Mortimer Adler

Have you met Mortimer Adler? One of my first introductions to Adler was back in 1990 through his book, Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity at Truth. Adler was one of the architects of the Great Books/Ideas program at the University of Chicago, one of the editors of the Great Books editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and author of numerous books. And while I wouldn’t call him a spiritual hero of mine, he is certainly one of my intellectual heroes (along with other luminaries such as William F. Buckley, Jr.).

Adler was a self-avowed generalist and a proponent of the great ideas of Western Civilization. He was, perhaps, one of the last honest agnostics…whose honest intellectual inquiries eventually led him to faith in Jesus Christ. Adler said that one of the things that led him to the Christian faith was the doctrine of the Trinity, which he said would never have been invented by men.

Adler died back in 2001 and left an intellectual legacy second to very few. Below are a few important links to articles about Adler, by Adler and expressions of Adler’s legacy.

• Truth’s Intrepid Ambassador by Terry Muck
• A Salute to the General of Education by Kenneth Samples
• Mortimer Adler is Dead by William F. Buckley, Jr.
• Biographical Sketch
• Center for the Study of Great Ideas
• The Mortimer J. Adler Archives
• The Aspen Institute
• The Great Books Foundation
• The Paideia Group Inc.
• The Great Books Academy
• Mortimer Adler at Wikipedia
• Mortimer Adler: A Personal Biography
• Mortimer Adler at Answers.com
• A Tribute to Mortimer J. Adler
• Mortimer Adler: Reforming Education

Stand Firm,
Dale

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Ministry to Men: Some Reflections, Part 3

Click hereto read Part 1 of this series
Click here to read Part 2 of this series

In case it’s not obvious from what I’ve written thus far, here’s why I believe we need specific ministries aimed at men.

(By the way: Yes, I’m all for Bible studies and small groups that have both sexes in attendance. I teach several such Bible studies.)

I really do think that there’s got to be a place for men to gather with other men, to study God’s Word and pray, in a context of accountability and encouragement. Let’s face it: How many men do you know who would be very excited talking about lusting after another woman… with their wives and a few other women in the same room? Or how many men would want to share how they struggle with pornography with other women in the room? Those are just two of many topics that we, as men, probably wouldn’t want to share in mixed company. We need ministry to men.

Another reason we need ministry aimed at men is because in our culture, very often, men are the problem. But they are also the solution.

In his book, No Man Left Behind, Pat Morley writes,

Many, if not most, of our cultural problems – divorce, abortion, juvenile crime, fatherlessness – can be traced back to the failure of a man. Ironically, it’s a man who got up in the morning hoping to succeed.

 The sings are all around us. We live in a country where every third child is born out of wedlock; where 24 million kids don’t live with their biological fathers; where about half of all marriages end in divorce. We can read these statistics and just blow by them. Or we can consider what they mean for our country and our churches. Wouldn’t you agree that here must be something systemically wrong with a culture that allows these things to happen?

 Fatherlessness is a rampant and well-documented problem in our society. Only a third of all children in America will live with both of their biological parents through the age of eighteen. Half of all children in broken homes have not seen their father in over a year. Children who come from fatherless homes are five times more likely to live in poverty, have emotional problems, and repeat a grade.

 Yet these are all symptoms of deeper systemic issues. Treat symptoms is necessary and good, but you can cure a disease by treating the symptoms. So where there are may sociological and psychological studies to explain why we have so many problems, the “root” problem – the systemic problem – is that we have not properly discipled our men. The only way to solve systemic problems is with systemic solutions. (emphasis mine.)

 I heard Tony Evans say something along the lines of: “So goes the father, so goes the family; so goes the family, so goes the church; so goes the church, so goes the culture; etc.” Of course, Promise Keepers had been saying all that for years. I’m a little slow in catching up.

Stay tuned for the final part of this series.

 Grace and Truth,
Dale

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Ministry to Men: Some Reflections, Part 1

What follows is from a message that I shared this past Monday evening with a men’s ministry from another church. It was a real blessing to be with them and I’m grateful both to them and to God for the opportunity.

Make sure to check out two posts that I wrote, both related to the topic of ministry to men…

• The History of Southside Men
• Men’s Discipleship at Southside

Introduction

I once served a church that had the sweetest group of widows who would sit in the same section of the sanctuary during worship, week after week. These precious women were a great source of encouragement and fellowship to one another. Very often, after worship, they would have lunch together. They were inseparable. I was profoundly grateful that they had one another.

I was also profoundly shocked when I eventually learned that each one of these women was married. They weren’t widows at all! The truth was that their husbands would have nothing at all to do with the church.

Over the last 18 years of ministry I have seen the need for the church’s ministry to men. And… I’ve seen a lot of versions of what’s called, “Men’s Ministry” as an effort to meet those needs. Among these efforts are activities such as…

• A once-a-month Saturday morning pancake breakfast
• A once-a-month Monday evening spaghetti dinner
• Occasional service projects on the church property – fixing fences, raking yards, etc.

 There is absolutely a place for these fellowship times together. No question about it. But that’s what they are: times of light, fairly superficial fellowship. What most of these sorts of events have in common, in my limited experience, are a very brief opening prayer or blessing, a shallow devotional, and lots of stories about the Korean War (which are usually much more interesting than the devotional).

Again, there is a place for these times together. There’s nothing inherently wrong with them. But let’s face it… these opportunities don’t necessarily produce growing disciples.

I believe that as a ministry of the church, Ministry to Men ought to be about the Great Commission: Making Disciples for Jesus Christ.

But more often than not, at least in United Methodist circles - (and other circles as well, from all that I’ve read) – men’s ministries often focus more on making worker-bees out of their men rather than making disciples.

Pat Morley tells the all too familiar (and depressing) story of his father’s experience. When Morley was young, his family joined a local church. His father was immediately enlisted to serve on committee after committee and became one of the church’s worker bees. After a number of years, according to Morley, his father burned out, left the church, not to return for a long, long time. I bet you know of similar stories from your experience.

Such a story reminds me of the words of Jesus in John 15. We are to abide in Christ and his words are to abide in us because apart from him we can nothing of significance for him or his Kingdom. Apart from him we have no energy and no stamina. Apart from him we don’t even have a reserve tank to keep us fueled.

I’ve been seeking to do intentional and focused ministry to men for almost 10 years now. I’ve also read everything I can get my hands on from folks that have been doing it longer than I have. There’s a lot of great wisdom out there.

But here’s what I finally figured out almost a decade ago (back to my earlier point): Men need to be discipled… weekly. (This isn’t a new law that I’m creating, but I do believe it’s an effective principle that I’ve learned from experience.) Morley came to the same conclusion. He realized that before men are “sent” to serve, they first need to be called and discipled. I would also add that the discipling process never ends, even when men are eventually encouraged to serve. (That’s the importance of the “abiding” principle from John 15.)

To be sure, there is a place for the pancakes, the spaghetti, the service projects, the campouts, singing Kumbaya, going to sporting events, and all the rest. But none of those can or should take the place of gathering together each week for the intentional discipling purpose of growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Just as a church that focuses on entertainment and activities will not produce deep disciples in Christ, neither will a ministry to men, as a ministry of that church.

Paul says in Romans 12:2…

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

 Our lives become transformed by renewing our minds.

Listen carefully to the words of Jesus in the Great Commission…

Matthew 28:19-20 – Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

 Where do you go to renew your mind? Where do you go to learn what Christ commanded so that we might obey and teach others to do the same? God’s Word.

There must be a priority of God’s Word in men’s ministry.

Stay tuned for part two of Ministry to Men: Some Reflections.

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Thoughts on Church Membership

At some time or another, most pastors wrestle with issues concerning church membership. Whether it’s the old 80/20 principle… where 20 percent of the members do 80 percent of the work and give 80 percent of the money or whether it’s trying to deal with the fact that the majority of folks on the membership roll aren’t in worship on a Sunday morning… membership issues are constantly on a pastor’s (and church staff’s) radar screen.

My own observation, and that of many of the folks that I read, is that church membership doesn’t seem to mean a great deal today. (In fact, some churches have stopped keeping up with membership. But that’s a topic for another day.) Some folks, who claim to be members of a particular church, haven’t been inside the sanctuary of that church since Jimmy Carter was in office. Furthermore, they don’t seem to be the least bit embarrassed by that. Indeed, it doesn’t seem to be something that should even be a concern. They have little problem in requesting to have their wedding at the church or to have their baby baptized… and they are quite indignant to be questioned about their relationship with the church.

I’ll never forget the first time I read these words from Thom Rainer’s book, High Expectations…

Choose a typical Sunday morning in the United States. And on this typical Sunday, let us take a hypothetical visit to a church selected at random. The church is a Christian church; it may be independent, or it may belong to a denomination. Let us stretch our imagination a bit and make ourselves visitors from first-century Jerusalem, where the first Christian church is experiencing explosive growth.

While we are amazed at the world two thousand years later and marvel at all the technological advances, we are visiting for another purpose. Our brief journey into twenty centuries of future is made to see how the church is doing after two millennia. We have chosen a church in a relatively new nation called the United States.

Before entering into the church building for worship services, we are told that the church has five hundred members. We are pleased that a typical American church has such a healthy numerical membership. Our pleasure, however, is quickly turned to despair when we enter the sanctuary. Our quick count of those present tells us that only slightly above two hundred members are worshiping together on this typical Sunday. Where, we exclaim, are the nearly three hundred who are absent?

We are further dismayed to discover that only 175 attended the time of Bible study that is called Sunday School. How could it be that only one-third of these Christians come together to study God’s Word? We had originally expected to find all 500 members present, worshiping together,  studying Scripture, and doing ministry. We become physically ill to find out that less than 70 members of this typical American church are involved in ministry. We return to first-century Jerusalem with heavy hearts and a report that the future church is very unhealthy, perhaps even dying.

And then Rainer shares these words…

Indeed, the early Christians would have trouble imagining the plight of the American church today. But it comes as no shock to us two thousand years later that less is expected of church members today than civic organizations expect of their members. We have dumbed down church membership to the point that it means almost nothing! (emphasis mine)

 I guess the reason why I’m feeling so concerned about this lately is because I realize that the problem is not with (or not exclusively with) these supposed “members” who essentially aren’t a part of the Body of Christ in the local assembly. I’m realizing more and more that the church at large isn’t doing such a great job communicating what genuine biblical church membership is… either before folks join or after (as a reminder). (Though some churches are doing this very well and thankfully are sharing with the rest of us.)

Membership has its privileges, as the saying used to go. However, it also has its responsibilities, requirements, expectations, etc. It seems that many churches today are so overly concerned about not “turning off” folks who come to visit, hiking their numbers as high as they can, not appearing negative, etc., that they’ve shirked their responsiblity to God and to their membership and, as dramatic as this may sound, have put souls at risk. (By the way, I’m pointing a finger and fully aware of the three fingers pointing back at me!!)

In the United Methodist Church we have a “cleaning” or “purging” process for inactive members. But that process seems fairly anemic because all a person has to say in response when they’re contacted is, “yes, I want to remain on the church role” and they stay there. They don’t have to start attending or becoming a part of the life of the church (though one would hope they are encouraged to. One would also hope that a person being asked if they wanted to remain on the membership role would awaken that person to their inactivity).

I know we always want to hold out grace and love to folks. But isn’t there such a thing as cheap grace.. and can’t that cheap grace actually be very unloving? Can’t we be in danger of saying to these folks, as Jeremiah warned us about with the false prophets of Israel, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Aren’t we misleading, at best, and lying, at worst, to these “members” about God, salvation, regeneration, holiness, discipleship, and membership… just to name a very, very few?

I’m praying much about this lately (and I covet your prayers!). I’m also reading a great deal on this matter because I believe it is so very important. I’m additionally reminded that shepherds will give an account to our heavenly Father on how we shepherded those entrusted to our care. Much repentance is required of me and I hope to start moving in a more faithful direction regarding this.

I’ve been reading Mark Dever’s “The Deliberate Church,” which is an outstanding (and very convicting) book on just this issue. I would quote from it here, but this post is already long enough. I definitely recommend it if you’re interested in exploring some of the issues I’ve raised. (Rainer’s book too)

I would love to hear from any of you who have some wisdom on this matter, any book suggestions you may have, etc. Don’t be shy!

May the Lord bless his Church as we seek greater faithfulness.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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Join us Sunday

This Sunday we will be learning about (and doing) Family Worship (or Family Devotions) during our Intergenerational Sunday school class in the Family Life Center.

 

The passing down of our faith is a very important theme that runs through the whole Bible. Parents (and grandparents) are encouraged to disciple their children and their children’s children.

 

Yet, I have found that quite often folks don’t practice Family Worship because they’ve never done it before. Or, they think that they are required to do it in a particular way. I believe that one of the key ways we learn to do something and get comfortable with it is simply by doing it.

 

Therefore, this Sunday morning I’ll share a little about Family Worship, it’s importance, my family’s experience with it, etc. And then… we as individual families are going to “do” Family Worship. I’ll provide an outline of possible components that families can do together so that they can experience this wonderful blessing from God.

 

As important as passing the baton of faith to our children is, equally as important is imparting the lasting memory of worshiping God together as a family. That will be a memory that remains in their hearts and minds all the days of their lives. It will also serve as a formative experience that will help them continue growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

See you Sunday,

Pastor Dale

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Book Review: Becoming A Coaching Leader, Part 4

Book Review for…
Becoming A Coaching Leader, Part 4
by Daniel Harkavy

(This is actually an older post, but in the spirit of my new feature on book reviews, I’m “reprinting” it.)

Title: The Core Four: The Foundation of Your Coaching Strategy

I like the way Harkavy begins his coaching strategy by focusing first on foundational issues. Sometimes, in a Bible study for example, someone will ask a very complex theological question. What the question very often reveals, however, is a lack of basic biblical or doctrinal knowledge. My reply is usually along the lines of: “You’re asking a calculus question, but we probably still need to remain with the addition and subtraction a bit longer.” In other words, folks sometimes want to put the cart before the horse. I believe it’s wise to keep a proper perspective before the people God has entrusted to our care. Only when they have a firm foundation upon which to build should they proceed.

Harkavy writes,

“It is not wise for us to spend time working on your daily priorities or disciplines until we have great clarity around your Business Plan. And we cannot have clarity on how you should align your team and resources around a plan until we know your strategy. So we must first understand what drives you, what you see as your purpose, and what you see for your organization in the future. We understand that your business or career is just one component of who you are, so we cannot effectively help you to build a business until we understand how your business life fits into your overall life.”

He will spend the next four chapters developing the idea of what he calls The Core Four Success Puzzle, which includes…

• Life Plan
• Business Vision
• Business Plan
• Priority Management

This was a short introductory chapter. I’ll turn my attention next week to Chapter 5, which is entitled, “Your Life Plan: The Coaching Leader’s Most Powerful Tool.”

Blessings,
Dale

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Book Review: Becoming A Coaching Leader, Part 3

Book Review for…
Becoming A Coaching Leader by Daniel Harkavy
Chapter Three

(This is actually an older post, but in the spirit of my new feature on book reviews, I’m “reprinting” it.)

Title: What Is a Coach?

Here’s a description of what a coach is and does…

“A coach helps others win by helping them to discover the knowledge, strategies, Action Plans, inspiration, and accountability they need to excel and to reach even greater levels of success.”

Harkavy then provides these bullet points of a good coaching leader. A good coaching leader…

• Is always improving,
• Sees who his people can become,
• Is an improver,
• Helps his players move from point A to point B,
• Never accepts the status quo,
• Is succinct, and truthful,
• Identifies gaps and gifts, inspires, and
• Sees the big picture and clarifies the steps necessary for success.

I really love page 36. It was loaded with key ideas, such as…

“The mission of a coaching leader is to meet his teammates where they are in order to move them forward by helping them to improve the skills, disciplines, and knowledge they need to succeed. He does this by helping his teammates to clearly see the right action steps to take, and then by holding them accountable as they complete each step.”

“A good coach becomes skillful in asking questions that will enable the teammate to gain more clarity on how he or she wants to improve the various aspects of his or her professional and personal life. Your purpose is to help your people improve.”

“Help them to figure out how to win both in their career and in life, and you will enjoy both success and significance.”

After briefly (very briefly) describing what a counselor, teacher, trainer, consultant, and mentor are, he offers the following definition of a coach…

“A coach helps others to assess their situation and then improve their skills, disciplines, and knowledge so that they can make the necessary big picture changes (usually head and heart changes). This enables the teammates to align their steps and behaviors in order to accomplish and be more.

“A coach helps them make additional changes that will enable them to benefit even more from they have learned already. And then, through a one-on-one relationship, the coach will ask the right questions and clarify and recall their convictions. This, in turn, will assist them to change their habits so that they can become even more successful and purposeful.”

I love this stuff. It really does get me up in the morning. One of the things that I’ve been trying to think through is what exactly do you call someone who disciples, teaches, mentors, coaches, develops leadership, counsels, and spiritually directs others?

Harkavy mentions at the end of this section that, “Each of these roles – counselor, teacher, trainer, consultant, mentor, coach – is unique, and good coach needs to have some skill in each area.” And I think that’s exactly right. I’ve seen the importance of that in my own ministry. In fact, I think a good teacher needs to have skills in the other areas… as does each area of ministry need to have skills in each of the other areas.

What are the core competencies of a good coach? Harkavy lists eight of them. I won’t go into detail, but here’s his list…

1. Discernment
2. Conviction-Driven
3. Accountability
4. Uses Systems Effectively
5. Communication
6. Self-Discipline
7. Vision-Oriented
8. Leadership

This was a great chapter and I wish I could go into detail regarding each one of the competencies. But instead, I encourage you go buy the book and learn about them yourself.

What’s humbling, and a bit overwhelming, about learning a new discipline or skill is the realization of how little I know about it. I feel as though I’m at the bottom of a large mountain looking straight up. And it’s intimidating to be sure. But it’s really, really exciting. As the old saying goes, (to change metaphors) “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

Onward and Upward,
Dale

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