I’ve been slow in replying to comments
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, then you know that I love comments and I love replying to comments. In fact, I’ve always said that the discussions that take place in the comments of this blog are much better than the blog posts themselves.
Also, if you’ve followed my blog for a while, then you may have noticed that I’ve been much slower to reply to comments during the last week or so. I don’t like that my replies have been slower, but that’s the way it will be for now.
I’m involved in two big projects that are taking more of my time. Hopefully, as these projects get off the ground, I’ll be able to interact more here.
I want you to know that I appreciate your comments, and I wish that I could reply to them quicker. But, for now, I will probably continue to reply slower than usual.
Thank you for your patience, and thank you for continuing to read and comment on my posts!
Replay: Autonomous Churches?
Five years ago, I wrote a post called “Autonomous churches.” It was a follow-up to a post called “Autonomous individuals.” In Christ, we are not autonomous, either as individuals or as groups of believers. Instead, we are intimately and intricately connected to one another by the Holy Spirit that indwells us. Unfortunately, today, it seems that many specialize in separate and distinguish between followers of Jesus instead of maintaining the unity of the Holy Spirit.
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Autonomous churches
In my last post, “Autonomous individuals…“, I began discussing a book by Abraham J. Malherbe called Social Aspects of Early Christianity (Baton Rouge: Lousiana State University Press, 1977), specifically his chapter called “House Churches and Their Problems”. In my last post I discussed how the early Christians saw themselves as part of an extended household – a family. But, how did these early Christian “households” relate to other Christian “households”?
Malherbe continues:
As the church grew in a particular locality, more than one house church would be formed. The scarcity of information on the house churches in the first century precludes our having a clear understanding of their interrelationship. Paul seems to have known of at least three such churches in Rome (Rom. 16:5, 14, 15), and there may have been more than one group in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 5:17) and also in Laodicea (Col. 4:15). Although they may have formed separate communities, such groups were not viewed as being separate churches. Luke’s description of the church in Jerusalem is not clear on this point, but it does convey the impression that he thought of it as one church despite the smaller groups that composed it. This is supported by his (and the Pastoral Epistles) relating presbyters, or bishops, to cities rather than to individual groups (Acts 14:23; 20:17; Titus 1:5). By that time, however, more than one house church would presumably have existed in most localities with which the literature is concerned. More significant is that Paul and his followers, although they knew of separate groups in an area, wrote one letter to the church in that immediate area, apparently on the assumption that it would suffice for all the groups (e.g., Romans). On this understanding, the individual house churches would together have represented the church in any one area. [70]
Malherbe recognizes, as Scripture indicates, that there were different groups of Christians in a particular area (city). But, these groups did not consider themselves separate or distinct from other groups in the area. Instead, they considered themselves to be part of the same church. Also, Paul and others outside a particular city recognized all of the believers – and all of the groups of believers – in that city to be part of the same church.
As God formed the believers into households, He did not form them into exclusive households. Just as individuals now recognized that they were part of something bigger than themselves, the individual groups of believers also recognized that they were part of something bigger than that group. Thus, it seems from Scripture, that the distinct groups in a location – while recognized by themselves and others as a church – did not see themselves as truly distinct from other groups of believers in that same location. In fact, they also recognized a connection – though perhaps a looser connection – with other groups of believers in more distant locations. For this reason, Paul could label each group of believers meeting in a home as a church, but he could at the same time label all of the believers in a city as a church.
An autonomous church did not exist in the early days of Christianity. In fact, Paul reminds the believers in Corinth of this several times in his first letter to them. In 1 Cor. 1:2, he reminds his readers that they are not alone, but “together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. (ESV) Similarly, Paul reminds them that all the churches share common beliefs, activities, and teachings (4:17; 7:17; 11:16; 14:34; 16:1). The church in Corinth – even the church at the city level – was not an autonomous church, but was to recognize itself as being in relationship with the wider church throughout the world.
Similarly, in Romans 16, Paul expects and encourages the various “home churches” in that area to greet one another, recognizing some level of association between the different groups since the “greeting” was certainly more than a wave or a handshake. Thus, as the believers from different groups encountered one another – either in an intentional or unintentional meeting – they recognized themselves as part of the same church, not as members of distinct churches with little to no relationship between the two groups.
Invariably, when this idea of multiple groups (churches) recognizing themselves as one church is suggested, the question of leadership and control arises. If the different groups are a single church, then who is the leader? Who is in control? Who is responsible for the “meeting”? To me, these questions indicate a lack of understanding of biblical leadership. Biblical leadership is not about control, but about service. The leader is the one who serves. Thus, the true leaders are not concerned with being in control, but with serving others.
Similarly, this idea does not mandate a city-wide hierarchy of leadership. Instead, it mandates humility, gentleness, patience, love – in fact, the whole fruit of the Spirit – in accepting others and treating others as members of the same body – which we are, whether we accept it or not.
The people that meet in the building down the street – those people that we like to make fun of – they are our brothers and sisters. The people that meet across town – those people with the strange practices – they are part of the body of Christ with us. The people that rent the school auditorium – those people who are a little louder/quieter than we like – they are part of our church. We do not do service to the body of Christ by separating ourselves from other brothers and sisters who may be different from us. Instead, we demonstrate our love for one another by reaching out to one another, serving one another, accepting one another, learning from one another, especially when those “one anothers” look or act differently than us.
The autonomous church is not found in Scripture. Instead, the church in the New Testament recognized its mutual relationship with other believers in their area and their mutual need of one another (interdependence), despite their differences. And, where the believers did not think they needed each other, the biblical authors wrote against those practices and teachings.
Scripture… As We Live It #210
This is the 210th passage in “Scripture… As We Live It.”
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word memorize, quote, and live by your favorite verses of Scripture, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32 re-mix)
(Please read the first post for an explanation of this series.)
Replay: The Church as Relational Organism
More and more, as I read books about the church, authors are recognizing that in Scripture the church is not an organization or an institution, but people. Four years ago, I wrote a post called “The Church as Relational Organism.” In that post, I referred to a few quotes from a book that I was reading at the time. The author was emphasizing the relational aspect of the church.
This is more than rhetoric. If we truly view the church as relational instead of organizational, it will change the way that we interact with one another.
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The Church as Relational Organism
A few days ago, in a post called “What is a ‘traditional’ church?“, I mentioned a new book that I was reading: Missional House Churches: Reaching Our Communities with the Gospel (Colorado Springs: Paternoster, 2007) by J.D. Payne. Primarily, I picked up this book because of the title and because it was written by a Southern Baptist. I haven’t read much concerning “missional” or “house” church from the perspective of other Southern Baptists, so I was intrigued by this combination.
Overall, I liked this book. As with almost all books, the author and I hold differing opinions on a few things. For example, when he is defining the Church/church (he uses “Church” for “universal church” and “church” for “local church”), I think he makes more of a distinction between “universal” and “local” than Scripture makes.
However, I appreciated his organic and relational definition of the church (I will use one term for both, like Scripture does):
What is clear from the Gospels is that Jesus came to establish a new community… The citizens of this new community were part of a divine kingdom and lived according to the kingdom of ethic that involved 1) love for the King, 2) love for others in the kingdom, and 3) love for those outside the kingdom. (26-27)
For the most part, the church today is defined and understood in institutional and compartmentalized concepts… On the other hand, the Scriptures advocate that the church… is primarily understood in relation to the kingdom of God through organic metaphors emphasizing 1) the relationship of believers to God, 2) the relationship of believers to one another, and 3) the relationship of believers to unbelievers. The church is primarily to be understood in simple relational terms. (35-37)
Similarly, when Payne discusses the various metaphors that the authors of Scripture use to describe the church, he begins with my favorite metaphor – the family:
The obvious meaning behind this metaphor is that the bonds holding together the citizens of the kingdom are as strong, if not stronger, than the bond of blood. Just as an earthly family loves, honors, protects, encourages, and cares for one another, the church must do likewise. (29-30)
My thinking about the church changed drastically when I began seeing the church as a family instead of seeing the church as an organization. I began interacting with people through the relationships that God created through his Spirit instead of interacting with people through positions and functions. We are brothers and sisters with the same father. That relationship is stronger than blood.
What would Matthew 23 look like today?
Matthew 23 is a very powerful chapter of Scripture. In that chapter, Jesus denounces the Jewish leaders of his day.
But, what would that passage look like today?
Dan at “Some Church Stuff” has written one possible account in his post “Matthew 23.” (A word of warning: Dan uses some language that some find offensive. If you think you might be offended by certain words, then just read my excerpt below.)
Note: Dan’s version is not like my “Scripture… As We Live It” remixes. He’s not modifying Scripture to show how we actually live contrary to what is written in Scripture. Instead, he’s wondering what that chapter would look like in a modern context.
This is how his version of Matthew 23 begins:
Pastors want to tell you what the Bible says, and a lot of what they say is true on a level but you couldn’t tell it from their lives because most of the stuff they talk about they don’t actually do. They weigh their followers down with all these insane rules and ridiculous expectations, but they don’t make any effort to help anyone. At the same time they make it look like they are always helping people. They do things like hand out giant checks to charity on the local news like some corporate America PR stunt, and they do all this because they want people to think they are awesome. They want people to look up to them and follow them and recognize them when they are at the grocery store and tell them how awesome they are and what great examples they are and what powerful teachers they are.
How close do you think Dan got with his version?
The Holy Spirit, the Scriptures, and the Children of God
I don’t know about you, but I’ve enjoyed thinking through these questions this week. Primarily, my posts have revolved around the question of how God gets our attention when we stop listening to him.
Every follower of Jesus – from time to time – either for a short time or perhaps even for a long time – will find it difficult to hear or to follow Jesus Christ. Obviously, this doesn’t mean that we are no longer in Christ or that we are no longer indwelled by the Holy Spirit or that we are no longer children of God. Instead, it means that we have hindered the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Scripture uses the language of “quench” or sin or transgress or disobey to refer to this same situation.
So, since God loves us, he does not want us to continue in this state. What does he do to get our attention to to help us return to him?
We are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. God can work directly in our lives to get our attention. But, of course, the problem is that we are already not paying attention to him. It’s possible that God can work in a different way in our lives to get our attention. But, it’s also possible that we will refuse to hear him in this new way also.
God also uses Scripture to get our attention – to show us where we have moved away from him. This means, of course, that Scripture would need to already be a part of our lives. When we are in a situation that we are not listening to God, it is not likely that we will begin to read Scripture. (Of course, it could happen.) However, if we have already been reading Scripture, then God can bring passages and stories and principles to our minds to draw us back to him.
Finally, God uses his children – our brothers and sisters in Christ who God has brought into our lives. If we have shared our lives with one another, then these people will know as we begin to ignore or neglect the work of the Spirit in our lives. They will know when we are not demonstrating the love of God. God can use them to get our attention and to help “restore” us to a state where we are listening to and following him again.
These three – the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures, and the Children of God – are not distinct, of course. And, it is actually God working through the Scriptures and his children to do his work. So, we are always dependent on God to draw us back to himself. But, besides dealing with us directly via his Spirit, he also uses the Scriptures and his children.
Do pastors have their cake and eat it too?
Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress” is jumping in with both feet (to use an old Southern expression). Check out his latest post “Cake.” What’s the point of his post: “My main point is this: a professional pastor’s job is mostly cake.”
Now, Eric is in the (fairly) unique position to be able to make this statement. He has been a professional, vocational pastor for a church organization/institution. He knows what the job entails. A couple of years ago, he resigned from that vocation, found employment in a “secular job,” yet continued the hard work of helping others follow Jesus Christ.
Here is part of Eric’s post:
In what other job do you get to sit in a coffee shop and study the bible for hours per week? In how many occupations can you literally set your own schedule each day (except Sundays of course)? What occupation outside of pastoring encourages going on missions trips and attending theological conferences while the church pays for it?
Seminaries are partly to blame for this situation. Pastors-to-be repeatedly hear how difficult it is to be a pastor. They are told that there is much suffering involved and that it will be a very difficult task. However, since they are “called to preach,” they must walk down this painful, lonely road.
You should read the rest of Eric’s post, especially the paragraph that starts with “To be fair, there are times when pastoring is difficult.” That paragraph offers another side of what he states above.
I don’t doubt that being a vocational pastor in a church organization is hard work. (I’ve never held that job position before, although I was headed in that direction at one point in my life.) However, I wonder, how much of that “hard work” is caused by someone doing things that God never intended one person to do?
You who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness
Over the last few days, I’ve been following a common theme, which I first examined in the post “When there is much activity, but very little progress.” For every follower of Jesus, there will be times when we think that we are obeying Jesus and following him, but, in reality, we are not. We may even be doing very good things – even “godly” things – but that does not mean that we are actually following Jesus in those things.
Even though we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, there will be times when we are not listening to him directly for various reasons. As I said in my post “Scripture as a mirror – a glimpse into love or a lack of love,” God often uses Scripture to show us where we are not following him or not allowing the Holy Spirit to do his work in us.
But, there’s another way that God works in our lives to get our attention when we are not following him. He also works through our brothers and sisters in Christ. The title of this post comes from a statement made by Paul to the believers in the region of Galatia:
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. (Galatians 6:1 ESV)
Throughout this passage, Paul points out that he is writing to people who are in Christ and indwelled by the Spirit. (Although he is concerned about them if they move away from the true gospel of grace and back toward a gospel of works.) So, then, this verse is talking about people who are in Christ and indwelled by the Spirit of God and yet “caught in a transgression/sin.”
How does God restore them? Through “brothers and sisters” who approach them in gentleness. God works through his children to help others recognize that they are not following him.
Another great passage to demonstrate this principle is found in Hebrews 12:
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled… (Hebrews 12:12-15 ESV)
In this passage, the author is encouraging his readers to allow God to work through them to “restore” the drooping hands and weak knees of their brothers and sisters in Christ. If we recognize and acknowledge that God can and does work through others to point out when we are not following him, then we can also recognize why our fellowship with one another in the Spirit is so important.
When we keep others at “arm’s distance,” we are also blocking out one way that God uses to work in our lives.
Has God ever used your brothers and sisters in Christ to restore you when you had wandered away from him?
They have rejected me from being king over them
Doug has written a very good post called “give us a king.” If you’re not familiar with Doug, he wrote a guest post for me last year called “Guest Blogger: Not salary but support,” and he completed his first half marathon around the same time that I completed my first half marathon (see his post “My 1st Half Marathon“). (I even interviewed Doug about running on my running blog: “Interview with Doug who recently started running.”)
This post probably caught my attention because we are studying through 1 Samuel right now. That book is amazing in it’s contrast between obedience and disobedience, trusting God and trusting something/someone else.
Here is a small part of Doug’s post:
The people were firmly warned that they should NOT look toward a ruler to set things straight in the land. Non-the-less the people got what they wanted – a king. Now that Saul was set in place all would go well. This guy looked the part and would surely have all the answers. But things didn’t go that way at all.
What they should have done is the same thing that we as Christians should do. We should consider Jesus our King. His body should be modeling, explaining, and demonstrating the principles of His kingdom. Only He can solve racial problems. Jesus alone is true and faithful.
I’m not sure why Doug focused on “racial problems” in that last paragraph (I asked him on his blog). In fact, only Jesus can solve any real kingdom problem.
Interestingly, when God told Samuel to appoint Saul as king over Israel, he also told them that they were not “getting off the hook.” What do I mean? Regardless of what the king did or did not do, the people (including the king) were still to trust God and God alone.
I think this lesson is important in politics, yes. But, it’s important in so many other areas of life as well.
Scripture as a mirror – a glimpse into love or a lack of love
This week, I’ve been asking questions about how God gets the attention of one of his children when that person is not listening to him or following him. If that person is reading Scripture, then the Holy Spirit can use that Scripture like a mirror to help the child of God to examine her life to determine whether or not she is following Jesus.
For example, consider the characteristic of love. We know that Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God and love others. We know that love is a product of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
Scripture cannot produce love. We do not love because we read Scripture, memorize Scripture, or meditate on Scripture. We only love because of the power of God working through us as we yield ourselves to his will.
However, Scripture can help us recognize whether or not we are loving – that is, whether or not we are yielding ourselves to the will of God and allowing the power of God to be demonstrated through love. If we approach Scripture as a mirror, God can use those writing to show us how we are currently living compared to how we live when we are submitting to him.
For example, even a cursory reading of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 can reflect how loving (or not) we are. Are we impatient? Then we are not demonstrating the love of God. Are we unkind? Not loving. Are envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude? Then we are hindering the work of God in loving others through us. Do we insist on having things our way? Are we easily annoyed or irritated? Do we enjoy it when others fail? Then we are not loving.
1 John is another letter that when read like a mirror can demonstrate whether or not we are hindering the love of God. Are we causing others to stumble? Do we prefer the things of the world instead of God? Do we love the other children of God around us? Are we willing to give up our lives for others? Do we share what we have with our brothers and sisters who are in need? If these things are not reflected in our lives, then according to John, we are neither loving God nor others – that is, we are not allowing God to produce love within us (regardless of what we think about ourselves).
Obviously, we can read these passages and miss what God is showing us. However, it’s also possible that God can use these passages (and others) to show us what is in our heart and lives.
And, Scripture is not only a mirror of the love (or lack of love) in our lives. That’s one important aspect of our life with Christ, however.
Has God ever used Scripture as a mirror to show you something about yourself (perhaps an area of disobedience)?