Sunday: Restoring God’s Priorities

Through the years, Christians have understood Sunday in various ways.  In years past, even during my childhood, Sunday was a day of rest, and the majority of businesses were closed. In many parts of the world today, Sundays are so secularized that Sunday differs little from other days of the week. In the United States, the majority of people do not attend church.

One of the reasons for assembly and worship is to rebalance life.  I need continued transformation, adjusting my mind and heart. I need to be reminded. I need to be refilled. The average time it takes for the human brain to react is measured in milliseconds.  This is the amount of time it takes for what is inside of you to come out. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).

When I was a youngster, my family and I spent most of our summers visiting Grandma. One of the jobs I had to help with was watering and slopping the pigs. Every day, we had to carry water to the pigpen. We filled the water bucket as full as possible, so we did not have to make as many trips. I know a few things about a water bucket that is filled to overflowing. First, when the bucket is really full, you cannot put any more water in it. Second, it is almost impossible to carry a really full bucket without sloshing a little water out. Third, what comes out of the bucket is what is in the bucket. We also had to carry the slop bucket to the pigpen. Knowing the “full bucket” principles mentioned above, we made sure we slopped the pigs before the slop bucket got full.

Lessons for life. When our hearts are filled with God things, there is no room for other things. We get bumped as we go through life and what is within us will spill out. When that happens, what comes out is what is in our heart. The nature of our lives is reflected in how we react. What is in you will come out…so let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Sunday: When the Sermon Comes to Life

The last Sunday of January 2008, my Sunday morning sermon challenged the congregation to develop a more global view of God’s work and interests around the world. I urged the church to pray about things beyond our little circles of knowledge and interest.

That afternoon, an email came with news of a devastating fire that had occurred early Sunday morning at Southwestern Christian College in Terrell, Texas. SWCC had a long heritage of service in the kingdom in the face of tremendous challenges. The College, which served a primarily black student body, had survived only with much sacrifice from a limited donor base.

The email requested prayers, so I immediately contacted several Christians who maintained and distributed lists of prayer requests, brothers and sisters in Christ from whom I regularly received prayer requests. To my surprise, some of those I contacted did not bother to pass on my request for prayers!

One of the prayer lists was maintained by an elder in the church where I was preaching. He had a global view of God’s work. He regularly went on mission trips; he supported mission works financially. He had a big heart for a big world. He sent out the prayer request to his distribution list almost immediately. And God’s people prayed—about something bigger and grander than their local situation.

It does a preacher good when he sees his sermon come to life!

Challenges for the Church: Strengthening the Foundations

Barna Research Reveals Four “Mega-Themes” in U.S. Culture (#4)

As today’s young adults, teenagers and adolescents have become accustomed to radical individualism, they have introduced such thinking and behaviors into the realm of faith realm. Faith is an acceptable attribute and pursuit among most young people. However, their notions of faith do not align with conventional religious perspectives. In fact, the values that young people are prone to embrace, while generally consistent with Christian beliefs, are not based on biblical foundations. For instance, young Americans have adopted values such as goodness, kindness and tolerance, but they remain skeptical of the Bible, church traditions, and rules or behaviors based upon religious teaching.

The challenge before the church is great. How can the church address individualism? How can understandings of faith find footing in the foundations of Scripture? The church has a problem with validity. Our young people, and the non-Christian community around us, will remain skeptical of church, the Bible, our traditions, and our rules until they see the living reality of Christ within us.

Barna concludes, “It is a well-established fact that our society is continually re-inventing itself. The outcome of such innovation and change, however, is largely dependent on the guidance provided by cultural leaders. It is the core function of a leader to help people apply their creative ideas and energy to reinvigorating society in alignment with a positive and preferable vision of the future. Without a shaping influence that produces a common good, we devolve into anarchy. “Each of us has an obligation to do what is best not just for ourselves but for others in the world, too. Our society is running the risk of becoming so independent and self-absorbed that we will abandon our responsibility to society and to making the world a better place….”

Challenges for the Church: Strengthening the Family

Barna Research Reveals Four “Mega-Themes” in U.S. Culture (#3)

Most parents want to do a great job of raising their children. However, Barna studies conducted among parents of children under 18 revealed that few parents have a strategy or plan for how they will accomplish that goal. Barna’s surveys point out that most parents underestimate the influence they can exert on their children. Consequently, they often neglect activities that would strengthen their relational bond with the children. Many parents, even those who are Christians, overlook the need to foster deeper a connection between their children and God, or to enhance the child’s worldview as a critical component of their decision-making skills.

The church must acknowledge that God’s word provides guidance for marriages, families, and relationships between parents and children. The church has an incredible opportunity to influence family life in our nation by providing classes which communicate God’s will and plan for families. Churches must be cautious lest “church activities” separate children from parents rather than providing shared family activities and strengthened bonds. Further, the church must not hesitate to assist parents by providing “world-view” and values-based training in Bible classes. The church is the place where Christians expect help in understanding how to help children connect with God.

Challenges for the Church: Redefinitions of Christianity

Barna Research Reveals Four “Mega-Themes” in U.S. Culture (#2)

The research also reported that people are reframing Christianity to suit individual tastes. Fewer adults (and many fewer teens) identify themselves as Christians. The image of the Christian faith has taken a beating due to a combination of factors: harsh media criticism, “unchristian” behavior by church people, bad personal experiences with churches, and ineffective Christian leadership. The result is that those who choose Christianity are reformulating what “Christian” and the Christian life mean.

For instance, spiritual practices among those who claim to be Christians are shifting dramatically. New practices are in vogue: tolerance within congregations, spiritual diversity in conversations and relationships, valuing interpersonal connections above spiritual education and biblical correctness, and accepting divergent forms of spiritual community (e.g., house churches, small groups, and cell groups). Churches that integrate spiritual discipline with personal faith development are increasingly less popular. Repeating the same weekly routines in religious events is increasingly considered stifling and irrelevant. Rigid beliefs, including the idea that there are absolute moral and spiritual truths, are perceived by a large and growing share of young people to be evidence of closed-mindedness. The result is new, individualized forms and structures of the Christian faith that will have consequences on the practices of Christianity for years to come.

What is the church to do in the midst of such startling redefinitions? What people expect from a church is changing significantly; what churches believe, teach, and do is equally in flux. It seems that some churches want to distance themselves from anything Christian, or at least from traditional versions of Christianity. This is a time for seeking God’s will and way. Some of the changes mentioned have solid foundations in Scripture. Few are the congregations that could not be helped by increased understanding, deeper fellowship, wider connections, and appreciation of diversity. Most congregations would do well to consider how assemblies can avoid being stifling and irrelevant; preachers must accept anew the challenge to bring God’s word to the world in which we live. At the same time individualism, dislike for discipline, and misunderstandings of the nature of truth must be addressed.

Challenges for the Church: Helping the Self-Satisfied

Barna Research Reveals Four “Mega-Themes” in U.S. Culture (#1)

A Barna report from over 20 years ago (December 2007) identified four significant “mega-themes” in contemporary U.S. culture: high self-acceptance or self-satisfaction, new definitions of Christianity, increased challenges and concerns in parenting and family dynamics, and individualized “designer faith” with rootless values. The report noted that each of these posed a challenge to biblical Christianity and suggested matters in which the church must take positive action.  This blog seeks to update the report and suggest adjustments.

Barna reported that Americans generally have a high opinion of themselves. That tendency has only intensified. In the 2020s, individualism is ubiquitous. Rights and wants take precedence over responsibilities. While Americans acknowledge the need to grow and change, most also see themselves in a positive light. A sense of uncertainty exists because growth is difficult and unpredictable. More and more, desirable changes are defined on the basis of feelings more than facts. Most Americans are willing to change as long as the result is personal benefit and enjoyment which avoids pain, conflict and sacrifice. Individualism and selfishness have a strong hold on the personal lives and values of most adults. A social famine has come, only accelerated by the pandemic. Most adults want more social connections. A nagging sense of loneliness and isolation permeates much of society. Connections are mostly impersonal (think Internet, texting, social media and platforms) and do not fulfill the felt need.

Let me focus the challenge for the church in several questions.

  • How can the church address the frustration which results when people with lofty goals and high self-regard come face to face with their inability to reach those goals?
  • How can the church effectively communicate that the lasting goals in life are not physical and financial, but spiritual?
  • Does the church have an answer to the uncertainty that arises from rampant individualism and selfishness rooted in feelings?
  • Can the church demonstrate effective and meaningful fellowship and brotherhood in a world thirsting and hungering for meaningful connections?

The challenge inherent in these questions is that no impotent, mediocre version of Christianity will suffice.

We say, “It’s not about us; it’s about God.” Do we believe it? The clarion call echoes forth: the church must reach up to God so it can reach out to others. Where is the authentic church that lives out the spiritual reality of Christ’s presence so that life is fulfilling in its challenges and failures, so that we are not at the mercy of our feelings, and so that the ultimate values of life are not rooted in self? Where is the church that connects with others through its continuing connection with God? Will we be that church?

Sunday: The Holy Spirit and Being Spiritual

“I love worship at that church–they are so spiritual….Those are such spiritual men….She is so spiritual.” We talk about it a lot. We think we know what it is. Spiritual–what do we mean? What makes worship or a person or a Bible class spiritual? The idea of being spiritual and the word spirituality are not used frequently in Scripture. What does the Bible say?
The New Testament book that mentions spirituality most often is First Corinthians, a book that is
largely corrective. Spirituality is the opposite of carnality. The context has to do with the influences that guide or control my life. The influences of our human nature are natural, worldly, carnal. The influences of the divine nature or God-image are spiritual.
In First Corinthians (3:2-5), the marks of the human nature are (1) drinks a lot of milk, (2) does not eat much meat and often cannot digest meat, (3) causes or gets involved in envy and strife, (4) mostly lives like the rest of humankind, (5) is divisive in the sense of failing to be a force for uniting, accepting and including. Spirituality is the opposite.
Of course, Paul is not talking about physical food but about spiritual food. A spiritual person digests spiritual food and is nourished by it daily. A spiritual person does not treat the Bible superficially. A spiritual person knows how to to resolve conflict and be a unifying influence. A spiritual person not only deflects strife, such a person knows how to disarm strife. A spiritual person lives by a different value system.
Let the Bible speak. What is spirituality? What does it look like when one is spiritual? Paul’s use of the word “spiritual” points to six things. (1) How you treat others, you always treat others right, 3:1ff; (2) Accepting, honoring, and living under Christ’s Lordship, 12:3ff; (3) Healthy relationships with all other parts of the body, 12:14ff; (4) Demonstrating love, even in the difficult moments, 13:1ff; (5) Always building up rather than tearing down, 14:19ff; (6) Respect for Scripture, so that every action is guided by God’s ultimate will, 14:37ff.

The genuinely spiritual person is most easily seen and identified in the difficult moments of life. Spiritual people–treat others right and do what is right, even when it is very hard; develop healthy relationships with the difficult persons, the EGR (extra grace required) people to use a Warren concept; show love to the unlovable; always encourage, involve, include and edify, demonstrating that they are second-mile people; are guided by Scripture, applying Bible principles and honoring God’s ultimate purpose when the lack of specifics can be used to justify doing what everyone else would do.

Blessed to be a blessing….

Jan and I enjoy spending time together, reflecting on life and ministry. In recent years we have been invited to return and preach in five congregations in which we ministered full-time. (We have worked full-time in only six churches, and one no longer exists because it merged with another church.) The opportunity to “go home” to teach and preach in these churches has been a special blessing. These congregations represent 27 years of full-time local ministry. (We also spent 12 years in Christian higher education.) We have reminisced and rejoiced as we shared time with brothers and sisters who are dear to us. We have been blessed by their continued generosity and interest in the ministry and mission God has now placed before us.
We have also reconnected with special friends from our past. We are continually amazed when we think of hundreds of friendships in Christ that do not end even though time and miles separate us. Heaven will indeed be a wonderful place of glory and grace!

It is easy for us to lose perspective. Sometimes, Jan and I look longingly at those who have lived in the same place for many years and have life-long friends with whom they regularly spend time. We try to imagine what it would be like to have such roots and stability, with friendships that have been continuously nurtured and enjoyed. We are tempted to jealousy, but we are brought back to reality when those very people remind us that we have friends around the world.
Friends around the world! Friends in Christ in most of the states of our nation; brothers and sisters in Christ among the nations of our world. We are bound together by love in Christ, hope for the future, and prayer for one another.

“Dear God, help me never forget that I am blessed to be a blessing. Thank you for the wonderful way you have blessed our lives with friends and spiritual family in Jesus.”

Sunday: Remembering with Hope

It’s Memorial Day weekend.
In thinking about church and preaching, I always try to do something significant about remembering, sacrifice, and love.
For many in today’s culture, Memorial Day has lost its meaning. It is too little about remembering and memorials. It is too much about the first long weekend of summer and going to the lake or the mountains for recreation.
When I was in high school, Memorial Day meant the high school band had to march in the parade even though school had been out a week or more. (We knew about community service before the phrase was coined.) For whatever reason, the holiday, the parade, the march to the cemetery, the “taps”, the prayers and addresses–all of these parts of the occasion seemed somber to a teenager. Someone had made a sacrifice for me, and I would get a Selective Service number when I turned 18.
Remembering is a source of hope. If we do not know hope, we aren’t interested in thinking about the past, the present, or the future.
Hope is renewed in thinking about the past, especially about the actions and work of God.
Hope is sustained in a careful awareness of the future.
Hope for the future is made certain–the things seen in the past and present secure the unseen future. Thus hope and faith connect. Faith has as its foundation hope. Things seen guarantee things not seen.

Dear Father, may we worship today with gladness, yet with seriousness. As we remember the past, may we be especially grateful for the sacrifice of Jesus which gives us hope for tomorrow and forever. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Sunday: Looking to Jesus

One advantage of Easter–the focus is almost always on the story of Jesus. By now many pulpits have returned to moralizing: we must/should/ought to…. This is “what to do” without the “why to do it.” The gospel is the story of Jesus. It is powerful—for salvation and for life. Tell the story of Jesus. Help Jesus’ disciples look to Jesus. Never tire of talking about Jesus. Urge everyone to look to Jesus. He is the pioneer (author) of our faith, he is the prototype (perfecter) of faithfulness, he is the promise that exaltation comes to those who faithfully endure.
Jesus is faithful and merciful high priest. Because he is faithful, we can cast off entangling sin. Because he is merciful, we can lay aside the burdens of life. He opens our way to God’s throne where we find forgiving grace and strengthening mercy. The message of Jesus constantly gives hope for the future and guards against weariness on life’s journey.
Whether it is the message you hear from the pulpit or not—-Look to Jesus!