Examine Yourself

When was your last spiritual examination? Most of us are familiar with physical exams. They are often required for sports and various professional licenses.  A physician had to inspect me to declare I was of sound mind and body in order to get a teaching license in Alaska.  You may be familiar with the routine: stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, bright light in the eyes, probe in the ear, mallet to the knee, awkward cough.  

But what about an inspection of our spiritual condition. How can we know if we have a soft heart and a transformed mind?  How can we avoid becoming plank-eyed pharisees who criticize the sin specks of others while excusing our own faults and failures?  How do we know that the grace that has saved us is operating in us, circulating, and flowing out of us?  

We likely we need an examination.  A self-examination. If we are bold, we might even ask for a second opinion on the matter. Some caring friends may offer an honest appraisal of our spiritual and moral health if we are humble enough to ask them. 

And if you find, as is likely, that your spiritual health is impaired by sin, I can recommend an exceptional doctor. Jesus is the great physician.  Take your condition to him for healing and restoration. 

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (1 Corinthians 13:5)

The Best Youth Ministry in America: Homeschool Speech & Debate Clubs

A subtle, spiritual revival has been stirring in the United States for over two decades now. It is the Christian Homeschool Movement. More and more parents are catching the vision for biblical discipleship, for evangelism, and for servant leadership. And from within this movement has arisen, in my opinion, the best youth ministry in America today: speech and debate clubs. That’s right, I said speech and debate clubs.

Speech and debate clubs are popping up around the country like dandelions in a summer lawn. These clubs are an expression of a percolating passion for biblical apologetics, for persuasive speech and for skillful argumentation. They provide a potent blend of academic rigor, engaging peer relationships, and high-amp, adrenaline experiences that come from public speaking. They are Christ-centered, Bible-enriched, skills-oriented, age-blended, and parent-supervised. They are family-integrated and multi-generational. I just had to throw in a couple more hyphenated combos. Homeschool speech and debate clubs are superior to the average Christian youth ministry model in almost every way. Perhaps I’m a bit biased.

My family has been in involved in speech and debate for six years now. Each of my five children has been a competitor in the NCFCA League (National Christian Forensics and Communications Association) and loved it. They have benefited from the research, writing, revising and rehearsing that goes into preparing and delivering a speech. They have also benefited from getting to know other Christian homeschool families from around the country who attend the tournaments.

We started our own club, Clarion Forensics, back in 2005 with just four families. By 2007 we had grown to over twenty families. That’s when we began hosting our own tournaments. Then, in 2009 we divided into two separate clubs, and began meeting in different towns. And next year a third club will begin meeting in yet another town nearby.

When I hear young Christians speak articulately on issues of interest and importance, my worldview opinions turn a shade brighter. My optimism in the future of my country is restored. From such as these will arise the husbands and wives, the fathers and mothers, the businessmen, churchmen and statesmen to lead our communities and our nation in the next generation.

If you’re not quite ready to join a speech club right now, then hear me out for another few hundred words of pointed persuasion. Below I offer six essential reasons, along with some scriptural encouragement, for why your family should get involved in a speech and debate club.

1. For Christ – You will purposefully join with others to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:16-17).

2. For Communication - You will be coached to speak articulately and effectively.

“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2).

“But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

3. For Companionship – You will develop close friendships with other individuals and families of like mind.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil” (Ecclesiastes 4:9)

“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm” (Proverbs 13:20).

4. For Competition – You will work hard to sharpen your communication skills through engaging contest.

“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17).

“The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him” Proverbs 18:17).

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24).

5. For Character Development – You will learn to be an example to others, growing in humility and gaining the ability to give and receive instruction.

“Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).

6. For the Great Commission – You will serve as a disciple-making ambassador for Christ.

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:13).

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

In conclusion, start homeschooling your children and get them involved with the nearest speech and debate club. Link up with other disciple-making, world-changing ambassadors for Christ. Be an active participant in America's best, family-integrated youth ministry. You'll be blessed to watch your children learn to speak the truth with skill and grace. You'll make memories that will last a lifetime.

Love to Work

I’ve been pondering the works of mankind again. What gives us such drive to work, I wonder? Why do we strive to create, and produce, and evaluate what we do? Now that I have begun this post, for example, I detect the urge to finish what I have begun. I will revise my work, too, hoping that the finished product is worthy of my crafting and worthy of your reading.

I confess I love all manner of work. I love the work of designing and building, of planning and organizing, of producing and sharing, of developing and improving. I spot this love of work in many other people, as well. I observe that the love of work makes us learn and grow as we pursue knowledge and new experiences. Love of work makes our homes hum with harmony as we produce health, happiness and hope in the loving relationships born of faith. Love of work makes the economy buzz as we exchange goods and services for mutual benefit. Love of work helps us refine human government as we weigh and advance competing ideas by point and counterpoint.

Where does this love of work come from? I believe that our Heavenly Father has wired it into us. We are, after all, made in the image of our Creator who worked for six days to make all that is. It is no surprise then, to detect similar impulses in man the creature. The Bible says it nicely in two verses: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colssians 3:17).

I’d like to ponder the idea of good works further, but the weather is fine, and there is much work to do on my acre of property. Thus will I bring to a close one endeavor to engage in another.

May God bless you as you pursue the good works that He has prepared for you.

Caroling the Culture

I am amused by the culture skirmishes that erupt each December over religious expressions in the public square. Thanks to an organization called StandforChristmas.com I can now know which retail businesses are most friendly, or most hostile, to my Christian faith, measured by whether their clerks greet customers with “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays.” StandforChristmas.com informs me that it’s still legal to put up a crèche in a public park if the display conforms to the “Three Reindeer Rule.” This Rule requires a municipality to place a sufficient number of secular objects in close enough proximity to the crèche to render the overall display sufficiently secular.

I find this state of affairs tragically funny. The culture permits us to have our Merry Christmas as long as the Christ Child is wedged into in a group hug with Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. Does the Creator of Heaven and Earth, who has called Himself Jealous, and who has zero tolerance for idols and pagan practices (read the Ten Commandments), wink at the sight of His Son reduced to a plastic manikin in a park flanked by fantasy figures? Christians should laugh at themselves if they think they are engaging the culture for Christ by maintaining the right to say "Merry Christmas" and to put up manger scenes.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying Christians should roll over and play 'possum in the cultural wrestling match of ideas and expressions. To the contrary. By every lawful, appropriate and charitable means we should stand up for our rights and for the preservation of our religious freedoms. But we should not be satisfied with merely engaging the culture and preserving our rights. We should be transforming the culture by seeding the Gospel of Peace throughout its core and substance. We should let the dazzling truth of salvation in Christ alone be on display in the Children of God, through a rejoicing Church. A caroling Church, if you will.

Let’s review the historic facts about our cause to sing. In the Christmas story we see the Lord God set the stage for His dramatic appearance on earth. He employs prophecies, signs and circumstances to reveal His divine redemptive plan for saving mankind from eternal damnation. An angel appears to a virgin and delivers a prophecy. A child is conceived by the Holy Spirit. A moving star hovers over the birthplace of the child, attracting wise men, bearing gifts, from the east. In Bethlehem the Ancient of Days becomes a baby. The God, upon whom no one can look and live, is cuddled by His mother and is nursed at her breast. The High King of heaven leaves His throne to lie helpless in a manger. The Immortal, Invisible grows up in a family, working hard to please his earthly parents and His Heavenly Father. The infinite Almighty walks the earth and grows with age until He is 33 years old. Then the Creator of life experiences death. The Perfect, Holy and Sinless One is executed, suffocating and bleeding on a cross for the crime of stating who He truly was, the Son of God.

The Christmas story is breathtaking. It is magnificent mercy. The magnitude of limitation that God ordained for Himself to come to us in human form is staggering to the mind and heart. Jesus came to die for us, to secure peace for us with God the Father. Yet He rose, and He lives, and He reigns. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

I think this is something worth jumping up down and singing about. This is the kind of good news that displaces the gloomy darkness in the culture. Martin Lloyd Jones has said, “The greatest need of the hour is a revived and joyful Church...Unhappy Christians are, to say the least, a poor recommendation of the Christian faith.” I heartily agree. A church that effectively engages the culture should be a rejoicing church.

We must not think that the Gospel will be received with joy in all quarters, of course. In the same way that a flashlight sends cockroaches scurrying in the shed, the light of Christ sends wicked men ducking for cover. The Gospel is a blessed beacon of hope to the repentant, but it is a blinding beam of exposure to the recalcitrant. Men who love darkness rather than light will be repelled by it. I know this from experience. I was a mocker of Christians until Jesus, the light of men, broke through to reveal my spiritual blindness and to save me by grace. Soon my friends began to mock me as a Christian. This, too is amusing, ironic, yet glorious.

Sing on, I say. Carol the culture. Sing songs about Jesus being born in a manger. Sing words of hope and joy for a troubled world held captive by dark deceit. Let the light of the Gospel do its wonders among men, penetrating and purging cancerous sin wherever it festers. Let the rejoicing church be known for Who it loves more than for its disdain for darkness. Let Christ draw men unto Himself as He did with the wise men from the east, who came to worship Him. Let the rejoicing church be known for its Merry Christians, who are Light-hearted, filled with the illuminating love, joy and peace of Jesus.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart prepare Him room
And heaven and nature sing

Advent 2009

In the fullness of time

God sent His Son to earth

To free the captives

From unbelief, and sin and fear

He arrived as a child of low estate

Born of a virgin under a star of promise

He grew in grace and power

Though tempted, He knew no sin

He healed the sick, and fed the hungry, and raised the dead

The masses followed Him seeking show and gain

They cheered His triumphal entry

Then within a week they cried "crucify him!"

Though He came to His own, they received Him not

Jerusalem chose a cross for her king instead of a throne

All this was done in the fullness of time

According to the prophecies of old

According to the will of the Father

Now the advent of Christmas marks time's onward charge

Today the children of God rest in salvation by grace through faith

We are nourished by the Word and the Spirit and the promise of eternal life

We are citizens in a heavenly kingdom that is already, but not yet

Ours is a calling and a knowing, not of this world

Our King is at once apart from us, yet with us and in us

We are drawn to trust Him enough to obey His commands

We are moved to serve Him by serving others

We live in hopeful longing with eyes toward tomorrow

We view the best things in this life as but a foretaste

Of even better things to come

We wait with joyful expectation

For our King to return in glory

In the fullness of time

To Tree, Or Not To Tree

To tree, or not to tree? That is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in the den to suffer the needles of outrageous ornamentation, or to leave trees outside (where they grow), and by opposing end them (indoors). The conscience, which makes cowards of us all, has caused me to sickly o’er with this pale cast of thought: Why have I allowed a Christmas tree to dominate my living room, yet again?

I love Christmas. I love Christmas music. I love Christmas decorations. Do I love Christmas trees? I wonder.

Beside me stands a monstrous, decorated intrusion into the order of my life. As tradition dictates in the Sleadd home, the furniture gets rearranged from Thanksgiving weekend until New Year’s Day to accommodate a coniferous guest. Thus, the measured juxtaposition of my arm chair, book stand, and reading lamp has been set awry by the merry boughs of imposition.

I grow contemplative and cautious. If I make room for a tree in my house and den, will I next make room for blatant idolatry in my life and habits? And what’s a Christmas tree got to do with the birth of Christ anyway? I don’t recall the gospel of Luke mentioning an evergreen tree stuffed into the stable in Bethlehem to crowd out the cattle.

I’ve heard stories about Martin Luther finding deep symbolism in a spruce tree he saw one night when he was feeling spiritually frisky. But I suspect that some German tree farmer found a way to sell more trees if he added holiday appeal, like a printer proclaiming a special day for the purpose of selling more greeting cards. It seems dryly ironic to claim an evergreen tree represents eternal life in Christ, then to chop it down and set it in one’s house to whither into a parched, fire hazard.

For the record, my Christmas tree is artificial, so it probably won’t burn the house down. And it’s actually quite pleasant to look at. It is perfectly conical and uniformly green. Its wire branches are evenly distributed with factory precision, and stiff enough to hold up the heaviest ornaments China can make. Few real trees look so good, or require so little care.

But herein lies a typological quandary, which tests the native hue of resolution: What are we to make of Christmas tree symbolism when the specimen is a hypocrite, a plastic phony, a green-washed Pharisee stuck in a tree stand. Must give us pause. Maybe that’s why a rash of American governors, and the president himself, recently couldn’t decide whether to call them Christmas trees, or Holiday trees.

I've not delved into the Christmas tree's alleged pagan past, nor will I. Research the subject yourself and find enough ambiguity to also give one pause. Alas, you must decide for yourself what to do about such trees. I recommend you enjoy holiday liberty as you practice whatever is God honoring and beneficial.

Me thinks I'll let my Christmas tree remain standing in the house, as usual. Though if the Christ of Christmas has not returned by next December I'll probably have to think it all through again, to tree, or not to tree.

Have a Merry Christmas this year.

First Impressions In the Speech Driven Life

Today I post a page out of my book-in-the-works, The Speech Driven Life. I began the book to help equip students to speak the Truth with sincerity, skill and grace. While it is intended to prepare students for competitive public speaking, I think it's practical enough to be of benefit to every ambassador for Christ.

How to Make a Positive First Impression

It has been said that within ten seconds after entering a room most people will make a snap judgment about the social environment. In short order they’ll decide whether or not the people there are friendly. It’s called a first impression. Likewise, when you walk into a room you’ll be sized up in a matter of moments. People will notice your clothing, your hair style, the expression on your face, your posture, and your body movements.

When you speak, people will notice the quality of your voice. They will notice your pitch, your tone, your rate, your accent (if you have one), and your enunciation. They will make judgments about your emotional state based on your tone and style of delivery. Lastly, perhaps, they will notice what you have to say, which they will interpret by the first impression they have already made of you.

As a speaker you are essentially performing for an audience of judges. This is literally true if you are involved in formal speech competition. The more intentional you are about making a positive first impression, the easier it will be to establish the trust and credibility it takes to effectively communicate your message.

Here are some essential components for making a good first impression. These tips apply to the professional looking attire you would wear in speech competition, and they are good to consider for personal appearance in general.

1. Smile

Your face is your most important means for making a positive first impression. Wear a smile that can be seen in your eyes. It communicates friendliness and confidence. A grumpy disposition is a poor representation of a faith that brings joy. Avoid chewing gum or eating when you speak. Check to make sure you don’t have parsley stuck in your teeth or food smeared on your face. It’s distracting.

2. Dress to Feature Your Face and Hands

Wear clothing that directs people’s attention to your face. Dark suits allow your face to stand out in contrast. Include attractive colors in your attire (shirts, neck ties, scarves) to add warmth and personality. Dress modestly. Avoid clothing that directs undue attention to parts of your body other than your face. Avoid wearing colors and patterns that clash. Wear a hairstyle that keeps your hair out of your face and makes you look respectable. Keep jewelry to a minimum so that your eyes are the main focus. Temperatures permitting, wear long sleeves so that your hands stand out in contrast to your clothing and are easy to see.

3. Use Good Posture and Natural Movements

Good posture and smooth hand movements also help make a positive first impression. Take deliberate steps when entering a room. Let your hands swing naturally at your sides when you walk. Keep your hands visible and out of your pockets. Don’t slouch or look off balance. Let the impression you make show that you enjoy being with the people there, and that you look forward to communicating with them.

4. Sound Confident and Personable

The first words you speak will make an impression. Speak them loudly and clearly, in a calm, controlled voice. High-pitched, rapid speech indicates nervousness. Try to make your voice sound confident and friendly, generally in the lower part of your vocal pitch range. A greeting or welcome is a good way to be personable with your audience and put them at ease.

5. State a Clear Purpose and Preview Your Points

Let your audience know why you are speaking to them. State your topic clearly and give a preview of your main points. Hint at your conclusion to keep them tracking with you.

6. Have a Strong Beginning and Ending

Audiences tend to remember the beginning and end of a presentation the most. Make your opening and closing strong and memorable.

7. Keep Things Short, Sweet and Simple

Be enthusiastic. Be sincere. Be brief. People will appreciate it. Show gratitude to your audience for their attention.

It Is Well

I broach the deep subject of well water, and the need to raise it up from the grasp of gravity. During the last decade my property has become increasingly parched. The water table has dropped, and my well cannot produce the flow to green up my acre. The installation of a holding tank, years back, only delayed the dehydration. When, this August, the water dribbled into the tank as slow as slobber I knew it was time to dig deeper for the precious liquid.

Thus began the drain of our precious savings. We hired men to drill a 300 foot cylinder of space into the earth’s crust beside our driveway. Now I need to dangle the submersible pump in the abyss to draw the slurpy from the depths.

I’m hoping for a happy ending to my water woes. But deeper meanings can be plumbed here. I am reminded of the story of Jesus beside a deep well in the dry region of Samaria. It was here that Christ told a promiscuous woman about the spiritual water of the Holy Spirit. He said, ”Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

In today’s culture of easy belief and casual Christianity, I suspect that many souls continue to thirst. Multitudes have crowded around the dry fountain of man-centered, seeker-friendly, religion, instead of being filled by the power and presence of Almighty God. Playing church does not a Christian make. Being chosen by God, in Christ, before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4) to be born again of water and the Spirit (Jn 3:5) does.

Is there living water in your life?

Jeremiah 2:13 "For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water."

1 Corinthians 10:1-4 "For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ."

Revelation 21:6b "To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment."

The Speech Driven Life

Last year I began writing a practical workbook for beginning speech students, hoping to finish smartly and in due time. But as I labored away, new ideas kept creeping in to make it a larger work. I considered speech for all of life.

Now I fear it may take all of my life to finish it. So I include an excerpt below, salving a sense of tardiness, and tossing out crumbs as from a piece of toast, so to speak. Here's to the speech driven life.

Born To Speak

Imagine life without speech. There would be no words, no sentences, no greetings, and no good-byes. Life without speech would mean no stories, no songs, no sermons and no jokes. Bo – ring. Fortunately, the world is full of speech. It is a speech driven life.

I noticed right off that all five of my drooling and toothless offspring were hard wired to speak. As infants, they spoke in burbles and bubbles. They wailed their vowels before nap nap, and they sputtered out their consonants while slurping from their sippy cup. They grunted like daddy did when he tried to fix the plumbing under the sink. They shrieked like mommy did when she watched spaghetti sauce get splattered onto the off white carpet. In short order, too, our wee ones babbled out discernable utterances like “momma” and “dada.” “Good job,” I’d gush, “now can baby say ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’?”

The Science of Speech

Man has an amazing capacity for language. While other creatures on the planet might be able to communicate with various sounds and calls, only man can tell jokes and recite poetry. Right from the start, the first man, Adam, demonstrated his language skills when he named all the livestock, all the birds, and all the beasts of the field. He did this on his first day of existence. Talk about high aptitude. Then, a bit later, after God performed rib surgery on him to create a special-order bride (Eve), Adam woke up to wax eloquent. He crooned, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Busy day. (see Genesis 2:18-24)

The Bible states that God spoke all of creation into existence, and that man was made in God’s image. It’s no surprise, then, that man was given amazing language abilities. Man’s brain is designed with regions of special function that enable him to speak, write, read, compute, reason and be creative in all manner of ways. Man was made to live in community with his maker and with his fellow man. God therefore equipped him with an exquisite neurolinguistic processor.

Scientists have determined that a region of the brain called the perisylvian, located in the left hemisphere of the frontal lobe, is the chief command center for speech and language. It is in around this region that cognitive thinking, abstract reasoning, and language comprehension are believed to take place. The perisylvian area kicks into gear when you try to have a conversation with your dentist while his tools and fingers are in your mouth. It helps you deal with tricky figures of speech without losing sleep at night, thinking about ridiculous contradictions. Read the following oxymorons (incongruous words) to see if your perisylvian area is working.

jumbo shrimp

random order

tight slacks

pretty ugly

rap music

federal budget

God has equipped us with the marvelous ability to process and produce language. We should be eager to use it in ways that are pleasing to Him.

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).

Graduation Invocation

I was asked to publish the invocation I gave at a recent homeschool graduation ceremony. Here it is

O God , our Father,

You have called us to worship You in Spirit and in Truth.
You have called us to love You with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
You have called us to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth.
You have called us to receive children as a blessing, and to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
You have called us to diligently teach our children Your commandments, to talk of them as we sit in our homes, as we walk by the way, as we lie down, and as we rise up.
You have called us to obey Your Great Commission, to make disciples in our homes, in our cities, and in every nation.

Thank You, Lord, for the calling to homeschool.
Thank You for the strength to heed the call.
Thank You for the grace and power of Your presence to persevere in it.

We now ask Your blessing on this assembly.
We ask that You would continue to bless the fruit of our labor.
We ask You to preserve our freedom to educate our own children.
We ask You to sanctify and motivate our students.
We ask You to grow them in knowledge and faith, in love and good deeds.

We ask You to direct our graduates with wisdom, and discernment, and vision.
We ask You to raise them up into godly men and women, husbands and wives, churchmen and statesmen.
We ask You to bring restoration to our community and to our nation through them.
We ask You to renew their minds and transform them into bold and effective ambassadors for Christ.

O, God, we ask You to pour out Your Spirit upon us. Fill us with Your holy cause.
May Jesus Christ be known among us and to the very ends of the earth.
May we be changed more into the likeness of Christ by our gathering.

May this evening bring You glory and honor, for the furtherance of Your gospel and for the expansion of Your kingdom.

We ask these things in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Same Church, New Name

We've changed the name of our church from Coram Deo to Household of Faith.

Koran what? What kinduva church is that?

Quorum Deo? How many people do you need to hold a meeting?

I've heard such things over the last three years. Not from the folks who speak Latin, or read Ligonier Ministry's Table Talk Magazine, mind you. Just most of the people that I meet, or work with in Grants Pass, Oregon, including fellow evangelical pastors.

Coram Deo, in Latin, means "before the face of God," which is where we're prayerfully laying the new church name. I'm hoping the change is not merely a practical marketing strategy, but rather a clearer way to communicate our vision and purpose for restoring households of faith. Furthermore, we will be affiliating with a Portland area, church-planting consociation, called Household of Faith Fellowship of Churches, a partnership which we hope will invigorate our efforts to make disciples.

Household of Faith Community Church, Grants Pass (HOFGP) is a family-integrated fellowship committed to uniting church and home. We are a congregation of families in Southern Oregon who love Jesus and who desire to serve Him multi-generationally.

3-D Distinctives

Doctrine - We desire transformation by the renewing of our minds in Christ. We treasure the Bible as God's sure and sufficient Word for all of life and godliness. We strive to teach the Scriptures expositionally in engaging ways that include each member of our age-integrated congregation.

Devotion - We desire the power and the joy of the Holy Spirit to turn our hearts fully to Christ. We love to worship God in song and praise. Our sincere love for one another is evident in our prayers, in our joyful singing, in our time of sharing, in Communion, and in our fellowship meals which follow the teaching each Lord's Day.

Discipleship - We desire to be a congregation of action in the world, living out the gospel of Christ. We are passionate about making disciples in our homes and in the culture. We strive to equip men to be servant leaders and pastors in their own homes, which serve as household embassies of faith.

Our purpose is to equip each family to live the Great Commission lifestyle as a team of ambassadors for Christ.

We believe that God has strategically placed men in the crucial role of raising their children in the fear and instruction of the Lord.

We believe that the prophetic turning of the hearts of the fathers to their children (Malachi 4:5-6) is a spiritual prerequisite to the restoration of families in our community and in our nation.

Is God calling you into deeper discipleship? Contact pastorjohnsleadd@gmail.com if you'd like more information about being a part of the Household of Faith.

Household of Faith, Grants Pass web site: http://www.hofgp.org/

Preacher Feature

Training Men to Teach, Preach and Lead

Earnest men of sincere faith, I invite you to join me to sharpen your skills as gospel ambassadors for Christ. Starting in February I'll be spearheading a preacher feature in the Clarion Speech and Debate Club.

The goal is to equip men with an Accurately Informed Mind, an Artful Method of delivery and diplomacy, and an Attractive Manner of relating to others. Thank you, theologian and apologist Greg Koukl, for the inspiration. Consider this blog post an assignment for those interested in growing as teachers and disciple makers. Contact pastorjohnsleadd@gmail.com with questions or comments.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
1 Peter 3:15 But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.

Eight Sessions – Tuesdays Nights, Grants Pass High School main bldg, 6:30-8:30PM

Book Study: The Supremacy of God in Preaching, by John Piper; also recommended Preaching The Cross, by Dever, Duncan, Mohler , Mahaney

Session One (2/3)
Introductions & overview of class
Intro. to TnT Format (exposition, application & discussion)
Intro. to Impromptu Speaking
Intro. to Apologetics Categories
Assignments: 1) Read prefaces & Ch 1 The Goal of Preaching: The Glory of God, 2) Write out & memorize your testimony of faith (3-5 minutes)

Session Two (2/17)
Impromptu Practice: Existence & Nature of God
Share Testimonies
TnT Practice
Book Discussion: Prefaces & Ch 1
Assignments: 1) Read Ch 2 The Ground of Preaching: The Cross of Christ, 2) Memorize scripture verses above

Session Three (3/3)
Impromptu Practice: The Scriptures
Share Memory Verses
TnT Practice
Book Discussion: Ch 2
Assignments: 1) Read Ch 3 The Gift of Preaching: The Power of the Holy Spirit

Session Four (3/17)
Impromptu Practice: Nature, Purpose & Destiny of Man
TnT Practice
Book Discussion: Ch 3
Assignments: 1) Read Ch 4 The Gravity and Gladness of Preaching, 2) Memorize the Two-Minute Gospel

Session Five (3/31)
Impromptu Practice: Salvation, or How to Know God
Share the Two-Minute Gospel
TnT Practice
Book Discussion: Ch 4
Assignments: 1) Read Ch 5 Keep God Central: The Life of Jonathan Edwards, 2) Conduct at least three Spiritual Surveys by 4/21

Session Six (4/7)
Impromptu Practice: The Person of Christ
TnT Practice
Book Discussion: Ch 5
Assignments: 1) Read Ch 6 Submit to Sweet Sovereignty: The Theology of Edwards

Session Seven (4/16) Meeting at Gateway Christian Fellowship
Impromptu Practice: All categories
Share results of Spiritual Surveys
TnT Practice
Book Discussion: Ch 6
Assignments: 1) Read Ch 7 & Conclusion - Make God Supreme: The Preaching of Edwards

Session Eight (4/23) Meeting at Gateway Christian Fellowship
Impromptu Practice: All categories
TnT Practice
Book Discussion: Ch 7 & Conclusion
Wrap Up

Merry Christmas 2008

Here’s a post to acknowledge my absence from the blog-o-sphere. I’ve been away since September with too much to do, and too little time to do it. My household is shrinking, too. My firstborn son, Nathan has married and moved into his own home. God has blessed Nathan and his wife, Colleen, with a honeymoon baby. My daughter, Naomi, and her husband Nathanael, are expecting their second child. It’s a great thing to be a grandparent. Enjoy the pictures. “So how is it being a bi-vocational pastor?” I’m asked by folks who know that I’m a homeschool dad who teaches public school students during the week, and preaches sermons to the saints on Sundays.

Allow me to recount my blessings. I’m delighted to have the freedom to live out my faith in a great community. I’m blessed to be able to disciple my children in the ways of the scriptures. I’m privileged to work with students who have an appetite for knowledge and truth. I’m thrilled to spread the vision of discipleship to unite church and home, and to transform the culture. Shucks, I’m having so much fun, perhaps I should be tri-vocational. I jest.

Good Times We’ve Had
Recently, we elders of Coram Deo Church preached our way through a series of topics that paralleled Focus on the Family’s The Truth Project. We came to more fully understand the marvelous imprint of our triune God upon all human institutions. Since we are made in His image, it is no surprise that the very nature of God is expressed in marriage and the family, in the church, in the state, in the sciences, in the arts, in the economy, in everything.

Good Works To Be Done
In these times of economic calamity and political scandal I am more convinced than ever that we need to seek the face of Almighty God, Him who first sought us. God is sovereign over every aspect of His creation. He is just and powerful, yet He cares for the lowly and the needy. He ordains the rise and fall of nations. And He welcomes humble, child-like faith.

If the American dream of autonomous individualism and materialistic consumption comes crumbling down around us, then perhaps we will take notice again of our Creator. Perhaps we will see the deception of a worldview that curses children and blesses debt. Perhaps we will craft an exit strategy from our reliance on the secular state as our savior. Perhaps we will lose our fondness for being comfortable, religious spectators. Maybe we'll start shining the Light of Christ to the world around us. It will not be without cost, just as Jesus promised.

A Son Is Given
Tomorrow I will preach a Christmas message entitled God With Us, God For Us, & God In Us. I am pleased to include a couple of young apologists from the Clarion Speech and Debate Club, Jachin Scott and Tait Deems, to help me make the case for salvation in Christ alone. It is young men like these who give me great hope for the future. May the Lord raise up more men in the church to boldly proclaim the gospel of peace and the salvation story of GRACE - God's Riches At Christ's Expense.

Soli Deo Gloria,

John Sleadd

Our Worthy Religion

A statement analysis: It has been said that “Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship.”
I believe it is both.

Christianity is a relationship with our triune God, and it is a religion of beliefs and practices for all of life that flow from this relationship.

Christianity is a relationship with God, the Father, our Maker and Creator. We are to humble ourselves before His sovereign power, and obey everything He has commanded in His Word. We are to fear Him and revere Him. We are to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Christianity is a relationship with Christ, the Son of God, our Savior and Redeemer. We are to rejoice in the work of Christ, whose sinless life and death on the cross satisfies the justice of God, and reconciles us to God. We are to place our trust in Christ alone to save us. We are to submit our lives to Him. He is our Lord.

Christianity is a relationship with the Holy Spirit, the third person in the trinity of God, who exalts Christ to the glory of God the Father. We are to yield to His sanctifying guidance. We are to pray in His power. We are to be filled and sanctified by His presence, which leads us to be more like Christ.

Christianity is a relationship with our neighbor. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves and give unselfish attention to their needs. The Command of Christ to love one another is expressed in the way we build each other up in the church and proclaim the gospel to the world.

Christianity is clearly a relationship. But it is also a religion, which can be defined as the practice of our faith, or the working out of our right relationship to God.

The Bible says that “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (Jas 1:27)”

It says that God chose us before the very foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him, that He predestined us to be adopted into His kingdom in Christ (Eph 1:4,5). It says that we are “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which He prepared beforehand “ (Eph 2:10).

Christianity is a religion, in which we are saved by grace, and not by our good works. But it is a religion of faith that produces good works. The Bible says that “faith without works is dead”(Jas 2:17). Those who trust in Christ will most certainly bear the good fruit of their faith. Jesus said that “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8).

In conclusion, I believe Christianity is a relationship that produces a worthy religion. And this religion is worth proclaiming and worth defending.

As we walk by faith in the power of the Spirit, let us be a light to the world and pierce the darkness with the gospel.

To the glory of God

My Musical Confession

After my last post I thought it would be appropriate to retell the story of my conversion from atheism to faith.

I love to sing. My mother sang to me when I was a little crawler back in Kentucky. I sang nursery rhymes in kindergarten on the swings. I sang along with the radio when Michael Jackson was part of the Jackson Five. When I was ten, I sang Englebert Humperdinck songs in the basement to a broomstick microphone. When no one was around.

When I was in college at Western Washington University I decided to get serious about music. I had been a starving art student for a time, but my minimalist professors, who alternately painted brown Xs across white canvases and white Xs across brown canvases didn’t inspire me much. So I switched to studying music, about which I knew next to nothing, but thought was really cool.

Despite my thorough lack of musical knowledge and skill, I somehow got admitted into the music department and became a jazz studies major. Music gave me purpose, direction and drive. After a couple of years I learned to play guitar and sing well enough to join a dance band and play in night clubs. I sang Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, and top-forty tunes. I also sang Handel’s Messiah in the university choir.

The choir director was a cute, young graduate assistant named Arden Steves, who called herself a Christian. I sang at her from the back of the bass section. I was an atheist, an unbeliever. I agreed with Karl Marx, who said that religion was an opiate for the masses. I thought Christians were weak-minded people who used religion as an intoxicating crutch. I didn’t like their songs much, either. I’d rather sing the blues than Amazing Grace. I didn’t really know what grace was anyway.

One day, when I was feeling like a miserable existentialist, I asked Arden about her religious beliefs. She told me about her faith in God and her desire to live a life of purity. Her sincerity stunned me. We had music in common, yet we were worlds apart.

I started to consider the possibility that God might really exist. It was exciting. Yet, if He had been paying attention to my immoral behavior during the past decade, I was in serious trouble. I decided to stop partying, just in case, which cost me most of my friends.

I prayed one night for God to give me the desire to seek Him if He was really out there. I’m glad my roommates weren't listening, because I felt like an idiot, talking to the ceiling. Yet soon I was reading books by C.S. Lewis, Josh McDowell and R.C. Sproul, which Arden recommended. I bought a Bible, and we read through the Book of John together. I went to church with her to “check things out.” I didn’t like the music much.

The more I read the Bible, the more convicted I felt about the sins of my youth. The idea of forgiveness in Christ sounded appealing. Still, I resisted conversion, because I wasn’t sure whether I was more attracted to Christ the Messiah or to His pretty little gospel messenger, Arden. We had been seeing a lot of each other as performers in the university’s production of Music Man, and had grown close enough to talk about hypothetical marriage, as if it was a thing apart from us that could be viewed objectively. I admired her sincerity of conviction, which included her refusal to marry a non-Christian. Since I was one of those, I gazed across a chasm, it seemed.

As things worked out, Arden flew out of town in August to take a teaching job, and I joined an international dance band (we played in Canada, just across the border, big whoop-dee-doo). We said we’d stay in touch.

With Arden gone, I wondered whether I might just blow the whole faith thing off and return to my former, existential party life. One weekend when I didn’t have any dance gigs, I decided to go to Arden’s church again. The brakes on my beater van were shot, and I could only stop by frantically pumping the brake pedal, so I had a good excuse to skip. Still, I felt I should go, to see if I was really serious about spiritual things independent of her. Five intersections with traffic signals stood between my rental house and the church. I prayed this goofy prayer: “God, if you want me to be at church today, I need green lights all the way there.”

Off I went, slow and steady through five green lights until I rolled safely into the church parking lot. Amazing. My skeptic’s mind told me it could have been dumb luck coincidence, but I had a sneaking suspicion that God had perfectly orchestrated the laws of physics, the flow of electricity, my choice of speed and time of departure, along with the choices of other drivers, to clear my path to that church and let me know He was in charge of such things. I remember thinking, “Nice, work, God.” “Hey, but can you do ten lights in a row?”

While I was at church I enjoyed myself a lot. With Arden not there I could stare at people when every head was supposed to be bowed and every eye was supposed to be closed, like an infidel spy. It didn’t seem like an opium den for the masses. I was impressed by the sincerity and joy of the people in the room. I don’t remember the sermon, but I know it gave me an appetite to hear more. It didn’t matter that I hit red lights on the way home and had to pump the brakes like I was trying to kick a hole through the floor board. I felt I had received a small blessing from God that day. I determined to go to church as often as I could. I would fix my brakes.

I’m not sure exactly when I entered the kingdom of God, but I think He arranged it like he did the green lights to church, and left me wondering how it had happened. I kept reading and questioning, examining my presuppositions, and grappling with the concept of grace. At some point in the fall of my 25th year of life, I simply surrendered, and trusted what I read in the Bible, even though I didn’t always understand it. I began to sing to God in my heart. I was a sinner saved by the blood of Jesus. I wrote to Arden about it and she said she thought I was a Christian. I was okay with the label. I was one of them, one of Christ’s.

Soon, I made a public profession of faith at church that I had accepted Jesus as my Savior and Lord (Romans 10:9). For me there was no recited sinner’s prayer, no dramatic moment of decision, just a confession. God had done everything. I was a recipient of grace. Amazing. I quit the dance band, married Arden, and moved to Alaska.

I went back to school to become a teacher, but continued to be an active musician. Arden and I began having children. We sang in church choirs. I performed special music in church and in the community. I was a professional soloist for weddings, funerals, fund raisers, and private parties, which were much better than the lousy night club gigs I’d played back in my dance band days. As our five children grew up, we taught them to sing parts so that we could perform as a family choir. Then, when they were old enough to play instruments, we formed a family band called Homemade Jam. We have produced an a cappella Christmas CD, which was recorded in our home studio. Our oldest daughter has since married and moved away, but the remaining four children help me lead worship at Coram Deo Church in Grants Pass.

I plan on singing and making music as long as I can. I think the Bible commands it. “Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!” (Psalm 98:4) My family has chosen Colossians 3:16 as our musical theme verse. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

I thank God for his wonderful redeeming work in my life. He, not music, has given me purpose, direction and drive. What a privilege it is to use music to glorify Him. I think the last psalm in the Bible (Psalm 150) says it well.

Praise the LORD!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
Praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
Praise him according to his excellent greatness!Praise him with trumpet sound;
Praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
Praise him with strings and pipe!Praise him with sounding cymbals;
Praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD!

How I Lost My Atheism

I was once an atheist, or so I believed. I denied the existence of God and assumed that I was the measure of all things. I reasoned that it was my brain that processed all the data I observed in life. I was the one who thought my thoughts.

I considered myself an existentialist, too. I figured that since my existence preceded my perceptions of reality, I was in charge of determining what was real. I believed in man’s free will, which I translated my free will. I ruled as king over reality. Rene Descartes’ supposition, “I think, therefore I am” helped established my lordship.

One day the thought occurred to me that I was not entirely in control of my thoughts. I suspected that outside forces were at work, influencing me from a distance. This was a challenge to my sovereignty of mind. I realized that I thought much like my father.

Dad was a high school biology teacher, a Darwinian evolutionist, and a skeptic of religious faith. He was an atheist. Me too, I believed. Like father, like son. Dad felt that religion was a crutch for the weak minded, the insecure and the old fashioned. He once said that love was not a moral commitment, but a chemically based, physiological response to the evolutionary impulse toward reproduction. When Dad cheated on Mom he was only exercising his evolutionary impulses, I guess.

My parent’s divorce was very painful to me, though at the time, in my teen years, I played the stoic. I wondered if grief was just a physiological response to the evolutionary impulse toward parent attachment. Perhaps marital infidelity and family disintegration were part of the evolutionary process of self-actualization. After all, divorce rates were escalating throughout the nation like it was the latest, coolest social trend. Maybe the idea of long term, monogamous marriage was an outdated religious construct, due for disposal during the new age of enlightenment and individualism.

At some point after moving out on my own I grew to realize that in addition to my father’s influence, the culture around me had determined much of what I thought. I was not truly master and author of my own thoughts. The same was true of Dad, of course. I realized he had picked up his ideas from the culture around him, as well. His practice of multiple marriages was in step with the rest of the nation. No-fault divorce laws were being passed in state after state. I began to connect the dots between the beliefs and behaviors that derive from an atheistic worldview. My worldview. I wasn’t sure I liked the implications.

A bit of history. According to Albert Mohler’s book, Atheism Remix, a massive cultural, intellectual and epistemological shift resulted from the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, and Sigmund Freud. Nietzsche declared that, “God is dead.” He believed that Christianity was the worst enemy of human enlightenment and progress. Marx despised religion as the “opiate of the masses” and an obstacle to the community of man’s economic prosperity. Darwin posited that naturalistic explanations of life’s origin negate God’s supernatural creation. Evolution rendered God and religion unnecessary. Freud elevated the unconscious over the conscious. He believed that religion was an illusion that would eventually pass away. These four men contributed hugely to the worldview of secular humanism, another name for atheism. Remove a supernatural Creator God from the picture and you are left with humans calling all the shots on earth according to their own desires.

Thanks to secular humanism, I was taught in college that primitive man had created gods to help him cope with threatening, natural phenomena, such as thunderstorms, droughts and earthquakes. Organized religion arose as an attempt to appease these fabricated deities with rituals and sacrifices. It was popular to agree with the French philosopher, Voltaire who said, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him,” as if religious sentiments were not credible, but nonetheless quaint, attractive and socially useful for ignorant folk who don’t know much about the modern god of science. The secularists of modernity thought that as mankind climbed the evolutionary ladder out of the pit of ignorance, it would gradually discard God as the explanatory, causal factor in civilization’s intellectual framework. They predicted that life would become increasingly rationalized, and that belief in God, and participation in organized religion, would dissipate into oblivion.

The secularists had the demise of religion all planned out, too. According to John Sommerville, secularization would follow this pattern: 1) of land use and property, 2) of time and recreation, 3) of language and common speech, 4) of technology and work, 5) of art and entertainment, 6) of political and military power, 7) of personhood and association, 8) of scholarship and science. Secularists were confident that humanity was destined to grow up and leave the childish things of theistic belief behind.

The secularist game plan works like a charm at most colleges in America today. Overwhelming majorities of Christian students lose their religious faith by the end of their freshman year while away at college. At college I learned to mock people with religious views. I didn’t know many Christians personally, but I was content to join the consensus in caricaturing and slandering them as intolerant bigots. At one point, though, I felt guilty for my ad hominem attacks. I thought my criticism should be more substantive. Therefore I decided to learn more about their beliefs so that I might refute them. Also, I wanted to know what was true. It was my undoing.

I assumed that most Christians had been indoctrinated with a religious belief system, to which they agreed uncritically. But what about me? Was I unbiased? Hadn’t I been indoctrinated by an atheist father, and by many years of secular instruction in government schools? Dissecting the Christian theistic position meant dissecting my own atheistic position as fair play. Had I chosen atheism after careful thought, or had I merely accepted it as it was spoon fed to me? As I continued in this vain, I was disturbed to realize that my schools had censored virtually all religious information, as if the separation between church and state was a concrete barrier, never to be breached. Religion was relegated to the private, personal sphere. It was prohibited or marginalized in public institutions of learning. Only secular information had been allowed into my cage for regular feeding. Was that right?

Troubling questions arose within my belief system. "What preceded the Big Bang?" I wondered. "Why does the fossil record that is supposed to prove macro-evolution lack any quantity of evidence of transitional species? Why is the theory of geologic gradualism favored despite abundant evidence of catastrophism? Why is supernatural phenomena rejected just because materialistic empiricism cannot test it? Why are secular scientists so afraid of following the evidence of cosmic design to a cosmic designer?"

I lost track of my atheism when I found it could not answer my questions. Like a stray cat, it wandered away to go beg someone else’s attention. Since I was heavily invested in having rejected theism, though, I passed time like an aimless satellite orbiting a planet, unable to land. But not for long. A Christian acquaintance became a friend and counselor of truth. She spoke about God as if He were real, like a wise uncle back east, but supernatural and divine and almighty and eternal. She asked me to consider believing in Him too.

I stalled.

One night I spoke a prayer at the ceiling in my rooming house: “God, if you exist, you need to give me the desire to look for you.”

I found that I enjoyed reading all the books my friend kept passing on to me on theology and faith. I read sections of the Bible, too, until I felt like I was a pretty fair-minded skeptic. I grew to like both her and the scriptures very much.

One dark and beautiful evening the two of us walked under the stars, she a Christian, I an unbelieving, infidel friend. I thought of the vastness of space, the smallness of man, my ultimate purpose in life. Things like that. Was creation a myth? Was the story of Adam and Eve a cute fairy tale for toddlers? Then a thought struck me: If God exists, couldn't He control the things He created? It was as if I’d resolved a tricky syllogism that now seemed amazingly simple. God is God. He can do whatever He wants. A woman from a rib? Why not? God is God. If He created all the elements, then He can rearrange them in any order He chooses. He can leave His signature on His work, too so that we know He is Lord. God is God.

That night I felt as if I had received a long-distance call from heaven. I heard nothing audible, but I imagined God speaking from His infinite expanse to answer my question: “I Am.”

That’s how I lost my atheism. Atheism was a worldview of futility and despair. It was a shipwreck from which I was glad to escape. God, in His great mercy and love called me into His kingdom. I could not deny Him. Do you also hear Him calling?

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge” Psalm 19:1-2

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Psalm 8:3-4