Kailua Baptist Church on TBN

I really hope if you have a question about what I am going to say, that you will ask: I have major disagreements with a lot of what is promoted on Trinity Broadcasting Network. So I am not even sure if I agree with what I did, namely, do a short interview with a good friend of mine on Hawaii’s branch of that TV station. At the end of the day, we believe the gospel was proclaimed, and we praise God for that.

A few thoughts on our discussion on the dangers of “assuming the gospel”:

• Paul evangelizes Christians, not just non-Christians (Rom 1.15)
• Paul says evangelists equip the saints (Eph 4.11)
• James does not assume the gospel, even though I cannot think of a reference to the cross in the book of James: his argument in James 2.8-26 is basically the same argument as Paul’s in the book of Galatians. Both argue that true faith in Christ works itself out through love. Perhaps Paul emphasizes FAITH works itself out through love, but James emphasizes faith WORKS ITSELF OUT THROUGH LOVE, but both preach justification by faith alone that works itself out through love.
• Plus, James says “faith without works is dead” (James 2.17). Clearly, he is not assuming all those who say they believe are believers.
• Galatians is fighting against those who assume the gospel (the Judaizers basically say, “I assume you have the gospel, now it’s time to focus on other things.”). Paul says, let them be accursed.
• Assuming the gospel takes away from God’s glory (2 Cor 4.3-6); it is the “gospel of the glory of Christ”! God gets glory if you preach the gospel in the shower; why would you ever neglect to preach the gospel on Sunday morning?

Preaching the OT is as hard as I thought

Lord willing, I start preaching through the book of Deuteronomy tomorrow. Pray for me, please. Pray that I will be faithful to God’s Word, that I will help people see Christ in the OT, and that I will preach to glorify God and not please man.

One interesting note already: Deuteronomy 1.5 says Moses took to “expound” the Law. It does not say that the words he was about to speak was necessarily a prophecy directly from God the way much of Mt. Sinai was. Deuteronomy is most likely a sermon, though it has the same feel as prophecy. Preaching and prophecy do not seem to be identical, though the results seem to be. That is why when the word is rightly preached, it is God speaking. I like to call prophecy “preaching without sermon prep.”

Al Mohler on Tim Tebow

You should listen to Al Mohler’s podcast everyday, as he always gives some of the best analyses on current events through the Bible’s lens. I love hearing him talk about sports (because he is not much of a sports fan). This is today’s podcast. His take on Tim Tebow is very well articulated, gracious, funny, and biblical. It starts a little past the halfway point of the podcast:

The Briefing

Misunderstanding Romans 6.23

There are at least two ways this verse is misused in gospel presentations. Before I mention them, it is worth noting that this is a verse written to Christians. I affirm using this verse in evangelism to non-Christians, but Paul does write this to Christians, so our first instinct should be to figure out how it applies to Christians:

1. “For the wages of sin is death” is as much a warning to the believer against perservering in sin as it is to the non-Christian that he/she will receive death as a result of sin. Right before this Paul mentions “the end of [sin] is death” and sanctification has as “its end, eternal life.” Rom 6.23 is more a call to perseverance than a call to a one-time decision. A lot of this chapter is an attempt to persuade believers that since they are dead to sin, they should not produce fuits of darkness. No one should feel confident that they are a believer if they are presenting their body for works of the flesh all the time. ‘For the wages of sin is death.’
2. “But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” should never be preached as a gift that can be rejected. Obviously, people can reject Jesus (but we should make it clear it is Jesus they are rejecting, not just eternal life). But the point of this verse is that God has freely given eternal life to believers! Eternal life is not something someone can reject now and it will be there for them later on when they want to accept it. Though the believer had lived his/her whole life trespassing against God (Rom 5.16), not getting any real fruit from those things (Rom 6.21), yet, God who is rich in mercy gave you freely in Christ eternal life.

So in summary, please do not call people to make decisions, but preach the gospel, and call people to a lifetime of perseverance. And do not offer eternal life to people as something people can accept or reject, but preach the gospel, and call people to a lifetime of perseverance.

The real meaning of “Christian liberty”

Here is a God-empowered sermon by a great friend and mentor, Ryan Fullerton, which describes how gospel-centered theology and true conversion really can, does, and must lead to sexual purity and Christ-likeness:

Flee Sexual Immorality (part 1)

Should I go to a world-class seminary or to a little-known church-based training network in Hawaii?

Great question.

All I can do is reiterate a few things about why I promote the Antioch School Hawaii:

• I believe God has given the local church the responsibility to train up new pastors/missionaries/church planters (2 Tim 2.2)
• You will get more hands-on training than you can find at any seminary I know of (a local church must recognize you as a potential church leader, and be willing to invest in you and give you ministry responsibilities, or you cannot be a student with the Antioch School)
• It is cheaper than any seminary I know of (At SBTS, I paid about $16,000 not including books; it’s twice as much for any non-SBC student; Antioch School is between $10-12,000 for the entire program, which includes all course material)
• It helps every member of the local church to be more directly involved in training and sending out pastors/missionaries/church-planters, rather than just sending money somewhere.
• You will learn a lot from Chris Bruno

Some words about Southern Seminary:

• It was worth every penny I spent
• But they taught me that this is what I should do once I work in a church
• We still glean from the gifts that God has given to institutions like SBTS (books, conferences, articles, sermons, etc.); they can still be a resource to us
• Be careful of “hero worship”; I am certain most who go there go with the best intentions, but we must be careful to not cross the line that says “God has not gifted the local church to raise me up as a minister of the gospel; He has only gifted the seminary that way.”

Last word:

I am not offended if you end up going to the seminary that I love.

Reflections on 9 Marks in Hawaii

The Lord answered prayer this past weekend! I prayed for 100 people to show up at the first ever 9 Marks conference in Hawaii. I am sure many of my friends prayed for many to come as well. Well over 200 people attended! We were blessed by Mark Dever, Ryan Townsend, Zach Schlegel, and Jaime Owens. They blessed us through preaching at the conference and preaching at different churches across Oahu and Maui. I was personally blessed to converse with Mark Dever at different points over the weekend, and came away with a few reflections:

• we should all strive to love others the way he does
• we should all strive to care for other churches the way 9 Marks does
• if we define the local church biblically, it will drive us to get much more serious about the worship service and the administration of the ordinances
• I love my church! And I am very humbled by the opportunity to be a pastor at a local church
• God’s doing something very special for His glory here in the islands

The interview that almost was, part 3

PI: What will your role be with the Antioch School Hawaii?

Chris: I will have a duel role as the academic dean of the Antioch School Hawaii and as a part of the pastoral team at Harbor Church. As the Antioch School continues to grow, it will be harder for the pastors of the partner churches to administer the program. So while I will also serve as a pastor myself, my primary responsibility is to be a servant to the pastors, taking the administrative reigns of the program and helping plan the future expansion of the program. In addition to this, I will help lead some of the courses, serve as a student mentor, and continue to be involved in theological research and writing. 

 PI: Is the Antioch School in competition with SBC seminaries?

 Todd: We are not in competition with the seminaries so far as I know. It seems all the seminaries highlight the centrality of the local church. Antioch School also sees the local church as central to the Great Commission. Where we would run into “competition” is with anyone who sees the seminaries as the only ones capable of training pastors. We would disagree with the philosophy of a church who simply outsources to seminaries. 

I know at least Southern Seminary is attempting to train pastors to train pastors. I think if a pastor comes out of seminary ill-equipped to train others, he is not fully trained. So if the vision of our seminaries is to raise up leaders who can train others within their own churches, then Antioch School can only help to boost that vision. I agree with what Al Mohler says (at the 2011 Gospel Coalition conference; listen from about the 11 minute mark), namely, that the seminaries should be seen as resources for churches to help churches raise up their own ministers, NOT as institutions who raise up ministers for the churches.

PI: How can we pray for you?

Todd: Please pray for our humility, and for strength to speak the truth in love to all those who may disagree with what we are doing. Pray for more churches here to catch the vision to be able to support Chris Bruno and the Antioch School. And pray for us to raise up godly, qualified leaders for the Kingdom.

 Chris: Pray that I would daily cling to the Gospel and God’s promises. Pray for our family as we are raising support this fall-that my wife Katie and our 3 boys would be excited and not anxious and that God would meet every need. Pray that God would provide prayer and financial partners. Pray that our hearts would be knit to the churches in Hawaii even before we arrive and that this venture would advance the kingdom in ways we cannot even now imagine.

Todd Morikawa (M.Div., Southern Seminary) is the pastor of Kailua Baptist Church. He has one daughter, Grace, while he and his wife, Natalie, are trying to adopt from Ethiopia. Todd has lived most of his life on Oahu and the Big Island.

Chris Bruno (Ph.D., Wheaton College, M.Div., Southern Seminary) is the incoming Academic Dean of the Antioch School Hawaii. He and his wife Katie have 3 sons. Updates to their ministry can be found at their family website.

The interview that almost was, part 2

PI: What are the distinctives of the Antioch School Hawaii?

Chris: We are not re-inventing the wheel with this program. Rather, we are partnering with the Antioch School of Church Planting and Leadership Development in Ames, Iowa. Because of this, we can offer accredited masters degrees and even a D.Min. program.

But more importantly, the Antioch program is a truly church based program. That is to say, every student in the Antioch School Hawaii will orient their studies toward ministry in a partner church while being mentored by a leader in one of the churches. Also, rather than the typical lecture-driven information transfer common to most seminaries, the Antioch courses are built on the Socratic method and students are evaluated on whether they have demonstrated competency for ministry. The emphasis is on equipping our students for ministry with the head, the hands, and the heart.

PI: What has been your experience with the Antioch School so far?

Todd: I have been pleasantly surprised by the interest of everyone we have talked to about the program, including people on Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii. Our first semester we had nine students from about five different churches; this Fall some of the students have had to take a little break because of schedules, but they are all pretty much planning to come back and we still have about 10 students from about six or seven different churches. I have enjoyed all the studying that is involved, all of the class discussions, and all of the cross-congregational fellowship that is happening.

I am encouraged by the fact that several churches are taking it upon themselves to raise up pastors and church leaders under the Holy Spirit’s empowerment. I take joy in knowing that we are raising up leaders with the Bible, and in a biblical manner, namely, through the vehicle of the local church. And for anyone curious, I have found the curriculum to be very sufficient and engaging. I am thankful that Antioch School has done a lot of work to put this material in the hands of local churches. They do a good job of giving us accountability and freedom, as well as entrusting us to do most of the assessment of students.

Last and final part of the interview coming soon.

The interview that almost was, part 1

My friend, Chris Bruno, and I were pretty sure we were going to have an interview about Antioch School Hawaii on a popular evangelical blog. In God’s providence it did not happen. But we prepared for the interview and I thought I might post it in parts here.  So instead of thousands of people reading the interview, there will be about 20 of you (thankful for all of you). But if you think there may be others who could benefit from this, please pass it on:

Pretend Interviewer (PI): What is the state of the evangelical church in Hawaii?

Todd: The best way I might know how to explain this is that The Gospel Coalition, Together 4 the Gospel, Acts 29, and 9 Marks Ministries are basically unknown evangelical movements out here. Some of our most influential churches do not have any semblance of church membership, call women as pastors, and do not see repentance as a necessary fruit of conversion. Those are issues that many people are simply not willing to take a stand on.

 I think one of the greatest deficiencies out here is biblical discernment. It is a very laid-back culture in which most people embrace everyone, no questions asked: I have seen conferences in which Calvinist, complementarian, missional preachers have spoken alongside people with unorthodox views of justification and the atonement. I work at a church in which we are one of six churches right next door to each other (less than a quarter mile stretch), and at least two or three of us have other denominations that meet on our properties. And all that kind of diversity is seen as a good thing out here. I do fear for how seriously Christians take the truth of God’s Word.

PI: What is the state of theological education in Hawaii?

Chris: I have had the opportunity to get to know people from a couple of the theological education institutions on Oahu. The first, the Bible Institute of Hawaii, has had a great impact in the islands over the last 25 or 30 years, and I know their education program has been responsible for saving a couple of churches from losing the Gospel. However, their mission is more focused on theological education at the college or Bible institute level, and not so much on training pastors in the context of the church.

The other main institution for theological education is New Hope Christian College-Hawaii. Although they do offer several master’s degrees, their primary focus is training undergraduates. So, again, their primary focus is not church-based leadership training at the graduate level.

Not to mention that while both of these institutions are broadly evangelical, they do not have quite the same doctrinal convictions as some of the Antioch partner churches. So, the long and the short of it is that there is a strong need for graduate theological education within the growing Reformed movement in Hawaii.