Winning Ways: Purchased By and For God

Lou Johnson was a star player for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1965 World Series, but drug and alcohol abuse cost him everything from that magical season. To feed his addiction, he sold his uniform, glove, and the bat he used to hit the winning run in the deciding game. Most painful to him, though, was the loss of his championship ring to a drug dealer in 1971.

When Dodger president, Bob Graziano, learned that Johnson’s World Series ring was about to be auctioned on the Internet, he immediately wrote a check for $3,457, bought the ring, and gave it to Johnson. The old outfielder, clean and sober for years, wept, saying, “It felt like a piece of me had been reborn.”

We believers know the feeling. Jesus paid a great price to recover what we lost through sin.

Redeemed…purchased…ransomed. That’s an image the Bible writers returned to again and again to describe what happened on the cross. In at least 18 places the word “redeemed” is used. In 6 places the Bible speaks of Jesus’s death as “buying” or “purchasing” us. In at least 2 places the Bible says Jesus “liberated” or “set us free.” I especially like how Ephesians 1:14 says we are God’s “purchased possession.”

The image of redemption actually began with Jesus, who said he came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). But what did he redeem us from…and what did he redeem us for?

This Sunday we’ll answer that question as we continue our series called Cross-Purposes. During the four Sundays of March we’re looking at four biblical images that explain why Jesus died for those he would call to himself. As we approach Easter, we’ll visit the altar, the marketplace, the courtroom, and the laundry room. Each of those images reveal the meaning of Christ’s death: Christ absorbed God=s holy anger that burns against our impurity, Christ bought us for himself, Christ exchanged moral records with us to enable us to pass the Judgment Day, and Christ washed us clean. You can review the sermons at our website.

Join us at the foot of the cross this Sunday @ 10 and every Sunday in March. Can you think of a better way to spend the month leading up to Easter?

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday March 9

How Lazy Can You Get? A young British man has lost his driver's license for walking his dog along a country road by holding the leash outside the car window while he drove.  (story)

 

61% of women in their late 30s have cohabited, but studies show the practice decreases the likelihood of a lasting marriage. (NY Times)

 

“Of all the things that get our sneakiness juices going, there is nothing like a little darkness.” (Intriguing report in Time magazine on the finding that darkness increases unethical behavior)

Science and the Sacred reflects on the wonder of clouds.

 

Are You Gospel-Shaped, or Just Religious? Excellent 3-point test!

 

40 signs from the spelling impaired.

 

How long do you think it took them to set this up:

 

 

Posts at Get Anchored Since Last Tuesday:

The Quid Pro Quo God

Pray Against the Violence in Jos, Nigeria

Song of the Week: "Awake My Soul" by Mumford and Sons

Good Question! The Purpose of Parables

Christians at the Movies

What Does Your Heart Search For? Google and God Know

LeaderLines: Leading in the Midst of Personal Trials

Lost: A good story that will fall short of the Good Story?

Winning Ways: Christ Without the Cross?

Lost: What to Make of Jacob and non-Locke

The Quid Pro Quo God

Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase meaning "something for something." Mark Galli says too many of us serve a quid pro quo god instead of the God of the Bible who loves us with an unimaginable grace:

The quid pro quo god is one who does something for us if we do something for him, and the one who refuses to do something for us, or even punishes us, if we fail to do something for him.

Put this way, it seems impossible that anyone in their right mind would believe in such a god. The rub, of course, is that none of us are in our right mind—that's one of the effects of sin. And one reason we're attracted to the quid pro quo god is that he's a god we can get our minds around. He makes sense. He seems reasonable and fair: We do our part, he does his, and all will be well.

. . .

[But] what about that fellow from first-century Galilee, who by all accounts did everything right and absolutely nothing wrong, who abided by all the dictates of the quid pro quo god and still ended up dead in the prime of life.

Good thing that Galilean didn't believe in the quid pro quo god, otherwise, he would have been in despair as he hung on the cross. Instead, even at the most horrific hour of his life, when all hope seemed lost, when he felt most deserted by his God, he prayed. Not to the quid pro quo god, but to his Father in heaven. Even in a moment when he felt forsaken, he called out, "My God, my God."

The problem with the quid pro quo god is that we can never call him "my God." We never feel that close to him.

Read the whole thing.

Pray Against the Violence in Jos, Nigeria

Violence between Christians and Muslims has flared up again in Jos, Nigeria, according to the BBC.  Below, watch "Neighbors," shot on location in Jos, Nigeria:

Neighbors from Nathan Clarke on Vimeo.

Song of the Week: "Awake My Soul" by Mumford and Sons

London's indie band, Mumford and Sons, released their album, Sigh No More, to the U.S. market in February. They're coming to Austin June 9. Click the player to hear "Awake My Soul"--



You can hear the whole album at Lala. I'm a new listener, and my only knowledge of the band comes from the lyrics on this album. So correct me if I'm wrong, but on several of the songs the writer expresses a faith he has yet to grasp (or has abandoned). In "Roll Away Your Stone" for example, you can almost hear him gently pushing back against a Christian friend or relative trying to explain to him "how this grace thing works." But in "Awake My Soul," he comes closer to acknowledging his need for faith than on any other track. Stylistically, don't you love how it builds in intensity?

Good Question! The Purpose of Parables

I’m going to try a new feature at Get Anchored: I’ll post a question I’ve been asked, and my stab at an answer. Agree or disagree at the Facebook fan page for Get Anchored, and drop me a line with your own questions.

First up: the purpose of parables. Amy writes: "Alright, I've got one for you. In Community Bible Study we've talked a lot about the fact that Jesus used parables so that those whose hearts are ready and open will understand his message. We've also talked about how those who didn't understand still had hardened hearts. So, now for the question: What if a Christian has difficulty understanding the message of a particular parable? Is it evidence that the person is not completely open to God's teaching or still resistant to it in some way?"

The question comes from Luke 8. In verse 10 Jesus tells his disciples the reason why he often spoke in parables:

"The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
" 'though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.'

Amy asks if a Christian struggles to understand the meaning of a parable, is that a sign that he or she is resistant to it in some way.

Probably not. Of course, as believers we can resist what the Bible has to say on a subject and remain in spiritual immaturity. But when Jesus quoted from Isaiah (6:9), it wasn’t to set up a formula by which we could measure our spiritual maturity as believers. He was explaining the more fundamental issue of why people don’t put their trust in him at all.

Here’s the fuller text that Jesus was quoting from in Isaiah 6. Keep in mind that this comes right after that exalted vision of Isaiah’s call to ministry in the heavenly temple. When we’re teaching this beautiful passage, we often stop at his exclamation: “Here am I! Send me!” But notice how God sends him with these words (verses 9-10):

He said, "Go and tell this people:
" 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'

Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed."

Isaiah was given a frustrating call as a man of God. He lived in a time of spiritual rebellion and apathy, and God said, “Isaiah, I’m sending you to preach to a people who aren’t going to respond to you.” How’s that for a ministry vision! Would that fire you up for your life’s work?

But Jesus said that’s the way it always has been: When we try to make a difference in our world, particularly when we try to make a difference for the glory of God, our words will repel some even as they attract others.

So, Jesus was quoting these words to explain the fundamental problem of unbelief, not to give believers a tool to measure our spiritual maturity.

I should go on to say something else about this text, though these comments go beyond Amy’s question. Like most Bible passages that deal with this subject, notice that there is a mingling together of two profound truths: human responsibility and divine sovereignty. Do we turn to the Lord, or does the Lord turn us to himself? The answer is yes!

On the one hand, if anyone comes to Christ it’s because that person thinks through the facts, discusses the issues with others, reads books or listens to sermons, and finally it’s because that person made the decision to come to Christ. That’s true for our growth in Christ, too: as a believer, I grow in Christ when I make a decision to study, to discipline myself, to stick to the task even when it gets tough. In short, I must choose to come to Christ and grow in Christ. In our text, Jesus says that people who don’t do anything with the spiritual truths he teaches will soon not feel any impulse toward spiritual things at all. And he says that those who grasp spiritual truth and build their lives upon it will gain even more spiritual insight. So, he says the burden is on us.

But on the other hand, the Bible is clear that none of us will make any progress if the Lord isn’t leading us. The Bible says that before you came to Christ you were spiritually deaf, spiritually blind, and spiritually dead—other than that you were OK! We came to Christ because God enabled us to do so! And that’s true for any spiritual maturity you’ve enjoyed as a believer: whatever growth you’ve enjoyed, whatever knowledge you’ve gained, it’s because of God. In Luke 8, he speaks of spiritual truth “given” to some people. That’s the activity of God.

So, do we turn to the Lord, or does the Lord turn us to himself? The answer is yes! As believers, is it up to us to develop in the Lord or does the Lord develop us? The answer is yes!

Now, when I reflect on that reality, it makes me patient and humble as I do the work of a difference-maker. All I do—my encouragement and explanation and warning and service and sacrifice—I’ll do all of this and in the end some will grow spiritually and others will resist. But in the end, God will evaluate my life on what I did and said, not on how people responded to it.

That’s true for you, too. Maybe you’ve been teaching in the youth ministry, and you feel like you’re beating your head against the wall. All year you’ve prepared your lesson and taught it every week, you’ve tried to get to know your class, you’ve prayed for them—and you feel like you’re losing them and you’re thinking, “I’m not cut out for this.” Jesus says, “Be patient when you face resistance. It happens to everyone who’s trying to make a difference. Keep doing the right things and leave the results to me.”

Or maybe you’re a heart-broken parent. Parents are difference-makers. Maybe you’ve set a good example in your home, you’ve taught God’s instructions for life as best you could, you made sure you had your family in church—but now you’ve got adult sons and daughters who are making all the wrong choices. Jesus says, “Be patient when you face resistance. You have no idea how I’m using all your years of parenting even to this day.”

We’re simply an instrument in the hand of God, an actor playing a bit part in an epic drama. We don’t direct the drama, God does, and we simply play the part assigned to us.

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Amy, thanks for the first question in this new feature, “Good Question!” Agree or disagree at the Facebook fan page for Get Anchored, and submit your own question. It can be a question on Bible interpretation, theology, church practice—anything!

Christians at the Movies

CT says that evangelicals evaluate films in 2 ways—as engagers or as separatists.  CT’s conclusion:

The reality is, the engagers could stand to learn a few things from the separatists, and vice versa, as both camps survey the pop culture landscape. The engagers have developed keen eyes to find Light in the most unexpected places. Yet the separatists, who have an instinct for sensing the subtly devastating aspects of culture, can quicken our steps on the path of sanctification. With the engagers' vision and the separatists' instinct, the church and its moviegoers can navigate Hollywood's muddled spiritualities with rigor and grace.

Read the whole thing.

What Does Your Heart Search For? Google and God Know

Tim Challis:

In 2006 AOL made available to the public a massive amount of search data, releasing the search history of 650,000 users over a 3-month period. That totaled some twenty one million searches….Some searches were dark and disturbing, others unremarkable in every way, and still others strangely amusing. Often you could reconstruct a person's life, at least in part, from what they searched for over a period of time….What is so amazing about these searches is the way people transition seamlessly from the normal and mundane to the outrageous and perverse. They are, thus, an apt reflection of real life….These searches are a glimpse into the hearts of the people who made them.

This all raises two great questions in my mind. First, would I be prepared to have my searches revealed to the public…? The second question is whether I would be prepared to address my search history with God. What would I say to him if he were to ask me about the things I have gone looking for online. Could I tell him with confidence that what I have sought is an indication of a heart that is aligned with his purposes? Or would I have to confess that my searches point to a heart that is drawn to what is evil and perverse?

You should read “God Watches You Google” by Tim Challis.

LeaderLines: Leading in the Midst of Personal Trials

Serving God isn’t an insurance policy against hardship. When the personal trials come, how do you continue your church leadership?

How do you continue shepherding your Sunday School class or Common Ground group as you try to process the heartbreak of your child’s rebellion?

How do you continue to lead people in praise through your music ministry when conditions at home have left you wondering about the future of your marriage?

How do you continue confidently teaching the promises of the Word when serious illness hits you or a loved one?

Bob Kauflin wrote about this issue recently at his blog, Worship Matters. A few days before he was scheduled to lead the worship music at his church, he found out his 2-year old grandson had leukemia. He wrote:

The songs had already been chosen. The focus was the Father’s personal, particular, and passionate love for those he has chosen from before the foundations of the earth and adopted in Jesus Christ.

What was he to do? His options:

I guess I could have struggled with the apparent dichotomy between my circumstances and the songs we were singing. Or ignored what my family was going through altogether and pretended that nothing was wrong. Or complained about how hard life is sometimes. By God’s grace, I actually drew great comfort from God through the truths we sang.

Personal hardship doesn’t disqualify us from leading and singing and teaching at church. Instead, when we hurt, the Word we’ve been pressing into the lives of others is balm for our own wounds as well. As Kauflin wrote:

We don’t lead others out of a vacuum or a sanitized form of Christianity that bears no resemblance to normal life. It’s important that we take time to grieve, acknowledge pain, and confess our struggles. But when, not if, you find yourself leading out of weakness, challenges, and trials, don’t minimize what’s going on or succumb in despair to your burdens. Lift your eyes, even as you lift the eyes of others, to the Father whose compassions never fail and to the Savior whose mercies are new every morning.

Whether God changes our trials, or more importantly, changes us through our trials, we praise him now in joyful anticipation of the day he will wipe away every tear from our eyes (Rev. 21:4).

Amen. So, when you’re hurting, don’t shut down the service you’ve been providing your church family. The teaching and music and encouragement you’ve been providing them may be the very medicine your soul needs now.

______________________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Lost: A good story that will fall short of the Good Story?

Jeff Jensen is seein’ what I’m seein’ in Lost’s Jacob-unLocke storyline—an unfolding Yin/Yang view of the Island:

Jacob isn't ''good,'' per se — he's just capable of giving life. Put another way: Jacob is the god of beginnings. He is The Alpha. The Man in Black? Not evil — he's the god of endings. He is the Omega. The beginning and the end. Polar, warring opposites, but absolutely necessary for life to bloom (Alpha) and to have form (Omega). Both are necessary for anything to have meaning. Jacob unchecked leads to chaos; Man In Black unchecked leads to annihilation. Both need to exist in balance; both need to be equally weighted rocks on the scale.

Jensen may be premature on his assessment. After all, we’ve only seen the Man in Black unchecked and how that leads to annihilation; we haven’t seen Jacob “unchecked” yet so we don’t know if such a state would lead to chaos.

I tend to think Jensen is getting this right, though (with the caveat that the writers are famous for misdirection). And if he’s right, then Lost will end up being at best a good story but not the Good Story. In the Good Story of Christianity, good and evil are not in balance as warring-but-equal opposites. Satan is not God’s dark counterpart in an unending cycle of existence. Instead, evil is an aberrant intrusion into God’s world, and will be destroyed in the final act of the Bible’s linear drama.

(By the way, stories that track with the Good Story celebrate this truth. There is no “balance of powers" in Narnia: Jadis the White Witch loses to Aslan. There are no eternally-existent polar opposites in Middle Earth: Sauron is snuffed out when the Ring of Power is destroyed.)

It will be interesting to see if Lost tracks with the Good Story or simply ends as nothing more than a good story.

Winning Ways: Christ Without the Cross?

They wanted Jesus but not the cross. It’s a parable for our times.

A couple of years ago thieves snatched an 8-foot statue of Jesus off a crucifix in Detroit’s Church of the Messiah. Police suspect that the thieves had assumed that the image of Jesus was made of copper and robbed it to sell as scrap. They didn’t see any value to the cross and left it behind.

As I said: A parable for our times. A lot of people prefer Jesus without the cross.

But while many may respect Jesus as a great moral teacher, his teaching is only a small part of what the original Christians considered important. As you read through the Gospels, the account of three years of teachings and miracles moves quickly. Then the writers slow down to linger over the details of the week leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection. The events of that single week dominate the four New Testament Gospels, taking up two-fifths of Matthew, three-fifths of Mark, a third of Luke and half of John. I recall one of my seminary professors saying that the Gospels were essentially “Passion narratives with extended introductions.” The word “passion” traditionally means “suffering,” and clearly the four Gospels consider Christ’s Passion the most important part of the story.

The centrality of the cross shows up in our artistic designs and architecture today. Judaism is identified by the Star of David, Islam by the crescent moon, and Buddhism by the dharma wheel, but Christianity is identified by the cross. Why?

During the four Sundays of March we’re going to look at four biblical images that explain why Jesus died for those he would call to himself. We’ll go to the altar, the marketplace, the courtroom, and the laundry. Each of those images reveal the meaning of Christ’s death: Christ absorbed God’s holy anger that burns against our impurity, Christ bought us for himself, Christ exchanged moral records with us to enable us to pass the Judgment Day, and Christ washed us clean.

Don’t be like those Detroit thieves who only wanted Jesus and they left the cross behind. P.T. Forsythe said, “You do not understand Christ till you understand his cross.” Join us at the foot of the cross this Sunday @ 10 and every Sunday in March. Can you think of a better way to spend the month leading up to Easter?

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Lost: What to Make of Jacob and non-Locke

For all you Losties, what do you make of the identity of Jacob and the non-Locke, the “Man in Black”?  I’m thinking there’s a Yin/Yang thing going here, but the writers are (in)famous for misdirection.

Doc Jensen:

Consider again the scene in ''Lighthouse'' in which Jack picked up The Annotated Alice. ''I used to read this to you when you were little,'' Jack said, waxing nostalgic. ''You always wanted to hear about Kitty and Snowdrop, they were Alice's...'' But Jack never finished his sentence because his angry adolescent huffed out on him. This was a really conspicuous choice, and I remember thinking that I should really follow up on it and investigate what Lost had decided to leave unsaid.

…

What Jack wasn't allowed to say was that Kitty and Snowdrop were Alice's kittens. And if David had stuck around and engaged his father in literary exegesis about the book, they may have together noted the following detail, which should blow up any self-respecting crazy Lost theorist's brain:

One kitten is black, and one kitten is white. One is bad; one is good. Kitty's the black one; Snowdrop's the white one. Kitty's the bad one; Snowdrop, the good one. Think: black and white rocks in The Caves; think: the black and white stones in The Cave of Names; think: Man in Black and Jacob; think: John Locke's backgammon story. ''Two players. One black. One white.''

…

Perhaps in the story of Lost, Jacob is…taking the raw material of castaway lives and desires and redeeming it with shape, purpose, and future. Or at least, he is trying to. After all, these characters do have free will, and they can choose to use it to produce a quality of life that's beyond salvaging.

As they say, stay tuned…

Links to Your World, Tuesday March 2

The internet will replace newspapers? We’ll be buying books online to read on our computers? Bah. (Newsweek--from 1995)

Where its hardest to believe: A chart created by CT illustrating the places in the world where social hostility and government pressure combine to make it hard to practice Christianity.

The power of touch in promoting learning, providing encouragement, and strengthening relationships.

What's in Household Dust? You Don't Want to Know

Study links violent video games to violent thought, action

The Merits of Napping. Really.

50 Famously Successful People Who Failed At First

911 dispatcher fields call from wife reporting son is choking.

Posts at Get Anchored since last Tuesday:

Free Audiobooks

Song of the Week: "In Like a Lion" by Al Petteway & Amy White

Does Having Biological Roots to Our Attractions Justify Acting On Them?

The Literature an Author Immersed in Calvin Can Produce

At Cross-Purposes

LeaderLines: Examining the Impact of Our Leadership

Winning Ways: No More Hermit Holes

"A Better Chance of Keeping the Doors Open to the Kind of Old-School Communication That Matters Most"

Free Audiobooks

ChristianAudio.com offers a free audiobook download each month. For March, they’re offering 2.  Get Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic The Cost of Discipleship and John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die.  Click here.

Song of the Week: "In Like a Lion" by Al Petteway & Amy White

With all these cold fronts, and the calendar turning to March this week, it's time for "In Like a Lion" by Al Petteway & Amy White

Does Having Biological Roots to Our Attractions Justify Acting On Them?

In an opinion piece for the LA Times, Dean Hamer and Michael Rosbash say that, since homosexuality is based in biology, “fundamental rights” naturally follow, including, they say, gay marriage.

Is this the logical inference, though? The same field of study unearthing a biological basis for homosexuality is exposing a biological basis for things like alcoholism and aggressive behavior. Simply identifying the biological contributions to our impulses and attractions doesn’t really settle the question of the rightness of acting on our impulses and attractions.

I’d love to know your thoughts and reactions at Get Anchored’s Facebook fan page.

The Literature an Author Immersed in Calvin Can Produce

Marilynn Robinson, author of Housekeeping, the celebrated Gilead, and Home, says that three insights from John Calvin’s thought guide her work. Thomas Gardner of CT summarizes them:

* The glory of humanity: Made as we are in the image of God, “the great energy that rips galaxies apart also animates our slightest thoughts.”

* The fallenness of humanity: All of us turn away from God's presence, failing “to acknowledge what ought to be obvious.” She calls Calvin’s exposition of fundamental human corruption the “counterweight to Calvin's rapturous humanism.”

* The election of humanity in Christ: True perception—”the radical understanding of the presence of God, and of his nature as manifest in Christ”—is something God must grant a person. It is not natural to our fallen state.

Interesting. For my part, the Pulitzer-prizewinning Gilead sits near the top of the list of my favorite books, Housekeeping (written 25 years before Gilead) disappointed me, and Home is on my to-read list.

At Cross-Purposes

Chris Tomlinson explains “Why The Cross Matters”:

At the cross…

…We see God’s sovereignty—reigning with absolute control over humanity’s greatest sin.

…We see God’s purpose—making known the mystery of His will prepared before time.

…We see God’s plan—to unite all things, on heaven and on earth, in Him.

…We see God’s judgment—requiring recompense for guilt.

…We see God’s holiness—demanding the perfect sacrifice.

…We see God’s power—crushing the Son of God according to the purpose of His will.

…We see God’s wrath—punishing the wretchedness of sin.

…We see God’s sorrow—wailing as only a forsaken son can.

…We see God’s mystery—the Son, as God, separated from the Father, committing His Spirit to God.

…We see God’s compassion—pleading to the Father to forgive the ignorant.

…We see God’s gift—His one and only Son, bruised and broken on our behalf.

…We see God’s mercy—making unrighteous sinners righteous.

…We see God’s love—Christ dying for sinners.

…We see God’s rescue operation—delivering us from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of His Son.

…We see God’s proposal—pledging Himself to His bride forever.

…We see God’s revelation—the Word of God speaking His last so He might speak on behalf of many.

…We see God’s victory—disarming His enemies, putting them to shame, and triumphing over them.

…We see God’s glory—the name of the Father being magnified for the sake of all peoples.

For four Sundays in March at Hillcrest we’ll work through a sermon series called Cross-Purposes: Four Reasons Why Jesus Died For Me. Pray as I prep for that.

LeaderLines: Examining the Impact of Our Leadership

As a pastor I’m often honored to provide a “letter of reference” for someone’s application process. But it’s interesting to read what Paul considered a leader’s real reference letter. He said it was the spiritual maturity of those we’ve been leading. Paul reminded the Corinthians, “You yourselves are our letter [of recommendation], written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry” (2 Cor. 3:2-3).

If you’re a leader at Hillcrest, take a few minutes to reflect on what our leadership is producing within the Hillcrest family.

Timmy Brister posted “21 Questions I’ve Been Asking (Myself) Lately” on his blog. I want to highlight some of the questions that made me pause.

If our church would cease to exist in our city, would it be noticed and missed?

Is our church known more for what we are not/against than what we are/for?

These are questions of how our church is perceived in our city. We’re to lead our congregation to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city” (Jeremiah 29:7).

If all the [church staff was] tragically killed in a car accident, would the church’s ministry cease or fall apart?

How many people know and are discharging their spiritual gifts in active service and building up of the body of Christ?

These are questions of equipping. Pastors are God’s gifts to the church “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:11-12).

If the only possible means of connecting with unbelievers were through the missionary living of our church members, how much would we grow? (I ask this because the early church did not have signs, websites, ads, marketing, etc.)

Are the people we are reaching more religious or pagan?

What can we learn about our evangelism practices by the kind of people are being reached with the gospel?

How many people do I know (and more importantly know me) on a first name basis in my community and city who do not attend our church?

These are questions to probe how far the Hillcrest INVITE Strategy has worked its way into the daily living of the Hillcrest Family.

If our members had 60 seconds to explain to an unbeliever what our church is like, what would you want them to say? How many do you think are saying that?

This is a question of how clearly our people grasp the vision of our church, which is to be a community where people can find and follow Jesus together.

In what ways have we acted or planned in unbelief instead of faith?

If money and space were not an issue, what is one thing we ought to dream for God to do in our midst where it is impossible for anyone to get the credit except for the omnipotent hand of God?

These are questions to probe the bigness of our faith in the context of our decisions. Our congregation will receive the renovation recommendations from our First Impressions Team in a couple of months, and this will be a big test on the bigness of our Family’s faith.

How would you answer these questions? And how are you doing as a partner in the Hillcrest leadership to ensure that we raise up a church that makes God smile?

_______________________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Winning Ways: No More Hermit Holes

“God told me it was time to come out of the hole. But I don't know if I have the energy.”

I love that line.

It comes from an old Boston Globe story about Thomas Johnson, an ex-con and drug addict. For 10 years he avoided society by wandering deep into a Boy Scout campground on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts and burrowing 8 feet underground.

Then a deer hunter stumbled over his stovepipe jutting out of the ground, and soon federal agents and state health officials were demanding he abandon his unauthorized hideaway.

He surrendered to the inevitable. “God told me it was time to come out of the hole,” he told the Boston Globe with a shrug, adding, “But I don't know if I have the energy.”

Like Thomas Johnson, believers are tempted to burrow down into bunkers in escape from the world around us. But God has told us its time to come out of our holes. He has told us to go into the world to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20), to fish for people (Matthew 4:19), and to be preserving salt (Matthew 5:13).

At Hillcrest, the acronym I.N.V.I.T.E. helps us remember the steps we should take to accomplish this. Across the last 5 weeks we’ve looked at each of those steps in turn, and this Sunday we wrap up the series. This week we’ll share a very simple explanation of the gospel that you can use to communicate the message of the cross with your friends.

We should always hope that our friends will get to the same point that the Samaritan woman’s friends got to in John 4. There we read of a woman’s encounter with Jesus at a well. By the end of their conversation, she became convinced that he was the hoped-for Messiah, and ran into town to tell those she knew. After the Samaritans spent 2 days with Jesus, they told the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).

Isn’t that what you hope to hear from your friends?

I hope this Sunday morning series has been helpful to you. We all need a fresh reminder to come out of our hermit hole and re-engage with the world for the sake of the good news we have to offer!

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

"A Better Chance of Keeping the Doors Open to the Kind of Old-School Communication That Matters Most"

Gary Ledbetter:

Just because we can impulsively tell our rapt audience we're having Spam for breakfast or that we strongly dislike the governor is no reason that we must tell them. If we'll run counter to the stated purposes of some communications tools, if we'll think half a tick about our readers and our priorities before hitting "send," we stand a better chance of keeping the doors open to the kind of old-school communication that matters most. We might find people drawn to what we stand for rather than confused or offended by what we appear to be.

Read the whole thing. It's a warning particularly for pastors and other church leaders, but all of us need rein in our impulse to spout off. That way "we stand a better chance of keeping the doors open to the kind of old-school communication that matters most."

Links to Your World, Tuesday February 23

When a 2-inch LEGO gun gets you kicked out of school, “zero tolerance” has gone too far.


American mothers want the fathers of their children to stick around, help with the kids and go to church. Who knew the formula for being a successful dad was so simple?


9 Ways to Wake Up Ready to Rock


The 10 Most Addictive Sounds in the World


“An itinerant, footloose army of available and willing retirees in their 60s and 70s is marching through the American outback, looking to stretch retirement dollars by volunteering to work in parks, campgrounds and wildlife sanctuaries, usually in exchange for camping space.” (An article to spark the imagination of an ambling soul)


Off the Coast of India, Another Language Dies. This one caught my heart for some reason.


“Establishing Boundaries With Adult Kids.” Some of the examples may be extreme for your context (then again…). But the advice is still sound. “You can’t paddle another man’s canoe.”


“To maximize on the restorative powers of vacation, people should take multiple short breaks over the course of the work year, instead of saving everything for one long trip” (Time magazine reports on a study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life).


“Get Anchored” Posts Since Last Tuesday:

5 Myths about the Religious Life of Emerging Adults

Someone To Watch Over Me

Song of the Week: "Can I Go With You?" by Bruce Cockburn

How to Turn a Bible Book into an Audio Book

Should Hillcrest be a Friendly Place...Or a Place for Friends?

Terrorists in the Church

LeaderLines: A Place for Seekers

Introverted in an Extroverted World

Good Neighbors and Effective Inviters

Generational Labels

Winning Ways: "Powerless to Shut Up"

Free Audiobook: Religion Saves and 9 Other Misconceptions

5 Myths about the Religious Life of Emerging Adults

Collin Hansen looks at the National Study of Youth and Religion and extracts 5 myths about “emerging adulthood,” the period between the ages of 18 and 29.

Sociologist Christian Smith and Patricia Snell analyzed the National Study in Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults, a follow up to the groundbreaking 2005 book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers.

Myth #1: Emerging adults serve the common good. “Emerging adults are far less likely than their parents or grandparents to volunteer or contribute to charitable causes. They share no qualms about materialism and long to someday live the American dream with a large salary and large home.”

Myth #2: Emerging adults reject their parents’ religious influence. Most emerging adults fall into their parents’ religious patterns one way or another.

Myth #3: Emerging adults behave similarly, whether seriously committed to religion or not. The good news: This is largely a myth and young adults who take their faith seriously are much less likely to engage in destructive behavior. The bad news: “Only 5 percent of emerging adults are so devoted to their faith that they attend religious services weekly or read scripture as much as once or twice per month. And that group includes Mormons, Muslims, Jews, and all Christian denominations.”

Myth #4: Emerging adults have abandoned liberal Protestantism.

Myth #5: Emerging adults tend to fall away from faith in college. In reality, young adults who do not attend college are more likely to drop out of religious involvement. Why? “There are a greater number of evangelical faculty members who support like-minded students. The modernist enterprise with its secularizing agenda has all but collapsed. And evangelical campus groups flourish.” On the other hand, college ministries are much more successful at retaining a faith that students bring with them than they are at making new disciples on campus.

Read the whole thing.

Someone To Watch Over Me

In Sunday's Los Angeles Times, David Zucchino tells the stories of drone pilots. They patrol the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan, but they live and work in the United States.

7500 miles away, they hear soldiers in need and come to their aid.

We have our equivalents as believers in spiritual warfare. They are called angels. That should serve as comfort as you fight the good fight.

Song of the Week: "Can I Go With You?" by Bruce Cockburn

How come no one's covered this one in all these years. Way back from 1976 here's Bruce Cockburn singing "Can I Go With You" (music player at Get Anchored):



Lyrics:

When you ride out of the shining sky
To claim the ones who love you
Can I go with you?
Can I go with you?

When the angel shouts from the heart of the sun
And the living water flows down
Can I go with you?
Can I go with you?

When the earth and stars melt like ice in the spring
And a million voices sing praise
Can I go with you?
Can I go with you?

How to Turn a Bible Book into an Audio Book

If you're someone who likes to listen to audiobooks instead of read the dead tree editions, here's a free way to turn a Bible book into an audiobook for your mp3 player.

I followed this process this morning to turn the Acts of the Apostles into an audiobook. I'm preparing to preach through Acts starting Easter Sunday, so I'm listening to it on my iPhone as I do my morning workouts. I'll hear it 5-10 times before I start preaching through it.

The following can work for an entire Bible book or just selected passages that you want to hear.

First: To find the passage you want in the English Standard Version, search at this website.  If you're copying a long section, I suggest you break it apart. For example, I broke the Acts of the Apostles into sections of 7 or 8 chapters at a time. Here's the page for my first download.

Second: Download the file. Right-click the "Listen" link and follow the instructions on the drop-down menu to save the file as an mp3 on your hard drive. If you're going to break a large section of scripture into smaller portions (like I did with Acts), I suggest you rename the files something that place them in sequential order. For example: "Acts1" then "Acts2" then "Acts3" and so on. This will be important as you take the next step.

Three: Download the free program "Merge MP3" here. This little program will stitch your audio files into a single mp3 file. This isn't absolutely necessary in order to put your files on an mp3 player, but it sure makes it easier to manage. Once you've downloaded the program, follow the directions to stitch your mp3 files into a single mp3 file. For me, that allowed me to have a single audio file of the entire book of Acts in sequential order.

Four: Load your mp3 file into your player.

Five: If you have an iPhone or iPod, you can take an additional step to turn the mp3 file into an audiobook. This makes it much easier to manage: In audiobook format, an audio file will start playing where you last left off instead of starting from the beginning of the file each time you return to it. In iTunes, right-click the mp3 file you want to convert. In the drop-down menu, click "Get Info." Click the "options" tab and look for "Media Kind." It probably says "Music." Click the down arrow and you'll see some options. Click on "Audiobook," then click "OK."  Your file will disappear from your music library and appear on your audiobooks library. When you sync your iPhone or iPod, it will available for listening.

Should Hillcrest be a Friendly Place...Or a Place for Friends?

Mark Galli:

Why are we so taken with the idea that the church should be seen as friendly? Why do we conduct surveys about it and chide ourselves if we are not as friendly as a bar?

Let me put it another way: We all recognize how much cultural cache the church has lost in the last century. The reasons for that are broad and complex, but I wonder if one reason is that too many churches strive to be perceived as friendly.

I heard a wise man say, "People are not looking for a friendly church; they're looking for friends."  There is a difference. Last week's sermon was about involving our seeking friends with us in the life of our church. The point is not to be a "friendly" place but to be a place for friends. As Galli puts it:

More than anything, they want to meet with other people who also struggle with life's deepest questions. They want to be with people who also know they are loved by a God who died for them. They want to join a company whom the Father in Heaven steadily draws closer to himself. They want to join a company of the committed who want to do more than be entertained at church or meet people in bars, who want to give themselves to a hurting world, even if it hurts....In a place where people really belong, they are free to talk about the most uncomfortable things—sin and salvation, hate and forgiveness, suffering and hope, death and life. And they learn the fine art of forbearance and forgiveness. Merely friendly churches avoid such unpleasantness. But churches that take people seriously cannot avoid it.

This is a superb article, and it ties directly into this week's focus in our I.N.V.I.T.E. series.  Read the whole thing.

Terrorists in the Church

Sent via email this week (Thanks, Maedel):

Latest news reports are that five terrorist cell groups have been operating in many of our churches.. They have been identified as: Bin Sleepin, Bin Arguin, Bin Fightin, Bin Complainin, and Bin Missin.

LeaderLines: A Place for Seekers

Last Sunday at Hillcrest we talked about involving your THEMs with your church family in the process of witness. I hope you’re working through the daily devotional material that Herb Ingram prepared for that subject.

Now, how does this truth impact us as church leaders? If our congregation begins to take up the task of involving their THEMs at Hillcrest, what kind of environment are we creating for THEMs to enter into?

You see, a church will fall into one of four categories in its attitude toward spiritual seekers.

I know . . . I know. The word “seeker” has fallen out of fashion like an old tie. Believe me, I’m tempted to drop the word, because it’s been so derided in some circles. Then again, when I read Bible texts such as Acts 15:17 and Acts 17:27, I remember I’m in good company when I try to identify those in my community who seek God.

So, where does our church fall in our relation to seekers? Can you identify your Sunday School class or Common Ground group in the following taxonomy? How about your own approach to non-believers?

Seeker-Hostile: Church groups with this mindset view non-believers as a threat. Most in this mindset, of course, would say that individual believers must be kind to non-believers and look for ways to share the gospel. But they would insist that corporate life of the church is no place to involve a non-believer. Therefore, the study topics, conversations, and even jokes in the Bible study classes or worship services create an environment hostile to a seeker’s questions or objections.

Seeker-Indifferent: Church groups with this mindset are indifferent to the concerns and questions that non-believers have of the faith. They believe the job of the church is simply to provide Bible studies and activities that meet the needs of believers. Churches that are seeker-indifferent may have evangelistic activities and support mission causes, and they may encourage the individual members to witness to non-believers. But it simply doesn’t occur to these churches that they have a responsibility to engage the concerns and questions of spiritual explorers.

Seeker-Sensitive: Church groups with this mindset focus on building believers while connecting with the seekers that believers bring with them. In one sense, the aim of worship services and Bible study groups in these churches is the same as it is in seeker-indifferent churches: That is, the church exists to build a strong community of believers. But seeker-sensitive churches pursue this goal with sensitivity to non-believers who have begun to be attracted to the faith through their friendship with believers.

Seeker-Targeted: Church groups with this mindset direct everything they do toward reaching the non-believing world with the gospel. The music, the sermon topics, the approach to Bible-study... it’s all done with the aim of catching the attention of non-believers and persuading them to embrace the gospel truth.

I want us to be a seeker-sensitive church. I do not believe that we should ignore non-believers as we conduct our worship services, but neither do I believe that the main reason for a worship service is to connect with non-believers. At Hillcrest, worship services exist to build believers, but they also exist to connect with earnest seekers that believers bring with them. I believe we should be a place where people find and follow Jesus together.

Among several of the speakers and writers I enjoy, the word for this kind of church is “missional,” and maybe I should keep up with the times by adopting the new label. Still, whether a church is labeled “seeker-sensitive” or “missional” isn’t nearly as important as whether the church deserves the label! Let’s make sure that what we do as Hillcrest leaders will contribute to the salvation of spiritual seekers in our community.

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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Introverted in an Extroverted World

Adam McHugh:

Churches sometimes unintentionally equate faithfulness with extroversion; we draw up a composite sketch of the "ideal" Christian--gregarious, with an overt passion and enthusiasm, eager to participate in a wide variety of activities, shares their faith with strangers regularly, assumes leadership positions quickly, opens up their home to others often--and this ideal person starts sounding suspiciously like an extrovert. Add on top of that the talkative, mingling informality of many churches and you've produced an environment that is intimidating to many introverts, who may find these settings distracting for developing their spirituality.

I can identify, being a bit of an introvert myself. I'm grateful that, though the evangelical culture tends to expect extroversion as the ideal, God doesn't use a cookie cutter when he creates us for his uses. Again, McHugh:

I find the fact that God uses people of all different sorts of gifts, abilities, and temperaments, incredibly comforting. Introversion is not a category in the Bible, but the patriarch Jacob was called "a quiet man" and the great prophet Moses protested God's call by saying he was "heavy-mouthed" and ineloquent on a public stage, something that some of us can relate to. Jesus' mother Mary was deeply introspective and reflective. And God clearly did great things through those biblical characters.

(Adam McHugh is the author of Introverts in the Church. You can read more about him at Sophia Dembling's blog, hosted at Psychology Today.

Good Neighbors and Effective Inviters

 

Tim Keller:

How do Christians relate to Muslims when we live side by side in the same society? How can Christians be at the very same time a) good neighbors, seeking their good whether they convert or not, and still b) attractively and effectively invite Muslims to consider the gospel?

These are the two questions behind the project I'm developing for April called "The Neighboring Faiths Interviews."  And these two questions aren't just in relation to Muslims but also in relation to Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists who are our neighbors and coworkers. We want to be (a) good neighbors and (b) attractive and effective  at inviting them to consider the gospel.

Find out more about the Neighboring Faiths Interviews here.

By the way, Tim Keller's question about relating to Muslims comes from his blog post, "The Big Issues Facing the Western Church." He outlines five "big issues"--

1. The opportunity for extensive culture-making in the U.S.

2. The rise of Islam.

3. The new non-western Global Christianity.

4. The growing cultural remoteness of the gospel.

5. The end of prosperity?

It would be worth your while to review his brief post.

Generational Labels

Someone was curious about the label "Generation Jones" to describe those between "Boomers" and "Generation X" in Tuesday's Links to Your World.

You can learn more here.

Winning Ways: "Powerless to Shut Up"

“I don't respect people who don't proselytize.”

Sure, you’d expect to hear something like that from a Baptist pastor. But that statement was made by an atheist.

Penn Jillette is the outspoken half of the performing duo, “Penn and Teller.” At his video blog, “Penn Says,” he recalls a man who came to him after a show, gave Penn a Bible, and offered to explain the gospel to him:

It was really wonderful. I believe he knew that I was an atheist. But he was not defensive and he looked me right in the eyes and he was truly complimentary. It did not seem like empty flattery. He was really kind, and nice, and sane, and looked me in the eyes and talked to me. Then he gave me this Bible.

I've always said I don't respect people who don't proselytize. I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there's a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward--and atheists who think people shouldn't proselytize and who say just leave me alone and keep your religion to yourself--how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?

I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn't believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.

Mind you, so far Penn remains unconvinced of the gospel. But he understands the implications of the gospel message better than many who claim to believe it.

My heart is captured by a single line from Acts 4:20--“We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” That line is actually a double negative in the Greek language. You could translate it, “We cannot not speak.” The key word is a variation of the Greek word for power—dunameis--where we get the word “dynamite.” These guys were saying, “When it comes to the stories of what God has done for us, we just don’t have the power to shut up!”

This Sunday @ 10, we’re going to examine that text and discover how to have that kind of powerlessness, too!

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Free Audiobook: Religion Saves and 9 Other Misconceptions

Until the end of February you can download a Mark Driscoll book for free at christianaudio.  In Religion Saves: And 9 Other Misconceptions, the Seattle pastor addresses questions he is most-often asked about his influential (and often controversial) ministry. The ten topics include:

• Birth Control
• Humor (specifically, the appropriateness of humor in the pulpit)
• Predestination
• Grace
• Sexual Sin
• Faith and Works
• Dating
• The Emerging Church
• The Regulative Principle (i.e., what belongs in a worship service)

The chapter on humor is worth your time if you don't have time to listen to any other part of the book.

The only downside: Driscoll recorded his own audiobook, and the longer he read the stranger his cadence became, putting pauses and emphasis in the wrong places in the sentences. It was sometimes exhausting to follow his train of thought when he fell into those odd rhythms of reading. 

But download the book and give it a listen: It's an entertaining way to get introduced to some important subjects.

Links to Your World, Tuesday February 16

Boomers are retiring, Generation Jones is getting the kids to leave the nest, Gen X is discovering how to parent teens. The Millennials are getting married and starting families. And behind the Millennial generation, whose older members are turning 30, there is a new generation now in their teens. Some are calling it the iGeneration.


Prosthetics expert rapped for giving elderly patient two left feet


Kenneth Starr to be Baylor University’s Next President.


World may not be warming, say scientists (Times of London)


Questioning the argument against early marriages


Posts at “Get Anchored” Since Last Tuesday:

Can a Minister "Opt Out" of Rendering Under Caesar?

The Moral Sense is Factory-Installed, Not After-Market

Warning of Information Overload...from 1565

Song of the Week: "Shelter" by Ray Lamontagne

LeaderLines: Rediscovering the Value of ‘Church’

Winning Ways: Why Church-Going and Evangelism Belong Together

Can a Minister "Opt Out" of Rendering Under Caesar?

Russell Moore gives good advice on whether a minister should "opt out" of paying Social Security taxes.

As a pastor, I pay twice what most of you pay in Social Security. Unless you're self-employed, your employer pays the other half of your S.S. obligation. While the IRS treats pastors as employees for income tax purposes, they treat pastors as self-employed for Social Security tax purposes.

It's a big bite of my income that I'd love to avoid. And I had a choice to "opt out" of paying Social Security at the start of my ministry years. Ministers can do so only if they have a religious opposition to the program. Its like conscientious objectors being allowed to opt out of a military draft. Moore, writing to a young minister who wants to opt out, says:

As you make this decision, ask yourself whether you plan to preach and teach your people that participating in Social Security (as payer or recipient) is a sin against God. If the “opt out” provision were revoked, would you willingly go to prison rather than pay the tax? And, would your prison time be because you saw the choice as between Christianity and idolatry?

If the answer to these questions is “no” (as it seems from your question), then you are not a conscientious objector to Social Security taxes. To then “opt out” of paying them would be to refuse to do precisely what Jesus commands us to do: pay taxes. It would also give reason for offense to the mission field you’re attempting to engage with the gospel. And, by turning a protection of conscience into a political statement or a pragmatic economic benefit, it would imperil religious liberty provisions for your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Social Security may or may not be around when you retire. I don’t know. I do know this: your money definitely won’t be around when you’re dead. So why waste your religious liberty on holding on to a little bit more of it for a little while longer?

The Moral Sense is Factory-Installed, Not After-Market

People who have no religion know right from wrong just as well as regular worshippers, according to a study published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences. London’s Telegraph reported on the study under the headline “Atheists ‘just as ethical as churchgoers.’”

On her blog at USA Today Cathy Lynn Grossman asked readers if they felt that “good-without-God” studies were a threat to their religious faith.

For biblically-informed believers the answer should be “Of course not.”

Scripture is clear that even among those who have not been taught the law [i.e., right-from-wrong as revealed in Scripture], “the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them” (Romans 2:15). The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis would be a good place to start if you’ve never thought about the fact that right-from-wrong is part of being human.

It’s factory-installed, not after-market.

Besides, learning to “be good” isn’t the real distinction that religion offers—at least the religion of Jesus, who promised rest for those who were weary and heavy-laden from trying to “be good.” When we discover that, like all of humanity, we have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God, we gladly trade the pursuit of being good for the grace of Christ:

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (Romans 3:22-24).

_________________________

(The study Grossman referenced isn’t primarily about atheists being just as good as believers. The study is part of the debate over the origin of religion among evolutionary theorists. But the part of the study that generated the media buzz was the contention that non-believers have a moral compass as do believers. It’s that contention I’m addressing in this post)

Warning of Information Overload...from 1565

From Vaughan Bell at Slate:

A respected Swiss scientist, Conrad Gessner, might have been the first to raise the alarm about the effects of information overload. In a landmark book, he described how the modern world overwhelmed people with data and that this overabundance was both "confusing and harmful" to the mind....It's worth noting that Gessner, for his part, never once used e-mail and was completely ignorant about computers. That's not because he was a technophobe but because he died in 1565. His warnings referred to the seemingly unmanageable flood of information unleashed by the printing press.

There's more history of media technology scares, from the printing press to Facebook, at the post. As Bell points out, "The writer Douglas Adams observed how technology that existed when we were born seems normal, anything that is developed before we turn 35 is exciting, and whatever comes after that is treated with suspicion."

It would be wrong to conclude that there's nothing to worry about in newer technology. In fact, kids still need parents to shepherd them through the wise use of new media and adults still need to exercise self-discipline themselves. But the article reminds us that there's really nothing new under the sun, as the Preacher in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes told us.

Song of the Week: "Shelter" by Ray Lamontagne

Good one--Listen here:

LeaderLines: Rediscovering the Value of ‘Church’

“With jaw-dropping vigor, ignorance, and at times unblushing gall, increasing sectors of the evangelical world are abandoning two thousand years of ecclesiology in the erroneous opinion that the church is some malleable human construct that can be shaped, altered, redefined or even disposed of as desired.”

So says James Emery White in an issue of his newsletter, Serious Times. Most of you who receive LeaderLines are in leadership at Hillcrest. Let’s take a moment to appreciate all over again what God has said about the organization he called us to lead.

When Jesus said he would build his church—a force that would be so powerful that the gates of hell would not stand against it—what was he talking about? Well, it’s not a brick building you go to or a program you attend. But some Christians, eager to demolish that false notion have substituted a number of ideas for “church” that aren’t any better. A recent survey of American Christians found that the majority deemed each of the following to be “a complete and biblically valid” way for someone who does not participate in a conventional church to experience and express their faith in God in place of the church:

• engaging in faith activities at home
• watching a religious television program
• listening to a religious radio broadcast
• attending a special ministry event, such as a concert or community service activity
• participating in a marketplace ministry

In response to these substitutes—to borrow the tag line of a rental car company—I’d have to say: “There’s “church’ and there’s ‘not exactly’.”

In his article, White points out that in the Bible the most common understanding of Christ’s church is “a defined bodies of believers that were gathered with both intent and order.” White suggests five “C’s” of a genuine church:

Community. To be a church, you must be a true community of faith. There is no sense that this community was to be segmented in any way, whether by race, ethnicity, gender or age. It is to have clear entry and exit points, making it clear (as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians) that there are those “inside” the church and those “outside” the church.

Confession. The second dynamic which constitutes the church involves confession. The idea of “confession,” in the sense being suggested here, is related to the Greek homologeo, which means “to say the same thing” or “to agree.” For the church to be the church, it must be a place where the Word of God as put forward in Scripture is proclaimed in its fullness.

Corporate. The third mark of the church is corporate. The Bible speaks of defined organizational roles, such as pastors (a term which is used synonymously and interchangeably with the terms “elder” and “bishop”) and deacons, as well as corporate roles related to spiritual gifts such as teachers, administers, and, of course, leaders (Rom. 12; I Cor. 12; Eph. 4; I Pet. 4). These corporate dynamics allowed money to flow from one group to another (II Corinthians 8); decisions to be made by leaders as to doctrine and practice (Acts 15); and the setting apart of some individuals for appointed tasks, mission and church plants (Acts 13).

Celebration. The fourth dynamic of the local church is celebration. The church was to gather for public worship as a unified community of faith, including the stewarding of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, for these were far from being “public domain.” In the New Testament, believers were to “come together” for the Supper, and its proper administration fell under apostolic teaching and direction which was then delegated to pastors to oversee.

Cause. The final mark of the local church relates to cause. The church is on a very specific mission, given to it by Jesus Himself, to reach out to a deeply fallen world and call it back to God. According to the Bible, this involves active evangelism with subsequent discipleship, coupled with strategic service to those in need, such as the poor.

Without apology, this is what we call people into when we call them into the Hillcrest Family. It’s not a social club or a service organization, it’s not an optional accessory for Christian discipleship—and there’s no substitute for it in the world!

_____________________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Winning Ways: Why Church-Going and Evangelism Belong Together

The way you think about “church” is broken if you think getting someone to attend your church is a hindrance to evangelism.

In a lot of church leadership blogs I read, the writers dismiss the so-called “attactional” approach to outreach and advocate what they call a “missional” approach. They contend that we abandon all efforts to invite people to experience the life and worship of a church body (“attractional”) and instead simply live an authentic Christian life in our workplace and neighborhood (“missional”).

It’s either-or, according to many: Either compel the community to “come and see” or compel the church to “go and tell.”

Um...am I the only one who sees this as a false dichotomy? People veer off course in the whole “missional versus attractional” debate the moment they actually think the word “versus” belongs between those two words.

Should I build a genuine relationship with my neighbors? Yep. Should I live an authentic Christian life in their presence? Yep. Should I serve them? Yep.

But now, keep going: Should I bring my neighbors to sit in with my Bible study group and listen to us believers wrestle with the implications of the text? Yep. Should I pray and work toward the time my neighbors begin to sit with me in a service where real worship is taking place? Yep. Should I enlist my neighbors’ help on a church mission trip? Yep.

If you think involving people with your church family will hinder your efforts at commending Christ to them, the solution isn’t to quit inviting them to church. No, the solution is to fix what’s broken in your understanding of “church.”

Listen, if we have a church where people are doing all the stuff that a real church ought to be doing -- praying for each other, serving each other, forbearing each other, worshipping God, challenging each other with the Word -- well, wouldn’t that be absolutely the best environment for the spiritually curious to see the life-changing difference Christ makes?

This Sunday at 10, come learn why “church-going” should be part of your outreach efforts. Because, when it comes to the question of whether Jesus wants us “out there” with people or if he wants us bringing people into the Christian community where we share life together, the answer is “yes.”

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday February 9

“Where Feet, Fist and Faith Collide”


Police thank suspect for Facebook info


“How much life could you find in one cubic foot? That's a hunk of ecosystem small enough to fit in your lap. To answer the question, photographer David Liittschwager took a green metal frame, a 12-inch cube, to disparate environments—land and water, tropical and temperate. At each locale he set down the cube and started watching, counting, and photographing with the help of his assistant and many biologists.” Find out at National Geographic online.


“The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling ‘My Way’ in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the ‘My Way Killings.’” (NYT)


The latest stats on iPhone apps, beautifully displayed.


WFAA-TV in Dallas investigates Ed Young of Fellowship Church in an unflattering report. What to make of this? The tell-all witness in the burqua cracked me up, but exposure of a minister’s lavish living was sad.


Voodoo priest's son leads Haitians to Christ


How to Sound Smarter: The Reader's Digest Version of those rules for talking and writing--the ones you missed in high school


“Since last September, a group of women have been on a fashion fast, refusing to buy any article of clothing for 12 months. What have they learned so far from The Great American Apparel Diet, as the experiment is called?” (Find out here)


More Global Warming Shenanigans


David Brooks at the NYT: One of the keys to healthy aging is what George Vaillant of Harvard calls ‘generativity’ — providing for future generations. Seniors who perform service for the young have more positive lives and better marriages than those who don’t. As Vaillant writes in his book Aging Well, ‘Biology flows downhill.’ We are naturally inclined to serve those who come after and thrive when performing that role.”


‘Men at Work’ Stole Most Famous Tune


Posts since last Tuesday:

Too Many Happy Returns

"What's The Use of Stories That Aren't Even True?"

Heading Off Radicalization

Song of the Week: "Fugitive" by David Gray

Oh How I Miss This Guy's Work

Step Away from the Mouse...

When the U.N. Opposes Religious Liberty

Fatherhood Lost

Peer Pressure and Christian Belief

Winning Ways: "Lost: It’s More Than a TV Show"

"What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?"

Too Many Happy Returns

Oh iPhone, your return
Key on the on-
Screen keyboard needs to
Be smaller or your space
Bar should be longer. I
Hit the return key way
Too often when I
Type.

"What's The Use of Stories That Aren't Even True?"

Okay, I'm a geeky sucker for sticking with Lost across 5, now 6, seasons. Then again, what other TV show gets people talking about such important subjects? Case in point, from Entertainment Weekly:

Desmond Hume reads the darndest books. When we first met him in season 2, the moony marooner ran off into the jungle carrying a copy of The Third Policeman, a perversely playful work with a twisted plot that mirrors the most despairing of Lost theories: that our fallen castaways are stuck in an eternal cycle of damnation, their looping hell managed by morally ambiguous enforcers. In ''LA X,'' [the opener for Season 6] Desmond was reading Rushdie's Haroun And The Sea of Stories. Like Policeman, Haroun functions as commentary and critique on storytelling, but otherwise couldn't be more different. The plot concerns a boy who all but curses his father in a moment of despair by saying, cynically, ''What's the use of stories that aren't even true?'' As a consequence, the father becomes heartbroken, and loses his storytelling mojo. Haroun then embarks on a fantastic adventure to save the enchanted ''Ocean of the Steam of Story'' from villains who would corrupt it. By taking that journey and saving that enchanted place, Haroun restores his father's life and power by giving him the tale of his own adventure, which, when told, rouses a hopeless town to rebel against exploitive, oppressive forces. What might Haroun have to say to us about season 6? Mostly, I'm thinking of Jack and his relationship to his father. But more than anything, I'm fascinated by Desmond's progression from the surreal cynicism of Policeman to the redemptive fable of Haroun. I've certainly seen a lot of Policeman in Lost. In season 6, perhaps we'll see more Haroun.

Thanks to Lost, I already have Flannery O'Conner's Everything That Rises Must Converge on my Amazon Wish List. Now I've added Haroun as well. Hopeless, hopeless geek.

Heading Off Radicalization

I always appreciate Eileen Flynn's work.  Yesterday she reported in the Statesman on efforts within the Muslim community to head off radicalization among young men. One local imam she talked with is Islam Mossaad of the North Austin Muslim Community Center.

Over coffee a couple of months ago I asked Imam Islam about this very issue. It will be one area we'll cover when I interview him at Hillcrest during the "Neighboring Faiths Interviews."  Find out more here.

Song of the Week: "Fugitive" by David Gray

It's baaack: The every-Sunday "Song of the Week" feature has been on hiatus. We return with David Gray's "Fugitive." It's about reaching out to a loved one who's withdrawing from life.

Oh How I Miss This Guy's Work

How soon after the U.S. Postal Service issues the Calvin stamp will you send a letter with one on the envelope?

Immediately. I'm going to get in my horse and buggy and snail-mail a check for my newspaper subscription.

Bill Waterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes

 

Oh, how I miss Waterson's work. CJ Mahaney of Sovereign Grace ministries has called the comic series "a must read for every pastor." Amen.

Step Away from the Mouse...

"A new study from researchers at the University of Leeds finds that people who compulsively browse, chat and play online have higher rates of moderate to severe depression than people who aren't compulsively driven to use the internet." (Time)

So, make this your last post you read for a while and get outside, or meet a friend, or serve someone in need.