Archive for the 'Church' Category

The Message for the Broken

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bcg
on 22 February 2010
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Jesus' teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsider Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can mean only one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren't appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we'd like to think.

Tim Keller, The Prodigal God, p.16

Thanks to Custard for the great quotation.  I suppose this question has haunted me for quite a long time.  We are quite convinced that our preaching is faithful, that we are saying the right things, encouraging the right things, but the churches I have known have almost universally been precisely not irreligious.

Is it that we don't know how to encourage the right kind of practice?  Or is it more that there is a tendency to want to think the 'correct' things, rather than go out of our way to do the hard, un-selfish, loving and caring things?

I love things to be in order, to be just so, but that is precisely not how Jesus operated, and it can so easily lead to the kind of situation Tim Keller describes.  I find Keller's words hugely challenging.  They seem to me to be to be vital for the church's mission, yet at the same time almost impossible to put into practice.

Because, to me, I want a church for the broken, not a church for the religious.  I feel like a broken man, not a religious man, and somehow that means I don't feel like I belong in the church – the very place I should belong, in the arms of God.

Communities of Grace

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bcg
on 30 April 2009
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Over the years I have frequently thought about the relationship between the uncompromising ethical stance of much of the New Testament (not least the Sermon on the Mount), and salvation as the free gift of God, through the cross, while we were still God's enemies.

With the help of various theologians (John Calvin, Karl Barth etc), as well as sustained reflection on the Bible (not just the New Testament) I have come to think of it in terms of a response.  We are given a free gift of live, salvation through Jesus Christ, which we must live out.  We must live a life worthy of the calling we have received.

But of course the context of that life is always that it is a free gift.  We didn't earn it in the first place, and we can't mess up so badly that there is no way back.  We can't lose our salvation in Christ through our failure to live it out.  There is nothing we can do that is so bad God won't forgive us—if we repent.

And right there is the crux of the issue.  We can stuff things up terribly, but if we repent and turn back to God, he will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  Although our sin cuts us off from God, there is always a way back, through the cross, if we repent.

Unrepentance I think comes in two guises: first, refusing to repent of what we know is sinful behaviour (this is the most obvious kind); second (more subtly perhaps), failing to acknowledge that we are simul iustus et peccatore, at once justified and sinner, and that we do mess things up.

The first is perhaps more common in our individual lives, the second much more common in our communities.  In many (evangelical) churches I have been privileged to be a part of, there has been an unspoken culture / expectation that actually things are all right for everyone.  Maybe that's my perception, I don't know, but that's how I've felt.

When the culture is like that, it is very difficult for individuals to acknowledge serious failures.  Yeah we can all say a confession, I haven't put God first, that kind of stuff, but when there is a serious problem, the sense of failure is so strong that it is difficult to tell anyone, because you are worried they will judge you for not being a good enough Christian (or whatever).

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that.  Often in churches it can feel as if we are expected to be perfect, so when things aren't it is very difficult to talk to anyone about it.  Somehow we need to create an atmosphere in which failure (privately and publicly), while not accepted as 'right', is not condemned or judged, but accepted as 'real' and worked through, drawing on God's grace and power.

We need to create communities of grace (I'm sure I've not made that phrase up, but I don't know where it's come from), which accept sinners, but challenge sin and encourage an atmosphere of repentance and forgiveness.

We need not to expect people to be perfect, or even close, but to be real about the messed-up world we live in, that things don't always work out, that people get things wrong, that we all do, just some of us more obviously than others.  People need to be aware of all that, so they feel comfortable and able to be real and honest, to share where they are really at, so that sin can be dealt with in God's way (by repentance and forgiveness) rather than being allowed to fester within our congregations.

A Good Sermon?

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bcg
on 30 March 2009
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What makes a good sermon?  We are having a preachers' meeting this evening at church, and at our staff meeting this lunchtime we discussed the kinds of things we look for in a good sermon.

We suggested things like:

  • Bible-based
  • Applied, relevant to everyday life
  • Good illustrations
  • Authoritative
  • Passionate
  • Appropriate length (!)
  • Transformational / affirming / encouraging
  • Having a clear aim

To which I would add:

  • Prophetic
  • Challenging
  • Prayerful and well-prepared

These are things that we do not look for:

  • Too long
  • Personal (not-so-humble) opinions
  • Like a lecture (all teaching, no application)
  • Emotionalism
  • Inappropriate language

To which I would add:

  • Boring (!)
  • Lots of jokes – we should try to make people smile, but they are not in a comedy club, they are in a church

I can remember being told that every good sermon needs exposition, illustration and application.  The question of length is a bit tricker.  How long is too long?

Actually, I think that depends on the preacher.  Some preachers can preach for 10-15 minutes, and it becomes painful.  Others can preach for 30 minutes plus, and you don't notice the time go by.

Personally, I always aim for 20-30 minutes, because I think anything less than that only really scratches the surface of what you can say.  It enables you to have much more flexibility in what you are saying.  However, if you can't hold people's attention for that amount of time, you need to preach shorter sermons!

Application is the thing I find most difficult when I'm preaching, and the thing I pray about most when I'm preparing a sermon.  Apart from the most difficult passages, I generally find the exposition part easier.  Organising the sermon so it is faithful to the passage, and also applied and relevant, is a difficult skill.

Passion is something I love to see in preachers.  I love to see it when the preacher has obviously wrestled with a text, when it has obviously spoken to them during the week.

The clear aim is something I used to write for each sermon I wrote, but I've got out of the habit.  I guess it is always in the back of my mind, but it is helpful to write it down – especially if you have to prepare a shorter talk – because it helps you to keep on topic!

Illustrations can be hard – but they don't need to be long, nor do they need to be funny.  Word pictures are much more effective than a joke – no matter how funny – that has been shoe-horned to fit the context.

The prophetic element is interesting, but when I pray while preparing a sermon that is always a big part of what I ask God for.  For me, the prophetic ministry is exercised primarily through biblical preaching.  So I wouldn't call myself a prophet, but I do try and make my sermons prophetic.

Finally, should sermons always seek to change the congregation?  Probably – but we don't want to give people the impression all the time that they are not good enough.  I know, I know – they aren't 'good enough' – but there is a place for encouragement and affirmation of the great truths of the faith, which doesn't challenge people to change their behaviour but helps renew our minds.

I could write a lot more about preaching.  But I'll stop there.  500 words is quite enough!

Calvin on Ceremony

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bcg
on 3 February 2009
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Writing on John 4.20, Calvin writes that error lies in 'the confusing of different ages':

Later generations devote themselves to the examples of the fathers, not thinking that a different law of action has been enjoined on them by the Lord.  We can ascribe to this ignorance the huge mass of ceremonies with which the Church under the Papacy has been buried.  Immediately after the beginning of the Church they began to sin in this way from a foolish and undue affectation of Judaism.  The Jews had their sacrifices; and therefore, that Christians also might not be without a show, the rite of sacrificing Christ was invented. ... This madness later broke out more strongly and spread beyond all bounds.

Therefore, that we may not fall into this error, we must always heed the following rule: Incense, lights, sacred vestments, altar, vessels and ceremonies of this kind were formerly pleasing to God; and the reason was that nothing is more aceptable or precious to Him than obedience.  We must therefore regard what He enjoins us in the Gospel, so that we may not unthinkingly follow what the fathers observed under the Law.  For what was then a sacred observing of the worship of God would now be a wicked sacrilege.

John Calvin, John 1-10 (trans. THL Parker), Paternoster (Carlise, 1995): p.96-97.

The Anglican Church tries to hold together those who lean towards a more Roman Catholic practice of worship, and those who lean towards a more Protestant/Reformed simplicity.  Many of us regard this as acceptable, that ceremony is a 'matter of indifference'.

However, here Calvin sees it to be a matter of great significance.  He argues that if we 'unthinkingly follow' what was commanded of our fathers, and in so doing ignore what we are commanded to do, we are guilty of 'a wicked sacrilege'.

Calvin's argument is that the practice of ceremony, with 'Incense, lights, sacred vestments...' etc, belongs to a former time, and is not now commanded.  In fact (if I understand him correctly) it distracts us from what is enjoined in the Gospel, and so is a matter of disobedience, not indifference.

New prophecy?

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bcg
on 10 August 2008
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We had an interesting comment by the preacher in church today.  He was saying that whenever he preaches, he tries to have something fresh, something new and prophetic to say.

Now I whole-heartedly agree that preaching should be prophetic.  It should challenge people, show them what God is saying to them through the Bible, feed them with truth, and encourage them in their day-to-day lives.  And above all, it should point to Jesus.

Now, my understanding of 'prophetic' is not that it is all about predicting the future (although it often does include that).  Much of the prophecy in the Old Testament consists of the the prophets reminding the people of God's promises, to bless them if they are faithful, and to punish them if they are not.  Granted, that included predicting the consequences of their disobedience, but essentially they were calling the people to remember God's word and his promises, and to be obedient.

Now that will sometimes include something 'new'.  That is, a fresh way of putting something, or teaching people something they didn't already know.  However, my reflections on the Old Testament prophets is that very often the people did know what they were being told, they were simply choosing to ignore it.  Or, they needed to be shown or told something they already knew in a different way.

I think that preachers should not be too worried about having something 'new' to say, but having something faithful to say – faithful to God's word.  The challenge comes not from what the preacher comes up with that is new or fresh, but from the word of God itself.

All this, the preacher tonight would agree with – his comment simply set me off on a train of thought!

GAFCON

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bcg
on 7 July 2008
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With all the troubles in the Anglican Communion at the moment, and ahead of the Lambeth Conference in a few days' time, a number of archbishops, bishops, clergy and laypeople gathered in Jerusalem for the first meeting of what they have called GAFCON: Global Anglican Future Conference.

The move has met with many different reactions, from condemnation to welcome with open arms.  One of the best articles I have read about it is by Andrew Goddard on the Fulcrum website.  He recognises the various strengths and weaknesses of the GAFCON statement, and suggests various things that now need to happen as we move forward.

Perhaps one of the most important things that has come out of the GAFCON meeting is what appears to be a firm commitment to the reform of the Anglican Communion, rather than the creation of an entirely new communion.  How this works out in practice, as Andrew Goddard says, remains to be seen, but it is encouraging that GAFCON has aligned itself in that direction.

Let us hope that the Lambeth Conference finds a genuine and helpful way forward.  The current Anglican crisis must be dealt with one way or another, or everyone's hand will be forced by extremists, from either side.

Christian freedom

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bcg
on 15 May 2008
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I read this verse this morning:

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

1 Peter 2.16 (ESV)

The kind of freedom won for us in Christ is not that we can do anything.  The word translated by the ESV as 'servants' is actually douloi, which perhaps should be translated 'slaves'.

Too often we exercise our 'freedom' for our own selfish gains, citing 'freedom of speech' or 'it's a free country' as our reasons for doing so.  Instead, Peter tells us we should use our freedom for good, to serve God (and other people).  We have been freed for obedience, freed to serve the one we were made to serve.

In Gone (by U2) Bono sings these lines, some of my all-time favourites:

You hurt yourself,
you hurt your lover,
but then you discover
what you thought was freedom
just was greed.

We have been freed so we don't have to be greedy any more, we can live unselfish lives.  If only more people used their freedom in the way it was intended, rather than to cover up evil.