Tag: faith

Faith and Action in the Church

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
“You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.” –James 2:18
 
            Never are we told in the Bible that we make a profession of faith in Christ and then go on our merry way doing whatever we feel like doing and leaving Christian service to others.  Faith is not a checklist of right beliefs to sign-off on as if it was nothing more than some fire insurance policy against hell.  The reality is that the knowledge of salvation and the redemptive events of Jesus mean nothing unless we put that knowledge into practice.  “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). 
 
Don’t try and say, “I’m okay; you’re okay.”
 
            There are always folks in the church who try to justify their lack of action and failure to help others.  When people make statements like:  “I’m not wired that way,” “That’s not my gift,” “We pay our pastor to do the ministry,” “This church is not meeting my needs,” “Let the next generation deal with change,” then they are essentially saying:  “You can do the work while I show up and complain.”  I hope that it goes without saying that this attitude and approach to the church is not good and betrays a failure of real faith.  If anyone is in the habit of complaining about something, but does nothing to be part of the solution – that person needs to get an active faith because there is no room for armchair Christians in the New Testament who spout off about how it should have been done and how it ought to be done, but do nothing themselves.  Each and every believer in Jesus Christ has been called to ministry.  Every one of us has been gifted by God for ministry, and God expects us to use those gifts to build up the Body of Christ.  The church suffers when we do not all participate in service with the abilities God has provided.
 
            In fact, the role of the pastor-teacher in the New Testament is to train others in the work of ministry.  You will not find anywhere in Scripture that only certain individuals serve and everyone else watches, like it is some kind of sporting event.  Check out what the Scripture says:  “To each one of us [Christians] grace [a spiritual gift] has been given as Christ apportioned it….  It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:7-13).  Wherever there is division and immaturity in the church, there you will find a group of people who are not using their God-given spiritual gifts and choose to complain instead of serve.
 
Don’t try and do it all yourself.
 
            It is not the job of pastors, ministry leaders, missionaries, or any kind of leader in the church to do everything, but to invest in training disciples to do the job.  Far too many pastors and leaders complain incessantly about the lack of service within their ministries but are doing nothing to put their efforts into training others for the work of ministry.  A biblical culture is one that is continually offering discipleship and mentorship to believers and sends them out and off to do ministry work.
 

 

            Therefore, there are two groups of people in the church that need to put action to their faith:  members who only sit and soak but do nothing to jump into serving the Body of Christ; and, leaders who do not act to put primary energy into equipping the saints to do the work of ministry.  When members do not serve, and leaders do not train, both groups hurl complaints toward the other and nothing ever gets done.  It is high time that everyone in the church take responsibility for action in a biblical way so that the church’s unity, purity, and peace is upheld because of the maturity that occurs through active service.  May it be so to the glory of Jesus Christ and the sake of the gospel.

Faith Is More than a Feeling

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
“Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?” 
(James 2:17, The Message)
 
 
 
I recently bought a shirt.  The first time I put it on, a button fell off.  You know, when I buy a shirt, I expect it to hold up under normal conditions of wear and tear.  But if I wear it once and it tears, or I wash it the first time and it falls apart in the washer, that shirt did not stand up to the test of being an active shirt.  We have reasonable expectations that things will hold up to real life conditions.  If I have a new car that breaks down after a few hundred miles, then I call that car a lemon because it did not stand up well to normal driving conditions.  In the case of a shirt or a car or any other product, if it does not accomplish its intended purpose, I get another one.
 
            When it comes to our “faith,” if it continually does not stand up to the normal rigors of living the Christian life, then I need a new life because my faith is not active.  A strong robust faith in Jesus Christ does not just come by looking good in the store or at the car lot; genuine faith is active and can stand the muster of adversity.
 
            Real faith is not just a matter of words and feelings; it is a matter of deeds and actions.  “What good is it if a person claims to have faith but has no deeds?” the Apostle James asked the church.  This is meant to wake up his readers so that they will realize that true faith is always active.  “Can such faith save him?”  (James 2:14-17).  No, it cannot.  That is the point.  A faith that is not active is not really faith at all.  But, you might wonder, I thought works did not save us.  No, they do not.  The Apostle Paul typically talked about the relationship between faith and works before a person has a conversion to Christ, whereas James talks about the role of works to faith afterwe have professed faith in Christ.  Paul said that works cannot bring us to Christ; James said that once we come to Christ, works are a necessity.  In fact, Paul put it all together in Ephesians 2:8-10 – “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
 
            James is not discussing how to become a believer in Jesus, but how a believer in Jesus ought to live.  And he does this by giving an illustration of the relationship between faith and works.  If someone is in need and expresses a sentimental feeling, even if that feeling is sincere, without backing it up with action – that expression is only that – it does not help.  I once came home after a long day at work on Valentine’s Day.  I picked up some flowers at a drive through flower shop.  I walked into the door and handed my wife the flowers with an “I love you.”  Then, I sat down in a heap and turned on the TV.  What was her response, you ask?  It was not very favorable toward me.  But I felt real feelings for her, and gave her some flowers, even though they were not very good looking ones.  What was the problem?  I did not really put any thought or action behind Valentine’s Day, and she knew it.  My words of “I love you” just did not sync well with my actions. 
 
            If we want to be people of faith in Jesus, our actions will perfectly sync with our words.  For example, when we say “I will pray for you” it needs to be much more than an expression of concern – we need to actually spend the time and commitment it takes in praying for them.
 
            Faith is more than feelings.  Faith cannot exist or survive without deeds.  Works are not an added extra to faith any more than breathing is an added extra to the body.  We need them both in order to live the Christian life. 
 
–If we say worship of God is important, what will our actions be like? 
–If we say the Bible is important, what will our actions be like? 
–If we say that everyone needs the good news of Jesus Christ, what will our actions be like? 
–If we say that family is important, what will our actions be like? 
–If we say that our youth are a priority to the church, what will our actions look like?
 

 

            Christianity is much more than a sentimental religion.  Real faith in Jesus is always expressed through both loving words and loving actions.  What is the Holy Spirit saying to you?  Is there a potential action he wants you to do?  Will you do it?  How will you do it?  When will you do it?  Real faith stands up when it is tested.

Galatians 3:23-29

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
            Ever since the fall of humanity those many millennia ago, people have had the predilection to organize themselves in groups that keep them distinct from other groups.  Whether it is high school peer groups or office politics; whether it is class warfare or church cliques; there has always been this tendency to think better about the groups we identify with, and to look down and believe the worst about those we don’t understand or just don’t plain like.
 
            But Jesus is the person that changes it all.  “Faith in Christ Jesus is what makes each of you equal with each other, whether you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a man or a woman.”  I’m not sure the English translations of Paul’s phrasing here can truly capture his emphatic pathos about this issue.  For Paul, Christ’s cross has done so much more than bring personal salvation; it has completely eradicated prejudice, discrimination, and division.  The church is to be the one place on earth where divisions do not exist anymore.  It is to be a foretaste of heaven. 
 
            Since the ground is level at the cross, we are to live into Christian unity with an attitude of humility and meekness, and with actions of gusto.  One way of doing this is to simply walk across the room and meet a new person and engage them in some meaningful dialogue.  Walk across the street and talk with a neighbor for whom you think you have little in common with. 
 

 

            Gracious God, you have abolished barriers through the redemption of Christ.  Prevent me from erecting walls that would divide and use me to be a bridge so that others may experience equality in Jesus.  Amen.

Poverty, Plenty, and Paradox

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position.  But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position because he will pass away like a wild flower (James 1:9-10).
 
            Webster defines a paradox as “a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is true.”  The Bible contains a lot of paradoxes, telling us that the ones who give receive, the weak are strong, the empty are full, the slave is free, the cursed are blessed, and that death brings life – all statements which first strike the ear as contradictory, but when we think about them we realize they are true.  The pithy Englishman G.K. Chesterton once gave this insightful definition of a paradox:  “A paradox is truth standing on its head shouting for attention.”  Paradox can be a powerful vehicle for truth, because it makes us think.
 
The poor person is rich.
 
            The Christian in humble circumstances, the lowly poor person actually has a high position because:  poverty enables him to be open to God; and, the pressures of poverty lead him to rely on God’s enablement and provision.  Whenever you find yourself with few material possessions; when you work hard but struggle to keep food on the table; and, find it difficult to pay the bills – then, you are stripped of the illusion of independence and are left vulnerable before God.  And it is in this state of humility that the believer in Jesus cries out to God, recognizing his dependence.  Trust is no option, but absolutely necessary for survival.
 
            What God deems important is a broken, humble, and contrite heart.  God cares about our poverty of spirit.  A person can be economically disadvantaged, but, at the same time, be spiritually advantaged.  We are loved by God not because of either wealth or poverty, but because we realize we desperately need to trust in him.
 
            The Scripture’s use of paradox calls us to make a choice:  Will we pour our lives into things, or into people?  Will we look for ingenuity and technical solutions in order to make our personal and church budgets budge, or will we come to God?  Will we define success in family and church as worldly wealth, or will we define success as acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God?
 
The rich person is poor.
 
            It is difficult for wealthy people to trust in God and not in their riches.  Anyone who trusts in things is the truly underprivileged person.  A sirocco wind is a weather name given to hot and humid southeast to southwest winds originating as hot, dry desert-air over North Africa, blowing northward into the southern Mediterranean basin.  The early believers all knew about these winds that could unpredictably come through their area and wither perfectly good and apparently strong plants.  But those plants could not stand a sirocco wind.  Trusting in our resources rather than God will not stand in the judgment.
 

 

            The real issue is one of trust – locating and placing faith in the person and work of Jesus, and not in wealth with the influence and security it brings to life.  We live in a time when many church leaders are nearly obsessed with the ability to measure everything from numbers to quantifying spiritual growth and development.  Incredible amounts of money go into budgets, buildings, and programs.  The book of James in the New Testament gives a pushback on our compulsion with money and measurement.  Perhaps declining churches are in a humble state to recognize God; maybe growing churches are in need of better listening skills in order to hear God.  Before making new plans or just maintaining the old status quo in the church, several slow and careful readings of James just might give us some guidance and wisdom of where our real efforts in ministry need to be directed.