One of my biggest frustrations with most organizations is a lack of planning and clear goals. (The what why and how that caused them to come into being.) They may have goals, or had then, but somehow they have been covered over with layers of function that amount to busywork. Eventually most seem to exist for the sake of existing.
This seems very true in the case of most local churches and denominations. If asked why they exist the wrote answer, in evangelical circles, will be: to lead others to Christ- to mature the believers-to grow the church- etc.-etc.
The problem is that those we want to bring the message to couldn't care less about " church" and they dont know anything about and care even less for the Church. For the new believer or the person who has a yearning to be part of “the church” (flock, herd, group, crowd) this is often enough. Depending on the new believes “type” he/she may be content to mill around with the rest of the flock for years, possibly a lifetime. Others come and go from the flock or trade one flock for another –depending on the quality of the grass or the season.
Unfortunately, the flock normally consists mostly of…. ‘flocktypes”. It wasn’t flocktypes who received the great commission, began to and did change the world.
The men/women who changed the world and those who will ignite the next great awakening had a goal- a purpose and a plan.
(What WHY and how) Then they infected others with that goal-purpose and plan.
I think God is waiting for a few to catch the fire – really see His plan not just to build a group or grow a church but to upset the world- and start a bonfire. I think you have seen the flame.
Not politics, not “church” we have seen over 4000 years of this. He calls to us.
Showing posts with label church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church. Show all posts
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Focus
Recently I heard a message message/question of why we don’t, more often, see the same instant power, the signs and wonders we read about in the Bible.
This is a question that has been on my heart as well for some time so I was doubly interested when I heard the question as a sermon topic. In my mind the question morphed beyond signs and wonders into why some churches are flourishing and growing while others seem to just limp along, then there are those that grow then shrink away. The answer became clear about 10 last night and more so around 4 this AM. It’s the focus. What is the focus of the church or the prayer.
“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11He is " 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." (NIV Acts 4:8-12)
Peter didn’t heal the cripple for any reason other then that he was moved to by the Holy Spirit to do so. I am assuming the Holy Spirit moved him to glorify Christ in God (before men) as a testimony to the message the believers were speaking.The book of James stated you “have not because you ask not and when you ask you ask for the wrong reasons” (BC Translation) I cant prove it with chapter and verse but I’m pretty sure there is a nugget of truth here. Preaching Jesus and Jesus only is what brings life to churches and ministries. Great signs and wonders happen not just because He loves us but more so to validate HIS message. Taking HIS message, HIM, outside of the confines of the church building gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to “prove” the message.That IS the message! “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Through Jesus we can be united with the Father!
Focus on Him and everting else will come into view.
This is a question that has been on my heart as well for some time so I was doubly interested when I heard the question as a sermon topic. In my mind the question morphed beyond signs and wonders into why some churches are flourishing and growing while others seem to just limp along, then there are those that grow then shrink away. The answer became clear about 10 last night and more so around 4 this AM. It’s the focus. What is the focus of the church or the prayer.
“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11He is " 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." (NIV Acts 4:8-12)
Peter didn’t heal the cripple for any reason other then that he was moved to by the Holy Spirit to do so. I am assuming the Holy Spirit moved him to glorify Christ in God (before men) as a testimony to the message the believers were speaking.The book of James stated you “have not because you ask not and when you ask you ask for the wrong reasons” (BC Translation) I cant prove it with chapter and verse but I’m pretty sure there is a nugget of truth here. Preaching Jesus and Jesus only is what brings life to churches and ministries. Great signs and wonders happen not just because He loves us but more so to validate HIS message. Taking HIS message, HIM, outside of the confines of the church building gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to “prove” the message.That IS the message! “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Through Jesus we can be united with the Father!
Focus on Him and everting else will come into view.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Sometimes He answers, and sometimes He ANSWERS.
I’m not sure if I mentioned it before or not, but my wife and I have been “church shopping” for about a year now. The need to find a new church home is due to our moving from our home for over to 20 years to where we belong, on the water. That, is another story unto itself.
Over the past year we have both prayed for God’s guidance on where we should become involved. I won’t trouble you with our “perception” of the dozen or more churches we visited and considered in our search. Suffice to say that none of them, or we, were a good fit. The search was very frustrating but we knew that God would guide us. Last Sunday we had decided it was time to re-visit them all, if necessary. Surely there must be a church within a half hour drive of us that we “belonged” in.
If this was a movie script we would now do a flash back. It’s now 1977, my wife, raised a Catholic, has spent most of her life wanting to know God. I on the other hand, knew Him and was doing my best to avoid Him. (This too is another story) Because she married a doomed to hell protestant the Catholic Church, through two priests, had showed her the door proclaiming her damnation. (No critism of the Catholic Church is intended or implied, today we thank God for his use of those Priests and the Catholic Church in this process) Regardless, she was still determined to know God. Today she tells the story:
“I knew God was there and I wanted to know Him, I was walking to a 3rd Catholic Church as I did I prayed, ““God two Catholic Churches have thrown me out, if you are really there you need to show me””. Very shortly after that, while selling Avon; I met a women named Carol. Carol never bought any Avon that I can remember but I kept going back to her house because she talked about knowing God. I had never met anyone before that actually seemed to know Him. In my life, up to then, no one had ever told me that there was and is a living Christ. Through Carol’s testimony I began attending First Baptist Church in Mt Holly, NJ. There I met Jesus, surrendered my life to him and became a Christian.”
One thing led to another and shortly after my wife got saved I also surrendered my life to Jesus and was born again. For a good portion of 1977 and 1978 Carol and her husband John were involved in our lives on an almost daily basis. In the summer of 1978 we moved to Dallas Texas to attend Christ For the Nations Institute. After we returned to NJ in 1981 we saw John and Carol from time to time but nothing like those first two years. Our new home in NJ was a good distance from where John and Carol lived and we attended different churches. Eventually we lost touch with them. Not for any real reason, just because life/ time/work/families took us in different directions. As best as I can recall, I haven’t seen or talked to John since around 1990.
OK, so we jump back into the time machine and we are back in 2009. I own a home construction, remodeling and plumbing business. I dislike answering machines so I pay for a phone service to receive my incoming calls. Whenever someone calls my office number the answering service answers and then they email me about the call.
On Saturday 1/17/09 at about 3:30 I received an email that a pipe had burst in a home in Little Egg Harbor, the town we live in, and the homeowner needed a plumber. I called Tim who is the real plumber in the company, gave him the contact information and asked if he could respond. Which he did. (For the record, Tim, everyone involved really appreciates your willingness to drop what you were doing and respond to this need.) At about 7:30 PM Tim called to let me know he was finished and told me that the brother-in- law of the homeowner was at the home where he had been working. He went on to say that the brother-in-law knew me and had worked for me sometime in the past. While on the phone he didn’t remember the brother-in-law’s name but he had his card and would be at my house/office in a couple minutes. Although I didn’t say so at the time I already knew in my heart who the brother-in-law was.
As soon as Tim walked through the door the first words out of is mouth were “God works in mysterious ways”. Then he gave me the business card bearing the name of John. The same John I knew from years before. As soon as I could I called the house where the pipe had burst to see if John was still there, he was. We chatted for a couple minute then the subject of Church came up. I told John about our frustrating search for a new Church home to which he responded “have you tried Calvary Chapel on Rt. 9?” I then recounted that we had stopped by there one Sunday morning about 6 months ago. That was on a day we had attended two Sunday morning services at two different churches and had driven to a half dozen other churches as well to see what their service times were. When we had stopped by Calvary Chapel we couldn’t find any sign or indication of when their services were and the place seemed vacant. John told me that Calvary Chapel was an off shoot (for lack of a better term) of the Calvary Chapel led by Chuck Smith and that he and Carol had attended there some years ago. He suggested we should check it out. (Chuck Smith is another familiar name from my past, he taught for a week while I was attending Christ for The Nations Institute.)
We did attend Calvary Chapel this morning and I have no doubt that this and the way we found ourselves there is an answer to prayer. I am not the least bit surprised that God answered our prayer. I am surprised-pleased-amazed at the extent He went, to make sure I knew, beyond all doubt, that the advice to attend Calvary Chapel was from Him. Over the past year God could have used any sort of device or messenger to cause us to attend a service at Calvary Chapel. He could have used an internet search engine, the yellow pages, a radio broad cast or sent someone to knock on our door, but he didn’t. Instead he used the bitter cold of this winter, a broken pipe, Tim the plumber and a friend I hadn’t seen in 20 years. He wasn’t satisfied to just point us in the right direction, he chose to send us through the testimony of a person he used 30 years ago to introduce us to the Living Christ and to change our lives.
Over the past year we have both prayed for God’s guidance on where we should become involved. I won’t trouble you with our “perception” of the dozen or more churches we visited and considered in our search. Suffice to say that none of them, or we, were a good fit. The search was very frustrating but we knew that God would guide us. Last Sunday we had decided it was time to re-visit them all, if necessary. Surely there must be a church within a half hour drive of us that we “belonged” in.
If this was a movie script we would now do a flash back. It’s now 1977, my wife, raised a Catholic, has spent most of her life wanting to know God. I on the other hand, knew Him and was doing my best to avoid Him. (This too is another story) Because she married a doomed to hell protestant the Catholic Church, through two priests, had showed her the door proclaiming her damnation. (No critism of the Catholic Church is intended or implied, today we thank God for his use of those Priests and the Catholic Church in this process) Regardless, she was still determined to know God. Today she tells the story:
“I knew God was there and I wanted to know Him, I was walking to a 3rd Catholic Church as I did I prayed, ““God two Catholic Churches have thrown me out, if you are really there you need to show me””. Very shortly after that, while selling Avon; I met a women named Carol. Carol never bought any Avon that I can remember but I kept going back to her house because she talked about knowing God. I had never met anyone before that actually seemed to know Him. In my life, up to then, no one had ever told me that there was and is a living Christ. Through Carol’s testimony I began attending First Baptist Church in Mt Holly, NJ. There I met Jesus, surrendered my life to him and became a Christian.”
One thing led to another and shortly after my wife got saved I also surrendered my life to Jesus and was born again. For a good portion of 1977 and 1978 Carol and her husband John were involved in our lives on an almost daily basis. In the summer of 1978 we moved to Dallas Texas to attend Christ For the Nations Institute. After we returned to NJ in 1981 we saw John and Carol from time to time but nothing like those first two years. Our new home in NJ was a good distance from where John and Carol lived and we attended different churches. Eventually we lost touch with them. Not for any real reason, just because life/ time/work/families took us in different directions. As best as I can recall, I haven’t seen or talked to John since around 1990.
OK, so we jump back into the time machine and we are back in 2009. I own a home construction, remodeling and plumbing business. I dislike answering machines so I pay for a phone service to receive my incoming calls. Whenever someone calls my office number the answering service answers and then they email me about the call.
On Saturday 1/17/09 at about 3:30 I received an email that a pipe had burst in a home in Little Egg Harbor, the town we live in, and the homeowner needed a plumber. I called Tim who is the real plumber in the company, gave him the contact information and asked if he could respond. Which he did. (For the record, Tim, everyone involved really appreciates your willingness to drop what you were doing and respond to this need.) At about 7:30 PM Tim called to let me know he was finished and told me that the brother-in- law of the homeowner was at the home where he had been working. He went on to say that the brother-in-law knew me and had worked for me sometime in the past. While on the phone he didn’t remember the brother-in-law’s name but he had his card and would be at my house/office in a couple minutes. Although I didn’t say so at the time I already knew in my heart who the brother-in-law was.
As soon as Tim walked through the door the first words out of is mouth were “God works in mysterious ways”. Then he gave me the business card bearing the name of John. The same John I knew from years before. As soon as I could I called the house where the pipe had burst to see if John was still there, he was. We chatted for a couple minute then the subject of Church came up. I told John about our frustrating search for a new Church home to which he responded “have you tried Calvary Chapel on Rt. 9?” I then recounted that we had stopped by there one Sunday morning about 6 months ago. That was on a day we had attended two Sunday morning services at two different churches and had driven to a half dozen other churches as well to see what their service times were. When we had stopped by Calvary Chapel we couldn’t find any sign or indication of when their services were and the place seemed vacant. John told me that Calvary Chapel was an off shoot (for lack of a better term) of the Calvary Chapel led by Chuck Smith and that he and Carol had attended there some years ago. He suggested we should check it out. (Chuck Smith is another familiar name from my past, he taught for a week while I was attending Christ for The Nations Institute.)
We did attend Calvary Chapel this morning and I have no doubt that this and the way we found ourselves there is an answer to prayer. I am not the least bit surprised that God answered our prayer. I am surprised-pleased-amazed at the extent He went, to make sure I knew, beyond all doubt, that the advice to attend Calvary Chapel was from Him. Over the past year God could have used any sort of device or messenger to cause us to attend a service at Calvary Chapel. He could have used an internet search engine, the yellow pages, a radio broad cast or sent someone to knock on our door, but he didn’t. Instead he used the bitter cold of this winter, a broken pipe, Tim the plumber and a friend I hadn’t seen in 20 years. He wasn’t satisfied to just point us in the right direction, he chose to send us through the testimony of a person he used 30 years ago to introduce us to the Living Christ and to change our lives.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Born to Die
I “borrowed” this from a Blog called SanctiFusion. If you click on the title you’ll be taken to the Blog I found it posted on. Robert, who posted it, notes at the bottom that he “borrowed” it from another site. This posting really spoke to my heart and spotlighted what I feel to most true about the condition on the Christian Church here in the North East USA. It speaks so loud that I thought it worth posting for you as well.
Hoping you have a Great day In the Kingdom of God,
Bill
One of my beefs with contemporary Western Christianity is the way it often reduces the Gospel to only one domain, fire insurance. The Good News is apparently only applicable to something totally unfalsifiable, the afterlife. To quote Dr. John Macarthur, Jesus "didn't come to fix life here. He didn't come to eliminate poverty. He didn't come to eliminate slavery." I remember hearing some of my pastors saying that Jesus was “born to die” and that his only purpose was to die for our sins that we might be saved. In short, apparently Jesus didn't come to change anything that can actually be seen, heard, tasted, touched, or felt. He only came to save us from Hell, which none of us has ever seen, and send us to Heaven, which none of us has ever seen.
Here's where my skeptical brain kicks in. How do we know we're not just being sold a bill of goods? Snake Oil? Do we just trust those that tell us we can be “saved” while life, our life, their life, goes on otherwise unchanged? We still go to the same job, eat the same things, dress the same way, spend our leisure time on the same activities, but now we've got a really killer retirement package that we “receive by grace through faith”?
If this is only thing that the “Gospel” is about, doesn't that kind of make a good deal of Jesus' teaching kind of pointless filler? If the Gospel, in it's totality, is about going to Heaven by appropriating God's grace by belief in Jesus' death and resurrection what the heck is the point of the parable of the Sheep and Goats (Matt 25:31-46)? Why worry about most of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7) if I've already got all the Gospel has to offer? Apparently, being a peacemaker (Matt 5:9) doesn't actually make you a child of God. (To be fair, the text does say “Shall be called” not “Shall be”. I guess you can be called one and not be one. I wish Jesus was less confusing on this issue). Are all the interpersonal, social, and moral aspects of the New Testament like optional equipment on a new car, nice to have but not necessary to get you from point A to point B?
I'm thinking this is where I kick platonic assumptions about the nature of reality to the curb. I do believe that Jesus saves us from our sins, but I think He intends to do so in the here and now as well as the sweet by and by. I believe he intends for us to be free from the bondage and consequences of our addiction to consumerism, noise, drugs, lust, the mindless consumption of electronic media, the economic ease and privilege of living at the center of the Empire, etc. now, as well as later.
I refuse to serve a neutered Jesus that has been made in our image and is safe for mass consumption. I don't need a smarmy platitude-spewing Lord that is simply there to give me an eternal pass on all my instances of wrath, greed, apathy, or elitism. I want Him to be fierce in my life. Like Aslan in Narnia, I pray that Jesus is good, but not "safe" for me to spend time with. I want Him to destroy my apathy and self-deception to reveal what His Kingdom, what His Gospel is truly about. I want to see the Gospel, the declaration of the ascendancy of a new King, turn the world upside down again, to save people here and now. I want to see Jesus set addicts free, mend broken families, reconcile communities, and bring peace to nations. I just pray that I have the courage to walk into that new land when I'm given a glimpse of it. Then, after a long hard fight, I'll take that retirement plan.
(Shamelessly stolen from a recent page at The Ooze!)
Hoping you have a Great day In the Kingdom of God,
Bill
One of my beefs with contemporary Western Christianity is the way it often reduces the Gospel to only one domain, fire insurance. The Good News is apparently only applicable to something totally unfalsifiable, the afterlife. To quote Dr. John Macarthur, Jesus "didn't come to fix life here. He didn't come to eliminate poverty. He didn't come to eliminate slavery." I remember hearing some of my pastors saying that Jesus was “born to die” and that his only purpose was to die for our sins that we might be saved. In short, apparently Jesus didn't come to change anything that can actually be seen, heard, tasted, touched, or felt. He only came to save us from Hell, which none of us has ever seen, and send us to Heaven, which none of us has ever seen.
Here's where my skeptical brain kicks in. How do we know we're not just being sold a bill of goods? Snake Oil? Do we just trust those that tell us we can be “saved” while life, our life, their life, goes on otherwise unchanged? We still go to the same job, eat the same things, dress the same way, spend our leisure time on the same activities, but now we've got a really killer retirement package that we “receive by grace through faith”?
If this is only thing that the “Gospel” is about, doesn't that kind of make a good deal of Jesus' teaching kind of pointless filler? If the Gospel, in it's totality, is about going to Heaven by appropriating God's grace by belief in Jesus' death and resurrection what the heck is the point of the parable of the Sheep and Goats (Matt 25:31-46)? Why worry about most of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7) if I've already got all the Gospel has to offer? Apparently, being a peacemaker (Matt 5:9) doesn't actually make you a child of God. (To be fair, the text does say “Shall be called” not “Shall be”. I guess you can be called one and not be one. I wish Jesus was less confusing on this issue). Are all the interpersonal, social, and moral aspects of the New Testament like optional equipment on a new car, nice to have but not necessary to get you from point A to point B?
I'm thinking this is where I kick platonic assumptions about the nature of reality to the curb. I do believe that Jesus saves us from our sins, but I think He intends to do so in the here and now as well as the sweet by and by. I believe he intends for us to be free from the bondage and consequences of our addiction to consumerism, noise, drugs, lust, the mindless consumption of electronic media, the economic ease and privilege of living at the center of the Empire, etc. now, as well as later.
I refuse to serve a neutered Jesus that has been made in our image and is safe for mass consumption. I don't need a smarmy platitude-spewing Lord that is simply there to give me an eternal pass on all my instances of wrath, greed, apathy, or elitism. I want Him to be fierce in my life. Like Aslan in Narnia, I pray that Jesus is good, but not "safe" for me to spend time with. I want Him to destroy my apathy and self-deception to reveal what His Kingdom, what His Gospel is truly about. I want to see the Gospel, the declaration of the ascendancy of a new King, turn the world upside down again, to save people here and now. I want to see Jesus set addicts free, mend broken families, reconcile communities, and bring peace to nations. I just pray that I have the courage to walk into that new land when I'm given a glimpse of it. Then, after a long hard fight, I'll take that retirement plan.
(Shamelessly stolen from a recent page at The Ooze!)
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