[The following is a wonderful post by the internet monk, Michael Spencer. I liked it so much I copied it here. You can check him out at http://www.internetmonk.com/.]

nick

I just spent ten minutes reading something I’ve read/heard hundreds of times before: an established, traditional church, experiencing some signs of aging, goes through a process diagnosing its problems, developing/selling a plan for the future and asking the congregation to work with the leadership to bring the church through a period of decline into a future of growth and prosperity.

In those plans are predictable words: Plans. Consultants. Marketing. Children. New Staff. New facilities. New families. Communication. Outreach. Programs. Growth.

There’s the necessary optimism. (”Our best days are ahead of us.”) The ever present affirmation (”We’re a great church.”) The spiritual assurances. (”God is at work here.”)

Under the words, you can feel the tension. Generational worship styles have collided. The noise of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven revolution has been heard by members of the congregation, and there is a bit of unrest in the formerly passive pews. Young people want to know why their church isn’t doing what the other churches are doing. How long are we going to stick with the suits, the choir and the organ? Where’s the band? The projection? The CCM praise choruses? The cool stuff?

The good days of the denominational past are a powerful memory, but the raw competitiveness of evangelicalism’s present is a current reality. People with families are going elsewhere. Young people are shopping around, and what do we have to offer? What if we keep declining? Does our leadership get it? Does our leadership know what “it” is? Can we change if we wanted to? Do we want to? Can we start enough alternative services to make everyone happy?

There is the confidence of previous denominational wisdom in the voice of the pastor. With new staff, a good plan, better facilities, more marketing, we will prosper. We need to work harder and do more. We need programs and outreaches and visibility. It’s always worked. It will work again.

Many of you know this song before I sing it. You could write several more verses.

Many of you know what you won’t hear in this recitation of plans and programs. You won’t hear anything about the Gospel. At all.

The Gospel? We’ve got that down. We preach it. (Don’t we?) We teach it. (Of course we teach it. We baptized 15 last year.) If we don’t have the Gospel right, what are we doing anyway?

Now there’s a question.

Tom Ascol, Director of Founder’s Ministries, has repeatedly said that the challenge facing Southern Baptists and other evangelicals is the Gospel itself. Not numbers or how to grow bigger churches, but the Gospel.

The Gospel is rarely heard in many churches. Whole movements have moved past the Gospel into “felt needs” and “what people want to hear.” Pastor-theologians are rare; perhaps officially qualifying as an endangered species. Any survey or question and answer on the gospel in the midst of our Sunday morning congregations will yield results not much different than what one might hear in France or secular Europe. Oh there will be a LOT more God talk and religious chatter, but the Gospel? The core? The heart? You will be surprised. You ought to be broken.

Tom needs to write the book. (Write the book, Tom.) Our churches, our pastors, our leaders— they need to admit we’ve lost the Gospel, and what version of it we retain we’ve Americanized, diluted, perverted, spun, castrated and/or ignored. The Gospel’s transforming power is largely untapped among the majority of professing Christians. We are not counter cultural. Our first century ancestors wouldn’t recognize most of us as family unless they happened to catch us in church.

We’re about as much of a revolution as the latest sale at the Lexus dealership.

We want Christianity to be like a club the whole family enjoys. (Family values is one of the new code words for “What Gospel?”) We want our version of the gospel to protect us and our kind in the cultural collapse, even as we swim in the cultural sewer and buy into its idolatries. We want Christianity to keep our kids interested in morality and church, but we also want them to wear Hollister, and drive new cars, and go to prom. We don’t want them pregnant or in jail, and even an occasional mission trip would be good. In the end, we want successful Americans producing our beautiful grandchildren. God forbid they take off for Yemen or U.A.E. or Africa.

The Gospel? We want to finance it. We want to build buildings and talk about it. We want to hear beautiful music about it. We want the success of our church and the success of our pastor’s book and the cool songs on the Christian station to represent our Christianity. We’ll study the Bible and say “What it means to me is….” Good choice.

We want to be a Christian niche market. We want to have enough Christian friends for Dinner 8 and for our children to have good friends. We want a gospel that keeps the marriage going and our prayers answered.

Yes Tom, write the book. Please. We need the Gospel of Jesus in America. We need it to be the kind of message that divides the world, stakes claims in the enemy’s territory, overturns the idols in our houses and sends our children into inner cities instead of to the suburbs. We need a gospel that addresses racism, abuse, excess, narcissism, corruption, sexual sin and the passive acceptance of poverty.

We need a gospel that makes us so hungry for reformation that we can’t stand ourselves and our churches to be the same. We need a gospel that makes a preacher a joke if he doesn’t preach it. We need a gospel that plants questions right where we aren’t used to asking them and breaks us on the rocks of integrity and holiness. We need a Gospel that will save us, and that we will will savor.

Write the book and sound the alarm. Zion isn’t quite sleeping anymore, but it doesn’t know that the Lord has left his temple and all we’re left with is the beginnings of judgement in his wake.

deep in the heart of Texas...

Amanda, Susannah, [unborn baby], and I have been in the great state of Texas for the past week or so and we're coming back in a few days. In my time here I've been working on a couple of articles/posts that I look forward to flushing out and putting up sometime after I get back.

In the mean time, pray for us.

a non-rhyming poem from last year...

Thoughts on the sunlit room

The sunlight coming in my window bathes the room in warmth.
Everything is now contrasted either as a shadow or light.
Texas on the door.
TV on the table.
Idols everywhere.
Me on the couch with my sword.
It is still sharp despite being unused.
The handle has grown dull with inactivity and neglect.
It can now barely reflect the light shining through the window.
I gaze at screaming voices calling for my offering.
Time!
Attention!
Energy!
Thought!
Joy!
From pictures on the shelf to games on the floor – I hear them quite easily.
Brighter by far, but to deaf ears is the persistent sunlight.
Will I again neglect the sun to play with controlled electricity?
Will I again forego the moon to gaze at the light beaconing from my television?
There is a man on first.
There is a bug on the porch.
There’s a puzzle to solve.
There are mysteries to discover.
There’s relaxation waiting in my chair.
There’s heaven waiting in eternity.
What I do shows myself as either a shadow or light.
I sink into the shadow.
I strive for the light.
I sit on my couch watching the sunset.

Making Much of God

I (Amanda) have been learning that God really is totally sovereign. I have always believed this theologically, but lately I am beginning to realize how practically I sometimes doubt it. My lips often speak the right words but in my heart I am harboring doubt. I think this because I hear stories about how God is working in someones life and they are struggling with horrible things such as the death of a child, terminal illness or a spouse leaving them. I wonder why these things happen. But I know that scripture teaches that all things work for the good (Rom 8:28). But, do I really know how to deal with these things? Do I really know that God is working this for the good in our lives?
He really is! I have been thinking for weeks about a phrase that we use so much in Christendom: "giving God glory." We want to do this in every area of our lives. But what does it mean? As I was reading a book by Dr. Jay Adams, Back to the Blackboard, he defines giving God glory as "making much of God." I was pondering if I really make much of God in all I do or do I just use the phrase casually. If we think about every facet of life and really test and see, are we making much of God when we do this, say this or participate in this? I come away surprised by how much I don't give God glory. Often I watch a TV show, have a conversation or participate in things that do not make much of God. Sometimes they even mock or go against his very character. This is heartbreaking.
This weekend I had the privilege of going to a ladies retreat in the mountains of New York to hear Martha Peace speak. It was a great time of relaxation for me and my friend, but also we heard over and over again that God must be given glory. Martha reminded us that no matter what we are going through, we must strive to glorify God in it. She brought up an example of just about every horrible thing we could think of that could happen to us and kept encouraging us that if you are going through this or if you do go through it, we must give God glory in it and rest in his sovereignty. She told the story of Joesph and how what his brothers meant for evil, God meant for good. Sometimes God uses the bad for His good. But she brought a passage of Scripture to my mind that really stuck with me from 1 Peter 6-7: In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
I have read this passage before but this time the meaning really took root. Our trials and grief come to us as a test. Through each trial, if we give God praise and glory, our faith will prove to be genuine. WOW! what a truth. They way we act during our trials speaks volumes about our spiritual life. It easy to quote a theological principle but much harder to live it out.
As we were driving home, my friend and I were both thinking, "this weekend was great but I cant help thinking that maybe God brought us here for a reason. I hope nothing horrible is coming our way." And we don't know if it is. It is scary to think about, but nevertheless, if some trial comes our way, we pray that our faith would be found genuine.
So, the next time we say we are striving at "giving God glory" in a church ministry or our homes or at work, or with our kids, etc. Ask yourself, is what I am doing there "making much of God or man?
True glory always makes God bigger and us smaller!

Relient K

Make sure you check out the blog of Jon Schneck, bandmember of Relient K. Look under the "Luck of the K" posting and see some of the youth from our church. It can be found here. http://jonschneck.blogspot.com/2007/05/luck-of-k.html

Feminine Appeal: Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother

OK Ladies, this is a must read for all trying to understand the biblical calling for women. Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney takes a deeper look at Titus 2 and biblical womanhood. If you don't have this book order it now. I have read this book twice and each time it has drastically helped me understand God's design for women a little better. It is an easy read and I promise it will be very fruitful for you.

Noah...

Ninety-three years to go
If the tradition's correct
The work appears so slow
They don’t seem to expect

Perhaps I am building salvation
Perhaps I am making a fire
Will the end bring celebration
Or will I be found a liar

It seems I am missing the party
Though my drinks come after the rain
So I’ll work on for something hearty
The work will not be in vain

So as my hammer pounds
And as the gopher falls
The mighty thunder sounds
Get the donkeys in the stalls

Then my God will decide
Whether eight was truly enough
When He assigned my life deride
And the people to rebuff



As you can see, I've been thinking about Noah lately. Tradition says it took him 120 years to build the ark, and here I am only 27. Of course, He didn't start until after he was 500, but you get the point.

The people were busy with their lives. Eating, drinking, getting married...the good life. And there was Noah in the midst of them, doing what God commanded. I wonder what the people thought? There were some, of course, who didn't notice at all. There were others, I'm sure, who noticed, but laughed and then went on with their merry lives. But what I really wonder is, were there other ship-makers?

Were there some who came to Noah and started giving instructions? You can hear them now:

"Noah, you know, as much time and energy as you're putting into this thing, you could just buy a boat and not have to deal with all this headache."

Or maybe, "No, no, no, these plans won't work at all. Too big. And the proportions are all wrong. This will never stay afloat."

Or maybe even, "Hey Noah, if you want a kick-butt ship, you need to attract people to it. So start by putting down the hammer and grabbing a drink. Loosen up! Now, people don't like gopher wood, so let's look at some alternatives. And the petting zoo theme? Well, that looks nice on paper, but I really think we need to go with more of a contemplative, yet playful atmosphere. And whatever you do, don't forget to..."

Now, I don't know if Noah ever really heard any of these things. But I hear them. Everyday. And it's a constant struggle between what God is calling me to do and what everyone else thinks.

[I guess a few disclaimers are in order before I go further. First, God never, let me repeat never, calls you to do something contrary to His will, as displayed in scripture. Adultery, divorce (in most cases), racism, the love of money, greed, gossip, and so many others, are not God's will. Scripture makes that plain. So don't say that God is calling you to do something if it is directly spoken against in scripture. Second, you are not a church unto yourself. It is God's will for us, as believers, to be a part of a local church. If you can't find a godly church around you, then move. Find a biblical church (none are perfect, but find one that preaches scripture and strives for holiness) and submit to it. I assure you, you are not the lone voice of reason and the only one in America getting it right. This article is about working in ministry - not merely being a part of the church. So please don't use anything here as an excuse to not be faithful to a church because people aren't doing things the way you think they should be done.]

Now, with all of that said, think back at Noah. God called him, and he obeyed. People thought he was dead wrong or just plain stupid, but he stood firm. Why? Because the Word of God commanded. Now we are pressed with very similar circumstances. God has commanded in His Word. Will we obey?

Let's make it even tougher. After one year of obeying, and not one single person is convinced, will we still obey? Does God's word change? What about after five years? Ten? What if we were to give our entire lives to obeying what God has called us to do, yet not one single person has believed. Not one single person has been convinced. Not one changed heart. Not one transformed mind. Will we still be faithful? Despite the outcries, in the face of opposition, in the midst of persecution - will we still be faithful?

God will not judge the outcome of our ministry - He provides that and His work is good. No, God will judge the ministry itself. Were we faithful with what He gave? Did we do what He commanded? Did we plant? Did we water? He is in charge of the growth, but we are in charge of the tools He gave us. Did we use them well?

Noah did. Faithfully.

But only eight people were saved: he and his family.

And here we are thousands of years later looking back at the success of Noah. His success wasn't in numbers. It wasn't based on his clout and his desirability. It was solely on His faith. Faith not in himself, or his work, but in God alone. And we are no different than he. Will we be faithful to God and what He has called us to do?

That is the question for our times and ministries. Unfortunately so many ministers get caught up in fruitless suggestions while ignoring the word of God. They hear the multitudes shout, but neglect the voice of God. There is a way that seems right to man, but it's end is destruction. We must not go down that way.

Build what God has called you to build; the clouds are starting to gather.


[Another disclaimer. Please do not, after reading this, get that I am unconcerned with reaching the lost. In no way, shape, or form, do I want to go "93" more years without a convert. I am grieved when people do not respond to the call of Christ - especially the ones I'm around all the time. Oh, I pray that God would have mercy on them and save them. But I also understand that it is totally God's mercy and grace that saves people, on his timetable, and the only thing I can do about it is to preach His word (because that's His chosen way to offer salvation...see below). So this article is not a call to ignore the lost, it is rather a plea for faithfulness to God.]