One way or another?

One way:
   You have sinned and therefore you are condemned to eternity in the lake of fire to suffer alone forever!  If you do not fall on your knees and beg Christ for forgiveness and repent of your ways you are doomed!  God will punish you for your sins with eternal fire! You should fear for your soul!  Your only hope is in Jesus dying a horrible death on the cross for you!

Or another:
   God created you to love you and has a plan for you.  It is only in following that plan/design that you will find peace, joy and fulfillment.  Although you fail and have done bad things God offers you redemption and restoration through Jesus.  If you will surrender to Him and follow a process of discipleship He will lead you into a life greater than you imagined and that life will only get greater when you move into eternity!

Both are accurate to a point.  Both are truthful.  Both have scriptures that can back them up.  One focuses almost exclusively on the after life and the other on this life with how it leads into the after life.  Both call for change - one through fear and one through love.  One was used as the primary focus of outreach until Jesus came and used the other nearly exclusively.

Some say change that is not driven by fear is not lasting.  The bible says perfect love casts out fear.  We see people conquer fears and encourage that very thing all the time.  For love of family, country, freedom, etc. we will move past our fears to do what we want or think we need to do.  Fear will only motivate change for a short period of time - until we find something else more motivating.  Sin can be very enticing and will easily conquer fear.  Love changes for a lifetime and is not easily conquered by selfish sin.

What will your focus be in your life? Fear or love?  What about in how you reach out to others?  Whether in business or evangelism what will you use?

Have to...

Read an interesting book today that had a lot of great principles in it.  Through out the book the authors say Christianity is about relationships not religion.  I enjoyed the content of the book.  I was very surprised to get to the end and find in the final chapter some interesting references.  In a chapter on "have to" vs "want to" or "need to" we should recognize that in our relationship with God there are things that are 'have to's".  I completely agree with this - there are many things that over time in our growing relationship with the Father we come to realize are "have to's".  In referencing this concept an illustration is made regarding churches seeking "want to" people or developing "want to" people for going to church and in that illustration clearly references activities The Bridge has done in the past.  Referring to "some" churches the authors say these churches are putting in Tattoo parlors and hosting MMA fights to attract crowds and then preach a feel good message saying that God loves everyone so no one has any responsibilities.  I would like to address this assertion being made pretty clearly about The Bridge and what we do.  First I want to say I know one of these authors and have met with him several times seeking his guidance, help and input.  I admire the ministry he does and believe in him and the difference he has made.  I find it disturbing that in all the times I have talked to him he has never had any negative comments about our outreach ministries - it was only in a book that it comes out he thinks our ministry lies about what the Bible says.  My thoughts...

In this chapter on the "have to's" it almost sounds like the authors are contending that church attendance is a "have to" and should be taught that way - that it is compulsory.  I believe, as the bible says, we are not to forsake the gathering together of the believers and that we "have to" be a part of that for our own good.  As a believer if we do forsake the body it will not be long before we drift and then forsake God even - it is only when we gather with the body that we are pointed toward God and together live out the purpose God has laid out for us.  My understanding of what Jesus did in His ministry here on Earth was to not impose, as the Law had done, a list of "have to's" - rather it appeared that He would draw crowds to Himself with miracles, food and association with the unwanted and through their "wanting" to be there rather than "having" to be there He would build relationships.  In time many of the people began to realize that not only did they "want to" follow Him they "had to" follow Him because anything else would lead to destruction.

Much like Jesus' and Paul's ministry we try to be all things to all people that by all means we might win some.  In the assertion that we have a Tattoo parlor and MMA fights to draw the crowds so we can tell them they have no responsibility to do anything because God loves them there is some serious fact checking that should have been done.  We have never hosted any MMA fights although we have had people use a part of our building for martial arts, self defense and MMA training.  This was not done to draw crowds to hear preaching either - this training was not done on days we were preaching.  The reason we allowed the building to be used for this was to meet a need for some people needing a location to train in and to build relationships with them.  The Tattoo parlor was not opened to draw crowds either nor was it near our auditorium that we used for services.  It was in our office space and it was opened to meet the need of a young man that came to us as an atheist drug addict and found Christ.  He was a tattoo artist by trade and wanted to create a safe environment in which to practice and for people to come to that wanted tattoos without all the sin themed decorations.  As we were building this relationship with the artist and found him in need we felt it was the right thing to do to offer him some office space we were not using anyway so he could follow the leading of God.  Although the news made a big deal of this and did not report everything accurately it was a very powerful way we reached into our community and many new people were exposed to the Gospel because of this.  If the authors had taken the time to contact me and ask a couple questions about this they could have found these truths out and realized we were not attempting to do what they accused us of.

One thing that the authors did get right was we are seeking "want to" people and developing "want to" people as far as attending the church services goes.  Our ultimate goal is to help these "want to" people see that they "need to" attend and even realize they "have to" for it is only in Christ that they will find the words of life.  We have seen this happen to many people under our ministry.  I believe the authors have seen this transition in people at their churches as well.

I wanted to post this because of their inaccurate attack on our ministry.  I am really disappointed that someone I have looked up to and sought advice from would so blatantly attack our ministry and portray it as a "feel good" ministry that calls for no change in people's lives.  This same author has had attacks and false accusations made against him for the non traditional activities he has done so it surprises me that he would make such accusations without fact checking or even have the guts to say something directly to me in the several meetings we have had where I was looking for advice and help.  Anyone that has questions regarding what we do and why can feel free to contact me.  Everything we do is biblically based and if I am shown where we are in error on anything we will change it immediately.

Everything happens for a reason

I hear this said often - "Everything happens for a reason".  This statement is usually left open ended.  It is absolutely true, but there is no help from that statement until the "reason" is discovered.  Where I hear this most is people referring to God as the reason.  It is meant as a comforting statement - like when a loved one dies someone may say this and even follow up with "God wanted your loved one with Him."  This is not comforting to me and it is bad theology.  What we see in the Bible is that everything does happen for a reason and often that reason is because of our decisions - sometimes it is weather or timing or another person exercising their free will to inflict pain upon you, but usually because of our choices.  This statement is the other side of the coin to the "Devil made me do it" statement.  It happened for a reason is a way of saying this is Gods fault without coming right out and saying that.

For the last 6 months I have gone through some very difficult times, I have caused serious pain in others lives and damaged relationships.  It would be so nice and easy to say it all happened for a reason, like God wanted this to happen so the good things that are happening now could come to fruition.  I cry foul - I can directly link most of the bad things that have occurred over the last 6 months to decisions I have made.  Some of those decisions were terrifyingly stupid and bad, some were the best decision I could make at that time with the information I had.  Regardless, I refuse to lay the blame at God's feet for my poor choices.  The flippant "everything happens for a reason" answer does not satisfy, is not accurate in its implications and prevents learning from our mistakes.  What I will lay at His feet is the credit for bringing good out of disaster, for healing people and relationships and for restoration.  That all happens for a reason too - because He loves me and you!

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.