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Finding Church Authors 34-36

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church8In November, my book [scg_html_fc] will be published by Civitas Press. It contains the stories of 36 people and how they have followed Jesus in seeking to live and function within His church. The stories fall into three categories: Leaving Church, Switching Church, and Reforming Church.

Leading up to publication, I am writing several posts which give credit to the authors who made this book possible. Each post will include a short description of three authors and provide a preview summary of their chapters. Below are the descriptions and summaries of three authors in the “Reforming Church” category.

Finding Church Chapter 34 – I Hate the Church; I Love the Church

Aubry Smith is a freelance writer and stay-at-home mom to her two toddler boys. Aubry is an Arkansas native transplanted in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she and her husband are training for ministry. When not wrestling with her babies or writing, she enjoys reading, cooking, hiking, and camping.

In her darkest moment and deepest need, Aubry was abandoned and rejected by the church. For a while, she returned the favor and stayed away. But she eventually returned to help lead the church into maturity as faithful and loving followers of Jesus Christ.

Finding Church Chapter 35 – Focusing on People

John Walker and his wife are retired and enjoy gardening, walking their dogs, and cooking.

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3 Reasons Christians MUST Celebrate Halloween

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halloweenEvery year around this time, I read all sorts of posts and articles for why it is sinful for Christians to participate in Halloween.

So I decided to write a post about why Christians MUST celebrate Halloween.

No, I don’t have any Bible verses to back this up or deep theological ideas to prove it. I just have three reasons Christians should celebrate Halloween.

Christians Are Light in the Darkness

Christians often complain that Halloween is a day of death, darkness, and evil. I won’t argue this. For many people, Halloween is a day to celebrate witches, ghouls, ghosts, goblins, death, decay, murder, and many other such things.

But since when do Christians run away and hide from death and darkness? Doesn’t the Bible call us to be lights in the darkness, and to bring life and healing to those areas which are full of death and decay? Of course it does!

Look, you don’t have to dress up like a vampire to participate in Halloween. And definitely don’t judge and condemn those who do. But I would encourage you to go on out and have a good time. Let your kids get some free candy. Laugh! Have a good time. Enjoy life. Make some memories.

Or, if the kids are grown and gone, give out heaps of free candy to the neighborhood. They will remember you forever.

Which brings me to my second point.

Halloween is an Opportunity for Generosity

Halloween is a great opportunity to show Christian generosity. I still remember the two or three houses in my neighborhood that gave away full candy bars on Halloween. Not the little snack-size ones, but full-size candy bars! I couldn’t believe it then, and I still cannot believe it now.

We often bemoan the fact that we don’t know the families in our neighborhoods better, but Halloween is one night of the year where most of the neighborhood families will be knocking on your door. So make an impression on them! Be generous!

I was talking a guy this past week who said he was going to pass out Gospel tracts to the kids in the neighborhood when they came by his door. This also will make an impression on the families who knock on your door, but not in a good way… I tried to encourage him that if he was going to pass out tracts, he should include a huge handful of candy with each one. Let people remember you for being generous, and they might also read that tract that came with your generosity.

Or better yet, they might want to talk to you when they see you in the park, at the mall, or trimming your hedges.

But there is one last reason for Christians to celebrate Halloween….

Halloween Candy

Free Candy!

I am a candyaholic, so I had to include this…

But I am actually kind of serious.

For most children, Halloween is about one thing: candy.

If you have kids, they are going to go to school the day after Halloween, and everyone is going to be talking about how much candy they got. When the kids ask your child how much candy he/she got, do you want them to have to say that they didn’t get any candy because their mom and dad believe Halloween is evil?

As I wrote in a different post about a Trunk-or-Treat I attended, if you feel that Halloween is some sort of contest between Jesus and the devil, one sure way to “win” is by giving away lots of candy. On Halloween, candy is how kids keep score. This goes back to the previous two points. The devil loves it when Christians hand out Jesus stickers instead of candy on Halloween.

If you hand out Gospel tracts or “Jesus Loves You” pencils instead of candy on Halloween, you are actually bringing shame to the name of Jesus on this day.

Jesus is not glorified when we are cheapskates and killjoys in His name.

Let kids be kids! And if you are (rightfully) afraid of what they might see or what they might encounter, then go with them! Walk around the neighborhood with them, giving them that sense of parental security and safety that is so important for children to have.

And guess what? If you do this, I bet they will even share some of their free candy with you…

Finding Church Authors 31-33

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church7In November, my book [scg_html_fc] will be published by Civitas Press. It contains the stories of 36 people and how they have followed Jesus in seeking to live and function within His church. The stories fall into three categories: Leaving Church, Switching Church, and Reforming Church.

Leading up to publication, I am writing several posts which give credit to the authors who made this book possible. Each post will include a short description of three authors and provide a preview summary of their chapters. Below are the descriptions and summaries of three authors in the “Reforming Church” category.

Finding Church Chapter 31 – The Bride with the Holes in Her Dress

Travis Mamone is the co-host of the weekly podcast “Something Beautiful.” He has written for such publications as “Provoketive Magazine,” “Relevant Magazine,” “Burnside Writers Collective,” and “The Upper Room.” He has also contributed to the books Not Alone: Stories of Living with Depression (Civitas Press, 2011) and Not Afraid: Stories of Finding Significance (Civitas Press, 2012). He lives in Easton, MD, and blogs at TravisMamone.net.

Travis recognized that the church is full of contradictions and problems. And while he toyed with the idea of leaving the church to follow Jesus, he decided to stay and rebuild the church from the inside out. He believes the way to do this is by focusing more and more on the church’s one foundation, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Finding Church Chapter 32 – Jumper Cables

Mary C. M. Phillips is a caffeinated wife, mother, and writer of short stories and personal s. Her work has appeared in numerous Cup of Comfort and Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies. She blogs at CaffeineEpiphanies.wordpress.com.

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Saving Sinners from Hell

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This is a guest post by Sam Riviera and is a follow-up post to “How to Win Souls… or Not.” He spends most of his time and energy caring for others in his community so that through his life and actions they might see Jesus. He has also written “14 Reasons I Never Returned to the Institutional Church.“

If you would like to write a guest post for this blog, check out the guidelines here.

god and devilGrowing up attending a conservative evangelical church, I was taught that I should invite the “unsaved” to church so they could hear the Gospel preached and have a chance to “get saved.” If they didn’t respond, at least they’d had a chance. It would be their fault if they ended up in hell. I had done “my part.”

After my wife and I married and began attending another conservative evangelical church, we were surprised to learn that “personal evangelism” was the new fad. Somehow the responsibility for getting people saved had landed squarely in our laps. We were told a few people were occasionally getting saved at the end of a sermon at church, but that plan wasn’t working well. Therefore, it was now our personal responsibility to “lead our unsaved friends, family members and neighbors to the Lord.”

Most of us Are Failures at Personal Evangelism

Some churches may still emphasize personal evangelism, but I have rarely heard the term mentioned in the past twenty years. Most of us have never “led anyone to the Lord.” So we’d prefer not to be told we should. If our church tries to pressure us in this way, we can always find another church.

What About Proverbs 11:30?

However, doesn’t Proverbs 11:30 tell us “He that winneth souls is wise”? Should we understand this to mean it is our responsibility to win souls, our responsibility to lead people to the Lord?

Not everyone understands the verse to mean that. Matthew Henry commented “The righteous are as trees of life; and their influence upon earth, like the fruits of that tree, support and nourish the spiritual life in many.”

Providence Baptist’s online Bible study course teaches “Some build a whole system of theology on this verse, believing that they can win men to Christ by their own powers of persuasion. But nowhere else in the Bible is this taught…. ‘Winneth’ is nowhere else so rendered. The Hebrew word appears over 1050 times and is most commonly rendered ‘taketh’ or ‘taketh away’…. Truly God’s people are to witness of Him to others, but the Spirit alone can win them to Christ.”

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The Evil of God

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evil GodSo as I work on my Commentary on Jonah, I have run into a question which is raised by the text, and I want to ask it here.

The question is this:

What kind of God do we serve?

How is it that the “God of the Old Testament” can have the same values and goals as Jesus in the Gospels? How is it that Jesus can tell us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, while God in the Old Testament tells Israel to kill their enemies, men, women, children, and animals, and leave none of them alive?

I know that this is an age-old question, and I sincerely doubt that I am going to solve it on this blog, but I want to raise the question anyway.

As far as I can tell, there are four main solutions offered by Bible scholars and teachers.

1. God was Wrong

This first option is that God is a monster. We cannot explain away this despicable behavior by saying that God can do what He wants, or that there is a mystery to God’s actions which we will never know this side of heaven. God commanded things which would get Him condemned in almost any court of law in history.

Many atheists have come to just this conclusion about the God of the Bible, but for bible-believing followers of Jesus, this option is not the best. There are better, more reasonable answers for what the Bible says about God.

2. The Bible is Wrong

A second possible explanation is that the Bible is full of errors. Some people argue that although the Bible says God commanded these atrocities, He didn’t actually command them. The Bible is wrong in what it says about God.

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Finding Church Authors 28-30

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church6In November, my book [scg_html_fc] will be published by Civitas Press. It contains the stories of 36 people and how they have followed Jesus in seeking to live and function within His church. The stories fall into three categories: Leaving Church, Switching Church, and Reforming Church.

Leading up to publication, I am writing several posts which give credit to the authors who made this book possible. Each post will include a short description of three authors and provide a preview summary of their chapters. Below are the descriptions and summaries of three authors in the “Reforming Church” category.

Finding Church Chapter 28 – Being the Change I Want to See

Dan King is the author of The Unlikely Missionary: From Pew-Warmer to Poverty-Fighter, the story about how a trip to Africa turned one man’s world upside down and changed everything he knew about Christianity. The book has received recognition and high commendations from his mom, his wife, and his children (He is still hoping for an endorsement from Tim Tebow). Dan lives in Sarasota, FL with his wife and two kids.

After Dan became a Christian, he set out to study Scripture and learn everything he could about this Jesus he had committed to follow. Along the way he learned the importance of seeing the changes that need to be made in church, but recognizing that before they could change, he needed to work on that change in his own life first.

Finding Church Chapter 29 – Part of the Continual Work of Reforming the Church

Alan Knox is the publisher of The Assembling of the Church. He lives with his wife and two children just north of Raleigh, North Carolina. He enjoys spending time with his family and friends, web development, and running.

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My Big Announcement

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big announcementDonald Trump came out with a big announcement today (which I think was pretty silly… though to be honest, I am curious what is on the President’s college transcripts and passport application), and so I decided it was a good day to make my own big announcement.

I hinted at it a few weeks ago when I said it was time to begin my life’s work.

So here it is:

I have decided to get serious about writing a free, online commentary on the entire Bible. 

This is something I have long dreamed about, ever since I was around ten years old. Looking back now, I believe that most of my education, training, and life experiences have been leading me to attempt this project.

Maybe no one else will ever want to read it, but I feel compelled to write it.

When I first started this “Till He Comes” website back in 2000, it was for the purpose of providing free, online Bible teaching to anyone who wanted to access it. Over the past several years, the site has become a place for me to write about my musings on theology and my criticisms of church.

But frankly, I am a little tired of some of that stuff and have pretty much run out of things to say.

So I have decided to return to the original purpose of this website, and focus my writing on the inexhaustible content found within the pages of Scripture. Will I still write about church and theology? Sure. As much as I am able. But the majority of my writing will focus on freely passing on to others what I have learned within the pages of God’s Word, and how to live God’s Word in our daily lives.

The slogan of my blog is “Bringing Scripture and Theology to Life” and that is what I intend to do. I not only want to help others see exhilarating truths of Scripture, but also show people the importance of Scripture for daily living.

Here is how I plan on proceeding.

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Finding Church Authors 25-27

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churchIn November, my book [scg_html_fc] will be published by Civitas Press. It contains the stories of 36 people and how they have followed Jesus in seeking to live and function within His church. The stories fall into three categories: Leaving Church, Switching Church, and Reforming Church.

Leading up to publication, I am writing several posts which give credit to the authors who made this book possible. Each post will include a short description of three authors and provide a preview summary of their chapters. Below are the descriptions and summaries of three authors in the “Reforming Church” category.

Finding Church Chapter 25 – Love Lost and Found

Kris Camealy is a homeschooling mother of four. She serves as an advocate for Compassion International, a MOPS coordinator, and encourager to many, while maintaining her personal blog, AlwaysAlleluia.com. Her writing has been featured at Incourage.me and she serves as a contributor to Five Minutes for Faith. In her spare time she reads, runs and plays with her camera. She is a contributing author to the upcoming project, Soul Bare: Reflections on Becoming Human due out in March 2013.

After she grew frustrated at the lack of volunteers and involvement in her church, Kris began to fantasize about attending a newer and more active church. But then she remembered Paul’s instruction that love is the key to functioning as the church, and she decided to start showing love to her church by serving and praying for the people in it. Before long, she found that she didn’t need a new church; she needed a new heart for her church home.

Finding Church Chapter 26 – The Church is Messy, But You Can’t Live Without Her

Daniel Darling is the Senior Pastor of Gages Lake Bible Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and is the author of several books, including his latest, Real: Owning Your Christian Faith. His work has been featured by a variety of evangelical publications such as “Relevant Magazine,” “Focus on the Family,” and “Christianity Today.” He regularly blogs at DanielDarling.com. He is a sought after-speaker and is often interviewed on television and radio. He and his wife, Angela, have four children.

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How to Win Souls… or Not

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This is a guest post by Sam Riviera. He spends most of his time and energy caring for others in his community so that through his life and actions they might see Jesus. He has also written “14 Reasons I Never Returned to the Institutional Church.“

If you would like to write a guest post for this blog, check out the guidelines here.

soul winning“Lord lay some soul upon my heart. And love that soul through me. And may I always do my part. To win that soul to thee.”

Some of us who grew up in church grew up singing that song. We were told it meant we were to be soul-winners. We should do everything possible to “win” people to the Lord.

How might that look? – For many of us that meant we should invite people to church so they could hear the Gospel preached and “get saved.” Once they’re saved, God and the church would take care of them and we would find someone else to invite to church.

Here are some other ways we are taught to engage in soul winning:

Lord, Lay Some Soul Upon My Heart

Feel a burden for someone I know who isn’t saved. Pray for them. Give them some Christian literature that talks about salvation, and something that would make them want to attend my church.

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Adventures in Fishing (for Men) is on Sale

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Fishing for Men CoverMy newest ebook, Adventures in Fishing (for Men) is now available for purchase at Amazon and Smashwords.

Of course, if you are a subscriber to the email newsletter, you received an email this past week with a coupon for a FREE copy.

I have about 15 more free ebooks in the works, so if you haven’t subscribed, do so today! I won’t spam you, and will never sell your email.

Here is a bit more about the book:

Adventures in Fishing (for Men) pokes fun at some of the popular evangelistic techniques and strategies endorsed and practiced by many Christians in today’s churches. The stories in this book show in humorous detail how little we understand the culture that surrounds us or how to properly reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The story also shows how much time, energy, and money goes into evangelism preparation and training with the end result being that churches rarely accomplish any actual evangelism.

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