Category Archives: Church

Bible Study, Church

Teachable men willing to change

In Sunday School we had a challenging discussion on the calling of Peter.  We asked why was the call extended to Peter over some more learned and sophisticated individuals on the other side of the lake.  What was the criteria for calling Peter or for that matter any of the twelve? What is the criteria for a calling today?

By consensus it was written upon the white board, “Teachable men willing to change.” OK, I can go along with that but what about the one that got away?  What about Judas that allowed him to elude the net by the Greatest Fisher of Men?  Jesus during this three year teaching and preaching period cast a wide net, but not all were wrestled into the boat.

Only the twelve men in all history have had the intimate, personal relationship to Jesus the incarnate Son of God.  Judas along with the other eleven has ever been more exposed to God’s perfect truth.  No other has had the crash course in experiential love.  They all were exposed in an intimate first hand washing of God’s love, compassion, power, kindness, forgiveness and grace. No group of followers could come close to the very essence of God.  Yet through it all Judas escaped the net.  In the most indescribably precious, and blessed years the heart of Judas was not softened.

Judas defies comprehension.  Judas constantly and with persistence of mind rejected the very truth of God in the flesh.  And he hid it from everyone around him with skill.  The only one to see into the heart of this chosen fisher of men and see the wicked rebellion was Jesus.  And He called him a devil.

Judas did not escape from guilt. Just like the pain we feel as we accidentally burn ourselves. So guilt is an intrinsic and automatic warning of spiritual danger.  It was guilt that drove Judas to remorse which in turn led to his death.  Do not confuse guilt and remorse with the requisite answer to both. The answer to both is repentance.  Repentance is an act of the will. Judas was teachable but he was not willing to change.  And in the last moment of his life his willingness not to change condemned him.

 

Church, Denominations

Be still and know – quiet of the soul

Deep in the soul of every person on earth is a longing for something more than self. We try to stuff all sorts of things into our lives in an effort to sooth that longing.  But it will not be quieted. it is a little voice that in our quiet times becomes louder and disturbs us.

Entertainments distract us with even louder voices. Things are gathered around us to fill the the gaps in our lives but the voice continues on.  I believe this voice is in the heart of every human being and it calls to us to the eternal.  It calls us from the material to the spiritual.  It speaks to us and makes us dissatisfied with the normal.
It is sad for those who only see God in the big things.  When disaster strikes in a land far away there is a national outcry for prayer. But in reality we need to be still and know in all circumstances.
In the heart of everyone is something that is constantly drawing us from the normal to the sublime.

A while back all the churches in our area of community gathered together.  There were Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Nazarene, Assembly of God, Community churches all gathered for a single cause.  The cause of just being the Body of Christ.  The redeemed met together to celebrate there small voices and together touch more than the usual.
We sang, we prayed, we listened to scripture, we heard a little gifted preaching, but most of all we celebrated the eternal.

We worshiped in unity and in truth.  Denominations were set aside for a few moments and in place eternity split open for a moment.  A fleeting moment we pulled back the curtain of the tabernacle and looked into the Holy of Holys and were amazed.  Like Isaiah in ISAIAH 6:1 In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne, high and lifted up.

Church

Solid food not milk or “I need more”

According to a recent church study of those who value church attendance and strongly identify as evangelical Christians, almost two thirds state their reason for attending is to learn more about God.  This is a good thing.  The church should be an avenue of learning; it should be a place where good teachers and preachers provide the vehicle of understanding and sanctuary of study. But the study went on to say of those self-identified church attendees, only 6% say they learned something about God or Jesus the last time they attended.

Why is this happening?  Why is the very place where we come to know our God so without what we yearn for?  Where is the meat of the Gospel?  I believe the Gospel has not changed.  The Gospel as Paul would characterize it in his first letter to the church in Corinth (15:1-7), was Jesus who died, Jesus who was buried, Jesus who rose again, and Jesus who was seen. Is it that we know it all and nothing new is being taught?  Is the church satisfied to live on the milk as Paul stated in this same letter (3:2)?
The early church leaders did not have the things we consider essential for our faith.  They had no official church buildings, no vision statements, or even statements of core values. There was no social media, radio broadcasts, well-constructed web pages. They didn’t even have the completed New Testament. Christ-followers were often deeply misunderstood, persecuted and some gave their lives for their faith. Yet they loved and they served and they prayed and they blessed—and slowly, over hundreds of years, they brought the Roman Empire to its knees.

Today’s Christian culture has more tools at its fingertips than any since creation. You can go to any Walmart or Dollar Store and purchase Bibles for less that we spend at Starbucks.  The most gifted preachers are available on the web. We can watch video sermons on our electronic of choice.  We may listen to live worship CDs as we drive down the road.  We have bible software on our phones.  We can read in depth studies in Greek and Hebrew on our favorite texts. We have Bible conferences on growth, denominational systems, leadership, missions, church planting, evangelism and even conferences for church leadership on people who don’t want to go to church.  We have Christian TV, Christian radio, short term mission trips for anyone who has the dollars to go, and we get a federal deduction for our giving to the Church.

Yet the very place where we should learn of Jesus we are not learning anything that would change our lives.  The emphasis is on decisions not discipleship. Relationship is not dependent on change on our part, but a free gift.  We are justified by our faith not by works.  But the Church is not going to the next level.  Discipleship, growth, maturity comes from knowledge and a changeable spirit; it is a constant giving up as we are enlightened.

Wake up Church.

Bible Study, Church

Feed my lambs

MARK 6:34 says,  “And Jesus, when He came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd:  and He began to teach them many things.”

Over the last couple of years I have searched for a place to exercise my spiritual gifts.  Whether it be Episcopal, Nazarene, Church of God, Lutheran, or Presbyterian, they all fell short of expectations. Probably of the sample of the churches I personally attended were not the best examples of the denomination.  This situation has caused me to think that there is a pandemic within organized Christianity. The common thread is a subtle change from the centrality of the Word of God to something that could arguably be considered as important; worship.  I deeply understand and seek to worship my God in word and deed but I struggle with the lack of spiritual depth that a constant diet of worship and praise seems to provide.

So what is the reasoning behind this subtle change in style and methodology?  Is it easier to sing and raise our hands than to rightly divide the word of truth?  Is it more palatable to feel good by ecstatically repeating words over and over in the cadence of a snare drum and brass cymbal than to dig deeper into the Word of God and perhaps find something in our lives that requires changing.

So who within the church today to supporting this well-meaning paradigm?  Today, in America, churches are full of sheep – not having a shepherd.  Within these churches across our country, hungry sheep wait to be fed and to be led into the things of God.  Unfortunately, multitudes are as sheep without a shepherd not willing to, as Jesus stated, “If you love me feed my sheep.”

And, unfortunately, while there is a yearning for God in the pew, there appears to be a falling away in the pulpit.  I not saying that much of today’s clergy is spiritually bankrupt, I am just saying it is easier to go with the flow.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Yea, I long for the day when more and more preachers begin refusing to “trim the truth in the name of tickling the ears of the people.

Church, Theology

Minister as Prophet

As with any job, vocation, or ministry there is always more to do.  There is extra effort that could be made.  It could well be detrimental to the worker in a multitude of ways.  Pushing on to do a little more, to spend just a few more hours to accomplish that special task perfectly, knowing inwardly perfection is often being unattainable.  But ministers press on.  They push, they strive, they persevere to do one more thing.  It is the difference between average and the superior.  For the minister of the Gospel is no less susceptible to this over stretching.  The result is nothing is ever quite good enough.  At least that is what ministers tell themselves and is often reinforced by casual innuendo and under breath remarks.  Ministers try think at issue is the prioritization of what is most important. It becomes an exercise of time management.  But that is an oxymoron.  Time is beyond the control of anyone.  The clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. So what is so important that all else must take back seat?  What is the ministry’s greatest calling song?  What is the calling’s most important thing? What is the priority for the high calling of minister?

In the church as it exists today in the twenty-first century some would say the church is a business.  It has all the characteristics of industry.  It has a purpose statement, it has board meetings, it has budgets, and accounting principles.  Shouldn’t the first priority of the minister be administration.  Let’s give our ministers classes on micro-economics and let some of the biblical history classes slide.  The church needs an executive head.  The wheels of industry need to be well oiled.  Repairs to the bathrooms and classrooms need to be managed, orders of service created for Sunday’s, PowerPoint presentations must be created, and meetings must be held.  Friction must be reduced to the lowest levels.  Every portion of the mechanism must be scrutinized, inspected, examined and improved upon.  That effort needs a leader. If you would use the parlance of the Old Testament this position would be called the King. The administration of the day to day workings of the church are vital.  They have to be finely tweaked to measure up to the standards of the world.  The Pastor as administer is important.  But it is not the most important.  I believe any minister who would set this priority first is missing the high calling to which God has called.

So what should the priority be?  Another candidate for the high calling of the minister is priest.  The official over the altar of worship.  The spokesman of the people.  The help to all those who need grace and peace in their lives.  Priest provides the means of grace through ritual, public prayers, reading of scripture, baptisms, communions, baby dedications, funerals, weddings.  The man of the people as they offer up their sacrifice of praise and supplication.  He leads the congregation to the throne of grace.  From his mouth come the concerns, hopes, desires, and pain of many hearts.  He may not be talented in singing but it is the Priest that discerns the amount of singing.  He may not be a part of an inspired music team, but he determines the character and amount of music in which the church will express its adoration and thanksgiving.  He should be the ordained ministrant of the worship service.  He leads the church to a place of peace, reverence, thanksgiving, praise, hope, joy, and worship.  The priestly ministry is both difficult and critical to the church. Without a faithful understanding of this role and a dutiful action the Church will suffer.  But again, if the priority of the minister is to be priest, the aim is just too low.  The calling of God has to be more than an official of the sacraments.  The calling of God is being lessoned by anyone called to be a minister who sets his priority to being a priest.  It is just is not enough.

The minister’s priority could well be to be a shepherd. A shepherd, what a great picture.  A protector of the sheep.  A guide to the sheep.  Someone who knows them all by name.  A special person that becomes so well acquainted to each of his charge that the shepherd knows that one is missing.  The shepherd minister knows the individual sheep’s disposition, needs and habits.  The shepherd knows where the grass is greenest.  He knows where the fodder grows the best in the different times of year.  He knows where the water is the freshest.  He knows who the enemies of the flock are and all their habits and forms of attack. He knows the weakest and the strongest of the flock.  The ministry of shepherd is a mighty task.  It makes the difference between life and death of the flock in his charge.  To the church this is more important than everything else because it is all about them. Concern and shepherding is vital in the church.  But it is not the most important.

Ministry to the world around him.  To be the moral and religious leader of a community and to be the bastion to the world, could well be a priority. The minister has a responsibility not only to his own body of believers but to the community in which it dwells.  Every street, every alley, every home, those without homes are all a part of the calling of the minister. He is a member of the Church universal.  He should well be part of feeding the poor, lifting the downtrodden, a minister to the widow and the orphan.  Uniting with churches of the community in efforts to do more than the local church can do is part and parcel of being part of the body of Christ. The minister as ambassador from the court of heaven to the court of earth is a lofty and worthy goal. But it is not the priority that is needed most.

Minister, do not choose to be come only a king or a shepherd or a priest or an ambassador.  While each of these high offices are worthy of effort, they are not the highest calling.  A king is but an administrator, a shepherd is just a protector, a priest is just a pointer, and an ambassador is just an assigned representative. There is one thing, only one profession greater that all these.

The minister as a prophet of God.  A prophet is a minister that speaks for God.  There is no higher calling. There is no greater task.  There is no greater priority.  Preaching is not some peripheral item in the program of the local church.  It lies at the very heart of what is to be a minister of God.  He is the truth teller and therefore must be a truth-seeker.  The primary purpose of the minister as prophet is to speak for another. Like Moses, he must travel the high hills to the mountain of God and talk with Him.  Talk to him face to face and then and only then can he come down and give the people the very revelations of God.  Being a profit is pouring back in a flood what was received from an audience with God in a vapor.

What does a prophet do?  What is his calling?  A prophet shares God’s intent; what God expects, what God desires, what God is planning to do, and what God judges.  A prophet shares God’s mind with those who want to hear and those who don’t. From the first prophet Moses to last Jesus, they all shared God’s proclamation that it is possible to align ourselves with God’s intent.

 

A Prophet shares God’s intent. But it is more than just an interpretation of the intent of God.  In second Peter the prophet does not share based upon his own understanding or initiative.  It is not just one person’s idea of God’s intent.  It is not a compiled list of three points explaining in a precise way a personal understanding of God’s intent.  It is a revelation from the Holy Spirit that pushes its way through the folly of man’s understanding and preaching.  Visionary preaching does not come from studied works or commentaries.  The tools of the study are not to be discounted; they are not bad things. The Visionary minister as Prophet is the mouth of God to a people who must hear from God to survive. Ministers should not throw intellectual rigor, research, personal values or planning out the window and expect God just to just fill his mind.  These things just can become poor substitutes for the revelation of the Holy Spirit. There is no aspartame substitute for the sweetness of God.  The minister is the connection of God’s intent with God’s vehicles.

The offices of king, ambassador, shepherd, and priest are vital to the church, but without the word of God the church will suffer most.  The minister may lead the church in the best practices, the minister may proclaim to the community this is a place of healing and hope, the minister my well lead the well-known and intimate sheep to the safest places, the minister may well point the body to the throne of grace, but without the words of God it avails the minister little. Each of these offices have great worth to the ongoing function of the Body of Christ. Never-the-less without the mind of God all else is not as important.  The minister can shirk all his duties but that of preaching and still accomplish the work God has called him to do.

Preaching is the cornerstone of all ministry.  Out of the mind of God, out of the knowledge of the intent of God comes the other ministries.  A minister cannot be a leader to the church unless he knows God’s intent. A minister cannot be decision maker without knowing intimately the intent of God.  A minister cannot reach the unloved and the lacking without knowing the very mind of God.  An ambassador cannot proclaim the worth of his country without knowing the reason the homeland exists. The priest cannot point and guide the congregation to the throne of grace without knowing the intent of each ritual, event, or piece of music.

This writing is not to diminish these other ministries or even to underestimate necessity of them.  The importance of efforts outside the holy desk can never be overstated. The concept here is not that you should ignore them, to make these ministries as nothing more than pearls thrown before the swine, but to elevate the one most important and relevant to the church, to the community, to the world, and to God.