First, thanks to all of you who have asked me to blog. Not sure why you want that, but nonetheless I appreciate your interest. Seriously.
I've got a question that I need help with, but let me tell a story that will give you the context. Last week, I got a call fairly late at night from somebody who had visited our church. This person had a daughter in the hospital who was dying, and wanted me to come by. I did. I found out this person was an adherent of a non-Christian cult (they believe Jesus was created, thus is inferior to God and clearly, not God; they also believe that Jesus did not bodily rise from the dead), as were most of the family. There were at least 2 clergy at the hospital from that religion, and they all prayed for the girl. I also know that there was a huge prayer chain from that religion that sought God's intervention.
I prayed with the girl's father, I called my wife to call our prayer chain, and the next day I asked my email list to pray. Well...the girl recovered, miraculously in my estimation. I heard the doctor tell the family she had an hour to live, maybe 3-4 at the most. The girl survived the night and began a rapid recovery from unstoppable bleeding and from being without oxygen for several minutes. Again, methinks a genuine miracle.
So here's my question...Did God hear the prayers of the non-Christian cult? Does God hear the prayers of non-believers? I'm confident God heard my prayers, and the prayers of many of our people, because we see Jesus as our Great High Priest and because we understand at least a little of James 5.16. But what about the prayers of the non-Christian cult? I'm listening.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
What do we do?
We are called to reach the world that does not know Jesus. It's our mandate, our commission, our reason for existence. Yes, I fully agree that we live to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. But He made it crystal clear that to do that we must engage pre-Christians with the Good News. At our church, we feel that the best way to do that is to serve, bless, and heal in order to build bridges.
We need to be honest...pre-Christians seldom come to our worship services. Surely, all churches have more than enough folks who have been inoculated with a form of Christianity - they have been baptized, sprinkled, confirmed, prayed with, prayed for, they joined a church, whatever - but they are not followers of Jesus. And we have a serious, too-oft ignored obligation to present them with truth. Yet still, we have few "seekers" come to our worship services.
So...what do we do? Format our worship services to attract them? Well, almost everything has been tried with only a modicum of success. We've changed music, done small groups, shown videos - all with little to show for it. Don't get me wrong: I'm all for varying musical styles, all for small groups, all for different venues of proclaiming the word - but worship services are primarily for those who already follow Christ! To think that we can somehow format a worship service to attract pre-Christians is to use 1950's thinking. It may have worked then, but it does not work now! We have ridden a dead horse long enough. Paraphrasing Rick Davis, "If you'll get off the dead horse, you'll get where you're going faster and it won't smell as bad."
Most churches are 50 years behind, more likely 2000 years behind. E.g., Jesus went to where lost people were! And where He went, He served, blessed, and healed. Reckon what we ought to do?
I don't have the answers. Instead, I've got questions...Where do we find them? How do we bless them? How do we serve them? We better ask (God), and we better get busy. Can you help me?
We need to be honest...pre-Christians seldom come to our worship services. Surely, all churches have more than enough folks who have been inoculated with a form of Christianity - they have been baptized, sprinkled, confirmed, prayed with, prayed for, they joined a church, whatever - but they are not followers of Jesus. And we have a serious, too-oft ignored obligation to present them with truth. Yet still, we have few "seekers" come to our worship services.
So...what do we do? Format our worship services to attract them? Well, almost everything has been tried with only a modicum of success. We've changed music, done small groups, shown videos - all with little to show for it. Don't get me wrong: I'm all for varying musical styles, all for small groups, all for different venues of proclaiming the word - but worship services are primarily for those who already follow Christ! To think that we can somehow format a worship service to attract pre-Christians is to use 1950's thinking. It may have worked then, but it does not work now! We have ridden a dead horse long enough. Paraphrasing Rick Davis, "If you'll get off the dead horse, you'll get where you're going faster and it won't smell as bad."
Most churches are 50 years behind, more likely 2000 years behind. E.g., Jesus went to where lost people were! And where He went, He served, blessed, and healed. Reckon what we ought to do?
I don't have the answers. Instead, I've got questions...Where do we find them? How do we bless them? How do we serve them? We better ask (God), and we better get busy. Can you help me?
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Serving, Blessing, and Healing
One of the core values at the church where I pastor is that we follow the model of Jesus as we relate to the world...we serve, bless, and heal.
Each year, like so many cities in the south, we have a fair. Ours runs 9 days, and attracts 200,000 visitors - almost the population of the county. For years, I wondered what we could do to reach some of these folks. God showed us something last year, and we did it again this year.
We rent booth space (it ain't cheap) and we give away stuff! This year, we are giving away a 32" LCD HDTV, an XBox, a BBQ grill, some homemade pen and pencil sets, and various other prizes. There is no catch, no cost, no information required (other than the person's name), and no strings attached. We just ask people to give us their name, for verification purposes in case they win. We don't contact them; they contact us via our website to see if they won a prize.
After they sign up, we ask if there is anything we can pray for them about. Most of the time, people say "yes." We ask if we can pray on the spot, and most allow us to. We don't try to shove tracts or church literature at them, but we do try to see if God is working in their lives. If we sense that, we pursue that as far we it goes.
Most people are skeptical. They think there must be some "bait and switch" going on. They think we will put them on some mailing list or proselytize them or otherwise hound them. They are wrong. But yet, we see many who will walk around us when they realize that we are a church, not stopping to see that this is nothing more than a way to bless a few folks with some neat stuff...and prayer.
Why is that? Because the church has such a rotten reputation with pre-Christians. We have so long ignored them or used them that they cannot fathom that a church just wants to bless, to give (as opposed to asking), to pray...no strings attached. We're trying to make headway. We're trying to build bridges. We're blessing, serving, and healing. Are you?
Each year, like so many cities in the south, we have a fair. Ours runs 9 days, and attracts 200,000 visitors - almost the population of the county. For years, I wondered what we could do to reach some of these folks. God showed us something last year, and we did it again this year.
We rent booth space (it ain't cheap) and we give away stuff! This year, we are giving away a 32" LCD HDTV, an XBox, a BBQ grill, some homemade pen and pencil sets, and various other prizes. There is no catch, no cost, no information required (other than the person's name), and no strings attached. We just ask people to give us their name, for verification purposes in case they win. We don't contact them; they contact us via our website to see if they won a prize.
After they sign up, we ask if there is anything we can pray for them about. Most of the time, people say "yes." We ask if we can pray on the spot, and most allow us to. We don't try to shove tracts or church literature at them, but we do try to see if God is working in their lives. If we sense that, we pursue that as far we it goes.
Most people are skeptical. They think there must be some "bait and switch" going on. They think we will put them on some mailing list or proselytize them or otherwise hound them. They are wrong. But yet, we see many who will walk around us when they realize that we are a church, not stopping to see that this is nothing more than a way to bless a few folks with some neat stuff...and prayer.
Why is that? Because the church has such a rotten reputation with pre-Christians. We have so long ignored them or used them that they cannot fathom that a church just wants to bless, to give (as opposed to asking), to pray...no strings attached. We're trying to make headway. We're trying to build bridges. We're blessing, serving, and healing. Are you?
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Truth and Wisdom
When I began to blog again, I said I would not self-limit the parameters. Thus, a little Bible study today...
Our church is going through a study by Anne Graham Lotz called I Saw the Lord. It's good, pointed, convicting, challenging. In last week's lessons, Psalm 51 was used. I've read Psalm 51 a hundred times, maybe more, but I saw something this time that really opened my eyes.
One of the things I remember learning in seminary was that Hebrew poetry contains many couplets - a compound sentence that expresses the same idea in two ways. E.g., "It's a clear day; the sun is shining." Basically the same thing, expressed in different words. In any case, in Psalm 51.6, David says to God, "Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place." (NIV). It's a couplet - the same thought expressed in different words.
So I was struck with the thought (God, I believe) that if this is a couplet, then there is a symbiotic relationship between truth and wisdom. I thought more...
Bathsheba and David have another child - after David admits the truth. You know him - Solomon. And he's known as the wisest man in history. Coincidence? I think not! There is an unbreakable relationship between truth and wisdom! If we will live in God's truth, we will operate in God's wisdom. If we suppress the truth, stupid decisions are just around the corner.
Our church is going through a study by Anne Graham Lotz called I Saw the Lord. It's good, pointed, convicting, challenging. In last week's lessons, Psalm 51 was used. I've read Psalm 51 a hundred times, maybe more, but I saw something this time that really opened my eyes.
One of the things I remember learning in seminary was that Hebrew poetry contains many couplets - a compound sentence that expresses the same idea in two ways. E.g., "It's a clear day; the sun is shining." Basically the same thing, expressed in different words. In any case, in Psalm 51.6, David says to God, "Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place." (NIV). It's a couplet - the same thought expressed in different words.
So I was struck with the thought (God, I believe) that if this is a couplet, then there is a symbiotic relationship between truth and wisdom. I thought more...
- If you have truth, you will have wisdom.
- If you have true wisdom, you know the truth.
- If you hide the truth (deception), you do not have wisdom and will thus make stupid decisions.
Bathsheba and David have another child - after David admits the truth. You know him - Solomon. And he's known as the wisest man in history. Coincidence? I think not! There is an unbreakable relationship between truth and wisdom! If we will live in God's truth, we will operate in God's wisdom. If we suppress the truth, stupid decisions are just around the corner.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Pee Wee football
I help coach a pee-wee football team. It's not like I don't have enough to do, in fact, I'm like most folks - I've got more than enough to do. But I got under conviction that I know very few folks who have yet to follow Christ. Like most pastors, I get stuck in the office. And when I'm out, I'm usually with church members. Since I'm not all that disciplined, I figured I needed a outlet that would discipline my time to spend with pre-Christians. Since I am an old football coach, this seemed to be a natural fit. I believe God is in this thing. I've developed nice relationships with the kids and with 3-4 sets of parents, only one of which attends church. I'm building bridges because these folks need Jesus. I'm not a salesman, I don't use bait and switch techniques, and I'm not interested simply in these folks occupying a pew in my church. I want them to follow Christ, and I pray that I will not get in God's way as He uses me. So...here's my question to you: how is God using you to reach pre-Christians? If you can't answer that, you need to do as I did - find out how He wants to, and then get busy building bridges.
Anyway, a funny story. The first day we put on pads, one kid (7 years old) is getting hammered in the hitting drills. He's getting run over every time he's in the drill. So after about 15 minutes of this, he looks at me and says (with his mouthpiece in), "Coach, somebody's fixing to get hurt. And it ain't gonna be me." I laughed so hard I nearly fell on the ground. This kid is getting hit between the snot and the spit every play, yet his confidence is at an all-time high. I love that kid. He's amazing. And here's the deal...he's getting better every week. He's making tackles now, he' blocking better, and he loves football. There's probably a spiritual parallel there, but it's Monday and my brain is mush. Maybe I'll explore that later.
Anyway, a funny story. The first day we put on pads, one kid (7 years old) is getting hammered in the hitting drills. He's getting run over every time he's in the drill. So after about 15 minutes of this, he looks at me and says (with his mouthpiece in), "Coach, somebody's fixing to get hurt. And it ain't gonna be me." I laughed so hard I nearly fell on the ground. This kid is getting hit between the snot and the spit every play, yet his confidence is at an all-time high. I love that kid. He's amazing. And here's the deal...he's getting better every week. He's making tackles now, he' blocking better, and he loves football. There's probably a spiritual parallel there, but it's Monday and my brain is mush. Maybe I'll explore that later.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
The power of the gospel
As with Monday, last night God really manifested Himself on 2 occasions. During our prayer meeting, we discussed what the Bible has to say about what it means to be saved. We talked about things like grace, belief in who Jesus was and what he did, the presence of the Holy Spirit, persevering, abiding in Christ, adoption, confessing Christ, and a couple more. The folks really dug deep in their Bibles, and that was cool to see. Then we talked about what the Bible doesn't say about salvation - praying a prayer, joining a church, walking down an aisle, being baptized (you Church of Christ folks can stop reading now), etc.
One of the folks present candidily admitted she had trouble with a public profession of Christ. Because of her somewhat sordid past, she was a bit apprehensive about a public confession, as she feared the number of people who would be disappointed if she "fell". At this point, I asked our church to respond to her. They poured out love, acceptance, and biblical counsel. It was really a display of what "church" is supposed to be. Then we gathered around her, laughed with her, and prayed for her. That, folks, is a church being transformed.
Then I quickly left for a meeting with a couple who have recently repented and recommitted themselves to God's ways. She was a meth addict for 25 years; he an alcoholic for maybe longer than that. They were open about their fears, their faith, and their family. I offered a little counsel, but mostly I just listened and praised God for His power to transform people who follow Him. These people, according to those who have known them in their "past life", are not the same people today that they were before. That, folks, is a family being transformed.
Weeks like this one make me love what I do. It makes me want to invest in people more, and in "stuff" less. I love people with purple and pink hair who have been transformed by Jesus. I love drug addicts and alcoholics who have been transformed by Jesus. May God send more of them my way.
One of the folks present candidily admitted she had trouble with a public profession of Christ. Because of her somewhat sordid past, she was a bit apprehensive about a public confession, as she feared the number of people who would be disappointed if she "fell". At this point, I asked our church to respond to her. They poured out love, acceptance, and biblical counsel. It was really a display of what "church" is supposed to be. Then we gathered around her, laughed with her, and prayed for her. That, folks, is a church being transformed.
Then I quickly left for a meeting with a couple who have recently repented and recommitted themselves to God's ways. She was a meth addict for 25 years; he an alcoholic for maybe longer than that. They were open about their fears, their faith, and their family. I offered a little counsel, but mostly I just listened and praised God for His power to transform people who follow Him. These people, according to those who have known them in their "past life", are not the same people today that they were before. That, folks, is a family being transformed.
Weeks like this one make me love what I do. It makes me want to invest in people more, and in "stuff" less. I love people with purple and pink hair who have been transformed by Jesus. I love drug addicts and alcoholics who have been transformed by Jesus. May God send more of them my way.
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