Posts Tagged ‘Christianity’
Methods vs. Means
The ministry methods that succeeded in evangelizing people during the modern age simply are no longer working because the average lost person is culturally different than he or she was a few generations ago. ~Mark Driscoll
It seems very obvious to me to say that people in 2011 are very different from those born in the 1950′s and even still there is a greater difference from my Grandfather who was born in 1918. Think for a second about the changes that he has seen in this country during his life.
The US National Academy of Engineering, by expert vote, established the following ranking of the most important technological developments of the 20th century:
- Electrification
- Automobile
- Airplane
- Water supply and Distribution
- Electronics
- Radio and Television
- Mechanized agriculture
- Computers
- Telephone
- Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
- Highways
- Spacecraft
- Internet
- Imaging
- Household appliances
- Health Technologies
- Petroleum and Petrochemical Technologies
- Laser and Fiber Optics
- Nuclear technologies
- Materials science
Now, do you think that my Grandfather who lived in rural NC and didn’t have indoor plumbing and running water till much later in life can identify with the young adults today who for as long as they can remember have had computers in their home? Of course not! Why then do we as the corporate body of Christ struggle to see why a Church must begin to evaluate it’s effectiveness and learn to change and adapt. Let me give you an example of what I mean by the way of two questions?
1) How many people did Jesus tell that the only way to enter in to Heaven and to have that right relationship to the Father was through Him the Son?
The answer: ALL.
2) How many people did Jesus tell that they had to be “Born Again”?
The answer: one (Nicodemus)
So, what this shows us is that Jesus himself was aware of this need to adapt the methods without changing the content. See Jesus knew that to reach people you had to do it where they were. There are so many churches that are dying because they are holding on to a way that was successful reaching people 30 years ago, and not looking at the fact that people today are not the same people from 30 years ago. There have been so many changes that we don’t even really recognize the people from those times when we look at pictures or see old video footage.
So instead of reaching people right where they are and showing them the love of Christ and the hope of Christ we stay inside our doors and argue over what is better a Hymn that praises God or a Worship song that praises God. The result of this is a Church that will quench the Spirit and become ineffective in reaching those that need to hear the Gospel of Christ.
Jesus, being 100% God and 100% man had the ability to meet people right where they were and communicate with them in a way that they would understand exactly what He meant. When He was in the temple the He spoke in scriptures and things that the Pharisees and scribes would understand. When He spoke with the Centurion he spoke in terms and about matters that He would understand.
Jesus is the perfect example of how to reach those that are in need of being reached. And He went to them, and meet them, He did not expect them to be a certain way prior to engaging them.
Church…let’s get beyond our ridiculous arguments about preferences and styles and begin to reach people where they are. Let’s show them that Christ loves them by loving them ourselves!
God Bless
~ PT
State of the Church
So as I have undertaken this journey of reading the entire Bible in 180 days (which is been very challenging and rewarding all at the same time) I have really gotten a refreshed look from the Holy Spirit into God and His desires for us as His children. And as I do most days I read a lot of other’s blogs and make sure that I am attempting to stay current with all the things that are happening across the Church in America today. In one of those readings I came across a profound statement that made me sit back and think for awhile about our state as a Church and some of the things that I have seen or heard happen. I wanted to do two things then today:
- Share the quote and the article with you (it take abouts 5 minutes to read it is very short)
- Share a video with you that accentuates the point of this blog and of the article as well.
So here is the quote that I read that I felt was very profound and possibly a perspective changer (as a pastor I love perspective changers).
God laid aside his wants—and so can we
God’s action in the world never revolves around the immediate satisfaction of wants and needs. His action is focused on reconciliation. The amazing news is the God of the Bible incurred all the cost of reconciliation himself. He paid our debt in full to restore us to his family. And when we see the God of the heavens lay aside his wants and needs to serve us, we can make the much smaller sacrifice of laying aside our own.
Now take a second and look at this article
OK, now that you have read that…take about 2 minutes and watch this video from the Family Fued. Now I am not condoning the topic I am simply making a point as to the order that the answers fall in the survey. It really makes my heart grieve that we have grown so lackadaisical as believers that we have lost a lot of the impact and priority in society.
Give me your thoughts…
~ God Bless
Pastor Tyler
A Pondering Quote…
“We must be careful to value all the biblical books. Christians are always tempted to construct a ‘canon within a canon’—-a set of books within the Bible that are more important than others. The danger is that we will end up with an imbalanced Christianity—-a view of faith based on a narrow selection of books and passages. The antidote to this problem is to force ourselves to deal with the whole gamut of biblical revelation. We should expose our minds to the whole of God’s truth, not just those books we happen to be interested in or those issues we happen to get excited about.” -Unknown
My prayer for you and for me is that we would frantically beg the Holy Spirit to show us where our Christianity is imbalanced. Where we have chosen to grab hold of certain doctrines and be loose or even rejecting of other doctrines. I pray that over this next year we would search for those things in our lives that would make us more surrendered to, broken, and usable by God to bring glory to Himself through our lives.
~ God Bless
Pastor Tyler
How Far?
So as we are in this time of elections and our nation’s governing body is seeing turnover (or maybe that word should be turmoil) and seats changing parties and so forth, this can lead itself to some pretty heated discussions over politics and what one thinks should be done or what one thinks is wrong and who’s fault that is.
Now I know that this all is important and in the current state of our country’s debt no doubt we need to be smart and make wise decisions, however I am not one to be a huge political activist. I hold true to some core values in my political beliefs and if a candidate is outside of those there is nothing that can be said or done to gain my vote. I know this is a limited viewpoint, none the less it is mine.
But this is radically different with my beliefs on scripture and on the what, when, why”s”, and etc. that God has put before us. I am very passionate and very much one that would sit and discuss my beliefs and am always looking for an intelligent dissection of scripture that might be a revelation from God. But how far would we really go? How far does our lip service of surrender to Jesus really go?
If you are a steady follower of this blog then you know that one of my passions is “The Church”. What our task is, what we should look like, how we should act, etc. so when I saw this quote this past Sunday in Church I had to research and read more about the author. I thought the expression was very profound so I want to take a second to share it with you and then share a little bit about the author with you (I will also give you a link so that you can do a little more research your self.)
So here is the quote:
“Church is defined as those who are persecuted and martyrdom for the Gospel’s sake”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Now that you have seen the quote let me share a few brief details with you about his life and then give you the link to read more. He was born in Breslau Germany in 1906. He came to America in the 1930′s to do a post graduate study in pursuit of his doctorate. He went to seminary and became a key speaker for the German people to not fall into a worship of Hitler and to remain true to their faith. Two days after Hitler was put into power Dietrich went on the radio to denounce Hitler and warn his fellow Germans against this tyranny. He was later imprisoned and eventually executed. But Here is what is profound! This is what was said about him by one of the employees of the concentration camp that he was being imprisoned at.
The camp doctor who witnessed the execution wrote: “I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer … kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”
Will we go that far? Will we follow Christ all the way through the gallows (whether that is figuratively or physically) with the quiet heart of submission. If you have been a Christian very long and if you have ever taken any role of leadership you understand the struggles and joys that go along with serving. And there will (if it has not already) come a time when you will have to look your faith in the face and say “God, how far do you expect me to go?’ and His response will be “I asked my own Son to go to the Cross, now how about you just …?”
The point being this, when the time of persecution, trial, or assassination comes (and it will come) will you fight and kick and scream or will you go as Pastor Bonhoeffer did fervently and submissively in prayer? Thus, allowing God to have complete control and the ability to mold and chisel in your life where He sees fit.
REAL EASY TO TYPE…real hard to live through!
God Bless~
Pastor Tyler
