The Line Update
This is an update from our friends Aaron Youngren and The Line in Chicago. The band he mentions towards the end of the video is called Milano.
Coram Deo Blog
Archive for August 2009
Your Gospel Is Too Safe
Last Tuesday, Bob and Justin were down in St. Louis for an A29 Quarterly event where Bob was helping to train church planters and missional leaders in shaping churches and people around the gospel — Your Gospel Is Too Safe was the tagline for the event. It was a fruitful time of training and connecting with other church planters whom Coram Deo is partnering with. Thanks to all of you for your faithfulness in praying for the clarity and power of the gospel to be proclaimed. You can download and listen to the audio from Bob’s talk here.
Indicators of a Gospel-Centered Formative Discussion
At the Fall Kickoff on Friday night, we talked about what it means to be a healthy member of a Missional Community. At the root of this idea is the reality that each and every one of us is responsible for the health of our own Missional Community. Part of a healthy MC is having regular gospel-centered formative discussion, and to help equip you in this area we have put together a list of 7 indicators that you will find occurring frequently in this type of discussion (see below). These indicators should be a helpful tool in evaluating your participation as a healthy MC member.
If you consider Coram Deo your home and you missed out on Friday night’s gathering, please take some time to listen to the audio from the evening. If you need to get plugged into an MC, consult the Mercator and/or let us know how we can help.
LISTENING
• Lots of people can talk, not many are skilled at listening. If people are listening well, the following indicators will come much more naturally.
• Do you find yourself easily distracted, thinking about other things, or pondering what you are going to say next?
SPIRITUAL INQUIRY
• Put simply, this is following up, digging in, and inquiring into how people are doing spiritually.
• Does the way that you respond to people draw them out and encourage deeper conversation?
ENCOURAGEMENT
• If you see that someone handled a situation in a spiritually mature way, make note of that by encouraging him or her. If you see that someone is taking a step of faith in a new area of their life, encourage them with words of affirmation.
• Do people feel encouraged by you during a Missional Community discussion?
PRAYER
• One of the ways to model the Gospel to Christians and non-Christians is by revealing your dependence upon God and the unique relationship you have with God as your heavenly dad.
• Do you stop in the middle of your MC discussion to pray for what is being shared?
CHALLENGE/REBUKE
• Speaking truth in love while confronting others with a spirit of humility, calling them to turn from sin and trust in the finished work of Christ.
• Is your Missional Community tolerating unrepentant sin?
STUDY SCRIPTURE
• 2 Tim. 3:16-17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”
• Do you talk about the Bible naturally in the context of conversation?
GOSPELIZE
• Helping each other apply the good news of Jesus and the work that was accomplished on the cross. The Gospel is for Christians and non-Christians alike and is a message that you will never outgrow or mature out of.
• When someone asks for insight or counsel, do you respond with good advice or good news?
Applying the Gospel
Yesterday I preached on “Gospel-Growth” from Colossians 1:6-8. At the end of the sermon I worked through four questions that help us apply the gospel in various life situations (see list below). This is not the only way to think about gospel application, but it is a good start. Your ability to answer these questions depends on your understanding of the gospel and your expectations about what the gospel can accomplish. You will gain more insight if you ask and answer these questions in community.
1. How does the gospel confront the way you think and feel about a particular situation in your actual life?
The gospel is a body of truth, a revelation from God that sets forth the good news about what God has done in His Son Jesus. In a nutshell, this is “the grace of God in truth” declared in the gospel: A holy God created the world and everything in it. The first people had perfect fellowship with God, but they rebelled against God and fell into sin. And everyone after them has done the same. We are all under sin. We are separated from God and we deserve His eternal wrath. But God, because of His great love, offered up His own Son as a sacrifice for sin. God poured out His wrath against our sin on Jesus, who bore it on our behalf so that God could accept us. Jesus got what we deserve (shame, loneliness, beating, wrath, death), and we get what He deserves (favor and life eternal). God forgives sin and reconciles sinners to Himself so that we can worship and enjoy Him forever, as we were made to do. We did nothing to earn this immeasurable act of love. It is from beginning to end a work of God’s grace. So what truths about our salvation in Jesus confront the way we think and feel about our identity, worth, rights, expectations, performance, fears, needs, etc.?
2. How does the gospel convict me of sin with regard to that situation?
In every circumstance, even when we are wronged, we still bring something to the table. The gospel forces us to humbly consider our own thoughts and actions and attitudes. So how do you need to repent of the ways in which your sin has come to light in this situation?
3. How does the gospel comfort me in this situation?
The grace of God is not to overlook sin, but rather to forgive sin and empower us to turn from sin and trust in the hope of the gospel. So what realities set forth in the gospel enable us to rest in God’s provision, hope in Jesus’ coming, trust God’s character, experience His love and mercy, etc.?
4. How does the gospel challenge me in this situation?
The gospel is not only a body of truth, but also a power let loose in the world that transforms people and communities. It prevails upon your very identity to change you from the inside out. The gospel doesn’t merely instruct you about how to obey God. Rather, it changes you and makes you the kind of person who obeys God. It challenges you to expect supernatural change in your life and in those around you, the kind of fruit that cannot be accounted for apart from God’s divine activity. And this vision compels you to action. So what does the gospel challenge you to expect and do in this situation?
Situations addressed in the sermon: Job loss, Unforgiveness, “Mom Identity”, Frustration that things aren’t going your way, You don’t want to confess sin, You’re in great need, You’re a perfectionist.
I also mentioned five questions that indicate what John Ortberg calls pseudo-transformation in his book The Life You’ve Always Wanted. I have attached some excerpts from that book with the questions here.
Redeemer Fellowship Update
This is an update from Kevin Cawley, lead pastor of Redeemer Fellowship in Kansas City, which is one of the churches we are currently supporting in the work of church planting. We showed this video to start our Sunday gathering yesterday, and we will be doing the same thing the next two weeks with 2 more churches we have partnered with so that God might grow our vision for His mission through the church of Jesus.
Calling Out Fiscally Frivolous Church Planters
Bob gets after the “church planting industry” on Resurgence
Total Church
This Friday night, the Coram Deo Church Community will gather for “a night of vision and worship.” And one of the aspects of vision we want to get clear on is: what does it mean to be part of missional community?
We can train leaders to lead missional communities all day; but unless you understand how to effectively participate in a missional community, your MC will probably be lame. We don’t want that! Healthy missional communities are our relentless aim. But in order to achieve that goal, we have to be committed to it together.
Recently, Steve Timmis, director of Acts 29 Europe and author of the book Total Church, hosted a training session for leaders in which he unpacked the concept of gospel community. As we look forward to Friday night and to the launch of the fall semester, we want to encourage you to listen to Timmis’ training. There are three sessions, each of them lasting about 50 minutes. For those of you who commute, work out, sit at a computer, or have other opportunities during the day to listen to valuable content, these sessions are well worth the investment. They will help you understand what we’re after in missional community. Timmis is ministering in a British context, so there’s not an exact one-to-one correlation between his “gospel communities” and our MC’s. But there’s enough overlap that you’ll find these sessions very helpful.
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Debate: Is Universal Health Care a Moral Issue?
If you thought the debates over abortion and constitutional interpretation were a hot button within the Christian community, watch out: universal healthcare might be the new fundamentalism.
According to a recent CBS News report, “President Obama this month is turning to the religious community to rally support for the fundamental idea of expanding health care accessibility.” One of the leading voices for the Christian community in this debate is the controversial Jim Wallis, who avers: “Every so often there is an issue that is so clear and compelling, or so alarming and disconcerting, that it really does galvanize the faith community… Inclusive, accessible, affordable health care for all of God’s children is for us a moral issue.”
“The concept of universal, accessible health care resonates deeply with our common values,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “We see the people who’ve lost their jobs and health insurance… the people who are left out of what is one of the most remarkable health care systems in the world…We cannot sit idly by while we have a system that just doesn’t work for everyone.”
At face value, I think Christians all agree that we want people to be healthy. We want people to have access to health care. In the Garden of Eden, there was no sickness, nor will there be any in the new heavens and the new earth (Rev. 21:4) – so working for God’s will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven” certainly includes healing, wholeness, and health.
But something troubles me about Wallis’ claim that “inclusive, accessible, affordable health care… is a moral issue” for Christians. I think it’s the modifiers “inclusive, accessible, and affordable” – which are all deeply malleable words that seem to say more than I’m comfortable saying. If we’re going for “affordable,” why not free? If “inclusive,” should it include abortion or voluntary sterilization or assisted suicide? True to his bombastic persona, I think Wallis has gone beyond the pale here in saying more than he can biblically substantiate.
Do you agree? Or disagree?
Are You “In Christ?” 3 Diagnostic Questions…
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colossae… (Col. 1:1-2)
What does it mean to be “in Christ?” How do I know whether I’m truly in Christ or whether I just profess belief in Christ?
- Do you sense something decisively different about your identity? 2 Cor 5.17: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
- Do you desire to live a godly life? (Intrinsic personal desire, not external/social coercion). 2 Tim 3:12: Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
- Do you “glory in” (delight in, celebrate, boast in) Christ Jesus? Phil 3:3: …for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
Is Morality Different Than Electricity?
At the recommendation of some friends, I have been doing some reading on the philosophy of knowledge. One of the most profound (and accessible) books I’m currently reading is Dallas Willard’s Knowing Christ Today. I will post a more thorough review of it when I am finished. But some of Willard’s insights are so penetrating and profound that I feel compelled to share them as I read for the benefit of others.
[An illustration of the loss of moral knowledge]
Although it remains true that no one really knows what electricity is in any ultimate sense, there is a vast body of knowledge about how it is produced and used. At one time that body of knowledge did not exist, and then, over a period of time, it came into existence and is still growing. That knowledge is now publicly available through recognized institutions of knowledge in our societies.
Because it is so available as a public resource, those who wish to acquire and use knowledge of electricity can do so. It can be taught, shared, tested for. On the basis of sharing it, people can work together in applying it, for example, to the wiring of a house, to an industrial operation, or in the invention of new technologies… People can be qualified or disqualified for positions according to their knowledge of electricity. A social and economic order of vast proportions grows up around it. The outcome is a level of well-being, freedom, and comfort for individuals and society at large that is inconceivable apart from the shared, available knowledge – not just opinions, feelings, or traditions – about the production and use of electricity.
Now, one can easily draw up a scenario in which the knowledge of electricity ‘disappeared,’ that is, where the requisite knowledge institutions ceased to exist or function in making it publicly available to a wide range of people… Electricity and those knowing how to set it up and use it would disappear from society.
Now… consider the original situation in which there was a – far from perfect, but still substantial – body of knowledge about moral good and evil, right and wrong. This knowledge was available to the public through the institutions of society recognized as sources of knowledge, primarily, of course, churches and schools (of all the various levels). Then, over a period of time, less than a century, the knowledge institutions of our society ceased, for various causes and reasons, to represent traditionally recognized moral values and principles as constituting a body of knowledge. They took it to be an area in which knowledge was not possible or not possible to the extent it could be taught as knowledge. This is the disappearance of moral knowledge that has actually occurred in our recent past.
