Liberating you from bad ideas about God
Join me in congratulating Jon Birch on his 1000th ASBO Cartoon.
If you don’t read ASBO Jesus, you should start. With great wit and deep irony, Jon Birch draws cartoons about the church, Jesus, theology, and mission. I generally find myself both amused and challenged by what he draws.
Below is his 1000th comic. It is about Rob Bell. I think all of us have experienced this at times. I know I have. People who love you one day, hate you the next.
We have a new contributor at Grace Ground.com, Kelly Tague, who writes under “Mission Muncie.” He has already posted two fantastic articles. Head on over there to welcome him to the team.
Here is his bio and contact information:
I am a follower of Jesus for around 15 years, in that time I’ve moved up state and across country. I love Jesus and I want others to know of His grace and love that abounds. I am married to a beautiful and patient woman and have two great kids. I currently reside in Muncie, Indiana, with the calling to start an Organic/Simple Church in this area.
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With a nod to Tertullian, I ask, “What indeed hath buildings to do with church?”
The answer is: Nothing. The church has nothing to do with buildings. Though buildings may be used by the church, they are not required to be the church. Buildings may help the church accomplish its mission, but at the same time, the church must admit that buildings may hinder the mission as well.
One thing the church must not do, however, is treat buildings like holy sacred places where the true, spiritual stuff happens and everywhere else is secular and unspiritual. Nothing could be further from the truth.
We hear a lot of talk about how denominations are bad, church splits are bad, and all the various congregations in a city are bad. Some look at this and say the church is broken. But I’m not so sure.
A few posts ago, I floated out the idea that the primary way the church is gathered together is in Christ. Yes, some of us gather together physically from time to time, sometimes weekly, to encourage and edify one another, and while this physical gathering is one way of manifesting the church, or being the church, the physical gathering itself is not “church.” (I’m not fully sure I believe this myself, which is why I desire your feedback on the idea.)
If this is true, then the passage in 1 Corinthians 12 about spiritual gifts and the unity of the Body makes me feel a lot better. I have often heard it taught that one reason we need “larger” churches is so that every gift can be present and active. If you are only meeting with a group of ten people, there is a good chance that you are missing several spiritual gifts in the mix, some of which are quite vital for the healthy functioning of the body. I mean, how can a group of ten people function well as the church if they are missing the gift of teaching, or encouragement, or administration? To use Paul’s analogy, it would be like trying to live life without an eye, a hand, or a foot. It’s possible, but not easy.
Have you ever wondered what it means when Proverbs 25:22 says to heap burning coals on the head of your enemy? Many pastors and teachers say that it means being nice to our enemies so they have a harsher experience in hell. I don’t know about you, but to me, this doesn’t sound so loving.
In the book, The Practice of Love, I tell the story of my own journey in applying this passage to life. At one point, I gave a Gospel tract to an enemy of mine and said, “Read this, or can go to hell.” That’s fairly loving, right?
Wrong. That is not what the passage teaches us to do.
So what does the passage mean? You’ll have to get the book to find out.
The entire book isn’t on this passage, of course. There are over twenty contributors to the book, and I was thrilled to have my story selected as one of the contributions. I haven’t read the chapters by the other authors, and am excited to get a copy and read what they have to say about the Practice of Love in today’s society and culture.
The book comes out May 1, so make sure to pre-order your copy today!
A quote I read late last year has been bouncing around in my head for a while, so I’m going to let it bounce out of my fingertips, through the keyboard, and onto this blog to see what you all think. ‘
It comes from K.L. Schmidt, in volume III of the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. He writes this:
…In Paul, in his disciples, and then in the Fourth Evangelist, ecclesiology is simply Christology and vice versa” (p. 512).
What do you think? Is he right? When we talk about the church, is it the same (or similar) to talking about the Christ, and vice versa? He seems to be saying that “Church=Christ.” Is this right? If so, what are the ramifications for how we should live as “the church”?
There is a new series of theology books out called “Biblical Theology for Life.” Since it sounds somewhat like the theology project I am working on, I was excited to read the volume on Discipleship by Jonathan Lunde. It is called Following Jesus, the Servant King.
After the Introduction where questions are raised about the theological topic, the book has two main sections: the answers to the questions, and the practical reflections for living out the answers. In the book, Jonathan Lunde asked why we should care about following Jesus, what it looks like, and how to do it. He paired the task of discipleship with the biblical covenants, which I thought was an interesting twist. I am not sure I have ever connected discipleship with the biblical covenants in this way.
One of the best places out there to learn about publishing an ebook is Smashwords.com. Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, recently wrote an article giving the seven secrets to eBook success. Here they five of them, which I found on the blog of Tony Eldredge: Marketing Tips.
Want more tips and suggestions on publishing an ebook? Check out this guide to writing and publishing your ebook.
Can a Christian be the church by himself?
Previously, we looked at Matthew 18:19-20, which we discovered cannot be used to define church as a minimum gathering of 2 or 3 people. So what is church? It is defined not as the physical gathering of people in a particular location, but as the spiritual gathering by God of all believers into Jesus Christ (See the discussion here).
So, it seems possible for a person to be the church all by himself.
However, I do not think a person can be the church all by himself when he is alone.
Confused?
One key to reading Scripture is to see yourself on its pages. Identify with the people, place yourself in their shoes, and ask, “What would I do in this situation? How would I feel?”
But don’t just do this with the “good” people, like Jesus, Paul, and Moses. Put yourself into the shoes of the “bad” people also. In other words, don’t see yourself as Jesus, going to help all the sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors. Instead, see yourself as the sinner, the prostitute, and the tax collector.
Let me give you some examples from my own reading.
