I heard something great on the radio yesterday. The guy was talking about how us parents don’t effectively discipline our kids–except that he said he doesn’t like the word “discipline,” because it brings up the imagery of simply reward and punishment. Instead, he says it’s our job as parents to disciple our kids (same root word). He thinks that word better connotates the role and responsibility of parents. I agree with him. Over the years of serving as a youth pastor or being involved in youth ministry, I’ve realized that the vast majority of them do not know much of the faith by the time they reach youth group–even if they’ve grown up in Christian homes. For example, if I were to ask the average youth person, “Name me three things about the guy Abraham in the Bible,” they wouldn’t be able to do it. And Abraham isn’t a nobody in the Bible–he’s the father of the faith. The more I contemplated this, the more I realized that this was probably true for the vast majority of parents in the church too. The reason why their kids didn’t know Abraham is that their parents didn’t know who he was either. Or in some instances, the parents knew it but didn’t fully realize their role as disciple-makers. Instead, I think many parents and churches abdicate their responsibility to mentor children and youth, and simply dump that responsibility on the children/youth pastor. When I shared these ideas with Genesis, my former church, I was excited that they embraced the idea of addressing this problem and changing it. I drafted a proposal of how to change things in our church along these lines–a process that would take at least three years–and they were on board. I really appreciated their willingness to step forward in this–many churches are not so open to considering alternative ways of doing ministry. But I think more and more churches are realizing that the old model of doing youth/children’s ministry doesn’t produce very sustainable, effective, or healthy ministry in the lives of youth and children. Turnover rate in these fields is so high, but parents and church members are there for the kids the entire time. On top...

Unfortunately, Jesus didn’t leave us with a book of teachings or an autobiography. Why not? I don’t know–maybe we’d worship them or do other wacky things. The way Jesus commands us to remember Him isn’t by receiving a book of sayings He writes for us; it’s by actually receiving Him. Although He didn’t write us a book, He did commission His apostles to spread the good news. He knew He was leaving, and that it was now the Holy Spirit’s job to speak through the Apostles’ hands and mouths in taking the Gospel to all the world for all times. We can’t get around the fact that 2,000 years later, if there was no written documentation of the life and teachings of Jesus, as well as the Apostles’ Spirit-led understanding of Jesus’ life and teachings, where would we be today? How much truth would be lost by now? Just look at what the Catholic Church today claims was passed down orally by the Apostles–much of it isn’t found in Scripture, and some of it seems to even be opposed to it. How much crazier would Christianity look like today if the Apostles hadn’t written anything at all? Would it at all be faithful to Jesus’ teachings? Would it even still be around? That’s why, several blogs and days later, I have come to the conclusion that the major difference between orthodox Christianity and other “better” versions of Christianity all boils down to this: OPTION 1: You come to the discussion assuming that the Old Testament Prophets/authors, Apostles and Gospel writers got it right. They accurately recall the history between God and His people, and interpret who Jesus was, what He did, and what His life means for the world. If modern-day thinking seems to contradict Scripture, that thinking is in error no matter how attractive or compelling it sounds. Authentic Christianity comes by understanding more fully what the authors of Scripture were trying to say, because they were writing under the expiration (breathing out) of the Holy Spirit. Scripture is ultimately authored by God. New ideas of Jesus’ message cannot be accepted if they contradict the message of Scripture. These types of “new ideas” have been occurring throughout history,...

One reason we refrain from sharing our faith is that we really don’t feel we have much of a faith to share. And we might be right about that. Few know where to turn in Scripture to share salvation outside of John 3:16. And when we evaluate our relationship with Christ, we don’t feel like we have much to say. What can we discuss about Jesus and who He means to us? What personal witness of Jesus’ message do I have? Even if someone was eager to learn about becoming a Christian and wasn’t argumentative…do I even know what the Gospel is? As a result, we leave the responsibility for spreading the faith to the marketing efforts of our church to the unchurched so that they can hopefully hear something about God Sunday morning from an educated preacher or teacher. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with distributing promotional materials about our church. Or people hearing about God from the preacher. But we have almost made this the primary way to share our faith–hoping that unchurched people will come. That is why Sunday morning worship at church has become so targeted at seekers today–everything is catered to the unchurched. Is this God’s intent for our time of corporate worship of Him? What many are starting to realize is that this model continues to perpetuate weak Christianity in the lives of the average church-goer. They do not know how to do anything else but come to church, hear a message, and leave. They think this is what Christianity is largely all about! To be fair, some churches who follow this model also heavily emphasize small groups to facilitate discipleship. For those churches who successfully plug people into truly effective small groups, this indeed can make a big difference.But largely, many Christians remain ignorant of the faith. Case in point: I went to a conference held by the North Alabama United Methodist Church last year. I was eager to attend one of the sessions entitled “Living Out Your Faith In The Workplace.” As a youth pastor, I wasn’t accustomed to sharing my faith in the workplace, because I work in a church. I had just dropped down to working part-time at the church...

It is embarrassing that we would need to consider such a question. The accusation that sharing “good news” is somehow hateful or mean seems odd. Isn’t the message of Jesus we share all about love? Yet, I understand why we pose the question. After all, although there is great news, there is also “bad” news. Not all truth is pretty. But that’s just the reality of life. We Americans need a reality check. We think that loving others is doing/saying to others what we would vainly want them to do/say to us (a misrepresentation of the Golden Rule).  In other words, we think this is “love”–making people feel good. Everyone has a hard time hearing truth about ourselves. And when the truth ain’t pretty, it is important to share it carefully, no doubt. I have encountered quite a few examples of people preaching to other people (in the pulpit or one-on-one) in manners that are less than cordial. This is unacceptable. Often, this occurs because someone is more concerned with spreading their cause in efforts to feel better about their own self rather than out of genuine concern for the people to whom they are sharing it. As frustrating as this can be to hear people blasting other people, the correct response to this is not to shun speaking the truth. Too often, we react by saying, “Let’s stop talking about hell, because we don’t want to be associated with those Hell-fire and Damnation preachers!” or, “Let’s stop talking about sin because of those legalistic hypocrites who preach about it all the time!” No–when the truth is being used in such evil ways, our reaction must not be to shy away from the truth. Rather, our response should be to speak the truth even louder! Where there is confusion, clarity is desperately needed. For example, look at how some “Christians” treat people who are gay. Look at how they blast them with slogans like, “God hates fags!” We must speak the truth to those who claim to be Christians, but are preaching out of a motivation of hate instead of love. As we have seen previously, we are not to judge the world (who already stands condemned and judged),...

In a recent post, I already touched on hell, but focused mostly on those around the world who have never heard the Gospel–is it fair they go to hell? If you are interested in that topic, I suggest you read that post. In today’s post, I want to focus on my next-door neighbor or the people in our own communities. Most of them have already heard the Gospel at one point in their life. They can’t claim ignorance. Yet they have refused to give their lives over to Christ. Why as churches are we not motivated to reach out to the large number of people who refuse to trust Christ with their lives? Why are we not passionate to reach them? I only see this passion when it comes to growing our churches. I believe there’s a difference between really trying to reach people for Christ and trying to grow our church. Why are there so many “church growth” mega-conferences, best-selling books, models out there, but very little when it comes to investing in people who don’t know Christ? It is a shame that so many of us church leaders think these are one-in-the-same, but that is another topic altogether. I think too many Christians (especially in the South) want to assume that these people in our communities are generally “good folks,” and we have bought into the lie that people around us don’t need to believe in Christ–in the end, they won’t really go to hell, will they? We just think it would be a good idea for them to start coming to church. It would “help them out” in their lives, and it would also help our church grow. Win-win. Too many Christians feel believing in a literal hell for literal people is simply mean. I must admit, the idea of people going to hell is very hard for me to swallow. If there’s one theology in Christianity that gives me the most problems internally, it is the theology about hell. C.S. Lewis also had this problem. In his chapter on Hell in The Problem of Pain, He said, There is no doctrine I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this [hell], if it lay in...

Enough about what I have to say about all these subjects I’ve been blogging about lately…it’s good to hear from other people, who often say it better than I ever could: FRANCIS CHAN Out of all the well-known Christian pastors/speakers out there today, I connect with and respect Francis’ message over and over. This video is Francis’ message from last Sunday. The video is 50 minutes long, so move on to the next source and plan to watch it later if you don’t have the time right now. It’s excellent, of course. It deals quite a bit with specific disagreements over Scripture (Old Testament and New) that I heard while at my former church. About halfway through the video and on is what I’m referring to, but the first part of the video should not be skipped, because it is the foundation for the second part. By the end of the video, if you think the point of the message was about condemning a pastor’s wife–you couldn’t be more wrong and need to re-watch the video. It was totally all about me. And I’ve gotta believe it’s all about you, too. If you need to, watch it again. Here are my notes I took from the video, and the video is found below my notes: Scripture teaches that God doesn’t listen to everyone’s prayers. Don’t Expect God to Answer Your Prayers If: 1. you don’t honor your wife (1 Peter) 2. you have unconfessed sin (James) 3. you’re asking for things to fulfill your own passions/desires (James) 4. you are doubting the whole time (James) 5. you’re not taking care of the poor and needy (Isaiah) Uh…I fail majorly at all 5 of those. This explains a lot… My sin doesn’t only affect me; it affects the body of Christ with whom I’m in fellowship.Same is true of your sin. God’s view of sin and punishment is radically different from mine. We have a choice to make: adopt God’s view of sin or suffer the consequences of our refusal to do so. Sometimes the consequences are carried out by God himself, but He also can call the church to participate in carrying this out. JESUS CHRIST Jesus answers the...

C.S. Lewis made this argument famous about the divinity of Christ: Jesus is either a liar, lunatic, or he is Lord. What this means is that Jesus in the Bible claimed to be Lord. If you accept that Jesus actually claimed this, then these are the only three options for Jesus: He claimed to be the Son of God, even though he knew full well that he wasn’t. He was a liar or deceiver. He honestly thought he was the Son of God out of self-delusion, which makes him a lunatic. Or he was indeed who he claimed to be–our Lord. Many Christians, including myself, find this argument quite compelling, as long as you believe that the Bible accurately records Jesus’ teachings/words. Remember, Jesus didn’t write any of the Four Gospels, his followers did. This is one flaw many people find in this argument for the divinity of Jesus. They hold out the possibility that Jesus never made these claims for himself, but his followers later attributed these notions to him. However, I believe that Jesus did indeed make these claims, so the argument is solid for me. We don’t have this problem with Paul. Paul actually wrote some letters, and those letters written by his own hands are contained in the Bible. As a result, I think this argument is even stronger for Paul than it is for Jesus. Let me lay out why I think this, and anyone who sees a fallacy in my logic, I’d like to hear it. Some people try to pit Paul against Jesus, saying that Paul’s gospel of salvation contradicts Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom of God. For example, Paul’s gospel emphasizes that one needs to only believe in Jesus Christ as Lord in order to be saved. They would say it is hard to find such notions in the Gospels (except the book of John, which is a completely different topic). Jesus, on the other hand, seems to have a message more about how we ought to live, and if we don’t forgive, or if we don’t feed the hungry, we won’t be saved. Much of the Church’s theology of salvation, sin, the Old Testament Law, and explanation of what the...