Author: Tim Ehrhardt

I'm just a common ordinary pastor, chaplain, father, grandfather, and dog owner who loves the smell of a genuine leather Bible and the aroma of its message. I'm on a quest to track down the best Bibles, how to best read and use them, and to discover the encouragement inside.

Biblical Anachronism

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
            Yes, I know I just used a big word:  anachronism.  The word simply means trying to fit something from the past into the present, or vice versa.  For example, chances are that submitting a job resume that was produced on a 1940 Cyrillic Royal typewriter probably will not land you a position in a Fortune 500 company.  That would be anachronistic. When it comes to church ministry, we certainly need to be aware of not being so tied to past forms that we are irrelevant and unable to deal with present opportunities.  The concept, however, works the other way round, too.  Churches and ministers may unknowingly settle for anachronistic readings of Holy Scripture.  That is, rather than trying to understand the Bible’s stories, characters, and teachings on its own terms, too many individuals dislodge Scripture from its historical moorings in order to make it relevant for today.  As a result, with the aim of trying to personally apply the Bible to present day problems, whole portions of God’s Word are ignored and never read.  If God intended for us to approach the Bible this way, he would have given us scripture memory packs from heaven.  It is believed that all we need do is simply read and memorize an isolated verse and be blessed.
 
            The Bible is very much a collection of books that are immediately helpful for every believer in God for every age.  Yet, when we only approach the text of Scripture in order to be instantly relevant and useful, we actually undermine the integrity and history of God’s Word.  The Bible is not a random collection of verses to be ransacked by present-minded people for the sole purpose of finding personal fulfillment and inspiration to get through the day.  The Bible is an unfolding drama of redemption that moves its way through history with people tied to their particular time and place.  So, an evangelical anachronism asks present day questions of the biblical text before ever answering the crucial questions that the text itself raises for us.
 
            To be able to see the characters of the Bible in their own time, surrounded by their own historical context, to be attentive to both their wisdom and their blindness, to recognize the extent to which they were caught up in situations beyond their control that demanded faith, and to realize that they themselves were on a journey of knowing God – to know all this about the past and to be able to relate to it without any anachronistic distortion to our present realities is what it means to have a biblical sense.  Yes, Holy Scripture is relevant and applicable to our present day situations.  But unless we gain a certain biblical sense about the Bible itself, we will only get a twisted understanding of how to use it for our life and ministry today.  What this means in making sense of particular bible verses is that we must first understand the shape and flow and overarching argument of the biblical writer so that we can begin to develop a working understanding of that verse.
 
 
            Some may mistakenly think that what I am advocating is that only the learned trained minister or theologian can make sense of the Bible.  No, instead what I am advocating is that we become eminently familiar with God’s Holy Word.  There is no substitute for actually reading the Bible for oneself, over and over and over again.  And we need to read through whole sections and books of the Bible – more than once.  If we are to have a solid biblical sense of the Bible, we will need to completely immerse ourselves in its contents daily.  The spiritual discipline of plain old bible reading needs to top the list of things we do on a regular routine basis.  We are to swim in God’s revelation to us, to plunge in headlong and come out dripping with his grace and truth.  If we are too busy for this most basic of spiritual disciplines, then we need to repent of our sinful busyness and discover anew the forgiveness of Jesus Christ contained in, well, the Bible.
 

 

            Don’t settle for anachronistic approaches to the Holy Bible.  Take it on its own terms and enjoy discovering its depth and richness.  Then you will truly know what it is to be blessed.

Speaking Truthfully to One Another

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
When we go to the doctor, we want he/she to be honest with us about our true condition and health.  If we have a clean bill of health, we are glad for that truth.  If, however, we have something wrong, we would like to know what it is and how to deal with it rather than have the doctor avoid the truth so as to not make us feel bad or hurt our feelings.
 
            In many ways pastors are spiritual doctors; it is their job to deal in the care of souls.  In order to care for those souls, telling the truth to parishioners can not only be comforting, but it can also be painful.  Pastor John Ortberg once said that “Trying to grow spiritually without hearing the truth about yourself from somebody else is like trying to do brain surgery on yourself without a mirror.”
 
            The truth will set you free.  But before it will free you, it will make you uncomfortable.  We all have a real need to hear the truth spoken in love.  And here is the truth that we must get a hold of:  we are to be open, honest, and real with each other in the church because we belong to one another (Ephesians 4:25).  We are to stop being dishonest, and start being truthful.
 
            What is truth?  Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.  Our lives together as a community of believers are to be shaped around the person and finished work of Jesus Christ.  Since Christians share a common confession of Jesus together, we are to share a common life together.  That life is to revolve around the truth of Jesus.  That means we will put off non-Christian ways of relating to each other, and put on a Christian way of relating to each other.  We will speak truthfully.  And we will do it because we belong to each other.  Just as Jesus closely identified with us in his life, death, and resurrection, so we are to so closely identify with each other that we take responsibility for each other.  My problems are your problems – your issues are my issues.
 
            We are to put off bad habits, and put on good habits.  We are to put off lying, and put on truth.  Let’s be honest:  we are in the habit of not being truthful.  We are in the habit of being liars.  We are in the habit of pretending and being plastic – and what we need to see is that, in the Body of Christ, pretending that you are okay when you are not, or even acting like your life is hard when it is really not, is presenting yourself in an untruthful way.  Secrecy and deception are tools of Satan, not God.  Therefore, we must put off the bad habit of pretension, and put on the good habit of speaking truthfully to each other. 
 
 
 
            Why do we lie and not speak the truth?  We are in the habit of lying because we have bought into the lie from the enemy of our souls that being truthful and transparent is too traumatic for us – we believe we can’t do it.  The truth is that many Christians don’t think being open, honest, real, vulnerable, and genuine is worth the risk.  We have believed the lie that we will not be accepted, that we will lose face with others, or that people will just gossip about me if they really knew about me.  In other words, we let shame call the shots instead of speaking truthfully to one another.  So, we simply avoid the truth and, so, end up avoiding others.
 
            A lie is like a knife stabbed into the bowels of Christ’s Body, the Church.  We are not to hide in the shadows and live in the dark.  We are to step into the light and forsake all fakery and be truthful.  Ephesians 5:8-11 says: For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.  Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 
 
            When Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Apostle Peter, they were judged severely because they betrayed the community.  Lying undermines community and erodes the church.  If we cannot be truthful to each other in the church, then we are living in the darkness and have need of coming into the light of truth. 
 
            How do we speak truthfully?  We speak truthfully by making and keeping promises to each other because that is what God does with us.  Churches that love truth will make a safe place for the awkwardness of confession, forgiveness, and healing.  There must be assurance that members won’t abandon one another as they reveal their sins and weaknesses and fumble forward toward maturity and holiness.  Truthful churches are communities of encouragement and hospitality where we are safe to be real.  No one in the Body of Christ should ever have to suffer in silence, cry alone, or wonder whether the church will forsake them.  The Church of Jesus Christ is to have a refreshing openness with each other, since we belong to one another.  To have union with Christ is to have union with one another; you can’t have one without the other.
 
            We must love one another enough to both speak and listen to the truth.  Author Lewis Smedes has said in his book The Power of Promises:  “Yes, somewhere people still make and keep promises. They choose not to quit when the going gets rough because they promised once to see it through. They stick to lost causes. They hold on to a love grown cold. They stay with people who have become pains in the neck. They still dare to make promises and care enough to keep the promises they make. I want to say to you that if you have a ship you will not desert, if you have people you will not forsake, if you have causes you will not abandon, then you are like God.
 
What a marvelous thing a promise is! When a person makes a promise, she reaches out into an unpredictable future and makes one thing predictable: she will be there even when being there costs her more than she wants to pay. When a person makes a promise, he stretches himself out into circumstances that no one can control and controls at least one thing: he will be there no matter what the circumstances turn out to be. With one simple word of promise, a person creates an island of certainty in a sea of uncertainty.”
 
            I am harboring no illusions or ideals here: being transparent and real is both scary and traumatic, but if we are to be the church we will speak truthfully and not put up a false front.  We will neither hide nor hurl.  We will neither pretend everything is okay when it is not, nor will we project our problems onto others by hurling untruthful accusations.  Instead, we will learn to communicate to each other by speaking the truth in love. 
 
            There are two tendencies that may plague us going forward from here:  complacency and mediocrity.  When it comes to having healthy relationships, we are too easily satisfied with a minimum amount of effort, words, and commitment.  We are to live into our baptisms; we are to renew our covenant of care and commitment to each other.  That means we will let the Word of God invade our hearts to the point of being willing to say what needs to be said and to be open enough to let others into our lives. 
 
            Some of us have putrid spiritual abscesses in our lives from either hiding the truth or hurling truth without love.  Spiritual healing does not come apart from spiritual surgery.  We must let God’s ordained means of bringing health and healing into our lives today.  God the Father sent God the Son to die on a cruel cross for all of our unhealthy and sinful ways of relating to each other.  God the Father and God the Son sent God the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to form a new community of believers in Jesus around truth.
 
            I’m not talking out of the side of my neck when I speak about these things.  I did not grow up in a family that was safe to have truthful communication.  As a result, I learned very early in life to hide.  My learned habits of communication were untruthful.  It took years of painful spiritual surgery to become a person who could swim in the truth of deep relationships instead of superficial ones.  It pains me, I think more than others, to see people settle for mediocre relationships in their families, with their friends, and especially with their church.
 
 
 
It only seems reasonable to me that churches need small groups of people who come together with the expressed purpose of sharing life together through being real and working out our salvation together.  When Paul wrote his epistles, he wasn’t writing to a large building with hundreds of people in it; he was writing to small gatherings of believers throughout the city or region.  If we lose our first love of Jesus we will see no need for sharing life together in such a way.  You cannot have a robust relationship with Jesus Christ without having an equally robust relationship with others in Christ’s Church.  The first step of real spiritual growth, after professing Christ as Savior and Lord, is allowing Christ’s Church to take responsibility for you, and for you to take responsibility for the Church because we belong to one another.
 

 

Will you let a trusted layperson or pastor into your life?  Is there anything hindering you from doing so?  Do you settle for superficial relationships?  Why, or why not?  What do you think God would like to do through you and your church when it comes to genuine community?  Go for it.

Live in Harmony with One Another

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
The Word of God is applied by the Spirit of God through the people of God.  That conviction highlights the great need for community.  We are not to live in isolation from our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, doing our own thing and keeping to ourselves.  God’s ordained means of working is in community.  We are to be close enough to one another to rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn.  To do that takes unity and harmony.
 
“Live in harmony with one another” (Romans 12:16) quite literally is “be of the same mind toward each other.”  It is a both an attitude and a practice of unity and harmony based on our common confession of Christ.  In other words, we are to regard everyone in the church the same way – by not playing favorites, or looking down on others in a condescending way.   We are not to stick up our nose at others, but are to be willing to interact and minister to every kind of person.  The Apostle Paul’s thought here is that we don’t just hob-nob with the people who help us get where we want to go, or who feed our ambitions; we treat everyone in the church with the same respect and attention. 
 
            We cannot have harmony without unity because people are to work together for a common purpose in the church.  Being of the same mind and working together are not things that just appear out of thin air – there must be a great deal of effort expended to maintain them.  Paul told the Ephesian church:  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace(Ephesians 4:2-3).  If there is to be unity and harmony in the church there must be a humble willingness to associate with everyone, not just one’s family and friends; there must be patience and a willingness to lovingly tolerate people’s quirks and idiosyncrasies, opinions and perspectives.  Every one of us is unique and distinctive, and, so, we must not think that everyone has to be like me or that my way is the only way.
 
            Paul’s point to both the Ephesian and Roman church, churches that had very different people within them (think President Obama and Rush Limbaugh in the same congregation!), is that unity and harmony is not natural to us in our Fallen state.  Left to our own devices, apart from the grace of God, we keep to ourselves and only interact with those who think and act like us.  Unity deteriorates unless we make every effort at working together toward a common purpose.  Paul’s message to the Philippian church was to be like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose (Philippians 2:2).  Joy, which is such a dominant theme in Philippians, comes only as a by-product to the people in the church pursuing and working hard at unity in the gospel.  Conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel is to kick up a sweat for harmonious living.  To do this there must be genuine conversation, listening, and dialogue; simply stating opinions past each other won’t do for Paul.
 
            The Scriptures tell us to work at unity and harmony because we have this nasty tendency to think better of ourselves than what is really true, and of others what is not so good.  We often inflate our positive qualities and abilities, especially in comparison to other people.  Numerous research studies have revealed this tendency to overestimate ourselves. For instance, when one research study asked a million high school students how well they got along with their peers, none of the students rated themselves below average. As a matter of fact, 60 percent of students believed they were in the top 10 percent; 25 percent rated themselves in the top one percent. Learned college professors were just as biased about their abilities. Two percent rated themselves below average; 10 percent were average and 63 were above average; while 25 percent rated themselves as truly exceptional.  Of course this is statistically impossible. One researcher summarized the data this way: “It’s the great contradiction: the average person believes he is a better person than the average person.” Christian psychologist Mark McMinn contends that this study reveals our pride. He writes, “One of the clearest conclusions of social science research is that we are proud. We think better of ourselves than we really are, we see our faults in faint black and white rather than in vivid color, and we assume the worst in others while assuming the best in ourselves.”
 
            As long as there is pride there will not be harmony.  The acid test of harmonious love is how we treat the lowly.  One of the greatest preachers in the church’s history, St. John Chrysostom (4thcentury Bishop of Constantinople), had this to say:  “If a poor man comes into your church behave like him and do not put on airs because of your riches.  In Christ there is no rich or poor.  Do not be ashamed of him because of his outward dress, but receive him because of his inward faith.  If you see him in sorrow, do not hesitate to comfort him, and if he is prospering, do not feel shy about sharing in his pleasure.  If you think you are a great person, then think others are also.  If you think they are humble and lowly, then think the same of yourself.”
 
            The church cannot function apart from harmony.  Consider a tuning fork. It delivers a true pitch by two tines vibrating together. Muffle either side, even a little, and the note disappears. Neither tine individually produces the pure note. Only when both tines vibrate is the correct pitch heard.  Harmony is not a matter of give and take and compromise to make each other happy or satisfied.  Instead, harmony comes through a shared mission and purpose.  If we wholeheartedly pursue together the values of God-honoring worship, open and real fellowship, and a concern for outreach, then we will experience harmony.  A divided church is a church that has lost its sense of mission, and is confused about what values they are to embrace.  But a harmonious church knows why they exist, who they are, and what they will do together.
 
            But what if someone offends or hurts me?  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse (Romans 12:14).  The great American preacher of the 18th century, Jonathan Edwards, handled this from a Reformed perspective:  “Love to God disposes people to see his hand in everything; to own him as the governor of the world, and the director of providence; and to acknowledge his disposal in everything that takes place.  And the fact that the hand of God is a great deal more concerned in all that happens to us than the treatment of people is, should lead us, in great measure, not to think of things as from others, but to have respect to them chiefly as from God – as ordered by his love and wisdom, even when their immediate source may be the malice or heedlessness of another person.  And if we indeed consider and feel that they are from the hand of God, then we will shall be disposed meekly to receive and quietly to submit to them, and to own that the greatest injuries received from other people are justly and even kindly ordered of God, and so be far from any ruffle or tumult of mind on account of them.”  Edwards was saying not to get all up in someone’s grill about something they did or didn’t do, but to realize that God is working behind the scenes, providentially accomplishing his purposes.  We are to take solace and comfort in that truth, and not create division where there is to be harmony.
 

 

            The Word of God is applied by the Spirit of God through the people of God.  We are to embrace community.  Believers in Jesus are in this church thing together.  We are to view everyone in the church as my Christian brother or sister.  No adjectives needed to describe us – on-fire Christian, lukewarm Christian, super-Christian, or carnal obnoxious Christian.  Let’s just take responsibility for one another, for we are our brother’s keeper.  So, let us do community by working together in the common purpose of loving God, loving one another, and loving our neighbor.

Showing Brotherly Love

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
We are to show brotherly love toward each other in the church and honor one another above ourselves (Romans 12:16).  That means that we do not play favorites.  We are to affirm everyone’s inherent worth and dignity in the church.  We do this because God does not show favoritism, but loves each and every believer.  God demonstrated it by the sending of the Son, Jesus, to handle once for all through the cross the divisions and pride of people who exalt themselves above others.  The early church father, Origen, the bishop of Alexandria, said:  “It happens that we hate things we ought not to, just as we love things we ought not to.  We are ordered to love our brothers, not to hate them.  If you think that someone is ungodly, remember that Christ died for the ungodly.  And if you think that because your brother is a sinner you do not have to love him, remember that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.  And if he is righteous, then he is to be loved because God loves the righteous.”
 
            Showing familial love toward each other and honoring one another means that we treat each other as if we had been born of the same mother.  To keep a devoted affectionate spirit means that we would neither purposely insult another nor be deeply hurt if someone insulted us.  Sometimes we are too sensitive, and need not take things said and done so personally.  When offended we are not to return insult and offense (Romans 12:17).  Nor are we to hold it inside and nurse a grudge, only to withdraw then run away when things don’t go our way.  We are, instead, to honor the other person by going out of our way to work out an issue. 
 
In our society today, like no other society before us, we rely on paid professionals to take care of problems and issues that arise between us.  In our country right now we have 77,000 clinical psychologists, 192,000 clinical social workers, 105,000 mental health counselors, 50,000 marriage and family therapists, 17,000 nurse psychotherapists, 30,000 life coaches—and hundreds of thousands of nonclinical social workers and substance abuse counselors as well. Ross Douthat, in his book Bad Religion points out that “Most of these professionals spend their days helping people cope with everyday life problems, not true mental illness.” He concludes that “under our very noses a revolution has occurred in the personal dimension of life, such that millions of Americans must now pay professionals to listen to their everyday life problems.”
 
            This does not mean we should avoid therapists and counselors (I myself have been greatly benefited by such professionals and I think we ought to avail ourselves of their services).  However, there are many situations and problems and issues that can be resolved by a healthy church dynamic of loving one another with a family love that listens to and cares for each other.  We are to be real and honest enough with each other in the church to allow others to care for us.  There is nothing to be ashamed about in sharing what is going on in our lives with each other.
 
            Pastor Eugene Peterson has said that “being a church member is a vocation, a way of life. It means participation in an intricate web of hospitality, living at the intersection of human need and God’s grace, inhabiting a community where men and women who don’t fit are welcomed, where neglected children are noticed, where the stories of Jesus are told, and people who have no stories find that they do have stories, stories that are part of the Jesus story. Being a church member places us at a heavily trafficked intersection between heaven and earth.”  In other words, we are to practice our given privilege and responsibility as the priesthood of believers, occupying a place between heaven and earth where others can come and find life.
 
            Having affection for one another in brotherly love and honoring one another above ourselves means that we will be persistent in our service and patient in our efforts.  It means we will share our lives and practice hospitality.  One pastor had this story to tell about a couple in his church (not their real names):  John and Julie were happily anticipating the birth of their first child, a son. They had already decided to name him Paul. But when Paul was born, there was a big problem: Paul was born without eyes. John and Julie would later discover that their son had other serious issues, including severe autism and a growth hormone deficiency.  Two months after Paul’s birth, as John was looking at his son hooked up to tubes and sensors and surrounded by medical professionals, he quietly told God, “God, you are strong, that’s true, and you are wicked. You are mean. Do it to me—not to this boy. What did he ever do to you?” Shortly after that prayer, John and Julie quit going to church.  But one couple from the church refused to give up on them. Karl and Kathy never pressured John and Julie about spiritual issues. Instead, they would often stop by and leave simple gifts, like a loaf of fresh bread or a basket of soap and shampoo for Julie. John said that it was like Karl and Kathy were saying, “I notice you. I see you. I know you’re hurting and I love you.”  Eventually John and Julie accepted a dinner invitation from Karl and Kathy. During dinner John told Karl, “You can believe whatever you want. I don’t care. I have evidence that God is cruel.” Karl softly and simply replied, “I love you, John. I have regard for you, and I love your boy.”  Karl and Kathy’s four children also displayed unconditional love for their son. John described it this way:
 
‘They’d throw [my son] up in the air and make him laugh and do funny bird sounds and—and that was confounding, because most people, most adults couldn’t do that. And so I would have this extraordinary expression of love and affection at the dinner table here, and I would turn to my left—and there would be at least one of these children playing with my boy like he was a real boy. I wasn’t even sure he was a real boy at times.’
 
Based on this family’s quiet, persistent love, John and Julie finally returned to the Lord and to their local church. And when they returned Karl and Kathy stayed by their side, making sure their son made it into the nursery. John would later say, “They persisted. That was a big deal that they persisted with us.”
 
            A Christian congregation is a compassionate congregation, devoted and committed to one another.  That means when someone shares something with you that is difficult and personal, you are to respond.  No response (no affect) is just as damaging as saying the wrong thing.  If we work at keeping our spiritual fervor and being joyful in hope, then we will have a compassionate response to people.  You can never go wrong with these three caregiving basics:  1) listen well (don’t give unsolicited advice); 2) show respect by allowing others to share their grief and tell their story (rather than tell them how they should or shouldn’t feel); and, 3) pray for the person right then and there.
 
            In addition to those three caregiving basics, you can add the following practical ways to show you are devoted to another in brotherly love:  thoughtful gifts (i.e. grocery or restaurant coupons); words that help (i.e. “I truly care”, “I appreciate you”, “Count on me”, “It must hurt”); special services (i.e. offer to babysit or do some chores); and, outings together (i.e. go to a baseball game together).
 

 

            So, may you express your devotion and commitment to Christ’s church through words and acts of compassion, kindness, and love that reflect the love of God.