John 3:30

He Must Increase, I Must Decrease

Open Air Preaching

A New Species: Calvidispenpresupobaptist?

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The good folks over at Veritas Domain graciously gave me a chance to share my views in a personal interview. I hope you will click through and read it.

Click Here to read the interview.

Here’s an excerpt

I try to help people who are willing and honest to see the logical fallacies of their own arguments and how those inconsistencies are rooted in their presuppositions. I am not opposed to asking a nonbeliever to consider that my worldview makes sense, ‘assuming the Bible is my foundation.’ I’ve had a few people vehemently opposed to my preaching about hell or against homosexuality who have agreed with me that ‘assuming I really believe the Bible,’ my preaching was the most loving act I could do toward them.

You Really Should Blow Some Money on Today’s Noah

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If you haven’t read enough reviews of the Noah movie which is in theaters starring Russell Crowe to know that no Christian needs to see it, then that isn’t my fault.

Here are the three best reviews (possibly ever) for the movie. (Links will open in new tabs)

Matt Walsh (witty) | Dr Brian Mattson (deep) | Lyndon Unger (No Holds Barred)

If your hermeneutic forces you to interpret the Bible in such a way that you can only see the Noah movie as a good thing because the cinematography is something Christian film-makers need to emulate, then the problem is how you interpret scripture.

Now, maybe what you really plan to do is go see Noah, then give it a really scathing review. That way, everyone will know how much more you know about Genesis than the atheistic maker of the movie. Or maybe you are thinking you will evangelize your friend or family member.

Stop. Just stop. Stop lying to others and to yourself.

Share the gospel with your friend or family member. Stand outside the theater and hand out tracts to people or The Biggest Question. Be sure to click those links they will open in new tabs. Both the organizations at the end of those links need your $10 more than the makers of the Noah movie.

And then, take your $8 for the ticket and the other 8-12 dollars for snacks, lunch, whatever and send it to someone who is actually laboring for the gospel. I don’t care if you boycott Hollywood or Starbucks for the sake of a boycott.

But let’s face it: you have nothing to add to the internet when it comes to evaluating Noah. Your review is already too late, and it won’t be more sarcastic, smart or biblical than the articles already published.

No, dear Christian, don’t be fooled and don’t even let a postmillenial hope bring you to be such a poor steward of what God has given you that you would waste your $20 on this experience. Instead, give it to your local church or one of these faithful evangelists listed below.

Bobby McCreery | Tony Miano | Mike Stockwell & Robert Gray

Yes, these men are today’s Noahs: Preachers of Righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). These are the Noah’s who you ought to support. You really should blow some money on today’s Noahs!

Click their links and read their statements of faith, watch their videos. And if you really want to part with your money to support a 2014 version of Noah – click the paypal link on one or all of their sites.

Conversation with a HyperCalvinist?

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A couple weeks ago, I received an email from someone concerned about the gospel I proclaim and how I declare it.

My words are marked by the offset.

Mike,

I appreciate your lengthy reply. This is commendable. It shows me that this is something extremely important to you, since u invested valuable time to communicate it. This is not insincerity on my part.

Me: I do not doubt your sincerity, although you will see I think we have found some disagreement. Thank you for the time you took to love me from your heart and share what you think is good for me, even if I am not convinced.

Now let me say a few things about the first link (your gospel tract) and I hope you will read my email with interest as I did yours:

Me: I spent much time on it and took careful interest.

This excerpt is from my tract and was referenced by the writer: “What if I told you there is good news? That you can go to Heaven and live in paradise without any effort or commitment on your part. Like 2 minute abs, but better! Of course that is foolish. So what does it take to get to Heaven? It takes total commitment! ” You can read the entire tract by clicking here. It will open in a new tab.
1. Mike, the Bible (I think u will agree) is the only standard for faith and life. And the Bible clearly tells us that “there is none that seeketh after God”(Rom 3:11-12). Your question assumes that unconverted men are interested in heaven. But heaven is complete reconciliation to God. Sinners hate God and would much rather be in hell than heaven if it weren’t for the torment.

No, my question does not assume that anyone seeks after God. My question was partially rhetorical. Nevertheless, if I assume anything, it is that people generally would like to avoid punishment for their sins. In our modern vernacular, no one translates “go to Heaven” as “reconciliation with the God of the Bible who I hate.”

“Go to Heaven” means “not be judged for my unrighteousness” in 2014 or “go where I think I deserve to go because I’m already good or I’m a universalist.”

You actually contradict your own self when you say “if it weren’t for the torment,” and you prove my point. No one wants the torment. My tract analogy does not fail because it rings true that people who think it is good news to be able to go to Heaven (avoid punishment) without any commitment is analogous to people who want to sit on their couch, watch TV and lose weight.

Common sense tells us that we do not offer a man something he does not and cannot desire.

As you stated, the Bible is the only standard for faith and life. If the Bible commands that I offer a man something that I know he cannot practically desire, then I still do it – because God’s wisdom is above my own (and yours, Person’s name).

That is why I preach the gospel to all men, even though I am aware that they will not all be saved by God from His wrath through Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection. Common sense says “don’t obey God’s command to preach, because He will save His elect anyway!” Yet I still preach because I would rather obey God than the fallible logic of men like you and me.

Common sense says to stop preaching when folks pick up stones to kill you, yet Stephen did not have that type of sense. Common sense says to stop prophesying if it costs you everything, yet Jeremiah could not quench the fire in his bones.

And common sense says call down legions of angels to protect you from a mock trial where you will be killed even in your innocence – yet thanks be to GOD that Jesus was more concerned about obedience to the Father than common sense.

Here are some scriptures to support the public proclamation of the gospel:

Acts 10:42 And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. 43 To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

John 6
Matthew 5-7
Luke 18:18-23

Acts 17:30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Genesis where Noah was a preacher of righteousness

I would be very concerned that your doctrine would disqualify all of God’s prophets and even our Lord Jesus Christ from being adequate preachers due to the fact that their message contradicts yours.

2. Secondly, there is nothing that a sinner can do either to reconcile himself to God or to participate in that reconciliation.

The gospel is a command to be believed. Mark 1:15 states ‘and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”’ Although it is God who must first regenerate a sinner, and that call is, in fact, effectual, there is still a required response by man to exercise faith, even the faith which was a gift of God. Absence of exercising saving faith keeps a man in condemnation. See John 3:14-36.

Ironically, it is common sense which would dictate: if faith is the instrument of salvation, preaching to people to exercise said faith would be the best and most loving thing we could do for them – despite their ability.

Not to mention, Person’s Name, you don’t know who the elect are, do you? You propose they are revealed to you by the preaching of the law. I do not see that as the pattern in scripture although I am aware you can cherry pick instances where it would appear to have occurred that way.

And our proclamation must reflect this fact. What good does it do to tell a man that it takes total commitment to get to heaven if total commitment is completely out of the question with respect to him?

In fact, it is my understanding that God uses the proclamation of His gospel to those who will deny it to bring further judgement on them.

As well, Romans 1:16 says it is the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation and Romans 10 states that it is faith that comes by hearing which God uses to save men. So again, you are contradicting yourself in a sense and God when you state this. Especially since you are nit-picking sentences of the tract out of context. Because the ability will only exist as the result of the hearing of the gospel, to withhold that until a person calls for it is to shut them out from it.

The tract clearly pointed out that it was Christ’s total commitment that saves. And then the tract attempts to fight the easy-believism, “sinner’s prayer salvation” epidemic in our culture by commanding total commitment to Christ which would encompass things like doing works bearing fruit of repentance. Look at Luke 3:7-8 Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

Here is God almighty (through JTB) commanding many who would later crucify Jesus to bear fruits worth of repentance – something he is aware they will not do.

Let me explain. Ez. 33 tells us that unless the servants of God warn the wicked, they will end up in hell with the wicked. And verse 8 tells us the content of this warning.

I’m glad you brought that up. Considering verses 9 and 10 completely contradict your stated position above See:
9 Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

Here is God Himself, commanding Ezekiel to warn people to turn who will not turn.

Many people refer to this passage but few point out the exact content of the warning. IOW, we must not only warn the wicked, but we must warn him with the warning the God gives him. Otherwise we are not warning him and again, we ourselves will end up in hell. This is extremely serious, as you know. So here is the content of the warning: “O wicked man, thou shalt surely die!” That’s it. Notice that the warning is not, “You will surely die unless you give your heart to Jesus,” or “You shall surely die unless you commit your life to Christ.” NO. “O sinner, thou shalt surely die!” And the reason this warning is so important is that it (when accompanied by the Spirit) drives the sinner to total despair of being able to do anything to reconcile himself to God. The orthodox divines of old used to say constantly, “The law and the gospel, the law and the gospel.” What did they mean by that? They meant that in evangelism we must use the 10 commandments. And we must use them with a view to “slaying” the sinner. IOW, with a view to causing the sinner to see that he is dead. He can do nothing. He is as sure for hell as if he were already there. Hell fits him. Heaven does not fit him whatsoever. And then after the proclamation of the law there is the word “But!” “But God has sent Christ to die on the cross for completely wicked and profligate sinners and to work out a perfect righteousness on their behalf. This is just exactly what you are–a completely and utterly wicked, profligate, and worthless sinner infinitely deserving of eternal hell torments. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope for acceptance in the sight of an infinitely holy God! (Here is a key. We command the sinner to believe, as our Lord did Lazarus. And we command him to believe with no illusion that he is able to do so. But the true gospel which I communicated above is itself the power of God unto salvation and when accompanied with the HS regenerates him as was the lifeless body of Lazarus regenerated.)

Yes, ironically at this point you have spent an entire paragraph summing up exactly what I preach and my tract states. So we are either in agreement and you are sorely misunderstanding – or you are simply argumentative and quarreling about words. My tract points out several of the sins from the 10 commandments and points out that Jesus did not commit them and that we do and that the punishment we are owed is eternal. I then issue no less than 2 commands to repent and trust Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins. There is no room on the tract for self-reliance or easy believism to be the justifying force in the heart of a sinner.

But if your concern is that the tract itself is light on sin – then I’d maybe agree with you. Part of the problem with tracts is sufficient space. But I don’t think you can argue that there is not sufficient information on this tract for a person to be saved from God’s wrath – and if you think you did – then you did not as I proved above.

Mike, the above is the biblical gospel. It is the only gospel there is. It is an announcement that man is completely and utterly destitute. IOW, it is an announcement of Total Depravity. “Calvinists” in our day are redefining Total Depravity to say that it does not mean what the words say, i.e., that the sinner is as wicked as he can be. But this is exactly what it means.

Not exactly. Total Depravity refers to the utter inability for man to believe unto salvation without the regeneration of the Holy Spirit primarily. In the sense that you are arguing, total depravity refers to the fact that all our works are stained with sin and earn us no right standing with God.

But it does not mean that men always do the worst possible thing all the time. If that were true, then you would never go out to eat at a restaurant because you would be poisoned by the food if the host did not slaughter and rape you first. You would not use yahoo email because certainly one of the unregenerate yahoo employees would steal all your information and use it against you after committing adultery with small children.

No Person’s Name, you do not believe in the total depravity as you’ve defined it. No one does. What you believe and what we all know and what the Bible declares it that man is utterly incapable of pleasing God and reconciling himself to God. We believe that man, by nature, is a sinner and God hater and that, by His mercy, men sometimes actually do things that are outwardly in line with His revealed righteousness through His law. The fact you are alive today indicates your own mother gave birth to you and did not eat you shortly thereafter.

The WCF says that man in sin is “Utterly indisposed to all good, utterly disabled to all good, made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil.”

Irrelevant to me. Thought the Bible was your guide to faith and life? Either way, this statement does not mean what you want it to mean as explained above.

The above message says that since man is completely wicked and helpless God the Father loved some of them and determined to save them, Christ came and worked out a perfect righteousness in their behalf, and the Holy Spirit applies the work of the Son to all the Father gave him and they believe!

Amen. Praise God for that. Note you include the sinner’s required response that they believe – forget whether it is caused by God, it is essential.

And since salvation is of the Father’s Election, by the Son’s redemption, and through the Spirit’s regeneration it is and must be an everlasting salvation. Hallelujah.

Amen again.

I give you my full permission to use anything and everything above.

Thanks, I believe this will be a good learning tool for others.

Your tract is a fatal mistake, as it gives sinners the impression that they can do something that will benefit their souls.

Fatal mistake is a strong sounding phrase. It would imply that no one can come to know Jesus through this tract. I find you to be mistaken in this point. Maybe I misunderstood you.

If I did not misunderstand you, and if the gospel I preach and wrote on that tract is the true gospel, then you may be denying the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and making another gospel. In that case you would be considered anathema by Paul according to Galatians 1 and we could only hope that God would have mercy on your soul and cause you to repent.

I hope this is not the case and you were simply too harsh concerning my tract and have a teachable spirit. If you would like to use the excuse that I was not kind or loving enough in my response to justify your unbelief don’t bother letting me know; I’ve heard that one enough.

Nothing could be more loving than the time I took to address your objections and care for you enough to tell you the truth. I hope I do not become your enemy because I tell you the truth.

You also used the word “share.” The gospel cannot be shared.

Sharing is when you give something to someone. Proclaiming the gospel to people is sharing it with them.

It must be declared.

I agree. The tract clearly declares the gospel along with commands to believe it.

1 John 1:5 says, “This then is the message which we have heard of Him and declare unto you.”

Out of context. I am not convinced this is a universal command to all Christians that they cannot “share the gospel.”

Sincerely,

Person’s Name

Thanks, Person’s Name.

What do you think? Was I right? Am I unnecessarily harsh?

Outreach Report from the Ahhhnold

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The gospel was proclaimed loudly and often at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic in Columbus, OH on March 1, 2014. Here are some highlights:

We arrived later than hoped, about 11:40am. An interesting twist occurred when another man began preaching with a megaphone just 25 feet from where I set up to preach. I spoke to him briefly, confirmed he was preaching salvation by grace through faith alone and then wished him well.

He preached for an hour. Although we were happy about him, his preaching was … less than stellar. It wasn’t so much his presentation, but his theology. I also noticed that he rarely mentioned the resurrection of Jesus. You cannot consider yourself a gospel preacher if you do not speak of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:1-4).

During this time, Fred Triplett, Joe Conkle and I passed out the newly printed tracts my church, Berean Baptist Church, bought. The weather was great, about 14-15 degrees warmer than last year! Praise God for that. Joe, for the second year in a row, drove from over an hour away to help. What a lover of God!

Finally, at about 12:40, I saw Darius (the other preacher) taking a break. I asked him if I could preach, and he assented. I began by reading Psalm 47 and then proclaiming God’s goodness and grace in Christ. I didn’t stop preaching for 2 hours. I really had a fun time. After a short break I preached for another hour or hour and a half before we settled down and headed home around 5pm.

Click here for the best picture from the day. This is on Facebook, so you have to be friends with Rusty Beals to see it (Sorry!).

The day was filled with encouragement. Christians were constantly approaching us to thank us and encourage us. One little girl even approached me while I preached and put a dollar in my tract box as a gift. There was another woman, clearly listening to the preaching whose family sorta dragged her across the street. I noticed this because she was really focused and listening, and then you could see her husband sorta get her attention.

A few minutes later I looked down and she and her son were standing in front of me. She said she just wanted to shake my hand and thank me and then said other kind things about me that I don’t deserve to hear as only the grace of Christ allows me to live, let alone serve him. Her son introduced himself and they each told me they were Christians and were glad I was doing what I was doing. This is very encouraging to a preacher and to anyone else out handing out tracts. Praise be to the most high God who died for me while I was yet a sinner.

I read the Bible in the open air frequently, pausing to explain passages periodically. By the end of the day I had read the following chapters publicly: Genesis 1, Psalm 47, Psalm 19, 1 John 1, John 10, selected parts of Matthew 5, portions of Isaiah 1, portions of Genesis 2, and portions of 1 John 2.

Dear Christian, I do not mean to be offensive, but will you consider if this is even too much for your own daily reading? Consider your own state of affairs if the Spirit brings conviction.

Rusty Beals also came and helped us most of the day. Praise God for Rusty who drove 8 hours round trip to be a part of our humble team. We also met up with several men from New Life Community Church, home of the 2014 Ohio Fire! Finally, thanks to Bill Adams who publicized our little outreach, we had 2 new friends appear, Steve and Daisy Rohr. What a blessing they were as they listened to the preaching and handed out tracts with us.

Throughout the day, homosexuality and a description of homosexuality as an abomination was only mentioned twice. Interestingly enough, I was not the person who shouted that. Two (I assume) gay men, on separate occasions, found it necessary to shout something concerning homosexuality. The first man stopped and yelled, “Isn’t homosexuality an abomination?” I don’t recall what he may have been responding to in my OA. But I replied, “All our sin is an abomination to a holy God and we are all hopeless without Christ.” He wasn’t happy with my response, but he didn’t stay to discuss it further.

Shortly after that a man walked by and shouted in his best “gay voice”:

Don’t forget to call homosexuality an abomination!

I supposed I didn’t need to, as he had just drawn enough attention to the topic himself. Not that I’m particularly shy about speaking concerning any certain sin, but I have never really focused on one sin. My preaching style, if I have one, is more of a proclamation of the goodness and grandeur of God and what He did for sinners in Christ. I make it my goal to constantly refer to the resurrection, the trinity, the deity of Christ and the grace and humility of Christ while reminding the hearers frequently of their pathetic and hopeless state in their sin and flesh. For more information on how to speak to homosexuals, click here for three short talks, all of which can be downloaded as pdf.

About a decade ago a friend gave me some advice. He said, “When someone shows you their true colors, thank them.” I’ve never forgotten this and I found it applicable to this next circumstance. As I was preaching, there was a man holding a young child. You know the scene, he’s about 10 feet in front of me, and the child is rear-facing over the man’s shoulder. Now what happened next was enough to shock me. What is important to understand is the actions of the next man I’m about to describe are a to-the-letter description of the old me.

A pretty large man walked by with a group of his friends. Tired of my preaching, he turned and shouted obscenities I will not type. But in the process, he effectively yelled the ‘f’ word about 3 feet from this little child. I was seriously disgusted. I reacted, not in the flesh but in the Spirit (I hope!) and called him a vile, wicked man and told him that he should shut his profane mouth. He followed that up with more cursing. I did not let up. I commanded him to repent of his wickedness and turn to Christ to be forgiven. But in the spirit of the earlier quote, I thank this man and God for him as he became my object lesson as I used him to describe for the remaining hearers a bit about the sorry state of man. I was not angry with him personally, but there were other hearers who had words for him. I was glad about that.

God is and was very good to me that day. One of the most remarkable and unpredictable ways was that I felt like reading Matthew 5. I like to believe it was the work of the Holy Spirit. I was reminded of the following verse as I proudly read God’s Word:

Matthew 5:11-12 ESV
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

As I spent the day primarily being encouraged and feeling safe, surrounded by good brothers and righteous policemen, I still endured the reproach. People spat toward me (never on me), yelled cruel things and generally mocked and scoffed. No amount of ridicule or ‘suffering’ I could endure would ever compare to my Savior’s, but I do feel I get a little chance to identify with Him more fully through these circumstances. Praise God the most High!

Psalms 47:1-2 ESV
1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! 2 For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.

Hot Dogs, Preaching & Football – A Winning Combo!

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Hot Diggity Dog – The Atomic Dog – A jalapeño stuffed, bacon wrapped, all beef hot dog.

One of the greatest benefits of being a part of different outreaches and evangelistic communities is the opportunity to meet really great brothers and sisters. So when I saw the Buffalo Bills were traveling to Cleveland for a TNF (Thursday Night Football) game on the NFL Network, I immediately thought of my brother Jon Speed, an avid Buffalo Bills fan. I was pleased when Jon told me he’d be happy to meet me in Cleveland for fellowship, evangelism and a chance to watch a pro football game together.

With the game set for October 3, Jon and I agreed to meet at a restaurant called ABC The Tavern. We are blessed to live in a country with very little persecution for the faith. While this remains true, I enjoy the gifts and blessings of God as he has provided through the opportunity to enjoy a variety of foods!

Note: Clicking the pictures will open larger versions of them in new tabs.

After a time of sweet fellowship, Jon, his wife Kim and I drove to downtown Cleveland for a couple of hours of ministry. We passed out a few hundred tracts, but eventually decided to move closer to the stadium to see if we could get more of a crowded area than the sparsely busy street corner where we started.

One man asked me what the tract was about. I told him it was a little card that explained how to go to Heaven with Jesus. His immediate reply was grave. I don’t recall what he said, just that he was clearly convicted. I asked him if he knew how to go to Heaven and he recited Romans 10:9 to me and followed that up with, “but I ain’t livin’ it.”

I explained to him that according to scripture a person who is born again will “live it.” This frightened him and he agreed to consider these things.

Soon enough, Jon began to preach from the book of Mark. I had never actually gotten to listen to Jon preach in person before. Out of tracts, I stood by and watched as Jon welcomed people to Cleveland!

You can see the way people were filtered to us in this picture as they walked to the stadium.

The night was filled with many stories. We had haters, encouragers, and folks who ignored us as well. I personally believed there was a large amount of Christians who spoke up to encourage us compared to usual. I preached after reading 1 John. I correctly assessed before I preached that my throat was not wet enough, and I had no water, so that only got worse.

I actually lost my voice BEFORE going into the Browns’ game!

We were encouraged by several Christians who thanked us. One man, named Michael asked for a handful of tracts that he could pass out himself! Praise Jesus. Our singular encounter with security was positive as we were asked to leave an are we didn’t realize was private property. Another group of Christians stopped and encouraged us with kind words, loving gestures and words from scritpure.

I can’t even explain how much this fueled me. If you are a Christian reading this and you ever see open air preachers, please stop and thank them. Don’t be miffed if an open air preacher doesn’t stop to talk to you or thank you, just offer your encouragement. Many times, people yell or say gracious things to me and it doesn’t immediately register. I also am not going to stop my open air sermon when I am interrupted – that happens far too often to pause each time, especially due to the frequency of mocking. But I hear every ‘Amen’ and every ‘thank you’ and every ‘good job’ and those words encourage me in Christ to press on.

Jon’s wife stayed with us the entire time. But she wasn’t idle. She spent her time praying! It was a great comfort to be in the presence of someone praying for our ministry. I wonder how much disaster was avoided thanks to her intercession?

You can see Jon on the right and Kim on the left.

Inside the game, I had a great conversation with the two men next to me, a couple of chemical process engineers from Canada! They each learned the gospel and remained friendly to me, although they enjoyed mocking me a bit. They actually promised to contact me and drive down to a Buckeyes game sometime, we’ll see if that happens.

The ride home was cut in half by a dear friend who offered me a place to sleep, including a snack and a wonderful breakfast to go with the fellowship. God is so kind and gentle to me in so many ways. I hope you will pray for me that I will be loving and faithful to Him if I should face much harder times than I had to face last Thursday.

From the Hospital to the Battlefield.

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“Quick, grab all the patients from the hospital and get them out of here. We have a war to fight!”

How would you react to a statement such as this if you were an attending nurse or doctor? Or what would you think if you were a member of the staff who knew the sickness and dis-ease of so many of the folks in your building?

Let me guess. There would be a sense of awe accompanied by disgust. The idea of dragging the sick into battle may not only seem unfair to them, but you would have to agree that it would unfair to the rest of the people in battle.

Imagine a war where you are on a side with people who clearly aren’t prepared for battle. You went through boot camp, years of training and have battle before under a more experienced commander. Now it is your turn. You are the leader and many people’s lives are in your hands. Would you knowingly bring men or women who you know were not equipped to handle the schemes of your enemy? Even little league sports coaches avoid that mistake, do they not?

Yet, that is what many of us do when we go into battle with other Christians – or at least we are expected to. People want to accompany me into battle who are not ready.

How often, dear Christian, have you been so excited that someone wanted to accompany you on your outreach that you allowed them to participate in a way in which they were not ready? But my problem is not so much with the faithful men leading teams. I have found that most teams led by mature men are functioning well and they properly screen participants.

Teams which are led by the immature, well, they are reading this blog anyway, so I can’t help them. If you find yourself leading teams and you realize you probably need leadership yourself, click here and contact me.

I once heard my pastor describe a church as “like a hospital.” I don’t remember exactly what he said, but the gist of the conversation was that there are people of varying levels of sickness and who are more or less recovered from the illness. People will have different levels of strength and need, and some will relapse.

The concern I have is this: I’ve had friends (and myself) who have been criticized for being too critical of others within Christianity. We are “too doctrinal” or focus too much on “holiness” and not enough on “love.” My frustration with this is that just because many of our actions mimic those of some pharisees, that doesn’t necessarily imply that our motivations are the same.

Let me put it to you this way. I know that many people will focus on doctrine and holiness and then you’ll find out later they are really adulterers and idolaters and you can explain away all their teaching as prideful, etc. These people are deserving of condemnation, as would I be if that were the case.

But my point is this: I am not one of those people, by God’s grace. I am a missionary in God’s army and when I go into battle, I am afraid that there are people who think that my attempts to develop others are errant. Out of love for those I exhort, and other faithful brothers and sisters who are going into the battle, I feel a responsibility to only bring people with us into the battle who I can trust can wield the necessary defensive and offensive weapons. We do not need things like friendly fire to hurt us, or mistakes which can be predicted due to lack of proper training.

Here’s my point. If you cannot take criticism when we are in a bible study, or you cannot be corrected when you preach in a church setting or give a devotion, or you refuse to listen to a brother’s exhortation or concern in a one on one setting, then you will not do those things on the battlefield of the war for souls. I love you and I wish the best for you. You may be a dear soldier who is now an amputee, or a baby, still in the neonatal unit.

You may even be someone who would be expected to be more mature by now. Maybe you were in battle before, with a different leader and you think you are quite decorated. But if you belong in the hospital because you are sick or injured, get that fixed before you leave. Get checked out by those who are qualified to evaluate your condition and whose very lives may depend on you someday.

These thoughts were inspired by a recent conversation with a good friend of mine. While we both love and wish to minister to saved sinners in the local church, my intention was simply to point out the necessity of spiritual growth and maturity and to defend the need for discernment (discrimination) in the realm of team building for outreach.