Evangelism & Relationships

Evangelism is about relationships. Relationships are often what often make or break the witness of Christ.

The Gospel is a call for mankind to have a new joyous relationship with God. And to enter into God's work in the world through God's church.

The Gospel is about a persons relationship to God, relationships to family, relationship to other Christians, and relationship to the whole world. Since Christianity is a call to right relationships evangelism should be mindful that the Gospel is not simply a message, but a invitation to relationship.

God calls us to enter into right relation to everyone in the whole world if it was within our power. Often it is outside of our power, but we are called to live at peace and right relation with all people so much as it is within our control.

Keeping the Focus on Christ

We need to keep the focus on Christ as Christians. The gospel of the forgiveness of sins for all who come to Jesus is the center of Christianity.

Too often we and the church get caught up on small matters. The matters seem important or may be important but the gospel gets pushed to the side.

The gospel can never be pushed to the side in the church. Often the church wants to improve the behavior of its members by ethical teaching.

And while ethics and teaching on Christian living are of great use, the ethics and Christian living are always rooted in the cross. If we focus too much on ethics and forget the root of ethics we loose the power of the gospel.

The gospel has the power to change the world. That is why the gospel must always be kept at the center of the church.

If you want to save souls you need to the gospel. If you need to have people become better they need the gospel. If you need people who profess to be Christians, but live poorly, you need to get them to really understand the gospel.

The gospel is the power with which the world is overcome. The world will not be improved much by ethics, but it will be improved by truly grasping the glory of the risen Jesus. Let us keep our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith.

The Story Is Not about Us

Often we think the story of the world is about us.  Maybe we take a step back and say that the story of the world is about each and every individual person equally.

In the moment that we feel the story is about each person equally we are far closer to the truth than when we feel the story of the world is about us.  But we need to take another step back.

The story of the world is more about God than it is about us.  It may seem strange at first thought, but ultimately God created us and sustains us.  You see that in the beginning of the world and at the end of the world is God.

At the height of the story of the world we find God taking on flesh and living among us to save us from ourselves.  Theologians often talk about God entering into history.  It is certainly a true statement with a lot to think about.  But really we often get carried away and feel that history has its own life.

Really all of history is linked to God's story.  It is about how people respond or do not respond to God and the consequences of fallen man's disobedience and rejection of God's plan in the world.  Always the main character in the story is God and we find it easy to forget this fact.

The Church and the World

The Church always needs to adjust to the world. The Church and the world are never in harmony. A Christendom is only possible when the Church loses its vision in the world.

The response of the church to the world and engagement of the church to the world will always look different. But the church does need to engage the world and be in the world to some degree.

The call of scripture is to be "in the world, but not of the world." The most key words to many churches today is "in" the world. Many churches pull back from the world to a degree that they fail to really be "in" the world.

We must be active participants in society and are not called to isolate ourselves from society. Of course we must not be "of" the world. It is a great balance.

Most theological error is to pick one part of the bible and neglect another. You see much of the Christian teaching on life is a balance. Most error in relation to the bible is to affirm one teaching to the degree of in essence rejecting the other teaching.

The constant call of scripture to wisdom is because balance is needed in many things. Thought and prayer and wisdom are needed because there are many ways to become unbalanced in life.

We will fail fairly frequently in life. God knows this and loves us anyway. If we do not think we fail we have not understood the weight of the law of God. We constantly fail in life whether we admit it or not.

Mankind, Culture, and Progress

Often in our world we are convinced by the uniqueness of the current age. Technology has created a world which is so different it has created a fundamental disconnect from the past.

Really we just need to study history to see our folly. At many points the world said "ah yes this has fundamentally changed the world forever" and yet nothing really changed.

We often over estimate the uniqueness of our day. The problems of today are not much different than those one hundred years ago or one thousand years ago. The fundamental problem is always the heart of mankind which is similar in every age.

Certain issues are more prevalent in certain ages than others, but the heart manifests its wickedness in every age. Often there is progress on certain issues in certain cultures but often on other issues there is regress.

This is why the bible insists that there is nothing new under the sun. Many things changes but the fundamental problem of man's alienation from God because of his sin is always the same.

Some people often tend to go the opposite direction of seeing progress and instead focus on regress, thinking that the past was better than the present. It is really a similar failure in which the past is not understood.

It is not to say that a culture might be better or worse in a given age, but fundamentally every culture has severe issues to work through if the culture wishes to believe the fact or not. Some issues are worse than others, but the fundamental issue of the human heart remains if it is acknowledged or not acknowledged.

Post: Historical Progress or Lack There of

The Church Reaching Out

The church is called to reach out into the world. Practically what this means is the church must seek and be willing to accept all who call upon God for the forgiveness of sins.

It is not an easy calling. God has a tendency to call all sorts of people to himself. He often calls people who we would not expect and some of whom may not be at the best places in their lives.

It is often difficult for churches who are over zealous for purity to accept such people. It is a common issue we find throughout scripture where the teachings of God on righteousness are misunderstood where the "otherness" of the believer begins to infringe upon the ability to relate with unbelievers or those struggling in their lives.

You see that our "righteousness" must not be more extreme than the righteousness of Jesus. We often see the error of the Pharisees, but we do not see that we might at times exemplify some of the errors. It is easy to wish to pull back from interacting with certain people with a bit of a rougher edge.

Really the error of the Pharisees in wanting to separate from the world continues in the church and is very prevalent in certain segments of the church today. It is often in less extreme forms but often the church pulls back and is far more cautious in relation the the world than is necessary.

There are of course segments of the church which go the opposite direct and lose a sense of the otherness a Christian should have in their attempt to evangelize. Sometimes they even lose a sense of gospel as the distinction between church and world becomes more and more thin.

It is always a balance. We must seek righteousness, but not at the expense of our ability to reach out into the world. But we must always maintain a separateness.

One Christian thinker said that as long as there were those who criticized him as being both a legalist and a law breaker than he had balance in theology. There is a lot of truth to this. You see often in theology we need to find a balance between two extremes. It is not easy, but complete loss of balance is the most common theological downfall.

Other Focus

The church only lives up to its mission in that others are placed more important than itself. Those others are other believers in the church and those outside the church in the world.

To the degree that the church turns inward and the church becomes about oneself or simply those within the church the church has lost its mission. The early church spread quickly because it understood that Christianity is something to be shared.

The more the church focuses on itself and its survival the poorer and less likely to survive it is. The radical thing about the gospel is that God accepts everyone and it is through spreading the gospel that it has power.

Often today churches sit and hope that people will enter the confines of the church. Maybe they do one small event in the community each year. But often the church faces inward and the inward faced church is not healthy. It does not fully grasp the gospel.

Sometimes the inward facing is because of a desire for purity. If we pull literally every sinner into the church then it will be hard to maintain the purity of the church seems to be the objection. It is of course one of the main objections Jesus' enemies had against his ministry.

You see we often assume that the people in the church are meant to be there. Or that certain people outside the church are better prospects to be pulled into the church than others. Our assumptions are almost never helpful and often wrong.

It is an interesting phenomenon that often God calls the most sinful people into the church. It plays out repeatedly through scripture and church history. I believe the point is that some people in the height of their folly understand that they are broken.

They may not have an answer but they often know that they are on the wrong track. You see that the broken sinner with little hope who knows they are on the wrong track may be a better candidate to enter the kingdom of heaven than the wealthy non believer next door who seems to have their life together.

Ultimately we cannot know why they will enter the kingdom of heaven but assuming the quality of prospects is folly. And the church should always have an outward eye toward the world.

Doing Something Definite

Doing something definite is almost always to be preferred than planning something grand. Often in life both in work and religion we pass over good opportunities which seem a bit mundane in search of the grand.

There is no shame in dreaming big. Often it is easy to fail by dreaming to small. But often when we dream big and fail frequently we should set our sites on the definite albeit small opportunities around us.

It is easy to get so caught up in doing something big that we do nothing at all. Maybe we could volunteer at an organization for a few hours here and there but we see it as small. We look for something bit and accomplish nothing.

Maybe we have a certain dream career we wish to have and it never seems to work. We prefer to sit at home and keep pursuing the dream which is not working instead of taking that which is practical and realistic.

Often we need to have a bit of a sober viewpoint of ourselves. Maybe we are held back in life at times because our plans for ourselves are too grand. It is certain that there a people whose plans are too small, but it seems more people fail because of plans which are too grand rather than too small.

Doing something definite in the world in whatever we do is to be preferred to unrealistic dreams and doing nothing. Everything in the world is God's. Whatever we do we should do to the glory of God.

God does not see the way in men do. He does not view obedience to his will in terms of how prestigious a man's work is or how much recognition he receives for it. He looks at man's faithfulness in life.

We can be faithful in small thing. Sometimes we must first be faithful in small things before we can be faithful in large things.

The Goodness of The World

The material world is inherently good. The fall of man and man's sinful nature do not change the fact that the material world is good.

Of course the material world was subjected to futility in the fall. It is a world under a curse, but it is still fundamentally good and declares the power and glory of God.

Many people wish to suggest that things are inherently bad. Material abundance is inherently good. Of course it is our choices which are good or bad.

With great blessing comes a great responsibility to seek to bless with what we are blessed. Maybe the issue of doubting the goodness of the material world comes from the bible's harsh words against many rich people in the biblical narrative.

Of course you see that it is not their wealth for which they are condemned. Job before and after his suffering had great wealth and he was the most righteous man alive.

Many theologians wish to read the story of Job differently and are foolish to do so. God clearly states there was no one as righteous as Job in his day.

To critique the errors of Job is to critique the errors of the most righteous man in his day and we should do so lightly, you see that is the point of the story how the men who critiqued Job greatly sinned.

The errors of the rich which are condemned are oppression of the poor, refusal to help those in need, reliance on wealth, and turning away from God. There are many people with wealth that are not condemned.

You see it is not wealth that is an issue. "Money is the root of all kinds of evil" is not a biblical principle. Rather it's a very poor paraphrase. Rather it is "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." Many people scoff the difference is small.

It is not small at all. You see money is a tool. If we wish to use it to serve God then it is a tool for good. It is rather our attitude toward money which makes it good or bad.

Of course the fallen heart of man is what made money have a dangerous power. But it is not the money or the material things it offers that are the issue, but rather how the sinful heart sees those possibilities.

Christian Living is Based on the Gospel

The gospel is the power by which the world is overcome. The world will know we are Christians by our love, but all love flows from the grace we have been given by God.

Christian love is supernatural in origin. It flows from our union with Christ in his death and the Holy Spirit working in our hearts.

You see we cannot try to imitate Jesus' life with out accepting his divinity and saving work. The reason is that the power to live out Jesus' teachings in the world is supernatural in origin. That is why he told his apostles to await Pentecost.

Often preachers wish to have their congregation live more faithfully to the teaching of scripture by teaching a steady diet of law. Law is certainly of use, but often the most lawless living is by those in the church that wish to live out the law but do not understand the gospel.

You see this is the situation which the Pharisees were in. They had great zeal to live out the law but did not really understand the meaning of true religion. This is why they accused Jesus of lawlessness at some of his most ethically beautiful moments.

Legalism is always a prevalent faction in the church wherever the church is. It tries to keep the letter of the law while greatly misunderstanding the spirit of the law.

We must first trust in the saving work of Jesus and only then begin to imitate his life. Of course Jesus commands that we follow him. We must first accept that he is God and his work, death, and resurrection and then begin to try to live like him through the power given through faith.

To Not Gain Knowledge

The modern world has the tendency of absolutizing the good of knowledge. Knowledge is of course in general better than lack of knowledge.

But many forms of knowledge are of no use or are dangerous to the knower. You see often we wish to know things of which no good can come.

You see gossip often is a form of knowledge where knowledge of which no good can come is shared. You see this is why the bible condemns gossip.

There are many forms of knowledge which are simply of no use. Some people have joked that news may make us stupid. There may be truth in this fact.

If one lives in a large city when we turn on the TV we can expect to hear of multiple shootings, a fire, a few robberies, and a few car crashes. In almost all cases people interviewed about these events give similar accounts of their feelings of them and the change they wish to see happen.

I do see some value in following news, but I see no value in constant news watching. Most of the time we are simply watching the same events unfold in an highly predictable way with different names, places, and locations. I am not diminishing these events but to watch the news is on most days to watch what one already knows statistically is already going on.

Often we delude ourselves that information is knowledge. I believe that most news coverage often falls into the realm of useless information.

News not only is often useless, but it may have a hardening affect. If we are watching news and hear all the suffering in the world are we compelled to act in some small way?

Often news and the vastness of the problem dissuades people from thinking they can help. The problem is too big so they do not take the effort to be a tiny part of a small step in the right direction.

You see we can make a difference. We just need to be humble enough to realize that our contribution may not be huge. We do not need to be a huge hero to make a difference.

It takes humility to accept that we often can only make a small difference and then take the steps as we can in that direction. Many people who wish to save the world become disillusioned and quit when they realize they can only make a small difference and then they make no difference at all.

The Bible's call to love is a call to seek the good of others. The desire to save the world which quickly becomes callused when it realizes the world is not easily saved is usually based on pride and not the Christian call of love. Love is pleased by small differences made even if they bring no recognition to ourselves.

Love Is Active

Love is active. If we have love we will seek action. You see many people who claim to have love but have no evidence of ever seeking action.

Maybe they act in private and their works are before God. We cannot know. But the truth is that if we really love we will wish to act.

If we say we love and do not wish to act or always have an excuse to not act then we do not love. Love always wishes to act.

Often love does not have a solution or an ability to act. There are too many problems and we have too few solutions, time and abilities.

But love always acts at one point or another. If love sees a hundred problems maybe love finds a way to act on a handful of them according to ability and time.

But you see a "love" that never acts on any problems is likely not a real love. It is just a facade that excuses itself always with this or that excuse.

True love always acts on a few of the problems it sees in the world. It cannot act on everything, but true love picks a few things to act upon.

Our Wealth

What does our wealth consist in? What is important above all things?

Whatever our answer is it is important to be honest. You see we often know what the "right" answer is. But what is our truthful answer?

You see if something is wrong we can only fix it if we are honest about the situation. If we simply give the correct response without thought we have not evaluated the situation.

Of course our wealth consists in our relationship to God. God is our inheritance. Our relationship as children of God is the most important good any Christian can have.

God above all is our inheritance. The bible says many things which the Christian will inherit, but God himself is the most precious.

You see if we gain the whole world, but do not have God we have nothing. That is why the material joy of heaven perfected as it is falls short of God himself.

All that is good in the world is a taste of the even greater goodness found in God. Taste and see that the Lord is good is the challenge of scripture.

Christianity and Paradox

What is paradox? Paradox is something which is above human understanding. It is not in conflict with human understand but above it.

It stands in contrast to contradiction which is clearly wrong. Paradox stands in a realm where we cannot grasp the truth of paradox but we cannot see that paradox is wrong.

The Christian faith often stands in this realm. Ideas are often above our understanding and we meet realities which are difficult to comprehend.

You see when man meets God he finds a person and being who is different not just in quantity but also quality from himself. God is above the human ability to understand.

In the person of God we meet many paradoxes. He is one God in three persons. He sets the weak in a higher place than the strong. To be first one must be the servant of all.

I could go on but you see God upsets the natural order of things at all times. He always confronts the order of life in this world.

You see any church that fits comfortably into this world had not really grasped the bible. That does not mean any church which is in opposition to the world grasps the bible necessarily as the opposition may not be biblical.

But always the Christian God stands to critique the ways of man. A church with no critique of mankind has not understood the bible.

God's ways our not ours and he has a message to shake up the way man does things. The bible has many messages which shake up the way men prefer to do things.

Not all messages are equally relevant to each day and age, but some message more relevant to certain times and places. But all messages are relevant to mankind.

The modern man is not as unique and advanced as he likes to think. That he thinks he is unique and advanced simply shows he has no perspective on himself and history and he is in need of a lesson from God.

The Church as a Body

"The church is only the church when it exists for others." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The quotation by Bonhoeffer is true by definition. This fact does not take away from the meaningfulness of the statement since it also clarifies the implicit.

The church is a body. Each person is a part in the body. You see that each person is not an island or on their own. There is a unity and cohesion.

When the church functions well each person is concerned for the other. Always we must have concern for ourselves as well, but we must also have concern for the other.

The concern for others flows from this that God had concern for us while we were his enemies. You see the radical nature that God wished to open up a relationship with estranged man and make him co-heirs with his son Jesus to the entire universe.

Often it is hard to want to give. I am tired, we think. Often we are tired because we are unfulfilled and have done nothing we consider of value. It is very surprising that sometimes our issues are much better after we have had concern for others.

Kierkegaard speaks of an inward orientation to fallen man. Man is ill in one sense because he cares to much about himself. In caring too much about himself he often harms himself emotionally.

It is never purposeful but always man on his own is miserable. You see man was meant for community. God who created man willed for man to be communal. In fellowship with God and other men.

But man on his own often would like to isolate from the world. The tendency is easy to understand. Many difficult things happen in community. Even small bad words or awkward situations are draining.

But man often responds worse by secluding himself. In seclusion he is often far worse than he was previously. You see that it is not good to be alone.

Man was alone in the garden with only God and it was not good. So man created woman. We often in life compound our problems by how we try to solve our problems.

The difficulty is that God has a lot of solutions which on the surface don't sound very good. We simply know that God is wrong or so we think. It is often with God the longer we think about his "wrong" solutions the more we see they are plausible.

After a while these plausibilities often become realized to be correct. The bible is always right even when we think it is wrong. Often we judge so quickly and move on.

You see there are better ways for man to live than he often does. Man has a tendency to trade short term pleasure for long term happiness. Man is very shortsighted at times.

God is more concerned about man’s real happiness. God sees the bigger picture and accordingly does not offer advice and commands which are only for the moment.

That an eternal God outside of time knows better than man is not surprising. Men often make strange objections to God's will as if the church has made up the idea of God being outside of time to explain things.

The reality is that they simply need to turn to Genesis. All of the universe was created out of nothing. You see God existed and then he created the universe out of scratch.

It is not the way people create a pie out of "scratch" using some base ingredients. It is a little scratch where first the ingredients were created.

God create man as well. It isn't surprising that God knows man so well having created him. It would be surprising if God did not know the nature and needs of his creation well.

God created man in his image. Man is created to be a being filled with love. A love of God and fellow man. Man is at his best in community, that is why the church is a community called to serve not to be served.

A Post on Bonhoeffer on Preaching

Attractiveness of Church

The attractiveness of the church needs to be found in that it lives in a different way from the world. A lot of churches are attempting to mimic the world to attract attenders.

Many churches at times seem to be attempting to create a large scale social club which people will desire to join. Once people see the social club is desirable to be in hopefully they will notice that Jesus is also attractive to have faith in.

Certainly there is value of trying to meet the world were it is in order to reach the world. I am a bit doubtful of the approach because it is not the approach I see Jesus or any of his disciples follow.

Their approach was always to follow God no matter how strange it seemed and in this way people came to desire Jesus. People desire Jesus because he is different than the world not because he is like the world.

I have honestly never found churches that try to entertain me to have any interest. I can find far more entertaining things to do with my life.

Why I find church interesting is I meet a Savior who knows who I am and understand what I need. The need is peace after having fallen into estrangement with God.