Apr 24, 2012 • By David Murray • 4 Comments

Should you go to Seminary? What are the pros and cons of Seminary? Should Seminaries exist? These are the questions Tim and I discuss in the latest podcast. Partial transcript below. Download here.

I have a hate-love relationship with Seminary.

When I was converted in my early twenties, and sensed an almost immediate call to the ministry, I was looking at six years of training before I got near a congregation. (I’d gone straight from High School into Finance, because, I mean, who needs a degree to make a million dollars? Right!)

Six years? Three years at University, then three at Seminary?

The world needs me,  the Church needs me, lost souls need me! Why do I need books, lectures, professors, etc?

I was ready to jump on to MV Logos and save the world. Yet, despite trying hard to find someone to confirm my vital stop-the-clock mission, every voice, without exception, told me to get some education and some theological training first.

So with much reluctance and considerable resistance, I started the long, weary six-year plod through Glasgow University, then Seminary in Edinburgh.

Seminary Misery
Glasgow University taught me how to learn, and Seminary taught me what I needed to learn. At least, that was the theory. I’m afraid my Seminary years were a fairly miserable experience. Some of that was my own fault; but most of it wasn’t.

This is not the place to enter into the details, but suffice to say that the Seminary’s Faculty and the student body were angrily divided and fatally distracted by a major theological and moral controversy that eventually split our Presbyterian denomination. For that, and for other reasons, it was hardly the best place to learn or to prepare for ministry. I lost 24lbs going through Seminary (most people go the other way) because of the stress!

I’m telling you all this because I want to demonstrate that my current appreciation for Seminaries and their role in preparing men for ministry has been despite my own prejudices before Seminary and and my painful experiences in it. I’ve been won over through experience in the ministry and by seeing how wonderful places Seminaries can potentially be.

Seminary Hybrid
But one other detour before I get to that…After our Presbyterian denomination split, my own side of that divide were left without a Seminary or a Professor. After trying a few options, we eventually decided to start our own distance-learning Seminary.

As we couldn’t afford to hire full-time professors, we asked five pastors to add teaching duties to their pastoral work and to teach our handful of students using mainly distance education methods. The idea was that our students would stay in their own home congregations, receive lectures to read and listen to, and then come together for a couple of days a month for face-to-face instruction with the five pastor-lecturers.

I was a real enthusiast for this “hybrid” approach as I thought it would avoid some of the dangers and difficulties of the residential seminary method that I suffered.

On the whole it worked very well. The part-time lecturers did an amazing job of producing quality lectures on top of their pastoral work. At times it was frustrating for the teachers to have so little face-time with the students. Seminary training is much more than data-transfer. Ethos and pathos are as important as logos and you can’t communicate that without personal presence.

Some students found it very hard to motivate themselves without the daily discipline of lectures and seminars. The few face-to-face days were great, but they also reminded the students of how lonely the in-between weeks were. Some students were well-supported in their home congregations; others, however, had very little local interest or input.

Seminary Circle
And now I’ve come full half-circle. I started out hating Seminary before I even got there. I grew to hate it even more through my experience of training in one. I saw the potential of a healthy Seminary, though in a hybrid model, and now I’m teaching in a residential Seminary and I love it.

Although there can be significant disadvantages, and although it does not fit every student or church situation, on the whole I believe a good Seminary is a great way to prepare for a lifetime of ministry.

I’m not saying it’s the only way – we all know men, past and present, who’ve had faithful and fruitful ministries without Seminary training. And I’m definitely not supporting Seminary training divorced from the local church – that’s a disaster area. However I do believe in a significant role for Seminaries in training men for the ministry. Even where a large part of a man’s training is in a local church, I would strongly encourage the integration of well-taught Seminary courses, or even a short period of residential study in a Seminary.

Benefits for students

Some of the benefits of a Seminary education are:

• Well-trained teachers whose primary task is preparing men for Gospel ministry
• Emphasis on original language training equips for a long ministry of fruitful and varied expository ministry
• Forces you to study subjects you would not choose to but which you need to
• Discipline of daily lectures/assignments/tests is good training for ministry routine and responsibilities
• Access to well-stocked library
• Fellowship and lifelong friendship with students from other cultures and nations (this is a huge plus).

Disadvantages

However, I know all too well that there are disadvantages, and I highlight them here, not as deal-breakers but as areas that require extra thought and care if we are to avoid Seminaries becoming a hindrance rather than a help:

• Uprooting of family to live as “pilgrims and strangers” for a few years
• Cost – is it right to leave Seminary with $20,000+ of debt?
• Emphasis on PhD qualification attracts academic and scholarly staff, who are often lacking pastoral ministry experience in a local church
• Students may become attracted to the academic life and lose the burden of ministry and mission
• Pressure of academic success may quash spiritual life and even push out responsibilities to minister to your family, neighbors, etc.
• Unless you choose your Seminary wisely you will expose yourself to unchallenged liberal theology and practice that may ultimately undermine your faith and your confidence in Scripture.
• Living in an “unreal” world for a few years might disconnect you from everyday reality for most people (TIP: try to work, for a few years at least, in the “real” world before coming to Seminary)
• Too much focus on the intellectual at the expense of the practical
• Seminary becomes the master rather than the servant of the Church

Conclusion

Seminary is not a “Finishing School” for pastors. It’s more like a starting school. It sets you up for a lifetime of learning. In fact, if all Seminary teaches you is how much you have to learn – it might be worth it just for that.

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If you’d like to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link. And here’s an archive of 2012′s podcasts.

Mar 20, 2012 • By David Murray • 1 Comment

This week’s episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast has Tim responding to my challenge to talk about about reading fiction. You’ve got two options: You can read the transcript below or you can listen in by clicking on the audio player. If you listen in, you’ll be able to hear the two of us interact. Download here.

There is power in story. Christians have long realized this and today, perhaps more than any other time in the history of the church, believers speak of the whole sweep of Christian theology as a story—a story that has its beginning in the Creation of the world and a story that will close with the consummation, with God renewing this world and raising us to join him in it. This is the story that will go on and on forever, the story of all stories. Jesus himself used story in powerful ways, sharing amazing and important truths through parables, short stories designed to both hide and reveal truth—to hide it from those who would not hear and to reveal it to those who longed for it. It is worth noting, of course, that much of the Bible comes in the form of story and that the bestselling Christian book apart from the Bible—The Pilgrim’s Progress—is a story.

I confess that I usually enjoy fiction only in short batches. Every year or two I will pick up a few novels—a few that have been nominated for a Pulitzer prize, perhaps, and I will read them through. They transport me to strange places and, more often than not, make me uncomfortable. But I almost always benefit from them. They give me a glimpse into someone else’s mind, someone else’s world or worldview. And as often as not they also tell me what other people, the people around me, are thinking or feeling, or what they will be thinking or feeling soon enough.

In some ways fiction tends to be just very slightly upstream from culture, which is to say that the kind of fiction that deals with ideas and not just stories or passion or action, puts into words the times, the thoughts and feelings that pervade the culture or will soon pervade the culture. These works of fiction ask the questions so many are asking.

I have heard it said that the purpose of fiction is to ask questions while the purpose of nonfiction is to answer them. That may be an over-simplification, but maybe it is not too far off the mark. At least that has been my experience of fiction. Fiction introduces ideas and evokes feelings and arouses emotion. These feelings demand answers or make us long for them. There are many questions I have been asked in fiction that I’ve had to go to the world of nonfiction to answer.

Cormac McCarthy’s novels ask if there is hope even in a world like this one, a world of darkness and depravity. John Piper has rightly said that Cormac McCarthy is to the American literary canon what the book of Judges is to the biblical canon. McCarthy portrays the darkness of humanity and asks us if there is hope even here. It doesn’t offer answers—just questions, questions brought about by deep feelings of pain or revulsion or sadness. Answers must be found elsewhere.

The recent novel The Snow Child asks, Is it worth loving if we can love for only a short time? Where do we find our hope and our joy? It makes us hope and long and wish and maybe even believe. But it asks questions that it cannot answer.

Olive Kitteredge, a recent Pulitzer Prize winner, asks what value there is in life and what joy can be found in growing old. What do we do about the sins we committed so many years ago? Do they still matter? And how can two souls remain knit together even after so many years and through so much hurt and sin?

Tom Clancy…okay, never mind. His books just tell some action-packed stories.

But how about The Lord of the Rings, a true and lasting classic? Here is a novel that transports us to a world of such clear good and evil. It asks us what we will give to defeat evil and what value there is in the deepest kind of friendship. Born out of Tolkien’s experiences on the front lines of the First World War, this is a novel that seeks to give a very different take on this kind of a world—a world in which good and evil do battle to the death.

We could speak of C.S. Lewis and his Narnia series, which begins with the story of the Bible and then wonders, how would a story like this be told if there was a very different land in which it was always winter but never Christmas and where the Lion of Judah was actually a lion? But like most other fiction, it asks questions more than it answers them. It hints at something more, points to something beyond itself.

I am convinced that to truly enjoy fiction we need to have a knowledge of what is true and fixed and unchanging, which is to say, we need to know the Bible. So many questions are asked in the pages of books that can only be answered in the pages of The Book. The Bible interprets and refines and answers. It gives hope where fiction is hopeless, it gives light where fiction is dark, it gives joy where fiction is depressing. Fiction gives us stories of the world as it is or the world as someone images it; an author takes his experiences and hopes and desires and dreams and wraps them in a story. The Bible takes that story and makes sense of it. It tells us why the world is this way, why this author’s experience of the world has been so painful, why there is still hope even in a world like this.

That is what I love in fiction; that is why I love fiction that probes the deep questions and asks the tough questions. If I did not have access to the answers through God’s Word I would despair. But the Bible skillfully parries each blow and patiently, carefully answers each question. The fixed and unchangeable Word of God is the interpreter.

So I encourage Christians to read fiction—to read it carefully and discerningly and while listening to conscience and to allow it to asks its questions—but to always read it with the Bible as the source of answers.

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If you’d like to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Mar 6, 2012 • By David Murray • 0 Comments

This week’s episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast (another of our new, shorter episodes) has Tim Challies discussing the Christian life being safe—too safe. You’ve got two options: You can read the transcript below or you can listen in by clicking on the audio player. And if you listen to the end you’ll hear of an opportunity to contribute to the podcast as a guest speaker.

Download here.

A couple of months ago I worked with a graphic designer to put together an infographic that would display the attributes of God. Putting it together was far more worship than work as I looked to the Bible to see what God tells us about himself, about who he is and what he’s like. Each one of those attributes is worthy of a study because each one is part of an answer to questions like this: Who is this God who has forgiven me for my sin? What is this God like?

He is free, he is holy, he is wise, he is true, he is immutable. All that and so much more. Conspicuously absent from that list of attributes is safe. The Bible says nothing about our God being a safe God. But that is okay, because he is good.

I suppose I’m not allowed to pick favorites, but one of the attributes I find most comforting is God’s goodness. God is good, which means that he is the source of all good, he is the standard of all good, and he is only and ever and always good. That’s an awesome thing to know and believe, even if it can be hard at times to apply it.

This week I’ve been asked to speak on “safe,” or “the Christian life is not safe.” So why do I go straight to goodness? Because the Christian life truly isn’t safe, but that’s okay because our God is good and he would never ask us or command us to do anything that is in any way bad for us. I don’t just mean sinful—of course God will never lead us to sin. But he also won’t lead us to do anything that is less than what is best for us.

I think C.S. Lewis got it right with this little bit of dialog from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Mr. Beaver is trying to describe the attributes of Aslan, the book’s Christ-like character. Concerned that Aslan is a Lion, Susan jumps in and asks “Is he—quite safe?” “Safe?” Mr. Beaver says. “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Our God isn’t safe, but he is good. Why then do so many of us live such safe lives? God’s attributes describe who he is, but in many cases they also describe what we are to be. Most theologians suggest that God’s attributes come in two forms: communicable and incommunicable. The attributes that are incommunicable are God’s alone—he cannot and will not communicate them to any other being. You and I will never be eternal, we will never be omnipresent. But most of God’s attributes are communicable—he gives them to us and we are right to pursue them. God is loving, so we are to be loving. God is merciful, so we are to extend mercy. And God is good so we, too, are to be good.

But God is not safe, so why is it that we value our safety so highly? We tend to value it above just about everything else. This isn’t just physical safety—the kind of thing that keeps us inventing and wearing seatbelts and the kind of thing that keeps us locking our doors at night. This is safety that keeps us from going outside our comfort zones, from refusing to do the difficult things that take us beyond what we are comfortable with.

So we give to the Lord a safe amount of money instead of an amount that is extravagant. Our giving to the Lord is just another budget item. We share the gospel carefully or passively, but without bringing it to the people who scare us or intimidate us. We praise the people who throw safety aside and who plunge into war-torn countries or who move to the difficult parts of the city. But it doesn’t do a whole lot to change our lives.

Reading the gospels can be intimidating, especially in those places that Jesus is speaking to unbelievers and telling them what it will cost them to follow him. We have to count our lives as nothing; we have to be willing to love him so much that the way we love family and friends looks like hate by contrast; we have to be willing to sell everything we have, offering ourselves up completely. That’s not safe and to most people it doesn’t sound good.

We who know the Lord have accepted all of this. We have agreed that our lives are dedicated to him. We have agreed that our health and safety is less important than his glory. We know this in our heads, but we have trouble translating it to our lives.

I am convinced that this failure to live comes from a failure to believe, from a conflict between our desire for safety and what God says about his own goodness. The fact is that everything that happens in your life, no matter how incomprehensible it may seem, it all happens for a reason, a good reason. All of it has been designed, lovingly crafted, to bring good to you and glory to God. This includes the difficult things as much as the good things, the things we don’t like as much as the things we love.

The antidote to a safe life is a firm and growing trust in God’s goodness. The Bible is full of promises to those who follow Christ, promises like this one: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” God asks for an all-encompassing kind of commitment. He asks for everything, but he promises even more. He isn’t safe, but he is good.

Tim Challies

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If you’d like to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Feb 21, 2012 • By David Murray • 10 Comments

This week’s Connected Kingdom is on “Entitlement.” The podcast includes audio excerpts from others speaking on the subject, and concludes with some interaction between Tim and I. However, you can read a shortened version of the podcast below. Download here.

Jack Chambless is Professor of Economics at Valencia College. Every year he starts his class off by asking his students to write a 10 minute essay on what the American dream looks like to them, and what they want the federal government to do to help them achieve that dream. He describes this year’s results:

About 10% of the students said they wanted the government to leave them alone, not tax them too much, and let them regulate their own lives. But over 80% of the students said that the American Dream to them meant a house and a job and plenty of money for retirement, and vacations and things like this. But when it came to the part about the federal government 8 out of 10 students said they wanted free health care, they wanted the government to pay for their tuition. They want the government to pay for the down payment on their house. They expect the government “to give them a job.” Many of them said they wanted the government to tax wealthier individuals so that they would have an opportunity to have a better life.

Professor Chambless’ students belong to the “Entitlement Generation,” also known as the “Gimme Generation.” They think they can have and should have whatever they want, whenever they want, and from whomever they want it, while others pay for it.” Or more simply, as one Occupy Protestor painted on her placard, “Where’s my bailout?”

That sense of economic entitlement usually goes hand in hand with education entitlement. Students now come to college expecting straight A’s. That’s the default. And, as Anthony Carter notes, woe-betide any professor who “fails” to comply.

Harvard Professor of Law, Lawrence Lessig, has noticed a huge increase in the sense of entitlement among students especially in questioning authority. He says that the Internet “has created a world where everybody feels entitled to question somebody else.” He goes on:

There’s no authority, there’s no like “being the professor of law from Harvard” that entitles you to say “Here’s what the truth is.” There’s an opening. Here’s a professor of law from Harvard who says here’s what the truth is. That’s a way of beginning a conversation. Some fifteen year old can say “I just spent the last 6 months studying about the history about the fourteenth amendment and what you just said is #@X!. Here’s the right answer.” We’ve come to this place where the younger generation just believes it’s their right to be as involved and as engaged as anybody.

Of course, being a Harvard professor, Lessig thinks this is great:

I think that’s a thing to be celebrated and encouraged, but I think that what you recognize that what you can see in a wide range of internet contacts the sense of entitlement has driven enormous creativity and engagement that before was presumed to be disqualified.

So is it just a case of, “Well there are some pros, and some cons to this. No big deal. Let’s move on?”

Jean Twenge wrote the book Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before. She describes the entitlement generation as “smart, brash, even arrogant, and endowed with a commanding sense of entitlement.”

But, like Professor Lessig, Twenge also sees a flipside. She sees many of the “Gimme Generation” as individualists, “free-thinkers who are willing to break the status quo and pursue their dreams. Their confidence is what allows them to accomplish great things and can keep companies progressing.”

Again, we’re being tempted to minimize the significance of these societal changes. So, do we just shrug our shoulders and succumb to the spirit of the age? Economics Professor Thomas Sowell was interviewed about this on Fox News:

Interviewer: Professor, we had a series here a couple of weeks ago called Entitlement. There’s so many things that Americans now think they are entitled to because of government largesse. Everything from health care to food stamps, houses, even jobs. How do we get out of that?

Sowell: That’s going to be very tough. Because the whole media, politics, the educational system promotes the idea that you are entitled to something. It just seems obvious. Society is not entitled to anything. We can’t even get the food that we need without working for it. So when you say that somebody is entitled to it you mean that somebody else has to pay for what you want…

I’m totally with Professor Sowell on this. I see no long-term good coming from this entitlement mentality. It destroys initiative, independence, inventiveness, resourcefulness, motivation, the fear of consequences, and the link between cause and effect. It promotes indulgence, jealousy, conceit, laziness, and self-centeredness. It creates bad winners and bad losers.

It hurts marriages by putting the focus on “What can I get from him/her?” rather than “What can I give?” It hurts charity because the rich leave it to the government and withdraw from contact with the poor; the poor just get handouts from an impersonal, faceless, soulless State rather than from real caring people. Above all, a sense of entitlement destroys the Christian life.

As a Christian, I believe in one entitlement.

I’m entitled to Hell. That’s the only entitlement I have. That’s all I deserve, because of my sin. Anything else is grace, an unmerited bonus from the God of all grace. I don’t deserve a breath of life, a crumb of food, a drop of water, a stitch of clothing, a cent in my wallet, or an hour of education. I’m not entitled to one friend, one vacation, one verse of Scripture, or even one sermon. I’m certainly not entitled to salvation and heaven. I’m entitled to damnation and Hell.

That sense of entitlement makes me seek mercy, receive mercy, enjoy mercy, and be merciful to others. To paraphrase the Apostle Paul, “What have I that I did not receive as a free gift of divine grace? How therefore can I ever boast as if I had actually been entitled to it or earned it?”

So, there are basically only two ways to live: with a proud and angry sense of entitlement or with a humble and thankful sense of responsibility.

To summarize, “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

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If you’d like to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Feb 14, 2012 • By David Murray • 1 Comment

Download here.

This week’s episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast (another of our new, shorter episodes) has Tim Challies discussing introversion. You’ve got two options. A partial transcript is below.

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Introverted by Tim Challies

I am an introvert. Whatever an introvert is, I know it is a description that applies to me. The classic definition of an introvert pretty much describes me to a T. The problem is that it’s not a label I am comfortable with.

We are taught today that there is a kind of binary distinction between people—some are introverts and some are extroverts. If you’ve ever taken a personality test or aptitude test, you have probably been diagnosed as one or the other. Or more likely, you’ve been told that you are somewhere along a single continuum that extends from the greatest introvert to the greatest extrovert. It is a line and all of us fall along it somewhere. When I was in the workforce there were a few occasions that I had to take the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator test and I was always shown to be pretty far along that scale. That’s just who I am. Or is it?

What people mean by this personality distinction is that some people are naturally shy and inward-focused while others are outgoing and other-focused. Some are introspective while others are assertive. Introverts tend to need to get away from people in order to rest and recharge; extroverts tend to need to get together with people in order to do the same. This kind of distinction impacts all of life, it describes each one of us in a really basic, foundational way. It’s an attempt to answer the question, Who am I?

But here is my concern: introvert is not a biblical word and, as far as I can see, not even a biblical concept. This doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily unbiblical or anti-biblical; just that it’s not a term the Bible uses to describe me, to describe the way I am, to describe my identity. It is a-biblical, unknown to the Bible. Yet it clearly describes some kind of a reality, that there are different kinds of personality.

So what is it? Is introversion like gender or race, things that are given to me and over which I have no say, just who I am? Or are they things that I can control or things that I can choose? Will we all be introverts or all be extroverts in heaven? Are these real distinctions or could it be that the are ways we excuse our sin? What I don’t want to do is excuse sin or weakness by using respected or respectable terms that have no biblical basis. There are some ways that psychology offers some truth, but there are also ways in which it will inevitably lead us astray.

So how do I look at introversion through a biblical lens?

I’ve been helped by Ed Welch and CCEF here. Speaking on behalf of biblical counsellors he says “Terms that stay isolated from Scripture end up in the bin of ‘psychological problems.’ Our mission: empty that bin.” The skillful biblical counsellor will want to look for ways people self-diagnose and explore those things—all of those things. That’s true of psychological conditions and true of labels. If I say, “I am schizophrenic” or “I am depressive” or “I am introverted,” the biblical counsellor needs to dig deep and see how and why I make that kind of distinction and how it will play out in my life. What is it that I am really saying about myself? What does it reveal about me?

Welch says that when I define my personality, when I say that I am introverted, I am actually describing and combining two things: character on the one hand and strengths and weaknesses on the other. When I say that I am introverted, I am revealing my character and revealing both strength and weakness, or perhaps either strength or weakness.

My challenge, and it is a challenge I face all the time, is to keep introversion from enabling or excusing sin. Introversion can quickly and easily become a way to validate sin. I can excuse selfishness, self-centeredness, escapism, lack of hospitality, rudeness. I can stay away from people and excuse it as being just the way I am, as being who I am. I can be shy and quiet when the Lord calls me to be strong and bold. Of course extroversion can also be a way to validate sin. The extrovert can run away from solitude, avoid spending time alone, validate himself by the amount of time he spends with others, doubt himself when he is alone. This introvert/extrovert distinction affects each of us in all kinds of ways.

I find it interesting that in my life right now I have two main spheres of public responsibility and influence. Blogging is an ideal setting for an introvert. I can stay in my office and tap away on my computer all day long. A shy and quiet person, I can appear strong and bold from behind a keyboard—the quietest coward can be a hero in the blogosphere. Blogging is an ideal means of communication for the introvert. But then I am also a pastor and in many ways it seems like extroverts have a natural advantage in ministry. The ministry offers a special kind of challenge for the introvert when it demands spending time with people, loving people, serving people; it is a people-oriented calling. And as a pastor this is one of my greatest challenges, not to retreat into myself, not to run away from people. I have had to learn not to avoid opportunities that are difficult for me but which bring opportunities to teach and serve the people I love.

In the end I see introversion as simply a descriptor, something that states the reality that at heart, in my natural state, I am a shy and quiet person. It is intensely difficult for me to be with a lot of people for a long time and it is incredibly draining for me to stand in front of a group of people. It can feel like death to preach a sermon. Being alone or being with just my wife is life to me. In this way introversion describes my natural inclinations and predispositions. I don’t expect this to ever change. But what I demand of myself is to ensure that I do not allow my personality, my introversion, to have a negative impact on my life and ministry. I want to emphasize and enjoy the ways that introversion is healthy for me and effective in ministry, and I want to work hard to deny what seems to good and natural when it will have a negative impact.

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After interacting with Tim about this at the end of the podcast, Tim then challenged me to speak on “Entitlement” for next week’s podcast.

If you’d like to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Feb 7, 2012 • By David Murray • 1 Comment

Last week Tim challenged me to speak on being “Ordinary.” We’re still friends, as I hope this CK Short will demonstrate.

Download here.

Listen to the end to hear Tim’s response and to find out what I’ve asked him to speak on next week. Here’s a partial transcript of the podcast.

What would you say if one of your friends asked you, “David tell us what it’s like to be ordinary?”

Well I had the privilege of “enjoying” that experience last week. When offered the opportunity to challenge me to speak on a subject of his own choice, my friend Tim Challies said, “David, why don’t you tell us what it’s like to be ordinary.”

So that’s what springs into Tim’s mind when he thinks of me: “Ordinary.”

I mean it’s not a huge insult I suppose. He didn’t ask me to speak on being “Ugly” or being “Offensive” or being a “Fool.” But it’s not exactly the greatest compliment either is it?! “Ordinary”

OK, I didn’t expect him to ask me about being “Extraordinary” or “Super-intelligent” or “Tall, dark and handsome,” but I expected maybe something a bit more than “Ordinary.”

Maybe something like being “Loyal” or “Consistent” or “Reliable” or something like that. But “Ordinary!?”

I looked up ordinary.com and found that it’s owned by Tanglewood Ordinary Restaurant – serving grandmother’s Sunday dinner since 1986. Not exactly the most inviting name for a restaurant – Tanglewood Ordinary Restaurant. Ordinary.net hasn’t even been purchased yet.  Shows you how popular a concept “ordinary” is!

When I looked up a dictionary, I found this definition: “Ordinary: a clergyman appointed formerly in England to attend condemned criminals.” It’s also used to describe “some of the fundamental elements of the Catholic Mass.” In Britain it can even be used of “a Tavern or eating house serving regular meals.”

But I don’t think Tim was meaning any of these possibilities; rather he was thinking along the lines of this definition: “ordinary – the regular or customary condition or course of things.” Some synonyms are “everyday” “normal” “run-of-the-mill” “humdrum.”

Not much encouragement there, though, is there. Who wants to be ordinary, run-of-the-mill, humdrum?

Well, the good news for me and for you is that God wants the vast majority of His people to be “ordinary.”

“Ordinary” as a compliment
I know I’ve been expressing outrage over Tim’s choice of subject for me, but it’s all been somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I know the sense in which Tim is using the word and that’s why when he gave me the assignment, I didn’t give him a punch over the Internet. Rather I said, “Thank you, Tim. I take that as the highest compliment.” Because I believe that God’s will for me, and indeed for most of us, is to be extraordinarily ordinary!

Let me explain what I mean!

When you read through Ephesians 1-3, you scale the immeasurable heights and depths and breadths of Christian doctrine: predestination, election, redemption, justification, sanctification, union with Christ, and so on. It leaves you utterly breathless with wonder and awe.

And you think, “Right what’s coming. If God has done all that for me, what’s he going to ask me to do to show my gratitude?” You come to the end of the doctrinal depths of chapter 3 with the climactic doxology: “To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end. Amen.”

And you hardly dare turn the page.

Because you know that God’s about to demand that you go on mission to Africa or Antarctica for the rest of your life. Or He’s going to tell you to give away all your money and possessions and live in the ’hood. Or He’s going to say “I want you to live on top of a pole in the desert for 40 days.” Or “I want you to evangelize the whole city by midnight.” Or “You must preach to 20,000 people every Sunday and plant 1000 churches before you die.”

But instead, when you summon up the courage to start reading chapters 4-6 you can hardly believe your eyes. God wants me to tell the truth, to exercise my gifts in the church, to be honest, to love my wife or obey my husband, to honor my parents, to bring up my children for the Lord, to be a faithful employee and a fair employer, to be good citizen, etc.

It’s hardly the stuff of bestseller biography or conference ministry is it! I mean it sounds so humdrum, so run-of-the-mill, so…well, so ordinary.

And that’s exactly what God’s will for most of us is. Yes, there will always be a few Christians, maybe one in every hundred thousand, who are called to an extraordinary life or an extraordinary ministry. And yes, they’re the ones that get so much attention in this inter-connected media-saturated world. So much so that we begin to think that every Christian is like them and I’m just such a boring failure.

But the reality is that God calls most Christians to ordinariness, to serve him in the everyday, in the humdrum – in the home, in the workplace, in the church, in the community and in the nation.

And that’s not just found in Ephesians; you can see the same pattern in Romans, Colossians, Philippians, etc., too.

Extraordinary ordinariness
But remember I said that we are called to extraordinary ordinariness. Yes we are to serve God in these everyday run-of-the mill roles, but we are to excel in them. We are to be extraordinary wives, husbands, parents, children, employees and employers. We are to be the best ordinary we can be. And that’s what will make a lasting difference to the church and the world.

Extraordinary ordinariness will have a much greater impact than mere extraordinariness. Yes, the latest Christian sports star will get a million blog posts written about him every time he breathes. Yes, the latest kid to write about his last trip to heaven and back will make millions for his parents. Yes, the newest mega church pastors will wow CNN for a few weeks.

But the greatest and the most permanent good will come from the impact and influence of extraordinarily ordinary Christians excelling in their ordinary days and duties.

Isn’t that so encouraging! That will revolutionize the way I change my baby’s diapers, tidy my yard, talk to my employer, manage my money, drive my car, participate in politics, behave in my marriage, and so on. On one level, it’s so very ordinary. But God blesses faithful ordinariness, and especially extraordinary ordinariness to transform lives, families, churches, communities, and nations, one ordinary life at a time.

——————————————————————————————–

If you’d like to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Jan 31, 2012 • By David Murray • 4 Comments

Season 3 of The Connected Kingdom gets underway with a new format. While we’ll continue to do the usual CK stuff from time to time – interviews, Q&A’s, debates, etc., – we’re going to be releasing a weekly “CK Short” every Tuesday. These will be 10-15 minute episodes in which Tim or I will deliver a short monologue on a subject followed by a few minutes of comment and discussion. This week, I challenged Tim to speak on the subject “Crushed.”

Listen to the first few minutes of this episode to hear about more changes including how you can suggest monologue topics for us, and even star in a “CK Short” of your own!

Oh, yes, and as you’ll see below, we’ll be posting a [partial] transcript of the monologue with the podcast. Of course, if you don’t listen, you’ll miss out on the highly intelligent and entertaining interaction, but I suppose reading is better than missing out completely!

Download here. 

Crushed: by Tim Challies.

Horatio Spafford was a man who knew pain and a man whose pain has left a powerful and lasting legacy to the church. A wealthy Chicago businessman, Spafford invested heavily in real estate and saw almost his entire fortune consumed in the Great Chicago Fire that swept the city in 1871. Far greater pain awaited him. In 1873 he decided that he and his family should enjoy a vacation. They decided to go to England since their dear friend D.L. Moody would be preaching there in the fall. Though business delayed his own departure, he sent his family on ahead. His wife Anna and their four daughters boarded the steamship Ville du Havre and set out for England. On November 22 another ship collided with that one and two hundred and twenty six people lost their lives, including all four of the Spafford girls. Upon arriving in England, Anna sent her husband a tragic telegram: “Saved alone.”

Spafford set out to England to be with his wife and during that crossing penned the hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul,” a powerful declaration of trust in the midst of tragedy.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

“When sorrows like sea billows roll.” It is a poignant metaphor, a simile really, that speaks of sorrow coming upon us like waves on a storm-tossed sea. The same sea billows that poured over the heads of his daughters, the waves that stole their lives, are now pressing hard against him, threatening to drown him in despair, to steal his soul. They are rising up above him, they are cresting and crashing down upon him, they are pulling him under and tossing him in the undertow. Yet he has more hope for his soul than his girls did for their lives. The Lord has taught him that all will be well. Whatever his lot, whatever the Lord decrees for him, he is able to say, “It is well with my soul.” What was the source of such comfort in trial? It was this: “Christ hath regarded my helpless estate / And hath shed His own blood for my soul.”

I am a stranger to this kind of sorrow. Though my life has not been completely free from pain and disappointment and sad farewells, I have never known sorrow to come against me like the waves of the ocean; I have never known it to threaten to drown me in despair. But discouragement, now there is something that too often crashes upon me like waves crash against the hull of a ship. There is something that often threatens to crush me.

Discouragement comes in different forms. There is discouragement that comes when I am left grappling with failure, when I have not succeeded at the things I’ve attempted to do well. There are the sermons that never take shape the way I had wanted them to, the ones that never seemed to yield to time and patience and brute force. There are the dreams that never grow into anything more than a rough and untenable plan, the relationships that never lead to friendship, the chapters that have to be left out of books, the opportunities wasted, the holiness lost and neglected. This life is one of so much failure and there in failure’s wake is discouragement, towed along behind it.

Discouragement can come in a very different form—the form of other people’s success. Here is the excruciating pain of seeing others do well in those areas where I have failed, of hearing of the sermons that went in all the directions my own never did or the books that sold a hundred copies for every one of mine. There is the discouragement of coming up to the edge of my own talent and seeing others with greater talent and greater gifts excel all the more. And there is the discouragement of seeing people with equal talents and equal gifts be offered all kinds of opportunity not open to me. Mixed up with sin and pride and envy, this kind brings with it a peculiar and poignant kind of agony.

And then there’s the form of discouragement that comes with trying to do too much and be too much and exceed and excel at too much. Pride can push me here, to make me want to do more so I can be noticed by more people, and so I work too many hours and go in too many directions. I get away from the few things I’ve been called to, ignoring the gifts I’ve been given and trying to convince myself that I need to be someone I’m not. Instead of being me I try to be that guy or that guy or that one. I take my eyes off the great prize of bringing glory to God and instead put so much effort into bringing glory to myself.

And then there is the despair that seems to just come without reason and without source. It is the despair that feels almost physical, the despair that must have some kind of spiritual or supernatural source, the kind that offers no explanation, just the sense of being crushed under foot.

And there is discouragement, washing over me, and I am sinking under it, fighting desperately to manufacture some kind of joy to keep me from drowning in despair.

This is what it is to be crushed. Or nearly crushed. But there’s hope when discouragement is pressing down. The Apostle Paul could say, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed but not driven to despair. Persecuted but not abandoned. Struck down but not destroyed.” Where do you find that kind of hope when discouragement is thick, when it is tangible, when it surrounds you like water surrounds a man drowning in the ocean? You go where Spafford went when sorrow threatened to destroy him. You go to the day that all purposes will be revealed, that all sorrow will cease, that all discouragement will be destroyed.

And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Tim Challies

                                                                                                                                    

If you’d like to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Nov 17, 2011 • By David Murray • 2 Comments

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Joe Thorn is Lead Pastor of Redeemer Fellowship in St. Charles, IL and is the author of the great little book Note To Self. On this week’s Connected Kingdom podcast, Tim and I took the opportunity to ask Joe what it means to be gospel-centered, whether the gospel truly applies to all of life, and then to give some practical pointers for how to preach the gospel to yourself in joy and in pain.

I would echo what Tim said on his blog about our discussion:

The phrase “gospel-centered” is fast entering the Evangelical mainstream. We are encouraged to be gospel-centered or to preach the gospel to ourselves. It is easy to say but, in my experience, far more difficult to do. This morning David Murray and I spoke with Joe Thorn about this very thing. Speaking personally I found it very, very helpful. So why don’t you give it a listen? It will take less than 30 minutes of your time and I think you’ll be well-rewarded for the effort.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Nov 1, 2011 • By David Murray • 0 Comments

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About a year or so ago, I wrote a couple of blog posts expressing my concern (here and here) about the increasing prevalence of Christian Rap music in Reformed circles. Shortly after these posts I was contacted by Shai Linne, a Christian Rapper, when he was in Grand Rapids and we met for lunch. It was a helpful time and while we agreed to disagree, I believe we did so in love and with mutual respect. (It’s very hard to disagree with someone who is so Christ-centered, humble, and likeable). I followed up with a few questions and promised Shai that, after a bit of a break, we would continue the discussion – in public if we felt it would be profitable for others.

So here’s the first installment of that discussion. It’s more of a “get-to-know-you” podcast, and we plan to follow it up with a more vigorous debate on the pros and cons of using Rap to worship God, communicate the truth, evangelize, etc.

Oct 19, 2011 • By David Murray • 5 Comments

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Our guest on this week’s edition of The Connected Kingdom podcast is ex-Mormon and now Christian author Latayne Scott. She answers questions like these ones:

• How did you become a Mormon?
• How were you converted to Christ?
• Is Mormonism a cult?
• Can a Christian vote for Mitt Romney?
• What are the changes in and challenges to Mormonism?
• How should we evangelize Mormons? Should we invite them into our homes?

Through Zondervan, Latayne has just published a new and updated edition of  The Mormon Mirage. You can also catch up with her at her blog Latayne.com.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Oct 14, 2011 • By David Murray • 0 Comments

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This week’s guest is Pastor Timmy Brister. A short time ago he wrote a blog post about the benefits of preaching from a manuscript. Most of you know that I have reservations about this (here and here)! So we invited Timmy on to discuss the pros and cons of each method.  We hope you enjoy it!

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Sep 28, 2011 • By David Murray • 1 Comment

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Rico Tice is Associate Minister of Evangelism at All Souls Church, Langham Place, London. He is also Founder of Christianity Explored, the evangelistic introductory course to Christianity. This week on the Connected Kingdom podcast, Rico talks about the impact of John Stott upon his life and ministry, how his previous singleness made Christianity Explored possible, and how he keeps his own evangelistic fervor alive. US listeners can find Christianity Explored resources here.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Sep 20, 2011 • By David Murray • 2 Comments

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After a rather long summer break, Tim and I get back into the groove with Episode 18 of Season 2. After some catch-up we talk about Tim’s new pastoral position, my new book on preaching, and Tim’s crazy speaking schedule over the next few weeks.

And join us next week for an interview with Rico Tice, founder of Christianity Explored.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Jul 8, 2011 • By David Murray • 0 Comments

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This week’s guest on The Connected Kingdom is Paul Tautges. Paul is a pastor, author, counselor and father of ten(!). He has recently begun a new blog called Counseling One Another. In this podcast, the last one we’ll be recording until after the summer, Tim and I speak to Paul about the importance of setting counseling within the context of Christian discipleship (which in turn takes it out of the exclusive hands of the experts).

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Jun 24, 2011 • By David Murray • 2 Comments

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This week’s guest on The Connected Kingdom is Dr. Ken Stewart, who is Professor of Theological Studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Intervarsity Press recently published Dr. Stewart’s book Ten Myths About Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition. Tim  and I spoke to him about the Old Calvinism about the New Calvinism and about what the even newer future Calvinism may look like. Here is a table of contents pointing out some of the highlights of our discussion:

• 1:30 – Overview of the ten myths about Calvinism
• 9:35 – Purpose and audience of the book
• 11:00 – Our polarized movement; who has the inside track on explaining and articulating the Reformed faith; too many Calvinist authorities
• 14:47 – Clarification on Calvinistic brands
• 16:15 – Did we blow the Rob Bell situation?
• 29:06 – Theological accountability and Gospel Coalition
• 31:42 – Fault lines in Calvinism

There is lots of interesting food for thought in this podcast!

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Jun 17, 2011 • By David Murray • 1 Comment

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This week’s guest on The Connected Kingdom podcast is Alex Chediak who is the author of the brand new book Thriving at College, a book that about how college students can launch into responsible, fruitful adulthood for the glory of God against the backdrop of a young adult culture that often values perpetual adolescence and the avoidance of responsibility. In this interview Alex talks about who he wrote the book for, he discusses who should and should not go to college and offers up some sound advice for the parents of young people. 

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Jun 9, 2011 • By David Murray • 0 Comments

Download here. And here’s Tim’s description of what to expect:

In this week’s edition of The Connected Kingdom, David and I discuss a topic that we’ve both written about but never actually talked to one another about—children’s devotions. I wanted David to explain why he created a program of personal devotions for his children and then wanted to describe how I’ve adapted it a little bit for my own children. You may want to see this article for reference. We discuss the importance of having children learn to do devotions on their own while also touching on family devotions and the importance of a father leading his children in this area.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Jun 3, 2011 • By David Murray • 0 Comments

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Tim Keesee has a pretty amazing ministry. He travels around the world with Frontline Missions in order to encourage missionaries, to meet indigenous Christians and to find new ways to partner in spreading the gospel. Some of his journeys have been documented in the Dispatches from the Front DVDs that Tim Challies wrote about last week. Tim C says: “As soon as I saw those videos I knew that I wanted to talk to Tim, and that is just what I did in this week’s podcast.”

I’d encourage you to listen so you can be encouraged as you hear how and where the Lord is working. Tim K shares some amazing stories and tells what he has seen of the church in faraway lands.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.