What do you mean by Grace-Centered?

I remember the call very well. My wife informed me that a church was looking for a minister around where her parents lived. I had told her that I would always keep the option open to move closer to her parents. I was over at the Harding Lectureships at the time and so she gave me the number and name of the person to call. This was several years ago when I was working at the Church of Christ in Elkhart, Kansas.

One evening I took the time to call the man from my hotel. He took some time to explain where they were as a church, the history. He explained what the community was like and the location. He asked me to explain where I was at spiritually, my professional experience, all of the background they would need if they wanted to take the next step. He wanted to make sure I was a grace-centered preacher. He wanted me to understand what type of Church of Christ this was. I explained that I did not believe anything we did earned our salvation. I also assured him that I did not think non-instrumental churches of Christ were the only ones going to heaven. This was all good.

I then outlined what I hoped to accomplish along with my goals and objectives in ministry. Why I had left a successful career in marketing and advertising for fulltime ministry. He paused. He said I sounded very gung-ho. He told me that the church was very grace-centered and they liked preaching about the security we have in Jesus Christ. He said that I was at a lectureship and that probably had me all fired up, maybe after I got away from the lectureship I wouldn’t be so passionate.

One of my great disappointments was the discovery that for some grace-centered means lazy. It means resting and being thankful that we can’t earn our salvation. Since I don’t have to do anything to be saved we don’t do anything. It means obedience isn’t such a big deal. Sure we are good people. We don’t drink that much or curse that much. We show up to hear you preach on a pretty regular basis. The fact that the grace I received pushed me to do more in the kingdom was something they didn’t want.

He tried to explain how great the scenery was. He told me that people live there to relax and enjoy nature. I appreciated his honesty because I knew it wasn’t the place for me. I wonder how many other Christians believe that grace-centered means do nothing. That it means less commitment. From my travels more than I would ever like to admit.

SELF HELP IN THE CHURCH

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all……Oh how the self-help movement has invaded the church. Mind you we spin it. It isn’t self-help even though the church uses all of the same language and tricks. No, we call it what God wants for our life today or something. It doesn’t sound so self-absorbed that way but it is. We flip everything and make God all about us. Whatever dream or idea we have God is out there working to help us get it.

You may be thinking, Darin God has a plan for my life. Yes he does and he asks you to walk by faith believing that is true. That is very different than the belief that I have a dream and God is all about making sure it comes true. Why do I know that? Because it puts the focus of everything squarely on me.

I mean can you imagine Paul talking the way we do?

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:7-10

What saddens me the most is when this rubbish infiltrates Churches of Christ. I mean we were supposed to be the people of the Book. People who called Bible things by Bible names. People who knew and understood scripture. Did Churches of Christ abuse this idea? Sure but I don’t think that is a good reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Where did we get it? Not from scripture. We got it from psychology. The church took it and slapped some verses around it and called it biblical. The problem? Other than it is extremely destructive and doesn’t work? That is isn’t actually biblical? That it is built on a foundation not that man is fallen but that we would all be great and perfect if someone or something in our past didn’t harm us and so all we need to do is fix that whatever that bad was whether it be our parents or school or something else?

It takes away the need for Jesus in our lives. I’m talking about the crucified Jesus not the one lerking around trying to help us make our dreams come true. It also takes the focus away from the love of neighbor to the love of seeing my dreams come true. I don’t know how anyone goes into scripture and comes out with anything other than love God and love your neighbor. How did this become love God and love yourself and your dream?

Shouldn’t the church wake up? Have the numbers told us nothing? The more the church focuses on self-identity the more problems we have. The more divorce and broken homes. The more addictions. The more sin.

Don’t take my word for it though. Read the research into the self-help and self-esteem movement. This isn’t even Christian research. Find out what they are finding. Read books like the Narcissism Epidemic and return to the biblical idea of self-sacrifice and love for others as what the Christian faith is about. This isn’t just another option of how you do your Christian faith, it is destructive and false and not what a lost world needs.

BARNA STUDY ON CHURCH ATTENDANCE

“Nearly Half of Churchgoing Americans Say Church Doesn’t Have an Effect on Their Lives”

Years ago Huey Lewis, I know I’m dating myself, did a song titled “I Want a New Drug.” It was all about what he needed to feel better. He had a pretty long list of what he needed from this new drug. I read this article about recent research that says nearly half of all people get nothing out of church. I couldn’t help but think of the song.

It made me think about the book of Revelation. That may seem like a leap but I assure you it isn’t. No it took me to my Bible and the first few chapters. It made me want to look at the churches listed there. I couldn’t help but wonder what those seven churches would have said if they were polled. It reminded me of just how backwards we have become in the church today.

The comments after the article were just as telling. How many said that the reason these people feel this way is because they go to churches that don’t have it. Many responders weren’t surprise and seemed certain that if the show was better these numbers wouldn’t be this way.

Then I thought about the churches in Revelation. Take some time and read them for yourself and try to put this study and the article in the same context as the words written to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Tell me if the solutions we think and offer sound anything like the solutions offered to those churches.

It just shows you how backwards we are. How much we don’t understand who the church is and what the church is for. Some of those who responded to the article understand this. How backwards we are.

Does the American church have a lampstand? An angel? What would the letter read if written to us?

And to the angel of the church in the United States write: “I have seen your attitude and your works and……….

LEGALISM

There is an idea that is present in some Churches of Christ that is often explained as legalism. It is put forth as the idea that some believe they are earning their salvation by keeping a laws. Now, I don’t believe many people in Churches of Christ believe this. Now you may argue the ramifications of their teaching are that they are saved by keeping laws but I have no desire to focus on that thought today.

You see I don’t think the problem is legalism at all. The selling of indulgences in the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages probably had more to do with this idea of legalism far more than any first century Pharisee.

Most people in Churches of Christ who might be labeled as legalists take this as a badge of honor. They see that as a statement of dedication and commitment. Truthfully, who doesn’t want to be known as someone who wants to be obedient? Sure I can’t be obedient enough to save myself, I am only saved by faith in what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross. That fact doesn’t change my desire to be obedient. In fact it is supposed to motivate us to even greater obedience because we have the Holy Spirit living inside to aid us.

If that is what the issue is, legalism, shouldn’t everyone desire to be obedient as long as we don’t think this obedience saves us?

legalism isn’t the problem. I think a better understanding comes from Jesus and his teaching as recorded in Mark 7:1-23.

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.

So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’

You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”

After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

It wasn’t that they were legalistic. Far from it. The problem was they had added to what God had said and began to bind those additions as if God had commanded them. It was far from legalism or hyper obedience and in fact was the binding of man-made traditions as coming from God.

Did they take these from scripture? Yes. But they couldn’t recognize the fact that they were judging by their interpretation of God’s words.

This is the problem with some in Churches of Christ. They bind their interpretation of scripture. In essence they add to scripture. You see when they believe it is legalism they wear it like a badge of honor. We are more obedient than you. Until they recognize that they are binding where God has not bound and adding to scripture I don’t see much hope in helping them.

In the end Jesus explains to his followers that nothing that comes from outside can defile him and it is what comes out of our heart that matters. If only that was what they believed. Notice how many of their interpretative additions have nothing to do with the heart. Frequency of the Lord’s Supper? Worship styles? All can be done without any love for God and others.

Does this mean I have an issue with their desire to be obedient to their understanding of scripture? Of course not. My concern is the belief that this makes them more obedient or what makes them a follower of Jesus Christ. I am also concerned because they judge other believers like the Pharisees in the passage simply becuase they won’t follow their traditions.

EVANGELIST

My heart is for evangelism. Reaching out to those who don’t know Jesus Christ. Reaching out to the broken and the hurting. Trying to point them to the ultimate answer. At some point you come to recognize a lot of people don’t want the guy standing in front to be an evangelist. They prefer a pastor. Someone who isn’t looking outside of the walls for those in need of a shepherd. They want someone who is looking within to keep track of the sheep. Someone to take care of their problems and needs.

For many years the church has been hiring pastors. They might not have called them that but that is what their expectations showed. We want someone who is all about us. The idea was that the pastor would do such a good job of pastoring that the lost would want to be a part of a church that pastors so well.

That was the idea. I have no desire to discuss whether or not that was a good idea or not. I just don’t think it is a good idea anymore.

The fruit of this in my opinion is churches that lack evangelistic zeal. The answer for me is obvious, return to evangelists in the pulpit. Let your elders and shepherd your congregation and allow deacons to serve. Don’t have these distinctions in word only. Preachers are filling the roll of elder/pastor while the elders are acting like deacons and deacons, well they are probably the closest to their roll, yet they lack the authority to do what they need to do as servants of the church because elders are trying to do their job for them.

Our church is looking to develop elders, I pray we can make sure we are not simply placing glorified deacons in that position. Please pray that we will find true shepherds for our church.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

I was recently reading an article from Forbes.com about the retailer Best Buy. The author Larry Downes shares why he sees the company headed for bankruptcy at some point. He shares some customer service gaffs that the company has created and how their greatest problem is customer service.

Obviously it made me think about church. The problem with the church today is not customer service. The problem IS CUSTOMER SERVICE. The problem with the church is it took the idea of customer service and thought it had some bearing on the body of Christ.

The article talks about all of the mistakes that Best Buy has made and how these blunders have impacted their bottom line. Have you ever heard anyone complain about the customer service of the military? I try to imagine what World War II would have been like if the army, navy, air force and marines were constantly focused on customer service. Do you seriously think anyone agrees to be the first platoon off of the boat on D-Day? Iowa Jima?

Who do you think, if customer service was king, who do you think agrees to drive tanks? How about the airman in bombers? Life expectance was not good for either.

This brings us to the rub. Jesus didn’t come to establish a retail space. He called disciples not customers. He didn’t come looking for someone to buy a product. He came to establish a kingdom and the terminology often used has everything to do with being in a conflict and nothing to do with a good customer experience.

Unfortunately I don’t see this trend ending soon. Too many large church operations built on customer service writing and speaking so others will do the same. Here is the deal, just because it is a trend with many doesn’t mean it has to be a trend with you. Stop shopping and start defending. It doesn’t have to be this way with your church. When people start to list their customer complaints take some time to study the Bible with them. Take some time to show them what the church really is. Be willing to lose those who don’t like your customer service.

In the end be the body, be the kingdom, the world cannot afford for us to be focused on customer service any longer.

I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10:2-4

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:10-13