NASHVILLE, Tenn. — I really don’t like to be criticized. A criticism can make my entire day gloomy. I have to wonder how someone so thin-skinned ended up in the position where I am today.

Still, when it’s all said and done, I have to say that I have benefited in many ways from criticisms. Indeed, part of my training to be a better leader comes from dealing with critics. Let me share with you seven lessons I have learned from them.

1. Not all personal criticisms are personal. I know. My statement sounds contradictory. But many personal attacks take place because the critic is having his or her own problems. I once spoke with a vociferous critic on the phone who said some pretty terrible things to me and about me. Though I was restrained, I hung up the phone pretty mad. For some reason, I called him back just a few minutes later. I told him that I should have prayed for him, and that I wanted to apologize for being insensitive. He began to weep, telling me that his adult daughter was killed in an auto accident just two weeks earlier. Everyone has needs and problems — even our critics. Maybe sometimes we really need to listen to them.

2. A quick, emotional response usually backfires. I do better to say less than more. When I speak quickly to the critic, it usually is an emotional response that I regret later. I’m learning to keep quiet. It’s tough.

3. Criticism helps me to become a better person and a better leader. Sometimes the remarks make me look in the mirror, and I don’t always like what I see. I have also learned that I’m not helped at all if everyone agrees with me on all that I say and do. Critics help refine me as a leader. They help me to be a better person, though the process is always painful.

4. Criticism helps me to think twice before I criticize others. I know the pain of criticism. I know the hurt that comes when a critic comes after me with an unfounded accusation. If I don’t like that pain, why should I inflict it on others? I recently spoke with a pastor who was lamenting the level of criticism he receives. But this pastor has a blog that is inevitably critical of someone almost every time he writes. He does not see the inconsistency in his behavior and the way he would like to be treated.

5. “Consider the source” is a good guideline. I have learned that some people are just negative. They seem stuck in that one disposition. They skip the reading of Philippians 4 because the text mandates we “rejoice in the Lord.” Some critics should be heard. Many should not.

6. Criticism can lead us to greater depths of prayer. I wish I were the man of prayer that I should be. But I fall short, very short of where I need to be. Criticism hurts me. Sometimes the pain is more than I can handle, so I turn it over to my Lord to handle it for me. I wish I did that all the time. Sometimes the criticism is extremely painful and just what I needed. It drives me to pray even more fervently.

7. Sometimes the critic is right. Yes, it’s painful to be criticized. But on more occasions than I’m comfortable admitting, I’ve had the additional pain of learning that I indeed needed correction. The Bible can be pretty straightforward about it: “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but one who hates correction is stupid” (Proverbs 12:1). Call me stupid. Criticism hurts. But it can be for our benefit. The critic can be right.

God, give me the discernment to know when to listen to my critic so that I might truly learn and change. I have a long way to go.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Rainer is president of LifeWay Christian Resources. This column first appeared at his blog, ThomRainer.com.)

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ANDERSON, S.C. — As the leader of a military wives faith-based support organization and a military wife myself, I’m often asked by women’s ministry leaders and churches what they can do to support military wives and their families. You might be unsure of how to minister to an older woman with cancer or a young mom with twins if you have never experienced those things yourself, and in the same way it can be hard to know what to do for a military wife if you’ve never walked in her shoes.

It’s easy to assume that if you don’t live near a major military installation that military wives don’t exist in your community. But there are more than a million military spouses in our Armed Forces today and military wives are everywhere — National Guard and Reserve families often live far away from where their respective bases are, and active wives make the choice to move home and live with family when their husbands are overseas. This gives you and your church some wonderful opportunities to make a difference for our military by supporting their families while they’re away.

Connect with a military wife
If you meet a military wife whose husband is away for deployment, make a point to check on her regularly and let her know you’re praying for her. Deployment is not an experience you “get used to.” It’s an emotional roller coaster from beginning to end and there are good days, but there are hard days, too.

With all the technology available today to connect with our loved ones, we can still go days and weeks and sometimes months without a phone call, an e-mail or a letter. We can get lost in all that we’re responsible for and forget to make time for ourselves. Sleep can become an issue for a lot of women when they’re not used to sleeping alone and the quiet of the house at night gives them the first chance they’ve had all day to really think about their husbands being away. Exhaustion can make a hard situation even worse and fray our emotions completely.

One of the absolute best gifts I received during my husband’s first deployment was when my friend Allison, another military wife, sent me an e-mail on behalf of her small group from church and asked me to make a list of things I needed help with around the house. She had asked me this a couple of times before and I’d always dodged the request, but when she sent an e-mail in black and white, I relented and put together a list of little to big things I needed to get done, thinking I’d give enough options that the group would find a couple of things they would be willing to do.

On a warm spring Saturday, eight to 10 friends I’d never met came over to my house and took care of absolutely everything on my list. And at the end of the day, what touched me most wasn’t the honey-do chores they’d completed for me, though I was very grateful for their help; it was the fact that they’d reached out in a physical way and let me know I wasn’t alone.

Do something
One of the hardest things for a military wife to hear is “Let me know if I can do anything to help.” It’s very difficult to ask someone else for help, especially if you’re unsure of what that person is willing to do.

The best thing you can do to help a military wife is to put yourself in her shoes and like the Nike commercial said, just do it! Would you get tired of planning dinner and cooking for a year without a break? Give her a gift card to eat out or call her up and let her know you’re bringing dinner tonight. Would you have trouble knowing what to do with the car or the yard during the peak of summer? Rally the men in your small group to help change the oil or share yard duties. Would you be worn out if you were responsible for your kids 24/7 without another adult to give you a break occasionally? Offer to take the kids for an afternoon so she can do whatever she wants. Would it be hard for you to put Christmas lights up or other holiday decorations by yourself? Offer to do it for her.

If you offer to put a care package together for her husband, don’t forget to put a little package together for her — bubble bath, Starbucks cards, or a little book of Bible Promises are all little things that can make a world of difference for a military wife and give her encouragement and hope to keep going. And chocolate! Don’t forget the chocolate!

Be sensitive
As much as you want to be able to help and appear understanding to her needs, resist the temptation to compare your husband’s two-week business trip to her husband’s year-long deployment. Unless your husband is also trying to avoid mortars and IEDs (improvised explosive devices), it’s really not the same.

Avoid saying things like “I don’t know how you do it,” or “I can’t imagine being in your shoes.” Most of the time she doesn’t know how she does it either, but it’s the only choice she has — to do it or give up.

Encourage her. Tell her what a great job she’s doing and how her husband will be so proud to hear how well she’s doing holding down the fort at home. And then make sure he does hear how well she’s doing.

If a military wife is in your small group at church, make sure there are enough activities happening she can attend that aren’t strictly couples-oriented. Consider holding off on that Love and Respect marriage study and do another study that she’ll be able to feel included in. When you do have events make a point to call her and make sure she’s coming; there’s a greater chance she will if she knows someone will miss her if she doesn’t.

Support those who support our heroes
Military wives don’t want pity or to be felt sorry for, but they can use prayer, encouragement and all the emotional support they can get. Ask most service members what their greatest worry is when they’re deployed and they may surprise you when they say it’s not getting wounded or killed — it’s making sure their families are OK back home. I believe God can use the hardest of times, like deployments, to grow us and stretch us and make us into the daughters He wants us to be. But we need others to come alongside us in the journey.

Help to make sure that the spouse and family are well taken care of and you also help take care of the soldier. So feel free to pass those hugs out to military spouses today — they will thank you for it.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Horn is the founder of Wives of Faith and the author of “GOD Strong: A Military Wife’s Spiritual Survival Guide” and “Tour of Duty: Preparing Our Hearts for Deployment, A Bible Study for Military Wives.” She enjoys speaking to both women’s and military wives groups about God’s incredible strength.)

(SPECIAL NOTE — Thank you for your continued support of the Biblical Recorder site. During this interim period while we are searching for a new Editor/President the comments section will be temporarily discontinued. Thank you for your understanding and patience in this. If you do have comments or issues with items we run, please contact dianna@biblicalrecorder.org or call 919-847-2127.)

Several years God spoke to me clearly about the great need for the church in America to return to a focus on biblical discipleship. Among other things, He used George Barna’s book, Growing True Disciples to awaken my heart to the great gap between our current cultural (and church) understanding of being “Christian” and Jesus’ example of making disciples. 

I was challenged by these words from that same book: “What would happen for God’s Kingdom if we did not consider our job complete when people confess their sins and say a prayer inviting Jesus to be their Redeemer, but would use their new commitments to Christ as a launching pad for a lifelong quest to become individuals who are completely sold out — emotionally, intellectually, physically, spiritually — to the Son of God”? What if we began reflecting in fresh ways and with a laser focus on the examples that Jesus gave us through His life and ministry as He called disciples? 

We see Jesus calling the first disciples in Matthew 4:18-22. When Jesus told Peter and Andrew to “Follow me,” they immediately left their nets and followed Him. In the same way, when Jesus called for Matthew to follow Him (9:9) he got up, left everything and followed Him. One by one, Jesus called and these early disciples gave their lives to Him in complete abandon. And we would be greatly mistaken to believe that these early disciples were super-human. As John MacArthur notes in his book, Twelve Ordinary Men, “It was not because they had extraordinary talents, unusual intellectual abilities, powerful political influence, or some special social status.  They turned the world upside down because God worked in them to do it. God chooses to use the meek and the weak so that there’s never any question about the source of power when their lives change the world.”  They were completely sold out to Jesus!

Just a few weeks ago I heard Gary Chapman, senior associate pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, define discipleship as “taking people where they are and helping them become more like Jesus.” Rick Hughes, senior consultant for discipleship at the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSC), uses this simple definition of a disciple: “One who abides in Christ and does the things that Jesus did.” 

So, what is a disciple? How do you make one? These two questions, posed by Randy Millwood in his book, To Love and To Cherish from this Day Forward: A Portrait of a Healthy Church, are questions that are being echoed through the halls of many North Carolina Baptist churches. They are good questions because they are the right questions. Over the last several decades church leaders have sought “silver bullet” answers to questions about church growth and church health. Evangelism leaders seek to address the challenge of declining baptism numbers. Leaders of mission organizations lament that they cannot seem to motivate people to support reaching the nations as they once did. Youth leaders and parents fret over the staggering church dropout rate in college and beyond. Sunday School leaders and other organizational leaders cry out for a return to fundamental strategies for growth in groups. While these challenges in evangelism, missions, church attrition, and programmatic struggles are real issues that require attention and energy, perhaps they are not the primary issue. Perhaps each of the challenges noted above — and a host of other concerns facing the church — is merely a symptom of a greater malady. The struggles the church is facing in these areas of concern flow from a greater challenge: the challenge of discipleship. Millwood rightly declares that the church “has but one identity: disciples of Jesus. And flowing from that identity, one task: disciple making.”

Historically, the church in North America has developed mechanisms within church to focus on missions, evangelism, worship, and Bible study groups separately. While this has led to programmatic ease and enabled churches to develop efficient organizations, the unintended consequence of this segmentation has been a failure to acknowledge the holistic nature of discipleship. The Bible makes no distinction between evangelism and discipleship, or missions and discipleship, or worship and discipleship, or biblical community and discipleship. In fact, Jesus gave one commission: to make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20). Rather than making a distinction, the assumption of scripture is that disciples will evangelize, disciples will be on mission, and disciples will worship.

The church of the 21st century is awakening to this biblical mandate for holistic discipleship. In the congregational services group of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina we have intentionally defined our purpose as “to lead North Carolina Baptists to create a disciple-making culture in which lives are changed by the power of God.” The word “culture” is important. The culture is what is natural and normal in one’s environment. We hope to see discipleship become natural and normal in homes, churches, and communities across North Carolina. This kind of cultural transformation only occurs by the power of God. As churches and leaders respond to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment, discipleship will infuse the culture. It is our desire to partner with North Carolina to elevate the conversation about disciple-making and be more strategic about how we can help see this cultural change come about. Two initiatives in particular are encouraging.

First, North Carolina Baptists are in the second of a three-year initiative called “Find It Here.” In 2011, partnering churches are emphasizing the importance of discipleship through the Find It Here: Embracing Christ emphasis. It is appropriate for this three-year emphasis on evangelism, discipleship, and missions mobilization to have discipleship at its center because discipleship is the umbrella under which evangelism and missions take place. It is through discipleship that those who have come to Christ through evangelism in turn become those who go on mission to tell others about Christ. The hope of North Carolina Baptists is that churches will focus on discipleship multiplication. In some of His final words to His disciples, Jesus declared, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples” (Jn. 15:8). The implication of the words of our Lord is that fruitfulness as a disciple brings glory to God. No distinction is made in the Bible between being a Christian and being a disciple. All believers are disciples. What is of concern is whether one is an obedient or disobedient disciple. To put it simply, obedient disciples make disciples.

By participating in Find It Here: Embracing Christ any church can jump-start a focus on discipleship among the Body of Christ. Suggested sermon outlines, Bible study lessons, and devotionals written by North Carolina pastors, associate pastors, and lay leaders are designed to give churches a track to run on for a period of time to elevate the conversation about discipleship. Nonetheless, the emphasis is no silver bullet. Apart from seeking God for spiritual awakening and revival, discipleship will not take place. No programmatic emphasis will create a disciple-making culture in your church. Discipleship is relational in nature. Jesus did not call His disciples to go to a formal school for growth. Rather, Jesus called the 12 to be with Him and to be sent out (Mk. 3:14-15). For this reason, the Find It Here website (www.finditherenc.org) contains additional resources for helping pastors and other leaders design small discipleship mentoring groups of three. These discipleship “triads” allow the pastor to invest relationally with two or three others in an environment of transparency and mutual accountability in which God’s Word can be studied and applied with the purpose of seeing these groups multiply throughout the life of the church.

A second initiative also shows great promise in helping North Carolina Baptists create a disciple-making culture through which lives are changed by the power of God. For more than a year the congregational services group has focused on understanding and creating a framework for healthy church systems. Systems are the functional programs and environments that contribute to church health. We believe discipleship is the main system for healthy churches. Discipleship is actually comprised of other systems including worship, community, and evangelistic mission. Simply put, people grow in Christ as they live out these systems. Discipleship happens as people are led to worship both corporately and individually, engage in biblical community, and proclaim the gospel through missional activity across the street and around the globe.

Because of this focus on healthy church systems, we have adopted the Transformational Church Assessment Tool as a part of our strategy to see the bar raised on disciple-making among North Carolina Baptists. In Transformational Church, Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer emphasize that churches that truly see transformation have a process in place to help people take the next step in discipleship. The evidence we have from hundreds of conversations and a few formal assessments is that many North Carolina Baptist churches do not have such a process in place. Our cadre of trained consultants is available to enter into a relationship with your church to help you create such a process. This consultation process is available at no charge to cooperating North Carolina Baptist churches because of your Cooperative Program support. The Transformational Church assessment will help you understand how your church perceives herself based on seven elements discovered in the research project: missionary mindset, prayerful dependence, relational intentionality, vibrant leadership, worship, community, and mission. The conversations that take place within the church reveal a great deal about the values of the congregation. How much of the conversation in your church today is centered in deeply important spiritual issues such as these? The Transformational Church assessment is one effective way to begin changing the conversation in your church and ultimately the values. Although this may be a discussion for another day (or article), it is vitally important to understand the critical role that values serve in your church.  It is ultimately values that either support or fail to support structure and initiatives. One of the primary reasons that many changes implemented in church life today don’t stick is that they are not supported by the congregation’s values. The Transformational Church assessment, coupled with the healthy church systems framework will set the stage for your church to customize a process for making disciples based on the leadership of the Holy Spirit in the life of your church. 

If you are interested in learning more about the Transformational Church assessment process, please contact me at lsasser@ncbaptist.org. If you choose to purchase the assessment from LifeWay, please use the following link in order to gain maximum benefit from our staff: www.ncbaptist.org/transformationalchurch.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Sasser is executive leader in the congregational services group for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.)

(SPECIAL NOTE — Thank you for your continued support of the Biblical Recorder site. During this interim period while we are searching for a new Editor/President the comments section will be temporarily discontinued. Thank you for your understanding and patience in this. If you do have comments or issues with items we run, please contact dianna@biblicalrecorder.org or call 919-847-2127.)

RICHMOND, Va. – Tired, hot and halfway to lost, the missionary drove down a dusty dirt road into a fishing village that appeared on no map.

A mangy dog barked. A few locals eyed the stranger from their shacks. The sun sank toward a red horizon.

“This is a dead end,” the missionary told himself nervously. He was a rookie. It was one of his first trips into the Philippine countryside on his own. Anywhere else seemed more promising for ministry than this, and he intended to get there as soon as possible.

He turned his pickup truck around. Just before he mashed the gas pedal, he heard a voice: “I want you to stop right here.”

No audible voice. God’s voice? The missionary pulled over – under protest.

“I’ll walk around for five minutes,” he muttered. “Then I’m outta here.”

He saw no one outside – just more dogs that followed him, growling with a distinct lack of hospitality. He forced himself to stroll through the village, almost hoping he wouldn’t find anyone. Turning one last corner before scurrying back to the truck, he encountered a group of fishermen mending their nets. He approached them.

“I’m a missionary,” he said, struggling to make himself understood with his beginner language skills. “Could you guys tell me if there’s someplace around here where I could tell people about Jesus?”

The fishermen looked at each other. “Why not here?” one of them replied.

That village eventually became home to a church, which went on to start three more churches, which in turn started others.

Funny how God works while you’re on the way to someplace else.

That young missionary, now a grandfather, remembered his long-ago experience at a home fellowship I attend. We were talking about the time Jesus fed more than 5,000 people in the wilderness (Matthew 14). Actually, He told His disciples to feed them. They were exhausted and hungry themselves. They didn’t begin to have enough food to satisfy such a large crowd – two fish and five loaves of bread. They probably worried about starting a riot.

“Bring them here to Me,” Jesus said, calling for the fish and bread (Matthew 14:18). Something happened between the time He blessed the food and the disciples started passing it out – something only Jesus could do. But He used His doubting followers while doing it.

“He says the same to us: ‘Just bring Me what you have,’” writes Andy Stanley. “We’re discouraged about our inadequate education or experience or training or resources – but whatever we have, however small it seems, Jesus wants us simply to bring it to Him, and He’ll use it to meet the need.”

We know in our hearts that it’s true. But it seems counterintuitive to the modern mind, like much of what Jesus said and did. We believe in education, preparation, planning, measurement and accountability – and rightly so. God deserves no less than our best. If ministry is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. It’s a foolish servant who spends valuable time (and his master’s resources) on new projects without counting the cost, using proven strategies and best practices.

And yet, plans and training aren’t enough. Planning didn’t start the Great Awakening in America or the Shantung Revival in China. God’s Spirit, convicting repentant sinners, did.

“A tension seems to exist between the plans we make and the plans God chooses to bless,” writes Guy Muse, my favorite missionary blogger. “In fact, the Lord actually states it this way: ‘My thoughts and my ways are not like yours. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, my thoughts and my ways are higher than yours’ (Isaiah 55:8-9, CEV).

“Missionaries are expected to set goals, [make] action plans and work towards fulfilling them. ... I personally don’t mind putting things down on paper. Knowing what one is trying to achieve and working towards ministry goals brings a sense of direction and satisfaction. Only one problem, though: Year after year, only a small percentage of what is put down on paper happens as it was envisioned. We plan, but He leads. As He leads, we follow. More often than not, He leads in directions we had not anticipated.”

It has always been thus in missionary work – or any other ministry. When the Apostle Paul and his companions tried to go to Bithynia on one of their carefully planned mission journeys, “... the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them.” (Acts 16:7). Later, Paul had a vision of someone standing and appealing to him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9b).

“What usually happens when our plans don’t come to fruition as envisioned is we double the effort, work harder and plow forward, insisting at all costs we be permitted into Phrygia and Bithynia,” Muse observes. “After all, Asia needs the Gospel and we know that it is just Satan that is standing in our way! But Paul didn’t blame Satan for not having been allowed to go to these places and do what he had planned. He understood it was Jesus who was calling the shots.”

Planning is good. Biblical, even. Just remember who calls the shots.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Bridges is global correspondent for the International Mission Board. Visit “WorldView Conversation,” the blog related to this column, at http://worldviewconversation.blogspot.com/ Listen to an audio version at http://media1.imbresources.org/files/124/12408/12408-69498.mp3.)

(SPECIAL NOTE — Thank you for your continued support of the Biblical Recorder site. During this interim period while we are searching for a new Editor/President the comments section will be temporarily discontinued. Thank you for your understanding and patience in this. If you do have comments or issues with items we run, please contact dianna@biblicalrecorder.org or call 919-847-2127.)

GAINESVILLE, Ga. – Of all the characteristics, gifts and virtues that indicate that we belong to God, two should obviously set us apart from those who do not profess to know the Lord: one is love and the other is the quality of our work. Our work is the tangible expression of the invisible reality that the power of God is at work mightily within us.

Love for God and others is our inward fuel and motivation that guides all that we do. But our labor is the visible output of that motivation. So we should view our work, regardless of what it is, not as a means to earn God’s favor but to express the truth of His life in us.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” The Lord used Solomon to teach us this practical standard for all labor that I call the Principle of All Your Might. This principle clearly establishes God’s benchmark for your work ... put your whole effort to the task!

Seek to be the exceptional worker God made you to be by applying these practical steps to make progress.

Have a ‘yes’ attitude

What is written on your face when you work? Does your face say “Yes!” or “No, no, no!” Proverbs 15:13 says, “A happy heart makes the face cheerful.” A cheerful attitude toward your work can reduce the friction in your office, with your customers, and at home. Work with a happy heart even in circumstances that require all of your might to have the right attitude.

Seek to solve problems

Most jobs have two parts: the fun part and the hard part. Your willingness to accept responsibility for the tough parts of the job, the areas with problems and challenges, will set you apart and allow you to make the most difference. These assignments may require extraordinary measures of patience, energy and effort – what Solomon calls “all” of your might. But these will also be the assignments when you experience the end of your strength and the beginning of knowing God is there. You will discover that He is in fact able to do more than you could ever even ask or imagine.

A friend of mine worked for years in factory maintenance. The plant housed very large equipment that operated 24 hours a day making sheets of plastic. At the end of the process, the plastic was rolled onto a tube and cut by a very long blade that moved faster than the eye could track. A malfunction caused the blade to improperly cut the plastic. This stopped one of the largest machines from production causing a great deal of lost revenue. A team of engineers was brought in from out of state to fix the cutting process, but their efforts met with little success.

Although my friend does not have a high school diploma and was only the maintenance man on the night shift, he gave the problem his personal attention and extra effort by thinking about possible solutions during his off hours. God gave him an idea that he thought might solve the improper cut of the massive blade. He submitted the idea in the company suggestion box, which was then routed to the team of engineers. To everyone’s surprise but his, the idea worked. He could have gone home and never thought about it, but instead, he gave the company’s problem all of his might.

Perfection is not the goal

Our best effort should not be determined by standards of perfection. Only our Heavenly Father is perfect, and our labors cannot be perfect. Although good is often acceptable, it normally does not require all of our might to achieve good. We can press on to achieve excellence if we don’t accept the average or norm.

Vince Lombardi said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” This is a great perspective that recognizes our limitations but does not compromise. The

Lord promises that He will use those willing to labor with excellence. “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men” (Proverbs 22:29). We may read this and think it is a motivation for mere vanity or fame, but I think the Lord is indicating that He will display before kings what He can do through His creation. When we are given opportunities for notice because of our work, we are given greater circles of influence to express gratitude for God who enables us to work.

During the summer of 1924, the Olympics were hosted by the city of Paris. Eric Liddell, a committed Christian and famous Scottish runner, refused to race on Sunday, with the consequence that he was forced to withdraw from the 100-meter race, his best event. The schedule had been published several months earlier, and his decision was made well before the Games began. Liddell spent the intervening months training for the 400-meter event. On the day of the race, as Liddell went to the starting blocks, an American masseur slipped a piece of paper into his hand with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30, “Those who honor me I will honor.” Liddell ran with that piece of paper in his hand. He not only won the race, but he broke the existing world record with a time of 47.6 seconds.

Start today

Applying the Principle of All Your Might is not dependent upon circumstances or other people. You simply resolve that you can take your efforts to new levels when you are assigned a job or responsibility. If you need a mentor, there is probably a friend or co-worker you admire who would be blessed to give you advice and encouragement.

As Solomon reminded us, we are going to the grave where we can no longer work or plan. So before you get to the grave, adopt a “Yes” attitude, tackle the problems, and strive for excellence. Work with all your might and you, too, will feel His pleasure.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Bentley is CEO of Crown Financial Ministries and host of Crown’s MoneyLife™ podcast (Crown.org/media/MoneyLife). To learn more about practical resources including the new Eliminating Debt Video Study, visit Crown.org or call 1-800-722-1976. This article was first published in the March 2008 issue of Money Matters. Cofounded by Howard Dayton and the late Larry Burkett, Crown Financial Ministries (Crown.org) is an interdenominational ministry dedicated to equipping people with biblically based financial tools and resources through radio, film, seminars, small groups and individual coaching. Based in Georgia, the ministry has offices in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Africa, Europe, India, Asia and Australia.)

(SPECIAL NOTE — Thank you for your continued support of the Biblical Recorder site. During this interim period while we are searching for a new Editor/President the comments section will be temporarily discontinued. Thank you for your understanding and patience in this. If you do have comments or issues with items we run, please contact dianna@biblicalrecorder.org or call 919-847-2127.) 

DURHAM ­– Over the years I have gotten (and had myself) questions about whether or not the tithe (giving the first 10 percent of our income back to God as prescribed by the law) was biblical. Let me give you brief answers to some of those questions that demonstrate how I have learned to approach them.

1. Isn’t tithing Old Testament law? Aren’t we free of that?

Yes and no.

A. Tithing is a part of the law, and Jesus has definitely fulfilled it all in our place so that we are free from its bondage. However, the purposes of the law were (generally speaking) 3-fold:

• to show us what God was like.
• to reveal how far short we fall of God’s character.
• to show us how to thrive in the creation God has placed us in.

None of those 3 purposes faded with the death of Jesus. If anything, Jesus’ coming intensified them. We saw more of what God was like, what holiness was like, and what a man acting in perfect harmony with creation was like. As it relates to the tithe, the law reveals the unchanging character of God and how He expects us to view the money HE has provided for us. A minimum of 10 percent that He has given to us, whether we are rich or poor, is to go back into His work. This is how He set up the world order. This is why the “tithe” principle (the first 10 percent of income going into God’s work) is taught pre-law (Abraham), law (Moses), post-exile (Malachi), and even affirmed under Jesus (Matt. 23:23). God’s purposes for creation haven’t changed. We are no longer under the theocratic nation state of Israel, but how God has set up His economy for His people has not changed.

God doesn’t lay the financial weight of the entire world on any of our shoulders, but He has given His people a plan whereby they do their part. The law was given to help people live in the shalom of God. That’s what gives the law (principles like taking a Sabbath and the tithe) an enduring effect. Thus, the idea that 10 percent of all that God gives to you is given for you to give back to Him remains, I believe, as a good guide to our giving.

Now, let me be clear – Jesus left us under NO PART of the law, not the tithe or anything else. But the law, in that it reflects God’s character and His ordering of creation, is still good, and still functions as a guide to how we are to live under God in this world. Men and women of God throughout the Bible, including Abraham and Jesus, seemed to recognize that.

B. If anything, the gospel raises the level of our response to God’s laws. True obedience, Jesus says, goes much deeper than the behavior standards the law required. For example, the law said “don’t murder,” yet Jesus said the gospel demanded we love our brother always and not hate him, not even our enemies. The law said “don’t commit adultery,” yet Jesus said that the gospel demanded people not even “look on another woman with lust in our heart.” So, if the law says “give 10 percent,” what kind of generosity does the gospel call for? Would it not be greater generosity than 10 percent, just as the other commands were also intensified in Christ? In other words, if the people who saw God’s generosity in the Exodus responded with giving 10 percent, how much more should people who have seen the cross? This is why you see the early church giving far beyond 10 percent. So overwhelmed by the generosity of Christ, they wanted to pour out their possessions for those in need (2 Cor. 8:9).

For gospel-touched people, tithing should never be the ceiling of their giving, but it should be the floor.

Tithing, in and of itself, is not an iron-clad rule for Christians as it was for Israelites under the law. That said, “giving our firstfruits to God” most definitely is a biblical principle, true of God’s people in all places and at all times. And 10 percent is a great place to start with that.

2. Should I give the tithe “pre-tax” or “post-tax”?

In the Old Testament, God called the tithe a “firstfruit” (cf. 1 Cor. 16:2). This meant their giving to God came first before anything else. That teaches pretty clearly that our giving to God comes before Uncle Sam takes his share. God gets the firstfruits, not the second ones.

3. When during the month should I give?

The principle of “firstfruits” also shows you, in my opinion, that the tithe check should be written first, and not at the end of the month when you see how much left over you have. If you do the latter, you will inevitably never have enough to give God 10 percent. You’re giving Him your scraps. But if you do the former, you will inevitably adjust your lifestyle around what you have left. And, God also will find a way to multiply His blessings to you. I’ve seen that happen in my own life multiple times. It’s pretty exciting.

4. Should we give to the church, or other things?

In the Old Testament system, the tithe went to the work of God’s institution, the temple. Caring for the poor beyond what the temple did, or funding an itinerant rabbi, etc, all came out beyond the tithe. I believe the implication is that tithing should go to God’s new institution, the local church. Hopefully you have a church that you feel good about how they spend their money (not all on buildings, entitlement perks for members and pastors, etc.) and you see them working in the streets and unreached parts of the world. Give some grace here, of course ... it’s always easy to play armchair quarterback and talk about how you’d do it differently. I’d say if you trust your pastor, however, you honor God by giving to the institution He ordained. Then, give like a gospel-touched fool beyond that to all the things God has put in your heart.

5. How does this work out for your family, J.D.?

When my wife Veronica and I first got married, we had to stretch ourselves unbelievably thin to tithe. As God has increased our income over the years, we have yearly increased the percentage of what we give. We now give way above the tithe to our church, and then beyond that to ministries blessing the poor, carrying the gospel to the world, and some to our church’s expansion project, Believe. We love it. Veronica recently said, “This is so fun… giving.” It really is more blessed to give than to receive. God really has multiplied what we have given to him and given it back to us “in every way” – financially, in joy, in perspective, etc. (2 Cor. 8-9). We love it.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Greear is lead pastor at the Summit Church in Durham. This column first appeared on his blog, JDGreear.com.)

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — I am immensely indebted to the preaching and ministry of David Platt. David’s candor in preaching has exposed the idolatrous meandering of American culture into the pit of mammon worship.

My deep sense of personal gratitude is why LifeWay has chosen to partner with David Platt to simulcast Secret Church to churches and homes all over the nation.

David’s challenge to the church in America is to be radical about her faith. Being radical simply means devotion and obedience to Jesus’ commands. Sadly, simple obedience to Jesus is “radical” in our culture because we have loved idols for so long.

About eight years ago I conducted research regarding the unchurched in America. In The Unchurched Next Door I discovered some sobering realities about the lostness of our country. From David Platt I learned about the waywardness of some of America’s churches. I believe there is some overlap between these two groups.  

Radical wealth
While research cannot prove a direct relationship between wealth and resistance to the gospel, the evidence seems compelling that such is the case. Not all wealthy persons are skeptics, agnostics or atheists. A person of lofty financial means can be a Christian, of course. Jesus did say of the wealthy entering the kingdom, after the disciples asked him if the rich can be saved, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26).

If our primary contacts are among the wealthier of society, or if our churches are located in more affluent areas, the likelihood exists that we will find greater resistance to the gospel. Perhaps the growing wealth of our own nation at least partially explains the decline in conversions over the past 50 years. Evangelism among the wealthy in our society is difficult, but they need Christ as much as any of us.

Also consider the immense despair and sense of loss our nation is feeling during this economic recession. People are losing their jobs. Retirees are increasing years of employment in order to meet goals inhibited by shrinking 401(k) plans. Amidst these terrible circumstances our ultimate allegiance is exposed. The radical wealth of our nation has too often proved too great a temptation for our malleable hearts.  

Radical education
No other nation is as well educated as the United States. Americans are afforded access to educational opportunities internationals move halfway around the world to matriculate.

While wealth seems to be one major obstacle to receiving Christ, advanced education may be another. More than 39 percent of the most hostile skeptics, agnostics and atheists have a master’s or doctoral degree, compared to 14 percent of the total unchurched population.

Mark J. from Maryland is a typical highly educated unbeliever. He claims to be an agnostic, but sounds more like an atheist. Mark received his Ph.D. in economics some 20 years ago. Like many highly educated unbelievers, Mark attributes his denial of the reality of God as a natural consequence of his advanced learning. He told me, “The more education you receive, the more you realize that religious beliefs just don’t make any sense.”  

Radical cynicism
It’s a sad, but true axiom that cynics are celebrated in our culture. This posture of radical cynicism corrodes the heart at a staggering rate. During my research for The Unchurched Next Door we found that unbelievers over 50 years of age were twice as likely to be unchurched as all of those under age 50.

Cynicism grows like a cancer over time and eventually will take over one’s life. A cynic doesn’t want to receive the gospel because it is foolishness to him or her (1 Cor. 1:18).

But this isn’t just a problem with the unchurched. Cynicism leads to the sort of discontentment that divides churches. In this area in particular, the world and the church often share a great deal in common.  

A common denominator
All of these hindrances have one common denominator: pride. Wealth can lead to pride in power and thereby control. Education can lead to a mindset of intellectual superiority. Cynicism is an overall prideful attitude. The cynic places himself above all his peers — the epitome of pride. All of these radical hindrances to the gospel share the belief that people do not need anyone else. Their lack of need directly opposes the foundation of the gospel. The neediness of the sinner is the cornerstone of repentance.

Radical humility is required to overcome these stumbling blocks in our culture.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Rainer is president of LifeWay Christian Resources. This column first appeard at his blog, ThomRainer.com. To learn more about the Secret Church simulcast, visit LifeWay.com/SecretChurch.)

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TOKYO — It is hard to believe that more than 48 hours have now passed since Japan’s earthquake. In some ways it seemed like the longest couple of days in our lives.

The government has upgraded the earthquake from 8.9 to 9.0. Thousands are still trying to contact family, friends and loved ones caught in the sweep of the tsunami wave. They say that the “not knowing” is the hardest.

We hear that there will be rolling blackouts several hours at a time here in Tokyo to conserve power nationwide. Given that bottled water, toilet paper and batteries are scarce to nonexistent in most places here, one can only imagine what things are like in the harder-hit areas in the northeast.

Many gasoline stations are closed. If you are fortunate enough to get gas, it is a limited amount, with lines stretching for blocks.

Watching news reports on television is overwhelming. It is not just one event … one place … one story. It is a vast collage of human suffering. Yet, even the pain you see on television is understated because the Japanese are stoic in nature.

We know many things that we didn’t know last night:

• This is the biggest quake in all of Japan’s recorded history.
• Geophysicists have reported that the force of the quake was so strong that it moved the island of Honshu 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) to the east.
• There have been 164 aftershocks at the time of this writing. Many are having a hard time distinguishing between actual aftershocks and feeling like things are moving when they really aren’t.

Japan’s self-defense forces have been among the first on the scene. The problem is that there are so many scenes! A nationwide call to medical personnel, rescue workers, policemen and truck drivers to converge on the most affected areas has been issued.

Rescue teams worldwide are either on the way or poised to come.

One colleague’s comment sums up how most of us living in Japan feel: “My heart is racing with emotions and thoughts that come. I want to fly to the hard-hit areas and minister. I just want to be their hands and feet for whatever they need right now.”

She concluded with the wisest advice of all: “What do you do in times like these but pray and ask for His guidance?”

All of us around the world can be there in prayer. Although it doesn’t make sense in human terms, perhaps the way that most of us can make the most significant contribution for the time being is to pray because the lives of others both physically and spiritually depend on it.

Join my colleagues and I in praying for Japan:

• for the survivors and families of victims; for the opportunities we have to minister in the name of Jesus and for God to use this awesome disaster to soften the spiritually hard ground of Japan and open multitudes of hearts to him.
• for Christian workers and local Christians as they meet to come up with plans on how best to plan and implement relief efforts. Pray that they will know how best to serve the Japanese during this time of crisis, that these relief efforts will minister to the hearts of those in need.
• that those who hurt will receive aid and comfort. Pray that all will recognize there is only one Rock who will never be shaken.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Walker was an International Mission Board missionary to Japan for nearly 30 years.) 

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Guest column: Begin helping by praying
N.C. Baptists respond to quake, tsunami

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I’m not “young, restless and reformed.”

I guess you’d say that I’m young, Southern Baptist and, it seems, increasingly irrelevant.

You see, I’m just a pastor’s son who grew up with a love for my denomination — a Southern Baptist boy by birth and conviction.

I received my B.A. from Union University, a Tennessee Baptist university, my master’s from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary (not supported by the Cooperative Program, but supportive of the Cooperative Program) and a D.Min. from Southeastern.

Moreover, I have never wanted to be anything but a Southern Baptist. Being a Presbyterian has never appealed to me like it seems to some leaders in our convention and their protégés.

As I travel around the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), I can see that I’m in the majority; nonetheless, I can’t get away from the overwhelming feeling that in our current denominational world, I am presented as the dinosaur — albeit only a 37-year-old one.

It’s obvious when I see who is lifted up as the future of our convention — the hip and cool up-and-comers with whom I have little in common — that my breed is in danger of becoming extinct.

I don’t mind wearing a coat and tie when I preach (at least on Sunday mornings), and I still love to hear a powerful or dynamic choir special. I believe in giving an invitation at the end of every service.

Public invitations are still effective. The church where I serve baptized more than 100 people just last year.

I like for the auditorium lights to be on so that I can read my Bible.

Also, I don’t get so tired from preaching on Sundays that I need a stool, and I still preach from a pulpit (or, technically, a podium).

While the current batch of “young leaders” so many reference these days appear to be weaned on non-Southern Baptists like Tim Keller and C.J. Mahaney and are taught to give rock-star status to John Piper and R.C. Sproul, I grew up loving men like Adrian Rogers and Jerry Vines.

Both men invested their lives in and among Southern Baptists.

I have pastored a new work in Tennessee, served as a (North American Mission Board) church planter in Ohio and have served as the pastor of a nearly 100-year-old church in South Carolina for the past nine years.

I’ve been honored to serve on committees or as an officer at the associational, state and national levels.

Unlike the hipsters and their mentors, I’ve led the churches where I’ve served — sometimes at the expense of hiring another staff member or building a new playground or expanding facilities — to give sacrificially through the Cooperative Program as well as to the Lottie Moon Christmas and Annie Armstrong Easter offerings.

At the same time, our churches were personally involved in mission projects here and abroad.

I am not ashamed of being a Southern Baptist, and I am proud and passionate about my SBC involvement.

I have benefited personally from the cooperation among Southern Baptists, and I don’t believe that there is a more effective and efficient way for churches of all sizes to make an eternal impact on this world for Jesus.

It’s not that we can’t and shouldn’t make changes. But everything being proposed now is presented in such a way as to sweep in this new breed that has, at best, “soft” Southern Baptist convictions and commitments.

I’m constantly counseled to “forget about it” — to pastor my church, preach and reach people for Jesus, and let the convention do what it’s going to do.

At times, I think my counselors are right.

There doesn’t seem to be much of a desire to include the majority view and membership in the future of the SBC.

Just look at most of the personalities who headline our conferences and conventions.

And it isn’t that I haven’t tried to understand what this new in-charge minority thinks — I read their books, listen to their messages, and peek at their blogs and tweets.

It’s just that they don’t have anything in common with the context in which I minister.

Their theology is different from that which I read in the Bible, and their methodology about how best to reach the world for Jesus is foreign to me as well.

I support international missions, but the hard work God has prepared me mainly to do is reach my neighbors.

I believe God planted Southern Baptists where we are to reach our immediate spheres of influence first, and then by expanding outward we are to reach the world.

And I believe that we can only reach as far around the world as we are strong at home.

It gets so frustrating that it would be easy to succumb to the refrains I hear (“just forget about it”), but the thing is, I really don’t want to forget about it.

I determined when Jesus called me into the ministry that I would be a Southern Baptist pastor and that I would do my best to serve my church and reach this world for Jesus through the ministries and institutions that our spiritual forefathers had the insight and wisdom to put in place.

Do those ministries and institutions need to be fixed or tweaked from time to time? Absolutely.

Do we need to make sure that we’re just as effective and efficient with our personnel and funds as we can be?

I don’t believe Jesus would have it any other way. After all, when you get right down to it, our entire ministry is funded through the tithes and offerings of believers in our local churches.

I love being a Southern Baptist, and I believe that our historic method of cooperation is the most effective means of helping churches of all sizes, from all parts of the country, with all sorts of different structures and styles, to reach the world for Jesus. It’s not always easy, and sometimes hard decisions have to be made when it comes to cooperating together for the gospel.

But what would happen to the mission and ministry efforts of our convention if pastors like me supported the work of the convention in the same fashion of the “young, restless and reformed,” or their fathers in the ministry?

What if we treated the convention with the same disregard or disdain some entity leaders seem to treat us?

The bottom line is that not everything in Southern Baptist life is broken. It appears to me that the larger issue is that much of that which has been, and continues to be, good about the SBC is simply out of favor with many of those who have managed to rise to positions of leadership within our convention.

They have gained possession of the microphone, and they have determined that we’ve got to do things “radically” different — whatever the facts might be.

Definitely, some things need to be fixed and some just need to be tweaked, but changes should come from within by committed Southern Baptists who have invested themselves in the cooperative missions and ministries of Southern Baptists … and the Cooperative Program.

Right now, too many “outsiders from within” have influence, and they resent who we are, what we do and how we do it.

The fact is that, despite my being dismissed by those in vogue, I’m not irrelevant.

The opposite is true.

If the Southern Baptist Convention is to grow and thrive, it won’t happen from the actions and attitudes of those who view our cooperative missions and ministries as outmoded and ineffective, or who see stateside ministry as “bloated” compared to missions overseas. It will take a greater emphasis from me, and others like me, on cooperation for the sake of the gospel if we are to succeed in our combined efforts to win the lost.

There is no limit to what Southern Baptists could accomplish for the kingdom if we didn’t care who received the credit.

I’m not irrelevant.

My kind of commitment to Southern Baptists’ cooperative missions and ministries just happens to be out of style with some at the moment.

But styles change, and so does possession of the microphone.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Whitt is pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Simpsonville and immediate past president of the South Carolina Baptist Pastors’ Conference. This column originally appeared in The Baptist Courier March 3.)

(SPECIAL NOTE — Thank you for your continued support of the Biblical Recorder site. During this interim period while we are searching for a new Editor/President the comments section will be temporarily discontinued. Thank you for your understanding and patience in this. If you do have comments or issues with items we run, please contact dianna@biblicalrecorder.org or call 919-847-2127.) 

PAKISTAN (BP)—The huge loss of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s minister for minorities, has given all believers in Pakistan a cause to reflect on the cost of following Jesus. It is a time to consider the challenges that accompany this faith. Jesus promised that, “In this world you will have trouble.” We have seen, again, the horrible face of trouble.

Shahbaz Bhatti made a video testimony before he was killed. He did not mince words when he said, “I believe in Jesus Christ, who has given His own life for us. I know the meaning of the cross. ... I am a follower of the cross.” These are the words of a man who had counted the cost and decided that following Jesus was worth it all. He was a man who had committed his life early on to the cause of the “least of these” among God’s children.

Why do we Christians so often run from the cross? It seems we think Jesus was referring to a piece of jewelry when He said we should “take up (your) cross daily and follow me.” In reality, the cross is an instrument of torture, of death. It represents the sacrifice Jesus made for us. Jesus knew the cross. Shahbaz Bhatti did too. What they both knew, though, is it does not represent the end of the story for those whose hope is in Christ. Most of my friends in Pakistan want to leave, and I understand why.

Most of my friends outside of Pakistan want me to leave too; again, I understand their concern. But I’ve got to wonder, “What would Jesus do?” What if He ran from the cross? What if He had changed His mind? We would all be lost today with no hope for tomorrow. We would be just like those who have killed Shahbaz Bhatti, without hope — living and dying by the sword.

The most poignant of all speeches I heard this week was by a teenage Pakistani Christian girl. She asked, “Do you think the world ever heard of Shahbaz Bhatti before this week? No. But this week everybody with a television could hear him testify about Jesus Christ! Even after death, God has used Shahbaz Bhatti for His work!” This teenager is clearly focused on the real meaning of life. It’s not about our jobs, our families, our ideas, our peace or our prosperity. The reason for our being present in this world of challenges is to bring glory to God in all that we do — living or dying. It’s all about God, not us.

My teenage friend went on to say, “Why do you think God has birthed us in this country? It’s to give a testimony for Jesus Christ! We must give a faithful testimony here so that people around the world can know the truth about Jesus.” Amen, sister! With young people like this in our world, there is hope for tomorrow. This young lady has a clear grasp of her eternal home in heaven. She knows that Shahbaz Bhatti and Jesus Christ are there now. She knows that we are only “travelers” in this world. Her home is heaven, her eternity secure because of the one who was the firstborn of the resurrected — Jesus Christ.

As I reflected on the words I heard, I had to wipe a few tears away. Then I was reminded that just after Jesus promised us trouble, He also said, “Take heart! I have overcome the world!” Oh, brothers and sisters, He has overcome this world! As you remember this eternal hope of Mr. Bhatti, please seek to be the kind of faithful servant he was, wherever God has placed you.

*Name changed.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Ballinger lives in South Asia and has worked among Pakistanis for many years.)