The Essentials

One of my favorite quotes from the Restoration Movement is "in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, love." In my mind, application of this principle is one of the keys to maintaining unity in the body of Christ. Of course the struggle is that you and I might (and often do) disagree on what exactly constitutes an "essential." I could give several examples, but most of them would just get me in trouble so use your imagination. I ran across this little paragraph from Douglas Moo in his commentary on Romans 14...

Recognizing the need to distinguish between essential doctrines and the "adiaphoroa" [things neither commanded nor prohibited to Christians] raises another perplexing issue. How do we determine what belongs to which category? Roman Catholics have an advantage here. They can rely on papal authority to make that decision for them. But for Protestants the answer is not so easy. To be sure, Scripture is clear about some doctrinal matters. But the evidence on others is not so clear-cut. Thus, professing Christians take positions along a wide spectrum. Some are "minimalists," insisting on only a very few beliefs (or none at all) as essential to the faith. This impulse is found especially in the ecumenical movement. At the other end of the spectrum are "maximalists," who insist that any Christan who wants to enter into fellowship must cross the "t" and dot the "i" on an interminable list of doctrinal, ethical, and social issues. Some fundamentalists take this latter kind of an approach.

That's a good summary of the issue and I've stood on both sides of it. I used to have a rather expansive list of beliefs that I considered essential to the Christian faith. Basically, anything and everything the church did (regardless of how much of it was influenced by tradition or weak Scriptural support). I now lean more to a "minimalist" view of things. I certainly don't go as far as saying that there are no essential beliefs, but I do think the list is much shorter than I used to think it was. To me the essentials of the Christian faith center around five things--God, his Word, his Son, his Spirit, and his People (the redeemed). To see a little more explanation of each, check out the statement of beliefs that our church developed a few years ago.

Starting Again...Again

The Thanksgiving holidays were not kind to me and my attempt to get back in size 34s. I did well on Thursday. I ran 3 miles before dinner and forced myself to have only one plate (no seconds). But I fell hard on Friday. Seconds and thirds and multiple desserts. By then I was too bloated to get my run in. I did run on Saturday and Sunday, but apparently it was too little, too late. This morning I weighed in 3 pounds heavier than the previous Monday. So today I'm starting again...again. How many times have I started again? How many Mondays have I pledged to do better this week? How many times have I tried, failed, and tried again? This weight loss stuff is starting to remind me of my spiritual life. And just in case you're keeping count (which I doubt any of you are but I need the accountability), I have 42 days left to reach my goal. The size 34 pants that I must fit into are sitting neatly folded in my office...mocking me.

The Second Coming

Sunday I wrap up my Words in Red series with a message on the Second Coming. This series has focused exclusively on the teachings of Jesus. We've talked about the kingdom, discipleship, sin, redemption, unity, the great commission, the great commandments, etc. Those are all topics that I fully expected to be a part of this study, but Sunday's topic was a bit of a surprise to me. When I laid out the outline for the series I wasn't expecting the Second Coming to be one of Jesus' main teachings, but there it was.

The criteria I used for determining the topics focused on quantity over quality. In other words, if Jesus had a lot to say about a particular subject then I tried to include it. My unscientific approach to developing the outline was simply to read the words of Jesus, paying special attention to the longer discourses. I was a little surprised to find that some of the longest discourses dealt with the Second Coming. I don't remember that being a big emphasis in the church of my youth. I remember singing "Jesus is Coming Soon" and "There's a Great Day Coming" but other than that I don't remember much teaching on end times. Of course, I'm not pointing any fingers. I've been in ministry for 8 years now and I've never preached a sermon on the Second Coming. Why not? Why are we ignoring this teaching of Jesus?

I thought of a few reasons...

1) It confuses us. Jesus talks a lot about his return, but not much of it makes sense. Maybe we're too far removed from the culture or maybe he was just being intentionally vague. At any rate, we don't like talking about things we don't know much about.

2) It scares us. If we've heard any talk of his return at all, its typically focused on the gloom and doom side of things. Just do a quick search of the Internet. Most aren't emphasizing the glorious return, but the terrible tribulation. We don't usually spend a lot of time talking about our own death and destruction.

3) We don't want to be put in the same camp with that guy on TV that hollers a lot and is absolutely convinced that Jesus is coming back on 02-20-2020. Let's face it. There's a lot of weirdness out there concerning the second coming. There's a lot of kooky teaching. We don't talk about it because we don't want people to think that we're like those people.

And yet...we need to be talking it don't we? Jesus talked about it. The apostles talked about it. So shouldn't we? Besides, do we really want Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins to be the only Christian voices out there concerning Jesus' return?

A Thanksgiving Moment

Here's the video from this morning...

Thanksgiving Cookbook

On Friday I attended a little Thanksgiving program hosted by my youngest's pre-school. The 3 yr olds were miniature Pilgrims and the 4 yr olds were miniature Indians. They sang songs, displayed their holiday art projects, and then we all had some turkey & dressing. But what I really enjoyed was the cookbook. The kids "wrote the recipes" themselves based upon watching their Moms. Perhaps you can try a few this Thanksgiving...

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches
She gets two breads and then she puts peanut butter on it and jelly. Then she cuts it. Jesse, age 3

Chicken Nuggets
She puts them in the bake thing and they are in there for a long, long time. And then she gets them out. Sean, age 3

Chicken & Noodles
She buys it. She cooks it. Sam, age 3

Hot Dogs
She puts them in the microwave and warms them for 33 minutes. Auston, age 4

Macaroni & Cheese
She opens box, pours in a bowl, then cooks it in the microwave. Halle, age 4 (that's our child!)

Pancakes
She burns them. Milayna, age 4

Pizza
The pizza man brings it to her. Laith, age 4

A Sad Commentary?

I downloaded Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris to my ipod this week. Sam is an atheist and the basic premise of his book is that God is a fairly-tale and all believers are simple-minded people who've fallen for the grand delusion. While I disagreed with most of his reasoning, he had a few points that we (Christians) need to consider. For example, he begins the book with this commentary...

Since the publication of my first book, The End of Faith, thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transformed by Christ's love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism. While we may want to ascribe this to human nature, it is clear that such hatred draws considerable support from the Bible. How do I know this? The most disturbed of my correspondents always cite chapter and verse.

What do you think of that?

We're Right, They're Wrong

An interesting take from Donald Miller, especially the last sentence...

When I was young I had a friend whose father was the pastor of a Methodist church. I grew up Baptist. I remember thinking my friend had it all wrong, and I wondered if he was even a Christian. His father was a terrific man, very intelligent and soft-spoken and tall as a building, with big hands and a deep voice that spoke the sort of encouragement you believed. And even though he spoke encouragement, I remember feeling very sorry for him because he had been misled, somewhere way back, perhaps in seminary, and that had made him grow up to become a Methodist instead of a Baptist. I thought it was a crying shame. And at the time I didn't even know what it was a Baptist believed that a Methodist didn't; I only knew that we were right and they were wrong.

I suppose believing we were right and they were wrong gave me a feeling of superiority over my Methodist friends. It all sounds so innocent until you realize whatever evil thing it was that caused me to believe Baptists are better than Methodists is the same evil thing that has Jews killing Palestinians rather than talking to them, and for that matter, Palestinians killing Jews rather than engaging in an important conversation about land and history and peace. It makes you wonder how may of the ideas we believe are the result of being taught them, and we now defend them as a position of our egos.

Of course I think the thing about Methodists being wrong is silly now, now that I have met so many people from so many different theological backgrounds who have a deep respect and love for Jesus, and so many people from so many theological backgrounds who don't.

Prayer Challenge

Last Sunday I spoke on Jesus' prayer for unity in John 17:20ff. My basic thought was that Jesus calls us to be one with all who believe in Him, regardless of the inevitable differences in practice or style. I wasn't talking about merging churches or giving up doctrinal distinctives, but simply recognizing the common faith that we share with all who confess Jesus as Lord (you can hear it here). At the end of the message I challenged everyone to spend this week praying for the success of other churches. Specifically, the churches they drive by on their way to work in the morning. The challenge was that as you drive by those churches say a prayer of blessing over them. We're halfway through the challenge and I'm curious how its been going? If you were here Sunday and have been praying for other churches, add a comment and tell me about your experience. If you weren't here Sunday, it's not too late to join the challenge! What would happen if God's people stopped beating each other up and started praying for one another?

Dream Stand

Muzzleloader season opens tomorrow. I've found my dream stand...