Question: Regarding missions, a number of churches have little involvement with Jewish ministries. Sometimes this reflects their interpretation of Romans 11:26. Please explain your interpretation of the phrase “and all Israel shall be saved”.
Answer: Romans 11:25-29, and specifically the phrase “and all Israel shall be saved,” speaks of a future day when no more Gentiles are added to the kingdom and God makes good on his promises to ethnic Israel. I find that v. 25 is more applicable to current Jewish ministries, because Romans 11:26 is speaking about a day when all other missionary ventures have ended. Verse 25 reminds us that only a partial hardening has happened to ethnic Israel (Paul himself was ethnically a Jew; Rom 11:1). This tells us two important things for current Jewish ministries: [1] We should not expect every, or, possibly, even many ethnically Jewish people to trust in the Messiah right now; God has hardened many of their hearts (also Rom 11:7-10). This mission field is not very ripe for the harvest yet. [2] We should expect God to save some ethnic Jews right now; some are chosen (also Rom 11:23-24). There is harvesting to do with the Jews, so we need to get at it.
Question: Please define “biblical counseling”.
Answer: Biblical counseling involves applying God’s word to the specific hurts, problems, situations, and challenges of an individual’s life. As with any counseling, this takes earnest listening, but unlike secular counseling, biblical counseling seeks to reframe thinking according to the Scriptures and what God says about us. In biblical counseling, the Scriptures are applied directly to someone’s thought life and actions, because in the Scriptures, our greatest needs are addressed (2 Tim 3:16-17). Sometimes people are looking for help or guidance and so they reach out for counseling, but biblical counseling is not limited by this, as pastors should seek to shepherd their flock, giving biblical counsel as occasion arises.
Question: Explain the difference between “mentoring”, “counseling” and “discipleship”.
Answer: Discipleship is the only biblical term of these three, and practically speaking, it is the umbrella term for the other two. Both mentoring and counseling are ways of doing discipleship, just with different occasions and purposes. Discipleship is teaching someone to follow Jesus’ teaching (Matt 28:19-20; Jn 8:31). A disciple is a follower, and so the goal of Christian discipleship is to make someone a (better) follower of Jesus. Both mentoring and counseling are forms of discipleship, because they both share the goal of growing someone in Christ-likeness.
Christian mentoring is a way of doing discipleship. Specifically, mentoring is when a more-experienced person seeks to train up or support a less-experienced person in leadership (or more broadly, some particular ministry work). We could think about Moses mentoring Joshua, or Paul mentoring Timothy. So, the context of mentoring is leadership or future leadership, and the purpose is to grow and prepare the younger/less-experienced through the godly counsel of the older/more-experienced. Because biblical mentorship is a subset of discipleship, the goal of biblical mentorship is Christ-likeness, particularly in the area of leadership.
Christian counseling, as described above, is also a subset of discipleship. Biblical counseling is needed for a variety of reasons, such as ongoing hurts or present difficulties. The purpose of biblical counseling is to help an individual follow Jesus through these hurts and difficulties, with the ultimate goal of biblical counseling being Christ-likeness in the midst of the challenges of life in this fallen world.
Question: At what point might you (as a pastor) be comfortable in referring a counselee to a professional Christian counselor?
Answer: The rapid increase in professional counseling has coincided with the secularization of society and the collapse of the family. This is unsurprising, because the God-created institutions of family and church should ideally cover any counseling needs one might have. For example, a pastor is required by God to keep watch over the souls of the congregation; it’s not supposed to be the job of a professional Christian counselor (Acts 20:28; Heb 13:17). But just because I don’t believe professional counseling should have to exist does not mean that I would not ever refer a counselee to a professional Christian counselor. If I were getting nowhere with a counselee (with us going around in circles, such that it was clear I was not helping), and it was evident my time was not wisely being spent, I would then seek out a good Christian counselor for him/her.
Question: Please give us a biblical definition of “tolerance”. When should we be “tolerant” of (1) a believer in a sinful lifestyle; (2) other religions as represented by our families, neighbors, etc.; (3) unbelievers who wish to “fellowship” within our congregation:
Answer: Tolerance is the act of enduring or allowing something to happen without interference. You can tolerate my existence by not murdering me. You can tolerate my beard by not handing me a razor and suggesting that I shave. You can tolerate my unfunny jokes by simply not confronting me about how they annoy you.
[1] We are required to never tolerate a self-professed believer in a sinful lifestyle (1 Cor 5:1-2; Rev 2:2, 20). God calls us to be holy, and thus he says, “remove the wicked man from among yourselves” (Deut 17:7; 19:19; 22:21, 24; 24:7; 1 Cor 5:13). Pastors are called to address sins (not just full-blown sinful lifestyles) within the congregation (2 Tim 2:25-26; 4:2).
[2] In a sense, we are called to tolerate other religions. We are not to go around killing those who simply deny Christ; this is self-evident just by reading the Acts of the Apostles. But in another sense, we are not called to tolerate other religions. To allow someone to go on denying Christ, an error that ends in their eternal demise, without any pushback or correction is a terribly unloving thing. The Apostle Peter preached to the Jews that rejected and killed Jesus; he did not say, “Well, they have their thoughts about Jesus and I have mine.” No, he called out their sin and proclaimed the gospel (Acts 2:22-36). The Apostle Paul preached to the pagan philosophers in Athens; he did not say, “well, they have their gods and I have mine.” No, he spoke of the one true God and proclaimed the gospel (Acts 17:22-31). Not tolerating false religions in this way may make relationships with family or neighbors more difficult, but Jesus did say that he came not to bring peace, but a sword (Matt 10:32-39).
[3] If by “fellowship,” we simply mean the unbeliever comes to a service or Bible study, then yes, we are to tolerate the unbeliever who comes to visit (1 Cor 14:23-25). If by “fellowship,” we mean what the Bible means, then no, we are not to be in communion with unbelievers (2 Cor 6:14-18). Allowing unbelievers to be numbered in the congregation is an absurd thought, because fellowship in the church exists because each member has fellowship with God (1 Jn 1:3, 6-7).
Question: When everything a church does is considered “missional“, we find that defining “missions” is difficult. For the sake of clarity, please describe your definition of “missions”.
Answer: The word “mission” comes from the Latin word for sending. So, something is missions if someone is being sent out to do gospel work. We actually should be sending people out for this work (Matt 9:38; Acts 8:14; 13:1-3). Normally, we send people out to areas that have yet to hear the gospel, don’t yet have a healthy church, or need extra support. With that said, I do believe we can talk about local missions as a church–sending our own out into the neighborhood on an afternoon to evangelize the lost by reaching out to contacts we have made during events, or even street preaching. Christ said “go” (Matt 28:19), and we need to be going into our local community if we hope to keep sending missionaries out into rest of the world.
