Interview: J.D. Greear on "Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart"

You will be hard pressed to find a book with a more compelling, if not controversial, title than J.D. Greear’s new book, “Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart." For those of you who may not know J.D., he is the Lead Pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina. J.D. has pastored The Summit since 2002, when he led the church to relaunch itself (formerly known as Homestead Heights). At the time of the relaunch they were running close to 300 people, and now are exceeding 6,000 regularly. For the past few years they have been recognized by Outreach Magazine as one of the 25 fastest growing churches in the country. J.D. is kind enough to stop by the blog today to speak with us about his new book. I am thankful for his willingness to give us a bit the inside story behind the book, and to help us understand the content of the book a bit more.

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1. J.D., thanks for stopping by the blog today. I appreciate the effort. Your new book has a provocative title. I am confident that it is stirring interest in those who are reading it. So, give us a quick synopsis. What is the book all about?

My main thesis in this book is that reducing salvation to a sinner’s prayer gives assurance to some who shouldn’t have it, and keeps assurance from some who should. I wrote this book because there are a lot of people who can’t seem to find assurance no matter how many times they pray “the prayer,” and others who have a false assurance based on the fact that they went through a ritual with their pastor.

You could say I wrote the book to bring comfort to the unnecessarily troubled, and to trouble the unjustifiably comforted.

2. Your story is similar to mine, though I haven’t been baptized as many times as you. However, you talk about your struggle with assurance and the fact that you have been baptized four times. You also point out that false assurance, which is the flip side of the coin, is a serious danger. Of the two, which do you think is a bigger plague in the church?

Based on statistics that those like the Barna Group have run, the larger numerical problem is probably the falsely assured: 51% of all American adults believe they are going to heaven, even though most of that group never attends church, reads the Bible, or lives in any recognizably Christian manner. But the flip side of the problem is a huge issue that I have encountered repeatedly in my time as a pastor.

In the end, it’s less important to figure out which side of the coin is the “bigger” plague, but to focus on the remedy. And I believe that part of the problem comes from the shorthand, clichéd ways we speak of the gospel. The usual evangelical shorthand for the gospel is to “ask Jesus into your heart” or to pray the “sinner’s prayer.” Shorthand is fine insofar as everyone knows what the shorthand refers to. But in our day “the sinner’s prayer” has often become a substitute for repentance and belief.

To be clear—I am not trying to say that the sinner’s prayer is wrong in itself—after all, repentance and belief are in themselves a cry to God for mercy. Jesus presents the repentant tax collector being converted through the prayer, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). Some of the greatest evangelists in history—even Reformed ones—used a sinner’s prayer, including John Bunyan, George Whitefield, and Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon would plead with people to pray the words of a sinner’s prayer after him as part of the conclusion to his sermons. I would go so far as to say that if you do not press for a decision when you preach the gospel, you haven’t fully preached the gospel, because the gospel in its very essence calls for a response. I’m not even against the language of asking Jesus into your heart, because—if understood correctly—this is a biblical concept (cf. Rom 8:9–11; Gal 2:20; Eph 3:17)!

I am saying that the sinner’s prayer has become a Protestant ritual that people often go through without considering what the prayer is supposed to embody. God doesn’t give salvation in response to a prayer; repentance and faith are the instruments that lay hold of salvation. You can express repentance and faith in a prayer, but it is possible to repent and believe without a formal prayer, and it is possible to pray a sinner’s prayer without repenting and believing.

3. In chapter 2 you mention that every religion in the world, except for Christianity, uses doubt to compel one to obey. However, in my experience, doubt is one of the most often used reasons for many Christians to obey. Instead, you suggest that the gospel of God’s grace creates a desire to obey. What’s the difference? As long as we are obeying, that’s all that should matter, right?

God is not simply after obedience; He’s after a whole new kind of obedience, the obedience that grows from desire. He wants the intimacy of sons, not just the service of slaves. Unfortunately, far too many Christians use doubt as a catalyst for obedience. The Roman Catholic Church of Martin Luther’s day, for instance, believed that people would only obey when threatened with harsh consequences for rebellion. Luther did not mince words when he called this the “damnable doctrine of doubt.”

We are supposed to relate to God as a father, not as a strict task-master. A faithful father does not leave his kids wondering whether or not he knows and loves them. When I go away on a trip, I don’t say to my kids, “Daddy will be back soon . . . or maybe he won’t. Maybe I’m not really your daddy at all. Maybe my real family lives somewhere else. You’ll just have to wait and see if I come back. Sit around and think about that while I’m gone, and let that compel you to become better children.”

That would not produce love and loyalty in my children. It might produce a little fear-based obedience, but it’s only a matter of time until fear-based obedience turns into father-loathing bitterness and rebellion. I don’t want my children feeling like orphans, and neither does God.

4. At the beginning of chapter 3 you suggest that assurance, in one sense, is as easy as asking the question, do you believe in Christ? Your rationale is supported by John 3:36. However, many who worry over assurance will, with great fear, point back to Matthew 7:21-23 that says:

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’ 23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’

How do you balance the simple truth of John 3:36 with the fearful tone of Matthew 7?

The verses from Matthew 7 were part of what threw me into the first of my many spirals of doubt. I remember during my 9th grade year, when my Sunday school teacher told us that according to Matt 7, many people who think they know Jesus would awaken on the last day to the reality that he never knew them. I was terrified. How could I know I wasn’t going to be in that group?

My advice to those who fear that they will be among those to whom Christ says, “Depart from Me, I never knew you,” is this: rest in His promise to receive all who hope in His finished work. Jesus’ warning often makes us look inward and find plenty of reasons for God to reject us. But for every one look we take at our sinful heart, we should take 10 looks at Christ. Once Charles Spurgeon, reflecting on those whom Christ turns away in Matthew 7:21–23, said (and I paraphrase), “Never knew me, Lord? How could you say that? When I had no hope of salvation, I rested all my hope on you. When I despaired in my struggle against sin, I looked to you for strength. Jesus could never say to me, ‘I never knew you.’”

None who lean the weight of their soul on the truth of the testimony God gave about Jesus as their hope of salvation will ever hear the words, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” To rest in Christ’s finished work is, you see, to be known by Jesus.

5. I love the statement you make in chapter 4, in reference to our own assurance. You say, “Present posture is better proof than a past memory.” In other words, your present position before God is more important than whether or not you can remember the time, date, location of your conversion. I’ve said it this way, “The question is not so much, have you believed, but rather are you believing?” Having said that, are you suggesting that salvation does not have to be tied to a “moment?”

Certainly not. Salvation does indeed happen in a moment, and once you are saved you are always saved. My point is that conversion is not a ceremony you go through but a posture of repentance and faith that you assume. The posture does indeed begin in a moment, but it continues for a lifetime.

Salvation happens in a moment: I don’t want to confuse or downplay that. But in that moment, you merely enter a posture of submission to the lordship of Christ and trust in his finished work. That is a posture you maintain for the rest of your life. And the way you know you made the decision to get into that posture is that you are there now.

In the book I compare conversion to sitting down in a chair. If you are seated right now, then you know that at some point in the past you made a decision to sit down—your posture proves it. If you are right now trusting in Christ’s finished work and submitting to his Lordship, that proves you are saved. If you are not, then it doesn’t matter what “ceremony” you went through. Assurance doesn’t come through a memory of a past event, but through our present posture. “Believing,” as it relates to assurance, is almost always presented in the present tense (e.g. 1 John 5:13).

6. Further along in this chapter you speak about helping your children to know Christ. You mention the tension parents feel about not pushing their children to make a hasty decision. I know I have greatly struggled with this. However, you encourage parents to begin appealing to their children to respond to Christ at an early age. How do you do that, and not encourage what would become your testimony, and mine, that of multiple “conversion stories,” multiple baptisms, etc.?

As a father of 4 young children, I have often reflected on the best way to lead them to faith. I want their decision to follow Jesus to be significant, but I also don’t want them to go through what I went through, constantly questioning my previous religious experiences. I know that when you present kids with a “don't you want to be a good girl and make daddy happy and accept Jesus and not go to a fiery hell?” of course they say, “Yes.” “Praying the prayer” in such a situation may have little do with actual faith in Christ and have more to do with making daddy happy.

For that reason, many parents don’t want to push their child to make a decision for Christ. What if we coerce them into praying a prayer they don’t understand, and that keeps them from really dealing with the issues later when they really understand it? Might having them pray the prayer too early on inoculate them from really coming to Jesus later, giving them false assurance that keeps them from dealing with their need to be saved?

I understand that fear. At the same time, I know that children are capable of faith. (In fact, Jesus tells adults that for them to be saved they must become like children, not visa versa!) And Jesus says that those of us who make it difficult for little kids to put faith in Him ought to have a millstone tied around our necks and be thrown into the sea (Matt 18:1–6). So I don’t ever want to discourage my kids from faith.

The dilemma is resolved, however, by seeing salvation as a posture toward Christ and not as a ceremony. There is only one posture ever appropriate to Christ: surrendered to His Lordship, and believing that He did what He said He did. From the very beginning of their lives, I want my kids to assume that posture! So I explain to them often what Christ has done and encourage them to pin their hopes of righteousness on His work and not theirs. Whenever they think about their hopes for heaven, I want their minds to go to what Jesus did on Calvary. And when I encourage them to walk in holiness, I want the motivation—from day one—to be the finished work of Christ on their behalf.

Again, it’s like sitting down in a chair. If you’re sitting down now, that is proof that at some point you made the decision to sit down even if you don’t remember the moment. There was a moment you sat down, but the proof is in the present posture, not the past memory. The same is true with my kids and the Lordship of Jesus and his finished work. They can only be in one of two postures with him. So whenever I talk to them about Jesus, I encourage them to assume the posture of repentance and faith. Why would I ever want them to have a different posture in relationship to Jesus? Whether they can explain later the exact moment they sat down in repentance and faith is less important than the fact that they do it.

7. In chapter 6 you speak about the doctrine of eternal security. You say, “It’s not incorrect to say ‘once saved, always saved.’ It’s just incomplete.” What do you mean by that?

I do believe in eternal security, the idea usually summed up with the phrase you mention here: “once saved, always saved.” But the way that I heard eternal security described in Baptist churches growing up is not the way it is described in the Bible. It’s not even the way that some of the great Baptists of the past—I’m thinking of Charles Spurgeon and John Bunyan, among others—described eternal security.

Neither the great Baptists of the past nor the Bible describes eternal security as a one-time ritual that produces a guarantee of salvation no matter how you live your life. They described it as the knowledge that if God had started a true work in you, he would complete it. And the way that you show your salvation is genuine is by persevering for the rest of your life.

Persevering in the faith is proof that you have the salvation you could never lose; failing to persevere shows that you never had it to begin with.

8. In chapter 7 you address the biblical signs of genuine faith. You even go so far as to say, “the presence of the struggle [with sin] itself can be affirmation that God’s Spirit is at work within you.” I know many will find this difficult to believe. Can you elaborate on this point?

Struggling with sin or its consequences isn’t proof by itself that a person knows God. But I have known a lot of believers who live on the brink of despair because of the presence of sin in their lives. They know the attitude of their hearts, and they recognize strong undercurrents of selfishness, idolatry, apathy, and unbelief. And they begin to wonder, “Can I really be saved and still have these sinful desires?”

The simple answer is, “Yes.” The Apostles all testify to a never-ending and intense struggle they had with sin (cf. Paul’s words in Rom 7:21, and John’s in 1 John 1:8). James says that we sin (even as believers) because we are “drawn away by our own lusts and enticed” (James 1:14). I assume he says that from experience. And I find my own heart prone to unforgiveness, resentment, jealousy, and selfishness more often than I care to admit.

Believers can and do struggle with just about any kind of sinful lust. This is why the struggle is so affirming. Before God’s Spirit came into you, you didn’t struggle with sin—you ran toward it eagerly! But now God’s Spirit lives in you, and you feel the tension of that struggle every day. The strongest evidence of my growth in grace is not absence of struggle, but the growing recognition of my need of grace.

9. As we close this up, if you had 30 seconds to speak to a believer who was greatly struggling with assurance. What would you say to them?

It would, of course, depend on the situation of the person I was talking to, as a wayward believer needs to be treated differently than a humble seeker, but essentially I would ask them if their present posture is one of submission to Christ’s Lordship and trust in his finished work. If so, they are saved, even if they don’t remember the prayer or the moment they got into that posture. If not, then it doesn’t matter what prayer they prayed.

Second, I would ask them to consider whether the signs of eternal life are present in them. As John explains so thoroughly in 1 John, conversion does not bring sinless perfection, but it does begin to make fundamental changes in the human heart.

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If you would like to purchase “Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart" click here.

If you would like to see other books by J.D. Greear, click here.

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Cross-posted from Micah's personal blog.

How do We Respond to Pain?

In my early years of professional football, I played without wearing gloves. Not wearing gloves as an offensive lineman was definitely out of the ordinary; most linemen wore gloves for their own protection and safety. I rejected this protection for several reasons. First, back then I thought it proved how tough I was; it didn’t. Second, I found wearing gloves made me feel hot (temperature, not appearance) and as a ‘husky’ fellow I was always trying to keep cool. Third, I thought that bare hands helped me hold opponents better. And even though technically offensive linemen aren’t supposed to hold, we did and thus sought any advantage we could get. Finally, and most importantly, I found that very early in a game I would, without exception, hurt my hands.

Why would hurting your hands be a good reason to not wear gloves? Good question. You see, I found the pain that I would experience when my hand was smashed between a shoulder pad and a face mask would help me engage in the game. Getting my digits stomped on in a pile would help me get focused for competition, and I would get focused in a hurry. This pain-induced focus and the resulting engagement in the game was the main reason I didn’t wear gloves.

Now consider how much aggravation a simple hangnail causes. Think of the seemingly disproportionate amount of pain that come from a small tear in your fingernail. A small paper-cut can cause adults to whimper, and hitting a thumb with a hammer will bring men to their knees. There is something about the hands and fingers that make them especially susceptible to pain. And I would intentionally seek these aching, stinging, and throbbing sensations to promote a fixated intensity in the game of football.

I was not alone. Using pain as a preparatory mechanism is quite common in football. Before a game, in the locker room or on the sidelines, you will often see teammates hitting each other or slapping each other on their shoulders. Many football players claim that they can’t really get into a game until they receive or deliver their first hit. There is something about the pain that brings purposefulness and clarity in combative sports.

Detach or Engage?

It seems that pain in ‘real’ life, whether physical, emotional, or physical, does the exact opposite of what it does in football. For many people, pain leads to paralysis instead of performance. Pain doesn’t help us engage; it causes us to detach, disassociate, and disconnect from life. When the life gets tough, genuinely tough, the accepted response is to quit. We do not regain focus on the end and purpose of our lives. Instead, we abandon engagement in life.

One of the most profound studies of pain in the Bible occurs in the book of Job. In it we see an individual who finds purpose in pain. It propels him forward. We also see an individual, Job’s wife, for whom pain evokes passivity.

Both Job and his wife were subjected to an incredible amount of pain and suffering. We often overlook that Job’s wife also lost her children, her wealth, and likely the provision and protection a husband could provide. Job’s demise would likely be her demise as well. But these two people had opposite reactions to the pain.

The pain caused Job’s wife to exclaim, “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). She was done. She was beat. She was in shut-down mode.  Job replied, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). What accounts for this difference?

Why can pain cause Job to engage, to fight, to persevere? Why was his wife ready to quit? What about us?

We will never, on this side of eternity, be free from pain. We will never avoid suffering. The pain and suffering of this life is relentlessly real. But the witness of the Word seems to be that we will persevere in it, grow through it, and eventually outlast it.

I believe Job hints at the answer to our earlier question regarding why pain caused him to dig in and hold on instead of shut down and quit. In chapter 19, Job speaks these faith-filled words despite the difficulties he was experiencing:

For I know that my Redeemer lives,

and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

yet in my flesh I shall see God. - Job 19:25-26

Job indicates that prevailing over pain is a process of perceiving a person. Job's view of who God, that he was the redeemer lives forever and rules, sustained him. Suffering reveals our theology, what we really believe about God. For Job, God was good and worthy, the giver and the redeemer. We cannot even stand, much less move forward, in the presence of pain without the Good News of Jesus.

Long View of Pain

Paul locates the essential element to overcoming pain as the end-result of the gospel. The Apostle Paul was no stranger to pain; his list of sufferings is well-known:

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. - 2 Corinthians 11:25-27

Paul went through all manner of anguish, agony, and affliction. He experienced pain, endured it, and engaged in life like few others in recorded history. This was a man that pain could not subdue. He, like Job, found the motivation and means for overcoming pain in the Good News of Jesus.

Consider the words this veteran of misery and misfortune used to describe pain. He called suffering “light” and “momentary affliction” (2 Corinthians 4:17). This is incredible. Or is this incredulous? Paul was not naive. Nor was he in denial. To understand his approach, and what ours should be, notice that his reference to suffering as light and momentary is in light of something else. The verse reads, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,”  (2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV).

Paul did not respond to pain and suffering by shutting down and turning off. He leveraged his pain into praise and engaged in life. He contrasted the comparatively slight strain of temporal tribulation with the “eternal weight of glory” won for us by God’s Son and our Redeemer. Paul looked to the end which those who have believed in Christ are assured; it is nothing less than eternal glory.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great preacher who preached from the pulpit of Westminster Chapel for more than 30 years, notes the key to Paul’s attitude was found in the comparison: “He does not say that it was light in and of itself but that when you contrast it with this “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” on the other side it becomes nothing.”

I mentioned at the start of this article that pain could be a mechanism for engaging in a game of football. I also suggested that pain could, in fact should, be a mechanism for engaging in life for those of us who have been born again. For the Christian this is possible because of the gospel. The incarnation of Christ, his perfect life lived, his death and resurrection, all ensure for us massive glory-an eternity spent with God-forever and ever. As we reflect on this glorious truth, our pain becomes light and momentary. Thus, pain becomes a life-engaging blessing when we perceive in light of the glory of the gospel. With every wound, scar, and loss our hearts are fined tuned to hope for and trust in the eternal presence of God. Christ's death and resurrection secures a future without tears and separation (Revelation 21-22). Pain reveals that day hasn't come yet. The suffering of Christ on the cross confirms the certainty of that day's arrival.

When we experience pain, and this is sure to happen, will we “curse God and die?” Or will we look to the “eternal weight of glory” won for us by Christ? I pray that we will look to our Savior and look to what he has saved us to and feel the life-crushing burden of pain become light and temporary. I pray that pain will be a signal not to withdraw or wilt but to praise our God and persevere to the end as messengers of hope.

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Jude St. John (@judestjohn) played football professionally in the Canadian Football League for 14 years and currently teaches English at Saunders Secondary School in London, Ontario, Canada. Jude is married to Nicole and they share their lives with their 5 children: Ena, Adele, Mara, Judah, and Arwen.  He blogs at quercuscalliprinos.blogspot.com. 

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Read Luma Simm's book Gospel Amnesia: Forgetting the Goodness of the News.

Read more in Abe Meysenburg's article: Grief and the Gospel

Creating Culture in Your Living Room

Richard J. Mouw wrote a book on culture and common grace called He Shines In All That’s Fair. Philip Graham Ryken has a similar book called He Speaks To Me Everywhere. The idea, of course, is that there are glimpses of God everywhere, especially in culture. But what if you live in a cultural context which seems to lack any distinctive rays of individuality, creativity and especially God’s glory?

The Cultural Void

In Jeremiah 29, God tells His people to seek the welfare of the city of their captivity. For me, that is suburbia. Not cool suburbia where gentrification has transformed the past-its-prime strip mall into vintage clothing stores and hip coffee shops. We have Chili’s and Target and if it’s crowded, don’t worry because there’s another one just a couple of miles down the road. Our color palette is various shades of beige and the term “cookie cutter” adequately describes our home architecture. One day, when we moved back to Phoenix in 2008 to plant our church, we visited some friends in a neighboring subdivision. Turning into their neighborhood, one of my boys said: “We’re home!”

I live in Suburbia and I love music, especially live music. Suburban exile means that live music has been stripped from the fabric of our culture with the exception of the occasional lip-sync act at the mall food court. It’s as if the Taliban came in silencing the music, but the special forces are outside the camp trying to drive us out by pumping in “lowest-common-denominator, auto-tuned, mid-era power pop” until we snap. I have to drive close to an hour for quality live music venues.

My first reaction to such an obvious injustice was to blog about it. Once I had done that, I want to do something about it. Though I was tempted to simply complain about my lot in life, Andy Crouch had already pulled my card. In Culture Making, he argues that instead of simply “critiquing” or “copying” culture, we should “create” culture. If our surrounding culture lacks flavor, we should be the salt.

One way to think about the gospel is in terms of “fall reversal.” When Adam and Eve mistrusted and disobeyed on our behalf, they cast everyone after them and all of creation into slavery to sin, decay, disorder, and death. Yet their task to “subdue the earth,” or to bring order from chaos, was not nullified; it just became more difficult. As Adam and Eve wandered from the garden, they left remnants of order behind them, glimpses of God’s character. They were still charged with the task of bringing God’s image to bear in and through a now-broken creation. This charge extends to God’s people to this day, primarily in and through the Gospel.

This is true on several different levels. As the Holy Spirit awakens rebelliously dead souls to life in Christ, the fall is being reversed. The dead are brought to life and God’s people are sent into every sphere of life to show who God is and what he’s like. Likewise, when we bring order from the chaos of life, when we seek justice, when we build community, or when we pursue beauty we are bringing God’s image to bear on the world he created. Therefore, those who have been brought from death to life ought to be at the forefront of creating culture.

A friend and I decided to do something about our city’s musical barrenness. We started hosting concerts at our homes. Not like those sketchy house parties you used to go to where that one band from high school rocked teen angst out of hand-me-down amps and you tried to protect your Dixie cup from the mosh pit in the backyard (no, wait, maybe that was just me). We host musical performances where community is built around artistic expression and we do this for a number of reasons.

We Believe In A Creator God & Culture Is Important

Our God is a creator god who spoke creation into existence and created us in his image.This means that we have creative capacities like God. We can’t create out of nothing but we can take what God has given us and shape it into new statements. We can bring order from the chaos. Not only is this what our God did (Genesis 1 and 2), it is what he has charged mankind with as well.

Many refer to Genesis 1:28 as the "cultural mandate.” We are to shape the world around us, extend God’s order and beauty, and bring order to chaos. It’s telling that the biblical story does not end with a return to the Garden. It begins in a garden but ends in a city. We are commanded to create culture.

The idea of “culture” has taken on various meanings. At its root, the word culture is derived from the Latin cultura, which is a form of colere, meaning to “plow or till.” The idea was one of “cultivation,” particularly in an agronomic context. Hence, the word agriculture. God’s command to “subdue the earth” was also a command to create culture.

Culture is about more than worldview and ideas. Culture is, as Andy Crouch argues: “the name for our relentless, restless human effort to take the world as it’s given to us and make something else” (p. 23). It includes artifacts, music, television shows, newspaper articles, sporting events, origami, that last great meal you had and everything in between. Culture is everywhere and it matters. More than we realize.

When we create culture, we are showing the world what God is like; who he is and what he values. He has brought order from chaos, beauty from tumult and he has charged his people to do the same. When we bring a moment of comfort to a friend’s sorrow, when we create a piece of art from the left-over magazine scraps, when we open our homes, when we have a yard-sale for a friend, when we create music or just open up a space for that to happen, we are creating a culture that demonstrates the character of God. The culture that we leave behind says more about the God we worship than it says about us.

If all we leave behind is a choked thoroughfare of strip-mall banality, dotted with chain stores and microwaved restaurants, what are we telling the world about the God we worship? That he is willing to make things just tasty enough to get people through the door but not spicy enough to drive anyone away? What are we communicating when our “art” competes with the starving artists’ clearance sale this weekend at that shady motel?

Christians should make the best culture because we have the least to fear and the most to celebrate because we have been given life! I worship a God who brought order from the chaos and continues to do so in every area of my life and has given me a desire to see beauty spring forth from the parched ground of suburbia.

We have been called to celebrate the creator through creating. We cannot create out of nothing, but we can point to the God who can as we make new discoveries out of what he has left us. Culture matters because the culture we create says a lot about the god(s) we worship. Our mediocre art says, “our God is comfort.” Our reality T.V. shows say, “our god is at-least-I’m-not-that-messed-up.”

My friend and I were not content with the various shades of beige culture of our suburbia so we set out to create a better story pointing to a God who is beautiful and spurs me on to love, appreciate, and create beauty.

God’s People Are Called To Better the City Of Their Captivity

While establishing His covenant with Abram, God says He is blessing Abram and his descendants “so that you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12). God shows his love not just to his people but through his people.

Society should be better because we, his people, are present. This extends to our enemies. In Jeremiah 29:7, God tells his exiled people to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” Our love for God should manifest itself in the betterment of our cities.

We have not only been called to “preach the gospel” (the message of reconciliation), but to be ‘salt and light,” making things better (the ministry of reconciliation). I wonder, if my church family disappeared overnight, would our city even know the difference? We don’t seek to better the city just for our “best life now” but to reflect a God who has not left his creation abandoned.

The city should be filled with creativity, celebration, and community. House Shows, when seen through this lens, become a kaleidoscopic. They give us a glimpse of something more, something that resonates with the way we know things ought to be.

Jesus Brought The Better Wine

When considering culture, most of the attention is focused on the “cultural mandate” of Genesis 1. This is important because it is the foundation of interacting with culture. But there is more to your home than a foundation. From a Christian perspective, we should ask how the cultural mandate is changed (if at all) by Jesus.

Not only did God call his people to seek the welfare of their captors, he accomplished this through Jesus who entered into the sinful world to bring freedom. Jesus didn’t just enter culture, he made it better. He used community to bring people towards belief instead of using belief to exclude people from community. He brought the better wine. He made people consider their motives. He listened. He healed. He left behind not only words that people could remember but a different culture they could experience.

We don’t host concerts just because we love good music. We belong to a God who not only commanded us to go to the ends of the earth to create culture but primarily to make disciples. Though we do not use the concerts as evangelistic events, we make sure that we have friends there who can listen, declare, and demonstrate the gospel as the Spirit leads. Jesus demonstrated that this sometimes means creating spaces where those who don’t believe feel more comfortable than those who already do. Music is an important way to bridge these boundaries.

Music Brings Us Together And Lowers Social Boundaries

Music can be powerful. People who love the same music often feel a bond. People who have experienced the same music live together often feel a bond. A good performer can encourage self-examination and discovery while also being entertaining. House shows provide a unique opportunity to engage people in the realm of the creative while also being accessible. As people attend more than one of our house shows, we wee deep, meaningful discussions arise in the context of relationship. Music can be a powerful tool in building a community that wants more than what the current version of life seems to have to offer. House shows provide a valuable, non-threatening way to build community.

Artists Are Often Our Prophetic Voices

Not only can music lower social barriers, it can also make us acutely aware of the world’s problems in a unique way. Artists in general, and musicians in particular, are often the prophetic voices of a generation. Songwriters are often the ones saying what the rest of us innately feel: something’s not right. Though the musician may not be a Christian, we are able to enter one another’s story knowing that we agree that things are not the way they should be. This is a great opportunity for people who not only realize that things are broken but who have also been touched by the Great Physician.

Other Ideas

Music certainly isn’t the only way to pursue this vision. You might consider hosting a poetry or spoken word night, craft night, wood carving fire-pit nights, or sponsoring artists. You could even partner with local restaurant/coffee shop to host an artist’s opening night, song writer groups, film makers’ night, etc. You don’t even have to have any talent yourself. But you must believe that God gives us glimpses of himself when we bring order from chaos and beauty from the broken.

How has God called you to seek the welfare of your city?

What does it look like in action?

Here is video of Aaron Spiro (Soma Tacoma) performing at one of our house shows.

Tips on how to start a house show movement in your city: House Show Tips

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Brent Thomas (MDiv) and his wife Kristi live in Glendale, AZ with four biological sons and one foster child. Brent pastored in KY and TX before moving back to AZ to plant Church of the Cross which exists to make, mature, and multiply disciples through gospel, community, and mission. He sometimes writes at Holiday At The Sea and hosts house shows with The Habañero Collective.

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Read more in Proclaiming Jesus by Tony Merida

Read more free articles on mission in Mission is Where You Live by Jeremy Writebole and Sonnets and Discipleship by Deborah Murphy.

Women Teaching in the Church?

It may be better to sleep on the corner of the rooftop than live with a quarrelsome woman, but friends, educate that woman and there is hardly a limit to what she can do with her mouth and mind—for good or evil. God created woman as a helper knowing Adam would need help. What that help was exactly will be up for debate for centuries; we only know that the command to both man and woman at that point was to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth. A friend of mine confesses that at times he fears exposing his weaknesses to women in his life for various reasons. To which I replied that a woman was born to see a need, to come and encompass that need, nurture it until the time is right for it to be birthed into something more beautiful than he could imagine. We are built to help in ways men will never be able to help. That is our good design.

Disciplers on the Rise

Another friend and I were talking recently about the droves of women coming out of seminary in the coming years. These women have or will have studied biblical texts, learned Hebrew and Greek proficiently, interacted with scholars, and written theses. They have a deep and true abiding love of God's word, and the inerrancy of it. A few quick internet searches show women make up more than 51% of seminary students, and we should expect that number to grow as the Church at large is increasingly heavy on the side of female presence.

These women have taken the command to be fruitful and multiply seriously, and for many, in the absence of their own children, they have become incubators of God's word. They meditate on it, murmur on it, pray it, speak it, and teach it. They are poised for a gracious reception of hungry souls, souls weary of milk, starving for meat. They are disciples.

And even more, they are disciplers.

They may hold a collective Master of Divinity, they may give their brothers a run for their money in both their drive and grace, but over all of it, they see a distinct need in the world and want to help it. They are like the hen who gathers her chicks, finding the odd ones out and pulling them close, covering over, receiving the broken and disillusioned. And brothers: They should not be a threat to you.

Send Me, I'll Go

As the culmination of all things draws near, we grow more poised for a more holistic picture of what Paul said when he said, "Neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28)." Why? Because these women are perfectly situated to teach women. They are the Naomis, the marginalized taking the faces of future women in their hands and saying, "Here is how we see the Kingdom built, and it will take daring women who trust and believe the word of God, who will do beautifully vulnerable things to see the birth of a King brought forth."

As secular feminism is on the rise, more and more women within the Church will be looking for strong female voices. They are not looking for poor theology, but many of them haven't been taught how to study their bibles, or how to discern good theology from bad. Our culture is not the same as when the New Testament was written—more women than ever are without husbands or godly fathers, so there is more of an opportunity than ever for us to be like the women Paul wrote of in his letter to Titus: teaching what is good (Titus 2:3). Culturally it may look different than the first century Christian women looked like, but the message is still the same: the gospel comes in, fills out, changes us, and sends us out to make disciples.

• Has God given you the opportunity to learn the biblical languages? Teach other women so they might rightly discern what is true.
• Have you studied Church history? Teach women so they might help change history.
• Have you been given the gift of a discerning eye and mind? Teach women to exegete the Word, instead of the proof-texting all too common in studies meant for women.
• Has God radically transformed your heart in regard to the gospel? Extol His name to others in everything you say and do.

The question should not be, "Why can't we teach men?" but, "Who will teach the women who want to be taught?"

And our response should be, like Isaiah, "Here am I, send me!"

Will We Have Hobbies in Heaven?

Recently, I had the pleasure of completing a year-and-a-half long labor of love: a fully illustrated version of one of my favorite books, Richard Sibbes’ The Bruised Reed. It was a hobby project. One question I’ve been getting a lot since the book went live is: “Where on earth did you get the time?” I want to explore where I got the time. Specifically, I want to make a case for the cultivating of hobbies as a way of remembering where we’re headed. A hobby as work that is fully restful. As fully restful work, hobbies give us a glimpse of work in Heaven, where we are headed in Christ.

RETHINKING HEAVEN

Before we get started, we need a better view of heaven. For many, heaven remains the big white puffy thing in the sky. It's where we sport goose wings, and smiling in a prozac induced stupor, pluck three-stringed harps, snoring ourselves gently to sleep. This is the third death: eternal boredom. Let’s rid ourselves of this conception of the afterlife

If we start with Jesus, we get a very different notion of heaven. His resurrected body is a preview for ours (1 Corinthians 15:20-21). Far from floating along trailing fairy dust, these heavenly bodies will eat breakfast (John 21:12-13; Luke 24:30), go for long walks (Luke 24:13-35), and be made up of real flesh and bone (John 20:26-29). So forget a future as Casper the ghost. Our resurrected bodies will be altered, but they will be human.

In addition, the prophecies concerning the New Heavens and New Earth describe a very earthy place. Isaiah 33 and 35 tell us our destination is the earth brought to flourishing. The majesty of these prophecies are lost if they’re speaking of something akin to an alien planet — neat, but nothing like what we’ve known so far. No, biblical prophecy speaks of a New Earth, where everything we know and love is redeemed.

One of those things redeemed appears to be work. Isaiah 65 says of Zion, “the wealth of the nations shall come to you, a multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense,” (vv. 5-6). The list goes on, and the best of what the nations have to offer are present: livestock (v. 7), transportation (v. 9), wealth (vv. 9, 11). Note that these things would have no meaning whatsoever in anything in psuedo-reality. All this implies work but changed work. Redeemed, restful work. Foreigners build up the walls of Zion (v. 10); the building materials of all the land are upgraded, and the people themselves will no longer work under oppression (v. 17).

FUTURE "WORK"

In other words, in the very earthy New Heavens and New Earth, the curse is lifted, and the precious gift of work, creation, and cultivation is returned to humanity cleansed of it’s trappings of sin and decay.

The implications are staggering. It means we haven’t begun to see the potential of what human dominion can look like. Just because you know how to use your your limited edition Chemex to brew single-origin, hand-ground beans in unbleached filters doesn’t mean you’ve ever tasted real coffee. We’ve only begun to ply the trade. Give it a hundred thousand years or so, and see what the coffee tastes like then.

It means our failures and frustrations with daily life now may one day have an outlet. In Chicago, I can be frustrated when train breaks down, even as I dream about Zion, where the El will always run on time. It means we have to get rid of our strange vocational concepts like genius and prodigy. Calling the work of a fallen human genius is like calling the drawings of a three-year-old genius. Who can say what genius really looks like when human life is cut so dreadfully short?

Not that the redemption of work is the central point of the greater story of redemption. But if the redemption of work is part of what Jesus has done (and based on the above, I believe a strong case can be made), it’s also something that Scripture asks — demands — that we dream about.

HOBBIES AS RESTFUL WORK

This is where hobbies come in. A hobby, by nature, is work you do restfully. It’s not cleaning out the septic tank. It’s not playing space invaders with your inbox, answering one, or even as twenty more invade. It is restful work. A hobby is work that has zero conflict with joy and peace. As such, the hobby offers us a glimpse of work fully redeemed.

Hobbies give us a taste of work in eternity. When do you work on a hobby? Not on Monday morning. Not on Hump-day. You work on a hobby on Saturday. You do it on your day off. You do it when your time is free. That’s the beauty. We can pick hobbies up, and put them down, and maybe even take a nap in between.

The rest of our work is crammed into seemingly impossible schedules. We till the cursed earth in a panic to survive. If we don’t answer the email, then our bosses will notice, and if it happens too many times, then he’ll take away the emails for good, and our food and shelter along with it. (When managers talk about a “sense of urgency,” this is what they mean). We work at hobbies in a fundamentally different frame of mind. When we work at hobbies, it’s as if we have all the time in the world. And our work in Heaven will be the same.

Hobbies give us a taste of work as pleasure. Why work at anything in our time off? We work at hobbies because something in us knows that, though work is broken, it is a good thing. Work is not our enemy, and the eternal hammock sweet redemption. Rather, work is what were are made for; work that is not toil is blessed.

So we humans build little model planes, and paint pictures, and bone up on our golf games, and knit those ever-needed Christmas sweaters. We do these things because we want to, not because we have to.

What better description for what happens when hearts of stone are made hearts of flesh? All our have to’s become want to’s. All our duties become desires. Work is no exception to this glorious facet of the gospel. In eternity, no one will be forcing us to punch the clock. Hobbies give us a small glimpse of that glorious day.

Finally, hobbies give us a taste of work that thrives. The world out there is complicated beyond recognition. Systems break. Markets collapse. In spite of the motto, "We build to last," we are awestruck if something survives more than a decade. Thieves break in. Moths and rust destroy. Built-in obsolescence seems the order of the day.

Hobbies offer a different kind of work altogether. Hobbies typically offer us closed systems. "Place Axle A in Hole B. Apply glue. Let Dry." Hobbies let us work on things where actual progress is possible, where we may build relatively free from the complexities of work after Adam. Not perfectly free, of course, but more free. And work in eternity will be free from decay and frustration altogether.

WHAT ABOUT ENTERTAINMENT?

The sad truth is, when most people ask where I got the time to illustrate my favorite book, they usually aren’t taking seriously the possibility that someone might sacrifice entertainment time. A few thoughts here.

Media vs. Hobbies. Challenging the American’s right to television is about as safe as giving a pill to the wrong end of a horse, but here it goes. I think we spend too much time with our televisions. I’m not aiming for no T.V., just less. We live in an age where some pretty decent stories are told through what was once an unsophisticated medium — I get that (though if we think we can just turn our brains off while watching, we’d better think again). What I don’t like about television is that it reinforces what most of us want to believe already: that work is bad. Work is not bad. Work is good. We need help seeing this. Spending 28 hours per week in front of a T.V. screen doesn’t help at all.

Video Games vs. Hobbies. I’m fairly certain that video games will become a top-level moral issue for the church in the coming years. The way things are going, video games will far outrun T.V. in terms of addiction and temptation to sexual promiscuity. Already in many countries, games allow main characters to realize every fantasy they’ve ever had: orgies, rape, incest, murder.

We must ask not only how video games can lead us to sin, but also why they are appealing in the first place. I haven’t seriously played since the 8-bit glory days of yore, yet I think the answer to the latter question is still the same: video games offer un-cursed progress. That is the appeal. When I found a heart-container in the Legend of Zelda, nothing could take that away. The game had a save feature. There is much more to be explored here (perhaps in a future article). For now, I’ll simply state that I think video games should be taken with much moderation, as they are more entertainment than work. For proof, I offer nothing more than the sweat stains on the gamer’s couch.

Other Games vs. Hobbies. I’m a fan of board games (Eurogames to be precise). Games bring people together. They too are closed systems, and often restful for the mind. Families playing games can have great fun (also great sorrow, should a sibling acquire Boardwalk and Park Place). I’m all for putting games somewhere in the Sabbath routine. Yet again, hobbies fulfill a longing in the human heart that no game will satisfy. Games exercise our desire to rule, but not our desire to build. Games exercise our powers of decision, but they do not allow us to image creator God.

A SHINING VISION

Hobbies can help us cultivate a shining vision of future glory. I have about a half-dozen serious hobbies going at the moment.

Rather than merely playing, my son Ezra (5) and I are developing a video game using MIT’s programming language, Scratch. This Christmas, I gave my family the first chapter of an illustrated children’s book about rats in the city called The Owl’s Eyes. It will probably be a five-year project. I also have a card game in the works. The first version of this I’ve made on paper. The second will be real illustrations on actual playing cards. If I live long enough, I want to turn it into a heritage toy, and create the entire thing from hand-carved wood tiles. And, if it does well financially, my Bruised Reed project will become a whole line of books called Illustrated Puritans (with future illustrating accomplished by an army of friends).

I say all this not to boast in myself, but to boast in the Lord. Jesus has saved the whole world. Everything you and I love rightly will be redeemed. The wonders of what is coming we cannot currently comprehend. Yet we get glimpses, small and precious glimpses. They are graces come down from the author of grace.

Every Saturday the Youngren family wakes up to pancakes, then sits down in the living room, assembling tools of trade. Markers, felt, and many-colored papers line the table. Phones are off. Laptops closed. Everyone’s in pajamas. The conversation rises and swells with excitement.

This is the Sabbath. We know what we are about. The Youngren family is getting to work.

It makes our tired hearts glad.

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Aaron Youngren pastors The Line and is a husband and father in the heart of the Windy City. He writes at Unbound and is the author of the Two Cities book series. Former lives have involved writing for theater and managing a global team at Amazon.com. Aaron make pancakes.

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Further Reading: Gospel Amnesia by Luma Simms

It Takes All Kinds: The Unique Challenges of Church Plants and Established Churches

Steve Bezner has pastored established churches and planted a church. He serves as Senior Pastor at Houston Northwest Church, an 40-year old congregation with a vision to plant churches throughout Houston. He holds degrees from Hardin-Simmons University (B.A., Bible; M.A., Religion) and Baylor University (Ph.D., Religion). He is married to Joy and has two sons: Ben and Andrew. ___

Answer quickly: Are church plants or established churches more important?

You’re right. It’s a trick question. But to listening the way some people talk, you’d think one is more essential to the success of the Kingdom than the other. I’ve met pastors of established churches who are threatened by church plants or even find new churches unnecessary. Likewise, I know church planters who direct exceptional amounts of contempt at established churches, accusing them of everything from greed to laziness.

I love the church, in all of her expressions. I love her because she is the Bride of Christ.

Over the years, the Lord has seen fit to let me love and pastor a variety of churches in a variety of seasons. While I would steadfastly argue that each church is essential to God's Kingdom, I would also readily admit that each church requires a unique approach.

In other words, leading a church plant and an established congregation have similarities, but they also require different approaches and skills.

Here are three things that I've learned regarding the difference between leading a church plant and leading an established church.

1. Creating vs. Reinvigorating: Church plants demand “ex-nihilo” work; established congregations need fresh insight.

Creating

Planting a church was the single most difficult thing I have ever done in my time as a vocational pastor. I have served in churches almost half of my life (yes, it’s odd to say that), but no other ministry activity I have participated in compares to the emotional and spiritual will necessary to plant a church. Student ministry, college ministry, transitioning/re-planting a church, and educational ministry are all exceptionally valuable for the Kingdom of God. But from the perspective of difficulty, they are all much easier to navigate than church planting.

The reason? Plants, by their very nature, are in a perpetual state of creation. They have nothing from which to build. From checking accounts to governing documents to discipleship processes to sermons to ministry teams, those who are leading church plants find themselves starting something from scratch almost every day.

Personally, I found that task exhilarating. I like to create new things. I always have. But the consistency and demand of constant creation is also exceptionally challenging. If I found myself in the shoes of a church planter today, I would frontload as much of the creative process as possible prior to officially beginning. The more you can decide prior to setting out, the further ahead your fledgling church will be.

Reinvigorating

By contrast, established churches face a different challenge. With existing facilities and structures, it can be difficult for established congregations to recognize the need to re-create structures and patterns within the church. I served 10 years in a county-seat downtown congregation that is almost 140 years old. Today that church is reaching new families, churning out Kingdom disciples, and sharing the gospel at an impressive clip. Three years ago they baptized 100 new believers! Yet that church is in a rural setting in a town of 6,000. Before it could experience growth, it needed to be reinvigorated.

My current church is quite different. It is young by comparison at a mere 40-years old. But, like any church, it needed fresh vision and direction in order to reach its community. The congregation loves its city, but it needed a clear path to share the gospel. Despite having many things that a church plant would absolutely love to have—facilities, by-laws, elders, excellent Bible teachers, and a top-notch staff—the church was frustrated by its inability to move forward. My first priority was helping the congregation discover its God-given DNA and to set an invigorating vision that would help the church receive its mission.

We began by praying for 40 days for three things: 1) Who we ought to reach, 2) How we ought to reach them, and 3) Unity around that vision. I am scheduled to share the new vision this Sunday, and the church is excited.

2. Recruiting vs. Persuading: Church plants require bold challenges; established churches require the subtle art of persuasion.

Recruiting

As a church plant pastor, I constantly found myself casting vision. Everyone was curious as to why I would start a new church. They asked questions like, “Why do we need new churches?” “How is your church different?” “Will you church fit a person like me?” As a result, I regularly found myself drawing napkin diagrams and re-explaining what our church plant was about.

The point was rather bold: Church plants need leaders. And most leaders are already engaged in existing ministries. As the Lord brought us leaders who considered joining us in our endeavor, we were forced to recruit.

I know that may seem rather crass. We don’t recruit; the Lord calls. This, of course, is true. But Jesus himself asked people to follow him. Many did. But some chose not to do so. I never felt ashamed to share my heart for the city and to explain why we were doing what we were doing. And, if people seemed interested and if I sensed the Lord at work, there would come a moment when I would ask, “Would you like to join us?” I received all sorts of responses, and some of them were ego-bruising. But those who are church planters learn quickly that recruiting new leaders is essential to the mission of the church.

Persuading

By contrast, in an established church leaders are already present. There are elders, deacons, ministry leaders, group leaders, Bible teachers, and a host of other leaders already present. And, honestly, they love their church just like it is. If they didn’t, they would have left years earlier. They have relational ties to the church. They have invested significant financial resources into the church. And their hunch is that they will be there long after you have moved on. Harsh? Perhaps, but it is a common sentiment.

How, then, is the new pastor of an established church to proceed? I think the loving art of persuasion is essential. I am currently reading Doris Goodwin’s multi-biography of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, Team of Rivals. The book is replete with pastoral lessons. Lincoln, through deft diplomacy, recruited his primary political rivals (William Seward, for example) to campaign for him and then join his Cabinet. How? By explaining that the common cause they shared was more important than personal gain.

Pastors of established churches would do well to exemplify such a spirit. By emphasizing the common cause (reaching the city with the gospel) and by taking the time to have loving conversations, the vast majority of church members will gladly join you. But if you fail to take the time to listen and discuss, you will find yourself fighting battles that will prevent the church from moving forward.

3. Marching vs. Strategizing: Church plants require a pastor in the trenches; established churches need a pastor who can move the army around the map.

Marching

Let me describe a typical church planting Sunday:

Arise at 6:00 a.m. to review my sermon and pray for the day. Help my wife get the children up and ready. Load the SUV with materials necessary for this Sunday. Meet my team members at a local school at 9:00 a.m. Set up tables and chairs, unload a trailer, and set up a sound system. Join my children’s ministry in discipling kids. Preach. Visit with newcomers. Help load the trailer and reset the school. Head home for lunch and then have any necessary leadership meetings.

Sound tiring? Good. It was. But it was necessary. During our church planting days, I worked alongside my congregation each week in the work of ministry. I discipled new believers and we hosted Community Groups in our homes. We met with people, we prayed with people, and we did the work of the people alongside the people.

Why? Because church planting is exceptionally intimate. The members see their leader up close and personal. They will smell a phony immediately. If you are not willing to work as hard—even harder, in fact—than those you are planting with, then they will resent you. You must never elevate yourself above the team.

We regularly heard from our church plant members how they were grateful that we worked hard. They knew it was difficult. But we knew it was most effective. How could we ask people with children, community activities, and full-time professions to volunteer time if we were not willing to do so ourselves? A church planter unwilling to be in the trenches will not be a planter for long.

Strategizing

Larger established churches value hard work, as well. But they do not expect the Senior Pastor to be greeting in the parking lot or creating the newsletter. In fact, they would be dismayed to find their pastor doing so. They would see a pastor who did so as one unable to wisely lead his team and manage his own resources.

I find myself more regularly engaged in strategic conversations in my current context. I must be able to see the strategy, and then effectively lead our various ministries to engage in the right way at the right time.

Honestly, I struggled with this initially. I wanted to earn the respect of my church, so I would volunteer to help or serve in a way they did not expect. While they appreciated my willingness, they clearly expressed their desire for me to focus my time on the tasks that only the Senior Pastor could do: Lead the staff, cast vision for the church, and teach the Scriptures.

And they are right. It’s the best plan.

The Truth of the Matter

Bottom line: The church is necessary in all of its expressions. And God has uniquely gifted individuals for both planting and pastoring established congregations. No matter the path He has called you toward, it is challenging, but in its own beautifully unique way. Never be ashamed of it, but never cast aspersion on another expression of His Body, either. Simply walk with what He has given you.

On Blog Attacks and Having a Conversation

The rise of social media and blogging over the past decade has opened the door to a new avenue of public discourse. As I've said on this site before, we should not stifle the right to be heard. Freedom of speech is crucial. And social media is a unique, powerful mode of ministry. However, problems inevitably arise because anyone can write a blog post or status update, send it out to the world, and for all intents and purposes move on without repercussion. In light of this, there is a tendency to write "hit pieces" -- attacks on an individual or group -- under the guise of free expression of opinion.

And why not write sensational pieces? You can attract a lot of attention to your work. A recent example is the article written by Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports regarding Tim Tebow, Robert Jeffress, and FBC Dallas. Doyel extracted quotes from Jeffress's sermons, likened him to a mild-grade version of the Westboro group, and started the frenzy that caused Tebow to skip out on his scheduled appearance. (Oh, and Gregg Doyell got a lot of pub for himself.)

This kind of work is no stranger to the Christian world of social media. In fact, it's disappointingly common. Some were upset about Kevin Ezell's now-infamous critique of "bloggers who live with their mother and wear a housecoat during the day," but he's been given ample ammunition to make that sort of claim. Let's face it: Blogs are used as bully pulpits far too often.

Now, we may expect this from professing nonbelievers. But when this happens in the Christian community, a disconnect occurs.

Scripture and Conflict

Most people are aware of Jesus's command in Matthew 18 that begins with, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother." And we've probably heard Paul's exhortation in 1 Corinthians 5: You should expel a person in the church who sins without regard.

But how should a people respond when a brother (or sister) writes, says, or does something that they don't like? It's not sinful, it's not an offense against you -- you just simply disagree.

When dealing with online dialogue -- whether sinned against or not -- the two parties should mimic the new life Paul describes in Ephesians 4:

²⁵ Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. ²⁶ Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷ and give no opportunity to the devil. ²⁸ Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. ²⁹ Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. ³² Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Remember: It's not a sin to publicly or privately disagree with someone, nor is it evil to show concern about something they've said or done. When these conversations are healthy and informative, they can be truly helpful. But tone is important. Snark, misrepresentation, and attack on another's character should disappear when we ponder our redeemed lives, the reality of Satan, and the implications of Christ living in us (Gal. 2:20). The cross levels the playing field and demands grace as the immediate response.

Practical Tips for Online Disagreement

Imitating Christ should be our foundational aim. This ought to bring pause to our knee-jerk reaction to assault another. (And might save our keyboards a little stress, too!) Beyond that, here are some thoughts to remember when engaging in online dialogue.

• Those you cyber-fight are real people. A fact lost on many is that you're dealing with a real person, with real feelings, a real family, and real flaws -- just like you. Treat them as such. Take a step back, do your homework, and make a fair attempt to understand their position.
• It's much easier to blast someone from your computer screen than actually talk to them. Our first inclination should be to speak with that person about the issue. You might find that the person meant something else, regretted their decision, or has a legitimate explanation for what happened. It's not holy or helpful to shoot arrows across the interwebs.
• God searches the heart. Scripture is full of reminders that God knows our motives (Ps. 139:1; Jer. 17:10; Rom. 8:27; 1 Thess. 2:4). There are likely not many pure reasons for publicly attacking another, so pray for the Holy Spirit to reveal your intentions.

May we all glorify God in our public, and private, disagreements.

Christians on Stage & on the Go

The guy in the white, skinny jeans was staring at my wife from the concert stage. He bounced in rhythm behind his electric guitar and gave his best "smoky eye" looks her way as she stood next to me on the front row. She thought it was funny. Not me. I thought he looked weird and uncomfortable.

The lead singer sounded better than ever. However, she tugged on her dress, spilled water on her piano, and led the crowd in a few awkward moments between songs. Well into our thirties and on the front row, that night we saw humanity in a super star. We'd long admired her songwriting skill and silky clean voice. We assumed her life was just as silky and clean, with very few mess-ups. Seeing her perform live that night, we didn't get that feeling.

Humanity is a funny thing. When we pull people off of our stages and screens, we realize we hold a lot of basic things in common---breathing, being hungry, and experiencing pain. This levels the playing field. We have days where we feel on top of the world, and we have (more) days where we just feel the grind. We feel tired. We find out a friend is hurting. A relationship gets fractured. We procrastinate about a difficult decision. I have more days when I'm just trying to walk next to Jesus and it’s all I can do to breathe in and out and put one foot in front of the other.

Mission and Humanity

Being human puts us on an equal playing field with the people on the platforms. That’s good news. But, there are also some really beautiful things associated with the gospel that level the playing field for spiritual influence as well. That’s even better news.

After Jesus rose from the dead and before he went back to be with the Father, he stood on a hill and shared something with his disciples that changed everything for the rest of us. He said, “Go.” He told them to rise and live a life of mission. My life would look differently today had it not been for a collision with the grace of the gospel. It’s not always pretty for me, and it wasn’t always pretty for the disciples, who got much needed help when the Spirit showed up. The gospel has a way of causing a ruckus and moving forward, and we get to play a part in the advancing story.

Not only is the superstar on stage just as human as we are, but so is the spiritual giant who always says the right thing and has all the best stories. We are all equally desperate for God’s grace, and equally capable of greatness. Not the kind of greatness that makes the Huffington Post  but the kind that shouts a giant shout in the halls of eternity.

In other words, each of us can have the most profound impact possible. You and I can have the most significant conversation ever possible: a conversation where the gospel message moves across the line and takes root in a person’s life, transferring their heart from darkness to light. The greatest conversation of all time can be had by any of us, and there’s no need for a guitar or super-tight jeans, which is really good news for me.

God talked about Jesus through Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. -Colossians 1:17-18

Jesus was before everything that is, and he holds everything together as it continues to be. He’s in charge of his people, work, and plan. He’s preeminent. He’s above all things. With the lifting of his finger, the universe would jump off of its rails and become a disorganized and utter mess. Jesus’ power is comforting to me, but it’s also unnerving. If it's true that Jesus is preexistent and preeminent, then I’m in need of a gut check every day. It also means that there are a lot of people who are in a bad spiritual space.

Mission with Love and Trust

Paul wrote to one of the more disheveled cities, reminding them of the why behind “Go.” He said,

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. - 2 Corinthians 5:14-16

It’s the love of Christ that moves us toward people. His love controls us because we have experienced it. I was quite a mess when the gospel took root in my life. I was confused and unhappy. The ground below me seemed like it was constantly moving. I felt like a shell of a person, and I wasn’t sure what to believe or who had the answer. I had a family who loved me and friends who exposed me to Christians, but it wasn’t until I actually heard the words of the gospel that things started to make sense. My life didn’t start to change until someone sat me down and said: “I care about you. And you need to know this.” I experienced God’s love in the fact that he moved toward me when I wasn’t moving toward him in any way. He reached out to me and set my feet on ground that was finally solid, not shifting and unsure. I hope you know that kind of love. That same love is what now compels us to share the great news of who Jesus is, what he has done, and what that means for us.

Missional Living

Living missionally isn’t recognized by spell check but it sure is talked about a lot in our carved out, Christian part of the world. We make missional living out to mean so many things that I wonder if it’s lost it’s meaning. One thing we easily forget in all of our missional talk is the importance of the gospel moving out, verbally, from one person to another. Of course, there are times when a person discovers the gospel on their own. And God is the only one who can change a heart. But most often another person is the medium for the message -expressed through language- in the context of love and trust. When the gospel is shared in the context of a relationship where love has been expressed and trust has been earned (at least in some form) big things can happen. Sometimes love can be expressed and trust can be built rather quickly, as fast as a few minutes on some occasions. Sometimes it takes longer. Somewhere along the way, however, the actual information has to be presented. The gospel message has to come across the wire and be heard by the person on the other end.

I'm part of an organization that talks a lot about going. We like to say that "go" is in our DNA and flavors most of our tactical moves. We work mainly with students who are 18-24, and it’s a privilege to engage a person in that window of time when they are so full of passion but still wondering if they are buying the God (or non-god) that's been sold to them. Sold to them by their parents, taught to them by a pastor, or shared by their grandma on their social feed. Whatever goods on faith they’ve been sold, they’re finally on their own and deciding for themselves what they really believe.

These young people are walking around their campuses with their backpacks full of academia, but life just doesn’t make sense apart from Jesus. Without Christ, they’re in a bad space even if they don’t realize it. Come to think of it, so is my neighbor who leaves their trash can at the curb too long, my kid’s coach who yells too much, and the young person working behind the counter at the grocery store with the tattoo that I can’t read. Apart from Jesus Christ, life is coming off its tracks. They’re in a bad space. We’re in a bad space. And here’s something I wish I thought about the night of that concert with my wife...the same is true for that skinny-jeaned, bouncing guitar guy with wandering eyes.

A heart without Jesus is a dark heart. Darkness is darkness. A dark heart is a sick heart, and a lonely heart. Without Jesus life just doesn’t make sense.

Mission and the Next Generation of Leaders

I like thinking about the future, and I love the idea of being part of a leadership engine for the body of Christ. After all, sometime soon, a creative young leader will make something that will change everything for the rest of us. Do you remember what life was like before seeing a hashtag in the corner of your TV? I have a feeling that right now that future leader isn’t coming up through the ranks of youth group fame. Maybe they are. However, I think it’s equally likely that the future spiritual leader is rushing around their campus dropping f-bombs when they meet with their professors. Or it’s the young lady who last week slept with her boyfriend and can't imagine anything greater. The student organizer who is motivated by self-promotion. Or, the inebriated fraternity guy who is out for revenge. What if, before they changed the world, that young person’s life collided with the grace of the gospel and everything changed for them?

I think that would affect a lot of people. After all, there are certain things that are already reaching the world:  technology, the arts, and media to name just a few. I wonder what would happen if a few of the top leaders in these parts of our culture were Spirit-led leaders with a foundation in Christ and a vision for making disciples? And what might happen if they didn’t use their platform to shout through a megaphone, but instead used it to generate meaningful conversation and intrigue about Jesus Christ? I think we’d see a serious ripple effect of life- change and kingdom expansion. Maybe even one that could change the whole world.

I have a friend who makes reality TV shows. He's good at his job and his shows fill up my DVR. He laughs when he thinks about his work and that's worth something in itself. He also tries to develop a thread of redemption while producing these humorous, real-life dramas. His passion is crafting good art that tells some piece of the story of God. He’s living a life of meaning. Not just in what he’s creating, but in how he loves people, builds trust, and shares with them what he’s learned about Jesus. I think my reality show-making friend is changing the world.

I have another friend who battled cancer early on in his college career. Even before I knew him, I heard stories about dozens of young men shaving their heads to support him through the rigors of chemotherapy. I've always said that my friend understands the urgency of the gospel better than me. He’s tasted suffering and considered life and death in a deeper way than I’ve ever had to do. He wants to love people and share Jesus with them because he understands the brevity of life in a very personal way. Currently, he is leading significantly on a college campus and taking the grace of the gospel to young people every week. He also recently got married. I think my cancer-free buddy is changing the world.

He Is With Us

So where are you with all of this missional talk? Have you really considered how loving it is for God to come after you when you weren’t really that interested? Have you thought about the collision that took place when you first understood what the gospel meant for you? Have you thought through how you might establish (or re-establish) love and trust with a friend? How could you do that in just a few minutes with a stranger, a neighbor, your kid’s coach, the grocery worker? Is there a re-orienting of priorities that you need to make?

Right after Jesus told the disciples to “Go,” he added, “I’ll always be with you.” It’s hard to overstate the calming effects of this part of the Great Commission.  He sent out his people and followed it up with a promise to be with them at every step. When God says, “I’m with you” He means it. That shouts a great shout in the halls of my heart. Thank you, Jesus.

You and I are human. We’re not God. We’re not superstars. We’re also not inadequate ministers of the gospel because Holy Spirit is at work through us. Unfortunately, my humanity can create the feeling that there’s not a level playing field with the people on our platforms and screens. We’re all equally human. Yet, the gospel of grace that has taken root in us has changed everything. That same grace makes it possible for you and me to have the most significant influence that could ever be. Because of Jesus, we’ve experienced the collision of the gospel with our very humanity. And we get to take part in that beautiful collision in the life of someone else, too. Even if they’re in a band. And bouncing.

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Shawn McGrath is a husband, dad, friend, marketer, strategist, baseball coach, and wannabe anthropologist. He serves as National Director for Leadership Development with Cru- giving emphasis in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Follow Shawn on Twitter @shawn_mcgrath and catch his blog at http://ShawnMcGrath.net. 

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To learn more about speaking the gospel in love, read Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson and Proclaiming Jesus by Tony Merida.

Be the Church: A New eBook on Mission and Discipleship

One of our contributors, Seth McBee, has teamed up with Caesar Kalinowski to write a new eBook. Here's a snippet:

As the conversation around being “missional” has come front and center within certain church circles in recent years, it seems that many of us struggle to grasp and/or explain the basics to others. This short book of simple pictures and conversations is meant to offer a starting point–a way to get, or keep, the dialogue going around some of the key issues surrounding who we are as the Church and what our mission really is.

Grab a copy HERE.

Parenting According to the Minor Prophets

Five minutes with my kids is all it would take to validate that what follows is a prayer for the future, and not a present reality. My wife and I have three children, ages 12, 11, and 6. We are now in our 40’s. We’re tired. My kids misbehave. They fight with each other and they disobey me.

But here I am sharing a few thoughts on parenting gleaned from a minor prophet. Weird. Though I am not an Old Testament scholar who spends combing the original language for various insights that others fail to notice, I am a dad who reads the scriptures hoping for any glimpse of Jesus. As I read Micah I am not only finding Jesus, but also our Father who is the example for parents. What if I fathered like our heavenly Father?

Acting Contradictory to the Character of God

One quick way to get me angry as a dad is when our children willingly and boldly talk or act in a manner that is contradictory to how we—my wife and I—have instructed them and attempted to model before them. When we have placed a particular focus in an area over a long period of time—including a conscious modeling before our children—and then our children act in defiant opposition of what our family stands for...it is frustrating to say the least.

At the core of that frustration is the strong, DNA-level desire for our children to act in a manner that is congruent with and reflective of the DNA of our family. Now, I’m well aware that often our children’s misbehavior is merely an image-bearing reflection of me and my sin. But still, it’s frustrating. It’s maddening. It’s aggravating. I mean, we’re talking about core values, attitudes, or actions that we’ve worked on over and over. When those not only get ignored, but rebuffed, that’s a sure-fire way to incite anger.

Now, I believe that anger can be a righteous reflection of the kind of anger God had over Israel throughout their history. He makes in known through prophets like Micah. In Micah 2:2, we see a description of how God’s family is behaving.

They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away;

they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. - Micah 2:2

At first blush, I was tempted to roll right past this description and assume, as is often the case in the minor prophets, that God was talking about some foreign nation under some foreign god. Then, the Spirit reminded me that this description is a description of God’s covenant family, Israel. That gave me reason to pause. His family, his treasured possession, was acting lik this.

God is a gracious, perfect provider for his people’s needs. And yet, here is his own family wasn't satisfied and coveted more. Here they are, not only wanting more toys, but forcefully ripping them from the hands of their brothers and sisters. Do you see the thought process? “I want it. They have it. I will use whatever power I have and take it. I will use my bigness, and sit on you, and rip that toy right out of your hand.”

In contrast, God gives graciously to his people. They have received more than enough. In fact, God has intentionally blessed them for the express purpose of being a blessing. Instead, they demand “It’s not enough." God is a ‘gladdener of hearts’ not an oppressor. I feel like I need to say that again, because the reality is, I often don’t believe it: God is a gladdener of hearts. He seeks to make our hearts and lives happy. When God shows up, life gets ‘gladder’, not sadder.

When God looks at his family, Israel, and sees coveting and oppressing, this rightly angers him because his family is acting in direct contradiction to his character; rather than reflecting it.

Providing Gracious, Consistent Discipline

Therefore thus says the LORD: behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster. - Micah 2:3

With God as an alert and active Father/parent, the result is, you cannot avoid him as a disciplinarian. There’s no hiding. His people cannot sweep this under the rug. There’s no loophole. There’s no secret tunnels or passageways to get around him. I picture many a ‘hallway’ football games with my big brother. Growing up, we’d often play football in the narrow hallway of our home. And there he would stand, looming a few feet away. And there was no getting around him. He was unavoidable. Now, I’m not so sure my brother’s unavoidable-ness was born out of love for me. I’m guessing it had another root. But God’s unavoidable-ness is born out of love.

You see, God hates covetousness and bullying. He will not stand for it. He will not allow his family to treat each other that way. Why?

1. Because of his own nature and character. He created this covenant community to be a new kind of people/family, one that would show the world what it looks like to live in God’s ways. Coveting does not accomplish this purpose.
2. He cares about each member of his family and he will not put up with coveting (I want what you have, that I’m convinced I deserve) or oppression/bullying (I’ll use my power or bigness to take advantage of your powerlessness or smallness). We often find ourselves saying this to our older kids in regards to their younger siblings, “How did Jesus use his power and bigness towards us? Did he use it to hurt us and harm us, or did he use it to serve us and love us?”
3. He cares about those outside of his family who are looking in and making judgment calls about who God is based the behavior of his family.

Now, those are three great reasons we should regularly share with our kids. “Why do mom and dad care about your behavior and the heart behind it? The same reason God cares about his family’s behavior and the heart behind it."

The Challenge

First, am I actively, lovingly, graciously, consistently unavoidable in my discipline when my children act in a manner contradictory to our Father? Have I communicated why this is important and worth discipline—not simply because it’s important to dad, but because it’s important to God!

Too often, I’m inconsistent, too tired, or too lazy to step in to correct and to explain. In addition, I also think somehow that grace competes with consistency, as if I must choose between the two. But our Father doesn’t. He is graciously consistent because the most unloving, ungracious thing he could do would be to passively ignore our destructive behavior.

Second, am I aware and moved by the incongruence of my kids behavior and the character of the Father? Do I care enough about his reputation, his DNA, his life-giving character to step in?

Or do I even know enough? Better yet, have I experienced enough of his gracious, beautiful character to be moved to intercede when my children fail to act in line with who he is?

The Good News

The answer to the above is a resounding NO. No, I don’t step in consistently and graciously. And no, I don’t have a heart-level compulsion based on my own experience of his Fatherhood that moves me to act. So now what, Micah?

I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel;

I will set them together like sheep in a fold,

like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.

He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it.

Their king passes on before them, the LORD at their head. - Micah 2:12-13

Well, now our Father calls an assembly, which he himself assembles. Who’s invited? Myself, along with all of the other parents who have failed. So, what can we expect at this assembly? A guilt-soaked lecture? A lashing? No. A gathering like sheep, into the fold of a gracious shepherd. A flock of noisy, but satisfied sheep in a green pasture. King Jesus leads the way, the Good Shepherd who willingly lays his life down for his sheep. Jesus provides a way of salvation. The Father cares so much about his own reputation, about how his family treats one another, and about how outsiders view him, that he breaches the gate by sending his Son for our failure. Now, that’s a great dad. That’s a Great Savior, and King, and older brother. He has gone on before us and made a way.

It’s only when I believe and taste and experience what truly makes God a perfect Father, that I’ll be motivated to step in when my kids fail to act in accordance with his character.

May the love of the Father compel us, the sacrifice of the Son free us, and the power of the Spirit move us to graciously, consistently, and lovingly parent our children to reflect him.

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Robby Fowler is a Pastor & Elder on a great team at Fellowship Jonesboro in northeast Arkansas—part of the Soma North America family and a member of the Acts 29 network. He is a husband to Kelly for 18 years, and father of three: Colby Grace, Cade Robert and Carson James. He is not a particularly great parent, but his hope rests in Jesus for his kids. 

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Read A Beginners Guide to Family Worship by Winfield Bevins

Other related articles: How Parental Authority is Good News by Tim Chester and Gospel Centered Parenting by Will Walker.

Eugene Peterson on Pastoring: Vocation, Not Job

I’m reading through Eugene Peterson’s pastoral memoir, The Pastor (HarperOne, 2011). He offers some great insights and scriptural reflections on the work of the pastorate throughout the text. I don’t agree with some of Peterson’s theology, to be sure, but I have found myself resonating deeply with his conception of the Christian pastor–and work more broadly. This isn’t a book to tear through; it’s one to read slowly, carefully, turning over sentences in your mind.

Here’s a selection that stood out to me:

But a vocation is not a job in that sense [that it's easy to tell if its done well or badly]. I can be hired to do a job, paid a fair wage if I do, dismissed if I don’t. But I can’t be hired to be a pastor, for my primary responsibility is not to the people I serve but to the God I serve. As it turns out, the people I serve would often prefer an idol who would do what they want done rather than do what God, revealed in Jesus, wants them to do. In our present culture the sharp distinction between a job and a vocation is considerably blurred. How do I, as a pastor, prevent myself from thinking of my work as a job that I get paid for, a job that is assigned to me by my denomination, a job that I am expected to do to the satisfaction of my congregation?

The book is worth purchasing and thinking through. I’ve also really enjoyed Peterson’s un-modern view of the importance of place, the silliness of worrying about congregational size, and the need to actually nurture people. These are overlooked yet powerfully needed contributions.

It strikes me that “job as vocation” is a helpful way to think of work as a Christian. I appreciate how much more deeply this perspective goes than a shallow, task-driven conception of our work. As a professor training students for ministry, the idea of vocational teaching, teaching unto God, is clarifying and enlivening. I’m not merely rendering services to my school; I’m working unto the Lord, giving him glory, growing in piety through my job, using all my faculties for his kingdom (see Colossians 3:23).

That’s a helpful way to think about all of work, I think.

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Cross-posted from Thought Life.

Crossway Books Giveaway

Thanks to our friends at Crossway, we have another book giveaway!

The Goods:

• Dangerous Calling by Paul Tripp
• Gospel Deeps by Jared Wilson
• Faithmapping by Daniel Montgomery and Mike Cosper
• Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church by Michael Lawrence
• God is Impassible and Impassioned by Rob Lister
• Setting Our Affections upon Glory by Martyn Lloyd-Jones

There will be six winners, each winner will receive one of these books!

How to Enter

Retweet our post on Twitter and share our post on Facebook.

*EXTRA CREDIT: Follow our contributors on Twitter.

***Giveaway ends March 13 at 11:59 p.m.

Radical Individualism and the Church as Family

Mental health professionals are now recognizing a truth taught throughout the Scriptures—emotional healing and spiritual growth occur primarily in the context of interpersonal relationships. People who run away from uncomfortable or downright painful relationships almost invariably repeat the cycle of dysfunction with the next person or the next generation (or the next church) down the line. Those, on the other hand, who stay and courageously engage with others are the ones who grow in their self-understanding and in their abilities to relate to God and to their fellow human beings. Community is, in a word, redemptive. None of this is terribly novel. We all know it to be the case. Why, then, do we constantly sabotage our most intimate relationships, seek help from others only after the damage is irreversible, and continue to try to find our way through life as isolated individuals, convinced somehow that God will be with us to lead us and bless us wherever we go? Why are we increasingly unable to stay in relationship, stay in community, and grow in those interpersonal contexts which God has specifically provided for our eternal well-being?

Some might attribute the relational crises characterizing our churches solely to individual sin and selfishness. Sin and selfishness, however, have been around since Adam. Why the radical increase in relational breakdown in our society and in our churches today? Something bigger is in the works, and it has to do with the unique orientation of modern Western culture, especially contemporary American society. Ours is a culture which insists to its own destruction that the dreams, goals, and personal fulfillment of the individual deserve a higher priority than the well-being of any group (natural family or church body) or relationship (friendship or marriage) in an individual’s life.

The incessant failures of marriage after marriage, along with the repeated unwillingness of persons to stay in the local church in order to grow through relational conflict, are only superficially due to individual sin and selfishness. Our culture has powerfully socialized us to believe that our individual happiness and fulfillment must take precedence over our relationships with others in our families and in our churches. And it is precisely the influence that this radically individualist worldview exerts upon American evangelical Christians which best explains our struggle to keep relationships together in the body of Christ. The tune of radical individualism has been playing in our ears at full volume for decades. We are dancing to the music with gusto. And it is costing us dearly.

If you are in a position of church leadership, you likely share my frustration with the foolish and destructive choices our people make as they interact with others in the body of Christ. We teach and preach the truth, our people learn the truth, but so many of us, leaders and followers alike, make utterly selfish and wrongheaded choices in the most important area of our lives—our relationships with significant others.

I count myself fortunate to serve as a co-pastor in a vibrant Christian church, where we consistently emphasize the inviolable maxim that genuine spiritual growth occurs primarily in the context of community. We have in place an extensive support and accountability network to help our people grow in their abilities to relate to others in a healthy way at home and in the church. Our fellowship is average in size. Some two hundred adults, along with their children, attend on a given Sunday. But not a month goes by in which I am not summoned to intervene in some kind of interpersonal crisis at Oceanside Christian Fellowship. Sadly, much of the pastoral intervention we do has little lasting effect upon the health of the relationships involved. In spite of the counsel and support we offer, people typically insist on going it alone along their own individualistic, highly destructive pathways.

Radical Individualism and a Church in Crisis

American evangelicals have increasingly moved away from maintaining long-term commitments to their local churches. We have chosen, instead, to focus upon experiencing God at the individual level. We have become convinced, as George Barna recently observed, "that spiritual enlightenment comes from diligence in a discovery process, rather than commitment to a faith group and perspective" (The Second Coming of the Church).

As our theologians will wisely remind us, we cannot compromise biblical truth in one area without affecting other doctrines, as well. The various truths of the Bible are profoundly and perfectly intertwined. We should not be surprised, then, to discover that our attempts to exchange the New Testament’s community-centered approach to the Christian life for our culture’s individualistic view of spiritual formation have, in turn, subtly skewed our conception of God. God has now been recast in the role of a divine therapist who aids the individual Christian in his or her personal quest for spiritual enlightenment and self-discovery. And Jesus, in the final analysis, has become little more than a “personal savior.” So, if I am a product of my culture, I take my personal savior from church to church and from marriage to marriage, desperately hoping that I can somehow improve the quality of my life by escaping the immediate pain which often clouds the redemptive relationships that God has placed me in.

All of this, of course, blatantly betrays the central New Testament image of the church as a surrogate family of brothers and sisters. A person does not grow up by running from family to family. This is self-evident in our natural families, and we know it to be true of our church families, as well. Yet we offer few prophetic challenges to the subjective, individualistic distortion of biblical Christianity which holds much of the evangelical church in America in its grip. On the contrary, the orientation of many of our ministries actually encourages our people to view their walk with Christ in decidedly individualistic terms.

The one event preeminently identified with the word “church” in most congregations—the one by which the success of a local church is typically measured (the Sunday service)—finds our people seated side-by-side, facing forward, with little or no interpersonal interaction with persons to the right or to the left.  A fellow sitting next to me in Sunday church might have lost his job—or his spouse—that very week. Tragically, however, I would never know it.

We have discovered, moreover, that a most successful approach in evangelizing a whole generation of persons (baby boomers) who attend these large-group meetings is to communicate the gospel in such a way as to assure the seeker that the primary purpose for God’s power and presence in her life is to help her to achieve her relational and vocational goals, to relieve her stress, to give her joy and peace—all at the personal level. The result is that both the context (the Sunday setting) and the content (“God wants to meet my needs”) of church as we know it in American today often serve only to reinforce the individualistic orientation of the dominant culture.

Many small groups also foster the cult of individualism, since they tend to develop around felt needs. You attend to receive help with a particular problem or life stage. It is very easy for an attitude to develop that thinks in terms of "the group for me" rather than "me for the group." This is particularly so if the group is, or is perceived as, therapeutic in nature. When the group no longer meets your needs or expectations, you leave (The Church Comes Home).

My intention here is not to disparage small groups. I believe that the home-group movement offers a promising potential corrective to our individualistic worldview and, in turn, a promising potential encouragement to lasting, healthy relationships in the body of Christ. Small groups can provide the context in which to experience community as God intends it. But this small-group environment must be constructed on the bedrock of solid biblical ecclesiology.  The church today must once again become a family in the New Testament sense of the word.

When the Church was a Family

No image for the church occurs more often in the New Testament than the metaphor of family.  References abound to believers as siblings (“brothers” and “sisters”) and to God as the “Father” of his people. And no image offers as much promise as “family” for recapturing the relational integrity of first-century Christianity for our churches today. Kinship in Mediterranean antiquity was understood differently, however, than we conceive of family today, and it is important for us to be aware of these differences in order to properly appreciate what the New Testament writers had in mind when they pictured the church as a surrogate family. In the balance of the article I will touch upon what I consider to be the two most significant differences between family then and now, drawing application where appropriate to the New Testament idea of the church as a surrogate family of brothers and sisters in Christ.

Sibling Solidarity:  I Am My Brother’s Keeper

Perhaps the most counterintuitive (to us) aspect of Mediterranean kinship has to do with the family relationship that ancient people valued the most.  In our social world, a person’s spouse ideally functions as (a) her central locus of relational loyalty and (b) her main source of emotional and material support.  Correspondingly, most Americans expect their closest relational bond to be the bond of marriage, and we build our families around that marriage relationship.  What is so familiar to us, however, was not true of ancient society, where family was built not around marriage but was, instead, based on blood.

In the New Testament world, a person viewed as family those persons with whom he shared a common patriline—a bloodline traced from generation to generation solely through the male line.  Due to the patrilineal nature of the Mediterranean family, only a father could pass family membership down to the next generation.  A mother could not. A male therefore regarded as immediate family (a) his father (from whom he had received his blood), (b) his brothers and sisters (with whom he shared  his blood), and (c) offspring of both genders (to whom he passed on his blood).

The Bible also bears witness to this enduring cultural value. Jesus, for example, places the act of leaving one’s siblings at the forefront of the relational sacrifices made by some of his followers:

Peter said to him, “We have left everything to follow you!”  “I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no-one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:28-30).

The same priority is reflected somewhat differently in a passage from Matthew. In Matthew 10:21, Jesus lists the inevitable relational chaos that will result from his call to radical discipleship.  Since the most important relationship in Jesus' world is the bond between blood brothers, it only follows that discord between siblings constitutes the worst family tragedy imaginable.  This is precisely what we find at the beginning of Jesus’ list:  “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.”  It might help to recall, at this point, the numerous Old Testament narratives that describe various incidents of brother betrayal (Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, and so on).  Such stories captured the imagination of their readers precisely because ancient persons felt so strongly about the need for harmony among siblings.

From Theory to Practice:  Brotherly Love in Action

Sibling solidarity, as the ancients understood it (and as the early Christians envisioned it and often practiced it in their churches), included a whole complex of associated expectations and responsibilities. Siblings shared material resources with one another, and a person’s brothers and sisters provided the first line of defense against the ever-present threat of economic hardship (Acts 2:43-47; 1 John 3:17). To fail to share in times of need was to betray a brother after the analogy of Cain (1 John 3:10-17). Brothers and sisters also challenged one another to take responsibility for actions which were inappropriate among persons who viewed themselves as family (Matthew 18:15-20). Siblings were, nevertheless, ever-willing to restore a repentant brother to normal family relations (Matthew 18:21-35).

The world of the New Testament was a social environment, moreover, in which a male generally sought revenge for every interpersonal affront or injustice, in order to defend his public honor—except in dealings with siblings, where honor was always extended but never defended (Romans 12:10).  It was a shameful thing, therefore, for a brother to seek compensation for some real or perceived fraternal offense through litigation in the public courts.  As Paul admonished the family of God at Corinth, “The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?  Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers” (6:7-8).

Finally, siblings in antiquity enjoyed a strong sense of emotional bonding.  In the New Testament, we see this most clearly in the connections that Paul experienced with his brothers and sisters in the family of God.  Paul claims, for example, to have the Philippians in his “heart.”  He longs for them all “with the affection of Christ Jesus” (1:7-8).  Later in the letter he exhorts, “Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, so stand firm in the Lord, my beloved” (4:1).

At another point in his ministry, Paul sent to Timothy to Thessalonica to inquire about the well-being of the church he had recently established.  Later, when he received Timothy’s good report, Paul was so overjoyed that he could hardly contain himself in his reply to this young congregation.  The emotional bonding Paul experienced with his siblings in the faith is patently clear:

[Timothy] has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you.  Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith.  For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. - 1 Thess. 3:6-8

All of the above corresponds, interestingly enough, to modern genetic research.  Social scientists have identified a direct correlation between altruistic behavior among relatives, on the one hand, and the number of genes shared by these persons, on the other.  Siblings share more of the genetic code than any persons of the same generation (50%), and they typically exhibit a closer relational bond, where altruistic behavior is concerned, than any other family relation.  It is no wonder, then, that Jesus, who created us to function in precisely this way, chose the sibling bond—“you are all brothers” (Matt. 23:8)—to define the quality of relationships he envisioned for his community of followers.  The New Testament metaphor of “brothers and sisters in Christ” would have strongly resonated with persons in the ancient world.

The family metaphor, moreover, offers great hope for restoring relational integrity and evangelistic power to our churches today.  The early Christians intentionally organized their local congregations around the relational values outlined above, and these churches reproduced themselves and swept through the pagan empire of Rome like a holy fire.  Even pagan detractors identified fraternal love as something especially Christian:  “See,” Tertullian quotes the unbeliever as exclaiming, “how they love one another!” (Apology 39.8).  We in the evangelical church today have much to learn from the New Testament family metaphor, as we seek to recapture the New Testament ideal of the church as a surrogate family in order to bring genuine hope for healthy relationships to a broken and dysfunctional world.

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Joe Hellerman (Ph.D.) lives in Hermosa Beach, California, with Joann, his wife of 31 years. He teaches New Testament Greek at Talbot Seminary and serves as a team pastor at Oceanside Christian Fellowship in El Segundo. He is the author of two books: When the Church was a Family and Embracing Shared Ministry.

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Read more free articles on community: The Un-American Church by Brent Thomas and Do Friends and Ministry Mix by Jake Chambers.

Also, read Gospel Amnesia by Luma Simms.

Why Aren't We Missional?

Our cities, towns, and neighborhoods need Christ. The gospel would be good news to them if they heard it. As our culture quickly moves from being formed by a Christian story to a culture that is void of any Christian storyline, the stakes are being raised. People are actively running from anything resembling the Christian faith. Leaders have to quickly move our people to live on mission to reach the people who have no desire to know anything about Jesus. Yet, the majority of the church is not compelled to live a life on mission. You would think that if we have accepted the gospel and received forgiveness, we would run to a lost world and share the hope we have found. However, this is often not the case. We talk a good game, but we are not missional.

Why?

Here are a few of the reasons I have observed in my own life, my church's life for why we not living a lives compelled by the mission of God.

We Are Too Busy

This busyness is not only from work, family, or hobbies, it is from the church attempting to build up the church. We pack people's nights and weekends with church-based activities. All of these things cause an undue stress and unneeded internal strife between doing what the church is doing or being with lost people. If the people who are part of your church are busy every night and weekend with church stuff, how will they ever be able to reach lost people?

Essentially, we have exchanged the good news of Jesus, which results in resting in his work, for the ‘good news’ of a busy life which results in frantic fatigue. We do so for a plethora of reasons and for a variety of idols. But at the core, don’t live on mission, because we don’t actually believe the gospel. Our lives are cluttered with believing alternate stories of redemption and hope, all which we desperately cling to for our salvation. We honestly believe,

• “If I work hard enough, I will have everything I need.”
• "If my kids get a well-rounded childhood with art, sports, school, and friends, they will have the good life."
• "If I check Facebook every ten minutes, I will find acceptance." 

As church leaders we need to start by repenting. Often times, we gauge our value and worth in just how busy our church is. Busyness does not equal living on mission, let alone holiness. We toil thinking that if we get more things done and more balls rolling the kingdom will come. We must confess our sin of not trusting God’s goodness and control. God brings his kingdom; we participate in it. Beyond repentance, we need to take an honest look at  our calendar. What is really part of the mission and what isn't? What are good things at the wrong time? What does your calendar say about what you believe?

I am a type-a person. I get things done and much of what I do is based on what my calendar is calling for that day. As I began to better understand the Spirit empowering me for mission it has caused two things to happen. First, I have had to be ok with my plans being hijacked by God. For example, when I am on my way to a meeting, running late, and I pass a guy biking in the pouring rain and the Spirit gently prompts me to help this guy (this just happened two nights ago). The second, is I have stopped doing much of what I had previously thought was so important because I started asking the Spirit the question: “What would you have me do?”

We Don't Know How 

Far too many people think there is a magical equation, or formula that they need to master before they can minister to those who do not know Jesus. They are waiting for their pastor or leader to tell them the right combination of words and actions to unlocking the gates of heaven for lost souls. However there is not one magical formula, there are only people who live changed by the gospel and proclaim that gospel!

I am not against education or seminary, but often times pastors are educated and they talk like it. Many folks are left thinking, 'I am not that smart, I could never explain that' or 'I don't fully understand the difference between Calvinism and Armimism'. The good news is we don't have to be that smart. We have to be faithful to live out and proclaim the gospel, and allow the Spirit to do the rest (1 Peter 2:11-12).

Sometimes, people really don’t know how to live with gospel intentionality, or walk across the room and articulate, in any method, the gospel. People don't know because:

1. They have never seen someone do it.
2. They have never been given any tips on how to articulate the gospel or how to demonstrate the gospel.

Simply, folks have never seen or been taught how to rely on the Spirit, so they don't. People don’t have to go to seminary to be on mission, but they have to be equipped. If you are leading a church or community, you can’t simply say "go and do it"--you have to model, teach, and encourage.

We Don't Care 

Since we have made the church service, the church programs, and the church functions all about those who attend, we have also made their Christian walk all about them, the individual Christian. Since it is about them, they don't really care about other people, especially those who do not believe what we believe. What is the point in caring about lost people?

I know of one pastor who recently had a couple leave his church because they claimed there weren’t enough programs for their kids. Yet, this couple was in a missional community with unbelievers who were on the cusp of coming to know the good news of Jesus. They simply didn’t care to be part of seeing those people go from death to life. They were more concerned about what they wanted, than the lost. Their decision was based on what they needed from the church instead of what they could give to the world outside it.

The gospel is we are redeemed sinners brought into an amazing family, the family of God. So, it is not a bad thing to focus on caring for one another, but even in our caring we should be motivated by our love and service to King Jesus. Our Christian walk is not about our hapiness or doing what we want. It is about proclaiming the King, and living our lives as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of us. This needs to come not only from the pulpit, but also in the way we structure our church life.

Lack of Prayer and Spirit leading 

We don't pray. We don't trust the Spirit to work; therefore, the mission is on our shoulders, not God's. He is the one who leads, guides, and works--not us. Pastor, you need to know this. Church family, you need to know, understand, and embrace this truth. Seek the Spirit to change your heart to actually love the lost and lead you to reach them. If you're busy, seek the Spirit to free up some time in your life so you can actually do what the Bible has called us to do.

This one is simple, you and I need to be about prayer. Plain and simple. I have come to realize in my own life that daily the Spirit is opening doors for me to proclaim and portray his amazing message of grace. These have been there for years in my life, but it wasn't until I started asking, "God as I walk into the quick lube to change my oil, would you open my eyes to what you have for me?" did I start to notice what God was doing. Seek and ask. Rely on God as he sends you on his mission.

You are not living on Mission

Finally, and maybe most importantly, the leader is not living on mission, so how can those in the church live on mission. I know far too many pastors who do not actually have much, if any, interaction with unbelievers--unless they happen to stumble into their Sunday service. Pastor, this is not fulfilling the great commission. We cannot find a biblical model for pastors preparing sermons for 30 hours a week in an office only to emerge and preach for 45 minutes on Sunday. Instead, we see the apostles and elders of the church living in among the people. Going from house to house, in the temple courts, and wherever the Spirit lead them proclaiming Jesus to a lost people. Many of us would do well to read less books, read less blogs and spend time investing in people. Yes, pastor give yourself to prayer and study of the Word (Acts 6), but may we not neglect actually serving others, and no preaching a message on Sunday does not fulfilling this.

If you are a pastor and do not have anyone who would call you their friend outside of your church family, then you are actually unqualified to be an elder by Paul's standards. When we look at the requirements of an overseer of the church, there are two things that directly apply to the overseer having relationships with those who do not yet know Jesus. The first is that he is to be hospitable (1 Tim. 3:2) and the second is even more apparent, it is that he is to be well thought of by outsiders (1 Tim. 3:7). Being well thought of does not mean that you don't blow your lawn clippings on your neighbor's lawn, or that you clean up after your kids leave their toys on their property. It means more than that. It means that people actually know you, and like you. Pastor, church leader, disciple maker, let me ask you this question, “Do you have people in your life who do not know Jesus that you would call friend and who would call you friend?” The question is not do you know people who attend your church who don't know Jesus, but do you know people who are your friends and it has nothing to do with the fact that they attend your service, went to a wedding you did, or know someone who is in your church family.

What it Will Take?

To be a disciple that lives on mission you have to be in and among the world. If we are ever going to be affective in our call to make disciples, and in leading our church to be people who make disciples, we have to wrestle with these objections and answer with the gospel. If your church family is not having conversations about Jesus, if there are not new people coming to know Jesus, let us not look at the programs that we are lacking, but may we look at our own schedules and hearts. How have we structured our lives? How are we seeking the Spirit? How are we living? Are we intentionally looking outward and building relationships with people who do not know Jesus?

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Josh Cousineau was a youth pastor for over 5 years & is now the lead pastor of Redemption Hill Community, which launched in Auburn ME in 2012. Josh is married to his high school sweetheart, Anna. They have 4 amazing children (3 boys & 1 girl). Their daughter was adopted from Uganda in 2011. Josh blogs at http://joshcousineau.com

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For more insights into evangelism & discipleship, check-out Jonathan Dodson’s Unbelievable Gospel.

Autonomy and the Gospel

Rick White is the Lead Pastor of CityView Church in Fort Worth, Texas and serves as the Network Director for the South Central region of Acts 29. Rick has been married to Stephanie for 17 years and has four children.  

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One of the most prevalent character traits of our culture is our desire for autonomy. When others infringe upon our perceived independence, we often get defensive and closed off. How can this be? After all, can there be such a thing as a “self-ruling person” in the Kingdom of God? In Matthew 11, Jesus gives us the answer:

²⁵ At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; ²⁶ yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷ All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ²⁸ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:25-30

To understand what Jesus is saying in Matthew 11:25-30, we must consider that in the prior passage Jesus has just highlighted several cities for their rejection of the Gospel. So as a follow up in the above text, Jesus describes the kind of people that DO have the capacity to respond favorably to the Gospel. What does He say? Three things:

1. Needy and utterly helpless people are ready to respond favorably to the Gospel. In contrast, self-sufficient, self-reliant, prideful people cannot receive the Gospel.

Jesus says that only those that come as infants – people in great need and wholly dependent - are ready for the Gospel. Put another way, the Gospel is something that a person must receive – it is not something that is found and it is not something one can take or appropriate for one’s own purposes.

A receiver depends on another; a taker is self-reliant. A receiver needs God to initiate a relationship. A taker only needs God to respect our autonomy and stand still while we seek to find Him.

What are some ways that we fail to receive? For one, we seek and find value from within ourselves and others instead of receiving our value and worth from the Father. Only God can reveal to us the truth about who we are as His created and precious children. We need God to define us, not ourselves.

Another way we fail to receive is that we often create truths on our own instead of receiving with gladness the truth in God’s revelation to us. How often do we approach the Bible with questions we demand to be answered instead of with receptive hearts, ready to hear answers to questions we haven’t even asked? Like Nicodemus (John 3), our non-receptive hearts can betray us as experts in the Scriptures teaching, yet immune to the Spirit that illumines the Scripture’s meaning.

2. Those that look to Jesus as the ultimate and final revelation of the Father can receive the Gospel. In contrast, those that try to look to everything but Jesus will never truly understand the Gospel.

Jesus is God. God entered our world to reveal Himself to us. Therefore, Jesus is our only hope for knowing who God is. Autonomy tells us to find God in other ways apart from Jesus through philosophy, theology, personal study, logic, or desire. Only God can reveal God to us.

Even when we look to Jesus, we often-times look to a Jesus of our own making. Without fail, our personally constructed Jesus always seems to agree with our thoughts and our pet-causes. Our personal Jesus is always on our side. It is only through a spiritually vital relationship with Jesus – by way of Holy Spirit – that we can know, experience and be submissive to our only image of the invisible God.

And while this passage doesn’t explicitly say so, Jesus has and will continue to say after this passage that it is necessary for him to die. He will be the final, perfect sacrifice for sins. For those that know they need God to intervene and rescue them, Jesus gladly reveals Himself as the answer to their rescue – and no other answer will deliver or satisfy.

3. Those that stand prepared to repent regularly are ready to receive the Gospel. Inversely, those that refuse a life of repentance cannot experience or live out the Gospel and the abundant life it promises.

Those seeking autonomy are a weary and burdened people – some realize it…others clench their knuckles and dig in their heels. When one tries to please God on their own, they end up serving idols that keep failing to deliver. Idols weigh people down because they offer instant peace but only supply more painful work as time moves on.

God's people are told to turn to restful work, submitted to serving God through the light, eternal yoke of Jesus. Verses 28-30 are our invitation to turn away from anything that reinforces our self-sufficiency and autonomy and to become joyful, burden-free workers for God’s Kingdom. These verses are our invitation to repent – not as just a point in time act – put as an ongoing receiver of God’s merciful grace-yoke.

What is keeping you from responding favorably to the Gospel today?

Gospel Filibustering

Have you had those conversations, whether they be counseling, coaching, preaching, or evangelism, and you were sure you said everything the way it ought to be said? You wait for that pivotal moment when there is an extra breath between words in the conversation and let off the chain: the immense realities of Christ's preeminence, the sovereignty of God, the glories of Christ's active obedience and even manage to squeeze in a point on presuppositions before the clock runs out, only to look up and see their eyes more glazed over than a Dunkin Donut? You share the truths of the gospel only to find out they heard you, but didn't understand you? Isn't this Christ's established way of growing the Church? Paul testified to speaking the truth to grow the Church into the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:14-15). As opposed to expecting the same outcome from anything contrary to the truth of the gospel-like trying to make a good omelet out of bad eggs.

I can recall frustrations with similar scenarios as a leader to high school students. Until, closer attention to all of Paul's instruction, 'to speak the truth in love.” As Paul has said, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or clanging symbol.” (1 Cor 13:1). I thought I brought gospel content, Paul said I was no more effective than a rim shot without love. This  spoke into the issue at hand that while the truth was shared, the goal at hand (growth in Christ) seemed always to be missed. My mind reached back to my high school government class on “filibusters”. I realized what I had been doing was akin to what is seen in a legislative assembly- someone talking ad nauseum to avoid something being achieved. In the same way, I realized I had been doing that in many conversations with my words.

I had been guilty of filibustering with the gospel.

Filibustering with the Gospel: Indications and Implications

Gospel filibustering happens when the goal of speaking the truth is missed when the role of speaking the truth is switched, from loving others to self. Though this can be manifest in our speech, it's more than a wordsmith issue. It’s deeper. Our speech doesn't emerge from a vacuum, rather from our hearts, both the content and their course (Matt 12:34). In love, Jesus began to confront my method of speech. In challenging my wordiness he first challenged my heart.

Indications: Self-love The qualification to speak in love was alarmingly revelatory for the direction of my speech. I soon realized the questions I had been asking were all wrong. They were centered on the dysfunction of “who I spoke to”. His instruction quickly showed me the dysfunction of my question. Rather than ask, “Who did I speak to?”, I was asked “Who was I speaking for?” If not for them, then for who? Well, for myself. The ineffectiveness of my onslaught of gospel jargon was an issue not with the gospel, but with me. The issue wasn't with the 'isms' and 'tions' themselves, but first with the proprietor of those words. Though my words presented gospel truths, it was merely a baptized way to exalt myself. The selfish direction of my speech was indicative of the love with which they were said. My love was counterfeit, so to was the goal of my words.

Implication: Hollow words = Hollow Power

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, let the cross of Christ be emptied of it's power. 1 Cor 1:17 

The phrase “eloquent wisdom” can be known as “cleverness of speech". This cleverness may have particular reference to the 'wisdom' of the Sophists. A group of Greeks who taught persuasiveness and power through cleverness of rhetoric. Marked by the ability to exalt oneself as powerful, wise, and worthy of fame if they could hog tie imaginations with dilatory tactics. As the gospel came to Corinth, it clashed with this brand of thought. This may have been the backdrop that prompted the Gospel to be critiqued as foolish- echoed in critiques of Paul's public speaking abilities (2 Cor 10:10).

Instead of caving, Paul wanted nothing of making synonymous the power of the gospel with the popular notion of persuasion through prideful, self-exalting speech. He says doing so would be emptying the cross of it's power. Paul's words here are staggering. There is a way we can talk about the what of the Gospel that if our why is inconsistent with the what, it's running on 'E'. Even now I'm hesitant to write that last sentence, but Paul doesn't say “lest our words about the cross be emptied of their power”, but “lest the cross of Christ be emptied of it's power.” This is the dangerous implication of filibustering with the Gospel. When issued from self-love, a plethora of parlance of the cross is actually powerless.

The gospel, it's principles and purpose, is so antithetical to human pride that when our words of the gospel are serving the prideful purposes of self, it renders them useless. If we confuse the power of the gospel with the preponderance of pontification, it is like exchanging a nuclear weapon for a sidewalk popper. Though our words should be full of gospel theology, our gospel theology need not be full of  words.

How does Jesus change our wordiness?

His love: What it is and what it does

What it is: Christ's other-focused love Identifying the counterfeit of self-love comes when you know the real McCoy of God's love. Tim Keller writes about the relationship between Jesus' death and God's love, “Jesus didn't have to die despite God's love; he had to die because of God's love. And it had to be this way because all life-changing love is substitutionary sacrifice.”*. The life changing love we see in the gospel is other-focused. This is characteristic of the love shared in the tri-une God of the gospel. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father (Matt 17:5- Isa 42:1, John 3:35, 5:20, 17:26) and the Spirit glorifies the Son and Father (John 14:26). This other-focused love was being shared before creation (John 17:24), “The “picture of God” is of one “whose love, even before creation of anything, is other-oriented”*. From God's love then for us, Jesus' substitutionary life and work wasn't something done to us, but something done for us (Romans 5: 6, 8, 1 John 4:9). Being restored by the Spirit in community, we see our ability to love is from him and for others. The Church is the context where we see this subversive love change the direction of words and the way we say them.

What it does: Christ's other-focused love Only the substitutionary love of Christ can emancipate us from self-love and bring us, as entitled, “The Freedom of Self-forgetfulness” (2 Cor 4:14-15). Our sinful proclivity will unabashedly be toward the self. The Gospel brings to us the love of Christ, severing the power of sin and the momentum toward the self abates. Set free to forget ourselves, we see what love for others does to our words for others. As the priorities of our motives change, the particulars of our method will. When we speak for them, what we say and how we say it will change:

• Prayer: Praying that we are ourselves would be enraptured by Christ's love for us, so that our words will be for those we're talking to.
• Listening: Listening to them, we hear how we can speak into their lives for their sakes (Proverbs 15:23). Not just waiting for spaces to cram in our thoughts (James 1:19), but we can know how to ask questions and how to respond to keep us from making assumptions and speaking over them.
• Humility & Patience : If our words are for them and not for ourselves, then how someone reacts will not seem like an attack against us.
• Hope & Confidence: If our words are the truth of the Gospel spoken in Christ-like other focused love, then we can be hopeful that the power for change doesn't come from us, but from the Gospel- the power of God (Rom 1:16).
• Explain your terms: This had more to do with 'why' than 'what', but there is a relationship between loving others and us making sure we do the heavy lifting in our communication. We want to bring them to Christ, but saying 'Christology' won't necessarily do that.

*Tim Keller, King's Cross, Dutton, 2011, page 141 **D.A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, Crossway, 2000, pg 44

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Ben Riggs resides in Dayton, Ohio with his incredible and lovely bride Emily. He is Gathering Assistant at Apex Community Church and a house church leader in that area. He is the proprietor of pageflipping.blogspot.com. Ben has a passion to see the power and depths of the God's gospel be drawn out for all aspects of life for God and others in God's world.

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Read more on how to share the gospel in Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson

Also read these free articles: Evangelism has Become a Dirty Word by Matt Brown and The Introverted Evangelist by Seth McBee

God in the Midst of Restricted International Adoptions

A few weeks ago, we had a friend attend an adoption conference. They have been planning on adopting internationally for awhile, so we expected her to come back excited. We were surprised and challenged when she came back convicted and fired up that the church change their approach to international adoptions. As she shared how the prevailing thought for the church is to rescue these children from their countries, but that it doesn’t address the systemic issues that continue to cause these countries to need so much orphan care, I was struck by what God may be doing in the restricting of international adoptions recently. Russia is no longer allowing international adoptions from America. Ethiopia, Haiti, and a number of other countries have changed their procedures and processes to combat corruption and slow down the adoption process. This has been understandably frustrating for many Americans currently in the process of adopting or wanting to adopt internationally.

What if God is trying to wake up the American church to the needs of these countries? What if God is trying to invite us to address orphan care in a different way? What if the solution to orphan care went beyond adoption to addressing systemic change in the culture?

Rescuing by Entering the Mess

Adoption is a beautiful picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ, demonstrating that God the Father desired to bring us into His family to experience His blessings. This caused Him to bring us out of our current situation, alienated from Him, and save us through faith in Christ. This is why adoption is such a beautiful picture and I am so thankful for those adopting and in the process of adopting.

In thinking about the restricted adoption processes, the gospel also reminds us that Jesus took on flesh to enter into humanity’s situation, address systemic issues, and guide us towards restoration of brokenness. As countries restrict adoptions, God seems to be calling us to pay greater attention to the state of life in these other countries, to be concerned that the nations be restored, and not just have their children rescued.

Obviously it is a “both/and” approach and I’m not advocating that we should stop adopting internationally, but my hope is that the church doesn’t merely seek help in changing legislation.

Can you imagine if those in our churches passionate about international adoption moved into these countries with the greatest needs?

Fulfilling the Great Commission through Orphan Care – Over There

Jesus tells His disciples to go and make disciples, starting where they are and then extending it to the nations. God has awakened the church to His heart for the orphan and He may be using this awakening to create a wave of new missions to the nations.

Russia, Ethiopia, Haiti, and many other countries have great and profound needs; adoption is a piece of the solution, but God uses missionaries to change the world. He just may be using our inability to bring orphans out of their situation to invite us to enter into their situation.

Giveaway: The Gospel Project Experience

On May 17-18, LifeWay is hosting The Gospel Project Experience – a conference that will focus on the main events of the gospel through times of vibrant worship and engaging messages.

The purpose of The Gospel Project Experience is to walk participants through the entire gospel story - Christ's incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and second coming. Along with worship led by Matt Boswell, these speakers will cover the aforementioned themes:

• J.D. Greear
• David Nasser
• Ed Stetzer
• Trevin Wax
• Ken Whitten

The Experience will inspire you and your congregation to live out the implications of the gospel in your community. This event will be simulcasted live and the kind people at LifeWay are letting me give away two individual and two small group simulcast registrations. That’s FOUR winners!

Enter to win by commenting why you should win a ticket!

The deadline to enter is Friday, February 22 at 11:59 p.m. CST.

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The Gospel Project, led by General Editor Ed Stetzer and Managing Editor Trevin Wax, is designed to unify the entire church under a single Christ-centered curriculum. In every lesson that each age group studies, participants are immersed in the gospel story and ultimately challenged to live on mission for God.

If you’re not sure what it is, I’d invite you to check it out when you have a moment. You can even sample four of the lessons for free.

The Introverted Evangelist

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ² “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, 

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 

‘Prepare the way of the Lord; 

make his paths straight.’ ” 

Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. - Matthew 3:1–6

For most of us this is what we think of when we think of an evangelist: the semi-crazy person that we admire for their zeal. We are impressed with their courage, but we know that if that is what we are called to do, we could never pull it off.

When we train in evangelism, this is the picture most either point to or think of. Which is one of the major reasons evangelism and evangelist have such a negative connotation for both the believer and non-believer. Essentially, we train folks to fit into a specific personality type and call it evangelism training. We are training people to be extrovert evangelists.

The Extroverted Evangelist

Extrovert evangelists are the people we see constantly interacting with strangers. They are the life of the party, and they love being around people in general. We’ve seen them doing everything from street evangelism to getting into gospel conversations with someone while riding in an elevator with them. This is not only a joy for them, but comes very natural to them. These folks are the "evangelists."

When I felt the call to tell others about Jesus, I thought this is who I was supposed to be so I went out door to door, handing out bibles, went to community events and handed out tracts, etc. thinking that this is how one is deemed an evangelist and “have beautiful feet by preaching good news.”

The issue for me was this never seemed natural for me. It never felt like this is how God made me. I chalked it up as this was what it meant for me to be a living sacrifice. The problem was it didn’t stop at me, but I preached that others should be doing the same, or they didn’t understand the call to be an evangelist.

However, in the body of Christ, not everyone fits this extrovert mold, yet people think this is how all followers of Jesus must be and live. We must stop calling everyone to be an extrovert evangelist and allow people, specifically introverts, to live out the identity of evangelist and missionary in the way God has made them.

Round Peg, Square Hole

I find it interesting that we have looked past how God has made us, and gone directly to our actions to prove who we are. We should always start with who God has made us to be and out of that find direction for our actions. Even biologically this makes sense. We don’t ask a dude to get pregnant. But, sadly, this is as silly as asking an introvert to be a John the Baptist.

We need to go back to see how the Scriptures speak to us, found in Psalm 139:12-15:

For you formed my inward parts; 

you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Wonderful are your works; 

my soul knows it very well. 

My frame was not hidden from you, 

when I was being made in secret, 

intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; 

in your book were written, every one of them, 

the days that were formed for me, 

when as yet there was none of them. 

God has designed each one of us exactly how he wants us. Not only that, but he will use his design of us to reach out and show his glory to the ends of the earth.

Once I realized who God made me, and how he was going to use me, it transformed my thought process on my life and how I lead others on mission.

What I have come to realize is that I am a functional extrovert. Many see me and think I am an extrovert, but in reality, my wife used to call me a hermit because of how much I avoided people.

What this means for me is that I will force myself into situations to meet new people and share stories, but it is not natural for me. I am basically in the middle of the introvert and the extrovert. Because of this, I think I have a unique perspective on how to lead and be an introverted evangelist.

Some Things to Think Through 

• Being an introvert and staying an introvert is not a sin. Many put this on others and in return introverts can feel very alienated and burdened to do what others (read extroverts or functional extroverts) are doing. Allow the introvert to be exactly who God has made them to be, an introvert.

• Do not try to make an introvert an extrovert. This is not your calling. Your calling is not to make everyone in your church look like you or act like you. If this was the case, everyone else on the planet could die and you could take over as king of the world. God has made his body different on purpose, including introverts and extroverts.

• Having introverts in your church is not the same as having immature believers or wolves in sheep’s clothing. It seems as though most of us have treated introverts as though they were a disease that needed a cure, instead of image bearers of God created by him for his purpose. Know God’s creation is beautiful, purposeful, and should be celebrated not degraded.

• Being an introvert does not exclude them from the mission. Do not allow introverts to use their design as a crutch. Instead, shed light into how God is going to use them. Allow them to, and lead them into, what it might look like to be on mission as an introvert.

What Does Mission Look Like As An Introverted Evangelist?

• Introverts, by nature, have a tough time being around people they do not know. So, find an extrovert, or functional extrovert, that loves Jesus and understands introverts. Have the extrovert invite the introvert into their daily lives and functions. This will allow the introvert to be with those they know, yet still be with those they don’t know.

• Allow the introvert to serve at events, parties, activities, etc. in a way in which they are comfortable. We have an introvert in our missional community who started by taking out the garbage, cleaning, and making the food at our BBQs and breakfasts. It was pretty funny because he was like a silent cleaning assassin. People would ask, “who is that?” I’d let them know he was a friend of mine who was here to help, so I could spend more time getting to know my neighbors. Please tell me how that doesn’t speak to kingdom living! After a while, he started to build friendships and started to speak into them and felt very comfortable at our large events, because he knew everyone now. I wasn’t patient at first, but when I started to realize how God had made him and his love for Jesus, I allowed him to live out his identity. When we do this, we become a beautiful picture of the diverse body of Christ.

• Know that because introverts do not like being around people they don’t know or large groups, they will not be the ones who are planning parties, or are the life of the parties. Allow this; it’s okay! Do not force them to do things that they are not made to be. Of course, there is a balance to the call of mission, but at the same time, be patient. I’ve found that the more you allow the introvert time to be around extroverts, or just strangers in general…the more they get to know them and then desire to be around them.

• When an introvert speaks, listen. Introverts don’t want to bother people, because they don’t like to be bothered. But, after they get to know people, they will speak into their lives and their wisdom is usually spot on. First, they listen and watch. When they finally feel the need to speak, they usually hit the heart of the issues at hand. Do not gloss over what they say, but listen and encourage. If you ignore or talk over them, they are stubborn buggers and might never talk again.

• Introverts desire community, they just don’t know it. Most introverts think they want to be by themselves. The fact is, they just don’t want to be around others they don’t know. And it’s not something they need to just “get over”; it’s as real as trying to get an artist to put on a suit and sit behind a desk all day. It just isn’t going to work. So, you can tell when you have an introvert who is an evangelist because they start to gather with those they’ve developed relationships with. My wife is like this. She hates meeting new people; however, once she has developed relationships, she not only makes space for them, they make space for her.

• What is an evangelist anyways? An evangelist isn’t a personality type or a personality disorder, but an evangelist is one who brings good news, both in the proclamation with the mouth and their actions. If this is the case, where does it say that an evangelist is going to be an extrovert or introvert? What if God’s plan was for everyone to do the work of an evangelist? (2 Tim 4:5). Think of the power of the church if we empower both the extrovert and the introvert to be the representation of the good news in the way that God has made them? How many more people would be reached for the sake of Jesus?

A Final Warning

Don’t let the introvert use their design as a crutch for mission. “God didn’t make me that way” is a crutch. Instead, show them what mission could look like. Find another introvert, or functional extrovert, that can aid them in steps of what mission might look like for them. Don’t just tell them; have someone model it. The introvert is an image bearer and desires to see disciples made; they just don’t know what it looks like for them. It's not because they're stupid, but because the church has historically modeled what it looks like to be an extrovert evangelist.

Don’t give up on the introvert. Just because they don’t live out the mission as you might, does not make them any less a child of God, nor does it make them any less of an evangelist. You’ll have to be patient with them, that’s okay, God has been patient with you your entire life and you still suck.

The point of this short article is that the introvert is designed by God, not by the lies of Satan. The lie of Satan is that we need to make other people like us, whomever “us” ends up being.

If you have introverts in your church, empower them in the ways God has made them.

If you are an introvert, live out the mission to make disciples in the way that God calls you based on who you are. Don’t use your design as a crutch, and don’t let anyone else use your design as a crutch.

Start small. Ask the Spirit “what’s next?” and he’ll give you exactly what you need to do in the way that he has designed you. It might be the smallest and dumbest thing you’ve heard of, but it’s a step. It could be to help pick up garbage at the next party--you could be the next cleaning assassin for Jesus.

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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 as well as a missional community leader, preaching elder with Soma Communities in Renton, Washington, and executive team member of the GCM Collective. Twitter @sdmcbee.

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Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson is an excellent read on sharing a gospel worth believing.

 Read more free articles on this topic: Evangelism has Become a Dirty Word by Matt Brown and Mission is Where You Live by Jeremy Writebol.

What Happens at an Atheist Church?

David Norman is currently pursuing an M.Div. at Southwestern Seminary and has served in ministry for over 12 years. He thinks Jesus is enough, reading heavy books covered in dust is awesome, and the church is still the hope of the world.  He blogs at www.davidnormanblog.com and tweets (twits? twitters?) from @david_norman. ___

A recent BBC News Magazine article asked, “What happens at an atheist church?”:

The theme of the morning is “wonder” – a reaction, explains Jones, to criticism that atheists lack a sense of it.

So we bow our heads for two minutes of contemplation about the miracle of life and, in his closing sermon, Jones speaks about how the death of his mother influenced his own spiritual journey and determination to get the most out of every second, aware that life is all too brief and nothing comes after it.

The audience – overwhelmingly young, white and middle class – appear excited to be part of something new and speak of the void they felt on a Sunday morning when they decided to abandon their Christian faith. Few actively identify themselves as atheists.

“It’s a nice excuse to get together and have a bit of a community spirit but without the religion aspect,” says Jess Bonham, a photographer.

“It’s not a church, it’s a congregation of unreligious people.”

Misapplied Worship

God has created within the human heart the need to worship. We have been created with the inward desire to give ourselves to something greater – something beyond ourselves. Because Christ alone fills the void, whenever we refuse to bow our knee to God, we find ourselves on a perpetual search for something else to worship. An “atheist church” stands as a modern-day evidence of this truth by providing an avenue for worship while denying the only person truly worthy of worship.

More interesting is that the article notes that the atheist congregation spends time contemplating the miracle of life. This in itself is a fascinating discovery. Atheism, as a worldview, is not a specific denial of the Judeo-Christian God, but of the supernatural in general. It is a thoroughly naturalist anti-religion that scoffs at the notion of the miraculous. One wonders, then, how they can both contemplate the miracle of life, and yet be so deeply tied to the refusal to believe in the supernatural and manage not to see any discontinuity of thought?

The article itself references ten virtues, or commandments, that have been written for the faithless. The list can be found here. None of the virtues are evil, in fact they promote such things as politeness, sacrifice, and forgiveness. But in the absence of the Divine, these virtues are nonsensical. If there is no Creator, no afterlife or eternal life, no judgment, no reckoning – if this life truly is all that there is – virtues such as sacrifice and politeness are pithy ideals that hinder one from making the most of every moment.

The argument could be made that the desire to live in such a manner – “to flex our ethical muscles,” as the author put it – testifies to an innate knowledge that a life spent hedonistically seeking pleasure and gain at the expense of others is objectively wrong. In fact, every practice of this atheist church, including its very existence, testifies to the vain attempt to replace a life devoted to the Sovereign God with something – anything – else.

This same article claims that England and Wales are now the most unreligious nations in the Western world. What was once the missionary-sending “hub” that sent such men into world as Andrew Fuller, William Carey, and Hudson Taylor is now hard soil – desperately in need of laborers of the gospel. The streets that once thundered with the preaching of Spurgeon, Morgan, Stott, and Lloyd-Jones have now become full of men and women who have never heard the gospel. May God raise up thousands of missionaries to carry it back into these nations.

Redeeming “Church”

The last line in the quote above sounds eerily familiar to quotes used by many contemporary churches. In effort to distance themselves from what the culture may perceive to be dry, dusty, lifeless “church,” it has become common to use another term. We call them fellowships, communities, even bodies – anything, it seems, to avoid the use of a term that carries such historical baggage as “church.”

Perhaps we’d do well to return to using the term, “church.” After all, it is Christ’s church that Jesus bled for, died for, promised to build, and calls His bride. The church is the only institution that God promised to sustain eternally. Of course, using those other terms doesn’t abdicate a congregation’s place in the universal church. The Reformers were quick to acknowledge that the church existed wherever the Word was rightly taught and the sacraments rightly administered. But the solution to the growing dissonance between what the church was established to be and the current perception of the church cannot be solved by merely opting to use another descriptor.

Instead, we must redeem even the word “church” by repenting of our failure to sail between the Charybdis of absorbing the values of our culture and the Scylla of creating an artificial Christianese counter-culture. We must, instead, live as pilgrims – citizens of another Kingdom – in this world, wholly committed to the God whose gospel we proclaim. Then we are more than a fellowship, more than a congregation, an experience or a community – we are an outpost of the Kingdom of Heaven. We are the church.

May God bring us to such repentance for His glory.