Presbytery is Next Week—Is This Our Game Face?

Warts, Criticism, Chewing Tobacco and Jalapeño Pepper-Fellowship


This entry is from the book, With Calvin in the Theater of God, see Mark Talbot’s chapter, “Bad Actors on a Broken Stage,” p. 60. The book is a 2010 publication from Crossway Books. Good Stuff.

…Calvin’s letters show that he took his faults very seriously…In fact, it was part of the Genevan pastors’ practice to take each other’s faults seriously.

...T. H. L. Parker highlights this in a passage describing Geneva’s Venerable Company of Pastors, which held a regular quarterly meeting “for mutual frank and loving self-criticism”:

“In the church, as Calvin conceived it, every man helped every other man. If in Christ Jesus all believers are united, then a private believer is a contradiction in terms. Not only are the blessings and the virtues given for the common good, but the faults and the weaknesses concern the other members of the body. There was to be no hypocrisy of pretending to be other than a sinner, no dissembling or cloaking of sins; but, just as God is completely honest with men, and men must be honest with God, so also believer with believer must be courageously honest and open. The quarterly meeting was a little day of judgement when, flattery and convention laid aside, each man saw himself through the eyes of his fellows and, if he were wise, harboured no resentment but knew the uniquely joyful release of voluntary humiliation.”


Dr. Talbot quotes from T.H.L. Parker’s biography of John Calvin, p. 115, Westminster/John Knox Press

G. Mark Sumpter

Homeschooling Continues to Get House in Order

Sanctification in Homeschool's Living Room

We’ve been waiting for more and more of the corporate sanctification for homeschoolers. We made more progess on getting a start this past week. It’s hard, but it’s great.

We’re still 1) walking through the questions about classical education models and applications for homeschooling, 2) walking through the unity and diversity questions of the local church and the varied callings of families and their application-of-choice—traditional classroom, public or Christian, and one-day co-ops or one or two-day class involvement with public school, Christian school or home-school. No question, we, the local church, with her elders, pastors and parents, have made progress the past 5-6 years on these matters. This has been the kindness of our God and Father.

We’ll keep walking through the doctrinal distinctives—and recently Answers In Genesis experienced this. I trust that there’ll be more to come.

It’s about time for us, as Homeschoolers, to learn how to home-school our own home. We’ve been learning the rules for engagement on the nature and calling of the family and the same for the local church, now she needs to learn how to fight and be good on other areas of doctrine and practice. Ken Sande’s work will help us. Maybe the folks at Monument Publishing need to provide helps on taking up the positions between Mr. Inns and Mr. Ham. Get the high school students grounded in the positions and turn us loose on learning and grappling to help with progress in our sanctification. It’s a good time to debate; it’s a good time to help contribute to our own house’s order.

We can look ahead for more growth in sanctification regarding positions in things like: Christians and filmmaking, Christians and Entrepreneurial Home-based endeavors, and Christians, Homeschoolers and their Role in Worship-leading in the Local Church.

Homeschoolers are learning to wade through positions on socialization and courtship and dating; let’s continue to get grounded in these other positions too.

G. Mark Sumpter

Light Shining in the Darkness, 1 Samuel 24

Like Two Heavy Weights in the Ring, Saul and David, in the Cave at En Gedi

The Gospel of John tells us: the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it. See John 1:5.

David has the opportunity to pounce on Saul, to snuff out the Lord's anointed one in the dark, dark cave at En Gedi. It's a cave, Saul is cornered. It's a cave, Saul is alone. It's a cave, Saul has dropped his pants to take care of business. It's a cave, a picture perfect place for his burial.

Has God's providence set the table or what?!! Jump on it, David!

David's own men, as well, chime in; they are in the cave with him saying, This is the Day! (see 1 Samuel 24:4) One writer suggests they were singing like Sunday school kids, This is the day, This is the day that the Lord has made...

But the darkness does not overtake the light; the light conquers all!

David spares the life of Saul. Rather than acting with man-originated answers to take care of his troubles, to take vengeance, he seeks God's way for the coming of the kingdom.

Here is yet one more story of David learning patience. Ten years of learning patience! David entrusted himself to Him who judges justly (1 Peter 2:23).

G. Mark Sumpter

Including the Douglas Fir

For eight years I worked alongside of Pastor Richard P. Kaufmann in Escondido, California. The number one thing he taught me was gratefulness. He stood firm on passages like Luke 7, Luke 15, Romans 1, and the New Testament letters with the opening remarks that the apostle Paul made regarding the local church. I will always remember Dick's wise, sincere and faithful model of thankfulness in each and every circumstance. This is especially needful----to the 10th power it is especially needful----in times of theological controversy and church squabbles. If you haven't read Ken Sande's The Peacemaker, shut it down right here, and pick up the book. His opening chapter is a line-drive to straightaway center, well beyond the 410 foot fence. You have to read him. In a manner of speaking, the Holy Spirit birthed that book from Sande's keyboard.

In my years of reading and life experience, when it comes to controversy, men are more dominant in one of two areas: they either see the forest or they see the trees. The forest man is the big picture guy. He's good at offering help in the bigger scheme of things. He sees that life is bigger than the controversy, he keeps an eye on the next 3 or 5 years--he looks ahead to what the issue means, he works at giving proper guidance for problem solving with respect to the wider church or community, and he's usually one to make plans, use diagrams and sketch out charts producing a schematic on how the controversy should be seen beyond the present, expected handful of meetings. [When you get through this, you'll be able to testify to other families how faithful God has been.] The trees fellow works log by log, getting each log cleared and out of the way so that speck after speck can be removed so that gentle relief may be brought about. So he examines body language in a conversation, words which are minimalizations, accusatory or exxagerations; he also observes the promise making words and sin owning words of confession that are offered. For the trees man, the controversy is solved by following rules of communication with recognizable, but not necessarily excessive, exactitude. [I didn't realize that you had been stuffing down this offense for so long, if I'm hearing you correctly, your use of the words, “You don't know me,” have made that super clear.]

In the Peacemaker book, Sande does a superb job of using Philippians 4:1-9 as a unit of Scripture for a working case about strife and hurt in the church. Paul has laid out the forest for three chapters of the bigger picture of God's glorious work in the church, in Paul, in Jesus Christ, and in Timothy and Epaphroditus. Finally, in chapter 4, he turns to the trees of a particular case of division between two women in the church at Philippi. Look at the step by step explanation of the verses in how controversy and disruption should be handled; we're to follow the line upon line grocery list of Paul's teaching. Keeping the forest and the trees imagery in mind can help on how we approach controversy. The mutual help that each perspective offers is an asset, both help to build hope in a difficult matter.

G. Mark Sumpter