Category: Uncategorized

Bless One Another

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

Heard Calvin Miller again last night.  With great stories he illustrated his main point to bless one another.  Praise someone when you see them doing a good job.  Thank people.  Encourage people.  Pray with people.  And do all of these things even when they oppose you – blessing one another draws us together.  Keep blessing people until it becomes so natural you don’t even realize you are doing it. 

Think about what our churches could become if we all lived this way!  Think of the witness to Christ if people thought of Christians and His church this way!  May we grow in compassion for people and so see the love of Christ formed within us.

Community of Redemption

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

Heard Calvin Miller speak last night.  He is a great storyteller, but one phrase stuck out to me – the church is to be a “community of redemption.”  I started thinking about that phrase:

Community – not just a collection of individuals but a community, a family, a group.  Think relationships.  Think loving one another, caring for one another, encouraging one another.  Compassion.  Community.

Of redemption – not just a social club or a holy huddle.  Rather a people who have been redeemed that go out to share that redemption with others in great need of it.  Again, there is compassion as we share that redemption with others.

May God help our churches (and may we do our part) to be communities of redemption.

Open Our Eyes

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

I read yesterday that a Christian musician I listened to a few years back is in a homosexual relationship.  What’s more, this person apparently finds this relationship in accordance with Christianity – despite the Bible’s clear statements against it.  Oh the deception of sin!  I find myself wondering if this person is simply trying to justify (excuse) their sin that they find desirable, or have they really come to believe that it is not sin – have they become blind to their sin.  I suppose it would be easy for many to judge this individual, but this entire thing brings two questions to my mind.

Are there sins that I enjoy and seek to justify or excuse?

Are there sins in my own life to which I am blind?

“Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts!  And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” – Psalm 139:23-24

Disappointment at Church

On By BrianIn Uncategorized1 Comment

It happens all the time.  People become disappointed in their church and leave.  Maybe they were offended by someone.  Maybe they didn’t feel like anyone cared.  Maybe an important crisis or milestone in their life was missed.  Any number of reasons can cause disappointment in church.

Yet the local church is the context God created for us to grow in our walk with the Lord.  We were saved individually to be part of a community – the body of Christ.  Leaving a church in most situations neither helps the person leaving or the church.  And those who walk away from church altogether do terrible harm to their walk with Christ.  Again, God did not save us to be lone ranger Christians – he saved us into the body of Christ.

How can the church address these disappointments?  What can pastors do?  What can the disappointed do?  Kevin DeYoung gives some great thoughts on this in a three part blog.  Part 1 is an introduction.  Part 2 is addressed to pastors.  Part 3 is addressed to the disappointed.  By reading and applying these ideas, our churches could become much stronger and more united.  May God grant this in each of our churches.

Living as a Body

On By BrianIn Uncategorized2 Comments

What would it look like for a local church to function as a body instead of as individuals?

I Corinthians 12 tells us that when we are saved we are all baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ.  As such, we are all members of the Body – with the local church being a local manifestation of the Body.  The metaphor clearly suggests that we are to be working together, functioning together.  We are not simply to be individuals who pop in on Sunday morning for a time of worship.  So again my question to you:

What would it look like for a local church to function as a body instead of as individuals?

Why I Love The Church

On By BrianIn Uncategorized3 Comments

At the conference I attended last week (see last post), Ted Kluck gave several reasons why he loved the church.  Since I insisted in the last post that we must love the church, I thought I might make my own list of why I love the church.  Granted the church has its share of problems (it is made up of people like us!), but there are many reasons to love the church:

  1. Preaching of the Word – There is something wonderful about gathering together on a regular basis to focus on the Word of God.  And there is great value in having another person speak the Word to us.  Presumably this person has studied the passage and can bring out things we would have completely missed – both in interpretation and application.  In a sermon we hear the  Word proclaimed with the clear expectation of a response.  One thing I miss about being a pastor is not hearing the Word preached regularly every Sunday by someone else.
  2. Corporate Worship – There is something wonderful about gathering with the same people every week to worship God.  This is not something you can duplicate on your own, with a praise CD, or by hopping from church to church.
  3. Corporate Prayer – There is nothing like knowing you have a church family praying for you in difficult times.  Better yet is to have someone pray for you while you are gathered with your church family in prayer.
  4. Relationships – People who are often very different gather together in the name of Jesus.  Sure, this can create untold conflicts, but it can also enrich our lives in many ways.  And how much I have learned from older more experienced saints!
  5. Accountability – If I start to stray in life or doctrine, I know at least one person in my church will confront me.  I need this!
  6. Humility – The church reminds me that it is not about me.  How often things don’t happen as I may want them to happen, but that is okay, because it is not about me.  I may not always like this, but I do need this!
  7. Gospel – In the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and the singing of many hymns, I am regularly confronted with the good news of Jesus Christ.  Most of all, I need this!

These are just a few things I love about the church.  I’m sure we could add to this list.  What would you add?

Loving Christ and his Church

On By BrianIn Uncategorized1 Comment

I had the opportunity today to attend a pastors conference entitled “Don’t Stop Loving The Church” with Kevin DeYoung, Ted Kluck, and Mike Wittmer.  A few take home points:

DeYoung: Some folks want Jesus without the church, but if the church is built on Christ’s foundation, then without the church we have a basement without a house.  If the church is the body of Christ, then without the church we have a head without a body.  If the church is the bride of Christ, then without the church we have a wedding without the bride.

Of course all of these things are absurd (or disgusting), and in the same way so is trying to claim Christ without his church.  If we love Christ, we must love his church.

Wittmer: Some folks want to be part of the universal church but not a local church.  That’s like being married but never living together.  (Think about it.)

Also Wittmer: It is not enough to be Christ-centered.  We need to ask: who is the Christ we are centered on?

Indeed, a good question.  Is it the Jesus revealed in the Bible or a Jesus made up from our own imagination?  This question may have many applications, but on this topic consider that the Jesus of the Bible is passionate about his church (he loved her so much, he died for her – Ephesians 5).  If that is not our view of Jesus, then our view of Jesus is simply wrong.  Or if we hold that view of Jesus but still refuse to love his church, then to that extent we fail to love Jesus.  I will never believe you if you claim to love me but reject my wife.  It is no different if we claim to love Christ but reject his church.

Someone might say that church is full of problems (add your list here).  Granted, but Jesus still loved her and died for her, and he calls us to love with the same love he has.

Let’s drop the nonsense about embracing Jesus but rejecting his church.  If we really love Jesus, we will love his church too.

Build up the Church

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

David desired to build a temple for the Lord, and God was pleased (2 Chronicles 6:7-8).  Today the the temple of the Lord is his church (the people, not the buildings).  Do we desire to build up his church?  Not just attend services.  Not just come to be fed.  But do we desire to build up Christ’s church?

Jesus loved the church so much he gave his life for her (Ephesians 5:25).  He clearly cares about the church.  Do we?  Enough to do our part to build it up?  The Old Testament temple was built of stone and mortar.  How do we build up the church today?  We find the answer in Ephesians 4.

First, we strive for unity.  That is the first six verses.  Nothing can tear a church down faster than division and strife.  And nothing builds it up like peace, unity, oneness.  Indeed in Christ we are one – so we must strive to live out this oneness.  Humility (v2) is key.  We need humility to agree to disagree on minor doctrinal or interpretation issues.  We need humility to agree to disagree on matters of opinion and preference.  No, not everything will happen in our churches like we think it should.  And we will never find a church that will do things exactly like we want.  So we stay.  We practice some humility, and support our churches anyway.  We need humility and patience to bear with one another in love (also v2).  Put any two people together for a length of time and they will offend one another.  Can we bear with each other’s offenses, forgiving when needed.  Being offended is not a reason to leave; it is an opportunity to practice humility, forgiveness, and reconciliation.  God calls us to peace.  Strive for unity to build up the church.

Second, serve in ministry.  The pastor’s job is to equip the people to do ministry so that together the body might build itself up (v11-16).  God has given each person gifts of ministry (see Romans 12:6-8) to use to build up the church.  I once heard Warren Wiersbe say there are two types of Christians – the caterpillars who walk in before the service and out after the service, and the pillars who serve in the church.  Don’t be a caterpillar – be a pillar.  Serve in ministry to build up the church.

Jesus cares about his church.  Do we?  If so let us strive for unity and serve in ministry that his church might be built up.

Ministry Today

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

On Monday, I attended a conference about doing ministry in a postmodern world.  To say that we no longer live in a world where Christian values and morals are generally embraced would be an understatement.  How do we reach out to a world that objects to our claim that Jesus is the only way to God?  The answer that was suggested is simply to do what Jesus told us to do in Matthew 5:16 – “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”  How do we let our light shine?  By doing good works – helping and caring for people.  Jesus calls us to love people.  And it is that love of Jesus that will attract people to consider the message of Jesus.  We need to get out of our “holy huddles” and reach out with love into our communities.

To think further about this, I invite you to check out a couple of posts from one of the presenters – here and here.  To listen to the three presentations from the conference, click here.

Lack of Compassion

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

In my last post I mentioned our president’s rash words comparing his bowling to the Special Olympics.  Many, starting with our president, have condemned these words – and rightly so.  Yet is there a sense of glee coming from conservative voices?  Why did I smile rather than mourn at our president’s mistake?  How is that we can respond to a lack of compassion with our own lack of compassion?  Truly we are flawed beings in need of a Savior!