The “Everything That” Goes Church: In Response to Sunday’s Stroller Column

Several people in my church asked me to read this column by Mr. Fred Thompson in our local paper’s community section.

Spartanburg Herald Stoller Column

After reading the column it seemed good to respond to this column with a few thoughts about Mr. Thompson’s observations, and also offer an overall though about the task of faithful gospel churches. We should all take note of some of Mr. Thompson’s observations.

• No doubt, the methods of the modern “anything goes” church have not produced the revival that anyone hoped. This should convict us that church growth is not the same as being a faithful disciple-making church.
• The fact that churches no longer guide or influence our nation should put on display the utter ineptitude of the church to guide other institutions. This should convince us that God called the  church to disciple and discipline individuals not institutions.
  

  Light the church with Neon? Anything Goes

• The past thirty to forty years has seen the church youth group our children into spiritual death. Separating youth and children from the rest of the church does not make disciples! Without youth, adults lose vital energy. Without adults, youth lose vital truth.

As a pastor, nothing grieves my heart more than the thought that I might sidetrack or shortchange “the pattern of sound words” that I received. 2 Timothy 1:13-14 tells me that my greatest duty is to repeat, not alter or make more attractive the words I receive, guarding this good deposit entrusted by the Holy Spirit to me.

 

Marathon Terror. What Should We Learn from Boston?

The aftermath of our modern Boston Massacre.

In just a few hours our president plans on holding a non-denominational inter-faith service to help the country and the city of Boston cope with the effects of the massacre left by the bombs exploded.

Certainly such a service should be held, however, when the officials cannot even agree on whether this should be treated as a crime scene or a terrorist attack how can such a service help us cope?

This sort of confusion over the issues points to a greater moral confusion in our country. Does this matter? Yes! We deal with a crime scene by collecting evidence for a trial and justice through our penal system. We deal with a terrorist as an enemy combatant without such legal privileges and due process. What we call an event determines how we respond to it. In a world where right and wrong consistently blurs to the point where we cannot accurately call an event like the one in Boston terrorism, it is no wonder that we cannot agree on other more complicated and personal moral decisions.

The headlines this week read “Marathon Terror”. I can think of no better way of describing a life without a clear understanding of right and wrong or good and evil. We must be able to label activities and events as well as intentions and thoughts in order to adequately deal with them and cope with the aftermath. If we label a serial killer as sick we imply he only needs a doctor. If we label him as misunderstood, then he only needs a platform to help us to understand him. If we label him as a menace to society, the only thing he needs is to be secluded from society. Only when we call a man a sinner can we introduce him both to justice and to the Savior.

 

Our Relationship with God Isn’t Give and Take.

Give and Take

This week we return to Matthew in our Morning Worship hour. As I began my final preparations for the coming message, the way Jesus sets up the parable in Matthew 21:33-46 caught my attention.

Why? Look at the picture to the left. How many people do you think understand their relationship with God as this type of “give and take” relationship? In this picture you can see that one guy appears to hold the rope better and be stronger. The other guy is no pushover since he helps keep the rope taut. As is often the case, this sort of tug-of-war between near equals will leave both persons on their bottom. Is this the type of relationship we have with the Lord? Does the Lord need us to keep the rope taut? 

 

Who’s in Charge? – Christian Motivation

Last week’s message in church from Romans 5:17 ended with the great truth that death no longer reigns in our life. So who or what does reign in our life now? Paul offers us a revelation at the end of the verse that may scare us. He tells us that we actually reign in the new life that Christ gives to us. Since we know how easily even the most innocent among us fail to display self control, like in the video below, our fears seem justified.

 

What Makes Me a Baptist? – Part 5 Baptized into Congregational Fellowship

Last week we began looking at how Baptist understand the core tenent of their identity, namely the ordinance known as believer’s baptism. As was stated, Baptists sought to faithfully practice the convictions they understood the New Testament to teach. This forced a reformation of the practice of baptism in two areas. We covered the first of those areas last week. Each person who asked for baptism did so in order to celebrate the regeneration they received upon becoming believers in Jesus Christ. Infants, children, citizens of a Baptist domain could not celebrate baptism until such a time as they had been personally regenerated by the Lord Jesus. Baptism did not confer grace, but rather celebrated God’s supernatural work of grace.

Today as we begin to move into the second area of Baptist convictions concerning baptism we do not leave behind this crucial first conviction. Rather, as we move forward, we simply turn this conviction to see it from the viewpoint of the church family as a whole. To do that, let’s try to answer a very familiar challenge to Christianity. If you’ve been a Christian any length of time you probably have heard someone say, “You don’t have to be a member of a church to be a Christian.” In fact just this week my wife showed me a Facebook funny page that said, “You are no more of a Christian by going to church than you are a car by standing in a garage.” Is this true?