James Spiegel gives some insights on what it means for a Christian to be open minded.
Ryan Nelson lists 10 things that every youth leader should know.
Holly Ordway gives five tips for Christian writers.
J. Warner Wallace uses a wallet and a dollar to illustrate an argument for the existence of God.
Kevin DeYoung provides five tips for leading your small group.
A young man came up to Jesus and asked him what on the surface seems like a simple question, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
The man just teed it up for Jesus to give him a list of what he needs to do. It was a perfect opportunity to tell the man all he needed to know about eternal life and how to get it. The man left the door wide open for Jesus to give him the list.
Notice that Jesus did not immediately call the man to do anything.
We are really good at giving people stuff to do so that they progress in their faith. Pray this prayer. Read this book. Go to meetings, fill out this workbook, the list of things that we could advise people to do is a long one. We are trained to give a doctrinally correct list of what needs to be done to respond to the Gospel and inherit eternal life.
All the things that we might put on the are potentially good things, but Jesus has a higher priority for this man’s life.
Jesus asks the man, “why do you call me good?”
In other words, before Jesus deals with the behavior of the man, he knows he first needs to deal with the man at his core. Jesus needs to help the young man explore his motivations and what drives him.
The core issue is whether the man recognizes Jesus for who he is and will the man submit to Jesus.
In Evangelical circles (at least the ones that I’ve been in), this type of challenge to a potential convert is unlikely to happen. The danger in this is that without challenging who we are and, more importantly, why we are who we are, it is less likely that real spiritual growth will take place.
Perhaps instead of leading someone immediately in the sinner’s prayer, maybe we should follow Jesus’ example and probe a little deeper as to where our potential convert is coming from. Maybe we should seek to understand what it is that the man really wants and how the Gospel then speaks to what he really needs.
Maybe we should ask why.
“Everyone needs Jesus don’t they?,” you might ask. Yes, I believe they do, but they need the real Jesus who will meet them where the real need is, at the core of a man’s heart. Jesus needs to meet him where his wants, hurts and fears begin. Jesus wants to meet him where the fight vs. flight reflex starts.
I am not saying that if a man, woman or child wants to pray a prayer of repentance that we should hold them off until more questions are asked. What I am saying is that we should not rush someone into that prayer. Real evangelism has to be something more than four laws and “would you like to pray this prayer?”
Why?” is a hard and unsettling question. We don’t always know why, but perhaps we should start asking.
I can think of four reasons why church leaders cause division over non-essentials:
It is all too common to find those who feel superior to those who do not properly understand doctrine. If I am honest, I must admit that my inner Pharisee seeks to move me toward such feelings. It is easy to become proud.
Yet, this is not how we see Jesus and the Apostle Paul functioning in the New Testament. Yes, they taught and argued to bring people to a correct understanding of doctrine, but one does not sense in either Jesus or Paul any attitude that would promote division over non-essential doctrine. If anything, one senses feelings of sorrow over those who misunderstand the Gospel.
Paul points to Jesus as the example of one who humbled himself for the purpose of bringing us to salvation. The very Gospel that is to unite us was made possible by Jesus’ example of humility. To the Philippians Paul wrote:
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5–11, ESV)
Those who promote division often have a misunderstanding of what it means to be set apart. Jesus told us that his coming would result in disagreement rather than peace. Jesus also told us that his followers would have to endure persecution.
But we should not be seeking the disagreement, it may find us, but it should be something that we try to avoid. If an offense is to come, let it be the offense of the gospel and not the offense of those who seek to speak in God’s name. We don’t need to take hard stands on issues such as the preferred Bible translation, or wearing of cosmetics or many of the really silly things that have divided believers over the years.
Jesus told us that the defining mark of the Christian is to be love. If anything is to set us apart from others it should be the radical way we love those around us.
I have seen in some a need to be reassured of being part of the “in” group. The insecurity manifests itself by setting up doctrinal litmus tests to see who is in and who is out. This could be over eschatology (the study of last things – interpretation of prophecy) or some other doctrine that is set up as the test for orthodoxy.
When I look at who hung around Jesus, I have to marvel that churches work so hard at defining who is in and who is not. Jesus hung around with drunkards, hookers, thieves, terrorists and every other category of societal outcast. The one and only test for inclusion into his group was a love for Jesus.
Why then do we feel the need to quantify who is in and who is not? Jesus knows. Can the knowledge that Jesus knows be enough for us?
I love Scripture. I spend time reading it and studying it so that I am on a path of increasing understanding of how God intends me to live and how I should understand the world around me. I believe that this study will lead me into correct belief and practice.
But there is a danger for those who put high value on correct understanding of the Bible. Our desire for correct understanding can eclipse our love for the one who gave us Scripture. In other words, we can be so enamored with correct understanding, we can lose sight of the purpose for gaining that understanding. Our study is to draw us more deeply in love with the God who gave us the Bible.
When our love for correct belief causes us to be unloving toward someone who believes differently, then perhaps we have made an idol out of our doctrine.
Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that our hearts can lead us astray. When division comes, the first place we should look for blame is in our own hearts. Am I causing division out of pride, misunderstanding, insecurity or idolatry? Am I working to be the cause of resolution to the division or am I promoting it?
Unfortunately, the world around us thinks of the church as judgmental and contentious. May we begin to allow God to change our hearts so that we can be known for our love?
I’ve been thinking about my post of 5 days ago regarding division in the church and feel the need to clarify something. Unity in the church does not equate to uniformity. We should not all look the same inside the church because the people in the culture around us are not all the same. Within the bounds of correct belief and practice is the opportunity for diversity.
I understand that diversity has become almost a technical term for support of LGBT rights, but I will use the word anyway.
Dictionary.com defines diversity this way:
We do not all like the same kind of music, a particular preaching style will appeal to some and not others. Some enjoy the opportunities that large congregations provide and some like small gatherings. Some like liturgy and others are put off by it. You get the idea, there is room for the exercise of preference within the church. We should embrace diversity.
Diversity in the church is a good thing, we are to make the gospel understandable to all people. We need to be diverse in our approach to the culture around us.
So, the traditional church should not be smug about its adherence to tradition. The church that exercises freedom in worship should not feel itself superior to the “stuffy” churches around them.
The Apostle Paul addressed this in the Corinthian Church. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul takes them to task for allowing the use of the gifts of the spirit to cause division in the church. It was wrong then and it remains so now. Read 1 Corinthians 12-14 to understand Paul’s response to the Corinthian Church.
I worship at a church that does not place high value on liturgy and tradition. But that should not prevent us from working with churches in the area that are big on tradition. If we are united in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our diversity in expression should not cause animosity between us.
We should be able to work together to bring the Gospel to our community in its various expressions. We should be able to give opportunity to draw people to Christ in a worship style that is appealing to them. Again I turn to Paul’s letter to the Corinthians where Paul states:
“To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9:20–23, ESV)
The point is that we should allow for diversity of expression so that we can present the message of Jesus Christ to the culture around us. We can be unified in our message of the Gospel while being diverse in our expression.
Diversity is a good thing.
