Christian Recession- Factor #4

1. From Bankrupt to Solvent-
   1. Quotes from Chapter 4:
      1. “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it (Proverbs 27:12)”.
      2. Our ministry model has become overly dependent on dollars (p. 85). Somewhere along the way, unofficially and probably with good intentions, out ministry leaders began counting dollars instead of disciples (p.85). The newest generations, weaned by a consumer culture both inside and outside the church, have little concept of consistent or sacrificial giving (p. 89). Our churches and parachurches are unprepared for the 46% drop in donations that we will likely see in the next fourteen years (copyright 2013). 17% of Christians say they tithe- but only 3% actually give 10% or more of their income to the Lord’s work (p. 94). It is the spiritual consequence of our failure at discipleship (p. 95).

 

1. Quotes from Chapter 10:
   1. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Luke 12:34)”.
   2. The fossil fuel crisis may be centuries away. But the evangelical fuel crisis- the crisis of donations – is already upon us (p. 168). But I the models and mandates of the New Testament, we find four practical ways to do more ministry with less money (169). Hybrid ministries don’t require as much money because they’ve been careful about output (building and other overhead costs), and they also have an alternate energy source (non-paid staff, p. 170). Conservation: avoid debt commitments beyond then next ten years (p. 174). Preparation: Teach mature givers about the recession. Create legacy vehicles, such as bequeathals or ministry trusts, so their gifts can outlive them (p. 175). Abandon: Disciple the church in life surrender and biblical tithing…The financial crisis is not a shortage of funds. It is a shortage of commitment (p. 178). Ministries that implement all four of these tactics, with right heart motives, may have more funds than they know what to do with – even as formerly established churches and ministries struggle through the next decade (p. 180).

 

1. Reflection: I was a pastor for almost 10 years in a small church in Pennsylvania. It was a great experience and they treated me and my family very well. We lived in the parsonage and they provided full-time financial support to the point where I suggested more than once that they stop giving me raises. As much as they supported me and I tried to say and do whatever God wanted me to, there was a fear which reminded me that strong preaching could result in an offended church and loss of income. I did not leave full-time ministry for that reason but now that I know how it feels to be a part-time pastor and have “secular” employment, I prefer it that way. Add to that, now, this book which predicts less giving in the future, AND, more importantly, examples from Jesus and Paul, who put in place alternate sources of income, bi-vocational pastors seem to be the way of the future. We should not be surprised that God could use these pressures to push the church to live out what we say we believe about the priesthood of all believers and for pastors to focus on equipping them through the ministry of the word and prayer. Of course God should prune the churches in the most prosperous country in the world by testing our relationship with money!
2. Yes, I’m aware that I’m still afraid of losing my income. I get nervous about the possibility of being falsely accused of discrimination just because I’m a Christian and could lose my job or license (even though no one is supposed to discriminate against me based on my religion). These chapters really push us to acknowledge that we have lacked commitment. My family and my church have done well with debt but, God help us, I don’t know any other way to put a kid through college these days than to take out loans that will probably take all of 10 years to pay off! We are still giving 10% to church joyfully, and hope that our witness and example influence others but keeping the church out of debt sounds REALLY important in this generation. The house-church movement has been fascinating to me while at the same time I have been unimpressed with the mega-church movement. It seems to me that China or Africa could teach us something about genuine discipleship and that with a lot less dependence on money. I would love to see a church of small groups and families worshipping and making disciples in homes and cafe’s and book stores and libraries and schools and mechanic garages and farms rather than another huge church where people come to see a weekly professional performance and go home until next week. God help us. Amen.

Christian Recession- Factor #3

1. From “Divided” to “United”-
   1. Quotes from Chapter 3:
      1. “If a house is divided against itself, the house cannot stand (Mark 3:25)”.
      2. Our great strength in the 20^th century was our unity, our ability to agree to disagree and then work together in Christ’s name for the gospel. We are losing that cohesion (p.65). With good intentions, many evangelicals have elevated political positions to the level of spiritual or theological orthodoxy (p. 68). Younger, coastal, highly educated, and metropolitan evangelicals feel more and more strongly that we should abandon political rhetoric and elevate the gospel by focusing on Jesus’ message to a post-Christian culture that is not home (p.77). Theologically conservative evangelicals will either take a bunker mentality and allow the movement to drift into pluralism, or they will push against these changes and purify the movement hopefully in a spirit of grace and love (p. 78).

1. Quotes from Chapter 9:
   1. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3)”.
   2. I am calling evangelical leaders, and young leaders especially, to join in solidifying a unified national evangelical movement (p.155). The National Association of Evangelicals Statement of Faith, the Apostles Creed, the Westminster Confession, and other common creeds outline the widely accepted evangelical essentials (p. 155). Without clear boundaries, we have no true power or unity (p. 156). We evangelicals believe Scripture is authoritative, true, understandable, and infallible. This is an essential (p. 156). Forward-thinking evangelicals will respect the political diversity within the body of Christ today. They will intentionally avoid associating Christ’s message with any one political party or politician (p. 163). If evangelicalism has any hope of regrouping and becoming a nimbler, more focused, and spiritually capable movement, we must learn again to unify, despite differences, within the essentials (p. 165).
2. Reflection:
   1. I am old enough to remember the Republican evangelical alliance in the 1990’s and young enough to have wondered if it was a bad idea. I am no longer Republican (or Democrat) but had been previously and didn’t understand how people could call themselves Christian and belong to the Democratic party, mainly because they supported abortion. I still wonder about that but now understand better that there are other important biblical issues that also need our attention (e.g. poverty, environment, racism, etc.). I think Jesus would be politically involved is he were an American today, but it would not be his top priority and he would probably be Independent. In other words, I agree with the author that that church should not serve a political party. Nor should the church abandon the political arena.
   2. I am also old enough to have experienced different theologies which impact the issue of unity. I have high respect for those called Fundamental Separatists because they hold God’s word is very high esteem, are determined to obey Him, and actually have a robust biblical explanation for their lifestyle. I have also experienced the value of interdenominational relationships for community service, worship, charity and outreach. Those who emphasize teaching need those who emphasize works of service. Those who prefer order do well to worship with those who welcome spontaneity, emotion and freedom of the Spirit. Those who have only been taught dispensational pre-millennialism do well to learn the literal method of interpretation which leads to post-millennial hope. Yet I have also experienced unity among community churches which resulted in a preacher speaking at a high school baccalaureate who perverted the gospel to the point where students were told they were the light of the world without any mention of faith, belief, confession or repentance. Having studied historical theology, I see the value of the Creeds and agreeing to disagree over the non-essentials but 1 Corinthians 11:19 says there needs to be division at times to show who has God’s approval. On that point I think the author’s recommendation is good: As long as we can agree on the authority, truth, understandability and infallibility of God’s word then we can unite. And unite we must if Jesus’ prayer in John 17 is to be fulfilled.

Christian Recession- Factor #2

“Hated” but “Good”-

A. Quotes from Chapter 2: Hated

1. …the ‘prince of this world (John 12:31)’ is advancing…
2. One professor and social worker from Arizona State University, Dr. David Hodges, suggests that the present academic system is inadvertently training “prejudice against Evangelicals” into social workers (p. 48). Ten years after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and as Islamic extremists continue bombings and shootings around the world, the teachers of our children’s teachers view Islam more favorably (78%) than they view evangelical (52%) Christianity (p.48). To understand the Bible literally, to believe that homosexual sex is a sin, is political and career suicide in the 21^st century America (p. 56).

B. Quotes from Chapter 8: Good

1. “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God…For it is God’s will that by doing good deeds you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men (1Peter2:12, 15)”.
2. Living in a pagan and hypersexual culture may be new and frightening to us, but it was the norm for New Testament churches (p. 137). We must suspend judgement, demonstrate unconditional acceptance, and anticipate that well be misunderstood (p. 140). We have, in many cases, treated the souls in our mission field as if they were the spiritual enemy- rather than hostages we are called to liberate from the enemy (p. 142). Don’t focus on changing behavior. Focus on changing relationship to God through Christ (p. 144).

 

C.  Reaction:

1. I don’t remember the author talking about how or why the church failed to create or maintain Christian culture in America. Perhaps it is implied in these descriptions. We let our children be discipled by humanistic schools which taught humanistic morality and a humanistic worldview. We were told the Bible doesn’t claim to be authoritative on topics of science and history but only on salvation and general moral principles like love. We accepted the separation of church and state because of political pressure (fear, discomfort) and theological pessimism (dispensationalism). Why polish brass on a sinking ship? We need to get back to the authority of Scripture, victory of Jesus and sacrificial discipleship.

2. It’s ironic but I am thrilled to remember that Jesus and His disciples lived in a pagan and hypersexualized culture. The Gospels and Epistles really are sufficient for equipping believers for every good work (2Tim.3:16). We need a new boldness in preaching, dare I say, “Like the old days”, when believers understood that the Bible was God’s “users manual” for all human life on earth. Jesus and Paul gave us examples of how to live and speak to those outside the faith with grace and respect even when others responded viciously. I can “suspend judgement” with the understanding that Jesus’ way is to “take my yoke upon you and learn from Me”. The great commission starts with baptism (including water and baptism of the Holy Spirit) then is followed by “teach them to obey everything I commanded you”. God forgive us for focusing on behavior before new birth.

Christian Recession- Factor #1

1. From being “Inflated (numbers)” to instead “Re-valuing (numbers)”. I am combining chapter 1 and chapter 7 so that we can see the problem and solution together.

Quotes from Chapter 1- Inflated:

Romans 12:3- “Think of yourself with sober judgement”.

The Evangelical church in the US is not nearly as large as we’ve been told (p.21). We’re talking about churches and individuals that believe the salvation by faith alone gospel (p.24). By multiple accounts evangelical believers are between 7 and 9 % of the US population (p.26). In short, the vast majority of those who self-identify as Christian are NOT Christians by the evangelical definition (p.28). We will also see that the evangelical percentage is slowly shrinking- because we are losing our own kids and failing to convert relative to population growth (p.35).

Quotes from Chapter 7- Re-valuing:

2 Corinthians 12:19- “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”.

Chesterton- “Christianity has died and risen again many times; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave” (p.123). Chuck Swindoll (preaching on Jeremiah)- “You don’t minister to a dying nation without feeling the death pangs in yourself” (p.125). We do well to acknowledge that we are week…that we don’t have it all figured out…that many of our best efforts are not only failing but backfiring (p.128). Hudson Taylor- “We have given too much attention to methods and machinery and to resources and too little to the Source of power, the filing of the Holy Spirit” (p.130).

Reaction:

I have been grieving gradually for about 25 years since I left a small rural town in western NY over the loss of Christian culture. It used to be normal, in my small town, for most of the community to believe the Bible, even if they did not go to church and to honor the 10 commandments as moral principles. Of course people were immoral (sinful) but there was still shame attached to sin and most people tried to keep sin hidden. It’s frustrating now to see so much immorality celebrated, truth rejected and civility deteriorated, especially when I can remember how peaceful it felt in a relatively Christian culture in the recent past. The author said there are not as many Christians in this country as we think and I suspect that such has been true since before I was born and is getting worse.

The reasons WHY we lost the culture are probably many but the author does a good job of simplifying the solution to repentance. We Christians need to resume a humble posture of need, weakness and dependence on the Holy Spirit while turning away from church growth methods. American business methods are not going to strengthen the church. But the Biblical church will strengthen business. Government is not going to advance the gospel. But the Biblical gospel will transform the government.

Practically speaking I need to rest in the Lord by focusing more on my personal opportunities for evangelism and discipleship. Watching the news, for example, has little redeeming value. But thinking about times I have been able to bring God into personal conversation with inmates (I work in a prison), co-workers, family and church members is very encouraging.

A friend of mine recently confessed sin to me and we now check in with each other for mutual support. Who does that?! I volunteer as a youth group leader and one young man asked me to be a mentor. God does that! My daughter prayed before dinner recently and it was deep and mature for a 17 year old. A Muslim aquaintance was expressing depression recently and I told him about the Bible revealing all humanity being created in the image of God as evidence of universal human value. Then he said, “I guess I need to think more about that”! Hopefully I will also get to tell him the rest of the gospel but these are evidences that Holy Spirit is still at work in Christian families, friendships and vocations of America.

While I do believe that this country used to be a generally Christian nation, it is no longer true and, although sad, the sooner we can acknowledge that the church has failed to teach and live Biblical Christianity, the sooner we can return to personally making disciples in the power of the Holy Spirit. Then the Kingdom of God will come on America “as it is in heaven”.

Christian Decline

I think my wife bought this book for me at Christmas or on my birthday. She must have been listening to me complain about the condition of the modern church (which I do way too much) and thought I would appreciate knowing that I was not alone. She was right.

Dickerson presents “6 factors that will crash the American church” and, thankfully, 6 tips on “how to prepare”. In the introduction he says, “Research can open our eyes to the true state of the church, but God alone through the Scriptures can inform our hearts as to how we must correct course”.

Before getting into each of the 6 factors I think it is neat to learn that Dickerson was writing as a successful local church pastor. He warns the church as someone who loves the church and, ironically, his church was doing quite well in 2013 when he wrote the book.

At a glance, the book is divided into 12 chapters with 6 problems identified in the first 6 chapters and 6 corresponding solutions in 7-12.

6 Trends of Decline	6 Solutions for Recovery
1.      Inflated	7.      Re-valuing
2.      Hated	8.      Good
3.      Dividing	9.      Uniting
4.      Bankrupt	10.   Solvent
5.      Bleeding	11.   Healing
6.      Sputtering	12.   Re-igniting

 

Taken one at a time I hope to deal with each of these chapters devotionally. I love the church and want to do my part so that the Kingdom of God may come “on earth as it is in heaven”.

Blogenstein

I am thinking about reanimating my blog. Is it even worth writing a blog anymore? Is there a way to link it with Facebook or other modern social media platforms? Do I even want to?

For a while I have felt frustrated by the lack of thoughtful conversations particularly in the church. We are willingly isolated these days and when we do get together we talk about superficial things. As an introvert I love being isolated but I have also felt the soul killing effects of too much me-time.

So I have tried to promote small groups, men’s group, home groups, Bible study, Sunday school, etc. and failed. Honestly, I don’t want more personal relationships…but I need them.  That’s God’s “great commandment”- not to just love Him but also my  neighbor as myself. I cannot experience the fullness of God’s love until I love His children/church deeply. Virtual relationships can not make mature Christians but maybe they can supplement face-to-face communication.

I’m going to try to link this with my Facebook page and see if anyone notices. In the days to follow I intend to post thoughts on a book I read called “The Great Evangelical Recession”. It talks about the American church’s recent decline and what we can do about it.

Talking with God: Noah

This week we considered what God might teach us about prayer through the life of Noah. I was impressed with the importance of teaching our children how to approach God as Noah did. He was only able to save his wife and 3 sons (with wives) from the flood but that was more than enough for God to repopulate the earth.

We know that God had already revealed worship through the faithful use of symbols like animal blood and offerings of produce because of the prior history of Cain & Abel. Certainly Noah practiced confession of sin and faith in the promise of God given to Eve because Noah set up an altar after he came out of the Ark. He taught his children how to pray that way.

We also need to make it a high priority to teach our children how to confess sin, worship God and praise Him with various offerings. I think dinner is a great time to review “the Lord’s Prayer” for the benefit of anyone who eats with us. Our children and grandchildren need us to teach them the meaning of “forgive us our debts” as well as “give us our daily bread”. By doing so at every meal, we will also offer knowledge of salvation for non-Christians who eat with us.

In the end, which Jesus said would be like the days of Noah by the way, those who worship God the way He taught us to, with faith and obedience, will have the assurance of being saved from God’s final judgment too. I’m doing it. Are you?

Talking with God: Cain & Abel

Continuing our topic of prayer, we looked at lessons to be learned from our famous sibling rivalry. On one occasion the sons of Adam and Eve paused to worship God with offerings from their work. Cain was the older brother and did the work of a farmer so he brought some of his grain. Abel was a rancher so he brought fat portions from the first fruits of his flocks. God approved of Abel’s offering but not Cain’s. So, long story short, Cain killed his brother.

When it comes to lessons on prayer there are many eternal truths we could remember from this history. I decided to focus in on Cain’s feeling of anger. God focused in on it too, saying, “Why are you angry?” The rest of God’s conversation with Cain makes it clear that Cain knew what God expected of him but he disobeyed on purpose. Rather than admitting he was wrong Cain blamed his brother instead then killed him.

I confess that I like to blame the government for many of my problems. I like to blame lots of people for the condition of the world. I get angry. I haven’t killed anyone but I’ve thought  about it. Because the curse of sin has affected all of us we are all prone to blame others rather than take responsibility for ourselves. My discontent with the economy is a symptom of my own envy. Our anger about the evils in our world should  reveal how little  we’ve done to save our neighbors from their sins.

This is a good lesson on Memorial Day too. Our forefathers and mothers sacrificed a lot to protect our God-given right to freedom and the pursuit of the  common good (i.e. “happiness”). They accepted personal responsibility and acknowledged the sinfulness of humanity according to the God of the Bible. Our prayers should include significant time to judge our own hearts and thank God for the faith of those who went before us.

Talking with God like Adam & Eve

Our church says that prayer is the most important thing we can do in life. I agree and I hope that our walk matches our talk. In an effort to help, I decided to preach about prayer for the next few weeks.

Starting with Adam and Eve, I was impressed by the directly personal conversation that God initiated with them.  God started the conversation. He didn’t wait for Adam and Eve to initiate. God asked them, “Where are you?” and “Who told you that?” and “What have you done?”

It occurred to me that our prayer requests are usually so impersonal. We ask God to heal our neighbor’s cough or give the president wisdom but talk so little about our own relationship with God. I am determined to make our church directly personal in prayer so we will be more like God. That’s kind of scary but I think encounters with God are supposed to be a little scary.

Doubting

This week I talked about Jesus’ response to “doubting” Thomas near the end of John’s gospel. I’m glad Jesus didn’t get mad at him because I have had my times of doubting too. For example, I have often doubted God’s willingness to communicate with me like He did with his prophets in the old days. God spoke, apparently, out loud to Elijah one day when he was hiding in a cave. I wish God would speak out loud to me.

A pastor buddy of mine said, just last week, “if you want to hear God speak then read the Bible and if you want to hear His audible voice then read it out loud”. Funny. And quite true. But that’s not the only way God speaks. For example, God gave Peter a vision. Come to think of it, God communicated a truth to me visually during a time of prayer some years ago. That was sweet.

I’m not going to describe it here but I do believe that God still loves to reveal Himself to doubters, just like He did with Thomas, so they will believe that Jesus is the Son of God. The question is, are you looking and listening?