Perhaps the most influential voice in America, stakes her claim as a spiritual leader and denies the identity, work and exclusivity of Jesus the Christ. How can millions of so-called Christians in the U.S. watch her every day, read her recommended books, and follow after her so blindly?
I’m not asking for Oprah to affirm the true vision of Jesus (as she’s not a genuine believer, she cannot), but please don’t muddy the waters and consider one’s self a Christian and then say these nonsensical things. Oprah has more influence than she could ever realize.
Last night we continued our series in our Foundations class at Foothills on The Church . We had a great time studying some of the metaphors for the Church in the New Testament, like: the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23 ) with Christ as our Head, the flock of God (John 10 ) with Jesus being our Good Shepherd, the family (household) of God, the building of God and temple of the Holy Spirit, and the bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2 ; Eph. 5:25-33 ).
As we do each week, I stated our over-arching goal for the lesson:
That we learn to know, love and enjoy God more than we know, love and enjoy anything or anyone else, and that we worship Him as His Church
Our two objectives were to:
Deepen our love for and commitment to the Church, and
Let go of false pictures and expectations of the Church
Last time we looked at the nature of the Church and I pulled in a few common slogans. Perhaps you’ve heard them before:
"Have it your way" (Burger King)
"You can do it; we can help" (Home Depot)
We discussed that we need to repent of our consumerism when it comes to the local church, because it is not about us (!).
So I proposed a better motto/slogan by which we see ourselves:
“WE can do it, you can help”
‘We’ being the church, and ‘you’ being individual believers. Or if we want to keep with the corporate slogans, perhaps this one works:
"Let’s build something together" (Lowe’s)
In this I’m not trying to pit one company as better than the other (i.e., while I like Lowe’s slogan more, the customer service there is inferior to Home Depot, in my humble opinion).
Enough of the corporate nonsense, and let’s talk about how we experience our identity corporately . Much could be said here about our identity and no less than five dozen words and metaphors are used by God to describe who we are in Christ (e.g. chosen, saints, faithful, beloved, redeemed people, royal priesthood, a holy nation, light, salt, etc.). As I mentioned above, last night we considered five metaphors:
The Body of Christ
The flock of God
The family (household) of God
The building of God
The bride of Christ
I love each one of these illustrative metaphors, and they spring forth off the page in full-color, 3-dimensions. It seemed like all my students (which are all older than me by the way) delved into this with full expression of faith. We talked through what it means to forgive, and to seek the betterment of others, to sacrifice and be joined to Christ and one another. How they ideal desriptions of the Church are just that, descriptive and not merely prescriptive. We work and live as an expression of our identity, and not to gain acceptance (and identity) before God. ("We are accepted, therefore we obey.") We have been together for about 6 months now, so many of our conversations are like streams of thought that flow from one week through the next. The trajectory of our learning is to learn how to know, love and enjoy God above all else, and to learn how to do that for the benefit of others all the more.
Some of our time talked about how to relate to those who think they are Christians but are not truly regenerate (and how can one tell, and are we to judge?), that is, how does one become part of the true Church? And that our love for others is directly related to our love for God and we have no claim to being awakened by God if our affections do not overflow in practical ways to others.
I was reminded of a wuote from the 3rd century by Cyprian, bishop of Carthage:
“It is a bad world–-an incredibly bad world. But in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and a holy people who have learned a great secret. They are the despised and the persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people are called Christians, and I am one of them.”
As the church, the community initiated by Christ and for Him, this is our job description, according to the Apostle Peter and the Holy Spirit:
As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
[1 Peter 2:4-6, 9-12]
Truly, Christ will build His Church and nothing can successfully stand in His way (Matthew 16:18).
This past summer I read a short little book by Mark Dever, What is a Healthy Church? It was a quick, good read, and I highly recommend the book.
Recently, permission was given to New Attitude to post the first chapter of the book, free to read and download (PDF). Find it here.
Much of Dever’s ministry is emphasizing and developing nine marks of healthy churches.
I have grown in my understanding, appreciation and devotion to the local church. God had to tear down my pride, humble me by painful circumstances and bring confusion before allowing me to see the light of the beauty of His Bride, the Church, and her geographical representative, the local church assembly. I want to see her become better.
Here’s a portion of what we sent to our extended family, inviting them to Dutch’s baby dedication (which will take place this Sunday morning):
Why Dedicate the Dutcher?
We wanted to share with you, our family, why we do what we do. It may seem that a baby dedication is merely a religious ritual, a tradition to follow. In some ways, it is. We see the value of traditions that celebrate and affirm Dutch. We want him to know that he is valued, loved, and celebrated. We will spend our lives affirming him and this is a first step. But, this is really the secondary reason we are having him dedicated. Primarily, we dedicate Dutch to God because it is a symbol of what we aim to do with him in life, recognizing that Dutch belongs to God. We will spend our life helping him become the man that God desires Him to be.
In the Bible, Mary and Joseph took baby Jesus to the temple to be presented to God, signifying, by their actions, that He belonged to God and was His, not theirs. Hannah did the same thing with her son, Samuel (1 Samuel 1-2:11). She prayed for a child, and when Samuel was born she dedicated him to God’s work. In her case, this meant she only got to see her son once a year once he was older! Though it must have been so hard for her, she was willing to let him go because she’d dedicated him to God at birth. We dedicate Dutch because we want to recognize he is His.
So why are we inviting our family? We obviously could dedicate Dutch privately, in our own home even, and it would be no less “real.” But we want to share this dedication with you, because you are all part of raising Dutch. You all will influence, shape, and mold his life in different ways. You influence our lives as well, by your prayers, words, encouragement, and advice. We aren’t raising Dutch alone—you all are part of this process. We need you. And we are asking you, as our family, to stand with us and help us, pray for us, encourage us, and remind us, when things are hard, that Dutch belongs to God.
I ran across this quote from a book I hope to one day read. Charles Drew in his new book A Journey Worth Taking, writes:
“Church” is not an event. It is people–people whom God calls us to love. What is more, it is in a very important sense an involuntary community of people: we don’t choose our brothers and sisters–God does. And sometimes (oftentimes) those people are not terribly compatible with us–not the people we would choose to hang out with. But it is this very incompatibility that is so important, for at least two reasons. First, learning to love the people I don’t like is by far the best way to learn how to love (it’s easy to love people I happen to like). Second, the church is supposed to be a sociological miracle–a demonstration that Jesus has died and risen to create a new humanity composed of all sorts of people. [HT: Tim Challies]
My family or friends would think badly of me if I didn’t go.
I help in the nursery.
I think that list gives somewhat the gist of why I went to church when I first became a Christian in college (I realize #7 above was given tongue-in-cheek). But then my heart and mind began to be captivated with God, to be enthralled with Christ, and I could not get enough of Him. And then I began to grow and see the contribution I can make to others in the church.
We don’t “go to” church or “do” church but rather have been redeemed to be the church, to be the called out one’s (Greek understanding of ekklesia) assembled together at various times (Jewish understanding of ekklesia), organized in various ways to fulfill Christ’s mission for us with Him here on earth. At some time He will call us home to glory, but until then let us not just “go to” church like we are playing church, but rather be the outworking of Christ’s hands and feet in our community, families, homes, and workplaces. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him for the very reason (Matthew 28:18-20).
“A local church will only be as great as its conception of God. An
individual Christian will be a success or a failure depending upon
what he or she thinks of God. It is critically important that we
have a knowledge of the Holy One, that we know what God is like.”
– A.W. Tozer, The Attributes of God, pp. 41-42.
Justin Buzzard (normally found here) has written a piece, “Three Pastoral Concerns in 800 Words” on the New Attitude Blog, dedicated to raising up a God-centered, Gospel-living, Bible-saturated generation of men and women who display Jesus Christ is in all their lives.
Good stuff, especially the reminder that the Gospel is not just the entrance to the Christian life, it is also the imperative of all the Christian life, to be related to Christ and live in Him, at all times, in the Gospel. (Or, to use a metaphor I came up with, the Gospel is not merely the diving board into the pool, it is the pool. We need to swim in all its fullness, plunging into the deep end daily.)
Here are a few highlights of Justin’s article:
Issue #1: Gospel-Driven Living
As a pastor I’ve noticed that many of the Christians I come into contact with inadequately appreciate and apply the gospel. Each week I encounter many believers who don’t appear to grasp how radical, how good, the good news is. Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension are reduced to the long forgotten starting line of the Christian life, rather than appreciated as the message, the oxygen, that enables each new stride, all progress forward, in the Christian life.
About one year ago I asked some Christians to grab a pen and paper and answer the question, “What is the gospel?” One answer read: “The gospel is what Jesus did for sinners on the cross. It’s how you become a Christian.” This answer is true, but it’s not true enough. There’s more to it. I could speak to the incomplete content of this answer, but here I’ll speak to the incomplete application of this answer: “It’s how you become a Christian.” If you view the gospel merely as what makes you a Christian, rather than also what matures you as a Christian, you minimize the Savior and maximize yourself.
That’s dangerous.
The nitty-gritty consequences of this, of holding to a mere starting-line gospel, a mere starting-line Savior, are severe. The negative affects I’ve observed are: legalism, joylessness, pursuit of self-glory rather than God’s glory, fear, prayerlessness, pride, and loss of concern for the lost.
I’m seeking to lead people to the comprehensive, robust gospel presented in the Scriptures which teaches that each step forward in the Christian life is made only through reliance upon our Savior. Our sin is that bad and our Savior is that great. I’m seeking to do this both by preaching this gospel to myself as often as possible and by talking about and applying this gospel in any and every preaching, teaching, counseling, and evangelism opportunity I’m presented with.
The local church stands at the center of God’s design to redeem the world. Jesus died for the church (Matthew 16:16-18). You can’t obey Hebrews 13:17 unless you’re part of a local church: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” And yet many among this generation of Christians view commitment to a local church as a peripheral concern.
For me this is a central issue, especially as I regularly encounter Christian twentysomethings who find their way into our twenties ministry, operating under the unbiblical conviction that this ministry can be a substitute for involvement in a local church. I’ve sought to respond to this concern by talking loudly week in and week out about the importance of the local church.
Six “core commitments” underlie what my ministry to San Francisco Peninsula twentysomethings is all about. The sixth of these commitments, the local church commitment, is a value that I stress as I encounter non-Christians, Christians from other churches, and Christians who claim no home church who visit our ministry for single and married twentysomethings. This commitment reads as follows:
The local church stands at the center of God’s design to redeem the world. Every Christian is called to be involved in a church (not a twenties ministry), a body of people of all ages who travel through life together and meet regularly to worship God, hear the gospel preached, practice the sacraments of baptism and communion, and submit to the leadership of elders. We love our church—being a part of it and serving it.
I’m responding to this third issue by championing this commitment, by seeking to infect young adult Christians with a love for the local church, the church that Jesus died to create.
Okay, that was almost all of it. Just trying to keep it under the 800 words, even though he wasn’t able to. Thanks for the encouragement, Justin.
The two Greek words de ("but") and Theos ("God") are the first two words of Ephesians 2:4: "But God, who is rich in mercy..."
Because of God's great love and grace extending to us in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, redeemed and able to know, love + enjoy God more fully, ever-increasing and forever.
This site contains the thoughts and conclusions and journeys of the Patterson family -- Jeff, Kari and Dutch -- who have experienced the front-end of God's amazing grace, and continue to delight in His unfailing love.
Read more about us, and what we hold most precious.
As we do each week, I stated our over-arching goal for the lesson:
This past summer I read a short little book by Mark Dever, What is a Healthy Church? It was a quick, good read, and I highly recommend the book.
