Ministry expectations can spread a pastor's energy thin as his duties expand in all directions. So how does a pastor serving alone prioritize his life and ministry to ensure that he is faithful to what is most important? During a Pastors College Q&A meeting this winter, a visiting pastor asked C.J. the following question.

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Question: With 18 to 20 hours of study a week, small-group training and leadership, parent-teen leadership, generational leadership, etc., for a guy like myself who is pastoring by himself, what do we do? Obviously we should preach on Sundays at the gathering, but where do we back off? And how do we gauge our family hours?

C.J. Mahaney: Your challenge will be the consistent temptation to compare yourself unfavorably to other pastors and other contexts. You hear about other churches and what they are accomplishing, and you can be tempted to think this is immediately transferable. Always look behind the immediate illustration to the history behind that church. That is too often what we don’t do. So realize that behind that other individual is a body of experience and a number of years. That church didn’t begin the way you now see it. And that is no small challenge for someone who is serving by himself in pastoral ministry, but it is your challenge, and it is one that I think you can walk wisely through.

Your priorities at present sound like they are in place.

(1) First is the priority of caring for your own soul before God, cultivating affection for the Savior, and growing in your appreciation for his death on the cross for your sins.

(2) The second priority is caring for, serving, and leading your wife and children.

(3) Then we arrive at preparation for the Sunday meeting. If I were to open your planner and study your calendar, I would want to see reflected in your schedule a sufficient number of hours to prepare for the Sunday meeting. This meeting must be your priority because, until you have a team around you, this is the most effective way you can serve the entirety of the church as it exists now.

From my experience, the demands of counseling often most forcefully intrude upon your preparation for serving the church on Sunday. Identifying and training those capable of serving as small-group leaders would be, I think, your next priority. I would train them in biblical counseling so that they can help you with pastoral ministry and free you to devote more undistracted time to preaching and leading on Sunday. Given the strategic role they play, I wouldn’t be simply training these small-group leaders in generalities, but developing a specialized training program for those individuals so that they can assist you in detailed counseling situations. Although you may be required in the toughest cases, finding capable small-group leaders will relieve much of the counseling burden that single-staff pastors cannot carry themselves.

And at this point there are ways I think you can specialize, depending on the makeup of your church. But you don’t have to think in terms of official, formalized ministries. For example, you may consider developing a class based on a book like Age of Opportunity to train parents and teens for a period of time without the obligation of creating a formalized, ongoing parent-youth ministry.

That is what I would recommend for someone in your present situation. I want to address the immediate pressing needs of your church that aren’t being addressed through Sunday and that can’t be addressed adequately through small-group leadership. Then asking, “How can we create a way to effectively address those pressing needs temporarily, without obligating you to create an entire ministry?”

And then, primarily, you must be particularly aware—which I am sure you are—of this vulnerability to compare yourself to other churches. You must guard your heart carefully, because if you don’t pay careful attention to your heart, there will be a cumulative low-grade discouragement in your soul. I am jealous that you serve the Lord with gladness in this season of the life of your church, and not postpone this joy for some future time when you are surrounded by a pastoral team. Whatever season we find ourselves in—whether a staff of 20 or a staff of one—I am jealous for all of us that we “serve the Lord with gladness” (Psalm 100:2 ESV).

An endorsement for Joshua Harris’s book I Kissed Dating Goodbye (Multnomah, 1997) has come from an unlikely source: Donna Freitas, a feminist and liberal professor of religion at Boston University.

In the August issue of Christianity Today, Freitas is interviewed in the story “Zipping It,” which spotlights the rising interest in modesty and relational caution at one liberal college. Students, Freitas says, are growing disillusioned by the cultural status quo and being drawn towards modesty and sexual purity.
 
Near the end of the interview, Freitas discusses her course, her textbooks, and the surprising effect it all is having on her students. “Almost all the students were as liberal as liberal can get,” she said. But after reading a book on modesty, she said, her class began talking of modesty positively, as a virtue, and began to discern the vulgarity of the campus. She says, “I actually had students who for their final project proposed a modesty club. I’m sitting here thinking, This is Boston University.”

She continues,

At different points I have received flack from scholars for the in-class resources I use. You’re not supposed to teach Harris’s I Kissed Dating Goodbye [and others] because they’re not “ivory tower material”—except that it’s in these books where robust conversations are happening about the things students care about. I’m a feminist and a liberal, but this is something beyond ideology. It’s not a Left or Right issue. It’s about responding to young people who are struggling. It’s a mistake of many people to tense up about ideology in the middle of this kind of conversation. Part of my job is to figure out what professors do about the issues students are struggling with. They want modesty. And we can give them rich resources on modesty. So why don’t we then?

To learn Josh’s book is included in the college curriculum at Boston University is shocking and thrilling! But these words also reveal that students at a liberal college are questioning the cultural and campus standards of relationships and sexuality. As I reflect on my conversion in 1972, I can relate to their disillusionment with the status quo of dating and relationships.

Upon my conversion from the drug culture and into the church, I found myself perplexed at the apparent absence of the church’s critique of cultural dating standards and an absence of a biblical alternative. From my limited perspective, the evangelical church seemed to leave unchallenged numerous assumptions about dating and its importance before marriage, failing to sufficiently recognize the temptations to selfishness and sexual sin present in the culture of dating.

At the inception of Covenant Life Church in 1977, we sought to teach and apply a biblical alternative to the sinfully selfish and lustful approach to relationships that characterized many of us prior to conversion. We sought to preserve sexual purity, to apply the gospel message, to teach the “one anothers” of Scripture in light of relationships between men and women, and to protect and preserve the emotions of a woman for her future husband and of a man for his future wife.

So from the beginning of the church we were responding to this seeming widespread acceptance of dating by the evangelical church and seeking to build an alternative in theology and practice. We were young (I was in my early 20s), zealous, and no doubt arrogant as well, in our reaction to what we observed in evangelicalism at the time. Having previously come from the drug culture of the world, and having sinned and felt the consequences of that sin, we desired something relationally distinctive, informed by Scripture, not culture.

Little did I anticipate that, decades later, Joshua Harris would make his way to Covenant Life Church having just finished his book I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Joshua’s book was one of the first in print to challenge these cultural assumptions and provide a biblical alternative (along with Elisabeth Elliot’s Passion and Purity). And after having written the book, Josh transitioned into a church that had already modeled the content of his book for the duration of his own lifespan. It was a sweet providence that God would place him in a church in wholehearted agreement with the teaching of his book.

When Joshua wrote I Kissed Dating Goodbye, I told him he was writing a conversation-defining book for the church. Years later, it remains that very thing. It has now for several years defined the discussion for those who agree with the book, and for those who disagree, within the church. It will continue to shape the substantive discussions within the church (provided the discussions do not drift into unnecessary debates over the use of the word “dating” or whether one agrees with all the practices Josh recommends). May this book continue provoking discussions within the church about gospel-centered relationships and what Scripture reveals as the wisdom of God for Christian relationships prior to marriage.

But little did I anticipate how this book would affect a liberal classroom, transcending liberal/conservative animosity, and provoking students to challenge cultural and college campus assumptions about relationships. Perhaps they—like those of us saved from the drug culture many years ago—have felt the sting of the cultural dating status quo, the effect of sin, and are looking for something different.

May the church and its pastors take note of a Boston University classroom and be freshly challenged to start substantive discussions, and to challenge the cultural assumptions of dating relationships and sexuality prior to marriage.

Today we announce the launch of the C.J. Mahaney sermon archive. The goal of the archive is to create individual webpages where particular messages are permanently archived in a trio of formats: video, audio, and transcribed text.

At each sermon archive page, you’ll be able to...

(1) watch a short excerpt,
(2) watch or download the full-length video,
(3) listen to or download the full-length audio, and
(4) read a transcript of the entire message.

C.J.’s Psalm 42 sermon, delivered at the 2008 New Attitude conference, is the first to be added to the archive, with more messages to come. Stay tuned.

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The Troubled Soul: God’s Word and Our Feelings
C.J. Mahaney
Psalm 42
May 25, 2008
New Attitude Conference; Louisville, KY

 

I’m back from a wonderful, memory-filled vacation with my family in Tennessee. The blog silence is now (so fittingly) broken with a story from the world of sports.

On Sunday, Washington Redskins legends Art Monk and Darrell Green were inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. There was a lot of predictable pageantry, with a surprising twist in the speech by Monk.

Now I assume there are knowledgeable sports fans reading who are either unfamiliar or minimally familiar with Art Monk, given that he played many years ago (1980-1993). But I couldn’t be more familiar with the receiver--having lived in the D.C. area all my life, having been raised in a Redskin home, and having watched almost every Redskin game during that era. I probably saw 800 of Monk’s 953 catches as a Redskin (and I saw all of the 65 catches in playoff games).

So if you’re looking for stories and stats about Monk (or arguments for why he should have been inducted into the Hall of Fame years ago) give me a call! But this post is not about stories and stats.

What I most appreciated about Art Monk in his speech Sunday was his evident humility and love for the Savior, both of which were on full display. They were on display through his son’s introduction, and they were on full display in and through his own speech. But they have not been on full display for a broader audience. Some of the most impressive comments appear to have been selectively excised from the video highlights and sound bites.

Art Monk was introduced by his son James Monk Jr., whose words are a loud statement of what he observed in his dad off the field.

You know, growing up as a son of Art Monk is something that I would never ever change for the world. And as his son, there's always been this question I could never escape, that I could never avoid, that I could never get away from and that was: Do you want to be like Art when you grow up? Now, you think such an easy question would have such an easy answer. Let me tell you a few things that go into answering this question …

James Monk Jr. concluded the short introduction with this answer:

So to answer the question, do you want to be like Art Monk when you grow up, my answer is I'd rather be like Dad. Dad, thank you for being the man of God that God has called you to be, and for raising me in the same way. As your best friend, as your admirer, as your biggest fan and as your son, I want to tell the whole world that I love you and I'm truly honored and blessed to induct you into the 2008 Pro Football Hall of Fame.

I read these words with tears in my eyes.

Art Monk stepped to the podium next to deliver his induction speech. His words are worth reading carefully. He said,

… Getting here did not come without controversy, as I'm sure it did with some of the guys sitting behind me. But through it all, I'm here with a greater appreciation for something that not every player is able to achieve and for the people who stood up for me and spoke out on my behalf. …

What I’ve tried to convey to those who were upset about the process was that I was okay with it. But in all due respect, that as great as this honor is, it’s not what really defines who I am or the things that I’ve been able to accomplish in my life. …

And even now as a Hall of Famer, the one thing I want to make very clear is that my identity and my security is found in the Lord. And what defines me and my validation comes in having accepted his son Jesus Christ as my personal savior. And what defines me is the Word of God, and it’s the Word of God that will continue to shape and mold me into the person that I know he’s called me to be.

So I’ve learned a long time ago never to put my faith or trust in man, for man will always fail you. Man will always disappoint you. But the Word of God says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. And He will never fail you.

And that is what I live by and what I stand on. Being included into this fraternity is a pretty humbling experience for me. I always grew up seeing these guys as giants and legends who make significant contributions to the game of football. And it’s pretty hard for me to believe that I’ve now been included as part of them. Growing up I was never voted the most likely to succeed. And there was never anything about me that would have given anyone the impression that I would have played in the NFL, let alone to be standing here.

There’s a scripture that I think about almost every day and I’ve come to personalize it to my life. It says: “Lord, who am I that you are mindful of me?” [Psalm 8:4]. And the Apostle Paul says, “Think of what you were when you were called. Not many were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were born of noble birth” [1 Corinthians 1:26]. And when I look at my life and how I grew up, I certainly had none of those qualities or benefits.

But I understand and I know that I’m here not by, in, and of my own strength—but it’s by the grace and the power of God upon my life, who I know gave me favor along the way, and who provided opportunity and room for me to use my gifts.

So I am very grateful to receive this honor, and I can stand here before you and say, “Hey, look at me, look at what I did.” But if I’m going to boast, I’m going to boast today in the Lord, for it’s because of him that I’m here and I give him thanks and glory and honor for all that he has done for me.

Art Monk’s words reveal humility, are theologically informed, and are mindful of an eternal perspective (as were Darrell Green’s).

From my view in the cheap seats, too many pro athletes who profess Christ appear theologically ignorant, have little or no involvement in the local church, and have no pastoral oversight in their lives. Monk’s speech appears to be the fruit of good pastoring. If more professional athletes participated in churches where sound doctrine was taught, there might be more examples like Art Monk and Darrell Green.

But I want you to notice that early in the speech Monk mentions the controversy over his postponed induction to the Hall of Fame. For seven years he was denied entrance into the Hall, though his stats were obviously as good as other receivers already in the Hall (such as Michael Irvin, who was inducted in 2007). And Monk addressed the controversy head-on, but with humility. After a long and controversial wait, we hear a humble man who places his trust beyond the reach of man, and who doesn’t live to be honored by men.

Monk’s speech reflects the words of Jeremiah 9:23-24.

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

The quiet sports star stepped in front of thousands of fans and used the moment, not for self-congratulation, but to glorify God. Standing beside a bronze bust of himself, his speech is no celebration of human achievement, but of amazing grace. In a place built to enshrine human achievement, Monk reminded us all of human weakness.  

Sunday Art Monk provided a compelling example for fathers and their children of true greatness—humility before God. I try to seize these moments as teaching moments for my soul and my son. And I am freshly provoked to provide my son with a similar example of humility.

For the next two weeks I have the joy of creating a memory-making blast while on vacation with my family in Tennessee. I anticipate the blog being silent, though that could change if something noteworthy takes place in the world of sports. There is old stuff available here that still works if you'd like to check it out (see categories to the left).
 
And for the next two Sundays I’ll have the privilege to teach at Cornerstone Church of Knoxville (July 27 and August 3).
 
I look forward to serving you through this blog when I return from my time away with my family.
 
C.J.

 

I was recently privileged to participate in the 2008 Resolved Conference in Palm Springs, California. (The conference is named after Jonathan Edwards’s famous resolutions.) Some 3,400 college students and single adults attended the conference, led by my friend Rick Holland.
 
Even the theme of the conference was very Edwards-like: Heaven and Hell.
 
Obviously, it’s easier to preach on the love of God than the justice of God, easier to preach on the glories of heaven than the horrors of hell. We must preach on both topics. But from my perspective pastors are often reluctant to preach on hell, and that leaves an absence of biblically accurate—and humbly presented—examples of current sermons on this hard topic.
 
At the Resolved conference, John Piper and John MacArthur each preached a very effective message on hell. One message is topical, the other more expositional. For preachers who have the responsibility and courage to humbly, compassionately preach on hell, Piper’s and MacArthur’s sermons model theological accuracy and a tone of compassion.

Both messages will serve your soul and leave you more amazed by grace.
 
Downloads here:
 
John Piper—“The Echo and the Insufficiency of Hell” (Resolved session 8). Download this message from the Desiring God website [here].
 
John MacArthur—On Luke 16:19–31 (Resolved session 10). To listen, download the MP3 from the Resolved website [here].

Pic by Lukas.

The audio recording from C.J.’s message Sunday at Covenant Life Church:

Don’t Waste Your Humor
C.J. Mahaney
Proverbs 15:13-15; Ephesians 4:29, Psalm 126:1-3
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Covenant Life Church; Gaithersburg, MD
52:12 run time; 11.9MB MP3

Download here.

Listen here:

Art by Zak Parsons.

I’m not in the business of introducing every good book released from Christian publishers (there are others who do this well). But today I want to draw your attention to three noteworthy books all recently released and written by three of our African-American brothers and friends—Thabiti Anyabwile, Eric Redmond, and Anthony Carter.
 
(I think it’s fitting to here inform readers that at the 2008 T4G conference, Thabiti publicly announced that ethnically I’m a “brother.” This was without a doubt one of the highlights of the conference for me and on the short list of greatest honors I’ve ever received.)
 
I want to commend these three books to your attention because each is focused on strengthening the local church. But none of them requires a lengthy introduction, because I think the chapter titles speak clearly and compellingly to the content, scope, and value of each volume.
 
What Is a Healthy Church Member?
 
There is a desperate need for more books written by doctrinally discerning pastors addressing a passion for, and the priority of, the local church in the life and practice of every Christian. I highly recommend Thabiti Anyabwile’s book, What Is A Healthy Church Member? (Crossway, 2008), to all pastors and Christians alike. Chapter titles include:

• A Healthy Church Member Is an Expositional Listener
• A Healthy Church Member Is a Biblical Theologian
• A Healthy Church Member Is Gospel Saturated
• A Healthy Church Member Is Genuinely Converted
• A Healthy Church Member Is a Biblical Evangelist
• A Healthy Church Member Is a Committed Member
• A Healthy Church Member Seeks Discipline
• A Healthy Church Member Is a Growing Disciple
• A Healthy Church Member Is a Humble Follower
• A Healthy Church Member Is a Prayer Warrior

Where Are All the Brothers?
 
Eric Redmond’s book Where Are All the Brothers? Straight Answers to Men’s Questions About the Church (Crossway, 2008) is organized around answering these main questions:

• Isn’t the Church Full of Hypocrites?
• Wasn’t the Bible Written by Men?
• Isn’t the Church Geared toward Women?
• Isn’t the Preacher Just a Man?
• Doesn’t Islam Offer More for Black Men?
• Aren’t Some Churches Just after Your Money?
• Is Organized Religion Necessary?
• Jesus Never Claimed to Be God, Did He?
• What to Look for to Find a Good Church

Experiencing the Truth
 
Anthony Carter edited the book Experiencing the Truth: Bringing the Reformation to the African-American Church (Crossway, 2008). Chapter titles include:

• Experiencing the Truth: An Introduction (Carter)
• Biblical Theology: Experiencing the Truth about God (Michael Leach)
• Biblical Preaching: Experiencing the Word of God (Carter)
• Biblical Worship: Experiencing the Presence of God (Carter)
• Biblical Spirituality: Experiencing the Spirit of God (Kenneth Jones)
• Grace So Amazing: Experiencing the Doctrines of Grace (Carter)

My thanks to each of these men for serving Sovereign Grace churches with their writing, leadership, godly example, and friendship.

 

The Sovereign Grace Leadership Interviews feature a roundtable discussion among C.J. Mahaney (president of Sovereign Grace Ministries), Jeff Purswell (dean of our Pastors College), and Joshua Harris (senior pastor of Covenant Life Church). The three gather on a regular basis to discuss a wide array of theological and practical leadership issues.

This third podcast episode, “The Pastor and His Joy,” focuses attention on the priority and cultivation of joy in the pastor’s heart, and reminds us there is more to pastoral ministry than mere faithfulness. In the early moments of the interview, C.J. says,

In my experience over the past 30-plus years of pastoral ministry, I have encountered too many pastors who I think would be characterized as burdened, wearied, discouraged, and not joyful. These men are serving the Savior faithfully and for that they are to be commended, and they have my deepest respect. It is required of us to serve the Lord faithfully.

But it is not sufficient for us simply or solely to serve the Lord faithfully in the context of pastoral ministry. In order to accurately represent God, in order to please and glorify God as pastors, we must serve him joyfully. We must serve the Lord with gladness (Psalm 100:2).

That forms part of my burden in choosing that topic and addressing that topic and addressing pastors and seeking to equip them with an understanding of this as a priority for them personally as well as in pastoral ministry.

The full hourlong podcast, “The Pastor and His Joy,” can be downloaded here.

 

Scripture presents the discipline of children as an expression of the father’s love for them (Proverbs 3:11–12, Hebrews 12:3–11). But what exactly does this loving discipline look like in the shadow of the cross?

This third audio clip originates from the same setting as the first two: an unplanned Q&A session with C.J. and Carolyn during a Sovereign Grace conference in Gilbert, Arizona (Nov. 2005). Answering a question posed by Carolyn, C.J. explains how parents can bring discipline to their children with humble hearts informed by the gospel.

3. The Gospel + Discipline (5:37)



Other clips in this series:

1. Gospel-Centered Parenting + Young Children (9:27)
2. The Gospel + Parental Sin (2:39)