Praise Ye the Lord

 

Praise 1

 

Many years ago, I heard Clarence Sexton say, "We should place the emphasis where God places the emphasis." That resonated with me. The results were substantial shifts in my study, teaching, preaching, and writing. I have tried to major in what God majors on. One of those areas that God majors in that may perhaps be the most neglected in our generation is praise. As with the Holy Spirit, we have ceded that ground to the charismatics. As with worship, we have surrendered it to contemporary evangelicals. But just because those two groups are wrong about so much does not mean we ought to ignore what they are right about. And they are right to emphasize praising God, while we are wrong to practically ignore it.

I first heard direct praise of God emphasized by Jack Hyles. He routinely spoke of getting alone in a pea patch and having a fit (his words) praising God. He would commend men of the previous generation, such as Charles Weigel, who he found jumping up and down on his bed one day praising God. He would preach entire messages imploring his people to praise God. He spoke of spending hours alone every week with the Lord and going to specific locations to confess his sin, pray, and praise the Lord.

I first began to praise the Lord as a teenager. Shortly after I surrendered to preach, I asked my high school principal if I could use empty rooms in the church building to pray during my lunch hour. He readily consented. At first, I just walked around the room and prayed whatever was on my heart at the moment. Later, after I had grasped the idea of using an outline to pray in a similar manner to how one would use an outline to preach, I began to prepare my prayer times, including praise times. Through the years, I have added/subtracted them as necessary, but I currently maintain seven different, specific praise lists. Indeed, a substantial percentage of the total time I spend with the Lord in prayer is spent praising Him.

I want you to know the sweetness of it. I want you to see the joy of it. I want you to experience the power of it. I want you to gather faith through it. I want you and I to stop ignoring it, to stop ceding praise to the charismatics and the contemporaries, to become people who let the high praises of God be in our mouths. (Psalm 149.6)

 The simple truth is Scripture places a high emphasis on praising the Lord. The phrase praise ye the Lord is found twenty-four times, praise two hundred sixteen times, praises twenty-six times, praising ten times, glorify twenty-two times, and glorified twenty-nine times. Eighty-six times glory and God appear in the same verse; one hundred twenty-two times glory and Lord do. And this does not even take into account closely connected words such as worship, thanks, and honour.

Not only is the concept mentioned hundreds of times in Scripture, but it is also widely scattered. Indeed, it is found most prominently in Psalms, but there are specific and repeated admonitions concerning it from one end of Scripture to the other.

          In Genesis, Leah named her son Judah for precisely this reason. And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing. (Genesis 29.35)

          Leviticus 19 explicitly links holiness with praise.

          In Deuteronomy 10, Moses tells the people, He is thy praise.

          In Judges 5, Deborah begins her song with, Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel.

          In I Chronicles 16, David appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, and to record, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel. Their entire job was to serve God by praising Him. II Chronicles 8 tells us Solomon continued this. II Chronicles 20 shows us they still did it in Jehoshaphat's day. II Chronicles 29 informs us this carried forward to Hezekiah’s reign. Ezra 3 shows us this was picked up upon their return from captivity. And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.

          Psalms speaks of its importance hundreds of times, indeed, on some occasions, entire psalms are dedicated to it. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, and Habakkuk speak to it dozens of times. Daniel 4 shows us that praise was the initial and complete reaction of a humbled Nebuchadnezzar: And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto Heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.

          Moving into the New Testament, Luke 2 tells us that the heavenly host praising God accompanied Christ's birth. In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord called us to do good works precisely so that people would glorify the Father. John 21 tells us that Jesus died the death He did specifically so it would glorify God. Luke tells us that praise for God was one of the purposes of the miracles Jesus did. Acts 2 tells us that one of the primary occupations of the early church was praising God. Acts 16 shows us Paul and Silas in jail at midnight, singing praises to God. Praising God is even mentioned in that tremendous doctrinal treatise, the book of Romans. And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.

          I Corinthians 6 exhorts us to glorify God in your body and in your spirit. Ephesians 1 tells us we were saved to the praise of His glory three times in an eight-verse span. Philippians 1 says the same thing. Hebrews 13 calls on us to offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. I Peter 2 exhorts us to be separate from the world so that ye should show forth the praises of Him. Revelation repeatedly reveals that in Heaven, praising God is one of the great pursuits of those gathered around the throne. 

          It is not out of place to say we see hundreds of exhortations in Scripture calling for God’s people to praise Him, that we see dozens of examples of God’s people doing it, and that we see entire chapters of the Word of God dedicated to it. Yet how much of it is present in your life and mine? Is His praise an occasional exclamation thrown into the odd conversation, or is it a central feature of your intimate relationship with Him?

          For the next three months, I am going to place the emphasis where God places the emphasis, on His own praise. I invite you to join me. Mayhap it will both strengthen you and glorify Him.

Pastoral Apprenticeship Explained

Note: One of the things I am concerned about is the growing number of churches without pastors. This shows up first in the churches along the fringes, rural, smaller, unable to support a pastor full time. There are a variety of factors at play here, and thus more than one solution is necessary. Having said that, I cannot help but think part of the problem is the difficulty for the typical married man of preparing for the ministry. I am for education, and for a better one, but an education can and should be constantly pursued while pastoring. For those churches on the fringes, where the need for pastors is glaring, why cannot we establish some simpler process for sending men their way? I think it should be considered, and can be done. In today’s blog post, Pastor Ryan Hayden of the Bible Baptist Church in Mattoon, Illinois proposes one such solution, the pastoral apprenticeship.

  

## The story

 

Several months ago, I wrote a post on my blog about some of the perils inherent in the Bible college system. While I'm not against Bible college, I wondered aloud if pastoral training shouldn't happen inside a local church and suggested a kind of formal pastoral apprenticeship as an alternative.

Shortly after writing that post, a young friend of mine from out of state named Nathan Stahlman called asking for advice about becoming a pastor. Nathan is married, already had a bachelor's degree in business from a secular university, and works a 9-5 job. I asked him if he would be interested in becoming our first pastoral apprentice and, after praying about it, he moved his family to our town and has begun the program.

 

## Clarifying expectations

 

The apprentice is not a staff member. He is not moving to our area to be a youth pastor or a children's pastor or to be just free labor for our church. He is free to use his spiritual gifts as God leads, but his main responsibility at our church is to learn. He will continue to work his secular job and, outside of the training he receives, I will not try to dominate his time.

Immediately upon coming, we discussed in detail the following ten expectations for apprentices:

1. The apprentice (and his immediate family) are expected to model for the church an ideal church member. (1 Tim 4:12, Phil. 3:17, 1 Tim 3:4-5)

2. The apprentice is expected to model a servant's heart (Rom. 1:1)

3. The apprentice is expected to be ok with being invisible. (3 John 9, Mat. 23:5-12)

4. The apprentice is expected to meet with me every week. (2 Tim. 3:10)

5. The apprentice is expected to read the assigned books and be ready to discuss the assigned topics (2 Tim. 4:13)

6. The apprentice is expected to be ready for preaching assignments a week in advance, and to allow me to look over his notes and suggest edits. (2 Tim. 4:2)

7. The apprentice is expected to receive constructive criticism and coaching. (Prov. 9:9, 13:18)

8. The apprentice is expected to be proactive and to make friends inside and outside the church. (Titus 1:8, Heb. 13:2)

9. The apprentice is expected to be present at every church service and to arrive early and stay late for fellowship. (Heb. 10:24-25)

10. The apprentice (and his family) are expected to dress appropriately. (1 Tim. 2:9, Phil. 4:5)

 

## The Training

 

There are three ways I plan on training this apprentice during his tenure at our church: formal learning through a reading and tutoring, coaching in preaching, and observation.

 

## Reading/Tutoring Program

 

Reading and tutoring program Each month, the apprentice has a reading assignment that I read along with him. We meet each week for an hour or two and discuss what we are reading and how he can put it into practice in the ministry. My book list includes both books that would approximate what you would learn in Bible college and practical supplements that have helped me along the way.

Here are the topics I plan to cover, and book assignments for each topic:

 

Hermeneutics

- Understanding and Applying the Bible - Robertson McQuilken

 

Homiletics/Communication

- Biblical Preaching - Haddon Robertson

- Preaching and Preachers - D. Martin Lloyd Jones

- The 12 Essential skills of Great Preaching - Wayne McDill

- Preaching the Connects - Mark Galli

- The Back of the Napkin - Dan Roam

- Made to Stick - Chip and Dan Heath

 

Study habits

- Building a Second Brain - Tiago Forte

 

Bible doctrine

- Basic Theology - Charles Ryrie

 

Pastoring

- Letters to My Students, Volume 2: On Pastoring - Jason Keith Allen

- Elders - Jeremie Rinne

- How to Build A Healthy Church - Mark Dever, Paul Alexander

- Spurgeon the Pastor - Geoffrey Chang

 

Deacons

- Deacons: How they serve and strengthen the church - Matt Smethurst

 

Counseling

- The Christian Counselor's Manual - Jay Adams

 

Worship

- Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns - T. David Gordon

 

Marriage

- His Needs, Her Needs - Willard F. Harley, Jr.

- The Exemplary Husband - Stuart Scott

 

Weddings and Funerals

- The Pastor's Handbook KJV: Instructions, Forms and Helps for Conducting the Many Ceremonies a Minister is Called Upon to Direct

 

Current Culture

- Strange New World - Carl Trueman

- Confessions of an Unlikely Convert - Rosaria Butterfield

 

Church/Baptist History

- America in Crimson Red - James Beller

- Fundamentalism and American Culture - George Marsden

 

Gender Issues

- Men and Women in the Church - Kevin DeYoung

- Eve in Exile - Rebekah Merkle

 

Some of the topics (like homiletics) will have several books to read over many months, while others we will only spend one month on.

 

## Coaching in Preaching

 

The apprentice will preach in church at least once a month (usually during an evening service.) Sometimes, I will pick a topic and text for the sermon and at other times I'll let him choose as the Lord leads. Each time he preaches, he will provide me with a manuscript of the sermon several days in advance and we will discuss it in our regular meetings. After each time he preaches, we may discuss things he can improve about delivery.

 

## Observation

 

As much as is appropriate, I plan on having this apprentice observe me in every area of the ministry. He will sit in deacons meetings. He will sit in on pre-marriage counseling and funeral meetings. He'll be a part of just about every area of the ministry. The goal will be, when he goes out into the pastorate, that he will at least have a pattern for what to do. We will also discuss the "why" for how we do things and work together to try to overcome any challenges he faces and answer any questions he has.

 

## Culmination 

 

At the end of this two year program, if everything goes as planned, I plan on leaving for a month and letting my apprentice pastor the church in my absence to get a feel for the weekly duties of a pastor. During this time, I will observe and coach from afar. After this, we will ordain him and send him off to pastor a church and hopefully start all over again with another apprentice.

 

## Prerequisites

 

A program like this works best if the apprentice is already married and if they already have a sustainable way of providing for their family. A man who wishes to enter a program like this should already be a faithful church member and his gifts should already be evident to his local church. Specifically, he needs to have demonstrated some speaking ability - some men simply do not have the gift of preaching and aren't "apt to teach". An apprenticeship program can help develop a gift for preaching but it cannot create one *ex nihilo*. A lot of long term frustration will be solved by determining this lack of gifting before entering a program like this. While a college degree is not necessary, the apprentice does need to show an aptitude for reading, writing and study. I tell would be preachers that they will spend their life writing the equivalent of two to three 10 page research papers every week (and that is just the bare minimum) - if they don't care to study, you'll save both the apprentice and a future church a lot of disappointment by determining this early and ending the training.

 

## Benefits

 

I'm very early in this program, but I'm very hopeful about it and think that it could be replicated by faithful pastors across the country. Further, I think there is a biblical model for this type of instruction and that God will bless it. This program costs our church very little (maybe $250 a year in books) and it costs the apprentice nothing except for commitment. He is able to work and provide for his family and be an active part of a healthy church while being trained for the pastorate without all of his time being dominated and his finances strained by a Bible college or seminary. This apprenticeship will bless our church by allowing them to have a part in the ministry of godly men. It will provide our young people with an example and our elder people with a source of hope that all is not lost. It will bless me as a pastor with the challenge of having someone watch my every move and will no doubt cause me to sharpen my own skills.

Please pray for us as we take on this endeavor, and pray about doing something similar in your church.