Questions for Mike and Sky

We did not include the few theological questions that were asked of Mike in this list.  If all goes well Mike will be joining the Eldership Team and they, as a group, will be the “keepers of the doctrine” at King’s Harbor Church.  Please keep in mind that the Elders did vet Mike theologically and they also invited two of the Pastoral Advisory Committee (local Pastors who came alongside and served KHC during a particularly difficult season) to interview Mike as well.

All that to say, if you have questions about where KHC stands theology, please visit our Doctrinal Statement webpage.  To see where KHC currently lands on the 5-continuum secondary issues click here.  If you’d like to know more you can contact the Elders and/or make an appointment to speak with one of them.

Questions for Mike…

Questions related to The Village Church:

Is there any current or future anticipation of affiliating with “The Village.”

The Village has been a gift to me professionally and even more so personally. There will always be a relational connection, but I do not think there will be a specific organizational affiliation.

Since your lead pastor, Matt Chandler, has also been part of leadership and involved with Acts 29, what are your thoughts on Acts 29?

I think Acts 29 has been and will continue to be an important voice in regards to planting churches. I am thankful for their evaluation process for pastors and church planters and the brotherhood their network aims to provide. This is a great potential option for a network affiliation.

What are some take-aways from your time at the Village Church that you might find useful at KHC, both for yourself personally and for the church itself?

Regarding takeaways for myself, soul care has been game changing. Being mindful of caring for my own heart and have places to confess sin and the safety to struggle with those whom I work beside is crucial.

I think for the church, I love how The Village operated in an active voice regarding the questions our culture was asking. I would love to see KHC develop a similar voice.

With great men and incredible staff of the village church and an opportunity with people who know you to pastor a large church in Texas, why are you leaving the church community you know, to come to a church in CA you do not know? How do you know the Holy Spirit is leading you to KHC?

I can’t say enough good about the way that the Lord was generous to me with my time at the Village. I think the Lord used the staff and elders there to affirm my call and readiness. But I also know that the Lord used that season to prepare me for this season.

Historically, the Lord has moved most profoundly in moments when I have felt an unusual peace in the midst of uncertainty or chaos. Throughout this process I have the Spirit giving me an unusual peace even though I am stepping into a new context and a bigger role than I have ever experienced.

Affiliation In General

At one time we were affiliated with Foursquare, and currently we have no affiliation. Do you have thoughts on KHC affiliating in the future?

I have hopes of affiliating with a denomination and/or that would embrace our Spirit-filled heritage and would hold us accountable to Gospel-centrality and biblical fidelity. I’m not sure who that will be.

Accountability

Can you describe how you would be accountable to the Elders? How do you see your role in the church in contrast to theirs?

Organizationally, the elders and I will be developing ministry objectives and revisiting them regularly. The open communication about these will create great synergy and accountability for me.

Organically, my accountability partner Trent will have all the contact info of the elders. As he and I meet weekly, if there are any habitual patterns of sin that I am not fighting faithfully, he will have the right and responsibility to share that with the elders. I also intend to be open with the elders regarding struggle and sin and confess those things to them quickly.

Vision

How do you see the first year going at KHC and do you have any particular vision for the church?

I am hopeful for this first year at KHC. I am thankful for Gregg’s faithfulness and the stability he has fostered among the church. In this first year, I want to further instill vision and identity into the people of KHC and develop our unique understanding of how the Lord has called us to serve the South Bay. Our ability to live out the Scriptures and walk in humble vulnerability is crucial for this first year.

How will you bridge the gap between those who do and do not embrace Calvinism?

I think there is a hope to remind both groups of believers that they agree upon more in Gospel than they disagree regarding secondhand issues. I also always want to point the body of believers to be charitable and humble listeners and let the Word speak for itself, beyond theological positions that are often summary statements of what the Scripture says.

Misc.

How do you think your experience as a Pastor Resident will help you during your tenure at KHC?

The greatest part of my resident experience is seeing and participating in the ways that our team of elders functioned. Understanding both the organic nature of pursuing consensus and the organizational demands of shepherding and guarding doctrine were gifts to me.

Do you feel that books/movies such as “The Shack” are okay- to help us have “open minds” about who/what God really is?

Disclaimer: I have not read or seen the Shack.

I always want to put things like the Shack in their proper place. They are not authoritative in any way and should not be used as a source for shaping an individual’s theology.

With that said, while the Shack is not authoritative truth, I think it points to things that are true. I think the response to the Shack gives us a unique insight into the how our culture perceives the Lord and gives us an opportunity to point them to how the Gospel presents a more true and beautiful vision of what they are seeking.

Traditional and Biblical sexual identity and ethics are today considered outdated and even oppressive. How would you maintain biblical standards of sexuality in your church while at the same time ministering grace and truth and love to those that are confused or uncertain about them?

This will be the increasing challenge for the church as Christian morality because less normative in every segment of culture. I think where we have often misrepresented the Gospel is we have missed the element of joy that the Lord intends for those who obey him. Obedience without joy is drudgery and joy without obedience is false. Proclaiming the Christian sexual ethic in the context of the Lord’s desire for our joy and flourishing is a different conversation than just rules. I also think being better listeners to those who would oppose our sexual ethic and being gracious in our Biblical response is crucial.

What is your priority for racial diversity in the church?

As important as I believe racial diversity is, it is not the Gospel. However, I do believe that it is a fruit of the Gospel. One of the most profound elements of New Testament theology is that people who were once not a people are now one new man in Christ (Ephesians 2). It seems that as the vertical reconciliation with the Triune God takes place, it equips men and women to reconcile across all demographic lines. Therefore, we should strive for this to be true among us.

How to you view the concept of truth? Telling the truth? Are feelings more important than truth?

Truth is an objective proposition that exists beyond interpretation or agreement. While feelings are important, they do not diminish or alter truth. Feelings are important indicators of how someone is interacting with truth, both positively and negatively, and while we speak truth we must be aware to respond to feelings rightly and guiding our hearers to truth.

Any particular focus you want to see KHC implement tangibly or intangibly?

I would love to develop the ability for KHC to live as community groups on mission. The ability for individuals to be confident in their Gospel fluency and the readiness of the church to receive those who are hearing the Gospel outside of our walls is an exciting prospect.

As a pastor how important is it to stay informed on what is happening in the church e.g. youth dept., music dept., etc.?

I believe the sign of a good leader is to not know all the details, otherwise so much of what an organization does runs the risk of being bottled necked.

I want to serve our team, but I also want to trust them to lead as God has gifted them. I think collaboration and feedback are key, but once parameters have been agreed upon, I want the staff to feel supported and free to use their gifts without fear of me hovering over them.

Can you share with us your most profound “God Moment” in the process of bringing you here?

I recently had a call with a brother who leads a church planting network in New York. In the course of our conversation, he said to me, “Sometimes the Lord reveals himself at Damascus (Acts 9), other times he reveals like Emmaus (Luke 24),”- meaning sometimes the Lord reveals in a sudden, dynamic way and other times, you walk with him slowly and realize how is he moving over time.

This process has been Emmaus. And looking back and seeing the Lord’s hand through all of this has been humbling.

Do you have plans to continue education for a degree in theology?

My hope is always to be a life-long learner, but I am not sure if that will take place at a seminary. This journey towards becoming a lead pastor alongside Sky and I’s hope for children soon have caused me to place a hold on continued education for the foreseeable future. That will be a conversation that the elders will consider as we discuss my professional development plan.

Do you feel willing, as much as possible, to commit to KHC and the South Bay for the Long Term? (My concern is that you might outgrow us quickly and move on to bigger and better once you get a handle on things here.)

Thank you, I think this question is such a charitable view of my potential. I am humbled.

Author Zack Eswine has commented that the seductive lie of American ministry is “bigger, faster, more famous”. So often the measure of good for us in Western culture is how renowned our church can become. May the Lord save us all from this. As much as we can, Sky and I want to be deeply rooted among a people for a long time. As the Lord wills, we want to grow old with a church where our kids were raised and we got to watch the Lord transform a city over time.

Marriage

What are some ways you make time for one another and your marriage when the weekends are often workdays for a pastor?

I strive to be home when I home. By this I mean, I try to detach from email and try to strictly limit my meetings that take place in the evenings.

Sky and I try to have slow Saturday mornings where we can have breakfast or brunch together. We also try to have at least two evenings during the week where it is just us- whether at home or dinner somewhere.

How do you guard your marriage?

It is all the little things. Sky has access to my computer, phone and iPad. We have friendships and older couples who we lean into for counsel. We work hard at being friends and I heed her voice when she expresses concern.

I also have great accountability among the brothers I walk with that calls us to ask one another the tough questions regarding temptation and sexual purity.

Questions for Sky…

Please describe for us how you pursue your personal relationship with God?

That’s a great question. I think my answer may reflect how many of you would respond-

1. Study. I try to be in the Word on a regular basis without it becoming a ritual or a checkmark on my list. What has worked for me is the app, “She Reads Truth”. There are several plans and helpful tools within this app that have helped me to understand His Word and who He is, and to be in a rhythm of reading and growing.
2. Prayer and Worship. This may seem silly, but I love to utilize my commute to and from work as a time for worship, focusing on Him, and lots of prayer! I always tell people- I’ll be praying for you every morning and afternoon! My commute was a stressful part of my day that turned into a really sweet time between me and the Lord. I also occasionally meet with a mentor in Dallas to have dinner and pray with afterwards. I’m praying that the Lord would bring me a mentor at KHC so that I can continue to mature- have a better prayer life, learn how to love deeper, learn how to know Him more.
3. Community and confession. Spending time with other believers and confessing where I am weak. Confessing my sins with other believers, including Mike, has shaped better accountability in my life. I work with so many faith “giants” that have served in Bible Translation for years. Those people have become my mentors and have changed my life through their mentorship.

All this to say- sometimes I miss it. Sometimes I don’t read my devotional and I’d rather listen to pop music on my commute to work and I don’t make the time to be in community. Even though I work for an incredible ministry and my husband is a pastor, sometimes I get discouraged and become complacent in areas like my time, money, and energy. My hope is that when I stumble, I stumble forward hoping to be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith (Philippians 3:9).

How involved will you be at KHC? Active in Women’s Ministry? Would you be attending church and active with the congregation or more of a silent/behind the scene wife?

I want to know you and be known by you. To me, this means truly being in community with the women at KHC. While I realize the same depth of relationship with everybody is impossible, my desire is to know you and your story, whether that’s going on a coffee date, opening up our home for dinner, etc. My desire is to be known by you- that I would be more than a name and face to you, that you would know my passions, that you would be able to speak into my life, etc.

I want to serve you (the women of KHC) well. If the Lord sees fit to place me in Women’s Ministry, with joy, I would serve in that capacity.

Lead Pastor General Responsibilities

• Serve KHC as an Elder.
• Encourage and shepherd the spiritual formation of the congregation as the lead teacher/communicator.
• Provide directional and visionary leadership for the ministry of the church.
• Nurture and communicate the mission of the church to all Staff, Leadership, and Laity.
• Oversee and encourage multiplication of ministry (teaching, leadership, mission focus) by developing and empowering both the Staff and lay Leadership of the church.
• Oversee the planning and leading of worship services.
• Lead the staff through appropriate direction, supervision, evaluation, counsel, care, and accountability.
• Work with fellow Elders to oversee the spiritual needs of the body and the integrity of the ministry as it relates to KHC’s values and mission.
• Strategically represent KHC in the larger South Bay community.
• Maintain consistent Christian testimony; stay fresh in relationship with Jesus Christ, effective with family, and creative in ministry. Maintain relational, spiritual, and professional trust with other Elders and Staff.

Many of us have read The Shack and it was released as a movie on March 3rd.  Should we see it — or read the book if we haven’t?  Or, how do we talk to friends and family who will see the movie?

A few years ago Tim Keller wrote an essay containing his reflections of the book on the Gospel Coalition website (a great website — full of excellent resources).  I couldn’t agree more and he said it much better than I could!  The Shack has now sold over 20 million copies, so it would be quite helpful if we could engage in the cultural dialogue…

Over the holidays I read a good (and devastating) review of William P. (Paul) Young’s The Shack in the most recent print edition of Books and Culture: A Christian Review (Jan/Feb 2010.)  It was a reminder that I was one of the last people on the planet not to have read the book. So I did. So why write a blog post about it? It had sold 7.2 million copies in a little over 2 years, by June of 2009. With those kinds of numbers, the book will certainly exert some influence over the popular religious imagination. So it warrants a response. This is not a review, but just some impressions.

At the heart of the book is a noble effort—to help modern people understand why God allows suffering, using a narrative form. The argument Young makes at various parts of the book is this. First, this world’s evil and suffering is the result of our abuse of free will. Second, God has not prevented evil in order to accomplish some glorious, greater good that humans cannot now understand. Third, when we stay bitter at God for a particular tragedy we put ourselves in the seat of the ‘Judge of the world and God’, and we are unqualified for such a job. Fourth, we must get an ‘eternal perspective’ and see all God’s people in joy in his presence forever. (The father in the story is given a vision of his deceased daughter living in the joy of Christ’s presence, and it heals his grief.) This is all rather standard, orthodox, pastoral theology (though it’s a bit too heavy on the ‘free-will defense’).  It is so accessible to readers because of its narrative form. I have heard many reports of semi-believers and non-believers claiming that this book gave them an answer to their biggest objections to faith in God.

However, sprinkled throughout the book, Young’s story undermines a number of traditional Christian doctrines. Many have gotten involved in debates about Young’s theological beliefs, and I have my own strong concerns. But here is my main problem with the book. Anyone who is strongly influenced by the imaginative world of The Shack will be totally unprepared for the far more multi-dimensional and complex God that you actually meet when you read the Bible. In the prophets the reader will find a God who is constantly condemning and vowing judgment on his enemies, while the Persons of the Triune-God of The Shack repeatedly deny that sin is any offense to them. The reader of Psalm 119 is filled with delight at God’s statutes, decrees, and laws, yet the God of The Shack insists that he doesn’t give us any rules or even have any expectations of human beings. All he wants is relationship. The reader of the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Isaiah will learn that the holiness of God makes his immediate presence dangerous or fatal to us. Someone may counter (as Young seems to do, on p.192) that because of Jesus, God is now only a God of love, making all talk of holiness, wrath, and law obsolete. But when John, one of Jesus’ closest friends, long after the crucifixion sees the risen Christ in person on the isle of Patmos, John ‘fell at his feet as dead.’ (Rev.1:17.) The Shack effectively deconstructs the holiness and transcendence of God. It is simply not there. In its place is unconditional love, period. The God of The Shack has none of the balance and complexity of the Biblical God. Half a God is not God at all.

The Shack effectively deconstructs the holiness and transcendence of God. It is simply not there.

There is another modern text that sought to convey the character of God through story. It also tried to ’embody’ the Biblical doctrine of God in an imaginative way that conveyed the heart of the Biblical message. That story contained a Christ-figure named Aslan. Unlike the author of The Shack, however, C.S. Lewis was always at pains to maintain the Biblical tension between the divine love and his overwhelming holiness and splendor. In the introduction to his book The Problem of Pain, Lewis cited the example from the children’s text The Wind in the Willows where two characters, Rat and Mole, approach divinity. “Afraid?” murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love.

“Afraid? of Him? O, never, never. And yet—and yet—O Mole, I am afraid.”

Lewis sought to get this across at many places through his Narnia tales. One of the most memorable is the description of Aslan.

“Safe?…Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

That’s better.

(If you’d like to read more, check out Al Mohler’s article on The Missing Art of Evangelical Discernment.  You can find it here.)

 by John Piper

Unity among two or more people gets its virtue entirely from something else. Unity itself is neutral until it is given goodness or badness by something else. So if Herod and Pilate are unified by their common scorn for Jesus (Luke 23:12), this is not a good unity. But if Paul and Silas sing together in prison for Christ’s sake (Acts 16:25), this is a good unity.

Therefore, it is never enough to call Christians to have unity. That may be good or bad. The unified vote fifty years ago in my home church in South Carolina to forbid blacks from attending services was not a good unity. The unified vote of a mainline Protestant denomination to bless forbidden sexual acts is not a good unity.

What Makes Unity Christian?

Christian unity in the New Testament gets its goodness from a combination of its source, its views, its affections, and its aims.

Source

Paul tells us to “be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). I take that to mean that the Holy Spirit is the great giver of unity. “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13).

Views

Paul says that pastors and teachers are to equip the saints “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Ephesians 4:13). In other words, the unity we pursue is unity in the truth. Of course, Christian unity is more than shared truth, but not less. Paul piles up the words for common-mindedness in Philippians 2:2, “Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (see also Philippians 4:2). Everything is to “accord with Christ.” “May God…grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus” (Romans 15:5).

Affections

To be sure, unifying love in the body of Christ includes a rugged commitment to do good for the family of God whether you feel like it or not (Galatians 6:10). But, as difficult as it is for diverse people, the experience of Christian unity is more than that. It includes affectionate love, not just sacrifice for those you don’t like. It is a feeling of endearment. We are to have affection for those who are our family in Christ. “Love one another with brotherly affection” (Romans 12:10). “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22). “All of you, have…sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind” (1 Peter 3:8).

Aims

Spirit-rooted, Christ-manifesting, truth-cherishing, humbly-loving unity is designed by God to have at least two aims: a witness to the world, and an acclamation of the glory of God. The apostle John makes the first of these most clear. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35).

“Christian unity includes affectionate love, not just sacrifice for those you don’t like.”                                                                                                                                              –John Piper

Jesus’s famous statements in John 17 are rooted in the profound spiritual unity between the Father and the Son, and with those whom God has chosen out of the world (John 17:6). “I ask that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). Note the witness to the world is that the disciples are in the Father and the Son so that the world might believe. This is vastly more — deeply more — than being related through a common organization.

The oneness that shines with self-authenticating glory for the world to see is union with the Father and the Son so that the glory of the Father and the Son is part of our lives. “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one” (John 17:22). That glory is owing to this: “I in them and you [Father] in me” (John 17:23). From this union with God, and the glory it gives, shines something the world may see, if God gives them eyes to see. God’s aim for this vertically-rooted, horizontal, glory-displaying unity is that he might “gather into one the children of God scattered abroad” (John 11:52).

The ultimate aim of such Christian unity is the glory of God. Hence Paul prays, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:5–7).

 What Implications Follow for Us?

1. Seek the fullness of the unity-creating Holy Spirit.

“Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). Seek to be led by the Spirit and to bear the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:18, 22–23) for these are the cogs in the wheels of love. If you are a stranger to the Holy Spirit, you will care little for the unity he builds.

2. Strive to know and spread true views of Christ and his ways.

Seek to “attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Ephesians 4:13). “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Share, by every means you can, what you see of Christ. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16).

3. Love Christians across boundaries.

Cultivate affection across differences for those who are truly your brothers and sisters in Christ. Hate serious blunders, not sincere brothers. Humans have never been good at this. And the philosophical and emotional climate today makes it even harder — since truth claims are only seen as a cloak for power-grabbing. But consider what Spurgeon says and seek to become like him. Notice the intensity of hate and love.

Where the Spirit of God is there must be love, and if I have once known and recognized any man to be my brother in Christ Jesus, the love of Christ constraineth me no more to think of him as a stranger or foreigner, but a fellow citizen with the saints. Now I hate High Churchism as my soul hates Satan; but I love George Herbert, although George Herbert is a desperately High Churchman. I hate his High Churchism, but I love George Herbert from my very soul, and I have a warm corner in my heart for every man who is like him. Let me find a man who loves my Lord Jesus Christ as George Herbert did and I do not ask myself whether I shall love him or not; there is no room for question, for I cannot help myself; unless I can leave off loving Jesus Christ, I cannot cease loving those who love him. (The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. XII, 6)

4. Serve Christians across boundaries.

For the sake of a witness to the world, seek out ways to show love for brothers and sisters across boundaries — both the kind of boundaries that should be removed, and the kind of boundaries which commitment to the truth (and unity in the truth) forbids you to remove. Do this for the glory of God. Let Francis Schaeffer be your guide.

It is in the midst of a difference that we have our golden opportunity. When everything is going well and we are all standing around in a nice little circle, there is not much to be seen by the world. But when we come to the place where there is a real difference, and we exhibit uncompromised principles but at the same time observable love, then there is something that the world can see, something they can use to judge that these really are Christians, and that Jesus has indeed been sent by the Father. (Complete Works, vol. 4, 201, emphasis added)

Ambiguity and Hope

When all is said and done, ambiguities remain. What kinds of boundaries should define local churches, schools, denominations, conferences, para-church ministries, city-wide prayer gathering, evangelistic efforts? Nevertheless we are not without anchors. We are not without rudder and sails. We have the stars above and our trusty sextant. In reliance on the word and the Spirit, in humility we will arrive home — together.