You Got to Be Part of This!

Last night in WELD we took a little departure from the Ecclesiastes series to talk about personal evangelism and how it needs to be a central part of how we follow Jesus.  First we talked about how God intends to motivate us declare His goodness by first amazing us.  Then we talked about the four key ideas we need to present when we have conversations about God.  Finally, we wrapped it up with an appeal to participate in the exciting work of God.

Listen to: You Got to Be Part of This!

¡Sí Se Puede!

¡Sí se puede! -César Chávez

Forgive me for missing last week – I spent it in Mexico on a very-short (though clearly inspirational) mission trip.  Nevertheless, as I seek to equip people to read God’s Word for themselves, there is one substantial assumption inherent in my attempts; namely, the Bible was written to be understood.  That is, the Bible was written to be accessible to the masses rather than simply the elite.  That doesn’t mean that everyone who sits down with Bible, pen, and notebook will come away with a valid and complete understanding of what’s going on in a passage of Scripture.  But it does mean that anyone can be taught to read the Bible as it was intended to be understood, beginning with a very simple set of tools and assumptions.

While I recognize (and often experience) that the Bible can be downright confusing, this is rarely intentional on the author’s part.  Instead, the Biblical writers used very common language and very common literary devices and forms (many of which we’ll cover in this series) for the purpose of clearly and effectively communicating very specific messages.  What does that mean for us?  Above all it means that the Bible’s authors wanted their readers to clearly understand their messages!  So say it with me, “¡Sí se puede!”

The Bible is Bull[oney]

I’m not passionate about apologetics – I used to be, but I guess I felt like I was arguing around the block with too many skeptics without ever getting to explain the message about Jesus because of red herring after red herring.  That or the death of modern thought moved me to more of an interest in proclamation rather than debate.  Nevertheless, I am a college pastor and the importance of apologetics is being awakened in me as many of my students have been vocal about their faith on campus and, to no real surprise, have also been getting it shoved back in their faces.  One student was shown the following video and she forwarded it to me:

So what’s the best approach here?  What should apologetics look like?  Answering every objection item by item?  Defending a skeptic’s inaccurate view of our faith (in other words, defending a straw man?)  Do we just bypass the objections and yell the gospel louder?  What to do about the cosmic gulf between where skeptics like Penn & Teller are and where we are?  Is it even possible to find a common or neutral ground to have a discussion or will one or the other have to go on the road (sports analogy-wise)?  Do we focus apologetics on those who do not believe or on those who already believe?

Discussion “Question”: Answer any of the questions above or describe the role apologetics play in the way you tell people the message about Jesus.

WELD:Declare

About 10 years ago a hot topic in churches was whether we should emphasize Worship or Evangelism.  On a Sunday morning do we try to bring believers to God’s throne or unbelievers?  Could we do both?  Rather than re-hash the entire debate I’ll just quote John Piper,

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church.  Worship is.  Missions exists because worship doesn’t. … The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. … Worship is the fuel of missions. … Missions begins and ends in worship (emphasis added; Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, 17).

So as we come to the end of the WELD series, we’ve really come back around to the beginning.  We began with Worship and, Lord willing, we will end with it as well.  Only it will not be our own worship that we close with, but the worship of those who do not yet praise and submit themselves to the living God.  Again, WELD is interested with creating a community of disciples, mature followers of Jesus Christ.  And in addition to worshiping God, engaging in the life of faith with His people, and loving fellow Christ-followers, mature believers declare the message of God’s salvation with the hope and intention that many will join us on the journey that leads to the Father.

Declare depends on worship—after all, who wants to hear about a God you aren’t amazed by, that you don’t submit yourself to?  Worship is fulfilled by declaring God’s greatness.  As David sings,

“Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.  Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods” (1 Chr 16.24-5).

Discussion Question: What motivates you most to declare the message about Jesus?

WELD:Love

“All you need is love” -The Beatles.  “God is Love” -1 John 4.8.

We all recognize that love is pretty important—whatever it is.  No one wants to live without it and no one’s quite sure what it is.  Trying to come up with a good definition of love is like trying to come up with a way to finish this analogy.

Our number one problem with defining love is that we ask this one word to do too much.  From liking something quite a bit, to sexual intercourse, to that indescribable feeling Jim and Pam seem to have for each other where you knew they’d eventually be together, love covers more ground than the ocean.

So when we’re talking about the Kingdom of God and the love among His people Jesus called for, what are we talking about?  The popular understanding of the Greek word for love that everyone and their mother knows (αγαπη agapē) is sacrificial love.  While that’s definitely how God loves (and He is the model for how we’re called to love), sacrifice is not what the word itself means.  According to BDAG, αgapē means  “the quality of warm regard for and interest in another.”  In other words, sacrifice ain’t enough!  Feeling or affection isn’t enough either! Biblical love, the love that Jesus calls us to, is both sacrificial and accompanied by genuine care.  Charity without affection robs the dignity of the one who is helped while sympathy without some kind of sacrifice (even time) is just plain useless.

Discussion “Question”: Share a time when you felt unexpectedly loved by a fellow believer.

Message: WELD-Engage

Here’s last night’s message from WELD on our second imperative value, Engage.  I began with the idea that conversion was the beginning of the story rather than the end.  Then we looked at Jesus’ desire for His people to Engage with Him and with each other.  Finally, we explored some opportunities to engage in College+Career.

Listen to WELD:Engage.

WELD:Engage

After a good first WELD since the transition to Thursday nights we’re moving right along with our second imperative value, Engage.

When we talk about our goals in declaring the message about Jesus my hope is that we would not be content with a prayer.  My hope is that once someone makes a confession of faith in Jesus we would see that as the beginning.

What then does it mean to engage?  Engage in what?  Engage with who?  I see this as having two emphases.  Like Worship is a call to praise and submission, Engage is a call to throw oneself into the life of faith and into the people of God. What could also be called discipleship, Engage means partnering with other believers to become more faithful, devoted followers of Christ.

Discussion Question: Do our methods and ministry plans reflect an adequate concern for engaging people in the life of faith with the people of God or do they fall short?  How?

Message: WELD-Worship

Here’s last night’s message from WELD on our first imperative value, Worship.  First, I presented the problem of how we commonly misunderstand the purpose of worship.  Then we looked at the vocabulary for worship in English, Greek, and Hebrew.  Finally, we looked at Revelation 4 and concluded the when we come to a worship service we do not come simply to sing great songs about God, but with the help of music, the Word, and communion, we worship by renewing our commitment to follow our truly amazing God.

Listen to WELD:Worship.

WELD:Worship

Photo by Maggie Cooney

Well, the Centennial Celebration has come and gone (for those of you not at Hessel, our church just commemorated 100 years of ministry!) and now I find before me a really short week as WELD transitions from once a month on Sundays to every Thursday.  We begin our rebirth with the WELD series, four messages on our imperative values (they are commands…): Worship.Engage.Love.Declare.

This Thursday we’ll be talking about Worship and how it goes far beyond mere singing or an emotional response to God.  The main words for worship in Greek (προσκυνεω, proskuneō) and Hebrew (חוה, chawah) mean so much more than to simply adore.  Proskuneō means “to express … complete dependence on or submission to a high authority figure” (BDAG, aka big, expensive Greek lexicon).  Chawah similarly means “to bow down … before a higher person” or “to bow down … in worship” (HALOT, aka big, expensive Hebrew lexicon).  So, when the Bible speaks of worship it carries a far more significant meaning than simply to sing praises.  Now there is no question in my mind that singing praise to God is an act of worship—the Bible promotes it all over the place (Psalms anyone?).  But when we look at the language of the Bible we find that true worship means joyfully submitting yourself to our amazing God.  Joyful because our praise is true, we are amazed by Him, by His power, His grace, His wrath, His love.  Submission because we are called not just to appreciate His attributes, but to return back to the created order where God is Lord and Father and we are His faithful, obedient people.

This is how I’ve put it before (and will probably put it again), Worship is the mature child of praise and submission. Praise without submission is cheap talk. Submission without praise is cold religion.

Discussion Question: In your experience do worship services typically lead you to a renewed commitment and experience of praise and submission?  Is anything missing from your tradition that could heighten holistic worship?

(Note: this isn’t meant to be an airing of grievances or statement of preferences [I like this... I don't like that...]; I’m not talking about minor aids or distractions, but whether our worship services are intentionally, thoughtfully designed to lead us to praise and submission.)

The Baby Bird and the Baby Cheetah

If I were a brilliant children’s author you would find here a story on par with The Tortise and the Hare or The Ant and the Grasshopper.  You could even imagine a fat little bird crying from hunger, sitting in her nest waiting for her mother to return with that delicious pre-chewed worm.  And as she cries, 10 feet below, a baby cheetah stuffed full from her first kill hears the crying and initiates a conversation in true fable form. Unfortunately, at this point I haven’t decided whether the Cheetah should be a pure protagonist proclaiming her wisdom or whether she should eat the baby bird, her mother, or perhaps both.  Alas, you must suffer though direct speech.

In other news, I have now been at Hessel Church as the College & Young Adult pastor for just over a year and this past Sunday I presented our most aggressive ministry vision to date for Hessel College+Carrer (our 18-29 year old singles at various stages of college/trade school and pursuit of their careers).  To this point our model of ministry has largely been a baby bird model.  In other words, the highest call we have for our young people is to set up chairs in their nest before we serve them a nutritious helping of God’s Word.  Without becoming thankless for solid teaching—because I am thankful for those who teach alongside me—I am fearful of what we will create (or fail to create) if we do not give our young people specific challenges and real opportunities to minister to their peers.  I fear that when they graduate from College+Career they will be no more equipped to be deacons, elders, or any other leader than the day they joined us [in fact, it's possible that if we continue only to feed them, they could actually be worse off!].

In order to guide our young people to full-grown-cheetah-like spiritual maturity, the leadership team has drafted a comprehensive ministry plan.  Here are a few highlights for the FA ’09/10 school year:

• C+C will prepare several of its young people emerge as peer leaders of the group such that they will take over entire areas of ministry (specifically the Event, Media, and Outreach Teams).
• This semester 2 young people will deliver messages at W.E.L.D, next semester 4.
• C+C will prepare its young people to lead outsiders from SSU, SRJC, their places of work, and their families into the people of God through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We intend to see these people welcomed into C+C, baptized, and led to mature faith.
• C+C will cultivate an environment where its young people will feel free to share their lives (ups and downs) with one another and find support to fight through their struggles.
• C+C leadership teams will effectively, artistically communicate with the rest of the group.
• C+C leadership teams will have the support and resources necessary to succeed.

Download and read the entire vision.