A Taste of Things to Come: The Church in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians

Recently, I wrote a paper for my New Testament Theology class. The assignment was to trace a theme in one of Paul’s letters. I chose to write about Paul’s teaching about the church in the book of Ephesians. It is titled, “A Taste of Things to Come: The Church in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians.” I posted it in parts, so as to make it easier to read in this format. It is an academic paper, not a sermon, so it might have some technical terms in it, although I think it should be fairly readable. If you have any questions, let me know.

• Introduction and Background to Ephesians
• The Context of the Church: Cosmic Unity
• The Composition of the Church: Racial Unity
• The Calling of the Church: Dynamic Unity
• The Conduct of the Church: Practical Unity
• Implications for the Church Today

Baptism: The Great Commission

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

The Great Commission is central to Evangelical Christianity. We preach and teach the Great Commission all the time. Being faithful to this charge that Jesus gave us is a top priority for us. We place high value missions, discipleship, and teaching. For most of us, if our church did not value these things, there would be a major problem. It would concern us deeply and we would, at least, aspire to do better in these areas. Great Commission commands are central to what most of our churches are trying to do.

And yet, many of us don’t think twice if a church marginalizes baptism. In my own church, we have had a problem with this. Many of our adult members are not baptized. Rarely does baptism come up in our teaching. Encouragements to evangelize and obey come up nearly every week, but baptism? Not so much. In the past, we have even had elders and others who were not baptized. Our church has made great strides to change a lot of this, but the truth is, baptism remains somewhat marginalized for a lot of us. It is a secondary, often forgotten aspect of our faith.

I think this should be somewhat disconcerting, considering the prominence baptism has in the Great Commission. In the Great Commission, Jesus describes what it takes to spread the Gospel. The foundation of Jesus’ commission is that he is both God and King over the whole world. (“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…”) Because of this, we are to call all people to submit to his loving rule (“make disciples”). The process has three steps.

• First, we make contact and interact with many different kinds of people (“go”).

• Second, when these people embrace Christ, we initiate them into fellowship with the Triune God (“baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”).

• Finally, we train them in the lifestyle fitting for one who follows Jesus (“teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”).

This is a description of the whole process of disciple-making. Before conversion, we go. After conversion we teach…and at conversion, we baptize. It seems clear to me.

How, in spite of all the teaching, preaching, and studying is done on the Great Commission, can many of us miss one of the more direct and clear commands in it?

Why are we so eager to do all the other things in the Great Commission (go, make disciples, teach, etc.) and not enthusiastic about getting people baptized? After we have gone out to the world and someone has become a disciple of Jesus, we do not hesitate to jump into teaching them how to obey Jesus’ commands. And yet, we are slow to say, “Let’s get you baptized!” People even get the notion that it is something one needs to be a Christian a while to do. Why?

Natural Places for Evangelism

Right now, we are studying the Book of Acts in Ecclesia. The story is all about the way the Holy Spirit thrusts the young Church out into the world to announce the arrival of the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. It is exciting and challenging, because the impulse to move outward, to serve and to bear witness about Jesus is so different from our natural way of living and doing church. There are so many inspiring examples of how the early Christians shared the Gospel. It makes you want to get out and share the Gospel boldly, just like they did.

The problem is, the methods the early church used don’t seem to work today. At Pentecost, Peter preached on the street to a gathered crowd. Paul does this on numerous occasions, often a town market or central gathering place. It was incredibly effective in most case in Acts. But try street preaching today. Not only will you not see many people come to Christ, you probably won’t even be able to gather to people to even give you a listen. People just don’t gather anymore. We don’t have a place for it. When we are outside, we are usually on the move, not stopping to hear a religious lecture. In the days of Acts, this was common, though. To gather to hear a traveling philosopher or teacher was a normal way to pass the time, be entertained, and engage in community. It presented a natural place for the apostles to engage. Today, not so much.

In other cases, Paul went into a town and entered the synagogue and they let him preach, mostly because he just showed up and asked to. Try that today in a random religious institution. Even if you are of the same religion, they won’t usually let you speak just because you showed up. And if you want to reach non-religious people, you’d be hard pressed to find a place that they even gather to talk about ideas. It just isn’t a very feasible option today.

So how do we do it? How do we find places where we can engage in the religious, philosophical, and personal questions that people have? The apostles engaged in places that were natural to their culture. What is the natural place to talk about ideas in our culture? When we find that, maybe we can be more effective at sharing the Gospel about Jesus.

Here are some of my thoughts. I’ve had them in my head for a while, but they remain undeveloped. I want to see what you think about them. Where do people engage with ideas? Where are people open to conversation?

• Movies and TV - People engage with significant issues of life, worldview, and values when they watch a meaningful movie. A lot of people think about the world using bits and pieces of thoughts they got from movies. Some have called movies the new sermons.
• Coffee Shops - People are certainly open to conversation in most coffee shops. They probably don’t want to have a Gospel presentation forced on them, but they might not mind being asked about the book they are reading.
• The Internet - There are blogs and forums all over the place online where people are engaging in debate and discussion. The problem is that usually like-minded people gather in the same places and feed off of each other. The only disagreeing voices tend to be hard-headed, unreasonable people who post overstatements and insults along with their opinions. But, never the less, there are people talking about signficant things all over the place online. Youtube, Facebook, blogs, etc…How do we engage with them?
• Colleges and Universities - People go to college to learn, to figure out what they think. That could be a great place to go to engage with people in the time when their ideas are being formed the most.

These are just a few ideas. There must be more. What do you think? Are there other forums for these kinds of conversations? What are the ways we can engage people in these environments in a manner that makes sense? Be specific if you can. Give examples from your local environment, your town. Where are people interacting with significant issues and ideas?  That is where the apostles went to share Christ in their culture. That is where we need to go in our culture.

Living Intentionally in the Suburbs

Normally, this kind of post would go on my Tumblr, but since it fits so nicely with the stuff I’ve been talking about here (relating to “The Experiment”), I thought I’d post it. It is a list of ten ways to live intentionally in the suburbs. (found via Steve McCoy)

The Trinity and Relational Evangelism

Theologians have speculated for ages about the relationships that exist within the Trinity. How do the Father, Son, and Spirit interact? What is the nature of the interdependence? How does the Son derive his life from the Father? In what way does the Spirit flow from the Father and the Son (or perhaps just the Father, if you are in the East)? In some ways, it is all very strange stuff, but in other ways it is the most fundamental of conversations. The entire Universe and all that happens in it, in some way or another, is an outgrowth of the life of the Trinity. If we really want to know why things are the way they are, we will have to grapple with the Trinity.

One of the ideas that has been tossed around for centuries concerns the Holy Spirit. There have been some theologians who have attempted to explain what it means for the Holy Spirit to proceed from the Father and the Son. Some theologians (first in my mind is Jonathan Edwards, although, there are others who have examined this idea) who propose that the Holy Spirit is the personal love that exists between the Father and the Son. The Son and the Father love each other so deeply, that their relationship, their connection, actually constitutes a real person. While I’m not sure how much of this is just speculation and how much of this is worth believing, I do find it stimulating to think of the implications of this.

One implication came out in a conversation that I was having with two other pastors at the church a few months ago. We were discussing why it is that people tend to come to know Jesus more frequently through relationships, rather than preaching, reading books, tracts, or TV. We all know that if you really find out why people came to believe in Christ, all of them would have a significant relational component to their story, even if they came to a crisis of decision because of a sermon, book, etc. Everyone was lead to Christ through real connection with a Christian. Why?

As we talked about this, I put together two ideas. First, the Holy Spirit is the one that grants faith to the hearers of the Gospel. And second, that the Holy Spirit is thought to be the person that constitutes the relationship between the Father and the Son. So, I asked, “What if the reason people come to Christ in relationship is because the Holy Spirit, in himself, is a relationship? We experience a slice of the life of the Trinity whenever we are in relationship, and so that is where encountering the Holy Spirit is most potent. The Holy Spirit is relationship, therefore relationship awakens people to God.”

The idea stuck with me after that conversation, and it continues to ring with a sort of truth for me. Of course, there is the risk of depersonalizing the Holy Spirit is Edward’s conception of him, so this may be going to far. But, nevertheless, I think the idea that God exists in relationship, and the Holy Spirit is somehow an expression of intertrinitarian love, explains why relational evangelism works.

Thoughts?

Religion in the News and Public Discussion

I want to recommend to you two blogs/columns that are incredibly fascinating when it comes to religion in the news and American life. If you don’t read them, you should.

Get Religion is basically news about religious news. It examines how major media and news sources cover different religious issues. It does a great job pointing out the story behind the stories, as well as poking at the assumptions and misunderstandings of the media when it comes to religion. They are fair, insightful, and they point out things most of us miss when we read the news.

On Faith is fairly new, I think, but is fascinating. It is sponsored by the Washington Post and Newsweek. From a missional perspective, this is one of the best sources of input about the religious opinions of the American public. The column poses a question about faith in America each week and a panel of famous religious leaders responds, giving their opinion from a wide variety of religious perspectives. Look at the list of contributers. It is a stacked group. Some of my favorite people read include Miroslav Volf, Brian McLaren, R. Albert Mohler, Richard Mouw, Luis Palau, Desmond Tutu, Rick Warren, Jim Wallis, Elie Wiesel, Marcus Borg, and John Dominic Crossan. (Even when I don’t agree with them.) There are Christians, Jews, pagans, Muslims, atheists, and others. It is very, very interesting. I almost never have time to read them all, but I think it gives a great window into the world of religion in America. From a missional perspective, it is invaluable. This week’s question about whether America is a Christian nation is very interesting. Other questions cover topics such as conversation between people of different religions, interfaith marriages, Christian and Muslim relations, and religious fundamentalism. It is fascinating.

A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future

This is great: A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future

See also the CT interview with Bob Webber, one of the framers of the document: Together in the Jesus Story

Ecclesia on I Corinthians 14

Starting this week, I am going to start blogging the sermons in Ecclesia each week. I may only post a few sentences or a random thought or two about the service. Even so, even a small post will force me to reflect on the service and get more out of it. I also hope that other Ecclesia folks will start interacting through the week about the passages we cover in Ecclesia. This is my contribution to those conversations.

We are getting close to the end of a sermon series on I Corinthians, and this week we talked about the contraversial, I Corinthians 14. It is about speaking in tongues and prophecy. We focused on the first few verses primarily:

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

There was great potential for conflict over this topic, especially in an old church like ours with roots in good old dispensationalism. Historically, we have been practicing cessationists, although we have never written or agreed on a stance in regard to spritual gifts. In recent decades, we have moved to an attitude that is summed up as "noncharismatic, but not anti-charismatic." Basically, this means that people don't speak in tongues here, and we don't have healings or prophecy in our services, but we aren't officially against those sorts of things happening. There are both cessationists and non-cessationists on our staff. Included in the non-cessastionist group is Ted, one of the pastors in Ecclesia, the Marriage and Family pastor, and myself. At the services, Ted spoke, and the Marriage and Family Pastor joined him for a Q and A time after the message. The service was very pro-gifts.

One thing that was wisely included in the services was a time of testimony from three people who had had different experiences with charismatic gifts, including a man who doubted his faith because a grade school teacher told him he didn't have God's Spirit if he did not speak in tongues, a woman who was in a very charismatic church until high school and had some bad experiences because of it, and a man who grew up as a Christian but did not encounter spiritual gifts until he started dating the woman who was at the very charismatic church. It was an interesting conversation between them, and it showed the problems of both overkill on the gifts and complete absense of them.

On the whole, I thought the service was well done, and it lead to some great conversations at the tavern afterwards.

My background in the issue is a bit torn. My Mom speaks in tongues in private. She was healed from a lifelong thyroid illness when she prayed in faith while watching a healer on a charismatic TV show. My Dad, in contrast, believes that the charismatic gifts have ceased. He used to speak in tongues when he was a young Christian, but later became convinced that this was not truly from God's Spirit. He doubts healers on TV, but does not doubt that God could heal if he wanted. I believe he has recieved prophetic words from God, although he might not call them that. So, growing up, my Dad taught me one thing, and my Mom respectfully disagreed, while quietly continuing her own practices in private. Because of this, my theology has gone back and forth over the years. Personally, I have never spoken in tongues, and in spite of the sense of God speaking to me, I don't know if I have had a genuine prophecy.

With that in mind, here are my basic thoughts and questions on the issue:

There is no Biblical reason for the gifts to be gone. The Bible simply doesn't hint at them ending or anticipate a time when the church would not need God's supernatural empowering in fantastic ways. Anyone who tries to argue this from the Bible, in my opinion, is doing violence to the text. On the other hand, charismatic churches, although they answer the question "Have the gifts ceased?" correctly, have gotten a whole lot wrong beyond that.

On the issue of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, I believe that this happens at conversion, when a person first believes in Jesus. There is no second experience after conversion in which a person recieves the Holy Spirit.

On the issue of speaking in tongues, I think that it can and does happen. I do not think that all Christians should or will, and that anyone who claims that all Christians should speak in tongues is both violating the teaching of Paul I Corinthians 12, and potentially doing great damage to the faith of those who have not spoken in tongues but genuinely believe Jesus. How should tongues function? Well, there are three ways that were proposed in the service on Sunday:

1) As a supernatual ability to speak in earthly languages that are not known naturally to the speaker, particullary in an evangelistic context (ala Acts 2). I think this is possible, and I tend to believe the stories I have heard about frontiers missionaries who have spoken in tongues to communicate with groups they were trying to reach.

2) As a prophetic word in a worship gathering of Christians (ala I Corinthians 14). A word in tongues is acceptable if it is interpreted by another person in the congregation, and the prophecy that is expresses is weighed and confirmed by the elders of the congregation. I think this is legitimate. The problem is execution of this practice. In most churches like ours, we do not leave room for this kind of activity. We would not know how to handle it if it did happen. I don't have many good suggestions about this, but maybe someone else does? I want to avoid the choas that many charismatic churches fall into in regards to this. I would also want to see that it is strictly enforced that the elders weigh all utterences against Scripture.

3) Private prayer languages, which are used to express the emotions and deep cares of a believer who is unable to articulate their heart to God. The passage usually cited in this instance is Romans 8:26. Personally, I am not convinced that this is a solid Biblical basis for this practice. I don't think that is what Romans 8 is referring to. The babbling of most charismatic churches, in my opinion, does not correspond to a Biblical precedent. That being said, I don't really mind if someone speaks in tongues in private. If it is edifying to them, enhancing their connection, love, and worship of Christ, I am not going to fobid it. I am also not going to promote it or make a norm for people. I compare it to times when I have prayed through screaming. There have been times that I have had such deep stuff going on in my heart, that all I could do was groan, scream, or yell to God. It was prayerful, expressive, but not necessarily rational. I think God recieved that as a prayer of faith, from a desperate heart. I don't think everyone should pray that way. It is not a norm. It doesn't have a direct Biblical precedent, but it is not inconsistant with Scripture either. I wouldn't necessarily do it in public, though, because it would not edify the Body or bring people to Christ. I also would not lable this kind of tongues a spiritual gift.

(SIDE NOTE ON TONGUES: I heard two of the most interesting stories about tongues after the service this week. Two people told me how they knew people who spoke in tongues as a personal prayer language. In both these cases, they people had been using their prayer language for years, in private, thinking they were speaking a non-earthly language. In one case, a man had been speaking in his prayer language for years. Naturally, he only spoke English, and knew no other languages. One day his granddaughter passed by his room as he was praying in tongues. His granddaughter was a Spanish major in college, and when she passed, the man was speaking Spanish. She stopped and asked him how he learned Spanish, and he told her he didn't know Spanish. As it turns out, his private prayer language, after all his life, turned out to be Spanish. In another story, a woman who had prayed in tongues in private, was riding in a cab in the city. While in the cab, she sensed that she should speaking in her prayer language. When she did, the cabbie understood what she was saying, and she shared the Gospel with him…Very strange. It makes you think…those of you who passed on these stories to me, feel free to correct my errors if I got the details wrong.)

On the issue of prophecy, the Bible is clear, we should eagerly desire this gift. I don't see this as a future-predictive gift most of the time, but more basically, a word from God. Sometimes it can be a future prediction, but more often it can simply be a challenge, encouragement, or a message of direction. All prophecies should be weighed by Scripture and under the wisdom of leaders in the community. I think this can be a great source of encouragement and power for Christians, and it must be used wisely. If prophecy is not joined with discernment, great harm can come to people because of it. I know a couple who went to a small charismatic church. At the time, they were childless and did not think they could have children. In that church, someone prophecied that the woman would have a baby. When she did not get pregnant, it was confusing and painful for the couple who had taken the prophecy to heart. Could God have sent that sort of message? Yes. Could that sort of practice be fake, and therefore easily abused? Yes. We must be wise about this gift, altough we must take seriously the command to eagerly desire it.

On the issue of healing, I believe that healing still happens. God still hears and responds to the prayers of his people. The problem comes when people use healing as a way to put God on display, as a performer, or crossing the line in commanding God to do what we want, as if the Holy Spirit were a trick dog on a leash. This is the error that many TV healers fall into. God's healing power is mysterious and it is completely up to God's will when he will use it. (Reading the book of Mark could help cure us of the tendecy to expect God to answer to our whims and perform for us. So will John 6 and other passages about Jesus miraculous ministry.) Another error could easily fall into is believing that healing comes to those who have more faith, are more holy, or more in touch with God. The book of Job should have killed that idea for us long ago, and John 9 should have nailed the coffin shut. But, alas, it does not, leading to great doubt on behalf of those who have cronic illnesses and permenant disabilities. I know people whose faith has been destroyed because of lies about healing.

Those are my answers to the standard questions about theology of spiritual gifts. But, beyond where I stand on tongues, healing, and prophecy, I think there is a deeper and more important set of issues to address in how we approach the gifts. Here they are:

Mission: In I Corinthians 14, it is clear that the gifts exist as part of the church's mission. How we are percieved by outsiders is related to how we use the gifts. So often, our obsession with or avoiding of the charismatic gifts have alienated those who look on Christian practice from afar. This may be harsh, but I think that TBN and TV faith healers have probably done more harm to the witness of Christ than good. They make Christians look like fools, and not for the reasons the Bible says we should look like fools. The sensationalism and prosperity messages that have been tied to Chrisitanity because of these people has caused many people to never enter a Christian church for fear of finding people like they see on TV. At the same time, because we have avoided the gifts in many churches, we also lack the true sense of the supernatural in our ministries. This is also a turn-off to people who are looking for something more than religious advice, words, and rules. As I Corinthians 14 points out, the gifts, used right, are often the sign to outsiders that God is present among Christians. The gifts are meant to empower our mission, not hurt it. When they go against that purpose, something is wrong in how we are using them.

Community: The resounding chorus of Paul's discussion of spiritual gifts is that they are to be used for the edification of the body. That is part of why I think the use of tongues as a private prayer language does not jive with what Scripture says. The gifts are not for private use, but for the good of others. The gifts, like the Spirit who empowers them, is focused outwardly on the formation of a community of grace and love who are active in the mission of God to restore recreate the world. Anytime the gifts are used to play people against each other as more spiritual, more godly, or more blessed, they are being misused. Anytime they are the cause of divison, something is wrong. Any time they are just for the user, something is wrong. Anytime they do not aim at the greater health of the community, they are wrong. That is why the gifts exist, for the strengthing of the Church, God's people.

Grace: The spiritual gifts are just that, gifts. If they are not seen as gracious, unearned, and undeserved, something is missing from our perspective. When they become signs of spiritual atainment, we have violated the Spirit of the gifts. When we make them signs of closeness to God or earned approval by God, we have misunderstood them completely. When we make the mistake of creating a heirarchy based on experiences with the gifts, we are in great danger of deeply wounding the community. Many people have been deeply scared by feeling that their lack of experience with the gifts is a sign of their lack of spirituality or connection to God. Deeply faithful people are caused to doubt because they have been placed on an ungracious latter of spiritual experience that ranks and evaluates people. This changes the gifts into payment. They are earned results of spiritual atainment, rather than gracious empowering for us to become what we are not and can only be by the power of God.

Word: As with all issues, the key to success in the area of spiritual gifts is tied to how well we align our practice with God's word. Do we take seriously God's portrait of how healing works? Do we hold all potential prophecies up to the standard of Biblical revelation? Do we seak the order and clarity that the Bible commends when we practice tongues? The Word is our norm and standard, and in the area of spiritual gifts, most major errors can be avoided by simply attending to the instructions it gives. Of all areas where Christians err, I think that this issue is one of the most clearly and directly addressed issues in Scripture.

A few more miscellaneous issues from Ecclesia:

Ted asked a great question worth pondering: "How much of what we do is a reaction to ugliness rather than an attraction to beauty?" He applied this to the issue of the gifts, in that we often reject the gifts because we've seen them done poorly or we go full-bore into the gifts because we've seen the problems their absense brings. I think it can be applied to other issues as well. Of course it is not an issue of wether or not we oppose error and ugliness, but if what we are opposed to defines our stances and the issues we address, we will become unhealthy very quickly. When we are more defined by what we are against, rather than what we are for, there is a problem.

I am very happy that Ecclesia is developing into a community that can discuss issues like this without fights and division. We had a lot of great conversations after the service, and they were all edifying, even when people disagreed or were confused. I think that is a sign that a healthy culture developing. I hope it continues.

A Dream for My Core Group

Originally, I wrote this to share with my core group. I never shared it, because I never finished it. It still has some places I wanted to fill out and expand. I wish I had shared it. It expresses something deep down inside me, something that has been missing lately from my heart, something that feels squashed and hidden…something I want to remember. This was my goal and vision of my guys. I love them, and I didn’t want them to waste their lives. This was my dream for them. It still is.

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I want to make you dangerous.

I want to make you a question that has to be answered. I want you to live lives that don’t make sense to the world but can’t be ignored.

I want to make you radicals, rebels against this worldsystem in all its forms. I don’t want you to buy into all the lies around you.

I want to make you discontent and unhappy. I want you to be sick of your little lives that are spent dreaming of nothing more than hot wife and a good job. I want your thoughts to revolve around more than the weekend or the girl you like or your math test or Sportscenter or the video game you’re trying to beat. I want your thoughts and lives to revolve around something that matters. I want to see you get out of the fake world, where weak men live, and have you get into the real world where Christ is fighting for the souls of humanity. And, I want you to ache to fight alongside of him.

I want to make you warriors. Entering into battle for truth, for souls, and for the Kingdom.

I want to give you a sword. I want to make you so good with the Scriptures that you’ll chew up and spit out lies. They won’t survive the onslaught of the weapon you hold. If you can’t use it, you won’t survive either.

I want to give you a sense of honor.

I want you to make you a threat to the status quo. I want you to shake up the Church and terrify the calm and cozy religious leaders who are comfortable with trite teaching and sleeping saints. I don’t want you to settle for simplistic answers. I want you to long and thirst after the truth and won’t accept anything less, which is something most people have given up.

I want you to be free. Free from the stupid rules and hollow traditions. I want you to shame all the once-a-week Christians, who feel good because they tithe and go on a short-term missions trip once a year. They think that if they do that, they can check the box and claim the name. They feel real good about themselves and all they’ve accomplished by keeping all of our Christian society’s rules. But you, you won’t be satisfied with a steady job, a family, and a little Jesus on top. I want you to want all Jesus and nothing less. I want your life to be consumed with him so that you don’t need to rules to feel good about life. Jesus is your life.

I want to make you fearless. I want you to be men of action and courage, standing up for the truth, which doesn’t mean defending creationism in science class or wearing a Christian t-shirt or not swearing. It means living like a lunatic as far as the world is concerned. It means coming alongside the kid who hates going home because his parents are always fighting. It means eating with the guy who is fat and awkward and smells so everyone mocks him. It means defending the reputation of the girl all the guys think is a slut. It means treating that girl as if she were a lady, to be honored and prized. It means standing up against abuse, against slander, against injustice, against lying. It means laying down your reputation because your reputation is worth crap in the long run. Who cares if the people like you? They hate good and love evil, so what does it mean if they love you? Oh, and having someone respect you and your beliefs is not the goal. If people just, “respect” you, it means they don’t see your way of life as a serious threat to their way of life. If you’re doing it right, people are going to feel very uncomfortable with the idea of following Jesus…And others will be drawn to you, but not the people you hope. It won’t be the cute girls. It won’t be the cool guys. It won’t be the good people who keep all the rules. It’ll be the outcasts, the drugies, the girl that sleeps around, the failures, the anorexics and bulimics and the people who cut themselves because they hate who they are, and the gays and lesbians and bisexuals. Yes, they will be attracted to you because you will have grace in your life. You will offer acceptance in spite of their sin and their failures and their feelings about themselves. The people who are cool and have it together, are going to feel threatened by you and your life, because they will realize they are phonies when they see your life. They’ll understand that they’ve been living for something false, and will hate that your life makes their shallowness so obvious. The others, the broken ones, don’t need to be told they are living for something false. They know, and they’ve lost hope. But you have hope. He’s living in you and through you. And that’s why you will be dangerous.

Because you’ll have a vision…

But it’s not in my power to do this…

Full Philosophy of Ministry Paper

The following is my philosophy of ministry paper, that I wrote last fall in my History and Philosophy of Christian Education. I posted parts of it previously here on the blog, but this is the full deal. I had hoped to expand and change some parts, which may eventually happen, but for now, I think the full thing is worth posting, only slightly modified.It follows the Frankena model, which is what the Box A, B, C, and D mean. I took out Box E because it no longer describes the ministry context I am actually in.

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What is the ultimate purpose of minsitry?
(Box A)

Our understanding of reality begins in the life of the Trinity. God exists in one substance and three persons. There is one God, who exists as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.[1] To understand the nature and purpose of all that exists, we must see everything as an overflow of the life of God in the Trinity.

The life of God within the Trinity is one of perfect glory. It is a life of love, with perfect affection of each member to the other two, without malice or apathy, each one always supremely interested in the other. Each member of the Trinity seeks the joy of the other persons of the Trinity, and each member delights in the other members completely. It is a life of shared joy and knowledge. Complete understanding exists between each person of the Godhead, and perfect fellowship characterizes their interaction. All actions of the Trinity are united amongst all three persons, and all seek the same end. It is the perfect community. In the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith, “God hath all life, glory, blessedness, in and of himself.”[2]

Most importantly, each member of the Trinity is glorifying the other two. Each of the members of the Trinity, in seeing the beauty of God in the other two, overflow with joy. The Son and the Spirit delight in the Father. The Spirit and the Father delight in the Son. The Son and the Father honor the Spirit. In a sense, the life of God is the ultimate worship service. Each person of the Trinity praises the perfections of the others, for all recognize the supreme worth of each other. God is supremely happy in all that he sees in himself. As Wayne Grudem puts it, “God delights fully in himself and in all that reflects his character…God is perfectly happy” and “has the fullness of joy in himself.”[3] The life of God is one of infinite happiness. [4]

Out of this life overflow the actions of God outside himself. Not out of deficiency, but out of overflowing sufficiency, God creates the world and acts within it. All of creation is an expression of the joy and glory of the three persons of God from all eternity. God’s desire is to share with other beings the delight that he has in himself, so he creates beings which can participate in the life of God. God has created humans and angels as agents of praise, and placed them in contexts where they can experience the glory of God. In particular, God has placed humans in a world that puts on display his character in various ways, humans themselves as the pinnacle of this display, so that humans will perceive and delight in God’s character. Another way of saying this, is that in creation God is on a mission to form a community of worshipers who will share in his own delight in his glory.

Therefore, the ultimate purpose of reality is to participate in this overflow of the divine life, and to join God in his delight in himself. In other words, “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.”[5] We exist for the display and enjoyment of the glory of God. Like the members of the Trinity, we are to find complete delight in the character and beauty of God. Likewise, our joy is to overflow so that we desire to see more creatures display and enjoy the character of God. To make God famous, to increase the praise he receives, to draw attention to how incredible he is, is the ultimate goal of all existence, and therefore of ministry.

What is the nature of the reality in which the ministry is happening?
(Box B)

The Character of God

Because all reality has its origin in God, in order to understand the nature of reality, we must understand God.

God is a revealing God. In order for his character to delighted in, it must be perceived by his creatures. There is no way for God to be known unless he chooses to make himself known.[6] How does God reveal himself? Most generally, his character is revealed in creation. God has made the natural world to reflect his glory.[7] At the pinnacle of creation are human beings which God created in his image.[8] Through both the natural world and humanity, God has demonstrated his attributes in general. When understood rightly, creation reveals the glory of God. However, for God’s purposes, general revelation is insufficient. For humans to truly know and enjoy God, they must have clear and special revelation. God does this through the Scriptures, which are the Word of God.[9] As a wholly reliable, error-free revelation, they enable humans to know what God is like. God’s ultimate revelation of his character and glory through the Incarnation.[10] In Jesus Christ, God came to dwell among us and to show us what he is like. As Jesus put it, “Whoever sees me sees him who sent me.”[11] All of these modes of revelation are intended to put on display the character of God.

God is a sovereign God. Because God values his glory above all, God has made a plan to insure that his desired end comes about in full. God is in control, ordaining and working all things for his ends.[12] God’s mission is not done is a haphazard way. There is one plan (without a Plan B) which has been put into place from the very beginning. For this reason, we can be confident in God’s promises to bring about our participation in the joy and community of the Trinity.

God is a just God. Because God prizes his glory above all things, he will not tolerate any slander or disrespect of his name. As a result, all who defame his glory through sin are condemned to consequences which fit with the severity of their transgression. Because God’s glory is infinitely worthy, the punishment for defaming it is infinite (i.e. hell).

God is a gracious God. Fortunately for those defame his name, the pinnacle of God’s glory is shown when he gives something that is not deserved.[13] God could rightly punish those who defame his glory, but he desires to show his glory all the more by blessing those who do not deserve to be blessed. How better to show that God is the source of all good things than to give good things to those who clearly do not deserve them? As it says in Ephesians, we have been saved so that we might be “to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved”[14] and so that “no one can boast.”[15]

The Nature of Humans

Although the study of the nature of human beings could consume a lifetime, I want to focus on three crucial aspects of humans that factor into how we do ministry.

Humans are culture creating.[16] Unlike most animals, we are not merely driven by biological needs and instincts. Through social interaction, human beings produce customs, rituals, codes of conduct, and modes of interaction. We organize into groups. We produce technology, art, and philosophy. The mandate to create culture was given to humans in Genesis 1:26-28, where God gives human beings dominion over all other living creatures, blesses procreation and the raising of children, commands the subduing of the earth. Ideally, humans are to create and participate in a culture that prizes God’s glory above all.

Humans are finite. This is a significant, but perhaps overlooked, aspect of human nature. Human beings are localized creatures. This means that each individual, and even each community, exists in only one place. All people are spatially, temporally, and culturally located in a specific place. The Bible acknowledges that this localization is determined by God for his own purposes. God has determined the times set for us and the exact places we live.[17] This fact has two important implications. First, isolated humans are only able to manifest incomplete portraits of God’s character. The full expression of God’s glory that God seeks from humans is not possible in isolation, both as individuals and as communities. No one human culture can complete express the fullness of God. Second, the localized nature of humans means that each human community can only influence the cultures which they are immediately connected to. I cannot impact Chinese culture because I am a white man located in the largely white suburbs of Chicago without interact with Chinese culture. I can only impact my local culture.

Humans are sinful. Sin is the pursuit of joy in something other than God’s glory. It is characterized in Jeremiah 2:12-13, which says:

Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Sin is when we seek to be satisfied, not in the living water flowing from the heart of God, but in the putrid, stagnant, and insufficient sources of pleasure that fill the world.[18] By delighting inordinately in something other than God, we sin and defame the glory of God’s sufficiency. By abandoning the glory of God as our source of delight, there are two results. The first consequence is that we incur the wrath of God for defaming his glory.[19] Second, it makes us less than human by distorting the purpose for which we exist. Our world is warped, and all the ideal relationships and functions of our life are bent and marred.

Adam and Eve, our first parents, sinned, and humans have lived a warped life under wrath ever since. Through our union with Adam, we have joined him in his sin.[20] Our current state is one of inherited sinfulness and guilt. All who have been born after Adam have been born in a state of total depravity. We are unable to seek good as it should be.[21] All our actions are tainted with sin. Without exception, human beings are born on a collision course with a failed life and a doomed eternity.[22]

Salvation

“Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ our Lord!”[23] Because of God’s desire to show the glory as the all-sufficient source of every good, God has provided a way from humans to escape his wrath and to be restored to the purpose for which they were created. This was accomplished in Jesus Christ.

Through Jesus Christ alone, atonement for sin is accomplished. In the incarnation, the Second person of the Trinity united himself with humanity by taking on a human nature.[24] As the head of the new humanity, Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience and submission to the purposes of God, truly living the human life as it was meant to be lived.[25] Although his life had earned no wrath from God, Jesus stood in solidarity with his people and bore the wrath of God which they deserved.[26] In doing so, God’s wrath against them was satisfied.[27] When Jesus suffered and died on the cross, he made the sacrifice for sin once and for all, for all those who trust him.[28]

However, only those who trust in Jesus are saved. Unfortunately, because human beings are thoroughly bent on pursuing their own pleasure, they will not turn to Christ in faith. For someone to trust to God is a miracle worked by the Spirit at the command of the Father. As Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”[29] Likewise, because God is sovereign, this is a work that God never fails to accomplish. Jesus also says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”[30] Without the work of God, no one comes to faith in Jesus. This is so that “it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”[31] In this way, God’s grace is on display most fully. God gets all the credit, and no human being can boast that he earned his salvation.[32]

It is important to see that salvation includes not only justification, but also the transformation of all life. By Jesus’ death, our relationships are healed, and we are reconciled with our fellow humans.[33] Because of God’s gift, we will experience the glorification of our bodies and take part in the new heavens and new earth. In the present, our character is being transformed by the work of the Spirit. Through the Spirit we are being shaped to be like Jesus, the true human.[34] Likewise, through the Spirit, we have restored communion with God and the ability to share in the delight of the glory of the Trinity as we were designed to do. Through the Spirit, all believers have access to God as priests, requiring no mediators other than Jesus.[35]

Our salvation is not isolated or individualistic. God has placed us in a society of redeemed humans, the Church. Because we express God’s glory only partially as individuals, he has placed us together so we can express it more completely. We are to be “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.”[36] The Church joins with God in his mission of displaying the glory of God. We exist to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”[37] The Church is God’s missional community, his agents of reconciliation who are seeking people who worship in spirit and truth[38] and making disciples of all nations.[39]

Epistemology

Human beings perceive and understand reality by use of both their reason and affections, their head and heart, their rationality and emotions.[40] In the past, Christian theology has sometimes erred by emphasizing the rational aspect of understanding over the emotional. At other times, (including much of popular culture today), the emotional aspect of understanding has been overdone. True understanding comes when one grasps properly with the mind and responds properly with the heart.

In considering how we gain understanding, there are at least three issues that must be taken into account. First, humans are relational creatures that are inextricably situated in a context. The society and culture we are in, our families, and our prior assumptions all impact our reception of knowledge and our response to it. We understand things in the constructs we have in place at the time of learning, and our constructs change only gradually. Second, humans are experiential creatures. We do not exist merely as minds and emotions. You cannot impact our understanding directly, but must do so through means of our senses. We hear, smell, see, feel, and taste. We learn through encounter and interaction. Third, and most importantly, we are sinful creatures. Sin has affected our capacity to understand. We are no longer capable of true understanding that is untainted. Both our mind and our emotions have been tainted, and neither is wholly reliable.

Current Culture

Because we are contextualized, culture-creating creatures, we must have an understanding of current culture in which ministry will take place. Like all the other categories discussed above, this would take books and books to describe. However, several important realities must be considered for ministry.

First, our society is post-Christian.[41] Although most of the Western world was predominantly influenced by Christianity for the past fifteen hundred years, people no longer see their world through the general grid of theism and Judeo-Christian morality. Categories that were understood by past generations (including words like sin, salvation, grace, and other important Christian words) are no longer meaningful to people in our culture. The story that people use to interpret the world is not one of fall and redemption any more.

Second, we live in a transitional age between modernism and postmodernism.[42] Leaving the rationalistic mindset of the Enlightenment and the idealistic hope of scientific progress, our society has embraced a pluralistic pessimism. Rejecting objective metanarratives, postmodern society teems with relativism and tribalism.

Third, partly because of, or at least in accord with, postmodernism, our society has embraced extreme egalitarianism. Western society place hide value on equality. From equality between races and genders to equality of religions and lifestyles, our society refuses to place too strong of distinctions or value judgments on anything for fear of destroying equality.

Fourth, and related to this, is a deep seated bent towards individualism.[43] We value the freedom of the individual to an extreme level. From a young age, Americans are told that what other people think or do has no bearing on them. They are their own person, free to break tradition and do their own thing.

Fifth, our culture is bloated with consumerism. Entertainment and consumption are the hallmarks of our wealthy American society. From food, to media, to acquiring property, our culture screams at us to take an excessive amount of anything for ourselves.

Finally, our culture is shaped by globalism and multiculturalism. Unlike any time in all of history, the average person has a good knowledge of the fact that the world is filled with people who are mostly different from them. Information about other parts of the world is instant, and appreciative encounters with other cultures is an expected part of a full life. This is fed by the internet and media, and likewise feeds the postmodern mood of pluralism.

It is in this historically unique culture in which we must do ministry today, and we are all affected by it, whether we like it or not.

What qualities ought to be culivated in people as a result of your ministry?
(Box C)

The fundamental medium through which humans glorify God is culture. Our purpose is to create a culture that displays and delights in the character of God. [44] The fact that humans glorify God through culture is very important to understand. There are many who understand that humans were created for God’s glory, but often this is pictured in vague, immaterial terms. To glorify God is often removed from the context of life in a way that makes it something you can only do in a church service or merely a token acknowledgement of credit being given to God.[45] Glorifying God should be fleshed out expressions of culture. Patterns of life, relationships, artistic expression, work, sex, politics, and economics are all a part of the culture that God seeks to be glorified in. They are not merely incidentals, but the very place where God’s character is displayed and delighted in. To seek the glory of God is not to endure the things of this life for the sake of getting to the eternal worship service in the sky. We are created glorify God in culture.

I would propose that the goal of ministry is to cultivate a certain type of culture that glorifies God. Before I describe the trains of such I culture, I want to make three clarifications about the form this culture must take.[46]

First of all, it must be a public culture. This means living out in the open, where the world can see. Our culture must not be ghettoized in safe little bubbles. It must actively involved in the world at large. This is both the nature of cultures, but also a result of the mission orientation of the culture we seek to create. Because we seek to display God’s character to the world, we cannot withdraw from the world.

Second, it must be a counter-culture, not a subculture. By this distinction, I want to prevent a form of Christian culture that merely mimics the dominant culture that surrounds it. Contemporary forms of Christian culture tend to be parasitic, sucking off the creativity of the broader pop culture and expressing it with nicer, safer, more pleasant content. Instead of dropping Christian content into an existing culture, I recommend active creativity on the part of Christians. We must still interact, react to, and learn from the broader culture, but we must not parrot it.

Third, our culture must be a local culture. This goes back to the fact that human beings are finite and localized creatures. Because we can only interact with those we are in contact with, each local fellowship of believers must focus on the community around them. This does not exclude foreign and cross-cultural missions, but instead requires that the goal of foreign missions be to establish local fellowships that can minister to and reach their community.[47] This means that each expression of Christian culture will be shaped by local realities.

With that being said, what does this God-glorifying culture look like? How do people in it act? What are the excellencies that we ought to see in people that make up the culture? What are the values of such a culture?

To begin with, people must have right-standing before God. The guilt of sin must be overcome before a God-glorifying culture can be created. Our first goal in ministry, then, is to seek people’s justification. In the words of Spurgeon, “Soul-winning is the chief business of the Christian minister; indeed it should be the main pursuit of every true believer.”[48] This means that we must seek to cultivate trust in the grace of God in all those that we minister to. The abandonment of self-reliance and turning to Christ for salvation is the fundamental trait of those in a God-glorifying culture. When we are completely reliant on the grace of God, we put on display the glory of his all-sufficiency and sheer kindness. Once people are justified, they can begin participating in a culture that displays and delights in the character of God.

A God-glorifying culture is characterized by theological living. If we would share in the delight of God in his glory, we must understand his glory. We must perceive his attributes in order to delight in them. This means deep thinking, wrestling with ideas, abandonment of simplistic answers, and willingness to exert mental energy. Because this is a culture of theological living, all members of the culture ought to take part in theology, not an elite few. This does not mean that all must be academic theologians, but all must be practical theologians. If a Christian is a lawyer, they must engage in deep thinking about how the nature of God impacts law. If a Christian is a cook, they must think hard about how theology impacts the culinary arts.[49] The same goes for construction workers, ranchers, politicians, farmers, textile manufactures, IRS agents, soldiers, astronomers, musicians and every kind of person who participates in the God-glorifying culture.[50]

We must cultivate a culture marked by worshipful living. Worship is the act of enjoying the glory of God. Having perceived the display of God’s character, God’s people respond to God’s character just like the members of the Trinity do, with delight. We join in God’s delight in God. This means wonder, awe, amazement, and passion. It is about being consumed with emotion over the beauty of God.

Members of a God-glorifying culture would be characterized by missional living.[51] Just like God, the Church’s joy will overflow into active work to extend this joy to others. We must join in the mission of God to pursue worshipers, make disciples, and transform both people and societies. This culture must be a growing, spreading culture, not a stagnant one. In a sense, Christians must view all life as a mission trip. All members of the Christian community must be active in the mission of God.

Reflecting the life of the Trinity, a God-glorifying culture is characterized by communal living.[52] By this, I do not mean living in a commune (although that is not excluded, I suppose). However, a God-glorifying culture is one that is shared. The harmony of people with each other is a reflection of the character of God. [53] This goes beyond gathering once a week to sing to God and hear a lecture from the Bible. This means actually sharing life. Just like in the book of Acts, as the Church we must share the ins and outs of every day life, from our spiritual life to our physical needs to our work. Our life is one done together.

Because we are truly seeking to create a culture, we must be characterized by creative living.[54] God is a creator, expressing in an infinite variety of ways the many facets of his glory. He calls us to share in his delight and expression of his glory, should we not also be creative? The people of God should be known as poets, painters, writers, dancers, musicians, and actors. The glory of God is so vast that we should never run out of aspects of his character to express or ways to express them in a new way. Drab, dull, and boring should not be traits of Christian culture.

Because we seek to create a culture that makes God’s glory the supreme value, we will be characterized by sacrificial living.[55] Like our head, Jesus, as a culture, we must prize the fame of God above all lesser goods. To see God praised, we will be willing (and bold) to give up comfort, safety, and even our lives. When your joy is in the unchanging character of God, nothing can stop you, not even suffering or persecution.

Reflecting the character of God, we must create a culture that is characterized by just living. Social justice and compassion should be championed by Christians. Love for the underprivileged and the powerless flow from the heart of God, and it ought to characterized those who would display God’s character to the world. This means acts of mercy and compassion towards those in need, but it also means the formation of just structures of society.[56] The likelihood is that this will upset the status quo of many existing societies and Christian fellowships.

What methods should we use to bring about those qualities?
(Box D)

The first, last, and most important method in ministry is prayer. Because salvation is all of God, because humans are totally sinful, because spiritual forces challenge our ministry, and because ministers themselves are plagued with weaknesses we need God. We must plead for souls. We must throw ourselves on his grace. We must turn to him in trust. We must pray. If you ministry can be explained by anything other than the supernatural, something is wrong.

A natural place to begin thinking about ministry methods is to ask: who does the ministry? Because all members of the Church have access to God, all members of the Christian community ought to participate in ministry.[57] We seek to cultivate a shared lifestyle, and sharing ministry is part of that. All members of the body are involved in the mission of God, so all members contribute. There are specific members of the community, however, that should be held responsible to see that ministry is happening. The first are heads of households.[58] Another way of saying this is saying that every Dad is a Pastor to his family. Like the Puritans, I believe that each family should be seen as a primary locus of spiritual growth. Extending on that idea, I believe that Fathers should be coordinating their family as a missional unit. As a community on a mission, we already have built in structure for local and global ourtreach. Second, the elders are the spiritual leaders of the local community. A plurality of leaders that are a part of the community, as opposed to a hired staff with a head pastor, who actually facilitate the ministry is crucial. The elders, based on their gifts[59], ought to share ministry responsibilities amongst them. Rotating who speaks and who leads worship gatherings, for example, may be a good idea.

The process of forming disciples must include spiritual disciplines.[60] Both corporately and privately, the disciplines should be a common means to forming the members of a local community. Prayer, fasting, silence, solitude, pilgrimages, giving, and celebration should be regular parts of the life of the Church. Because people are formed by what they do and experience, both the character of individuals and the culture of a community can be shaped by the disciplines. They are an ancient form of experiential learning that we ought to claim today.

To cultivate theological living, we must engage in teaching and preaching.[61] People must understand what God is like and what he is doing in order to reflect his glory. The sermon is the main way the content of the faith is imparted to the community. However, we must keep in mind the realities that humans are experiential and holistic beings. We cannot preach with words alone. We are free to be creative in how we teach and express. Props, interaction from the congregation, discussion, movement, artistic representation, and other modes of communication and learning must be employed. A talking head at the front of a sanctuary is not the picture we need to have. A dancing, moving, laughing, questioning whirlwind is more like it. This does not mean more shallow or less Biblical teaching, in fact it requires as much or more processing of the truth about God to express it in more ways than the verbal. Preaching has gotten into a box sometimes. Preaching needs to be unleashed.

Worship services are central in forming a culture that displays and delights in the glory of God. Corporate activity shapes people, their identity, their shared memories, their values. This is where people encounter and express in the most direct ways, the character of God. If people are to live worshipfully and theologically, they will learn to do it at gatherings of the people of God to worship. Because we seek to express the character of God, God’s revelation must be the center of our worship service. Christ and the Scriptures should be our focus in every worship service. Because we learn through senses and experience and we want to be a creative culture, we must allow our worship to be creative.[62] Music, art, movement, corporate prayer, discussion, sensory experiences, visuals, and even food ought to be a part of our worship. Of course, God himself has given us the best experiential expressions of his character in the sacraments. We ought to share Communion regularly,[63] and baptisms ought to be in the regular worship service.[64]

Elders and church leaders ought to be cultural influencers of their local fellowship, and the one of the best ways they can do this is through the creative use of traditions. Whether you take up a tradition of the ancient church, your denomination, or develop new ones for your own community, traditions are crucial to culture formation. They are the markers that remind people what their lives are about. As traditions are repeated, people are shaped.

To encourage missional living, we need to coordinate local service and outreach.[65] People need to know that being the Church isn’t something you do inside a church building. It is something you do in the world. Working among the local poor, coordinating with local organizations, working alongside your town government, all of these are aspects of being a missionally involved local culture. Our outreach must be outside of the church, not an event where we expect people to come into our church building to hear the Gospel. We must be publicly and locally involved in our community. That is how we will see the God-glorifying culture spread and people come to faith in Christ. This is something that all regular members of a local church should be expected to be a part of. Not only will this be an outlet fro missional living, but it also encourages community in powerful ways when people serve together.

Small groups are a great way to encourage all sorts of our educational goals.[66] They can be used to facilitate communal living. They can be organizing units for missional activity. They often result in people coming to Christ, because they feel comfortable in a small group, but not a worship service. This is where spiritual disciplines can happen, as well as theological processing. If we want people to think theologically about their lifestyle, this is where they can wrestle with their ideas of how that can be done.

One of the hallmark of the early church that we need to embrace wholeheartedly is shared meals.[67] You want to talk about a powerful cultural force? Food is huge. Who you eat with, how the food is served and prepared, where you eat it, all this shapes culture in more ways than we notice. Communal living is most quickly facilitated through meals. We should eat at worship services, have feasts, and host potlucks. I would love to have a church where it was natural for people to simply prepare and bring food just because that is what you do at church, eat.[68]

Finally, if we are a culture that celebrates the glory of God, enjoying it, not mere acknowledging it, we need have lots of parties. Why do people think Christian culture is boring? They shouldn’t. We should be known for feasts and festivals, just like the Jews.[69] I am talking about music, food, dancing, laughter, and games. We are the community of the redeemed people of God, those who are invited to take part in the joy of the Trinity, and people think we’re dull! I think it’s a sin if we perpetuate that error. Let my people party!

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Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994.ste

Kimball, Dan. The Emerging Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003.

Kimball, Dan. Emerging Worship. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003.

Ortberg, John. The Life You’ve Always Wanted. Grand Rapids: Zondervan 1997.

Piper, John. Desiring God. Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah 1996.

____. The Pleasures of God. Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah 2000.

____. The Supremacy of God in Preaching. Grand Rapids: Baker 1990.

____. God’s Passion for His Glory. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1998.

Rusaw, Rick and Eric Swanson. The Externally Focused Church. Loveland, CO: Group,

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Smith, John E., Stout, Harry S., and Minkema, Kenneth. A Jonathan Edwards Reader.

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Spurgeon, Charles H. The Soul Winner. Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus,

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[1] See Wayne Grudem, “God in Three Persons” and “The Athanasian Creed,” Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 226-261, 1170-1.

[2] Ibid., “Westminster Confession of Faith,”1180.

[3] Ibid., 218.

[4] For an in depth discussion of this, see John Piper, The Pleasures of God (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2000). A more challenging treatment of this same topic is Jonathan Edward’s The End for Which God Created the World. An excellent annotated version of this is available in John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1998). Piper’s footnotes make Edward’s work much more readable.

[5] “The Westminster Larger Catechism,” available from http://www.reformed.org/documents/larger1.html; Internet; accessed 15 December 2004.

[6] Matthew 11:27, Luke 10:22, Isaiah 55:8-9

[7] Psalm 19:1-3, 97:6, Romans 1:20

[8] Genesis 1:26

[9] II Timothy 3:15-17, John 5:19

[10] John 1:14, Colossians 1:9, Hebrews 1:1-2

[11] John 12:45 (ESV)

[12] Romans 8:28, Ephesians 1:11

[13] My idea that grace is the pinnacle of God’s glory is from John Piper. It can be found throughout his writings. In particular, see John Piper, “Was Jonathan Edwards a Christian Hedonist?” available at http://www.desiringgod.org/library/topics/christian_hedonism/edwards.html; accessed 16 December 2004.

[14] Ephesians 1:6 (ESV)

[15] Ephesians 2:9

[16] See Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, S. Steve Kang, and Gary A. Parrett, A Many Colored Kingdom (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic 2004), 52.

[17] Acts 17:26

[18] See John Piper, Desiring God (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah 1996). Also, C. S. Lewis, Weight of Glory (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco 2001).

[19] Romans 3:23

[20] Romans 5:12ff

[21] Romans 3:10-12

[22] Romans 3:9, Psalm 51:5

[23] Romans 7:25

[24] John 1:14

[25] Romans 5:12-21

[26] II Corinthians 5:21

[27] Romans 3:25

[28] Hebrews 10:11-18

[29] John 6:44, 6:65

[30] John 6:37

[31] Romans 9:16

[32] Ephesians 2:9

[33] Ephesians 2:14

[34] Romans 8:29

[35] Romans 8:26-27, Hebrews 4:14-16

[36] I Peter 2:9

[37] Ibid.

[38] John 4:23

[39] Matthew 28:18-20

[40] I follow the lead of many great theologians in the past in acknowledging the importance of both of these aspects of human understanding. Specifically Charles Spurgeon and Jonathan Edwards. See Jonathan Edwards, “A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections” available in A Jonathan Edwards Reader (New Haven: Yale 1995),137-171.

[41] See Rodney Clapp, A Peculiar People (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity 1996).

[42] For an excellent treatment of postmodernism, see Stanley Grenz. A Primer on Postmodernism.(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans 1996)

[43] This is pervasively true, although some strains of postmodernism are moving people toward a more tribal and communal view of the world.

[44] For more on the idea of the Church as a culture see Rodney Clapp, A Peculiar People (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity 1996). Also see Mark Driscoll, Radical Reformission (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan 2004).

[45] The first results in extreme piety, and a withdrawal from the world. Such Christians often have no impact on the world around them. A common example of this is the “youth-group-is-my-life kid.” A more extreme example of this is the medieval monastics who withdrew from society. The other is often merely an anemic statement given so that people can get on with the business of living, having, of course, given token credit to God. Such Christians often look practically no different from non-Christians in how they operate everywhere outside of personal devotions and church services. Faith is a matter of private practice and opinion, not public action. An extreme picture of this is the typical professional athlete that thanks Jesus after winning a game.

[46] For more on the interaction between the Church and mainstream culture see Mark Driscoll Radical Reformission.

[47] See Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson, The Externally Focused Church. (Loveland, CO: Group 2004).

[48] Charles Spurgeon, Soul Winner (Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus 1998), 5.

[49] Far fetched? Over stating it? 1 Cor. 10:31 does say, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Again, this does not mean the token acknowledgement of credit being given God while we get on with doing the same old thing. It requires wrestling with the implications of the character of God with every aspect of life.

[50] There are (with a little poetic license) examples of all of believers in God who had all these jobs in the Bible.

[51] See Darrell L. Guder, ed. Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmanns 1998). Also see Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan 2003).

[52] For more on community see Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper & Row 1954).

[53] John 17:20-23

[54] See Dan Kimball, Emerging Church, 143-154.

[55] See John Piper “Suffering: The Sacrifice of Christian Hedonism” in Desiring God, 212-238. This chapter changed my life.

[56] Examples of both of these can be seen in the book of Acts, where it is said that the Christians provided for people as need arose, but they also participated in economic restructuring so that some communities held their goods in common. See both Acts 2:45 and Acts 4:32.

[57] See Martin Luther, John Dillenberger, ed. “An Appeal to the Ruling Class of German Nationality as to the Amelioration of the State of Christendom.” Available in Martin Luther: Selections From His Writings. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday 1961), 407-414.

[58] As implied in Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor. (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust 1999). Hear also Mark Driscoll, “Men as Fathers” available at http://www.marshillchurch.org/audio/11.11.01_11am_men_as_fathers_driscoll.mp3. accessed 16 December 2004.

[59] Which should included the ability to teach. I Timothy 3:2

[60] See John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan 1997). See also Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline. (San Francisco: Harper & Row 1978). See also Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church, 213-225.

[61] See Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church, 171-196. See also John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching. (Grand Rapids: Baker 1990).

[62] See Dan Kimball, Emerging Worship (Grand Rapids: Zondervan 2004).

[63] I prefer every week, myself.

[64] Many churches do baptisms in a separate, less well attended service at another time in the week. I think this is a mistake, seeing as baptism is a rite of entry into a community, and the community is not always there to see it.

[65] See Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson, The Externally Focused Church.

[66] See John Wesley, “A Plain Account of the People Called Methodists” in The Works of John Wesley, 3^rd Ed., Vol. VIII. (Grand Rapids: Baker 1978), 249-268.

[67] Acts 2:46

[68] Think of how food impacts the dynamic of a school classroom. When someone brings food, it can bring a whole group together and open people up in remarkable ways. And when it is students who bring the food, it makes them feel a connection to that class in a positive way.

[69] God had assigned at least three mandatory feasts every year for the people of Israel. One of the tithes was exclusively given for a week long celebration in Jerusalem. See the book of Leviticus.

Evangelism in the Book of Acts

I will be posting my philosophy of ministry paper soon, but until I have time to prepare that, I thought I would post another paper I wrote this fall. I was taking a class titled, “Jesus and Evangelism.” I did not enjoy the class tremendously, but the final paper turned out be very cool. We were asked to read the book of Acts, and without consulting commentaries, to extract a “Biblical Model of Evangelism.” First we were supposed to observe who did evangelism (this is very short in my paper), and then we were to look at how it was done. Our professor wanted us to use the filter of four froms of evangelism that he saw in the Bible:

Presence Evangelism - Also known as lifestyle evangelism. This is when someone simply lives differently in the presence of non-Christians, and the non-Christian is attracted to Christ through that example.

Proclamation Evangelism - This is good ole’ fashion gospel preaching. It is basically Billy Graham style ministry, in which the Gospel is simply declared for people to respond to.

Pursuasion Evangelism - This is the use of rational apologetics to pursuade someone to believe. It is the use of argument, reason, and debate to convince the mind that belief in Christ is good.

Power Evangelism - This is the use of miracles and wonders to draw people to faith in Jesus.

My prof was definately setting us up to find his “Biblical Model of Evangelism” in the book of Acts, because we had to use his categories, but they did help filter my thoughts a bit. Eventually, I added my own fifth mode of evangelism, which you can read about in my paper. At the same time as extracting these examples, we were supposed to asses the contemporary church’s use of these forms of evangelism (drawing from our own experiences primarily).

I have removed the intro and conclusion, because they stunk. But, hopefully, you can handle that and get something out of the rest.

Here is my paper. Personally, I don’t think it was my most well written paper (partially because of space constraints by the prof and lack of time and effort on my part), but I thought the ideas were helpful for me to think about. Let me know what you think.

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Who Does Evangelism?In the book of Acts, salvation is always the work of the Lord, but he uses human agents to bring it about. The Apostles are the most common agents of evangelism, Peter and Paul being primary. Steven and Philip, who are not apostles, but two of the seven chosen to minister to the Hellenistic Jews, are also frequently witnesses. The Apostles often take partners along with them for ministry including, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, and others. It would also be appropriate to say that the entire community of believers as a whole is an agent of evangelism, because they represent the life of God to those around them.

Presence Evangelism

Presence evangelism is when a person becomes an example to show the difference in the lifestyle of one who follows Jesus. It is often given the term lifestyle evangelism. The power of this form of evangelism is that it embodies the principles of the Gospel in a tangible way for people to see in the life of a believer. Looking at the examples of this form of evangelism in the book of Acts, we can draw out two key principles for the use presence evangelism.

First, for presence evangelism to be effective, the Christian community must be visibly involved in public life. In a sense, the life of the Christian community must be on display for the world to see. The Church cannot be a separatist group. Although they live differently from the world around them, Christians must not be isolated from the world. Faith is not a matter of private conviction, to be kept semi-secret, but a matter of public activity.

This can be seen in the behavior of the Church in the book of Acts. The unique communal life of the Church is described in Acts 2:42-47. Their community and their love was something they shared with each other, but because “day by day” they were “attending the temple together,”(Acts 2:46) the difference in their lifestyle was visible. As a result, they had “favor with all the people” and conversions were happening daily. (Acts 2:47) All throughout the book, we see the Apostles and the believers involved in Temple life. (Acts 3:1, 5:12) The temple was not merely a forum for their preaching, but a stage for their living. People could see their worship and their love, and discern the difference.

Secondly, presence evangelism is best occurs as the “new commandment” is being fulfilled. At the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

It is when the Church is fulfilling this commandment that presence evangelism happens in the book of Acts. As much as any action directed outside the Christian community, the love between believers demonstrates the reality of the Gospel. The sharing of possessions, (Acts 2:44) the meeting of physical needs within the community, (Acts 2:45) the hospitality, and sharing of meals, (Acts 2:46) are all acts of love that happen within the Church, but they issue in “the Lord [adding] to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47) The best example of this is when the Church realizes that there are needs within the community that are not being met, particularly among the Hellenistic Jews. (Acts 6:1-7) To respond to this, the Apostles appoint seven men to focus specifically on meeting these needs. The result of this act of love among believers? “The word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”(Acts 6:7)

How is the Church doing today in effectively using presence evangelism? I think we have the capacity to do very well with this form of evangelism, however I think two mistakes can creep in subtly and weaken our effectiveness in this area. First, we can easily become isolationists. There is a very distinct Christian sub-culture in America, especially in suburban Protestantism. While, not all of this is detrimental, it can easily become a way of Christians living in a bubble, interacting with only Christians, while at the same time presenting a false image of Christian lifestyle to the outside world. Especially, when the image is one of shallow optimism¹ and a cheery front of moral superiority, the rich love that exists in the Christian community is obscured to those on the outside. Second, our contemporary attempts at presence evangelism often become an individualized effort. People attempt to do lifestyle evangelism by showing that their individual life is in some way superior to the life of unsaved individuals. It is the life of the believing community that needs to be on display for unbelievers. It is our love that will demonstrate the Gospel, and that can only exist in community. Let us open our community to be seen by those outside. Our flaws will be harder to hide, but the grace of God among us will be all the more compelling.

Proclamation and Persuasion Evangelism

Proclamation evangelism is the form of witness that verbally declares in public the truth of the Gospel. Persuasion evangelism is the use of logical argument to demonstrate the reasonableness of the Gospel. Although often distinct, I have paired these two forms of evangelism because in the Book of Acts most acts of persuasion occur in a proclamation setting. Both Peter and Paul use persuasion, but for the most part they within a public speech. Part of this is because the Book of Acts focuses on the public ministry of the Apostles. Very few private conversations are recorded, which makes most examples of evangelism in the book events of proclamation. With this in mind, the following principles can be seen in the proclamation and persuasion evangelism in Acts.

First proclamation and persuasion need a set up and do not happen out of the blue. Proclamation is not a cold-turkey event. On Pentecost, Peter’s speech is a response to the confusion of the visitors to Jerusalem caused by the descent of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:14) Peter’s speech in Solomon’s Portico happens when the attention of crowd is drawn by the healing of the lame man.(Acts 3:11-12) The apostles’ regularly have opportunities for proclamation before religious leaders because they had been arrested. (Acts 4, 7:1, 16:31-32, 21:37-40, etc.) Likewise, the use of synagogues in Paul’s missionary journey’s shows how Paul utilizes natural set-ups for proclamation. Because people come to the synagogue to hear teaching about the Torah, Paul has a perfect chance for proclamation and persuasion. (Acts 17:17) In Athens, it is the invitation of the local townspeople who love to hear new ideas that Paul has a chance to speak and reason in the Areopagus. (Acts 17:19-20) The opportunity for proclamation is always provided by logical, natural² situations among the non-Christians of a city. The situations do not have to be created. There are natural opportunities, and the Apostles simply seize them.

Secondly, we must be context-sensitive when we use persuasion and proclamation. The mode of persuasion depends on context in which the Apostles found themselves in. Early on, when the Church is mostly in Jerusalem, Peter and the Apostles use arguments from the Scriptures frequently. They reason, but they begin with a Jewish worldview. The classic example of how this works among non-Jewish people is Paul’s address in the Areopagus. He quotes pagan philosophers, (Acts 17:27-28) outlines a more fundamental worldview, (Acts 17:24-27) and responds to the specific needs and interests of those he to whom he is speaking.(Acts 17:29) Paul speaks different languages for different contexts, and he uses different basic facts to argue from in different places. (Acts 21:37-40) Evangelistic proclamation and persuasion must be context sensitive so that it will most effectively reach people where they are at.

The contemporary Church has come through an era where proclamation evangelism, through the ministry of Billy Graham and others, has been very effective. Persuasion evangelism has also flourished on college campuses and in places with a modern rational worldview. I think the danger for us as we move out of this era is that we will not adapt our proclamation and persuasion techniques, thinking that the older forms will continue to be effective. We ought not to abandon them altogether, but we need to follow the principles of the book of Acts. We need to begin looking for natural opportunities to proclaim and persuade. Because our culture is not one where speeches are not everyday forms of communication, this may require creativity. There were ample opportunities in the Greek and Roman era for public speaking. However, in our day, speeches are not a common public event. Because of this, churches who attempt proclamation evangelism are often found creating contexts for proclamation that are unnatural. Many evangelistic events in the Church are unnatural situations for an unbelieving person to hear the Gospel. It does not make sense to come to a church revival or evangelistic rally anymore. We are not preaching to Jews who on a weekly basis gathered to hear teaching about the Bible. We are not preaching to Greeks who gathered to debate ideas in the pubic squares.

That is not to say that there are not logical and natural places for non-Christians to hear and consider religious ideas today. We are in an era of media and technology. People go to movies to hear about ideas, not lectures. They go to chat rooms and internet forums, not the town square. Perhaps we can creatively reformulate our proclamation efforts to encompass film, the internet, television, and other forms of media. As we do this, however, we need to remember to use existing contexts for proclamation. Even those churches that attempt to proclaim using media, often focus mostly on creating a Christian form of media that they hope non-Christians will use and thus encounter the Gospel. But, in the spirit of Paul in the Areopagus and synagogues, we need to go out into the places where ideas are being heard and considered already. That means going onto existing internet forums, talking to people in public coffeehouses, discussing existing movies, not simply creating our own. Expecting non-Christians to come to us to hear proclamation is silly. We must enter their context, just like Paul did. The opportunities for proclamation exist, and we just need to open our eyes to see them.

Power Evangelism

Power evangelism is the use of signs and wonders to show the power that the Holy Spirit administers through the Gospel. Paired with proclamation, this is by far the most common form of evangelism in the Book of Acts.

The main principle behind power evangelism is that signs and wonders open the door for proclamation evangelism and are fodder for persuasion evangelism. Power evangelism, like presence evangelism, is not complete. It must be accompanied by proclamation and persuasion. However, in the Book of Acts, it is very often the signs and wonders that create the opportunity for proclamation. As noted before, proclamation and persuasion need a set-up, and while there are many natural settings for this to happen, often in the Book of Acts contexts for proclamation are created supernaturally. This happens at Pentecost, when Peter preaches to the astonished crowds who had gathered because the Church was speaking in tongues.(Acts 2:1-14) The signs and wonders performed by the apostles brought “awe…upon every soul,” giving a hearing to the Gospel. (Acts 2:43) The healing of the crippled beggar draws a crowd, providing Peter an opportunity to preach. In turn this leads to the apostles’ arrest and more opportunities for proclamation. (Acts 3-4) It was because the religious leaders had seen “the man who was healed standing beside [the disciples], and they had nothing to say in opposition.”(Acts 4:14) When Paul raises Dorcas from the dead, it “became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.” (Acts 9:41-42) In Lystra, healing a crippled man leads to public proclamation of the Gospel. (Acts 14:8-18) When Paul and Silas are in the prison in Philippi, after a miraculous earthquake, they have a chance to share the Gospel with the jailer. (Acts 16:25-40) Over and over, miracles wrought by the Spirit lead to opportunities for proclamation. It is a tag team combination. Power evangelism draws people’s attention and drops their defenses, leaving space for the proclamation of the Gospel to find its mark. Without power evangelism, proclamation would not have happened. Without proclamation, power evangelism would have simply been a kind deed done by supernatural means.³ The two go together.

The contemporary Church has missed the mark big time on this one. Most of the Church is missing out on the power of the Spirit in evangelism. The miracle of calling and regeneration are acknowledged as works of the Spirit, but the power of God to heal bodies or perform miracles is missing for a vast majority of the Church. If miracles really do set up opportunities for evangelism, imagine what we are missing by not seeking miracles. Many would blame the lack of miracles in many Churches on theological convictions,⁴ but I would want to put the blame on our faith in slick marketing techniques and sales pitches to attract people to Gospel, rather than the wonder of an encounter with the Holy Spirit. We must reclaim the power of God to do miracles if we are to have the effectiveness of the early Church.

Persecution Evangelism

I would like to propose that another form of evangelism is pervasive in the Book of Acts, one that is easily ignored in contemporary American culture. One of, if not the primary vehicles for the spread of the Gospel in Acts is persecution. Persecution evangelism is the submission of believers to unjust suffering for the sake of witnessing and to embody the life, suffering and death of the Evangel himself, Jesus.

I would propose that a cyclical relationship exists between persecution and proclamation. Proclamation leads to persecution and persecution leads to proclamation. This can be seen vividly in the story of Peter and John healing the man in Solomon’s Poritico. The miracle leads to proclamation of the Gospel. Because of this proclamation, the authorities notice the apostles, leading to their arrest. (Acts 4:1-3) Proclamation results in persecution. And yet, when they are persecuted, it opens a door for them to preach to authorities. (Acts 4:7-2) Persecution opens doors for proclamation. In the same way, Paul’s preaching leads him to be stoned, (Acts 14:1-28) arrested, (Acts 16:16ff) mobbed, (Acts 19:21ff) and chased out of town. (Acts 17:1-15) The culminating example of persecution opening doors for evangelism is Paul’s arrest at the end of the book of Acts. Although it looks like a setback to the Gospel, this persecution results in Paul preaching to those gathered at the Temple, (Acts 21:37-22:21) the Council, (Acts 22:30ff) Felix, Festus, Agrippa, (Acts 25-26) and ultimately those in Rome. (Acts 28) Paul’s persecution was part of the Gospel spreading all the way to the capital of the Empire, and through his suffering, Paul gained a hearing for the Gospel in places he may have never reached otherwise.

It is sad that the contemporary Church in North America has missed this aspect of evangelism for so long. The church around the world has been experiencing the power of suffering in evangelism for a long time, but we seem to have missed it. We are far too comfortable sometimes. While we should not seek to be persecuted, and we need to pray that persecution subside for our brothers and sisters, we should not avoid suffering. Many of us act as if being at peace with society at large and well respected by the general public is a good thing for the Gospel. We fear rocking the boat or being bold enough to bring down the wrath of the establishment on us. Maybe, if we lost our fear of suffering, we might find our evangelism effective like it was in the early Church. And, perhaps, suffering is something we need to prepare for, even here in America. It may come sooner than we think. May the Kingdom prosper because of it, and the King find more subjects.

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¹ This is in contrast with the deep optimism of the Gospel which wrestles deeply with the reality of evil, and comes out on the other side with hope in the redemption which deals with evil in full.
² Or supernaturally imposed, as we will see in the “Power Evangelism” section.
³ Which would have been good in itself, but as far as evangelism goes, miracles and signs do not lead to conversion all by themselves.
⁴ Cessationism, dispensationalism, etc.