Our church recently had a Parents’ meeting for the youth ministry. The purpose of the meeting was to lay out the new philosophy/direction of the youth ministry and to answer any questions the parents or their teenagers might have had. Some of the parents and students, however, were not able to attend and I have therefore decided to post my notes from the meeting here. Many of the statistics, ideas and some of my main points were taken or adopted from Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham.
I want to begin our meeting with a question, what is your plan for the spiritual training of your child? Or even more challenging, do you have a plan? Of course, we have plans for everything, don’t we? In getting ready for church this morning, you had a plan. In order to be here by 9:30 am, you had to leave your house by a certain time, which meant you had to get the family ready by a certain time, which meant you had to wake up at a certain time, and all of this was planned out before hand. When we go on vacation we do the same thing. Working out our kids’ extra-curricular schedules…same thing What’s for dinner? Same thing. We plan out almost every aspect of our lives, yet when it comes to the spiritual raising of our children, we usually have no plan or our plan is simply to take them to church. But this is not the way God intended it to be.
Listen to some alarming statistics.
“The overwhelming majority of the people who make professions of faith and are baptized do so before age 18. Thus, youth ministry is the force that fills the pool. Never mind the fact that the overwhelming majority of those whom we have baptized know neither the gospel, nor the Christ of the Scriptures, and have a worldview that is more closely aligned with Marxist Socialism than it is with Christian Theism…(Baucham, http://www.voddiebaucham.org/Blog/A7079AA4-3391-4820-9A22-D957B055C852.html).
A recent poll shows that between seventy and eighty-eight percent of “Christian” teens stop attending church by their second year in college (Baucham, Family Driven Faith, pg 10).
In one Barna poll, eighty-five percent of “Christian” teens do not believe in absolute truth, and over half believe that Jesus sinned during his earthly life.
So the majority of people who make professions of faith and are baptized do so before age eighteen, yet (using optimistic numbers) seven out of every ten stop attending church within a few years of leaving the youth ministry. Eight out of ten don’t believe in absolute truth, and half don’t have a foundational understanding of who Jesus is. They’re making professions of faith. They’re getting baptized. But they don’t know biblical truth and they abandon it a few years later.
Why is this? Why is there such a catastrophic failure when it comes to youth ministries? I say ‘catastrophic’ intentionally, by the way. An eighty percent failure rate is a catastrophe. But why is this happening? A very brief look at the history of youth ministry is somewhat beneficial here. Youth ministries are relatively new to the church (within the past one hundred years), and their practices, at least for the past forty or fifty years or so have mainly been trying to answer these questions:
What can we do to get kids to be excited and want to come to church?
What can we do to keep them here?
How can we make them act like a Christian is supposed to act?
A look at the current state of things and we can see that something is clearly amiss. “Could it be that we have established systems designed to meet the wrong needs and attack the wrong problems (Baucham 176)?” Youth ministries, trying to answer these questions, in their current context, simply does not and will not work. They may get a hundred kids to come on a Wednesday night, but these kids are not learning biblical truth and are abandoning the faith when they graduate high school.
So, in working out what our youth ministry is going to be and do, I did not simply want to do what has always been done, and I didn’t want to follow the popular trends of the day. I didn’t want to take what we have and improve upon it. I instead wanted to break everything down to it’s beginning and ask, “what does scripture say.” Here are a couple of main things that I found.
Deuteronomy 6:1-9, 20-25 1"Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. 3Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
20 "When your son asks you in time to come, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?' 21then you shall say to your son, 'We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22And the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. 23And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. 24And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. 25And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.' (emphasis added by me)
Ephesians 6:1-4 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3"that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land." 4Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (emphasis added by me)
What does scripture say about the spiritual raising of children? It’s the parents’ responsibility. The church has a role, yes, but it is different than we think. The church’s job, when it comes to the spiritual raising of kids, is to equip parents to be the main teachers, disciplers, and instructors. You see, most people think of the church as a hospital. My kid is spiritually sick or malnourished, so we go to the spiritual hospital – the church. In actuality, the church is more of a medical school, where parents come to be trained so that they can take care of their patients (kids) on their own turf.
So, if the parents have the main responsibility of spiritually training their kids, and the church has the responsibility of training the parents, then what role does the youth ministry play? We are here to assist the parents. And we will do this in two main ways. First, we will teach and preach the word of God, reinforcing (not replacing) what you, as parents, are already doing on a regular basis at home. Second, we are here to provide you with resources, helps, and aids to assist you. Whether it be daily devotionals for your family, thoughts and ideas to help with family worship, or outlines of what Pastor Matt and the other teachers are going through in weekly Bible Study, we want to make sure you are physically equipped to do what needs to be done.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Notes from Parents' Meeting (Part II)
I know that this is new to many of us. We have lived under a different understanding of youth ministry for so long and have so many misconceptions on what it is supposed to do, that we’ve never stopped and asked what the Bible calls us as parents to be and do. But in light of this, we must begin anew. Before we do that, however, I want to take a quick look at two of these misconceptions that have dominated the youth ministry at First Baptist for so long. The first is the Entertainment Issue, and the second is the Safety issue.
The Entertainment Issue is built upon two main ideas: 1) students will not want to come to church if it’s boring and 2) lost people will not want to come to a “serious Bible study.” These ideas are very predominate in today’s Christian society, but are they true? Again we are forced to ask, what does scripture say?
John 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Romans 10:14,15,17 How then will they 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? 15And how are they to preach unless they are sent? 17So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
How will people know about us? By the love we show one another. Why will people want to be a part of what we’re doing? By seeing our good works. How will lost people come to know Jesus? By the preaching of God’s word. We are to love one another, do good works, and preach. Entertaining people does nothing but, well…entertain them. The biblical model is not one of “Come and Experience” or “Come and See”, the biblical model, from Jesus’ mouth is, “Go and make” or “Go and tell.”
Have people been affected by an entertaining ministry? Again with Baucham, “of course there are anecdotal stories of young people whose lives were changed,” by using these unbiblical methods, “we will always have those stories. The fact of the matter is that God can hit a straight lick with a crooked stick. He can use our feeble efforts and still get His job done. However, the end does not justify the means (Baucham 182).”
God can use anything he wants to accomplish his purposes, but the question for us is, “what is he calling us to do?” Do we want to see results? Yes, of course, but God is in charge of those. We plant and we water, but God does the growing. We do not base our ministry on possible results, we base it on what God calls us to be.
The question therefore is, do we trust God’s word? When scripture says we will be known by our love, do we trust God’s word? When scripture says that people will see our good works and glorify God in heaven, do we think that God is lying? When scripture says that faith comes from hearing the word of God, do we think that God is not powerful enough to use his word to save sinners and therefore need to find something more effective? No. We will do what scripture commands. We will trust God’s word.
Now to The Safety Issue. We live in a dangerous world and we want our children to be safe. I know I don’t want anything bad to happen to Susannah. But are we correct when we say, “I want my child to be safe, so I will send them to a church event,” or “I want my kid off the street away from the evil things of the world, so I’ll send them to church”? I think that society and scripture say a resounding “no.”
You see, the church cannot guarantee safety. Studies show that drug use, profanity, bullying, and violence is just as high in the church as out. And one recent study showed that sexual promiscuity is higher among churched teens than unchurched (http://psalm8611.blogspot.com/). Simply put, the church building and programs are not as safe as we think they are. But are they supposed to be?
Scripture shows again and again that trouble and persecution often follow the church around. Not only are we sinning sinners who are preaching and ministering to sinning sinners, but these sinning sinners often don’t want to preached and ministered to. Why in the world would we think the church is going to be safe? We are torch bearers in a darkened place. We are ambassadors in a hostile, foreign land, working for the release of the prisoners. This is not a safe work. The church is not a safe-haven. If parents want their children to be safe, then they must keep them at home where they control (or at least should) what their kids watch, hear, see, and are influenced by.
With all of this said, let’s now move to what we are going to do. As we said earlier, we are here to assist and help parents. If this is truly our intention, then we will not want to keep you away from your students on a regular basis, we will instead want to put you together as much as possible. Therefore, I am issuing an open invitation: anything the ministry does, whether regular Bible studies or extra events, parents are welcomed and encouraged to attend.
[Editor’s note: during the meeting, I went through a detailed schedule, but I am not going to post that here. Once can be found at the church or by emailing me.]
The Entertainment Issue is built upon two main ideas: 1) students will not want to come to church if it’s boring and 2) lost people will not want to come to a “serious Bible study.” These ideas are very predominate in today’s Christian society, but are they true? Again we are forced to ask, what does scripture say?
John 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Romans 10:14,15,17 How then will they 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? 15And how are they to preach unless they are sent? 17So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
How will people know about us? By the love we show one another. Why will people want to be a part of what we’re doing? By seeing our good works. How will lost people come to know Jesus? By the preaching of God’s word. We are to love one another, do good works, and preach. Entertaining people does nothing but, well…entertain them. The biblical model is not one of “Come and Experience” or “Come and See”, the biblical model, from Jesus’ mouth is, “Go and make” or “Go and tell.”
Have people been affected by an entertaining ministry? Again with Baucham, “of course there are anecdotal stories of young people whose lives were changed,” by using these unbiblical methods, “we will always have those stories. The fact of the matter is that God can hit a straight lick with a crooked stick. He can use our feeble efforts and still get His job done. However, the end does not justify the means (Baucham 182).”
God can use anything he wants to accomplish his purposes, but the question for us is, “what is he calling us to do?” Do we want to see results? Yes, of course, but God is in charge of those. We plant and we water, but God does the growing. We do not base our ministry on possible results, we base it on what God calls us to be.
The question therefore is, do we trust God’s word? When scripture says we will be known by our love, do we trust God’s word? When scripture says that people will see our good works and glorify God in heaven, do we think that God is lying? When scripture says that faith comes from hearing the word of God, do we think that God is not powerful enough to use his word to save sinners and therefore need to find something more effective? No. We will do what scripture commands. We will trust God’s word.
Now to The Safety Issue. We live in a dangerous world and we want our children to be safe. I know I don’t want anything bad to happen to Susannah. But are we correct when we say, “I want my child to be safe, so I will send them to a church event,” or “I want my kid off the street away from the evil things of the world, so I’ll send them to church”? I think that society and scripture say a resounding “no.”
You see, the church cannot guarantee safety. Studies show that drug use, profanity, bullying, and violence is just as high in the church as out. And one recent study showed that sexual promiscuity is higher among churched teens than unchurched (http://psalm8611.blogspot.com/). Simply put, the church building and programs are not as safe as we think they are. But are they supposed to be?
Scripture shows again and again that trouble and persecution often follow the church around. Not only are we sinning sinners who are preaching and ministering to sinning sinners, but these sinning sinners often don’t want to preached and ministered to. Why in the world would we think the church is going to be safe? We are torch bearers in a darkened place. We are ambassadors in a hostile, foreign land, working for the release of the prisoners. This is not a safe work. The church is not a safe-haven. If parents want their children to be safe, then they must keep them at home where they control (or at least should) what their kids watch, hear, see, and are influenced by.
With all of this said, let’s now move to what we are going to do. As we said earlier, we are here to assist and help parents. If this is truly our intention, then we will not want to keep you away from your students on a regular basis, we will instead want to put you together as much as possible. Therefore, I am issuing an open invitation: anything the ministry does, whether regular Bible studies or extra events, parents are welcomed and encouraged to attend.
[Editor’s note: during the meeting, I went through a detailed schedule, but I am not going to post that here. Once can be found at the church or by emailing me.]
Notes from Parents' Meeting (Part III)
[Editor's note: please read Parts I and II above before proceeding to this section. Much of what is said here is built upon things laid forth earlier and will make much more sense in light of those.]
One of the most glaring questions that faces us now is, why no more TGIF? [Editors note: For over twenty years, TGIF was a weekly youth group meeting on Friday nights at First Baptist Church. The night usually consisted of an hour of game-time, an hour of small group study, and an hour of worship music and preaching.] I know many of you have heard rumors and whisperings about this over the last few months and it is time to put them to rest. We have ceased doing TGIF for two main reasons: 1) a muddled schedule and 2) a muddled purpose.
A muddled schedule. If you were to add up all the Wednesdays, Fridays, monthly events and extra events that the youth group regularly hosted, you would end up with roughly fifteen days. That’s roughly one-half of the nights of the month that would be spent away from parents with just regular youth ministry activities. If you add school activities, sports, extra-curricular activities, and other activities for the parents, families may spend only two or three nights together each week. It is almost impossible for parents to be the main spiritual influences and teachers if they are only spending one-third of the month together. If we truly believe that this is the parents’ responsibility, then we will no longer take their kids away from them fifteen nights a month.
A muddled purpose. Listen to this quote from another youth pastor, “If I become too pastoral, the kids won’t be entertained, and they will go down the street to the guy with all the bells and whistles. If I become too evangelistic, I get complaints about the shallowness of the group and post-youth ministry dropout rate. I can’t win (Baucham 181).” I can relate to this youth pastor. In my dealings with Friday nights over the past six months, I have had these same problems. I was either preaching too long or too short. The small groups were either not serious enough or too serious. The game time was either too long or too short. Everybody had their own opinion. In talking with many parents and leaders over the purpose of TGIF I encountered two main responses. The first was that TGIF was supposed to be an evangelistic event in which kids could invite their lost friends. The second was that it was supposed to be a safe place, off of the streets, away from the evil things of the world that my kids could come and hang out and relax. Unfortunately we were doing neither of these well.
As stated earlier, if we are truly going to do an evangelistic event, then we need to go where the lost people are and minister to them there. But this will not be in the form of games or entertainment; we have already seen that they are not effective and we will not be a part of them. We have also already seen that the church is not a safe place to hang out, especially when it is evangelizing. In light of both of these things, a muddled schedule and a muddled purpose, we are no longer doing TGIF and are doubling or efforts in training and assisting parents.
Upon hearing this, many people have said to me, “but what about the fun?” or “isn’t this too scholastic?” and I usually have two responses for them. First, we must get away from the idea that there can be no “fun” or fellowship at Bible study. We cannot compartmentalize that way. While Bible study is a serious time, there is joy and we do usually have a good time because we are brought together by the common bond of the gospel and common blood of Jesus Christ. So we must get away from this idea. Second, in response, I say, look at the calendar. We usually have at least two events every four to six weeks that are “fellowship” times. But either way, we are serious about church. We are assisting parents and equipping saints for work that involves life and death for all of eternity; this is important work we’re doing.
I know that not having TGIF will create a void in some of the students. Some parents were raised participating in Friday nights, and many students have been a part of it or seen their older siblings go through it, and I know that they are going to be missing out. I do understand this, but I also know of another void that needs to be filled. And that void is family time. I encourage families to not waste Friday nights; make it an intentional family time. If your kid really wants to hang out with friends, then have your family hang out with their family. If your student has a desire to go evangelize, that’s great! Go do it as a family. And if your student really wants to be with other Christians in a safe environment, then keep them home, it’s safer than anywhere else.
I want to now focus our attention on one last thing. It is the subject of servant-leadership. Not only do we assist you the parents in the discipling of your students, but we also equip them for the work of the ministry. We have a very high view of leadership here in the church. Did you know that we will be held accountable, to God, for the leaders we put in place? From every senior citizen to every Jr. High kid, we will answer to God for whom we have set in different positions. Because of this, we want to make sure that every person who is put in a position of leadership is equipped and able to handle the work involved.
We are, therefore, putting something new in place. From now on, if your student wishes to serve in the church in a leadership position, whether it be Children’s Church, Sunday School teacher or assistant, or worship ministry, they will be required to attend The Academy. What is The Academy? Good question. This “Student Ministries Seminary” is a training and discipleship time where we teach theology, doctrine, historic creeds of the faith, practical ministry, and personal holiness. We will meet every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month, from 4:00 to 5:30 pm. Parents are, of course, invited and encouraged to come as well. The Academy is open to all, but again, is a requirement for all student leaders (the only exceptions are nursery, preschool, and VBS helpers).
So that’s pretty much everything. We believe these are the first steps in moving toward where God would have us go. We are very excited, but very serious about the work ahead, and look forward to see what God has in store for us. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at any time.
One of the most glaring questions that faces us now is, why no more TGIF? [Editors note: For over twenty years, TGIF was a weekly youth group meeting on Friday nights at First Baptist Church. The night usually consisted of an hour of game-time, an hour of small group study, and an hour of worship music and preaching.] I know many of you have heard rumors and whisperings about this over the last few months and it is time to put them to rest. We have ceased doing TGIF for two main reasons: 1) a muddled schedule and 2) a muddled purpose.
A muddled schedule. If you were to add up all the Wednesdays, Fridays, monthly events and extra events that the youth group regularly hosted, you would end up with roughly fifteen days. That’s roughly one-half of the nights of the month that would be spent away from parents with just regular youth ministry activities. If you add school activities, sports, extra-curricular activities, and other activities for the parents, families may spend only two or three nights together each week. It is almost impossible for parents to be the main spiritual influences and teachers if they are only spending one-third of the month together. If we truly believe that this is the parents’ responsibility, then we will no longer take their kids away from them fifteen nights a month.
A muddled purpose. Listen to this quote from another youth pastor, “If I become too pastoral, the kids won’t be entertained, and they will go down the street to the guy with all the bells and whistles. If I become too evangelistic, I get complaints about the shallowness of the group and post-youth ministry dropout rate. I can’t win (Baucham 181).” I can relate to this youth pastor. In my dealings with Friday nights over the past six months, I have had these same problems. I was either preaching too long or too short. The small groups were either not serious enough or too serious. The game time was either too long or too short. Everybody had their own opinion. In talking with many parents and leaders over the purpose of TGIF I encountered two main responses. The first was that TGIF was supposed to be an evangelistic event in which kids could invite their lost friends. The second was that it was supposed to be a safe place, off of the streets, away from the evil things of the world that my kids could come and hang out and relax. Unfortunately we were doing neither of these well.
As stated earlier, if we are truly going to do an evangelistic event, then we need to go where the lost people are and minister to them there. But this will not be in the form of games or entertainment; we have already seen that they are not effective and we will not be a part of them. We have also already seen that the church is not a safe place to hang out, especially when it is evangelizing. In light of both of these things, a muddled schedule and a muddled purpose, we are no longer doing TGIF and are doubling or efforts in training and assisting parents.
Upon hearing this, many people have said to me, “but what about the fun?” or “isn’t this too scholastic?” and I usually have two responses for them. First, we must get away from the idea that there can be no “fun” or fellowship at Bible study. We cannot compartmentalize that way. While Bible study is a serious time, there is joy and we do usually have a good time because we are brought together by the common bond of the gospel and common blood of Jesus Christ. So we must get away from this idea. Second, in response, I say, look at the calendar. We usually have at least two events every four to six weeks that are “fellowship” times. But either way, we are serious about church. We are assisting parents and equipping saints for work that involves life and death for all of eternity; this is important work we’re doing.
I know that not having TGIF will create a void in some of the students. Some parents were raised participating in Friday nights, and many students have been a part of it or seen their older siblings go through it, and I know that they are going to be missing out. I do understand this, but I also know of another void that needs to be filled. And that void is family time. I encourage families to not waste Friday nights; make it an intentional family time. If your kid really wants to hang out with friends, then have your family hang out with their family. If your student has a desire to go evangelize, that’s great! Go do it as a family. And if your student really wants to be with other Christians in a safe environment, then keep them home, it’s safer than anywhere else.
I want to now focus our attention on one last thing. It is the subject of servant-leadership. Not only do we assist you the parents in the discipling of your students, but we also equip them for the work of the ministry. We have a very high view of leadership here in the church. Did you know that we will be held accountable, to God, for the leaders we put in place? From every senior citizen to every Jr. High kid, we will answer to God for whom we have set in different positions. Because of this, we want to make sure that every person who is put in a position of leadership is equipped and able to handle the work involved.
We are, therefore, putting something new in place. From now on, if your student wishes to serve in the church in a leadership position, whether it be Children’s Church, Sunday School teacher or assistant, or worship ministry, they will be required to attend The Academy. What is The Academy? Good question. This “Student Ministries Seminary” is a training and discipleship time where we teach theology, doctrine, historic creeds of the faith, practical ministry, and personal holiness. We will meet every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month, from 4:00 to 5:30 pm. Parents are, of course, invited and encouraged to come as well. The Academy is open to all, but again, is a requirement for all student leaders (the only exceptions are nursery, preschool, and VBS helpers).
So that’s pretty much everything. We believe these are the first steps in moving toward where God would have us go. We are very excited, but very serious about the work ahead, and look forward to see what God has in store for us. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at any time.
Friday, August 17, 2007
we forgot something...
I (Nick) remember the first time the truth of scripture hit me. I had been a believer for a few months, and I had been reading a ton, but on this particular night, scripture whacked me in the back of the head It was the story of Lot leaving Sodom. It suddenly made sense. Something clicked that told me not only were these things true, but they spurred me to action. My response shocked me. I couldn't wait to tell everyone about it. It changed me.
Fast-forward a few years.
It was my second semester of college. I was starting to serve heavily at my church, I was growing immensely, and then I got whacked again. This time it was the story of Peter and John in Acts 5. A phrase that I had read at least a hundred times before suddenly confronted me. "So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name." That didn't make sense to me. They had just been in prison. They had just been beaten and flogged. They were just threatened not to talk about Jesus. And their response was...rejoicing? Not only rejoicing because they had been beaten and flogged but because they were considered worthy to suffer? Something was off.
I had to know more so I started studying. The results again were staggering. Jesus said that if we did not take up our cross and follow Him, then we were not worthy of Him (Matt. 10:38). He went further, as we see in Matthew 16, and said that we must deny ourselves and take up our cross. The thing that struck me was that the cross was an execution device. It caused suffering. And we're supposed to do that daily (Luke 9:23)? I thought Christianity was about going to church, and singing songs, and loving people. I thought following Jesus lead to sitting in the front pews, and then in the choir loft, and then eventually to Heaven; I had never heard that following Jesus lead to death. But something still wasn't right. I decided to go back to the scriptures.
Peter's a bit of a mystery to me. He was at times bold, but when it really mattered he split. He failed. He did seemingly the ultimate wrong thing in my mind, he denied Christ. But there he was just a few months later getting flogged for the sake of Christ. And not only that, but he was rejoicing over it. Seeing the resurrected Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit changed him. I wondered if he had anything to say.
"...but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing...If you are reviled for the name of Christ you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you." (1 Peter 4:12-14)
This turned my world upside down. If we suffer for Christ, we are blessed? If God's spirit is on us, then we suffer? This is exactly the opposite of what I had seen and been taught. I had always heard that if the spirit of God were on you then you were successful and had a nice house and a good family. I had always been taught that God blessed you by building you up. But Jesus tells us to deny ourselves and to die daily. Peter tells us to rejoice and embrace suffering because it is a sign that God is blessing us.
It finally made sense. I had to abandon the world's idea that good = success, and that bad = failure. I realized that I had been lied to when people said that godliness = material gain, and evil = material loss. But it also got me thinking about something else.
What if this idea was truly embraced by the church? We wouldn't come in on Sundays down and depressed when we had a bad week; we would come in excited. When things were going bad we would rejoice together. Worship would be radically different. Evangelism would completely change. We would see the world as dying sinners who need the love of Christ and we would suffer in order for them to see it, instead of merely saying that they're pagans who are going to hell. Life would radically change.
"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master." Matthew 10:24-25
"For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me." Philippians 1:29-30
Fast-forward a few years.
It was my second semester of college. I was starting to serve heavily at my church, I was growing immensely, and then I got whacked again. This time it was the story of Peter and John in Acts 5. A phrase that I had read at least a hundred times before suddenly confronted me. "So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name." That didn't make sense to me. They had just been in prison. They had just been beaten and flogged. They were just threatened not to talk about Jesus. And their response was...rejoicing? Not only rejoicing because they had been beaten and flogged but because they were considered worthy to suffer? Something was off.
I had to know more so I started studying. The results again were staggering. Jesus said that if we did not take up our cross and follow Him, then we were not worthy of Him (Matt. 10:38). He went further, as we see in Matthew 16, and said that we must deny ourselves and take up our cross. The thing that struck me was that the cross was an execution device. It caused suffering. And we're supposed to do that daily (Luke 9:23)? I thought Christianity was about going to church, and singing songs, and loving people. I thought following Jesus lead to sitting in the front pews, and then in the choir loft, and then eventually to Heaven; I had never heard that following Jesus lead to death. But something still wasn't right. I decided to go back to the scriptures.
Peter's a bit of a mystery to me. He was at times bold, but when it really mattered he split. He failed. He did seemingly the ultimate wrong thing in my mind, he denied Christ. But there he was just a few months later getting flogged for the sake of Christ. And not only that, but he was rejoicing over it. Seeing the resurrected Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit changed him. I wondered if he had anything to say.
"...but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing...If you are reviled for the name of Christ you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you." (1 Peter 4:12-14)
This turned my world upside down. If we suffer for Christ, we are blessed? If God's spirit is on us, then we suffer? This is exactly the opposite of what I had seen and been taught. I had always heard that if the spirit of God were on you then you were successful and had a nice house and a good family. I had always been taught that God blessed you by building you up. But Jesus tells us to deny ourselves and to die daily. Peter tells us to rejoice and embrace suffering because it is a sign that God is blessing us.
It finally made sense. I had to abandon the world's idea that good = success, and that bad = failure. I realized that I had been lied to when people said that godliness = material gain, and evil = material loss. But it also got me thinking about something else.
What if this idea was truly embraced by the church? We wouldn't come in on Sundays down and depressed when we had a bad week; we would come in excited. When things were going bad we would rejoice together. Worship would be radically different. Evangelism would completely change. We would see the world as dying sinners who need the love of Christ and we would suffer in order for them to see it, instead of merely saying that they're pagans who are going to hell. Life would radically change.
"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master." Matthew 10:24-25
"For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me." Philippians 1:29-30
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Family Driven Faith
Amanda and I just finished reading Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham. We'll post a book review in the coming days, but wanted to go ahead and make everyone aware. It's very thought-provoking and a great read. Pick it up and take a look.
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