salvation

I have mentioned the theme of salvation in other places. Obviously it is often on my mind but not in the context of my non-christian friends. Yes they need salvation. Thats easy and of course I need to serve the great commission in their interest but salvation often comes to mind around my church friends. Salvation is not a choice. It is a response to the invitation of God to repent of who we are and to allow the indwelling of the Holy Spirit with the consequence that Christ manefests His nature through us individually and corporately as the church. I have often been confronted by really good people. I mean salt of the earth, easy to be around, charitable, loving people who explode with anger at the mention of church. Some of the faithful would say this was demonic but in truth, these wonderful people have simply encountered a "christian" and been wounded by their disappointment. Even the world has expectations that the presense of Christ should be delightful, comforting and even awesome but what they find usually leaves a bad taste in their mouths. It is our fault. We lure people in with Contemporary Christian Worship(raves). We teach relevant messages(Christless). We replace repentence and dying to self with promises of Holy Spirit power and fire and then send these "christians" out to burn the world. They are succeeding.
A few years ago my pastor was an overseer at Tehillah which met Monday nights at the Canada Christian College. They would draw hundreds of young people for a night of exciting worship and teaching. Most of these kids were students at the college. Many will be future leaders of the church. All worshipped till they dropped kind of thing. Laura Woodley(a song writer and worship leader) would announce each week that they needed people to go out on the streets of Toronto the following Saturday to witness and give stuff to the homeless. Only one or two out of hundreds ever came to do kingdom work. Where was the spirit of compassion after the spirit of party was gone?
If salvation is the inworking of the Spirit to manefest Christ in us and through us but if we neglect those that Christ came for and directed us toward, in favor of pimping out our church and worship teams then who among us are really saved.
Who is responsable for the souls of church members who come and serve and tithe but may not know Christ?????

House Church

I was invited to a small house gathering a few weeks ago. I was aquainted with the group from a previous version of the meeting, and they were looking at Genesis. I quite enjoyed the meeting, but there were parts missing that I would normally see in a "church". Now this particular group I know are looking for a really honest expression of the body, and they started very small in the leader's house, grew until they needed a hall which was my first encounter with them. And then they had a split over some issue or other,not described and are now once again at the leader's house. My observation was that in the larger group there seemed a more "church" like expression of the body with more distributed gifts. Then again the group split so perhaps these other building stones were in fact from another, or meant to be in another body. They may also have been immature or even not saved at all, which never stops people from taking control of and running churches. Just today while browsing at the Bibles for Missions Store I read of an evangelist, who met a 40 yr. member of a church. Always serving, always involved, yet something the evangelist said stirred this man to finally realize that he needed to know Christ. How many today are in leadership around Brantford and they have yet to actually be saved! How often are we told that it is wrong to question a leader!
No spirit filled Christian leader is ever afraid of close inspection, nor do they shy away from answering for their actions or admitting their mistakes. No spirit filled Christian ever thinks they are done learning of the Lord or that they are the most mature person of faith around.
What I liked about the little house meeting I went to was the transparancy of the leader. He was who he was. I hope that as time goes by he will find all the parts of his little group and become a fully functioning expression of the Lord's purpose for them. I don't know how many people that would take but it always takes the right number of right people and I hope that the next split will be the separating of a daughter church, the first of many.

wandering thoughts

I have not posted anything for a while and it wasn't a lack of subjects to broach but more so there were too many things that stirred me up this past week. Just when I think I've heard every twisted story possible about church in Brantford, another story comes along. It makes it hard to stick to my own rules and remain constructive in this conversation. I'll try. One thing that I have come to notice is the difficulty that a pastor must have in communicating the truth to the congregation. Taking for granted that the pastor is well versed in sound biblical doctrine, which many today are not, how many congregations really care about
sanctification,regeneration,substitution or even salvation. I got to wondering about salvation once years ago and so I did a very long study on it before approaching a very Godly pastor. He kindly confirmed much of what I'd found and suggested that many would not want to know these things. Just for fun I approached the elders of the church and asked them individually what salvation was. None of them could give any answer that was even in the ballpark. I later attended a men's fellowship meeting and when I could not find anyone interested in discussing Christ as opposed to hockey I soon left that fellowship. Church was supposed to be where we came together and shared Christ within us,the nature that His Spirit imbued us with to teach and encourage each other.
Really it is the centrality of Christ that marks a true fellowship. Does the fellowship focus on healings, or blessings or better and better worship or does it focus on dying to self and being filled with Christ and being transformed by that into the true church. Does it pray for external manifestation or internal victory over self. Does your church put it's value in Heaven or in a big building with a sound system? I'm just talkin' here.
later...............................dave

4 paradigms

Reading "Reimagining Church" by Frank Viola. He is a participant and one of the acknowledged experts in the emerging/organic church movement. He is also co-author with George Barna of "Pagan Christianity"
Viola suggests that there are four paradigms for church restoration identifiable today;

Biblical Blueprintism
The New Testament contains a meticulous blueprint for church practice. Simply tease out the blueprint and follow it. A rule based system did't work for the religious leaders in Jesus' time. It doesn't allow for God's will or the fellowship of Christ in the Spirit.

Cultural Adaptability
This paradigm is based on the idea that in every age, the church reinvents itself to adapt to the present culture. This is based on contextualization, a theological method that tries to translate the Biblical message into different cultural settings. Even the most radical adherents admit that certain traditions such as communion and baptism shouldn't change but the question arises as to how much should be changed. Another good question would be how does an unchanging and eternal God feel about us reinterpreting His word to fit a sinful and perishing world.

PostChurch Christianity
This paradigm is rooted in the attempt to practice Christianity without belonging to an identifiable community that regularily meets for worship,prayer, etc. They advocate spontaneous, social interaction and personal friendships. Church is like coffee at Tim Horton's with friends.
Church is amorphous, nebulous and a phantom. It is like the contemporary desire for intimacy without commitment.

Organic Expression
The church is like an unchanging biological entity reflecting these four elements;
1. It will always express the Headship of Jesus Christ in His church over against the headship of a human being. Christ is both the authority and source of the church.
2. It will always allow for and encouage the every-member functioning of the body.
3. It will always map to the theology that's contained in the New Testament, giving it visible expression on the earth.
4. It will always be grounded in the fellowship of the triune God.


"neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.... you are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. Mark 7:8-9, NSAB

worship

I was surprised to receive a comment on the first post of this blog. A friend I've known since highschool wrote to share how he found a church that fit and invited me to check it out. Thanks Dean. I know a number of your family at Grand Valley as they were close friends in my Jesus People days and I always enjoy seeing them but again I know that this isn't my fit. I'm just talkin' here. Bit by bit maybe as I blog I'll describe what I'm looking for well enough that I can find it.
Commentator Terry C. Muck wrote; "Counterfeit spiritualities do not work. But their persistent growth and appeal should teach us two important lessons.First, human beings created for fellowship with God abhor a spiritual vacuum. And second, only the real thing will effectively scratch the spiritual itch." This is a problem that I see. We emulate successful ministries and their methods forgetting that what happens in one place may not be right although it appears successful, and in any case duplicating it certainly wouldn't be God's will any more than exactly duplicating your neighbors marriage would be right for yours. It's about authentic relationship with God and then with each other. Worship is an area where we fall short today. Michael Card says in an interview that most worship music today is "an industrial response to a trend"
Card also talks about the nature of worship. He says " We can't worship God without recognizing our woundedness. We have a worship revolution going on in the U.S., but we're not worshiping. There is no woundedness in it. True worship celebrates God's worth, and without experiencing woundedness, you don't know his worth. You don't have that experience of God's presence over God's provision. You experience his worth in the wilderness, not in the picnic grounds. "Amazing Grace" says, "I once was lost, but now am found." Without that acknowledgment of loss, what do you have to worship him for, unless you're just worshiping feeling good? Lament is the lost language of worship.
I have to agree. Most worship today is no more than entertainment. Church has devolved into a show. While the early church set the example of total involvement, when real revelation comes or a psalm comes to mind or a testimony rises up in our spirit we must quench this and allow the leaders to continue their program. Church has become a business enterprise more than a place of mutual edification like 1 Cor. 14 speaks about. There's a professional leadership at the front that put on the show, an audience in the pews to watch and pay and the Holy Spirit who needs to be on time to keep the program moving along.
What would happen if the Holy Spirit anointed that grubby guy in the back pew with the psalm for today or filled his spirit with a powerful message like Peter received on Pentecost. What if God never turned the church back over to the pastor and worship leader. What if God wants His way in the church.
later................dave

I need the Body of Christ!

The purpose of this blog is to start a conversation regarding the churches in Brantford. It is not about bashing them and in fact, in that regard this blog will be moderated and offensive postings or comments will be deleted. There are simply a number of fairly mature Christians who are not fools and yet for one reason or another are without a church and cannot find one that works for them. In my case for example, my pastor died and the denomination chose to close the church. I know a number of others who are checking out local churches and some who said that they had to go out of town to find a church. Many of these people have been faithful supporters of local congregations for years. My own experience in Christ goes back almost 40 years and I've made some observations regarding the changes I've seen. Oddly the brothers and sisters who are seeking, are reticent to say why and yet by the very fact that they are looking, demonstrates that their previous fellowship let them down.
I guess what I hope to see here is a conversation among seekers not so much about what was wrong in their churches as much as what should be. If you are seeking then what is it that you are seeking?
later.....................dave