by Tim | May 28, 2010 | God, The Church World |
A few posts ago, I linked to an article from christianpost.com about First Baptist Church’s (Dallas, TX) mega-building campaign. In contrast, read this other article from the same site, spotlighting the Church At Brook Hills here in Birmingham, AL. Linkaroo I especially like what David Platt had to say about measuring the effectiveness/success of a local church. Isn’t this a better approach for measuring success vs. how great of a building you can build or how many people attend worship? Sadly, too many churches tend to evaluate success based on how much money comes in, how many people attend, and how cool the building is. All of a church’s energy goes into increasing the Three B’s: Building, Bucks, and Butts. I’m afraid that so many church leaders today (I’m referring to pastors in particular) are lost on this one. Rather than try to convince them otherwise, maybe a better approach is to invest in upcoming leaders who are younger and aren’t so set in their ways. After all, when you try to reason with those who have this disposition and have already been in leadership for awhile, it quickly becomes apparent that the argument is going to go nowhere. Oftentimes, the response one will hear back goes something along these lines: “You’re too idealistic. That will never work. We can’t risk losing members or money toward our budget.” or “Easy for you to say–why don’t you try those sort of things as the pastor.” Funny, no one seems to be willing to step aside and let me try. 🙂 Seriously though, if someone isn’t willing to try themselves, why...
by Tim | May 24, 2010 | God, Our Culture, The Gospel |
Or have we moved beyond such depravity as a species? Today’s way of thinking immediately dismisses the notion of people being evil. We think mass murderers/pedophiles can simply be redeemed. Actually, I agree with that. My understanding of evil includes the possibility of redemption (which is why I am a Christian), but I believe that this redemption cannot be achieved by human effort, but only by a supernatural change initiated and empowered by the Creator himself. Outside of the Creator’s intervention in a person’s life, we are woefully evil. I think this is harder to see these days. We seem more civilized than ages past. We are in the process of eliminating slavery from the face of the earth–a blight on our species that has been around for all recorded history. I could give many other examples along these lines. As a result, we are easily blinded to our evilness. It is much more subtle today. For example, would anyone say that today’s Western world is filled with savage, blood-thirsty, murdering masses of people running around everywhere, chopping innocent people’s heads off whenever they please? Yet, how many unborn children are legally killed in this era for no good reason? Might the number surpass the Holocaust we so easily despise? Another way to look at it: I tend to think of men typically as the gender that is known for being perpetrators of murder. Yet in a more subtle way, women are just as guilty when you factor in abortion. Men aren’t more evil than women, although I tend to think of men as being more evil. Another example...
by Tim | May 20, 2010 | God, Our Culture, The Church World, The Gospel, The Scriptures |
I see two different types of controversies in the Bible: Passages that are controversial when you compare them to other passages in the Bible. Passages that are controversial when you compare them to today’s culture. Unfortunately, many people don’t see the difference between these two types of controversial passages. With the first type of controversial passages, we might have opinions one way or another on how to interpret such passages (even strong opinions), but in the end, we must realize that these passages are interpreted several different ways by scholars who all appreciate the authority of Scripture. As a result, when we discuss such passages, we should make room for disagreements and maintain a “think and let think” attitude toward those who might disagree with us. Such verses deal with issues like: Calvinism vs. Arminianism Eschatology (pre/post/a-millennial, pre/post/mid-tribulation, etc.) Roles of men/women in ministry How charismatic gifts operate today Often, people have strong opinions on these matters, which isn’t bad at all. However, we should all recognize that many strong, Bible-believing Christians may disagree with us. These disagreements shouldn’t prevent us from having fellowship with one another. Some people think it is best to avoid discussions/sermons on such issues because of the divisiveness it brings. Personally, I don’t shy away from controversy. I’d rather provide my audience with all the different viewpoints out there, and also give my own opinion in the matter. Then I leave it up to the audience to make up their own mind. I think this is better than avoiding these issues, because I think that does us a disfavor. Ignorance isn’t bliss. People have...
by Tim | May 18, 2010 | God, Our Culture, The Church World, The Gospel |
The Early Church found itself in a difficult position. As I see it, there were two groups of people you could be associated with: Law-abiding Jews or free-living Pagans/Gentiles. Romans, who were Gentiles, ruled the day. So free-living (sexual promiscuity, etc.) ruled the day as well. They didn’t have much tolerance for Law-abiding Jews who had all these customs and regulations for how one should live your life. In fact, they scoffed the Jewish way of life. The Jews didn’t so much appreciate the Roman Gentiles either . They desired to be free of their control. They disdained the heathen way of living for pleasure. Instead, a Jew lived to follow God’s Law. So neither side had much respect for the other. Yet, they both found a way to live somewhat peacefully with each other. The Romans permitted the Jews to practice their religion, and the Jews did what they could to keep peace with the Romans in order to remain free to fulfill their religious customs and regulations. The Romans understood this–they knew that the Jewish people didn’t really recognize them as a valid government over them–the Jews just tolerated Roman rule. And the Romans just tolerated the Jewish people as well. So it was imperative to find yourself either associated with the Jews, or to associate yourself with Caesar. Any other position, and you were on your own. Everyone wanted to know: where was your allegiance? If you were a Jew, your true allegiance was to their God and their religion, not Caesar. But you still needed to give Caesar enough allegiance as to not be a...
by Tim | May 15, 2010 | God, The Church World, Worship |
My last post mentioned my frustrations with the way contemporary worship is treated in many churches. In its defense, contemporary worship is no worse than any other style. In fact, contemporary worship is the primary style of worship that has made the biggest impact on my life. It’s how the style is used and what value is placed on it. Why do we place such a high value on style? Personally, I’m cool with contemporary or traditional–as long as it’s not about the style…it’s about God. Unfortunately, in many churches, the leadership makes it all about style and production. Is contemporary worship often produced? Yep, but so is traditional. Both styles fall prey to this. I really wish Sunday mornings were much less of a production and more focused on challenging congregations to worship God more truly, fully, and deeply. It’s hard to script or plan that out. It’s also hard to accomplish this when we jump from one element to the next in rapid succession (this happens in both styles).True worship must come from true relationship. After all, in worship we are supposed to be in collective communion with God. How easily we miss this Sunday after Sunday… Joel, a friend of mine, recently wrote on his blog some great thoughts on true worship. I would recommend everyone to read it. I hope that more and more church leaders become less consumed with the style, format, quality, professionalism, and production of Sunday morning worship. And I’m not necessarily referring to worship leaders (they often just do what they’re told!)–I’m referring to whoever it is that determines the structure...
