How to look after your wife

I haven't written any posts recently because it is holidays and everyone is away. Next year I will continue the series on training leaders.

But here is an interesting post on how husbands can sanctify their wives:
Click here to open the page.

Another great devotion on Christ

Monday's devotion – 1 Corinthians 1:18-22 – Only the good news of Jesus has power. We preach only Christ, and that message has power to demolish strongholds. Preach Jesus!!!

Thank you short course student!

We need to get the foundation in place – which is Christ!
And then we can look at all the other issues in the Bible and our lives, building on this strong foundation.

The cross is the foundation of everything

Recently Jiroy preached on 2 Corinthians 2:5-17, about welcoming back a repentant sinner. Paul was concerned for the man, and for the cross of Christ, and for the church of Corinth.

I really liked Jiroy's emphasis on the cross as the basis for everything else. We need to look at everything through the cross of Christ, or make the cross the basis for our thinking about everything else. The solution to every problem in the church is found in Christ.

That is the point of this blog. Jesus died and rose again. He is Lord and Saviour. We must build everything on him. The good news of Jesus must be the centre of everything we do. Christian ministry means applying the good news of Jesus to all the different issues that people face, and helping them to stand firm in Jesus and grow mature in him.

Ps Christopher on church decline

Ps Christopher made some helpful comments on the decline of the PCV.

1. We are not doing enough pastoral work. The early missionaries did a lot of catechizing and training in the faith, but we don't do these things much any more.

2. Many people responded to the Gospel for the wrong reasons. They responded because the community did, or because they wanted physical things, or for other wrong reasons. But they were not really Christian. We can even think of the decline now as a refining or pruning process. People are leaving, but they were never really part of the invisible church.

I agree with these ideas. Both points help us understand why the PCV is spiritually weak today and the road ahead. We must do more pastoral work, faithfully preaching and teaching God's Word. And we must help people truly believe in Christ. We do not only want them to come to church on Sunday. We want them truly saved, with Christ as Saviour and Lord.

Any thoughts?

Training 2 – Our goals

We need to have clear goals in ministry. What are we trying to achieve? Why are we working? These goals will affect the way we do our ministry and how we train leaders. There are many Bible passages that show these goals.

Colossians 1:28-29 says:

"We proclaim Christ, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with His strength that works powerfully in me."

Our goal is for people to become mature in Christ. This means that they believe in Jesus and are mature in him.

Ephesians 4:13 says:

"...until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ's fulness."

This also says that we want people to be in Christ, and for them to be united and mature in him. Verses 14-16 say that when we are mature like this we will not be led astray by false teaching. And the body of Christ will grow as each part does its work in love.

So three of our goals in ministry are:

1. People believe in Jesus and have fellowship with him.
2. People are mature in knowledge and holiness.
3. People are building the body of Christ in love.

So how should we do our ministry so that we can reach these goals?

Training 1 - Train others, so they train others

I am going to start with some pictures to show how training does happen and could happen.

First Way

Pastor teaches other people.

When the pastor stops, there is no more teaching. The church will die quickly.

Second Way

College trains pastors to teach other people.

Train pastors at church institutions. These pastors do most of the work. The training is expensive, so we only train a few pastors. We try to train enough pastors to replace those who retire.

Third Way

Pastor trains others to train others to train others...

The pastor teaches people, but he also trains them to teach others. So people in villages are trained to teach others. Teaching is handed on from one generation to the next. This is much cheaper and many people are trained.

In the PCV we mostly use the second way. I will try to show in these posts that the third way can help us.

Pastors should train people in villages, and these people can then train others. Many, many people can be trained. We then send some of these people to colleges to get more training. But most people will be trained in the village. Every pastor is a trainer and every Christian is being taught to build the body of Christ.

Ministry and Leadership Training

The church can only grow when we are preaching the good news of Jesus Christ and teaching the word of God. This means that the church must train people to do this work.

The next 10 posts will be about why we need to train church leaders and how we can do it. I will try to show that all pastors need to be training people. It is not just the work of church institutions.

A church tax? (part 6 of 6)

This is my last post about church taxes, and I want to finish with a pastoral comment.

When staff and students visit villages, we find that many people are not active in their faith. They don't come to church very often and their spiritual lives are very weak. Many may not be Christians. We visit them and try to help. We pray with them and encourage them to trust and obey Jesus.

This work will be very hard for pastors if there is a church tax!

At the moment the message we take to people is:
"God loves you. He gave his Son to die for your sin. He is Lord and Saviour. Come back to him and trust him, and he will forgive your sin. Then your life will be able to glorify God as it is meant to."

But we will have to add at the end:
"And come back to church with money for each person in your house."

People will not hear the Gospel message. They will just hear us asking for money. Weak members of the church will not come back. They will leave the Presbyterian Church and may not go to any other church. I am concerned that a church tax will be a disaster pastorally and will cause many people to leave the church.

Do you think this could happen?

A church tax? (part 5 of 6)

It is easy to be critical when people try to raise money in the church. But we do need money. So if a church tax is not the answer, how should we encourage people to give?

Again, the answer is the Gospel of God's grace.

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." 2 Corinthians 8:9

"The way in which you have proved yourselves by this service will bring honor and praise to God. You believed the message about Christ, and you obeyed it by sharing generously with God's people and with everyone else... Thank God for his gift that is too wonderful for words!" 2 Corinthians 9:13, 15

God freely gave us his son. When we experience God's grace, it changes us. God's grace makes us gracious and generous. We want to give to those in need and we want to give to help people who are preaching about Jesus.

So if people are not giving to the church, I can see three main possible causes:

1. They have no money.

2. They have not been changed by the gospel of God's grace.

3. They don't think the church is doing a good job of preaching Jesus, or they don't think people are in need.

I think our problem is 2 and 3.

The answer is not a church tax. That will make the problem worse. The answer is to faithfully preach and teach and proclaim the good news of God's grace. That is what will change people's hearts and bring greater generosity through Christ.

A church tax? (part 4 of 6)

Who should set the vision of the church?

Who should show us how the good news can be the centre of our life together and how we can faithfully live as God's people?

It should be Bible teachers, theologians, pastors and missionaries!

But if they don't do it, then administrators will. But the church is in big trouble when Bible teachers are quiet, and administrators set the vision. Administrators are important, but we are in trouble if they have to set a vision for the church because Bible teachers are not doing it.

Is it time for Talua to provide more leadership to the whole church? Do we need to provide a clear vision for the church, based on the Gospel?

A church tax? (part 3 of 6)

In the Old Covenant there were some set taxes. People gave a certain amount of money each year as well as other offerings. Sometimes Christians use passages about the Old Covenant to support a tax in the church (e.g. Deuteronomy 29).

But we need to be careful. Jesus has come. We are now in a new covenant. We live under the Gospel of God's grace. So we should not apply the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy directly to Christians.

This blog is to help us focus on the Gospel. So my main question is:

Has the good news of Jesus Christ changed the way that we think about money and giving?

A church tax? (part 2 of 6)

The Bible says "God loves a cheerful giver." This has been used to say that we should pay a church tax if it is introduced. The quote is from 2 Corinthians 9:7 which says:

"Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

The verse says we should not force people to give (compulsion). They should decide what they want to give. This way people will be giving willingly and cheerfully.

If there is a tax that is a set amount per person, will each person be giving "what he has decided in his heart to give" and not "under compulsion"?

I am asking these questions because I am concerned that we are turning away from the Word of God instead of towards it as we try to solve our problems.

A church tax? (part 1 of 6)

What is the answer to the decline in the church? I think it is preaching, teaching, discipleship and prayer. We must go back to the good news of Jesus Christ. We must do everything we can to help people hear the good news. We must take down every barrier that stops people hearing (cf. 1 Cor 9:19-23; 10:33).

One different idea that people have is that we could charge a tax each year in the church. Each year people will pay a certain amount of money so that the church can grow.

If we ask people to pay a set amount of money to the church each year, will this help the church grow? Will it help us to move forward in a way that has not been possible before?

It sounds like we are putting our hope in money rather than in the Gospel of God's grace. Money is good, but if we think it is the answer to the church's problems, does it distract from the Gospel and make it harder for people to come and hear the good news?

The Gospel is about God's grace

When I speak to people in villages, most of them think that we are saved by good works. They know that Jesus died for sin, but they think they are saved by obeying God's laws. They talk about going to church and tithing, and they hope that this will be enough to escape judgment. Many elders also say and preach this. I don't meet many people with assurance or joy.

The Bible teaches that we are saved by God's grace as a free gift through faith in Christ (e.g. Eph 2:9-10). All Christians will do good works, but these works do not save us.

I am very concerned that many people in villages do not know the true Gospel. Maybe many people are not saved. Maybe many elders are not saved.

• Is the Gospel of God's grace clear at Talua? Are we teaching it well?

• How can we help pastors and elders preach the true Gospel throughout Vanuatu?

Do pastors spend too much time just talking?

I was talking with a student recently and he said that a big problem in the PCV is that pastors spend too much time talking and not enough time doing anything. I agreed. We sit in our long meetings and talk, but when we come out nothing changes. And I am part of the problem. I say, "We should do this and this and this" but I don't do it. Pastors spend too much time talking and don't do anything.

But then I realised I was wrong!

The work of a pastor is to speak. Paul told Timothy, "devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching" (1 Timothy 4:13). Elders and pastors must speak (Titus 1:9). Paul's goal in life was to speak (Acts 20:24; Col 1:28). Luther started the reformation by speaking. Words have power, especially the Word of God!

So what is the problem? Pastors must spend more time speaking the Word of God to people. e.g. preaching, evangelism and counselling.

The question is not, "Do pastors spend too much time talking?"
The question is, "Do pastors spend enough time speaking the Word of God to the people?"

And maybe some pastors actually spend too much time doing and not enough time talking!

How the church can grow

Earlier this year Ps Tony Wan preached a sermon at Talua and said that the PCV is in serious decline. The percentage of people in Vanuatu who are Presbyterian has fallen as follows:

1989 – 48%
1997 – 37%
2009 – 28%

This means we are losing about 10% every 10 years. Most people agree that there is a big problem, but what is the answer?

Ps Tony said that pastors are not spending enough time preaching, teaching and discipling. This is like the church in Acts 6. The Apostles were helping feed widows, but they chose other people to do this so that they could spend their time preaching and praying (Acts 6:3-4). Today pastors are doing many things, but they are not preaching and praying and discipling enough.

I agree with this. The only way the church can grow is through the word of God. We must pray and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "Yufala i mas kam we yufala i wantem tumas tok blong God... olsem ol pikinini we i jes bon i wantem titi tumas. Tok ya i save mekem yufala i kam strong, nao bambae God i sevem yufala." (1 Peter 2:2)

What do you think? Is there are problem? What should we do?

The good news is the centre

The good news of Jesus Christ is the centre of the Christian faith. Jesus died and rose again as Lord and Saviour. Only through Jesus can we have life and peace and joy. Only through Jesus can we glorify God as we should. The good news must be the centre of our life as a church.

If the good news of Jesus is the centre, then the church will be a light shining out to the nation. People will see our joy in Christ. They will see our holiness. And they will know that Jesus made us like this.

Talua should also be like this. I have started this blog to help us talk about three questions:

1. Is the good news the centre of our life at Talua?
2. Are there ways we need to change?
3. How can Talua help the whole church to make the good news the centre?

I will write many posts, but this is a place for us all to share our thinking. Please share your thoughts, in either English or Bislama.