A New Beginning…

Posted on March 28, 2010 by

Tonight, my family spends its last night in Ohio.  Tomorrow morning, we load up our moving truck and head to our new ministry in a small town outside of Kalamazoo, Michigan.  Rachel and I are very excited about what lies ahead and we are anxious to get to know our new church family.

As I have begun to think through the details of stepping into a new church ministry as a senior pastor, I realize that there are many expectations concerning what a pastor needs to do in his first days.  Some of the expectations come from others, some come from the pastor himself.  Some of the expectations are legitimate, others are not. 

Even the best books on ministry disagree with each other on what a pastor should do in his first days.  Some say that a pastor should do little or nothing in the area of making changes in the first year of ministry.  Others say that the best time to make changes are in the first days when people are expecting change (because of a change in leadership) and when the pastor is still in the “honeymoon” stage.

What are your thoughts?  Have you ever gone through a pastoral change in your church?  What would/did you expect from your new pastor?  Have you had any positive or negative experiences that you could share?

Posted in Church Issues | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

If you could ask God for one thing…

Posted on March 18, 2010 by

I am preparing a sermon and need your input.  All you have to do is respond to the following question:

“If you could ask God for one thing (and only one thing), what would you ask for?”

Leave your response as a comment.  Thanks!

Posted in Bible, Bible Study, Culture, Worldview | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

John Piper on Infant Death

Posted on March 12, 2010 by

John Piper believes that infants who die go to heaven.  I posted my thoughts on this topic not too long ago in a post titled Do Babies Go to Heaven? .  In my post, I used the character of God and 2 Samuel 12:15-23 to defend my belief that babies who die go to heaven.

Piper bases his argument on Romans chapter 1, which states that all people will be judged on what they can know about God.  Since babies, and also those with mental disabilities, do not have the ability to “know” certain things to be true, they cannot be judged on this basis.  If you are interested in Piper’s thoughts on this topic, I have provided a link to both the audio and the video below.

Audio:  http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/MediaPlayer/4541/Audio/

Video:  http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/MediaPlayer/4541/Video/

Posted in Bible Study | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

How much Religious Freedom do We Have?

Posted on March 8, 2010 by

Today, Jeff and Marci Beagley of Oregon were each sentenced to 16 months in prison for practicing their religion.  It seems that the Beagleys and their church, Followers of Christ in Oregon City, believe in “faith healing”.  Instead of seeking traditional medical treatment for illnesses and other medical issues, this group believes in using prayer, anointing with oil and the laying on of hands to bring about healing.  Well, in June 2008, the Beagleys’ 16-year-old son died after his parents failed to seek proper medical attention for him.  He had a urinary tract blockage.  The courts decided the parents were at fault.

I do not want to debate whether or not faith healing has merit.  I believe God can, and does, bring about healing through prayer.  However, I also believe that God can, and does, use more “ordinary” means to bring about healing (i.e. medical treatment).  In fact, I believe God more often uses the ordinary to accomplish his will than the extra-ordinary.

What I wonder is where the individual’s right to practice their religion ceases to be a right.  If the Beagleys sincerely hold the religious belief, whether the belief is right or wrong, that seeking medical treatment is wrong, how is it that they are being sent to prison for their beliefs?

One argument is that their beliefs caused harm to another person.  Well, what if their son held the same belief?  There is no indication that the son was forced against his will to comply with his parents’ wishes.  Yes, he was only 16 and technically a minor, but when do our constitutional rights begin?  Do we have to reach a certain age before we have freedom of religion?  If so, what is the age and does this apply to all of our rights?

What are your thoughts?

Posted in Human Rights, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Free audiobooks from Piper and Bonhoeffer

Posted on March 1, 2010 by

In celebration of the upcoming Easter holiday, Christianaudio.com is giving away two great audiobooks this month.  Just head over to the site and follow the instructions to download Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship and John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die.  Below is a little information from Christianaudio’s site about each title:

“This book is quite simply, one of the most profound and important books of the 20th century. Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived a testimony of his thoughtful and engaging writers.

Focusing on the most treasured part of Christ’s teaching – the Sermon on the Mount with its call to discipleship, and on the grace of God and the sacrifice which that demands.

Viewed against the background of Nazi Germany, Bonhoeffer’s book is striking enough. At the same time, it shares with many great Christian classics a quality of timelessness, so that it has spoken, and continues to speak powerfully, to the varied concerns of the contemporary world.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 ”WHY?

The most important questions anyone can ask are: Why was Jesus Christ crucified? Why did he suffer so much? What has this to do with me? Finally, who sent him to his death? The answer to the last question is that God did. Jesus was God’s Son. The suffering was unsurpassed, but the whole message of the Bible leads to this answer.

The central issue of Jesus’ death is not the cause, but the meaning—God’s meaning. That is what this book is about. John Piper has gathered from the New Testament fifty reasons. Not fifty causes, but fifty purposes—in answer to the most important question that each of us must face: What did God achieve for sinners like us in sending his Son to die?”

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It’s good for Tiger, but not for me

Posted on February 23, 2010 by

Much has been written and discussed about the recent confession of Tiger Woods.  Was it sincere?  Did he do it because he was forced?  Was it just an attempt to limit the damage to his financial empire?  The debate goes on and on.

One thing seems certain: most people felt Tiger needed to make a public apology.  For one reason or another, there has been an expectation that the day of Tiger’s confession had to come.  But why?

When was the last time you or I stood up before others and admitted our sins?  When was the last time you have seen this done (other than when the famous are forced to do it to salvage their careers)?  Should we?  I am reminded of James 5:16:

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. (ESV)

The Bible tells us that we are to confess our sins to one another.  Has this been lost in our culture than holds so tightly to personal autonomy and privacy?  Would you be willing to confess your sins before your church, especially those sins that are public knowledge?  Would there be benefits to such a practice?

Posted in Bible Study, Church | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

So, why are Millennials leaving the Church?

Posted on February 18, 2010 by

Millennials, those 18 to 29 years old, are less likely to attend church than those in previous generations.  One may conclude that this generation is more secular than their parents and grandparents, but a recent report says this assumption is false.   The report uses data gathered by a Pew Research Survey in 2008 and from survey data gathered by the University of Chicago.

Here are some interesting findings:

Millennials are significantly more likely than young adults in earlier generations to say they don’t identify with any religious group. Among Millennials, 26% cite no religious identity, compared with 20% for most members of Generation X (born 1965-1980) at the same ages, and 13% for most Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) at those ages.Worship attendance is sliding steadily, too: 18% of Millennials say they attend worship nearly every week or more often, vs. 21% of Gen Xers when they were in their 20s and 26% of Boomers at those ages.

Yet “by several important measures, Millennials often look a lot like their elders now and earlier generations when they were young,” says Pew senior researcher Greg Smith. Among Millennials:

 •40% say religion is very important in their lives, similar to 39% of Boomers at the same ages.

 •41% report praying daily, like 42% of Gen Xers as young adults.

 •53% are “certain God exists;” 55% of Gen Xers were certain at the same ages.

This sounds very similar to the findings reported in the book Essential Church, which I have blogged about previously here and here.  Younger generations are not attending churches, but it is not because they have stopped believing.  Most leave because they do not feel the church is important to their lives.  There is no real need to go to church.

If it is true that religious belief has not changed significantly through the years, we must ask the question, “Why are young people leaving the church and what can we do to reverse the trend?”  How can we make the church essential to the lives of those who attend so that they will not want to leave?

Posted in Church Issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Are we better off without Sunday school?

Posted on January 29, 2010 by

A couple of weeks ago I was given a book to read.  The book, Already Gone, was written by Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis founder) and Britt Beemer.  It explores why so many children who are raised in the church end up leaving by the time they are adults.  According to statistical studies, 60% of regular church attenders will leave.

The study examined by the book draws on information gathered from interviews with 1000 twenty-somethings who regularly attended theologically conservative churches as children, but who no longer (or rarely) attend today.  Of the 1000 people interviewed, 61% said they regularly attended Sunday school.

One may suspect that those who attended Sunday school would be more likely to remain in church over time.  One may also suspect that those attending Sunday school would have greater confidence in the Bible and a better opinion of church in general.  Here are some surprising results uncovered in the survey:

 The research showed that students who regularly attended Sunday school are:

  • more likely NOT to believe that all the accounts/stories in the Bible are true/accurate.
  • more likely to doubt the Bible because it was written by men.
  • more likely to doubt the Bible because it was not translated correctly.
  • more likely to defend that abortion should continue to be legal.
  • more likely to defend premarital sex.
  • more likely to accept that gay marriage and abortion should be legal.
  • more likely to view the church as hypocritical.
  • much more likely to have become anti-church through the years.
  • more likely to believe that good people don’t need to go to church.

Did you read that correctly?  That is right.  Those who regularly attended Sunday school are more likely to express the views above than those who did not attend.  What are we to make of this?  Below are some more specific numbers to consider:

When asked these questions, here are the responses from each group.

1.  Do you believe that premarital sex is wrong?

  • YES. 40.8% of Sunday school attenders
  • YES. 47.7% of those who did not go to Sunday school

2.  Do you feel good people don’t need to go to church?

  • YES. 39.3% of Sunday school attenders
  • YES. 28.9% of those who did not go to Sunday school

3.  Do you feel that church is relevant to your needs today?

  • NO. 46.4% of Sunday school attenders
  • NO. 39.6% of those who did not go to Sunday school

4.  Do you believe that you have become anti-church through the years?

  • YES. 39.1% of Sunday school attenders
  • YES. 26.9% of those who did not go to Sunday school

This is a very intriguing study.  What are we to make of it?  Are we better off sleeping in on Sunday and forgetting Sunday school altogether?  What are your thoughts?  What should we do to correct the problem?

Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

What is True Martyrdom?

Posted on January 20, 2010 by

I found an insightful story from Forbes.com on the true meaning of martyrdom.  The article looks at the very different religious commitments of a Muslim and a Christian.  Here is an excerpt:

This past Christmas Day brought us the stories of two young men, both willing to martyr themselves for their beliefs, but in ways and for visions so utterly different that their tales might serve as a parable for the defining struggles of our time.

One, as you surely know, was the underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a wealthy young Muslim from a prominent Nigerian family. Following his embrace of radical Islam, he tried to sacrifice himself–allegedly–in a botched attempt to sow terror and death by blowing up an American airliner packed with 289 other people, en route to Detroit. Having entered American air space decked out as a suicide bomber, he is now availing himself of U.S. constitutional rights, granted to him by the Obama Administration, to plead not guilty to criminal charges.

The other martyr, in stark contrast, was a 28-year-old Christian missionary, Robert Park. An American of Korean descent, Park offered himself up peacefully, on Christmas Day, for the cause of life and liberty for others. He went to northeast China, and from there walked across the frozen Tumen River into North Korea. Witnesses told reporters that as he went, he called out, in Korean, messages of God’s love, as well as “I am an American citizen.” He took with him a letter to North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-il, asking Kim to open his country and shut down his prison camps.

…Before he crossed that frozen river, he [Park] gave an interview to Reuters, asking that it be held until he was in North Korea. In that interview, which Reuters released shortly after he had crossed over, Park spelled out “I do not want to be released. I don’t want President Obama to come and pay to get me out.” What he wanted, he said, is for “the North Korean people to be free. Until the concentration camps are liberated, I do not want to come out. If I have to die with them, I will.”

Two men wholly committed to their faith.  Thanks to the Wintery Knight for bringing this story to my attention.

Posted in Culture, Worldview | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

If you are not familiar with D. A. Carson, you should be

Posted on January 13, 2010 by

D. A. Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.  He has written over 50 books and is perhaps the finest New Testament scholar around.  If you are not familiar with his work, you should be, especially if you are serious about studying the New Testament.  You can find more information about Carson and his writings in his profile on Trinity’s website.

I received an academic catalog today that lists a new book from Carson that I am eager to read.  It is entitled The Intolerance of Tolerance.  The description of the book reads as follows:

“It’s a hot-button topic, but what does “tolerance” really mean?  Carson believes the definition has become more about refusing to say others are wrong – which is impossible to deploy consistently.  With anecdotes, quotes, and practical advice, he describes how to exemplify and promote the virtue of civil discourse while embracing the true meaning of tolerance.”

So, what is the true definition of “tolerance”?  Are we intolerant if we believe others are wrong?  What is the proper way to discourse over areas of disagreement?  I have not read the book to discover Carson’s views, but I wonder what you think.  Send me a comment.

Posted in Absolute Truth, Culture, Worldview | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments