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Is Christianity too easy in America?

admin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 01:05:19 +0000

There are a couple quotes that God has used lately to examine how my heart views Christianity in America:

“we believe in Jesus enough to get us out of hell but not actually enough to change the way we live and that’s a problem” – Craig Groeschel

“Jesus Christ didn’t just die on the cross so we can just say a prayer and live however we want” – Perry Noble

I see both of these attitudes in our towns, our cities and in our churches. We live for Jesus enough to feel that we are getting by, but we don’t live as if we truly believe that Jesus meant what he said in Matthew 28. He told us to go into all nations proclaiming His name to everyone of every nation, tribe, and tongue. We often live as if we don’t trust that Jesus really said that He is with us until the end of the age. We don’t trust Him enough to go across the street, let alone across the world. Why?

The world is watching us. They are watching to see if we are willing to gloriously fail while growing under the grace of God, or quietly shrivel away under the fear of rejection.

Are you willing to truly live as the power of prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit is as real and present as the Bible tells us?

We have a generation that is is withering on the vine for lack of workers willing to step out of the church building to gather the harvest that Christ promised if we faithfully and obediently show up to do His will.

Make a decision. Are you in?

Safe.

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:54:28 +0000

We like safety. We do things to make our life easy. We like easy. Church looks nice when it is easy. Smiling faces. Shallow conversation. Sports. Weather. News. Kids. Everyone is great. We work hard not to go too far. We don’t want to give up too much, other people might think we’re strange. People we feel safe around.

I have really been convicted in the last couple weeks about the church’s desire for safety. I am tired of safe, easy church. One of my greatest fears and convictions about the modern church in North America is that Christ would be so sickened by our actions and lack of action that he would spit, spew, vomit us out of his mouth (Revelation 3:20). Francis Chan reminds us that this passage is written to believers, to the church.

The church of Laodicea was a safe church. They had everything they needed. God had blessed their area with prosperity through banking, fashion, and a medical training school. They had become dependent on the things God had blessed them with instead of God Himself! Christ called this church poor, blind, and naked! The language of the passage paints a picture of the church making God physically ill. I do not want that for the church I’m a part of or the North American church as a whole.

We talk a good game about what God is doing in persecuted churches, and that we desire for God to grow our churches, but are we truly prepared for what that might mean? I am not sure that the majority of the churches in America could survive if driven underground. I don’t know how many could even survive a major disaster such as what has happened in Haiti.

The other day, I heard Tim Schmoyer from studentministry.org tell about his trip to Haiti. In the midst of this unspeakable disaster, they are experiencing true revival in Haiti. One of the native pastors they met with told Tim that they have been praying that God would do whatever He needed to do to bring the people back to Him. Are we prepared to make that declaration in America? Honestly, the uncertainty of the outcome of that prayer scares me more than a little.

Where is radical thinking among churches? Are we truly working to bring in a revolution that builds and encourages God’s people into falling face-down in awe and reverence to the God that created us and loved us enough to send His only Son to die for us? What are we doing that is so different that people cannot help but notice? I fear that well-intentioned youth pastors and pastors have perpetuated the condition of comfort in our churches (myself included). We have done it with shallow, slick, easy, messages that fail to call people into the dangerous unknown. Do we even know where that is ourselves? We cannot lead students where we have not been, nor where we fear to go. Do we still believe that God can truly bring revival into the context of what we’ve made church today? Are we willing as a church to make whatever changes out of a compelling fear and love for Christ to keep from being spit out, separated, removed from God’s plan. Are you in? It will not be a safe choice.

Open Response to Justin Wise on Negotiables….

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:43:19 +0000

I am willing and able to say that Christ’s church is big enough for some disagreement. I want to let it be known that I will not be making a common practice of doing this kind of post. However, this time I am responding…

Today, Justin Wise (@justinwise) at BeDeviant.com posted an article about Negotiables. I agree that it is very important to flesh out our beliefs to make our faith our own. Paul talks about “working out our salvation with fear and trembling”. However, I see many young leaders in our ranks that seem to be questioning just to question. I have a strong preference to be on the “Paul side” of Mars Hill, as opposed to the “Men of Athens side”. There is a difference. Paul knew Christ’s message of the Gospel in a clear, concise manner without question. The Men of Athens left everything open to question. I am truly disturbed by some of the things that are being left open to question in this article.

Evolution. My faith has grown to accommodate the reality that evolution of certain species can be, and is, possible. The end, of it.

While I will concede that it’s hard to get a full consensus even within my own denomination, I have a hard time buying into the theory that was conceived for the purpose of discounting/eliminating God’s role in creation. My question was never a question of did God really create all this in 6 days, it’s more of question of what His purpose was in taking that long, since He could have spoke it all into immediate existence. There’s got to be something we miss there.

Jesus as Anglo-American. The reality is that Jesus looked a lot more like Osama bin Laden than he does a white man with long hair, wearing a bathrobe and clutching a lamb. I had previously held this as a non-negotiable unintentionally. When I ask, “What does Jesus look like?” and you think of a white man, it’s an unintentional non-negotiable for you too!

I’ll agree with you here. Culturally and Biblically it fits.

Inerrancy of Scripture. The modern notion of inerrancy is poisonous. There, I said it. To suggest that we (English speakers) have somehow “nailed” the intricacies of both the Greek and Hebrew language is dangerous. As any bi-lingual person knows, when you translate between two languages, something gets “lost in translation.” I believe that God accurately conveyed the meaning that he intended to in the pages of Scripture. To suggest that somehow there are no flaws in our translations is false. (Why do you think the New Living Translation has a ’second edition’?) Unless you can read Greek and Hebrew (and even those translations are built on the efforts of human beings), you are missing something in translation. Simply put, the Bible did not drop out of heaven with a leather-bound spine and footnotes.

Inerrancy is not poisonous, it is absolutely crucial if we are to stand against the false watered down doctrine that world tries to shove down our throats every day. Failing to proclaim the doctrine of Scriptural Inerrancy is to open up Christ’s church to even more of a religious smorgasbord than what we have today. If I don’t like a teaching that’s in the Bible, I can simply claim error (from a God I might see as perfect) and it no longer applies to me. Too convenient if you ask me. Do we have it word for word perfect form the original languages? I am not a Hebrew of Greek scholar that can answer that. But I can tell you that we have the commands, doctrines, truths, and lessons of God’s Word in a manner that is understandable, unmistakable, and without question as to how we are to live our lives. Are the true meanings preserved and without contradiction? Absolutely.

Non-Negotiables

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. As far as I can tell from the entirety of Scripture, this is one of the only non-negotiables the writers of Scripture put forth. As St. Paul put it, “if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world.” Paul is “all-in” regarding Jesus’ death and resurrection. So am I. And that’s about it.

Agreed. with one point to add in support. John 14:6 - Jesus is the only way to the Father, the only way to Salvation, and Eternal Life. I make this important distinction in light of a recent article from Albert Mohler. It pains me to think that a denomination with much history and promise has denigrated to the point that not all of their ministers even seem to believe in the same Jesus that I read about in the Gospels and follow.

Majorities of all groups indicated agreement with the statement, “There is life beyond death.” But the most significant theological question concerned the exclusivity of the Gospel and the necessity of belief in Jesus Christ for salvation. On that question there was great division, with over a third (36%) of PCUSA church members indicating that they “disagree” or “strongly disagree” with the statement that “only followers of Jesus Christ can be saved.”

Among ministers, the division is even more apparent, with 45% of pastors disagreeing with that statement and fully 60% of specialized clergy disagreeing. Roughly 20% of both pastors and specialized clergy reported themselves “neutral or unsure” about the question.

Only 43% of church members disagreed or strongly disagreed with the claim that “all the world’s religions are equally good ways of helping a person find ultimate truth.”

Statistics like this encourage me that we have a high calling to teach and preserve all the truth given from God’s word, regardless of whether it makes us uncomfortable or under conviction.

Let the Discussion continue…

Doctrine, What Doctrine?

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:48:45 +0000

Last month the Pew Forum released part of their US Religious Landscape Survey. I found some parts of overview troubling, especially the amount of Eastern Mysticism within the Protestant Faiths. for example:

Compared with other religious traditions, white evangelical Protestants consistently express lower levels of acceptance of both Eastern beliefs (reincarnation, yoga) and New Age beliefs (spiritual energy in physical things and astrology). For example, roughly one-in-ten white evangelicals believes in reincarnation, compared with 24% among mainline Protestants, 25% among both white Catholics and those unaffiliated with any religion, and 29% among black Protestants. Similarly, 13% of white evangelicals believe in astrology, compared with roughly one-quarter or more among other religious traditions. There are few differences among religious traditions in belief in the “evil eye,” though black Protestants stand out for high levels of belief on this question (32%).

Translation to Midwest Baptist church application: 1 out of every 4 people who walk in the doors of your church and claim to be Christians have no stinking clue what they really believe. Looks like those in charge of discipleship in the church have a big project ahead of them. [Link to full report]

Boring Church Anyone?

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:55:20 +0000

Sometimes defining leadership can be as easy as nailing Jell-o to a wall….

I’ve been reading, studying and praying (not in that order,,,) about leadership in the last few weeks while working with our church’s Lead Team for 2010/2011’s planning and vision meetings. I ran across this article on how to ensure a boring church. I think that what we default to what is comfortable and God does not call us to be comfortable. He calls us to turn this world upside down for His glory….[Link via PerryNoble.com]