Mark Dever has a great post over at the T4G blog which hammers home their reasons for prioritising the complementarianism versus egalitarianism issue in their statement. You might feel that the issue of whether or not women should hold the position of elder is a relatively minor point of theology. These guys clearly do not! I am going to take the liberty of quoting the last few paragraphs of this, but do go and read it all: "Well then," you might say, "why don't you leave this issue of … [Read more...]
Is Mark Dever an Apostle?
February 9, 2006 By
I received another great e-mail question today:I became interested in your blog when I found it through Mark Dever's 9 Marks website. I attended his church for a semester in college, and am friends with two of his former interns (James Santos and Paul Alexander). I'll be going to the T4G conference in April.While jumping around through your site, I came across your description of the various leaders in a church. Very apt! However, I was wondering if you could clarify the "Apostle" position for … [Read more...]
Social Styles – comfortable roles in church
August 11, 2005 By
It is more than a month since my last post in the long-running Social Styles series. I am not sure if anyone is interested in the rest of this other than me, but hey whats stopping me wittering on about this a bit before I go on haitus. Incidently, you will notice a couple of visiting bloggers around these parts in the next little while- I hope you enjoy them!In my last post I showed how the social styles could in some ways reflect the 4 gospels. It is interesting to consider what types of … [Read more...]
Blogging without authority and the "anti-success" bias
July 30, 2005 By
Evangelical Outpost pointed me to a great post by Catez who says:"Recently I've seen posts in which the conclusions drawn are that if more than a certain number of people read a blog, or a blog appears in a certain position on a list of blogs, then this is a popular blog and this is not good. Ive even seen comments saying that these popular bloggers are like Pharisees because they are prominent and therefore are not humble. Well it's pointless to set about trying to prove one's humility - … [Read more...]
"We Know More Than Our Pastors." or do we?
July 3, 2005 By
Like David Wayne, I have been aware of Tim Bednar's Paper for some while, but never read it. I really ought to read it sometime and hereby give my readers permission to nag me to do so! In the meantime David's reaction as a pastor is interesting. My own view is that the internet can never replace church or the pastoral care of a set of elders who God has raised up to care for me. I said as much in my last sermon on Acts 20. … [Read more...]
Teamwork, the Great commission and the great command- task and people, ask and tell: changing the world
June 22, 2005 By
I am in the middle of a blogging series at the moment about teamwork that will change the world. I want you to see that both the categories of people I have spoken of and the two dimensions they are based on are reflected in some way in the bible. I showed in the last post that the four categories are reflected in the four gospels. Now, I will show you how "ask", "tell", "task" and "people" are all dimensions that are familiar to the bible. The great commission sets us a task- to GO … [Read more...]
4 Gospels, 4 Social Styles: teamwork in the bible
June 18, 2005 By
Regular readers of my blog will know I am in the middle of a series on social styles in church. I would like to suggest in this post that the four social styles I described in the last one are reflected in the styles of the authors of the four gospels. We can see this from the way each of them choose to start their gospels.Analytical Luke"It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you"This suggests the slow methodical … [Read more...]
Social Styles: different ways of interacting within a team
June 15, 2005 By
This post follows on from one entitled recognising differences, and is part of a series entitled "Churches that change the world"The social styles system takes two dimensions that describe how we relate to other people and uses it to define four types of people.1. The Amiable is a person who is focussed on people rather than tasks and who has a tendancy to ask rather than tell. Often seen as quiet and unassuming. They are warm friendly listeners who highly value friendships,Enjoy being in a team … [Read more...]
Teamwork that will change the world- identifying differences
May 31, 2005 By
In the last posts of my long running series, I argued that churches led by teams of very different people will change the world and began to discuss what teamwork that will change the world looks like.The key point is simply this, that people differ in many ways, but that a simple but helpful way to categorise people and think about how they interact and how I can best serve others in my interactions is the Social Styles model. In the introduction to my teamwork series I linked to a … [Read more...]
Controlling Personalities in the Church
May 30, 2005 By
Wittenberg Gate has two posts about dominating people in the church. The first describes individuals and the second what happens to a church when it is lead by an overly-dominant person. The bible never intended for the church to be lead by one dominant individual with no accountability. This is why team leadership is so vital. … [Read more...]
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