Pastoral Challenges in the Next 20 Years

Joel Rainey is Executive Director of the Mid-Maryland Baptist Association. He is on the adjunct faculty of two seminaries, and the author of two books: Planting Churches in the Real World and Sidestepping Landmines: Five Principles for Pastor Search Teams. Joel works closely with numerous pastors in a state not known for its evangelical values. He is a strategic thinker on many things related to the kingdom of God.

On his blog, themelios, he recently wrote on the nature of pastoral leadership in the next 20 years. Joel asked a question once posed to him, “Are we really up to this?” This post is adapted from his writing. 

 

American society is morphing at an unprecedented rate. This means more for the church than perhaps any other area as we claim God’s unchanging truth in changing times. Rainey asks whether pastors are “up to this”? I wonder if churches are.

If Rainey’s thoughts are on target, I think three things will happen as it relates to churches (and denominations) in the United States. First is capitulation. Many will simply agree with the surrounding culture that truth is maleable, subjective and suggestive. These churches will become indistinguishable from other societal organizations whose purpose is “to make the world a better place.” They bother not with sin, judgment or a cross. Second is separation. As in every generation these are they who are not of the world, but neither are they in it. They have no actual influence and their loudly sounded trumpets of culture wars fall mostly on deaf ears. Third is contextualization as the remaining churches seek to exegete culture, relate to it and bring the uncompromised gospel to everyone in a way that both illuminates their need and introduces the remedy: Jesus Christ. For these, mercy truly triumphs over judgment.    Continue at Marty Duren

The Future of the Mainline

J. I. Packer and the Evangelical Future

D. Bruce Hindmarsh describes Packer’s habit of retrieving riches from the past for the purpose of renewing the present as “the Robin Hood character of [his] public ministry.” Following the example of C. S. Lewis, who made an impression upon Packer during his days as a student at Oxford, this “retrieval and renewal” model rejects chronological snobbery in favor of timeless wisdom. Thus, during the same years that Catholic ressourcement theologians were digging into their past, Packer began raiding the castles of seventeenth-century Puritans, redistributing their riches to the impoverished masses of evangelicals. The wealth of Packer’s redistribution is fully on display in an appendix containing a comprehensive bibliography of his written works, beginning in July of 1952.
Reformed Theology. The doctrines of grace are central to Packer’s mind, beginning with his exegetical method, which is particularly sensitive to covenantal impulses in the canon. Accordingly, in Packer’s view, “the Old Testament should be read through the hermeneutical spectacles that Paul (Romans and Galatians), Luke (Gospel and Acts), Matthew, and the writer to the Hebrews provide.” Read the rest HERE