Decisionism versus Discipleship

MUCH OF WHAT CHRISTIANS AND THE CHURCH PROCLAIM IS NOT WHAT JESUS AND THE APOSTLES PREACHED - Scot McKnight

I had said recently that I have come to the conclusion that church membership diminishes discipleship. Why should people choose the difficult way of discipleship when the easy road of church membership already has them "in" the church. It's like handing a college graduation certificate to students and telling them "we hope you take the classes." How many college students would do the hard work if they were told they already have the completed degree in their hands?

Scot McKnight new book "The King Jesus Gospel" raises some hard questions that the church today needs to answer. Questions like:

1. Is the gospel we are preaching the same gospel of the Scriptures and how is it shaping you into a disciple of Jesus?

2. Is the focus on making disciples in our evangelism or is it simply on getting a decision?

3. Is the "sinners prayer" or "accepting Jesus into our hearts" really spiritually transforming people's lives? Is this the approach that the early Apostles took?

4. Is the gospel and salvation the same thing? If they are not interchangeable, then how are they different?

So McKnight asks the big question: What is the gospel?

How would you answer?

Favorite Song

First John says not to love in word or in talk, but in deed and in truth.  I have been meditating on what that means for a couple of weeks, especially the in truth part.  Knowing deeds is the easy part.  As far as "in truth," I am beginning to think of this as from the heart and in the intentions.

This leads me to this:  I can remember from at least my teenage years being conscious of seeking the perfect song.  Now, when I listen to music, I do not just listen to the words or the sounds, I listen for the mood, the spirit of the song, if you will.  I really did not understand this until recently.  In fact, I can think of times in my life where the song had a direct spiritual impact (not saying good or bad as each time could be either or a little of both).  Another similar thought would be about the principle of something is the spirit of it(side note).

The end of 2008 and into 2009, something amazing was happening to me in terms of God that I cannot speak of much yet, but I can say that in May of 2009, I found the song that is the most intimate, pertinent song to me that I have ever heard.  It is the song that you might say is my Anthem.  Interestingly, I have known of the band and this particular album since at least 2003.  It is the song This Love by the Christian Rock band Stavesacre.  The album is Speakeasy and is available, but I could not find a youtube with the whole song, but this video has it at the beginning.  So what's amazing about the timing for me to hear this song.  Not only in terms of my own life, but it seems the lyrics are really speaking to the times in which we live.  Example: 

Revolution is just a word
it loses more each time its heard
won't mean a thing until it hurts
is anyone out there

Passion hoping to find
Someplace safe for it to rise

This love is real
it's pure, this love endures
in burning hearts
taking sides
it sends and it divides
it awakens you
or you sleep as others do
This Love

Now, they are speaking about God's Love, but love by definition, to impose it onto my favorite quote, is unkillable (Truth is unkillable, Balthasar Hubmaier, Anabaptist Martyr).  Do we take love as deliberate action as the most powerful force in all of creation?  If love cannot be defeated, then what else is there?  Evil by definition cannot prevail as since it takes life instead of increasing it, it is temporary.  Evil may seem to be more prevalent, but is it not more that it is more overt, whereas love is quiet and persistent and willing to go beyond itself for the sake of the other?  Well, these are just some random thoughts...

Who Goes to Hell?

"THERE ARE THREE PLACES WHERE RACIAL DIVISION STILL PERSISTS: BARS, PRISONS, AND THE AMERICAN EVANGELICAL CHURCH" - Francis Chan

The church has often focused on the unchurched as those who are going to hell. What is refreshing of Chan and Pringle's book "Erasing Hell" is the self-critique style and looking at oneself first before they consider looking at others.

They list several ways from Jesus words on why we should take a hard look in the mirror:

1. Our words can condemn us. When we call people fools and condemn others, we are not showing God's kingdom but are actually unwittingly participating in hellish ways. We either speak words of life or death. We speak words of hell that demean others or heaven which esteems others.

2. When we don't help the poor may be an indicator that we are on the road to hell. Chan and Pringle write, "Yet many hellfire preachers are overfed and overpaid, living in luxury while doing nothing for the majority of Christians who live on less than two dollars a day (p.121).

3. Jesus did not warn drunks, thieves, or adulterers about going to hell but he did warn teachers who taught God's word. Teachers of God's Word should take the teachings of hell most seriously since it particularly pertains to them.

4. The lukewarm are in danger of hell. People who confess Jesus with their lips but deny him by their actions that the Bible gives it's strongest warnings to.

As I have been reading the fifth chapter of Chan's and Pringle's book, they sum it up by saying, "Racism, greed, misplaced assurance, false teaching, misuse of wealth, and degrading words to others are the things that damn people" (p.124).

They end with these strong words, "I want to shock my enemies with Christian love."

Now that's a shock that more people could use!

Take Heed, I have told you all things beforehand - Mark 13:23

"A DREAM IS AN ANSWER TO A QUESTION WE HAVE NOT THOUGHT TO ASK"
(from the X-Files)

We struggle with so many concerns and decisions without realizing that God has many of them handled if we have eyes of faith to see. There are several scriptures that show how God also lets us know some things ahead of time. Like a Father wanting to let His children know what is coming next, God has a way of revealing things before they come about.

The other night I had a dream that is so big and so out of my control that I believe God gave me this idea to pursue. All I know is I have no power or any way of pulling off the idea. Only God can bring it about. I have such a sense of peace and strength knowing that God is going before me and all I have to do is rest in him.

Scripture or Tradition?

There has been an ongoing discussion between Scripture and its relation to tradition and how our pre-concieved ideas, church dogmas, and repetition of stories in the Bible and how that effects our understanding of the meaning of Scripture. But let me give a few examples of what we have been taught and does what we believe really come from scripture or a subculture of interpretation and tradition about these texts?

1. Doubting Thomas: Why do we refer to Thomas as "doubting Thomas" when there is only one text that shows this failure? Why don't we call the disciples "betrayers of Jesus" or "denying Peter?" Are we not selecting one instance and universalizing it in this instance and not others who do similar things? If Thomas died a martyers death for Jesus, why do we continue to refer to him as the 'doubter?"

2. The Prodigal Son: The Prodical supposedly squandered his inheritance on wild parties and wild women? But how do we know this? Does the Bible actually say this is what the Prodical son did or is this an accusation by the older brother? If there is so much sibling rivalry here, why take the older brother's word for it? The son surely squandered his inheritance but the biblical text actually does not say how he did it?

3. The inn keeper in the birth of Jesus story: How many times have we heard not to be like the innkeeper who had no room for Joseph and Mary in the Inn. Is the innkeeper a negative or positive model in the biblical text? Most people assume bad but where in the text does it say he was bad? Should the innkeeper throw paying customers out? Did Jewish hospitality demand he go the second mile and provide for this young pregnant couple with the place he did provide? Can it be we have heard the story of the bad and cruel innkeeper for so long that we can't see him any other light?

4. Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night: What about the cowardly and fearful Nicodemus who does not even have the courage to come to Jesus in the day but comes at night. Is there anything in the text itself that says that Nicodemus was cowardly or fearful? Were most meetings held at night and could not the night more show the spiritual darkness of Nicodemus for one who was supposed to have been enlightened? How is Nicodemus portrayed in the rest of scripture? Fearful or brave? Cowardly or courageous?

Do not all of us bring some baggage to the biblical text? Is that what the Bible really says or is it something someone else told us it says?

Interesting economic views

I found these interviews the other day entitled the "Looting of America" )Part 1 of 4 - but the blog I found them on had 5 parts) and they are worth listening to. 

I study Catholic Distributism and Anabaptist communitarian leanings.  Even though I am "stuck" right now, I envision localism as the answer to much of what our problems are economically.

If God's Kingdom is about the ultimate reality and foundation of all things, then certainly there is a real economy based on that reality.  As a whole, it will result in using less technology.  This is too brief to go into any detail, but I think the basic lesson is that the level of society that can best handle a certain thing, that is the preferred level to which that said thing should be produced from.

Luther

"HERE I STAND, I CAN DO NO OTHER!" - Martin Luther

I watched the movie "Luther" today with several other ministers. I could not help but wonder what it would be like to see one movie made by the Catholics and the other to be made by the Lutherans and then compare and contrast the two accounts? This movie was made by the Lutherans showing their perspective on the one who ignited the Protestant Reformation.

Luther is viewed in this film as meloncholy, manic-depressive at times, and full of wit and boldness. Luther is somewhat of an enigma to me. His courage to stand up for truth is daring but his quick temper and sharp tongue showed little mercy towards those he disagreed with. What the movie does is want you to cheer for the rightness and reforms that Luther was pressing the Roman Catholic Church to respond to. One is tempted to simply hurray the courage to break away and start another church but I for one am saddened when catholicity is thought so little of today and division is seen as normal and sometimes preferable to unity.

Jesus last prayer was for unity and I believe many of the early apostles to other church leaders throughout history have literally died for unity. Are we as quick to fight for unity as we are for truth? Are we as quick to surrender ourselves to others as we are to defend ourselves and condemn others? Which way is really the way of Christ?