Timothy Paul Jones

Leadership, Family Ministry, Apologetics

Timothy Paul Jones

Church History: The True Story of St. Patrick

imageThis week, in the year AD 461, Patrick of Ireland passed away. Ever since the early seventeenth century, churches have designated March 17 as St. Patrick’s Day. Prohibitions on feasting during the season of Lent were traditionally lifted on this day, and green had been associated with Ireland at least as early as the seventeenth century. The result has been a tradition of kisses and pinches, partying and wearing emerald hues on March 17.

But Patrick wasn’t actually Irish, and no pinches or parties or shades of green played any significant role in his story, as far as anyone knows. His story does, however, have much to do with forgiveness, faithfulness, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the words of Michael A.G. Haykin, this man’s

incredible understanding of the Great Commission and his passion for mission and evangelism [were] in western Christianity in the fifth century almost completely unique.

So who was Patrick? How and why should we celebrate his life? Or should we? Take a look at this two-minute video to find out!

Not a Saint, Not Irish, But a Faithful Proclaimer of God’s Good News

If you’re interested in learning more about the history of Christianity, consider this book and video series. To learn more about Patrick in particular, I recommend this book by Michael A.G. Haykin.

Discuss in the Comments:

Watch this video. Then, take a look at this video as well, simply because it is amazing.

What did you learn about the history of Christianity that you may not have known before? How should Patrick’s choice to return to his captors with the gospel shape your life? Think about ways that your church or community group might celebrate this day in a way that focuses on Patrick’s gospel passion.

Writing: If You Want to Remember It, Write It By Hand

Words and writing matter.

In the opening chapter of the Scriptures, God speaks, and a cosmos bursts into being (Genesis 1:3). When he constitutes Israel as his  people, God speaks and writes, and a covenant is born (Exodus 31:18). John described the incarnation of God in Christ by declaring, “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14). Continue reading.

Family Ministry: When and Why Did Weekly Children’s Classes Begin in Churches? (Part Three)

This research into the history of age-organized catechetical classes in the church is based on an academic paper that I presented to the practical theology section of the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 16, 2017.

This post is the third in a three-part series.

Click here for Part One in the series.

Click here for Part Two in the series.

“The Church of God Will Never Preserve Itself Without a Catechism”: Confirmation and Catechetical Instruction in the English Reformation

Following the death of King Henry VIII in 1547, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer grew a beard that suggested solidarity with the continental Reformers—but it was not merely in his pogonotrophic proclivities that the Archbishop of Canterbury imitated what was happening on the other side of the English Channel. Cranmer—not unlike Calvin—required catechesis of children in the context of the church.

Continue reading.

Family Ministry: When and Why Did Weekly Children’s Classes Begin in Churches? (Part Two)

This research into the history of age-organized ministries in the church is based on an academic paper that I presented to the practical theology section of the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 16, 2017.

This post is the second in a three-part series.

Click here for Part One in the series.

Click here for Part Three in the series.

“At Midday, There Is to Be Catechism”: Weekly Classes for Children in Sixteenth-Century Geneva

John Calvin provided instructions for catechesis in the same section of the ecclesiastical ordinances in which he described the frequency and locations for weekly pastoral proclamations of Scripture. He directed that each Sunday “at midday, there is to be catechism, that is, instruction of little children, in all the three churches.” The individual responsible for this instruction in each congregation was to be the pastor.

These weekly catechetical classes were designed as a distinct and separate gathering for children, and children’s attendance was not optional. Continue reading.

Family Ministry: When and Why Did Weekly Children’s Classes Begin in Churches? (Part One)

This research into the history of age-organized ministries in the church is based on an academic paper that I presented to the practical theology section of the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 16, 2017. This post is the first in a three-part series.

Click here for Part Two in the series.

Click here for Part Three in the series.

In recent years, a small but vocal cluster of church leaders has contended that age-organized programs and ministries in the church should be eliminated. These proponents of “family-integrated church” have called for churches to dismantle programs that practice systematic “age-segregated discipleship.” In churches that follow this model, the congregation has no youth ministers, children’s ministers, or nursery. “We do not divide families into component parts,” writes one proponent of family-integrated churches. “We don’t even do it in Bible study.” The support claimed for family-integrated ministry is typically twofold, contending both that age-organized ministries are unwarranted by Scripture and that ministries for children and youth are a recent innovation that represents the imposition of “individualistic philosophies” in the church.

Continue reading.

Church History: Martin Luther and the Ninety-Five Theses

On October 31, 1517, a monk and professor named Martin Luther sent a document entitled Disputatio Pro Declaratione Virtutis Indulgentiarum to the archbishop of Mainz. This Disputatio consisted of ninety-five theses for theological debate. Perhaps on October 31 or more probably a week or two later, Luther hammered the theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg. Although the Protestant Reformation was a complex social movement with many causes, this event is frequently identified as the beginning of the Reformation.Continue reading.

Sermon: The Cycle That Only A Cross Could End

“If only I could see God do something amazing, then it would be easier to follow him.” Has that thought ever occurred to you? It’s certainly crossed my mind from time to time! And yet, what we learn throughout the Scriptures is that, even when people did see God do something amazing, faithfulness wasn’t any easier for them.Continue reading.

Leadership: Why Are Leaders Needed if All God’s People Are Priests?

“Everyone in the entire community is holy, and the LORD is among them!” That’s what a band of rebels from the tribes of Reuben and Levi declared when they revolted against Moses and Aaron before going on to demand, “Why then do you exalt yourselves above the LORD’s assembly?” (Numbers 16:3). The rebels were consumed by earth and fire the next day, suggesting that God may not have agreed with their assessment of the situation. And yet, we must admit that their question made some sense. God had, after all, designated all of Israel as a royal people and a holy priesthood (Exodus 19:6; 22:31; Leviticus 20:7, 26). If all the people participated together in kingship and priesthood, why were leaders needed?

This question becomes even more acute in the New Testament, particularly in the letter that we know as 1 Peter. Continue reading.

Church History: Leadership Wisdom from Ignatius of Loyola

Íñigo López de Loyola—better known to us as Ignatius of Loyola*—passed from this life on July 31, 1556. He was a Spanish priest and a leader in the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation. Roman Catholics have celebrated July 31 as his feast day since the seventeenth century.

As a Protestant, I may not celebrate the feast day of the founder of the Jesuit order, and I do not know whether or not he trusted wholly in the unearned merit of Jesus Christ to be made right with God. I have, however, found these words from his Spiritual Exercises to be helpful as a scholar and as a leader. Here’s what Ignatius had to say about responding to someone with whom you disagree:Continue reading.

Leadership: What Does It Mean to Be Christ’s Body?

In a grove of trees south of the city of Corinth stood the Asklepion, an ancient temple dedicated to the god of healing (pictured above). Every year, thousands of women and men made pilgrimages to this temple to seek relief for their bodies. Worshipers who believed that they received healing in this place left behind an odd sort of testimony to their experience. Continue reading.

Family Ministry: The Discipline of Generational Diversity (Part 2)

This post on intergenerational diversity in the church is the second part of a two-part series. Click here for the first post in the series.

TIE Fighter, which has nothing to do with this post except for the acronym TIE

A Model for Movement toward the Discipline of Generational Diversity

If you look at your church and glimpse a lack of intergenerational ministry, it may seem at first as if the right response is to add a stack of new activities to your church’s calendar. Consider, however, that—according to recent research into the perceptions of pastoral ministers—nearly half of all ministers already feel as if they do not have sufficient time to accomplish all that their ministries demand. Furthermore, when ministry calendars become too crowded, church members can become so busy doing church that no time remains for them to be the church in their homes and communities.

With that in mind, I wish to propose an alternative possibility for the pursuit of intergenerational ministry—one that metamorphoses existing activities instead of adding additional programs. I have colloquially dubbed this alternative “the TIE Model.” Continue reading.

Family Ministry: The Discipline of Generational Diversity (Part 1)

The Function of the Family in the Storyline of God

At the center of God’s story stands this singular act: In Jesus Christ, God personally intersected human history and redeemed humanity at a particular time in a particular place. Yet this central act of redemption does not stand alone. It is bordered by God’s good creation and humanity’s fall into sin on the one hand and by the consummation of God’s kingdom on the other. This story of (1) creation, (2) fall and law, (3) redemption, and (4) consummation is the story that Christians have repeated to one another and to the world ever since Jesus ascended and sent his Spirit to dwell in his first followers’ lives. This age-old plot-line should frame every aspect of our lives—including our ministries to families. Seen from the perspective of this fourfold storyline, here’s what becomes clear about family, family ministries, and diversity: From the beginning, the family has been a God-ordained means for the fulfillment of God’s purposes, but God’s plan for the family has always been to reach beyond the family to form a diverse community.Continue reading.

Family Ministry: A New Definition for Family Ministry (Part 3)

I delivered this paper on an expanded definition for family ministry in May 2017 at the HOUSE Conference in Australia, a conference sponsored by YouthWorks and themed around the intersection between family ministry and ecclesiology. This post is the third part of a three-part series.


Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

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A RENEWAL OF INTEREST IN INTERGENERATIONAL MINISTRY? YES AND NO

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, church leaders from a broad range of ecclesial backgrounds began to question the assumption that discipleship occurs most effectively when it is segmented generationally. In 1988, Roman Catholic educator James William White published an influential text calling for intergenerational religious education. Lutheran educator Ben Freudenburg called for youth ministries to provide three types of programming: home-centered, peer-centered, and intergenerational. Presbyterian youth minister Mark DeVries presented a “smorgasbord of ideas to equip parents and to create intentional intergenerational connections between youth and adults” in his book Family-Based Youth Ministry. The Search Institute even developed a survey to assess the intergenerational health of congregations. And yet, as the family ministry movement has grown, the parent-equipping component has tended to eclipse the forging of intergenerational connections, particularly in evangelical contexts. The intergenerational aspect of church-as-family has been overshadowed in practice by the dynamic of family-as-church.

Why is it that parent-equipping tends to eclipse intergenerational ministry in churches? Continue reading.

Family Ministry: A New Definition for Family Ministry (Part 1)

I delivered this paper proposing a revised definition for family ministry in May 2017 at the HOUSE Conference in Australia, a gathering sponsored by YouthWorks College and themed around the intersection between family ministry and ecclesiology. This post on a revised definition for family ministry is the first part of a three-part series.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

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1. A DEFINITION FOR FAMILY MINISTRY

In 2009, I developed a definition of “family ministry.” A few years later, I recognized that my definition for family ministry was incomplete. This paper serves as my retractatio of that original definition—not in the sense of a “retraction” or “rejection” but in the sense that Augustine of Hippo once used the term, a “re-treatment” in light of later reflection.

Continue reading.

Sermon: The Difficult Journey Toward Deep Diversity

“It is appalling,” Martin Luther King, Jr., once pointed out, “that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” One of the primary reasons that churches remain segregated today is because white Christians failed to acknowledge the full humanity of their African-American sisters and brothers many years ago. For many African Americans, segregated churches functioned as a shelter from the systemic hypocrisy of church leaders who simultaneously claimed all people were created in God’s image and yet asserted supremacy over African Americans. The result is a lack of diversity that still persists in churches today.

The Midtown congregation of Sojourn Community Church—where I am blessed to serve as one of the pastors—is embedded in diverse neighborhoods. Yet the demographics of our congregation do not match the demographics of our neighborhood.

Not yet, anyway.Continue reading.

Leadership: When Your Church Has Issues

It happens in dating, and it happens in friendships and marriage.

You meet someone, and—for a while—this individual seems flawless. Sometimes it takes a few months, other times it only takes a few minutes—but, eventually, it happens. It becomes apparent that this person has issues. Chances are, they recognize the same truth about you.

It happens in churches too.Continue reading.

Church History: William Wilberforce and the End of the British Slave Trade

In late March, 1807, the British slave trade came to an end. One of the key figures in the battle against the British slave trade was an evangelical Christian named William Wilberforce.

Wilberforce was short—about five feet, three inches in stature—and suffered from poor health, but he was eloquent and witty. He became a member of Parliament at the age of twenty-one. Then, in the mid-1780s, he committed his life to Jesus Christ. Deeply convicted by his own patterns of arrogance and self-centeredness, he began to consider leaving his position in Parliament.Continue reading.

Sermon: That Awkward Text About Noah that No One Wants to Preach

In every Sunday School lesson and Bible storybook about Noah that I recall from my childhood, the ark-builder’s story ended in triumph. 

Noah saves the animals and sees the sign of God’s covenant—and, with that, the account of Noah comes to a close with the ark behind him, a sacrifice in front of him, and a rainbow above him. It’s a glorious scene, well-fitted for colorful full-page paintings in Bible story books.

But then, sometime in my late teenage years, I read the rest of Noah’s story. Continue reading.

Church History: Forget About St. Valentine! Today Is St. Cyril’s Day

The Magnificent Moravian Failures Who Weren’t Failures at All

In the ninth century A.D.—four hundred years or so after the fall of the Western Empire—a prince in the land of Moravia asked the emperor of the Eastern Empire to send missionaries to his people. The prince’s motives were primarily political. He needed the support of the Eastern Roman Empire, so he asked the Eastern emperor for missionaries. Yet God worked through two Eastern missionaries named Cyril and Methodius to prepare people’s hearts and to preserve God’s Word in ways that produced fruit far beyond the borders of Moravia.

Cyril of Moravia died on February 14, 869, an utter failure as far as anyone at the time could see. Today, the mission of Cyril and his brother Methodius is still celebrated on February 14—though most people are, unfortunately, focused on a more obscure (and mostly legendary) saint by the name of “Valentine.” 

Perhaps cards and candies given to your spouse to celebrate “Saints Cyril and Methodius Day” don’t have quite the same ring as the ones with red frilly hearts, but Cyril and Methodius have far stronger historical foundations to support their significance than Valentine has ever had. So, go ahead, be unique, celebrate missions, and make a St. Cyril’s card to give your sweetheart today.

Discuss in the Comments:
Watch this video to learn more about Cyril and Methodius. Reflect on a few failures from your own life. Are there places where it seems like your best efforts were wasted? Looking back on these failures, has God perhaps redeemed some of them in such a way that you now see your efforts weren’t wasted at all? How might God in the future use other apparent “wasted efforts” in ways that you can’t quite see right now?

Culture: The Failure of White Evangelicals in the Civil Rights Movement

A few months ago, Justin Taylor interviewed four evangelical historians about the role of Southern white evangelicals in the American Civil Rights Movement. It is a lengthy and painful read, but it provides a much-needed perspective on white evangelicals’ persistent failure to challenge systemic racism. Here are a few excerpts:

Matt Hall: The unfortunate reality isn’t that evangelical theology in the South was muted when it came to racial justice, it’s that it was actively used to undermine justice and to perpetuate a demonic system. Continue reading.

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