Where preaching goes awry

Posted on August 28, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

This morning as I was reading through Ezekiel this phrase struck me, “. . . then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law will be lost from the priest and counsel from the elders.” (Ezekiel 7:26, NASB) The priests had turned away from the Law of God and could no longer bring any advice that was helpful to the people as they sought a word from God.

It’s all about relationship

Inside a religious system, there is a danger that we can miss the intent of Scripture. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is about the beginning, breaking and restoration of our relationship with God. It is about relationship first. Jesus supports this understanding in Matthew 22:36-40 when he identifies love of God and love of neighbor as the two great commands.

If the intent of Scripture is to restore and deepen relationship with God, then it seems obvious to me that the intent of preaching should be to restore and deepen relationship with God. The preaching should be geared toward encouraging transformation, but too often we settle for information.

In Matthew 15:8, Jesus quotes from Isaiah 29:13 when he says: “‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.” (NASB) The point is that we can be heavily involved in the teaching and reading of Scripture and not have our hearts changed. We can say and do all the right things but have hearts that are far away from God.

A means to an end

Ravi Zacharias has properly said, “Jesus did not come to make bad men good, he came to make dead men live.” Preaching which imparts knowledge may be helpful, but the impartation of knowledge is a means to an end (relationship) not the end in itself. Proper preaching must present Christ as the means of making dead people live.

I have been in many church services where the sermon gave me a lot of information and did not spur me on to a deeper relationship with God. Proper preaching should challenge me to see the parts of my life that have yet to be yielded in submission to God. Part of proclaiming the good news is to help me to see the need for that good news and my inability to provide it for myself.

It is only through relationship with Jesus Christ that we can become spiritually alive. This truth is at the heart of the gospel and if preaching is not calling dead men to live in Jesus, it is doing nothing of eternal value. Even if the teaching causes men to do good works or religious practice but does not cause men to come into relationship with Jesus, it is of no eternal value.

The final exam

We need to keep in mind that there is no theology test to get into Heaven. Jesus reminds us that the test has only two questions (See Matthew 7:21-23). The two questions are: am I in relationship with Jesus and on the basis of that relationship have I been obedient?

To prepare people for that test is the only proper goal of preaching.

What I look for in a church

Posted on July 6, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

I recently had an article published at Till He Comes, the blog of Jeremy Myers. In hindsight, I could have worded the introductory portion of the post better than I did. Here is how I would like to have written the introduction:

I find myself at a time in life where I am looking for a new church fellowship.

During the time when I was considering leaving my previous church, I began to reflect on what is important in a fellowship. The result of my contemplation of what the church should be and how I should function within it, I came up with the following things that I will consider as I look for a new place of worship.

I had good reasons to leave my former fellowship and I did not make the decision to leave without counsel from mature Christian men that I trust. But, in no way should this be construed as a list of things I found deficient in that church.

No church does all of these perfectly. But if there is not the acknowledged desire to do them well, it is likely that the fellowship will suffer.

The full original article can be found here.

5 Tests to assess disciple making in the Church

Posted on June 23, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 4 Comments

The church is called by Jesus Christ to make disciples. How does one assess how well a local church is doing at making disciples?

Quality versus Quantity

Quantity is easy to assess by counting heads on a Sunday morning, but how about quality? How do we assess the quality of the disciples that are being made?

Numbers tell part of the story, but cannot be the only means of assessment. A good preacher and a good worship band will pack the house on Sunday mornings. But there needs to more than 20 to 60 minutes of instruction on a Sunday morning or Wednesday night. Discipleship and growth have to happen in one-on-one meetings, small groups or perhaps even classroom instruction.

No church is doing this perfectly and the point of this exercise is to provide food for thought as to how to identify good discipleship. Toward that end, I thought of 5 ways of assessing how well your church is doing.

1 – Are disciples grounded and ready to give an answer for their hope?

In an increasingly ill-informed and possibly hostile cultural environment, disciples need to be able to explain what they believe and why they believe it (1 Peter 3:15).

Recently there have been some really scary statistics as to the high percentage of teens who leave the church, many of them never returning. I wonder how many of those who leave do so because they have not been properly trained to understand and defend their faith. With proper training, would these teens succumb to attacks from their peers and teachers? If parents have been trained to explain their faith, would the numbers of children who walk away be lowered?

2 – Are disciples growing in their display of the fruit of the spirit?

Even the most mature believer among us will look at Galatians 5:22-23 and reflect on how much improvement is still possible in displaying the fruit of the Spirit. One never arrives, but we should see progress. Do visitors to the church feel loved, see joy, experience patience, etc.? Do the members of the church experience these things from each other? Can you look at people that have come to Christ in your church and see progress in Spiritual fruit being displayed? Is this the norm for people in the body?

3 – Are disciples growing in their ability to understand and explain Scripture ?

Have the disciples been taught the skills they need to rightly understand Scripture (2 Timothy 2:15)? Have they been instructed in using Bible study tools? Have they been given an overview of Scripture so that in reading they can place what they are reading in a proper historical context? Have the disciples been given grounding in the fundamental beliefs of Christianity? Can the disciples explain what they’ve learned and bring others along in the disciple making process?

4 – Are disciples equipped for the work of ministry?

Do disciples have a handle on how they are gifted and how they fit into the body of Christ? Has the leadership of the church helped them with this understanding? Has the leadership equipped them and empowered them to exercise that gift (Ephesians 4:12)? Is spontaneous ministry happening or does the leadership of the church need to coordinate everything that is taking place?

5 – Are disciples turned loose to be lead by the Holy Spirit to build up the church?

If the pastor or the elder board feels the need to approve every Bible study or prayer group that is formed within the body, people are not free to minister. Either God is in control or the church leadership is, there is no middle ground. 1 Corinthians 12:7 tells us that the Holy Spirit gives gifts as He sees fit to be used to build the church.

It is a well used phrase, but it applies here: you can’t steer a parked car. If you turn people loose to begin Bible Studies, prayer groups and practical ministries then God can use those people for his glory in a way that the church leadership never could have dreamed.

Leaders, remember that if you reprimand someone (no matter how gently) for doing something without checking with leadership, you are diminishing their initiative. After several thwarted attempts at taking initiative, they will either become passive and wait to be told what to do, or they will leave and find another church. Neither of these results is good for you or the Body of Christ.

These are five that I’ve been thinking about. Can you add to the list? What else can be used to assess the disciple making process? Please comment below.

Thoughts on Pharisaism inspired by Wendell Berry

Posted on May 15, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

In his essay entitled “Damage” Wendell Berry writes:

“In general, I have used my farm carefully. It could be said, I think, that I have improved it more than I have damaged it.”

This was said in response to a failed attempt to build a pond on a slope on his farm. He goes on to say:

“And yet there is damage – to my place, and to me. I have carried out, before my own eyes and against my intention, a part of the modern tragedy: I have made a lasting flaw in the face of the earth, for no lasting good.”

Perhaps that failed pond project is a good image to show the damage caused by misrepresenting God through the mishandling of His word. This is the error of Pharisaism.

Jesus condemned the Pharisees for two types of errors in their handling of Scripture. The first error is to add to what God says. The Pharisees were notorious for taking the plain meaning of the text and adding to it as a guard against the breaking of a Scriptural command. One example of this that comes to mind is the Kosher laws. The Pharisees take the command “you shall not boil a kid in its mothers milk” (Exodus 23:19) and derive rules prohibiting the mixing of meat and dairy products. I do not think that Moses (or God) had cheeseburgers in mind when he penned the command.

Yet the church is not free from this type of error. We can come up with rules about many aspects of life in our culture that cannot be found in Scripture. The command to “keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27) can be morphed into rules against movies, television, particular forms of music, etc. We need to be honest about our own tendency to add to Scripture.

The second error is the polar opposite, that is the error of making Scripture out to say less than it says. This is the error of finding reasons to make sin acceptable. Jesus said to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:23:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”

We of the church can fall into similar error. We rail against some forms of sin while accepting others. We rightly condemn sexual sin while allowing pride to run rampant in the church. We rightly condemn substance abuse while allowing gluttony in the church. The point is that we sometimes selectively choose what Scriptural principles we want to emphasize based on our own tendencies.

As leaders and parents, we must be careful that the good that we think were are doing is not really a harm. As Wendell Berry says, we may without intention cause a lasting flaw in those we lead. James 3:1 tells us that teachers will be held to a higher standard. We need to be careful to avoid the error of the Pharisees.

To avoid the error of the Pharisees and avoid unintentional damage, we must first be willing to submit to Scripture. We need to allow it to say what God intends it to say and not explain away the parts that make us feel uncomfortable. We also need to allow Scripture to inform our opinions and not the other way round.

We should not add to, nor should we subtract from Scripture. May God guide us as we seek truth.