Category: Church (Page 16 of 61)

The Universal Church

September 28, 2016 / Allan / 0 Comments

“We believe in the holy, universal Church, the communion of saints.” ~Apostles’ Creed

The early Church thought of themselves as a worldwide movement through a network of gatherings spread all over Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. When Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians, he called them one group among those “everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ — their Lord and ours.”

We are one people — everybody equal, everybody the same — with all Christians everywhere. Universal. One. There are so many wonderful, glorious, Kingdom things happening in and through your church. But it’s so puny compared to what God is doing globally. His Church is growing in every part of the world today except in North America. God is right now today growing his Church; he is today adding to his Church. And we are united together with all of it. One of the reasons we want people to go on short term foreign mission trips and help them pay for it is so they can watch other people following Christ. To see different cultures, different languages, different customs — to see people so different from us worshiping our God and submitting to our crucified and resurrected Lord is profound. The Church of Jesus Christ is a universal Church — all believers for all time in every place forever. One universal Church.

You love your church? Good! I love mine, too! I want you to love your church! But we’re not in competition with anybody (well, except the devil; and he’s already lost). Praise God for our brothers and sisters in the Baptist and Methodist and Presbyterian churches all over our city! Praise God for the Christian churches throughout this country and around the world who are faithfully preaching and teaching and praying and serving and living together in the name and manner of Jesus!

They might have their faults. They might have their shortcomings. They might have their misinterpretations and questionable practices. And so do we! We’ve got ours by the buckets! We’re all in this together!

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit — just as you were called to one hope when you were called — one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” ~Ephesians 4:3-6

And, I know, some of you are pushing back on this. “Don’t talk like there aren’t any boundaries. There have to be some boundaries. You can’t talk like everybody’s in.”

No, of course there are boundaries. If a somebody comes in saying that Jesus is not from God, that Jesus is not divine, he’s out! 1 John 4. If a guy comes in bragging about having sex with his step-mother, he’s out! 1 Corinthians 5. Believe me, the Bible gives us some lines. And we need to pay attention to them. But we don’t need to obsess over it. I mean, myself, if I’m not careful, I can go from zero to Pharisee in 2.9-seconds. But I will not draw any lines of fellowship between Christians that I can’t find in the Bible. I’m too conservative.

You know the disciples see these others casting out demons in Jesus’ name and they run to our Lord with their complaint: “Make them stop, they’re not one of us.” And Jesus responds, “Just because they’re not with you doesn’t mean they’re not with me.” Elsewhere our Lord says he has sheep who are not even from this pen. He says all those sheep will hear his voice and there will be one pen and one shepherd. Drawing those lines is above our pay grade.

When the Church is splintered into different factions, when the Church is divided into different denominations, when we draw lines between us because of our differences instead of tearing down the walls because of everything we have in common in Christ, what we’re saying to the world is that the Church is not holy and it’s not universal. We can no longer in good faith justify or excuse or explain away the sin of the divisions in God’s Church. Going along with the divisions, keeping our distance from other Christians in other churches, contradicts everything we say about one Lord, one Spirit, one faith, one baptism, and one God over all.

Peace,

Allan

The Holy Church

September 27, 2016 / Allan / 0 Comments

“We believe in the holy, universal Church, the communion of saints.” ~Apostles’ Creed

Let me first say what ‘holy’ does not mean. It does not mean ‘perfect’ and it does not mean ‘without sin.’ Every sin that you can find outside the Church, you can find inside the Church. We know this. Individuals in the Church and the Church as a whole — we’re guilty of prejudice and intolerance; personal immorality and legalistic self-righteousness; competitiveness; misuse of the truth for personal gain; lust for money, prestige, power, and success. Praise God the Church is not perfect! If the Church were perfect, where would I fit in? Where would you?

‘Holy’ does not mean ‘sin-free,’ it means ‘called-out.’ Consecrated. Set apart for God’s divine purposes. We are God’s treasured possession. We are his called-out people.

“You are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood… You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.” ~1 Peter 2:5, 9

The Church is not a voluntary association of believers who got together one day and decided to start a religious group. It is God who creates his Church, his holy community, and calls his people into it.

It is just as impossible to be a Christian by yourself as it is to be an arm or a leg and to live and function apart from the body. To be a Christian is by definition to belong to the Church. There’s no such thing as a purely individualistic relationship to Christ. To follow Christ is to be joined to the community of followers he draws to himself. To be reconciled to God in Christ is also to be reconciled to other people. As God’s holy people, we are called out from our sinful attempts to live in self-sufficient isolation above, or apart, or against others. We’re placed by God in a community where the barriers that separate people are broken down.

For God’s purposes. That’s what ‘holy’ means: called out for God’s divine will, to join God in what he’s doing in the world.

To be God’s holy community gathered in the name of Jesus is to stop reflecting the same social and personal hostilities as people in the world and start reflecting God’s work of reconciliation in how you think and act and speak and post and repost and forward on social media. To be holy is to stop being primarily concerned with our own happiness and comfort and security and to start putting the needs of others ahead of our own. To be consecrated or called-out means to renounce the ways of the world and to commit together by the power of God’s Spirit to live differently from the people around us, to live visibly and obviously and scandalously in the name and manner of Jesus.

Holiness is both a gift from God to the Church and a calling to the Church to live it out. It’s both a position we have in Christ and a task to join God in his global salvation mission.

Peace,

Allan

We Believe in the Church

September 26, 2016 / Allan / 0 Comments

Maybe you’ve noticed that people are leaving the Church. Not just your church, not just your denomination — people are leaving churches all across the board all across this country. The numbers are slow, but they are steady. Church attendance and church membership are on a decline. And the shifting attitude can be summed up like this: “Jesus, Yes. Church, No.”

“I love Jesus, but I don’t like the Church.” “I follow Jesus, but I don’t go to Church.” “I don’t go to Church because they’re all sinners, the Church is full of hypocrites” (which is like saying, “I don’t go to the health club because of all the out-of-shape people there). “I serve the Lord every day, but I don’t do Church.” “You can’t organize spirituality.” “Jesus, Yes. Church, No.”

Let me confess right here that I know the Church is a mess. What else could it be? Have you looked at the people who sit by you when you’re there? Yes, the Church is guilty. We’re all guilty of being smug, complacent, self-righteous, racist, misogynist, impersonal, unfeeling, dated, and stuffy — all these things and more.

But Scripture —and the song — says our Lord Jesus purchased the Church of God with his blood. Ephesians says Jesus loves the Church and gave himself up for her. Church is a pretty big deal.

But even “church people” are struggling. All the research and surveys show that the Christian Church and its message do not significantly matter in the lives of its members. Attitudes about sex, marriage, and divorce; ideas about race, poverty, and war; thoughts and actions related to recreation, work, and money — in all areas of life you can’t tell the difference between church members and people who aren’t church members. Lots of people see the Church as really good as long as it gives me personal comfort or meets my needs or confirms what I already think about myself and other people and the world around me. That’s it.

A lot of Christians pretty much ignore the Church as harmless or irrelevant and live their lives like it doesn’t even exist. Christians are increasingly just going through the motions on the inside of Church and, on the outside, the Church is ignored and laughed at for its irrelevance.

I think one of the main problems is that we don’t have a robust theology of the Church. We think the Church is where the theology is packaged. We think church is where religious people with religious things in common go to get their religious stuff. Church is just a place to get your spiritual needs met.

No! Church is theology! Thinking right about the Church is directly tied to thinking right about God.

From the Day of Pentecost right up until this hour Christians have always believed in the Church. That line about the Church in the middle of the Apostles’ Creed — I believe in the holy, universal church, the communion of saints — comes from a baptismal confession from the middle of the second century. Only a few years later, it was being recited together by all Christians every time they assembled. A belief in the Church has always belonged right in the middle of our theology. Just like we believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; just like we believe in the dead, burial, and resurrection of Jesus; just like we believe in the forgiveness of sins and the second coming; we believe in what God is doing in and through his Church.

The Church is an utterly indispensable part of what God is up to in the world. Followers of Jesus have never believed anything less.

The Church can’t be treated like an optional extra. It’s not like ordering a side salad to go with your steak: I can take it or leave it, it just depends on what mood I’m in. The Church is the family of God, the called-out people of the Messiah, the baptized, sanctified, Spirit-indwelled, disciples of Jesus who become something together they can never be as individuals. Y’all are the Body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it. Our identity in Christ cannot be understood outside our membership in his Church. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. To him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever!

This week in this space, I want to take a look at the three descriptors in that line about the Church in the Apostles’ Creed. These three words/phrases give us a great outline to point us to what the Bible says about the Church and what Christians have always believed. These three words/phrases — holy, universal/catholic, communion of saints — will give us a better Church theology.

Peace,

Allan

The Least of These

September 23, 2016 / Allan / 0 Comments

From this week at ACU Summit:

“The homeless and addicted do not primarily need what the Church can bring them (although they may); rather, the Church needs what the homeless and addicted bring her. They bring the brokenness of their humanity, crushed by the structures of society, as the very sacrament of God’s presence.” ~Andrew Root

Peace,

Allan

Lousy Leaders & Sorry Sheep

September 16, 2016 / Allan / 1 Comment

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘I myself will search for my sheep and look after them… I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered… I will bring them into their own land, I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel… I will tend them in a good pasture… I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down,’ declares the Sovereign Lord. ‘I will search for the lost and bring back the strays, I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.'” ~Ezekiel 34:11-16

God speaks through his prophet in Ezekiel 34 about lousy leaders. God points out the kings and elders, prophets and priests — shepherds — the leaders of God’s people who only cared about themselves. The leaders were fat and full and happy. But the people were neglected and forgotten. The shepherds ruled harshly and tough. They didn’t pay attention to the weak. They didn’t minister to the sick. They didn’t care for the injured. They only thought about themselves. Their first priority was to maintain their control. Their main goal was to hang onto their position. They enjoyed the power. They relished the status. And God’s people suffered. They were scattered. They didn’t have any guidance or support, so they looked to the idols in the high places. They made deals with the world and the world ate them alive. And nobody cared.

And God says that’s not going to happen anymore! “I myself will be their shepherd! I’m going to fix this. I’m going to restore everything. I’m going to make everything right. I myself will be their shepherd!”

Ezekiel 34 is also about sorry sheep: older women who think they run everything, younger men who think they know everything, rich people who think they own everything. And they only care about getting their way. They use their experience and knowledge and education and wealth to get it. They don’t just want the blessings of God, they want the blessings you’re getting, too. It’s not enough to have a lot, they want more. And if they need to take it from others, they will. They assert their opinions about everything. They ignore or completely discount the opinions and feelings of others. These sorry sheep push and shove and they leave a trail of devastated people behind them. Hurt feelings and broken relationships. And it’s driving the sheep away.

And God says that’s not going to happen anymore. “I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep! I will save my flock. I’m going to fix this problem. I’m going to make this right. I myself will be their shepherd!”

I read Ezekiel 34 and sometimes it makes me sick.

Because sometimes we can be really lousy leaders. God rips into the bad shepherds because they’re ignoring the fat sheep who are running over the other sheep. Sometimes church leaders don’t want to challenge church bullies because they don’t want the conflict. Sometimes the fat sheep are the big givers. Sometimes preachers just preach safe messages — they don’t confront the pushing and shoving — because they don’t want anybody to leave. Elders and ministers don’t always take care of the weak sheep like we’re supposed to. Taking care of wounded sheep is hard and painful and time-consuming. It’s work. Sometimes we pay more attention to and rule in favor of the fat sheep who can yell down or outspend the broken sheep. Sometimes church leaders crave the attention themselves. Some of us are tempted by the spotlight. And sometimes we do want our own way. Sometimes we’ll do something or say something only to save our own necks. And our selfishness and inconsistencies can sometimes drive people away. God help us.

If you have ever felt run over by anybody in church, I’m sorry. If you have ever felt like your feelings have been dismissed or your opinions have been discounted by any church leaders, I’m sorry. If I have ever used my position as the preacher to shove you or run over you, please forgive me. I’m sorry. I’m know I’m capable of those things. God, help me.

We can also — all of us — be sorry sheep. We can be territorial about our ministries or our preferred practices or our pews. We can not let anybody in. We can shove our brothers and sisters out the door by being dogmatic and unyielding about our own personal beliefs. We can push people to the curb by insisting they believe and think and worship and parent and dress and pray just like me. We’re so good at it, sometimes we’re oblivious to it. We can actually use a weak sheep position as an 18-pound sledgehammer to bully and head butt and ram other sheep into my comfort zone and inside my lines and behind my boundaries. There are sheep in your flock who’ve been in your flock for years and don’t have any friends. That’s the truth. There are sheep in your church who don’t feel like they matter because we’ve run over them on the way to our next committee meeting or service project. There are people in your congregation who sit by themselves every single Sunday. In your building. God, help us.

If you are a broken sheep, if you’re wounded and weak, if you’re tired, if you feel neglected or ignored or flat-out pushed aside by the people or the programs or the culture of your church, please forgive us. I’m so sorry. I know we’re capable of those things. God, help us.

Peace,

Allan

Where is Jesus? Part Three

July 27, 2016 / Allan / 1 Comment

Please keep my darling wife Carrie-Anne in your thoughts and prayers for the next few days. She’s having surgery this afternoon to repair a fairly significant hole in a sinus passage. The surgery is only supposed to take about an hour and a half, but everybody’s telling us the eight days after are going to be horrible. As you’re probably aware, Carrie-Anne has the best looking nose in our family, and we don’t want anything to happen to it.

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“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” ~Colossians 3:1

“God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms.” ~Ephesians 2:6

It’s a well known and well rehearsed spiritual reality that by our baptisms we all participate in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. We are united with Christ, we are one with him and share in his death and resurrection. But the Scriptures are clear that we also share in his ascension. We reign over the world with Christ both now and, ultimately, when he returns, in the future forever. We’re co-regents, co-rulers with Jesus.

Now, let’s be clear about what this means and what it doesn’t mean. Reigning with Christ does not mean that Christians are supposed to take over the world and start passing laws and trying to push the way we live on others by power or threat or force. Reigning with Christ does not mean telling everybody what to do. Christians have tried that. Christians are still trying that. And it’s always led to disaster.

Reigning and ruling with Christ means the Church — empowered by the presence of Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit — enters the world vulnerable and suffering, praising and praying, sacrificing and serving. The Church lives in the world as misunderstood and misjudged by humanity, saved and vindicated and raised by God. Like Jesus. Why would we ever believe we can reign with Christ if we’re not going to reign like Christ?

Man, that’s a good sentence right there. I’m going to write it again. Maybe you should tweet it right now: Why would we ever believe we can reign with Christ if we’re not going to reign like Christ?

We like the idea of Jesus being with us everywhere, even inside us. Jesus is present with us because of his Holy Spirit. He dwells in and with his Church. But the One who is present with us and living inside us by his Spirit is also the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who rules with all power and authority from a position over us, directing us, rebuking us, encouraging us, teaching us. So, yes, in a very real sense we do reign with Christ today in the heavenly realms, but only in the ways he directs — with Jesus, in the name and manner of Jesus.

We are a kingdom of priests, or kings and priests, it depends on how it’s translated. Either way, it means we participate in the reign of God like Jesus. We have important roles to play, we have Christ-ordained jobs to perform with our Lord as he brings his Kingdom rule to earth just as it is in heaven. But we don’t fight what’s wrong in the world with the power of the sword, we use the power of love. We don’t threaten or condemn anyone; like our Lord, we suffer and we serve everyone. We’re priests, so we intercede, we pray, we bring the world to God, we lift up people to God. We cannot bring in the Kingdom of God, but we can witness to it. We can’t create the Kingdom of God, but we can set up signs and tell stories. We can’t build the Kingdom of God, but we can live it with humility and faith — turning the other cheek, walking the extra mile, forgiving others, giving up our freedoms and rights, loving our enemies, and praying for the people who want to do us harm.

Jesus is bringing his eternal rule to this world in ways this world does not understand. 1 Timothy 6 says it’ll happen in God’s own time. He is with us, yes. We reign with him, oh yeah. But he is our Lord. And for us to use methods that are contrary to Jesus’ methods is to reject him as Lord and to try to establish a rival kingdom.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Church (Page 16 of 61)

The Universal Church

The Holy Church

We Believe in the Church

The Least of These

Lousy Leaders & Sorry Sheep

Where is Jesus? Part Three

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