If you were a conservative undergraduate, would you risk spending at least four years in graduate school in the hope of getting a job offer from a committee dominated by people who don’t share your views? You might well select another career for yourself.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was chosen first overall in this draft and received more coverage than most. Commentators talked about his maturity and composure as they debated whether he was ready to step into the NHL next season. Quite matter-of-factly and with considerably more detail than seemed normal, they discussed the impact of his parent’s separation while he was very young as a contributing factor to his character.
Rocco Grimaldi was a novelty because of his size. At 5’6″ and 165 lbs., he was the shortest player ever drafted when the Florida Panthers made him the 33rd pick overall. Grimaldi is also well-known for being outspoken about his faith. At the draft, he wore a tie with a biblical text. The interviewer asked him about his faith and whether being openly religious could be a divisive matter in an NHL dressing room.
Character shaped by having to deal with family breakup is so routine that it is self-evident how it helps a kid mature. Character that comes from religious education and commitment is so out-of-the-ordinary, it needs to be questioned for its potential divisiveness....We ‘get’ family breakdown and experiential learning; we don’t ‘get’ religious commitment and faith. The first is regrettable but normal, and something that ideally we learn from; the second is divisive and to be handled with care. It would be more comfortable not to be so public about this faith stuff.
My vision for our church is that we be a place where people can find and follow Jesus together. And leaders at a church where people find and follow Jesus together will recognize that people are at one of four stages in relation to these life purposes:
Stage One: “I am exposed to the life purposes.”
Stage Two: “I agree with the life purposes.”
Stage Three: “I practice the life purposes.”
Stage Four: “I advance the life purposes in others.”
What are these “life purposes”? God made us to honor him, invite others to him, love each other, and live his Word. At our church we call that our “H.I.L.L.” to climb. When we fulfill those purposes, we are fulfilled as human beings.
Someone at Stage One is being exposed to the H.I.L.L. we’re meant to climb: She catches a vision of the way life could be as she spends time with believers--in structured Hillcrest activities as well as informal social occasions. In our edition of LeaderLines two weeks ago we looked at how we leaders can help people at Stage One.
Someone at Stage Two agrees with the life purposes: She accepts Christ’s offer of forgiveness, commits to the path he wants her to walk, and she formally connects with the Hillcrest community through membership. In last week’s edition of LeaderLines we looked at how leaders can help people at this stage.
Now, as Hillcrest leaders, we need to make sure that those who express a commitment to climb the H.I.L.L. get all the help and encouragement they need to make the upward trek. That’s our work with people at Stage Three.
Here are four ways to do this:
Set the Example. In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul wrote, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” As a Hillcrest leader, can you say that yet? More important, does it bother you if you can’t? Whatever your position--deacon, staff member, Common Ground host, Sunday School teacher--you set an example whether you want to or not. So, be sure to set an example worth following.
Pray. When Paul wrote the Colossian Christians, he commented on one of their leaders who was visiting him in prison: “Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured” (Colossians 4:12). When was the last time you “wrestled in prayer” for those you lead?
In my 20s, just starting out in ministry, I found all the pastoral prayers in the New Testament, wrote them on index cards, and memorized them. What a difference it would make if all of us as leaders prayed for those at Hillcrest like Paul prayed for his people! Listen to his heart in Philippians 1:9-11, for example—
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God.
Evaluate the Program. We should use the H.I.L.L. acrostic to regularly evaluate the kind of program we provide at Hillcrest. Are we consciously, deliberately providing activities, studies, and opportunities for people to learn how to
. . . honor God with their worship, prayers, and stewardship?
. . . invite their world into a better life?
. . . love each other more and more?
. . . live the Bible in all it’s practical goodness?
Exercise Church Discipline. As church leaders, we need put Galatians 6:1 into practice: “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.” From time to time, our staff has had to quietly go to some people and remove them from leadership and service for a season. It’s not pleasant, but it’s biblical. If you are in a position of influence, you may have to do the unpleasant work of reprimanding someone. Don’t neglect this essential, biblical work of church leadership.
Another part of leadership is identifying growing Christians with the aim of pulling them into positions of leadership and influence. We’ll look at how to get people to Stage Four in next week’s LeaderLines. For now, pray for the spiritual development of our people, since the greatest “advertisement” our church could ever have is the transformed lives of our people.
Tom
(You can review previous entries in this LeaderLines series here.)
_________________________________
Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 350 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.
If you're a believer, you're a singer. It doesn't matter if you're skilled or trained at it. As Bernice Johnson Reagon once put it, “You pass the audition when you walk in the door.”
The Bible mentions singing over 400 times; 50 of those references are direct commands to sing God's praise. All God's expectations are for our benefit, so what do we gain by singing? Specifically, what do we gain by singing together in Sunday worship? In a recent article for Boundless webzine, Bob Kauflin suggested three reasons to sing.
First, singing helps us remember God's Word. Scientists have confirmed in recent years that music reinforces memory, but it's been known for millennia. In Colossians 3:16 we are told to "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." How? By singing "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" to one another. Even further back than that, God told Moses to teach the Israelites a song about God's faithfulness so that they would remember it even in times of rebellion: "And when many disasters and difficulties come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants." (Deuteronomy 31:21)
Second, singing helps us respond to God's grace. Kauflin writes, "Singing allows us to combine intellect with emotion, objective truth with our emotional response to it." In music, we celebrate the profoundest concepts with both our mind and our heart.
Third, singing helps us reflect God's glory. Kauflin writes, "As we sing the same biblical truths together, express our gratefulness for the Gospel, and declare our commitment to follow our King, we're bringing glory to the One who made it all possible." In fact, as we sing, we become little reflections of a God who loves to sing, too! The Bible says of the Father, "He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing." (Zephaniah 3:17)
Music isn't the "warm-up act" for the sermon; it's part of our obedience to Christ. The one who has redeemed us calls on us to sing, and it's a simple thing to obey him in this matter. So, join your congregation @ 10 this Sunday, and sing to the King!
______________________________________
Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to 1200 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.
If you’re a pastor looking for a sermon illustration, you’re welcome. The BBC reports:
A 50-year-old South African man woke up inside a mortuary over the weekend and screamed to be let out - scaring away attendants who thought he was a ghost.
His family presumed he was dead when they could not wake him on Saturday night and contacted a private morgue in a rural village in the Eastern Cape.
He spent almost 24 hours inside the morgue, the region's health department spokesman told the Sapa news agency.
The two attendants later returned and called for an ambulance.
The man - whose identity has been withheld - was treated in hospital for dehydration.
"Doctors put him under observation and concluded he was stable," Eastern Cape health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said.
"He did not need further treatment."
Mr Kupelo said the man woke up at 1700 local time (1500 GMT) on Sunday, demanding to be let out of the chilly morgue in Libode village, frightening the attendants on duty.
"At first the men ran for their lives," said Mr Kupelo.
Officials have urged the public to contact doctors or the emergency services so they can they can pronounce someone dead before calling an undertaker.
"You begin to ask yourself how many other people have died like that in a morgue," said Mr Kupelo.
"We need to [get] the message across to all South Africans that it is very wrong for them to conclude on their own that a person has died," he said.
The world has a big problem with Christian exclusivism—the belief that there is one God uniquely revealed in Jesus Christ, who is the one way, truth, and life for all people at all times. Theologians and apologists have defended exclusivism’s truth since time out of mind, but never so much as in these pluralistic and relativistic times. Recently I’ve come to wonder, though, whether we’re addressing the wrong question; for I am hearing less and less that exclusivism is false, and much more often that it is immoral. The difference is crucial.
...
Once they said, “You believe that Jesus is the one way, but that’s not true.” Now more often they say, “You believe that Jesus is the one way, and there’s something wrong about you—evil, even—for thinking that.” Nowadays when people ask themselves, “Should I believe in Christianity?” it’s no longer primarily, “should I believe it on account of evidence or reasons that may support it?” (an epistemic should). Instead it is an ethical sort of “should,” as in, “should I really accept this belief when it seems so morally irresponsible to do so?”
We need to recognize just what’s going on in this process. Stated simply, it goes like this: “I have a truth to which I adhere. It is my truth. I have chosen it because it seems to fit me, my identity, my experiences. It works for me.” And this is how many people believe everyone chooses their religion: we all find what fits us, our identity, and experiences. We all choose our own truth that works for us.
...
If what I have just described is accurate, then they believe that Christians choose our religious beliefs just the same way they think everyone does. They think we have found something that fits us, our identity, and experiences, and that works for us. “Fine,” they say, “it works for you; I’m glad for you. But how do you get off thinking what fits you fits me? What makes you think your truth ought to be my truth?”
Here’s how the prevailing idea goes: no religion has primacy over any other. The different faiths are just different paths up the same mountain....Wasn’t that nice of reality to give us that freedom? We can reach the top of the mountain through Buddhism’s eight-fold path, or by accepting the five pillars of Islam. If that seems a bit severe, no problem, we can follow one of the more relaxed forms of Judaism, or even the indulgent nature religion of Paganism or Wicca. Or if we prefer we could follow the path in which the loving God of the universe sent his Son to be humiliated, tortured, and brutally executed on our behalf. Isn’t that nice, too?
No.
That’s not nice, it’s horrifying....
If [the Christian story] is true, then it is the greatest truth of all history; but it cannot be true unless it is exclusively true. If the message of the cross of Christ is true, then in spite of its horror it is a beautiful truth of God’s deep sacrificial love for us. But it cannot be beautiful—it cannot even be true—unless it is the only truth.
God made us to honor him, invite others to him, love each other, and live his Word—at our church we call that our “H.I.L.L.” to climb. When we fulfill those purposes, we are fulfilled as human beings.
Now, leaders at a church where people find and follow Jesus together will recognize that people are at one of four stages in relation to these life purposes:
Stage One: “I am exposed to the life purposes.”
Stage Two: “I agree with the life purposes.”
Stage Three: “I practice the life purposes.”
Stage Four: “I advance the life purposes in others.”
In last week’s LeaderLines, we looked at what to do with those at Stage One. But those who are exposed to the life purposes must be encouraged to own them. That’s Stage Two.
At this stage, the person says “Jesus is my Lord and Hillcrest is my church.” She accepts Christ’s offer of forgiveness, commits to the path he wants her to walk, and she formally connects with the Hillcrest community through membership.
Think of the second stage as a wedding. A wedding is the completion of the courtship and the beginning of the marriage. In the same way, Stage Two is the completion of something and the beginning of something.
On the one hand, Stage Two is the completion of a person’s spiritual search. It’s like a wedding. A wedding isn’t the union of two strangers, because in courtship the two get to know each other and consider whether they could spend a lifetime building a home with each other. In Stage One, people are given the time and the freedom to ask their questions about Christ and see in others what a life as a Christ follower looks like. They feel more and more a part of the Hillcrest family and they become more and more persuaded to commit to Christ and his church. But courtship leads to something. Just like a wedding date, there comes a point at which someone considering these things commits to these things. The “Discover Hillcrest” class is completed, and the new member is baptized and/or presented for membership.
On the other hand, Stage Two is the beginning of a person’s spiritual growth. Again, I compare it to the wedding that begins a marriage. Don’t look for a couple in a black tuxedo and white wedding dress if you’re looking for a couple that has weathered the storms of life, learned how to forgive, figured out the cost of mutual sacrifice, knows intuitively how best to serve each other, and can predict each other’s moods. If you’re looking for a couple like that, go find a 50th wedding anniversary party!
The half-hour wedding is a place to express commitment; it’s the lifelong marriage where a couple grows and develops.
Likewise, as leaders of a church where people find and follow Jesus together, we should rejoice when people reach Stage Two, but we should understand that it’s only a start. A newly-minted Christian isn’t like a believer who has had decades of spiritual growth.
There are still old habits and old ways of thinking that have to be overcome.
Most church leaders say they want to be part of a “New Testament church.” Have you actually read what a church in the New Testament was like? Most of Paul’s letters were written to congregations filled with baby Christians, and the letters cover such basic issues and problems! So, if you want Hillcrest to be a church like those in the New Testament,
. . . expect to deal with doctrinal confusion like you find Paul addressing in the Galatian church,
. . . expect to deal with relationship issues like you find Paul addressing in the Philippian church,
. . . and expect to deal with the shocking ethical issues like you find Paul addressing in the Corinthian church.
Why? Because Stage Two is the beginning of spiritual growth, just as a wedding is just the beginning of a marriage. As Hillcrest leaders, then, we have to rejoice at someone’s expression of commitment (Stage Two), and lead them into a lifetime of spiritual growth (Stage Three). We’ll look at that stage in next week’s LeaderLines. For now, praise God for leading many guests to our services in the last several months! Pray that they will reach Stage Two and join our church through profession of faith or transfer or membership.
Tom
__________________________________
Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 350 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.
A problematic trend in recent years is calling oneself Christ-follower rather than a Christian. I understand the embarrassment the label Christian can cause when it aligns one with others who are not as smart, savvy, or theologically and politically progressive as oneself. (Yes, that was sarcasm, another language altogether). But the term Christ-follower is vague enough to apply to any number of good-hearted folks who admire the teachings of the historical Jesus but don’t ascribe to the creeds that martyrs like Stephen, Polycarp, Joan of Arc, Tyndale, Cranmer, and Bonhoeffer lived and died for. Keeping this great cloud of witnesses — joined by the likes of Luther, Calvin, Wilberforce, and Mother Teresa — in mind can help one reconsider the privilege and honor it is to bear the name Christian.
"Paul, the most celebrated missionary in history..., understood that his calling, to be a messenger to the gentiles, was not the same as his treasure, to be united with Christ. His communion with Christ rooted and preceeded his work for him."
Yogi Berra once said, "You can observe a lot just by watching."
Smart man.
When we schedule the Lord's Supper in a worship service, as we will this Sunday, we sometimes call it the "observance of the Lord's Supper." So what can you "observe" in this sacred time? According to 1 Corinthians 11, there are six things that deserve our attention.
First, look around. In verses 17-22, Paul says that, because of the Corinthian believers' insensitivity to each other, "it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat." Let's make sure we never deserve that reprimand ourselves. Instead, we should take time during the Lord's Supper to think about the health of our church relationships. Are we growing closer together or further apart?
Second, look up. Paul wrote, "The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it"(verses 23-24). The Lord's Supper is a chance to look up to God in praise. A communion service should be solemn but not somber!
Third, look back. Jesus told them to eat of the bread and drink from the cup "in remembrance of me" (verses 23-25). So, look back to the crucifixion and remember what it cost the Lord of Life to bring you to himself.
Fourth, look outward. In verse 26, the Apostle wrote that we "proclaim the Lord's death" every time we participate in the Lord's Supper. Remarkable: We serve as God's witnesses simply by the devotion we give to this ordinance.
Fifth, look forward. In verse 26, he continues to say that by participating in the Supper we proclaim the Lord's death "until he comes back." The Lord's Supper is a time to think about Christ's promised return. "I tell you," Jesus said upon establishing the Supper, "I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom" (Matthew 26:29).
Sixth, look within. In verses 27-28, Paul says to "examine yourself" before taking part in communion. Since the Lord's Supper commemorates Christ's death for our sin, we should confess to God those besetting sins which required his precious sacrifice.
This Sunday, you have a chance to make these six observations as we take part in the Lord's Supper. Join us at 10 a.m.
Ministry Staff articles. Did you know you can read the rest of the Ministry Staff articles online? Click here. This week, Gene Chappell explains the new offering envelopes, Herb Ingram announces our new Connection Campaign, Steve Cloud recaps last week’s Rock Week, and Karen Raulie fills you in on The Summer Bookin’ Bible memory challenge and the Kits-for-Kids project. Take a moment to read these important columns!
_________________________________
Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to 1200 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.
We have to realize that people are at different stages in responding to God’s call upon their life.
What’s God’s call? God made us to HONOR him, INVITE others to him, LOVE each other, and LIVE his Word--at our church we call that the “H.I.L.L.” we’re meant to climb. When we fulfill those purposes, we are fulfilled as human beings.
Now, when it comes to fulfilling those life purposes, people are at one of these stages:
Stage One: “I am exposed to the life purposes.”
Stage Two: “I agree with the life purposes.”
Stage Three: “I practice the life purposes.”
Stage Four: “I advance the life purposes in others.”
Let’s look at Stage One. As we build relationships with lost and unchurched persons, we expose them to the life purposes.
At first, they get introduced to a better way of living as they simply watch us honor God, invite people to the Jesus way, love others, and live the precepts of the Word.
This happens in your neighborhood as you and other parents watch the kids at the neighborhood pool or cheer for the kids on the soccer sidelines. This happens in your workplace as you complete assignments and as you socialize.
Along the way, some of the people from your neighborhood or workplace accept your invitation to Hillcrest, and they get even wider exposure to the H.I.L.L. They see other believers working on the life purposes. They hear the challenges from the sermons and small-group lessons, they sing along with songs that encourage us to practice the life purposes. Soon, they are asking questions, offering to help with a room setup, joining us as we put a roof on a house, or volunteering to take dinner to a new friend in their small group who’s been hospitalized. By this point they are deep in the process of finding Jesus among those who are following him.
That’s why we say we want to be a church where Austin can find and follow Jesus together. Evangelism and discipleship can take place together: In fact, that’s always been the way they were meant to happen.
How can we be a church filled with people who are finding Jesus among those who are following him?
Build relationships with your THEMs. There is no church advertising campaign or visitation program that can substitute for this. You have to identify the people in your own life that Jesus had in mind when he said, “Go and make THEM my disciples” (Matthew 28). These are your “THEMs”!
Be what you are! You laugh at good jokes and cry at funerals. You’re competitive on the golf course and you’re ambitious at work. You are a growing disciple who has successes and setbacks, firm convictions and honest questions. That’s what seekers need to see. Just handing them a tract won’t do it. Sitting in a Bible study group with people too afraid to be real won’t do it. They need to be exposed to the life purposes by spending time with people who are trying to live the life purposes (Honor, Invite, Love, and Live).
Consciously connect. Whatever you lead or organize at church needs to be designed with everyone in mind: those who are finding Jesus as well as those who are following him. Whether it’s a worship service you’re leading or a Bible study group, mission trip, or banquet you’re planning, make sure that you envision it through the eyes of those who are brand new to this church thing.
Be patient with them. It will take a while for people at Stage One to become regular attenders at your event. There may be habits and lifestyle choice they aren’t ready to lay down. The answers to some of the questions they raise may be painfully self-evident to you, and yet they keep struggling with them. If we’re really going to be a church where people find and follow Jesus together, patience is required.
Challenge them. Real friends challenge each other to deal with things that need to be addressed. You have to have patience, yes, but you also have to encourage them to take the next step with Jesus.
What’s the next step? Those who are exposed to the life purposes must be encouraged to embrace them. We’ll look at Stage Two in next week’s LeaderLines. For now, ask God to show you your THEMs. There are neighbors, coworkers, relatives, and friends whom you need to befriend and invite to church.
Tom
______________________
Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 350 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.
Do you remember the name Derek Redmond from Olympic history? His story can help you understand the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Redmond arrived at the 1992 Olympic Summer Games in Barcelona determined to win a medal in the 400.
Derek’s father Jim had accompanied him to Barcelona, and as race time approached for the semifinal 400 heat, Jim headed up to his seat at the top of Olympic Stadium, not far from where the Olympic torch was lit just a few days earlier. The stadium was packed with 65,000 fans, bracing themselves for one of sport’s greatest and most exciting spectacles.
The race began and Redmond broke from the pack, quickly seizing the lead. But in the backstretch, only 175 meters away from finishing, suddenly Derek felt—and heard—a pop in his right hamstring. He pulled up lame, as if he had been shot.
Redmond kept going for a while, hopping on one leg. Then he slowed down and fell to the track. At the same time, his dad, Jim, raced down from the top row of the stands. In a moment that will live forever in the minds of millions, Jim Redmond ran out to his son, with two security people chasing after him. Jim reached his son and wrapped his arm around his waist.
“I’m here, son,” Jim said softly. “We’ll finish together.”
Sixty-five thousand people cheered and clapped and cried as father and son arm in arm completed the race.
God isn’t up in the grandstands watching us from a distance. He’s down on the track with us, running with us, assisting us, helping us, holding us. Jesus said when he left he would ask the Father to send us the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit is how we experience God.
Unfortunately, some believers today are like those Paul found in Ephesus (Acts 19). “We have not even heard there is a Holy Spirit,” they told him.
Paul was happy to bring them up to speed. This Sunday @ 10, you’ll get a chance to be brought up to speed on this subject, too. We’re going to look at the work of the Holy Spirit upon nonbelievers and within believers.
In Luke 11:13, Jesus said, “God will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” So, what are you waiting for?
_______________________________
Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to 1200 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.
I wanted to like Thom Rainer’s book, The Millennials. Hillcrest is more than our name—it’s our destination. But there are stages to this destination. You and everyone you know are at one of these stages. As leaders, our job is to encourage others to rise up to the next stage.
What’s the hill to crest at Hillcrest? Altogether now:
HONOR the Lord of Life
INVITE Your World to Life
LOVE the Fellowship for Life
LIVE the Word in Life
These are the four life purposes God wants you going hard after. But when it comes to fulfilling these life purposes you and everyone you know are at one of the following stages:
Stage One: “I am exposed to the life purposes.”
Stage Two: “I agree with the life purposes.”
Stage Three: “I practice the life purposes.”
Stage Four: “I advance the life purposes in others.”
If we’re a church where people are finding and following Jesus together, all of us will be at a different stage. But no matter what stage a person is at, we must turn their attention to the discipleship H.I.L.L. that we are meant to climb!
Stage One: As we build relationships with lost and unchurched persons, we expose them to the life purposes. Through the music and the lessons at church--and through the example we set with our own lives--they get exposed to the inspiring life Christ is calling them into.
Stage Two: As they make their commitment to Christ and to our church, we lead them to agree with the life purposes. At this stage, they are simply saying, “I commit my life to Christ as his disciple: I pledge to pursue his vision for my life.”
Stage Three: Here people work through the joys and struggles of putting the life purposes into practice.
Stage Four: Christ expected us to influence others for him. We need to nudge others to embrace Christ and to climb the discipleship H.I.L.L.
Of course, moving from one stage to another doesn’t mean you abandon the work of the previous stages. Even though I’ve been at Stage Four for many years
But Christ calls all disciples to influence others who need to find and follow Jesus, and that’s the stage many of us who read LeaderLines have reached (Stage Four).
In the next four editions of LeaderLines, I’ll go into more detail about each of these four stages and how we serve people who are at each one. For now, pray that God will help you be fully faithful at the stage you are at.
Tom
______________________
Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 350 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.
Introduction
The Writings of Paul
The Q Source(s)
The Four Gospels
The Non-Biblical Jesus Books
In [their] somewhat romanticized picture, the dominance of 'orthodoxy' is asserted to have been only a late and coercive imposition of one version of early Christianity that subverted an earlier and more innocent diversity. Indeed, what became orthodoxy is alleged to have been initially a minority or secondary version in most of the major geographical areas of Christianity's early success.
There was, after all, no real means of 'top-down' coercive success for any version of Christianity [in the first 3 centuries]....Thus, if any version of Christianity enjoyed success and became more prominent than others in the first three centuries (whether locally or translocally), it was largely the result of its superior ability to commend itself to sufficient numbers of adherents and supporters.
The struggle to work out doctrinal formulations that could express in some coherent way this peculiar view of God (as 'one' and yet somehow comprising 'the Father' and Jesus, thereafter also including the Spirit as the 'third Person' of the Trinity) occupied the best minds in early Christian orthodox/catholic tradition for the first several centuries. But the doctrinal problem they worked on was not of their making. It was forced upon them by the earnest convictions and devotional practice of believers from the earliest observable years of the Christian movement.
Probably the continuing vitality of Christianity will remain dependent upon how fully Christians engage the question of Jesus, and how radically they are willing to consider what devotion to him means for them.
Galli: In your book you seem agnostic as to whether hell is a conscious eternal torment or annihilation.
Chan: That was one of the things I was a little surprised by: the language. I would definitely have to say that if I leaned a certain direction I would lean toward the conscious torment that's eternal. But I couldn't say I'm sure of that, because there are some passages that really seem to emphasize a destruction. And then I look in history and find that's not really a strange view. There are some good, godly men—and maybe even the majority—that seem to take the annihilation view. I was surprised because all I was brought up with was conscious torment. And I see that. I see that in Scripture and I would lean more that way but, I'm not ready to say okay I know it's this one. So say here "Here are a couple of views." I don't even remember if I wrote that I lean towards that, but maybe it comes across. I'm still open. And I hope that's because of my study and not because I'd rather have the annihilation view. I don't know what was harder, researching or keeping a check on my heart and making sure there are no weird, ungodly motives in everything I wrote.
Galli: I hadn't thought about it that much, but I probably leaned toward annihilationism and probably still do. But I read Randy Alcorn's book on heaven again and he made such a strong case for eternal conscious punishment I had to revise one chapter to give that view stronger resonance. In the end, I'm with you: I'm agnostic. I probably lean toward annihilationism, but I'm open to hearing a good argument from either side.
Imagine watching your house burn to the ground while competing firefighting crews argued about who should put it out.
You can probably guess this article isn't really about firefighters, but stick with me.
There was no central city fire department in Philadelphia in the early 1800's. Independent fire brigades competed ferociously to be the first to a fire. The team that responded the fastest and put out the fire was the only one who received payment.
Competition was so intense that the different brigades would often sabotage one another and even go so far as to hide fire hydrants. All this while lives and property were at stake.
This situation continued until 1817, when the fire brigades themselves realized that the bedlam and chaos couldn't continue. They united to form the Fire Association of Philadelphia.
As I said, this article isn't really about firefighters. It's about changing lives with unchanging truth.
In our summertime series through the book of Acts, we're discovering that's our job as the people of God. And as we work to change lives with unchanging truth, it's good to know we're not on our own. We have colleagues.
The problem is, too often we see competitors where we should be seeing colleagues. In Acts 18, we're introduced to a remarkable Jewish Christian worker named Apollos. He was educated, eloquent, passionate; and Luke said he "greatly helped" the new Corinthian believers in their faith. But in 1 Corinthians 1-3, we see that the church in Corinth aligned themselves into competing factions.
Or, let's call them competing fire brigades.
One faction was captured by this eloquent newcomer, Apollos. Another faction circled the wagons around their founder, Paul.
Neither Paul nor Apollos were at all happy with this. No worthy Christian worker would be. Apollos was reluctant to make a return visit (1 Corinthians 16:12), and Paul had to reprimand the church: "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants.... I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow" (3:5-9).
To impact Austin we'll need the work of others. Other churches aren't our competitors in market share, but colleagues. Other generations at Hillcrest are not our competitors in vision-casting, but colleagues. Other age-graded programs are not our competitors for budget monies, but colleagues.
Join us @ 10 this Sunday and let's learn from Paul and Apollos how to work together to change lives with unchanging truth!
________________________________________
Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to 1200 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.
Introduction
The Writings of Paul
The Q Source(s)
The Four Gospels
Some [second-century Jesus books] appear to be intended as elaborations, adornments, and renditions of the traditions about Jesus in the canonical Gospels. There is no indication that these writings were composed to displace or compete with the canonical accounts. Instead they probably reflect the curiosity and piety of many ordinary believers, though perhaps those with a somewhat unsophisticated mentality, for whom the canonical Gospels were familiar and respected texts.
