Category: Exploring Church Ministry Blog

Longing for Justice and Righteousness

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
Some words make us squeamish.  Justice often gets a bad rap by some in the church, as if it were some code word for “liberal.”  Righteousness seems more like the “right” word, but gets thrown around like an old familiar blanket, as if we already know all that stuff.  So, what’s the big deal about justice and righteousness?  Other than being very biblical terms which get used a lot in Scripture, being just and right is what the Messiah is all about (Jeremiah 33:14-16).
 
            Justice and righteousness are most often paired together in the Old Testament.  They are really two sides of the same coin.  We often think of justice in punitive terms of giving lawbreakers what they deserve.  But biblical justice has much more to do with giving someone what they need and deserve in order to live and thrive as human beings.  To act justly means to provide things like clean drinking water, a safe environment, fair and equitable business practices, food to eat, a place to sleep, etc.  Righteousness is the relational element to justice.  To be righteous means to have right relationships, to connect with people, to move toward them and provide them with all the relational things that people need like respect, dignity, friendship, hospitality, fellowship, etc.
 
            Justice and righteousness are always to go together.  Justice without righteousness is at best, impersonal, and, at worst, condescending.  Righteousness without justice is only a dead faith that wishes well but never delivers.  But together, justice and righteousness brings love, peace, harmony, well-being, and human flourishing because all the basic necessities of life, physical and relational, are met in abundance.  This is what is meant in the Old Testament when Israel is referred to as “a land of milk and honey.”
 
            The time of abundance is here for us in the person of Jesus Christ.  Yet, it is not here in its fullness.  We anticipate, wait, and hope for the Second Coming of our Savior and King.  While we exercise patience, we long for better days.  A true Advent spirit is a deep longing for justice and righteousness because King Jesus is just and right!
 
            What do you long for today?  I long for things which are broken to be made right.  I long for biblical justice.  I long for the day when my grandson will have no more seizures.  I long for the day when individuals and families will not have to fight cancer anymore.  I long for the day when there will be no more depression, mental illness, or dementia.  I long for the day when people will be completely free of addictions.  I long for the day when there will be no more sex trafficking, death from malnutrition, grinding poverty, corrupt governments, whole families and communities torn by the ravages of HIV and AIDS, refugees with no place to call home, and devastating natural disasters.
 
I long for righteousness.  I long for the day when women and girls all across the world will not be abused and become the victims of disordered power.  I long for the day when Israelis and Palestinians, Iranians and Iraqis, Japanese and Koreans, Russians and everybody else will no more hate each other.  I long for all believers everywhere to experience the exhilaration of new life in Christ.  I long for my community to repent and believe the gospel.  I long for men and women of God to embrace Jesus and forsake all other gods.
 
            I long for the kingdom of God to come in all its fullness, in all its freedom, joy, prosperity, peace, and happiness.  God’s kingdom will not be ushered in through continued worship of things and the constant practice of accumulating more and more.  God’s kingdom will not come through worshiping a particular nation or country.  God’s kingdom will not be ushered in because of self-effort, savvy marketing, and full schedules.  God’s kingdom is not the same as our personal agendas for life. 
 

 

The kingdom of God will come when God decides it is going to come because Jesus is Lord and no one or nothing else is king!  I want to be doing justice and righteousness when he arrives.  The church of Jesus is a gathering of people who are to be just and right in their thinking and practice.  Holding those two important words together is vital to every congregation.

Advent

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
             I did not begin my ministry as a Pastor decades ago observing Advent. I needed to learn for myself that Advent is a special season anticipating the arrival of the Lord Jesus.  I have come to completely embrace the season.  Here’s why:  I found in Advent a solution to the problem of secular Christmas vs. spiritual Christmas. We as Christians recognize that Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It’s a holiday that focuses on the meaning of the Incarnation. Yet, given the secular traditions of Christmas, we spend much of our time preparing, not for a celebration of the birth of Jesus, but for fulfilling the demands of the holidays. We buy lots of presents for lots of people and make sure they are all wrapped and delivered. We attend and host holiday parties. We have relatives who come to visit, and/or we are the relatives who go elsewhere to visit.  Christmas cards need to get out, and the annual Christmas letter often turns into a project for next year.  Our holiday season requires lots of planning and energy, and it can end up being downright exhausting. If we have younger children, we may very well spend hours trying to assemble gifts on Christmas Day that come with sketchy instructions written by someone for whom English is, at best, a third language….
 
            Christ can, ironically, get pushed out of Christmas, not by unchurched non-Christians, but by us.  But Advent helps us come back to God and put our focus and our delight where it rightly belongs:  in Jesus Christ, our Savior.
 
            Embedded within the season of Advent are a message and a mission.  The Gospel of John begins with the great proclamation: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”  God has entered into human history in the person of Jesus.  It is a message of grace and hope, completely centering round Christ.  It is a story – the greatest ever told – of God loving his creatures so much as to become one of them.  This redemption narrative gives shape to our own witness.  We simply tell the story of God’s love to humanity through the sending of the Son, Jesus, to deliver us from sin, death, and hell and bring us into a kingdom full of grace, joy, wholeness, and love.
 
            So, how, then, do we keep our focus where it needs to be during the month of December and observe the Advent season?  First of all, attend Advent services.  Pay attention to the Advent Wreath and candles, the special readings, and all the heightened awareness of Christ’s coming.  Another way to focus on Jesus is by enjoying Advent music.  This sounds easy, but really is not. There are hundreds of popular Christmas songs and carols, played everywhere during Advent, from churches, to gas stations and shopping malls. There are comparatively few Advent songs, though many songs and carols do touch upon Advent themes of waiting, hoping, and yearning for God.  Other ideas for Advent can include:  putting together an Advent Wreath at home; and, using a Nativity scene with lots of pieces as an Advent Calendar, adding one character to the scene every day.
 
            A practical way I discovered in remembering Advent is standing in the long lines of stores during the holidays.  A few years back I was going nuts waiting in a crazy long line with a cashier who was clearly seasonal help.  As my frustration mounted, God did what God often does with me.  He asked a question. “Tim, why are you so upset?” “Duh, God! This stupid line and slow cashier!” “Tim, what is my Advent really all about?”  I was busted. As a Pastor I tell others about the time of waiting and anticipation, but here I was selfishly impatient.
 

 

            Go ahead and try it out this season.  Let the inevitable standing in line be a reminder that Advent is really about waiting and patiently anticipating the coming of the Lord Jesus.  Let’s be honest.  You are going to wait whether you like it or not.  If by God’s grace you don’t stand in a line, you will instead wait in the heavy holiday traffic that moves at a snail’s pace.  But you and I have a choice.  Either the wait will form us for naught or for good.  Let’s allow the time of waiting to bring a fresh Advent spirit into our lives this season so that our Christmas will be a glorious one.

The Reign of Christ the King

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
In my undergraduate college days, one of the required classes for my major was Philosophy of History taught by a crusty old professor who looked like he was one-hundred ten years old.  Professor Thompson knew that I was a Christian because I always sat in the front of his class taking notes with a Bible on my desk.  One day he came into the classroom and began his lecture by looking directly at me with those beady black eyes of his and said, as only Professor Thompson could say it, “Ehrhardt!  Can God change history?”
 
            My answer was this:  the question is only relevant if God were never in control and sovereign over history to begin with; there is no need to change history if God is actively and continually working out his purposes in and through history.  So, a more appropriate question would be:  Since God is Lord over all history, will we submit to him? 
 
            In difficult times, it is only human to wonder if God is really sovereign over all the earth.  When terrorists kill others; when natural disasters claim countless lives; when Christianity is seen as a threat to many; with such realities we might ask ourselves – Can God change history?
 
            Even though Christ’s reign is invisible and seems limited and temporary, it will ultimately be visible and is pervasive and permanent (Revelation 1:4-8).  Faithful believers in the first centuries of the church would witness to their faith and tell others about the redemptive events of Jesus and that, since Jesus is alive, others can experience new life.  They were effective enough to alter the social order of things, which brought persecution and, in some cases, death.  These men and women were killed proclaiming their devotion to Jesus, witnessing to others.  So, the term “witness” or “martyr” began to refer to those who were killed for their proclamation of the gospel.  In doing this, they saw themselves as only emulating and following in the way of their sovereign Lord Jesus, who was himself a faithful martyr.  Just as Jesus died proclaiming the kingdom of God and people’s need to submit to it, so the earliest believers needed to see their solidarity with their Lord so that they would not falter and give in to being silent.
 
Jesus is Lord of both good days and bad days.  Our faith cannot be dependent upon our circumstances because it is the blood of Jesus that has freed us to live for God no matter what the situation we have before us.  We overcome only on the ground of the blood of Christ – not because everything goes our way.  We overcome our consciences, bad tempers, defeats, lusts, fears, and pettiness on the basis of the blood of the Lamb.  Jesus frees us! The goal of the church is not having a wonderful existence without any adversity; the goal is to know Jesus Christ, and him crucified, dead, risen and ascended. 
 
As believers in Jesus we have continual access and unconditional acceptance of God through his blood.  We can intercede for others directly by going straight to God.  Just as Jesus has unlimited access to the Father, so, the Christian has the ability and the privilege of coming to God at all times.  Christians are a kingdom of priests where every believer intercedes for other believers, and even for the world which persecutes them.
 
While we wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus, we do not idly wait.  We intercede for the world.  We proclaim the gospel to all the earth.  We love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.  Nothing in this world can ever deprive us of grace and peace.  No circumstance or adverse situation, no terrorist or natural disaster, no ornery people, no other person can take away Jesus from us.  So, with this security, assurance, and blessing we are free to rescue others from the coming judgment.
 

 

The reign of Jesus Christ elicits some probing questions:  Will we be faithful to Jesus by being faithful witnesses?  Will we live into the new life offered to us?  Will we submit to King Jesus?  Jesus is worthy of our praise.  He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.  His kingdom will never end.  Since this is true, we are meant to serve God.  In life and in death, we belong to God.  We are not our own; we were bought at a price.  Therefore we are to serve God in the ways he wants us to serve.  “Can God change history?” is not really the question we should be asking.  Since God has changed history forever in the sending of the Son, what will we do with him?  

Be an Encourager

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
Attending church is not an end in itself – there is a practical reason why we are to be regular attenders.  We are to pay thoughtful attention to other believers, to take an interest in their welfare, and put some significant thought into how to help, support, give hope, love, spur, assist, stimulate, and uplift them into keeping up with Jesus (Hebrews 10:24-25).  A major opportunity for this is to occur at corporate gatherings.  Worship services, small group Bible studies, and other ministries of the church are all important because they are opportunities for us to encourage other people.  Yes, we are to be fed ourselves, but we are also to have the attitude and practice of attending ministries so that we will have the opportunity to speak words of encouragement to others.
 
This whole church thing is not some sort of optional equipment for the Christian life.  We need each other.  We need the church.  Eugene Peterson has said:  “Love cannot exist in isolation: away from others, love bloats into pride. Grace cannot be received privately: cut off from others, it is perverted into greed. Hope cannot develop in solitude: separated from the community, it goes to seed in the form of fantasies. No gift, no virtue can develop and remain healthy apart from the community of faith. ‘Outside the church there is no salvation’ is not ecclesiastical arrogance but spiritual common sense, confirmed in everyday experience.”
 
The church provides Christians with the nurture, guidance, and encouragement necessary for spiritual development. God gives us the church:  to help form our identity as Christians, and give us a secure sense of belonging; to bring comfort and encouragement in difficult times; to proclaim the Word in preaching and sacrament; to provide godly examples for us to imitate; and, to discipline us when we go astray.  We are to be the church to one another, helping each other to become more like Jesus.
 
            Therefore, we are to put ourselves in a position to be an encouragement to others, to love them with the love of Jesus.  Here are six types of encouragers that I see displayed in the book of Hebrews for us to emulate:
  1. The Cheerleader.  “You can do it.  I believe in you!”  We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on to push through the quitting points.  They did it, and so can we (12:1).
  2. The Affirmer.  “What you are doing is valuable and important!”  The preacher said, “We are confident of better things in your case – things that accompany salvation.  God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them” (6:9-10).
  3. The Rebuker.  Better is open rebuke than hidden love.  “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.  For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” (2:1-3).
  4. The Prayer Warrior.  “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (4:16).
  5. The Partner.  Jesus sent out his disciples in pairs – not by themselves.  “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (3:13).
  6. The Pastor.  Shepherding in the Bible is a practice and function, not just a title.  It is someone who comes alongside and helps make sense of the confusing situations of life, knowing what to do.  “Jesus suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.  Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.  For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (13:12-14).

 

There is enough criticism already out there; one needs not look any further than Facebook to get their fill of it.  Instead, decide to be an encourager.  Everyone needs encouragement, which means every single Christian needs to be an encourager to others.  What kind of encourager are you?  In what ways do you need to develop to become a better encourager?  How can you influence your church through encouragement?