Scott’s Blog

Whenever we do “Ask Any Question” there are a number of questions that get asked each time. Among them are the questions about how we do our worship services. These questions range anywhere from music volume (some want it louder, some quieter), number of songs (some want more, some want less), type of songs (everything you can imagine). how we close the service (invitation or not and type of invitation), the way we do baptism (during or after the service). Some wonder why we don’t celebrate Mother’s Day or other civic holidays in the services. I’m always fascinated that we sometimes get more questions about the way we do church than about God or the Bible.

As it is for a lot of people, the calendar changing from one year to the next is a time of evaluation for me. I take note of where I am and think through how to bridge the gap between that truth and where I should be. So this year I asked myself a simple question; “What if 2011 would have been my last year?” I live with a pretty constant awareness of the vapor like nature of life. When you’ve been a pastor for more than 25 years you deal with issues all the time that go beyond earthly life so it is not very hard for me to see beyond the here and now. I wish I could say that awareness always translated to living more wisely and intentionally.

• I would enjoy God more than just work for him with passion.
• I would focus more on people than processes.
• I would settle down in prayer without thinking I need to get to work. Prayer is the work.
• I would look into the eyes of my bride and my boys more and simply listen.
• I would watch even less TV and read more.
• I would eat less processed foods because I really do feel better without them.
• I would not carry the weight of things only God can carry.
• I would not try so hard to fix situations for people; but I would help them trust more.
• I would not take “things” so seriously.
• I would laugh more.

More than 30 years ago, in 1978, a group of believers banded together to start a new church. It was a high risk venture, most new churches fail. This one didn’t. God was gracious and Emmanuel Bible Chapel grew into solid Bible teaching church of several hundred. Mark Cain, a gifted and faithful Bible teacher who was full of integrity, was the pastor for 15 years. After Mark accepted a call to a new pastorate down south ebc fell into an identity crises. It wasn’t pretty and the church split. In fact, it split more than once. The reputation of the church in the community was sullied.

Fortunately that wasn’t the end of ebc. God wasn’t finished yet with our church. Our elders, demonstrating tremendous and difficult leadership, sought God and repented of the sin of the church. Intentional steps were taken to seek God’s blessing on the future of the church. God, extending huge amounts of mercy and rivers of grace granted ebc a new beginning. It was a new beginning that we did not deserve. But, then again, none of us ever live through what we truly deserve.

The problem is though, sometimes when we are enjoying times of God’s blessing, when his mercy is glimmering all around us and His grace is producing what looks like success we can make a change in the attitude of our heart. We can begin to think that its about us. Or, perhaps even worse, we can begin to think that the success we’re enjoying is because we’re just that good. May it never be! As we gather this Sunday and celebrate major next steps in our mission let’s keep constantly aware of Solomon’s advice in Proverbs 16:18: Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.

ebc has one purpose, to glorify God. We do that by making more Christians and better Christians. Our best days as a family are yet ahead. But let’s always remember, always, that everything about ebc is about God’s glory. Then let’s go get more for Him. Yeah God.

This is one of the areas where Protestants and Catholics have differing practices. There is much that the two groups agree on, but there is a fundamental difference is our main source of authority that leads us to different practices. Protestants affirm the Bible as the source of truth and practice. Catholics affirm the authority of the church, and specifically the Pope as the source of truth and practice. Because of this distinction there are extra-biblical traditions that are a part of the Catholic experience that are not a part of the Protestant experience.

During 2012 we’re going to do all we can to help our ebc family get into the Word. Our first series of the year will show you how to get into the Bible and understand it and apply it to your life. You don’t want to miss it because nothing will help you see life and eternity more clearly than getting into God’s Word for yourself.

3. Pick a translation to read. I recommend the New Living Translation because it is very faithful and well done, and it is readable. Another great option is The Message, which is a paraphrase by Eugene Peterson.

Bren and I have been adjusting to the empty nest since early August. That means the most important earthly task assigned to us is mostly over. Sure, we’ll always parent our boys, and we’re looking forward to being grandparents (in due time!).  Entering this chapter of life has prompted me to ask a probing question. It’s important to me to enter this chapter with the desired end in mind. I want to be intentional. So, the question is simply this; what do I want to give to those who are following right behind me? I have no control over what has gone on ahead of me, and I have no control over what happens when I’m finished. The only thing I can control is what I try to leave behind. Because I’m a dad, I’ve thought about this a lot. There are lots of good answers. I want my sons to have a solid work ethic, they do. I want them to be respectful and value people, they do. I want them to see how to cherish God’s gift of a wife for them, I hope they will. I want them to pursue life as an adventure rather than just experience it as it goes by, that certainly seems to be happening. There are lots of ways to answer that question but I think there is only one answer that really satisfies. Psalm 145 has given me the answer. David is writing and right after his introduction he says this in verse 4: Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts. That’s it. That simple statement burns through the fog of the good and advantageous to the vital and supremely necessary. David goes on to describe what that looks like in the next several verses. He says in verse 6 and following: Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue; I will proclaim your greatness. Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness; they will sing with joy of your righteousness. Then later he says: They will talk together about the glory of your kingdom; they will celebrate examples of your power. They will tell about your mighty deeds and about the majesty and glory of your reign. For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. You rule generation after generation.

One thing is sure. The generation that follows me is more different from me than I am of the one that preceded me. Their world is different from mine in so many ways. They interact differently than I do; they experience things differently than I do. They learn and serve and live differently. But there is one thing that I have that I can pass on to them that will have a fundamental defining impact on them. That is my story of God and how he’s loved, provided for and changed me.  They are well suited to figure out how to reach their generation. They don’t need me to do that. God is more than capable of guiding them in those things. What makes me sad is that too often I’ve tried to give them our way doing things or our experience of the church before sharing our experience with Jesus. As parents, sometimes we give the impression that our methods are more important to us than our relationships. They already know our way of doing things has not been completely effective so it’s no wonder they turn us off pretty quickly when we pretend our greatest gift to them is stuff we think they should do.

Psalm 44 finds David dealing with national tragedy. Israel was being plundered. David however had great faith in God’s faithfulness. Why? He gives the answer in verse 2: Our ancestors have told us of all you did in days long ago.

In Psalm 78 Asaph writes: We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders… so the next generation might know them— even the children not yet born— and they in turn will teach their own children. So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.

I want to encourage you to join me in developing a laser focus for your parenting. Let’s take the advice of the psalms and tell those that follow of the mighty acts of God. Let’s share his glorious loving kindness and the joy of walking with him alone.

The question of whether or not altar calls are effective touches not only on the issue of altar calls themselves but on how one comes to faith and receives redemption from God.

For most of the 20^th century, the United States was basically a Christian culture. Even though there was freedom to not believe, and not everyone was a believer, the institutions of society and government “Christianized” people. There was a cultural bias to attend church. Offices and most business were closed on Sunday. It was unheard of to have a sports practice on Sunday. The 10 commandments from the Old Testament book of Exodus were prominently displayed in governmental buildings. Creation was taught in schools, and prayer to the God of the Christian Bible was offered at public gatherings. In that culture, churches defined themselves by how they were different from one another. For the most part the question wasn’t really whether or not you were “Christian” the question was how committed you were.

Two key strategies emerged in evangelicalism that were effective in that culture. One was to prod people emotionally, intellectually, or otherwise to come to faith, pray the “sinner’s prayer”, walk an aisle, come forward etc. Since most people basically knew the Bible story, they knew they were getting serious with God. The other strategy was one of “rededicating your life.” Basically this was for people who had already “prayed the prayer” but weren’t really living like a Christian. Rededication was looked upon as a new beginning with God. Some great ministries used these strategies very effectively. It is important to note, however, that they were strategies that were culturally effective at that time and place. There is nothing biblical about a “prayer of faith” or a “sinner’s prayer.” That just isn’t in the Bible. While Jesus was a great evangelist, he never told anyone to pray a prayer to “get saved.” The rich, young ruler, among many others, walked away angry because of the way Jesus presented the gospel. We need to follow the example of Jesus and the great ministries of our past, and find ways that are effective in the culture we’re called to live in.

In our post Christian culture people have been saturated with that kind of “evangelism” to the point that they think they know what we’re all about, and we’ve become a punch line in jokes. The gospel must be contextualized to the culture in a way that is biblically faithful. This is nothing new. It’s been happening since God worked through the authors of the New Testament. God gives us four different gospels with the story of Jesus. Each one is faithful to the story, but they’re different in both tone and content because the audience of each gospel is a different culture. Matthew is written to Jews, Mark to Romans, Luke to Gentiles in general, and John to Greeks in particular. The fact that we read the Bible in English is an example of contextualization.

While there are times that God works through a particular moment to suddenly save someone, normally coming to Jesus is a process. People become curious and apprehensive. Curious about Jesus and his claims, apprehensive about what they think they know about the church and its negative, moralistic, judgmental people. They need a safe place that is relevant to their culture where they can investigate the claims of Jesus and hang out with his followers. Over time, one of two things happens. They either work through their bias about the church, or they confirm it and leave to carry on their search some other place. If they hang out long enough, they begin to see that this Jesus really is who he said he was, and he really does make people new.  That process can take a few days, weeks, months or years. How long it takes is up to God. The process is described in a story Jesus told in Matthew 13:24-30. Take a look. So, we don’t do “sinner’s prayer” evangelism or altar calls because, while they were at one time effective strategies, they are counterproductive to the culture in which we find ourselves. Our job is to be faithful to the Scriptures and effective in the culture. Since “sinner’s prayer” evangelism and altar calls are extra-biblical strategies, we’re free to use them or to find other strategies that we think may be more effective. So for now, we will continue to encourage people to repent and surrender as they respond to God’s revelation of himself to them. We will continue to be gospel centered and gospel driven with the understanding that the gospel is the biblical story of Jesus

Christmas is a confusing time. Christmas is supposed to be the celebration of the coming of Jesus, the savior of the world. But, gor the most part we celebrate Christmas by celebrating rampant consumerism, which, if anything takes our minds and hearts pretty far away from Jesus.

It’s Thanksgiving morning as I write this. We normally have a fun meal on Thanksgiving… grilling outside, or something like that. We chose low key Thanksgiving meals because we wanted to be together as a family without Brenda having all the work of the big meal.  But, this year, Bren decided that we’d do the whole big Thanksgiving meal deal. So, she was up last night preparing the turkey and the ham and all the things that go with it. She enjoys that and we’re looking forward to being together with family today and enjoying a feast. The smell in our home right now is incredible!

I’ve never done this before, but this is good so I’m just going to share another post from another blog…one to which I think you should subscribe… Pete Wilson is one of the pastors at Cross Point Church, an eight year old, five-campus church in the Nashville area. Check it out:

Isn’t it funny how we can agree with 90% of what someone says but we focus, twitter and blog about the other 10%.

And just so I’m clear by “funny” I really mean sad and pathetic.

Why do we do this?

Why do we poke fun?

Why do we take cheap jabs?

Why do we criticize?

Why do we belittle?

Is it about defending truth and protecting a generation against false prophets? Ummmm, usually not.

We usually do it because we somehow think it justifies our stance. Because surely we couldn’t both be right. Surely more than one model wouldn’t work.

We usually do it because our ego has been damaged and it just makes us feel better to tear someone else down. I hate this part of me, but I know from experience tearing others down can briefly make me feel better about myself.

We usually do it because we ourselves have been a victim of criticism and we’re reacting from our hurt.  The old adage that “hurt people, hurt people” is so true and alive and well in the church today.

Matthew 7

³ “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? ⁴ How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

Can I make a suggestion? Instead of focusing on the 10%, why don’t we build relationships based on the 90%. And as God opens doors let’s speak into one another’s lives. Let’s focus on being one and allow God’s Spirit to bring about the change to His body  He desires.

Trust me. I don’t agree with everything my pastor friends believe. I don’t believe in all of their theology, strategies, personalities, and models, but I’ve found we’re still on the same team and we can accomplish a lot more together than we can tearing each other apart.

If listening to that pastor’s messages ticks you off, then don’t listen.

If articles about the missional church drive you crazy, then don’t read them.

If the growth of the attractional church makes you angry, then stop tracking their numbers.

If every time you read his blog or her blog you find yourself fighting a wave of jealousy, then unsubscribe.

Now I know some of you are going to say “but how do we bring about change if we don’t challenge, question and push back?” I’m all for challenging, but I think there is a way we can do this with respect, love, and grace. There is a way we can engage in a conversation without throwing stones and taking public shots at each other.

Focus on the change you need to bring to your life, to your church. Worry about the “log” and give the “speck” a break.

I think our firestorms of criticism are doing immense damage to the body of Christ. Not only are we distracting each other from our main mission, we are simply playing right into the hands of those outside the faith who already think we’re trite and hypocritical.