This weekend marks the 3-year anniversary of Coram Deo’s first public worship gathering. We launched the week after Thanksgiving in 2005… hardly a prime time of year to launch a church. (Unless that church is built around missional community instead of around a “big bang” Sunday show.)
God has been good to us, and we celebrate his grace this week.
Coram Deo Worship Gathering 2005 (above) and 2007 (below)
Last weekend 75 dudes from Coram Deo left town for 24 hours to talk about the Bible’s vision for godly, mature masculinity. Thanks to the staff of Camp Rivercrest near Fremont, Nebraska, for the fine job they did in hosting us. A couple hours of late-night flag football left more than a few sore muscles, but all in all it was a great weekend. Men repented of sin, embraced the pursuit of godly wisdom, and recommitted themselves to leadership in the mission of God.
Not just one, but two men came home from the retreat and asked women to marry them the very next day. Now that’s taking action!! A big congratulations to Dusty K. and Jamee C., and to T-Lo and Rachel C. Both you men are marrying significantly out of your league, which is (by the grace of God) becoming par for the course for the young men of Coram Deo. Praise Jesus!
What does it mean to be Protestant – and specifically, to be a Protestant Christian who stands in the heritage of the Reformation? These distinctions get blurry in our day and age. The atrophy of history has eroded some of the clear lines in the sand that the Protestant Reformers drew. Episcopal, Catholic, Presbyterian, or Evangelical may be helpful cultural labels, but rarely do they carry much spiritual or theological freight.
The fog lifts, however, when one reads church history. The Reformers were very distinct in their opposition to medieval Roman Catholicism. Understanding their angst does much to elucidate the differences that persist in our own day. One of the most significant differences (and the one most personally important to me) is the distinction between priests and pastors.
[In the Middle Ages] the dominant impression of the clergy is that they had become the dispensers of sacraments. There is little by way of the pastoral care which was characteristic of the early fathers of the church. [Priesthood] revolved around the saying of the mass, the administration of extreme unction and communion for the sick, the hearing of confession, and the pronouncement of penance and excommunication.
Martin Luther set about demolishing the medieval view of the papacy and priesthood in 1520… In reconstructing the doctrine of the church a number of basic tenets were soon stated and repeatedly affirmed. The true church was to be found wherever the word of God was preached… The sure mark by which the Christian congregation can be recognised is that the pure gospel is preached there… The ministry, then, became a ministry of the word and the pastor a teacher of the flock, not a dispenser of the sacraments… Pastoral care took the form of the application of the word of God to the needs of the people.”
(Derek Tidball, Skillful Shepherds: Explorations in Pastoral Theology, p. 177-180).
A priest is a dispenser of the sacraments. A pastor is a preacher of the Word who unfolds its truth and applies it to people. That was one of the distinguishing marks of the Reformation… is it still the case? How have you seen this difference play out in your experience?
Came across this article from conservative commentator Cal Thomas this morning… you may not agree with everything in it, but it offers an interesting critique of Christian-subculture politics.
RELIGIOUS RIGHT R.I.P.
By Cal Thomas
Tribune Media Services
When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009, he will do so in the 30th anniversary year of the founding of the so-called Religious Right. Born in 1979 and midwifed by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, the Religious Right was a reincarnation of previous religious-social movements that sought moral improvement through legislation and court rulings. Those earlier movements — from abolition (successful) to Prohibition (unsuccessful) — had mixed results.
Social movements that relied mainly on political power to enforce a conservative moral code weren’t anywhere near as successful as those that focused on changing hearts. The four religious revivals, from the First Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s to the Fourth Great Awakening in the late 1960s and early ’70s, which touched America and instantly transformed millions of Americans (and American culture as a result), are testimony to that.
Thirty years of trying to use government to stop abortion, preserve opposite-sex marriage, improve television and movie content and transform culture into the conservative Evangelical image has failed. The question now becomes: should conservative Christians redouble their efforts, contributing more millions to radio and TV preachers and activists, or would they be wise to try something else?
I opt for trying something else.
Too many conservative Evangelicals have put too much faith in the power of government to transform culture. The futility inherent in such misplaced faith can be demonstrated by asking these activists a simple question: Does the secular left, when it holds power, persuade conservatives to live by their standards? Of course they do not. Why, then, would conservative Evangelicals expect people who do not share their worldview and view of God to accept their beliefs when they control government?
Too many conservative Evangelicals mistake political power for influence. Politicians who struggle with imposing a moral code on themselves are unlikely to succeed in their attempts to impose it on others. What is the answer, then, for conservative Evangelicals who are rightly concerned about the corrosion of culture, the indifference to the value of human life and the living arrangements of same- and opposite-sex couples?
The answer depends on the response to another question: do conservative Evangelicals want to feel good, or do they want to adopt a strategy that actually produces results? Clearly partisan politics have not achieved their objectives. Do they think they can succeed by committing themselves to 30 more years of the same?
If results are what conservative Evangelicals want, they already have a model. It is contained in the life and commands of Jesus of Nazareth. Suppose millions of conservative Evangelicals engaged in an old and proven type of radical behavior. Suppose they followed the admonition of Jesus to “love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison and care for widows and orphans,” not as ends, as so many liberals do by using government, but as a means of demonstrating God’s love for the whole person in order that people might seek Him?
Such a strategy could be more “transformational” than electing a new president, even the first president of color. But in order to succeed, such a strategy would not be led by charismatic figures, who would raise lots of money, be interviewed on Sunday talk shows, author books and make gobs of money.
Scripture teaches that God’s power (if that is what conservative Evangelicals want and not their puny attempts at grabbing earthly power) is made perfect in weakness. He speaks of the tiny mustard seed, the seemingly worthless widow’s mite, of taking the last place at the table and the humbling of one’s self, the washing of feet and similar acts and attitudes; the still, small voice. How did conservative Evangelicals miss this and instead settle for a lesser power, which in reality is no power at all? When did they settle for an inferior “kingdom”?
Evangelicals are at a junction. They can take the path that will lead them to more futility and ineffective attempts to reform culture through government, or they can embrace the far more powerful methods outlined by the One they claim to follow. By following His example, they will decrease, but He will increase. They will get no credit, but they will see results. If conservative Evangelicals choose obscurity and seek to glorify God, they will get much of what they hope for, but can never achieve, in and through politics.
(Direct all MAIL for Cal Thomas to: Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, N.Y. 14207. Readers may also e-mail Cal Thomas at tmseditors@tribune.com.
© 2008 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC
You probably have some idea of who you’re voting for in the presidential race. But seriously: have you thought about the best choice for the Public Service Commission or the MUD Board of Directors? A decent non-partisan voter guide for local Omaha races is put out by the League of Women Voters. It misses some important issues, but at least gives you some insight into the various candidates. Check it out, be informed, and vote.
In keeping with our study of The God Who Is: Trinity, consider this insight from Tim Keller. He just has a way of saying stuff…
Ultimate reality is a community of persons who know and love one another. That is what the universe, God, history, and life is all about. If you favor money, power, and accomplishment over human relationships, you will dash yourself on the rocks of reality. When Jesus said you must lose yourself in service to find yourself (Mark 8:35), he was recounting what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been doing throughout eternity. You will, then, never get a sense of self by standing still, as it were, and making everything revolve around your needs and interests. Unless you are willing to experience the loss of options and the individual limitation that comes from being in committed relationships, you will remain out of touch with your own nature and the nature of things.
…According to the Bible, this world was not created by a God who is only an individual, nor is it the emanation of an impersonal force. It is not the product of power struggles between personal deities nor of random, violent, accidental natural forces. Christians reject these other creation accounts, which refuse to give love primacy. We believe the world was made by a God who is a community of persons who have loved each other for all eternity. You were made for mutually self-giving, other-directed love. Self-centeredness destroys the fabric of what God has made.
– Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, p. 216-217
