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24 Questions Your Church Should Answer Before People Return

By
Ken Braddy
-
communicating with the unchurched

Our country is slowly reopening houses of worship. Here are 24 questions your church should answer before people return.

I can guarantee that we will not go back to “business as usual” as a country, and that includes our churches. If you think we’ll all rush back to church and pick up where we left off, don’t kid yourself – it’s not going to happen. Or at least it shouldn’t happen. We need to think and plan carefully so we do not endanger people simply because we let our guard down and believed that the Coronavirus crisis had passed. Now, as believers let’s agree to live by faith and not operate in fear, but let’s also agree to be proactive and to act in wisdom towards our members and guests, especially those among us who are most susceptible to becoming infected with COVID-19.

We have a short time to prepare for the return of the church to the church campus. As I have thought about my church, and listened to friends and ministry experts over the past several weeks, I’ve compiled a list of things that most of our churches are not thinking about. Don’t let the excitement of finally coming back together cloud your judgment or cause you to ignore the “new normal.”

Let’s think through 20+ things that we must think about before people return to the building:

      1. What if your worship gathering is initially limited to no more than 100 people? Never happen, you say? Remember that we’ve been limited to gatherings of no more than 10 people in the recent past. Take my church, for example. Pre-COVID 19 we averaged 350 in worship (two services). Should we be planning on adding a third service, reducing the time to 45 minutes with a 15 minute “passing period” so that worshipers can either go to Bible study or go home? One friend in ministry has said, “My church runs 2000 people in worship – we can’t have 20 worship services all weekend long! What will we do?” If we are limited to a smaller number of people by our government leaders, what’s the plan at your church to provide a place and time for them to worship?
      2. What adjustments will you make to the Lord’s Supper, baptisms, and your choir ministry? Do you believe you can conduct communion like you have in the past? Your church’s tradition may involve passing a plate of elements, or it may include drinking from a common cup in some denominations. Will you use the self-contained juice and cracker cups? What about baptism – it’s going to be impossible to practice physical distancing in a baptism pool. And as one reader said, “What do I do about my church’s choir program?” He realizes that people standing side-by-side won’t be practical.
      3. How will you go forward with VBS? This is a question on people’s minds. There are practical alternatives, and I know many churches that are going to find new times and ways to provide a VBS experience. Click here to read an article by LifeWay about VBS in the wake of COVID-19.
      4. Is a physical “pass the plate” offering a thing of the past? How would you feel if you were the 100th person in a worship service to touch the offering plate that 99 other people just touched? Would you be worried about COVID-19 transmission? Sure you would. So how will you take up your weekly offering? Will you install boxes at the doors of the worship center, and perhaps place some of those in the lobby, so that worshipers can slide their envelopes, cash, or checks into those secured boxes?
      5. What are you doing now to sanitize and sterilize your church building? Now is the time to wipe down all classrooms (especially those where children meet because of the toys and other items they touch during the course of a Sunday or Wednesday class experience). Have you sprayed pews and chairs with disinfectant? Who is wiping door knobs and handles? Have you had carpet cleaned and disinfected? Now is the time for all this to take place, not the week of the “you can go back to church” announcement by government officials.
      6. Are you going to continue offering children’s church? As a short-term alternative, family worship be encouraged as the primary option in these COVID-19 days? Should parents take their kids to worship, practice physical distancing, and keep a close eye on their little ones?

To My Friend Whose Marriage Is Pretty Much Dead

By
Dave Willis
-
communicating with the unchurched

“Life is busy, but overall, it’s pretty good. My job is going well. Kids are great. My marriage is pretty much dead.”

He said those ominous words, “my marriage is pretty much dead,” without changing his tone or his expression in between bites of chips and salsa. I was meeting my friend for a long overdue lunch to catch up. We’re both in the same busy season of life trying to juggle careers, young kids, marriage and all the other stuff life at full speed can throw your way. I was taken back by the bluntness of his statement about his marriage, but I was also startled by how matter-of-fact and emotionless he seemed.

After some awkward, probing follow-up questions, he offered a bit more commentary on the situation. He explained that the marriage had (in his perspective) never been great, but in recent years it had descended into a downward spiral leaving him feeling hopeless that it would ever improve. They had tried counseling, but despite their efforts to find new beginnings, old habits, hangups and heartaches seemed to create a chasm of irreconcilable differences.

Over the years, he and his wife had devolved from desperation to frustration, to apathy. Now, they seemed to be little more than disconnected roommates co-existing for the sake of sharing household duties and parental responsibilities. They’re still legally married, but they’re no longer real friends, lovers or even spouses (by any practical standard other than the legal document still binding them together).

They rarely argue anymore, but it’s not because there is real peace or partnership; they’re simply too tired, so they settle for the illusion of peace, because the real thing seems impossible. Their hopes for anything more seem to be as distant a memory as their wedding day. Had it not been for their deeply-ingrained religious convictions about divorce, they would have most likely divorced long ago.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

He and his wife had started out with the best of intentions. They both were (and still are) great people. Neither of them walked down the aisle and said “I do” years ago thinking it would eventually look this way. It certainly didn’t happen all at once, and I’m sure both of them would have different versions of the story to explain how it got here. The overlap in both versions of the story would probably include words like: miscommunication, misunderstanding, hurt feelings and unmet expectations.

I’ve known them for years, but I still don’t feel qualified to do an “autopsy” on their marriage. I don’t have enough information. What I do know for sure is that they both genuinely believe they’ve done all they can to make it work and neither of them knows what to do next. The thought of starting where they are and somehow building a thriving, fulfilling marriage feels as impossible to them as telling two starving and exhausted people wearing no winter clothes to climb to the top of Mount Everest.

Can YOU relate to their situation? I believe every marriage goes through seasons of struggles and frustrations, but some couples find themselves in total despair where they feel that they’ve exhausted all resources and options and solutions still elude them.

4 Things To Do When Your Marriage Still Feels Broken:

I believe there’s hope for EVERY marriage IF both the husband and the wife want to make it work and are willing to do all they can to make it work. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but I believe the following FOUR ACTION STEPS could not only prevent divorce but create a beautiful marriage out of a broken mess. In no particular order…

1. Commit to counseling AND a weekend retreat for couples in crisis. 

Counseling is an important part of the solution, but sometimes it takes getting away and have a few focused days to kickstart the healing process. There are some great counseling and retreat options at NationalMarriage.com, MarriageToday.com, AACC.net and we also have an online program for couples in crisis at FightingForMyMarriage.com.

2. Restructure your schedules to spend daily, uninterrupted time together.

Communication in a marriage is like oxygen for you body…it keeps you alive! When your marriage feels like it’s on life support, you might need to radically readjust your schedules to make sure you’re connecting daily. Make sure you have at least 30 minutes after the kids are in bed to talk with no electronics to distract you (TV, phones, etc.). Try to touch each other during this time. I’m not saying this will or should always lead to sex, but just showing basic physical affection or giving a foot rub can create more intimate connections between you and your spouse.

#3 might be the MOST important one on the list...

From the Beginning, Christianity Has Been Defined by Its Distinctness

By
Ben Franks
-
communicating with the unchurched

From the Beginning, Christianity Has Been Defined by Its Distinctness

Note: To read the previous entry in this series, click here.

Christianity did not emerge in a vacuum. It was established in the face of opposition on all sides.[1] The religions of the Roman world stood in stark contrast to the doctrine and life of the early Christians. Indeed, Christianity represented a radical challenge to the established religious order.[2] Christian distinctiveness can be seen in at least three broad areas: first, Christianity was a distinct religion, second, Christianity had a distinct ethic, and third, Christianity was a distinct culture.

A Distinct Religion

Religion in the Roman world was pervasive.[3] Every aspect of life, from the domestic to the civic sphere, was infused with religious significance and attended by ritual practices.[4] While religion was everywhere, it was hardly monolithic. Ancient Rome, much like modern Western culture today, was a pluralistic society. The roots of Roman religion were found in the culture of the Greeks, but within this Greco-Roman milieu, countless cults flourished.[5] While each cult had its own distinctives, Everett Ferguson gives some general characteristics which applied to virtually all pagan religions in the ancient world.[6] Each of these characteristics stands as a point of contrast to the teachings of Christianity and the church.

For example, in pagan religions, “morality was not closely associated with religion.”[7] While ethics was a subject of interest for ancient philosophers, it was not always connected to religious practice. Religion in the ancient world had far more to do with the right performance of rituals than it did with the right ordering of one’s conduct. Pagan religion did not share Christianity’s concern for holiness.[8] This is not to say that ancient peoples had no scruples. It is important, however, to recognize that religion was not primarily concerned with how men lived. (This was a task that was taken up by the philosophers more than the priests.)[9]

Christianity also stood out in the ancient world due to its insistence on the exclusivity of Christ.[10] While ancient society was deeply religious, it did not see any one religion as being better than another.[11] While certain families, cities, or nations might favor one god over another, they remained decidedly polytheistic. This polytheism, ironically, arose from a growing monotheistic tendency in the ancient world. J.N.D. Kelly writes about the, “monotheistic interpretation of the conventional polytheism” in which, “more and more the many gods of the pagan pantheon tended to be understood either as personified attributes of one supreme God or as manifestations of the unique Power governing the universe.”[12]

The differences between pagan and Christian religious life were not just found in the way that they thought about religion but also in the way they practiced religion. Greco-Roman religion was heavily ritualistic. Piety was expressed by performing appropriate ritual actions to honor the gods. These ritual actions permeated Greco-Roman life. Ferguson describes some of these religious rituals when he says, “The hearth was the center of the Greek domestic cult. The meal began and ended with a religious act: before a meal Greeks offered a few pieces of food on the hearth; after the meal they poured out a libation of unmixed wine to the Agathos Daimon.”[13] Every Roman home had a lararium next to its entrance. The lararium was a shrine for the “watchful, protective spirits of the family and household” that the Romans called the lares.[14] These household shrines were another center for ritualistic piety, “At every meal a small portion of food was placed before the lararium. Three times each month an offering of flowers was made as well.”[15] This emphasis on ritualistic actions carried over into public religion as well. In the Greco-Roman world, virtually anyone could perform priestly functions (provided he knew the correct way to approach the deity and carry out the ritual practices).[16] Priests had both administrative and ritual duties, but priests did not offer spiritual instruction or counsel or provide any sort of teaching or exhortation. Whereas early Christian leaders focused on the task of teaching and proclamation from the Scriptures, pagan religious leaders gave their attention to civic and cultural affairs.[17] Pagan temples were not centers of community life, places of instruction, or forums for regular corporate worship. Instead, they provided a focal point for private religious sacrifices and offerings and for administrative and cultural affairs. Early Christianity would have stood out as being a radically different type of religion in the Greco-Roman world.

A Distinct Ethic

As was noted above, ethics in the ancient world was more generally seen as a feature of philosophy than it was of religion. Early Christianity, however, made ethical behavior a central part of its religious identity and practice.[18] Early Christian writings constantly urge fellow-believers to behave in ways that are consistent with the Scriptures and the commands of God.[19] This set Christianity at odds with many common practices in the ancient world. Hurtado identifies numerous areas where Christian and pagan ethics parted ways, including the practice of infant exposure, the celebration of gladiatorial contests, and radically different views of proper sexual ethics.[20] In each of these areas, and more, Christianity proved to be a society apart. As Hurtado puts it, “The behavioral expectations placed on early Christians were demanding and represented at a number of points sharp departures from what was tolerated and even approved in the larger Roman culture. […] Christian adherents of all social positions were called, and from the point of initiation onward, to live up to the behavioral demands of their faith. Early Christianity ‘took it to the streets,’ generating a novel social project in that time.”[21]

A Distinct Culture

The novel way in which Christianity thought about religion and practiced religious and ethical life led to the formation of a distinct culture.[22] This can be seen in many areas. The ecclesiastical structure of the early Church stood out in the pagan world as did the social and economic diversity of its membership.[23] One striking example of the distinctiveness of early Christian culture can be found in the bookish nature of Christianity.[24]

Early Christianity was obsessively word-focused. The church structured its life and witness around the reading, hearing, proclamation, and propagation of the Scriptures.[25] Early Christians preached sermons, wrote books and commentaries, composed hymns and letters, and founded extensive libraries.[26] The literary character of early Christianity is made all the more remarkable by the fact that literacy rates were low (probably no more than 10-12% of Greco-Roman men could read – and the numbers would have been far lower for Greco-Roman women),[27] and the cost of books was relatively high (even a small book would cost as much, or more, than the daily wage for an ordinary laborer).[28] This is just one example of the many ways in which Christianity stood out as a distinct culture in the ancient world.

Conclusion

This brief survey of the remarkable growth and striking distinctiveness of early Christianity can provide valuable lessons for the contemporary church. Modern Christians find themselves in a similar position to Christians in the ancient world. Both inhabit a society in which Christian views of religion, ethics, and culture stand at odds with the prevailing views and accepted opinions of the day. Both provide a distinctive identity that is often despised and dismissed by the social and cultural elite.

Yet despite these challenges, the early Church expanded in incredible ways.  Given how out of step Christianity was with the surrounding culture, modern readers should be encouraged to see how God nevertheless blessed the early church with steady and surprising growth. While some modern Christians may be tempted to reshape Christianity to better fit the culture around them, the example of the early Church stands as a reminder that radical distinctiveness need not inhibit the spread of Christianity.

Further Reading

Cassiodorus, Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning and On the Soul.  Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press, 2004.

Ferguson, Everett.  Backgrounds of Early Christianity. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993.

Frend, W.H.C. The Rise of Christianity. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1984.

Gamble, Harry Y. Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995.

Grant, Robert M. Early Christianity and Society. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1977.

Green, Michael. Evangelism in the Early Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1970.

Haykin, Michael A.G. The Church Fathers as Spiritual Mentors. Ontario, CA: Joshua Press, 2017.

Holmes, Michael W. The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic Publishers, 2007.

Hurtado, Larry W. Destroyer of the gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2006.

Kelly, J.N.D. Early Christian Doctrines. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1978.

Kruger, Michael J. Christianity at the Crossroads: How the Second Century Shaped the Future of the Church. Downers Grover, IL: Intervarsity Academic Press, 2018.

Meeks, Wayne A. The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.

Phillips, John J. “Book Prices and Roman Literacy.” The Classical World 79, no. 1 (1985): 36-38.

Robinson, Thomas A.  Who Were the First Christians?: Dismantling the Urban Thesis. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Schaff, Philip and Henry Wace. A Select Library of Ante-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. Second Series. Vol. 3. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991.

Schnabel, Eckhard J. Early Christian Mission. Vol. 1 &2. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004.

Stark, Rodney. The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1996.

———. Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Movement and Conquered Rome. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.

Wilken, Robert Louis. The Christians as the Romans Saw Them. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.

———. The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.

Notes

[1] As one classic study puts it, “The atmosphere in which it had to grow and develop was crowded with religious, philosophical and even theosophical notions. […] Some degree of familiarity with this environment is indispensable to anyone who hopes to appreciate the evolution of patristic thought” J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1978), 6.

[2] For a thorough and up-to-date treatment of the distinctiveness of early Christianity, see Larry W. Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World, (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2016). For a helpful introduction to the intellectual and cultural identity of early Christians, see Robert Louis Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003).

[3] For a helpful exploration of the danger of imposing modern categories of religion onto the ancient world, see Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods, 38-44. Hurtado summarizes his discussion with these words: “the key thing to underscore that is different between ‘religion’ in the ancient world and in the modern Western world is this: We tend to think of ‘religion’ as a distinguishable area of life. We also imagine that ‘religion’ in some common, generic sense (drawn heavily from the particular features of Christianity) is an essential and ubiquitous feature of humans of all times and places. But this is a dubious assumption” Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods, 40-41.

[4] “Religion was closely interwoven with society in the Greco-Roman world. […] Human life was thoroughly permeated with religion, and numerous ceremonies punctuated the course of life […] – political, social, economic, and military.” Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 2nd ed, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 170-171. Another historian adds, “In short, from the lowest to the highest spheres of society, all aspects of life were presumed to have connections with divinities of various kinds. There was really nothing like the modern notion of a separate, ‘secular’ space of life free from deities and relevant ritual.” Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods, 47.

[5] Many of these mystery cults came from the East but people in ancient Rome worshiped the deities of the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Syrians, Phrygians, and Persians as well. For a helpful overview of religion in the Roman Empire, see Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 137-298.

[6] Ferguson lists a dozen such characteristics, but for the sake of space only a few will be mentioned here. See Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 161-165.

[7] Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 165.

[8] As Ferguson notes, “The wedding of ethics and religious belief, based on divine revelation, was one of the important strengths of Judaism and Christianity in the ancient world.”

[9] “For the most part, codes of conduct were derived from one’s national customs or from the ethical teachings of the philosophical schools.” Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 165.

[10] “early Christianity represented not simply belief in one particular deity among many but, actually, in some respects a different kind of religion. […] early Christianity was so different that many Roman-era people recoiled from Christian beliefs and practices, accusing Christians of rank impiety and even atheism.” Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods¸ 38.

[11] “There was no worry that any one deity would be offended if you offered worship to other deities as well. […] Indeed, for people in the Roman era generally, ‘piety’ meant a readiness to show appropriate reverence for the gods, any and all the gods. That meant, as the occasion called for it, reverencing any of those recognized as gods by any of the peoples that made up the empire.” Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods, 48.

[12] Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, 12-13.

[13] He goes on to say, “From birth the child was surrounded by domestic piety. His earliest recollections were of the father sacrificing on the family alter and all the household assembled for sacred meals. Birth, puberty, marriage, and funerals were accompanied by ceremonial acts.” Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 166-167.

[14] Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 168.

[15] The lares were just one of many spiritual beings that played a role in Roman domestic piety. Ferguson describes the domestic pantheon this way, “The penates were the guardians of the pantry; they were closely associated with the lares and Vesta (goddess of the hearth). The lares and penates, with Janus (god of the doorway) and Vesta, protected the home.” Ferguson, Background of Early Christianity, 168.

[16] Ferguson notes, “The Hellenistic period saw a strong development of the practice of selling priesthoods. The vendor was always the state. The purchase of a priesthood was one method of making an investment for a livelihood or provisions for one’s family, with a sound title.” Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 173.

[17] “Among the honors that went with the office were a special place in religious processions, chief seats at the theatre and contests, and the privilege of wearing a garland wreath or gold crown. […] Under the empire, priests took on more and more the character of civil officers.” Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 174.

[18] For a more developed exploration of this idea, see Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods, 150-181.

[19] See Michael W. Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic Publishers, 2007).

[20] See Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods, 143-181.

[21] Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods, 181. For further discussion of this theme, see Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 56-59, and 63-74.

[22] A classic study of early Christian culture can be found in Wilkin, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought.

[23] For more on these themes, see Kruger, Christianity at the Crossroads, 75-107, and 11-39.

[24] Four fascinating studies of the role of books in early Christianity can be found in Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods, 105-142, Kruger, Christianity at the Crossroads, 167-201, Michael A.G. Haykin, The Church Fathers as Spiritual Mentors, (Ontario, CA: Joshua Press, 2017), 163-182, and Harry Y. Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995).

[25] Though the focus of early Christian literary culture was on the Scriptures, it was by no means limited to only the Sacred texts. A famous early Christian argument for broader liberal learning may be found in Cassiodorus, Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning and On the Soul, (Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press, 2004).

[26] For a fascinating history of early Christian libraries, see Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church, 144-202.

[27] Haykin, The Church Fathers, 166.

[28] See John J. Phillips, “Book Prices and Roman Literacy.” The Classical World 79.1 (1985): 36-38.

This article originally appeared here.

The Beauty of Liturgy

By
Aaron Ivey
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communicating with the unchurched

The Beauty of Liturgy

Every once in a while, I take a few minutes to stand in front of my bookshelf and scan the books I’ve read throughout my two decades of following Jesus.

I’ll admit I’m a bit of a nostalgic person. The people who know me best would be quick to agree that I love recalling moments in friendships that were formative, challenging, fun, and meaningful. There’s just something about looking into the past that helps a person push toward the future with even more vigor.

Standing in front of my bookshelf has the same effect on me. As I trail my fingers along the spines of the many books I’ve collected over the years, my heart is filled with fanciful memories of meeting with Jesus between the pages of a good book.

I can remember the first time I finished East of Eden nearly 20 years ago. I sat stunned, but moved as I read, “Timshel!” I was speechless, yet ready to spill my thoughts onto lined sheets of Moleskine paper. I love the tattered spine of that book, worn from the many months it rustled within my backpack during my college years. East of Eden now sits on the third shelf from the bottom, in between two other Steinbeck books.

I also recall the first time I read Knowing God by J.I. Packer. My first year of walking with Jesus was shaped by the wisdom found within that blue hardback. The book’s gold-embossed cover is barely legible, but the words inside it are forever etched in my heart as I still seek to know God as my Savior and my friend.

I found my first prayer and devotional book, a leather-bound copy of My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers, over a decade ago. It contains 365 daily readings and prayers. If you were to pick up the book from my bookshelf today, you would find 365 corresponding handwritten journal entries from 1997 when I scribbled prayers and thoughts in the margins.

That book was, and is, an absolute treasure to me, not because of the materials from which it was made, who gave it to me, or the fact that it’s nearly 20 years old. What moves me is not just nostalgia, or warm fuzzies—like you may experience when picking up an old yearbook from high school. No, that book is a treasure because it reflects the stunning two-way relationship with Jesus I savor to this day. Seeing that book on my shelf, knowing it’s filled with the promises of God, is like finding an old box of love letters between great-grandparents—tangible proof of their love, their journey, their devotion to each other.

Words matter. Paragraphs and prose have a way of sticking with you. Prayers take root in our hearts and souls. Daily devotion stacks up like pearls on a strand. As days become months, and as years turn to decades, consistency turns into enjoyment, and enjoyment turns into deep, unbridled affection for Jesus.

This is the beauty of liturgy.

While our culture hurtles toward anxiousness and inconsistency, liturgy reminds us that simplicity, order, and rhythm possess a unique ability to tune the heart toward God.

Liturgy creates order and flow in an ever-changing world. How many times have we been guilty of rushing through something, or throwing out orderliness because we’re hurrying toward the next thing on our schedule? How often have we completely missed the sanctity of each present moment, simply because we don’t take time to still our hearts and souls to savor the simplicity right in front of us?

Throughout human history, liturgy has been used to sturdy the distracted human heart. Whether in the daily routine of a disciple, or the calendar year of the church, liturgy is one of God’s helpful designs. It brings order from chaos for both individuals and communities of believers.

I think of how intentional and honest the psalmist David was. He often prayed morning and evening. In Psalm 55:17 he says, “Evening, morning, and noon, I cry out in distress and He [God] hears me.”

I think of early Christians who met consistently for evening prayers and the Christian mystics who often recited the same prayers every morning of the week, too. It’s as if they were teaching their hearts to catch up with what’s true about the Living God.

I also think of the liturgical church calendar. It reminds the global church to observe Advent (the first coming of Christ) and Lent (a season of preparing the heart to celebrate the resurrection on Easter Sunday).

I think, too, of how liturgy has helped me as I aim to love the Lord with all my heart, mind, and soul. For many years, I’ve tried to spend a moment every day in Scripture, saturating my heart and mind in its riches. Daily prayer and Scripture reading have become the centerpieces of my everyday life.

Each week, my wife and I push everything aside and go on a date night. Why? Because the routine of dating her is the lifeline of our love for each other. Without it, we could easily become stale roommates or long-lost lovers, too distant to truly enjoy a friendship. But the regularity of dating one another is a discipline and constant reminder that there’s always more to discover about ourselves and our relationship. It keeps our relationship thrilling.

So it is with God.

There is no such thing as an accidental love relationship with God. We don’t stumble into knowing Him in a personal way.

We are sinful and half-hearted creatures, but the common grace of liturgical prayers, devotional guides, and written text can become wonderful tools in the hands of God. He can use them to shape our hearts, language, and lives.

Why STDs Are at an All-Time High

By
Jonathan McKee
-
communicating with the unchurched

The CDC posted a press release last month revealing STDs are at an unprecedented high in the U.S. In fact, “despite recent declines, 2015 was the second year in a row in which increases were seen in all three nationally reported STDs.” It will be interesting to see where these numbers come in at the end of 2016. The increases from just 2014 to 2015 ranged from a 5.9 percent increase of chlamydia to a 19.0 percent increase of P&S syphilis.

Yikes!

This is where everyone begins tossing theories around. Some blame budget cuts for education, and others blame social media. They’re actually calling it the “Tinder Effect,” blaming dating apps that encourage casual sex.

The consequences of casual sex are only magnified by yet another new CDC report comparing the overall physical and mental health of both sexually active heterosexual and LGBTQ young people with virgins and concluding, “students who had no sexual contact have a much lower prevalence of most health-risk behaviors.” Yes, you read that correctly. The CDC just published a report revealing virgins are less likely to smoke, drink, use drugs, feel depressed, attempt suicide and engage in over a dozen different risky behaviors. (We’ve began seeing quite a few articles highlighting these vast differences.)

Hmmmmmm. Could it be that some people are actually noticing sex matters?

Those who are engaging in casual sex are paying a big price. So what is the cause behind this unprecedented increase in STDs?

As a guy who has my eyes on these articles every day, I wouldn’t dare suggest one specific cause of this increase in STDs. It’s probably a little messier than that. Sadly, I see numerous sources providing misinformation about sexual activity:

Don’t take my word for it; just take a listen to the messages young people are listening to day in and day out. For example: Common Sense Media revealed teens average almost two hours per day just listening to music (out of their nine-hours per day entertainment media diet).

Is music a big part of this misinformation?

I’ll let you decide.

Here’s a sample of some of those lyrics from the top of the Billboard charts right now:

Closer, by The Chainsmokers (No. 2 on the charts)
Now you’re looking pretty in a hotel bar
And I can’t stop
No, I can’t stop
So baby pull me closer in the backseat of your Rover…

24K Magic, by Bruno Mars (No. 4 on the charts)
Oh sh*t, I’m a dangerous man with some money in my pocket (keep up)
So many pretty girls around me and they waking up the rocket (keep up)…

Side to Side, by Ariana Grande (No. 6 on the charts)
Feeling like I wanna rock with your body
And we don’t gotta think ’bout nothin’
I’m comin’ at ya
‘Cause I know you got a bad reputation
Doesn’t matter, ’cause you give me temptation…
Wrist icicle, ride d**k bicycle…

Broccoli, by D.R.A.M. (No. 9 on the charts)
Whispered in my ear she trying to leave with me (She wanna f**k)
Said that I can get that p**sy easily (I’m gonna f**k)

Caroline, by Amine (No. 12 on the charts)
Don’t wanna talk it out, can we f**k it out?
Cause we gon’ be up all night, f**k a decaf
You say I’m a tall thug, guess I’m a G-raffe
If ya want safe-sex, baby use the knee pads
Freaky with the sticky icky…

Starving, by Hailee Steinfeld (No. 13 on the charts)
I didn’t know that I was starving ’til I tasted you
Don’t need no butterflies when you give me the whole d*mn zoo
By the way, right away you do things to my body
I didn’t know that I was starving ’til I tasted you…

OOOUUU, by Young M.A. (No. 22 on the charts)
We got liquor by the boatload (That Henny)
Disrespect the Lyfe that’s a no-no (That’s a no-no)
All my niggas dressed in that rojo (Redlyfe)
I ride for my guys, that’s the bro code (That’s the bro code)
Baby gave me head, that’s a low blow (That’s a low blow)
D*mn, she make me weak when she deepthroat (When she deepthroat)
I need a rich b**ch, not a cheap hoe (Not a cheap hoe)…

Do you Mind, by KJ Khaled (No. 27 on the charts)
Girl I know your body, know where every curve at
We be going all night till the early
Know you, know you wanna take off when you on my runway
We ain’t got to talk bodies conversate
Baby by the way I touch you you know what I’m saying…

Bad Things, by Machine Gun Kelly (No. 28 on the charts)
Nothing’s that bad
If it feels good…
And we’re both wild
And the night’s young
And you’re my drug…
Nails scratchin’ my back tatt
Eyes closed while you scream out
And you keep me in with those hips
While my teeth sink in those lips
While your body’s giving me life…

X, by 21 Savage (No. 36 on the charts)
I got model b**ches wanna lick me like some candy
And them drugs come in handy
Last name Savage b**ch, but no I’m not Randy
Hit her with no condom, had to make her eat a plan B
And I’m sippin’ on that Codeine, not Brandy…

Needed Me, by Rihanna (No. 38 on the charts)
You was good on the low for a faded f**k, on some faded love
S**t, what the f**k you complaining for?
Feeling jaded, huh?
Used to trip off that s**t I was kickin’ to you
Had some fun on the run though I give it to you…

I think you’re probably starting to get the picture:

“I can’t stop”

“don’t gotta think about nothing”

“nothing’s that bad if it feels good”

“hit her with no condom”

If I were to summarize the messages flowing through every Wi-Fi signal and dancing across every screen, it might be this: I can’t help it. Go with what feels good at the moment! No consequences!

The sad fact is…there are consequences.

CDC reveals that young men and bisexual men are at the greatest risk. Somewhere, somehow, we’re failing to provide young males with truth…or young males aren’t interested in hearing it. We need to be proactive about creating a climate of continual conversations with young men (which is why I wrote a book specifically to guys about becoming a man).

But young women are the ones facing the most serious long-term health consequences, a big one being infertility. STD’s cause infertility to more than 20,000 women each year.

In a world so full of misinformation…how can you provide good information?

Are you having these discussions?

Do your kids know sex matters?

Jonathan McKee is president of The Source for Youth Ministry,is the author of twenty books including the brand new 52 Ways to Connect with Your Smartphone Obsessed Kid; More Than Just the Talk; Sex Matters; The Guy’s Guide to God, Girls and the Phone in Your Pocket; and youth ministry books like Ministry By Teenagers; Connect: Real Relationships in a World of Isolation; and the 10-Minute Talks series. He has over 20 years youth ministry experience andspeaks to parents and leaders worldwide, all while providing free resources for youth workers and parents on his websites, TheSource4YM.com and TheSource4Parents.com. You can follow Jonathan on his blog, getting a regular dose of youth culture and parenting help. Jonathan and his wife Lori, and their three kids live in California.

Seven Christians Killed in Christmas Eve Attacks in Nigeria

By
Morning Star News
-
communicating with the unchurched

JOS, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Islamic extremist militants killed seven Christians in Christmas Eve attacks in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state, according to area residents, while two people were reportedly killed in neighboring Adamawa state.

Residents of the villages of Pemi and Debro, near Chibok, Borno state said the insurgents were members of Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, and that the militants burned a Church of the Brethren (EYN) building in Pemi. In addition, seven people were reportedly kidnapped, including a pastor.

Across the border in neighboring Adamawa state, residents of Garkida told Morning Star News that Boko Haram attacked at the same time on Dec. 24, but that Nigerian army forces repelled them. Adamawa Gov. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, however, released a statement on Christmas Day saying two civilians had been killed in the attack, including a 5-year-old boy, before soldiers drove the rebels away.

In Borno state, the jihadists began their attacks on predominantly Christian Pemi and Debro at about 6 p.m., area residents said.

“Seven Christians were killed at Pemi, and the church building of EYN was completely burned by them,” area resident Awiya Lawan told Morning Star News by text message. “Houses, cars and stores were burned down. The Boko Haram gunmen carried out the attacks for three hours before soldiers arrived at the area at 9 p.m.”

Peter Solomon, another resident of the area, also said that heavily armed Boko Haram rebels, who seek to establish sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria, killed seven Christians.

“The Boko Haram attackers destroyed the church building of EYN and looted foods from many houses before burning about 10 houses in Pemi, which is located about 20 kilometers [12 miles] away from Chibok town,” Solomon said

In Adamawa state, the attack by suspected Boko Haram militants forced Christians to halt Christmas preparations and flee into bushes to escape, area residents said.

“Garkida town in Adamawa state is under a massive attack,” area resident Joel Bahago said in a text message to Morning Star News. “Please pray for us, as this isn’t how we planned for Christmas, Lord.”

Another area resident, Rhoda Yadiwutuwa, said in a text message on Christmas Day that Nigeria’s armed forces had repelled the assailants but that most of the residents were still hiding in bushes and nearby hills.

“It is well with us people of Garkida, we shall hold our peace, because victory belongs to our God and Lord, Jesus Christ,” Yadiwutuwa said.

Markus Bulus wrote in a Christmas Day text that area resident were thankful.

Pastor in China Is Now Free After Being Under House Arrest for 9 Years

By
Jessica Lea
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communicating with the unchurched

A pastor in China who has been under house arrest for nine years has finally been released. Chinese officials are no longer surveilling Jin Tianming, founder of Shouwang Church in Beijing, who was put under house arrest without trial in 2011.

“Although there has never been a trial indicting Pastor Jin,” says International Christian Concern (ICC), “he was detained when his church started to hold services outdoors at a city plaza following eviction from rented premises. Shouwang Church has been targeted by the government for its refusal to join the state-approved Three Self Church.”

After putting the pastor under arrest, officials monitored his apartment for 24 hours a day, eventually allowing Jin outside to go to the grocery store or to exercise. In 2017, Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) described his situation, saying, “Pastor Jin Tianming’s home is closely guarded by three government agents and he is given just two hours of personal time each day. His wife is prohibited from leaving their home on Sundays.”

Pastor Jin and his wife founded Shouwang Church in 1993, growing the house church to 1,000 members and 13 “fellowships.” Reports conflict somewhat as to the exact timeframe when the government first began harassing the congregation, but it seems the persecution began sometime between 2004 and 2009. 

Shouwang Church Struggles to Meet

Bitter Winter reports that authorities raided Shouwang Church in 2004 and pressured the congregation to become a state-approved, Three-Self church. According to a timeline provided by Church in Chains (CIC), in 2006 Shouwang Church tried to register with the Haidian District Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau, but authorities rejected the church’s application because Jin was not ordained by a state-approved seminary. Shouwang Church faced more harassment and pressure to become state-approved, and in 2009 authorities “started regular harassment of Shouwang members.” Voice of the Martyrs also dates the beginning of the government’s persecution to 2009. 

A petition for Shouwang Church on ChinaAid’s website, however, says that the government started its persecution in 2008, when officials began coercing the church’s landlords to evict the congregation whenever members found a place to meet. In 2009, after being forced out of their building, the church held a service in a snowstorm, after which members continued to struggle to find a location to worship. 


Chinese officials arrested Pastor Jin in 2011 and persisted in disrupting services and detaining members in the years that followed. In 2018, Jin stepped down as senior pastor of Shouwang Church in order to focus on missions, but remained under house arrest. He published a statement expressing his support for Early Rain Covenant Church (ERCC) in Chengdu, China, after authorities arrested 100 ERCC members in December 2018. ERCC pastor Wang Yi was one of those arrested, and prior to being detained, he had published a statement entitled, “My Declaration of Faithful Disobedience. Pastor Jin responded to the statement, saying,

As I was reading this declaration of faith, my heart was deeply moved. Honestly, before the Lord, what pastor Wang Yi declared as his stance on the relationship between the church and the state is also where I stand…Each Christian may have different expressions because of their freedom of conscience. But the one thing to which we must all share and hold fast to is to obey God and witness to Christ.

Pastor Wang has since been sentenced to nine years in prison, and ERCC elder Qin Derfu has been sentenced to four years in prison. Authorities continue to harass other members and leaders of Early Rain Covenant Church. Police threatened two ERCC members last week on Christmas Eve, and over the past few weeks they have been successfully pressuring church members’ landlords to evict them. 

Shouwang Church was officially shut down in March 2019, but released a statement at the time in which leaders said, “The basic position of the church is to not accept the decision to ban the church. From a spiritual perspective, the legitimacy of the Christian church is not based on the ruling of the worldly powers, but on the church’s spiritual nature.”

ICC reports that Shouwang Church had been holding outdoor services at Zhongguancun in Beijing before moving to either small groups or online at the beginning of this year. Even though Pastor Jin has been released, police are surveilling at least one other church elder, and it is not known whether or not they are monitoring other Shouwang Church leaders.

Pastor’s Miraculous Recovery From COVID-19 to Be Featured on Netflix

By
Stephanie Martin
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communicating with the unchurched

A Belfast pastor who went viral after sharing an awe-inspiring hospital encounter will have his story told on the big screen, thanks to a Christian film producer. DeVon Franklin, known for movies such as Miracles From Heaven and Breakthrough, contacted Lee McClelland, pastor of The Ark Church in Northern Ireland, about adapting his experiences for a Netflix feature film.

The as-yet-untitled movie, expected to release near Christmas 2021, will explore McClelland’s recovery from COVID-19 and the unexpected way God encouraged him while in an isolation ward. 

‘God sent a cleaner’ 

In a video that’s been viewed almost half a million times, McClelland describes being seriously ill with coronavirus in March. “I honestly didn’t know whether I would make it or not,” he says, adding he thought he was moments away from needing a ventilator. McClelland cried out to God for help and for encouragement for his soul.

Although the pastor was in an isolation ward and permitted no visitors, God provided “a ray of sunshine,” he says. “When no one else could get in, God sent a cleaner.” A man on a disinfecting mission fulfilled a spiritual mission by standing in McClelland’s doorway and praying for his healing.

The cleaner, who wishes to remain anonymous, served as a missionary in Nigeria for 14 years and spoke about Jesus’ love and salvation. As McClelland recounts, the man “began to ask God the Holy Ghost to visit me. He began to ask God to heal my body and touch my lungs. … He pleaded that God Almighty would spare my life and to continue to use me.”

Soon afterward, McClelland’s physical condition began improving. The cleaner “periodically would walk past my window and give me a thumbs-up,” the pastor says. One day McClelland began craving “cocktail crisps and a tin of Coke,” and the next morning, without knowing about those desires, the cleaner gave him a bag containing two oranges, a packet of crisps, and Coke.

“Thank you for hearing the voice of God and reaching someone like me, who needed a touch,” says the pastor, who reports no remaining effects of COVID-19.

Film will be ‘a story of hope’

McClelland says he consented to the film because he sensed that Franklin was “genuine” and would faithfully convey “the point and the purpose and the content of the miracle.” He adds, “It’ll be a story of hope in the midst of chaos.”

Franklin, a bestselling author and president and CEO of Franklin Entertainment, currently has deals with Paramount Pictures, Netflix, and CBS. The producer, who is Black, has spoken about plans to “create new opportunities for people of faith and people of color.”

About this summer’s racial-justice protests, Franklin described how Black people get dehumanized, including through some Hollywood portrayals. As a producer, he says he’s always looking for true stories that make a case for a loving, caring God. “When we believe in (God), impossible things can happen,” Franklin tells The Christian Post. 

McClelland echoes that in his viral video, describing God as “personal” because he knows our every need and the desires of our hearts.

Each Year 1,000 Pakistani Girls Forcibly Converted to Islam

By
AP News
-
Neha
Police officers escort Arzoo Raja, center back, a teenage Christian girl, who was allegedly abducted and forced to convert and marry a 44-year old Muslim, while they leave after appear her in Sindh High Court, in Karachi, Pakistan, on Nov. 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) —

Neha loved the hymns that filled her church with music. But she lost the chance to sing them last year when, at the age of 14, she was forcibly converted from Christianity to Islam and married to a 45-year-old man with children twice her age.

She tells her story in a voice so low it occasionally fades away. She all but disappears as she wraps a blue scarf tightly around her face and head. Neha’s husband is in jail now facing charges of rape for the underage marriage, but she is in hiding, afraid after security guards confiscated a pistol from his brother in court.

“He brought the gun to shoot me,” said Neha, whose last name The Associated Press is not using for her safety.

Neha, 15, who was married as a child, weeps during an interview in Karachi, Pakistan, on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020. Neha said she was tricked into marriage by a favorite aunt. Instead of going to a hospital to visit a relative, she was taken to the home of her aunt’s in-laws and told she would marry her aunt’s 45-year-old brother-in-law. “I told her I can’t, I am too young and I don’t want to. He is old,” Neha said. “She slapped me and locked me up in a room.” (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Neha is one of nearly 1,000 girls from religious minorities who are forced to convert to Islam in Pakistan each year, largely to pave the way for marriages that are under the legal age and non-consensual. Human rights activists say the practice has accelerated during lockdowns against the coronavirus, when girls are out of school and more visible, bride traffickers are more active on the Internet and families are more in debt.

The U.S. State Department this month declared Pakistan “a country of particular concern” for violations of religious freedoms — a designation the Pakistani government rejects. The declaration was based in part on an appraisal by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom that underage girls in the minority Hindu, Christian, and Sikh communities were “kidnapped for forced conversion to Islam… forcibly married and subjected to rape.”

While most of the converted girls are impoverished Hindus from southern Sindh province, two new cases involving Christians, including Neha’s, have roiled the country in recent months.

The girls generally are kidnapped by complicit acquaintances and relatives or men looking for brides. Sometimes they are taken by powerful landlords as payment for outstanding debts by their farmhand parents, and police often look the other way. Once converted, the girls are quickly married off, often to older men or to their abductors, according to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Forced conversions thrive unchecked on a money-making web that involves Islamic clerics who solemnize the marriages, magistrates who legalize the unions and corrupt local police who aid the culprits by refusing to investigate or sabotaging investigations, say child protection activists.

One activist, Jibran Nasir, called the network a “mafia” that preys on non-Muslim girls because they are the most vulnerable and the easiest targets “for older men with pedophilia urges.”

The goal is to secure virginal brides rather than to seek new converts to Islam. Minorities make up just 3.6 percent of Pakistan’s 220 million people and often are the target of discrimination. Those who report forced conversions, for example, can be targeted with charges of blasphemy.

10 Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year

By
Don Whitney
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communicating with the unchurched

10 Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year

Consider the Direction of Your Life

Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. “Consider your ways!” (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them.

Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It’s so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we’re going and where we should be going.

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.

  1. What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
  2. What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
  3. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
  4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
  5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
  6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
  7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
  8. What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?
  9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
  10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

In addition to these ten questions, here are twenty-one more to help you “Consider your ways.” Think on the entire list at one sitting, or answer one question each day for a month.

  1. What’s the most important decision you need to make this year?
  2. What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what’s one way you could simplify in that area?
  3. What’s the most important need you feel burdened to meet this year?
  4. What habit would you most like to establish this year?
  5. Who is the person you most want to encourage this year?
  6. What is your most important financial goal this year, and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it?
  7. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your work life this year?
  8. What’s one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?
  9. What’s one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?
  10. What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read this year?
  11. What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?
  12. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?
  13. In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?
  14. What’s the most important trip you want to take this year?
  15. What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?
  16. To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount this year?
  17. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute this year?
  18. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?
  19. If those who know you best gave you one piece of advice, what would they say? Would they be right? What will you do about it?
  20. What’s the most important new item you want to buy this year?
  21. In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year?

The value of many of these questions is not in their profundity, but in the simple fact that they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year is more
likely to help you remember to encourage that person than if you hadn’t considered the question.

If you’ve found these questions helpful, you might want to put them someplace—in a day planner, PDA, calendar, bulletin board, etc.—where you can review them more frequently than once a year.

So let’s evaluate our lives, make plans and goals, and live this new year with biblical diligence, remembering that, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage” (Proverbs 21:5). But in all things let’s also remember our dependence on our King who said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

This Is No Time to Preach in Neutral

By
Brandon Cox
-
communicating with the unchurched

In Dare to Lead, her wonderful book about vulnerability as the key to influential leadership, Brené Brown proclaims a simple and powerful truth, “Clarity is kind.” And on the other side of the same coin, “A lack of clarity is unkind.”

In other words, being vague can create all kinds of pain, especially when we are vague about the expectations we have of other people.

I believe clarity counts for a lot in the arena of preaching as well. Every congregation needs to hear a clear word of truth and a clear call to action, both personal and corporate. It’s the right and fair thing to do.

Preaching with clarity will inevitably have two effects. On the one hand, our clarity will call people to commitment, and people are hard-wired by their Creator to respond to bold, courageous leadership. And on the other hand, our clarity will also push some people away. It will repel those who cannot come to terms of agreement with what we’ve proclaimed.

Throughout the year 2020, I’ve had a lot of hard conversations in which I’m reminded of the need to preach in neutral. To play the middle. To be generic enough in the message to avoid offensive topics. To offend no one.

But preaching a generic message in a neutral voice is a practice rooted in privilege. It’s possible only for those who already live under conditions that are personally favorable, who have an innate desire to avoid disturbing the status quo. In other words, we usually try not to challenge any cultural reality that ultimately benefits us or our peers, especially when those peers are attenders, givers, and volunteers who provide us a sense of significance and security.

It hurts to lose friends, and when you shift out of neutral and begin to move in some new direction, you will inevitably love someone behind. But if you’re going to preach in the tradition of Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd, you’re going to have to commit to clarity.

We’re currently living in a cultural climate in which those most vulnerable to a raging and rapidly spreading virus are asking the rest of us to look out for them. People of color who have suffered at the hands of unjust systems and unequal opportunities are wondering if anyone who is privileged or has power will hear their stories and stand with them as allies. Choosing sides on these issues will cost you. Clarity will cost you. Boldness will cost you.

But clarity is ultimately kind.

Chances are, if you’re a preacher reading this blog post during the year 2020, it has already cost you, hasn’t it? You need to know that it’s okay. You’re not alone. You’re not the only one suffering loss. The only preachers I know who aren’t hurting are those who are sticking to the script. If you’ve been bold enough to go off script, stay on track. If you retreat now, you will have paid the cost for naught.

You’re going to get it wrong sometimes. You’re occasionally going to choose the wrong side. You’re going to step on the wrong toes. Your pride will sometimes take over and replace compassion with arrogance. And when that happens, be willing to be humbled, to learn, and to rest in the grace of God.

But don’t let rejection or the threat thereof drive you into silence or passivity. The world has big problems. Jesus came with bigger answers. And he has called you to be part of the solution – to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God who will always have your back as long as you’re speaking faithfully to his truth and in his voice of love and compassion.

The world needs clarity – especially concerning the good news of the saving King Jesus.

This is no time to preach in neutral.

This article originally appeared here.

In Praise of My Wife, Written by a Pastor

By
Nicholas Batzig
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communicating with the unchurched

If 2020 has been challenging for pastors, consider the toll that it has taken on the pastor’s wife. She is one of the unsung heroes of the church. The pastor’s wife sacrifices unmeasurable and unrecognized time and energy to support the ministry to which her husband has been called–often without the support she needs. In many instances, she is indispensable to the ministry, since her husband’s ministry will rarely outlast her support.

Having parachute planted a church in a military town in which we had four hundred percent turnover in ten years, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t have been able to continue in ministry that long if my wife, Anna, were not the superlatively strong and supportive woman God has made her to be.

From the start of the church plant, Anna opened our home several times a week to host small groups, dinner parties, play dates, or to watch other people’s children. She poured herself out in the service of the kingdom of Christ. She made sure that meals were being taken to those in need in the church. She served in the nursery or whereever there was a need in the church. She did all this while simultaneously bearing the burdens that I bore, as I poured myself out to lead a church forward without adequate resources or assistance. Many pastor’s wives have the same experience in their weekly schedules.

Though I have always sought to protect Anna from knowing everything about congregants, she sees the burdens I carry on my face, and in my heart, and feels the burden with me. Countless hours of her prayers and encouragement have passed in our home. When church planting, she kept track of the many needs of the congregants–frequently reminding me of those for whom I needed to pray or to check in on others when I had forgotten about what they were going through.

The pastor’s wife not only bears the burdens of her husband’s ministry, she bears the burdens of her husband’s sin. She sees all of his sinful shortcomings. She is subject to the high calling to which he is called, and, therefore, is subject to the consequences of his sinful failings. She prayers with and for him in this regard. She seeks to encourage him. She bears long with him.

Add to this that my wife brought up three young boys throughout that ten-year period (homeschooling for four of those years), driving them to events, taking them to the doctor, leading them in devotions when I was not home, and disciplining them. She cared for the needs of our home–preparing meals, cleaning, paying bills, and carrying out many other tasks for the management and upkeep of our family. If I was traveling for speaking engagements or away for denominational related business, she would have to manage everything on her own. The pastor’s wife is called to sacrificially share her husband with a congregation and with the church at large. Of course, sometimes she has to lovingly encourage him to pull back from ministry to focus on the needs of the members of his family.

Beyond her labors in the home, my wife has long run a business in which she buys and resells high-end thrifted clothing. She does this to help us offset our expenses. Though she finds this enjoyable, it is, nevertheless, an extra sacrifice for the family. Many pastor’s wives are laboring on the side to help provide for the financial needs of her family. I suppose if one were to tally up the cumulative hours that she spends carrying for her husband, children, the management of the home, and outside labors, the pastor’s wife is working the equivalent of three to four jobs.

On top of all this, most pastors’ wives never receive the suitable support that they need. Congregants–while appreciative of them–are afraid to get close to the pastor’s wife. This is partly due to the fact that they may not want their own sin and struggles exposed to the pastor through her (which ought to be merely a perception). It may also be partly owning to the way in which some fear becoming an extra burden to a woman they see as already carrying a heavy load. In many cases, the pastor’s wife never receives the pastoral care of the other pastors or elders in the church. In most cases, she is left to bear the burdens of her husband, family, church, and friends alone.

While we find ourselves in a different season of ministry–with considerably less burdens than we carried while church planting–my wife continues to be an extraordinary woman who gives continual support. While so much more can be said about the pastor’s wife in general, this much I can say of my own: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all” (Proverbs 31:29). I encourage all pastors and congregants to remember, to support, and to give due honor to the pastor’s wife.

_____________________________________________________________________

[Editorial Note] Not many books address the experiential aspects of the ministry of a pastor’s wife to her husband. However, Catherine Stewart’s edited compilation volume, Letters to Pastors’ Wives: When Seminary Ends and Ministry Begins and Gloria Furman’s The Pastor’s Wife  are two worthwhile treatments of this subject. 

This article originally appeared here.

Parenting Advice for Pastors

By
Ed Moore
-
communicating with the unchurched

Parenting Advice for Pastors

Mark Twain once said, “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in 7 years.”

That’s not just a humorous quote; it’s a profound truth. The truth is this: wise parents do not perform in order to gain the applause of their immature, foolish children. They do what they know to be true and right—and in time, they believe their children will come along to the same conclusion. King Solomon put it this way in Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go and even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

What Mark Twain and Solomon assume is that parents know what is good and right. They know the way to go. We cannot make this assumption, however, in the third decade of the 21st century.

So, with that in mind, I would like to give you eight actions to consider as you raise your children in the way that they should go. These eight things aren’t an exhaustive list; it’s a limited list, a personal list, a subjective list. These are eight of the building blocks we used to raise our family. Indeed, most of what I would tell you is born out of failure and not out of success. Truth comes through the Word of God (John 17:17), but I am going to tell you our experiences in order to let you know that this isn’t a theoretical thing drawn up in a laboratory. I haven’t mastered these things. I’m telling you them because I’ve gone to the school of hard knocks, and I have earned a PhD.

I also don’t want to put this list forward as a formula—that if you do this, your children will turn out a certain way. I’ve seen parents who have done everything wrong, and yet their children turned out to be polite, godly, and great people. I’ve seen parents who did everything by the book, and yet their kids turned out rebellious, ungodly, and unproductive. All of this is 100 percent dependent on the grace of God. Of course, this doesn’t mean you contribute nothing to the success or failure of your children. But I’m stressing we are ultimately dependent on the sovereign grace of God. This should humble the proud parent and encourage the discouraged parent.

What I am about to give you is the experience of the Moore family. My family is not your family. Your family is unique; don’t try to be another family. Listen to these points with a discerning ear and apply them by grace as they relate to you. I’m hoping there will be a few things that you can apply for your family. Some of the main mistakes I’ve made in parenting have come from trying to make apples to apples comparisons between my family and other families I saw that were doing things well. Don’t do that.

So I give you these eight points, in no particular order, except that Point #8 is the most important.

1. Use expressive words with obnoxious frequency in order to communicate love.

Talk with your children and let them know you absolutely love and adore them. As 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, “Encourage one another and build one another up.” Apply this principle to the home. Encourage your children greatly simply by telling the all the time that you love them.

I can’t tell you the number of people who have sat in my office for counseling who have said, “My father never told me that he loved me.” Or they’ll say something like this: “My father never told me he loved me, but I knew he did because he showed he loved me. But I wish he had told me more often.” Or even if the father will say the words “I love you,” the child is still left with a life-long quest to earn the father’s approval. They feel like they’ve failed to get their dad to be pleased with them. All this can be taken care if you use expressive words with obnoxious frequency to communicate love.

Let’s take the greatest example of a Father ever: God the Father. As he is looking down out of heaven at his Son, his only Son, on multiple occasions—his baptism, his transfiguration—he publicly and unashamedly says, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” “I love him and I am pleased with him.”

That’s how our Heavenly Father expresses his love for his Son. If we are to be godly, then we need to express our love to our children. Our Father leaves us no doubt as to whether or not he loves us. He shows us that he loves us, and demonstrated his love in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

But he also told us with words that he loves us. There are 1189 chapters of the Bible—and he just keeps saying it over and over again.

How does this apply practically? Tell your children frequently that you love them. This might be challenging if feel you are “old school” and not that expressive. Well, “old school” is bad school in this instance. Being quiet and reserved has nothing to do with expressing love.

Over time, if you don’t express love to your children, it can have a destructive effect. People wonder all the time about what they can do to make their fathers pleased with them. I can tell you what you can do to correct that problem: use expressive words with obnoxious frequency to communicate love.

My father never had a father. His father left when he was 6-months-old. My dad was the only kid in town without a father. He had no model in front of him at all. I’ve heard guys blame their bad dad for their being a bad dad. But I say that’s hogwash. My dad had no idea how to be a dad. All he knew was that he loved his kids, and he said it all the time. He said, “I love you. I’m thankful to be your dad. I’m proud of you.” Every night before I went to sleep, he would put his hand on my head, he would kiss me, and he would tell me he loved me. He said everything that needed to be said every single day.

So, every day, tell your kids you love them. It’s a godly thing to do.

2. Use creative actions with enthusiastic spontaneity to create memories.

I almost left this point out because it’s not that spiritual. The point is “have fun!” Ecclesiastes 10:4 says, “There is a time to laugh and a time to dance.” The family is the place where this should be seen the most. If heaven is a place of joy, should we not model that in the home? The home should be full of joy. If your only emphasis in parenting is what your kids cannot do, if your house is a place that never has fun, is it any wonder they leave the house when older to have fun?

In our family, we’ve created traditions. For example, on July 4, we go into Manhattan all wearing the same Old Navy t-shirts. And then we take goofy photos with strangers. We’ve had Bible reading traditions. Every year, on the night before baseball’s Opening Day, no matter where we are, we sit down and watch Field of Dreams like we did when they were kids. I send my kids postcards. We play mini-golf tournaments. When traditions like this become part of a family, this is what it communicates: “this family is a big deal to me and it is a joy to have fun with you.”

We do these things to create an atmosphere of fun and delight. It doesn’t take a lot of money. You can get more mileage out of one wrestling match on the bed than a thousand trips to Disney World. My father always told me the best events in life aren’t planned, are inexpensive if not free, and are some of the greatest delights in life.

I remember many years ago, one night during the Christmas season, we decided to go Christmas caroling, just us. To this day, my kids remember that. It wasn’t planned; it didn’t cost any money. But they will remember things like that forever. When you’re having a good time, you really don’t’ realize how good of a time you are having. When it passes, it is gone. It’s the dad’s job to commemorate and draw attention to it as a big deal—with gratefulness to God. I want to demonstrate to my kids that this is a big deal because we are together. So use creative actions with enthusiastic spontaneity to create memories.

3. Use fervent prayer with tenacious persistence to convey humility.

It’s a very simple point: humble people pray and proud people don’t. If you want humble children, then you want to be humble because God gives grace to the humble. Therefore, you must pray. Pray with them, pray for them, and teach them to pray. When someone is sick, we must pause where we are and pray. Frequently, on hospital visits, I’d take one of my children with me to the bedside to pray with someone who was ill. Before you discipline your children, pray with them. Pray before bedtime. Pray 1 Thessalonians 5:1 “without ceasing” because the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. If a child grows up in a home where prayer is just spoken of and never done, then why do you think the child will become one who prays themselves?

Prayer is not only the means by which we get our requests granted; it’s also how we commune with God. In 1976, my brother was diagnosed with cancer. I can remember the way my parents dealt with that (thank God, my brother is alive and well today). Cancer research back in those days wasn’t what is today, so our family was frightened. But I remember the way they prayed, how they called upon God. My dad was a radio announcer, and so he would often be asked to go and speak at churches, usually small churches in rural Pennsylvania. Every time he would go and speak, he would go into the men’s room, he would get down on his knees, and he would bow his face to the floor, crying out to God saying, “Oh, God, please help me tonight as I speak.” I wouldn’t be the same as my father today, theologically speaking, but I saw the man dependent upon God in prayer.

You don’t just want your kids to see you as someone who pretends to pray or only ever talks about praying. You can’t fake it for that long. Instead, you need to use prayer in order to convey humility.

4. Use precious time with strategic urgency in order to minimize regret.

Life, like football, is a timed game. Moses tells us in Psalm 90:12: “Teach us to number our days so that we might gain heart of wisdom.” If life is a timed game, then it’s a quick timed game. You might get 70 years. If James calls that a vapor, then how short is the time you have with your kids? How short is the time when you actually have any influence over them? Your kids will come back to visit, but they don’t come back to move in.

We homeschooled our children, not because we were afraid of NYC public schools or for educational purposes, but for one reason: we really liked spending time with them. When we realized how much of our day was apart from them, we simply wanted them around more.

“Children are a heritage from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). If you don’t capitalize on the few seconds you have with them, you will wake up on day like Tevia in Fiddler on the Roof:

Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play? I don’t remember growing older. When did they? . . . Sunrise, sunset. Swiftly flow the days.

There’s coming a day when your young kids don’t want dad to sleep in their bed—or don’t ask you to play G.I. Joes. We have tiny windows of opportunity. You will regret wasting this time. So make the best use of the time when their hearts are pliable, when they love their dads. Don’t say you’ll get to it another time—they grow up and they are gone. Capitalize on the time you have with your children.

5. Use sincere thanksgiving with peaceful contentment in order to teach providence.

I think the most valuable thing we own is a working knowledge of the providence of God. I wonder how people who don’t believe in the sovereignty of God—over both the good and the bad—don’t lose their mind. Why should anything work out if it’s all random?

But we believe that God is in charge, that the Lord gives and takes away. Teach your kids the practical value of resting in his providence by being thankful. Have a thankful heart and be content, especially when the ball doesn’t bounce your way. Temper and anger and impatience and complaining and fault-finding are the opposite of this. “The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). Listen to your children talk to one another and see if they talk like you. I’ve had to correct how my boys spoke to one another while admitting and repenting of the ways I’ve spoken critically and in anger.

What helped me in this area was understanding this simple yet profound truth: the gospel is for believers. The gospel isn’t only the means by which we are saved, it’s the means by which we grow. “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him” (Colossians 2:6).

Every aspect of the Christian life is attached to the gospel. I was an angry and impatient man. But a dramatic change came in my heart when I realized that the gospel is for believers. Things aren’t going to go well all the time. When they don’t, you have an amazing opportunity in front of you. It’s a test from God in order for you demonstrate before your family that you trust him and his providence—and that you will do it all with sincere thanksgiving.

6. Use joyful hospitality without petty grumbling in order to demonstrate selflessness.

“Show hospitality without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9). Our home is often open to the whole church. There have been more nights when people slept at our house who were not a part of our family than nights when we were alone. We like to have people over. We like to receive guests. Exposing our children to missionaries and pastors from all over the world has been wonderful.

But what about when the guests don’t know when to leave? What happens when someone breaks something? Then we have to ask ourselves, “Do we really want to show hospitality without grumbling?” Then you have the opportunity to show your children the love of Christ. These people are here as our guests, and so we show them hospitality to the glory of God. We accelerate our kids’ growth in selflessness by allowing them to participate in the hospitality.

Recently, we helped someone flying through NYC who needed a place to stay. But when they showed up at our door, we found out they also had a dog. In more than 25 years, there’s never been a dog inside our house! So, what were we going to do? By God’s grace, we showed hospitality without grumbling, even when it was outside our comfort zone.

This is easy to preach in theory but hard to do practically. But when we think of how our Heavenly Father has welcomed us, we have the chance to show our children this kind of selfless love. Maybe they have to give up their bed and sleep on the floor. Maybe they have to work harder to prepare a meal or do the dishes. Hospitality is a great way to teach your children selflessness.

7. Discipline with faithful consistency in order to eradicate foolishness.

A few verses from Proverbs:

  • “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.” (22:15)
  • “Do not withhold discipline from a child, for if you strike him with the rod he will not die. If you strike him from the rod, you will save his soul from the grave.” (23:13–14)
  • “Whoever spares the rod hates his son but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.” (13:24)
  • “The rod and reproof give wisdom but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” (29:15)

Let me say a couple of things here. My wife and I did a very poor job of disciplining our children until we read Ted Tripp’s book Shepherding a Child’s Heart. Up until that point, we had used every worldly manipulative mechanism in order to discipline our children. “I’m going to count to three” or “you’re making daddy so sad” or “I promise you I’m going to discipline you now.”

You can make these empty threats—“if you keep doing that I’m going to take you home”—but when you do this, you aren’t really teaching your kids to obey.

This is how it worked for us. I’d ask them, “Do you know what you did wrong?” They say, “yes, I didn’t take out the trash.” I’d say, “Do you know what I’m going to do now?” They’d say, “yes, you’re going to discipline me.” Afterward, I would have them sit on my lap, and I would pray with them.

Why do you do this? To be in charge? No. To get your own frustration and anger out of your system? No, never. You do this to eradicate foolishness.

8. Use the practical gospel with personal applications in order to reproduce disciples.

If you added up the importance of everything I’ve said so far, it would not be as important as this last point. Show them how the grace of God works. You show kids how to do stuff—math, basketball, how to drive, etc. So teach them how the grace of God works. They need the grace of God when you are dead and gone. So teach them the gospel—that Christ died accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried and raised. And teach them the implications of the gospel. Teach them what it means to be saved. Evangelize them. Then teach them how the gospel is for sanctification and growth. Teach them your need for the gospel.

Here’s the main thing I want you to remember: when you sin against your family—and you will—you need to call a family meeting. You need to say, “I just did something that was sinful. I spoke to your mother in a way the Bible says I shouldn’t. I want you to know that I’ve confessed this to the Lord, and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But I want you to know what you just saw me do was sin, and I want you to forgive me. I make no excuses. It’s not because I’m tired or something your mother did. It’s not a habit I have. I’m prideful and sinful. I’m guilty. I’m sorry and I will make steps not to repeat this. The bottom line is this, kids: your dad is sinful and I need grace. I need Jesus Christ.”

We as children sometimes look at our fathers and say “they can do no wrong.” But we aren’t perfect. So, from the very beginning, don’t your children be let down when you mess up. Let them say, “I love my dad but I love my savior more. I love that champion. I love the one who forgives sinners. That’s who I’m looking to. My dad isn’t perfect but he’s leaning on the one who is.”

It’s hypocritical to call your children to account for their sins but never admit your own. Their problem is that you are their father and Adam is your father. They need to see the gospel lived in order to live the gospel. If we aren’t living the gospel before them, then why would we expect them to be remorseful or anything but manipulative? If you’ve presented yourself to your kids as always perfect or always with an excuse then, guess what, your kids will always fake being perfect or always have an excuse. But if you tell them that you are a sinner in need of the gospel, then they will see and by grace one day follow the model of going to Christ with their sins.

We need to discipline our kids to the glory of God. We also need to teach them mercy. “Judgment is without mercy to the one who shows no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgement” James 2:13). We need to show our children the gospel.

Your children will either grow up in a performance-driven house or a grace-driven house. If they grow up in a performance-driven house, then they will either be hypocrites or rebels. If they grow up in a grace-driven house, they will be disciples who seek the grace of God.

In 50 years, when someone says to your child “tell me about your dad,” there are going to be a lot of things they will say that will be embarrassing about your legacy. But more than anything else, the one thing you want them to be able to say is that their dad was a Christian—that he loved Jesus, obeyed Jesus, and prioritized the kingdom of God; that he was a humble man; and that when he was wrong he pointed us all to Jesus Christ.

Long after you’re dead, that’s the thing you want your children to say when they tell people about their dad.

This article originally appeared here.

The Problem With God’s Love

By
Cameron Buettel
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communicating with the unchurched

At first glance, God’s love doesn’t appear to be much of a theological problem. John 4.8″ data-version=”nasb95″>First John 4:8 couldn’t be clearer: “God is love.” Of all the ways to describe God, that is certainly the most endearing and widely-accepted.

How many times have we heard the phrase, “A loving God would never ____”? What that person is really saying is that I have my own idea of what love is, and I will only accept a god who loves on my terms. That is the subtle form of idolatry that many people—even many churchgoers—buy into today.

The issue isn’t whether or not God loves, but whether the people proclaiming His love have the first clue what they’re actually talking about. True, God is love. But let’s not make the egregious error of assuming that’s all He is, or all He wants us to know about Him.

The problem with God’s love, then, is that the discussion of it is being clouded and confused by people who don’t know what love is or who God is, and yet speak with assumed authority on both.

More Than a Feeling

You’d be hard-pressed to find a solid, working definition of love in today’s culture. Most people skip defining it altogether, instead trusting their senses to simply know what it feels like. But in a world overrun with power ballads, chick flicks and speed dating, the public perception of love is fluid at best.

John MacArthur laments the gulf of separation that lies between the sensual understanding of love and the biblical worldview:

The love we hear about in popular songs is almost always portrayed as a feeling—usually involving unfulfilled desire… Most love songs not only reduce love to an emotion, but they also make it an involuntary one. People “fall” in love. They get swept off their feet by love. They can’t help themselves…

It may seem a nice romantic sentiment to characterize love as uncontrollable passion, but those who think carefully about it will realize that such “love” is both selfish and irrational. It is far from the biblical concept of love. Love, according to Scripture, is not a helpless sensation of desire. Rather, it is a purposeful act of self-giving. The one who genuinely loves is deliberately devoted to the one loved. True love arises from the will—not from blind emotion. [1]

Attraction, affection and desire do not constitute true love—they can actually be distractions from the real thing. The apostle Paul describes love as sacrificial and selfless, not driven by emotions and sensuality:

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13.4–7″ data-version=”nasb95″>1 Corinthians 13:4–7)

First Corinthians 13 is not an obscure or overlooked Bible passage—it’s the go-to passage at almost every wedding I’ve ever attended, even for unbelievers. It’s usually embraced as a feel-good salve, when it should instead be considered with great trepidation.

Paul’s list is full of painful self-sacrifice and self-denial. We’re not prone to such things—we’re used to love that meets our needs, not the other way around.

Real love is difficult. In fact, if we’re honest, Paul’s standard is too difficult for us. We simply can’t fulfill that lofty standard on this side of heaven.

The only One who has is God Himself.

Continue

Brandon Cox: My Modern Creed for Worship

By
Brandon Cox
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communicating with the unchurched

I’ve now been in ministry for about twenty-five years. That isn’t long compared to a lot of my heroes who are still living and serving, but it’s long enough that I’ve seen plenty of change happen within the American Christian and evangelical subculture. The last five years of those two and a half decades have been far more tumultuous than previous years, and 2020 has been particularly challenging. The tension we’ve felt over social justice and political ideology has served as a mechanism for further splintering within the faith. Whereas we once aligned with a church or with other churches on the basis of our doctrinal distinctives, today we’ve seen a massive re-alignment over political allegiances. Perhaps we need a new, modern creed.

What will the next few years bring for the church in America? I don’t know. And honestly, I don’t know about you, but when things continue changing rapidly all around me, I find myself wanting to check out and to find something less volatile into which I can plunge my anchor. And for me, lately, that has been the historical creeds of Christianity.

The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed have all inspired me to focus on truth that lasts longer than a single generation. While we can’t seem to agree on the outcome of a presidential campaign and its effect on the modern church, we can go back a millennia and a half to a time when the church collectively came together around the reality that God is Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and that Jesus Christ was born to a virgin, died for the sins of the world, and rose victoriously from the grave to defeat sin, death, and hell forever.

This desire for deeper roots in something historical and more eternally enduring than the latest trends and fads American Christianity may be wrestling with has driven me to articulate my own modern creed, of sorts. It’s more of a confession of faith, and it’s something that I want to share with our congregation, repeatedly.

So here is my modern creed for worship:

We believe in one God, the Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
Source of all life and all love.

We believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son,
Fully God, fully human,
Savior of the world,
The risen King of kings.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,
The very breath and power of God,
Sustainer of our life in Christ.

We believe in the church, Christ’s body,
God’s family for the spiritually homeless,
Called to be Love and Light,
To pursue justice and show mercy,
To proclaim the Good News of Christ,
To work for the common good of humanity.

I spent far too many hours working on each and every little phrase so that it was all intentional, with nothing left to chance. I also wanted it to have a certain rhythm and cadence, similar to that of the ancient creeds that are still read by congregations in unison today. And I also wanted it to BE Grace Hills. That is, I wanted it to honor and reflect the culture we’ve built within our church family that, hopefully, honors and reflects the identity of God well.

It’s Trinitarian, affirming one God in the three persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s Christocentric, proclaiming that Jesus is indeed the divine Messiah for which humanity had been waiting. It’s gospel-oriented in that it asserts the Kingship of Jesus. And it makes loud and clear that Jesus, the fully human, fully divine Savior has indeed risen from the dead – the cornerstone doctrine of the Christian faith.

And while most of the ancient creeds acknowledged the church’s existence in God’s plan, I wanted this confession to flesh out more the role the church carries out today. We extend the mission and work of King Jesus in the world by including spiritually homeless people, becoming love, pursuing justice, sharing the gospel, and working for the common good.

I’m sure it will be revised over time, but my hope is that it nails down for me, and for any who wish to sit regularly under my teaching at Grace Hills Church, that we are a people united under a Triune Creator who has brought us redemption and assigned us the mission of telling everyone about him.

 

This article originally appeared here, and is used by permission.

The Bible Project’s ‘Gospel of Luke’ Tells Us Jesus Came to Turn the World Upside Down

By
Megan Briggs
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communicating with the unchurched

The masterminds behind the Bible Project offer a 5-minute video detailing the birth of Jesus, according to the Gospel of Luke. If you only learn one thing from Luke’s narrative, learn this: Jesus came to turn the world order upside down.

After investigating many of the eye witnesses of Jesus’s birth, Luke gives us a more-detailed version of the story than the other gospels. We know that Mary was a lowly, no-name girl living in a lesser-known area of Israel (Nazareth) when she was told the impossible was going to be conceived inside her. Not only was this miraculous, but the idea of such a poor girl playing such a big part in God’s coming to earth was unheard of.

Fast forward to the shepherds seeing angels and learning of Jesus’s birth. Once again, we see people low on the social totem pole thrust into the forefront of the most amazing story the world has ever seen. This is a consistent theme with Jesus: Even during his first moments on earth, Jesus chose the marginalized, the poor, the lowly and humble, to be the stars of his story.

As the video explains, “God’s Kingdom was first revealed in these dirty places among the poor. Because Jesus is here to bring salvation by turning our world order upside down.”

Can Depression Be Cured? Latest Research

By
David Murray
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communicating with the unchurched

In May 2016, the Library of Congress and the John Kluge Center hosted a symposium on Can Depression Be Cured? at which four of the top medical researchers into depression and its treatments presented their latest research findings. A full unedited transcript of the presentations can be found here and the video is here. 

The first presentation was given by Dr. Philip Gold who has been a member of the Library of Congress’s Scholars Council since 2004. He received his undergraduate medical degrees at Duke University and his post-graduate medical training at the Harvard Medical School. He has been at the NIH Clinical Center since 1974 where he served as chief neuroendocrine research in the NIMH intramural research program. I’ve summarized his address below and over the coming days, I’ll try to do the same for the other addresses, before summing up with a reflection on the research.

The main findings in Dr. Gold’s research are really quite stunning and should result in a major re-evaluation of the understanding of depression. Here’s a simplified summary of the findings followed by a brief explanation of each one:

1. Depression is a disorder of the human stress response.

2. Depression is a disease which involves brain tissue loss and damage. 

3. Anti-depressants work by increasing the growth of brain cells and the connections between them.

4. Depression causes serious damage to the rest of the body.

5. The best treatment for depression at present is a mix of talking therapies and medication.

Main Finding 1: Depression is a disorder (dysregulation) of the human stress response.

The stress response is our reaction to stressors in our life (physical, psychological, spiritual, etc.). For example, if you are being chased by a bear, the stress response should kick in to maximize chances of survival. The stress response includes:

  • Fear-related behaviors and anxiety.
  • A decreased capacity for pleasure (in order to focus attention on the threat).
  • Inflexible mood and cognition.
  • Stress hormone production (especially of cortisol and norepinephrine).
  • Redirection of fuel to the bloodstream and the brain through development of insulin resistance.
  • Increase of inflammation and coagulation (blood clotting), both priming the system to respond to possible injury.
  • Inhibition of neurovegetative program, meaning suspension of appetite, rest, sleep, sexual desire.
  • Increased neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to form new neural connections) and neurogenesis (growth of brain cells).

In melancholic depression (which affects 35 percent of those with major depression), the stress response is disordered in that when triggered it does not terminate quickly enough or sufficiently enough. It gets stuck in the “on” position, resulting in:

  • Increased and prolonged fear-related behaviors and anxiety.
  • Inhibition of the capacity to anticipate or experience pleasure.
  • Inflexible mood and cognition (mood and thinking patterns are in a rut).
  • Increased and prolonged stress hormone production.
  • Increased insulin resistance in order to redirect fuel to bloodstream and brain.
  • Increased and prolonged inflammation and coagulation.
  • Increased and prolonged inhibition of neurovegetative programs (appetite, rest, sleep, sex).
  • Decreased neuroplasticity and neurogenesis.

Main Finding Two: Depression is a neurodegenerative systemic disorder rather than a chemical imbalance.

There is chemical imbalance in depression, but the primary cause is a loss of brain tissue in key areas (and abnormal increase of brain tissue in one key area).

A number of areas in the brain are physically changed in this disorder of the stress response.

1. The subgenual prefrontal cortex is reduced in size by as much as 40 percent in patients with familial depression. The subgenual prefrontal cortex:

  • Regulates and restrains the brain’s fear system.
  • Plays a large role in self-assessment.
  • Estimates the likelihood of punishment or reward.
  • Modulates the pleasure and reward center.
  • Restrains cortisol secretion.

When the subgenual prefrontal cortex is decreased in size, all of these functions are similarly decreased resulting in excessive anxiety, feelings of worthlessness, decreased pleasure and increased production of stress hormone.

2. The amygdala increases in size and goes into overdrive in depression and this further restrains the working of the subgenual prefrontal cortex.

3. The ventral striatum is significantly reduced in size during depression. This area is the pleasure and motivational center.

4. The hippocampus serves multiple memory functions and is the main place where neurogenesis (growth of new brain cells) occurs. Its size is significantly reduced in depression.

Summing up the loss of or damage to brain tissue, Dr. Gold said: “There’s more loss of tissue in depression than there is in Parkinson’s disease!” “Depression as a full-blown disease,” he warned, “a systemic full body disorder with neurodegenerative aspects and is a progressive disease, much more serious, I think, than we had previously appreciated.”

Main Finding Three: Anti-depressants work by improving neuroplasticity and neurogenesis.

Almost all antidepressants significantly improve neuroplasticity and neurogenesis. There are few other, if any, compounds that actually increase neurogenesis, and people are experimenting using antidepressants to try to treat disease of the retina, for instance, to get neurogenesis active there and other sites of the body. The challenge for the next generation of anti-depressants then is to develop compounds that promote neurogenesis and neuroplasticity.

The Kids of 2020

By
Dale Hudson
-
communicating with the unchurched

The Kids of 2020

Today’s kids are living in the shadow of Covid-19.  They face challenges and opportunities that most of us never faced when we were growing up.

Let’s take a closer look at the unique traits and situations that are defining today’s kids.

These stats and findings can provide relevant topics for kids’ lessons, parenting classes and more.

A recent report from Kidscreen revealed that…

29% of families are facing financial strain.

27% of kids are struggling with the “new normal.”

22% worry about their family.

37% worry about their families’ health.

17% worry about their own health.

26% worry about their friends.

30% say their are bored most of the time.

47% are unsure how long they have to stay at home.

Kids ages 6 to 12 describe themselves as…

  • depressed or sad – 11%
  • stressed or overwhelmed – 10%
  • mad or frustrated – 7%
  •  scared or worried – 6%

Issues kids are concerned about…

  • human rights

Kids miss their friends, but are keeping in touch with…

  • phone calls – 38%
  • FaceTime – 37%
  • texting – 32%
  • Zoom calls – 28%
  • video game chats – 27%

32% of parents say they have grown closer to their children during this pandemic.

15 billion were out of school due to the pandemic in the month of April.

3 out of 4 kids around the world are still unable to access remote learning because they live in rural or poor households.

77% of parents took over their child’s education through homeschooling.

1 in 4 elementary schools did not implement any digital learning solutions.

37% of parents say they have struggled to find a balance between teaching and working.

How kids are spending their time…

29% – using a camera

27% – playing video games

65% – using a smartphone

82% – watching TV

36% – reading a book

48% – playing outside

11% – hanging out with friends

Top activities families like to do together…

69% – watching TV or movies

67% – cooking and baking

62% – playing video games

61% – playing cards or board games

51% – building things with Legos and models

52% – art crafts and projects

What is selling?  Top 3 brands among kids 6 to 12 years old.

YouTube

McDonalds

Oreos

Consumer spending

video games increased by $700 million dollars in the first quarter

skateboards –  107%

arts and craft supplies – 11%

books – 117%

webcams – 116%

activity books – 458%

puzzles – 37%

non-fiction books and school books – 127%

outdoor sports and toys – 27%

keyboards – 62%

This data provides great insight into the lives of the kids of 2020.  I would encourage you to take these findings and use it as a guideline as you prepare lessons, activities, games, etc. for both your online kids and kids who are worshiping in person.  This list is a great resource for teaching topics, skits, games and other parts of your kids’ worship.

Remember…today’s kids are not yesterday’s kids.  Things are much different than when you were a kid. We must be willing to adapt and make changes to be relevant for today’s kids.

This article originally appeared here.

What to Do While You Drive to Church

By
Derek Minton
-
communicating with the unchurched

What to Do While You Drive to Church

How long does it take you to get to church? If you live in a big city, get ready to fight jealousy. It takes us less than 15 minutes. Ten minutes if we sin—I mean, speed—and about twelve if we catch what my wife calls the “green wave,” all-green traffic lights.

Over time, our rides to church have developed into a joy and a spiritual tool used by the Lord. I’d like to make three suggestions of how you might too enjoy your Sunday morning commute.

1. Sing!

I once went to a church that gave each member a church-made hymnbook. It fit in our glove compartment, so we began to sing on the way to church. At the time, my daughter Eliana was about a year old. Rather quickly, she picked up many of the songs and began to expect that we would sing hymns every time we drove anywhere. We had to teach her that normally we only sing hymns in the car on Sundays.

Sunday Singing has become a normal and joyful part of our commute. Instead of just being frustrated with traffic and semi-annoyed at that same children’s CD we’ve heard for the umpteenth time, we often arrive at church with a happy heart, ready to learn and sing with the saints.

2. Consider.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,  not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24–25).

Traditionally, and I think rightly, this verse has been applied to the local church’s gatherings. We shouldn’t neglect meeting together with our local church. Amen! But have we stopped to think about the other exhortations in these verses?

I want to focus on one: consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. I wish this were a well-worn tradition like our family singing. Nevertheless, it’s something we have done and try to do regularly. After we sing one or two hymns, we try to consider how to stir our fellow church members up to love and good works. We take a moment to consider how we can encourage them.

I don’t want you to envision some kind of monkish contemplation. I’m simply talking about using the homestretch of our drive to think about how we can help others. You might be thinking, “How much considering can a person do in a couple minutes?” Not much. But more than if we didn’t do it at all. It’s a start, not the end. But you may be surprised at what you can accomplish in 2 to 3 minutes of thinking about specific members you’ve already prayed for throughout the week.

Here are a few ordinary suggestions of how to do this. Think of a member that you know only superficially. Consider one question you would like to ask him or her: What have you been reading in the Bible this week? How did you get saved? (That’s how we talk in Kentucky.) Is your work culture difficult for you spiritually? Have you had any opportunities to boast in Christ or share the gospel with your co-workers?

Or perhaps you want to encourage someone. Consider thinking through a list of common sins: prayerlessness, not living with your wife in an understanding way, anger, laziness, etc. Or consider common sufferings: grief, chronic physical and psychological pain, financial struggles, etc. How might you encourage someone who’s struggling in these ways?

What about considering the specific command to “stir one another up to love and good works”? You might think through the ministries of the church, the places the Spirit is already at work. He will likely bring to mind a particular member in one of those ministries. All you have to do is ask the age-old question: “So how is it going with __________?”

The Spirit can take those two minutes in the parking lot and do far more abundantly than we can ask or think according to his power that is at work within us.

3. Pray.

Finally, before we get out of the van, if our girls aren’t falling apart yet, we pray.

 

 

 

First, we pray because we’ve been given the commanded privilege to pray.

Because of Jesus sacrificial death on our behalf, we can confidently come to God in prayer.  Jesus ascended into heaven and is at this very moment enthroned at the right hand of his Father, representing us as our personal priest. We get to draw near to him with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19–22)

Second, we pray because the Accuser is active.

Confident, clean, pure, assured—these are the very truths we need to consider and confess as we pray. Forgetting these truths about ourselves is exactly how our Accuser keeps us from exercising the courage it takes to encourage and to stir up one another up to love and good works.

“Who are you to stir others up to love and good works? You can’t even get through a twelve-minute car ride without getting frustrated at your wife and angry at your children! You hypocrite! . . .”

You might not think you can do much. But Satan knows that Christ can do far more good to his body through you than even you think. Our Formidable Foe knows that sixty seconds of prayer is more than enough to keep us from just complaining about the weather and making small talk with our fellow members. So let’s pray because our Accuser is active and our Foe is formidable.

Third, we pray because only the Holy Spirit who will accomplish the goals of passages like Hebrew 3 and 10.

Don’t let my emphasis on the Holy Spirit lull you into “spiritual” lethargy. You are still vital and necessary. You are the means God means to use. Note how Hebrews 10:19­–25 begins with the words “brothers and sisters.” The Spirit is speaking to us. We have confidence . . . let us draw near . . . let us hold fast . . . let us consider . . . encouraging one another. If the goals of Hebrews 10 are accomplished, if our fellow members are stirred up to love and good works and encouraged, it will be through us.

You may be internally objecting at this moment: “What about the preaching of the Word? Doesn’t the Spirit stir and encourage through the sermon?” Of course he does! But what is sermon preparation if not an extended consideration of how to encourage the congregation, of how to stir them up to love and good works while pleading with the Lord in prayer to do just that?

I love the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” Don’t miss that last phrase. Church member, God is able to do far more abundantly than you ask or think through you, according to the power at work within you.

So as you drive to church, sing, consider, and pray. Just be sure to do it with your eyes open.

This article originally appeared here.

Love Won

By
Joe McKeever
-
communicating with the unchurched

“Above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins” (I Peter 4:8).

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).

My dad was an enigma. From his youth, he was clearly someone special, otherwise my teenage mama-to-be would never have been drawn to him, and her daddy, a shrewd judge of character, would not have consented for her to marry him.

The eldest of what would eventually be an even dozen children, Carl McKeever was intelligent, possessed with excellent common sense, strong in body and handsome in appearance. But he had a temper that he could not always control and developed a fondness for drink. His mouth was foul, particularly when with his friends, and he had a mean streak in him.

And yet, people were drawn to him.

We still have the hand-scribbled note on a piece of brown paper, torn off from a grocery bag apparently, where Grandpa Virge Kilgore consented for Carl J. McKeever, age 21, to marry Lois Jane Kilgore, 17.

So, they must have seen something there.

The youthful Carl J. McKeever could be harsh and mean and unloving. Even with a growing family, he would sometimes squander his pay shooting craps with fellow coal miners. More than once he got into serious fights when they all became drunk, landing himself in the calaboose in our little community of Nauvoo, Ala. Dad could be a mean drunk.

He carried facial scars for the rest of his life from one of those fights.

And yet, he was the dearest man.

Go figure.

Here is something from those years that I find perplexing.

This took place in the late 1940s. We lived in a mining camp six miles out from Beckley, W. Va. The six children (of us) ranged in age from about 5 to 14.

I was about 9 and my sister Carolyn 7. From time to time, at night after supper as he sat in his green “easy chair” by the radio, we would give dad a pedicure. He seemed to go to sleep while we worked at clipping his nails and scissoring the hair on his toes and ankles. No, we did not know the term ‘pedicure.’ We were just loving on our father in a most unusual but tangible way.

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