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.
Ripples
When you ask people about making disciples, they often mention big things like Bible study groups, church meetings, and other times and places that are specifically set aside for “intentional discipleship.”
But, if we considered all interactions with people opportunities for discipleship and every relationship a discipling relationship, I think we would better begin to understand what it means to make disciples.
Like a small pebble dropped into an ocean, the ripples may not be immediately noticeable, but they are there. Every time we interact with someone, we either help them grow toward Christ… or we don’t.
I’m beginning to think that discipleship by the ripple effect (like many small stones thrown into a pond) may be more effective that the usual form of discipleship during specified times and at specified places (like throwing one big rock into a pond).
What do you think?
The First Interpreters
Imagine for a moment that you lived sometime around 60 A.D. You have recently become a follower of Jesus Christ, and you are meeting together with other believers for the first time.
When you walk through the door, you soon realize that something special (even for this group) has happened. A traveling companion of Paul (or Peter, or John, or James, or one of the other New Testament authors) recently arrived with a letter for the church. Although you’ve never heard of this person, you quickly learn that he was one of the first people to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah and Savior of the world.
You discover that this group of Christians came through your city not long ago (just a few months or maybe a year earlier). Some of the people in your group had been following Jesus since that time, but most are fairly recent converts, like yourself.
Eventually, during the course of your time together, someone reads the letter. It takes between 15 minutes to just over an hour for the entire letter to be read. Parts of the letter were very encouraging. But, other parts were hard to understand (even Peter said that parts of Paul’s letters were hard to understand – 2 Peter 3:15-16). There were even some things in the letter that seemed completely unreasonable or impossible.
In other words, you didn’t understand everything that you heard. As the letter was being read, you looked around the room. You noticed that there were others who appeared to be struggling with parts of the letters.
Now… the purpose of this post… who interpreted this letter for you? Who interpreted it for others in the room?
There were no seminary trained professionals. In fact, most people in the room had been following Jesus for less than a year. A few may have been converted just over a year earlier. Even Paul’s traveling companion had only been introduced to Jesus Christ a couple of years ago.
There were no commentaries written about this letter. There were no devotional books. You could not turn to New Testament scholars to help you understand.
So, who interpreted the letter for you? Or, perhaps even more important, once you understood what the letter meant, who taught you how to apply it in your own life? What about those around you?
Who were the first interpreters?
Is there anything in those letters themselves that give us clues as to how they would have been interpreted and applied?
How can thinking about these questions help us today?
Humans are deeply affected by the lives of others
I never wrote a review of Dave Black’s Christian Archy (although I did interact with one point in my post “Defining Church“). This post will not be a review either. Instead, I want to point out something that the author said that is very important, very powerful, and unfortunately often lacking:
If a model is needed, why not limit ourselves to Jesus? Why should the New Testament constantly appeal to the example of his followers, whether Timothy (Phil. 2:19-24), Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25-30), Paul (Phil. 2:17-18), or any number of other paradigmatic figures? The answer appears to be that, so far as the imitation of Christ is concerned, we humans are deeply affected by the lives of men and women whose generous and charitable character alert us to the real meaning of love. (28)
I would add that we’re also deeply affected by the lives of men and women whose character does not alert us to the real meaning of love. That’s right… we can talk about Christ and his love all we want… but people will continually follow our deeds and our way of life, not our words. They will become what they see more than what they hear. (Of course, the Holy Spirit can always lead someone away from our negative examples, thank God!)
Examples… we’re all examples. What kind of examples are we? How are we “deeply affecting” others?
We’ve come a long way baby
Recently, I was talking with some brothers who are part of Messiah Baptist Church. If you didn’t know, I’m one of the elders (pastors, if you prefer) of this group of believers. We’ve been meeting together for several years now, and our meetings and our interactions today look much different than they did when we first started meeting together.
As we talked about this, I told the guys that it was exciting to see what had happened in the last few years. If someone had asked me then what I would want the church to “look like” today, I probably would have described some things that are happening now, and other things that are not happening now.
But, “back then”, I decided not to push my agenda, even if some wanted me to push – and as tempting as that was. Instead, I taught and modeled and served and let God do the work of changing people. I didn’t want this to be my church.
I told my brothers that I think God has done a better job of growing his church than I would have done growing my church.
Why Ethiopia?
As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been invited to go to Ethiopia this summer with Dave and BeckyLynn Black. Three other brothers from Messiah Baptist Church have been invited as well. We would be working with some of the churches in a certain region of the country.
Recently, someone asked me, “Why do you want to go to Ethiopia?”
This is a very good question, and I thought I would take time to answer this question here.
First, I’ve been learning from Dave Black for a few years now. He’s currently my PhD mentor, and I’ve enjoyed studying various aspects of Greek, New Testament, Biblical theology, and the church with him. But, this has all been classroom or discussion type learning. I have never had the chance to learn from his example while he is serving others. As I’ve been learning and writing about lately, I think this (example) is a huge part of learning and discipleship. So, I’m interested in serving others with Dave and BeckyLynn Black in order to learn even more from them.
Second, I think I can learn alot from the Ethiopian believers that I’ll be working with. A few years ago, my family went to Nicaragua. That trip changed the way that I viewed the importance of relationships versus events. Going to Nicaragua showed me just how much the church in the US (especially, but perhaps in other places as well) is more concerned with events than with people – in spite of what we might say. In a similar way, I think I can learn alot from my Ethiopian brothers and sisters. What would I learn? I don’t know… that’s make it very exciting!
Finally, according to the Blacks, we can help the Ethiopian churches grow as well. Apparently, then need help learning to read and interpret and apply Scripture. Over the last few years, we have been learning how to study Scripture as a community and to help one another apply and implement what we’re studying. We’re learning how to make discipleship and interpretation less of a mental exercise and more of a complete life exercise.
Of course, there are other obstacles that must be overcome in order for us to go to Ethiopia. Please pray for us, that we would make wise, God-honoring decisions. Pray for our families. Pray for finances to be in place.
If you are interested in helping us in other ways, please send me an email at aknox [at] sebts [dot] edu.
Two-Thirds Christian
One of the latest observations from Dave Black (Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 8:12 am):
In this connection, perhaps I could remind everyone what Balthasar Hübmaier said about the Reformers. He complained that they had learned only two of the three critically important doctrines of the Christian faith. The first doctrine was salvation by faith (“der gloub macht uns selig“). The second was that the Christian cannot do anything good by himself or herself (“wir mugen ausz uns selbs nichts guts thon“). He went on to say that the Protestants had completely overlooked the third lesson, namely that faith without works in dead. He wrote, “Under cover of these two half-truths all evil, unfaithfulness and unrighteousness have gained the upperhand, completely … so that the old saying is fulfilled ‘Ye alter ye böser.'” We cannot have a two-thirds faith, he said: “das volckh nit mer denn zway stuck geleernet hat.”
Good advice, that. Don’t be a two-thirds Christian!
Are you a two-thirds Christian?
Of course, we can teach and lead as a two-thirds Christian as well, when our teaching or leading do not include serving by example.
A New Remnant and a New Kingdom
Lionel invited me to write occasional Bible studies / devotionals for “Step thru the Scriptures.” This is a new blog that publishes posts to go along with a daily Bible reading plan. If you follow the plan, you will read through the Bible in a year, with an Old Testament and New Testament reading each day. If you follow the new blog, either through RSS or email, you’ll also get a Bible study / devotional for each day’s reading, and you can interact with other readers in the comments.
I published my first Bible study / devotional today at Step thru the Scriptures. It’s called “A New Remnant and a New Kingdom.”
Learning before serving?
Andy at “aBowden Blog” continues his series on sanctification in a post called “sanctification, part III.”
He begins with the following description:
There we were at the men’s breakfast. The biscuits, grits, eggs, and bacon were quickly devoured. Our attention turned to the group facilitator who began the morning discussion. He began by explaining his joy over men’s ministry and then asked the rest of us for suggestions about what our purpose should be. Many piped up with “community service projects,†“evangelism,†and “Bible study.†To my surprise, an earnest debate ensued. One man argued, “We should not seek to serve until we have had enough teaching.†Sadly, he won the discussion. His logic was that the men were not ready to serve yet. What they lacked was adequate teaching. Silently I marvelled. How could Sunday morning Sunday school, Sunday morning sermons, Sunday night sermons, and Wednesday night Bible study not be enough teaching? As the weeks progressed, the men’s breakfast quickly fizzled and then completely died.
Then he continues with this observation:
I think the solution is quite different. I think the best lessons are learned, not in the classroom, but in the trenches, with sleeves rolled up, hands dirty, and back sore. Those men at the morning breakfast could have had innumerable teaching times, about love, service, etc, or they could have chosen to DO, to love, to serve. Sure, they would have made a ton of mistakes and realized their lack of love, but isn’t that the point? Don’t we learn best by doing?
I think that Andy is learning a lesson that I’m learning as well: people primarily learn by doing. So, separating “learning” from “serving” actually decreasing learning.
Do you want people to learn about the love of God? Then take them with you as you demonstrate that love to others. It really is that simple… and that difficult.