by Tim | Oct 27, 2011 | God, The Church World, The Holy Spirit |
I think the short answer to that question is that we fear the supernatural. We fear having to confront the possibility that God actually does something. I don’t know how many times I’ve been in a church prayer meeting where people pray for someone who is sick or in the hospital, etc. We all pray that God would “heal” them. We all pray that God would guide the hands of the doctors, etc. We are comfortable with those kinds of prayers. And we are comfortable to attribute to God the success of the surgery: He answered our prayers–He guided that surgeon’s hands! The problem with the gifts of the Spirit, or anything else that is supernatural, is that it removes a comfortable, ambiguous faith in God. For example, when surgery is successful, some attribute the success to the doctor, but we “believers” attribute it to God. Those who believe in God see the situation differently than those who don’t. Yet, nothing circumstantially can be attributed as a miracle. The surgery was anticipated by doctors to be successful. The matter is convoluted more, however, when the surgery has 50/50 chance of success. If the person comes through, we say it’s because of a miracle of God! Was it? For a believer, yes. For a non-believer, no. After all, things turn out favorably 50% of the time. If they don’t pull through, however, we believers still affirm God was working there just the same. In other words, with all of these things, it’s all very muddy. To what extent was God actively involved in the process? It is very hard to...
by Tim | Oct 20, 2011 | God, The Church World, The Holy Spirit |
When you start talking about the gifts of the Spirit, many people start to freak out. And if they’re honest, it’s mostly because they are afraid of the gift of tongues. But why fear the gift of tongues? I know the standard reasons given, but for fun, I want to offer five reasons why you should fear the gift of teaching more than the gift of tongues. The gift of teaching requires public speaking. That’s the second biggest fear for many people (death is #1, perhaps taxes is #3). On the other hand, the gift of tongues is primarily meant for your own personal prayer time, and the Apostle Paul even discourages its use in public (1 Corinthians 14:19). The gift of teaching requires a person to extensively study Scripture in order to be effective. Tongues, on the other hand, can be spoken regardless if you’ve been reading your Bible or not. According to James, you should be afraid of becoming a teacher, because teachers will be judged more strictly by God (James 3:1). Jesus even says that it would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and to be cast into the sea than to lead a little one in the faith astray (Mark 9:42). There are no such warnings for those who possess the gift of tongues. When you teach, you must continually strive to ensure your audience understands what you’re trying to say–praying that the “light bulb” inside their head flashes on. Even if you do end up speaking in tongues publicly, the whole point is that no one understands. No...
by Tim | Aug 9, 2011 | Our Culture, The Church World, Youth Ministry |
Many “Christian” parents do very little to disciple their children in the faith. It is a tragedy. One group thinks that the church has done a disservice to parents by developing youth ministries. In their opinion, youth ministry (as well as any age-related ministry) allows parents to shirk their responsibility as the primary spiritual leader of their children. They have produced a video called Divided. While I found several problems with the movie, I’ll point out two: 1. It is clearly fake. It pretends that some kid is on a journey, when he clearly has already come to these conclusions from the teaching of his parents and pastor. No problem that he has come to these opinions, but he pretends like he is still truth-searching. I am guessing this will be revolting to most thinking individuals. 2. It does not portray youth ministry for what it really is. It makes it look like youth ministry is all about entertainment or trying to usurp parental roles. Like most propaganda (and dare I say even conspiracy groups), it has a lot of truth in it, but throws in slight twists to bring the audience to conclusions which are illogical and unfounded. 80% of children/youth leave the church by the time they go to college. I’ve never been a fan of such a statistic. In fact, I want to see that percentage go to zero. But as bad as that number sounds, it may not be as “bad” as it appears on the surface. (Of course that number is bad, but let me explain.) I think this number has always been the...
by Tim | Jul 23, 2011 | God, My World, The Church World |
Since I wrote my last blog post, the conclusion I came to in that post has stuck with me. I think I had a little epiphany when I wrote the last two paragraphs: I must strive to have enough faith in God to believe that He can work through all sorts of situations and people like me that aren’t ideal. Perhaps instead of striving to become a more ideal leader or to make situations more ideal/biblical/effective, I should strive more to place my faith and hope squarely in God, believing that He can do great things in very imperfect situations and through very imperfect people like me. I can’t get away from that thought. I strongly desire to see things become ideal in churches. That’s where my passion lies. It’s ideal if everyone in a local church is on-fire for God–I want to see that happen! It’s ideal if the leadership of a church is unified, passionate, and committed to the Gospel–I want to see that happen! I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, I think that God has put those feelings inside of me. The problem comes when I can’t see a way for God to have His way unless those things are in place. I forget that God merely spoke this world into existence–and that He considered that a full-day’s work. After six days of speaking, He felt the need to take a day off to rest, ha! God only has to speak the word, and He has His way. No matter how ideal or depressing a situation is, He squirms His way through...
by Tim | Jul 12, 2011 | God |
Wow, it’s been over a month since I last blogged. Of course, two of those weeks I was on vacation, but still…it’s been a long break! I’m starting back up with a fairly personal post. Oftentimes, when I go to sleep, negative thoughts surface about the areas of leadership in which I am not excelling. The funny thing is that during the day, I’m not aware of these shortcomings, but at night they come blaring through. The next morning, it’s as if nothing happened the night before, and I can’t even recall what exactly I was thinking as I was trying to fall asleep the night before. At times, I’ve thought “Maybe this is spiritual warfare,” because I often feel discouraged, rather than encouraged to press forward. And the discouragement is pretty heavy. When these thoughts come, it’s not uncommon for me to feel as if someone else would do a better job than me, so why not let someone else better do it? Or to feel as if because of my inadequacies, I’m letting other people down, and they won’t be able to reach their full potential because their leader (me) isn’t doing all he can to help them. At these times, I can see how much better things would be if only I didn’t have certain faults or if I worked harder or if I had other talents or… Like I said, at times I’ve wondered if this is some sort of spiritual attack (and I’m guessing my more “pentecostal” friends may think that’s a no-brainer). While I won’t dismiss that possibility, I’ve been recently made aware...
by Tim | Jun 7, 2011 | God, Our Culture, The Church World, The Gospel |
Over the past year, many of my posts in this blog have been devoted to the Gospel. The Gospel (as given to us by Scripture) is the foundation of our faith, according to Ephesians 2:20. The problem is, it is easy to trade the Gospel that is given to us by the apostles and prophets in Scripture for a more contemporary one. We do this oftentimes without even realizing it. This is why it’s so important to keep reading the Bible. “We don’t worship the Bible; we worship Jesus.” This is true, but the Christian faith has been passed down to us from those who “saw and heard these things.” They continually warned us to not listen to others who think they know more or know better than the apostles or prophets of old. Even if they have claimed to receive something directly from Jesus. This has always been a problem, even in Old Testament times. It is easy to stray from what has already been given by God. We learn who Jesus was and is, based on those who actually knew Him and His apostles. As much as the Christian faith is about trusting Jesus and His message, it’s about trusting that those who wrote the Scriptures properly passed down Jesus’ message. As time goes on, however, the Church strays away from the original teachings of the apostles/prophets. It happens to all of us, including me. Recently, I came across an article that was written by Keith Green about thirty years ago. So much of what he said challenges me and confirms much of what I have been...
by Tim | Jun 2, 2011 | God, Our Culture, The Church World |
“You’re either a leader or you’re a follower.” I don’t think that’s a true statement. I think it’s possible to be neither: that makes you a wanderer. Part of the frustration of leading others is trying to lead them, but they refuse to follow along. As a leader, you are always aware that you could be doing a better job leading. So when others don’t follow, it often confirms that you should be doing a better job. “If only I was a better leader, then I would see better results.” I think there’s a lot of truth to that. After all, in my “profession,” there are many pastors who I perceive to be much better leaders than myself, and in all cases, they are able to develop maturer (is that a word?) disciples of Christ than I see myself doing. I have a lot to learn about how to lead people along in their walk with Christ. But on the flip side of the coin, I don’t think it’s always the fault of the leader that others won’t follow. It doesn’t only require a great leader, but willing followers. And sometimes, a leader cannot do anything more to help followers who refuse to follow. And if followers refuse to follow, can they even claim to be followers? That is the question for those of us who call ourselves Christians–followers of Jesus. Are we following Jesus? If not, not only can we not call ourselves leaders, we can’t even call ourselves followers! We are wanderers. Churches feel obligated to have some sort of follow-up plan in place when people make...
by Tim | May 26, 2011 | God, The Gospel |
Thoughts on the book of 1 Thessalonians. Where is the Holy Spirit in my church? That’s a question I’ve asked myself often, for as long as I can remember understanding the purpose and power of the Spirit from Scripture. And I hear many other church people who are hungry for the Spirit in their lives and churches asking the same question. Where is the boldness that’s supposed to come from the Holy Spirit? That’s another similar question. Isn’t the Holy Spirit supposed to make a difference in our lives and in our churches? Why does it seem as though our churches are filled with people who are relatively the same as the non-believers around them? Where is that spiritual “oomph” that’s supposed to be evident in the lives of people who have received the Holy Spirit? Where is the power of the Gospel? Isn’t the Holy Spirit supposed to convict people’s hearts when the Gospel is preached, so that they are forever changed? Why so little transformation going on in our churches (even though 9 of 10 churches use that word in their mission statement)? In 1 Thessalonians 1:5, Paul writes: “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.” I want to see THAT Gospel at work in our churches! Why don’t we see it that often? Ironically, I think the solution to all these questions is: OPPOSITION. We face very little opposition. Even the opposition...
by Tim | May 24, 2011 | God |
When the tornadoes hit Alabama last month, it was surreal watching it happen live thousands of miles away. Because I had lived there the past 8 years of my life and because Audra had lived there her entire life, it was hard to believe it was really happening. It was equally hard to see the after-images. But when the tornado hit Joplin Sunday night, I saw it in a somewhat different light. Because I wasn’t familiar with the landmarks, what hit me hardest was the personal devastation, not the physical devastation. From watching videos and hearing the stories of those who have survived, I have been imagining what it is like to endure and survive an EF4-5 tornado. I can’t imagine the level of fear and chaos during those 30-40 seconds–especially with small children. The ears popping, the deafening wind, the sounds of everything being destroyed coming right at you, people screaming their heads off, the constant pull of the wind on your body–how horrific. I simply can’t believe anyone would have to go through such agony. And today, they’re predicting potentially 50 more tornadoes. And then you stop to think about the “twisters” that many of us face in the figurative sense. Those times when life really throws a curveball that completely knocks everything off-course. I’m not talking about a little tragedy here or there, but when something happens that seems to totally destroy everything in our life up to that point. It is hard to accept that God allows such horrific and devastating things to happen to humans. It is hard as a friend to know what...
by Tim | May 20, 2011 | God, Our Culture |
88 Reasons Why Jesus is Coming Back in ’88 Harold Camping is just the latest in such a trend to say when Jesus is returning. And everyone is dismissing his prediction, not surprisingly. Of course, it concerns me when someone thinks they know the day or the hour when Jesus himself said He didn’t know it when He walked this earth. I guess some people interpret Jesus’ words, “You will do even greater things,” to mean they can know things that even Jesus didn’t know… But there is one thing that concerns me even more about the silliness of such a prediction: It seems to me that people, even Christians, should be cautious about what exactly we dismiss. Jesus is indeed coming back, and it could very well happen on May 21, 2011. It could happen today. It could happen several thousand years from now. When people wrongfully predict Jesus’ return, it’s like the boy crying wolf. There is a danger that people will dismiss the very notion that Jesus is coming back at all. Jesus says, “When I return, will I find faith in the world?” He is indeed coming back. People are making all sorts of jokes about how to prepare for Jesus’ return on May 21. But being prepared for His return is no joking matter. While I think it’s great to poke fun at such a silly prediction as Camping’s, we must be diligent to separate that from poking fun at merely the idea of Jesus returning on May...
