Does everyone need the church? Is it a sin to "be a lone ranger," as is popularly asserted? Will you automatically fall into sin and be discouraged and ultimately fall away from the Lord if you forsake assembling yourself with other believers?
Of course not.
Christians have served the Lord alone for generations and generations, whether by choice or by force. Some are uniquely suited for going it alone as believers, and others find refreshment and survive in spite of their weaknesses. In fact, I can point you to dozens of believers who are making it on their own right now. You know them yourself. The next time you sit down in your church to hear your pastor preach, take a look around. Many, maybe most of the people on whom your eyes fall are going it alone as believers.
So very many of the people who attend our churches are doing just that, attending churches. Their lives are as heavy as yours. They come to church every Sunday faithfully praising God and receiving the teaching of the Word and the elements of worship. They ask after everyone and hear everyone at church is doing fine, and they tell everyone they're doing fine, too. They could hardly be more alone.
Maybe you could hardly be more alone?
The international science community has finally figured out what Solomon told us years ago. The primary indicator of happiness is relationships. The more high-quality relationships we have, the happier we are. It could hardly be simpler. Wealth, comfort, knowledge, recreation, luxury? They all take a back seat to relationships. If we love some people deeply, and know we are loved in return, the rest settles out happily for us.
Ecc 4:9 - 12
Two [are] better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him [that is] alone when he falleth; for [he hath] not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm [alone]? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
God made us this way. It's a matter of depending on one another. We feel valued when we know someone cares for us, and we feel valuable when we know someone is depending on us.
Let's look at two people, Joe, who attends church and Jane, who is a real part of that same church.
Joe attends every week, sings from the heart, worships with passion, and receives the sermon with great hope and attention. He always greets some brothers and sisters, and knows a number of the members by name. If he missed church even one week, he would miss out on one of the anchor points of his life, and he would feel ill equipped to face some of the things that are weighing down on him right now. Joe attends every week to have an affirming experience with God, and without that blessing he begins to feel distant from Christ.
Jane also attends every week. She visits two older ladies every week, and brings them tea and cookies. While she's there, she tells them about her children and the problems she's having with her husband. They don't always have answers, or even ideas, but every Sunday they ask how the family is doing. She also checks in every Sunday on a couple of the teens that she used to babysit when they were just kids. Once last year, when one of them got dumped by her guy, Jane got to take her out for an ice cream. She keeps checking, but everything's pretty much OK these days. She trades babysitting for date nights with a couple of the other young marrieds in the church, and does her turn in the nursery every couple months.
Some day, life will crush both of these people. Life does that. It never goes like the commercials say it will. When that day comes, both these people will run to the Lord. Both will know that only He loves them and cares for their every need. But Jane will be able to rest in the prayers of her brothers and sisters. She will be comforted by the love of God through the church. Joe may or may not "break down" and decide to tell his problem to someone, but if he does, it will be hard. It will be like telling his problems to a stranger. It's always like that the first time, but if he makes it through, having a real brother will be a source of strength for him for the rest of his life.
There's a more important way to look at Joe and Jane, though. Whenever life crushes any of Jane's brothers and sisters, she'll know about it and she'll be able to help. Because she is close with a half-dozen people, she'll hear about it when anyone in the church is having a hard time. She'll be able to add her support to the church's love. Sometimes she'll be able to help directly, and sometimes she'll be able to pray. She'll always be able to avoid laying a burden on the burdened. She'll know with whom to rejoice and with whom to weep, and she'll join the whole church in praying the Lord will break through and rescue one of His own. Joe will never hear anything but that everyone is fine, and he'll be the poorer for it.
So test yourself in this way. If, so far as you know, most people in the church are doing fine, you are just attending. If no one in the church knows the thing that is eating at your heart, you are just attending. If no one in the church looks forward to receiving some gift of your time and love, you are just attending.
We don't all need the same kind of help, but we all need each other. We're all so very, very different, but in this we are alike. We need one another, and every one of us for a different reason. There is no sin in being the "lone ranger" Christian, but there is loss. The body loses because it lacks your gifts, and you lose because you lack anyone to receive them.
Paul tells us that we are like a body, each of us with different gifts. The foot rejoices in having 200 pounds come crushing down on it over and over all day long, while the eye can hardly bear a mote of dust. The hand might relish holding a thrashing fish, but the ear is soothed by a song. Some of us are strong while others are sensitive. Some are gregarious and others are thoughtful.
The body has a real need for every member's strengths.
If you're a nose, you need to be doing what noses do best - you need to be in the wind sniffing for rain, and savoring the aroma of good spiritual food, and rejecting the stench of meat (and advice) gone bad. You need to be inhaling the pleasant incense of the Son of God, and sharing with others in the body how good He is.
The foot with nothing to support is pointless. The hand with no mouth to feed, the eye with no heart to thrill at the sunset, the ear with no body to lead in a dance; these are all Christians with no brothers and sisters. We have strengths, and we need to pour them out on the Lord's children.
If you would please the Lord, and be happy yourself, join a good church now - maybe even the one you attend!
PS: I've been working on this post for 2 weeks. I could not find the feel, the place to put my lever, the picture that made it all come together for me. Well, I finally found it. Phew. Then I read a post somewhere out there that put some stuff into words for me. I sat down and had to finish it, even though I felt bad. I posted it without linking back to the post that really is represented here.
The blessing post was one that emphasized that people can sit in pews and be pursuing a very personal journey, rather than a corporate one. I thought it was Beyond Words, but it might have been Eclexia. They had some good conversation (along with several others) going in this post right here.
I'm sure I'll find it tomorrow at a glance, but today has not been one of those days. Today I spent 4 hours troubleshooting a problem because I transposed a 2 and a 3. I was working away on server #237, wondering why nothing was quite right. I was supposed to be working on #327. I'm blaming it on the 95* anti-fever I was running. (It seems to be letting go. Phew. I'm looking forward to getting my brain back.)
Anyway, somehow I've read the appropriate posts and cannot find the thing the stirred me, and I have to get to bed. Rather than do nothing, I'll just link them both and hope they don't mind my bouncing off their great discussion and seeming to take credit for their thoughts. It was not intentional.
Showing posts with label Bloomers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bloomers. Show all posts
23 January, 2008
08 January, 2008
Happiness, Bonding, and Geography
The Kruse Kronicle found an astounding article today, and not just because it affirms so many things I believe. I don't often quote the Christian Science Monitor, but when they're right, they're right (and especially when they have good data backing them up.)
Here's a couple of quotes:
Jean-Paul Sartre famously declared that "Hell is other people." Sartre got it wrong, or perhaps he was hanging out with the wrong people. The emerging science of happiness has found that the single biggest determinant of our happiness is the quantity and the quality of our relationships.
...
We can be anywhere, the apostles of a placeless future tell us, a message that dovetails nicely with the self-help movement's we-can-be-happy-anywhere mantra. Rumors of geography's demise, though, have been greatly exaggerated.
The article would have us travel to be happy. That's alright. With so much good thinking in there, I don't mind if they miss the conclusion. We need to start connecting in our own neighborhoods if we want to be happy, but one day they'll figure that out. No worries, though. We're ahead of that curve around here.
Here's a couple of quotes:
Jean-Paul Sartre famously declared that "Hell is other people." Sartre got it wrong, or perhaps he was hanging out with the wrong people. The emerging science of happiness has found that the single biggest determinant of our happiness is the quantity and the quality of our relationships.
...
We can be anywhere, the apostles of a placeless future tell us, a message that dovetails nicely with the self-help movement's we-can-be-happy-anywhere mantra. Rumors of geography's demise, though, have been greatly exaggerated.
The article would have us travel to be happy. That's alright. With so much good thinking in there, I don't mind if they miss the conclusion. We need to start connecting in our own neighborhoods if we want to be happy, but one day they'll figure that out. No worries, though. We're ahead of that curve around here.
Thy Will Be Done
Sure, yeah, we all want God's will to be done, but what is it?
The question has often been reduced to, "Should I break up with Sally and go steady with Jane," but that ain't what was on God's only Son's mind when He taught us to pray. Once I even read a post on a popular site insisting the will of God was:
1Th 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
With answers like that, who needs questions? The attitude that allows an answer like that reminds me of another verse:
Pro 25:20 [As] he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, [and as] vinegar upon nitre, so [is] he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.
Saying "cheer up" to the weeping is always, always, always cruel.
But I'm way off topic now. When we talk about the will of God, that tends to happen because we just don't know what it is. God wills our sanctification, our deliverance, our steadfastness, our transformation, our thankfulness, and that Paul should be an apostle. But none of that is "God's will."
The Romans had a name for "the father" of every household. He was the "pater familias," Father of the Family. The Jewish family was set up in a reasonably similar way, though the Jewish father lacked the power of life and death a pater familias had.
Since Jesus started His teaching prayer with the words, "Our Father..." it seems appropriate to focus on the pater familias.
The family of that day was the primary economic unit. There were not companies. There were families. And the pater familias was in charge of that economic operation. He brought into the family new sons in law, faithful servants, his own sons, and hirelings as needed toward the goal of building the business. He had the power to decide what and when to buy and sell to ensure the family for whom he was responsible lived in comfort.
Review the parables Jesus told, and you will recognize this pattern over and over. Jesus likens His Father to a pater familias repeatedly.
The pater familias was responsible to keep his family disciplined, profitable, and healthy. Therefore, it was his greatest honor to find evidence in the world around him that his family, his business, was run with excellence. To that end, he required of his family that they be honest, diligent, responsible, forward thinking, and thankful for what he provided.
That list, if you didn't notice, looks a lot like the list of things you'll find required of us by scripture.
The will of our Father in heaven is nothing less than that the world would look on His family and see honesty, diligence, responsibility, forward thinking, and thankfulness. He wants to see His church honoring His legacy on Earth by defining it.
The purpose of Christians is not to make more Christians. Yes, that must happen, but it is not "the" will of God. The purpose of Christians is to profit the business of our Father in heaven, and that happens because ALL the gifts are exercised in the church. Not just evangelism, but helps and care and the greatest of these is love.
And if it's not just evangelism, then it's not just evangelists and pastors and elders who are needed. It's every member of the body. Someone has to pluck weeds, and someone has to grind wheat, and someone has to carry loaves to market. Someone has to cook casseroles, and someone has to comfort the grieving, and someone has to notice when people are feeling down.
The will of God is that His church be the most wholly, actively loving family on Earth, and that requires you. When you are choosing a church, make sure you are choosing the place where you can contribute the most to your Father's goals. In the end, you'll both be happier.
Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
Sources:
Kruse Kronicles' Household of God Series
NT Wright's New Testament and the People of God
The question has often been reduced to, "Should I break up with Sally and go steady with Jane," but that ain't what was on God's only Son's mind when He taught us to pray. Once I even read a post on a popular site insisting the will of God was:
1Th 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
With answers like that, who needs questions? The attitude that allows an answer like that reminds me of another verse:
Pro 25:20 [As] he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, [and as] vinegar upon nitre, so [is] he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.
Saying "cheer up" to the weeping is always, always, always cruel.
But I'm way off topic now. When we talk about the will of God, that tends to happen because we just don't know what it is. God wills our sanctification, our deliverance, our steadfastness, our transformation, our thankfulness, and that Paul should be an apostle. But none of that is "God's will."
The Romans had a name for "the father" of every household. He was the "pater familias," Father of the Family. The Jewish family was set up in a reasonably similar way, though the Jewish father lacked the power of life and death a pater familias had.
Since Jesus started His teaching prayer with the words, "Our Father..." it seems appropriate to focus on the pater familias.
The family of that day was the primary economic unit. There were not companies. There were families. And the pater familias was in charge of that economic operation. He brought into the family new sons in law, faithful servants, his own sons, and hirelings as needed toward the goal of building the business. He had the power to decide what and when to buy and sell to ensure the family for whom he was responsible lived in comfort.
Review the parables Jesus told, and you will recognize this pattern over and over. Jesus likens His Father to a pater familias repeatedly.
The pater familias was responsible to keep his family disciplined, profitable, and healthy. Therefore, it was his greatest honor to find evidence in the world around him that his family, his business, was run with excellence. To that end, he required of his family that they be honest, diligent, responsible, forward thinking, and thankful for what he provided.
That list, if you didn't notice, looks a lot like the list of things you'll find required of us by scripture.
The will of our Father in heaven is nothing less than that the world would look on His family and see honesty, diligence, responsibility, forward thinking, and thankfulness. He wants to see His church honoring His legacy on Earth by defining it.
The purpose of Christians is not to make more Christians. Yes, that must happen, but it is not "the" will of God. The purpose of Christians is to profit the business of our Father in heaven, and that happens because ALL the gifts are exercised in the church. Not just evangelism, but helps and care and the greatest of these is love.
And if it's not just evangelism, then it's not just evangelists and pastors and elders who are needed. It's every member of the body. Someone has to pluck weeds, and someone has to grind wheat, and someone has to carry loaves to market. Someone has to cook casseroles, and someone has to comfort the grieving, and someone has to notice when people are feeling down.
The will of God is that His church be the most wholly, actively loving family on Earth, and that requires you. When you are choosing a church, make sure you are choosing the place where you can contribute the most to your Father's goals. In the end, you'll both be happier.
Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
Sources:
Kruse Kronicles' Household of God Series
NT Wright's New Testament and the People of God
07 January, 2008
Blooming Outside Your Comfort Zone
Choosing a church is always uncomfortable. Every time you walk through the doors of a church, you shiver a little inside. You're not sure whether you're going to like what you see, and what's more, you're not sure anyone's going to like you. Even you extroverts have to feel this a little bit. :-)
We all want to increase our odds, so we scout our churches a bit before we walk into them. We start off by narrowing our choices to one or two denominations, and then we head off to their churches' websites. We try to get a feel for the music and the preaching and scan for testimonials through Google or some such. We ask our friends, and talk to people who might know something about all the local churches in our denomination. By the time we walk through the door of a church, most of us have the best idea what to expect we can get.
Attending the nearest church to your home strips you of a lot of that prep work. You end up going in blind, or pretty near to it. And if the church differs from you in a couple of meaningful doctrines, it's that much riskier. Who knows whether you'll be accepted? And who knows whether you'll be able to accept them?
It's a big "ask" to ask someone to join hearts with a church based on an accident of geography.
If you decide to take the plunge, though, maybe these couple little tips might help.
First off, remind yourself often of the benefits.
+ The time you invest getting to know these people will be well spent because they're children of the same God as you. They were born again to the same kingdom you were, and that family-love will overcome any foreign-ness.
+ After you've gotten to know them, they'll be close enough that you'll be able to call them when something goes wrong, and help them when they have problems.
+ Being around different beliefs will stretch you.
+ Being around you will stretch them!
+ You'll be able to tell your neighbors you fellowship with their neighbors, and that's unheard of. Americans don't do anything with the people nearest them, but the kingdom of God should.
Second, be up front with whoever is your official contact. If no one approaches you by the second or third week, maybe you're in the wrong church, but probably the pastor or an elder will take on the job of making sure you feel welcome. Go ahead and tell that person what denomination you're from, and that you'd like to attend their church anyway. Assure him you don't want to correct their beliefs, and you don't expect yours to change, but you want to fellowship with the nearest brothers and sisters to your home. Chances are this will be as new an idea to them as it is to you, but hopefully they'll be open to the idea.
Third, keep your promise not to try to change their church. If the pastor wants to talk about your doctrinal differences, that's fine, but otherwise avoid discussing differences like nasty medicine. You're there to love the Lord with family, not make sure everyone conforms to your estimation of the Truth. For 90% of you, this point is a great relief. For the other 10%; let that pet doctrine go! Thanksgiving dinner is ruined every year when your crazy uncle brings up yet again how Mondale should have won, and stirring up your favorite doctrinal hornet's nest won't cheer the church (no matter how much that one guy enjoys debating, and no matter how close that one lady is to changing her mind.)
Fourth, keep on being yourself. Keep giving the church the unique blessing of your beliefs, even if it sounds a little strange to everyone else. If crazy uncle Mondale-lover turns his concern about big politics into a concern for the people around the table, he just might find an audience. Maybe Mondale cared about the environment, and someone around the table bought a Prius. Or maybe Mondale cared about the poor, and someone volunteers at a homeless shelter. Bring whatever it is you're crazy about, whatever your passion is, to the table. In time you'll show you care more about the people than being right, and love covers a multitude of gaffs.
Fifth, dare to care about these people. If you'll step up to seek out their needs, pray for them, and actually get involved in their lives you'll find that you're not a stranger there for long.
You might look around in 6 months and find you know and love almost everyone in the room, and that's what it was all about from the get-go.
---
Do these things sound too easy? Too obvious? They were things I needed to hear about 25 years ago and still needed badly 10 years ago - but then again, somehow I made it to adulthood with almost no social skills. Steps 3 and 4 seem the hardest to me. I mean we are all good at one or the other of them, but to get them both right seems to require a degree of practice and maturity.
We all want to increase our odds, so we scout our churches a bit before we walk into them. We start off by narrowing our choices to one or two denominations, and then we head off to their churches' websites. We try to get a feel for the music and the preaching and scan for testimonials through Google or some such. We ask our friends, and talk to people who might know something about all the local churches in our denomination. By the time we walk through the door of a church, most of us have the best idea what to expect we can get.
Attending the nearest church to your home strips you of a lot of that prep work. You end up going in blind, or pretty near to it. And if the church differs from you in a couple of meaningful doctrines, it's that much riskier. Who knows whether you'll be accepted? And who knows whether you'll be able to accept them?
It's a big "ask" to ask someone to join hearts with a church based on an accident of geography.
If you decide to take the plunge, though, maybe these couple little tips might help.
First off, remind yourself often of the benefits.
+ The time you invest getting to know these people will be well spent because they're children of the same God as you. They were born again to the same kingdom you were, and that family-love will overcome any foreign-ness.
+ After you've gotten to know them, they'll be close enough that you'll be able to call them when something goes wrong, and help them when they have problems.
+ Being around different beliefs will stretch you.
+ Being around you will stretch them!
+ You'll be able to tell your neighbors you fellowship with their neighbors, and that's unheard of. Americans don't do anything with the people nearest them, but the kingdom of God should.
Second, be up front with whoever is your official contact. If no one approaches you by the second or third week, maybe you're in the wrong church, but probably the pastor or an elder will take on the job of making sure you feel welcome. Go ahead and tell that person what denomination you're from, and that you'd like to attend their church anyway. Assure him you don't want to correct their beliefs, and you don't expect yours to change, but you want to fellowship with the nearest brothers and sisters to your home. Chances are this will be as new an idea to them as it is to you, but hopefully they'll be open to the idea.
Third, keep your promise not to try to change their church. If the pastor wants to talk about your doctrinal differences, that's fine, but otherwise avoid discussing differences like nasty medicine. You're there to love the Lord with family, not make sure everyone conforms to your estimation of the Truth. For 90% of you, this point is a great relief. For the other 10%; let that pet doctrine go! Thanksgiving dinner is ruined every year when your crazy uncle brings up yet again how Mondale should have won, and stirring up your favorite doctrinal hornet's nest won't cheer the church (no matter how much that one guy enjoys debating, and no matter how close that one lady is to changing her mind.)
Fourth, keep on being yourself. Keep giving the church the unique blessing of your beliefs, even if it sounds a little strange to everyone else. If crazy uncle Mondale-lover turns his concern about big politics into a concern for the people around the table, he just might find an audience. Maybe Mondale cared about the environment, and someone around the table bought a Prius. Or maybe Mondale cared about the poor, and someone volunteers at a homeless shelter. Bring whatever it is you're crazy about, whatever your passion is, to the table. In time you'll show you care more about the people than being right, and love covers a multitude of gaffs.
Fifth, dare to care about these people. If you'll step up to seek out their needs, pray for them, and actually get involved in their lives you'll find that you're not a stranger there for long.
You might look around in 6 months and find you know and love almost everyone in the room, and that's what it was all about from the get-go.
---
Do these things sound too easy? Too obvious? They were things I needed to hear about 25 years ago and still needed badly 10 years ago - but then again, somehow I made it to adulthood with almost no social skills. Steps 3 and 4 seem the hardest to me. I mean we are all good at one or the other of them, but to get them both right seems to require a degree of practice and maturity.
05 January, 2008
Joining My Church
I eat my own dog food.
That's a programming phrase. Programmers who don't use their own programs are roundly riduculed. If, for example, Microsoft were running all their servers on IBM software, they'd be in for a pounding. Programmers call using your own software, "eating your own dogfood."
I attend the church closest to me. There are benefits to practicing what I preach beyond the moral high ground. I know what it feels like to look in a place so close to home for Christian fellowship. I also know the strange feeling that if I mess up, I don't have 500 other churches to choose from. This is the closest church to my home. Messing up here would be a lot like speeding in your own neighborhood. It's just not smart.
In August of 2005 I joined the LifeBridge. I wanted something very different for myself, but 7 years had just been too long without believers in my life. I'd moved my ex's bed in the spring of 2004, and my daughter had moved in with her in June of 2005, so it was just me and my boy.
More to the point, I'd been without a Christian in my life since '98.
I'd been hanging out at the Thinklings for a long time, but I was beginning to notice that commenting on a wildly popular blog was a long way from fulfilling. First off, I had too much skin in the game to not get hurt when I got no response. Second, they were people, but they were people a long way off. Eventually, I had to leave my screen each night, and when I did they were gone and there was no one. And really, when I eventually quit commenting over there in early 2006 no one even noticed (except Milly :-).
The closest church to me is named, "Neighborhood Family of Jesus" or something equally appealing.
I held my breath and walked in.
The people could not have been friendlier. They took me in like a long-lost cousin and made me feel as welcome as I could possibly hope. I shook hands, pointed in the direction of my house, and let them know there wasn't a wife any more. They smiled and understood and casually made sure I knew everyone, including the other single. They were good people.
Then I wandered over to the literature rack. They didn't believe Jesus was as truly God as His Father was God. I didn't bolt, but there was no chance I'd be sticking around. I enjoyed their sermon, especially because it was delivered by a woman. It was all true enough, and I was delighted to see a woman preach, but they don't hold Christ as Christ, and that's the end of that.
Going to the church nearest does not mean taking on responsibility to rehab an anti-Christian organization. If anyone ever reads this who's thinking about giving themselves to a nearby church, make sure it's a living church that loves Christ at least as much as Ephesus did in Revelation 2. Join a church, not a missionary project.
The next week I suited up again, and visited the next nearest church. This one had international flags up in their front yard, and was a part of the Christian Missionary Alliance. I found it hard to be against that, so I stepped into Lifebridge Church.
The church was almost entirely made up of seniors. I'd been in a Free-Will Baptist Church like that back before I was married, and I'll always remember it with a grin. I heard more stories in 30 minutes about attractive granddaughters than I ever knew existed. I was a fool and I never went back, but what's done is done.
The literature rack at LifeBridge was stocked with the preachers of my youth. There was nothing there to blow me away, but nothing to scare me away either. A seeker could do worse than to read their stuff. (I'm a very harsh customer, in case you didn't already know.) I was greeted by four or five kind people, and everyone seemed normal. Nobody offered me a possible bride, but other than that they seemed friendly enough. My hopes were pretty low, but they seemed to be well above them.
I found a seat pretty much exactly in the middle of the auditorium and waited. The hundred or so seats were about half-filled when they started. I'd been going through one of my phases of listening to Christian music, so I actually knew most of the songs they sung that day. That meant I had to decide right-away how to sing. Left to my own, I sing about twice as loudly as most people can. And since most people don't sing anywhere near as loudly as they can, I can make quite a spectacle of myself. I decided I was there to sing, and I sang.
It wasn't long before I was crying. It had been too many long, long years since I had joined my voice to others in praising our Lord, and it was beyond moving to do so again. I'll never forget those first three weeks when I wept every time we sung. I hear there's a move to minimize the singing in many churches because us guys don't like it. I assume that's the truth, but I'd follow the singing wherever it went. I can replace a sermon with a book, but singing alone is completely different from singing with brothers and sisters.
I'm an intensely harsh customer when it comes to preaching, but the sermon was solid. There was no doubt this church and its pastor loved Christ as the Lord.
As long as I was teeing off on things, I figured I'd swing for the bleachers after the sermon was over. I walked up to the pastor and explained exactly what was going on. I was divorced, and I believed a lot of things they'd call heresy. I had chosen the church because I believed in home church, but I was not going to have a home church any time soon, so I was at going to go to the church closest to my home. If he could live with that, I'd be back.
We talked for a minute or two about home church, predestination and amillenialism and he was completely open to me being me. He understood a lot, and what he did not understand he was willing to live with.
I could not have been more relieved. There were another 6 churches almost as close to me, but I am not much of a shopper. I'm a harsh customer, but when I've found what I want and a price I can afford, I quit looking.
I instantly felt warm with these people, and that was what I needed.
---
Looking back over my 2 1/2 years with LifeBridge, it's been a wonderful choice. The people have been a cool drink of water for me more times than I can count, and they assure me that I've been a blessing to them too.
I've found that to be true every time I've given myself to Christians.
That's why I stepped back into a church even when I thought it was wrong to do so. Christians prove themselves worth the risk over and over.
I did not go back because it's some kind of are you. though. If you want to make me angry, quote Hebrews 10:25 to me.
Hbr 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some [is]; but exhorting [one another]: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
I spent 6 years alone as a Christian before starting at LifeBridge. I spent 10 years before that in a home church that many people felt was a forsaking of the assembling. In the 8 years or so before that I was fellowshipping in ways hardly anyone would recognize as Christian. I've had that verse quoted to me too many times, and to too little purpose to take it cheerfully any more. Take your Hebrews 10:25 and interpret it in a room with no windows. (presumably, that's somewhere that the sun don't shine, right?)
Hebrews 10 is about Christians approaching God with boldness, and provoking one another to do so. I'm "for" that. I quit church a quarter century ago precisely because no one was obeying it so's I could tell. The problem was partly mine, and I'll own that even now, but provoking me to assemble with someone was ALWAYS counter-productive. Provoke me to approach God, and show me how your assembly will help me do that, and I'll be there. Provoke me to show up, tithe, and sing on cue and I'll go off on one of these rants of mine.
When I stepped into LifeBridge, I didn't just assemble myself with believers, I approached God with them. Two+ years on, I still am. I'm glad I finally matured enough to handle that, and I'm glad my doctrine of the church is coming in line with something that gives me so much joy.
I don't know. That was pretty rambly, but I wanted to look at that history again.
May the Lord bless your search.
That's a programming phrase. Programmers who don't use their own programs are roundly riduculed. If, for example, Microsoft were running all their servers on IBM software, they'd be in for a pounding. Programmers call using your own software, "eating your own dogfood."
I attend the church closest to me. There are benefits to practicing what I preach beyond the moral high ground. I know what it feels like to look in a place so close to home for Christian fellowship. I also know the strange feeling that if I mess up, I don't have 500 other churches to choose from. This is the closest church to my home. Messing up here would be a lot like speeding in your own neighborhood. It's just not smart.
In August of 2005 I joined the LifeBridge. I wanted something very different for myself, but 7 years had just been too long without believers in my life. I'd moved my ex's bed in the spring of 2004, and my daughter had moved in with her in June of 2005, so it was just me and my boy.
More to the point, I'd been without a Christian in my life since '98.
I'd been hanging out at the Thinklings for a long time, but I was beginning to notice that commenting on a wildly popular blog was a long way from fulfilling. First off, I had too much skin in the game to not get hurt when I got no response. Second, they were people, but they were people a long way off. Eventually, I had to leave my screen each night, and when I did they were gone and there was no one. And really, when I eventually quit commenting over there in early 2006 no one even noticed (except Milly :-).
The closest church to me is named, "Neighborhood Family of Jesus" or something equally appealing.
I held my breath and walked in.
The people could not have been friendlier. They took me in like a long-lost cousin and made me feel as welcome as I could possibly hope. I shook hands, pointed in the direction of my house, and let them know there wasn't a wife any more. They smiled and understood and casually made sure I knew everyone, including the other single. They were good people.
Then I wandered over to the literature rack. They didn't believe Jesus was as truly God as His Father was God. I didn't bolt, but there was no chance I'd be sticking around. I enjoyed their sermon, especially because it was delivered by a woman. It was all true enough, and I was delighted to see a woman preach, but they don't hold Christ as Christ, and that's the end of that.
Going to the church nearest does not mean taking on responsibility to rehab an anti-Christian organization. If anyone ever reads this who's thinking about giving themselves to a nearby church, make sure it's a living church that loves Christ at least as much as Ephesus did in Revelation 2. Join a church, not a missionary project.
The next week I suited up again, and visited the next nearest church. This one had international flags up in their front yard, and was a part of the Christian Missionary Alliance. I found it hard to be against that, so I stepped into Lifebridge Church.
The church was almost entirely made up of seniors. I'd been in a Free-Will Baptist Church like that back before I was married, and I'll always remember it with a grin. I heard more stories in 30 minutes about attractive granddaughters than I ever knew existed. I was a fool and I never went back, but what's done is done.
The literature rack at LifeBridge was stocked with the preachers of my youth. There was nothing there to blow me away, but nothing to scare me away either. A seeker could do worse than to read their stuff. (I'm a very harsh customer, in case you didn't already know.) I was greeted by four or five kind people, and everyone seemed normal. Nobody offered me a possible bride, but other than that they seemed friendly enough. My hopes were pretty low, but they seemed to be well above them.
I found a seat pretty much exactly in the middle of the auditorium and waited. The hundred or so seats were about half-filled when they started. I'd been going through one of my phases of listening to Christian music, so I actually knew most of the songs they sung that day. That meant I had to decide right-away how to sing. Left to my own, I sing about twice as loudly as most people can. And since most people don't sing anywhere near as loudly as they can, I can make quite a spectacle of myself. I decided I was there to sing, and I sang.
It wasn't long before I was crying. It had been too many long, long years since I had joined my voice to others in praising our Lord, and it was beyond moving to do so again. I'll never forget those first three weeks when I wept every time we sung. I hear there's a move to minimize the singing in many churches because us guys don't like it. I assume that's the truth, but I'd follow the singing wherever it went. I can replace a sermon with a book, but singing alone is completely different from singing with brothers and sisters.
I'm an intensely harsh customer when it comes to preaching, but the sermon was solid. There was no doubt this church and its pastor loved Christ as the Lord.
As long as I was teeing off on things, I figured I'd swing for the bleachers after the sermon was over. I walked up to the pastor and explained exactly what was going on. I was divorced, and I believed a lot of things they'd call heresy. I had chosen the church because I believed in home church, but I was not going to have a home church any time soon, so I was at going to go to the church closest to my home. If he could live with that, I'd be back.
We talked for a minute or two about home church, predestination and amillenialism and he was completely open to me being me. He understood a lot, and what he did not understand he was willing to live with.
I could not have been more relieved. There were another 6 churches almost as close to me, but I am not much of a shopper. I'm a harsh customer, but when I've found what I want and a price I can afford, I quit looking.
I instantly felt warm with these people, and that was what I needed.
---
Looking back over my 2 1/2 years with LifeBridge, it's been a wonderful choice. The people have been a cool drink of water for me more times than I can count, and they assure me that I've been a blessing to them too.
I've found that to be true every time I've given myself to Christians.
That's why I stepped back into a church even when I thought it was wrong to do so. Christians prove themselves worth the risk over and over.
I did not go back because it's some kind of are you. though. If you want to make me angry, quote Hebrews 10:25 to me.
Hbr 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some [is]; but exhorting [one another]: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
I spent 6 years alone as a Christian before starting at LifeBridge. I spent 10 years before that in a home church that many people felt was a forsaking of the assembling. In the 8 years or so before that I was fellowshipping in ways hardly anyone would recognize as Christian. I've had that verse quoted to me too many times, and to too little purpose to take it cheerfully any more. Take your Hebrews 10:25 and interpret it in a room with no windows. (presumably, that's somewhere that the sun don't shine, right?)
Hebrews 10 is about Christians approaching God with boldness, and provoking one another to do so. I'm "for" that. I quit church a quarter century ago precisely because no one was obeying it so's I could tell. The problem was partly mine, and I'll own that even now, but provoking me to assemble with someone was ALWAYS counter-productive. Provoke me to approach God, and show me how your assembly will help me do that, and I'll be there. Provoke me to show up, tithe, and sing on cue and I'll go off on one of these rants of mine.
When I stepped into LifeBridge, I didn't just assemble myself with believers, I approached God with them. Two+ years on, I still am. I'm glad I finally matured enough to handle that, and I'm glad my doctrine of the church is coming in line with something that gives me so much joy.
I don't know. That was pretty rambly, but I wanted to look at that history again.
May the Lord bless your search.
02 January, 2008
Random Thoughts on Blooming Where You're Planted
(Every night I have to ask, "How can it be so incredibly late so very early?!" I hate clocks and how they just keep running. Oh well.)
First, I don't know how many times this has happened to me. I reject folk wisdom over and over only to find after a careful, years long inquiry into the issue, that the folk were right. They usually are.
The recommendation that a man should bloom where he's planted is as old as the hills. I realize it is somewhat dense for me only now to be catching up to it's wisdom. Still, I am beginning to see why it's so right. And this part has happened to me countless times too. I can usually profit a little beyond the folk wisdom because I forced myself to find out why it was wise. We'll hope I have not just wasted twenty good years figuring this stuff out.
Second, I think I see why doctrine creates such division amongst Christians.
We need doctrine. We ALL need doctrine, and there is only one true doctrine, but none of us has it. We just have our view of the facts, and our best guess of what God is like. That alone makes it obvious why doctrine must create divisions. But there's more.
I'm going through the exercise of writing a book on the basics of being a Christian. I'm targeting something in the 70 page range and describing what one does to become a Christian and to "do" being a Christian the right way. It was inspired by the way my tennis game improved when (after 30 years) I was taught the right way to hit each shot. Learning the right way to strike the ball made everything else to work, so I'm trying to teach the right way to strike the iron in life.
As I approached the end of the first draft, it dawned on me that nowhere in the book is it obvious what my doctrines are. I could not tell from my own book what I believe about anything outside of the rawest salvation, and I think I know why. All of us, every true Christian, basically believes the same things about what we can do for God. We only argue about what God can do for us, and what we have to do to free Him to do those things for us. Since I'm writing about what we do, I've never needed to open a single controversy.
We only fight about what God can do for us.
Predestination versus Free Will?
- Can God save us apart from our decision?
Eschatology?
- Will God pull us out of the fire at the end of everything, or will He help us endure it?
Sacraments?
- Does God infuse us with grace through physical actions, or by invisible spiritual acts?
The Trinity?
- Is it important for God to have 3 personalities to reach out and save us?
Home church?
- Can God work in the world when the church is so buried in fithly lucre?
Caring for the poor?
- We all agree we should do this.
In fact, we all agree about almost everything we should do as Christians. We should pray. We should care for the saints. We should avoid the evil that's in the world. We should reach out to the people oppressed by that very evil and give them the Truth of Jesus' work.
And that's why going to the closest church is so important. We agree with those people about what we should be doing. We only struggle with them over what God is doing for us. Why let our confusions separate us? We should open our hearts and lives to them as freely as to someone who agrees with us.
Bringing me to the third thing, we are a geographical species.
My son noted something the other day. He was in the break room with six other people, and they were all talking ... but not one of them was talking to anyone in the room.
Wow.
We live a cellular life these days. We are completely separating ourselves from our geographical "place." But we are a geographical species. We naturally connect with where we are, and with the people we expect to see in our places. To do most of our connecting with a TV screen, a cell phone, and a computer monitor is neither natural nor healthy, and yet we are almost there. How many people are fighting for the privilege of telecommuting these days? When work contact is gone, what's left? And when we add the windshields of our cars to the church equation and drive there 3 times a week, we are only shooting ourselves in our God-given, natural, geographical feet.
We were built to connect with the living people around us. Life is connection, and connection happens best across a table or a fence, not a down modem line or up a cellular tower.
The church has the fantastic opportunity to be the last thing in America that NEEDS eyeball to eyeball, handshake to handshake, living connection. We can become the single American place people go when they want to remember what it's like to touch someone and be loved - well that and singles bars, I guess. But we cannot give this to ourselves, much less to anyone else, when we all drive 20 minutes for the chance.
Fourth, I thought about the phrase, "boots on the ground."
That's such a pregnant sentence. God has chosen to fight His war against this Earthly insurgency with precious few boots on the ground. Each of us needs to love to maximum efficiency. We need to give ourselves every opportunity to strike a hug for the cause. And where can we have more effect than in a church where we're a little different? Where can we have more effect than amongst our own neighbors? Where can we have more effect than face to face with people whose hearts are silently calling out for real connection with people who'll really care?
---
I know none of this makes much sense, and I've hardly made a cogent case here. I just cannot seem to find the time to post, so it's either spray out these random thoughts or burst from keeping them inside for weeks. I cannot think of a time I've been more excited about the real possibilities standing open before the church. I cannot think of a time I've felt more like an idea might really be possible, doable, and even going to happen in some degree.
I've spent years wrestling with myself over how to fight the church and build it at the same time. Even as I started this series it was with fighting the church in mind. I wanted to fight the evil paper that was choking the church, but somehow that's just not right. It's like when us soldiers would talk about the Geneva convention. You were not allowed to shoot a 50 caliber machine gun at people, it was too big for the rules, but you could shoot it at the equipment they happened to be carrying. Shooting at the paperwork in the church might meet the letter of the law, but it's still not right, and I've known it all along.
As my mind is gnawing on this whole concept, an odd thing is happening. I am coming to consider the paperwork in the church to be an exact manifestation of the sin of the Nicolaitans in the Revelation. Therefore, it is a manifestation of a common sin within the church, and therefore it should be pitied and healed rather than assaulted. Rather than waging war against paper, I need to do exactly what I'd do in any other case of sin: exhort, encourage, rebuke, and most of all, love and forgive.
I'm not sure I'm ready for all this growth.
Ain't life grand. :-)
First, I don't know how many times this has happened to me. I reject folk wisdom over and over only to find after a careful, years long inquiry into the issue, that the folk were right. They usually are.
The recommendation that a man should bloom where he's planted is as old as the hills. I realize it is somewhat dense for me only now to be catching up to it's wisdom. Still, I am beginning to see why it's so right. And this part has happened to me countless times too. I can usually profit a little beyond the folk wisdom because I forced myself to find out why it was wise. We'll hope I have not just wasted twenty good years figuring this stuff out.
Second, I think I see why doctrine creates such division amongst Christians.
We need doctrine. We ALL need doctrine, and there is only one true doctrine, but none of us has it. We just have our view of the facts, and our best guess of what God is like. That alone makes it obvious why doctrine must create divisions. But there's more.
I'm going through the exercise of writing a book on the basics of being a Christian. I'm targeting something in the 70 page range and describing what one does to become a Christian and to "do" being a Christian the right way. It was inspired by the way my tennis game improved when (after 30 years) I was taught the right way to hit each shot. Learning the right way to strike the ball made everything else to work, so I'm trying to teach the right way to strike the iron in life.
As I approached the end of the first draft, it dawned on me that nowhere in the book is it obvious what my doctrines are. I could not tell from my own book what I believe about anything outside of the rawest salvation, and I think I know why. All of us, every true Christian, basically believes the same things about what we can do for God. We only argue about what God can do for us, and what we have to do to free Him to do those things for us. Since I'm writing about what we do, I've never needed to open a single controversy.
We only fight about what God can do for us.
Predestination versus Free Will?
- Can God save us apart from our decision?
Eschatology?
- Will God pull us out of the fire at the end of everything, or will He help us endure it?
Sacraments?
- Does God infuse us with grace through physical actions, or by invisible spiritual acts?
The Trinity?
- Is it important for God to have 3 personalities to reach out and save us?
Home church?
- Can God work in the world when the church is so buried in fithly lucre?
Caring for the poor?
- We all agree we should do this.
In fact, we all agree about almost everything we should do as Christians. We should pray. We should care for the saints. We should avoid the evil that's in the world. We should reach out to the people oppressed by that very evil and give them the Truth of Jesus' work.
And that's why going to the closest church is so important. We agree with those people about what we should be doing. We only struggle with them over what God is doing for us. Why let our confusions separate us? We should open our hearts and lives to them as freely as to someone who agrees with us.
Bringing me to the third thing, we are a geographical species.
My son noted something the other day. He was in the break room with six other people, and they were all talking ... but not one of them was talking to anyone in the room.
Wow.
We live a cellular life these days. We are completely separating ourselves from our geographical "place." But we are a geographical species. We naturally connect with where we are, and with the people we expect to see in our places. To do most of our connecting with a TV screen, a cell phone, and a computer monitor is neither natural nor healthy, and yet we are almost there. How many people are fighting for the privilege of telecommuting these days? When work contact is gone, what's left? And when we add the windshields of our cars to the church equation and drive there 3 times a week, we are only shooting ourselves in our God-given, natural, geographical feet.
We were built to connect with the living people around us. Life is connection, and connection happens best across a table or a fence, not a down modem line or up a cellular tower.
The church has the fantastic opportunity to be the last thing in America that NEEDS eyeball to eyeball, handshake to handshake, living connection. We can become the single American place people go when they want to remember what it's like to touch someone and be loved - well that and singles bars, I guess. But we cannot give this to ourselves, much less to anyone else, when we all drive 20 minutes for the chance.
Fourth, I thought about the phrase, "boots on the ground."
That's such a pregnant sentence. God has chosen to fight His war against this Earthly insurgency with precious few boots on the ground. Each of us needs to love to maximum efficiency. We need to give ourselves every opportunity to strike a hug for the cause. And where can we have more effect than in a church where we're a little different? Where can we have more effect than amongst our own neighbors? Where can we have more effect than face to face with people whose hearts are silently calling out for real connection with people who'll really care?
---
I know none of this makes much sense, and I've hardly made a cogent case here. I just cannot seem to find the time to post, so it's either spray out these random thoughts or burst from keeping them inside for weeks. I cannot think of a time I've been more excited about the real possibilities standing open before the church. I cannot think of a time I've felt more like an idea might really be possible, doable, and even going to happen in some degree.
I've spent years wrestling with myself over how to fight the church and build it at the same time. Even as I started this series it was with fighting the church in mind. I wanted to fight the evil paper that was choking the church, but somehow that's just not right. It's like when us soldiers would talk about the Geneva convention. You were not allowed to shoot a 50 caliber machine gun at people, it was too big for the rules, but you could shoot it at the equipment they happened to be carrying. Shooting at the paperwork in the church might meet the letter of the law, but it's still not right, and I've known it all along.
As my mind is gnawing on this whole concept, an odd thing is happening. I am coming to consider the paperwork in the church to be an exact manifestation of the sin of the Nicolaitans in the Revelation. Therefore, it is a manifestation of a common sin within the church, and therefore it should be pitied and healed rather than assaulted. Rather than waging war against paper, I need to do exactly what I'd do in any other case of sin: exhort, encourage, rebuke, and most of all, love and forgive.
I'm not sure I'm ready for all this growth.
Ain't life grand. :-)
28 December, 2007
Choosing a Church in which to Bloom
I have already said each of us should attend the church nearest our home, and given incontrovertible reasons. There is, however, one reason not to attend the church closest to your home.
You should only attend a church that's alive.
How can you tell whether the church nearest your home is dead, and that you should attend a little further away?
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, chapters 2 and 3 give us a pretty look at 7 churches. Let's see what Jesus has to say about each of them. If you'll forgive me, for the sake of brevity I'm only going to focus on the negative.
Ephesus left their first love. They quit loving Christ Himself. That's MASSIVE. But it was not too late for them to repent, do the first works again, and stay in the presence of the Lord. That surely means they are alive. I would not pass on a church because they had grown a little cold in love. If you join them and let the fire of your love burn, who knows what might happen?
Smyrna was faultless, but poor and about to enter a fearful time of persecution. It might take courage to join a Smyrna, to join a church in a difficult neighborhood perhaps, but there's a crown of life in it for those who dare.
Pergamos holds false doctrines, commits idolatry and fornication, and has a serious clergy problem. Join or run? This one is truly a tough call for me. I think I'd go in with about the same attitude Jesus seems to show. I'd join and let my specific concerns be known to people with power to promote repentance. There's still a spark of life there, so I'd have a hard time passing them by. There's one thing I'd watch for ... but more about that later.
Thyatira suffered a fornicating prophetess to teach false doctrines and develop a following. I'd join that church in a heartbeat, though, because Jesus says He only has anything against those who follow her. That church is definitely alive. Entertaining such seduction is not a sign of death.
Sardis teaches more about attending the nearest church than any other. Sardis is all but dead. There's almost no reason whatsoever to even give wretched Sardis a chance. But Jesus doesn't see them as dead; He sees them as alive and dead. There are just a few with clean garments, and He sees that as long as those few are there, the whole body might still return from their long winter. You see, the only way those few could leave their church would be to pack up and move to Philadelphia or Smyrna. They were stuck. But Jesus holds out a hope of life to them. Even a church alive and dead might still be vibrant one day.
Philadelphia is tiny and weak, but she's earned the commendation of the Lord. Maybe those couple Sardisians really SHOULD move! Personally, I'll take a tiny church any day, but that's a personal thing. I don't like crowds. I like to know everyone, and feel connected to everyone, and even at 90 people that's a stretch for me. So, I'm all over the tiny churches.
Laodicea receives not one word of praise. They are lying to themselves about their riches, about their vision, and about their beauty. They could hardly be more messed up. Really. Think about Laodicea being the church nearest to you. Laodicea would talk about their mission to the community while they shooed beggars out of their shadow. They would look at their beautiful stained glass and confuse it with spiritual wealth. They would beam proudly in all the city celebrations while everyone around them depised their hypocrisy. Could you join this church? Should you join this church? I don't know, but Jesus had this to say to them, "As many as I love, I rebuke...."
5 of these 7 churches had real problems, dirty problems. They had the kinds of problems that cause people to say, "You know, I still haven't found a church where I feel at home." But the Lord was still dealing with all seven of them. The Lord had not walked out.
On this basis, I would honestly consider attending a church that suffered the evils of lovelessness, false doctrine, idolatry, fornication, bad clergy, renegade prophets, death, poverty, tininess, or hypocrisy. (Probably not all 10, though.)
There's one thing, though, that I'd watch for in any church. If I saw it deeply entrenched I'd probably move on - peace.
If I see a church at peace, I'm out of there.
Peace is what the dead rest in. Even in the best church, peace means no one is thinking any more. Whenever you have three people thinking about anything, you're bound have an argument, so if there's no struggle, I'm probably getting nervous.
Pergamos and Laodicea were the worst of the lot. If I had to choose between the First Church of Pergamos on my block and the Laodicean Church of Jesus right next door, I would visit both and the one that was still fighting is the one I'd join. Fighting is awful, stressful and bad, but fighting means there's life and passion nestled somewhere in that body. There's still a fire to blow into a flame.
When there's sin but no fire, the sin has won and it's time to move on. Up until that point, it's fair to hope the Lord might blow on that spark. And if the Lord might blow on the spark, don't you want to be there to help?
If:
1 Cor 7:14
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.
How much more might a church be sanctified by each of the people who give themselves to her?
You should only attend a church that's alive.
How can you tell whether the church nearest your home is dead, and that you should attend a little further away?
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, chapters 2 and 3 give us a pretty look at 7 churches. Let's see what Jesus has to say about each of them. If you'll forgive me, for the sake of brevity I'm only going to focus on the negative.
Ephesus left their first love. They quit loving Christ Himself. That's MASSIVE. But it was not too late for them to repent, do the first works again, and stay in the presence of the Lord. That surely means they are alive. I would not pass on a church because they had grown a little cold in love. If you join them and let the fire of your love burn, who knows what might happen?
Smyrna was faultless, but poor and about to enter a fearful time of persecution. It might take courage to join a Smyrna, to join a church in a difficult neighborhood perhaps, but there's a crown of life in it for those who dare.
Pergamos holds false doctrines, commits idolatry and fornication, and has a serious clergy problem. Join or run? This one is truly a tough call for me. I think I'd go in with about the same attitude Jesus seems to show. I'd join and let my specific concerns be known to people with power to promote repentance. There's still a spark of life there, so I'd have a hard time passing them by. There's one thing I'd watch for ... but more about that later.
Thyatira suffered a fornicating prophetess to teach false doctrines and develop a following. I'd join that church in a heartbeat, though, because Jesus says He only has anything against those who follow her. That church is definitely alive. Entertaining such seduction is not a sign of death.
Sardis teaches more about attending the nearest church than any other. Sardis is all but dead. There's almost no reason whatsoever to even give wretched Sardis a chance. But Jesus doesn't see them as dead; He sees them as alive and dead. There are just a few with clean garments, and He sees that as long as those few are there, the whole body might still return from their long winter. You see, the only way those few could leave their church would be to pack up and move to Philadelphia or Smyrna. They were stuck. But Jesus holds out a hope of life to them. Even a church alive and dead might still be vibrant one day.
Philadelphia is tiny and weak, but she's earned the commendation of the Lord. Maybe those couple Sardisians really SHOULD move! Personally, I'll take a tiny church any day, but that's a personal thing. I don't like crowds. I like to know everyone, and feel connected to everyone, and even at 90 people that's a stretch for me. So, I'm all over the tiny churches.
Laodicea receives not one word of praise. They are lying to themselves about their riches, about their vision, and about their beauty. They could hardly be more messed up. Really. Think about Laodicea being the church nearest to you. Laodicea would talk about their mission to the community while they shooed beggars out of their shadow. They would look at their beautiful stained glass and confuse it with spiritual wealth. They would beam proudly in all the city celebrations while everyone around them depised their hypocrisy. Could you join this church? Should you join this church? I don't know, but Jesus had this to say to them, "As many as I love, I rebuke...."
5 of these 7 churches had real problems, dirty problems. They had the kinds of problems that cause people to say, "You know, I still haven't found a church where I feel at home." But the Lord was still dealing with all seven of them. The Lord had not walked out.
On this basis, I would honestly consider attending a church that suffered the evils of lovelessness, false doctrine, idolatry, fornication, bad clergy, renegade prophets, death, poverty, tininess, or hypocrisy. (Probably not all 10, though.)
There's one thing, though, that I'd watch for in any church. If I saw it deeply entrenched I'd probably move on - peace.
If I see a church at peace, I'm out of there.
Peace is what the dead rest in. Even in the best church, peace means no one is thinking any more. Whenever you have three people thinking about anything, you're bound have an argument, so if there's no struggle, I'm probably getting nervous.
Pergamos and Laodicea were the worst of the lot. If I had to choose between the First Church of Pergamos on my block and the Laodicean Church of Jesus right next door, I would visit both and the one that was still fighting is the one I'd join. Fighting is awful, stressful and bad, but fighting means there's life and passion nestled somewhere in that body. There's still a fire to blow into a flame.
When there's sin but no fire, the sin has won and it's time to move on. Up until that point, it's fair to hope the Lord might blow on that spark. And if the Lord might blow on the spark, don't you want to be there to help?
If:
1 Cor 7:14
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.
How much more might a church be sanctified by each of the people who give themselves to her?
22 December, 2007
Bloomers Pt 3
It seems there's always someone looking for tips on how to choose a church, and I would like to talk about exactly that. But it seems like the wrong place to start. First, one must talk about what you want a church to do.
We universally want a church to feed us the good things of the word of God. On top of that, most of us want an opportunity to worship in a natural way, to receive the sacraments, to pray. A good number of us want to serve in some capacity. Lastly, a few of us want to really share fellowship.
And outside of our personal needs, we want the church to stand for something in the world. We want the church to defend the truth, to reach out in evangelism, to offer a hand of support to the needy, to keep the testimony of God holy. We want the church to be the bastion of truth against the encroachments of government, culture, and decay.
None of those things is bad, and I'm not getting ready to disrespect them. I will, however, reprioritize them. I see the church from a different perspective, and it causes me to see different things as most important.
The church is God's chosen means for answering His Anointed One's prayer requests.
In some ways, this is a pretty big leap. I'll forgive you if you think it sounds a little odd. Still, we do know Jesus' prayer requests because we've heard the Lord's Prayer. We know what He prayed for, and that He wanted us to keep praying for the same things after He left. Therefore, we can take some well-educated guesses at how He figured those things would come to pass. Since the Father believed the best way to start the ball rolling was for the Son to come to Earth, it's a pretty safe bet the best way to keep it rolling is for His children to continue the work Jesus began. That's a tall order, but God has a proven track record of giving tall orders to people. Fortunately, He is also known for following up with the grace to bring them to pass.
Facing heavenward, Jesus prayed we would know the Father as Father, that His Name would be treated as holy, that His empire would come to all the world, and that His will would be done. Facing humanward, He prayed that our needs would be met, that we would gain forgiveness, and that we would be kept from catastrophe and sin.
Those are our marching orders. The same way the Son prayed and worked, we pray and work. Every time we pray for the kingdom to come, we also must work to bring the kingdom. Every time we pray for forgiveness, we must forgive. The Father gives the grace, and we exercise the gifts we receive from Him. In the end, the manifold wisdom of God is revealed by exactly this process. (Eph 3:9-11)
The work of the church, based upon what we know of the Lord's Prayer, should look like this:
The church knows the Father, and lives as if they do. The church lives out the Name of God on Earth, so that all the world can honor it. For example, God is our "Provider," so the church should provide in His Name. That's how His Name becomes hallowed. The empire of God is an invisible kingdom of love, so the church loves, shining its gifts on both the just and the unjust just as He does. And it's the church that sweats to see God's plans and intents, His will, brought to full fruition.
The church also looks out for the daily bread, the needs, of all her children. No member of the church should be allowed to go hungry, and no member of the church should be allowed to go lazy either. The church has received forgiveness, so she should extend forgiveness to each of her members, and thus live without bitterness. And it's the church that should bear people up through every temptation and deliver each member from the evil and catastrophe working against us in the world.
Those are full-time, around the clock jobs for every member.
That's what the church should be doing. In order to prepare the church to do those things, she should engage in solid preaching, worship, and prayer. She should fellowship, take the sacraments, and do all those things that Christians do because those things prepare her to work. Just don't confuse the preparations with the work. Preaching prepares us to work, but it's to the work itself that we were called.
A jungle of red tape stands between the church and doing the work she was called to do. That red tape guarantees all the preparations happen - the doctrine is taught, the preaching is promoted, the worship is well coordinated - but at the expense of freedom. And it's free men and and women who provide, love, and work. It's in freedom that the church cares for needs, forgives, and comforts.
In choosing a church, I recommend you look right past all the red tape.
You could spend months finding a church that agrees with you on 90% of the doctrines you've studied out. You could search out a church that sings the right mix of songs, and worships with a comfortable degree of enthusiasm, and that prays for the things that matter to you. I ask you to consider, though, that this would be a waste of your time, and a waste to the kingdom of God. You might find a church with tape just the right shade of red and that makes oh so gentle chains, but you've missed the greatest blessing.
If you want the greatest blessing, choose the church nearest to you. You'll get everything that matters, and life to boot.
You've heard it said a hundred times, you get out of church exactly what you put into it.
It's true.
You know the church nearest to you. Picture it in your mind. You drive by it how many times a week? And you've always wondered what those people are like, right? But their red tape is boring or wrong or lazy. They're just not your type. You know why you don't go there, right? And you know you're right, right?
But what if you did go there?
What if you went there to do the work of the church in that church? What if you ignored their red tape, and lived out the high calling of God just blocks away from your home? What if you decided you're not going to church to receive, but to pour yourself out to God and His children?
If you live out having the same Father as those saints, if you live out the Name of God with those saints, if you live out the kingdom of love with them, if you do the will of God with them, if you care for their needs and receive care from them, if you forgive and are forgiven beside them, if bear each other up through every adversity, will you not change the world?
Let me handle a question now. "I could do these things in any church. Why not go to a church that is "as close to scripture"/"enthusiastic"/"dedicated"/"???" as possible? Why go to a church I'm not comfortable with just because it's closest? That seems like exactly the wrong way to choose a church."
I will give you two reasons to go to the church nearest you, and I cannot decide which is the more important.
First, you will be more likely to really get to know those Christians who live nearest to you if you attend a church near to you. The more of us start to fellowship nearer to our homes, the more our Christianity will work its way out of that building and into our neighborhoods. If you tell your neighbors you go to some church on the other side of town, what are the odds they will want to go with you? But if you tell them you go with a few families down the street?!? That packs a punch, because nobody does that any more.
Second, you MUST go to that church, because you won't fit in there. Our churches need more people who don't fit in! We're too comfortable with each other, and it's costing us dearly. The whole world has caught on to the importance of diversity but Christianity. Our emotional denominations need some intellect. Our intellectual denominations need some action. Our active denominations need some tenderness. The high churchers need some casual folk and the low churches need some precise people. We've split ourselves up into these cozy little comfort clans, but we need each other! We need more people who don't fit in.
That intellectual person in the emotional church right down the block is going to feel a little like he's personally desegregating the South. He'll worship differently than everyone else, and that's a hard thing, but it's a great thing. The active person in the intellectual church will squirm in the pew, and the emotional person in the intellectual church will want to burst. It won't be easy. And especially since they won't try to change the church. They're just there to be themselves, children of God amongst children of God - ignoring the paperwork that says they're not free to live to Christ the way they know they must.
If you should decide to attend that church nearest to your home and live the Lord's Prayer toward saints, you'll be really changing the world. More than any other single thing any of us average Joe's could do, being different in the church of Christ can make a difference. Just by showing up in that little body of believers (few people really live close to a mega-church anyway, so your church will be probably be little - and smaller is better for this idea) and giving them your heart, you will breathe life into that assembly. By being different and loving, you will challenge their preconceptions about your denomination and open their minds and hearts to a whole new world. By living close to them, you will encourage them to reach out to their nearest neighborhood. Could you do anything more important?
Most importantly of all, you will know that you're going to church, to that church, for a reason. You are going there to be an answer to the Lord's Prayer.
We universally want a church to feed us the good things of the word of God. On top of that, most of us want an opportunity to worship in a natural way, to receive the sacraments, to pray. A good number of us want to serve in some capacity. Lastly, a few of us want to really share fellowship.
And outside of our personal needs, we want the church to stand for something in the world. We want the church to defend the truth, to reach out in evangelism, to offer a hand of support to the needy, to keep the testimony of God holy. We want the church to be the bastion of truth against the encroachments of government, culture, and decay.
None of those things is bad, and I'm not getting ready to disrespect them. I will, however, reprioritize them. I see the church from a different perspective, and it causes me to see different things as most important.
The church is God's chosen means for answering His Anointed One's prayer requests.
In some ways, this is a pretty big leap. I'll forgive you if you think it sounds a little odd. Still, we do know Jesus' prayer requests because we've heard the Lord's Prayer. We know what He prayed for, and that He wanted us to keep praying for the same things after He left. Therefore, we can take some well-educated guesses at how He figured those things would come to pass. Since the Father believed the best way to start the ball rolling was for the Son to come to Earth, it's a pretty safe bet the best way to keep it rolling is for His children to continue the work Jesus began. That's a tall order, but God has a proven track record of giving tall orders to people. Fortunately, He is also known for following up with the grace to bring them to pass.
Facing heavenward, Jesus prayed we would know the Father as Father, that His Name would be treated as holy, that His empire would come to all the world, and that His will would be done. Facing humanward, He prayed that our needs would be met, that we would gain forgiveness, and that we would be kept from catastrophe and sin.
Those are our marching orders. The same way the Son prayed and worked, we pray and work. Every time we pray for the kingdom to come, we also must work to bring the kingdom. Every time we pray for forgiveness, we must forgive. The Father gives the grace, and we exercise the gifts we receive from Him. In the end, the manifold wisdom of God is revealed by exactly this process. (Eph 3:9-11)
The work of the church, based upon what we know of the Lord's Prayer, should look like this:
The church knows the Father, and lives as if they do. The church lives out the Name of God on Earth, so that all the world can honor it. For example, God is our "Provider," so the church should provide in His Name. That's how His Name becomes hallowed. The empire of God is an invisible kingdom of love, so the church loves, shining its gifts on both the just and the unjust just as He does. And it's the church that sweats to see God's plans and intents, His will, brought to full fruition.
The church also looks out for the daily bread, the needs, of all her children. No member of the church should be allowed to go hungry, and no member of the church should be allowed to go lazy either. The church has received forgiveness, so she should extend forgiveness to each of her members, and thus live without bitterness. And it's the church that should bear people up through every temptation and deliver each member from the evil and catastrophe working against us in the world.
Those are full-time, around the clock jobs for every member.
That's what the church should be doing. In order to prepare the church to do those things, she should engage in solid preaching, worship, and prayer. She should fellowship, take the sacraments, and do all those things that Christians do because those things prepare her to work. Just don't confuse the preparations with the work. Preaching prepares us to work, but it's to the work itself that we were called.
A jungle of red tape stands between the church and doing the work she was called to do. That red tape guarantees all the preparations happen - the doctrine is taught, the preaching is promoted, the worship is well coordinated - but at the expense of freedom. And it's free men and and women who provide, love, and work. It's in freedom that the church cares for needs, forgives, and comforts.
In choosing a church, I recommend you look right past all the red tape.
You could spend months finding a church that agrees with you on 90% of the doctrines you've studied out. You could search out a church that sings the right mix of songs, and worships with a comfortable degree of enthusiasm, and that prays for the things that matter to you. I ask you to consider, though, that this would be a waste of your time, and a waste to the kingdom of God. You might find a church with tape just the right shade of red and that makes oh so gentle chains, but you've missed the greatest blessing.
If you want the greatest blessing, choose the church nearest to you. You'll get everything that matters, and life to boot.
You've heard it said a hundred times, you get out of church exactly what you put into it.
It's true.
You know the church nearest to you. Picture it in your mind. You drive by it how many times a week? And you've always wondered what those people are like, right? But their red tape is boring or wrong or lazy. They're just not your type. You know why you don't go there, right? And you know you're right, right?
But what if you did go there?
What if you went there to do the work of the church in that church? What if you ignored their red tape, and lived out the high calling of God just blocks away from your home? What if you decided you're not going to church to receive, but to pour yourself out to God and His children?
If you live out having the same Father as those saints, if you live out the Name of God with those saints, if you live out the kingdom of love with them, if you do the will of God with them, if you care for their needs and receive care from them, if you forgive and are forgiven beside them, if bear each other up through every adversity, will you not change the world?
Let me handle a question now. "I could do these things in any church. Why not go to a church that is "as close to scripture"/"enthusiastic"/"dedicated"/"???" as possible? Why go to a church I'm not comfortable with just because it's closest? That seems like exactly the wrong way to choose a church."
I will give you two reasons to go to the church nearest you, and I cannot decide which is the more important.
First, you will be more likely to really get to know those Christians who live nearest to you if you attend a church near to you. The more of us start to fellowship nearer to our homes, the more our Christianity will work its way out of that building and into our neighborhoods. If you tell your neighbors you go to some church on the other side of town, what are the odds they will want to go with you? But if you tell them you go with a few families down the street?!? That packs a punch, because nobody does that any more.
Second, you MUST go to that church, because you won't fit in there. Our churches need more people who don't fit in! We're too comfortable with each other, and it's costing us dearly. The whole world has caught on to the importance of diversity but Christianity. Our emotional denominations need some intellect. Our intellectual denominations need some action. Our active denominations need some tenderness. The high churchers need some casual folk and the low churches need some precise people. We've split ourselves up into these cozy little comfort clans, but we need each other! We need more people who don't fit in.
That intellectual person in the emotional church right down the block is going to feel a little like he's personally desegregating the South. He'll worship differently than everyone else, and that's a hard thing, but it's a great thing. The active person in the intellectual church will squirm in the pew, and the emotional person in the intellectual church will want to burst. It won't be easy. And especially since they won't try to change the church. They're just there to be themselves, children of God amongst children of God - ignoring the paperwork that says they're not free to live to Christ the way they know they must.
If you should decide to attend that church nearest to your home and live the Lord's Prayer toward saints, you'll be really changing the world. More than any other single thing any of us average Joe's could do, being different in the church of Christ can make a difference. Just by showing up in that little body of believers (few people really live close to a mega-church anyway, so your church will be probably be little - and smaller is better for this idea) and giving them your heart, you will breathe life into that assembly. By being different and loving, you will challenge their preconceptions about your denomination and open their minds and hearts to a whole new world. By living close to them, you will encourage them to reach out to their nearest neighborhood. Could you do anything more important?
Most importantly of all, you will know that you're going to church, to that church, for a reason. You are going there to be an answer to the Lord's Prayer.
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