Last Sabbath, I heard a heard a rather important and well known SDA someone speak about a meeting he'd recently attended. The keynote speaker, a methodist turned baptist, had focused on "making the gospel relevant". The central theme, as regurgitated by "Someone", was "people are tired of hearing about God and the Bible and are only interested in our personal experience". "Someone" then stated that the methodist/baptist had used the just mentioned strategy to turn a 25 member wheelchair and cane congregation into a vibrant 400 member youth Church. "Someone" next urged us to follow suit, then publically prayed that we would do so.
God calls us to be faithful, not successful. When Jesus won the victory on Calvary, everyone deserted Him. Noah preached for 120 years and saw no tangible results. The number and age of Benchwarmers is not a relevant measure of God's blessing, and it should never be our goal to increase this crowd. Our job is to lead the people to the water of life, not persuade them to drink by dumping in kool aide.
Personal experience can be a useful evangelistic tool, but each person's life walk is different. Without the Bible as a common denominator our experience has limited utility. More to the point, how can a true Christian share their experience without spending the whole time talking about God and the Bible? If self is dead, what else is there to talk about?
SDA's have a special God given message. Nothing against our Baptist and Methodist brothers and sisters, but God has given us a unique light. Why should the pilot ask a member of the ground crew to teach him how to land the plane?
The Devil is alive and well, and I fear he's working on the sly to dilute the power of our message. He is a defeated foe, but we can't even resist unless we recognize what he is doing.
If we are connected to God, we will talk about what He has done for us, but we must avoid sharing the results without the power. BMW's are beautiful cars, but they can't move without gas. We aren't doing people a favor if we show them a religion that looks and feels comfy and grand but will leave them on the ground at the second coming.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
27 comments:
Excellent paul. I particularly enjoyed the fountain-koolaide analogy.
Thanks kid. God gets the glory for any merits of this post. some things just need to be said.
Paul, this is a great reminder. We all want to be popular. Thus, when we find that God's ways don't make us so, it's our tendency to try and dilute beleifs here and spice them there. We need to stick to what God has given us though, and keep pressing towards brighter light. Who cares what everybody else says?
well said. In some environments (ahem, Southern students:-) following God may not have much of a price, but in others, it means lots of sacrifice. God's kingdom is not of this world. Following God may sometimes lead to what the world calls "success", but, more often then not, it leads to homelessness and poverty--just ask my Biblical namesake.
'bout time for a new foto. Petra was confusing me:-)
Gandhi once said something that I think we would benefit from listening to:
”You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilization to pieces, turn the world upside down, and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of good literature.”
You mentioned that as SDA’s we have a special God given message. It has the power to turn the world upside down. Let us not treat it as though it is nothing more than good folklore...
Amen! Petra's latest post fits in nicely with your comment. The Bible is our roadmap.
Petra and I have decided to make the Bible and spiritual issues a larger part of our blogging. The Bible is the greatest book on earth. It deserves more than an occasional mention. This world seems to be wrapping up. Our blogs should reflect this trend.
yuck! oh man, that kookaide analogy was to true! (gagging noises)it's such awful stuff!
I'm glad that you addressed this issue Paul, cause it is something we all need to be more aware of!
and thanks for that quote from Ganhdi, it is profound... I recently learned that at about 1900 Christianity represented 1/3 of the worlds religions, and today that percentage is still the same! This is sad for many reasons, one being that other religions such as Islam are growing faster then Christianity is now. There are so many people who have no clue about the beauty of Gods' grace. We can not become stagnant!
Keep it up paul.
Were there any intrinsically good qualities to that speaker's "vibrant church"? I'm sure the seductive moabites had a number of apparently excellent points in their religion:
1)Life-afirming rites
2)Focus on community activities
3)Embraced the physical aspects of life
4) Enjoyed the "good" things of earth
5) Listened to nature
6) Learned from other cultures
etc...
Life-affirming rites might include human sacrifice, and community activities could be orgies, etc. We humans simply don't have a handle on what defines right and wrong.
What did the speaker mean by "vibrant"? The Devil probably has vibrant followers too. The speaker's argument really kicks against the ultimate foundation of right and wrong: God is.
God made us according to a certain blueprint, and sin is like tearing up the blueprint. The Devil claimed that freedom meant separation from the intrinsically controlled environment of the blueprint. Philosophically, the death of Christ is a complete repudiation to that claim. God (in the form of Jesus) proved that He was willing to give up his own (apparent) freedom, and submit to complete degradation and debasement. Christ's death shows that the devil's claims are bogus by definition. God could choose to live autonomously, (devil's definition of complete freedom), but He doesn't. God's total commitment to sharing his life with ours proves that His creation works through community, dependance, and total humility.
The universe is made for complete submission, sacrifice, and service. By following God's law, I join that universe, not by the specific acts themselves, (which are nessisarily arbitrary by definition), but by submission that they represent. In other words, God's law gives us the opportunity to submit. Since submission is how the universe works, we must have a law to submit to. In our sinful world, such submission feels difficult, contrary, and divisive. These effects of submission come from the devil, not God. In heaven, we will feel happy to submit, and it will lead to unity and peace. Here on earth, however, submission means war! This is why Christ could preach the sermon on the mount, and also bring "not peace, but a sword".
In Christ's name then, Let us bring a sword to the speaker's deadly sophistry. Submit! How can we stand still when God's reputation is so besmattered?
I wrote a comment to this, (more specifically to Caitlin's comment) but I realized, 30 minutes later when I was getting ready to post my comment, that it was EXTREMELY long. Henceforth, I have posted it as a blog on my site so you may go read it there. :)
Barry:
Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
Surrender brings opens the door to a freedom far greater then that which we could experience through our own power
Christy:
Barry never seems to worry about posting long comments. I hope you gain courage from his example:-) Nevertheless, I'm glad this post prompted a response in kind. God is a large part of our lives and our blogs should reflect this fact.
Caitlin:
I agree that we need to focus on growth. As SDA's, we often have a cart/horse problem. We tend to try to swell the ranks by making our message less distinctive. Somehow, we think that if we aren't very different from other groups, folks will be cool hanging out with us. But Christainity should bring radical and uncomfortable change. If we look to Jesus, the Holy Spirit will fill our path with truth seekers, and growth won't even be an issue.
Here's my short version:
Devil: Hey! God is the only one with true freedom. Why can't we have freedom too, and still be just as "good" as God?
Adam and Eve: What a beautiful idea!
God:I love, which requires submission. To prove it, I died on the cross.
The argument for God's law follows naturally.
thanks bub:-)
The Apostle Paul writing to Timothy said, "Preach the word; be intant in season,out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts they shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." 2Tim4:2-5 And again "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God." Clearly information from God's Word is foundational to a life-changing, eternal life-giving friendship with God. The problem that confronts us as we Christians attempt to convince others to follow in the way of the Cross is that we often absorb information and disseminate it to others without allowing it to change who we are from within. What the post- modernist (and for that matter the modernist and pre-modernist et al)needs is to see (EXPERIENCE) the foundational truths of Jesus' teaching transforming our lives. People are attracted by that which makes their life more pleasurable (as the entertainment and food industry know, but they are also attracted by that which makes their life more meaningful especially by a cause that is bigger and more enduring than themselves. Christians are sadly reaching toward pleasure to attract new members today. Our heritage and only hope is the way of the Cross. It alone leads home. This is why Paul after admonishing Timothy to preach the word also said endure afflictions , make full proof of thy ministry. Are we ready to take "joyfully the spoiling of our goods"(Heb10:34) and our lives that the truth may live in us? Then we have something that will attract the attention of those who know not God in a meaningful life-changing experiential way. Dad
I was really blessed by reading this post as well as all the discussion that ensued. I also especially liked the kool-aid analogy.
Mr Howe, I very much appreciated your comment. This morning in Sabbath school we talked a bit about happiness, pleasure, and meaning/purpose in life because we were studying Ecclesiastes. People enjoy pleasurable things, though fleetingly; however, I also think you're very right in saying that people are attracted to things which make life meaningful.
I've always mused that many of the things people do, such as living lives of promiscuity, joining gangs, or drinking alcohol, are sort of a subconscious searching. All humans have a desire to be loved, God placed that desire in us. But people who don't know God, really truly know Him, go looking for love or a way to satisfy that desire for love in an endless maze of pleasure, with each wrong turn only feeding the hollowness. The promiscuous want to be loved, but the love they find is temporal, unfulfilling, and hollow. The gang members find acceptance, but it's only conditional and also unsatisfying. The alcoholic has given up the search and resorts to numbing the desire for love and a fulfilling life.
If we were to offer each of these the unconditional, heart-filling, desire-quenching love of the Most High God, how much richer would their lives be?
Humans desire meaning, and meaning comes from filling the hole in our souls with the love of God. To paraphrase from Ecclesiastes, everything under the sun is meaningless; life is meaningless. The only thing that brings meaning to life is to live for God, in God, and with God.
Thanks Dad, I think your comment deserved to be a separate post. I'm going to respond to it via a post of my own.
Kristin:
Your comment will also be fodder for my next post:-)
I'm glad all you folks liked the kool aide example. I actually thought the airplane one was better, but I guess beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
Thanks to Paul and all the responders for some important truth to consider. Here are some thoughts from 2nd Cor. 4; 5-7
" For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves."
Mom
Amen! tough to argue with the Bible.
Thanks Mom...
Wow. I have been thinking these same thoughts for so long and finding myself frustrated over this growing desire in our communities to water things down (both spiritually and academically--which is a different issue entirely, but I think it stems from the same problem), and you have articulated them so well. Thank you! Now--what do we DO about it, apart from our own personal words and actions???? Or maybe that's all we CAN do.
I hadn't thought of the academic connection. Thanks for bringing it up.
This post points out problems, the next will look toward possible solutions.
Hey paul. Just wanted to let you know that I changed my address to www.kindlingforhim.blogspot.com so if you want to change it on your links. It's still the same page but a different address.
thanks for the info
hmmm... earthen vessels.
yes, we humans are just clay / mud / dirt containers...
and yet God in His incredible love, sees the gold in the midst of the dirt... He wants to refine us, and purify us. He knows that we are only dust, and yet in His eyes we are truly treasure!
Realizing this fact - that we are treasured by the Divine - should inflame us with pure love, and add boldness to our lives!
Like the disciples we will become new people.
"His word was in my heart as burning fire shut up in my bones." Jeremiah 20:9
We won't be able to hold back from sharing what God has done for us!
well said,
thanks for the input. it's always good to add a biblical citation...
Post a Comment