Archive for category Ecclesiology (Church)
The Church Celebrity
Posted by Erik in Church, Ecclesiology (Church), Theology on February 14, 2012
I have previously blogged on the danger of celebrity and the pitfalls that pastors and church leaders may fall into when the Christian media machine gets a hold of you. Lately (I think spurred on by Mark Driscoll’s most recent book and his rockstar persona), there have been a lot of posts about Christian celebrity. The topic seems to be at hand right now. Here are a couple I found worth reading:
Paul Stewart: The Celebrity Pastor
Mike Breen: Obituary for the American Church
To be honest, the American celebrity pastor has been around as long as I can remember. In my childhood, it was John R. Rice and Jack Hyles. In college, it was Bill Hybels and Rick Warren. Now it’s Mark Driscoll or Andy Stanley or Rob Bell or whoever it is that gets the big publishing contract this year.
Let me tell you who should be our celebrities. Men like my dad who has spent 35 years of his life in ministry – sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing but always committed to teaching the Scriptures. Men who devote their lives to the Scriptures and shepherding God’s flock, knowing it will never make them famous or popular. Most of all, men who refuse to compromise the Scriptures and their beliefs to court celebrity.
The megachurch movement is a momentary blip in history. Everyone who is obsessed with the idea of “big is better” and rockstar preachers has their priorities twisted. The job of the pastor is to teach the Scriptures, to be the servant of Jesus Christ – not the servant of the media. We are not called to tour the nation and build our own denominations.
A Field to Be Harvested
Posted by Erik in Church, Theology, Ecclesiology (Church) on February 10, 2012
You quite literally can’t read the Hebrew Scriptures without encountering harvests of every size, shape and color. Since Palestine was a highly agrarian region for most of its history, harvests loom large. They define offerings and sacred holidays in the Torah. The barley and wheat harvests in particular defined the rhythms of life and even theology, as we see in the book of Ruth. In the prophets, harvests of all types are used as anchor points – both for blessings and curses.
It should not surprise us then that Jesus uses this kind of language when describing the Kingdom of God.
A Sidebar About the Kingdom of God
I should pause for a moment and explain the terms kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven because they often get garbled. When these terms appear in the Scriptures, they are not talking about some pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by place where we go when we die. They refer very directly to Jesus himself. John said, “The kingdom of God is at hand” and then baptized Jesus. When Jesus himself speaks of the kingdom of God or heaven, he does not speak about somewhere you go. If you watch what he says, it becomes pretty obvious that he is speaking about himself. In particular, read Matthew 13 where Jesus uses five metaphors to describe the kingdom:
- “A grain of mustard seed” (v 31) – in other words, it is present now and will grow into something larger
- “Leaven hidden in flour” (v 33) – you can’t see it, but it will transform everything
- “Treasure hidden in a field” (v 44) – soon it will be uncovered, but it is already there
- “A merchant in search of pearls” (v 45) – it is something others must find
- “A net thrown in the sea” (v 47) – the fish aren’t caught yet, but they will be
Jesus makes it clear in the first three illustrations that the Kingdom is right in front of his hearers. And the last two illustrate the universal nature of what he is about to do.
That being said, it is important to remember that we are Jesus’ body, as the church, (a metaphor I will get to) and as such, we are the Kingdom. This is the great mystery of the church that Paul writes about in Ephesians 5. Somehow the Kingdom is Jesus, and we are His body, so the Kingdom is us.
We Are a Field to Be Harvested
Jesus makes it plain that the field of mankind is ripe and we are in the season of harvest (Matthew 9, Mark 4:29, Luke 10:2, John 4:35). He calls us to be laborers in these fields, even as he calls us the harvest itself. He also notes that the field will have weeds, which will ultimately be destroyed but must grow among us for the time being (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43).
The feast of Pentecost (Acts 2) was the celebration of the first harvest of winter barley. It was not accidental that God chose that day to fill the Church with the Holy Spirit, making it alive and active as Jesus’ body. It is a harvest that will include all nations (Romans 1:13).
James also warns about trying to harvest what is not our own (James 5:4), echoing Jesus’ parables of the unjust husbandmen who tried to claim the harvest for themselves (Matthew 21).
The motif of harvest can hardly be avoided. Today, we tend to downplay such things as unimportant or as simply metaphors, but in Jesus’ day this was as real and practical a way of describing the church as you could get.
Nobody Here But Us Sheep
Posted by Erik in Church, Ecclesiology (Church) on February 9, 2012
Let’s consider the times Jesus referred to his kingdom as sheep. Jesus really tackles this idea in John 10:
- As his sheep, we hear his voice and recognize his authority over us (v 2)
- We follow him only (vv 3-4)
- We do not follow the voices of strange shepherds (v 5)
- He protects us as our door (vv 7-10)
- We are his personal flock, and the relationship is not just a professional one (vv 11-13)
- Jesus would lay down his life for his flock (v 13)
- The flock is bigger than most people think it is (v 16)
Above all things, we must remember that we are his sheep. The church is Jesus’ personal flock and no one else’s. This is why Peter later wrote to the elders of the church:
Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. (1 Peter 5:3-4)
There are a couple things I draw from this image of the church as a flock of sheep:
The flock follows the shepherd.
We don’t get our say on where the shepherd is taking us. When we get into deciding whether the church should really do what Jesus wants us to do, we get into a lot of trouble. Sheep are completely dependent on human beings. They would self-destruct left to their own devices.
There are a lot of congregations that are just fat sheep sitting around in the midst of a field devoid of food complaining that the shepherd isn’t taking care of them. When we refuse to follow the shepherd, he leaves us where we are – lets us have our will. But that means we’re going to die.
A flock is always moving, changing and growing.
That is the nature of life as a flock. The shepherd tends to our needs only so we can flourish under his care. He takes us through difficult times and comfortable times (read Psalm 23) but always it is with the intention of seeing us grow and mature for His ends.
The movement of the flock is necessary for new food, for protection from predators, for the birth of healthy young. A church that is not moving and changing as the shepherd leads will become inbred, self-absorbed and will eventually fall prey to thieves and predators.
Love Your Enemies
Posted by Erik in Church, Ecclesiology (Church), Theology on February 7, 2012
In the midst of terrorism and presidential elections (and sometimes I am not sure which people take more seriously), remember that historically human government has opposed the work of the Church far more often than government has supposed us.
Rather than complaining about the way the government makes life difficult, the followers of Christ should accept difficulty as a statement of reality. We cannot walk around with a chip on our shoulders, expecting to get special or even fair treatment from the world system.
Straddling Realities
Posted by Erik in Church, History, Ecclesiology (Church), Eschatology on January 25, 2012
Yochanan b. Zecharyah was a Jewish teacher and prophet known to the Christian world as John the Baptist. In the gospel of Luke, he is Jesus of Nazareth’s second cousin and the son of a Jewish priest.
Appearing at the beginning of all four gospels and described as the “forerunner” of the Messiah and the last of the Hebrew prophets, John straddles the line between the days of the prophets and the “Day of the Lord.” If we are to believe the gospels, then we must acknowledge that the authors of those books saw John as the end of an age.
Every gospel tells his story a little different, but in all them John’s message was simple: Repent, for God’s Kingdom is at hand. There was nothing complex about this message. John was saying that God was coming, and the time had come to get right. To drive home the point, Luke quotes the prophet Isaiah:
Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. (Luke 3:4-6 ESV)
It was hard to miss or misinterpret John’s message, and yet for all of our supposed ability and intelligence, we miss what he was saying.
Jesus is the Kingdom of God. He is the Temple of God. He is the Lord’s Messiah. And we live in “The Day of the Lord.”
John represents all that was Hebrew, all that was rabbinical. John is a Jew declaring the end of Judaism and setting the stage for the Messianic Age.
That’s why John’s message is not normative for the Church today. The era he lived in is over. The Law and Prophets are fulfilled in Jesus. The Hebrew epic has been completed and has been transformed into something more. Now what has been anticipated is at work.
The Kingdom is not somewhere we go when we die. It is the One who died for us. Heaven is not some other reality. It is the fully realized reality of Jesus and His resurrection. It is not this life somewhere else, but this life as something else. We are being transformed into Christ’s image, collectively.
The Kingdom is being realized imperfectly now, but will one day be fully realized when Jesus returns. But that does not make it any less real now. We do not perceive it or live it all the time, because we are blinded by sin and restricted by the forces of this world and its would-be usurper who styles himself the Prince of This World, Satan. But make no mistake. Jesus is the Kingdom, and those found in him are citizens of that Kingdom.
Chosen (Reading the Steve Jobs biography)
Posted by Erik in Ecclesiology (Church), General, Personal, Reading on November 7, 2011
Abandoned. Chosen. Special. Those concepts became a part of who Jobs was and how he regarded himself. (Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson)
I know that sometimes it must seem like I obsess about Steve Jobs and Apple products, but there is something fascinating about their story. While Nichole was in surgery, I bought the Kindle edition of Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs. Only a few pages in, I hit this quote and I could not get away from it.
Why?
Because there is so much tied to the idea of being chosen – so much biblical imagery revolves around this idea. And here I recognized a theme that we often disregard. We forget that God chooses, and that he wants us to feel chosen.
What are the ties I observed?
Steve Jobs was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs in 1955. His biological parents, Joanne Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali, were not married. Joanne’s Catholic family would have completely rejected her for marrying Jandali so she gave little Steve up. His adoptive parents never hid the reality of his adoption from him but at age six, a friend asked him, “So your parents didn’t want you?” He was heartbroken, but Paul and Clara reinforced to him that they had chosen him. They wanted him.
This was the reality of his adoption. He was wanted. He was chosen. He was special to his parents. Nothing before mattered. All that mattered was that his parents wanted him enough that they did not parent him out of a biological accident. They intentionally called him son.
Here’s what I extracted. Sometimes, we think God chose us because he had to, because no one else would take us. So sure, we might be God’s people but only out of obligation. If God had a choice, he would have chosen someone else.
Not only that, but we fall into the belief that we Gentile believers are God’s second choice. He chose Israel, but they turned on him, so he had to try again with us. Not only are we not wanted, but we’re the second choice.
Is it any surprise that Christians live in guilt and fear? We do not embrace the choice that God made. We misinterpret God’s justice as some kind of disdain.
We are God’s sons, joint heirs with Christ. (Romans 8:12-17) We are not taken reluctantly into His household, but joyously. (Luke 15)
This is because we are not chosen and then loved. We are chosen because we are loved.
A Covenant Membership
Posted by Erik in Announcements, Church, Ecclesiology (Church), Leadership by Community on September 14, 2011
At Bedford Road, we welcome everyone to worship with us. We believe that seeing God’s people worshiping him is the greatest possible testament of the Gospel.
That being said, we do invite people to take a step of unity and community in becoming voting members of the congregation. Personally, I wish there was a better term for this, but there isn’t, so we use it. This is NOT a “join our club” membership. It is a covenant we take together, renewed twice a year, to make extraordinary sacrifices that should be the norm. (Sadly, they are not.)
The covenant includes a statement:
“to commit our hearts, work and resources to making this vision a reality.”
This is the essence of true membership in a congregation. It is the commitment to get off the chairs and into work.It is the commitment to GIVE – not because we want to but because we step up as followers of Christ and OWN the vision he has given us.
In the coming weeks, we will be entering a teaching series from Romans 12 entitled “PART_S”. It is one of those series that is sure to offend people who are not putting Christ and His Church in their proper place in their lives. It will irritate people who think of church as just something they tack on when it is convenient. It is guaranteed to flumox and stir-up those who casually commit to the church and then expect to control it through their influence.
Below is the covenant we make together as members of the congregation. We take it very seriously, and it will be mentioned a lot during this series.:
FELLOWSHIP COVENANT
Having accepted Christ as our Savior, we unite together as a congregation – committed to the beliefs of our Statement of Faith and submitted to the leadership of our elders, as guided by the teachings of Jesus.
Taking Christ as our Master, we embrace without reservation Jesus’ vision for this congregation – creating environments where people encounter Jesus and journey together – and covenant with both Christ and with our fellow believers to commit our hearts, work and resources to making this vision a reality.
We covenant together to follow Jesus Christ as our model:
- Resolving conflicts with others in this congregation peacefully, in a way that demonstrates our love to those inside and outside our fellowship.
- Honoring others by honoring Christ above all else in our lives.
- Serving both those inside and outside of the church with a humble spirit.
- Living and speaking the Gospel, as the Holy Spirit prompts us to do so.
- Seeking God’s glory in all things.
God enabling me, I will strive to consider my covenant of membership, renewing my covenant annually.
My responsibility will be to notify the Senior Pastor and Elders of Bedford Road Baptist Church if at any time I can no longer commit to this covenant, or if I have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding Bedford Road Baptist Church.
REVIEW – Reverberation
Posted by Erik in Book Reviews, Ecclesiology (Church), General on June 23, 2011
I have been reviewing books for most of the major Christian publishers for two years now. There have been a few decent books, but most of them have been substandard in my opinion. They are churned out because they have a guaranteed audience, with no consideration for content and a poor focus on editing.
About two months ago, I started reviewing for Moody Publishers, and I have been pleasantly surpassed by the content and quality of the books I have been invited to read. The first, Chris Brauns’ When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search, was a practical and useful book from cover to cover.
(Recently, I read a book by an instructor from Moody Bible Institute, which was published by Waterbrook Multnomah. Let me simply say the Biblical content was not nearly as prevalent or emphatic as the books published by Moody themselves.)
This month, I had the opportunity to read Reverberation by Jonathan Leeman.
Leeman’s book is a manifesto for a Bible-driven church. Throughout, he illustrates the necessity of not just “biblical doctrine” but biblical action. It is not enough to teach the Bible as part of our ministry. Teaching the Bible is supposed to BE our ministry. The Scriptures are supposed to be the first and foremost resource for the church.
In a culture where rampant consumerism has defined our way of thinking when it comes to church ministry, Leeman calls his readers to exalt the Word of God – not just in doctrinal statements but in actual practice. It is a far more radical call than some might think.
Much of the thinking that pervades the church today is driven not by the word of life but by the latest business and marketing trends. For decades, the church has been trying to give people what they want. The Bible has been repurposed as a resource we can draw from for inspiration and even challenge, but it has lost its place of preeminence in the church.
As a result, we breed generations of greedy, self-centered Christians. We seek other ways for the Holy Spirit to be “experienced.” We turn to every resource under the sun rather than to the one provided by the Creator.
I can highly recommend Leeman’s book Reverberation. It is a challenging, powerful read.
Legal Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, with no expectation of a positive review.
Review – When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search
Posted by Erik in Book Reviews, Ecclesiology (Church), Reading on June 1, 2011
I don’t know the statistics, but there are a lot of churches looking for pastors. Since the average tenure of a pastor is around two to three years, then the average church will go through a search three or four times every decade. Since there are tens of thousands of churches in North America, of which a healthy proportion have some kind of congregational voice in the calling of a pastor, there is a lot of searching going on.
I am the son of a pastor who served fourteen years at his first congregation and is in his nineteenth year at his second. As a pastor myself, I have served in the same congregation for six years. I say that to point out that my personal experience with pastoral search committees is very limited. That being said, I have heard some horror stories from congregations and pastors.
When Moody Publishers put Chris Brauns book When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search on their review list, I knew I had to read it. To me, the idea of the Word (the Bible) dictating how you choose a pastor seems to be quite obvious, but I know that many churches choose a pastor for all the wrong reasons. They base their decision on a man’s age or education or they listen to a sermon or two and find him acceptable.
Brauns’ book is exactly what it purports to be – a manual for biblically, carefully discerning who God has called and gifted to be the pastor of a congregation. It is written primarily for churches who have a CEO-type pastor – a single elder who is supported by the congregation. In this type of polity, it is absolutely vital that a congregation make the biblical choose of pastor since they grant him a great deal of responsibility and authority in the congregation.
(As I have written before, we do not have this style of leadership among our congregation. I serve as a vocational elder and share the leadership of the congregation with several other Godly men.)
If your congregation is seeking a new pastor, Brauns’ book is a resource worth picking up. He walks you through the biblical precedence for a pastor. He then shows a biblical process for selecting which pastor is the man God has called and equipped for your congregation. Of particular usefulness is his list of “Frequently Asked Questions” at the back of the book. A search committee would benefit greatly from the book.
Personally, I think the book is also a great resource for congregations with elder leadership, especially when calling additional vocational pastors. Churches of all types drop the ball when calling assistant pastors because they take unqualified men and give them inflated titles with very little responsibility as elders.
All around, this book is worth putting on your book shelf.
A copy of this book was provided to me at no cost by Moody Publishers.
BOOK REVIEW – The Strategically Small Church
Posted by Erik in Book Reviews, Ecclesiology (Church), Reading on September 29, 2010
If there is one thing that I, as a pastor of a small church, find annoying about church growth literature it is that it is almost always written by guys who planted churches. This sounds weird, but it is true. Most books on church growth are ‘ground-up’ books. They start with a plant team and build a church. This is true of Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, and any number of other church growth books.
Rare is the book that starts with an existing congregation and shows how it grew. And even rarer still is the book that starts with an existing small congregation and show how it grew in maturity and focus but is still small.
So, you can imagine my excitement coming into the view of The Strategically Small Church by Brandon J. O’Brien. Here was a book with the potential to not only tell me that it is “ok” to be a small congregation, but also that we can be healthy, growing, and small.
O’Brien did not disappoint.
Through real life examples and personal experience, he shows that the fascination with ‘big’ may very well be detrimental to the health of the church. He spends a considerable number of pages speaking about the ways that big churches are now trying to rediscover the intimacy and authenticity that comes natural to the smaller church.
This is not a perfect small church book. It has its quirks. But it is one of the better books on the small congregation phenomenon (and make no mistake about it, the small congregation is here to stay.)
This review is based on a copy of the book provided free of charge by Bethany House Publishers. I received no financial renumeration for the preceding review.
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