A well-balanced study of Scripture
I liked this short post from Laura at “Laura’s (Tangential) Writings” called “Communal Bible Study is Like a Potluck.” She says:
If everyone brings the same thing, it’s a boring meal.
If only a few bring something, there may not be enough food.Solution: All prepare.
Since more people have started taking part in our study of Scripture on Sunday mornings (and other times), I’ve noticed something interesting. After our time of study, I end up with a broader perspective of the passage, not just the perspective that I had during my own study. So, continuing Laura’s potluck metaphor, the study is also more “balanced”.
By the way, concerning Laura’s solution of “all prepare,” several months ago I decided that I would study Scripture each week so that I would be prepared for our time together on Sunday morning. I do this when I am scheduled to teach, when I’m going to facilitate our discussion, when someone else is scheduled to teach, or when someone else is going to facilitate our discussion. It has made a huge difference in my own understanding of Scripture and teaching and learning.
If you don’t read anything else about leadership among the church, read this!
Lionel at “A Better Covenant” has written an excellent post called “Elder’s Responsibility: Heart Intimacy.” If you don’t read anything else about leadership among the church, read Lionel’s post. He concludes that the main responsibility for elders is something he calls “heart intimacy”:
So what are elder’s roles? Plain and simple “heart intimacyâ€. They are to cultivate intimacy within the body by living an intimate life (hospitality) and a morally upright life (the qualifications) and then teaching others by both word and deed (a qualfication of him being able to teach). They are to be examples of: Mutual Understanding, Deeping Committment and Personal Sharingâ€.
Elders (Pastors) are to go before the church in developing the family atmosphere, cultivating love, stimulating mutual edification and finally producing an atmosphere of openness, in order that people begin to love one another from the heart and be conformed to Christ’s image! These are roles of elders, but too often they are stuck in “business meetings†or meeting with architects, or they are the body’s local business man and his biblical roles and functions become a distant second in his overall responsibilities.
I think Lionel is correct! Elders, as mature believers and examples to others, are to lead by loving, serving, and caring. If these are not first, then all the teaching, preaching, administration, planning, etc. will be worthless. Without “heart intimacy” the elders may create a great organization, but it will look very little like the church of Jesus Christ.
Of course, this is the main problem. Many churches have already created an atmosphere where elders are not allowed to develop discipling relationships with other people, because they are kept too busy doing other stuff. Of course, some elders (pastors) think the other stuff is their primary responsibility. They never get around to the “heart intimacy” (and some are taught to stay away from it) because of all the other stuff.
And all the other stuff is just other stuff.
Thinking about Spiritual Gifts
It seems that Andy from “aBowden Blog” is thinking about spiritual gifts. He has recently written two posts on the subject: “Speaking and Serving” and “Romans 12, continued.”
I’m glad to see that more and more believers are considering ways of allowing more believers to speak and serve when the church meets.
This is one of the questions that I asked Andy: How would you like to see other speaking and serving gifts (besides the pastor preaching a sermon) exercised when the church gathers? What do you say?
Learning with the Fathers
I like this quote that Scot McKnight includes in his post called “Lengthening our Memory 1“:
My evangelical roots, first planted during the Jesus Movement of the late sixties and early seventies, have been nourished by the fathers’ perspectives. The Jesus Movement, for instance, had no ecclesiology. In many ways, Jesus freaks like me, though we loved Jesus himself, were highly suspicious of the church and authority in general, whether institutional or individual.
I have learned from the fathers that the church is much broader and deeper than I had ever imagined. My individualistic, evangelical bent has been tempered by a historical, theological and spiritual lengthening of memory. … This is not to say that I always find myself in agreement with the fathers. We still have our disagreements, but our quarrels now resemble family squabbles and in-house arguments.
My roots are not in the Jesus movement, but I also appreciate the writings of the church fathers. Like Chris Hall (the author of the quote), I do not always agree with the fathers, but I love to read how they dealt with the issues of their day and in their context.
Bart Ehrman asks a good question
In an article in Newsweek called “Why God Hates Haiti,” Dr. Bart Ehrman from the University of North Carolina asks a very good question. His question comes in response to Pat Robertson’s claim that God caused the earthquake to devastate Haiti last week because of the practice of voodoo. In response, Ehrman asked:
If that [the earthquake] happened to the Haitians because they’re so sinful, then why hasn’t it happened to him [Robertson]?
I disagree with Ehrman about alot of things, but I think he’s asked a very good question.
(HT: Dave Black)
Churches working together
Dave Black tells the story of two different churches working together. One church is based on the “family integrated” model. They do not have age-segregated programs. The other church is a traditional church that does have age-segregated programs. The family integrated church heard that the traditional church needed help, because they did not have enough leaders for their AWANA program. Members of the family integrated church volunteered to help the traditional church.
Yesterday, I read about another interesting and exciting instance of different types of churches working together. Felicity Dale of “simplychurch” wrote about a conference that brings together megachurches and simple churches. Why? As she writes, they are willing to work together in spite of their differences because they don’t care who get’s the credit… mega or simple.
Wow… what a difference churches could make if they were willing to set aside their own differences in order to promote the gospel, care for brothers and sisters, and even serve the lost.
As my readers know, my views on service (ministry) and leadership and other aspects of the church differ from many other believers. However, our differences should never hinder our “partnership in the gospel” if we are brothers and sisters in Christ.
Ordination
My friend Maël from “The Adventures of Maël and Cindy” has started publishing a paper that he wrote on the topic of ordination. His introduction is in his post called “Ordination – Intro.” I’ve read his paper, and I really enjoyed it. I’m sure it garnered some great discussion when he presented it in a PhD seminar.
I wonder… what do you think about ordination?
A continuing journey towards more mutual edification
Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress“Â describes what happened on a recent Sunday evening when he asked for questions after his sermon (see his post “Do you have any questions?“). He says:
After the sermon, I simply asked, “Do you have any questions or comments?” Everyone was quiet at first. After about 15 seconds, one man made a positive comment about the passage we had just studied. After that, no one said anything. We then concluded the gathering with a song and prayer.
Why would Eric (and I) be excited by one comment? Because it is a movement toward more mutual edification.
You see, Scripture calls us to build up one another in the context of the church gathering together (1 Corinthians 14:26 and Hebrews 10:24-25 are two examples). Scripture never tells the elders that it is their responsibility to instruct people when the church gathers together, then everyone else’s responsibility at other times. These are distinctions that we’ve placed on our meetings.
So, if it our right and responsibility as followers of Jesus to exhort, edify, teach, admonish, etc. one another, then we need to give one another opportunities to do this when the church gathers.
Now, I’m not in favor of speaking just for the purpose of speaking. Simply having a discussion or a question and answer session is not necessarily a good thing nor is it necessarily a scriptural thing. Instead, we should allow one another to speak for the purpose of building up one another toward maturity in Christ.
Moving away from ‘the sermon’
My friend Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress” is in a bit of a dilemma. He talks about it briefly in a post called “50 Reasons for Discussion.” As a pastor of a traditional baptist church, Eric is in charge of a preaching sermons… probably two or three per week. Recently, on a Wednesday evening, he led the church in discussing a book. This is what he said:
The point was that we discussed it as a group. As we talked, there was a spirit of community, togetherness, and mutual edification. I know I gained a lot from it and I think everyone else did as well.
As I think about this, I have to say that I’m beginning to seriously doubt the effectiveness of what is known as “the sermon.” One-way communication is just not that effective. Might there be a way to take the existing sermon and transform it into more of a group discussion? I’m pondering this.
First, I think that Eric has noticed the same thing that I’ve noticed. “The sermon” is not all it’s cracked up to be. Notice, I didn’t say “teaching” or “Scripture”, I said “the sermon.” There’s a HUGE difference.
Second, the church benefits when they hear from one another, not just one person – regardless of how trained or talented or gifted that one person may be – and Eric is a talented teacher.
So… I thought I would ask my readers on Eric’s behalf. Do you have any suggestions for moving a group from relying on a monologue sermon from the same person week in and week out toward mutual teaching that would include discussion?
Guest blog post: Blessed Assurance
Just before Christmas, my friend Joe from “Hear God Speak” answered a question that I asked on Facebook. Instead of giving Joe a leg lamp (a leg lamp), we decided that he would publish a guest blog post on my blog. This is Joe’s post… enjoy!
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2 Peter 1:10b Blessed Assurance
I have never enjoyed revivals. I felt this way even before I realized I was a Calvinist. When I was the pastor of Matthew’s Memorial Baptist Church, we didn’t have a revival the entire time I was there. I read a statement on another blog that totally crystallized why I feel about revivals the way I do. The author said some churches have a “pray this prayer and you’re saved†mentality and that they encourage people to always remember that day and never doubt. This has nothing to do with anything that we find in 2 Peter 1:10. I know there are people who went down in VBS and prayed a prayer when they were 8 years old or so who now live in open defiance of God’s word with hate, bitterness, lust, and greed in their heart. They have a false assurance of their salvation. Peter, in this verse, writes to these Christians about true assurance of salvation.
First of all, we should remember that our salvation is not something that we brought about by our choice or because we were smart enough to realize that we needed a Savior to redeem us from out sins. Our salvation, as we can observe in the first part of verse 10, begins with God’s calling and choosing of us. Salvation started with God. His Holy Spirit empowers us to live out the Christian life but it is in our living of that life that we find our assurance of salvation. Peter writes in the second half of verse 10 that our assurance comes as long as you practice these things. The word practice is in the present tense in the Greek. In other words, the development and exercise of these things (the virtues in verses 5-7) is a lifelong endeavor. This activity is quite frankly the toughest job you’ll ever love and you will never retire from it.
The Lord was pleased to save me when I was 12 years old and I have grown in Christ since then, albeit not so steadily in my college years. I’m celebrating the 13th anniversary of my 25th birthday (or 38 according to my wife.) the 22nd of February this year and I feel like I have more to learn today than I did when I started my journey. I feel like the more I learn and know the more I realize how much I need to learn and know. As Christians, we are called to live in a manner consistent with the truths of the gospel. Of course we’re going to sin. We’re still living in a fallen world with fallen flesh that loves to sin better than anything. It is only through the strength given to us by God through the Holy Spirit that we are able to do this. In fact, it is a bigger surprise to me sometimes that I am able to live for the Lord than it is that I fail and sin. The questions we should ask as we read these inspired words given to us through the pen of Peter are “Am I living what I believe? Is the pattern of my life generally consistent with the truths taught in scripture? When I recognize sin in my life, do I confess and repent of that sin?†If you can answer yes to those questions I would say you’re probably practicing the truths Peter has taught. As you see these qualities and character traits grow, you can feel assurance that your profession of faith is genuine. You will have tangible evidence that you can rely on rather than some prayer mumbled when you were a child.
Peter further assures believers that their life of godliness provides a reason to feel secure in their salvation. He says that if you practice these things you will never stumble. Now, Peter uses some strong language in the Greek language that doesn’t really translate to English. In saying never Peter uses three Greek words: ou (3756) which is used for absolute negation of something, me (3361) which is a less intense negation and pote (4218) which means never, not once, ever. In fact, following the word order of the Greek a person could translate the phrase “no not stumble never, not once, everâ€. I think that’s a quadruple negative. Regardless of how you want to count the number of negatives in that phrase, it seems pretty clear that Peter is emphatically saying that a true believer, one who is living out his or her faith, will never fail away so as to lose their salvation. Stumble (ptaio-4417, to trip up) is in the aorist tense which points to a stumbling that is final and from which one cannot recover, as noted by Edmund Hiebert in his commentary on II Peter. This does not mean that a believer will never sin. What it does mean is that a person who has genuine saving faith will remain faithful in spite of all their minor slip ups and falls to the very end.
If you will notice, in the next verse (2 Peter 1:11) we are told the end of the Christian journey is arrival at home in heaven. We can have assurance of our future home in heaven by the godly lives we live here and now. As Peter has noted, we do not live godly lives to earn our salvation but rather they are the proof of God’s work in our lives.