Archive for the 'Digging Deeper' Category

3 Responses

Published
by
LayGuy
on May 4, 2008
in Bible Study, Christianity, Church and Digging Deeper
. 2 Comments

With all the talk these days about Emergent/Missional and Seeker Sensitive Churches plus the discussion around liberal or fundamental Churches and whatever else, I ground myself in Scripture as to what to expect as a reaction to the Gospel being taught.

As Christians, lets not kid ourselves about the message we deliver. We preach Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and the reasons for it. This is the Gospel and this is the message we are asked to spread across the whole earth.

All the different streams of Christianity mentioned above attempt to get this message across in a meaningful way in the hope that people respond to it. But what gets in the way is when we deliver it in a way to maximize acceptance rather then focus on the substance of what we teach.

More and more I am shifting my opinion to focusing on the message instead of focusing on the acceptance of it. And in doing so, scripture says that we will always encounter 3 responses to what we believe:

  1. Disbelief and mockery
  2. Interest and further discussion
  3. Belief and commitment

As anyone following this blog would know, I am a fan of Mark Driscoll and the Church he pastors - Mars Hill Church. Mars Hill gets its name from an interesting passage of scriptures found in Acts 17 when Paul visits Athens. The entire story can be read here.

In a nutshell, Paul visits Athens and is moved by the idolatry found there. Being the center of civilised society, Athens is alive with culture, education and arts. But because of the idols found in the town, Paul is moved to reason with the Jews, devout people, anyone in the market place and philosophers about the Gospel.

Read the passage this way: Paul speaks to everybody and anybody about the Gospel. And in doing so, he comes across Epicurean & Stoic philosophers. The “epics” taught that the pursuit of pleasure, not knowledge, is the meaning of life. The “stoics” taught that wisdom is found in being free from intense emotion, unmoved by joy or grief and a belief that everything in nature is God - aka pantheism.

In many ways, what the “epics” and “stoics” stood for is what we in modern society also hold dear to our hearts.  So perceived as a “babbler,” Paul is asked to address Mars Hill - where all these goonies get together and try to “out-philosophise” each other. There, Paul tells the Gospel in a relevant and missional way - a way their mindset is able to digest.

The result of this?

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst.  But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Acts 17:32-34

Here are our 3 responses:

  1. Some mocked
  2. Some wanted to know more
  3. Some believed

What Paul did was address Mars Hill in a relevant, and yet confrontational way - not shying away from controversial issues and then he hit the topic of resurrection. And this is when “the *@!# hit the fan” at Mars Hill.  Anything in regards to resurrection was a major issue at Mars Hill given their philosophical beliefs - and this is probably why Paul didn’t get to finish his spiel and get to his favorite topic - the resurrection of his Messiah.  And Paul simply left Athens leaving a few members of Mars Hill as believers, some wanted to know more and probably most chasing him out of Athens in mockery.

Fast forward 2000 years and we find ourselves in the ridiculous cycle of which “conversation” or approach is better in getting people to accept the Gospel of Jesus.  I hear and get every perspective:

  • To the fundamentals, I get your desire to hold onto truth and prevent the twisting of scripture in order to make the Gospel more “palatable” to the masses.
  • To the emergents, I get your desire to present the Gospel in a relevant, new and fresh way - to keep up with the times.
But what I don’t get is when “fundies” hold onto traditions while forsaking modern culture.  And what I don’t get is when “emergies” in their pursuit of relevance, question the doctrines of scripture.  It’s OK to question traditions - but don’t question doctrine.
To both camps, I say:  Remember that the truth of the Gospel will always encounter 3 responses:
  1. Disbelief and mockery
  2. Interest and further discussion
  3. Belief and commitment
That’s why I so like the “missional” mindset of Christianity - to present the never changing truths of Scripture in a modern cultural context. Forget about the two extremes of the church - fundamentalism and liberalism - they focus on irrelevant issues.  
Paul presented the Gospel in a cultural context.  At Mars Hill, he didn’t bother getting into historic Judaism as he did elsewhere - he met his listeners where they were at.  But he didn’t shy away from tough topics which made him look like a goofball to some and downright offensive to others.  He stuck to the truth, he experienced the “3 responses” and he moved on.
Some mocked.  Some wanted more.  Some believed.  Paul left Athens.
When the modern Church teaches, it has to understand that the same principles apply:
  1. Teach truth in cultural context.
  2. Don’t shy away from tough topics.  
  3. Experience the 3 responses.
  4. Move on.
I hope I’ve opened that can of worms inside. Please tell.

The Shack - A Trinity Shocker!

Published
by
LayGuy
on April 15, 2008
in Books, Christianity, Digging Deeper and Rant
. 14 Comments

shack Ranking very high on Amazon’s best seller list is a book by William P. Young, The Shack. Released in May last year, many of you would probably already know about it.  As of today, it has upward of 350 reviews on Amazon.com.

Additionally Christian personalities such as Michael W Smith and Eugene Peterson (Author of The Message) have endorsed it in a positive way. Here’s what Peterson had to say:

When the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize the result is a novel on the order of The Shack. This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good!

This has found many people rushing to buy the book and calling their experience in reading it, “a mind blowing experience, a spiritual stick of dynamite and a life changing book.”

So what’s the book about?  Basically it’s this:

The Shack revolves around Mack (Mackenzie) Philips. Four years before this story begins, Mack’s young daughter, Missy, was abducted during a family vacation. Though her body was never found, the police did find evidence in an abandoned shack to prove that she had been brutally murdered by a notorious serial killer who preyed on young girls. As the story begins, Mack, who has been living in the shadow of his Great Sadness, receives a strange note that is apparently from God. God invites Mack to return to this shack for a get together. Though uncertain, Mack visits the scene of the crime and there has a weekend-long encounter with God, or, more properly, with the godhead.

In a nut shell, God asks Mack to meet in the shack for a deep and meaningful about His nature.  The author was interviewed on the 700 Club on CBN and here is what he had to say:

It all sounds nice and fine and dandy until you get to meet the “god” Young introduces to Mack.  You see God the Father is an African American woman called Papa. God the Son (Jesus) is a guy from the Middle East with plain looks apart from his big nose.  And God the Spirit is Sarayu - a small and delicate little Asian girl.

Talking about messing with people’s heads!  And the fact that Christians are out there endorsing this crap and readers are saying that their consciousness is altered as a result of reading this book, blows me away.

It really makes wonder about the state of Oprah Winfrey type, new age mentality spreading across Christianity these days and how Christians are sucking this up into their minds and souls and don’t have any idea of the vomit they are consuming.

To be honest, I haven’t read the book.  But I don’t need to.  There are many people holding onto biblical truth who have exposed this book for what it’s worth. Tim Challies, author of The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment and keeper of the popular blog challies.com has an awesome review about the book here.

In his conclusions, Challies says:

Because of the sheer volume of error and because of the importance of the doctrines reinvented by the author, I would encourage Christians, and especially young Christians, to decline this invitation to meet with God in The Shack. It is not worth reading for the story and certainly not worth reading for the theology.

Despite the great amount of poor theology, my greatest concern is probably this one: the book has a quietly subversive quality to it. Young seems set on undermining orthodoxy Christianity.

One of the theological areas The Shack centres on is the nature of the trinity. And Young’s characters of a black female Papa, a plain and big nosed Son and a delicate little female Asian Sarayu spirit, struck a negative vibe in me as soon as I read it.  Undoubtedly, Young’s work is in the genre of Mclaren’s work and you all you where I stand with Mclaren.

And in typical Mark Driscoll style, he nails this issue of the trinity in The Shack in his sermon series on doctrine.  Below is a snippet:

As you can see.  The Shack is a shocker when it comes to many aspects of Christianity.  Many good things are mixed with many bad things resulting in a delightful read where you may be unaware of the realigning of your understanding of crucial doctrines. And isn’t this just what the devil wants?

If the nature of the trinity does confuse you and you want to know more about this important aspect in our understanding of God, I invite you to check out Driscoll’s sermon below.

xxxchurch.com | Porn Sucks

Published
by
LayGuy
on April 8, 2008
in Christianity, Church and Digging Deeper
. 9 Comments

xxxchurchEvery now and then I come across a ministry  which I seriously like.  What I don’t like are self inflated “look at me” type ministries or personalities with the sole goal of boosting someone’s ego or profile.  And in the ‘Christian” world, there are heaps of these.

In researching for an upcoming sermon on adultery and pornography, I revisited a site I checked out a couple of months back.  xxxchurch.com is a site/ministry which tackles head on, the issues of porn in our society.

What I love most about this ministry is their approach to getting “out there” to the porn industry and tackling head on the issues it creates in society.  Sometimes they get heavily attacked by more conservative Christian groups because, for example, they attend porn conferences and expo’s.

But like Jesus hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors, these guys, led by Craig Gross, are making an impact.  Have a look at the following documentary “Missionary Positions” for a fascinating and in-depth account of their ministry.

They have a bunch of video’s available on their website and on their YouTube Channel - so be sure to check it out. But two of their clips which I really appreciate and will use in my sermon are below.  The first is about a guy who was once addicted to porn and the effect this had on his life.

The next clip is a music video called ‘Constance’.  A great song about a devastating reality for so many people.  Next time you are tempted to looking at porn, remember that the girl is somebody’s daughter.

x3watch_logoxxxchurch.com also provide free accountability software to help you deal with  your issue.  A simple program running in the background monitoring your surfing patterns and emailing your accountability partner every two or four weeks of any dodgy sites you visit. Is it fool proof?  No.  But it’s a great tool to use if you want to change you addiction to porn.  Here is the link.

I strongly suggest you check out xxxchurch.com even if you don’t have an issue with porn.  A simple, yet in your face, approach is used for this whole area of sexual addiction.  For example, on the topic of masturbation, they say:

What is XXXchurch’s stand on masturbation?
We have had literally thousands of emails about this particular issue. We have heard all the scenarios. “Well if I think about fruit while I’m masturbating, then that is not a sin.” Well isn’t that clever. Or…”If I’m giving glory to the Lord while I’m doing it, then that can’t be wrong.” Hmmm. Why don’t we just make that part of our Sunday morning services then? We have heard all the Pro-masturbation Christian arguments and we wonder if these people are really dealing in reality. It’s all very intellectual and quite scholarly, but we still don’t get it. Sorry.

Our stance is simply this: you want to live a life that is honoring to God then start pleasing him and stop pleasing yourself. Stop making excuses and get some control over your life. Yes, it is tough. Yes, we know hormones are raging. However, God is calling us to holiness. Live an extraordinary life. Masturbation will leave you hanging every time!

Gotta love their style.

"Modernised Easter Messages"

Published
by
LayGuy
on March 31, 2008
in Christianity, Church, Digging Deeper and Rant
. 0 Comments

With all the debate going on these days about "emerging church" and traditional churches etc, sometimes those outside our circles can be left a little confused with us Christ followers. Well being an Aussie, I’m somewhat taken back by the "official" Easter message focus delivered by some in the so called "organised religious institutions" of my country..

Splattered all over my TV over Easter were news articles on "modern Easter messages" delivered by the "nations religious leaders."  Instead of using the one time most people go to church and nailing (excuse the pun) the message of the cross to a largely unbelieving crowd, these guys completely miss the boat and talked about interest rates, the drought and Aboriginal reconciliation.

To those outside the best nation in the world, our newly elected Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, officially apoligised to the "stolen generations" of aboriginal children taken by force by well meaning white people from pathetic life styles in Aboriginal communities.  But they did this in questionable ways - hence the need for an apology.

We are also experiencing a massive rise of interest rates due to an over heated economy as we pump our commodities into China.  This is putting massive inflationary pressure on our economy and, when combined with increased petrol prices and the effects of the drought, the Reserve Bank needs to increase rates to help stop spending.

Sure these issues are important and people are hurting in our country.  But to focus on these messages instead of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus over the Easter period make Brian Mclaren’s attempt of being relevant to society a piss poor effort.

I don’t for a minute put down the need for our culture to address these issues.  But this is Easter for crying out loud.  Put aside the pagan nature of the way Easter is celebrated, and you have a platform where people would go to church more then any other time.  To waste this opportunity on other issues is disappointing.

Instead of connecting to people in their hurt and presenting the hope of Jesus, these leaders decide to dwell in the hurt and offer no hope. To this lay guy, that’s just dumb.

To take dumbness further, consider the views of The Reverend John Evans, the Uniting Church Minister at the Church of All Nations in my home town of Melbourne.  This guy wants to substitute the Good Friday Holiday with a national "reconciliation" holiday to celebrate our recent advances in reversing our travesty with the Aboriginal people.

"We have done a great thing with the national apology but when you look at our public holidays there are no public holidays that recognise the role and place of Aborigines as the first people of this land."

In the newspaper that this quote was taken from, the following response was left by a reader:

Well John Evans is leading with his big mouth in showing why people are turning away from the church in droves. It is increasingly irrelevant in society at all, and when a cleric can call for one of the most holy days on the Christian calendar to be replaced by something that still divides Australian society today, it simply proves just how out of touch the church has become. Perhaps its time the government took a different view of the workings of our churches, such as removing their tax-free status etc. The church has become a blight on modern day Australia, and we could do much better without them.

Sobering thoughts of what our culture thinks of us when we replace what we are called to do with trying to appease man.

Prophecy 101

Published
by
LayGuy
on March 5, 2008
in Christianity, Digging Deeper and Real Life Stories
. 3 Comments

prophecy.jpg“Do not despise prophecies, but test everything: hold fast what is good” 1 Thess 5:20

I was brought up in a strict religious upbringing. The gifts of the Spirit were a thing of the past - a distant memory of things that don’t happen in this day and age.

Since then I’ve also been exposed to charismatic Christianity where every bizarre occurrence is a “sign” of the gifts of the Spirit and seen people totally deceived by almost occultic events.

Slap bang in the middle of all this was an event I experienced almost ten years ago. I was privileged to attend the Feast of Tabernacles in Israel in the Jubilee year since it’s rebirth. I was part of the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem (ICEJ) conference held in God’s City in 1998.

I was travelling with the Director of South Pacific Island Ministries (SPIM) and his wife - dear friends of my parents going back decades. Every year, they bring along a group of delegates from one of the islands they minister to in the pacific region.

In 1998, I was travelling with a group of Tahitians who spoke only French and wore the most colourful costumes Jerusalem ever experienced. So much so, that they made national headlines. As an “adopted Tahitian”, I wore their national costume and was quizzed by many as to why I didn’t look like the rest of the group. I explained to them that I was just an Aussie travelling with the group.

The conference was held in Jerusalem’s main exhibition centre where you had your typical stalls in the foyer area with Christians and Jews trying to sell their spoils. It was here, during a break that something strange indeed happened.

I visited a stall and started chatting away with the owner who happened to be an Aussie Messianic Jew. Being Aussies, we clicked right away and she introduced me to her husband. Although he was a Messianic Jew also, he would have fit right in with the Hells Angels - such was his demeanour.

Almost right away, he asked me if I wanted to hear a message from the Lord. Thinking he was a little “charismatically” strange, I had no choice but to accept this invitation to hear from God from the Messianic bikie dude.

Before he went on his “Godly inspired spiel”, he asked me to look at his arm.

“Nice tatts”, I said as gawked at all his tattoos splattered all across his arms.

“No. Look at the hair on my arms”, he said pointing to hairs looking like someone threw a bunch of Viagra on his upright hairs all over his arms.

“So you have a lot of static electricity on you. Must be the carpet in this place”, I replied thinking to my self that that was a good line.

He walked over to someone standing near by and I saw his hairs fall down onto his arm. He walked over to me and they rose again. He repeated this one more time and declared it was I causing this.

Before I could say, “OK, maybe it’s me with the static then”, he told me that God had a word for me and if I was ready to hear it. OK by this stage, he had my attention and I wanted to hear what he had to say. And this is what he said:

“This is what the Lord says to you. I am going to use you as my tool first in your church and then in all the churches in Melbourne”.

And then he turned and walked away leaving me kind of shell shocked as to what all this meant. I think he knew I was from Melbourne in that his wife introduced me as a fellow Aussie. But still his words resonated within a deep part of me - something totally strange to experience.

Anyway, breakout finished and it was time to go back to the sessions. Next I went to a Bible Study session and took a seat in the back row and was reading my bible waiting for the session to begin when this lovely little old lady came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder.

“Can I pray for you?” she asked.

“Sure. Go for it”, I answered still a little bewildered by what the Messianic bikie dude had just said. And so she placed her hands on my head and started to pray - in tongues.

Something in my spirit started to feel really awkward as she got more aggressive in her prayers. So I asked God the following, “Lord if this is something from you, please let me understand. But if this is of the enemy, put a stop to this right away.”

All of a sudden, she took away her hands from my head as if she got some kind of electric shock and scurried away looking back at me totally shell shocked. As you can imagine, my weird day just got a little weirder as I tried to gel all this things together and determine what on earth was going on.

That night I was talking to my friends from SPIM - Vic and Elsie Sclatter and I told them as to what happened. In sobering Godly wisdom, they explained to me what might have happened.

If the bikie dude was true in what he said, then I was to experience more dramatic spiritual attacks as I was now a marked man. Evil is always looking out for the means by which God will advance His Kingdom and now this knowledge was known to all.

I took this advice seriously as these guys had planted over 100 churches in the Papua New Guinea wilderness and have experienced demonic attacks modern science would fail to rationalise. What freaked me out more then that was that they openly state that there is more demonic activity in modern Melbourne than they experienced in PNG.

They asked me to commit this to prayer and wait on God.

As for the little old lady, they flat out mentioned that I had cast away a direct demonic attack on me by calling out to God when I felt totally strange during her “prayer’. This seemed to align itself with what they said about the bikie dude incident - that I would now be open to spiritual attack.

They also mentioned to keep guard on my spiritual walk in the coming years and that I may be open to more attacks as the enemy now knew God’s method of action in my area.

Well if it was just mere coincidence or fulfilled prophecy, I cant say. But since then my walk with Jesus took a battering and I have barely managed to keep it alive. I have struggled with sin more then ever and have had illness ruin my life on many fronts.

But I still remember the events as if they happened yesterday. Ten years on I still wonder what they meant and would love to see them played out in my life. Not so I can get a big head, but that God could choose me, of all the disgusting people on this earth, to bring forward His Kingdom. What an honour to work for my King!

Like when Mary must have buzzed out when the shepherds came into the manger and told them what the angels have said about her baby (Luke 2:8-20), I too treasure these things and ponder about them in my heart. Not that I’m going to give birth to the Messiah, but that He may choose me to fulfil a very specific purpose in His Kingdom in my home city that He decided to reveal to me in His earthly city of Jerusalem.

Lord if this was your word back then, may I not find peace until I achieve what you have set me to complete. Guide me Lord. Today. More than ever. And may I not despise this prophecy but test to be proven true.

Being All Things For All People

Published
by
LayGuy
on February 28, 2008
in Christianity and Digging Deeper
. 1 Comment

multimedia2.jpgBeing human in the western world these days makes you a prime target for visual and audio assault.  It seems as if every moment of our day we are exposed to media.  Be it advertising, TV, music, computers, books or radio.

Try a little test for me and see how long you survive in a day without succumbing to some form of media.  You won’t last very long.  Media assaults our brain with information almost all of our waking hours.  We are saturated by it and some of us, myself being a prime candidate, can’t live without it.  Even as I sit here typing, I am away on a business trip and have my iPod blaring away while I sit typing away on my laptop. We live our lives as a by product of being totally assaulted and being “made alive” by our senses constantly being bombarded by noise.

And then we have the audacity to ask someone to sit still and listen to a stranger to preach to them for an hour or so on a Sunday morning talking to them about a concept so foreign to them that they simply can’t understand nor wish to engage in.

No wonder it’s getting harder to engage people these days. Modern western society has a mass form of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and going to church to listen to someone preach to them is simply “so yesterday” that the whole concept of Church is dead before it even begins.

We need a paradigm shift on how we deliver the timeless message of the Gospel.  In a society where all visual and auditory senses are bombarded with such high frequency, our timeless message is being triaged to the “irrelevant noise” section of society’s mindset.

It’s ironic in a way that the most important message to get out to people is the one that most people can’t even register.  The reason for this is that the delivery of the message is still stuck in ancient times - a preacher talking.

What I propose is that we deliver the message of the Gospel using increasingly multimedia methods.  The world screams images, video and sound?  Fine.  We need to do the same.  The world is becoming increasingly online?  Fine, we need to do the same.  The world is delivered information in bite-sized snippets (albeit cleverly crafted)?  Fine, we need to do the same.

Paul, even in his day, had insight into all this:

“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” 1 Cor 9:19-23

The gist of the above is, “I need to connect to people where they are in order to get the message of the Gospel out in a way they can understand.” This may well mean, getting rid of all denomination talk, getting rid of ‘Christianese talk”, shelving your KJV bible and popping open The Message and sharing it with someone, replacing the organ in your church with a drum kit.  And the list can go on.

There is nothing wrong with any of the above.  But when we act like this in front of people who don’t believe in Jesus, we look like whackos.  And whacko’s we are not. We have been entrusted with the Gospel of Jesus - the most wonderful news mankind could here.

But one area I think the Church needs to excel in is in the area of relevant and engaging multimedia which assaults the senses just as well, if not better, then the typical stuff we are exposed to every day.

How many times do you watch “Current Event” shows talking about how TV commercials tend to be louder then the programs?  Truth is that they are not louder.  They just pack more information in their allotted timeframe and bandwidth and our brain registers them as being louder.

As the multimedia guy at my church, I’m going to pursue a more vigorous multimedia approach to what we do.  Then our message will be on a level playing field to what our people hear and see everyday.  And maybe, just maybe, our voice is heard a little more.

Of course, all this cannot compete with the power of God as He decides to reach out to people.  But this has been tugging on my heart for a while now and I believe I have a roll to play in reaching the masses by becoming “all things to all people.” After all, Paul did the same thing.  I often wonder what his missionary style would be in our culture today.

By going to the core of society in Athens and addressing the philosophical leaders in Acts 17, he went to the core of society’s influence. These days, media influences people more then they care to admit.  So that’s where I aim to go. 

A practical example of how this plays out is having media presentations at church, hyped up with music/sound and lyrical content delivered fast paced and with loud volume. We compete for the attention of souls bombarded by the same things from people who only want their money. 

We want these people to want Jesus.  We owe it to our King to “be all things to all people” and if that means stepping out of our comfort zones to contextualise the Gospel to modern society, so be it.