Gutenberg, Google and the Church

Posted on June 8, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

The Retweet

http://twitter.com/#!/coryhasabeard/status/78146081514459136

The Question

http://twitter.com/#!/uSlackr/status/78215933755273217

The Response

I’m not sure what Cory had in mind when he tweeted, but here is what his tweet made me think of.

There are those in Christendom who have an aversion or a distrust of anything new. Part of this I understand. It is easy to settle into a pattern of church life and anything that upsets that pattern can be viewed as an annoyance. There is a sense in which new things should be evaluated and not automatically accepted. Some level of distrust is healthy.

But the aversion to new things can become pathological. In many congregations a change in the order of service will prompt a flurry of notes to the pastor indicating that the old order was better.

The distrust of new things leads to some curious practices. One of my favorite church curiosities is the practice of segregating worshipers into traditional and contemporary by having separate services for each group. I know that it is OK to have preferences and traditional is not better or worse than contemporary. How does this segregation enhance overall body life? How does splitting into two groups bring unity?

My point is that change is not inherently good nor bad; change must be evaluated as to its benefit in moving the church toward her goal of making disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). It does not benefit the church to hold to old paths just because they are old and familiar.

Gutenberg could not have imagined the speed with which information can be disseminated in 2011. The internet and social media are tools which can be used to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. These new tools of communication should be used by the Church to proclaim the message. So the point I take from the tweet is that the Church should be investing in developing a web presence.

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if the church had sought to work on good television programming in the 60’s and 70’s instead of decrying the “one eyed monster” or the “boob tube.” We are starting to see some well produced and well acted movies with a Christian message, what would have happened if we had started doing this 50 years ago?

The internet and social media are not going away barring major damage to our infrastructure. We, the church, need work within these systems to provide opportunity for people to hear the voice of Jesus calling them to come home.

Hugging Porcupines and Other Ostensibly Stupid Behaviors

Posted on May 28, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

The Porcupines Among Us

Every church has one or more porcupines in attendance. The porcupine is the person who feels entitled to stand in judgment of the church and often acts in a way that is disruptive to body life through their sense of superiority and entitlement. They are not in open hostility, nor are they doing anything worthy of church discipline, yet they cause problems as a result of their prickly nature.

Dealing with Porcupines

The best response to a porcupine in the wild is to leave it alone and hope it goes away. While we might want our church porcupines to do just that, often they do not. How then are we to respond to the porcupines that refuse to go away?

While the porcupines in our church are not really enemies, Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:38-48 is instructive for dealing with them. Jesus tells us to do some things to our enemies that most people would think are weird or just plain stupid. In response to our enemies, we are called to:

Turn the other cheek
Give more than is asked
Go the extra mile
Love our enemies
Pray for those who persecute us
Greet your enemies (be friendly)
Do all these things perfectly

If this is the response to enemies that are dangerous, what then is the response to the porcupines who are merely annoying? I think that we are to embrace them and welcome them. The problem is that when you hug a porcupine, you’re going to feel the pain of the barbs. Many or most of the barbs will be aimed at church leadership, the very people who are trying to help. It is easy to give up and avoid the porcupine, but that is really not an option.

If we wonder about the wisdom of this, I think that it is instructive to look at Jesus’ interaction with the disciples. They were often slow on the uptake and occasionally abrasive. Jesus did not loose patience with them even when they displayed their worst behavior.

The Benefit of Porcupines

I think that God gives us porcupines for the same reason he gave Paul his thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7). Without the porcupines, we might loose sight of the fact of our dependence upon God. We might start believing that we have mastered church leadership. We might start relying on our abilities rather than on our Savior.

While we may not really enjoy porcupines, we can rest in the knowledge that God has them there for a purpose and we cannot see the end result. As with the disciples, many church leaders began their Christian walk as porcupines. So do not loose hope. God is not done with the porcupines or us as leaders.

What is behind the popularity of Harold Camping?

Posted on May 20, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

Harold Camping and May 21

As many people know, Harold Camping has predicted that the rapture will happen on May 21. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that I will be writing a post the morning of May 22 thanking God for another day.

My purpose here is not to catalog a list of reasons why Mr. Camping is wrong. Others better qualified than I have done this. Many blogs and web sites have pointed out the errors in Mr. Camping’s methodology and Biblical interpretation.

Nor is my purpose here to catalog the teaching of Scripture on the Rapture. Again, others with greater ability have done this well. I can contribute little to the discussion.

My purpose here is to ask several questions which come to mind as I reflect on this prediction. I welcome your thoughts in response to these questions:

What is the driving force behind date setting?
Second, why are so many people believing this?
Is Camping providing an illegitimate satisfaction of a legitimate need?

What is the driving force?

Why is it that people feel the need to predict prophetic events? What is it in humans that causes us to crave this type of knowledge?

The thought strikes me that this goes back to the very first sin. In the Garden, we attempted to seize control of our own destiny, chosing to disobey in an attempt to become like God. In our fallen state, we desire knowledge that is reserved for God.

Pride plays a large role in this. Jesus tells us that no man knows the hour, it seems to me that it takes a large measure of pride to go against this statement and set a date.

The opposite of this is trust in God. This is the lesson of manna, a lesson that I find necessary to relearn often. If I am living in fellowship with God, if I am living in dependence upon him, if I am living as if Jesus can return at any moment, then I do not have to know when he will return. If I do these things, I will be ready.

Why are many so easily led astray?

Some are led astray because they want to have the inside track, they want the knowledge that will get them ahead of the people around them. Again, I would point to pride. If I have knowledge that others do not have, I can feel superior to them.

Another factor is the lack of Biblical teaching emanating from many pulpits in America. If the entire Bible was taught and pastors took seriously the call of God to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:12), then there would be fewer people duped by false teachers.

Is there a legitimate need behind this?

I think that there is a legitimate need behind this phenomenon. That need is to be certain of our standing before God. The good news is that we can be assured of good standing with God without setting dates or other false assurances.

Romans 10:9-13 tells us that everyone who calls on the name of Jesus will be saved. Jesus himself tells us that he is the way to God (John 14:6). Through a relationship with Jesus Christ, we can be assured of our standing with God.

As a result, we don’t need date-setters or others who promise secret knowledge. We only need Jesus.

Last Thought

Jesus promised to prepare a place for us (John 14:2-3). When the time is right, he will return to take us there. I trust him to know the proper time – whenever it happens, it will be fantastic.

Growth in trees or believers

Posted on May 18, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

The Observation

I walked through our yard yesterday to check out the 25 Colorado Blue Spruce trees I planted a few weeks ago. They were bare root seedlings similar to what is shown in the picture to the left. I was looking at the trees to see if I could observe any growth.

Bare root trees come with no dirt around the roots and therefore, the root system endures a set back as they are shipped and then planted. The trees must expend a lot of energy into producing a healthy root system after being planted. In the first year or so, most of the growth will be below ground and not visible.

When we look at the Church, we have people in all stages of spiritual growth. Like the trees, it is sometimes difficult to assess how much growth is really taking place because we cannot see below the surface.

The Danger

In both trees and people there is danger in assessing the growth by what can be seen on the surface. Just because none can be seen does not mean that growth is not taking place.

In fact, it is the growth below the surface that is the more important. In trees, a strong, developed root system is necessary to sustain the growth above the surface. The developed root system can allow the tree to survive periods of drought, endure high winds and provide the nutrition that the tree requires.

Similarly, the spiritual development in the believer is crucial as a foundation for living the Christian life. Without this spiritual development, the believer will struggle to withstand periods of doubt and trial and will be acting out of superficial conformity rather than conviction.

True change in a person must happen from the inside out. External motivations tend to produce temporary results. The change brought about by external motivation only continues until a stronger motivation replaces it. Whereas internal conviction can withstand the pressures from the outside.

Understand that while we would like to be able to observe and measure the growth in both Christians and trees, without the invisible, subsurface , foundational growth, the external growth cannot be supported.

The Solution

As I see it the solution is quite simple. The solution is to understand that spiritual growth is all about relationship. It cannot be assessed by do’s and don’ts. It cannot be assessed by lists of “spiritual” disciplines. Spiritual growth can only be assessed by a deepening of the relationship with God.

In John 14:15, Jesus tells us that love for him will result in obedience to his commands. To be in obedience, one has to acknowledge that obedience is the proper response and then work toward understanding the desires of the master to whom obedience is due.

In Romans 15:14-17, Paul talks about the role of preaching / teaching in bringing about faith. So perhaps a good test of spiritual growth is the willingness to hear and interact with Scripture.

The Conclusion

The discipleship process has to be focused on deepening the relationship with God. Any process or program that does not have this focus will engender a false sense of maturity or worse yet, spiritual pride.

In focusing on the relationship with God and not on externals, the mentor must not rely too heavily on apparent external change. The external change will eventually show if there is growth, but there may be some lag. Don’t panic and don’t loose sight of the foundation.

If we keep the focus on Jesus Christ and Scripture, growth will come. Isaiah 55:11 says:

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.