March, 2008
Charles Colson has a new book out called ‘The Faith - given once, for all.’ It is a primer on orthodoxy, brief but powerful. One of its central premises is that their is a staggering decline in Biblical literacy among Christians. There is statistical evidence that as many as 60% of ‘born-again’ Christians do not believe in the concept of ‘absolute truth.’
In the book, Colson tells a story of a course that was being taught in a public high school (after school, in compliance with Equal Access laws) on Christian Worldview. When it came to the 10 lesson in the course on comparing Islam, Buddhism and Christianity the teacher reported that the kids in the class ‘went nuts’ over the claim that Christianity was true. Seven of the eight ’serious’ Christians students chosen as group leaders refused to teach it. When they met again some days later in preparation for the next week’s session, all eight leaders informed the teacher that they had consulted with their parents and some of their youth leaders. They were concerned that they might offend other children. The argument was so fierce that in the end they decided to cancel the lesson. Colson wonders -’is this any indication of the state of the Church?’ (more…)
Posted by Scott on March 14th, 2008 in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
One of the bed rock ideas which have been somewhat sacred to the Alliance for Renewal Churches has been the idea that covenant is a meaningful way to talk about and to frame local church membership. Back in the day (30 or so years ago) many of the founders of our group of churches observed that some of the things which help to bind a body of Christians together in a local church were disappearing. The ‘natural’ community of neighborhoods was slowly giving way to people living pretty much seperate from their so-called neighbors. When I was a kid I remember knowing the names of every family on my street. Those days have past.
Also the idea of a ‘parish’ where members of a church lived close enough to one another to see each other in more ordinary circumstances was giving way to an increasing tendency to see fellow church members only at proscribed meeting times. I believe (as did the guys that planted the first ARC churches) that this lack of community was doing great harm to the church. Forming more intentional commimtents to a local body of Christians was a an effort to try and recover this very essential element of the New Covenant communites which emerged from Pentecost (see for example the summary of church life in Acts 2:42-45) It is from this mindset that the notion of written membership covenants emerged as a part of Alliance for Renewal Churches. However, I see some troubling signs that make me wonder - is it worth doing? (more…)
Posted by Scott on March 14th, 2008 in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
I Cor. 14:3 But one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them.
This past Sunday (the 9th) was a powerful example of the truth of this passage. I want to review what took place in the service and talk about how the gifts operate to build up the church. I may miss some of the things that are relevant, but this is my perspective after reflecting on the service.
A brother came to the front and shared a tongue and an interpretation of that tongue. The interpretation of that tongue focused on concern for some one (or ones) who were struggling with a great deal of fear. Shortly after that a young brother came to the front and read Psalm 23 (with a fair amount of emotion). Sometime after that a sister came to the front and sang a beautiful song in which the Lord calls for us to come to him, and allow ourselves to be comforted by Him. The imagery of the song was very fatherly, and the repeated refrain was to come and allow the Lord to tenderly embrace us and to give us comfort.
Simultaneously a group of people gathered to pray for a young boy (who was at the altar with his father). This prayer time went on for probably 10 or more minutes. I think I have described the basic elements of what I observed this past Sunday. Now I would like to break them down and talk about how different ‘manifestations’ of the Spirit were in operation. (more…)
Posted by Scott on March 14th, 2008 in spiritual gifts | 3 Comments »
Pray to the Lord of the harvest
Jesus spoke these words to the disciples regarding reaching people: (36) When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (37) Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; (38) therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
How should we apply a scripture like this to our own times? Is the harvest plentiful? It doesn’t seem that way, but perhaps if Jesus were speaking directly to us He might have added, “if you know where to look.” I have some ideas about this, but I am going to begin with what I think might be the most obvious place to look - our children. (more…)
Posted by Scott on March 1st, 2008 in Evangelism | 1 Comment »
