• My mother’s homemade bread and chocolate chip cookies (We didn’t eat slices of bread but we ate loaves of bread.)

• My first tasting of New Orleans homemade jambalaya and a teammate’s home

• Souffle fries at Arnuad’s in New Orleans

• Tender brisket that’s been smoked for hours in Belton, Texas (where Grace is from)

• Gumbo and Turtle Soup at Commander’s Palace

• Corey Olivier’s honey butter rolls and jambalaya at our weekly Large Group at the BCM house at Tulane (Corey was our campus minister and team chaplain at Tulane. Teammates came running over when they heard he was cooking.)

• Lobster mac n’ cheese from the New England Patriots’ cafeteria

• Rabbit and dumblings at Cochon in New Orleans with my wife (a place we visit almost every time we go to New Orleans)

• Pulled Pork BBQ in Troy, Alabama where you can smell the smoke for about a mile down the road

• Conecuh County sausage (The 8th wonder of the world in a grocery store near you)

We all have those foods that come to mind that bring back good memories. These were some of mine especially before I started cooking a lot. When football ended in the winter of 2014, I was living with my parents in Montgomery, Alabama while preparing for marriage with Grace later the next summer and interning at Trinity Presbyterian Church. Grace and I both went to Tulane University where we ate a lot of good food. We weren’t cooks; we were eaters. Then we got engaged in the Spring of 2015. Pre-marital counseling didn’t cover the topic of “Who is going to cook tonight’s dinner?” To be honest, we took it for granted at first but then my dad gave us a wedding gift that kept on giving. It wasn’t expected by when we came back from our honeymoon, we received a cookbook from my dad by Donald Link (owner and chef of Cochon and several other restaurants in New Orleans). The title of the book was very appealing when we read, “Real Cajun”. We gave it a try and after strict following of simple instructions out came a giant savory slab of Pork Roast. Please, no knife is needed for this. You would only insult the dish if you had to use anything other than a fork to tenderly pull off the chunks of pork that had simmered slowly in a dark roux with sauteed onions, fresh thyme, and rosemary. It was the type of dish that made me passionately utter, “Aww man! Come on now!” Grace now makes fun of me for doing this so much.

This was the start of realizing that cooking was not a chore but something to be cherished. Let’s be honest, there have been bad meals made (including messing up that same Pork Roast dish!) but there have been few activities in life like cooking. For Grace and I, it was fun to plan something for the weekend. Few things were more comforting than cooking Grits and Grillades from one of John Currence’s cookbooks for some friends when there was heavy snow outside while we were at Gordon-Conwell for a year.

Meals in Boston, Montgomery, and Ridgeland have been shared with many friends and strangers. There have been good ones and ones where someone still graciously compliments you even though you know it was a failure. Every time, God has graciously allowed us to even have food and friends and the opportunity for both of those to come together. Some of you have even dared coming into our home with two barking dogs in order to have a meal. These are good times and isn’t that why we, as a church body, have placed value on something such as Family Night Supper? It seems that I am probably on preaching to the choir on this topic.

This leads me to the next part. Jan Duran and I have had many talks about cookbooks recently whenever I go up to check the mailbox by her office. She has given me so many ideas and revealed lots of helpful resources. Just for the sake of sharing life with you, I thought it might be fun to give a list of some of the cookbooks that Grace and I have found enjoyable to use. Our standards have been the following:

• Limited ingredients

• Easy to follow instructions

• Enough for leftovers (the only thing better than good chicken and rice soup is leftover chicken and rice soup)

• Easy recipes for quick week night meals

• Good recipes for weekend meals

We like to say that we are not good at cooking but we’re decent at following instructions. We’re also not trying to break the bank gathering the ingredients but working within a budget. For whatever it’s worth, here is a rough list of some of our favorite cookbooks that you might enjoy as well along with some comments:

• Real Cajun by Donald Link

  • There are food stains splattered all over this book at home. That’s the sign of a good cookbook. Try the chicken and dumplings, dirty rice, meatloaf (you’ll never be satisfied with another), and especially the chicken and bacon hash (picture a crab cake texture but instead with leftover grilled bbq chicken, potatoes, jalapenos, and bacon. I mean, how can you say no to bacon?)

• Down South by Donald Link

  • He has a great set of recipes here for big gatherings.

• The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis

  • She is a country cooking legend!!

• Big Bad Breakfast by John Currence

  • The chef and restaurant owner in Oxford. The cinnamon rolls with sausage filling, shrimp and grits, and blueberry muffin tops will make you want to wake up early on Saturdays.

• Pickles, Pigs, and Whiskey by John Currence

  • Got to see his Grits and Grillades.

• The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer

  • This is one of the classics that most of the other people on this list say influenced them. What better compliments could I give to it?

• Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

  • This book is awesome in teaching you how each of these work! She has some great recipes but the best part is that she teaches you how to take your cooking to another level. She also has a Netflix documentary series too.

• The Flavor Bible by Karen Page

  • This book is not a book with recipes but rather a massive list of ingredients showing what works well with each other. I was once in a restaurant in Orange Beach, AL where I spotted the chef studying this book before closing time and I immediately went to look it up. It has been very helpful to see what works well with garlic, onions, tarragon, bacon, and many other things.

• My New Orleans: The Cookbook by John Besh

  • One of the best chefs in New Orleans. He knows how to cook for several kids which means plenty leftovers at times. My dad has worn out his copy of this book.

• My Family Table by John Besh

  • Best snickerdoodle cookies out there. Not only that but he shows you have to make some of the classic dishes like fried chicken, mashed potatoes, slowed cooked beef chuck roast, pork and sausage jambalaya.

• Baking by Dorie Greenspan

  • Try the World Peace cookies, the snowy brownie top cookies, and the classic chocolate chip. You’ll always keep these in your diet.

• Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan

  • If you have instagram, give Dorie a follow. She often reposts people baking her cookies.

• Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless

  • Seriously, this is THE book on mexican cooking. His enchiladas are the best I’ve had anywhere.

• How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

  • There are 2,000 recipes in here and you would be surprised how many of these you have actually had or tried cooking already. So simple, clear, and tasty.

• Essentials of Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

  • Like Bayless, many people consider this THE book on italian cooking.

• Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child

  • My comments on this book and Julia Child would be underselling how good it really is. She’s a legend.

• The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime by Ree Drummond

  • Awesome for midweek meals especially for families. Her lasagna, chili, wild rice pancakes (Oh, you’d be very surprised at how awesome this is for dinner), and buffalo chicken salad are great. Her salads have made me want to eat more salads as a main meal and not just an appetizer.

• A Southern Gentlemen’s Cookbook by Matt Moore

  • His wife’s white chicken chili is a frequent visitor in the Van Hooser household.

• Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi

  • She is one of the best pastry chefs in the world. Netflix’s renowned documentary series “Chef’s Table” has featured her on one of their documentaries that is so much fun to watch. Two words: Funfetti Cake. Sprinkles doesn’t have to be only for the kids anymore. This cake is phenomenal.

What are some of your favorites? I’m sure I am forgetting some that are at home right now that I’ll be mad are not on here. Hopefully, some of these can be used for your own meals with friends and family. In an age with much hostility, it’d be beautiful for the church to show hospitality in the name of Jesus Christ.

New Research Survey Shows Why Youth Are Dropping Out Of The Church

Before you read the new research survey from LifeWay ministries, there are some foundational thoughts we must have going into the survey:

1. Not every child who leaves the church in college is a Christian (this should be an obvious realization). Often, college is what shows who is and who isn’t a Christian. This means that all the children in our youth ministry are probably not Christians. This means that we should preach, teach, and counsel for conversion and not merely sanctification.

2. We live in an age of “biblical illiteracy”. It is not surprising that some want to leave the church because what they have grown up with has not been immersed in the biblical teaching but more so in merely cultural issues or felt-need issues. Let us not forget that it is the Word which changes us (John 17:17).

3. Some of the “reasons” actually can be used as a “cop out” (in other words, they are merely an excuse) to leave the church. Referring back to #1, non-Christians sometimes use these reasons at times to throw blame on others rather than outright saying they don’t believe. I say this out of my own experience from when I was an unbeliever in my early college years and from seeing former students in my years in youth ministry.

4. The Church (notice I put a Big “C” for Church) has not done as well of a job integrating the youth ministry into the entire body and the youth ministry has definitely not done a good job at showing the importance of the church. We should absolutely point our students to campus ministries and certainly the campus ministers but we are failing if we do not show them the importance of the local church and submitting to the local pastors, elders, and deacons (which is often the youth directors’ faults).

5. It is no surprise that children who grow up in “solid” biblical churches drop out of church or go to more “seeker-sensitive” churches because we often fail at applying the Bible to their lives. The Bible is first a foremost a book for real life. God is a God who moves towards mankind. Doctrine is not doctrine unless it is practiced. We should seek to bring our students into the depths of doctrine clearly, relevantly, engagingly yet while always showing how that doctrine changes the way you live and demands a change of life.

6. We should be very grateful for surveys like these and for ministries like LifeWay who would put so much effort into collecting this data BUT we should not get over-concerned about statistics. They can be very helpful and informing about cultural trends but we need to be cautious about how much weight we put on these statistics (not questioning the integrity of any researchers but merely realizing that there is no perfect survey that can accurately take all people into account). Surveys at their best make us aware and urge a response but at their worst can overcome us with fear or pride. No matter how good a research team and survey is, they all have their limits.

7. Surveys like these should bring us to pray for more than physical well-being for our children and families (often a weakness of today’s evangelicalism in a prosperous culture) but certainly for their spiritual well-being. When is the last time we have seen something like this and began earnestly imploring the Lord for revival? Do we lose hope or seek the Lord after reading something like this?

8. Lastly, students leave the body of Christ because they don’t love Christ. We should decide to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified as the main tenor of our churches and families. Anything, any feeling, or anyone other than Jesus Christ will ultimately lead us away from Him and His Bride. People who love Jesus love His Bride even when she looks messy.

Without further delay, here are some of the statistics. For the full article, please see the link below:

The 66 percent who said they stopped attending church regularly as young adults cited a variety of reasons for leaving. The survey listed 55 and asked them to pick all that applied. On average, they chose seven or eight reasons, McConnell said. The reasons fell under four categories: 

Nearly all — 96 percent — cited life changes, including moving to college and work responsibilities that prevented them from attending. 

Seventy-three percent said church or pastor-related reasons led them to leave. Of those, 32 percent said church members seemed judgmental or hypocritical and 29 percent said they did not feel connected to others who attended. 

Seventy percent named religious, ethical or political beliefs for dropping out. Of those, 25 percent said they disagreed with the church's stance on political or social issues while 22 percent said they were only attending to please someone else. 

And, 63 percent said student and youth ministry reasons contributed to their decision not to go. Of those, 23 percent said they never connected with students in student ministry and 20 percent said the students seemed judgmental or hypocritical.

For the full survey, click here. For the article summary and commentary, click here.

Tips for Reading the Bible

Every Spring semester, our youth ministry puts on a reading challenge in which the entire group is divided up into teams where they compete against each other by seeing who can read the most. The winners come away with some sort of prize (and obviously immortal glory!). In years past, we have mixed it up with reading all kinds of books but this year we are focusing merely on reading the Bible. One of the categories of Christian experience that middle schoolers and high schoolers need to grow in is in their reading of the Bible (especially in a biblically illiterate age). One of the encouragements that I wanted to give our students were some tips for how to read the Bible. I thought that this might be helpful for even ages beyond the youth ministry. So, here are 23 tips for reading the Bible:

1. Get you a hard copy Bible that you will make “your” Bible.

2. Think about getting a “Journaling Bible” from Crossway in order to write down your reflections on the side.

3. Download the “Read Scripture” app and follow its Bible reading plan. It’s free!

4. Remember where each book of the Bible is in the entire story when you are reading it. (Ex: It is helpful to know that Daniel was written during Israel’s period in exile. Or, it is helpful to know that Esther is towards the very end of the Old Testament time period even though it’s not placed at the end of the Old Testament books.)

5. Choose a book that your passionate about reading and start there.

6. Read the introductory notes of the book before starting (if your Bible has those).

7. Read all of the Bible in order to understand the books better.

8. Ask these questions:

   1. What does this say about God?

   2. What does this say about us?

   3. What does this say about our need for Jesus?

   4. What does this about how we are to live?

9. Read John Perritt’s booklet “Bible 101” to understand better how the Bible works.

10. Don’t just think about what the Bible is saying but think about why God wants you to know this.

11. Talk about what you read with someone else.

12. Use helpful resources to go alongside your reading, such as:

    1. “God’s Word for You” series

    2. “Let’s Study” series

    3. Matthew Henry’s Commentary (easy to read!)

13. Set aside time in the morning, afternoon, or evening that you protect and prioritize.

14. Turn your phone over and the TV/computer off.

15. Pray before you read and ask God to open your eyes to see what’s really there and to hear what He is saying.

16. Pray afterward and ask God to sink this truth into your heart.

17. If it is in the morning, grab your coffee to help you wake up.

18. Set aside 15-20 minutes of undistracted focus.

19. The more you read, the more it’ll make sense and the more you’ll want to read more.

20. Use a Study Bible and read the notes at the bottom to help you understand what the text is saying. Try these Study Bibles:

    1. ESV Study Bible

    2. Reformation Study Bible

    3. Biblical Theology Study Bible

    4. Gospel Transformation Study Bible

21. Read other good Christian books in order to understand the Bible better.

22. Practice what you read.

23. Don’t rush through your reading. Think about it.

What Is Heaven Like?

The following recording is a chapel message to the CCS Middle School students from January 10, 2019.