A Worldly Grief that Leads to Death

I can't take it anymore!!!! If there was a generation in the church that refused to talk about money it has clearly been replaced by a generation that loves to talk about money. Well, it is true that the Bible speaks of money often. We can't deny that. So if this is true, then church leaders need to be speaking about money. But if I hear another sermon on money that is nebulous I'm going to go nuts. If I hear another sermon that calls people to give more money but cannot give a plan from the Scriptures about how to give, I may lose it. Now, I'm joking (a bit). But it seems to me that the current evangelical talk about how God's people use their money lacks at least three vital elements. 1. There's little clarity in the current teaching on money. In the Bible, has God given Christians clear instruction about how to use their money? I find that many Christian leaders are not so sure. They are not convinced that God has been clear about how we should use our money. Many pastors deny that the Bible commands Christians to give a percentage of their money to the Lord. This is misleading to people. The one tenth tithe preceded the Law and was commanded by Jesus. Many pastors will not tell their people that their giving should be prioritized to their local church. This is also misleading because the book of Acts is full of people prioritizing their giving to their church. If your pastor is not clear on these things then he certainly is not in a position confront you concerning how it is that you give.....yet for an increasing number of people, their pastors are continually confronting them with their stinginess. Friends, what will be the result when teachers lack clarity but command devotion? The result will not be growth and change. I sense the result will be guilt and control (2 Cor 7:10). I sense the result is a worldly grief that leads to death, not the freedom of walking in obedience to Christ. The people will continually feel guilty for not doing enough and their pastors will hold the keys to their freedom as they dangle out the unending list of organizations and missions opportunities that "serious" Christians support. 2. Because there's little clarity, there's very little talk of sin within the current teaching. The prophet Malachi was outraged because the people of Judah were robbing God by not giving to him correctly (Malachi 3). It is only possible to rob God, when it comes to giving, if we understand that God deserves something. Are any of us robbing God? It is impossible to rob God when we boil down our understanding on giving to "give as the Lord is leading you." This line, sounds so spiritual but it denies the sinful propensity of my heart to hold back funds for myself and it makes me the final arbiter of how I should be giving. We routinely hear talk about "giving our all" and "never being able to out give God" and "give what God's placed on your heart" but these approaches always present God as a money monger who is never satisfied with what his people are currently giving. Friends, is that our God? Is he unclear about giving only to be disappointed with us? Jesus is clear with the Pharisees that they should never have neglected the tithe, nor justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matt 23:23). We must face the reality that some Christians are pleasing God with their giving and some are not. Some are being obedient but some are proving their lack of faith in a sovereign God and an eternal Kingdom by withholding what is rightfully His. Some in our churches are obeying the Lord and some are disobeying God every day by not giving consistently, proportionally, generously, and cheerfully. 3. There's very little talk of the Cross within the current teaching. Regardless of what some are teaching, the story of the rich young ruler is not the biblical paradigm for salvation or even giving, in the church (David Platt or Shane Claiborne). If we use the story incorrectly and use the giving away of all money as a mark of genuine salvation then we must also use perfect obedience to the Law as another mark of salvation because Jesus also asks the rich young ruler if he has obeyed the commands. Interestingly, most teachers gloss right over this part of the story (I believe) because it does not meet their immediate agenda (to get people to give more money to their organization). Jesus was not giving the man a plan for giving or even living. He was digging deeper into his heart to expose the things that he placed his trust in (his morality and his money). Friends, Jesus was attempting to get the man to see the idolatry of his heart and his need for the Savior. But the man walked away sad. The text says he was sad because he had great wealth. His wealth was his savior and he was not willing to forsake it for the True Savior. How many sermons on money have you heard that did not touch on Christ's work on the Cross? All true obedience flows through a trust in Christ's Work on the Cross. All God honoring giving is motivated by Christ's work and is done cheerfully out of obedience to the entire teaching of God's Word concerning money.

Why are there so Few Young Adults in our Church? Part 3

5. You probably shouldn't try to fix this problem by starting a program. When most churches discover that they have a problem they attempt to fix the problem by developing a new program. If your church believes that they are not ministering to individuals ages 18-29, the first reaction may be to start a small group or a separate service. Bible study groups and services that are designed for young people can be good but many times they exist as an unhealthy guard against the integration of young adults into the life of the church. The goal of the multi-generational church should be a harmony of approaches to worship and discipleship. If your youth ministry promotes worship of God and discipleship in a way that is antithetical to your corporate worship and teaching then you have a problem. Our goal should be an integrated approach if our goal is an integrated church. Programs can set our minds at ease that we are reaching people when all we have done is further alienate people from the greater Body. It seems to me that God wants your church to think and act about what it is that you do on Sunday morning, in small groups, in the community and prayer meetings that are not relatable to people of different backgrounds, differing ways of thinking and various age groups. 6. Through teaching, attempt to replace what they think they want, with what they truly need. It was said of the Puritan pastor William Perkins that "he was far from being 'needs oriented' in his preaching. He was more interested in creating needs that weren't felt than in pandering to needs that already existed."(2) Answering the pressing questions that young people need answered is very different than pandering to their every whim. Accomplish the former and you'll see less pressure to fulfill the latter. Your young people don’t really need sermons that are funnier or more entertaining but they do need sermons to be faithful to the text, encouraging, challenging to the predominate worldviews and Christ focused. Your young people don’t need a new service geared for young adults but the most faithful need to be integrated into the leadership of your current services. Your young people don’t need louder music but it is not unreasonable for them to expect music with great content in a contemporary context. Bibliography: MacArthur, John. "Plexiglas Preaching: The Devastating Consequences of a Watered-Down Message" www.9marks.org (1) Ferguson, Sinclair B. "A Godly, Learned, Resident Preaching Ministry", Westminster Theological Seminary, 1997. (2)

Why are there so Few Young Adults in Our Church? Part 2

Please excuse the way the blog appears. If you receive this blog by email there is no way for me to format the content. But if you view this blog online, for some reason, Blogger will not allow me to format the blog with appropriate spaces. Hopefully we'll clear up this problem soon. So we've been thinking about why there are so few young adults in our churches. Here's two more points. 3.Try to understand post-modern culture. Some of you want to put this article down right now, but please don’t do it. One of the biggest misconceptions in the church today is being propagated by faithful people who are unwittingly reacting against cultural trends. These faithful people make statements like, ‘you don’t need to understand culture to be a good pastor.’ Or, ‘as long as people realize your serious about God, that’s all that matters.’ Even John MacArthur, whom I love, has written that “the nuances of worldly culture are virtually irrelevant to me. I want to know the mind of Christ and bring that to bear on the culture, no matter what culture I may be ministering to.”(1) Might I suggest that John MacArthur is so smart that he can naturally adapt and relate no matter where he finds himself. He knows enough about the culture because he communicates what Christ “bring(s) to bear on the culture.” Not all of us are blessed in that way. Some of us need to work at understanding the average family in our neighborhood. The study of culture does not pit itself against the study of God but the sin and Truth we find in a culture points us to God. The greatest missionary endeavors of church history have been because God’s people taught the Word, without compromise, in culturally understandable ways. When the BFC sends our missionaries around the world, we applaud the fact that our people take the time to understand the people groups they will be ministering to. We desire for our missionaries to understand language, customs, and ways of relating. We don’t encourage these things because we want our missionaries to be carnal or worldly but we encourage these things because we always minister the Gospel in and through a complex cultural grid. We should approach our neighborhoods with the same care. The Apostle Paul speaks very clearly about these concepts at the end of 1 Corinthians 9 as his ministry was one of theological accuracy that promoted a love for people and an understanding of culture “so that by all means I might save some….all for the sake of the Gospel.” Hudson Taylor did not personally baptize 50,000 converts by accident. His was a ministry of the Word that was grounded in prayer and aided by cultural understanding. He encouraged all of his missionaries to dress and speak like the Chinese people. His understanding of culture did not negate his trust in the power of the Gospel, but strengthened his trust in God’s Word as THE means to reach all types of people. 4. They want to be heard, after all they are adults. If Pastors and Elders stay in one location for an extended period of time they are blessed with the privilege of seeing children grow up. Recently a member in our church commented that one of our Pastors dedicated his children, performed his children’s wedding ceremony and dedicated his grandchildren. Now that’s longevity. But we must fight the natural tendency to look at people as they were when we first met them. Are we seeing them with new eyes? Are we seeing how they’ve grown? If you’ve been an elder for twenty years then the newborn you dedicated is now an adult. It is your responsibility to treat them that way. Part 3 comes next week.

Why are there so Few Young Adults in our Church? Part 1

One of the greatest concerns that I hear from leadership in churches has been their observation of how few young adults are in their congregations. I've heard it said that ages 18-29 represent the lost generation of the church. This is interesting because in the past 60 years the American church has spent massive amounts of money and energy on ministry to young people. After decades of focus on ministry to young people (Youth Pastors, Youth Retreats, Young Life, Campus Ministries, Young Adult Services etc) is the American Church any better off? Are we healthier? Have we raised up new generations of Christians who love Christ and His church? Not in my experience. I’d like to propose some changes that you could make in your congregation that may increase your opportunity to minister effectively to young adults. 1. Refocus your youth ministry. Let's get serious. What is the drive of your youth ministry? What's at the center? What do you care most about? Youth Pastors, Directors, and volunteers are not mainly called to plan the social calendar of students and focus on ski trips. They are called to shepherd the hearts of students and walk through many of their most formative years. So many today are writing and preaching about the massive number of young people that are falling away from their "faith" in the first two years of college. I've heard many guesses as to why this is. "They can't defend their faith" or "they don't know the Bible well enough" or "they don't know creation science well enough." My guess is much more simple. My guess is that most of them were entertained in their youth ministry and the entertainment was enough to hold onto them through high school. But the entertainment of the College Campus Ministry can't beat the entertainment of the frat party/sports scene/video game scene and they've chosen a more entertaining path. There is a place for fun in youth ministry but let's ask hard questions. What do our Elders want to see happening in our youth ministry? Are our Elders impressed with numbers? Do our youth leaders understand biblical doctrine? Can they teach it with conviction? 2. Don’t make your problem their problem. What is your reaction if you look at your body and see very few people between the ages of 18-29? Young adult flight is a symptom of an unhealthy body as much as it is a symptom of young adults who don’t love God or don’t understand God’s call on the Christian. God has called every local church to minister to multiple generations and God makes this possible when our churches teach God’s Word in its entirety and worship Him in spirit and Truth. We can continually blame larger churches who “steal our sheep” or the culture for our inability to reach people or we can look realistically at ourselves. What are the ways of relating and teaching in your church that alienate young people? If you like what you're reading, feel free to pass this on to a leader in your church. http://markrevans.blogspot.com/ Part 2 will come next week.

When "Leaders" Stop Growing

“There is a theory of human behavior that says people subconsciously retard their own intellectual growth. They come to rely on clichés and habits. Once they reach the age of their own personal comfort with the world, they stop learning and their mind runs on idle for the rest of their days. They may progress organizationally, they may be ambitious and eager and they may even work night and day. But they learn no more. The bigoted, the narrow-minded, the stubborn and the perpetually optimistic have all stopped learning.” – Philip Crosby _Quality is Free__ Here's seven signs that you're, possibly, being led by people who are no longer growing. 1. They're rarely reading books or listening to sermons/lectures or, 2. They can't tolerate books or sermons/lectures that aren't from their pet perspective. 3. All of the people that influence them are in their close knit social circle (church, organization, school etc.) 4. They will challenge no one and they run from being challenged. 5. Their communication is full of cliches rather than cohesive, thought induced, sentences. 6. They continually posit their current situations in the best possible light, regardless of evidence to the contrary. 7. They rarely surprise and therefore rarely create. Their answers and actions are incredibly predictable. They are at incredible peace with the the way they are doing things.

And They Crucified Him.....

Below is a great clip from a sermon of a 20th Century teacher named Art Katz.
I think it is an appropriate reminder of the Cross but also a reminder of what the Cross means to our lives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XK1xpKRWyQ

Dull as a Butter Knife

I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was in a 3rd grade Sunday School class with a teacher named Marshall Tress. Our memory verse for the week was Hebrews 4:12 which states, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and the spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." That verse and that lesson made an impact on me. The writer of Hebrews presented the words of God as powerful, sharp, and able to accomplish something. That verse made a 3rd grader sit up and listen.

But it causes me to wonder, if God says his Word is so sharp, then why is most preaching that I hear so dull? Why is it so mundane? Why isn't it interesting? Why is most preaching that I hear not as engaging to me at 32 years old as that lesson was when I was 9? Why is it so palatable? Why is most preaching more like B101 (Easy Listening) than MMR (The Station that Rocks)? If the Word of God is sharper than a sword then the faithful preaching of that Word should be sharp also. The faithful preaching of that Word should cut me down to my soul. It shouldn't always be easy to digest. It seems to me that faithful sermons should be quite focused and cutting. Faithful sermons should be challenging and interesting and thought provoking. If the Word of God divides down to the motives and intentions of the heart then good sermons should do that also. Good sermons will "cut to the heart" like Peter's sermon did in Acts 2. Good sermons should make believers feel massive conviction over our sin and give us massive reassurance because of the love of God through Christ.