Total Church

A valuable addition to any ecclesiological library, this book articulates a view of "doing church" that flies in the face of the Mega McChurch movement. From the front matter:

Two pastors outline and apply a pair of overarching biblical principles that call the current body of Christ to a deep restructuring of its life and mission.

“Church is not a meeting you attend or a place you enter,” write pastors Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. “It’s an identity that is ours in Christ. An identity that shapes the whole of life so that life and mission become ‘total church.’” With that as their premise, they emphasize two overarching principles to govern the practice of church and mission: being gospel-centered and being community-centered. When these principles take precedence, say the authors, the truth of the Word is upheld, the mission of the gospel is carried out, and the priority of relationships is practiced in radical ways. The church becomes not just another commitment to juggle but a 24/7 lifestyle where programs, big events, and teaching from one person take a backseat to sharing lives, reaching out, and learning about God together.

In Total Church, Chester and Timmis first outline the biblical case for making gospel and community central and then apply this dual focus to evangelism, social involvement, church planting, world missions, discipleship, pastoral care, spirituality, theology, apologetics, youth and children’s work. As this insightful book calls the body of Christ to rethink its perspective and practice of church, it charts a middle path between the emerging church movement and conservative evangelicalism that all believers will find helpful.

About the Authors

TIM CHESTER and STEVE TIMMIS are cofounders of the Crowded House, a church-planting initiative in Sheffield, UK, and codirectors of the Porterbrook Network, which trains and mentors church planters. Chester has 15 years’ experience in church planting, and Timmis previously directed Radstock Ministries, a mission agency facilitating the involvement of the local church in world mission. This is their third book together.

Total Church is available here.

Countdown to the ESV Study Bible...

Expositional Preaching and Sermon Preparation

Hello brothers,

 

            Here are my rough, incomplete notes and a few thoughts from Mark Dever on sermon preparation.

 

Expositional preaching overview

 

·         They encourage expositional preaching, which they define as: “the point of the passage is the point of the message.”  The hope is that the people “hear God’s word” for what it really says.  It exposes God’s word to his people.  Different from teaching.  With teaching such as when he is a professor doing a lesson, he can stop anywhere and pick up at the next class, but with preaching there is a moral ought.  There is weight to it and has to come out. (no interruptions until it is all out).

·         Note: they have interns compare two sermons on the same texts from well respected, expositional preachers as an exercise to see how one passage can be handled differently, yet faithfully, and still state the same basic message from the word (depending on whether there is only one main idea in that passage; if there is more than one, then it is possible that they would preach different messages.

·         Historically, expositional preaching has been central to the gathering of God’s people from OT times (Moses), New Testament times (Peter in Acts 2), and the early church (he gave a number of examples of early church fathers preaching expositionally.  Consecutive chapters through a book of the bible type expositional preaching was common among early church fathers, for which he gave examples.

·         It is powerful when the people of the church, the members, are living out the written word, because then what is being preached from the written word is being lived out by the people.  Very powerful witness to the world.

·         Length of passage to cover in a sermon: typically one story if preaching from the OT and a paragraph when preaching from a NT epistle.  However, can also do overview sermons of whole books, whole testaments, or going the other direction, can do sermons on one word.  He said that the overview sermons are the hardest to do.  He did overview sermons on the major prophets and he looks back at those studies as being foundational and very important for his own soul.

·         He wants the congregation to know the books of the bible, and know them well enough that they know where to go in it for godly living/problem solving, etc.

·         Topical sermons are okay if they are not the steady diet to the church.  He has done topical sermons on prayer, the atonement, etc.

·         He aims at preaching “singles,” rather than trying to his homeruns.

 

His Preparation Method

 

·         Timing: he does his sermon preparation on Friday and Saturday.  He doesn’t recommend that others follow that example, but he does it that way because he is much more focused, efficient.  Also, he carries it with him the whole time that he is preparing, so if he starts earlier, it distracts him from whatever else he is supposed to be doing in the other time.  By the time Sunday morning comes, the message is going to come out one way or another, i.e. he has to preach it to someone (to God alone, I guess, if necessary).

·         Outlines the book, chapter, passage (this would have been done earlier because they give their sermon schedule 4 months in advance or a year in advance.

·         Exegesis: he begins with exegesis. (I have in my notes here Stott, Lloyd Jones, Ambrose, MacArthur (sp?), as examples of preachers who do exegetical, expositional preaching – there is a longer list later.)

·         Homiletics: he makes a homiletical outline. Don’t inform, preach.  Don’t let systematic theology kill expositional preaching.

·         Gospel: always put a clear presentation of the gospel into the sermon.  Why?  You can’t take the chance that there is a visitor in the present who will never have a chance to hear the gospel again.  This week he is preaching Genesis 1:1 to 2:3.  There is not a verse in this text that clearly gives him an opportunity to preach the gospel of God, man, Christ, response, so he is just adding it at the end of the sermon.  The gospel is also the accurate hermeneutical key to understanding all of scripture, so that is another reason to always include it.

·         Note: something about meda narrative comparison.

·         Manuscript: he uses one, but tries to be careful to not have a wooden sermon.  He uses one because he doesn’t want to miss things (the difference between lightning and lightning bug is small in speech, but huge in meaning. – Twain).  He notes that Augustine did not use a manuscript, but he was an expert teacher (having taught many years as a professor) and he would preach based partly on how the congregation was receiving the word preached.

·         He is exhausted after preaching a sermon, and will soon go to sleep.  He takes Monday’s off.

 

Structure.

 

·         How to begin.  Mildly interesting (Lloyd Jones).  Front load some of the application.

·         Body.

·         Conclusion.

·         Application.  Truth must be applied; it is not just for our mind.  Good application is very difficult.  He said that the puritans were good at it.  John Piper is good because he meditates a lot on the scriptures (and has a different style because of it).  CCEF is also very good at application.  It is an art.  He is predictable in his application.  He has a chart to use to brainstorm application points, and then uses a few of them.

·         Illustrations.  Do use them, but he doesn’t prefer to use to many, or trite ones, or comical illustrations.  On being funny, he does use some humor, but he doesn’t want it to detract from the seriousness of what is being preached.  He wants people to receive the word with seriousness, trembling, but with great joy in God for his marvelous mercy.  Laughing in a sermon will lighten the whole tone of the sermon.

·         Note on personal illustrations: he avoids them because he is a very large personality and he doesn’t want to build a fan club.  There are going to be many in the congregation who already think too well of you just by being the senior pastor.  If not so big a personality, then okay to use personal illustrations.

·         He takes about 5 minutes to preach through a page.

·         Richard Baxter. (don’t know what that reference it to there).

·         Helpful notations: he underlines the first word of each sentence in red.

 

Who Shaped his Preaching the Most (he said more than this, but this is what I got down)

·         Ed Hanegar – teacher/preacher he was under in England I believe.

·         Lloyd Jones

·         John Stott – urbana 1980.

·         Roy Clemons – pastor in England.

·         Reading puritans.

 

Preachers he likes now

·         John Piper

·         Dick Luens (sp?)

·         L. Duncan – presbyterian brother he mentions often.

·         CJ Mahaney

·         Michael Lawrence – associate pastor at CHBC.

·         Andy Davis.

·         Al Martin – it is good for his soul, but understands depending on your background, that some people don’t do well with his style.

 

May the Truth of God set us and his people free through the preaching and living of his word!

 

Roy Huddle

 

 

Imitation

I get thoughts on miscellaneous topics at times, so I would like to be able to post them and if you see anything that you think is worth working on or developing, whether for further writing, speaking, or teaching, then please encourage me.  If not, just encourage me about something else please!  Nice try, now sit down Charlie (from a conference I went to once).

 

Idea –

 

            We are told to imitate God as beloved Children, to imitate Christ, and to imitate Paul to the extent that he is following Christ.  Yet, we are most often told to be ourselves.  What can we imitate from others without denying who God has made us to be?  What room is there to put on something that we are not.  Consider that we are exhorted to be many things, such as “Be strong.”  We are told to put on love.  Yet we are also told to be sincere, let your love be genuine, etc.

 

Will hopefully return to later.

 

Cheers!

 

Roy Huddle

 

 

Service Review Thought

Travis and Billy,

 

            I made one comment to Mark Dever in the Service planning section of the Weekender that I wanted to pass on.  Mark was saying how he likes to start the services with the Word of God, reading scripture.  I had previously thought about how it is awkward how we do it because people are talking to each other (which I know is good) and the word of God is starting to be read while people are still talking, ending conversations, and finding their seats.  At CHBC, they start singing a little bit before the service starts, which provides a context for quiet at the end of the last song so that the Word of God can be spoken with people attentive ready to listen.  That sounds good to me, or, we could simply ask people to find their seats and then when everything is quiet, then start with reading the scripture.  Or another thing you could do is ask people to stand for the beginning of the morning’s proclamation of God’s word.    

 

Thank you for your labors for the Lord and us, his people.

 

Many blessings!

 

Roy Huddle

 

Weekender Plus - Part 2

Continuation -

Random Thoughts

• Church planters are wimps (per Mark Dever bc we should be going to revitalize existing churches; they love wimps though as stated when a brother in Katy introduced himself as a wimp church planter).
• About 70% of the church is in small groups, BUT Dever said that he prefers one one one discipleship because it is more flexible and I believe he said fruitful. I may try to ask him about this. Their church does small groups for: men, women, young married couples (or recent), evangelism groups, and by location (mixed groups).
• They have 13 elders currently for over 600 real-members, more non-staff than staff because of salary setting. I asked what they think is optimal number of elders. Differing views. Two people, including Dever, said have as many as we can. Matt Schmucker said he thinks that there can be too many as it makes it more cumbersome to get things done in meetings. Every elder has to agree to bring on new elder. That is a high standard and eventually would probably start limiting the number of elders that were added, unless specific leadership was done to prevent this. They did say that it was very important when having a larger group of elders to have someone who can run the meetings well (a "chairman", I guess). A good chairman is one who allows discussion, but doesn't let it go too long. They have a very good chairman now, whereas others who have tried have been too rules oriented (not enough discussion) and others not enough order.
• They try to pray through their membership list at elder meetings every year.
• Mark Dever says the next most important book after his bible is his membership directory. Be praying for members every week.
• I like the way that they taught the Members classes (parts 1-3). Mark covered the statement of faith in order of what Christian churches agree on, then what Evangelical churches agree on, and then added the congregational and baptist distinctives. Matt started his section on church covenant with his testimony. Very different style from Mark, but worked well for that section. Mark did various things to get to know who the people were that he was talking to. I remember know that Billy and Travis, you all did this at the beginning class, but might be useful for each class, i.e. use time at the beginning to get to know people a little bit better through some question(s).
• They prefer to baptize people after they have left home. Mark's youngest baptism was a 16 year old, he thinks. Children are to desire the approval of their parents and that is a godly thing. Don't confuse it by trying to get them to stand on their own before it is time. I agree in principle, but don't know about the leaving home part. When biblically do children need to leave home? When they marry. Should they be mostly independent of parents before then. I think so. 20 is when you can serve in the army biblically, so you should be ready to leave home by then. Thoughts? However, I would be hard pressed to keep someone younger from being baptized if they were the ones that were pressing me about it, i.e., if a 12 year old was on his own initiative, as far as I could discern, pressing to be baptized and doing so in a Godly way that showed his or her maturity, then I wouldn't deny it to them. Look, here is water; what is to prevent me from being baptized.
• When communicating, make sure you are educating your audience about any terms or concepts that they do not know or just use a different term when you can. Important biblical terms require education; can't leave out atonement, justification, etc.
• An elder is standing by each exit at the end of the service to greet people as they leave. CHBC does not have a meal afterwards and has multiple exits. As we discussed at our introductory meeting, it is good to make an effort to talk to people who are visiting and our members in general. Be looking for opportunities to care for people.

Weekender Plus - Part 1 of ? (maybe 1)

Brothers,

Grace to you and peace be multiplied to you. A few thoughts from The Weekender (here with Joe Rowan representing our body), which is going well:
1. I like what I see here, and I am catching some of the vision that God has blessed Capitol Hills Baptist Church ("CHBC") with, including, but in no particular order: (1) the beauty of congregationalism when its lead well (interesting though that to consider the transition history of CHBC under Dever), (2) raising up leaders and pastors who care for the sheep, (3) having blessing, comradarie, and fun together in the work of ministry, (4) the patience of Mark Dever in bringing the nine marks to fruition in his congregation, and possibly others mentioned below.
2. I like books, and I would like to have a part in offering more books through our library/book stall. I especially like some small books put out by the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation in a seried called "Resources for Changing Lives." I have looked at three and think that they provide accessible, biblical, relevant information topically that can help us and our members. I have purchased three (Anger, Angry Children, and A.D.D.) which I will make available. I'm considering trying to talk to someone here at the Weekender about their book stall ministry for ideas on how to help or serve in our book ministry.
- One point that Mark Dever made that I really like related to my liking books (I'm intentionally staying away from "I love books," although in some ways I do) is that our knowledge has to lead to action of some kind, i.e. as he put it we have to put feet to what we learn and know. Amen.
3. I don't like the term "quiet time." Why? To me it is laden with guilt. I guess it is because most of the time that I hear Christians talking about their "quiet time," it is a confession of how they are not having it. I don't have daily specific times with God right now. I usually have a few minutes of prayer for me, my family, people in the church, and on miscellaneous topics. I usually lead my family in "Family Worship," once a day where we pray and read scripture, either a chapter from the book we are reading or doing scripture memory together, usually sing Psalms or Hymns, and talk about the scripture. Should I have more than this? Whatever is beneficial in me and those I lead (primarily my family) having a day of fellowship with God and doing his will of love from the heart, that is what I need. Do I get that? By faith I do until I am driven to my knees again for a current need that is too big for me, which is often.
4. Travis, I see now what you mean about Mark Dever's incredible leadership skills. He is a strong personality, a mostly under-control bull using his strength of presence for mostly good purposes, especially directing the group's thinking and also drawing people out. Although he certainly makes mistakes and depends on the group of men that God has put around him. He specifically stated that he was not a good manager, and does seem to be fine with letting go and letting others do their part. I love that he has fun with it, and seems to really enjoy people.
- One more specific point about his patience from his story of how God led them here at CHBC is that he tried to avoid fights. He would make his position known and then let others decide and leave it to God. I think that is a very commendable trait. The mutual submission I see operating here looks healthy. Of course, I am sure that there are always some stresses to work through that we do not see in a Weekender. May the Lord continue to bless their work.

Brothers, I do not know how often I will have long posts like this, but I trust that you all will skim. If I am looking for a specific response from one or all of you, I willl bold the text and ask questions with specific names. If I don't get a response from the blog, I will email you. If I don't get a response from the email, I will call you. If I don't get a response from the call or voicemail, I will come over your house and see how you are doing. Sound good, brothers? Testing this emergency response system.

Thank you to the church for giving me this opportunity. May the Lord grant me opportunity to bear fruit with the knowledge and experience gained from this weekend.

With tired, but good cheer!

Roy Huddle

Recap from Sunday's Meeting

Brothers,

In case you were unable to make the meeting yesterday, I wanted to recap it for you. We basically discussed the overview of the internship, including our vision and new additions to the program this year. Here's a brief summary of the new features of the internship:

• Alethia Ministries: We hope to arrange multiple interviews with pastors and church leaders across Houston and beyond. We think you will be well served by your interactions with these leaders, especially since you'll be able to ask them any questions that you like!



• Books for this Year: We think the two books that we are going to concentrate on this year will be Worship Matters, by Bob Kauflin and The Reformed Pastor, by Richard Baxter. We'll be doing Worship Matters in the fall and RP in the Spring. Again, most of our interaction on these books will be online. (The church will purchase the books! Don't buy them...unless you already own them...then tell me ASAP!)



• Meetings: We are hoping to meet together for bi-weekly sermon and service reviews as well as general discussion and prayer. So, we will ask you to contribute to the blog each week and we will have actual meetings every other week. If you could comment on this post as to a convenient time to meet, that would be most helpful! After we get feedback, we'll post our first meeting and reading assignment.



• Church Visits: There will be a schedule posted here ASAP of our church visits for the fall.



• Elders Meetings: You are invited to attend all the elders meetings (monthly), but we want you each to come to at least one meeting where we will spend some time specifically encouraging you and listening to you speak about your calling and future in ministry. So, we'll keep you posted on this when it's your turn, but you can come and observe all the meetings if you'd like to!

Billy, feel free to include anything that I left out. You all should have received an invitation to be an author on this blog, so you can post your thoughts as well.

Stay tuned for our first meeting dates, church visitation dates, interviews and reading assignments.

Blessings!

Travis