I mentioned yesterday that I’d make my recent “Getting the Most Out of Logos” webinar available for those who were not able to attend on Tuesday evening. We fixed up that portion where my screen went blurry, then uploaded it to Logos. It’s now there for you to view. On that same page, you can find the discount codes for both new purchases and upgrades. Those codes are valid until 11:59 PM on November 14.

I updated the ChristianBook.com deals page. There are lots of Bibles and books currently on sale.
(Yesterday on the blog: How To Draw Near To The Throne of Grace)
Christianity and Functional Liberalism (or How Evangelicalism Denies the Faith)
This is a lengthy and urgent article about what the authors see as a “rapid, cross-denominational apostasy” that has recently swept over the church.
Turning from God does not lead to a better society
This much shorter article considers that turning from God never leads to a better society. “Living according to the rules set by some god seems oppressive. It would be far better to live however we wanted, to worship (or not) as we felt like, and to just do what seemed best to us. Even for those who have grown up in the church, we can feel like those outside the church have a freer, easier life.”
The Church: A Family of Redemption
“The local church paints a picture of a greater reality: God takes broken people and makes them whole through the family of God. He has sent his son Jesus Christ to redeem a people—his people—to himself that they might enjoy him forever. This is an eternal and unfading family, but it’s also a family for the not-yet season that we live in.”
How Do You See People?
Sylvia writes about a topic I have been considering as well: the way we see other people. “I often see people with labels attached, and those tags may either dismiss or enlarge who they are in my esteem.”
Church Growth: The Place of Metrics in Evaluating Ministry
“Attending a conference, denominational synod, or church planting seminar, you do not have to wait long before you are discussing numbers and attendance. It’s not even that people specifically ask how big your church is. It is more that the question, ‘How’s it going?’ either has the implied meaning of ‘how many people are attending your church?’ or we instinctively answer with metrics.”
Church Planting
9Marks has released a new issue of their journal, this one dealing with church planting. There are many articles to read, all for free.
Flashback: Fears and Fleeting Faith
In their troubles they fled to Jesus. In their uncertainty they cried out to their master. But they came to him in fear and doubt, not in faith.

When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God. When action is needed, light will come. —J.I. Packer

Over the past few years we have witnessed quite a number of leadership failures within the church. We have learned of pastors who have used their position to enrich themselves, to use their prominence to run roughshod over others, to use their prestige to feed their flesh. Some of these failures have been shocking, some almost expected. Some of these failures have been public, some very quiet. But each of them has, in its own way, been grievous and harmful. Each of them shows that, at times, leadership can go tragically wrong.

Powerful Leaders? is a book about what happens when Christian leadership goes wrong. “Today’s culture has become deeply sensitive to issues of power imbalance, misuse of authority and manipulation,” says Marcus Honeysett, and this puts an increased onus on faithful Christian leaders to ensure they are leading well—and to ensure they are avoiding the snares that seem to have entrapped so many others. “My aim is modest,” he says. “I hope to sketch a map of the slippery slope of power – the path that runs from good intentions, via lack of accountability and transparency, down into manipulation and self-serving, all the way to the most serious abuses – and put up some ‘turn back’ signs.” In other words, he wants to help leaders identify some of the points at which they may prove to go terribly wrong and to turn them back before it’s too late.
There is little doubt that within the church there are some “wolves in shepherd’s clothing”—leaders who know full well they are not Christians and who are deliberately playing the part in order to serve themselves at the expense of others. But it is my conviction, and Honeysett’s, that the majority of leaders who eventually go wrong set out with good desires and noble motives. Their good intentions were not enough to protect them from eventually abusing their power and misusing their authority. Some of them may have even behaved in abusive ways without knowing they were doing so. Yet “lack of intention doesn’t remove culpability. The heart is deceitful, and we are never fully aware of our own motives.”
Anyone who is in a position of leadership needs to consider whether he is in danger of misusing power and position. That is true whether the position is formal or informal and whether he leads individuals, churches, organizations, or movements. Anyone should humbly consider whether he may be falling for some common traps. And that is exactly what this book is all about.
In part one of Powerful Leaders?, Honeysett provides some biblical patterns of healthy leadership, emphasizing that truly Christian leadership is a form of servanthood that is directed at the good of others. “The heart of leadership is joining with the work of the Holy Spirit in forming Christ-besotted worshippers.” He offers four key features of leadership that can “ensure that leaders remain godly and avoid misuse of position and power.” They are accountability, plurality, transparency, and embodiment in the local church community. Both power (the ability to act) and authority (the right to act) are good gifts of God, but ones that can be wielded poorly and bring about great harm. Hence he writes about a healthy kind of authority that is concerned more for discipleship than for coercion, more for the good of the ones being led than the pride or enrichment of the one who is leading.
In part two he covers the slippery slope that so commonly causes leaders to become manipulative or abusive. “I think few people actively set out to become a wolf or a Matthew 6-type hypocrite (although I have unfortunately met one or two). Nevertheless, some who set out to be servants morph at some point into wolves. Where do they go wrong and how does it happen? Is it possible to take the first steps into misuse of position and power completely unawares?” Through several chapters he introduces and describes a five-stage spectrum of leadership beliefs and practices that proceeds from the legitimate use of authority, to illegitimate use of authority, and eventually to serious abuses of authority. He shows how leaders can subtly slip from stage to stage, often for reasons they themselves would deny and to further causes they believe important to the Lord’s work. Yet bit by bit they can drift into leadership that manipulates, takes advantage of, harms, or even abuses others.
The third and final part asks and answers the “what next?” question for victims and survivors, for whistle-blowers, for leaders, for churches, and for cultures and tribes.
Any good leader should know and admit that he is not above misusing his position. Any good leader should have the self-awareness to know that he is not above the traps that have ensnared so many of his peers. Any good leader should be willing to evaluate his leadership—and have it evaluated by others—to ensure he is leading in the way God calls him to. And for that reason, I highly recommend Powerful Leaders?. “My prayer,” says the author in the afterword, “is that this book has helped you think about biblical, spiritual leadership through the lens of Christ-like servanthood, rather than through a worldly lens of big characters wielding power with their impressive strength, or subtle manipulators wielding power through the warmth of their impressive smiles and personal winsomeness.” It would be a blessing to the church if every leader would read this book and evaluate his leadership by it.
Buy from Amazon

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.
This week at Westminster Books you’ll find $80 off the complete set of Christopher Ash’s great new commentary on the Psalms.
You will want to check once again for Kindle deals as I continue to add them day by day.

You probably haven’t thought much about the Urim and Thummim, but as Darryl explains here, you might benefit from doing so.

“Jesus is ruling and reigning now and forever. His rule has no term limits. We can rejoice because there will never be a day when he is not on the throne. I’m not suggesting that Christians stay out of the political arena, though I respect one’s right to do so and have heard good reasons why one might. My great aim is to remind us that our political candidates aren’t Jesus and can’t deliver us the way Jesus can.”

Come and see how the Lord is building His Church around the world. Join John Piper, Sinclair Ferguson, Conrad Mbewe, Kevin DeYoung, Steven Lawson, and others, as well as missionaries from around the world on October 16-18 in Jacksonville, FL. Discounted rates end August 16. (Sponsored)

Here is a compassionate and truthful response to the young person who is wondering whether he or she is gay.

I’m not very invested in the online kerfuffle about Megan Basham’s new book but do appreciate this perspective on it as it pertains to local church pastors who already have so much to think about and care about. “Because I’m a pastor in the middle of Missouri, I want to address myself to normal Christian leaders like me. Those who hardly match Basham’s description of corrupt sellouts, but nonetheless fear that Basham’s splashy political project may cause ordinary people to lose trust in good churches and good leaders. Those who cannot help but wonder, is this it?“

It’s amazing how prominent the “follow your heart” ideology has extended within our culture. “Last month, I led a group of sixty high school students on a New Age worldview mission trip to northern Arizona. The students had completed fourteen weeks of training in worldview and apologetics. They were ready, equipped to converse with others about Christianity and truth.”

Lois explores how some of the worst times can also be among our best times. “I’m not trying to convince anyone that their worst year wasn’t terrible. Nor am I suggesting that they will ever stop thinking of it as the worst, for any number of reasons. Some losses are so deep and profound that the pain never goes away. But if you are grieving, I encourage you to hold fast to the truth I experienced—you won’t always feel how you are feeling today.”

We can very quickly let our marriages slide into a kind of transactional relationship where instead of thinking first about what we can give, we think first about what we can get. We give so we can get back, and give only to the degree we receive.

What are the guilty stains polluting your life right now? Whatever they are, the only agent potent enough to permanently remove them is the blood of Jesus.
—Dai Hankey