How to Respond to Religious Pluralism

Is Jesus the only way to God? I'm often asked this question. If the answer is, “Yes, Jesus is the only way to God,” a line is drawn where we would sometimes rather things remain fuzzy. Why would we prefer this particular claim to remain fuzzy? In many cities there are arrays of religious beliefs: Mysticism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, to name a few. The presence of so many different religions in cities leads people (Christians included) to conclude that all religious paths lead to God. Why does this happen in cities? In urban areas, we are more likely to develop relationships with people from various religions. When we realize that they are kind and sincere because of their religious beliefs, it seems arrogant to insist their beliefs are wrong. After all, their religion appears to have made them very likable, respectable people. I have met secularists and Buddhists who are more generous and sacrificial than many Christians I know. How, then, should we respond to this array of religions with the claim that Jesus offers the one, true way to God?

Answering the Question Socially

When people of other faiths rival Christian character, we face a tendency to affirm all religions as valid ways to God. We make a theological decision based on social experience. Rather than investigate the answer to one of the most important questions, we prefer to glaze the question with inch-deep reflections upon the character of people we meet. Understandable but not wise.

What if we became known for not only posing great questions but also grappling deeply and sincerely with great answers? Many Christians claim that belief in Jesus is the only way to God. Others insist there are many ways to God, a view popularly called religious pluralism (academic religious pluralism advocates inter religious dialog not that all religions lead to the same God. Here we will deal with religious pluralism in its popular form). Let’s examine the claims of religious pluralism.

Over the past five years in Austin, Texas (a case study city for Harvard’s Pluralism Project), I have had the opportunity to meet, know, and talk with both Christian and non-Christian pluralists. As I have reflected on these conversations, it seems that there are at least three reasons people embrace religious pluralism. They believe it to be more enlightened, humble, and tolerant. Let’s examine each of these reasons more closely.

Is Religious Pluralism Enlightened?

Is the belief that all religious paths lead to the same God more enlightened or educated? Comparatively, each religion teaches very different things about who God is and how humans reach the divine. In fact, there is a lot of disagreement between the religions regarding the nature of God. Buddhism, for example, doesn’t believe in God. Islam teaches an impersonal monotheism, Allah. The Koran states that God reveals His will, but not His person. Christianity teaches a personal trinitarianism, where God is three persons in relationship, Father-Son-Spirit that can be known and enjoyed. Hinduism varies on this question, ranging from polytheism to atheism. This is due to the absence of definitive revelation to clarify Hindu “theology.” Instead, Hinduism has multiple sources of revelation (Upanishads, Vedas, etc.)  Contrary to Islam, Hinduism has no presuppositions about the nature of God. In short, religious views of God differ. If so, it would seem far from “enlightened” to claim that all religions lead to the same God, when their views of God are, in fact, radically different. This claim of religious pluralism contradicts the tenants of the religions themselves.

Religions not only teach different things about who God is but also how we “reach him.” Buddhism suggests the 8-fold Noble Path, Islam the 5 Pillars (Shahadah, Prayer, Fasting, Charity, Pilgrimage) and Christianity the gospel of Jesus. Therefore, to say that all religions lead to God is not only unenlightened it is inaccurate. This is the thesis of Stephen Prothero, Boston College professor, in his book God is not One. He writes:

And it is comforting to pretend that the great religions make up one big, happy family. But this sentiment, however well-intentioned, is neither accurate nor ethically responsible. God is not one.

Prothero goes on to point out that just as God is not one, so also all religions are not one. They are distinct and make very different claims about God and how to reach him. In light of what we have observed regarding what religions teach about the nature of God and how to reach him, religious pluralism must be reconsidered. Subscribing to religious pluralism because it is more enlightened or a more “educated” view of world religions is not only unenlightened but also inaccurate.

Is Religious Pluralism More Humble?

Despite very clear differences on the nature of God and human access to the divine, religious pluralists continue to insist that there are many ways to God. Why would educated people persist in an inaccurate view of other religions? One major reason is because they believe it to be an act of humility and love. Very often I hear people say: “Who am I to judge someone else’s religion, to tell them that they are wrong?” This implies, of course, that maintaining Jesus is the only way to God is arrogant. I’ll be the first to admit there are arrogant Christians who rudely insist that Jesus is the only way to God. I’d like to apologize for those kinds of Christians. Arrogant insistence on your beliefs actually runs counter to the life and teachings of Jesus. However, just because someone is arrogant doesn’t make him or her wrong.

People are arrogantly right about all kinds of things—Math, Science, Religion. You probably work with someone like this. (Dwight Schrute?) The arrogantly right person always talk down to others with an air of arrogance because they have the right answer. It might not be nice, but it doesn’t mean they are wrong.

For all the Christians who are arrogant about Jesus’ exclusive claims, there are many more who have ardently searched religions, compared their claims, and humbly come the conclusion that Jesus was telling the truth, that personal faith in the Messiah is the only way to God. This doesn’t make them arrogant; it makes them authentic. They are willing to stand by what they discovered to be true. Insisting on what is true doesn’t automatically make you arrogant. There are both humble and arrogant ways to insist on Jesus’ claim that he is the only way to God. After all, it is Jesus who said it, and Jesus was quintessentially humble, especially if he is who he said he was. By contrast, religious pluralism exclusively insists that its view—all ways lead to God—is true while all other religions are false in their exclusive teachings.

When religious pluralism claims that there are many ways to God, it is not humble. It actually carries an air of arrogance about it. How? Religious pluralism insists that its view—all ways lead to God—is true while all other religions are false in their exclusive teachings. Religious pluralism dogmatically insists on its exclusive claim, namely that all roads lead to God. The problem, as we have seen, is that this claim directly contradicts many religions like Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity. The claim of the religious pluralist is arrogant because it enforces its own belief on others. It says to other religions: “You must believe what I believe, not what you believe. Your way isn’t right, in fact all of your ways are wrong and my way is right. There isn’t just one way to God (insert your religion); there are many ways. You are wrong and I am right.” This can be incredibly arrogant, particularly if the person saying this hasn’t studied all the world religions in depth and makes a blind assertion. Upon what basis can the religious pluralist make this exclusive claim? Where is the proof that this is true? To what ancient Scriptures, traditions, and careful reasoning can they point? The lack of historical and rational support for religious pluralism makes it a highly untenable view of the world and its religions.

Is Religious Pluralism Truly Tolerant?

Very often people hold to religious pluralism because they think it is more tolerant than Christianity. I’ll be the first to say that we need tolerance, but what does it mean to be tolerant? To be tolerant is to accommodate differences, which can be very noble. I believe that Christians should be some of the most accommodating kinds of people, giving everyone the dignity to believe whatever they want and not enforcing their beliefs on others. We should winsomely tolerate different beliefs. Interestingly, religious pluralism doesn’t really allow for this kind of tolerance. Instead of accommodating spiritual differences, religious pluralism blunts them. Let me explain.

The claim that all paths lead to the same God actually minimizes other religions by asserting a new religious claim. When someone says all paths lead to the same God, they blunt the distinctions between religions, throwing them all in one pot, saying: “See, they all get us to God so the differences don’t really matter.” This isn’t tolerance; it’s a power play. When asserting all religions lead to God, the distinctive and very different views of God and how to reach the divine in Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam are brushed aside in one powerful swoop. The Eightfold Noble Path, the 5 Pillars of Islam, and the Gospel of Christ are not tolerated but told they must submit to a new religious claim–religious pluralism–despite the fact that this isn’t what those religions teach. When it does this, religious pluralism places itself on top of all other religions.

The Religion of Religious Pluralism

People spend years studying and practicing their religious distinctions. To say they don’t really matter is highly intolerant! The very notion of religious tolerance assumes there are differences to tolerate, but pluralism is intolerant of those very differences! In this sense, religious pluralism is a religion of its own. It has its own religious absolute—all paths lead to the same God—and requires people of other faiths to embrace this absolute, without any religious backing at all. This is highly evangelistic. Religious pluralism  is preachy but under the guise of tolerance. In the end, it is a step of faith to say there are many paths to God. Says who? The idea that all paths lead to the same God is not a self-evident fact; it is a leap of faith. It isn’t even an educated leap, nor is it as humble and tolerant as it might appear.

Here is Stephen Prothero’s response to this tenant of religious pluralism:

Faith in the unity of religions is just that—faith (perhaps even a kind of fundamentalism). And the leap that gets us there is an act of the hyperactive imagination.

As it turns out, each of the reasons for subscribing to religious pluralism—enlightenment, humility, and tolerance—all backfire. They don’t carry through. Religious pluralism isn’t enlightened, it’s inaccurate; it isn’t humble, it’s fiercely dogmatic; and it isn’t really all that tolerant because it intolerantly blunts religious distinctions. In the end, religious pluralism is a religion, a leap of faith, based on contradiction and is highly untenable. Christianity, on the other hand, respects and honors the various distinctions of other religions, comparing them, and honoring their differing principles–Karma (Hinduism), Enlightenment (Buddhism), Submission (Islam), and Grace (Christianity). As we conclude, let’s explore Jesus’ exclusive claim that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life as well as the charge that his teachings in Christianity are arrogant, unenlightened, and intolerant. In particular, we will examine the unique principle of grace.

Christ Teaches Us Humility

First, Jesus is the Way. What does this mean? Does it mean that Jesus is our trailblazer, clearing the other religious options aside so we can hike our way to heaven through spiritual or moral improvement. If I keep the Ten Commandments, if I serve the poor and love my neighbor, if I pray and read the Bible enough, then God will accept me. No. As the way, Jesus doesn’t create a path for us to hike. We can never make it—do enough spiritual, moral, or social good to impress God. Much less love him with all our soul, mind, and strength. We can’t make it up the path. We all fail to love and serve the infinitely admirable and lovable God. In fact, we love other things more, that’s a crime of infinite proportions. It’s against an infinite God. The sentence for our crime must be carried out.

When Jesus takes the arduous hike for us he goes down into the valley where the criminals die. He hikes down into our sin, our rebellion, our failures and he heaps them all on his back and climbs on a cross, where he is punished for our crime, a bloody gruesome death. The innocent punished for the guilty. If he doesn’t take our punishment, then we must endure it—forever separation from God. If you reject Jesus, then you will pay the infinite consequences. However, if you embrace Jesus in his sin-absorbing death you get forgiveness, and Jesus hikes not only through the valley but up the mountain to carry your forgiveness to God, where he pleads our innocence (Hebrews 10). This is what it means for Jesus to be the way. He hikes into the valley of our just punishment and up the mountain for our forgiveness. He is the redemptive way. He takes our place. This understanding of Jesus as the way should make us incredibly humble not arrogant. We realize how undeserving we are and how much mercy we have been shown.

Christ Enlightens Us

Jesus is also the Truth. What does that mean? In John chapter 1, we are told that God became flesh and was full of grace and truth in Jesus. The truth is that God is Jesus. Christianity is the only religion where God is born as a man, becomes fully human. This is the height of enlightenment. All other religions teach that humans must work their way toward divinity. The truth is Jesus. The truth is a person who dies in our place, for our crimes, and in turn gives us his life. The truth is that God works his way down to humanity and dies for us. That’s grace. See, the truth isn’t a special prayer or code word we say at the pearly gates. In Christianity, the truth is essentially revealed in a Person, Jesus, full of grace and humility. All other religions God is impersonal, but in Christianity we meet God in Jesus. The truth is a Person who dies for us. Wonderfully enlightened, moving.

Christ Guides Us to Persuasive Tolerance

Finally, Jesus is the Life. As if it wasn’t enough to be our way, incredibly humbling, and the truth, truly enlightening, Jesus caps it off by offering us not just his death but his life. What life? Later on in John, Jesus says he is the resurrection and the life, and that whoever believes in him, though he die yet he will live (11:25). He goes down into the valley to take our death, and rises up from the dead to up the other side of the valley where he prepares a new place for us to enjoy life with him forever. The hope of Christ’s life should break into the lives of Christians today, making us persuasively tolerant. We tolerantly extend people the dignity of their own beliefs. We don’t minimize the differences between religions. We honor them. The life of Christ produces in us true humility. But it also produces in us true enlightenment. We’ve come to grasp grace, that God works his way down to us, dies for our moral and religious failures, and offers us life. If this is true, we must lovingly, humbly try to persuade others to believe in Jesus—who alone offers the wonderful promise of the way to God, the truth of God, and life of God.

In the end, it doesn’t matter how nice or moral a person is because there is not enough niceness or morality to pay for our rejection of God. Either we must be rejected or we turn to Jesus who was rejected for us. This is the heart of the gospel. Jesus lays down his own life for those who reject him, for his enemies, for those who don’t believe in him, and offers them forgiveness. Why would we reject such a man?—such a God? Jesus’ claims are better than the claims of religious pluralism. Christianity delivers where pluralism cannot. Instead of being unenlightened, Jesus is truly enlightening. He is God—full of grace and truth. Instead of being arrogant, Jesus should make us incredibly humble. He created the way to God for us at the expense of his own death. Finally, instead of being intolerant, Jesus should make us persuasively tolerant, granting people the dignity of unbelief but pleading with them to accept true life!

We all have a choice—where to place our faith. Will we place it in unenlightened, dogmatic, and intolerant pluralism? Or will we place it in Jesus, who is the incredibly humbling way, the enlightening truth, and the persuasively tolerant life? Both require faith. In The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Leslie Newbigin wrote: “Doubt is not autonomous.” We can’t rely on doubt alone. We can’t doubt one thing without placing our faith in another. We can doubt Jesus and trust pluralism, or we can trust Jesus and doubt pluralism. We cannot say, “I believe Jesus is the only way,” and also say, “I believe all religions lead to God.” Ask yourself, will you place faith in Jesus who is the way, truth, and life? Or, will you place your faith in religious pluralism?

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Jonathan Dodson (M.Div, Th.M) is happy husband to Robie, and proud father to Owen, Ellie & Rosamund. He is also the lead pastor of Austin City Life church and directional leader for PlantR and Gospel Centered Discipleship.com. Jonathan is also the author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Crossway, 2012). He blogs at jonathandodson.org, enjoys listening to M. Ward, watching sci-fi, and following Jesus. You can find him on Twitter @Jonathan_Dodson.

The Call To Discipleship

There is a growing recognition in churches today about the need for discipleship. In what follows I would like to describe, from the Gospel of Luke, what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Luke has some helpful insights about discipleship. The first eight chapters are focused on “who is Jesus?” But there’s a shift in chapter 9, where Peter with the help of the Holy Spirit realizes that Jesus is not one more in a succession of prophets and teachers. Peter says, “You are the Christ of God” - you are the Messiah, the one who is bringing the ruling power of God back into the world to heal and repair all the brokenness—whether it’s spiritual, psychological, social, or physical.

From the time Jesus’ identity is revealed, he begins to say, “Follow me.” If he is who he says he is, what does it mean to follow him? Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means setting a new priority, finding a new identity, and living a new mercy. All three are critical; they all fit together. Let’s look at them.

Setting a New Priority

Being a disciple means setting a new priority. In Luke 9:57–62 Jesus meets three eager men, all willing to follow him. Jesus’ responses to them are surprisingly blunt.

The first man says, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus says, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” It’s as if Jesus is saying, “There’s nothing wrong with what you just said, but I discern a wrong attitude underneath your statement. Do you know what kind of Savior I am? I’m not the kind that rallies constituents, pulls together armies, and then triumphs. I am a Savior who saves through being condemned, through dying, through giving my heart to be broken. Let’s apply this to one area of your life: I see that you have a home, a nice standard of living. Are you willing to put me before that? Are you willing to lose those things for me?”

Then Jesus addresses two other men, similarly concerned with their families. One says, “I’d love to come with you, but first I have to bury my father.” The other says, “First let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” There is nothing wrong with having a funeral for your father or going back to see your family, but behind these requests Jesus sees a wrong attitude of heart. He’s saying, “I know you. For you specifically to go to your father’s funeral—or back home—would be a bad idea. I must come first.” Notice their language. In both cases they say, “Lord, first, let me do this.” Jesus says there can’t be any but first. “I must be your first priority.” That’s what he means when he says: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Anyone who plows a field must be completely focused on plowing. And following Jesus is no different, “My disciple has to be utterly focused on me.” By the way, “fit for the kingdom” is an unfortunate translation; the word there means “useful.” You might think he’s saying, “Unless you’re totally committed, you don’t qualify for my kingdom.” Of course no one qualifies for Jesus’ kingdom. It’s all by grace. He’s saying: Unless delighting Jesus, resembling him, serving him, and knowing him is your highest priority, the healing power of the kingdom of God will not be flowing through you. You will not be a useful vehicle for it.

The second and more cryptic line is, “Let the dead bury their own dead.” Obviously physically dead people can’t dig graves, so the first noun must refer to the spiritually dead. To be spiritually dead means to be as blind and insensitive to spiritual reality as a physical body is to physical reality. You may be saying, “Well, I believe in Jesus, but I can’t put him first right now. I’ve got my career; I’ve got to wait till my parents die, because they would be unhappy if I became a Christian . . . I see who he is and what he’s done, but I’m not going to put him first just yet. Someday I will.” When someone says, “I understand Christianity. I’m just not ready to put it at the central place in my life,” then that person really doesn’t understand it yet! Jesus says: Putting anything before me reveals spiritual deadness. Let the dead bury their dead. If you put your father before me, there’s a spiritual deadness in your life.

Talking this harshly is not my style, but I’m afraid to mute the smelling–salts-ness of Jesus’ message: Let the dead bury the dead! No one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God! Foxes have holes, birds have nests . . . But “I have to be the first priority in your life, or you’re not a disciple; if you don’t put me first in your life, it’s not that you’re just uncommitted or lazy, disorganized or undisciplined. No, you just don’t get it! You don’t really see who I am and what I’ve done; you don’t understand the meaning of my life and work. You need to wake up!”

Let me illustrate. In 1971 I heard a talk—two illustrations—that changed my life. The woman who gave the talk, named Barbara Boyd, said, “If somebody says to me, ‘Come on in, Barbara, but stay out, Boyd,’ it’s a bit of a problem, because I can’t separate them. It’s not like the top half of me is Barbara, and the bottom half of me is Boyd. So if you won’t have Boyd, you can’t get Barbara. If you’re going to keep the Boyd out, I can’t come in at all!” She continued: “To say, ‘Jesus, come into my life, forgive my sins, answer my prayers; do this for me, do that for me—but don’t be the absolute master of my life; Jesus, Savior, come in; but Lord, stay out,’ how can he come in at all? Because he’s all Savior, and he’s all Lord. He’s Lord because he’s Savior. He’s Savior because he’s Lord.”

I remember her second illustration: “If the distance between the Earth and the sun, which is 92 million miles, was the thickness of a piece of paper, the diameter of our galaxy would be a stack of papers 310 miles high. And our galaxy is less than a speck of dust in the part of the universe that we can see. And that part of the universe might just be a speck of dust compared to all the universe. And if Jesus is the Son of God who holds all this together with the power of his word, is this the kind of person you ask into your life to be your personal assistant?” Then she asked us all to go outside and for one hour say nothing. “Just think about what this means to you.”

She was expanding on Jesus’ message:  If you intellectually assent, “Yes, I think Jesus is probably the Son of God; I think he probably died for our sins,” but he is not the center of your life, then you may think you understand, but you really don’t. It’s not just a matter of commitment or lack of discipline, there’s spiritual deadness; you don’t really see it, understand it, get it. Wake yourself up!

Finding a New Identity

Discipleship is not just a matter of bending your will to Jesus’ will; it’s melting your heart into a whole new shape. A disciple is not someone who simply sets a new priority; a disciple finds a new identity. We see this in Luke 9:23–25. At first sight verse 23 looks like it’s just another way of saying set a new priority: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” But there’s more to it than that. In Semitic literature, the second and third sentences often restate the first. And here the second and third sentences say, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me will save it.” The word life is not the word for physical life. There’s a good Greek word for that: bios, from which we get our word biology. The Greek word that’s translated “life” here is psyche, meaning “self.” He’s talking—pretty radically—about the psychological, inner life. “Your old way of having an identity, of gaining a sense of self, has got to end. In a sense you have to die to it. And I can give you a whole new identity. You’ll get a whole new true self.”

Let’s look at this more closely. Verses 24 and 25 show what he’s not saying. He’s not taking the typical Eastern or Western approach to identity. In Buddhism the deepest consciousness of enlightenment is losing all sense that you are an individual self. The boundaries between you and the rest of reality disappear. The Eastern way to humility, to peace, is to actually lose the sense of an individual self.

But Jesus doesn’t stop at, “I want you to lose yourself.” He says, “Lose yourself to find yourself,” which means, “I want you to die to your old approach to identity, and get a new sense of individual self.” He’s not going the Eastern way. But he’s sure not going the Western way either.

W. H. Auden wrote a work called The Age of Anxiety in which he satirizes the modern Western obsession with “finding yourself.” In it there’s a great line that reads: “Miserable wicked me, / How interesting I am.” Others have also noted our obsession with finding and fulfilling your deepest desires as the main thing you’re supposed to do in life. It almost seems that Jesus has us in mind when he says, “You’re never going to find out who you really are by trying to find out who you really are. You’re going to have to lose yourself in serving me.” Some things happen only as a byproduct, and identity is one of them.

“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world?” (9:25). Gaining things from the world is the normal way we try to get a self. In fact, the three men at the end of Luke 9 are examples of this. Some people say you’re nobody unless you have a lucrative career. People in more traditional cultures say you’re nobody unless you have a family. But Jesus is saying, “If you get the whole world, it cannot give you a stable self.” He says, “If you lose yourself for me . . .” In other words, “Instead of trying to gain a self by gaining things, build everything in your life on me, on who I am, on what I have done, then finally you’ll have a true self that is stable, because you were built to know me.”

A disciple is not only someone who has set a new priority, but someone whose entire identity has been reshaped and forged. But how is that possible?

Living a New Mercy

The key to setting a new priority and finding a new identity is in living a new mercy. And this is also evident in Luke 9. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and, it says in verse 52, “He sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him.” They rejected him. “When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’”

Let’s try to understand them. Remember that there was a prophet, named Elijah, who called down fire upon some soldiers who were seeking to arrest him. And on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus had appeared—to James and John—with Elijah and Moses. The message of the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28–36) was that Jesus was even greater than Moses and Elijah.

So think of the logic of the disciples: You’re greater than Elijah. These people have rejected you, and that’s even worse than rejecting Elijah. That adds even more effrontery to the godhead. Shall we not bring down fire and destroy them?

This would be the kind of prophet the world can relate to. But Jesus Christ doesn’t rebuke the unbelieving Samaritans; he rebukes the disciples! He is the absolute un-Elijah. Can you imagine their continued perplexity if they still believe he’s greater than Elijah? The soldiers come after Jesus to kill him—in the Garden—and what does he do? He heals an ear that was cut during a skirmish. Later on, the soldiers are pounding nails into his hands, and what does he say? Father, forgive them; they really don’t understand what they’re doing.

Why doesn’t fire come down on the Samaritans? On the soldiers? The answer comes in Luke 12, where Jesus says, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled.” That’s very interesting for two reasons. One is that fire, in biblical imagery, always means the judgment of God. Second, he says he comes to bring fire on the earth! This is perplexing because, after all, he has just rejected Elijah’s fiery approach. Ah! Semitic literature: the second sentence is a restatement of the first; this is what he actually says, in Luke 12:49–50: “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!” He’s already been baptized with water, so he’s clearly talking about something else. “I’ve come to bring fire. How constrained I am until it’s completed. I have come to undergo a baptism, how crushed I am until it’s over.” Why didn’t the fire come down on the Samaritans or later on the soldiers? Because the fire came down on him. He was baptized. He was the one immersed in the judgment of God. He got what we deserved. This is the answer to all the riddles.

Look back over the years, and you will see that when people want to atone for their sins and be forgiven, they put a sacrifice on the altar and burn it with fire. There’s something inside us that intuitively says, “That can’t be enough to put away sins.” That’s right. All those fires were pointing to this fire. It didn’t come down on the Samaritans or the soldiers, because it came down  on Jesus Christ. He came to take it. He came to bear it. Luke 9:22 says, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected . . . and on the third day be raised to life.” They rejected him; shouldn’t they be rejected? He’s rejected for them. The Son of Man came to be rejected and to be killed. This is the secret to the change of identity. You have to be melted and amazed and astounded that he took the fire, the punishment, for you. And that’s the key to everything else.

Here’s the reason: You cannot change your identity without a radical experience of mercy; without a radical experience of grace; without a radical experience of love.

I’ve heard people say, “You’re right. I probably should change my identity, build my identity on God.” But you can’t change your identity by just deciding. It’s not an act of the will. A person can’t just say, “You know, I’m having a problem in my life because I built my identity on my parents’ expectations. I think I’ll build my identity on my career and accomplishments.” You can’t do that! That’s not transformation; that’s acting. Your heart is not a computer in which you can just install a program. There’s only one way that the root of your personality can be changed, and that is by an experience of love. Only when your heart experiences love from a new source beyond anything it’s ever known before will your heart start to move toward that source, and begin to be deeply changed.

Thomas Chalmers, the well-known Scottish preacher, in his famous sermon, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” says it all: Seldom do any of our habits or flaws disappear by a process of extinction through reasoning or “by the mere force of mental determination.” Reason and willpower are not enough. “But what cannot be destroyed may be dispossessed... The only way to dispossess [the heart] of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one.” A young man, for example, may “cease to idolize pleasure, but it is only because the idol of wealth has become the stronger and gotten the ascendancy,” and is enabling him to discipline himself for prosperous business. “Even the love of money ceases to have the mastery over the heart” if it’s drawn into another world of ideology and politics, “and he is now lorded over by the love of power.” But “there is not one of these [identity] transformations in which the heart is left without an object. Its desire for one particular object may be conquered, but . . . its desire for having some one object” of absolute love “is unconquerable.” It is only when admitted “into the number of God’s children through the faith that is in Jesus Christ [that] the spirit of adoption is poured out upon us. It is then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and predominate affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former desires, in the only way that deliverance is possible.” So it isn’t enough to hold out a “mirror of its imperfections” to your soul. It’s not enough to lecture your conscience. Rather, you must “try every legitimate method of finding access to your hearts for the love of him who is greater than the world.”

Until you’re melted by the amazing sight, knowledge, and sense of Jesus taking the fire for you, you can’t have that transformation of identity. You can’t just decide, “I think I’m going to change my identity.” It can’t be done. It has to be an experience of love.

Jesus is saying that your career can’t buy it for you. Even the best parents can’t give it to you. “Don’t give the title deed of your heart to anyone but me. Don’t have any other master but me, because I’m the only one that will never leave you, and if you fail me, will forgive you.”

So you have to have all three. There must be an experience of this new, radical mercy, which leads you to find a new identity, which in turn helps you set a new priority.

Being a Disciple

Notice three practical things about being a disciple. First, discipleship is not an option. Jesus says that if anyone would come after me, he must follow me. If you want to come after me—it’s a general term—if you want to have any experience of me, any relationship with me, you have to be a disciple. There are not two kinds of Christians: regular Christians and people who are really disciples. There’s only one: to be a Christian is to be a disciple. To have anything to do with me is to follow me in the way I define it: setting a new priority, finding a new identity, experiencing living out of a new mercy.

Second, having said that it’s not an option—on the other hand, it is a journey. It’s rhetorically brilliant of Luke to note this. In verse 51 Jesus sets out on a journey toward Jerusalem. It’s Jesus’ journey of discipleship, “He sets his face to go to Jerusalem.” And it’s from the moment he begins his journey toward the cross that he begins all his teaching about discipleship. All the next nine chapters, all the teaching on discipleship, comes as he’s going on a journey. This is Luke’s way of saying that discipleship is a journey. In other words, on the one hand, there is a decisive point. You have to leave. Have you left? To go on the journey means saying, “I take my hands off my life.” To go on the journey means saying, “I give up my right to self-determination.” To go on the journey means saying, “I will obey you, Lord, and I’ll get rid of all the if’s. Not “I’ll obey you if,” but obey. Period. I drop my conditions. I drop the if’s; they’re gone!” Not until you say that have you begun the journey. However, after your decisive beginning, the fact remains that it’s a journey. It’s a process that takes time. You’re not going to have it all together. It’s very important to keep that in mind, because if you think that discipleship is the way you’re saved—that by being committed and focused and giving Jesus the priority you’re going to please God and that will get you saved—you’re missing the point. Look at the order. He doesn’t say, “If you follow me, I’ll go to the cross for you.” He says, “I’m going to the cross for you, so follow me.” You’re not saved because you’re a disciple; you’re a disciple if and only if you understand what he has done to save you.

There is one last thing. The sign of true, growing, gospel disciples is their gentleness. What really amazes me about the heart of this passage is that the disciples say, “We’re going to show you how intensely committed we are to you. Look at those people rejecting you. Don’t you want us to bring fire down on them?!” And what does Jesus say? “You don’t get it.” And here’s why.

My experience is that committed disciples of any religion, philosophy, or political cause are hard on themselves and on other people too. They’re committed to the cause, so why aren’t you committed to the cause? You should all be committed to the cause; what’s the matter with you? But the gospel is utterly different. The harder you are on yourself and the gospel, the easier you are on other people. Jesus Christ is saying: My disciples are not terrorists. My disciples know they’re saved by grace, so when they look at people who aren’t doing it right, they don’t say, “Why aren’t you as good as we are? Why aren’t you as committed as we are?” They don’t call fire down from heaven. Jesus says to his disciples: You don’t understand yet. You haven’t had the transformation of identity, because you don’t yet understand my mercy. You don’t know what I’ve done for you, because as yet you can’t, but someday you will. These disciples are probably racist; notice this: they’re calling down fire on the half-breed Samaritans. A lot of Israelites have done a lot of things to reject Jesus, but this is the first time any of his followers wanted fire to come down. Perhaps there’s racism; there’s definitely self-righteousness. Superiority, bigotry, stridency, harshness—they go away, the more you become a disciple. They go away as you become aware that Jesus took the fire for you, as it becomes more central in your heart. And that’s a sign that you’re not just trying to save yourself, not just being religious.

Are you becoming more gentle? More tolerant? More gracious with people around you? More kind? Follow Jesus. He’ll give you what you need. He’s a wonderful counselor. One guy comes and says, “I’m ready to follow you wherever you go.” Jesus says, “Go home and think about it.” Another guy says, “I want to go home and think about it.” Jesus says, “Follow me.” Why? Because he’s the perfect counselor. All other counseling theories look flat next to his, because he never gives you a template. He gives you exactly what you need. Follow him, and he will love you singularly. He will love the real you, and love you into a whole new identity. He will give you exactly what you need.

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Timothy Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, which he started in 1989 with his wife, Kathy, and three young sons.  For over twenty years he has led a diverse congregation of young professionals that has grown to a weekly attendance of over 5,000. Dr. Keller’s books, including the New York Times bestselling The Reason for God and The Prodigal God, have sold over 1 million copies and been translated into 15 languages.

[This is adapted from a sermon by Timothy Keller given February 9, 2003 at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York. Edited and transcribed by the C.S. Lewis Institute. All rights reserved. Reprinted here with permission.]

Gospel Diagnostic Questions

Preaching the gospel to ourselves and to others is an art all of us must grow in if we seek real, lasting change in our lives. It is often assumed that the gospel is only for those who have not yet trusted Christ. This is a faulty view of the gospel and limits its work to a personal salvation experience rather than the explosive power and catalytic dynamic for renewal in our hearts on a continuous basis.

To sum up, the life of the Christian is one of continual repentance and belief, without which we slip into a boss/employee, earn/wage, work/rights relationship with our God.

It then becomes the loving responsibility for each of us to run gospel diagnostics to determine whether or not what motivates our heart and lives is “in step” with the gospel (Gal. 2:14).

Here are twenty gospel questions to ask ourselves:

(1) What is my greatest nightmare? What do I worry about most?

(2) What, if I failed or lost it, would cause me to feel that I did not even want to live? What keeps me going?


(3) What do I rely on to comfort myself when things go bad or get difficult?

(4) What do I think about most easily? Where does my mind go to when I am free? What pre-occupies me?

(5) What prayer, unanswered, would make me seriously think about turning away from God?

(6) What makes me feel the most self-worth? What am I the proudest of?

(
7) What do I really want and expect out of life? What would really make me happy?

(8) What position of authority do I desire to give me a sense of power?

(
9) Whose opinion of me do I hold so dear that if lost I would be undone?

(10) What type of financial loss or gain would change my sense of security?

(11) What one criticism would cause me to respond in anger (wife, children, work, ministry, family, friends, etc.)? What am I most touchy about when brought to my attention?

(12) If I had ______________, then I’d be truly happy and feel as if my life has meaning and value.

(
13) If I lost ______________, I would be undone.


(14) I’m impatient because I’m ____________.

(15) I’m critical because I’m _____________.

(16) I’m angry because I’m _____________.


(17) I’m unhappy because I’m ____________.

(18) I’m in despair because I’m ____________.

(19) I have hope because I’m ___________.

(20) I feel worthy because I’m ___________.

These are only a few questions to help us be truthful with ourselves about the gospel. There is no benefit answering these questions with the “right” answers at the expense of the “true” answers (how we really feel and think).

It is only when the “true” answers come to light that the “right” answers will have any power.

We must spend time excavating our idols by asking these questions. When we sin, we do so because some idol has promised us power, prestige, influence, joy, peace, satisfaction, security, pleasure, etc. - that is far more attractive than Christ at the moment. We don’t sin with a gun held to our heads. We sin willingly because it is overwhelmingly appealing.

We need to discover why sins are so appealing by asking these questions and then remind ourselves that idols:

• are weak 
- can’t deliver when you succeed
• can only raise the bar
• 
can’t forgive when you fail
• will only condemn you
• are harmful to you and to others
• hurt you spiritually, emotionally, and physically
• 
hurt others by undermining your ability to love
• 
are grievous to God

By pursuing this idol you are saying to God, “Jesus is not enough. I also need ______ to be happy.”

Our daily struggle is to realign ourselves with the truth of the gospel, to discover new ways to surrender our trust to Christ and grow.

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David Fairchild was the co-founder and preaching elder of Kaleo Church in San Diego and now serves as the Lead Pastor of Mars Hill West Seattle as well as a founding member of The GCM Collective. He currently lives in Seattle with his wife, Grace, and their two children, Michael and Madison.

Over-Parenting Vs. Missional Parenting

Over-Parenting Okay, I’ll be the first to admit it. I’m an overprotective parent. I have a tendency to overdo it and obsess over the little things that don’t really matter. I guess that’s why I was intrigued by TIME magazine’s cover story a couple of years ago, "The Case Against Over-Parenting: Why Mom and Dad Need to Cut the Strings."

Nancy Gibbs begins her article with these provocative words: "The insanity crept up on us slowly: we just wanted the best for our kids."

Ironically, a good desire has led many parents to become obsessed with their kids’ safety and success. Gibbs calls them “helicopter parents” as they hover over their children’s lives from the classroom to the ball field protecting them and pushing them to succeed.

The result? By worrying about the wrong things, Gibbs says, “we do actual damage to our children, raising them to be anxious and unadventurous.” (Pediatricians have also found that this hurried lifestyle of constant pressure and stress can contribute to health problems like childhood obesity and depression).

So what’s the solution? Well, if the problem was simply hovering over our children’s lives, the solution would be to simply back off and lighten up. And there’s some truth to that! But the problem goes much deeper.

The problem is that we are afraid. If our greatest aim as parents is to protect our children and prepare them to receive some kind of academic or athletic recognition, than most likely we are parenting out of fear. Why? Because deep down we’re scared if they don’t succeed. We feel like we’ve failed as parents. So we work hard to prepare our children to make the grade or make the team so we would look good. It’s like our children are little trophies that we, as Paul Tripp says, “secretly want to display on the mantels of our lives as visible testimonies to a job well done” (Age of Opportunity, p.35).

If we were honest, we would admit that much of our parenting is motivated by fear. That’s what keeps us from lightening up and letting go of the reins. And what’s more, as Christians we spend so much time protecting our children from the world that we fail to prepare them to make a difference in this world. Biblical parenting, however, pictures parents as courageous warriors getting ready to release their children into battle. Psalm 127:4 says:

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior so are the children of one’s youth.

Arrows were made to fly. They can’t sit safely in the quiver or rest on the bow forever. They must be released! That’s what our preparation is ultimately for–to release our children into this world equipped with the gospel of Jesus Christ to serve people for the glory of Christ.

So lighten up all you helicopter parents! (me included). Let go of the reins. Parent your children as God parents you. Protect them, yes. But all the while prepare them … so you can release them … to fly into the battle with the glory of the gospel.

Missional Parenting

Much of our parenting is motivated by fear. Consequently, we’re more concerned with protecting our children from the world than preparing them to make a difference in this world. Gospel-centered, missional parenting is much different. It pictures parents as courageous warriors getting ready to release their children into battle. Psalm 127:4 says,

I see missional parenting happening in 3 stages. Of course these stages are fairly fluid with some overlap to be expected.

Gregg Harris says that in the time Psalm 127 was written, there were no arrow factories. Consequently, it took time for each arrow to be crafted with care and precision. The arrow had to have a good sharp tip on one end–that might deal with academic training and biblical instruction; and it had to have a good set of the fletching on the other end–which might apply to discipline. This would provide the arrow with a guidance system. So as parents, we must see ourselves as warriors shaping our young children during their formative years with doctrine and discipline driven by the gospel.

As children grow and mature we must give them opportunities to see the sinful reality of the world around them. Under our guidance and supervision we must expose our children to fallen creation and the crying need for restoration. Instead of an “us vs. them” mentality, we must teach our children to see and serve our culture through the lens of the gospel. We could picture this stage as the arrow being pulled out of the quiver and onto the bow.

Arrows were made to fly. They can’t sit in the quiver or rest on the bow forever. They must be released! Yet the point of release is often the most difficult time in parenting. As Gregg Harris says:

When you aim the arrow and release the arrow, beware–the greatest tension in your relationship with your children will often be just before you release them. Because it feels to the arrow like it’s going backwards when it wants to go forward. The tension is building in the bow, the warrior is aiming, and then there’s the release. From that point on, the guidance system that is in the arrow itself is what keeps it on track.

There comes a time when we must release our children into the battle. This is the purpose of the arrow as well as the purpose of parenting. We cannot be scared of this sinful world. Indeed, this is the world Jesus entered into and told us, “As the Father sent me, so I send you” (John 17:18). So let us follow our Savior with the attitude of a warrior as we prepare our children for the battle.

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Doug Wolter served for eight years as family pastor at LaGrange Baptist Church in Kentucky. He is now senior pastor at Oak Hill Baptist Church in Humboldt, Iowa. He has an amazing wife and three incredible kids who continue to humble him and fill him with joy.  He enjoys drinking coffee, reading, exercising, and blogging at life2getherblog.com.

Discipling through Anger [video]

This part 5 in a series of video interviews about the book Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

Church Planting, Confessions, and Catechism

What do church planting, confessions, and catechisms have in common?  The answer is a lot.  Christians have used confessions and catechism to teach the essentials of the faith for centuries.  Many of the great confessions and catechism were originally discipleship tools for new churches during the time of the Reformation.

One of the biggest challenges church planters face is teaching new believers the essential doctrines of the Christian faith.  Many of the people who come to a new church know little if any about the basic doctrines.

What is a Catechism?

You may be wondering, “What is a catechism?”  When I was a new believer, I had no idea what a catechism was.  For those of us who were not raised in the church, words like catechism, creed, or confessions sound like something you would learn in a catholic school.

So what is a catechism?  A catechism is the process of instructing believers both young and old in the basics of the Christian faith.  The Greek word for "instruct" or "teach" is katecheo from which we get our English word "catechize".

Catechisms provide basic summaries of the church’s teachings to ensure that all members of the church understand the essentials of the faith for themselves.  Most catechisms generally have questions and answers accompanied by Biblical support and explanations.

Brief History of Catechisms and Confessions

As early as the Middle Ages, the Church required new believers to learn the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Ten Commandments.  During the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Reformers compiled many catechisms to help train new believers.

Donald Van Dyken says, “The great leaders of the Reformation, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, attacked the colossal ignorance they met in Germany, Geneva, and Scotland by making catechisms and by catechizing.”[i] Among these Reformed documents were The Augsburg Confession in 1530 and the Heidelberg Catechism written in 1562.

Martin Luther whole-heartedly believed in using them.  He said, “In the catechism, we have a very exact, direct, and short way to the whole Christian religion.  For God himself gave the ten commandments, Christ himself penned and taught the Lord's Prayer, the Holy Ghost brought together the articles of faith.”[ii]

The Puritans later developed catechisms, including the Westminster Confession and Catechisms in the 1640’s.  For many Protestant Christians everywhere, the Westminster Catechisms are the most important and influential of all the catechisms.  The Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms where written in the 1647 by English and Scottish divines.  These documents were written to provide children, new believers, and church members alike a short but comprehensive summary of the Reformed church’s doctrines.

Evangelicals on the Catechism Trail

Today, there is a misconception that only non-evangelical liturgical churches use catechisms and confessions.  However, many evangelicals such as Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists have used them for a long time.  Some may be surprised to know that the Southern Baptists have a rich confessional history.

Tom Nettles remarks, “Many contemporaries have a deep―seated suspicion of catechisms.  In our own Baptist denomination, many would consider the words "Baptist catechism" as mutually exclusive.”  However he goes on to say, “Baptists, including Southern Baptists, produced scores of catechisms for use in this variety of ways.”[iii]

Spurgeon on Catechisms

Standing in this tradition, the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon developed his own catechism from the London Baptist Confession of 1689 and the Westminster Shorter Catechism.  He believed that a good catechism was essential in training the faithful.  He said:

“I am persuaded that the use of a good Catechism in all our families will be a great safeguard against the increasing errors of the times, and therefore I have compiled this little manual from the Westminster Assembly's and Baptist Catechisms, for the use of my own church and congregation.  Those who use it in their families or classes must labour to explain the sense; but the words should be carefully learned by heart, for they will be understood better as years pass.”[iv]

Using the Confessions and Catechism

Many evangelicals are rediscovering the benefit of a good catechism.  Both new and existing churches can benefit from using catechisms.  A catechism can be used as an individual study, times of family worship, or in small groups.  Catechisms are not a pass or fail fill-in-the-blank test, but an invitation to learn the doctrines of grace.  This invitation involves vital learning, ongoing reflection, and discussion within the community of faith.

They are still as useful and as needed today.  Ponder each doctrine and let them speak to your head and your heart.  Share them with your children or your spouse.

Here is a sample of the First Catechism for beginners that you can use in your church, with your family, or in times of study.

1. Who made you? God.
2. What else did God make? God made all things.
3. Why did God make you and all things? For his own glory.
4. How can you glorify God? By loving him and doing what he commands.
5. Why are you to glorify God? Because he made me and takes care of me.
6. Is there more than one true God? No. There is only one true God.
7. In how many Persons does this one God exist? In three Persons.
8. Name these three Persons. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
9. What is God? God is a Spirit and does not have a body like men.
10. Where is God? God is everywhere.
11. Can you see God? No. I cannot see God, but he always sees me.
12. Does God know all things? Yes. Nothing can be hidden from God.
13. Can God do all things? Yes. God can do all his holy will.
14. Where do you learn how to love and obey God? In the Bible alone.
15. Who wrote the Bible? Chosen men who were inspired by the Holy Spirit.[v]
    

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[i] Donald Van Dyken, Rediscovering Catechism. New Jersey: P&R publishing. 2000. 14.

[ii] Martin Luther, Table Talk.

[iii] Tom Nettles,  An Encouragement to Use Catechisms. Founders Journal.

[iv] Charles Surgeon, A Puritans Catechism.

[v] First Catechism. Great Commission Publications, Inc. 2003.

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Dr. Winfield Bevins serves as lead pastor of Church of the Outer Banks, which he founded in 2005.  His life’s passion in ministry is discipleship and helping start new churches. He lives in the beautiful beach community of the Outer Banks with his wife Kay and two daughters where he loves to surf and spend time at the beach with his family and friends. Twitter: @winfieldbevins

A Story Of Gospel Community

In two weeks, in a suburban town outside of Seattle, we'll celebrate God's grace and the Spirit's work through baptizing a new disciple of Jesus. This is the story of how a neighborhood can look like the book of Acts, where disciples are made and we teach and preach from house-to-house, an example of how to make disciples in our sphere of influence... in today's context. We moved into our housing development 7 1/2 years ago, and for the first 6 years, we didn't know anyone who didn't live next to us. I’m serious. I didn't know the guy across the street. By the way, his name is Trevor, and he's getting baptized in my backyard. But, for the first 6 years, the extent of our reaching-out to our neighbors was leading a youth group and handing out bibles door-to-door and singing Christmas carols in the dark because people shut off their lights on us. Sometime while standing in the cold singing "O Come All Ye Faithful," I started to think, "Maybe we need a different modus operandi for bringing the gospel to my neighbors."

I decided to leave my one church to seek out help from people who have done this before, and I landed with Soma Communities. Truth be known, I am very prideful in the way I do things. Whether it is my orthodoxy or my orthopraxy, I feel like I have it down to some degree, which is a spillover from my success in business. It is wrong thinking, but I know this about myself. When coming to Soma Communities, I purposed to be a learner. What I asked myself was, "If you know so much, how come no one around you is repenting and being baptized?" So, even though I was soon asked to take a lead role in a Missional Community out in my suburban city, I decided to just sit back and learn. As I learned, as I listened, I began to be intrigued, and I finally had to act on it.

I asked a new friend of mine, Caesar, "How should I start? Where should I begin in my community?"

He suggested, "Ask the Spirit, 'What's next?'"

At that time, I rarely asked the Spirit to guide and empower me for mission because I was doing nothing that would require the Spirit. I was insular, hanging around only Christian people, and rarely ever engaging anyone with the Gospel or showing them the effects of the Gospel and how that might look in our community. There was no reason to pray. It would have been like asking God to help me flip the channels on my television.

Well. My wife and I prayed... Spirit, what's next?

If you want to open the power of the Spirit like freeing a hungry lion from its cage, then ask the Spirit what's next with a desire to show others what He's like for the sake of making disciples.

The Spirit answered by simply telling my wife and me this: On July 4th, instead of having your BBQ in the backyard, move it to the front yard.

This isn't earth shattering, but as Luke 16:10 puts it, he who can be trusted with a little, can be trusted with a lot. We agreed with the Spirit and decided that would be a good idea. Then He pressed. We ended up putting together a 4th of July wiffle ball tournament and cook off and going door-to-door handing out flyers. The response was overwhelming. This was the first time I met Trevor, my neighbor from across the street. He entered a wiffle ball team, and they won. Whatever. In the end, we had about 40 people play in the tourney and around 150 people at the 4th of July festivities. People continued to come up to me and tell me it was the best 4th of July party they had ever been to. It reminded us all of the Wonder Years. We didn't want this to only happen once a year. So, we started throwing BBQs all the time and inviting people over to have dinner from the connections we made on the 4th.

As summer was drawing to a close, my wife and I knew one thing: we needed help to build this community to reflect the community of God. We started praying that God would send helpers and had other leaders within Soma praying for us as well. God answered. He ended up moving another couple to our city from a different Soma Expression and then sent us another couple from our old bible study. It was beautiful. We came together with a plan that we felt was from the Spirit. We sought to continue the dialogue with these new couples by hosting Saturday morning breakfasts at our house. We wanted these other couples to be there with us to engage our neighbors and become part of our community. To do this, they had to be willing to lay aside some of the things they might have been more comfortable with to pursue our neighbors. But, our goal was to have these breakfasts with an eye on going through the Story of God at some point with those people with whom we were building relationships. We figured this might take a year or so to build these relationships strong enough to engage them on a deeper spiritual level.

This whole time, my wife and I kept asking the Spirit, "What’s next?" Now, we were able to put names to these prayers. We started the breakfasts in October and by the end of the month the Spirit was opening doors for the Gospel like I've never seen. People were asking us, "Why do you do all these things for the community? (We had also arranged a Halloween party, game nights, etc.) Do you sell Avon? Are you Christians? What church do you go to? etc."

We answered those questions, and then asked, "Would you be interested in walking through the story of what the Bible says about God and why we feel compelled to bring about this type of community? We can do it our house and have fun and eat like we always do anyways and then have this story time with dialogue among friends.”

We ended up asking about 6 couples from our neighborhood and 4 said yes, including Trevor and his wife. After 10 weeks of engaging in story and having a lot of fun, summer was back. We told those who went through the story that if they wanted to continue with us to dig into the Scriptures to see what the Gospel says about making disciples, we'd be happy to have them. Trevor and his wife agreed and really started to delve in. We again threw a huge 4th of July party with wiffle ball, cook off, and fireworks, and kept following up with BBQs and studied the word together as a Missional Community.

Now, this entire time, we had, as a group, been praying that God would put on our hearts those people in our lives who seemed to be pushing into the kingdom. We'd been praying (and are still praying), because we were going to once again be doing the Story of God coming up in January. We then had a study on baptism, and two things came out of Trevor's mouth: 1) I want to be baptized 2) I've been praying and talking to my brother and his fiancé and they desire to not only come to the BBQs but also to the Story of God when we start it.

Praise God!

In two weeks we'll be having Trevor's whole family, some friends, and our Missional Community in our backyard for a BBQ and a baptism. He's being commissioned to make disciples, but because he’s been watching me, and I've been walking this out with him day-to-day in normal everyday life for a year and a half, he's already doing it. To him, a disciple of Jesus naturally makes more disciples.

Our Missional Community started the day I put aside my own comforts and moved my BBQ from my backyard to my front yard. We went 6 years without knowing anyone. Now, if we throw a BBQ, we have 70 people show up. We have 6 couples in our Missional Community. We are doing pre-engagement for one couple and trying to save another couple from going through a divorce. We think we might have to multiply coming up in January because we could have close to 40 people that desire to go through the Story of God with us.

I'm no saint. I'm nothing special. I'm not paid by the church. I'm not paid by the community. God pays me money through my business - not to hoard it, but so I can be making disciples who make disciples in the neighborhood where I live.

This story isn't crazy. This story isn't outlandish. It's pretty normal. My family is pretty normal. That's the beauty of it. This is a small taste of what has been happening in our neighborhood and also in our own spiritual development. You’ll notice as you live this out, life, as usual, isn’t perfect. There are times of much difficulty. As a dude in our Missional Community put it, “You only get really irritated with people if you actually get to know them. It’s hard to get irritated at others if you merely wave at them when putting your garbage at the curb.”

If you're reading this, what’s holding you back from going to your knees tonight and just asking God, "What's next?" Be careful. Once you’ve let this Lion of Judah out of the cage, He'll take over the neighborhood.

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Seth McBee is the adopted son of God, husband of one wife, and father of three. He’s a graduate of Seattle Pacific University with a finance degree. By trade Seth is an Investment Portfolio Manager, serving as president of McBee Advisors, Inc. Today, he’s a missional community leader, preaching elder with Soma Communities in Renton, Washington, and executive team member of the GCM Collective. In his down time, he likes to do CrossFit, cook BBQ, host pancake ebelskiver breakfasts at his home and many other neighborhood events in his hometown of Maple Valley, Washington. You can find him on twitter @sdmcbee or at www.gcmcollective.com.

The Gospel Affects How We Treat Leaders [video]

This part 4 in a series of video interviews about the book Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

All The Right Answers: Reasons It's Difficult to Share Our Faith

This is part four of the series The Difficulty of Sharing Our Faith. I’ve often heard people say the reason they find it difficult to share their faith is because they don’t have all the right answers. “What if someone suggests all paths lead to the same God, making Jesus irrelevant?” they say. Or “What if a co-worker claims she could never be a Christian because the Bible has too many errors?” These are serious questions that deserve thoughtful responses. As Christians, we should have reasons for our hope. However, I wonder if we often put our hope in having right answers instead of hoping in the reason for our faith? Let’s consider the role of “right answers” in the difficulty of sharing our faith.

Reasons for Hope

While some consider Christianity to be an unthinking faith, the Bible underscores the importance of reason. Peter, a disciple not known for being good with words, wrote this: “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” (1 Pet 3:14-15).

We are to offer “reasons” for our hope, to always be prepared. Prepared to do what? “Make a defense” is a translation of the word from which we get apologetic. An apologetic isn’t an “I’m sorry” attitude. Nor is it a defensive, antagonistic stance against culture. It is a reasoned statement of belief. To make an apologetic, then, is not to argue out of defensive insecurity, but to offer a reasonable explanation from our security. What kind of security frees us to offer reasonable explanations for our faith?

Two kinds of security free us to engage in apologetics. The first is intellectual security. The Christian faith has a long tradition of apologists who have faithfully defended the faith century after century, answering some of the most difficult questions. The earliest apologists include: Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Tatian, and Clement of Alexandria (view their texts here). Their apologetic answers have been handed down from generation to generation. New apologists, such as Ravi Zacharias, William Lane Craig, Tim Keller, John Frame, and Alvin Plantinga, also address new questions. We do well to read them.

It is important to note that the gospel alone acts as a grand apologetic, addressing the deepest of life’s questions including: the problem of evil and suffering, the existence of God, the hope of salvation, the nature of God and man, and the role of faith. Through apologetics the gospel has proven intellectually credible and existentially satisfying for many people across many cultures. The gospel provides a coherent, rational view on the world that is intellectually secure. It makes sense of a world where things are not as they are supposed to be. But there is another security that frees us to offer reasonable explanations for Christian faith.

Deep Security

Many of us won’t make time to read the old and new apologists. And perhaps we don’t have to. Is it possible that Peter had in mind an apologetic that included, not just reasons, but faith? Peter was writing to people who feared persecution for their faith. When we struggle to share our faith, do we not face persecution? We are attacked by thoughts that undermine our confidence, diminish our trust in Christ, and redirect us away from speaking about Jesus. Surely, this is a spiritual persecution. Cultural apologist Ken Myers has said:

“the challenge of living with popular culture may well be as serious for modern Christians as persecution and plagues were for the saints of earlier centuries.”[1]

While we may not face the gallows or plagues, we do face something more subtle--the invisible power of pop culture that undermines truth, dismisses character, and radically orients us toward comfort. The good news is that we have the same ability as those early saints to be secure and strong in our faith. When doubts surface and silent accusations fly on the cusp of mentioning the gospel, we need a security stronger than our persecution.

Before instructing the early Christians to always have an apologetic, Peter prefaces his statement with this: “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy…” (1 Pet. 3:14). He reassures them, in the face of mockery, to sink their security deep into their hearts not heads. He reminds them that they have nothing to fear because they have Christ who offers perfect peace. He makes apologetics about Christ not right answers, a matter of both the head and the heart.

So, when we face that moment of temptation to shy away from identifying with Jesus, it is our identity in Jesus that we need most. We need not fear men because we can rest in Christ. People may reject us, but our forever acceptance in Christ gives us every reason to speak of Him, of His grace, mercy, kindness, love, and triumph over sin, death, and evil. O for stronger men and women who sink their identity deeply into what Jesus says about us more than what peers and co-workers (might) say about us! Our silence will convince no one of our rich, rewarding faith in Jesus. Fear over co-worker frowns will not inspire a smiling faith.

Authentic Apologetics

Our moment of opportunity is less about converting others and more about staying true to ourselves. Will we speak of our unique community in the church, the God-intoxicating gathering on Sunday, the stirring time of meditation on Wednesday morning, and the quiet, soul stirrings of communion with God? Will we speak authentically about what matters most to us and of the meaningful events in our lives or will we prove inauthentic, dismissing these things from conversation, and along with them, dismissing our true selves? Will we refrain from honoring the Lord Christ as holy in our hearts because we hold in honor the passing frowns of men in our heads? Surely the gospel offers a deeper security than the approval of passing men and women? Does not Christ’s love run deeper, His acceptance purer, and His approval longer than the love, acceptance, and approval that any person could ever give? If so, apologetics is meant to spring from a deep security in the heart, our unshakable union with Christ—fully loved, fully accepted. Apologetics is a matter of the heart as well as the head.

Defending the faith, then, is as much about defending Christ as our Lord in our hearts as it is explaining the reasonableness of our faith. The goal of apologetics should never be to convert others (that is the Spirit’s job), but it is to honor Christ as Lord in our hearts. This happens, very often, with our mouths. And in the end, for everyone the bottom-line issue isn’t an intellectual objection but hope objection. We refuse to remove our hope from one thing and transfer it to the ultimate thing, the person of Jesus. A witness of our authentic hope in Christ will be more compelling than any intellectual argument we could ever articulate. People need to see our hope burn in our bones. They need to sense the Lord Christ set apart in our hearts. They need to see that the gospel not only makes sense but that it also works. Christian faith is intellectually satisfying and existentially rich. So let’s not put our hope in having right answers but have answers that reflect our hope.

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[1] Ken Myers, All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians and Popular Culture (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1989), v.

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Jonathan K. Dodson (MDiv; ThM) serves as a pastor of Austin City Life in Austin, Texas. He is the author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship and has written articles in numerous blogs and journals such as The Resurgence, The Journal of Biblical Counseling, and Boundless. He has discipled men and women abroad and at home for almost two decades, taking great delight in communicating the gospel and seeing Christ formed in others. Twitter: @Jonathan_Dodson

Sharing Your Failures & Your Faith [video]

This part 3 in a series of video interviews about the book Gospel-Centered Discipleship. In this video, Jonathan explains an important concept in his book regarding the professional/novice discipleship distinction. He advocates that we should disciple by not only sharing our faith but also sharing our failures. He also addresses the challenges of introvert/extroverts in making disciples.

Messy Discipleship

In our house, we used to have a beautiful set of drinking glasses that were made of translucent artsy green glass. Notice I said we “used to"... A few weeks ago our house was full of the life, laughter, and mess of sharing our home and table with our community; after everyone left and my wife and I were cleaning up, we noticed one of our beautiful green glasses had a huge chip off the top. We now officially have only three of these nice glasses. They've moved from the threatened dishes list to the full-fledged endangered dishes list. I don’t have much hope for their survival either as they have yet to breed.

Just the other day a neighbor broke another one of our glasses, and as I was cleaning up the glittery shards, it hit me - if you have a complete set of dishes you just might not be on mission.

God’s mission is messy and costly. Think about it. In order for us to be a part of God’s family, to be his disciples, to get to live in eternity with him in his home, it cost him his comfort to the point of a dirty, torturous execution on a cross. Yet I often want to be his follower and have a life of comfort.

I want to do hospitality my way, on my time, around my schedule, with the people that are easy for me to be around, and I want to have a complete set of dishes when I am done. But this just isn’t the life God has called us to. God calls us to not just have hospitable events but to have an open door and hospitable life. Jesus was available for the sick. He fed the hungry crowds when it was inconvenient. He hung out with the drunks, tax collectors, lepers, and sinners. His way of discipleship was dirty and probably smelly.

I have a friend that has modeled this hospitality well and as a result often has men in his home that are so drunk and out of it they sometimes foul their pants. He and his wife have literally cleaned man-poop off their floor. This grosses me out and makes me want to think twice about the people I let into my house, but oddly enough it also inspires me. It looks so much like Jesus. A couple of weeks ago my neighbor’s daughter had a little present slip out of her diaper while they were visiting. We saw the log on the floor, and all of us wondered where it came from. I immediately checked my son's diaper, and people were diaper checking all around until we found the culprit. I instinctively cleaned up the poop, de-sanitized the floor, and went on with what turned out to be a wonderful evening.

Sometimes discipleship means people are going to poop on your floor. If we are servants like Jesus, we get to clean it up. Jesus modeled this when he washed his disciples feet. At the time, everyone traveled on dirty, smelly roads in sandals and often were hopscotching around camel dung. Washing smelly feet was reserved for slaves, yet Jesus, the master, took the lowliest task and washed his disciples' feet.

I like my things to stay nice, and I don’t like doing disgusting jobs. But I do want to follow Jesus, and I do want to be his disciple and make disciples.  To do this all the time means I am going to have to do some things I don’t like and lose some things I do like.

So again, if you have a full set of dishes and nobody has ever pooped on your floor, you might want to stop and examine if you are really on God’s mission.

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Jake Chambers: A member of Jesus’ bride - the church, husband to his beautiful bride Lindsey, and a daddy to his boy Ezra. Jake is passionate about seeing the gospel both transform lives and create communities that love Jesus, the city, and the lost. He currently serves Red Door Church through leading, preaching, equipping, and pastoring. You can read more of his writing at reddoorlife.tv.

Why Gospel-Centered Discipleship? [video]

This part 1 in a series of video interviews about the book Gospel-Centered Discipleship. Over the next few weeks, we will post a series of video interviews by Matt Chandler with Jonathan Dodson about his new book Gospel-Centered Discipleship. You are welcome to repost them.

Making Disciples is Not Just for Super Christians

Not everyone is a "Super Christian." We don’t all have stories of how we glanced at the stranger seated next to us on the plane and led them to Jesus right there on the spot. Most of us are probably missing about 9 out of every 10 opportunities we have to share the Truth. (Wait! What opportunities?!)

Worse, in the unlikely event that we ever did lead someone to Jesus, we wouldn’t have the first clue what to do next. Maybe the pastor knows what to do? Sadly, maybe not.

Or, maybe you know how to “lead people to Christ” but you have never considered that the ultimate goal is actually to lead people toward Christ-likeness.

We may not all be Super Christians, but every Christian has been tasked with making disciples of all nations.

The New Normal: Every Disciple Making Disciples But is the mission even possible? Is it really true that every follower of Jesus is meant to make and multiply other followers of Jesus? Is it crazy to think you might make a disciple this year who will make a disciple next year?

I believe that if Jesus has given us a mission to make disciples of all nations, then he will give us the means to fulfill that mission.

Jesus did not give us an impossible mission. Well, according to Jesus it is impossible in our own strength. He reminds us of this when He says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.” (John 15:5)

It’s an impossible mission for a dead branch to make fruit, but when a healthy branch is connected to the vine, Jesus actually thinks that much fruit will be the result. Bearing fruit is normal for a vine with healthy branches.

Characteristics of a Dead Branch  There are several reasons why a Christian might not be bearing fruit (Hint: It’s never a vine problem. It’s always a branch problem).

Here are a few characteristics of a dead or dying branch:

No Purpose - Jesus made the mission very clear in Matthew 28:18-20: “Go...make disciples of all nations.” Evaluate your life and determine how much of your time is spent pursuing that mission and how much is spent on other pursuits.

No Prayer – Are you devoted to prayer? Are you intentionally praying for your neighbor who is far from God? Look up Paul’s words in Colossians 4:2-5 and ask God to give you the same kind of desperation for “outsiders.” Dead branch Christians often have a dead prayer life.

No Preparation – Quick! Answer this question: “What is the reason for the Hope that is in you?” Peter tells us we always need to be ready to answer that question (1 Peter 3:15-16). Are you prepared to defend the faith? Are you prepared to answer questions? Are you prepared to articulate the Gospel in one minute? Three minutes? Thirty minutes? Start preparing now!

No Preaching – If you’ve never talked about Jesus, your friends will never know about Jesus. It’s simple: the Gospel is a message. Messages need to be communicated. Let stories about Jesus permeate your conversations every day (just don’t force it).

No Purity – It may be that you are caught up in sin and aren’t experiencing victory in your life.  If your lifestyle conflicts with your message then no one will believe you. Ghandi said, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Is this what Ghandi would say if he looked at your life?

No Perseverance – Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne.”

If we are going to pursue the mission it will take work, sacrifice, commitment, endurance, passion, and focus.

No Partnerships – None of the above will happen apart from community. When we’ve got a band of brothers (or sisters) who are on a journey together it’s easier to hold each other accountable. Superheroes often accomplish things on their own, but this isn’t a comic book - this is real life. In fact, it’s the abundant life that Jesus promised us. A dead branch lies there cold and alone on the ground. A living, healthy branch is connected to other branches through the vine.

If any of these characteristics describe your spiritual life, you will not bear fruit. You are a disconnected and dying branch. Jesus’ desire is that every branch would remain in Him and bear much fruit.

You may not be a "Super Christian" (whatever that is), but there might just be someone in your family or on your block that is far from God. Maybe, just maybe, God wants to use you to reach that one person. Making disciples is an impossible mission, should you choose to accept it. But don’t worry, Jesus knows you can do it with His help! Just stay connected to Him.

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Nathan Creitz (MDiv, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) is passionate about making disciples in a post-Christian context. He and his wife Kim and two children, Zoe and Zac, live in Queens, NY where about 2% of the people are followers of Jesus. They are planting churches in Queens that are within reach of at least 64 unreached people groups. Nathan often records his observations about making disciples in a post-Christian context at nathancreitz.net. Twitter: @nathancreitz

Seeking God's Vision for Marriage

Many of my friends walked down the wedding aisle to the hymn “Be Thou My Vision.” The melody has an ethereal quality about it. And the lyrics— to say that the lyrics are meaningful would be a gross understatement. I want to walk through every day of my married life embracing the truths of this song in my heart.

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art...

So many things clamor for my attention when I wake up every morning. Regardless of the busyness or dullness of the day, I want the greatest reality to hit me—that the God whose name is I AM is worthy of my praise, my thoughts, and my obedience.

Will the damp towels and clothes left strewn about the room from my husband’s morning routine matter to me when the atoning work of Christ on the cross is my vision for the day? In my husband’s case, leaving towels and clothes draped around the room is not an affront meant to hurt me. But, what if it was? Is God so clearly my vision that I could persist in clinging to His grace in Christ even when my marriage relationship is strained?

Thou my best Thought, by day or by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light…

When the tragedies and discouragements of life threaten to overtake our marriage then I want to think on God’s faithfulness by day and by night. Will the urgency of the day’s demands weigh so heavily on my heart and bring out the nag in me when the indwelling Holy Spirit is my comfort and peace?

Waking or sleeping, God’s presence sheds light on how He does all things for His glory. We have no cause to fear the darkness. Today—right now—we can relate to one another by grace, hoping in the future grace to be shown to us in the last day when Christ returns.

In Ephesians Paul describes the marriage relationship as a reflection of the heavenly reality of Christ’s marriage to the church.

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Ephesians 5:24-25

Paul goes on to quote Genesis 2:24 to underscore the significance of this mysterious relationship:

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

No wonder the second stanza of “Be Thou My Vision” strikes such a chord with couples about to be united as one flesh:

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word; I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord…

I wonder if I could dub this song over the soundtrack on the VHS tape of our wedding. Or better yet, what if grace covered over the soundtrack of every petty argument, stray word, and rude remark I’ve ever made to my husband?

The great news is that Jesus has already done that. And He doesn’t just dub over the soundtrack of such things. He removes our sins from us as far away as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). By the shed blood of Christ, we are forgiven. The price for my peace-filled, joy-enjoying, grace-exchanging marriage is the precious blood of the spotless Lamb of God. Who am I to scorn the sacrifice that Jesus made?--so I can hold onto my scoffing pride, self-righteous anger, and arrogant impatience toward my husband?

Thou my great Father, I Thy true son; Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one….

What a poetic reminder of the priority of fellowship with God and the preeminence of our relationships with Him as the foundation for our relationships with our spouses. The power that we need to love our spouses is supplied by God according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19). In Christ, we can serve our partner with the strength that God supplies so that God gets the glory (1 Pet. 4:11).

Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight; be thou my whole armor, be thou my true might…

My power for holiness is from God, and I see Him most clearly in His word, the Bible. The Bible says that God’s grace, not fear or regret, is the song of my life. It sounds like a Christian cliché to say, “We’re together at the foot of the cross.” But when we understand that what puts us at the mercy of God at the foot of the cross is our pervasive inability to love God and each other as we ought, then all of a sudden our sin isn’t so trite anymore.

My husband’s sin isn’t so harmless, either. We’re sinners married to sinners. We sin against each other, sometimes we’re in sin together, and we even leave our sin lying around for our spouse to stumble over. We must see ourselves together at the foot of the cross. Both of us need God to look favorably upon us through Christ’s atoning sacrifice. The blood that covers my sins is the same blood that covers my husband’s sins.

Even if I were not married to a Christian man… God has freely given His Son and offers to all the body and blood of His Son Jesus if we will repent and believe. Who am I, a sinner saved by grace, to look on anyone as more desperate for that grace than I am? If I have Jesus then all I know is grace and God’s future for me is grace upon grace. By that grace, we can love our spouses as God has instructed us.

Be thou my soul's shelter, be thou my strong tower: O raise thou me heavenward, great Power of my power…

And what of the millions of little, mundane things that occur each day? What about my sharp tongue, for example? If God did not withhold His only Son giving us all His riches in Christ Jesus, who am I to withhold words of kindness from my husband? Through Christ in me I can speak the truth in love as He commands and compels me. Instead of merely biting my tongue and avoiding hurtful words, by God's grace my tongue is loosed to edify and build up my husband instead.

When Jesus died on the cross He reconciled us to God and He wrote His song of reconciliation by grace across our entire lives. God has shown us grace and we can be conduits of grace to others.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise: be thou mine inheritance now and always…

The reward I am looking for in loving my husband is not bound up in how my husband responds to me. How our souls can be refreshed and our marriages strengthened when we believe: “Thou mine Inheritance, now and always; Thou and Thou only, first in my heart.” A godly husband is a gift from the Lord, and I do enjoy the gift God has given me. But the gift of my husband is meant to draw me to worship the Giver.

Because we are all so prone to worship our gifts, this hymn reminds us to pray, “Be thou and thou only the first in my heart; O Sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.”

“Be Thou My Vision” is an epic song to walk down the aisle to. The triumph of God’s grace in Christ is an even greater song to dance to by faith.

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Gloria Furman is a member of Redeemer Church of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where her husband Dave is the pastor. They have three children - Aliza, Norah, and Judson. Gloria blogs regularly at Domestic Kingdom.

Against Transactional Sanctification

I meet with a lot of people – that comes with the calling to be a pastor. So I spend a good amount of time in coffee shops and restaurants, talking about the gospel and how it interfaces with our lives.  As I meet with folks, I tend to find myself having the same conversation a lot. Multiple times a week. It’s not the exact same conversation - the names and details are different - but the bottom line doesn't change. The thing they struggle with is really familiar because it’s the same thing I struggle with every single day. (And I wouldn’t be surprised if maybe you do too…) Here it is: I tend to view my relationship with God as a series of transactions. We could call this “Transactional Sanctification.”

Think about the last time you went shopping - for groceries, batteries for the remote, a sweet iPhone that just got replaced with an even sweeter one… whatever.  It probably went down something like this: You drove to the store, found the items you wanted, walked up to the counter, and the salesperson rang them up.  After getting your total, you pulled out your card/cash/checkbook, transferred money from your account to theirs, they gave you part of their inventory, and you went home.  (Unless you didn’t have enough cash or your card was declined - in which case you went home empty-handed and embarrassed.)  Repeat as needed.

It’s amazing how much we tend to view God like that.  I do things for God, God does things for me.  I don’t do the right things for God, God doesn’t do things for me.  Now, most of us wouldn’t say it anything like that – but it’s at the core of how we think.  If we’ve been around church long enough, we’ve learned to use the language of grace, but most of us are still trying to figure out how to dance to its rhythm.

Let me give you an example. Awhile back, I was meeting with a guy from our church over breakfast.  We talked about how he was feeling distant from his wife and how things have been pretty chaotic in his business.  Immediately, he follows up by explaining he hasn’t been praying very much, not to mention the fact that he drank a little too much on a fishing trip last weekend.  After thinking for a minute, he looks at me and says, “I guess it makes sense.”

You see the formula there, right?  Life – consistent prayer + getting drunk = God not giving me peace at work or at home. Now, of course obedience and prayer are important, but could it be that work is crazy just because it is?  Could it be that his wife is just going through a lot at her own job, and when you combine his work stress and hers it makes for a pretty rough stretch at home?

Let’s try another example – this one is for all of us pastors.  I was reading about a church recently that has experienced unbelievable numeric growth over the past few years.  The church is only a couple years old and has several thousand people attending worship.  In a recent conversation about this particular church, I listened to two other pastors talking about why this church has grown so quickly.  The answer given?  ”I’ve heard that (Name of Pastor from Growing Church) spends a ridiculous amount of time in prayer.  That guy is with Jesus A LOT, and Jesus shows up in their church.”

Now, I have no doubt that this particular pastor loves Jesus with all his heart and spends tons of time with him.  But did you catch the formula?  Pastor who loves Jesus + spends lots of time in prayer = God blesses their church with tons of people attending.  You do something for God, then God does stuff for you.

Here’s the problem – it doesn’t work that way.  Think about all the pastors whose churches aren’t exploding with attendance growth.  What do they hear in the above conversation?  ”I guess if I just pray more maybe my church will grow too.  Maybe the reason we’re not seeing similar results is because I haven’t been committed enough to Jesus.  Maybe I need to REALLY get serious about prayer – maybe then God will bless our church.”  (I won’t tell you how many times I’ve had that very conversation with myself – in my head and in my journal.)

Transactional sanctification always leads to despair – when you don’t see the results you want, it’s obviously because you didn’t pay a high enough price.  If you would only try harder, not screw up so much, and have more faith like all those other people who it seems to be working for, then maybe God would bless you.

As I meet with people, I remind them (and myself) that we are completely loved, accepted, and perfect in Jesus.  God is a transactional God, but the transaction has already been completed – at the cost of the very life of Jesus. There is nothing more I can add to it or take away from it. My standing with God is secure – regardless of the “success” of my ministry, family, or career. Can you imagine the freedom and peace that would come if we could truly live out this belief?

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Bill Streger serves as the Lead Pastor of Kaleo Church, an Acts 29 Network church in Houston, TX. Born and raised in Houston, he attended Houston Baptist University and is currently pursuing his M.Div. from Reformed Baptist Seminary. Bill is a husband to Shannon, daddy to Mirabelle and Levi, and a life-long Houston Rockets fan. Twitter @billstreger

Meditating on God's Word - Memorization

This article is part of the ongoing series Meditating on God's Word. Meditate on the Word by Memorizing It

I don’t know of a single exercise that is more rewarding and enriching for me than memorizing God’s Word. I agree with Dallas Willard:

Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorization, because it is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what it needs. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That’s where you need it! How does it get in your mouth? Memorization.”[1]

Of course, I’m not talking about just knowing a verse or two. Many people can quote parts of the Bible (even Satan can quote scripture), but very few “let the Word of Christ dwell in [them] richly,” (Col. 3:16). The place for knowing Scripture is in your heart. The Psalmist says, “I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you,” (Ps. 119:11, emphasis added). So, what I’m referring to here is memorization that is coupled with meditation; that is, mulling over the verse or passage that you’re trying to memorize so that it saturates your heart.

After all, “to meditate,” according to the Psalmist in Psalm 1, (“on his law does he meditate day and night”) means to “mutter” or “mumble.” “Meditate” is an onomatopoeic word that imitates the low sound of murmuring or muttering. The same word is used in Psalm 2:1 negatively, where the Psalmist says, “the peoples plot in vain.” The word for "plot" is the same root word for “meditate” in Psalm 1:2. Just as conspirators whisper and murmur and plan evil, the blessed person whispers and mumbles God’s Word. A primary way to mumble or whisper God’s Word to yourself day and night is by memorizing it, so that you can carry it with you all day. The Psalmist says: "Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day," (Ps. 119:97).

Four Benefits of Scripture Memorization:

1. Memorize Scripture to live under the influence of the Holy Spirit. If you compare Colossians 3:16-17 with Ephesians 5:18-21, you will notice that they are very similar. The results of “letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16) and “being filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18b) are practically the same. In other words, I think there is a connection with letting the Word dwell in you richly and living under the control of the Spirit. And, I would certainly say this is true from experience. When I have wonderful experiences in God’s Word, and I’m constantly thinking on the scriptures I’m memorizing, I am more prone to walk by the Spirit in my daily interactions. God’s Word and Spirit always go together.

2. Memorize Scripture to pursue purity. As the Psalmist says: "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word," (Psalm 119:9). Even though this question was penned over twenty-five hundred years ago, it’s still a critical question for every generation: “How can a young man keep his way pure?” And after twenty-five hundred years, the answer is still the same: by living according to the Word. By what method did David attempt to fill his mind with God’s Word? Verse 11: “I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Scripture memory has an amazing purifying effect. R. Kent Hughes testifies, “I have seen the disciplined memorization of 1 Thessalonians [a passage on sexual purity] change a man’s life.”[2] Pursue the glory of God and a life of purity by memorizing God’s Word.

3. Memorize Scripture to help you fight against Satan. Jesus modeled this for us in his wilderness experience. In response to Satan’s temptations, Jesus quoted God’s Word. Likewise, as Paul is listing the battle gear for spiritual soldiers, he talks about taking up the weapon of “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Eph. 6:17). How will you go through the battle without a sword in your hand? Luther said:

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.

Sadly, Christians often treat the sword of the Spirit like an old sword in a museum. We admire the ancient weapon. We notice its beauty. We see it placed in a place of honor. But we deem it practically useless for modern warfare. Don’t we need some different weapons now in this sophisticated age? No. There is nothing out-of-date about God’s Word. You need it to overcome your enemy. Your weapons are prayer in the Spirit and the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17-18).

4. Scripture memory makes meditation possible when you can’t read the Bible. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I decided to try to memorize a book of the Bible. I had memorized several verses, but I was challenged to memorize Ephesians. I had a daily commute of about thirty minutes, and it became a rich time for me, as I pulled onto the interstate and said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has....” I was able to take my copy of the Bible with me. Often in the morning, when I’m getting ready to leave or as I’m looking out the window, or when letting my dog (Titus) outside, I’ll quote Psalm 46 or Psalm 103. God is good to us in giving us the capacity to memorize. People memorize all kinds of things, from statistics on baseball cards, to Nintendo passwords to phone numbers.

I once asked our congregation that if they were kidnapped on a mission trip and had their Bibles taken from them, would they be able to teach Ephesians from memory? God told Joshua to not let the book depart from him (Josh. 1:8). How was he to do this? He didn’t have a “pocket Bible.” Joshua was to carry it in his heart. Take your Bible with you by having it in your heart.

This kind of kind of memorization will help you give counsel to people, as well. Proverbs speaks a lot about the mouth of the wise and the effective use of timely words. For example, the author says:

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. (Proverbs 25:11)

How can you speak God’s Word to people if you don’t know it? I have personally been amazed at how often passages that I’m thinking on become a source of encouragement, rebuke, instruction, warning, or comfort to people during the course of the day. The Psalmist says:

Your testimonies are my delight; They are my counselors. (Psalm 119:24)

God’s Word gives counsel. And God will use you to give counsel from his word if you will store it up in your heart.

Of course, the most important means of counsel to give a person is how to know Jesus Christ and have eternal life (John 17:3). Since, you may not have a Bible with you at all times, it is critically important that you know the Scriptures well enough to share the Gospel with someone. Scripture memory equips you for evangelistic witness.

Two Suggestions for Beginning the Exercise of Scripture Memory:

Make Time to Memorize Scripture. You aren’t too busy for this. I find it interesting that one of the busiest people of his time, William Wilberforce, who helped abolish slavery in England, was able to memorize Psalm 119. He wrote in his diary 1819, “Walked from Hyde park Corner, repeating the Psalm 119 in great comfort.” Surely if a guy as busy as Wilberforce, can memorize Scripture, we can as well on our morning walks or commutes.

True, not everyone will memorize Psalm 119 or even entire books of the New Testament. That’s not my point. My point is filling your mind with the Word of Christ. Challenge yourself. If you have a terribly hard time memorizing a verse, then stay with a verse. If you can do a verse, go for a passage. If you can do a passage, go for a chapter or a book. The reward will be worth the effort.

Practice Scripture Memory Everyday. You have to review or you will be prone to lose what you memorized. Don’t do Scripture memory like college students cram for a test. Do it like a disciplined athlete, who works out everyday. Start with a review of yesterday and add to it every day. If you miss a day, which you’ll do, just pick up and keep going. As you review and memorize everyday, consider writing it down, or sitting down and trying to type it on the computer without looking at your Bible. I think you will also increase your ability to memorize large portions of Scripture if you will say it out loud, as well. Above all, never doubt the value of memorizing God’s Word.

[1] Dallas Willard, “Spiritual Formation in Christ for the Whole Life and Whole Person” in Vocatio, Vol. 12, no. 2, Spring, 2001, 7. [2] R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man, rev. ed. (Wheaton: Crossway, 2001), 29.

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Tony Merida serves as the Lead Pastor of Imago Dei Church, Raleigh, NC and as the Associate Professor of Preaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is married to Kimberly, with whom he has five children. Tony is the co-author of Orphanology and author of Faithful Preaching. He travels and speaks all over the world at various events, especially pastor’s conferences, orphan care events, and youth/college conferences.

Spirit-Empowered, Integrated Discipleship [video]

This part 2 in a series of video interviews about the book Gospel-Centered Discipleship. In this video, Matt Chandler interviews Jonathan Dodson about the concept of Integrated Discipleship laid out in his book Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

Forgiveness Is Not Semantics

The world often claims that authentic, unhindered friendship is not only unrealistic but not that important. I have come across very Godly and mature believers who are also confused on this important matter of community. We must get back to making authentic friendships essential as we disciple others—teaching and living-out this truth. Christ tells us to forgive others just as our heavenly Father forgives us (Mt. 6:14-15):

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Let's look at how this concept plays out in our society and if it helps relationships or not. When we sin against someone, we'd much rather free ourselves from that wrongdoing so we say things such as "My bad," or "I didn't mean to do it." We’re trying to say what we've done is really a cosmic whoops versus Sin. The person who was wronged often responds by saying, "No problem, everyone makes mistakes," or "Don't worry about it." The wronged party returns the favor by passively retracting any ownership that they might have in the process of reconciliation.

Alarmingly, this interaction becomes the norm for our relationships. The result is that trust is never truly built, safety is never restored, and we are able to throw past problems back at each other. This is why bitterness creeps in, and we begin to paint a false picture of each other. This is also why people are pegged as harsh and unloving when they call a sin, a Sin. It’s simply not the norm in our culture. Is it unloving? Or is it redemptive?

We like to think that forgiveness is dispensed by a super-gracious God with no strings attached. This is not altogether true. Although forgiveness is free and God is super-gracious, Christ has said it must be given to be received. I propose that by the definition of the cross, forgiveness is always available but only instituted when we realize we have wronged a Holy God and ask God for His forgiveness. God forgives, but we have to admit we need forgiveness and forgive others in turn. God doesn't take the "no big deal" route, nor does he let us say "Oops, my fault." In the same way, as we follow Jesus' model and obey his command, we must concede that there are two people in the relationship. Both people are needed for the relationship to be brought from brokenness to wholeness.

So what does it look like to practically take our cues from Jesus in the area of receiving and forgiving people?

When we wrong someone we do the following:

1. We don't make excuses or justification.
2. We clearly admit the sin and name the sin.
3. We ask for the other person to forgive us (modeling that they are an important part of the reconciliation process).

The person who has been wronged now has the opportunity to do two things:

1. Take the person off the hook by extending forgiveness (Mt. 6:14-15).
2. Encourage the person being forgiven that their wrong doing will not be connected to them during the rest of the relationship (1Cor. 13:5).

I must warn you, people like to hear this theologically, but when you hold them accountable they might not be so appreciative. To enact this gospel-centered principle as we disciple others, we must first build conviction from Christ’s instruction and then plead with the Holy Spirit to strengthen us as we build authentic friendships. In fact, this negotiation of true repentance and forgiveness is a critical key to authentic friendships. In modeling Christ’s instruction for forgiveness, we are fighting for a major truth of genuine gospel-centered fellowship.

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Eric Russ is compelled by gospel-transformation in the city and author of Discipleship Defined. He and his wife Sara along with a dedicated team of friends moved to Detroit's east side and founded Mack Avenue Community Church, where he serves as lead pastor. Discipleship is the heartbeat of their ministry. Twitter: @EricRuss76

For The City

A Gospel-Saturated Church A gospel-saturated church is a church that soaks in the Scriptures and is saturated with the gospel.  The gospel message penetrates down deep into the church, like a marinade that flavors and tenderizes a piece of meat. A gospel-saturated church then takes the gospel into its culture.

A gospel-saturated congregation proclaims that Jesus is Lord. The fundamental claim of Christianity is summed up by Paul in Romans 11:36. “From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Of course, the “him” is Jesus, and the radical nature of such a statement cannot be overemphasized. As Alan Hirsch says well, proclaiming that Jesus is comprehensively Lord, the one who reigns over every area of everything, touches “the epicenter of the biblical consciousness of God to which we must return if we are to renew the church in our day.”

A gospel-saturated congregation distills Christian life to a simple form: Jesus is Lord over every area of individual and corporate life. In other words, there is no safe haven from the scandalous invasion of Christ on any and every other claim to a Christian’s loyalty. Not only does the radical claim of Jesus’ lordship shape the theology, life, and practice of the church, but its simplicity makes it easy to pass on.

A gospel-saturated congregation knows itself, and therefore it knows how to enter into culture without losing its Christian distinctiveness. By telling, retelling, and rehearsing the true story of human longing and fulfillment found only in the gospel, followers of Jesus know their true identity in Christ and are able to interpret the prevailing cultural ethic, ideas, philosophies, art, and stories in light of the gospel. Therefore, modern-day missionaries maintain appropriate moral boundaries within culture because they view prevailing cultural values with healthy skepticism. Good missionaries see how cultural values serve merely to point people toward the ultimate fulfillment and purpose that is only found in Christ.

A gospel-saturated congregation knows its neighborhood. It knows how the people they are trying to reach define “good news.” They ask questions like:

• What are the dominant values of this neighborhood and how does the gospel redeem or reject these values?
• What are the “third places” in my neighborhood where people gather for community and conversation?
• What are the unique political, zoning, educational, and commercial concerns of the people in my neighborhood?

A gospel-saturated church is a church that exists not for itself but for its city, neighborhood, and block. In fact, the whole point of contextualization is to determine how the folks in a given context might most naturally understand and receive the gospel. Contextualization is an inherently “other-centered” exercise because it forces a missionary to consider those outside the church in order to provide a welcoming environment for them inside the church. A church for its city must continuously assess whether it is accounting for the uniqueness and eccentricities of its neighborhoods as it seeks to minister to it.

A church for its city contextualizes the gospel to those they want to reach, even if the target group is not yet represented within the congregation. It’s what I call the “Field of Dreams Principle:” If you preach it, they will come.” In other words, if you preach as if there are non-Christians in your seats, soon there will be. If you preach as if there are artists or jocks or young parents or movie buffs in your church, there soon will be. This is the beauty of preaching the pure gospel. It is always for the benefit of believers and nonbelievers. If Christians are to grow, they need to hear and apply the gospel. If those far from God are to be brought near, they need to hear and apply the gospel.

Churches must return, again and again, to the heart of the gospel for renewal and for empowerment in order to proclaim it confidently to the culture. A gospel-saturated church seeking the good of its city will continually return to these five principles. This is a continuous process, not simply a one-time event. A church that fails to reflect on these key questions will eventually move away from the gospel and begin following a cultural agenda or the personal agenda of its leaders. Either way, they will have lost the heart of God’s agenda—gospel truth delivered to the culture through the church, in a way that leads to transformation and renewal.

This is an excerpt adapted from Matt Carter and Darrin Patrick’s book, For The City: Proclaiming and Living Out the Gospel.

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Matt Carter is the senior pastor of Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas, one of the fastest growing churches in America. Matt currently lives in Austin with his wife, Jennifer, and his three children, John Daniel, Annie, and Samuel.

Darrin Patrick is lead pastor of Journey Church in St. Louis, Missouri, which he planted in 2002 and currently has over three thousand people and five campuses. He is also the vice president of Acts 29, a missional church-planting network. He has been married to his wife, Amie, since 1993 and has four children, Glory, Gracie, Drew, and Delainey.

The Gospel & The Great Commandment

In the commissioning of his followers to make disciples, Jesus made it clear that an integral part of discipleship is “teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” If you’re going to teach someone to obey all that Jesus commanded, you might as well start with the most important commandment.

In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus is engaged in a conversation with a Pharisee who asked:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"

And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

How much of our disciple-making effort revolves around this simple (but difficult) command to love God? Do we begin with this command? Do we emphasize it enough? In the lives of those whom we are discipling, do we ask questions concerning love for God?

As with every command in scripture, the gospel should be the ultimate motivator compelling us to obedience. Clearly the gospel encompasses much more than the doctrine of the love of God, but for the purposes of this discussion, I’ll encapsulate the meaning of “the gospel” with the phrase “he loved us” from 1 John 4:10.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

God…loves…us. The very thought should take our breath away.

God loves us, and that love has ultimately resulted in Jesus exchanging our sin for his righteousness. “But God demonstrates his love for us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ.”

“In love he predestined us for adoption as sons.”

In a nutshell, the gospel is “he loved us.”

God loves us. God loves us. He loves us!

The initial (and inevitable) response to this love is love for God.

The recent increased focus on gospel-centrality has been extremely instructive in helping us correct our wrong actions. We’ve discovered that our wrong actions are driven by wrong beliefs. When we sin, we understand that we are “not believing the gospel.” We’ve become familiar with Luther’s observation about the ten commandments: If you break #2 through #10, it’s because you broke #1 first. This is true and helpful.

However, those of us who swim in the waters of gospel-centrality have not always done a great job of pointing out the positive effects of believing the gospel. I know when I sin I’m not believing the gospel, but what should it look like when I am? At the risk of sounding ridiculously simple, I believe the answer is…love God.

When I believe the gospel, I will love God. I will be filled with gratitude and joy, but that gratitude will have a direction (God-ward) and that joy will have an object (the Father). The gospel propels me to say, “God, I love you!”

On the heels of that declaration will come the express desire to obey. “If you love me, you will keep my commands.” Being awash in the love of God elicits a pledge of devotion, a glad desire to obey the Father. “God, I love you and want to do whatever you say!”

Is there a clearer example of this than Jesus himself? Everything Jesus did was motivated by his love for the Father. Disciples walk in the ways of Jesus. This involves not only right actions, but right motives as well. It was love for God that drove Jesus to pray, “Not my will, but yours be done.” God, I love you and want to do whatever you say!

And his first marching order for us has already been issued. Love others, the second most important command according to Jesus. In some ways (and again, at the risk of sounding ridiculously simple), this command encompasses the rest of life. Shouldn’t everything we do be motivated by love for God primarily and love for people secondarily? Can you think of anything you would do, prompted by the Spirit, that would not somehow benefit another person?

Whether you are teaching or counseling or sending email or cooking dinner or returning phone calls or doing laundry or running errands or pursuing a girl or writing a blog post, your motive should be love for God. “God, in response to what you have done for me, I declare my love for you. I engage in this activity for you. I love you, and want to obey you!”

So when the single men in our community want to pursue a girl, I remind them to do it primarily because they love God and want to obey him. This keeps the whole endeavor about God and not about the girl, which more than likely is really another way of saying “not about the single guy’s ego." I’ll ask, “Do you believe the Father is leading you to do this? Is your motive to love and obey him? Is your motive to bless her as a sister regardless of her response?”

Or when a young leader is discouraged because the people in his missional community are not responding, I’ll remind him that he leads because he loves God, not because he expects a particular response from the people he’s leading. Obviously, we pray and hope for a response, but we don’t lead only so people will respond. We lead because we love (and we love because he loves us). “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

If our motivation in any area of life-work, marriage, parenting, or leadership is connected to an expected outcome, then we are actually serving ourselves and not other people. We are using them to get something we want (power, position, acceptance, love, etc.). Only when we serve out of love for God can we truly love people.

Perhaps this is why Jesus said that love for God and love for people were the most important commandments. What more important commandments could we encourage a disciple to obey? And what a better way to live a life in response to the gospel than to love God and love others!

Let the gospel (he loves us) be the motive (love God) for all that we do (love others).

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Abe Meysenburg serves as a pastor and elder with Soma Communities in Tacoma, WA. After living in the Midwest for most of their lives, he and his wife, Jennifer, moved to Tacoma in the summer of 1999. In 2001, after working as a Starbucks manager for a few years, Abe helped start The Sound Community Church, which then became a part of Soma Communities in May 2007.