community

The Hope for Peace & Reconciliation

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No matter where you are from, what kind of cultural or ethnic background you possess, or what side of hot topics you land on, the lack of peace and reconciliation in our country is obvious. In fact, the distance between people seems to only be growing as sides continue to move to the extremes. The problems we face can be so overwhelming that we begin to feel they are insurmountable.

But, thankfully, we have a hope that can overcome all barriers to peace: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Certainly, in case you think I’m being trite, the problems we face have no easy, overnight solutions. But the truth is that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16), and this extends beyond a mere individual experience.

In the next stage of the story of Scripture, we see this reality come to life. Since the day of Pentecost, the Gospel has been spreading throughout Israel (Judea & Samaria) even to Paul who had been persecuting the Jewish believers. But something new was about to happen: the Gospel was about to exhibit it’s power to overcome barriers between peoples in a way that no one saw coming, not even the apostles.

In Acts 10, God breaks down Peter’s assumptions about who can and who can’t experience God’s salvation. In case you think you’re slow to learn, be encouraged. Peter took three visions to finally be convinced of what God was doing through the Gospel: He was bringing salvation to every single person who would repent and believe in the Gospel no matter their ethnic or cultural background.

In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul explains that this is possible because of what Jesus did on the cross. He establishes not only peace with God but also peace among humanity because he provides a common bound that supersedes anything in this world. We are all made children of God by grace through faith.

The glorious thing is that the Gospel brings peace in the midst of differences rather than by destroying the differences. Our ethnic and cultural backgrounds uniquely proclaim the glory of God, and the Gospel doesn’t destroy those identities but brings out their beauty even more.

We can enjoy diversity and experience peace because Jesus provides us ultimate unity through our identity in Him as children of God.

Yes, we still have a long way to go in realizing this reality. The church has often represented this reality very poorly to say the least. But as we ground ourselves in our mutual hope and identity in Christ, we can pursue peace and diversity with an expectation that Jesus has enabled our reconciliation.

Gospel Community

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Last week, we read of the Holy Spirit coming in power on Pentecost and essentially creating the church. What happened to all those people after they were saved? Did they just go on living the same lives they always lived? No, something changed. In fact, there whole lives were turned upside down.

Here’s what happened:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the templetogether and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
-Acts 2:42-47

Luke explains that the church was devoting themselves to four things: apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. Some of these are more obvious than others. The apostles teaching is both Old Testament Scriptures and much of what would become our New Testament. The fellowship is the living out of the “one another’s” that we often talk about: love, care for, rejoice with, rebuke… one another. The breaking of bread is gathering for the taking of the Lord’s supper, and of course, prayers meant… praying together.

Essentially, the church can be summed up as devoting themselves to: Scripture, Fellowship, Worship, and Prayer.

Every church will do these things to one degree or another. Some are strong in areas that others are weak. The key is that a healthy church will be pursuing faithfulness in each of these. Certainly, it may look different than the context of Acts 2, but all these things serve as the foundations of a healthy church.

So take some time to reflect on your church or small group community.

How are you living out a devotion to Scripture, fellowship, worship and prayer? How can you begin pursuing these things and leading others to do the same?

The Promises of Christian Community

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Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.
-Psalm 133

What a cryptic Psalm! What in the world is David talking about when he uses the images of oil dripping down Aaron’s beard and the dew of Hermon?!?

While this Psalm is short and uses some obscure references, it is actually an incredibly rich Psalm about the community of the people of God. David begins by praising God for unity. Now, in Christ, we have been blessed with community in the church even richer than David could have imagined.

In the following verses, David gives two images that show us why he is so excited about this community. Each image comes with a promise and a product.

Oil of the High Priest

–The Promise – The Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit

The anointing oil poured on the high priest represented the pouring out of presence and power of the Holy Spirit upon the priest for the service he would be performing for the people of God. David is rejoicing that the community of the people of God comes with this same promise. As we live out the community that Christ has made possible, we will experience the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, and this will lead to something specific in our lives…

–The Product – Growth in Personal Holiness

The anointing oil also set the priest apart as holy. As we experience the presence and power of the Holy Spirit through community, we will be able to love one another well by pointing out sin and reminding one another of the Gospel. True community in Christ will lead to growth in holiness as a result.

Springs of Life

–The Promise – Sustainment of Life in All Circumstances

Second, David makes reference to a mountain called Hermon. The water from this mountain provide life in the midst of a normally harsh environment. Not only did life flourish on Mt. Hermon, but the water also provided life throughout the surrounding areas as the Jordan river found its source in this spring. Whether fertile valleys or harsh deserts, life could be sustained along the Jordan river due to the water source at Mt. Hermon. In the same way, David explains that community is one of the primary graces from God for sustaining us in both the good and the bad seasons.

–The Product – Cascading Life

But the product isn’t mere sustainment. Cascading from the springs at Hermon down hundreds of miles along the Jordan, life was produced and thriving. In the same way, Christian community has the power to bring life not only in the lives of those who are part of the community, but also in the lives of those who are closely connected to that community. The ripple effects of community living as Christ calls us to (loving God, loving one another, and love our neighbors) leads to significant impact for the fame of Jesus and the good of man both in our local communities and eventually throughout the world. Just imagine what God could do through your Christian community.

At the Gallery Church, small groups are the best place for us to experience the community that David talks about to the fullest degree. In order to do that, we must recognize that small groups can’t be merely a place or event we go to once per week but rather a people we commit to and love day in and day out.

As we launch into small groups for the fall semester, may we pursue growing and multiplying gospel-centered community for the fame of Jesus and our good. And may we remember that small groups aren’t a place we go to, but a people we commit to.

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.

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.

Avoiding License in Discipleship

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Many of us have come for moralistic/legalistic backgrounds. Sunday school lessons were often focused upon the rules we’re meant to obey rather than the grace we’re meant to rely upon. As a result, many of us have swung toward the other end of the spectrum in order to avoid the strict self-righteousness that characterizes the legalism we grew up around. The problem is the other end of the spectrum is license, another deadly peril.

The glorious news of the Gospel is that Jesus has made us righteous and holy based upon grace rather than upon anything we can do. Yet, just because we’ve been saved by grace and we cannot earn God’s favor on our own, we aren’t to continue in sin. But the temptation toward license is the idea that we are free to live as we please since grace will always cover us.

The attitude of license completely undermines discipleship.

Paul directly battled this attitude in Romans 6:1-4.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

We are to embrace grace and allow that to joyfully lead us to the pursuit of holiness both toward God and man. We’ve been freed not to lazily pursue whatever desires our flesh produces because grace covers those sins, but we’ve been freed from sin and the flesh to pursue holiness for the glory of God (Romans 6:19).

Avoid both legalism and license. And pursue holiness for the glory of God and the good of man by trusting in grace and not yourself.

A Pattern of Prayer

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Prayer is not a practice that comes naturally. It didn’t for Jesus’ disciples, so why should we expect it to be so for us?

I’ve only been married for a little over a year, but one thing I’ve learned is that communication is going to be a lifelong learning process. I wasn’t born an expert at it and neither was my wife. We are constantly learning more about how to express ourselves fully to one another. One helpful tool for developing relational intimacy in marriage is learning to ask good questions in all areas of life. We did some of this when we went through premarital counseling, and it’s helpful to come back to those questions to make sure we are continuing to get to know each other more and more all the time. These questions don’t dry up our relationship, but instead, they breathe life into often ignored or forgotten areas of our relationship.

The same holds true for our conversations with God i.e. prayer. Reminders and guides aren’t meant to make our prayers rote, but instead, they have the potential to expand our knowledge of and relationship with God. And this expansion won’t happen naturally. We must learn and cultivate it.

This is why Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray, and as a result, Jesus provided us with the ultimate pattern for prayer and growing our conversations with God:

Father, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.

-Luke 11:2-4

Jesus isn’t simply giving us the exact words we should pray over and over again. Rather, Jesus is giving us a pattern. He is providing a guide to remind us to address every aspect of our relationship with God in prayer. He points to at least three different aspects of prayer in this passage:

  1. Adoration – “Father, hallowed be your name.” This phrase is an acknowledgement and praise of God’s holiness.
  2. Confession – “Forgive us our sins.” This phrase is a moment of authenticity before God and a turning toward Him.
  3. Reliance & Request – “Give us each day our daily bread… And lead us not into temptation.” These two phrases highlight our deep reliance upon God and the humble requests for physical and spiritual provision from him.

Don’t expect to grow in your relationship with God apart from developing a holistic rhythm of communication with God. Commit to involving at least these three aspects in your prayer on a daily basis.

Let’s devote ourselves to prayer by modeling our communication on Jesus’ guide for prayer.

Sacrificial Investment

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Centuries ago, Christianity spread like wildfire through much of the known world in a relatively short amount of time. Significant physical and spiritual needs began to be met on an enormous scale. The Gospel and the fame of Jesus was made known to millions who had never heard of his name. By the grace of God, the church—though small and seemingly insignificant—made a huge impact. When did this revival occur? It actually came about in the earliest days of the church beginning in Acts 2:42-47. What characterized the church that God was blessing in such a huge way?

Sacrificial Investment

Beginning in Acts 2:42-47 and continuing throughout the book, we see the church invest sacrificially in three ways:

1. Cultivating Worship of God
2. Building up the Church
3. Reaching out to the World

God multiplied this investment numerous times over for his glory and the good of the world. The physical and spiritual needs of the church and the world at large were being met in ways previously unimaginable to the earliest disciples.

We live in a city that has overwhelming physical and spiritual needs, and God wants to use his church to meet those needs by multiplying their sacrificial investment.

At the Gallery Church, our leaders have spent significant time in self-examination to consider where God is calling us to sacrificially invest. So over the coming year, we are going to sacrificially invest through…

1. Passionate Participation
2. Devoted Prayer
3. Intentional Discipleship
4. Strategic Mission

… so that God would multiply it for the fame of Jesus and the good of our city. (Check out our fall goals here)

If you are part of Gallery, join us by investing in these ways. If not, consider how God is calling you and your church to sacrificially invest for the fame of Jesus.

Just imagine what God might do in our cities if we sacrificially invest as the church did in Acts.

The Community of Hope

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One of the deepest longings of humanity is that of reconciled, authentic community. Yet, everywhere one turns deep-seated chasms separate people across national, racial, political, and various other divides. Can anything bridge the gaps and heal the wounds caused by these divides? Gazing upon our world provides little hope.

Yet, hope does exist in abundance, just not in the world around us. Instead, it lies in one who entered our world—Jesus. He alone has provided  hope in our broken, corrupt world. Scripture says that Jesus made peace by the blood of his cross. Through his work and the free gift he offers us, we can have reconciled community with God through faith in Jesus. This reconciliation, this salvation, also brings us into reconciled community with others who have faith in Him. When Jesus saves us, he doesn’t leave us as individual Christians, but he makes us part of a community: the church.

Though full of broken people in constant need of grace and forgiveness, the church is the one community with true hope of lasting reconciliation, peace, joy, and love across all cultural, racial, and political bounds. Jesus and his Gospel are the one hope we have for true community.

And it’s that community—the church—that I have grown to love deeply even in light of her warts and scars. This community is the people Jesus loved to the point of death millennia ago. And it’s this community that I am seeking to love in the same way. Following Christ’s example, I long to love and strengthen the church for the fame of Jesus. This blog is devoted to that purpose, and I’ll accomplish that in three ways:

1. Scripture Reflections – Providing meditations and direction for small group discussion
2. Equipping Resources – Providing a wide variety of helps for living this Christian life
3. Church Revitalization – Providing research, insights, and reflections upon an ever-growing passion of mine and an ongoing, yet oft neglected need in churches everywhere

*The first two will primarily be oriented toward my congregation, but I hope they will be a benefit to all who read.