World Peace and Sin

I had an interesting conversation about war and world peace with a friend of mine the other day that made me realize that how you view the human condition has a lot to do with what you think people are capable of both morally and socially.

My friend, who I’ll refer to as “Bob”, basically had two suggestions as to how war should be eradicated or at the very least, kept to a minimum. The first thing Bob brought up was that with so many countries possessing nuclear weapons that instead of fighting wars countries should go straight to the negotiating table since they know that there’s a possibility that their entire nation could be whipped out. His second idea was that if you made it so that war was no longer profitable it would be less likely to happen and if it did it would end quicker. To ensure that war isn’t profitable Bob suggested that everyone in the warring countries have their salaries reduced to the lowest pay grade in their countries military.

While I’m all for world peace I do have a theological problem with it, namely, sin. I know sin is not a popular idea in today’s culture but it is THE problem, it always has been and will continue to be until Jesus comes back. Pride and self-centeredness were the original sin (Gen. 3) and can still be found at the root of all other sin, in this case war. Because I believe in sin and the effect it has on the entire world I don’t believe you can ever find a formula that will usher in world peace no matter how badly I may want it. I’ll use Bob’s two suggestions to show how sin makes world peace unattainable.

The idea that you can somehow make war unprofitable is highly unlikely. War will always generate money, even if you do somehow manage to enforce a salary cap on an entire nation people will find a way around it. Because our own comfort and security is what we most value we will find ways to enhance it, in this case through some backwater way of gaining extra money. This is also the kind of environment that organized crime and the black market thrive in. Anytime you outlaw or limit the availability of an item, or in this case people’s ability to buy them, an illegal form of obtaining them will emerge it’s a simple matter of supply and demand. (Prohibition anyone?) This means that by implementing a law you thought would improve the human state you’ve actually made it worse and caused people to delve deeper into the baser desires of the human soul.

The reason people will never sit down at a table and negotiate is because both sides are only concerned about getting what they want, not about what the other side wants. Say, for example, one country wants to invade the other one so it can have access to the other countries natural resources free of charge. There is no way you can successfully negotiate that situation so that everyone comes away happy, one side thinks that they should be given something that isn’t theirs and the other side thinks they should keep what is rightfully theirs. This almost always leads to some form of armed conflict with one side trying to take what they want and the other side endeavoring to hold on to it.

More and more though wars are fought over ideology and less over physical territory, which leads to a real problem if you believe that people should believe whatever works for them because you can’t say that either side is wrong or right. Both sides are standing up for what they believe in, which is what their belief system teaches them to do which makes them both right if you believe you should do “whatever works for you”. Without an absolute right and wrong it becomes impossible to call war a bad thing, really the only people who have a right to call war evil are the ones with a moral code that has a clear standard of right and wrong.

As Christians we believe that the morale code laid out in the Bible is the only one capable of producing the right heart attitude to properly view our world. The world we live in is torn and shattered by the curse of sin (Rom. 8:20-24) and the only one who can restore it to sinless perfection is Jesus. For those of us who believe this we should be leading the way towards finding humane peaceful ways of resolving conflict, not because we think world peace is an achievable goal in this lifetime, but because we believe in the one who will one day come forever destroying sin and thus bring world peace.

Bigger than my body gives me credit for.

I think one of the most beautiful things about the Gospel is the fact that it allows us to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. Once we are brought into right standing with God through the person and work of Jesus Christ, we are taken from living an existence built entirely around ourselves busily trying to carve out a kingdom for our own fame, and swept into something bigger, more extravagant, and eternally lasting. The Gospel sweeps us away into something that has been in motion since before the dawn of time and is, in fact, the driving force behind all of history. Namely, the reconciliation of creation with its Creator and the glorification of God in all things.

I was reminded of this several times today in little ways that I am a part of something that has been in motion long before I took my first breath and will continue to be long after I cease to breath and I find a great deal of comfort in that.

There is no delete button

“This is one doodle that can’t be undid home skillet.” – The Store Clerk, Juno

The delete key, one of the joys of living in the digital age. If you end up with something you don’t like you don’t have to watch it pile up in your garbage can, you can just delete it and suddenly it’s like it never existed. No wonder people can’t deal with reality, the mistakes you make out there last forever. There’s no erase, no backspace, or delete in real life; everything out here is permanent. It’s one thing to imagine what failure would feel like, it’s another thing to feel it, to live through it, to endure the sleepless nights, and the gut wrenching agony that you’re sure no one else has ever felt as deeply as you do. Which is stupid, everyone has failed one way or another usually multiple times per day. It just shows how self centered we are, that we think we’re the only ones to have ever felt like this. There are people all over the world who are far worse off than we are and yet we think we have the right to gripe about our car problems, while there are people walking several miles just to go to school. We complain about the price of food, while millions go hungry. The worst part is we feel justified while we do it, we claim it as our right to whine about whatever perceived wrong happens to own the soap box that particular day. Our hair, our clothes, having to wade our way through mountains of homework, the seeming injustice of a teacher that we swear is trying to kill us so they can devour our soul.

I have a feeling that if life did have a delete button that we’d all use it so much that we’d end up back in the Garden of Eden, because that’s what we all want, that’s what we’re wired for. The imprint of Eden is still on our souls and it haunts us all.

Every.

Single.

Day.

We desire perfection because man was created perfect, the image of God himself. (Gen. 1:26-27) But being like God wasn’t good enough for us, we wanted to BE God. We wanted to set ourselves up as the ultimate authority. To base holiness off of what pleased and brought glory to us, not what brought joy to the heart of The Creator. So we ate the fruit and crowned ourselves as the rulers of our lives, the spiritual coupe was completed and our lives are scared forever by that childish, reckless decision. Mankind, the being that didn’t even possess the power to create itself, let alone the world it lived in, decided it knew more than a being that has simply always been. (John 1:1-3, John 8:58)As soon as we overthrew what we thought was an abusive, unloving, dictatorship we regretted it. (Gen. 3:7) Ever since our desire has been to find the delete button for life so that we can go back to living in a world without sin. But no such button exists, there’s no going back and undoing that one terrible moment. That doesn’t mean there’s no hope though.

There may not be a delete button, but there is whiteout. (Isaiah 1:18)

In spite of our great rebellion God still loves us and pursues us with an unquenchable fervor. So much so that He designed the only plan that could rescue us from ourselves, despite the fact that it meant sending the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, to die in our place. (Matt. 16:21) So the deep, ugly stain of sin was washed out and made pure, and while it’s not as good as having never rebelled it’s better than never being rescued.

Evolution and The Gospel

“Give me something to believe, ‘cause I’m living just to breathe.” – The Bravery, Something to believe


I had my class on biological anthropology today and every time I sit in that class I’m always struck by how depressing evolution is. Why would anyone want to believe that we’re pure chance, that we’re some cosmic accident that took millions of years of trial and error? If we’re all some freak occurrence then why care about people in Darfur? I mean, it’s all just survival of the fittest isn’t it? If their climate dictates that they don’t survive why should anyone care? It’s less competition for the rest of us, so why do we have this innate desire to care for the abused, displaced, and helpless? Wouldn’t evolution encourage us to be as self-centered as we can?

Or, is it possible that we were put here ON purpose, FOR a purpose. Does it really take any more faith to believe that the reason we care about people is because we were designed to care by a God who cares? Maybe I’m naïve, simple, and just plain stupid but it seems to me that all these things that scientists can’t explain could be very easily understood if they simply acknowledged the existence of a Creator who made the entire world for His enjoyment and glory. That He put the human race here because He wanted to, because He wanted to share the beauty and grander of His creation with us that we, in turn, would marvel and delight in Him.

Jesus in the everyday

(Note: This is a slightly updated version of a blog post from over a year ago, still working on it.) :)



Today was one of those days that you never think about as a kid. You know, the days when being a grown up is "boring." I went grocery shopping, cleaned the dishes, and took out the trash. (Yes, kids it's one big party. WOO-HOO!) :) The highlight of the day was making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and watching Chuck on Hulu. I enjoyed it though mostly 'cause it makes me laugh to think about how naive I was as a kid. Somehow I envisioned myself going to parties every night of the week and just hanging out being "cool", whatever that meant. Now my idea of cool is getting wheat bread buy one get one free. I almost did the happy dance right there in the bakery isle. Until I remembered that, a.) I'm white b.) it's just bread and c.) I'm in the middle of Mejier. Thinking about doing "boring" stuff reminds me of Acts 16:11-12. Luke gives what seems to be really pointless information about their traveling. "So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days." I'm always struck by how mundane this all sounds. There are no miracles, no angry mobs trying to kill someone, nothing earth shaking happens anywhere in these verses. And I wonder, “why is this even in the Bible? Are Paul's traveling habit's that important?” But I stop and think about what the Bible is all about, Jesus, and His Gospel. Then it takes on a slightly different appearance. Jesus was there with them in the middle of all that, the boring, everyday, unexciting routine of life. Just like He was there with me while I was shopping for bread, washing dishes, and eating PB&J. Also the fact that they were able to do all that uneventfully shows God's protection. They didn't get caught in any major storms, pirates didn't attack their ship, and nobody got sea sick. Similarly today I didn't get in a wreck, cut or poke myself doing the dishes, and I'm very thankful that I'm not allergic to peanuts. So really far from being boring this is actually a fairly comforting passage. It shows that God is always there with us not just when there's some big miracle, but when we're able to get out of bed in the morning and make it through a whole day without anything seriously awful happening to us, that's cause for praise too.

Who is Jesus?

(Authors note: This is a rough draft of something I'm working on, feedback would be very helpful.)

“The Jesus of suburbia is a lie” - Green Day, Are we the waiting?


“Who do you say that I am?”

Jesus asked his disciples this question over two thousand years ago and it still holds true for us today. Who do we say Jesus is? A great moral teacher? A loony whack job with delusions of grandeur? Some mystical sky fairy that does whatever we ask Him to, like a supernatural PEZ dispenser? Or God’s own son sent to earth to pay the price for sin? These are just some of the possible reactions to Jesus, but which one is the right one? Is there a correct answer, or is it simply left up to the individual to decide which version they prefer to believe in?

In a culture where the customer is always right we want to believe we should get whatever version of Jesus we want. Today’s evangelical Christian culture has practically become a giant Baskin Robins, helping us find the flavor of Jesus that best suites us. You don’t like hippie Jesus? Try 80’s rock star Jesus, complete with feathered hair! Still not what you’re looking for? Try health and wealth Jesus, or holier-than-thou Jesus, now with three new pious sayings!

The problem is Jesus is not consumer friendly, he never intended to be. He was homeless (Matt. 8:20), His teachings were often hard to understand (Luke 8:9-10), and the ones that could be understood were incredibly challenging (Matt 19:25). Jesus never did a four week series on how to have a better marriage, there was no twelve steps to financial security (honestly, who’s going to take financial advice from a homeless guy?) He never taught people how to improve their self esteem, or how to achieve “your best life now.” Jesus’ teaching was actually shockingly simple. At the heart of all the parables, the miracles, and the healings, was His claim to be God (John 10:25-30). There are only two reactions to this teaching; you can receive His free gift of salvation and live your life centered on the reality of who He is and what He’s done, or reject Him and set yourself up as your own god.

The Lordship of Jesus is not a popular concept in our society because it means we have to shape our idea of Jesus to what the bible teaches about him, instead of shaping Jesus to our ideas of what He should look like. Suddenly Jesus goes from being our golfing buddy with the solid handicap, to the holy, all-encompassing God of the universe. This isn’t a Jesus who sits and drinks herbal tea with us while stroking our ego and giving us the warm fuzzys. Instead He’s the terrifying, just, God who punishes those in opposition to Him in a fury of Holy wrath (Gen 19:23-30). Has God allowed us to have a personal relationship with Him through the person and work of Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Yes. Does God love us more then we can fathom, desiring to bless us and give us joy? Yes. But I fear we’ve over emphasized His love and mercy and in doing so turned the awesome, powerful, fear-inducing Lion of Judah into a neutered house cat.

Oasis and The Gospel

“Some might say we don’t believe in Heaven, go and tell it to the man who lives in Hell.” – Oasis, “Some might say”

As some of you know I’m a big fan of the British rock band Oasis. Today Noel Gallagher, their lead guitarist, left the band after getting in yet another fight with his younger brother Liam who’s the lead singer. There’s a part of me that would love to pull out the Kleenex and play “Wonderwall” full blast. I’m going to resist that urge and instead use it as a springboard to write about something meaningful.

As I was talking (texting) with Jimmy about this I made the comment that they were gifted musicians but incredibly lost people, which he pointed out is the general story of rock n’ roll and that it makes him look forward to the day we’ll be in Heaven. As much as I love Oasis’ music, I love the prospect of spending eternity with Jesus an enumerable amount more than that.

In moments in my life where something shakes up my world to some degree, I find it’s often easier to see life in light of the reality of The Gospel and eternity. While I’m saddened by Oasis’ split, I’m reminded that it’s God who gave me my love for music because He loves me and wants me to enjoy His creation. Someday I’ll join a choir of millions singing creation’s most perfect love song, and the loss of one rock band will be a distant memory.

What is The Gospel?

I talk about The Gospel a lot in my blog but I haven't every really defined what I mean when I talk about The Gospel. Today I want to try to address the fact that I think most Christians aren't really sure what The Gospel is. This interferes with their ability to live lives centered around The Gospel, negatively affecting their children, and rendering them impotent as missionaries in their culture. Before I get to far into this post I want to make it clear that I'm a Calvinist and that my view of The Gospel and salvation stems directly my theology.

First we have to define what The Gospel is. I have to admit this is something I struggled with a great deal when I felt the Lord first calling me to church planting 2 years ago. Because of the people that I was reading and listening to, primarily Acts 29 guys, the common theme was The Gospel. I kept coming across things like; the local body of believers needs to be Gospel centered, preaching needs to be Gospel centered, mission needs to be Gospel centered, essentially everything that is done by Christians was to be centered around The Gospel. This sounded reasonable, the only problem was I didn't have a clear enough understanding of what The Gospel was to make any sense of what they were trying to say. I think it's important to point out that I've grown up in the church, sat under solid bible teaching for most of my life, and have a mother who is gifted at teaching children the concepts and doctrines of the bible. Yet, somehow, I was never taught The Gospel clearly and repetitively enough that I could clearly articulate it. I understood enough to know that it was more then simply doing certain things and refraining from participating in others, but I was unable to get much farther then that without getting confused. I continued to read and research what exactly The Gospel IS and how to explain it to myself and then to others. The quotes I came across that helped me the most are these three:

"The Gospel is: God has come to rescue and redeem creation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ on our behalf." - Tim Keller

"For to Calvinism there is really only one point to be made in the field of soteriology: the point is that God saves sinners. " - J.I. Packer

"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures" - 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 ESV


At it's core The Gospel is simply the fact that we're all sinners, living contrary to God's law, incapable of saving ourselves.(Romans 3:23) That our only hope of being seen as holy and perfect in God's eye's is through receiving His gift of salvation that was bought through Jesus' sinless life, His death on the cross in our place, and His resurrection from the dead three days later, forever defeating Satan, sin, and Death. (Mt. 27:32-50, Mt. 28:1-10, Rev. 19:11-21) Thus securing eternal life for all those He calls to Himself. (Romans 9:1-29)

So how does this affect us as we attempt to live lives based on this reality? Simply, one day Jesus will return and restore the world to it's original perfection. (Romans 8:19-23) In the mean time we are called to be agents of His kingdom here on earth proclaiming what He accomplished during His time here on earth, assisted and guided by the Holy Spirit in our actions. (Mt. 28:18-20, Acts 1:2-8) This means we should view our time, talents, and money not as ours but as tools given to us by our Heavenly Father for the advancement of His Kingdom. This means our lives aren't based on what's best for us, but what brings God the most glory.

I know one pastor who drills the idea that everywhere we go we're to be missionaries into his kids minds by having the following kinds of conversations with them on a regular basis:

"Why do we play in little league?"

"So that we can tell people about Jesus."

"And....?"

"To have fun and play baseball."

This is a brief overview of The Gospel and how it is to be intertwined with our lives. It's not a very good one (I think) so I would encourage you to order Tim Keller's study guide on The Gospel and have your entire family go through it together. Also, Ed Stetzer is a brilliant missiologist (The idea that we're to be missionaries right where we are) and has many excellent resources available that would be well worth your time to make use of.

I hope you've found reading this to be a profitable use of your time.

Gospel centered bus riding

Since I'm naturally interested in people and love to watch the way they interact with the world around them, riding the bus the last couple of days has been like Christmas on wheels. It's amazing what you can learn about people without them ever saying a word to you. Where they sit, how they sit, whether or not they strike up a conversation with the people around them, all these things can tell you a lot about someone. This morning for example you could tell that almost everyone on the bus was still trying to wake up. Almost all of them were wearing sunglasses so that it was easier to nap and several of them had mp3 players pumping background noise into their half awake brains. Shy people tend to sit as far from everyone else as possible, I actually saw one person sit on the edge of their seat just so they wouldn't have to sit to close to the person they were sharing the bench with.

Humans fascinate me. Since I'm a Christian and I filter all of life through The Gospel, I believe that all people reflect the glory of God and bare witness to some attribute of His nature, people watching isn't just socially informative it's also theologically informative. Obviously because we live in a fallen world these attributes and traits aren't seen in the same perfection and holiness as they exist in God but we can see a small glimpse of God in His creation. Joy, love, kindness, anger, community, compassion, and many other emotions and actions are all small flashes of His personality, like fireflies in a night sky. In the words of 1 Corinthians 13:12:

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known."

For Christians simply seeing creation through the filter of The Gospel isn't enough though, we must act to bring that creation into a correct relationship with it's maker. This is hard, thankless, unglamorous, frustrating, time consuming work that in the end may not bare any kind of visible fruit. Thankfully our charge isn't to see who can harvest the most fruit, but to simply work faithfully for the advance of The Gospel.

Where has the week gone?

I can't believe it's already Thursday, I feel like I just got here the other day and now I only have one more "work day" left in the week. It's been a productive week so far and Denver is starting to feel like home.

I spent most of today taking care of school related things at Colorado University at Denver Out of all the schools I've dealt with over the years C.U.D. has by far been the most professional, helpful, and just all around easy to deal with. (Yes, that is a plug for a school. Next thing you know I'll sprout wings and fly.) :) I'll be taking one History course, Biology, and Spanish. I'm not looking forward to the last two but they're both required core classes. The plus is they take up so many hours that I only needed the three classes to get 12 hours for the semester. Also, I've felt that I needed to learn Spanish for some time now and have prayed about what I should do about that. I'm looking at this as the Lord's answer to that prayer.

On the apartment front, I still don't have one but I do have a call in to lease one I looked at earlier in the week. Hopefully everything works out and I have a place to come back too before I leave Sunday.

I've taken to doing my Bible study (and other reading) in City Park. The scenery is awesome and the vibe there is relaxing. Right now I'm reading through Acts and Lamentations. (Brad is getting ready to do a sermon series from Lamentations so I'm cheating and reading ahead.) ;)

I'm really enjoying Lamentations, for a couple reasons. First, it flies in the face of the "Prosperity Gospel" as it clearly states that God caused all the suffering experienced by the nation of Israel. (For fun go through the book and count how many times the author directly attributes their suffering to God.)

Second, when something bad happens people generally assume that God must have "accidentally" let it "slip through." In Lamentations we see a God who is so passionately in love with His people that He will stop at nothing to bring them back to Himself. What person let's the people they care about the most continue to harm themselves and does nothing to intervene, regardless of how harsh they may have to be? An evil one. For God to be truly loving He MUST do whatever is needed to reconcile His people back to Himself. How can we NOT love a God who loves us that much? This also touches on God's Holiness. For God to be Holy He cannot tolerate sin and must punish it. Ironically, He does this by using other sinners, committing sin, to punish Israel for their sins. Which just proves we're all deserving of God's judgement. Thankfully, Jesus came and lived a perfect sinless life, died, and rose from the dead so that whoever believes in Him as the only payment for sin can receive eternal life.

That's all I've got for today, later gang. :)

Thursday night rundown: Iran, Jesus and Sexuality.

I really want to write something but I can't formulate enough a strong enough idea that I think will hold out for one whole post so I think this is going to end up being fragmented between several different streams of thought.

Iran: I really wish more of the prominent voices in the evangelical Christian world would speak up on what's going on over there. An Islamic nation is in the midst of turmoil and protests that could open the doors (albeit, very briefly) for Christian organizations to come in and provide aid and (hopefully) The Gospel depending on the outcome of current events there. I've seen more Tweets from most Christian leaders the past week on the new iphone and iphone apps then I have on praying for Iran. (In fact, I don't think I've seen any regarding Iran.) If we want people to believe us when we say we genuinely care about the world around us, we need to take advantage of the opportunities we're provided.

Jesus and Sexuality: I've been thinking a lot about how The Gospel relates to our sexuality as well as how we should respond to sexual sin. (Fornication, homosexuality, adultery, etc.) If anybody has any thoughts or questions I'd love to hear them.

On a more personal note I'm having a hard time getting a hold of the Air National Guard person in Indiana I'm supposed to talk to. It would be nice if I could sign the paperwork soon, but I need to talk to him for that to happen so if you could pray about that I'd appreciate it.

Turning in for the night now, hope something in all that made sense.

If you don't have Jesus you don't have jack

I visited a local church today as part of my philosophy class requirement and came away incredibly upset by the experience. This a church I've been hearing about for some time and I was really looking forward to visiting it but by the end of the service it was all I could do not to stand up and start yelling at the pastor. I kept thinking that at some point he'd say what I expect to hear in any church that is truly a church, but he never did. Not once did he mention sin, repentance, and most importantly there was no mention of Jesus being the only way to heaven. In fact throughout the entire service of singing, praying, and the message, none of these things was touched on. In fact I don't think I heard the name of Jesus mentioned once.

This may seem incredibly obvious but I'll say it any anyway; if you don't have Christ at the center of what you're doing, you don't have Christianity. You have a group of nice, moral, caring people who are going to Hell. I'm glad they care about the city and in particular the downtrodden and mistreated but if the Gospel of Jesus' redemptive work through His life, death, and resurrection, isn't at the heart of what you're doing you're doing it in vain. What I attended this morning was a meeting for spiritual/religious people who want to have the trappings of a church (worship music, prayer, sermon) without the message of the church. The pastor kept making references to "speaking and living the truth" without ever saying what that truth was. You can't live and speak something you don't know, and these people don't truly know Jesus and His message therefore they don't know The Truth.

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - Jesus, John 14:5-7

Also if there is no sin then why did Jesus have to come and pay for it with his life? If there's no sin then Christians have the most dumb, pointless, and useless belief system in the world. If there's no sin there is no reason for Jesus to come and die, which means we believe in a God who is either small minded and simple, or incredibly cruel, neither of which is worth following. So if Christianity is true then sin is real.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." - Romans 3:23

If we really, truly love the world we will tell them the hard truth: No one is good enough to get into Heaven on their own and it's only by believing that Jesus is the only payment for our sins that we will be allowed into Heaven. And that is The Truth.

Children of the world vs. children of God

I just got done watching the Oasis documentary "Lord Don't Slow Me Down" as an Oasis fan I loved it, but I was also struck by the world view. Noel, Liam, and the boys are very up front about their self centeredness it comes out in the way they talk with writers and each other, the way they live, it just permeates everything about their lives, they are quite obviously wrapped up in themselves. It got me thinking about how Christians are supposed to be that wrapped up and absorbed in Christ. What would it look like if we were as Christ centered as the world is self centered? How would that change things? Our lives, our churches, our communities, our world? Obviously that's a rhetorical question, we all know it would make a lot of things better, maybe not easier (just read the book of Acts), but better. People who are as wrapped up in Jesus and His Gospel and mission as the rest of the world is in their own agenda shake things up. They make a difference that can't be ignored, the world can't go without noticing their actions and words. Christians living passionately Gospel centered lives must be dealt with sooner or later by the world, are they nut jobs? Or is their Jesus really the one and only way to Heaven? May God gives us the strength, courage, and desire to live lives that are focused on the person and work of Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

The church and the Gospel

I’ve been thinking about this since church Sunday, the difference between people who go to church and people who are the church. I know this this has been talked, wrote, and debated about to death but there’s something about sitting in church that makes me rethink the idea of church.

Here are some of the things that crossed my mind:

How do we get people to quite thinking about church as something you do and instead as something you are? Is there a way? Because honestly I’d rather be surrounded by 10 people who are passionately in love with Jesus and proclaiming His Gospel and encouraging me to do likewise, then with 300 who are just there because church is what you “do” on Sundays and our church building has the most comfortable chairs to take a nap in in the area.

What’s with our fascination with numbers and programs? We say that they don’t matter but we seem so reluctant to let them go. I know some programs are necessary (like training and discipleship for example) but do we really need something every night of the week? How are people supposed to build relationships and live the Gospel with world around them if we keep them busy all the time? Or what if they have the time to do those things but we’re not actively, publicly, encouraging them too pursue that course of action?

We admit that church is messy, but then act like it’s not. What’s the point in having people meet together in groups (small groups, community groups, cell groups, whatever catch phrase your church has attached to it) if real, raw, honest, communication isn’t happening? If we can’t admit we’re jacked up sinners still very much in need of the Gospel ourselves to each other how are we ever going to get our people to be that honest with unbelievers? The Gospel message will not be attractive at all to the world around us if the people who are trying to live/share it are pretending to be something they’re aren’t. Namely, perfect.

Granted there are more things that could go here, and this is a bit of a personal rant that should be taken with a grain of salt, but I think there are plenty of us who sit in a building on Sunday and from time to time wonder “how did we get here? Is this really the best we can do?”

Merry Christmas

I got home this morning while it was still dark out, there was a beautiful clear sky and as I looked up into it I couldn't help thinking of those shepherds thousands of years ago. Can you imagine what that must have been like? You're lying there watching your sheep graze in the same pastures your ancestors have been using for generations and then all of the sudden…….., BAM!!! An angel shows up out of nowhere. It doesn’t say how big the angel was so it could have been huge, imagine something the size of the Sears building popping up out of thin air. No wonder they were scared, who wouldn’t be? And then to be told the greatest message ever shared with mankind, you, a lowly shepherd the first to be told of the birth of your country’s long awaited Savior. Not only your nations Savior but the One who came to save the entire human race from sin, death, and eternal torment in Hell, there’s nothing in the world that could prepare you for that moment. Two thousand years later there’s still nothing that compares to the moment you come face to face with Jesus and His Gospel of grace. So as we celebrate the baby in the manger let’s not forget that it was the life, death, and resurrection that followed that makes it a moment worth making much of.

A few scattered thoughts

I just got done reading through 1st and 2nd Thessalonians and it struck me that Paul refers to the Gospel as a mystery. (as he does elsewhere.) I've probably heard/read these passages several hundred times over the course of my life but somehow this time it dawned on me that this is Paul saying this. Paul, this man was a genius and had a direct conversion with Jesus on the Damascus road and yet he calls the Gospel a mystery. It just struck me that if Paul repeatedly called in a mystery just think how amazing it must be. I don't have anything deep to say about this, it was just something I thought I'd pass along.

I found this artical/response by Daniel Montgomery regarding the emerging church on the 9 Marks website ( www.9marks.org ) and thought I'd pass it along. Have a great weekend everybody. :)


There have been many attempts in recent years to have a "dialogue" with the emerging church. In reality, the so-called emerging church is so diverse that I’m often left wondering with whom this dialogue is supposed to be taking place. Is it the freewheeling neo-universalist emerging church, or is it the theologically orthodox church plants in black t-shirts? Nonetheless, if one backs up far enough on the emerging canvas, one can see some recurring themes—most born from reaction against their church predecessors. Instead of focusing on criticism, I want to echo a legitimate concern that emergent church leaders have voiced: a reductionistic understanding of Christianity.

First, many believers have adopted a reductionistic understanding of the church, believing that the church is a building, a political affiliation, or a name on a membership role. This understanding produces religious consumers, whose commitment waxes and wanes whenever the next building is built, when the politics cool, or when the next big thing happens down the block.

Second, many Christians have reduced the scriptures to a set of moralist rules or a self-help guidebook. Emergent leaders loudly remind us that the scriptures are an organic whole, the beautiful story of creation, fall, redemption, and glorification. Tired of Dr. Phil-inspired sermons, many emergent leaders invite us back into the life-changing story of scripture, the story of what God has done throughout history to reconcile all things to himself.

Finally, and most tragically, many Christians have come to believe a reductionistic gospel. One only needs to say a prayer and walk an aisle to be "saved." The emergents are right in reminding us that a confession of faith is not the whole story. Salvation is an event, but it’s also a process (Phil 2:12-13). The gospel is the means and the motivation for every aspect of the Christian life - not just conversion. Instead of seeing the gospel as solely about justification, they remind us that it’s also about sanctification—the transformation of our minds and hearts into what he wants and intends for them to be. Our conversion is (as one emerging leader notes) the starting line of a life-long, life-giving journey.

Unfortunately, in the emerging church, these prophetic reactions sometimes swing the pendulum too far. Sanctification overshadows justification, and the glory of the cross isn’t acknowledged. The story of the scriptures overshadows the fact of the scriptures, and inerrancy and authority are lost. The joys of community overshadow the needs for polity, discipline, and worship, and the purity of the church isn’t guarded.

For this reason, I hope that evangelicals and emergents can hear one another. I hope that we can embrace the church in its rich biblical and historical heritage. I hope we can walk back into the strange world of the Bible, amazed as much by it’s God-breathed authority as we are by its life-giving power and presence. Most of all, I hope that all of us—emergents, evangelicals, and Christians of all stripes—can stand amazed once again at the blazing glory of Christ in his life, death and resurrection.

Daniel Montgomery is the pastor of Sojourn Community, a church he planted in Louisville, KY in 1999.