Involvement in Christian preaching emphasizes active participation and commitment in faith and community, contrasting mere spectatorship or indifference. Illustrations often use sports, military service, and personal transformation to highlight the call to engage fully in God's work and stand against moral decline (James 2:17; Romans 12:11). This subject challenges believers to move from passive observation to dynamic action.
"I define football as 22 men on the field desperately in need of rest and 76,000 people in the stands desperately in need of exercise."
(Jesus' remark to lawyer after telling parable of Good Samaritan: Go and do likewise.)
Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Gandhi and Mother Teresa. Missionary pioneers Adoniram Judson, William Carey and Lottie Moon. Corrie Ten Boom and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
They were real people dealing with big challenges. They lived real adventures and changed the world in one way or another.
Television programs full of make-believe characters have never changed the world. In fact, many of today’s “reality” shows create faux worlds. Watch long enough and your reality becomes what’s being broadcast from an electronic box instead of what’s taking place beyond your walls.
Unfortunately, that’s what is happening. The average American household watched more television this past TV season –- eight hours and 11 minutes per day –- than any previous season since television viewing was first measured in the 1950s, according to a recently released Nielsen Media Research report. Think about it: That’s the equivalent of an average work day!
There are reams of paper recording the research written by experts who study the effects of media. Does television have an effect or doesn’t it? Does it shape public opinion or not? Does it reflect or promote violent and sexually explicit behavior? There are enough studies supporting each of these positions that arguing one position over another comes out a wash.
But in reality, based on observing people and relating to individuals through 55 years of ministry, I comfortably grab an early computer programming mantra: Garbage in; garbage out.
Interestingly enough, the problem is not the programming as much as it is the individual’s choice in subjecting himself or herself to content which, for the most part, has generally become vulgar.
Jesus addressed the issue long before the first camera was invented. “Listen and understand,” he said. “It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man” (Matthew 15:11, HCSB). The disciples needed clarification and he spelled it out for them in verses 17-20, again saying “[W]hat comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a man.”
Jesus knew the heart produced evil and it was the heart that needed to be changed.
James addressed the issue, as well, when speaking of the tongue being fire (James 3:1-12). Near the end of that passage he juxtaposes blessing and cursing, asking, “Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening?” He concludes by saying, “Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.”
It is with this same logic that Paul wrote about the transformation of the mind in Romans 12. It is the transformation of the mind that leads to the purifying (sanctification) of the heart that enables us to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is an active passage. Paul is telling us to pursue holiness aggressively. The first step to becoming holy is to fill our minds with things of God. I’m sure Paul would advise that we be more prudent with our television viewing.
Please don’t hear me say we should walk away from culture, disappear into monasteries and turn a deaf ear to the cries of a lost world. No way! To the contrary! What the spiritually lost need are examples of holy lives active in a godless world. The church has for too long been ineffective because we embrace the world more than we embrace holiness. Or, we go to the other extreme and shut ourselves off from the world, which often leads to a piousness that exudes a condemning attitude. Jesus was very much in the world, but the power of His divine authority was communicated through His humility. His humility made him approachable. Those who approached and believed were transformed.
But Jesus’ greatest impact came because he was in the world, among people, building relationships and communicating the truth of the Gospel. He was not fettering away the hours with mentally passive pursuits. He was out walking among the people, not sitting at home.
Christians have exchanged the dynamic life of action and activity for living vicariously through “Desperate Housewives” or watching Tiger Woods week after week crush golf balls down a fairway. We’d trade the suspense of real life for the fabricated suspense of working a crime scene with the “CSI” detectives. Again, I’m not suggesting you put your television in the trash, but I am suggesting two things.
First, any one thing that diverts our focus from God places that thing above God and it becomes an idol. I’d hazard a guess that most people don’t spend eight hours a day with God. The Bible addresses the imbalance created when our indulgences are taken to unhealthy excess.
Second, if the church is going to have a positive impact in the world, Christians have got to get out in the world and live and be living testimonies of transformed lives. Erwin McManus, in his recently published book, “The Barbarian Way,” talks about how we’ve domesticated Christianity and taken the adventure out of being a follower of Christ. I agree! Read Acts 2. The total mobilization of the first Christian community in Acts 2 was the key to Pentecost. We will never impact our world’s culture with only a spiritual “SWAT team” approach. It will take all of us.
We are actors, participants in the divine drama of redemption. We’ve been given key roles and what’s more, our roles matter for eternity. God never intended for us to just watch and observe.
Think about it: God could have broadcast the story of His love for us on the big screen of the galaxy, but instead He sent His Son to physically walk among us. Jesus exchanged the comfort of heaven for the adventure of redemption.
Is the adventure you’re living real or make believe?
*
[Original illustration at this number was deleted for being obsolete]
One person can make a difference.
Jack Eckerd, founder of the Eckerd Drug chain, became a Christian in 1983. He called the company president and urged him to take out adult magazines. The president protested that millions in profits would be lost. Eckerd persisted and eventually all 1,700 Eckard's stopped carrying them.
He wrote to other chains, and the National Coalition Against Pornography started picketing and boycotting stores. 7-11 removed magazines from its 4,500 stores. Altogether, nearly 12,000 stores stopped selling them.
Playboy, shocked by declining sales, blamed the Meese Commission on Pornography, but the individuals who took action gave the real impetus.
(Taken from Colson's "Kingdoms in Conflict")
Norma McCorvey was the "Jane Roe" in the abortion decision "Roe vs. Wade." She claimed to have been raped but wasn't. She had the baby (so the case would go to court) and gave it up for adoption. Now she is getting involved in the pro-choice movement. She has negotiated with an agent to have a TV movie made about her. She still wishes she could have had an abortion so she would not spend time wondering what her child was doing.
[Later she becomes a born-again Christian]
#791
*
Calls for Christians to get involved in the political process. Family life and the church are affected, so we must take a stand.
During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government began to run low on silver for coins. Lord Cromwell sent his men on an investigation of the local cathedral to see if they could find any precious metal there. After investigating, they reported:
"The only silver we could find is in the statues of the saints standing in the corners."
To which the radical soldier and statesman of England replied: "Good! We'll melt down the saints and put them into circulation!"
The direct order states the essence... the kernel... the practical goal of authentic Christianity. Not rows of silver saints, highly polished, frequently dusted, crammed into corners of elegant cathedrals. Not plaster people cloaked in thin layers of untarnished silver and topped with a metallic halo. But real persons. Melted saints circulating through the mainstream of humanity.
America had successful anti-poverty programs a century ago — successful because they embodied personal, material, and spiritual involvement and challenge.
This vital story has generally been ignored by liberal historians, but the documented history goes like this: During the nineteenth century, a successful war on poverty was waged by tens of thousands of local, private charitable agencies and religious groups around the country. The platoons of the greatest charity army in American history often were small. They were made up of volunteers led by poorly paid but deeply dedicated professional managers. And they were highly effective.
Thousands of eyewitness accounts and journalistic assessments show that poverty fighters of the nineteenth century did not abolish poverty, but they enabled millions of people to escape it. They saw springs of fresh water flowing among the poor, not just blocks of ice sitting in a perpetual winter of multi-generational welfare dependency. And the optimism prevalent then contrasts sharply with the demoralization among the poor and the cynicism among the better-off that is so common now.
What was their secret? It was not neglect. It was their understanding of the literal and biblical meaning of compassion, which comes from two Latin words — “com,” which means “with,” and “pati,” which means “to suffer.” The word points to personal involvement with the needy, suffering with them, not just giving to them. “Suffering with” means adopting hard-to-place babies, providing shelter to women undergoing crisis pregnancies, becoming a big brother to a fatherless child, working one-on-one with a young single mother. It is not easy — but it works.
John Stott’s candid comments on justice, gender, and judgment.
John Stott joins together what most people tear asunder — or at least are incapable of holding together. He is a theologian of depth and breadth, yet he preaches and writes with clarity to a wide audience. He integrates social concerns into the mission of the church without ever minimizing his commitment to evangelism. Since he was ordained in 1945, he has ministered within a mainline denomination (the Church of England), while neither compromising his convictions nor diminishing his role as an evangelical thought leader. Engaged in parish ministry for 50 years at All Souls, Langham Place, in the center of London, where he now holds the title rector emeritus, his influence among evangelicals is of international proportions.
One of Stott’s enduring legacies is as the key framer of the historic Lausanne Covenant (1974), which serves almost as an evangelical apostles’ creed in many Third World settings. His faithful witness to the gospel in his writings and preaching has made him mentor and friend to a global community. The author of 34 books, Stott’s primer on the faith, “Basic Christianity,” has been translated into over 50 languages, and 22 more are in progress.
Speaking of “Authentic Christianity,” an anthology of his writings from the past 50 years (forthcoming from InterVarsity), evangelical historian Mark Noll serves up this accolade: “I consider John Stott the sanest, clearest, and most solidly biblical living writer on theological topics in the English language.” It is difficult to dispute this assessment.
More than his books, documents, or institutions, Stott’s most important legacy to the church has been his wisdom. Thoroughly biblical, disarmingly open, shrewdly discerning, Stott’s thought has helped guide the evangelical movement as it engaged social concerns, the charismatic movement, female clergy, homosexuality, and challenges to core doctrines. In preparation for Stott’s seventy-fifth birthday, Roy McCloughry, associate editor of the British Christian magazine “Third Way,” interviewed this evangelical Solomon on these and many other topics. The discussion can serve as a measure of where we are as a movement — and where we need to go.
YOUR MINISTRY STRETCHES BACK OVER 50 YEARS. HOW HAVE YOU CHANGED OVER THAT TIME?
I was very naive when I was ordained. I was more an activist than a thinker. I saw needs and wanted immediately to meet them, and this crowded out my studies.
It was in the early days of my ministry that I learned the necessity of stepping back, looking where I was going, and having a monthly quiet day to be drawn up into the mind of God and look ahead for the next six or twelve months. That was an enormous benefit to me.
YOU’VE COVERED AN IMMENSE RANGE OF ISSUES IN YOUR MINISTRY — THEOLOGICAL, SOCIAL, DOCTRINAL, AND CULTURAL. HAS THAT BEEN DUE TO CURIOSITY OR TO OBLIGATION AS A MINISTER?
A bit of both. Even before my conversion, I believe that God gave me a social conscience. When I was only 14 years old, I started a society at school whose major purpose was to give baths to tramps. I had a great concern for these homeless, dirty men.
We called it the ABC, because we thought they could understand that; having decided on the letters, we had to look around for words that would fit, and we came up with two: either “Always Be a Christian” or “the Association for the Benefit of the Community.” It only lasted a few years, and we never gave any baths to tramps; but we did some other good works until the treasurer loaned all the subscriptions to his brother, who spent everything.
My father was a doctor and a very high-minded, high-principled person, though not a Christian. He believed in a national health service before it was even dreamed about. My mother, too, was very concerned for the maids in the doctors’ homes who had nothing to do on their afternoons off. She started the Domestic Fellowship. So they both had a social conscience.
EVANGELISM AND SOCIAL ACTION
SOME PEOPLE MIGHT DIVIDE YOUR MINISTRY INTO TWO HALVES, ONE FOCUSED ON PIETISM AND ONE CONCERNED WITH THE VERY BROADEST SOCIAL, CULTURAL, AND ECONOMIC ASPIRATIONS OF SOCIETY. WHAT CAUSED THIS CHANGE?
I think it was reading the Bible. As I read and studied and meditated, my vision of God grew and I came to see the obvious things: that God is not just interested in religion but in the whole of life — in justice as well as justification.
I don’t see any dichotomy between the “pietistic” and social realms. To me, they’re two aspects of the same thing: a pursuit of the will of God. I have always been moved by the phrase “to hunger and thirst after righteousness”; righteousness covers both personal holiness and social justice.
SOME PEOPLE MIGHT SAY THAT YOUR COMMITMENT TO THE JUSTICE OF GOD, EXPRESSED IN SOCIAL TERMS, LED TO A WATERING DOWN OF YOUR COMMITMENT TO THE GOSPEL.
I think that’s rubbish, honestly. I remain committed to evangelism. I have had the privilege of leading more than 50 university missions all over the world, and they spanned a period of 25 years until I felt I was a little out of touch with the student generation and too old.
I can honestly say that my social concerns have not diminished my zeal for evangelism. If anything, it’s the other way round. What people could say is that I talk a lot about social action but don’t do much about it. And that is true, because my calling is to be a pastor. Although I disagree with polarization between these two, I’ve often said I do believe in specialization.
Acts 6 is the obvious biblical basis for this specialization of roles: the apostles were not willing to be distracted from the ministry of the Word and prayer. In fact, the seven were appointed to handle the care of the widows. Both those works are called diakonia, “ministry”; both required Spirit-filled people to exercise them. Both were necessary, but one was social, the other pastoral.
DON’T SOME PEOPLE FEAR THAT RENEWED EMPHASIS ON SOCIAL CONCERN MIGHT MUFFLE THE CALL TO EVANGELISM?
There are a number of mission leaders, particularly Americans, who are frightened that we want missionaries to give themselves to social-political work, which is none of their business and would distract them from their primary role in evangelism. I have no wish for missionaries to change their role. There is a real need for evangelists who are not engaged in holistic mission because their calling is evangelism. I don’t criticize Billy Graham because he simply preaches the gospel and doesn’t engage in social-political work — well, he does a bit, but not much — any more than we don’t criticize the Good Samaritan for not preaching the gospel to the man assaulted by robbers.
It’s partly our existential situation that determines what we concentrate on, partly our vocation. Everybody cannot do everything, as I keep saying to myself.
IN “ISSUES FACING CHRISTIANS TODAY” (1984), YOU SAY: “EVANGELISM IS THE MAJOR INSTRUMENT OF SOCIAL CHANGE. FOR THE GOSPEL CHANGES PEOPLE, AND CHANGED PEOPLE CAN CHANGE SOCIETY.” ISN’T THAT REALLY A RUGGEDLY INDIVIDUALISTIC PICTURE OF SOCIAL CHANGE?
I think that quote is from where I list four or five instruments for social change. I put evangelism first because Christian social responsibility depends on socially responsible Christians, and they are the fruit of evangelism.
Having said that, I would also want to make the complementary point that Christians are not the only people who have benefited or reformed society. We evangelicals do have a very naive view. Take marriage: people say, “They have got to be converted and then they’ll have a good marriage.” But there are Christians who don’t have good marriages, and there are plenty of excellent marriages among people who are not Christians. Morality and social conscience are not limited to Christian people.
WHY IS THE CHURCH SO OFTEN THE LAST TO JOIN A PROTEST MOVEMENT? THE CHURCH IN TIME MIGHT TAKE THE LEAD; AND IT MAY SPEAK WITH THE GREATEST INTEGRITY AGAINST JINGOISM OR APARTHEID OR NUCLEAR WEAPONS OR THE ABUSE OF THE ENVIRONMENT. BUT THESE MOVEMENTS ARE OFTEN STARTED BY OTHERS.
Well, that has not always been true. The slave trade is a good example and Shaftesbury’s reforms in relation to mental illness. Nevertheless, by and large what you say is true. Why? First, because we’re busy; we’re busy evangelizing and doing other things, mostly in the church. We don’t always demand our liberty from the church in order to be active in the world.
Second, we have such a strong doctrine of fellowship and are so clear about our responsibility not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers that we have seldom learned that we can be “cobelligerents,” to use Francis Schaeffer’s well-known term, even if we are not in active spiritual fellowship with one another.
SOME PEOPLE MIGHT SAY THAT THE CHURCH IS SIMPLY VERY CONSERVATIVE. IT ONLY JOINS THESE MOVEMENTS FOR CHANGE UNDER PRESSURE FROM SECULAR FORCES IN SOCIETY.
I wish it were always Christians who took the initiative in seeking needed social change. But I am still thankful when others take the initiative and Christians follow, even under secular pressure.
We must not set secular fashion and the Holy Spirit over against each other, as being always and inevitably incompatible. Public opinion isn’t always wrong. What is wrong is to bow down before it uncritically, like reeds shaken by the wind. Why should the Holy Spirit not sometimes use public opinion to bring God’s people into line? The Spirit seems to have done so on a number of occasions in the debate between science and faith.
WHAT IS THE THEOLOGICAL BASIS FOR CHRISTIAN SOCIAL INVOLVEMENT TODAY? IS IT ENOUGH TO SPEAK OF BEING “SALT AND LIGHT”?
Start with the nature of God. God is interested in and concerned about more than religion: God is the Lord of creation and the covenant. God is the lover of justice, one who protects and champions the oppressed: this is God’s nature. If this is the kind of God we have, then clearly God’s people have got to be the same.
Second, there is the doctrine of human beings, of male and female made in the image of God — the unique dignity and worth of human beings. William Temple said, “My worth is what I am worth to God, and that is a marvelous great deal, because Christ died for me.” And I would say that the ministry of Jesus in life and death exhibits the enormous value of human beings.
Then, I would want to back up this biblical theme with examples from history. Take Mother Teresa, for example, who sees a woman on the pavement of Calcutta with awful sores infested by live maggots. Mother Teresa kisses this woman and picks her up. She sees an intrinsic value in her.
That, surely, is what has motivated people. That is why the word humanization, which was first adopted in the World Council of Churches, is something we evangelicals ought to have taken up. Anything that dehumanizes human beings should be an outrage to us, because God has made them in his image. The whole concept of the rehumanization of human beings, and the deliverance of human beings from anything that dehumanizes, ought to inspire people, and has inspired people.
MAINLINE CHURCHES
DO YOU STILL THINK THE ANGLICAN CHURCH MAKES A GOOD HOME FOR EVANGELICALISM?
Yes, I think it’s a good boat to fish from, but that’s not the reason I’m a member of it.
There are three options for evangelicals in mainline denominations. The two extremes are to get out or cave in. The third is to stay in without giving in. The extremes are actually the easy options. Anybody can cave in: that’s the way of the coward, the way of the feeble mind. To cave in is to stay in but to fail to hold on to your distinctive evangelicalism. You just compromise.
To get out is to say, “I can’t bear this constant argument and controversy any longer.” That also is an easy option. I know people have done it and suffered because they have given up a secure job and salary; but it’s an easy option psychologically.
The difficult thing is to stay and refuse to give in, because then you’re always in tension with people with whom you don’t altogether agree, and that is painful.
BUT NO CHRISTIAN CAN GIVE UNQUALIFIED ALLEGIANCE TO ANY INSTITUTION. WHAT, FOR YOU, WOULD BE THE SIGNALS THAT IT IS TIME TO LEAVE THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND?
I’ve always felt that it’s unwise to publish a list of criteria in advance. Nevertheless, I’m quite happy to talk about them. I think one’s final decision to leave would be an exceedingly painful one, a situation that I cannot envisage at the moment.
I would take refuge in the teaching of the New Testament, where the apostles seem to distinguish between major and minor errors. The major doctrinal errors concern the person and work of Christ. It’s clear in 1 John that anyone who denies the divine-human person of Jesus is anti-Christ. So, if the church were officially to deny the Incarnation, it would be an apostate church and one would have to leave.
Then, there’s the work of Christ. In Galatians, if anybody denies the gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone, that is anathema: Paul calls down the judgment of God upon that person.
On the major ethical issues: the best example is the incestuous offender in 1 Corinthians 5. Paul called on the church to excommunicate him. If you want me to stick my neck out, I think I would say that if the church were officially to approve homosexual partnerships as a legitimate alternative to heterosexual marriage, this so far diverges from biblical sexual ethics that I would find it exceedingly difficult to stay. I might want to stay on and fight for a few more years, but if they persisted, I would have to leave.
EVANGELICAL FRAGMENTATION
IT SEEMS THAT EVANGELICALISM HAS FRAGMENTED INTO DIFFERENT GROUPS, WITH DIFFERENT HEROES, PUBLISHERS, AND CULTURES. HOW SHOULD WE THINK OF OURSELVES NOW?
I don’t mind plurality as long as it goes hand-in-hand with unity. But I’ve given a great deal of my life to the development and preservation of unity within the evangelical constituency. I have never believed that our differences have been great enough to warrant fragmentation. I don’t mind people founding their own societies and going after their own thing — again, it’s an example of specialization — provided they still recognize that we belong to one another.
(continued in #3722)
Copyright (c) 1995 Christianity Today, Inc./CHRISTIANITY TODAY Magazine — ctcurrmrj6T124a612g
(continuation of #3721) Interview with John Stott…
WHAT ARE THE CURRENT CAUSES OF EVANGELICAL FRAGMENTATION?
We fragment over what we regard as issues of principle, but often the real reason is personal, isn’t it? When we’re afraid, we withdraw into our own fellowships and ghettos with like-minded people where we feel secure. I’m aware of that fear in myself; it’s part of our basic human insecurity. We’re looking for contexts in which we can be supported rather than questioned.
I’m afraid that in some cases the cause of fragmentation is worse than that – - it’s a simple matter of ambition. There is a great deal of empire building among us. The only empire in which we should be interested is the kingdom of God, but I fear some people are building their own.
ON ISSUES OF PRINCIPLE, WHAT CONCERNS YOU MOST?
The uniqueness and finality of Jesus Christ in an increasingly pluralistic world is one — the debate about whether we go for exclusivism, inclusivism, or pluralism. Then there’s the homosexual question, and the whole subject of sexual ethics.
So the church must recover its prophetic voice and reject both the idea that ethics evolve and the notion that love obliges us to capitulate to the modernist view of things.
We need a voice that is essentially positive, not just negative — for example, on the family, or the joy of sexual intercourse, and so on.
I don’t know why we are always caught on the defensive and are reactive instead of proactive. I don’t think it is something in our make-up as evangelicals. I sometimes wonder if it is that God has not given us many leaders who are visionaries.
The evangelical renaissance of the last 50 years has really been one of biblical scholarship. What we have lacked is systematic or creative theologians. I believe we have one in Alister McGrath; I am sure in England we had one in Jim Packer before he left the country. But we have very few theologians who are really far-sighted and give us a vision that will unite, inspire, and enthuse us.
DOES THIS LACK OF VISION FOR THE FUTURE HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH OUR PERCEPTION OF TRUTH LODGED IN ORTHODOXY? DOES THIS MAKE IT DIFFICULT TO BE CREATIVE AND TAKE RISKS?
Yes, there is something in that. Evangelicalism is fundamentally loyal to a past revelation, and because we are tied forever to what God did and said in the historic Jesus, we look back more often than we look forward.
In my debate with David Edwards [published as “Evangelical Essentials,” InterVarsity], I drew a distinction between the liberal, the fundamentalist, and the evangelical. The liberal, to me, is like a gas-filled balloon which takes off into the ether and is not tethered to the earth in any way. The fundamentalist is like a caged bird, unable to escape at all. To me, the true evangelical is like a kite, which flies high but at the same time is always tethered. This demands a particularly unusual combination of loyalty to the past and creativity for the future.
ETERNAL PUNISHMENT
YOU HAVE FALLEN AFOUL OF SOME EVANGELICALS. SOME OF YOUR REFLECTIONS ON THE NATURE OF ETERNAL PUNISHMENT WERE CONSIDERED UNCONGENIAL TO ORTHODOXY BY SOME PEOPLE.
In “Evangelical Essentials”, I described as “tentative” my suggestion that “eternal punishment” may mean the ultimate annihilation of the wicked rather than their eternal conscious torment. I would prefer to call myself agnostic on this issue, as are a number of New Testament scholars I know. In my view, the biblical teaching is not plain enough to warrant dogmatism. There are awkward texts on both sides of the debate.
The hallmark of an authentic evangelicalism is not the uncritical repetition of old traditions but the willingness to submit every tradition, however ancient, to fresh biblical scrutiny and, if necessary, reform.
HOW WOULD YOU ADVISE THEOLOGIANS TO THINK CREATIVELY IN THE LIGHT OF ORTHODOXY?
I don’t think any of us is wise enough to express ourselves in a creative or questioning manner without first testing it within the Christian community. It is part of our loyalty to that community that we allow it to criticize or comment on what we may want to say.
DIALOGUE WITH LIBERALS
IN YOUR DEBATE WITH DAVID EDWARDS, YOU BOTH SEEMED TO REACH A GENUINE UNDERSTANDING OF AND RESPECT FOR EACH OTHER’S POSITIONS. DO YOU THINK THAT EVANGELICALS CAN LEARN FROM THE LIBERAL TRADITION?
David Edwards, a self-styled liberal, is crying out for a certain intellectual and academic freedom that can move with the times and respond to what he continually calls “the climate of educated opinion today,” without being tethered to anything more than the love of God manifested in Jesus of Nazareth. I don’t think that’s an unfair summary. But all the time he’s pulling at the tether, and that’s the great difference between us.
He would say that evangelicals have a poor doctrine of the Holy Spirit, because we don’t think the Spirit is continuing to teach and to “lead us into all the truth.” I believe that text, John 16:13, is the most misunderstood and manipulated text in the whole of the Bible, because every branch of Christendom claims it.
It’s a key text for the Roman Catholic Church. “He will lead you into all the truth.” Who is the “you” here? Roman Catholics would claim it refers to the bishops as successors of the apostles. The liberal quotes it, and the charismatic quotes it: “He’ll lead me,” they say. But even the most elementary hermeneutical principle would tell us that the “you” means the apostles. Jesus said, “I have much more to say to you, but you cannot bear it now.” Who is he addressing? The apostles. “But when the Spirit comes, he will do what I have not been able to do; he will lead you into the truth which I wanted to give you but you weren’t able to take it.” It must be the apostles. We cannot change the identity of the “you” in the middle of the sentence.
So the fulfillment of that prophecy is in the New Testament. The major ministry of the Holy Spirit has been to lead the apostles into all the truth and to give us in the New Testament this wonderful body of truth that remains our authority. That does not mean that the ministry of the Holy Spirit has ceased. It means that the role of the Holy Spirit has changed from the revelation of new truth to giving us a profounder perception and application of old truth — from revelation to illumination, if you like.
Although I may be overstating it slightly, I want to say that God has no more to teach us than he has taught us in Christ. It is inconceivable that there should be a higher revelation than God has given in his incarnate Son. But although God has no more to teach us, we have a great deal more to learn. And although he has no more to give us than he has given us in Christ, we have a great deal more to receive.
EVANGELICALS AND CATHOLICS
Some people feel that evangelicals adapt, eventually, to changing circumstances, whereas Catholicism stands firm like a rock. Those who say there is a loss of authority in our world are tending toward Rome…
Or Orthodoxy.
DO YOU THINK THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT ROME THAT IS RIGHTLY ATTRACTIVE?
Yes. The true evangelical wants both liberty and authority. We want to ask questions, to think, to pry, to peer, to probe, to ponder. We want to do all these things, but within a framework of submission to an ultimate authority. But we’re asking questions about our authority: what does it mean and how does it apply? So we experience an uneasy tension between liberty and authority.
I couldn’t find a lodging place in either Catholicism or liberalism, because one seems to major on authority with little room for liberty, while the other emphasizes liberty with very little room for authority.
AUTHENTIC CHRISTIANITY INCLUDES THIS QUOTATION: “THE WORD CHRISTIAN OCCURS ONLY THREE TIMES IN THE BIBLE. BECAUSE OF ITS COMMON MISUSE WE COULD PROFITABLY DISPENSE WITH IT.” SINCE THE WORD EVANGELICAL DOESN’T APPEAR AT ALL AND IS ALSO MISUSED, SHOULD WE DISPENSE WITH IT, TOO?
We could, in theory, for the same reason. The words that are used in the New Testament most frequently are believer, brother or sister, and child of God. There isn’t a word that the Bible itself gives us to which we have to be loyal.
But the reason I want to stick with evangelical is a historical one. It has expressed a recognizable tradition, to which I still belong (and am proud and thankful to belong), and I want to take my stand not only on Scripture but in that tradition.
DOES IT ALARM YOU TO HEAR PEOPLE CALLING THEMSELVES “POSTEVANGELICAL”?
Yes. I don’t know what they mean, but it does alarm me. If you are “post” anything, you are leaving something behind, and I want to know what it is. If it’s our many faults and failures, fine, but that’s not postevangelicalism, it’s post-twisted-evangelicalism.
WHAT ARE THE WEAKNESSES OF EVANGELICALISM?
We’ve discussed our rugged individualism and the difficulty we have in cooperating with one another. Another weakness is our dogmatism. Instead of remembering Deuteronomy 29:29, we are dogmatic about even the things that God has kept secret. We’re often not prepared to admit a certain agnosticism, which is a very evangelical thing, if we are alluding to what God has not revealed.
We have many weaknesses. I’m sure there are plenty more if I were to go on.
DO YOU THINK THAT OUR EMPHASIS ON “THE CHRISTIAN MIND” MAY HAVE PREVENTED US FROM FULLY AFFIRMING THE WISDOM TO BE FOUND OUTSIDE THE CHURCH?
What you mean is: Should we pay attention to the wisdom literature of other religions?
AND THE WISDOM OF PEOPLE WITH NO RELIGION?
Yes, we certainly should, even if with reservations and a desire to bring their thinking to the ultimate touchstone of biblical authority. The key text is John 1:9, which says that the logos, the Son of God before the Incarnation, is the true light coming into the world and giving light to everybody. I believe that is the right translation — that he is constantly coming into the world. Indeed, he has never left it, because the world was made by him, and so he is in the world. He was in the world even before he came into it in the Incarnation, and as the logos he is giving light to everybody.
So, there is a certain light of common sense, reason, and conscience that everybody has, because they’re also made in the image of God. To be sure, reason is fallen and fallible; nevertheless, it still operates.
For those two reasons, the divine logos and the human logos, if you like, we should listen respectfully to what other people are saying, even if at the end of the day we have the liberty to say, “No, that is wrong, because the Bible teaches otherwise.”
GOD AND THE POOR
Authentic Christianity records you saying in 1981: “What will posterity see as the chief Christian blind spot of the last quarter of the twentieth century? I do not know. But I suspect it will have something to do with the economic oppression of the Third World and the readiness with which Western Christians tolerate it, and even acquiesce to it.”
I did, I think, mention three blind spots. The nuclear horror was another one: evangelicals were the last people to make a statement about the immorality of weapons of indiscriminate destruction. I think the third one was the environment.
There is a great deal in the Bible about God’s concern for the poor.Poverty – not poverty in the sense of simplicity, but in the sense of lacking the basic wherewithal for survival — is not really on our evangelical conscience yet. Partly because many people have not traveled and seen oppressive poverty with their own eyes, although they have seen the pictures on television.
ARE WE TOO READY IN THE WEST TO ACCEPT THE VIEW THAT A SUCCESSFUL CHURCH IS ALSO AN AFFLUENT ONE?
Because some people see prosperity as a mark of God’s blessing, even today, they can’t come to terms with poverty. We have to have the courage to reject the health-and-wealth gospel absolutely. It’s a false gospel.
DO YOU THINK THE IDEA THAT GOD WANTS US TO BE COMFORTABLE BECAUSE HE LOVES US PRESENTS A THREAT TO A CUTTING-EDGE SPIRITUALITY?
Well, we’re sitting in a very comfortable flat as we talk, and it’s easy to say! But I do think that comfort is dangerous, and we should constantly be re-examining our lifestyle.
The New Testament is beautifully balanced on this. Paul avoids both extremes, not least in 1 Timothy 4 and 6. Asceticism is a rejection of the good gifts of the good Creator. Its opposite is materialism — not just possessing material things but becoming preoccupied with them. In between asceticism and materialism is simplicity, contentment, and generosity, and these three virtues should mark all of us.
It’s not a question of rules and regulations about our income and how many rooms or cars we have. It’s these principles of simplicity, contentment, and generosity over against covetousness, materialism, and asceticism that we have to apply to our living all the time. We need to give away what we are not using, because if we don’t use it, we don’t need it.
(continued in later article)
Copyright (c) 1995 Christianity Today, Inc./CHRISTIANITY TODAY Magazine — ctcurrmrj6T124b612g
#3722
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The Church thrives when we all find our niche.
1. One body.
a. The Spirit-filled life is one of interdependency.
b. Christians must work together.
2. Everybody is somebody in the body.
3. Dividing up the work load.
a. Spiritual gifts are manifestations of the Spirit.
b. They are for the common good of the body.
4. Refusing to exercise gifts.
a. They are robbing the Body of Christ.
b. They are forcing other members of the Body to carry their load.
c. They are dead weight on the Body, dysfunctional limbs.
d. They are out of touch with the Spirit of God.
5. Inexhaustible energy and motivation.
Either Christians will turn a blind eye to America’s moral decline, and wave their flags anyway, or they will withdraw from mainstream society into a “class of permanent exiles.”
Stepping up to the platform at the Southern Baptist Convention a few years ago, I was met by a heaving sea of tiny American flags. Seventeen thousand delegates were cheering the speaker who preceded me, Ollie North.
A blend of Christianity and Americana is a staple in our country’s heartland. On any Fourth of July, thousands of churches host God-and-country rallies. And I understand the sentiment. As an ex-marine captain, I thrill to hear the Marine Corps Hymn, and to belt out (off-key) “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” Evangelicals have been the backbone of America’s civil religion: those virtues that bind a pluralistic society together. Admittedly, civil religion can be dangerous when it substitutes for true faith or baptizes the state. But at its best, writes Leroy Rouner of Boston University, it “has been a means whereby Christian loyalties and values have been indigenized and become effective in a modern, pluralistic society.” But not for much longer, it seems.
In the Baylor Law Review, David Smolin of Samford University raises a troubling question for evangelicals today: Is American civil religion still viable? Or has America moved so far from “Christian loyalties and values” as to fracture a two-hundred-year tradition of religious patriotism?
Smolin cites the issue of abortion, where the Supreme Court has abandoned any notion of a higher law — whether divine law in revelation or human law in the Constitution. In Roe v. Wade, Smolin writes that abortion “rights” were based on the arbitrary will of judges and hence became “lawless.”
In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Court went further: It transformed abortion from an implied privacy right into an expressed liberty — sweepingly interpreted as “the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” But if laws may not interfere with an individual’s beliefs about “existence” and “meaning,” then laws may not cover anything at all. Except for trivial procedural rules, all laws, tangentially at least, touch upon larger beliefs about right and wrong and the meaning of life. Hence, Casey undercuts the basis for law altogether.
Is it any wonder Christians feel increasingly alienated? In “The Naked Public Square,” Richard Neuhaus says that if laws do not reflect “basic propositions about right and wrong, good and evil, they will be condemned as illegitimate.” That’s exactly what many Christians are coming to believe about the laws of the land they love.
More disturbing, our political opponents throw the same charge back — arguing that Christian involvement in public life is itself illegitimate. Liberal political theory contemplates a public square where all arguments rely on universal, publicly accessible reasons. But particularist religious beliefs rely on claims of divine authority not shared by all, Smolin writes. Hence, Christians joining the abortion debate are denounced as “illegitimate political participants, and essentially ‘lawless,’ in the sense of operating outside the rules of the political system.” Christians are becoming political outcasts.
This was the clear message of Madsen v. Women’s Health Center, Inc., where the Court created a 36-foot buffer zone around an abortion clinic designed to exclude pro-life protesters, while leaving abortion supporters free to proclaim their message. Madsen exposed the Court’s blatant lawlessness: It abandoned equal justice under the law simply to silence pro-life activists. As Justice Scalia noted in dissent, the Court apparently felt anti-abortion protesters “must be taught a lesson”: that their contribution to public discourse is illegitimate.
How will religious patriots respond to this growing alienation? If the historic link between faith and country snaps, Smolin predicts two possible outcomes among religious patriots. On one hand, “the religion will accommodate itself to the patriotism” — that is, Christians will define deviancy down, turn a blind eye to America’s moral decline, and wave their flags anyway. Otherwise, “the patriotism will give way to the religion” — that is, Christians will withdraw from mainstream society into a “class of permanent exiles.” There may, in fact, be other choices (Christians in every age are called to remain prophetically involved in the state), but Smolin is correct in warning against too comfortable an alignment with a system that has become lawless.
An important historical precedent comes from Germany, half a century ago. Under far harsher circumstances, 139 German church leaders proclaimed independence from both the state and a co-opted church. Adopted on May 29, 1934, the Barmen Declaration contained no political references but asserted the independent role of the church in public life and led to the formation of the Confessing Church under Niemoller and Bonhoeffer.
The coming election will strain the faltering alliance between faith and patriotism even further. The Democratic party is already committed to abortion “rights,” and any Republican candidate will be under enormous pressure to race to the “inclusive” center — which means not rocking the boat on Casey and Madsen.
If this happens, our God-and-country rallies will become exercises in nostalgia. The America we love will live only in our memories. And we may discover that we are closer to Barmen than to the triumph of the Religious Right.
Copyright (c) 1996 Christianity Today, Inc./CHRISTIANITY TODAY Magazine April 29, 1996, Vol. 40, No. 5, Page 64 ctap2996mrj6T50646417
It's been said that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Yet how often do we ignore the hurting people around us?
Sermon in Lord's Prayer series. Thy will be done on earth. Luke 4:14ff
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HEAVEN ON EARTH
===============
I. Heaven on earth.
II. How the Kingdom will come.
A. Three main views.
B. Are Evangelical Christians conflicted?
III. Caught between two kingdoms.
A. The Kingdom comes two ways.
B. Related to a basic problem of prayer.
C. We do not live by logic, but by faith.
IV. What can Christians accomplish?
A. People can be changed.
B. Society can be transformed.
V. Revolutionary faith.
A. Secular culture wants us to conform.
B. Christian counter-culture should change this focus.
VI. We don't necessarily win in the end.
#3852
*
A humorous tale on the subject of service:
Several years ago in Mississippi, a doctor taught a Red Cross course in emergency medical assistance to a group of ladies from First Church. One evening a serious accident occurred in front of the home of one of these ladies.
At the next Red Cross class, that lady described the accident. "It was horrible," she exclaimed. "There was blood on the street, bruised bodies, and broken bones. I was so glad to have had your course on emergency medical assistance."
"Were you able to use what I taught you?" the doctor asked.
"Yes," she replied. "I put my head between my legs and breathed deeply, and never once felt as though I would faint."
[see #3965 for originating article on preaching with stories.]
=============================================
Another version from Preaching Now newsletter:
Adrian Rogers told the story of a lady who took a course in first aid: “They were having testimonials about first aid, and she stood up and said, ‘I want to give a testimony. The other day out in front of my house, there was an automobile accident. An old man driving his car lost control, went over the curb, and hit an oak tree head-on. He was thrown out into the street. His skull was fractured, he had compound fractures in his limbs, and he was pumping his life’s blood out on the asphalt.’ She said, ‘It was horrible, but I remembered my first aid. I remembered if I would put my head between my knees I wouldn’t faint.’
“That’s the kind of Christianity a lot of people desire. We just want to put our head between our knees and say, ‘Oh, I’m so glad I’m a Christian, so I can live in this horrible world.’ It is a horrible world, and our Lord has put us here as His representatives. Opportunities to serve Him are everywhere.”
________
Adrian Rogers, WHAT EVERY CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO KNOW: ESSENTIAL TRUTHS FOR GROWING YOUR FAITH; submitted by Steve Eutsler.
MONASTERY, HERMIT, DENY WORLD.
It is further objected that he hath left to us no example of that which by many is esteemed the only religious state of life, viz.: perfect retirement from the world, for the more devout serving of God and freeing us from the temptations of the world -- such as is that of monks and hermits. This perhaps may seem to some a great oversight and omission. But our Lord in great wisdom thought fit to give us a pattern of a quite different sort of life, which was, not to fly the conversation of men and to live in a monastery or a wilderness, but to do good among men, to live in the world with great freedom and with great innocence. He did indeed sometimes retire himself for the more free and private exercise of devotion, as we ought to do; but he passed his life chiefly in the conversation of men, that they might have all the benefit that was possible of his instruction and example. We read that "he was carried into the wilderness to be tempted," but not that he lived there to avoid temptation. He hath given us an example of denying the world without leaving it.
... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Sermons
#4295
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Sermon in Philippians series. Life and death. Philippians 1:20-26
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I'D RATHER BE DEAD
==================
I. How do you feel about death?
II. Death is wonderful!
A. Not always the Bible view.
B. Paul preferred death. 1:23
III. Life is just as good. 1:22
A. Life means being productive for Jesus.
B. Everyone needs a reason to live.
IV. How should we face life and death issues?
A. Be positive about death.
B. Count your blessings.
C. In America we must have a better attitude toward living.
1) Paul's secret was focusing on others.
2) We choose life because others need us.
V. Get a motivation.
A. "For me, to live is ____________________________."
B. Are you living for Christ?
#4300
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Nathan Chapman was the first American soldier killed by hostile fire in Afghanistan. He was one of America's elite Green Berets, on a strategic mission in dangerous territory when he died. I had a chance to watch some of the memorial service in his honor. The chapel was crowded with grim-faced Special Forces soldiers and many who loved this man. He had been there, serving his country, in some of the most difficult assignments of the last decade, including Panama and Haiti and Afghanistan. During the service, he was greatly praised by those who knew him, including references to the fact that he was a follower of Jesus Christ. Several of them cited Nathan Chapman's personal motto - one he lived by volunteering to go where he felt he could make the greatest difference. His motto was only five words, but still very challenging: "Stand up and do something!"
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stand Up And Do Something."
This authentic American hero issued a challenge to all of us with those words - don't be content to just be a spectator. There's too much to do. Get in the game! It's the kind of challenge that comes from the One who is Commander-in-Chief for every follower of Jesus Christ. Except God puts it in the form of a bold question in our word for today from the Word of God.
In Isaiah 6:8, the prophet says, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!' He said, 'Go and tell this people...'" Well, apparently, things were pretty much the same with God's ancient people as they are with His people today - there were lots of people willing to sit and watch, but not many who were willing to go and tell.
The Lord has so much work to do - in your church, in your community, in the lives of people who don't know Jesus died for them, among the hurting, the hungry, the helpless. But as He surveys all the massive needs in our broken and sinful world, He cries out today as He did in Isaiah's day - "Whom shall I send? Who will go for Me?" Perhaps people like you and me are God's only plan for getting His work done on this planet. But too many of us are only willing to be spiritual consumers -taking all the blessing we can get - but we don't want to be spiritual producers - getting involved, taking responsibility, making a real difference. In Nathan Chapman's words - stand up and do something!
Jesus has all the fans He needs - Christians who are willing to sit in the stands, cheer for His cause, watch the show, occasionally criticize those who are actually in the game, and passively play church. But a passive faith is a boring faith ... an unsatisfying faith. Jesus talked about a heartbreaking shortage that can cost people heaven - "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few." So much to do, so few people who will get in the game. Then He said, "Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers." (Matthew 9:37-38) Now, that word "send out" actually means to "forcibly expel." It may be that your Lord is even now trying to pick you up and throw you into an assignment for Him -something eternal you can do with your life. The only right answer is Isaiah's answer, "Here am I ... send me!"
Maybe it's time for you to say, "Lord, I've been a taker for a long time. I've been a taker long enough. I'm ready to be a giver now. I've put other agendas ahead of Your agenda, but no longer. It's time for me to stand up and do something!"
________________
Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. 'Practical Answers to Real Life Issues'
*
WISHBONES, JAWBONES, BACKBONES:
The body is made up largely of bones---about 200 of them, classified according to shape. The church is also made up of bones, classified according to use. There are three kinds:
First, “Wishbones”. You know this kind. They wish for greater things for the church. They wish for larger attendance. They wish for more souls to be saved. “Wishbones” they're languid. They're listless. The only thing they deny themselves are work and effort to make their wishes come true. Rocking-chair Christians! Drawing-room Christians!
Then there are the “Jawbones”. Nothing slow or listless about this kind. They work up and down at great speed. They criticize. They gossip. They pick flaws. They tell how it should be done. In their wake, follows dissension, discouragement and disease. Verily, it taketh a Samson to handle this class and turn them to some good use.
But the third class is the one we like to think of -- they are the “Backbones”. There is work to be done, the backbones do it. There are meetings to attend, the backbones are there. Oh, backbones! If we were poets we would write about thee! If we were singers we would chant thy praises! If we were artists we would paint thy lovely likeness! But being merely humans, we can only love thee.
___________
Author Unknown
After reading the above, into what classification do you fit? Let us hope that we fit the last---the BACKBONES! If not at the present, let us work to make it so. WISHBONES and JAWBONES do not make the cause of the Lord grow and prosper. BACKBONES truly are the “backbone” of the church!
[Holwick – the speaker at my public high school graduation in 1974 used this story as the basis of her message and illustrated it by pulling various bones out of her pocket]
Sometimes you'll hear someone called a “Renaissance man.” That means he's a man of many interests, gifts and pursuits - skilled in many areas. If there is such a thing as a “Renaissance boy,” I think our five-year-old grandson might be one. He's interested in so many things - and actually, he's good in a lot of them. To round out the other areas of his life, he recently got involved in a soccer league for kids his age. Which makes his mother a “soccer mom,” I guess. Which means everybody wants her vote. Right? Well, our grandson didn't have the benefit of having an older sibling to learn from as some other members of his little team did. The soccer learning curve for him was a little steep, but he's been doing well. But something really special happened in one of the last games of the season. The team's two little stars came late - players who the others tend to lean on. But they weren't there to lean on. Now it was clearly up to kids who were usually in the shadow of those stars. Well, our favorite soccer player really stepped up. Suddenly, he was more focused, more aggressive than he'd been all season - and right away he scored two goals for his team, and they won that night.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Your Time to Shine.”
I guess our grandson looked around and said, “Well, if it is to be, it's up to me!” And suddenly he stepped up to make a difference like he'd never made before. It may be that time in the game for you right now - time to step up and really make a difference.
You've got a great example to follow in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Samuel 17, beginning with verse 23. The Israelis and Philistines are lined up facing one another on opposite sides of a valley. Every day the Philistine giant comes out and he challenges the Israelites to send out a man to fight him, with the people of the loser serving the people of the winner from that day on. Young David, the youngest brother in his family, arrives to bring food to his warrior brothers just as Goliath is coming out to issue his challenge for the fortieth day in a row.
The Bible says, “Goliath ... shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear ... David said to Saul, 'Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.'“ None of the big varsity players in their nice uniforms will get in the game - so the kid does, with just a slingshot. He doesn't have the training the others do, he doesn't have the experience, he doesn't have the weapons, but he's willing to step up because he believes, as he tells Goliath, “The battle is the Lord's.” And Goliath went down because an unlikely, seemingly unqualified, hero stepped up.
This is a time when the Goliaths of hell are holding the field all around us. Not because the darkness is so strong, but because no one will step up and fight the battles. Right now God is summoning you, as unlikely and unqualified as you may feel, to get out of the shadows and onto the front lines. Someone has to take that assignment no one else is rising to. Someone needs to step up and change the atmosphere in your church, or in your school, or in your home, or where you work. Someone has to fight for your marriage. Someone has to be the one to confront what's wrong, to bring people together, to lead a prayer effort, to talk about Jesus.
In Isaiah's day when God asked, “Who will go for us?” Isaiah answered, “Here am I, send me” (Isaiah 6:8). Maybe you've been holding back saying, “Here am I, send him.” But God is summoning you to step up for this one - like our grandson on that soccer field, making a greater difference than he'd ever made before because he knew it was up to him this time! And this assignment from God is up to you - even if there are defiant giants standing in the way. It's your time to shine, and you will, because the battle is the Lord's!
________
Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"
*
[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #3134]
In one of the rooms of the Tursi Palace, now devoted to municipal uses, is preserved under a seal, a precious Guarneri violin of Paganini. Kocian, the Bohemian violinist, visiting Genoa, asked to be allowed to play on the instrument. The mayor granted the request and invited members of the aristocracy and several musicians. Kocian played one of Bach's airs and a concerto of Paganini. The audience was greatly impressed. The violin was then replaced in the glass box, where it has rested sixty five years, and was again sealed in the presence of the spectators.
It is rather a pity that this magnificent violin, which was thrilled at the touch of a masters hand, should live upon its past glories and be locked in its glass case. Yet, many a so-called child of God is like that. For the music which might thrill in their lives and the comfort and inspiration which might come from their presence, if the obligation is not met, there will be an accounting at the judgment seat of Christ.
________
J. Wilbur Chapman
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Another version by Gerald Rodgers:
The great violinist, Nicolo Paganini, willed his marvelous violin to Genoa - the city of his birth - but only on condition that the instrument never be played. It was an unfortunate condition, for it is a peculiarity of wood that as long as it is used and handled, it shows little wear. As soon as it is discarded, it begins to decay.
The exquisite mellow-toned violin now has become worm-eaten in its beautiful case, valueless except as a relic. The moldering instrument is a reminder that a life withdrawn from service to others loses its meaning.
How well Jesus' strong emphasis upon service is illustrated! In order to retain our value and our worth and not degenerate into a worthless relic, we should serve and remain active.
“But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” (Matthew 20:26-27).
Dressed as a rag doll, Melody Schick, 24, sat with a teddy bear cradled in her left arm and staring into space from a revolving platform. Only her eyes moved. Then, five hours and 43 boring minutes later she rose slowly and tried to smile. Miss Schick was seeking to beat the world record for sitting still! The previous record was 5 hours and 32 minutes. The record attempt took place at a Dallas shopping center as hundreds of shoppers watched.
There are surely some saints in the Church who could compete for that record. They have been sitting still -- metaphorically if not literally -- for years. They never become involved in the work of the local church. They criticize the church frequently, but they never participate in the program.
Speaking at National Football League pre-game chapels has always been an honor. You should see me in a roomful of those pro football giants - when I stand next to one of them, it looks like "Bring Your Son to Work" day. But over the years, we've gotten to know some of those players - so it's been very special to take their gift of tickets and go watch them play. Having been with them on the morning of game day, it's clear that this is much more than a game to them - you can tell by their seriousness and their intensity. Which is in total contrast to the fans I then get to sit next to at the game. They're cooking out, drinking, then they go in the stadium and cheering - or jeering - the home team.
This one very obnoxious guy kept jumping up and criticizing almost every play our team ran. He was such an expert - and so annoyingly loud about it. Now, I know a little of what's going on for those players - this is their livelihood, their profession, their future, their body that's on the line. For Mr. Fan, hey, this is just a party with no pain. I can't tell you how badly I just wanted to stand up and shout, "Hey, buddy! Why don't you get out of the stands and get in the game!"
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Get in the Game!"
I can't help but wonder if Jesus isn't trying to say that to some of us. Maybe to you. "Get out of the stands ... and get in the game!" The "game" is His work on this planet - in your church, your community, in some ministry, in trying to help some people you know be in heaven with you.
The problem is that most of us like to be just fans when it comes to really getting seriously involved in the life-changing work of Jesus Christ. We like to go to the games, eat the refreshments, enjoy the camaraderie of fellow believers, cheer for Jesus, and sometimes criticize those who are on the field trying to win the game. Oh, we like being spiritual consumers - taking in all the blessings and good feelings and the fellowship of being Christians. We aren't inclined to be spiritual producers - taking on some serious "make it happen" responsibility in the work of God.
We're just like some folks God challenged in our word for today from the Word of God. God's ancient people are approaching their Promised Land. Their taking of that land is going to involve an "all hands on deck" assault on the cities and the armies of Canaan - whom God has promised to put in their hands. But the "Gadites" and the "Reubenites" have another idea. They don't want to cross the Jordan and join this battle - they ask Moses if they can just settle down with their families on this side of the Jordan River. Moses' answer is classic: "Moses said to the Gadites and Reubenites, 'Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here?'" (Numbers 32:6)
That may be what your Lord is asking you today. With battles going on for people's lives, with way too few of His people entering the battle - "Shall you sit here while a war for lives is going on?" He's got a job for you to do. And putting checks in the offering plate so others can serve just isn't going to cut it with Jesus. He's calling you to leave your comfortable seat in the stands; to leave the convenience and the safety of limited involvement. You can't delegate spiritual responsibility to the "pro"s that the church has hired, and Jesus is summoning you to join Him in the spiritual rescue mission for which He died.
You've been in the stands long enough, and it's getting very late in the game. There's ground to gain; there's a battle to win. Get in the game!
________________
Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. 'Practical Answers to Real Life Issues'
*
A group of young people were touring overseas. One day, one of the girls in the group noticed a little girl, who was filthy from playing in the dirt. The girl asked the guide, “Why doesn't that little girl's mother clean her up?” The guide replied, “That little girl's mother probably loves her, but apparently she doesn't hate the dirt. You hate the dirt, but you don't love her enough to go over there and clean her up. Until hate for the dirt and love for that child are in the same person, the little girl probably will remain dirty.”
________
Randy Brantley, “Speaking to Youth,” Proclaim (Nashville: Sunday School Board, Oct-Dec 1996) 18
(The story was told by Dr. Herbert Schaefer, a Canadian missionary working in India and Hong Kong for some thirty years. He is now retired.)
One morning, a debate broke out in a farm. The debate was raised between a hen and a pig. The topic of the debate is, “Involvement is equal to Commitment.” The hen argued, “if someone is willing to get involved, that means he is ready to commit.”
The pig said, “No, I don't think so. Getting involved is far from ready to commit.”
As they were arguing and it seems no one could totally convince the others, they heard the voice of the farmer's wife. “Honey, what would you like for you breakfast? Ham or Egg?” The farmer replied, “I prefer ham.”
Then the pig told the hen, “You see, when you laid an egg, you are involved in the breakfast. But we are committed to the breakfast when we are eaten as ham.”
Are we just getting involved in the activities of the church? Or, are we ready to commit and sacrifice ourselves for the service of the Lord?
Jesus said, “For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)
=================
Another version:
A pig and a hen were walking down the road when they saw a poster advertising the forthcoming harvest supper. It said that ham and eggs would be served. The hen said to the pig, “How nice it is that we can help the minister.” But the pig replied to the hen, “It's all very well for you - you'll be making a contribution, but I'll be making a sacrifice!”
__________
1500 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, compiled by Robert Backhouse
==================
Still another version:
The Rev. Robert Ard, president of the Black Leadership Council, explains the difference between involvement and commitment: "When you look at a plate of ham and eggs, you know the chicken was involved. But the pig was committed."
-- Tom Blair in San Diego Union.
See: Romans 12:1
*
We get our share of storms where we live. And we've got our share of trees. So, you can probably figure out the rest. After almost every storm, I make the rounds in the yard, picking up the souvenirs the storm left behind. I haul all those downed branches to my special brush pile place, even if they've got leaves on them. I mean, even if I am a city boy, I know there's no use planting those branches in the ground and hoping they'll grow more leaves. In fact, those leaves they have are soon going to fall off. As soon as the branch gets separated from the tree, of course, it starts dying.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Built To Be Attached.”
You know, branches are built to be attached, and they start dying when they're not. Actually, believers in Jesus Christ are built to be attached - to His Body which He called the Church. And when they're not, they start dying.
It could be that a storm came along and you ended up disconnected from the life of the church. And you haven't really reconnected. Our word for today from the Word of God explains the importance that Jesus places on our staying connected to our spiritual family. In Hebrews 10, beginning with verse 23, He calls us to “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess.” In other words, to take no detours spiritually.
Apparently, He doesn't want us to try that while being spiritual “Lone Rangers.” He says, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” Now, in a church family, there's accountability to other believers, not just each of us doing what we feel is right. We see the ways others are loving and serving Jesus and it “spurs us on” to do the same thing.
So, as the passage continues, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” In other words, the closer we get to Jesus coming back, the more important it is that we stick together - partly because it's going to get harder and harder to know and do the right thing. We can help each other with that.
Obviously, God intended for following Jesus to be a team sport. But maybe you've distanced yourself from the team and you're trying to make it a solo sport. It doesn't work that way. Jesus set up His church as the place where you can worship Him with your spiritual family, where you can serve Him, where you participate in the spiritual obediences like communion and baptism, where you hook up with people you need and people who need you.
Maybe you've been hurt by fellow believers, disillusioned, even embittered. But you can't just stay there. You may find a different body of believers to be a part of, but not being a part of one is just not an option for a disciple who claims to be following Christ. If your eyes have been on people, or on your wounds, on the things that are wrong with a church, well then, you will tend to directly disobey our Lord and “give up the habit of meeting together.”
The Church is not perfect because it's full of spiritual caterpillars who - just like you and me - are half caterpillar and on their way to becoming butterflies. But the church is what Jesus has chosen to work through on earth. You can't remain a disconnected branch, no matter how bad the storm was. The church of Jesus is your spiritual home on earth. If you've been away, it's time to come home.
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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #16834]
If you've ever listened to the fans at a college or professional football game, you know some of them are the ultimate experts at what their team is doing wrong and what they should be doing. It's just amazing some of those fans haven't been hired as head coach of your team. After speaking for professional football chapels and getting to know some of the players, I was less than patient with their critics all around me in the stands. I knew those guys on the field. I knew they had everything on the line when they played and that the only heroes were in the game, not in the stands. Sometimes, I just wanted to stand up and say to one of those guys - oh, by the way, I never did since they were all bigger than I am - “Hey! Why don't you get out of the stands and get in the game!”
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Too Many Fans.”
I've got to wonder if Jesus isn't trying to say something like that to many of His “fans” - which, by the way, He has plenty of. There are millions of believers who are willing to go to Jesus' meetings, give to Jesus' causes, and cheer for the ones that are on the field - oh yes, and sometimes criticize from the stands how the players are playing. But Jesus doesn't need any more fans - He needs players to join Him in winning some victories; some lives for the cause that He gave His life for!
In Numbers 32, where we find our word for today from the Word of God, there is a sobering picture of the spiritual dynamics in Christ's church today. The Jews are preparing to go in and challenge the Canaanites for the Promised Land. The Jewish tribes of Reuben and Gad had been told that the land God was giving them was on the East side of the Jordan, the safe side. All the other tribes would have to go in and fight for their land on the other side of the river. The “East-siders” had this great idea - “Moses, how about we just stay here with our families and set up our little homes and farms?”
Moses' reply in Numbers 32:6 comes echoing down through the centuries as a wakeup call for complacent Christians today. He said, “Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here?” Man, I can almost hear Jesus saying that to us today. “Should persecuted Christians and struggling missionaries take all the risks and fight all the battles to reach the lost - while you sit here?” Or, in other words, “Get out of the stands and get in the game!”
Later, Moses said that if they failed to leave their comfort zone and go with their brothers into the combat zone, they should “be sure your sin will find you out.” (Numbers 32:23) Did you know that's where that verse comes from? And sin that will find you out is the sin of complacency and passivity when there are battles to fight for the Lord!
Today, the battle isn't for land, but it's for lives - people who will spend eternity in either heaven or hell. People all around us and half a world away. Jesus' Great Commission to get out His Gospel cannot be delegated to a few spiritual daredevils called missionaries. The Great Commission is always first person singular! Jesus intends for the cost and the risk of rescuing a dying world to be equally shared by all those who belong to Him! The Son of God sacrificed everything for it, and many have, over the years - including this past year - sacrificed their lives for it. And many others have given their whole lives to this greatest cause in the universe.
So who are we to just sit passively in the stands, simply cheering and even jeering? So many of our brothers and sisters have gone to war. How can we sit here and ask them to make all the sacrifices? There's a war to win for Jesus Christ! It's time to get out of your comfort zone and join your Savior in the combat zone!
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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #17770]
You've probably seen the G. I. Joe action dolls. I never bought one of those for my boys - but I did buy a special version of G. I. Joe lately - as an object lesson for our "On Eagles' Wings" team of young Native Americans. This particular limited edition doll portrays a group of unsung heroes from World War II called the Navajo Code Talkers. They were soldiers who worked in wartime communications in some of the fiercest battles of the Pacific campaign. They used their Navajo language to communicate in a code that baffled the Japanese. Some surviving Code Talkers were recently honored by the President in Washington. The Code Talker G. I. Joe actually says a few Navajo phrases when you pull his string. I wanted to use that doll as an example of how some young Native Americans helped determine the outcome of the battle - and how God wants to use young Native Americans to do that today in the battle for their people. Now my Navajo G. I. Joe has stayed unopened in his box for nearly a year since I bought him - I mean, they're pretty rare. Because he's almost a collector's item, I didn't really want to take Joe out of his box. But you can't get him to do what he does if you leave him in the box.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Getting Out Of The Box."
That G. I. Joe doll could not really be of any service until he was out of his box. Neither can you.
Someone who's reading or listening today has been experiencing a deep stirring in their heart recently - an undefined restlessness, a desire to make a greater difference, a sense that God is up to something. It could well be that your Lord is summoning you to join Him in a great work He wants to do. But you can't do it if you stay in the box you've been in.
It's always been that way for people Jesus wanted to use to do something important for Him. It started with the very first people to follow Him. It's in our word of today from the Word of God in Mark 1, beginning in verse 16. "As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 'Come, follow Me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed Him."
Notice: Jesus calls Simon and Andrew as they are in the middle of the box where they've spent their whole adult lives - they're fishermen, and Jesus calls them out right in the middle of their fishing, right where they work, right at the source of their security and their identity. He says, "Leave that, come with Me, and do something a lot more important." He may be saying that to you.
Matthew was called to follow Jesus right at this tax collector's booth, the place that was his security and identity. Abraham was called from the cozy place where he lived with his family and their fortune. Over and over, Jesus says, "I have got great plans for you, but you'll have to leave the comfort zone that you've been living in all this time."
So God's greater work for you will almost surely require that you move beyond where you're comfortable - financially comfortable, maybe socially comfortable, maybe where you're methodologically comfortable, or geographically comfortable. But when you make that move, you are now flying in the Jesus Zone, the Miracle Zone, the Life-Enlargement Zone.
With my soldier doll, I had a warrior in a box where it was safe and protected - and useless. He had to get of his box to be of any service. So do you.
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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"
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Once Upon A Pew
Once upon a pew I sat
And heard the preacher ask,
"We need someone to teach a class,
Now who will take this task?"
Then God sat down beside me there
And said, "Son, that's for you."
"But, Lord, to stand before a class
Is one thing I can't do.
Now Bill would be the man to call,
There's nothing he won't do.
I'd rather hear the lesson taught
From here upon my pew."
Once upon a pew I sat
And heard the preacher ask,
"We need someone to lead the songs,
Now who will take this task?"
Then God sat down beside me there
And said, "Son, that's for you."
"But Lord, to sing before a crowd
Is one thing I can't do.
Now Brother King will do the job,
There's nothing he won't do.
I'd rather hear the music played
From here upon my pew."
Once upon a pew I sat
And heard the preacher ask,
"I need someone to keep the door,
Now who will take this task?"
Then God sat down beside me there
And said, "Son, that's for you."
"But saying things to strangers, Lord,
Is one thing I can't do.
Now Tom can talk to people, Lord,
There's nothing he won't do.
I'd rather someone come to me
And greet me on the pew."
As years just seemed to pass me by,
I heard that voice no more.
Until one night I closed my eyes
And woke on heaven's shore.
'Twas four of us together there
To face eternity.
God said, "I need just three of you
To do a job for me."
"O Lord, I cried, "I'll do the job,
There's nothing I won't do."
But Jesus said, "I'm sorry, Friend,
In Heaven there's no pew."
- Author Unknown
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Napoleon once pointed to a map of China and said, "There lies a sleeping giant. If it ever wakes up, it will be unstoppable." Today the American church is a sleeping giant. Each Sunday, church pews are filled with members who are doing nothing with their faith except "keeping" it.
The designation active member in most churches simply means those who attend regularly and financially support the church. Not much more is expected. But God has far greater expectations for every Christian. He expects all Christians to use their gifts and talents in ministry. If we can ever awaken and unleash the massive talent, resources, creativity and energy found in the typical local church, Christianity will explode with growth at an unprecedented rate.
I believe that the greatest need in evangelical churches is the release of members for ministry. George Gallup once took a survey and discovered that only 10 percent of American church members are active in any kind of personal ministry. He also discovered that 40 percent of all members have expressed an interest in having a ministry. They would like to be involved in ministry but they have never been asked or they don't know how.
I think healthy leadership nurtures a healthy church by creating an intentional, well-planned system for uncovering, mobilizing and supporting the giftedness of its members. People must be given a simple process that they can follow which will lead them to deeper commitment and greater service for Christ. They need a track on which they can move forward.
Get them into the ballgame!
At Saddleback Valley Community Church, we call this our "Life Development Process." By using the baseball diamond as a visual illustration of where people are in their spiritual progress, everyone can know how far they've come and how far they have to go. Do you remember Abbott and Costello's famous routine "Who's on First?" Many churches have no idea. At Saddleback we know exactly who's on first, on second, on third, and who has made it home. We celebrate every time someone moves forward to the next base. This encourages commitment.
At first base, we teach the basics of membership; at second base, we teach the basics of spiritual discipline; at third base, we teach people how to identify their "shape" for ministry; and when they hit home plate, we get members involved in missions. Our entire structure is purpose driven, designed to nurture a healthy church.
Your coaching must provide application
Many churches make the common mistake of emphasizing Bible knowledge to the exclusion of teaching the practical application of that knowledge. For instance, church members are made to feel guilty for a weak prayer life but no one takes the time to explain how to make a prayer list, how to praise God's character by using his names, and how to intercede for others.
Exhortation without explanation leads to frustration. Whenever we exhort people to do something, we are responsible to explain exactly how to do it.
Here are five questions you need to ask about your Christian education program:
1. Are people learning the content and meaning of the Bible?
2. Are people seeing themselves, life and other people more clearly from God's perspective?
3. Are people's values becoming more aligned with God's values?
4. Are people becoming more skilled in serving God?
5. Are people becoming more like Christ?
Don't put a pitcher in the outfield
One of the most common excuses people give for not getting involved in ministry is "I just don't have any abilities to offer." Nothing could be further from the truth. Many national studies have proven that the average person possesses from 500 to 700 skills!
The real problem is twofold. First, people need some process of skill identification. Most people are using abilities they are unaware they have. Second, they need a process to help them match their abilities with the right ministry.
There are people in your church with all kinds of abilities that are not being put to use: recruiting, researching, writing, landscaping, interviewing, promoting, decorating, planning, entertaining, repairing, drawing, and even feeding. These abilities should not be wasted. "There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord" (1 Corinthians 12:5).
Your placement process should focus on empowering people, not filling positions. Focus on the shape of the individual, not the needs of the institution, and you'll have a much higher success rate with those you place in ministry. Remember, ministry is about people, not programs.
The best way to learn the game is to play it
Once people begin serving in a ministry, they need on-the-job training. On-the-job training is far more important and effective than pre-service training. At Saddleback we require only minimal pre-service training. We feel that people don't even know the right questions to ask until they are actually involved in ministry.
In our church we want to involve people as quickly as possible in ministry. A long, drawn-out pre-service training course causes most people to lose their initial enthusiasm. We wear them out even before they get started. I've found that the kind of people who are willing to train for 52 weeks before beginning to serve are usually not very effective when they finally start serving. They tend to be professional students who enjoy learning about ministry more than doing it. We want people to dive in and get wet. Then they are highly motivated to learn how to swim! The best way to begin is to begin!
The best-kept secret in the church is that people are dying to make a contribution with their lives. We are made for ministry! The church that understands this, and makes it possible for every member to express his or her shape in ministry, will experience amazing vitality, health and growth. The sleeping giant will be awakened and it will be unstoppable.
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Tomorrow, Americans will elect a new president -- one who will influence the direction in which the country's moral compass will point. But according to a report cited by Focus on the Family, only a third of evangelical Christians -- those who ought to be most concerned with moral values -- will actually vote.
When I first heard those figures, I couldn't believe it. It's appalling! Of all people, Christians ought to go to the polls because voting is not just a right: It is a spiritual duty.
This was a message Rev. Curt Young gave his flock a few Sundays ago. His church, in Silver Spring, Maryland, is just a stone's throw from the White House, the Supreme Court, and the halls of Congress. And Young wanted his congregation to know that the Scriptures have a lot to say about our responsibility to choose wise and ethical leaders.
For example, in Deuteronomy 16, Moses tells the Israelites: "You shall appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes ... and they shall judge the people."
The term "judges and officials" covered all government leaders at that time. Besides hearing cases and rendering decisions, they set public policy. They could even call out the military in times of crisis.
Given these heavy responsibilities, it is not surprising that the criteria for selecting judges were strict. They were to be men who feared God, who were committed to the truth, and who hated dishonest gain. Judges were sternly warned: "You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality; and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous."
When Moses commanded the Israelites to appoint God-fearing leaders, he wasn't just talking to a handful of citizens who felt like getting involved, Young says. The command was directed to all citizens. And modern Christians are under the same obligation to choose leaders who love justice.
Our commitment to righteousness ought to come before our commitment to our pocketbooks, or Social Security, or Medicare.
Ironically, the Scriptures warn that if we value prosperity over justice, we'll end up losing both. Moses told the Israelites to "follow justice and justice alone." He follows this command with a promise: Commit to justice, and the people will "live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you." In other words, if you want prosperity, choose leaders committed to justice.
This is very important at a time when injustice is rolling down like a mighty river. Every day, unjust laws are passed -- laws that threaten the unborn, undermine the family, and endanger the elderly. Laws that protect pornographers and threaten our religious freedoms.
Romans 13 teaches that God ordained government to restrain evil and promote the good. In the Old Testament, God often sent people to find particular individuals to lead. That was the case with the prophet Samuel, who chose David to lead Israel. Today, in our modern democracy, free citizens act as God's agents for choosing leaders, and they do it by voting. These are leaders who are ordained to provide God's function for government, so we have a polling trust.
And there's no excuse for those who don't take the trouble to vote. Before the polls close tomorrow, Christians need to get out of our pews and into the polling booth -- and do our sacred duty.
References:
Osten, Craig. "Evangelical Voting Trends." Focus on the Family. 2 May 2000.
Young, Curtis J. "Who is Responsible for Justice?: Deuteronomy 16:18-20." 22 October 2000.
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Copyright (c) 2000 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.
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Another version of this article appeared on 5/13/04:
This fall Americans will go to the polls and elect a president — one who will influence the direction in which the country's moral compass will point. But according to a recent report, only a third of evangelical Christians — those who ought to be most concerned with moral values — will actually vote.
These are shocking figures. Of all people, we ought to vote, not just as a right, but as a spiritual duty. All it takes is to lose your right to vote, as I did once, to know how precious that is.
The Rev. Curt Young in Silver Spring, Maryland, told his flock just before the last presidential election why they needed to vote. Just a short distance from his church is the Capitol, the Supreme Court, and the offices of Congress. Young wanted his congregation to know that the Scriptures have a lot to say about our responsibility to choose leaders.
It was such a good message that I want to offer you a part of it today. In Deuteronomy 16, he pointed out, Moses tells the Israelites: “You shall appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes ... and they shall judge the people.”
The term JUDGES AND OFFICIALS covered all government leaders. Besides hearing cases and rendering decisions, they set public policy and could even call out the military in a crisis.
Given these heavy responsibilities, the criteria for selecting judges were strict. They were to be men who feared God, who were committed to the truth, and who hated dishonest gain. And they were warned: “You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality; and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe ... subverts the cause of the righteous.”
When Moses commanded the Israelites to appoint God-fearing leaders, he wasn't just talking to a handful of citizens who felt like getting involved. Young noted that the command was directed to ALL citizens. And modern Christians are under the same obligation to choose leaders who love justice.
Ironically, the Scriptures warn that if we value prosperity over justice, we'll end up losing both. Moses told the Israelites to “follow justice and justice alone.” He follows this command with a promise that they will “live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.” In other words, if you want prosperity, choose leaders committed to justice.
In the Old Testament, God often sent people to find particular individuals to lead. Today, in our modern democracy, free citizens act as God's agents for choosing leaders, and we do it by voting.
So there's no excuse for those who don't take the trouble to vote. But to vote, you have to register. That's why, in answer to MTV's Rock the Vote, a group of Christian musicians are endorsing an effort called Redeem the Vote. At Christian rock concerts and festivals throughout the summer groups like Verbs and Joshua 33 will be encouraging Christian young people to register by visiting the Redeem the Vote booth at the concert or to register online at www.redeemthevote.com.
While polls show that Christian young people care about the issues that have an impact on our lives, most of them are not registered to vote. That means they are left out of the political process. Redeem the Vote wants to change that. So register today, get young people to register, and then, in November, get out of the pews and into the polling booth to perform our sacred duty of choosing our leaders.
FOR FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION:
• Learn more about Redeem the Vote. The site includes information on how to register to vote in your area.
• BreakPoint Commentary No. 031029, “Never Too Young: Teaching Your Kids about Civic Duty.”
• BreakPoint Commentary No. 031022, “Doing Our Homework: Believing Isn't Enough.”
• BreakPoint Commentary No. 021104, “Voting for Less Evil.” (Free registration required.)
• See the “Worldview for Parents” page, “Why Should I Vote?“
• Matt Kaufman, “Sex, Lies and MTV,” Boundless, 25 October 2000.
• Calvin K. Coolidge, “See You at the Polls,” Boundless, 19 October 2000.
• The BreakPoint Role of Government packet includes five booklets that explain the role of faith in public life. Call 1-877-322-5527 to order.
• Catherina Hurlburt, “Fighting Apathy,” BreakPoint WorldView, November 2002.
• Peter Kreeft, How to Win the Culture War (InterVarsity, 2002).
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Copyright (c) 2004 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate in KeruxID 25837-26027; a second was a ]
My friend Bobby served as a Marine in Vietnam, and he told me something about his experience there that really got my attention. He said his assignment was doing electrical work on airplanes - which is not necessarily a front lines assignment. But there was a war going on all around them. So, when there was enemy activity, every soldier was trained to grab their weapon, take their position, and be prepared to fight. Their bottom line assignment was summed up in four words, “Every Marine a rifle.”
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Taking Your Place on the Front Lines.”
Nobody is just support troops. Everybody's needed on the front lines. That is the strategy for the most important battle of all time - the battle for the souls of lost men and women that rages in every generation.
God puts flesh-and-blood on that principle in a story in Numbers 32, beginning with vs. 1. It's our word for today from the Word of God. God has delivered the Jews from slavery in Egypt, led them through the wilderness, and now brought them to the banks of the Jordan River, the threshold of their Promised Land. Soon the battle for the land will begin. Even before entering, each of Israel's twelve tribes has been allotted a certain area of the land as their inheritance. That's all on the west side of the Jordan. Now, on the east side of the Jordan, the Reubenites and Gadites “who had very large herds and flocks saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead (That's the lands right there on the east side of the Jordan) were suitable for livestock”
So they come to Moses with an idea - a dumb idea. They said the land they were on was “suitable for livestock, and your servants have livestock ... let this land be given to your servants as our possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan.” Moses' answer cuts like steel: “Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here?” They said, “How about we just settle down here, skip the battle, and root for you guys out there on the front lines?” Moses basically says: “No way. Every Marine a rifle. No watchers here; only warriors.” These folks got the message. They said, “We would like to build pens here for our livestock and cities for our women and children.” In other words, we'd like to stay here in our comfort zone. “But we are ready to arm ourselves and go ahead ... every man armed for battle, will cross over to fight before the Lord.” Good choice.
Now, about that battle for a lost and dying world. From God's perspective, no one can just watch this battle; every child of God is supposed to be a warrior in it - including you. You can't just send a check and consider yourself off the hook. You can't just support others who are fighting for lives Jesus died to save. You've got to be fighting for some yourself. You can't delegate Christ's world-reaching Great Commission to a few spiritual daredevils called missionaries or full-time workers. This call is for all of us, wherever we live, whatever we do. You may say, “But I don't have the gift to tell others.” If you belong to Jesus, you have the assignment! Remember, “we are Christ's ambassadors” (1 Corinthians 5:20).
The truth is you are somebody's best chance of ever going to heaven, because you're the one with Jesus in their heart who is closest to that person at work or school, your family, your neighborhood. If you don't tell them, chances are they'll never hear what Jesus did for them. And your silence will be, in essence, an eternal death sentence for them. And beyond the people in your personal world, God wants you in the battle for the world beyond your own. You say, “I can't possibly care about or support all the mission needs out there.” That's right. But you can say, “God, go ahead and place a piece of your broken heart for this world in my heart.” And He'll do that, and you can begin to pray and give and help His soldiers who are fighting for those particular people.
No watchers in the battle for lost hearts, only warriors. Jesus accepts no excuses for hunkering down in your comfort zone while thousands go into eternity without hope every day. He's calling you to do what He did. Leave your comfort zone. Go to the combat zone - because every one who belongs to Him has a place on the front lines!
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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"
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[Original illustration here was a duplicate in HolwickID 25837-26027]
Ever since I was little, I've been fascinated by the American Revolution. I always wanted to see Concord Bridge where it sort of all began. You know, the shot heard round the world? By the time I got there, I had two little boys of my own who weren't fascinated by the American Revolution. I wanted to spend a while at Concord Bridge, you know, imagining those Colonial farmers descending on the bridge and the Red Coats stepping up to the bridge in their rigid formation. Unfortunately, my sons weren't interested in any of that. I tried to tell them the story - well, no progress, you know, this is vacation. Who cares about history? Right? Finally, I had one last idea. I got tri-corn hats for them, and we got some sticks for them to use as muskets, and I made them the Americans and I played the Red Coats. (Well, the Red Coat.) They came charging across one side of Concord Bridge. I went running away from them; I eventually ended up fatally wounded! And when they were done, they said, “Let's do it again, Daddy.” Of course - they won! They were interested, but not until they had a part.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Out of the Book and Into the Battle.”
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 20:6-7. Jesus is telling a story about a man who needs help at harvest time. He's gone off three times during the day to get more and more help, and finally, he goes out near the end of the working day. And it says this: “About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'" There's an urgent job to be done here, harvest time means that it passes fast. You've got to get to it. There's only a few days to get it all to happen. Big job, urgent job, not enough help, and men standing around. Why? They said they didn't have a job to do. So, Jesus basically says here there's a job for everyone in His harvest - in the harvesting of human hearts that is.
A lot of church folks are like my sons at Concord Bridge. You just hear the facts about the battle. You hear stories of what other people have done to reach people, but you're not playing any active part yourself. You're just watching the battle. Actually, God doesn't intend to have any of His kids just be spectators. This is a war with life or death stakes going on. He wants you out of the stands and into the game. Maybe your Christianity is kind of gray and boring, and it will be until you get a mission; you can't just hear about people with a mission. You need a job to do for Jesus, and you are surrounded by work that He needs done.
There are boys who need you. There are girls who need you to reach out to them. There are senior citizens who are lonely and need to have Christ in their latter years. There are teenagers maybe that you could connect with. There are homeless people, there are Christian workers who are buried in administrative detail, and you could help relieve them for the work that only they can do. You're urgently needed somewhere, and when you get a mission, you get a piece of the action. Your faith comes alive. You read the Bible with a new appetite. You pray with a new intensity. You listen with a new openness. You can't just go to church to get filled up and meet your needs.
It's a staging area for God's rescue operation, for God's soldiers, for the battles that will affect people's eternity. Christianity seems so hollow and meaningless and boring without a personal mission, and you are needed! So don't just listen to second hand facts about the battle. Do what my boys did. Grab a musket and run to the battle in Jesus' name.
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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"
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Bulletin bereavement notice:
Our church is deeply saddened by the passing of an irreplaceable member, Someone Else. For all these years he did far more than any other church member. Whenever leadership was mentioned, Someone Else was looked to for inspiration and achievement. Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend, everybody always turned to Someone Else.
It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the largest contributors to the church. Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed that Someone Else would make up the difference.
Although we are grieved by the loss of Someone Else, his death comes as no big surprise. He was far too overworked and continually stretched too thin. In fact, we may have contributed to his death by expecting too much out of Someone Else. He left a wonderful example to follow, but it appears there is nobody willing to fill the shoes of Someone Else. I shudder to think what will happen to our church since we can no longer depend on Someone Else.
Some one kidded about having a cigarette that absolutely will not cause cancer. Only problem is that the filter is so big that you get a hernia trying to draw smoke through it.
A recent news story announced that Phillip Morris, the world’s largest tobacco co. just finalized the purchase of Nabisco to add it to its already owned Kraft Foods. So, does a concerned Christian quit buying all the Kraft products plus Oreos, Ritz crackers, Life Savers and Gray Poupon Mustard? You could drive yourself crazy by trying to determine who owns what, and then avoid their products.
If we are going to be knit-picky, we’ll have to quit buying gas at stations that also sell beer and cigarettes. Folks, as Christians we have much more serious problems about which to be concerned. Why do we keep throwing darts at empty balloons instead of throwing our loving arms around someone who needs to be introduced to Jesus. Let’s “get real” with real problems.
If we swing at ghosts, all we accomplish is to make ourselves more miserable. That’s a joy robber. Anything that robs a Christian of his joy in the Lord, is something that “needs to go!”
There are so many positive and wonderful ways that we can be involved in our church and/or the lives of others, that it is foolish to be so negatively narrow that if we stood sideways, people couldn’t see us.
We all know the story of the so-called good Samaritan in Luke 10. The last part of verse 33 says, “… and when he saw him, he had pity on him.” The duty of every child of God is to have and show the spirit of that good Samaritan — that’s positive!
A group of young people were touring overseas. One day, one of the girls in the group noticed a little girl, who was filthy from playing in the dirt. The girl asked the guide, “Why doesn't that little girl's mother clean her up?” The guide replied, “That little girl's mother probably loves her, but apparently she doesn't hate the dirt. You hate the dirt, but you don't love her enough to go over there and clean her up. Until hate for the dirt and love for that child are in the same person, the little girl probably will remain dirty.”
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Randy Brantley, “Speaking to Youth,” Proclaim (Nashville: Sunday School Board, Oct-Dec 1996) 18
WISHBONES, JAWBONES, BACKBONES:
The body is made up largely of bones---about 200 of them, classified according to shape. The church is also made up of bones, classified according to use. There are three kinds:
First, “Wishbones”. You know this kind. They wish for greater things for the church. They wish for larger attendance. They wish for more souls to be saved. “Wishbones” they're languid. They're listless. The only thing they deny themselves are work and effort to make their wishes come true. Rocking-chair Christians! Drawing-room Christians!
Then there are the “Jawbones”. Nothing slow or listless about this kind. They work up and down at great speed. They criticize. They gossip. They pick flaws. They tell how it should be done. In their wake, follows dissension, discouragement and disease. Verily, it taketh a Samson to handle this class and turn them to some good use.
But the third class is the one we like to think of -- they are the “Backbones”. There is work to be done, the backbones do it. There are meetings to attend, the backbones are there. Oh, backbones! If we were poets we would write about thee! If we were singers we would chant thy praises! If we were artists we would paint thy lovely likeness! But being merely humans, we can only love thee.
___________
Author Unknown
After reading the above, into what classification do you fit? Let us hope that we fit the last---the BACKBONES! If not at the present, let us work to make it so. WISHBONES and JAWBONES do not make the cause of the Lord grow and prosper. BACKBONES truly are the “backbone” of the church!
[Holwick – the speaker at my public high school graduation in 1974 used this story as the basis of her message and illustrated it by pulling various bones out of her pocket]
We get our share of storms where we live. And we've got our share of trees. So, you can probably figure out the rest. After almost every storm, I make the rounds in the yard, picking up the souvenirs the storm left behind. I haul all those downed branches to my special brush pile place, even if they've got leaves on them. I mean, even if I am a city boy, I know there's no use planting those branches in the ground and hoping they'll grow more leaves. In fact, those leaves they have are soon going to fall off. As soon as the branch gets separated from the tree, of course, it starts dying.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Built To Be Attached.”
You know, branches are built to be attached, and they start dying when they're not. Actually, believers in Jesus Christ are built to be attached - to His Body which He called the Church. And when they're not, they start dying.
It could be that a storm came along and you ended up disconnected from the life of the church. And you haven't really reconnected. Our word for today from the Word of God explains the importance that Jesus places on our staying connected to our spiritual family. In Hebrews 10, beginning with verse 23, He calls us to “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess.” In other words, to take no detours spiritually.
Apparently, He doesn't want us to try that while being spiritual “Lone Rangers.” He says, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” Now, in a church family, there's accountability to other believers, not just each of us doing what we feel is right. We see the ways others are loving and serving Jesus and it “spurs us on” to do the same thing.
So, as the passage continues, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” In other words, the closer we get to Jesus coming back, the more important it is that we stick together - partly because it's going to get harder and harder to know and do the right thing. We can help each other with that.
Obviously, God intended for following Jesus to be a team sport. But maybe you've distanced yourself from the team and you're trying to make it a solo sport. It doesn't work that way. Jesus set up His church as the place where you can worship Him with your spiritual family, where you can serve Him, where you participate in the spiritual obediences like communion and baptism, where you hook up with people you need and people who need you.
Maybe you've been hurt by fellow believers, disillusioned, even embittered. But you can't just stay there. You may find a different body of believers to be a part of, but not being a part of one is just not an option for a disciple who claims to be following Christ. If your eyes have been on people, or on your wounds, on the things that are wrong with a church, well then, you will tend to directly disobey our Lord and “give up the habit of meeting together.”
The Church is not perfect because it's full of spiritual caterpillars who - just like you and me - are half caterpillar and on their way to becoming butterflies. But the church is what Jesus has chosen to work through on earth. You can't remain a disconnected branch, no matter how bad the storm was. The church of Jesus is your spiritual home on earth. If you've been away, it's time to come home.
________________
Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #16834]
One of the most regrettable situations I see in churches today occurs when people feel led to serve Christ in a particular ministry but refuse to do so because they don't feel gifted in that area.
Sometimes these people decline because they have taken some sort of “spiritual gift inventory” or “spiritual gift assessment” that ideally will help them identify areas in which they can adequately serve other members in the body of Christ.
Although tests or instruments like this may be entertaining and enjoyable, they also can lead to abuse when people overemphasize a gift that the assessment identified or refuse to meet a need because they didn't score high in that spiritual gift category.
This results in a cerebral approach which becomes a barrier to what God wants to do through us.
The best thing someone can do is to become practically involved in the life of the church through obedience to Christ -- stepping out on faith to be available and obeying Christ. When we do this, God will surface gifts in us that will help accomplish His mission.
This occurred in my life when I surrendered to preach at age 17. Despite God's call on my life, I was convinced I could never stand in front of people and deliver a sermon. I grew up on a cotton-and-cattle farm in West Texas and was most comfortable around animals, since you don't have to talk to them, and I was not a talker.
The night after I made a public commitment to preach, renowned Southern Baptist educator Roy Fish stopped by my home. Then a seminary student-pastor at a nearby church, Fish had heard about my decision and asked me to preach at his church the following week while he was absent.
I had no idea what I would say. I did not know what a sermon was. I could not lead in public prayer. I did not even own a Bible. That was my “cerebral” approach to what was asked of me. Nevertheless, I had settled that issue. God had called me to preach, and I had surrendered my life. I said, “Yes, Brother Fish, I will do it.”
I went to my pastor for help. He taught me about sermon structure. I bought a little New Testament and read it while I drove the tractor planting cotton. We had the crookedest rows in the country that year! Every evening I practiced my sermon in the garage, with my mother's washing machine as my pulpit and the deep freeze as my congregation.
When I finally preached my first message, I preached every bit of my eight-point, 22-minute sermon in 13 minutes. The pulpit, which I gripped, shook as much as I did. But when I finished, several people came forward to make decisions for Christ.
I had learned something special: Whatever you place in God's hands is sufficient! He will use whatever I yield to Him. I was nothing but ignorance on fire, but God began to use me and continued to do so. Pastors began to invite me to preach for them, and God continued to bless. Since that time, I have preached almost every week. Through His grace, God had sovereignly given me gifts necessary to do what He planned for me to do.
Without question, I had the option of saying, “Yes!” or “No!” to what God impressed on my life. I faced the choice of neglecting the gifts He had given me or using and developing them.
God will surface any and every gift needed for His body to accomplish what He wants done to fulfill His mission. Believers have the potential to have any gift, because of the One who lives in us is the source of those gifts. Christ is the perfect person. He possesses every gift. As Philippians 4:13 tells us, through Christ we can do all things.
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #943]
Beidler served in Vietnam and was able to work in a small mission church in Saigon. He grew to love the people and led several of them to the Lord.
(The story was told by Dr. Herbert Schaefer, a Canadian missionary working in India and Hong Kong for some thirty years. He is now retired.)
One morning, a debate broke out in a farm. The debate was raised between a hen and a pig. The topic of the debate is, “Involvement is equal to Commitment.” The hen argued, “if someone is willing to get involved, that means he is ready to commit.”
The pig said, “No, I don't think so. Getting involved is far from ready to commit.”
As they were arguing and it seems no one could totally convince the others, they heard the voice of the farmer's wife. “Honey, what would you like for you breakfast? Ham or Egg?” The farmer replied, “I prefer ham.”
Then the pig told the hen, “You see, when you laid an egg, you are involved in the breakfast. But we are committed to the breakfast when we are eaten as ham.”
Are we just getting involved in the activities of the church? Or, are we ready to commit and sacrifice ourselves for the service of the Lord?
Jesus said, “For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)
=================
Another version:
A pig and a hen were walking down the road when they saw a poster advertising the forthcoming harvest supper. It said that ham and eggs would be served. The hen said to the pig, “How nice it is that we can help the minister.” But the pig replied to the hen, “It's all very well for you - you'll be making a contribution, but I'll be making a sacrifice!”
__________
1500 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, compiled by Robert Backhouse
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Still another version:
The Rev. Robert Ard, president of the Black Leadership Council, explains the difference between involvement and commitment: "When you look at a plate of ham and eggs, you know the chicken was involved. But the pig was committed."
-- Tom Blair in San Diego Union.
See: Romans 12:1
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Bulletin bereavement notice:
Our church is deeply saddened by the passing of an irreplaceable member, Someone Else. For all these years he did far more than any other church member. Whenever leadership was mentioned, Someone Else was looked to for inspiration and achievement. Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend, everybody always turned to Someone Else.
It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the largest contributors to the church. Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed that Someone Else would make up the difference.
Although we are grieved by the loss of Someone Else, his death comes as no big surprise. He was far too overworked and continually stretched too thin. In fact, we may have contributed to his death by expecting too much out of Someone Else. He left a wonderful example to follow, but it appears there is nobody willing to fill the shoes of Someone Else. I shudder to think what will happen to our church since we can no longer depend on Someone Else.
In one of the rooms of the Tursi Palace, now devoted to municipal uses, is preserved under a seal, a precious Guarneri violin of Paganini. Kocian, the Bohemian violinist, visiting Genoa, asked to be allowed to play on the instrument. The mayor granted the request and invited members of the aristocracy and several musicians. Kocian played one of Bach's airs and a concerto of Paganini. The audience was greatly impressed. The violin was then replaced in the glass box, where it has rested sixty five years, and was again sealed in the presence of the spectators.
It is rather a pity that this magnificent violin, which was thrilled at the touch of a masters hand, should live upon its past glories and be locked in its glass case. Yet, many a so-called child of God is like that. For the music which might thrill in their lives and the comfort and inspiration which might come from their presence, if the obligation is not met, there will be an accounting at the judgment seat of Christ.
________
J. Wilbur Chapman
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Another version by Gerald Rodgers:
The great violinist, Nicolo Paganini, willed his marvelous violin to Genoa - the city of his birth - but only on condition that the instrument never be played. It was an unfortunate condition, for it is a peculiarity of wood that as long as it is used and handled, it shows little wear. As soon as it is discarded, it begins to decay.
The exquisite mellow-toned violin now has become worm-eaten in its beautiful case, valueless except as a relic. The moldering instrument is a reminder that a life withdrawn from service to others loses its meaning.
How well Jesus' strong emphasis upon service is illustrated! In order to retain our value and our worth and not degenerate into a worthless relic, we should serve and remain active.
“But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” (Matthew 20:26-27).
Bulletin bereavement notice:
Our church is deeply saddened by the passing of an irreplaceable member, Someone Else. For all these years he did far more than any other church member. Whenever leadership was mentioned, Someone Else was looked to for inspiration and achievement. Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend, everybody always turned to Someone Else.
It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the largest contributors to the church. Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed that Someone Else would make up the difference.
Although we are grieved by the loss of Someone Else, his death comes as no big surprise. He was far too overworked and continually stretched too thin. In fact, we may have contributed to his death by expecting too much out of Someone Else. He left a wonderful example to follow, but it appears there is nobody willing to fill the shoes of Someone Else. I shudder to think what will happen to our church since we can no longer depend on Someone Else.
(The story was told by Dr. Herbert Schaefer, a Canadian missionary working in India and Hong Kong for some thirty years. He is now retired.)
One morning, a debate broke out in a farm. The debate was raised between a hen and a pig. The topic of the debate is, “Involvement is equal to Commitment.” The hen argued, “if someone is willing to get involved, that means he is ready to commit.”
The pig said, “No, I don't think so. Getting involved is far from ready to commit.”
As they were arguing and it seems no one could totally convince the others, they heard the voice of the farmer's wife. “Honey, what would you like for you breakfast? Ham or Egg?” The farmer replied, “I prefer ham.”
Then the pig told the hen, “You see, when you laid an egg, you are involved in the breakfast. But we are committed to the breakfast when we are eaten as ham.”
Are we just getting involved in the activities of the church? Or, are we ready to commit and sacrifice ourselves for the service of the Lord?
Jesus said, “For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)
=================
Another version:
A pig and a hen were walking down the road when they saw a poster advertising the forthcoming harvest supper. It said that ham and eggs would be served. The hen said to the pig, “How nice it is that we can help the minister.” But the pig replied to the hen, “It's all very well for you - you'll be making a contribution, but I'll be making a sacrifice!”
__________
1500 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, compiled by Robert Backhouse
==================
Still another version:
The Rev. Robert Ard, president of the Black Leadership Council, explains the difference between involvement and commitment: "When you look at a plate of ham and eggs, you know the chicken was involved. But the pig was committed."
-- Tom Blair in San Diego Union.
See: Romans 12:1
*
Napoleon once pointed to a map of China and said, "There lies a sleeping giant. If it ever wakes up, it will be unstoppable." Today the American church is a sleeping giant. Each Sunday, church pews are filled with members who are doing nothing with their faith except "keeping" it.
The designation active member in most churches simply means those who attend regularly and financially support the church. Not much more is expected. But God has far greater expectations for every Christian. He expects all Christians to use their gifts and talents in ministry. If we can ever awaken and unleash the massive talent, resources, creativity and energy found in the typical local church, Christianity will explode with growth at an unprecedented rate.
I believe that the greatest need in evangelical churches is the release of members for ministry. George Gallup once took a survey and discovered that only 10 percent of American church members are active in any kind of personal ministry. He also discovered that 40 percent of all members have expressed an interest in having a ministry. They would like to be involved in ministry but they have never been asked or they don't know how.
I think healthy leadership nurtures a healthy church by creating an intentional, well-planned system for uncovering, mobilizing and supporting the giftedness of its members. People must be given a simple process that they can follow which will lead them to deeper commitment and greater service for Christ. They need a track on which they can move forward.
Get them into the ballgame!
At Saddleback Valley Community Church, we call this our "Life Development Process." By using the baseball diamond as a visual illustration of where people are in their spiritual progress, everyone can know how far they've come and how far they have to go. Do you remember Abbott and Costello's famous routine "Who's on First?" Many churches have no idea. At Saddleback we know exactly who's on first, on second, on third, and who has made it home. We celebrate every time someone moves forward to the next base. This encourages commitment.
At first base, we teach the basics of membership; at second base, we teach the basics of spiritual discipline; at third base, we teach people how to identify their "shape" for ministry; and when they hit home plate, we get members involved in missions. Our entire structure is purpose driven, designed to nurture a healthy church.
Your coaching must provide application
Many churches make the common mistake of emphasizing Bible knowledge to the exclusion of teaching the practical application of that knowledge. For instance, church members are made to feel guilty for a weak prayer life but no one takes the time to explain how to make a prayer list, how to praise God's character by using his names, and how to intercede for others.
Exhortation without explanation leads to frustration. Whenever we exhort people to do something, we are responsible to explain exactly how to do it.
Here are five questions you need to ask about your Christian education program:
1. Are people learning the content and meaning of the Bible?
2. Are people seeing themselves, life and other people more clearly from God's perspective?
3. Are people's values becoming more aligned with God's values?
4. Are people becoming more skilled in serving God?
5. Are people becoming more like Christ?
Don't put a pitcher in the outfield
One of the most common excuses people give for not getting involved in ministry is "I just don't have any abilities to offer." Nothing could be further from the truth. Many national studies have proven that the average person possesses from 500 to 700 skills!
The real problem is twofold. First, people need some process of skill identification. Most people are using abilities they are unaware they have. Second, they need a process to help them match their abilities with the right ministry.
There are people in your church with all kinds of abilities that are not being put to use: recruiting, researching, writing, landscaping, interviewing, promoting, decorating, planning, entertaining, repairing, drawing, and even feeding. These abilities should not be wasted. "There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord" (1 Corinthians 12:5).
Your placement process should focus on empowering people, not filling positions. Focus on the shape of the individual, not the needs of the institution, and you'll have a much higher success rate with those you place in ministry. Remember, ministry is about people, not programs.
The best way to learn the game is to play it
Once people begin serving in a ministry, they need on-the-job training. On-the-job training is far more important and effective than pre-service training. At Saddleback we require only minimal pre-service training. We feel that people don't even know the right questions to ask until they are actually involved in ministry.
In our church we want to involve people as quickly as possible in ministry. A long, drawn-out pre-service training course causes most people to lose their initial enthusiasm. We wear them out even before they get started. I've found that the kind of people who are willing to train for 52 weeks before beginning to serve are usually not very effective when they finally start serving. They tend to be professional students who enjoy learning about ministry more than doing it. We want people to dive in and get wet. Then they are highly motivated to learn how to swim! The best way to begin is to begin!
The best-kept secret in the church is that people are dying to make a contribution with their lives. We are made for ministry! The church that understands this, and makes it possible for every member to express his or her shape in ministry, will experience amazing vitality, health and growth. The sleeping giant will be awakened and it will be unstoppable.
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