pilgrim in a foreign land

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Quote for the day

Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days or never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.

~ Jerry Bridges

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

If you have a problem with that...

In this short video segment you will see Perry Nobels who is the pastor of New Springs Church in Anderson, SC. After a mix of coffins, AC/DC the rock group and who knows what else he is ready to address the congregation. It seems that he is a little defensive about the potential emails that may be sent to him after this service. Instead of a compassionate plea filled with humility Perry says "110 people met Jesus" and then "IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT..." He looks like he may be ready to throw down right there on stage if someone from the crowd were to challenge him. A little iron cage fight with no rules right there with Pastor Perry. I really don't understand the language from a theological perspective that "110 people met Jesus." I sorry if this sounds a bit sarcastic but maybe it's because it is not Biblical language. Didn't the devil meet Jesus in the desert? Is this the strategy of these "new" churches to have people walk the aisles, sign cards, raise hands and meet Jesus. And then they leave never experiencing the saving work of the Holy Spirit, think they are saved and instead are "false" converts that the church can publish on their blog site like a notch on their spiritual belts. Just listen to Perry's response as to what he thinks may be a problem with the service and see if he doesn't sound like he might have a chip on his shoulder. Should we send a group email? Just kidding!

From the Political Grapevine

McLaren McEmerge

For systematic theology we had to give various book reports. The book I read was by Bryan McLaren which is called a "New Kind of Christian." I tried to be fair and non-biased when I read it but must admit it made my evangelical blood boil. Here is that report as a follow up to this blog article McLaren McEmerge - over 1 million emergers!

The book is called, “A new kind of Christian” by Bryan McLaren.
It was helpful in opening my eyes to the postmodern Church and how many of those who attend think about the gospel. As you look around it doesn’t take long to see how the postmodern movement has incorporated a large following. In reading I was able to see the why and how I differ from this thinking today in our church in Charlotte. It was also helpful because as much as I disagree with Bryan McLaren it pushed me far outside of my own spiritual paradigms and caused me to reconsider and reexamine the way I think about and do ministry. There are many today who are searching and looking for and new and improved Christianity that was not the same as their parents. The book helped me see that method in ministry is preferred over the message in ministry with Bryan McLaren and many of those in the post-modern church.

The book had many weaknesses and my word picture would be like that of a Coca Cola that one pours into a drinking glass. If you pour it directly in and fast then foam will start to rise up from the coke and should you drink that it will quickly go away because of no substance. It a nutshell, that is how I would evaluate this book by Bryan McLaren. The basic problem is Bryan’s fictional character Neo is starting to mentor a very fundamental evangelical pastor who is tired, bored and totally burn out on church in general. The book through this fictional character Neo builds a straw man of a typical Bible reading and Bible believing modern Christian as opposed to one that postmodern. He portrays the modern evangelical as a 21st Century Pharisee and is constantly talking about old ways of perceiving and doing things in the church. In part you have Bryan McLaren writing through this character Neo to deconstruct this straw man and then go through the rebuilding of this person as the new kind of Christian which is of course postmodern. When he talks about those who would take a hermeneutical approach to Scripture he concludes with statements like the following: “As a result, the Bible itself begins to vaporize, to disappear, leaving the desired residue of systematic theology, which is all you ever wanted anyway.” Bryan is so intent in telling us how to get outside our own paradigms of word centered theology and main stream thinking that he does not realize the very paradigms that he has formed along the way. I was a former sales consultant and was giving a talk about a man who told a story about oatmeal. He said that everyday of his life when he was young his mother used to give him oatmeal every morning through his entire childhood. He said that as a 55 year old man today he has never had another bowl of oatmeal in 40 years. The rest of the class looked at him and said don’t you see the problem the first 15 years you mother made you eat it and the last 40 years you have been rebelling – the fact is you don’t know whether you like oatmeal or not! To some degree that is exactly how I read this book by Bryan McLaren. It really is like the cotton candy you get at the fair, it looks good but when you take a bite it is quickly gone. I mean if you were to ask this guy his favorite color I think he would say plaid.

I am bothered by the way Bryan McLaren thinks and expresses his philosophy in this book and therefore I would not recommend it. There is little if any talk about the cross, blood, atonement, sin, redemption or suffering all of which the Bible has much to say. Even the title of the book is offensive as if we need a new kind of Christian. And isn’t that redundant if we read correctly
2 Corinthians 5:17 -Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. So then shouldn’t McLaren’s book be titled a new kind of a new creature? He overuses words like journey, process, conversation, and feeling. It seems that he is on a campaign against taking a firm stand and calling something either black or white. I really do think his favorite color if he were to be honest would be gray. This kind of book does appeal to the Christian today who has been saturated in a media driven, technology infiltrated and consumer driven environment. Bryan is going to try and convince the old school Christians (which is everyone that has not moved into a postmodern mode) that there is something beyond what they have ever known or seen in their Christian life. But when you read the book you find that Bryan is trying to jazz up some of the relational basics and play down the importance of a good fundamental understanding of doctrine. Once again I would not recommend the book nor Bryan’s new kind of Christianity!

Preaching and Teaching God's Word

Dr. John MacArthur has faithfully taught and preached God's word at Grace Community Church in California for almost 40 years. In the previous blog post I gave an example of the "new" type of preaching and teaching. The new style wants to do away with theology and doctrine. All we need to do is live out Jesus, and bring people into a church environment with exciting music where they can be evangelized in a culturally relevant way. Hmmm...
It may help to hear what John MacArthur thinks about this "new" way to do church and ministry. Therefore I have included an excerpt of a question and answer session recently done at the Cove in Asheville, NC. in which he was asked about the emerging church.

Please listen carefully in lieu of all that is going on around us in the "seeker-friendly" and "emerging" church philosophies of our day.
WHAT IS THE EMERGING CHURCH?

Mega Church Preaching "101"

If you want to have a large growing church then here is what and how you need to preach. Though this only occupies 46 seconds it won't take you long to learn the style and content. There is no longer any need for deep growth in God's word and discipleship. Just bring your friends, neighbors and family members to hear this evangelistic message. This is the truth spoken in love - right? In the last few seconds he mentions that he isn't normally this mean but his wife is out of town. Don't those words sound similar to Adam in the garden when he blamed Eve for sin that he was responsible?

Recently I attended a conference where Dr. John MacArthur talked about this "new" message that is now so popular in the emerging church movement. Folks in the new "mega-church" you don't need to read or study your Bibles you just need to go out there and live Christ out in front of everyone you meet. Also bring them to this kind of church service with energetic music and solid Bible teaching that tells them to get off their fat butts.

The Emerging "Lurch" movement

From our friends at TBNN blog site;

They might be "creepy" and "kooky, mysterious and spooky," but lately they've been frustrated and discouraged. Recently a growing number of monsters all around the world have become increasingly dissatisfied with traditional monsterdom and have begun to look elsewhere to discover more about themselves and who they are.

The trend began about five years ago when Lurch, best known for his portrayal of the character "Lurch" on the Addams Family TV show, emerged stating that he was "tired" of playing the traditional roll of a monster in today's postmodern and changing world.

"Traditional monsterdom has got to change" said Lurch. "We're tired of being told what a monster should be like. Maybe I don't want to walk around all stiff-necked, grunting all the time. Maybe I'm tired of scaring little kids to death, or creeping out the neighbors. I know that those have been the traditional views of what a monster should be, but I don't think it can be that black and white anymore. It's time to start challenging these views. Conversation needs to start in these areas."

When Lurch made his feelings public he had no idea the stir that they would cause. Soon, several hundred monsters came out in support of Lurch's movement, then several thousand. Now tens of thousands of monsters have joined what has become known as "The Emerging Lurch Movement."

"We meet wherever and whenever we can now" said Lockhart Schmidt, a zombie from Tennessee. "It used to be that we'd always have to meet out in the woods somewhere in the middle of the night with a full moon and fog and all that jazz. Now a group of us will get together on a Friday night at Starbucks or a local pub and have a beer or two...or five while we talk about what it means to be a follower of monsterdom."

"The whole point of this is that each of us must figure out for his or her or its self what it means to be a monster" said Lurch. "We don't try to give all of the answers. Each one must find his or her or its own path, and come to his or her or its own conclusions. Is that messy thinking? Absolutely, but we cherish the messiness. Doing monstrology is messy business. I don't think we can simply systematize a whole philosophy like some try to do."

As the movement spreads, groups plan to hold various activities to attract more participants from the monster world.

"We're trying to reach out to those who have been possibly hurt by traditional monster groups" said Lurch. "We want to help them break free of the mold. We want to setup meditation seminars, and possibly build some labyrinths for people to walk, or even bring in some Gurus to do Yoga or something. We are encouraging monsters everywhere to explore their own paths as followers of monsterdom."

Cookies and the glory of God

Two people are in a cookie ministry within the local church. The first person is fairly young and energetic and has been part of the cookie ministry for sometime. He on this particular day is trying to decide if he will come on Saturday to participate in the cookie baking. As he ponders the decision he finally concludes ok I'll go, first because I might get some brownie points with the leadership and second since I am good at it I can instruct and then get applauded by others. So he comes but in his heart and to others around him, he grumbles, gripes and complains. He criticizes the plan for the ministry and then talks about his experience and how they used to do this in his former church. But he comes away from the event as very instructive and productive, the cookies are excellent and in large number.
When God looks down from heaven on the heart of this person what does He see? God basically got no glory from this event because it wasn't done in a humble dependance on Him. There was very little joy in this person's attitude.

The second person was older and had arthritis in hands and knees so that walking around was a huge chore. This person has always loved going and cooking, sorting, and fellowshipping with others in the ministry. Now before he goes he prays that the pain will let up so that he can be a part of the cookie ministry team. The next day there is no pain and he goes to bake cookies. He is very slow, inefficient and his production is a quarter of what the first person in this story was able to accomplish. However those around this person are constantly being encouraged, uplifted and prayed for during the time together. The second person is depending on God and not self.
Now when God looks down from heaven on the heart of this person what does He see? Well of course you know that He sees a person who whether this person eats or drinks he does so to the glory of God.

When you take on a task in ministry, work or home, which one of these people do you most identify? Is it about your glory or God's glory?

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

SCL Guide to Food Prayers:

This guy goes by the name "Prodigal Jon" and has the blog site called "Stuff Christians Like." He really has a good sense of humor and thought I would post the SCL guide to food prayers.

1. The Stand Up Rule
If you have to stand up while eating, you don't have to pray. Regardless of what you are eating, standing up makes the food feel very light and insignificant. It's impossible to cut anything while standing too. You end up just spearing chunks of fruit or meat awkwardly while trying to keep the plate from tipping over onto the carpet, further upsetting the hosts whose dog you just made to have an accident on the couch because you got it too excited at the Christmas Eve party. That just got personal, but trust me, no prayer required here. Use this easy rhyme to remember: "if you can't sit, prayer forget it, if you have to stand, God understands."

2. Wedding food
This rule actually works for any big event where one person prays for the whole room. Listen carefully to that person's prayer. If it's good, dig in. If it's a little weak, you better double up and pray for yourself just to be sure. No offense to the other person, but it's better safe than sorry. Plus, it makes you look extra holy which is never a bad thing if you're single and trying to meet a bridesmaid.

3. Drive in
This actually depends on which fast food restaurant you go to. If you go to Chick-fil-A or In-n-Out you probably don't have to pray because those are Christian restaurants and the holiness is applied like barbecue sauce to the food items. You're covered. Taco Bell, Burger King and other restaurants are questionable. At the bare minimum, turn your back in the car while they use that bean and guacamole gun at Taco Bell and say a prayer. Chances are you'll need it. (By the way, if you're partaking in Taco Bell's "Fourth Meal" or the food they feed you between dinner and breakfast, you better pray. Lots. You've just introduced a grilled, toasted, roasted, 17 layer, bean bandalero to your stomach at 2 in the morning.)

4. Progressive Dinner
A progressive dinner is where you travel with people from house to house having one course at each. The question is, where and when do you pray? Is it before the first house or at each house? Good question. I pray at the beginning and then at each house that serves something that might need a little God. When I used to be a bag boy at a grocery store we called it "spot mopping." You didn't mop the whole floor, just the few areas that needed it. Same thing applies here. If one house has a fresh manadarin spinach salad, hold the prayer. If the next one has some sort of homemade sausage that may or may not be squirrel, you better start praying.

5. Gas Station Snacks
Nougat? No prayer. Beef jerky? Depends. If you do regular jerky, no problem, you don't have to pray. If you do that jerky, cheese marriage thing where there's a tube of orange cheese spooning the jerky, you better pray. Or if the logo on the bag is a guy in overalls or a barrel with rope suspenders, you should pray.

6. Before or After Appetizers
The best way to get a waiter or waitress to come to your table is to start praying. They'll materialize out of thin air like some sort of prayer interrupting phantoms. I suggest praying in the parking lot before you get in the restaurant. That way, you eliminate any possible chance of the staff trying to crash your prayer party.

7. Eating contests
I weigh about 160. A few years ago, a coworker challenged me to an eating contest at Fuddrucker's, a hamburger joint. I accepted and ended up doing just fine in the "1lb throwdown." I was able to stomach a one pound cheeseburger without a problem. But then he suggested we do a "2lb showdown." Have you ever seen two pounds of meat on a plate? It was gross. It was like eating two 1lb meat frisbies. I finished it, but ended up getting the meat sweats and eventually throwing up at work. I am dumb. If you ever find yourself in an eating contest, please pray. Constantly.

I hope today when you sit down for lunch or dinner you'll consider these pearls of wisdom.