I am constantly amazed with the way God seems to enrich my life.  I have played a small part recently in the development of a young adult fellowship in my church.  It was sorely needed so that relationships, growth, and  discipleship could be established among the few couples and singles that we have in attendance.  A few of them did not have a lot of opportunities for these things in church because of worldly interference such as work and children or mission interference such as working in the children’s departments and ministries.

The new group has a name and it is The Bridge.  This name was chosen because a bridge is something that connects.  A few people in my church have looked at this new group with concern, having let their minds go to thoughts such as division, separation or even revolution.  The Bridge has none of these things as an agenda.  The Bridge is a place for fellowship, for accountability, for biblical discussion amongst peers, and simply to celebrate our King in a way that is relevant to their age group.  As a bridge it is decidedly connective.  Connecting the individuals in this group to each other and the group to the lost in the community of like mind and interest and finally to the older generations in our church are the main goals we have in mind.  As one of the group, Wayne, put it; The Bridge is an addition and not a subtraction in our church.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Heb 10:25NIV

As some of you already know, I used to be a loner.  I was introverted and pretty much hated everyone.  Then I met Jesus and entered his Kingdom as a child and servant of God and started the process of change.  As all of us know, God sometimes makes supernatural changes in us in certain ways immediately but he seems to do this in various ways.  Some may be miraculously delivered from addictions to tobacco for instance while another may not.  One way I was not changed was in my attitude towards assemblies, groups, fellowships, and even church.

I immediately started going to church but only for the Word of God, not for the people.  I would be the first to my vehicle when church was over, waiting sometimes not very patiently for my wife to finally be ready to leave.  I did not need anyone but Jesus and that was fine with me.  The roles have now reversed.  My wife often is waiting on me.  Somewhere along the line in my concerted attempt to love everyone, a bridge was built.  I was connected to the rest of the Body.

As the verse in Hebrews states, we all need to be connected to each other and never stop meeting or assembling with each other.  Why is this so important?

The main reason is, of course, the mission.  We are not a bunch of spiritual Rambo’s, furtively making our way through the jungles of life attacking all the spiritual forces we find aligned against us.  We are instead part of a unit of elite, trusted soldiers that must train, fight, and rest together.  The enemy is out there and he likes nothing better than finding one of us cut off and alone.  We cannot make it alone, even if God is there with us, simply because God decided long ago to work through us.  And the work he does through us is for others, not ourselves.

Another reason is the thing that brought this post about.  We need each other for the joy it can bring.  The relationships between believers enrich us, fulfill us, and mature us.  I was pretty good at being alone at one time.  But most of you probably don’t need to be told, being alone is not very fun or fulfilling.  Some of you also know the terrible, depressing feelings that come from loneliness.  I no longer fight depression.

And love is simply amazing.  Not the emotion but the true attribute called agape.  Intentional love, as it grows from being something we make ourselves do, to something we want to do, and finally to that thing we just do, does so much good for each of us individually and for the Kingdom that it just naturally spills over and flows out.  It is contagious.  It is life changing.  It is life enhancing.  It is rewarding and enriches not only ourselves but others, and especially the Body of Christ.

We need each other and even more so as we see the Day approaching because the enemy’s activities are ramping up.  I believe the final onslaught is here.  For our adversary, it is all or nothing.  We must stand and even more, continue to advance the Kingdom and we cannot do it or make it alone.

Build a bridge.  Be a bridge.  Protect your bridge.

Blowing up bridges is one way all enemies seek to divide and conquer.

Love you all

Tags: accountability, Believe, Body of Christ, Church, Enemy, Fellowship, jesus, joy, Kingdom, Life, loner, Love, mission, peers, Relationships, Relevant, Servant, Trust, Work

“It’s a sanctuary where they don’t get shot, they don’t get stabbed, they don’t have to worry about somebody trying to sell them drugs.”

Can you guess who made this statement?  The man who said this and is the one behind the “school of rock” that it references also wrote and sang the following lyrics:

Welcome to my nightmare
I think you’re gonna like it
I think you’re gonna feel that you belong…

He is also known for his horrific theatrics in the performance of his shock rock shows.  Songs about necrophilia and tearing apart baby dolls, snakes and spiders, lots of fake blood and torture; all of these made many parents pray their kids would not listen or see this man perform in the seventies.

But now that man is praying with us.  He is a brother in Christ and has been since the eighties.  I remember hearing about it back then and thinking he had sold out.  His music changed a little (most of you would not recognize it but promiscuous sex, alcohol, satanic glorification, and others are not a part of his show or songs) and he started performing less.

Alice Cooper, yes that is who I said, Alice Cooper teaches a Wednesday night class at his church, has never cheated on his wife of 32 years, has three children, loves golf and is pretty good at winning for charity, and in 1995 started the Solid Rock Foundation which provides money for children’s causes and Christian student scholarships.  He also conceived and initiated The Rock which is a 20,000-square-foot recreational hall on the urban campus of Grand Canyon University. It will be open to children 12 to 18 at no charge; the prime target is at-risk teens, whose parents may be in jail or on drugs, and whose brothers are thugs.

Cooper says alcohol and tobacco will be banned at The Rock. There won’t be a chapel, but counselors will proselytize by example and offer religious guidance to kids who want to learn about the faith.  He says, “We are overtly Christian, but we’re not going to beat you over the head with a Bible.”

Praise God for using any and all of us who are willing.  I so wish that we would learn to stop judging and leaping to conclusions about people because of what they look like or do.  Coopers shows are still bloody, ghoulish and sometimes shocking.  But read some Shakespeare if you think this is new.  He is not a “Christian celebrity” but is open about his faith and wants the focus to be on Christ and not on Alice.

If Alice Cooper had cut his hair, quit performing and singing, and had started a church like a lot of us would have wanted and a lot did, in the eighties, he probably would not be relevant at all today.

Serve where you are.  Be who you are.  God wants you for these very reasons.

Love you all

Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock

Tags: alice cooper, brother in christ, Christian, ghoulish, God, grand canyon university, Praise, proselytize, Relevant, risk teens, school of rock, shock rock, solid rock foundation, welcome to my nightmare

This is the last installment in what I labeled the Combat Readiness series.  It originally started in a post entitled A Tactical Reassessment and was followed by Enemy Tactics.  Then I divided it up into seven entries called Combat Readiness.  All this started with a random thought I wasn’t even sure would fill a page.

I am sorry that this final entry comes so long after the others.  If you need to catch up, they are listed in the archives.

The thought that started it all was about how our enemy has used some things that otherwise might be good for the Kingdom and through his clever ways of deception has caused us to actually corrupt some good ideas.  And I believe it was all to do with the endgame of taking our eyes, us Pentecostals, away from a pursuit of holiness.  This was the beginning of this series.

The last area I defined to a small degree was relevance.  There is a definite need to be relevant to the culture we minister in.  So many in the past have tried to go into a culture and forcefully try to change the very way they live into something we deem more appropriate for Christians.
Paul had some things to say about this:

1Co 9:19-22  For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.  To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.  To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.  To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

Paul says to go to them, whoever we have been sent to, and be one among them so we might reach them.  He did not say to go to them and seek to change them first into something more recognizable.  Jesus never asked anyone to change either.  Instead, He simply said, “Follow Me”, and they did change, but it was from the close association with Him.

So we have some taking all of this to heart in the Kingdom today.  They call it being culturally relevant.

We now have ministers that use profanity from the pulpit, some for the shock value like Rod Parsley, and others because they think it is the best way to reach the younger crowd.  We have some ministers who seem to never speak of anything but Jesus as a friend.  They paint such a one-sided view of our King that it is no wonder why no one is serving Him.  Most of the younger generations just hang out with their friends, they sure don’t serve them.

The truth of Gods standards, of His Holiness, are nowhere to be found in the churches that are considered the most culturally relevant.  This is not the case in all churches, but it has spread far enough to be alarming.

This whole concept about relevance seems to miss the mark in one major way.  There seems to be no attempts at winning those some of us are being relevant to.  Paul said he would become all things to all people for one reason, to win them over; to lovingly, persuasively, bring them to the truth of Christ.  Our attempts have mostly only taken some of our own over to the worlds side.

By portraying the idea that profanity is no big deal, for instance, some of us have not brought about a change in those we attempt to reach, but instead has lowered us to their level.  If there is one thing I know for a fact about meeting the risen Lord it is that I change, not Him.

Relevance is about meeting them at their level.  Jesus was the master of this.  But then it is about the slow, steady change to Christlikeness.  Not the other way around.

We must reach out to a lost and dying world, not in condemnation, but in love.  Maybe stooping to their level, getting down in the dirt beside them, but never with them, and letting the light of the truth and the love of God convince them of the need for change.  Holiness is the goal and the proper explanation to a lost soul is that holiness is being set apart.  It means joining the gang.  The Holy, wonderful, life giving and love filled Kingdom gang.

And most of the younger generation would just love to be in a gang.

And that might just be true Kingdom relevance.

Love you all

Tags: Christ, Christians, Christlike, Church, Combat Readiness, Enemy, Holiness, Kingdom, Love, Pentecost, Pentecostal, profanity, Relevance, Relevant, Truth

Here we are again.  It is time for the Tuesday Town Hall discussion again and hopefully we can have more discussion than we did last week.  This week I have a question that I don’t think is quite as divisive as last week and not nearly as important.  Or at least it may not be.  We’ll see. 

As for all of you who responded last week, thank you again.  We all have a lot of different backgrounds and beliefs and I think this is a good way to discuss them. 

Okay, let’s move to this week’s discussion.

There is a lot of discussion in the Body of Christ, the Church, on relevance and how we can reach and engage the people of our day’s culture.  Many churches are trying to do things differently while some are bemoaning the good old days.  Many different avenues are being explored.  I believe some are good, some okay, and some dangerous.  But I do agree we have to do something or I fear for the state of the Church when my grandchildren have to decide what to do about issues of faith. 

I will be touching on this again in the Combat Readiness series.  So here is the focus for today…

A church in my state, in my denomination, opened up a Starbucks in the lobby of their church this week. 

Without knowing anything more than this, what do you think about it?

Is it good?  Is it bad?  Is it biblically justified or condemned? 

What say you?

Love you all

Tags: Bible, Body of Christ, Christianity, Church, Church Issues, Culture, Discussion, Relevant, Starbucks, Townhall