“The gospel by its very nature produces growth. We all know that. However, there are three very important implications of this simple idea.
The first is that the growth of the gospel happens in the lives of people, not in the structures of my church. Or to put it in terms of our opening metaphor, the growth of the trellis is not the growth of the vine. We may multiply the number of programs, events, committees, and other activities that our church is engaged in; we may enlarge and modernize out buildings; we may re-cast our regular meetings to be attractive and effective in communicating to our culture; we may congratulate ourselves that numbers are up. And all of these are good things! But if people are not growing in their knowledge of God’s will so that they walk ever more worthily of the Lord, seeking to please him in all things and bearing fruitin every good work, then there is no growth to speak of happening at all” (p.82)
I am still working through the thoughts and emotions that have dwelt inside of me after a week in Haiti. While my wife administered medical care, I was able to minister to hundreds of Haitians with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, most of them think they’ve heard it, think they know it, and think they believe it. The content of our conversations revealed something quite different. I will unpack what I mean by this in future posts – last Sunday I preached a sermon entitled “Haiti, The Church, and the Sovereignty of God”, so I will share some of my notes. For now, please take some time to watch the video I created to show our congregation a bit of what we experienced.
The unbelieving world would likely scoff at such a question: How important is regular church attendance? “Going to church each Sunday is about as important as scrubbing the baseboards in my closet every week,” an unchurched person might remark. And to an unbeliever, that makes sense. Weekly church attendance won’t be a priority to anyone who does not love Christ.
But for believers, the children of God who have had their hard hearts completely changed, the regular meeting of the Lord’s people for the purpose of worshipping Christ and fellowshipping with each other should be something that they desire. Unfortunately, due to a variety of different practical, philosophical, and cultural trends and rationales, regular church attendance isn’t a priority for some professing Christians.
The following is a helpful excerpt from a pamphlet written by Pastor Earl Blackburn entitled, “Church Attendance: Is It Important?” I pray we will all posses gratefulness and love for our local body of believers and be deliberate and faithful in our commitment to the Lord through the church.
Being faithful and consistent in attending a true church of Jesus Christ and worshipping God is extremely important; more important that you may realize. Irregularity and unfaithfulness in attending church conveys a certain message and produces definite short-term and far-reaching effects. Failure to assemble yourself with the Lord’s people at all stated meetings for worship, unless you are sick or legitimately hindered:
1. Reveals a cold heart and lack of fervent love to Christ who instituted local churches. (Revelation 2:4 & 3:20)
2. It shows disregard for the apostolic example and command of God’s holy Word. (Acts 2:41ff; Hebrews 10:25)
3. It robs you of blessing and help for the days ahead.
4. It cheats the brethren of blessings and help they would receive from your mutual ministry to them (Thessalonians 5:14; Hebrews10:24, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.”)
5. It grieves the Holy Spirit who dwells in each believer individually, and in the church as a whole.
7. It can influence others, by your poor example, to become unfaithful, lazy, indifferent and selfish. (Many young Christians have said, “Brother or Sister So-and-So do not come regularly, why should I?”) You are a letter known and read by all men. (2 Corinthians 3:2, 3a)
8. It discourages brethren in the body with whom you are joined.
9. It is a poor testimony to unbelievers who see you inconsistently. (see John 13:35; 1John 3:13,14)
10. It demonstrates your lack of vision for the future of that particular church of Jesus Christ in which you are a member. (Jeremiah 29:10,11)
11. It makes you a covenant-breaker in your commitment to God and to the church where you are a member.
12. It is a dreadful and empty step toward backsliding and apostasy (study Hebrews10:25 in its context of verses 19-39).
13. It shows disrespect for the best and the brightest day of the week, Sunday—the Lord’s Day, the day on which the Lord Jesus rose from the dead.
(By: Christopher Powell) Right now, my home country is hosting the Winter Olympics. This is a source of pride for our nation and I am happy to see people expressing thankfulness for the blessings we enjoy as a country. American broadcaster Tom Brokaw did a good short overview introducing Canada to Americans and highlighting our unique relationship. If you missed it, it is worth viewing to learn some basic facts about the country (HT: Challies):
Brokaw’s piece is, of course, well done and very positive and I don’t know a Canadian that would have much objection to it. But that doesn’t make it entirely accurate. For one thing, as Brokaw noted, Canadians are known by reputation for their “humility.” One of the very unusual results of hosting the Olympics this year is that there have been spontaneous outpourings of Canadian patriotism during the games. Naturally, this is mostly going on in Vancouver (with reports of people spontaneously breaking into our national anthem on local transit buses) but rallies have been held around the nation, including 2,000 miles away here in Toronto. But “humility” is not the way that I would generally characterize our nation’s spirit today or in the past. The Bible describes humility in Philippians 2:3 this way: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” The Bible’s concern is not so much what a person does on the outside, it is discerning what is going on in a person’s heart. The biblical definition of humility is what one pastor has memorably called “blessed self-forgetfulness.” The Biblical definition does not describe my country’s approach to humility.
It is true that Canadians rarely outwardly demonstrate a superior attitude. And, when we do, it usually ends badly like the recently controversial “Own the Podium” program we instituted in 2005 with officials brashly claiming that we would “win the Olympics” with the highest medal count in 2010 if we just pumped enough money into the program and pushed every advantage we might have as a home nation sponsor. However, some in the foreign press have openly speculated about the disastrous results of limiting foreign nation access to our Olympic sites as a contributing factor in the death of the young Georgian athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili, at the beginning of the games.
The fact is, even with our much celebrated reputation for “humility”, Canadians are just as prone to sinful arrogance as the next country. In our hearts, we are not “self-forgetful” – in fact we are, more often than not, upset that we are forgotten by the world. Perhaps in response to this feeling of inferiority, part of our national identity has always been a feeling of superiority to Americans. We know more about them than they know about us and as a nation we often stereotype them as backwards, brash and arrogant. In short, we sometimes act like snobs. Our national arrogance is ultimately just as bad as other countries, it’s just more acceptable (or that’s what we tell ourselves) because it’s better hidden. Back several years ago, one of the more popular segments on a Canadian comedy show was called “Talking to Americans.” On the show, Canadian comedians would pose as media reporters and come up with the most outlandishly false statements about Canada to see if they could catch American ignorance of Canadian or world affairs. One of the most famous ones involved an interchange with then Governor George W. Bush telling him that Canadian Prime Minister Jean “Poutine” had endorsed his campaign. The joke was Poutine is not the Prime Minister’s name – it is a Canadian national fast food dish consisting of gravy-smothered french fries with melting cheese curds.
It pains me to say this, but, this negative nationalistic attitude towards Americans was part of my own attitude before I went to the USA to study. Did I meet Americans who filled the typical negative stereotypes about Americans? Yes. But I also met many men and women who put me and many Canadians I know to shame in their Christian love, service and attitude. By spending time, living, working and worshipping with them, God graciously showed me the sinful and arrogant attitudes in my heart and, I’m thankful to say, by God’s grace, I have repented of them. In God’s providence it has also helped inform the way that I pastor our own congregation which has a majority of members who were not born Canadians. We focus on shared identity in the body of Christ. This does wonders to help us overcome cultural attitudes and language barriers in the church.
So what’s the point of all this? Well, I believe that as proud as we may be of our nationalities, as Christians we first must recognize the dangers of any pride, even the pride of nationalism and sports. Our hope is not in kingdoms or princes (Psalm 146:3) or in man’s work in general. Why? Because it is hopelessly tainted by sinful hearts – Jeremiah 17:9 applies to all of us: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” So what do we do then? How do we approach the Olympics? Well, in general, I believe that it is fine to enjoy healthy competition married with good sportsmanship. But it is important to keep these things in biblical perspective – while bodily training is of some use it is the spiritual training that is to be most valued (1 Timothy 4:7-8). So competition in sports is fine and good, but the ultimate expression of competition for the Christian is to outdo one another in showing honor to the other (Romans 12:8-10). That is why the Olympic stories that I enjoy the most are those that show grace and humility in victory or defeat. As we watch these Olympics and celebrate the achievements and hard work of our nation’s athletes, I hope what we will most appreciate are these same qualities. And, as each of us engage in “running the race” (2 Timothy 4:7) here in our own daily lives may we bring our heavenly Father the glory as we demonstrate humility and grace to one another ourselves.
Chapter six is entitled, The Heart of Training. Here the authors make the distinction between skill based or competency based training and relational training which focuses on character building rooted in sound doctrine. This quote should give you a flavor of the chapter:
“In relational training, the hearts of both trainer and trainee are exposed. As we train minister’s of Christ’s word, we don’t measure progress simply by the performance of tasks, but by the integrity of the heart. Does the trainee genuinely love God and his neighbour? Does he truly submit to Christ’s word? Unguarded, spontaneous words and actions expose the heart of the trainee — the good, the bad and the ugly. In the cut and thrust of life and ministry the relationship is deepened, and the trainer gains insights into the character of the trainee” (p.76)
I was raised in a Reformed Baptist church. So as far as my taste for music in worship goes, I am an avid admirer of the hymns. From before I could read I was singing hymns. I sang them not just at church, but at home, at school, and in the car. I knew the hymns and loved them from a very young age—their words and tunes. And I used to think that by definition, all hymns were at least a hundred years old. But I was wrong.
Over the past few years I have noticed a resurgence of sorts in some circles of evangelical America: A forsaking of the shallow, rock-driven, “Jesus-is-my-boyfriend” praise choruses and a return to the deep, theologically-substantive, time-tested hymns. Some groups have sought to put old words to new music (“contextualizing??”), while others have just written their own original songs.
This hymn below, based on a selection from The Valley of Vision, is a hymn that was written by Bob Kauflin in 2006, and has become one of my favorites.
O great God of highest heav’n,
Occupy my lowly heart.
Own it all and reign supreme,
Conquer every rebel pow’r.
Let no vice or sin remain
That resists Your holy war.
You have loved and purchased me,
Make me Yours forever more.
I was blinded by my sin,
Had no ears to hear Your voice,
Did not know Your love within,
Had no taste for heaven’s joys.
Then Your Spirit gave me life,
Opened up Your Word to me
Through the gospel of Your Son,
Gave me endless hope and peace.
Help me now to live a life
That’s dependent on Your grace.
Keep my heart and guard my soul
From the evils that I face.
You are worthy to be praised
With my every thought and deed.
O great God of highest heav’n,
Glorify Your Name through me.
(By: Eddie Goodwin)
