The Early Church

And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”   So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.  And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.  And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.  And all who believed were together and had all things in common.  And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.   And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

There is a great misconception in the church today.  The misconception is that, in order to bring people into the church, it is necessary to be as close to the world as possible.  The idea is that, by becoming very much like the world in appearance, the church then becomes more accessible to the world.  Then, those people who are afraid of traditional church or who feel judgment from the churches they have attended in the past can feel “comfy” and “cozy” by attending the church that feels just like home.

I totally agree with what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.  I have no issue with the concepts that he is speaking of.  The problem is that Paul is saying nothing of the sort of thing such as “I am becoming worldly just like the world.”  Look at the groups that Paul is talking about.  Paul is comparing between Jews and Gentiles.  He is comparing between those “under the law” and those not “under the law.”  To stretch this passage to the point where it is assumed that Paul is saying to blend in with the world is to stretch it past the breaking point.  Paul is only saying that in order to hang out with folks from Dacia, he wouldn’t wear his kippa, talit, and phylacteries.

Today, this verse has become the impetus for seeker-sensitive churches to tune in to the world with bigger music, lightshows at churches, sermons that only scrape the very top of the bulk of Christianity.  It always amazes me that, while the seeker-sensitive movement decides to pull out 1 Corinthians 9, they seem to miss 1 Corinthians 3, where Paul derides the Corinthians for not growing and still being of the flesh.

Beyond that, I have other problems with the seeker-sensitive/megachurch movement.  How many churches of more than 300 people do you know of where everyone knows each other?  Probably none.  The answer is the small group/cell group/whatever group.  However, the group dynamic is entirely dependent on the group leaders, as well as how involved the group is.  Therefore, typically, these churches foster two things:  1, a total divorcing of practical, deep preaching of the Word, and 2, a very unaccounted, anonymous Christian walk with God.

When Mark Driscoll, who I know is an incredible pastor from listening to him, freely admits that he is unable to interact with his congregants the way that small church attendees expect to be interacted with, then there is a problem in the church movement.  What kind of answer can there be for this situation?  Well, I think the answer is to look at the model of the early church in Jerusalem.

The early church in Jerusalem did not have coffee and donuts.  The early church did not have “Mother’s Day Out” or outreach programs to the local at-risk community.  What they had was Peter’s passionate preaching of the Word on the morning of Pentecost.  Three thousand people were saved off of the message of “Jesus was the Son of God Most High, and YOU killed Him.”  Now, take this with a grain of salt- I am not saying outreach programs, donuts and coffee, and the like are bad.  I AM saying that the way to reach the unsaved is actually a lot simpler than modern churches think.  Paul exhorted Timothy saying “Preach the Word.”  The point I am getting at is this:  We will reach the masses with the message of Christ when we stop worrying about looking like the world and start worrying about creating fellowship and community, but not at the expense of truth.

The connections of the early church thrived from true community.  The church expanded on the strength of those who had heard the Word being discipled by the apostles and being taught the truth, then continuing in fellowship with one another.

Ostriches don’t really put their heads in the sand

I like ostriches.  Even if they don’t really stick their heads in the sand, they are pretty cool.  I do have a point to this, by the way.

I was listening to a snippet from Derrick Webb, whom I just heard for the first time today, and I heard him say that the best thing that could happen to Christians is for their sins to play on the five o’clock news.  Interesting concept, but true in so many ways.

We look at the Christian life as basically this:  I need to hide as much of my crap as I can so that I don’t look bad and I can go sing fun worship songs at church without feeling scuzzy.  I don’t have to make changes that hurt, I don’t have to be different, I just need to be able to cover the icky stuff and not have to deal with it.  Then, we don’t have to:

1. Get rid of our sin.
2. Be embarrassed of our sin.

If we had all of our dirt aired out for everyone to see it, then I don’t think we COULD continue to hide our junk.  Satan and death have power over us all as long as we continue to pretend like there is nothing there to deal with.  As we are able to come to terms with our problems, bring them out into the open, then give them to the LORD to heal our broken hearts and minds, then we will be able to walk comfortably as servants of the LORD Almighty.

I am in a process of developing pure and blunt honesty with those around me.  I believe a transparent life is the only way in which we can all grow and become our fullest potential in Christ.  I pray for two things:  utter transparency and an infilling of the Holy Spirit.  Those are the two things that everyone needs in their lives in order to effect change.

All of my life, I believed ostriches stuck their heads in the sand when they were afraid.  I finally found out that they didn’t.  Why now would I decide to emulate an ostrich and shove my head into the dirt whenever they don’t even do that?  Guys, Christians, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, let’s stop shoving our heads in the sand.  Stop living the Christian life as though it’s about shoving our heads in the sand and hiding as much junk as we can.  Let’s start living out loud, being transparent, facing our own faults and failures head on, and not looking back when it is time for God to change us.  Let Him who began a good work in you when you were saved finish His work.

Unity in the Church

When I say we need unity in the church, I don’t mean that we need to just embrace every latest and greatest fad and fashion in the church.  I am asking for a binding of hearts and minds into one body that takes issues in the church head on.  I am asking that men of the church get in the game and stop waiting for purity to find them.  I am asking for men to start shepherding our families, our children, bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  I am asking that we stop discussing poverty in the church and fight it.  I am asking that when we sniff out doctrine that is damaging to the church, we pull it out and put it to spiritual death.

Christians, if anyone is reading this, this is a heartfelt plea.  We must pull the church together to fight the darkness that envelopes the earth.  We must stand with the light as our guiding power, not sleep in the light as our comfort and warmth.  We are warriors.  We are the children of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

THE LORD IS A WARRIOR.  THE LORD IS HIS NAME.

A Deadly Cancer

There is a deadly disease in churches today. It is a disease that is crippling the men of the church, it is bringing the church itself into chaos and disarray, and the church responds by sweeping everything under the rug.  The disease I am talking about is sexual impurity.

I have spoken about this before, but never with this fervent attitude.  We as men have to step up and say “NO MORE!!!”  The divorce rate inside the church is the same as outside the church.  7 out of 10 pastors who call in to Focus on the Family for help call for help with a sexual addiction.

The reason why this is such a devastating and painful attack on the church is nothing other than the church’s refusal to bring it out into the open.  The church as a body does not deal with this disease, and the men inside the church are not willing to take this head on.  Why not?  Do we want to continue to cradle these secret trysts with our fantasies in our hidden box, to be pulled out when we are looking for a “quick fix?”  Is it our pride and desire not to be found and unmasked for what we really are?

I think if we are going to move forward as a church, the body of Christians needs to be ready to make a stand against the constant barrage of attacks of sexual impurity.  When we see that church has become a more dangerous place than even the grocery stores with their smut, it is time to take action!  When we feel that we as men are not actively taking up our sword and shield to fight off this attack from the enemy, rather than sidling up with our hidden pet sins we should instead reexamine ourselves to discover our inner warrior.

“The LORD is a warrior.  The LORD is His Name.”

Being a Good Man

It’s hard today to be a good man.  Hollywood doesn’t want you to.  Culture doesn’t want you to.  Heck, in many ways, your own government doesn’t want you to.  It takes courage to step up to the plate and really be a man.  I don’t know how to get the church in an uproar over this and stop the bleeding, but there has to be a way for us to get men and women to stop allowing culture to pull us in the wrong direction.  The divorce rate is the same in the church as outside the church.  7 out of 10 pastors calling Focus on the Family for help are calling for help with sexual addictions.  Worse yet, it is the one thing that no one in the church wants to blow the lid off of and get out of our churches.

Why is that?  Sometimes, being a male myself, I believe that it is because men want to be able to keep their own little hidden sins and pet pleasures without having to change and really be a man.  I know I have done that in the past.  Sadly, I think it would have been hard for me before to work up the courage to blare out my own iniquities even in cyberspace.  I find that getting the truth out really does make you a freer person.  Men struggle with faithfulness, and a large part of the struggle is based in an unwillingness to admit the problem.  As men, we should challenge ourselve to be more than just biologically male.  Stomp out the secret sins and pet pleasures.  Eradicate them from our lives.  It is hard!!!!  I recently gave up a part of my “sexual enjoyment” that was actually hampering my relationship with my wife and my family, because I was placing it above them.  It is stupidly hard to get rid of these things, but it is a call to purity that the church needs before we can successfully stop the bleeding of our hearts and souls by society.  Until we are willing to stand up and say “NO MORE,” we will continue to head down this path of no return, where marriage and faithfulness are less the norm than they are a curiosity.

I pray that men in the church will get down on their knees and pray for strength in fighting this killer of marriages.  I pray that we will be open and honest, to bring all of our resources against this ensnaring evil that Satan knows is so easy to bring us down with.  I will pray for the church and for men, and for myself to be a good example to my children.  I still recommend Fireproof and the Love Dare for anyone who is serious about bringing love and openness and restoration to their marriage.  They are great resources, and no one should be without them!

Carelessness in Scholarship

I have been reading a book entitled “Why We’re Not Emergent”, by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, and I am actually enthralled with the book. These two young guys, who should totally be into the emergent movement, are actually very into conservative orthodoxy.  The thing that stands out to me, though, is a passage they took from one Rob Bell, the author of “Velvet Elvis.”

In the passage, Bell basically sets out to challenge the necessity of the virgin birth.  He compares it to the mystery cults of Dionysus and Mithras, and basically is stating that whether or not Jesus was born of a virgin, isn’t his way still the best way to live?  Now, I agree with him that the Jesus Way is the best way, but let’s get serious here.  First of all, let’s all take a moment and really look at this mystery cult thing.  First, they were popular WAY after Christianity.  Second, let’s look at both Dionysus’ and Mithras’ birth accounts.  First, Dionysus was saved from his mother’s burning carcass by Zeus, who impregnated Semele the same way I impregnated my wife.  He sewed the child, wait for it, IN HIS THIGH, and the child gestated there.    And the parallelism is totally absent, by the way.  Dionysus was born of a mother and a god via intercourse.  Jesus was born of the virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit filling her.

Now, for Mithras.  Mithras emerged totally formed from a rock.  Yes, rocks are virgins in that they are not capable of intercourse, but come on!  This is ridiculous.  For someone who considers themselves to be a leader (well, emergent voices don’t consider themselves leaders at all, which is why some of them are screwy), you can’t go around speaking as a voice people respect when you yourself have not put enough scholarship into the matter to know for yourself.

Second, his casting aside the virgin birth obviously shows no knowledge of scripture.  Here’s the short of it:  God promised David an eternal throne for his descendents.  Jeconiah was the last king of Judah before the exile.  God through Jeremiah proclaimed that Jeconiah was to be marked as childless, and none of his seed would sit on the throne of Judah or Israel or anything else for that matter.  So, while Jeconiah’s bloodline still had legal claim to the throne, they never did possess it again.  Joseph was from this bloodline.  God used Mary, who was a descendent of David through his son Nathan, as Jesus’ mother and used Joseph as his adoptive father.  As legal firstborn of Joseph, Jesus was the rightful legal heir.  Without having Jeconiah’s blood in His veins, He qualified by God’s requirements to be King of Israel.  Besides, either Jesus was born of a virgin, or He was conceived out of wedlock.  Seeing as how Messiah was to be a sacrificial lamb, that wouldn’t work, because He would then be blemished.

I agree to some extent with Rob Bell.  Yes, Jesus’ way of life is a far preferred way, but you can’t throw out sound doctrine.  Truth and Grace are inseparable.