| Written by Bill Cearbaugh,
on Wednesday 01/27/10
|
Views : 70  |
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Bill
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What are the Priorities of the
Church Today?
"...where your treasure is, there will your heart be also..."
The Church Scattered
BTW...because
of the things I mentioned in my previous blog, in the New Testament
Church, those that were going through trials and being persecuted, scattered....
The 4P's
I've
experienced a lot of life in many realms. The following thoughts do
not have a lot of scripture behind them. I could plug verses radomly
in, but honestly I have understood these principles through life's
experiences, as I saw them play out for me and around me. These are
what I call the 4p's...Prayer,Persecution, purity, power....
Contextualizing the Gospel
“To
the weak (wanting in discernment) I have become weak that I might win
the weak and over scrupulous. I have [in short] become all things to
all men, that I might by all means (at all costs and in any and every
way) save some [by winning them to faith in Jesus Christ].”
Contextualizing the message
of the church - what does that mean and when we do it, what does it
look like? Jump into my car. We're going to take a ride to the local
church. But your ticket to ride is your willingness to wear your "First
Time Visitor Hat". What I mean by this is you will need to look at all
our interactions as if you have never been in a church before....
You Can't Take it With You
"[And
it is, indeed, a source of immense profit, for] godliness accompanied
with contentment (that contentment which is a sense of inward
sufficiency) is great and abundant gain. For we brought nothing into
the world, and obviously we cannot take anything out of the world..."
It
was a relative who just pasted away, I had the personal privilege of
gathering their belongings from the room, while they were still in the
room....
If you want to leave a comment on any of these, just e-mail me and leave a comment there.
Bill
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
What are the Priorities of the
Church Today?
"...where your treasure is, there will your heart be also..."
Usually
if you go to a person's schedule or budget you will discern their
priorities right away. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what
their priorities are in light of this kind of information. Let me
see....$100.00 a month on cable TV....hmmm, they may make their movies
or football of utmost importance. (Not necessarily though) Do they
end up in a week's time spending several hours with their mate and
children? They have made them a definite priority.
My point is this: You can do the same thing with the church.
Where
they spend their money, and time as a body, that is where their heart
is. Are they spending time with each other? Then fellowship with one
another is a priority to them. Are they enjoying Bible discussions
together? Then growing in Christ and His word is important.
Where
are you and your church body spending their time, talents, and
treasures? That is where you have decided (either intentionally or by
accident) your priorities are.
Have you and your church
family taken inventory lately? You may be surprised. Like the 'ol
frog in a pan syndrome, you may have drifted from your original
passions and priorities. It may be time to sit down with your board or
your family or your church fellowship and take active steps to
intentionally make sure your priorities are in the right place.
The Church Scattered
BTW...because
of the things I mentioned in my previous blog, in the New Testament
Church, those that were going through trials and being persecuted, scattered.
By scattered, it is referring to those in the Church moving to various
other parts of the country, in order to attempt to avoid the trials and
persecutions. You may ask, "Why would God allow this to happen?" A
good, logical question to ask in light of the circumstances. He was
naturally spreading His children abroad to begin to build His church.
So wherever they went, they were telling the story of Christ and their
personal story about what He was doing in their lives. This resulted
in the Church growing in numbers and strength.
The 4P's
I've
experienced a lot of life in many realms. The following thoughts do
not have a lot of scripture behind them. I could plug verses radomly
in, but honestly I have understood these principles through life's
experiences, as I saw them play out for me and around me. These are
what I call the 4p's...Prayer,Persecution, purity, power.
I
have found over the years that many times God allows "persecutions" (I
was just trying to look for a word that started with p) or more
generally, trials into our lives to get our attention and to draw us
closer to Him. These trials can take many shapes and forms, but the
intention of our loving Papa is, He wants our hearts and lives.
The
natural response to such trials is for us to call out to God in
prayer. "Lord, don't You see what's going on down here! I am
hurting! Why are you letting these things happen to me!" "Please
Lord, take them away, I will do what you want me to do, I'll go where
you want me to go, just take away the trials, I can't handle it any
more." But He persists and keeps the trials coming because He didn't
bring them to us for our obedience or our sacrifice, He brought them to
win our hearts. He longs to have personal time with us. He loves us
so very much, He just wants us to love on Him and He wants to love on
us.
As this process goes on, an outcome of it is us going
through the fire. As gold is put into fire to purify it,so we are put
into fire to make us a holy people, and He is a holy God. Just as in
the purification process of gold, the dross drops off, so for us the
"dross" drops off and we slowly become more like our heavenly Father.
In fact there is a verse that explains this perfectly..."[You
should] be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little
while you may be distressed by trials and suffer temptations, So that
[the genuineness] of your faith may be tested, [your faith] which is
infinitely more precious than the perishable gold which is tested and
purified by fire. [This proving of your faith is intended] to redound
to [your] praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ (the Messiah,
the Anointed One) is revealed."
So
we have been persecuted, we prayed, we naturally see purity come into
our lives, and finally we taste His power. This often will only come
as we see Him take us through the previous 3 steps. What do I mean by
"tasting His power"? I mean that God now has a vessel that longs for
Him, that has been freed from the burdens that keep us from Him, and He
longs to empower us greatly, just because we are His children and He
wants to please His children. Now that we are "abiding in Him" we are
able to "do" something. In the same chapter of John He says, "apart
from Me you can do nothing..."
Also we find in Acts 1:8He
says, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you..." With His presence we will be empowered on high to do things
for His glory.
You may not agree with these thoughts....that's
OK. Feel free to e-mail me. I would love to interact with you about
your perspective.
Contextualizing the Gospel
“To
the weak (wanting in discernment) I have become weak that I might win
the weak and over scrupulous. I have [in short] become all things to
all men, that I might by all means (at all costs and in any and every
way) save some [by winning them to faith in Jesus Christ].”
Contextualizing the message
of the church - what does that mean and when we do it, what does it
look like? Jump into my car. We're going to take a ride to the local
church. But your ticket to ride is your willingness to wear your "First
Time Visitor Hat". What I mean by this is you will need to look at all
our interactions as if you have never been in a church before.
As we pull up, I tell you we are going to a meeting. You see hundreds
of cars and wonder who would be interested in such a religious meeting.
You've never been to a gathering this big, except for the Led Zeppelin
concerts you go to occasionally.
We arrive in the meeting
room, we see a huge stage. There's a podium and instruments. You deduct
that apparently someone is speaking and there will be some kind of
music. I engage with some friends that I know, who are sitting near me,
and I introduce them to you. A person comes to the podium and announces
several meetings coming up. Everyone begins to sing strange songs you
have never heard before. And finally a man approaches the podium and
talks forever about this book called, “The Bible”, which you've never
heard of.
You laugh at the speaker's jokes. (They really were
funny.) But you didn't really understand his theological rantings about
one phrase in this book everyone calls, “The Bible”. Then you notice
something bazaar. Everyone starts passing plates and putting some money
into them. You have a weird feeling about this because you have never
been to a meeting where people do this. Usually when you go to
concerts, people have to pay before they enter the gates. At last the
speech is over and the whole group begins singing songs, again you
don't know. A man dismisses us and we head out the door.
In the
car you let a multitude of questions tumble out. “What was this meeting
all about?” “Why did we go?” “Whose that person that gave the speech?”
“What in the world was he talking about?” I try my best to answer them,
but by the time we arrive at your place, you are still very confused.
Contextualizing the gospel means we adapt our culture as much as
possible to those we are trying to reach out to and love, without
compromising our values. It does not mean we are adapting our message,
just our culture, there is a big difference. Keep in mind, culture, in
and of itself is not right or wrong, it's just different. So what we
say, and how we communicate our love is important. How we do it does
not matter, again, as long as we do not compromise our values. It's a
cultural matter, not a theological one. So often our culture provides
huge road blocks to our message. By the time we get to communicating
our message, those we are longing to reach are turned off because they
are in a state of culture shock and want to run the other way.
Frequently we want to tell ourselves those we are trying to reach just
are not interested in our message. Unfortunately many times, it's not
the message, it's the simple differences of culture they are not used
to.
What setting would be an ideal “half way house” for those
friends interested in learning more about Christ and His values? How do
we become culturally aware as a people and what steps can we take to
discern the real needs of our friends? I believe some of these
unanswered questions are at the heart of why some of America's Churches
are dying today. It will only be as we address these and other
questions like them, that we will begin to see those outside her walls
develop an interest in stepping through her doors.
You Can't Take it With You
"[And
it is, indeed, a source of immense profit, for] godliness accompanied
with contentment (that contentment which is a sense of inward
sufficiency) is great and abundant gain. For we brought nothing into
the world, and obviously we cannot take anything out of the world..."
It
was a relative who just pasted away, I had the personal privilege of
gathering their belongings from the room, while they were still in the
room. As I was doing this, the Lord brought to mind this powerful
passage to remind me of our transiency. I've never forgotten that
passage and circumstance and it had a life changing impact on me.
Remember, you can't take it with you....you have to leave it all
behind, when He says your number is up.
Author
I
have a brain that is both sided. What I mean by that is I enjoy a lot
of the arts, i.e. music, photography, digital art. But I am also very
logical and love science, mechanics, and resource conservation. So for
me, that is where both worlds collide, "Do I enjoy the right side
today, or do I focus on the left side?" You will immediately see this
in the way I have set up my website; a culmination of the arts and
mechanics, a mixture of the creative and the logical.
However,
in between all of this lies a third realm; the spiritual world where
the unseen is sometimes manifested in the seen, and my Source of life
reflects His love for me. Glad you could stop in. Sit down, drink a
cup of Joe and enjoy... hopefully after having been here, you will not
be the same person.
Bill
Last update : Wednesday 01/27/10
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