North Korean Woman Executed for Distributing Bibles

A thirty-three year old North Korean woman was executed for distributing Bibles and allegedly spying for South Korea and the United States, according to a variety of sources. In related news, the North Korean government last month warned the Voice of the Martyrs about its attempts to spread the gospel in the Hermit Kingdom. The Christian Post has both stories.

More information on persecution in North Korea is available on the VOM website. They also have a few resources for more in-depth study.

Dispatches from the Front

A couple of months ago, our congregation had the privilege of seeing the premiere of Dispatches from the Front: Islands on the Edge. Since Abraham Piper is giving away five free copies this week, I thought I'd put in a plug.

Produced by Frontline Missions, Islands on the Edge is the first of a series of DVDs that show believers in the West how the gospel is advancing in closed nations. Frontline's director is a member of our church who is passionate about partnering with believers in nations where there is little gospel witness. The Dispatches series is one way that Frontline hopes to spread awareness of the awfulness of sin and the grace of God in these places. Each episode is a kind of video journal that documents the director's travels. It serves as a powerful motivation to pray for these nations and gives great cause to rejoice in the power of the gospel.

After watching the trailer, you can order a copy of Islands on the Edge. Or you can try to win a free copy from Abraham.


UPDATE: Frontline Missions has asked Brannon McAllister to join them on a trip to Albania to help produce the next Dispatches from the Front DVD. You can send financial support to Emmanuel Bible Church.

Where the Truly Regenerate Agree When They Disagree

I've just begun Henry Scudder's The Christian's Daily Walk and was struck by a section in "The Epistle to the Reader" by John Davenport. Apparently, some of Scudder's detractors opposed the stringent directions found in this book. Davenport cites their objection ("But many of God's children attain not to this strictness, yet are saved"), then replies,

It is true; though all God's children travel to one country, yet not with equal speed; they all shoot at one mark, yet not with the same dexterity. some difference there is in the outward action, none in their inward intention; some inequalities there are in the event, none in the affection. In degrees there is some disparity, none in truth and uprightness.

He then lists five areas in which "all that are regenerate are alike strict."

1. They have but one path or way wherein they all walk (Is 35.8).
2. They have but one rule to guide them in that way which they all follow (Ga 6.15-16).
3. All their eyes are upon this rule, so as they are not willingly ignorant of any truth (2 Pe 3.5).
4. They all desire and endeavor to obey every truth (Lk 1.9), not only to walk in all the commandments of God without reproof before men (He 13.19), but also in all things to live honestly and uprightly before God (Ge 17.1).
5. If they fall by temptation (Ga 6.1), yet they are in pain till they be set right again. . . . They are so far from perverting the right ways of God (Ac 13.10) that they will justify God in condemning themselves and subscribe to the righteousness of his word, praying that their ways might be directed to keep his statutes (Ps 119.5).

(Quotations from Henry Scudder, The Christian's Daily Walk [Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle, 1984], 19-20.)

The nature of our age certainly highlights the varying degrees of strictness among God's people. Our ability to communicate with anyone around the world gives us access to a dizzying array of guidelines by which Christians are to live. Even in our own congregations, we may be surprised at what one allows for himself or what another refuses for herself. Given that situation, these five statements are helpful guides (a) to reveal whether we are indulging our liberty without respect to the word, (b) to reveal whether we are creating human standards by which to prove ourselves righteous, and (c) to deal generously with other believers who may (and will!) disagree with us on any given matter.

May these five marks be present in our lives so as to demonstrate the genuineness of our profession to be Christ's people.

The Role of the Church in Youth Discipleship

That trampled mass of red, white, and blue underneath King James (the basketball player, not the 1611) is what remains of the Detroit Pistons. As a lifelong fan of the team, I watched in stunned amazement as the Cleveland Cavaliers pulled off a six-game sweep. Nothing left but the crying. And the finger-pointing.

As one might assume, the blame quickly landed on the coach, Flip Saunders, and calls for his dismissal were heard even before the final buzzer sounded. After all, isn’t he the one that is primarily responsible for the success of this team? And if the team didn’t succeed, shouldn’t he be fired? If you ask their star player, Chauncey Billups, the answer is No. According to an AP report, Billups said, “I don’t think it was all his fault. Players not playing great, had a lot to do with it.” Just because one person is primarily responsible does not mean that no one else is.

My previous article asserted that parents are primarily responsible for the discipleship of their children. From Deuteronomy 6 to Ephesians 6, this has been the plan. An exception clearly exists for children of unbelieving parents, since an unregenerate person cannot disciple a child of God. But in most of our congregations, that accounts for a minority of our churches’ youth. The believing parents of our congregations must take an active role in “tell[ing] the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord” (Ps. 78:4, ESV).

Two questions immediately surface when one considers the parents’ responsibility. On one hand, if parents are thus responsible, is the church absolved? Perhaps it would be satisfactory for pastors merely to exhort parents to disciple the next generation. And if the youth turn out bad, then the parents are to blame. On the other hand, if parents are thus responsible, is the church expendable? Perhaps parents would best be served, not by having their children participate in the discipleship avenues of the church, but by keeping all proactive discipleship in the family and (as one article puts it) letting family time trump church time.

The answer to both of these questions is No. The church is neither absolved nor expendable. Instead, God’s design is for the church to have an active role in instructing the coming generations. While parents are primarily responsible for the discipleship of their children, the church has a secondary—but no less necessary—role in that task.

A key text that must drive our thinking is Ephesians 4:7-16. At the time of his ascension, Christ “gave gifts to men” (v. 8). Paul identifies these gifts not in the way that we typically think of spiritual gifts, that is, as gracious endowments for particular acts of service. Other passages affirm that truth, but in this passage the apostle identifies the gifts as people: “apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers” (v. 11). Their job is “to equip the saints for the work of the ministry” (v. 12a). That task of equipping includes many aspects: leading them to give to God by the entirety of their lives the glory due His name, training them in the Word and sound doctrine, teaching them to take advantage of every opportunity to testify to the gospel of Christ for the ongoing spread of His fame—and the list goes on and on. One aspect that is patently in view is discipling people to become disciple-makers within the body. Notice how the saints not only are the ones who work the ministry (v. 12a), but they are the ones who receive the benefits of that ministry (vv. 12b-14). By thus discipling one another (“speaking the truth in love” to one another, v. 15a), the body causes the body to grow (v. 16).

Two conclusions emerge from this passage. First, pastors have a responsibility to equip parents to be effective disciple-makers at home. As parents, they have been charged with the primary role of shepherding their children into mature believers. As saints, they have been placed under the caring oversight of shepherds who are seeking their growth in Christ. The opportunity that pastors have to shape the next generation, therefore, is great. Seizing that opportunity requires careful thought, but the fruit of that labor will last a lifetime. Second, the church—and by that I mean the people of the church—has a responsibility to everyone else in the congregation. The dozens of “one another” passages testifies to our obligation (e.g., Jn 13:34; Ro 12:16; 15:7; etc.). God expects believers to live out our union with Christ in the context of other people (our “neighbors,” Lk 10:29-37). And this opportunity to disciple one another transcends generational lines. Not only are parents to disciple their children (Ep 6:1-4); the older are to mentor the younger (Ti 2:1-8). All adults in the congregation, then, ought to sense some measure of responsibility toward the coming generations.

God plans for the church to have a significant role in the lives of its young people. While not primarily responsible, one cannot deny that each assembly bears a corporate responsibility to the next generation—secondary, to be sure, but no less necessary. What difference does this make in the church’s practice? Some implications for church leaders and parents follow.

Implications for Church Leadership: The Church is Not Absolved.

(1) Church leaders must put philosophy ahead of practice. Far too many churches are merely satisfied that they have a children’s program. It may include good elements—Sunday school, Frontline clubs, VBS, a week at a Christian camp—but the critical philosophical question hasn’t been seriously answered: “Why are we doing this?” If the underlying reasons for our children’s ministries are no more than that they are a longstanding tradition (“We’ve always done such-and-such”), they are a break for the parents (“It keeps the kids busy”), or their curriculum has a sharp appearance (“The visuals are dazzling”), then we ought to admit that our practice does not have much to stand on. We must take the time to write down and implement a biblically-saturated philosophy for reaching the next generation. In the end, that might mean that some elements remain. But we cannot be afraid to pull the trigger on something that is philosophically vacuous. If it doesn’t square with a biblically-saturated philosophy of ministry, it should be lopped off.

(2) Pastors should work to connect all aspects of youth discipleship to one another, grounding it in the church’s philosophy. The list of activities that fall under the category of children’s ministries can be lengthy, even for a smaller congregation. Too often, those activities are dictated by the weekly calendar (i.e., “We need something Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night”) rather than by a solid philosophy of youth discipleship. The result is a potpourri of programs that have neither synchronic nor diachronic integration with the others. By synchronic, I mean that the programs for one particular age are not integrated. A third grader has one series going on in Sunday school, another one (or two) in children’s church, and yet one more during a midweek club. By diachronic, I mean that the programs do not connect from one age level to the next as a child grows. The result is an approach that is choppy rather than seamless, overlapping rather than contiguous, fragmentary rather than thorough. Instead, we should work towards having all aspects of youth discipleship connected, not only to our core philosophy, but also to one another, so that everything would be integrated. This process may take years of thought and labor, but its rewards will be far-reaching.

Some churches may wish to consider doing what my church did years ago when we expanded one assistant pastor’s oversight. No longer would there be a Youth Pastor who oversees the teenagers alone; we replaced that position with a Pastor of Youth and Young Adults whose responsibility stretches from nursery through college. While I still invest roughly two-thirds of my time in the Senior High students, I oversee all aspects of youth and young adult discipleship. Having one person responsible to the elders for coordinating all those pieces has simplified the process of integrating them into a cohesive whole.

(3) Pastors ought to address parenting early and often. One of my professors opened his freshman Bible class every fall by stating the same two assumptions: “I assume that you know nothing, and I assume that you can learn anything.” This mindset ought to govern pastors as they look into the happy faces of new parents. Surely they know more than nothing. But shepherds cannot assume that parents have even a rudimentary understanding of what the Bible says concerning parenthood, love, authority, discipline, and so forth. And because we live in an age when—thanks to the internet—anyone can read anyone’s thoughts on anything, we must be even more intentional in communicating a Christocentric approach to parenting for the glory of God. This might include offering parenting classes on Tuesday nights or intentionally partnering empty-nesters with young parents in mentoring relationships. But at the very least, pastors ought to give regular consideration to how to make direct application to parents in the preaching of the Word.

(4) Pastors must give parents the tools they need to disciple their children. It is not enough for shepherds to exhort their flocks to parent for the glory of God. We should find every possible way to supplement the instruction on Sunday with practical helps for Monday through Saturday. This was an important factor when the curriculum development team from my church was selecting our Sunday school curriculum. Our children take home summaries of this week’s lesson with follow-up ideas for parents to use during the week—all on the back of their coloring sheet. Another way we try to do this is through our weekly catechism handout that we call “A Heritage of Truth." The questions and answers are provided by Kids4Truth. We then offer a hymn that corresponds to that week’s truth, a biblical study for families to do together, and some discussion questions. Our goal is to promote the intentional theological education of our children; our prayer is that God will so use it to that end.

(5) Youth pastors ought to seek to turn the hearts of teenagers to their parents. It is tempting for men in my position to try to replace a teenager’s parents. A young person’s burgeoning independence, frequent disagreements with his or her parents, and spontaneous respect for a younger adult may give the Adversary an opportunity in the heart of a youth pastor who desperately wants to be liked, appreciated, and heard. This insidious combination results in a youth pastor either trying to be more for a teenager than God intends him to be (at best), or seeking to become God for that young person (at worst). What youth pastors must understand and communicate is that the same God who commanded, “Honor your father and mother” (Ex 20:12), is the God who sovereignly ordained the parent(s) that each teenager has. The young people in my youth group have imperfect parents who make sinful choices, do not understand God perfectly, and need to be shepherded. And the same is true of their youth pastor! But long after they graduate and move on, their relationship with their parents will continue on—in God’s providence, just as He planned. So I must devote the time I have with them now to shepherding teenagers and their parents, turning the hearts of the former to the latter—and directing the hearts of both to the Father through the Son by the Spirit.

Implications for Parents: The Church is Not Expendable.

(1) Submit to your leaders. God has done such an extraordinary work by uniting diverse families into one body that the angels stand in awe at His variegated wisdom (Ep 3:10). By His design we are united together by His Spirit (Ep 4:3) under the authority of elders who are qualified to serve (1 Ti 3:1-7) and who exercise oversight of the flock (1 Pe 5:1-3). This is why the author of Hebrews exhorts us, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account” (13:17a). All of us are called to bend the knee to our God-given authorities as a glad reflection of our submission to our Great Sovereign. This means hearing our pastors’ Word-filled exhortations with regard to our families—and then heeding them. When an elder confronts us fathers concerning one of our children, we must pay close attention, since he is carrying out the shepherding ministry of the Good Shepherd Himself. The primacy of my role in the discipleship of my children does not liberate me to make the church a disposable appendage to my family. God has called the church to be actively engaged in the life of my family, and vice versa. I fail to fulfill my role as a disciple-making father if I abandon the church which Christ purchased with his own blood (Ac 20:28).

(2) Seek accountability. Parents should not merely wait for their leaders to pursue them. We ought to seek out relationships within the church that will enable us to carry out our God-given responsibilities. Younger parents ought to identify older parents whom they respect, and older parents should go after younger parents. Spend generous amounts of time together. Walk through life together. Build a mentoring relationship. Christ has united you both to Himself, so you are united to one another. Live out that union with transparency, humility, and gratitude for the mercy that we all rely on every minute.

(3) Practice your ecclesiology. If the church is a group of people who are united by their common confession of faith in Christ, then those people ought to be a priority for your family. One empty-nester recently told me that he and his wife had to make the hard decision to keep their children from participating in a soccer league after they had been in it for years. The reason: at a certain age Sunday practices and games became mandatory. They recognized that they had an opportunity to teach their children a valuable, lifelong lesson: the people of God are a priority to us because they are a priority to God.

God has designed the roles of parents and the church to complement one another as they work together for the next generation. May He so work by His grace that our children might “set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments” (Ps 78:6).


Related:

• Youth Discipleship (intro)
• The Centrality of God in Youth Discipleship (part 1)
• The Hope of the Gospel in Youth Discipleship (part 2)
• The Primacy of Parents in Youth Discipleship (part 3)

Note: The related sermon from HPBC's 2009 "Don't Waste Your Summer" Conference is available here.

The Primacy of Parents in Youth Discipleship

Note: The following article was written in 2007, long before personal details about South Carolina's governor were made known.

Moving from Michigan to South Carolina demanded adjustments on many levels for me. Kroger and Farmer Jack were replaced with Bi-Lo and Publix. City names like Troy and Sterling Heights gave way to towns like Pickens and Pumpkintown. When people asked, “How are you?” they actually expected and desired an answer. And it took me quite some time to figure out why these South Carolinians kept talking about USC and the Tigers. Why would sportswriters be so concerned about Southern Cal and my beloved baseball team?

One of the more unexpected adjustments was the political process on the state level. In Michigan, the governor’s relationship with the state house and senate more or less corresponds to the Federal system. Not so in South Carolina. While both states have a governor, a house, and a senate, the power is much more centralized in the governor’s chair in Michigan. As one might expect from the first state to secede from the Union, South Carolina has traditionally decentralized the power so that, in many ways, the state house and senate have more power distributed among their members than the governor himself has. Our current governor, Mark Sanford, ran on a platform to continue the work of a previous governor, Carroll Campbell, who made great strides in wresting certain powers from the state house and senate and centralizing them in his office. Now in his second term, Sanford is realizing just how difficult this task is.

Sanford’s stated purpose for centralizing power is simple: accountability. As South Carolina’s government currently operates, Sanford believes the responsibility falls to so many different people (all the representatives, all the senators, the governor, the cabinet, etc.) that no single person is held accountable whenever problems arise. If everyone is responsible, no one is responsible. Without a clear articulation of responsibilities, everyone can assume that someone else is taking care of things. Regardless of what one thinks of his politics, Sanford makes an important point. If someone does not have a clear understanding of his responsibilities, then he or she will refuse to be held accountable for failing to meet them.

When the topic shifts to discipling the coming generations, the need clearly to articulate responsibilities becomes far more significant than how a state operates. No longer are we merely dealing with the (admittedly necessary) administration of a state’s economic and political resources. Now we are dealing with the weighty matter of teaching our children in such a way that they “set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments” (Ps. 78:7, ESV). Who is ultimately responsible for the discipleship of the church’s young people? How one answers that question will determine in many ways the direction that a church takes in discipling the next generation—and who is held accountable when that responsibility is not discharged well.

Scripture affirms two key truths that must drive the way families and churches disciple the next generation. Errors emerge when one truth is distorted and emphasized to the neglect of the other. But seeking to maintain both emphases is imperative if we are to carry out God’s ministry God’s way.

Parents are primarily responsible for the discipleship of their children. From Deuteronomy 6 to Ephesians 6, the Bible makes it clear: fathers and mothers must own up to the responsibility of rearing God-saturated children. Moses commanded Israel to “teach [God’s words] diligently to [their] children.” And lest the community should think that all of the adults were primarily responsible for teaching all of the children, Moses added, “Talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deut. 6:7). While there was a general community obligation to the next generation, Moses indisputably laid the primary responsibility on the adults in the home, namely, the parents. Paul expresses it similarly in Ephesians 6. The apostle admonishes parents to “bring [their children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (v. 4). He directs the command specifically to the fathers, not because mothers are relieved of the duty, but because the fathers are the “heads of households on whom the ultimate responsibility for supervision rests” (D. Edmund Hiebert, Ephesians, 108). If there were a time that Paul could have placed the primary responsibility on local churches for the discipleship of the next generation, it would have been in this great letter on the church. But the apostle affirms the teaching of Moses: parents—and especially fathers—are primarily responsible.

God did not give these commands in academic vacuums. Significantly, the commands of Moses and Paul both grow out of key statements of theology. Moses begins with that great affirmation known as the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4). There is none like Yahweh. His holiness means that he transcends the created order. And yet he is the covenant-making, covenant-keeping God of his people—truly “our God.” His uniqueness (who he is) and his covenant (what he has done) demand a response, one that Christ would call the first and greatest command: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart” (Deut. 6:5-6). From that kind of love for God, itself springing from God’s love for them, parents are exhorted to disciple their children.

The apostle likewise writes his letter in such a way that the reader would have to close his eyes to miss Paul’s structure. Of the forty-one imperatives in this short six-chapter work, all but one occur in chapters four through six. The apostle’s point is to emphasize the indicatives of the gospel (who God is and what he has done for us in Christ) before ticking off the imperatives of the gospel (how we must then live). J. Gresham Machen made the point this way in distinguishing between Christianity and liberalism: “Liberalism is altogether in the imperative mood, while Christianity begins with a triumphant indicative; liberalism appeals to man’s will, while Christianity announces, first, a gracious act of God” (Christianity and Liberalism, 47). The imperative to “bring [our children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (6:4) rests on three chapters of God’s work in our behalf. And if we are properly to understand the command, we must trace it back to the individual statements of the first three chapters. While that particular study is beyond the scope of this article, the point is this: we are powerless to carry out the imperatives of the gospel so long as we do not intentionally connect them back to the indicatives on which they rest.

The character of God and the promises of God in Christ demand that parents take their responsibility for the next generation seriously. The call of the Great Commission—“disciple the nations” (Mt. 28:19)—must not be limited to the regions beyond. It begins at home. I have no greater opportunity—nor any greater responsibility—to cultivate a follower of Christ than in my own home with my own children. As a parent, I must meditate on the greatness and goodness of God, give great attention to my responsibility in light of his character and works, and then structure my family’s existence around him. As a pastor, I must proclaim the greatness and goodness of God, confront parents with their responsibility to their children early and often, and then structure our youth discipleship in a way that communicates the primacy of their responsibility.

The implications of this line of thinking are far-reaching. (1) If parents are primarily responsible for the discipleship of the next generation, then having a youth pastor is unnecessary. Many churches assume that the second pastoral staff member to be added to the payroll of a growing church ought to be the “youth and music guy.” There is in this assumption the tacit belief that, if the next generation is to turn out right, the church must have an individual who is devoted full-time to students. Certainly this can be helpful in accomplishing the church’s vision. (After all, do I not serve as a youth pastor?) Whenever someone is paid to give himself full-time to a particular segment of the congregation, that group should grow under his care. But that is just as true for senior citizens as it is for seniors in high school. The position of youth pastor may be helpful, but it is not necessary for the discipleship of the coming generation. Having parents who are committed to glory of God is.

(2) If parents are primarily responsible for the discipleship of the next generation and a church chooses to have a youth pastor, than that man ought to view his primary ministry as complementing what the parents are (or ought to be) doing in the home. I appreciate the way that the elders at my church altered the definition of my job. Originally, they sought a youth pastor who would be “responsible for maintaining an effective youth ministry for the parents of Heritage Bible Church and their teens that reflects the character of God.” There are some strong points to that definition. But over time—and long before I started in this position—they reconsidered the scriptural emphases, changed the title of the job to Pastor of Youth and Young Adults, and reworded the definition of the job to say that he is “responsible to assist families in the discipling of youth and young adults to the end that they might grow up into Christ, worship God, and enjoy him forever.” This means that we must work to know the parents, help them own their responsibility to their children, cast a vision for them as to how to disciple the next generation, and walk through life with them—and their teenagers—to show them how the Word translates into everyday life.

(3) If parents are primarily responsible for the discipleship of the next generation, then those who direct church-wide youth discipleship should factor the role of parents into their calendar. When churches schedule teen activities every Saturday night, we remove them from the ones who are primarily responsible for their discipleship—and often on the only free night on a family’s calendar. I am not advocating the wholesale removal of youth group activities; I am arguing that leaders must evaluate the busyness of school schedules and extracurricular activities in the light of the parents’ responsibility when they set their monthly calendar of youth activities.

(4) If parents are primarily responsible for the discipleship of the next generation, then parents must be the first ones to staff all children’s discipleship initiatives. Our church has the blessing of being in the same community as a large Christian university. Besides the students who grow up in our church and attend college there, there are two or three hundred students who regular worship with us. It would be very easy for us to staff all of our children’s ministries with these willing volunteers alone. But that would be philosophically aberrant. While we are glad for them to serve—and a number of them do serve as assistants—we want to apply the primacy of the parental role in every way possible. Consequently, if we do not have enough parental volunteers to lead and staff a ministry initiative, we must make the difficult choice to cut that ministry.

So does this all mean that the church now operates at the whim of parents? Are church gatherings mere fixin’s on the smorgasbord of life, from which families may take a little of this and a little of that? This is the conclusion of some. (See the recent article in Leadership and this piece from Al Mohler’s blog.) But that is to deny the second Scriptural emphasis, one that the next article in this series will address.

One last question that is sure to arise: what about those children and teenagers who do not have believing parents? There is much to say about our stewardship of them. For now, let it suffice to say what is most readily apparent. Clearly in these scenarios, the church will and must take on a more critical role in their discipleship. We cannot exhort the parents to disciple their children when they themselves are not followers of Christ. So it is wise intentionally to surround these children with other stable families, encourage believing families to incorporate them into their lives, and help build strong peer-to-peer and mentor-to-child relationships. This should not fall on one person (a bus captain, for example), but should be the shared responsibility of many families. But this also demands that we not segregate unbelieving children from believing children. The church’s responsibility to these children is great.

For a large number of our children—the majority in most congregations—this is not the most important issue. What is far more important is that we stress to the parents in our churches that the primary weight of responsibility to disciple their children falls on them. Those of us who serve in leadership capacities must communicate their obligation to every kind of family in our church: from the empty-nesters with grandchildren on the way to the overjoyed parents of a newborn first child. With the responsibilities clearly delineated, the people of the church can begin discipling the next generation for the glory of God.

Related:

• Youth Discipleship
• The Centrality of God in Youth Discipleship
• The Hope of the Gospel in Youth Discipleship

Note: The related sermon at HPBC's 2009 "Don't Waste Your Summer" Conference is available here.