The Cruciform Life

Little Hearts

2008-07-23T11:18:00.005-05:00

Little eyes of blue and locks of gold
Who would ever know that her home was cold?
Her daddy's gone, and mommy just cries
What is the truth when you've grown up with lies?

Daddy, Daddy, come home tonight
What do you see in that other lady?
Mommy, Mommy, hold me tight
Will your love be yes, no, or maybe?
Will somebody love me, 'cause I can't find it here
I'm surrounded by this uncommon fear

Who's gonna love little hearts?
Who's gonna love the little hearts?

A little boy is bruised, both his head and his heart
Where will it end? Why did it ever start?
Alone in a corner, uncovered and cold
No excuse for abuse of the body and soul

Daddy, Daddy, why do you fight?
And why do you drink away your life?
Mommy, Mommy, why do you cry
for your battered son when you're a battered wife?
Will somebody hold me, 'cause I won't be held here
except by this uncommon fear

Who's gonna love little hearts?
'Cause little hearts have great big hurts
Who's gonna love little hearts?
Who's gonna love the little hearts?

Sixteen years old, a child carries her own
The boy she loves has left her all alone
She's made her choice, but the baby she'll lose
Never has a voice, nor a chance to choose

Daddy, Daddy, why do you run?
Do you understand the damage you've done?
Mommy, Mommy, somebody cares
and there's a good home for me out there
Somebody will love me, someone has room
Should a mother's womb become her baby's tomb?

Who's gonna love little hearts?
'Cause little hearts have great big hurts.
Who's gonna love little hearts?
Who's gonna love the little hearts?

Jesus loves little hearts.
Jesus died for little hearts.
Shouldn't you and I love little hearts?

[©1989 Jimmy Davis]

Making The Bible Real To Our Kids

2008-07-21T19:42:00.005-05:00

A challenge to parents from the The Shepherd Press Blog:

Moses wants the Israelites to take the word of God to heart....He urges them to be dominated by God’s word. He warns them against treating these words as idle, empty words. The words of God are life to the people of God. Parents, this is where it starts. Is the word of God your life? Before you can expect your children to respond to God, you must lead the way by treasuring the words of God as your very life. God’s word is life (Deuteronomy 8:3).
Parenting without this dependence upon the Word will leave you exhausted and your children exasperated. In the next few posts we will look at the contrast between idle words and words of life in parenting. If you are going to effectively shepherd your children, God’s Word must be life to you.

Read the whole post here. It's worth it...and it looks like this is the start of a series.

The Church Is 'God's Demonstration Plot'

2008-07-20T14:11:00.003-05:00

"The church is missionary by nature because God has sent it on a mission in the world under the leading of the Spirit. It is to bear witness to God’s redemptive reign. Just as God is a missionary God, so the church is to be a missionary church. It is to live fully within the active, redemptive, kingdom reign of God in the world as it is led and taught by the Spirit. It is to be a new community that expresses both the intent of creation design and the aspirations of re-creation as it anticipates the new heavens and new earth…

Growing up on a farm in rural Iowa provided me with and object lesson for understanding the church’s being missionary by nature. Each county in the state employed an extension agent to work with farmers. These extension agents were usually university graduates with degrees in agriculture. As new farming technologies, seeds, and fertilizers became available, the extension agents introduced these to farmers. My dad, like many farmers, was often hesitant to accept the innovations. One of the methods extension agents used to gain acceptance of these innovations was demonstration plots.

A strip of land, usually along a major roadway, was selected as a demonstration plot, where a new farming method, seed, or fertilizer was used to raise a crop. It was not uncommon for farmers to remain skeptical throughout the summer as the crops grew. But there was always keen interest in the fall when the crop was harvested. Invariably, the innovation performed better than the crops in the surrounding fields. By the next year, many farmers, including my dad, would be using the innovation as if it had been their idea all along. The church is God’s demonstration plot in the world. Its very existence demonstrates that His redemptive reign has already begun. Its very presence invites the world to watch, listen, examine, and consider accepting God’s reign as a superior way of living.”

- Craig Van Gelder, The Essence of the Church, pp. 98-100

Reformed, How I Love To Proclaim It

2008-07-18T08:46:00.006-05:00

Ray Ortland has a pastoral word of exhortation for folks like me who are theologically (and happily) Reformed:

I believe in the sovereignty of God, the Five Points of Calvinism, the Solas of the Reformation, I believe that grace precedes faith in regeneration. Theologically, I am Reformed. Sociologically, I am simply a Christian – or at least I want to be. The tricky thing about our hearts is that they can turn even a good thing into an engine of oppression. It happens when our theological distinctives make us aloof from other Christians. That’s when, functionally, we relocate ourselves outside the gospel and inside Galatianism...

Whatever divides us emotionally from other Bible-believing, Christ-honoring Christians is a “plus” we’re adding to the gospel. It is the Galatian impulse of self-exaltation. It can even become a club with which we bash other Christians, at least in our thoughts, to punish, to exclude and to force into line with us.

What unifies the church is the gospel. What defines the gospel is the Bible. What interprets the Bible correctly is a hermeneutic centered on Jesus Christ crucified, the all-sufficient Savior of sinners, who gives himself away on terms of radical grace to all alike. What proves that that gospel hermeneutic has captured our hearts is that we are not looking down on other believers but lifting them up, not seeing ourselves as better but grateful for their contribution to the cause, not standing aloof but embracing them freely, not wishing they would become like us but serving them in love (Galatians 5:13).

Ortland's got me thinking. There are all kinds of other good doctrines and practices that I use to elevate myself above and alienate myself from other genuine believers, if not externally, at least in my heart: the practice of spiritual disciplines (especially the ones I practice); philosophy of ministry (Is your church attractional or missional? I have my doubts about those who aren't like me.); size of church ("I'm not into 'big church' anymore" has come out of my mouth too many times); translation of the Bible (You use what?!); style of worship music...and the list goes on.

I'm reminded of that great hymn "Redeemed, How I Love to Proclaim It!" While the distinctive beliefs and practices that I listed above are legitimate for me to have, I must be careful not to love to proclaim my love for them above the Gospel. Think of how odd it would sound to sing...

Reformed, how I love to proclaim it
Reformed by the blood of the Lamb
Reformed by His infinite mercy
Cal-vi-nist forever I am!

[second verse...sounds even worse]
Mis-sio-nal and so happy in Keller
No language my rapture can tell
I know that the right way to do church
With me doth continually dwell

Too often my heart and life are singing "Reformed, how I love to proclaim it!" or "Missional, how I love to proclaim it!" or "House Church, how I love to proclaim it!" Again, these are good values to have and hold out to others, but if I allow my passion for those things to separate me from brothers and sisters who are truly redeemed and love to proclaim it, then I'm guilty of Galatianism. I need to hear Paul say, "For in Christ Jesus, neither [reformed, missional, house-church, etc.] nor [non-reformed, attractional, big-church, etc.] counts for anything, but only a new creation in whom faith expresses itself through love" (see Galatians 5:6, 6:15).

I want the joy and song of my heart to be about the Father redeeming me by the blood of the Lamb so that "His child and forever I am." But, sadly there are still other counterfeit joys fighting to be my song.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.

[HT: Justin Taylor; also read all of Ray Ortland's "Truly Reformed" here.]

Serious About The Gospel?

2008-07-15T07:06:00.006-05:00

I've mentioned before that T. M. Moore sends out a daily email devotional called Crossfigell ("cross vigil") in which he quotes a Celtic saint and a related passage of Scripture followed by his own rich meditation on both. I'd encourage you to sign up to receive this free daily devotional at T. M.'s website My Paruchia.

I thought today's devotional "Serious About the Gospel?" was a great sample to share with you:

His mother in anguish begged him not to leave her. But he said, "Hast thou not heard, 'He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me'?" He begged his mother, who placed herself in his way and held the door, to let him go. Weeping and stretched upon the floor, she said she would not permit it. Then he stepped across the threshold and asked his mother not to give way to her grief; she would never see him again in this life, but wherever the way of salvation led him, he would go.

- Jonas on Columbanus, departing for Bangor, Irish, 7th century

"Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."

- Matthew 10.37-39

For most of us it never comes to this. We're not forced to make the choice between pleasing our parents or wives or children rather than following the Lord's leading in some particular direction. Columbanus literally stepped over his mother to follow the Lord's call to take up the work of the Gospel. In most cases, I suspect, our loved ones are happy, and maybe even proud, for us to engage in our ministry activities. Let us give thanks to God for this and rejoice in His gracious provision. Our deterrents are rather more subtle. But they are just as determined as Columbanus' mother to prevent us from being serious about the Gospel. We love our sleep rather than more time in prayer and meditation. We love our friends too much to risk losing them over the Gospel. We love our comfort, our diversions, our prosperity and ease, and the security of our jobs, and rather than risk any of these, we reserve our Gospel activities for "church" times and place, and we let our spiritual disciplines languish. We're so busy looking for life that we're actually in danger of losing it. The cross awaits us daily, stretched out across the threshold of our door. Many of us give it a pat as we go, like the members of a football team as they leave their locker room for the playing field pat a good luck mantra posted overhead. Others of us step over it, thinking nothing of leaving the cross at home, where, we suppose, it belongs. Yet the cross beckons us to take it up and bear it throughout the day, in every situation, at every opportunity, whatever the cost. When the neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, markets, and other public spaces of this land begin to be filled with cross-bearing believers, then we'll see the kind of revival that followed wherever men like Columbanus journeyed. Let us each reflect on the extent to which we are truly serious about the Gospel and the calling of the Lord.

-- T. M. Moore

Wise Words About the 'Whys' of Suffering

2008-07-15T06:57:00.003-05:00

John Piper on why God doesn't let us in on all His reasons for our pain.

Tim Keller on the difference between theological and pastoral answers to the 'why?' of suffering.

[HT: Desiring God Blog and Alex Chediak]

Franchising the Church

2008-07-14T09:43:00.004-05:00

The Point Blog questions the growing church-franchising phenomenon. (Be sure to read the Wall Street Journal article mentioned.)

According to this article, many independent evangelical churches are copying Starbucks' marketing and branding strategies to expand their congregations, both in the US and overseas. Now that Starbucks recently announced that it would lay off more than 12,000 of its employees and close more than 600 of its stores, I hope this is a warning to these churches that brand or image doesn’t make one successful.

Read the rest of the post here.

A Quest for More: Chapter Three

2008-07-14T07:38:00.005-05:00

Part Four of our Book Study on A Quest for More by Paul David Tripp.

Chapter Three: A Total Disaster

BIG IDEA:

"As his child, when you get up in the morning you awake to a huge kingdom. It courses back through history and extends to before the foundations of the world were set in place. It extends forward in time to endless eternity. It encompasses every location known and unknown, every situation of every kind, every person and every created thing. The goal of this kingdom is the complete restoration of every last thing that was damaged by the fall. You must no longer live for yourself. Grace has led you through the door to something more and better. Grace calls you to shape your living to the contours of this amazing work of restoration." (page 45).

BASIC OUTLINE:

The Fall ruined everything: "What happened in the garden is truly the central catastrophe of human history. It is almost impossible to overstate the hugeness of its significance Here is how big this disaster was (and is) When Adam and Eve fell, the entire cosmos fell with them!" (page 38)

God's original design was gloriously transcendent and cruciform: "People lived in joyful, unafraid, and unashamed community with one another..." and "People lived in heartfelt, loving, obedient worship of God. They worshipped the Creator and managed creation; they didn't give into worshipping creation and trying to manage the Creator" (pp. 38-39).

The present result of the fall is not submission to God and service to others, but the pursuit of self-rule and self-service: "The quest for autonomy will always crush transcendence...Since that horrible moment in the garden, every human being has tended to confuse autonomy with transcendence. The inertia of sin is always away from the Creator and toward ourselves. And let it be known that this is not only the struggle of the unbeliever; it is the struggle of the believer as well. As long as sin still dwells in our hearts, autonomy will war with transcendence" (page 42).

"Because of this there are two things that I must always keep in view: [#1] The ongoing tendency to treat my life as if it were no bigger than my life...Most of us have learned how to celebrate our inclusion in God's great and glorious work, while functionally caring for little that does not directly address us. In doing this we have Christianized our autonomy....even though we are trying to live inside of God's boundaries, we have still manufactured a life where self is at the center." and #2 "We must keep in mind that the fall was a total disaster...it is only when you remember how big the effects of sin are that you will live the way God calls you to live. Here is the logic of living in light of the purposes of God: if sin's devastation is as wide as creation, then the scope of redemption must be just as big. Therefore, we are called to live with the total restoration of creation in view" (pp. 43-44).

SOME FAVORITE (and convicting!) QUOTES:

"We get so excited about the personal benefits of redemption that we lost sight of redemption that we lose sight of redemption's greater goal. Yes, the personal benefits of redemption are an amazing thing, worthy of eternal celebration. But redemption's agenda is not to make our kingdoms successful, but to welcome us to a much bigger, much better kingdom" (page 46).

"Many of you...have settled into a self-focused enjoyment of the good life. You are enjoying what grace has done to your marriage, your partnering, your friendships, and your work life. It has been all too easy for you to miss the point that you were rescued from what was very bad--not just to be part of something good, but amazingly, to be part of something very great." (page 46).

Christian Bloggers as Prophets

2008-07-10T08:38:00.012-05:00

If you've spent much time surfing the Christian blogosphere you've probably noticed that a blogger's bent is often toward what's wrong with the Church and her preaching, practices, worship, and witness. Some have noted that Christian bloggers can be the cyber equivalent of Monday-morning-arm-chair-quarterbacks, second-guessing the ministries and messages of front-line Christians on the field while they bask in the glow of their monitors in the comfort of their mom's basement. I'm sure there is some of this extreme Church-bashing going on out there, but perhaps there is room for rants and raves that are redemptive. A chapter in Dr. Michael D. Williams' Far As The Curse Is Found recently convinced me that the mission and message of Old Testament prophets might also (or should) apply to many Christian bloggers:

Prophets minister in times of crisis, sounding the alarm, warning Israel of impending judgment whenever it has failed to seek the Lord, calling it back to its mission in the world...The prophets are complainers. They rant; they rave; they threaten. The prophets rail against Israel's worship, the monarchy, the cultic institutions, and the general lifestyle of the people. They aim their criticisms at the habits and presumptions, the complacency and waywardness of Israelite society.

A student once asked me why the vast majority of my criticism in lectures targeted the contemporary church and Christian culture rather than the sins of the secular world. I answered that I was merely following sound biblical precedent. The prophets do not expend their critical energies complaining about the militaristic cruelty of the Assyrians. Nor does Jesus deliver scathing rebukes of the easy syncretism of Roman culture. Rather, both level their criticism at Israel, the people whom God had called to be his light within a sin-darkened world (pp. 188-189).

Like the prophets of old, perhaps there are some Christian bloggers who are called to rant, rave, and rail against the Church's worship, institutions, and "the general lifestyle" of her people. Perhaps we need someone who will "aim criticisms at the habits and presumptions, the complacency and waywardness of [Christian] society."

However, the prophet's ministry was not merely one of indictment, but also one of encouragement:

But the fact that the prophets focus on the covenant people of God shows that their complaints and threats have a positive purpose: to call the covenant community back to faithfully obeying the God who had redeemed them by his mighty deeds on their behalf...The problem the prophets address is not some failure inherent in the promises of provisions of God but the failure of Israel to respond rightly to God's gracious initiations. Rather than being characterized by faithfulness and love, rather than being a light to the nations through its embodiment of covenant life, Israel engages in idolatry, gross social injustice, and religious syncretism. There is no shortage of religion and ritual, but the people have forgotten the covenant. They have forgotten why Yahweh had delivered them from Egypt and elected them, why he had given them the land, and why he had given them his law...The situation calls for a policing of Israel's response to the covenant. the prophets assume this role. Thus we might think of them as covenant enforcers (pp. 189, 191).

So also Christian blogger-prophets ought not to merely criticize the Church, but also call the Church "back to faithfully obeying the God who had redeemed them by his mighty deeds [the life, death, and resurrected life of Jesus] on their behalf." Christian bloggers have a unique opportunity to be "gospel enforcers," to preach the good news of the New Covenant to the people in the pews as well as the preachers in the pulpits. God's people must be reminded that the root cause of the Church's failure to live out her calling to be and act like the New Covenant community of Christ is our failure to respond by faith to the New Covenant, the gospel (see Galatians 5:6).

Therefore, the Christian blogger should not insist on innovation in the Church as an organization so much as invite the Church as an organism to return to her first love. Williams reminds us that:

What the prophets denounce is not the institutions of Hebrew religion but rather what the Israelites had come to make of these things...The prophets are not confessional, political, or social innovators. Rather, they serve as heirs and interpreters of a tradition that goes back to Moses and Abraham. They call Israel back to its true character and calling, back to the law, back to the covenant (pp. 190-191).

Too many bloggers decry the practices of the Church as culturally irrelevant, suggesting that the solution to the Church's poor reputation in today's culture is a willingness to blend and bend a little. But, as Ezekiel 36:16-38 suggests, the problem is not that God's people are too different from their neighbors, but that they are not different enough. God's solution was the New Covenant, the promise that through Christ he would transform his people into a community that would bear and bless his name among the nations. so that they might see the difference and be drawn to it. Like Ezekiel, the blogger-prophet must help remind the Church of her true identity as God's beloved covenant people who by his grace flesh out the Royal Law of Love (James 2), serving as bondservants of their King in the place he has put them.

So, to sum up these thoughts, I'm suggesting that these descriptions of the Old Testament prophet might serve as a call for Christian blogger-prophets to speak from God in order...

to point out the waywardness of God's New Covenant community, the Church, and
to point the Church back to heart-rending, life-transforming belief in the New Covenant promises as they are proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ,
being careful not to promote innovative change in the institution as much as proclaim Christ's invitation for the Church to remember their identity as his beloved bondservants.

One last thought: The OT prophets "spoke with divine authority" (Williams, page 194). They knew their message was from God. They did not presume to speak for or from themselves. Even as they rail against corruption and rally the Church to gospel-centeredness, Christian bloggers (including me) must remember Peter's encouragement in 1 Peter 4:10-11:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks [or blogs], as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves [Christ and his Bride] by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

The Worldview of WALL-E

2008-07-08T08:27:00.004-05:00

I took my family to see WALL-E last night. Great movie! Rather than try to wax eloquent on the depth of meaning in this fun little film, I thought I'd provide some links to the thoughts of others.

WALL-E and Sex (a unique take on the film's message)

WALL-E's Worldview (World Magazine)

The Little Robot That Could (Christianity Today)

WALL-E, Liberalism, and the Human Heart

Enjoy the movie...enjoy these articles and interviews!

Tim Keller's "Prodigal God"

2008-07-05T10:19:00.003-05:00

My friend Tullian Tchividjian asked Tim Keller to explain the title of his new book The Prodigal God. Tullian received this response from Tim:

The word ‘prodigal’ does not appear in the Greek text. It is an English word that has become attached to the parable of the two lost sons in Luke 15. But it is a good, suggestive word that helps us understand the parable’s teaching.

The word ‘prodigal’ is an English word that means recklessly extravagant, spending to the point of poverty, of ‘being in want’ (Luke 15:14.) The dictionaries tell us that the word can be understood in a more negative or a more positive sense. The more positive meaning is to be lavishly and sacrificially abundant in giving. The more negative sense, is to be wasteful and irresponsible in one’s spending. The negative sense obviously applies to the actions of the younger brother in the Luke 15 parable of the two sons. But is there any sense in which God can be called ‘Prodigal’?

Read the rest of Keller's response here.

[HT: On Earth As It Is In Heaven]

Logos Bible Software

2008-07-03T11:27:00.005-05:00

I just added a link on my blog list to the Logos Bible Software Blog.

I've been using this Bible study software for years and have greatly benefited from the Camp Logos training seminar (Levels I and II). This is a powerful study tool that is accessible to the person in the pew, provides artillery for the preacher in the pulpit, and has enough academic muscle for the professor behind the podium.

If you haven't tried it, click on the logo below for a free demonstration:

Facebook and the Image of God

2008-06-29T23:52:00.007-05:00

Ever wonder about the appeal of Facebook and other web-based social networks? Why would millions of people all over the world want to plaster their names and faces, their likes and dislikes, and their current physical, emotional, or spiritual status all over the worldwide web? I confess I am one of them. I started my own Facebook "profile" and began collecting "friends" several years ago when I realized it was the best way to keep up with the college students to whom I was pastor. But in recent months, I've begun to reconnect with people that I haven't seen or talked to in twenty years. Friends from high school and college, folks in their forties like me, have begun to discover Facebook as a way to get in touch with old friends and stay in touch with current ones.

There are plenty of pundits who are wary of this trend, claiming that this is another symptom of the narcissism this generation has apparently contracted. I can't disagree entirely with this theory, but I'd like to suggest that the Facebook phenomenon may have as much to do with human design as it does with human depravity.

There's at least one lesson we can learn from the Facebook craze: We all long to know and be known by others. Yes, at their worst these social network sites can be a mild (sometimes not so mild) form of exhibitionism, but when you get right down to it people just want to be known. I want the people in my world to know me, so I post pictures of my family because they are part of me. I list the books I've read because they have shaped me. I share my favorite quotes because they tell others what I value and believe. I update my status so that others know where I am...literally and figuratively. I want to be known. And I'm not alone.

It is also true that at their worst social network sites can encourage and enable virtual voyeurism. Some people spend too much time following the lives of other people. But let's face it, all of us are fascinated with people aren't we? Ever done some "people-watching" while you're waiting for a plane? And why do we tend to collect so many "friends," and what about that good feeling you get when someone invites you to be their Facebook friend? I want to know others, and so do you.

Certainly my desire to know and be known by others can become obsessive and get out of proportion, but I'm curious to know why the desire is there at all.

I believe it's because I was made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). God wants to know and be known by others. Self-revealing and other-relating are part of the nature of who God is. In his helpful little book concerning the street-level impact of the doctrine of the Trinity, Experiencing the Trinity, Darrell W. Johnson writes:

'At the center of the universe is a relationship.' That is the most fundamental truth I know. At the center of the universe is a community. It is out of that relationship that you and I were created and redeemed. And it is for that relationship that you and I were created and redeeemed! And it turns out that there is a three-fold-ness to that relationship. It turns out that the community is a Trinity. The center of reality is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...the doctrine of the the Trinity is not the result of philosophical speculation carried out in ivory towers, cut off from real life. It is the result of ordinary believers trying to make sense of the facts of God's self-revelation--and trying to live in the light of those facts (pp. 37, 39).

Johnson goes on to talk about one of the "everyday consequences" of the doctrine of the Trinity:

First, we know why when relationships go sour, all of life goes sour. We were created in the image and likeness of God...There are many dimensions of God's character we were created to reflect. But chief among them is this 'us-ness' of God. God does not exist alone; and neither do we who are created in God's image. Thus God says of Adam in the garden, 'it is not good for the man to be alone' (Genesis 2:18). Why? Because Adam will be lonely, yes. But more importantly because 'Adam alone' is not Adam in the image of God. God is not a solitary God. Adam does not reflect who God is until Adam shares life with Eve...It is because we are created in the image of the Trinity that loneliness is so crushing, that broken relationships are so debilitating, that death is so painful. Lack of loss of relationship violates our essential nature, created to reflect the relational essence of God (pp. 52-53).

Our longing to know others and be known by them is part of our human design that has been twisted by our human depravity. Our involvement in the Facebook community is a reflection of our design for community, but when Facebook becomes a source of knowing and being known that takes precedence over community with the Trinity and unity with His Church (John 17) , then our Facebook-ing is more a reflection of our depravity.

One last thought: God has His own Facebook profile. If you want, you can go there and see the ways in which God has made Himself known to us and through which we are able to know Him as our friend: through Creation (Psalm 19:1-6, Romans 1:19-20), through the Bible (Psalm 19:7-11, 2 Peter 1:16-21), and most clearly and intimately through Jesus Christ's person (Hebrews 1:1-3, 2 Corinthians 4:3-6) and people (John 17:20-23, 1 John 4:11-12).

We desire to know and be known because He first desired to know and be known.

When The Church Is Really Parachurch

2008-06-27T15:00:00.006-05:00

I have a good friend who thinks that what we typically refer to as our "church" is really just a parachurch organization. I tend to agree with him. Here's what he means:

Generally speaking, what we refer to as "the church" is an organization with a paid and volunteer leadership who develop and direct programs in which the members of the organization participate in a particular place or building. (Notice that this definition includes churches of all sizes, from the small, rural church with one bi-vocational pastor to the urban or suburban mega-church with a staff of hundreds.) But biblically speaking, the church is the body of Christ, the people, the organism that lives and moves and has its being within the structure provided by the organization.

Think about it. What do you and I call the place to which we travel for worship on Sundays? Have you ever said something like, "Our church is having VBS this week" or "When is the church going to replace those old choir robes with new ones?" or "Have you been tithing to the church?" or "There sure are a lot of churches in this part of town." True, we could be referring to the group of people who are members of our local body, but it seems all too easy to slip into the mindset that the organization is the church and not the people.

If the people of the church (the organism) are really the church, then the organization of the church as I have defined it is really a parachurch organization. Para- means "alongside" and parachurch is a term that has been given to groups and organizations who "come alongside" the church to aid her in her mission. We typically think of groups like Young Life, Chirstian schools and seminaries, and mission boards as parachurch organizations because they do not claim to be churches, but rather servants of local churches and of the Church at large.

So then, the organization with a paid and volunteer leadership who develop and direct programs in which the members of the organization participate in a particular place or building is really a parachurch organization. The structure that has developed in order to organize the life and activity of the organism is meant to come alongside the people to equip and encourage them to be the church. When we rightly define the people as the church, then it becomes clear that the organization that we commonly call "the church" is really parachurch.

This is an important disctinction to make because as I just mentioned, the purpose of the church organization is to serve the organism. However, all too often we pastors and church leaders treat the organism (the people) as if they exist to serve the organization (leaders and programs).

Why do we feel the need to pressure people to give or give more? Because if they don't give, the organization will not survive and our staff, missionaries, and bills won't get paid. Why do we so easily become numbers-centered and spend so much time and energy figuring out ways to get more people in the pews? Because if they don't come our programs won't run, our paid and volunteer staff will have nothing to do, and people will go to other "churches" whose programs "meet their needs." When the organization begins to depend on the organism to prop up or perpetuate itself, the church (the body, the organism) is in danger of being devoured. What might have begun as a church organism being served by its church organization quickly and subtly becomes a group of people who exist to serve the organization.

I'll give two examples of this organization-devouring-the-organism phenomenon: one broad-brushed and one in which I am the guilty party.

When church growth experts tell us that we must build and maintain "excellent" programs for youth and children because that will attract and keep their parents, I believe we are in danger of sacrificing our children on the altar of church growth. We're using children to get something we really want...their parents in our pews. That's the organism serving the organization.

A personal example: When I was a Middle School Youth Pastor in a large suburban church, I asked a certain couple to join our volunteer team of leaders in the middle school ministry. I wanted them on board because of their love for Jesus and for people. They said no, and in so many words explained that if they joined our team of volunteers they wouldn't have time to lead the weekly Bible study that they had at their home with friends of their middle school son. Yikes! It hit me hard. I was asking them to give up THEIR ministry to teenagers in their own sphere of influence so that they could serve in MY ministry to teenagers. I was asking the organism to serve the organization. What I should have done was ask them how I could help equip and resource them for the ministry that God had given them in their own neighborhood.

I have much to learn and unlearn. These thoughts are in process, not completely settled. I am not saying that the organization is bad or unnecessary, indeed it is necessary and good, but I'll save that thought for another post. However, I am more and more convinced that Jesus has called the organization to serve the organism and that I have spent most of the last 20 years operating the other way. The question becomes: how can the organization of our churches do a better job of coming alongside our people to equip them to do the work of their ministry? Are we willing to sacrifice the perpetuation of our organization in order to better serve the people, the church for whom Jesus sacrificed Himself?

What are your thoughts?