The Reformed Pastor

March 7, 2010 Evening

2010-03-08T01:00:00.001-06:00

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March 7, 2010 Morning

2010-03-07T17:41:00.001-06:00

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February 28, 2010 Evening

2010-03-03T21:30:00.001-06:00

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February 28, 2010 Morning

2010-03-03T21:01:00.001-06:00

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Why the Reformed Pastor?

2010-02-24T10:30:00.006-06:00

I thought I might give some input on why I have titled my blog, The Reformed Pastor. The title was inspired by the Puritan pastor, Richard Baxter who ministered in 17th century England. God used Baxter to transform his parish of Kidderminster in a dramatic way. Baxter claimed that, when he first arrived in Kidderminster there was scarcely a family on a street that worshipped God. When he was ejected from the pastorate later however, he claimed that there was scarcely a family on a street that did not worship God. The whole parish had been transformed through his pastorate. Baxter wrote a book to encourage other pastors to follow his example of one on one disciple making ministry called "The Reformed Pastor." That is where the blog name comes from. I read the book and it was powerful! J.I. Packer described it this way: "The words of Baxter's Reformed Pastor have hands and feet. They climb all over you; they work their way into your heart and conscience and will not be dislodged." (J.I. Packer in A Quest for Godliness, Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1990. Page 13).

There is more to it than just that though. I am fully convinced that, if the church in America, is to thrive for another decade, there must be some serious reformations in the pastorate, pulpit, churches, and families. If these changes do not take place, and soon, America will be another country that has fallen to humanism and postmodernism. I believe there must be a reformation in the pastorate first. Pastors must stop looking to numbers for success. We have been entertaining and weakening the message of God's Word for over 30 years now in order to increase the numbers. Some churches have succeeded and usually the pastor publishes a book to show other pastors how to follow suit. We must stop looking for increased numbers and begin looking for increased fruit. Fruit is much harder to come by, takes more work, and is a lot less glamorous. You wont get elected president of the SBC or be interviewed by Larry King in most cases if you are not producing the big numbers, but God has called us to strive for real, authentic fruit, not just numbers and definitely not position. The reformation must begin with the pastors.

Next, the reformation must extend into the pulpit. We must stop preaching a halfway Gospel and spend our lives, our ministries, studying the doctrine of God and His Gospel. If we miss this, we have missed everything, and I am afraid that we have missed it! God has been reduced to nothing more than love (John 3:16) and the Gospel has been reduced to praying a prayer to accept Jesus into our hearts so that we don't have to go to hell when we die. Give me a break!!! The fault lies with lazy, numbers hungry, biblically ignorant pastors who need to spend more time studying the Word then they spend preaching it. The reformation has to move into the pulpits of this nation or there is little hope! This will likely result in a decrease in numbers, but praise be to God, there will be an increase in real lasting fruit. To hear more go to (www.clearybaptist.org/sermons?i=30) and listen to September 20, 2009 a.m., September 27, 2009 a.m., and October 4, 2009 a.m.

Next, the reformation must extend into our churches. Churches must re-institute church discipline. There is more accountability at the country club and more reconciliation in most bars than in our churches. What is church membership even worth anymore? Church membership has to mean something. Also, churches are going to have to take the Great Commission seriously and stop taking mission vacations where all they do is sight see, prayer walk, and meet a few people. We are called to proclaim the Gospel! We don't have 5 years to waste learning the in's and out's of every people group. The need is the same in every people and the Gospel is the same too. Deliver it in a culturally sensitive way, but deliver it accurately and urgently.

Finally, the reformation must extend to families. For too long families have expected the church staff and Sunday school teachers to disciple their children. Families attend church and re-enter the real world on Monday. Children see Jesus as a part of their parents' lives, but they don't see Jesus AS THEIR PARENTS' LIVES. There is a big difference. Parents need to fulfill their Deut 6 responsibility of discipling their kids and being what they should be as wives, husbands, mothers, and fathers. To hear more go to (http://clearybaptist.org/sermons?i=0) and listen to January 10, 2010 a.m., January 17, 2010 a.m., January 24, 2010 a.m., and January 31, 2010 a.m. The family must stop disintegrating if we are to see a change in the church in America. Richard Baxter wrote, in his Reformed Pastor, "You are not likely to see any general reformation until you procure family reformation. Some little religion there may be here and there, but as long as it is confined to single persons, and it is not promoted in families, it will not prosper, nor promise future increase." Let us turn off the filthy TV, put up the violent video games, shut down the computer screen, put up our cell phones, and get our face out of the text messages and into the text message of God's Word!

If there is not a serious increase in the number of reformed pastors, reformed pulpits, reformed churches, and reformed families there will be little to no hope of a reformation of the church in this nation and without a real, grass roots reformation, there will be no hope of a godly progeny and future. God, help us. God, stir us. God overwhelm us and burden us to pray like never before for revival, awakening, and reformation!

February 21, 2010 Morning

2010-02-21T17:42:00.001-06:00

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February 14, 2010 Morning

2010-02-18T02:21:00.001-06:00

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February 7, 2010 Morning

2010-02-07T17:21:00.001-06:00

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January 31, 2010 Morning

2010-01-31T17:41:00.001-06:00

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January 24, 2010 Morning

2010-01-24T18:01:00.001-06:00

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January 17, 2010 Morning

2010-01-18T03:11:00.001-06:00

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January 10, 2010 Morning

2010-01-11T02:21:00.001-06:00

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January 3, 2010 Morning

2010-01-06T22:01:00.001-06:00

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December 27, 2009 Morning

2009-12-28T13:21:00.001-06:00

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December 20, 2009 Morning

2009-12-21T11:23:00.001-06:00

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December 13, 2009 Morning

2009-12-13T16:41:00.001-06:00

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2009-12-09T21:22:00.001-06:00

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2009-12-09T19:21:00.001-06:00

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Just a Little News

2009-12-03T09:19:00.006-06:00

Well…

It has been a good long while since I have posted anything in writing on my blog, so I decided that today I would do so. My mind is running ninety miles an hour down a curvy road with plenty of obstacles in the right lane. I don’t have time to go into detail about all of that , but I will give you a little head’s up about what is “tentatively” coming in the next few weeks.

We will be finishing up our 3 part series on “Dealing with Sin in the Body” this Sunday, December 6. If you are signed up to receive my blog or if you are signed up on i-tunes you should get it Sunday evening or Monday sometime. Sunday night, we will be having Sunday school parties. Wednesday night we will be finishing up our 12 week study on revival. Then we will all get in the Christmas spirit, if we are not already.

On December 20, Kevin Wade will be preaching during the morning service as Mandy and I celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. It has been a good 10 years. God has blessed us with 3 fine boys and hopefully more in the future.

This is Luke on the left. He doesn't believe in taking "normal pictures" so here he is making an ugly face.

Levi is on the right, caught of guard obviously, because he doesn't usually look so calm.
And then there is Jude. He is Mr. Handful at 19 months. Here, you can see him in a video throwning a ball at 11 p.m. last night. He get's in a serious stance...check it out.

We have grown tremendously in our walk with God especially these last 2 years. God has revealed so much about the world, the church, and the family to us that we are overwhelmed.

One of the things that I want to get her for our anniversary (and don’t groan…she wants it) is a renovated master bathroom. Our house was a foreclosed home and was not kept in the best condition...actually it was not kept at all. We had to tear out almost everything and start over. The only thing we have not touched is the master bathroom and it needs some serious TLC. If you run across a tub, double vanity, tile for the shower, or flooring that is an extremely, EXTREMELY good price, please let me know. The budget for this renovation is going to be very lean. In fact, our budget is so lean that it may be our 11th anniversary before it is complete. Keep your eyes open and let me know if you run across any good deals.

Back to December… On December 27, I will preach that morning on the importance of prayer as we look to 2010. That night, Paul Young, pastor of Cato Baptist in Mendenhall will be sharing with us. The men who attended the Underground Men’s Conference will know Paul and they can back me up on the fact that you do not want to miss December 27!

Then it is happy new year Sunday on January 3rd as we are all challenged to go deeper with Christ in 2010. That night we will introduce our new Transforming classes (and there are going to be some good ones). Then, if the Lord allows, we will begin a new series entitled Dysfunction Junction, which is a series on the state of the “Christian family” today. It would take someone blind, deaf, and dumb not to realize that there is some serious dysfunction in families, even (especially) among professing believers. We will address questions such as: What is the role of a wife and mother? What is the role of a husband and father? What are the responsibilities of the parents to the children? And how does this all tie into the church and the kingdom? You may be surprised. You will probably be agitated. My prayer is that we are challenged and changed.

I hope you will begin praying for and looking forward to, what is coming. Until next time...

November 29, 2009 Morning

2009-11-29T17:21:00.001-06:00

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November 22, 2009 Morning

2009-11-22T19:11:00.001-06:00

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November 15, 2009 Morning

2009-11-15T17:41:00.001-06:00

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November 8, 2009 Morning

2009-11-08T17:21:00.001-06:00

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November 1, 2009 Evening

2009-11-01T22:30:00.001-06:00

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October 25, 2009 Morning

2009-10-25T17:21:00.001-05:00

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