Offering

We debated when we were starting The Bridge as to whether we would have an official offering time during service.  Looking at scripture there did not seem to be any precedent or demand for it to be done there.  With that in mind we looked into what offerings and tithes were all about - is it only about getting the support for the church?  If that is all then maybe having drop boxes for people is all we needed.  As we dug into it though it seemed that offerings were so often much more than just supporting the ministry.  It was an act of worship and trust in God.  As we meet in corporate worship at our weekend connections we are singing songs to God and about God stating our love and trust of Him and hearing a message from His Word to apply to our lives.  Where better to put action to our words and show our love, trust and buy-in to His ministry than during the service.  Our concern was that in our community churches are looked at as some money making scheme so we did not want to talk about money much.  What we found was that by not addressing the concept of 10% giving, first fruit giving and giving cheerfully we would be stunting peoples spiritual growth.  We decided to include an offering time during the services and to make it clear that their giving was between them and God - to only give as they felt led and to do it cheerfully.  We have a standing 90 day challenge for givers that want to step up to the Tithing plate - giving 10% of their income trusting that God will provide enough that they can make it on the other 90%.  This challenge is to try it for 90 days straight and if you can't see God working in your life and providing enough just tell us to give you your money back.  We will give you back you full tithe that you gave over that 90 days with no problems.  We trust that God will work such miracles in your life that you will be excited to drop that offering in the basket each week.  We believe we can not out give God and told us to test Him in this.  My God is bigger!

Apology Series

Kicking off an Apology Series - I'm a Christian and I'm Sorry...  This will be to apologize for the way the church has treated people, twisted the Gospel and been hypocritical.  Hope you can join us for these messages and bring someone that has been hurt by the church.  

Conformity Rant

Romans 12:2

New Living Translation (NLT)

² Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Romans 12:2

New International Version (NIV)

² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

I hear this verse used so often to slam what some person or church is doing.  There is an accusation with it that is saying if we follow the patterns of the world in outward appearance then we are conforming to the world.  Early on in my christian journey I noticed a trend in the church - we were about 50 years out of phase with the world in many key areas.  We would claim it was because we were not conforming to the world.  What I noticed was we were staying out of sync just enough to think we were not conforming.  What was ok to do in the world but bad to do in the church 50 years ago was now ok to do in the church.  We would look back and think how we, the church, just were missing it back in the day, but I had to wonder what we would think in the future about what we were teaching today.  Were we teaching based on good biblical theology or just reacting to current trends?  Looking back 100 years to what the church was condemning it really looked like under the guise of not conforming to the world we were condemning many trends solely on the basis that they were new with no real biblical reasoning - much biblical pretext and twisting, but no solid biblical basis.  

My thoughts on conforming to the world:  I think the scripture passage here in Romans makes it clear that the conforming had much more to do with the way we think than what we do.  The same actions or similar actions with different thinking become very different things.  I like to use extreme examples so here is one - a person seeing someone they hate pulls a gun and shoots them not realizing that person was about to murder another person and accidentally saves that victim vs. someone seeing a person about to murder someone and therefore pulls a gun and shoots the attempted murderer to save the victim.  Same actions and same results, but due to the thinking seriously different situations.  The apostle Paul demonstrated this often in how he looked at things. Referring to idols he made it clear that the theology taught was not we are to serve only one god, rather that there is only one God and therefore idols are not real.  With that in mind he said meat sacrificed to idols was not unclean for us to eat because idols are not real, but out of consideration for some other people's thinking there would be times it would better to not eat that meat and there would be times it would be better to eat it.  

When we have a transformation by the renewing of our minds or changing the way we think, there will be many areas of our lives that do not look different, but are different.  From holding a door for you so I look good to holding a door for you because I care about you.  We always want to focus on the outward appearance because it is so easy to judge.  Jesus kept correcting that thinking with the pharisees.  Many missionary movements have been forced to get to the core of what they believe because of a focus on the outward appearance.  To be effective they found they needed to stop telling the natives they needed to dress a certain way and teach them about Jesus' love and offer of salvation within the native's context.  Maybe even change the way they (the missionary) dressed to fit in and reach the natives better.  

Applying this to some things I have heard lately:  Using rock music for worship is wrong because it is conforming to the world and has a rebellious beat - wow, the style of music is wrong and the beat, which changes from song to song, is rebellious?  What if God transformed our way of thinking that we could to take any art form and use it to glorify Him?  What if God was more concerned with why we did things than what we did?  Is there a difference between Eve eating the fruit and being force fed the fruit?  If it is only the action of eating the fruit that matters then there is no difference, but if it was about what the thinking was then absolutely there is a difference.  The opposite holds true as well, what if Adam had manned up and slapped that fruit out of her hand?  Would she be innocent of disobeying God?  Not according to Jesus' teachings - He said to choose it mentally was to be guilty of it.  

Another one is how we dress for meetings of the church.  Dressing casually has been called conforming to the world.  Although there is no recording in the bible of Jesus or any disciples changing into fancy clothes for their meetings some want to say we are to change into our finest for these meetings.  What if God changed the way we thought and we started putting on our finest attitudes when we went out into the world - not keeping the best to ourselves but giving it away as the body of Christ just as Jesus did while walking His ministry here on earth?  What if because of a change in our thinking we bought nice clothes for others that needed them to interview for a job instead of for showing off to our friends at church meetings?  

What I have witnessed in the church today is we tend toward being reactionary to the world.  This enslaves us to the world.  If we are always looking to be different than the world to prove our non conformity we are still tied to the world.  Why don't we be salt in the world and let it react to us?!?  Why don't we stop being lazy and really understand what we believe ("then you will learn to know God's will for you") so we can live as we should independently of what the world is doing?  They may wear those styles to fit in, avoid criticism, make a statement and we may wear the same clothes because we like them, we want to be relatable or it was given to us as a gift.  Right is right and sometimes the world gets things right because they see it works - that is why good business principles should be incorporated into running local bodies of worshippers.  Not to copy the world or conform, but because those principles are right and only work because God created them.  God sent Jesus in the fullness of time according to the bible - the first time in history the world was so interconnected that the teachings of Jesus could be spread so far so quickly.  Was it conformity when Paul used the Roman roads to plant churches?  

I have seen this particular passage used so many times to criticize what a church or Christ follower is doing it saddens me.  Every time something is done differently there are those that want to tear it down rather than examining it to see if it is ok biblically.  The critic wants to go to scripture to prove a presupposition rather than to learn the truth.  There is a story attributed to Lincoln something like this: when a cabinet member said to pray that God was on their side Lincoln corrected him and said they needed to pray they were on God's side.  That is how we need to approach criticism of others - look to see where God is on the issue to the best of our understanding not look at where we are on the issue and prove God is on our side.  Important to remember also is that the bible does not address every issue.  Is nose picking wrong?  There are some that will try to prove the bible says it is and some that will try to prove the bible says it is ok and both would be wrong.  The bible does not address every thing we can conceive of nor was it meant to.  It does address every principle we need to be concerned with.  Ask if picking your nose at the table with others present is ok - Jesus said Love God and Love others as yourself so if you are grossing others out by doing that then you should not pick your nose at the table.  Not because it is wrong rather because of the principle of loving others.  

I guess that is all I have for this late night rant.  

Relationship vs. Rules

Reading some critiques of the spoken word poem by Jefferson Bethke -http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1IAhDGYlpqY - and they are bringing up some issues regarding the movement in some areas of churches focusing on the relationship with Christ not the rules to live by.  I have often talked about the focus of Jesus' message is a relationship with our Creator through His Son.  It seems in the New Testament we see the story of the church unfolding as a group of people connecting with God despite their weaknesses and failures.  A story that continues to reveal failures even of some of the leadership as the church develops (Peter rejecting gentiles, corrections by Paul of church leaders messing up, Paul admonishing Peter for pushing the gentiles to follow ceremonial laws, Paul and Barnabas separating over disagreement, abuse of the communion time together, etc.).  It is also a story of a people that after connecting to God through Jesus start to find significant life change and begin a journey of following more and more of the standards laid out for Christian living - not because those standards or rules provide salvation, rather because they work to bring fulfillment and peace!  Following Christ is a growing trust in our God that reveals to each of us that the rules and standards we feared and ran from really are patterns of living that provide real health - spiritual, emotional, mental, physical, relational and social health.

In the NT there were some that wanted to discard works and rules completely and they were corrected as well as the ones that wanted to discard grace.  My point in saying relationship vs. rules is based on the many churches I have been involved in preaching and teaching a self righteousness based on their rule following.  It seems Jesus' point in explaining we are guilty of violating the law just by our thoughts is that we can not do this - it is only in Christ we can be proclaimed righteous and be in a process of transformation into God's original intention for us.  A second reason I focus on the relationship aspect is that the predominant view of the non-believer is that following Christ is all about following rules.  Since scripture teaches we can not follow the rules without Christ (Romans 7) it seems very reasonable to begin with the lifesaving relationship first as our focus and watch as a person's trust in their Savior increases over time.  So when I say Relationship vs. Rules I am referring to what we begin with in this journey.  Did Jesus tell us to follow His commands? Absolutely!  But it is also taught that we can only follow His commands by faith and we are saved by faith through grace alone.

There are groups that are moving toward a Universalist theology that all will enter heaven and be saved regardless of faith or works.  Those of us that are focusing on the Relationship aspect as primary are not automatically saying our actions do not matter.  At The Bridge our 3 fold mission is based on Jesus' 3 primary commandments - Love God, Love others, Disciple all.  Since He said all of the Law and Prophets hang on the two greatest commandments to love God and our neighbor we should be pretty safe pursuing those two commandments. His final words to us before ascending into heaven were to disciple all nations so that would be our primary purpose of being left behind.  Hopefully this clears some things up. If you find this clear as mud please respond with clarifying questions.  Thank you.

update

Excited about what God is doing!  We are seeing peoples lives and relationships healed, families restored, new relationships with God through Jesus and many becoming disciples and disciplers!  We have another Baptism on Feb. 12th at both services.  We had our first meeting of people interested in the new church plant, Chain Reaction, last Sunday.  In meetings with people I hear regularly about how The Bridge has helped them connect to God in a way that has brought real life change and spiritual growth.  One person at a time we are helping change Genesee county for the better!

Helpful people

It is interesting that when we were trying to start The Bridge we went to many traditional churches looking for help, but most I could not even get in to see the pastor.  We even had a big article in the paper about us starting this new church, yet we had no one show up to encourage us or help us from other churches.  Now that we have opened a tattoo shop in our building we get all kinds of people wanting to help us understand how wrong we are.  Again I will say most of the comments we have received have been positive, but the negative ones I find humorous.  It seems to me if the same amount of energy was put in to helping churches start we would have a revival sweeping the land - the only "help" I have gotten was to correct me rather than actually help.

We have hundreds of new christians growing in Christ that were won by us being all things to all people so we may win some.  We have dozens of people that say they were Christian, but were not being discipled or growing that are now challenged regularly and are growing in Christ.  We have people serving that are not even welcome in most churches - they don't look right, smell right, talk right for most churches.  The people that make up The Bridge, "Bridgebuilders", know they are loved by Jesus because they have felt His love through His people and now they are loving others as Christ loved them.

Another interesting thing is about the "helpful people" that want to school us in proper churchiness.  It is no wonder the church in America is in such a bad state.  While I am accused of picking verses out to support what we do the naysayers literally pick one verse completely disregarding the immediately previous verse to "prove" their point.  There are so many complaints about us using our building for "non-sacred" events and referring to the building as the church it is saddening.  The most basic of sunday school classes teaches the church is comprised of the people which is called the body of Christ.  We are sorely uneducated in the basics of biblical theology.  I completely respect the people that disagree with what we are doing and how, but don't try to twist the bible to defend your emotions.  One of the first questions I want to ask of those that want to criticize is what are you doing to expand the kingdom?  A quote I have read is something like this "I prefer the way I am doing things to the way you are doing nothing."

I know the excitement about this most recent move at The Bridge will die down.  There may be other things that happen to create excitement in the future, but we will not fall to the temptation to be sensational for publicity.  I am thankful that God is moving in Genesee County, not just through The Bridge, but many churches are reaching the lost here.  I am grateful to be used by Him.  I am thankful for the responses of those that disagree with us and promised to pray for us.  I am particularly grateful for all those that believe in what we are doing and are jumping in to make a difference.

Church

I have continued to be given interview offers this week.  I am excited about the opportunity to share what we are doing and talk about the relevance of the church today!  The majority of negative feedback we have received, which has not been nearly as much as the positive, has been based on the mistaken notion that the building used for meetings for discipleship and worship are special.  I hope to challenge that thinking and the church in America to stop wasting the resources God has given us by letting millions of sq ft of prime space sit empty all week so it is clean and available for use on Sunday.  Pray that we make a positive impact on the many people that will continue to hear about what we are doing and maybe start to see the church as relevant rather than hateful.

Tattoos

Wow!!!  Front page article about The Bridge having a Tattoo Parlor in our building has turned into quite the media frenzy.  Few things about this - We did not open Serenity Tattoo for publicity, rather to change lives beginning with the artists, their clients and apprentices and spreading from there.  Many positive posts from all walks of life - love to see some "getting it."  Some negative posts that fall into 3 categories - 1 being Leviticus 19:28 which says not to cut yourselves or make permanent marks - 2 being Jesus clearing the temple in Matthew and 3 being the church is a place for worship not tattoos or other stuff.

The first one is really simple - Lev 19:27 also says to not cut the hair at your temples or trim your beards and that chapter contains many cultural/ceremonial prohibitions based on what the local idolaters were doing and trying to make sure the Israelites were distinguishing themselves from them.  Anyone that wants to say that one verse is a prohibition on tattoos must also condemn ear piercing, shaving, and many other currently acceptable practices.  Using that verse to condemn tattooing is pure ignorance of good bible study.

The second issue of the temple cleansing is a reference to Jesus running the money changers out.  Again poor bible study leads to this thought.  The money changing and market place going on was people telling the worshippers that they had to exchange their money for temple money at a markup and their animal sacrifices for better animals at a markup before they could worship.  This turned the temple into marketplace of thieves.  We are not telling people they must give money to worship - we actually tell first time attenders to not give.  Second issue on that is we have no temple, Jesus changed the covenant from the old temple covenant to a new covenant of the Holy Spirit and direct communion with God through Jesus' sacrifice.  The church is not a building or location it is the body of Christ comprised of his followers/disciples.

This also addresses the third issue of the building being a place of worship.  For far too long the church building has been considered sacred when Jesus made it clear by tearing the veil from top to bottom at His death on the cross there is no physical sanctuary for us to meet with God in.  We now come directly to the Father through the Son.  The building is just a building that God has entrusted to us to be stewards of.  The church has been very poor stewards of the property God gives it by leaving it empty and unused during the week.  The building should be used 24 hours a day to serve the community and bring glory to God (which occurs by loving people as well as worshipping God).

The only other real issue raised is linked to the temple cleansing thing and that is that we are in this for money.  All the staff and most of the bridgebuilders laugh at this!  Our per capita giving is a third of most dying churches due to the financial position of most of our attenders.  My low mileage car has 168,000 miles on it, the house I live in with 6 people is 900 sq ft., none of our staff get a regular salary, we barely pay our utilities bill each month and keep the heat low except during services, we paid half down on the building because an outside donor gave us the money to do that.  We live at the edge of financial brokenness because we trust God will provide and he always does.  Our only debt right now is on the building we just purchased and that will be paid off within 4 years.

Hope this clears some things up.  Love the attention this is getting because it is already drawing some unreached people in to check it out.  God will get the glory.