Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

At what point did the church in America go underground?  I mean really, the way Christians act here makes me think I must be missing out on some persecution somewhere.  A year ago I was in a doctors office with my wife  and the doctor came in, looked at the chart, saw that I was a pastor, and quietly said “Aslan is on the move”.    I looked around to see if there was a wardrobe nearby and wondered why the secrecy.  There have been many times an adult has come to me after I have spoken on the necessity of every Christian to fulfill the great commission and say “I just try to live right and stay quiet and hope others will ask me, but I may get fired for talking about Jesus.”  Really?  Fired?  Your kidding right?  Hows “living right” working for you?  How many have come to Christ through your “secret” witness?  How frustrating all this truly is…

Last time I checked here in America there were no laws in existence that require Christians to keep quiet.  But it seems that today Christians somehow have bought into a Don’t ask Don’t tell policy in the world.  There is a fear that others might shun them for believing in Jesus or it may “offend” someone.  Well the bad news is that if you follow Christ; I mean truly abide in Him, obey Him, and live for Him you will have some persecution but that is OK (1 Peter 3:13-17, 4:19).  True Christianity is weird to the world because it flows against everything the world deems OK such as forgiveness, grace, mercy, and love.  1 Corinthians 1:18 tells us the cross is offensive, it is foolishness to those apart from the transformative power of Jesus Christ.

Christians must get the boldness and zeal that the disciples had in the book of Acts, you know the guys that were really persecuted; facing beatings, being mocked, dragged into court, martyrdom, they stood for the truth and shared Christ.  As Christians we must fulfill the Great Commission in Matthew 28 and we cannot do that if we are keeping quiet in fear of something that does not exist as of now in America.  We are allowing the world to dictate that we should keep it to ourselves, to keep quiet, to let everyone do their own thing.  The question is would we stand in front of a house that is on fire and whisper “get out, get out” because we did not want to disturb the neighbors?

Church – we must stop living the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy that we have invented in our minds and be the witnesses we were called to be.  When the disciples were exhorted by Christ to be witnesses in Acts 1:8 they were sent to very uncomfortable places – Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified weeks earlier, Judea where the Jews would be opposed to the message the Messiah came and they missed him, Judea where the Samaritans would be opposed to the disciples due to their ethnicity, and the ends of the earth where the Gentiles were following a pantheon of Gods.  We were not called as Christians to live scared (2 Tim 1:7), we were called to be bold witnesses and speak with the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:29-31).

Luke 12:8 gives the final warning against being a “quiet Christian” as Christ proclaims us to confess Him before men, to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), and to live the great commandment (Mark 12:29-31).  How can one call themselves a Christian, obey Christ, and disregard the commands of Christ?  I believe it is impossible for a truly transformed life to remain silent about a Savior whom paid the ransom for their soul through His perfect sacrifice.  Live with boldness and share Christ with someone this week……

Time Becomes My Master

OK, it is confession time, and as we know confession is good.  James encourages us to confess our sins to one another and prayer for each other (Jas 5:16).  As a pastor it is not always, ok not ever, easy to confess sins openly.  Why you ask?  Because it makes us vulnerable and open to criticism and critique that we see so many people doing to one another in the world and even the church.  Here we go…  I am a procrastinator and have allowed time to become my master – there I said it.  Whew —–  were you expecting something else?   As a pastor, leader, husband, father wasting time is an egregious and horrific sin.  Let me explain.

We only have so much time and as Christians, especially as a leader, we must use our time wisely, not allowing it to master us but for us to master it!  No, we cannot add time or extend the time God has given us, but we can use it faithfully.  Peter writes that we must make the best use of our time (Eph. 5:16).  The Greek word exagorazo used in this passage is better stated that we must redeem our time.  We do this by redeeming our time from the world, using it for Christ instead of our flesh.

My sin is putting things of importance off and doing things that could wait.  What does this mean?  It makes me an ineffective leader because when someone comes to talk about important issues, hospital visits arise, or matter of greater importance occur, I am not ready.  So today I am redeeming the time prayerfully, with the help of Christ.  The world is distracting, but as a pastor and a leader I must look to the author and perfecter of my faith and time itself!  No for the second part of the verse in James, please pray for me!

Shifting out of Neutral

As I read in Galatians this morning I began to think about how we engage the world around us.  How do we, as Christians, make an impact in a world that is disengaged from the gospel.  How do we face things like moral relativism and existentialism with the light of the gospel?  I think it is much easier than we are trying to make it.  Gods TrutH is timeless and constant, it does not waver nor does it change.  We are called out to engage, to shift out of neutral and bring the message of Christ to a world that needs it!

OK, let me admit there are some very wrong ways to engage the world.  If we understand that the cross is already seen as foolish to those apart from Christ (1 Cor 1:18) than there are ways to reach that do not work.  For instance, people who expect non-Christians to act like Christians before coming to church – what sense does that make?  Do we really expect people to change before they know Christ?  It is Christ who changes peoples hearts, not us, we must reflect Christ, plant and water – not condemn, judge and attack those that are already perishing – - can you really judge them any further than God will?  Can your judgmental words change their hearts or will it simply add more callousness to an already hardened heart?

So lets engage, shift out of neutral and meet people where they are.  This is the method of Christ.  Jesus didn’t stay in the temple and preach, He went out to where the people were – - to the Gentiles, Samaritans and Jews – - to the ones that needed healing (Matthew 9:12-13, 1 Peter 2:24).  He did not limit His message to one specific group, race, color, or socio-economic class, He brought the message to ALL.  His virgin birth, death on the cross, and resurrection offers an atonement and is the only way to God, but it is for Whomsoever will (Romans 10:13).  We are called to imitate God (Ephesians 5:1) and Christ Himself stated that He came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).  He gives us the command to GO in Matthew 28:19-20 and the heart of how to do it in Mark 12:29-31.  So if we are to engage, let us live by the example of Christ!

Two great examples of engaging people where they were.  First is the women at the well in John 4.  Jesus meets her and lovingly draws her in, not with condemnation, but with sincerity and grace.  She is already perishing and apart from God, Christ reveals TrutH to her and her sin is revealed – not by Christ telling her she is an adulterer who really needs to change, but change comes from the heart and love for a Savior.  Paul in Acts 17:22-33 address the philosophers of Athens in the Areopagus.  He doesn’t walk in and say “You filthy sinners are going to hell because your worshipping idols”.  Paul reveals TrutH of the unknown God to them, the Nature of God and the hope of Christs resurrection.  We must engage people where they are with the TrutH of the gospel and allow Christ to change their hearts.

Understand not everyone will believe.  But we must still go.  We must engage because many are being engaged with a false gospel (Galatians 1:6-9).  Many are spreading hate and turning people from the TrutH.  Many are telling people what they want to hear like there are many paths to heaven or that being good is enough (2 Timothy 4:3).  We must GO, each of us, not just some of us, ALL of us that claim to follow Christ and bring the TrutH.

Do you feel unprepared?  Spend time in prayer daily, time in God’s word daily, get involved in small groups, Sunday school, and worship – sharpen up and GO (Proverbs 26:17).  Shift into drive today!

Pastors, Protests, and Petitions

First let me say that my feeble attempts at blogging are ,well, appalling in the face of the blogging community.  With that being said I am convinced, convicted and challenged to begin blogging on a daily basis.  This is for many reasons….  So lets start with something fresh.

As a pastor there is rarely a day that passes that I do not receive a request to boycott something, sign a petition of some sort, or protest yet another issue.  Normally what is wanted is my weight behind an issue before my church.  I do grow weary of so many protests and petitions that I receive via e-mail, snail mail, and even in person.  I need time to process, contemplate, pray, think it through but they want a signature now, today and a newsletter out to the congregation within the hour.

How does a pastor deal with this?  How do you know when to sign or when to sigh?  What should compel one to put their name on the line and then possibly ask their congregation to do the same?  One of the first questions I ask myself is “Does this threaten Christianity as a whole?”  “Does this issue create a theological compromise or undermine the Bibles authority in any way?”  I also want to question if this is a threat to my liberties as Christian and as an American.

If I can answer the above questions with a yest then I deal with the next issue.  If I feel that this is worthy of my signature is it necessary to bring before the church?  Once you open that door it can be a slippery slope to any and all petitions.  Historically I have talked about issues and offered congregants the ability to go to places like the ACLJ website and sign up for themselves.  However when an issue drives at issues such as the Sanctity of Life there are times where I may offer a petition for those who wish to sign.  It is never forced and no one is hovering and counting who does or does not sign.  No notes are taken as to whomever wishes to abstain.

I am a big believer of Christians engaging culture and being active in Gods creation, not just filling a pew.  When it comes time to protest or petition it needs to be a major issue such as the sanctity of life, public prayer, acts of congress to stifle Christianity (can you really stifle God?  No way!).  We simply cannot spend all hours filling out petitions and protesting, yet there are times to act.  I am still working this out as a pastor and a leader.  How do you handle these things?  What is your philosophy?

Well this is a start, hopefully it will get better!

Raising Christian Children

I know some may not like what I am about to say but it must be said.  As a pastor I have a heart for people, my desire is simple, that they come to know Christ and live for Him.  I mean really live – not this shallow, empty, Sunday Morning lifestyle but that they put on Christ and live by imitating Him (cf Eph. 5:1ff).  This translates into my family life.  I want my children to grow up in love with Christ.  I don’t want them to grow up in love with a group of people at a building.  Before you jump to conclusions hear me – if they are in love with Christ, they will have a true relationship with the church not one where they show up and put on an act, but a true love for the bride of Christ.  I want them to grow up to become authentic, transparent Christ followers.

Recently I had an individual tell my wife “Your children are not learning verses like they should”.  To this individual they define success by the amount of verses you can spout.  Unfortunately in my life I have met many who care nothing about Christ and can quote the Bible better than most Christians.  (By the way – Satan falls into the category as evidenced in the temptation of Christ and in the book of James. (James 2:19, Luke 4)  I guess my argument for raising Christian children comes down to a simple truth – we must live by example and teach them Gods word.  The amount of scripture they learn will only matter if they put it away in their heart, learn to understand it, and then live by it.

Scripture memorization is important, don’t get me wrong, but it needs to be done in a proper context.  Cramming 100 verses down a kids throat and never spending time helping them understand it and marinate in it is pointless.  I know kids who are skilled at the books of the Bible and verse memorization and they are living like the world.  They could care less about Christ – He has become fire insurance not the one of pulled them from the mire and saved them.  Scripture memorization must come with teaching so they understand it as well.  How about you, how many verses could you say right now?  Does that make you less of a Christian?  Memorize but marinate and hide it in your heart as well.  Set realistic goals and memorize, don’t do it just for bragging rights!

Want to raise Christian children?  Act like a Christian and model Christ.  Study the word.  Pray for them.  Worship with them, not just at church but also at home.  Teach them scripture and explain it to them.  If you do not understand it, seek counsel before you tell them what you think – lets stop raising uneducated, non-critical thinking Christians, dig deep yourself and then pour into your children.  Love you kids and your spouse like Christ loves the church.  Discipline out of love, but discipline your children.  Pray with them and over them.  You must learn and memorize scripture – model the life for them – inspire them by what they see.  This world needs Christ, so it needs Christians being the body of Christ and raising children who can do more than repeat a verse, they need to live it!

MTV, Nick and the culture attack on Teens

“The N” is Nickelodeons channel aimed at teens.  MTV has crafted and designed a cultural attack on children from birth through adulthood now as you move from Noggin as a child to Nickelodeon in grade school to The N as a pre-teen and teen then on to MTV, etc…  They have crafted and marketed an onslaught of culture and they have done it well.  As a Christian I have to ask the question – Should we let our children watch programming that is directed at pulling them in and keeping them over the years?  Think I am overreacting?  Watch a Noggin (designed for preschoolers) show and they advertise for the next level up.  Watch Nick and they advertise for The N and MTV.  They are not stupid and they know how to market.

So how bad are these shows?  Lets take two of the mainstays on “The N” – Degrassi and South of Nowhere.  These are Friday night staples shown back to back and they are dramas for teens and lets face it, pre-teens as well.  Both of these shows feature homosexual relationships with visible romantic relationships.  A commercial for Degrassi for an upcoming show has a teacher finding a vibrator in a students purse.  The shows are highly sexual in nature and students who watch these shows are inundated with explicit content that most parents are blissfully unaware of.  There is an agenda here – make all of these things, homosexuality, sex toys, sex, language, etc. acceptable.  Dull the senses and make all of the aforementioned things seem like everyday life in the world of teens; however this is not the norm for the average teen in America.

So Christian mom and dad it is time to stop worrying about “making your child mad” and start getting involved in their lives.  Pop culture is teaching students duality and when you do not talk with your child(ren) about these things because you don’t want to scare them off you are enabling this dual nature to continue.  I have heard it said that to make something acceptable (to make it a norm) you get people to laugh at it, you show it in normal situations, you make it seem harmless, and then get them to accept it.  I am not calling for a boycott, basically because it doesn’t work.  I am calling for parents to know what their kids watch and talk to them about what they see and even turn off the idiot box when there are unacceptable things being shown.

Romans 12:1-2 is a cry to Christians to be renewed and transformed and not to be conformed to the world.  MTV and their affiliates have an agenda – transform you children into the world, and they are doing it at an alarming rate.  Ephesians 5:1-2 calls us to imitate God and to follow Christ.  The shows above would have you follow their flawed worldview and be like them.  So what will it be parent – let your children walk a straight line to hell because you are afraid to offend them or stand up and be a Christian parent.  Talk with your children (don’t just turn it off without speaking the truth in love), worship with your children, and show your children love. 

Two proverbs for parents - Proverbs 22:6 – “Train a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” and Proverbs 24:11 “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to slaughter.”  Your kids have enough “friends”, be a parent.  Protect their eyes and ears.  If you allow them to live a dual nature and conform to the world you are not being a Christian parent.  I know that children will still stray even if you do everything, but at least at that point you trained them up with Christian morals and values and you tried to hold them back.  If you choose not teach Christian morals and values to your children and let them rule the roost, you are indeed part of the problem.  Either you will teach your children a Biblical worldview or MTV will be happy to teach them a secular, and materialistic worldview on several different channels througout the day.

Teach Christ – Talk about why things are wrong – Point your children to Scripture – and you must walk daily with the Lord.

Vote “none of the above”

Perhaps some will remember the 80′s comedy with Richard Pryor “Brewster’s Millions” where Pryor inherits $30 million and must spend it and have no assets at the end of 30 days in order to win $300 million.  In the movie he runs for office against two very shady candidates under the banner “Vote none of the above.”  As a Christian I am faced with the option to choose between the worst of two evils at times and voting none of the above sure does seem like a good idea.  How does a Christian find and vote for the right candidate?  Yes, yes…I know Jesus wasn’t a Republican but I can guarantee he wasn’t a democrat either, or a libertarian, etc… 

A Christian truly must look at what the candidates believe in.  What do they support – what being the issues.  Where do they stand on the sanctity of life?  What about homosexual marriage?  Cloning…  Stem cell research…  how about religion in general?  You need to know what the candidate stands for and how that filters through the lens of scripture.  Stop voting one way just because you always have or that’s the way mom and dad did it. 

Here is a seemingly unbiased website that not only compares the candidates on issues but also will tell you more about candidates in your state along with other ballot issues.  http://vote-usa.org/?gclid=CKi68cLTopYCFRLxDAodfWIQ8A  Of course from a Christian you can check out Christianity todays website.  http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/special/campaign2008.html?gclid=CKW4hKHUopYCFRs-awody06W7Q

Well even though I think “none of the above” is a great idea I believe Christians need to go and vote.  As Christians we have stayed too long at the doorstep bemoaning what the world is doing and doing absolutely nothing about it.  Either we need to get involved or lets sell it all, buy and island and isolate ourselves from the world.  But then again we would need to elect a leader…………..

 

Oprah and Dating

In a recent article published by Oprah Winfrey we find 10 types of guys that women should stay away from.  As I read the list (ensuring I was not on it  I found an amazing section on one of the types known as the virtual lover and apparently, according to Oprah, if the guy is not trying to get you in the sack by the third or fourth date you should stay away from him.  This is direct evidence of a Biblical worldview getting tossed to the side.

Thousand of ladies look to Oprah for guidance and direction and here she is telling young ladies to “hop in the sack” or “ditch the guy”.  Coming from a Christian world-view I would think a man who stuck to “no sex before marriage” and upheld the virtues of the marriage bed would be honored.  Nope – he is obviously a loser, closet homosexual, or afraid of sex who eventually blames the lack of sex on the women.

In a world where STD’s, unwed pregnancies and abortions are center stage perhaps Oprah would take a stand for those choosing the right and Biblical view that sex is for marriage and abstinence is honorable instead of making the guy out to be some sort of frigid freak-show.  Guys – sex is for marriage and if the lady you are dating is pushing you for sex then she is not the right one for you because she obviously does not care about your core beliefs and your dedication to God’s Holy word and Christ.

Here is the actual quote and a link to the CNN website it came from…

 The Virtual Lover
What a relief it is when a man doesn’t try to force you into bed on the first date. How charmed you are when, on the third date, he says he wants to wait until “you both can’t stand it anymore.” How sympathetic you become when, on the sixth date, he tells you how badly he was hurt by your predecessor. How confused you are six months later when you’ve realized his pager goes off every time you get naked, but he’s still sending you roses and talking teddy bears.  A surprising number of great romancers out there never get around to having sex. To the date-weary woman, this can seem like not the worst combination, but beware. Eventually he will blame his problems on the smell of your breath or the size of your thighs.  (http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/02/25/O.bad.men/index.html)

Prayers for NIU

We stand in the wake of yet another horrific incident of terrorism in America.  http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/795042,niu021408.article

My prayers go out to the families, students and faculty effected by this injustice.  There is hope in Christ – Romans 10:8-13, John 10:10, John 14:1-6, John 3:16….  Shalom

Emergent – Postmodern – Existential – What????

With all of the hullabaloo going on I thought I would drop in my two cents on the phenomenon known as the emerging church.  First of all let me say the buzz word in the church is emerging, it is also the buzz word with colleges and institutions that deal with the 18-24 crowd.  Emerging is defined as “to come forth into view or notice, as from concealment or obscurity” (dictionary.com).  So something emerging is coming out for all to see – unfortunately the emerging church would probably buck this definition as they resist being “defined”.

 So is it all bad?  Of course not.  To lump all that are tagged (forgive me) “emerging” or “postmodern” we lump all the good and the bad together and generalize them.  This is just as unfair as tagging all Christians as “hypocrites” or worse saying all Christians are typified by those on TBN (YIKES)!  There are both good and bad postmodernists and emergent churches. 

The basic thing these guys are looking for is authentic models of Christ that are living for Christ in the world as well as at church and going out into the world living out the Great Commission.  The negative side is those that seek communal theology – the type of theology that seeks to find it’s own meaning of scripture outside of what scripture mandates.  (This is truly existential truth which is really no truth at all).

How do we handle this?  A good friend once told me you eat the fish and spit out the bones.  If all Truth is God’s Truth then we must understand that even though I disagree with some of what Tony Jones or Tony Compolo espouse – there is still some truth intertwined in it all that must be sorted out – carefully and in the light of Scripture.  We can not throw out the baby with the bath water here by lumping all emerging churches into the same batch.  (I am pretty sure that there are some very bad “modern” churches teaching things like properity gospel, agreeing with sin (homosexuality, adultry, etc..), and the social gospel absent of Christ!)

Just my thoughts.  I do not agree with everything yet I find myself agreeing that Pastors must be authentic and real.  Our Christian walk should shine in the church and in the world.  We must be doers and hearers of the word.  IMHO the emerging church is seeking a true authentic encounter with a Holy Living Christ and the church over the past few years has gotten caught up in arguing, infighting, placing blame, pointing fingers instead of modeling and imitating Christ and teaching the Word as TRUTH.