My Top Reasons for Pursuing Biblical Unity

Here are my top reasons for pursuing biblical unity in all that I believe and live in my Christian life: (in no particular order)

1. I am a child of a triune, fully unified God
2. I love Jesus Christ and His Good News
3. I love the church, the universal, catholic church
4. I love the Holy Spirit
5. Jesus' prayer in John 17 - His glory and fame is on the line!
6. I love people
7. I love the mission to make disciples
8. I love my wife
9. I love my daughter
10. I love theology
11. I love the Word
12. Sin is real, dangerous and hopeless
13. I love creation
14. I hate the Fall and all of its effects and fruit
15. Division in the Church is real, unfruitful and counterproductive
16. Infighting prevents outreach
17. "Unity" today has been lost in translation, especially in Christian circles
18. Time must be redeemed because the days are still evil
19. Jesus is coming back soon!
20. I'm still breathing...

I list these primarily to be stated, not debated.

The Functionality of the Gospel: An Intro

"One of the greatest challenges, yet one of the most important tasks of the pastor is to help people actually see the connections between the gospel and the thinking and behavior that make up their everyday lives. We know well the centrality of the gospel message but in order for it to have a functional centrality it must be clearly and carefully connected to the real issues – issues of thought and conduct-of people's lives..."(Mike Bullmore, The Functional Centrality of the Gospel in the life of the local Church).

The Gospel must become "functionally central to the individual Christian and the local church" (Mike Bullmore). Okay, so you know the Gospel must be keptat center stage, but how then does it become functional at center stage? How does this truth leap off the stage and into my life and invade my heart? This question and the tireless search for its answer has been at the forefront of my mind for the last 2 years. I want to share with you why, in my opinion, this question is one of THE most important questions a Christian could answer. Because answering it will effect your entire Christian walk, specifically the manner in which you act, react, think, and feel about everything.

I want to begin before I make my case with some legitimate reactions in response to this plea for a functioning and practical Gospel: (both are extremes to fit the way my mind typically works)

1. Extreme Skepticism - "Make the Gospel practical? no way! The last thing we need is a watered-down, simplistic, dumbed down, child-like, easy-to-believe Gospel. The Gospel is challenging, powerful, lofty, theological and divine!"

This would be an understandable reaction. However, this person misses the point and goes to the extreme in their perception of the words "functioning and practical". They fear this would make the Gospel basic and everydayish in concept and application, thereby causing the Gospel to be stripped of its divine power to save. But what they don't understand is that God's Gospel was not designed primarily to benefit us in the beginning by our faith, but is to function daily throughout our walk with Christ. The skeptics' "hard-to-reach only-for-mature-deep-thinking-Christians" Gospel should not be simplified or made 'user-friendly'. So he can only view an attempt to functionalize the Gospel as hostile to its very nature. These skeptics may be trusting in a "Jesus + Gospel", works based righteousness, or their own rigid, pragmatic, and stuck-in-a-book Gospel. To them, the Gospel is indeed the "power of God to salvation", however it never functions in any other aspect other than adhering to a list of facts or dutifully reciting some creed.

2. Extreme Acceptance - "Yes, yes, yes. This is what I've been talking about. The Gospel is so simple and basic. We need to be making it practical and easy for all to understand and accept. The Gospel is not for intelligent, high-minded, intellectuals obsessed with theology and reading, but is for the down-and-out, the prostitute, the tax-evader, the murderer, the rapist, and the child molester. These people need simplistic answers. They need a simple formula. A basic truth. A little nugget of Christ, just enough to chew on and enjoy the taste. Yes, the Gospel must be practical and functional in the most simplist way".

This would also be an understandable reaction to my argument for a "functioning" Gospel. However, this hypothetical person also misses my point and therefore takes their interpretation to the extreme. He believes the Gospel is simple. He is correct. Simple in that one does not have to study, and study, and study, and study to become a brainiac to be saved or to understand it. This Simpleton person rightly sees the danger of overintellectualizing (I think I made that up) and overcomplicating the Gospel and therefore understandably reacts as they do. He knows that God is not a God of confusion and that the devil is the Father of all lies. So he deducts from those truths a line of reasoning that says that God would not complicate His message so it must be easy. He also believes that God is pleased to reveal this to babes and to conceal it from the wise (Matt 11:25; Lk 10:21). And he would be right. He is also right in that the Gospel is not just for smart men. Most of us would be in trouble if it was; it is for the down-and-out too. Its simple in that the humble, lowly, poor in spirit and those thirsting for truth will receive it. The high-minded and prideful, those trusting in their righteousness won't. He is confused about what I mean by a "functioning" Gospel. Functioning doesn't imply dumbing it down. It doesn't imply making it so base that a brick can comprehend it.

Functioning means the Gospel must be living and active in the life of the believer. But we cannot make the Gospel simple or acceptable for man to understand. No amount of our simplifying it for the lost man will do much good if we strip it of its power, the content, namely the work, person, and words of Jesus Christ. But the Gospel is not simple as far as responding to it. It is impossible for man to heed the commands of the Gospel, namely to repent and believe, in order to be saved without the regnerating work of the Holy Spirit. Our part as Christians is to faithfully present the Gospel as it truly is, foolishness to those who are perishing, and God will give the growth as He sees fit. Its simple because we plant or water the seed, but God gives the increase. Yet the Simpleton must understand that to the unregenerate man, this Gospel is utter foolishness (1 Cor 1:18, 21). So it is complicated and illogical to the lost man. And to the saved man, it makes perfect sense. Despite the saved man's limitations in fully understanding the whole counsel of God, for him the Gospel is simple in belief and to believe.

Isn't there a midpoint or a compromise between these two extreme reactions to desire a functioning Gospel? What's the appropriate response to understanding "the Gospel must be fully functional"? I am going to argue liberally and hopefully charitably that the proper understanding of a "functioning" Gospel is one that is...

• Theologically Deep
• Purposefully Practical
• Powerfully Performing
• Faithfully Fruitful
• Heart transforming
• Truth Revealing
• Christ Conforming
• Church Reforming
• Culture Reshaping
• Community Reviving

The Gospel is so perfect in its design because its designer, God, is so perfect. It functions for what it was designed to function for: bring people to God to know and enjoy Him forever. So, the question is how does this Good News, the Gospel, function to do this in every aspect of the life of the believer?

Tune in next time and see.

Powerful Gospel Quotes from Pastor Tim Keller

One of the most powerful and liberating articles I've ever read on believing and applying rightly the Gospel, is Pastor Tim Keller's "The Centrality of the Gospel".

It's available here for free.

Especially crucial in Pastor Tim's article is his explanation of the "two thieves of the gospel", religion (moralism) and irreligion (hedonism). Both are dangerous enemies to the grace of the Gospel and the glory of God. Both are rooted heart issues of unbelief that steal our joy, squash our hope, quench our thirsts, quiet our minds, and confuse our lives into thinking either we must work hard to earn God's favor or we can't earn God's favor so why work at all? Both are very self-satisfying and damning.

Please read this article.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from it:

• "the Christian life is a process of renewing every dimension of our life -- spiritual, psychological, corporate, social -- by thinking, hoping, and living out the "lines" or ramifications of the gospel. The gospel is to be applied to every area of thinking, feeling, relating, working, and behaving".
• "All our problems come from a failure to apply the Gospel".
• "The main problem, then, in the Christian life is that we have not thought out the deep implications of the gospel, we have not "used" the gospel in and on all parts of our life. Richard Lovelace says that most people's problems are just a failure to be oriented to the gospel -- a failure to grasp and believe it through and through".
• "All of us, to some degree live around the truth of the gospel but do not "get" it. So the key to continual and deeper spiritual renewal and revival is the continual re-discovery of the gospel".
• "The gospel shows us a God far more holy thatn the legalist can bear (hehad to die because we could not satisfy his holy demands) and yet far more merciful than a humanist can conceive (he had to die because he loved us)".
• "We must bring everything into line with the gospel".
• The Gospel and Worship: "But the gospel leads us to see that God is both transcendent yet immanent. His immanence makes his transcendence comforting, while his transcendence makes his immanence amazing. The gospel leads us to both awe and intimacy in worship, for the Holy One is now our Father".

Rebuilding Burned Bridges - How the Gospel demands bulls return and clean the china shops

To all you church-hoppers, church-shoppers, pew jumpers, ship abandoners, captain haters, hill-diers, preference martyrs, stake nailers and wedge drivers who have burnt bridges by leaving churches in wrong ways for wrong reasons:

the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His cross demands that you humble yourself, love your brothers and sisters, and seek for unity and peace with the churches you have left in ruins by going back for reconciliation.

Too often, Christians in their pride and prejudice, pickiness and preferences have acted like "a bull in a china shop" toward the churches they have left. The Gospel demands that these Christian bullys return to these china shops for a mass cleanup and reconcile not only with the customers (church members) but the china shop owner (pastor/leaders).

It's high time us bullys clean up our messes for the sake of the Gospel.

This is not my idea. It's been designed and decided on by the entire trinity of the Godhead: God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. I get this from perhaps the sweetest of all the words of Christ, the High Priestly Prayer in John 17.

Jesus says:

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may knowthat you sent me and loved them even as you loved me."

Wow, did you catch that? Jesus, in a prayer for His saints for Himself and His Father's glory, prays for perfect harmonious unity for the purpose of missions. Did you catch that? "Just as you, Father are in me, and I in you, that they may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (verse 21).

This puts a more serious bent and perspective on the damage done by Christian bullys who stormed out of a church. If they left in a sinful way for sinful reasons with a sinful heart, then they most likely did damage to the unity of that community of believers and therefore (like Christ prays) prevented the nearby world from believing in Jesus.

Let me say it again simpler: The bully causes a ruckus, storms out of a church with hurt feelings and hurt people, leaves a mess, causes division, the body suffers, the leadership struggles, unity is threatened, and therefore the local community is either preached a false Gospel or a nonexistent one. In other words, No Gospel At All is Preached!

Even Paul argues for unity once he learns of the bullying and division and immaturity going on in the church of Corinth in the first chapter of first Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Here Paul, embarassingly, has to remind the Corinthians believers why he was chosen by Christ: not to baptize but to preach the Gospel. And to do it not with eloquence or excellence but with authenticity so that the cross of Christ would be displayed as it truly is: powerful and purposeful and effective!

Paul is pleading with the Corinthians to stop creating cliques and groups and causing quarrels but rather to unify under Christ Jesus. Not under any favorite teacher, preacher, sermon, doctrine, preference, style of worship or other perifferal non-essential of the faith.

Its the same today. Same thing different day. Believers today are fighting over their personal favorites and preferences and prideful version of Christianity rather than submitting to the unity and power of the cross of Jesus Christ by the Spirit. They are, in a sense, bullying their way through the pews to manipulate and govern and let their boisterous voices be heard. They will not stop until damage has been done.

If you can relate to what I am speaking of and you have been this raging bull, the damage has already been done. The bridge is burned. The fires have raged. The wood is singed. The ashes are piled up. The smoke is almost done smoldering. The damage is done.

However, praise God it's not too late to rebuild! It's not too late to go back. It's not too late to reconcile. It's not too late to rediscover the beauty of the unity of the cross of Jesus Christ. What you must do is humble yourself, seek out the offended, take the initiative to seek restoration, and fight hard to reestablish a relationship of love, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

I know first hand what it is like to transition from gentle lamb to raging, fiery bull. Unfortunately, I was the bull in the china shop. I stormed out of a church in 2005 that I grew up in for 11 years. All of it over hatred for the man who led this church. If I'm honest I'll ask these questions:

• Did I seek out this pastor for conversation?
• Did I seek to understand him?
• Did I pursue a relationship with him?
• Did I seek to honor, respect, love, and submit to his person and office?
• Did I seek to see him as a brother in Christ, giving him the benefit of the doubt?
• Did I seek to encourage, exhort, edify, build up?
• Did I seek to ask more questions than make demands?
• Did I seek humility towards him or pride over him?
• Did I speak kindly and gently about him and his character and office?
• Did I seek for peace, unity, kinship, and reconciliation?

The answer to all of these questions is a big fat NO!!!

I was too caught up in my own arrogant and damning pride to see the error of my own ways. The log I had in my own eye kept me from seeing clearly to actually help him with the specks in his. Grant it, reasons I left were largely theological, which very well could have been resolved if I had chosen the fight side of the "fight or flight mentality" rather than the flight side.

Typically the bull's preference is to make a lot of noise, do a lot of damage and then run out. Not fight it out and stick around to help clean up and restore.

I am aware and encouraged by God's mysterious sovereignty to take me out of that church and where I am now. Even with my own sin and pride to leave in a wrong way. Even though I may have done great damage to the testimony of Christ and to the preaching and applying of His Gospel. Yet there is not a day that goes by that I don't regret and doubt my decisions of hastiness, desperation, impatience, hopelessness, and unbelief in the Gospel.

The simple truth is: I left too fast, too wrong, and too foolishly. There are people I should seek forgiveness from and those I should seek to forgive. Some of them leaders. It will take much humbling on my part to go back and reconcile. It doesn't mean I have to go back permanently and rejoin for membership. But think of what power may come if I stepped out of my comfort zone for the sake of the prayer of our Lord and Savior, to gain unity among brothers so that Christ would be glorified and the world may believe.

Is it possible that the world is in grave unbelief now and the church is in a destitute state now because of an extreme lack of unity? Could it be that we don't preach the unity of the cross accurately let alone period? What if the church came under the cross together? What would the world see?

The world would see Jesus; and more specifically they would see God and the oneness of His love and grace.

So Christian, what are you gonna do? The Gospel demands reconciliation whether you want it or not. If you are a creation of the cross of Christ, then you have been given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5). Your main duty of delight is to reconcile others to God, to each other, and to King Jesus! What does that look like?

Can you go back to that church you left in a rubble? Can you retreat in humility and seek out restoration? Can you forgive? Can you reach out? Will you obey the Gospel? God calls you to glorify Himself by glorifying His Son. One major way that happens is to be reconciled to your brothers and sisters in Christ. Being divided against them is unloving and hateful. And 1 John warns that those who do not love their brother cannot be born of God.

If you don't love your family, you are not a child of God. Those are strong words. Do you believe them? Can you go back?

I will. I can. I must. Let's go together. For the sake of the cross. For the sake of their unity and ours. For the sake of the world's faith. For the sake of God's glory.

It may take time, a lot of it. But it's more than worth it. Let's rebuild these burnt bridges. Let's lay down our pride. Let's embrace the humility of the cross and love our family in Christ. Clean up the china you bull. Repent and have faith in the unity and restoration of the Gospel of Christ. God forgives as you forgive others.

What are you gonna do? Maybe you need to write a hand-written letter. Maybe you need to show up in person. Maybe you need to buy lunch or make dinner and invite them over. Maybe you need to serve them by doing radical Gospel service for them. Maybe you need to privately confess. Maybe you need to serve under their leadership for some time. Maybe you need to seek them out for counsel for a while. Maybe you need to publicly apologize and repent before many.

Take a leap of faith. Make sacrifices. Take the initiative. Do the right thing, come what may.

Can Gospel-Centered Business Ideas Be Doodled?

So I found this awesome book. So awesome, I bought it for my pastor instead of myself. ;)

But it will prove to be a great tool for doodling ideas and thoughts period. But especially ideas on how to apply the Gospel to the business world.

The book is "The Back of the Napkin". You must buy it and use it. I know you have doodled on a napkin or collected fragments of a newspaper to write an idea down. Same concept yet more intuitive.

Enjoy.

The Gospel Demands a Hatred for Sin, Not Culture: Three Views

The Gospel drives us to hate the sin of the people in culture not the culture of the people or the people in the culture. Hating the culture is unintelligent; hating the people is ungodly.

I had a very striking conversation with my dad and dear brother Jeremy. We started to talk about the tragic losses of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. That led naturally to discussions about our culture and society as a whole. We talked about everything from the evolution of technology from ipods and twitter to increased violence in schools and a loss of meaning in communication today.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that we live in a world obsessed with technology; especially pc technology. By pc technology what I mean is technology that is linked or influenced by the use of a personal computer: the internet, ipods, mp3 players, iphones, webcams, twitter, myspace, facebook, google, youtube, etc. Pc technology is literally exploding off of the scene in a rate that most people cannot keep up with the tidal wave of growth. What's really sad is I am nearly 28 and have already started to notice that I struggle to interpret the lingo and terminology of today's youth from 12-18.

In our fascinating conversation I noticed that Christians typically have three main reactions or philosophies toward the culture they live in (I like to think in threes, it captures both extremes and a middle road but I am not so naive to think that there are not more that I don't know of):

1. Sectarianism - Ultra-conservative; Fundamentalism; Legalism
2. Missional - Fundamergents; biblical
3. Syncretism - Liberalism; Emergent; Antinomianism

Let me say from the onset that I don't believe words are inherently evil; so words like "conservative" and "liberal" are not bad. We only make them evil by the connotations they bring up in our mind and the most popular definition they are given by our culture at a specific time.

However, the word conservative and liberal have both come to bring good and bad connotations. More liberal-minded moralists typically consider conservatism a threat. And more conservative-minded moralists typically consider liberalism a threat. Liberalism is usually associated with a looser more relativistic view of morality and life. While conservatism is usually associated with a tighter more absolute view of morality and life.

Nonetheless, these are the definitions I will use for this post.

Christian Sectarianism

A definition:

This is the view that all of culture (including man and his ideas) is inherently evil, bad, unbiblical, ungodly, and in total and complete rebellion to God and His ways.

A response:

Sectarians thus respond by separating themselves from as many aspects of culture as possible including music, entertainment, arts, theater, clothing styles, certain languages and terminologies, certain peoples and groups of people, political stances, historical views, science, education, etc. Since the culture is evil, then separation is necessary to live a good and pleasing life to God. The more separate from culture, the more holy they become. As separation increases, sanctification therefore must be increasing. The more distance between culture and church, the closer the church gets to God.

A problem:

The problem with sectarians is that they find themselves so far removed from culture that they actually become out of touch to the point of having no part in the conversation of culture. They aren't able to properly translate the Gospel of Christ into their culture. They are stuck on their own terminology, definitions, appearances, and views so much that the culture struggles hard to see not only what they are saying and doing but how it's even relevant.

An encouragement:

Problem aside, sectarians are least on the right track with their professed love for God's holiness and their hatred for what appears evil or dishonorable to God. However, again, they "love" God only at the expense of not loving people enough to actually meet them where they are so that the Gospel can powerfully and accurately infiltrate their culture.

Christian Syncretism

A defintion:

This view, on the opposite side of the spectrum from sectarianists, holds thatall of culture is good, if not beneficial, God-ordained, and pleasing to God.

A response:

Syncretists thus respond by fully embracing culture and what it has to offer. Like sectarians, syncretists too measure the success of their mission by their distance to culture. However, sectarians see success in a far distance from culture while syncretists see success in a very close distance to culture. The closer one gets to embracing and becoming at one with the culture, the closer one gets to the honor of God and the fulfillment of one's mission. An increase in becoming like the culture (somehow) becomes an increase in becoming like God. In other words, the closer one gets to his culture the closer one gets to his God.

A problem:

The problem syncretists have is the exact opposite of sectarians (who would've guessed that?). Syncretists end up placing too much importance on intimacy to culture. They place nearness to culture over nearness to God. They draw near to man and his ideas and expression of those ideas at the expense of knowing and honoring God more. Like the sectarians, they too become irrelevant to the culture because they lose touch with who God is and what He is like. The closer they get to conforming to culture, the farther they get from God. Thus the culture sees no difference or powerful message from the syncretist, only yet another group within the culture; same basic message different way of preaching.

What the culture needs is a starkly different message, even if it is preached in a similar way.

An encouragement:

The good thing about the syncretist, apart from his major dangerous flaw of leaving God for culture, is that he pursues man where he is. The syncretist seeks out man at all cost. Like Paul says "be all things to all men...". The problem though is the syncretist stops there. He can do great at being all things to all men. But he misses Paul's point in being all things to all men, "so that I might by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22). Or even Paul's next statement: "I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings (1 Corinthians 9:23).

The syncretist forgets that the best way to reach into culture and love men is to save them, to do it for the sake of the gospel. What is the Gospel's sake? To reconcile men to God. The end is that God may be glorified by the salvation of His people. The syncretist places a false sense of unity and harmony through all-encompassing acceptance at the expense of God redeeming for Himself a people.

Christian Missional

A definition:

Okay so this term has been tossed around to and fro the last 5 years or so. Especially by the likes of Mark Driscoll (who may have termed it), Ed Stetzer, Albert Mohler, and more. The best definition I can give is:

the view that culture is owned and ruled by God's sovereign mysterious hand, that it contains both good and evil, that nothing is inherently evil but rather the hearts of men who create and express ideas of culture are evil, and that God is not only capable of but will eventually redeem all things back to Himself, including the culture; that there are many honorable things about culture that show God's grace, creativity, and love; and that God has designed His gospel to infiltrate the culture, kill sin wherever it is found, love men wherever they may be, and lead them to Himself wherever He finds them.

A response:

So missional Christians have a strong sense of the importance and power of life to be not only founded on Jesus Christ and His Gospel but God's Word, the Holy written, infallable, inerrant, fully divine authoritative unchangeable and sufficient Bible. And they have a duel passion for both God and His glory and man. Therefore missional-minded Christians realize they live within the culture to live among the culture so that they can go into the culture and spend their time loving people where they find them in the culture. This helps the Gospel be culturally relevant, because it has purchased a people out of that culture, and still not be like the culture. Cultural but not of the culture. This is how God has designed it.

A final comparison:

So for example, a sectarian Christian would say that rap music or hip hop style clothes are sinful because they are of the culture of the world. A syncretic Christian would say that rap music and hip hop clothing styles are perfectly fine, even when not sung in Jesus' name because they celebrate the diversity and creativity of God. But the missional Christian would say that no music style or clothing style (unless immodest) is inherently evil but the hearts of the ones producing or wearing it is evil. And that God finds great joy and wisdom in redeeming a people out of those cultures, not to reverse their cultural tattoo, but rather to transform their heart and mind, leave them tattooed so that they can preach the Gospel and live Christ Jesus in and among their cultural tatoo.

Syncretists love and embrace the culture apart from a theological view of God primer. This love for culture at the expense of God's demand for holiness and proper Gospel exclusion can border a hatred for culture. Sectarians border a hatred for the culture by professing a sole love for God at the expense of loving people. Being missional means loving God first and then loving people. It doesn't mean embracing culture, it means embracing the people of culture. It doesn't mean rejecting culture totally or rejecting the people in the culture but the sins of the people in culture.

The Gospel draws a balance line between loving the people in the culture, seeking to understand the culture so as to best meet the people who live in the culture, and then hating the sins of the people in that culture.

The Gospel must necessarily redeem a people within their culture so that they can live as light and salt inside of their culture. Yes the Gospel does redeem a people outside of their culture to be extracultural missionaries to other cultures. But here I am referring to the power of the Gospel to take a rebel, change him into a child of God and a joining priests with King Jesus, and send him to find other rebels to make them priests.

That's awesome! And that doesn't come at all from loving culture at the expense of living for and loving God's glory (syncretism) or from hating culture at the expense of loving people (sectarianism). It comes from loving God, loving people, and hating everything in the people that hates God!

Embrace the Gospel. Don't hate the culture. Don't hate the people in the culture. Don't love the culture. Hate their sin. Love the people. Love God. Believe and live the Gospel that hates sin, not the container that holds or displays sin.

The Missional Gospel: Love God, love people, hate sin, and do it all in your culture for the glory of God!

A Good Way to Avoid a Church Split: Decrease the "I's" and Increase the "We"

Ladies and gentlemen, the I's have it.

I was reading an article on "How to Prevent A Church Split, Part 1" and was brought to specific attention to two of the warning signs of church splits:

• Low concern for the church qua church. We live in a Christian era that stresses the individual like no era before it. Most people think Christianity is about me and "my personal relationship with Jesus." That littly phrase, "my personal," acting as a kind of double possessive, is deadly to the body. And it's often compounded by the next warning signal.

• Self-interests dominate group interests. If life is all about "my personal relationship" then I'm likely to be quite self-seeking. I want to be stimulated. I want to be served. I want my preferences met. I... I... I... till there is no "we" left. And where that exists, there will be little concern--certainly not ultimate concern--for the needs and mission of the larger group, the church.

I couldn't agree more. I have noticed this trend more in the last 2 years of my life than ever before. Even in pockets where revival has broken out and a spirit of self-denial and fervent love for the saints has broken in, a subtle cloud of selfishness and indepence still looms like a poisonous mushroom cloud.

So I would ride on the back of the above author's points and simply say this:to kill the chance of a church flee,

kill the I's and resurrect the We!

In order to do this, your theological foundation, especially your view of the church, needs to be set right. In sum, your view of salvation can't be primarily one of individualistic and personal, but rather that of corporate and shared.

Jesus Christ died for "sinners", not a sinner. He layed down His life for "the sheep", not a sheep. He was a "a friend of sinners" not just one. Christ gave His life for the church, not one man. He was willing to suffer and die so that out of every tribe, tongue and nation peoples would come to know Him and He could have a people to call His own; not a person.

Yes He saves us individually, but also to place us in a larger body of people. We are saved into the church. We are rescued into a body of people. We are brought from the dead with other dead into life with other alive people.

Our theology of salvation must be primarily viewed as a part of the body of Christ, Christ being the head. It's not about one member, but about the body representing the head. Christ died to purchase for Himself a body, not one arm or a leg. A head couldn't make it with just a foot or an ear. It needs the whole body.

So the sooner a local church murders the "I" terminology and the "my personal Savior" and "personal relationship with Jesus Christ" and instead adopts the "We, Us, Our, Let's" terminology and the "church, body", the sooner it can begin to head towards lasting unity.

Believing Jesus is your personal Savior is not wrong; only when viewed as primary and forget that He has saved you as part of a bigger body of people. Also personal revival is key too. I am not suggesting that any sense of individualism in our relationship to Jesus Christ is unbiblical or ungodly even. Rather, we must find our personal relationship to Christ primarily as viewed through our position in the local body and the universal body of Jesus Christ, the church!

John the Baptist and Jesus both sought out seclusion on many occasions to seek the Lord in prayer, fasting, and the Word. Seeking out the wilderness is often key in being sanctified. But if the wilderness is left at the expense of the town, something is seriously awry.

The greatest display on earth of an individual's redemption must be shown in the context of a local body of believers. No such thing as hermit-Christianity. The church is a community of believers. No cavern dwelling, bottom dwellers. Only for a season. But the year must be lived in and around others.

This means confessing sins, worship, fellowship, care, evangelism, prayer, bible study, fasting, and more are to be done together, as a body. The body can't repent for the individual, but I would go so far as to argue that without a primary focus on the body as our role in Christ, the individual can't repent successfully.

Our sanctification comes individually only as much as we live and breathe corporately in the church.

Your Savior died for sinners. Don't be selfish with your redemption.

Visit the wilderness often, but make your home the church. Dwell there. For in the church is where you will truly find your head, Jesus Christ!