Category: Exploring Church Ministry Blog

Brother Jesus

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
James, the author of the epistle bearing his name, grew up in a devout Jewish home.  His family life centered round the daily rhythms of the family carpentry business, the weekly rhythms of the synagogue, and the seasonal rhythms of Jewish festivals which celebrated the ancient work of God toward his covenant people.  There was never a time that he did not know about Jesus.  In fact, Jesus was perhaps so familiar to him that he only saw him as that overachieving obnoxious big brother.  Yes, Jesus was his actual brother.  But James just did not “get it” when it came to Jesus.
 
            For James and the rest of the family, it was one thing for Jesus to step out of the family business so that he could get this obsession with talking about God’s kingdom out of his system – it was quite another thing to speak to the established religious authorities like this: 
 
He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters….  Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.  You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good?  For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.  The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.  But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned (Matthew 12:30-37).
 
            This is not the kind of thing that James had learned at home or at synagogue.  Big brother had crossed the line; he had gone too far, making himself out to be the authority and talking on about how our words are so important.  Crazy Jesus had to stop.  It was time for an intervention.  So, the text of Matthew 12 says this:  While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him.  This was not a nice social call.  James and the rest of the brothers were there to set Jesus straight about how he was upsetting the family and going against the system.  Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”  Jesus replied, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”  Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers.  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:46-50).
 
            Something dramatic happened to James after his brother’s miraculous resurrection:  James moved from seeing Jesus as the familiar brother to the Savior who has taken care of the sin issue once for all, and the Lord of life who must be followed with unflagging devotion and obedience. 
 
            I can relate to James.  I grew up in the family farm business.  Jesus was a name familiar to me all my life.  My growing up years marked with the daily, weekly, and seasonal rhythms not much different than James.  And like James, I did not really know Jesus.  The first seventeen years of my life Jesus was just a name in the background of my existence.  He did not really exert any significant impact on me.  But when I came to the point in my life where I saw Jesus for whom he really is and I gave my life to him, it changed everything for me.
 
            You see, I can no longer look at church as a building and a place to go on Sunday.  The church is now the people of God gathered and sent into the world with a mission to make the name of Jesus known as more than just another name.  I can no longer hear the words of Jesus and think he is off his rocker talking like he did.  I now take those words to heart and believe that I really ought to be making disciples and mentoring people into a faith that shapes everything I say and do.
 

 

            When Jesus is nothing more than a familiar name, we live our lives with only an acceptance of the religion we have always known.  But when Jesus moves to being the Savior and Lord of our lives, it changes everything.  Acceptable religion without Jesus is marked by some church attendance, not rocking the spiritual boat, and doing what our families have always done.  But James learned from his big brother and became the leader of the Jerusalem church.  He followed Jesus into martyrdom and left a legacy of faith, commitment, and wisdom for us.  Acceptable religion for James changed to becoming measured by how well we control our tongues, how we care for the needy, and how morally pure we can be within a corrupt world.  
 
What is acceptable religion to you?  
Does it measure up to James’ view?  
Where do you go from here?  
Is Jesus for you someone to be followed, or in need of an intervention?  

Be a Doer, Not Just a Hearer

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22, ESV).
 
  “Obey God’s message!  Don’t fool yourselves by just listening to it” (CEV).
 
 
 
            The Word of God has not been truly received until it is put into practice.  This is a consistent theme in the New Testament.  Paul warned the church in Rome:  For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but those who obey the law who will be declared righteous (Romans 2:13).  Our Lord Jesus himself stated the same truth:  Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it (Luke 11:28). 
 
The person who only hears is like a Mr. Potato Head that is only ears.  He can’t stand because he has no feet.  He cannot do anything because he has no hands.  Mr. Potato Head needs some feet so that he can follow Jesus wherever he goes.  And he needs hands so he can do God’s will.
 
Listening to the Word without obedience is just that – it is mere hearing.  Profession of faith in Jesus means nothing without a practice of that faith; learning the Bible is useless without living it; and acceptance of the Word is nothing more than a mental exercise without action to back it up.  Profession, knowledge, and acceptance alone does not satisfy God’s plan for our lives. 
 
The danger is that we have the potential to deceive ourselves into thinking we are okay just because we know the right things and believe the right things.  Christianity is a vital love relationship with Jesus, and, so, is not merely a matter of hearing and affirming orthodoxy; it also involves orthopraxy, that is, having right practice, the doing of truth.
 
True hearing leads to true response.  When my firstborn daughter was still in the womb, I constantly talked to her.  I was in seminary at the time, and I would come home and read her fairy tales in Hebrew.  I spoke to her when I got up in the morning and when I went to bed.  I told her all about how God was going to bless her and do great things through her.  I told her of Jesus and his love for her.  I practiced my sermons and Sunday School lessons on her – all before she was born.
 
When the day came that God graced us with her birth, the nurses took her and she cried and cried.  She cried so much and so hard that I finally said to them, “Let me hold her.”  The minute I held her, I began speaking to her, and what happened next got the attention of everyone in the room:  little baby Sarah immediately got quiet.  It was like that the entire time she was in the hospital.  The only time she was happy was when I was speaking to her.  It would be no surprise for you to know that Sarah has always been a Daddy’s girl.
 
We respond to God’s voice when we recognize it.  If we are not in the habit of responding to God’s Holy Word, it is likely that we do not know his voice.  Baby Sarah did not need a lesson on how to respond to me; she knew exactly who I was:  her father.  Do we know our heavenly Father?  Can we distinguish his voice?  The greatest need that we all have is to be servants of God who hear his voice and respond to it, and not soakers who just sit and hear without any response at all.
 
Whenever we refuse to love the unbelievers around us, we are not hearing God and doing his will.  When we listen to the gospel, but then have no intention of sharing that same gospel with others, we are being disobedient.  When we hear about how God forgives us in Jesus’ name, but then we insist on not forgiving another person, we are not being doers of the Word.  When we read the Holy Scriptures as an end in itself without the expressed intent of doing whatever we find in it, then we merely hearing.
 

 

            The Bible is only boring and irrelevant when we read it with no intention of doing what it says.  This is why whenever we read it we need to write out what action we are going to do after having read it.  This is also why the church needs to corporately and collectively covenant together to act on what they hear from God’s Word as they examine it together.  Without this, we are only a random collection of individuals listening to a talking-head preacher.  We go home and forget what we just heard.  Instead, let us act in unity and purpose to do what we find in Holy Scripture.  Can you imagine even just one church who devotes themselves to such a sacred task, and what impact it would have in the world?

Logical Church Fallacies

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            Every day in the church is an adventure.  Sometimes it’s pretty groovy.  At other times it’s just goofy, and I feel like I’m in an episode of The Twilight Zone.  Whenever I’m playing the role of Pastor Serling, it’s usually because of some bizarre or twisted thinking which is taking place.  We call them “logical fallacies.”  A logical fallacy is nothing more than a flaw in reasoning; it is to forego critical thinking skills and skate on some lazy brain action.  Logical fallacies create havoc.  The paucity of reasonable, rational, logical thinking has not only turned-off potential and emerging leaders for the church, but has left a sizable gap in our discipleship of the mind.  The lack of solid critical thinking skills can ruin entire congregations.
 
            Perhaps you doubt.  But consider some familiar ways of thinking within the church which are really nothing more than logical fallacies:
 
The Strawman:  This is misrepresenting someone’s argument to make it easier to attack.  Someone makes a blanket statement that only consumers want an alternative worship service, or that poor people just don’t want to work.  This faux position makes an easy target to knock down.  The problem is that the person setting up the strawman does not have enough information to be drawing conclusions.  Most of the time there has not even been one conversation with the people for whom the strawman argument is directed.
 
The Slippery Slope:  This fallacy is the assertion that if we allow A to happen, then B will consequently happen too, therefore A should never be allowed to happen. One example:  If we allow same-sex couples to marry in our society, then biblical authority is out the window and the next thing you know the traditional family is gone.  Whatever your view is on same-sex marriage is not the issue here – it is asserting the fallacy that if allowed all hell will break loose.
 
The Loaded Question:  This flaw is asking a question that has an assumption built into it so that it can’t be answered without appearing guilty.  Some church people love this approach.  For example, one parishioner asks another if the pastor has visited them, within earshot of the pastor – it puts the person being asked in a no win situation with the unreasonable assumption that the pastor is negligent in his duties.
 
The Bandwagon Jump:  We likely all know this one:  appealing to popularity or the fact that a lot of people do something; it’s meant as a form of validation for one’s position.  This is the church person who will confidently proclaim that no one likes the new small group ministry, and everyone hates it, which is meant to deflate the new ministry before it ever really gets going.  It works because there are usually people who do not want to be on the “wrong side” of the issue.
 
The Emotional Appeal:  This fallacy is in manipulating an emotional response in place of a valid or compelling argument.  A person stands up in the church’s annual meeting and says we don’t need padding on the pews because there are Christians in Africa worshiping in a hut with no pews at all.  No one wants to be a wimp, so the padding never happens.
 
The Ad Hominem Argument:  This is my personal favorite.  I chuckle every time I hear it.  I chuckle a lot.  Instead of dealing with the argument, this is simply attacking your opponent’s character or personal traits in an attempt to undermine his/her position. For example, after providing a compelling reason for a change in ministry focus to families, another church member then questions why we should listen to a person who has never been married.
 

 

            There are a whole lot more fallacies, and this is only a small swatch of them.  Turns out we fallen people have all kinds of creative ways of refusing to think well about things.  In all cases of logical fallacies there is an inherent bias toward a certain position.  Therefore, the person purporting his position does not listen and seek to understand.  He only wants his opinion validated, or position adopted, or ego stroked, and will do whatever it takes to make it happen.  It is nothing more than lazy thinking and a lack of humility.  Jesus offers us an alternative to logical fallacies with sound humble reasoning through careful storytelling and logical teaching.  But don’t take Pastor Serling’s word for it.  Go ahead and read the Gospels for yourselves.

The Breathing of Prayer

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            Prayer is the breath of the believer.  There is no life apart from the breathing of prayer.  But with prayer there is life because it opens us to a life-giving relationship with God in Christ.  One of the ancient fathers of the faith once described prayer in this way:  “To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all seeing, within you.”  It would be weird if I told you that it is your duty to breathe.  Instead, it is our delight to breathe clean fresh air every day.  We don’t need to be told to do it; it is just a part of being alive.
 
            There is such a thing throughout the history of the church known as “the breath prayer.”  It is to pray short repetitive prayers, like breathing.  It would be strange if I told you that breathing is too common and repetitious, and, so, it should be different or not done so often.  Like breathing, prayer is to be done not once but many times, over and over again.  The Jesus Prayer is a breath prayer.  It comes from a combination of Luke chapter 18 verses 13 and 39:  “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” and “Son of David, have mercy on me.”  Put together, it can be said in a breath.  Breathing-in, you pray “Jesus, Son of David,” and breathing-out, “have mercy on me, a sinner.”  It is a prayer meant to surrender ourselves to God’s grace as naturally as it is to breathe.  To utter it several times is a continual reminder of the God in whose presence we stand.  If we are to live into Paul’s command to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), then learning the rhythm of breath prayers can be quite important.
 
            Furthermore, just like breathing, prayer is more effective and is better done in a position or a posture that is conducive for it to happen.  Putting a pillow over your face makes it difficult to breathe.  But sitting up and paying attention to taking-in deep amounts of air helps us to breathe well.  Within Scripture, there is no one-size-fits-all to prayer.  Standing, having outstretched arms, uplifted eyes, kneeling, and even prostrating ourselves are all postures of prayer before God.  We severely limit ourselves if we only think of praying with eyes closed, head-bowed, and hands folded.
 
            Standing is usually seen as a gesture of respect in many cultures, even our own.  Sometimes it is good to stand when we pray, acknowledging God’s majesty and our desire to submit to him.  Lifting our arms helps to give us an awareness of God’s bigness and that he is over and above us; it is a posture that literally opens the core of our body toward God and communicates a willingness to receive whatever he has for us.  Looking up to heaven with open eyes causes us to know we are not alone, but God watches us.  Praying on our knees is certainly a way of expressing humility before God.  Prostrating ourselves, or lying face down, is a powerful reminder that we pray mindful of our place – that we are dust, and to dust we shall return.  Every breath is dependent upon God in whom we place our trust.
 
            It is therefore only fitting that a room your church building be designated for the primary task of prayer.  A Prayer Room not only visibly reminds us how important prayer is to the church, but is a special place available to stand, sit, or kneel in prayer so that the Spirit-breath of God can fill us with life and blessing.  A Prayer Room is designed for Christians to worship and pray, to intercede for others, and to stand in the gap by praying for the salvation of those who need Jesus Christ.
 

 

            Seasons come and go, but it is always open season on prayer.  Let us renew our efforts and our effectiveness at praying to the God who was, who is, and who is to come.  May you know the joy of answered prayer, and the love of God in whose mercy is our very breath.