Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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The same power

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This past weekend, I sang these words at a men’s retreat:

“The same power that rolled the stone away,
the same power alive in us today”

PowerThese words got under my skin as I thought about them. I agree that they are true, I agree that Jesus has demonstrated that power to us. But singing them brought up some questions in my mind.

Why then, do I often feel so helpless?

Why then, is my prayer life so anemic?

Why then, do I live as if that power does not exist?

On one hand, I want to avoid the presumption that is displayed by the prosperity teachers peering at me with their toothy grins from their best-selling books. God is not a cosmic vending machine that will give me what I want if I put in the request inputs of faith and positive confession. God does not necessarily want me to be materially wealthy or financially successful.

But on the other hand, my actions display the weakness of my faith.

My favorite prayer in the Gospels is recorded in Mark 9:24, where a father cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Perhaps that is the best starting point for a prayer session. For me it is an honest one.

All around me are situations that need the intervention of God for any good result to happen. In my circle of acquaintance, I could list many situations that are hopeless, or nearly hopeless without a miracle.

The one thing that is true about what the prosperity teachers present is that we should be boldly asking God for what we want. Where they go off track is losing sight of who is to get the glory from the granting of the request.

I should be boldly approaching God (Ephesians 3:12) for the needs I see around me. I should not be doing this for my comfort or for my benefit, but I should be doing this so that God gets the glory for what he has done.

I am not helpless.

My prayer life does not need to be anemic.

I can live as though the Creator of the universe remains in control and wants to intervene to bring glory to his name.

Please excuse me as I go to prayer . . .

The reason for our existence

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The reason for our existence“The greatest danger of any organization is to lose sight of its reason for existence. This is especially true for the church. A number of years ago someone posted on the front door of a Washington, DC area church a sign that read, ‘Going out of business.’ Not long after the sign was posted someone added these words, ‘We never really knew what our business was.’”

I discovered this paragraph while reading Mark Howell’s commentary on 1 & 2 Thessalonians.

Howell goes on to give statistics about how many churches close every year despite the plethora of church growth books and strategies, some churches fail to grow and eventually close.

The saddest part of this for me is a growing realization that we have over complicated what should be a rather simple directive. Jesus gave us one task, that is to make disciples.

But to make disciples presupposes that one knows what a disciple looks like and also presupposes knowledge of how to become one.

This is where much of Christendom seems to fail. We add programs, doctrinal distinctives and rules (implied and implicit) which turn church into a complicated social game that leaves the players exhausted.

The literal meaning of the word disciple is a learner. Therefore, a disciple of Jesus Christ, is by definition one who learns from Jesus and seeks to live in accordance with his principles.

The problem is that on our own we are incapable of doing this. We are by nature fallen and everything we do carries the taint of sin.

It follows then that one who is truly a disciple of Jesus must have his sin issue remedied, and the only remedy available for this is the Cross.

This is why the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians,

“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2, ESV)

The point is that we cannot be making true disciples of Jesus if we are not preaching and teaching Jesus Christ and him crucified.

The business of the church is to make disciples and we cannot do it without the message of the Cross being central to our teaching.

This is the reason for our existence as an organization.

No room for self-pity

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Self-pityI do a lot of whining to God. On one hand, God is the perfect target of whining because he can take it, and he can apply correction to me and fix the situation that I’m whining about. But in thinking about this, I realize that there is no room for self-pity in Christian maturity.

For proof of this statement, I offer the Apostle Paul as an example. To the Corinthians Paul wrote this:

“Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” (2 Corinthians 11:24–28, ESV)

Paul was not bragging nor was he complaining. He was stating, as factually as he could, what he endured for the sake of the gospel.

With all that Paul endured, there is nothing in his letters that remotely hints at self-pity. Luke tells us that when Paul was in prison he was singing praises rather than wallowing in self-pity.

It is so easy to focus on our difficulties. It is so easy to see circumstances arrayed against us. It is so easy, but it is also so wrong.

I need to remind myself that I worship a God who is bigger than my circumstances. I worship a God who has had a plan since before the beginning of time and who is bringing that plan to completion. I am a part of that plan and nothing that happens to me or around me falls outside of God’s control.

When I am whining in self-pity, it is because I have taken my eyes off of God and turned them on myself. I am not adequate to respond to what is happening around me, but God is.

If I am moving toward self-pity, it is because I have lost sight of the greatness of God.

 

5 Distinguishing Marks of a Fruitful Church (link)

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Recently I Tweeted a link to an article that I found helpful:

I thought I would take a few moments and capture some thoughts in response to this article by Jarod Wilson.

First, I would agree with what Jarod lists as three “Marks of Neutrality.” I have been in large churches that had thousands on a Sunday and almost no real body life. In the largest of these churches, one could tell when the main pastor was not preaching because there would be 30 – 50% fewer cars in the parking lot. Too many people were coming to hear a big name preacher and were not coming to experience real fellowship.

My second thought is that to develop the “5 Distinguishing Marks” requires the church leadership to be intentional about all these areas. These marks need to be modeled by the pastoral staff and lay leadership for them to be part of the DNA of a church body. If the leadership is not committed to these, they will not be engendered in the church.

My third, and last, thought is that the six diagnostic questions Mr. Wilson gives at the end of the article are worth asking. If you are a church leader, these would be good to discuss in your next elder board meeting.

These questions present a challenge, especially in the overly-busy 21st Century. To develop these traits takes time. It takes time for the leadership to provide the opportunities for discipleship. It takes time for the disciplers to get trained. It takes time for the disciplers to disciple. Time is the one thing on which most of us continually run short.

No matter how well your church is doing in these areas, there is always room for growth.

For a plant to sustain itself, its root system must be deep enough and strong enough to support the growth. Churches are no different. If we want to sustain the numerical growth, the people that are already there need to be growing deeper in their relationship with God and others.

It doesn’t take very much drought to wilt a plant with weak roots.

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