salternlite

When Will Jesus Return?

Martin Salter — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:23:33 +0000

We had an interesting discussion in our small group last week. We were thinking about how we live out lives of witness faithfully on our frontline (Tit 2:9-10), and the urgency of Jesus’ return. Should we be playing a long game with our friends or should we be running through the streets screaming ‘repent’ at everyone. I had an email the next day asking for a bit more explanation. Here’s my answer:

Great question Jim [not real name] – you are on the ball.

There’s a few things to try and say in answering the question so I’ll number my paragraphs to try and preserve some logic.

1. First thing to say is that what we’re talking about has been the subject of intense debate throughout the centuries – the passages are open to interpretation and not always as clear as we’d like – probably deliberately in God’s wisdom to keep us humble.

2. Second, we are told that his coming will be at an hour we do not expect (Matt 24:44); and will be like a thief in the night (2 Pet3:10), which means we cannot know when he’ll come – could be any time – and anybody who predicts it is in disobedience of Scripture.

3. We’re also told that the day is soon (Rev 22:20); drawing near (Heb 10:25); at hand (1 Pet 4:7). Those words were written a couple of millenia ago which tells us something about God’s timescales – soon for us, and soon for God aren’t the same. With the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day (2 Pet 3:8-9). Again all of this makes us humble with regard to timings, and aware that God is playing a long game.

4. We are told of some things that are to happen before Christ returns: the gospel will go to the nations (Matt 24:14); there will be a significant and powerful deception by the man of lawlessness (2 Thess 2:1-10); and there may be a large scale conversion of Israel (Rom 11:25-26). Now here’s where it gets difficult. Some of the predictions (of Matt 24 for example) may be referring to events surrounding the fall of the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70; and there are multiple interpretations of the events just listed – they may or may not already have happened depending on how you interpret them. Now you begin to see the difficulty of having certain opinion on these things.

5. Some of the kingdom parables suggest significant growth and expansion over time. Weeds and wheat will grow together (Matt 13:30); the mustard seed must grow into a tree, and the yeast must work through the whole batch (13:32-33); The bridegroom will be delayed, and the master gone to a far off country for a long while (Matt 25:5, 13, 19). Again, all of these things may be adjudged to have already come to fruition, or they may not.

6. We know God is patient not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance and eternal life (2 Pet 3:8-9). That doesn’t mean all will be saved (see 2 Thess 1:7-10), but it perhaps explains why we’re still waiting.

So how do we make sense of all of that. It all really depends on your interpretation of the various passages. What is clear is that we cannot know the time Jesus will return – it could be any time so we must be ready. Yet at the same time it seems to me that the events and kingdom parables haven’t reached fruition yet so there is still work to be done. The ambiguity makes me watchful, the state of the nations means I’ll keep labouring and praying – the harvest is plentiful. And knowing God is sovereign and patient means I don’t need to rush round like a headless chicken peeing people off left, right, and centre. I make the most of every opportunity, whatever that looks like, so that when Jesus returns (if it’s in my lifetime) he’ll find me at my post.

Hope that helps. As I say we’ve wandered into a minefield in the history of Christian interpretation. Let’s make sure to major or the majors and keep living for Christ on our frontlines,

every blessing,

Anything you’d want to add. Most of the above is a combination of Grudem and Bavinck (and for what it’s worth I’m more with Bavinck).

More FOAM less beer

Martin Salter — Thu, 16 May 2013 08:10:21 +0000

I promised earlier in the week that I’d share a little acronym I use when thinking about illustration in preaching. Again, this isn’t mine, but is shamelessly stolen from communication coach and all round good egg Richard Garnett. He gave this little acronym to work with:

F – facts and stats
O – opinions and quotes
A – anecdotes/stories
M – metaphors

He suggests (rightly in my view) that these four things tickle different parts of the brain. Facts, stats, and quotes engage our left brain – the analytical and rational part; Stories and metaphors tickle our right brain – the creative emotive bit. In the exercise of persuasion we need to satisfy both sides – we need to think and feel that what we’re being told is true and works. Garnett also suggests trying to alternate them so that you don’t overload on one side at any one time.

Two other comments I’d add when it comes to illustration. First, illustration teaches. We sometimes think that there’s content and then there’s illustration – the beer and the froth. I’m increasingly persuaded that this view is wrong. Illustration does teach – it just gets us at different levels. So don’t be caught out thinking your light on content if you have plenty of illustration – your just hitting people with truth at different angles and in different places. Second, you need more illustration than you think. Stop thinking about the old state the point, explain the point, illustrate the point, apply the point. Why don’t you think about having 3-4 diff ways of illustrating your point. They don’t all have to be 5 minute stories about someone getting their head caved in with a shovel in Vietnam. They can be one-liners piled up, or a quick metaphor, or a quotation. Pile up your illustration, tickle left and right brain, bring it home, seek to persuade. Illustration is your teaching buddy, not just the froth you have to put in to keep ADDs happy.

How to communicate with SUCCESH

Martin Salter — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:00:28 +0000

I read a book a couple of years back by Chip and Dan Heath called Made to Stick looking at why some messages are ‘sticky’ while others aren’t. It’s got loads of wonderfully helpful stuff in it and their acronym (with slight modification) has stuck with me and I still write it down on my sermon planning sheet today. It’s as follows:

S – simple. Is your message clear, straightforward, trying to get across one main thing?
U – unexpected. Is there a way in which you can get your message under the radar and make it memorable?
C – concrete. Is it a set of abstract propositions or a concrete message with clear take-away?
C – credible. Does it work? Will it make a difference? Does it relate to real life?
E – emotion. Does your message reach the emotions not just the mind?
S – story. Stories tend to stick with people longer than abstract ideas and propositions.
H – humour. Does your communication connect with people – humour is one good way to do that.

I find this a helpful checklist to go through when I’m preparing to communicate – you might not hit all of them all of the time, but if you miss the lot you’ve probably got a problem. Later in the week I’ll post another helpful (and stolen) acronym for thinking about illustrations.

The Importance of Soft Skills

Martin Salter — Thu, 09 May 2013 08:11:24 +0000

I’ve almost finished Mike Brent and Fiona Dent’s The Leader’s Guide To Influence: How To Use Soft Skills To Get Hard Results. In essence it’s a book about working relationships – how to understand things like your personality and working style; how to build trust and rapport; emotional intelligence; reframing; influence, and more. The book has lots of useful and practical information, graphs and charts, including worked examples on things like performance reviews and handling conflict. Perhaps the most useful thing for me to think about was the concept of ‘flex’. That is working out what my personality and working style is, tuning in to somebody else’s, and thinking about how I flex or bend toward them to help them. We can’t be something we’re not, but we can adapt to find ways in which we can better relate and communicate to those with different personalities and working styles. So rather than creating clones we can celebrate diversity and use it to our advantage. Overall the book is solid, not spectacular, but I suspect will come down from the shelves relatively regularly in years to come, as I seek to develop some of these ‘soft skills’ to enable better working and working relationships. If you too want to think further about these things this book is worth a read. Any other suggested reading?

Scholar, be charitable!

Martin Salter — Tue, 07 May 2013 09:00:02 +0000

I was speaking yesterday morning about charity in its various forms. Primarily of course we need to recognise that we are all charity cases and require the charity of God to step in and fix our otherwise hopeless situation. The fruit of this is that we begin to exercise charity towards others in all sorts of ways – finance, time, spirit etc. Except it seems to me that there is one sphere of Christendom where the virtue of charity is seldom seen, and that is in the academy. I read a fair amount of what might be termed academic or scholarly work and what increasingly concerns me is the way in which scholars sometimes interact with others work. It’s not uncommon to see critique, interaction, and review which is uncharitable, inaccurate, harsh, and lacking in constructive comment. Part of this, I suspect, is related to a perceived need to say something new, or to show how clever you are by spotting something someone else didn’t, but I can’t help feeling much of it is about selfish ambition and works on the basis of a hermeneutic of suspicion rather than a hermeneutic of charity. Now of course I’m not saying that we’re not allowed to disagree with people or point out ways in which they could improve, but the spirit of scholarly conversation is tangibly less than loving and often feels more like an attempt to display intellectual prowess at another’s expense. Scholar, be charitable! If you love Jesus it is your bounden duty to exercise the same kindness and charity to others that he exercised toward you. He didn’t do it because you’re clever and you earned it – he did it because he loves you (see Tit 3:3-7). So my plea to the academy is to raise the ethical bar of scholarly interaction – for His name’s sake.

Why the FIEC is a good thing

Martin Salter — Thu, 02 May 2013 08:45:58 +0000

Earlier in the week I spent 24 hours hanging out with some godly and gifted contemporaries who lead churches within the FIEC. The FIEC (for those who don’t know) is a Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches. It’s a network of churches that share core gospel convictions, ecclesiology, and a vision for seeing the gospel go out to the nation. Here are some reasons I like what they’re doing and would encourage others to come join the party (mmm…perhaps party is the wrong word!)

They’re all about the local church. It’s the hope of the world. FIEC is about connecting and resourcing local churches to do the stuff.
As a network it’s based around confession not cultural forms. A misconception about FIEC is that it’s about a certain ‘way’ of doing ministry when in fact there is a great variety of contexts and cultures which produce different styles and strategies for reaching out. Unity yes; uniformity no.
They have great directors with big vision. I’m not kissing up (they won’t even read this). I’m genuinely impressed by the character, competence, and conviction of the directors. They know what they’re about and have a good idea of how to go about it. They’re like Hannibal, Face, Murdoch, and BA in cords. Not saying which one’s which.
It’s chock-full of talented and godly guys making a real difference where they are on the ground. Who needs Chandler, Driscoll, and DeYoung when you can have Beynon, Powell, and Allcock? Seriously, there are some incredibly bright and gifted guys within FIEC.
It’s fun – didn’t expect that did you? In addition to gospel hearted passion, there is great camaraderie to be had. Spend half an hour with Steve Levy and your sides will actually properly hurt.

If you want to be part of a network that will equip, resource, and encourage you, and if you want to be part of a movement to reach the nation with the gospel, you should seriously look at what the FIEC are about.

The aesthetics effect

Martin Salter — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:00:14 +0000

I know I bang on about this a bit but I’m increasingly persuaded that aesthetics have a more powerful effect on us than we realise. On Saturday the family and I visited Mercedes Benz world in Surrey. If you’re near that part of the world it’s a great free couple of hours out. You can wander round and look in and sit in their beautiful cars. You can have a go in their simulators. You can see some of their artwork and exhibitions. You can get a quality cup of coffee in branded cups on branded saucers with branded napkins. You can enjoy the most immaculate facilities that even have little bottles of hand cream for gentleman. The staff are smart, smiling, and friendly. The space is open and full of natural light. The floors are clean, and the lifts aren’t full of graffiti and chewing gum. All of this makes you feel very good indeed. So much so that I found myself thinking “If I did happen to have fifty grand to blow on a new car I’d probably come back and see you guys.” Now clearly I don’t. But that’s not the point. The point is the beautiful aesthetics had a more powerful and intoxicating effect than I’d realised. They’d almost hypnotised me. So I thought “what about church?” Is there something to learn here? Clearly we’re not selling a product and trying to brainwash people. But nevertheless is there something about our aesthetics which will determine whether or not people might return. Or worse, is there anything about our aesthetics which ensures they probably won’t. We want the stumbling block to be the gospel not our aesthetics. And if a good aesthetic might grant us another hearing hasn’t that got to be worth considering more seriously than perhaps we do? Thoughts?

Calvin on original sin

Martin Salter — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:34:40 +0000

I’m trying to read through Calvin’s Institutes in a year (and am failing dismally!). From yesterday’s reading, here are a few striking quotes from the start of book 2 of Calvin’s Institutes:

“that primal worthiness cannot come to mind without the sorry spectacle of our foulness and dishonour presenting itself by way of contrast, since in the person of the first man we have fallen from our original condition. From this source arise abhorrence and displeasure with ourselves, as well as true humility; and thence is kindled a new zeal to seek God, in whom each of us may recover those good things which we have utterly and completely lost.”

“Ambition and pride, together with ungratefulness, arose, because Adam by seeking more than was granted him shamefully spurned God’s great bounty, which had been lavished upon him. To have been made in the likeness of God seemed a small matter to a son of earth unless he also attained equality with god – a monstrous wickedness!”

“Bernard rightly teaches that the door of salvation is opened to us when we receive the gospel today with our ears, even as death was then admitted by those same windows when they were opened to Satan.”

Reading this material again challenged me as to the way in which I’m tempted to ‘soften’ sin to something which feels more unfortunate, rather than something monstrous as Calvin describes. Some of that may be cultural, but I suspect that if I’m honest I just need to have greater faith in God’s power through his word, drink a can of man-up, and discharge my duty faithfully. Any thoughts on the difference between Calvin’s forthright description and our own, often weak, efforts?

Leaders – your appraisal matters

Martin Salter — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:33:08 +0000

So I had my appraisal last night, which, to my surprise was actually a rather enjoyable experience. I’m not a masochist or anything – I don’t get off by being beaten with sticks; but there’s something about the wounds of a friend which are tremendously helpful in development and improvement. Here are a few reasons why I think they matter:

1. You ain’t peaked yet – at least I hope not. I hope we’ve all got more to learn, and new ways to develop. To do that we need some constructive criticism, feedback, and input.
2. You’ll have blindspots – things which you weren’t aware were weaknesses. If you’re going to improve as a leader you need to be aware of them and seek help addressing them.
3. It gives you space to discuss your own frustrations or hopes and dreams. Sometimes in the busyness of it all you struggle to find space to step back and evaluate what’s going on. And sometimes we’re too proud to acknowledge we’re struggling and ask for help.
4. It’s good for others to encourage you in what you’re good at. Of course we don’t do it for that, but nevertheless it’s nice when others recognise hard work and God’s gifts.
5. It strengthens relational bonds between you and your team. A strong relationship is strengthened by honesty not weakened by it. It’s good to be straight with each other – if they don’t tell you who will?

So phone your employee or employer and get it in the diary. Do it now!

The 10 ‘p’s of good children’s talks

Martin Salter — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:22:58 +0000

Here’s a little something I shared last weekend with our team of folks who do kids talks:

The 10 P’s

Preparation – don’t leave it til Saturday night – let it brew
Prayer – we pray for everything else; why not our kids talks
Practice – stand up in front of a mirror and practice delivering your talk 3 times – it makes all the difference
Props – is there an object you can use an a visual aid or illustration
Participation – are there ways in which audience participation could help
Powerpoint – have you got some good images or perhaps even a video clip you could use
Point (singular!) – what’s the one big idea you want to get across – zero in on that
Passion – look interested. If you look bored they will feel bored. Give it some energy
Presence – difficult to define this, but I think you can increase it through varying things like pitch and pace
Problems/pitfalls – avoid trying to say too much; avoid moralising; don’t be too long – we aim at 5 mins for 5 year olds (actually that means most people do 7 mins for 7 year olds which is fine; what’s usually not fine unless you’re very good indeed is 10 mins for 10 year olds).

We’ve tended to find that the best kids talk have the ability to draw in people of all ages. They also serve to fill in all sorts of Bible material that many new Christians don’t know but are too embarrassed to ask. So why not get your team of folks who do kids talks together and run through the ten p’s. We also then often like to share ideas for an upcoming series – get’s the creative juices flowing and generates some great ideas.