Author: Uri Brito

I was in a friendly conversation with a fellow pastor some years ago. The tone changed rather quickly when I spoke positively about C.S. Lewis. In his perspective, Lewis was a dangerous writer who could lead people away from the safety of Reformed confessionalism.

Suddenly, in his eyes, I had gone from a faithful Reformed pastor to someone compromising my orthodoxy. The experience was so shocking and his tone so harsh that I kindly asked if we could continue this conversation another time and left. I knew nothing fruitful would come from that chat. Of course, we never continued that talk and I am frankly grateful. Such reactions stem from an over-reactionary perspective of theology. The idea is that we must be glued to our Reformed forefathers and read nothing else outside our tradition for fear that it might damage our pure ideas of interpretation.

As we approach Reformation Day, I find myself more and more grateful to God to those within and without my particular tradition. Those of us in the Reformational camp have a greater responsibility to provide a framework that is more whole, more catholic, and more complete than other traditions. After all, we produced the Puritans, Bavinck, Kuyper, Van Til, Bahnsen and Sproul. From the Reformation stemmed this gigantic sense that everything in the world is Christ’s and we are in him which means we seek to bring Christ to everything.

The idea that Lewis’ peculiar views on the imprecatory Psalms, for instance, would be a threat to the Reformation is absolutely bizarre. I could easily find peculiarities in Luther. However, the idea that Lewis’ genius would contribute to a more robust Reformation is precisely the kind of world we need to embrace. If the modern Reformed man or woman lives in fear that such and such an author or thinker will remove us from the Reformation, then we have adopted a very narrow view of the Reformation. We have failed to see precisely Calvin’s vision for the church, the Puritan’s vision for the world, and Kuyper’s vision for the culture.

So then, read broadly, hold on to your convictions closely, explore Christendom unashamedly and go to Narnia often. To be Reformed is to be unafraid; it is to know God and to know self.

Solus Christus!

We are living in interesting times when cowardly evangelical men fail to lead their families in godliness, church attendance, tithing, and fellowship and so much more. Membership in a local church is now viewed as optional. There was actually a time when membership in a local body was your identity marker like your baptism. But now people jump from church to church (sometimes several in a short amount of time) with a profound disdain for the pastor and the people’s liturgical and sacramental and shepherding role in their lives.

So, now we enter this stage when a world-wide celebrity enters the evangelical scene with an absolutely well-done album covering all the basics of what a true evangelical man ought to look like and think like and feel like and act like. Further, he affirms how a man ought to lead his house:

“Follow Jesus, listen and obey. No more living for the culture we nobody’s slave. Stand up for my home. Even if I take this walk alone, I bow down to the king upon the throne. My life is his, I’m no longer my own.”

But beyond all that, we are looking at the zeal of what I hope to be a new Christian so eager to explain his new-found faith that his Bible reading flows clearly through his lyrics. It’s true that Kanye has a lot of undoing to do; he needs no penance. In Christ, he is a new creation. But if he genuinely follows Christ in this toxic culture, he can be a powerful voice that can reach millions and millions. His undoing will be like a sweet aroma to so many who long for something more permanent than the temporary pleasures of this world.

Kanye may be God’s greatest humorous art piece in my short life. My hope is that God’s humor through the conversion of men will awaken the silliness of the modern evangelical man and awaken them from their slumber. https://open.spotify.com/album/0FgZKfoU2Br5sHOfvZKTI9…

The results are in! Gratitude wins the day by a landslide. In fact, as a result of this monumental victory, psychology departments are developing entirely new areas of study on the little-known fact of gratitude. According to Robert Emmons, author of “Thanks! How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier,”

“Gratitude is literally one of the few things that can measurably change people’s lives.”

There are measurable benefits! Did you hear that?

Linked to this discovery is the helpful suggestion made by Michael Hyatt that keeping a gratitude journal can be immensely beneficial as we build an arsenal of gratitude pages. Ending the day by listing the reasons for thanksgiving, however small, can actually serve as a rich spiritual exercise.

Of course, we are aware that psychological journals are behind the times. Gratitude has always been a Christian virtue. St. Paul had already broken the news. Later, in the 20th century, Bonhoeffer alluded to this in his remarkable little book, Life Together. There, he takes us back to the glories of gratitude in community life. For Bonhoeffer, if you don’t know where to start in the gratitude journey, start with thanking God for your community. He writes:

“If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.”

The Christian faith is a food religion. The heart of it is found in the death/resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. He became for the world the bread of life. This bread then becomes the food for hungry souls to feed. In the Christian tradition, it is articulated most clearly in the table of the Lord. The table is a table of joy and gratitude; so much gratitude that it is usually referred to as the Eucharistic Table. The word “eucharistia” means “thanksgiving.” Emmons says that “when we feel grateful, we are moved to share the goodness we have received with others.”

It is this sharing of food that forms this table of thanksgiving.

Gratitude builds us in love and compels us to share in the shalom of God with others. To whom much is given much is required. To those of us who partake of God’s goodness often and daily, we are called then to compel others with our own lives and words to share in this community of gratitude formed by the God who gave us His own life.

Dear friend,

I thought I’d start the week by delving into a topic that most Christians would not dare touch for fear of sounding puritanical or an archaic ogre. I touch on it because I have a daughter and have the kinds of concerns that daddies have when they see their beautiful girls growing up. So, while I expect these principles to fail the perfection test, they are principles for my daughter which may be of interest to other parents out there trying to figure out this modesty business. For what it’s worth, I am of the Latin variety, which means that any pre-conceived notion that these principles come from some westernized attempt to impose Elizabethan, blah, blah, blah. But I digress. I suppose I am going against the presuppositions of my own cultural upbringing.

You see, I grew up in a tropical country where views on modesty went out the window before any conversation ever started. Anything was allowed because after all the sun will drain us of life unless we wear fewer things or reveal more things. And the people trying to think through modesty when I was growing up were exceedingly rigid and failed to convey their principles winsomely. They lost that battle. I firmly believe these are conversations that dads need to have with their daughters and one reason they are not happening is that we have allowed the entertainment industry to set the agenda for our girls.

Many years ago I came across the principles a Christian financial/business expert by the name of Michael Hyatt gave to his daughters growing up. They were concise and to the point. I don’t think I need a letter explaining human biology nor the biblical ethic of female modesty, so I am assuming a fairly knowledgeable readership. So, here are Hyatt’s four principles:

a) If you have trouble getting into it or out of it, it is probably not modest.
b) If you have to be careful when you sit down or bend over, it is probably not modest.
c) If people look at any part of your body before looking at your face, it is probably not modest.
d) If you can see your most private body parts or an outline of your undergarments through the fabric, it is probably not modest.

Again, these are not perfect principles and there is room for further conversation, however, I do think they are principles for the beginning of a good conversation that few want to tackle.

I know, I know. Why did I have to go there? Honestly, my answer is that our daughters belong to God and God does care about what we convey with our bodies and clothes.

Sincerely, a concerned dad.
Uri

I am only now thinking more carefully about potential titles for my doctoral project. The title above is probably a small reflection on the many reflections and readings I’ve had in the last few months. The title will likely be edited, but what it brings to mind is my desire to provide a model that brings to the forefront a way of thinking of pastoral ministry. It combines the tangible dimension of pastoral care which is caring for souls (Baxterian) and doing it with a smile on your face (Peterson).

Too much pastoral work is done with a sense of fear. This does not set the stage for long-term endurance. The concept of longevity is rarely discussed in pastoral theologies but needs to be grasped, especially by those new to the work of the church. Questions like, What does longevity look like? What can we learn from those who walked faithfully the life of the ministry? Are we capable of determining our limitations? Why have so many forsaken the pastoral call? Why have congregations destroyed pastors? What allowed pastors to be easily manipulated? are to be contemplated, but are often replaced with questions pertaining to numbers and strategies for growth, etc.

The question of longevity deserves attention. There are, of course, extraordinary situations in which ministers step down, but ordinarily, pastors step down for a host of self-imposed afflictions. I believe that is certain lessons are learned, they can provide a better perspective in the years ahead. The matter of longevity is not a matter of how not to suffer, but how to suffer well and with a purpose in pastoral work.

Another trend is how pastors contemplate the role of their families as secondary or a necessary evil to the primacy of their own flock. When Paul speaks (I Tim. 3:4) of managing our households well as a qualification for the pastorate, he uses it as analogical. The oikos is a picture of the ecclesia. Too often pastoral theology is done backward. The reason the oikos is first is that it is a group of individuals we can guide with greater firmness; an institution where the head of a home can direct with imperatives and love; a place where our shepherding muscles are flexed. It is more manageable. The precise connection is that pastors are only accountable to those acts in church life that are ordinarily under his care. He is not responsible for things outside his authority. Therefore, the house functions as a daily mini-pastoral training seminar. if the oikos is not functioning in some kind of order, it’s unlikely the ecclesia will.

Finally, the title above provides the impetus and the motivation behind the work. If pastoral work is burdensome, it will not endure. We need to be driven by joy instead of survival instincts. For a minister to thrive in the pastoral field, he needs to plant sees with joy knowing that his labors are not in vain,

Ben Patterson offers some guides on how to know we are imbalanced in our pastoral work:

a) The bathroom scale tips you off. ‘Weight gain is a good indicator that I’m under stress and that my life is out of control.”

b) Anger. “Sudden explosions toward my family broadcasts to me that I am under pressure.”

c) When discipline is unhealthy: “If my discipline is reasonable, and they (the children) become annoyed with me anyway, that’s a clue my family missed their dad.”

d) When you don’t take time to engage activities that refresh you. “For me, leading a balanced life means I engage activities that refresh me.”

e) When you don’t know your limitations. “I try to concentrate on what I do well. And that unclutters my calendar while maximizing what I do best.”

f) Unhealthy family and marriage. “In the long run, I contribute to the church most by being a man with a good marriage and a reasonably healthy marriage.”

g) Scheduling Family Time. “The amount of intimacy with my wife or family is directly related to the time spent with them…so, I find that special moments with my family cannot be orchestrated; I must regularly be accessible to them during unscheduled times.”