The Hook

In today’s society, it is common to find churches that look like the surrounding culture. Rather than offering an alternative culture to the surrounding world, it seems the church is being overcome by the world. Instead of practicing good, wholesome theology, it’s offering a social club in which to simply play games. Fellowship has become playing games with Christians, and evangelism has become playing games with non-Christians. We do live in the entertainment age, though; what better way to draw in the world than by entertaining them, right? I recently heard a fellow Christian say, “We need to have a hook to draw people in, and then we can teach them the right thing.” This is evangelism in the modern church!

When we look at the early church, I find it intriguing that we see no evidence of mass conversion efforts, and there was very little preaching to the masses. Essentially, there was no institutionalized form of evangelism. Worship and the Christian life were certainly not attractive. If this is the case, what were the early Christian evangelism efforts? What caused our movement to grow so rapidly?

This growth ultimately is due to one factor which we will divide into three more detailed categories.

(1) The church was a community that dearly loved and shared with each other. They took up a collection, similar to the one many churches gather even today but for much different purposes. This was not an offering made to be placed into an annual budget or to throw numerous parties. In this offering, the rich of the faith community gave to the poor of the faith community. The collection was intended for the church to provide for each other and others as God had provided for them, to help those who were suffering and in need.

(2) The church was a community that dearly loved others. Jesus taught in Matthew 5 to love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you (which ought to still be greatly significant today as Christianity is still the only religion to do this). Perhaps this is somewhat difficult to understand in the American culture where persecution is less visible than in the first century (or even in places like India today) and blindly following the country into war against the enemy is merely “defense” and considered patriotic. There are numerous stories of Christians in the early church on their way to a torturous execution giving each other a holy kiss and turning to faithfully face their death. They would not take up the sword against their persecutors or enemies, but they instead prayed for peace for those who were killing them, laying down their sword and picking up their cross.

(3) Finally, the church was a community who built loving relationships with their neighbors, those they came in contact with daily. They often prayed for their neighbors, and, when they could, they would help them financially, yet another reason for the collection. Occasionally the spoke of their faith. It was not so much what they said but what they did, how they lived.

It was not large parties, loud music, the smell of gourmet coffee, attractive worship, or an attractive lifestyle that drew in the crowds but simply love. What is done together in our worship assembly does not even matter if we do not love each other. In fact, in Jeremiah we read of God speaking to a people who are engaged in some of the most exciting worship to date but living in hatred and sin. He asks, “Will you continue to come into my house and say, ‘I am delivered,’ only to go on doing such abominations?” And he calls them to change their ways.

Isn’t it fascinating that this was evangelism in the early church, loving as Christ loved daily? The hook we have been searching for is this:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us (1 John 4:7-12).

Grace to you,
Matt

Moral Formation in Christian Worship: The Intrusion of the Entertainment Culture

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author writes to a people who have grown tired in the faith. It has been said that they entered packing for a weekend trip and instead they faced a pilgrimage filled with trial, suffering, and temptation. Some thought it easiest to return to their Jewish roots while others were attracted by more exciting, here and now events; they were turning to the newest fads and the “happening” places to be, allowing faith to fall by the wayside, tackled by the gods of the age. One can’t help but wonder if today’s church being greatly influenced and changed by the modern entertainment culture is falling into the same abomination and leaving matters of the faith behind. However, in a society that is growing tired of what seems to be the same old story, is relying upon entertainment as a sort of hook instead of the sustaining nature of Christ, his mission, and his story the best solution, or is this taking the easy way out, the way that only leads to destruction and moral decay?

Thurston Barlow addresses the intrusion of the American entertainment culture on the church and the dangerous effects it is having upon the Christian faith, particularly Christian morality. He calls the American society “…highly individualistic, self-indulgent, therapeutic, relativistic, and secular…” (2) comparing it to what the church is rapidly becoming. Too many individuals in the church today, instead of seeking to faithfully serve and worship YHWH, are searching for way in which they can be served or edified, what has come to be known as “church lite.” Barlow states, “Edification, in a climate severed from any openness to transcendence, can only degenerate into countless distortions” (3).

For a community with the original intent of living in relationship with the Father and with each other, serving, and worshipping the God of both mystery and majesty, it is a serious offense to seek merely a “feel good” injection to boost our self esteem and reassure us in the ways we currently live. Barlow writes that, in worship, “…we are made painfully aware that we have not been who he has called us to be” (5). In the new, entertainment age, with the infiltration of one of the gods of the age, the church is continuing to live out this judgment without regard to any sense of personal and communal responsibility. It must prepare itself to live a moral life against the standards set by the modern society.

It is not that being entertained and enjoying worship is a downfall; rather, if one is bored to tears, the church is still not fulfilling its purpose. However, when entertainment, “Dim the ‘brights’, bring up the blue lights, crank up the wattage, and waft the smell of popcorn into the ‘worship center,’” becomes the central focus and intent of the church instead of worshipping YHWH and preparing ourselves and each other for daily service and moral living in the kingdom, then the church’s worship has sorrowfully been slayed by the gods.

Grace to you,
Matt

N.T. Wright

This is a video of historian and theologian N.T. Wright speaking on women in ministry. I encourage you to watch his other short videos on You Tube and check out the many articles and books on his website, www.ntwrightpage.com.



Grace to you,
Matt

Welcome!

Hey all! Welcome to my new blog. This is my first real attempt at blogging, so we'll see how it goes. I have been writing and emailing devotional thoughts for quite some time, but, with the help of my fiance, Lauren, I will now be posting these thoughts on this blog. You will have the ability to leave your own comments and read others' comments. Occasionally, I may simply post a question or a short thought, so check back often and feel free to respond at any time!

Grace to you,
Matt