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Is the church service for believers or unbelievers?

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Church ServiceOne question I have been mulling over recently is “Who is the church service for — believers or unbelievers?”

There are some who believe the church service is primarily for believers, while others believe the church service is primarily for unbelievers. This belief reveals itself in different ways depending on how it is answered.

The Church Service is for Believers

Those who say that the church service is for believers will often have church services that cater to the needs and desires of Christians. There will be an emphasis on programs and teaching that meet the needs of Christians. The sermons will often center on teaching Christians what they need to know to be better Christians. The songs will often use terms and ideas that Christians are familiar with. The programming will center around issues that Christians are dealing with.

In the churches I have pastored, this is the approach I used. But we always did a poor job of reaching unbelievers, as do most churches who follow this model.

Unbelievers who visit a church that is focused on “making disciples of Christians” will often be confused and weirded out by what goes on. They will ask questions like:

  • What’s with all the teaching from Romans?
  • What does “justification” mean?
  • You say Jesus is coming back? That sounds a bit like the legends that say King Arthur is returning.
  • Why do I want to learn “Christian business principles”?
  • If I want to become a Christian, do I really have to be “washed in the blood of the lamb” and become “the bride of Jesus”? Both ideas give me the willies.

The Church Service is for Unbelievers

Then there are church leaders who say that the church service is primarily for unbelievers. In these church, the leadership understands that much of what the church does and says is a little strange to unbelievers, so they try to look at things from the perspective of an unbeliever, and make the church more “seeker sensitive.”

They gear the church service not toward the Christian, but toward the non-Christian who knows next to nothing about the Bible or church traditions. This tends to attract lots of crowds, and even generates lots of new believers, which is great, but ends up allowing most of these new believers to remain in relative immaturity. Bill Hybels and Willow Creek have recently announced this fact for their own church. The “seeker sensitive” model, while it attracts large crowds, does a poor job of bringing those crowds to spiritual maturity.

Is there a balance or middle ground between the two? I think there is, which we look at in the next post: “Who is the Church Service For?.” 

Also, for more on this subject, check out my book, Put Service Back into the Church Service.

Wanted: Free Grace Church Planting – Part 2

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church plantingThe previous post talked about how there are lots of church planting networks, but many of them are opposed to Free Grace Theology.

The question could be asked why we even need new churches.

Why we Need New Churches

Many believe that there are already too many churches and it is better to revitalize and support existing churches rather than plant new ones.

Here are one way of explaining it (I pulled this from ThinkChristian.net):

1. There are 195 million non-churched people in America, making America one of the top four largest “unchurched” nations in the world.
2. In spite of the rise of mega-churches, no county in America has a greater church population than it did ten years ago.
3. During the last ten years, combined communicant membership of all Protestant denominations declined by 9.5 percent (4,498,242), while the national population increased by 11.4 percent (24,153,000).
4. Each year 3,500 to 4,000 churches close their doors forever; yet only as many as 1,500 new churches are started.
5. There are now nearly 60 percent fewer churches per 10,000 persons than in 1920.

  • In 1920 27 churches existed for every 10,000 Americans.
  • In 1950 17 churches existed for every 10,000 Americans.
  • In 1996 11 churches existed for every 10,000 Americans.

6. Today, of the approximately 350,000 churches in America, four out of five are either plateaued or declining.
7. American denomination recently found that 80% of its converts came to Christ in churches less than two years old.
8. Hence the claim of many leaders: “The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches” (Peter Wagner).

Just for fun, I found a quick map that gives a generalized picture of religious adherents in the US from 2000:

Religious Adherents

The map is from a page on Valparaiso University’s web site called American Ethnic Geography.

Population Growth is Outpacing Church Growth

There may be lots of churches today, but there are LOTS more people, and the number of churches per person is decreasing. Some might argue that this is because small churches are closing and the people are going to mega-churches, which is true. But it is becoming increasingly obvious that many mega-churches are not doing a better job than smaller churches of making disciples of the people who attend.

Most importantly, is that new church plants tend to be much more effective and efficient at reaching out to unbelievers. For this reason alone, we need to get involved in and excited about church planting.

Wanted: Free Grace Church Planting

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Free Grace Church PlantingI have a heart that beats for church planting…I’m just not sure I’m cut out to be a church planter! I mentioned it before, but I have become increasingly convinced that if Free Grace theology is going to move forward, we have to involved in church planting.

There are numerous organizations and networks which are planting hundreds of churches worldwide, and most of them are strongly Lordship/Calvinistic. We need one for Free Grace Theology! It’s not enough to just write and speak and debate. We need to get out there and share the gospel, make disciples, and plant churches.

Below are 10 of the top church planting organizations. Though for many of them I could not find a doctrinal statement, the ones that did have doctrinal statements leaned toward Calvinistic/Lordship theology.

1. Acts 29 – Calvinstic
2. New Thing Network – Lordship
3. Global Church Advancement – I can’t find a doctrinal statement
4. Leadership Network – I can’t find a doctrinal statement
5. Orchard Group – I can’t find a doctrinal statement
6. Stadia: New Church Strategies – I can’t find a doctrinal statement
7. Grace Church Planting Ministries – Lordship
8. house2house – I can’t find a doctrinal statement
9. Kairos – I can’t find a doctrinal statement
10. Association of Related Churches – I can’t find a doctrinal statement

If you are interested in church planting, or just doing things better at your church to reach out more effectively, many of these sites have excellent free tools and ideas. Make use of them.

Best Innovations 2007

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TIME’s Best Inventions 2007I always wanted to be an inventor. I even have a notebook at home full of “Million Dollar Ideas” (Which probably means that they would cost a million dollars to invent, and not make any money!). When I graduated from high school, my plan was to get a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and then invent stuff.

This plan got derailed when a good friend of mine died in a hiking accident, and I went off to Bible college instead to train for the pastorate.

However, my love for innovation never left me. I am always looking for new ways of doing old things. For this reason, my favorite issue of TIME magazine is always the “Best Inventions of 200?” issue that comes out this time of year. The 2007 edition has me dreaming on every page, and wouldn’t you know it, one of the “best of” inventions utilizes an idea I had about 20 years go. Oh well… I’m glad someone else saw it and is putting it to good use. (In case you’re curious, it is the invention that puts a little wind generator on the top of a car to create electricity off the forward motion of the car to reduce the amount of energy the car uses. This idea could be used on any sort of vehicle as long as the generator produces more electricity than it uses due to  wind resistance.)

The “Best Invention” of 2007 went to the iPhone, which I am not sure it deserves, but maybe that is because I don’t own a cell phone, much less an iPhone (or even an iPod). The invention I thought was the coolest is the car that runs on nothing but air, and the only emission is cooler air! WOW.  Read more about it at www.theaircar.com. There’s still the question about how it powers the compressor…but still, this is cool.

There were others that got me drooling as well. Since I want to write books, I drooled some over the Print on Demand technology which allows any author to print his/her book for only $3! Amazing.

You can read more about these and other inventions at the TIME Magazine website.

Reinventing Church Planting

As I read about these inventions, I often wonder if I “missed my calling” and I should have stuck with Mechanical Engineering. But it hit me earlier this week that I am an inventor, though I prefer to think of myself an innovator. I have several notebooks full of ideas on things churches could be doing to share Jesus more effectively with the world, to do a better job in making disciples, to help children grow up and “stick” with Christianity, to make the services more meaningful, to help people connect with God, to develop real and genuine friendships within the church, and on and on.

Some of these ideas I see being implemented in churches across the country. And as it turns out, most of these churches are new church plants. It seems that the innovators, the visionaries, the “inventors” in Christianity are most often church planters. Generally, established churches are quick to shoot down new ideas with many reasons why something cannot or should not be done. Church planters, however, go out and do them.

Once I graduate from seminary next spring, I am not sure where God will lead me. Maybe I will stay at my current job. Maybe I will take an established church here in the States, or around the world. Maybe I will go into church planting. Maybe I will do some crazy combination of all three! But whatever I end up doing, I hope and pray that God allows me to innovate. It is who He made me to be. It is who I am. Innovation for the Kingdom of God is what excites me.

Do you know of any churches that are creatively and effectively making disciples and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Share them with others below.

The church needs to be Grace Wholesalers

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Grace wholesalers

Vince Antonucci on Grace Wholesalers

This is an old post by Vince Antonucci, who is planting a church in Las Vegas. But though he wrote it several years ago, it is still valid:

I want to take some time to talk about one of the main things that keep Christians and churches from reaching out to lost people. (By the way, recently I suggested reading, “No Perfect People Allowed” by John Burke. Some of the ideas I’m going to express in these next few posts come from his book. He says them so well in there, I can’t really improve on them.)

So one of the seven core values at our church is: “Grace Wholesalers. We love people unconditionally and help them onto the road to healing and wholeness in Christ.” As you know, grace means to get the opposite of what you deserve. It’s unmerited love. A wholesaler (like B.J.’s , Sam’s Club or Costco) is someone who only gives in bulk. The idea is that at Forefront we give grace, love, hope, healing, acceptance, friendship in bulk. In huge quantities – you can’t just get a little.

Why is this one of our core values? Well, first of all, because God is a grace wholesaler. The Bible says that that’s how God treats us, with amazing grace. The reason we have Christ, the reason we’re saved, the reason we grow, the reason we live, the reason we’ll spend eternity in Heaven is because of God’s grace.

Second, Jesus came and exactly represented God the Father while He was on earth, and Jesus was a grace wholesaler. This is why when you read the gospels you find that the people who were drawn to Jesus were the worst of sinners. Why? Because they knew they needed grace. And He’s the one who gave it in bulk. We see Jesus condemn no one (except religious people who felt no need for grace). Jesus was the ultimate grace wholesaler. So why are we grace wholesalers? Because we have no choice! The church is called to be the body of Christ. As Jesus exactly represented God the Father, we are to exactly represent Jesus. And so Christians, Churches must be grace wholesalers.

In fact, this should be the distinctive of Christians and of Churches. I love how an author named Gordon MacDonald put it, “The world can do almost anything as well as or better than the church. You need not be a Christian to build houses, feed the hungry, or heal the sick. There is only one thing the world cannot do. It cannot offer grace.” Grace is what separates Christianity from the world. Grace is also what separates Christianity from other world religions. There are a lot of similarities amongst the world religions, but only Christianity offers grace. Only Christianity says you get the opposite of what you deserve from God. Only Christianity says God wants to offer you unmerited love.

Thanks, Vince!

Let us not be grace misers or withhold grace from people. If God give us an infinite supply of grace, why not spread this grace around as freely as possible?

If you want to learn more about God’s infinite love and grace for you, and how we can liberally share this grace with others, sign up to take my online course, “The Gospel According to Scripture.” You will come to see that there is no limit to the grace of God for you.

How Smart Are you?

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How Smart Are You?Did you hear that most of us are pretty dumb?

We’ve all seen it on Jay Leno when he asks basic political and current event questions to random people on the street and in the mall. We laugh at how ignorant they are.

Well, we’re all in the same boat.  This was recently reported:

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) has just released the second study of its kind. In a measure of how well students at American colleges and universities know basic U.S. civic facts, some of the worst performers turned out to be from University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Yale, Princeton, and Duke.

ISI distributed the tests to over 14,000 college freshman and seniors at 50 American colleges and universities. The 60 question, multiple choice exam covered American history, government, international relations, and market economy.

College freshman scored an average of 50.4% on the test. Seniors’ scores were scarcely better at an average of 54.2%. All American colleges and universities failed, and some of the best in the country came out at the very bottom.

For me, one of the most interesting things is that our elected political officials consistently received lowers scores than the average citizen.

So, how smart are you?

Take the test here and report back here on how you did (if you dare)! You can read more about this here: Civil Literacy Report.

Guatemala Adoption Update

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Note: This post is from 2007. We are no longer adopting, as Guatemalan adoptions were closed at then end of that year, and as of 2012, have still not reopened.

Below is a support letter I sent out to people on our mailing list.

Dear Friends and Family,

We are Adopting a Girl from Guatemala!We are writing to let you know of our latest joy—we are expecting our fourth little girl! No, Wendy is not pregnant. We are adopting from Guatemala. Due to the current process of adopting from Guatemala, we are hoping to bring Arianna home in mid to late 2008. Since we will get her when she is between six to nine months old, she will probably be born this spring, which means her biological mother has only recently discovered that she is pregnant.

You may be wondering why we are adopting from Guatemala at this time with all the upheaval going on in their government and since we already have three girls. The simple answer is that we are following God’s leading in our lives. Wendy and I have always wanted to adopt, and about three years ago, we started looking around for options. Through a series of circumstances (“tiny miracles”), it became clear that we should adopt from Guatemala. Factors such as the duration of the required trips, our annual income, the desperate needs of the children there, and our love for Guatemalan culture were factors in our decision.

The children of Guatemala are living in desperate despair and a nightmare of devastating poverty. Many are simply surviving off of other people’s trash, while some turn to crime. Girls especially are vulnerable to the sex trade and abusive situations. As in many countries in the world, girls are considered by family members to be less worthy of life and respect than are boys.

Many children live in the dumps of GuatemalaTo make matters worse, Guatemala’s economic and health care system leaves mothers with no option but to give up their babies. Many children are abandoned in the garbage dumps or jungles while others are simply left on the streets to die.

God has put it on our hearts to make a difference in the life of one of these Guatemalan children, and we are thrilled about this call. Our conviction is that adoption is one way we can live out our call as Christians to “look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Jesus said that he who “receives a little child in my name receives me” (Matthew 18:5). This doesn’t mean all are called to adopt a child into their homes. There are so many ways to respond to these callings of God. But at this time, we feel God is calling us to respond in this tangible way. We all know that children are a gift from God (Psalm 127:3), and we cannot wait to receive our fourth gift from the Lord.

We began the process about four months ago by looking for an adoption agency. All God’s Children International stood out above the rest because they have an orphanage in Guatemala that is not your typical orphanage. They care for each child as it were their own (see www.hannahshopeguatemala.org)

Two little girls when they were brought to an orphanage.
Two little girls when they were brought to an orphanage.
The same two girls a few months later.
The same two girls a few months later.

Once we had an agency, we began the paperwork and have now completed our dossier and home study. As hard as this process has been, we still feel the hardest thing has been to realize that we can only bring home one child…for now. But great joy was found in the fact that $5000 of the cost goes to help all the children in the orphanage.

Because of the long paperwork process, and the way things can quickly go haywire, we ask you to pray with us and for us during these next few months. With your prayers, we can all be involved in bringing Arianna home. This is one way you can make a difference in a child’s life that might otherwise have been left in the jungle to die.

Please pray with us.To help you pray for us, we have enclosed a prayer card to put on your fridge, in your Bible, or tape to your bathroom mirror so that you can remember us and join with us in this journey God has blessed us with. Once you’ve finished this letter and found the prayer card, we ask that you read and pray through the prayer card right away. We believe your prayers will be heard and honored by a loving God who is the strong defender of the fatherless and will take up their case (Proverbs 23:11).

As you have probably guessed, the process is not free. It will cost us somewhere in the vicinity of $35,000 to adopt from Guatemala. Yes, we cringed too. But then God allowed us to see it from His perspective. First, He owns everything, and makes what He owns available to us for our use when we do what He asks. Second, how can we put a price on the life of a child? Third, it is when we are weakest that God steps in to show His strength so that He might be glorified (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

Note: The rest of this post contained fundraising information, which I have removed.

This little girl lives in Hannah’s Hope Orphanage.
This little girl lives in Hannah’s Hope Orphanage.

Shotgun Hermeneutics is not a Proper Bible Study Method

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Hermeneutical PrinciplesThere is a tendency in many Christian circles to think that if a particular theological viewpoint can quote a lot of Scripture, it must be right.

For example, in a recent book defending The Five Points of Calvinism (by David Steele and Curtis Thomas), the authors seem to think that if they just quote Scripture, they have proved their point. For each of the five points, they provide a theological explanation for the point, and then “prove” it by citing numerous pages of Scriptural proof-texts, without ever attempting an explanation of any of those texts.

I recently listened to a debate from several years ago between Bob Wilkin and James White. James White used almost his entire opening statement to simply read Bible verses. The implication was that to prove Calvinism, all you have to do is read the Bible, and anybody is not a Calvinist, hasn’t read Scripture.

Shotgun Hermeneutics

I call this shotgun hermeneutics. Those who use this tactic try to “blow you away” by the sheer number of verses they can quote which they feel proves their point.

When you try to explain one or two of them to show that you are aware of these passages but have a different understanding, they will focus on all the other passages they quoted which you did not explain.

Shotgun Hermeneutics

A Sample Conversation

In my discussions, the dialogue generally goes like this:

Calvinist: My view is right because of Passages A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J. If you would simply read and believe the Bible, you would agree with what God said.

Me: I have read and studied the Bible, and am aware of all of those passages you just quoted. I simply understand them in a different way. Let’s take the first one as an example. (I then proceed to explain Passage A.)

Calvinist: Well, that’s certainly a creative way to understand Passage A. But we know your interpretation is wrong, because of Passage B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J.

Me: I wasn’t trying to explain those passages, but again, I am aware of them, and all of them can be understood in a similar way as Passage A.

Calvinist: No, they can’t, because no one I’ve ever read has ever understood them that way. Here is what Piper, MacArthur, Sproul, and Calvin had to say about those passages. (They then proceed to quote their favorite authors.)

Me: But those are all Calvinistic authors. Of course they will agree with your interpretation.

Calvinist: Are you smarter or more godly than they are?

Me: No, of course not, but I do think…

Calvinist: Then since they all agree on what those passages mean, and there are so many passages that teach Calvinism, Calvinism is the truth. After all, what about Passages K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, and T?

Me: Yep. Those are all in the Bible.

Calvinist: Hah! I knew you would be silenced by the logic of my system and the irrefutable evidence of my many Scriptural proofs. To God be the glory!

Me: Well, I’m not really silenced, nor am I convinced …

Calvinist: That’s because you’re a depraved heretic.

Me: Oookaay … I gotta go. See ya later.

Calvinist: I’ll be praying for your soul that you would repent from your darkness and be brought into the light!

Theology Discussions

If you have ever tried to discuss theology with someone who holds strongly to a particular system of theology, you know that this is how many of these discussions go.

Recently, I have noticed this shotgun hermeneutics tactic being used by some who disagree with me on various other issues.

In their own blogs and in their comments on this blog, they seem to imply that I have not read the Bible, and that if I did, I would see the truth of their position. They argue that when they quote Scripture at me, I am silenced by the weight of Biblical evidence.

Yet when I attempt explanations of one or two passages they quoted, they say that my interpretation cannot be correct because of so many other Biblical passages which say something different, and furthermore, nobody they have ever read holds to my interpretation.

Then I get called a heretic.

A Proposal for Theological Debate

Shotgun hermeneutics and name calling is no way to proceed in theological discussion.

Shotgun hermeneutics isn’t even a proper method of hermeneutics. It’s actually a form of proof texting where dozens of passages are ripped out of context in order to prove a theological point.

So in order to really get somewhere in theological debate, the two sides must agree to discuss one passage at a time, and stick to it, camp upon it, walk around it, and work through it. Hopefully, you can both arrive at two or three possible interpretations of that one passage.

Only then can the two sides go to a second passage.

The same thing is done with passages A-Z.

Only when this entire process is complete can the two sides go back and reconsider all the evidence, in which any contradicting interpretations are discarded, and hopefully, only one possible interpretation remains.

Though this usually doesn’t happen, at least then you will understand each other rather than thinking the other side has never actually read the Bible.
Hermeneutics

My Exodus from Calvinism

The systematic verse-by-verse approach is what I used about 15 years ago to leave Calvinism.

In the early 1990’s, I was a five-point, hyper-Calvinist, Lordship Salvationist. Then, a good friend challenged my thinking on James 2:14-26. I camped on that passage for a few months. I saw that my friend’s interpretation was one possible understanding. However, I wanted to reject that view because “there are so many other passages that contradicted this understanding of James 2:14-26.”

In our conversations, my friend told me this: “Yes, it might be that my understanding of James 2:14-26 is wrong. That’s one option. Or maybe you are wrong in your understanding not just of James 2:14-26, but also in your understanding of all those others passages as well. How are you going to figure out which view makes the most sense? There is only one way: You need to study each passage individually.”

So that’s what I did. It took me about ten years, at the end of which time, every single point of Calvinism had fallen for me.

However, I still read books and articles by Calvinists and those who disagree with my views. Why? Because if I am wrong in my understanding of a particular passage, I want to know. I hope you do too.

So don’t practice shotgun hermeneutics. Such a practice is not beneficial since all it does is take aim at other people’s heads in an effort to blow them away.

And by the way, if you want to see some of the fruits of my labor from that 10-year study of various Bible passages, I am laying it all out for you in several of my online courses. The first course is done. It is titled “The Gospel According to Scripture.” I’m teaching and recording the second course right now. It is titled “The Gospel Dictionary.” A third course will come later, titled “Tough Texts on the Gospel.”

To take these courses, you need to be part of the RedeemingGod.com discipleship group. Go here to learn more and join us today.

Guatemala Adoption Update

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Guatemala Adoption UpdateI want to thank all of you who helped out with the adoption process in Guatemala and made calls to your State Senators and Representative.

Guatemala 5000 Initiative

As of Monday, 70 members of the House of Representatives, and 28 members of the Senate had signed the Guatemala 5000 Initiative, asking Guatemala to allow in process adoptions to continue. This is wonderful!

Also, in response to all the calls and e-mails sent to government officials in Guatemala, President Berger announced his intention to allow all adoptions that are “in process” by December 31 to continue through to completion. While we are currently not sure what “in process” means, at least all the 4000+ Guatemalan children who have already been referred will be able to be adopted rather than be abandoned.

At this point, Wendy and I are going to continue forward with adopting from Guatemala, but will probably not have a referral by December 31 (unless there is a miracle, which we are praying for!). So we will probably have to adopt under the new procedures which will be enforced sometime in early 2008. We don’t yet know what these will be.

Hannah’s Hope Guatemala

The exciting news is that Hannah’s Hope Guatemala, which is the orphanage of All God’s Children International (our Adoption Agency), is currently going through the process of becoming accredited by the social service division of Guatemala. This is a new regulation for all homes that wish to be involved in the adoption process once the new law is final. The staff in Guatemala is doing everything necessary to be compliant with Hague and the new adoption law. If and when we begin to see changes with the adoption laws, they will be ready.

Update: Guatemala Adoptions officially closed, and as of October 2011, have still not reopened. Wendy and I stopped our adoption process, but we still pray for our little girl in Guatemala. 

The Definition of Busy

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2011 Update: I think one of the dumbest posts a blogger can make is a post about how we are too busy to write a post…  But it’s a mistake almost all of us make. Here is mine from 2007:

How to define BusyHow do you define “busy”?

Here’s mine: You know you are busy when you catch yourself making a list for all the things you need to make lists for:

  • Make a list of things I need to do for the adoption process.
  • Make a list of things I need to do for my Thesis.
  • Make a list of homework projects that are coming due soon.
  • Make a list of high priority projects at work.
  • Make a list of things I need to do around the house and to the car to keep everything working.
  • Make a list of edits and changes that need to be done to the website.
  • Make a list of things to do to keep from going crazy.

How about you? How do you know when you’ve taken on too much?

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