Money, Sex, and Power.... These are the leading themes of idolatry which Tim Keller relates to his audience in his new book Counterfeit Gods. I'd have to say he got my attention with the title and description. He has done a good bit here to shape the Christian message toward issues of actual significance. Preachers who reach a highly popular level often tend toward far more fluffy and light themes. Not so much with Keller.
Keller regards the issue of idolatry as a recurrent theme throughout the whole Bible beginning with the Ten Commandments and mentioned numerous times throughout the Prophets and Historical books, and in the NT, ie 1 John 5 "my children keep yourselves from idols."
As Keller relates the concept to us, people are able to make ultimate anything created in world, and in doing that, they attempt to derive from that thing the fullness of joy and delight which can only be sourced in God. One way this is identified is by the response in the person if that particular thing, which has been made ultimate is lost. A person who slips beyond the expected disappointment and remorse, and into despair, has probably made whatever was lost into an idol.
Its a disturbing thought.
Keller tells a few stories of high level company executives committing suicide following the meltdown of the housing market. While that kind of reaction is unusual, I think he's right. Obviously something is amiss in a person's heart if they have no hope in wake of financial and career ruin.
One thing I learned from Keller is how Nietzsche picked up on this theme a generation ago and wrote about it.
"There are more idols in the world than there are realities," -- Nietzsche, Twighlight of Idols
Yes, there are, and that's one more reason I am glad Tim Keller has taken the time to point some of them out to us.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The Gospel and Injustice
16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."[e]
20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Luke 4:16-20
I can't help but at times think we have read over this passage and perhaps missed much of its significance. Most commentators agree that Luke's gospel is written with an emphasis on the the gentiles, the world at large, which had not yet identified with the God of the Hebrews, the LORD. If that is the case, this passage might shed some light on how the church today positions itself toward those outside. The understanding of the Gospel, at least in much Evangelical churches has tended to revolve around understanding Jesus Christ's death. His resurrection is often mentioned in describing our understanding of the Gospel, but what is given far more air time, is understanding the significance of his death, and why in our understanding he had to die.
Now, don't hear what I am not saying, I am not at all trying to downplay human sinfulness, the need for Christ's substitutionary death, and deep understanding of all that. I don't mean to silence such discussion. That is an intricate picture of the whole of Christian theology.
However, I think Jesus message, at least by his own words, goes further, requires more, and actually calls the church to reflection, and action.
A recent book I have read which highlights this issue is Rich Stearn's "The Hole in Our Gospel." In this work, Stearn, current President of World Vision, suggests Christians need to take more seriously the task of caring for the poor, and working for justice in the world. His book particularly highlights the needs of AIDS orphans in Uganda.
I remember in 2004 when I traveled to South Africa with 5 other students from my college. We spent a month visiting various churches and ministries addressing different aspects of the AIDS pandemic there. I remember sitting in a nursery holding holding an HIV+ toddler. A baby that laughs and cries, and needs to be fed and held just like every other baby I have ever held. And then you talk to the people who are caring for these children, and you hear them explain how important it is that as Christians we find ways to care for these children, who have lost parents to disease, or were given up for any number of reasons. Now the way they read these passages and ones like it which mention widows and orphans was different than how I might read them, if I read them at all.
Part of the good news to the poor, is that there is now a community of people who are called by God to care for them, to take their side, or care for their needs, and to comfort them. I was sitting in on Sunday school class at church the other day, and the Pastor mentioned that there is a dissertation written which argues that NONE, I repeat, NONE, of the passages in the Bible which talk about the poor have anything to do with physical needs, material possession, economics, or any of that, its all "spiritual poverty" a poverty of understanding of sorts. I am floored that there is a "scholar," and I am using that word liberally, which actually argue this. I almost want to say, I don't know where to start. Amos, Luke, James?
Thankfully, this person is in the great minority of Bible scholars Evangelical or not.
And praise God the Scriptures speak to all types of sin, including oppression and exploitation of the poor.
And the gospel I read includes passages like the one above,
"18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor"
This is our Gospel, and it is good news for the poor.
18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."[e]
20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Luke 4:16-20
I can't help but at times think we have read over this passage and perhaps missed much of its significance. Most commentators agree that Luke's gospel is written with an emphasis on the the gentiles, the world at large, which had not yet identified with the God of the Hebrews, the LORD. If that is the case, this passage might shed some light on how the church today positions itself toward those outside. The understanding of the Gospel, at least in much Evangelical churches has tended to revolve around understanding Jesus Christ's death. His resurrection is often mentioned in describing our understanding of the Gospel, but what is given far more air time, is understanding the significance of his death, and why in our understanding he had to die.
Now, don't hear what I am not saying, I am not at all trying to downplay human sinfulness, the need for Christ's substitutionary death, and deep understanding of all that. I don't mean to silence such discussion. That is an intricate picture of the whole of Christian theology.
However, I think Jesus message, at least by his own words, goes further, requires more, and actually calls the church to reflection, and action.
A recent book I have read which highlights this issue is Rich Stearn's "The Hole in Our Gospel." In this work, Stearn, current President of World Vision, suggests Christians need to take more seriously the task of caring for the poor, and working for justice in the world. His book particularly highlights the needs of AIDS orphans in Uganda.
I remember in 2004 when I traveled to South Africa with 5 other students from my college. We spent a month visiting various churches and ministries addressing different aspects of the AIDS pandemic there. I remember sitting in a nursery holding holding an HIV+ toddler. A baby that laughs and cries, and needs to be fed and held just like every other baby I have ever held. And then you talk to the people who are caring for these children, and you hear them explain how important it is that as Christians we find ways to care for these children, who have lost parents to disease, or were given up for any number of reasons. Now the way they read these passages and ones like it which mention widows and orphans was different than how I might read them, if I read them at all.
Part of the good news to the poor, is that there is now a community of people who are called by God to care for them, to take their side, or care for their needs, and to comfort them. I was sitting in on Sunday school class at church the other day, and the Pastor mentioned that there is a dissertation written which argues that NONE, I repeat, NONE, of the passages in the Bible which talk about the poor have anything to do with physical needs, material possession, economics, or any of that, its all "spiritual poverty" a poverty of understanding of sorts. I am floored that there is a "scholar," and I am using that word liberally, which actually argue this. I almost want to say, I don't know where to start. Amos, Luke, James?
Thankfully, this person is in the great minority of Bible scholars Evangelical or not.
And praise God the Scriptures speak to all types of sin, including oppression and exploitation of the poor.
And the gospel I read includes passages like the one above,
"18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor"
This is our Gospel, and it is good news for the poor.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Training for the Marathon
Its hard to believe at first something like this could be enjoyable. I am 10 weeks into it, and I have never enjoyed running more. Days like today get me into it even more. Its a Saturday morning. Mist in the air. Just a touch of humidity. Heavy clouds cover. No sun. A soft breeze. Light traffic on the suburban roads. My legs feel good. My lungs are free. My whole body is moving in the rhythm of running. Hillsong United Worship is pumping through my ears. Only the last 3 or so miles does it start to hurt and get hard. The first couple of miles are fast and enjoyable. Its amazing what the human body is capable of. In February I remember running one, maybe two miles, and that was hard. It hurt. Now, that's just a warm up, 10 weeks later. Today, I ran 10.2 miles. It felt good.
Somethings you learn and understand just doing.
Paul uses the analogy of running a race in Scripture, 1 Cor. 9
"24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."
I can remember crossing the finish line in the fall of 2006 at the Chicago Marathon. Crowds of strangers line both sides of the finish line. Hundreds of people I did not know cheered for me, and all the other runners crossing the line with me. It took everything I had to finish the race. I probably would not have completed if my friend Sean had not run with me. For the last 9 miles I threw water on my face at each station to try to shake off the exhaustion. Looking back, I know I was not nearly as prepared for the race as I could have been. But I did finish, without walking, I ran the whole thing. In struggling across the finish line, I felt dizzy. My mouth was dry. The bottoms of my feet hurt. That's what I remember most about my body. My feet just hurt. But the moment I crossed that line a stranger, a middle aged woman, maybe the age of my mother, came and placed the medal for the race around my neck, the same medal every runner got for finishing the race.
Something in victory is sweet. Even if victory is just finishing. I find myself training once again, three years later for the same race, and the thrill is even more powerful this time. I have been there, and I want to go back. This time I want to be more prepared, and so I can enjoy the race and not be so exhausted and in pain.
I hope all this running has given me a clearer idea of what Paul is getting at. The strict training I understand more. It will make the race more fun, less painful, usually. Training is not a confining or unpleasant thing. I have a hard time relating to people who say they hate exercising. I vigorously enjoy it. It can be hard to get into it.... if you have been out of game or race for a while. But once you get into it, its fantastic. I feel so much better after completing a long run. There is satisfaction in finishing. The expended energy is replenished systematically by your body. The in a few days you are ready to go longer, faster, and stronger than before.
I think in life, the way described in the NT is similar. Living a life of forgiveness, kindness, and compassion for those around us, leads us to want to do more of the same. It is more enjoyable and fulfilling to live that way, than to live in a way that is unforgiving, unloving or unkind, or uncompassionate. The right way to live is more fulfilling. Just as exercise is more fun, than slothful living. At least, I want to argue that it is that way.
This life in the Spirit that we all who follow Jesus Christ want to live is characterized by many things, some of which are: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control." Gal 5:21-23 For all these qualities we will be judged and rewarded. The sweetness of that reward will far surpass any joy found in the reward of finishing a race here and now. Finishing the marathon and completing that race represents the work and sustained effort day in and day out on the road here, actually running, physically challenging your body and pushing it to its limit. But a reward from God will be representative of your entire life, the sum of our activities, thoughts, actions, and words among people here.
That reward is far more weighty, the medal more glorious and eternally significant. And so we run in such a way to win, to receive this reward, which we can achieve only through the empowering work of the Holy Spirit. What a joy it is!
Somethings you learn and understand just doing.
Paul uses the analogy of running a race in Scripture, 1 Cor. 9
"24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."
I can remember crossing the finish line in the fall of 2006 at the Chicago Marathon. Crowds of strangers line both sides of the finish line. Hundreds of people I did not know cheered for me, and all the other runners crossing the line with me. It took everything I had to finish the race. I probably would not have completed if my friend Sean had not run with me. For the last 9 miles I threw water on my face at each station to try to shake off the exhaustion. Looking back, I know I was not nearly as prepared for the race as I could have been. But I did finish, without walking, I ran the whole thing. In struggling across the finish line, I felt dizzy. My mouth was dry. The bottoms of my feet hurt. That's what I remember most about my body. My feet just hurt. But the moment I crossed that line a stranger, a middle aged woman, maybe the age of my mother, came and placed the medal for the race around my neck, the same medal every runner got for finishing the race.
Something in victory is sweet. Even if victory is just finishing. I find myself training once again, three years later for the same race, and the thrill is even more powerful this time. I have been there, and I want to go back. This time I want to be more prepared, and so I can enjoy the race and not be so exhausted and in pain.
I hope all this running has given me a clearer idea of what Paul is getting at. The strict training I understand more. It will make the race more fun, less painful, usually. Training is not a confining or unpleasant thing. I have a hard time relating to people who say they hate exercising. I vigorously enjoy it. It can be hard to get into it.... if you have been out of game or race for a while. But once you get into it, its fantastic. I feel so much better after completing a long run. There is satisfaction in finishing. The expended energy is replenished systematically by your body. The in a few days you are ready to go longer, faster, and stronger than before.
I think in life, the way described in the NT is similar. Living a life of forgiveness, kindness, and compassion for those around us, leads us to want to do more of the same. It is more enjoyable and fulfilling to live that way, than to live in a way that is unforgiving, unloving or unkind, or uncompassionate. The right way to live is more fulfilling. Just as exercise is more fun, than slothful living. At least, I want to argue that it is that way.
This life in the Spirit that we all who follow Jesus Christ want to live is characterized by many things, some of which are: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control." Gal 5:21-23 For all these qualities we will be judged and rewarded. The sweetness of that reward will far surpass any joy found in the reward of finishing a race here and now. Finishing the marathon and completing that race represents the work and sustained effort day in and day out on the road here, actually running, physically challenging your body and pushing it to its limit. But a reward from God will be representative of your entire life, the sum of our activities, thoughts, actions, and words among people here.
That reward is far more weighty, the medal more glorious and eternally significant. And so we run in such a way to win, to receive this reward, which we can achieve only through the empowering work of the Holy Spirit. What a joy it is!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Equipping the Church
5 Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. 38 So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”” Matthew 9:37
These are the words of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew. They come after he spent hours healing the sick and caring for many people with needs. This command to pray for workers comes within the context of Jesus’ overall message of the kingdom of God. The long awaited restoration of God’s people, but not just for God’s people, but as a blessing for all people all over the world. Jesus’ observations that more workers are needed for the preaching of his kingdom is significant. There was a need for more workers in Jesus day and the same challenge persists today.
Church consultant Carl George spoke about this subject in 1984 in his groundbreaking book Prepare your Church for the Future. In his book George points out the need for paid clergy to train and equip lay persons in the church to do church ministry. Another respected church growth consultant, Lyle E. Schaller, writes that three-quarters of all American Protestant congregations report an average worship attendance of less than 150 people.1 Schaller and George suggest that the reason the average church is this size, and not larger, is because 150 people is all the average pastor can actually minister to. For a specific church congregation to adequately disciple and reach more people with the Gospel, it needs to train and empower more volunteer leaders within the congregation.2
Jesus’ words in Matthew draw attention to the tremendous need in the world for workers to take part in this task. There are more people who need care, ministry, teaching, and encouragement in the Gospel, than there are workers and leaders for this task. Jesus instructs his disciples to pray for more workers to be provided by God to take part in this work for the kingdom.
This passage is often discussed by evangelical Christian leaders. However, there can be a stark disconnect between recognizing this need and local church pastors knowing what can be done to develop more lay leaders, small group leaders, and leaders of various sub ministries.
Another Scripture passage which draws attention to the need for pastors to train and develop volunteer or lay leaders in the church is Ephesians 4:11-13.
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.3
This passage has particular relevance when thinking through roles and responsibility of the local church pastor. One of the jobs of the pastor is to equip the church, God’s people for works of service. The purpose in all of this is that the body of Christ might be built up. The passage goes on to mention that reaching the goal of unity in the faith and in the knowledge of Christ, the development maturity in the church is also linked to the work of equipping people in the church for service. For the church to mature and grow, the church needs to be developed from within.
Robert Coleman makes a point in his book The Master Plan of Evangelism that Jesus’ specific method for making disciples is also highly important to study, along with his actual message. In his work Coleman emphasizes that Jesus did not spend all his time ministering to and teaching the crowds but withdrew often to spend time with his disciples. Jesus spent much time with his disciples who would be the future leaders of the church once he was gone. Coleman suggests that Jesus did this intentionally. Also that Jesus did this to prepare his close circle of disciples to be the leaders to carry on the same ministry he was currently doing. This model can be easily lost in the reading of the Gospels. The point being that Jesus apparently intensionally developed his inner circle him who later carried his message out to people all over the world. Jesus spent a lot of time specifically developing his group of twelve.
Many church pastors would probably acknowledge this observation about Jesus. They might also recognize the significance of Ephesian 4:12, but not fully see the implications of these passages. If the average pastor works 45-50 hours a week, he probably spends 15-20 hours preparing his sermon, 5-10 hours counseling church members, maybe another 5-10 hours visiting people who are sick, and may 5-10 leading a small group or Bible study or preparing to lead it. In the average pastor’s schedule it is very possible he spends little to no time equipping other leaders or developing volunteer leaders with promising potential.
The result of such a pattern is often that any ministry that takes place within that church stems from two sources. One, ministry is a direct result of something the recognized pastor/leader is pushing. It could be a specific Bible Study he does, a Sunday School class he teaches, or even an evangelism program which he throws his enthusiasm behind. The scope of the churches influence is the same as the pastor’s influence. The church can only reach as many people as the pastor can personally influence. Second, a certain amount of ministry may happen spontaneously, or with volunteer leaders coming up with ideas and initiatives themselves, and then simply asking for approval to move forward. Many church have some amount of this activity. But the question really is: How many more people might be mobilized for ministry if the church pastor sought them out, encouraged them, developed them, and empowered them?
Nothing is inherently bad about the ministry model where everything centers around the one ordained pastor. Everything that happens there can be very good and effective. It is just a question of whether that model allows for the most people to be reached. In that situation the growth of that church is largely going to be dependent on and reflective of the number of people which that one pastor can personally touch. This model of ministry has sometimes been referred to as the chaplain model of ministry in the local church. During the week it essentially means that the pastor is available to provide one on one ministry to all who need it.
Adam Hamilton, pastor of United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood KS, writes that it is difficult for a church to ever really reach a membership level much beyond 100 people in the chaplaincy model.4 Hamilton recommends a ministry model of the pastor as leader equipper.
In cases where the pastor does not equip, train, inspire, or encourage the members within the church to take on the work of ministry, the pastor often becomes more and more frustrated as the church grows. Hamilton indicates that many pastors feel guilty for not being able to offer pastoral care and encouragement to all the people in the congregation or all the people who might visit the church. Once a church reaches the size of 300 regular worship attenders it is simply not possible for the pastor to have a personal friendship with each parishioner, let alone adequately mentor, disciple, and encourage all those people. This is the point at which Hamilton suggests a church must find a way to train and develop members within the church to be small group leaders and offer a level of encouragement, care, and accountability to other members.
Adam Hamilton founded United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in the early 1990s. By the early 2000s COR, as it is called, was attracting over 10,000 people per week to its worship services, including families and their children, elderly members, and many visitors. But, the church only had two ordained pastors exclusively devoted to pastoral care. Through a program called Stephan Ministry COR was able to train over 60 members to offer care as hospital callers. These volunteers are trained to visit other church members who might be sick or in the hospital to offer encouragement, prayer, and compassion all under the sponsorship of COR. Through another program they developed entitled Calling Caring Network they trained over one hundred members to provide one on one counseling, prayer and encouragement to members within their congregation.5
One of the points Adam Hamilton makes is that staffing COR with enough full time ordained ministers to provide pastoral care for this congregation of 10,000 would be very costly. They found it far more effective to train as many volunteers as possible, and then empower the volunteers to minister to the needs of the congregation, instead of providing enough paid staff to do all that. Ordained clergy are still available to the congregation for the more tragic events where pastoral care is needed. Its just that the congregation itself understands that most of the pastoral care ministry which is offered to people in the church by other church members. The vast majority of care does not come directly from an ordain paid staff member.
The same is true for the counseling needs. COR has an elaborate system of support groups for grief, divorce care, sickness, and financial distress. The volunteer leaders, small group leaders, and support group leaders are the first line of care people encounter. Should one on one professional help be needed, volunteer leaders have been advised when and where to refer a parishioner to an ordained staff member or whom ever else can better meet the person’s needs. Doing this allows COR to actually help a lot more people than the average church. It also allows them to use more of their resources for other ministry initiatives. COR has also funded a number of social aid projects in developing countries around the world.
This is just one example of what can happen when full time pastors spend a portion of their time developing and equipping volunteer leaders to lead specific ministries, instead of doing all of the ministry work themselves. It is also rewarding to the people in the church to get a chance to encourage and minister to each other instead of simply looking to a specific pastor for help and inspiration.
John Maxwell pastored several growing churches in Ohio, Indiana, and California during his tenure as a pastor in the Wesleyan denomination. John founded Equip, a Christian leadership training organization, which has trained thousands of full time pastors and lay leaders all over the world. John is an internationally recognized expert on leadership and church development. Here is how John describes equipping,
Equipping, like nurturing, is an ongoing process. You don’t equip a person in a few hours or a day. And it can’t be done using a formula or a video tape. Equipping must be tailored to each potential leader. The ideal equipper is a person who can impart the vision of the work, evaluate the potential leader, give him the tools he needs, and then help him along way at the beginning of his journey.6
What John is saying can be seen in Jesus’ ministry and preparation with his disciples. He spent many hours with them away from the crowds, sharing meals, teaching, and conversing. What Jesus accomplished was not done in a few hours, a few day, or even a few weeks. The friendships which Jesus built over his ministry with his disciples stretched out over several years of continually spending time together. Jesus imparted his vision and his message to his 12 disciples over several years. Leadership experts, like John Maxwell, can see in the narrative of the Gospel that Jesus used his time not only to care for the crowds of people with needs. Jesus also used much of his time investing in those close to him. John Maxwell has pointed out that this was not accidental, but intentional. Jesus was wise and strategic for the long term mission of his overall ministry.
It is important to recognize that the process of a pastor equipping and preparing church members for works of service and ministry is not something that is accomplished in a short amount of time. It is not any sort of program that can be purchased, brought in, performed over a weekend, and then forgotten. Equipping is an ongoing role that the lead pastor takes. He realizes that his job is to do more than just disciple, counsel, and encourage church members. Rather his role is to model this lifestyle and then teach other people how they can disciple, mentor, serve, and encourage those around them for a more Christ-like life.
John Maxwell breaks effective equipping into three states. First, any leader must be modeling7 the lifestyle and behavior they are teaching and leading other people into. A leader must do this consistently. Second, a leader starts mentoring8 the potential lay leader. The church pastor/leader develops an informal friendship and camaraderie with the person they are equipping. They become an advisor and trusted friend to the potential leader. Once this has happened, then the leader begins to share their heart with the lay leader and later they begin sharing their vision for the church. This vision then becomes the fuel and inspiration for the work the new leader will take on. Third, the final stage of equipping is the process of empowering9 the potential lay leader. This happens when the pastor takes the time to build up the confidence of the new leader. They publicly support the new leader and ask other people already following them, to also follow this new leader as well. When the pastor empowers a congregational volunteer leader, they launch the person for success in whatever ministry they are starting. This process requires precious time and energy resources. But if a pastor/leader is willing to invest in people in the church who have potential to lead and the person is successful, that pastor has multiplied the number of people which that specific church can reach.
I have reflected many times on how I might spend my time when I am a local church pastor. At this point in my life I am 28. I first started thinking about studying to become a church pastor when I was 19. So for several years I have analyzed church leadership styles and the choices that certain pastors have made in the churches I have attended. Jesus’ words in Matthew, “ The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few,” were some of the first words which inspired me to think about giving my life to preaching the Gospel by working in a local church. I believe with all my heart in the life transforming power of the Gospel, as it is described in the New Testament. That is the reason why I want to spend my entire life helping churches become more effective at carrying that message out into the world. The desire to be as effective as possible drove me to study church leaders who seemed to be having a significant impact.
In reading books by many of these leaders I started to see some trends in what they were saying. One definite trend present in Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, John Maxwell, and Adam Hamilton is the necessity for the local church pastor to spend time developing volunteer leaders by investing in them. In all the books I read by pastors of growing churches, they, all in one way or another, talk about the need to equip and empower volunteer leaders for ministry. This has caused me to read Ephesians 4:12 in a whole new light. It is not wise to just to wear yourself out doing as much ministry as you can, while ignoring potential leaders in your church whom you could be developing. That choice can cause a pastor to burnout, and it ultimately limits the number of people the church will reach.
I want to pray along with the command in Matthew 9:30-39 that God will send workers for the fields that are ready for the harvest. At the same time, I remember that my role is not only to minister to people myself, but to prepare and equip God’s people to do the work of the ministry for the advancement of God’s Kingdom and the Gospel to the glory of God.
1 Hamilton, Adam. Leading Beyond the Walls 20022 George, 2 Carl F. Prepare Your Church for the Future 1984 3 New Living Translation 4 Hamilton, Adam. Leading Beyond the Walls 2002. page 110-111. 5 Hamilton. Leading Beyond the Walls page 113. 6 Maxwell, John. Developing the Leaders Around You 1995. page 84 7 Maxwell, John C. Developing the Leaders Around You 1995 page 84 8 Maxwell, John C. Developing the Leaders Around You 1995 page 84 9 Maxwell, John C. Developing the Leaders Around You 1995 page 84
These are the words of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew. They come after he spent hours healing the sick and caring for many people with needs. This command to pray for workers comes within the context of Jesus’ overall message of the kingdom of God. The long awaited restoration of God’s people, but not just for God’s people, but as a blessing for all people all over the world. Jesus’ observations that more workers are needed for the preaching of his kingdom is significant. There was a need for more workers in Jesus day and the same challenge persists today.
Church consultant Carl George spoke about this subject in 1984 in his groundbreaking book Prepare your Church for the Future. In his book George points out the need for paid clergy to train and equip lay persons in the church to do church ministry. Another respected church growth consultant, Lyle E. Schaller, writes that three-quarters of all American Protestant congregations report an average worship attendance of less than 150 people.1 Schaller and George suggest that the reason the average church is this size, and not larger, is because 150 people is all the average pastor can actually minister to. For a specific church congregation to adequately disciple and reach more people with the Gospel, it needs to train and empower more volunteer leaders within the congregation.2
Jesus’ words in Matthew draw attention to the tremendous need in the world for workers to take part in this task. There are more people who need care, ministry, teaching, and encouragement in the Gospel, than there are workers and leaders for this task. Jesus instructs his disciples to pray for more workers to be provided by God to take part in this work for the kingdom.
This passage is often discussed by evangelical Christian leaders. However, there can be a stark disconnect between recognizing this need and local church pastors knowing what can be done to develop more lay leaders, small group leaders, and leaders of various sub ministries.
Another Scripture passage which draws attention to the need for pastors to train and develop volunteer or lay leaders in the church is Ephesians 4:11-13.
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.3
This passage has particular relevance when thinking through roles and responsibility of the local church pastor. One of the jobs of the pastor is to equip the church, God’s people for works of service. The purpose in all of this is that the body of Christ might be built up. The passage goes on to mention that reaching the goal of unity in the faith and in the knowledge of Christ, the development maturity in the church is also linked to the work of equipping people in the church for service. For the church to mature and grow, the church needs to be developed from within.
Robert Coleman makes a point in his book The Master Plan of Evangelism that Jesus’ specific method for making disciples is also highly important to study, along with his actual message. In his work Coleman emphasizes that Jesus did not spend all his time ministering to and teaching the crowds but withdrew often to spend time with his disciples. Jesus spent much time with his disciples who would be the future leaders of the church once he was gone. Coleman suggests that Jesus did this intentionally. Also that Jesus did this to prepare his close circle of disciples to be the leaders to carry on the same ministry he was currently doing. This model can be easily lost in the reading of the Gospels. The point being that Jesus apparently intensionally developed his inner circle him who later carried his message out to people all over the world. Jesus spent a lot of time specifically developing his group of twelve.
Many church pastors would probably acknowledge this observation about Jesus. They might also recognize the significance of Ephesian 4:12, but not fully see the implications of these passages. If the average pastor works 45-50 hours a week, he probably spends 15-20 hours preparing his sermon, 5-10 hours counseling church members, maybe another 5-10 hours visiting people who are sick, and may 5-10 leading a small group or Bible study or preparing to lead it. In the average pastor’s schedule it is very possible he spends little to no time equipping other leaders or developing volunteer leaders with promising potential.
The result of such a pattern is often that any ministry that takes place within that church stems from two sources. One, ministry is a direct result of something the recognized pastor/leader is pushing. It could be a specific Bible Study he does, a Sunday School class he teaches, or even an evangelism program which he throws his enthusiasm behind. The scope of the churches influence is the same as the pastor’s influence. The church can only reach as many people as the pastor can personally influence. Second, a certain amount of ministry may happen spontaneously, or with volunteer leaders coming up with ideas and initiatives themselves, and then simply asking for approval to move forward. Many church have some amount of this activity. But the question really is: How many more people might be mobilized for ministry if the church pastor sought them out, encouraged them, developed them, and empowered them?
Nothing is inherently bad about the ministry model where everything centers around the one ordained pastor. Everything that happens there can be very good and effective. It is just a question of whether that model allows for the most people to be reached. In that situation the growth of that church is largely going to be dependent on and reflective of the number of people which that one pastor can personally touch. This model of ministry has sometimes been referred to as the chaplain model of ministry in the local church. During the week it essentially means that the pastor is available to provide one on one ministry to all who need it.
Adam Hamilton, pastor of United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood KS, writes that it is difficult for a church to ever really reach a membership level much beyond 100 people in the chaplaincy model.4 Hamilton recommends a ministry model of the pastor as leader equipper.
In cases where the pastor does not equip, train, inspire, or encourage the members within the church to take on the work of ministry, the pastor often becomes more and more frustrated as the church grows. Hamilton indicates that many pastors feel guilty for not being able to offer pastoral care and encouragement to all the people in the congregation or all the people who might visit the church. Once a church reaches the size of 300 regular worship attenders it is simply not possible for the pastor to have a personal friendship with each parishioner, let alone adequately mentor, disciple, and encourage all those people. This is the point at which Hamilton suggests a church must find a way to train and develop members within the church to be small group leaders and offer a level of encouragement, care, and accountability to other members.
Adam Hamilton founded United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in the early 1990s. By the early 2000s COR, as it is called, was attracting over 10,000 people per week to its worship services, including families and their children, elderly members, and many visitors. But, the church only had two ordained pastors exclusively devoted to pastoral care. Through a program called Stephan Ministry COR was able to train over 60 members to offer care as hospital callers. These volunteers are trained to visit other church members who might be sick or in the hospital to offer encouragement, prayer, and compassion all under the sponsorship of COR. Through another program they developed entitled Calling Caring Network they trained over one hundred members to provide one on one counseling, prayer and encouragement to members within their congregation.5
One of the points Adam Hamilton makes is that staffing COR with enough full time ordained ministers to provide pastoral care for this congregation of 10,000 would be very costly. They found it far more effective to train as many volunteers as possible, and then empower the volunteers to minister to the needs of the congregation, instead of providing enough paid staff to do all that. Ordained clergy are still available to the congregation for the more tragic events where pastoral care is needed. Its just that the congregation itself understands that most of the pastoral care ministry which is offered to people in the church by other church members. The vast majority of care does not come directly from an ordain paid staff member.
The same is true for the counseling needs. COR has an elaborate system of support groups for grief, divorce care, sickness, and financial distress. The volunteer leaders, small group leaders, and support group leaders are the first line of care people encounter. Should one on one professional help be needed, volunteer leaders have been advised when and where to refer a parishioner to an ordained staff member or whom ever else can better meet the person’s needs. Doing this allows COR to actually help a lot more people than the average church. It also allows them to use more of their resources for other ministry initiatives. COR has also funded a number of social aid projects in developing countries around the world.
This is just one example of what can happen when full time pastors spend a portion of their time developing and equipping volunteer leaders to lead specific ministries, instead of doing all of the ministry work themselves. It is also rewarding to the people in the church to get a chance to encourage and minister to each other instead of simply looking to a specific pastor for help and inspiration.
John Maxwell pastored several growing churches in Ohio, Indiana, and California during his tenure as a pastor in the Wesleyan denomination. John founded Equip, a Christian leadership training organization, which has trained thousands of full time pastors and lay leaders all over the world. John is an internationally recognized expert on leadership and church development. Here is how John describes equipping,
Equipping, like nurturing, is an ongoing process. You don’t equip a person in a few hours or a day. And it can’t be done using a formula or a video tape. Equipping must be tailored to each potential leader. The ideal equipper is a person who can impart the vision of the work, evaluate the potential leader, give him the tools he needs, and then help him along way at the beginning of his journey.6
What John is saying can be seen in Jesus’ ministry and preparation with his disciples. He spent many hours with them away from the crowds, sharing meals, teaching, and conversing. What Jesus accomplished was not done in a few hours, a few day, or even a few weeks. The friendships which Jesus built over his ministry with his disciples stretched out over several years of continually spending time together. Jesus imparted his vision and his message to his 12 disciples over several years. Leadership experts, like John Maxwell, can see in the narrative of the Gospel that Jesus used his time not only to care for the crowds of people with needs. Jesus also used much of his time investing in those close to him. John Maxwell has pointed out that this was not accidental, but intentional. Jesus was wise and strategic for the long term mission of his overall ministry.
It is important to recognize that the process of a pastor equipping and preparing church members for works of service and ministry is not something that is accomplished in a short amount of time. It is not any sort of program that can be purchased, brought in, performed over a weekend, and then forgotten. Equipping is an ongoing role that the lead pastor takes. He realizes that his job is to do more than just disciple, counsel, and encourage church members. Rather his role is to model this lifestyle and then teach other people how they can disciple, mentor, serve, and encourage those around them for a more Christ-like life.
John Maxwell breaks effective equipping into three states. First, any leader must be modeling7 the lifestyle and behavior they are teaching and leading other people into. A leader must do this consistently. Second, a leader starts mentoring8 the potential lay leader. The church pastor/leader develops an informal friendship and camaraderie with the person they are equipping. They become an advisor and trusted friend to the potential leader. Once this has happened, then the leader begins to share their heart with the lay leader and later they begin sharing their vision for the church. This vision then becomes the fuel and inspiration for the work the new leader will take on. Third, the final stage of equipping is the process of empowering9 the potential lay leader. This happens when the pastor takes the time to build up the confidence of the new leader. They publicly support the new leader and ask other people already following them, to also follow this new leader as well. When the pastor empowers a congregational volunteer leader, they launch the person for success in whatever ministry they are starting. This process requires precious time and energy resources. But if a pastor/leader is willing to invest in people in the church who have potential to lead and the person is successful, that pastor has multiplied the number of people which that specific church can reach.
I have reflected many times on how I might spend my time when I am a local church pastor. At this point in my life I am 28. I first started thinking about studying to become a church pastor when I was 19. So for several years I have analyzed church leadership styles and the choices that certain pastors have made in the churches I have attended. Jesus’ words in Matthew, “ The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few,” were some of the first words which inspired me to think about giving my life to preaching the Gospel by working in a local church. I believe with all my heart in the life transforming power of the Gospel, as it is described in the New Testament. That is the reason why I want to spend my entire life helping churches become more effective at carrying that message out into the world. The desire to be as effective as possible drove me to study church leaders who seemed to be having a significant impact.
In reading books by many of these leaders I started to see some trends in what they were saying. One definite trend present in Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, John Maxwell, and Adam Hamilton is the necessity for the local church pastor to spend time developing volunteer leaders by investing in them. In all the books I read by pastors of growing churches, they, all in one way or another, talk about the need to equip and empower volunteer leaders for ministry. This has caused me to read Ephesians 4:12 in a whole new light. It is not wise to just to wear yourself out doing as much ministry as you can, while ignoring potential leaders in your church whom you could be developing. That choice can cause a pastor to burnout, and it ultimately limits the number of people the church will reach.
I want to pray along with the command in Matthew 9:30-39 that God will send workers for the fields that are ready for the harvest. At the same time, I remember that my role is not only to minister to people myself, but to prepare and equip God’s people to do the work of the ministry for the advancement of God’s Kingdom and the Gospel to the glory of God.
1 Hamilton, Adam. Leading Beyond the Walls 20022 George, 2 Carl F. Prepare Your Church for the Future 1984 3 New Living Translation 4 Hamilton, Adam. Leading Beyond the Walls 2002. page 110-111. 5 Hamilton. Leading Beyond the Walls page 113. 6 Maxwell, John. Developing the Leaders Around You 1995. page 84 7 Maxwell, John C. Developing the Leaders Around You 1995 page 84 8 Maxwell, John C. Developing the Leaders Around You 1995 page 84 9 Maxwell, John C. Developing the Leaders Around You 1995 page 84
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
1 Corinthians 15:20-26
This is Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church. This letter was probably written in about AD 55, near the end of Paul’s ministry to the church in Ephesus, and during his 2nd missionary journey.
Corinth itself is located among the islands of modern day greece. At the time of the writing of this letter Corinth was a major sea port city. It was a hub of trade in the Roman empire. Paul helped found the church during his first major missionary journey. The city is know for its temple worship and idolatry and sexual immorality. Paul has addressed a number of issues in the letter, everything from division in the church, to lawsuits, to marriage, to love, and prophecy. The portion we are looking at today is toward the end of the letter Ch 15 of the 16 chapters it is divided up in to. In chapter 15 Paul writes about the resurrection of the dead. This is the belief that God will ultimately resurrect all those who follow Jesus Christ to new, physical, bodily, life. This chapter is one of the most important chapters in the NT on this subject of the resurrection.
As people we all face the harshness of death at sometime, for this reason it is vital for us to reflect deeply on the future promised resurrection.
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
[Prayer for Illumination] Please pray with me. Heavenly, Father, I need to to hear the hope of this passage. Death is awful and something we all face in this life. Please teach me, and teach us through this passage about the hope that you have provided as the answer to death and all evil. We never know when we might face it, and so we ask that you would shape us in light of the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus. May we hear the story of the Gospel, and be enabled to believe in its truth and power. Amen
The week of August 31st 1997 will go down as one of the saddest weeks of the 20th century. In the early morning of this Sunday at 12:15 AM Princess Diana left a party with her companion Dodi Fayed and climbed into the back seat of black Mercedes-Benz sedan. Princess Diana and Dodi were in Paris that night and leaving a party with their driver. Their vehicle was allegedly followed by several photographers on motorcycles, paparazzi. At 12:24 AM the sedan smashed violently into a concrete pillar in Pont de l’Alma tunnel. Diana and Dodi, and the other two riders in the car all sustained fatal injuries.
What followed is one of the most memorable funerals of the 20th century. Diana was mourned internationally by admires from every continent. Her funeral was watched by millions of people worldwide. Admirers and friends heaped mountains of cards and flowers outside the royal residences. In her life Diana traveled the world visiting those in need. She visited the poorest of the poor. She visited those who were sick. She visited those who were suffering and dying. She was known for her compassion. Her death was a great loss. It was a moment when billions of people across the globe faced the awful reality of death. In her story we see the sweetness of life unexpectedly shattered by the bitterness of death.
So what answer might the Bible and the New Testament offer in light of this tragedy? What are Christians to think, believe, and talk about in light of death and mortality in this life? [FCF]
[Proposition]
Because the Resurrection is God’s response to death, we must proclaim when we face tragedy and death.
Look at verse 20,
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Jesus is the first to be raised from the dead. His resurrection is a demonstration of God’s victory over death, the culmination of evil. Jesus resurrection is the first. All who follow him will also be resurrected from the dead. This is consistent with what Paul has said in other places as well. In 1 Thessalonians Paul also wrote,
13Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
The resurrection is God’s answer to death and evil. If we do not know Christ, we do not have any hope in light of death. If there is no resurrection, death is the end. If we do not believe in Jesus all we can do is just remember the person, and imagine the good times we had with them. We don’t have any reason to believe that we will see them again. But if we follow Jesus Christ, and his Spirit lives in our hearts, we believe we will be united with Christ, and reunited with all those whom we love, who are also in him.
The resurrection is God’s answer to not only death but all evil. Imagine, for a moment that there was no death. There would be no fear of disease, no fear of injury or accident, no fear of revenge, no fear of war, because there would be no threat of death.
Its hard imagine, because death is accepted as a part of everyday life. Science gives us no other option, but that death is inevitable.
But if you look deep within your soul, and face the horrible pain, dread, and disappoint death inflicts on us, this is a clue that perhaps that death is not the way is has to be, not they way it should be, its not God’s best for his creation, but a tragedy of the curse.
[Main Point # 1] Because the Resurrection is God’s response to death, we must comfort other Christians with the truth of the resurrection.
Many of us already have lost friends, or parents, or grandparents, or siblings, or cousins. We all taste the bitterness of death at some point.
We are called to console other Christians in light of Jesus’ Resurrection and victory over death.
This is different than focusing on the current resting place of the person who is with the LORD or in heaven. That really is not much comfort for those of us who are still here and are grieving the loss of a person we love. That fact, while true in the Christian sense, still leaves us missing the person.
But to talk about the resurrection, is to emphasize being reunited with all those whom we have lost who are in Christ. We or someone we know might be racked with pain, our body struggling against an alien disease, or time will ultimately wear us down in our old age. But the resurrection means, we receive new youth, fresh physical bodies, in some way similar to physical bodies he have now. But new bodies which are not fragile in the same sense or threatened by disease, or injury, or heartbreak, or depression, or death in any way. For sin and evil is conquered in Jesus’ Resurrection and defeated forever.
Paul writes about this later in the chapter, look ahead to verse 53,
For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."[g]
55 "Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"[h] 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This I believe is the larger message of the NT. Jesus Christ arose from the grave, and his resurrection inaugurated the kingdom of God. We believe the witness of the Gospels to Jesus’ Resurrection. We place our hope in Jesus Christ who will bring about our future resurrection, and his Spirit lives in our hearts and confirms to us that it is true, and enables us to believe it.
God will enact total renewal of all his good creation, including new physical bodies for all who follow Jesus Christ. To talk about people going to heaven is really just focusing on a temporary act of God. The victory secured in the resurrection, means God’s ultimate victory over death and evil. Death final dies, and life and love of God triumph forever.
[Application]
This means, in speaking and writing about death, and especially at funerals and memorials, we ought to draw more attention to our belief in the future resurrection and its meaning. As Oxford New Testament Scholar Tom Wright put it way, we ought to focus on the life to come, after the afterlife. This is the hope of ultimate restoration of all God’s creation, that is that glory of God will cover and touch the whole face of the earth.
[Main Point #2 ]
Because the Resurrection is God’s response to death, we must offer this comfort to all people.
This also applies in talking about death with people who are not believing Christians. Death is a painful subject to think about. It is the ultimate source of dread for people. It is inevitable for all of us, but its not the end. However, the thought of being raised to a new body, which is immune to disease, injury, and age, and will be strong forever is our glorious hope in Jesus Christ. What could be better than to made to live forever!
There is a misconception when people think they understand the Christian hope as “believe in Jesus and you go to heaven.” That is really not the whole story. To simply think that “we all exit this world, and then go to a better place,” is far to vague. The restoration of physical human life, is an idea that I believe is unique to Christianity. It is important to distinguish what Christians believe, which is that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead physically, and we also will be. So, the idea is unique, and largely lost even in many Christian circles, and even among Evangelicals it is forgot many times.
This subject can become awkward when talking to someone who is not yet a believer, but it does not have to be.
We can talk about what we as Christians believe about death, and what God has done about it, without ever commenting on a specific person’s future participation in this hope. Or commenting at all about a person who may have already passed away.
Many times a person who is not a Christian, yet, will ask about the fate of someone they know who has already passed away. I always want to practice extreme caution in this area, and I would urge others to do the same. But at the same time, not be afraid to talk about the hope which is available to us all in Jesus.
[Illustration]
Back when I was in 7th grade my parents moved into a new house. The flower beds there were covered up and over grown with weeds. My mother loves to garden, and I have inherited a love for this hobby from her. After a few years she started working on the flower beds and planting roses and tulips. My Mom was moving bricks around to lay a perimeter for flower beds. In one area she discovered that bricks had already been laid a number of years earlier, and they had just been over grown with weeds. She moved the bricks to another location to complete a flower bed she was building. Later that same season, a whole patch of pink and white petunias came up right where the bricks had been laying. They had been dormant for years. But they continued to come up every year in Spring.
For all those years they were under the bricks, there had been no sign of life, and suddenly once the bricks were removed they burst into life.
[Applications]
Jesus used an analogy similar to this when he taught about his kingdom. He talked about a seed falling to the ground and dying before it produced more fruit.
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. John 12:24
There is two sense in which this illustrates God’s kingdom. One, when we become Christians, we choose to follow Christ, and we die ourselves. We die to our old way of life.
[Application 1]
We die to ourselves and a life with the illusion of independence from God. We put away the mindset and lifestyle lived in ignorance of God. We embrace a life characterized by worship. Something is lost, when we commit our lives to Christ, a certain level of independence is often lost. We no longer belong only to ourselves but now completely to God. We might loose some of our friends, especially if those friends do not share our beliefs. But we are called into a new and joyful life.
We gather with others to worship God in Spirit and in truth. We hunger for God. We seek to know him by reading the Bible and studying his word with other people and on our own as well.
The life we come into when we come to know Christ is much more beautiful and fragrant to us and those around us, than the life we had before.
[Application 2]
And we die a second death, a physical death, when we are placed in the ground.
The seeds which lay dormant in our yard for many years are like the resurrection. At the gravesite, we lay in the ground those who ultimately will be resurrected, to new life, to fresh life, life more beautiful and joyful than we could ever imagine right now. The blooming of a flower, after many years in the dirt is an illustration of the promised new life which is in Jesus Christ.
When someone dies we must remember there is the hope and the promise that each of us who are in Jesus Christ and love him, will be raised up out of our graves to new life.
This new life will be indestructible and vibrant. Similar to our bodies now, but perfected in ways we cannot yet understand. If I were to dig up the seeds of the petunia before I ever saw them bloom, I could not predict what the pink and white flowers which were to come from the seed would look like. In a small way these bodies which we have now, are like those seeds. When we look at our bodies now, or those we know who are racked with pain, or disease, and have weathered many years of aging. We can’t really image what they might look in a new resurrected body. But we look forward to and anticipate this glorious day.
[Conclusion]
Diana, Princess of Wales, lived a life of great compassion and beauty. But her life in the public eye was marked by disappointment, divorce, and finally tragedy. But when we see someone’s life cut off prematurely, we should not think that that is certainly the end. The hope of the resurrection is that Jesus Christ has crushed the enemy of death. This is the same enemy which Diana was fighting against. When she brought attention to the plight of those suffering from AIDS, she was fighting against death. When she spoke about the problem of landmines, and personally destroy some, she was fighting death. When she visited poverty stricken villages where children died for lack of medicine, she was fighting the enemy of death. We all have the same enemy. Which is why we turn to the Gospel and look to the one who is the resurrection.
We believe, along with the NT writers, that Jesus Christ has conquered death, and that we who are in Jesus Christ will ultimate receive new bodies when we are raised from the dead which are indestructible, then the victory over death will be fully expressed.
As it is written, in verse 25
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Corinth itself is located among the islands of modern day greece. At the time of the writing of this letter Corinth was a major sea port city. It was a hub of trade in the Roman empire. Paul helped found the church during his first major missionary journey. The city is know for its temple worship and idolatry and sexual immorality. Paul has addressed a number of issues in the letter, everything from division in the church, to lawsuits, to marriage, to love, and prophecy. The portion we are looking at today is toward the end of the letter Ch 15 of the 16 chapters it is divided up in to. In chapter 15 Paul writes about the resurrection of the dead. This is the belief that God will ultimately resurrect all those who follow Jesus Christ to new, physical, bodily, life. This chapter is one of the most important chapters in the NT on this subject of the resurrection.
As people we all face the harshness of death at sometime, for this reason it is vital for us to reflect deeply on the future promised resurrection.
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
[Prayer for Illumination] Please pray with me. Heavenly, Father, I need to to hear the hope of this passage. Death is awful and something we all face in this life. Please teach me, and teach us through this passage about the hope that you have provided as the answer to death and all evil. We never know when we might face it, and so we ask that you would shape us in light of the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus. May we hear the story of the Gospel, and be enabled to believe in its truth and power. Amen
The week of August 31st 1997 will go down as one of the saddest weeks of the 20th century. In the early morning of this Sunday at 12:15 AM Princess Diana left a party with her companion Dodi Fayed and climbed into the back seat of black Mercedes-Benz sedan. Princess Diana and Dodi were in Paris that night and leaving a party with their driver. Their vehicle was allegedly followed by several photographers on motorcycles, paparazzi. At 12:24 AM the sedan smashed violently into a concrete pillar in Pont de l’Alma tunnel. Diana and Dodi, and the other two riders in the car all sustained fatal injuries.
What followed is one of the most memorable funerals of the 20th century. Diana was mourned internationally by admires from every continent. Her funeral was watched by millions of people worldwide. Admirers and friends heaped mountains of cards and flowers outside the royal residences. In her life Diana traveled the world visiting those in need. She visited the poorest of the poor. She visited those who were sick. She visited those who were suffering and dying. She was known for her compassion. Her death was a great loss. It was a moment when billions of people across the globe faced the awful reality of death. In her story we see the sweetness of life unexpectedly shattered by the bitterness of death.
So what answer might the Bible and the New Testament offer in light of this tragedy? What are Christians to think, believe, and talk about in light of death and mortality in this life? [FCF]
[Proposition]
Because the Resurrection is God’s response to death, we must proclaim when we face tragedy and death.
Look at verse 20,
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Jesus is the first to be raised from the dead. His resurrection is a demonstration of God’s victory over death, the culmination of evil. Jesus resurrection is the first. All who follow him will also be resurrected from the dead. This is consistent with what Paul has said in other places as well. In 1 Thessalonians Paul also wrote,
13Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
The resurrection is God’s answer to death and evil. If we do not know Christ, we do not have any hope in light of death. If there is no resurrection, death is the end. If we do not believe in Jesus all we can do is just remember the person, and imagine the good times we had with them. We don’t have any reason to believe that we will see them again. But if we follow Jesus Christ, and his Spirit lives in our hearts, we believe we will be united with Christ, and reunited with all those whom we love, who are also in him.
The resurrection is God’s answer to not only death but all evil. Imagine, for a moment that there was no death. There would be no fear of disease, no fear of injury or accident, no fear of revenge, no fear of war, because there would be no threat of death.
Its hard imagine, because death is accepted as a part of everyday life. Science gives us no other option, but that death is inevitable.
But if you look deep within your soul, and face the horrible pain, dread, and disappoint death inflicts on us, this is a clue that perhaps that death is not the way is has to be, not they way it should be, its not God’s best for his creation, but a tragedy of the curse.
[Main Point # 1] Because the Resurrection is God’s response to death, we must comfort other Christians with the truth of the resurrection.
Many of us already have lost friends, or parents, or grandparents, or siblings, or cousins. We all taste the bitterness of death at some point.
We are called to console other Christians in light of Jesus’ Resurrection and victory over death.
This is different than focusing on the current resting place of the person who is with the LORD or in heaven. That really is not much comfort for those of us who are still here and are grieving the loss of a person we love. That fact, while true in the Christian sense, still leaves us missing the person.
But to talk about the resurrection, is to emphasize being reunited with all those whom we have lost who are in Christ. We or someone we know might be racked with pain, our body struggling against an alien disease, or time will ultimately wear us down in our old age. But the resurrection means, we receive new youth, fresh physical bodies, in some way similar to physical bodies he have now. But new bodies which are not fragile in the same sense or threatened by disease, or injury, or heartbreak, or depression, or death in any way. For sin and evil is conquered in Jesus’ Resurrection and defeated forever.
Paul writes about this later in the chapter, look ahead to verse 53,
For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."[g]
55 "Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"[h] 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This I believe is the larger message of the NT. Jesus Christ arose from the grave, and his resurrection inaugurated the kingdom of God. We believe the witness of the Gospels to Jesus’ Resurrection. We place our hope in Jesus Christ who will bring about our future resurrection, and his Spirit lives in our hearts and confirms to us that it is true, and enables us to believe it.
God will enact total renewal of all his good creation, including new physical bodies for all who follow Jesus Christ. To talk about people going to heaven is really just focusing on a temporary act of God. The victory secured in the resurrection, means God’s ultimate victory over death and evil. Death final dies, and life and love of God triumph forever.
[Application]
This means, in speaking and writing about death, and especially at funerals and memorials, we ought to draw more attention to our belief in the future resurrection and its meaning. As Oxford New Testament Scholar Tom Wright put it way, we ought to focus on the life to come, after the afterlife. This is the hope of ultimate restoration of all God’s creation, that is that glory of God will cover and touch the whole face of the earth.
[Main Point #2 ]
Because the Resurrection is God’s response to death, we must offer this comfort to all people.
This also applies in talking about death with people who are not believing Christians. Death is a painful subject to think about. It is the ultimate source of dread for people. It is inevitable for all of us, but its not the end. However, the thought of being raised to a new body, which is immune to disease, injury, and age, and will be strong forever is our glorious hope in Jesus Christ. What could be better than to made to live forever!
There is a misconception when people think they understand the Christian hope as “believe in Jesus and you go to heaven.” That is really not the whole story. To simply think that “we all exit this world, and then go to a better place,” is far to vague. The restoration of physical human life, is an idea that I believe is unique to Christianity. It is important to distinguish what Christians believe, which is that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead physically, and we also will be. So, the idea is unique, and largely lost even in many Christian circles, and even among Evangelicals it is forgot many times.
This subject can become awkward when talking to someone who is not yet a believer, but it does not have to be.
We can talk about what we as Christians believe about death, and what God has done about it, without ever commenting on a specific person’s future participation in this hope. Or commenting at all about a person who may have already passed away.
Many times a person who is not a Christian, yet, will ask about the fate of someone they know who has already passed away. I always want to practice extreme caution in this area, and I would urge others to do the same. But at the same time, not be afraid to talk about the hope which is available to us all in Jesus.
[Illustration]
Back when I was in 7th grade my parents moved into a new house. The flower beds there were covered up and over grown with weeds. My mother loves to garden, and I have inherited a love for this hobby from her. After a few years she started working on the flower beds and planting roses and tulips. My Mom was moving bricks around to lay a perimeter for flower beds. In one area she discovered that bricks had already been laid a number of years earlier, and they had just been over grown with weeds. She moved the bricks to another location to complete a flower bed she was building. Later that same season, a whole patch of pink and white petunias came up right where the bricks had been laying. They had been dormant for years. But they continued to come up every year in Spring.
For all those years they were under the bricks, there had been no sign of life, and suddenly once the bricks were removed they burst into life.
[Applications]
Jesus used an analogy similar to this when he taught about his kingdom. He talked about a seed falling to the ground and dying before it produced more fruit.
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. John 12:24
There is two sense in which this illustrates God’s kingdom. One, when we become Christians, we choose to follow Christ, and we die ourselves. We die to our old way of life.
[Application 1]
We die to ourselves and a life with the illusion of independence from God. We put away the mindset and lifestyle lived in ignorance of God. We embrace a life characterized by worship. Something is lost, when we commit our lives to Christ, a certain level of independence is often lost. We no longer belong only to ourselves but now completely to God. We might loose some of our friends, especially if those friends do not share our beliefs. But we are called into a new and joyful life.
We gather with others to worship God in Spirit and in truth. We hunger for God. We seek to know him by reading the Bible and studying his word with other people and on our own as well.
The life we come into when we come to know Christ is much more beautiful and fragrant to us and those around us, than the life we had before.
[Application 2]
And we die a second death, a physical death, when we are placed in the ground.
The seeds which lay dormant in our yard for many years are like the resurrection. At the gravesite, we lay in the ground those who ultimately will be resurrected, to new life, to fresh life, life more beautiful and joyful than we could ever imagine right now. The blooming of a flower, after many years in the dirt is an illustration of the promised new life which is in Jesus Christ.
When someone dies we must remember there is the hope and the promise that each of us who are in Jesus Christ and love him, will be raised up out of our graves to new life.
This new life will be indestructible and vibrant. Similar to our bodies now, but perfected in ways we cannot yet understand. If I were to dig up the seeds of the petunia before I ever saw them bloom, I could not predict what the pink and white flowers which were to come from the seed would look like. In a small way these bodies which we have now, are like those seeds. When we look at our bodies now, or those we know who are racked with pain, or disease, and have weathered many years of aging. We can’t really image what they might look in a new resurrected body. But we look forward to and anticipate this glorious day.
[Conclusion]
Diana, Princess of Wales, lived a life of great compassion and beauty. But her life in the public eye was marked by disappointment, divorce, and finally tragedy. But when we see someone’s life cut off prematurely, we should not think that that is certainly the end. The hope of the resurrection is that Jesus Christ has crushed the enemy of death. This is the same enemy which Diana was fighting against. When she brought attention to the plight of those suffering from AIDS, she was fighting against death. When she spoke about the problem of landmines, and personally destroy some, she was fighting death. When she visited poverty stricken villages where children died for lack of medicine, she was fighting the enemy of death. We all have the same enemy. Which is why we turn to the Gospel and look to the one who is the resurrection.
We believe, along with the NT writers, that Jesus Christ has conquered death, and that we who are in Jesus Christ will ultimate receive new bodies when we are raised from the dead which are indestructible, then the victory over death will be fully expressed.
As it is written, in verse 25
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Story
Persons are fundamentally known through stories. Stories themselves bring into our minds persons which do not actually exist. In a sense we feel that through a story we even know these fictional characters. Huck and Jim are not actual people, but in their story we get a sense of what human friendship is.
Without the story we could not know Huck and Jim. But it goes further than that. We do not just know fictional characters through narratives. We know ourselves this way, and this is how we know those closest to us. We actually say that we know them because we know and even play a role in their stories, which are weaved back into our story, and also into the larger narrative of human experience. We would never read an online bio of someone, a facebook profile or myspace page and then claim to know the person, that's absurd. But once we have met a person and talked with them, and had a chance to hear their story, then we might start to say we know them on some level.
So stories in their varied forms are the bedrock of human knowing. We hear, and are taken back to places where someone else has been, and we begin to know. This particular type of knowledge is no less powerful than knowledge widely regarded as science. When the science doesn't fit our story, well... we find reasons to discredit that science so we might keep the story as normative. The science really isn't as foundational as we think. Rather, the chosen narratives is how we orient and organize the science. Fundamentalism isn't just rejecting the science, its also rejecting the perceived narrative which is being pushed.
Which brings me to the story which is normative for all Christians --- the Gospel. In the first few weeks of seminary I was assigned a reading by Tom Wright, Anglican Bishop of Durham, and world famous Christian scholar. In his chapter titled "Knowledge: Problems and Varieties" in his volume The New Testament and the People of God, Wright suggests that stories are what form the epistemological foundation for all other knowledge. This can be seen in multiple ways as we take in the world. The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen a number of stories told. There is the Enlightenment narrative of progress and progressive improvement of humanity. This narrative is picked up and retold several ways. President George W. Bush tells the narrative of democracy and freedom. Everything he writes and says centers around his narrative. Hugo Chavez contrasts Bush's story with his chosen narrative of communism and revolution. The real disagreement is not on facts but on what narrative to believe in and enact. To one America and much of the West is a benevolent empire of justice and peace, and to the other its an empire of war and oppression. You can argue for either, but which way you argue is not so much telling of your handle of the facts, but of what narrative has shaped your worldview.
Creation. Fall. Redemption. Restoration. These are the acts of our story. What has struck me so much in pondering this idea of story is that a story, made up of many stories, is actually what God has given us in much of the Bible. Its not a philosophical treatise. It has law, but even that can only be understood in light of the narrative of God's people, in light of slavery, oppression, exodus, and new hope. The law really isn't the point. The story of what God did, and continues to do is. Unfortunately, stories are often treated like clumsy tools for conveying the real knowledge of principles or truth. This obscures how God has actually chosen to communicate with his people. The story of the Gospel is the point. Bending the story to point toward some other principle we see in the text, is nothing less than a misuse of the narrative.
God is personal. God is a person. His free disclosure of himself through the story of the Bible is consistent with how we come to know each other. We don't know people by studying definitions or an anatomy book. We know people through the particulars of each persons life story. In the story of Scripture we must never let the knowledge about God or definitions about God ever overshadow the narrative of his acts in history. Its more important to know what God has done about sin and evil, than to merely know that God is all powerful and can do anything he freely choses. We know him through the story.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
