The newest episode of the Evangelism Training Podcast is now available. In this month’s episode, Josh talks to Thad Bergmeier. Thad visited us in February and helped with the MyCircle evangelism training. In this episode, we revisit the subject of evangelism training and talk about some of the challenges with evangelism as well as the successes we can celebrate.
Tag: church
-
Blessed are the persecuted. Matthew 5:10-12
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
-Matthew 5:10-12Almost 2,000 years ago when Jesus preached these words, they also would have been radical to his audience. Persecution is never looked at as a blessing.
But in Matthew 5, Jesus says that it is.
Part of what Jesus is saying in these verses is that there is blessedness for the person who’s life is so clearly devoted to God, who is so clearly living out their Christian faith, that they face opposition because of it.
If a Christian goes through life and never faces opposition, you might be living too comfortably in the world.
If you never face any heat because of your faith, you might not be associating with anyone who disagrees with what you believe.
In 2 Timothy 3, the Apostle Paul talks about persecution.
“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
ALL who live for Christ will be persecuted.
Persecution is part of the Christian life. The Bible does not shy away from this fact.
Shortly before the time of his crucifixion, Jesus said to his disciples in John 5:18-19:
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Something doesn’t have to be a matter of life and death to be persecution. In American society, we don’t generally hear stories of a person being killed just because they are a Christian. It’s not absolutely unheard of, but it’s rare.
The persecution American Christians face is often times more social or legal. That can still put us in situations where it’s tempting to sin, where it’s tempting to respond a certain way that we shouldn’t. That still puts us in situations where it’s easier to just go along with what the world is doing than taking a stand for what you believe.
I know a mechanic who’s a Christian. He was committed to being honest in his dealings with customers. He was so honest that his boss didn’t like him and eventually fired him.
My wife told me a story about how when she was in high school, she was interviewing to be part of a local youth leadership program in her community. While she was at her interview, one of the people making the decision saw that she was a student at a Christian high school. He started berating her with questions about her faith, questioning how she could believe in Jesus. Asking nothing about this youth organization. Essentially just harassing her about her faith.
Again, the gospel is a message that some find offensive. “To one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life (2 Corinthians 2:16).”
There have been examples of groups trying to silence coaches of public school teams from praying with players before games, even when it’s voluntary. I read a story today about the Freedom from Religion Foundation suing a public school in Ohio. A local pastor was leading a Bible study with students at lunch. It was optional. But FFRF still needed to swoop in and sue. There have been legal pressures on Christian universities to cover abortions for staff.
Those are just a few examples.
But in living for Jesus, in a fallen world, it is inevitable that there will be times when a person’s faith comes under fire.
Responding
When a person is being persecuted and has a choice of if they’re going to respond in a Christlike way or if they’re going to respond in a hostile way. You can be light to a dark world or you can just spread the darkness.
The Apostle James talked about the various trials that Christians face:
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4).”
As evil as the persecution that Christians face can be, it’s an opportunity to respond with love. Jesus told us to pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44).
God can use those situations as a way to strengthen us in our own faith. To focus us on what we truly value.
Another part of the reason why persecution is seen as a blessing is that the harsher the persecution, the more that is taken away from a person, the more someone is able to live in total dependence on God and reliance in his ability to preserve them. That’s not to say that the persecution is good in itself. It’s obviously not. That’s not to say that sin is good. It’s not. But through the evils that people commit, God can still use that for good.
Again, if you’re not ever facing any pressure because of your faith, you might not be living in a way that is distinct from the world. I’m not saying we should go out of our way to be combative. The verse does not say that all persecution is good. It’s when a person is following Jesus and is persecuted for righteousness’ sake that blessed a person.
It’s a radical idea. But let us remember that we have a savior who faced the ultimate persecution for righteousness’ sake.
Thanks for reading! If you liked this post, please share and subscribe!
-
Megachurch pastor takes leave of absence for inappropriate online relationship
Influential megachurch pastor Matt Chandler announced yesterday that he was being placed on leave as a result of an online social media relationship.
We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. And the more facts we get about this situation, the better. But I am a believer that when popular ministry figures acknowledge (as Chandler does) or are credibly accused of potentially disqualifying sins, that people should be investigated. We have created a culture where it is appealing to become an influential pastor. It brings money, fame, and power. The character of these individuals does matter.
Chandler’s story
One of the peculiarities of the revelation of Chandler’s leave of absence is that he was allowed to announce it to the church. This also allowed him to get out ahead of the controversy and give his own narrative.
Chandler begins with his series of events, “Several months ago, a woman approached me outside here in the foyer. She had some concerns for how I was DM’ing on Instagram with a friend of hers. I didn’t think I had done anything wrong in that. My wife knew that, her husband knew that. And yet, there were a couple of things that she said that were disorienting to me.”
Chandler says he immediately contacted the church’s lead pastor, Josh Patterson as well as the chairman of their elder board. He said he went home and told his wife about the exchange and that the elder board looked into it. Chandler says “We cannot be a church where anyone is above the Scriptures and above the high heavenly call into Christ Jesus.”
He says that the elder board had some concerns but that the conversations were not romantic or sexual but that the conversations were “unguarded and unwise” and that the concerns were “really about frequency and familiarity” and language Chandler had used which was “coarse and foolish.”
Because of Chandler’s inability to see what he was in was probably revealing some “unhealth” in him, but that he agreed with the board’s decision to put him on a leave of absence.
Chandler again thanks the elders for holding him accountable saying “do you know how easy it would have been to make it nothing and just let me not address whatever this is?”
Commentary
I think this is part of the problem with Chandler being able to speak in this situation. Even if I take his statement at face value. He starts off by talking about how his wife and the other lady’s husband knew about the conversations (minimizing the issue). He didn’t think they were doing anything inappropriate.
Plus the wording of his statement is vague. It was unguarded and unwise but it wasn’t romantic. It was coarse and foolish but it wasn’t sexual.
So what was it?! What did he say that was so bad that he got put on leave? The really striking phrase to me is “do you know how easy it would have been to make it nothing and just let me not address whatever this is?” I feel like that could almost have a double meaning, but perhaps that’s me being cynical..
So you have Chandler speaking and saying he hadn’t thought it was a big deal but he is also totally respecting the decision of the board (to suspend him for something that is totally undefined and unclear).
It makes it look like the Village has the highest elder standards of any church in America! Their standards are so high that they would even suspend a rockstar pastor without it even being an overtly, obviously, disqualifying sin.
Do they have the highest standards? Time will tell.
The church’s story
According to a statement from the church who had commissioned an investigation in to Chandler’s texting, emails, and social media, they said that the messages were not “romantic or sexual in nature” but that “the frequency and familiarity of the messages crossed a line. They revealed that Matt did not use language appropriate for a pastor”
The church’s statement agrees with Chandler that “the messages were not romantic or sexual in nature, the frequency and familiarity of the messages crossed a line.”
The best possible light
I think that the best possible light, and what I hope is the reality is that Chandler made some mistakes and that the church is holding him accountable. That’s how it’s being framed. The church has crafted a narrative of how they want things to appear.
If it’s all true, then yes, the Village could be looked at as a model of pastoral standards, ministerial integrity, and Biblically restorative discipline. Again, I hope that’s the case. But for now, all we have is their side of the story.
The worst possible light
There are no shortage of skeptics out there who want to assume the worst, to assume that there’s much more under the surface, that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Sadly, that is something we’ve seen before with ministry scandals.
If it’s the worst case scenario, it would be another fall from grace from another popular pastor. And it would be a sad day for me, someone who’s always really appreciated Chandler’s ministry. In my early 20s, Chandler’s sermons were a major influence on my faith. I had never heard anyone preach like him before. He was engaging and matter of fact. He was funny. I found his sermons smart without being pretentious. I felt like he wasn’t afraid to address the gritty and difficult parts of life, while painting a beautiful picture of what living life for Jesus could be like. For all of those reasons, I again say with sincerity, that I hope that everything he and his church have said is true. If it’s true, I hope they also have a healthy process for restoration and that he can eventually be restored to ministry and to continue to do the work he’s done for nearly two decades at the Village which has blessed so many across the world.
Thanks for reading! If you liked this post, please share and subscribe!
-
The greatest danger to the Church
There are 300,000 churches in America.
There are many wonderful churches that boldly proclaim the gospel and faithfully teach the Bible every week. There is no perfect church in the world, because every church is full of members who are imperfect people.
I think that the biggest issue the American church faces today is related to truth and love.
Love that undermines truth and truth that doesn’t practice love. I’ll briefly explain what that means.
Love that undermines truth
Love is important. The greatest command in scripture is to love God and to love people. God is love.
But some churches can emphasize love to the point where it undermines truth.
For instance, there is a temptation in some Christian circles to consider the love of God and reason that: “since God is love, his love extends to all people, whether or not they believe in God and whether or not they want or accept his love.”
God is love. But that is just taking a slice of the character of God and acting as if that’s the whole pie. God is love. But he is also just, and righteous, and holy. He judges, he has wrath towards sin. God has all of those qualities at all times.
God is love. But the idea of love is not only exclusive to what our culture defines love as.
We tend to value acceptance and tolerance as what it is to love. And it’s true that God meets us where we are, but Jesus doesn’t save us to keep us the same. God is a perfecting God. We sin. We sin so much that we needed a savior, and the gospel is not a message that teaches us that we’re ok and we should just keep doing what we’re doing. We need to live for God and pursue him.
Making love purely about acceptance and tolerance is not the full Biblical scope of what love is. And so it undermines the truth of scripture. And it runs the danger of undermining the inerrancy of scripture (taking the Bible as practical wisdom rather than the infallible word of God). And this view runs the risk of undermining the gospel itself.
Assuming that love and demand for justice are mutually exclusive.
I observe this being the great risk in more liberal denominations.
Truth that doesn’t practice love
I think this is more of a danger in conservative and evangelical circles. We place a high value on the scripture and theology. And well we should because both of those are hugely important.
But we can get so preoccupied with having the right answer that we lose sight of actually living out what we know. This is very similar to the failure of the Pharisees in the gospels. They were very well studied and trained in theology, but they missed the heart of the message.
It can be easy to know the right answer but it’s difficult to live it out in practice.
Truth and love. It comes down to belief and practice. We need both.
Thanks for reading! If you liked this post, please share and subscribe!
Originally published May 9, 2018
-
The Church – being part of something bigger than yourself
An astounding 16 million soldiers, sailors and Marines served America in the Second World War.
And while most of our focus on World War II is on the military and combat, within the United States, there was an effort to support the war unlike anything our nation had seen or has seen since.
With millions going overseas, Americans at home took up new jobs.
Coming out of the Great Depression, unemployment dried up, reaching an all time low in 1944.
The war effort affected virtually every facet of American life. Companies shifted their manufacturing efforts to supporting the war and supplying the military. Maytag went from making washing machines to making parts for airplanes. Firestone Tires made artillery shells and aluminum containers for food transport.
Products like sugar, butter, bacon, and cheese were rationed. As were penicillin and other medicines, along with rubber and certain types of metals. Materials for clothing such as silk and nylon were needed for uniforms. Everything went to supporting a cause that was so much bigger than any one person.
And everyone’s contributions mattered.
To help pay for the war, the government sold war bonds. Over 85 million Americans purchased war bonds to help fund the effort. To put that in perspective, that was more than half of the entire United States population at the time.
An incredible effort.
The church has a mission
As Christians, we too are called to be part of a cause that is far bigger than any of us, but where everyone has a role, where everyone has a job to do, where everyone has a way to serve.
The mission of God on earth.
And that mission is to spread the gospel. To make disciples. To build up the church. To love one another.
It’s not a passive request in scripture, nor is it a good suggestion, but something which God commands from all of his people.
If you’re a person who has placed faith in Jesus, this applies to you.
As the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
You belong to Jesus when you place your faith in him.
And part of the purpose of the Christian life is one that is lived in service of God for the mission of God in the world.
You were made to have an impact
Do you ever feel like you were made for something great?
Do you ever feel like you were meant to have an impact?
You are made for more, you are made to do great things, you are born to have an impact in the world.
An impact for Jesus.
We can try to build our own kingdoms, we can try to collect our own toys, we can try to control and manipulate the circumstances in our lives to make us feel secure.
We can do those things.
But we were made to serve the mission of Christ in the world.
And that includes sharing the gospel, making disciples, making Jesus known, growing together as His Church, and serving God.
As a church, every person in the church is called to use the ways God has gifted and equipped them for the purpose of serving God and building up the church.
That’s why we’re here.
Writing to the Church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul said:
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Maybe you’ve never really thought about that.
But all Christians are given Spiritual gifts.
Doesn’t matter how well you know the Bible.
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a Christian. There’s no probationary period before you can God.
It doesn’t matter how smart you are, or how outgoing you are, or how many people you know.
It doesn’t matter how talented you think you are.
If you’re a Christian, God has given you gifts to serve him and build up his church.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have nothing to offer.
I think that’s the reason why some people don’t serve.
It’s nonsense.
Because everyone here has much to offer. Much to contribute.
It can be easy to see a really talented pastor, a really gifted musician, someone who’s really outgoing, and to feel insecure about what you have to offer.
But the unsung heroes are the backbone of congregations, people faithfully and humbly serving. Books get written about generals, but the real work is done by soldiers.
Originally posted May 13, 2019
Thanks for reading! If you liked this post, please share and subscribe!
