Our journey as a church continues. Our purpose is to answer the question, “What is missing?” What did the New Testament Church have that is absent in the American Church (and in our hearts) today. How can we recapture the focus and character of the Church in the New Testament?

First we need to find those missing priorities. The first focus we explored was a focus on whole-hearted commitment to Jesus Christ. The kind of commitment that results in repentance and life change.

As we moved forward into our second missing priority, we looked at the last words Jesus spoke to His disciples before He returned to His Father. At the end of the book of Matthew, Jesus gives one instruction. He tells his disciples to make more disciples (Matthew 28:19). The instructions surrounding that central commission (going, teaching, baptizing) were ways that disciples could be made. One of the great missing elements in the Americanized Church is that we have lost our focus on making disciples.

One of my old bosses, Charles Crabtree, described our current situation as a “Crisis of Discipleship”. We are pretty good at getting people into the pews of the church. We’re not bad at getting them to make some sort of commitment to Jesus. But we’re lousy at fulfilling Jesus’ instructions to make disciples. We lose somewhere in the area of 95% of the people who make commitments to Christ in our churches.

There are several complex reasons we find ourselves in this crisis, but the solution is simple. We need to return to the New Testament focus on building true disciples. As a church, in order to recapture the New Testament focus on discipleship, we committed to the following:

·        We will present the good news of Jesus Christ to those who are not yet believers.

·        We will care for our new believers so that they can grow and mature in their faith.

·        We will provide multiple opportunities for believers to study and apply the Word of God to their lives.

·        We will encourage and facilitate the building of strong relationships between believers that will help us to encourage discipleship in each other.

One of the greatest tools we have as a church to fulfill that commitment is the ministry of Sunday school. To some, Sunday school seems old fashioned. But there is no other ministry that provides small group discipleship for all age groups the way Sunday school does. When done properly, Sunday school there are very few ministries that can help to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus the way Sunday school does. I will continue to be a cheerleader for Sunday school and the heroic men and women who lead classes of men, women, boys and girls.

Over the next two Sundays we had leaders of our various discipleship ministries (men’s, women’s, youth, Sunday school, children’s church, Wednesday Bible studies) share what takes place in their ministries and how they are working to build disciples. We encouraged believers to add a discipleship ministry to their faith journey in order to accelerate their growth as followers of Jesus.

We did have an increase in some of our discipleship ministries, but not nearly what I had hoped for. But we are continuing to encourage people to go through the doors of discipleship that are available to them and we will continue to open new doors of discipleship so that we might regain the New Testament focus on true discipleship.

 

I’ll get back to reporting on our journey’s progress soon. But let me briefly report on what we went through in February.

I am not one of those people who blame the devil for bad things happening to me. There are plenty of things in my own foolishness and in the brokenness of the world to more than account for the difficulties I face in my life. It is easy to blame the enemy. It is much harder to face our own shortcomings and to work out how we live as spiritual foreigners in a fallen world. So I am not one of those people who rush to the conclusion that I’m under attack from the enemy.

And yet…

February saw an unusual amount of difficulties being faced both in my family and in our church. We had a new convert leave the church, angry that I asked him not to talk about politics during a ministry event. We had a clash of cultures in our very multicultural Sunday School where tempers flared and people were emotionally hurt. My family faced several hard situations and disappointments. This included my 12-year-old son who faced two very difficult disappointing situations. Whenever you see your child suffering it makes a parent feel heartsick, and this was no exception.

It was after the second disappointment my son faced that I felt an overwhelming sense in my spirit that there was a reason for all these difficulties. I felt sure that the Holy Spirit was speaking to my heart to let me know that the reason our church and my family were facing these problems was the journey we are taking as a church. The journey we’ve been on, and the reason for this blog, has been to find the true character of the New Testament Church and to match that character instead of being complacent in being an Americanized church. What are we missing in the American Church that the New Testament Church had, and how can we get it back? This is the stumbling journey we are taking as a church. And I knew suddenly that the reason for our difficulties was that the enemy is not pleased with a church taking such a journey. Such a journey is dangerous to the plans of the enemy. He wasn’t just trying to make us stumble, he was trying to get us to change our focus or to give up entirely.

And then something unusual happened.

I got mad at God.

I mean, really mad.

As I stood there in my kitchen, knowing with surety that our recent difficulties were a direct result of the journey God had called us to, a realization came to me: my son was suffering because I was doing what God had called me to do. The flash of anger that went through me was surprising, but it was real. It’s one thing for me to suffer, but I hadn’t counted on the possibility of my child suffering.

The prayer I prayed at that moment won’t be found in any prayer books. It’s not a prayer I would recommend. But it was honest. It was an expression of my true feelings at that moment. And my most prevalent feeling was a pretty intense anger. I don’t want anyone, through action or inaction, to allow my son to be hurt, even God.

And God let me vent. He let me rant. He let me get it all out. He can take it. He’s faced a lot worse than a confused, angry, pastor stumbling through his spiritual journey. And then God spoke to my heart. He asked me who loves my son most of all, and I reluctantly admitted that He did. And God reminded me that as we walk this journey, we walk it together with Him. He is with us every step of the way. My son resides in the palm of my God’s hand.

I was reminded of the Keith Green song that I sang as I held my son the night he was born. The verse went like this,

“I pledge my son to heaven for the gospel.
Though he’s kicked and beaten, ridiculed and scorned.
I will teach him to rejoice, and lift a thankful praising voice,
And to be like Him who bore the nails and crown of thorns.”

We’re all in. We’re sticking to this journey as a church. We’re sticking to this journey as a family. The enemy can throw whatever he likes at us. We’re going to move forward, even if we stumble.

1 Timothy 1:12 says, “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.”

I’m no Apostle Paul. I’m a patchwork of frailty and faith, doubt and confidence, pride and humility. I’m on a journey appointed by God to be the kind of disciple He wants me to be. I may suffer because of this journey. I may stumble. But I know the one who called me. I know that he will be both my guard and my guide until I reach the journey’s end.

 

Well, our journey as a church has begun. My personal journey of the last 8 or 9 months has led us here. I have been looking for characteristics of the New Testament Church that are missing in the American Church. I have shared with our church the journey we will be taking together and our stumbling journey as a church has begun.

I have, frankly, been nervous about this. I am sure that I have heard the direction of God in this matter, but I feel neither worthy nor up to the task to lead a people on a journey that is so different from normal Sunday morning church content. As I have shared this journey with other ministers before sharing it with my congregation, there were times of great encouragement and times of great discouragement. And so I’ve been unsure what the response would be from these people in my church who I have come to love and respect so deeply. So it was not without some trepidation that we began this journey as the year started

I began on the first of January by sharing with my congregation a review of the characteristics of biblical discipleship found in Acts 2:42-47. This is called “Acts 2 Discipleship” and was developed by my former boss, Rev. Alton Garrison, the Assistant General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God. (You can read more about the Acts 2 process at http://discipleship.ag.org/PROCESS/Acts2/index.cfm.) The five characteristics of true discipleship found in this passage are worship, service, spiritual growth, outreach and fellowship. These are not new to our congregation since I have given them as a reminder every year that I have been pastor. Our church is to be in the business of fulfilling Jesus’ Great Commission to make disciples, and Acts 2 gives a great picture of what a disciple should be.

At the end of this reminder of true discipleship as the purpose of our church, I presented an overview of the journey. I shared from my heart about the direction that God was leading me. I wanted to be upfront and I told them that there were some things we would discover in this journey together that might not be comfortable and there may be things that will even make us upset. When we have held on to certain ways of looking at things and doing things long enough, those ways become comfortable to us and even sacred. But our call as a church is not to follow the way we’ve done things before. Our call is to follow the way Scripture leads us.

The reaction to this service was positive (of course I hadn’t gotten into many specifics yet). As I’ve mentioned before, I do not consider myself a great preacher, but I believe the congregation heard my heart. My prayer continues to be that they hear God’s heart and direction.

The next Sunday saw about 1/3 of our congregation missing (including some of our leaders) due to a snow storm. This was a bit discouraging since I saw this Sunday as the true start of our journey. This was the Sunday where I would address the first specific characteristic of the New Testament Church that was missing in the American Church and at our church. All the way through our worship time, I debated on whether or not to preach the message I had prepared. With so many gone, perhaps it would be better to save the start of the journey until the next Sunday. But I believe God spoke to me at the end of our worship. He had led me during the week to put words to the vision for that Sunday even though He knew what weather was to come. He knew who was going to be in our church that Sunday, so I decided not to deviate from the message God had led me to prepare.

The first character trait of the New Testament Church that is missing in today’s church is wholehearted commitment to Christ; not commitment to the church, but a commitment to Christ that results in repentance and life change We looked at the life change in Saul the Pharisee as he became Paul the apostle. We ended the service with a prayer of commitment and a promise that I would bring three specifics next week to help us with that life change.

At the next service, I shared that life change would look different for each individual, but I gave three specific areas of change that should be part of the commitment of all believers.

The first area of change was holiness (1 Peter 1:15-16). When we think about holiness we often think about personal morality. However, the biblical idea of holiness is a separation and dedication to God. Moral purity is not holiness. Moral purity should be the result of our holiness. If we’re going to have the character of the New Testament Church, we need a commitment that sees believers set apart for the special purpose of glorifying God in all we do.

The second area of change was a life of service to others. In a culture that promotes the exaltation of self, the biblical idea of serving others seems positively countercultural. A church with the character of the New Testament Church is going to be full of believers who serve others rather than focusing on their own desires (Philippians 2:3-4). The early Church was known for its love. Serving others is love in action.

The third area of change is a change in our attitudes towards our finances. The New Testament Church had a different idea about finances than is typical in American culture (and American Church culture) today.  The common view of finances today is that our finances exist to fulfill our desires. The view of the New Testament Church was that finances existed to glorify God. The believers in the New Testament would sell their stuff to make sure everyone was taken care of (Acts 2:44-45). They believed that ALL their finances, not 10%, belonged to God. This may be the starkest example of how the American Church is different from the New Testament Church, and it may be hardest to change.

I reminded the congregation that this can’t be just a sermon series that is enjoyed and eventually forgotten. If we are serious about this journey, we are changing the way of how we do church. So in order to help us change our focus so that we encouraged wholehearted commitment to Christ, I announced the following:

• Each week in 2017 we are going to say the following pledge together to remind us of our commitment

I am a follower of Jesus Christ, the everlasting Son of God.

I commit to studying His Word so that I can be more like Him.

I commit to prayer so that I might see the work of God in my life.

I commit to living a life that is pleasing to Him and repenting when I stumble.

I commit my time and energy to God so that I might serve Him in my church and my community.

I commit my finances to God so that His Kingdom might grow through my tithes and offerings to Him.

I commit myself to this community of believers so that we might encourage each other to grow together.

In all these matters, I rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to guide me, empower me, and comfort me

Let it be so.

• Twice a year, our church will do a “Service Sunday” in which we will gather together on a Sunday morning and then go out together to do a community service project or ministry project. This project will not be for ourselves, but for the benefit of our community or another church.
• I will no longer apologize for taking an extra offering when needed. If there is an individual within our church that is in need, we will do what it takes to meet that need. Our finances belong to God and we will increase our giving to help meet the needs of those within our church and outside the church walls.
• For the last half hour of that Sunday’s service we would hold a ministry fair where different ministries from our church and our community would be represented in our fellowship hall and allow people to learn about those ministries and sign up to help

This idea of the ministry fair was one I was worried about. I was afraid that people might just leave and only a few would come into the fellowship hall to explore the service opportunities. But the church caught the vision and saw the ministry fair as their “altar call” to respond to what they had heard. Dozens of people signed up to help with kids, youth, maintenance, community service, feeding the hungry and other ministries. My heart was overwhelmed at the response.

Our journey has begun and as we may stumble, but we will always move forward. In a little over a week I’ll be sharing what I believe to be another major emphasis of the New Testament Church that is missing in the American Church; that is an emphasis on true discipleship. I’ll let you know how that goes.

It’s true. There is joy in the journey.

What is missing? That is the question that has been running through my mind and my spirit for several months now. I read a book over the summer and at one point the author looked at the Christian Church in America and observed that it did not look very much like the Church described in the New Testament. It was an observation that ruminated in my heart. The character of the American Church looks very little like the New Testament Church. So I began to consider the question, “What is missing?” What is it that the New Testament Church had that is missing in the American Church? I began a journey of looking for those answers. Along this journey, I also wanted to see where I was coming up short in having the character of a New Testament Christian.

I’m not talking about practices or cultural thinking that was limited to first century Palestine. I was looking for eternal truths within the character of the early Church that transcended cultural limitations. In this stumbling journey, I combed the book of Acts and the epistles of the New Testament for answers. Not wanting to limit myself to my own observations, I consulted dozens of pastors and missionaries to get their ideas about the answer to the question, “What is missing?”

Some ministers gave me long lists of everything they thought was wrong with the Church in America. However, many of those responses turned out to be examples of how the Church had left the traditions of the more recent past. I am not interested in comparing the American Church with what it used to be in 1950 or 1914 or 1741. I AM interested in comparing the American Church with the Church described in Scripture. For every characteristic I believe is missing from today’s Church, I want to be able to point to Scripture and say, “Here! Here is the characteristic in the New Testament Church that we are missing in the American Church today!”

In this journey to discover what is missing, literally dozens of answers were found and discussed. Being the habitual organizer that I tend to be, I eventually grouped these answers into four areas of emphasis. These are the basic emphases that I feel the American Church is lacking. These are the four basic emphases we need to rediscover if we are to be more like the New Testament Church.

The American Christian Church is missing:

·         An emphasis on whole-hearted commitment to Christ

·         An emphasis on true discipleship

·         An emphasis on loving community

·         An emphasis on life in the Spirit

The purpose of the blog is to document my journey and my church’s journey to rediscover these emphases for ourselves as individuals and as a church. As a pastor, I take some of the responsibility in being in a place where the question of “What is missing?” needs to be asked. I have been comfortable with the Americanized version of the gospel, living as an Americanized Christian and leading an Americanized church. That ends now. In 2017, my church and I will be exploring what it means to have the character of New Testament Christians in a New Testament Church. This is more than a sermon series. As we discuss each of the four emphases we are missing, we will also discuss implementation steps we will make as a church to change the focus of our church.

I am not a great preacher. I am not a scholar. I am not especially insightful. But I am convicted by the Holy Spirit to take this journey. I do not know what the results will be, but I am committed to the journey. I have no doubt that I will stumble and fall. I will get discouraged. There will be successes and failures. But through it all, I commit publically to move forward on this journey. Like Abraham travelling to Canaan, I might not see the destination clearly, but I commit to moving through the obstacles, and may each obstacle increase my trust in the One leading me.

So I will update this blog as we move forward. I will expand on those four emphases as we explore them as a church. I will try to keep you updated on our progress fairly consistently on how things are going. I plan on being brutally frank and not everything will be “encouraging” in the common use of the word. But perhaps I can encourage some to learn from this journey. And perhaps there will even be those who will walk alongside us to journey together.

If you loved the presidential candidate you voted for, this article is not for you. If you have yet to become a follower of Jesus, this article is probably not for you either. At least not yet. I am writing this to (what I think is) a large group of Christians who were disappointed and even discouraged by the choices presented to us in this year’s presidential election. Perhaps you didn’t vote, perhaps you voted for a third-party or write-in candidate, or perhaps (like many) you held your nose in disgust and voted for one of the two main candidates. Whatever you chose to do on election day, I want to ask you to think about some things.

This campaign was contemptible. It was not an exchange of ideology or plans for the future of the country. It was a gladiatorial arena of personal attacks and angry rebuttals. Christians who supported either candidate found themselves trying to defend their candidate, explaining away words and actions which are anathema to servants of the Kingdom. It is no wonder that so many followers of Christ had a hard time personally choosing between the two main candidates. When the deciding factor in voting is which candidate will be the least destructive, we have found ourselves in a position that has reached the point of absurdity.

So, looking at such an absurd situation, might I ask you to think about something? Can we all just take a step back and think about our role as followers of Jesus in a society that seems to have left Him behind? Are we doing what Jesus called us to do? Are we following the example of the early Church as they sought to follow after Christ? My gut feeling is that we are not.

Jesus did not call us to be political activists. He did not call us to avoid persecution. Please forgive the imagery, but He did not call His bride to prostitute herself by getting into bed with political parties for the purpose of gaining power and influence. And that is what we are doing when we give our focus to earthly kingdoms over our heavenly Kingdom. Brett McCracken recently wrote, “The word ‘evangelical’ no longer has anything to do with faithfully following Jesus Christ and advancing his kingdom.” That is certainly the view that many outside the Kingdom have of evangelicals. They look upon evangelicals as a political movement whose members happen to share some common faith points.

What DID Jesus call His followers to do? He called us to obey Him (John 14:15), to love each other (John 13:35) and to make more followers (Matthew 28:19). So I ask you to think about this, does our focus on politics fulfill those things which Jesus has called us to do? Is there a possibility that our political activities DISTRACT us from what He has called us to do?

I ask that you consider these questions, but you have probably already guessed my feelings on this matter. I believe we have replaced discipleship with political action. For over 30 years, the American Church has become more and more political. The results of this politicization are a nation that is more immoral than ever, a Church that makes little impact in our communities, and believers whose lifestyle choices differ little from those outside of the Church. Studies show we are divided and practically illiterate when it comes to Scripture and the history of God’s interaction with humanity.

How do we get back to what Jesus called us to? How do we refocus on BEING righteous rather than trying to legislate righteousness? How do we return to our duties as soldiers of the Kingdom rather than getting entangled in the civilian affairs of the politics of this world? I’ll be honest and tell you I don’t have the answers. But I am on a journey to find them. So far, I can say with a measure of confidence, that part of the answer involves looking at politics in a different light. Politics is not my hope, it is not my calling. In so many cases, politics is the world’s attempt to find temporary answers to eternal problems. I need to stop exerting so much energy on temporary solutions when I know the One who has the everlasting answers.

Isaiah 31:1 says, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD.”

For too long, we the Church have looked to Egypt for help, or we have married the LORD and Egypt together so much so that we cannot tell them apart. I’m not saying Christians shouldn’t vote or shouldn’t pay taxes or shouldn’t be concerned about issues in our culture and our community.  And certainly governments can and should provide help for its citizens. What I am saying is that we need to stop looking to Egypt as the focus of our passion. We need to stop looking at politics for the answers and realize that it usually distracts us from being a part of God’s answer.

In 2017, my church and I will be taking a journey to refocus on becoming a church that matches the character of the New Testament Church. I hope to record our progress and the mistakes we make on this journey. I know that part of that journey is taking a step back from the politics of the world so that we can focus on the power of the Kingdom. The steps we take on this journey may be hard, and few will be as difficult as stepping back from our focus on politics. We will stumble, but we will get back up again. Our purpose will be to keep in step with the Holy Spirit on the path God has chosen for us. My hope is that others may learn from our mistakes and successes. Any successes along our journey will be completely due to the grace shown to us by the work of Jesus in our lives as a Church. May we decrease so that the cross of Christ may increase.