What will the church look like in the future?
Randy at “Bible Study Geek” has written a very good post called “Demise and Rebirth.”
By the way, I love the title of his blog, “Bible Study Geek,” and I love that he includes the verb “grok” in the description, “Nerd Groks Word” (under the title of his blog). (HT: Robert A. Heinlein)
In this particular post, Randy foresees the demise of the modern church organizational structures. While I think the various organizations are going to hang around for awhile, I wanted to point you to his post because of the way the post ends:
What will the church look like in the future? Nothing like what you probably think of as church, that is certain.
- Your church will be more like what you think of as a small group today.
- Leadership structures will be flexible and dynamic.
- Your church won’t own property.
- No one in your church will be paid by the church.
- Your church will demonstrate love for one another like you’ve never seen before.
- Your church will be like your family instead of like your club.
- You will be both a disciple and a mentor.
Randy’s “church of the future” sounds very familiar to me…
She said, “I always have a praise for my Lord.”
I met Mrs. Evelyn (the name I knew her by) almost 2 years ago when my wife and a friend were doing Meals on Wheels in our city. My wife told me about her – how encouraging she was – several times. I was finally able to meet her on the day after Thanksgiving. Meals on Wheels did not deliver that day, so several of our friends got together to make meals and deliver them to the people on the Meals on Wheels route. That was the day that I met Mrs. Evelyn and several members of her family.
That day, I also met Evelyn’s husband Donald who was in the final stages of suffering from black lung. Over the next few months, I had several opportunities to speak with Evelyn and Donald. She always had some word of encouragement for me and others, while he usually talked about World War II.
She had not been able to gather with any believers for a long time because she had been taking care of Donald. I had great discussions with Evelyn about many different topics related to God and the church and family and faith… we talked alot about faith. Donald passed away early in the next year, and we were able to encourage and comfort Evelyn through that time of guilt.
Over the next year or so, Evelyn faced many trials in her life – looking for new friends her age, deciding where to live, etc. But, that was nothing new for her. Her life had been very difficult, growing up in the depression, living through World War II, facing difficult relationships, battling cancer.
Any time I talked with Evelyn, intending to encourage her as she worked through some of these trials, it always ended up that I was the one who was encouraged. When we gathered with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and when someone asked if anyone had a passage of Scripture, or a song, or a prayer request, or a praise that they would like to share, Mrs. Evelyn would respond, “I always have a praise for my Lord.” And she did.
She loved teaching people (especially children) through simple stories and object lessons. She loved to sing. She loved to remind people about the love of God and salvation in Jesus Christ.
Last Spring, Mrs. Evelyn found out that her cancer had returned. She was told that she only had six months to live. She was ready, whatever happened. She was in the hospital off and on a few times. Then, she got to the point physically when she could not eat or drink at all. As you can imagine, she became very weak and very frail.
And, she continued encouraging other people. Whenever I talked to her, she would ask me about other people that she had been praying for – my wife who had a persistent cough for a few months – some friends who were having their first baby – a friend who was having back problems.
My wife and I went to her house last Sunday (July 29), and we gathered around her bed with her daughters and a granddaughter (and a couple of dogs). We talked together; we sang together; we held her hands and listened as she told us how she trusted God and was ready whenever he was. She had such peace.
She asked me, “Do you have a Scripture passage to share with me?” To be honest, I had not prepared anything. But, I immediately thought of a passage in 1 Peter:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:3-9 ESV)
Mrs. Evelyn passed away early Saturday morning, August 4. I shared that Scripture passage (and some of the stories here) yesterday when I had the privilege of speaking at her funeral, along with a few other people. One of those people was a 19 year old friend of mine who explained how much Mrs. Evelyn had encouraged him to both trust God during some difficult times in his life and also to demonstrate God’s love to others more faithfully.
She was not perfect, of course. But, she faithfully lived out the trust that she had in her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She faithfully submitted herself to the Holy Spirit and allowed him to use her in the lives of the people around her. Yesterday, we heard from just a few people whose lives had been impacted by God because of her.
I thank God for the many, many living examples that he has placed in my life… people like Mrs. Evelyn.
Scripture… As We Live It #220
This is the 220th passage in “Scripture… As We Live It.”
And God has appointed in the church first apostles although they won’t be around much longer, second prophets but you won’t need them after getting this letter, third teachers – you’ll always, always, always need teachers, then miracles which will obviously stop soon, then gifts of healing which will stop along with miracles, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues which will also stop – so mainly just teachers, administrators, and their helpers. (1 Corinthians 12:28 re-mix)
(Please read the first post for an explanation of this series.)
Replay: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice
Four years ago, we were studying the Gospel of Matthew together on Sunday mornings when we gathered with the church. During that time and in response to part of that study and discussion, I wrote a post called “Mercy not Sacrifice.” The title of that post (and this replay, of course) comes from Matthew 9 (and Hosea 6). God commanded his people to offer sacrifices, but both the prophet Hosea and Jesus said that God did not want their sacrifices. huh? God desires mercy and not the sacrifices? Yes. God desires for us to show love to others more than doing everything just right? Yes.
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Mercy not Sacrifice
Next Sunday, we’ll be studying Matthew 9:9-13. I’m not scheduled to teach, but I’m continuing to study along in case God teaches me something that would transform my own life and perhaps that he would want me to share with others in order to build them up toward maturity in Christ. Here is the passage:
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:9-13 ESV)
The quotation, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice”, is from Hosea 6:
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love [mercy] and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me. (Hosea 6:4-7 ESV)
For the children of Israel during Hosea’s time and for the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, following God meant offering sacrifices and attending religious festivals as well as living according to the law. But for all their sacrifices and attendance and law keeping, Jesus (and God through the prophet Hosea) says that they were actually “transgressing the covenant”. They had forgotten about mercy.
In Matthew 9:9-13, Jesus is eating with Matthew and some of his tax collecting friends. The Pharisees were appalled that Jesus would eat with that kind of low life scum. Everyone knew that tax collectors were cheaters and traitors – sinners. That is why the Pharisees would have nothing to do with them.
Jesus knew the deplorable nature of the tax collectors also. That is why Jesus spent time with them. Thus, Jesus turns the world upside down. The righteous one spends his time with the unrighteous, because it is more important for God’s people to offer mercy to others than to offer sacrifices to God (without mercy). The sacrifices and offerings and feasts and rituals meant nothing to God if the people were not also dealing mercifully with others.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were always getting mad at Jesus for hanging out with people like tax collectors and prostitutes and drunkards and lepers and others of an unsavory sort. He spent so much time with them, that the religious leaders started saying the Jesus was a glutton and a drunkard. But, Jesus knew that these were the people who most needed the love and mercy of God. These were the people who needed a true demonstration of God’s grace.
Today, there are many, many people who need a true demonstrate of God’s grace. They need to know the love and mercy of God. And, God’s children are the only ones who can demonstrate God’s grace, mercy, and love to them.
God desires for us to demonstrate his mercy more than we care about our religious gatherings and exercises. Which do we care more about?
A sense of unity and a desire to work together
Felicity at “Simply Church” wrote a report called “The changing face of missions.” In the report, she tells us about speaking with missionaries in Taiwan, and how they desired to work together to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
I love to read reports like this about believers working together. I hope to read more and more reports not only from missionaries around the world, but from believers right here in the USA.
Here’s part of Felicity’s post:
We were invited to speak to the Taiwan Missionary Fellowship, a group that involves nearly all the missionaries on the island. Well over 50% of the missionaries were there, and despite a huge variety in theology and church backgrounds, there was a sense of unity and a desire to work together across all the mission groups and churches. Even though Taiwan has a very traditional missions history, and the vast majority of the churches there are based on a Western model, there was great openness to our message that could have been both threatening and controversial. Our main teaching for the five days we were there was on following the Holy Spirit into the harvest and bringing the new disciples together in small groups/churches.
It seems that right across the board, many missions groups recognize that traditional patterns of church planting on the mission field (erect a building and train a pastor) are not just prohibitively expensive, but there are far more effective ways to reach out in today’s world. Some groups we met had already begun to adopt Luke 10 patterns of church planting and many of the others were eager to explore organic principles they could use in reaching out.
Do you have any suggestions for promoting the same kind of unity and co-laboring in your locality that Felicity describes in her post about Taiwan?
Who are you? Who, who, who, who?
About once a year, I like to give my readers a chance to introduce themselves to me and to one another.
You see, one of the great things about my blog is the awesome discussions that take place in the comments of my posts. Oh, there are times when there are fewer comments, and there are times when there are more comments. There are times when the comments get off topic; sometimes I follow the commenters down the rabbit trail, and sometimes I choose not to.
Either way, I always love to hear from the different perspectives of my readers. But, I also love to learn more about you. I think it’s easier for us to understand one another the more we know each other.
Obviously, there are limitations to how much was can know one another online, but anything we can know more about each other helps.
So, what would you like to share about yourself? Where are you from? Where do you live? Are you married? Do you have children? What is your profession? What are passions or concerns? (I do ask that you focus on telling us about yourself and not talking against others.)
If you want to learn a little about me, the best place to start is the “About” page on this blog. However, if you have questions about me, I’ll be glad to answer those as well (maybe).
A couple of comics on the state of the church
I don’t know about you, but I love comics. I love how through comics a very important message can be communicated simply and often in a manner that people might not otherwise consider.
Lately, I’ve run across two comics that I want to share here.
The first comic is by David at “nakedpastor” and is called “world report on the body.” (I’m not going to copy the comic here, so click the link above to see David’s drawing.)
This comic causes me to consider my own words and actions. Am I seeking to maintain the unity of the body of Christ? Am I writing or speaking in ways that can be considered divisive? Am I submitting to the Spirit and accepting those who God has accepted in Jesus Christ?
The second comic is from J.R. at “More than Cake” and is called “Blind Foxes & The Rock.” (Again, I’m not going to duplicate the comic. Click the link to see J.R.’s drawing.)
Again, this comic causes me to think about what I am proclaiming. While there may be many great causes, we should always point people toward Jesus Christ.
What do you think about these comics?
Is Paul a super-Christian or a model of service for all believers?
In my previous post, I asked the question, “Is an apostle a super-Christian with all of the spiritual gifts?” Using Paul as an example (primarily because we have more information about him and his life in Scripture), we see that while Paul is identified as an apostle and identifies himself as an apostle, he actually exhibits almost all (if not all) of the spiritual gifts through his life.
So, does the scriptural example of Paul indicate that an apostle is some type of “super-Christian” who is imbued with all spiritual gifts, and perhaps even that the spiritual gift of “apostle” actually encompasses all other spiritual gifts?
I don’t think so. In fact, I believe that Paul is an example of how God works through all of his children who yield their own will and desires and submit themselves to him. You see, in Scripture, while only a few may be given a particular spiritual gift, it is not only the people with that spiritual gift who are responsible for and able to serve in that manner.
What do I mean? Well, this is easiest to see in the spiritual gifts of serving, giving, and encouraging. While only some followers of Jesus are given those spiritual gifts, all followers of Jesus are exhorted to serve, give to, and encourage others. Thus, these types of service are not only for those with the particular spiritual gifts. It’s even easy to see that evangelism (i.e., proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ) is not only left up to those who have been given the spiritual gift of evangelism (i.e., the evangelists).
What about other spiritual gifts? Consider the spiritual gift of teaching. If only the person with the spiritual gift of teaching (i.e., the teacher) was responsible for and able to teach, then every believer would not be exhorted to teach. (See Matthew 28:19-20 and Colossians 3:16 for two examples.) Paul even says that all are able to prophesy, not just those given the spiritual gift of prophecy. (See 1 Corinthians 14:31, where the “all” who are able to prophesy is parallel to the “all” who learn and are encouraged, and Paul’s encouragement to all believers in Corinth to “earnestly desire to prophesy.”)
I think the same parallels came be drawn to the other spiritual gifts as well, even the spiritual gift of being an apostle and of shepherding.
In other words, like Paul says that the end of 1 Corinthians 12, no, all do not have the same spiritual gifts, but all can serve in many different ways as God directs them and provides opportunities. When we yield to God, we do not have to wait for a “teacher” to begin teaching. We do not need to look for someone who is an “apostle” to travel somewhere away from home. We do not have to wait for a “pastor” before we begin caring for people. God can (and does) serve other in these ways even through his children who are not gifted in those ways.
In Scripture, we can see the examples of God doing this through his children – especially in the life of Paul, although also in the lives of others. In the same way, we can trust that God will use us and others to serve as he needs us to serve even if we may not be specifically gifted in that form of service.
So, I would conclude that the gift of “apostle” does not include all spiritual gifts. Instead, while God may give one of his children only one spiritual gift (or certain spiritual gifts), he can and does use them to serve others through many other different ways (as we see in Paul’s example).
Finding your identity in Christ again
Craig at “New Covenant Bible Fellowship of Las Vegas” has written a great post called “Freedom to Grow.” In the post, he writes about his identity in Christ, how he lost sight of that identity, and how is is finding his identity in Christ again.
The interesting thing is that although Craig said he had lost sight of his identity in Christ, he was considered a leader among the church. In fact, it was the expectations and responsibilities placed on him as a recognized leader that hindered his understanding of his identity in Christ.
For example, consider this paragraph that begins Craig’s post:
Over the last several months of studying, searching, and relaxation in the Lord, I am in the beginning stages of truly feeling free in Christ to be myself. For far too many years I have had to essentially put on a mask and be someone who God did not create. I have acted for too many years for everyone else rather than being me and resting comfortably in the Lord. Not that “pretending” has been all bad. I haven’t been an awful person or sought to dishonor Christ. But in the process of making sure all my professional clergy boxes get checked (you know, ordained, licensed, performed weddings, funerals, attended conferences, church EVERY Sunday, etc.) and all my personal Christian boxes get checked (prayer, personal devotions, bible reading, etc), I lost my identity. My identity of being in Christ, the joy of that which I experienced as a new believer, became lost in being told what I need to DO as a Christian rather than what I became and now am in Christ.
Make sure to read the remainder of Craig’s post. He has alot of good things to say.
I was also pleased to see that Craig did not blame others for these issues. He even recognizes that much of what happens is “well-meaning.” Of course, “well-meaning” is not the same as healthy or beneficial, but that’s for a different post. He recognizes that even “well-meaning” believers may have missed the point of who they are in Christ and how they respond to that identity. I know that I’ve done that before as well.
I’m glad that Craig (like many of us) is finding his identity in Christ again. And, I’m also glad that he’s not blaming his brothers and sisters in Christ.
Is an apostle a super-Christian with all of the spiritual gifts?
We know more about Paul than almost any other person in Scripture (except Jesus), because much of the Book of Acts focuses on his service for Jesus Christ and because he wrote so many letters that were collected in Scripture. In Scripture, we also read that Paul is identified as an apostle, and we read that Paul identifies himself as an apostle.
We also know that “apostle” is designated as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. (See 1 Corinthians 12:27-30 and Ephesians 4:11, for example.) Almost everything that we know about what it means to be an apostle we know because of the narratives in Acts about Paul and because of the letters that Paul wrote.
However, as we read about Paul in Scripture and read what Paul wrote in Scripture, we also find something interesting: Paul exhibited many of the things/activities identified as “spiritual gifts.”
While no passage in Scripture specifically says that Paul prophesied (as far as I can tell, although Acts 13:1 could indicate that Paul was both a prophet and teacher), it can be inferred from several passages, especially 1 Corinthians 14. However, there are several examples of Paul discerning prophecy, such as in Acts 21:10-14.
There are several examples of Paul evangelizing – proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. That are several examples of Paul evangelizing both Jews and Gentiles, and, in fact, he tells the Galatians that God set him apart to evangelize the Gentiles before he was born. (Galatians 1:15-16)
Teaching is an important aspect of Paul’s service to the church, as demonstrated in several passages including Colossians 1:28 and Acts 15:35. It’s hard to count the number of times that Scripture records Paul encouraging/exhorting others. (For example, see Acts 16:40 and Acts 20:2.) While the term “shepherding” or “pastoring” is not used specifically in reference to Paul, he does present himself as a model of a shepherd to the elders from Ephesus in Acts 20, and his description of his work among the Thessalonians is certainly pastoral. (See 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 for example.)
Paul told the Corinthians that he spoke in tongues more than they did. (See 1 Corinthians 14:18.) In the Book of Acts there are several of examples of Paul healing people and performing other miracles. (For example, see Acts 14:9-10.) Giving was something that Paul practiced on many occasions, including the time recorded in Acts 11:30 and 1 Corinthians 16:1.
So far, besides the gift of being a apostle, I’ve recounted times when Paul performed acts related to the spiritual gifts of prophecy, evangelism, pastoring, teaching, discerning prophesy, speaking in tongues, encouraging, healing, miracles, and giving.
What about the gifts of service, helps, faith, leading, showing mercy, or the other various gifts listed in Scripture? It’s not hard to imagine Paul doing things related to each of these gifts as well, and several passages could be used to point out those gifts in Paul’s life.
So, what does this mean? Paul is primarily an apostle, and yet we see him exercising almost all (if not all) of the spiritual gifts.
Does this mean that the gift of apostleship is (in some way) a “super-gift” that encompasses all of the other spiritual gifts?
Well, that’s certainly a possibility. However, I think there’s another possibility – a possibility that, I believe, better explains other passages and exhortations in Scripture. I’ll explain my view in my post tomorrow.
For now, I’ll leave this post for your consideration and discussion. What do you think?