Pastor's Circle - Steve Blakemore

Steve Blakemore is the Professor of Philosophy at Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, and the pastor of Wesley Chapel He joined the Pastor's Circle to discuss. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of his interview.

How important is the Advent season?

I'm glad you asked, because I think it's a shame that so many Protestant denominations have forgotten about what's called the "liturgical year."

It sounds boring, but it's just the calendar of the church that was established to help us live our lives around the life of Christ.

Advent was established by the church to be a four-Sunday period to have a time of introspection, a time of reflection, and even to some degree, a time of fasting.

Last week I was challenging my congregation about whether we really have taken seriously the idea that Jesus became flesh to redeem all flesh.

We always complain about the secularization of Christmas, and then we don't do anything to establish a greater meaning for that day.

What can families do to create a deeper meaning for Christmas?

One of the things I would suggest they do is to create some family rituals. "Rituals" sounds dead, but they aren't dead, they're just things we do to shape our lives.

Years and years ago for Advent, my wife got a wreath that we stuck four candles in, and each Sunday after church we would light a candle and have a devotional reading.

Another thing families could do is something like what we're doing at Wesley Chapel, which is that we're all fasting one meal a week.

We're setting aside the money that we would spend on that meal, and we'll put that in an offering on Christmas day. It's a way to give of ourselves to remind us that God gave himself for us.

You've talked for years to people about trying to capture and reclaim your family's life by what you do together.

We are a time-enslaved people, enslaved to clocks and calendars. It's so easy to forget to just stop and sing a song together, or read a passage of Scripture. 

What about churches that won't have services on Christmas Sunday?

Those are basically just pagan institutions.  

Pastor's Circle - Sam Shaw

Sam Shaw is the lead pastor of The Orchard Fellowship, located in Memphis, TN. He joined the Pastor's Circle to discuss the book of Jonah. Here are the "CliffsNotes" of his segment.

In your study of this book, what did you find to be the main emphases?

I think I could sum up the entire thing. As I finished it and thought back, it's about how God saves the saved.

God's problem wasn't Nineveh, it was Jonah.

Why was Jonah reticent to go to Nineveh?

Jonah hated the Ninevites; they were corrupt; they were the enemies of his people.

Knowing God's nature, Jonah was afraid that God would hear their prayers and send him, and he absolutely did not want that to happen.

Why are we reticent to evangelize today?

I think today we're fearful. We're fearful of what people will think of us, we won't get it right.

We're afraid of stepping out of our comfort zone.

I think the basic word in the Christian life is not "stop." We hear that a lot. But the basic word in Christianity is "go."

It gives me a lot of hope; if God could use Jonah, he can use me.

God is always working behind the scenes to prepare people's hearts to hear the message.

When we get the nudge in our hearts to say something about the gospel, we can assume that God has been doing work behind the scenes.

What about the last chapter, where Jonah loses patience with God?

If nothing more, it's about the fact that God is patient when we are not.

God makes a plant to give Jonah comfort, but then He sends a worm to eat it down.

I think it shows that we are concerned about different things than God. At the end of the book, Jonah is concerned with his own comfort, but God is concerned about fifty thousand people.

Pastor's Circle - Ed Litton

Ed Litton has served as the the senior pastor of First Baptist North Mobile since 1994. He joined the Pastor's Circle to talk about the mission of his church. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of his segment.

Your mission statement talks about "making disciples." What does it mean to make a disciple?

That's a great question that we have been asking ourselves and re-asking ourselves. God's been taking us through a season of inspecting the words we use and the things we say we believe.

To us, discipleship begins when you hear the call and respond to the call to follow Jesus Christ. And then, of course, there are steps that you take.

Martin Luther said that it is the default of the human heart to be "religious". We don't believe that Jesus came to establish a religion.

We've discovered and rediscovered what it means to have our hearts on fire because of what Jesus did for us. That's what fuels my soul.

What is the antidote for a church that is focused internally?

That's right where we're at. It's interesting to me that 95% of southern evangelicals have never led a person to Christ. That tells me that we don't have a passion in our heart that makes us care.

Our church was becoming a social club. Jesus confronted his disciples on a regular basis about their moralism. That's not the place that we're supposed to be.

I noticed as a pastor that I saw the gospel as a diving board that got me into the pool of God's Kingdom. The fact is, the gospel is the pool.

If I was missing it, I knew everyone else was missing it. I think that's why the nation is in the state it's in. It's dark because the light is hidden.

God has also been taking us to the woodshed about idolatry.

What is an idol?

Anything that I love more than God. It could be Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State; it could be basketball or baseball; it could be hunting; it could even be my wife and family.

What are some of the idols in the pastorate?

There are deep-rooted idols that are very challenging to get out. For me, it's approval. It's the fear of man, it's wanting people's approval.

Which leads us to not being as fruitful. Most people who do what we do are approval junkies.

Pastor's Circle - Chuck Huckaby

Chuck Huckaby, pastor of St. Andrew's Church in Lawrenceburg, TN, joined the Pastor's Circle to talk about  perseverance in prayer. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of his interview.

How did the Church get away from fasting?

I was just thinking about that yesterday. I grew up in Bible-believing evangelical churches, and I don't ever remember any talk about fasting.

Sometimes we can say, "I love the Bible!" but we really never read it much. We fight if the Ten Commandments are going to be taken off the courthouse wall, but no one knows what they are.

We need to stay close to Scripture, and let our hearts and minds be changed by God.

What does it mean to "persevere in prayer"?

In the Gospels it says that Jesus taught this parable to the effect that we should never lose heart. He told the parable about the unjust judge, and said if that's how judges act, how much more will our Father answer us?

Realize also that prayer isn't an instant download. God doesn't have to be convinced, but He is the Sovereign King. He is working out his own plans, and calls us to be persistent in our prayers to Him.

Why does God require perseverance of us?

I think it's to train us. If prayer was something we could fire off and forget, we would forget the Source to whom we pray.

It would all become about us, and prayer would become something to check off our to-do list rather than humbling ourselves and coming before God.

If we could just fire and forget it, we would think that God was working out our purposes.

What are some biblical examples of perseverance?

The one that I keep coming back to is Abraham. Imagine for yourself: you have this direct promise from God, and then nothing seems to happen. 

God delivers you, but the thing He promised is still not coming.

 So you come up with backup plans. We come up with all these plans, that we think are our own answer to prayer, and then God shows us how worthless that is.

Finally, about a generation later, you run out of hope that it's ever going to happen, and then it happens.

It's that way with us a lot of times. When our only hope is in the Living God, when He's purged us of our schemes and self-will, and when He's disciplined us to pray and do what we need to do, something happens.

Pastor's Circle - Gil McKee

Gil McKee, Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa, joined the Pastor's Circle today to discuss thanksgiving. Here are the "CliffsNotes" of his segment.

What's the hardest thing about being thankful?

I think just getting over the things that are so easy for us to grumble about.

We all know it's easy to pick out the things that aren't going well, but our discipline as Christians is to focus on the things that are going well and be thankful for those things.

In America, does our prosperity work against us?

Absolutely. It makes no sense. But when you live in a land as prosperous as this, you begin to take things for granted.

God has promised to give us everything we need, but not everything we want. In America, we are very very confused over those things.

We've developed the feeling that we are entitled to all of this stuff. Of all people, we in the Church ought to know better than that. But nevertheless, we do it.

We allow the world to move into the Church, rather than the Church marching out into the world.

It's an incredibly powerful force in the life of the believer when we live in the peace of Christ.

How does thanksgiving work relationally?

I think the life of the Christian should be one of edifying those around us. The Scripture teaches often that we're to build up the body of Christ.

Can you think of anything that edifies the body more than just looking in someone's eyes and saying, "I am thankful for you."

I think it's like any other discipline in our life. The more we practice it, the more second-nature it becomes.

In a culture where we're just not interested in accountability, we've forgotten that there's some disciplines that we need to follow. Thanksgiving is certainly one of them.

Pastor's Circle - Jerry Horner

Jerry Horner has been a university professor and administrator since 1962. He currently functions as the Executive Director of New Creation Ministries.

He joined the Pastor's Circle after extended world travel to talk about excitement over the Word of God. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of his interview.

Of any place you've been in the last year, where is God's work most exciting?

I believe it's in parts of Southeast Asia. There is mission work going out like nothing you've ever seen from places like Singapore and Malaysia and Indonesia.

One of the most exciting places is in the Philippines, where there is a revival going on in the police and the military.

It's amazing to see the movement of the Holy Spirit and the power of the gospel. I'm wonderfully excited to see the movement of God in Muslim countries.

Is there a difference between Southeast Asia and America in their love for the Word?

You know, you're exactly right. One of the marks of a Spirit-filled church and a Spirit-filled individual is his submission to the Word of God.

I'm impressed that the very first characteristic of the first church in Jerusalem in Acts 2 is that they submitted themselves to apostolic teaching. 

They had just come from a tremendous spiritual experience, having the Holy Spirit fall upon them, but they knew that they couldn't live by experience alone.

We have bequeathed to us in the pages of the New Testament the very same teaching that they received. The Word of God has the power to transform lives.

I really believe that the agent of the devil could get up and read the scripture and people could get saved, because of the power of the Word of God.

What is your method in your personal devotions?

There are different ways to approach Bible study, and I think there is a variety that is in order here. You might concentrate on characters of the Bible. What can I learn from the life of David? What can I learn from the life of Paul?

Another way is a thematic study. What does the Bible have to say about love, about faith, about courage, about fear? Go through and saturate yourself in the teachings of the Bible on that subject.

I love to go back and read the prayers of the Bible and apply them to myself. I think Paul's prayers are still being answered today. I'll make it contemporary and put my own name in there.

I like what the Apostle Paul said more than once about the history of Israel. He said, "These things were written for our benefit." They were written for us to benefit in history, in doctrine.

You can read it and study it, but unless you apply it in real, contemporary life, it doesn't do you any good.

What happens to a movement that is excited about the Spirit but not the Word?

The early Church recognized that you don't live on experience alone.

I think that the Lord is less interested in how high you can jump when you praise Him than He is in how you walk when you hit the ground.

The Spirit of God is given to change us into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Let's concentrate on knowing Christ, and being like Him.

Pastor's Circle - Johnnie Moore

Rev. Johnnie Moore serves at Liberty University as Vice President and Campus Pastor. He joined the Pastor's Circle do talk about the "healthy soul". Here are the "CliffsNotes" of his interview. 

What is "health" in the Kingdom of God?

We're talking about someone who is living how they were designed to live. We sometimes forget that we were created in the image of God.

When I talk about a healthy soul, I'm talking about getting to that place again with God.

We worry about healthy minds and healthy bodies, and sometimes we forget about our souls.

Why is it hard for us to prioritize like Jesus talks about in Luke 14?

America is the Disney Land of the world. When the Gospel of Jesus Christ comes into a desperate context, you really realize what you have with the gospel. Jesus isn't just your religion, he is everything.

Somehow in America, even if you live in a less Christian part of the country, we're a Christian nation, and we don't value our faith as much. We have a very small view of the Kingdom of God.

We have the most priceless commodity in the universe in the palm of our hand, but it's like we have the Hope Diamond and we treat it as if it were a piece of crystal.

The love you have for Jesus should make all these other loves look like a different word.

Another thing is that we're incredibly distracted. There are spiritual issues that keep us away from the right priorities, but there are also physical ones.

How can we balance being in a Christian environment and being in ministry?

I think it's both/and, not either/or. It's perfectly appropriate to say that for a portion of your life, you're in a Christian community learning the Word of God, and then you are sent out.

Jesus has taught us that you have discipleship moments and environments when you get to explore your faith. But at the same time, Jesus prayed over his disciples that they would not be taken out of the world, but left in it.

That's part of our problem. We don't know how to relate to the world, because we're not even in it. We've kind of become gluttons of grace in our own environment.

"If you make disciples by sitting around and talking, don't be surprised if your disciples sit around and talk." Agree?

Absolutely. And the only way that happens is intentionally. You have to push people out and get them out in new contexts.

From the very beginning at Liberty, one of our core values has been an "action-oriented curriculum."

Everyone is focused on bringing people into churches. It's much more difficult to push them out. And they will never come in if they don't see people outside.