Wes Toole who was a guest blogger during my recent trip to Indonesia has just started a blog. His blog, Johari’s Window is sure to make Mr. Toole a blogging phenom overnight.  Wes and his family have been a part of the church for the past several years. Among his many talents Wes is a deacon at Pillar Church, an ammeter photographer, a family man and an all around good guy. Not to mention that he has one of the coolest jobs in America.

Hi, my name is Jonathan Davis. My wife and I have had the good fortune of working alongside Clint and Jennifer, planting Pillar Church, for about 5 years.  I am amazed at how good these guest blogs have been.  (A definite upgrade from the regular blogging that goes on here …j/k)  I decided to wait on writing this until the night before because I wanted to discuss a subject that had not been elaborated on. 

Since I have a few single friends who aspire to become church planters, I will take on this question:  What age and experience are necessary for a young man whose aspiration is to plant churches and is it acceptable for him to stay single if he is qualified in other areas?

I think in order to answer this question we must first look at the qualifications of what it takes to be a pastor/elder.  In 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 Paul lays out for us the biblical qualifications that he considers “a good work.” 

The only red flag that I see mentioned in this text that would apply specifically to someone single would be “the husband of one wife.”  I do not believe here that Paul is excluding people who are single (because it would mean that an elder must also have children v.4) but is referring to one of two things.  He must be a “one woman man” and he should not be divorced.  (Unless it is in extreme circumstances such as sexual immorality or an unbelieving wife)

So, if we take in the biblical context of what it means to be a pastor of a church, it does not exclude a pastor who is single nor does it give specifics on age.  However, the only “skill” that is required of a pastor is the ability to be an able teacher.  Teaching is a gift that God has given each one of us at some level, but a pastor must be able to explain and defend the gospel in a clear and articulate manner. 

One more point.  According to 1 Corinthians 7:7-9, Paul says that we are gifted in different ways.  Some are gifted for marriage and some are gifted for singleness. If we are to follow Paul’s example (which he states we do) then none of us would be married.  It is important to adhere to Matthew 7:7 and seek God’s will for your own life. 

In conclusion, I do believe that a person gifted with singleness can be a church planter as long as they fall under the qualifications of an elder as posted above.  Age is not so much a requirement as experience is.  It is vitally important to seek the counsel of wise elders when making the decision to plant a church as they would have a working knowledge of how you live your life according to God’s word.

I wish I could have elaborated a little more, but I realize I have to keep this post to a minimum.  Let me know what your thoughts are.

Jonathan D.

What an honor, to be writing for the esteemed and honorable Cliff Clinton, oops, I mean Clint Clifton, HA! My name is Chris Rhodenhizer, my friends call me Rhody – you can check out my blog, if you want, imagine this…

Allow me to attempt to answer all of the questions, very briefly, that Clint posed to those of us guest blogging – here it goes:

1] What would you say to president elect Obama if you were invited to advise

          him on spiritual matters in the oval office?

        Follow Jesus, repent, believe, allow the WORD of God to guide you!

2] What are your three main concerns with the current methodology of church

          ministry and or church planting.

Just one concern, we [church planters] continually say we are missional, but continually work hard at being attractional!

3] What age and experience are necessary for a young man who’s aspiration is

          to plant churches and is it acceptable for him to stay single if he is

          qualified in other areas?

Age does not matter, experience should be his primary education and that educational experience should come from another seasoned pastor. I think that Paul – Timothy thing worked pretty good for training young pastors… Us pastors should try using that method sometime!!! YES, he can stay single.

4] What is the primary purpose of the Sunday worship service? Is it for believers

          or more for the seeker?

Does anyone “seek” God??? Well that’s another whole blog of its own. I believe, from, Scripture, that we gather the church, only worshippers can worship, BUT we should take evangelistic opportunities at our gatherings. We move our church to mission by proclaiming Scripture boldly at our Sunday gatherings, and because Scripture is proclaimed, it will do its work in the hearts of non-believers, moving them to belief!

5] What is your favorite experience with Clint?

When he preached “She’s Been Barren” at the church I pastor, Image Church.

Also, trying to convince him that I don’t have to be part of the SBC to go to heaven!!!

6] If the government were to decide to do away with three local, state or national tax funded organizations which ones should go and why?

I have no idea, this question is way above my intellect to answer.

7] What is your opinion about church’s that use signs such as “God Answers

          Knee Mail” or “Sign Broke… Message Inside”?

If I answer this one I am going to sound real mean, so I will just say this…

   “And they will know us by our signs”

8] If you don’t believe Christians should use birth control please write a defense

          of your position.

DUDE, I have four kids, I lost control a long time ago!!!

9] What do you think about Ed Young Jr’s seven day sex challenge? 

I believe Ed Young loves Jesus, but likes media attention too!

Dear Mr. President…

Hi…I am Wes Toole. I have been with Pillar Church since my family and I moved here with the Army in Mar 05. When Clint asked me to be a guest blogger for the day he also sent a list of suggested topics to choose from. One that quickly caught my eye, I just as soon dismissed. “Who am I to advise a president? What could I say to him that he would not be told by a team of staffers and advisers that circle within his small galaxy on a daily basis?” That being said, if I had the opportunity to sit down and advise President-Elect Barack Obama on any spiritual matter, my side of the conversation might sound something like this…

Mr. President, thank you so much for taking the time to allow me to sit down with you. Yes sir…what I need to speak with you about is in fact a matter of national security… Do you read the Bible?

Yes sir, I heard all about the whole Rev Wright thing…(shaking my head). You’re right, that should never be said from the pulpit. But how comfortable are you with the Old Testament?

Me neither. My friend Tim loves digging into the book of Judges and memorizing the laws of Leviticus. I know…that is impressive!

Well, I’m glad you asked. Have you ever read through the books of 1&2 Samuel and 1&2 Kings? See, the Old Testament as well as the New Testament are filled with stories of kings who rise to power and also fall from great heights. Nowhere else in the Word do we see such clear depictions of this as in 1&2 Samuel and 1&2 Kings. Throughout the history of Israel we see God anoint those to power whom He chooses. God often sends a prophet to these men and announces to them that God has chosen them as ruler. No sir…there were no “elections” per se. However, God anointed them as ruler  and also removed them from power when they lost sight of God’s will and became blinded by their own power, avarice and greed.

Why am I telling you this? Well, quite simply…you were not chosen to be President of the United States by the “people”. Yes sir…I know…you won the popular and electoral votes hands-down. But there is still one constituency that it more powerful than either of those. You were chosen by God himself to this position of authority. In Pauls’s letter to the Romans we read, “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” (Romans 13:1). You see sir, your power and prestige is not yours, it is simply on loan from God and it is His to use as He pleases. He has placed you in trust of this great nation and it is your responsibility to fulfill His will. Remember when we were talking about the kings in the Old Testament? Even the mightiest of these were humbled when they began to loose sight of who they actually worked for.

So how are you supposed to lead? Well, the good news is you have a perfect example of how to lead and it is also in the Word. Instead of looking at Saul, David or Solomon, let’s look at the King of Kings! Jesus Christ came to us not as an earthly king (little’ k’ mind you), but as a humble servant. Jesus had a heart for the poor, the weak, the lame, the ill, the helpless, the needy, the worst of sinners, the lowest of lows. That is who Jesus spent time with, that’s who he ate with, that’s who he chose to place above himself.

(Looking at the door as it opens behind us and his personal scheduler taps his watch)

Yes sir, thank you, I know my time is up. But allow me to say one last thing. During the next four years you are going to face seemingly insurmountable decisions. You will be responsible for a failing economy, two wars, and an increasingly dangerous world. But when you are faced with these realities, do the American people a favor. Take at least a few minutes every day to give up. Yes sir…I said give up. You can’t solve these problems…but the Lord can. Go to him and confess your dependence on Him and rely on His wisdom and strength. Think it won’t work? Look what the young King David did with a tiny pebble and a mountain-sized faith.

(Standing up as I head to the door)

One last thing…can I sit at that desk? Just for a second???

(Enter Secret Service)

My name is Dagny Gudmundsdottir and I believe I am the only “foreigner” on Clint’s guest blogging list. Which I think is pretty cool… you can read my random blog over here.  

The 7 day sex challenge topic caught my eye on Clint’s list because the day before he sent out the email asking us guest bloggers to participate, the story of that challenge made it on to mbl.is which is an Icelandic newspaper website.

Now it is extremely rare that church related things aside from things concerning the Icelandic state church, make headlines over here.

Another reason I want to comment on this is because I would not have been able to participate in said challenge since I am single. So I would have had to settle for chocolate cake… yay!

So why did that challenge make it to a news website in Iceland?

I used to go to Hillsong Church in Australia and they had several sermon series that were amazing and could really impact peoples lives yet to the best of my knowledge none of them ever made any news headlines. A church in Reykjavik decided to go through 40 days of purpose – perhaps not as exciting as a sex challenge but I’m sure a lot of people learned from it though and again it made no headlines.

So what does that say about the sex challenge? The news headline here was “Have more sex!” it was in the top 5 most read stories for about 3 days I think.

I’ve heard Ed Young speak and he’s a very good speaker. But this challenge seems to be more of a publicity stunt rather than a healthy challenge for the church. Cause the whole church can’t even participate. I read a snippet of an interview Ed did after the challenge where he mentioned that sometime during those 7 days he was so exhausted that he couldn’t even go through with the challenge and told his wife, “We’ll double up tomorrow.” I can’t really see how that helps the intimacy since that was supposed to be the purpose, get more intimate. If he himself was too tired to talk to his wife, let alone have sex, how does that make them more intimate.

Also the challenge was said to be for the whole church but like Colby mentioned in his post, the single, widowed, disabled, divorced etc could not participate. I don’t think it would have been “fun” for them having to listen to several sermons on that topic in that context. Also what about people that are perhaps struggling with lust or purity in general – somehow I don’t see this challenge as being helpful to the whole church. Though I’m sure some married people benefitted from it.

People can blog about a news story on mbl and there were quite a few associated with that story. So being the curious person that I am, I read all of them and one really caught my attention. It was really short and to the point and I laughed so hard. It was a man writing and he said this,  “Is this guy insane?! I hope my wife doesn’t see this. I have better things to do with my time.” 

Aside from the initial shock that a guy would write that, (cause according to the stereotype, all men love sex and want it all the time.) it is funny at first. But if you think about it there is perhaps a deeper issue behind that statement.  An intimacy issue and obviously from that statement, sex is not going to help in solving that issue. But this is of course just my assumption, I have no idea if that guy has intimacy issues with his wife or not.

So my conclusion – a sex challenge might be better for a husband & wife to decide for them. A relationship challenge on the other hand might be better for the church, a challenge for every kind of relationship, friendships, between siblings & other family members etc. I think that is something that could be very beneficial and seriously challenging!

Sorry it’s so long… Dagny

My name is Rebecca Wire and I am a member of Pillar Church where Clint is the pastor. I have known Clint and Jennifer for 4 ½ very fun years. I have served alongside them in our local neighborhoods and in Balinese villages. My husband, Andy, and I are thankful that God brought us such wonderful friends to serve alongside.

When I first saw the questions Clint was posing on the suggestion list, I immediately was drawn to the question regarding birth control. The blog topic is: “If you don’t believe Christians should use birth control write a defense of your position.”

My husband and I have gone back and forth on this issue since we first began discussing having children. One constant in these conversations has always been, “What is the attitude of our heart?” This is something we try to examine in all aspects of our life and certainly, having children is a huge step.

After researching hormonal based birth control, I can definitely say that I do not think hormone based birth control is okay. The entire progressive purpose of the hormones is to a) prevent ovulation; b) alter the woman’s body chemistry to make it more difficult for a sperm to penetrate an egg should ovulation still occur; and c) alter the lining of the uterus so that if ovulation and fertilization occur the fertilized egg will not implant. That last part is definitely abortive. The chances of ovulation occurring while you’re on the pill are greater than you might think. I was surprised to learn that some women still ovulate every month while on the pill. The chances of the entire process leading to an expelled fertilized egg are slim, but it is not a risk my husband and I are willing to take. I would encourage you to research this yourself.

I do not think that other forms of birth control are unbiblical or evil. I don’t think that a couple who has one or two kids is somehow less godly than the couple pregnant with their 14^th.  There are many roads this argument could take. I would say that I do not believe Christians should use birth control without truly examining the attitude of their hearts. Here are a few questions that Andy and I have tried to work through over the almost seven years that we’ve been married.

Are we acknowledging God’s sovereignty over all things including the womb?

We may already be familiar with verses from Psalm 139 and Jeremiah that talk about God forming us in the womb and knowing the plans he has for us before we are born. But what about God’s sovereignty over the womb itself? In Genesis alone we can read multiple examples of God opening and closing the womb. He answers the prayers of barren women to grant them children for his glory.

Does our practice of birth control somehow impede upon God’s sovereignty?

We know that God will grant pregnancy when he wants to. He can work around birth control if he wants to. We have known friends to become pregnant while on the pill or using other forms of birth control. We’re not stopping him from exercising his will. But, as my next question poses, are we “trying” to stop him?

Do we believe trying to prevent pregnancy, space pregnancies, or become pregnant is being done in a way that is trying to tell God what to do? Are we trying to be the ones in charge here?

In essence are we trying to say:

“Don’t give us a baby right now. Okay, God?”

“Okay, God, now you can give us a baby.”

Is God’s pleasure the thing we seek first?

Whether we stumble and make the wrong moves or not, does our heart want to honor God above all things? Do we admit when we have had the wrong motives and ask God for clarity and wisdom to proceed how he would have us go? Are our hearts humble before the God who says these children are a reward, who blesses us with fertility and who shows us so much of himself through the trials of parenting?

Thanks for reading; and thanks, Clint, for letting me ramble on your blog!

For His Glory,

Rebecca Wire