Tag: The Church

Digging in Deeper: Matthew 6:18

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“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The church has a bit of a bad rap. Some of that we’ve earned over years of hard work. Much of it is unfair thanks to the equally hard work of critics who range from ignorant to bigoted to hurt and vengeful. Whatever the precise reason, though, the church in America and in the cultural West more generally isn’t what it once was. This trend started in earnest a couple of generations ago, but over the last generation it has accelerated to a sociologically rapid pace. Yet while there have been folks variously cheering and mourning this decline depending on which side of the line they fall on, some recent cultural trends backed by a growing body of research is pointing to a potential need for the ones celebrating and the ones mourning to change sides. Let’s talk for a few minutes this morning about the cultural comeback of Christianity.

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Practicing for the Real Thing

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Growing is hard. Sometimes it hurts. It means things won’t or even can’t be the same as they were before. But growing is also necessary. Things that aren’t growing are slowly dying. This is true about our bodies. It’s true about organizations. It’s true about the church. When the church is growing, we often experience growing pains. This week and next we are talking about a couple of key foundation points that can help us navigate those challenges should they come.

Practicing for the Real Thing

Do you remember having growing pains when you were a kid? Those were awful. I remember weeks when my legs would just hurt. I hadn’t done anything. There was nothing that I could do to stop it. It didn’t really keep me from doing anything. But they hurt. I’m not sure about a precise medical reason for growing pains, but I can offer a layman’s explanation that seems to make a lot of sense. When you are getting taller, everything has to stretch. Skin gets pulled tighter as it expands. Bones get longer. Blood vessels are lengthening to match. Lung capacity is expanding to push oxygen to all the new boundaries of your body. Everything is getting yanked and pulled and stretched out. I don’t know about you, but I feel that kind of discomfort when I try to touch my toes. Now, imagine a period of several months where your whole body is doing that whether you want it to or not. But instead of the stretch ending after a few seconds, it just keeps going. 

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Digging in Deeper: Matthew 16:19

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“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

About halfway through Jesus’ earthly ministry, He took His disciples on a little field trip. They went deep into some nearby Gentile territory to a region that was about as pagan as it could be. It was pagan, and it had been pagan for a very long time. They were near the city of Caesarea Philippi, named both for the Emperor as well as the grandson of Herod the Great who ruled over the region. They were not far from the site of an ancient shrine to the Greek god Pan, located in a cave that was believed to be one of a handful of entrances to the underworld, also known as the “Gates of Hades.” There, when the distractions of home were about as far from their minds as they could be, Jesus asked them a question: Who do you say that I am? This led into a key confession from Simon whose name was there changed to Peter. Even more importantly than that, Jesus revealed to them His plans to leave behind an institution that would carry on His work when He departed from them. This institution would be known as the church, and this is perhaps the most foundational passage in the Scriptures as far as shaping our understanding of what the church is and what it should be doing. You could write a whole book on these few verses, but today, I want to explore just one idea Jesus introduced and an implication it has for what the church should look like today.

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Digging in Deeper: Ephesians 6:4

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“Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I’ve long been a numbers guy. Numbers just stick in my head. Random numbers. And they don’t go away. Sometimes it’s pretty handy like at my former church, before I was really using a cell phone all that much, when I had almost half the phone numbers of the members memorized. Because I’m a numbers guy, I love looking at data. It doesn’t matter too much what the data is, but sociological research data is some of my favorite to digest, especially when it’s on a topic I care about and from a research outfit whose methodology I trust. I’ve had the chance recently to review some research from the Barna organization into the world of people who are spiritually curious. Let me highlight a couple of things I’ve noticed along the way.

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Morning Musing: 2 Timothy 4:1-5

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“I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We had our regular business meeting this past Wednesday night at church. We Baptists love our business meetings. Fun fact for you: When the Southern Baptist Convention meets for their annual meeting each June, that is the largest business meeting in the world. My guess is that if you have heard of the Baptist church, you’ve probably heard about Baptist business meetings. My further guess is that what you heard wasn’t very flattering of them. They are boring at best, and at worst they are prime examples of every negative stereotype about the church that you can think of. Well, ours aren’t like that. Instead, we get together and celebrate everything God is doing in and through our little body. This past week’s business meeting was particularly encouraging. In fact, we gave so much attention to celebrating what God has been and is doing in our midst that we ran out of time for me to offer a little concluding devotion. Here’s what I was going to say.

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