At the World Congress on How Not to Mess up the Great Commission too Much, the keynote speaker said, "Aim lower, Think smaller, Give up, and Go have a cup of coffee."
Friday, February 27, 2015
World Congress on How Not to Mess up the Great Commission Too Much
At the World Congress on How Not to Mess up the Great Commission too Much, the keynote speaker said, "Aim lower, Think smaller, Give up, and Go have a cup of coffee."
For the full recording of his 5 minute talk, click here:
Friday, February 20, 2015
Accountability
That’s not a very popular word these days. It goes against
the grain. Especially in America, where two of our culture’s core values are
freedom and autonomy. Accountability is surely no way to attract crowds and build
a big church!
But accountability is an indispensable component in
discipling. We must mutually submit to one another and hold each other
accountable for the most important commitments in our lives.
John Wesley practiced accountability in his class meetings,
which “encapsulated several of the key principles of New Testament
Christianity: personal growth within the context of an intimate fellowship,
accountability for spiritual stewardship, ‘bearing one another’s burdens,’ and ‘speaking
the truth in love.’”[1]
Perhaps you have heard of the famous question, “How is it with your soul?” In
other Wesleyan venues, this general question was broken out into specifics such
as, “What known sins have you committed since our last meeting? What
temptations have you been met with?”[2]
and so on.
The Bible is clear that we are to submit to one another out
of respect for Christ, that we are to confess our sins to one another. So I don’t
have an issue with accountability. But such is simply not fashionable these
days. American values conspire against accountability, and it’s certainly no
way to grow a church.
So I want to tell you about a church where the members are
mutually accountable to one another. Last Sunday some of my students and I visited
Onward Church in Fishers, Indiana. Onward
was planted just over three years ago, by Pastor Gary Stump, who
resigned as pastor of a mega church (which was based on the attractional model)
that he had planted a decade earlier. He realized that while he had succeeded
in making about 1,500 church members, he had utterly failed to make disciples.
So he planted Onward Church on the discipling model.
Here is where accountability comes in. As my students and I
entered the worship area, we each received this card:
Accountability!
Part way through the service, Pastor Gary asked everyone to
complete the card. He allowed a few minutes for this to happen, then asked the
people to drop the card in the offering basket. Accountability!
You see, it is simply not good enough to preach and teach
biblical truth. We must take the next step and ask each other how we’re doing
at living what we say we believe.
After worship, I asked about the results: What are the
members of Onward Church reporting on these yellow cards? Ed Watson, director
of small groups, told me that they surveyed the membership on each of the first
three Sundays of this year, and that after eliminating duplicate responses,
here is what they reported for all of 2014:
1. How many
people would you estimate you have shared your faith with this year?
654
654
2.
How many people have expressed a decision to
place their faith in Christ?
101
101
3.
How many people have been baptized this
year?
16
16
4.
How many people/groups have you led through the
T4T short-term discipleship lessons? 60 people/14 groups
5.
How many people/groups have you led through the
“Thru the Bible” study material?
76 people/ 15 groups
76 people/ 15 groups
6.
How many groups are you currently leading?
16
16
7.
How many of the people that you led have started
their own group?
12
12
Accountability! Disciples holding each other accountable for
what they believe! I don’t know about your church, but my church members surely
would not have been able to report these kinds of numbers.
There are multiple factors that go into making Onward Church
what it is, and accountability is only one of those factors. But I know that
Pastor Gary would say that it is an indispensable factor! Without being
accountable for sharing their faith and discipling others, they would not have
been nearly as effective in their individual and corporate ministry as they
were last year.
It is time for a fresh revival of accountability among the
people of God.
Friday, February 13, 2015
We do not live to ourselves. . . . we live to the Lord.
I’m not very old, relatively speaking; I’ve only been around
for 65 years, so in the grand scheme of things I’m really not that old. In my
short time on this earth, I have never seen social change as rapid as the gay
marriage change that is sweeping our country. I saw the civil rights movement,
the women’s movement, etc. And each of them took many years – decades, in fact.
But, for a variety of reasons, the current social change is the fastest I’ve
ever seen. And it comes under the umbrella of the much larger topic of human
sexuality (heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, you name it).
As denomination after denomination deals with this issue,
the inevitable result seems to be church splits. Good people on different sides
of the issue take their stand, dig in their heels, and form splinter groups.
Might I offer an alternative to denominational splits and
backroom political maneuvers? It seems to me that a Christ follower might want
to consider the 14th chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Romans:
Welcome those who are weak in
faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. Some
believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who
eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass
judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are
you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that
they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make
them stand.
Some judge one day to be better
than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully
convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in
honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they
give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and
give thanks to God.
We do not live to ourselves, and we
do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die,
we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the
Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be
Lord of both the dead and the living.
Why do you pass judgment on your
brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For
we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is
written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every
tongue shall give praise to God.” So then, each of us will be
accountable to God.
Let us therefore no longer pass
judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or
hindrance in the way of another. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that
nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If
your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer
walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ
died. So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom
of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit. The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human
approval. Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual
upbuilding.
Do not, for the sake of food,
destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to
make others fall by what you eat; it is good not to eat meat or drink wine
or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. The faith that
you have, have as your own conviction before God. Blessed are those who have no
reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve. But those who
have doubts are condemned if they eat, because they do not act from faith;
for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (NRSV).
Yes, I know that Paul was writing about the morality of
eating food that had been offered as sacrifices to pagan idols. Today’s LGBTQ
issues were not on his radar; they didn’t even exist in the first century. I
get that. But read this text deeply. And look at his main points:
1.
Do not quarrel over opinions.
2.
Some believers accept things that other (he
calls them weaker) believers cannot accept.
3.
The two must not despise each other.
4.
None of us is to pass judgment on fellow
believers.
5.
We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die
to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the
Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
6.
We should resolve never to put a stumbling block
in the way of another.
7.
Anything is clean or unclean for the one who
thinks it so.
8.
If your brother or sister is being injured by anything
you do, you are no longer walking in love.
9. Do not let your behavior cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.
9. Do not let your behavior cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.
10. Let
us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
11. Do
not, for the sake of your conscience, destroy the work of God.
Eleven
pretty good, pretty strong, and pretty clear points. And I think they apply to
many (perhaps all?) conscience questions, including this one. It seems
to me that the underlying principles are:
1.
Love for every person for whom Christ died.
2.
Respect for every person for whom Christ died.
3.
Pursuit of peace and mutual upbuilding.
4.
Willingness to put aside one’s personal
preferences for the spiritual good of another.
Before you beat me up over this,
know that I have read and studied the biblical passages about homosexuality. My
conclusions are, first, that the Bible makes it clear that homosexual practice
is not consistent with Christian living. Period. And I am aware that people of good
will disagree with me on this.
Second, that this issue is not
really very important in the grand scheme of things, because the Bible talks a
whole lot about God’s love for all of humanity, a whole lot about our responsibility
to care for the poor and the oppressed, and very little about homosexuality.
And third, because there is no record
that Jesus ever spoke of this issue (he spoke most often about our possessions
and how we use them), I conclude that if this issue were really important, at least
one of the Gospel writers would have included whatever, if anything, Jesus may
have said about it. Near the end of his Gospel, John wrote that “Jesus did many
other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this
book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may
have life in his name” (20:30-31). My conclusion is that the fourth Gospel writer
(and likely the first three!) made some strategic choices of what to include
and what to omit, and that the most important things for our salvation were
written down. Therefore, homosexuality is not all that important for our
salvation.
So, knowing exactly what I’m doing,
I humbly offer a paraphrase of Romans 12, changing the issue from the original
to the current.
Welcome those whose beliefs on
homosexuality are different than your own, but not for the purpose of quarreling
over opinions. Some believe in practices that you don’t believe in. Those
who do must not despise those who don’t, and those who don’t must not pass judgment
on those who do; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass
judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or
fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
Some judge one day to be better
than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully
convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in
honor of the Lord. And there are those who believe they practice one form of
love in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; and there are those
who believe they practice another form of love in honor of the same Lord and
give thanks to God. Who is able to judge whether one’s belief is more correct
than the other?
We do not live to ourselves, and we
do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die,
we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the
Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be
Lord of both the dead and the living.
Why do you pass judgment on your
brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For
we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is
written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every
tongue shall give praise to God.” So then, each of us will be
accountable to God.
Let us therefore no longer pass
judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or
hindrance in the way of another. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that
nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If
your brother or sister is being injured by what you believe and practice
sexually, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let your sexual beliefs and
practices cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. So do not let your
good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not sexual belief and
practice but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The one
who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval. Let us
then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Do not, for the sake of sexual
belief and practice, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but
it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you do; it is good not to practice
certain sexual acts or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.
The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God. Blessed are
those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve. But
those who have doubts are condemned if they behave in certain ways, because
they do not act from faith; for whatever does not proceed from faith
is sin (JHA, based on NRSV).
We do not live to ourselves. . . . we live to the Lord.
Peace and joy and righteousness in the Holy Spirit to you and to all. I welcome
your comments.
Friday, February 6, 2015
How Disciples Handle Conflict
A few days ago, I got involved in a social media dust-up
with a good friend. He posted something and I responded. I thought nothing of
it, but my response rattled his cage. He was surprised by my response, so he
contacted me privately to ask if we could talk.
Talk we did. He explained himself and I explained myself.
And we resolved our issue; our friendship was intact. Talking face to face,
reading body language, hearing tone of voice, we were much better able to
communicate than through social media.
And I got to thinking about his action. Surprised by my
response, he asked if we could talk. He asked if we could talk. He did
exactly what Jesus commanded in Matthew 18:15-20:
“If a fellow believer hurts you, go
and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a
friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence
of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen,
tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over
from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s
forgiving love. Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no
on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this.
When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of
it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are
together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”
The Message
Ever since I discovered this peacemaking, reconciling
teaching, I have tried to practice it. I’m sure that my practice has been less
than perfect. I’m sure that I’ve missed the mark at least a few times. But “going
and telling” has always been my hope and my goal. And when my friend did it, it
warmed my heart.
One final observation: Note Jesus’ promise in verse 20, “And
when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll
be there.” How many times have we Christians taken that verse out of its
context? For example, when the weather is bad, and only a handful of people
show up for church, we often hear something like, “Well, let’s go ahead and
have church, because Jesus said whenever two or three gather in my name!”
True enough, Jesus did say that. And I believe it. But
take a look at the context – He made that heart-warming promise at the end of
his teaching on how to handle conflict! What we have here is the solemn promise
of the Son of God that whenever two or three of His disciples get together to
resolve conflict that He will be there! Glory to God! We need not be afraid to “go
and tell” because Jesus Christ himself will be right there with us as we work
it out. No fear!
So my fellow disciple, next time “a fellow believer hurts
you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you.” You have Jesus’ word
that He will be there.
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