How I Became A Christian
My mom saves stuff. Recently she sent me a copy of a one-page paper I wrote in 3rd or 4th grade (we’re not sure which) about my conversion to Christ. Evidently I got an “A” on this assignment (yes, I went to a Christian school).
Four truths stick out to me from reading this early account of my testimony:
1. God saves young children. I had always thought it was at the age of 5 that I placed my faith in Jesus, but from this earlier manuscript (I’m just doing good textual criticism) it appears that my conversion occurred at the age of 4. I’ve often heard Christians express skepticism over the supposed conversion of children. I understand where that comes from, many times it’s warranted, but I don’t know of any exegetical grounds to support such skepticism and certainly my experience, and the experience of many others, challenges such skepticism.
2. God reveals more of the gospel as converted children grow older. Writing this paper at age 8 or 9, it’s clear that I don’t understand the gospel in its entirety, or better put, in all its depth. But, as a child I understood the heart of the gospel: “I’m a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”
3. God gave me a mom who viewed evangelism as an essential, central component of motherhood. I still remember driving home from watching Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back with my mom, asking her what happens to people when they die (I saw people die in the movie), her pulling over on the side of the road to share the gospel with me, and my mom then leading me in prayer as I responded to the gospel and expressed my desire to confess my sin and know Jesus as my Savior and Lord.
The memory of a mom who was passionate about knowing Jesus and having her two boys know Jesus is vivid and sweet to me. Even though in my later years I’ve received some significant male mentors, it’s my mom who’s most significantly impacted my walk with Christ. In his providence, God knew a stubborn-hearted guy like me needed a mom like Joan Buzzard.
So, mothers, share the gospel with your young children. Love them. Pray for them. Keep at it.
4. God gave me a passion to share the gospel with others from a young age, a testimony/challenge to what child-like faith might look like in our lives and perhaps an early sign of God’s call on my life to be a pastor. This paper confirms what my mom always tells me: as a young boy I constantly talked to people about Jesus. Yes, much of this is personality (I’m an extrovert, I love meeting new people, and I love to talk), but I think this also points to the child-like faith our Heavenly Father wants from us, a child-like faith that has, in some ways, eroded in me as I’ve aged.
When I was a little boy I operated as though God were really big, Jesus was the most sure and exciting topic in the world, that friends and family and strangers desperately needed to know this Jesus, and that I had the delightful duty of telling them about him. Back then I didn’t care what people thought about me as as I blabbed about Jesus. I guess that was the faith of a child. I guess that was a pastor being formed.
Well, reading this over twenty years later, this full-grown pastor is reminded of his big God, his great Savior, his lost neighbors, and feeling convicted over his lack of child-like faith.
Lord, increase my faith so that I might, to quote the old paper: “pray for them and tell them about Jesus and how he died for our sins.”
I’d love to hear comments from you on this topic. When did God get a hold of your life? Were any of you converted, like me, at a young age?
Text and Context Conference: Bonus Acts 29/Final Session, Darrin Patrick
Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey and vice president of Acts 29, delivered the final session of the Text & Context conference with his message, Leading the Mission, from Genesis 25/the life of Jacob. Other than scribbling down a few quotes, I didn’t take notes on Darrin’s message because I wanted to sit back and enjoy what he had to say. Of all the messages given at this conference, Darrin and C.J.’s messages were the most significant for me. What Darrin had to say about God’s character, God’s dealings with Jacob, idols of control and personal glory, identity, the father wound, and his own story as a Christian, drove me to on-the-spot prayer and repentance.
Again, pastors, this is must-listen-to audio.
I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Darrin yesterday. Today, after his message, we talked at more length. I really like this guy. We’ll be keeping in touch. I took this picture with Darrin not because I have a silly “man-crush” on the guy, but because I have a new couple in my church who attended The Journey during their years in St. Louis, who display unmistakable evidence of having been well taught/discipled under Darrin’s ministry, and who will be delighted at seeing proof that I spent some time with their former pastor. I figured I might as well post the picture here as well.
Here’s the few quotes I recorded from Darrin’s message. The first four quotes are ones that I will be digesting for a bit.
- “You don’t trust God with your future because you aren’t experiencing God in the present.”
- “It’s easy to get distracted from God because of ministry.”
- “God has to wrestle some things out of you.”
- “How much of your ministry is related to your dad issues?”
- “What’s going to keep you from leading the mission isn’t your staff problems, or other problems, but your idol problems.”
- “If you have a control idol, your greatest fear is uncertainty.”
- “It’s so easy to lead your church as if God doesn’t really exist.”
- “Because God has come to us, we can come to him.”
- Church planting is “plugging your life into an amplifier.”
Text and Context Conference: Session 8, Jim Gilmore
Last night, after the stimulating Q&A with Piper, Driscoll, and Chandler, I enjoyed a night of conference and beverage digestion with three of my buddies from my year-and-a-half stint at Whitworth College (Steve Hart, Lukas Naugle, and Campbell White). We talked late into the night at Brouwers, a classy beer bar with over 60 beers on tap. If you’re ever in Seattle, check out Brouwers. Last night’s knowledgeable bartender served me what he calls “the best beer in the world,” St. Bernardus Abt 12 (PS. for those of you who are reading this who don’t know me/who have different convictions about alcohol, know that I handle such beverages in obedience to 1 Corinthians 10:31).
Today, the final day of the Text & Context Conference, began with a message from Jim Gilmore, Decoding the Future, the Phoniness and the Shifting Sands. I found Jim’s message difficult to follow. Some of that was Jim and some of that was me, as I was sitting next to Steve Hart and Abraham Piper and kept asking Abraham questions about his work with the Desiring God blog. Here are a few scattered notes from Gilmore’s session:
- “Today, the dominant source that’s distorting the gospel is business…don’t let the church become a business. We have nothing to sell. What we have has already been purchased by the blood of Jesus.”
- Gilmore commended Stan Davis’ book, Future Perfect, written in 1986, as the best business book ever written, a book that pastors would benefit from reading. The book is built upon the thesis: “The present is the past of the future.”
- Innovators in the market place have a different time orientation, they act as if the future is already here. As pastors, your beliefs about the future should influence your decisions today.
Text and Context Conference: Q&A Session with John Piper, Matt Chandler, and Mark Driscoll
Day 2 of the conference came to a close with a Q&A session with Piper (P) and Chandler (C) facilitated by Driscoll (D). These questions were texted in from the audience and posted on a screen on stage. I’ve posted the complete wording of the questions below, but, in most cases, have provided only a summation of the answers rather than full quotations of each answer.
You’ll want to get the audio as my simple notes don’t cover all that was said at this session. You’ll especially want to listen to Driscoll and Piper talk about television ownership and insults and to Piper describe prosperity gospel preachers. Piper was incredibly feisty and funny during this session.
How much can Piper bench press?
P: I haven’t done that in 50 years.
What’s the #1 danger facing pastors today?
C: The temptation to exclusively preach Christ as example rather than preaching Christ as Substitute/Savior.
P: Neglecting and minimizing God. Pride.
What is your biggest struggle as a pastor?
P: That’s the same question.
How do we make sure the church remains focused on Jesus and not a pastor(s)?
C: I have a picture of Piper on my refrigerator so I’m going to pass this question to Piper.
P: [to Matt] That’s not a good answer.
C: I deflect praise that I receive back to God and his grace.
P: Don’t draw any more attention to yourself than you need to. How your elders are structured is important–be one elder among many. I love seeing around me amazingly competent guys.
What do you believe to be today’s most prominent false gospel in America and how would you address it?
P: The prosperity gospel.
C: A gospel that’s about the betterment of circumstances, about a God that glorifies you.
How does Matt Chandler as a young successful pastor maintain humility and authority in ministry to older persons?
C: I’m scared. We’re 5 years into our plant…it’s crazy to me that I’m viewed as successful. The growth of our church has created in me an absolute fear, fear that I would do something stupid before all these people I lead. The growth has produced in me a fear that helps keep me humble.
How do elders hold themselves accountable in your churches?
P: Just this year we’ve sought to beef this up. Our 34 elders now meet in groups of 4 and they’re assigned to ask each other certain questions. We’re trying to put our vocational staff and spouses into groups that meet regularly to talk about their faith and walk.
C: We’re new in beginning this process.
Contextualization is like a cuss word at my Bible Belt church, how do we move towards relevance?
C: I’m not trying to be relevant/contextual, I’m trying to be obedient. I want to preach and teach what the Bible has told us to do in regard to engaging culture. Semantics is part of the problem. “Contextualization” is a word for pastors, not for the people in your church.
P: There’s two kinds of relevance, one of them is a relevance that your people don’t even know they need. That’s the most important relevance. The message of the Bible is always relevant.
Isn’t consistently coming under the banner of Calvinism like saying, “I follow Paul”?
D: I think I feel heat coming off of Piper.
C: Piper, please take this question.
P: This is an ambiguous question. Obviously someone is angry about something. It depends on what is meant by “banner.” If
Dr. Piper, what most surprises you about Mark?
P: Nothing anymore. Early on, we went out to some Saloon or something and I saw that Driscoll dressed funny and that his church building was dark. But, Driscoll told me that he was about 1) church planting, 2) Reformed ecclesiology, and 3) male headship. I loved that.
Dr. Piper in your defense of the gospel against N.T. Wright have you found Federal Vision theology of Doug Wilson to be another gospel?
P: No. No, that’s easy. Doug Wilson doesn’t teach a false gospel. I don’t think N.T. Wright teaches a false gospel, just a confusing gospel. Doug Wilson is incredibly bright, but he has people around him who are dumb. I think Doug Wilson is more consistent than some of his followers are. But I am concerned about the trajectory.
How should pastors address racial diversity?
C: I live in an incredibly white, middle class area. All I know to do is to preach well, preach passionately, and then try to engage. I want to preach and proclaim the death of an enthnocentric mentality.
P: We’re in a very different situation, an extremely diverse community. While we do not compromise theologically, we work intentionally very, very (tenfold “very”) hard to produce an ethnically diverse staff. Honor Martin Luther King Day. I know this stuff from the inside out. I grew up in South Carolina and for the first 20 years of my life was racist to my toenails. We adopted a black daughter.
Text and Context Conference: Bonus Acts 29 Session, Matt Chandler
Matt Chandler is presently delivering the second, bonus Acts 29 session, Vision of a Church Planter. It’s hard to take notes when Matt speaks, plus he’s a lot of fun to watch, so I’m not looking down at my computer screen to blog this bonus session. I’m also sitting next to Lief Moi, who helped found Mars Hill Church 13 years ago and who serves as an elder here, and since I keep talking to Lief–asking him questions about the history and operation of Mars Hill–I’m really distracted during this session. Right now Lief’s sharing with me/emailing me the materials he uses for pre-marital counseling.
Text and Context Conference: Bonus Acts 29 Session, Mark Driscoll
The first of several bonus, Acts 29 sessions here at the conference is presently being taught by Mark Driscoll, THE OX: Qualifications of a Church Planter. The message title is taken from 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul’s words to Timothy the church planter: “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it trends out the grain…’”
This message is an exposition of the qualifications of an elder/pastor/church planter from 1 Timothy 3, laced with stories of Driscoll’s mistakes and successes as a church planter and teaching on what the Acts 29 church planting network is about.
I’m not blogging this session. You can go here to listen to the audio of this same message delivered by Driscoll in Dallas a few years ago. Or, even better, the audio I’m listening to right now will be posted here, probably within a few days.
Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Tears, & Trust (Part 2)
Many of you read my post from a few months ago: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Tears, & Trust. I appreciate the prayers that post generated and your many thoughtful comments.
On this topic I’ve been waiting to share some good news with all of you until more time passed and we received a good report from the doctor. Well, today, in the middle of John Piper’s last session, my wife sent me a text message from the doctor’s office letting me know the news: her new pregnancy is advancing healthfully, she’s 8 weeks along, and (Lord willing) somewhere around October 7th we will welcome a new Buzzard baby into the world.
We’re pregnant again and the pregnancy is healthy!
If you would, please join me in praising God and praying to God concerning this little one that he is forming together in my wife’s womb.
Text and Context Conference: Session 6, John Piper
John Piper has just begun Session 6, How My Pastoral Ministry Shapes My Pulpit Ministry. He’s got a lot of points coming up, over 16 of them. So, instead of trying to take notes on this session, let me direct you to the Desiring God blog where Abraham Piper (who I just met here at the conference and who kindly let me plug my computer into the outlet he was using and watched my computer bag while I grabbed coffee with Eric during our lunch break) is posting the manuscript of Piper’s message.
Text and Context Conference: Session 5, Matt Chandler
Matt Chandler delivered Session 5, Preaching the Gospel in the Center of the Evangelical World. I’d been looking forward to this session as it’s the first time I’ve heard Matt preach live, having listened to him here and there for a year or two through his podcast. Matt pastors The Village Church in Texas, specifically Dallas, where “there’s nothing to do but shop and own Golden Retrievers.” Five years ago Matt became the lead pastor of this dying, declining Baptist church which has now, for the last five years under his leadership, grown by 1,000 people each year.
The first half of Matt’s message was a history lesson and analysis of the problematic evangelical culture he encounters in Texas and that he believes pervades much of America. The second half of his message was a 5-point call for how pastors ought lead their of the church and engage with a problematic evangelical culture:
- We must put to rest thoughts of bigness. Christian Hollywood is killing us…producing hundreds of twenty-something, thirty-something pastors who would rather gather gather people around them than boldly preach the gospel…everyone wants to be the next Mark Driscoll or John Piper…play your part well…if your wanting to draw a crowd you’re going to sell out…preach faithfully and preach well, let God decide what your mantle is.
- We must preach Christ in the text.
- We must preach the gospel with less combative language.
- We must reaffirm our faith in the sufficiency of Scripture and not just claim the inerrancy of it. The good news of the gospel is not that all my hurts go away, but that Jesus is enough regardless of all my hurts.
- We must teach, preach, and practice a biblical ecclesiology.
Pastors, so far the “must-listen-to-messages” from this conference, in my opinion, are C.J.’s message and this message from Matt. Young men especially need to let Matt’s first point sink in.
Some additional quotes from Matt:
Mainline evangelicalism has produced a reverse trauma, swelling our heads and shrinking our heart.
Engaging culture has very little to do with beer.
Historically the first sign of a dying movement is “how to” manuals.
How you wear your countercultural-ness matters.
Be patient with everyone.
Text and Context Conference: Session 4, Jim Gilmore
Day 2 of the conference kicked off at 9am with Session 4 by Jim Gilmore, Fear and Trembling in the Experience Economy. Gilmore is a businessman and author who studies cultural trends and who, here, out of his love for the gospel and the local church, spoke to pastors about the cultural and economic trends he sees impacting the church today.
Given the message title and content, it appears that much of what Gilmore said stems from his book (which is for sale here in the Mars Hill Bookstore), The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business A Stage.
Gilmore began by surveying the progression of economic value that’s taken place in America over the last several hundred years: the movement from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy to a service economy and now, to an “experience economy.” Gilmore’s thesis is that we are now living in an experience economy, an economy that commodifies time–that’s driven by the quest for/sale of certain experiences (ie., the Starbucks experience, Las Vegas–”the epicenter of the experience economy…Everything that happens in Las Vegas is coming soon to your town”).
Gilmore predicts that we’re beginning to become a “transformation economy,” an economy and culture driven by a quest for ongoing transformation and self-change (ie., plastic surgery).
Moving to application of his experience economy thesis for pastors and church planters, Gilmore asked the question, “Why is it that some experiences are more compelling than others?,” encouraging pastors to think through church life through this experience grid. Here Gilmore worked with a continuum/chart that charted passive vs. active experience and absorbing vs. immersive relationships. Here’s my buddy Steve Hart’s (old college friend /godly man/husband and father of four/Acts29 church planter in Spokane/the guest speaker I have coming to teach our twenties retreat this summer) drawing of Gilmore’s chart:
Gilmore encouraged pastors to aim for the sweet spot on this chart, to lead churches that have a balance of educational (active experience/absorbing relationship), escapist (active experience/immersive relationship), entertainment (passive experience/absorbing relationship), and asthetic experiences and relationships (passive experience/immersive relationship).
There’s more to report, but I talked and laughed a lot with my buddy Steve during the session. Get the audio, or maybe just get the book.
PS. I thought Gilmore’s definition of culture was helpful: “Culture is that set of behavior that remains the same even after you’ve had a 100% turn over in the people.”
