Should Unbelieving Musicians Lead Worship?

It’s Wednesday morning, and I’m sitting at a conference table in the middle of a mega-church cafe. Picture the greatest Starbucks you’ve ever seen, but for church people, meaning any way they can fit a Biblical word or phrase like He-Brews into something that relates to a coffee drink…they do.

Today I happen to be surrounded by ten or so worship leaders from surrounding communities who were invited to come together to share their trade secrets and insider knowledge about all things related to the ministry of worship arts. It’s no surprise that the conversation moves from light chit-chat about media and tech, to horror stories involving computer crashes, bad drummers and why church organs are actually ironic and awesome again. Up to this point, I’ve admittedly been a quiet, distracted observer, checking my I-Phone in between sips of my Psalted Caramel Mocha when suddenly the conversation shifts to who among us brings in musicians to lead worship who are not….well…saved.

Ok, now they have my attention.

The conversation starts going clockwise around the conference table, which thankfully, I’m at the end of. One guy says “Yeah, I have a drummer who’s not a Christian, but he’s only playing drums, so I don’t think it’s a big deal”. Another guy says “As long as they’re not singing the words, I think it’s totally fine. I mean, it’s not as if they’re leading or anything.” The next guy agrees and adds, “You know what, I think it’s a great way to evangelize unbelievers and get them into church”.    Continue at Ronnie Martin

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Should a Minister Preach the Funerals of Unbelievers?

Recently I argued that a Christian minister ought not officiate at wedding ceremonies for unbelievers. These weddings, I contended, represent the trivialization of the Christian ministry and a loss of pastoral courage. Since then, I've received lots of queries about funerals. Should a Christian minister preach the funeral of an unbeliever? That's a very good question.

Some of the saddest moments of my ministry have been in funeral homes, preaching for people I didn't know. Early on in ministry, I became the "go to" minister for a local mortician when one of his deceased passed away with no religious affiliation. I've seen almost empty chapels, with no one to do the eulogy but me. And I've seen full chapels of family members who clearly hated the deceased. I had one deceased woman's daughter tell me there was nothing positive she could think to say about her mother, nothing at all, except that she did feed the birds in her backyard.

Do I think it was biblically acceptable to preach those funerals? Yes. Would I do it again today? Yes.

A funeral is an entirely different matter than a wedding. A wedding is about the near future (near meaning the next 30 to 70 years or so). A funeral is about the past, and about the ultimate future (the resurrection from the dead). A wedding is the witnessing of vows, the calling together of a covenant between two persons. A funeral doesn't call any reality together. It commits the body of the dead to the earth and awaits the resurrection of both the just and the unjust.  Continue at Russell D. Moore

Would I Officiate a Wedding for Two Unbelievers? Yes

Editors' Note: Even though they may have little connection to a church, many couples today still want a traditional wedding ceremony with a pastor officiating. If you were the pastor, how would you respond? In this article, Deepak Reju of Capitol Hill Baptist Church says "yes" with conditions. For a different take, see Russell Moore's answer.

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Suppose Debbie, who is not a Christian, asked me if I would officiate at her wedding. She is planning to get married to her boyfriend, who is also not a Christian. With a few important conditions, I would likely say, "Yes." Why would I marry two non-Christians?

Marriage is a creation ordinance. God created marriage (Gen 2:15-25). He made it as a fundamental part of how he designed the world we live in. God gave marriage as a gift to the first couple and also to all men and women who desire to partake (James 1:17).

Marriage is also a common grace institution; a grace given by God to both Christians and non-Christians alike (Isaiah 62:5; Ezek 44:22; Matt 19:10; Matt 22:24-28; Luke 17:27; Luke 20:34). Heterosexual marriage is legally recognized as a universal privilege for any man and woman who desires it. As Solomon declares to his son, "He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord" (Prov 18:22).

A faithful husband and wife are an imperfect picture of God's committed love. Sin may hinder our ability to reflect what God is like, but even as sinners, we remain people made in the image of God. As such, two non-Christians who stay committed to one another remind us of God. Their marriage covenant reflects God's committed, covenantal love better than our fickle, noncommittal love.  Continue at Deepak Reju

The Danger of Worldly Compromise

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” — 2 Corinthians 6:14-18

B.B. Warfield (1851-1921)

Commenting on the above passage, Warfield writes,

If we will scrutinize our present passage closely we shall quickly see that the separation which the Apostle is urging here, too, is not separation from men but from evil – applying, in deed, to the Corinthians in the way of exhortation what our Lord prayed for in behalf of His followers, not that they should be taken out of the world, but that they should be kept from the evil of the world. The exhortation: ‘Come ye out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord,’ is immediately followed by the explanation, ‘And touch no unclean thing.’ And the whole exhortation closes with a poignant prayer that they may ‘cleanse themselves from every defilement.’ It is not from their fellow-men that the Apostle would have Christians hold themselves aloof; it is from the sin and shame, the evil and iniquity, which stains and soils the lives of so many of their fellow-men. This is the Apostolic variety of Puritanism.  Continue at Eric. T. Young

Does an Unbelieving Child Disqualify an Elder?

There can be few things in life more painful than an unbelieving child. And when the child is the son or daughter of an elder, the questions take on a public dimension in the life of the church. Doesn't the apostle Paul say something about elders needing to have children who are believers?

The verses under consideration are 1 Timothy 3:4-5 and Titus 1:6. We'll look at them in more detail below, but at this point it's helpful to look at the two different conclusions that faithful interpreters have reached.

Douglas Wilson holds to the first option: "[I]f a man's children fall away from the faith (either doctrinally or morally), he is at that point disqualified from formal ministry in the church" (Douglas Wilson, "The Pastor's Kid" in Credenda/Agenda, vol. 2, no. 3).

Alexander Strauch holds to the second view: "The contrast is made not between believing and unbelieving children, but between obedient, respectful children and lawless, uncontrolled children." In other words, Paul is talking about "the children's behavior, not their eternal state" (Alexander Strauch, Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call to Restore Biblical Church Leadership, 229).   Keep Reading >>>

We Do Not Preach Ourselves

Two weeks ago, we looked at 2 Corinthians 4:3 and considered what it had to teach us concerning the nature of Gospel ministry. The conclusion to that post was that the purpose of Gospel ministry was not to amuse the goats, but to call the sheep. Last week, we moved onto verse 4 and discovered the world’s problem: they are blind to the glory of Christ. Therefore, the Church’s mission is to solve that problem. If we’re doing something that won’t solve that problem, we need to stop.

The question is, then, what solves that problem? How can the Church be instrumental in the opening of blind eyes? Well, Paul gets to that in verse 5. Just as we must know the purpose and the problem of Gospel ministry, we must also know the proclamation.

For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.

– 2 Corinthians 4:5 –

What does it mean to “not preach ourselves?” It means that we don’t put ourselves—the messengers—forward as the appeal to unbelievers in our ministry. We don’t make our methodology or our style the draw. We don’t appeal to that which is fleshly or worldly in the unbeliever in order to attract and compel their participation. Instead, we do everything we can to get ourselves out of the way so as to be merely incidental—merely the finger that points to the substance, to the content of the message: that Jesus Christ is Lord.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 really sheds light on what it means for Paul that he not be preaching himself. He says... Keep Reading >>>

“The Unregenerate and the Regenerate Contrasted”

“For those who are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but those who are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” Romans viii. 5.

“Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” Romans 8:5

Two different classes are here presented to our view, in striking and solemn contrast. With regard to the first, a more accurate, and at the same time a more awful, portrait of the carnal state of man exists not in any language than this. He is described as living after the flesh. And lest it should be supposed, as by some it is, that a corrupt tree can bring forth good fruit, or, in other words, that holiness is the natural product of our unrenewed nature, it is added, who “mind the things of the flesh.” But before we go more fully into the unfolding of this subject, we should remark, that the term “flesh” has various significations in God’s word, often decidedly opposite to that which it bears in the passage before us. For example, it is sometimes used to denote a softened disposition of mind: “I will give you a heart of flesh.” Again, it sets forth the tender and close union subsisting between Christ and his Church: “No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the Church.” A yet deeper and more sublime signification it assumes when used to describe the mysterious incarnation of the Son of God: “The Word was made flesh.” But the sense in which the word is employed in the text under consideration, is totally different to any we have quoted. It designates the fallen and carnal state of the unrenewed man. He is after the flesh, and his whole life is in accordance with the dictates of the flesh. Our Lord thus describes it- “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” That is, it is nothing more than carnal and corrupt. It is originally corrupt, and corrupt it remains until it perishes. “When we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.” We are thus taken to the very root of all the depravity and crime which afflicts and degrades our common nature. It is not so much the outbreak of sin- the wretchedness and woe which, working upwards, floats upon the surface of society; that presents to a spiritual eye the most afflicting view of man’s fallen condition, as the fact, that the root of all iniquity dwells in his nature; and that, when he hates God, and opposes his government, and violates his laws, and injures his fellow-creatures, it is not an accident of his nature, nor the effect of a surprisal into sin, like that of our first parents, as it is the working out of an original and natural principle; it is the development of an innate and deep corruption, coursing its way upward, as we have said, from the concealed depths of his nature to the surface of his life. And thus, though the ethics of a man be sound, and his life be in harmony with the morality of his creed, yet in the absence of the Spirit’s regeneration, he is still emphatically “after the flesh:” he bears about with him an original principle of evil, whose existence links him to the flesh, the full development of which is only suppressed by the laws of society, a consciousness of right and wrong, a natural regard for his own well-being, and the overruling power of God.    Keep Reading >>>

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The Lady in the Rose Garden.

A lesson for all of us to consider from the puritan Joseph Meade:

I once walked into a garden with a lady to gather some flowers. There was one large bush whose branches were bending under the weight of the most beautiful roses. We both gazed upon it with admiration. There was one flower on it which seemed to outshine all the rest in beauty.

This lady pressed forward into the thick bush, and reached far over to pluck it. As she did this, a black snake, which was hid in the bush, wrapped itself round her arm. She was alarmed beyond all description; she ran from the garden, screaming, and almost in convulsions. During all that day she suffered very much with fear. Her whole body trembled, and it was a long time before she could be calmed. That lady is still alive. Such is her hatred now of the whole serpent race, that she has never since been able to look at a snake, even a dead one. No one could ever persuade her to venture again into a cluster of bushes, even to pluck a beautiful rose.

Now this is the way the sinner acts who truly repents of his sins. He thinks of sin as the serpent that once coiled itself around him. He hates it. He dreads it. He flees from it. He fears the places where it inhabits. He does not willingly go into the haunts. He will no more play with sin than this lady would afterwards have fondled snakes.

HT:  Defending

Purity, Power, and the Missing Mark of the Church

Arguably the best general description of the effect the New Testament Church had on its society is given by Luke in Acts 17:6. When an unruly mob could not find Paul and Silas — the source of their irritation — they dragged other Christians before the city officials and declared, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also” (Acts 17:6). What was intended as a damning criticism, however, was actually an unintended accolade because unbelievers were admitting that the early Christians were having a substantial impact upon society, a society characterised by polytheism, gladiatorial combats, sex outside of marriage, divorce, infanticide, and abortion. This account sounds just like life in early twenty-first century Western civilization, doesn’t it? Well, it does, except for the bit about the church turning the world upside down.

Our postmodern, pluralistic society is not far removed in essence from first-century Graeco-Roman society. Ungodliness is still here, immorality is still in evidence, and the life-is-cheap attitude still pervades. But society in the West does not really notice or take seriously the church. Why? Could it be because the reality of the living God is not being seen in the Western church? Could it be because there is no attention-grabbing evidence of the transforming power of the gospel? Could it be because, to some extent, the sign ichabod is metaphorically hanging over the doors of many sanctuaries and around the necks of many Christians? And if all this is the case, why is it the case? Could it be because, generally speaking, Christians in the West are simply not as devoted to the Apostles’ teaching as we should be? I am increasingly convinced that this is the case.   Keep Reading>>>

Examples of Mercy Ministry

In light of this series (where I argue that the church is not called to the task of social ministry to non-believers), I thought it would be helpful to describe what kind of mercy ministries am I involved in, and how I justify these ministries biblically. So below is a brief list of ministries that I regularly participate with, and a short explanation of why I see them as having a biblical foundation.

Despite the reputation those previous posts may have gotten me, I love mercy ministry. I love being able to express love and kindness toward others with the express purpose of introducing them to the Messiah. I do reject the concept that the church has as its goal the lowering of the poverty rate, correcting social ills or eradicating homelessness. The poor we will always have with us, Jesus said. But I embrace the mandate that the church has to take the gospel to the world, and in various circumstances it can be wise to use material means to gain a hearing for the gospel. There is a very real danger that food or assistance becomes associated with attending a Bible study or sermon. So for all of these ministries, there is a massive responsibility on the church elders to make sure that the method of bringing the gospel to others is not creating a culture of dependence. We love others, so we want to challenge them to change—not to maintain their situation. And we all know that there is hope for real change only in the gospel, and the radical repentance that comes with it.

As a side note, Grace Church also oversees dozens of evangelistic outreaches and ministries. Perhaps I will describe some of those in a future post. But here is a brief list of ministries that I personally work with on behalf of Grace Church.   Keep Reading...

How Do You Make Christ More Appealing? A Good Word for Preachers

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10.27)

Have you ever been overcome with frustrated despair as you wonder how to get through to your professing Christian friend?  Have you looked into the eyes of an unbeliever and asked yourself how you might bring them to Christ?  Have you wondered how you might appeal to them and somehow have them follow the Savior?  If you are a pastor, have you sat in your study and wondered how you might help people to get it?

To one degree or another all believers have struggled through such thoughts. 

Often times though  in our noble ambitions we find ourselves retreating to unbiblical means.

We aim to make Christ more appealing to the one who seems to not think that he is so.  This usually means giving Jesus something of an extreme makeover so that the eligible unbeliever might be one over.  We might be tempted to change his message, his tone, his requirements, his work, his kingdom, and his demands.  Suddenly our ostensibly noble goal has placed in our hands the tools of idolatry as we craft a Jesus that looks like the rebel.

But this is not the way it works. Keep Reading>>>

Mr. Right or Mr. Right In Front of You?

Sometimes, being single is not easy.


There is so much pressure to pair up and live happily ever after.

The world views singleness as a problem. On every TV channel, there are ads targeting the single crowd telling them that they would be happier in a relationship. An array of romantic comedies and emotional tales of true love leave single girls pulling out their hair and screaming, “Where is the one?!!” Continue Reading>>>

There are only TWO States of Man

The Natural man	The Spiritual Man
Is wicked (Gen. 18:23)	Is righteous (Gen. 18:23)
Is cursed (Jer. 17:5)	Is blessed (Matt. 5:8)
Hates God (Rom. 1:30)	Loves God (Dan. 9:4)
Is a goat (Matt. 25:33)	Is a sheep ( Matt. 25:33)
Scatters (Matt. 12:30)	Gathers (Matt. 12:30)
Is chaff ["tare"] (Luke 3:17)	Is wheat (Luke 3:17)
Dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1)	Alive with Christ (Eph. 2:5)
Father is the devil (John 8:44)	Father is God (John 8:42)
Children of the devil (1 John 3:10)	Children of God (1 John 3:10)
Mind set on the flesh (Rom. 8:5-6)	Mind set on the Spirit (Rom. 8:5-6)
Cannot obey God (Rom. 8:8)	Obeys God (Ezek. 36:27)
Heart of stone (Ezek. 36:27)	Heart of flesh (Ezek 36:27)
Enemy of God (James 4:4)	Friend of God (John 15:14)
Slave of sin (Rom. 6:17)	Slave to righteousness (Rom. 6:18)
Under law (Rom. 6:14)	Under grace (Rom. 6:14)
Does not thank God (Rom. 1:21)	Thanks God (Rom. 14:6)
Lives in darkness (John 12:46)	Walks in light (1 John 1:7)
Vessels of wrath (Rom. 9:22)	Vessels of mercy (Rom. 9:23)
Destined for wrath (Prov. 16:4)	Not destined for wrath (1 Thess. 5:9)

Is it Wrong to Confront Unbelievers Head on with the Word of God?