Author Archives: deorl

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About deorl

Pastor of Lifewell Church. lifewellchurch.com

Opinions and Credentials

Tell people something they don’t want to hear on social media and get ready for the disrespect. Yesterday I posted a comment from one of my cousins, which I believe is pertinent to the discussion about suicide. Here it is: “Suicide is the ultimate selfish act.” It is. It really, truly is. I wrote an article about this yesterday, so I won’t repeat.

If you are reading this, then you are likely the kind of person who will, at least, hear an argument out before you simply react with a 144 character excoriation of the statement or an terse anathema of the person making it. So, here are my credentials for sharing with you, and some thoughts on human opinion.

First, who am I to make assessments and offer my opinions. Anybody can give an opinion, but not all opinions are equally informed. You do realize the truth of that, correct? I do not have a degree in psychology. Although, I do have as many undergraduate hours in psych as I have in my major, which is religion/theology. I’m not a practicing psychologist, then. However, I am a pastor, and before that a youth pastor. I have been listening to people and talking to people and praying with people about their problems for thirty years. You decide if I have anything to offer on the basis of experience.

Second, I have a post-graduate degree in theology and Bible. I continue to study that ancient, inspired, holy Book daily. I believe that the Bible has the answers we most need. “Heaven and earth will pass away,” Jesus affirmed, “but my words will never pass away” (Luke 21:33). Ignore God’s Word at your eternal peril. In the end, you and I are not going to be judged in the court of popular opinion, or in any human law court: we will be judged by God, and we will be judged by Jesus Christ, according to the truth revealed in the Bible (2 Corinthians 5:10, Hebrews 9:27).

Still with me? Third, and people don’t know this about me: over the last decade and a half, I have struggled with depression and have had to battle suicidal thoughts. Maybe that’s alarming to you. Maybe you think someone in ministry, a pastor, should be above this. I’ve got news for you, none of us are perfect, and most of us have to slap a smile on our problems in order to keep everyone attending. That’s the real travesty of church ministry. I’ll leave that for another essay. The reason I reveal my personal struggle is so that the reader will recognize I’m not making theoretical statements. I’m not apathetic or above it all. I feel this and fight this personally.

So, be careful with your 144 character snap judgments of statements you read in passing. Try digesting, praying about, and possibly discovering the wisdom of what you read.

Still reading? Why am I sharing my qualifications? So that you will take seriously what I write. I’ve been in ministry a long time and I still get disrespected by people I’ve known, people who don’t know me, and by people who weren’t even born when I started. This is symptomatic of our zeitgeist. Everyone has been taught that their opinions are inviolable. Many times your opinion is nothing more than a gut reaction to some statement, rather than a reasoned evaluation.


We’ve even taught this in church when leading people to share their faith. “No one can disagree with your personal testimony,” we say. Trouble is, you and I have likely not allowed our personal experience to see the light of healthy criticism. We live in a feeling oriented culture. Most of us don’t think critically or deeply. Ironically, many of our feelings are not deep either. They are feelings based on simple, animal reactions to our environment.

All opinions are not created equal. You have a right to your opinion, but that doesn’t mean it is right. Start there and you may learn and grow. I am happy to be proven wrong, if it is proven by evidence and reason. People may be deceived. Entire populations of people and their cultures can be wrong. Nazi Germany. Imperial Japan. Jihadist Islam. Hollywood. Wall Street. You get the idea.

Anthony Flew was a renowned philosopher and atheist. He offered what I still consider to be the best argument against the existence of God, at least, against the way many believers talk about God. His argument was about falsification. In brief, if you cannot ever admit a set of circumstances under which God would be proven not to exist, then you cannot make the case that he does exist. Flew says that all he has done his entire life is “follow the evidence.” For the majority of his brilliant philosophical career he did not see the evidence leading toward the existence of God. That all changed when scientists discovered the profound amount of information contained in our DNA, as science uncovered the profound complexity of the cell. Design evinces a designer. Flew has written a book renouncing his atheism: it is called, There Is a God, How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. He followed the evidence and admitted he had been wrong. Flew is in his eighties. Our opinions can be wrong. They need to be subject to evidence, reason and logic.

I have feelings and am tempted to react emotionally. I have done so. To a degree, this entire article is an expression of my frustration and anger over being disrespected yesterday. However, this is a reasonable, rather than an emotional, response. I am willing to subject myself to criticism, until it becomes apparent that the critic is bent on proving themselves right rather than proving their point with evidence. I am willing to be corrected. I can be wrong. However, if I’m speaking the truth from the God’s Word, you’d best prove I’m wrong from the same Authority. In other words, I’ll follow the evidence as Anthony Flew did.

So, did you make it to the end? Do you need to give me some criticism? Say on, but speak with respect. I’ll give it to you, and I expect to receive it from you. This is what is missing in our Twitter Fight, Reality TV, perpetually outraged culture: respect. It is the cornerstone of civilized society. This is why I like Facebook. If you’re disrespectful, you can be removed from the list of people who may read what I have to say. I’ll tolerate a modicum of disrespect, but if someone persists, I’ll remove them. So, think with me. Let’s listen to one another. More importantly, let’s seek to hear and understand God and His Word and be corrected by Him.

Suicide and Salvation

I write this in the wake of the reported suicide of Robin Williams. Many of us are shocked, and many who battle depression have empathy for him. Everyone should have sympathy, and no one offer condemnation. However, it is very important to realize that suicide is not the answer to peace or escape.

There is a very dangerous belief shared by many Americans when death occurs. I’ve heard it at many funerals, and you’ll hear variations of it as people talk about Robin Williams or others who’ve died, whether by their own hand or in another way. Theologians call the belief in question, “universalism,” which means all people are going to heaven, or to “a better place.” Sadly, I must report the truth, however: everyone who dies will not go to a better place. I realize fully that this is neither comforting nor popular. However, if you are comforting yourself and others at the price of perpetuating a lie, then you are buying a little comfort at the price of eternal pain. If you want to know the truth, then you need to go to the Bible, which is God’s message to humankind.

The Bible teaches the following. Everyone dies. Everyone will be judged by God. “It is appointed for everyone once to die and then comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Not everyone will be in heaven. “Anyone whose name was not found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life was thrown into the Lake of Fire with the Devil and his angels” (Revelation 20:15). You will be judged. Only those with their names in the book spoken of will go to heaven. How would you know?

Actually, you get to choose one of two destinations, but only two. Either you choose to spend eternity with God in heaven, or to be eternally separated from God, which is hell. There is not a third option. There is no purgatory mentioned in the Bible, even though the Roman Catholic church has developed such a doctrine. Heaven is not a place of your own making, the realization of your fantasies, or the reward of living a good life (even if that were possible on your own).

Appropriately, Robin Williams was in a movie about heaven once. The 1998 release “What Dreams May Come” was based on a 1978 book of the same title by Richard Matheson, The concept of heaven is not one you’ll find in the Bible; instead, it depicts a sort of dream heaven that might be nearer to the idea many share, or, at least, wish for. In the movie heaven is essentially the living out of one’s wishes and desires. This is a “heaven” without God, or perhaps, more accurately, a heaven of one’s own making, so I am my own god. In the film Robin Williams plays the main character, Chris Nielsen, who dies in a car accident and is led through his heaven by a “friendly spirit” (Cuba Gooding Jr.). Chris’s wife, Ann (Annabella Sciorra), commits suicide and lives on in her own self-made hell (the antithesis of this concept of heaven). Chris saves his wife in the end. This kind of thinking has displaced the Bible in our culture and that gives more room for people who are considering suicide to believe they will be in a “better place.” 

Williams may have been inclined to believe in some form of reincarnation. Here’s a quote about the film from an interview mentioned in an article by Huffington Press. 

“When I watched the final movie, I felt it was extraordinarily beautiful but I felt disappointed by the ending. There was a different ending that they shot that I felt was much more true to the story. It was about reincarnation, basically, that they were going to meet again. The movie ended with two babies being born simultaneously, one in Bombay and one in the United States, and they held them up, and then the screen went to black.”

Did this play into his consideration of suicide? We may never know.

There will be no reincarnation, as Hinduism has it. There will be a resurrection, both of the righteous and the unrighteous (Revelation 20:6 and surrounding). The righteous are those who’ve been made right by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross (Romans 3:24-26), who have been reborn by receiving Christ (John 1:12, 3:3 & 5). These people are justified (made right) by Jesus Christ and will rise from the dead and reign with Him. The unrighteous are those who do not believe, who reject Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for their sins . They will come up in the second resurrection and will be judged according to what is written in “the books,” which means they will be judged for their own works. Since none are righteous apart from Christ (Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:23), they are thrown into the Lake of Fire to be eternally destroyed (Revelation 20:11-15).

Heaven is “God’s space, or God’s dimension” to quote theologian N.T. Wright (from his book Surprised by Hope). This is where God’s throne is (Psalm 11:4). After death we leave earth and enter the dimensions of God’s space beyond time.  So, I don’t die and go to “my heaven.” If I don’t believe in God, if I don’t want to be with God, if I want to escape his presence, the only option is hell. This is a realm where people are forever separated from God, and must ultimately pay the penalty for their own sins, which is eternal death, or destruction.

So, there is no heaven apart from God. Even if you were given some realm in which to live out your dreams, without God it would soon become hell. Human beings were made by God and for God (Psalm 100:3). We were made to be loved by God, and to love and worship God (Matthew 22:37-38). Self-love alone is malformed love, which soon devolves into selfish idolatry. I am missing what I was made for if I am apart from God. I become increasingly warped and monstrous the longer I remain separated from God. I believe what will make hell more “hellish” is that those who dwell there will have only self to sense and serve and love. We were created not only to love God but to love other people (Matthew 22:39). In order to do that we must receive the love God offers through Jesus. “Love one another the way I have loved you” (John 15:12). In hell we will be separated, not only from God, but from caring about others. Love will be impossible.

In this fallen world we are naturally separated from God by sin. Humans were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), but we are fallen; we are broken. So long as we live in this dimension of time, however, there is time enough to change.  We are malformed creatures, who may be reformed into the image of God by putting faith in Jesus Christ. That is our hope and our opportunity now, today. “Today is the day of salvation, now is the time of God’s favor” (2 Corinthians 6:2). This is why suicide is such a horrible lie. When someone commits suicide, they are looking for salvation from their depression and pain. The reality is, they have destroyed the opportunity to be saved in that moment.

A hurting person wants whatever they are going through to stop, but ending their earthly life will not stop it. Instead it may bring more pain than they can possibly imagine. There was a time in the Bible when the people were longing for an end to their difficult circumstances. They cried out for “the Day of the Lord,” which is another way of saying “Judgment Day,” the time when God will make everything right. Problem is, the people who cried out for this were sinning. They were not right with God. In fact, the circumstances they were complaining about were actually sent by God as discipline. The pain they were enduring would only be temporary if they would change their hearts and minds and listen to God. Here is what the prophet Amos told these people about their desire to see the Day of the Lord, and I believe that this is what the suicidal person needs to hear, for they are hastening the day of their own judgment.

“Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! 

Why would you have the day of the Lord? 

It is darkness, and not light, 

 as if a man fled from a lion, 

and a bear met him, 

or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, 

and a serpent bit him. 

Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, 

and gloom with no brightness in it?”

(Amos 5:18-20).

If you’re hurting, depressed, despairing, there is hope! Your hope is cannot be killing yourself. The Sixth Commandment explicitly forbid this: You shall not kill. That means God commands you not to kill yourself, friend. He loves you and has a better life planned for you than you are currently experiencing. “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to help you, not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). The promise made to His exiled people in this verse is for you too. If you are in exile from God, from love, from light, from experiencing life. Jesus offers a rich and satisfying life. It is the enemy of God, Satan, who wants to kill you. 

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come to give abundant life” (John 10:10). The thief is Satan. He is a murderer and a liar; in fact, he is the source of the lies you are believing right now. “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44b).

Change your thinking, friend. Change your ways. Turn your life completely over to the care of the Lord Jesus Christ, right now.

We all sin. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). All of us earn death for our sin. “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23a). Jesus died so you don’t have to! Jesus also rose from the dead. He overcame our worst enemy, the devil, and our greatest fear, death.

“Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had* the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.”

(Hebrews 2:14-15, NLT).

Jesus is alive and He offers you the gift of eternal life, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23b). 

You need to be saved. “What must we do to be saved” (Acts 2:38a)? All you have to do is turn away from your own thinking and your own ways and turn toward Jesus Christ. “Repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38b). Call out to Jesus right now. Admit you’ve sinned, admit that suicidal thoughts are sin. Confess that Jesus died and rose so that you can be forgiven and saved. “if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved… whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:9 & 13).

Pray right now:

Jesus,

I believe in you.

I believe you died for my sins.

I believe you rose from the dead.

I give you my life, right now.

I want your Holy Spirit to live inside of me.

I receive you, your gift of eternal life and all that you have to offer.

Jesus Christ, you are Lord and God.

You are my God.

Amen.

Now, get to a church and get some support. Start reading your Bible so that your mind can be renewed and transformed (Romans 12:2). If you haven’t been baptized in water since you gave your life to Jesus Christ, you must be. He commanded it.

For more, visit our church’s website http://lifewellchurch.com

ZMA and Balance

I took a supplement last night that’s supposed to help people who lift weights to gain more muscle. It’s called ZMA. Nothing exotic; just zinc, magnesium and vitamin B6. Within an hour I wasn’t feeling great; in two I was miserable. It’s hard to pinpoint how I felt, except to say that my head hurt and I was jittery in a strange way. I looked at the label and the B6 dose is really high, like over 500% of the daily recommended dose. I looked up side effects of excess B6 and it can cause nerve damage. Good grief! Why in the world are companies permitted to market and sell a product purportedly to help someone get healthier, which can actually cause physical harm? Unbelievable.

The lesson I learned from this is one I should have already learned. Do the research before you start taking the supplement, or medication, or anything else you put into your body. Get the majority of your nutrition from natural food, not pills and powders. Believe it or not, I did look at the ingredients in ZMA, as I do the other supplements I take, and thought it’d be good because what it contains are natural substances that the body requires. Problem is, you can take toxic amounts of some vitamins and minerals. I think that was the case with this product.

While I was experiencing the reaction to ZMA I was praying that God would heal me. I ate a little, vomited a little, took an over the counter pain reliever, drank water, and waited. I believe God answered my prayer fairly quickly. Within an hour I felt well enough to lay down, and I eventually fell asleep. I feel great today! Thank God.

I wrote an essay about balance last week, and this is another example of the need for that practice in life. Too little vitamin B6, zinc or magnesium will cause a variety of physical problems. Too much of these essential nutrients is toxic and causes different problems. What we need it proper balance. I am in balance today and I feel healthy.

Today is leg day in my weight workout schedule. Legs are difficult because it’s such a large muscle group. I’m in the middle of a protocol known as German Volume Training or the 10 Sets Method. The idea is to do ten sets of ten repetitions of two different exercises in a superset. On leg day. I do squats, which require a lot of effort normally, but they are paired with leg curls. You do ten repetitions of squats, wait 90 seconds, then do ten reps of leg curls, wait 90 seconds and go back to squats. Back and forth I go until ten sets of both exercises are completed. It takes a lot out of you. 

I didn’t want to do that leg workout today. I started to make excuses: I don’t feel well because of last night, my legs feel tired, I feel tired. However, I went to the gym and did the workout. Actually, I did eight sets because it felt like there might actually be something amiss. Now I feel great. Balance. The body needs to be active in order to remain healthy. If I would have sat around it wouldn’t have been healthy. If I would have pushed it, it may have been too much (today). 

The Bible has something to say about discipline, which I believe applies here. “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but in the end it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:11). That verse is speaking about receiving discipline from God, but it applies to self-discipline as well. In fact, if you discipline yourself by being obedient to God and doing what He says, He won’t have any reason to correct you with outside discipline.

So, eat healthy, stay active listen to God and do what he says. He speaks through Jesus Christ, the Son, and in the Bible, his written message. In this way you’ll stay in balance and be happy.

Radical Balance

Life is about balance, health, harmony with Creator and creation. The body is designed. It operates best within specific boundaries. There are buffers that allow us to fudge some of those boundaries for awhile, but that too comes at a cost. Here’s what I mean.

Take diet as an example. I don’t mean “diet,” as in losing weight, but daily consumption of food and drink. Dietary choices determine what energy and nutrition will be available for my body. When my diet is out of balance it will become evident at some point. The most obvious evidence of imbalance in the U.S. is obesity, or, to take it a step further what is being called “diabesity,” which is the combination of excess fat and type 2 diabetes. While the experts churn out study after study concerning this epidemic, the issue is simple. When you eat more than you require, your body has to deal with it. The way the body handles excess calories is to store them for future use, as fat. Most of us consume far too much sugar, high fructose corn syrup and starch. These substances are quickly turned into blood sugar. However, when we aren’t physically active that blood sugar is not turned into burnable calories, but into, you guessed it: fat. The process the body uses to remove blood sugar is to produce insulin. The constant need for insulin eventually causes problems that result in type 2 diabetes.

We need to eat a balanced diet. I know, that sounds like a bulletin from the Surgeon General. However, this is only one example of balance in life. Now, some people are out of balance in the opposite direction. They eat too little. Perhaps this is due to an effort to lose weight, or it could be because of a poor body image. Americans have a distorted idea of what constitutes a beautiful body, whether male or female. There is virtually no woman who will be capable of maintaining a Barbie Doll body, and extremely few men who will be able to attain the musculature of The Rock. These should not be our ideals. Not only are most celebrity bodies unattainable, but they aren’t even real! They’re photoshopped. You can even get an app for your phone to touch up your selfies. What a vain culture we occupy. The response some people have to our culture’s distorted body imagery is a disorder called anorexia, wherein the person deprives themselves of food to become or remain skinny. Unbalanced and unhealthy.

Exercise is good, and all of us should be getting out and exercising in some way each day. When we don’t get enough exercise our hearts and lungs and muscles atrophy from lack of use. You may not be obese, but without muscle tone your body may appear flabby. That’s what you can see. What happens when you climb a flight of stairs? Are you winded? Heart rate up? That shouldn’t be happening. However, it is possible to go to the opposite extreme and exercise too much. You cannot do the same weightlifting exercises every day. The muscles have to have time to heal. In fact, at least 48 hours, preferably 72. Even running every day will take a toll on your joints and muscles. Balance. Run, lift, rest, ride a bike, lift again. You get the idea.

The problem is, we are an obsessive people. In order to get our divided attention the news media and advertisers must showcase extreme examples of everything. And since we look to the media to determine norms, the extremes have become normal. May I encourage you to become radically balanced? Avoid the extremes. Stop looking at celebrities and athletes as role models. Look above.

You were made in God’s image. The ideal is Jesus Christ. He needs to become your role model, your teacher. Jesus commanded, “Be perfect, therefore, as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). This is not static perfection, and it is not something you can do alone. The image of God within each one of us is so damaged that it must be supernaturally restored. That’s why Jesus must be your Savior and Lord before he can be a realistic ideal.

Start with a confession: I’m not what or who I’m supposed to be. Now add a statement of confidence in Christ’s ability and willingness to help you change: Jesus save me, create a clean heart inside of me. Finally, dedicate yourself to follow Jesus one day at a time: Jesus Christ, you are Lord. I give you charge over my life. I will follow you.

Next, go to Bible.com and read Matthew chapters five through seven; that’s where Jesus taught his followers what he expected of them. Now, pray. Talk to Jesus Christ as you’d talk to a friend. Get into a Bible teaching church and PARTICIPATE, don’t just sit and expect them to entertain you.

If you’re already doing these things, but you’ve been convicted that your life is out of balance in some way, pray and write down the areas where you need to get back into balance. I’ll end with a prayer for you.

Father, I pray for anyone who is reading this right now. Send your Spirit to convict them of the areas in their lives that are out of balance and need to change. Lord Jesus, be real to the person reading this at this very moment. Show them what you want to help them achieve. Make this a life changing moment for them. Restore them to health. Give them hope and bring happiness into their life as they willingly obey and follow you. Thank you Jesus. Amen.

Small Church Pastor Visits Mega Church

The last time I looked for a church in the Metroplex was 1988. That’s the year I moved to Ft. Worth, Texas to matriculate at Southwestern Seminary. I didn’t do a lot of searching, just started attending Joel Gregory’s church. I’ve forgotten the church name, but Dr. Joel is still one of the best preachers I’ve ever listened to. This morning I drove to Rockwall and attended Lakepointe Baptist. Here are a few observations.

 

I was glad they had an 11:00 AM service. There were two other churches I might have attended along the way, but both started earlier than I’d anticipated. I arrived in time to wait in a fairly long traffic line. Nobody directed us. I didn’t see any visitor parking. I drove to the back of the lot and parked. Took about five minutes to walk in. Nobody directed me. Nobody said hello to me. In fact, nobody looked at me at all. I had to get an usher’s attention to obtain a bulletin.

 

On my way in I noticed that they seem to have a lot of space dedicated to children and youth, so I’d assume these are sought after programs. Once in the auditorium I navigated to a seat over to one side. In spite of the traffic, there were seats available. The worship music was contemporary. The band was large, like seven or eight musicians. The sound mix wasn’t the best. However, the Holy Spirit was present and I was able to worship.

 

Steve Stroope is the Senior Pastor and kind of a leader among Dallas Baptists. He introduced the pastor of a mission church that Lakepointe sponsors in Washington DC. I assumed Stroope would teach, but it was another younger man who was called a “teaching pastor”. He seemed well informed, but I’m not the demographic they have him teaching to. I went out into the lobby and got a cup of coffee, while continuing to follow the speaker on flat screens everywhere.

 

In the end I left without anyone knowing or caring that I’d been there. It was a lot like my workouts at Lifetime Fitness: I get something out of it, but I don’t make any friends in the process. Now, I could have chosen to make the first move and meet people, but I really didn’t attend for that purpose. I think that’s likely the case for many people. My purpose was to worship first, but also to evaluate what they’re doing to draw so many people.

 

It seems that many people attend church to get something out of it for themselves and their families. They attend for the children’s program, the youth program, to be in church when they feel the need to be there. Maybe there are some seekers who are trying to figure out whether they believe in God or not. There are people who just believe they’re supposed to be in church, and this is a nice, big, anonymous one to attend.

 

I was glad to hear the Gospel preached, was happy to feel the Holy Spirit during the musical portion of the worship. I’m appreciative of all this church is doing to start other churches in areas where there aren’t many. However, I think I’d have to do the heavy lifting to build relationships there.

 

A church is supposed to be people, a community of individuals called out of the world and connected by the Holy Spirit. I didn’t see that in my brief visit. My hypothesis about why mega churches draw so many people is this: they provide a product, a service (pun intended) to people. The product is their professional programming. People attend for the same reason they go to a gym. They want to feel better, to get something for themselves. This is a consumer driven model, and these churches have figured out who their clientele is and how to make them happy.

 

What I would like to see in our church is genuine community. We’ve experienced it before in all it’s chaotic, messy, splendor. Some of us are connected and experience it now, but I doubt if that is any greater, percentage-wise, than they do at Lakepointe. They probably have great community in their small groups and many ministries. Again, if I had the need to get involved, I’m sure I could. At Lifewell I would like to make everyone feel welcome. I want visitors to not only feel welcome, but to feel that we want to be friends if they would like to have that relationship. I cannot personally be close friends with everyone, but someone, several someones, can be their friend.

 

We have a long way to go, but I believe we can get there. I’ll lead. I begin by confessing that I’ve been too distracted and self-absorbed on too many occasions. Perhaps I’ve been aloof, too worried about being some sort of exalted SENIOR PASTOR instead of relating to and loving everyone as I should. I will change. Will my friends at Lifewell follow?

Sunday Morning Coming Down

On a Sunday morning sidewalk
I’m wishing Lord that I was stoned
‘Cause there’s something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there’s nothin’ short of dyin’
That’s half as lonesome as the sound
Of a sleepin’ city sidewalk
And Sunday mornin’ comin’ down.
-Johnny Cash

There’s been a good bit of discussion recently about the value of attending church. Author Don Miller upset a few, but may have pleased even more people when he wrote in his blog that he doesn’t connect with God very well when he goes to church. He went further to reveal that about five years prior to his blog post he stopped attending church regularly. What might be surprising to you is assertion by Miller that quite a few Christian leaders with whom he interacts (para Church leaders I’m assuming) don’t attend church either. There’s also a book that just came out to reinforce this approach to Christianity.

As some of you may be aware, the church that I lead has been doing an experiment this summer. Basically we cancelled Sunday morning worship and asked people to reach out instead. We have scheduled a 5:30 PM worship time for people to gather instead. This is risky, but by no means extreme. We’ve called it The UnChurch Experiment, and it has brought some new people into our community, but our worship attendance hasn’t gone up as the result. Hopefully, our people are at least enjoying sleeping in on Sunday!

Initially this experiment was disorienting for me. I’ve been going to church on Sunday morning, or teaching people during that time period for the great majority of my life. Early on I didn’t like it. I do like worship on Sunday evening, so that’s not the issue. It’s just, well, Sunday morning is when you’re supposed to go to church. Right? It’s the time the majority of people who attend church do so, so it must be the right time for it. Sunday morning is the time when Jesus rose. Well, if you go to a sunrise service every week you might be closer to commemorating Jesus’ first appearances to Mary Magdalene and the other women. Interestingly, the first community gathering with Jesus was on Sunday evening (check John 20:9 and Luke 24:29-36).

This is the seventh week of our experiment and what I’ve discovered about not attending church on Sunday morning is, well, how easy it has been not to be in church. I wrote on the first week about how I felt like I was going through withdrawals by not attending. No more. In fact, although I feel like I’m missing something at times, I don’t miss it enough to regularly attend church anywhere else as the result. I’m sure you wouldn’t expect the pastor of one church to attend another on Sunday morning, and this is doubly true since we’re all supposed to be reaching out and all. Yet here I am, sitting in the front of an empty church writing this during the sacred eleven o’clock worship hour, and not feeling any loss any longer.

Perhaps this is one of the things God wants to teach me through all of this. He may want me to identify with many of you who don’t attend church regularly. Believe me, I understand the tendency to want to stay home or do something else. However, there are repercussions, consequences, especially if you don’t have a consistent walk with God. By the latter I mean you practice your Christianity: you pray regularly, read your Bible and try to hear a message from God regularly, give your time and money to help people in need, share Jesus and his love as often as you are able, obey Jesus’ teaching. Even if you’re actually doing all of that you will fall short and fail to grow and become more like Jesus you are not involved and accountable to a community of people who worship together in spirit and truth: that’s a church.

Jesus established the church much in the same way as the Father established family at the beginning. These are basic support networks for people. We need family. We need community. God works and speaks through other people. God created these social structures to cultivate and nurture people as they live and grow in the world. So, even though I don’t relish the thought of going to church a listening to another preacher talk, or watch the show that some churches put on for Sunday morning, I need church. I need the people, the accountability, the opportunity to exercise my gifts, a place to call home.

I’m looking forward to worshiping with our community this evening, and I’m looking forward to restoring our Sunday morning worship too. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep both of these times!

“In the park I saw a daddy
With a laughin’ little girl who he was swingin’
And I stopped beside a Sunday school
And listened to the songs they were singin’
Then I headed down the street
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin’
And it echoed thru the canyon
Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.”
From: Sunday Morning Coming Down
by Johnny Cash

Ever I Do

Ever get tired?
I do.
Ever get bored?
I do.
Bored of being mired
in the same sticky clay,
same situation
different day.
I try to keep my hopes up
because there’s nothing good
to be gained from looking down.
Still, it would be easy to drown
in self-pity and petty complaints.
So I keep treading water,
looking up in order to breath.
I thought when I stepped out
on the waves I’d walk
like Jesus,
tried to walk to Jesus,
but the storm is steady
and strong, and I sank

below the surface.

Did I lose sight of Jesus?
At least the air in my lungs
buoyed me up,
and now I take a breath
when I can.
When, oh when
can I just stand?
I don’t mean on land.
I want to walk on these waves,
as no man,
save the Son of Man,
can.
Can I do all things
through Christ?
Will You give me strength?
I have a little bit of faith left.
Is that enough?
Help my unbelief.
Amen.

Let Go

“Do not remember the past events,
pay no attention to things of old.
Look, I am about to do something new;
even now it is coming. Do you not see it?
Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert.”
(Isaiah 43:18-19, HCSB)

I don’t give up easily, not on people or on dreams. However, there comes a time to let go. Now, it seems, it is time.

Time to let go of old people. I love them, all of them. Some are like my own kids, but the time to let go of them is long past. They have moved on, and so must I. It is sad to think about what could have been, but those are the dreams I must now let go of. My dreams have been based upon God’s promises, but I have yet to realize what I visualized, or, at least, with whom I had assumed those dreams would be fulfilled. C’est la vie!

Yesterday was eye opening to me. Our church ostensibly celebrated Refuge Day, my name for our version of Founders Day. I had thought we’d reconnect with our past as a way of reviving vision for the future. Our Associate Pastor did a great job of teaching about the biblical basis for our church’s original name, City of Refuge. The idea of being a refuge for those who are being judged and pursued by guilt remains a mandate for us. However, as I looked around I was struck by the reality that this is a different church than it was.

A church is a community of people whom Jesus Christ has saved and called out from the world to worship God in Spirit and Truth. As such, the particular community of people who assemble regularly to worship are the church, whether in keeping with or in spite of their official identity. A church may be institutionally affiliated with a particular denomination, but the people who meet together define what that means to each other and all who have contact with them, regardless of what they may call themselves, sometimes regardless of what they believe themselves to be.

The way a particular community believes and behaves is the de facto determiner of who they are. We could call this the community culture. Culture is the expression of a group’s values. For example, there are many churches and organizations who use the biblical name “Zion.” Our church was one of these. We called ourselves Zion for almost eleven years. It became increasingly obvious that the name is so widely used that it inspired confusion in some people. Our intent in calling ourselves by that name was to connect to God’s wonderful promises for his people. However, there are cult-like groups that use the name in an attempt to prove that they are God’s chosen people, either exclusively or above other groups. Well, we weren’t trying to say that, so we changed our name to Lifewell Church.

The point is, what we call ourselves is secondary to who we are as defined by our beliefs and the behavior that results from them. If a church is called, say “Friendship,” or “Grace,” but the people are known to be unfriendly or judgmental, then the church’s name is ironic instead of emblematic.

Our church was established as “City of Refuge,” and the founding verse was from Matthew 9:12-13: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Desperately I want that to be what we are all about, but I cannot do it alone. We do attract those who have a variety of needs, spiritual, emotional, social. We try to meet those needs. However, I believe some who get to the place where they are well enough to meet the needs of new people who come simply grow tired of doing so and move on. Or they grow impatient with our perpetual lack of growth. Or they get mad at the preacher. Familiarity breeds contempt, and some leave due to disrespect. Some leave because those with whom they are friends have left. Did I mention I cannot do this alone?

There are some incredible servants at our church who minister and make it all work. These give sacrificially of their time and resources, never complain (well, at least, not openly!), and are a real example of Jesus to others. But they need a break sometimes. They could use some more support. It is difficult to do all of this when it seems that there aren’t many others interested in helping. The world is full of takers. There are few givers. Those who choose to live a life inspired by the Spirit of Christ need to stand together, or we’ll fall apart.

We have a core group that stands together. They have been together for a long time and have stuck together through tough times. And yet, I miss some of my old friends and the good times we had when this church started. My conclusion after yesterday is this. Even if everyone came back, it wouldn’t be the same. We’re different now. The only person who doesn’t change is God. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

That’s why you cannot keep looking behind you. Hope is not found in the past. Hope is in a future defined by God’s promises. You can look back to gain perspective, to learn, and to remember what God has said and evaluate whether you’re living according to that calling. But once you’ve gained your bearings, move on. “Forget the former things. See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19, NIV).

So, I’m letting go. I love everyone. I’ll be here for anyone. But the past, sweet or bitter, will not return.

The one I am holding onto is Jesus Christ, along with his promises to me. I am seeking to recall and review and to have hope restored in those promises. The promises, the truth, the Gospel: these are unchanging because they are the Word of the immutable God. “Heaven and earth will pass away but my Word will never pass away.”

Bring the new thing, Jesus; bring it soon. I grow weary of waiting. Nonetheless, I will wait for You.

Church Addict

I confess, I am an addict… a church addict. I’ve been going since I was 16. Church didn’t save me: Jesus Christ did—and is. Although church people have been some of my closer friends, I’ve been hurt deeply by them. Church people have wrecked my reputation with rumor and gossip, judged me and assassinated my character in the community. Many more have simply turned away and treated me like a stranger. The reality is, although most church people would claim to believe in Jesus, they aren’t any more like him for the professed belief, and are no worse or better than anybody else in the world. Jesus had the most difficulty with the church people of his day (synagogue people, they could be called), but he still attended and participated every week.

I’ve been in church every Sunday morning for over 30 years. I think I’ve missed twice since I made a commitment to Christ and got baptized. That changes today. I’m not going to church this morning. It’s 6:15 A. M. and I thought I’d sleep-in today, but I’m wide awake, going through withdrawals at the prospect of not being in church. You see, I’m the pastor of our congregation, and I’ve challenged everyone to stop playing church, to stop (just) going to church, and to start being the church.

We are going to try something today, and throughout the summer. I’ve called it The UnChurch Experiment. I told everyone we won’t have church on Sunday morning this summer. Instead, I told them, be the church to the unchurched by shining your light where the unchurched go. Then we’ll gather Sunday at 5:30 P. M. to share our stories and worship.

Now, when we started our church, there was no morning worship service, but I still met with our most dedicated people for brunch and Bible study during that time. With this UnChurch Experiment, though, I won’t be teaching, preaching or even attending church. It’s unsettling. That’s part of the purpose. We need to take risks, shine our light out in the world, and be deliberate about sharing the Gospel with people who have less exposure to it. We need to bring Jesus to people who have less opportunity to hear and receive. Sounds good. I’m still going through withdrawals, though.

Here are the ten assignments I’ve given to our people for Sunday mornings.
1. Invite some unchurched friends and/or family to brunch, ask if you may pray for their needs.
2. Go somewhere fun and find an unchurched person to check out Lifewell Worship
3. Do a service project with your friends and/or family.
4. Relax and relate with your family: no electronic devices or TV, just face to face contact.
5. Read your Bible for one hour without interruption, then post to a social network about what you learned. Invite people on your network to Lifewell Worship.
6. Knock on a neighbor’s door and share something with them. Invite them to check out Lifewell Worship.
7. Make a video to share the Gospel, i.e., interview some people about a relevant topic that may be used as a catalyst for sharing the Gospel. Tell them it will be played at a Lifewell gathering.
8. Walk or ride bikes at a park near your house and meet others. Invite them to Lifewell Worship.
9. Walk the ROC neighborhood (an area where there are many apartments) and invite people to Lifewell UnChurch Worship at 5:30p.m.
10. Volunteer somewhere. Shine your light and tell everyone about Jesus. Invite people to Lifewell Worship.

So, it’s Sunday morning: time to be the church.

You Serve What You Fear

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“Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.”

In the New American Commentary David Garland make this thought provoking observation: “It is said that whatever it is that one fears the most that is what one will serve the most.”

What do you fear the most in this life? In what ways can you see yourself serving that fear? Perhaps we could look at it this way: what do you serve to keep your fear at bay? Before I committed my life to Jesus Christ, it was fear of demonic evil that drove me toward salvation. I sought protection from Christ. I believed he had more power than what threatened me. Still do.

Now, if it is true that what we serve most is what we fear most, then it explains why so many people’s worship of God is half-hearted, and why sincere service among those who claim to believe in Jesus is so infrequent and weak. We simply do not fear God.

Failure to fear God may be the backlash from too much teaching on cheap grace. It is also the expected consequence of the widespread assumption: “I can do whatever I want; God won’t care.” We could see this as a relative of atheism. For all practical purposes, regardless of what one professes, without fear (deep respect) there can be no realistic faith in the God who created the universe and will call every person to account for their actions.

Paul always kept the judgment of God before him. He fully expected to be evaluated by Christ at the judgment bar of Christ. I do not believe that the Apostle feared that the verdict would go against him. He had confident faith that he was made right by Christ’s atoning death on the cross and victorious resurrection. However, he fully realized that everyone needs to be persuaded of the truth. The reality is, “It is appointed for everyone once to die, and then comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). “For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body” (2 Corinthians 5:10, NLT).

Everyone will be judged and we all desperately need salvation from eternal condemnation. Concern for those who are headed for destruction drove Paul to persuade people by proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus. “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6, NLT).

So, what do you serve? Could it be something that helps you suppress your fear? Some people serve addictions to alcohol and/or drugs to escape anxiety/worry, which is a type of fear. People absorb themselves in academics or their careers, distract themselves with entertainment and games, become obsessed with competition or personal projects, all to escape the fear of insignificance, loneliness and death.

“Fear God and you need fear nothing else” (Isaiah 8:13). Add to that, “Fear God and you will worship nothing else.” Fear God and every activity will be an act of worship, every act of service will be for his sake.