My church is in real trouble. Here's what happens

1. What Paul calls for in 1 Corinthians 11-14 where we meet to edify each other, and different people contribute, has turned into a sermon show. No one can test their understanding or thoughts by asking questions, and having the answer discussed in the congregation.

2. Prayer is a rote performance, prepared beforehand and given by one person. We don't get to collectively undertake prayer for each other.

3. We think that the songs we should use to teach one another are 'worship'. But no one talks about discipling in true worship (Romans 12:1-2, James 1:27). In fact, there is no discipling, nothing that leads one to spiritual growth in the company and encouragement of older saints...but maybe there are no such 'older saints'. Songs of course have a function that's never mentioned, except by Paul: Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16.

4. There is nothing to teach new Christians. For instance, our Community College runs a class on the Bible (its called 'Ancient Texts in the Modern World) and while a bit liberal, it gives a really good overview of the structure, history and content of the Bible. We don't get that at our church.

5. No one seeks to develop our skills in speaking in public so we become more effective gospel-talkers. Only the paid performer does the speaking. Sure, he's trained, but his job should be to train and coach others.

6. It's all oldies who 'conduct' our gathering, which we call a 'service' as though we are in a pagan temple. No young people are being nurtured into the body life of our gathering.

7. The Lord's Supper has been reduced to a meaningless shot glass of grape juice and a crumb of cracker. I thought 'supper' was a meal. Like in Corinth, although Paul had to correct the selfish ones.

We really need to return to the practices of gatherings enjoined by the NT.

Suffering and evil: anything to do with us?

Answering the "problem of evil/suffering" charge made against the God who is love is often seen by Christians as a great difficulty.

How do we explain how the God who people understand to be 'all-powerful' (omnipotent), "all-loving" (omnibenevolent), and "all-knowing" (omniscient) can also allow we his creatures in his image to experience suffering and to do evil.

For a start, lets get rid of the philosophical terms, and stick with the Bible, the 'all' descriptions seem to place evaluative criteria over God, instead of seeking to understand the God who is: Yahweh. We end up with the 'god of the philosophers' instead of the living God.

So, there's a disjunct between what we would like, or think our experience indicates and the world as we would like it to be, or how we think God has or 'should have' arranged things...mainly for our comfort, it would seem. 

But why?

First, God created us for (a) meaningful fellowship with him, see Genesis 3:8a; and to take charge of the creation (Genesis 1:26ff...and I'm still puzzled about ruling over the fish!!). See also Psalm 115:16,

Then we, in Adam, rejected fellowship with God and sought to live in opposition to him; with that our stewardship crumbled.

Rather than destroy all, because God still had the objective of fellowship with us, he provided the resolution of this adversity in Christ: we can be in Christ renewed and restored to fellowship with God, and adopted into his family! But that's in the future, nevertheless, despite adversity in life, we are now in Christ, and our suffering is in that context.

Nevertheless, God in Christ meets us in that suffering: he meets us where we are and calls us to him. Our only sensible response is to believe him and turn to him in repentance. 

The basic answer to the 'problem' is Luke 13: repent! Sounds glib, but the reason for suffering is like the reason for a fire alarm in a high-rise: get out while you can. Without suffering the consequence of a world disconnected from its creator we would not know our plight.

Furthermore, one of the 'functions' of suffering (and evil) may be to tell us/show us who we actually are, inescapably! Someone said, it may have been Frankel, that the Nazi guards at death camps were ordinary people, just like us! (Or it might have been Solzhenitsyn, and different guards.) We should all remember, 'but for the grace of God go I' To put another complexion on that saying.

We are people full of pride, selfishness, greed...(Sermon on the Mount makes this clear, I think) who can't even manage their home: natural 'disasters' and are in the grip of death.

When we complain about suffering and evil, we seem to think it's nothing to do with us...but it is!

 

God has dealt with it...we just don't like the result and prefer to wonder why we have to experience the result of our meaningful choices when they are choices in repudiation of who God is. To live as though we are with God, while we are agin him, would deceive us that there are no cosmic effect of our choices; but our choices are truly meaningful, cosmically. 

Dust or Delight?

When we meet an atheist, or an aggressive agnostic (someone who doesn't claim that there is no god, but who claims they merely don't believe in god, seeking thereby to escape the obligation to defend their claim), it is easy to default to their world-view, which they insist is the true default. We are then left to defend when it is really their obligation.

There is no 'default' world-view.

They might claim that we 'worship' a 'sky-daddy'.

What has rarely occurred to them is that they worship a 'cosmic dust-bunny'. They, if materialist/naturalists, which most Western moderns are, hold that dust particles is the final reality. If they are more sophisticated they might say that either space or energy is the final reality, but similar questions apply. 

The trouble with this position, is that it brings nothing with it. As J. P. Moreland has put it:

Intellectually responsible naturalists cannot merely deny God’s existence. Additionally, they must provide an account of what ideas naturalists ought to hold regarding epistemological commitments, a broad creation story (the Grand Story) about how all entities have come-to-be, and a resulting ontology such that all entities can be located in the Grand Story as certified by naturalist epistemological commitments. 

Moreland, J. P.. 2023. A Critical Assessment of Shafer-Landau’s Ethical Non-Naturalism.

Religions 14: 546.

https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040546

What does a 'minister' do?

A congregation  decides to employ a paid staff person. Let's call him or her 'the minister', even though we all always 'minister'.

Unfortunately in most congregations this role is regarded as a 'leadership' role, and not a service one.  

In a fully functional congregation however,  it is a service role to assist the elders as a sort of coach and skills builder for them and with them for the congregation at large.

Most are not, so we get a Hebrews 5:12 situation in too many congregations.

The minister is like the 'head' coach of a team. Not a player, but the one who equips, encourages, coaches and, of course, trains.

The main role would be the monthly equipping seminar/gathering. The "Equip-meet".

One way this could work, is every month, except perhaps December and January, and moved to avoid a clash with Easter an Equip-meet is held.

This might be a Saturday afternoon and evening, with a simple meal.

It could cover Bible topics, a book study overview, apologetics, church history, or other special themes, or specific skills like explaining your faith to typical questions, and so on. It would be programmed to allow people to come and go: perhaps there would be three separable sessions: early afternoon, after coffee, then after dinner...with discussion trailing off into the later evening perhaps.

Its format would be content segments (talks based on or springing from an article or book chapter that had been read beforehand), table-group or open discussion, or Q and A, and opportunities for participants to talk about what they have learnt. When people can put their lesson into their own language, they truly learn.

At other times this minister might help with teaching segments in youth ministry, coach and guide the people who do youth and children's ministry or are learning to do the 'teaching' segments. Hesh (he/she) might also help equip those with pastoral gifts to support newly weds, those with young children, those is difficult circumstances, and those who are becoming frail and dependent, etc.

He or she might also help coach those up and coming teachers/prophets to contribute in the gatherings and work with the elders to conduct coaching sessions with that group, also with supportive discussions so the elders can minister to the 'minister' and discuss the general health and organization of the congregation.

Next time your church wants to hire a minister...discuss this with them.

20 church actions

Points from a video by Matt Dabbs at Revolution of Ordinaries, a YouTube channel by a Churches of Christ minister, from what I can gather. But, I like the guy. He makes good sense in most cases.

 My comments.

00:16 - #1 - Biblical teaching without smoke machines

And this means: not a 'sermon'. Sermons aren't how we teach practices and how we truly learn and grow in true knowledge, knowledge we incorporate into our thinking world.

How we do this is by discussion. Discussion for learning-teaching is not a free for all: see Stephen Brookfield's work on this. It might start with pre-reading of a passage, not necessarily constrained by the chapter-verse coordinate system we have, and some pointed questions and cross references to consider. Then as a group we discuss. Then the teacher gives a summary talk to bring it all together, and Q and A following, perhaps while still seated, but with some refreshments. Maybe at tables, like a cafe or a banquet.

00:55 - #2 - Participatory worship

Of course, he means participatory gatherings. Worship is what we do all the time as our minds are transformed and we are caring for our brethren in need (Romans 12:1-2, James 1:27).

As per 1 Corinthians 11-14, each has something to contribute: more a 'round-table' discussion circle than a one-person lecture all facing the front. 

And our singing is to teach each other: Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16. 

01:24 - #3 - Preachers who know the people

He means teachers/prophets, of course. Yes, this is a thing of the gathering of the saints, not a dislocating rant or ceremonial address that has nothing to do with relationship. It is the members of the gathering who do the teaching/prophesying (encouraging biblical reminders).

01:48 - #4 - Holy Spirit back in charge

Our church needs to be prayerfully conscious of being in the hands of the Spirit. Church means the body of Christians together. Not merely the building we use to meet in or the times of meeting in that building.  

02:26 - #5 - Make Disciples

This marks the biggest failing of the entire Western church! We don't make disciples. We grab every new believer and shove them into a pew, perhaps having urged them to read the Bible, or given them a study book to work through; perhaps a couple of meetings with a counselor (I mean a mature Christian to encourage and teach, not a head-doctor).

Not enough. It should be at least a year of careful coaching and instruction, in groups if possible. This should cover the foundations: what the Bible is, its organization and textual history; biblical theology, basic church history, study of a gospel, Acts, a couple of shorter letters, Genesis, Job, and selected 'episodes' from other OT books. It should also include simple apologetics, such as the 7 basic questions and the 7 Muslim challenges.

Some instruction on basic heresies and heretical cults could also be important. 

Then, the new Christians should be drawn into the community with hospitable inclusion in the life of the church: being invited for a  simple meal or coffee in your home, go to movies, concerts together, etc.

Finally, they should be invited to participate in giving: volunteering in ministries they are suited to or interested in; talk about their 'journey' in the gathering or small group, and their reflections on their journey so far.

General on-going discipling is important, so people can become teachers where so gifted, conduct groups, organize functions or ministries, be trained in public speaking, and the pragmatic side of church life as well. 

03:36 - #6 - Plant churches

Carefully and wisely. Thorough research on the local area and support from the sending group.

05:02 - #7 - Make communion central

I don't think the early church had a 'ceremonial' or 'sacramental' communion. It was part of their 'love feast' or meal together. 

06:02 - #8 - Play together

Go out together, not in cliques, but in assorted groupings: to entertainments, picnics, conferences.

07:18 - #9 - Fasting

An inconvenient practice...that's why we need to get back to it. 

07:46 - #10 - More hearing the Bible

Not just snippets, but, in the right context, whole coherent passages. We also need to train and practice this craft so that its worth doing and worth listening to. 

08:48 - #11 - Healthy accountability

Sure, but not intrusive:always kind, supportive, in love, and seeking the others' (or mutual) growth. 

09:31 - #12 - Less clock, more connection

Besides, we need to have longer more varied gatherings. If your church has a building, turn it into a whole Sunday thing:

Classes in the morning

Morning tea

Large meeting for edification: 1 Cor 14.

Lunch together, maybe a talk and some discussion

Skills workshops

Casual chat-around (people come and go)

Supper

Evening gathering: sharing and singing, prayer. 

10:06 - #13 - Teach on sin

Avoid legalism and casuistry. Sin is 'anti-God', anti-love, pride in action. It is not of the New Creation.

10:31 - #14 - Spiritual community engagement

Connect with the local community, real connections, join local groups, be known as Christian, and genuinely interested in the group. Get involved in various relief efforts for local and distant disasters. 

Be seen on the street and in any fairs with community booths for organized stand-up evangelism; and don't be corny, be real. 

11:41 - #15 - Less programs, more training; training as the consistent theme of the gathering body.

As per #5 above. 

12:18 - #16 - Spiritual leadership

Expunge the modern usage of  'leadership'. Replace it with 'communityship', serving each other with one's gifts and skills and Philippians 2:1-17. 

12:53 - #17 - Kingdom vision and goals

Know that we are working to the New Creation in all that we do. But do it with careful thought based on real opportunities, needs, challenges and know the barriers to overcome.

13:18 - #18 - Privatize giving

All giving should be top-secret. 

14:06 - #19 - Engage community leaders

Connected with #14 above. Get your senior brethren (that is those with specific relevant responsibilities) to connect with civic authorities.

14:41 - #20 - Don't rely on "tech" 

Good pointers in the video: that is be personal, not 'automated' by web services. But in the fine detail, do technology well. 

Make sure any use of equipment, IT or otherwise is skilled and tested. Set up sound gear professionally (no tapping a microphone asking if it is 'on'. You should have done a sound check with the panel operator/producer before delivering). Have people trained and skilled as 'producers'.

Nevertheless, do your best to make your equipment serve, not lead. If you have no illustrations that add to a particular presentation, talk, speech, training session, don't use PowerPoint! 

Talking it up

A suggestion I made to our local public High School Religious Education teacher (funded by donations, but accepted by the school).

 The school exec. is reluctant to approve a lunchtime meeting of Christian pupils, as part of a network of such groups across the country.

I suggested this  course of action:

Would a visit from you and the chairman to the Exec for a 'get to know you/how are we doing here/how can we further contribute to the school community?' meeting help open the way for ISCF, perhaps?

We might add that our key objective is to give young people a life-grounding that is non-materialistic/consumerist, community oriented and focused on living for the benefit of others. This, we think would reinforce values that contribute to a positive school environment.

ISCF helps to advance this using time tested approaches (I mean here the whole approach to Christian formation), that include programs to build social capital through small group training in and practical development of leadership, relationship-building, and growth experiences in self-development.  (Supported in vacation house-party opportunities-if these still happen).

This type of framing approach might open some positive avenues.

 Note, that unlike most Christian approaches to secular groups, I've talked about 'benefits' to them, and not 'features' of Christian faith.

That is, I've used their language and conceptual framing, not ours.

I wonder how many such approaches by Christian groups think this way. 

What is your church doing to evangelize?

A friend asked me this recently.

The church I am part of has a number of corporate activities to connect with the community:

Special Religious Education at the local primary school. Although this could be developed by making positive connections (meetings, seminars, etc.) with parents and school staff.

We have youth activities weekly and at school holidays; mainly for the children of church families, but non-church friends are welcome and do come. The connection with external parents is, I fear, yet to be fully developed.

A community gym operates on weekends.

Classes for new speakers of English are offered. 

There are special community activities for elderly people: mid week gatherings with lunch monthly, exercise class twice a month, with lunch once a month, a bridge club.

I don't think any of these are really connected to 'next step' offerings to bring people close to knowing the Christian faith. 

Christmas and Easter include some community connections, but could be better developed.

OK. What's missing?

Person to person direct evangelism (with appropriate back up activities)

For instance we could have a stall at the monthly service club market, just of coffee and conversation; we'd have to charge for the coffee to avoid the ire of commercial operators.

We could do street work: a stall on the pavement, with council approval, of course, handing out leaflets, Bibles, having conversations. Here we'd need Bibles with adequate plain English introductions to books, and a real table of contents, not just a list of the contained books. A good index too.

Visits to nursing homes, hospitals, aged care homes? Maybe.

But people need skill here.

In another blog I'd described a teaching/training program for a local church. Now, that was ideal for a large church, but probably better done jointly with a group of churches. And maybe just one weekend session a year.

This would run for Saturday and Sunday with options in the afternoon. It would cover basic apologetics, Christian conversation approaches, and skills for 'positive evangelism' or street work. People who wanted to could get involved in active outreach with a mentoring program. This might include local door knocks as well for both evangelistic and pastoral needs.