It's incredibly thrilling to be a young pastor in the early years of my ministry career. At the same time I've greatly troubled that this is not the easiest time, if there ever was one, to be a preacher of God's Word.
Our church has been in a discussion for the last couple of months about where the boundaries of cooperation should extend. On the one hand we very much want to work together with other believers for the sake of the Kingdom of God. On the other hand it's critical that we don't compromise biblical truth for the sake of cooperation.
This week NPR aired a news article about Brian McLaren's new book "A New Kind of Christianity" (Article Link). I'm sure that NPR thought it would be fitting to air this now because some of McLaren's comments compromise the truth of Jesus' physical sacrifice which is at the heart of the Easter story. Their program folded in quotes from Dr. Mohler and Dr. Ware from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. McLaren's new kind of Christianity is extraordinarily popular because you can fit almost anyone into it, but at what cost?
This new kind of Christianity is not new at all. It's really an old kind of heresy, a term that I don't like to throw around lightly.
Here we are, just days away from Easter, and we have "pastors" redefining the basic Gospel. Jesus did not promise his disciples that they would be popular (John 15:20). It is time to stand together for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not compromising the Word of God for the sake of personal popularity.
- Aaron
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Suffering Necessitates Hope
This week we were once again reminded that this world we live in is full of pain and suffering. Before the world could even begin to put the pieces of Haiti back together another terrible tragedy occurred, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in the South American country of Chile.
Carrie and I were touched deeply because of our friendship with a Chilean family who spent the last 72 hours wondering whether their family and friends were still alive. Praise God all were spared, but many did lose loved ones.
There are those like Dawkins that would describe these losses as needless and angrily shake their fists at God. Then the all too familiar angry refrain is played, "how could a loving God do or allow this to happen?"
In Romans 8:18 the apostle Paul says that the "sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us." Some argue that Paul is an escapist when he should be a realist. The skeptics argue that there is either no God or some sort of evil God. This distorts the true relationship between God and man. God is not here to serve man or to make him eternally comfortable. Man is here to bring glory to God.
You might rightly ask, how can the suffering of Haiti and Chile bring glory to God? Or you might wonder how your personal suffering can bring glory to God.
It's not the suffering or the evil in this world that is the basis for God’s glory. Tragedy, whether it’s natural or manmade, is a result of our distortion of God's perfection. Mankind chose to turn its back on God, but the current reality is only temporary. The Bible says that the world itself longs for the day when God will restore it so that it functions properly (Rom. 8:19-21). That means no more earthquakes, or tidal waves, or destructive volcanoes, or diseases, or murderers, or anything else that causes pain and suffering.
What we need to remember is that we can bring God glory even in the midest of tragedies like Haiti and Chile. If the people of God step up then the whole world can witness the grace and love of God. We are called to bring glory to God while we continue to wait for peace on earth and God will toward all men.
- Aaron
Carrie and I were touched deeply because of our friendship with a Chilean family who spent the last 72 hours wondering whether their family and friends were still alive. Praise God all were spared, but many did lose loved ones.
There are those like Dawkins that would describe these losses as needless and angrily shake their fists at God. Then the all too familiar angry refrain is played, "how could a loving God do or allow this to happen?"
In Romans 8:18 the apostle Paul says that the "sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us." Some argue that Paul is an escapist when he should be a realist. The skeptics argue that there is either no God or some sort of evil God. This distorts the true relationship between God and man. God is not here to serve man or to make him eternally comfortable. Man is here to bring glory to God.
You might rightly ask, how can the suffering of Haiti and Chile bring glory to God? Or you might wonder how your personal suffering can bring glory to God.
It's not the suffering or the evil in this world that is the basis for God’s glory. Tragedy, whether it’s natural or manmade, is a result of our distortion of God's perfection. Mankind chose to turn its back on God, but the current reality is only temporary. The Bible says that the world itself longs for the day when God will restore it so that it functions properly (Rom. 8:19-21). That means no more earthquakes, or tidal waves, or destructive volcanoes, or diseases, or murderers, or anything else that causes pain and suffering.
What we need to remember is that we can bring God glory even in the midest of tragedies like Haiti and Chile. If the people of God step up then the whole world can witness the grace and love of God. We are called to bring glory to God while we continue to wait for peace on earth and God will toward all men.
- Aaron
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Total Package
Human beings are incredibly good at compartmentalizing things. We often do this as a coping mechanism in order to take something which is complicated and divide it into manageable parts.
Unfortunately the sum of the parts does not always equal the whole. For instance, if you take a slice of bread and eat the ingredients one at a time you didn't eat a slice of bread.
Our lives are a lot like this. God gave each one of us a mind, a body, and a soul. If we treat these seperately without any regard for how they relate to one another our lives will be anemic at best. We must learn to recognize that God made us to be whole people which means that we must care for the whole person.
If you get up every morning and spend an hour in your Bible, praying to God, but eat junk food all day long; pretty soon it will affect not only your body but also your mind and soul. If you exercise 2 hours a day but never spend any time feeding your soul it will soon begin to suffer. And If you read your Bible, spend time in prayer, and gets lots of good food and exercise but fill your mind with perverse images or thoughts it won't take long before your Spirit and body are just as sick as if you neglected them.
The point is this, God made each one of us as whole people with a mind, body, and a soul. In order to be the healthy person that God wants, we must take care of our whole persons.
-Aaron
Unfortunately the sum of the parts does not always equal the whole. For instance, if you take a slice of bread and eat the ingredients one at a time you didn't eat a slice of bread.
Our lives are a lot like this. God gave each one of us a mind, a body, and a soul. If we treat these seperately without any regard for how they relate to one another our lives will be anemic at best. We must learn to recognize that God made us to be whole people which means that we must care for the whole person.
If you get up every morning and spend an hour in your Bible, praying to God, but eat junk food all day long; pretty soon it will affect not only your body but also your mind and soul. If you exercise 2 hours a day but never spend any time feeding your soul it will soon begin to suffer. And If you read your Bible, spend time in prayer, and gets lots of good food and exercise but fill your mind with perverse images or thoughts it won't take long before your Spirit and body are just as sick as if you neglected them.
The point is this, God made each one of us as whole people with a mind, body, and a soul. In order to be the healthy person that God wants, we must take care of our whole persons.
-Aaron
Friday, January 15, 2010
Church: A Place of Great Encouragement
The day that you walked across the stage to receive your diploma and the audience all clapped for you, the day that the doctor handed you your newborn son or daughter, the day that you tucked your arm around your spouse's back and kissed them for the first time as a husband or a wife... These are all very encouraging days when life is flush with possibilities.
We can understand why these milestone moments are very encouraging, but what about the rest of the time when the day to day grind seems to take the shine off of our dreams.
There is a place where you should be able to find this kind of encouragement. Admittedly if you were to ask most Americans, Christians and non-Christians, where that place is. The answer wouldn't be the church.
The reality of this evidence does not reflect the heart of God. In the book of Hebrews the Bible says that we Christians are to "hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-- and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:23-25)
One of our chief goals at Franconia Baptist Church is to love one another by encouraging everyone not just when we hit the major milestones but throughout the daily grind. Properly handled a jeweler can use the grit to polish a stone into something that beautifully reflects the light.
- Aaron
We can understand why these milestone moments are very encouraging, but what about the rest of the time when the day to day grind seems to take the shine off of our dreams.
There is a place where you should be able to find this kind of encouragement. Admittedly if you were to ask most Americans, Christians and non-Christians, where that place is. The answer wouldn't be the church.
The reality of this evidence does not reflect the heart of God. In the book of Hebrews the Bible says that we Christians are to "hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-- and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:23-25)
One of our chief goals at Franconia Baptist Church is to love one another by encouraging everyone not just when we hit the major milestones but throughout the daily grind. Properly handled a jeweler can use the grit to polish a stone into something that beautifully reflects the light.
- Aaron
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Preparing for 2010
I wanted to write this note last night when I got home from the church's annual business meeting, but a few minutes after I sat down on the coach and I was gone. It was a good kind of exhaustion though, like the tired that you feel after a good workout, both sore and content.
It seems like we got a mountain of work down yesterday. The evening began with my presenting a "state of the church" celebrating our successes and identifying our challenges for 2010. From there we marched through the business of the church which included approving next year's budget, our church's first ever Statement of Faith, adding Mark Staples (a great guy!) to our deacon board, and approving a project to renovate the church's basement.
When I sit down and reflect on what God has done over the past year I can truly say that it was all Him, because we could never have accomplished this much on our own. I can't wait for 2010!
- Aaron
It seems like we got a mountain of work down yesterday. The evening began with my presenting a "state of the church" celebrating our successes and identifying our challenges for 2010. From there we marched through the business of the church which included approving next year's budget, our church's first ever Statement of Faith, adding Mark Staples (a great guy!) to our deacon board, and approving a project to renovate the church's basement.
When I sit down and reflect on what God has done over the past year I can truly say that it was all Him, because we could never have accomplished this much on our own. I can't wait for 2010!
- Aaron
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Living like the Church
I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about the best way to relate to people outside the church. Within the last couple of decades there have been all kinds of different strategies of how to get people into our churches. On the one hand that's a good thing because hopefully they will hear the Gospel, accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, and grow as a Christian. On the other hand I think we have to ask the question, what sacrifices did we make to get people to come into the church?
Recently I heard a pastor remark (unfortunately I can't remember which pastor) that Christians have had no trouble convincing the world that we can live like them. What we struggle with is showing them that we can live differently.
Christian merchandizing has created a Christian knockoff of almost everything secular. One of the things that I have learned over the years in dieting is that when you eat a no-fat, no-calorie candy bar, not only does it not taste very good, it makes you crave a real candy bar. Sometimes it's just better to learn to live without candy bars.
Food for thought... It may be time for the church to start worrying more about how to live like the church than how to live like the world.
- Aaron
Recently I heard a pastor remark (unfortunately I can't remember which pastor) that Christians have had no trouble convincing the world that we can live like them. What we struggle with is showing them that we can live differently.
Christian merchandizing has created a Christian knockoff of almost everything secular. One of the things that I have learned over the years in dieting is that when you eat a no-fat, no-calorie candy bar, not only does it not taste very good, it makes you crave a real candy bar. Sometimes it's just better to learn to live without candy bars.
Food for thought... It may be time for the church to start worrying more about how to live like the church than how to live like the world.
- Aaron
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Faith/Life Balance
The last few weeks have pushed my ability to remain balanced. With the planning for the Community Picnic, the actual picnic, the preparations for the church's annual meeting, thesis deadlines approaching, and my strong desire to spend quality time with the family; I have thought a lot about balance.
Most of these things relate more to time management skills with a bit of overcommittment thrown in. There's another kind of balance that I am seeking in my life, the faith/life balance. By 'life' I mean the way that I live my life.
On the one hand I know for certain that God loves me and that because of my faith in Jesus Christ my sins are forgiven (Eph 2:8-9). On the other hand there is this business of how I am supposed to be living my life (Eph 2:10). How do I keep these two in balance?
To do this I think we need to maintain another balance, a proper understanding of the love of God and His righteous judgement. We need to be careful not to compartmentalize God into the loving God who forgives and the angry God who judges. God's judgement is not an emotional response to His anger about the way we live, it is what He must do, because He is holy. He continues to love while He mourns for those who will not love Him back.
I have found that the better I understand God the more I am drawn to love Him. This causes a chain reaction in the way I live my life as well. Instead of trying to live obediently, out of a sense of obligation, I truly want to live differently out of a place of love. When you acheive this kind of faith/life balance I think you'll find clarity in other areas of your life as well.
- Aaron
Most of these things relate more to time management skills with a bit of overcommittment thrown in. There's another kind of balance that I am seeking in my life, the faith/life balance. By 'life' I mean the way that I live my life.
On the one hand I know for certain that God loves me and that because of my faith in Jesus Christ my sins are forgiven (Eph 2:8-9). On the other hand there is this business of how I am supposed to be living my life (Eph 2:10). How do I keep these two in balance?
To do this I think we need to maintain another balance, a proper understanding of the love of God and His righteous judgement. We need to be careful not to compartmentalize God into the loving God who forgives and the angry God who judges. God's judgement is not an emotional response to His anger about the way we live, it is what He must do, because He is holy. He continues to love while He mourns for those who will not love Him back.
I have found that the better I understand God the more I am drawn to love Him. This causes a chain reaction in the way I live my life as well. Instead of trying to live obediently, out of a sense of obligation, I truly want to live differently out of a place of love. When you acheive this kind of faith/life balance I think you'll find clarity in other areas of your life as well.
- Aaron
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