The Church’s Job is to Die — Continually

The church’s job is to die — continually — on behalf of the world, believing that with every death there is a resurrection. God’s part is to grow whatever God wishes to grow. Growing a church isn’t hard … being faithful as the church, that’s a different story.

That line comes from an article by Tim Suttle, a pastor in Kansas.

If we are faithful to the Gospel, we might grow, but we will definitely sacrifice and die. (Just like Jesus.)

Suttle points out that the one-two punch keeping us from gospel faithfulness are sentimentality and pragmatism.

On Sentimentality:

…the sentimental church must provide a place where people can come to hear a comforting message from an effusive pastor spouting fervent one-liners which are intended only to make us feel good about the decisions we’ve already made with our lives. If our beliefs aren’t actually, really true then at least we can have a Hallmark moment, right? Above all the sentimental church must never teach us that in the kingdom of God, up is down, in is out, and nothing short of dying to ourselves and each other can help us truly live.

On Pragmatism:

…church leadership manuals are more than willing to instruct the interested pastor in how to gain market share. I once heard church consultant and leadership guru Don Cousins say that you can grow a church without God if you have good preaching, great music, killer children’s ministry, and an engaging youth minister…. In the pragmatic church, there is only one question that matters, “What will work to grow my church?”

Neither sentimentality or pragmatism will serve to keep us faithful to Jesus.  This brings us to the quote I started with:

…the church’s job is not to affirm people’s lives, but to allow the gospel to continually call our lives into question. The church’s job is not to grow — not even to survive. The church’s job is to die — continually — on behalf of the world, believing that with every death there is a resurrection. God’s part is to grow whatever God wishes to grow. Growing a church isn’t hard … being faithful as the church, that’s a different story.

As CGS becomes REFUGE, our goal is to be faithful.  May God give us eyes to see and ears to hear … and hearts to trust!

Two Questions

Since we’ve been looking at Kick-Starting our Church all week, I figured I’d end the week with a challenge.  Take some time to ask yourself these two questions (either about our church or about an aspect of your life and faith)

What’s the successful outcome? And, what’s the next action to make it happen?

Remember: “Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece.” -Nadia Boulanger

You’re Fired!

Dan Reiland is the pastor of 12Stone Church in Georgia.  Recently, while reading a book about ING Direct, he came across an interesting question: “Can a church fire people?”  Not firing church employees … is it possible to help attenders see that maybe this isn’t the best fit for them.

Here’s the part of the book (retold by Dan) that got him thinking …

The Orange Code – How ING Direct Succeeded by Being a Rebel with a Cause, by Arkadi Kuhlmann & Bruce Philp. (John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 2009) I’ve been reading it slowly, and thinking my way through it for a long time now. The chapter on staffing (“the Dirty Dozen” – We could be Heroes) is worth the book. There is another great chapter titled: “You Say You Want a Revolution?” that speaks to the topic of this article.

Arkadi was working in the bank’s call center, as he regularly did, helping existing customers with routine transactions, helping new ones get signed up, and listening to the voices of real people. A woman from Florida with a sizeable bank account was on the line demanding that a printed statement of her account be mailed to her. Apparently the fact that she was wealthy gave her the idea that she was entitled and deserved special treatment. The book goes on to say that Arkadi politely explained that ING Direct did not offer this service, one of the ways it keeps costs down. The woman pushed the issue and got crankier by the minute. She said – A printed statement is the law. Arkadi, now beginning to lose his patience, corrected her. I love this line so I will give you a literal quote. He said: “The law says you have the right to own a gun,” “It does not say you have the right to a printed bank statement every month.” By this time she was fit to be tied and said something to the effect of- “Has no one ever taught you that the customer is always right?”

This customer didn’t know she was talking to the ING’s founding CEO or how deeply committed he was to the business model. Finally, when Arkadi had had enough, he said: “That’s it. You’re not ready for this way of banking,” and closed her account. Basically, he fired her!

Don’t worry, CGS isn’t going to go around this Sunday and give people their pink slips.  There are a few things, though, we can do better.  Dan’s points to consider are:

• Love everyone, but cater to no one.
• Know what God has called you to do and don’t apologize for it.
• Get used to the idea that your church isn’t for everyone.

What do you think?

Read the full post here.

Faith Gets Practical

Value #9   We believe that the church is called to serve people inside and outside the church in practical ways.

There’s an odd metaphor Jesus gives at the end of His ministry. He talked about a great time of judgment where some will be put on the right side and others set to  the left.  One group is commended for practical acts of service, given directly to Jesus.  They had given Jesus food when He was hungry.  They had tended Jesus’ wounds when He was afflicted.  They had visited Jesus in prison when the authorities treated Him unjustly.  Practical stuff.  Food, water, clothes, time.  All given to Jesus when He was in desperate need.

The people Jesus commended (He called them sheep) were puzzled.  We never did any of this for you.  What are you talking about?  Jesus’ answer shocked them.  “Whenever you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

The other groups (He called them goats) were equally puzzled.  If they had actually seen Jesus – clothed in white, stigmata, heavenly power – needing anything, they would have jumped.  The problem was, they never saw that.  They just saw homeless people to step over, neighbors to ignore, elderly relatives that felt like an inconvenience …ordinary people with ordinary problems who drained them of time, money and energy.  Somehow, by passively walking through a hurting world and doing nothing, they were judged guilty of neglecting God’s Chosen One.

You can read the full story in Matthew 25, but the point is that practical works of service are more important than we often think.

There is a movement called “Servant Evangelism” where followers of Jesus are getting serious about this.  One leader in this movement, Steve Sjogren, defines servant evangelism as: SMALL THINGS DONE WITH GREAT LOVE TO CHANGE THE WORLD. 

These “small things” can be anything.  I’ve heard of people:

• Cleaning up a school just before a new year begins.
• Painting houses in a run-down part of the inner city
• Feeding the homeless
• Meeting run-away teens on the streets and giving them food, clothes and hope
• Paying for a few hours of free gasoline at a local gas station
• Doing yard work for an elderly neighbor
• and more

Here’s a bit more from Pastor Steve Sjogren’s website www.servantevangelism.com.

Small Things Done with Great Love Will Change the World

Perhaps our motto should read, “Small Things Done with Great Love Are Changing the World” because that’s what’s happening. We get reports from pastors, lay leaders and ordinary Christ-followers all over the world who have discovered the power and impact of “showing God’s love in practical ways.

The Power of Kindness

To get a complete understanding of Servant Evangelism, you should order and read Conspiracy of Kindness by Steve Sjogren, founding pastor of a church that grew from a handful to an average attendance of 7,500 in just fifteen years. Such things happen now and then. What makes this story unusual is that this happened in Cincinnati, Ohio — a city that has long been known for its in-your-face unfriendliness! Mark Twain spent a good deal of time in this city on the Ohio River and often commented about how rude people were. When this church was launched, Cincinnati was ranked as the third most unfriendly city in America. After serving about 12 million people over those fifteen years the, tone of the city literally changed and that change had made a permanent impact on the city in innumerable ways. Servant Evangelism (SE) connects people to people in a natural, easy, low-risk, high grace way.

Who doesn’t like to be given a cold Coke on a hot day? Especially by someone who is smiling, happy and having fun.

SE wins the heart before it confronts the mind. A small act of kindness nudges a person closer to God, often in a profound way as it bypasses ones mental defenses. The average Christ-follower is willing to hand a stranger a can of cold Coke on a hot day (low risk). The high grace is seen in the typical reaction. “Oh, thank you!” “This is so nice!” “I can’t believe this is for free!” And, “Why are you doing this?”

Kindness builds the bridge for the person to receive a touch of love from God. It’s simple, practical, effective, inexpensive and fun!

Steve’s lastest book, Outflow, takes the conspiracy of kindness to a whole new level by releasing “regular” Christ-followers to live the Jesus-style life of noticing and responding to those around us with kindness, love and generosity.

What Do I Read First?
Where Do I Start To Learn?

Great question!  There are numerous books, articles, study guides and journals here and on our resource site to choose from.  Here is our suggestion.

1.  Begin with the book, Conspiracy of Kindness.  This will provide you with a basic understanding of the biblical and motivational gridwork for the power of kindness that has been a part of the forward advance of God’s kingdom since Jesus’ arrival on Earth.

2.  Then read Outflow. Conspiracy is a broader treatment of the topic of the power of God’s kindness and generosity as it flows through his people.  Outflow is a strong encouragement that digs deep into how that power can move through us individually, day by day as we go about our lives, interacting with people in absolutely normal ways with God intersecting others through us as we are simply available to notice what he is doing in them.

3.  There are many other specific books that zero in on specific aspects of Servant Evangelism / Outflow that you will find very helpful.  The summary of each book at KindnessResources.com will help you discover what will be the most helpful to you next.

Subscribe to Serve! with Steve Sjogren – The online ezine about outward focused living.  You will receive a steady flow of great ideas and articles each month that will stoke your desire to learn more about how this all works for greater effectiveness.

Global & Local

Value #8 We believe that the church is called to minister to and share the Gospel of Jesus with our local community and the farthest reaches of the world.

The mission of the church is to make disciples of every tribe, tongue and people.  Growing up, I always assumed that missions were done “over there.”  We had a “Mission Week” every year where people from Ecuador, the Sudan and China would talk about the mission.  We had a global map with missionaries marked by push-pins.  We prayed for the missionaries.  We raised money for the missionaries.  A few people even moved around the world to become missionaries.

In the late ’90′s a new trend emerged.  Missions didn’t have to be in Tibet.  We could be missionaries at home.  Lynnwood needs the Gospel as much as Libya.  As America evolved into a post-christian nation, most of the talk has been around our mission at home.

At CGS (and we’re not alone) we see that its important to keep these in balance.  Our mission should begin at home and extend around the world.  Some try to use the buzz word “glocal” but I just like to think of it as being Biblical.

Paul left Jerusalem and Antioch to plant churches around the known world … and in doing so he pulled spiritual maturity from the older groups while channeling resources back.  The local churches benefited because of the global reach.  Today it can be the same.

Ed Stetzer recently wrote a great post about this balance.  He gives 5 reasons why churches today are forgetting about the global side of missions, and a few pointers on how to fix it.  Here are a few highlights:

1) In rediscovering God’s mission, many have only discovered its personal dimensions.

I don’t mean they have somehow localized mission into their interior, “private” life– that would make little sense. Rather, the encouragement for each person to be on mission (to be “missional”) has trended toward a personal obligation to personal settings, rather than toward a global obligation to advance God’s kingdom among all the nations.

“Missional” has merged with privatized Christianity to serve as the reason for personal projects carried out in personal spheres. This is not bad, necessarily. But when the missional impulse is not expanded to include God’s global mission, it results in believers moved only to minister in their own Jerusalems with no mind toward their Judeas, Samarias, and uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8).

2) In responding to God’s mission, many have wanted to be more mission-shaped and have therefore made everything “mission.”

Missions historian Stephen Neil, responding to a similar surge in mission interest (the missio dei movement of the 1950s and following), explained it this way: “If everything is mission then nothing is mission.” Neil’s fear was that the focus would shift from global evangelization (often called “missions”) to societal transformation (often called “mission”). He was right.

Recently John Piper echoed these same concerns, differentiating between evangelism and missions. He reminded us that when “Every Christian is a missionary” equals “missional,” then we have diluted the need for and specialness of missionaries to foreign lands. (Although I would want to nuance John’s language a bit, I agree with his point.)

One American church’s website recently identified their ministry as missional, which they proceeded to define as “reaching out to the community to invite them to come” see what is happening in the church. Another’s young adult community service project consisted of landscaping the church grounds. Inviting people to church and cleaning up the church are noble endeavors, but passing them for “missional” and “service” is ministerial naïveté at best. It demonstrates the fuzziness that creeps in when labels become catch-alls. And as the outer edges of the missional label gets fuzzy so does mission to the outer edges of the world.

3) In relating God’s mission, the message increasingly includes the hurting but less frequently includes the global lost.

One only needs to watch the videos to see the emphases: global orphan projects, eradicating AIDS, Christmas shoeboxes, etc. All of these causes now have advocacy groups, and rightly so, as they are important. However, their vocabulary and frames of reference do not frequently make room for evangelizing the very people they touch. The message of world evangelism, actually, seems more common in legacy/traditional churches than in missional churches. Missional churches seem to speak more of unserved peoples rather than unreached peoples. As we engage to deliver justice, we must also deliver the gospel regardless of anyone’s status in a culture.

4) In refocusing on God’s mission, many are focusing on being good news rather than telling good news.

St. Francis allegedly said,”Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.” Interestingly enough, Francis never actually said this, nor would he have done so due to his membership in a preaching order. But it is a pithy quote tossed into mission statements and vision sermons in missional churches all around my country. Why? It seems that many in the missional conversation place a higher value on serving the global hurting rather than evangelizing the global lost. Or perhaps it is just easier.

I am not urging a dichotomy here, only noting that one already exists. It is ironic, though, that as many missional Christians have sought to “embody” the gospel, they have chosen to forsake one member of Christ’s body; the mouth.

5) In reiterating God’s mission, many lose the context of the church’s global mission and needed global presence.

For whatever reason– the admirable one of commitment to the local church or the ignoble one of commitment to personalized consumeristic Christianity– we have lost the grand scope of the entire family of God. While Christ calls people from all tongues, tribes, and nations, we have become content with our own tongue, tribe, and nation. Many churches are wonderfully embracing the missional imperative, but as they seek to “own” the mission by adapting their church into a missional movement in their local community, some inadvertently localize God’s mission itself and lose the vital connection all believers share together. A hyper-focus on our own community results in a, have lost vision for the communion of the saints.

So how do we fully embrace missional without losing the mission? The Mission Exchange (formerly the Evangelical Foreign Mission Society) asked me to talk to their global leaders on the topic “How to Put ‘Missions’ Back into Missional.” In my talk, I proposed four principles we needed to consider:

First, recognize it is God’s mission, and we need to be passionate about the mission as He describes it. We don’t own mission and it is not ours to define. A church vision statement is fine, but God’s mission is better and bigger. Our first task is to submit to God’s mission.

Secondly, evangelicals have understated the call to serve the poor and the hurting and need a stronger engagement in social justice. This sounds counterintuitive if we are seeking to remedy the loss of concern for articulated evangelism. But social engagement entails relational engagement, and relational engagement entails opportunities to share the gospel. The successes and experiences in our communities should awaken hearts and minds to global needs. We just need to maintain the reason for social justice: the glory of God in the worship of Jesus.

Third, share God’s deep concern about His mission to the nations– that His name be praised from the lips of men and women from every corner of the globe. Feel the Great Commission in your bones. Ask God to turn your heart to those you cannot see. As Paul did, develop ways to “struggle personally” (Colossians 2:1) for those far away.

Fourthly, churches that are serious about joining God on his mission will obey his commands to disciple the nations. The end product of missional endeavors should be a thriving Christian ready to produce more thriving Christians.

It appears to me that many missional churches are missing the Great Commission in the name of being missional. That makes zero sense. It is a huge (but historically common) mistake.

If we are truly interested in being missional– in joining God on His mission– our efforts should actually reflect His stated mission. We are bound to the Great Commandment as the fullest human expression of God’s love. But the Commandment is not hermetically sealed off from the Great Commission. Rather, the Great Commission provides the what of mission, while the Great Commandment provides part of the how. Answering the age-old question of “Who is my neighbor?” should result in the desire to “make disciples of all nations.”

Read Ed’s full post here.

An Aligned Group of Servants

Value #7 “We believe that the church must be an aligned group of servants; therefore we will help people discover their personal and public expressions of God’s mission.”

One of the classic metaphors for christian community is the “Body of Christ.”

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. (1 Corinthians 12:12–31, ESV)

I recently went through a season of life when I realized how important it is for the body to line up well.

A year ago I was carrying a couple of cinder blocks and stepped off a ledge into a ditch.  One leg went down, buckled and came back up.  I kept walking, dumped off the blocks and went about my day.  I was a little achy later in the day, but didn’t feel “hurt” so I kept going about my daily business for the next nine or ten months.  Over time though, my knee started getting worse.  It would hurt just sitting too long.  I was getting weaker.  My knee was swelling.  In short … I’d messed myself up.

Going to Physical Therapy I found out that my lower-body was not “an aligned group of servants.”  One leg was longer than the other, some ligaments wouldn’t stretch, an ankle got gimpy … in other words – I was hurt.  My body was broken.  No amount of effort could fix it.  No good intentions could line my legs back up.  It took minor surgery (done a few weeks ago), inserts for my shoes (which I’m wearing now), and a renewed commitment to exercise, stretching and good posture.

When it comes to life in community, we often end up like my knee.  Or worse!

Small problems and incidents creep in.  We stop working together.  Some stop working at all.  Instead of running, we start limping and if that’s not fixed we’ll stop moving at all.

At CGS we try to line up individuals to our community around three areas:

• Spiritual Gifts
• Passion (i.e., likes and dislikes)
• Individual Style as a Server or Equipper

None of these are easy to figure out.  Spiritual Gifts tests can be helpful, but often turn into religious aptitude tests.  Honestly, the best way to find a place to serve is to experiment.  If we stay humble and stay in community, we can try different tasks to see what we like.  My first sermon wasn’t great, but it was given to a community that loved me and was willing to take a risk.  If they hadn’t been willing to give me a shot, and if I hadn’t had the guts to step up and try, who knows what I’d have missed in life.  Before I ever preached, I taught kids.  Before I taught kids, I set up tables and chairs.  All in the same community, with role models leading me the whole way.

This Fall … where will you take a risk?  Where will you serve?  And (as important) who will you get loving feedback from?

The Function of the Church is to Dispense Hope

We believe that the function of the church is to dispense hope by providing opportunities for accountability, growth & discipline.

Back to contemplating CGS’s values.

In classic Reformed Theology, there are three marks of a true church.  1) Preaching the Word, 2) Right use of the Sacraments, and 3) Church Discipline.  This value is really a re-statement and affirmation of the third mark of a true church – providing discipline.

(All the Reformed people just said, “That’s good enough for me”, and clicked over to monergism.com.)

To say that a church “dispenses hope” by providing discipline (aka accountability) can sound like a contradiction.  Many people think of discipline in terms of an angry parent or harsh teacher wielding a yard-stick and not afraid to use it.

Discipline shouldn’t be harsh.  Accountability doesn’t have to rip out your heart.  If discipline is done properly, it can be a powerful tool in guarding our hearts.

I remember when I was young my family went to Yellowstone.  I was excited to see Old Faithful, buffalo and Yogi Bear. The day we got there, my dad took me by the arm, looking me deep in the eyes and said, “Timothy, there are scalding pools of water here.  If you walk off the path and fall in, they will kill you.  There is a large lake filled with freezing water.  If you jump into it, you will die in a few minutes.  There are wild animals here.  They can kill you if you don’t respect them.  Stay by my side.  Listen to me … and everything will be okay.”

Harsh or loving?

Honestly, a little bit of both.  He was harsh enough to get through a ten-year-old brain that there were real dangers and that his normal course of life (i.e., not listening and jumping into any pool of water I saw) would not end well with me.

But this was pure love.

He didn’t want to see his son hurt.  He warned me so that all the hopes and dreams I had for life could be realized.  A little discipline now led to lots of living.

This reminds me of Hebrews 6 where the preacher gives sharp reproach and big hope:

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Hebrews 6:1–12, ESV)

For more on church discipline, check out 9Marks website.

On Spiritual Disciplines

Value #5:  We believe that spiritual growth is necessary and desirable …

Yesterday I talked about how important it is to get the Gospel right in our hearts as we follow God into Growth and Obedience.  Today I want to talk a little bit about what sort of disciplined obedience is most helpful when it comes to spiritual growth.

For centuries Christians who pursed spiritual growth used a set of spiritual disciplines.  There is more written on these topics than I could include in any post, so first, let me share a few resources.  The list will start with what I think are the most entry-level books, and they’ll increase in depth … but feel free to try them all and rate them on your own or to recommend other resources in the comments.

• The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People by John Ortberg
• Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Don Whitney
• The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives by Dallas Willard
• Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ
• Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth by Richard Foster
• Devotional Classics: Revised Edition: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups

There are other books (just get Shannon started on this topic!) but that’s a good place to start.

Disciplines are basic practices that train our hears to become (by grace) more like the heart of Jesus.

Dallas Willard has a more precise definition of“spiritual disciplines”: “Doing what we can do with our body, mind, spirit, to receive from God power or ability to do what we cannot do by human effort.”

These practices are broken into two categories.

The Disciplines of Abstinence help us remove destructive and unhelpful things from our lives through acts that force us to stop, wait, remove, or eliminate.

The Disciplines of Engagement are intended to build the right kinds of attitudes and habits into our daily lives.

Disciplines of Abstinence

• Solitude: The practice of spending time without any others or any distractions.
• Silence: No noise or conversation. Just you and God.
• Fasting: Abstain from food, media, entertainment, or anything else that occupies your time.
• Frugality: Use your money for purposes outside your own needs for a time.
• Chastity: 1 Corinthians 7:8, “Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”
• Secrecy: Do not allow anyone to know of the deeds you do or the money you give in order to avoid doing them for the wrong motivations. Only God needs to know.
• Sacrifice: Stretch your sense of what you can do without for the sake of those who have less.

Disciplines of Engagement

• Study: Memorize Scripture and expand your universe of biblical study helps.
• Worship: Engage in corporate worship and include worship in your own prayer time.
• Celebration: Practice being grateful and thankful both in your own relationship with Christ and with other believers. Express encouragement and thankfulness to others.
• Service: Give your time to the church and/or to others. Ponder tithing your time.
• Prayer: Take deliberate steps to pray regularly and with purpose. Praying through the Psalms is a good way to increase your “prayer vocabulary.”
• Fellowship: Hebrews 10:25, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
• Confession: Practice confessing your sins to trusted people who will pray with you and be spiritual allies.
• Submission: Submit to the proper people in the proper ways—fight against the sin of pride

Thanks to Dallas Willard and Phil Steiger for putting this list together.

How Do We Pursue Growth?

I’m still considering Value #5:  We believe that spiritual growth is necessary and desirable …

This is so hard to pursue in a culture of grace, but I believe to the core of my being that grace is the only true way to purse growth.

To help us understand this, I’m going to re-posting part of the article by Steve Childers that I mentioned yesterday.  (I need to keep re-posting this and re-reading it until it sinks into my own hard head.) 

What I think he’s saying is that we don’t change by our obedience, we are changed by bringing the power of the gospel into our obedience.  So it’s not my praying, tithing, enemy-loving, and sacrificial-serving that transforms my life.  What changes me is how I bring the truth of the gospel into my inner struggle to love my enemies, give when it hurts and serve when I’m drained.

I engage in those acts of obedience as acts of faith.  Faith that my little tithe can make a difference.  Faith that a small, broken sermon can change a church or culture.  Faith that a conversation at Starbucks can lead a friend to Jesus.  As I try to walk in faith, all my personal brokennesses creep in.  Pride in my ability to give a good sermon.  Greed in wanting to keep more money for myself.  Fear of man, in not wanting to share the full story of Jesus with my friend.

As I struggle with my brokenness, I repent and reach for a new level of faith.

In preaching, I begin by faith (usually), pride creeps in, so I reach for repentance.  Repentance leads to a fresh dose of faith.  Now fear sneaks in because a joke didn’t go over well.  Back to repentance which kicks me over to a new take on faith … and on and on and on.

This happens in my giving, in my serving, in my loving, in my praying .  It cycles through everything I do.

So while the Spiritual Disciplines might be important in spiritual growth (and I love the disciplines!  I’ll talk about them tomorrow.)  … we have to get the Gospel right first.

Let’s let Dr. Childers speak for himself:

How Does the Gospel Change a Christian?

Notice again the simple, but deeply profound, words of Jesus found in Mark 1:14b-15. “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the  kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’”

Repentance and faith have been called the two dynamics of a “spiritual combustion cycle” that God means to be at work in our hearts at all times, changing us into the image of his Son. In order for us to experience the transforming power of the gospel in our lives, we must continually be repenting and believing in the gospel.

When this “spiritual combustion cycle” of ongoing repentance and faith is at work in the heart, there will be change. The reverse is also true. When there is no true change in the heart and life, it is certain that this cycle of ongoing repentance and faith is not taking place. Since these two dynamics of repentance and faith are so misunderstood, yet so critical for spiritual  transformation, we will now take a closer look at each one in more detail.

Repentance: Turning Heart Affections Away From Idols

There is a lot of confusion today about repentance. Many people see repentance as morbid self-flagellation, leading the repenter into despair. Repentance is seen as a kind of evangelical penance reserved only for those special times when you’ve been really bad and need to humble yourself before God.

This view of repentance reflects how so few Christians today seem to have grasped the first thesis of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, which he nailed to the door of the Wittenberg church, giving birth to the Protestant Reformation. In the first thesis, Luther writes, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ [Matt. 4:17], he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance” (1957:25).

This understanding of repentance as an ongoing, way-of-life experience for the believer seems to be almost unknown today. What we must rediscover is that true repentance does not lead us to despair but to joy. The more we learn to see the depth of our sin, the more we’ll see the depth of God’s grace. The cross of Christ is only deeply precious, it is only “electric,” to daily repenters who see the depth of their sin.

When Jesus calls us to repent, he is not calling us to beat up on ourselves or merely to clean up our lives. Instead, he is calling us to a radical change of heart. According to Scripture our root problem is not an external, behavioral problem–it’s a problem of the heart. This is why all the counterfeit remedies inevitably leave us unchanged and in either denial or despair, because they all bypass the heart. The reason our hearts are not more transformed is because we have allowed what the Puritans call “the affections of our hearts” to be captured by idols that steal our heart affection away from God. The apostle John makes this point in the very last verse of 1 John. Here the apostle purposefully concludes his masterful 105-verse letter on how to live in vital fellowship with Christ with these words, “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 Jn 5:21).

Here we learn that repenting of our idolatry actually sums up what true spirituality really is. Because God has created man to be a worshipper, we are always worshipping something, whether we realize it or not. This is why we should always see the essential character of our sin as heart idolatry. The first and second commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20:3) and “You shall not make for yourself an idol” (Ex 20:4a), are meant to remind us of the very dangerous and natural tendency we all have to worship idols.

The modern idols that capture our hearts’ affection today are not the graven images of the ancient world. An idol is something from which we get our identity. An idol is making something or someone other than Jesus Christ our true source of happiness or fulfillment.

It has been said that Rocky Balboa revealed one of the idols of his heart in the best line of the famous “Rocky” movie, when he said, “If I can just go the distance, then I’ll know I’m not a bum.” The truth is everyone has something or someone we can easily put in that place. “If I can only have- -you fill in the blank–then I’ll know I’m somebody.”

We all have to live for something. We all have a “personal center,” an ultimate value through which we see all of life (Keller 1998:46).  For some of us it is approval, reputation, or success. For others it is comfort or control, pleasure or power. For some it is possessions or sex or money or a relationship. Idols can be good causes such as making an impact, having a happy home or a good marriage or obedient children. Whatever it is, without this bottom line we believe our lives are meaningless.

Whatever we live for has great power over us. If someone blocks our idol from us, we can be enraged with anger. If our idols are threatened, we can be paralyzed with fear. If we lose our idol, we can be driven into utter despair. That is because the idols we worship give us our sense of worth or righteousness.

When we allow the affections of our hearts to be captured by such idols, the outcome is always the same–a lack of God’s transforming power and presence in our lives. So repentance hould not be seen as merely changing our external behavior but primarily as a willingness to pull our heart affections and our heart trust away from our idols. The great English theologian, Owen, teaches that one of the reasons we don’t experience more of God’s power and presence in our lives is because we have not sufficiently studied the idolatries of our own hearts. This is why we should learn to ask ourselves hard questions such as: “What is my greatest fear in life?” and “What other than Christ has taken title to my heart’s functional trust?”

For years I confessed to God my recurring sin of anxiety that was destroying me physically. But I saw very little change until I began to see and repent of the internal sin of idolatry that was the root of the external sin of worry. To my surprise, I discovered that my core problem was not primarily the external sin of worry but the internal, idolatrous sin of seeking the approval of others as the source of my righteousness or worth.

The great evangelist, George Whitefield, taught that to know God’s power, we must learn not only what it means to repent of our sins but also to repent of our righteousness (1993).

The late John Gerstner is reported to have said, “It is not so much our sins that keep us from God as our damnable good works.”

Once we have identified a heart idol, repentance involves not only confessing it, but also taking radical action against it, sapping the life dominating power it has over us. In Romans 13:14 Paul writes, “[M]ake no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” All that is idolatrous to us must have its vivid appeal drained away. The Puritans call this mortification, a concept seldom heard today.

Repentance is only half of our responsibility in transformation. It’s the negative, defensive side of the equation. We turn now to the positive, offensive strategy–faith in the gospel.

Faith: Turning Heart Affections to Jesus Christ

The reason Jesus commands us in this text to “repent and believe the  gospel” is because he knew that faith in the gospel is the mysterious means God ordains through which the power of his victory as our king is meant to flow in and through our lives and our churches. The good news of the kingdom is that our king has won a marvelous victory for us.

Through his sinless life, sacrificial death as our substitute, resurrection, and ascension, he has not only conquered death for us, removing its penalty, but he has also conquered sin’s power over us. As our warrior-king, he has entered into battle against all the enemy forces (the world, the flesh, and the devil) that wage war against our souls, and he has conquered their reigning power over us forever.

Now, through repentance and faith, God means for us to tap into the powerful victory of our king, so that we might be transformed into true worshippers of God and more authentic lovers of people. The reason God calls us to pull our affections off our heart idols through repentance is so that we can place those same affections on Jesus Christ through faith. The apostle Paul has this positive side of the change equation in mind when he writes in Colossians 3:1-2, “[S]et your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

In Paul’s thought the process of gospel transformation always involves this ongoing, two-fold dynamic of repentance and faith. Through repentance we are always to be pulling our affections off of our idols. Through faith we are always to be placing our affections on Christ.

The Puritans describe this concept of setting our affections on Christ as developing spiritual-mindedness.

They teach that we must be even more radical about setting our affections on Christ than we are about removing our affections from our idols. As we think of the proper priority of our focus, Robert Murray McCheyne puts it well when he says, “Do not take up your time so much with studying your own heart as with studying Christ’s heart. ‘For one look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ’” (1947:93).

In Galatians 6:14, Paul gives us a fascinating glimpse into how his faith in the gospel transformed him when he writes, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.”

John Stott writes, “Paul’s whole world was in orbit around the cross. It filled his vision, illumined his life, warmed his spirit. He “gloried” in it. It meant more to him than anything else. . . . This Greek word translated here as “boast” has no exact equivalent in English. It means to glory in, trust in, rejoice in, revel in, live for. In a word, our glory is our obsession” (1986:349).

Some of us are obsessed with gaining approval or recognition. Others are obsessed with experiencing comfort or pleasure or happiness. Some are obsessed with gaining control or power or possessions or building a reputation or gaining success as the world defines it. The apostle Paul was also obsessed. But his obsession was with Christ and the cross. In his obsession with the cross, Paul experienced the transforming power of the gospel to crucify the dominating power of his sinful nature and the idolatrous lure of the world.

Only when we learn how to glory in the cross and not in our idols will we ever experience the true liberating power of the gospel. Only when Jesus Christ becomes more attractive to us than the pleasures of sin will our hearts ever be set free. The enslaving power of sin will never dissipate until a greater affection of the heart replaces it.

This is why we must learn to pray like the old hymn writer William Cowper: “The dearest idol I have known / Whate’er that idol be / Help me to tear it from Thy throne / And worship only Thee” (1990:534).

Obedience: Nurturing Faith by the Means of Grace

There is a strong link between our obedience to God’s will and our personal experience of God’s ministry power. Jesus says, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (Jn 14:23). He also says, “If anyone wishes to come take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mk 8:34-35).

God means for our radical obedience to his will and his purposes in the world to be a vital part of our experience of truly knowing him and experiencing his power in and through our lives. God loves to pour out his Spirit with power on those individuals and churches who will dare to align themselves radically and joyfully with his will for their lives and for his world.

God’s primary plan by which he means for us to nurture our union with Christ is through the devoted use of the means of grace he provides. The book of Acts shows us that the early Christians devoted themselves to “the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42b).

Paul establishes the primacy of the church in leading Christians to spiritual maturity when he writes, “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:11–13).

The Holy Spirit ordinarily does his work in our lives as we learn to fix our hearts and minds on the Lord Jesus Christ through the corporate means of grace. The Westminster Shorter Catechism states, “The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption are his ordinances, especially the Word, sacraments, and prayer all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation.” (WSC 88).

Conclusion

To draw near to God in repentance and faith demands that we first humble ourselves. The Scriptures tell us that “God is opposed to the proud but he gives grace to the humble” (Jas 4:6). The paradox of grace is that the way up is the way down. God’s grace and power, like water, always flow down to the lowest place–the foot of the cross.

The cross has been called the sinner’s place. It is at the cross that we cast away all our pride and self-sufficiency and admit to God what idolaters we really are. It is at the cross that we stop covering up our lack of spiritual reality. It is at the cross that we humbly admit to God that our hearts are spiritually cold and hard. It is at the cross that we find rest for our souls. I am not presenting just one more plan or program for spiritual self-development. Instead, I am presenting a person, Jesus Christ, who says not only “repent and believe the gospel” (Mk 1:14b-15), but also ‘“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28-30).

The good news is that in Jesus Christ we finally find what our hearts truly long for and thirst after, that which our idols can promise only in vain. It is the good news that we do not have to live in fear of God’s condemnation anymore. No matter how great our sins may be, God promises we can now be completely forgiven through Christ’s shed blood in our place.

It is the good news that we do not  need to be crippled by the fear of rejection anymore, always building and defending our reputation, for we can know the riches of God’s eternal acceptance through Christ’s perfect righteousness, counted to be ours through faith. It is the good news that we don’t need to go on living and feeling like unloved spiritual orphans anymore, for we can now know the comfort of Jesus Christ as our compassionate older brother, the one “who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin” (Heb 4:15).

It is the good news that, although we can grieve and displease God because of our sin, there is nothing we can do to cause our Heavenly Father to love us any less, and there is nothing we can do to cause him to love us any more. God’s love for us in Christ is the same eternal love he has always had for his one and only Son. Because we are his children, God promises to use all the trials of our lives not for our punishment but for our good, to help us grow and mature to be all he designed us to be (Heb 12:10).

It is the good news that no matter how alone we may find ourselves in this life, no matter how many people may leave us, we can always know the intimate communion of God’s Holy Spirit who promises never to leave us or forsake us (Heb 13:5).

His love for us is eternal; he chose us to be in Christ before the creation of the world, and he promises that the work he began in us, he will bring to completion on that final day in heaven (Phil 1:6). In the meantime, he promises to come alongside us to comfort, encourage and transform us through all our trials. He promises always to be near to the brokenhearted (Ps 34:18).

It is the good news that no matter how intense or enslaving our present struggle with sin may be, we no  longer need to be in bondage to sin’s dominion over our lives. Although sin’s influence will always be with us, sin’s dominion over our lives has been broken through the cross (Rom 6). It is the good news that we can now finally be free from that sin which has held us in bondage for so long. It is the good news that one day all of our struggles will be over and God will bring us home to heaven.

We are now pilgrims passing through a land that is not our own, on our way to our home, the Celestial City (Bunyan 1872a)—a place where God promises he will wipe away every tear from our eyes.

He promises that he will make all things new. We will be made new in both soul and body. All creation will be made new. He promises that in the new heavens and the new earth there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will pass away (Rev 21:4).

As we begin to focus on these gospel promises from God, we must allow them to lead us to the person of Jesus Christ in worship. These rich gospel promises must now go from our minds to our hearts, until our hearts catch on fire with a renewed love and delight for God.

How does that happen?

All God requires is that we draw near to him in repentance and faith through the cross of Jesus Christ.

For it’s here, at this low sinner’s place, that God has chosen to lift us up and change us into the likeness of Christ. And so it is to the sinner’s place I invite you to come.

One day, Jesus met a very thirsty woman at a well in Samaria. He knew that her thirst had driven her into the arms of many men over the years, yet she was still very thirsty. Jesus knew her thirst was far more than physical. Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give will become…a spring of water welling up to everlasting life” (Jn 4:13-14).

Later, at a great Jewish feast,  Jesus calls out to the crowd with a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (Jn 7:37-38). By this, John tells us, Jesus meant the Holy Spirit.

In Jesus’ name, I now call you who are thirsty to turn away from your idols, from all your broken cisterns (Jer 2:13) and begin to drink deeply from the well that is Christ.

This well never runs dry. Here are the springs of personal, church, and cultural transformation, reformation, and revival.

I promise you, on the authority of Jesus’ words, that if you will keep coming to Christ in humble repentance and faith, you will not only have your deep thirst quenched, but streams of living water will flow mightily through you, not merely for your sake, but for the sake of Christ and His Kingdom.

As you respond, prayerfully meditate on the words of the nineteenth century hymn writer, Horatius Bonar, “I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold, I freely give the living water. Thirsty one, stoop down and drink and live”  (1990:304).

For the full article go to:

http://www.gca.cc/other_files/True%20Spirituality%20by%20Childers.pdf

Spiritual Growth is Necessary and Desirable

Value #5 We believe that spiritual growth is necessary and desirable;

therefore we equip and encourage people to continually strengthen their relationship with God.

Today I’m back, looking at the Values of CGS, and today’s is about GROWTH.

There is an odd dynamic in Jesus’ unique, grace-based mess we call “the church.”  The Gospel doesn’t make us good people and it isn’t given to us because we are good.  We only saved by admitting that we are sinners.  “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8) That’s the only entrance criteria.

But we’re not allowed to stay where Jesus found us.  We never become “good” in the ultimate sense – good enough to merit salvation or earn God’s favor.  But we are supposed to grow in grace and godliness.

This is the tension of a grace-based religion.  We are saved because we aren’t good … but once we’re saved we need to work our tails off at becoming good.  Without the cross, this tension would make Christians bipolar, but with the good news of the Cross, it makes us broken, humble and growing.

Just listen to how John expresses this tension, and how the gift of radical forgiveness stands at the center:

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. ” (1 John 1:5–10, ESV)

We can’t have fellowship with God while we walk in the darkness – but if we say we always walk in the light, we’re liars.

We are cleansed from all sin by walking in the light – but that only comes through honest confession of all the times when we actually walk in the darkness.

We are faithless – He is faithful.

Those tensions are the tensions of grace.   The average modern piano has over 230 strings under a combined tension of 15 to 20 tons. A concert grand piano may have a combined string tension of up to 30 tons.  If you actually dropped one out the window (like they do in all the commercials and cartoons) the strings would explode around the area, cutting people to shreds.  (The Mythbusters Website talks about a grand piano that fell off a loading dock at a music school, pieces went flying and were found up to 100 feet away.)

Take the tension away, and you take away the music of grace.

I’m the worst sinner I know … yet I try every day to walk in the light as He is in the light.  This keeps me going to the cross.  It keep me growing.

For more on this, see Steve Childer’s Article:  True Spirituality: The Transforming Power of the Gospel which I mentioned in this old post.