Freedom – again

         I have been questioned on why I believe freedom is so important.  Why do I focus on personal freedom and free will in my thinking theologically?  Especially when we are called to be slaves of Christ and are reminded we were bought at a price (Christ on the Cross) in the bible.  My thinking on this really boils down to some simple things. 

         If we do not have free will then nothing matters.  What we do we do because either God makes us or the deterministic qualities of the laws of physics make us.  Either way nothing matters because we have no say in it.  Without free will this writing is determined to be done outside of my control. Without free will there is neither evil nor good.  All is neutral.  There is no choice. 

         Biblically we see choice as one of the first gifts God gives to His creation called Man.  Everything we see in the bible points to God creating us to be in relationship with Him.  He could create all the creatures He wanted that had no choice except to love and worship Him, but a real relationship requires the ability to choose.  There is great risk with the ability to choose, but this is also the only way to get the reward of relationship. 

          When I look at the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, sinless man dying to redeem sinful man, I have often wondered “Wasn’t there another way?”  As a Sovereign God He could have ended sin simply by taking away free will.  With no freedom to choose we can not choose to sin.  When I look at the other options this is all I see in regards to salvation of Man and the restoration of the relationship (which is another big conversation). 

         A question asked is “Is salvation based on God’s sovereign will or is it dependent upon Man’s freedom to choose God?”  I would say both.  God’s sovereign will is to grant free will to Man not imposing His will upon Man, rather allowing the freedom of choice.  Man must choose to receive what God is offering through His Son on the cross.  The key point in this is that Salvation is not based upon Man’s actions; it is based upon Jesus’ action on the cross and through His resurrection.  The only point of influence that Man has upon Salvation is that of choosing to receive it or not. 

         Final thought on this is regarding being asked why it is such a big deal to me that free will be upheld in my thinking theologically.  It seems to me that free will is the biggest crux of the whole story of the Bible.  It is the gift that sets us apart from the rest of creation.  It is the abuse of that gift that has led to all of our problems.  It is the submission of that gift to God’s will that leads us out of our problems and it is the use of that gift to receive what Christ did for us that we find Salvation!  If God’s goal was sinless Man then the removal of free will was the way to go, but God chose the more difficult path of redemption in order to maintain the gift of free will He started us off with for the sake of having a real relationship with Man.  On top of all that the repercussions of a lack of free will are unthinkable – it truly means no personal responsibility.  Anything goes! 

         

First Fruits

We have been going through a series called First Fruits.  This has been all about priorities.  What do we do with the first and the best of our time, talents, materials, for our family and with our honor?  We so often offer up our leftovers to the most important things in our lives and give our very best to that which is not so important.  The only way to do this is by being intentional about what we do with the first and best in our lives.  In order to not live a life of regret we need to live a life of priority!

Last Year

Phew!  I have made it through my 40th year!   Got to say that was one of the roughest years I have had since I was 13.  No real health issues this last year - on my 30th I got to go to the emergency room and get my appendix removed.  Many things went awry this last year, unfortunately mostly due to me.  That has only made it rougher.

Here is what I know: God is bigger - bigger even than a bad year!  Never, never, never, never, never give up!  This too shall pass.

I am looking forward to this next year - God has sustained us and we have reorganized so that we are better prepared for the blessings God is going to pour out.  This next year will be a banner year for ministries at The Bridge.

Love the people we minister to.  Pray for those that hate us.  Trusting God through it all.

Freedom

Interesting article on Personal Sovereignty.  http://www.huna.org/html/perssov.html As we celebrate this 4th of July it is good to remember what it is all about.  The colonies were finding that they were being treated by the King as servants with no inherent rights.  Whatever the sovereign King said they had to do.  At this point in history there had developed a lot of theory and discussion about free will/personal sovereignty and how to best govern in light of that.  As the colonies suffered under varying oppressions they protested but the government/King made it clear even protesting was no longer ok.

As the leaders of the colonies met to discuss this and develop a new government, personal sovereignty was forefront in their discussion.  How to govern yet respect the rights of individual sovereigns was a delicate procedure.  Essentially what was developed in our constitution was a government of the people, by the people and for the people that recognized individual sovereigns have complete freedom of life and being to the extent it did not infringe upon the freedom of life and being of other individuals. Basically my rights end where yours begin.

These concepts were tremendous for this time in history.  Primarily through out the history of society governmental structure was designed around royal sovereigns and non-sovereigns(serfs, peasants, peons, servants, slaves).  Although this was pioneering work in self will/ free will and was history making the people involved were still human and subject to self delusion.  What is interesting is that the documents that were developed eventually led to freedom for even those that the founders left in a state of slavery.  The statements made in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution are so self evidently true they have stood the test of time and created the oldest existing government to this day.

A quick religious note regarding free will: I am very attached to free will and freedom from a spiritual, biblical perspective.  Looking into free will in the bible we only have to go back to the very beginning and then forward to the very end.  Adam and Eve were granted free will in the garden and this is amazing because it means the rolling back of God's complete sovereignty to allow humans to thwart His will.  This is a significant gift!  Move forward to Jesus on the cross and we see that rather than take away free will that we so clearly demonstrated we can't handle Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for all of our sins - past, present and future.  The removal of free will/ personal sovereignty would have eliminated sin and the need for Jesus' death on the cross.  Redemption is only needed for those that can fall - those with the freedom to fall.  If freedom is that important for God to maintain in our lives it seems we should fight to maintain freedom as much as possible keeping the primary mission of sharing Jesus' redemption with others in mind.  Greatest use of free will is seen when we are told to use it in every way to reach others with the Gospel - not forced to rather asked to freely choose to do for the good of all.

Enemies of freedom:  Any philosophy that would remove personal sovereignty.  From the victim claim of the christian claiming a sovereign God chooses their every action to a governmental form that enforces by threat of harm or imprisonment the sharing of gains from personal endeavors.  I have heard many times from christians that socialism as a governmental structure should be the goal of all christians because we see it practiced in the early church.  There is a huge difference between the early church people freely sharing of all they had so that none were in need and a government or church forcing the sharing of all we have against our free will.  Another interesting phenomenon seen in Acts and any time in history socialism or communism are used is that eventually productivity drops to dangerous levels.  The early church addressed this when the churches were instructed that if you don't work you don't eat unless the inability to work was clearly demonstrated.  Russia was a classic illustration of the demise that enforced sharing brings to a people.  Enemies of freedom are any group that would take away a persons freedom to choose their own path in life and freely make their own choices so long as they do not prevent others from exercising that same freedom.

This Independence Day celebrate the freedom that you have to celebrate!  Take an honest look at the direction of our country and decide if you will stand for freedom or the promises of a free ride that ultimately can't be kept!

Maintenance vs. missional

In a talk on being missional and avoiding the slide into maintenance as a church at a GHC conference I had several thoughts:

We just came out of a very difficult time with our building and finances - really still coming out of that time.  Recognizing the desperation of the situation many have said that we need to focus on ourselves right now and nothing else - that is maintaining ourselves. We also had people telling us to be maintenance focused even when things were going great because we were young and needed to keep that growth going.  Although that is a reasonable and expected view point regarding our situation it forces us to ask the question of when is it ok to be maintenance focused?  When we first start up?  Anytime we get into a desperate situation?  Until we reach a certain level?  The contention at this talk was that we have to be missional focused at the very beginning, during every trial and through to the end.  It is especially important in the beginning because you are creating your DNA for the church. If it is started with a maintenance focus saying when we reach a certain level then we will be missional then the maintenance focus will become the DNA of the church and it won't matter what level you reach - it won't change.

I was told early on by some of my coaches that for the first 5 years your church is the mission and put everything there.  I have come to realize that doing that will establish a DNA we don't want.  If the right thing as a church is tithing to missions outside your ministry then it does not matter how old your church plant is or how stable - right is right.  If serving other ministries with your resources is the right thing to do as a church then it is right from birth to death.  The concept of tithing is trusting that God provides and He will honor our trust in Him by providing enough to be able to tithe.  Is that not true in the baby church?

None of this is to say either/or.  It is a battle against the natural slide toward maintenance - not to avoid doing maintenance all together, rather to stay on track being missional.  Maintenance can not be avoided - we have to feed ourselves, shelter, pay our bills etc.  Just like personal tithing of time and money though we have to plan intentionally to be mission focused or naturally our focus will become totally on self.  To maintain or grow a healthy church we must take a portion of our resources and time to be outward focused, missional - giving to something that has no way of giving back to us in any tangible way.  As we are approaching our 4th birthday at The Bridge we must continue to be missional and even increase that effort.  From planting other churches to tithing to our partner GHC to starting inner city ministries we must do more than we are capable of doing - that is when we see God show up.  He does not need to show up when we are doing what we are capable of - it is only when we are beyond our capabilities that God steps in and works miracles.  Scary? Yes! Faith based? Absolutely!

Some thoughts...

The "church" is so often known today for what it is against - much like the religious leaders of Jesus' day.  Although biblically there are things we are "against" or definitely don't condone or support it seems that Jesus' focus was more on what He was for.  Jesus seemed to make it pretty clear when He summed up all the law and the prophets with the 2 commands to Love God and Love Others as Yourself what His focus is, what He is "for".  All the other laws, rules, regulations and standards are for the purpose of fulfilling those 2 commands.

With that in mind at The Bridge we focus on what God is for - loving Him and loving others.  What does that look like? We accept people right where they are - physically, emotionally, spiritually and otherwise.  We try to show that acceptance by removing some of the subtle messages sent like wearing suits to church meetings sending the message you have to dress in nice expensive clothes to be accepted.  We also challenge our prejudices - how do we treat a heterosexual couple that are living together and sexually active, but then how do we treat a homosexual couple that are in the same situation?  Is God more ok with the sins we are ok with and not ok with the sins we are uncomfortable with or even hate?  Do we only use the most highly educated and well spoken people to welcome and speak from the stage sending a subtle message to many people they are not good enough?

The great difficulty in all this is how do we help people move forward and grow while still showing acceptance?  It is not easy!  How do we say "God loves you right where you are, but He wants you to change"?  We try by one key difference in that statement - "God loves you right where you are and He wants you to change" and that statement continues with "for the better by His strength bringing out the best in you according to the way you were originally designed!"  Our society today has made this difficult because in the church culture and American culture we are starting to think that if you are for me then you are ok with everything I do and if you are against anything I do you are against me.  This thought process forces all of us in society to wear masks to try to show we do care - we pretend we accept everything everyone does to prove we accept them.  This fakeness is taking a toll on us.  It is ok to not accept what someone does yet still accept them.  If that is not true then there is no way to train a child up without hating the child until it is in perfect compliance.  Unfortunately some people act that way with their kids.

The bible says Heaven's road is straight and narrow and we often take that to mean strictness in obeying rules.  At The Bridge we have found it is a straight narrow path that we balance on of following true and accurate biblical theology, teaching the same yet loving and accepting people right where they are.  There are several great examples of this done by Jesus in the bible.  When He runs into the woman at the well that was living with a boyfriend and had 5 previous husbands He shows what His focus is.  He loved her, wanted to help her and was also clear about knowing what the wrong was in her life.  Jesus offered to her freely the water of life without compromising the truth of the bible.  That is our goal at The Bridge - to lead people to the water of life found in Jesus not by hiding the truth, rather by showing the truth in love.

Will you be better known by what you are against or by what you are for?  What subtle messages do you send to people in your life by`what you do?  Do people leave a conversation with you knowing you know there is "sin" in their life but still go get others to talk to you because they knew you loved them and had truth in your words?

The Return

We have permanent occupancy of our building on Corunna Rd now!  We still have the building on University Ave also.  Our Corunna Rd campus is open for use for the northern half of the building - 16,000 sq ft.  We are excited to be back!  God has opened doors for us that we could not have.  It cost us over $60,000 to get back in and that was all raised from outside donors.  Our regular tithes and offerings have continued to go for the regular bills of the church - utilities, mortgage, insurance, consumables, etc.  Our attendance is less than half of what it was before our building got closed down and offerings are also less than half.  As we rebuild our ministries that were done out of this building we are confident that more people will be reached and our offerings will increase to the point we can cover all the costs of the ministry we do.  God has been good to us and we know He has a plan to use The Bridge to reach our community.  Many thanks to so many volunteers that put in over $40,000 worth of labor to help us get the renovations done - the contractors that gave some of their labor for free - the stores that donated materials - all those that have prayed for us and the few donors that gave us the money to pay for the rest!