Tim Chester's Blog, page 42

ThinkIVP are selling the ebook version of my book Captured By A Better Vision: Living Porn Free at just £2.25 – that’s 75% off.

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For one month only ThinkIVP are offering a special discount on You Can Pray for readers of my blog. Order through these links and you will get the hard copy for £6 and the ebook for £4. I’m afraid this offer does not apply to orders from North America.

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Today sees the launch of my latest book, You Can Pray – a title which so effectively summarises the book that it doesn’t have a subtitle. It is published by IVP.

Here’s the blurb …

If you’re easily distracted when praying, you’re not alone. In fact, if you struggle to pray in the first place, that’s not unusual either. Tim Chester tells us how we can be great pray-ers. And he admits that that’s a really bold claim.

‘The secret of great praying has nothing to do with human effort or skill,’ he explains. ‘Lots of people would like to think that it does because they want to make prayer an achievement.’ But the secret of great praying is …

Knowing three things about God:

That God the Father loves to hear us pray
That God the Son makes every prayer pleasing to God
That God the Holy Spirit helps us as we pray

Tim looks at: why prayer is easy (how we pray), why prayer is difficult (why we pray) and the arguments and priorities of prayer (what we pray). Prayer is a child asking her father for help. And that’s not beyond any one of us.

I’ll post some of the commendations in a future post.

You Can Pray is available from amazon.com in the US and thinkivp elsewhere.

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In a previous post I wrote about the challenge of transitioning to a larger church size. This can be painful, but it is important to recognise that these are growing pains and celebrate this growth.

The danger: complaining

That’s the excitement of growing pains. But there’s also a danger. The danger is that we just focus on the pain. The danger is complaining. Look again at verse 1: ‘In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.’

‘Complaining’ is not a small thing. It’s a very significant word – one with strong Old Testament resonances. Jesus has just accomplished a new exodus. He has redeemed his people from the slavery of sin – just as Moses redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt. Jesus is the true Passover Lamb – just as the Israelites escaped death through a Passover Lamb. And the Spirit of God is leading us to our inheritance in the new creation – just as the pillars of cloud and fire led the Israelites to their inheritance in the Promised Land.

But that first generation did not enter the Promised Land. Just three days after escaping through the Red Sea, the people are ‘grumbling’: ‘So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”’ (Exodus 15:24) So God miraculously cleanses bitter water for them. But then just six weeks later we read: ‘In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt!”’ (Exodus 16:2-3) It’s a pathetic, self-pitying cry. And it continues (Exodus 17:2; Numbers 11:1-6; 14:2-4; 16:1-3; 20:3-5, 13).

The point is this: the word ‘grumbling’ in the Greek version of the Old Testament is the same word that Luke uses in Acts 6:1.

The new exodus people of God are in danger of repeating the sins of the first exodus people. Paul says: ‘Do not grumble, as some of them did – and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfilment of the ages has come.’  (1 Corinthians 10:10-11)

One of the problems with grumbling is that it’s so corrosive. James says the tongue is like a fire. A whole forest can be set on fire by a small spark. It’s the same with the tongue. ‘My complaining is no big deal,’ we tell ourselves. But James says it ‘corrupts the whole body’ (James 3:5-6). Complaining is like a cancer through the body of the church. Every time you complain, you encourage someone else to feel discontented. You pass on your discontent. The opposite is also true. Every time you express thankfulness or praise or honour you spread joy.

You might like to audit your speech. Are you spreading discontent in the congregation or joy? Ephesians 4:29 says: ‘Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.’

Philippians 2:14-16 says: ‘Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold out the word of life.’

I love the image of shining like stars. It’s a great description of the power of our witness as a community of light in a dark world. But the implication is this: If we grumble then we won’t shine like stars. Our witness will be dimmed. And the lost generation of people around us will remain in darkness.

In a future post we’ll consider the response of the apostles to the challenge of growing pains.

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Early-bird ticket (before 1 March) – £5.00 each

Click here for more information or to book.

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Growth and change in church life often brings uncertainty and confusion. We find a case study of this in Acts 6. Acts 6:1 says: ‘In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.’ The external threat of persecution in Acts 3-5 is replaced by the internal threat of division in Acts 6. This is potentially as destructive as persecution. The division is along ethnic and cultural lines and could easily have led to two churches – a Hellenistic church and a Hebraic church.

The source: growth

So this is a significant problem. But the source of the problem is growth: ‘In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained …’

We all want growth. But growth brings change and change is rarely painless. Things are not the way they used to be and we often experience that as loss.

In Acts 2 it seems those in need were invited to join families at their meals (2:44-46). It was all very informal and maybe that worked OK with a church of 3,000. But the church is growing rapidly. In 2:41 the church is 3,000 strong. In 4:4 there are 5,000 men alone – so perhaps the total church is getting on for 10,000. And even after that more and more people are being added to that number (5:14).

So very quickly informal arrangements are not enough. Acts 4:34-35 says: ‘There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.’ This looks like a more formal arrangement. You can imagine people saying, ‘It wasn’t like the old days when we just hung out together.’ But now caring for everyone’s needs required some kind of central fund. But by chapter 6 even this is not enough and people are being overlooked. Tim Keller writes:

One of the most common reasons for pastoral leadership mistakes is blindness to the significance of church size. Size has an enormous impact on how a church functions. There is a “size culture” that profoundly affects how decisions are made, how relationships flow, how effectiveness is evaluated, and what ministers, staff, and lay leaders do … [The] person who goes from a church of 400 to a church of 2,000 is in many ways making a far greater change than if he or she moved from one denomination to another.

Keller goes on to describe the dynamics of different church sizes.

As a church grows:

We have to accept that the preacher may not be our pastor.
We have to work harder at welcoming new people.
We have to embrace the face that there’s a greater diversity among us.
We have to accept things won’t ‘just happen’ with organization.
We have to be more willing to volunteer because initially we may not be working with people we know.
We have to communicate better because we can’t rely on word of mouth.

It’s painful. But the source of these pains is growth. They’re growing pains. That doesn’t mean they’re not painful. But it does mean we should embrace them as a sign of growth. The only real way to avoid growing pains is to stop growing. And that’s not an option.

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I’m just back from a visit to Spain and Italy to speak at Porterbrook Network events and launch Total Church in Italian.

It was exciting to hear stories of the way Porterbrook is not only equipping individuals, but changing the culture of whole churches ad lead to church planting initiatives.

But here’s my favourite story. A seamstress in a factory in Bologna used to wish she could leave her job so she had time to evangelise unbelievers. As a result of studying with Porterbrook, she now joyfully goes to work each day to be a missionary in her factory. I guess she sees herself as a kind of chaplain in her factory.

Nothing has changed and everything has changed.

 

I’ve posted this Bible reading plan before. We use it in The Crowded House Sheffield. If you’ve been using it then you’ll be interested in this postcard-sized version of the plan for 2014. If you’re not reading through the Bible then the approach of the new year is a good time to review your Bible reading habits. Here are a couple of old posts on why that would be a good idea – Hearing God Speak and Must I Read My Bible Every Day?

This plan has a number of differences from other plans.

1. Flexibility

The plan specifies a number of chapters for each week rather than for each day. This makes it more flexible. You can read a chapter or two each day or you can read it in two or three sittings. Or you can set out reading a chapter a day and then catch up at the weekend. It means it fits more readily around people’s lifestyle.

2. Communal

It is designed to be followed with a partner or among a group of people. There is only one section each week (occasionally two shorter books). So you don’t have to read a section from one book and then a section from another book each day. It means the sections are somewhat uneven, but it makes it easy to discuss what you have been reading when you meet up with other people.

We’ve been using it for a year now and it works very well in this way. I meet up with a friend each week for lunch. It’s easy for us to discuss what we’ve been reading because there is only one Bible book to focus on.

It also means I only need look at the Bible plan once a week – I don’t need to refer to it each day.

3. Realistic

Following this plan you read the OT in three years and the NT twice in three years. This works out at about nine chapters a week. It means you are not rushing through what you are reading to ‘get it done’. I’ve found with other plans I tend to read it with my mind disengaged. This plan gives time to meditate on the passage.

There is also a version in the document in which you cover the OT once and the NT twice in two years = about 16 chapters a week.

4. Balanced

The plan balances OT history, prophecy, wisdom, Gospel and Epistles throughout the year. You move between genres so you’re never faced with reading OT prophecy continuously for six months.

Here’s the complete three year plan and here’s this postcard-sized version of the plan for 2014.

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I’ve updated my Amazon store with some of my more recent books. These include …

Ordinary Hero: Living the Cross and Resurrection - a look at how the cross and resurrection should shape our lives (click here for more info)

Gospel-Centred Work - a workbook looking at how the gospel should shape our approach to the world of work

The Everyday Gospel: A Theology of Washing the Dishes - a theological reflection on doing the dishes as a model of how the gospel impacts everyday life

Who On Earth Is the Holy Spirit? - a short introduction to the role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life

My next book, You Can Pray, is also available for advance orders.

Also there is my first ever published book, Awakening to a World of Need, which is available for the first time as an ebook.

All these books are also able in the UK from ThinkIVP.

Here are the details of two conferences in March at which I’m speaking …

Multiplying Churches – Acts 29 Europe

WorshipGod UK – Sovereign Grace Music

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includes Tim Chester’s books

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