Holy Week 2010 at Immanuel Fellowship really began with Palm Sunday with me preaching in the first service and Pastor Glenn Garrison preaching in the second service--a stirring message on the triumphal entry of Jesus to the Royal City of Jerusalem.
Monday and Tuesday we had evening readings from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together. It was Bonhoeffer who said that when Christ calls a man he bids him to die. Bonhoeffer knew what he was saying because in 1945 just days before the fall of Berlin Hitler had him hanged.
Life Together is a slim volume in which Bonhoeffer wrote about living together in community as a local church. It has plenty of insight about the grace that God gives through the fellowship that Christians have in their local church. Fellowship is not friendship. We choose who our friends are. In fellowship it is God who chooses who we have fellowship with. Fellowship, Bonhoeffer wrote, is only in and through Jesus Christ. A feel-good type of fellowship is rare, Bonhoeffer wrote. Most of the time it is something we have to believe in rather than do our best to experience, He who desires some extraordinary social experience rather than what Christ has given is not looking for fellowship, Bonhoeffer insists. He is confusing a natural human desire for the spiritual reality of the Christian brotherhood.
In the last 50 years of the evangelical resurgence around the world, a lot of experimentation has been done on churches, with disastrous results and at huge expense to frustrated Christian lives. The church is not our creation, but a creation of the Spirit of God. It bears the stamp of the image of Jesus Christ. We should not erase it and substitute our own.
We could not finish the entire book. We just went through the first chapter. Bonhoeffer was not only a great teacher but a devout follower of Jesus who lived what Jesus commanded. His other book is The Cost of Discipleship and this is one book I can recommend wholeheartedly to those who want to follow in the footsteps of their Lord.
Wednesday night and Thursday morning we had a retreat with Attorney Edwin Catacutan whose reflections on redemption from the first three chapters of Genesis was based from his experience as a trial lawyer. When he talked about God's judgment of death because of disobedience, it sent shivers down my spine. And then when he talked about how Adam and Eve lost the divine covering after the fall, one could only imagine what if would have been for our first parents to stand naked before that unblinking gaze of a holy God.
Thursday evening we had Communion together, with one bread and one cup signifying our unity in the Body of Christ which in the New Testament was primarily experienced within the local church. The passage in 1 Corinthians 11 is the earliest New Testament record of the Last Supper and in it Paul called the night of the Passover Festival when the New Covenant was instituted as "the night that he was betrayed" words that could only make real sense in the context of the local chourch. Finally on Friday afternoon at two seven people from the Fellowship itself, ordinary people, with unadorned simplicity spoke on Jesus' last seven words on the cross.
We rested on Black Saturday. On Sunday we had joint service. We faced technical difficulties with our computer and projector. We were half an hour delayed. When the Multi Media Team threw up the towel, the Praise and Worship Team went ahead, and people sang from memory. The congregation responded with enthusiasm and became one of the most uplifting worship services we ever had.
The ABBA Kids with their parents presented a lively Kids Praise song about the Body of Christ and the singles sang about the mission of the church.
The week was rich with reflections from the past and the present, from simple folk to great students of the Word. The diet was varied. The celebration of the Lord's Supper was simple but very moving in both Thursday and Sunday Holy Communion services.
Paul wrote about the church of Philippi, "I thank God for every remembrance of you." I know I cannot stay long in Cebu but I can say the same of Immanuel Fellowship. And I wish to enjoy my short time together and especially Holy Week with the brothers and sisters of the Fellowship than anywhere else.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Baptism and Membership in a New Spiritual Reality
Part One On Baptism and Church Membership
In 2010 we in Immanuel Fellowship are giving more significance to Baptism as incorporation of new believers into the life of the Fellowship. By this we mean that we are seeing Baptism not only as an individual's public affirmation of private faith in Jesus Christ but also as an initiation into the life the Fellowship. In other words when we speak of membership in the Fellowship we mean this to come primarily through Baptism.
Reading the New Testament we see the importance that it attaches to Baptism. Our response to the call to salvation through repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus (Acts 20:21) leads us to Baptism. Through Baptism we identify ourselves with or participate in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:4). In answer to the question, “Shall we persist in sin so that God’s grace may abound in our life?” Paul answered: “How can we?” In baptism, he said, we participated in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. So the Christian life is not a constant demand for the grace of God for forgiveness but the outworking of our participation in the life of Christ unto righteousness (Romans 6). Beset by a temptation we can always look back to Baptism and ask ourselves the same question, “How can I?” Baptism is the watershed from which flows the entire ethical dimension of the Christian life.
This life “In Christ” has another dimension, however. Christ has a Body, the Church. Participation in Christ also involves participation in the Church. This participation also begins with Baptism. In 1 Corinthians 12:12 and 13, we read, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
The Christian life is not only a life of prayer and worship or a matter of personal integrity. It is also a life that we live together with other believers in the context of the local church. Everybody passes through the same gate when we enter into Fellowship and that gate is Baptism. It is not the signing of a membership card or the public profession of the church’s tenet of faith. It is the joining of our life into a new spiritual reality—the Body of Christ.
In 2010 we in Immanuel Fellowship are giving more significance to Baptism as incorporation of new believers into the life of the Fellowship. By this we mean that we are seeing Baptism not only as an individual's public affirmation of private faith in Jesus Christ but also as an initiation into the life the Fellowship. In other words when we speak of membership in the Fellowship we mean this to come primarily through Baptism.
Reading the New Testament we see the importance that it attaches to Baptism. Our response to the call to salvation through repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus (Acts 20:21) leads us to Baptism. Through Baptism we identify ourselves with or participate in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:4). In answer to the question, “Shall we persist in sin so that God’s grace may abound in our life?” Paul answered: “How can we?” In baptism, he said, we participated in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. So the Christian life is not a constant demand for the grace of God for forgiveness but the outworking of our participation in the life of Christ unto righteousness (Romans 6). Beset by a temptation we can always look back to Baptism and ask ourselves the same question, “How can I?” Baptism is the watershed from which flows the entire ethical dimension of the Christian life.
This life “In Christ” has another dimension, however. Christ has a Body, the Church. Participation in Christ also involves participation in the Church. This participation also begins with Baptism. In 1 Corinthians 12:12 and 13, we read, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
The Christian life is not only a life of prayer and worship or a matter of personal integrity. It is also a life that we live together with other believers in the context of the local church. Everybody passes through the same gate when we enter into Fellowship and that gate is Baptism. It is not the signing of a membership card or the public profession of the church’s tenet of faith. It is the joining of our life into a new spiritual reality—the Body of Christ.
The Mind Under Grace
From a Christianity Today article authored by Darren Marks
Doctrine. The word conjures in the modern mind a string of negative images: The Inquisition. Boring professors debating the number of angels on the head of a pin. Bloggers arguing endlessly while the church flags in relevance in the once-Christian West. Doctrine is a bludgeon, a curiosity, a rearranging of the deck chairs while the ship sinks. Vibrant Christians want little to do with it, and instead focus on spiritual disciplines, works of mercy, and authentic Christian living. Doctrine belongs to the past, when it was used mainly to divide believers. How many Protestants spend time pondering whether it is acceptable to chew Communion bread (a major issue for the first Reformers)?
But we have to ask: Is it possible to live out discipleship without a good measure of heady doctrine? I see doctrine not as a boundary but as a compass. Its purpose is not to make Christians relevant or distinctive but rather to make them faithful in their contexts. Doctrine is a way of articulating what God's presence in the church and the world looks like. It can orient us by helping us, like Jon, major in the majors.
In addition, I believe the crisis in the Western church is not about information itself but about the kind of information we absorb in our churches. Philosopher James K. A. Smith put it best: "Theology is not some intellectual option that makes us 'smart' Christians; it is the graced understanding that makes us faithful disciples."
Default Buddhists
I'm using the terms doctrine and theology interchangeably. To be exact, doctrine is more or less settled theology. You find doctrine in creeds and statements of faith. Theology or "doing theology" is about the process and rules we use to talk about things that may end up as doctrine. A doctrinal statement (Jesus is "true God from true God," as the Nicene Creed testifies) is always a theological statement. But not all theological statements become doctrine. Still, in this essay, I will use doctrine and theology to refer to our intellectual grappling with the faith, which, as Smith notes, can give us graced understanding and lead to faithful discipleship. Doctrine, while static at times, is meant to help us think about our lives more deeply by considering alongside other Christians the implications of our thoughts and deeds. Doctrine is wisdom that helps us clarify our mission.
Yet we seem decidedly uninterested in such wisdom today, both inside and outside the church.
Sociologist Steve Bruce has observed that Western spirituality is "Buddhist by default": that Westerners, even Christians, are obsessed with what goes on inside, with spiritual experience. We don't usually welcome any external testing of our thoughts or actions. Subjectivity takes the ethical and doctrinal teeth out of every religion. Doctrine can help us think.
Bruce does not mean that we are actually Buddhists. We don't practice its asceticism. Instead we prefer a pallid, easy Buddhism, a series of feel-good statements supposedly culled from the Buddha. Our culture does this with all religions, Bruce says. It boils them down to one basic principle: Do what makes you feel good about yourself, and preferably in 10 minutes or less. As religious consumers, we warp every tradition by subjecting it to our needs. The Christian West's consumer needs, he notes, have by and large led us to abandon traditional Christianity, and the Eastern spirituality we adopt is actually the vapid form of Christianity created by modernity. This is a Christianity of self-experience.
In this sense, Western Christians are children of Friedrich Schleiermacher, the 19th-century Enlightenment thinker who built his theological system on the foundation of spiritual experience. In many cases, we find his influence unwittingly embedded in our church leadership, our seminaries, and our theological faculties. A theology grounded in experience ultimately fades into soft moralism, humanism, or, in the unique case of American Christianity, a civic religion wherein God and country are easily confused.
As I write this, the top three best-selling books in the Christian nonfiction category of Amazon.com are also listed (and number one) in the personal transformation, New Age, and self-help categories. All three books also appear on the New York Times bestseller list. It seems we believe that what we experience is more important than what we think, and we buy accordingly. The authors and their fans would likely say that they are addressing needs. But do we best serve our culture by becoming increasingly theologically illiterate?
Spirituality in the Balance
At the heart of Schleiermacher's work lay an important quest: to understand how to be faithful in a particular context. Schleiermacher and his progeny wanted much to be relevant Christians. The problem lies in where he started.
Schleiermacher thought that the essence of Christianity was its spiritual impulse, not its doctrine, which seemed to cause most of the problems. It had fueled violent conflicts between
Catholics and Protestants and threatened to stifle scientific progress and human achievement. For Schleiermacher, as for many today, if one could boil ideas down to a common essence, differences would dissipate and humankind could move forward in harmony. That essence was religiosity—a connection to God that every human being has the capacity to feel and experience. We might call this spirituality or awe in everyday parlance.
Schleiermacher began with internal experiences of God and built theology around those experiences, reconfiguring doctrine as needed. He assumed that by starting with ourselves and our desires, we would glimpse a purer vision of God and perhaps a more relevant church. But how did the project fare?
With some 200 years of hindsight, we see that the ramifications were immense. Take what has been called the only empirically verifiable Christian doctrine, the doctrine of original sin. For Schleiermacher, sin is not primarily about trespassing against God's laws or a moral debt we owe to a divine being. Sin is misspent energy. If we only paid better attention and had better information and better situations, we would naturally want to be spiritual. This kind of thinking defines sin as a mis-education or mis-direction of our innate sense of awe. A sinner is one who is out of continuity with his own sense of self, and a religious founder is one who is aware of higher spiritual truths and awakens them in others.
In this trajectory, Jesus becomes a sage who, among others, came to tell us about our potential and awaken our religious sensibilities. Jesus Christ is a spiritual avatar who may be called the Son of God but is different from us only by degree, not by kind. He is certainly not the unique God-man. Church becomes a kind of group therapy we attend to be told we are all right, to share in the piety of Jesus' example. While there is much positive here, the question remains whether God matters as the agent of changed lives. In the final analysis, core Christian beliefs, even those about Jesus, have to feel authentic or they are discarded.
Let's return to Amazon.com's bestseller list. The current number two bestseller, from a prominent Christian author, claims that belief itself is not enough to overcome bad habits, and that we need to stretch our faith, just as Jesus taught. Ultimately the book points to one goal: achieving our dreams and destiny by dint of effort. Sin is a failure to achieve our dreams, Jesus is a personal sage who helps us experience those dreams, and church is where we go to receive positive reinforcement to actualize our destinies. The book does not mention the Sermon on the Mount, or that God's destiny for us may be martyrdom (Heb. 11).
In hindsight, we can see that the belief driving Schleiermacher's entire theological machine needed correction. Schleiermacher led us astray by proposing that we interrogate theological ideas rather than allow ourselves to be interrogated by them. The emphasis on spiritual experience put us, not God, in the driver's seat.
As far as we remain the children of Schleiermacher, we either unconsciously or actively transform Christianity into something that, while seemingly relevant, is bereft of spiritual vigor.
Interrogated by the Bible
The sharp-eyed reader will note two things missing from my argument so far. One is positioning the Bible as the only guide to Christian faith. The other is looking at the role of the Holy Spirit. Both are integral to theology. Without them, doctrine and theology become propositions or proof-texting. The opposite of experience is dogmatism, staid religious scholasticism that sucks the life out of a relationship with God.
We have to begin by acknowledging a reality that rightly makes us nervous: All Christian theology helps us interpret the Bible. Theology is what helps us read disparate writings that span thousands of years and arise out of cultures very different from ours. Further, the Bible comprises many texts that address specific problems in specific places (e.g., sexual immorality in Corinth). It presents ideas that at times seem current and at other times obscure. One seemingly crystal-clear verse (Gal. 3:28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek …") or book (Philemon on slavery) can be interpreted by the faithful in a variety of ways. The earliest Christians knew this all too well.
The first three centuries of Christianity featured a running dialogue with the Bible. In their theology, the earliest Christians had to avoid reading the Bible as too Jewish, too Gentile, too focused on Peter, too focused on Paul, too focused on faith, or too focused on works. To read the Bible through only one interpretive lens could lead to false conclusions, like denying the Trinity or Jesus' humanity or divinity. In each case, a simple reading of a passage, usually through the reader's cultural lens, resulted in a distortion of Christian life. Those who found little biblical evidence for what was emerging as the doctrine of the Trinity, for example, usually ended up with a Christ who never knew humanity (docetism) or a Jesus who was not fully God (Arianism). Thus, doctrine became a yardstick by which to measure various readings and help Christians pinpoint the essentials.
To some people, this will sound like the Bible is not primary, that theological discourse needs to correct Scripture. This could lead some to see the Bible as an interesting historical document to get us started, not the active Word of God that shapes us. And some argue that Christianity is more a communal practice than a personal relationship with the living God. (Schleiermacher would likely agree with that statement.)
But, at its best, Christian theology has never understood itself to be merely a human reflection on contingent truths. The best theology grounds itself in Scripture as the revealed Word of God, not in the religious experiences of ancient people. Scripture's authority is not something that the community relates to first with its own experience. Instead, as Martin Luther put it, Scripture bears authority because it bears Christ—because it points unequivocally and majestically in grace to the living God. Scripture interrogates the community. Because it can be a difficult task to hear Christ speak clearly in Scripture, the church has used theology to test that interrogation. Some may read or hear Scripture in a new manner under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as the 18th- and 19th-century abolitionists did regarding slavery. Theology tests such new readings by asking questions of both the text and the church, helping to clarify the movement of the Spirit.
The church's theological task has never been only to comprehend an impersonal piece of literature intellectually. Theology has always understood itself as being under God's providential grace. It is the result of faithful Christians grappling with Scripture in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Just as Jacob wrestled with God, so have Christians wrestled with Scripture as they have sought to articulate core beliefs about the God active among them, active in and through Scripture itself.
In our conversation with the Bible, we've developed shorthand (though imperfect) to articulate what it reveals. We say God is the Trinity and Christ is Savior, and we talk about sin, heaven, and church. We use those meanings to understand Scripture even as those core beliefs have come from Scripture. These are not esoteric abstractions but fundamental ways in which Christians cross-index their spirituality (their relationship with the God who is present) with a faithful reading of the Bible.
This theological method inverts Schleiermacher's. We do not start with "my spirituality" and then identify core beliefs. Instead, we begin with core beliefs—those discovered by the church as it has intellectually wrestled with the truth of Scripture in the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit. These beliefs, which come from outside myself, correct and shape my spiritual experience.
The best theology grounds itself in Scripture as the revealed Word of God, not in the religious experiences of ancient people.
We have a good example of this process in the theological work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who studied in the era when Schleiermacher's spirit reigned supreme. Most of Bonhoeffer's teachers were in tune with their country's zeitgeist, the swelling German pride that manifested itself in part as anti-Semitism and pro-Nazism. They were reading Scripture, but with personal experience in the fore; thus, their theology merely reinforced the era's powerful sentiments.
But, as Bonhoeffer read Scripture, he began to understand Jesus of Nazareth as "Christ the Center." For him the seemingly dusty ideas of the Incarnation and the Atonement took on life. His theological reflections on Christ helped him see that anti-Semitism and Nazism, especially in the church, were replacing Christ as the center, that they were even anti-Christ. This prompted him to speak out, to actively resist the zeitgeist.
Cultivating Graced Understanding
Bonhoeffer knew, as did Calvin, Augustine, and many others, that dry, seemingly irrelevant ideas like the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, and eschatology are crucial elements of our spiritual formation. Theology helps map a reading of Scripture as Scripture interrogates its readers under the guidance of the Spirit.
For the past 200 years, many parts of Western Christianity have labored as Schleiermacher's children. The mainline traditions have hoped to achieve relevance. The evangelical and free-church traditions have hoped to read the Bible unadulterated and alone. Both traditions, however, have made our feelings—which are, by definition, slippery and transitory—primary. Mainliners have eschewed theology for fear that it imposes another's context and assumptions, while evangelicals have eschewed theology because it might compete with the pristine Bible or become a rigid boundary. Both traditions forget that theology is a kind of memory that allows us to hear God's Word by clarifying our experiences.
Many complain that the church has become incapable of cultivating Christian habits in its people. No wonder, when for so many the starting point is not God but spiritual experience. How can we sustain any spiritual growth if it is grounded in something as transitory as what we feel, individually or corporately?
The decreasing lack of interest in core Christian beliefs is due in part to church leaders who chase after relevance over substance—focusing on the feeling that something is meaningful rather than the truth that something is meaningful. It is also due to church members who imagine that their experience is the touchstone of truth about God, rather than learning to evaluate their experience in light of Scripture and theology.
Over the years, I have found that the students in my classroom grow in understanding by studying "dusty" and "dry" doctrine. They learn to interrogate their experiences, asking how they may find a "theological existence" or mission. I hope that Jon and his peers learn that they cannot have spiritual formation without doctrine, that theology is that business of graced understanding that makes us faithful disciples of Christ.
Darren C. Marks is assistant professor of theology and Jewish studies at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario. He is the author of Bringing Theology to Life: Key Doctrines for Christian Faith and Mission (InterVarsity).
Doctrine. The word conjures in the modern mind a string of negative images: The Inquisition. Boring professors debating the number of angels on the head of a pin. Bloggers arguing endlessly while the church flags in relevance in the once-Christian West. Doctrine is a bludgeon, a curiosity, a rearranging of the deck chairs while the ship sinks. Vibrant Christians want little to do with it, and instead focus on spiritual disciplines, works of mercy, and authentic Christian living. Doctrine belongs to the past, when it was used mainly to divide believers. How many Protestants spend time pondering whether it is acceptable to chew Communion bread (a major issue for the first Reformers)?
But we have to ask: Is it possible to live out discipleship without a good measure of heady doctrine? I see doctrine not as a boundary but as a compass. Its purpose is not to make Christians relevant or distinctive but rather to make them faithful in their contexts. Doctrine is a way of articulating what God's presence in the church and the world looks like. It can orient us by helping us, like Jon, major in the majors.
In addition, I believe the crisis in the Western church is not about information itself but about the kind of information we absorb in our churches. Philosopher James K. A. Smith put it best: "Theology is not some intellectual option that makes us 'smart' Christians; it is the graced understanding that makes us faithful disciples."
Default Buddhists
I'm using the terms doctrine and theology interchangeably. To be exact, doctrine is more or less settled theology. You find doctrine in creeds and statements of faith. Theology or "doing theology" is about the process and rules we use to talk about things that may end up as doctrine. A doctrinal statement (Jesus is "true God from true God," as the Nicene Creed testifies) is always a theological statement. But not all theological statements become doctrine. Still, in this essay, I will use doctrine and theology to refer to our intellectual grappling with the faith, which, as Smith notes, can give us graced understanding and lead to faithful discipleship. Doctrine, while static at times, is meant to help us think about our lives more deeply by considering alongside other Christians the implications of our thoughts and deeds. Doctrine is wisdom that helps us clarify our mission.
Yet we seem decidedly uninterested in such wisdom today, both inside and outside the church.
Sociologist Steve Bruce has observed that Western spirituality is "Buddhist by default": that Westerners, even Christians, are obsessed with what goes on inside, with spiritual experience. We don't usually welcome any external testing of our thoughts or actions. Subjectivity takes the ethical and doctrinal teeth out of every religion. Doctrine can help us think.
Bruce does not mean that we are actually Buddhists. We don't practice its asceticism. Instead we prefer a pallid, easy Buddhism, a series of feel-good statements supposedly culled from the Buddha. Our culture does this with all religions, Bruce says. It boils them down to one basic principle: Do what makes you feel good about yourself, and preferably in 10 minutes or less. As religious consumers, we warp every tradition by subjecting it to our needs. The Christian West's consumer needs, he notes, have by and large led us to abandon traditional Christianity, and the Eastern spirituality we adopt is actually the vapid form of Christianity created by modernity. This is a Christianity of self-experience.
In this sense, Western Christians are children of Friedrich Schleiermacher, the 19th-century Enlightenment thinker who built his theological system on the foundation of spiritual experience. In many cases, we find his influence unwittingly embedded in our church leadership, our seminaries, and our theological faculties. A theology grounded in experience ultimately fades into soft moralism, humanism, or, in the unique case of American Christianity, a civic religion wherein God and country are easily confused.
As I write this, the top three best-selling books in the Christian nonfiction category of Amazon.com are also listed (and number one) in the personal transformation, New Age, and self-help categories. All three books also appear on the New York Times bestseller list. It seems we believe that what we experience is more important than what we think, and we buy accordingly. The authors and their fans would likely say that they are addressing needs. But do we best serve our culture by becoming increasingly theologically illiterate?
Spirituality in the Balance
At the heart of Schleiermacher's work lay an important quest: to understand how to be faithful in a particular context. Schleiermacher and his progeny wanted much to be relevant Christians. The problem lies in where he started.
Schleiermacher thought that the essence of Christianity was its spiritual impulse, not its doctrine, which seemed to cause most of the problems. It had fueled violent conflicts between
Catholics and Protestants and threatened to stifle scientific progress and human achievement. For Schleiermacher, as for many today, if one could boil ideas down to a common essence, differences would dissipate and humankind could move forward in harmony. That essence was religiosity—a connection to God that every human being has the capacity to feel and experience. We might call this spirituality or awe in everyday parlance.
Schleiermacher began with internal experiences of God and built theology around those experiences, reconfiguring doctrine as needed. He assumed that by starting with ourselves and our desires, we would glimpse a purer vision of God and perhaps a more relevant church. But how did the project fare?
With some 200 years of hindsight, we see that the ramifications were immense. Take what has been called the only empirically verifiable Christian doctrine, the doctrine of original sin. For Schleiermacher, sin is not primarily about trespassing against God's laws or a moral debt we owe to a divine being. Sin is misspent energy. If we only paid better attention and had better information and better situations, we would naturally want to be spiritual. This kind of thinking defines sin as a mis-education or mis-direction of our innate sense of awe. A sinner is one who is out of continuity with his own sense of self, and a religious founder is one who is aware of higher spiritual truths and awakens them in others.
In this trajectory, Jesus becomes a sage who, among others, came to tell us about our potential and awaken our religious sensibilities. Jesus Christ is a spiritual avatar who may be called the Son of God but is different from us only by degree, not by kind. He is certainly not the unique God-man. Church becomes a kind of group therapy we attend to be told we are all right, to share in the piety of Jesus' example. While there is much positive here, the question remains whether God matters as the agent of changed lives. In the final analysis, core Christian beliefs, even those about Jesus, have to feel authentic or they are discarded.
Let's return to Amazon.com's bestseller list. The current number two bestseller, from a prominent Christian author, claims that belief itself is not enough to overcome bad habits, and that we need to stretch our faith, just as Jesus taught. Ultimately the book points to one goal: achieving our dreams and destiny by dint of effort. Sin is a failure to achieve our dreams, Jesus is a personal sage who helps us experience those dreams, and church is where we go to receive positive reinforcement to actualize our destinies. The book does not mention the Sermon on the Mount, or that God's destiny for us may be martyrdom (Heb. 11).
In hindsight, we can see that the belief driving Schleiermacher's entire theological machine needed correction. Schleiermacher led us astray by proposing that we interrogate theological ideas rather than allow ourselves to be interrogated by them. The emphasis on spiritual experience put us, not God, in the driver's seat.
As far as we remain the children of Schleiermacher, we either unconsciously or actively transform Christianity into something that, while seemingly relevant, is bereft of spiritual vigor.
Interrogated by the Bible
The sharp-eyed reader will note two things missing from my argument so far. One is positioning the Bible as the only guide to Christian faith. The other is looking at the role of the Holy Spirit. Both are integral to theology. Without them, doctrine and theology become propositions or proof-texting. The opposite of experience is dogmatism, staid religious scholasticism that sucks the life out of a relationship with God.
We have to begin by acknowledging a reality that rightly makes us nervous: All Christian theology helps us interpret the Bible. Theology is what helps us read disparate writings that span thousands of years and arise out of cultures very different from ours. Further, the Bible comprises many texts that address specific problems in specific places (e.g., sexual immorality in Corinth). It presents ideas that at times seem current and at other times obscure. One seemingly crystal-clear verse (Gal. 3:28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek …") or book (Philemon on slavery) can be interpreted by the faithful in a variety of ways. The earliest Christians knew this all too well.
The first three centuries of Christianity featured a running dialogue with the Bible. In their theology, the earliest Christians had to avoid reading the Bible as too Jewish, too Gentile, too focused on Peter, too focused on Paul, too focused on faith, or too focused on works. To read the Bible through only one interpretive lens could lead to false conclusions, like denying the Trinity or Jesus' humanity or divinity. In each case, a simple reading of a passage, usually through the reader's cultural lens, resulted in a distortion of Christian life. Those who found little biblical evidence for what was emerging as the doctrine of the Trinity, for example, usually ended up with a Christ who never knew humanity (docetism) or a Jesus who was not fully God (Arianism). Thus, doctrine became a yardstick by which to measure various readings and help Christians pinpoint the essentials.
To some people, this will sound like the Bible is not primary, that theological discourse needs to correct Scripture. This could lead some to see the Bible as an interesting historical document to get us started, not the active Word of God that shapes us. And some argue that Christianity is more a communal practice than a personal relationship with the living God. (Schleiermacher would likely agree with that statement.)
But, at its best, Christian theology has never understood itself to be merely a human reflection on contingent truths. The best theology grounds itself in Scripture as the revealed Word of God, not in the religious experiences of ancient people. Scripture's authority is not something that the community relates to first with its own experience. Instead, as Martin Luther put it, Scripture bears authority because it bears Christ—because it points unequivocally and majestically in grace to the living God. Scripture interrogates the community. Because it can be a difficult task to hear Christ speak clearly in Scripture, the church has used theology to test that interrogation. Some may read or hear Scripture in a new manner under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as the 18th- and 19th-century abolitionists did regarding slavery. Theology tests such new readings by asking questions of both the text and the church, helping to clarify the movement of the Spirit.
The church's theological task has never been only to comprehend an impersonal piece of literature intellectually. Theology has always understood itself as being under God's providential grace. It is the result of faithful Christians grappling with Scripture in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Just as Jacob wrestled with God, so have Christians wrestled with Scripture as they have sought to articulate core beliefs about the God active among them, active in and through Scripture itself.
In our conversation with the Bible, we've developed shorthand (though imperfect) to articulate what it reveals. We say God is the Trinity and Christ is Savior, and we talk about sin, heaven, and church. We use those meanings to understand Scripture even as those core beliefs have come from Scripture. These are not esoteric abstractions but fundamental ways in which Christians cross-index their spirituality (their relationship with the God who is present) with a faithful reading of the Bible.
This theological method inverts Schleiermacher's. We do not start with "my spirituality" and then identify core beliefs. Instead, we begin with core beliefs—those discovered by the church as it has intellectually wrestled with the truth of Scripture in the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit. These beliefs, which come from outside myself, correct and shape my spiritual experience.
The best theology grounds itself in Scripture as the revealed Word of God, not in the religious experiences of ancient people.
We have a good example of this process in the theological work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who studied in the era when Schleiermacher's spirit reigned supreme. Most of Bonhoeffer's teachers were in tune with their country's zeitgeist, the swelling German pride that manifested itself in part as anti-Semitism and pro-Nazism. They were reading Scripture, but with personal experience in the fore; thus, their theology merely reinforced the era's powerful sentiments.
But, as Bonhoeffer read Scripture, he began to understand Jesus of Nazareth as "Christ the Center." For him the seemingly dusty ideas of the Incarnation and the Atonement took on life. His theological reflections on Christ helped him see that anti-Semitism and Nazism, especially in the church, were replacing Christ as the center, that they were even anti-Christ. This prompted him to speak out, to actively resist the zeitgeist.
Cultivating Graced Understanding
Bonhoeffer knew, as did Calvin, Augustine, and many others, that dry, seemingly irrelevant ideas like the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, and eschatology are crucial elements of our spiritual formation. Theology helps map a reading of Scripture as Scripture interrogates its readers under the guidance of the Spirit.
For the past 200 years, many parts of Western Christianity have labored as Schleiermacher's children. The mainline traditions have hoped to achieve relevance. The evangelical and free-church traditions have hoped to read the Bible unadulterated and alone. Both traditions, however, have made our feelings—which are, by definition, slippery and transitory—primary. Mainliners have eschewed theology for fear that it imposes another's context and assumptions, while evangelicals have eschewed theology because it might compete with the pristine Bible or become a rigid boundary. Both traditions forget that theology is a kind of memory that allows us to hear God's Word by clarifying our experiences.
Many complain that the church has become incapable of cultivating Christian habits in its people. No wonder, when for so many the starting point is not God but spiritual experience. How can we sustain any spiritual growth if it is grounded in something as transitory as what we feel, individually or corporately?
The decreasing lack of interest in core Christian beliefs is due in part to church leaders who chase after relevance over substance—focusing on the feeling that something is meaningful rather than the truth that something is meaningful. It is also due to church members who imagine that their experience is the touchstone of truth about God, rather than learning to evaluate their experience in light of Scripture and theology.
Over the years, I have found that the students in my classroom grow in understanding by studying "dusty" and "dry" doctrine. They learn to interrogate their experiences, asking how they may find a "theological existence" or mission. I hope that Jon and his peers learn that they cannot have spiritual formation without doctrine, that theology is that business of graced understanding that makes us faithful disciples of Christ.
Darren C. Marks is assistant professor of theology and Jewish studies at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario. He is the author of Bringing Theology to Life: Key Doctrines for Christian Faith and Mission (InterVarsity).
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Immanuel Fellowship Core Values
1. Loving devotion to Jesus Christ as Lord over all areas of our life
2. Regular Bible reading for personal spiritual growth
3. Joyful response and participation in corporate worship
4. Faithful financial support of our Fellowship
5. Mutual loyalty to each other within the Fellowship
6. Selfless service and devotion to our church
7. Strategic investment in the next generation
8. Honest and diligent work as means of glorifying God
9. Passionate proclamation of the good news to our friends and loved ones
10. Personal integrity of character
2. Regular Bible reading for personal spiritual growth
3. Joyful response and participation in corporate worship
4. Faithful financial support of our Fellowship
5. Mutual loyalty to each other within the Fellowship
6. Selfless service and devotion to our church
7. Strategic investment in the next generation
8. Honest and diligent work as means of glorifying God
9. Passionate proclamation of the good news to our friends and loved ones
10. Personal integrity of character
Assemblies of God Fundamental Truths
Condensed
These are nonnegotiable tenets of faith that all Assemblies of God churches adhere to. This list is derived from the official Statement of Fundamental Truths. Click links below to see the complete original statement with scriptures.
1. WE BELIEVE...The Scriptures are Inspired by God and declare His design and plan for mankind.
2. WE BELIEVE...There is only One True God–revealed in three persons...Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (commonly known as the Trinity).
3. WE BELIEVE...In the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. As God's son Jesus was both human and divine.
4. WE BELIEVE...though originally good, Man Willingly Fell to Sin–ushering evil and death, both physical and spiritual, into the world.
5. WE BELIEVE...Every Person Can Have Restored Fellowship with God Through 'Salvation' (trusting Christ, through faith and repentance, to be our personal Savior). [1 of 4 cardinal doctrines of the AG]
6. WE BELIEVE...and practice two ordinances—(1) Water Baptism by Immersion after repenting of one's sins and receiving Christ's gift of salvation, and (2) Holy Communion (the Lord's Supper) as a symbolic remembrance of Christ's suffering and death for our salvation.
7. WE BELIEVE...the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a Special Experience Following Salvation that empowers believers for witnessing and effective service, just as it did in New Testament times. [1 of 4 cardinal doctrines of the AG]
8. WE BELIEVE... The Initial Physical Evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is ‘Speaking in Tongues,’ as experienced on the Day of Pentecost and referenced throughout Acts and the Epistles.
9. WE BELIEVE...Sanctification Initially Occurs at Salvation and is not only a declaration that a believer is holy, but also a progressive lifelong process of separating from evil as believers continually draw closer to God and become more Christlike.
10. WE BELIEVE...The Church has a Mission to seek and save all who are lost in sin. We believe 'the Church' is the Body of Christ and consists of the people who, throughout time, have accepted God's offer of redemption (regardless of religious denomination) through the sacrificial death of His son Jesus Christ.
11. WE BELIEVE...A Divinely Called and Scripturally Ordained Leadership Ministry Serves the Church. The Bible teaches that each of us under leadership must commit ourselves to reach others for Christ, to worship Him with other believers, to build up or edify the body of believers–the Church and to Meet human need with ministries of love and compassion.
12. WE BELIEVE...Divine Healing of the Sick is a Privilege for Christians Today and is provided for in Christ's atonement (His sacrificial death on the cross for our sins). [1 of 4 cardinal doctrines of the AG]
13. WE BELIEVE...in The Blessed Hope—When Jesus Raptures His Church Prior to His Return to Earth (the second coming). At this future moment in time all believers who have died will rise from their graves and will meet the Lord in the air, and Christians who are alive will be caught up with them, to be with the Lord forever. [1 of 4 cardinal doctrines of the AG]
14. WE BELIEVE...in The Millennial Reign of Christ when Jesus returns with His saints at His second coming and begins His benevolent rule over earth for 1,000 years. This millennial reign will bring the salvation of national Israel and the establishment of universal peace.
15. WE BELIEVE...A Final Judgment Will Take Place for those who have rejected Christ. They will be judged for their sin and consigned to eternal punishment in a punishing lake of fire.
16. WE BELIEVE...and look forward to the perfect New Heavens and a New Earth that Christ is preparing for all people, of all time, who have accepted Him. We will live and dwell with Him there forever following His millennial reign on Earth. 'And so shall we forever be with the Lord!'
These are nonnegotiable tenets of faith that all Assemblies of God churches adhere to. This list is derived from the official Statement of Fundamental Truths. Click links below to see the complete original statement with scriptures.
1. WE BELIEVE...The Scriptures are Inspired by God and declare His design and plan for mankind.
2. WE BELIEVE...There is only One True God–revealed in three persons...Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (commonly known as the Trinity).
3. WE BELIEVE...In the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. As God's son Jesus was both human and divine.
4. WE BELIEVE...though originally good, Man Willingly Fell to Sin–ushering evil and death, both physical and spiritual, into the world.
5. WE BELIEVE...Every Person Can Have Restored Fellowship with God Through 'Salvation' (trusting Christ, through faith and repentance, to be our personal Savior). [1 of 4 cardinal doctrines of the AG]
6. WE BELIEVE...and practice two ordinances—(1) Water Baptism by Immersion after repenting of one's sins and receiving Christ's gift of salvation, and (2) Holy Communion (the Lord's Supper) as a symbolic remembrance of Christ's suffering and death for our salvation.
7. WE BELIEVE...the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a Special Experience Following Salvation that empowers believers for witnessing and effective service, just as it did in New Testament times. [1 of 4 cardinal doctrines of the AG]
8. WE BELIEVE... The Initial Physical Evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is ‘Speaking in Tongues,’ as experienced on the Day of Pentecost and referenced throughout Acts and the Epistles.
9. WE BELIEVE...Sanctification Initially Occurs at Salvation and is not only a declaration that a believer is holy, but also a progressive lifelong process of separating from evil as believers continually draw closer to God and become more Christlike.
10. WE BELIEVE...The Church has a Mission to seek and save all who are lost in sin. We believe 'the Church' is the Body of Christ and consists of the people who, throughout time, have accepted God's offer of redemption (regardless of religious denomination) through the sacrificial death of His son Jesus Christ.
11. WE BELIEVE...A Divinely Called and Scripturally Ordained Leadership Ministry Serves the Church. The Bible teaches that each of us under leadership must commit ourselves to reach others for Christ, to worship Him with other believers, to build up or edify the body of believers–the Church and to Meet human need with ministries of love and compassion.
12. WE BELIEVE...Divine Healing of the Sick is a Privilege for Christians Today and is provided for in Christ's atonement (His sacrificial death on the cross for our sins). [1 of 4 cardinal doctrines of the AG]
13. WE BELIEVE...in The Blessed Hope—When Jesus Raptures His Church Prior to His Return to Earth (the second coming). At this future moment in time all believers who have died will rise from their graves and will meet the Lord in the air, and Christians who are alive will be caught up with them, to be with the Lord forever. [1 of 4 cardinal doctrines of the AG]
14. WE BELIEVE...in The Millennial Reign of Christ when Jesus returns with His saints at His second coming and begins His benevolent rule over earth for 1,000 years. This millennial reign will bring the salvation of national Israel and the establishment of universal peace.
15. WE BELIEVE...A Final Judgment Will Take Place for those who have rejected Christ. They will be judged for their sin and consigned to eternal punishment in a punishing lake of fire.
16. WE BELIEVE...and look forward to the perfect New Heavens and a New Earth that Christ is preparing for all people, of all time, who have accepted Him. We will live and dwell with Him there forever following His millennial reign on Earth. 'And so shall we forever be with the Lord!'
Baptisms at Immanuel Fellowship
A Guide for Ministers
Understanding the role of Baptism
Beginning in 2010 Immanuel Fellowship has given more significance to Baptism as the conscious beginning and incorporation of new believers the life of the Fellowship. When we say conscious beginning we are saying that the Fellowship is putting more Biblical content prior to and after baptism so that individual believers understand not only the significance of Baptism but also the responsibilities that accompany it.
Baptism incorporates the believer into Christ and his Body the Church. Just as we belong to Christ so we belong to one another.
“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ ( Galatians 3:27);
“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body”
(1 Corinthians 12:13; see also Romans 12:3-8)
Baptism is our rite of passage into membership with the Church whose head is Christ. Our congregation, Immanuel Fellowship, is the local representation of that Body and within it we exercise our distinct and individual functions (or ministry gifts) as members of the Body.
The Baptismal Candidates Seminar explains not only the meaning and the mode of Baptism but also includes teaching on prayer, church attendance, witnessing and giving. We also give more emphasis to Baptism as the individual believer’s introduction and incorporation into the local body of believers which is Immanuel Fellowship. After Baptism the candidates are introduced to the Fellowship in one of the services and are encouraged to join a discipleship program
Types of Baptismal Candidates
Some Baptismal candidates are children of Christian parents who may or may not have undergone a distinct crisis experience called conversion. Baptism for them is a coming of age and a public declaration of their faith and their formal introduction to the life of the Fellowship. Other candidates are young people or adults who have undergone a conversion experience either in the church or in some other church and now want to indicate through Baptism a public affirmation of their faith and a desire to be incorporated into the Fellowship.
Baptism and the Process of Incorporation into the Fellowship
1. Call to Salvation
In every service a call to salvation is issued. There may or may not be an altar service. Although issued in the congregational setting, we understand the response to the call as private. Therefore no names are recorded.
2. Invitation to Baptism
On the third Sunday the pastor announces that for those who have responded to the call to salvation Baptism is the public affirmation of their private faith. They are invited to a Baptismal Candidates Seminar the following Saturday .
3. Baptismal Candidates Seminar
On the Saturday after the announcement the officiating ministers meet with the candidates and the Primer on Baptism is discussed.
4. Baptism
5. Introduction and Incorporation into the Fellowship
The program of incorporation into the Fellowship includes the following:
• Presentation to the Fellowship during a Sunday worship service.
• Home visitation
• Invitation to join a group or ministry team.
• Invitation to attend Purposeful Discipleship Institute.
Officiating Ministers Decorum
The leading pastor may or may not perform all the parts of the Rite of Baptism. He may participate only up to the Profession of Faith (an affirmation of faith taken from the Apostles Creed), and Associate Pastors then will perform the Rite of Baptism itself. Or he may perform all with the assistance of his Associates.
All members of the Pastoral Team are entitled to perform Baptisms, regardless of gender or paid or volunteer.
Baptism is a very important rite of passage for new believers and the joyousness of the ceremony should not be confused with levity. Officiating ministers should wear the required attire and should step into the water only during Immersion. A formal picture of the candidates with the ministers may be taken for documentation before and after Immersion. Only after photographs have been taken and the ceremony is formally ended will ministers join in swimming.
Officiating Ministers Attire
With the new understanding of Baptism as a rite of passage and a public affirmation of faith, officiating ministers to the Baptism need to give it due ceremonial recognition. The formal attire for such occasion in many churches is a White Robe but until then a formal kind of attire such as a Barong Tagalog is acceptable.
Candidates Attire
In some churches white robes are supplied also to each candidate but until such a time that this is made available, all that is required is for the candidates to be decently dressed.
Immersion
Baptism by immersion can be pose problems because depth of water varies. It must be emphasized that the officiating ministers immerse the entire body in water. To do this it is not enough that the arms are used to immerse the candidate’s body into the water. The legs of the ministers must also bend as the candidate is immersed. If there are two ministers, with one on each side, care must be observed that both move together or one will be holding the back of the candidate while the other minister is pushing down.
The Rite of Baptism
1. Scripture Reading (Romans 6:1-11)
2. A short homily on the passage
3. Individual Testimonies
4. Profession of Faith (Apostles Creed)
5. Affirmation to Immanuel Fellowship Statement of Faith and Core Values
6. Signing of the Baptismal Certificate
7. Immersion
Understanding the role of Baptism
Beginning in 2010 Immanuel Fellowship has given more significance to Baptism as the conscious beginning and incorporation of new believers the life of the Fellowship. When we say conscious beginning we are saying that the Fellowship is putting more Biblical content prior to and after baptism so that individual believers understand not only the significance of Baptism but also the responsibilities that accompany it.
Baptism incorporates the believer into Christ and his Body the Church. Just as we belong to Christ so we belong to one another.
“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ ( Galatians 3:27);
“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body”
(1 Corinthians 12:13; see also Romans 12:3-8)
Baptism is our rite of passage into membership with the Church whose head is Christ. Our congregation, Immanuel Fellowship, is the local representation of that Body and within it we exercise our distinct and individual functions (or ministry gifts) as members of the Body.
The Baptismal Candidates Seminar explains not only the meaning and the mode of Baptism but also includes teaching on prayer, church attendance, witnessing and giving. We also give more emphasis to Baptism as the individual believer’s introduction and incorporation into the local body of believers which is Immanuel Fellowship. After Baptism the candidates are introduced to the Fellowship in one of the services and are encouraged to join a discipleship program
Types of Baptismal Candidates
Some Baptismal candidates are children of Christian parents who may or may not have undergone a distinct crisis experience called conversion. Baptism for them is a coming of age and a public declaration of their faith and their formal introduction to the life of the Fellowship. Other candidates are young people or adults who have undergone a conversion experience either in the church or in some other church and now want to indicate through Baptism a public affirmation of their faith and a desire to be incorporated into the Fellowship.
Baptism and the Process of Incorporation into the Fellowship
1. Call to Salvation
In every service a call to salvation is issued. There may or may not be an altar service. Although issued in the congregational setting, we understand the response to the call as private. Therefore no names are recorded.
2. Invitation to Baptism
On the third Sunday the pastor announces that for those who have responded to the call to salvation Baptism is the public affirmation of their private faith. They are invited to a Baptismal Candidates Seminar the following Saturday .
3. Baptismal Candidates Seminar
On the Saturday after the announcement the officiating ministers meet with the candidates and the Primer on Baptism is discussed.
4. Baptism
5. Introduction and Incorporation into the Fellowship
The program of incorporation into the Fellowship includes the following:
• Presentation to the Fellowship during a Sunday worship service.
• Home visitation
• Invitation to join a group or ministry team.
• Invitation to attend Purposeful Discipleship Institute.
Officiating Ministers Decorum
The leading pastor may or may not perform all the parts of the Rite of Baptism. He may participate only up to the Profession of Faith (an affirmation of faith taken from the Apostles Creed), and Associate Pastors then will perform the Rite of Baptism itself. Or he may perform all with the assistance of his Associates.
All members of the Pastoral Team are entitled to perform Baptisms, regardless of gender or paid or volunteer.
Baptism is a very important rite of passage for new believers and the joyousness of the ceremony should not be confused with levity. Officiating ministers should wear the required attire and should step into the water only during Immersion. A formal picture of the candidates with the ministers may be taken for documentation before and after Immersion. Only after photographs have been taken and the ceremony is formally ended will ministers join in swimming.
Officiating Ministers Attire
With the new understanding of Baptism as a rite of passage and a public affirmation of faith, officiating ministers to the Baptism need to give it due ceremonial recognition. The formal attire for such occasion in many churches is a White Robe but until then a formal kind of attire such as a Barong Tagalog is acceptable.
Candidates Attire
In some churches white robes are supplied also to each candidate but until such a time that this is made available, all that is required is for the candidates to be decently dressed.
Immersion
Baptism by immersion can be pose problems because depth of water varies. It must be emphasized that the officiating ministers immerse the entire body in water. To do this it is not enough that the arms are used to immerse the candidate’s body into the water. The legs of the ministers must also bend as the candidate is immersed. If there are two ministers, with one on each side, care must be observed that both move together or one will be holding the back of the candidate while the other minister is pushing down.
The Rite of Baptism
1. Scripture Reading (Romans 6:1-11)
2. A short homily on the passage
3. Individual Testimonies
4. Profession of Faith (Apostles Creed)
5. Affirmation to Immanuel Fellowship Statement of Faith and Core Values
6. Signing of the Baptismal Certificate
7. Immersion
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Comeback Imagination - Envisioning New Life
If you are going to imagine a new reality for your church, it must combine a clear understanding and communication of the current reality and envision and tell an alternative story.
By Ed Stetzer
Imagine it. Dream it. Picture it in your mind. Compose a new symphony. Envision a different story. Then, begin living and telling that story.
Someone asked Ivan Illich if societal change would happen best through revolution or reform. He said neither — not if you desire long-term change. Rather, he said we need to tell an alternative story that draws others because of its irresistible nature.
Apparently, many churches, trapped and mired in plateau and decline, need to tell an alternative story. Many think: Is it possible? Could things be different in my church? Does God desire that my church grow? Dare I take time to pause, pray, and think about how God conceives this church? Does He envision a healthy and growing church — one that reproduces disciples and churches?
For many, this sounds impossible. How could we realize that kind of future? To even consider it may seem like a hopeless effort to envision a fantasy world of sunshine and lollipops. And, you might be right if you are going to imagine a different future without first defining reality.
Over 30 years ago, John Lennon released his hit song Imagine. Here are the words that echo in the minds of many well-intentioned people:
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky.
Imagine all the people
Living for today …
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too.
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one.
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world …
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one.
While the words express some wonderful ideas, they are not based in reality. As believers in Jesus Christ and the Bible, we know the song lacks understanding of the reality of sin and the One who could create such a reality. What is the point? If you are going to imagine a new reality for your church, it must combine a clear understanding and communication of the current reality and envision and tell an alternative story.
Vision
In the book, Comeback Churches, that I coauthored with Mike Dodson, we talk about one of the keys to comeback leadership — catching vision and transferring that vision to others. Comeback leaders learn how to activate a shared vision. This kind of leadership requires embracing the reality of the situation along with people from the congregation. Then, with God’s help, it requires engaging these people to seek a new direction and put it into action. We write in this book: “Pastors face the ‘vision challenge’ every day. They must cast a vision so people can respond. People only get on board when they see the boat. God uses this vision to help us commit our time, talent, and treasure to the cause. Anytime we call people to commit to a strategy, we must cast vision. It is essential in church revitalization.”1
We also discuss some important aspects or general principles of vision that you can apply to your situation and help you envision new life:
We need vision because it stretches us beyond where we are and helps us embrace something bigger than ourselves. People want to know they are committing their time, talents, energies, and resources to something worthwhile, to something that is going to matter and make a difference. A compelling vision describes something that must be done — it moves people from passivity into action.
Vision comes from Kingdom faith. Jesus often spoke about the kingdom of God. He helped people see the bigger picture by comparing it to scattering seed on the ground that grows until the crop is harvested. He also talked about the tiny mustard seed becoming a huge plant that provides shade for the birds. By faith, paint a new picture of the future for your church.
Face the challenge of convincing followers to own the vision by filling your credibility tank. Timing is important when casting vision. Do you have the credibility to do it now? Do you need to earn some credibility by building on some small wins before you go for bigger things?
Paint a compelling verbal picture when casting vision. Convince people things are not acceptable the way they are, then motivate them to pursue a better future. First, think and pray through what the future should look like and write it down. Second, practice communicating that verbal picture. Third, get feedback from a few key people in your life and let them help you communicate it better. Last, cast that vision at the right time. Do not unpack it all at once.
Paint a realistic verbal picture when casting vision. Do not simply talk about how great things are going to be. Remind people that achieving the vision will require work and sacrifice. Fulfilling a God-sized vision will always involve risks and challenges.
Focus on key leaders who are persuadable and work on moving forward with them. Initially, the majority will probably not enthusiastically buy into the vision. Some will probably never jump on board. Present a challenging, yet attainable, vision that at least some people can and will follow and put into action.
Vision alone will not grow a church. Growth takes a leader casting vision, followers who are ready to listen, and a group ready to act to build a new reality and accomplish the vision.
Having comeback imagination involves reality and fresh vision. If you are going to seek God’s design for a preferable future in your church, then it will require a renewed focus on your part to dream, to imagine, and to envision something different from what exists now. Paint a picture of reality; then paint a different picture for the future. Tell the sad tale of the current reality, then tell an alternative story of where God wants things to go. Squeeze the lemons, and let God make some sweet lemonade.
Focus
Imagining a different destination for your church is going to take focused attention. Here are helpful tips toward developing comeback imagination:
Focus on where the church is to get the focus on others. Defining the current reality is just the beginning. If a church is in decline, the leaders must acknowledge and discuss that fact (and acknowledge and discuss why it is true) to come to realize they are not reaching new people. Because the church is not reaching people, the gospel is not transforming lives. Things must change so the church can place a renewed focus on reaching the lost and seeing lives changed outside the walls of the church. Define the dismal reality to get focused on meeting the needs of real people in the community.
Focus on why God wants your church to grow to refute why that seems impossible. Study the Bible to discover 50 reasons God wants your church to grow. If you want to be really ambitious, go for 100. This will help you and others in your church be transformed by the renewing of your mind in Scripture. Some people will come up with reasons your church cannot or should not grow.
Focus on thinking beyond where you are so you are not wallowing in mediocrity. Churches end up in plateau and decline because they get comfortable where they are. Doing things halfway or casually becomes the norm. If a church wants to grow beyond where it is, it needs to think and act like it is bigger than it is right now.
For example, some churches are not growing because they are not doing anything intentional to minister outside of the church. Church services are business as usual. They do not give any thought to welcoming guests, toning down churchy language, breaking up fellowship huddles to engage visitors, or following up newcomers.
Focus on keeping the vision fresh instead of thinking people get it. Church leaders often think that if they have communicated something a few times people get it. (I like to think that people should just get it after I have said something once.) People have many things going on in their lives that distract them. Define reality, envision a new future, start living the new life, and keep telling the new story … again and again and again.
Here are ideas to help keep the vision fresh:
1. Plan some simple events to minister to people that involve a group of people from the church. Then have someone share a brief testimony about that outreach experience.
2. Develop an outreach plan for the church and then highlight one different part each week in the worship services.
3. Pray for God to change your heart and the heart of the church during public prayer times. Pray Luke 10:2.
4. Provide training opportunities — such as Sharing Jesus Without Fear — to help people learn to become better witnesses.
5. Make a big deal about baptisms by explaining what they represent and invite candidates to share their testimonies before the congregation.
6. Meet monthly with key leaders to update, recast a vision for outreach, and pray for God to move in the lives of the church family to act on the vision.
7. Develop a list of people who do not know Jesus and pray for them regularly with key leaders and before the congregation.
Conclusion
Take a moment with God and imagine your church being transformed to reach people in your community. Imagine how the community might respond. Imagine how God would be glorified:
* “Can you imagine the community in which you live being genuinely thankful for your church?
* “Can you imagine city leaders valuing your church’s friendship and participation in the community — even asking for it?
* “Can you imagine the neighborhoods around your church talking about how good it is to have your church in the area because of the tangible witness you have offered them of God’s love?
* “Can you imagine a large number of your church members actively engaged in, and passionate about, community service, using their gifts and abilities in ways and at levels they never thought possible?
* “Can you imagine the community changing (Proverbs 11:11) because of your church’s involvement?
* “Can you imagine many in your city, formerly cynical and hostile toward Christianity, praising God for your church and the positive contributions your members have made in Jesus’ name?
* “Can you imagine the spiritual harvest that would naturally follow if all this were true?”2
So, take a deep breath and a big gulp. With God’s help, define the current reality in your church and start dreaming and envisioning what new life for your church would look like. Start living with comeback imagination. Then, start telling that alternative story … again and again and again. May God help you envision new life and a new future and bless you abundantly with comeback imagination.
Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., president, LifeWay Research. He has written Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age, Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church (with Elmer Towns), Strategic Outreach (with Eric Ramsey), Breaking the Missional Code (with David Putman), and Planting Missional Churches. Stetzer lives in Gallatin, Tennessee.
NOTES
1. Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2007), 46.
2. Robert Lewis, The Church of Irresistible Influence (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 13,14.
By Ed Stetzer
Imagine it. Dream it. Picture it in your mind. Compose a new symphony. Envision a different story. Then, begin living and telling that story.
Someone asked Ivan Illich if societal change would happen best through revolution or reform. He said neither — not if you desire long-term change. Rather, he said we need to tell an alternative story that draws others because of its irresistible nature.
Apparently, many churches, trapped and mired in plateau and decline, need to tell an alternative story. Many think: Is it possible? Could things be different in my church? Does God desire that my church grow? Dare I take time to pause, pray, and think about how God conceives this church? Does He envision a healthy and growing church — one that reproduces disciples and churches?
For many, this sounds impossible. How could we realize that kind of future? To even consider it may seem like a hopeless effort to envision a fantasy world of sunshine and lollipops. And, you might be right if you are going to imagine a different future without first defining reality.
Over 30 years ago, John Lennon released his hit song Imagine. Here are the words that echo in the minds of many well-intentioned people:
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky.
Imagine all the people
Living for today …
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too.
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one.
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world …
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one.
While the words express some wonderful ideas, they are not based in reality. As believers in Jesus Christ and the Bible, we know the song lacks understanding of the reality of sin and the One who could create such a reality. What is the point? If you are going to imagine a new reality for your church, it must combine a clear understanding and communication of the current reality and envision and tell an alternative story.
Vision
In the book, Comeback Churches, that I coauthored with Mike Dodson, we talk about one of the keys to comeback leadership — catching vision and transferring that vision to others. Comeback leaders learn how to activate a shared vision. This kind of leadership requires embracing the reality of the situation along with people from the congregation. Then, with God’s help, it requires engaging these people to seek a new direction and put it into action. We write in this book: “Pastors face the ‘vision challenge’ every day. They must cast a vision so people can respond. People only get on board when they see the boat. God uses this vision to help us commit our time, talent, and treasure to the cause. Anytime we call people to commit to a strategy, we must cast vision. It is essential in church revitalization.”1
We also discuss some important aspects or general principles of vision that you can apply to your situation and help you envision new life:
We need vision because it stretches us beyond where we are and helps us embrace something bigger than ourselves. People want to know they are committing their time, talents, energies, and resources to something worthwhile, to something that is going to matter and make a difference. A compelling vision describes something that must be done — it moves people from passivity into action.
Vision comes from Kingdom faith. Jesus often spoke about the kingdom of God. He helped people see the bigger picture by comparing it to scattering seed on the ground that grows until the crop is harvested. He also talked about the tiny mustard seed becoming a huge plant that provides shade for the birds. By faith, paint a new picture of the future for your church.
Face the challenge of convincing followers to own the vision by filling your credibility tank. Timing is important when casting vision. Do you have the credibility to do it now? Do you need to earn some credibility by building on some small wins before you go for bigger things?
Paint a compelling verbal picture when casting vision. Convince people things are not acceptable the way they are, then motivate them to pursue a better future. First, think and pray through what the future should look like and write it down. Second, practice communicating that verbal picture. Third, get feedback from a few key people in your life and let them help you communicate it better. Last, cast that vision at the right time. Do not unpack it all at once.
Paint a realistic verbal picture when casting vision. Do not simply talk about how great things are going to be. Remind people that achieving the vision will require work and sacrifice. Fulfilling a God-sized vision will always involve risks and challenges.
Focus on key leaders who are persuadable and work on moving forward with them. Initially, the majority will probably not enthusiastically buy into the vision. Some will probably never jump on board. Present a challenging, yet attainable, vision that at least some people can and will follow and put into action.
Vision alone will not grow a church. Growth takes a leader casting vision, followers who are ready to listen, and a group ready to act to build a new reality and accomplish the vision.
Having comeback imagination involves reality and fresh vision. If you are going to seek God’s design for a preferable future in your church, then it will require a renewed focus on your part to dream, to imagine, and to envision something different from what exists now. Paint a picture of reality; then paint a different picture for the future. Tell the sad tale of the current reality, then tell an alternative story of where God wants things to go. Squeeze the lemons, and let God make some sweet lemonade.
Focus
Imagining a different destination for your church is going to take focused attention. Here are helpful tips toward developing comeback imagination:
Focus on where the church is to get the focus on others. Defining the current reality is just the beginning. If a church is in decline, the leaders must acknowledge and discuss that fact (and acknowledge and discuss why it is true) to come to realize they are not reaching new people. Because the church is not reaching people, the gospel is not transforming lives. Things must change so the church can place a renewed focus on reaching the lost and seeing lives changed outside the walls of the church. Define the dismal reality to get focused on meeting the needs of real people in the community.
Focus on why God wants your church to grow to refute why that seems impossible. Study the Bible to discover 50 reasons God wants your church to grow. If you want to be really ambitious, go for 100. This will help you and others in your church be transformed by the renewing of your mind in Scripture. Some people will come up with reasons your church cannot or should not grow.
Focus on thinking beyond where you are so you are not wallowing in mediocrity. Churches end up in plateau and decline because they get comfortable where they are. Doing things halfway or casually becomes the norm. If a church wants to grow beyond where it is, it needs to think and act like it is bigger than it is right now.
For example, some churches are not growing because they are not doing anything intentional to minister outside of the church. Church services are business as usual. They do not give any thought to welcoming guests, toning down churchy language, breaking up fellowship huddles to engage visitors, or following up newcomers.
Focus on keeping the vision fresh instead of thinking people get it. Church leaders often think that if they have communicated something a few times people get it. (I like to think that people should just get it after I have said something once.) People have many things going on in their lives that distract them. Define reality, envision a new future, start living the new life, and keep telling the new story … again and again and again.
Here are ideas to help keep the vision fresh:
1. Plan some simple events to minister to people that involve a group of people from the church. Then have someone share a brief testimony about that outreach experience.
2. Develop an outreach plan for the church and then highlight one different part each week in the worship services.
3. Pray for God to change your heart and the heart of the church during public prayer times. Pray Luke 10:2.
4. Provide training opportunities — such as Sharing Jesus Without Fear — to help people learn to become better witnesses.
5. Make a big deal about baptisms by explaining what they represent and invite candidates to share their testimonies before the congregation.
6. Meet monthly with key leaders to update, recast a vision for outreach, and pray for God to move in the lives of the church family to act on the vision.
7. Develop a list of people who do not know Jesus and pray for them regularly with key leaders and before the congregation.
Conclusion
Take a moment with God and imagine your church being transformed to reach people in your community. Imagine how the community might respond. Imagine how God would be glorified:
* “Can you imagine the community in which you live being genuinely thankful for your church?
* “Can you imagine city leaders valuing your church’s friendship and participation in the community — even asking for it?
* “Can you imagine the neighborhoods around your church talking about how good it is to have your church in the area because of the tangible witness you have offered them of God’s love?
* “Can you imagine a large number of your church members actively engaged in, and passionate about, community service, using their gifts and abilities in ways and at levels they never thought possible?
* “Can you imagine the community changing (Proverbs 11:11) because of your church’s involvement?
* “Can you imagine many in your city, formerly cynical and hostile toward Christianity, praising God for your church and the positive contributions your members have made in Jesus’ name?
* “Can you imagine the spiritual harvest that would naturally follow if all this were true?”2
So, take a deep breath and a big gulp. With God’s help, define the current reality in your church and start dreaming and envisioning what new life for your church would look like. Start living with comeback imagination. Then, start telling that alternative story … again and again and again. May God help you envision new life and a new future and bless you abundantly with comeback imagination.
Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., president, LifeWay Research. He has written Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age, Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church (with Elmer Towns), Strategic Outreach (with Eric Ramsey), Breaking the Missional Code (with David Putman), and Planting Missional Churches. Stetzer lives in Gallatin, Tennessee.
NOTES
1. Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2007), 46.
2. Robert Lewis, The Church of Irresistible Influence (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 13,14.
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