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Table of Contents
Blog 2020
Stuff I wanna look over later:
Pastoral Ministry: A Truncated View
Derek Brown posted an article about praying for your pastor. He made some comments in the article I thought were very insightful… because they are true:
…few Christians really know what pastoral ministry entails.
For some, the quip, 'A pastor only works one day a week” may seem pretty close to the truth.
Others view pastoral ministry as a helping profession (akin to professional counseling, but easier) where the pastor’s 35-40 hour workweek consists mainly of coffee-shop chats, a few staff meetings, and a little light reading and Bible study. Good stuff, but none of it too difficult.
…some Christians think of their pastors more as CEOs whose main job is to manage and expand the programs and overall influence of the corporation rather than shepherds who have been called to feed and protect sheep.
Marketing, management, motivation, and resource acquisition are seen as the pastor’s primary responsibilities rather than preaching, teaching, praying, and training other leaders.
And then he goes on to lend credence to these views because of pastors themselves today:
…many people have such a truncated view of the pastoral ministry (a view that is, sadly, perpetuated by some lazy and incompetent pastors)…
Amen.
Doctrine: A Problem in Churches
The problem with churches today is that they are filled with people trying to build a relationship with God without knowing who God is and what He is like (i.e., the character and attributes of God).
Doctrine (Bible teaching and Bible knowledge) is essential. And remember: in order to teach doctrine, you have to have truth, and that means you must have an infallible Bible.
And what church has that (an infallible Bible) today? Very few. Most churches have pastors who correct the Scripture far more than they learn it, teach it, and live it. So, because they do not have a trustworthy Bible, they do anything and everything they can to make you feel like you have a relationship with God.
We've traded knowing God (through Scripture) for feeling God (through experience and entertainment).
For me…? Well… I want Scripture because I want to know God.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. [John 17.3]
If you'd like to read more on this topic, these two articles might interest you:
Doctrine matters, friends. Heterodoxy (bad doctrine) leads to heteropraxy (bad living). Orthodoxy (good doctrine) leads to orthopraxy (good living).
You cannot know God without knowing the Bible.
The Poser Church
The Poser Church: Stupid & Unappealing
The Real Reason Young People Are Leaving The Church
The Church has hoped to use bad rock music, a casual atmosphere, pop culture references, and a general spirit of irreverence and worldliness as a means to entice the next generation into the pews. It has exploited all of the worst and most transitory aspects of youth, and all it has done is alienate the very people it deformed itself to attract.
Young people can spot a poser from 1,000 miles away. “Cool” Christianity is a poser Christianity, and the pose is not fooling anyone.
Christianity will never be cool and shouldn't try. Cool things are by definition trendy, which is to say they follow the whims of the world.
The Church should be dictating to the culture instead of letting the culture dictate to it (the rock music, sleek architecture, and pastors with long greezy hair, man buns, and skinny jeans).
The modern church has gorged itself on temporal, forgettable, fashionable things. And it has never been less relevant in America or more unappealing.
Maybe it would be better to connect another way. Young people are energetic, eager, radical, revolutionary, idealistic, desperate for a cause to join and a battle to fight. It just so happens that Christianity is radical and revolutionary. It holds the keys to the highest ideals a man can strive towards. It is a cause.
So rather than the church contorting itself to seem trendy and stupid and shallow — which only insults the very people it is supposed to convert — maybe it should simply be what it is and present the truth, nothing less.
Rapture: The Great Escape
If I hear this one more time, I think I'm gonna scream. So, please hear me out… If there ever were a day and age when we really needed to learn that heterodoxy will lead (and very quickly!) to heteropraxy, it's today! And, obviously, orthodoxy will lead us to orthopraxy.
Thesis: The doctrine of the rapture of the Church at the end of the Church Age is not “the great escape”!
It's not the great doctrine of, “Just hold out and it will all be over soon!” That is the heteropraxy that comes from the heterodoxy that teaches the rapture is your “get-out-of-the-mess-you-made free” ticket.
The imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ for His Church is commonly called the “rapture” (based on the Latin word rapiemur [first-person plural future passive indicative of rapiō], meaning to snatch and carry off suddenly) and is referred to in 1Thessalonians 4.17, where Paul said Christians would be “caught up” to meet the Lord and be with Him forever.
Can that event be a comfort to us? Sure! 1Thessalonians 4.18 says it can be. No one is saying it couldn't be or shouldn't be a comfort.
What I'm saying here is that the rapture of the Church at the end of our Age is much more than that and it needs to be taught in its full context so we don't get this “bunker mentality” of “just hold out!” How wrong could you be! Just look at the Commission given the disciples! Ours is not a bunker mentality! It never was and never will be!
Our Dispensational Stewardship: We are called and commissioned be and make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's our stewardship and responsibility under our current dispensation. The Church, as a whole, has failed (2Tim 4.3-4; just like every other steward in every other dispensation) and the Lord will return to remove the unfaithful steward (the Church), and take that steward to judgment (the Judgment Seat of Christ). That event is called the rapture: the Church is snatched out of her stewardship and carted off the Judgment Seat of Christ where each and every one of us will give an account for all our works, whether they be good or bad.
But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. [Romans 14.10]
Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. [1Corinthians 3.13-15]
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord [orthodoxy], we persuade men [orthopraxy]; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. [2Corinthians 5.10-11]
If you are living right (being and making disciples, like Paul and the Thessalonian church; 1Thes 1.5-10), then the rapture will be a comfort to you because you know (!) you will glorify Christ with the works you put before Him (you will put on display His grace manifest through your willing, submissive, obedient service in the mission).
If you're not living right (if you, like most church goers today, could not care less about intentionally, aggressively, and sacrificially being a disciple and making disciples)… well… best o' luck to you.
And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: for I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. [Luke 19.13-24]
Folks, the rapture is simply the Lord Jesus Christ coming back to remove an unfaithful steward from her stewarship and take her to judgement. That's the orthodoxy. The orthopraxy is this…
That ought to motivate you to be faithful in BEING a disciple! For example…
- To be a good spouse in your marriage (Eph 5.21-33)
- To be a good employee at your job (Col 3.22-25)
- To be a good parent or a good child (Eph 6.1-4)
- To dress right (1Tim 2.9-10)
- To not have sex before marriage (1Thes 4.3-5)
- To have sex when you're married (1Cor 7.1-5)
- To be financially responsible (2Cor 8-9)
- To be right with the government (Rom 13.1-5)
- To learn and apply the Scripture (2Tim 3.15-17)!
The orthodoxy of the rapture (your ticket to the Judgment Seat of Christ) ought to also motivate you to stop dinkin' around in your social club of a church and get busy in the mission God gave us! We are to MAKE disciples intentionally, aggressively, sacrificially!
- We are expected to evangelize the lost (2Cor 5.18-21; all of us!).
- We are expected to edify the saints (Eph 4.11-16; all of us!).
We are not called to some bunker, to hunker down and just hold on until Jesus comes to pull us out of this mess! That's crap! (Oh, sorry… that was a modern, contextualized translation of the word “heterodoxy”…)
God gave you a stewardship (a responsibility): BE AND MAKE DISCIPLES! You don't live out that stewardship faithfully in a bunker. There's more to Christianity than hiding.
And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. [1 John 2:28]
Doctrine matters!
- Heterodoxy (bad doctrine) leads to heteropraxy (bad living).
- Orthodoxy (good doctrine) leads to orthopraxy (good living)
Learn your Bible. Do what it says.