Your Best Life Death Now

"For God's love, good people, let me have more fire!"

It sounds like a typical exhortation for a passionate preacher. But when John Hooper made this cry he was not calling for greater power in preaching or even a better way to live. He was crying for a better way to die.

At the time, he was tied to the stake and the first two attempts at building a fire that would take his life had so far failed miserably. The flames had been enough to consume the lower half of his body, but not enough to take his life. He cried out for more fire to end his torture.

I have been reading about martyrs lately. First, in a book that addressed the reign of Mary I of England. At her ascension to the throne, Catholic Mary made her greatest priority the extinguishing of the young but rapidly growing, vibrant Protestant church in England. Over the course of her nearly four year reign, Mary had nearly 300 Protestants burned at the stake.

I had long known that this type of activity had earned Mary the moniker Bloody Mary, but for some reason it struck closer to heart recently. Mostly, I assume, because the very things that cost these men and women their lives are the very things I do each week as a pastor.

I picked up a rather slim book entitled The Martyrs of Mary Tudor to read more about these men and women.

Today, my call brings me far more respect than I deserve. I am paid generously to do my job, I am invited to pray at public events, people buy my lunch and a local golf course lets me play for free. I wondered how would I react if things were different. I wonder how the church at large would react we lived in those days.

Yet we often complain about how difficult ministry is today. The hours are long. People complain about ridiculous things. Our projects face opposition. I wonder what John Hooper would think. I wonder what our brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing real persecution right now would think.

What would it like to minister if the leading question of our day was not Your Best Life Now, but Your Best Death Now?

Musing about Salt and Light

I reference the Living Church by John Stott once again in my blog for two reasons. First, it is taking a while for me to read it as I am only reading snippets at a time. Second, Stott’s snippets are better than tons of tomes by most other writers.

In a chapter entitled, “Impact” Stott gives four very brief implications of the call to be salt and light. He addresses salt and light as both an evangelistic impact and a cultural impact.

1. Christians are radically different from non-Christians.

No one confuses light with darkness or preserved food with rotting meat.

2. Christians must permeate non-Christian society.

And do it more effectively than a mouse permeates a cat!

3. Christians can influence and change non-Christian society.

Retired Berkeley professor, Robert Bellah says that "the quality of a culture can be changed when 2% of its people have a new vision."

4. Christians must retain their Christian distinctiveness.

This is demonstrated through greater righteousness (Matthew 5:20), wider love (Matthew 5:43-44) and nobler ambition (Matthew 6:31-34).

May your community be different because of His church this week.

Books for the New Year

Just this week, a good pastor friend asked me if I had any books on my reading horizon for the coming year. At the time, I did not have anything in mind.

But a quick trip (my family might say not so quick trip) to the somewhat local Christian bookstore can fix that rather easily. It is unlikely I will match my kids in their reading this coming year, but here goes.

The books that found themselves in my cart today centered on two areas of ministry that is on my heart this year.

First, I am thinking about discipleship. This has been an area of my library that is actually quite thin so I look forward to some time thinking about this critical aspect of ministry.

I hope to be reading The Disciplemaking Pastor by Bill Hull and Authentic Spiritual Mentoring by Larry Kreider. I love the subtitle of the second book, "nurturing younger believers toward spiritual maturity". Sign me up!

Second, I am hoping to lead our church to have a greater spiritual impact on our community. As one of the stronger evangelical churches in our small town, I really want to see our church take some leadership in this area.

I am looking to the following books to sharpen my thoughts in this area. The Church of Irrestistible Influence by Robert Lewis (with Rob Wilkins), a small book by Group entitled Field Guide to Neighborhood Outreach and what appears to be a fairly new release The Most Loving Place in Town (A Modern Day Parable for the Church) by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges.

I picked up one other book, The Living Church by John Stott. Again it was the subtitle that got me, "convictions of a lifelong pastor". When that lifelong pastor is the leading evangelical mind of the second half of the twentieth century (sorry about that Mohlerites) I am interested.

Now, if I could only get on the same kind of schedule my kids have, I might get these all read in a reasonable time. (I can tell you from reading his first chapter, Stott still has it.)

So, what is on your reading horizon?