This is a beautiful psalm, full of gorgeous Hebrew poetry and simultaneously glorious and haunting themes. Since lament plays such an important part in God’s Word—and in our own lives—my goal here is not only to enable us to understand this psalm better, but also to help us comprehend how to lament better, and how to be comforted in the hope of our Messiah even in the midst of that lament.

First though, we must consider how lament is regularly part of God’s good purposes for his people in this era.

The Need for Lament

Each spring, Covenant Seminary holds a chapel service of lament in which we acknowledge and reflect on some of the stories of sorrow in our life together as a community. We do this not only because lamentation is a significant part of our experience of life in this world, but also because God knows that we need psalms of lament. He knows that life can be both joyous and hard for us. So, he invites us to bring our griefs and lament to him as we long for his deliverance. He gives us hymns to sing, both in our joy and in our sorrow. Lament, especially corporate lament, is important when we live in a time of waiting in between the promises that God has given and the ultimate fulfillment of those promises. Godly lamentation is for those long eras when we know God’s promises are true, but we don’t yet fully experience the reality of them, and we just wish that he would deliver and redeem.

Israel went through many of these eras of waiting. Think of Joseph’s story. The small band of people that we call Israel, which at that stage in Genesis was just a single family, was seeking to survive during a famine in the land. Providentially, Joseph was in Egypt ahead of his family because his brothers had tragically sold him into slavery in Egypt, where amid trial and consternation he eventually rose to be Pharaoh’s right-hand man. Then God led his people to Egypt, where they found relief from the famine through the work of that very same Joseph. However then, after 400 years of oppression at the hands of the Egyptians, the people called out to God for his deliverance. So, God brought about the great deliverance of the Exodus. Not long after that great event, of course, the people went terribly astray and a whole generation was lost during 40 years of wandering before they were allowed to enter the land of promise. They were waiting yet again.

After the conquest came the time of the Judges, with another long period of wondering when the promises of God would be fulfilled. Then we read on through the time of Saul and into the reign of David, which brought another wonderful set of promises to the Davidic king. Yet shortly after that, the kingdom of David just seemed to plummet. There are occasional bright spots, but it declined rather rapidly, with centuries of waiting, until finally there was the tragedy of the Babylonian exile. Eventually, God’s people return from exile, though there was another long wait before that happened. And after the return, a new temple was built, but it was not nearly as glorious as the one that had come before. The people had to wait again.

Finally, after more centuries pass, the Messiah comes as the incarnate Son of God, the Word of God made flesh, proclaiming the good news to the poor. He teaches, he inaugurates the kingdom and the breaking of the dominion of Satan. He casts out demons and heals disease. Then he dies and rises again, and those acts grant sure and steady salvific hope to those who follow him. However now, again, there have been 2000 years since that time of joy, and his people live in another period of waiting for his promised return.

Lament is well-suited for that sense of waiting, that sense of longing for God’s deliverance. We can all relate in some ways to the waiting and perhaps even to the trials and tribulations Israel went through. Thus we can also learn from this psalm not only how to lament, but also how to hold onto the hope we have in God’s promises. How, exactly, does this psalm help us persevere even as we long for God’s deliverance? Let us focus on three particular ways.

The Psalmist Reminds us to Sing to the Glory of GOd

First, we notice that even amid his difficulties, the psalmist proclaims the glory of God. He opens the psalm that way: “I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.” God’s “steadfast love” and his “faithfulness” will become running themes throughout the psalm. We encounter them again right away in verse 2 when he says, “For I said, ‘steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.’” And in verses 3–4, the psalmist reminds God (and his readers) of God’s covenant: “You have said, ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: I will establish your offspring forever and build your thrones for all generations.’”

Yet, the psalmist does not stop there. In verses 5–8 he declares that God deserves our praise. He reminds us that the heavenly hosts sing to the glory of God. God created the world all around us, and he deserves all our praise. In verses nine and following, God accomplishes his mighty purposes, and he rules over the raging of the sea. In the ancient Near East, the sea was said to be almost demonic because it cannot be tamed and controlled; but the almighty God rules even over the raging sea. In verse 10, he delivers Israel in the Exodus (most commentators consider “Rahab” here a reference to Egypt). In verse 11, we are reminded that the heavens and earth—the whole universe—belong to the Lord because he created them. He possesses all of this by his mighty arm (v. 13; cf. vv. 10, 21). That is Old Testament imagery for kingship. In Egyptian literature, Pharaoh also has a strong arm. But God’s mighty arm is the one that cast out Pharaoh (cf. v. 10 and Exod. 3:19–20). And throughout the plagues on Egypt and in the Exodus, by his mighty arm God declared, “This creation belongs to me.”

God also manifests a magnificent character. In verse 14 and following we find that God is righteous and just. Again, the psalmist proclaims God’s faithfulness and steadfast love (cf. 89:1, 2, 5, 8, 24, 28, 33, 49). In verse 15, his glory exudes from the light of his face and blesses his people. Israel can exult in God’s name and his righteousness, in his glory and his strength. Then in verse 18, God is the ultimate shield for his people.

We learn from all this that, even as the psalmist longs for God’s deliverance amid the horrors of this world, he first reminds himself and the people who sing this song with him of the marvelous character of God. That is a great way for us to begin as well: whenever we are in the midst of our longing and lament, we should recall who God is and how he has blessed us. But that is only the beginning.

The Psalmist Remind us to Sing of the Promises of God

The psalmist also reminds us, amid the difficulties of our lives, to sing of God’s promises. He especially has in mind the Davidic promises, and that is what the psalm intones in verses 19 through 37. He remembers the Davidic covenant, leaning especially into its eternal character. God has promised that he will be continually faithful and that he will display to his servant David his “faithfulness” and his “steadfast love” (v. 24)—there are those theme words again!

To astute Hebrew readers in the psalmist’s time, this section would have hearkened back to 2 Samuel 7, where God establishes his covenant with David. Many of the key elements of the language used there are echoed strongly here in Psalm 89. The psalmist simply repeats back to God truths that God had previously promised, such as that David is “my servant” (cf. 2 Sam. 7:5), that God has “cut off all your enemies from before you” (2 Sam. 7:9) and “I will appoint a place for my people Israel” (2 Sam. 7:10) and that “I will give you rest from all your enemies” (2 Sam. 7:11). Finally, in 2 Samuel 7:12–13, God declares of David, “I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” These are the promises of the Davidic Covenant, including that of an eternal kingdom for the house of David.

But then (rather like Psalm 89), 2 Samuel 7 takes a turn. God says, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with a rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men…” (2 Sam. 7:14a). However, then he states, “but my steadfast love will not depart from him, . . . And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam. 7:14b–16).

We hear echoes of all of this in Psalm 89. In verses 19–20, the psalmist meditates on these good promises and on the fact that God has chosen and anointed David as his servant. In verse 21, we learn that God’s strength is with David. In verses 22–23, David will overcome all of his foes, all of his enemies. In verse 24, we read again of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to David. Verse 25 envisions David ruling over expansive territory, and David has the privilege of relating to God as a son to his father (vv. 26–27). Indeed, in verses 28–29 the psalmist refers to God’s eternal promises to David.

In much of the Old Testament, when the OT writers speak of God’s expansive promises to David, they tend to emphasize mainly those promises about the eternal Davidic kingdom (e.g., Pss. 18:46–50; 72:70–72; 132:1–18; 1 Chr. 17:7–14). But here the psalmist does something pretty shocking: he also mentions the iniquity of the house of David and the failure of the Davidic line. We observe this in verses 30–32: “If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.” The psalmist recognizes these failures. In fact, this is exactly what the psalmist has experienced in his own day. It is the decline in the house of David and the lack of faithfulness in God’s people that have led to punishment on the nation and on its Davidic king.

It is difficult to ascertain exactly when this psalmist writes. Some scholars say it could be as early as the time when Shishak attacked the house of Rehoboam shortly after the time of Solomon. Others suggest it could be as late as the exile. The heading of Psalm 89 mentions its author is Ethan the Ezrahite. The debate has to do with identifying exactly who Ethan the Ezrahite is and when he may have lived. Regardless, the important issue here is that the house of David has regularly failed in its faithfulness to God and his ways. So, it is not really a surprise when in verse 38 we read that horrible statement: “But now you have cast off and rejected; you are full of wrath against your anointed.” And this is where the psalm takes a dramatic turn, leading into the psalmist’s great lament.

The Psalmist Reminds us to Sing Our Lament and Longing to the Lord

It is helpful to remember here that, in our era as Jesus’s people, we know even greater promises than the Old Testament house of David received. We have met the true Davidic king, the ultimate eternal messianic king, Jesus Christ. We know him as the Son of David, the Son of God, the very Emmanuel, the Savior of his people, the Great Deliverer. Thus, we have a faith even more firm and confident than the Davidic promises. And yet, even for us, we experience things going south in our own lives or in the lives of others. We observe nations rising up against nations and tragedy upon tragedy. We begin to wonder and question. We can feel (just like the psalmist) that it is time to cry out to God for his deliverance and to plead for him to come through on his promises. The psalmist teaches us that amid the difficulties of our lives, we are to sing our lament and longing to the Lord.

Thus, we enter the third and final section of the psalm. Whatever the situation the psalmist is in and whenever he may have lived in the Old Testament period, we note that he speaks of God’s wrath against the anointed Davidic king (v. 38). We can picture ourselves back in his historical locale and empathize with his worry that the Davidic Covenant has been renounced (v. 39). We can imagine the destruction of the city walls and its defenses (v. 40). We can visualize the plundering of Judah and the scorn of their neighbors (vv. 41–42). And we can lament that the Davidic kingdom is covered in shame (v. 45). These are horrible days he is living in.

Even now, when we know of the wonderful salvation of our Lord Jesus, the long promised Davidic Messiah, we can feel the psalmist’s pain when we read these verses. Indeed, we can identify with his pain exactly because our Lord has accomplished his salvation. We know that there is a greater hope. Jesus died for our sins. He rose again that we might have eternal life. He has poured out his Spirit. He’s announced good news to the captives. He has promised his return. He has promised an eternal kingdom. That kingdom is inaugurated and present with us, and yet it has not been fully consummated. So, like the psalmist, we live in those days in between, when we have the promised hope of deliverance—and yet, there is pain in this life, a longing for what we know is to come. And in that we can identify not only with the psalmist, but with Israel. We long for God’s redemption.

I think of this often now in a very personal way as, over the last couple of months, I have been sitting with my mom at her nursing home, spoon-feeding her a bite of food at a time, hoping that she will eat even half of the soup that’s in front of her. I feel that pain. I feel that dislocation. I feel the hope of promise and the deep longing for better things. I experience this on the Seminary campus when I hear of students whose families and friends are facing difficult illnesses, who have lost jobs, who are facing a lack of income and wondering what’s next. I see it with many of my friends at this stage in life; when we talk about prayer requests, it can be quite disheartening because there is just so much to pray for. I perceive it in the world around us when I think of a country like Ukraine or northeastern India, where many of our graduates are serving earnestly during ongoing wars and tribal strife. I witness it in our own nation where we hear almost daily about another act of terrible violence, or hatred, or natural disasters, or corruption in high places, or the moral failures of church leaders. We feel the pain of all that. We long for deliverance. We ask: Where is our God?

And yet, we know our God is very present. He has offered us sure and earnest hope in Christ. Our Messiah has come. His death and resurrection grant us a certain guarantee of his eternal coming kingdom. As we wait in this time in between, longing for the consummation of all things, the psalmist has much to teach us about how to live. I would suggest at least three ways to approach such times of lament, which are basically the same points made above but in reverse order.

1. Like the psalmist, we can and should engage in lament. It is good and appropriate for us to sing out to God of our earnest desire for his deliverance.

2. Like the psalmist, we can in the midst of our troubles remember who our God is. We can sing our praises of his greatness and goodness, of his steadfast love and faithfulness.

3. Like the psalmist, we can remind ourselves of those sure promises God made to the house of David of the eternal kingdom. We know who that eternal King is, and it is his love, his faithfulness, that will bring us through even the darkest of times.

As we sing with the psalmist in our lament, “Where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?” (v. 49), we can also sing with him, ultimately (as he does in the concluding verse): “Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen and amen.” Why can we do this? Because we have a God whose character is beyond comparison, which shines forth from day to day in his glorious creation. We know that he is the one whose steadfast love and faithfulness endure forever. We have the sure promises of our eternal messianic king, who hears us in our lament and whose deliverance is also sure and certain. We can trust him in this time between—and for all eternity to come. Amen.

Note: This article first appeared in the fall 2025 edition of Covenant magazine. Get your copy or subscribe to Covenant .

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

– 1 Corinthians 15:12–28

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

– Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”

What should make all the difference in your life? In the words of Robert Frost’s famous poem, it is “the road less traveled” that changes everything. Theologically, that road less traveled is the road which leads from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is that road which guarantees a whole new life and one that changes everything. Every Easter (actually, every Sunday) we are confronted with two roads that promise to take us forward, but only one of those roads truly leads to life.

The Well-Traveled Path

On the one hand, there is the well-worn path of this world promising life to those who will grab, scrape, work, and preserve. It is life secured by our own blood, sweat, and tears. It is the American way of life. Life comes to those who work hard.

• We work to preserve the health and beauty of our bodies.

• We work to secure our incomes and the standard of life we desire.

• We work to escape the penalty of our mistakes and misdemeanors.

Upon this road you may even find a sign posted saying, “Pray like it all depends upon God, yet work like it all depends upon you.” That is a common saying from my childhood, which sought to reinforce the importance of life secured through diligent effort. No wonder we don’t pray upon this road. While we give lip service to God’s presence, we live like all that matters is the work we do. Life is something I earn. Life is something I have accomplished.

The Road Less Traveled

On the other hand, there’s Easter. Easter greets us as a road less traveled, inviting our steps and holding forth promise. It definitely starts as a fork in the road. To be upon this path is to say no to every other path of life and cling to the work of another. This is the life guaranteed by resurrection and is the road of Jesus—the road of Resurrection Life.

On this road, we discover that it is God who is the one passionate about life and not we ourselves. It is God who has pursued us. It is God who has imparted life to us. It is God who has found us; we did not find him. The road of Resurrection Life is the road where God vindicates his great love and his great work. Life is not found by those who work hard for it; it is enjoyed by those who get caught in the rising tide of resurrection.

According to the apostle Paul, the resurrection of Jesus set in motion an irreversible sequence of events guaranteeing life for all who are connected to Christ. It is the Resurrection Road that makes all the difference. This Easter, as we again contemplate the great realities of life and death, let us consider Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:12–28, which unpack for us the abiding significance of our commonly held conviction that Jesus has indeed been resurrected from the grave.

The message is clear: Because Christ has risen to new life, we too may now enter into new life.

But how? How do we travel this road, one guaranteed not by our steps but the steps of Christ? Our passage provides three insights to guide us on this journey: (1) We are no longer under the sentence of death; (2) We are no longer in our sins; (3) We are no longer powerless in our struggle.

1. We are no longer under the sentence of death (vv. 16, 20–23)

Paul’s first point is straightforward. Those with whom he is arguing had denied the physical resurrection of believers at the final day. They had imagined their everlasting rest as disembodied and merely spiritual. Even so, it was incontrovertible that Christ rose on the third day in a glorious resurrection body (vv. 1–4). Yet, as Paul argues, if there is no resurrection from the dead for believers (v. 12), how could there also be a resurrection of Jesus Christ (v. 13)? If we deny our own resurrection, then we are also denying the resurrection of Christ. 

What is Paul’s point, you ask. Christ’s resurrection is a foretaste of what is to come, the “firstfruits” of the resurrection of every believer (v. 20). Firstfruits does not only refer to “firstness” either, but, like the offerings of the Old Testament, is representative of the whole harvest that is devoted unto God. As the firstfruits of the resurrection, then, Christ is the guarantee that we ourselves will be resurrected. Death has no hold upon us. In fact, death is no longer death for the Christian. Rather, it becomes our entry into New Life.

The late pastor and author Eugene H. Peterson once said,

Procrastinated death is a legacy of modern medicine. In a culture where life is reduced to heartbeat and brainwave, death can never be accepted as having meaning beyond itself. Since there is no more to life than can be accounted for by biology—no meaning, no spirituality, no salvation—increasingly desperate attempts are made to put it off, to delay it, to deny it.

The Resurrection means that death does not have to be denied, nor should it be feared. In fact, at its appropriate time it can even be embraced because it is entry into a far more joyous and substantial life.

We sometimes forget this, especially in the midst of grief at the loss of a loved one or in a long season of illness when God doesn’t bring immediate relief. In such times, though, we must remember that we travel the road of the resurrection. For the Christian, death is not the final sentence nor is it God’s “no.” Indeed, it’s God’s great “yes” and entryway into our glorious everlasting life.

2. We are no longer in our sins (vv. 17–19)

Turning from our future promise to our present hope, perhaps the nearest blessing associated with Christ’s resurrection is the forgiveness of our sins. According to Paul, if Christ is not risen, we “are still in our sins” (v. 17). But, of course, Christ has been raised—and for those who are connected to him by faith, the new life of the resurrection means that we are freed from sin’s penalty.

Whereas the resurrection guarantees the future resurrection of our bodies, the resurrection right now guarantees freedom from our sins. We don’t have to wait for the resurrection’s ultimate impact on our lives. As those forgiven, the resurrection power has already begun.

In John Bunyan’s classic The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian sets out on his journey still carrying the load of his sin upon his back. As the Holy Spirit gradually reveals that this is a load he cannot bear, he is led to the place where the burden of sin can be removed. Of course, he is led to the Cross of Christ. There, Bunyan says, was “Christian glad and lightsome, saying with a merry heart, ‘He hath given me rest.’”

Indeed, the resurrection of Christ is the vindication that Jesus’s cross-bearing work truly atoned for all our sin, offering us full forgiveness and received now by faith. It is not enough to confess that Jesus has risen or that we too will rise; we must also joyfully claim the promise of Christ’s resurrection for us now. Are you living in the knowledge that the guilt and power of your sin have already been broken? Don’t forget the resurrection means something now!

3. We are no longer powerless in our struggle (vv. 23–28)

Finally, let’s not miss that the rising tide of the resurrection overwhelms every power and authority arrayed against Christ and his Kingdom. Notice what the apostle Paul writes in verses 24–25: “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”

Here, Paul affirms the struggle against the temptations of this world and the snares of the devil with which every Christian is familiar. Yet he speaks about them as defeated foes. In his mind, the Resurrection means certain defeat for every enemy of God and all our enemies too. In the words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism Q. 26,

How does Christ execute the office of a king?

Christ executes the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

As we consider the conflicts across the globe, the political strife at home, and the decline of virtuous Christian conduct in the church, it sometimes feels as if the Enemy is winning—in this world and in our hearts. I resonate with my friend and pastor, Zack Eswine, who described his own experience, “Sometimes I greet the morning like a troubled atheist, lost in a God-empty story that cannot handle what frightens me.” Indeed, there is nothing the Devil would love more than for us to believe the resurrection makes no difference and that we are all alone. To all those perennial doubts and persistent feelings of powerlessness, though, the resurrection shouts victorious power. The resurrection of our Lord is vindication that we are not living in a God-empty story but in one soaked with his sacrificing presence and power. The resurrection is the assurance that our Lord has disarmed these powers that had formerly threatened to undo us. The answer in our current struggle against temptation and fear is to faithfully lay claim to this fact, recognizing that these powers have been disarmed.

This is freeing in another way too. As those who share in the power of Christ’s resurrection now, we really can say no to temptation and yes to new life. This owes not to our strength, but to the strength of the resurrection into which we have entered.

So, let’s claim not only our forgiveness but Christ’s present power as we seek to live for him and bring about his Kingdom in this world!

Taking the Road That Matters

In reality, the Resurrection Road of new life is the only road of life. All other roads, no matter how well-traveled, are roads of death. So, this Easter let us take up this path. Let us find ourselves on the Resurrection Road.

Just as Paul and Silas said to the Philippian jailer in Acts 16: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” And as the angel said to the women at Jesus’s empty tomb, “He is not here, but has risen” (Matt. 28:6). Our Savior has been raised up! Because he has, we will be too—yet even now we live in the resurrection power of the new life in Christ. Like the road less traveled, it is Christ’s resurrection that makes all the difference!

The first lecture in this series focused on the ways in which our culture has shifted over the last several decades from one grounded to some degree in Christian values and worldview to one more properly considered pluralistic and even pagan. Lecture 2 dealt with the nature of God’s holiness and the innate human need for the transcendence and purpose that can only be found in God himself. In this lecture I want to talk about the way divine holiness shapes our approach to apologetics itself, not so much in terms of the arguments we make, but in the way in which we make them—what Francis Schaeffer called “doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way.”

We’ll anchor our reflections in the apostle Peter’s first letter to the churches in Asia, a text richly infused with themes of holiness. The goal is to show that central to the task of Christian apologetics in a pagan age there must be (1) a holy people who testify to Christ with (2) holy works and (3) holy words.

Holy People

We don’t have to go very far into Peter’s letter to find our first point amply attested. Peter addresses his audience in the first verse as “elect exiles” (ESV) or “strangers scattered” (AV) through Asia by God’s will, consecrated by the Spirit, and sprinkled with the blood of Christ for obedience—immediately situating this people as distinct from those around them by the providence of God and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit as being in unique covenantal relationship with the Lord.

Peter drives the point home a few verses later, quoting Leviticus 19:2, when he calls people to obedience as children because “as he who called you is holy, you shall be holy in all your conduct, since is it written ‘you shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Pet. 1:15–16). For this reason, they are to “not be conformed to the passions of” their former ignorance, but to conduct themselves with holy reverence of their Father in heaven (v. 17), not in “the futile ways inherited from your forefathers” from whom they had been ransomed by the death of Christ (vv. 17–19).

This is all confirmed and expanded in chapter 2, where Peter says that believers are now “living stones” being “built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:4–5). Indeed, they are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (2:9).

This body of believers made up of first-century Jews and Gentiles has just had applied to them the core theological identity markers and texts associated with the distinctive and unique existence of Israel as Israel in relation to God. The church is pictured here not as a replacement for Israel or a different body than Israel; rather, it is seen as Israel continued, Israel expanded, Israel being fulfilled. In other words, the church has existed since Adam, through Israel, and now continues in the New Testament church. From this we can draw out three points about our created, derivative holiness as the church.

1. Holiness is for the sake of others.
This idea is constant across the testaments. In Exodus 19, when God made the covenant with Israel after the Exodus, he named them a kingdom of priests, a treasured possession, a nation set apart from all the nations in order to serve God on their behalf. Holiness in created things is a consecration and devotion unto the service of the Lord. In Israel’s case, their unique purpose was to live in relation to God in such a way that brought him glory and testified to the nations what life in relation to the true God was like so that one day they might be drawn to Zion and taught by its people (Isaiah 2; Micah 4). The difference between the nations is aimed at making a difference among the nations. This has not changed in the New Testament.

2. Holiness is a corporate reality.
This point should be obvious from what has been said so far: individual holiness is of immense, significant, irreplaceable importance, but Scripture places an equal ultimacy, if not a primacy, on the corporate identity of the people of God. One can be individually a citizen of a nation, even perhaps a holy citizen; but one cannot be a nation—much less a holy nation—by oneself. Indeed, some of what holiness involves is actually impossible without a shared corporate life.

3. Holiness still marks the people of God as different in important ways.
Obviously, the church is no longer differentiated from the world and the nations by key ethnic, national, or linguistic markers, and is not required to observe circumcision or the dietary laws and or purity rituals of Israel. The events of Pentecost pushed the gospel out to the already-waiting Jewish diaspora churches and the various Gentile nations with their many distinct tongues, languages, and customs. And yet, a difference still remains—there is a distinction, a set-apartness, that still marks out Christians from their neighbors. We have been born of spiritual seed into a living hope. We have an inheritance in heaven. In Paul’s language, we are in Christ, while the world is in Adam. Some Christians have understood this apartness as radical separation from the world; others have understood it as varying degrees of being “in the world but not of it.” To flesh this out, I quote at length a famous passage from the ancient Epistle to Diognetus on the distinctiveness of Christians; it is possibly the best description of such holiness ever written:

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity.

The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life.

They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives.

They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

– Epistle to Diognetus 5

Thus, the holiness of the people of God is marked, primarily, by the distinctness of their moral behavior among the various peoples from which they have been drawn, and among whom they live. That holiness no longer consists in retreating or cloistering in sanctified, set-apart holy lands or communities, or in distinctive ways of dress and speech (except for those that convey modesty or love and loyalty to God). Rather, as the author of the Epistle says later, Christians are in the world in the way the soul is in the body—distinct from it but diffuse throughout it.

Two temptations emerge here. One is for believers to be so intent on living among the nations in a non-confrontational way that they downplay or compromise the more challenging aspects of their beliefs to gain a hearing for the gospel—only to have nothing meaningful to say when they do speak. The other is to over-emphasize our set-apartness and create such a sharp distinction between us and those we’re trying to reach that we forget that the difference is supposed to be for the sake and redemption of those others, not our own safety or comfort. Rather than either extreme, our holiness is to be like that of Jesus Christ, who came into the world and lived among people who were his own yet who were unlike him due to their sin. For it to be of any use, his holy set-apartness had to be immanent and among the people. Likewise for us: we are called to live distinctly from our neighbors, but we are also called to live among them for their sake and for God’s glory.

This idea comes across clearly in Francis Schaeffer’s works of apologetics. He never lost sight of the distinction between the church and the world, the believer and the unbeliever. Yet, he could not have started a ministry like L’Abri or answered people’s difficult questions the way he did without also having a distinctive love for the lost and a sense of their deep need for what the church possesses.

Holy Works

So, we are to be a holy people with hearts for others as we give witness to our holy God through our holy works and holy words. But what exactly does this look like? Again, 1 Peter provides a helpful guide for understanding:

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. – 1 Peter 2:11–12

We have a clear injunction here that whatever Christian holiness looks like, it will need to include a negative moment—we are to abstain from the passions of the flesh, because they war against our souls. What are these passions? Peter cited Leviticus 19 earlier, but it’s worth recognizing that that text is sandwiched by Leviticus 18 and 20, which list the various sins of the pagan nations around the Israelites. Old Testament scholars often talk about the big three, those which caused moral impurity so severe that there could be no ordinary atonement for them: idolatry, sexual immorality, and bloodshed. These sins were rampant in pagan Greco-Roman society; sadly, they still are so in our own time.

In the ancient world, the Christian refusal to bow down before other gods was one significant reason for the persecution they endured. Their steadfastness in their loyalty to the true God brought pain and death to many of them, but it also drew many outsiders to the faith as they saw the courage and grace with which the Christians faced their sufferings.

Sexual immorality of all kinds pervaded the ancient world as well, and the Christian understanding of the sacredness of the human body and the holiness of intimate relations as expressed in marriage between one man and one woman would have been seen as outrageous in many contexts, but the testimony of early church shows us that the Christian view of monogamous heterosexual relations overturned centuries of Greco-Roman thought, brought a deeper equality between men and women, put a stop to the gross sexual exploitation of slaves, brought dignity to victims of sexual assault, and much more.

As for bloodshed—from perpetual wars to the horrors of human sacrifice to all kinds of deadly economic exploitation to the ultimate abomination of abortion—the Christian culture of life, the forbidding of abortion, the erasing of double standards between men and women, the rescuing of exposed children (who were more often female than male), the care and protection of the elderly, and the idea of treating others fairly and equitably in business dealings all ran counter to the prevailing philosophies and practices of the day and eventually brought about positive changes that eliminated or at least mitigated some of the worst of these offences.

The call now as it was then is for Christians to live lives of such generosity, integrity, lovingkindness, and faithfulness, and the doing of such good works among our neighbors, that even when our lives provoke hostility, slander, or hatred among unbelievers—as we are promised in Scripture will happen—we will have a good testimony that cannot be denied. The integrity in us that leads to that hostility must be accompanied by the sort of faithfulness that also provokes astonished praise of God.

Christian history abounds with stories of saints and saintly communities living among their neighbors in a radically loving and holy way. Roman Emperor Julian once complained that his pagan priests should be more like the Christians whose benevolence to strangers and holiness of life were drawing many away from the Roman gods. Or think of the Christians who refused to leave their cities during the plague but stayed to take care of dying neighbors, often dying themselves but leaving behind a legacy of new believers brought to faith by their actions. Such living is needed now no less than in the past so that holy works provoke glory for God even out of the mouths of those who are most offended by our holiness.

Holy Words

Holy works are an important part of our apologetic practice. But so are holy words. Once again, 1 Peter provides an anchor for us because it’s here that we find our classic text on apologetics. Peter encourages his readers,

Even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. – 1 Peter 3:14–17

Apologetics is fundamentally a matter of testifying wisely, “giving a reason” for the Christian hope within you in a particular way. According to Peter, the central logic undergirding this practice is our ability to “honor Christ the Lord as holy” in our hearts. Scholars note that Peter is alluding here to Isaiah 8, in which, as the southern kingdom of Judah faces imminent invasion from hostile nations to the north, the Lord assures King Ahaz through Isaiah that the counsel of the nations will not stand because God is with his people (Isa. 8:9–10). Thus, God’s people should not look at their enemies and “fear what they fear, nor be in dread” but rather, look to the Lord: “him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” (vv. 12–13).

Giving respect, honor, and ultimate weight to the Lord is what it means to “honor him as holy.” It is to set God apart by recognizing him as the Lord, the King of the hosts of heaven, the One enthroned between the cherubim and hymned by the seraphim (6:3); the consuming fire of Israel, the divine flame whose glory consumes his enemies (10:17); the powerful One whose holy arm had redeemed his people time and again (52:10). It is to recognize that he alone is God Almighty and he alone is his people’s ultimate hope against paltry earthly powers. Peter has this context in view as he urges his suffering readers to take heart in the same way. They should “have no fear” (1 Pet. 3:14) for their opponents can only kill the body. Instead, they should fear the One who is Lord over body and soul (Matt. 10:28).

This has several implications for our apologetic task; we’ll note just three.

1. Be willing to “suffer for righteousness’ sake.”
Honoring Christ as holy gives us the willingness to suffer because it cuts the taproot that undermines so much of our apologetic practice—simple fear of man. We are to make our hope known and not to fear what we might suffer at the hands of our opponents. For many Christians around the world today, the temptation to keep their faith private may come with the threat of violence, property loss, public slander, and even death. Most of us in the post-Christian West don’t ever face losing their lives, but slander, lawsuits, the loss of a job or, occasionally, imprisonment may loom. For some, the loss of relationships, or the loss of respect in the workplace or classroom may be enough of a threat to keep them quiet. For others, it may be the fear of being seen as awkward, pushy, or uneducated. Those who do speak up may be tempted to concede intellectual or moral points they don’t hold, or to massage or dilute certain doctrines seen as “peripheral” or “secondary” in order to share the gospel.

However, such attempts to hedge are merely a form of intellectual cowardice and a lack of conviction that Jesus, the Holy One, is the foolishness of God who is wiser than human wisdom (1 Cor. 1:25). Fearing Jesus Christ as holy includes remembering that the chief revelation of his holiness—his atoning death and resurrection by which he suffered and conquered all we could fear most—truly is the power of God unto salvation. If our fear is Jesus, we know we can lose nothing that his power cannot restore a hundredfold in the coming day of vindication (Matt. 19:29).

2. Learn to answer “with gentleness and respect.”
Fearing Christ as holy also enables us to defend the faith with “gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15). How? If our aim is to respect and honor Christ, we will be attentive to honoring people made in his image, blessing them and not cursing them—even in response to their own curses (Matt. 5:11–12; James 3:9–10). This attentiveness includes honoring the fact that they are made with rational capacities that shouldn’t be hijacked with cheap, high-pressure tactics but addressed with appeals that honor both the affections and the intellect.

I have found that most belligerent, disrespectful attempts to defend the faith stem from a basic lack of trust in Christ’s power to convert or a lack of assurance of the gospel’s truth. Some of the times I have been most tempted to bluster, to browbeat, to speak dismissively, or to engage in ad hominem arguments stem from being worried that my own argument isn’t working. The reality is that I don’t like to be wrong so sinful human pride gets in the way of my witness, making my glory instead of Christ’s glory my heart’s aim.

In other cases, my anxious anger reveals that I’m struggling to believe Christ really is holy—that his power, not my ability to persuade, saves the sinner. But when I recall that “salvation belongs to the Lord” (Jonah 2:9), this assurance can allow me to do my best to witness to my Lord and entrust the results to him. At that apologetic moment, my fear needs to be in the God who vindicates himself and sanctifies his own name (Ezek. 39:7). Apologetics that honors Christ as holy sees the apologist not as the prime mover in the event but as a servant of the Lord, a tool in the hand of his ever-effective Master.

3. Have “a good conscience” before the Lord."
This is a corollary of the last two points in a couple of ways. First, when you proceed with gentleness and respect out of fear of Christ, there’s less chance you can rightly be reproached by your opponents for anything. A key component of answering about the hope within is exhibiting a credible character consistent with that hope, which begins to make critics’ accusations look like unbelievable slander.

Second, wanting to honor Christ as holy in all things keeps our focus on the One before whom we’re actually giving an account. We may be testifying to our neighbors, but we do so before the face of the Lord Jesus, and while we never want to add unnecessary offense to the gospel, if our chief fear is Christ, not the other person’s wounded (and perhaps aggressive) moral sensibilities, we will give clear testimony to the truth of his Word as best we can.

One mistake two different kinds of apologists make here is to assume that the level of another person’s offense at what we say is a measure of how faithful we have been in our task. One type of apologist believes that if he does everything right and says everything with love the other person will not be triggered. Another type of apologist believes that unless the other person is triggered in some way by what he has said, he hasn’t been faithful to the truth. Neither position is correct.

Third, having a clear conscience in your witness to Christ motivates you to engage more fully in preparation to do so. It is right and good to trust that the Holy Spirit will give you the words you need on the day you’re dragged before the authorities (Luke 12:11–12), but that doesn’t rule out timely and reasonable preparation for that day by studying the Scriptures, reading apologetic works, growing in your knowledge of theology, and so on, so that you might indeed have an answer at hand when needed.

Finally, honoring Christ as holy constantly involves a reminder that he is the One who “suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18). That this is the ultimate source of our clean conscience before the Father. At the end of the day, this keeps us humble before our opponents, over whom we have nothing to boast about, and makes us eager to testify to God’s grace.

Living with Reverent Awe for the Sake of Others

Peter’s call to honor Christ as holy isn’t a mere abstraction—it’s rooted in his encounter with Jesus’s holiness in Luke 5 and the reaffirmation he experiences in John 21.

When Peter first witnessed Christ’s divine power in a miraculous catch of fish, he fell to his knees like Isaiah before the throne of God and cried, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). Peter recognized Jesus not just as a teacher but as the Holy One who exposed his unworthiness even as he called him into a new life as a fisher of men. And after the resurrection, when Jesus met Peter by the Sea of Tiberias with another miraculous catch (following Peter’s cowardly unwillingness to suffer for his Savior), it was another gracious, visible sign of Jesus’s holy power still at work and available to him.

That same reverent awe—fearing Christ above all—shaped Peter’s call to witness. Just as Peter moved from fearful failure to faithful witness, we too are called to let Christ’s holiness embolden us, freeing us from the fear of man and empowering us to testify with both courage and humility. When we anchor our apologetics in the transformative vision of Christ’s power, his majesty, and his unique glory, then we don’t defend mere arguments—we bear witness to the living Lord who alone is worthy of our ultimate trust.

Note: This article first appeared in the fall 2025 edition of Covenant magazine. Get your copy or subscribe to Covenant .

As we consider these questions, we’ll discuss here four potential explanations that have been offered. Two of these, while having some merit, I believe fail to get at the heart of the matter; the other two, I think, come closer to helping us understand the real issues affecting how and why pastors fail, and the church’s own role in that process.

Explanation 1: Pastors do not Fail in Great Numbers; The Press and Social Media Foster the Illusion of a Problem

It is tempting to blame the press for publicizing the problem. The argument would be: Most pastors are faithful and honorable, and problems are overreported, since the press loves scandals, especially if they involve leaders. Rising antipathy toward the church also makes signs of hypocrisy appealing to editors. Further, the current fascination with victims prompts publication of allegations of abuse, which often prove false. And social media spreads uncertain allegations even if they never appear in the traditional press.

There is a measure of truth in these points, and exposing corruption and oppression from any quarter has long been an essential part of the press’s vocation. But even so, too many pastors do fail both morally and spiritually. And church leaders are not the only ones whose failings are broadcast far and wide; we also hear about those of politicians, athletes, business leaders, and entertainers. The church cannot complain of preferential mistreatment. The fact is, we do have a real problem. Yes, most pastors are godly men, but I personally have known six or seven who took their own lives, three who were caught in adultery, one or two who were bullies, one who misappropriated funds, and several liars. We cannot blame the press if church leaders violate the very norms they proclaim to uphold.

The church should never just accept such moral failure in its leaders—and yet, we should anticipate it. The Bible clearly and openly recounts the sins of Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Peter, and many others, thus preparing us to deal with straying leaders. Some of those leaders may be restored to their positions even after a failure, as those on this list were; others will not. Similarly, Paul instructed Timothy, Titus, and the Ephesian elders to expect godless opposition from within. Therefore, while we never tolerate moral failure, we can acknowledge and investigate it.

It is difficult to track the whole career of any group, pastors included, but some statistics from one group I am associated with helps clarify. Of the eighty members on the board and council of this organization from 2005 to 2022, all but five or six are still faithfully engaged in ministry or honorably retired. Of the other five, one is now de-churched; two saw their calls end, apparently for failure in fulfilling duties; two were dismissed for abuse of power; and one situation is ongoing at this writing. Other prominent pastors have been criticized or accused of errors in leadership or pressured to resign; yet, when no formal charges or investigations take place, allegations are difficult to assess. Many charges are false, malicious, or misguided. Moreover, if charged with “mistakes in judgment,” every leader might plead guilty.

It is also hard to answer the question, “Was this pastor fundamentally faithful throughout his ministry?” A pastor can be both faithful and imperfect. Pastors face bitter accusations for giving ineffective pastoral counsel, for failing to complete planned projects, even for not performing enough hospital visits. And how shall we regard pastors who left the ministry due to exhaustion? Thus, attempts at statistical analysis are difficult, but it seems likely that (1) the church does have a problem and also that (2) the press is more likely to report on any troubles than to publish encomia to quietly good men.

Explanation 2: the Church attracts Flawed Men to the Ministry

We can confidently say that the church does indeed attract flawed men—because there is no other sort of man. Indeed, one must declare oneself a sinner even to join the church, let alone lead it. So, let’s refine our question: Does the church especially attract men with specific problems, such as narcissism or a hunger for power? Seminaries rarely detect a desire for power in their enrolled students. Classes in pastoral formation ask students to state and address their flaws; students seem to be generally forthcoming. In that setting, few confess a lust for power. Professors rarely observe it, and the relevant literature hardly mentions it. On the other hand, adults quickly learn about power. They see the value of positional authority, expert knowledge, skill, status, and other assets. Pastors are no different.

In Matthew 23:1–15, Jesus says that men seek the status that spiritual leadership confers. Teachers have authority to command and followers honor them with titles like “rabbi” and “father.” Not all leaders seek such status for its own sake, but religious organizations can certainly attract power-hungry men, and those who specifically seek this kind of power are more prone to go astray and to lead others astray. And Scripture is full of warnings of God’s displeasure with those who lead his people astray. But does the church especially attract those who yearn for power? Or do pastors learn to seek power because they often feel powerless, like they have as many bosses as their church has members?

Some suggest that narcissism is especially common among pastors. It is surely a vice that many observers believe is increasing in American society, and pastors, like anyone else, can succumb to it. In Paul’s vice list, in 2 Timothy 3:2–4, the apostle places self-love at the top: “For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents . . . slanderous . . . lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” The list begins and ends with false loves: people love themselves, money, and pleasure, rather than God. That both drives and explains the sins that follow—arrogance, brutality, and self-indulgence. A former colleague of mine once noted astutely that “Moral corruption follows from love falsely directed.” We may wonder if today’s emphasis on narcissistic pastors is exaggerated, as trends often are, but Paul does decry those who put themselves first because they love themselves most.

Chuck DeGroat, in his book When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community From Emotional and Spiritual Abuse (IVP, 2022), asserts that narcissism is especially common in pastors, perhaps because head pastors and public theologians enjoy a high profile in their circles. DeGroat says narcissistic pastors inspire their churches with lofty ministry goals, then mislead them by promoting grandiose “we are special” mythologies. If talented, their self-confidence lets them start movements, but their selfishness eventually destroys those movements. Narcissists crave power, admiration, and a stage. Lacking empathy, they exploit, devalue, and discourage others. Lacking humility and self-awareness, narcissists think they do no wrong. Therefore, if anyone calls a narcissistic pastor to account or presses him to repent, it registers as a gratuitous attack, which prompts the pastor’s rage. Meanwhile, churches that profit from the charm and skill of narcissists may rise to defend them, sometimes self-servingly, sometimes out of love for a pastor who has served the church sacrificially in desperate times.

While it is true that some teachers and preachers are vain, narcissistic, self-appointed prophets, Scripture is clear that God himself does call people to preach or speak on his behalf and to do so with authority (Acts 5:42, 9:15, Rom. 10:14–15, 1 Tim. 2:11). Thus, Paul commands Timothy—whose fault was timidity, not vanity—to “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2). Paul also says that people preach if God equips and calls them to it: “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us” (2 Cor. 5:20). Moreover, Isaiah 6, Jeremiah 1, and Amos 7 show that prophets could be most reluctant to become God’s spokesmen. To this day, many pastors testify that they long resisted God’s call. Thus, it is not quite accurate—or fair—to say that the pastorate specifically attracts narcissists.

Indeed, some refer to the necessity of what might be called “healthy narcissism,” which is marked by confidence rather than certainty, and by empathy, clarity, humility, and curiosity. Though helpful, the term “healthy narcissism” may sound like an oxymoron. How are we to assess this? If a professional athlete says he is stronger and faster than most people, is he being narcissistic or simply stating a fact? If lawyers and politicians say they are intelligent and capable speakers, is that narcissism or realism?

In his influential book (Free Press, 1973), Ernest Becker asserts that “a working level of narcissism is inseparable from self-esteem, from a basic sense of self-worth.” Psychologists link healthy narcissism to proper self-protection, a sense of agency, security, adequate self-respect, and the will to make plans. Healthy narcissists may think they are slightly exceptional, which gives us pause. Yet everyone is exceptional in the sense that each person has a mix of gifts and experiences that equip them to do justice, love mercy, and live faithfully. Perhaps psychologists are too enthusiastic about healthy narcissism, but healthy self-regard seems necessary for leaders in all sorts of vital professions. Pastors especially need confidence, fearlessness, and ego strength lest they collapse under the many pressures and often scathing criticisms they may endure. They need confidence and a capacity to win people in order to stand up in public and preach and teach each week. Those these traits and skills can certainly be abused, and sometimes are, they are not in themselves evil.

Some preachers do love to be the center of attention, but many have a love-hate relationship with preaching, agonizing every Saturday night and every Sunday morning, thinking, “Why would anyone want to listen to me? Surely, this sermon is so disorganized, banal, inconsistent, and inert that I will finally be unmasked.” Most pastors seem to experience similar self-doubt, even self-recrimination. But they persist because they believe God has called them to this work. In short, it is ill-advised to focus on narcissism and neglect its common antithesis: crippling self-doubt. Perhaps we must seek further and deeper for a plausible explanation for pastoral failure.

Explanation 3: The Church Often Focuses on Seeking Pastoral Skill or Talent Instead of Emphasizing Godly Character

Scripture demands that potential church leaders show godly character. Unfortunately, a pastor’s maturity can parallel his knowledge of biblical languages—strong at the start, then steadily declining. Meanwhile, churches are too often concerned with a potential pastor’s visible skills and abilities, with too little emphasis on discerning—and helping to promote and foster—his growth in godly character.

The Bible tells us much about pastoral qualifications. In the Old Testament, when God constituted Israel as his holy nation, he established a high code for everyone. The law rarely mentions additional moral qualifications for prophets, priests, or kings, perhaps because the role of priest and king were hereditary and because the Lord himself called prophets. But the torah focuses on the tasks or duties of these offices and Deuteronomy 17:14–20 says that kings must not live for privilege or wealth as manifested in horses, wives, gold, or silver. Kings must follow the law and must not exalt themselves. Proverbs 31:4–5 directs kings to a heightened standard; instead of indulging themselves (especially in strong drink), they deny themselves so as not to “forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.”

The Gospels weave character and skills together seamlessly. Jesus focused on the character of all disciples, not just the twelve. What he said to everyone applies to leaders, but Jesus uniquely “appointed the twelve . . . that they might be with him” and learn how to minister from his example (Mark 3:15). Then, when Jesus commissioned them to proclaim the kingdom, he charged them to follow his example (Matt. 10:25). The Book of Acts, meanwhile, emphasizes the tasks of the apostles; they witness to Jesus’s person and work (Acts 1:8, 22). Yet, when the church chooses deacons, it accents character traits—wisdom and fullness of the Spirit (6:3, 5).

We see the same dual emphasis on tasks and character in the Pastoral Epistles, but 1 Timothy 3:1–7, Paul’s long description of leaders, accents character more than skills or gifts.

If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? (1 Tim. 3:1–3)

When Paul mentions the “task” of an overseer, we expect a description of duties, but he then lists eleven moral traits and names just two skills. This implies that a leader’s first task is character formation. For Paul, to do the work one must first be the man. Notice also that the traits of 1 Timothy 3 correspond to the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5. No Greek word appears in both passages, but the terms for self-control and gentleness overlap so much that English translations often use the same terms for them. More important, we see the fruit of the Spirit expressed in action in 1 Timothy 3:1–7, Titus 1:5–9, and 2 Timothy 2:24–25.

This suggests that Paul expects overseers to experience the fruit of the Spirit and to express that fruit publicly. Leaders also manifest character in the world. Paul also states these character requirements for an overseer in a public letter. Because Paul published the list, the church can call leaders to account.

Pastors prove their moral quality in public by the way they treat their families. A man “must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” (1 Tim. 3:4–5). Fathers can get compliance through force and threats, but godly fathers are kind, winning their children with love that fosters respect, including obedience without grumbling. An overseer must also be the “husband of one wife.” While this could mean that an elder cannot be single, divorced, remarried, or polygamous, the Greek literally says that he must be a “man of one woman” or “a one-woman man,” which most exegetes take to mean he must be a faithful, exemplary husband. Every point Paul makes about parenting and marriage applies to church leadership as well: a man who cannot care well for his own family, whom he knows best and loves most, cannot manage Christ’s church.

If 1 Timothy 3:1–7 implies “character first,” then 1 Timothy 4:12–16 implies that character, skills, and duties belong together. This passage shows that the church rightly seeks skilled leaders. Paul requires Timothy, his protégé, to manifest both character and ability in equal measure. The solution to the problem of high-skill, low-character leaders is to develop leaders with both skill and character. First Timothy 4:12–13 names three skills—speech, exhortation, and teaching—and three virtues—love, faith, and purity: “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Keep a close watch on yourself [character] and on the teaching.” Clearly, “speech” and “conduct” touch on both tasks and character. Speech is crucial since pastors talk so much and so publicly. Thus, good conduct enhances a pastor’s speech, which can be a problem area for some. We flatter our friends, slander absent foes, and change our positions to please our hearers. When caught in sin, we spin self-exculpatory tales and disregard our accusers. If we confess, we promise to submit to discipline, then evade it. These sins call for repentance and pastors should be the first to repent.

Paul also charges Timothy to devote himself “to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.” These are essential pastoral tasks that includes study and comprehension of, and reflection on the Scriptures, and the ability to exhort people to follow them. To preach and teach effectively, pastors must adorn their words with godly character. Peter’s charge to elders has the same dual emphasis on tasks and character: They are to “shepherd the flock of God . . . exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly . . .not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock” (1 Pet. 5:2–4). That is the way of the Lord.

The biblical testimony to the centrality of character is clear. The church knows this and generally pursues men of character, yet many pastors still fail morally. How can this be?

Explanation 4: The Church Often Fails to Exercise the Ongoing Care That Nurtures Lifelong Fidelity and Prevents Moral or Spiritual Decline

A man I know with decades of experience as an elder once said, “Pastors seem like politicians: They start with a sincere desire to reform the system and end up compromised or corrupted by it.” My experience as a professor and pastor corroborates this. Each year, our Seminary faculty evaluates the character of the graduates we send into pastoral ministry. In the past, we typically had concerns about one or two students per year; if only it were that few in recent years! Let’s therefore now ask: Do pastors falter because latent weaknesses surface when they gain authority? Or do churches act in ways that corrupt their pastors? Surely, both are true to some extent.

Churches certainly can mistreat their pastors. In recent years, for example, church wars over politics and vaccines led many to turn on their pastors. Yet, pastors have always faced bitter criticism. After twenty years of faithful and fruitful ministry, an internationally respected pastor had grown so weary of attacks from his congregation that he concluded that he had to build a wall between himself and his people or he had to leave the ministry. Too many pastors I know would resonate with this experience.

But even apart from such attacks, pastors can falter, losing their taste for holiness. Paul Tripp, in his book (Crossway, 2012), compares them to middle-aged men who say they want to stay fit but gain five pounds per year: the gap between stated and actual values is both manifest and injurious. The loss of gentleness, an essential for pastoral ministry (Gal. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:25), illustrates both sides of the issue. In an effort to guard themselves from criticism, many pastors harden themselves in order to endure, but this eventually makes them harsh toward others. Some seek solace in adultery, deception, or bullying; others simply fall into these sins on their own. They probably met the criteria of 1 Timothy 3 earlier in their ministries, but something went wrong. How can churches help their leaders stay faithful?

First, we can intervene when we see pastors, however talented, start to stray. One year, I arrived to speak at a pastors’ conference and learned that the conference’s founder and director had been dismissed days earlier after a long affair with a staffer. The event’s remaining leaders berated themselves, for they had seen evidence of misbehavior for years but had refused to identify it. Their leader was talented and charismatic. He had mentored them, so they convinced themselves that they had misread signs of impropriety that were, in retrospect, all too obvious. Willingness on the part of leadership to confront such sins honestly is necessary for the health of the pastor and the church.

It is hardest to correct a rogue pastor when there is no structure for oversight and accountability. Connectional and hierarchical churches have more resources, but they can ignore and hide problems too. Counselor Dan Allender says the church needs prophets to shout that the emperor—the talented leader who strays—has no clothes, no godliness. Prophets must undermine the foolish narratives that serve corrupt or narcissistic leaders, such as: “I am a great man, but my wife resents my status and fails to appreciate my skills and burdens. But behold, I have found an admirer, and she does recognize my eminence. She is tender and encouraging.” This can lead to emotional or physical affairs. Proverbs long ago described the seductive flatterer and the sad results (Prov. 5:3).

It is easier to correct a leader with low status. For example, in my younger days as solo pastor of a small church, I once played basketball with church members in a local league. Being tall, I could—and did—easily block many shots by the opposing team. My blocks were all clean, but the referee for whatever reason called every one of them foul. In my frustration, I shouted (rather rudely) to the ref that he needed to pay better attention. A deacon on our team swiftly rebuked me: “You can’t shout at the ref like that.” I protested, “But he’s awful. All those blocks were good.” The deacon replied, “We know that, but you’re our pastor.” I fumed, “When I’m on the court, I’m a basketball player, not a pastor.” The deacon corrected me again: “Yes, on the court, you are a basketball player. But you are always our pastor.” Because he was older and wiser, he felt able to admonish me, and I admitted that he was right. But what if I had been the senior pastor of a very large and influential church in that same situation? Would anyone have dared to call me out on my rudeness? More likely, excuses would be made and defenses offered.

Americans often assume that church growth is proof of merit. Because gifted preachers, teachers, and musicians spur growth, churches seek people with those skills. No one intends to ignore character issues, but we persuade ourselves that with proper mentoring, we can fix flawed young leaders, so the church can benefit from their gifts. Ample recent evidence shows how church leaders can be seemingly blind to a talented pastor’s flaws. Unfortunately, gifts lead to rapid ascent and flaws can cause swift collapse. Many ministries never recover. Therefore, if only for pragmatic reasons, the church should focus on godly character—but chiefly we should do so because God does.

Churches often investigate character when they examine candidates for ordination and when ordained pastors prepare for a new call. These interviews typically focus on traditional topics—family, spiritual disciplines, and sense of calling. We rarely ask if leaders keep promises, control anger, love wealth, seek reconciliation after breaches in relationships, or practice hospitality. Can the prospective leader both lead and follow? Does he know how to work hard but also know how to rest? Does he have friends? What happens when he disagrees with someone? Does he pray over it? Does he listen to the other party well enough to state the issue in terms the other would recognize?

The church rightly notices abuse of authority and sexual sins, but we dare not overlook the more common sins. Trouble can start so innocently. Consider a picnic that follows the second worship service. The sermon prompts people to seek the pastor for counsel or prayer, which causes the pastor to be last in line for the picnic food. Since he must lead an event that starts soon after, he anticipates missing lunch (again). An observant woman sees this and gives the pastor her slot in line, but a grump snipes: “I thought pastors were supposed to put others first!” That could be a jest, but the pastor detects anger and shudders. His supporters shield and defend him. Slowly, walls go up, and few can correct him. The team also decides to bring meals to his office to prevent food problems. He is so thankful for them at first, but in time comes to expect them, and then requires them. When he travels, he also drifts toward ever nicer hotel rooms; he needs proper sleep to fulfill his duties, right?

It can happen to anyone. When I took my first senior leadership position, a mentor told me, “Now you are important. People will want to do things for you; let them.” If he meant, “Make good use of your administrative assistant,” he was right. But people also offer tickets to sporting events and the use of second homes for vacations. The gifts come from people who know their pastor’s burdens and modest salary. The leader is thankful, but if he is careless, he may come to expect such favors. The problem is real, even if the root is drift, not evil intent.

Recommendations

In considering the root cause of pastoral failures, we reject the idea that we are witnessing a media-driven pseudo-problem. Many leaders have seduced congregants, become impossibly selfish, or abused power. But we also doubt that the church uniquely attracts abusers and narcissists. The claim merits investigation, but we need to separate “healthy narcissism,” or confidence, from unhealthy narcissism. By contrast, the church does seem to seek skill or talent more than character, and too many pastors seem to start well and then falter, perhaps on their own, perhaps because the church damages them. This also merits further study.

In light of all this, it seems right to mention a few ways to help enhance godliness in leaders. First, let the church ensure that pastoral candidates have mentors who regularly inquire after their character and promote it. With 2 Timothy 3 in mind, let’s ask if candidates love God and neighbor, or self and pleasure. Let us ask if they can both lead and follow, if people are glad to be on their team, if they know how to work, how to rest, and how to handle conflict.

Second, pastors need friends who know, love, and gently correct them (Gal. 6:1). Such friends will ensure that pastors have time for rest and reflection and will protect them from personal attacks and senseless criticism. This may require a godly intolerance for malcontents whose lives contradict the gospel (Gal. 2:11–14). Throughout, the church must heed truth-tellers who address the enemies of peace. We also need prophets to challenge sycophants who gain status by praising powerful church leaders.

At best, pastors will lead beautiful lives that silence accusers. Personal peace will give them time to pursue godliness and to fulfill their tasks—teaching, preaching, making disciples, praying—from a love of Jesus and his people, not from a desire for self-serving power or status.

Note: This article first appeared in the fall 2025 edition of Covenant magazine. Get your copy or subscribe to Covenant here.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

– John 1:1–14 (ESV)

Everybody loves Christmas. Even many people who would not call themselves Christians enjoy the beauty of the season and its message of joy, peace, and hope. Our familiarity with Christmas is not without its problems, though. As believers, we tend to think we already understand it. We already “get it,” so Christmas no longer astonishes us. It no longer shocks our sensibilities. It no longer makes us stop and consider the course of our lives. Yet, this is just the sort of impact Christmas—which celebrates the infinitely sublime incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ—should have on us and on our lives. If we would stop to consider exactly what Jesus’s coming to this earth really means, our lives should never be the same again.

On a purely human level, one of the things we love most about Christmas is its association with the idea of family and the traditions we share with our families. We all have them. It might be a certain meal you always have together. It might be a particular order in which you open all the presents. It might be a specific carol you always sing. Whatever it may be, these family traditions become important to us. They shape us as families and as individuals in ways we’re not even aware of. And it’s this aspect of family I want to focus on as we reflect on the opening verses of John’s Gospel. In particular, I want to zero in on verses 11–14 to guide our thinking about family during this Advent season.

To begin, let’s summarize what John has said in the earlier verses of his prologue to chapter 1. He tells us that Jesus is the Word of God who was with God in the beginning and is himself God. He has come into the darkness of the world as the Light of Life. As Immanuel, our God is with us, full of grace and truth. Yet Jesus is also hidden because he “came to his own and his own did not receive him.” Even so, for those who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear, he is the source of all life and hope. Returning to verses 12–13, John writes, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

These verses are important because they tell us outright the purpose of the incarnation: it is for family. God is making a new family for himself in and through the person of Jesus Christ. This is evident in the way verse 11 can be translated. Many translators render it as Jesus coming to “his own,” implying his own creation or his own people. But others render it as Jesus coming to “his own home.” The idea is that Jesus is coming to his first family, the Jewish nation, which then rejects him. As a result, God begins to build a new family that transcends one national ethnicity and will last for all eternity.

This is why Christmas is so important. We cannot fully understand the idea of family without understanding our part in the divine family in Christ.

What Is Family?

This leads us to ask: What is a family and how is it bound together? At the most basic level, of course, are the physical ties of flesh and blood, race or ethnicity. People meet, marry, have children, then grandchildren, and the generations go on. Yet, strong as these ties are, they are not enough to hold people together in an unbreakable bond that lasts forever. In a fallen and sinful world, husbands and wives divorce, siblings fall out with one another, parents sometimes disown their children, and children neglect their responsibility to honor and care for their parents. Our plans for our families don’t always work out the way we hoped they would. But God has bigger and better plans for us than we do.

What we are offered in the gospel is something more durable than human family bonds. John reminds us that the family constituted by Christ will not find its strength in ties rooted in human genetics or human effort. We cannot approach God and his family with the expectation that our heritage or accomplishments will provide the strength we need to be a family or to make ourselves right with the one who made us. Rather, John contrasts human efforts in building our way toward God with God’s divine plan in rescuing us from ourselves. God’s family is created by his gracious birthing of a new way of being a family in Christ. John simply says we must be “born of God.”

C. S. Lewis once wrote of his own journey toward faith: “I never had the experience of looking for God. It was the other way around: He was the hunter (or so it seemed to me) and I was the deer. He stalked me . . . took unerring aim, and fired. And I am very thankful that this is how the first (conscious) meeting occurred. It forearms one against subsequent fears that the whole thing was only wish fulfillment. Something one didn’t wish for can hardly be that.” Lewis helps us understand that Christmas is ultimately not about our plans for our family, but about God’s plans for his, plans that include us even when we weren’t expecting it.

Tim Keller also has noted that “Our lives are so chaotic because in our arrogance we dwell on how our plans have been skewed. God had plans too.” It is because of God’s plans that there is a Christmas. The strong cord of God’s grace is what creates and sustains the family of God. It binds us to him and to other believers in a way we could not conceive of or implement on our own. And it makes us brothers and sisters with others with whom we might not otherwise have had anything in common. 

Understanding this about Christmas should change our lives: the awareness that we are not our own, that we have been bought at the price of the eternal Son, who was rejected by men and by God so we might be saved and made part of the everlasting family of God.   

Who Is Our Family?

The biblical idea of family, then, transcends mere human bonds. According to John, our membership in this family is rooted in grace and comes about by faith. He writes in verse 12: “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name.” God’s divine grace toward those he calls his own always manifests itself in a saving or trusting faith.

The family of God is a family of grace. What marks us as members isn’t ethnicity, background, or accomplishment. Rather, it is our reliance on Christ. Only by forsaking all other fleshly familial marks and looking in faith alone to the Light of Life can we know that we have passed from death to life and have entered into the grace that makes us part of God’s own family. Only then can we see that our true brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers are those who also confess the name of Christ in faith, and that we are bound to them in a deeper, richer, and more lasting way than we could ever be bound by merely earthly ties.

Our natural families are indeed important, and we are called to love and honor and care for them as part of our faithfulness to our Lord. But it is our loyalty to Christ above all else and our absolute dependence on him in faith that makes us children of God in a new family of grace. When by his grace we recognize our need for a Savior, and our eyes and our hearts are opened to the reason that Jesus took on human flesh and came to dwell and to die among his own—that we might be delivered from our sins and made whole and righteous in God’s sight—that we truly begin to live and truly begin to be the people God intended us to be.

What is more, because the incarnation redefines familial bonds according to grace, we are now summoned to redraw our earthly boundaries accordingly. Though we cherish our families of flesh and blood, in Christ God’s people must resist being defined solely by natural and fleshly markers that ordinarily underly communities. As the redeemed people of God, gathered from every tongue, tribe and people (Rev. 7:9), Jesus has made us a beautiful community in which we gather around the table of his mercy. At this table, as those clothed in the glorious righteousness of Christ, we are all welcome and we all have a voice. Friends, this is the true purpose of the incarnation, the true meaning and greatest gift of Christmas. And it is the only foundation for any kind of family life—for now and for eternity. 

___________

This reflection is adapted from a sermon that Dr. Gibbs preached several years ago as part of a series on the Gospel of John while serving as pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in San Antonio, Texas.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and life was the light of men. The light that shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. . . .

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’” For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

— John 1:1–5, 14–18

A few years back, my sons became very interested in soccer, both as players and as fans of the professional sport. Not having played or watched soccer as a child, I did my best to learn on the fly with them. One of the first things new initiates learn about is Lionel Messi, the great soccer player from Argentina, who has also played for professional clubs in Europe. Many consider him one of the greatest, if not the greatest, player of all time.

When Messi moved from his club in Europe to an MLS team in the United States called Inter Miami, my sons were excited because that meant he would play against our professional St. Louis team at some point. In the midst of that excitement, a series of pictures circulated on the internet of Messi in shorts and flip-flops shopping at a Publix grocery store in Florida. My sons’ response to the photos was, “Yeah! Let’s go see him!” We do have family in Florida and they have been to a Florida Publix before, so they could imagine it. But killjoy that I am, I explained to them that even if we made the twenty-plus hour drive to Miami, it was highly unlikely that Messi would be just hanging out in the grocery story waiting for us to show up and meet him. Their enthusiasm was undaunted, however, and it would have been worth it to them to make the trip just for the slim possibility of meeting Messi in the flesh.

In our passage from John, we read about someone much greater than the greatest soccer player of all time—One who did indeed appear and did so in the flesh. And he appeared not in a “one in a million chance that we might get to see him” way, but for the express purpose of being known by us deeply and intimately, and that we might be known by him as well.

The Beginning of the Story

I’ve always been fascinated by the way that each of the four Evangelists begins his Gospel in a completely different way. Mark throws us right into the action with John the Baptist at the outset of Jesus’s public ministry. Luke first gives us a description of his research methodology, which I as an academic appreciate. Matthew starts by grounding the story in the genealogy of Jesus. But John goes a step further. He starts with “In the beginning . . .” This has unmistakable echoes of the first words of the creation account in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” That passage speaks of God as the Creator and how he alone made all things from nothing. In our passage, John reaches for those familiar words to assert that Jesus the Word, the second Person of the Trinity, was there in the beginning and at creation, and even before that in eternity past, long before he was a baby born in Bethlehem. And in a dramatic flourish, John says that the Word was both with God and was God, giving us a glimpse of the Trinitarian mystery. This is an explosive way for John to start.

Later, in verses 14–18, he tells us about the most important thing that’s happened in our human history: “The Word became flesh.” That is to say, the eternal Son of God, who was there in the beginning, who was God and is God, in the person of Jesus, became flesh, took on humanity. Just as he did at the start of this chapter, in this little paragraph John uses familiar Old Testament language and imagery, and does so evocatively, not spelling it out, but trusting that the reader will catch the subtle connections he makes, especially to the book of Exodus. He does this to ground his remarkable point and its implications: that in Jesus the Word became flesh.

I want to highlight here three important facets of that idea as they are found in our passage.

The Presence of God in the Incarnation

John’s fourteenth verse says: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”—that is, among us human beings. We were made to live in communion with God. That’s where we find our deepest satisfaction and purpose. With the fall of our first parents, this was lost. The story of Scripture is about how God does not give up on humanity but acts redemptively on our behalf and is himself part of that redemptive story. We see God again and again moving toward his people so that he might once again be present with them in spite of their sin and unholiness.

One of the significant moments in this story comes in the book of Exodus. After redeeming his people from slavery, the Lord brings them to Mount Sinai and meets with them there. As part of those interactions, he gives them extended instructions on how to build a tabernacle—the royal tent—which was to function as the place of God’s presence in the midst of his people. Imagine being part of that Israelite community and having God’s presence in your midst. As they traveled through the desert, they would stop at each camp and set up their own tents, their own tabernacles. Then they would set up the Lord’s kingly royal tabernacle right in their midst. Of course, God is not confined to a single building, and they knew that. Yet this tabernacle was his royal abode on earth that represented the place of his presence with them.

The Greek word John uses that we translate here as “dwelt” is ˛ő°ěŧ˛Ô´Çō. It means something like “set up a tent or an encampment.” It is related to the word “tabernacle” in the way that word is translated in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Thus, we could actually translate this phrase from John as “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Why is that important? Because someone reading this who was familiar with the Old Testament could hardly miss that point. It calls the reader back to Exodus and tells us that in the same way that God dwelt in the midst of his people in the wilderness, now in a new and greater way, God is present with his people in the person of Jesus. Later, in the book of Revelation, we read of John’s vision of a new heavens and a new earth, which uses similar language.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold the dwelling place [tabernacle] of God is with man. He will dwell [tabernacle] with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” (Rev. 21:1–3)

We live now in a sort of in-between time. We look back on Jesus’s earthly life and ministry through the Scriptures, and we look forward to his bodily return. Yet in the present, he’s not with us in the same way. But we have a great gift, so great a gift that Jesus would say to his disciples later in John’s Gospel that “it is better for you that I go away. I say this because when I go away, I will send the Helper to you. But if I did not go, the Helper would not come” (John 16:7). We don’t have Christ with us bodily in this moment, but we have his very Spirit dwelling in us.

This is the first major point of our passage: We see the presence of God in the Incarnation.

The Glory of God in the Incarnation

But from “The word became flesh and dwelt among us,” the passage goes on: “and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:14b). Then later, in verse 18, John speaks again about seeing: “No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” Having already picked up on the tabernacle language and being in Exodus mode, so to speak, we are now reminded of another story, this time from Exodus 33 and 34. Israel has been waiting for Moses to return from atop Sinai, where he was meeting with God, and he has been delayed. So the people decide to build a golden calf, which is a huge sin of idolatry. In response, the Lord first declares his intent to punish them, but ultimately relents and forgives them, and promises to go forward with them. After this, Moses goes to the Lord and makes the following request, seemingly as an assurance that God will indeed be with them as he promised:

Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he [God] said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place where you can stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” (Exod. 33:18)

I’ll make two observations about this passage as it relates to John 1: First, note that the Lord twice tells Moses that his face cannot be seen. John says, “No one has ever seen God.” Second, Moses’s request is to see God’s glory. John says of Jesus in 1:14, “We have seen his glory.” What is the point? In Exodus, Moses was not able to look on the fullness of the glory of God. But with Jesus we have seen the very glory of God by way of the incarnate Son of God. Glory is a significant theme in John’s telling of the life and ministry of Jesus. He says much about how Jesus displays this glory.

One way he does so very prominently is by organizing the first portion of his Gospel around seven miraculous signs that Jesus does. These signs are amazing in and of themselves, but the fact that they are signs means that they point to something else, something about who Jesus is. After the first one, when Jesus changes water into wine, John adds the explanation: “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory” (John 2:11). Then in the last one, when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, glory is mentioned several times (see John 11), so much so that we get the idea that these signs are meant to show through Jesus the glory of God.

Briefly, the seven signs are:

1. The changing of water into wine (John 2:1–12). Jesus shows his power over the created realm. But with the idea of wine viewed as a sign of blessing or celebration, we see Jesus as one who came to bring the abundance of joy to his people.

2. The healing of the official’s ill son (John 4:46–54). Jesus heals the gravely ill son of a local official, but he does so from a distance, without actually going to him. This shows that he is not limited by locality, that he has authority and power in every place.

3. The healing of the paralytic at Bethesda on the Sabbath (John 5:1–17). Jesus visits the pool of Bethesda and heals a paralyzed man on the Sabbath, which causes some consternation among the watchers. His doing so demonstrates a healing that foreshadows a greater healing that will come when the full Sabbath rest is in place.

4. The feeding of the five thousand (John 6:1–15, 22–59). To feed the hungry multitude, Jesus takes five small loaves of bread and two fish, has the disciples pass them out to the crowd, and then has them gather up multiple baskets of leftovers after everyone has eaten. He speaks of himself as the bread of life, pointing to the fact that he is the one who will nourish his people spiritually and satisfy the deepest longings of their souls.

5. Jesus walking upon the water (John 6:16–21). Jesus literally walks across the surface of the Sea of Galilee to reach his disciples who are far out upon the lake in a boat. In biblical imagery, the sea is often a place of chaos and danger, but here we see Jesus walking on it. When we read the Psalms, we see that only One has power over the sea, the Lord God himself, who is the Creator King. So, this incident implies that Jesus is God himself because he too has this power.

6. The healing of the man born blind (John 9:1–7). As he prepares to heal a man who was born blind, Jesus he says, “I am the light of the world.” In a world of spiritual darkness. he declares that the light comes from him because he is the light.

7. The raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:17–44). In the final sign, Jesus raises his friend Lazarus from the dead, showing his own power over death, and declares, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

In addition to these, in John’s Gospel the fullest expression of God’s glory comes by way of the cross. In John 12:23–24, as Jesus draws nearer to his death, we read: “Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.’” Through his death, Jesus will bear much fruit, the fruit of salvation for all of his people, including you and me. This too is glory, and this is the second major point of our passage: We see the Glory of God in the Incarnation.

The Love of God in the Incarnation

Coming back once more to John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” That phrase “grace and truth” comes up again in verse 17: “For the law

In John’s Gospel, the fullest expression of God’s glory comes by way of the cross.was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” We are in Exodus mode again. First, we had a description of Jesus tabernacling with his people. Then, we saw the glory of God through Jesus, reminding us of Moses’ request in Exodus 33. And now we are to recall the story in Exodus 34, when the Lord gives Moses what he requested, at least in some measure. He passes before Moses, then describes his own character for him: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exod. 34:6).

When the Lord says this, he is communicating his loyal, committed, faithful, trustworthy, devoted, covenant love for his people. In John’s Gospel, the phrase “full of grace and truth” is likely intended to recall the phrase “abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” That description, which in the Old Testament is so associated with the Lord God, is here associated with Jesus.

John 1:17 is not, as some might think, meant to say that Moses and the law are bad and Jesus is good. No, the law was a gift of God to his people, and now we have One in our midst who is himself abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. This is grace upon grace, as John will later say. This one is the incarnate Son of God, Jesus, the embodiment of God’s covenant love for his people. Thus, the third point of our passage: We see the love of God in the Incarnation.

How Should We Respond to the Incarnation?

We have seen that in Jesus, the Word became flesh and tabernacled, or became present, with us. We’ve seen in him the glory of God. And we've seen in Christ, who is full of grace and truth, the love of God manifested. In light of this unparalleled, remarkable news, how then should we respond?

When I asked my sons how they would respond if their soccer hero Messi were to suddenly show up at their soccer practice and play a game with them, they not surprisingly gave me answers like: “It would be the best day ever!” “I’d want to get my picture taken with him and have him sign my jersey!” “I’d want to watch how he shoots the ball and do it just like him!” “If he played with us, we’d definitely win by a lot!”

Those responses could be grouped into four main categories, which I’ll call joy, adoration, imitation, and confidence.

If my sons can respond in the ways I’ve just described to the coming of a merely earthly hero they revere, how should we as believers respond to the coming of Jesus, the Son of God, in the flesh? Hopefully, the connection I’m making here is obvious, but I want to make it anyway.

First, we respond with great joy. John says, “From his fullness we have received grace upon grace.” Our Savior has come to bring redemption from sin and make us holy. What good news that is and how joyous it should make us!

Second, we respond with adoration, with worship. That’s what we’re doing when we go to church on Sunday. We’re there to glorify the triune God, just as the apostle Thomas did later in John’s Gospel when he declared to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). And then Jesus said to Thomas in verse 29 words that are actually true of us who were not there in the Upper Room: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Third, we respond with imitation. Among the reasons Jesus came was so that we might learn from his ways and follow after him. Of course, we are not called to be the God-Man as he was then and is now, but we are called to follow after him, to love the way he loves, to view the world around us the way that he views it, and to respond to people and events the way he would. We are to value the things he values, even, at times, to get angry at the things that make him angry. We see these calls to imitation in several different ways throughout John’s Gospel. Jesus washes his disciples’ feet and then tells them to go wash the feet of others. He says, “Love one another even as I have loved you.” He tells them that they will endure persecution as he has because the world hated him and it will hate them too. So they, and we, are to follow and be like him.

Finally, we respond to Jesus’s coming with confidence. After the resurrection narrative, John describes the purpose for which he has written his Gospel: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30–31). And that life that John speaks of is eternal life, of course, but it includes abundant life even now. If you believe in Jesus, if you trust in him, you can have all the confidence in the world that that life is yours now.

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Let us rejoice in him, worship him, follow him, and live with confidence in him—now and forever. Amen!

It seems we Christian counseling professor types have neglected to write about the Holy Spirit’s presence and role in the counseling we do. I suspect so few of us have addressed this topic because the Holy Spirit’s presence and role in our everyday living is not something we think about often, or at least not often enough. I must be honest and confess this to be true for me. This impacts my writing and my teaching. In my thirty years of teaching, I have taught very little about the Holy Spirit. I have talked about the Bible and counseling, and I have talked about prayer and counseling, but I have not talked about the Holy Spirit and counseling.

Where to begin?

We must begin with creation—in the beginning, when God made all created beings and things. God is unique, uncreated, and not located in the realm of created things. He is transcendent. Yet, he chose to be in relationship with all things, including us, and through his relationship with everyone and everything, he governs with providential care.

Enter the deceiving serpent. In a conversation—that interactive process that powerfully shapes relationships—the serpent asks Eve to choose whom she is going to trust, God or herself. Adam, who was with her, seems to be listening with a don’t-ask-me attitude.

Adam and Eve make their choice. They take things into their own hands, putting at risk trust in God and what he provides. Through their choice, they alter their relationship with God in a way they cannot reverse.

The Father’s response to Adam and Eve’s universe-changing choice is to actively seek conversation with them. He continues his relationship with Adam and Eve despite the violence they have done to that relationship. And God doesn’t stop. We see through the whole biblical story God’s continued pursuit of connection with humankind. God does not stop. He continues his loving pursuit now, in our lives, through the Holy Spirit’s never-ending interactive presence.

The Spirit’s Goal

Jesus told us the goal of the Spirit’s work: “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:25–26).

Cognitively leaning people that we are, we might conclude from Jesus’s words that the teaching the Spirit does is a head-only project. That could lead us to believe that the Spirit is in the what-to-know business and our task is to remember what to know. If we fall into this trap, our help to others in the counseling room is limited to improving the content of their thinking. This approach can be attractive. It reduces the uncertainties we feel around our capacity to be helpful. We feel more confident that the help we are offering is what the person needs.

But this is deceptive. This approach, as attractive as it may be for us, steers us away from helping people with the intensity of their life challenges. People need most a companion who enters the depth of their stories, seeing from inside that story, so to be able to guide them to deeper understanding of themselves and their circumstances. Only then can they make wise choices in their lives.

The best guide helps the other person make better choices; he does not make choices for them.

The best position from which to guide the person is from the side. The content-focused approach, however, encourages us to position ourselves above the other. When we become the expert giving advice to another to help him or her make better choices, we are not helping that person grow. We are helping that person grow dependent on us.

Jesus said the Spirit “will teach you all things and will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). Consider the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus addresses the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those persecuted for righteousness’ sake and on Jesus’s account. Jesus starts with issues of the heart. He teaches inside out, addressing heart and mind—the whole person. The Son of God himself does not position himself above others. He is not giving directions. He is asking for growth that cannot be humanly engineered. He is proposing growth that is not possible through improving our knowledge or through trying harder. The growth Jesus proposes is only possible if we are dependent on God.

The apostle Paul understood this inside-out approach. And he understood the source of the power that generates that kind of growth. He prays that God may grant the Ephesians “to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:16–19). Amazingly, they now can comprehend the love of Christ which is beyond comprehension.

How is this possible? It starts with the Spirit’s work in a person’s inner being, and that work strengthens the person, not to rule over others, but to do all we do from a foundation of love.

The apostle concludes his prayer with a familiar benediction you have likely heard at the close of church services you have attended: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work in us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever” (Eph. 3:20–21).

Our great hope when we counsel is “the power at work in us.” The Spirit is at work in both the helper and the one seeking help.

The Spirit in the Counseling Room

How the Spirit’s present relationship works is mysterious, not entirely clear. Perhaps this is why so many of us writers about counseling have written so little about the work of the Spirit in counseling. We want to be clear, and we desire to be certain. We hope to lead toward correct understanding. We don’t want to get it wrong. We are, after all, cognitively leaning people writing to cognitively leaning people.

We find help in words from Jesus about the Spirit, words that put a pause on our hopes for predictability and clarity about how the Spirit works: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (John 3:8).

God does the work he wants to do in the way he wants to do it. He chooses to allow us to co-labor with him. We must not forget that we are not equal partners. We cannot control the process or the outcomes. And we do not decide when and how God the Holy Spirit shows up, proceeds in his work, or the role we play in it. We can only be attentive, then responsive; we can only be aware, then cooperate. We cannot initiate, then expect the Spirit to reciprocate; we cannot direct, then expect the Spirit to follow.

Led by the Spirit in the Counseling Room

To assist a person to grow requires a relationship marked by safe connection between two people. This connection occurs most fully when both the affective and cognitive parts of the people are at play in the relationship. There needs to be balance between the emotions and thoughts. This balance is more than equal contribution of each element. This balance is like the balance we maintain when we walk. Weight is shifted from the right leg to the left leg, from the left leg to the right leg, and so forth. A smooth gait results when the weight that is shifted is shifted equally and, because of adjustments to changes in climate and terrain, sometimes approximately. The balance that deepens conversation is made of reflection, which requires awareness of emotions and the meaning of things, and clear content, which is mostly thoughts.

These days we are not taught how to balance the meaning of things with the details of those things. Mostly it is an issue of trust. We trust information more than we trust emotions. One seems solid. The other seems flighty. One seems in charge. The other seems to wander. One seems obviously true. The other seems obviously confused. We feel safe when the details are clear. We seldom feel as safe when in pursuit of the meaning of things. Meaning seems too fluid to trust. In such a climate, it is difficult to imagine that mature functioning flows from the partnership of information and emotions.

There are two layers to human experience. One centers on words. Words differentiate and distinguish one thing from another and one person from another. Words provide structure. The other layer is wordless but there is communication, nonetheless. This communication is based on felt connection. This connection is reciprocal and mutual. Both persons know they are seeing the other and being seen by the other at the same time. In the seeing and being seen both experiences being known by the other. This wordless experience connects and joins each one to the other. The experience is unstructured, but it is more complete than differentiated structure allows.

The clearest picture of this wordless experiential connection is a mother and her infant child. In the dual deep attention to each other, what some call attunement, both child and mother are impacted. If you have ever observed moments like this between a mother and child, you have been impacted too. If a picture was taken of you with the mother-child pair, you might have been surprised by the peaceful smile on your face. Sometimes we are hesitant to speak fearing we might break the spell.

The majority of social scientists and laypersons believe this mother-child connection is reserved for the early months of a child’s life. When the child acquires words, the pair move on to a higher form of communication, leaving behind the immature language of gaze-in-awe. The assumption seems to be that the very close connection between mother and child was only necessary for survival. As the child become verbal and mobile, such close connection is left behind because survival is assured in other ways.

Those who study relationships disagree. They recognize that the wordless communication mode, what the majority calls primitive, operates our entire lives. Without sufficient attention to this layer of experience, people may be very competent, but the emotional portion of themselves has been muted. The person living with muted affect is a person living less humanly than the creator designed them to live.

How does God communicate with us? Specifically, any way he wants to communicate to us using anything he wants to use. Generally, God communicates to us through both the words and the wordless layers of our selves. Both are required if we are to know God loves us.

The songwriter might help us here. Dion DiMucci writes:

Do you walk the streets at night?
Try to stay beneath the light?
Do you sense it as you go?
Maybe you are not alone. . . .

Times when you can’t find the word,
It comes to you as if you heard.
Someone’s voice from long ago
Tells you what you need to know.

–“Angel in the Alleyways”
Dion DiMucci and Mike Aquilina (2001)

If you cannot recall moments like DiMucci describes, how do you know God is alive and real? Because the words of your theology tell you? That is not enough. That kind of belief will not hold when life turns harsh. That kind of belief will not help when your trusted friends betray you. The words-only foundation is not the full foundation God provides for you to be rooted and anchored.

I could not have written that previous paragraph a few years ago. I came to Covenant Seminary as a student in search of biblically grounded theology. And I found it here, and that changed my life and my walk with God for the better. In the course of time, God brought people into my life who showed me my need for more solid roots than biblically grounded theology alone could provide. And then, in that context, I entered a period of suffering that strained my sense of worth, usefulness, and hope. My personhood was at stake.

I purposely avoided talking about it to counselors I knew. I feared they would name some diagnosis with intent to help. I knew the diagnosis, and I knew it was merely the outside of my struggles. I assumed their diagnosing would be avoidance in joining me in my pain, and I could not face that increase in my isolation.

I was left alone with God and a particular question: Did God like me? There were no words that wielded enough power to put that question at rest. No words. And there were not feelings that could be named either. The thing that brought me back was this: God never went away. He always kept being right there in the midst of my struggle. He stood still when I yelled at him, when I cried out to him, and when I pushed him away. He would not yield.

That began a review of memories, things I have returned to from time to time my whole life. But this time it was different. In this review, the eyes of my heart were opened to see God’s gracious presence. He was always there. Never failed.

One result of this dive into the deep end is that my counseling changed. I found myself joining people in the suffering more easily. I found myself knowing their pain more clearly. I found questions to ask that sometimes were used to open their eyes to their deeper hard-to-name experience. Other times, I saw that my question was off the mark, but it was used anyway to open their own eyes. Or it was not used, and I could see my mistake, admit it, and in that honest context was used to move the other person in the direction they needed to go.

Coming through my dark struggle, led by the Spirit’s persistence, changed my way thinking. I learned, if I can put words to it, to expect God to show up, to be aware of it when he does, and to follow his lead.

Note: This article first appeared in the spring 2025 edition of Covenant magazine. Get your copy or subscribe to Covenant here.

While my wife and I were studying at Columbia International University, we were introduced to the mysterious, unreached lands of Central Asia and challenged to be “1 in a million” (a common mobilization slogan in the 1990s) by answering the call to be a light in the darkness of the Muslim World. Little did we know what that would entail when we departed in 1996, but as my grandfather predicted at our wedding rehearsal, “We’d love every minute of it”—until we did not. We were willing to go but knew very little about what we would encounter as we embarked to, as C. T. Studd once said, “set up a mission just outside the gates of hell.” Though our initial term of service was to teach English, we quickly realized the need for something more. With this in mind, we completed our term and returned to the US with the intention of preparing to be a part of a church planting team (see Greg Livingstone’s book Planting Churches in Muslim Cities: A Team Approach [Baker, 1993]). And that is where the real lessons begin.

To establish a new church planting work in Central Asia we had to navigate a variety of challenges. Since we desired to be a part of team, we began the process by recruiting a group to consider what it might look like to attempt such a task. Friendships through our college, seminary, and denominational connections provided the best place from which to find these potential candidates—or so we thought. We had recruited a team of three couples and three singles to seek the Lord’s will in this regard. But recruiting, maintaining, and working as a team are all far more difficult when you are in a rather hostile environment. In our almost thirty years of working on church planting teams, we have seen significant turnover and difficulties regarding this model. And yet, it is one we still fully believe in regardless of seeing 15–20 people come and go. Currently, we are building a team that will soon have a total of 14 people with varied levels of experience, working in one large, urban city.

As one can imagine, there are many benefits and challenges to working on teams, but at the beginning, that was the least of our worries. In the early stages, our initial team had the difficulty of deciding how we wanted to be sent. There are many sending agencies working all over the world. As we were all from the Presbyterian Church in America, it made sense to pursue Mission to the World (MTW). Unfortunately, at that time, MTW was not sending workers to our country of interest, so we decided to pursue other options. But in a very providential turn of events, MTW had a change of plans and invited us to lead the establishment of a new work in our country of interest. This certainly pleased our sending churches and made the decision to join MTW much easier. Our initial team began the process of joining MTW, but for various reasons my wife and I were the only ones to complete the process of joining. Despite our disappointment, the decision had been made, we believed God was in the process, and we decided to move forward with the hope of recruiting a new team.

With these decisions made, we now had to figure out how to acquire residency in a Muslim majority context that does not provide visas for religious workers. Fortunately, again through our relationships, we were able to connect with a non-profit, humanitarian organization that would invite us to work with them. This invitation provided the pathway but did not entirely answer the challenging question of identity. Who are you? Why are you here? This is probably one of the biggest reasons we have seen field workers come and go. While many people are interested in Christian ministry and/or church planting, fewer are able or willing to pursue legal residency in a way that is possibly disconnected from the “real” reason they want to be in the country. Over the years, we have obtained visas and held identities in the areas of English teaching, NGO/humanitarian work, project management, business ownership, property ownership, consultant work, education, training, and even being a board member. The challenge is finding an identity that genuinely connects with who you are and what it is you believe God has called you to.

Once you are sent by your church and received in your host country, it is time to get to work. But even in that regard, there are many challenges. In one country where we have served, the oil industry has caused a great deal of pollution. Over the years, more than 2.14 million cubic meters of oil-contaminated earth have been cleaned and repurposed in our city due to oil pollution. The spiritual soil of Central Asia is much like this oil-polluted earth. Before planting or building on the polluted soil, it takes years of hard work to recover the soil. This is how many have expressed their feelings while serving in the Muslim world. Well-known missionary Brother Andrew has described the process as “removing stones.” The prophet Hosea’s call to “Break up your fallow ground” (Hos. 10:2) rings true to most of us working in this context. Though we long to plant seeds, much of our work is cleaning soil and preparing soil for planting. This requires us to take a long and patient perspective, remembering Paul’s words that “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Cor. 3:6–7).

In light of this, there are very real pollutants and rocks that we have had to remove over the years. One might think that Islam itself is the biggest pollutant and rock, but in our context, we have found that not to be the case. Certainly, the context and perspective are influenced by Islam, but the bigger challenge is overcoming the hurdle of people’s understanding of what it means to be a Christian. The local view of Christianity has been shaped by the historic acts of the people of God in the name of Jesus. The Crusades are often listed as one of the biggest reproaches to the name of Jesus. While the Crusades are not significant in our area, “Christian” countries in the region have created a distasteful context for the gospel message. As a Presbyterian Protestant church planter, I find a lot of challenges in trying to distance myself from these narratives, while also trying to point people to Jesus. Though these surrounding Christian countries have added to the challenge, the perspective that my passport country is also identified as a “Christian” country creates equal challenges in the work of removing rocks and purifying soil.

Related to this is that historic Christianity has existed in these lands since the time of Christ and, in many places, historic Christian communities still exist. As we seek to establish a biblical, Christ-centered community, we must navigate the various perspectives of Christianity that unbelievers and believers have experienced. Some of the more difficult and harmful perspectives in our context have been the prosperity gospel and the Oneness movement. Other perspectives may seem less difficult or serious, like when new believers request to be baptized like Jesus was in the Jesus film: in a river by immersion. Clearing the soil, planting, and watering have certainly been one of the significant challenges in our context.

Once a community of believers was established, the process of identifying, selecting, equipping, and ordaining leaders was perhaps the most difficult challenge. We chose to pursue a path with the International Presbyterian Church (IPC) for establishing the congregation in our city. Fortunately, the IPC was very helpful and sympathetic to our context. This was important because we did not have a local Bible school or seminary, and the number of resources available in the language of our leaders was inadequate for equipping them for the work of the ministry. As we were the first presbyterian church to be established in the country, there was not a well-worn path for us to follow.

Although two of us were ordained in the IPC for the purpose of establishing this congregation, we were very different people, from different countries, with different philosophies of ministry. Working on a multi-cultural team with competing philosophies of ministry was certainly challenging, but we were able to finally work through it as the congregation took more ownership of its future. When the church received people into membership, it then chose to be established under the IPC and elected leaders for us to work with and prepare for ordination. The reality of working in a foreign language and on a multi-cultural team adds significantly to the challenge of church planting in a foreign context.

Finally, all that remained to establish a church under the authority of the IPC was to ordain local leaders. As mentioned, we did not have an established Bible school or seminary, and we had very few resources in the local language. In order to move forward, we needed the help of other local congregations and ministries in the country and abroad. Again, through relationships, we formed a network of congregations and ministries to work together under the umbrella system and structure of Miami International Theological Seminary (MINTS). MINTS has been a helpful partner for us over the years, allowing us to systematically equip local leaders who were eventually ordained through the IPC. Through the course of this journey, it was necessary to identify needed resources beyond the Scriptures for translation, printing, and distribution. It was also necessary to organize training events and mentoring for the leaders as they moved along in their studies.

Though our two teaching elder candidates could have used more preparation, the legal challenges of conducting religious services in our context required moving forward with ordination, while also requiring ongoing study. During the years that it took to establish this new Christian community, the requirements for church registration had shifted. The legal conditions for foreigners to live and remain in the country had also changed. As these changes merged upon one another, the IPC graciously allowed this local congregation to establish a partnership with another registered congregation. This partnership allowed us to meet legally and openly, and it was through this partnership that our pastors and congregation were able to worship publicly and legally.

It is hard to imagine how Luke in the book of Acts could summarize Paul’s ministry this way: “He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hinderance” (Acts 28:30–31). As we reflect on how the gospel has gone forth and been established in our context, my feelings about the process have been variable, but despite all the challenges, I am sure that Jesus’s words are true: “The gates of hell shall not prevail” (Matt.16:18) and therefore, I continue in this calling and in inviting others to join us in seeing the gospel of the Kingdom advance through the planting of churches in Muslim majority contexts.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

91ľźş˝ is working with PCA agencies like MTW as well as and other ministries as we aim to recruit, train, and send the next generation of leaders who will plant and grow more biblically sound, confessionally Reformed churches across the US and the world. You can help to make this vison a reality by ensuring that our Church Planting Track and Church Planting Scholarship remain strong and vital. How can you do this?

• Pray for us and our partners and support us financially.

• Refer potential church planting students to us.

• Connect us with influencers and others who can have an impact on our efforts.

We value your partnership in our ministry!

Your words were found, and I ate them,
and your words became to me a joy
and the delight of my heart,
for I am called by your name,
O Lord, God of hosts. (Jer. 15:16)

You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. (2 Tim. 2:1–2)

To these two, there is a third Scriptural priority I want to highlight that is equally essential to faithful theological inquiry: guardianship. Paul writes, “By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (2 Tim. 1:14).

Lest we think this guardianship refers only to doctrine, Covenant Seminary Professor of New Testament Dr. Bob Yarbrough, quoting Timothy Johnson, reminds us that the deposit refers to “the way of life found in the healthy teaching that accords with the good news.” Nevertheless, Yarbrough notes that the ethic of Christian obedience ought not be abstracted from the “doctrine that informs it and the historical truth that the good news consists in.”

Taken together, then, these three passages call us to love the Word of the Lord, pass down that Word to faithful believers who will also be able to pass it down to succeeding generations, and to preserve a faithful understanding of this Word so that the church can live faithfully and in obedience to Christ.

The point worth observing is this: the church cannot fulfill this task without taking up the work of creating and preserving a creedal and confessional reading of the Scriptures. I write this in full awareness that for some the notion of any systematic or unitive theological effort invokes fear and raises suspicion. To name only a few possible misgivings:

a. Those who write creeds and confessions err.
b. Creeds and confessions introduce “illegitimate ecclesiastical constraint upon free and rational inquiry.”
c. Creeds and confessions written later unduly influence careful exegesis.
d. Creeds and confessions (and systematic theology more broadly) abstract the historical narrative of the Scriptures and subject it to extra-biblical systems.

To be sure, there are pitfalls, but they should not scuttle the project of forming and passing down a confessional reading of the Scriptures. Neither do they outweigh the considerable benefits arising from this work.

As the denominational seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America, 91ľźş˝ gladly rejoices in our confessional standards and believes them to be essential to the performance of the mission in this world that Christ has given to us. In no way do they detract from the Christian’s calling to completely submit to the authority of the Scriptures in all matters of faith and practice. In fact, their work is complementary. More broadly, all creeds and confessions of the church ought to be conceived as subordinate stewards, strengthening our ability to understand and teach the Scriptures faithfully and promoting greater obedience to Christ and service in his Kingdom.

Though not exhaustive, I'd like to suggest five reasons why this is true. I also hope that you will come away with a greater appreciation of, and encouragement to employ, our confessional standards in your ministry, regular teaching, and corporate worship.

1. Confessions Clarify and Summarize What the Bible Teaches for the church

The most important purpose deriving from the creeds and confessions of the church is their ability to clarify and summarize what the Bible says in ways that serve a specific historical and cultural context. Surveying the history of the church, it is evident that creeds and confessions were often created to defend the clear teaching of the Scripture against those who would twist the Bible to serve selfish and erroneous conclusions. For example, in the earliest creeds of the church, like the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Creed of Chalcedon, the church, using the language available to it, articulated and defended the important doctrines of the Trinity, the unique divinity of Jesus Christ (homoouisos not homoiousios), and the full humanity of Christ (incarnatus). In each succeeding generation of the church, new questions and heresies emerge. At those critical junctures, the ensuing debates may require the church to clarify and affirm important biblical teaching in relation to those disputed issues. As they have been handed down to us, these documents are now critical to our understanding of the Bible’s teachings and guide us as we wrestle afresh with old questions and as we engage new and unforeseen ones.

2. Confessions Highlight the Communal Task Essential to Theological Inquiry While Honoring the Spiritual Authority of the church

Throughout its history, the church has been called to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). Faithfulness to that task through the centuries has produced not only Christians, but diverse communities of faith, comprising churches, denominations, and whole theological traditions. Consequently, no one today approaches the Bible tabula rasa, as though language, historical context, cultural realities, and intellectual capacities do not affect the task of interpreting the Bible. Despite the protestation of those who declare “no creed but Christ,” it is impossible to approach the Bible without acknowledging that Scripture and the interpretation of Scripture have already been received, studied, taught, and obeyed nby generations of believers across diverse cultures. As Scott Swain, quoting Abraham Kuyper, notes, “[T]he Christian reader ‘is no isolated worker, but . . . the organ of restored humanity. Christian reading is thus a communal enterprise.’”

For this reason, Christian summaries of the Bible’s doctrinal and ethical teaching are both a communal blessing and serve a normative, though not ultimate, authority in the life of the church. That the creeds and confessions were formed in the context of communities of faith that were “with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27) is an abiding example for us in the church for how we ought always to be wrestling with the truth of the gospel. There are no solitary disciples of Jesus or interpreters of his Word. That these creeds and confessions were received by the church, then, honors that work and solidifies their normative function in the church’s life. Indeed, it is impossible today, more than two millennia after the closing of the canon, “to contend for the faith” without honoring the contributions of the church’s deposit of creeds and confessions.

In confessing the creeds and confessions of the church as authoritative, we number ourselves in the communion of those who celebrate a shared understanding of God, ourselves, and the world we inhabit. Honoring the creeds and confessions of the church, then, is a matter of Christian humility. Paul summons us to “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). Receiving our theological tradition as articulated in our confessional standards is a matter of being a humble student of the Word, yet all the while recognizing that our own study must necessarily follow in the footsteps of many others who have, in obedience to Christ and in the power of his Spirit, trod this path before us.

3. Confessions Serve to Unite the Church in Doctrine, Worship, Discipleship, and Mission

As already noted, despite there being many historical, cultural, and linguistic factors affecting the hermeneutical task and specific theological conclusions emerging from from this work, these do not deny, but rather establish essential biblical doctrines as transcultural, having relevance that spans across history. Rooted in the unchangeable character of our God, a shared story of creation-fall-redemption, and a common anthropology, those redeemed in Christ have many more things in common than they do outstanding differences. On this, theologian Michael Allen is insightful:

[The call of the Christian] is to be more contextual than the contextualizers. Focault, Lyotard, and Derrrida are correct to highlight the shaping powers of society in its various facets. They are myopic in that they focus only on the economies of this world and miss the most fundamentally defining reality for all humans: the divine economy rooted not in class, race, gender, or education but in God’s eternal fullness and his covenantal election.

When we discern that Scripture is speaking the same good news across cultures, across his history, and across the peoples of the world, an obvious benefit is its unifying purpose. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:28–29). Creeds and confessions that orient us to the common plight of humanity and its sole hope in Jesus Christ as revealed to us in the Scriptures have tremendous potential to unite the church in its doctrine, its practice, its worship, its discipleship, and its mission.

In today’s world, where extreme positions garner more attention and where ecclesiastical bonds frequently weaken, it is important for us to highlight our confessional standards for the unifying purpose they serve. Here is where we have said we agree. We have a shared understanding of scriptural truth. We must work hard to preserve those bonds forged out of a shared understanding of the Scriptures.

Nevertheless, as our experience testifies, mere theological agreement is insufficient for ecclesiastical unity. Our hearts must be sanctified as well as our minds if we are to enjoy the rich bond of fellowship we long for. As Paul reminds us, confessional stances (as with other matters) must be held “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:2–3).

4. Confessions Serve a Pedagogical Purpose for the church

Next, our confessions serve a pedagogical or instructional purpose in the life of the church. In his final letter to Timothy, Paul wrote, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). The undergirding idea in the word ´Ç°ůłŮłó´ÇłŮ´Çłžąđō, translated in the ESV as “rightly handling,” involves the guidance of “the word of truth along a straight path.” Clearly, this work requires faithful exegesis of the Bible so that it is understood in its original historical, literary, and canonical context. But it also requires the faithful explanation and application of that text in ways that serve the particular needs and situations of succeeding faith communities as they change throughout the generations.

Theologian Kevin Vanhoozer reminds us that the purpose of Christian doctrine “is direction for the fitting participation of individuals and communities [i.e., faith communities that make up the church] in the drama of redemption.” The creeds and confessions of the church have been created precisely for that purpose. As carefully worded summaries of the Bible’s truth situated in specific historical contexts, they are essential, ensuring that succeeding generations are able to understand and apply the Word of God to their particular cultural settings. In this way, the creeds and confessions are good teachers, modeling for us key elements in the task of theological inquiry.

This is also why it is incumbent upon the servant of the Word of God to be familiar with the relevant confessions so that their insights might bear fruit in the life of the church. Faithful deployment of the creeds and the confessions through sermons, liturgical use, class instruction, programs of memorization and more, is fundamentally both an act of wisdom and of humility by the ministry leader (or a Christian institution like a seminary), recognizing that an entire legion of faithful ministers in past generations have put their hands to the proverbial plow to ensure that the faith is rightly understood and applied.

5. Writing Confessions Fulfills Our Lord’s Command to Love God with Our Minds

Finally, the task of theology, of which writing creeds and confessions is but one aspect, is an act of Christian obedience to love the Lord our God with the whole self, including our minds (Matt. 22:37). According to theologian John Webster,

Christian theology is biblical reasoning. It is an activity of the created intellect, judged, reconciled, redeemed, and sanctified through the redemptive works of the Son and the Spirit . . . it is rational contemplation and articulation of God’s communicative presence.

As with all aspects of the human person, our minds and the articulations of our minds require sanctification according to the Spirit to be brought into conformity with God’s holy Word. Historically, the creeds and confessions of the church have recognized the priority of this task and have been deployed unto that purpose. They are both servants of the Christian’s sanctification and its bounty.

Moreover, is no mere accident that during times when creeds and confessions were created, the church often flourished through greater numbers coming to personal faith in our Savior. The intellectual task of Christian theology, then, is not just a Christian avocation but absolutely essential to every Christian’s vocation in the Lord. Theologian Sinclair Ferguson notes how important is the work of the mind in the promotion of the work of the church:

The conviction that Christian Doctrine matters for Christian living is one of the most important growth points of the Christian life. Frequently in pastoral work this can be seen. Most of us, by nature are not students but more “practical” types, “doers” rather than “thinkers.” Yet both Scripture and the history of the church indicate to us that it is, generally speaking, “thinkers” who make the best “doers”! Cast your mind over the life-stories of the men and women who have had the most practical influence on the church, or perhaps on your own life. You will discover very few among them who were not students of Christian truth, however unsophisticatedly they went about their studies. From the greatest theologians, martyrs and intellectually gifted preachers, to those of lowliest gifts but spiritual power, all, perhaps without exception, have been students of the doctrines of the Bible and therein lies one of the secrets of their usefulness. However paradoxical it seems to our natural minds, it is one of the facts of spiritual reality that practical Christian living is based on understanding and knowledge. A verse in the Old Testament illustrates this. It says of man that “as he thinks within himself, so he is” (Prov. 23:7 NIV margin). That summarizes the Christian position perfectly—how we think is one of the great determining factors in how we live!

As one of the primary deposits of church history, the creeds and confessions not only testify to how important is the work of the mind in the service of Christian obedience, but they also guide the church today in that same task—to love the Lord our God with all our mind.

Conclusion

Though much more could and should be said on why we ought to value and transmit our confessional heritage, these five reasons seem self-evident. Moreover, in no way should this diminish the Bible’s role as occupying the place of final authority on matters of faith and practice. At 91ľźş˝, when it comes to interpretation, we are decidedly a Bible-first institution. To be otherwise would, as noted above, depart from our confessional commitments.

Nevertheless, to say that we are Bible-first does not disregard the rich contributions of those going before us who also were seeking to “rightly [handle] the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). The creeds and confessions of the church, in fact, are a vital blessing to that end, and are even essential in attaining to a better understanding of the Scriptures. So, rather than seeing the Bible’s relation to creeds and confessions through an adversarial lens, it is far better to see the creeds and confessions of the church as complementary companions that guide us in our task. Again, Scott Swain summarizes the point well,

Reading Scripture in light of the rule of faith thus involves reading Scripture within the context of our trinitarian faith, aided by the church’s good confession, for the sake of the church’s continuing growth in this trinitarian faith.

Note: This article first appeared in the spring 2025 edition of Covenant magazine. Get your copy or subscribe to Covenant here.

In the opening paragraph of (Zondervan, 2023), authors Jim Davis, Michael Graham, and Ryan P. Burge note, “In the United States, we are witnessing the largest and fastest religious shift in the country’s history . . . approximately 40 million American adults once attended church but no longer do.” That shift accounts for more people than the First and Second Great Awakenings and every revival in our country combined, according to their research. It also underscores the importance of church planting today.

In John 17:4, Jesus prays, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” He gives glory to the Father on earth by fulfilling the work God gave him. Just as Jesus faithfully engaged in the mission God set before him, so too does God receive glory when we faithfully join him in the mission of redeeming all things (Col. 1:19–20).

If the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever (as Westminster Shorter Catechism question 1 states), it is fitting to ask, “How best do we glorify and enjoy God?” For Jesus, it was fulfilling the mission God gave him. What followed was the planting of churches to the glory of the Father.

It is amazing to consider that we are the fruit of saints from the early church who faithfully lived out the Great Commission through church planting. This is something I do not take for granted, especially as I reflect on the Presbyterian missionaries who were sent to South Korea. One of those missionaries traveled to rural regions and reached my grandmother, Soon Ja Kwon. When she immigrated to the United States in 1971, she continued attending Presbyterian church plants until she passed away.

Church planting is the establishment of new churches to spread the gospel by making disciples. This work is deeply rooted in God’s mission to redeem the world, and its ultimate purpose is to bring glory to our Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. While we often think of church planting as our work, we are in fact joining in what God is already doing in the world.

This article will explore the theological basis for church planting, why it is essential, and how it brings glory to God. We will also discuss how church planting participates in the larger story of God’s redemptive plan for humanity and how the church itself becomes a means of worship and glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Theological Foundation of Church Planting

Before exploring how church planting glorifies the Triune God, we must first establish its biblical and theological foundation. Church planting is the outworking of the commission Christ gave to his followers, rooted in both the Great Commission and the nature of God himself.

While the Bible does not explicitly use the term “church planting,” that does not mean there is no biblical basis for it. The foundation for church planting is the Great Commission, which commands Christ’s followers to make disciples (the only imperative in the text), baptize, and teach. What immediately followed was the apostles carrying out this commission by establishing local churches. If we are to faithfully respond to the Great Commission, should we not follow the example of those first hearers?

The Great Commission: Christ’s Mandate for Evangelism and Discipleship

The primary biblical text underpinning church planting is the Great Commission, given by Jesus Christ after his resurrection. In Matthew 28:18–20, Jesus says: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This command establishes the framework for evangelism, discipleship, and the expansion of God’s kingdom through the establishment of local churches. Making disciples involves not just preaching the gospel but also nurturing believers in a communal context where they can grow, worship, and be equipped for God’s mission. Church planting creates new communities of believers engaged in worship, fellowship, teaching, and service to the world.

The Role of the Church in God’s Redemptive Plan

From the outset of creation, God has been on a mission to redeem a lost world. His work involves both personal and cosmic redemption. In his sovereign plan, God uses the church as an instrument to accomplish his purposes as a Kingdom outpost. The New Testament describes the church as the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12–27), the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:22–33), and a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16). These metaphors reveal that the church is central to God’s purposes in the world.

Church planting is not merely about establishing local gatherings; it is about participating in God’s mission to bring redemption, restoration, and reconciliation to a broken world. Each new church planted is a manifestation of the gospel taking root in a new community and a testimony to God’s faithfulness in fulfilling his promises.

Glorifying the Triune God Through Church Planting

Now that we have established the biblical and theological foundations for church planting, it is important to explore how church planting glorifies the Triune God. Church planting honors God by displaying the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through various facets of the church’s life and mission. Below, we will examine how each person of the Trinity is glorified through this essential work.

Glorifying the Father

The primary purpose of church planting is to bring glory to God the Father, who is the Creator of all things and the one who sent his Son into the world to redeem humanity. The work of church planting is a response to God’s initiative in salvation, and it points to his ultimate plan to bring glory to himself through the salvation of people from every tribe, nation, and tongue (Rev. 7:9).

The Father’s Plan of Redemption. God the Father is the architect of salvation, and his redemptive plan is fulfilled in the sending of the Son, Jesus Christ, and the sending of the Holy Spirit. Through church planting, the glory of God the Father is made known as new believers come to faith and as the church embodies God’s redemptive plan by reaching out to others with the gospel. Church plants are often most effective in reaching new believers through their zeal for the lost. Every new church established is a tangible sign of the Father’s work in history, fulfilling his promises to bless the nations (Gen. 12:3).

A Witness to His Sovereignty. Church planting is a testimony to God’s sovereignty in the world. Despite the many obstacles, challenges, and opposition that often accompany new churches, the Father is at work in and through his people to bring about his will. The very act of church planting, as it unfolds in different cultures and contexts, is a demonstration of God’s power to build his church, even in the most difficult circumstances. As Jesus stated, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:18).

The Father’s Glory in the Church’s Mission. Church planting is a manifestation of God the Father’s eternal purpose to draw people to himself. As churches engage in evangelism, they carry out God’s mission of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18–19). The Father is glorified when new churches are planted and people from all walks of life come to know and worship him.

Glorifying the Son

Church planting brings glory to God the Son, Jesus Christ, by proclaiming his life, death, resurrection, and Lordship. The church is built upon the foundation of Christ, and it exists to make his name known in the world.

Christ as the Head of the Church. The Apostle Paul teaches that Christ is the head of the church (Eph. 1:22–23; Col. 1:18). Every church plant is established with Christ as the central figure and with the intention of making him known. In planting churches, believers gather around centrality of the person and work of Christ, proclaiming his gospel of salvation. Christ is glorified as his name is proclaimed and his reign is acknowledged in the establishment of new congregations. While the work of church planting is significant for all who are involved, the glory is to Christ who is head of the Church.

Proclaiming the Gospel of the Cross. Church planting is essentially the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through preaching, teaching, baptisms, and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the church continually points to the saving work of Christ on the cross. Jesus’s atoning sacrifice and victory over sin and death are the foundation of every church, and church planting is one way of making his work known to a world that desperately needs to hear it. As new believers come to faith, they are united to Christ, and his glory is revealed in their transformed lives.

Christ’s Kingdom on Earth. Church planting is a foretaste of the fullness of Christ’s Kingdom that is to come. Each new church represents a manifestation of the reign of Christ in the world. When a new church is planted, it is a small, visible expression of Christ’s lordship over the world and the beginning of the restoration of all things in him. I often think that the joy Luke speaks of Jesus having over the “one sinner who repents” (Luke 15) is the same joy Jesus has when a new expression of his bride with church planting.

Glorifying the Holy Spirit

Church planting also glorifies God the Holy Spirit, the one who empowers, equips, and sustains the church in its mission. The Holy Spirit is the one who draws people to Christ, transforms their hearts, and enables the church to carry out its mission.

Empowering the Church for Mission. The Holy Spirit empowers believers for the work of ministry. In Acts 1:8, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will come upon his disciples and give them power to be his witnesses in all the earth. Church planting is a work of the Spirit, as he equips and strengthens believers to go out and spread the gospel. Without the Holy Spirit, the church would not be able to accomplish its mission, and church planting would be impossible.

Building the Church. The Holy Spirit is also the one who unites believers in the church, forming them into a body that reflects Christ’s character and purposes (1 Cor. 12:4–3). When a new church is planted, it is the Spirit who brings believers together, giving them the gifts and unity needed to be a functioning, thriving community of faith. The Spirit is at work in every aspect of churchlife, from worship to service to evangelism, and his presence brings glory to God.

Laboring in the Harvest. The Holy Spirit plays a central role in bringing people to faith. Through the work of effectual calling and regeneration (John 16:8), the Holy Spirit opens hearts to the truth of the gospel and empowers people to respond in repentance and faith. Every time a person is converted and baptized in a new church plant, it is the Holy Spirit who has done the work of bringing them to new life in Christ. The Spirit glorifies God by transforming lives through the power of the gospel.

Conclusion

Church planting is a profound way for Christians to participate in the mission of God to bring glory to the Triune God. Through the work of church planting, the Father’s redemptive plan is advanced, the Son is made known, and the Holy Spirit empowers and unites the church. Every new church plant is a tangible manifestation of God’s grace and glory in the world. Every new church plant is a fresh expression of the beauty of the Bride of Jesus for the glory of the Triune God.

As believers, we are invited to participate in this work of church planting, knowing that it is not just about establishing places of worship or a new fellowship group, but about advancing God’s kingdom, making his glory known, and fulfilling the mission given to us by Christ. Church planting is an act of worship, a means of glorifying our Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Through it, the gospel is proclaimed, lives are transformed, and God’s name is made great in all the earth.

Note: This article first appeared in the spring 2025 edition of Covenant magazine. Get your copy or subscribe to Covenant here.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

91ľźş˝ is working with the PCA’s Mission to North America and other ministries as we aim to recruit, train, and send the next generation of leaders who will plant and grow more biblically sound, confessionally Reformed churches in the US and across North America. You can help to make this vison a reality by ensuring that our Church Planting Track and Church Planting Scholarship remain strong and vital. How can you do this?

• Pray for us and our partners and support us financially.

• Refer potential church planting students to us.

• Connect us with influencers and others who can have an impact on our efforts.

We value your partnership in our ministry!

The eleventh method of church planting occurred at the end of the school year. One of the students, who helped us start the previous church and took church planting and growth courses with me at Covenant Seminary, was soon to graduate and wanted to plant a church. Because he and his wife took part in our church planting effort, they were ahead of other seminary graduates in preparation for this ministry. As a result, we were able to work with the Mission to North America Committee in the Washington, DC, area to provide an internship and the finances for them to plant in that region. Several years later, this church planter was able to supply 40 people who were eager to help another church planter start a church south of the original location. This daughter church grew to 260 people and has planted several daughter churches of its own in Southern Maryland.

We attempted the twelfth method of church planting, which unfortunately did not succeed as well as we had hoped, when we invited ten volunteer seminary couples to act as a core group to plant our second church in St. Louis. One reason this plant did not grow as hoped was that families who came to visit the church could not easily identify with the seminary families. Also, during exam periods and school vacations, the students were emotionally or physically absent due to heavy demands on their time and energy. This method was not a total failure, however—future efforts bore more fruit when we carefully chose a maximum of three or four seminary families to join a larger group of volunteers. 

The thirteenth method by which we have planted churches occurred during my third year at the Seminary. I was finishing my time at the previous church when I received a visit from the pastor and lay leader from one of our established churches that had started 45 years before. Because of a series of difficult problems in the church, it had dwindled down to five families and these two leaders had come seeking advice. The church had never owned a building but had just sold some land, so it had the finances to conduct significant ministry. After studying the various choices, I proposed that we close the existing church and that I act as the organizing pastor to plant a new church. The present pastor would serve as my Associate and the five families would be the core group. All the people agreed to the plan, so three months later we began a telemarketing program, calling 15,000 homes in the area. As a result, we planted a church which averaged 110 in attendance from the first day and later averaged 175 people in worship attendance. Perhaps, some of our small struggling churches should consider this model as a strategy. 

The fourteenth example occurred when one of our larger St. Louis churches outgrew its building by averaging 550 people in attendance each Sunday. The church’s township would not allow the expansion of their building, so they bought a large piece of land in a rapidly growing area twelve miles away and made plans to put up a new facility. However, 35% of the members remained at the old location and 65% began meeting in a high school near the new site. Both churches grew significantly and eventually had a combined Sunday attendance of 1400 people. One of the most fruitful means of church planting and growth is for a church to initiate a “friendly split” and begin meeting in two different locations.   

One of the largest of our St. Louis churches demonstrated the fifteenth model when it designated $35,000 each year in its mission budget to help plant a church somewhere in North America. As a result of this plan, a “flagship” church started in Columbus, Ohio, and soon averaged 400 people in attendance each Sunday; it has planted other daughter churches in their area. Since then, this St. Louis church has sponsored several church plants in other parts of North America. This model shows the impact when a large church determines that a major part its mission is planting churches in other parts of the continent. 

The sixteenth model developed several years ago when an elder in one of our St. Louis churches became enthusiastic about the fruitful church planting efforts in our region. When he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, he found that the PCA had no churches in that region. First, he pledged to provide a major portion of the start-up costs for a church plant. Second, he immediately began a Bible study group that became the core of the new church. Mission to North America’s Church Planting Assessment Center identified an ideal church planter and soon worship services began. This model shows how a motivated layman can become the prime mover in planting a church.              

Because Dr. Paul Kooistra, then president of Covenant Seminary, wanted to see churches planted in the Midwest through the leadership of our graduates, the seventeenth model developed in 1989. During that year he raised most of the funds necessary to provide me with a full-time associate for church planting, and together we developed a Midwest strategy. This man subsequently spent much of his time traveling the 15 states of the Midwest serving as a catalyst with the MNA Committees of the presbyteries. We then conducted several vision-setting and training seminars for the church planting leaders of the Midwest, so a goal was established to plant many more churches in the region. We began with 98 churches in 1989 and now have an additional 102 churches. This method of creating the position of Coordinator for Church Planting for a region or network of churches has proven fruitful in the numbers of churches planted, not only in the Midwest but around the continent.

The eighteenth model involves our efforts to develop within Covenant Seminary a Church Planting, Growth, and Renewal Concentration. This more recently evolved into what we now call the . A student can take several courses in church planting, growth, and renewal and then do an internship that trains him in outreach and assimilation ministries. This program is bearing much fruit as growing numbers of Covenant Seminary MDiv graduates are planting PCA churches in North America, with many others planting overseas with Mission to the World. According to records maintained by the PCA, of the 1,080 Covenant Seminary graduates currently serving as ordained pastors in the denomination, 241 (22.3%) have planted one or more PCA churches. Thus, this model proves the effectiveness of seminary education in preparing men to plant churches.

The nineteenth model: An influential layman in our Presbytery believed the Lord wanted us to plant a church in the city of St. Louis that focused on mercy and justice ministries. So he contacted other churches around the nation that had developed similar models. As a result, he recruited a pastor to plant in an area of St. Louis that was half white and half black in population. That church now has around 600 people in worship on Sunday mornings with 200 more meeting for worship at a location on the south side of the city. This is another model of the essential part that visionary Ruling Elders have in church planting.

The twentieth model: One of our St. Louis pastors, who is now with the Lord, led to Christ a young man back in 1992 during the first couple of months of his church plant. He discipled this man, instructed and modeled for him how to conduct evangelism, encouraged him in leadership so that he became an ordained Ruling Elder at the church, and sent him to Covenant Seminary for his MDiv. About 70 people from the mother church then went with this graduate to plant a church a few miles south in Fenton, Missouri. This model shows the power of evangelism and discipleship in developing the next generation of church planters. 

Church planting is the most effective means to increase giving to missions of all sorts. For example, the 13 Washington, DC, church plants that I and my team initiated from 1977 to 1986 resulted in 2006 Benevolence Giving of $1,048,788. Even better news is that over the decades since, these churches have continued to give more and more to missions each year.  

The most fruitful means of winning the lost to Christ is by the ministry of church planting. In our national PCA church plants conducted over the last seven years, an average of 6.6 professions of faith occurred during a church’s fourth year of existence. It is difficult to discover the number of professions in our established churches on an annual basis, but I estimate it is no more than one-third of that number.  

It is my prayer that over the next several decades the PCA will use these twenty methods, plus others we have not yet considered, to plant thousands of Christ-centered biblical and Reformed churches. This movement will serve as an instrument in the hand of God to win North America and the nations to Christ.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

91ľźş˝ is working with the PCA’s Mission to North America and other ministries as we aim to recruit, train, and send the next generation of leaders who will plant and grow more biblically sound, confessionally Reformed churches in the US and across North America. You can help to make this vison a reality by ensuring that our Church Planting Track and Church Planting Scholarship remain strong and vital. How can you do this?

• Pray for us and our partners and support us financially.

• Refer potential church planting students to us.

• Connect us with influencers and others who can have an impact on our efforts.

We value your partnership in our ministry!

In the spring of 1979, I had been serving as an Associate Pastor in the Washington, DC, area for almost five years. However, as I studied the book of Acts about the church planting ministry of the apostle Paul, the desire developed to give myself to the same ministry. As a result, this passion to see the entire region reached for Christ by church planting led me to make an appointment with the Presbyterian Church in America’s only pastor in the Washington area. I wanted to learn how he had planted his church two years earlier.

During that meeting, the pastor spoke about a group of seven families living on the western growth edge of the Washington region whom a sign painter had gathered for a Bible study. This man had prayed for the previous 12 years that a biblical and Reformed denomination might plant a church in his area of Manassas-Gainesville, Virginia. Together with this pastor, the Coordinator of Church Development for the PCA's Presbytery in that region had ministered to this Bible study group for the last three months. After six weeks of interviews and examinations, the Mid-Atlantic Presbytery called me to serve as the Organizing Pastor for this ministry. We conducted our first worship service at an elementary school in Gainesville, Virginia, on May 20, 1979. The church I had been serving, even though part of a mainline Presbyterian denomination, encouraged me to plant this PCA church.

They also permitted me to make the transition to half-time ministry status with them while continuing at full-time salary to plant the church. Over those months of conducting worship services, networking, and evangelism, we grew from seven to twenty families and arrived at financial self-support. The PCA's Mission to North America Committee promised to provide half support when the finances finished with my previous church, but its support proved to be unnecessary. Nevertheless, it was comforting to me and my family of five to understand that this financial “safety net” was in place if needed. This first model of a church planting ministry shows how God enjoys honoring the prayers of a faithful layman who perseveringly pleads with him for a biblical and Reformed denomination to plant a church in his area. 

A second model for church planting developed after four years when our church was averaging in 260 people in attendance during Sunday morning worship. The Session of our church believed the best size for our ministry was 200 to 250 people in regular attendance. So they gave me permission to take 36 volunteers with me to plant a daughter church in an area 13 miles closer to Washington. After one year, that church grew to 85 people in average attendance. So the PCA’s Mission to North America (MNA) helped us financially to invite on our staff a full-time Assistant Pastor, whom I began training to become the pastor of this daughter church. Initially, I preached at the mother church at the 9:15 a.m. service and at the daughter church at their 11:00 a.m. service, but after a year and a half, the Assistant became the solo Pastor. This second model is an example of an existing church becoming the mother of a daughter church by the pastor preaching in a distant location until the second church is financially able to afford her own pastor.

The third model developed when the mother church was six and a half years old and the Session determined we were ready to plant another daughter. Again, with financial help from Mission to North America, the church invited on staff an Assistant Pastor to co-plant a daughter church with me. We asked for volunteers, and this time 49 people went with us to a community 12 miles further away from Washington. The Assistant Pastor and I shared the preaching and pastoral responsibilities, but the man proved to be so capable that after four months we determined he was ready to lead the church with two elders from the mother church. When the original one year of financial support from MNA had finished, that daughter church was self-supporting and self-governing. This third model shows how a church forms by a co-pastoring arrangement in which a man just out of seminary successfully yokes with an experienced church planter.   

One of our PCA churches in the northeast suburbs of Washington, DC, displayed a fourth model.  Rather than send out an Associate Pastor with a group of her people, the church commissioned an elder to transplant 50 members to a growing area of the region 13 miles east. This layman provided much of the preaching and organized other laypeople to shepherd the growing flock. After a year of worship services, this church plant was able to call a full-time pastor. 

This same church demonstrated a fifth model several years afterward when it continued planting daughter churches but decided this time to keep the churches connected to her in a collegial association. Soon, two daughter churches met on Sunday mornings at a distance from the mother in growing areas of the region, but gathered at the mother's building on Sunday evenings. The pastors of the two daughter churches were Assistant Pastors of the mother church and the Session of the mother supervised the ministries of the two daughters.

When we were able to identify a capable and willing church planter, but had no people, we created a sixth model. The future church planter had been an Assistant Pastor for several years in a church of a sister denomination in the area, but now he sensed a calling to start a church. We spent $1100 advertising a public information meeting at a hotel in a rapidly growing part of suburban Washington; 35 people came. From that gathering the church planter was able to develop a core of six families to reach out to the area and begin worship services. This model is an example of what can happen when a church planter is available in the beginning there are no people to serve as the core group. 

One of our pastors who had a passion to reach the ethnic communities of the Washington area displayed a seventh means by which we have planted churches. His concern inspired him to form the Washington Spanish outreach and raise the support to place on the field a Hispanic church planter. This pastor subsequently started two churches in the area by his evangelistic efforts. 

The same Anglo pastor was instrumental in developing an eighth method when he gathered the finances and planters to start Chinese, Japanese, and Korean churches in the area. Because during their beginning years the ethnic churches often meet for worship in our existing churches, not only do we start churches to reach the nations but also there is greater efficiency in the use of existing buildings. 

A ninth means by which we planted churches occurred when three of our existing churches on the western side of Washington contributed families to a mission effort in their area. We had a qualified church planter with 18 years of ministry experience, and we had the right area in which to start the church in a fast growing part of Washington. But, once again, we did not have core families. After the need became known, one of our churches contributed three families when its pastor visited potential core families in his church asking them to become involved in the mission. Another church contributed three families and our church contributed two families to provide the mission a good start with eight core families.  

The tenth method of planting churches developed in 1986 when Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, called me to be the Professor of Church Planting, Growth, and Renewal. The understanding was that I would train the students in church planting as I planted churches with them in the St. Louis region. With our demographic studies, we discovered the western growth edge of the region was the best place to begin. At that same time, a lay leader in one of our existing churches had been praying for 12 years that the PCA would plant a church in his neighborhood. Unknown to him, his home was in the middle of the targeted area. He and his wife, two seminary couples, and I planted that church, and within one year it was self-governing, self-propagating, and ready to call its own full-time pastor. Because of excellent demographic studies and the man’s persevering prayer, this was a church ready to flourish. Because I was working as a full-time professor, which provided my support, the church was able to be self-supporting from its first day. This planting is a model of a “tent-making” ministry, so called because the apostle Paul made tents to support himself as he planted churches throughout the Roman Empire. 

(To be continued next month.) 

HOW YOU CAN HELP

91ľźş˝ is working with the PCA’s Mission to North America and other ministries as we aim to recruit, train, and send the next generation of leaders who will plant and grow more biblically sound, confessionally Reformed churches in the US and across North America. You can help to make this vison a reality by ensuring that our Church Planting Track and Church Planting Scholarship remain strong and vital. How can you do this?

• Pray for us and our partners and support us financially.

• Refer potential church planting students to us.

• Connect us with influencers and others who can have an impact on our efforts.

We value your partnership in our ministry!

What does it mean that God is holy? And how should our lives look different because of it? With a focus on the Torah, this seminar, hosted by Covenant Seminary at The Gospel Coalition’s 2025 National Conference, explains how God’s holiness is central to who he is, how it refers to much more than moral purity, and how it calls us to respond with love, fear, and worship.

As Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), the need for church planting remains constant. Since its inception, Covenant Seminary has been steadfastly committed to raising up church planters. Jesus told his disciples that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few, and that we ought to earnestly pray for workers to be sent into the harvest (Matt. 9:35–38). In keeping with the Seminary’s emphasis on church planting, Dr. Phil Douglass taught here for 32 years, beating the drum and advocating for church planting all the while, and praying that students would respond to this great need. By God’s grace, and through the tireless efforts and enthusiastic influence of Phil and his colleagues, Covenant Seminary alumni have planted over 325 PCA churches and more than 400 churches total.

This tradition continues with the Church Planting Track, a specialized addition to our MDiv and MABTS degree programs, along with a new Church Planting Scholarship for qualified students. Thanks to , Covenant will expand its efforts to recruit and train church planters, while working in close partnership with Mission to North America (MNA), our denominational church planting agency, and other ministries to help build Christ’s church within the PCA and beyond. In the timeless article posted below—originally published in Covenant Magazine several years ago and adapted here, Dr. Douglass proposes that a Reformed view of church planting is rooted in the gospel of grace. From Calvin’s students at Geneva in the mid-1500s to Covenant Seminary students today, church planters set forth with confidence in God’s unchanging grace and the Spirit-empowered courage to endure laboring in God’s harvest fields.

– Dr. Robert Kim

The Grace-Centered Heart of Church Planting

What is it about the teaching and training provided at 91ľźş˝ that compels a growing number of our Master of Divinity (MDiv) graduates to plant PCA churches in both North America and overseas? It is the same theology that, in the 1500s, empowered graduates of theologian John Calvin’s seminary in Geneva, Switzerland, to plant thousands of churches in France, Holland, Scotland, and throughout the rest of Europe. It is the grace-centeredness of our Reformed perspective.

Most of Calvin’s students came to Geneva during the mid-1500s as refugees fleeing religious persecution. Yet, after Calvin equipped them by teaching them how to study the Scriptures, grow in godly character, and proclaim the gospel, they returned to the same hostile countries from which they had fled with the goal of planting churches. In 1555, there were five Reformed churches in France (in Paris, Meaux, Angers, Poitiers, and Loudun); in 1559, there were almost 100 planted. In 1562, the number of church plants reached 2,150. The total membership of these churches in 1562 was 3 million (out of a total French population of 20 million). By any historical comparison, these churches mark an astounding evangelistic and church-planting effort. What did Calvin teach his students that compelled them to face great dangers and deprivations? It was the same timeless message we teach our students at Covenant Seminary today—the gospel of grace.

Keep the Indicatives and Imperatives in the Right Order

A primary way we communicate these grace distinctives to our students is through our focus on the “indicatives” and the “imperatives” found in almost every passage of Scripture. As taught by the great Reformed theologian Herman Ridderbos, the indicatives are a declaration of God’s nature, of what he has done for us in Christ, and who he has made us to be in union with Christ. The indicatives empower the imperatives of Scripture, which challenge and guide us in responding to the ways God has blessed us in Christ. The indicatives are the basic theological truths of a biblical passage; the imperatives are the “therefores” that command us to act in like manner toward others.

This scriptural pattern communicates what I call the “platinum rule”: “Do unto others as the Father has so graciously and lovingly done unto you in Christ.” And the corollary to this rule is: “To the same degree that your heart is gripped by the Lord’s gracious and loving work done on your behalf, you will be motivated and empowered by the Holy Spirit to go and do likewise unto others.”

This is why the apostle John tells us, “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3). In other words, if we truly know God in the ways he blesses us, then we will relate with the same sacrificial love to others through obeying his imperatives. In Sin and Temptation, John Owen, the great Puritan theologian, explains that we need to

keep the heart full of a sense of the love of God in Christ: this is the greatest preservative against the power of temptation in the world. . . . Fill your heart with a sense of the love of God in Christ, and apply the eternal design of grace and shed blood to yourselves. Accept all the privileges of adoption, justification, and acceptance with God.

Because Calvin’s church planters were so impacted by the blood Jesus shed for them, they too were willing to shed their blood for others.

The Way Jesus Did It

Perhaps the most famous example of the indicatives empowering the imperatives of church planting is Matthew 16:15–19, where Jesus said to his disciples:

“But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” [an indicative]. And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven [an indicative]. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock [of the two indicatives] I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven [indicative], and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” [imperative].

Jesus plants his church through the power of the Father’s revelation of him as the Christ—the one who raises people from spiritual and physical death. These grace-oriented indicatives serve as the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. In other words, people enter into heaven through the Spirit of the Father bringing them into union with the resurrected Christ through opening the eyes of their hearts to believe that Christ was crucified for them. Through evangelism and church planting, Peter and the apostles responded to Jesus’s imperative instructions by setting “loose” this gospel unto others as the Father had graciously set it loose in their hearts by revealing Christ to them.

As a result, we see in the book of acts an outburst of evangelism and church planting in Jerusalem:

Acts 2:41: So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Acts 4:4: But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.  

Acts 5:14: And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women . . .

It is estimated that within a just few years, the number of believers in Jerusalem grew to 20,000 men, women, and children. Because the average home at that time could hold no more than 40 people, this means that approximately 500 churches would have been planted. Jesus plants his church today in the same way he built the first-century church and the churches of the Reformation—through the Father granting faith to spiritually dead people to see Jesus as the Christ, raising them from spiritual death, and baptizing them into union with Christ. Because of this gospel pattern, we send our graduates out to plant churches with the confidence that as many as are appointed to eternal life will believe (Acts 13:48).

Grace-Centered for the Future of Christ’s Church

I am often encouraged by the grace-centeredness of our students and graduates. My heart has been warmed by students remarking that they consistently hear the message of grace from all of our faculty members in ways they never previously understood. I have also heard an associate pastor at our church clearly communicating the scriptural indicatives as empowering the imperatives as he administers communion. This man helped me plant a church in St. Louis when he was an MDiv student intern; he is now a key church-planting leader in our presbytery. In these and many other ways, Jesus continues to build his church through the grace-centered gospel taught at Covenant Seminary.

About Our Authors

Dr. Philip Douglass, Professor Emeritus of Applied Theology, retired from Covenant Seminary in 2018 after 32 years of teaching and mentoring generations of students and church planters for the PCA. He was also instrumental in establishing Mission to North America’s Church Planting Assessment Center in Atlanta, Georgia. He now coordinates the church planting efforts of Missouri Presbytery and continues to consult and serve at the denominational level.

Dr. Robert Kim, Associate Professor of Applied Theology and Church Planting, is also the Philip and Rebecca Douglass Chair of Church Planting and Christian Formation at Covenant. A seasoned church planter himself, Dr. Kim ably carries on the work begun by Dr. Douglass as he trains and mentors students, recruits church planters, and oversees the Seminary’s Church Planting Track for the MDiv and MABTS degrees.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

91ľźş˝ is working with the PCA’s Mission to North America and other ministries as we aim to recruit, train, and send the next generation of leaders who will plant and grow more biblically sound, confessionally Reformed churches in the US and across North America. You can help to make this vison a reality by ensuring that our Church Planting Track and Church Planting Scholarship remain strong and vital. How can you do this?

• Pray for us and our partners and support us financially.

• Refer potential church planting students to us.

• Connect us with influencers and others who can have an impact on our efforts.

We value your partnership in our ministry!

Preparing church planters has long been part of Covenant Seminary’s pastoral training mission, but the need for new churches—and well-trained planters to lead them—remains great. To help meet this need, the Seminary a few years ago instituted the Church Planting Track, a specialized addition to our MDiv and MABTS degree programs, along with a new Church Planting Scholarship for qualified students. Thanks to a recent grant from the Association of Theological Schools, Covenant will expand its efforts to recruit and train church planters, while working in close partnership with Mission to North America (MNA), our denominational church planting agency, and other ministries to help build Christ’s church within the PCA and beyond. In the first of a series of periodic posts on church planting, Dr. Murray Lee, MNA Executive Coordinator, and the MNA Executive Team offer a reflection adapted from the MNA vision statement about the challenges of our cultural moment and how MNA and its partners are working to address them.

 The Challenge: Our Changing Cultural Circumstances

For over 50 years the Lord has been pleased to use Mission to North America to cultivate the advancement of his kingdom through the Presbyterian Church in America. The PCA maintains our commitment to being faithful to the Scriptures, true to the Reformed Faith, and obedient to the Great Commission in the current age. Over the last few decades, it has become very clear that the cultural landscape has shifted in North America. As Jim Davis and Michael Graham wrote in their book (Zondervan, 2023), “We are currently in the middle of the largest and fastest religious shift in the history of our country as tens of millions of formerly regular Christian worshippers nationwide have decided they no longer desire to attend church at all.”

For the first time in our history, the United States is no longer a majority Christian nation. For as long as we have been keeping track, church membership has been consistently above 70 percent of all Americans. At the turn of the current century, church membership began to plummet and is now below of 50 percent and continuing to decline. Approximately two dozen churches shut their doors every day in America. The Atlantic has called this “America’s Epidemic of Empty Churches.” That number continues to grow as nearly two-thirds of American churches are on the cusp of financial insolvency (see The Atlantic for Nov. 25, 2018).

This wave of secularization fosters a culture of contempt for one another in the face of longing for community. People whose deepest need is to know the beauty of the gospel and experience Spirit-empowered reconciliation with God and one another see the church as caught up in partisan polarization. At the same time, this contempt is driving people from the pews as the pursuit of disagreement supplants love and relationship. For both groups, the church is becoming irrelevant. Consequently, there is an epidemic of loneliness and isolation. Additionally, since 1995, as the U.S. population has grown exponentially, church membership has taken an equal and opposite trend: as our nation grows, our churches are emptying out.

The impact of this on communities nationwide is immense. Without these congregations, our neighborhoods, towns, and cities risk greater isolation, hopelessness, and fear rather than experiencing connection, gospel hope, and freedom. Our nation urgently needs the gospel, and the church plays a crucial role in weaving the gospel into every aspect of our lives.

In the midst of all this, the PCA has planted around 50 new churches each year for the past generation. That number declined from 50 to 42 over the last 12 years but is slowly recovering. During this same period, we have seen a loss of approximately 37 churches a year. This leaves us with a net gain of 5 additions each year. To make a significant contribution to the number of churches needed to keep up with population growth, the PCA must more than double in size in the next ten years. This seems like a daunting task.

The Response: A Commitment to Church Planting in the PCA

Yet, while some respond to these realities with alarm, at MNA we believe that we are in the middle of a great opportunity for gospel impact in North America. Coincident with the religious shift we are experiencing is a demographic shift resulting in North American communities becoming much more culturally and ethnically diverse. Our church has the opportunity to proclaim the gospel to the nations and impact the world without leaving these shores. We believe that these shifts declare that the Lord is on the move, and we are committed to laboring for the cause of his kingdom so that the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and image bearers from every tribe, language, people, and nation will worship the Lamb of God (Rev. 7:9; 11:15).

But how do we go about doing this? What is the best way to reach our de-churched neighbors and those who identify as “nones” with regard to religious affiliation, when previous ways of evangelizing no longer hold sway?

Surprisingly, our experience shows that the best way to evangelize is by planting churches. Yes, more people come to faith in our country and within the PCA through the starting of new churches than any other single method or strategy. Why? Because the beginning of a new church provides a safe way for seekers and those with a difficult or painful church history to start engaging again, to put a toe in the water, so to speak, and to listen afresh to the simple truth of faith in Christ.

So, to reach our neighbors and affect gospel change in our cities, neighborhoods, culture, and nation, we need to plant more churches and help them last and thrive. And to do this, we need a multi-pronged approach. In addition to adding more churches, we must provide structures and resources to ensure that fewer churches close down. If our denomination can continue planting 50 churches each year and at the same time reduce the number of church closures by half, we can realize a net gain of 30 churches each year! Such a result requires not only the recruiting and training of more church planters, but also the combined efforts of many within our denomination—from agencies and committees to local churches and individuals—to support the work with prayers, finances, networking, partnerships, and boots-on-the-ground, hands-on-the-plow hard work. This kind of cooperation is vital to success.

The Next Steps: Moving Forward in Faith

As the PCA’s denominational agency tasked with church planting and resourcing, MNA provides expertise with excellence to all PCA churches, presbyteries, and networks in North America by offering a suite of practical ministry resources—from training, equipping, and assisting in missional purpose, to serving communities to advance God’s kingdom. Our focus on church vitality and church planting guides and supports denominational efforts in all facets of planting new churches and strengthening existing ones. MNA also deploys a variety of other ministries to assist with particular needs of the church, its members, and their respective areas of service within the broader kingdom.

Building on this solid base and looking ahead as we seek to address the challenges around us in the present moment, MNA now seeks to greatly multiply its impact through several new initiatives and expanded capacities. Our hope, should God be pleased to bless our efforts, is to see over 1,000 new PCA congregations and hundreds of thousands of new believers in Christ from all over the world. Ideally, this would mean growing the PCA by 200,000 families, impacting 3,000 communities, and seeing over 500,000 professions of faith in Christ. We aim to do this through a combination of planting new churches, reducing church closures, enfolding some existing congregations into the PCA, and expanding the diversity of our denomination. This is a bold vision to be sure, and MNA cannot accomplish it alone. We will:

• Partner with our sister denominational agencies and committees and other like-minded organizations to recruit, train, develop, and deploy a significant number of church planting candidates.

• Develop strategic partnerships with seminaries, churches, presbyteries, and minority leaders within the denomination and provide scholarships for minority leaders who pursue seminary training.

• Provide regular teaching and on-site training within the seminary classroom context to help future pastors discern their call to church planting, and develop and distribute resources on church planting.

• Significantly expand our Church Planting Assessment process and provide ongoing coaching and timely consulting and strategic support for pastors and congregations to help them thrive.

• Work with presbyteries and church planting networks to provide a multi-track church planting training program on the competencies and skills needed to plant a church.

• Provide churches an apprentice and residency program model and create and distribute continued education and resources for church planters.

• Expand the presence of MNA’s ministries within every presbytery to ensure that churches have access to ministry resources that will support and build each congregation, with a special focus on some new efforts such as Mandarin Speaking Chinese Ministries, Cantonese Speaking Chinese Ministries, South Asian Ministries, Pan Asian Ministries, Rural Church Development, and African Ministries.

By God’s grace and with the prayers and support of our denomination and our many ministry partners, we aim to move forward boldly, with sure and steady faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the head of his church and the Shepherd of our souls. We invite you to join us on this exciting adventure to multiply churches that will not only survive but thrive, bringing gospel grace to a desperate world and greater glory to the name of Jesus.

91ľźş˝ is already working with MNA and others on many aspects of this bold church planting vision as we aim to train and send the next generation of leaders who will plant and grow more biblically sound, confessionally Reformed churches in the US and across North America. You can help to make this vison a reality by ensuring that our Church Planting Track and Church Planting Scholarship remain strong and vital. How can you do this?

• Pray for us and our partners and support us financially.

• Refer potential church planting students to us.

• Connect us with influencers and others who can have an impact on our efforts.

We value your partnership in our ministry!

The last few decades have been a time of radical change in our world. Many of the basic cultural markers and boundaries we used to take for granted have broken down, and large numbers of people are feeling that we now live in a time of intense uncertainty and struggle. Former believers are “deconstructing” their faith in huge numbers. Recent research shows that forty million Americans have stopped going to church—that’s 15% of the overall US population. Thirty percent of the population is now religiously unaffiliated. We find ourselves in a time of immense anxiety, loss, and disintegration, and we’re not sure what to do about it.

The word I use to describe this state of things is “disenchantment.” We’re living in a time when people everywhere are experiencing a great sense of disenchantment with just about everything. They have lots of questions but not a lot of solid answers, and they’re looking for answers in all the wrong places.

How did we get here? There are lots of complex reasons, but here are four simple concepts that can help us answer that question: distrust, division, distraction, and despair.

We distrust authority and institutions because we’ve seen so many failures of those in positions of power, heard so many stories of fallen leaders, experienced so many broken relationships, especially in the church, that we’re leery of trusting again. We also find ourselves living in one of the most polarized times in history, with political and social and religious divisions pulling us further and further away from each other. And in the midst of that we’re distracted by so much technology, so many choices, so much busyness that we are overwhelmed. We also sometimes use all these distractions to avoid dealing with the difficult issues of life. All of which tempts us toward despair, toward living in a state of what philosopher Charles Taylor, in his book , termed “the malaise of modernity,” an uneasiness that permeates our lives but that we can’t quite put our finger on. It’s hard to navigate all that.

Yet, as Christians we have—or should have—reason for hope even in such uncertain times. But many of us are struggling too. We want to help but don’t know how. We wonder how we can share the good news of our faith when so many around us no longer seem to have even the most rudimentary concepts of morality, or sin, or civility, or God. We need our hearts to be awakened afresh to Jesus and how beautiful he is. We need to catch a glimpse of the sun shining out from behind the clouds and be re-energized, compelled forward with the love of Christ to lean into this world with the gospel—because we have access to the hope that people are looking for.

How do we begin to do this? How can we bring a sense of “re-enchantment” back to a world that seems to have lost its soul? My goal here is to provide some encouragement toward that end.

The CHallenge of “Dechurching” and “Deconstruction”

The first thing we need to know is that there is no “silver bullet,” no easy step-by-step description for how we do this. Rather, I want to provide some basic pastoral counsel that I hope will help us see some pathways forward.

I mentioned “deconstruction,” which, like “disenchantment,” is a big and complicated term that can mean different things. Here I use the term primarily to refer to people who have “dechurched” or “de-converted.” Those are not exactly the same thing. The first refers to people who say they are still Christian but who have stopped going to church for various reasons. The second refers to people who describe themselves as having left the faith altogether. In their book (Zondervan, 2023), Jim Davis and Michael Graham note that the movement away from the church in the United States is greater than the numbers of people who came to faith in the First and Second Great Awakenings, and every other revival in our country, combined. That is a startling statement. And we also see a great surge of de-conversions—people who no longer identify themselves as Christians. In 1989, when Tim Keller planted Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, the percentage of religious “nones”—those who don’t identify with any established religion—was roughly 5% of the U.S. population and 25% of Manhattan. As of 2021, the “nones” made up 30% of the entire U.S. population. What happened in Manhattan 35 years ago, is now happening in the entire country, and moving more and more in that direction. Some researchers predict that Christians will make up less than half of the population by around the year 2070.

This is a great challenge, and over the last several years, God has put a deep burden on my heart to spend myself doing whatever I can to try to help address this state of things and to pray for renewal in the church and in the culture. I know many others feel this sense of urgency because they have seen it happening at a personal level. Many have seen former pastors and leaders, mentors and friends, children and grandchildren experiencing a crisis of faith and moving away from Christianity. We know that Francis Schaeffer himself at one point struggled mightily with the nature of his own faith, wondering if Christianity was a viable answer for the modern world. He went all the way back to the beginning, looking at the foundational basics of Christianity piece by piece before he was re-convinced by the truth of what he knew and was able to bring that truth effectively to others again through the ministry of L’Abri Fellowship. Another great pastor, G. Campbell Morgan, was raised in a Christian home, but went through a terrible season of deconstruction and doubt. At the worst point of his crisis of faith, Morgan came to a moment where, he said, “I was sure of nothing.” A lot of people are in that position these days. Many of us know people in this position. Perhaps you’ve even been there yourself.

I want to invite us to humble ourselves before the painfulness of this topic and approach it in the most pastoral way possible. We want to have the heart of Christ, who at one point wept over Jerusalem because the people there were like sheep without a shepherd. If we want to help others get past these feelings of anxiety and hopelessness and uncertainty, we have to have a heart to bless and serve them. I’d like to suggest two main strategies for doing this, drawn mainly from the work of Francis Schaeffer, who stressed (1) the importance of personal kindness, and (2) the necessity of honest answers.

THe Importance of Personal Kindness

Schaeffer observed that there were four things necessary to meet the challenges in his own day, and I think these same four things are relevant to our time. He said there are two contents needed and two realities needed. The two contents are sound doctrine and honest answers to honest questions. We’ll look at honest answers separately below. And the two realities he noted, without which the content is incomplete, are true spirituality and the beauty of human relationships.

In his own experience amid a church constantly at war with itself, Schaeffer saw how destructive a loveless orthodoxy could be. If you have sound doctrine but ugliness in your personal relationships, this can repel people from Jesus. That insight is still valid in our own day. One of the most common factors influencing why people have left the church in recent years is relational incompetence by Christians, particularly an inability to listen well and/or to disagree charitably. The person leaves not primarily because he or she did not receive an answer to valid questions, but more frequently because their concerns did not even get a hearing by those in the church.

Often, someone struggling with doubts or anxieties about their faith reaches out to a Christian in the church, but that person may feel threatened by the question or feels inadequate to answer it. Instead of simply saying, “I don’t know the answer to that. Let’s look for it together,” the Christian offers some pat answer that isn’t helpful at all, or worse, ends up making the questioner feel embarrassed or scolded for having even asked the question. Sometimes a loved one is going through doubts and deconstruction—maybe a college student who returns home with questions about their faith—and the parents’ first thought is that somehow they have failed in raising their child. They take the situation personally instead of simply realizing that it’s okay to have questions. Instead of responding with calmness, compassion, and kindness, their own anxiety causes relational damage and the questioner turns away from the faith.

We must acknowledge that these situations can be difficult to navigate, and some of the criticisms leveled against Christians are appropriate. But we must also acknowledge that sometimes the criticisms are not fair and occasionally the person with questions is simply looking for a fight. We must realize that it’s okay to have boundaries; we don’t have to take every situation personally or try to respond to every question with the same level of openness. There’s a complexity here that requires a measure of discernment.

At the same time, we have to be careful that our overall attitude as followers of Jesus doesn’t become defensive. The New Testament calls us to exhibit kindness even when we are being maligned. First Peter 3:15, tells us to answer those who question “with gentleness and respect.” Titus 3:2 speaks of having “perfect courtesy to all.” Colossians 4:6 speaks of “gracious speech seasoned with salt.” We are called, even when being attacked, to have love for the other person. That doesn’t mean we allow ourselves to be abused, but in every situation, the other person must feel the love of Jesus from us. From my own experience, I have seen how time and time again intentional kindness toward the other person can open up doors for gospel ministry.

I believe there’s a hunger for kindness right now, as our culture continues to escalate toward outrage about almost everything. We see this in the enduring popularity of TV characters like Mister Rogers or Ted Lasso—kind people who are non-retaliatory even in situations where they could easily be so. Many in our culture are interested in this. I see the effects of outrage in social media all the time. As one who uses YouTube as a major platform for what I do, I resolved from the beginning to have an irenic disposition, aiming for peace with people and wishing them well even as I debate with them about important issues. I have not done that perfectly, of course, but it’s amazing how an attitude of kindness can clarify a disagreement and open doors for pathways of positive discussion.

Three very simple practical things we can do in this regard are:

1. Pray for people and invite them to church. I am amazed at how rarely people are offended when we offer to pray for them, even people who don’t seem to have a relationship with Jesus. Some are more resistant, but it’s surprising how many are open to it, especially if they have something challenging going on in their lives. Simply committing them to the Lord in prayer can strike a chord that makes a big difference. It’s also surprising how many people are open to being invited to church. One of the main reasons that a large percentage of the population has stopped attending is not that they’ve suddenly become hardcore atheists. Many just got out of the habit during COVID and never went back. Some moved away and never found a new church. Others just drifted away and no one bothered to check on them or invite them back. One of the biggest needs today is simple hospitality. This goes a long way toward building relationships and opening doors for the gospel.

2. Practice intentional encouragement. In the midst of all the emotions we’ve identified already, people are aching for encouragement. A few years ago, I started to practice intentional, deliberate encouragement of others by putting it onto my Google calendar to text certain people and just offer them an encouraging word. I was astounded by how frequently I got responses like, “That came at just the right time,” or “I really needed that today.” It took 15 or 20 seconds for me to send a text, but for the other person that simple message might have gotten them through a difficult morning. People around us need encouragement all the time. We need to be intentional about practicing it more often. This can be a big help to our evangelism as we seek to reach those struggling with confusion and pain.

3. Practice listening. This may be the most important thing of all. It was Schaeffer’s main approach. He often talked about how, if he had just one hour with someone, he would listen for most of that time before responding for a shorter time. We need to be able to hear exactly where people are coming from, give them space to express their anxieties, their struggles, their doubts, before we just jump in with advice or platitudes that won’t really help at all. This often means we need to lay aside our assumptions and have an open mind and an open heart. Someone once said that you’re not really listening until you’re willing to be changed by what you hear. We can’t begin to offer help until we hear what the other person really needs and see how the gospel can address that specific need.

In addition to these practical things we can do, there are three assumptions we often make about those going through a deconstruction process— assumptions that are not necessarily true and that we should be wary of as we enter into these kinds of conversations.

1. All deconstruction is intense rather than casual. Not true. As we have seen, many people who left our churches did so not because of major theological issues but simply as the result of drifting away and not being invited back. We need to be able to distinguish the real reasons behind someone’s dechurching.

2. Someone struggling with doubts about faith must not have been a sincere believer to begin with. This is not necessarily true, and it’s often unhelpful to bring that assumption to your conversation. Many experience such doubts as a complete surprise and a source of pain. True Christians—like Francis Schaeffer and G. Campbell Morgan—can experience real doubts, and the Lord can use this process of questioning to strengthen someone’s faith. We must be careful about making assumptions about the genuineness of people’s belief.

3. Mature Christians don’t experience doubts and deconstruction; only immature Christians go through that process. Again, not necessarily true. We have so many testimonies from church history, and the Book of Psalms itself, which teach us that you can be a devout believer who goes through a period where the clouds cover the sun and you can’t see the light. We must be aware that mature Christians can struggle too.

The Necessity of Honest Answers to Honest Questions

Kindness and a caring attitude will go a long way toward opening doors to deeper conversations, but we also have to have something useful to say when we get those opportunities. This is where Schaeffer’s idea of honest answers to honest questions comes in. Our posture here should be as it is in other areas of ministry: We know we are not sufficient in ourselves but are pointing people to Jesus and the beauty of the gospel.

Here are a few very practical ways in which we can do that.

1. Start with the basic gospel message. One thing we discover when we’re interacting with those who have doubts about the faith is that often they have never truly responded in a personal way to the message of the gospel. They have never come to the point of receiving Christ’s offer of forgiveness. Another thing I see frequently is that people deconstruct their faith because they fail to do what I call theological triage—ranking different theological doctrines by their relative importance. Of course, all doctrines are important in one sense, but not all doctrines are of primary importance for saving faith. Sometimes people will make a second-level or even a third-level doctrine of prime importance, and if something causes them to question that doctrine, they begin to question everything else about their faith as well. One way we can help here is to point people to the Apostles’ Creed and other great historical standards of the church. These expressions of our faith emphasize the matters that are of prime importance for Christians to believe and adhere to. Other matters—like varying views on the end times or church government or other issues not directly related to salvation—are not matters to take so seriously as to deconstruct one’s faith over.

2. Learn some basic apologetics strategies and techniques. The word “apologetics” can have negative connotations for some people, but it is a valid concept that comes straight out of Scripture. “Apologia” simply means “defense,” and we see this used in 1 Peter 3:15, which says, “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect.” Those words “gentleness and respect” are vitally important, as we have seen. You can have the most airtight apologetic arguments ever constructed, but they will be meaningless and ineffective if you don’t present them with gentleness and respect, with genuine love for the other person. The church has too often done this poorly. One simple and effective way to practice apologetics is to share your personal testimony. It’s a powerful defense of your faith to show how the Lord brought you from where you were to where you are, and it humanizes the process rather than making it about arguments and proof texts. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be able to offer good arguments based on Scripture, but we must remember Schaeffer’s own concept that “love is the final apologetic.”

3. Pray for open doors of opportunity. Even if you know someone well and have a good sense of where they are spiritually, it can be hard to get around to talking about the gospel. It helps me to remember that three times in the New Testament, Paul prays for an open door or asks others to pray that God would open the door. He did not just speak the same way in every situation. He was responsive to openness. And he was patient. We have to be willing to play the long game; that is, we may have to talk with someone multiple times over a long period before we see any real fruit from the discussion. It takes time to build trust and establish relationships that are safe for honest conversation. It takes time to really care for someone and not see him or her as a project to be undertaken or a victory to be won. In the end, the timing is up to God, not us. Our job is to be open to his leading and to let ourselves be used for his purposes.

Once we have the opportunity to speak, how do we do it? Here are three strong appeals we can make.

1. Christianity has a good explanation for our world. This is a wonderful basic appeal. Why is our world here? Why is it so exquisitely well ordered? Can all of that really be explained by mere chance? One doesn’t always need to get into the nitty gritty intellectual side of classical arguments about first causes or intelligent design in order to pursue this line of thought, but you should definitely know something about those arguments because they can often be useful and helpful to people you’re talking with. Many people today, having imbibed the basic atmosphere of modernity in which we live, have the innate perception that somehow the idea of a creator just makes less sense, given all our scientific advances. Other people posit that we live in one of a multitude of universes where there are infinite possibilities for how things could be and we just happen to live in this one. Everybody has to explain the origin of the universe in some way, whether by some mysterious force we can’t explain or study, or by purely material means that leave out the possibility of a creator. Our own reflection on some of these classic arguments might help us to invite people to consider the real truth, which is that the more you study the world, the more human knowledge grows, the more you see that the idea of a creator makes the most sense of all.

2. Christianity has a good explanation for the human heart and the human experience. Many who doubt Christianity or reject it outright still have a tremendous interest in love and justice. They’re not willing to part ways with the innate perception that love and justice have transcendent value. But in a secular worldview, it’s extremely hard to see where they get that value. They are reductively explained as the products of evolutionary psychology: we value love and justice because they helped our animal ancestors survive. Love and justice have no objective referent in the non-biological world, so they will have no final resolution or significance. That, ultimately, is a very dehumanizing idea. We have the opportunity here for stepping into what Charles Taylor refers to as “the unquiet frontiers of modernity.” Simply put, even unbelievers still long for certain religious qualities. We can press people on this point of inconsistency—with love and gentleness, of course—and move toward getting them to ask themselves, “Can I really live with this kind of worldview? Isn’t Christianity a much more satisfying way to explain the experience of being human?”

3. Christianity has a good explanation of history. Noted atheist Richard Dawkins shocked the world recently when he spoke of being a cultural Christian. Other atheists have said similar things. The reality is that many atheists recognize the tremendous amount of good Christianity has done in the world and that our culture, especially in the West, has lived off the fruits of this largest and most diverse religion in history that was founded by the intriguing figure of Jesus of Nazareth. There must be some explanation for that fact. Most of the time we’re not going to be talking with outright atheists but with people who claim to have at least some sort of spirituality. We can make a good appeal to them both from the claims of Christ and from the claims of his followers, that he rose from the dead, and that the best way to explain this is that he actually was God, he actually did rise from the dead. These are historically plausible claims that explain so much about the modern world.

Let me close with one final thought that addresses an anxiety we experience as we try to make progress in speaking to a world that is not very receptive to the claims of Christ. In addition to expressing kindness and supplying honest answers to honest questions, it’s important to remember that everybody needs God. Everybody is curious about God. Everybody is curious about what happens when we die. These are standard questions about life. Everybody asks them. They are not going away any time soon. No matter how confused the world gets or how anxious we ourselves may feel, these are the most important questions everybody faces. It’s a privilege for us to help others face them, bringing the truth to them in love, with gentleness and respect, and with a whole lot of prayer and reliance on the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray that the Lord would give us compassion for those who are struggling, and may he use us in his own time and in his own way to draw others to the glorious truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Note: This article first appeared in the fall 2024 edition of and is adapted and condensed from lectures Dr. Ortlund (MDiv ‘09) gave at the 2024 Francis Schaeffer Institute Conference at Covenant Seminary.

For the Seminary, this grant is an amazing gift and a great blessing that will enable us to further develop our emphasis on preaching as a primary element of pastoral ministry for the Seminary’s Master of Divinity students. Even more, as we work to equip future preachers, we hope to instill in them (and all our students) a greater sense of how vital preaching is to the larger mission of God to proclaim his Word to the ends of the earth and to bring his gospel of grace to a world in need of hope and restoration. This has long been a major focus for Covenant, and we are grateful for the opportunities the grant provides for enriching and deepening this aspect of our pastoral training mission.

Over the past year, as we have begun to implement the various components proposed in the grant, we have grown more and more excited to see how the Lord will use our efforts to raise up compelling preachers who can engage the church and the world in new and powerful ways. This of course raises three important questions: (1) What exactly is compelling preaching? (2) How is Covenant Seminary shaping and equipping compelling preachers? (3) Why is compelling preaching a vital part of God’s mission?

What is COmpelling Preaching

The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:14–15, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (NIV). The basic meaning of the word “compels” is “to press together, constrain.” It is the pressure applied not so much to control as to cause action. It is motivational rather than directional in force.

In the 2 Corinthians text, Paul finds the love of Christ moving him to action. He cannot experience this love and remain the same. What compels must be acted upon. That is the sense of what is meant by “compelling preaching”: it is preaching that moves us to action, that motivates us, that doesn’t leave us the same as we were before we heard it.

Within our Reformed theological tradition, we believe that compelling preaching begins with a clear understanding of God’s work of grace done for us in and through Jesus. While it is easy for preachers to motivate through guilt or exhort people towards moralism, the most compelling preaching is rooted in God’s lavish love for us shown in the life, death, and resurrection of his Son, making clear to people that we do not act obediently to earn God’s love; we are obedient because of God’s love

Covenant has long held a focus on training Christ-centered, gospel-focused preachers as a central means of pastoral ministry, beginning with our founder, Dr. Robert Rayburn, and continuing through many of our dedicated homiletics faculty and adjunct instructors, all of whom are seasoned ministers of the gospel and experienced pastors in local churches. Former Covenant President Dr. Bryan Chapell’s book Christ-Centered Preaching, now in its third edition, is a standard homiletics textbook in seminaries across the country and continues to form a solid theological foundation for our preaching program. This foundation not only covers the basic elements of good preaching but also stresses the importance of rooting the life of Christian obedience not in moralism or self-effort but in the grace God makes available to us in Christ. To use the language of the Lilly grant, this approach helps preachers learn how to compel people to godliness through a focus on the indescribably deep mercy and grace found in Christ.

Covenant’s next Director of Homiletics, Dr. Jimmy Agan, continued this tradition of emphasizing the importance of Christ-centeredness and a grace-filled life of faithfulness as necessary for an effective preaching ministry. Building on this firm foundation, Dr. Zack Eswine then expanded the approach by asking the question, “How do preachers take this Good News of God’s love in Christ and explain it in a compelling way to a world that is rapidly secularizing?” In his book (which won Preaching Today’s Book of the Year award in 2009), Dr. Eswine explored different practical ways preachers can be both expositional and mission-minded as they preach.

In a similar vein, in my own tenure as Director of Homiletics, I have attempted to further expand on the insights of Drs. Chapell, Agan, and Eswine by pressing them forward into new cultural spaces. My doctoral dissertation, Christ-Centered Preaching in Hip-Hop Culture, explores the question of how preachers can be more compelling in their approach to a specific cultural segment (in this case, young African American males) that is largely unreached and unmotivated by standard approaches to preaching. Principles derived from my research into this topic are being integrated into our preaching curriculum to parallel our solid theological foundation with an important cross-cultural foundation that aims to help students wrestle more fully with what faithful preaching looks like in the face of cultural injustices endemic to society and cultural idols commonly worshipped in our current age.

From a cultural perspective, compelling preaching has to be able to connect with listeners by building bridges from where people are to the Good News of Jesus Christ. When preaching in Jewish synagogues, the apostle Paul built bridges by starting with texts from the Hebrew Scriptures (see Acts 13); when preaching in polytheistic Athens on Mars Hill, he started by recognizing their acknowledgment of an “unknown god” and quoted their own Greek poets to begin making theological connections (see Acts 17). In each case, Paul began with the listeners’ own world and moved from there to show how Jesus best answered their deepest questions, longings, and needs. Compelling preaching today must do the same.

In short, compelling preachers will be those who learn to motivate people to live the Christian life in response to God’s love shown in Jesus, and who learn to connect with people by building bridges from where they are to the gospel. We have designed our curriculum at Covenant in such a way to achieve these goals and to build on the decades of work that we have already been doing in these very areas. We have found that while some students come with a clear understanding of this idea of preaching, many others do not; they f ind this approach revolutionary for their spiritual lives in general and their preaching in particular. Our prayer is that it will be transformative as well for their future congregations and beyond.

How is Covenant Shaping and Equipping Compelling Preachers?

Through the Lilly grant, we aim to build on the solid foundation and existing infrastructure of homiletics training as established by our forebears. The goal is to better equip and support both aspiring and current pastors in their callings to proclaim the unchanging, eternal gospel in a variety of ways to a variety of audiences in a changing world. The grant enables us to do this through three primary activities: (1) preaching cohort groups, (2) preaching conferences and workshops, and (3) the development of preaching resources for the broader church. These program elements will help us to encourage and revitalize seasoned preachers, prepare young preachers and those aspiring to preach, and provide opportunities for preachers of all experience levels, ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities to learn from each other. The program also opens pathways for bi-vocational pastors who may not have previously had access to seminary-level education to learn and grow as preachers as well.

Three types of preaching cohort groups, implemented in phases over the course of the next several years, are a major component of the program. One is a multidenominational, multiethnic group designed for aspiring preachers from local churches in the St. Louis area (identified and invited by their pastors), who will be trained in the Compelling Preaching curriculum. A second group is made up of Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) campus ministers from different parts of the country who are members of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). A third group is composed of Doctor of Ministry students from Covenant Seminary focused specifically on compelling preaching, which will require a dissertation on a topic of the students’ choosing that will eventually become part of the compelling preaching resources available to the wider church. The curriculum for these cohort groups will include instruction and research on such topics as preaching Christ in all of the Scriptures, preaching Christ with apologetic sensitivity, preaching Christ in ways that address core cultural concerns of marginalized ethnic groups, preaching Christ while navigating and utilizing technology, preaching to address pivotal moments of crisis in our culture, and preaching as an act of worship in itself. Other topics may be added as needed.

Program participants in all cohorts will have opportunities to learn from experienced practitioners who are themselves compelling preachers. Participants will also get to preach as part of the program, and they will be encouraged to provide structures for constructive feedback within their home congregations.

The second means of equipping and supporting aspiring and current preachers is through a series of preaching conferences, one in the spring and one in the fall each year. The spring conference is conceived as a two-day event held in St. Louis to take advantage of the presence of the large number of compelling preachers who live and minister in this area, many of whom are Covenant Seminary graduates. Eventually, we hope to grow the conference to bring in outside speakers as well from the ranks of more nationally known compelling preachers. The fall conference already exists as our annual Covenant Seminary Preaching Lectures, a one-day, on-campus event featuring a prominent speaker on homiletics topics and primarily aimed at the Seminary’s Master of Divinity students. The preaching cohort groups would be invited to participate in both conferences, which will be livestreamed and recorded for those not able to attend in person.

The third major element of the program is to develop preaching resources for the church, one of which would be the creation of a Compelling Preaching website specifically designed to house sermons, articles, podcasts, recommended books, online preaching course material, preaching conference recordings, and other preaching-related resources. While some of the content on the website will be designed exclusively for the preaching cohort participants, much of it would also be available to anyone who would care to use it. The website is currently still in the planning stage.

In addition to the immediate benefits of Compelling Preaching for those participating in it, our current MDiv students will also benefit as the resources developed and the insights gained from the various cohort groups are applied and incorporated into our existing preaching curriculum. Thus, the program is not only directly in keeping with our institutional mission, history, and strengths, but also will allow us to push our own learning in these areas both deeper and broader to equip many more compelling preachers than we are currently able to do.

Why is Compelling Preaching a VItal Part of God’s Mission?

To answer this question, we once again turn to the apostle Paul, who, in Romans 10:14–17, said:

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!?. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So, faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Additionally, the Westminster Shorter Catechism question and answer 155 says:

Q. How is the Word made effectual to salvation?
A. The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners; of driving them out of themselves, and drawing them unto Christ; of conforming them to his image, and subduing them to his will; of strengthening them against temptations and corruptions; of building them up in grace, and establishing their hearts in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.

All through the book of Acts we see the importance of the Word of God preached as the apostles move out from Jerusalem to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And down through the centuries we see again and again the power of the preached Word of God, especially as the early Reformers and their spiritual children began to re-emphasize strong expository preaching and clear gospel proclamation after the dimmer light of the Middle Ages. It is the power of the Word preached that spread the gospel first throughout the Mediterranean world, then across lands and seas and continents to reach our spiritual ancestors across the globe and in modern America. And it is the power of the Word of God preached that alone can bring the same gospel hope to a society and a world that now more than ever seems to have lost its moral and spiritual moorings.

Though today we have almost unlimited access to the Bible in printed and electronic forms, and more resources for studying the Bible than at any other time in history, the Lord still chooses to work most mightily through his Word as it is preached by local pastors, church planters, and missionaries, and proclaimed informally by friends, neighbors, family members, coworkers, or even strangers. He loves to work through human instruments to accomplish his great goals. Thus, the more we as educators can emphasize the power of preaching and the better we can prepare those who will be bringing God’s Word to people in local churches and other ministry settings to do so in compelling and life-transforming ways, the more we—and our students and those to whom they minister—participate in God’s ongoing mission to redeem lost souls and ultimately restore his beautiful creation.

Covenant Seminary’s long history of shaping and equipping compelling gospel preachers for this purpose is exemplified in the quality of our pastoral graduates and the effectiveness of their preaching ministries. We routinely hear from donors and others in churches pastored by Covenant alumni about how greatly those churches—and they personally—have been impacted by our graduates’ preaching. Pastoral search committees often tell us that they look specifically for Covenant grads because there is just something different about them, an air of grace and gospel-heartedness that informs the way they approach not only the sacred task of preaching but their entire ministry. We praise God that this is the case and are grateful for how he has worked through Covenant over the decades to prepare these servants for his church. We look forward to seeing how the Lord will continue to use us and our graduates to bring his gospel message to the world, not for our sakes, but for his glory and, as our mission statement notes, “all for God’s mission.”

Note: This article first appeared in the fall 2024 edition of Covenant magazine.

I wish I could wave a magic wand and make the word “trauma” disappear.

No more “my trauma,” or “trauma response” or “PTSD” or “Big T” or “Little T trauma.” One thing I know. If the word trauma disappeared, so would my and your trauma habit.

With no habit, we would need to think before we spoke. We would need to search carefully our own and each other’s souls to find words that paint a fitting picture of our experience. That picture, not quite clear, hard to view, horrifying with its stark darkness in bright colors, yet more honest and more real than those easy-to-come-by pictures painted by automatic trauma-habit words.

Immense is the experience of the soul—too big for catchall words whose purpose is to reduce unspeakable experience to speaking terms. Shame, attachment-wounds, grief, abuse, trauma, all create comfort by reducing the truth of our experience to ideas.

Ideas can be put on a shelf like a book we don’t dare read. Ideas can be gazed at because we know experience’s frightening power has been made feeble. When staring at safe ideas we can fool ourselves into thinking we are doing important work. But safe work is seldom deep enough work.

Ideas can fool us into thinking about our pain in small and tame ways as if shrinking pain eases the digesting of it.

As long as we retreat into ideas, we miss the benefit of wrestling with our experience and owning it. We miss the benefit of painful experiences finding their place in our story, digested and settled into their home.

Somatic experience and embodied healing expert Lexi Florentina says,

The opposite of trauma isn’t “healed,” it’s aliveness.

The opposite of trauma isn’t “healed,” it’s connection.

The opposite of trauma isn’t “healed,” it’s curiosity.

The opposite of trauma isn’t “healed,” it’s play.

The opposite of trauma isn’t “healed,” it’s presence.

The opposite of trauma isn’t to find perfection, to become a contained or even calm version of ourselves. But rather, it’s where we begin to experience what couldn’t exist when all our body could do was survive.

You want to help people with their trauma? Begin by putting the word “trauma” away. Break your trauma habit. Show up with your aliveness and curiosity and playfulness. Then people can follow you into their own freedom from the pursuit of perfection or forced calmness, free to be alive beyond the limits survival required.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”

—&˛Ô˛ú˛őąč;&˛Ô˛ú˛őąč; Jeremiah 33:14–16 (ESV)

Many years ago, my wife and I were on our way home from vacation, driving through a long and lonely stretch of road between Beaumont and Waco, Texas. At that time, we only had our oldest daughter, who was still very young, but on that stretch of road she was all we could handle. For four hours she screamed, seeking to wrest herself free from her baby seat. She couldn’t sleep, we couldn’t bribe her with food, and rest stops just frustrated her more because they meant she would have to get back in the car one more time. We were all trapped in that minivan on that lonely road. There was only one thing we could all agree on—we felt like we were in exile and could not wait to get home.

Waiting is hard, isn’t it? Nobody likes to wait. Yet, when we are confident of our destination, we can somehow press through the pain of what can feel like endless waiting. 

This is the message Jeremiah has for us in this particular passage. Though Israel was in exile, trapped according to God’s sovereign purpose, a future restoration awaited them. If they would but hope in this promised future, it would enable them to press through the difficulty of their wait in Babylon.

This passage is applicable to all of us who have ever found ourselves stuck in our own kinds of waiting rooms, feeling trapped and in exile. It’s especially applicable during this season of Advent, which begins the church year and is focused on the theme of waiting.

What does Jeremiah have to say to us in this season of Advent? Let’s take a look.

Consider What is Promised

We have to consider first of all what God has promised his people. When we do that we see that:

Exile is Not the Last Word

Though Israel had been sent into exile by God himself as judgment for their departure from the Lord, exile would not be their final destination. According to what Jeremiah says in verse 14, God’s prior promise of blessing to Israel and Judah would be fulfilled. 

Surely, this promise  echoes God’s covenantal promise throughout the Old Testament.  We hear it clearly in Leviticus 26:12, “I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.”

Though God had judged his people, he had not abandoned them. God’s prior word of promise still had priority over the terrible judgment of exile!

But that isn’t all Jeremiah tells us. He also says that:

A New Word is Spoken

Verses 15–16 tell us how God will fulfill his promise to save and restore his exiled people.

In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”

Many readers will recognize that these verses are among the many in Jeremiah that refer to God’s promise to send the Messiah. The long-awaited Messiah was he who would restore the Davidic kingship. In Jeremiah’s words, this Messiah would be a righteous Branch that arises from the apparent deadness of the nation of Israel. New life would spring from the fallen dynasty. Under Messiah’s rule, God’s promises of righteousness and justice will be fulfilled.

In other words, the confidence Jeremiah has for Israel’s salvation is not on account of Israel, but God himself. God is the sovereign and loving father of this wayward nation.  Surely salvation will come to those who wait for him.

The New Testament clearly identifies Jesus Christ with the righteous Branch. Paul, in Romans 22:16, for example, quotes the prophet Isaiah when he says, “The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.” And in Revelation 22:16, John the apostle gives us Jesus’s own words through his apocalyptic vision: “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” 

Advent, and especially Christmas, are celebrations of God’s fulfillment of his promise made to Israel to bring forth the Branch of righteousness from the fallen nation. And of course, he is that one who brings righteousness and justice, not only to Israel but to all nations. Peter reminds us in his speech on Pentecost in Acts 2 that the promise is for “everyone who believes.” In Jesus Christ, the new Jerusalem has come and it is called, “The Lord is our righteousness!”

Through Jesus Christ, God’s righteous demands were met. Sin was not swept under the rug but dealt with in all its horror. However, because Jesus suffered as our mediator or substitute, his righteousness avails for all who put their faith in him.

Consider What is Still Promised!

So far, so good. The Old Testament promises are wonderful, and looking back we can see how Jesus Christ has fulfilled them. At the same time, though, we can understand the confusion of those who first met Jesus Christ, the Messiah. After all, he did not come as a conquering King, but as a suffering servant. His kingship was not focused on an earthly, nationalistic reign that would restore the Davidic dynasty to political might. Rather, his kingship was characterized by sacrificial service—and by his suffering on the cross—which defeated the even more significant foes that God’s people did not fully recognize: sin, death, and the devil.  

What we also know, though—from Scripture and from our own experience—is that the fullness of the salvation Jesus brings is not yet here. Though the work of the cross is finished, the full blessing of that work remains future. The Bible tells us we will not experience its fullness until Jesus returns. Theologians refer to this future blessing as the “not-yet” aspect of our salvation.  All that God promises is true and will indeed come to pass, but it has not yet been completely fulfilled.

While all of this may sound theologically sophisticated and hard to understand, in actuality it is quite simple. Like Israel in exile, we are still waiting on God to finish fulfilling his promises! Unlike Israel, we have already received some of the promise, but the rest remains to come. So, like them, we are stuck in the waiting room—and, this brings us full circle back to what Advent is all about.

Consider the Purpose of Advent

What is the purpose of Advent? Advent is not the religious equivalent to the big retail stores getting decorated to ply their wares and get us “in the mood” for the holidays. Advent is neither sentimental nor utilitarian. No, the purpose of Advent is to point us to that message of hope that enables us to press through the difficulty of the waiting room. Advent reminds all Christians that our journey begins by waiting on the appearing of Christ, our Savior.

The word “advent” simply means “arrival.” Its focus is on the ceremonial entrance or return of a ruler to a city. In this case, the king, of course, is Jesus Christ. In the season of Advent, we remember Israel’s long wait for the coming of the Messiah. But we also join them in their waiting because we too await the return of our King. On that day when he arrives, all that he has promised will be fulfilled forevermore.

Why is Waiting Critical to Advent? 

Our culture is not very good at waiting. We see very little purpose in it. Instead, we are a culture that desires instant gratification. We invented the microwave oven, fast food, and online streaming services to give us what we want to watch when we want to watch it. Today, you don’t need to wait a whole week or a whole year to see the next episode or season of your favorite TV program; you can binge-watch the whole thing over a single weekend.

We get so wrapped up in our instant gratification that we often forget the message this “instant” culture is spreading. It tells us we can have anything we want, right now, on our own terms, if we put in the effort to get it. And for Christians, the temptation is that we can unintentionally begin to apply that way of thinking to our salvation as well. But there are a couple of things seriously wrong with that:

1. Unless we learn to wait, we will always believe that salvation itself is something I can accomplish for myself—with more effort, more money, more technology, more power, etc. This truth should make us reflect on what we actually do and what we actually seek to gain from the things we do at Christmas time. From the gift-giving to the gathering of families for a feast, have we realized that only Jesus can bring us Christmas? Gifts, gatherings, sentimentality, or familiar rituals can’t bring us salvation. Only Jesus can do that. The question is: Are we waiting for him? Are we looking to him alone?

2. Unless we stop long enough to actually experience the wait, we will never gain perspective on the real brokenness of this world that so desperately needs Jesus Christ. When life is running along unhindered, we don’t have to think about others or even the choices we make for ourselves. Life is easy and it’s on our own terms. However, when life hits the equivalent of a traffic jam in rush hour, we have to stop. When we stop, we can evaluate ourselves, but also the needs of others. 

In some ways, Advent is like experiencing a traffic jam on the busiest highway in town that forces you take a detour through the neediest parts of the city. As you drive through, you see people and needs you never knew were there. And you never would have learned about them unless you had slowed down and taken a look around.

I remember another time when I entered a waiting room unexpectedly. It was during the birth of our first daughter—the same one I mentioned earlier. Before the baby was born, my wife had chosen to use a CNM and a birth center for delivery, which was located next to the hospital in Waco. After my wife had been in labor for many hours and was in the final moments, the nurse realized that the baby had turned in the womb; she was breech. Immediately, these moments of joy turned dangerous. My wife had to be rushed across the street to the hospital for an emergency C-section. I remember watching as they wheeled her through the door to surgery and wondering if everything was going to turn out okay. At that point, I was all alone in the waiting room. 

In the waiting room, you feel powerless. You know how little you can do. In the waiting room, you feel the brokenness of the world and you learn how desperately you and others need hope.

Of course, those moments of danger departed, and the joy of a healthy baby girl was soon ours, but the lessons of the waiting room have stayed with me.

What “waiting rooms” have you entered in your life? What “waiting rooms” are you visiting right now? Maybe you’re waiting on a troubled relationship with a spouse or a child or a parent. Maybe you’re waiting on the uncertainty of a job or an unstable financial situation. Maybe you’re waiting to see if the future goals you want so badly are even reachable.

Whatever it is for you, I urge you—I urge us all—to bring Advent into the waiting rooms of our lives. Why? Because Advent is not just about remembering the Savior who came, but also about being reacquainted with the Savior we continually need. Christmas too is about more than remembering Jesus; it is about waiting for Jesus.

Like Israel before us, we patiently wait for God to fulfill what he has said he will do—and what only he can do. And that is ultimately Christ-centered, because that fulfillment centers on Christ the King, and the salvation found only in him.

Anyone who spends time around the counseling field knows we have a code of ethics and accreditation standards through CACREP and other entities. These parameters are robust, helpful, and substantial, guiding what we do and how we are to behave. The virtues defined by the broader, secularly oriented counseling field are great, yet we see the rich resources of Christianity providing an even more rigorous foundation to uphold client welfare through counselor development and practice. The virtues are faith, hope, love, wisdom, justice, temperance, and courage, that, expressed together, generate faithful companioning. If you are interested, you can check out our article in the Journal of Psychology and Christianity, titled “Cultivating Virtue Dispositions in Counselors through Replacement Mainstreaming.”

A second thing that just happened recently is that I reread Thomas Chalmers’ sermon “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” which proclaims that our only hope of replacing an old love is to do so with a more beautiful one. Loving something changes you, orients you. Loving and delighting in God will fundamentally change our orientation to the world, and over time, the contours of our personal virtues. The article we wrote and the sermon I read have different audiences and different purposes, but they come together declaring that we need to be shaped. As Christians we have access to a love that is profoundly exciting, expulsive of the old, and intensely formative. The trouble for many of us isn’t our cognitive agreement, but the experience of exposure.

Chalmers talks about preaching and being shown the utter beauty of the gospel. Our article talks about mainstreaming, a term that describes the process of having specific messages funneled towards you in myriad ways so that they envelope you. The messages aren’t always the center of the conversation, but they are the formative backdrop. You see this all the time in social media telling us to tend to our bodies or personal thriving. Then this message repeats in ads, across news outlets, and then gets into our social events, activities, and even counseling. Ahh! As we are growing as counselors, we are often mainstreamed the ideas of our culture, such as thriving, solving, helping, fixing, and honoring. Are these the acts of virtues shaped by the beauty of Christ? Are these the acts of faithful companionship that meets and stays with another in their need? Kind of. But there is more. 

My friend Seth and I wrote an article urging our colleagues to centralize gospel virtues into the ongoing experience of counseling students. We hope to see students saturated by events, reading, supervision, experiences, assignments, and mentors that focus on gospel virtues. Of course, this assumes those facilitating the mainstreaming have had their new love replace the old, whatever that might have been. Together we can create a culture for ourselves, younger counselors, and even our mentors or supervisors where we become familiar with exposing ourselves to God’s stunningly beautiful truth about himself, his work, and ourselves. We can practice committing to and sitting in a stream that shapes us. How can you be a part of this for yourself and others? How can you imagine this reviving a deep love of Christ, that over time, shapes the virtues that underpin your counseling and ministry actions?