Thank You, Normandale Baptist Church

Dear NBC Church Family,

As we shared with you yesterday in service, our family is being called away to serve elsewhere. I wanted to share a few more of the details with you via this blog that has served as an additional communication tool and resource in my time serving you as discipleship pastor:

After two months of prayerful process, it has been confirmed beyond any doubt that our Lord is calling the Musgrove family to serve at The Village Church (Flower Mound). God is truly in all of this. It's been an astounding process these past few months, but one we couldn't share until just now. Since this all began I have been working with the NBC pastoral staff to ensure a smooth transition so discipleship and spiritual formation ministries do not lose momentum.

I was introduced as Associate Groups Pastor at The Village Church's "Group Connect" this past Wednesday evening, an event that helps people get into small groups so they might pursue biblical community together. My first office day at the Village is September 27th.

As Groups Pastor at The Village, I am charged to personally disciple, mentor, and pastor small group leaders and coaches so they can in turn disciple people in their group. There will also be opportunities to teach.

We are sad to leave NBC. There are just so many formative experiences that will forever make Normandale a part of my family's story: my first pastoral staff position and communal spiritual formation with all of you, Jenny and I being married in the worship center, the birth of Jordan and your outpouring of prayer and hospitality upon his birth, and my recent ordination to the gospel ministry to name only a few. The staff have been so supportive and helped me learn what it means to be a pastor to the people. I will miss serving alongside them and you.

So we are truly living a favorite John Piper quote, "Endings are for gratitude, beginnings are for faith", as the Lord is undeniable in moving me and my family into ministry at The Village. This coming Sunday (9.26) will be our last as members and as a pastor at Normandale Baptist Church. The Lord seems to have been preparing us for this as I preached in August a sermon called, "Godly People Say Goodbye/What You Leave Behind". I was led to this passage as while walking through the recent goodbyes we have all said as a church and the possibility that I could soon be one of them. I commend it to you, if only for the reminder and challenge that if we are living Great Commission lives we will be saying goodbye often. That is the nature of making disciples. Our God brings us together for a time to serve together and then sends us to other arenas where we may be used by Him.

But godly friends never truly say goodbye. We are spiritual family and have a shared inheritance. Our bond and hope and tether is Christ. And in Him we are never truly parted. Our goal is to continue glorifying Him whether we are together or apart.

So just as Paul upon his departures and separations from spiritual friends wrote that he looked forward to hearing further about their faith and obedience, so does the Musgrove family anticipate hearing of our Great Savior continually made famous by the body of Christ at Normandale Baptist Church. All of us who have been a part of this church for this time have reason for great expectation. Soon we all who have served and loved and pressed on together at Normandale during these days will look back and say in unision, "Only God could have done this."

I look forward to the Day with you.

Grace and Peace,
Your servant in Christ,
Jared Steven Musgrove

Godly People Say Goodbye (Acts 20:18-35)

Christians living rightly

are consistently saying goodbye.

Download the sermon from Acts 20:18-35

Church Membership Matters

Church Membership Matters because our church must grasp hold of each other in responsibility, accountability, and love.

Part II of the series, "Church Matters"

Download the teaching: Church Membership Matters

Preaching Matters

Biblical preaching matters because our church needs to hear directly from God and God speaks directly when His Word is preached fully.

Part I of the series "Church Matters"

Download the sermon: Preaching Matters

Hope for Introverted Preachers!

Just one of many reasons I love Tim Keller. Interviewed in this weeks' World Magazine, Keller talks about how God has prepared him through an introverted personality and love of study to be a gospel-centered preacher in the middle of Manhattan.

The following interview excerpts focus on fighting inferiority and superiority complexes as a pastor:

Q: How did you overcome your "painful introversion"? Are you saying, how did an introvert get to be a megachurch pastor in Manhattan? Very gradually. It is a combination: God called me to be a minister and then decided to prosper my ministry more than a lot of other people's, which was always a surprise. I do not know why. It is not false modesty. I am still not sure why.

Q: Gift and grace? The gift side of it is that God continues to send me people who seem to be helped by the ministry. That overcomes some of your lack of confidence, but the danger of relying on your gifts, saying, "Hey, I am a pretty good preacher, people will come back to listen to me," is that that leads to the opposite of an inferiority complex, a superiority complex, which is probably more deadly. They are both self-absorption.

Q: How do you fight that? As I moved from feeling like nobody likes me to everybody likes me—then you get really famous and nobody likes you again—I had to work on the gospel a lot in my heart. Every time I started to get too big a head, something would come along and God would bring me down. This is the way I think everybody grows. Something would bring me down and I would have to use the gospel to shore up my confidence on the basis of His grace rather than on my gifts. —

Read the rest of Marvin Olasky's interviews with one of my favorite preachers:

"A Wave Came In: How An Introvert Like Tim Keller Became a Great Preacher"

-jsm-

Deep Blue Devotion #4 - Bible Memory Aid

Originally published in WORLD Magazine, Coverdate March 13, 2010. p. 66

Do you need help memorizing Scripture? MemorizeNow.com is a website where you can paste in a passage and then use tools that aid memorization. You can, for instance, see the text with all the words displayed. With a click you can change the setting so only first letters are displayed. Or, from the full text page, you can click and make some words disappear. Scroll over the space where the missing word belongs and the first letter of the missing word appears.

Couple this useful tool with text copied from one of the online Bibles (See the English Standard Version at gnpcb.org)

|| Deep Blue Devotion || a series of biblically creative helps

at jaredstevenmusgrove.blogspot.com, intended to aid in

enhancing intimate times with the Lord and

deepening personal discipleship. ||

To Men of Faith Who Serve In the Shadow of Others

Charles Spurgeon's great devotional work, Morning by Morning, gives this word to you healers, counselors, teachers, mentors, and pastors who are "hindmost in honor and esteem" just as the Danites of ancient Israel. In a great sense, Spurgeon's insightful words here define the work of a discipler. This short devotion has ministered to me on countless occasions and I commend it to you, dear Reader. ---jsm-

“They shall go hindmost with their standards.”

Numbers 2:31

The camp of Dan brought up the rear when the armies of Israel were on the march. The Danites occupied the hindmost place, but what mattered the position, since they were as truly part of the host as were the foremost tribes; they followed the same fiery cloudy pillar, they ate of the same manna, drank of the same spiritual rock, and journeyed to the same inheritance. Come, my heart, cheer up, though last and least; it is thy privilege to be in the army, and to fare as they fare who lead the van. Some one must be hindmost in honour and esteem, some one must do menial work for Jesus, and why should not I? In a poor village, among an ignorant peasantry; or in a back street, among degraded sinners, I will work on, and “go hindmost with my standard.”

The Danites occupied a very useful place. Stragglers have to be picked up upon the march, and lost property has to be gathered from the field. Fiery spirits may dash forward over untrodden paths to learn fresh truth, and win more souls to Jesus; but some of a more conservative spirit may be well engaged in reminding the church of her ancient faith, and restoring her fainting sons. Every position has its duties, and the slowly moving children of God will find their peculiar state one in which they may be eminently a blessing to the whole host.

The rear guard is a place of danger. There are foes behind us as well as before us. Attacks may come from any quarter. We read that Amalek fell upon Israel, and slew some of the hindmost of them. The experienced Christian will find much work for his weapons in aiding those poor doubting, desponding, wavering, souls, who are hindmost in faith, knowledge, and joy. These must not be left unaided, and therefore be it the business of well-taught saints to bear their standards among the hindmost. My soul, do thou tenderly watch to help the hindmost this day.

Deep Blue Devotion #3 - Projected Worship

|| Deep Blue Devotion: a series of biblically creative helps

for enhancing intimate times with the Lord and

deepening personal discipleship. ||

You may have found yourself in the same situation I have: you are in a worship service singing your heart out to words projected on a screen. A thought strikes you: "I wish I knew this song better so I could worship with my eyes closed. Or have the freedom to not be glued to the screen. Or the lead worshipper's guitar face."

I'm a mostly eyes-closed worshipper. I like the minimization of distraction. But there are certain, neigh, many songs I don't know well enough to belt out by heart. So I am somewhat dependent on lyrics projected as I sing. They certainly are necessary (think back to that time last Sunday when the media team skipped or didn't change a slide to the tune. Holy Hush, Batman!).

But I truly dislike being glued to a screen as I sing in worship. It's especially difficult with your head downward in a hymn book (crushes the larynx). So I had the idea of glancing over the dozen or so lyrics on the screen as it changes, then closing my eyes and projecting those words to my Sovereign Father. It's amazing how your brain can pick up the lyrics so quickly and recall them (and it's just fine to peak mid-verse if need be).

Glance back up as the next set of words or chorus pop up on screen, praise and repeat.

Make a joyful noise in worshipping Him this week,

-jsm-

Deep Blue Devotion #2 - Why My Bible Looks Like a Coloring Book

Deep Blue Devotion: a series of biblically creative helps

for enhancing intimate times with the Lord and

deepening personal discipleship.

As you can tell from my blog title (Light Blue) I'm a color-attuned person. And as such I began a Bible-reading practice in college of using colored pens to underline the words of Scripture as I read. It was encouraging to me this week to meet a brother in Christ who did the exact same thing. This has inspired me to share this in this week's DBD about coloring in your Bible.

The year was 2003. The Iraq War began. Scientists mapped 99.9% of the Human Genome. And Coldplay's "Clocks" was in heavy rotation on radio stations. Half-inspired by a shiny-new package of multi-colored G2 pens, the other half from devotional helps someone gave me, I took the new Bible I bought for myself, took a spin through the Scriptures using the DJ Bible Reading Plan for the first time and employed my use of color thusly:

Crimson: Christ-centered or theologically resonant statements

Light Blue: explicit passages of promise and hope

Black: Sobering passages of judgement of justice

Green: Calls and inspirations to personal growth and spiritual formation

Blue: Wisdom or Proverbial statements

Purple: Unadulterated praise to God

That just happened to be the colors contained in that particular package (there was also a pink pen, but I gave it to my sister. Nothing personal against pink, but, yeah...). There are many other pen colors and highlighters out there, but these just seemed to be the ones that stuck with me. There are myriad passages where the colors criss-crossed because of the richness and multifaceted nature of God's Word.

And as I still use that same Bible in lesson preparation and teaching, it is helpful to my teaching and to my heart to have these color-coded reminders of the variety and beauty of God's Word to us.

You don't have to use my color assignments or systems. You may have your own or another idea of marking in such a way as to remind you of truth in the Word (if so, please send it on). But the most important thing is to be reading and interacting with the Bible. It's okay to write (or color) in your Bible.

For me it's been essential.

-jsm-

Deep Blue Devotion #1 - Bible Reading

|| Deep Blue Devotion: a series of biblically creative helps

for enhancing intimate times with the Lord and

deepening personal discipleship. ||

Good intentions often fail for simple lack of planning.

One of the best intentions of most Christians is reading the Bible all the way through. But most of us putter out and lose focus, direction, and discipline around Leviticus. Just bein' honest.

Living as a disciple means continually going to the Source of spiritual nourishment and strength. We cannot survive as disciples if we are not having our minds continually renewed by the Word of God as revealed in Scripture.

One of the best helps I have found and utilized to fashion this spiritual discipline in my life is the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan. It is a flexible-yet-structured approach to reading Scripture. You can begin at any time during the year with as many as four readings and as few as one for each day. The plan grants 25 reading days a month, so there is plenty of leeway if you miss a day or two. Or if you find yourself on the 25th of the month having completed all the readings, you may wish to go back and look over the truths you took in or journaled.

Whether you use the DJ reading plan or simply Google "bible reading plans" and find another, the most important discipline is to come to the Word as the Psalmist: "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" (Ps. 42:1-2)

As you approach the Word, ask that God would reveal to you His quenching truth and that you would not walk away the same. I pray with you in this.

-jsm-

Discipleship One-on-One

Disciple-making in a one-on-one context is a constant study and practice for me. What follows here are key lessons learned in my pursuit of the discipline of discipling a brother in Christ in a one-on-one setting.

1. I must first be a disciple myself.

If I fail to put myself daily under the Lordship of Christ Jesus, constantly recognizing my own desperate need for Him to change me, then I've no business trying to lead a younger spiritual brother in the same endeavor. With my pursuit of Christ comes the humility that will be so crucial to my personal growth in Him. I am forever a student-follower of Jesus, so I am first a foremost a disciple who commits himself to demonstrating humility and transparency. It is this mindset which is most crucial in discipling a brother one-on-one.

2. I must establish a friendship with the man who would be my disciple.

Recommendation or rebuke apart from relationship will quickly end any one-on-one discipling endeavor. This is why the selection of a disciple should mirror the aspects of Christian friendship. My disciple is not my patient or client. He must first and foremost be my friend, otherwise anything I say to him will be only as a doctor dispensing a prescription rather than a trusted confidant enacting a spiritual transfer of knowledge and experience. This means I must decide to commit time to him even outside of our set meeting time each week (see below for practicals on meeting times). Whether it is a short text or email message, a phone call, a lunch, a dinner in my home with my family, or perhaps a weekend of camping together, I must look for ways to build a friendship with my disciple. This will be a constant and continual process. Choose to love your way into this man's world. And open your world to him.

3. Based on my disciple's needs, I select books and resources to help him grow in Christ.

No two people are the same. It therefore stands that no two disciples are the same. One man's needs may not be another's. One man may need help growing as a called pastor. Another requires help in the disciplines of the spiritual life. Yet another seeks guidance because of a particular sin struggle. And your disciple may have all of the above. Either way, it is crucial to know the personality and spiritual standing of your disciple before launching headlong into a stodgy curriculum. Disciple-making is organic, not mechanic.

Because of this I usually tell any man I'm discipling my full testimony, all the good, bad, and ugly and how Christ rescued and rescues me from it all. I then invite him to tell me his at our next meeting, again, with the focus being on Jesus Christ's work in our lives. This teaches testimony-telling and models a Christ-centered example of sharing one's story. It also establishes trust, friendship, and will help you understand the story in which your disciple has lived and is living. Testimonies may take two sessions together or more. Time is a luxury you should afford yourself at the outset.

Another helpful tool I use within the first three meetings together to help me know areas in which to mentor is the Myers-Brigs personality assessment. This helps me know how my own personality interacts with that of my disciple as well as helping me recognize any potential tendencies or propensities on his part. You can find the assessment here.

4. Meetings should be consistent, intentional, prayerful, and full of Scripture.

A weekly meeting is strongly recommended, allowing at least two hours of time to meet together. Though it may not always run as long as that and may possibly at times run longer, try to pick a time for you both that is fairly open if the Holy Spirit moves. The importance of meeting weekly (with outside times to get together to "hang out") relays a sense of commitment on your part and also teaches your disciple responsibility, while providing stability. Men do not open up if they do not feel safe. A consistent meeting establishes the necessary security for the relationship to flourish. I prefer to disciple men either at my home office or church office, as these are secluded spots allowing for freedom in conversation and prayer. And it makes the statement that I'm letting them into my world.

The meeting must always be intentional. Make it known that the commonalities and interests between you can be discussed at one of the other outside times, but the time spent together each week is for spiritual growth. As the lead discipler, you set the agenda based on the spiritual needs of your disciple. It is imperative that purposeful connection through discussion and Christian brotherhood be the center of the discipleship.

Pray before each session privately. Pray God uses the time wisely and guides you and the disciple. Pray together before the session starts. Pray together, sharing prayer requests, at the close of each session. Corporate prayer bonds believers. It must be a constant and important part of your time together.

Scripture must be a part of all you do. Whether it is correction, rebuking, or training, the Word of God must be at the center. If it is a rebuke, then it must be one using Scripture. Same with correction. If it is training, even if another book of Christian literature is being used, it must be lashed to Scriptural principles. Talk with one another about the Bible reading you are experiencing. Memorize Scripture together each week. These are non-negotiables for the disciple and the discipled.

5. Durations of Discipleship Vary

I may disciple one man for six months. Another for two years. Again, no two discipling relationships will look the same. Ask God to guide you in knowing when it is time to release your disciple. You will sense the Holy Spirit telling you it is time to release this man to go make other disicples. But also be open to Him directing you to go deeper and perhaps for a longer duration. The Lord is Master of your discipling relationship. It is He who calls the shots, not you. So it is He who will tell you both when the parting must take place.

------

In closing, this has been but a brief summation of my approach to one-on-one discipleship. I, like you, will be forever a student in this discipline.

-jsm-