Evangelicals: Where we are and how we got here...

Here is an excellent article from Christianity Today tracing the historical rise of American evangelicalism and the reasons behind it. As the byline puts it, "50 years ago, evangelicals were a sideshow of American culture. Since then, it's been a long, strange trip. Here's a look at the influences that shaped the movement."

Should we fret the back door...?

Browsing the web today, I came across a thought-provoking article bearing this title on the LeadershipJournal.net website. The author is a pastor who leads a thriving church in Leawood, Kansas. I think every shepherd can identify with his words when he writes,

I carry a fair amount of guilt about our back door. I think to myself, If I were a better pastor, they would still be here; or, If I had done a better job of discipling them, they would not have fallen away; or, If I hadn't preached on that controversial issue, they would not have left angry. Each one who departs leaves me with a distinct sense of failure.

He goes on to write something we pastors may not think about too
often,

This is an issue Jesus wrestled with. In John 6:66 we read, "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." We know that thousands came to hear Jesus preach, and to eat of the fish and the loaves, yet how few there were that actually pursued the life of discipleship.

Some who heard him were quite critical of Jesus' ministry, accusing him of operating by the power of the Devil! Even his disciples questioned what he was doing. And one of the Twelve became so disillusioned that he betrayed the Lord to his enemies.

Jesus, too, had a "revolving back door" in his ministry.

Many scholars believe that the Parable of the Sower and the Soils reflects Jesus' own self-assessment of his ministry.

He then concludes,

Here's the takeaway: you will never completely close the back door of your church. When people leave, it hurts. Learn all you can from those who leave. Listen to hear if there is something important God would say to you through them.

Reach out to them, apologizing when needed, offering clarification and love when this is what's called for. But remember that when Jesus, God's Word made flesh, preached the gospel on this earth, most of his hearers did not accept his message. Some accused him of having a demon. One of his key leaders even betrayed him.

Jesus knew that God's kingdom would not expand by "pleasing all of the people all of the time." Instead the Kingdom expands as the relative minority of people who hear the gospel, live it, and in turn, give it away. Our task is to keep scattering the seed.

That sounds like good advice to me...! What do you think?

Typos and other challenges

Please forgive the many typos and other errors in some of my posts. The software that www.blogspot.com uses is not very handy for typing in text. I am working on a way to do my writing in Microsoft Word, then post it to this blog, and I think I about have it figured out. That should make things much, much better. In the meantime, thanks for your patience...!

Consumer Christianity - Too Many Choices?

I continue to be amazed about how many parallels there are between the life of a local church and that of a family. Pastoring, in fact, sometimes seems a lot like parenting. Perhaps this is why the Apostle Paul instructed Timothy and Titus to careful consider the state of a candidate's family life when they looked for potential spiritual leaders. He did not say that elders and deacons had to be successful business men, but he did say they had to be sucessful family men.
Entrepeneurial acumen certainly does not disqualify one from spiritual leadership and can be very valuable when applied to the life of a local church. According to Paul, though, it should not be the grounds for considering or selecting someone for such a role.

I think the reason is very simple: while businesses and churches have many things in common, a local church is much more like a family than a company. In a business, people are a means to an end; in a family, people are the end. In a business, people are sacrificed if necessary for the sake of the bottom line; in a family, people are the bottom line. Jesus did not die for ministry buildings, projects, or institutions, but for people. Hirelings lead task oriented ministries; shepherds lead people oriented ministries. Moses was not only called to go to the Promised Land, he was called to lead a particular group of sometimes rebellious people to the Promised Land. His level of commitment to them and his love for them was much like that of a father to his children. As pastors, if we ever sacrifice our sheep on the altar of our vision, then our ministry has become our god and we are a hireling, not a shepherd.

In every other gathering of human beings, people are brought together on the basis of some degree of shared interest or commonality, be it a love of football, similar political persuasions, common educational goals or something else, but in a family, people are forever bound together by simple DNA, no matter how divergent their values or diverse their personalities. Though their interpersonal conflicts may cause them to want to flee from each other, even if they go years without speaking or making contact, it is amazing how inevitably some occasion such as a wedding or a funeral or the discovery of a congenital family trait by some obscure biologist will thrust family members together once again.

God designed the biological family this way for many very good reasons. One of the most important must certainly be the perfection of our character. We can easily sever every other difficult human relationship without ever learning the lessons on interpersonal relationships from it that we should, but not our biological family ties. As one wag put it, "You can pick your friends, but you're stuck with your kinfolk!" Have you ever noticed how rare it is for siblings to be just like each other in temperament? This is not an accident! God intentionally places very diverse personalities in the same nuclear family for the simple reason that this forces every member to grow relationally. As we succeed in our families, working through conflicts and walking out forgiveness and forebearance, we learn valuable keys to success in every sphere of human relationships in broader society.

In this vein, I came across an interesting article a few minutes ago on Christianity Today's website (click here). It addresses some of the downfalls in adopting a purely "marketing" approach to local church leadership, especially focusing on meeting people's felt needs without ever calling them to a long-term, "come what may," commitment to a particular congregation. At first read, I think most any pastor who has seen someone lightly leave the flock they lead might read the article and identify with the frustrations felt in the conversation which opens up the piece. I encourage you, though, to take the time to ask yourself the question, "In the church I serve, how intentional are we about promoting the kind of interpresonal bonding between members that would motivate them to stay with this community of faith no matter what?" If we fail to do this, we rob our people of God's perspective on the local church and they will not grow unto the spiritually mature individuals He intends them to be.

What do you think?

Generous Giving Stewardship website

Here is a great website with lots of material on stewardship: http://www.generousgiving.org/

UPI says prosperity theology is booming

The United Press International news wire put out a brief item today entitled, 'Prosperity Theology' is Booming, stating that three out of the four largest churches in America preach this theology. They also reference a Time magazine poll that found 61 percent of Americans say they believe God wants people to be prosperous, although only 17 percent consider themselves to be part of the prosperity theology movement.

Should we do away with theologians?

Here's an interesting read from C. Peter Wagner entitled, "Goodbye Theologians!" I chuckled when I read that a student at Fuller Seminary had a research paper rejected by a professor because he had quoted Jack Hayford in it, saying Hayford was not "theological."

What the Bible says about fighting terrorism

As spiritual leaders, we are sometimes called upon by those we lead to provide a biblical lens throught which to view some significant current event. Here is a thought-provoking look at an Old Testament passage that its author believes provides some insight for an ethical approach to fighting terrorism. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13938178/site/newsweek/

Praise for Billy Graham's preaching from a rabbi who doesn't believe in Jesus...

Thankfully, it is a rainy Labor Day here in Dallas after so much drought. I have finally finished my homework for a course I was taking and am doing a little reading on the Internet. I'll post a few links that I have found interesting. Here is a column by one of the best known rabbis in America who begins by saying, "I'm a rabbi and I like Billy Graham. I don't agree with him about Jesus, but I like him anyway...when he dies, there will never be another preacher like him." Worth reading for all of us who are called to communicate the Gospel: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8147174/site/newsweek/