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GRACE

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I can never get enough grace, both in life and in my reading. Some of the best books I have ever read are on the subject of grace, and a recent book by Andy Stanley is no exception. The book is The Grace of God, and should find it’s way to the top of your reading list.

Stanley, like his father, is a great teacher and outstanding thinker. His book covers the topic of grace in a unique and refreshing way. While most books deal with grace from a topical/theological perspective, Andy’s approach was almost storylike. Chapter 1 begins in Genesis 1-3, showing how from the very beginning, God has based everything on grace. From there, Andy goes through other key passages and texts in Scripture, proving that grace is the foundation of everything God does and says. His two chapters on the Ten Commandments reveal that the law of God is not opposed to the grace of God. His insights and explanations on this topic are the best I’ve read.

I really appreciated Andy’s frequent allusion to the fact that the grace of God is free to all, and that eternal life is given to anyone and everyone who simply believes in Jesus for it (cf. p. 191). I say “allusion” because he is not as clear on this as I would have liked. He gently criticizes the view that works help keep or prove one’s salvation (p. 52), but doesn’t elaborate, and so the point is easy to miss. In various places he writes about the importance of praying a prayer to receive eternal life (pp. 90, 163). He is careful in how he introduces these prayers (he says they are only to verbalize or express your acceptance of God’s invitation), but due to the long tradition of requiring a “sinner’s prayer” to receive eternal life, it may have been best to leave them out.

Finally, he writes that we receive God’s gift of eternal life by placing  faith in Christ’s death as the full and final payment for sin (p. 163). It’s hard to criticize this, since it’s better than 95% of the statements out there. I would have preferred something closer to the actual statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John where it is simply stated that anyone who believes in Jesus receives eternal life. But that’s just me. I commend Andy for sticking faithfully to a works-free offer of eternal life.

One final note. I really appreciated the final chapter where Andy pleads with churches to become agents of grace. He started and founded his church in Atlanta as a church for the unchurched, and the key to this, he says, is unlimited, unmerited grace. This is a great chapter for all the pastors and church leaders and Christians out there who like to talk and write and teach a lot about grace, but don’t really show grace in their lives, ministries, and churches.

Of course, even here, I differ with Andy on some points. He is, after all, a leading proponent of mega-church ministry. He says we must begin by asking, “What church is best suited for my unbelieving,  unchurched friend?” I personally think this is the wrong question. It assumes that “church” is the answer, when in fact it is “Jesus.” It also assumes that the target is unchurched unbelievers. But what about churched unbelievers and unchurched believers?  A better question, I believe, and that I have been asking myself for the past three years is, “What way of living is best suited for my friends and neighbors to see Jesus in their life?” This question does not assume that the answer will take place inside four brick walls on a Sunday morning from 10 am to Noon, and only when I can get my “unchurched” friends to come.

Be that as it is, the book is great. I highly recommend it, and I hope my review wasn’t too ungracious!

Fishing Lessons

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About fourteen years ago, I started playing bass guitar. I was even in a band called “The Driven.” I played off and on for about seven years, but never put a lot of time into it, and so I wasn’t very good. Then due to moves and seminary, I put the bass away, and I haven’t played for about seven years now.

Recently, as I listen to music in my car, I imagine myself playing bass again. I pick out the bass line on the song, and “play along” in my mind. And guess what? I’m pretty good! I think I’m better now than I ever was when I was actually playing bass. At least, that’s what I told myself.

So yesterday, I pulled out the bass and tried to pluck out a tune. Well, guess what? I’m not so good after all. The bass line I hear in my head has trouble translating into actual music through my fingers.

I find that this is a way a lot of us Christians are with evangelism. In our heads, we think we’re great evangelists. We imagine witnessing to that famous movie star and even President Obama if we got the chance. We dream about all the people we could serve and the crowds we could feed. In our heads, we’re all Billy Graham.

Of course, in reality, just like my bass playing, the situation is much different.

So maybe you want to do more than just dream. Maybe you really want to step out and do something. If so, let me provide some suggestions. First, you don’t need another sermon or Bible study. Don’t go out and buy another book on evangelism. Skip the mission’s training conference this year.

Instead, tell Jesus you want to learn how to be a fisher of men. Then, go do what fledgling fishermen do: drop your hook in the water somewhere. It’s the only way to learn.

When Jesus invited disciples to follow Him and become fishers of men, He did not begin by sitting them down and giving a class on how to present the proper Gospel message. He just took them out, and starting living life, letting His love and concern for others overflow through His words and actions. They watched Him touch a leper (Luke 5:12-15), raise a paralytic (5:16-26), and attend a party with traitorous tax-collectors (5:27-32).

You can do that, right? Do you know anybody who is rotting and rejected by society? I bet they could use a friend. Know anyone paralyzed by sin or sickness? You could lend a hand. Is there an office party where people will dance, get drunk, and “hook up”? Maybe you should attend.

Stop dreaming about fishing. Get out there and fish. Remember, while bad fisherman may catch few fish, one who only dreams will never catch any. As for me, I’m gonna go play bass now with some tattoo-covered guys who have long hair and bad language.

This post is based on the Grace Commentary for Luke 5:1-11.

Living in the Kingdom

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Close Your Church for Good. Chap. 3, Part 4. We’re in a chapter called “The Church Must Die.” In it, I have written so far about how most churches tried to spread their message through Public Relations Campaigns which include flyers and advertising. Now we begin to look at a different way to spread the message of the Gospel.

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The message of the Gospel must guide the methods that are used to spread the Gospel. If we haven’t got our message clear, the methods we adopt will always lead us astray. And what is the message? It’s not about politics or power. It’s not about the economy or ecology. It is not about fame and glory. It is not even about how sinful the world is or how a person can get eternal life and go to heaven when they die.

The message of the church is the same as the message of Jesus: that God wants to be involved in their life. This is what Jesus was announcing when He talked so often about the Kingdom of God. He was telling the people that God wanted to set up His rule and reign right in their midst. That God wanted to dwell with them, and among them, to guide, provide, and protect them. This was the message of Jesus.

And the method of Jesus to spread this message is revealing. Though Jesus did teach about it, that method was at best, secondary to His primary method of actually showing through his actions what a life lived under the rule of God looks like. What was the message of Jesus? That the Kingdom of God has come. What was the method Jesus used to spread this message? He lived out the Kingdom of God in His own life.

All this may still be too academic. Let’s bring it down to earth even further. If one wants to characterize God, they could do no better than the way God described Himself to Moses: “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth” (Exod 34:6). This is what God says about Himself and who He is. It would follow then, that if a person is under the reign of God, that is, a part of the Kingdom of God, then their life will resemble these very same characteristics of mercy, grace, patience, goodness, and truth.

And how else could we describe Jesus? He was the embodiment of such traits, which is not surprising, since He was, in fact, God in the flesh. Theologians, with their fascination for big words, call this the “incarnation,” meaning “to be in the flesh.” It may not be the best way of describing Jesus, since Scripturally, the “flesh” if often identified with the “sinful side” of humanity, and Jesus had no sin. Nevertheless, the idea is sound, that God, who is rich in mercy and love, became human in Jesus Christ.

Why? Again, not just to preach or give us doctrine. He could have sent an angel to do that, or dropped a book out of heaven with the thunder booming in the clouds, “Read this book!” But He didn’t. He wanted to tangibly reveal to us what He is like by living among us, touching our pain, healing our heartache, being present in our loneliness, and delivering us from our chains.

Ultimately, of course, He died. This too, was a central part of the Kingdom message. Yet even here, we misunderstand what God was doing in Jesus. We tend to think that His death was only to provide forgiveness as the once-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the world. That certainly is part of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, and cannot be undermined. But it is by no means all that Jesus accomplished. His death on the cross is once again, a way of revealing the message of the Kingdom. And what is the message of Jesus on the cross? That the Kingdom of God is not about power and prominence, greatness and glory. It is about humility, suffering, pain, rejection, and ultimately, death.

Jesus came to show mankind what it looks like to live life under the rule of God. And in so doing, as the pinnacle of this expression, Jesus died. The suffering and rejection of Jesus on the cross is not a catastrophe, but a gateway to the ultimate manifestation of the Kingdom of God on earth. One of the core features of the Kingdom of God is the concept of self-sacrifice in the service of others. This is what Jesus embodied in the Incarnation.

Are Big Lights Best?

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I read and review a lot of books, and under one of my reviews at Amazon.com, someone criticized my view of mega-churches, and basically told me that “big lights shine brightest.”

I suppose that’s true. After all, look at the sun. Actually, DON’T look at the sun. You’ll go blind.

But his argument was this:

I would say the light that shines farthest is the light that shines brightest at home. If you want to EXPAND the church’s outreach, the bigger you start with, the larger your impact radius can be.

There are so many problems with this way of thinking, it’s hard to know where to begin.

First, let’s agree with his point. Big lights do shine brightest. But does that mean they’re best? It all depends on proximity and purpose. A focused laser can do more damage in less time than the giant sun. Of course, being a few inches from a surgical laser might not kill you, but being that close to the sun sure will. In fact, you’ll never get within a few inches of the sun. You’ll fry long before you get that close. But if you get too far away from the sun, it becomes nothing more than a beautiful pinprick of light in the night sky. We call them stars. Stars are good for romantic nights and navigation, but not for too much else.   

And let’s talk about usefulness also. I’ve already talked about lasers. But let’s get less technological. Imagine a man freezing to death in the Antarctic. Are you going to tell him, “Thank God the sun is shining 23 hours a day!” Of course not. It’s a huge ball of flame, for sure, but so what? It’s not helping. What he needs is a nice little fire up close. Does he need it for the light? No. He needs it for the heat. He would trade all the light of the sun right then for a pile of wood and a tiny match.

Is there a place for big lights? Yes. I really do thank God for the sun and for mega-churches. But are big lights the only ones we need? No. Should all small lights want to be big lights? No. Are big lights best? No.

The issue is not how big the light is, but what the light is doing. And what does God say our light should do? Isaiah 58 is one suggestion: 

Loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, set the oppressed free and break every yoke. …Share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter– when you see the naked, clothe him.

In other words, be a small little match to a freezing man. Big lights may be bright, but that doesn’t mean they’re best.

Breaking the Rurals

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Do you pastor a church in Rural America? One book you could read is Transforming Church in Rural America by Shannon O’Dell. I have always had a passion and a heart for rural churches and have previously pastored two rural churches. So when I received O’Dell’s book from Booksneeze to review, my first thought was, “Finally! A book for the rest of us!” It seems most books on church health focus on the big and popular churches, forgetting that about 90% of American churches have 100 people or less. Rural pastors and rural churches have to define “success” in a different way that metropolis mega-churches. I was hoping that O’Dell’s book would be a step in that direction.

And was it? Well…kind of. He still emphasized the importance of numerical growth. It didn’t take him long to point out that even rural churches can go from 50 people to over 2000 if they just follow a few simple steps like he did (pp. 17-18). Sigh. 

For the most part, Transforming Church in Rural America is just another book touting the mega-church mentality, but repackaged for a rural setting.  It was kind of confusing, however, because later in the book he stated that smaller churches tend to be healthier churches, and God loves to work in obscurity (p. 168). But two pages later, he goes back to talking about numbers, and a bit later, how his church reached over 24,000 people in 110 days. So…is smaller actually better or not?

Having said that, it’s still a good book to help rural pastors overcome some of the unique challenges they may face, such as bringing about change, the importance of family, and hiring staff from the inside.

The best part of the book is pages 80-84, where I believe he touches on the dire need of all churches worldwide, not just in the sticks, but also in cities. He says this:

Flat out, I want as many homosexuals, drug addicts, divorcees, and alcoholics as possible darkening the doors of Brand New Church, because those people want and need change. I want to associate with everything that is disassociated with the church in rural America, because I know that is when God shows up. I want to see the pregnant 17-year-old who was kicked out of her Christian school attend worship. I want the guys whose pickups rattle with the sound of empty beer cans to come one Sunday and decide to stay. I want the woman who has been going from bed to bed trying to find true love to attend and learn about the authentic love God has for her. Because when they show up, God shows up to impact their lives.

So true. Of course, even here, the numbers game has reared it’s ugly head. I would argue that it is not about getting people like this to show up at our church, but rather, getting the members of our church to show up in the lives of people like this. Who cares if they ever “come to church”? What I want is the church to go to them. O’Dell kind of says something along these lines on p. 84:

…Please understand: it is really not about the ten families that have been there forever. It is about the families that will never experience a relevant gospel and never meet the living God unless someone with vision shows up and starts preaching the gospel with their words and their life. Yeah, most rural churches say they want to grow, and they think they want to grow, but they really don’t. They don’t want a real pastor — a true and dedicated shepherd to lead them into new fields of harvest — they want somebody to pacify them, tell them what they already know, and keep things the way they are.

So over all, even though Shannon O’Dell has simply tweaked the mega-church mentality for a rural setting, the book contains many good things that will be helpful for any pastor in a rural church. I recommend this book.

Lawn Trash

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Close Your Church for Good. Chapt. 3, Sec. 3. Some churches try public relations campaigns to improve their visibility in the community and attract people to church. Below is an example from one church I pastored, and the results we saw.

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In my first year as a pastor, our church was struggling to raise attendance, and decided part of our problem was that the community was not aware of our presence. To correct this, we went with a smorgasbord approach. Members went out and knocked on doors to invite people to church. We sent out mass mailings. We hung flyers on people’s doorknobs and left CDs of church music and sermons on their windshield wipers. At one point, we even dropped a packet of tracts and pamphlets on their lawn.

About a month into our community awareness campaign, I received a letter from a man who, as a result of our efforts, had now become aware of our church.  Though I no longer have the letter, here (with some of the language removed) is essentially what he wrote

Stop bothering me! Your people knock on my door when I’m trying to enjoy time with my family and they just want to talk about God and your Bible. After I tell them to leave, I find they’ve left trash about Jesus and attending your church on my doorstep. A week later, there’s more trash on my lawn. When I get the mail, I find junk mail from your church. At the park last week, you left crap on my windshield.

Aside from all the litter you’ve left lying around, and the trees you’ve destroyed getting all this printed, and the  money and time you’ve wasted distributing it, I feel like I’m being stalked. If this doesn’t stop, I’m reporting you and your church to the police. Leave me alone!

I remember feeling quite indignant about this letter. I thought, “If he doesn’t want the stuff, why doesn’t he just throw it out? Why take the time to write such a nasty letter? Does he write a letter like this to local businesses when they send him junk mail or telemarketers interrupt his dinner? I doubt it!” I took the letter to the church board and showed it to them. We all decided that one letter does not reflect the views of the entire community, and we should disregard it. That is what we did, and continued with our campaign. We never did hear from the police.

Looking back, however, I think the man was right. Though it’s true we were raising our “brand recognition” in the community, and our campaign was generating awareness, we were getting noticed for all the wrong reasons. In our attempt to reach the world, we had adopted methods of the world which contradicted our message.

101010

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In the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” a computer answers the ultimate question about life, the universe, and everything. When the computer finally spits out the answer, it is “42.” Of course, it took so long for the computer to answer the question that the people had long since forgotten what the question was. But at least they knew the answer: 42.

Well, guess what? Today is 42.

Yes, that’s right. Today is 10-10-10, which in binary is 101010, or 42.

So I guess today is the day. Make it count!

Public Relations

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It’s been a while since I made a post on the progress of my book, Close Your Church for Good. This is because several of the chapters I had written got pulled out for a future book, and others got rearranged. I guess this is why books don’t get written online like this…

So below is a section near the beginning of “Chapter 3.” The beginning of the chapter shows how most churches in most communities would not be missed if they were to close. I already made two posts (Part 1 and Part 2) on this back in July. We pick up there. 

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Many believe the primary problem is that of image and perception. We believe we are misunderstood. We know our hearts and our motives, and how we want to help people learn and live the truth of the Gospel, but for some reason, the average person on the street has a somewhat negative perception of the church. They read about church corruption and pastoral sex scandals in the newspapers, and they don’t trust us. Some have tried attending a church, but got burned. They are tired of being asked for money. As a result, the average person thinks the church is greedy, hypocritical, unforgiving, judgmental, harsh, and selfish.

Of course, the average churchgoer believes just the opposite. People who attend church believe their fellowship is warm, friendly, gracious, generous, and compassionate. The fact that non-churchgoers think differently shocks us. We are certain that people who distrust church would like it if they just visited ours. Maybe they had a bad experience in another church, or as a kid when they were growing up, but things are different now. Our church is not like those other churches.

But how can we get them to visit if they don’t trust churches in general? People won’t come to church when we invite them unless they first begin to change their perceptions about the church. How can this be done if we can’t them to attend?

Typically, a church faced with this dilemma embarks on a public relations campaign borrowed straight from the pages of Corporate America’s User Manual. When Toyota recalls millions of cars for sticky gas pedals, they simultaneously air commercials on television about all the safety awards they have won. When a BP oil rig spews oil in the Gulf, Florida rolls out advertisements about how their beaches are still safe and clean. When the antenna on the new iPhone doesn’t work properly, Apple sends all users a coupon for a free case.

So churches do the same thing. To counteract our negative image in the public arena, we develop slogans like “First Community Church: The Perfect Church for People Who Aren’t” or “Grace Church: A Hospital for the Hurting.” Then, once the image and slogan are developed, the campaign really begins in earnest. People are invited to come as they are, and reminded that we’re all sinners on the road to change. Signs and banners are displayed around the church so the members understand (and hopefully live) what is taught. Sermon series are preached on the themes of forgiveness and love. Air time is purchased on television and radio to run commercials about how great and loving our church is.

Then we sit back and wait for the people to arrive so we can really begin to show them how loving we are.

The problem, however, is that the public relations campaign doesn’t always work. If anything, the perspective of outsiders only gets worse. At least, that’s what happened in my church.

Church, Parenthood, and Baseball

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My wife and I love watching the NBC show Parenthood. We are, after all, parents. It’s a great show about life, love, and the struggles and challenges of parenting. We watch it through NBC.com, rather than on TV (less commercials that way).

Tonight we watched Episode 3 from Season 2. If you scroll through to about 29:30, there is a great little dialogue between Crosby, one of the fathers, and Renee, his mother-in-law. She thinks he should take his son, Jabar, to church on Sunday, and he wants to take Jabar to a baseball game. Here is the exchange:

Renee: You’ll forgive me if I don’t applaud when you want to take Jabar to a baseball game.

Crosby: Well now, hold on. You love your church and your church rocks, and I’m glad I got to go. But my family, we went to the baseball game every Sunday, and we sat together on the bleachers, and we cheered together, and my dad narrated the whole thing, and it was special. It was our ritual.

Renee: So baseball is your church? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?

Crosby: …Yeah.

Renee: That’s ridiculous.

Crosby: Hold on. That’s not ridiculous. I want my son Jabar to have the same experience with all the other people and the camaraderie. So I disagree.

As I heard this, I was reminded of something I read recently by Jacques Ellul in his book, The Presence of the Kingdom. He said, “In a civilization which has lost the meaning of life, the most useful thing a Christian can do is to live” (p. 77).

Crosby and Ellul are saying the same thing. In a culture like ours, as important as it might be for some people to enter a building where they sing songs and listen to a sermon, it is just as important to others to go to a baseball game and cheer on the home team…especially if it brings family together and strengthens bonds of love and care. Churches often talk about bringing families together, but if we’re honest, the simple act of “attending church” rips a lot of families apart. And along the same lines, if worship of God is to pervade everything in life, can’t attending a baseball game with your family and friends also be true worship?

I’m convinced Ellul is correct. One of the best things Christians can do in our time is just to live life. With each other. With family. With friends. With Jesus. That is the greatest witness we can have and the greatest worship we can give.

If you want to watch the video, here it is:

Burned by Jesus

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Following Jesus is never easy. Sometimes, it appears downright foolish and counterproductive. Peter experienced this firsthand. He had just worked all night, and caught nothing. As a married man, who may have had children, Peter worked all night and had nothing to show for it. He had just spent all morning cleaning his nets so he could go out again tonight in hopes of having something to bring home to feed his family.

And now, Jesus tells him to waste more time and energy by throwing his nets back into the water, in the middle of the day! Experience and wisdom told Peter to ignore Jesus, but friendship and faith told him to obey.

Thankfully, Peter obeyed, and he got a large catch of fish that day. For all we know, it was the greatest number of fish ever caught on the Sea of Galilee in one day, and Peter did it in one cast of the net—all because he followed Jesus into foolishness.

I am not saying that Christians should live foolish lives. The Book of Proverbs is very clear that we are to lives of wisdom and care, full of planning and preparation for the future. But sometimes God leads us into messy, scary, dangerous, wasteful, and foolish places. Sometimes in following Jesus, it seems like we are walking backwards.

And sometimes when we try to follow Jesus, it seems like we hit a brick wall. This has happened frequently to my wife and I the last few years, with my new job, our adoption process, our attempts at church planting, and a host of other areas. I sometimes wish there were accounts in Scripture where people followed God’s instructions, stepped out “in faith” and then nothing happened. I would like to see how they responded.

What if Peter had cast in his net, and come up with nothing? Then he would have had to go back to shore and clean his nets all over again. And he would have missed time with his family and been too tired to fish the night. He certainly would have wondered why Jesus caused all that pointless work. Do you think he would have left his boats and nets to followed Jesus?

Now that I think about it, there is at least one story in Scripture where this happens. Remember Jonah? God says, “Go to Nineveh and tell them I’m going to destroy them.” So Jonah does…and God’s doesn’t. How does Jonah respond? He gets angry. And at the end of the book, God basically tells Jonah that He didn’t follow through because He is trying to teach Jonah something, namely, that God loves people…even the ones we hate.

So when you and I get “burned by Jesus,” when we try to follow Him in faith and it seems He drops the ball,  hopefully we have eyes to see what it was He was trying to teach us about our view of Him and our love toward others.

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This post is based on the Grace Commentary for Luke 5:1-11.

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