"Servant Leadership" in Christ's Church

Good thoughts on this subject from John Schroeder. The greatest aspiration any Christian can have isn't top status or being the center of attention, but being useful in the hands of the God to Whom she or he owes eternal life. That is a very chastening and humbling thought for me.

So Much Church Fund-Raising is Legalism Mocking Grace

John Schroeder:

Somehow I cannot help but think that if we concentrated on producing mature Christians the money thing would take care of itself.

Read the whole thing.

Scary Stuff That Requires Prayer

We spend too much time looking like the image we want to project than seeking God's help to become who God wants us to be.

Who is God Anyway?

John Schroeder, riffing off a piece by Mark Roberts, writes:

I am always startled at how we presume to judge what God has said. Have you ever really thought about the sheer hubris involved in saying, "Oh that's not what that really means," when it comes to scripture? Who in the world are we to judge God's intent, or correct His grammar? What is it about us that makes us approach things in this fashion? I know, sin, but my reason just cannot get around the fact that He is God and I most certainly am not.

Read the whole thing.

Understand Easter?

We have nothing to celebrate on Easter, when Jesus rose from the dead, if we don't understand what really happened on Good Friday, when God incarnate, God-in-the-flesh, died. John Schroeder writes:

Oh how sweet grace, the grace of Easter, becomes when one truly realizes what is being forgiven. Jesus is not just forgiving me "my sins," He is forgiving me for killing Him!

What response can we possibly offer to such revelation? I am certain nothing I ever do can in any fashion merit the grace I am granted nor compensate Christ for the agony He suffered. But I must make the effort -- with the total commitment of all that I am and all that I have. Every time I sin, each slip I make, is another hammer blow on one of the spikes holding Christ to the cross - or driving the spear just a bit deeper into His side. I do not wish to be a part of that hideous scene anymore. I MUST give my all to overcome it.

Please, take the time to read the whole thing!

Do Most Contemporary Christians Think That Christianity Is About Them?

Provocative assertion made by John Schroeder, inspired by Dan Edelen:

Most Christians these days think Christianity is about them. It's their salvation, it's their worship, it's their Jesus. But nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus saves us for His ends, not ours. Somehow our approach to evangelism has got to begin to make this apparent. All the blatant appeals to personal interest that we make DO NOT serve the Kingdom.

I think John's right! And it drives me to my knees in repentance and submission.

In the New Testament, Peter writes that through Christ, believers in Christ have become members of "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people," then says that God has not given us such elevated status for ourselves, but "in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of Him Who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." (1 Peter 2:9)

Often, as I pray, I'm forced to confess to God that I take a selfish and utilitarian view of my faith. My behavior too often betrays the real motivation of my "devotion" to Christ: "What's in it for me?"

In fact, there's a lot that's in it for me (or anyone) in daily surrendering to and trusting in Christ. He sets me free from sin and death, after all, and gives me the undeserved and unearned privilege of living with Him forever.

But salvation that isn't shared with others too easily becomes self-serving, self-worshipful, self-congratulating, self-promoting.

Jesus says, "No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house" (Matthew 5:15). Cover a lamp and two things happen: (1) It doesn't give light; (2) Denied of oxygen, it soon will go out.

From what Peter and others say in the Bible, I take it that the Holy Spirit sets the lamp of faith aflame within us not just for ourselves, but also to let others see how the God known in Christ can change people from enemies of God, to members of that chosen race, royal priesthood, and holy nation.

When we fail to live in service and love for others, we are failing in our essential call as Christians. And we risk snuffing out our own faith.

As Lutheran pastor, Brian Stoffregen, says in a piece I cited on Easter Sunday:

“Can we say that we really believe in the resurrection of the Lord if we aren't willing to tell others about it?” 

And, I might add, if we aren't willing to make others' salvation a higher priority than our own?

I'm not pointing any fingers. I'm looking at the man in my mirror. Lord, have mercy on me.

[Read John's post.]

One Voice Opposed to Euthanizing Dementia-Sufferers

John Schroeder, whose father died in car crash five years ago, talks about his mother's dementia and the proposals of one movement to bring euthanasia to the victims of dementia:

There are two ways to look at my mother - a mindless eating and pooping machine requiring constant attention - or - a living human of diminished capacity. Why is it we lavish love on babies who are also eating and pooping machines, why is it we work hard to care for those of diminished capacity not old, but when the diminished capacity is the road to certain death, we throw them in the warehouse and pray for a quick death.

You either value life or you do not. Even within the range of "normal" some lives are more worthy than others. As soon as we start making decisions based on whose life is better, or more worthy we place ourselves in God's place - we blaspheme in a very real fashion. It is a sin, pure and simple.

Amen!

Read the whole thing.

"The Most Important Aspect of Leadership"

What is it? Check out this post by John Schroeder, inspired a piece written by Mark Roberts.

I've been reading the blogs of these two men for a long while now and had the privilege of spending time with them at the first GodBlogCon in 2005.

"I wonder what would happen if the church sought to be culturally distinct rather than culturally compliant?"

See here.

What Leadership Is

John Schroeder cites this from Jonathon Leeman:

Leadership is not about running after all your dreams and ambitions, it’s often about getting on your hands and knees and making your life a stage on which those you love can pursue their ambitions, hopes, and ministries. It’s about building up as much as it’s about moving up. It’s about equipping and enabling and empowering.

John then quotes Philippians 2:5-8, worth quoting again here:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.  

That, is leadership, and why there are very few true leaders in the world at any given time and why most people have never heard of them.

No More Programs, Just Jesus

The world doesn't need more programs or glitzy, celebrity-driven presentations of information about the Christian faith. The world needs ordinary people reaching out to other ordinary people with the love that comes from the Savior of the world. The good news that saves human beings from sin, death, and futility and gives them life with God forever is centered in relationship with Jesus Christ. And Christ almost initiates the relationships with him into which people enter through the loving relationships they enjoy with those who already follow Jesus.

Here.

(Thanks to my blogging colleague, John Schroeder, for linking to this piece.)

"It is never about self"

Blogging friend John Schroeder talks about marketing advice given to a new blogger contains a deeper truth for us all.

Parents: Let Your Kids See Your Dependence on Jesus

"Christianity is mentored, not learned." (John Schroeder)

The simple truth John points to here is why the charge we Lutherans give to parents of children being baptized is more than just a collection of words:

In Christian love, you have presented this child for Holy Baptism. You should, therefore, faithfully bring her to the services of God’s house, and teach her the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. As she grows in years, you should place in her hands the Holy Scriptures and provide for her instruction in the Christian faith, that, living in the covenant of her Baptism and in communion with the Church, she may lead a godly life until the day of Jesus Christ.

Later in the same service, we pray for the parents of newly baptized children:

O God, the giver of all life, look with kindness upon the father and mother of this child. Let them ever rejoice in the gift You have given them. Make them teachers and examples of righteousness for their children. Strengthen them in their own Baptism so they may share eternally with their children the salvation you have given them, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Parents have two jobs:

• To prepare their children for adulthood.
• To prepare their children for eternity by letting them know the One Who opens eternity to all who believe in Him, Jesus the Christ.

Providing for their children's instruction in the faith is only part of what's involved in that second job. The most important part is in living your own faith in Christ--humbly, without pretending to be perfect, letting your kids see that you face life and eternity not in your own strength, but in the strength God provides to believers in Jesus.

Another way to say what my friend John Schroeder says about Christian faith is mentored, not learned, is that Christianity is more caught than taught.

Parents: Let your kids catch your authentic dependence on Jesus. That authenticity will make all the difference for them both in their adult years and in eternity.

Now is the Time for the Church to Deal with the Ravages Caused by Divorce

As mentioned on this blog before, the New Testament indicates two circumstances under which divorce is legitimate:

• When one of the partners has been engaged in an adulterous relationship
• When one of the partners has spiritually abandoned the other

Otherwise, marriage, the covenant into which one woman and one man enter with God and one another for life is to be inviolable. In fact, the marriage partnership and the commitments of husbands and wives to the marriages are to be so strong, that even if either of the twin tragedies mentioned above happen, God will help the couple who "come to themselves" and prayerfully commit themselves to re-establishing the bonds of lifetime marriage.

For too long, we in mainline denominations and others in the evangelical wings of the Church have either winked at or simply accepted divorce. In doing so, we abandon a major teaching of Jesus and of the Bible about the utter sanctity of marriage. Our lukewarm discussion of the issue has given divorce a legitimacy which the Founder of the Church, Jesus Christ Himself, hasn't given authorized.

Our divergence from the will of God also undercuts our credibility when we tell couples that premarital sexual intimacy and homosexuality are also contrary to God's will as revealed in both Old and New Testaments.

But marriage and the tragic consequences of divorce are the issue that someone named David French deals with in this article, called Social Justice Begins at Home. A sampling:

For more than three decades, the American Christian Church has participated fully and completely in the institution of no-fault divorce. Sacred bonds formed before God -- bonds that take two to form and two to live -- can be severed at the whim of one. Even worse, they're often severed even when Christian spouses are living fully immersed in the church culture. I've been in "accountability groups" that offer more empathy than accountability. I've seen counselors become puppet-masters for their emotionally vulnerable clients, marching them out of marriages the counselor subjectively views as dysfunctional. And I've read fashionable Christian bestsellers that offer such sweeping indictments of "judgment" in the church that they blur the distinction between judgment and mere reading comprehension.

After all, it was God who said He hates divorce. It's His word that limits divorce to very narrow and explicit circumstances.

And yet, sadly, when Christians make this point (even lovingly and with full acknowledgment of our fallen natures), when they merely echo God's condemnation of a practice that we know -- beyond a shadow of a doubt -- takes a fearful toll on children's lives, they often face pure vitriol in response.

We're told to mind our own business, that we don't understand the complexities of the situation, that we can't possibly want the husband or wife to face the "hell" of life with their spouse.

But aren't we otherwise very eager to proclaim truth when lives are being destroyed? Does anyone doubt the evils of drug addiction despite the complexities of its origin? Don't we intervene dramatically to save friends who are alcoholics or addicts? We certainly and rightly condemn racism, knowing its horrific toll on our culture and on the individual human heart. But aren't the roots of racism also complex? Is it really the case that within every racist is the beating heart of pure evil?

I know nothing about David French except that my Presbyterian blogging colleague, John Schroeder, recommended French's piece. I recommend it too.

We all know that there are tragic circumstances under which divorce may be the only option for a spouse who no longer has a partner who will fulfill the marriage vows. Social inequalities and lack of opportunities befall the spouses and children of divorce.

Divorce should be counseled or pursued only with fear and trembling. And, during and after the process, even the violated party must come to terms with what sins they may have brought to the marriage that contributed to its demise. Real repentance and renewal must happen.

Long before marriages reach the point of divorce though, we in the Church need to offer help, from lay and clergy ranks alike, that will make divorce rare and something committed Christian spouses will work to avoid with every fiber of their beings!

The fact is that the God we know in Jesus Christ does not like divorce. He hates divorce, in fact. He likes the marriage of one man to one woman for life. Pray that God will help us to discover this important truth and why the security and well-being of children are among many very good reasons for married couples who have children to find the God-given and guts to make their marriages work.

To Make Disciples, the Church Shouldn't Dumb Down

John Schroeder hits it out of the park:

When we reduce the Christian message to such concise sound bites - we get a lot of Amens, but we do not get a lot of people whose lives are genuinely transformed - people who in depth know what it means to be a Christian on a day-to-day basis.

Read the whole thing.

Why 'fear of intimacy' as a reason people give for staying away from Church may say good things about the Church

It's a provocative argument advanced by John Schroeder in this blog post. But I think that his point is well-taken. Some people aren't ready for the kind of vulnerability to God and empathy for others that is central to church culture. They're not prepared for the intimacy with God and others that's a part of Christian life which Christians, when we're tuned into God, take for granted.

Of course, in the face of the fears of non-churchgoing friends, we Christians aren't, in Jesus' phrase, to keep our light under a bushel basket. A relationship with Jesus Christ is the very best thing that any human being can have. Things like love, compassion, and friendship will cause Christians to want to share that relationship with others, in spite of the prospect of rejection. Just because some people aren't ready yet for the kind of love that can be found in Christ's Church doesn't mean that we shouldn't love them enough to let them know that the welcome mat is always out for them.

Like Philip in the New Testament, who, when asked by his friend Nathanael if anything good could come from Nazareth, Jesus' hometown, we're called to tell our friends, "Come and see."

We Have No Rights

Let's be clear. God's Word shows us that you and I have no "rights."

The notion of "rights" is helpful in the civil realm. But Christians must acknowledge that the very notion is a fiction. The Bible doesn't support the notion that we have certain "inalienable rights." The Bible only recognizes that, as human beings made in the image of God, we have certain responsibilities to one another and that the simple privilege of living is a gift from God we don't deserve, that the amazing privilege of eternal life with God is a gift we cannot earn granted by grace to all who believe in Jesus Christ.

The Bible says this: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

One of my frequent prayers is, "Thank You, God, for not killing me." Death is what my sin warrants, but God is gracious, charitable. God has given me the miracle of life!

Even more amazing, God has given me a life with Him forever through Christ!

When I consider what I deserve, I am stunned by God's gifts to me.

Adrian Warnock, riffing off a tweeted message from his pastor, talks about all of this eloquently here. John Schroeder has additional thoughts here. David Wayne also shares a pertinent quote from Oswald Chambers.

[UPDATE: A blogging lawyer completely misunderstands the point of this post, thinking that I live each day in quaking fear that God is going to zap me when, in fact, I'm amazed by the graciousness of God, Who has every right to zap me, and doesn't. Then, a commenter says that I'm "insane" and for good measure, accuses me of being anti-Catholic. I have no idea what's up with that. Go here.]

[ANOTHER UPDATE: For an intriguing secular take on the notion of "rights," see here. The prologue and footnote to this post demonstrate that it is possible for believers and secularists to dialog respectfully and even agree on ways in which we can all live together, irrespective of what fringe folks say in either the religious or secular communities.]

Winning: A Christian Perspective

It's not about us. Good observations by John Schroeder.

John Schroeder on What It Means to Die to Self

Yeah, I know it seems sort of selfish to cite a post that quotes one of my sermons. But John says things that go way beyond what I said and his thoughts are worth considering.

On growing up...

as a Christian.

From the "Better Living" vault: Whatever Happened to Susan Pevensie?