To My Christian Friends, Do You Really Want To Follow Jesus?

Do you really want to follow Jesus?

The American church has made it too easy for too long to pretend that we're follow Jesus. We have turned following Jesus into something similar to choosing your favorite sports team or television show. It's something you can decide to do and then put into one small compartment of your life. Even in doing that we've got it all wrong because, unfortunately, most sports fans and fans of specific shows are more passionate about their team or their show than they are about following Jesus.

Because of this, we have the church in America (and in a way our local church) in the state that it is in.

Which is a state much different than the state of the early church. When I read about the early church, I can't help but ask, "Why don't we have this?"

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.  And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.  And all who believed were together and had all things in common.  And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,  praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47 ESV).

This is what I want to experience. This is the church I want to be part of. This is why I went to college and trained to be a minister. This is why I come here week in and week out, trying to convince you all of the things I preach up and try to motivate you to live them out. This is why I serve. Maybe it's the reason you are part of a church. But why don't we have this?

People coming to the Lord. People sacrificing to meet each other's needs. People passionately studying and praying together. People having real community. This is the type of church that God blessed.

But somewhere along the way, the church has lost this. So I ask again, "Why don't we have this?"

I'm pretty sure that God wants it. He's not the weak link. He's done what is needed to make this happen. He died on the cross, rose again, came as the Holy Spirit, established the Church, gave us the written word, and dwells within us. He is doing what He should be doing. He doesn't need me to encourage Him to do what He should be doing. We are the weak link. And this article, I don't need to convince God to do His part. He's done that. I need to convince us to be determined to pursue the life God is calling us to no matter what the obstacles. We must to be determined and willing to seek and do God's will.

Do you really want to follow Jesus?

Right before the church boomed and arrived as we just read, we see the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And we hear Peter's message to the people of that time. He tries to convince them to believe in Jesus.

At the end of His message, he states:

"Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:36 ESV).

The answer to why we don't have the early church that we read about earlier - something that should come about naturally when a group of people are in tune with God - is because we don't really believe that Jesus is both Lord and Christ.

We're quick to accept that He is "Christ." That word can also be translated "The anointed One", or "Messiah." This is the fun word. In using this word, we recognize that Jesus was the king who the Jews of the Old Testament times were waiting for. It's easy to accept and believe that Jesus is the Christ because it really makes no demands on our life. It's the good part. He's bringing about God's will. He took away our sin. He was the long-awaited savior of the world. Good. Good. Easy.

But we're not so quick to accept that He is Lord. Oh, we may state it, but we struggle to live it. The word translated "Lord" here literally means being the owner of something. When we call Jesus "Lord", we are renouncing our freedom and claiming to live for Him. We are giving up our will and desires and saying that we want to have the will and desire of Jesus. Do we really want to surrender our goals and desires and live for His goals and desires? Is Jesus really our Lord? Do you really want to follow Jesus?

Francis Chan wrote,

"Most of us use 'I'm waiting for God to reveal His calling on my life' as a means of avoiding action. Did you hear God calling you to sit in front of the television yesterday? Or to go on your last vacation? Or exercise this morning? Probably not, but you still did it. The point isn't that vacations or exercise are wrong, but that we are quick to rationalize our entertainment and priorities yet are slow to commit to serving God." (169 in Crazy Love)

A while back, we did the First Fruits challenge and focused on giving God our first fruits for two weeks. If that was the first time that you did them, I hope that you have continued. I can tell you that these are things that God wants from your life. Prayer in the morning, giving your day to him, giving him the first of your earnings, encouraging others, and sacrifice your own desires to do His will. If you aren't even able to do these types of things, then you really need to ask yourself, "Am I really following Jesus?"

We like to skip ahead and not even do these minimal things yet expect God to guide us in less clear things, which He will, and give us eternal life. But here's the secret. He will do those things after you have given Him your life and made Him both Lord and Messiah of your life. We must remember that guidance, blessings, and eternal life aren't the goal; they're side effects of the life committed to Jesus as Lord and Messiah.

We turn making Jesus Lord and Messiah into something like agreeing to terms of service before installing some software we want to use. Of course we agree to the terms of service because we want to use the software. And of course we agree to Jesus being Messiah and Lord because we want the blessings of being His followers. We want guidance, protection, and eternal life. Yet we want the blessings of being His follower without actually being His follower.

Jesus shared a parable,

 What do you think? A man had two sons.

And he went to the first and said, "Son, go and work in the vineyard today." 

And he answered, ‘"I will not," but afterward he changed his mind and went. 

And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, "I go, sir," but did not go. 

Which of the two did the will of his father?

They said, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.  For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. (Matthew 21:28-32 ESV).

Even after they saw it, they didn't change their minds and believe.

Think of it like my kids cleaning their room. Imagine, for some reason, my wife and I were  going to leave the house for two hours and rounded up our children and told them to clean their rooms. A few of the children said they would. The others said they wouldn't. Not that our kids would be allowed to say they wouldn't, but imagine we allowed them this time. - Now you may be thinking, "You let your kids say 'no' to you?" I don't. They know better than that. But the strange thing is that we turn around and say no to God all the time. - Anyway, we leave the house after giving our kids an assignment to clean, go do what we had to do, and come back.

To our surprise the kids that said "no, we're not cleaning our rooms" were in their rooms finishing up cleaning, while the kids that said "yes, we will gladly clean" never picked up a thing and played video games and watched the television the whole time.

Who were the kids that did what I wanted them to do? The ones who told me what I wanted to hear? Or the ones who actually did what I wanted done?

Too often, we're like the disobedient kids who say "yes" but then turn around and just entertain ourselves instead of following God. God doesn't want lip service. He wants changed lives and action. And changed lives are the naturally occurring results of really believing that Jesus is both Lord and Christ. Do you really want to follow Jesus?

Let's zoom back to the beginning of the early church again. We left off with seeing the end result. An incredible church where people gathered together to pray, shared what they had in common, had true friendships in the Lord, spent studying the word together, and saw greats signs and miracles. We saw this occurred after Peter taught them that Jesus was both Lord and Christ.

So how did they respond to that teaching. The story continues:
"Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'" (Acts 2:37 ESV).

Jesus is both Lord and Christ, and we should have the same question. What do we do? Notice "do". "Doing" naturally follows believing.

I want to read Peter's reply to the "What shall we do" question.

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”  So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:38-41 ESV).

Repent and be baptized. This promise of forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit was a promise to the and fro all those who are far off. It's a promise for us nearly two thousand years later. What should you do once you believe that Jesus is the Lord and Messiah? Just repent and be baptized.

Baptism is relatively easy. It's kind of like the "Lord and Christ" scenario mentioned earlier. You can choose today to be baptized and it will be done. It's similar to stating Jesus is Christ. It's the fun part. People celebrate it and throw parties. It's a big step, but an easy action. One time and it's done. So if baptism is an action you need to do, find a church to help you take that step.

Repentance, at least living a life of continual repentance, is much more difficult. Repentance means change. It means turning and heading toward God. It really implies, in the context of this passage, to stop making anything other than Jesus the Lord of your life.

Are you repenting? Have you been baptized?

Do you really want to follow Jesus?

Repenting is big. Unlike baptism being a one-time event, repenting has to be something we do for a lifetime. I would much rather have a church full of people who have repented and trying to live a repented life than a church filled with the baptized yet not repented. The first can be worked with. They're willing to grow. They latter are dead and they don't even know it. It's like they died in the waters of baptism and didn't rise to live in a new life.

Repenting means turning away from all the things our culture mistakenly thinks is valuable and turning toward God. Repent and head toward God. Oh, there may still be room for sports and entertainment in your life after becoming a follower of Jesus, but they will take a new place in your priorities. They will no longer be the goal. They will no longer be what we think can bring us happiness. Instead, they will be used toward reaching the real goal of glorifying God.

Francis Chan wrote,

"There is another path, an alternative to the individualism, selfishness, and materialism of the American Dream (even the so-called Christian version)."

Are we living that life? Or have we bought into the individualism, selfishness, and materialism of the culture around us?

The harsh reality is that we don't want to be found straying when Jesus returns. We don't want to be found lost when our time comes. Our lives are fragile. The longer I live the more tragedies that I see where people are unexpectedly gone in the blinking of an eye. Not all of us will die of cancer and have time to put our relationships, emotional state, and spiritual beliefs in order. Paul wrote in Romans, "Each of us will give an account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12 ESV).

What do I want to be doing when Christ comes back or my time here on this earth is over? Am I living that life now? Am I living the life that Jesus wants me to live? Do I really want to follow Jesus?

I worship a Savior who was beaten up and killed for me. He didn't come riding on a horse, a tactical missile, or a drone and take over the world. He came in love, eventually bearing a cross that He was nailed to. If you are willing to surrender yourself to Him and His mission to love others...If you want to be part of a group of people doing the same, then following Jesus and getting involved in a church should be just the thing for you.

In the New Testament we are never called to mimic God's justice; we're called to mimic His love. He reminds us that vengeance is His, not ours. We're called to love our neighbor, enemy, and everyone else. Even when it is not convenient, cultural, or safe.

We, the church - you and me - people in relationship with Jesus and each other - not a building - we, the church are striving to be the people God wants us to be, loving the world the way God wants us to love it.

Are we really doing that? Or do we just say it? Are we striving to be the people God wants us to be, or do we just want to do enough to "get saved?" Are we loving the world the way God wants us to love it, or are we just loving it when it is convenient to us, fits nicely into our schedule, and doesn't really cost us anything?

Last week, I was blessed with the opportunity to be the middleman in delivering a $1000 anonymous gift. God had laid it on another person's heart to give a certain family that money. They were faithful and did it. So I was able to deliver a great gift, a tremendous blessing, at really no cost to myself.

And I enjoyed being used to do that.

Then it struck me. Everything I do is like that. God has given me everything; it's all a blessing from Him. One of the greatest lies that we buy into as Americans is that we actually deserve this. We deserve to wake up every morning and have food available unlike others around the world. We deserve to be in a loving family unlike others around us. We deserve to have all the excess entertainment options we enjoy unlike those less fortunate. We deserve to have a safe home. We deserve this and we deserve that. Because we work hard. Because we're smart. Because of this or that.

But it's all a lie. We don't deserve it.

It's by God's grace. Don't get me wrong. I think we can create fair and just systems that help accommodate His blessing. We can live lives that God's grace can more easily flow into. But we have become prideful. We think we deserve God's blessings because of how great we are. And we don't.

That's the nature grace. It isn't something deserved. All our blessings, We don't deserve them. When we think we are deserving, then we fail to see all the love being poured into us.

We're coasting on the fumes of the faithful who have come before us. If we don't turn back to God soon, those fumes will run out. We'll sputter to a stop and find ourselves left on the side of the road of life - hungry, weak, without a family, without all the entertainment. All the blessings that our prideful selves have taken for granted will be taken from us. But the good truth is that you don't need to hit rock bottom to turn and respond to God's grace.

Instead of building up pride, God's grace should inspire selflessness, service, faithfulness. His grace should inspire in us a desire to draw as close to Him as we possibly can. It should inspire us to work toward His vision of living that we each have been called to. We should start (or continue if you are already) feeding the hungry, loving those who can't give back, helping the poorest of the world, giving unconditionally - repenting from the priorities of this world and turning to God.

We truly love God and live for Him when we love others. Love, in this case, isn't some emotional, fuzzy sort of thing. You can tell a needy person that you love Him and not help Him, but you can't trick God that way. He knows your heart, and He knows your actions. He says that if you love the needy person, then you should help her. If you care for the hungry, then feed him. If you love the homeless, then house them. He says that in doing those things, you are loving Him.

It doesn't matter how emotional you get when you worship God, whether you're spinning around in a wheat field with your arms raised, raising your hands in worship, or you imagine Him wrapping His arms around you in your quiet time. What matters is how you treat the least of these. Strangers. The hurt. The hopeless. That shows whether you truly love God and have made Jesus the Lord of your life.

Because all that we do to love others is like that opportunity I was given this week to be the middleman in giving an anonymous $1000. We don't earn what we are able to bless others with. It was given to us by God. It actually still is God's possession. And we must learn, if we claim to follow Jesus, to use the things that are His in a way that will bring Him glory.

Do you really want to follow Jesus?

God doesn't care about a commitment that you make here today; he cares about you going out and living it. But if there is a decision that you need to make today, now is the time. Every commitment must have a beginning. If you have something you feel you need to publicly confess, now is the time. If you want to take the step of baptism, now is the time. Did you once claim that Jesus was Lord but strayed and want to recommit, now is the time? If you feel led, please do not resist. Do it. We will all be blessed from it.

Do you really want to follow Jesus?

Grace Shared or Grace Abused

A friend and I were having this conversation. He's a pastor and refused to baptize an individual because of sin in their life that they wouldn't repent from.

I said:
We have this massive sin of materialism in our lives. And for some reason, we are comfortable saying that we are better than some other person who struggles with a different sin. We deceive ourselves and think that we are worthy to be baptized because our sin is an accepted sin in American Christian culture.

We are so far from Jesus. We need grace. Grace that I receive. Grace that I also have to be willing to dispense. If Jesus doesn't want to accept the unrepentant sinner wanting to be baptized, that is between Him and them. But I am not going to refuse baptism to someone that is a sinner just like me.

If I will only be perfect on the other side of eternity, and I know that. If I know that my imperfection is covered by His undeserved grace. I know that if people could peer into my heart and told me to change the sins in my life right now, I wouldn't be able to. After all this, if I encounter a person who struggles with a different sin than I struggle with, a person who isn't willing to change that part of their life, yet they want the same grace that I revel in, should I deny that grace to them?

I share this here because I want other perspectives. I don't want to get the conversation bogged down in one specific sin, so I don't share what the sin was. But I was looking for input.

The Fads of Evangelism and the Way of the Heart

A friend sent me the following link:

Evangelism's Fads and Fixtures

It's a good article that has a list of ten things that were formerly fads in Christianity but have now become dangerous fixtures.

1. Making Converts
2. The Sinner's Prayer
3. "Do You Know Jesus as..." 
4. Tribulationism
5. Testimonies
6. The Altar Call
7. Witnessing
8. Protestant Prayers
9. The Church Growth movement
10. Chick Tracts

My friend asked, "Do you think he's being Pharisaical or right on target?  If the later, how might we correct people in love and start more beneficial trends, especially in older, more established churches?"

Pharisaical implies having extra laws that keep us away from God.  The Pharisees in Jesus' day were worried about appearances while ignoring the greater matters of the heart.  They had created a system of laws that were supposed to make one right with God if they were adhered to.  The problem is that Pharisseism is not just a thing of the past.  It is alive and killing today.  The author of this piece attempts to tear down some of the Pharisaical practices we have developed over the years. 

I'm not the expert on correcting older, more established churches as the church, despite being older and corrected, I minister at became a third of its size during the corrections (although we are now back to the old number and still growing).  We still have a long way to go to be a community of real, authentic relationships with one another, have a passion for Jesus and his works, and to always love those around us in practical ways. 

Making Converts and Testimonies
 

His view on "making converts" and "testimonies" are just arguments over semantics.  We are to go and make disciples, nor is it wrong for a church to know an individual's story as a Christian before hiring them.  He is right that much of Christianity has morphed into making converts to make more converts - almost as if the purpose of being a Christian is to make other Christians.  When do we ever experience the Christian life in community?  When do we ever go out of our way to love others?  Where is the passion to follow Jesus no matter what the cost?  When is God's will brought about into this world because of the lives of those surrendered to Him?  Those need to be the focus.  Just changing the word from "convert" to "disciple" will not cause that to happen.  Those are just words.  We could "make disciples" and never expect them to live a life of total surrender.  

The Sinner's Prayer

The Christian Church does not use the sinner's prayer.  We think that makes us right.  Instead, we use baptism in a similar vein as other churches use the sinner's prayer being just as guilty in trying to have a quick, cheap grace conversion experience.  People in Christian Churches typically teach that if you get baptized, you are saved.  Really?  I understand that 1 Peter 3:21 states, "Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you."  It is part of salvation; I am not denying that.  But Peter goes on to say, "Not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him" [1 Peter 3:21-22 (ESV)].  We treat baptism like other churches treat the sinner's prayer.  In the process we have people who have "fire insurance" policies because they have been dunked under water with the right words said over them during a religious ritual, but they are not people with a good conscience before God who live their lives as His hand and feet in their workplaces, homes, schools, and communities.  God desires people who have given them their whole heart, not people who have just been baptized or say a sinner's prayer. 

Do You Know Jesus As...

We want a quick fix evangelistic method rather than living a life of total surrender where we live in such a way that the lives around us are transformed by the Holy Spirit through people seeing God through our works.  "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16 ESV). 

Tribulationism

The only message I have shared on the end times is one that hearkens back to Martin Luther believing that he was in the end times.  We Are In The End Times - Or So They Would Have Me Believe. We need to live every day as if it were our last.  What relationships need mended?  What changes need to be made in our life to be more of who God wants us to be?  We should never put those off to tomorrow.  Keeping the end times in focus should help us to live more faithfully today.

Unfortunately, the end times too often becomes a distraction that pulls people away from Christian living.  Amos 5:18-24 is pretty relevant here.  He wrote that we should not desire the coming of the Lord for that day is not a good day, nor should we become dependent on rituals, worship through song, or church gatherings for our relationship with God.  Anything that distracts us from our true calling, expecially pseudo-religious babble, needs to be excised from our body.  

Altar Call

The altar call was one of the first things we removed at our church when we started changing.  I still struggle with whether it would be beneficial to bring the altar call ("invitation time" in our churches) back, but we have had more people baptized since its removal.  But again, as stated previously, our goal is not to get people baptized, the goal is people living a life of total surrender to God's will in community with on another while carrying out the loving work of Jesus in the world they live in. 

Witnessing

Cold turkey door-to-door evangelism is ineffective.  Actually it's more than ineffective; it's detrimental to the cause of Christ.  People don't want strangers knocking at their doors.  It might have worked in the seventies.  I am not talking about then.  But a method of witnessing that will never grow out of style is to love our neighbors and look for opportunities to help meet their needs. 

The author of Total Church shares a story of an incident at his church.

“Matt rang to ask what he should do.  His friend George has asked him to go street preaching.  Matt wasn’t interested but didn’t know how to respond.  So the three of us got together.  As the conversation began, it was clear that George thought we were selling out in some way.  But as we talked about sharing our lives with unbelievers, about evangelism that was 24/7, about opening our homes, George’s tone changed.  At the end of our conversation he admitted, “I’m not sure if I’m up for that kind of commitment.”

Door-to-door evangelism is a distraction for many people who practice it.  They think they are doing the cause of Christ because they are doing something that requires boldness and takes them outside of their comfort zone.  Boldness should not be confused with doing the work of the Lord.  Many of the things we do requires that we be bold, but that does not mean if something requires boldness, we are doing the work of the Lord.  In James 1:26, James talks about how we can deceive our heart by talking too much.  The context shows that if we talk about love, we can deceive ourselves into feeling like we are loving others while not doing a thing.  What we really need to do is love others; it does not change anything if we just talk about it.  Witnessing door-to-door, street evangelism, or writing on the internet are placebos that make us think that we are doing the work of the Lord,.  We are surrounded by people who need to see the Lord by us living the life He would have us live. 

Protestant Prayers, Church Growth Movement, and Chick Tracts

On the issue of Protestant prayers, I love the Northumbria Community prayers.  They're bookmarked on the side of this page near the top.  I find that needing to be creative in prayer stifles me from actually just praying.

"The Church Growth Movement" is such a loaded subject that I will not delve into a discussion on it.  I don't even know what aspects of the movement the author was attacking as fads that have become a fixture.

And Chick tracts are the furthest thing removed from being a fixture.  I have never encountered someone using them.  

Conclusion

Any practice that makes us feel like we are doing what God wants us to do while we can still live our selfish life is a distraction from the real call of God on our lives.  There are many fences that keep us from God that need to be torn down in order for the Church to be a people who God is encountered through.  Changing the face of Christianity in this culture starts with each one of us living a life of total surrender to the cause of Christ.  It's difficult to do in a society that screams, "Balance!" at us all of the time, but Jesus desired total surrender that leads to radical living.  May we never shy away from destroying Pharisaical fences.  And may we never hesitate to do the will of God no matter how crazy it might make us look.

Further Conversation Over My Post on Essentials

The first collection of replies:  The Facebook Conversation Over My Post on Essentials

The original post:  A Proposed Minimal Set of Essentials

Grady replied:

The people in the book of Acts that reieved the Holy Spirit pre baptism, what was the context of those incidents? Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on his disciples He sent out, was this before their baptism? Absolutly the Holy Spirit is the seal, and the judgement is not a judgement of comdenation (to hell), the judgement is the one that we make a decision aas to if a person has obeyed and become. The scripture is very clear on this. When people hear us say you have not become a Christian yet, they are very quick to assume we are making a judgement of comdemnation against them, and use it because of what the common thinking is concerning judgement (don't judge lest you be judged). Sp to our marching order's...if we are to make disciples (and we are) then what do we teach as to how that happen's...the truth of the matter, no matter what others may teach. We are to teach those who would to believe in the gosple, belive Jesus as God's Son, that He died for the sins of the world, and that when this is accepted, we teach that they need to turn from their sin, confess Christ and then to be baptized (first fruits!). Then when they have obeyed we teach them of the promises of the Spirit, and then comes the how to walk.

In the initial post you asked about "In essentials, unity. In opinions, liberty. In all things, love." And said you had never heard anyone give explanation of this. That is what I was addressing.

You may have forgot what Paul said to always interact with one another in a spirit of humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Without that, our message is lost, this is true, he also said to preach the truth.

You can feel free to teach something different as to the essentials of the truth, but I will not. I teach the scripture, not my opinion. It is our JOB to teach them first to become before we teach them how to be, once we have done this then to be is the true course. If wew don't teach them the path of conversion, it is not I who will do any judgement of condemnation (thankfully not my job to do so).

Hey got to run to my people, God bless your day, may He convince you of His truth in all things. Love you! 

 Regan replied:

Ultimately, we just disagree about how one can receive the Holy Spirit through our understandings of the teaching of Scripture, especially the book of Acts. I feel that the Holy Spirit only comes at baptism crowd has "contextualized" away every difficult passage that disagrees with them. Maybe you also do that. Maybe that is the right approach. I am not comfortable with that approach. Those exceptions are there to show us that there are exceptions. Until either I state that baptism is the only place you can get the Holy Spirit or you acknowledge that those exceptions were given to show that there can still be exceptions, we will just be running around in circles if we continue. That is the crux of our disagreement.

We also disagree on separating what we teach from what are the essentials. I will teach that a person should be baptized after giving their life over to Jesus. Baptism is the normative place for people to receive the Holy Spirit, but that does not mean that I will exclude people who show fruit and acknowledge Jesus as Lord from fellowship. Our movement started with open fellowship and open communion. On the frontier, circuit riders could only make it once a month or once a quarter. People were not allowed to take of the Lord's Supper until the circuit rider came into town. What happened was people started gathering for communion without the clergy. They started baptizing people without the clergy. But they joined together as people who wanted to study the word and living under Jesus' lordship.

Over time, we, who started as a unity through Scripture movement, just became as divisive as the denominations we were trying to bring together. Instead of ending sectarianism, we just added another sect to the fray. Over 150 years later, the denominations have stopped being divisive, non-denominational (locally led) churches are flourishing, and nearly everyone is baptized as adult believers except for in a few mainline denominations. We are fighting battles that were fought for us over 150 years ago. We're like Civil War reenactors remembering the battle, but instead of it just being a hobby, it's really damaging to the Kingdom of God.

The men who started the Restoration Movement, from which the modern Church of Christ/Christian Church come, both took this stance.

Alexander Campbell said:
Should I find one [baptized as an infant] more intelligent in the Christian Scriptures, more spiritually-minded and more devoted to the Lord than…one immersed on a profession of the ancient faith, I could not hesitate a moment in giving the preference of my heart to him that loveth most. Did I act otherwise, I would be a pure sectarian, a Pharisee among Christians.

Barton Stone said:
None of us are disposed to make our notions of baptism, however well founded, a bar of christian fellowship. We acknowledge all to be brethren, who believe and obey the Saviour, and, who walking in the Spirit, bear his holy image; yet, in the meekness of Christ, we labor to convince such of their duty in submitting to every ordinance of the Lord.

My list of essentials came from the same vein that the Church of Chirst/Christian Church was founded on. We teach baptism, yet we do not make it a test of fellowship. Who am I to say that a person who is not baptized but is more faithful and fruitful is saved? God knows their heart. Paul wrote, "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God." I will teach them the Scriptural teachings on baptism, but God knows their heart and their lives show evidence of the Spirit.

I believe I teach Scripture. You can call it my opinion; it is. So is what you teach. Each one of us teach our opinion of what Scripture teaches. Some day we will know fully as is taught in 1 Corinthians 13:12. Until then, everyone filters Scripture, hopefully in tune with the Spirit, through their own brains, experiences, etc. So we always teach what we believe is the truth, but we must always do it as Paul taught, with humility, gentleness, patience, and love.

Do you really believe that every person not immersed as an adult believer does not have the Holy Spirit? How do you reconcile those verses that I mentioned on how Jesus and Paul taught us how to know who are Jesus' followers?

Regan replied to Dan's previous reply: 

It is a biblical explanation of why we can work with people who are not from our particular background on furthering God's work and accept them as brothers and sisters in Jesus where they are, but in a way it also deals with who is saved and who is not. But it does not deal with what I would teach to someone who wants to be saved. I have no qualms saying that the ministers I consider my friends from other denominations are my brothers in Jesus. They don't have to be brothers in Jesus to be my friends, but I see the love of Christ in their lives, the fruit of the Spirit growing in them, and they share my proclamation that Jesus is Lord. It does not mean that we just leave things rest and don't dialogue with one another on our differences. It's just that I think that dialogue should happen in the context of accepting one another as a brother and sister in Christ. I think they have as much to teach me as I do them, as long as we keep the Bible as the center of those discussions.

As for the rest of what you wrote, I agree wholeheartedly. "The church is probably in the state it is in because we love judging outsiders and refuse to collectively judge those inside the church. We have completely backwards maybe because we have not challenged each other's motives." I agree that we have the whole judging people backward. Those outside of Jesus, I do not judge. Those inside, I judge, but in a gentle, patient, and loving way to help them be who God wants them to be. They should do the same to me. Together, we spur one another on to reach the prize.

 Laura's response:

Yeesh, I tried to read all those, but I'm getting sleepy. I'll leave the scholarly talks to you guys...I just felt from the heart that forcing a list isn't what's needed. God could have made the Bible much clearer, shorter, more compact. He... could have used lists and numbers or used only a few writers to keep us from "discussing" what THAT writer intended. He didn't. It requires us to rely heavily on the Holy Spirit to interpret it and over time and seasons and experiences, we see things we'd never seen before. Is this because we were just wrong before and now we are right, or because God gives us these things in His time? I just don't think a list is necessary. I think we can deal with things as they come and have the answer at that time. If I come upon someone and I want to decide if they are a brother or not, I can look at a list. That sounds convenient. But I could also decide in that moment what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell me-through the Bible, through other believers, through experience, and always with love. Or decide over a period of time, etc...

I'm not automatically against lists or creeds or church goals, etc... but sometimes I wonder why we need to put things in OUR (by "our" I mean mine and whoever agrees with me) own words apart from scripture. Call me floppy, but I don't have hard and fast rules about certain things (or most things, for that matter), and I don't think you're wrong for wanting to clarify, for the sake of unity, the essentials. But I don't know that it's best either. I've used catch phrases of the church and have found them helpful to me and to others, but I don't think they were necessary.

 Regan's reply to Laura:

My list was a list of Scriptures and not my opinions. But I understand your hesitancy because it was my opinion that chose which Scriptures to include. How does one decide what Scriptures would be used as a test of fellowship? Do we use all... of Scripture, and they have to agree with us on everything? Do we use more than what I used or less? You would say that it is up to the Holy Spirit. That's what I think I was saying in a more structured way. If they have the Spirit, I can discern that, and they claim Jesus is Lord and follow the greatest commandment, then they are brothers and sisters. The problem is that those who refuse to have a list like this often are the most divisive and sectarian. I'm not saying you are, but I have experienced that. They typically have lists, that if written out would be longer than any denominational handbook.

Would you accept someone as a brother who said that Jesus is not Lord, showed absolutely no fruit of the Spirit in their life, did not strive to live a life of loving God and loving God or loving their neighbor? I am pretty sure I wouldn't. Even in the moment. But the list was focused more on us being able to have fellowship with people in the community who might not go to a church with the same name on the sign as our church or all of the same beliefs as our church.

The four Scriptures I chose were selected to help my local church pull back from all of the divisiveness and sectarianism that our movement in this geographic area struggles with, focus on the essentials, and move forward to minister to our community from there.

Also, in the local context, we are involved in starting a community youth center with other churches. A few struggle with whether that should be done because they were once taught that people in those other churches are not Christians. We make this judgment call whether we want to or not. I laid this out to show what the essentials are and how we are to evaluate whether a person is a Christian or not. I could ignore there frustrations and just say that I think they are a Christian and that should be good enough, but it's my job to teach. So these essentials were more of an explanation of why we can be involved with other churches in a youth center. Not a list to exclude people. I don't think this list would exclude anyone who wanted to be considered a Christian. It's a minimal list of essentials. It's frustrating to some because it includes too many people, not enough essentials. The discussion centers around whether it should be broader, not narrower.

And I understand where they are coming from; we should just teach the Bible. But unfortunately, the issue of who to accept as a brother or sister is an issue that our church was struggling with. So I attempted to teach on that through Scripture. It was a list because I tried to deal with the passages that talked about who to accept and what are the greatest teachings. I could have called it something other than a list, but it was a list nonetheless, whether I called it by another name or not.

How would you teach someone who was saying people are not Christians that those people are in fact Christians? Or how would you teach someone who thought certain people were Christians who you thought were not? Unfortunately, just leaving it alone would not have helped the church move forward, so that really wasn't an option.

The Facebook Conversation Over My Post on Essentials

Facebook seems to be the breeding ground for comments rather than the blog, so I thought I would copy and paste the comments on here for posterity's sake.

The original post:  A Proposed Minimal Set of Essentials

Grady posted:

‎? should not the death, burial, and resurection be a part of those essential beliefs? How about forgiveness of sin, the how that happens as proclaimed from the scriptures? How about living a life after Christs example? Should not these all be a part of the "essentials"? Just questions not debate, have the answers they are in the scripture, just trying to decern your thinking on these matters.

By the way, I continue to pray for you and your family, be blessed in this day, love you!

 Regan replied:

I like to focus more on what it means to be a Christian rather than how we get there. The church is littered with debate and division over the latter. We get hung up on it and miss the former.

And when teaching what it means to be a follower totally surrendered to Christ, the basics of conversion are covered. They just don't remain the focus. I know people who are just baptized and never become disciples; same with people who say the sinner's prayer. But if you love God, love your neighbors, love one another, show the fruit of the Spirit (which would imply you have the Spirit, the seal of Salvation), and declare that Jesus is Lord, then you are Jesus'. It's about the maximum Christian life of total surrender rather than the minimal ritual life of baptism and church.

And this list is more of a "who can we accepts as brothers and sisters in Christ." What are the "essentials" to accept someone as a brother or sister? The "essentials" we will allow ourselves to be unified in. The Spirit of God is the sign of a follower. And that Spirit doesn't just come at baptism, or I would have had that in my essentials.  How People Received the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts?

I did not address doctrinal essentials in this post, but I will. Although, we still need a minimal list. That Jesus rose from the dead and was God in the flesh would be on that list. 

 Dan wrote:

When you say "what it means to be a Christian" are you only talking about the actions of the Christian? Are you including the why some one does these things?

One clarification: you say "Jesus said that He did not come to judge (John 12:47).  If Jesus did not come to judge and condemn in regards to eternal life, then we to avoid our natural tendency to judge others in that light." While I agree with judging eternal salvation of some is dangerous, aren't there are some the church is supposed to judge? Also, in using this verse, does that mean we need to save since in that same verse he says he came to save the world? What about the next verse(s) where he does point to the Judge (presumable himself as seen in these places: http://bit.ly/d8tB81)?

 Laura wrote:

I'm not reading all this, but I propose not making a list of essentials.

Regan replied:

@Laura - That way we can have it change and be whatever we want depending on the mood we are in? Because whether we have thought it out enough to write it out, we do have a list.

@Dan - Besides me missing the word "need", here is responses.

Oh, yes in regards to judging. We are supposed to judge people to teach them, to help them out of sin, etc. But judging about eternal salvation is not something we can do because we do not know their heart. And as for saving, we do play a role in passing Jesus' salvation to the world. Through us being Jesus, we can show people Jesus and be part of the process of salvation. Although, we do not save by ourselves, we play a role in the salvation of the world. 

I am not including the why. We, in the position of accepting someone as a brother or sister, cannot know someone's motives.

Obviously, we are incapable of being a judge when it comes to eternal salvation at this point, whether or not Jesus does that judging. Although, I think he was clear that is not the reason he came. He came to save. And when we deal with the world that does not know Jesus, we are not judge. We are to be used in sharing Jesus' love which will hopefully lead to their salvation.

Unless, of course, we narrow salvation down to a prayer or baptism. If we do that, we can judge. But I think salvation is much more that that. 

I tried to deal with all of your questions. If I missed one, feel free to ask again. I'm not trying to avoid any.

Grady replied:

How can you focus on what it means to be a Christian before you get there, it is ok for those of us who have become a christian according to the scripture , but leaves those who haven't hanging out to dry trying all on there own with out the spirit of God providing for the walk of a Christian. Hey the whole book of Acts addresses this, why would you "like to focus on something other then what the scripture focus's on???? It is the Church's responsibility to focus on the "HOW", it is our marching orders. We are going to not have unity with the world, and if some one wants to come and accept the grace God has given then they would be free to do so and become united with the church. And when that happens they recieve all the bennifits associated with being in Christ or apart of the ones called out. What does it take by the way to BECOME a CHRISTIAN?

 Regan replied:

@Grady - I actually shared a link with you of a Bible study of the book of Acts that showed people receiving the Holy Spirit at different points. People did receive the Holy Spirit outside of baptism. And the Holy Spirit is the seal of s...alvation. If God gave us examples in Acts of people receiving the seal of salvation outside of baptism, who am I to say that it could not happen again?

Does that mean that we no longer teach baptism? Of course not. But it does show that we cannot be as legalistic as we would like on the subject of baptism. The Holy Spirit is the seal of salvation. Jesus and Paul did not tell us to check to see if people were baptized to know that they are Jesus' followers. They told us to examine their fruit and to see if they claim that Jesus is Lord.

Our marching orders are to make disciples, to baptize them, and to teach them follow Jesus' commandments. I don't think we disagree on that. The issue I was addressing here was not about our mission. It's about our judgmental attitude about other people's salvation; it's about how we discern who to accept as brothers and sisters in Christ. Our judgmental attitude has made many of the churches in this area ineffective at going about that mission. We often behave in such a way that nobody is tranformed by Jesus' love lived out in our lives. We have forgotten the major, love, and focused on the minor, baptism. In the end, we have created a lot of fruitless baptized people who think they are saved because they participated in the "salvation" ritual.

We have forgotten Paul's teaching to always interact with one another in a spirit of humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Without that, our message is lost.

What I will teach is a different topic than what are the essentials to accept someone as a brother or sister. I realize that everything that I believe Scripture teaches is not an essential. My understanding of all of Scripture is not completely accurate, although I currently believe it to be. I will teach Scripture unabashedly but in a spirit of humility, understanding that my interpretation could be wrong.

When it comes to who I will accept as a brother or sister in Jesus, I will stick to the passages I cited in my post on how Paul and Jesus taught we could tell if someone is a follower of Jesus.

This post was not a conversion message focused on how to be a Christian. If it was, I would first encourage people to surrender their heart to Jesus and become His disciple. Then, the next step is repentance and baptism, followed by living a life of total surrender to Jesus and His will. All of it is meaningless if their heart is not given to God.

Will I judge people to hell for not following the path of conversion I understand Scripture to teach? Jesus' taught that we will know His followers by their fruit. Paul's taught that they will claim Jesus is Lord. God will judge people's hearts. I will accept people based on Jesus' and Paul's criteria. And I will teach my understanding of Scripture to the best of my ability. In the end, God will be the judge; for now, I will teach the conversion message of Scripture and accept people as brothers and sisters based on the criteria of Paul and Jesus.

Dan replied:

I hope I wasn't coming across divisive. I just wanted to see how you clarified some things that I didn't think you meant. The big point is how we reach across walls of denomination right and not quite who is saved or not right?

But one thing... I would caution is one of the roles/fruits of the Holy Spirit is to Glorify the Son and the Father as the reason for we do what we do. Because of our identity, we do what we do. We don't do X to become Y. We are Y so we do X.

If we do not attribute glory to him as the why behind the what we could be practicing a form a works righteousness that is no difference than the elevation of baptism seen in Christian Church circles and may not have the Gospel. WE should call each other to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith if we see this going on no matter what (which is something we take for granted). Obeying out of Love and obeying out of fear of Going to Hell are two very different why but can produce very similar whats to an untrained eye. Jesus treated those people differently than the "pagan sinner" who may not have known better. The church is probably in the state it is in because we love judging outsiders and refuse to collectively judge those inside the church. We have completely backwards maybe because we have not challenged each other's motives. Is that enough to disfollowship with someone? Not at first but over time maybe not.

But at the same time we are slaves to Christ and one another so that means we don't give up on people but bear together a fuller understanding of the Gospel.

 More of the conversation can be found here.

How People Received the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts

In the last year, I have been accused of believing in something that the attackers labeled as "open fellowship."  It means that I accept people as brothers and sisters in Christ who have not been baptized.  To that, I plead guilty.

One of the people who left our church when we were making changes left because I would not say that those who are not baptized are going to hell.  Again, I plead guilty.

These views stem from the same thought.  Here is my study of the arrival of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts.  Taking Acts at face value, rather than reading a presupposed theology into it, leads me to believing in "open fellowship" and accepting people who are not baptized as brothers and sisters.

The Spirit comes on people whenever God knows their heart is surrendered.  For many, this occurs at baptism.  For others, it can be upon hearing the Gospel, upon the laying on of hands, or even some other experience.  If there is one exception to baptism being the place to receive the Holy Spirit (and we have four in Acts alone), then that means that people can receive the Spirit, which is the seal of salvation (2 Cor 1:22, Eph 1:13, Romans 8:9-11,16-17), outside of baptism.   

Alexander Campbell said:

Should I find one [baptized as an infant] more intelligent in the Christian Scriptures, more spiritually-minded and more devoted to the Lord than…one immersed on a profession of the ancient faith, I could not hesitate a moment in giving the preference of my heart to him that loveth most.  Did I act otherwise, I would be a pure sectarian, a Pharisee among Christians.

 Barton Stone reiterated:

None of us are disposed to make our notions of baptism, however well founded, a bar of christian fellowship.  We acknowledge all to be brethren, who believe and obey the Saviour, and, who walking in the Spirit, bear his holy image; yet, in the meekness of Christ, we labor to convince such of their duty in submitting to every ordinance of the Lord.

But then there was Moses Lard, stirring the seeds of exclusivism early on in the Restoration Movement.

I mean to say distinctly and emphatically that Martin Luther, if not immersed, was not a Christian...If a man can be a Christian without immersion, let the fact be shown; or if a man can or may commune without being a Christian, let the fact be shown.  I deny both.  Immovably I stand here.  But I shall be told that this is Phariseeism, that is exclusivism.  Be it so;  if it be true...then am I so far the defendant of Phariseeism and exclusivism.

Where do we find ourselves?  On the side of Lard?  Or on the side of Campbell and Stone?  Really, it doesn't matter.  We need to find ourselves on the side of Jesus and the clear teachings of Scripture.

This discussion becomes fruitless when we begin to parse when the Holy Spirit comes and at what point salvation begins.  We need to focus on total surrender, which will include baptism, and living our lives completely for Jesus.  Minimal Christianity, a Christianity that is just focused on being saved, is no Christianity at all.  People will ask what they must do to be saved.  We will respond by telling them to become disciples, surrender their heart to Jesus, be baptized, and follow him all the days of their life.  If you want to be assured of your salvation, give your whole life to Jesus.  Baptism will not save you without that.

Here is a run through the relevant verses in Acts.

And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself" [Acts 2:38-39 (ESV)].

When we want to put the reception of the Holy Spirit into a little box, this is the verse we come to.  However, we will see that the rest of the book of Acts does not adhere to this box that we like to place receiving the Holy Spirit inside.

"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance" [Acts 2:4 (ESV)].

The Apostles received the Holy Spirit without baptism.

Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God." [Acts 8:17-21 (ESV)]

   
The Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of hands.

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy  Spirit fell on all who heard the word (Acts 10:44).   As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning (Acts 11:15).

The Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles and Cornelius when they heard.

And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”...And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and  prophesying (Acts 19:2,6).

They received the Holy Spirit at the laying on of hands after baptism.  Paul expected them to have received it when they believed.

And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us (Acts 15:8).

The heart being surrendered to God is the key to receiving the Holy Spirit.  Nobody see someone's heart by asking them to show a baptism certificate or proof of membership in some church.  They show that they are a vessel of the Holy Spirit through their fruit.  We can accept anyone who professes Jesus as Lord and shows the fruit in their life as a brother or sister in Him.

Two Views on Baptism from the early Restoration Movement

I just ran across a quote in the great book that John Nugent edited, Radical Ecumenicity.  

Barton Stone said, "None of us are disposed to make our notions of baptism, however well founded, a bar of christian fellowship.  We acknowledge all to be brethren, who believe and obey the Saviour, and, who walking in the Spirit, bear his holy image; yet, in the meekness of Christ, we labor to convince such of their duty in submitting to every ordinance of the Lord." 

Moses Lard who preached in the 1860s expressed another view.  "I mean to say distinctly and emphaticaly that Martin Luther, if not immersed, was not a Christian...If a man can be a Christian without immersion, let the fact be shown; or if a man can or may commune without being a Chrsitian, let the fact be shown.  I deny both.  Immovably I stand here.  But I shall be told that this is Phariseeism, that is exclusivism.  Be it so;  if it be true...then am I so far the defendant of Phariseeism and exclusivism."