How can I work up the nerve to share the gospel with strangers?

A friend asked me: Kevin, how can I work up the nerve to share the gospel with strangers? The following is my work-in-progress reply:

I guess sharing the gospel with strangers (or anyone) is probably difficult due awkward feelings. I know that is one thing that makes it hard for me: the fear of man. I think also American culture today fosters loneliness instead of community. But I believe a few good motivators are out there for personal evangelism.

(1) A motivation to bring glory to God encourages personal evangelism. Sharing the gospel with strangers may be an opportunity to experience the bigness of God. God is pleased with faithful servants. That should bring us joy!

(2) There is also the truth. Jesus commissions his own to go into all the world and make disciples (Matt. 28:19-20; Mk. 16:15; Lk. 24:47-48; Jn. 20:21; Acts 1:8). So obedience is another motivator. “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” (Rom. 10:13-15).

(3) A Spirit-filled love for others is a special motivator. Many Christians flat-out don’t care about the lost. Prayer for and spending time with unbelievers often ignites a passionate desire to personal evangelism.

(4) Knowing that God can radically and sovereignly save any lost and weary sinner at any moment is a tremendous motivator. I know that God alone coverts souls. So I rest in a confidence in the sovereign grace of God and obey.

(5) Rejection is real. One motivator is Matt. 5:11-12: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” God sent prophets and they were killed. He sent Jesus and he was murdered. And he continues to send messengers today; and they are persecuted and reviled. They are like the prophets and Jesus when they are rejected. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.” Eternal rewards, spiritual growth, and future hope in judgment are biblical motivators.

(6) Too often believers are shortsighted. They don’t consider the joys of witnessing a conversion. They don’t think about how heralding the gospel brings fame and glory to Jesus. They typically live in the moment: the moment of the fear of man. The fear of man too often trumps all of the biblical reasons for personal evangelism. This is where I think prayer, personal devotion, and a healthy desire to witness God doing amazing things helps. But I wouldn’t say that it isn’t hard. Rejection. Awkwardness. Fear of man. Individualistic culture. Those are hard things. Yet I love this: Yes the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Cor. 1:18). But you can say to the one perishing: Yes, but you don’t have to perish. “To us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”

I could say more, but these six are a start. Everything I wrote here I too need to work on myself.

Some inspiration for this post came from Alvin Reid’s book, Evangelism Handbook.

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The Danger of Living on Sand Mountain

I live on Sand Mountain.  Some of you who read this will have no idea what I am talking about.  Sand Mountain is a sandstone plateau in Northeast Alabama on which a number of cities lie, including my own, Albertville, AL.  It is really not a mountain at all, at least not in my understanding of mountains having grown up further West where the Rocky Mountains were within driving distance.  There is nothing physically frightening about Sand Mountain, but it is, nonetheless, a dangerous place for a “Christian” to live.  Let me explain.

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

Despite what you have heard, it is not easy to follow Christ in Albertville, AL.  Sure, there are tons of churches here and thousands of people who claim to be Christians and even attend church, but it is not easy to follow Christ here.  No doubt it would be difficult to live as a Christian in Salt Lake City where the vast majority of people are Mormons or Seattle or Maine where the vast majority of people are secular.  However, I think we face a danger just as great and just as grievous as the false gospel of Mormonism or secularism—we here in the Bible-belt face the false gospel of religion or “churchianity” as some call it.

We are surrounded by churches, para-church ministries, Christian radio, prayer at football games, revivals services, ministry conferences, Bible studies, and on and on.  Living in such a church-saturated culture, there is a great danger to attach ourselves to these things such that our hope is in our connection to a church, a connection to a Bible study, or a connection to any other religious activity we participate in rather than our connection to the Lord Jesus Christ by grace alone through faith alone.

The opportunities to plug into religion in Marshall County are bountiful, but how many are genuinely plugging into a single-minded passionate pursuit of the Lord Jesus Christ?  I don’t know the answer to that, but I fear that many more are plugging into religion.  It is this fear that drove me back to the Bible-belt.  I grew up in Amarillo, TX which is very much a part of the Bible belt and I lived there until I went to seminary after graduating college.  I lived in Louisville, KY, a city that in my estimation is not part of the Bible-belt.  Living there was interesting and challenging.  The last two years that I lived there, I lived downtown near the University of Louisville—I could share many stories of how I tried to preach the gospel to very secular-driven people on the campus of U of L and how difficult it was and yet how much joy it brought me, but it seems the Lord has brought me back into the Bible-belt and yet the challenges seem equally great.

I fear that much like these people that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 7:21-23, that many in Marshall County will say on the day of the Lord, “did we not go to church and did we not pray at our football games and before meals and did we not attend revivals and prayer breakfasts and did we not join a church and attend on occasion and did we not go to Bible studies and give to missions?” and the Lord will say, “depart from me I never knew you.”  Let me be clear, the above list of activities are all good things and I wouldn’t condemn anyone for participating in them, but anyone, including myself who puts their hope in their connection to these things is in big trouble.

The connection that we must put our hope in is our connection to Christ who suffered “once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).  And this connection to Christ inevitably and powerfully changes us.  “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  This is the community the Lord has called our church to, not just a connection to religion but a relationship with Christ that transforms us and invites us to a community that fosters real, biblical, Christ-like transformation.

New Covenant Baptist Church (the church the Lord has graced me to serve in) is the most wonderful church I have ever been a part of.  I am continually reminded of how blessed I am to work with the wonderful people here, but it is my prayer for our church that we fight the temptation to put our hope in our good works, our church membership, or our religious activities.  It is my prayer that we would progressively grow into a community of believers whose hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ  where we are learning to be transparent about sin, engaging in ministry in our workplaces, and fostering relationships that point people to Christ and not religion.  In short, my prayer is that we would be a church that seeks the substance and not the form.  My prayer is that we would seek Christ himself.  Will you pray with me?

 

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Jesus Sure is Rude Sometimes!

Have you ever accepted a dinner invitation that you knew would not be pleasant?  Jesus did.  He politely accepted an invitation to dinner from a Pharisee only to be accused of being unclean because he neglected to wash his hands before dinner (Luke 11:37-38)!  Jesus, however, handled this impolite Pharisee quite differently from what we might expect.  Instead of taking offense at the Pharisee or politely brushing off the Pharisees remark, Jesus launches full bore into a lesson on true spirituality.

Politeness is a prized virtue of our day.  We want people to be polite to us and we teach our children to be polite to others whether they see eye to eye with them or not.  I suppose there is something noble about being polite but Jesus often times was not very polite.  When this Pharisee took offense at Jesus’ neglect to wash his hands, Jesus’ response was to tell the Pharisee—“inside you are full of greed and wickedness” (Luke 11:39).  This is the sort of conversation that would end the dinner party in most American homes!

So was Jesus being a jerk?  Didn’t Jesus know that if he wanted to win this Pharisee to the Lord, that he needed to befriend him first and politely eat dinner with him without too much controversy?  Didn’t Jesus know that this conversation would go better if he got to know the Pharisee a little before pointing out his sin?

Jesus was no jerk.  He just sounds like one because of our own misplaced values.  You see Jesus responded to the Pharisee so pointedly because Jesus valued truth over manners.  If Jesus sounds like a jerk to us, then perhaps what we value needs to be examined.

The flesh is not our friend.  It does not have good intentions for us—sin and the devil have one hope in mind for us—to destroy us and deceive us (John 10:10; Heb. 3:13), to ignore this reality is not polite, to ignore this reality is foolishness.  Jesus valued truth over our human understanding of politeness.  He could have eaten with this Pharisee in relative peace—they could have talked about the weather, the economy, and their favorite hobbies and never broached any sensitive topics.  Jesus, however, loved people too much to merely talk about such safe things.  Jesus is interested in the heart.  Jesus always talked with people about heart issues, even if it was unpleasant.  Why?  Because he counted obedience to God more precious than the fleeting pleasures of sin.

This is clear in Jesus’ interaction with this Pharisee in Luke 11 as he says to the Pharisee and his house, “You fools!  Did not he who made the outside [of the cup] make the inside also?  But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.”  Jesus sees the foolishness of overlooking this Pharisee’s sad spiritual estate.  Jesus isn’t into the business of keeping up appearances and pretending like things are ok.  The Pharisees, however, were skilled at keeping up appearances.  That is why Jesus’ words here are so piercing—he is saying you are worried about the outside of the cup but God doesn’t care about the outside.  What needs to be changed is not behavior or appearance but the condition of your heart!

Jesus loved people too much to simply overlook their sin.  Jesus loved people so much that he spoke frankly and openly about sin.  Certainly there is a place for manners in gospel ministry (1 Peter 3:15), but do you love people enough to be honest with them about sin (Heb. 3:12-13)?  Certainly we need to be careful and take the log out of our eye, but do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ enough to lovingly help them take the speck out of theirs (Mat. 7:5)?  Do you work to keep up appearances or are you longing for spiritual transformation of the heart?  One way to test yourself is to honestly answer these questions—do I live so as to please men or to please God?  Do I love the truth enough to speak it even when it hurts?  Join me in praying that we would be men and women who value truth over appearance.

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How Little I Understand the Gospel (or The Futility of Sanctification by Performance)

This week–I missed a few days of Bible study and had to cram to catch up on my reading plan, my prayer life has been inconsistent, I was too hard on a student, I wasn’t hard enough on another, I went to lunch with a friend and hardly even spoke a word about the Lord, I spent too much time playing video games and not enough in prayer and Bible study, I was late to an appointment, I double booked myself and had to ask my wife to cover for me on an appointment because of my lack of planning, I passed up an opportunity to share the gospel, I shared the gospel with a friend but wasn’t bold enough, I passed up on opportunities to serve my wife, and I have been astounded by the grace of God.

³ Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? ⁴ Did you suffer so many things in vain- if indeed it was in vain? ⁵ Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith- ⁶ just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? ⁷ Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham (Galatians 3:4-7).

Trying to live for Christ on the basis of performance is as exhausting as it is futile.  Despite the fact that I claim to love the gospel and to have been saved by grace through faith and not by works (Eph. 2:8-9), I continually find myself trying to live for Christ on the basis of my own performance.  I need Paul’s rebuke to the Galatians because though I think I understand the gospel, I show how little I really do by my own attempts at spiritual growth by good works.

Attempting to grow in Christ by works is not only exhausting, it is impossible, because no matter how hard we try, we will probably come up with a list like the one I wrote above.  Furthermore, when we attempt to grow in sanctification by works, we show our own lack of understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ:

2 Timothy 1:8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, ⁹ who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.

My list is my list and I spent some time this morning praying to God to help me deal with it, but if I take my list as evidence that I am failing in my walk with Christ, I have missed the gospel because I have tried to make it about works.  My salvation was accomplished by the power of God and is the gift of God and my growth must be by His grace as well.  If you are a Christian, knowing that your position is in Christ by grace and not by works will free you from the despair of trying to measure up to almighty God (which you will never be able to do!).

Let God deal with your list, but if you have believed on Christ as Lord, remember you are in Him (Eph. 2:5-6) by grace and by that same grace He will lead you home.  If you do, I firmly believe this precious truth will give you joy in the fight (2 Tim 4:6-8).

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PREACHER! Why will you not preach His Word?

Oh Preacher, will you not preach God’s Word?  Why do you trust in your gimmicks, your games, and your personality?  Why will you not preach God’s Word.  Let your name be slandered, let your programs fail, but NEVER neglect the ministry of God’s Word.  You may be able to woo many by the cleverness of your programs, but your programs will not transform the heart.

Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 1:8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

2 Timothy 1:13 Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

2 Timothy 4:1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

1 Corinthians 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 9:16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!  Woe to any man who claims to be a preacher but preaches not the Word of God.  If your ministry is not centered around the preaching of God’s Word and communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is time to reevaluate.

If your ministry is not one of the Word–I will tell you right now, your ministry lacks power.  And if you are not preaching the Word but are experiencing “power” it is not power of the Holy Spirit.  Preacher, why will you not preach God’s Word?

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An Open Letter to Secular Americans

Dear Secular American,

I know what you have heard, that evangelicals are trying to force their religion down the throats of our country’s citizens by teaching creationism in the schools, fighting against gay marriage, and illegalizing abortion.  I know how evil you think those agendas are.  Fair enough, you are free to think that such agendas are evil and no doubt you have bought into the idea that is being proposed by the secular media that such agendas stem from people who take the Bible seriously and believe it to the Word of God.  And I know how the media and silly documentaries like Jesus Camp and Religulous have told you that evangelical Christians are dangerous nut jobs who actually believe the Bible.  If the goal of evangelicals is to force their religion upon secular American society, then I would agree, what evangelicals are doing is evil.

First, your thinking about the Bible needs to be challenged.  If evangelicals are really utilizing the Bible to force their religion down other American’s throats, then those evangelicals are NOT taking the Bible seriously.  Let me just challenge you to read the New Testament a little.  Nowhere in the Bible do Jesus or any of the Apostles command Christians to force their religion on anyone or usher in a theocracy.  Jesus tells his followers to preach the good news, to call people to repentance, and to give to the needy.  Any “Christian” movement that attempted to force people to become Christians did NOT do so because the Bible told them to.  In fact Jesus taught that His kingdom is not of this world, otherwise His servants would be fighting (John 18:36).  “For this purpose” Christ came into the world, “to bear witness to the truth.”  That is what the Bible calls Christians to do–to bear witness, not to make people, who don’t want to be, Christians.

If evangelical Christians would take the Bible seriously–you, secular American, would have little to fear.  You know what Jesus told his disciples to do when people would not receive them or their message?  Jesus told them to shake the dust off their feet and leave (Matthew 10:14)–scary huh?  If you choose to reject the gospel, the Biblical Christian will simply pray for you, he may persist in speaking the truth to you in love, but he will never force you to accept the gospel because the Bible-believing Christian knows he cannot force you to do anything.  So when you persist in unbelief, the Biblical Christian will simply move on and preach the gospel to other people and pray that some seed was planted that God will cause to grow (1 Cor. 3:6).

The Bible teaches that it is God who draws lost people to Himself–”no one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him.”  Again, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God . . . that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:3-6).  A Christian who really believes the Bible knows that she/he is utterly incapable of causing you or anyone else to be born again.  Biblically-minded Christians know that it is the “Spirit who gives life” (John 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6).  So all you have to fear from a Bible-believing Christian is a gospel presentation that you are free to reject.  No doubt, a true Christian will try to persuade you (2 Cor. 5:11, 20) and implore you to be reconciled to God through Christ, but they will NEVER force your hand.

The goal of Biblical Christianity is to worship God and the testimony of the Bible tells us that we do that, not primarily in the political sphere but in the spiritual sphere (2 Cor. 10:4-5).  Our war is fought in the marketplace of ideas and in the hearts of those to whom we preach the gospel and because conversion is the work of God we WILL NOT force it anyone, we will simply speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).  We live out our mission as Bible believing Christians by preaching, teaching, and proclaiming, never by forcing you to submit to the truth–one Day God will do that (Rom. 12:9).  I believe the Bible is true and that in the end every knee will bow to Christ and every tongue will confess Him as Lord, whether to one’s eternal glory or to one’s eternal shame in Hell.  I know I can’t make you appreciate that and I won’t try to make you, but I will tell you the truth and pray that God would open your eyes so that you can see it!  I apologize for those “Christians” who have made you think that the Bible teaches that our job is to force the world to bow the knee to Christ and shove our Christian morality down your throat.  If that is your perspective, my guess, however, is that you learned to perceive Christians in such a way more from the media and perhaps from a few Biblically-uniformed “Christians” rather than from the Bible itself.

If evangelical Americans owe you an apology, it is this–”sorry for not taking the Bible seriously, because if we had, our primary agenda would not be abortion, gay marriage, or the teaching of evolution in the schools but rather preaching the gospel.  I am sorry that many evangelicals (myself included) are far too uninformed on the Bible. We do not think those issues are unimportant, but they pale in comparison to how desperately you need to hear the gospel of Christ.  We apologize that our politcal agendas have distracted us from what is most important–the gospel.”  I will admit upfront that I believe abortion is wrong and that God created marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman, but before we talk at any length about those issues, I want to talk to you about something far more urgent–I want to talk to you about the gospel:

God created the universe and is the greatest being.  Before the universe was, God simply was–God is, was, and always will be.  God is holy–He is perfect in every way, in love, in justice, goodness, and power.  God created the World and He created it good.  God created people in His own image, He created women and men to be in fellowship with him.  He created them to love Him, enjoy Him, and glorify Him (Isaiah 43:6-7).  There is a problem though, men and women freely chose not to worship God, in fact they rebelled against God’s holiness and tried to take His place despite how good and gracious God had been to them.  Because God is holy and perfect in justice, He could not overlook such a heinous act of insurrection against Him or He would not be just.  So the penalty of sin is death (Gen 2:17; Romans 6:23) and not just physical death but spiritual death, death cut off from the goodness and mercy of God (Isaiah 59:2).  Every single one of us have sinned in the same way that the Adam and Eve did.  We have sinned in that we have broken God’s laws (10 Commandments: we lie, we steal, we commit adultery–Jesus said you lust after a woman not your wife, you have committed adultery, Matthew 5:28), but more than just breaking the rules we have rebelled against God (Joshua 22:19, Rom. 1:18-20) by worshiping things other than God, who alone is worthy of worship.  We have worshiped, valued, delighted in many things that are not worthy of worship.  And God being ultimate and perfectly just, must punish us for our insurrection and that punishment is Hell.  Which is a real place that Jesus talks about extensively (Matthew 10:28) and because no one is righteous before God and no one seeks for Him or worships Him, we all deserve to go to Hell (Romans 3:10-18).

That is the bad news of the gospel, but the gospel is profoundly good news, so here is the good news:

Though God is just and must punish us in our sin and rebellion against Him, He made a way for us to be forgiven and restored to the purpose for which He created us.  We can be restored to a right relationship with Him in which we value Him supremely through faith in Christ’s death and resurrection.  On the cross Jesus was bearing on his own shoulders the punishment that sin deserves for all who believe in Him (2 Cor. 5:21; Romans 3:23-25; 1 Peter 3:18).  If you will believe in Christ and turn from sin to Him, then Christ has died for you as a substitute.  He died in your place that you would forgiven from sin.  But more than that, Jesus conquered the curse of sin–death.  He rose again from the dead to show that what sin has power to do, he has power to overcome.  In His death and resurrection, Jesus conquered sin and death for all who would believe.

If that makes sense to you and you sense you need to come to grips with the God of the gospel, then I encourage you to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15).  Pray to God that He would make His Son real to you and that you would turn away from sin to God and embrace Jesus as Lord over everything in your life.  That doesn’t mean you won’t sin anymore, you will, but you will then be free to begin living in a way that values God supremely and in valuing God supremely there is “joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8).

Get a Bible (I recommend starting with the ESV or the NIV), read it, I recommend starting in the New Testament perhaps with the book of Mark or John.  Find a church that preaches and teaches the Bible faithfully.  Look for a church that does more than just tell you how to have a full life, look for a church that equips you with the Bible and encourages you to grow in fellowship with God and in conformity to Christ.  Find a mature Christian who is willing to talk through your questions about the Bible and will hold you accountable to study and to grow in community with others at church.

Christianity is not so scary if you really believe in the God of the Bible.

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This is Not the Gospel

The other day I taught a college Bible study that I help teach from time to time at a local college campus in my area.  I preached on John 15:1-11 and decided to open up my message by discussing the difference between religion and the gospel.  Religion is based on performance, the gospel is based on God’s grace.  God’s grace to us is his unmerited favor, grace is a gift and thus grace cannot be earned.  How could we possibly earn the favor of one who is perfect in holiness?  In other words, what distinguishes the gospel from religion is the fact  that the gospel is a free gift, one that cannot be earned.  Salvation in Christ is in no way based on performance, it is based on God who has mercy (Romans 9:16).

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. -Ephesians 2:8-9

Salvation is God’s doing, it is His gracious gift to sinners who are “dead in trespasses and sins” and are by “nature, children of wrath” (Eph. 2:1, 3).  Salvation is  “not your own doing” otherwise we would have grounds for boasting before Almighty God.  The fact that I cannot earn God’s favor by my performance is what makes the gospel such profoundly good news!

So when Canton Jones says, “I’m a stay saved” when people start cussing and when they try to cut him in line or get his order wrong at McDonald’s, every bone in my body wants to scream out to everyone who watches this video, THAT IS NOT THE GOSPEL!

Furthermore if salvation is God’s doing and He accomplishes it by grace, then it follows that only God can take it away.  Grace that is conditional upon our performance is not grace.  If we give up on the idea that God will persevere to the end those who He has saved by grace, then we are right back to a false gospel of works righteousness.  If salvation is by grace how could we possibly lose it by works?  Let’s hear from the Apostle Paul again:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. -Romans 8:38-39

I believe “I’m a stay saved,” but not because I don’t lose my temper or because I chose to turn the other cheek, no “I’m a stay saved” by the grace of God and not by any good work of my own.  By His grace He saved me, by His grace He will keep me to the end.

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Fulfilling the Great Commission: Finding the Courage Not to Cut Corners

One of the greatest temptations I face as a pastor is putting the success of my ministry on my shoulders and defining the success of my ministry on world’s standards rather than the Lord’s.  Simply put, it gets to you a little when you hear about how many people another student ministry is “reaching” and the thought creeps in, maybe I need to change my approach or maybe I need to be more aggressive, more likeable, more seeker-sensitive, more anything to reach more people, right?

Well, interestingly enough, the Bible never tells us that the ministry of the church is on my shoulders.  The conversion of the lost and the spiritual growth of Christians are the work of God.  And praise God, I don’t have to be cool enough or outgoing enough to do what God has called me to do.  I just need to seek by God’s grace to be faithful.  The great commission is a command–”go and make disciples” but it is a command with a precious promise, Jesus says, “I will be with you” (Matt 28:18-20).  So the strength, courage, and wisdom I need–God will provide!  And further, the means by which we make disciples is not up to us either–God sets forth the appropriate means.  The means we are to utilize in making disciples is “teaching them to observe all that [Jesus] has commanded” (Matt 28:20).

So if there is anything that I must do consistently as a pastor, it is to teach what Christ has commanded.  That is discipleship, teaching others what Christ has commanded.  That doesn’t always look glamorous and certainly does not meet the “success requirements” of the world, but doing so makes a difference unto eternity.  And lets be honest, there are so many shortcuts that could potentially lead to “success” in the eyes of the world but would fall short of fulfilling the great commission and being obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ.  For instance, I could stop hosting student Bible studies on Wednesday night and instead we could just play games and watch movies all night and throw in a little prayer or devotion at the end to say we have made the night about Jesus.  Doing so might bring more students to our ministry, but would we be making disciples?  Biblical discipleship is a messy business, real sin must be dealt with, genuine repentance called for, and courageous steps of faith must be taken, but we have a mighty God who gives us strength to face all of Discipleship’s challenges (Phil 4:13).

There are always going to be things I could do better as a pastor, and I am not completely opposed to trying to be relevant.  I just think that nothing is more relevant than the Word of God which speaks the glorious, timeless truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  My job, not just as a pastor, but as a Christian is to make disciples by teaching them the Word of God.  When I teach young people to be disciples-they will tell their friends about Christ, God will work in their friends lives and radically change them from the inside out, so that in the end I will all say with Paul, “let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:31).  In other words, when we are faithful, God blesses that, works through it, and yields fruit in our lives to His glory!

So what does this have to do with you as a member of a local church?  As a Christian?  Well, as a follower of Jesus, you will face the same temptations to cut corners in your ministry in the home or at your workplace.  For instance, it is a lot easier to just put in a Veggie Tales movie or enroll your children in VBS each summer than it is to consistently pray with them and read the Bible to them daily.  But which is more faithful?  Or at work, it’s probably a lot easier to invite your friends to a big event or to forward them an evangelistic email than it is to get to know them personally so that you can begin to talk to them about the gospel and can address the gospel to their lives and invite them to church in a more meaningful way.  But which is more faithful?

God’s plan for discipleship involves teaching everything He has commanded (Matt. 28:20) . . . does that sound too difficult to you?  It should.  But do not fall into despair, “because of [God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).  Discipleship is the great task God has given you as a Christian in your family, your workplace and our church, but its end is completely in God’s hands–He merely calls you to be faithful to the task and trust Him in midst of it.

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Prayin’ for you: Lecrae

On the subject of solid hip hop–you should definitely check out Lecrae.  I love this vide0–cause I can relate to the lyrics and I think the video is well done!

Lecrae – Prayin’ for you

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Does Facebook Help Build Community?

Living in the Facebook Generation is dangerous and too much time on Facebook will surely make you dumber, however, what makes Facebook worthwhile are the opportunities it provides for building community.  The reason that I am on Facebook is because it helps me to connect with people.

When I speak of building community I mean to communicate that Facebook helps people with common interests to connect.  As a Christian, community that encourages me most is community built around the gospel–Facebook can aid us in building such community and it can deter us from building such community.  Facebook is amoral–it is neither inherently good or bad.  What makes Facebook dangerous is its propensity to swallow us all up into the world of the superficial and distract us from ever using Facebook for the one purpose that makes it worthwhile, namely building community.

Facebook allows us to connect with people that we might otherwise never connect with, it provides an online venue for community on some level to be formed.  So to answer my question, yes Facebook does help us build community.  Perhaps the more important question would be is the type of community built on Facebook worthwhile? My answer to that question is . . . sometimes.  Facebook can be utilized to develop genuine community, it just takes work to do so. However, if we aren’t careful with Facebook, it becomes less a place for building community and more a place to waste time learning random facts about people we never talk to.  Simply put, developing genuine, worthwhile community on Facebook takes some work and discipline!

Let me be honest, many of the people who “friend” me on Facebook never contact me again.  The vast majority of my “Facebook friends” never talk to me except to wish me happy birthday or perhaps to poke me (which does nothing for me in terms of building community!).  It may sound like I am hurt by this–I am not–I don’t talk to many of the people that I “friend” on Facebook ever again either–I know I am a hypocrite (as long as I know the person, I accept nearly every “friend request” I get because perhaps it might be an opportunity to talk to person about the gospel)!  However, there are a number of people who contact me regularly on Facebook who I would have difficulty keeping up with otherwise.  As a Christian, Facebook allows me to encourage some of these people in their relationship with Christ and vice versa.  Furthermore, many of the members/attendees of my church are on Facebook and thus Facebook provides yet another venue in which I can connect with people from my church.  I think I have pretty solid personal relationships with these people and connecting with them on Facebook has mostly been encouraging.

Facebook can be a place where people come together and encourage one another.  I enjoy sharing prayer requests with several friends on Facebook, I also love to get on Facebook and share a laugh with a number of friends.  Many of the trivial aspects of Facebook are funny and worth a laugh from time to time.  As a pastor, I am continaully trying to put gospel-centered resources into people’s hands–Facebook provides a unique venue to do so and I am continually trying to use it to do so–that is primarily what I try to use my status updates for.

Finally, I want to say that it is very difficult to cultivate true, gospel-centered community on Facebook because Facebook’s more trivial elements are incredibly addicting.  If we are all honest, we would admit that we have found ourselves at times mindlessly reading people we barely know’s Facebook profile only to then mindlessly look at someone we barely know’s photo albums from their recent Family vacation.  Or perhaps playing Pirates for 2, 3, then 4 hours at a time (again, its not wrong to play Pirates at times, but if it becomes a replacement of more important things, perhaps its time to be concerned).  When I first got on Facebook, I wasted an inordinate amount of time looking at people’s profiles–which does nothing for developing community.  However, when I first got on Facebook, I also spent a lot of time writing on my friend’s walls and messaging them and thus cultivating some relationships which are still important to me today.

So, yes can Facebook help bulid community, but if used unwisely can destroy that same community with numerous distractions and a wealthy of addictingly needless information.  So if you want to use Facebook to glorify God by building healthy, gospel-centered community, perhaps its time to discipline your use of Facebook.  I don’t pretend to be an expert on disciplined use of Facebook, but I have attempted to set some guidelines toward using Facebook wisely.  I will post some of these guidelines tomorrow.

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