Some churches emphasize parntership/membership in the New Year, so I thought I would update on our material for our Partners on Mission class. The material previously listed under Tools for Missional Church is outdated, so I’ve updated that link. All material is under a Creative Commons License, which means use it, adapt it, but give credit. Merry Christmas!

ACL Partners Class Teaching Notes

ACL Partners Booklet

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Sovereign Grace Bible Church

Jim Kang, Pastor-Teacher

WHAT DOES BIBLICAL LOVE LOOK LIKE?

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

INTRODUCTION

These sixteen descriptions are sixteen characteristics of what agape love looks like. I should remind you that the way we should approach these characteristics is to first understand that this is the way how God has and God is dealing with us. It is based on God’s redemptive love that we can love our wives, husbands, children, and one another in the community of God’s redeemed.

Since we have examined God’s redemptive love displayed in justifying us, sanctifying us, and glorifying us in the future, I want to look closely as to what does biblical love look like. Since there is such thing called God’s communicable attributes in theology which depicts various characteristics of what God is like, I would also argue that there is such thing called God’s communicable attributes of love that we can understand and relate. Furthermore, I would also argue that not only we can know what biblical love looks like but also that we can, by the grace of God, apply various aspects of love. How else do we know that we are truly obeying God by truly loving him and others when we don’t know biblical love looks like? Hence, for that reason, I present you sixteen descriptions of what biblical love looks like? My goal is that as a result of this message, we would have a better working knowledge of what biblical love is, and that we would model these attributes toward everyone in the community of God’s redeemed, starting with our own family.

1. Love is patient.

Let me first define what patient is: It is a steadfast spirit that will never give in or give up. It takes a long time before fuming and breaking into flames. It is not short-fused, even when it is being provoked.

One of the ways in which God demonstrates his love towards you is with patience. It seems that in the Bible patience is often equated with mercy. For instance, in the OT, God’s mercy is illustrated through a couple, namely Hosea and Gomer. In the NT, God’s mercy is illustrated through Jesus and his perpetual failing disciple Peter. In fact, out of all the disciples, it is to Peter that how much he needs to forgive. Perhaps, that is why in later years, the apostle Peter said:

^NAU 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

How are we to apply this patience toward one another in our physical family and spiritual family?

^NAU 2 Timothy 2:24 The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,

Are you a short fused person? Do you feel like your mission is to correct people as soon as they make mistakes? Sometimes wishing that someone would sin or fail so that you can “give it to him” or her?

2. Love is kind.

This particular word in Greek also translates in English as loving or merciful. Again, it is difficult to dissect the meaning between kind, loving, and merciful, since they all overlap in their meanings. All that is to say, love is impossible without kindness. J. Vernon McGee puts it this way: “Love without kindness is like springtime without flowers; like fire without heat.”

It behaves in a kind, considerate manner. It is not cruel or careless of the thoughts and feelings of others. It is mild and gracious in the way it acts. You recall the Proverbs 31 wife?

^NAU Proverbs 31:26 She opens her mouth in wisdom, And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

What about some other OT passages?

• ^NAU Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

• ^NAU Hosea 11:4 I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; And I bent down and fed them.

What about some other NT passages?

• ^NAU Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

• ^NAU Colossians 3:12 ¶ So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;

3. Love is not jealous.

Many other translations have it “envy,” which is another word for jealousy. This is one of the sins that Christians do not take it seriously, because many of us have accepted one of the world’s lies – that is, jealousy is a healthy competition.

May I say to you that jealousy is not a healthy competition or to view it lightly? Rather, it is a serious sin? In fact, it is so serious that it can literally cost a human life! Have you forgotten that the first murder case that is recorded in the Bible, namely how Cain killed his brother Abel is due to jealousy and envy? It can literally take a human life away!

You cannot look at the family members as your competitors. This is true both physical and spiritual families (cf. James 3:13-18).

Contrary to jealousy and envy, love has no desire to lessen the happiness of others. It is pleased when others are honored.

4. Love does not brag.

Do you know the difference between boasting and self pity? Listen to John Piper explains the difference, though both drink from the same well:

Boasting says, “I deserve recognition because I have achieved so much.” Self pity says, “I deserve recognition because I have suffered so much.” Boasting is the voice of pride in the heart of the strong. Self-pity is the voice of pride in the heart of the weak. Boasting sounds self-sufficient. Self-pity sounds self-sacrificing. The reason self-pity does not look like pride is that it appears to be so needy. But the need arises from a wounded ego. It doesn’t come from a sense of unworthiness, but from a sense of unrecognized worthiness. It is the response of unapplauded pride.[1]

Contrary to boasting or bragging, biblical love does not need to feel significant. It does not show-off or compete for attention. It realizes that what it is and what he has are a gift from God.

5. Love is not arrogant.

It is not puffed up or conceited. It does not have an inflated view of one’s self.

I try to stay away from people who think of themselves as somebody when in reality they’re not. Oftentimes these people walk around with a big head in their shoulder and think that they’re all that because they know something, yet in reality what they know is so little. That’s why a little knowledge is dangerous. It can really puff someone up really quick.

A few chapters before 1 Corinthians 13 is 1 Corinthians 8, which says in KJV, “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.” This issue is so critical that Paul later told Timothy when selecting an elder in the church he must not choose someone who is a novice. Why? According to 1 Timothy 3:6, “So that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.”

^NAU Romans 12:3 ¶ For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

We all know what it is like to be traveling on tires filled with air, then suddenly experiencing a flat tire. Likewise, there are many flat tires among Christians because there are so many who are puffed up, and when the air is gone, there is nothing there!

6. Love does not act unbecomingly.

Many translations have simply translated this particular Greek verb to rude. Many of us can tell when others are rude but can you tell when you are rude to others? Before someone cries out being rude is relative or subjective, let me quote what many standard dictionaries have defined its meaning. According to many college dictionaries, rude is “discourteous or impolite; without culture, learning, or refinement; rough in manners or behavior; unpolished, rough, harsh, or ungentle; lacking elegance.” All that is to say, being rude is a behavioral issue.

Since it is a behavioral issue, let me help paint a further picture for you:

• Being disrespectful and defiant toward authorities (family, school, sports, church, government, etc).

• Refusing to greet first; rather, you want someone else to say hello first because you want to be recognized or be served by others or feel important to others, especially, at church. Have you not read Romans 16?

• Not cleaning up your mess after you eat whether at church or at someone’s house.

• Not hospitable toward visitors or new comers.

• Distracting the worship service.

• Looking down on someone who is not like you (ethnic, color, gender, age, education, socio-economic status, etc).

• Not saying “Thank you” or giving many words of encouragement to others.

• Failing to prefer others, because you’re so caught up with yourself.

But this particular verb in Greek does not simply mean rude as in many English translations. It also involves moral indecency, as in doing something immoral that brings shame to you and others. Can I be real frank with you? One of the examples is sexual impurity.

Think of it. Love does not act unbecomingly. That is why don’t believe the lie when someone says, “If you love me, then you’ll sleep with me.” Or, “If you love, then…” The Word of God clearly says love does not act unbecomingly. It is not love when it brings shame to you, shame to your family, but most of all, shame to the glory of God.

Love does nothing indecent, rude, or shameful. It is tactful and does nothing that would raise a blush. It never tires to embarrass others. It is courteous and considerate, as opposed to being abrupt.

[1] John Piper, The Dangerous Duty of Delight (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah, 2001), 34.

We welcome Tanner Leuthold as a new member to SGBC.

“If you are not placing people in positions according to their spiritual gifts and God’s guidelines, you are not doing things God’s way; expect problems”

In 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, Paul tells us:

“….. For even satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants (demons) also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness (Christian workers) whose end will be according to their deeds.”

These verses alone should make us weary of whom we place in positions of authority within the church.  But what do most churches do?  The laborers are so few, they accept almost anyone who is still breathing and willing to raise their hand and volunteer for the empty spot.  Still living, not in jail or on trial for any crime, and don’t come to church drunk or high? “Welcome to the board!” I have even witnessed people being voted into position without their knowledge and then they laugh about it and say things like; “That will teach them to miss a meeting.” You tell me if they take their ministry seriously with that mindset?

Do we test their spirits?  Do we use the Word of God to determine their spiritual maturity level?  Have they proven themselves to be of sound mind and do they make good Godly decisions?  The laborers are so few and churches are so hard-up to fill spots, they think they are blessed just to have someone volunteer.  Here’s a thought; if you do not have someone that is biblically qualified to fill the spot,

DON’T FILL THE SPOT UNTIL YOU DO!

If you ignore this step, you will be doing the church and the person you place in position a great disservice, and you both WILL suffer because of it.

Most of the problems churches face come from leaders who are either not spiritually mature enough or they are not gifted to hold the positions they have. Think about it; your children’s class is a mess, the kids are running everywhere and they are not learning what they should. What’s the problem? The problem is you have someone in a leadership position who doesn’t know how to lead and your church and the children are suffering because of it. You can apply this to the adult Sunday school class that isn’t growing, the evangelism board that isn’t bringing in new people and the youth group that is dying. It also applies to the trustees who are allowing the building to fall apart, the men’s ministry that can meet in the closet because it is so small and any other ministry that is not effective.

I have never met a person whom God gifted to do something that had to constantly be told to tighten up. They do what they love and love what they do and generally do it well; very well. Look at your ministries and leadership; if you see someone overburdened or going through a tough time, HELP THEM! Give them a sabbatical to get their life together or give them an assistant to take some of the load off. If on the other hand you see that they are clearly not gifted for that position, REMOVE them. Whatever you do, do it fast because you will either lose them or their ministry will suffer. When ministries suffer because of incompetent leadership, people get hurt, they don’t grow spiritually and some even leave the faith altogether.

One other thing; don’t you dare make the mistake and blame the laborer who is doing a poor job with their ministry if they are sincere about what they are doing. Blame the ones who put them in position without following biblical guidelines to see if they are qualified. The leadership, pastor or nominating committee should take the heat for their problems. After all, they were the ones who failed in their task.

If you are not placing people in positions according to their spiritual gifts and God’s guidelines, you are not doing things God’s way.  Expect to have problems and expect the enemy to place someone there he can use to cause those problems.

The members of the church need to know they are in a safe place. They need to know that those in positions are called, gifted and qualified. They also need to know that if the church doesn’t find someone who is called, gifted and qualified, they will do away with that position until they find someone who is. It is better to not have a program or ministry than to have a bad one. We are talking about equipping saints and God would rather you send that person to another church to be properly equipped than to leave them stay at yours and be ill equipped.

I would take my child out of school in a heart beat if I thought they were just putting anyone in position without checking to see if they were qualified first. Worse yet, let me find out they knew the teacher wasn’t qualified but left them there anyway, boy you talk about an angry and upset parent!  We would definitely be having a come to Jesus meeting.

I would love to hear your comments.

Make it a Godtastic Week!

Bob

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If you know someone who has questions about why they should join a local church, here are some brief thoughts to help you think through that question with them. Clowney’s book The Church (Contours of Christian Theology) and Habig/Newsom’s book The enduring community: Embracing the priority of the Church are also good resources.

SDG,
Ezra

The essence of being a Christian is to be a disciple. 

“Disciple” and “discipleship” are not words that get much “air time” today, and when they are used in secular parlance, it often conjures up thoughts of cults or sects.  However, in the pages of the New Testament, God’s Word speaks of discipleship with great frequency (over 260 times).  So what does it mean to be a disciple? 

The best way to answer that is to simply look at the lives of Peter, Andrew, James, John and the other apostles–because these men exemplify discipleship.  They were those who left their fishing nets, tax collecting booths, and families to follow Christ; they worshipped Jesus, learned from Jesus, proclaimed the gospel of Jesus’ kingdom, and went to their own bloody deaths for his sake.  As disciples, however, they did not simply imitate Jesus, they also trusted in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for eternal life and justification on the last day.  In short, as disciples, the followers of Christ found every area of their life transformed by the one whose name and cross they now identified.  And so do Christ’s disciples today.

In What is a Healthy Church Member?, Thabiti Anyabwile marks growing discipleship” as the eighth characteristic of a healthy church member.  From our study at Calvary Baptist Church in Seymour, Indiana, here are five points of application for growing as a disciple:

1. Baptism & Church Membership.  The first thing Jesus said after giving his Great Commission to “Make Disciples” was to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Therefore, if you have made Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior–that is that he has made you a new creation in Christ.  The first thing you should do is to be baptized by a local church who believes the gospel and teaches the Word of God.  Concurrent with this baptism should be your request for church membership.  Hopefully, your church has an informative/instructive process where new members are instructed in the history, doctrine, and practices of the church.  This would be a first step as a growing disciple.  For an excellent and brief treatment of this subject, with a funny cover, see Bill James revision of  Erroll Hulse’s Baptist and Church Membership.

2. Abide in the Word of God.  Next, as a growing disciple, it is imperative that you grow.  The second thing Jesus said to his would-be disciple(maker)s is to “teach them to obey all that I have instructed you.”  In other words, in the Christian life, knowing the Bible matters.  In fact, Spiritual growth DOES NOT HAPPEN WITHOUT IT.  Consider John 15:7-8, “If you abide in me, and my word abides in you, ask for whatever you want, and it will be given unto you.  By this is my Father glorified, and so you prove to be my disciples.”  The core of discipleship is an abiding relationship with Jesus founded on and mediated by the Word of God.  Moreover, discipleship is proven by this.  So the second step in growing as a strong disciple is to abide in the Word of God.

3. Pursue Older Discipleship.  Since discipleship is not an individual effort, it is important to learn from older, wiser, more mature believers in Christ.  Titus 2 frames this well.  It begins, “Teach what accords with sound doctrine…” and then instead of moving into a systematic theology, a lecture on doctrine, it focuses on relationships.  It says for older men to train younger men and older women to instruct younger women.  This is not an accident or a backup plan.  This is the very wisdom of God.  As Paul tells the Corinthians, “Follow me as I follow Christ” (11:1).  This is not an optional component of the Christian life.  Too many believers remain immature because they have never had anyone model for them a godly example.  If you don’t have anyone like this in your life, pray that God would bring someone into your life.  At the same time, ask God to shape you to be faithful, available, and teachable, so that such a disciplers’ example might not be lost on you.

4. Pursue Younger Discipleship.  Whether you have had a mentor/discipler in your life or not, if you have walked with Christ in obedience to his Word for any amount of time, you should begin looking for ways to share that with others.  Again let me challenge you– “The Christian life is not an isolated/individualized/introverted event.”  It is a lifetime of abiding in God’s word and being sharpened by others who are seeking Christ with you–ahead of you and behind you.  If you have the opportunity to share your life with a younger believer and to help show them how to walk more closely with our Savior, why wouldn’t you do it?  Honestly, is there anything better?  Doing life together should be the motto of the Christian life and is required for growth as a healthy disciple.  For an excellent resource on discipleship, see Robert Coleman’s The Master Plan of Evangelism and Michael Card’s The Walk.

5. Make Disciples.  Finally, the Great Commission impels us to go outside the church and to call others to Christ, to literally take the Word of God seriously and to make disciples.  God calls us to do something that in truth, we cannot do.  He is asking us to see to it that converts/new creations/kingdom citizens are made.  We cannot do that!  But his Word and His Spirit can, and as we carry forth the message of the gospel, he promises to bear fruit and draw many into the kingdom.  Thus if we are to truly know Christ, to walk with him, and to grow up in him, sharing the gospel and living to make-disciples must be a regular part of our lives.

None of these things are novel, but all of them are easily overlooked and undercooked.  May we strive to pick up our respective crosses and to press on towards Christ-like conformity as Baptized, Word-saturated, Maturing Disciples of Christ who love to share the gospel with others.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

The health and effectiveness of a church if directly related to the health and effectiveness of the pastor in charge. In the next 2 posts I will be addressing 13 areas of concerns for pastors. Feel free to copy these or forward this post to your pastor if you think they will benefit from it.

1. You are an ambassador for Christ
It doesn’t matter if you feel like one or not, the calling you have accepted is one of the greatest and most important callings anyone could possibly have. Every Sunday when you look out at the people who have come to your church, understand that some of them are looking for you to give them a word from God. Not from the Readers Digest, not from USA today, not from Dr. Phil or Oprah but from the creator of heaven and earth. Some of them need to hear from Him because they are going through things; abuse, addictions, divorce, depression, and sickness to name just a few. Some may be coming to church as a last resort in hope of finding a reason to hang on just one more day. For some it may be the last time they will have an opportunity to hear the gospel before meeting God. The words that come out of your mouth and how they are treated before during and after the service will bring life or death; both spiritually and sadly for some even physically. These words and moments will either draw people closer to God and the church or they will push them away. I ask that you take your calling serious, very serious.

2. Don’t be Boring
It is your job to bring forth the word of God with passion and excitement backed up by the power of God. If people fell asleep during a movie we would say the movie was boring. Well? If people fall asleep during church it is because the way you delivered Gods word was boring. Now you may get offended at that but hey, the truth is the truth, and don’t tell me that everyone didn’t get enough sleep the night before, because I am not referring to those folks. Think about the professors and teachers you have had in your life. Some of them taught with passion and excitement, you loved their class and you learned what they were teaching. Then you had others where you just couldn’t keep your eyes open and therefore you had to study harder for the good grades. Which one are you?

If your messages are not causing people to change, then change the way you deliver your message. Why go on for years doing something that isn’t working? Be spontaneous to keep the people on their toes and wanting to come back. Because people remember more of what they see than they hear, I occasionally use visual illustrations in my messages. One time I rode a bicycle built for two down the center isle of the sanctuary when I preached on God being in control. When I preached on judging others I brought in a bucket full of stones, gave each person one and told them to think about the people in their lives they tear down in thought or word. I then asked them to come to the altar and ask forgiveness and leave the stones at the feet of Jesus. During one communion service, when the people came up for the sacraments I had someone take each persons hand, open it and place a cut nail on their palm and then close their hand. This small visual token was to remind them of what Jesus endured on the cross for them. I met a man who told me that he carries that nail in his pocket every day. Do what it takes to make your message leave an impact in their lives. I know that Paul was preaching one evening when Eutychus fell asleep and fell out the window. Just remember it was midnight and Paul had been preaching for hours so don’t even bring that one in as an excuse for your boring messages.

If your personality is not very outgoing or charismatic, or you have a monotone voice that doesn’t show any emotions, lean on others in the church. You can bring drama into your message, use multimedia or a touching song or have someone else who IS charismatic read the scripture with emotions.

3. Be yourself
Too many pastors put on their preachers voice on Sunday morning. I never understood this and to be honest, no one else does either; I know this because I have asked people. Just be real, if your name is Bob, talk like Bob all the time. Don’t talk like Bob on Friday and suddenly on Sunday Morning you sound like Sir Robert and begin speaking King James. That is not you and it is not real.

People need their pastors to be real, to show emotions, to confess that they will make mistakes and probably upset someone. They need them to admit they are striving for perfection just like everyone else. If you come across as an average person, then maybe people will feel that what you have is attainable by everyone, but if you come across as being super bible man, the average person can’t compete with that. Besides, if you place yourself on a pedestal you will fall harder when you do make that mistake. One of the first statements I make at every church I minister in is that I am human and if you hang around me long enough I will eventually do or say something that will really tick you off. I let them know that I won’t mean it and please forgive me, but it will come. Just talk to me, tell me what I did wrong, allow me to apologize and wash your feet if I have too, and then let’s hug necks and get back to work.

4. Admit your weak areas
Just as we can easily see other peoples strengths and weaknesses, your sheep can see yours. Don’t try to cover them up, but rather ask for help. Sheep love to help their pastor. As I mentioned earlier I am not a good administrator. While I am not that bad, I let the church know right away that it wasn’t one of my strengths and in no time at all I had two great women volunteer to help keep me in line. They make me look good and help me do my job with excellence. Remember God didn’t give you EVERY gift to do EVERY thing. Lean on those He sends you.

5. Don’t be a control freak
Allow your people to do what God wants them to do. You do not have to control every aspect of the church. Allow the music director to pick out the music and trust that they will change it if your message heads in a different direction. Allow the Youth and children’s ministers to pray and seek God on how to lead their ministry and the same goes for the young adults, couples and seniors. Oversee them to make sure that what is being done is glorifying to God but don’t force everything to go your way. Give your people the freedom to hear from God themselves. They just might surprise you.
Because you are not gifted in every single area of ministry, if you try to control every area, your people will never become what God desires. They have a mind, they can pray and seek God for guidance themselves and you need to allow them to do so.
I followed one pastor in a traditional church who had to have everything done His way, I found this out when the music director came and asked me what Hymns I needed her to play. I told her that I was the pastor, she was the choir director, I will pray and ask God for the message I am to deliver and she needs to pray and ask Him for the Hymns. She was shocked and said, “That’s not how we do it, what if I pick the wrong one?” “Then you either missed Gods voice, or it’s not the wrong one, don’t worry about it, it’s not that big of a deal.” People were amazed how perfectly the music matched the message, and if for some reason God had me change the message and go a different direction, the choir directors spirit would prompt her to pick a different hymn as well. It’s called being led by the spirit folks, not by the pastor. Allow it to happen and it will. And no, we do not post the hymns or the scripture a head of time because I know man, we have a tendency to stick to a format just because there is one, often ignoring what the spirit tells us.

6. Be Accessible
I know pastors who hightail it at the end of every service and will not let anyone have their home or cell phone numbers. If you cannot hang around at the end of the service to make sure no one wants to have a word with you, you should give your notice today. You also need to remember that a lot of these folks work 40+ hours a week and then come to church and serve another 4 -6 hours. Give them their time on Sunday. Your people need to have access to you at all times in the event of an emergency. Yes some may be pains in the neck; some may call you with trivial things, so what! Minister to them; that is where they are at in life and just because it is trivial to you, doesn’t mean it’s not tragic to them, that is a part of your calling, deal with it.

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“Being a Christian will be hard, and if you are
going to commit to being a real Christian it
may be the hardest thing you will ever do.”

The church is so worried about upsetting someone and losing members that it bends over backwards to make people happy. Jesus told us to make disciples, not make happy people. He said that following Him would be tough. He said we would be persecuted and would endure trials and tribulations and He said we would come under attack for His namesake. When did He say we were going to be happy? He said the road was narrow and not easy and that we should weigh the cost. As a matter of fact Jesus said that if we weren’t willing to pick up our cross we couldn’t even call ourselves His disciple.

Does any of this sound like; “Come to Jesus and be happy?” Should we tell people that are struggling that all they have to do is come to church and everything will be Okay? Come on folks, get real and tell the truth. People go to church and still have junk happen to them. Being a Christian will be hard, and if you are going to commit to being a real Christian it may be the hardest thing you will ever do. Jesus said it would be hard, but He also promised that He would be there for us and He promised us that if we followed Him it would be worth it! Stop telling people that their life will become better if they would just come to church because when the trials come, and they will come; these people will leave as quickly as they came.

Tell people the truth; tell them that they may still have sickness, loss and pain, that they may still have hard times and come across people that are downright mean, even inside the church. But also tell them that through Jesus they will be able to find comfort, hope and peace beyond all understanding when they go through those hard times. Tell them that if they go to church they will find support and others who will help them through those times. Tell them that when they learn and follow Gods word that He will not only teach and equip them to get through this life, He will also prepare them for the next. Yes, by all means tell people all the great things the church and God will do for them, but don’t tell them they will be happy. Our constitution tells us that we have the right to pursue happiness; the bible however tells us to pursue love;
(1 Cor. 14:1) and it also tells us that God is love (1 John 4:16).

Tell your people that if they pursue God, joy will follow. His joy that makes our joy complete.

Churches that care more about upsetting someone than telling them the truth often compromise God’s word. They allow sin to be in leadership and they often ignore, lower, or even remove the expectations of their membership. They do not hold people accountable for their actions, and they do not rebuke or discipline their sheep for fear of upsetting them. The results are often a church filled with spiritually immature people who call themselves Christians by name but are far from being Christ-like.

The bible tells us we are our brother’s keeper and that we should do our best to help them turn from their sin and become more like Jesus. If we allow people to stay spiritually immature and in a sinful lifestyle, we are not only weakening the body of Christ, we are setting them up for hard times. Not to mention the consequences they will receive when they meet Jesus.

If we are honest, use the word of God, tell people the truth and ask them to weigh the cost, we may have fewer people attending our churches, but we will have stronger, more effective soldiers. Soldiers don’t leave because things get rough and they don’t bail out on their church at the first sign of conflict. Why? Because they understand that they are there to become equipped and to fight the enemy. They know they joined the Army of God, not some “Christian Feel Good Society.”

Churches need to be honest with your people and tell them what is expected of them. Tell them that they will come under spiritual attack, tell them that if they are not willing to train and become equipped to come up against spiritual darkness that they will get wounded. Tell them that God says to let your yes be yes and your no be no and that we shouldn’t make a vow if we are not willing to keep it. Tell them that if you pick up your cross you will most likely get splinters. Talk about praying without ceasing and fasting. Talk about evangelizing, missions and what a martyr is and then tell them that you will be there to help train and equip them and then make sure that you have programs in place to do so.

Let them know what Jesus said about being lukewarm and denying him before men. Remind them the wages of sin is death, but through Christ and Christ alone we can defeat death. Teach them about the spirit of God who will empower us and help us overcome the schemes of the enemy. In other words, teach them to weigh the cost before making the commitment. Teach them the truth about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

Many churches make becoming a disciple of Jesus sound like it’s the latest fad and an easy thing to do. While it is an honor and seeing what God can do for you and through you is awesome, being a disciple has never been something I have taken lightly. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard pastors and youth pastors and well-intentioned people tell those who are miserable that if they want a great life, they need to become a disciple of Jesus. I just wonder which disciple they are referring to when they say this. Maybe they are referring to James who was stoned to death; or the other James who was beheaded or maybe they mean Andrew, Bartholomew, Phillip or Simon who were crucified. Maybe the are referring to Peter who was crucified upside down or maybe they mean Thomas or Matthew who were speared to death. Maybe it is Matthias or Judas who were also stoned to death, or last but not least, they may have meant for us to die of old age in exile like John.

Churches wonder why so many people come to church, accept Christ and then never really join the ranks and become active. It’s because they focus more of their efforts and resources into making the church a nice, fun and entertaining place to go than they do on building strong Christians.

What if our Military used our formulas for creating soldiers, how serious would they take their training? How equipped do you think they would be?

“Come to boot camp and be happy soldier! Don’t worry about going to the Middle East, don’t worry about the terrorists, God will protect you. All you have to do is repeat this little prayer after me and if you don’t feel like coming to training, its no big deal just come when you feel like it.”

Folks please stop deceiving the body of Christ. The enemy is putting guns into the hands of children and what are some of our churches doing? Handing out coffee and donuts to keep people interested.

“If we are going to become Christian’s let’s become the strongest and most effective Christians we can! Not the happiest and fattest!”

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My friend Chul shared this video of Josh Harris answering the question.

Guy Waters joins the Christ the Center panel to talk about the importance of church membership.  Today’s familiar aversion to church membership is a relatively new phenomenon, something that wasn’t seen in most of church history.  Waters brings many excellent observations and Scriptural support for the necessity of church membership.  An excellent discussion.

Church Membership >>>

“We are not called to make spectators or cheerleaders so do not use them in your equation when you measure the success of your ministry.”

Just because hundreds or thousands of people attend a churches worship service it doesn’t mean the church is successful. Godly success is measured by the spiritual condition of the people who attend, not by the numbers in your fellowship or the size of your offering. Large numbers mean well…. large numbers. It may mean more problems, more seats, higher utility bills, larger staff and more expenses; so on and so forth. It doesn’t necessarily mean stronger disciples; in fact sometimes it means just the opposite. The more people you have the harder it is to keep track of their spiritual growth and the easier it is for them to fall through the cracks. If you have large numbers you must make sure you have the means to effectively and successfully equip them.

I visited a fairly large church in Florida a few years back. At the time, there were roughly 8,000 people present. This was one of the largest gatherings I had ever attended outside of a stadium event. The service was great, the music was professional, and the grounds were well-kept. The offering I found out averaged over $12,000 a service. (They had 7 services per week!) On the outside, the church looked very successful, yet if you looked at the community you would never know it. Prostitutes were working right across the street from the church, Crime was on the rise, homelessness was increasing and the schools were seeing an increase in gang activities. Yes the church was having success in a few areas but the success in the community wasn’t there. Why would God have a church in a community if He didn’t want that community reached?

Jesus told us to make disciples. He also said that if you are not willing to carry your cross, you cannot even call yourself His disciple. In today’s church most people want someone else to carry their cross, someone else to watch and teach their children; someone else to lead a bible study and someone else to visit the sick and shut-in. They even want someone else to attend prayer meetings, to fast and to be missionaries. They think all they have to do is attend a service a few times a month, put a check in the plate and Kazaam! They are a disciple of Jesus. Listen to me; the ones that carry their own cross are your church. The rest are spectators and cheerleaders and we are not called to make spectators or cheerleaders so do not use them in your equation when you measure the success of your ministry.

It really isn’t hard to fill a church with spectators anyway. Just give people what they want. Don’t interfere with their personal life, make sure you have a charismatic speaker, great music, drama and the latest multimedia presentations and they will flock to church. But ask them to come with you to minister to the prostitutes on the corner, down at the homeless shelter or the drug rehab, and 90% of the church will be nowhere in sight. If you just use numbers and the size of the offering to determine the success of your church, you are using the wrong ruler. Use God’s ruler and focus on how many are becoming spiritually strong men, women and children of God. Look at how many are becoming students and teachers of the word, going into ministry, serving, worshipping and developing their spiritual gifts. Look at the folks that are becoming more and more like Jesus and who are helping others to become more like Him as well. They are your church, they are your disciples.

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It seems as though some churches are more interested in entertaining their members than creating strong disciples. You may not think so; but that doesn’t mean your people don’t. Examine them and you will see for yourself. How many are really trying to become more like Christ? How many are serious about learning the things of God? Look at how many bring their bibles, take notes and are changing the way they live, think and act? How many make a walk to the altar every week to cry out before God?

Many of today’s churches feel as thought they have to entertain people with the latest multimedia presentations to keep their attention, have jokes and humor in their messages to make people laugh, and even make sure that their music and choir sound like professionals. Some churches even feel that they have to serve pastry, coffee and juice to keep people coming back. Let me ask you something; what happens when people get bored with that?

If you are relying on the latest technology or the latest program or fad to attract and keep people in your church, you will always be trying to keep up with the world. If the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God are not good enough, maybe it’s because your church doesn’t have enough of the word and the power of God in it.

There is nothing wrong with a church using technology, humor, drama or programs as bait to get people in the door or to strengthen the pastor’s message. They just don’t need to be the main course otherwise people will become spiritually malnourished. Take a look around; what do you think people find more of; Food for the flesh or food for the soul? I rest my case.

I know of a church that played clips from popular movies to go with the pastor’s message because he wanted to connect with the spiritually immature. Some of the movies the clips came out of were rated R for sex and language. What I want to know is what Christian leader watched those films to get the clips? Are we not to abstain from even the appearance of evil? Talk about becoming like the world. Keep the main thing the main thing. God gave us His word: for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Use it for such!

Paul was clear that in the end times people would not want to endure sound doctrine but would rather run after teaching that would fulfill their own fleshly desires.

Don’t give me what my flesh wants. My flesh wants recliners in church. My flesh wants to be entertained, to laugh and to eat unhealthy things and it wants to be out by noon so I can beat the church down the street to the restaurant.
It doesn’t want to feel conviction, it doesn’t want to make that walk to the altar, and it certainly doesn’t want to change.

Give me what I need, not what I want. What we need is the word, love and power of God. That is all we ever needed and that should be the main course in every church. Not some clip from some movie Christians have no business watching, not the donuts or juice or fancy light shows. Just give me a word from God that is backed up with His power so that my life will change and I will become more like Jesus; not Bruce Almighty.

Now I am not against multimedia or special lights and I am certainly not against donuts. (They are a good friend of mine!) I just want to stress that if those tools are the central focus of any service, and if more time is put into preparing them than into seeking God’s face, people will walk away with a neat and entertaining message instead of an encounter with Jesus. Keep the main course the main course and use those things as tools to attract the spiritually weak and immature.

Use the donuts as bait when you are fishing for men, but make sure they get hooked on Jesus and not the donuts. Use the great music and sound to attract people, but make sure they are coming to hear from God and not the choir, and use appropriate multimedia to enhance the word of God, not for entertainment.

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wimp: a weak, cowardly, or ineffectual person

Why are there so many people in church that live a lifestyle contrary to the word of God? Why are there so many in leadership causing so many problems? Why do we have such shallow Christians coming out of our fellowships? Why do only 10% give and serve and 90% just warm the pew?

I will tell you why. It is because the shepherds and leadership put up with it. The sheep will only do what they are expected to do and if all you expect from them is to show up on Sunday and put into the plate what they feel led, that is all you will get. The church leadership is not holding their sheep accountable. They are not rebuking them for living in sin, not asking them to step down from leadership for acting unChrist-like, nor are they testing their spirits to see if they are genuine. Thus the Christian faith suffers.

When was the last time you saw a church leader go to an inactive member and say; “What’s the problem? You joined our church and you said that you would attend, serve and give yet you haven’t been around in six months? Is there something wrong that we can help you with, or are you going through a season of complacency? Are you going to come back and fulfill the commitment you made to God and the church or should we take you off the roll?”

But no! Most won’t to do that because it may upset someone. Listen up! Every other organization has requirements their members are expected to fulfill and if they don’t fulfill them they are asked to step down or turn in their membership. Should the church be less demanding when it comes to commitments made to God? I think not!

Jesus was not a wimp!

Why does the church portray Jesus as being this wimpy, hit me again kind of individual? I don’t know who to blame more, the media who portrays every Christian and Priest as a nerdy wimp allowing everyone to walk all over them or the churches for becoming like that. Folks you had better read your bible again because MY bible doesn’t give me that impression at all. My Jesus came boldly against those who were in sin, especially those who were representing God. He publicly rebuked them, called them Blind Guides, Hypocrites, and whitewashed tombs. He told them to their face that they only dressed the part of being righteous to be noticed by men, yet on the inside they were full of dead men’s bones. He never beat around the bush when it came to pointing out sin either; He exposed it, caused them to admit it and told them to sin no more. He got upset at the ungodly events taking place in the temple and physically cleansed it and He didn’t care who got upset with Him in the process. He even told the disciples that if someone slapped them on the cheek to stand firm and offer them the other one, not as a sign of weakness but as an insult.

After salvation; is not our entire objective to become more like Jesus?

Well then why do we see so many pastors and Christians acting like Pee Wee Herman?

Stand up for what you know is right! If members and leaders of your church are not living according to the word of God, you need to follow the biblical guidelines laid out in Matthew 18:15-17, 1 Timothy 5:20, and 2 Thessalonians 3:11-15. Will it upset people? Sure. But remember that we are not called to make people happy; we are called to create disciples and to keep order in the household of God and to keep the enemy and his influences out. Will churches lose a few members if they do this? Maybe, but they will lose a lot more if they stay.

When people see church leaders make a stand for what is right, they will know that they have someone over them they can trust. Someone who cares more about what God thinks than what some controlling member thinks. Someone who cares more about the spiritual condition of the church than how many people are on the roll or the size of the offering. When people find leaders like that, they have no problem sitting under them.

If on the other hand, church leaders allow their sheep to sin and don’t do anything about it, their blood is on their hands! If you want the power of God to flow in your church, start enforcing the word of God. When Moses told the men they were all going to be circumcised, he didn’t put it to a vote. God spoke it and Moses carried out God’s word and they didn’t have a choice.

Church leaders need to gain respect for the position God gave them, and they only gain that respect by being the man or woman of God He wants them to be. Nobody wants to follow a puppet.

What’s your take? Leave your comments below.

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We’re old.  We’re dying.  We’re decaying.  We’re declining.  We’re ineffective.  We’re irrelevant.  Doesn’t that motivate you to do better?  Come on, be honest.  Don’t such messages just fill you with energy, vigor, passion and hope?  Sure they do, otherwise why would we dwell so constantly upon them?  Why waste time envisioning ourselves as God is calling us to be when we can wallow in all the things we aren’t?  Doom-and-gloomers eat this stuff up.  The United Methodist Church will be gone in 40 years.  The average age of United Methodists is 104.  We’re closing 24,000 churches every year.  It’s like crack.  Once we taste the bad news, we simply can’t get enough of it.

I hate the misuse of statistics, but I have to admit it’s very easy to do.  All you have to do is count something, frame it in a specific way, twist it 45 degrees, take it completely out of context and pretend it is the only thing that matters, and then present it as “fact.”  It’s fun, and anyone can do it.  Plus, once the results are published there is the added joy of all the many ways the findings can be misinterpreted, misunderstood, and miscommunicated.  Nothing irks me more than someone who knows better delivering sincere misinformation as insightful and true.  I attended a domestic violence workshop once where the “expert” claimed that in the 90 minutes we had been together, “31,000 children were victims of abuse in the United States.”  Now, do the math — this is over 340 children a minute, 489,000 a day, 14,688,000 a month — every child in the U.S. is abused no less than twice a year.  Yikes, what a terrible childhood we suffer in these United States.

We do the same thing in the church.  Leaders, not called to ministry for their math skills, extrapolate a linear decline and tell us that there will be no UMC by 2050.  Looks good on paper, but if we were to apply the same simplistic formula to the  pre=”the “>UMC from 1972-1978, we should cease to exist in 2013 — so kiss your congregation goodbye.  We’re almost done.  Oh, wait, no we’re not.  Regressions don’t work that way.  Certainly we will be much smaller, but our decline is not uniform and consistent. It follows a curved path, not a straight line.  And not every participant is “of equal value” (statistically).  And a hundred other factors that no one bothers to mention because it isn’t as sensational.  Incomplete information is often worse than no information at all.

It is critically important that we recognize the unintended consequences of what we are saying by painting such a pitiful picture.  Such fatalism may not motivate change, but may merely hasten our decline and possible demise.  People in modern American culture like to back winners, not strugglers.  If a church is doing good work and isn’t constantly in survival mode, it offers much greater appeal than its counterparts.  By constantly framing what we are — a middle-age and older denomination — as a negative, we incite all kinds of unpleasant responses.  Think of your sixty-eight year old, pot-bellied uncle Joe dressing up in tight disco clothes (thinking these are “cool” and “hip”) with his shirt unbuttoned to his naval, crashing a college party — this is what much that we Baby Boomers call “contemporary” or “praise” worship looks like to young adults.  Constantly telling older congregations that they have to attract young people is like saying, “be what you’re not, to attract those least like you, so that no one can be happy.”  There is great potential for cross-generational ministry — but it may not be in worship or spiritual formation.  Being the best older adult church you can be may actually give you more of a future than doing poor ministry designed to lure young people.  (No, I am not advocating “giving up” on young adults.  If anything, I am advocating that we quit trying to force them into our outdated molds and let them take more control in launching and sustaining churches actually geared toward youth culture.)

A steady diet of what we don’t have, what we can’t do, what we’ve lost, how far behind we are takes its toll on the heart, soul and spirit of leadership.  Combine that with the unrealistic burden of the few high-profile “success” stories (i.e., those growing in numbers, not necessarily in impact) and the frustration and exhaustion quotients sky-rocket.  There is an insidious psychological damage being done by all our half-truths and spurious use of statistics.  I don’t mean to say we aren’t in decline or aren’t facing serious problems.  But there are a wide variety of reasons why we are in the shape we’re in, and our future doesn’t lie in the past, nor is it limited by our present.

In 1956, the U.S. population was just under 170 million.  Today it is approximately 308 million, not quite doubled.  In 1956, estimates of the number of individual churches in the U.S. range between 170,000 – 220,000; today we are looking at 1.1 million organized, chartered congregations (including independent, LDS, New Age, etc.).  While the population has doubled, the number of faith options has increased fivefold.  Television, para-church organizations, digital technology, and general business all compete today for people’s time and attention in a way they did not in 1956.  Also, the modern memory of 1956 tends to glorify the past.  A majority of Protestant congregations in 1956 didn’t track attendance on a regular basis.  Some researchers and sociologists now believe that our memory of regular attendance might be highly inflated and inaccurate.  Did we attend more faithfully 50 years ago?  Without a doubt!  But our decline might not be nearly as steep as many make it out to be.  Anecdotally, my grandfather never missed Sunday worship — he slept through at least fifty services a year.  Today he would have the decency to stay home to sleep.  The change for him would not be in the level of his discipleship, but in the location of his rest…

When I conducted the Seeker Study research for the General Board of Discipleship, I was amazed to find hundreds of young adults (19-31) who pray daily, study scripture regularly, volunteer time as an expression of their Christian faith, and who discuss their faith in some form of ongoing small group or partnered relationship, BUT do not attend any church.  I won’t go into all the reasons here, but basically the institutional church offers them little of value in their faith formation, and they choose to journey independently or with fellow disaffected pilgrims on similar journeys.  In subsequent research, this segment of our population is growing — yet they report no religious affiliation on surveys.  They dislike labels and they vehemently do not want to be lumped in with “church people.”  As one young person told me, “I would rather people thought I was an atheist than a “Christian.”  Christians here are scary people.  I am a follower of Jesus Christ, but I am NOT a Christian.”  Hmmm….

All this is to say we need to choose our future wisely and not be motivated by half-truths and incomplete stories.  We all know we have less people today than we used to.  We all know that the life expectancy is lengthening and therefore we will have more old people longer in our churches.  We also know that whoever holds the power will create the church they like best — so old people will continue to make nice, comfy old people churches.  If we want young people, we need to let them create young people churches, and not try to make everyone compromise and be things they’re not.  I have said it before and I will say it until I die:  we have got to stop worrying about the 6 million we have lost and start strategizing with and empowering the almost 8 million we have.  Until we do a better job with people who already like us, we won’t do very well with those who don’t yet know us.  It’s up to us.  Continue to wallow in our anxiety, fear, and frustration or work with God to build something beautiful?

To many Christians today, church membership is a non-essential or an enigma.   Be it from the proliferation of extra-church ministries (i.e. Bible camps, collegiate ministries, or other parachurches), the ever-increasing array of Christian teaching diassociated from church membership (i.e. Christian TV, radio, Bible studies, etc), the creation of hybrid-churches (i.e. multi-site, Internet and virutal churches), or the simple neglect to teach this subject in many churches (thankfully, not all), many Christians have little concept of God’s desire for Christian’s to be inseparably united to a local body of believers.  Or at least, that is how it was for me, but I don’t think I am alone.

In my own life, church membership was a truth I had to grow into.  For instance, for the first five years of my Christian life I was not a church member.  I was baptized at age 17, but not a church member until 22.  This was not a conscious rebellion against the church, but an unaddressed, ecclesial ignorance.  Therefore, it my conviction that churches and pastors today must teach on the importance of church membership, if our churches–Baptist, Presbyterian, and otherwise–will be thriving outposts of Christ’s kingdom.  In Thabiti Anyabwile’s book What is a Healthy Church Member?, the sixth mark of health is understanding and embracing this reality.

As an aside, but also as an entry into this week’s applications, let me add personally that as it concerns church membership, I have been much helped by my friends and teachers at IX Marks.  If you are not familiar with this ministry, I encourage you to take an afternoon at your nearest coffee shop or library and peruse their website.  From articles to audio interviews to straight-forward teaching on the subject, let Mark Dever, Matt Schmucker, and their church-loving peers, encourage and challenge you with biblical teaching and practical ways to grow as a committed church member.  (Perhaps, the first thing to do is to listen to Mark Dever’s SBTS 2002 chapel message: Membership Matters).   I remember listening to this sermon while mopping up the children’s building at Woodland Park Baptist Church, and thinking, “I have never heard anything like this before!”  It gave me a whole new love and priority for the local church.

After considering this neglected biblical truth in more detail, you could begin to grow as a committed member through these five points of application:

1. Take a step of obedience in one area of church membership.  Thabiti Anyabwile lists 8 characteristics of a committed church member: (1) Attends Regularly; (2) Seeks Peace; (3) Edifies Others; (4) Warns and Admonishes Others; (5) Pursues Reconciliation; (6) Bears with Others; (7) Prepares for the Ordinances; and (8) Supports the Work of the Ministry (68-70).  Does the members in your church do this?  Can you imagine if they did?  Be a trendsetter in your church: start practicing these corporate spiritual disciplines and encourage others to do the same.  Taking God at his word, and stepping out in Spirit-empowered obedience will have untold impact on you and your local church.

2. Develop a ministry of presence at your church.  Realize that your attendance matters.  In my own life, I started going to church regularly at age 17.  When I did, there was an older gentlemen who greeted me at the door every week.  In addition to the preaching of God’s word, I truly believe that his enthuiastic hospitality was one of the ways that God brought me to himself.  When we go to church, we are not simply going as consumers; we go as those upbuilding and supporting the rest of God’s people.  And when your Christian liberty “enables” you to freely skip church, it may have a negative effect on another brother or sister who is depending on your presence.  The ministry of presence is vital for all believers and should be something that we gladly live out each week.

3. Learn the names of every member of your church and use the church directory to pray for one another.  John 10:3 says that Jesus calls his sheep by name, and that when he speaks, his sheep hear him and follow (10:27).  So too, for Christians, especially church leaders and shepherds, we must be committed to knowing those in our church, calling them by name, and praying for them.  Now, with that said, I realize, some churches are ginormous–which is a technical term for “really big”–and that such feats would tempt some to pride if they learned 7,500 names.  However, within these larger churches, are smaller groups, however they are classified.  The point here is not legalism, but love!  Out of love, you should know the names of those in your flock, and by whatever means you can, learn to pray for your fellow members by names.  You may say, “I don’t know how to pray for those I don’t know.”  Well here are two ways to respond: (1) Get to know them!  Ask their name, their family situation, where they serve in the church, where they work outside the church–simply put, be curious.  This is where number 2 helps number 3.  (2) Pray Paul’s prayers for those people whom you still don’t know.  If they are believers, these are great ways to make concrete petitions for fellow-members to grow in Christ.  D.A. Carson’s book on the subject, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, is an excellent resource to help you here.

4. Inform yourself of church business.  Most churches have regularly scheduled business meetings.  As a committed member, you should know what is going on in your church.   This gives you opportunity to join in prayer with what God is doing in your midst; it gives you time to ask the pastor, elders, or other members about the business at hand; and it protects your church from the wiles of Satan who would love to bring division to your church by uninformed members making hasty, uninformed, and unspiritual comments at the meeting. (By unspiritual, I mean those comments that have not been sanctified by prayer, the Word of God, and even time– James 1:19-25).

5. Study the New Testament to learn what the church is and does.  Perhaps this should actually be the first thing you do, but either way, your commitment to the church is directly related to how important you think the church is, and the only way you can have a proper understanding of the church, is to get God’ Word on it.  One way to do this is to simply use a concordance (online, or in print) to look up every instance of ekklesia / church in the New Testament and see how the Bible uses it.  Is it speaking of a local assembly?  An abstract universal entity?  A heavenly gathering?  Or what?  Then you should ask, what is God’s intention for the church and how should we be participating in that?  Answering these questions will go along way to seeing how vital church membership is.

Overall, growing as a committed member is a process, but one promises lasting joy as union to Christ in his body promises inimitable opportunities to grow up into Christ.  As Ephesians 3:10 tells us, the church reveals the wisdom of God to the world, and is in fact the wisdom of God.  Sadly, most people don’t see it that way.  Consider these steps of application this week, and I trust that you too will see how the events that take place within the local body of assembled believers are more important than the events that occur in the Pentagon, the Kremlin, the halls of congress, or any place else for that matter. 

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

A survey finally confirmed what many of us have believed for some time. New England now claims the title of the least Christian/spiritual area of the U.S. New England is home to the classic picture of the country church, usually framed by autumn color. This is still a common American stereotype of church life.

The Pacific Northwest had held the title.  We who are not geographically close to them were willing to believe they were, but always wondered about New England. Now we are vindicated.

Evangelism in New England is not restricted to to only the groups identified in the AP article.  Anglicans and Catholics also have long history there.

There are any number of scholarly theories as to why, historically, Christianity waxes and wanes.  This phenomenon occurs with every religion and faith. It is important to keep in mind that those who fled Europe for religious freedom, a miniscule percent of Europe’s population, became a very small minority of the population of the colonies.

Christians were denied religious freedom in many of the colonies. Which Christians were denied, ranging from Catholics to strict Calvinists, varied from colony to colony depending on one’s denomination.

The establishment of the United States of America allowed freedom of religion for everyone, and prohibited the establishment of a state church.  Only about 5% – 8% of the new Americans were denominational Christians.  Far more of the framers of the Constitution were deists, and no religion was very popular.

Deism is a form of theological rationalism that believes in God on the basis of reason without reference to revelation. Deists believe in a first cause creation. God most often goes on to other affairs and pays no attention to our individual lives. Thomas Jefferson is an example of such an independent spirit who had as his Bible a Bible with all miracles removed.

Today, Deism in various flavors is still popular, and vies with New Age theologies which acknowledges spiritual realities defined in various forms, none of which agree with historic Christianity. In the midst of all this, there is a surging revival of historic Christian beliefs.  As the Chinese proverb says:  May you live in interesting times.

WATERTOWN, Mass. – It’s hard to tell in the quiet of a color-splashed autumn morning, but Redeemer Fellowship Church is trying to set roots in a rough neighborhood. For churches, anyway.

Until this new church opened last month, its 19th-centuryCongregational church building in suburban Watertown was empty for nearly two years. Just across the street, a closed Baptist church is filled with condos. So is a former Catholic church a half mile away.

Dead churches are a familiar story in New England, which recent surveys indicate is now the least religious region in the country. But some see opportunity in a place where America’s Christian faith laid its roots.

“You look at this area and it’s a great area of potential, it’s a great area of need,” said Redeemer Fellowship pastor Chris Bass, a Houston native.

Several Christian denominations see New England as a “mission field” — a term often associated with unchurched, foreign lands. As they evangelize and work to plant new churches, they speak of possibility, but also frustration. The area’s highly educated population is skeptical and often indifferent to their faith.

“About once every hour, I give up. It’s tough, man,” said a half-joking Joe Souza, a Southern Baptist missionary working north of Boston. “It’s like, you found a cure for cancer and you want to give it away and nobody wants it.”

Trinity College’s American Religious Identification Survey released this year showed New England overtaking the Pacific Northwest as the least religious region in the country. Twenty-two percent of respondents here said they have no religious faith of any kind, highest in the country.

In a Gallup poll this year, all six New England states were in the Top 10 least religious in the country, with Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts claiming the top four spots.

New England’s religious apathy has developed over decades, but it’s striking where the Pilgrims landed seeking religious freedom and the great 18th-century preacher Jonathan Edwards helped spark the First Great Awakening. Stately churches near town centers all over the region are reminders of the central importance religion once held.

Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut do host the nation’s heaviest concentration of Catholics, but those numbers have dropped substantially. In 1990, 50 percent of New England residents identified themselves as Catholic; by 2008, it dropped to 36 percent following the clergy sex abuse scandal in Boston, according to American Religious Identification Survey 2008.

Several groups trying to re-ignite New England’s faith are theologically conservative, such as the Southern Baptists, Presbyterian Church in America and the Conservative Baptists’ Mission Northeast. They say a reason for the region’s hollowed-out faith is a pervasive theology that departs from traditional Biblical interpretation on issues such as the divinity of Jesus, the exclusivity of Christianity as a path to salvation and homosexuality.

The Rev. Wes Pastor, head of the NETS Institute for Church Planting in Williston, Vt., said New England’s liberal mainline denominations, such as the United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church, have been practicing a “different religion.”

“I’m not saying it to be snooty, but they have a different belief system and that belief system … is a profound departure from historic Christianity,” said Pastor, whose group trained Bass and supports his Baptist church.

The Rev. Paul Nickerson, a church planting specialist at the UCC’s Massachusetts Conference, said local churches declined because of a creeping insularity, not because “we’re theologically inept.” Progressive churches that refocus on the needs of the unchurched are growing, he said.

“The depiction that all the mainliners have lost the Bible, and are too progressive, and so conservatives have to come in and reclaim the territory, I don’t buy that kind of stereotype,” Nickerson said.

Theological differences aside, there’s broad agreement that New England churches need to better serve people outside their walls and build the relationships that attract people to faith.

It’s not easy among busy New Englanders who protect their time. Many lack even a basic knowledge of church life that’s culturally ingrained elsewhere, said the Rev. Doug Warren of Christ the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Portland, Maine, which he helped plant in 2001.

“They didn’t grow up going to church, their parents didn’t grow up going to church and, in many cases, their grandparents didn’t grow up going to church,” Warren said.

That means outreach must be deliberate and personal. Souza and his associate pastor, Celio Freitas, both native Brazilians, helped start a public youth soccer league in Boston to meet people. Their witness, they hope, leads to curiosity about the faith that guides their lives, and perhaps a visit to Celebration Church, which began meeting in a Saugus office building in January.

The work is slow and its fruits can be scarce. Souza said people are generally polite, even interested in talking about spiritual matters. But they don’t hesitate to reject invitations. He recalled a man with whom he recently shared his faith at the mall courteously declining to even take a card.

Warren said the Presbyterian Church in America plants 50 churches a year, but has started just 10 since the mid-1990s in northern New England. Bass said he knows “most church plants anywhere fail, certainly here in this area.”

Some church plants begin with a core of families who transfer from an existing church. But Bass and his wife, Brandi, came alone to Massachusetts last year. A core of about six families formed as they repaired their building and met people in their daily lives. The church ran radio ads and placed door hangers around town. Success will ultimately depend on how well church members follow Biblical mandates to serve and love their neighbors, he said.

“It’s nothing new,” he said. “It’s not like … what kind of gimmicks can we come up with?”

On a recent fall Sunday, a younger group of about 50 people gathered to hear Bass’s message of salvation. The hymn “How Great Thou Art” was sung to a contemporary tune and echoed through an airy sanctuary that could fit seven times more worshippers. During fellowship afterward, Watertown resident Ralph Filicchia said he was drawn by curiosity. He said local churches have been killed by the “poison” of liberal theology, and he was eager to support a conservative church.

But the 74-year-old said he’s lived in New England long enough to avoid rosy predictions. Churches that preach traditional dogma, such as Redeemer Fellowship, can be branded intolerant.

“Up here, it’s tough, it’s tough,” Filicchia said. “It always has been.”

___

On the Net:

Redeemer Fellowship Church in Watertown: http://www.redeemerfellowshipchurch.org/

American Religious Identification Survey: http://www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org/

Celebration Church in Saugus:

http://www.celebrationchurchonline.com/cgi-bin/kingdomtools/ktpublic.rb

I’m in a church dilemma.  I live in a generation of churchgoers who shop for churches like they shop for the latest fashion.  Growing up my parents chose the nearest Baptist church and stuck with it through thick and thin.  Now, if things aren’t going our way or we see another church doing something different and we want to try it, we just pick up and leave without giving it a second thought.

At the same time, appearances can be deceitful.  When visiting a church, you may feel welcome, encouraged and accepted; however, later you may find those same welcoming faces have gone back to their own group and expected you to form your own.  They may have accepted you into the church but not their exclusive group leaving you right back where you started wondering did God really put me here or did I yearn for community so badly I was willing to hold on to a false sense of security.

Then there are those churches who never seem to welcome visitors.  They give the appearance of thanking visitors for coming, but no one is going to invite them back.  Actually, this church is probably more “authentic” because they don’t melt all over you.  What you see is what you get.  I don’t want to be “melted” over, but it would be kind of nice for people to acknowledge my presence rather than thinking I am the person who sat in “their” pew.

I have considered that maybe it was never God’s intention for us to form different denominations or have 50 different congregations in one community.  I wondered today some what ifs.  What if instead of churches competing over members they decided to work together to create a community of believers whose mission it was to search for lost souls with whom to share the good news?  What if each church became a part of the body like each person is a part of the body of believers–one church may be good at children’s ministry and another may be good at women’s ministry and the list goes on and on–instead of being a member of one particular church, each one could share its gifts with the community.  I realize this wouldn’t work as well in reality as it does in theory–I was just thinking along the lines of what if.

I have heard pastors speak and read Christian articles that speak to the practice of church hopping and all are very wise and make excellent points with which I agree.  Normally, I hold on with both hands, pray mightily and wait for God’s leading which is what I am trying to do now.  I can’t seem to get a clear answer. 

My dilemma–my husband and I are members of a church where our teenage daughter did not really fit in so we allowed her to join a different church in the community where she feels accepted and loved.   We have been criticized by well-meaning people who believe we should have kept her with us.  In response, we have started attending the church she joined because we believe she is growing where she is.  However, we don’t feel like we belong.  Actually, truth be told, it is me, not my husband, that is having issues.  He doesn’t care as long as we go somewhere.  I, on the other hand, want a church where I feel like I am growing spiritually, able to give my talents, and where I feel like I am honoring God by my worshipping there.  I don’t want it to be all about me, but I do want to be fed so I can serve.  I don’t want a place where I can get over-saturated which is what some people are doing today.  But if I am attending a church where there is very little nourishment, I can’t bulk up to serve.  I totally believe community worship and study is just as important than personal Bible study.  After all, you learn and grow when you take in the knowledge of others and the natural discussion that comes from small groups and Sunday School.

I think one of the reasons I’m having such a difficult time is my evolving attitude toward what church should really be about and not being able to find a church with the same mindset.  I’m also trying to come to grips with the fact that maybe I shouldn’t try to find a church with something for everyone–after all, finding something for two adults (one man, one woman), one teenager and one toddler may be an impossible task.  I’m reminded that nothing is impossible with God and He will eventually lead us to a church where we belong whether it is back to our church where we are members, the church we are now attending or another that may be just what He wants for us at this season of our lives.