Fish

What will you do with the ones you have?  Often times we (the church–local and universal) are looking for our next catch of fish.  There are conferences on fish catching, fish cleaning, buying new lures, ect.  The urge to go out and “win” our world for Christ is always before us.  (BTW, I don’t like the word “win”.  It implies that I have to do something other than share the simple message of the gospel and let the Holy Spirit do the work.  When we win something it is usually due to our effort and or methods.  OK, off the soap box).  We look to the great commission not so much to find encouragement to make disciples but to gain converts.  Especially in American, protestant, evangelical church life the prize is on how many are saved.

But what do you do with those you catch?  It is easier to say we want to reach our town than it is to say that we want to help those in our town grow in their relationship with Christ.  You can document salvation experiences a whole lot better or easier than you do sanctification experiences.  We celebrate in front of the whole church on Sunday mornings the regeneration of a person and yet we fail to celebrate when a believer gives back the extra change they received from the McDonald’s cashier.  We fail to see and celebrate when a believer stands firm against a temptation that has plagued him for years and sees God prove Himself faithful.  We don’t see the daily growth that occurs in most of our congregations lives and so we do not emphasize it.

But what are we to do with those we catch?  Is it not just as important or perhaps more so, to bring to maturity our friends and neighbors?

All Nations

“You redeemed people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.  You made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they will reign on the earth.”  (Revelation 5:9-10) 

 

The thought that one day all peoples groups will gather around the throne of God and will sing His praises gives me goose bumps.  From eternity past, it has been God’s good pleasure to bring about the redemption of the nations so that His glory might be manifested for all of creation to see.  His work in calling out the nation of Israel was to use them as a conduit from which His grace and mercy might flow to those whom they had contact with.  God placed them in a specific location that gave them the opportunity to influence the culture around them for Christ’s sake.  They were to a light, shining on a hillside that would illuminate the nations around them with the good news of God’s love and mercy.  But Israel never fully fulfilled this destiny.  Instead, complacency and religious adultery tainted their witness.  Instead of reaching out with the gospel they were corrupted by the society. 

 

But God’s purposes have never changed.  His desire today is that all people worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).  He has renewed His command to His chosen people, the church, to be a light to the nations.  You and I are called to influence our culture through our devotion to the gospel and by our commitment to go outside the bounds of our comfort zone.  We are to be purposeful in our ministry.  In some areas, that will require sacrifice.  We will have to sacrifice our time and resources to accomplish our mission.  We may have to sacrifice things that are good in order to achieve the things that are best.  We will have to be purposeful in our praying, in our giving and in our going.  But the rewards of seeing God moving through us to accomplish His eternal plans will be priceless.  We will not stand in eternity and say that it was too much.

Sabbath Rest

This week I’m taking a Sabbath rest from blogging, reading blogs, ect.  I’m even going to take a break from following the latests in Hillary/Barack/McCain news.  I need some time away from the blogsphere to contemplate and think.  Have a great week.  I know God will bless it.

Guy

Black Liberation Theology

I received a newsletter this morning from a local mission that included an article by their executive-director.  In this article, the writer was discussing the value of Black Liberation Theology and in particular, the current focus upon it due to Barack Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright and some of the sermons that he has delivered.  Of particular concern was a statement he made, “I do know for me, justice for the poor, and in fact for all people, in indeed at the very heart of the gospel…“

For those who are unfamiliar with Black Liberation Theology, it has at its core a belief that the gospel is mainly about the liberation of the poor and oppressed from the rule of those who have ruled over them.  It rose out of the forced slavery of Africans and their subsequent freedom in post-Civil War years.  The theology advanced during the civil rights years and continues to this day in many black churches. 

I have nothing at all against the release of the oppressed and poor from their poverty.  It is a continuing blight on the American system that so many of our countrymen remain below the poverty line.  It is a blight on our American system that we have not removed all the barriers necessary to give them the opportunity to advance (and many of those barriers are governmental ones!).  However, the core of the gospel is not economic release.  The gospel is not about leveling the financial playing field.  The gospel is not about evening out the wealth among people.  It is not liberation from oppression but liberation from sin.  It is sin that has entangled the human heart and is the true cause of our oppression.  It is personal failure to live up to the standards of God’s holiness that bind us and cause to be slaves.  We are all slaves to sin and it is the gospel of Christ that releases us from that slavery.

As believers in Jesus Christ we should work at social justice.  We should strive to see the poor ministered to and the downtrodden cared for.  However, this social justice is never to be our main focus.  Our main focus, our main goal is spiritual liberation and spiritual freedom.  To make the gospel anything else is to emasculate it of its power and its purpose.

Moving Forward and Shrinking Back

Naomi had faced a horrible life situation lasting several years.  Due to a famine in her homeland, her family had to move to a foreign country and try to adapt to a different culture.  While in this far away place, her sons grew up and married local girls.  Tragedy struck again and Naomi’s husband passed away suddenly, her two sons also died at a young age and she was left with two daughters-in-law, few possessions and little hope of a secure future.  Widows were not treated well and tended towards extreme poverty.  Especially widows who were “outsiders”.

Naomi decided to take a chance.  She prepared to return to her home country and her native village.  Packing up her meager resources she headed off towards home with her two daughters-in-law.  Somewhere on that journey she realized that she was taking them into the exact same situation she was facing herself.  Being foreign women in a strange country, widows with little hope of a better future.  Her encouragement was for them to return home and find a husband among their own people.  Her words found fertile soil in one woman’s heart and she returned.  The other, Ruth, was not to be swayed and continued on with her mother-in-law.

Every day we are faced with a choice to either continue with God or to return home to our native land.  Our natural desire is to sink back to the comfortable–to our sinful nature which welcomes us home with open arms.  Life situations, the rational logic of the visible circumstances all strive to convince us that keeping on the road with Christ is futile and hopeless.  The challenge for us is not to see with our physical eyes but to see with the spiritual.  We are challenged to respond like Ruth “For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live.”  Let us not be known as people who shrink back but who move forward, trusting God that walking the difficult road with Him is infinitely better.

Small Steps

A few years ago I took a class on aircrew management.  The whole goal of that time was to discuss ways in which an aircrew could effectively communicate in the cockpit to help avoid failures in airmanship.  One of the things I remember most distinctly from the class was a video we watched of the crash of an airliner (it was a reconstruction of events).  In essence, the crew became fixated on a warning light that indicated a failure of a non-critical flight instrument.  All of their energies and all of their focus was on the little light and during the troubleshooting, the pilot or co-pilot accidently switched off the auto-pilot.  Continuing to devote their energy to the faulty light, the crew in essence flew the aircraft into the ground, killing everyone onboard.  In the accident report it was noted that the the problem with the fault warning was a failed light bulb.

It is important to focus our attention on what really matters.  But to do so effectively, we need to make sure that our base “instruments” are working (and without losing sight of the bigger picture).  Last night, FBC took a small step in making sure that our base instrument, our organisation, is working.  Doing so is going to help guide us in making decisions on programs and purposes, it will help focus our energies in doing one thing and doing it very well and it will help us evaluate our effectiveness.  I’m looking forward to seeing what God will continue to do through us as we remain faithful to Him.

Change

Change is everywhere.  Look outside and you will see change happening right before your eyes.  Sit and do nothing and change will still happen.  It is what you do with change that makes the difference.  Do you embrace change or do you run from it?  Do you accept it as part of God’s plan or do you see it as an intrusion?  How you deal with change says a lot about how you view God’s working, especially as it concerns church life.

 

One of the first principles that I learned about change is that everything begins and ends with God.  The Scriptures are a great example of this.  Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning…God.  Revelation 22 ends with the grace of Jesus Christ.  From cover to cover, the Bible is all about God.  Having the understanding that everything begins and ends with God helps us to regain a focus on events from God’s perspectives.  He is not primarily interested in methods, programs or traditions.  He is engaged is gaining worshippers for His glory and His praise.  He desires people to see Him in all His glory and majesty, to relate to Him as their Creator and Father and to teach others to do the same. 

 

Change is important for a church because it helps us to remember that our own person and our desires are not what is important.  God is all-important and He is the only One who never changes.  In that truth, we can take great comfort.

Changing Directions

Try running as fast as you can and then turn around.  Don’t stop running and then turn but in mid-stride change your direction.  If you are successful and don’t break a leg, drop me a line.  I’d love to know how you did it.  Trying to change anything is difficult work, especially an organisation.  We have set ways of accomplishing tasks and predefined expectations of what works and what doesn’t.  Sometimes though it takes a fresh view to see how an organisation needs to change or adapt in order to function better. 

Corporations seem to grasp this better than churches.  Although sometimes too late, they try to keep their eye on the ball and when the ball moves, they move.  But churches are slower at this.  Its just the way things are.  Any time you have people involved in a volunteer organisation and there is a high degree of emotional involvment, you will have resistance to change.  The truth is that change happens regardless.  Life is not static and neither are churches.  Either you are growing (both numerically and/or spiritually) or you are declining.  In both cases, change is taking place.  The challenge then is to find the areas where change is most needed and resistance is less likely and then go for it.  The rewards can be greater than the initial change but the risk is also great.  You can lose people in the process.  Some can get discouraged and quit.  Others can get discouraged and make the change more difficult for all involved. 

It can be like changing direction in mid-stride.  It might be necessary to miss an upcoming obstacle but the risk of falling down is there.  So the question is, do you hit the obstacle and perhaps cause great damage or do you attempt to change direction and risk stumbling?  I say go for change. 

Discipleship…

In the last post, I asked what you would tell a close friend is the path to discipleship.  Often as churches (and individuals) we emphasis the initial decision for Christ and rejoice with those who make it.  But at some point after their conversion experience we fail to take them along with us in following after Christ.  It seems that we give them a Bible and tell them to start reading and expect that magically, they turn into mature followers of Christ.  Discipleship isn’t a one stop program.  It isn’t a series of studies or 12 step program that one completes and then gets a “Disciple” certificate.  It is a life long encounter with the Person of Jesus Christ that results in a transformed life reflecting more and more His image. 

For the new believer the first step on this pathway is baptism.  By publically identifying themselves with Christ, the child of God is both obedient to the Scriptural command and by that act of obedience, begins to grow in faith/trust.  We obviously would want to build into their lives the habit of studying the Scriptures, speaking with God,sharing of God to others and serving in His kingdom (the four S’s…studying, speaking, sharing, serving). 

How do we do this?  How do we disciple someone?  One word – time.  Be willing to take the time out of your busy schedule to invest in their life.  One on one.  You don’t need a book (except the bible), you don’t need training, you don’t need a degree.  You just need to spend time with them and walk through life together.  Paul invested time into Timothy.  He invested time with Luke.  God wants you and me to be investing time into our Timothy’s and our Luke’s.

Discipleship

Imagine this morning that you are sitting across from a friend who has recently accepted Christ as saviour.  They are brand new to the faith, not having much exposure to the Christian message as they grew up.  You know that it is important for them to grow in faith and you want to encourage them to take the next step in their journey with Christ.

Your homework:  What do you tell them?  What do you consider to be the essential elements for discipling someone, i.e. walking with them to take this next step?