John Wesley on Election Day

I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them
1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy
2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against, and
3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.

From John Wesley, October 6, 1774.

Dying is like an Anchor

Dying is like pulling in an anchor, and we, the dying, are the anchor.  When the process of dying reaches its ending stages, we face all sorts of insecurities because we have lost the artificial purposes we have given ourselves in life.  Our body has failed us.  We are no longer keeping the family steady.  We are incapable of being the support we always have been and find ourselves being supported.  We are being pulled in.   

The pain is still there, but for some, the process of dying can be a blessing.  John Wesley, the man who started what is now the Methodist, Wesleyan, and Nazarene churches, proclaimed in his dying breath, "The best of all is, God is with us."  God is with us, through the storms and through the beautiful sunsets.  He is always here, with us.

As Paul wrote,

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

        “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
    “O death, where is your victory?
         O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. [1 Corinthians 15:54-58 (ESV)].

On a missionary journey from England to Georgia in the United States, John Wesley's boat was rocked by a storm and the mast broke.  Wesley's fellow sojourners from England were in a worrisome and fretful state, but the Moravians on the ship rested peacefully in the hands of the almighty and worshiped God through singing hymns.  This experience greatly impressed Wesley as he wanted what the Moravians had, a peace that could last through the storm.   

It does not do any good to ignore death, to pretend that it will not happen to us.  Our death will come.  Ignoring that will not make our days longer or help us to live better, but our dying should not be a process that paralyzes us in fear.  We need to learn to look death in the face, know that the victory is the Lord's, and continue on living the life He wants us to live.  As Paul wrote, when we do the work of the Lord, our labor is not in vain.  

There is nothing wrong with fighting death and continuing to live.  I have seen many people overcome illnesses and cancers to continue living life again.  But there will reach a point in each of our lives where the living is not much and the fight has dwindled; it will be our time.  We need to face death like the Moravians faced the storm, with a peace that can last even the greatest of trials.  We are being pulled in.

Christ is not Divided - A Discussion on Essentials (Part Two)

We know God’s people, not by them agreeing with us hook, line and sinker on every issue we believe.

One thing I love about the Church of Christ/Christian Churches is our heritage.  Early on, one of the driving statements of our movement was the traditional church statement, “In essentials, unity.  In opinions, liberty.  In all things, love.”  We were the first non-denominational movement in the world, and now non-denominational churches are the fastest growing churches in the land.  The problem is that we have strayed from being non-denominational into being a denomination.  Some people in the Church of Christ will not even accept the non-denominational churches as being on the right track because they are not non-denominational the way we are.

Some of us have become more sectarian than the sectarianism of the denominations our movement was founded to free the church from.  We claim to have no book but the Bible as our guideline for fellowship and the faith, but we all too often place our interpretations of pet Scriptures or even beliefs that are not even expressed in Scripture as issues of fellowship.  In denominational churches, they typically have handbooks that describe what the church believes, what it requires to be a leader in the church, and how people in the church should live.  We have no handbook outside of Scripture, but all too often, we have erred in making unwritten, ever-changing handbooks, a handbook just as legalistic as those in the denominations, except we are not transparent about them and people do not know what is expected of them.

Our conviction at our church is to no longer be that way.  We want to be non-denominational, not anti-denominational.  There is a big difference.  Anti-denominational people think that people in denominations cannot be right with God because they are in a denomination.  Non-denominational means that we choose to be locally led, but we don’t hate denominations.  Through non-denominational lenses we do not see the man-made lines we have created.  Non-denominational people do not get hung up with denominational names and view each person as an individual, right with God based upon their own faithfulness to Him and not on their church affiliation. Condemning people in other churches and dividing over the names we use to call ourselves is so contrary to Scripture.

Paul actually had to deal with this in the Corinthian church.

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”  Is Christ divided?   [1 Cor 1:10-13 (ESV)].

Let’s put it in modern words.

For it has been reported to me by people on Facebook that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Luther,” or “I follow Wesley,” or “I follow Calvin,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided?  [not 1 Cor 1:10-13 (ESV)].

I wish I was as faithful at following Jesus as Luther or as Wesley.  They were great Christians, faithful to the point of selflessness.  I understand why people thought they were on the right track on how to follow Jesus and desired to follow Jesus the way Luther or Wesley did.  And if we are honest with ourselves and study the history of the Restoration Movement, we follow Jesus in the same vein as Alexander Campbell followed Jesus, although we might not have ever read him, really don't even know about him, nor do we call ourselves Campbellites.  We should not be arrogant or look down on others who follow Jesus differently because they come from a different heritage; we come from a heritage that has taught us how to study Scriptures and follow Jesus the way we do.. 

Paul concluded his section on division in the early chapter in Corinthian by stating:

So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.  [1 Cor 3:21-23 (ESV)].

All are Christ’s.  Even those who follow him like Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Luther, Calvin, or Wesley – Christ is not divided.  We need to stop quarreling among ourselves and with our brothers and sisters in Christ in other churches because bickering destroys our witness to the world.,  We need to have the heart of Jesus and figure out how we can serve one another.  In order to do this, we need to clearly understand the essentials that we are willing to divide over.

More tomorrow.

For further reading:
A Discussion on Essentials (Part One)

Discerning Changeable Culutral Traditions from Unwavering Scriptural Teachings - Hymns Once Again

I'm happy to be part of the Churches of Christ/Christian Churches.  Our origin, like many of the great church movements, centered around getting back to Scripture.  Where would we be if great people of faith like John Wesley, Martin Luther, and the people in our own movement like Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone did not emphasize being faithful to Scripture and relevant to the culture over adhering to the traditions of the church.  

Yet all of these movements became ensnared by traditions once the God-inspired reformers left.  Each man-made tradition eventually quenched the Spirit and caused the church to falter until another reformer came along and once again threw away all tradition to present the Gospel in a culturally relevant way.  The honest truth is that the great reformers used culturally relevant ways to communicate the Good News.  Those who came after those reformers often confused the call to get back to the Bible with the culturally relevant methods the reformers used.  They would cling to the methods rather than the Spirit that inspired those methods.  We, as ambassadors of the Good News, need to be great students of the Bible, sensitive to the Spirit, and discern the difference between cultural traditions that can change and teachings of Scripture that are unwavering.

One of the more obvious and easier to point out traditions in the current church are hymns.  There is no biblical mandate about singing songs, some of which were rewritten bar songs, that were written in the 1800s or early 1900s.  These were not written during the time of Christ and they are not the hymns referred to in Ephesians 5:18b-19.  "Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart" Eph 5:18-19 (ESV).

The words of many of the hymns are beautiful, inspiring, and are worth singing, but a church is not right or wrong with God because they sing hymns.  Some modern songs have just as great words, and I'm sadly sure there will be people arguing to sing them in fifty years. If a church could be more relevant to the culture around them by using a music style that is the language of the people, then they should do that whether that music style is their personal preference or not.  Because when it comes down to it, we should be willing to discard any tradition that is not based on Scripture if it will help us be more effective ambassadors of God's kingdom.  Clinging to traditions that we like at the cost of alienating those outside of the church is exactly what all of the great reformers rebelled against.

Martin Luther was a great reformer because he fought for the language of the Bible and the gathering of believers to be in the language of the people.  He considered it folly that the church attempted to instruct the masses in a language that they did not understand.  There was nothing productive that would come from people participating in the empty ritual of listening to a message they could not understand and connect with.

The same is true with the style of music.  An outdated style can be as great of a "language barrier" as a foreign language.  If the church is not using a style that can be found on the non-Christian radio dial, then what cultural barrier do we expect a seeker to crash through before connecting with God through music.  I remember being a seeker in a worship service and being touched by God during the culturally relevant worship service, music that really is no longer culturally relevant.  I would be wrong to say that those songs that touched my heart should be the ones we use today because they should still be able to touch hearts just the same.  The purpose of worship in church is to instruct and bring people into the presence of God.  Those missions are hampered if the music is not culturally relevant.

We are not in the kingdom of God to please ourselves.  It is all about God, bringing about his will, and bringing people to Him.  If there is any obstacle to the Gospel, let it not be some tradition that we enjoy.  Let us make sure that it is Jesus' radical demands on people's lives and never allow any tradition to get between that message of Jesus and the seeker.  The traditions we personally enjoy should be quickly and lovingly tossed aside when necessary for the greater good of the kingdom.

Music in Relation to Growth in the Church

Last week, I had a conversation with a good friend who goes to another church, one that is dying, and, as is typical with many dying churches, has only a traditional service. Some have left that church for the one just two buildings down, a church that worships together in a modern way. I told him this story that Jason Kemerly, the worship minister at Christ’s Church at Georgetown in Ft. Wayne, shared with me.

I can tell you that I have been at 3 churches now where we’ve done the Traditional and Contemporary service thing, and I have yet to see the Traditional service ever grow. I have never seen a baptism or a family join during one of these Traditional services. I’m not saying it’s impossible or doesn’t happen, I’m just saying that I haven’t experienced it yet.

As far as a Contemporary (or I prefer to call them “Modern”) services, we had 43 baptisms last year. I have seen great growth in all churches that I’ve been a part of. In the first church I was at, we went from 70 people to over 225 in the modern service. At my 2nd church, we went from 230 to over 400 in the Modern service. Here at Our current church, we’ve gone from 170ish to about 260ish. So I think it is kind of easy to see where the growth is coming.

Modern music is not a magical potion for growth, but it is a sign that a church is trying to be relevant to the culture they are in. A church that is not willing to be relevant to the culture is focused on what they like rather than what is good for the kingdom. And a church full of people focused on their own selfish likes and needs will never prosper.

But here is the persistent dilemma. What is modern today will be out of date in 15 years. If we are going to make a go at being a healthy church in the long run, a church that can pass the baton while still running, we have to be willing to regularly change. We have to create a culture of change.

So I told my friend, that if he wants his church to grow, then he might want to consider modernizing that traditional service. It isn’t that changing from traditional to a modern music style will automatically make churches grow. It’s the change that must happen in people’s hearts in order for them to allow a change of music style. Church must no longer be a ritual. It must not be about us, but about God who is great and about living out His kingdom! The doors must be flung wide open for the people in our community to come in while the church must be welcoming to them.

There is a lot that has to change in a churchgoer’s hearts so that they will allow a change in worship style from one they like to one they don’t like, but that change in heart is necessary for the church to fulfill its mission. If those hearts don’t change, no tweaking of music, no new ministry, nothing will improve that local body, and I fear more churches will die like many of the churches that have refused to change before them because they are focused on themselves rather than God’s design of them being a body built by Him to bring about His will.

Music is just one example, and I hope we don’t get hung up on that one issue. There are so many areas of our church life that God wants us to surrender to him so that he can build us into the body of believers he wants us to be. There are also many areas of our individual lives that we also must surrender to him. A healthy church is like a catch-22. Individuals will usually reach their true potential in God when the church is what God intends for it to be. And the church will only reach its true potential in God when the individuals that are part of it are who God intends them to be. We each have to allow him to change us individually if we want to the church to be what God intends it to be.

John Wesley, the man who the Methodists, Wesleyans, and Nazarenes have sprung out of, said, “Give me 100 men who love God and nothing else, who hate sin and nothing else, and I will change the world.” God is waiting for a people to say, I will do nothing else except what you want me to. I’m all in. Are we willing to be that group of people? Do we believe enough to go all in? Following God is like pregnancy, either you’re pregnant or you’re not. It’s like life; either you’re alive or you’re not. Are we ready to stop building sand castles and snow statues that will melt away and start allowing God to build us into the eternal place he wants us to be?