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Discipleship Ministries of the PCA

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Prayerful Ministry

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Welcome to this issue of Equip for Ministry. We believe we have included materials that will interest you and benefit your Christian life and ministry. Our main theme is prayer. Could there be a more vital and essential need in our lives than prayer? The author of the lead article, Archie Parrish, a PCA teaching elder on staff with Mission to North America, has worked with us on numerous occasions. His emphasis on the relationship between prayer and renewal or revival hit the mark. He has helped many individuals and churches to become more involved in active praying. He is also partly responsible for the 50 Days of Prayer that you will read about in this issue.

His thoughts in “Praying the Psalms” are challenging and his suggestions for application are right on target. He naturally chose the Psalms as the format for prayer and his thirty days of prayer ideas and sequence will be workable and helpful to those who want to develop a more consistent and disciplined prayer life.

This issue contains some unusually valuable and helpful book reviews. You will not only want to read the reviews but you will be challenged to read the books. Teaching for a Change by Norman DeJong is a vitally important book for those involved in discipleship or Christian education. The Power of Team Leadership presents some of the most practically helpful ideas and applications on that topic. Each pastor and church leader will want to read it. Preaching in a Postmodern World will also challenge every preacher and teacher. The challenge to communicate clearly with today’s world cannot be overstated. For personal growth, reading through The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin, would prove to be a valuable exercise. The Analysis of the Institutes will encourage you in that endeavor. The review of Os Guinness’s The Journey offers an unusual experience for the reader. It can help you in your personal life and witness. Finally the book Disciplines of a Godly Woman will be something that every Christian woman should read.

The “In Case You’re Asked” article is another attempt to look at the basic doctrines of the faith in light of today’s world. God’s special revelation in the Scriptures is our foundational point. There we start and there we end or we will run off track.

You will also appreciate reading the Equip Tip as it focus on the importance of relationships and the obstacles to developing good relationships. It is a timely topic for the postmodern world that is crying out for meaningful relationships.

The articles on CE&P activities including the conferences will keep you aware of some of the ministries that CE&P coordinates. They can also serve as a reminder to pray for us, that we might “Serve the Lord with gladness” and “Serve His purpose to this generation.”

You might have a friend that needs encouragement in his or her prayer life, or you might want to be sure your church leaders read the content contained in this issue. Pass your copy on them or help them acquire a copy of their own.

As we develop each issue of Equip for Ministry, our purpose is to include materials that will challenge you to think and edify you that process. In each issue we attempt to highlight some aspect of our ministry in order to keep you informed and aware of our need for prayer as we implement those ministries. We try to focus on a broad range of topics and issues, which is characteristic of Christian Education and Publications’ whole ministry. We do attempt to be as audience focused, as humanly possible, and it is interesting to see how the Holy Spirit leads us in each issue. The personal words of testimony and encouragement mean much to us.

Do I Know You?

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Most everybody talks about relational ministry. Yet relationships are so easy to miss because our agendas call for more important things.I’m embarrassed that I don’t know the names of some of the people in our little church. That creates an awkwardness that inhibits any attempt to go further. Think of the people in your congregation, your Sunday school class, people you see regularly, whose names you don’t know. It’s one reason why the church can seem so impersonal.

Consider the visitor-or is she a regular attendee you’ve simply never met? Do you introduce yourself? I never will forget the time I introduced myself to a woman at church. I asked if she was visiting and she informed me that she was a charter member. That sort of response can be a big inhibitor to saying, “Hi, my name is _____.” But if you don’t the visitor might leave saying, “I attended that church and no one spoke to me.” And knowing a person’s name is just the beginning.

A Session or Deacon’s meeting might start with a conversation about what’s happening in everyone’s life and a time of prayer for each other. It could take a half hour or more, and it could be the most important thing you do. It will help everyone come together for the business at hand. It could surface some significant information, and it will add a little more glue to the bond that solidifies each one’s commitment to the others.

A Sunday school class ought to be about more than increased understanding of a biblical text. To be effective it must rub that passage against our lives. One way to do that is to help people talk to each other about ways they think the Spirit might want them to respond. A class could break into groups of three to five for exercises that help them get to know each other better, know the Bible better, and listen to God apply the Word to their hearts. Variations on this theme work in almost any age group. For instance, take an egg timer to a children’s class and let everyone have one minute. While the sand falls each one in turn can talk about the most fun he ever had, his favorite toy or best friend, or describe his mother or father. As the teacher, don’t forget to take your turn, too.

Many of us live in metropolitan areas where most everybody is from some place else. Often relatives live a considerable distance away, and neighbors seldom know each other. Houses are empty during the day and closed up during the evening. Many times I’ve heard neighbors say, “People will be out when it’s warmer.” But summer comes and, “People will be out when it gets cooler.” The reality is people don’t come out much at all. Relationships in the neighborhood, at the office, or at school are important. But if they don’t extend beyond the confines of that environment they have limited value. And the same is true of relationships at church. Hopefully, the believer will have friendships with some that extend beyond the confines of a church program.These relationships are necessary for us to not simply survive, but thrive in this Christian pilgrimage.

The Cost of Love

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Sigmund Freud argued that each individual has a limited quantity of love. Consequently, the more a person loves someone else, the less love he has for himself.Rollo May took issue with that position. He observed that when a person falls in love he feels more valuable and treats himself with more care. He further suggested that this inner sense of worth comes whether or not the love is reciprocated. He agreed with those who say that we are able to love others to the extent that we are able to love ourselves.

For some time I have maintained that love is elicited. The more we are loved, the greater our potential for love. If such is the case Freud has given us a half-truth. We do have a limited capacity for love.And May has given us a half-truth. To love someone who loves us in return is scary (we are giving without any assurance that we will receive), but it is invigorating nonetheless. It renews us, giving us an even greater capacity for love. But to love someone who does not return our love can drain us.

Love is commanded in the Scripture. I’ve often been asked how that command squares with my position. Usually behind the question is the assumption that since love is commanded it must be controlled by the will.Not necessarily. I may be able to will to treat you in a loving way. But love is always greater than the sum of its parts. The difference between doing loving things for you and feeling love for you may be subtle but it is there. And at times that difference can register in a profound way. For instance, parents may determine to treat all their children alike, yet love one more than another. Teachers may consciously try to not allow favoritism even though they are attracted to some students and possibly even repelled by others. In each case I suggest that the individuals involved are able to see the difference between loving acts and love itself.

Some might maintain that we never express love to another person without meeting some need of our own. But if there is a love that approximates the love of Jesus, it must be possible to love someone who either cannot or will not acknowledge our love. And to love such a person is costly. Because our resource of love is not restored in the process.

Are we able to pay the price? We are if we are receiving love. The Christian experiences regularly the love of Jesus through friends, worship, instruction from His book, prayer and reflection on what He has told us and done for us, especially during the tough times.

Are we willing to pay the price? That is a question that must be answered within the context of specific relationships. Can I love the son who has broken my heart? Can I love the student who I can’t seem to reach? Can I love the church member who seems to have so little to give to me? Or the neighbor who irritates me?

We know God’s answer. He loved us while we were his enemies. And we know God’s desire. He tells us to love each other the way he loves us.Suppose that we belong to Jesus and we are willing to try to love someone we haven’t been able to love. If love is more than doing loving things, how do we go about it?

I suggest first, that we try to get to know the person. That knowledge might put our feelings in a different perspective. If we still have “problems” with the person try to think about why we consider those things to be problems. That also could give us a different perspective. Risk talking about our feelings with the person. That must be done with great care remembering that our objective is not alienation but to break through the barriers that keep us from loving. Ask for God’s wisdom as well as the ability to love that person.As we love we are renewing and enlarging the ability of others to love. And as representatives of Jesus Christ our love enables others to feel His love.

Not a Village, but a Church with a School

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By Robert Rogland. Can you think of a greater heartbreak for believing parents than to see their children grow up without a living faith in Christ? Too many godly fathers and mothers live with that heartbreak. Some have seen their children grow up more interested in the world than in Christ; others have seen a son or daughter actually reject Him. What can be done to ensure that our covenant children will grow up to trust and love and serve our Savior?

The Bible charges parents to bring up their children in the training and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). But other Christians also have a measure of responsibility: When the Lord commanded his church to teach all nations, surely that included covenant children as well (Matt. 28:18-20). Our Directory of Worship, a part of the Book of Church Order, reminds us that “Believers’ children within the visible Church, and especially those dedicated to God in Baptism, are non-communing members under the care of the church” (DW, Chapter 57-1; emphasis added). When we witness the baptism of an infant, do we not vow to pray for that child? Do we not also vow to help him or her come to true faith, repentance, and obedience and to become a communing member of the church-in other words, to help the child grow up to be a believing, practicing follower of Christ?

Others may debate whether or not it takes a village to raise a child, but well-taught Christians should have no doubt that, under ordinary circumstances, it takes a church to raise a Christian child. The Christian school can be a powerful arm of the church as it works towards that end.

The Role of the Home

Much of the work of raising a child to be a Christian is informal. Parents instruct in conversation and show by example what a Christian believes and does (Deut. 6:7). Children learn to pray and worship first by participating in family devotions and praying with Mommy or Daddy at their bedside. They learn the importance of keeping God’s Law and the consequences of disobedience as they disobey and are disciplined. They learn God’s unconditional love for His children as they see their parents’ unconditional love for them. A boy or girl learns what it is to walk by faith when he or she sees Dad and Mom face crises with trust in God. Children learn what love for strangers is through hospitality extended in the home. Through such experiences, and the interpretation of them furnished by their parents, children learn most of what it is to be a Christian in faith, word, and deed.

The Role of the Church

The church also has a role in the upbringing of a covenant child. It is in the services of the church that children learn corporate worship, worship even more important than family worship as far as the Scriptures are concerned. The Lord’s Supper, with all the grace it conveys, is celebrated in the church, not the home. Pastors and Sunday school teachers provide formal instruction in Bible and doctrine. In the church, children encounter others who share their parents’ faith, an encouraging thing considering that not many of the neighbors are likely to share the family’s faith. What the Bible says about Christ dying for the world is more believable when the child sees that biblical faith is not confined to the family circle. In the church, children see that some Christians have one gift, some another, all to be used for the good of the Body. Indeed, it is only in the church that the concept of the Body of Christ finds meaning. The immediate Christian family is never called the Body of Christ.

The Role of the School

There comes a time in every child’s life when formal instruction becomes necessary. Children need to learn a lot of facts and skills. They need to build a Christian worldview, a framework for seeing everything in its relationship to biblical truth. Here Christian parents face three basic choices: home schooling, public schooling, or Christian schooling. I don’t intend to condemn either public schooling or home schooling in this article; we all know children from believing homes who have succeeded in growing in Christ and in Christian thinking under all three regimens. But I write as a teacher in a Christian school to tell others how the Christian school can be a partner with the home and the church in raising children for the Lord.

What are the particular benefits of sending your child to a Christian school? The greatest is surely this: teachers in the Christian school view the training of covenant children as their calling from God and have prepared themselves to exercise that high calling faithfully and effectively. The teacher is the single most important element in any school experience. More than textbooks and other learning materials, more than the physical facilities where the school is housed, more than schoolmates, the dedicated, competent Christian teacher exercises the most important influence on a child during school hours.

To be sure, no one will love your child and be dedicated to his or her success in school more than you. If love and dedication were the only considerations, I suppose everyone should homeschool. But some parents can’t homeschool, and others realize that they don’t know how to teach effectively in a formal way or (especially in the upper grades) don’t know the material their children need to learn. Plus, in homes with children of different ages, the parent simply may not be able to teach all of them well and do all the other things necessary to keep the home running. The competent Christian teacher has academic knowledge, professional expertise, and an interest in your child that will enable her or him to be your partner-and the church’s partner-in giving your son or daughter the knowledge, skills, and biblical worldview he or she needs.

A second benefit of Christian schooling is that your child will be part of a Christian community. There your child rubs shoulders with Christian peers, much as you rub shoulders with fellow Christians in the life of the church. Covenant children are members of the church, but they do not participate as equals with communing members on Sunday morning or Wednesday evening. But in the Christian school, children have the experience of participating as equals with other Christians-immature Christians like themselves, to be sure, but equals nonetheless. They will be offended and have to learn to forgive; they will offend and have to seek forgiveness for foolish and sinful words and acts. They will have opportunities for leadership. They will pull together in common projects for the sake of Christ and His kingdom. The Christian school is not a church, but it is a training ground for church life as well as for life in the world. And all this takes place under the supervision and guidance of adult Christians who spend six to eight hours a day devoted to your child’s growth and development in Christ.

A third benefit of the Christian school is that it is a prism refracting the phenomena of nature, the events of history, and all the other facts of life and the world through the medium of the Bible. The diverse interpretations of men and things given by the media and the public school are naturalistic and worldly. (While a Christian school environment provides an ideal setting for this, let us thank God for the many godly public school teachers who do not dish up the world this way to their pupils.) Christian parents must continually challenge and correct non-biblical ideas their children encounter. Some parents do this consistently and well. The church also, through its teaching ministry, must expose and correct worldly ideas that bombard its members, children as well as adults. The Christian school partners with the parents and the church in this task.

“All right, you make a good case for Christian schooling on paper,” the skeptical reader may reply, “but I know Christian schools that are virtually indistinguishable from public schools. The instruction is mediocre, the facilities are inadequate, and the kids are just as worldly as public school kids. Why should I send my child to a school like that?”

The answer to that question is, of course, you shouldn’t send your child to such a school. Parents need to be discerning as they look for a Christian school for their children. All Christian schools are not equal. To be sure, all or nearly all Christian schools will have a dress code, a weekly chapel service, and required Bible classes. Virtually all will feature instruction extolling a creationist approach to science. But there is much more to a Christian school than that! Christian parents should settle for nothing less than the following:

1. The school you choose must not be staffed with pious teachers who lack academic and professional competence, nor should it employ those who are merely competent, apart from godliness. The teachers must be models of what educated, godly disciples of Christ ought to be, and they must make both learning and godliness attractive to their pupils by word and by example.

2. The school must teach all subjects from a biblical perspective, consciously helping its pupils develop a mature Christian world and life view. That view must be comprehensive, embracing all of human life and experience. The great Dutch Reformed thinker Abraham Kuyper said it well: There is not a square inch of life or thought where Christ has not said, “This is mine!” I believe that “reformed thinkers” have worked out what a biblical world and life view entails more completely and consistently than Christians of other traditions, and I conclude that the ideal Christian school is reformed as well as evangelical. Yet it is not smug, obnoxious, or sectarian in upholding reformed convictions. If a Christian school can make the reformed view of God, men, and life attractive to non-reformed Christians, as well as to Presbyterians, it has struck the right balance.

3. The school must challenge its pupils to practice consistent biblical thinking and living both in and out of the classroom. Compartmentalization-thinking and behaving as a Christian in school and church, thinking and living like the world the rest of the time-is a great temptation for all of us, children included. A good Christian school challenges its students to think and live as Christians all the time, and tries to show them how.

If you already have this kind of Christian school in your community, well and good. If you do not, why not ask your Session to consider starting a church-based school? My experience and observations have reinforced the conviction that the Christian school functions best when it operates as a cooperative ministry of the church rather than under the auspices of an independent board. Few independent Christian schools are consistently reformed. Establishing and operating a school under the authority of the church should make it easier to maintain a reformed philosophy. If God leads you to pursue the seemingly daunting task of starting a Christian school, CE&P can put you in contact with PCA churches and schools that would be happy to share their experiences, observations, and ideas with you.

No Christian school is ideal. Christian teachers are sinners saved by grace, just like other Christians. They do not always carry out their commission with complete faithfulness. Maybe some of the teachers are not as well trained as they could be. Here is an opportunity for parents with particular expertise to volunteer to help. Maybe a particular teacher does not relate well to your child, or to other children. Here is an opportunity to talk with that teacher. Be an active parent! Meet with and get to know the teacher. Let him or her know your concerns. The Christian school is a partner with the home and the church. Partnership requires communication.

When you are tempted to be critical of your Christian school, remember that parents and churches are not perfect either. But our gracious God does for us above what we ask or think. God is faithful even if we are faithless (Rom. 2:2-3). How much more will he bless if we faithfully seek godly education for our covenant children!

Connecting with People

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Welcome to this issue of Equip for Ministry. Putting together these bi-monthly issues is one of our most enjoyable challenges at Christian Education and Publications. At times we wonder, given who we are in the PCA and our particular role in the great commission, are we touching on the right areas? Are we sensitive to the readers? Are we bringing together the most helpful and practical ideas and methods that Christians and Christian leaders should be aware of? Are we writing and thinking only for ourselves, preaching to the choir, as it has been said, we regularly ask? We know that we cannot be all things to all people in every issue but with our entire publication, training, and education ministry we are committed to helping raise up a generation of adults and youth who are self-consciously intentional in understanding and applying biblical truth to the challenges of daily life.

When I was a pastor, my philosophy of ministry was to preach and teach God’s Word to His people which required as much knowledge and involvement in their lives as possible. I found it challenging and helpful to know those people. It helped me in my preparation as well as method of ministry. It is not as easy to minister to strangers. The shepherd knows his sheep. But the shepherd also knows something of the environment in which the flock lives. “Knowing the Word and knowing the world” has been my motto because I believe we are responsible to bring God’s Word to this world in a way that promotes understanding, commitment, and discipleship.

One adjustment I had to make years ago when I became the Coordinator of CE&P was that I no longer had the ongoing geographic contact with the people. I do not always know the particular circumstances as I preach and teach in various PCA churches, and do not have the encouragement of seeing immediate results. The Adversary often tries to discourage us and convince us that we are not accomplishing much. I often console myself with Paul’s words to the Corinthians, that he plants, Apollos waters, but God gives the increase.

What does this testimonial have to do with Equip for Ministry? Simply that in the past several months we have been encouraged from the responses from our readers. There is a book in the review section written by a PCA teaching elder. He sent me a copy with a letter thanking me for encouraging him (through writing articles in Equip and addressing those issues in other settings) to write the book. A missionary told me that he reads every word of the magazine and especially appreciates the book reviews. Another missionary shared that some of the topics in EfM challenged him to develop a biblically reformed approach to Christian education on the field. A ruling elder in an organizing church wanted to learn more about some of the things he was reading in EfM and traveled to Atlanta to discuss them. These are just a few examples.

Responding to questions and feedback, we have reformatted the Changeless Truths section. In Case You’re Asked… deals with doctrine without a lot of theological jargon. While we hope to encourage pastors, the immediate target audience of this feature is the adults and youth of the church. If we use technical terminology in that section, it is because we believe it is important to the topic at hand. We want to be sound, helpful, and encouraging. Christians need to know how to talk about their faith today without being intimidated and without apologizing.

We want to promote biblically reformed Christian education in all of our ministry at CE&P. I was deeply disappointment when a minister friend of mine said to me, “I am not doing Christian education in our church; I am now the minister of adult discipleship.” I had to ask him what the difference was? He should have known better. Christian education, at least from our perspective, is making disciples who think biblically. That effort requires the cooperation of the church, home, and school. In this issue we asked Robert Rogland, a teaching elder and member of our CE&P Committee who is involved in Christian day school, to write about that.

We have reviewed several books that we believe are extremely important and helpful in accomplishing our task-especially Chuck Colson’s book, John Frame’s timely and masterful book, and Nathan Lewis’ helpful, reader-friendly book. We have also included some information about a number of important events and resources that we believe you need to be aware of.

Please know that our objective is not simply to produce a magazine but rather to provide a publication that encourages you to think and live more like Jesus Christ. With that objective, we dedicate this and each issue to the glory of God.

Theodicy: Understanding the Goodness of God in the Midst of Evil

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Recently several people have asked our staff to recommend good material on theodicy. These inquiries may have arisen as the result of the September 11 tragedy in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. It is certainly natural and understandable that people would ask questions when events such as those occur.

We have been taught that God is wise, powerful, and good-that he rules his world completely. We have further been taught that God determines all things that come to pass. But the question surfaces: If God is good and all-powerful, why is there evil in his world? Is he really God? All-powerful? Good? Does he really rule his world? Where does he fit into the picture with all the bad things going on? And bottom line, we ask, How is it possible to reconcile the realities of life-sin, evil, and wickedness-with God’s all powerful and good rule? Theodicy is an attempt to justify and harmonize those things.

The problem is that we tend to approach this topic solely within the area of reason and logic. That is not all bad, but when we are talking about God, reason and logic have their limits because God transcends both. Even the notion of trying to justify God’s control puzzles us because if God is who he says he is, why do bad things continually happen to good people? And, we cannot cop out by saying there are no good people, true as that may be. It begs the real question that theodicy seeks to address. Historically people have tried to deal with this complex subject in many ways. The following four key explanations prevalent today will serve our purposes in this pr