Following a guy who actually does stuff
Sol at “Looking for Church” asks very good questions and gives an excellent example in his post “Who Was The Leader.”
His post is about leadership. No, not that kind of leadership. Not the kind of leadership in which the person up front or the person at the top tells the others what to do.
Sol wrote about the kind of leadership where someone is serving and others want to follow his example.
He writes:
At lunch today, I experienced a great form of leadership. Leadership isn’t telling others what to do, but doing something, and showing others how to do it, among other things. Those two things are what I am thinking about today, so that is as deep as we’ll go for now.
To the story: My friends and I have been talking, and discussing a lot of things lately, but not really doing much. Well today I got an email; “I have an idea, want to come along?â€
My friend and I left work, grabbed a quick lunch, and headed over to an older man’s home, who actually does stuff instead of just talking about it.
Yep. That’s leadership. That’s leading because it’s serving. Anything else (besides serving) is not leading according to Jesus.
Silence that’s deafening
Andy at “aBowden Blog” has written a short but very good post called “Beyond the silence.”
His post goes along very well with my series on mutual edification this week.
I don’t want to copy his entire post, but I also don’t want to leave out too much. So, I’m going to copy the first two paragraphs, and then let you jump over to his blog for the final paragraph.
This is how Andy starts:
I think it’s reasonably safe to assume that any given Sunday, as we sit in the cozy buildings in which our churches gather, no matter the size of the congregation, we sit within arms reach of someone with serious marital trouble, tremendous financial pressure, a sorrower needing comfort, next to someone grappling with real theological questions, wondering what’s wrong with the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel, next to someone who experienced real victory this week, who experienced new boldness in their witness, answered prayer, victory over sin.
I’m also convinced that within the same building sits one with a word of encouragement, a word of exhortation, a song of praise, a timely Scripture, a genuine desire to listen, to rejoice, to mourn. Yet, because of the structure of the typical “worship service†in America, those needing encouragement and those ready to offer it sit in virtual silence, listening to the same two or three voices week after week.
There are two things that I’d like to say in response to this:
1) I’m glad that more and more people are recognizing this problem with the way that most churches meet together today.
2) One of the most exciting things about our church meetings (and we’re far from perfect) is when someone shares a concern or struggle or pain or whatever and people begin to gather around that person to encourage them, pray for them, offer help, etc.; sometimes right away, sometimes later; sometimes in groups, sometimes one-on-one.
Don’t forget to jump over to Andy’s blog and read the final paragraph. You won’t be disappointed.
A Pilgrim’s Community
My friend Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress” is writing a series about why he prefers “house church.” Many of his posts would be applicable to churches that meet in any kind of building – although I agree with Eric that houses (or at least a smaller, more intimate venue) more readily allow for some things.
For instance, in the latest post in the series, Eric writes about “House Church – Seeking Community.”
He writes:
With Jesus Christ as its head, the church seeks to live in community with one another. The people truly desire to share in each others lives. This is much more than surface level relationships; I’m instead talking about Christians acting like family – real brothers and sisters. This, of curse, can get messy because people’s lives are messy. However, it is also wonderful because we can know so much better how to build one another up in Christ.
Later, after listing several passages of Scripture concerning our relationships with one another, Eric cautions:
In order to live in community the church needs to do more than meet once per week. The one anothers should be happening all the time. As Christians, we should all be striving for this.
To me, this last statement is key. If you are only spending time with your brothers and sisters in Christ one day out of the week, then you will not develop the kinds of relationships that you need (regardless of the venue in which you are meeting). Instead, we must make efforts (or “we should all be striving for” to use Eric’s language) to spend time with one another often.
Or, as the author of Hebrews puts it: Exhort one another daily. (Hebrews 3:13)
(By the way, that’s not Eric in the picture. That’s my wife and me hanging out with a couple of friends.)
We Ain’t Perfect
So, are you following Lionel (at “A View of the Woods“) latest posts? If not, you should. For example, consider his post “Quest for the Perfect Church.”
In the post, Lionel recalls his last two years of looking for “the perfect church.” What is the perfect church? Well, that depends upon who’s defining and describing it. Lionel tells what he was looking for.
Then, Lionel adds these wonderful paragraphs:
So I have come to this one conclusion. The perfect church is not a group of people who do things the right way. The perfect church is not the church that says the right things. The perfect church isn’t the church with the “biblical†church polity. It isn’t the church with best outreach program. It isn’t the church that serves the best. It isn’t the church that has strong biblical preaching, correct church discipline, a great worship band, not the “spirit-filled†church (in the charismatic use of the word), not the church that grows the fastest.
The perfect church is the one that acknowledges they are imperfect, yet are at the mercy of a Perfect Savior and desires to see Him glorified throughout the entire world. A church which humbly calls upon the Lord for strength, direction, guidance and power is the perfect church. This may mean that some convictions or theological positions they have are different from other churches that are seeking the same thing. And what is important is that these separate fellowships (churches) should openly receive one another because both parties know that they are imperfect in and of themselves.
Like the title of this post states, we ain’t perfect. The brothers and sisters that I meet with and live with and love with and serve with are not perfect. We’re filled with bumps and bruises and warts and pimples and wrong ideas and bad theology and baggage and… the list could go on and on.
But, we do understand that we are God’s children and that together we are his church. We understand that when we work together as the body of Christ we grow together and glorify our Lord. We know that we all (individually and corporately) need to continue to grow and learn and change.
You see, there are many, many groups of believers with the same understanding. Unfortunately, I think some fall short when it comes to Lionel’s last phrase: “And what is important is that these separate fellowships (churches) should openly receive one another because both parties know that they are imperfect in and of themselves.”
Yes, Lionel, that is very important. And, I think this may be the biggest failure of modern Christianity and Evangelicalism in particular. No, we are not perfect, but most of us are not willing to accept other imperfect brothers and sisters as our own, because they are imperfect in different ways that us.
Just give him better methods
James at “Idle musings of a bookseller” has written an excellent post called “How-to versus who.” Actually, most of James’ post is a quote from the book Missional Small Groups, which I also started reading a few weeks ago (on James’ prompting), but then stopped reading it to read a few other books.
I’m not going to copy the entire quote. You can jump over to James’ site to read it.
The most important part of the quote (at least to me) is this: “[W]e often look for leadership training that focuses on skills development. The questions asked in such training always focuses on the how question… Leading missional groups occurs as leaders are formed and shaped for mission.”
I would say this is true of any type of Christian leader. Pouring more and more information, trends, methods, etc. into someone does not make that person a leader. Unfortunately, this is the method used by the modern church. If someone isn’t a good leader (or isn’t a leader yet), the predominant church wisdom is to give that person more information, more education.
But, like the quote says above, leaders are not built through education, but through a life of serving. If you want to be a leader, or if someone else needs help leading, the best thing to do is to start serving others… the “lower” the service, the better.
What do you think?
Is that Immanuel?
In response to my post “Immanuel: Peace,” Dave Black told the following story (Monday, December 20, 2010 at 9:02 a.m.:
One day in Alaba the Muslims attacked a believer named Fetiye and her children with sticks and knives. She was fully pregnant at the time. God spared the yet-to-be-born infant, but Fetiye’s one-year old son perished as a result of the attack. Later, when a son was born to her and her husband, they named him Immanuel, “God is with us!” What suffering. What faith. What an expression of confidence and hope in the God of all peace.
Can we see Immanuel – God with us – in the midst of your current circumstances? If not, the problem does not lie with God’s location or our situation.
Theology and community? What’s this world coming to?
Apparently, Arthur at “The Voice Of One Crying Out in Suburbia” wants both orthodoxy and community. He says so in his post “In Praise of Orthodoxy and Community.”
He writes:
Solid grounding in the great theological truths of our faith and genuine community and fellowship among believers are not enemies. In fact, without both being present the church is naturally weaker. The evidence all around us bears that out. Cold and sterile academic orthodoxy coupled with ritualistic “fellowship†is spiritually crippled as is warm and loving fellowship among believers who cannot discern the core essentials of the faith. I love doctrine and theology. I have no interest in a gathering of the church where the big topics are never wrestled with and studied, where there is lots of talk about loving Jesus with no concept of who He is. I also love the people of God and have no interest in a sterile meeting where a theologically precise monologue is the spiritual highlight of the week and where we love the dead theological giants of yesteryear more than the widow and the orphan in our neighborhood. My desire is to see my brothers and sisters in Christ develop a love for theology and develop a love for one another, that we seek in Scriptures what it has to say about God, about man, about Christ and that we do so in a Scripturally sound community of faith as the adoptive family of God.
Doesn’t Arthur know that only the conservative churches care about orthodox doctrine and only the liberal churches care about community? He can’t have both. Can he?
Comparing today’s church to the church in Acts
This morning, Dave Black (Sunday, December 19, 2010 at 7:38 a.m.) shared a comparison/contrast of today’s church with the church that we see in the Book of Acts.
He says:
Much of what we call “church” today originated, not in the New Testament, but in post-apostolic times.
- The Lord’s Supper has changed from a celebration to a ceremony.
- Worship has changed from participation to observation.
- Witness has changed from relationship to salesmanship.
- Leadership has changed from servanthood to professionalism.
- Mission has changed from being missionaries to supporting missionaries.
- Body life has changed from edification to entertainment.
- Buildings have changed from functional to sacred.
- Child care has changed from the hands of parents to the hands of strangers.
The book of Acts shows us that the need great of modern Christianity is to return to biblical faithfulness and the profound simplicity of the New Testament.
What do you think of his comparison?
One Loaf and One Cup
Dave Black needs your help.
He’s collecting examples of how Christians celebrate the Lord’s Supper with one loaf of bread and one cup.
This is what he says (Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 9:34 p.m.):
I need your help. Here’s the need. I’m compiling a list of ways that churches can observe the Lord’s Supper with one cup and one loaf of bread (see 1 Cor. 10:16-17). Any ideas? Have you ever done this? Please send your comments to me at dblack@sebts.edu. Thanks.
I sent him an example of how we’ve gathered around the table with one loaf and one cup, along with other food. Why not send him your example as well?
And, while you’re at it, copy it here for my readers also.
(By the way, does anyone know what Dave is specifically interested in “one” loaf and “one” cup?)
Mutual edification in Romans?
But, I thought Romans was a theology book?
Well, my friend Jason from “Second and Content” wrote about “Mutual Encouragement [in] Romans 1:8-15.” You may remember Jason from the videos interviews that we’ve been doing (see part 1 and part 2 – we’re hoping to tape part 3 this weekend).
According to Jason, Paul begins his letter to the Romans with a desire to get together with them so that they can all mutually encourage one another. Of course, Jason gets that from this sentence in Paul’s opening section:
For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you -Â that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. (Romans 1:11-12 ESV)
Wow… Paul was expecting these Roman Christians to encourage him, just as he was expecting to be an encouragement to them. Paul? The great theologian and missiologist? How could someone have anything to offer him?
Well, because Paul knew that those Roman Christians were indwelled by the Holy Spirit, just like Paul was. That is the only ingredient necessary for mutual edification, assuming of course that we don’t get in the Spirit’s way.
Read Jason’s post. He also of really good things to say.\
(By the way, congratulations to Jason on graduating from college today!)