As succinctly as possible, as clearly as possible answer this:
How would you describe the Gospel?
Photo by Patrick the Mahoney
I’ve had this nagging sensation lately. You know that feeling, when you just can’t shake a thought. No matter how much you don’t like it, regardless of what you do to rid yourself of it, it just stays with you. That’s been my last few weeks.
You see, I’ve spent two weeks straight in church planting training, and in the midst of it, this thought came to mind:
What is the goal of a church?
The answer should be simple. It should be the Great Commission and the Great Commandment, but is it? Is the goal of our churches to share Jesus, make disciples, worship the Trinity, and love one another? Or is it something else altogether?
My fear – this nagging feeling – is that we’ve made the American Dream the goal of the church. We’ve taken obedience to Christ and a life on mission and traded it in for a good marriage, happy kids who behave well enough, and financial security. Does that thought put a pain in your stomach as it has mine?
Or perhaps you disagree. Your pastor preaches from the Bible, and your small group prays, but for what? If you look at sermon titles and series from a bulk of churches, what issues do they attempt to help? A good marriage, happy kids who behave well enough, and financial security.
I fear that we’ve put these things in priority above Jesus.
I once heard a pastor say, in a message about debt, that this sermon would be “light” on Bible verses, because he wanted it to be practical. And that has been a common theme in modern churches – to go “light” on Scripture in order to speak to felt needs.
The greatest felt need is that of forgiveness and atonement. The greatest need is Christ. Everything else should come from that change. Everything else is the result of a regenerated heart and the process of sanctification.
To put anything in front of Jesus is not being seeker-sensitive, seeker-friendly, or even seeker-driven. It’s idolatry. And I’m afraid that this generation will be judged for preaching and encouraging idolatry from the pulpit.
It’s time to put The American Dream to death. It’s time to put our desires, our hopes, our wants, our very lives in the hands of Jesus and seek to obey Him, serve Him, love Him, and worship Him. Things will work out better that way.
Painting by Jordan Szymanowski
Imagine for a moment, if all 6.7 billion people on the face of the planet were represented by one single “global village” of 100 people. What does our world really look like?
- Out of 100 people:
- 60 would be Asian
- 14 would be African
- 12 would be European
- 8 would be Latin American
- 5 would be American or Canadian
- 1 would be from the South Pacific
- 51 would be male; 49 would be female
- 82 would be non-white; 18 white
- 67 would be non-Christian; 33 would be Christian
Now, contrast those statistics with your church on Sunday morning. Are we changing the world with the Gospel, or are we just sitting in our little circles pretending that the rest of the world doesn’t exist?
Last week, I met some friends who had asked me how to get involved on twitter. This is, by far, one of the best explanations of what twitter is and what it does.
Signing up is easy, following is simple (be sure to follow me), and then simply answer that all important twitter question,
What are you doing?
And when you sign up, be sure to let me know so I can follow you back!
Last week was crammed full of great information, and like all of my formative experiences, included at least one moment where I was struck with immediate humility. I had been live-blogging the entire week, and on the final day, Pastor Ray Chuang put his tweetdeck on the main screen in order to explain twitter to the rest of the bootcamp.
He showed where he had searched for #efcastartchurches and found a grouping of tweets. At the top of that listing was this tweet:
One joke on screen for the bootcamp to see.
As one very infamous golfer once said, “What a stupid I am.”
In The Hole in our Gospel by Richard Stearns, the author and president of World Vision describes the void that has been created by a Christianity that has altered and weakened the Gospel. He shares his story, and those of so many others, whose lives have not only been transformed by the Gospel, but by those who seek to live that Gospel out.
I had a difficult time staying involved with the book at the onset, but as soon as I reached Part 3, I couldn’t put the book down. It’s easy to be detached in sections describing the definition of the Gospel, after all, I’m a pastor, this is something I talk about constantly. But when confronted with the statistics and stories of the state of things beyond our church properties, I became sick to my stomach.
And that is my hole. It’s become so easy, so natural to focus on and worry about me and my needs, and in the process failing to remember that the primary distinction between myself and them is simply my place of birth.
This book should come with a warning. Definitely worth a read, but don’t read it unless you’re ready to be challenged.
I stood on the scale after two weeks out of town yesterday, and came to a disturbing conclusion – I’m fat. I crossed the 240 lbs. threshold. So now I have to do something about it.
I just have to figure out what…
Maybe P90. Maybe P90X after that.
Maybe Momentum No Excuses.
Maybe, I’ll just go back to Body for Life.
Do you have any suggestions?
The contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.
These words were written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in 1963, and yet the description stills cuts like a knife.
We may turn a blind eye to atrocities that we aren’t willing to deal with, but history will judge us just as we judge them.
If you listen, you will be moved. The question is, to what?
I just saw this on Ed Stetzer’s blog and had to share it. Apparently at the Church of God’s National Church Planting Lab, they rolled out the red carpet for their church planters…literally.
I was moved by the gesture.
I wonder if it was so meaningful to me because I have seen church planters:
- attacked because they used different methods and music
- accused of being _____ (Purpose Driven, Reformed, emerging, contemporary, etc.)
- opposed because their were planting in “my” area
and the list could go on and on…
What if, instead, church planters were welcomed into your denomination, into the area where your church served, and maybe even into your church’s strategy?
What a difference that would make.
The symbol blessed a lot of planters today. The reality would bless a lot more.