Articles about Discipleship
I am writing this as an appeal to my fellow Advent Christians who personally hold to the full deity and humanity of Christ in his one person but who do not want to challenge those in our ranks who have no conviction regarding this teaching or who actually oppose it. Before I make the particular appeal let me state some assumptions and offer two points for you to consider.
The aim of this post is somewhat narrow. I won’t attempt to comment on the entirety of the Ephesians passage that follows and contains what some scholars call a household code. What I want to challenge is the commonly accepted interpretation of Ephesians 5:21 that claims that Paul is teaching that there is to be mutual submission in a Christian marriage of both the wife and the husband to one another.
I encourage you to enter the conversation or start one. Do you have ideas on how to serve our local homeless communities better? Share your lessons. Are you struggling with the implications of your theology regarding your fellowship? Someone else probably is, too. This is why many of us write: to share our thoughts, express our doubts, and introduce ideas that could be helpful to the brethren. This is how we dwell in unity.
We often confuse the law, what we are to do and even what Christ calls us to do or commands us to do, like follow him and love one another, with the Gospel. For example, Jesus in Mark 8:34 (and elsewhere) said to the crowd and to his disciples. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” This is the call to be his disciple. Yet this is not the Gospel. To be his disciple you and I must heed what Christ’s commands here but this is still not the Gospel. Yet, without the Gospel we could not heed this command.
Have you considered that Jesus goes to a cross so that you may go there too? I don’t mean that only metaphorically or spiritually or any sense other than physically. Jesus went to a cross so that you could be nailed up there beside him.
I have a confession to make: I find it a challenge to pray. It is not something I can easily do. It is hard also to be consistent in praying daily and regularly throughout the day. Prayer cannot be formalized or systematized. For me prayer exposes my weakness and at times my raw unbelief but maybe that is not so bad. If we come to prayer with a sense of our sufficiency to pray then are we indeed praying? When we pray it seems that at the core of what should be occurring in our minds and hearts is just how needy and messy we are.
How does one train for godliness? Consider the athlete with whom the Apostle Paul compares the Christian life, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Corinthians, 9:25).
For some time I have been fascinated by the way the Apostle Paul lays out most of his letters. In a letter like the one he wrote to the Roman believers he lays out the Gospel using the indicative mood. That means that everything he writes from 1:1 to 6:10 is descriptive. There are no imperatives or commands given until 6:11, where he urges his readers to consider themselves to be, by God’s grace in Christ, dead to the rule or dominion of sin. Yet, he really does not give more detailed directives until he comes to 12:1-2.
Therefore, I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable act of worship; and do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind for the purpose of you being able to approve what the will of God is, the good, the pleasing and the perfect.
As you read the New Testament there are times when it seems that the Law is viewed negatively and there are times when it seems to be viewed positively. We can use Paul’s letter to the Romans to make this point. He sees the law as something under which the unbeliever is in bondage. Those who come to faith in Christ are not under law but under grace (Romans 4:14, 7:6). So in some sense the law is something from which we need to be delivered or set free.
We don’t hear much about heroes today. Perhaps folks are too jaded and cynical to think that there are public figures worthy of our admiration for their character, their accomplishments, and for their contributions to humanity. Heroes are those who step up to challenges. They don’t back down in the face of struggle or difficulty. They inspire others. They do the right thing even when it costs something. They are folks who are not so much “me” centered as they are “we” centered. They are people who give us something to aspire to; folks whom you want your kids to admire and emulate.
God looks at you and says: "You are my dearly loved child and I am well pleased with you." Or God says, "I am your Father and you are acceptable to me." We can be that bold in proclaiming God's favor to us as those who have been justified by faith in Christ.
One of the challenges at Community Church of Westfield is developing leadership within the church. When Jean and I came to Westfield, there was one person that was holding things together. She is a dear lady and was doing everything in the church. But I knew that was not enough; to build a church, it would take developing leaders.
Recently, I read a book by serial church planter Peyton Jones. Towards the end of the book, he takes aim at church leaders, church members, and those who have been part of “the machine” for years. He writes, “There are millions going to hell, and statistical evidence points to the numbers increasing with every passing year…
As we look at the figures on churches in America across denominational lines, we see most groups are losing ground. We are currently averaging more than three churches per year closing in the Advent Christian denomination. However, numbers are not the most important thing to consider. The real heart of ministry is sharing the message of Jesus Christ with those who desperately need to hear it.
As we come to the end with this last post we have covered the problem of fragmentation by…well, fragmenting the problem into four parts and offering suggestions for how to put humpty dumpty together again in each section (see previous posts Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and the end of the article for a link to the full pdf). This final contribution will not rehash or summarize the previous posts, but will instead add a more practical tool to tie the major concepts together.
My evangelism professor in seminary was Jack Miller. He not only believed the gospel, he loved the gospel. He was gospel-centered and from that center he overflowed with joy and love. He was also a risk-taker. He believed the words of Paul in Romans 8 that if God has given us his Son then we can face death all day long. We can take risks for Jesus’ sake and Jack did. I am not sure how anecdotal this account is but I was told that he would often go up to a complete stranger and introduce himself by saying, “Hello, I am Jack and I am a recovering Pharisee.”
Keeping the Gospel in front of you daily is even more important than making sure you eat three square meals a day. Continually reminding yourself of your standing before God in Christ is essential if you are going to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ in such a way as to render loving obedience to Him. All our striving to live according to the Law of God apart from a functional faith in the Gospel is both frustrating and fruitless.
It was another morning like any other. By some titanic feat I managed to get myself out of bed to plod my way downstairs for breakfast. Breaking past the stairwell wall and coming to the railed banister, I could see my mom reading her Bible in the recliner as she always did, her little dog cuddled up beside her. It was just another day, same as any other.
Some people treat church like a Hollywood gala we see on the news. The mission of those in attendance is to impress and get attention. Some treat church like a concert. Their mission is to attend, enjoy it and go home. Is that all the church is meant to be? I think church should be like my dog treats me or other guests who come into our home. I am the most important thing to my dog, and he has no greater joy than to be with me; to have my attention, and for me to love his attention…
For about one hundred years Advent Christians relied principally on two colleges to prepare church leaders.
While formal theological education was not universally valued in the churches, the schooling model was believed by many to be the primary incubator for people called to ministry. Training leaders in theological colleges (and seminaries) was entirely consistent with accepted practice in the wider North American church, reflecting an educational paradigm highly regarded in the last half of the 19th century into the present era.
If you’re like me you love the Bible. I love to be around other people discussing the Word, what it means, how it affects our lives and everything about it. I recently watched a Francis Chan Sermon that truly convicted my heart.
The dechurched are those who once attended church at least once a month and now attend church services a couple of times a year or less. Why did they leave? What will bring them back?