Promises That Hold True

We live in a world today where promises are not much more than cute ideas. Promises mean very, very little. We promise someone something and then we go on our merry way. For example, "I promise to pray for you." Really? Most people don't and we know that. The most heartbreaking is of course marriages. Men and women promise to be together for life. Those promises are basically worthless in our culture.

The emerging generations are coming to age as skeptics. They believe very little of what anyone tells them. Why would they? Most likely their favorite coach or athlete left their favorite team for something bigger and better before their contract was up. Their parents or grandparents are most likely divorced. If they're the religious sort they have seen pastor after pastor fall. There seems to be little value in terms of someone's promise.

For these reasons and many others, I think that what is known as Covenant Theology is crucial for our day and time. Covenant theology has at its heart God's promise to make for himself a people. It's a promise that we see renewed again and again. This promise begins in the Garden of Eden after the fall of Adam,

 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

Here God, speaking to the Serpent, is communicating to Adam and Eve that someday their offspring will have victory over the serpent. But it gets better, God kicks them out of the Garden in a merciful act so that humanity could be redeemed.

A few years later God clarifies and develops his promise through Abraham.

Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:1-3)

This covenantal promise is renewed with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. He adds to it and through David, confirming the royal priesthood of his people. The promise was displayed over and over again through circumcision. This outward act was a sign of God's promise, his covenant.

Jesus burst on the scene and as a result the global scope of the covenant became clear. Now baptism is the sign of the covenant so that it includes Jews, non-Jews, male, and female.

What I love about God's covenantal promises is that he makes good on them. In a culture where promises mean nothing, the Scriptures reveal to us a God who makes promises and keeps them. So many Christian folks talk about the need to live "counter culture". As a result they seek to avoid as much of "this world" as they can. However, the best way for us live "counter culturally" is to embrace the promises and tell the stories of God's great covenant keeping work in our lives and community.

When you live in a culture where promises are not kept the covenant keeping God stands out in stark contrast.

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How Do You Do It?

Whenever the topic of Doubt on Tap comes up there are a few questions that inevitably come up. The first is why do we do it? The second is almost always about how do Christians and non-Christians interact? The third question then is how do we do it?

This third question is the practical one. It's all about gathering people and conversations. What surprises me every time that I have this conversation is just how simple Doubt on Tap really is. In its most pure form Doubt on Tap is a conversation between friends. Quite simply it is friends sitting around a table talking about the things that matter most to them.

That's really it. 

Truly, it isn't much more than that. However, I am realizing that the idea of people getting around a table and just talking is something somewhat foreign. So, here is the step by step for Doubt on Tap.

First, find a location. For us it is the Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti. It is an open space with no servers. The expectation is that folks will come to the Corner and connect with another. There are no televisions and the overhead music is quiet and unobtrusive. The beer and food are fantastic. It's the perfect place.

Second, find some people. If you have friends, you're in luck. Invite them to come hang out and enjoy the conversation and a beer. Set up a facebook page. Invite everyone to like it. Start talking about it on Facebook and Twitter. Hang up posters all over town. Invite your friends. Did I mention invite your friends?

Third, set some ground rules. Our ground rules for Doubt on Tap are simple: (1) We respect one another. The reason for this one is obvious. We all come from a variety of backgrounds and we expect everyone to feel respected as they share their thoughts. (2) Everyone talks. No lurkers! (3) There must be a moderator. This is really important. She is the enforcer and keeps the conversation moving. (4) We end after one hour. This is the hardest rule to follow. Wherever the conversation is at it ends at one hour. Leave folks wanting more! Besides is respects the commitment made by new folks.

Fourth, pick some topics that you're interested in. Ask people to suggest topics on Facebook or Twitter. Or you can grab a little book called Pub Theology 101 that has thousands of topics indexed.

I owe a great deal of credit to Bryan Berghoef and his Pub Theology gatherings that began in Traverse City, MI and now in Washington DC. He wrote Pub Theology and Pub Theology 101. Please grab them and learn!

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How Can You Do It?

When I describe Doubt on Tap to my friends who are Christians they have a couple of standard objections. The first is often about the beer. The second is about how do we "bring the truth to the pagans" that come?

First, it's not about the beer. Do we have a beer or two with our conversations? Yes. But it's not about the beer. We hold our conversations in a pub because it provides a neutral ground for people. Pubs, especially the Corner, are places where you can come and sit around a table and talk. You can do this at a coffee shop or cafe too. We have just found that the best context for what we are doing is the pub. Often times people attend and don't drink. And get this, nobody cares. This isn't high school any more. The "cool kids" are not pressuring you into drinking. It's not about the beer, it's about the conversation.

The second question is more important. "How do we bring the truth to the pagans?" My first thought is that I recoil and get defensive because the folks that come are my friends. One or two may self-identify as "pagan" but that's not my perception. They are people who I care about, deeply. Actually, it makes me angry when we attach a label to the people around the table. We continue to find that there very few of our assumptions are accurate and that most are based on caricatures that are media created.

However, the follower of Jesus is concerned about people hearing and knowing the truth. So the question is legitimate and needs an answer. When you're convinced that the Jesus narrative is true then you do not need to convince people of it. I find that it's similar to the person with the Porsche at the stop light next to the person with the Taurus. The guy in the Taurus wants to beat the Porsche off the line. He is focused, ready, and when the light turns he punches it! He wins! The Porsche driver gently leaves the line knowing exactly what is under the hood and has no need to prove anything. I am so convinced that the truth of the Gospel is so beautiful that when people see it inhabited in front of them they will be inexplicably drawn to it. Does this mean that I ascribe to the "always preaching, use words only when necessary" concept? No. But it means that at the table I don't need to "sell" my position. I trust in it.

I am comfortable making positive statements about the gospel without feeling the necessity to "argue for it". Comparing and contrasting the different points of view around the table happens as a natural part of the conversation. They are evaluated and discussed. I am confident that the biblical position stands on its own and needs little help from me.

The other thing is that following our conversations I will write them up and give my perspective clearly in writing. This allows for reflection on the conversation by everyone. It always provides a platform for further discussion. These follow up conversations happen over the next week at the coffee shop and cubicles.

Finally, I am confident in the sovereign grace of God. He is at work, about that there is no doubt.

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Doubt On Tap

Tonight a group of people will get together at a pub to have a conversation about things that matter. They will discuss religion, politics, and anything else that comes to mind. It's a conversation that can't be had in polite company.

So why do this? Why grab a beer and have these conversations?

Because they matter.

The United States of America are not very united. We might live in one of the most divided times in our history. We have become a collection of individuals. Our culture is one where we rarely talk with one another. One would think that living in a time where there are more streams of communication than ever before that communication would be be a strong suit of our culture. However, these streams allow for us to talk at one another but rarely with one another.

We are a multi-cultural society. There are many sub cultures that make up the culture of the USA. People used to say that our country was a "melting pot", the reality is that we are a gravel pit. Every individual retaining its unique identity and never really mixing with the others. This creates a suspicion for those who are different from us. It causes many situations where someone becomes an "other".

Doubt on Tap is trying to change that. At Doubt on Tap people who have differing views have conversations about what they believe about the things that matter. When you have these conversations you begin to find out that there are similarities in perspectives. Those who are different from you are actually more similar that you thought. There are still disagreements, very real disagreements, and that's OK. The thing that happens though is that respect is developed because now you "know" someone who has that different opinion. They cease to be the "other" and become a "neighbor".

That's really the whole point of Doubt on Tap, relationships. People who are different from one another having real conversations about the things that matter most.

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I Go To Church

I have had a few friends drop me lines about "Christians". They have landed in two categories of questions. The first, is about Christians who "blindly follow" just because they grew up "going to church". The second is about Christians who think "going to church" is all that's required of them to be "good Christians".

Is going "to church" all that is required to be "Christian"? In other words, does going "to church" make one a Christian?

The reason that this is such an important issue is because of what many people in the emerging generations see in the church. They see hypocrisy. They see people put on their "Sunday" face for a few hours on the first day of the week and then act a different way the rest of the time.  As more and more people play out their lives in social media the contradictions of their Sunday face and their Monday through Saturday face become more apparent to the tech savvy generations.

Isn't it interesting that during "church" the same person will "amen" Romans 13's admonition to honor the leaders that God appoints over us and then on Monday will post some sort of conspiracy theory about the President planning for mass killings of Americans? Not to mention the discontinuity in other major areas of life (honesty, integrity, etc).

This issue about "is going to church" all that matters comes from the heart of one who wants to know how "church goers" can be decidedly "un-Christian".

The simple and somewhat snarky response is, "No, going to church makes one a Christian in as much as walking into a garage makes one a car."

The entire concept of "going to church" is a problem in and of itself and I wrote about it over here. Attending a worship service is important in the life of the follower of Jesus. It is significant. However, one's attendance is not the test of faith. Our justification and reconciliation with God does not come from attending a worship service.

I remember asking a group of high school students, "What is the gospel?" These were kids that had been going to worship services for years. Their answer, "Believe in God and do good things." This is not the gospel. The gospel is ultimately about the creation, fall, redemption, and restoration by God. It is a holy God declaring a broken people "righteous" by grace through faith in the resurrected God the Son.

The thing of it though is that the church (God's people) must be understood in terms of the visible and the invisible. The visible church are those people that self identify as followers of Jesus. This is very broad. It includes the most ardent faithful follower of Jesus to the "Christmas and Easter" Christians and everything in between. The visible church will always include those who are authentically saved (the elect) and those who are not. The invisible church is comprised of only those who Scripture refers to as the "elect". We cannot read hearts. We are not privy to the mind of God. All that we can see is the fruit of the Spirit,

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23

If you claim to follow Jesus check your heart and life against these qualities. Are they growing and being developed? If not, then turn to Christ and repent and trust him in faith. If you know someone who claims to be a Christian, evaluate their life against these qualities. Then determine if their attendance at a worship service makes them "Christian". However, be wary of one thing, the Scriptures are clear that you are judged by the same standard against which you judge.

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Values - Transfer-ability

When I was a kid we used to make cool t-shirts from iron on transfers. Dukes of Hazzard and Spider-man provided the coolest transfer options ever. Little did I know that these iron-ons would be the perfect image for launching a church.

 

Our family is living on mission together in Ypsilanti. With a group of friends we are launching a church planting movement called The Antioch Movement. We have a few values that are really important to us and provide a framework for us to make decisions. One of those values is transfer-ability.

We really want whatever it is we do to be transferable. That means that one person can easily model an activity for another and have them imitate it immediately. If we can practice transfer-ability and imitation then we can begin to multiply and replicate our lives and our community.

There are a couple of things that we do each week that anyone, at any age, can do. First, we have a meal. Every person eats. They typically eat three times a day. So, on Sunday nights we eat together. It's a great time to slow down a bit and have conversation. We are able to catch up some and hear about one another's week's. For us to go beyond the surface it requires intentionality, we're learning how to do that better.

The second thing we do is spend time in the Scriptures together. As we gather around to engage with God's words to us we ask five questions:

1. What do you like or what do you think is important?


2. What do you not like or what do you not understand?


3. What do you learn about God?


4. What do you learn about people?


5. How do we need to respond?

These are five questions that can be easily imitated and anyone can ask them. As we come alongside one another we can teach each other how to study God's word and go deeper. But, if we keep this in the study and never move to community then it is doubtful that we will ever really be changed. We must become doers of the Word and not simply hearers. Part of that process is to engage in community under the Scriptures. These five questions help us do that. They are simple but allow you to go as deep as you're willing to go.

When you're launching a movement your practices have to be like an iron on transfer. They need to be easily transferred from one person to another, just like that sweet Dukes of Hazard Iron On from my youth.

If we are unable to transfer our skills to another then we cannot become a movement. The very definition of a movement is multiplication.

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The Pop...

One of my favorite recent movies is Trouble With the Curve. One of the best moments is when Clint Eastwood talks about "hearing it". Whether it's a hitter or a pitcher, it's about the sound. I wish I could find the exact clip but, this is still pretty amazing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=efWgBKLzVZk

When you're on the diamond and you hear that pop off the bat or in the glove your head snaps. It's beautiful. There is just something that demands your attention when you "hear it".

People used to talk about Ted Williams that way. When he hit the ball it just sounded differently. Today, it's Miguel Cabrera. The

ball just sounds different coming off his bat than anyone else. It's an explosion. When Justin Verlander is on, you can hear the pop of the glove in the nose bleeds.

It's all about the pop.

This winter has been really cold and brutal. The weather broke this week for a bit and Ethan and I played catch outside. It was fun to hear the pop. It sounds different outside.

I love the pop.

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On Faith...

I have had a few friends drop me lines about "Christians". They have landed in two categories of questions. The first, is about Christians who "blindly follow" just because they grew up "going to church". The second is about Christians who think "going to church" is all that's required of them to be "good Christians".

What do we do with these questions? What is the nature of faith? How do we know if we're being "good Christians"? Are there outward manifestations of authentic faith in Jesus? Is it just about praying a prayer? Or do we simply attend a worship service on Sunday mornings and call it a day?

Let's begin with the issue of "I grew up going to church" Christian. There are many Christians in the West who have always gone to church. They have been "Christian" for as long as they can remember. My wife used to say that in her mind, "I was American, not Jewish, and so I was a Christian." This is the view of many. They believe in God and go to "church" and that's the depth of their faith. Is this Christianity? Is this all there is?

The Scriptures are clear that a Christian is one who has turned from sin and trusted in Christ for his righteousness to be their own. They are rescued by God through grace by faith. They are declared righteous because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

If one's "Christian"-ness is wrapped up in their church attendance and their heritage then it may not be authentic faith. We must be careful about this though because there is a covenantal aspect to being a part of the body of Christ. There is something about being the children of believers that we cannot look past. These covenantal promises that we find in the Scriptures are powerful examples of God's grace and mercy.

I think part of our evaluation of faith needs to include whether someone is seeking God. Hebrews 11:6 says,

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Faith is the central aspect to drawing near to God. I think that we can rightly ask the question, "Are you drawing near to God? Do you believe that God exists? Do you believe he rewards those who seek him?" These questions can help someone determine where they are in relation to God.

Jesus says in Luke 14,

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Following Jesus is a count the cost kind of thing. Many of us who grew up going to "church" have never counted the cost. We have never made that move from "going to church" to seeking God in faith. To follow Jesus is not a passive endeavor, it is an active one and it is costly. We must count the cost.

What does it mean to count the cost? On the one hand it's being willing to "renounce all that he has" and I think on the other hand it's asking whether or not we have wrestled with whether we have reason for the faith.

So this "lifelong Christian" needs to be challenged to evaluate their life and faith. The danger of growing up in the church is that a person may never evaluate their life and faith and as a result their faith remains shallow and maybe not truly present.

Practically speaking this is where communion and confirmation need to come in to play. The healthy church will engage folks with the process of confirmation and through the sacrament of communion to help them make these evaluations.

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She's A Woman...

I have been writing about convictions and persuasions recently. One of the issues that I said had shifted from conviction to persuasion was my perspective on women in ministry. A few friends asked me to share the story of the shift and where I'm at now in my journey. If you haven't yet, please read this article on the difference between convictions and persuasions.


The journey began as the result of a sermon series on 1 Corinthians. As our congregation was going through the text one of the things that became clear was the reality that each believer is called to a ministry of "Word and prayer". I asked my pastor about this and the role of women as that seemed to cause a bit of a hiccup in our practice. He shared that it's a hard topic and one that causes consternation because the principles conflict with the descriptions of the way that ministry is carried out. This started the questioning.

During Seminary I went deeper into the Scriptures than I ever thought imaginable. From learning the original languages to learning about the historical context that the Scriptures were written in, I had greater context than ever by which to wrestle with the Scriptures.  One of the things that I really wrestled through was making decisions about theology and doctrine that determined my understanding of the Scriptures as opposed to the other way around.

Everything I believed was opened up before me. I struggled through every theological position that I held.

Couple this with moving from a very conservative denomination to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church which is very conservative but distinguishes between "essential" and "non-essential" beliefs. There was room to stretch and pray and study and wrestle with the Scriptures and theology.

Most of my doctrine, theology, and practice were not only confirmed but strengthened in this context.

This one thing though really stuck in my brain like a splinter. This issue of women in ministry. There was just something that didn't sit right as I thought about the Scriptures and the roles of women from the very outset. I struggled with the generally held interpretations of the "elder" passages as I understood the broader context to which they were written.

The first domino to fall was the office of Deacon. There were deaconnesses specifically mentioned in Scripture. So, it did not make sense to me for women to excluded from the office. The second domino to fall was the office of Elder. This one was more in depth. But, through the same hermeneutic that, in my persuasion, demands paedobaptism it seemed that it also challenged my assumed view that women were not to be in leadership in the community of faith.

Once the question of office was squared away, then the big question for me became how do I reconcile the issues of husbands and wives with those of leadership in the body fellowship? Is there a sharp distinction between the husband and wife relationship and that of the church? Are they the same? If a married woman is in a leadership position in the community does that cause a problem within the context of roles in her marriage? What are the roles in a marriage? What does it mean for a wife to submit to her husband? How far does the metaphor in Ephesians 5 extend?

All of these questions ran and ran and ran around in my head and heart. The thing that kept coming back to me was the non-essential nature of the issue.

So where did I land? I am good with women as officers in the church, which necessarily means that I'm comfortable as a "teaching elder" in our polity because the Scriptures do not differentiate between ruling elder and teaching elder. In light of Ephesians 5 and the other passages on marriage, I am persuaded, that a married woman probably shouldn't be the senior pastor of the community where her husband worships. There has to be some sort of maintenance of the role of husband and wife in the context of body leadership.

Many are reading this wanting an exegetical argument. I don't think the blog is the proper context for that because it would require more words than anyone will read here. It's the stuff of an academic paper. The purpose of this post was to lay out the journey and to give some sense of my conclusions. These conclusions are persuasions. That means, that I am comfortable with complementarian who reads this and thinks I am a crazy liberal. I am also comfortable with the egalitarian who thinks I'm a sell out unwilling to go all the way. There are competing principles in the Scriptures that need to be balanced against one another and I don't see how any of them take priority over the others.

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A Persuasion or Three or More...

We all have convictions, persuasions, and opinions. Convictions are those things that we are willing to part company over. Persuasions are those things that we are convinced of and will argue but we are unwilling to break a relationship over. Opinions are things we think are true but will not argue for. When I was young I had many, many convictions. Now, many of my convictions have become persuasions and a number of persuasions have become opinions.

Ever since I hit publish on the previous post I have been wondering what my other convictions are. I have been asking myself about those other things about which I would break relationship over or that I would be willing to die for. As I worked through each belief that I thought would be a conviction I realized that each one was in some way derivative of the three convictions that I have already laid out (Resurrection, Trinity, Scriptures).

I have also been thinking about those things that I once held as convictions that have now become persuasions. I used to have so many convictions. I was willing to part ways over a great many things and I believed without a shadow of a doubt that I was correct about all of them. 

Here are some of my changes, beliefs that have moved from conviction to persuasion: 

• Women in ministry: I was at one time a strict complementarian (meaning no women should have an ministry roles where they have leadership over men). This caused a great deal of consternation for me as a staff person with Campus Crusade for Christ. My position is significantly more nuanced now. As with most of my persuasions it no longer fits neatly under a label. 
• Charismatic gifts: I used to be a cessationist (I believed that all miraculous giftings had ceased). My views are more in line with a general acceptance now that fits with the Reformed stream of thought. 
• Inerrancy: I am persuaded that the Scriptures are without error in the original manuscripts. I have no doubt that they are. None. However, I don't think that this is an issue that I am willing to die for. Authority is the bigger issue. To be very clear, I am a thoroughgoing inerrantist, I will argue until I am blue in the face that the Scriptures are without error in their original manuscripts.
• Christian Worldview is Necessary for Salvation: This sounds strange, I know. But, as I evaluate my walk with God I am confident that this was a conviction of mine. I had a list of things that people needed to believe beyond faith in Jesus. One had to be pro-life, a young earth creationist, and so many others or you couldn't be a follower of Jesus. 

This list is probably not exhaustive. However, these four things were pretty significant shifts for me. Each one holding with it a story and some tough wrestling with the Scriptures and with God. 

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What Matters Most Part 3...

We all have convictions, persuasions, and opinions. Convictions are those things that we are willing to part company over. Persuasions are those things that we are convinced of and will argue but we are unwilling to break a relationship over. Opinions are things we think are true but will not argue for. When I was young I had many, many convictions. Now, many of my convictions have become persuasions and a number of persuasions have become opinions.


In 2 Timothy 3 Paul writes,

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

As I continue to work through what my convictions are I began with the resurrection, then went on to the Trinity, and now I have come to the Scriptures. The Scriptures are so very important because they reveal to us who God is. In Hebrews 1 the writer says,

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

In Romans 1 Paul tells us that God has made himself known through his creation. Yet that knowledge has been suppressed through humanity's brokenness. It is through the Scriptures that we have God's special revelation as opposed to his general revelation. When we read the Scriptures we gain a clarity of who God is that we cannot find elsewhere.

My conviction about the Scriptures is that they are the authoritative word of God. This means that they are the primary authority to which the Christian sets themselves under. Our consciences are bound by Scripture first and everything else second. Authority is the critical component as far as I'm concerned at the level of conviction. If the Scriptures are not authoritative then we will struggle to know God and we begin to create him in our likeness, this leads to idolatry.

Without the special revelation of the Scriptures we can't possibly know God. Everything would be based in tradition and philosophy. While these are important they originate in the minds of men and men are broken. They need to be corrected and they are corrected as they come under the authority of Scripture.

Because they are authoritative we are driven to study, understand, and teach them. I am passionate about the Scriptures because they point me to who God is and as I know who he is I grow in intimacy with him. As I grow in intimacy with God I find that I must worship him and glorify him because he alone is worthy.

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What Matters Most Part 2...

We all have convictions, persuasions, and opinions. Convictions are those things that we are willing to part company over. Persuasions are those things that we are convinced of and will argue but we are unwilling to break a relationship over. Opinions are things we think are true but will not argue for. When I was young I had many, many convictions. Now, many of my convictions have become persuasions and a number of persuasions have become opinions. This is the second post, the first post can be found here.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Jesus' Great Commission in Matthew 28:

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

One of the things I like most about the passage is the clear statement of the Trinity. It's one of the clearest that we have in the whole of the Scriptures. The Trinity is one of those doctrines that are particularly difficult to explain and nail down. Yet, it is one of the most important beliefs that we have.

We believe that there is one God in three persons. The Westminster Confession of Faith states it this way (Chapter 2.3),

In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.[38] The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; [39] the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. [40]

The Trinity is of such extreme mystery and importance one theologian put it this way, "If you seek to understand the Trinity you will lose your mind. If you deny it, you will lose your soul."

This is not the place for a full treaty on the Trinity, as that's not the point of these posts. However, the question of "why?" must be answered. Why is belief in the Trinity on my list of "convictions"?

First, the Trinitarian nature of God goes to the very heart of who he is. If we do not hold to the Trinity then we cease to worship the God that is revealed to us in the Scriptures (that's the next post). If we do not worship him them we are worshiping our own created idol.

Second, it is through the Trinitarian nature of God that we can fully understand our salvation. As a result of the fall of Adam humanity has become radically corrupted. In his grace and fore-loving, God the Father, without condition, chose his people. God the Son effectually atoned for the sin of those that God the Father chose. God the Holy Spirit effectually calls the one's whose sin was atoned for by God the Son and keeps them to the very end.

Finally, it is the context of the Trinity that we see that God is relational and intimate. It is the foundation for Christian community. God is himself a community and therefore we as his image bearers seek this out as well.

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What Matters Most...

We all have convictions, persuasions, and opinions. Convictions are those things that we are willing to part company over. Persuasions are those things that we are convinced of and will argue but we are unwilling to break a relationship over. Opinions are things we think are true but will not argue for. When I was young I had many, many convictions. Now, many of my convictions have become persuasions and a number of persuasions have become opinions.

Over the next few days I am going to lay out my convictions. These are the beliefs about which I am willing to part company over. It doesn't mean that I won't be friends with someone who thinks differently than me. What it means is that I would not be willing to submit to their spiritual oversight and leadership.

Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 15:

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

For Paul, the thing that was of first importance was that Christ died and rose. He goes on to say,

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 

19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when it says, all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

This part of the scriptures lays out for us the the most important thing. That Jesus is resurrected from the dead is of supreme importance. The opening of Romans give us even more insight into the great importance of this truth,

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ...

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul says that if Christ has not been raised then our faith and preaching are in vain. This seems a bit extreme doesn't it? No, because in Romans 1 Paul states that it was in the resurrection that Jesus is declared to be the Son of God! Consider the absolute importance of this statement. If Jesus is not raised from the dead then it means that he is not the Son of God. It means that he has not reversed the curse of Adam and that there is no forgiveness of sin. Humanity and God are still separated and there has been no reconciliation and no redemption.

My first conviction is about Jesus: Jesus is the resurrected Lord, the second person of the Trinity. It is his resurrection that proves that he is who said he was and did.

There is so much more to say about this but the we must stop. This blog is already too long you stopped reading long ago.

Here are links to the rest of the posts in the series (as the posts get written their links will be added):
The Trinity
The Scriptures

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Hope Springs...

Pitchers and catchers have reported to their spring training sites. The final free agents are settling their contracts. Most Major League Baseball teams are finalizing their rosters.

As I look outside my window I see nothing but snow. It's piled taller than my ten year old daughter in places. I feel like a resident in Narnia before Aslan's return, always winter and never Christmas. It seems that the bleakness and grey skies will never end.


But, pitchers and catchers reported. Spring is coming and with it, hope.

That's the beauty of baseball. It runs from February through October. It's part of the rhythm of life. Baseball has a rhythm. Three game sets typically offset by a day, six on, one off. It's rhythmic.

The pitching rotation gets set and you can figure out when your favorite is pitching based on who is throwing today. It's rhythmic and it brings hope.

When the pitchers and catchers report it is a sure sign that winter is on the wane and spring is coming. Spring brings new life and that new life is a resurrection.

When you hear the pop of the ball in glove and the crack of the bat, you know winter is over. You know that each day brings new warmth and life. The silence of winter is broken by the rhythm of the pops and cracks.

Baseball.

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Ch..ch...ch...Changes

I began really following Jesus the summer after my freshman year in college. I was on a summer project with Cru in North Myrtle Beach, SC. It was a crazy summer. I learned so much about Jesus and about being in community. I also became a fanatic. I was a fan of the evangelical worldview. It made sense of my world. I had a way to understand everything. It was my goal to convince everyone that my worldview was correct.

I had convictions. 


As I matured in my faith and became more confident in God things began to change. I grew in my ability to debate and win arguments. I was able to retain a lot of information. I took philosophy classes and discovered the beauty of argumentation and how to deconstruct others arguments. I was winning arguments at a high rate.

Then, I read three books that God used to absolutely transform me. First, I read What's So Amazing About Grace? Then, I read Putting Amazing Back into Grace. Finally, I read Blue Like Jazz. These three books took my understanding of following Jesus through a worldview and chucked it out of the window.

I began to learn the difference between convictions, persuasions, and opinions. Convictions are those things that you are willing to part company over. Persuasions are beliefs that you will argue for but will not break fellowship over. Finally, opinions are those beliefs that you hold because you "just do", these are easily changed.

As I continued to mature and grow up it began to dawn on me that I had a lot of convictions. But the thing was, they weren't real. They didn't live up to being convictions. I was not really willing to part company over them. I began to slowly place things into the persuasion category. Then many of those began to slide into the realm of opinion.

In 2007 I began seminary. I began to realize how little I knew about, anything. I thought I had all the answers, it turned out that I didn't even know the questions, let alone did I have any knowledge of answers. The number of convictions decidedly shrunk.

I was asked what's "changed in your beliefs over the years?" I am pretty sure that everything has changed. So, I am going to take the next few blog posts to walk through my convictions. Feel free drop a comment or two about what things fall into the realm of "conviction" for you.

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Grace...

U2 sings that grace "makes beauty out of ugly things" and that it's an idea that changed the world. When I was on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ I would often ask students, "How do you define grace?" Typical answers were "beauty" or "you know, like a good dancer" and then I would explain to them that grace also means, "unmerited favor".


One night Amy and I were at a small group gathering at a friends home and he asked the same question, "What is grace?" Amy and I knew the answer, "unmerited favor" we exclaimed. Then he asked the follow up, "Is that what inspired something like the song, 'Amazing Grace'?"

From that moment on I have wrestled with "grace". I have tried to discover the kind of grace that inspires songs like U2's Grace and causes us to respond emotionally when we hear and sing Amazing Grace. Words can be frustrating things at times. The leave us wanting more. I have yet to find a simple definition to the kind of grace that leaves me speechless and in awe of the greatness of God? What I do know is that "unmerited favor" doesn't cut it. While I can't explain it, I know it when I see it.

Do you?

One of the Pharisees asked him [Jesus] over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee’s house and sat down at the dinner table. Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him.” 

Jesus said to him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Oh? Tell me.” 

“Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty. Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker canceled both debts. Which of the two would be more grateful?” 

Simon answered, “I suppose the one who was forgiven the most.” 

“That’s right,” said Jesus. Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, “Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn’t quit kissing my feet. You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. Impressive, isn’t it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal.” 

Then he spoke to her: “I forgive your sins.” 

That set the dinner guests talking behind his back: “Who does he think he is, forgiving sins!” 

He ignored them and said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” (Luke 7:36-50, MSG)

It has been said that if you have a small view of your own sin, you have a small view of your savior. Grace becomes amazing. We struggle with remembering though. We forget our stories and we forget that it was Jesus that saved and not ourselves.  

Grace ceases to be amazing when we forget how much we need it. 

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Church...Church...Church...

There's a great movie starring Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd called "Spies Like Us". They spoof James Bond and it yields some pretty hilarious results. This might be my favorite scene...

I feel like when we get into conversations about "church" this is what's going on. We have many people using the word "church" in very different ways. In the last few days there has been a brush up in the Christian world over a prominent author "coming out" saying that he doesn't go to "church" because he doesn't like singing and lectures.

Post by Donald Miller.

The responses came fast...

Post by Michael Jones.

So what is going on here? Is Donald Miller forsaking the faith? Are those who think you should go to "church" every week legalists?

The problem I think lies in that fact that in these discussions center around a faulty understanding of "church". Too many people think that "church" is an event that happens on Sunday mornings between the hours of 10 am and noon. So, when someone says, "I don't go to church" people immediately think they are walking away from the faith because "church" is primarily what happens as an event on Sunday mornings.

So is this event primarily "church"? I don't think so. I think that the scriptures bear out a broader understanding of "church". Ephesians 5 the church is stated as being the "body of Christ". In 1 Corinthians 12 we get a fuller picture of the body of Christ. Throughout the New Testament the words "church" is also used to describe a group of people that meet together as followers of Jesus. The word that we translate as "church" has a very broad range of meaning and its meaning is determined by the context within which it used.

What strikes me though is that the gathering itself is not "church". The people who are gather are "church". When you read the "church" passages it is clear that the primary understanding of "church" is a people and not the gathering.

I think we need to be much clear about how we speak of the church. I don't think the scriptures allow for and understanding of "church" to be...

• A building...
• A worship gathering...

The church needs to be primarily understood as the body of Christ, the people of God. So when someone says, "I am going to church". It doesn't really make sense. Are they going to a building where the church gathers? Are they attending a gathering where the church will be worshiping? 

If we can shift our thinking about what "church" is and come back to the clear concept that the church are people who make up the body of Christ. These people as such will...

• Worship corporately
• Worship privately
• Proclaim the gospel
• Live in community with other members of the body
• And more...

How does this inform our understanding of the conversation about people going or not going to worship gatherings? First, it reorients our perspective of gathering. The worship gathering is important because it provides us time to be with other followers of Jesus. However, the worship gathering also becomes just one piece of what we do as followers of Jesus but is not the only thing we do. 

Second, it frees us to understand that our being the church extends far beyond a two hour commitment on Sunday mornings. Too much of Western Christianity thinks of being the church as going to a building, singing songs, and hearing a sermon (you can see this perspective above in the three articles). Being the church is not primarily about attending a worship gathering. It is primarily about...

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." - Mark 8:34-38

This is not what we really want to embrace. We want it to be easy. But, following Jesus is costly. Being his disciple costs us our lives.  To be a part of the Church means to be giving our lives fully to him, every single day. To focus on a worship gathering as a primary mark of what it means to follow Jesus is myopic. Is it important? Yes, without a doubt. But "church" is not a building and not simply a gathering. "Church" is the body of Christ. We need to start speaking more clearly about "church" so that we don't unite practices to identity.

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It's a TRAP!!!

I remember sitting in a meeting with a group church leaders staring at the budget. There was growing concern that we would not make budget that year. We decided to tighten our belts, limit our spending, and begin to let the church know that we needed money.

That night as I listened to and prayed for the men around that table it struck me that maybe there was a different way. As I looked at the budget nearly half of it was going to cover the expense of the building or items related to it. In other words, "overhead". This experience left a mark on me and has never really left me.

My family and a group of our friends have decided to go on mission together in Ypsilanti, MI and beyond. We dream of a movement of Jesus followers that are growing in the character and competency of Jesus through faithful discipleship. Our hope is to see a network of missional movements launched all over the world, beginning in Ypsilanti. 

From the beginning we realized that for this to happen we needed to be different. For us to be able to launch movements quickly we needed to be very focused on sustainability and replication. We couldn't do things the way that we did things in the 90s and early 00s. We had to change the game. The overhead had to go. Overhead just isn't sustainable. 

After that intense meeting with church leaders about the budget I remember dreaming about what it would like to have all that money that was being spent on a building freed up for other purposes. How many people could be hired and sent to various areas around the city to launch fresh works? Or, how much money could be invested in the local non-profit organizations or schools? The list could go on and on. 

When we launched the Antioch Movement in Ypsilanti we had sustainability as a value from the beginning. As a result our budgets have been created based on vision and mission. We are intentionally avoiding the "building trap". To have a building sounds great. But it's a trap. It becomes the motivator for activity as opposed to flexibly pursuing the mission. 

Buildings and the like are not bad things. Some day we want to have a building in Ypsilanti that is self-sustaining. 

Let's be clear, I am using the building as one example. We could include staging, lights, and effects. Sustainability can take a hit when you focus on the Sunday gathering as your primary avenue of mission. 

There was a great story that a friend shared about some big time pastors who brought a Chinese pastor to the States. They wanted to learn from him how he was able to grow his church at such an alarming rate. They toured him around to all their churches and showed off their sanctuaries and fog machines and stuff. The pastor was very impressed. Finally, they sat down over dinner and they asked him how he was able to attain such growth. He responded, "We give them Jesus." "What else?" they replied. "We just give them Jesus." "But what about the buildings, the fog machines, the lights?" "We just give them Jesus."

The story may or may not be exactly true, but I don't doubt the interaction happened. But, the point is clear. Many churches in the midst of their "stuff" miss their Jesus. In the name of "winning the lost" we forget to give them Jesus. We think by entertainment we can score a few souls. We come up with creative and new ways to get folks in the door. We talk use marketing strategies and learn about how to be more "sticky". In the church planting world we talk about "launching large" and all kinds of other stuff. 

Yet, in the midst of the noise we often miss Jesus. 

I love what Mike Breen said, "If you make disciples, you always get the church. But if you make a church, you rarely get disciples." 

This is the heart of the matter for sustainability and replication. As we move forward the church needs to get focused on building disciples. If we can do that, then the rest takes care of itself. 

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Scripture Says...

I don't typically like engaging directly with celebrity pastors. This morning though I saw a number of people in my Facebook sharing a post by Joel Osteen. The post was typically shared with comments like, "Amen" and "Yes". Take a look,

Post by Joel Osteen Ministries.

It makes me really sad to see things like this written by "pastors". Especially pastors that have the following of Osteen. They tag "Scripture says..." to stuff and unfortunately people take it as true because, "he's a pastor."


Osteen is part of a wing of Christianity called, "Word of Faith". In a nutshell, they believe that if you speak words with enough faith that God will give you what you want. God, in essence, is a genie. The bummer is that he's not even a very good genie because you have to really believe and if you don't get what you want then you didn't really believe.

When we say, "Scripture says..." we are standing before the world and saying something akin to "Thus says the Lord..." If we do that, we better be darn sure that it's the truth. Most of the word of faith folks take nice axioms and add "scripture says..." to try and give them authority and make it sound as though they are speaking for God. The sad thing is that this simply leads folks astray.

What might be a better choice for Osteen would have been,

Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success! - Psalm 118:25

You see, the Scriptures do speak of success and asking God for it. However, it is typically connected with repentance. Repentance does not play well with our audience because it requires an admission of sin and brokenness.

We want an easy faith and cheap success. Jesus put it this way,

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he [Jesus] said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

The one who is following Jesus is not promised the easy life or the successful life. She is promised to experience cross carrying. Following Jesus is not easy. He calls us to places of discomfort. He calls us to deny ourselves. Self-denial is painful.

The life of the follower of Jesus is that of faith. Hebrews 11 is so very challenging because after the author lists all the great heroes of faith he writes this,

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Now we come back to what Osteen says that Scripture supposedly states, "Scripture says, “Blessed are those who look for, who long for, and who expect His victory." Believe that today is your day." While those who live by faith are blessed, they are blessed by entering the heavenly country. But beyond that, Scripture simply does not say this.

After doing a little searching the best I can come up with as to where this could be in Scripture is Isaiah 30:18,

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.

When you look that passage up in the amplified text you can piece together Osteen's quote. However, the context of this passage is repentance from exile. It is about waiting on God for justice against the enemies of God's people. The people of God were looking to enter into a treaty with Egypt but God didn't want them to. He is telling them if they will trust him, he will bring justice.

I would encourage you to spend some time reading in Deuteronomy (13 and 18) and thinking about how it informs us in regards to people over stating what "the Scripture says...". It's a little intense.

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50 Years From Now...

It happens with everything. The cadence of time and progress keep moving forward. The things we experience today will look nothing like they did in the past. Some things though take a turn and we begin to realize that maybe the old ways were not as bad as we thought and we return to our roots.
I was asked by a friend what I thought the church would look like in 50 years. To warn you, this is pure opinion, speculation, and verbal processing.

I think in some ways it will look very similar to what it does now. There will be large mega-churches, the Catholic and Orthodox churches will continue on as they have for two millennium, and there will be heated discussions about the form and function of the worship gathering.

I think the Megas will largely be legacy churches. That is, they will survive as generation after generation of family stays connected there. They are already beginning to lose influence with people who are far from God. Their pragmatic methodology is slowly beginning wear thin and the lack of discipleship is starting to show.

The Catholic and Orthodox churches will keep on keeping on. The beauty of the tradition will keep many close. The stability and structure will draw in those from emerging generations that feel like their lives are out of control and they need a touchstone of stability.

The center of the Christian world is already shifting or has shifted to the Southern hemisphere. It is growing fast. The Northern hemisphere is becoming a receiving place and this trend will continue. It will be interesting to see the rise of the Southern academy and the questions they ask and answer.

Ultimately though, I think the Church is going to have to move away from the institution on a large scale and recapture its movement principles. Global Christianity will need to look more like the Chinese church and less like the American seeker church. The Church I think will need to be smaller, more nimble, and more focused on discipleship.

I think that Protestants are going to need to learn from their Catholic and Orthodox brethren about the importance of the "parish" structure. I don't think that you will see a reunification of the three major branches of the faith.

I do not see a major persecution arising in the West. At least not the kind that we see in Sharia countries in the Middle East. Christians in the West are going to have to become more thoughtful, pursue higher education, and engage more deeply in the culture as change agents.

The church is going to have to wrestle with two very important questions: sustainability and replication. How can it sustain itself and how can it replicate?

I think at the end of the day we can sum it up like this...

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Saturday is for Baseball

So far in the 28 days of blogging I have been hitting on some heavy stuff. But, today is Saturday. Saturdays are supposed to be fun! They were the days of sugar cereal (I preferred Cap'n Crunch Berries) and cartoons.

The best part of Saturday was, This Week In Baseball...

I loved TWiB! This was before Sportscenter and cable. TWiB and Mel Allen were the best way for a kid like me to learn about all the teams in MLB. I would have my baseball card collection out and watch the show. Then NBC's game of the week would come on and it seemed like it was always Ozzie Smith and the St. Louis Cardinals. 

I loved those Saturdays because I could see National League teams. The sadness that is "inter-league" play wasn't conjured up yet. 

The NL teams were small and fast. They stole bases and bunted. It was different than watching my Tigers play. We were big and strong with guys like Larry Herndon and Kirk Gibson. There was something romantic about the NL. 

When I moved to Normal, IL I found myself in Cardinal country. Amy and I loved watching the Cardinals play. This was about the time the Albert Pujols burst onto the scene and began dominating the league. What struck me as I watched the games was how much strategy was involved in the NL as opposed to the AL. 

I was used to seeing big boys fill a lineup and mash. It seemed like every team in the DH ridden AL was playing for the 3R Home Run. The NL teams didn't have that luxury. With pitchers hitting the managers had to make hard decisions about how to use their bench. 

Living in a NL town made it clear that the DH is an abomination. It takes much of the fun and strategy out of the game. Besides, how much more intense is it when a pitcher brushes a guy off high and tight and then the next inning has to stand in the box himself? 

I say get rid of the DH and let's get back to playing ball.

Ahh...baseball. 

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Sheeps and Wolves

The story of man goes like this, God made humankind in his own image and it was very good. Humankind broke relationship with God by trying to be God and it got bad, really bad, really quick.


Have you ever thought much about the spiral of sin in the world? It's really quite heartbreaking to consider the great brokenness that exists in humanity. The first known sin was Adam's passivity, a sin of omission.  Then Eve takes the fruit of the tree, a sin of commission. Then, together they experience guilt and shame. They shift blame. God gives mercy and clothes them and sends them out of his presence. The next recorded sin: fratricide. That's, quite literally, one hell of a leap.

The killing of Abel sets the scene for the downward spiral and brokenness of humanity. It points to the thirst of violence in our hearts. We see this played out over and over again. Man killing man. We live in the most violent time in human history. Wars are constant. Violent crime is everywhere. Murder is so common in our cities that it largely goes unreported.

It seems as though the wolves are winning. The sheep are running for their lives.

So, what do we do about this?

The debate rages about whether or not people should have guns. The general public needs to arm itself, the argument goes, to be protected from the wolves that are on our doorstep. We need to allow the sheep to protect themselves from the wolves.

The other side of the argument is that violence begets violence. More guns means more violence which means more pain and suffering. Get rid of the guns and you get rid of the violence.

The problem is that both sides of the argument are broken. Neither side begins with the reality that we are a sinful, broken, people. We have violence as part of who we are. An armed public does not necessarily protect the sheep, it typically creates more wolves. A disarmed public does not necessarily decrease the violence, it just makes it easier for the wolves to eat.

When we understand and take seriously the brokenness of humanity, then it appears to me, that we find a third way.

There is great fear in some of those in authority. This fear, I think, comes from a lack of faith and trust in the sovereignty of God. Paul writes in Romans 13,

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.

We see in this little passage some important principles based on God's kingdom rule. First, the governing authorities have been placed there by God. Second, those in authority are there to protect the good and bring wrath to the wrongdoer. Now, there are all kinds of questions that this passage raises due to the context historically. However, the more I have studied it, I am convinced that Paul was not speaking sarcastically here. We are to rest under the authorities over us as protectors of good.

I am grateful to know two men who are police officers. These men represent the sword. The fact of the matter is that I do not fear for my safety because I trust that these two men are representative of their profession. They are out there fighting the wolves and protecting the sheep. God has placed them in this role for the express purpose of carrying out justice.

If one experiences terror over those in authority we must ask "why?". It's not easy, especially in places like China and India where there is rampant persecution of the Church by those in power. How do we reconcile this reality with Romans 13? I don't know.

What I do know, is that in our context in the United States we do not fear the sword of the authorities.

Now, pastors, we have a role in this too. We are to preach the gospel in season and out. As we do, lives change. More people begin to have the image of God renewed in them and under the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit violence is dialed back. More people trust God and trust his providential reign to protect them.

So what does this have to do with gun control? Not much. What it has to do with is more about protecting the sheep from the wolves. If we will encourage the sheep dogs (our police) and if the shepherds would faithfully preach the gospel, we will begin to see fewer wolves because they will cease to be wolves but become sheep, following the Good Shepherd.

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I Didn't Watch It...

In case you didn't hear, there was a debate this week. Bill Nye The Science Guy debated Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis. They were to have a debate on origins. Nye, a television personality, and Ham, a Christian celebrity, apparently went on for over two hours. My Facebook stream was filled with commentary from my friends who follow Jesus and my friends who don't. But, I didn't watch it, and won't.


Based on Facebook here is what I know about the debate:

• Ken Ham won. 
• Bill Nye won.
• Ken Ham preached the gospel.
• Bill Nye argued that religion hurts children.
• Ken Ham didn't really stay on topic.
• Bill Nye mostly stayed on topic.
• Ken Ham mocked Bill Nye a little bit.
• Bill Nye mocked Ken Ham a little bit.

This is exactly what I thought would happen. The convinced on both sides thought "their guy" won and was better than the "other guy". I assumed it would devolve into a bit of name calling and apparently it did. Thankfully, not very much though.  

The secularists in my newsfeed found Ham to be ignorant, backwards, and yet a polished speaker. The Christians found Nye to be intelligent but close minded and twisted the facts to suit his hypothesis.

Here's the thing, neither man was really up to the task of what they were expected to do. This was to be a scholarly debate on issues surrounding the origins of the universe. The debaters were not scholars and for all intents and purposes are entertainers. 

During the campaign season the news feels that it is important to tell us who celebrities and athletes are voting for. Why? Who cares? Celebrities and athletes are no different than anyone else. If there was a presidential debate where the debaters were two movie stars instead of the presidential nominees, I would not watch either. Why? Because they're not qualified to really deal with the issue at hand. 

This "debate" on origins was no different. 

These were not the best that either side had to offer. They were celebrities on a stage, entertaining the masses. They succeeded. 

My friend Dennis nailed it:

Post by Dennis Leskowski.

Sadly though, they did not further the conversation. They just created more noise. The "debate" simply furthered the ridiculous science vs religion dichotomy. These are two things not at odds with one another.

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Stop It! Just Stop It!

I love this piece by Bob Newhart where he plays a counselor,

"Stop it! Just stop it!"

I wrote yesterday about how hypocrisy is a sore subject for those of who seek to follow Jesus. It's brutally tough because we are compared by the whole world to Jesus. That is our name after all isn't it? "Christian" or "little Christ". Jesus is the plumb line and we fall short.

Our lives don't reflect well the life of Jesus. But, our words, oh our words, they are demand it and we preach and we preach and we preach. We tell others and one another how we are to live and then our lives fall dramatically short of our words.

HYPOCRITES!

The charge is accurate.

Many of us respond by trying really hard to be better. We try to be good people. We apply a lot of effort into being like Jesus. Our lives get disciplined, we create rules for ourselves to keep us on the straight and narrow. We give it everything we have and we experience failure. That failure creates in us shame and guilt or it hardens us and makes us even more ardent to work harder.

One of my favorite passages in all Scripture is found in Ephesians 2, it reads:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Every time, every, single, time, I read those words I am left in awe of God. His grace abounds to us. He saved his followers not because of their works, but in spite of them.

Did you catch that? He saved us not because of what we did but in spite of what we did. This is what grace is all about. I don't deserve to be in a relationship with God and be forgiven of my sin. Yet, he did all that anyway.

Beautiful.

The thing is we get so caught up in the "saving" bit that we stop reading and start celebrating. The last sentence is just as important as the first. We are God's workmanship created for good works, which he prepared for us. This should overwhelm us! The good lives and works that we are supposed to do God has ready for us, by his grace!

If we could understand this truth about how we are to grow and live and love in faith by grace it would change everything.

When someone becomes a follower of Jesus they do so because they understand that they can't get right with God on their own. They are in a position of brokenness. Then a funny thing happens they start trying to live for God on their own apart from grace. When we do this, we have moved ourselves away from the beauty of the gospel. We set ourselves up to be hypocrites because our words and our actions will inevitably not match up.

But, if we're living in faith, trusting in God's overwhelming grace for how we live then something happens to our words. Instead of "you should's" and "I ought to's" they become penitent and humble. Our preaching becomes an admission of our own weakness and desire to be more like Jesus and how through his grace we are starting to see his character and competency developed in our lives.

You see the follower of Jesus who is well aware of his sin and brokenness is also acutely focused on the grace and mercy of Jesus. She must live there and as a result her life reflects the gospel story. A story of how broken people separated from God are reunited with him through his self-sacrifice and grace.

How do we get lose of the charge of hypocrite? We live into grace (tweet this). We look at our efforts to measure up to Jesus and we just, "Stop it!"

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You're A Hypocrite!

E. Stanley Jones, the missionary to India, asked Ghandi: “Mr Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is it that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower (Christian)”? Ghandi famously replied, “Oh, I don’t reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It is just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ”.

This quote by Ghandi has struck deep into the hearts of many Christians. It has been a guilt trip pastors in sermons (heck, I'm pretty sure I've done it). It's also been wielded by those who don't like "organized religion" as a weapon to keep the religious at a distance. 

So, what's the issue? Hypocrisy. 

Webster's dictionary defines hypocrisy this, "a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not;especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion." 

What troubled Ghandi was this is issue of "feigning to be". What he saw in the Christians around him were people who were utterly falling short of Jesus. If you take a moment and read some of what Ghandi had to say about Jesus it is clear that he had, at the very least, a deep appreciation for him. Christians on the other hand were not living up to the standard of Jesus. This is made all the more evident due to the fact that Ghandi was pushing against a "Christian" imperial force for freedom and self-governance in India. 

Whenever I am sharing the message of Jesus with people the typical response is this, "I like Jesus, he's pretty cool, but Christians are such hypocrites." 

Why is that people that have that response? I think it's the result of a couple of key things. First, in America many people grew up going to church (although this is becoming less and less true). As they went to church they saw people who were "members" of the church or even "leaders" in the church act in ways that they considered to be immoral. They heard so many words and experienced little congruity with the actions. They left for college never to return to the church because there was a significant gap between people's performances on Sunday from 10 am - Noon and the rest of the week. 

Second, the scandals and cover-ups within large wings of Christianity as it relates to the sexual abuse of children and other areas of sexual brokenness. Everyone is familiar with the scandal of the Catholic Church. In recent years similar scandals have been uncovered in the Protestant church as well. In the not too distant past we have found that those who been the loudest to speak against sexual sin, have themselves been engaged in that particular sin. 

The public words and the public works of the Church at large continues to point toward hypocrisy and because the message of Jesus includes the call to repentance for one's own sin, the charge will not go away. 

I will let you in on a little secret: the charge is often legitimate. 

Here's one more secret: the charge of hypocrisy points to something greater still...

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What's the Center?

In the realm of politics a "centrist" is one who doesn't fit neatly in one party or the other. They are a middle ground sort and find that they agree and disagree with bits of both ideologies. In the church there is a debate about what the center of the faith ought to be. Some argue for the Scriptures while others argue for Christ. What is the center?It is interesting isn't it? If we place the Scriptures over and above Jesus then are we really being faithful to Jesus? Are we deifying the Scriptures? Some have said that in the evangelical church the trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Bible. 

On the other hand, if we set the Scriptures on the outside of things then what do we have? A few years ago there was a burgeoning Christian subculture called "Emergent" and it offered some really helpful critiques of mainstream evangelicalism. They were very Jesus centered and talked about how the Scriptures were one voice in the discussion. In other traditions Christians are not encouraged to read or study the Bible, that's better left to the clergy. 

What do we do with this? Is Jesus the center or is the Scripture the center? What is the center?

John 1 is really helpful in untangling this, 

The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one.

Everything was created through him; nothing-not one thing!-came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.

The word translated as "Word" is the Greek word "logos". The concept of the logos in the Greek mind was full of meaning. It was weighted and heavy.  It was the basis of knowledge and reason. Here, John personifies the logos and places it at the foundation of creation. It was pre-existent with God the Father.

Later in the chapter John says,

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

This is a remarkable statement. He is saying that Jesus is the logos. Jesus is the Word. This does not mean that the Scriptures = the logos. So, we can't go too far with this connection. However, it does inform us as to how we approach the issue of the "center".

Hebrews 1 says,

Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end.

The author to the Hebrews says that Jesus is the ultimate self-expression of God to us.  What's the center? Is it Jesus or the Scriptures?

The answer is, "yes". Jesus is the center but the Scriptures reveal Jesus to us. So, we can't have one at the center without the other. We must properly place them both at the center of our faith because apart from the Scriptures displaying Jesus for us we will merely create him in our own image. When this happens we place ourselves at the center.

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