biblical worldviewing

A few weeks ago I began to really pray about a potential ministry at the small Presbyterian church I go to in Greensboro…

Now when I moved back to Greensboro from Asia in the Fall, I had a one track mind for ministry. That’s all I really wanted. School was secondary, friends were secondary, I just longed to be in a position of ministry and I feel that the gifts I have at this time in my life are geared towards middle and high school type ministry. So naturally I sought youth ministry in local churches. I wrote many letters to local pastors, but didn’t get much of a reply. In the meantime, I have been ministered to so well in this small Presbyterian church and by the Pastor there, Greg, who has taken time to sit down with me to lunch once a week for months now. Greg has a passion for ministry and mercy, and his theology is spot-on.

So it hit me a few weeks ago: why am I looking? I’ve got the blessing and waterfall of grace right here at this church I go to, why not believe God for using my gifts at the church he has led me to? That’s the business Jesus is in, after all! The problem is, though, our church has maybe one or two people high school or middle school aged. We don’t have the kids to minister to!

No matter. Youth groups have to start somewhere! So I prayed about it and approached Greg with it. He was excited! He had been praying for the same thing, and I was one of the people he had in mind! So we have been talking about it and dreaming about options for the last couple weeks, until Tuesday, when something amazing happened.

Tuesday is when I usually meet Greg for lunch. This Tuesday was different, though, because my good brother Mark was coming with us to lunch to possibly partner with me in this ministry and so we were there to talk to Greg about it. After a while, we got more and more excited and caught this great vision not just for the youth, but for the whole church. Then Greg invited me to his house that night to the monthly leadership meeting for the church. I was honored beyond words! I don’t know, I kind of feel like I have this curse over me where that kind of invitation and extension doesn’t normally happen to me. Like, sometimes I feel like the guy who everyone says goodnight to at 10:30 and then later they get together again without me til 2 am. Although I know that’s not true, and it has been proven wrong hundreds of times, I still struggle with it. But you can immagine, with my long search for ministry in Greensboro, I was at a point where I was used to rejection and being not the first one thought of to be ‘included’ like that. I think pretty humbly of myself sometimes and wonder how much people really enjoy me, so I view that invitation as a real act of love. It was.

I got to Gregs house and just couldn’t believe I was there, participating in a church leadership body and acting in the capacity of a potential leader. The room was all decorated for Christmas, and a fire going in the fireplace, and hot tea served with cake, it was lovely. Then the others came, and the 10 of us sat in a circle. We prayed and then began to talk about finances, building plans, and other sundry things. I just kept quiet and listened in a kind of awe… There I was, actually included in the circle of leaders for a church, an actual Body of Christ. Then it came time to talk about the youth ministry. Greg introduced me to everyone in the most honorable way, and said I had a passion for ministry and a real heart for seeing God get glory through teaching and gifts. Then they turned it over to me to just talk about it.

I went over a little of my background both IN youth groups and in ministry. I talked about my search this semester, and the excitement I had about the work of God going on in our church and the possibility of this program. Then I talked about practical matters, and said how really, we just need to set a meeting time and place to be receptive of youth in the church. I said I will be there, every week, with a bible study ready, and my guitar for some leading in songs, and just a listening ear for any youth that we can scrounge up. I said I commit to being there if there’s 2 kids or 20. Then I pointed out how, if we created a buzz about it this month, put it in the bulletin, and if I stood and addressed the congregation during a Sunday service, asking for them to send any middle or high school aged kids they could to this meeting–God could do incredible things! God could supply with 30 kids on the outside of our church right now who are in readiness for this ministry! Everyone agreed and was really excited too,

Then, for some reason, I don’t know what it is other than the Spirit, I said, ‘I do get down on myself sometimes, and I do struggle… I… guess I struggle with confidence. Especially this week, with all these thoughts of being in a full time ministry again. I don’t know… it’s like… it’s like, when I was in Asia earlier this year, for the first time in my life I really declared myself a full time minister of the gospel. No matter what, I was not my own but a minister of the gospel in every word I said, decision I made, or action I performed… always, for one purpose, to glorify him in ministry. Since then, I have felt the absurdity of daily life trying to wedge in there and tell me “How can you be a minister of the gospel?? look what you just did here!” and things like that… but my confidence is not in my flesh! I have tried to always ignore doubts like that, and reaffirm more strongly than ever that I am a workman, approved by God! I am entrusted with the gospel! So, that’s how I want you to consider me. A full time minister of the gospel, always. even if I just messed up 5 minutes ago, I’m still a full time minister of the gospel. that’s how I’m going to consider all of you too, and I am really excited in knowing all of you better and I just thank you because I’m so honored to be here and to have this opportunity to minister.’

Thinking back, it’s like I was gushing a little bit–like I was trying too hard to cram in all these things I’ve felt for the last 5 months and it all came out at once. That’s ok though! I’ll say the same thing in 5 different ways if I don’t feel the Lord was sufficiently glorified in the first 4.

The decision was to start the attack in January, after the holiday. We’ll establish a meeting and trust God to bring in the kids, and just see about hosting events and things to draw more in. Then we talked about the children’s ministry a while, then prayed and broke.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get all the way over this feeling, this feeling of honor and awe at being able to minister and be involved in the leadership of a church… it’s got as much trembling as affirmation.

This is important. This goes under a lot of categories, because it is about all these things. This is about a movement that is much more prevalent than any of us know. I wrote this as a comment on a community blog at challies.com, and once I started writing, well I really got going–and I wanted to repost it here to get rebuked for it if needed! Remember it’s in the context of a discussion, so it is in reply to a few things, but on it’s own it’s pretty understandable, I think:

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some (somewhat unorganized) thoughts, I want to come back to this, though,

yes, all Christian attempt at evangelism is useless. It’s not about us. what is transmission of the gospel? it’s deep crying out to deep. it’s spirit communicating to spirit. if you could wear glasses that could show you the spiritual REALITY of the world, of which this world is only shadow and copy, what would you see when someone walked into that Bourbon street bar and proclaimed the Gospel message?

You would see one living spirit in fellowship with Jesus overflowing with living water forming streams running into the room, filled with (presumably) dead spirits (like a lamp is ‘dead’ when not plugged into the wall) that were either being nourished through the gate of the mind and heart (like that supremely mysterious connection between the spirit that dwells within me and my body’s tongue that praises God by it or my hands that minister to Jesus by it!) OR weren’t because that gate is closed. the Reformed attitude is that only God opens or closes that gate, according to his purposes in election. why on earth would I endeavor to open that gate by culturally relevant language that I have chosen in my own cunning? or by even altering the message of God to make it more appealing than it is?

I say that ECM (and lots of other movements and denominations) are seeker-friendly in that they want Jesus Christ to have fellowship (the definition of salvation, fellowship with Jesus) with unrighteousness. I know right away from II Cor 6:14 this is impossible! That is why it frustrates me so when people point to Jesus’ ministry to prostitutes, tax collectors, the lowest of the low, as a license for seeker-friendlyness and accepting everyone equally. not really though, because those people were Christians! Or was Jesus wasting his time in his ministry? in the Bible, eating together=fellowship. this is why Paul said to not eat with a sexually immoral person who claimed to be a brother, in 1 Cor 5. when Jesus ate with Zacchaeus, for example, salvation came to that house… but that’s not all, Jesus tells us why, he says ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost’ (Luke 19:9,10). Zacchaeus, since he is a true son of Abraham, had salvation come to his house when Jesus came in–for Jesus came to seek and save the lost, making them the found. There is a definite group there. Jesus was not fellowshipping with unrighteousness, despite the Pharisees saying ‘who is this man who eats with tax collectors?’ Jesus had no communion with darkness, but with light. same with the woman caught in adultery. I have heard people point to this as the total warrant for ECM type ministry of non-specific, general, compassion and seeker-friendly-ness… but what does Jesus tell her? ‘Neither do I condemn you. go and sin no more’. hmmmm, what do we call people who are not condemned by Jesus? Christians! that woman was a Christian. And that, not by anything other than God’s election and call. Jesus was not being seeker-friendly, he was being found person-friendly, where he himself was the finder. there’s no such group as the ’seeker’ for us to be so friendly and relevant for. there is the lost and the found.

all that is to say that making appeal to a dying world with the attitude that you are carrying out the ministry of Jesus by making it any more appealing than it already is by your own efforts is pretty much a ministry to Satan. that’s what I was trying to convey about II Cor 4. it is not our job to make Satan feel welcome, Jesus never did. Paul didn’t want our guy from I Cor 5 feeling comfortable in a church setting either, which is why he said ‘deliver him up to satan’. or, in other words, ’send him back where he came from’. would that be the ECM’s first move in that situation? does the ECM have the actual boldness and ferocity in love to expel someone from their church when it was clear they were not a believer? or would they continue to let Satan have all the benefits of fellowship, possibly leading to a Hebrews 6 dreadful type situation…? this is why I believe Paul said to ‘deliver him up to Satan’ in I Cor 5, ‘for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord’. maybe Paul was trying to avoid a Hebrews 6, ‘repentance is impossible’ situation. but we are not that discriminating or loving, least of all the ECM, even though communion between light and darkness is not even impossible, it just doesn’t exist. I mean, where it does exist, there is a work of grace occurring and that person is found and we need to love and have communion–but where that doesn’t exist? that’s where ECM is working the hardest to create it.

yes, by all means extend and invite those found and seeking fellowship (because only the found seek fellowship) into that fellowship! this is what Jesus wanted when he said ‘they shall know you are mine by this: that you love one another’ (notice, one another, the brothers. many ministers have dropped the last 2 words and said ‘they shall know you by your love’ in a general, nonspecific way), and Jesus wanted that to be presented to all those far off, who have been found, who really are seeking fellowship! can’t you see how it’s destructive to true fellowship with the found to extend that fellowship to the lost? and not even only destructive, but counterfit. how can your love be real if it’s for anything that is not Jesus? I mean, this is why we love the brothers, right? because Jesus is within them… it becomes less us actually loving each other, but loving Jesus in each other. so if we attempt to love the lost with the same love we have for brothers, it must be counterfit, because anything that is not Jesus is, by definition, ‘less than Jesus’.

if we are his hands and his feet, and he is the head, then he will of course find those who are lost, like he said in Luke 19. he will seek them out by our ministries. he is the one doing the seeking, not us. he is the one unveiling the Gospel, not us. why then, does the ECM and IVP and Zondervan sit around talking about good ways to unveil the gospel to our culture?

you know, it’s not that the ECM has dropped the USE of the word ‘Lord’, but that it has dropped the meaning. if the ECM had to retain the meaning of the word ‘Lord’, they might not be able to serve Starbucks at churches and embrace the culture and revise concepts of sin and gender and suffering. Romans 14:23 ‘For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin’. how is the ECM proceeding from faith, and not waging war according to the flesh? I’d like it if anyone could give me an answer on that.

James 4:4 tells us that friendship with the world is enmity with God… how far do we really want to push that limit? how friendly is too friendly? I don’t really want to take that risk.

Recently I saw the film Walk the Line with Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. Aside from being a fantastic film, it showed a little bit about grace. I couldn’t help saying ‘amen’ to those around me when this dialogue came about between Johnny Cash and the executives at Columbia records:

exec.: Johnny, your fans are Christians. Church-goin’ folk. They don’t want you singing to no murders and criminals in no prison and cheering them up!
Johnny: Then they aren’t Christians.

Amen. It’s not to our credit that those outside the ‘church’ (meaning the American moral-club) are better at judging spiritual life than those inside it. Now, this is not one of those ‘the leading cause of unbelief is Christians who are not perfect’ whingings, because there’s no amount of excuse for anyone rejecting the Living God because of the mistakes of some lumps of clay, but it’s more of a wake-up call to accountability in our churches.

Something I tell people a lot when I’m describing the rich, first-century-like fellowships that I have encountered in other places of the world, ‘you know what? you know what the main difference between churches in America and churches in [such and such third-world or persecuted nation] is? In [such and such third-world or persecuted nation], the church is actually filled with Christians.’

Can you imagine for a second a church that was full of actual Christians? Wouldn’t that be kind of like… heaven? This is the problem with the Church-growth movement, we are selling our birthright to get as many people as possible into church. Now why would anyone want to go and do something like that? I can think of a few reasons why:

• Regular church-going people don’t want to witness Jesus to their friends and neighbors, but would rather invite them to a church service on Sunday, an American thing to do.
• People who wouldn’t normally go to church will go to a meeting where they don’t feel threatened to change anything about themselves.
• Pastors like big congregations.

What if we conducted church fellowship the way they did in the first-century? What would a church look like if it was God-entranced? Would they play the numbers game?