Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Commission and commands – Priorities for the Church

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When thinking of the mission of the church, many will take the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) as a starting point. In that commission, Jesus tells us to make disciples by baptizing them and teaching them. It is succinct and speaks directly to the issue. This is a good launch point for the mission of the church.

But this mission must be evaluated against something that Jesus said earlier in his ministry as being foundational. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus tells us that the two Great Commands are to love God and love your neighbor. He further states that “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Disciples have to be made by people who first love God with their entire beings. The disciple making process cannot be our first love. “Soul winning” results cannot be our first love. Being in connection with people cannot be our first love. Disciple makers must first and foremost be those who love God.

Secondly, disciples are made by people who love people unconditionally. Not with a mushy anything-goes love, but with a dynamic (root meaning – powerful) love that draws people into relationship and makes them better.

Since these are the two Great Commands, since Jesus tells us that upon these commands all of Scripture depends, then I doubt that they can be over emphasized. I do not think that we can talk about them too much.

Disciples are not made by methods. Sure there are programs that have helped people explain their faith better. There is nothing wrong with being organized or using tools such as the wordless book. But we must remember that the tools and the programs do not bring people into relationship with Jesus Christ.

Followers of Jesus Christ bring people into relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus does the saving, the believers make the introduction.

If you have seen my avatar on this blog or on a social network, you will immediately see that I am bald. If I let my hair grow out I would have an inverse Mohawk, a little on the sides and nothing on top. If I knocked on your door selling hair restoration oil, would you buy it from me? No, wisdom would dictate that you would not buy it since it is obviously not working.

In the same way, if we are not living out the two commands to love God and love our neighbors then why should anyone listen to our Gospel presentation? It is only when we live it out that it can be seen as good news.

I sometimes wonder if we did a better job of living out the two Great Commands, would we need to do altar calls? Would we need to sing one more verse of “Just as I Am” to let a few more come forward?

I know I’m being a little bit snarky here, but I’m trying to make a point. We sometimes put the cart before the horse. We work so hard at bringing people into the Kingdom only to have them find it a little bit run down when they arrive. We haven’t always maintained our first and most important love.

Lee Iacocca said, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Evangelism isn’t the main thing, Jesus is. We need to keep our priorities straight.

Quality vs. quantity – thoughts on building the church

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Gold BarsAccording to The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), we are called to make disciples. In those churches which are concerned about making disciples, I have observed that many of them gauge their success based on numbers of people in attendance. When this happens the emphasis is on quantity and not quality of the disciples.

Do we act as if there a quality component to making disciples? What does it really mean to make a disciple? Is it enough to get them to pray a prayer, give them a Bible and get them baptized?

The words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 come to mind:

10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

I notice that Paul is making reference to the quality of the construction, not the quantity. A small amount of gold is worth more than a large amount of hay. The focus is on the inherent properties of the material, not on how much building was accomplished.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:23, that the only thing of ultimate value that we build into other people is a relationship with Jesus. Furthermore, Jesus teaches us in Matthew 22:38-39 that the two great commands are to love God with our entire being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. It’s all about relationships, both vertical and horizontal.

The work that equates to gold, silver and precious stones would be that work which builds in men and women the drive and the skills to fulfill these two great commands. The ability of the disciple to fulfill these two commands is the test by which good or bad workmanship is determined.

I have been in large churches where people were loving and relational. I have been in small churches that were cold and aloof. I have been in churches where a great preacher drew large crowds but there was little interaction between the people who attended the church. What makes the difference?

The difference is a leader and leadership team that works to put the two commands into practice and actively seeks to build relationships with people in the congregation. If the leadership team is functioning in fellowship and then each leader functions in fellowship with others outside the leadership team, then the fellowship radiates through the church like spokes on a wheel.

One hour of one-on-one or small group interaction over a passage of Scripture does more good than ten hours of instruction from the pulpit. In that small group or one-on-one interaction, the emphasis is on quality, on building well. In the large group setting the emphasis is on numbers, on drawing more people in.

Leaders: in your quest to build your congregations, please do not get enamored with quantity and sacrifice quality. Build relationships which facilitate growth and spiritual maturity.

Your final grade depends on it.

Faithfulness – The currency of God’s economy

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Cash RegisterThings took a turn for the worse in King Saul’s life when he allowed jealousy to creep into his relationship with David. From reading the account of Saul’s life in 1 Samuel, we know that Saul’s decline and ultimate downfall were his own fault.

Three turning points are presented where Saul took the wrong path leading to a disastrous result. Saul reached a turning point . . .

  1. When he became impatient waiting for Samuel and performed the office of priest (1 Samuel 13:8-14). It was at this point that Saul was informed that his dynasty would not last.
  2. When he disobeyed God’s command with regard to the Amalekites by allowing spoils to be taken and leaving King Agag alive. Saul used the excuse that the spoils were to be used as sacrifices to God. In response, Samuel told Saul, “to obey is better than sacrifice.” (1 Samuel 15:22)
  3. When Saul started becoming jealous of David as a result of the women of the city ascribing victory over ten thousands to David and only ascribed thousands to Saul as recorded in 1 Samuel 18:8.

It is this third turning point which hit home this morning.

God does not allow each of us to have the same results. This is true in our monetary economy and it is also true in God’s spiritual economy. We all have equal opportunity to serve God, but we will not all enjoy the same level of success. As is noted in point number two above, obedience and faithfulness are what God values, yet it is easy to lose sight of this as did Saul. When comparing ourselves to others who have had larger impact, there is the potential to feel jealous, inadequate or feel like we are doing something wrong. When we look at the results and not at the call, then discouragement can set in.

Should the preacher at the small church quit because there is a mega church down the street that is drawing in thousands? Should the writer of a blog with small readership stop writing because there are so many others who seem to have a larger audience? Should the missionary quit because he has seen so few people come to Christ? If they are indeed doing what God has called them to do, then the preacher, blogger and missionary should not quit, they should press on.

God has called us to faithfulness and we must learn to leave the results to him. After a moment of reflection on this, it can be seen that God is not dependent upon us to accomplish his will. The outcome of God’s program is not determined by our success or failure. The results are not in our hands. Yet, he chooses to use us.

The currency in God’s economy is faithfulness, not results. Am I doing what God has called me to do? If so, then I can be satisfied with my results, no matter how they stack up numerically as compared to others.

Truth Whack-A-Mole – Follow-up to a comment

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Whack-a-moleIn a comment on my blog post entitled Truth Whack-A-Mole a question was raised about Jesus’ claims to divinity. You can read the entire comment, but below is a snippet and my response.

I agree with C.S. Lewis that he was either lying, delusional, or the son of God. I have in the back of my mind that there’s a fourth option, that Jesus did not claim all of the things about himself that his disciples and Paul wrote about…maybe that Jesus was glorified after the fact

Chuck Colson uses the Watergate conspiracy as an illustration of the unlikelihood of the disciples and early church leaders of inventing this story. Mr. Colson points out that soon after the Watergate conspiracy began some of the conspirators revealed the truth to save their own hides. Contrast this with the Apostles who (with the exception of John) all went to a martyr’s death because of their claims about Jesus. It is a remarkable thing that someone would surrender his life for the sake of the truth. It is preposterous to think that all of them would go to their deaths for a lie.

The question I have is what would be the motivation for them to invent this Jesus if in reality he was less than what they claimed? Did the lie get them riches or influence? No, it brought them persecution and martyrdom. Was it wishful thinking on their part? If so then they were delusional.

This leads to a further unlikelihood – that of a whole lot of people sharing the same delusion and being willing to die for it. The church in its entirety faced persecution for the first 300 years of its existence. It is hard to imagine that this persecution would be endured for a lie.

In my mind, this whole line of questioning leads to an evaluation of the resurrection. The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:5–8 made the following claims:

“and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

Paul most likely wrote 1 Corinthians in the early 50’s which was approximately 20 years after Jesus’ death. Were he to have penned a lie, there would have been people available to refute the lie. Paul even indicates that many of the 500 witnesses were still alive. Paul’s readers had the means available to verify the truth of these claims.

If you rule out the possibility of resurrection, then the only conclusion you can draw is that either Jesus or his disciples were delusional. If however, you are open to the possibility of Jesus being “declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4), then a cohesiveness of the data can be seen.

If Jesus was delusional and his followers cooked up a legend about him, then he is powerless to save either himself or any part of humanity, noble intentions or no. But, on the other hand, if he is who he said he is, if he was proved to be God through his resurrection, then I have hope that tomorrow can be better than today. I cling to that hope, not despite the facts, but with their support.

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