Okay, first off I realize this picture is a little over the top. But it’s kind of cool, sort of Lon M. like in appearance. But I thought it might grab your attention.
I recognize that some may have found my message of 2.24.08 a bit ponderous. As I prepared it I thought to myself - “this don’t preach to good” (Pardon my grammar). Yet, I believe that I needed to take the time to carefully talk about the discontinuity between O.T. prophets and the way in which prophecy functions in the N.T. I believe a great deal of confusion makes its way into the church over simply not understanding the difference between O.T. prophets and the way the gift of prophecy is meant to work in the church. The weight of responsibility which lay on the shoulders of O.T. prophets was enormous. They could not be wrong. They were chosen and set apart by God to deliver the very words of God to the people. (more…)
Posted by Scott on February 29th, 2008 in Church life | 1 Comment »
One of my greatest desires as a pastor is to see balance in the life of the church. When a congregation matures to the point that they are able to take risks, experiment and still land squarely in a place of balance I think they have achieved something rare.
This value drives my heart when we come to the topic of spiritual gifts. I very much want to encourage and challenge everyone to pursuit spiritual gifts, just as the scriptures exhort us. I Cor. 14:12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. And at the same time I want to see the church approach spiritual gifts with a desire to arrive at balance. Does that seem like a difficult thing to achieve in your mind? It certainly does in mine. Almost by the nature of certain spiritual gifts we are pushed toward excess or extremes. Gifts like tongues, healing, and prophecy don’t really come with the kind of detailed precise instructions that would make it all a lot easier. The truth is we have no choice but to experiment, take a bit of a leap and act in faith. The results can be weird, slightly wacky at times and even downright wrong. The alternative is to me, unacceptable. Tighten things up, over scrutinize and keep things under control at all times sounds like a total bummer to me. Worse than a bummer - I think it is not being faithful to the testimony of the Bible. The N.T. church was highly experimental and had lots of examples of things getting a bit weird and out of control (I mean really read 1 Corinthians, its full of crazy stuff in terms of what church services were like at 1 Corithians Baptist).
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Posted by Scott on February 29th, 2008 in Uncategorized | No Comments »
