Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Stumbling blocks: how we live matters more than our words

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In my previous post, I mentioned a study by the Barna Group, which documents that 59% of young Christians “disconnect either permanently or for an extended period of time from church life after age 15.” This is a scary statistic and is way too high. You might argue that the number will never be zero, but we should have zero as our goal.

I am not a sociologist and I suppose that to better understand the problem I should read the book that Barna released which adds detail in support of their findings. But I have been involved in the Church since I was born and made some observations along the way. While I never really rebelled or considered walking away from Christianity, I did have my share of questions and struggles with how to reconcile what I thought I knew of God and what I saw in the world around me.

By His grace, at the peak of my questioning, God brought men into my life that could point me toward answers to my questions. It was at that time that I began reading C. S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer and others who supported my faith with Scripture and clear thought. The result was that while I could not reconcile all of the struggles, I at least came away convinced that my faith was reasonable and that the beginning of answers to the tough questions could be found in Scripture and in Christian thinkers. When I say the beginning of answers, I am not suggesting that Scripture is deficient. The deficiency lies in my ability to understand Scripture and go behind it to the mind of God.

Yet, the struggle paid off in a renewed confidence in God and the church (with all her imperfections).

It is normal for young men and women to question their world. It is normal for them to question their parents and ask why a particular belief is held. The injunction in 1 Peter 3:15 to be ready to give a defense applies as much (or perhaps more) to parents as it does to someone witnessing on the street or at work. We need to challenge and be challenged by our children. They should question and parents should have answers.

Yet Scripture provides warnings to parents and church leaders. A pair of Scriptural warnings comes to mind:

  • Psalm 69:6: “May those who wait for You not be ashamed through me, O Lord God of hosts; May those who seek You not be dishonored through me, O God of Israel.”
  • Matthew 18:6, “but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

If we are defensive about inconsistencies in what we say we believe and how we act, we send the message that what is said is irrelevant. Parents have a tremendous responsibility to submit themselves to Jesus Christ for the sake of not laying a snare or stumbling block in the path of their children. “Do as I say and not as I do” has never worked well and never will.

We cannot live the Christian life perfectly (I certainly don’t – just ask my kids), yet if it cannot be seen our lives that we are seeking to live it out in dependence and submission to God, then we give up our credibility and become a stumbling block. Psalm 69:6 declares David’s desire to not be a stumbling block. David does not want to dishonor God by tarnishing God’s reputation.

Jesus steps it up a notch or two and tells us that it be better to be killed than to cause a little one to stumble. This is harsh, but it tells us that God takes parenting and church leadership very seriously and so should we.

Parents and church leaders, the best thing we can do for the next generation is to renounce our selfishness and come to meet Jesus at the Cross in humility and submission. We need to confess where we have compromised and seek to recover the ground that was lost. We want to hear the words of Matthew 25:21, “well done good and faithful slave.” We need to live lives that point to the reality of the Gospel.

Discussion: In what areas have we failed the next generation and what can we do about it?

Thoughts on Pharisaism inspired by Wendell Berry

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Add or SubtractIn 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.

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.

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