Regeneration Without Transformation

I found this great post at Out of Ur, one of my favorite blogs and thought I'd pass it on to you:

No Transformation Necessary

Why do churches have such low expectations?
Dallas Willard has said, “We fail to be disciples only because we do not decide to be. We do not intend to be disciples.” But which is the greater problem, the person who does not intend to be a disciple or the church that never expects him to be one? Dave Johnson, senior pastor of Church of the Open Door in Maple Grove, Minnesota, shares about a man from his childhood church. Ray was an elder who showed no evidence of transformation, and the church never seemed disturbed by that fact. Johnson asks the obvious question: What’s up with that?

His name was Ray. He sat in the 3rd row on the aisle seat of the church I grew up in. Every Sunday, there he was—watching, critiquing, making sure my father said it right. Ray’s Bible was a thing to behold. Words underlined and circled with arrows pointing to other words—notes in the margin of almost every page. I think he knew the Bible better than God.

Ray was a church guy. When I was 10, he scared me. When I was 20, after my father had begun to share with me the inside story of life in ministry, I came to realize that Ray scared him too. My dad was the pastor of our church. Ray was one of his elders—at least for a time—and he wasn’t a happy guy. The Spirit’s fruit, like love and joy, rarely showed up in him in any discernable way, and he didn’t much like it if showed up in yours.

Sometimes I wonder if I’ve been too hard on Ray. He’s somehow become the composite of every rigid, narrow minded person I’ve ever met in church. No matter—Ray’s dead now—long gone—in heaven, no doubt. At least that’s what we all thought, because Ray prayed the prayer. He believed all the right things about Jesus (His death, resurrection, 2nd coming, all that), and would fight you if you didn’t. Like I said, Ray was a church guy. He just wasn’t a good guy.

So here’s my question: “What’s up with that?” In all his years in church and in “the Word”, Ray never became a different kind of person. He never changed. He never became more loving, gentle, peaceful, or patient. Indeed, he only seemed to become more angry and rigid as time went on. He became harder to be around. What’s more, no one seemed to be bothered by that, as though something were out of the ordinary. No one wondered if maybe Ray had somehow missed the point.

In other words, not only did Ray never change but no one seemed to expect him to. Ray was just being Ray. He prayed the prayer, he believed the right stuff about Jesus, he was irritated with people who didn’t, and he went to heaven when he died. So again the question: “What’s up with that?”

So, what do you think? Why do we tolerate unchristian behavior by those who claim to have been saved 15, 20 or more years? What can be done to encourage and challenge believers to understand that being stagnant is no better than being backslidden?

HT: Out of Ur

Time for Transition

"I believe it is time for a transition." That's what I informed our Elders at the March Board meeting.

Pastoral transition can be a bit scary for the church, but also for the pastor. The unknown future seems to loom before us with its unpredictability, but also its promise. It's going to take a lot of prayer to insure that the "peace which transcends all understanding will keep our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ."

Decisions of this nature are very complicated. We don't like complications, so we edit the story to make it fit our comfort zones. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say, that this has been a heart-wrenching call. We have established some quality relationships that we don't want to leave. There is much work that still has to be done. There never seems to be an appropriate time to make this type of decision. We walk by faith, and not by sight.

In the next few months our Elders will earnestly begin the search for a successor to lead our church. Their task is a difficult one. Encourage them, pray for them and support them. We will stay long enough to provide stability in the pulpit, counseling, and pastoral care. At an appropriate time in the transition, We will be released to pursue the next phase of God's call on our lives.

There will be more to say in the future. Please feel free to call us aside and talk to us. We do not want this to be an awkward time for you or us. It is our conviction that this process is an important part of pastoral ministry that is often vacated and left undone in typical churches and transitions. The results of abrupt change can be disastrous. An orderly, spirit-led transition will be a testimony of our maturity and character. Let's commit ourselves to doing it the right way which is the best way.

There will be tears of joy and sorrow. But in the meantime, let's take hold of the plow and continue the sowing and reaping uninterrupted. The future of our church is so absolutely bright. I would love to be around to experience it, but I guess I'll have to enjoy your successes and victories from the sidelines.

I look forward to serving you during this time.

The Real Front of the War on Terrorism

I normally steer away from controversial topics, but as the debate on the war in Iraq is continually in the headlines I felt an obligatory post coming on. I don't get all of my news from the mainstream media (MSM) like the network news, newspapers, and news magazines. I surf the net by reading the headlines from MSM and then get the other side of the news by reading conservative blogs, and websites to get balance.

One of the blogs I read regularly comes directly from Iraq, written by two Iraqi's who give their viewpoint of what is happening on the ground there. It is remarkable how different their account is than say the New York Times, or ABC News. Here is a recent entry from Iraq the Model.

"When The Taliban regime in Afghanistan fell young men waited in lines to get a haircut and when Saddam fell barbers became targets."My father offered this simple example during a discussion we had about war on terror the other day. Although the example is very simple but the idea behind it is deep and aims at identifying the change of the main battleground for war with terror.

I wanted to talk about this because recently we've been watching the debate in America about redeployment of troops and identifying the real front we must focus on. I see that al-Qaeda and terrorists in general didn't hide their position in this respect—despite the fact that they still operate in many parts of the world, they are clearly redirecting most effort and resources to the war in Iraq.

The war here has a lot that to do with drawing the future prospects of spreading religious extremism and this in turn is connected to the agendas of countries that have mutual goals with al-Qaeda in spite of the difference in ideology. This collaboration is complex but it clearly shows the priorities of the terrorists and rogue regimes and in turn suggests what our strategic priorities should be.

There are greater examples than killing barbers of course so I'd like to include some more to remind those who try to naively oversimplify the issue in the context that the commanders of al-Qaeda are hiding in a cave in the mountains of Afghanistan or Pakistan far away from civilization.

Al-Qaeda and its supporters are using most of the capabilities of their propaganda machine to cover their effort in Iraq, and so is the case with financial resources. All evidences indicate that most of the money is used to support the terror activity in Iraq.

Let's not forget recruiting networks that are discovered constantly in many European and Arab countries; we rarely, if ever, hear that those networks were sending recruits to Afghanistan because recruits are being sent to Iraq all the time. Even more telling, some of the prominent lieutenants of al-Qaeda left Afghanistan to fight in Iraq. One example I remember was Omar al-Farouk who escaped from Bagram to be later captured in Basra!

Al-Qaeda itself boasts about the great "sacrifices" of more than 4,000 "martyrs" to emphasize the importance of the war here. And the hundreds of suicide bombers preferred to blow themselves up in Iraq than anywhere else should remind us that if al-Qaeda considers this the main war then why talk about redeployment? Walking away from the main war is not redeployment, it's quitting. But why did Iraq became the main front?

Iraq can simply not be equated with Afghanistan which the bulk of al-Qaeda largely abandoned after few weeks of battles—that doesn't sound like al-Qaeda! Iraq, weak after a war that toppled the regime but rich-relatively-with resources and scientific base is a greater temptation than Afghanistan, and at the same time the possibility of a democracy arising in Iraq posed a great threat to the ideology of caliph state. Therefore al-Qaeda and whoever is backing it directly or indirectly felt they had to move the front to Iraq instead of staying in Afghanistan.

Let's imagine that the world left Iraq alone before the country is able to defend itself and let it fall in the hands of extremists, what would happen then? Can we compare the opium fields with the massive oilfields of Mesopotamia? Can we afford to leave these resources in the service of the terrorists? The other point is scientific infrastructure, especially when it comes to military technology such infrastructure almost doesn't exist in Afghanistan while Saddam celebrated 17 years ago in launching a rocket to space. The same "accomplishment' Iran claimed to have made just days ago. This infrastructure, while still humble compared to advanced countries, could be very dangerous if captured by terrorists.

An Islamic state in Iraq whether to be led by al-Qaeda or one of the local extreme religious parties would be an enormous threat to the security of the region and the world and a turning point that might encourage fence-sitters to join the terrorists…the tide would be much more difficult to stop then. It's true that what's happening in Iraq doesn't meet the ambitions of Iraqis or Americans and everyone admits that many mistakes were made.

I agree that the Iraqi government should be pressed to speed up the effort to establish rule of law and achieve reconciliation. And I also agree that the American administration needs to revise the way it's been handling and planning for this critical war. But abandoning this front or failing to recognize its priority is a terrible mistake that can lead to disastrous consequences to all of us."

I don't favor war, but I am against terrorism even more. I happen to agree that the reason we haven't seen a major terrorist attack on American soil in over 5 years is because we have moved the front to Iraq and Al-Qaeda knows it. I don’t expect everyone, or for that matter, anyone to agree with me on this. Hollow arguments are thrown at people like me such as, "If you agree that the war in Iraq needs to be fought, why aren't your children on the front." To which I readily respond, "Our Army is a completely volunteer army. Our soldiers choose to join and fight. At this stage of the fight any soldier who states that (s)he is against the effort in Iraq is not being honest as (s)he either joined after the war began, or reenlisted since the war began. (S)he had the opportunity to take a pass on the call.

If my children volunteered to join the military today I would be honored and proud. Being a veteran myself, I know the sacrifice that it takes to keep America strong and free. To those who protest the war, I remind them that the privilege exists because soldiers fought for that freedom. They have a right to be vocal, to assemble, and to try to persuade anyone they can because we live in a free country. I don't despise them, or question their patriotism. I simply say that they are making a judgment call, and with all due respect, I believe they are wrong.

Iraqis as well as Americans deserve to free. We are giving them an opportunity to experience the liberty that we often take for granted. The bad guys want totalitarianism imposed by zealots. If we allow those seeds to be planted, they will surely grow and eventually overtake our side of the fence. This is not only a fight to allow freedom to expand, but to protect our freedom as well.

Bringing the Bible Back to Public Education

´. . . pollster George Gallup has dubbed us "a nation of biblical illiterates." Only half of U.S. adults know the title of even one Gospel. Most can't name the Bible's first book. The trend extends even to Evangelicals, only 44% of whose teens could identify a particular quote as coming from the Sermon on the Mount.”

There is a startling lack of biblical understanding in our culture, even when so many claim to be evangelical Christians, a huge majority claim to believe in God, and a large percentage say that God is important or very important in their lives.

How do you bring the Bible back into a secular society? This article in Time magazine attempts to address this all important cultural and societal issue. Attempts, some successful, are being made to do just that. Although this raises a number of questions: Whose view of the Bible?, Who is qualified to teach about the Bible?, Should a course like this be mandatory or elective?, etc., the importance of bringing the Bible back into the arena of debate and discussion is a moot issue.

The constitutionality concerns have been objectively defined. The article states that, “For over a decade, he says, any legal challenges to school Bible courses have focused not on the general principle but on whether the course in question was sufficiently neutral in its approach.”

We are at a crossroads in our time and culture. Our educational system is believed to be the best in the world, yet a fundamental underpinning is missing. Much of the public debate on all issues of politics, literature, science, sociology, ethics, etc., has, at its core, teachings that stem from the Bible. Can a person truly be educated without a basic understanding of how the Bible has shaped our nation, western civilization and the world?

Even though a secularist has written the article, it is valuable for Christians to understand the issue of debate.Read this entire fascinating article. Ask yourself the question. Is this really that important? Or are the two sides dug in just trying to make a point?

Living Up to God's Expectations

“He was not at all like the psychologist’s picture of the integrated, balanced, adjusted, happily married, employed, popular citizen. You can’t really be very well adjusted to your world if it says you ‘have a devil’ and ends by nailing you up naked to a stake of wood.” (C.S. Lewis quoted by Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never I Knew, Harper Collins, 1995)

“but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isa 53:5 (NIV)

You would think that everyone would have loved him. He healed the sick, delivered the oppressed, and fed the hungry. He even raised the dead! He should have been heralded as the Messiah, crowned as the King of Kings, and hailed as a prophet. Actually he was . . . for a while. Then they turned on him. In one fell swoop they traded him for the release of a common criminal. Even his closest followers abandoned him.

What happened? Jesus simply refused to live up to false expectations. He had only the will of the Father in mind and wouldn’t trade obedience to God for the kingdoms of the world. After he was forsaken, the perfect picture of humanity was reduced to a bloody mass of pulp at the hands of his accusers. People will turn on you when you don’t live up to their expectations.

But it was in that messy beating and death that he accomplished the perfect will of God. “He who had no sin, was made sin for us, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God.” In rejecting the accolades of the world for the approval of the Father he lived up to greater expectations than anyone would have thought. By not living up to our expectations he met the expectations of God. Now those who love him have the greatest reason of all. Our sins have been forgiven. Who would have expected that?

Down is the New Up

“For the devil is farsighted; he looks only for what is big, and high and attaches himself to that; he does not look at that which is low down and beneath himself.” (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never I Knew, Harper Collins, 1995)

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross!" Phil 2:5-8 (NIV)

The economy of the kingdom sometimes seems backward to us. Jesus taught that the least on the earth would be the greatest in the kingdom. He taught that being a servant was the best way to lead. He modeled it to a tee.

“Pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” When we think of ourselves in lofty terms, we draw the most attention from the enemy. He loves to knock people down to size. That’s why the devil blew it when it came to Jesus. In Jesus’ humility, the enemy saw weakness. In Jesus’ servanthood, he saw a pushover. Little did he know that God was traveling incognito. By humbling himself Jesus didn’t attract much attention from the devil. In fact, the most attention Jesus got was from self-righteous religious people. The religious took it upon themselves to initiate his death in complicity with the devil. In doing so, they unwittingly unleashed the fullness of the plan of redemption.

There is a very real but subtle difference between humility and being humiliated. Jesus lived in humility and the result was the humiliation of the devil. The devil was looking for someone on a high horse to knock off and missed the warrior on a stallion that conquered the principalities of darkness. The enemy was looking for someone who lived haughty in spirit and missed the one clothed in humility.

Lay low, don’t attract too much attention to yourself. God will lift you up and use you in great ways in His time

Speaking in Tongues

When was the last time you spoke in tongues. Pentecostal (Full-gospel) people believe that this is a unique gift bestowed by God to believers in answer to seeking, and as evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

This article does a good job addressing a spiritual phenomenon from a secular perspective. The issue of Spirit baptism created whole new denominations within protestantism. In fact if the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues were not distinctively separate experiences from salvation, the pentecostal movement would not even be necessary. If speaking in tongues is as important as we say it is, we should practice this gift as often as possible and should encourage all believers to be baptized in the Spirit so they too can communicate with God on this intimate level.

Have you been baptized in the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues? How has this changed your relationship with God?

Is America Worshiping an Idol?

Have you been bitten by the American Idol bug? Over 30 million viewers tune into this program every week. It's amazing what some will do to show their support for their favorites.

Some of the contestants have turned out to be Christians. You can read an excellent article to that effect here. They have sung in choirs, been employed by churches and in some cases have actually been worship leaders for their congregations. Check out what this church has done to show their support for a former church employee and member. What are we willing to do when the secular intersects with the spiritual?

Personally, I like to watch the first few episodes of AI. The auditions can be incredibly funny. I can't believe that some of these people don't know they can't sing! The middle episodes are predictable and boring, so I tune out for a few weeks. When they narrow it down to the top 12 I start watching again. It's amazing how good these contestants can get after they have had some vocal, image and performance coaching by experts. The transformation is incredible. It then becomes a true competition with about half of the top 12 having a realistic chance of winning.

I have my favorites at this stage. For the guys, I'm going with the Pillsbury Doughboy (bet you can't tell who that is:) For the gals, I have to throw my hat in the ring for Melinda. There are a couple of other females who are really good, but Melinda, in my mind, is head and shoulders above the rest. On pure talent alone, she should win the competition.

How about you? Do you have any predictions? This stuff can be silly, but fun. I'll write about something "heavier" tomorrow.

I'm Back from Vacation

For those of you wondering where I've been, I was in sunny south Florida for the past three weeks. It was a much needed time away for rest, recreation and refreshing. Nothing like leaving the frozen tundra of the north in the middle of winter to head South where the weather is predictably warm.

I managed to connect with family and friends I haven't seen in about a year. I'm happy to report that most of them are doing well although my sister is battling cancer for the second time in 3 years. Please pray for her treatment and future health.

You learn a lot about yourself when you take time away from everything that is normal and comfortable. The most humbling thing you learn is that you are not as critical as you think to the overall function and progress of ministry. Someone said it this way, "Just because you are important doesn't mean that you are needed." :)

Spring is getting into gear up here in the north. With it comes the promise of many new things. I love Spring because it is filled with the promise of God in newness. The trees bud, the grass starts growing again, the birds return and we get to put away our winter coats for more comfortable wear. Life is beautiful during Spring.

I'm looking forward to this season. I'm believing that God will reveal some new direction for the fulfillment of his promises. I only hope that I can be open to his direction, both to hear it and to do it.

What about you? What kinds of thoughts go through your mind during this time of the year? What are you looking forward to now that the weather will be more favorable to getting out and about?

I'm planning on posting something on the blog every other day from this point forth. Look for some interesting links to articles and other blogs. And feel free to comment as you see fit.