The Invisible Church Split - Part II

I previously introduced the idea that the church has a large division between the young and the old. Today I want to explore some of the issues this causes on both a small and large scale. Check out Part I for more background info!

 imagecred: richardwintle via AventuresInWonderland

Locally

This is extremely difficult to nail down simply because it begins so subtly. I have a hard time deciding what I think is healthy and what is unhealthy. However, when the young don't honor the old and the old don't teach the young, both groups suffer. 

Untaught young Christians grow into weak old Christians. This causes the local church to flounder in areas of Biblical literacy, evangelism and seeking righteousness. "Old Christians" (wherever the divide may fall in any particular body) who don't experience the process of bringing others along in their walk, begin to lack understanding for those in a less mature stage of their walk. This can lead to criticism of those with struggles inside the church (and possible denial of their own) as well as eventually causing an apathy for the unsaved.

I think this also circles back around. When the elders in the church don't have compassion for the lost in sin, young people begin to polarize. You either have to be a "church person" and separate themselves from the world completely or choose to be in it. I see so many teens and young adults fall into sinful lifestyles partly because they've been told they can't be around "those kinds of people" or "those kinds of activities". They feel shame around Christians because they've been told they're guilty of sin if they break their fathers extra-Biblical commandments. 

Regionallly

Regional areas and countries fall into their own bad habits. Though we most likely all struggle with very similar things, certain cultural aspects have an effect on a divided church. One of the major ones in the US is the death of old congregations and the emergence of churches heavily weighted in numbers of young people. Many of these churches are planted and then dwindle withing a few years because of the lack of elderly wisdom. Because of the importance of social classes, in the UK there are large churches in prominent areas struggling with being superficial and lukewarm. No one wants to man up and cross lines that would make them uncomfortable. 

Globally

Internationally, I think there is actually some benefit to this sad problem. While worldwide evangelism and disciple-making see their fair share of neglect, they also get the unhealthy church's "rejects".

For example, my pastor's wife was telling me a tragic story of a missionary she knows losing his wife. As she described him she noted that he's someone people describe as "over the top" (for instance taking his wife and children to spread the gospel in the islamic middle east) but that she felt like he embodied what Jesus described for all believers to look like. 

Similarly, we had a leader who tried to explain to us that since we were so bent on making disciples, we might want to go overseas. He wasn't sure we really fit around here.

While churches all over sit in their abundance and barely acknowledge people and places who need their prayers, efforts and resources, at least they send them the best disciple makers they have (unfortunately, to it's own detriment).

What kind of issues to you find affecting your local/regional church? What other consequences do you see that I didn't hit here?

Comment/Email your answer!

Shooting the Wolves

As I prepare to move away from my Spiritual children there has been a very clear picture sitting in my brain. I am going to speak very frankly about occurances in ministry because the only person I feel like I might offend is the wolf himself. As I'll point out I think we've been too kind for too long to this sneaky pack.

In ministry, lots of people want to tell you what you should be doing to do ministry "right". Many of the ideas that people brought to us had very little to do with reaching the lost and much to do with creating an appearance of success. One particular person made our lives miserable for a short time. So as we prepared to "go home" to my little country church to minister, I began to worry about who would take care of our sheep.

This person repeatedly came up to Nic and told him exactly how to reach people as if we could have never done ministry without him. He started treating his suggestions as nonnegotiables. He began using speech such as, "I'm part of the church so that means you work for me." He would frequently exert power and authority that he didn't actually have. Wolf Red Flag #1: Assigning himself/herself power.

We responded saying that we'd pray over his suggestions and seek the Lord as to whether or not he would have us to start any of those things. In the meanwhile, we asked he and his wife (who had a lot to say as well) to pray about whether they should volunteer their time to be a part of making a difference in the lives of teenagers and see first hand what the ministry might need. After praying we added a few more game/hang out nights since we tend to focus on the more serious side of things. We definitely did fun things but adding more would only build relationships as long as we didn't sacrifice Gospel-centeredness to do so. We tried to follow up with this couple to no avail.

Soon after, we heard from our head Pastor that they had met with him to bring their complaints. (Keep in mind that this couple has no children old enough to be in the youth group.) After hearing their issues with our "performance" our Pastor just told us to make sure we were meeting the congregants needs and assumed they'd go away. Wolf Red Flag #2: A wolf will not stop until he/she has caused distruction.

We noticed this person still acting suspiciously but we weren't sure what he was up to. We would soon find out that he had contacted several board members to complain about the same performance inadequacies he felt we had and tacked on some issues he had with our appearance and (are you ready for this) that he didn't like one of my facebook posts! We would have never known, except that several board members in he hit one that had the courage to come to us. He boldly (and clearly, YAYYY!) listed all of the things the wolf was unhappy with. We explained our process of praying over things, that we'd tried to follow up and of course easily dismissed his other nitpicky issues. That conversation took place on a friday. When we showed up for church on Sunday he shook Nic's hand and simply said, "You're good to go, thank you for serving." Wolf Red Flag #3: Kill or be killed.

Since this couple would no longer be a problem for us, I had kind of forgotten about them. But as we prepared to leave God game me the MOST CLEAR IMAGE, it's amazing. I'm not really an artist but I finally told my husband I was going to have to draw it just to get it out of my head. All I could see was that same guy with the hide of a sheep draped over his body like a Native hunter would wear a wolf hide to scare buffalo. God was reminding me that although someone was strong of to subdue the wolf, no one had the leadership skills and strength it took to shoot him.

Often in today's church culture, we can't even shoot the wolves without a disguise. So when they are clever enough to come in sheep's clothing, maybe even with lambs in tow, we feed, water and strengthen them to our own injury. The longer they hang around, the more people trust and accept them and the more damage is does to the flock with they eventually do either get shot or destroy it all together.

Why am I sharing this with all of you? This is why:

Have you ever had someone surprise you as deceptive after you'd known them for a long time? What might you do now to remain aware that the enemy wants to use people you know to seek, kill and destroy?

And will you join me in praying for our Spiritual leaders to have discernment and strength to see and shoot the wolves that would try and trap their sheep?

One more false doctrine, thousands more deceived people.

I have been extremely hungry for God's Word lately. I, not of myself, have been digging way deep into the verses I've been reading. Not even so deep in interpretation but in the context, culture and geography. I feel super connected to what the Bible says when I can see where it took place on a map or read about the same details in a secular source. I don't need those things to believe it's true, but I do understand it better or I enjoy it more or something.

Anyways, I was tracking the Israelites exodus from Egypt when a Google ad on the side bar said this, "How Jesus REALLY Saves : Jesus saves, but not by 'washing away sins' or by 'appeasing the Father'".

I thought it was interesting so I took the bait. It leads to a website for the "New Church" which is founded on the Bible AND the writings of one Emanuel Swedenborg.

I'll get straight to the point. I have some issues with Swedenborg and his New Church. (I'm sure you didn't see that coming.) However, I'm a fan of the sandwich method; so let's start with something good.

+Swedenborg was way ahead of the trend. As I'll point out in a minute (okay maybe two), he preceded our post-modern universalist tendencies by a century or more. I know he had many predecessors, but it seems to me that people should make at least a little fuss over him considering the ruckus Rob Bell caused. So my positive peace of bread number one: trend setter.

Now for the meat, or my beef so to speak with Swedenborg. I briefly considered just copying some of the New Church doctrinal statements from the websites followed by the scripture it directly contradicts. But instead I'll just summarize and briefly address a couple of my findings:

-To begin with, they (the adherents to the New Church doctrines) believe that people become angels. In Job 38:4-7, then angels sang when God made the earth (before humans where made) and in Hebrews 2:7 Jesus was made lower than the angels when He became human. Even in Revelation, both angels and people are described worshipping God around His throne showing that in Heaven there will be both angels and humans, two separate kinds.

-They believe that everyone goes to heaven except those who choose hell, they don't think you have to believe in Jesus to have eternal life AND they don't believe God judges. Holy cow! Where do I start?! Let's go with John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life (emphasis mine) ,1 John 5:12-13 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and Psalm 7:11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.

+I think that's enough meat for today. I'm sure I've already lost a few peope. Positive piece of bread number two. Swedenborg and the New Church have something that sadly makes them very appealing to many people. In one of the explanations of what New Christianity is, they state that it makes sense because it's built on common sense. Congratulations folks! You've just tugged on the brain strings of many rational seekers. Unfortunately, human knowledge and reason on nothing worth putting faith in and it definitely can't save your soul. Why would you want to serve a god who is limited to the confines of you intellect?

I find many silarities between Mormonism and the followers of Swedenborg's writings. But I am deeply saddened by Swedenborgism for two reasons. One, the flesh wants to believe his bad doctrinal statements because they are so rational. And two, the heresies sound so close to the Truth that many could be easily deceived. Often it is a small phrase within a large paragraph that turns their whole position upside-down.

I'll close with this warning from God's Word, 2 Peter 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

What are pastors for? I'm a little worked up and a lot tired.

Generally speaking, what is the purpose of a pastor? Is it just to deliver sermons? We get the English word pastor from the same root as the word pastoral, relating to the care of sheep and goats. In fact, the first definition of shepherd in my dictionary is not someone who cares for sheep, it's "a clergyman who watches over a group of people." I think it's beautiful and accurate, as the Word uses the same analogy!

So I guess my questions are really more like this: how many Pastors look after a group of people? I mean really look after, including going after lost ones and protecting the babies. Also, how much time do pastors spend truly caring for people? And how much time do they spend simply preparing messages? If you think about it, how much does a sermon or two a week really do in the grand scheme of "looking after" sheep? Does that hour ensure that they are truly fed, a healthy part of the flock and producing baby sheep? And how much are we paying these guys (or gals in some situations)? I truly believe that many pastors are highly educated and very gifted, but are they doing their jobs? I mean really, does the pastoral job description consist of merely preaching and one or two other menial tasks to assure the attendance stays up? Biblical stewardship would require us (with grace) to make sure they're earning their income.

While working through this issue in my own brain, I looked at many New Testament verses. I started by looking at the ministries of Paul and others mentioned in the New Testament; how they exhorted, discipled, taught and seemed to just be among the people while offering practical advice. Then I felt like God was leading me to places I hadn't thought to look.

First of all, what about the ministry of Jesus? Hello! Why didn't I go there to begin with?! Jesus did preach to the masses, but He spent much of His time developing several strong believers, concentrating on a few. When He did preach to large groups, He didn't exactly coddle the audience to protect His attendance numbers. He spoke the Truth, He didn't sugar coat the tough stuff and He definitely wasn't "seeker-friendly". In fact, He said some offensive, culturally challenging and sometimes crazy sounding stuff! But through those eleven men and others who heard and were "looked after", millions have come to know the truth! Why would we attempt to make any other strategy work, namely replacing true discipleship with three points and an alter call?

The second set of scriptures started in Romans 12. Paul is telling the believers in Rome to each glorify and further the Kingdom to the best of their abilities with the specific gifts that God gave them. (v 6,7) Also, 1 Corinthians 12 talks about how the unity of the body requires the uniqueness of each believer. I have concluded this: I don't believe every pastor is necessarily cut out for that position. While they each have specific gifts to offer the body, unless they are comfortable with literal "looking after" as written about in the New Testament, then their gifts might be better used from another area of leadership. Paul was a wonderful teacher and seemed especially gifted in exhortation as well. Not only did he preach when among the churches, but he developed leaders and structure. He also followed up with those churches, as seen in the New Testament letters, to assure that everything was still going well. What's important is that he was using his spiritual gifts with zeal. Even in Acts when a complaint arose on behalf of widows, the disciples recognized that it wouldn't be wise for the best preachers to stop teaching to take care of the distribution, instead it would be much smarter for responsible leaders with a gift of serving to do that. Lastly, just above that I stumbled on Acts 5:45 which says, "And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ."

In summary, my prayer is that those who truly do have a teaching gift, would do it unceasingly! I hope that the role of pastor and shepherd would be taken more seriously. I earnestly desire that each believer would feel the urgency to use their skills for God's glory. I hope people recognize that Pastors get paid because they should be so busy "looking after" people that they don't have time to make any other living, not so that other believers are deemed unnecessary. Lastly, Lord please raise up a generation of pastors and mature believers who will make disciples that are comfortable continuing this process with their own unique gifts.

Jesus Was Culturally Relevant

Everyone wants everyone else to do church their way. If this weren't the case, we wouldn't have thousands upon thousands of denominations within the Christian church. There are divisions and subgroups within those denominations. Young people wouldn't be running off and planting unbalanced churches because the elders don't disciple or even seem to care about them and old churches wouldn't be dying off because they refuse to change the changeables to relate to the culture. We wouldn't have five churches on one block and still have unchurched, de-churched and hungry people across the street.

Doesn't anyone want to do church Jesus' way? As the Christ, Jesus was able to prune the functions of the church while He was on earth. I think He addressed each group's habits with one of three attitudes.

The first is toward those with a lazy form of religion that I like to call Checkmark Christanity. Because of the religious leaders of the time (which I address in the second category) many followers became adjusted to simply checking the requirements of being a good Jew off of their list. Giving? Check. Attending? Check. Eating correctly? Check. Cleanliness? Check. I see Checkmark Christians everywhere I look. This is why people shop for a church like it's their Friday night movie. Does it look good? Does it have people I'm attracted to in it? Will I feel good when I walk out? Will I get home at a reasonable hour? Will my kids like it? How much is it going to cost me? Are there food and drinks available? It's because they just need to check church off their list and they want it to be comfortable. Checkmark Christians want to pull up to the window to be served their God for the week so they can go back to their busy lives and give up as little of their time and energy as possible. A prime Bilical example is that if the Rich Ruler. In Luke 18 he asks Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. After establishing that he has a check in all of the boxes, Jesus asks him to make a sacrifice a show people some love. Unfortunately he is sad and unwilling. He was raised as a Checkmark Jew and the transition, or transformation rather into authentic Christian is to much for him.

The second addresses laws that God the Father had set up for good reasons, but leaders had elaborated on them and over prioritized them to a point of making the rules themselves a religion. 'And He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it:You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."' You can spot these overzealous modern day Pharisees most often doing great things. These people get anxious because in their pride they rely on themselves and their gifts to grow God's kingdom, and they're right! They can't do it! You'll find them frequently looking at attendance in their services and groups because they must "measure success". They have the hardest time relying on the grace of God and trusting for future grace! Pharisees however, are great accountability partners: they never let anyone get away with anything. Another way rules religiosity surfaces is through an unwillingness to separate the changeables from the non-negotiables. Compromise is not and should not be an option in areas that deal with Truth. Unfortunately, like the original pharisees, many of today's church members get stuck on how things are supposed to be done simply because that's the way it's been. Jesus Himself managed to be culturally relevant and we know He didn't distort the Word. Why can't today's leaders imitate that?! This encompasses a good portion of today's leaders and "devout" Christians. Sadly they breed a good number of baby Pharisees and even more Checkmark Christians who've been taught to just keep the overzealous "rules people" happy. When I struggle, I admit it's in this direction. I guess I'm one of those lucky people who had my fair share of influence by Pharisees. My frustration is always directed, however, at other Pharisees.

I think the third group and habit that Jesus addressed was the group who loved God and tried to do religion right but in their humanity still needed some guidance. Jesus' disciples had to grow in many areas: shame, pride, materialism, forgiveness and faith; just to name a few. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

No matter how we approach living out our faith, we'll never "do church" perfectly. But we put ourselves in a good spot when we remain humble and teachable. This way when the Spirit speaks to us, we are free to follow no matter what He asks. As long as we are loving God with all of our hearts, souls, minds and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves, we can be confident that we are following the Law! Do church the way God asks you to. Hold to the Scriptures and then don't worry about anything else!