Whatever we have been doing it hasn’t been working!

The picture of American Christianity is not bright and in some cases it is pretty bleak.  Ask yourself this question, “How easy is it to find a deeply committed disciple of Jesus Christ?”  I am not talking about someone who professes that they believe in Jesus, or someone who wants God’s blessings, or is engaged for an hour, more or less, in a religious service. Rather, think of a person whose life is authentically looking more and more like Jesus.  They have the same joy, love, kindness, and heart that Jesus had. Paul advised to no longer be conformed to this world, but to be transformed.  How frequently do we see that transformation taking place?  By the way, this transformation is much more than simply religious behavior modification.  

We can make excuses, but in our own lives, in our churches and in our homes we often do not reflect the life of a person who is completely committed to know, love, learn from, and imitate Jesus.  When it comes to the decline of the American church we can debate endlessly what happened, when it happened, who is to blame for it happening or why it happened.  I have seen some content producers whose sole effort seems to revolve around listing and complaining about what is wrong.  That is very tempting and it is pretty easy to do.  But it is not especially effective.  If it were effective in making disciples, we might see some progress and improvement.  What we see are people who agree with each other spending more time following and watching each other.  

So, what do we do?  For my part, I am going to focus in the coming year on five key areas in my life, teaching and ministry.  Hopefully, my personal devotions, sermons, leadership, public and private life, conversations will focus on these key areas.  Some directly, some indirectly, but I intend that in everything I do it will come back to one of these five things, things I want to emphasize in my ministry and my personal life.  This should have been the case all along; I have become distracted and I believe without these focuses the way forward is pretty grimm.  

In the weeks ahead, I plan on exploring each of these in greater detail but for the moment we will suffice with a brief overview.

Be a self-learner of God.  There are two dangers for every disciple in the area of being a learner.  One is to allow someone else to be the sole source of learned material.  Think of the person who attends services, but never reads or studies the Bible on their own.  The second danger is when we rely on what we learned in the past, in some cases the distant past.  Think of the person who has never added to what they learned in their early years as a Christian.  I hope the day I stop learning is never.

Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. We have all heard the true cliche, “It is better to have the Holy Spirit in us than Jesus beside us.”  That is true, Jesus Himself said so.  But if we ignore the Holy Spirit, His presence is no advantage for us.  I want to learn to be and to actually be more sensitive to the promptings and leading of God’s Spirit.  This is not unrelated to learning, but also includes things such as silence and active listening/application.  

Holy living.  Holy living is much more than not doing things.  That will simply lead to legalism and endless arguments over details.  While there are some things that should never be in a holy life the objective of a holy life is to be like God.  This covers a whole spectrum of things such as love, joy, creativity to name a few.  Holy living is not just doing, holy living is being and enjoying the company of others, specifically God.

Be a person of prayer.  Prayer is, in my opinion and experience, the most difficult of Chrisitian disciplines.  In part, because we often select one aspect of prayer and act as if it is all there is to prayer.  It is also hard because we want to do stuff and praying feels like we are being inactive.  But beyond asking for stuff and for forgiveness, prayer has a wide variety of expressions.  As the old timers used to say, “Work is prayer”.  We need to broaden our understanding of prayer, but not just talk about it, practice and live it.

Sharing my faith.  Evangelism is at the core of the Good News.  However, we have allowed our desire to help people make decisions, while we have failed to explain that they are deciding to be a disciple, not just a believer.  I (we) need to reorder our thinking so that we call people to follow Jesus, not just let Him save them.  This is perhaps one of the hardest challenges we must face.

I am not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions, but this does seem to be a good time to stop, think and look for better ways, because what we have been doing has not been working.  

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.