Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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What church should be

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i-love-my-churchI know what hurt has come from some of my own church experience. I have seen the damage done to others by inappropriate treatment within a church. Quite frankly sometimes it makes me want to find the reset button and see if we can begin again with this whole thing we call church.

I can name two friends that were pushed out of ministry, guys that have good hearts and really ministered to people. They got pushed out because they did not fit with the current leader’s vision of what church should be. These are two different people, in two different churches, in two different states, in two very different parts of the country. The locations may differ, but the churches are similar because the leader has given the Enemy a foothold in that congregation by not allowing these two men to operate in their giftedness.

Perhaps there is a different way to organize church. Perhaps we overlook a pastor’s inability to shepherd his congregation because he is a gifted speaker and can draw large crowds. Perhaps we turn a blind eye to the damage caused when a leader seeks to build his church rather than Christ’s.

Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the damage that I have seen done by those who have built organizational structures that claim to promote the kingdom of God but only are building a kingdom among men. Today was such a day.

But as I worked on collecting firewood today, I was reminded that for every empire building hawker who claims to represent Christ, there are dozens, hundreds or thousands of men and women who are really doing the work of ministry and living out the claims of the Gospel to change lives.

Some of these men and women are bi-vocational, they have jobs outside the church but still effectively minister in the church. Some are full time employees of the church but give of themselves way above and beyond a regular work schedule. All of them are in ministry because they have been called to that ministry and can say with the Apostle Paul that they are “bond slaves to Jesus Christ.” In short, they are in ministry to meet others’ needs and not their own.

I keep coming back to the chilling words of Jesus in Matthew 7:

“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:22–23, ESV)

God will sort it out in the end and those who have been obedient and have done ministry God’s way and with God’s methods will be rewarded for their effort.

I really believe that those who misuse their positions of leadership within the church are the minority and that most ministers are seeking to be obedient to the Lord of their calling. The problem is that those who abuse their power for their own ends are often the most gifted and most prominent so it seems as though they are a larger group than they really are.

But God is not mocked. He is watching.

This is bad news to the self-promoters who abuse their congregations. But this is very good news to the faithful servants who give of themselves for the glory of Christ.

To those faithful servants I tip my hat and offer my hearty thanks. You encouraged me today.

On beauty and worship

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Westminster-AbbeyAs I write this, I am a tourist in London, England.

I have toured many of the churches and historical sites and have had opportunity to learn much about the history of this great nation. The church buildings are magnificent; even the lesser known churches are beautiful edifices. Seeing all of them, I wonder what it was like to hear the church bells ringing all throughout London on a Sunday morning a century or two ago.

While I enjoyed touring the churches, my visits were a mixed bag for me. For example, one of the more disconcerting things that I encountered was a commemorative to Charles Darwin in Westminster Abbey. I hope that I will not offend anyone when I say this, but for me Westminster Abbey was more museum than house of worship. I was awed by the rich history of England as I toured, but little about what I saw around me pointed me to worship of God.

While I do not claim any knowledge of the eternal state of Charles Darwin’s soul, I do know that his legacy is one that should not be celebrated by the church. This is not because the church cannot participate in scientific discussion, nor is it because we do not have answers to Darwin’s stance against Christianity. Instead of celebrating Darwin’s accomplishments, we should be demonstrating that his there is evidence in support of the Christian concept of creation. To see the marble slab with Charles Darwins name on it in the church seems to indicate to the church aquiesces to the scientism of the current educational establishment.

I admit that the Abbey was indeed beautiful, arguably the most beautiful building I have ever seen. It was spectacular, but seemed to be more a testimony to the skill and power of men (and women) than it was a place of worship. Or, perhaps stated more rudely, it was a place to worship man and not God. I wanted to be induced to worship God, instead I was overwhelmed by a littany of names of great men and women.

My thoughts jump to the difficult relationship between the church and the arts. It seems that too often when we set out to create beautiful things what starts out as an act of worship of God ends up being the thing worshipped.

I was encouraged by one thing in my Westminster Abbey tour. On several of the statues and monuments, I saw spider webs. The spider is not overawed by the grandure of the Abbey, he just goes about doing what he was designed to do. Perhaps those spider webs were the only object in the Abbey created as a pure act of worship.

We’re all in this together

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This is a guest post by my daughter Meagan McIntyre. If you would like to be a guest blogger for Attempts at Honesty, please check out our guest post guidelines.

We're In This Together

Life is quite an adventure. On Memorial Day I experienced one of the biggest adventures in my life during a trip through a ropes course, and not long ago Mark (who also happens to be my father) wrote a blog post, On the Ropes…Intentionally, about this family adventure. Our trek through the tops of the trees is a perfect metaphor for life: life is a risky, sometimes painful adventure, and Christians have the joy of knowing that God will be with us through the entire process.

The ropes course also taught me a valuable lesson about the church, a group of people who have made the risky choice to follow Christ; we take the risk to commit to Christ and then journey together and encourage each other along the way.

In much the same way, those of us on the ropes course had made the risky choice to climb the ladder. Whether we liked it or not, we had to work together to finish the course. Thinking back, I am positive that I could not have made it to the end without those around me. The constant encouragement, correction and love from my family and friends made the terrifying ropes course a fun, and funny, adventure.

Sometimes it is easy to think of the Christian life as a solo trek that eventually brings us to heaven, yet thankfully God knows we need community. Just as I needed those around me on the ropes course, I do not think it is either possible or healthy to journey alone as a Christian.

This reminds me of the words of the author of Hebrews: Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10: 23-25)

Praise God for the church community which helps us through this risky adventure of life.

What Nehemiah can tell us about apologetics in the church

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Brick and TrowelI have heard that there are those in the church who do not feel that apologetics should be part of the discipleship process for believers. While I find it hard to believe that anyone would articulate such a position, I must admit that for a large part of my Christian experience, there was very little content that taught me how to answer the questions that arise from those who do not believe.

This statement in the book of Nehemiah got me thinking about defending our faith and the need for such defense.

“Those who were rebuilding the wall and those who carried burdens took their load with one hand doing the work and the other holding a weapon. As for the builders, each wore his sword girded at his side as he built, while the trumpeter stood near me.” (Nehemiah 4:17–18, NASB)

The fact that they could be under attack at any moment did not deter Nehemiah and the Israelites from completing the work that they had begun. They kept focused on building the wall, but were ready to defend themselves if attacked.

I believe this is a fitting challenge to those who do not think that being able to defend our beliefs is an important part of Christian discipleship. The truth will always have enemies. There will be those who refuse to submit to God and His Word. They will not be content to allow us to continue on without a battle. They will try to win the hearts and minds of those who attend our churches.

This is especially true of the young people that are raised in the church. In high school and university, they will encounter those who seek to undermine or destroy their faith. In some colleges that are considered “Christian” this is also a danger. What should be a safe environment may not be so. We must be on our guard.

It is not enough to just be on guard, we must know how to respond to the attack. It is one thing to have the weapons available, but they do no good if we do not know how to use them.

Let us learn from Nehemiah that we should be able to wield our weapons in defense, but we should not get distracted from our main objective which is to build up the body of Christ. Nehemiah and his crew continued to build while being vigilant to dispel any attack that might come at them.

The ability to defend our faith helps in accomplishing our mission. But keep in mind that apologetics is not the goal, it is a tool to be used in achieving the goal of making disciples.

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