Best Bonhoeffer Chapter Yet! Quote-mania!

Below is a repost from earlier this year. The more the past year has passed, the more this burns in my soul to wake up the church, especially in light of the Innovate Church conference that is going on at TRBC. When was the gospel ever easy? Wake up America. We are in a post-Christian society.

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WOW I read the chapter Discipleship and the Cross. BAM! Great stuff. Below are some of the best quotes from this chapter. The modern church needs to heed to the words this man as they are speaking to us from his grave. Powerful thoughts here:

"Jesus must therefore make it clear beyond all doubt that the must of suffering applies to his disciples no less than to himself...discipleship means adherence to the person of Jesus, and therefore submission to the law of Christ which is the law of the Cross."

"To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us."

"If in the end we know only him, if we have ceased to notice the pain of our own cross, we are indeed looking only to him."

"If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well as suffering."

"When Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die."

"The call of Christ, his baptism, sets the Christian in the middle of the daily arena against sin and the devil. Every day he encounters new temptations, and every day he must suffer anew for Jesus Christ's sake."

"Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship."

Southern Baptist Recent Stats of Concern

Found this in an article about a book review on the Southern Baptist Convention in Christianity Today:

"Annual baptism statistics have remained relatively steady for several decades, despite substantial American population growth. Studies show that less than 40 percent of the convention's 16 million members attend worship regularly. Statistics also point to a plateau in membership, including a decline in total membership in 2006."

Could this be due to the emphasis on inflated number, rush to baptize and lack of discipleship?

The Days of Constantine and Modern Church

Reading in Church History has been one of the most beneficial things I have done in 33 years. It has got my wheels turning regarding even our modern church's state. One of the things I've been thinking about lately with the election going on is the ease of Christianity in America compared to the times of Constantine.

Prior to Constantine coming to power and declaring Christianity the national religion (loosely since he also permitted paganism), Christians were persecuted and killed at the hands of emperors. Christians knew that converting meant they would be in danger of loosing their lives for what they believed in. As a result, the church may have been decently small in number, but the passion and zeal of it was mighty. The martyrs were committed to Christ unto death.

Constantine took over the empire and brought an end to years of persecution. He declared Himself Christian and stopped the martyrdom of believers. As a result, throngs of people in the Roman empire "converted" to Christianity. It was the thing to do. It seems as those everyone was doing it. Christianity's cost was diminished due to ease in the Empire. This continued till persecution once again reared it's ugly head. As a result, many recanted their belief and again Christianity was costly. Under persecution, many of our great church fathers were born and led. Their impact goes on till today.

Fast forward to today. Honestly, converting to Christianity is as easy as saying you prayed a prayer and getting dunked in your local baptist church. Rarely are you examined to see if the fruit of the Spirit is evident in your life. Rarely is their much cost to being a Christian in America other than some harassment. As a result, much of modern Christianity is a lifestyle, not a life endangerment. We've adapted Christianity to America, not vice versa. Modern American Christianity cost so little. Even our political candidates proudly assert their Christianity with little fear of backlash. Throngs fill our churches and go through the motions of the lifestyle of Christianity.

I wonder...how full would our churches be if persecution were to rear it's ugly head in America? I mean real persecution...life endangering stuff. Would Saddleback, Willow Creek, Lifechurch, and Thomas Road Baptist still be as full as they are today? Would we focus on seekers or survival and surrender? Would the "giants" of modern Christianity still be considered giants or be seen as feel-good motivational speakers? Are we today, calling people to a life of complete rejection, surrender and rejection? That is the Christianity I know.

When Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die...

Thoughts From My Reading on The Early Church

I just knocked out 10 chapters of Church History reading through about the fourth century. Good stuff. I've really enjoyed it. As I read, a lot is hopping out at me and getting my wheels turning. I'll try and summarize as much as I can.

• There is much to be said of the boldness recorded of the early martyrs. In fact, it appears they were killed, not so much for their religous belief as much as their stubborness with their beliefs. Many of them were eager to die for their faith and considered it a blessing! I loved reading the account of Polycarp's martyrdom. He is brought before the proconsul who repeatedly gives him the option of recanting his faith due to him being 86 years old. His response to them was finally "For 86 years I have served him, and he has done me no evil. How could I curse my king who saved me?" He then asked to be burned and told them they would not need to nail him to the post so he wouldn't jump out of the fire. 
• Whereas church centers on preaching today, the early church had communion as the centerpiece of their time together. Communion wasn't a time of repentance and grief. It was a celebration! Only baptized believers (who had been through three years of discipling) were allowed to partake. They also fasted on Wednesdays and had time of repentance on Friday. There is something about that that fascinates me. We have changed things.
• Creeds were not witty little poems whipped together to make people feel good. They were bold, in your face declarations of beliefs in resistance to cultic sects of the day. These were often used in a persons baptism. I really like that idea! Instead of "Have you received Jesus as Savior?", they catchumen is asked if they believe the different statements in the creed. WOW!
• The early apologists were awesome! I loved reading some of the statements of Justin Martyr, Tatian and Minucius Felix. They were in your face to the philosophers of the day. We need more of that type today.
• The early church understood it would be rejected by society. They knew it so well, they didn't try to make people happy. They stood on truth and refused to be politically correct. The modern church has clearly stopped this. We are concerned about not offending others. We are great at loving people to hell. 

I'm really enjoying reading this stuff. It makes me wonder...what should the church look like? I'm also looking at discipleship in this. Conversion wasn't something lightly taken and to top it, before a person was baptized, they went through teaching of doctrine. This in and of itself is a great divider of aunthentic faith and easy believism. Most of our churches are rushing people into the baptismal pool. Many of them leave the faith. Why the rush?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Is ROCKIN My World!!!

So I picked up The Cost of Discipleship after hearing a lot about it from my brother Don. I finally picked it up from the library at Liberty. I'm not done Chapter 1 and there are TONS of things in it that are incredible! I love it! Nothing like starting your book with a chapter entitled "Cheap Grace" and going on about those who get people to pray the prayer and baptized, but don't encourage the whole idea of discipleship and growth. He wrote this during WW2, yet it is SO TRUE of so many megachurches and churches today. Some quotes:

• Cheap grace means the justification of the sin without the justification of the sinner.
• The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.
• Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
• (Grace) is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.
  

GREAT Quote by Mark Driscoll on Evangelism Style

Glad to see there are others who feel the same as I. He nails what I've been saying for months.

     "In the routine model, there are two options. In the first, a notable speaker is brought in to present the gospel to a large audience and to call them to make a decision for Jesus. In the second, Christians are sent out to ask non-Christians leading questions in an effort to compel them to receive Jesus.
     In both options, the emphasis is on eliciting a swift decision for Christ without taking the time to build a friendship. In both versions, those who walk forward, stand up, raise their hand, pray a prayer, sign a card, or indicate by some other means their decisions are deemed converts and told to assimilate into churches. Whether they were truly converted is debatable, and the odds of their assimilating into churches are uncertain, unless they already have trustworthy friendships with someone in a church who can serve as a tour guide, introducing them to the language, values and systems of the church. While Scripture gives examples of the routing model, the mission model of Jesus may prove to be more faithful to God, more fruitful to lost people, and more appealing to Christians who are otherwise fearful of using drive-by evangelism techniques such as knocking on doors and street witnessing (which can feel a lot like playing Duck, Duck, Damned, a revision of the children’s game Duck, Duck, Goose).
     While these routine patterns of evangelism have proven fruitful in the past- and remain fruitful in some cultural contexts- their effectiveness is waning in the emerging American culture. There was a time when door-to-door evangelism and door-to-door business sales made sense, because many wives were home all day and husbands came home at night for dinner. This routine is no longer as effective because there are fewer stay at home wives and mothers. In addition, people’s lives are so filled with entertainment, sales pitches, advertising, self-help seminars and large emotionally moving events of various sorts that people are often unimpressed by large church events or slick Jesus sales pitches complete with the canned leading questions."

The Radical Reformission pg 65-67 (Driscoll 2004)

Perry Noble Comment

"The church that doesn’t want to grow is saying to the world, “You go to hell…we’re doctrinally correct…you go to hell.” - Perry Noble

My response? I agree and disagree. Define growth? Are you talking numbers? Are you talking about making sure you have to build a bigger building because you had 1000 sign the dotted line? I agree that I want people come to Christ and his church to grow. However, if growth = large attendance to you, then you can tell the world (and those in your church) "You can think you're not going to hell (but you may not be saved at all)...we're concerned about your prayer and baptism number...you may go to heaven." Perry...growth is more than conversions...its actual spiritual growth, which I realize isn't as easy to monitor like numbers.

How do you respond to Jesus' multiple statements on "let the dead bury their own dead," "love me more than your father or mother," "deny yourself, take up your cross," etc. It seemed Jesus wasn't as concerned about a huge group following him as much as he was reducing the size of people following him by sifting the wheat and the chaff. The genuine followers remained. He constantly pruned his numbers by saying difficult and popularity killing statements. Those who were serious remained...he did nothing to coddle people to heaven.

Willow Creek's "Big Shift"

Well, just as I am going through a nasty aftertaste with seeker sensitive services, along comes an article (and a book) that only confirms what has been going on inside of me. Willow Creek is dropping seeker sensitive for deeper theological teaching. WOW! There's a concept! Instead of getting as close to being lost as we can to be "relevant," we actually start acting like Christians and studying our faith. We actually may be stepping away from feeding our churches nothing but milk and actually may start feeding them some meat!

I think the seeker sensitive service was a great idea, but sooner or later it was bound to catch up with a church when those who are being converted aren't being challenged to grow. I am really excited about this. I hope the wave will continue to get stronger. Maybe church will be church again? I have hope. Discipleship is gasping to life again. Now the only concern I have is...what kind of theology will be taught? Will it be watered down to not offend?

McChurch...the ongoing saga

I'm glad to see that I am not the inventor of this term, but its what I thought of as I've been rethinking church.

McChurch...what does it mean? It's what happens when the church becomes a consumer industry and not a place of spiritual growth. When a church works hard on producing a product and markets those products, then it has created an entertainment business. It is no different than the Christian theater I worked for that was a for-profit institution that considered itself blessed if lives were changed. Making money was its main purpose as an entertainment business. Now the church, with its fancy lighting, movie quality videos, Hollywood acting, Madison Avenue marketing, American Idol music, and high quality motivational speaking has been the template for the modern church. It is believed that If you do these, you will attract hundreds of the lost and that will equal hundreds of converts and thousands of members. SOME churches also interpret this as X-amount of dollars.

How else has the church begun to look like McDonalds?

Franchising. The hot effort for churches is to satellite feed video of services all around the country or the region so people can experience your church miles away. The pastor gets to expand his teaching opportunities to other areas. He himself, becomes a franchise. It's as if he is the only competent teacher. He needs to be promoted in other areas rather than disciple and train another pastor to go in person to serve the area.

Consumer Mindset: A person is trained to go to church to receive not to give. You consume music, video, excitement, and coffee at the cafe in the lobby. It is easy for a person to show up, consume and then go home uneffected. Soon, the person can move into the office of critic when a guest speaker or worship leader "isn't like the other one." I've fallen guilty of criticizing a worship leader for not being as good as another rather than trust the persons heart for worship.

Marketing: considerable time and effort has been placed into marketing church logos, sermon series, and events. There is nothing wrong with advertising things. However, when it become important to make sure your sermons will be favorably accepted or will appeal to a market of people, you have other problems. You are listening to opinion rather than the Spirit who may have you teach something that may very well be offensive. A church seems to be working hard to produce an image of what there church is...cool, culturally relevant, technologically savvy.

Happy Meals: They come with a toy. They are simple food for children. Our sermons are more and more this way. Our "seeker sensitive" churches are nothing more than childcare. We keep feeding the congregation milk, milk and more milk. We keep it simple and run from anything somewhat complex. We wouldn't want to scare off the lost person by talking about something offensive or complex. Our churches are filled with spiritual infants. They don't know where to find books of the Bible, have rarely memorized a verse, don't know where to find scripture to back their beliefs, couldn't tell you what the hyperstatic union is.

Convenience: Church is now measured on convenience. I am a fan of convenience, but it must never be an idol. When I have small attendance because people have chosen football over coming to serve, then I have people with skewed priorities. I know this: Christ isn't convenient. When does he ever ask us to do anything convenient? It almost seems that God aims for the INconvenient. Why? It shows just how committed or dedicated we truly are.

Take Out or Eat In: A restaurant would love for customers to stay in the building. The longer you stay there, the more you buy. Churches are becoming more and more about centralizing their ministry in the building. They encourage you to get your food by eating in. Its just not the same if you "eat" at home on your own. Show up on Sundays and don't eat at home. Not just that, but it seems that the church is doing more to make sure people come to Christ IN the church rather than equipping its people to GO OUT and lead others to Christ outside of church.

Expand! Expand! Expand!: As a church grows and the income grows, the norm is for the money to be put into expanding the building, getting better equipment, etc. What ISN'T being though for the money is how it can be used to reach the community and meet its needs, how it can be used in world missions, how it can be used for the needs inside the church (like the Acts 2 church), or scads of other ideas other than buildings. To quote my dad...invest in men not buildings.

How did Jesus ever minister without powerpoint, videos or a fancy logo? Why do we interpret Acts 2:42 to mean that if we are spending time together and worshipping, that unsaved people will be included in that number and they will convert? Is it possible that the people worshipped together and were so charged about it that they WENT OUT and won others? The big question is: what is church for? Edification of the believers or leading the lost to Christ? Can both paths be balanced and followed? Why are we depending on the church to lead our unsaved friends to Christ? Why are pastors not teaching their people to know God's word?