Month: October 2014

Death by Indifference

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Often churches begin to die because their passion is in all the wrong places: the color of the carpet, the style of music, or an obsession over specific sins. While their passion is misguided and harmful, at least they have passion.

Often, an even deadlier disease in churches is indifference. Apathy toward truly significant issues, such as doctrine, mission, community, and values, will deteriorate a church slowly over time. A poison just as deadly, yet often much quicker to work, is indifference to blatant, obstinate sin.

Thyatira, the third dying church in the book of Revelation, experienced this very problem. In Revelation 2:20, Jesus proclaims to Thyatira: “But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.” Thyatira is rebuked for both their toleration of and participation in sin. Sometimes Satan attacks by seeking to create a tolerant spirit toward sin. Instead of disciplining those in sin, the church at Thyatira had grown tolerant, and as a result, many began to take part in the sin as well. In order to conquer, this church must cast off toleration of sin.

While we certainly want to be careful to love everyone and forgive those who sin against us, apathetic tolerance of sin in people’s life within the church is one of the most unloving approaches we can take. We are told to call brothers and sisters back from sin stemming from compassion like Christ, who has called each of us out of the deadly effects of sin. Tolerating blatant, obstinate sin leads to division, apathy in mission, the tarnishing of God’s glory, and ultimately the death of churches.

Rather than indifference, may we develop a compassionate sorrow over sin in our churches and graciously pursue our church family when they wander from the truth.

The Story of the Gospel

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Tracts often get a bad rap, and often, rightly so! But if you are looking for an easy to use tool that is also readily accessible to people in our digital age, then The Story is a great resource.

This short digital booklet summarizes the Gospel message well, and it looks good!

If you are in need of something to point people to who you may not get the opportunity to continue a conversation with or someone that may simply want something to mull over between conversations, then this resource is for you. Check it out by clicking the image below:

booklet

The Living Dead

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We’re turning toward how we are called to sacrificially invest through strategic mission in evangelism—sharing the gospel. And we are beginning by considering just what that Gospel is. So we’re turning to one of the richest passages in Scripture to meditate upon that Gospel message.

The Living Dead (vv.1-3)
Zombies are in. From The Walking Dead to World War Z, we are obsessed with zombies. The idea of the living dead is not new to our society. Zombie movies have been made for decades now, but spiritually, this concept actually reflects a truth that is as old as the Scriptures.
What we find in Ephesians 2:1-10 is that we really are in one sense living dead. In our sin, that is rebellion against God’s good intentions, we are living and breathing and acting in this world, but we are spiritually, relationally, and emotionally broken, more than that, truly dead.

The Disease
It’s not Ebola, nor is it some other virus or biological weapon of most zombie movies, but the disease we are infected with is sin, a rebellion against God and a brokenness in our humanity.
Because of this sin, we don’t flourish as God intends. Instead, we follow the “passions of our flesh.” We are “carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.” Rather than God’s beautiful desires for abundant life, we pursue base, sinful subhuman desires, and we continue in that path as long as we are left on our own.

The Consequences
So, Paul says, we’re children of wrath, which means we have a coming inheritance of wrath from God. As a result of choosing sin and evil, we deserve just punishment from a righteous God. We deserve justice and death.

Again, we’re dead men walking. We are stuck in this pattern apart from intervention. We won’t suddenly snap out of it. We can’t suddenly revive ourselves and avoid the just punishment from our righteous God. We are in desperate need of an outside intervention. And in verse 4, “But God” signifies the beginning of that intervention. The human condition is dire, BUT there is more to the story of the Gospel.

God Gave True Life (vv. 4-9)
Immeasurable Grace
God has intervened because the richness of his mercy and “the great love with which he loved us.” He did not leave us without hope in our horrid condition. Through Jesus, he shows “the immeasurable riches of his grace.” The work of Jesus that this passage refers to is the death he experienced on the cross. He took our disease—our sin—and death—our consequence—upon himself. He made us a way to exchange our inheritance of wrath for his inheritance: abundant, eternal life.

 Through faith not works
Paul makes it really clear that this life we receive has no connection to our works. It’s totally a gift by the work of Jesus. We simply receive this immeasurable grace and life by trusting (having faith) in God and his ability to bring new life.

We’re Alive for a Purpose (v. 10)
Glorifying God by Doing Good
The good news of the Gospel doesn’t just end once we are rescued from death by God’s immeasurable love and grace. In fact, it leads us and empowers us to live truly human lives. God saves us glorify Him by doing good works. This is what we were created for, and now we are freed from the disease of sin to actually live our God intended purpose: experiencing and spreading true abundant life.

Have you trusted in God for true, abundant life, or are you still trusting in yourself and settling for a life far from God’s beautiful intention? Trust Him today. (If you have questions, feel free to message me about any of this.)

Have you been trusting in Him but not enjoying the full riches of this new life because you’ve missed that God saved you for a purpose? Consider how God is calling you to use your freedom and life in Christ to glorifying Him by doing good in the world.

Death by Doctrine

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Doctrine… What an outdated term! At least that’s how most people feel. Hearing the word “doctrine” produces images of tired, old theologians studying ancient, dust-laden books in a decrepit library far from society. Unfortunately, that’s an entirely ill-conceived idea.

Doctrine is simply the set of beliefs one holds as a church. In fact, rather than a conception of irrelevancy and decrepitness, doctrine can actually be life-giving. Doctrine that flows from the Scripture and is centered upon the Gospel is a solid foundation and a source of strength for a church.

BUT doctrine can very easily be a poison that undermines the church and leads to death if it’s not based upon the truth of Scripture. In fact, this is just the death that Pergamum had begun to experience in the book of Revelation. This second church in need of Revitalization is called out by Jesus for giving into false teaching, or in other words, deadly doctrine.

Any church that veers from the truth of God’s Word and the Gospel will experience a decline in spiritual vitality and ultimately death. Some may keep their physical numbers up as they merely tickle the ears of the world around them, but their people will not be receiving life.

Cling to God’s Word and the Gospel as your foundation and authority.

Otherwise, your church will experience the death threatened by Jesus to the church in Pergamum.

Scripture-Focused Discipleship

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On Monday, I talked about the importance of studying Scripture as part of discipleship relationships. If you’ve ever led a Bible study, you may think that the thought of leading a study of a chapter of Scripture every week or two is a very daunting task. And if you’ve never led a Bible study, you may feel like you don’t even know where to begin.

Don’t worry. It’s not as intimidating as it may sound. Simply reading the Scripture and then asking specific questions is all you need. But what questions do you ask?
Discovery Bible Study is a simple method for leading a study of Scripture in discipleship groups by simply asking questions of the text and one another.

To get started leading a discipleship group, you can simply work through the DBS method. As you get more familiar with the gist of it, you will be more comfortable and able to lead without the guide in hand.

For now, check out these great Discovery Bible Study materials.

This is a great guide for leading a discipleship group that fits great into the model we’ve adopted at Gallery Church.

Implementing Intentional Discipleship

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Gospel-centered discipleship has been the theme for the past several weeks. We’ve seen how much of our discipleship is off balanced.

But now, we’ve got to ask, “How do we actually do this discipleship thing?”

Intentionality is key in consistent growth as disciples, and without some tangible, practical handles for implementing discipleship, we will never get around to consistent growth and maturity in our faith. And we as a church have committed to sacrificially invest through intentional discipleship for the fame of Jesus.

In the final chapter of Jonathan Dodson’s Fight Clubs, he provides a few simple, practical tools for intentional discipleship. His model is Biblical, effective, and easily reproducible, which is why we have adopted this as the basic structure of how we are going to pursue intentional discipleship.

So what are these basics?

1. Three Objectives: “Know Your Sin, Fight Your Sin, and Trust Your Savior.”

First, we must work to know our sin, our struggles. We’ve got to examine our hearts and allow others to examine our hearts. What are our sins? What are the circumstances and triggers for our sin? What lies are we believing?

Second, we must be committed to fighting our sin. We do this in the power of the Spirit and by the grace of God, but we must fight.

Third, we must turn from the lies we’ve identified and the sins we are committing as a result, and we must trust our Savior. Identify the promises that Jesus gives us in the Scriptures to counter the lies we are believing. An example of this from Fight Clubs:

“Instead of sexual lust, choose purity of heart: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.’ God is eternally satisfying; lust is fleeting.”

Fighting sinful lies with the promises of God is the kind of fight we are called to in discipleship.

2. Two People: A discipleship group consists of at least two people, but no more than three, who meet together regularly for the sake of intentional times of discipleship.

*Discipleship is not limited to the meeting times and is, in fact, enhanced by living life together in general. But without these regular meetings, intentionality will be lost.

3. One Process: “Text-Theology-Life”

Let Scripture guide your time together, for it’s the one source of truth and life that we can count on. Begin with the text. Study the same Scripture passage and discuss it when you get together. Begin with this to avoid spending all your time catching up. Share how God has been teaching you through this passage.

Next, discuss theology. All this means is talk about what this passage teaches about God and his promises. Dodson suggests asking this question: “How does the person and work of Jesus inform this text?”

Finally, connect this to Life: How do these truths help you to “know your sin, fight your sin, and trust your savior.” Dig into each other’s lives, struggles, and victories. Apply the truths of Scripture to your lives.

**These basics are a summary of chapter five of Jonathan Dodson’s Fight Clubs**

Imagine what God would do through us if we pursue sacrificial investment through intentional discipleship like this. Imagine the fruit he would produce within us as we grow in the grace of the gospel. 

Imagine how God could then multiply these groups if we pour into a couple of men or women for a season and then call them to go and do the same.

If just five of us commit to do that, then ten others would be intentionally discipled. Then, after a semester or year, they begin to pour into others intentionally in the same way. Suddenly there are 45 people in intentional discipleship relationships. Do that one more time, and you have 135 people pointing each other to the gospel on a regular basis. Imagine what God could do with an entire church committed to this!

Let us be a people that sacrificially invest through intentional discipleship so that God would multiply it for His fame and our good.

Death by Duty

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Five of the seven churches in Revelation were on decline. Jesus doesn’t mess around, but He goes right to the heart of the issue and calls each to repentance. The first church that Jesus addresses is Ephesus.

Jesus encourages the church for the fact that they have remained steadfast in their good works and defending against false teaching. Yet these outward actions stand in clear contrast to their inward motives. After his encouragement, Jesus says, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.”

Ephesus continues to do and say all of the right things, yet they have lost the central aspect: love. Satan has sought to undermine the motives of the church at Ephesus. With loveless motives, every good work and teaching is practically worthless. Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 13. In Spiritual Warfare & Missions, Ed Stetzer and Jerry Rankin make a good point: “Churches can be right and committed but ineffective because their motivation is wrong. Orthodoxy is never an end into itself” (255). Satan attacks the motives of churches, for they will begin to decline as long as their motives are wrong.

Instead of maintaining their institution or continuing in legalism, Jesus calls the church at Ephesus to passionate loving service for the sake of His fame. And he drives the seriousness of this problem with this weighty declaration:

“If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place, unless you repent.”

Is your church just going through the motions? Are they just maintaining the status quo for the sake of comfortability? Are they defending right teaching and doing good works only out of duty? If so, they must return to the love they had at first. 

Don’t let your church die the slow death by duty. 

Repent, pray for a filling of power and passion from the Holy Spirit, and hold the glory of the love of Christ in the Gospel before them.

Beware of Community

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“Whoever cannot be alone should beware of community…. Whoever cannot stand being in community should beware of being alone…. Each taken by itself has profound pitfalls and perils. Those who want community without solitude plunge into the void of words and feelings, and those who seek solitude without community perish in the bottomless pit of vanity, self-infatuation and despair.”

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together (Fortress Press), 82-83.

This profound truth—the necessity of both solitude and community—infuses our discipleship with a healthy balance of both an individual and community pursuit. In a culture that loves the idea of community, we must avoid idolizing it. As we pursue intentional discipleship, we must recognize that Jesus uses both solitude and community to draw us closer to and increase our faith in Him.

For further reflection on Biblical community, check out all of Bonhoeffer’s Life Together.

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The Missing Connection: Discipleship & Church Membership

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Most people see little, if any, connection between discipleship and church membership. Yet as we are reading through Fight Clubs, Jonathan Dodson brings the essential nature of the church to bear upon discipleship. Unfortunately, as Dodson points out, “The gospel has been reduced to a personal ticket to glory. But the biblical gospel is much more than personal conversion or a heavenly reservation. The Gospel has two more ‘thirds.’ The Gospel calls us into community and onto mission in Jesus” (39). Thus growing in the gospel, i.e. discipleship, must be connected to growing in one’s relationship to the church. Dodson declares, “As the church, we are called to live, grow, and fight together for belief in the gospel and obedience to Christ” (41). Connecting and living life with a specific local church is essential to experience the totality of this reality. Thus church membership is vital for discipleship.

But maybe that is too quick of a jump for some. Maybe you object that church membership isn’t necessary as long as you’re connected to a community of believers. However, I would seriously disagree. Church membership isn’t simply getting your name on a role, and certainly, one’s salvation isn’t contingent upon it. Additionally, when Christ saves a person, he or she is already made part of the universal church, the people of God, throughout history. But church membership is about a commitment with a specific group of Christians. This commitment is a covenant modeled off God’s gracious, unending covenant with us. It’s a covenant to “live, grow, and fight together for belief in the gospel and obedience to Christ,” and to not give up on one another when the going gets tough. Church membership is a commitment to live out the “one another’s” of the New Testament toward specific people—even when that may not be returned.

The One Another’s

These “one another’s” refer to 50+ passages that define how the church is to “live, grow, and fight” with one another. Here’s a compiled list:

“Love one another: John 13:34-35; 15:12, 17; Romans 12:10; 13:8; 14:13; 1 Thessalonians 3:12; 4:9; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11, 3:22; 4:8; 23; 4:7, 11-12; 2 John 1: 5
Serve one another: Galatians 5:13; 21; Philippians 2:3; 1 Peter 4:9; 5:5
Accept one another: Romans 15:7, 14
Strengthen one another: Romans 14:19
Help one another: Hebrews 3:13; 10:24
Encourage one another: Romans 14:19; 15:14; Colossians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13; 10:24-25
Care for one another: Galatians 6:2
Forgive one another: Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13
Submit to one another: Ephesians 5:21; 1 Peter 5:5
Commit to one another: 1 John 3:16
Build trust with one another: 1 John 1:7
Be devoted to one another: Romans 12:10
Be patient with one another: Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 3:13
Be interested in one another: Philippians 2:4
Be accountable to one another: Ephesians 5:21
Confess to one another: James 5:16
Live in harmony with one another: Romans 12:16
Do not be conceited to one another: Romans 13:8
Do not pass judgment to one another: Romans 14:13; 15:7
Do not slander one another: James 4:11
Instruct one another: Romans 16:16
Greet one another: Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 1:10; 2 Corinthians 13:12
Admonish one another: Romans 5:14; Colossians 3:16
Spur one another on toward love and good deeds:  Hebrews 10:24
Meet with one another: Hebrews 10:25
Agree with one another: 1 Corinthians 16:20
Be concerned for one another: Hebrews 10:24
Be humble to one another in love: Ephesians 4:2
Be compassionate to one another: Ephesians 4:32
Do not be consumed by one another Galatians 5:14-15
Do not anger one another: Galatians 5:26
Do not lie to one another: Colossians 3:9
Do not grumble to one another: James 5:9
Give preference to one another: Romans 12:10
Be at peace with one another: Romans 12:18
Sing to one another: Ephesians 5:19
Be of the same mind to one another: Romans 12:16; 15:5
Comfort one another: 1 Thessalonians 4:18; 5:11
Be kind to one another: Ephesians 4:32
Live in peace with one another: 1 Thessalonians 5:13
Carry one another’s burdens: Galatians 6:2”
– Into Thy Word Ministries, http://www.intothyword.org

Many of these are impossible to live out in loose, general connection with other Christians but must be lived out through the covenant of church membership.

The covenant of church membership is a grace of God for reminding us of how essential and serious our commitment to one another in a local church is. When times are good, it’s easy to love others and live these out, but our covenant spurs us to do so even when it’s not reciprocated (modeling God’s one-way love for us).

Discipleship—growing in the gospel—is tightly connected with the covenant of church membership, for we will only grow in the fullness of the gospel has we experience the totality of Gospel-centered community life in a local church.

Being Deaf to Christ’s Rebuke

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Five out of Seven churches in Asia Minor were in need of revitalization at the end of the first century. At least that’s the case concerning the seven churches that were addressed in the book of Revelation.

Five churches—Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, and Laodicea.

Each of these five were addressed in the same way and for the same reason: they needed to be revitalized.

Over the next few weeks, we will be considering what these letters teach us about church revitalization. We’ll start with a quick look at the construction of the letters and then consider the negative aspect of Jesus address. Later, we will look at the solutions that Jesus provides.

G.K. Beale represents the consensus opinion concerning the outline of the letters. He divides the letters into seven parts that are typical of each letter in the following order: “Command to write…, Christ’s self- description…, commendation of the church’s good works…, accusation because of some sin, exhortation to repent…, exhortation to discern the truth…, and promise to the conquerers.” (1) Each letter varies slightly, but this is the normal structure of the letters. We’ll sum it up with five parts: the self-revelation of Christ, his encouragement and promises to the churches, his rebukes and warnings, his exposure of the churches’ failure in battle, and his path to victory or revitalization.

The rebukes and the exposure of failure are surrounded by Jesus’ solutions. So we’ll start with the middle, negative aspects and in weeks to come work out from there to see how each aspects of the letter was specifically meant to provide new life to the dying churches. We start with the negative because we must grapple with the problem before we will have the motivation to pursue the solution.

First, Christ rebukes these five churches and proclaims a warning of the consequences involved in not responding positively. Each rebuke is based upon a sharp or extended decline in faithfulness. Christ follows his encouraging words to Ephesus, Pergamum, and Thyatira with the following phrase: “But I have this against you….” This phrase clearly sets apart the reason for rebuke.

Christ’s rebuke is no mere angry rant toward the churches. Instead, these rebukes are calls for revitalization. Christ does not long to see his bride wither away and die, thus as he points out in his words to Laodicea, he disciplines those he loves and calls them to life again. Nevertheless, this call for revitalization is followed by a warning for those who refuse to respond rightly. For instance, Christ promises to remove the lampstand of the church at Ephesus if they do not pursue repentance and faithfulness.

The consequences of being deaf to Christ’s rebuke is the death of your church.

Next, having their attention, Christ gets specific by exposing specific failures. Each church’s unique, present decline in faithfulness is influenced in powerful ways by Satan’s specific temptations. Considering each church and the area of decline into which Satan has sought to lead them will provide insight into the typical ways that churches experience a decline in faithfulness. We will consider these ways by focusing on each dying church over the next five weeks.