Bible Study for the New Year

 Open thoughts:

I have yet to talk with anyone in Christian leadership that doesn’t believe that the church is going to face dramatic and difficult times in the years ahead, even if they may not agree how those hard times will manifest themselves.  One would be a fool to believe hard times are coming and do nothing to prepare.  So, in the year to come we will as a congregation prepare for what may be difficult times to come.

   

As we consider what the church in our nation and in our community might face in terms of persecution it might be helpful to consider that persecution is one word to describe a spectrum of possible actions and reactions.  

Discussion Point

Below is a continuum of persecution.  As an exercise consider five or six ways that persecution might develop and place it on the continuum below.

The Continuum of Persecution

1.  Indifference

Attempts to remove the name of Christ or the church from society

2.  

3.  

4. 
   

5. 
   

 

6. 
   

7.  Hot Persecution

Arrest, Prison, Torture, Death

Reflection: 

There are some badly misguided ways to respond to hardship and persecution.  Most of these responses are in one form or another to take matters into our own hands to solve problems of hardship or suffering.  

In the history of the church, this has happened many times.  In some cases, Christians have formed political parties, attempted to take over political parties and even formed paramilitary groups to resist what they saw as a threat to the faith.  Just as bad, some Christians have compromised the truth in an attempt to appease and get along.

Discussion Point

As a group, discuss occasions in which you think the church has tried to solve spiritual challenges with earthly means?  What actual results do you recall?

Sometimes these efforts are harmless.  But too often they do more harm than good.  People associate the Gospel with these misguided programs and never hear the Good News itself. 

Frequently, these efforts and responses are motivated by fear.  When we act out of fear we generally do not make good decisions.  Perhaps that is why the most common command in the Bible is “Fear Not”.  Even in the face of the most dreadful persecution we do not have anything that we need to fear.   

The earliest Christians not only faced persecution, the church grew under the pressure of persecution.  The books written by Peter, the Revelation of John and the book of Hebrews were written to Christians who were in one way or another facing persecution.

What we must do is restore the New Testament church’s life, witness and service

We can’t do that by hiding in isolation, forming a militia or selling out what we believe. 

 During the difficult early years of the church she grew dramatically.  It is estimated that during the first 40 years of the church’s life she grew annually at a rate of 40%.  That kind of growth is unheard of in any church or fellowship in  the Western world today.  

In the late 20th century the ‘Church Growth Movement’ helped churches experience some numerical growth.  Unfortunately, the growth in numbers did not have attached to it growth in commitment, service, or discipleship.

Discussion Point

Talk about a time you have been part of a rapidly growing church.  What was it like?  If you can, put into words any excitement you felt.

Unlike the church growth movement, the early church had growth in every aspect of their life.  They had this different kind of growth because they had a different spirit/attitude and it is one that we can rekindle.

Bible Study: 2 Timothy 1:6-12

Have someone read these verses and then reread verses 6-7.

Discussion Point

What part can we play in utilizing the gift or gifts that God has given us?  How might we do that? 

Based on the first part of verse 7 why is this needed? 

Note:  In the New Testament Greek there are no capital letters to designate a proper from an improper noun.  In the case of the word “spirit” most interpreters believe that this refers to our attitude or personal disposition.

The word ‘timidity’ in verse 7 would be better translated as ‘Cowardice’.  This is the only time this word is used in the Bible.  In non-Biblical Greek the word is universally negative.  There were few insults in the Greco-Roman culture more offensive than to call someone a coward.  The courageous may die once, but the coward dies every day of their fear-driven life.

In contrast, Paul gives three words that describe the spirit or attitude that we as believers enjoy.  These are three descriptions of one spirit not three.  This spirit is described as a spirit of: 

Power:  "inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth"

Love: “affection, good-will, love, benevolence: Of the love of men to men; especially of that love of Christians toward Christians which is enjoined and prompted by their religion, whether the love be viewed as in the soul or as expressed.  an affectionate spirit, used of God for man, Christ for man, man for God.

Discipline:  A calling to soundness of mind, to moderation and self-control. Well- balanced from God’s perspective.

Discussion Point

Which of these do you think best describes your personal life as a disciple?

What evidence do you have for that conviction?

Which of these do you think best describe the life of our church?

Which of these would you most like to see develop in your life?  In your church?

Our goal for preparation for the possibility of persecution

The best way to prepare for any hardship in our life as a disciple is to grow in these three areas.  If we make progress in each of these areas and persecution comes, we will be prepared.  If persecution never happens to us we will be better prepared for life as a disciple by being strong in a spirit of power, love and self-control.

Through the centuries the church has taught some simple disciplines that help a disciple grow in their walk, such disciplines as worship, Bible reading/study/memorization, meditation, fasting, prayer, confession, silence.  This is by no means a complete list of all  Chrisitian disciplines.

Discussion Point

Which of these disciplines do you believe is the best way for you to grow in the inherent power you have as a disciple?

Which of these disciplines do you believe is the best way for you to grow in the love you can express as a disciple?

Which of these disciplines do you believe is the best way for you to grow in the self- control you need as a disciple?

In the year to come, what are the two or three things you will do to grow in your life as a disciple?

Making Community a Priority

I am part of a neighborhood social media group.  It is sort of like Facebook except it is geographically based rather than relationally based.  It is a way to meet folks you live near and for the most part it serves as a notice board for community events, lost pets, and yard sales.  However, over the Christmas season there was an uptick in people using this media as a means to “ask”.  

The post typically offered a story of hardships, followed by a request for favors, gifts and/or money, and in one case there was a link to an Amazon wish list from which you could choose a gift to send the asker.  Most disturbing was from a person claiming to be a single mom who posted pictures of her daughter, aged 5-7, to make the appeal more dramatic.  Actually, this person posted several appeals with multiple pictures of the little girl.  In a world of crazy and sick evil people I found these ads especially distressing.  While I do not doubt that people have real needs, nor am I assuming these people were simply digital con artists trying to run a scam, there is a greater truth to be uncovered.  

Ours is a small church but this year working in cooperation with another very small church, made up of Hispanic expatriots, we provided dozens of children with coats, blankets, clothes, and toys for Christmas.  We were determined that all the needs made known to their home church would be met.  So, what is the difference?  In a word “Community”!  While we did not know the children personally we were working in the context of community or a fellowship.  Their church ministered to them and their families, their church leaders reached out to us and asked our church leaders to help.  Our church leaders lead our church members to give.  One part of the body of Christ served another.  Our congregation’s giving was a force multiplier for our sister congregation’s ministry.  We don’t have a lot of people who speak Spanish in our church so trying to minister in that community would be extremely difficult.   But native speakers long in that community, but short on resources now have a stronger platform from which to speak.

As a consumer and materialistic society we have, to a great degree, disconnected sharing and community.  A consumer and materialistic society sees others as a means to get what we really want, not for the people that they are.  We in the church need to take this to heart.  The resources we give need to be connected to or shared in the context of a relationship. When I served as a church consultant I once met with a church that did an annual “back to school” backpack give away.  Every child in a particular grade at the local school got a free backpack filled with school supplies.  Their hearts were in the right place, but I will withhold comment about their brains.   They realized there were problems with their plan, one of which was that a lot of the backpacks were thrown away because children from well off families had better backpacks already.  But they pressed on.  When I asked how many families were part of the church because of this ministry I was told, “We had one family visit once.”  Let’s count this for a moment: 4 years + 500 backpacks = one visit.  Where did this fail?  

Giving without a relationship simply doesn’t work.  So, this year, let’s make a point of growing deeper in community and directing our resources to maximize our community influence.

The Last Part of the Christmas Story

The Last Part of the Christmas Story

Opening Questions

Would you like to live in a place where you have lived in the past?  Where, why or why not?

As you look over your life can you see where God has uniquely lead you to one place or another?  What were the circumstances that you can see now but looked very different in that moment?

What is the part of the Christmas story that you think gets the least amount of attention?

Can you tell about a time when a small decision had an extremely large impact later on?

Bible reading and study:   Have someone read Matthew 2:

Looking carefully at verses 19-23 discuss the following questions.

How specific was the angel's instructions regarding where Joseph was to take his family?

What might have been some of the places to which Joseph could have taken Mary and Jesus?

Why did Joseph specifically avoid returning to Bethlehem or Judea? 

What do you know about Archelaus?  

You can learn more here: https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1729-archelaus

What would have been the advantages and disadvantages of settling in Nazareth?

(Don’t forget the advantage of Nazareth being somewhat off the beaten path.  Why might this be important?)

Life Applications

Many times we have a hard time seeing what God is doing in our lives in the moment.  But we can often see His divine care, protection, and guidance in past events in our lives. 

When can you point to God’s providential or specific direction that has helped you follow Him or serve Him more faithfully?  Having freedom is a huge responsibility. What does this mean for the seemingly small decisions we make every day? 

Life is not made up of unrelated events but rather a string of events.  Each moment is effected by the ones before and each is impacting the ones to follow.  That being said, any moment or decision, no matter how seemingly small, has the potential to shape the whole of our life for good or bad. 

 

What are some of the things we can do to make sure each decision draws us closer to God in the days and years to come?

Hugh Ross

Hugh Ross is a Christian astrophysicist who bravely and faithfully shares his faith with non-believers. Some time ago he was invited to present the Christian faith at a convention of Skeptics, read atheist. This was a hostile and aggressive gathering of about 700 committed, hard-core opponents of the Christian faith. 

 

During the encounter he noted that the atheists were only antagonistic toward the God of the Bible, the Christian God. They were indifferent to all other gods. There was not so much as a complaint about the gods. Mr Ross commented on the skeptics' hatred for the Christian God. 

 

The response of the skeptic/atheist was insightful, worrying, and cause for alarm. They said in effect, “We don’t hate the Christian God. We hate His followers.”  They related stories of how they had been hurt by people who claim to be Christians. 

 

This reminds me of the words of Brennan Manning; The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

 

True, some people do not believe because they have never heard. We need to lovingly share the good news with these people. 

 

Some don’t believe it because they have honest doubts that have never been answered. This is, I think, a very small tribe. We need to lovingly hear their hearts, questions, and doubts. And in gentleness and thoughtfulness answer those questions. 

 

There are some former believers who, having fallen into sin, have walked away from the faith because, as Paul said of Demas, ‘having loved the present world’. We must with love and grace honestly challenge them about sin, righteousness, and the judgment to come. 

 

There is also a large community of nonbelievers who have been hurt by mean spirited “Christians”. In such cases, we need to first share that bad believers do not represent Christ. Second, we need to live with such love and grace that in us they might see Christ. 

 

My heart breaks because I can put faces to a couple of these categories. I have watched as a good friend and honest man became very indifferent to the faith because of stupid church politics. I recall a young lady who I watched the evil of a church nearly wreck her faith. She still believes, but she is reluctant about faith. 

 

In my opinion, the wrath of God for a Missalina, Hitler, or Charles Manson will not be so intense as that for a so-called Christian who for whatever selfish reasons wrecks the budding faith of innocent believers. 

Low Budget and Funny

Low Budget and Funny I Hope

 

I am sending you a link to our low budget but hopefully funny commercial.  I hope that it is much funnier than it is low budget but we shall see.

 

Our church would be easy to miss.  Our building is sort of out of the way and we are small in numbers.  What we are wanting to do is empower our people to engage and invite their connections to come to know Christ.  To this end I have made a few simple low budget commercials that we will post on YouTube.  Our people will be asked to post them on their social media platforms asking their friends to post them also. I will also ask our people to engage and invite those who respond positively to explore the claims of Christ with us.

 

The whole point of this exercise is to try to help our people with the first, and often most difficult, step of having spiritual conversations.  If a funny commercial about fried chicken can help us do that then the chicken will not have died in vain.

 

Enjoy

 

An early start on Thanksgiving

(I've not been posting much lately. There is a good reason, and it is good news, but I will save that for another time. For now let me say I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.)

Well, it seems that the holidays are upon us. Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, also known as national day of gluttony, but we won't talk about that. Have you ever noticed that preachers never preach on gluttony the Sunday before Thanksgiving? That being the case, I'm not going to blog about gluttony, at least not this close to Thanksgiving.

However, what I will do is talk about one of the things for which I am especially thankful. I've been in the ministry for a long time. I've had my share of ups and downs in churches. I've had moments of absolute delight and joy. And I have had those moments that felt like I was Julius Caesar in the Senate. At this moment, I have to say I am genuinely thankful that, by God's grace, I serve the congregation I serve.

It struck me this afternoon while I was catching up on Facebook messages and one of the families that had recently been transferred by the Army out of our community gave a recommendation to someone moving into the community, via Facebook, that they needed to check out our congregation. I'm thankful that I serve the kind of congregation that is highly endorsed by its alumni.

This afternoon I went by to see a man who visited our church a few times and had taken a pretty bad fall recently. He wasn't home so I didn't get a chance to visit with him. One of the things I know is that the people from our church checked on him, visited him when he was in the hospital, ran errands for him and are generally helpful. It is a warm feeling in the heart of a pastor when you know that the people in your congregation are doing pastoral care simply because they love others.

Earlier today, I visited a man who is homebound and has a number of health issues that have been lingering for a very long time. I hope that he's getting better and has turned the corner, but I'm not qualified to make that assessment. However, I know that every week or so one of the men of our church goes by to see this fellow, sits, visits, and helps him where he needs help. This man will never be a rockstar, famous personality, or social media influencer. The man from our church goes by and encourages him because Jesus loves this homebound man and so does the fellow who visits him. 

A lady in the church asked if she could have a favor from the congregation. She wanted to host Thanksgiving dinner for extended family and for anyone in the community, but didn't have a place to go on Thanksgiving. She wanted to know if she could use our church building for this occasion. This was not some systematic, strategic, outreach ministry attempt. This was the organic natural expression of love and service of a lady in our congregation for the community and for people who might not have a place to be on Thanksgiving. I had nothing to do with the organization of this. I didn't have to ask or beg people to help. It just happened. All I have to do is show up in the middle of the afternoon and have a piece of pie and a cup of coffee.

Recently, I received from my congregation a pastor appreciation gift bag. The kind notes, sweet and generous gifts moved my heart deeply. But not quite as deeply as the feeling I get when I watch this congregation being the people of God.

Now, don't get the mistaken idea that this is a perfect congregation. We are far from a perfect congregation because we are made up of imperfect people. But we are a group of people that genuinely love the Lord, genuinely love others and express that love in real, tangible ways. And for that I am truly thankful. 

What is in a meal?

What is in a meal is more than just the dishes offered or the ingredients.  It is more than gluten, vegan or low carbs.  What is really important about a meal is the interaction.   I am writing this during the lunch rush at a popular deli. Almost every table has a few people engaged in conversation.  One table has a bunch of foreign nationals who are here attending school.  It is fun to see them chatting in their mother tongue.  It must feel great to have a break from immersion in a foriegn language and hear and speak your home language. At another table a handsome young man and a pretty young lady are not flirting, but the male displays his plumage while the female is pretending not to notice or be impressed.  I can’t really tell if she is impressed or not, neither can the male and I’m not sure if she knows.  There is another table nearby where two tech sorts are pouring over the screen of a laptop while animatedly discussing some point that would be lost on everyone except other tech sorts.  There is a large table in the corner where a group of young soldiers laugh, talk and render to each other good natured harassment.  A wife has just joined her husband, they are young, in love and thrilled with the moment away from work, kids, and other concerns.  They are having a sort of mini-vacation in the middle of the week. There is the young professional that just caught herself sort of dancing from the waist up to the catchy tune on the radio, to the amusement of her tablemates.  

What do they all have in common?  In one way or another and to different degrees, they are all building memories.  Who knows the afterword of the stories.  Maybe the flirting couple will get married and some day confess, “Remember the lunch at….”  The lonely foreign nationals may return home and always remember the oasis of home they shared over a meal.  The tech guys may build the next great O.S.  

Every meal is more than the food.  It is the connection that we make with each other.  It is the connection of laughter and tears, of stories and jokes, it is the holding of babies not your own, and getting a break from your kids.  The power of a shared meal is vital to the life and well-being of a family, a community, or a church.

This Sunday we will have the opportunity to build those kinds of relationships and bonds at church.  Every 5th Sunday of the month is our time to share a meal and in the process share life.  We are far from the ideal church, but every shared meal moves us a little closer in that direction.  Please join us Sunday, bring a dish to share and most of all, bring a heart to open to others and be filled with the grace of God’s people. 

Of big planes and little things

Charles Vernon Boys wanted to build a better scale.  To do that he needed to build a better balance arm.   Boys’ work for a better scale has been overshadowed by his other invention.  Boys believed that glass would make a better balance arm that metals.  Since glass is stronger than steel of the same size, a very fine rod of glass might be the balance arm Boys was looking for.  He developed the tool to make this ultra thin rod.  He created a special crossbow that would fire a glass rod, on end of which was moltan.  The result was a thread of glass.  On one occasion he was able to produce a thread 90 feet long.

Fast forward about 100 years and the Airbus A380 takes to the sky thanks in part to Boys’ discovery.  Rather than a typical aluminum hull, the largest passenger aircraft in the world has a hull composed, in part, of the material Boys discovered and developed.  You used it last night and this past summer and, without knowing it, for most of your life.  But we don’t call it glass rods or glass threads, we know it as fiberglass.  

It is a long way from a single thread of glass to the world wide 12.9 billion pounds produced In 2021.  But that is the point; it had to start somewhere.  There are big results from tiny or what seems to be inconsequential actions.  WE often think we have to do big things and great things and very noticeable things if we are going to make any impact.  That may be more a product of propaganda than of the historic record.  A great many world-shaking discoveries and accomplishments did not begin as a big deal.  

What I am suggesting is that we all should go and do little things, lots of little things.  Do them with grace, love and kindness because you never know what the result might be.  WE have been told to plan and act strategically.  We are to make a point of maximizing our impact through leveraged relationships and opportunities.  I once believed that, but I am having my doubts.  What I do not doubt is that caring relationships are built with small moments, things, words, and deeds.  And it is relationships that really make the greatest impact.  

Sin and a leaking toilet

As many of you know we bought a fixer upper home a little less than two years ago.  It is a wonderful home with, as they say in the business, good bones. However, that was a lot of fixing up to do.  Most of it was a matter of redecoration, but some things were a little more involved.

One of these was a toilet that would rock a little bit.  Now, I love a rocking chair as much as the next guy, but there are times I do not want my seat to rock.  The rocking was progressing and becoming more pronounced.  This manifestation convinced me that I needed to be proactive.  

As I began the process, I discovered that this symptom represented much deeper and more involved problems.  The rocking toilet was an outward manifestation of deeper problems.  The good news is the problem has been resolved.  However, it was not just a matter of wedging a penny under the edge of our porcelain bowl.  I will spare you the details, but I will say it was a job that required a lot of hard work.

As I worked on the project I began to think of it as a parable.  In our lives, and those we know, we often see the manifestation or the outward expression of more deep-seated issues.  We may see aggressive behavior without considering what is the root cause.  The passing sexual innuendo is noted without a thought of what is beneath.  The passion for comfort food is not associated with anything other than the taste we enjoy.

But what is on the surface often reflects something deeper within.  When we start looking deeper we find things we do not like or want to admit.  We realize that it is not just a short fuse, but a sinful, angry spirit or attitude that is the pattern for life.  The meaningless joke is not so meaningless because in our heart we really do believe we are better than others.  

Once we begin to pull back the facade we find there is a lot of hard work to be done to correct the problem.  We peel back one error and discover behind it something else and oftentimes something worse.  Dealing with the sin in our lives is not easy.  God will forgive us, but He respects us too much to violate our freewill and makes us want to be whole and righteous.  That partnership with God in our moving forward requires effort on our part. Sometimes it is hard work.

There is the option of ignoring the little issues of disobedience in our lives that may be indicators of deeper issues.  But, like a rocking toilet, it will only get worse and will one day collapse.  The difference is that having your toilet fall through the floor is a temporary disaster.   Falling through the practice of sin is more painful and can be eternally regretted.

Beware of the experts

Hurricane Ian has clobbered Florida and is about to do more to the coast of South Carolina.  We have been exposed to massive amounts of expert opinion and news coverage about how bad the storm was.  While I do not want to minimize the hardship this storm has caused.  I want to offer a word about the ‘experts’.  

One week ago the storm track had Ian making landfall near St Mark’s in the eastern part of the Florida panhandle.  They missed landfall by about 350 miles.  It was also predicted to be a cat 2 not the major storm it was.  In fact, the storm was supposed to be named Hermine.  But the experts were mistaken and a tropical storm in the Atlantic formed before Ian and took the name Hermine.  Not to mention that, like most years, this was predicted to be more active than usual for tropical storms.  The experts told us that we should expect about 20 named tropical storms, 10 of which would be hurricanes and 3-5 would be major storms (cat 3 or higher) and that the hurricane season would peak in the first 10 days of September.  Remember Colin, Fiona, or Gaston.  No?  I didn’t think you would.  

Now, I am not trying to knock the weather service or say you shouldn’t prepare for natural disasters.  What I am saying is that when the experts make confirmed pronouncements based on the testimony of scientists and their observations, we might want to take that with a grain of salt.  They may have special insights or they may be making guesses. 

When it comes to the pronouncements of secular, social scientists on matters of humanity and moral conduct the possibility of error is even more pronounced,  So, when scientists tell us all life evolved over millions of years, gender can be fluid, sexual standards are mere social constructs, or the Bible is not an accurate history, you may need to have your “I doubt it” warning light go off. 

If the experts were half as good as they thought they were, they would be ten times better than they are.  If they were 1/1000 as accurate as the Word of God, they would be perhaps 100 times better than their track record indicates. 

 

Shark sightings in impossible places

Some years ago there was an unbelievable spike in the number of shark sightings. Sharks were being seen in numbers that were absolutely unprecedented and in locations which they had never been noticed before. It was an unbelievable increase in the number of sharks.

Not only were there more shark sightings than ever before, sharks were showing up in places where they had never been seen before. There were even shark sightings in freshwater rivers. On one occasion, there was a shark sighting in a river 120 miles inland. This sighting indicated that the shark had swam upstream, had actually crossed over a number of rapids and had jumped up a falls.

What was causing this incredible increase in the number of shark sightings? Was it a dramatic change in shark populations? Perhaps it involved a food dynamic in the oceans. Possibly there were larger and more aggressive predators in the deep waters causing sharks to come in close to the coastline and even into rivers.

The actual reason turned out to have little or nothing to do with oceanography or with the environment of the oceans’ ecosystems. The reason for all the shark sightings occurred in the study of one Peter Benchley. In 1974, Benchley wrote his first novel which became a best seller and was, in 1975, the summer blockbuster movie Jaws.  The sightings of all those sharks were the result of a movie that captivated audiences and captured imagination. After the movie Jaws, people were seeing sharks everywhere even in places where it was utterly impossible for sharks to be.

Which brings to mind this question, “What captures your imagination?”  “What dreams and goals do you have?”  Here is another question to think about, “What do you think captured the imagination of Jesus?”   If you came across Jesus alone looking at the night sky and asked, “What are you thinking about?” What might He say?  Before the universe began he thought of you and all you could be.  In the mind of the Creator were countless galaxies, but there was also you.  He thought about the rings of Saturn and the hairs on your head.  He may have thought of all the wonderful and loving things you could do.  Perhaps that is what needs to capture our imagination, the thoughts of the eternal Son for us before time began.  Maybe then we will better see what God is doing in the world around us and everywhere that we can join in.  It is better than seeing sharks.   

Do we tolerate bad priorities in our lives?

If you will tell me what choices you make, I will tell you what your priorities are.   There are times that we will say things are our priorities, but the choice is that our lives do not reflect those kinds of priorities.

Unfortunately, too many people who claim to be disciples of Christ live lives that do not reflect Christ and His kingdom as their priority. Let me share with you a funny and sad story about choices that reflect different priorities.

One day my secretary came to me and said that several of the women of the church were going to be going over the weekend for a women's retreat. I was pleased. I imagined them going to the church camp and spending the weekend in prayer, Bible study, and perhaps even fasting. What actually happened was about eight of the young mothers in the church went to Orlando and stayed in a hotel so that they could go to the first available viewing of the latest part of the Twilight saga. It was going to be a midnight showing on an IMAX screen, and they didn’t think they would be able to drive home and come to church.  So, the “women’s retreat” Twihards were willing to ditch gathering with their brothers and sisters in Christ and worshiping the Lord in order to watch an incredibly stupid movie.

Now don't start saying Charlie hates Twilight. On second thought, you can say that.  It is in my opinion one of the most repulsive, idiotic, film series in the history of humanity and I would rather go to the dump and shoot rats than watch even one episode. But even if it were a great film like  “Lord of the Rings” or “Schindler's List”, ditching worship in order to watch a movie with friends reflects skewed priorities.

I don’t believe a person is saved or lost because of their attendance in worship.  I do not believe that church people should be treated like a captive audience and those who lead churches can expect or demand attendance or participation.  What I do believe is that the Gospel is the best news ever.  I believe the Bible is compelling and amazing.  I believe a Biblical worldview is supremely elegant and beautiful.  I believe that the smartest person in all of human history, Jesus Christ, has plenty to say for us today.  And I believe that for everyone who is a disciple of Jesus, because He is so wonderful and His grace is so amazing, it would be silly to allow anything to take priority over worshiping Him and being with His people.  There is nothing better.

Perhaps we need to rethink our priorities. 

Dreams

Being a preacher I suppose that it is expected that most of my dreams are about church.  I would estimate that about 80% of my dreams are related in one way or another to life in church and ministry.  Some are the pleasant dreams of being with people from church in worship or specific church activities.  I have a sort of recurring dream in which I am unprepared but have something I am supposed to do.  In these dreams I will be getting ready to preach and can’t find my Bible or notes, or I have come to a formal church setting and I’m wearing jeans and a tee shirt. I have the opposite dream in which I’m formally dressed and everyone is wearing beach attire.

I have another recurring dream, in fact, I had a version of it last night.  I was at a big steeple church (a large prominent church in a downtown area) that was in serious decline.  There were the forms of worship and the rituals of church life carried on by a few angry and disgruntled people, but no life or joy.  The theme of these dreams seems to be “Make our congregation great again”.  In these dreams there is an angry expectation that the congregation will again be big and powerful and imposing so that the people can be proud of being a part of this church.  Typically, in these dreams there is one person who personifies the whole congregation.  They are physically large with a strong, dominant personality, but a near complete lack of grace.  In last night’s version, this dominant personality was insisting that the church open a casino and brothel in order to attract larger crowds.  (I think this part was influenced by a book I am currently reading that offers some pretty critical thoughts about the current American church).  As my conflict with this person escalated I woke up to realize it was just a dream and that I was not going back to sleep. I went to my study and began the day a little earlier than usual.  

Two things happened after I woke up.  First was my daily reading including Jesus’ life verse, Isaiah 61:1-3

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

Because the Lord anointed me

To bring good news to the humble;

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

To proclaim release to captives

And freedom to prisoners;

To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord

And the day of vengeance of our God;

To comfort all who mourn,

 

To grant those who mourn in Zion,

Giving them a garland instead of ashes,

The oil of gladness instead of mourning,

The cloak of praise instead of a disheartened spirit.

So they will be called oaks of righteousness,

The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. 

Jesus fulfilled this passage in His first body, the one born in Bethlehem, and He wants to do it through His second body, the one born on Pentecost, the church.  This doesn’t require great attendance on Sundays, nor an impressive building downtown with a big steeple.  The inadequacies or perceived inadequacies that any congregation may have, need not prevent it from being the Body of Christ where she is.  We can, at times, be too impressed by things that really make no difference in actually being the Body of Christ.  In fact, wherever we go today we can live out Jesus’ life verse.  

The second thing that dawned on me was how thankful I am for Crossroads.  We are far from a perfect congregation.  If we chose to, we could make a list of everything wrong with our church, beginning with “The preacher”.  That list would go on to include everyone and everything.  We like to say that ‘we want to be a place for less than perfect people’.  That is because that is who and what we are.  We are far from being perfect, far from being all we need or want to be, but I am thankful for these people who are committed to see “Thy Kingdom come and Thy will be done” in our imperfect lives and congregation.

 Early in the 1900’s, a bigshot businessman was on his way home to New York City.  He walked into a small town train station, looked around with some contempt and sarcastically asked the station manager, “Is this Grand Central Station?”  Without looking up from his book the manager said, “No, this isn’t Grand Central Station.  But you are on the right track.”  Crossroads may have a way to go but, “we are on the right track”.  For that I am thankful, very, very thankful.