ChurchLife

We Are Who We Hang Out With

2007-05-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

I have written article on the importance of attending church. The article is at http://kudzuvine.org/archives/18

Not only is it important to actively participate in the life of the church, one might say that not to do so leaves questions about your faith in Christ.

The New Testament Pastor

2006-10-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Recently a discussion in regard to the title of the office of Pastor took place on the Yahoo Group, Theology List. In response to that discussion, I decided to write a brief article on the New Testament Pastor. Please note that all Scripture quotations are from the NASB.

What is a Pastor?

To understand the role and function of a pastor, one may begin by looking at the words used to label this ministry. The words used are Elder, presbuteros; Bishop or Overseer, episkope; and Pastor, poimen. By far the most used term in the New Testament is the word Elder. However, it is clear that all three words refer to the same office. Acts 20: 28

Acts 20:28 "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. (NASB)

They are called Elders, (presbuteros) they have been made, by Holy Spirit, overseers, (episkope) and they are to shepherd (poimen) the church. . . .

The same observation can be made in I Peter 1: 1-2.

1 Peter 5:1 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,
2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; (NASB)

Peter calls them elders (presbuteros) and commands them to shepherd (poimen) the flock of God among you, exercising oversight (episkope). All three elements, all three words are used in both passages and leaves little doubt that the three words refer to the same office.

What do the three words tell us? Elder (presbuteros) has a Hebrew background. The council of wise men who were to govern or go give advice were called Elders. Members of the local council of a city or community and the members of the Sanhedrin were both referred to as Elders. Both the Hebrew word zaqen and the Greek presbuteros, carry the idea of an older man, who is mature and wise. I think that we can gather from the meaning and usage of the word, that an elder is one who is to give wise council and leadership to those placed under his charge.

Overseer or Bishop comes from the Greek word episkope. According to the BDAG, the word means: 1. the act of watching over with special ref. to being present, visitation, of divine activity, 2. position of responsibility, position, assignment; 3. engagement in oversight, supervision.

According to the TDNT, the root of the episkope or episkopos, means to watch or to look out. It was used of gods who watched humans and was used in the sense of a divine visitation. The word came to be used in the form of episkopos for offices and positions of oversight. Civil officials were referred to as episkopos. It became a common word for various positions in the Greek world that had oversight over things and people. Episkopos comes to the New Testament as the Greek word that corresponds to the Hebrew idea of pesbuteros. It is one who has oversight, in this case, over a congregation.

The word poimen (shepherd) has a rich Old Testament history. It is used of those who care for sheep. They feed them, tend to them, protect them from harm. David was a shepherd and described God as Shepherd. And God is described as Shepherd in various ways in various Old Testament passages.

Based on the words used to describe the office, one can conclude that the one who holds this office is to be a man who is wise and mature, who is called by the Holy Spirit to oversee, to administrate, to, in some sense of the word, rule over a congregation as one who is a shepherd who feeds, takes care of and protects his charge.

While the words Bishop, Elder and Pastor refers to the same office, I tend to use the word Pastor simply because that is my Baptist tradition. For the remainder of this paper, I will use the word Pastor but any and all of the three are clearly meant.

The Character of a Pastor

The meaning of the terms, particularly the word Elder, reflects the character of the holder of the office. Wisdom and maturity are paramount characteristics of a Pastor. First Timothy 3: 1-7 describes the character of the pastor. While these traits should be found among all mature Christians, it is imperative that the holder of the pastoral office be marked by them.

1 Timothy 3:1 It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.
2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.
4 He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity
5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),
6 and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.
7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (NASB)

While much can be said about the character of the pastor, suffice it to say that he must be above reproach, mature, not a new convert, and one who manages his own household.

The Work of the Pastor.

The work of the pastor is varied and requires the mastery of a wide variety of fields. Some of the important texts in regard to the work of the pastor are as follows:

Acts 6
2 And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, "It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.
3 "But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.
4 "But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word."

NAS Acts 20:28 "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

I Timothy 4: 13 Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.
14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed upon you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.
15 Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all.
16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

I Timothy 5: 17 Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.
18 For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing," and "The laborer is worthy of his wages."

2 Timothy 2:1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
3 Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
4 No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.
5 And also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.
6 The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
7 Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel,
9 for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned.
10 For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.
11 It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him;
12 If we endure, we shall also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us;
13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.
14 Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless, and leads to the ruin of the hearers.
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.

NAS 2 Timothy 4:1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires;
4 and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.
5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Ephesians 4:11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.
14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ,
16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

From these texts, one can see that the pastor is to give his attention to the issues of prayer and ministry of the Word. He is to preach and teach the Word and be ready to do so in season and out of season. Furthermore, we are to reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. And we are to minister in this manner because a time will come when men will not endure sound instruction. It is the pastor’s job to not be persuaded by fads and trends and the worldly wants of some. But he is to be prepared to teach and preach sound doctrine, even to the point of reproof and rebuke when those who are under his charge drift from the Scriptural norm. The pastor must be on guard that he is not carried away by the same trends but rather, guard his own heart as he consistently calls the people of God to repentance when they go astray. The pastor is the one who oversees the spiritual life of the congregation. He is to see to it that they are growing in holiness. He calls them to proper order when they go astray. The pastor protects the congregation from false doctrine, even those false teachers who arise from within the church. No other leader in the New Testament church has this burden laid on him.

Ephesians grammatically links the role of Pastor-teacher, though some dispute this. This does not mean that only pastors are teachers. However, it is the role and responsibility of the Pastor to teach. Fist Timothy 3 says that one of the qualifications of the Overseer is to be able to teach.

The pastor is to lead the church. The means and method of this leadership is found in First Peter:

1 Peter 5:2-3
2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness;
3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.

The pastor is to lead by persuasion and by example. The model for such leadership is Jesus himself. Pastors are to be true servant-leaders. Following the example and command of Jesus, the pastor does not exist to be served but to serve. He becomes the servant of all, according to the words of Jesus, those who would be great, become the servant of all.

The only model for pastoral leadership is that of a servant who leads his congregation by persuasion and example. He cannot ask people to do what he will not do or to become what he will not become. And while he is to lead in such gentle fashion, he is also, when necessary, to speak boldly the Word of God to reprove, rebuke, and exhort when necessary. A pastor cannot make people follow him. And he can no more make people act and behave a certain way than he can cause to moon to rise. Therefore, his leadership comes from his calling, his gifts, his character and from his commitment to the very Word that he is to teach and preach. The result of his ministry should be church whose members grow up into a mature man with Christ as our head. Fist and Second Timothy and Titus are instructions to young pastors on pastoral ministry. One should seek to understand these books if they are to have a biblical understanding of the role and work of those who hold the pastoral office.

The Church’s Responsibility to the Pastor

Hebrews 13: 17 calls for the church to follow its leaders. This followship is not absolute, in other words, if the pastor is misleading the congregation it should not follow him. But neither should he be pastor.

Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. (NASB)

The word for obey is a peitho. It is an imperative verb. It means to persuade, appeal to, be won over, and thus, to obey. It is not a word that tells us to be a robot but that we are to be persuaded and to trust the one who has persuaded us. In other words, obedience is not blind trust but trust in one who, by word, deed, and call, persuades us. The word for submit is hupeiko and it means to yield to someone’s authority. It must be remembered that such yielding is to one who is a servant leader to the congregation. The immediate purpose is so that they pastor may have joy in his labor. The work of the pastor can be like herding cats or leading an army. It all depends on the will of the church to follow the leadership of the pastor. And for the pastor, the work is hard and emotionally draining. This mutual labor of servant leadership and yielding to authority produces the harmony and peace that make it possible for both church and pastor to enjoy.

The congregation also has the responsibility to pay its pastor as one who makes his living from the Gospel. He, like a soldier, is not to be involved in the things of the world, but reserve himself for his pastoral work ( 2 Tim. 2: 1-7) Furthermore, the church is commanded to pay and to pay double to those who teach well (1 Tim. 5: 17-18 ). In other words, the pastor should give his life to the work of the church and the church should take care of his needs so that he may not be encumbered in his work. This does not mean that somehow the work of the bivocational pastor is wrong. There are times when a church cannot pay its pastor. Paul himself worked to support his ministry. But it should be recognized that it is not the ideal and a pastor in such circumstances cannot give himself to the church as one who labors full time.

The office of Elder, Bishop, Pastor is a God appointed office. It cannot be set aside because we think we can find a better way. The church is to give the pastor their attention as he instructs them. The Pastor must give himself to the study of the word so that he is not ashamed but rather approved before God. And no matter what modern forms may tempt us, the biblical pastor will always be the servant leader of the biblical church.

God's Priorities

2006-08-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

Luke 12: 22-34

I am no more immune to the materialism than anyone else. Being a pastor does not automatically kill the materialism gene that resides in us. I want. I want a big house, a rambling house, one you can get lost in, one with a spacious library where I can study. And it needs a room for my wife, call it a sewing room. The kitchen will have a lot of room, a big island in the middle, and a real grill with a vent to pull the smoke out of the house. I haven’t gotten any further with that fantasy but we have food and hobbies covered.

I like cars too. I would not mind driving a high end BMW or maybe a Corvette wearing a pair of $300.00 sunglasses. A top of the line pickup truck would be delightful. And a few late 60s muscle cars to waste gas in would be an added bonus. While we are at it, let’s throw in a big boat and a nice camp with a dock. And how about a nice vacation home in the mountains some place. It over looks a long valley where you can watch the storms roll up in the summer and see the snow fall in the winter. The deer play there.

Being a baby boomer, I like technology and gadgets. So, of course I want the latest computers and sound systems, GPS systems, satellite systems, high end video systems and enough time to enjoy it all.

Speaking of time, I want to travel. There are all kinds of places I want to see. So, for us to travel, we need new wardrobes and luggage and all the things that make travel comfortable. And, of course, I need lots of free time to travel.

Whew, it is tiring being materialistic. Thinking about all of this makes me so depressed because I ain’t gonna get it. Don’t you think that is how the world thinks? Don’t you think that much of the modern discontent comes from the fact that I can’t get all that I want? And have you noticed that even those who have, are not too happy as a result?

It is a sad state of affairs. It is true that a certain amount of material pursuit makes the economic world go around. Nevertheless, I don’t think that God ever intended for us to be consumed with consumerism, or to be mad with materialism. Keeping up with the Jones or whoever has all the cool toys is not how God intended for us to use our time. In fact, it was this kind of obsession that caused the first murderer to kill his own brother.

Americans and Westerners are addicts. Materialism produces an Endorphin high that only lets us down demanding more and more. Sadly, there are preachers and pastors and evangelists within the Church today who tell you that God wants you to be prosperous. He wants you to have the unreconstructed desires of your heart. In other words, they say that God wants you to be a materialist. Yet I tell you, this is false.

When we become obsessed with things, the Bible calls it Mammon. No matter how rich or poor we are, if things, the drive for money, the wants of our life become our obsession, God cannot, at the same time, be our obsession. If we are serving materialism, we cannot be serving God. Jesus said that you cannot serve two masters.

What does Jesus mean? "I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.” Jesus knew the troubles of man. So what Jesus offers is a principle by which members of the kingdom of Heaven are to live their lives.

We who are followers of Christ are people who have placed our full trust in God. We have been called to place our treasure in heaven. Our conviction is that God loves us and wants the best for us. Yet, when the hard times come, we begin to doubt God even though we know that God never promised that Christians that we will be healthy, wealthy, and wise. We feel choked by life. We stumble and come to believe that God is not able to take care of our needs or that we are not of infinite value to God. In that sense, anxiety becomes blasphemy, it becomes an accusation against God. He does not love us nor can help us, we accuse. Either our wants and needs will be our master or God will. It takes us a long time to figure this out. Instead we live our lives with all kinds of fear and anxiety.

Jesus said that, that kind of fear and anxiety is unnecessary. Look at the birds of the air, how beautiful they. They don't farm and harvest and gather into barns. God feeds them. Are you not of far more value to God than these? Jesus said, don't you understand, you are of ultimate importance to God. So much so that God became flesh and died for us.

Jesus calls on us to place our trust in the Father who loves us and will take care of our needs. He said that worry will not add one inch to your height or one minute to your life. And as to clothing, look at the flowers how beautiful they are. God made them that way, will he not do much more for you?

"So God will take care of our needs" we might ask with some skepticism. What about the people in Sudan who are starving and have no clothes or shelter? The response from God might be, What is your treasure? Perhaps you are laying up for yourself treasure on earth rather than treasure in heaven. Perhaps they starve because Christians have not done their job to feed them, to educate them, to take the gospel to them. We need to minister to those who are less fortunate than we are. We need to get our hands dirty with those who need help and they need to see a real Christian acting in their life.

The bottom line is, we have been called to seek first the kingdom of God, FIRST, before anything else and all of the other things shall be added to us. There is an economy in God's kingdom. It is an economy based on our commitment to follow Christ.

In God’s economy, he blesses us so that we can bless others. In the Old Testament, Israel was much like us. They were obsessed with money and profit and things. Their materialism stole their heart from God. Through the prophet Amos, God said to Israel:

Amos 2:6-8
6 Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not revoke its punishment, Because they sell the righteous for money And the needy for a pair of sandals.
7 "These who pant after the very dust of the earth on the head of the helpless Also turn aside the way of the humble; And a man and his father resort to the same girl In order to profane My holy name.
8 "On garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar, And in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined. (NASB)

These are serious matters. God’s judgment comes when his people refuse to serve him and particularly when we refuse to serve the poor and needy. Israel was just like us. God brought judgment on them because they did not carry out the basic functions of the kingdom of God. Do you think God will do anything less to us? Doesn’t the violence and death in the world make you nervous? It could easily turn to a kind of global war where weapons of mass destruction would render all our materialistic pursuits into a cruel joke. What good are houses and cars and kitchens and vacation homes and gadgets if there is no power to operate them or people to live in them? What good is our materialism if we are starving to death, or dying of disease or watching our skin peel off after a few survive a nuclear detonation? When we place our minds and desires on the wrong things, we humans will run headlong to destruction.

God’s priorities call us to lay up treasure in heaven through our good works. God’s will defines our treasure and where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also.

Images and Idols

2006-08-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

I know that we are a media driven world. Advertisers use images to tell us what they want us to see, feel and understand. The images themselves may not contain any reality. As an example, there is an insurance company that has a very successful ad campaign using a Gecko as its spokesperson. They even address the fact that he is a Gecko, though they never address the fact that it is a computer generated image. Instead they pretend that an interviewer asks the Gecko questions and he, err, it, makes interesting and witty responses. By this time, the viewer has gotten past the fact that you have to suspend reality to accept the truth of the message.

What happens when Christians use this or any method of image making? Recently I came across a website of a very prominent evangelical leader. This particular website presents this person in two interesting scenes. One has him kneeling in prayer with a spotlight on him. The other show him holding up the heads of several big game kills, which we are to assume he just killed. Later in the narrative found on the site, something is said about hunting dangerous big game. When I saw these images, I wondered what they were supposed to convey.

Im not against hunting. I have hunted but not such big game. I pastor a church full of hunters. Some of them will take an occasional picture of a particularly large deer they killed but rarely is it displayed so prominently. Most often, it is shown to other hunters for bragging purposes. These men hunt for several reasons. For some, it connects them to their past. It was not many years ago that their family tables were supplied with the rabbit, squirrels, quail and deer that their fathers killed. It was necessary food in the poorer regions of the south. They still eat what they kill. Wildlife is managed like domesticated animals and provide a supply of food for those who like wild game.

Many hunters enjoy being in the outdoors. They see and hear and experience things that most folk miss because they are willing to go to the woods before dawn and watch the drama that unfolds as the daytime animal world awakes. Others enjoy the comradery of fellow hunters in the camps after the hunt is over.

While many of the men here love to hunt, I am fairly certain that they do not hunt for the purpose of proving their manhood. Most men I know, know they are men, they act like men, and they take on the responsibilities of men. They do not need to hunt to prove they are men. So, why does a prominent evangelical leader pose with dead big game if it is not to prove that he is a man’s man? And why emphasize that these are dangerous big game? Maybe a century ago when one had to make the hazardous journey to the jungles of Africa to find a lion or a leopard it was a dangerous adventure. But today, you can go to a private hunt club in Texas or to a wildlife management reserve in Africa where a guide takes you to the lions. From the comfort of the Land Rover you can take a photo or shoot them with your Weatherby. What is manly, what is dangerous about such acts?

Some of the men in my church go frogging. I know that does not seem dangerous. Where I am from, folk would use a gig stick to catch frogs or shoot them with a rifle and then dress them and fry the legs. And yes, they taste a lot like chicken. But here in south Louisiana, going frogging means something different. They mount a board on the front of a small boat. A man will lay on that board while the driver will ease up to the frog and the man grabs the frog by hand. This usually happens at night in the dark rivers and bayous and they often grab the frog out of the mouth of an alligator or snake. I realize that frogs are not big game but I don’t think anyone with common sense would suggest that this was not a dangerous practice. A dead cat just cannot compete with the giggles that come from stealing a frog from the mouth of an alligator or water moccasin.

What’s my point? Men who pose with dead lions, even if they shot it, look silly to men who grab frogs from the mouths of alligators. Real men just are. They don’t have to prove themselves to others. It is one of the great secrets of life that boys learn as they cross into manhood. They don’t have to pose for pictures and display them to show others that they are a real man. Real men become known by their actions. Scripture says that real men have the humble character of Christ, they live controlled lives, they turn the other cheek, they live at peace with others and they love people with a love that strongly resembles the love of God. Paul draws a picture of a real man in I Timothy 3 when he describes the man qualified to be a Pastor and a Deacon.

For evangelicals who believe the Bible and take it as the sole authority for faith and practice, would it not be better to take our ideas of manhood from Scripture? It seems to me that the PR craze of projecting images of our selves and our churches to try to attract a lost world is fruitless and silly. If we portray a false image it will become obvious very quickly. And if we present a worldly image that is real of ourselves or our church, then we have a problem with worldly compromise and we are leading people away from God. You can’t lead people away from God so that you can lead them to Him.

It is a sad world where we have to show pictures of ourselves with dead wildlife to prove to others we are men. And it is equally sad that we have to show pictures of ourselves under a spotlight in prayer. It certainly flies against the words of Jesus who said that we should go into our prayer closet and that private, hidden prayer would be rewarded in public. Christian men should be known by the sweetness of their disposition, their humble demeanor, quickness to offer a helping hand and swift feet that flee worldly temptation. Such men are becoming rare in our Christian world. So, I guess the solution is to create them with PR snapshots. Holiness no longer requires us to spend time in prayer, Bible study and disciplined living.

No, I think images can easily become idols. We believe our own manufactured images about ourselves. We expect to be honored by others for our images. We even want men to flock to us because they see a projection of a real man. I can’t think of a better picture of idol worship. I imagine that there is a great deal of weeping in heaven for the men who are lead astray by idols. Now, there is an image for you: heavenly tears shed for the men lead astray by “real” men. God help us to regain real Christian manhood.

Holy Imagination

2006-05-11T22:27:00.000-07:00

My wife and I recently watched the C. S. Lewis movie, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe on DVD. It was our second viewing of the movie. I have a deep emotional attachment to the Narnia stories. I read them early in college. My wife and I read them and we spent hours discussing the books with friends. And I confess that I was moved to tears throughout the movie.

The story itself takes obvious hints from the Gospel. How else would one explain a character who is a lion sometimes referred to as a lamb, who died as an utterly innocent victim for a traitor and then comes back from the dead with enabling power for those who follow him? Lewis knew the power of stories to convey vital information. Apparently God is well aware of the power of story. Scripture, some say, is a bout 77% narrative. The Bible tells us the story of salvation and it is a true story, a historic story, a story that directs us to God himself. God used the story form because story reaches our souls in ways that a plain, declarative statement can’t. This is why we often fall asleep trying to read a theology book while the Bible itself keeps our attention. Story, like music, moves us deep in our soul.

Lewis’s story is fiction. It is a story that transcends itself and points us to a truth elsewhere. However, I am not claiming that Lewis is inspired or that his stories bear any resemblance in nature to Scripture. Like all good stories it awakens within us a longing for something that is more grand and powerful than the story itself. When I read the Narnia stories, I don’t want to meet the lion, I want to know Christ. His story awakes in me a deep desire to know Christ face to face. In the last pages of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, King Edmund said: “I don’t know how it is but this lamp on the post worketh upon me strangely. It runs in my mind that I have seen the like before; as it were a dream or in the dream of a dream.” This is what Lewis’s stories do to me, they whisper of far away places that seem to break in on me and leave me thirsty and hungry for more. And like a moth to a flame, I am drawn, not to the story, but to the whisper, to the reality behind it that is really too large for my imagination. All I can say now is it is “a new heaven and a new earth” and it whispers my name. The future intrudes into the present and calls ever so softly and it is as we I am dreaming a dream within a dream, something just beyond my grasp.

But there is also the darker side of the story. No one can read the experiences of Edmund or Eustace Scrubb and not sense his own hideous condition before God. When I read the stories, I am reminded of my own betrayal and treacherous behavior and yet God has loved me anyway. Very few stories do this. The only other literary form that does this, for me anyway, is a well crafted and well-preached sermon.

After the movie was over, I thought to myself, this moves me far more that most religious movies. The Passion of the Christ, as an example, moved me viscerally, but Lewis’s movie moved my underused imagination. God gave us imaginations, let us put it to holy use.

Another Easter to Remember

2006-05-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

It is not unusual for tragic events to happen around here at Easter. I have had murders and death, and other events that seem to defy the season. This past Easter was milder than most. However, one even did get my attention. Our chairman of Deacons had to have a pacemaker placed in his heart. He is 52 years old. His heart was beating too slow.

Tommy had not felt fell since the surgery. A week later he went for a checkup. Through a series of mistakes, he did not get to see the doctor until late in the afternoon--the nurses did not think he needed to see the doctor at all. Sometime in the afternoon, something changed and Tommy started feeling terrible. When they did an EKG, they rushed him back to the hospital--if you can call it rushing. I beat him to the hospital. He was in the building next to the hospital and I was 25 miles away and had to drive through rush hour traffic, which, in this case, included three wrecks. He hurt all evening and they took him into surgery about 10: 30 that night.

The doctor said that he was on the OR table for about 30 seconds when his heart stopped. The disease had progressed in a week to the point that his lower heart no longer fired, no beating at all. Because they were in the OR, they restarted his heart immediately and reinstalled the pacemaker. One of the leads had pulled out of his heart. The doctor said that in 15 years, this was the first time a lead had pulled out in one of his patients.

Here is what the doctor said. If Tommy had not gone to the doctor's office, he would have been dead last night. If he had gone into the OR one minute later, he heart would have stopped in the corridor of the hospital and they could not have done anything about it. He would have died in the hallway. His heart stopped when he was on the table and they restarted it with no trouble.

I know that this will not meet the standards of evidence for some atheists that I have met, but God was in and around this event last night. It is too coincidental to have just happened. I know that the hard core will say it was just a matter of a probability. Still, it is clear to me that God bent history to accomplish his purpose. He caused things to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. I noticed that as the doctor talked last night, he kept looking down at the book I had brought with me to read, The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. It was if God had underlined this event with a bold title.

I hope that as each of us remember and celebrate the Resurrection, we remember that God is in charge. God invited us to be a part of His Kingdom and we rule with him. Even now, God bends history for the benefit of His Kingdom and for those who are called according to his purpose. This past Easter was another one to remember. This time we saw the momentary bending of history, the precise appointment of God

Paul wrote that we are a fragrance of Christ unto God. However, sometimes the very fragrance of heaven blows to us on the winds of the Holy Spirit. The perfume of God himself blows into our time and space so that we smell His presence. The fragrance of heaven wafted through the halls of a hospital that night and we smelled its exquisite sweetness and we were reminded that He is risen, He is risen indeed!

2 Corinthians 2:14-16 4 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? (NASB)

Indeed, who is adequate for these things!

ON THE DISPARAGEMENT OF THE CHURCH

2005-12-04T07:36:00.000-08:00

One of the less-endearing characteristics of 21st-century Christians is their habit of disparaging the church. The practice takes many forms, such as

the super-spiritual group of people who sit extremely lightly to any commitment to their home church but regularly meet together in each other's house for gossip, back-biting and tale-telling. This is more usually described as an inter-denominational time of fellowship and prayer
the go-it-alone Christian who argues at length (and completely unconvincingly) that he "doesn't have to go to church to be a good Christian" and has 137 reasons why no church within a 50 mile radius of his house is up to scratch as far as he is concerned
the ecclesiastical butterflies who flit from congregation to congregation sampling sermons and tasting fellowships but never alighting long enough to make any impression.

Each of these people in their own way disparages the local church and like the poor they have always been with us.

Let me say right at the start that I believe these critics have clearly nailed their colours to the 3-masted ship driven by those eternal enemies of the gospel, the world, the flesh and the devil.

Disdain for the church is a worldly attitude of mind which often represents a desire to appear sophisticated and worldly-wise in the eyes of the people who rate themselves sophisticated and worldly-wise. It is a sad reflection on modern western Christendom that contemporary Christians - at least the younger ones - no longer recognize worldliness as sin. These worldly Christians profess that they are disciples of Jesus Christ yet they have no time of the church which he loved and gave himself for.

Disdain of the church is a fleshly attitude of mind. Nowhere is this seen so clearly as in the disdain such people have for the small church. They may speak admiringly of certain aspects of large church life: its high quality musicianship, its clever marketing programmes, the impressive resume of the pastoral team. But the little church with its one-man-band pastor who is too busy cutting grass in the churchyard to be writing another smash hit religious best-seller (Humility and how I achieved it), and with its pianist who struggles with the harmonies of What a friend we have in Jesus if asked to play any faster than molto lento and with its cold building, uncomfortable seats and Rag, Tag and Bobtail company of worshippers - well, the less said about this pathetic institution the better.

This is so utterly fleshly. It is succumbing to the temptation to judge as man does, by outward appearance. It is allowing oneself to criticise not one servant of another man but a whole company of them. It is making my taste, my opinions, my preferences the measure of the worth of Christ's church. Above all this disdain is fleshly because it provides the critic with a rationale for avoiding any responsibility or commitment: this flawed institution with its odd-ball members and its inadequate pastor and its fading splendour is beneath me and therefore I do not need to get involved at all.

Finally disdain for the church is devilish. Nobody is as disdainful of the church as the accuser of the brethren. It is his chief delight to find fault in believers. His contempt knows no limit but it is like all his statements lies and bluff. Yet tragically there are Christians who have taken sides with the father of lies and add their little niggles to his litany of accusation.

Now if you are prone to disparage the church I have something important to say to you. You are not recognising that this organisation you despise is the very body that God has chosen to use to make the gospel known in the world. You may think that when the New Testament talks of the church it is talking of the great company in heaven and earth which no one can count - the capital-C Church if you like. Certainly that is never far away from the mind of the NT authors. However, if you care to pick up your Bible and read through the sections which address the issue of the church you will see again and again that more often than not talk about the church is talk about the local worshipping community. It is about lukewarm Laodicea that makes God sick; it is about sinful Corinth; it is about theologically confused Galatia; it is about bankrupt Jerusalem. So many times "church" in the NT does not mean some abstract ideal of the elect from every time and people yet to be revealed. It is about the very human expression of the Church's imperfect, inadequate, local expression - the congregation.

What does the Word say? God chose it.

Why are you sitting in judgment on it?

SO IT'S GOODBYE, MARK AND DI

2005-11-13T04:21:00.000-08:00

Dear Mark & Di,

My conversation with Jim was very informative. He tells me that you “get nothing” out of worship. So, this is the third issue I have to respond to.

I want to begin with a very serious question: what do you expect to “get out of” worship? Please think about it; it is not a flippant retort. I believe one of the biggest failings in the church is to understand what worship is, and what worship is for, and what worship does, and what worship is about. Can you answer these questions? Surely, as critics of our services, you know the answers.

When I was 16 I received a gentle but effective rebuke from a minister’s wife. She was an Anglican; her husband a Presbyterian pastor. I happened to say in her hearing that I got nothing out of an Anglican service that I had attended. Very quietly Muriel asked me, “Were there scripture readings in the service? There should have been if it was the Church of England.” I replied that indeed there had been. Equally quietly she responded “In that case the only person who can be blamed for getting ‘nothing’ out of the service was you for only someone who is spiritually dull would get nothing out of hearing the Word of God”. What brought me up most sharply was not that quiet, gentle Muriel should have spoken to me like this, but that I had revealed my own spiritual weakness.

It is easy for us to find fault in a worship service. If we are awake for more than 50% of the time in any service we will find flaws and imperfections. But if all you are there for is to identify the weakness and imperfections of others I would suggest you have forgotten something that Jesus said about specks and planks in the eyes.

I have to say I don’t want to enlist in those worship wars which endlessly discuss the date of composition and instrumental arrangement of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Such arguments are too often just debates about taste. The Romans had a motto: de gustibus non disputandum – there’s no point arguing about taste. I read articles by Christians where they bite and devour each other over questions about worship and yet when you read carefully you see that all they are doing is saying “I am right because I like plainsong/baroque/Wesley/ Sankey/21st Century Christian music and you are wrong because you like plainsong/baroque/Wesley/ Sankey/21st Century Christian music.” (Delete where applicable). I think I am most grieved that those whose musical taste is closest to mine and who often express the most arrogant and elitist attitudes to brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you want to know what scripture teaches about worship then we could look at it but frankly I am not sure you want to do that. Anyone who talks about “feeling” that they “get nothing out of” a service is not interested in biblical theology.

So, Mark, Di, what do you look for in our services: big band modern praise? Sorry – we do not have the personnel or the skills for that; we’re a small church. Times of free praying and sharing? You don’t come to the prayer meeting or the evening service where there are such opportunities. We do have - in the services you have decided to abandon - an eclectic mix of singing ranging from the 5th to the 21st century - all characterised by having stood the tests of time and the common acceptance of Christians of many traditions. We have public reading of the Bible; prayer that is contemporary in form yet connects with a long liturgical tradition; preaching which is warm, expository and contemporary in its application; children’s work by dedicated and gifted volunteers; the beauty of a fine building combined with the comfort of modern facilities. A small church can do these things; it can even, with commitment, do these things well. It is such a pity that none of this is for you.

Yes, I can see – you are right to leave us. Do let me know where you find what you are looking for.

Neil

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO MARK AND DI

2005-11-11T02:17:00.000-08:00

Dear Di and Mark,

I gather from your e-mail that so far I do not seem to have convinced you that small church life (as you have found it) will ever meet up to the standards you feel you met in large church life and which you think should be part of every church. Let me try a second plea in defence of the way things are.

(An aside here: don’t assume that the fact that I accept the way things are is complacency. I long to see God build St Columba’s into a much better representative of how the church on earth is meant to be. However, God is working with clay like me and there will always be, in every aspect of the Christian life, a tension between what is now and what is still to be.)

Your second complaint is that there is nothing for your teenage son. You are right if you mean we have no Youth Group or whatever. Before responding directly to your charge I’d like us to think about youth work.

It is an understanding widely held in Christian circles that Youth Fellowships are self-evidently A Good Thing. To be honest, I think the case is far from made. We have no evidence of the NT church having such things and quite a few tantalising hints that the early church was such that all ages and social backgrounds mixed together in the local congregation. We need to ask, therefore, if such organisations really have a firm scriptural foundation or whether they are just things we are permitted to do - but do not have to. We also need to ask if the huge effort demanded of youth leaders is worth the fruit they show. Make no mistake: someone has to give time, effort, energy, money and enthusiasm, in vast amounts, to run a Youth Group. To what end?

Having asked the questions I now turn to your complaint. You are presumably clear in your own mind that Youth Groups are biblical and that a Youth Group will achieve that which could not otherwise be achieved by the church. Why do we not have one?

Our reasons, I have to say, are not due to high theological motivation or even an idle opinion that such groups are pointless. They are far more practical. There just are not enough “youth” in a small church like ours to have a group of them. Let’s put this into context. Our town’s High School has a little under 1100 pupils aged 11-18. The Christian Union group has a regular attendance of 12-15 of whom your Jason is not one. (Yes – I have checked with the CU Leader). I know it is over-simplifying what may be a complex set of reasons (conflicting interests, peer pressure, a busy schedule) but Jason does not seem to want to be part of a group of people of a similar age who gather in Christ’s name.

Now try to see that there is a general problem with dedicated youth work, in a small community, in a post-Christian world. There are 12 churches in this town – in other words, an approximate average of one young person at the High School Christian Union from each church. I would be delighted if we could offer some sort of ministry to young people like Jason – but how do we set about it? We do not have appropriately gifted leaders and we do not have the youngsters for them to lead. This does not mean that we do not care or are not willing to make the effort. We have considered the matter and we have decided to try a different strategy. We offer something which you have declined. We have a system of mentoring teenagers so that each is assigned a mature Christian who will guide, counsel and befriend them. If you had looked around after morning service you would see Tracy with Mrs Duguid and Ian J with Alan Henderson in corners of the church huddled in discussion. They were working through a short discussion paper based on the sermon. All 4 – the two adults and the two teenagers – say it is helpful and challenging to have to relate what they had heard in the service to their everyday life. More than that, trans-generational friendships have developed and hobbies and interests shared. Ian helps Alan with his digital camera; Tracy is learning calligraphy with Mrs Duguid. You, however, expressed the view that Jason was not mature enough for this – despite the fact that you allow him to go with his friends to see Certificate 15 films.

I understand well that we parents have a constant battle to see our children formed by the Word rather than by the world. I believe the biblical pattern for Christian child-rearing is first the family and secondly the church as the forming grounds. A Youth Group is a poor third. I would also argue that the small church can offer opportunities (such as our mentoring programme) which the large fellowship cannot. We can, however, only offer them and if you decline and say you want something we cannot produce we have ended up with a stalemate.

I know that in this town you will not find a church with a Youth Fellowship that can provide what you, and maybe Jason, want. So what will you do? Travel 50 miles to the nearest large gathering? Are you up to doing that on all the occasions when Jason will want to go bowling, or for a pizza, or to a gig with the Youth Group you hope he will find? How well will you know the individuals who will be leading this distant Youth Group? How able will you be to keep an eye on the agenda they have? What will they be teaching Jason? How aptly will he be being equipped for the world he will have to live in? The distant gathered church with its large congregation and multiplicity of programmes will make demands on you which are going to be costly. By opting out of the local church you are committing yourself to paying this price. I hope it will be worth it.

Neil

THE LETTER I DIDN'T WRITE

2005-11-10T03:06:00.000-08:00

(But really wish I had)

Dear Mark and Di,

I gather from Jim that you have decided to leave us – indeed by the time you read this you probably will have gone. We will be sorry to lose you; your contributions to church life have meant so much to us.

You told Jim there were three things about St Columba’s-on-the-Rocks that persuaded you to leave. I will consider the first and perhaps come back to the other two in due course.

You said we were “unfriendly” and you gave as a typical example the way Mrs Livingstone never smiles and complains about the noise your children make. “Friendliness” is a strange thing. When we first enter a church the response at the door can be a make or break the experience of that church. During the first few months of your stay with us you remarked how friendly people had been. You, Mark, especially benefited from the coffee, hospitality and even meals from church folk while you looked for a house to bring the rest of the family to. I think it is fair to say that the greater proportion of people in your social circle now you are all settled in town is made up from members of this congregation.

But you are not new now. You are part of the fitments and fixtures of the place. People are not going out of their way to speak or invite you for a meal or involve you in activities because they see as part of “us”. It’s like family life – much of our relating to each other in a family goes on without us deliberately inviting each other – family is just there; we take each other for granted. It doesn’t mean there is no love within the family. It is simply that we assume certain ways of relating to each other. A small church is like that. People are just there and we take them for granted. Like a family, we don’t get to choose our fellow church members. (Oh how I wish Christians would understand this fundamental truth; in heaven we will be joined by such a rag-bag of individuals whom we would never choose to be friends on earth. Church is always going to have a dim reflection of heaven about its corporate life).

I will happily – no, I don’t mean happily; I will re-phrase – I will openly concede that it happens that people in church may be going through a difficult time and others in the fellowship do not recognise that they have cares and concerns. Perhaps your own lives are such that you do not want to be taken for granted – you feel a need to be given a hug by someone – be it a real or a metaphorical hug. Does this not happen in family life? Do you conclude that your family is not for you and you will go and find another? Surely that is the attitude of a 10-year old, not a mature adult.

Let me tell you a little about Mrs Livingstone which you don’t know (because few people do, because she doesn’t talk about it). She and Mr Livingstone had only been married for 3 years when he developed cancer. Modern medicine probably could have helped him but we are talking about 40-odd years ago. As he grew rapidly sicker she discovered she was pregnant. He died and 5 weeks after his death she gave birth to a beautiful, but still-born, little girl. In the dark-shadowed providence of God she never found another husband and so remains a widow to this day. She is of a generation and type of person that does not share feelings in the way that you do. I don’t think it is unfair to say that deep down she is still somewhat bitter and resentful of people who enjoy happy family lives. What is amazing is that she exercises a strong commitment to Christ. But still, after all these years, she bears something of a grudge and this emerges in her nippiness with other people and their children. She possibly has treated you badly – but then we all treat each other badly. However, you cannot judge a whole congregation on one person’s failing. Would you like people to take one of your worst weaknesses and make it a yardstick by which all your life and the life of those you associate with are judged?

What I am trying to say is that I fear that in the matter of Christian “fellowship” (whatever that jargon word means) you are setting a high ideal for us to meet and I do not think we will ever find that high quality fellowship you crave because a congregation is a collection of people who are sinners by nature and alienated from each other by the fall. To varying degrees the Holy Spirit is doing his recreating, sanctifying work in us, but none of us is perfect. When you were part of Central Baptist in your last home city you were part of a company of some 800 or so on a Sunday morning. Now you are, or have been, in company of 80. Gone is the ability to pick and chose whom you will have as friends. The biblical model has changed. You are now no longer coming to the great assembly of the faithful; you are part of a rather small and isolated branch of the family of God where the smallness of the company emphasises the warts and wrinkles of us all. It is different and it can be difficult. Maybe it is too difficult for you.

I have already written too much but I will write again about the other “issues” you have with us.

Neil

POSTMODERNISM

2005-09-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

When I was in seminary, logic, a respect for history and an utter commitment to Scripture as the authoritative, infallible Word of God, were the basis of all theology as well as the foundation for pastoral ministry. Throughout the modern period, from the enlightenment through the logical positivism of the 20th century, to scientism, there was an intellectual challenge to the Christian faith and theologians managed to fight back and give answers to intellectual objections.

We have a new situation on our hands. I have trouble getting a handle on postmodernism precisely because it is illogical. But the bottom line is this, the postmodern can believe whatever they choose to believe. The "believer" is the controlling authority of reality.

Several years ago, Robert Bellah, a sociologist, described in his book Habits of the heart, Sheilaism. It was a woman named Sheila who, in an interview, stated:

"I believe in God," Sheila says. "I am not a religious fanatic. [Notice at once that in our culture any strong statement of belief seems to imply fanaticism so you have to offset that.] I can’t remember the last time I went to church. My faith has carried me a long way. It’s Sheilaism. Just my own little voice."

Bellah continued:

But the case of Sheila is not confined to people who haven’t been to church in a long time. On the basis of our interviews, and a great deal of other data, I think we can say that many people sitting in the pews of Protestant and even Catholic churches are Sheilaists who feel that religion is essentially a private matter and that there is no particular constraint on them placed by the historic church, or even by the Bible and the tradition. (See Robert Bellah)

It appears that in postmodernism, one is free to pick and choose ones beliefs. Scripture has no real authority, the person does. We choose our beliefs on the basis of what I like and don't like, what I think God should be, and what makes me comfortable and makes me feel good. Thus, recently we have been told it is my right to view Jesus in a certain way and to deny the full deity of Jesus and reject the doctrine of the Trinity simply because it is hard to understand or because it makes Jesus too uncomfortable. We have seen some reject much of the New Testament in favor of an Old Testament cult with a complete disregard for the character and nature of the Church and the Christian faith as found in the New Testament. At the same time, you will find a skewing of history and a rejection of education and training because it gets in the way. Classic and orthodox doctrines are cast aside. But what is most shocking is the utter rejection of the authority of Scripture.

It is impossible to do theology where logic is rejected, where study and intellectual pursuits are seen as an enemy and where Scriptural authority is subordinated to personal authority. It is a new kind of paganism which has produced a Parthenon of postmodern gods. The words God, Jesus, Father and even Holy Spirit no longer hold the same meaning for each person even though we all claim to be Christians. Old heresies like Arianism and modalism and even Gnosticism are a part of this emerging paganism ( appropriate for an emerging church). It is a powerful kind of paganism because when you try to confront it, you are attacked as being vicious and evil and trying to tear down someone's faith. It appears to be entrenched in certain individuals because they refused to be challenged and refuse to even put up a defense of their beliefs. Beliefs no longer have to be defended or proved. Irrational statements are made and we are all supposed to accept them.

If this is the state of Christianity in general and Evangelicalism in particular, we are in trouble. I am saddened by the situation. But I am also horrified because I fear for the future of the Church.

I fully expect to be flamed because classic thought, real theology and respect for Scripture are becoming vague memories for many who claim to be followers of Jesus, who was God in the flesh, the second person of the Trinity, who redeems those who place their faith in Him--and not in a lesser g-d.

MORE RUBBISH ON TELEVISION

2005-05-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

“I don’t get out to church much – it’s my age you know – but I always watch Songs of Praise on Sunday nights”

I do not know how many times I have heard that from people who describe themselves as “church members”. Even the bit about age is consistent. I think of several people who first offered that excuse 20 years ago, which means that they were then the age I am now, and they thought then it was no age to be going out to church on a Sunday evening – if you follow me.

I need to explain.

Songs of Praise is one of the BBC’s great success stories. Its format is utterly predictable. TV cameras descend on a church which is highly telegenic. (This being television, “church” must be understood as a building.) Occasionally the gathering place will be plain but that case there will be large numbers of people (telegenic people of course) – say, at a convention. Behind the scenes the people of Little Cupcake on the Wolds will have been drilled by local musicians so that they can sing a dozen well-known hymns with great gusto. Sundry choirs will have been imported for the day. The TV company arrives and a recording is made. Many years ago when I was green and in my salad days I attended just such a recording. It was about as much like a church service as the New York Marathon is like a jog round the park. The programme has not really changed over decades and the show goes on and on and on. There will be the interview with the local hero, the biography of the person with a disability who has triumphed through their faith, the old dear who will say how nice the community is and a couple of other human interest inserts.

This is just about all the religious broadcasting we in the UK get. You will search our airwaves in vain for a “normal” or even “abnormal” service. Apart from some obscure cable or satellite channels hidden in the dark recesses of the ether we do not have religious broadcasting. On my first visit to the USA I was amazed at the endless selection of services I could spectate on my friend’s 140 channel TV set. Flamboyant African-American clergymen in dramatic costumes; impassioned second division televangelists screaming abuse at the devil; people falling over; priests incanting in foreign languages; the list goes on and on.

I hate them all.

Perhaps I should not use that word. But they do rouse passions in me. Why?

They appeal to the spirit of inertia that lies dormant in most of us. Why should a body make its way to church if it can be watched at home? This is bad for the church and it is bad for the professing believer. It is bad for the church because (reduction ad absurdum) if everyone did it there would be no church, and the TV company would have to fill 40 minutes on a Sunday evening with something else. It is bad for the believer because spectating religion is just that – a spectator sport. If you can drink coffee and polish your shoes whilst watching Songs of Praise you are not engaging with God with your heart and soul and strength and mind and you will not know what blessing is.

Such programmes create a completely false impression of church. They represent church as a polished musical performance, a canon of about 15 hymns, and a crowd of happy smiling people. If the viewer comes to a real church they find a rough edges to the music, some distinctly non-telegenic people, and a whole load of stuff that is boring (the secretary giving some notices), arcane (the way the offering is taken), and mentally demanding (a sermon).

A friend of mine believes the remedy is to broadcast “ordinary” services. To describe any service as ordinary is to my mind an own goal – but let that pass. I disagree with him because it would still be spectator sport and worship of God can only be participatory. Without participation it is empty. I also agree with the TV producers – it is not good broadcasting material. At least Songs of Praise is well done and if God must be put on the box the programme should be good quality.

In an age where the slick and professional is lauded indiscriminately I want to tell it from the housetops: get yourself into a real church. There may only be 72 people in the building; the pastor might not be a brilliant preacher (or equally he might be excellent but have just spent a night with a couple whose infant child died); the congregation may have all the same wrinkles and flaws that you do but something wonderful can happen – if you are open to it. You can encounter God. How do I know? Because Jesus promised.

One Sunday, many years ago, I sat in a little Baptist Church. The service was exactly as it always was. The congregation was as they always were. Next to me was a student friend: an Anglican I had persuaded to come to the Baptists because they don’t eat their young and are not really a sect, honest. Hugh, the preacher, was brilliant. Well normally he was brilliant but this Sunday he was awful. If this had been TV religion he would have been severely edited. I winced and fidgeted my way through 65 minutes of anguish. The hymns went wrong; it was a deputy organist at the ivories and as an organist she made a assistant steward. Hugh spoke for several decades and I couldn’t make head or tail of his ramblings. Towards the end I turned to Christ who was in tears. Being the spiritually sensitive soul I am I asked if he was ill. “Leave me alone” he sobbed. As the congregation filtered out a few concerned people asked if he was OK and I made reassuring noises. You have got there much quicker than I did that night. Chris – high church, stuffed-shirt, aloof Chris had been converted. Surely God was in this place and I did not know it.

That is the point: God is in these places – the old cold stone buildings, and the rickety clap-board huts, and the old halls with their defective and unprofessional worshippers. And God is saving a people for himself and none of it is on TV.

Away with TV religion! God is where his people meet. Hallelujah!

Financial Challenges to the Small Church in the Twenty-First Century

2005-03-09T09:51:00.000-08:00

Churches that run less than 300 in worship will face new challenges in the twenty-first century. First, it needs to be said that there is nothing wrong with churches that run 300 or less in worship. Many people prefer this size church and think it is best able to carry out real ministry. Certainly it is easier to have a comprehensive and inclusive ministry in a small church. One needs to bear in mind that churches running 300 or less in worship make up 85-90% of all churches in the United States. In fact, most churches will run 100 or less in worship.

Most of the challenges to the smaller church are spiritual problems. One of the great challenges to the smaller church is financial, but even that challenge is ultimately a spiritual matter. While one may wonder why I am writing about the church and money and may think that such a topic is inappropriate, I disagree. Church finances are the numerical value of ministry and without it, the doors of the church would close. Jesus said “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:2, NASB) How Christians support their church financially determines if that church can do ministry in today’s world.

It seems to this writer that a minimal annual budget for any church is around $200,000.00 per year. This budget allows a church to pay it bills, pay its minister a minimally adequate salary, perhaps support one or two part time staff members and have enough money to carry out various ministries. Nevertheless, even a budget this size is a strain.

As boring as it may sound, buildings have to be maintained and utilities have to be paid. Smaller churches tend to let their property run down. It does not reflect well on God’s people to worship in buildings that are in need of repair. Damaged roofs, poorly painted walls, molded brick and uncut grass says to the community that we do not love God enough to keep up his property. Everything a church does reflects their view of God, even how they care for the property that God has given them. Therefore, any budget must adequately take care of the physical property. This can cost as much as 50% of the smaller budget. Some may say that this is as good argument for not owning property. Admittedly, some churches in urban areas can do without buildings but must churches cannot do so. Adequate facilities do not exist in small towns and rural areas. In fact, in those places Church buildings can be used for community purposes since those communities have no public buildings. Church property tells a community that God’s people reside here and are neighbors. It is an instrument, a tool for ministry. But it is a tool that must be taken care of or it becomes an unwanted statement to the community as well.

The second highest cost in a church is personnel. If a church wants a full time pastor, then they must provide an adequate salary. In connectional churches, this may not be as great an issue because the denomination pays the salary or pays part of it. However, in independent and autonomous churches such as Baptist churches, the church pays the salary. According to some surveys, the average salary of American pastors, including housing, is $40,000.00 per year. Most often the housing is a church provided parsonage. For a family of four, this would be barely adequate to pay the bills and feed the family. What most church members do not understand is the tax structure imposed on ministers. For federal income tax, the minister is considered an employee but for Social Security, he is considered self employed and must pay self employment taxes. He gets fewer breaks on his income tax and has to pay the full 15.63% on his self employment tax. Furthermore, if he lives in a parsonage, he has to pay self employment taxes on the fair rental value of the parsonage. That means he will pay between 20-25% of his cash income on Social Security taxes. Then he has federal and state income taxes. Suddenly a $40,000.00 salary does not seem like much.

If a Church pays a housing allowance so that the pastor can buy a house, then the church should pay enough to match the housing market of their particular area. A housing allowance would be an increase of $10,000.00 to 20,000.00 per year or more!

A Church has a biblical obligation to take care of their pastor. It does no good if a pastor is constantly distracted by the lack of funds to take care of his family. This obligation includes, not only a liveable salary but health insurance. There is a crisis in the cost of health insurance. For a man forty years of age with a family, health insurance will cost $14,000 a year or higher. And when a pastor reaches fifty years of age, it is even higher. Many smaller churches do not have enough to pay insurance and salary. While there are some creative ways to reduce cost, this will remain a crisis for most churches.

Even if a pastor’s wife works outside the home, the financial picture for churches is a challenge. A pastor’s wife may have to subsidize the church’s salary to make ends meet and that is ok. But, unfortunately, too many churches include this as part of the financial equation and often expect the wife to work. This is poor financial planning for the church.

A church running less than 100 in worship will have problems meeting its financial needs. However, if a church runs 150 or more, staff members will be necessary unless church members have the time to act as minister of music, secretary and minister to students. It has been my experience that most church members work long hours and have very little time for an unpaid part time job. So, if a church is to have a secretary and a part time ministry staff person, the personnel costs go up significantly.

The infrastructure needed to carry on the ministry of a local church is costly. Literature for teaching Bible study and discipleship does not come cheap. Music and other aids used in worship all cost the church. While the pastor carries out long hours of ministry to the church including preaching, teaching and giving biblical counsel, there is the larger ministry of the church to the world. A church that is not ministering to its community and carrying on the missionary mandate is not meeting its biblical call. Ministry and missions are imperatives of the church and they must be carried out. But, like everything else, ministry and missions cost money. Often it is in the area of ministry and missions where churchs fail to meet their obligations.

I believe that most churches, including very small churches, have more than enough financial resources to carry out the work of the church. The problem is that many Christians do not rise to the occasion and this is the spiritual problem. Any pastor will tell you that you can count on about $1,000.00 per worshiper per year. Some studies show as low as $800.00 per year. George Barna says that among committed Evangelicals, the amount is about $1,400 per worshiper per year. Most people will spend more money on fast food in a year than they will give to the church. (For a summary of stewardship information see Barna research. Also see Barna's stewardship summary )

While many do not believe in tithing, tithing is a Biblical solution to church financial problems. The church was modeled after the synagogue. In the New Testament era, a synagogue could be started if there were at least ten adult male Jews present. Part of the reason was that ten men tithing could support the president of the synagogue with a living salary. I personally believe in tithing. Tithing certainly does not preclude cheerful giving. All tithers should give their tithe cheerfully. And it does not prevent us from giving more than a tithe. But in almost every church if the average church member tithed, finances would not be a challenge.

However, there are many churches in rural areas that will continue to have financial pressures even if all members tithe. Churches in areas where the population is sparse or declining, may not be able to sustain the kind of ministry it has in the past. Churches pride themselves on having a full time minister. But there may come a time when they cannot afford one. Every church deserves a called, well trained and committed minister. And there are many great pastors who are bi-vocational. But most pastors are not trained to be bi-vocational and do not feel called to be bi-vocational. If a church is too small to call a full time pastor, what can they do? I think that many churches need to consider sharing a pastor. This can come in several forms. Years ago, churches were often quarter time or half time. They met once a month or twice a month with a pastor who was on a circuit between two to four churches. While this is a possibility, a more modern version of this might be possible. If a pastor were centrally located among two or more churches, he could give adequate ministry to multiple churches. He could preach at least two churches on a Sunday and maybe more. The churches would have to change their view of ministry. They may have to do more hospital and home visits to make up for the pastor when he is not in the community. But if this model was followed, churches could have an adequately paid, well-trained pastor who could preach and teach and guide the churches to do fruitful ministry.

It is sad to think that money could be the cause of smaller church failures. Most smaller churches that shut their doors do so because they cannot pay their bills. Some churches need to close because the community is gone. But more often than not, a hole is left in a community when a church closes its doors for good. Church members and pastors need to take a long term approach to the life of their church. They need to insure that the next generation will have a place to worship and a vital community of faith that bears witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

2005-02-18T13:27:00.000-08:00

The future of the Church?

THE DEAD POSSUM SOCIETY

2005-02-17T13:41:00.000-08:00

The opossum, the only North American marsupial. The possum, as it is commonly called in the south, is a strange creature. It carries its young in a pouch. It is gray to black, has a pointed nose, feet that look like hands and has sharp, pointy little teeth. I have seen possums bear those teeth in an ugly grin and hiss, but I have never heard of a soul ever bitten. I am not sure, but don’t think that a possum has ever hurt a human. (To see pictures of the cute possum, go to http://www.opossumsocietyus.org/opossum_photo_page.htm )

I grew up in a land where people ate possums. They say they are greasy–I have never tried it. I have actually known people who boiled them in crawfish boil and ate them like seafood. Possums don’t have a place on my table. But, if you were a poor southerner and had nothing much to eat, a possum would do.

However, the possum does have a special meaning for me as a pastor. Yes they hang by their tails from tree limbs in unexpected places. And, yes they will invade your yard so that every dog in town barks interrupting a good night’s sleep. One might compare a possum invasion to the nocturnal interruptions and emergencies that every pastor must face. But this is not the reason a possum means so much to me.

Possums remind me of the unexpected demands that ministry makes upon ministers, particularly in small churches. And I should clarify, it is the dead possum that inspires this preacher’s heart. I remember like it was this morning.

It was the beginning of a very hot summer day in South Louisiana, the place where I have carried out most of my ministry. It was Friday, my day off, my Sabbath, the day I intend to see no one, particularly church members. It is a day just for me to think and rest and enjoy a few minutes of life. The phone rings before seven which I vaguely hear. My wife answers, she is on her way to work. I hear her sweet voice saying, “I am sure he can come over and fix it.” I woke up.

It turned out that a deacon’s wife could not go out her back door because of a stench that was coming from her roof. Her husband is a traveling salesman and would not be home for some time. So, I got up, went over to check it out. I had to climb a ladder, I am not very good on ladders. I tend to fall off of them. I inspected her gutters and found that a possum had crawled under a brace, gotten stuck, and died.

I don’t like dead animals, particularly the kind that stink. I have a weak stomach, strong odors usually turn me inside out. However, it was my pastoral duty to help. So, I took a trash bag and used it like a glove. I grabbed the dead possum and, well, it pulled out of its skin and maggots were crawling everywhere. If the picture grosses you out, try to imagine being there.

I managed to get the entire dead possum out of the gutter and wrapped it in a plastic bag and put it in the garbage can. I was glad to help. However, later I stopped to think. I did not remember this being covered in seminary. There was nothing in my pastoral ministries courses about removing dead possums.

It dawned on me sometime later that this dead possum was a great symbol of ministry. I decided that I needed to start a Dead Possum Society for ministers who have had to do very odd things in their ministries. These are the things that they failed to mention in seminary. Once I had to unstop a toilet while a deacon watched. It seems he never learned to operate the business end of a plumber’s plunger.

Somehow unstopping toilets, changing light bulbs and making coffee for the congregation every Sunday seems mundane compared to retrieving dead possums from gutters. I have also developed a well-known ministry to computers. A quick visit to a home usually involves asking questions, giving answers, saying prayers and cleaning up the spyware on their computer. At least it is clean. My latest job has been tying neckties. Yes, in our casual society, many American males have lost the manly art of tying their own neckties. Of course, it is true that most of us pastors, on occasion, still wear suits.

So, I would tip my hat to all ministers everywhere if I wore on. You who pastor the smaller church will have great adventures that pastors of larger churches only dream of. You may help round up a farmer’s cattle for worming or plow a man’s cotton while he is sick. You may help rebuild a deacon’s car because he can’t afford to get it fixed. Or you may have the high privilege of retrieving the dead possum. Whatever special case yours may be, you have earned your place in the high court of the Dead Possum Society.

WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT BIG?

2005-02-14T11:53:00.000-08:00

We don’t really do big in the UK. When I hear about churches in America that are considerably larger than my home town my mind has a great deal of difficulty wrapping itself what that actually means. I sometimes attend one of the oldest Christian conventions in the world – the Keswick Convention. Keswick is a little town that makes a lot of its living from tourism. Keswick people have a love-hate relationship with the Convention. They love it because it fills the guest houses and hotels. They hate it because the visitors don’t drink enough alcohol and crowd the streets with people who keep the law and don’t swear. It is all a bit surreal. I enjoy the Convention. I enjoy listening to top rate teachers and singing to a highly professional band and feeling the group dynamics of being with thousands of other worshippers. It is the only big I do in my Christian life. Yes – big is attractive.

I suppose mega church is like living in the middle of a continuous Keswick convention. I don’t suppose Rick Warren is worried about the central heating pump or if Mrs Jenkins will turn up to teach the 6-7 year-olds on Sunday. I bet Bill Hybel's phone never goes to tell him the organ builder says the f sharp above middle c will never work on the Cornopean and the whole rank will need replacing and he could do it when the great to pedal coupler is being renewed – whatever all that means. Big is attractive. All those tasks I have to beg, plead, cajole and threaten in order to get done; all those things which I was not trained for at college (why do we not get lectures on photocopier maintenance? J, D, E and P have a lot to answer for!); all those Sundays we sing Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war whilst thinking “Here am I Lord, send someone else.” Mega-church would make all that a thing of the past. Yes – big is very attractive.

On a really bad Sunday – say the fourth Sunday in a row when the offering has been way below budget, and Mrs Jenkins (yes – it’s her again) has said she really does want to stop teaching Sunday School at the end of this year and the caretaker says the electrician says the lighting will need to be replaced if we don’t want to see the building burning merrily (quick panic – has the treasurer paid the insurance premium?) – on a Sunday like that I yearn for big. Not Big big – just a bit bigger. Maybe an extra 50 or 75 people (and Lord, if one or two of them were really generous givers …) would be nice. I suspect many of us think that if our church was just a tad bigger life would be so much better. 25 members is too limiting; if we just had 50 …100 members is OK but if we just had 150 … Yes – Big is very very attractive.

In the Screwtape letters C S Lewis argues that the devil has a trick of making us react the wrong way. It is as if the ship is sinking and the devil shouts “Fire! Fire!” so we start throwing water around. We react in exactly the wrong way. I think the devil is shouting “Bigger! Bigger!” at us and we are running around looking for big. Big after all is a mark of God’s blessing. Look at his church – it is Big. He must be good. Look at your church. It is small. You must be useless.

So, my question: what’s the big deal about big? Or maybe, I should rephrase that. Where is big presented in the New testament as a picture of church life? Which were the big NT churches? Have we lost sight of the fact that the church in the New Testament was not big? Big churches do not meet in someone’s house. Big churches do not meet in modestly sized public halls. Big churches are not made up of people who know each other by name. Read your New Testament with open eyes and see the intimacy there is there. You cannot have intimacy with 25,000 church members or even with 2,500. You might do it with 250 members. To have that intimacy mega-churches have to set in place programmes to develop intimacy. How? By making lots of little churches out of bits of big churches.

When I stand up in my pulpit on a Sunday morning and look at the 75 people before me, I can think about Mrs Jenkins and the problems in Sunday School and I know about Mr Jenkins and his alcoholism and young Jim Jenkins and his difficulties with his girl friend. When I look at the organist and the problems with the Cornopean (and I still do not know what that it) I do not need a complicated administration to fix it. I can speak to him and know what I can leave safely in his hands and what he will need help with. I know who can be asked to help him. And if the lights really are going to give up the ghost fairly soon – well I know who on the Board can be left to deal with the problem and who in the congregation will respond to the needs. The longer we are together the more we become the church family. Like all families we have our difficult people and we live with our limitations and we don’t always get on too well. Big doesn’t give me that.

There are people who are drawn to ministry and aspire to Big ministry because it gives them status. Little doesn’t give status at all. Little gives intimacy. Little knows first names – rather like God knows first names. Hey – there’s a thought – maybe God likes little too!

THE CHURCH’S FOUNDATION

2005-02-07T11:05:00.000-08:00

Matthew 16: 13-20

Jesus announced the establishment of his church in a very dramatic moment. One evening, Jesus got away with his disciples to talk and to pray. Jesus turned to the disciples and asked who do people say that I am. It was a reasonable question. They told him what they said. Some said that he was a true prophet. Others said that he was John the Baptist raised from the dead, something that terrorized Herod. While others were saying that Jesus was Elijah or one of the prophets. Then Jesus said, who do you say that I am? It was then that Peter gave that awesome, God inspired answer, "You are the Messiah of God." This was an important moment in the life of the disciples for it was a moment of personal discovery. The knowledge of Christ is always a personal discovery, not the passing on of a report learned from others. They were discovering God's Messiah for themselves.

Jesus explained for the first time that the Messiah must die and be raised on the third day. Why? So that he might pay the price for our sin, might nail our sin to the cross so that we might have eternal life.

Right after Jesus' praise of Peter for his confession and his information regarding his imminent death, Jesus establishes his church. The point is almost missed by the disciples because Peter in his usual style, made a great confession of faith and then went on to stick his foot in his mouth and Jesus pronounces those strong words, "get behind me Satan."

Yet, there has been much debate about this passage. It has been the source of debate between Protestants and Catholics as to exactly what it means. Did Jesus found his church on Peter? Well, perhaps or more precisely on Peter's confession of Jesus as God and Messiah. Jesus embraces this proclamation of Messiahship. Jesus is the one who has been promised and he calls forth his messianic community, His church.

We need to be careful how we push the metaphors of church building. The Bible uses them in different ways:

Here Jesus builds his church; in 1 Corinthians 3:10, Paul is "an expert builder." In 1 Corinthians 3:11, Jesus is the church's foundation; in Ephesians 2:19-20, the apostles and prophets are the foundation ( also Rev 21:14), and Jesus is the "cornerstone." Here Peter has the keys; in Revelation 1:18; 3:7, Jesus has the keys. In John 9:5, Jesus is "the light of the world"; in Matthew 5:14, his disciples are. None of these pairs threatens Jesus' uniqueness. (D. A. Carson, Expositors Bible Commentary, Vol. 8, 368)

Nor does the text support an apostolic succession. Taken all together, it means that we build the Church on the foundation of the apostolic witness. We have that witness here is Scripture.

From this beginning we can see that the church is not a building or an institution, but a people. The word for church in the Greek is the word Ekklesia and it means a called out assembly of people. It was used by the Greeks to describe a calling out of the citizens who belonged to a city. They were called out to vote and make important decisions. But, in the O.T. the word described God's called out and chosen people. It was the congregation of God.

Jesus, who has just received Peter's confession, proceeds to announce that he is calling out God's people. It is somehow connected with the people of the O.T. and yet it is different. It is the calling of a people under a new covenant, a covenant based on the completed work of Christ on the cross. So, this is more than a mere collection of people, it is a new community. All too often we think of becoming a Christian as simply making a personal decision, just a thing between me and God. But not once do we find God calling out individuals into individualism, he calls out individuals to be a part of the church.

Today there are so many who call themselves Christians but they are not members of any church or they are members but they seem to believe that they have no responsibility to the church. Yet, according to scripture, this cannot be. The Book of Hebrews says HEB 10:24-25 “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.” (NASB)

We have been called to live in a community of faith, love, and good deeds, a community that marks us and shapes us in such a way that we no longer belong to the world, but to Christ.

In this peculiar community called church, we learn that we are not to be conformed to the world but to be transformed. God's Church has certain rules, particular expectations and new values that shape us and mark us. The Church helps us achieve these expectations, we have been called to submit ourselves to one another and to be accountable to one another. In the midst of these kinds of accountable social forces, we grow in Christ likeness.

We are a society of twice born people who are submitting ourselves to Jesus in order that we might be transformed into his likeness. He did not give us a church to make us into some kind of imagined church society or even into better Americans (or whatever nationality you are) , but to transform us into his character and into his likeness. Jesus said that I will build My Church. We must never forget to whose church we belong.

Finally, notice that Hell itself will not prevail against God's church. God has promised that his church will triumph through all sorts of adversity. As I watch the powerful influences that seek to attract our youth and our adults, I sometimes wonder what will happen to us, what will happen to God's church? But, Jesus reminds us that as long as we are faithfully the Church, that peculiar community of those who have been redeemed, he will protect us and his church will prevail.

But we need to see that his promise of triumph is as much as a commission as a promise. When we understand that this is a charge to us to live out the faith in our world then we become the real church. We are commissioned to do more than just gather on Sunday and sing and pray and preach. We are called to live our lives in a godly way. We are called to be a witness. When we live our lives boldly without compromise, we are being what God has called us to be, a peculiar people who bear witness to the power of Jesus Christ.

It is a powerful thing to know who calls you by name. It is a liberating thing to know that you are called a son or a daughter of God and that he has freed you to live the Christian life. It is a powerful thing to know that you have been called out to be God's Church.

THANK GOD FOR STEREOTYPES

2005-02-07T09:06:00.000-08:00

There are only three clerics appear regularly on British television. They have 101 different faces but these are just different actors; there are only three types of clergy person ever discovered by the script-writers of the English-speaking world.

There is the Vicar of Dibley. She (oh yes, non-British viewers who have not caught this show should understand that it is very important that this character is female) is hilariously funny. Her battles with her parish council are gut-wrenchingly funny. My wife and I pointed excitedly at the screen and say “That’s…” but here the laws of defamation prevent identification. The Vicar’s god is a friendly guy. He’s one of us, enjoys a joke – even a very smutty joke – and doesn’t mind if the Vicar doesn’t seem to know any theology, gets drunk and seduces a passing hunk.

Our second media minister is the Innocent Abroad. He (oh yes – only a man could be as naïve and simple as this fellow) drifts from plot to plot in soap operas, seeming to be somewhat lost. He has picked up his counselling skills from the back pages of a rather tame and inoffensive women’s magazine. His theology centres on a deity called Human Goodness. He sees the best in the worst in this world. Nobody takes much notice of him in or out of the drama. Script writers do not have to go to the trouble of writing him out of the story-line. He can disappear and it will be months before any viewer notices.

And finally there is the paedophile, murderous, serial adulterer who has a ready stream of biblical texts at his disposal. Once upon a time he might have been gay but that clearly could not be the case now. He is the only one of our three pastors who has read the bible and all the texts with words like “whore”, “blood” and “vengeance” have lodged in his mind. He is evil; he is a hypocrite; and he proves that you can’t trust a clergyman – at least not with your child, your wife or your life.

I am really grateful for these stereotypes. I hear colleagues bemoan the poor representation of pastors and teachers on television and in the cinema. I have been caught up in their grousing about it. But when I pause and think about it I am grateful for the stereotypes.

I know pastors who long for a portrayal of our work by a square-jawed, ruggedly-handsome, world-conquering, powerfully-preaching, theologically-literate, tall-building-leaping hero actor (Greek: hypocrites). How we long to be Tom Cruise of Christendom.

Some of still believe we are that. “I am the minister of this parish” I hear colleagues petulantly declaring when they suffer yet another defeat at the hands of a church committee or yet another rebuff by an atheistic administrator.

But then I thank God for the stereotypes. I come home at the end of a day with all the usual challenges of Christian ministry in this 21st century and as a flop down in front of the TV they are all there. I laugh to the point of breathlessness at the Vicar of Dibley and the antics of her congregation and then weep at the utter godlessness of her morality. I cringe at the ineffectual irrelevance of some nameless nonentity with a bit part in a “human interest” play and then I rage at the incarnate evil of the Bible-text-spouting villain of a police drama.

Is that how my congregation sees me? A useless and comic hypocrite, albeit not drawn with the broad brush strokes of television?

It doesn’t matter. I thank God that these images humble me. I am not doing this job because it carries with it status, or power, or honour. It once did in this country. Not now. As the images humble me I speak to God.

I start angry: “You called me to THIS?”

Then I calm down; maybe even I cry: “You CALLED me to this?”

And then it becomes clear: “YOU called me to this.”

And twenty-one years on I am still here; still in this small town which has nothing that makes it world famous; still in a small church; still never likely to be on a conference platform; still watching the country I love drift aimlessly away from its Christian heritage. People shake their heads and say, “Ooh – it’s spiritually hard there. There’s not much life in the church there.” They may even think “there’s not much life in you”.

And I think, “YOU called me to this.”

Thank God for the stereotypes which bring me back to my proper starting point: God’s call.

Why This Blog?

2005-02-05T13:16:00.000-08:00

I have developed a growing concern about what I call normal sizes churches. The mega church seems to have stolen the spotlight. They are bigger therefore better, or at least, that is what they say. But the average church runs 100 or less in worship. They are still the backbone of American Christianity. Their demise would be devastating to both the Christian faith and to the spirituality of millions of believers.

I believe that in the next 10-20 years, large numbers of smaller churches will close their doors. Unfortunately, it seems that denominational leadership has not taken notice of this. In my own denomination, the emphasis has been on the larger church. This can be seen by the literature they write, the programs they produce and the speakers and churches they promote as examples to be followed.

It is my hope that this blog can become a place of research and dialogue in regard to smaller churches. And I hope that I can contribute in some small way in furthering the cause of Christ through his Church, whether large or small.