Tonight, is my first blog entry in a while. I have been busy living and thinking offline. It's time to recap and put to computer code my mental journey over the last couple of weeks. These thoughts may seem kind of random. But they are all connected by the fact that I have recently been grappling with them.
A friend raised the following question tonight, he asked, "What would happen to Christianity in America if the government changed the tax code so that donations to churches and other Christian ministries was no longer tax deductible?" I am still thinking about that. One possible repercussion would be the death of ineffective ministries that barely make it today and the growth of many ministries fueled by volunteer staffing.
Where did the term seeker friendly ever come from any way? Isn't every current or future Christian a seeker in the sense of desiring to know God better?
I have heard more than one godly man say recently that churches should program services and ministries primarily for the current body of believers and not those outside of the church. The believers are then supposed to go out and minister to those who are not Christians. While I agree in general with that way of thinking, I believe that ultimately the church should focus on pleasing God and not man. Generally, I believe that God will call for strong word not mild milk. But the Spirit may allow for both to minister to people on various levels of the journey. In the end, ministries should be led by the Spirit to do what seems best to glorify God, draw people to Jesus and develop disciples. There is no one playbook for every fellowship to follow.
Mark Driscoll recently said, "Strong words produce soft people soft words produce hard people." I have found that to be very true. The idea that we should dumb down the truth of God or remove its edge to make it relevant and appealing to people seems crazy to me. I have heard of churches preaching through Leviticus, and people have still come out in droves. It's where the Spirit of God is moving. That's what makes the difference.
And yet, we must be careful not to seek tough preaching or intense Bible study just so that we can puff out our chest and act like we know a lot. Even the brightest scholar or wisest man in the Spirit, understands only a speck of who God really is.
Recently, I have started studying through the book of Jonah, and it is radically changing my view of what it means to be a missionary and what it takes to see revival take place. God worked through Jonah even though the prophet reluctantly did the will of God. Jonah was more "successful" than any of the other prophets. Many of those men poured out their hearts and souls for the message they preached. Jonah went only a third of the way into the city and preached a very short sermon. What was the difference maker? I believe it was the power of God. I believe it was that Jonah himself was a sign. His ordeal in the fish made him ready to preach, and it got the attention of the people. Many times the thing that seems to be the hardest to endure is what makes us people that have something to say.
Can a large church effectively span a healthy network of home churches led by skilled lay leaders? Tonight, I asked a good brother in Christ that question. He said that he didn't think so, especially if the church is tied to a denominational structure. I am not so sure. I personally believe that will be the "model" that will work best for large churches in the future. As churches grow in size, they need to also grow smaller to keep a connection with individual members. The only way to do that is with small groups. And I personally believe that the most effective small groups are not programs based on a video series or affinity groups. These have their places and purpose. But the deep work of the body happens best in groups comprised of various ages, experiences, backgrounds, etc.
The problem is that most churches do not have enough skilled, Spirit-led, wise lay leaders to help facilitate and care for these home-based fellowships. The other major problem is that many church leaders are afraid of giving lay leaders too much power or room to make mistakes that might reflect negatively upon the church body as a whole. And while this may be a valid concern, it seems to miss the point. If God gives us free will and trusts that we will grow through our failures as much as our successes, shouldn't churches provide members the same degree of freedom. The Bible does say that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. Where is the line between being over protective and recklessly abandoning the responsibility to reign in sinful leadership? I guess there is no clear rule book here either because God's people are supposed to be led by the Spirit and not a litany of rules.
When Christians think of eternal life, why do so few tend to realize that it starts now. We don't have to wait until retirement or death to start to live as God intended. While the fullness of the Christian life is yet to be revealed, we do have a deposit of the Spirit living in us. And we can begin to taste and see that God is good. We can begin to enter into the best life possible here and now. We just have to discover the faith to believe in Jesus' finished work. We must accept our identity in Christ.
My last revelation of the past week is that we must go through pruning in life to become more like Christ. Tuesday, I had to trim some bushes and prune some plants. As I got rid of limbs, I knew that the plants looked like they had just received a crewcut. But it was necessary to remove all of the dead limbs because the plant had been neglected for far too long. By basically traumatizing the plant, I was creating an environment where it could flourish in the future. As I cut off each limb, I begin to think about how this experience mirrors what God does in the lives of His children.
Moses, Jacob, Daniel, Joseph, David, Peter, Paul, Jesus. They all had to go through brutal experiences and tough challenges. At the time, I am sure that many of their traumatic experiences did not make sense. But the pruning was necessary, and it produced a bountiful blessing in the end.
I believe that God is currently calling my church fellowship to the cross. He wants to prune us. God desires to remove selfish/soulish attitudes, ungodly fears and distractions. The Lord wants us to focus on His mission and kingdom. If we are going to live God's life, we must first come to the point of death. As a fellowship, I believe that we have a lot of dying to do as God prunes us. The process may be painful, but the result can be something special if we only have the faith to trust God and not fear man.
