Archive for the 'Church' Category

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“Don’t do to your child what I did to mine”

Published on June 15, 2011 in Church. 2 Comments

C. John Miller in his book, Outgrowing the Ingrown Church (34):

. . . I once overheard a visitor to one of our services tell this story to a young father. He said, “This morning you brought your child to be given over to the Lord. I did that once too. But let me urge you from the bottom of my heart, don’t do to your child what I did to mine. As he grew up, he listened to me criticize the pastor year after year. As a consequence, I turned off my boy to the church and to ministers, and today he is far from God.”

Is the church a participatory democracy?

Published on June 10, 2011 in Church. 2 Comments

We have a church decision coming up.  In decisions such as this one (buying additional property), our church believes it is critical to get the input of the congregation for the purpose of unity, wisdom, and acknowledgement of God’s direction.

But we don’t vote because church is a democracy!  James M. Grier states succinctly:

There is no idea in the New Testament that the church is a voluntary organization that is self-governing by a participatory democracy. It is God’s church. He prescribes its aims and functions. He devises its constitution and designs its officers. It is the blood-bought church of Christ. It is His body, not ours, and we can only handle and direct its affairs by the authority of Christ. Only the will of Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge is adequate for the direction of the church.

Does it dishonor God to long for a reunion with loved ones?

Published on June 1, 2011 in Church and eschatology. 1 Comment

Randy Alcorn:

Believers periodically tell me versions of the following: “We shouldn’t be thinking about reunion with loved ones, or the joys of Heaven. We should only be thinking about being united with Christ, who is our only treasure.” This sounds spiritual, but is it?

Paul says to his friends in Thessalonica, “We loved you so much” and “You had become so dear to us,” then speaks of his “intense longing” to be with them (1 Thessalonians 2:8, 17). In fact, Paul anticipates his ongoing relationship with the Thessalonians as part of his heavenly reward: “What is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy” (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20).

Isn’t this emphatic proof that it’s appropriate for us to deeply love people and look forward to being with them in Heaven?

Read the rest here.

Problems With Meaningless Membership

Published on May 31, 2011 in Church. 4 Comments

One of the things our church has worked hard at is keeping our membership rolls current.  Our church is 153 years old and at times, this means removing names of people who are no longer committed to our church (only after we have reached out to them multiple times).

Sometimes well intentioned people resist the removal of names reasoning, “What harm can it do to leave them on?”

The below article summarizes problems with meaningless membership from a Southern Baptist point of view. Notice especially the consequences of meaningless membership.

What do Britney Spears, Brad Pitt, Bill Clinton and Al Gore have in common? If you answer, “All four have been members of Southern Baptist churches,” you move to the head of the class.

These four individuals are found in the branch of Christianity that also includes Al Mohler, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Bowden, and Billy Graham, among others. Our Southern Baptist churches include their share of prominent personalities. Some bring honor to our denomination. Others bring dishonor.

MEANINGLESS CHURCH MEMBERSHIP IN THE SBC

The purpose of this article is to answer the question, How has meaningless church membership adversely affected the Southern Baptist Convention?

The question assumes that membership in many Southern Baptist churches has little impact on how those members think or live. Historically, Baptists have affirmed regenerate church membership, which implies that every church member should walk in holiness and purity. Yet the widespread reality today is otherwise. A person can walk in ways that bring great shame to the name of Christ and yet remain a member in good standing in a Southern Baptist church.

The meaninglessness of membership can be seen in the number of Southern Baptist church members compared with the number of people attending Sunday worship. Convention-wide, there are 16 million members. But only 6 million people show up on a typical Sunday. Where are the other 10 million Southern Baptists? Some are providentially hindered, but surely not 10 million.

Apparently, the twentieth-century Southern Baptist revivalist Vance Havner was right when he said, “We Southern Baptists are many but we’re not much.” After the convention-wide crusade to add one million new members to Sunday School rolls in 1954— “A Million More in ’54”— Havner famously said, “If we get a million more like we got in ’54, we’re sunk.”

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF MEANINGLESS MEMBERSHIP?

The Southern Baptist Convention is most likely far smaller than what we report. And our membership rolls most likely contain a multitude of unregenerate individuals. Our Baptist forefathers would view our present condition with shock and horror.

What are the consequences of such meaningless membership?

It Gives a False Assurance of Salvation to Multitudes

First, the failure to practice church discipline and maintain integrity in our church rolls gives the multitude of “inactive members” a false assurance of salvation. . .

Read the rest here.

HT: Timmy Brister

Thom Rainer: “You are My Pastor”

Published on May 21, 2011 in Church, Leadership and Pastoral Search Committees. 0 Comments

Thom Rainer:

You are my pastor. You are not perfect. You get frustrated like everyone else. You don’t always say exactly what you should say. You do indeed make some mistakes. On that reality you readily agree.

But your imperfections are often magnified in the light of your leadership role. When you please one congregant, you often displease another. You can’t make everyone happy, and you hear criticisms more times than most of us could endure.

You Are My Pastor Who Loves

Despite your imperfections and the critics who vocalize them, you still love the people in the church you serve. You sat by that man whose surgery was a matter of life and death. You gave him the assurance that God would be with him. Your presence gave him the calm and peace he needed to come through the procedure safely.

You also met with that homeless man who came to the church. You could have ignored him, but you saw him as one of “the least of these.” You ministered to him. You gave him food. You found a place for him to stay. And you shared the gospel of Christ with him.

You are my pastor who takes calls in the middle of the night. You were awakened abruptly by the teenager’s parents when he was in the terrible automobile accident. You arrived at the hospital in time for his mom and dad to fall on your shoulders . . .

Read the rest here (please!).

10 Simple Things Good Pastors Say

Published on May 19, 2011 in Church and Leadership. 0 Comments

Jared Wilson writes a thoughtful list of 10 things good pastors say.  Given my own shortcomings, I have ample opportunities for 1 and 2.

Click through to the list.

HT: JT

Fellowship is fundamentally a reality, not an experience

Published on May 6, 2011 in Church, Sacraments and The Principle of the Rope. 7 Comments

Most often , Christians speak of fellowship as an activity or subjective experience.  Yet, “fellowship” translates the Greek word “koinonia” and a better translation would be “invested partnership” or “a sharing together”: fellowship is an objective reality.

John Stott explains:

In common usage fellowship describes something subjective, the experience of warmth and security in each other’s presence, as in ‘We had a good fellowship together.’  But in biblical usage koinonia is not a subjective feeling at all, but an objective fact, expressing what we share in together.

So Paul could write ‘you share in God’s grace with me’ (Philippians 1:7); John could write ‘that you may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ’ (1 John 1:3); while Paul added ‘the fellowship of the Holy Spirit’ (2 Corinthians 13:14). Thus authentic fellowship is Trinitarian fellowship. It bears witness to our common share in the grace of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Is this not what makes us one?  We come from different countries, cultures, and churches. We have different temperaments, gifts, and interests. And yet we have this in common: the same God as our Heavenly Father; the same Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord; and the same Holy Spirit as our indwelling comforter.

It is our common participation (our koinonia) in God (Father, Son, and Spirit) which unites us. And this is most vividly expressed in the Lord’s Supper or Eucharist. For ‘is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is mot the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?’ (1 Corinthians 10:16).  John Stott, The Living Church, IVP, 2007, Downers Grove, 91.

Arousing ourselves to death

Published on May 4, 2011 in Church, Marriage, Pornography and Sanctification. 1 Comment

Kill this or it will kill you. Beat to death with a shovel if you have to as described here.  Kill it in any case.

Russell Moore writes about how churches should deal with the pornography epidemic:

The couple will typically tell me first about how stressful their lives are. Maybe he’s lost his job. Perhaps she’s working two. Maybe their children are rowdy or the house is chaotic. But usually, if we talk long enough about their fracturing marriage, there is a sense that something else is afoot. The couple will tell me about how their sex life is near extinction. The man, she’ll tell me, is an emotional wraith, dead to intimacy with his wife. The woman will be frustrated, with what seems to him to be a wild mixture of rage and humiliation. They just don’t know what’s wrong, but they know a Christian marriage isn’t supposed to feel like this.

It’s at this point that I interrupt the discussion, look at the man, and ask, “So how long has the porn been going on?” The couple will look at each other, and then look at me, with a kind of fearful incredulity that communicates the question, “How do you know?” For a few minutes, they seek to reorient themselves to this exposure, wondering, I suppose, if I’m an Old Testament prophet or a New Age psychic. But I’m not either. One doesn’t have to be to sense the spirit of this age. In our time, pornography is the destroying angel of (especially male) Eros, and it’s time the Church faced the horror of this truth.

A Perversion of the Good

In one sense, the issue of pornography is not new at all. . .

Read the whole thing here.

Ten Reasons Not to Be a “Brick” in the Valley

Published on April 26, 2011 in Church. 0 Comments

We often encourage our people that God makes bricks with a building in mind, or as Peter said, “You also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5).”  (See Why this blog is called “A Brick in the Valley”)

Still – - that doesn’t mean everyone should be a “brick” in this spiritual building.  Today Justin Buzzard shared ten reasons he gave to not join their church plant.  Even though these reasons are regarding a brand new local church, they could also apply to our 153 year old church.

Justin Buzzard:

1. If you’re looking for the next cool thing in town (We want to grow by conversion growth, not church-goer transfer growth).

2. If you’re a Christian and you don’t like your current church (You will find reasons to not like this church).

3. If you have a bad track record at churches of being unteachable and causing problems (You won’t change here, you’ll repeat the pattern).

4. If you’re a consumer wanting to “go to church” 1x a week for a nice show (We are not a Sunday show, we are a community of disciples on a mission).

Read the rest here.

On the constructive uses of a bowl of urine (and one improper use)

Published on April 7, 2011 in Church and Prayer. 8 Comments

If I sound a little harsh, it’s because I’ve been to both the jail and the nursing home today and it has again helped me have a better perspective as a pastor.

This qualification in mind, let me suggest a couple of constructive uses of a bowl of urine.

Use #1 – When we pray for people in nursing homes it would be a good thing for us to get on our knees and pray next to a bowl of urine. A graphic reminder of the smells that many people live with might give a greater sense of urgency in our intercession.

Use #2 – Maybe if you’re considering skipping church in the near future, or if it has been some time since you invited someone into your home, then put a bowl of urine on your kitchen table for a little bit and consider the fact that there may be a time very, very soon when you would give everything in your possession to sing with God’s people, or hear the Word preached in person, or invite someone over for hot apple pie and ice cream.

Or, you could just skip the bowl of urine exercise and make an apple pie and invite someone over or go to church and soak in the sights and sounds of being with God’s people.

******

Today when I was at the nursing home, I mentioned in passing that I had called in my sermon title and text to our administrative assistant.  The lady I was visiting stopped me right there in the conversation.

“Pastor,” she asked, “What is your sermon title and text for this Sunday.”

I stopped, read the text to her, and talked about Philippians 4:10-20.

You or I can’t imagine how much this lady in the nursing home would like to be in church this Sunday.  Or, how much she would love to be able to invite someone over to her home.

***************

While I’m at it, I should mention, an improper use of a bowl of urine. Don’t live in fear of the future.

As a pastor, I read Psalm 23 to one elderly person in the nursing home.  She was too confused to even talk much.  But, I assured her as I prayed for her that the Lord is her shepherd.  And, God will give her the grace to walk this tough stretch of road.

And, if you have trusted Him as Lord and Savior, then He will give the strength to follow Him wherever He calls you in life.  When you consider the sights and smells that you may face in the future, don’t be afraid.  God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.