Tagged: church RSS

  • Ryan 12:48 pm on December 20, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: church, discipline   

    The Church and Basketball 

    I played basketball for the last several years at a church league in Houston. (I will leave alone for now my thoughts on churches building their own gyms, lest I digress.) When the league started, the men running the league set firm rules about attitudes and behavior. If anyone crossed the line, they were asked to leave the gym and possibly leave the league.

     

    In the early days, this worked wonderfully. As with any church league, the players were rougher and less skilled than players in other leagues I’d played in; yet they were generally more mouthy. A few players tried the rules and found themselves kicked out of the gym, and I believe one was removed from the league altogether. The total number of infractions, however, was small.

     

    Fast-forward a few years. I suppose the men running the league decided they didn’t like asking people to leave the church. Maybe that sounds funny to many of you, as well. So instead, the games got rougher, more mouthy, and less fun. The last game I played in, the refs called a technical on one of the opposing players then called so completely in that team’s favor because of their whining that one ref came over to me and told me that he didn’t call a foul on another player that had smacked me in the head “because we had gotten the ball back.” Really?

     

    I believe this pattern to be indicative of the American Church in general these days. No one is willing to call fouls or ask people to leave. At some point, we decided turning people away or calling people out was not good for PR, so we stopped. Now we face a church age in America where most claim to know Christ and expect eternal life, as well as their “best life now” without really understanding the other side of Christ’s message: “In this world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33).

     

    We must once again call fouls and, when necessary, even ask those who really don’t belong to leave, lest the entire church body is brought down. Many will think this harsh, but what options have we? To this we are called, are we not, to teach and preach the whole gospel?

     

    • HoustonmomNo Gravatar 9:32 am on December 25, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I read this a few days ago and have been thinking about why we don’t call fouls. First of our, the church is not much different than the culture. The culture is very tolerant. Secondly, to call a foul you have to have your life together. Many Christians have so much perpetual sin in their lives we cannot call someone else to theirs.

      And if we did call foul, in this day and age the person would just leave and go to another church. Most people are not closely enough tied to their church for them to really care if others wanted to bring church discipline.

      I think the most powerful churches in America will be the remnants that form seeking true community and accountability with each other. I believe the good news about our times is that true believers will gather and get back to basics. When this happens, we will see church discipline again.

  • Ryan 9:00 am on December 2, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: church,   

    Defending the Faith 

    I’m currently reading Wiersbe’s Prayer: Basic Training. I have found a lot of good information in it, much of it unexpected in a book on prayer. In particular, I found this quote most enlightening: ”The best way to defend the Bible is to practice it.” Can anyone put it any better? This statement was the conclusion of the following illustration:
    I sometimes get the impression that some zealous Christians today are so concerned about guarding the Word that they forget to obey it. They think they are serving God by their “holy crusades” of accusation and attack, crusades that are not always based on truth or motivated by love. I recall with a sad heart a young man who used to stand at the steps of our church building and pass out literature that condemned certain schools and preachers. I asked him why he didn’t pass out gospel tracts to lost sinners. When we asked him to go away from the church building, or else to come in to worship, he shouted: “I’m a fighting Fundamentalist and I don’t care who knows it! You people are not preaching the truth!” I appreciate any believer who wants to defend the faith, but his belligerent attitude made a mockery of the faith. The best way to defend the Bible is to practice it. Wiersbe, W. W. (1988). Prayer : Basic training. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale.
    Many have differing opinions, and I would love to hear yours. I find myself agreeing completely with Wiersbe here. I think we spend too much time in study and never put anything into practice. Look at all the people who call themselves Christians but are known by the evangelical community as “Sunday Christians.” Look at all those evangelicals who focus of the love of God over his wrath and whom the fundamentals call “watered-down gospel teachers.” Look at all the fundamentalists with their walled-garden churches and signs proclaiming the facts that they are KJV, pre-trib, pre-millenial, etc. Everyone is so focused on doctrine that we have our own versions of Pharisees and Sadducees—people who think they have it but have completely missed Christ in their midst.

    Now, I like to think of myself as an equal opportunity offender. I tried to pick on everyone above, but if you are upset that I missed you, please comment, and I’ll throw your group into the mix. ;) Seriously, though, I’ve noticed that when you work through serving together with someone who may not see things eye-to-eye with you, a lot of the academic details fall away and you find yourself not so far away from agreeing with your once-nemesis. It’s the label (e.g. denomination, political party, doctrine name) that divides more than it is the truth.

    So let’s begin to get back to the practice of the gospel and take a holiday from arguing our fine doctrinal points. Certainly, continue to study and to learn the truth of God. Never cease from that precious duty, but don’t let it alone define your faith.

     

  • Ryan 11:21 pm on April 20, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: , church, confession, , Lord,   

    Thank you, Lord, for brothers
    Who walk through thick and thin
    With me, this drifting wanderer,
    So in need of a good friend.

    I talked with one such brother
    Tonight about how our souls
    Need your indwelling Spirit
    To ignite our darkened coals.

    You see, we’ve oft not listened
    Nor hearkened to your voice
    That all your Spirit’s whispers
    Have ceased to be our choice.

    Tonight, however, we chose
    To hold each other true.
    We won’t forget to listen
    And cease to talk with You.

    Born in utter sin
    And full depravity,
    Yet still you gave your Son
    For the lives of him and me.

    Jesus Christ, our Lord
    Now sits enthroned on high!
    We long to be there with Him
    In the sweet by-and-by.

    So fill us, Lord, we ask You,
    With the Helper from your Son,
    That we may walk forever
    With you, the Holy One.

    (More …)

     

  • Ryan 8:00 am on April 20, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: , church,   

    What I Long For 

    Amen.

     

  • Ryan 3:52 pm on April 6, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: , , , church, , Leadership, Shepherding   

    Shepherding 

    This is the sermon I will deliver to Artifact on Sunday, April 6, 2008.

    Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” John 21:15
    (More …)
     

    • ChadNo Gravatar 11:35 am on April 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Ryan, I really enjoyed the discussion last night and appreciate all your effort in preparing to lead it. The thoughts really led to some honest dialogue about our unwillingness to reach out to those around us whether they are in the church or not. I was having some theological questions as we went on but I thought those would best be discussed here, since it most likely would have killed the spirit of the evening. Here are the two questions I am having, I was interested in your thoughts sinve you have spent the most time looking into these ideas:

      1. In John 10:1-6 the sheep seem to be described as those who hear the shepherds voice, follow his lead, and flee from those who they do not know. This imagery is taken from Numbers 27 and Ezekiel 34 and I find the same sort of descriptions of sheep predominant there. My question is can we shepherd those who do not claim to be sheep? This is not a call for us to judge who are sheeps or goats, but to be considered a sheep seems to infer that one claims the Shepherd (Christ). So we as undersheperds, can we truly attempt to shepherd those who do not claim to be sheep?

      2. Did you see a difference in Scripture between “everyone as a shepherd” and those called to be “shepherds”? I am only beginning to look at this idea so I was wondering if you came across any sort of defining characteristics of those called to be shepherds compared to the responsibilities of all as shepherds.

    • RyanNo Gravatar 1:08 pm on April 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Those are excellent questions, Chad. As I studied, I found that the rabbit hole seems to grow deeper as you go, so I finally cut off my thoughts and didn’t really address some of these things, nor did I come to conclusions on many of them. As to your first question, however, I do think that we do need to attempt to be under-shepherds to even those who may not yet claim to be sheep, at least in the sense of the analogy. Jesus came to seek and save the lost sheep (Luke 19:10). These, then, did not claim to be sheep, but Christ came after them. We may not be able to easily recognize a lost sheep from a goat, but I think that the more we abide in Christ, the more familiar will the eyes of our heart be to recognizing them.

      As to your second question, I didn’t go there but left it as a question for the group. The early church had apostles, elders, deacons, and others, whereas we have no real positions. In Ephesians 4:11-13, Paul describes how Christ “gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints.” This indicates that “shepherd” is a called-to position in the body, which appears to counter this post and the general consensus last night. However, I would say that in our case, we are all at that level and, through our discussions of wanting all to be involved in one another’s lives, have on some level raised all to be shepherds.

      Travis’s description of the overlaps between shepherding and discipleship I think were right on–that there is an extra bit to discipleship that goes deeper into the growing up into a mature Christian and that shepherding focuses on tending the needs of the flock and leading it in the right direction. As for characteristics, all I could really find were what seemed the obvious analogies to a real shepherd, as we discussed last night. Unlike elders and deacons, I gathered that the writers intended for their readers to take shepherd literally, much like Jesus when He said, “I’ll make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19).

      I hope that makes sense. Also, please note that while a lot of the scripture used references aspects of Jesus’s Messiah-ship, I tried to pull the general shepherding aspects out that apply to the shepherds of his Church. There is meaning behind “I lay down my life for the sheep” of which none of us has any part; that meaning is purely for our Lord.

    • ChadNo Gravatar 1:41 pm on April 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks for the reply. I am still of the opinion that shepherding is for sheep (or at least those who claim to be sheep). The use of Jesus coming to seek and save the lost sheep is to much like the example you give in your last paragraph. It is a desciption of the messianic nature of Christ and cannot be directly applied to our ministry. We can in no way save lost sheep (I am not implying that you are stating we can). Obvioulsy, there is a responsibility to those outside the flock, but I do not think of it in terms of shepherding. This may be only a wording issue since I guess it comes down to how one defines shepherding.

      The second question was in a more general since not specifically related to Artifact. Just asking what it means to be called out as a shepherd not so much what would it mean to shepherd Artifact specifically.

    • RyanNo Gravatar 1:55 pm on April 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      You are right on it depending on definition. I may be throwing too much of evangelism under shepherding, and certainly it is Christ’s role to seek and save the lost sheep. I do think it falls within the definition, though, since as the shepherd He does that, and we are to do the work that He is doing. I generally think of evangelism as telling everyone the good news about Christ, not specifically bringing people to him, which would seem more like shepherding. That’s probably an overlap of definitions.

  • Ryan 8:45 pm on March 8, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: Artifact, , church, , ,   

    Artifact Easter Questions, Round 2 

    As promised, below are my answers to the second round of questions posed by my church, Artifact, during this Easter season. The final set of questions will be coming soon, I promise. I’ve started it, it’s just been delayed. (More …)

     

    • chadNo Gravatar 10:54 pm on March 11, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Enjoyed your comments once again, and the discussion on Sunday. One thing I forgot to mention last week is that I too consider Easter my favorite holiday. Even Teresa comments on how Easter is like my Christmas.

      Look forward to your answers for this week.

      chad

  • Ryan 6:58 pm on June 13, 2006 Permalink
    Tags: church,   

    Just a Numbers Game 

    It saddened me today to see news from the Southern Baptist Convention. Apparently, numbers are what really matters, and churches will be encouraged to do anything it takes to get the total number of baptisms up to the 1,000,000 mark set at the end of last year. Please tell me that I’m not the only one who sees something wrong with this.

    You can read the news for yourself here and here.

    P.S. If I’m just being a cynic, please let me know. Thanks!

     

  • Ryan 12:42 am on May 1, 2006 Permalink
    Tags: church   

    What is the Church? 

    My friend Dustin Bennett has started a great conversation on “What is the church?” He is specifically asking what people believe about the place we attend on Sunday mornings, not the body of Christ identified with a capital ‘C’. Check it out here!

     

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