“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”

~ Ecclesiastes 3:1

Over the years, I’ve said a lot about the seasonal nature of the church and the seasonal nature of the Christian life.

What is true for the church and for the individual Christian is also true for spiritual service or ministry. It too passes through different seasons.

God built seasons into His creation for many reasons. One of which is to teach us spiritual lessons. “First the natural, then the spiritual” . . . “Does not nature teach you? . . . ”

Take Paul of Tarsus, for example. Paul’s ministry was centered on preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ and establishing churches upon that revelation. But Paul didn’t always do that.

After his first church planting trip, Paul spent a lengthy period of time with the church in Antioch, a church he didn’t plant. Following his third church planting trip, he spent time with the church in Jerusalem, another church he didn’t plant.

There were also seasons where God sovereignty limited Paul, allowing him to undergo imprisonment for a period of years. Continue Reading…

Recently, I delivered a message to a group of Christians in their 20s and 30s. I entitled it “Living in the Divine Parenthesis.” Among other things, I tackled the issue of good works and the seasonal nature of a local church.

Ever since I’ve been a Christian, I’ve been taught two different things regarding good works. In my early years as a believer, my spiritual tutors told me that “good works” (also referred to as “good deeds” and “doing good” in the New Testament) was a religious duty and obligation.

Consequently, I (and everyone I knew) viewed good works with a legalistic lens, seeing them as demands that we must fulfill in our own strength and power.

If you want to make God happy, you have to do “good works,” which are the evidence of real faith (so I was told).

Later, I was exposed to another Christian tradition that reacted against this understanding. This tradition taught that good works was anathema. “We’re under grace, so good works isn’t something we have to worry about.” Therefore, those Scriptures that talked about “doing good” were associated with legalism, so we were told to ignore them. Continue Reading…

“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

~ Matthew 6:10

As long as I’ve been a Christian, I’ve noted two things that believers routinely get riled up about. One is the role of the Spirit vs. the role of the Scriptures. Christians seem to fall off one side of the horse or the other on this issue.

Over the years, I’ve watched countless fruitless Word vs. Spirit debates that descended into noise. They are fruitless because both the Scriptures and the Spirit work together. And what God has joined together shouldn’t be separated. When I watch people debate this issue today, I quickly begin yawning.

In the same way, I’ve watched countless Christians get roped into fruitless outreach vs. inreach debates. Some maintain that the church exists for outreach (these churches tend to have a rather thin and spiritually shallow community life). Others object that the church exists for community (these churches tend to be insular and ingrown).

The outreach vs. inreach debate is fruitless because it virtually always ignores two things. (1) That an authentic church will pass through seasons (I’ve discussed the seasonal nature of the ekklesia at length in Finding Organic Church), and (2) There are four chief aspects of the church’s mission on earth, all of which are vital. Continue Reading…

After reading Deep Ecclesiology, Jesus Manifesto, or Finding Organic Church, numerous young men who are in ministry have asked me the following question (no women have asked me so far):

“Frank, you talk a lot about preaching Jesus Christ as opposed to preaching ‘things.’ This really resonates. I’ve never heard you speak yet, so can you give me examples from your own preaching of what ‘preaching Christ’ looks and sounds like?”

I’m posting my answer here as I believe it will be of interest to some of you. What follows are five examples. Each message seeks to unveil the staggering glories of the Lord Jesus Christ. The messages are also available on iTunes, Mp3 download, via Google Reader, RSS feed, etc. Just look at the top left-hand side after you click on each link.

Epic Jesus: The Christ You Never Knew

Diary of a Desperate Samaritan Woman: Telling the Story Differently

Remember Peter: Rethinking the Love Christ

Living by the Indwelling Life of Christ

The Eternal Purpose of God in Christ

On a related note, I’ve had many conversations with preachers (and teachers) in which they’ve complained that they often “run out” of things to preach. And thus they’re always on the look-out for new “sermon material.”  Continue Reading…

Ever since Sabellius and Arius, the triune nature of God has been under attack. The erroneous doctrines that these men invented dating back to the third century continue to be repeated in various forms. And they are strongly promoted by organizations like the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Most of the people who reject the triune nature of God do so because they’ve been fed false descriptions or silly illustrations of it by uninformed Christians and Sunday school teachers.

I’ve been very clear in my affirmation of the Godhead, along with C.S. Lewis and every other orthodox Christian theologian and scholar.

Yes, the word “Trinity” isn’t in the Bible. So what? The triune nature of God and the Divinity and unity of Father, Son, and Spirit are well attested in Scripture. The word “Bible” isn’t in the Bible either. Neither is canon. Neither is mission. And neither is “organic church,” though the best theologians agree that the New Testament presents the ekklesia as a living organism. Continue Reading…

There’s a lot of talk today about “mission” and being “missional.” But a terribly important question that rarely gets asked is: What is the Mission of God exactly?

Upon that question hangs the Law and the Prophets.

There’s hardly a consensus on this specific query among missional theologians and practitioners right now. But I believe it will set the tone and shape of the discourse about “missional” over the next 5 years. Continue Reading…

“As you come to Him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.”

~ 1 Peter 2:4-5a

Part of my roots are in the Charismatic movement. In that experience, I was repeatedly encouraged to seek God for a “visitation” from heaven. As a result, I harbored the illusion that if God visited our church, He was pleased with it. I later discovered that God is not looking for a place to visit. He is looking for a place to dwell.

The pages of history are littered with the sobering fact that God is no longer present in the places He once visited. Go to the landmarks of past revivals, and you’ll quickly discover that the crowds have diminished. The joy is gone. The life has evaporated. In many cases, those places are but hollow shells today.

Why does the Lord leave? Continue Reading…

As I pointed out in Discipleship, Mission, and Church: A Plea to Learn Our History, the words “mission” and missional” are being used in two different ways today.

One refers to the impulse toward evangelism and individual discipleship. According to this view, churches are missional when they are focused on “going out” to the world rather than attracting unbelievers to a worship service. In this paradigm, every individual Christian is called to be a “missionary” of the good news.

The other refers to God’s grand, glorious, and original Mission – His Eternal Purpose, the very thing that provoked creation itself. While the Eternal Purpose of God benefits us humans, it’s primarily by Him, through Him, and to Him.

It’s a Purpose centered not on saving lost souls or making individual disciples, but creating face-to-face communities under the headship of Jesus Christ that embody and reflect the Kingdom of God on earth as the habitat of God and humans. Its focal point is to expanded the fellowship of the Godhead, creating a Bride, a House, a Body, and a Family for the Lord’s own good pleasure and enjoyment.

Discipleship and evangelism naturally and organically take place within this habitat, but they aren’t the goal. The goal is something for God Himself. (See From Eternity to Here for a detailed unfolding of God’s Grand Mission . . . His Timeless Purpose.)

Continue Reading…

The Christian Post conducted an interview on my magnum opus on the mission of God. Here’s the full interview. Enjoy. Continue Reading…

The following article is a chapter that was removed from my book, From Eternity to Here. It was removed because it couldn’t fit into the page count. I’m publishing it electronically for the first time. Feel free to share it with others if you find it of help.

Test yourselves . . . (2 Corinthians 13:5, NLT)

If I can sum up the message of this book in a sentence it would be this: Your God is after a people who live for one purpose—His ultimate passion. But He’s also after a people who do not feel that they are special or elite in any sense. And that particular stance takes away every tool of the natural soul.

The Lord Jesus Christ is multi-splendid in His awe and beauty. He is so vast that one image or title cannot adequately present Him. Consider the many images and titles that Scripture employs to describe Christ: Son of God. King of kings. Prince of peace. Heavenly Bridegroom. Lord. Master. Savior. Lamb of God. Bright and Morning Star. Good Shepherd. Great High Priest. Light of the world. Root of David. The Righteous Branch, etc. Continue Reading…