Category: Church

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Church the Way It Used to Be?

The other day I was traveling down the interstate here in the sunny South, and I saw a billboard that advertised a certain church that also had a Christian school. The sign proclaimed that this particular ministry was “Church and school the way it used to be.” I got to thinking about this sign, and wondering what they meant.

Did they mean church the way it used to be when the American culture gave lip service to Christianity with blue laws and other vestiges of Christendom? Maybe they longed for the days when some churches in the South defended racism with Scripture proof-texts. How about going back to the days when the differences between churches were enough to start a war? Or perhaps, the folks in this church wanted to go all the way back to the first century, when churches argued over which teacher to follow, or treated the poor in their congregation with disrespect.
It doesn’t really matter what they meant by “church the way it used to be.” We are not living in any point of time during the last 2000 years. We are living today, in the 21st Century. While human nature is still basically the same, there are so many things that have changed. While some of us would like to be able to gather daily with the church as they did in the early church, that may be impossible today. Attitudes toward the church in America have changed in the last 50 or 60 years, so a different approach is necessary. In other parts of the world, the church faces an entirely different set of challenges. Their “good old days” may be a time when there was no church in that land. Should they long to go back to that?
Instead of looking back to an imagined time when “things were better,” and striving to get those days back, we should be looking for ways to be followers of Jesus in the time and place we are in. Although I can think of one way we can do things the way they used to be done, or at least should have been done all along. The first command that Jesus gave his church was to love one another as he loved us. That command has never changed.
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Community: All For One, One For All

“All for one, one for all” was the motto of the Three Musketeers. It could very easily be the motto of the church. As a people who follow Jesus Christ, you could say that we are all for One, and that One is for all of us. At least, that’s the way it should be. Sometimes though, it seems that the church has become more “all for us.”

I think that Jesus had the same idea as Alexandre Dumas when he established his Church, his Body. Scripture records Jesus teaching the importance of our relationships within a community of his followers. In Matthew 5:21-22, he says that treating others with anger or contempt puts us in danger of judgement. In verses 23-24 of the same chapter, Jesus tells us to get our relationships put right before we come to worship him (Hmmm, I wonder how many places would be empty on Sunday mornings if we really believed that). I think it is interesting that in those verses Jesus tells us to go and be reconciled with our brother or sister if they have anything against us. He doesn’t put that responsibility on the one who has been offended, and he doesn’t tell us to go if we think we are responsible for offending someone. In Matthew 18, Jesus does direct us to go to those who sin, but again, the goal is reconciliation. And, let’s face it, almost all of our problems within a community are due to things other than direct sin (although sin can result because of those things).
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes the church as a body. To me, this chapter contains a perfect picture of what a community of faith is. It’s a body. Think about your body. Does your hand deliberately form a fist and hit your nose with it? Of course not! If your hand accidentally moves in a way that causes it to strike your nose and cause it to bleed, does your hand say, “Oh, well. I didn’t mean it, so I don’t need to do anything.” No, your hand is involved in getting tissues and holding them to your nose and trying to stop the bleeding. Every part of the body is important, no matter how small or weak. If any part of the body is hurt, the rest of the body feels that pain. A bad headache can cause the stomach to feel sick. An imbalance in the feet can cause damage to the knees, or a misalignment of the spine. The body is designed by the Creator to function as one, and when it does we see the glory of a great athlete or a prima ballerina.
Christ’s body is also designed to function as one. In John 17:11, Jesus asks the Father to make us one, just as he and the Father are one. When the body of Jesus functions as one, we see the glory of grace, the beauty of love, and the Kingdom of God is built up. When that body stubs it’s toe, or when a hand accidentally flies up and causes hurt to another part, that damage must be repaired. If it is not, the result is a deformed caricature of a body that is ugly and repulsive. The result is a body that does not bring glory to its Creator.
All for one, one for all. What would things be like if Christ’s body on this earth lived by that motto?
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Foundations

Today was Professional Career Day at school. This morning the sixth grade had an assembly where they heard a speaker talk about preparing now for their future careers. He spoke about foundations, how everything they did now laid a foundation for what they wanted to do. If they didn’t lay a good foundation now, they would never be what they wanted to be.

Jesus said that we must build our house on a solid foundation. He said that unless we listened to his teachings and followed them, the house that we build will fall flat when trouble comes. I think this is applicable to the church as well as to our individual lives.
There have been many foundations on which churches have been built over the centuries. Some have been built on the authority of a man or council of men. Some have been built on this creed or that confession. Others have claimed that they were built on Scripture alone. Some have even been established on the foundation of a political leader’s ideas of church and state. Today, some churches are built on a foundation of building a large organization. Others are built on a certain idea of what’s going to happen in the end. There are churches erected on the foundation of doing things differently from the way they’ve always been done. Others are established on building community, or helping other people.
Not all of these things are bad or useless. Some of them are very good. People are brought to faith and Christians are built up by many of these things. The problem comes when we make anything other than Jesus Christ the foundation. When anything else is the base of the house we are building, there will be strong areas to be sure. There will also be areas that will be terribly weak, with holes and other defects. It is those weak areas that will cause the house to eventually come crumbling down.
Like our lives, our churches must be built on Jesus Christ and his teachings. He is the head of the church, and we are his body. He is the sole reason the church exists. He is everything. Let us make sure that our lives and our communities of faith, regardless of what we call them, are built on the only foundation guaranteed to be strong and sure – Jesus.
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Community and Church Discipline

Church discipline is a subject that is seen in many different ways by different people and different churches. We are given general guidance in Matthew 18 and in Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church. Over the centuries, it has been misused by those in authority and been ignored by others.

While I have always believed that the concept of church discipline is Biblical, the way that concept is carried out has always been a bit fuzzy. In some churches, a person can be subject to discipline for things like not attending every time the doors are open, or going to movies. Some churches don’t hold their members accountable at all. Other churches carry out discipline only to see those folks go across town to another church. There have even been cases where those who have been disciplined have sued the church.

In the last year or so, I have gained an appreciation for what church discipline was in the early church, and for what it can be today. In the institutional church, things are structured in a way that prevents people from really getting to know one another and forming a real community. Even the small group is usually conducted in a way that keeps folks from knowing and being known. This not only allows folks to put on a good front and hide what’s going on, it also prevents people from being able to speak into the lives of others because that close relationship isn’t there.

In a simple church, such as St. Thomas, one of the most important things is community, a sense of family. The gatherings are for the purpose of building one another up, and transparency is not only encouraged but worked for. The goal is to be open and honest with each other, and allow others to speak into our lives. It can be a messy process, but it is also vital to spiritual formation. In the time we have been meeting together, I have grown in my relationship with the Father, and closer to my brothers and sisters. They have become my family along with my physical family. If I ever did something that would cause me to be removed from the fellowship of this grace filled group, it would break my heart. I can see how Paul’s instruction to remove the sinner from fellowship could be so devastating and how it would cause the person to repent.

Maybe church discipline would be effective if more congregations really were communities of faith and not just organizations.

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God’s Response to the “War on Christmas”

James Stillwell posted this a few years ago. It’s titled, “God’s Response to the ‘War on Christmas'”. With Black Friday kicking off the Christmas shopping season this week, this is worth a read.

Dear Children,

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. I don’t care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth, just get along and love one another. Now, having said, that let Me go on.

If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn’t allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santas and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn’t be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.

Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree, instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can and may remember Me anytime you see any tree.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list :

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I know, they tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don’t have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can’t afford and they don’t need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.

4. Pick someone that has hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.

5. Did you know that someone in your town will attempt to take their own life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don’t know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile it could make the difference. Also, you might consider supporting the local Hot-Line: they talk with people like that every day.

6. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren’t allowed to wish you a “Merry Christmas” that doesn’t keep you from wishing them one. Then stop shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn’t make so much money on that day, they’d close and let their employees spend the day at home with their families.

7. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary, especially one who takes My love and Good News to those who have never heard My name. You may already know someone like that.

8. Here’s a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no “Christmas” tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive. If you don’t know them, buy some food and a few gifts and give them to some charity that believes in Me and they will make the delivery for you.

9. Finally if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don’t do things in secret that you wouldn’t do in My presence. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.

Sincerely,

-God

P.S. Don’t forget, I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do what I have told you to do. I’ll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above and get to work, time is short. I’ll help you, but the ball is now in your court. And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those you love and, remember, I love you.

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I Am Sad Today

My heart is grieving today. Today would have been the 11th birthday of a little girl named Zahra Baker. She is the girl who was reported missing over a month ago, and whose remains are being found in various places. Those of you who live in the Charlotte area are familiar with the story.

My heart is grieving, but it also cries out for justice. I must admit that a large part of me asks for no mercy for someone who would abuse, and then kill, a child. Another part of me wonders what could cause someone to commit such unspeakable acts, and wonders at the injustices along the way that allowed this.

I could probably come up with a long list of failures on the part of people that caused this tragedy to happen. The whole story has not come out, but there was allegedly abuse at home. I don’t know how many visits social service workers made, or if they noticed anything amiss. Relatives have said that they knew that things were not good at home. One of them was quoted as saying that Zahra had a horrible home life, and that, “this was something…we knew was going happen.” The family’s neighbors had not seen the girl out of the house for at least a month, and some of them didn’t even know she lived there. My heart grieves for a world where relatives know something is going on and feel, for whatever reason, unable to step into the situation. I grieve for a world where neighbors don’t know what is going on in the lives of those around them.

I am not condemning the relatives or neighbors in this case. I don’t know their situations, so I have no right. What I do know, and what breaks my heart is that we live in a world where we have shut ourselves off from our neighbors, or in some cases, our own families. We leave our houses in the morning, drive to work by ourselves, spend our day barely interacting with our coworkers, drive back home, where we shut the door to the outside world. At the most, we wave to our neighbor as we drive away. How many of us spend time with those who live around us, getting to know them as people? How many of us who call themselves followers of Christ spend time with our neighbors without an agenda to “get them saved?” How many of us see them as beings made in the image of God, rather than as those on the “outside?”

Abuse and other problems happen in churches just like they do “out in the world.” We don’t pick up on these things because we do not build deeper relationships. How many of us really know those we call brothers and sisters in Christ? How many churches are filled with folks who show up on Sunday morning, settle into their comfortable seat, sing a few songs, listen to a stirring (or not) talk, then get into their cars and drive back home, waiting until the next week before they see anyone in the church again? Even many of our small groups are superficial, and don’t let any “fellowship” delve into what is really going on in our lives. We worship with people who look like us, think like us, and drive the same quality car as us. We make sure that our time together is spent on things that don’t unmask us, so we accumulate more knowledge. We equate discipleship to imparting knowledge about Scripture and the spiritual life rather than pouring our life into the life of another person. We are afraid to let others inside the wall, because we fear what they might say. We fear rejection or condemnation.

My heart grieves. It also cries, ‘Enough!” It is time for the body of Christ to stop acting like a bunch of unconnected parts, and begin spending time with one another, building into each other’s lives. This will be revolutionary for many in the institutional church, because it will mean that the majority of our time will need to be spent in going from house to house rather than from meeting to meeting. We will spend more time building relationships than building programs. Our money will go to help individuals in need instead of a building program. We will know who has need and giving will come naturally, not from a “benevolence ministry.”

Relationships are not easy. They can be very messy, and sometimes painful. The alternative is continuing in the, “How are you doing?” “Fine,” way of dealing with people. We can let down our guard and develop deep relationships fueled by love, or we can stay on the surface and never get to know others. We can know people and be known well enough to step in and help when it’s needed, or we can say we never saw it coming when the world collapses on them. We can be the body of Christ, or we can be people who just “go to church.”

Choose wisely.

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The Screen in the Corner

In What Good is God?, Philip Yancey tells the story of the brave young woman who helped spark the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine. The opposition candidate, Victor Yushchenko, having already faced an attempt to poison him, had a 10 percent lead over the government candidate on election day. The government then tried to steal the election.

The state-run television reported the election results in favor of the state’s man. What the authorities forgot was the small inset in the lower right hand corner of the screen, where a young woman provided sign language interpretation for the hearing-impaired. While the announcer was trumpeting the defeat of Yushchenko, this courageous woman was signing, “I am addressing all the deaf citizens of Ukraine. Don’t believe what they are saying. They are lying and I am ashamed to translate those lies. Yushchenko is our President!” No one in the studio understood sign language. The message spread like wildfire and within days a million Ukrainians descended on Kiev and demanded new elections. The government was forced to give in, and Yushchenko became president.

Yancey makes the point that this is what the church should be, a small screen in the corner announcing that what the big screen is blaring is a lie. Those who control the big screen are telling us that our worth hinges on how we look, how much we make, what we wear, or what we do. As we look at the screen we see the bright and the beautiful, the rich and the famous, the powerful, those who are famous for simply being famous. The message is that we should strive to be just like them. That is the message we see on the big screen. Unfortunately, the message that is exported to the rest of the world is that everyone in “Christian” America is rich, spoiled, and decadent. And we wonder why so many hate Christianity throughout the world.

We have a perfect example of the small screen in the One we claim to follow. The big screen of first century Judaism told folks that the healthy, wealthy, and wise were the ones who could expect God’s favor. The kingdom of God was reserved for them. Along came Jesus, proclaiming that the kingdom was open to the downtrodden, the poor, the outcasts, the very ones that were seen as unworthy. His kingdom would not be built on military might, or on wealth, or on religious tradition. It would be built on love, and the ones on the bottom would enter before the movers and shakers of society. This message is even more revolutionary than the one which sparked the Orange Revolution.

The problem is that much of the church has either tried to control the big screen or has put up an imitation screen. We have our version of the rich and famous. Just watch Christian television. Take a look at the shelves in Christian bookstore, or the speaker lineup at any conference. Many of those people are fine folks with good ministries, but I don’t think you could argue that there is not a cult of personality out there. We just don’t do a very good job of broadcasting that subversive message that our Lord proclaimed.

Although there is still a great deal of “big screen Christianity,” there are those who are working in the corner, spreading the revolutionary message of a kingdom that doesn’t come with great fanfare, but arrives quietly and spreads like yeast, working its way through. It’s a kingdom that is built on sacrificial acts of love, not displays of might. Its subjects lay down their lives for each other, rather than using them to climb the ladder.

May their tribe increase.

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Where Do You Stay?

One of the things about working with young African-American students is the things you learn. I have noticed that they will ask someone where they “stay” while I would ask where they “live”. I was thinking that maybe they are closer to speaking correctly than those of us who speak “good” grammar. The house that I share with my wife is the place where I stay when I am not out at work, etc., much like someone stays at a motel. But I “live” everywhere I go and in everything I do. I’m certainly not dead when I am away from home.

Now, think of the words “church” and “worship”. Growing up, I was always taught that “church” is the place you go to a few times a week to “worship” God. You know, “This is the church, this is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people.” I have since come to the realization that this is not the correct way to use these terms. The little ditty should go, “This is the building, this is the steeple, open the doors and see the church.” And since we are the church, we continue to be the church everywhere we go and in everything we do. In the same way, “worship” is not just something we do a couple of times a week in a “worship service”. Worship is what the followers of Jesus should be doing in each thing we do. It should be in the fabric of our being. The weekly service is the church coming together to do corporately what they have been doing individually throughout the week. Our Sunday worship should be an overflow of what we are about the other six days.

Think about the difference it would make in our lives as individuals and as congregations if we re-thought those two terms (as well as others.)

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Don’t Forget

  • A few years ago I watched a video from the “That the World May Know” series. It was titled “Walk as Jesus Walked: Don’t Forget Us”. It’s about following Jesus in suffering and persecution. I’d always thought that while Christians in countries such as China or the Sudan were suffering for their faith, we here in the “Christian” West had it easy. And that is true to a great extent – the biggest thing we have to worry about is having someone make fun of us. The video showed me something that I had never thought of before. In 1 Corinthians 12:12, 26, Paul writes, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ….If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

    Do we suffer with the parts of the body that are going through persecution and suffering? Do we even know when they are suffering? I think the fact that we generally don’t enter into or even know of the suffering of our brothers and sisters is because we have lost that sense of oneness in the body that the early church had. Most of the time we don’t even know the struggles that others have in our local churches, so how do we expect to know what goes on around the world? There is no excuse for not knowing what is going on out there. Voice of the Martyrs and other organizations are constantly giving accounts of the suffering in the body. It does take a little work, but it can be done. Find out.

    If you want an object lesson about what it means when the whole body suffers because of one part, hit your thumb hard with a hammer. Then tell me if your whole body feels it or if you can keep the effects localized on your thumb. That is how the body of Christ is. Or at least how it should be.

    Find out how your brothers and sisters in Christ are suffering. Pray for them. Let their suffering affect you. Above all – never forget them.

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Fear

I’m sitting in my living room, watching the Restore Sanity and/or Fear rally with John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. There is a lot of funny stuff going on, but in the midst of the fun and games, there is a message that rings true and seems to be very appropriate this weekend. One of the things Colbert and Stewart are going back and forth about is fear. Colbert rants about fear, and Stewart tries to counter him. There were many media examples of things that we should fear, from both ends of the political spectrum. Most of the fears are overblown, and only serve to stir people up.

The reason I think the timing of this rally is appropriate is that this is the weekend that many in the church fear the most: The “Devil’s holiday,” otherwise known as Halloween. It is also the time of year when productions like “Helloween” and “Judgement House” use fear as a means of evangelism. The month of October, especially the last week, is the most terrifying month on the church calendar. Many Christians try to avoid Halloween completely, sitting in the basement and pretending they are not home. Their kids are not allowed to participate in the festivities. Others gather together and have celebrations with others because they want their kids to be able to dress up and get candy. These gatherings have names like “Trunk or Treat,” or “Harvest Festival,” and are attempts to Christianize what they see as a pagan holiday. When our children were growing up, we were in that second category.

I believe that we should all live according to our convictions, but those convictions should not be based in fear. In this article that I linked to yesterday, the author states that the celebration of All Saints began in the 300s, and that the date of November 1 and the night before was fixed on the church calendar in the 700s. The idea of celebrating the saints came about as a way of saying that Satan and death do not have the last word. The saints are alive. The author makes the point that the church has looked for ways to mock Satan throughout the centuries, including picturing him in a red suit with a tail. From gargoyles on churches to Martin Luther choosing October 31 as the day when he nailed his 95 Theses to the church door, the Christians have chosen to mock Satan rather than cower in fear. And he should be mocked, because he has been defeated.

I know that Scripture says that the Devil roams around like a lion, looking for folks to devour, but I think that means something other than living in fear because some people claim evil stalks the land at the end of October. There are more important things to be concerned about, and their are many other ways Satan tries to steal, kill, and destroy. He is alive and active in this world, but Scripture does tell us that the One who is in us is greater. Satan and his greatest weapon, death, is defeated because Jesus was raised from the dead. We are not given a spirit of fear, but rather, a spirit that calls God Abba. If the creator of the universe is our Father, should we fear anything? I think not.

So, go out and celebrate Halloween. Or not. Whatever you choose to do, do it out of conviction that is based on faith in a God who is all powerful, not a feeling of fear.