You Are What You Do

As I grew up a Southern Baptist I remember being taught, often, that “Southern Baptists are not a denomination, we are a convention of local churches.” Perhaps that is true in theory. However, I am of the opinion that we are what we do. If I say I am frugal but I max out my credit cards on weekend spending sprees then it doesn’t much matter what I say because what I say doesn’t match the reality of my actions.

I claim to be a fairly disconnected Southern Baptist when it comes to things on the national level. Read more

The Nature of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is one of the most difficult things that confronts humanity. Nations fight wars over hurts that go back literally hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of years. The conflict in the Balkans in the 90s is a good example of how, for hundreds of years, Bosnians and Croats have fought because at various times in their history they have each perpetrated inhumanities against one other. They have spent hundreds of years “getting back” at each other. When they aren’t fighting they are enduring their own little “cold war” of animosity. Until forgiveness is found, this sad history will simply continue to repeat itself into the future.

Individuals are no different. Read more

America, We Have A Problem

While at youth camp this summer I heard a statistic quoted that 80% of seminary graduates leave the ministry within five years of graduating.  I went snooping around to see where such a statistic might come from.  Well, it turns out that LeadingFromYourStrengths.com has come across various troubling studies.  They posted them at their blog about a year ago.  Here’s what they found: Read more

Jesus The Center

For a religion that takes its name from its founder it would seem that Jesus being the center of the Christian faith would be a redundant statement of the obvious. But is it?

I think there are two sources of competition for Jesus being the center in the modern American church. One of those sources of competition shouldn’t be competition at all because it actually points back to Jesus everywhere. The other source of competition is killing the church while we sit by and sing My Jesus I Love Thee. Read more

Semper Reformanda

You’d either have to know Latin or church history to know what that means, but Semper Reformanda was a phrase used by some of the Protestant Reformers to indicate that church reformation is always ongoing; literally “always reforming.”

As I look at 2000 years of church history one thing I note is that the church has regularly been called back from a place of compromise, apathy and lethargy to a place of greater faithfulness and vibrancy. Read more

Obscuring Reality

As I think about the last 2000 years in the history of the church there are many people and groups that I admire.  I often wish I knew a little more about the early church Fathers because they lived so close to Jesus that I’m inclined to the belief that their faith was more pure.  Untainted.  There are aspects of the lives and teachings of Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin that really hit home for me.  Later I see the deep devotion of the Desert Fathers.  Then, of course, there is Augustine.

I appreciate the devotion, the call to a simple life and authentic faith that can be seen in the Waldensians in France, the Lollards in England and the Moravians in Bohemia.

I’m inspired by the mind of the Reformers and the devotion of the Radical Reformers.

But looking at the history of the church, there is something in each individual or group that, to me, just isn’t quite right.   Read more

Lessons From Church History

Over the past 6 months I’ve been teaching a Sunday School class in church history.  When we step back from the specific details of God’s work in his church through time there are some repeated trends that one notices.  I want to think through some of those I’ve noticed as I’ve taught this class.  Rather than give a list I want to examine some specific trends and I’ll dedicate a separate post to each one.

Today, however, I want to lay my presuppositions on the table. Read more

There’s Demons Swirlin’ Around That Thing

That’s a line adapted from something I remember hearing Jamie Ragel say at one of our state Evangelism Conferences a few years ago. He was talking about drums in worship and how some people react to them. This wasn’t how he said he felt, but how some people do.

Dan Kimball has written about how the organ, in its early days in church, created the same sort of controversy we have these days about drums and guitars in worship. Not only that, but some of the most dearly loved hymns, especially in our Baptist churches, were criticized as worldly.

It’s interesting how we are so embedded in our own culture and how our cultural perspectives influence what we think about worship, doctrine and the like. A hundred years ago some people thought that What A Friend We Have In Jesus was too worldly and unspiritual for the church. Sometimes I wonder if a hundred years from now people in our churches will think we were strange because we didn’t like drums and guitars or because of the songs we use in worship.

(HT: Art Rogers)

Think On These Things

The Bible has quite a bit to say about the power of our thoughts.  Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”  In Romans 12:2 the apostle Paul goes so far as to say that we are “transformed by the renewing of our minds.”

Needless to say, the things we think on are vital in our spiritual formation and maturity.  If we dwell on things that are objectionable, impure, hurtful, unjust, unlovely and the like it will rob our souls.  I’m not entirely sure why we do those things.  I once had a pastoral supervisor who liked to ask, “What do you get out of that sort of behavior?”  The answer was nearly always, “I don’t get anything out of it.”  But the reply always came back, “Then why do you do it?  You only do it if you think that you’ll get more benefit from it than from not doing it.”

But whatever it is we think we will get out of it, the Scriptures seem to be clear that we will only be losers in the end.  Those negative things we focus on end up being the very things that usually cause division, dissension and strife among us - things that the apostle Paul calls the works of the flesh.  If we are going to build up - ourselves, others, our churches - then we really should heed Paul’s words in Philippians 4:8-9.  They are so important I want to quote them in full:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.  The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

Practical Thoughts On The Trinity

The doctrine of the Trinity can seem so….so….incomprehensible.  This is especially true if you read some of the church debates over the Trinity that took place in the fourth century.  Your head will be sure to spin when you begin to see words like “homoousios” and the like.  Was Jesus of the same substance as the Father, or was he of a similar substance, or was he simply a perfectly created being?  And what, exactly, does that all mean?

In our practical day and age the situation becomes that much worse when we begin asking the question, “What does that have to do with this life that I’m now living anyway?”

Well, count me as one who believes that all theology is practical (and if it’s not it simply isn’t theology worth our time and effort).  So what practical value is the Trinity to us? Read more

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