A matter of logistics?

Just a thought regarding churches and small groups.

For the record, I am neither pro- nor anti-house churches. I think they do so many things well that the institutional church currently is not, but I do see, from my humble perspective, many good things about the American church as it is currently organized. Often larger churches can function more efficiently financially, have better resources, and connect needs to provision more easily. And I really think it would be a waste for Britt Merrick to teach only 25 people every Sunday. And of course, it is much easier to ensure that orthodox doctrine is being preached under the prevailing system.

But at the same time, there is so much in our consumerist Christianity to hate (by the way, “consumeristic” is not a word. “ist-ic” is redundant). Mission in America is dying. Discipleship, accountability, corporate prayer, caring for other Christians, caring for non-Christians- these are all integral pieces of the Church that are falling apart here. We can see it happening around us.

The institutional church’s response: Home groups. Awesome. Except it’s so difficult to get people to go, even when pastors repeat again and again how “essential” they are. But I don’t blame the congregation for not getting the message when… it’s not really essential for being a part of the “church”. It still appears to be more of a bonus to going on Sunday. And I know some local churches have as many as 50 people in a home group! That’s simply not an ideal setting for fellowship. Again, not essential.

This almost sounds too cute, but what if the answer is somewhere between the “home group” and the “cell church”? What if we maintained much of our current church structure, but moved small groups (fellowship) to Sunday mornings? Sunday- the Christian day of rest- can return to where it began: A group of followers meeting together to worship, pray, and share communion together without all of the work and hurriedness of a typical Sunday service. But corporate teaching and worship can be maintained on Tuesday night. Or Wednesday night. Or either.

I think what matters is getting to a place where it is the fellowship groups who make up the “church”, not the “church” broken down into fellowship groups.

Seven good reasons why it’s so important that we figure out how to get Christians to meet in smaller groups.

Grace is a free gift. You only have to accept it.

Rewritten: We are justified by faith in Christ. This idea is so clear in the New Testament. The question that occurred to me, that I haven’t recalled the answer to, is: How (or why) does the act of “accepting” Christ’s free gift legitimize(?) the gift?

Why are we so okay with hell?

I went to Adorn last Friday night because a friend of mine made me go. Chris gave (what I thought was a very good) sermon on God’s wrath and how powerful it is. And just. I got in the car, knowing that my friend would have good thoughts on what had just been discussed. He hates the idea of hell. He was okay with the sermon, but still couldn’t get it to make sense in his head how hell is okay. How God is okay with it. Why we are okay with it. I’m beginning to share his empathy. How can we not care more about those who are ‘destined’ for the worst place imaginable? Forever.

And I don’t just mean ‘why don’t we try harder to spread the good news’? Though this is an EXCELLENT objection. But how are we not more distressed knowing that our friends, loved ones, relatives, people we’ve never met, have such a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE fate? So it got me thinking… is it really fair?

The argument that I have always heard (and heard again from Francis Chan this morning on my iPod) is that it’s okay for some people to go to hell because we all deserve to go to hell. God doesn’t condemn certain people to hell- he condemns us all and then saves some of us. The non-Christian asks, “Well, how is this just?”. And the response is that Jesus died to take our punishment. So all is well in the world. Non-believers will be punished for what they’ve done. Christ was punished for what we do. It’s fair.

But I don’t think that I still like this argument. It’s not fair. It’s just. I’m not a philosopher; I hate semantics. But I think there’s a difference. It’s just because all sin has been atoned for. But the fact that none of us deserve salvation does not make the salvation of an elect few fair.

For example, last Monday at Mantalk I taught on the importance of reading Scripture. I taped a dollar
under the desk in the corner of the room and selected Kobe, Manuel, and Trevor to be my volunteers. I told Kobe that there was a dollar hidden in the room and he had ten seconds to find it. Of course, he didn’t even come close. Who looks under the desk? Manuel. Same thing. Then I gave Trevor a treasure map of the room and told him that he had ten seconds to find the dollar. With the map, he found the dollar. The lesson for the guys was, if finding the dollar is what we want to do, don’t we want to use the map?

But Kobe and Manuel cried foul. They got over it in time to hear me speak about the meaning of the exercise. But they wanted the dollar. Or at least a dollar. They’re twelve. And it’s not fair. To me, I had no problem giving only one kid the dollar. After all, none of them deserved it. So if only one of them got it, then that’s not unfair. But I’m starting to think it is unfair. And God gives some of us maps and some of us he doesn’t give maps.

And I can almost be okay with this. I believe in common grace. We all get some idea of God. I question why I was born the son of Craig Schwartz and not the son of Saddam Hussein. That doesn’t sound quite even. But okay. And why doesn’t God just reveal Himself to us? Well, I’ve always believed the argument that if we were to actually see God, then we wouldn’t really love Him, because He is too good and we wouldn’t have a choice but to follow Him. Okay, I guess I can do that. But why don’t we all get the Paul treatment. Blind in the eyes and a voice from the sky. If anyone deserved hell, it was Paul. Why him? And if God can do it for Him, why can’t He also do it for Saddam Hussein?

And because He is sovereign, if is what He wants to do,… maybe I should just say “okay”? But will I call it fair? I know that I am far from the first to ask this question, but this is always the way that I have understood it, and I don’t think that it still works for me.

Updated: So what should my response be to the idea of hell? Is God good and can choose to allow sinners this destination because it is, in fact, fair? Or is God good and can choose to allow sinners this destination because it is unfair but fairness is not necessarily a part of goodness? Is hell just a trash heap in Palestine? I don’t know.

v. addiction

Ultimately, our yearning for God is the most important aspect of our humanity, our most precious treasure; it gives our existence meaning and direction. It is this desire that Paul spoke of when he tried to explain the unknown God to the Athenians: ‘It is God who gives to all people life and breath and all things… God created us to seek God, with the hope that we might grope after God through the shadows of our ignorance, and find God.’…

From a psychoanalytic perspective, one could say we displace our longing for God upon other things. Behaviorally, we are conditioned to seek objects by the positive and negative reinforcements of our own private experience and by the messages of parents, peers, and culture. Even the briefest look at television and magazine advertising reveals how strongly our culture reinforces attachment to things other than God, and what high value it gives to willful self-determination and mastery. Mediating all the stimuli they receive, the cells of our brains are continually seeking equilibrium, developing patterns of adaptation that constitute what is normal. Thus, the more we become accustomed to seeking spiritual satisfaction through things other than God, the more abnormal and stressful it becomes to look for God directly.

From a more specifically spiritual viewpoint, we naturally seek the least threatening ways of trying to satisfy our longing for God, ways that protect oour sense of personal power and require the least sacrifice. Even when we know that our hunger is for God alone, we will still be looking for loopholes- ways of having our cake and eating it too, ways of maintaining our attachments to things and people while simultaneously trying to deepen our intimacy with God. We seek compromise not because we are evil or conniving, but because of the way we are made; we naturally look for the least painful ways of living. From the standpoint of basic human common sense, this is perfectly reasonable. We look for our ultimate satisfaction in God’s palpable and definable creations instead of looking through them to the hidden, loving face of their Creator.

Full love for God means we must turn to God over and against other things. If our choice of God is to be made with integrity, we must first have felt other attractions and chosen, painfully, not to made them our gods. A mature and meaningful love, then, must say something like, ‘I have experienced other goodnesses, and they are beautiful, but it is You, my heart’s true desire, whom I choose above all.'”

– Gerald G. May, Addiction and Grace

iv. adoration

Sometimes i feel as though i am too far gone. Innocence was too long ago. i am too proud. i have wasted too many chances to behold Him. i will always be selfish. i will never be disciplined. i will never find Him. i will never regain the adoration i was born to feel.

i am not beyond redemption.

Compassion

Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.

That’s a dictionary definition. I’ve been thinking about compassion a lot lately, and why I so often fall short of it. I think that we can miss the mark stoically and wish to alleviate suffering without feeling anything toward our brother or sister. We can miss the mark emotionally and be overwhelmed with sympathy without actually doing anything about it.

I think I mess up because my awareness is so shallow. Deep awareness is what Christ felt when he was ‘moved with compassion’ and what Paul meant when he said to ‘pray without ceasing.’ I can’t claim to have compassion because, though I have the ear of the sovereign God, I choose to think on trivial things over intercession. God asks me to feel, to care, to think, to do, and to pray. Over and over.

iii. now that the world is no longer good enough

This awkward in-between. Because a lack of worldly fulfilment does not force God into a place of prominence. Loving God is not about denying the world. It’s about God being above all else, which is neither meant to be accomplished, nor can it be accomplished, by making everything else less significant. It is about making God more.

I’ve heard it described that to glorify God is not to view Him through a microscope but rather through a telescope. For microscopes attempt to make small things appear bigger than they are. But telescopes seek to see really big things more like the way they actually are. God is not a cell that we must blow up in order to show as worthy. He is a far-away galaxy that we must bring closer.

Succeeding in making the world less is only succeeding in making the world less. The Bible doesn’t teach that we should show such a weak love toward other things that our weak love toward God will be first in our hearts. It teaches that we must love God so much that whatever love we have toward other things is merely a facet of our great love for Him. Defeating the world is one thing. Placing God on His throne is another.

Philippians 2:3

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourself.

This is so difficult for me. I’ve been realizing through a recent conflict the hold that pride has on me. I saw myself angry with someone and asking God, ‘what is my obligation toward this person?’ I was willing to love, but shallowly. I know, this is not love at all. I of course did not ask ‘what is my obligation toward myself?’ It’s assumed within my thought process that I will make sure I am taken care of. Maybe that means winning. Maybe that means losing and showing myself to be a better ‘follower’ of God in my losing. But not losing losing. That’s asking a bit much, isn’t it?

Yet Christ lost lost. He did it. How can i do any less?

 

 

ii. When the world is no longer good enough

I’ve been trying lately to become that person Christ talks about in Matthew 22:37. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” In other words, a Christian.

As I’ve sought to devote myself to godly things, I’ve felt a shift in my heart. Watching TV, following sports, they just leave me more desperate for God. Less at peace. Less rested. Because only in Him will I find rest. Only in Him will I find peace.

Psalm 37:4- Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Discipleship

Some stuff I wrote last weekend…

Mantalk Mission Statement: To make disciples who are prepared to lead lives devoted to knowing Jesus and His teachings, and who are equipped to share His love with the world.

Tenets of Discipleship:

1. Personal encounter/relationship with God.
2. Sound Biblical teaching.
3. Participation in the service of the Kingdom.