It Takes A Church...

Africa, Saddleback and an Admirable Vision

I'll return to my Kingdom musings soon, but thought I'd leave some links that I found both interesting and encouraging.  Readers of my book, It Takes a Church to Raise A Christian know that I have profound admiration and at times some genuine ambivalence about megachurches and the pastors who have built them.  While I am sometimes dubious about the amount of genuine life-transformation that comes in such a setting, it may be ironically that the vision and confidence for world-transformation is best nurtured through the experience of being part of seeing God grow a "mega-church" out of nothing.

Further, because of my commitment to seeing our church be part of God's work and leading in Africa, through our Y-Malawi Partnership, I am completely without ambivalence when I pray for what God is doing through Rick Warren's PEACE plan.  I encourage you to check out this and this from CT online and have posted one of my favorite passages. 

In 2003, Bruce Wilkinson, The Prayer of Jabez author now ministering in Johannesburg, South Africa, invited the Warrens to help lead an HIV/AIDS conference with his own wife, Darlene. The Warrens agreed to go. He led a Purpose Driven conference for 90,000 African pastors, using digital satellite downlinks.

After it was over, Warren said to his hosts, "Take me out to a village. I want to meet some pastors." They took him to Tembisa, a huge and desperately poor township outside Johannesburg. Local evangelists there often plant new congregations, using large blue-and-white striped tents. In many instances, homeless widows and orphans live in the tent during the week and also worship there on Sundays.

When Warren arrived, the tent church pastor boldly walked up to him, saying, "I know who you are. You're Pastor Rick."

"How in the world do you know who I am!" Warren exclaimed.

"I get your sermons every week."

The pastor told Warren that once a week he walks 90 minutes to a post office with an internet connection. He downloads Warren's sermons from Pastors.com and preaches them on Sundays.

"You are the only training I have ever had."

Cut to the heart, Warren says, "I burst into tears. I thought, I will give the rest of my life for guys like that—the real heroes out in the bush." That night, Warren sat under the African sky and prayed, "God, what are the other problems that you want to tackle?"

Kingdom Musings

Some Kingdom "food for thought" from two dudes who are way smarter than I am.

The command "Be ye perfect" is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command.
--C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

To be sure, law is not the source of righteousness, but it is forever the course of righteousness...(Jesus) knew that we cannot keep the law by trying to keep the law. To succeed in keeping the law one must aim at something other and something more. One must aim to become the kind of person from whom the deeds of the law naturally flow.
--Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy

Being Salt for the Sake of the Light

As a pastor, I want our church to be known as people who are good, moral and kind.  I would love our reputation in this community to be of exceeding pervasive goodness. (Indeed, many of us have bemoaned the fact that the Mormons in our town are overwhelmingly thought of as the paragons of virtue, and many of us Christians are considered far less so!) Last week I challenged our church to imagine what it would be like if everyone in town, especially those who DON’T attend our church or DON’T even follow Christ were to agree that the people of San Clemente Presbyterian Church are the best people to do business with, the best teenagers for their kids to be friends with, the best examples to emulate, the most morale, the most honest and compassionate.  I really do want the people of our church to be known as those who are the truly good people of the world. 

But that is really not the point of being salt and light (as we have been looking at in Matthew 5:13-16).

This passage is not about doing “good for goodness sake” but doing the distinctive “good works” of God’s Kingdom that we will learn about more in the Sermon on the Mount.  Want a sneak preview?  This is what Jesus says salty living looks like:

Keep your heart free from malice and lust.  (Matthew 5:22, 28)
Keep your word at all times.  (Matthew 5:32, 34)
Do more than people ask, expect or demand of you.  (Matthew 5:42)
Love your enemies.  (Matthew 5:44)
Do good and expect no one to even notice.  (Matthew 6:1-4)

Jesus teaches us that these are the hallmarks of someone who is responding to his announcment of the presence of the Kingdom. They are not just good moral citizens of this world, but people who live out the reality of the coming of HIS world into ours.  And if we do these kinds of things, living these kinds of lives, living like people who belong to Jesus as our King, being salt, then the sermon teaches us, then we will BE light…

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. "

Being salty and distinctive from the world is necessary to show the presence of God on earth.  But ultimately, distinctiveness is not enough. We could all decide to live life in a commune separated from the world, helping us keep our distinctiveness.  But the point, however, is to be salt that is poured out, light that is shining in the darkness to reveal God’s presence.  Which requires us to not only be different from the world, but poured out liberally in the world: not only to be salty, but publicly salty. 

Every now and then someone will tell me that their Christianity is so personal and private that they don’t like to talk about it.  They would rather keep their personal beliefs to themselves.  And frankly, they are half right.

Christianity is a deeply personal faith.  Following Jesus is a deeply personal decision.  Being a Kingdom person is life-transforming personal commitment.  But it is never, ever a private one.  Never, ever.  (I dare say that Jesus would not have been crucified if he had kept his deeply personal relationship with his heavenly father to himself!)

(While some may doubt the very salvation of such folks, I tend to instead lump them into the category of those who belong to Christ but are not very useful to him. For Jesus, being salty or unsalty is about our usefulness in shedding light--not whether we are in the Kingdom or not.) 

But there is also one more part about being salt and light that we dare not overlook.  Salt and, especially light, were the ways that God’s people, together as a community, were described in the Old Testament. 

Jesus isn’t saying that each of us is to be a single grain of salt or a tiny little candle, but that instead, by the way we live together in this world—distinctively together—in our relationships together, in our work together, in our worship together, in our meals together, in our lives together, and in our welcome of others (especially the least!) we point to God’s saving work and light in the world.

Being salt and light is not so much about how I (or you, for that matter) become more salty and shine more brightly, but how we respond to the call of Jesus to be the people of God who in all our saltiness--our distinctively Kingdom focused communities—are light to the world.

Salt and Light

In the first century it was hard to find anything more important to living than salt.  Indeed, salt was so valuable you could even buy stuff with salt.  Salt then would be like gasoline to the people fleeing the hurricanes in the gulf coast.  Why? Because it was essential for survival.

In a hot, dry desert world where there was no refrigeration, no ice, and no airtight packaging, salt was considered a necessity of life.  Salt kept things from going bad.  Salt kept things from spoiling.  It was a preservative, a purifier, it added taste, it cleansed wounds, it killed germs, it promoted healing. 

Everybody that day on the mountain understood what Jesus meant when he said to his disciples “You are the salt of the earth” (Mt 5:13).  He was referring to that which was essential for the world, necessary for the world, absolutely irreplaceable for the world.  He was referring to the “element” that would preserve the world from decay, literally the very ingredient that would save the world. 

They heard that point loud and clear.  But one word would have really tripped them up. Because I am sure that if not with a finger, then with a unequivocal, unwavering gaze, Jesus would have made clear what Matthew’s Greek text shows.  The emphasis is on YOU.   You, yourselves, the Greek text says, and no one else (it implies) are the VERY salt of the earth. You, yourselves, are absolutely the most important element in the world.  You. 

You spiritually bankrupt, meek and insignificant, righteous starved rabble that has responded to my invitation.  You.  Not the Pharisees, not the super intellectual religious teachers, not the Roman Government leaders.  Not the wealthy landowners, not the politically connected, not any of those whom we would assume are crucial to the world.  If they are not of the Kingdom, then they are not nearly as important, as necessary, as crucial, as you.  “You are the salt of the earth.”  The world’s preservation depends on you. 

Now, if that wasn’t hard enough for them to swallow that day, then the second metaphor he used could choke the life right out of them. 

“You are the light of the world,” Jesus says, “A city built on a hill cannot be hid.”  You are not only necessary to the world, but you are going to be noticed.  God is going to put your life on display to all of his dark and decaying creation.

What was Jesus saying here?  God is putting our lives on display?  God is using us?  I can see them looking at each other, “Did you hear that?”  Light is always a metaphor for the presence of God. To shine the light is to glorify God and to do so is to reveal his presence and character to the whole world. 

For the Jews their most pious teachers, their holiest of sages, the most righteous ones of Israel were considered the light of the world.  Jesus is saying: "Not them—you!" With two connected images he is telling his new followers: You are essential to the world because through you, believe it or not, God is revealed.

Qne this, is also the point that you and I need to take out of Matthew 5:13-16. You and I, just as we are, are called to enter Jesus' Kingdom in order to be salt and light—that which is essential to the world and that which reveals God to the world.

And, frankly, friends, if we don’t do that, we are as useless as unsalty salt.  We are like a light that is covered with a dark bucket.  But how?  How do we make a difference? 

And the answer is not an easy one:  By being different.  By being distinctive.  By being different and distinctive, publicly.  Or to put it another way: If we ARE salt, then we will BE light.

More on that tomorrow...

A Righteous Conversation

One of my favorite parts of writing a blog is when I get to sit back and "host" conversations between earnest and thoughtful respondents.  If you have been following the comments  on my last few "Kingdom" posts, you will have undoubtedly read Kevin's articulate critique of my position. I am unconvinced about his emphasis on obedience as a requirement for salvation but have yet to take up a direct response.

Meanwhile, one of my former professors from Fuller Theological Seminary and the President of Chrysalis Ministries, John Dettoni, wrote me a response to Kevin's comments.  Since he is currently in Manila teaching pastors and other Christian leaders, he was unable to successfully post his comments. Since I happen to agree with Dr. Dettoni, I decided to post them myself with his permission and simply add my "amen" to them.

If this website can link good Christians from across the spectrum (and the world) in thoughtful conversation, we will all be the better.  Thank both to John (whom I know well) and Kevin (whom I don't but appreciate his attention and devotion) for their contributions.

Grace, Faith, Obedience....

Are all necessary and in this order to "be saved?" to be declared righteous? to be justified?   Hmm, seems like we have a reversion to Roman Catholic theology.  I cannot find in the books of Romans or Galatians any such troika.  Unless I am mistaken (along with the Reformers) salvation is by faith and faith alone.  Surely, faith produces works of righteousness and our good works demonstrate our faith.  Without grace and faith, there can be no righteous works, but more importantly  "righteous works" without grace and faith are worthless.  By over emphasizing obedience (works), one seems to be slipping if not falling into the religious teaching of a works-righteousness.

Also, I cannot imagine Luther or Calvin agreeing that salvation is grace and faith plus works. Seems to my understanding of what a blogger on this site has written that he has abandoned the key, core foundations of the Reformation and has reverted to a faith plus works-righteousness.

I do think that by emphasizing "obedience" as a necessary ingredient in salvation (I call it good works or works of righteousness), one tells people that good works are as important for salvation as grace (God's action) and faith (our action and God's action since believing faith is a gift from God along with salvation).  I do not see this.  If someone  wants to characterize the Kingdom of God/Heaven as obedience that is equal to holiness, fine.  Just don't suggest that 100% obedience  is possible, even with the infilling of the Holy Spirit, unless a person wants to move from works-righteousness to perfectionism.  This one blogger does say that obedience is required for salvation.

If the blogger does believe literally what I understand is his thought, viz, "Evangelicalism denies the necessity of #3 [obedience] for salvation and therefore is false Christianity" then we have added obedience/works to grace and faith.  We re-word “The righteous one will live by faith...” into the righteous one will live by grace, and faith, and works or righteousness.  This is not my understanding of Reformation theology.  He has added to the Gospel a requirement that is absent from the epistles and I think from the Gospels as well.  Certainly Jesus never told Nicodemus to "be born again" AND do good works of righteousness.  There is nothing in the Gospel of John as I read it that suggests the necessity of obedience for salvation.  If we are truly born of the Spirit, then we will produce fruits of righteousness.  But to say that all 3 are necessary for salvation -- wow!  That is to change the whole theology of the Reformation!  If a person can do that, what stops him or her or anyone else from deciding some additional criteria for salvation, like tithing, or church attendance, or....???!!

I think this person has gone too far in trying to remedy a Protestant misunderstanding.  Baby and bath water are all gone out the window!

To make sure I am clear:  I am not down playing works of righteousness. I am saying that they are to follow grace and faith.  If they don't then there was no faith!  There is always grace and mercy since those are the characteristics of the Trinity.  Faith must produce righteous living; if it doesn't then it is not faith.  The parable of the 4 soils comes to mind, especially soils 2 & 3.  Also Hebrew 6 and 10.  There is nothing wrong with challenging people to "examine themselves to see if they are truly 'in the faith'" (2 Cor 13:5-6).  But to say that there is a requirement for salvation that has 3 parts - that is too much for my Reformation theology to accept without protest!

Somehow this reminds of the discussions that we had in seminary 1000's years ago between salvation and discipleship: can one be truly saved without becoming a disciple?  Can transformation (1 Cor. 5:13), new creatureliness be separated from following Christ as Lord, from indeed living out the Kingdom of God/Heaven daily?  Can we be saved without Mt. 6:33 being in effect in our lives?  I think not: to be truly saved is to live out the Kingdom, but living out the Kingdom is not the same as being truly saved.  One follows the other temporally and should not be equated.

A question that comes to mind that any thinking person may ask if obedience is required for salvation is “How much of the Kingdom righteousness/ethics must I evidence to be indeed saved?”   That is, what is the absolute minimum quantity of obedience must I have to be truly saved?   Is there a degree of salvation that depends on one’s amount of obedience?  What if I have only 25 % obedience and I die?  Am I lost?  Ah, here is where Purgatory comes in: you need cleansing.   Now that is something a pastor might want to add to a sermon: if you die in faith,  but without 99% righteous works, then off to Purgatory you go for a while.  Then the church’s leaders can sell indulgences and we can pay off the building programs and build a new sanctuaries or build St.  Peter’s Basilica or ....!  Now there is historic precedence for this as church history attests. O.K., I'm being facetious! Excuse my lapse from Kingdom righteousness!

To sum it all: Obedience is a result of salvation, not a condition for salvation.

john m. dettoni, ph.d.

Kingdom Ethics

Commenting on the famous "Salt and Light" passage of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:13-16), Dale Bruner writes:

“Christians who are Christians are the salt of the earth…. ‘You folks are,’ not ‘You folks ought to be,’ the most significant people on the planet.  This priority of assertion to injunction (of indicative to imperative, of evangel to ethos) says again that Jesus supports before he challenges, that he tells disciples who they are before he tells them what they are to do, that he gives Blessings before Commands.  Christians are, Christians are, by the simple fact that they are with Jesus, the salt of the earth.  The Christian ethic is an ethic of “become what you are” rather than the Greek or Confucian ethic of “become what you should be.”  (Matthew: A Commentary, Vol 1., p. 188)

Good isn’t Enough

Sometimes when we start talking about living in the Kingdom, there is a tendency to think that God’s reign and rule is simply a more poetic way to talk about legalism. We hear Jesus talk about “righteousness” and immediately think that what he means is “You have to be more moral, more obedient to the law, more ‘good’ than anyone else.”  Indeed we can sometimes fall into the trap of believing that the announcement of the Kingdom is nothing more than recruitment for a more intense, more committed, “new and improved” religious person.  (And some texts in the Sermon on the Mount like Matthew 5:17-21 seem to sound that way, but in truth don’t say that at all.)

But it isn't really about that at all.  Sure, we are called to live moral lives.  Yes, Christians should be  "good".  But at the same time, the point of the Kingdom isn't to show the world how good we are, but instead to point to the reality of God's remaking of the world by demonstrating his renewing effect in our lives.

When Jesus says to his disciples (with the crowds of uncommitted people listening in) “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world” he is not saying that they “SHOULD BE” salt and light, but that they, in fact, ARE salt and light whether they want to acknowledge it or not.  He is not exhorting them to live better, but instead reminding them that the way they live directly impacts the whole world.

In recognizing this little fact, we then see that the Sermon on the Mount is not moral exhortation at all, but instead a declaration that the difference that his calling makes on their lives is the difference God is making in the world.

The Sermon on the Mount is therefore not about urging us to be good, (indeed, being “good moral people” is what the Pharisees of Jesus’ day were best at) but instead encouragement to do the “good works” of the Kingdom, to live in ways that our distinctive to the reign and rule of our life so that in our distinctiveness we may be part of God’s plan to “preserve” his world and reveal his presence to it.  But that requires that there is a distinctiveness, a difference to our lives that is only explainable in reference to the Kingdom. 

As commentator Tom Wright has written, “God had called Israel to be the salt of the earth; but Israel was behaving like everyone else, with its power politics, its factional squabbles, its militant revolutions.  How could God keep the world from going bad—the main function of salt in the ancient world—if Israel, his chosen salt, had lost its distinctive taste?” 

Jesus’ teaching about salt and light is more a reminder to be who they now are in him, not a challenge to be something that they are not.  When Israel, the early disciples or we Christians today forget that, the whole world “goes bad.” 

God in the Blogosphere

In just a few weeks, an odd assortment of Christian folk will be gathering to talk about God in the blogosphere. From October 13-15, Biola University will be hosting the God Blog Con 05.  I hope that a number of the bloggers and, especially, faithful readers of God Blogs will consider coming to this event.  On Friday evening, there will be a panel discussion led by the "Godfather of Blogs" Hugh Hewitt. Hugh will be interviewing Dr. John Mark Reynolds, Dr. Mark Roberts and me and since I have no idea what he is going to ask us, I imagine it will be quite interesting. 

There is also a blog dedicated to priming the pump for the conference and over the next few days, you should be able to get a taste for the wide variety of ways that blogging is shaping Christian ministry and communication.  Is blogging a new reformation (as Hugh Hewitt has called it)? Is it a fad? Or is it something still to be understood?

As I have written before, I think that blogging presents a great opportunity that most pastors need to genuinely consider. For my part, I hope that I can encourage many pastors to consider both the conference and blogging as a genuine opportunity to make an impact for Christ.

Righteousness: Living “There” Here

By his words and deeds, Jesus’ life was both an invitation and an introduction to what life under God’s rule would be like.  He invited all people to trust in him, to give their lives to him and to live in such a way that what was already happening there, in heaven, would through their lives begin to happen, here, on earth.  He taught his disciples even to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”   

Jesus was killed by those who loved this world the way it is in its fallen state.  But in his resurrection he demonstrated his ultimate power over death.  He poured out his very Spirit on all who would trust in him and he promised that all who would live for him now, would someday be with him forever in the new Kingdom when it comes in its fullness.

Someday, the Bible says, Jesus will return again.  He will come to finish the drama, to bring heaven and earth together.  In the book of Revelation at the end of the Bible, there is a picture of how the world will be again one day.  It says,

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God;
they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” (Rev 21:1-4)

In Jesus, God brought his reign and rule from the end of time (“there”) to us (“here’).  And he invites us to enter into his kingdom and begin to live in it here and now.  And in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus begins to teach us HOW to do it, a way of living that is described as “righteousness.”

In the Bible, righteousness is best understood not as perfection, but as “right-relatedness.”  That is, to fulfill the expectations of a relationship.  For the good Jew of Jesus’ day, that meant that you were to be loyal to other Jews and fulfill the relational expectations demanded you to treat other members of your nation rightly.  (Indeed, this was the heart of the question “Who is my neighbor?” that led to the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25ff).  But Jesus reframes “righteousness” as conformity to God’s intentions for all the world to be united with him. 

Righteousness is no longer tied to national or cultural expectations, but living aligned to the expectations of the Kingdom.  To live in the Kingdom of Heaven means being part of God’s plan to establish the righteousness of the Kingdom on earth, starting by our living in right-relationship with God and with other people.

In the Bible, we learn that the “righteous” live by faith (Hebrews 10:38), and that righteousness begins with dependence on God and his work in our lives (Romans 5:19).  But true righteousness, is living out the new relationship we have been offered by God as our King then demonstrate God’s righteousness through our rightly-relating to others as his Kingdom people.

Think about what it will be like when God’s righteous reign and rule permeate all of creation.  Think of the way that the Bible describes it:  the lion will lay down with the lamb.  There will be no more wars.  No more injustice, no more deceit.  People will live in peace and harmony, fulfilling their commitments and loving each other the way God loves us. 

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled,” Jesus said.  Congratulations if you came to me to because you hunger and thirst for the world to be reconciled and made right again. For this is the essence of my Kingdom.

Being a follower of Jesus, a disciple, a believer means living out the “righteousness” of the Kingdom: Every thing you will do “There”--by the power of the Spirit living inside you-- beginning doing here.

Simple, Short, Should Be Required Reading

Christianity Today online posted an interview with Dallas Willard and Richard Foster on the differences between "Spiritual Formation" and "Discipleship."  It is called "The Making of a Christian."  It should be required reading for everyone serious about being and making followers of Christ for the Kingdom of heaven.   

I know it will be required reading for my staff. 

Here is just one snippet from Dallas Willard:

"Discipleship as a term has lost its content, and this is one reason why it has been moved aside. I've tried to redeem the idea of discipleship, and I think it can be done; you have to get it out of the contemporary mode.

There are really three gospels that are heard in our society. One is forgiveness of sins. Another is being faithful to your church: If you take care of your church, it will take care of you. Sometimes it's called discipleship, but it's really churchmanship. And another gospel is the social one—Jesus is in favor of liberation, and we should be devoted to that. All of those contain important elements of truth. You can't dismiss any of them. But to make them central and say that's what discipleship is just robs discipleship of its connection with transformation of character."