In my last post I wrote about what I'm looking for in a church. A pastor friend who saw it commented that my list would help anyone looking for a church. I hope so. That's why I write.
Another friend commented on his own journey--he and his family are also looking for a new church. Something I wrote him is also appropriate here: "...once having made the hardest part of the journey (deciding to leave a church) the rest of the journey is easy by comparison." It's still hard to find a church that fits. There are so many variables that to have them all fit together simultaneously is improbable. That's why it is important to not expect the "perfect church".
The hardest part, though, really is making the decision to leave. Others can't completely understand why their friend is leaving. Some relationships are broken. Some are strained. And some tend to just wither away without the regular weekly face-to-face contact. You know, "absence makes the heart grow fonder--of somebody else". Happily, though, some relationships endure. Typically they endure because the relationship is so important to both parties that they work at keeping it going.
Today we went to a new church. My experience there today was very encouraging. One thing I heard reminded me of something a member of the class I used to teach said when asking if I would be interested in teaching that class: "I want a teacher who knows more about the Bible than I do." (That was always a challenge because he is very knowledgeable about the Bible.)
In the pastor's sermon this morning, I heard something that I didn't know. He was talking about the passage in Matthew 22: 1-14 where the king invited guests to a wedding banquet for his son. One of the invited guests was rebuked and cast out because he didn't have on "wedding clothes". The new thing I learned (and that opened up a whole new meaning for the passage) is that in that culture, it would be the host's responsibility to supply "wedding clothes" for guests who didn't have them. [The pastor displayed a garment provided to him for a wedding in Africa that he had been invited to.]
The reason a guest would not have on the appropriate wedding clothes was because he chose not to wear what had been provided by the host. Everyone was invited ("both good and bad'). Whether because of pride or just the desire to come on his own terms, exclusion from the banquet was because he refused what was provided, not because of the host's ungraciousness.
The point: we are to invite everyone to participate in the kingdom, and welcome everyone to the church. If they refuse to change and meet the Lord's standards (and thus be voluntarily excluded), that's their choice. We will have done our part to be obedient, and the Lord will have done His part in making the way possible.
Its relevance for our journey? This appears to be a church that reaches out to everyone and welcomes all who come, but recognizes that some people won't come to Christ or His church because they don't want to change. And, to come to the Lord's wedding banquet, righteous wedding clothes are required.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Journey Into The Unknown part 6
It's Christmas Eve. An early gift book that I started reading last night helps bring this whole journey thing into perspective. It is "The Triumph of Christianity, How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion", by Rodney Stark.
Just having read a couple of chapters, I can't give a good review of the book yet. I can say, though, that the church that grew from Jesus' small band of disciples into a movement led by those who saw him alive after his crucifixion and resurrection (see I Corinthians 15: 3-8) has been a great force for good in the world, in spite of some black marks. (I can also see in the book that a lot of myths about some of those black marks need exposure to the light of truth).
In any event, the Church, while contributing much to the world, has not been perfect. Somehow, I think Jesus knew that a gathering of disciples that included a traitor, a tax collector, squabbling brothers, and a hot-headed fisherman as its leader would not be perfect.
Now that we are looking for a new local church home, we acknowledge that there is also no such thing as a perfect local church. If there were one, that perfection would cease as soon as I joined it. Still, when looking for a church home, people tend to look for a congregation and a ministry that is as close to perfect for them as possible. We look for something where we are a good fit, something which as much as possible is an ideal church for us.
What I'm looking for on this journey is:
Just having read a couple of chapters, I can't give a good review of the book yet. I can say, though, that the church that grew from Jesus' small band of disciples into a movement led by those who saw him alive after his crucifixion and resurrection (see I Corinthians 15: 3-8) has been a great force for good in the world, in spite of some black marks. (I can also see in the book that a lot of myths about some of those black marks need exposure to the light of truth).
In any event, the Church, while contributing much to the world, has not been perfect. Somehow, I think Jesus knew that a gathering of disciples that included a traitor, a tax collector, squabbling brothers, and a hot-headed fisherman as its leader would not be perfect.
Now that we are looking for a new local church home, we acknowledge that there is also no such thing as a perfect local church. If there were one, that perfection would cease as soon as I joined it. Still, when looking for a church home, people tend to look for a congregation and a ministry that is as close to perfect for them as possible. We look for something where we are a good fit, something which as much as possible is an ideal church for us.
What I'm looking for on this journey is:
- A church whose focus is on a combination of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. We are to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:29-31), and that love should also be great enough to help our neighbors become disciples of our resurrected Lord and Savior (Matthew 28: 18-20). In other words, whatever ministries a church has to help others should include the goal of leading them to find their own Savior and Lord in Jesus Christ.
- A place where Lindsey and I can both exercise our spiritual gifts. (See I Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 for partial lists of how the Lord equips everyone with spiritual gifts for the benefit of the whole Body.) Both of us want to be full members of the church we belong to, and that involves more than just attending, listening, and giving.
- A place where theologically we are in sync with the rest of the church. Swimming against the stream may make one stronger; but after a while it also makes one weary.
- A place where we speak the same "language of music". For those our age, it's not that easy to find a place with music that "speaks to us"--that is, music that blends traditional hymns and more contemporary songs that will help us worship the Lord as we desire. For more about this concept of "The Language of Music", click on the link to see what I wrote about it more than 10 years ago. The short version is, we need to hear sermons in a spoken language we understand, and we also need to hear and sing music in a musical language that speaks to us personally.
- As much as possible, a place "where everybody knows your name", to borrow a phrase from a song. And as the song implies and the TV show "Cheers" that had the song as its theme showed, "knowing everybody's name" means that it's a place where people care about each other. So, we're back to the first item on this list of what I'm looking for on this journey: love, true friendship, a Christian family.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Journey Into The Unknown part 5
In my second post of this series (on December 6, 2011) I mentioned the journey I began after the funding for my job was gone. That journey involved a change in careers, not just a change to a new job of the same kind. It was a difficult transition, as you might imagine, because much of one’s identity is bound up in answer to the question, “What do you do?”
We seek to get to know someone by asking about their family, but more often by asking about their work. For 19 years my answer to that question was “I am a minister”. Sometimes I was more specific, “Pastor, Campus Minister, etc. Suddenly I was thrust into a position where I was no longer in “full-time ministry”. That is, I wasn’t being paid to work for a church or denomination. Over time I would answer, “I am a Realtor”, but I still retained the expectation that at some future date the Lord would call me back into “the ministry”.
After several years, when I admitted that the Lord had put me in the work I was currently doing, and that He was probably not going to lead me back to work for a church, I borrowed a phrase from Caesar’s Gallic Wars which I remembered from high school Latin: “alea jacta est” (the die—singular for dice--is cast). When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River from Gaul (France) into Italy to return to Rome in defiance of orders to stay away, he knew there was no going back.
That’s how it was for me when I finally used that phrase to settle the fact that my future was in real estate (with voluntary or bi-vocational ministry to fulfill my calling) and not in full-time Christian ministerial positions. The dice had been cast. The decision had been made. Look to the future, not to the past.
I heard it years ago on TV, and I guess it’s a fairly common truism, “There’s no future in looking back”. That’s what I ultimately meant my adopting the phrase from Julius Caesar as my own motto. It helped me settle in and do the work I needed to do to be successful in real estate for the next 20 plus years.
It is applicable now, too. As we begin the search for a new church home, Lindsey and I are looking toward the future, not looking back. We still want to keep friendships strong, and in some ways the past always puts its stamp on future decisions; but our focus is on what we want our next church to be like.
That will come in the next post.
We seek to get to know someone by asking about their family, but more often by asking about their work. For 19 years my answer to that question was “I am a minister”. Sometimes I was more specific, “Pastor, Campus Minister, etc. Suddenly I was thrust into a position where I was no longer in “full-time ministry”. That is, I wasn’t being paid to work for a church or denomination. Over time I would answer, “I am a Realtor”, but I still retained the expectation that at some future date the Lord would call me back into “the ministry”.
After several years, when I admitted that the Lord had put me in the work I was currently doing, and that He was probably not going to lead me back to work for a church, I borrowed a phrase from Caesar’s Gallic Wars which I remembered from high school Latin: “alea jacta est” (the die—singular for dice--is cast). When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River from Gaul (France) into Italy to return to Rome in defiance of orders to stay away, he knew there was no going back.
That’s how it was for me when I finally used that phrase to settle the fact that my future was in real estate (with voluntary or bi-vocational ministry to fulfill my calling) and not in full-time Christian ministerial positions. The dice had been cast. The decision had been made. Look to the future, not to the past.
I heard it years ago on TV, and I guess it’s a fairly common truism, “There’s no future in looking back”. That’s what I ultimately meant my adopting the phrase from Julius Caesar as my own motto. It helped me settle in and do the work I needed to do to be successful in real estate for the next 20 plus years.
It is applicable now, too. As we begin the search for a new church home, Lindsey and I are looking toward the future, not looking back. We still want to keep friendships strong, and in some ways the past always puts its stamp on future decisions; but our focus is on what we want our next church to be like.
That will come in the next post.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Journey Into The Unknown part 4
As more people hear that I am leaving my current church, some of them have sent messsages encouraging me--most just encouraging me on my journey, a few encouraging me to reconsider my decision to leave. The latter would like to see me and other conservatives stay and try to change things from the inside.
A friend I had lunch with today shared some germane advice his father gave him years ago about staying in a place to make a change from the inside: "To make a change in the status quo, there has to already be a climate of change or you have to create one." The status quo in the church was just changed to something I don't agree with; and since the vote was so lopsided, there is not a climate to change it back to the status quo ante. And, it's not my place to try to create one.
I do appreciate those who have encouraged me to stay. I value their friendship and I respect their decision to stay and work from the inside.
I also appreciate those who have encouraged me as I go, wishing me well and understanding that each person's decision is personal. I know some of the reasons that others have who are staying even though they agree with me on the issues. There aren't any simple choices here. Each person's decision is personal.
Yesterday was my last time to meet with the adult Sunday School class I've been teaching. It was not easy to leave them. I pray they will find just the right teacher for that class. Whoever it is, I know the class will be supportive and will help the teacher to grow--they've done that for me, and I thank God for them all.
A friend I had lunch with today shared some germane advice his father gave him years ago about staying in a place to make a change from the inside: "To make a change in the status quo, there has to already be a climate of change or you have to create one." The status quo in the church was just changed to something I don't agree with; and since the vote was so lopsided, there is not a climate to change it back to the status quo ante. And, it's not my place to try to create one.
I do appreciate those who have encouraged me to stay. I value their friendship and I respect their decision to stay and work from the inside.
I also appreciate those who have encouraged me as I go, wishing me well and understanding that each person's decision is personal. I know some of the reasons that others have who are staying even though they agree with me on the issues. There aren't any simple choices here. Each person's decision is personal.
Yesterday was my last time to meet with the adult Sunday School class I've been teaching. It was not easy to leave them. I pray they will find just the right teacher for that class. Whoever it is, I know the class will be supportive and will help the teacher to grow--they've done that for me, and I thank God for them all.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Journey into the Unknown, part 3
This morning was my next-to-last time with the adult Sunday School class I’ve taught since September, 2010. They are a great class—inquisitive, affirming, and they like to participate in the discussion. I told the class this morning that next Sunday would be my last day with them.
It was serendipitous that the lesson for today was from Genesis 12 and 15 (God telling Abram to set out on a journey to “the land I will show you” and that he and Sarai, both beyond normal child-bearing age, would have a son). This lesson also followed a summer forum on faith in Hebrews 11 that I co-taught last August. I was able to connect the passages and say that when we step out in faith under God’s guidance, we can know that He will be with us on that journey.
Interestingly, Abram was a human being like you and me. He messed up badly by taking things into his own hands after God had promised to bless him. The fact that he obeyed God initially and set out on the journey, and that he “believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness” regarding the birth of a son, doesn’t negate his sin of not trusting that God would be with him along the journey.
His faith, like mine sometimes, was not always rock solid. Still, God blessed him when he obeyed, and granted him grace when he strayed. In saying that I am, like Abram, starting a journey into the unknown, I’m not claiming any special status or insight. I’m just doing what I believe the Lord is leading me to do at this time. May the Lord be gracious when I also blow it.
I had to tell my class why I was leaving. They knew that the vote to pass the “inclusion statement” last Sunday was connected; but I didn’t want them to think that I was leaving just because I was “unreasonably afraid of homosexuals” (the literal mean of “homophobic”—the pejorative term made up to demean those who disagree with the pro-gay agenda).
Again, the statement adopted by my church is “Calvary welcomes and affirms all people as children of God from every cultural and religious background, sexual orientation, family composition, physical and mental ability, economic means, race, age and gender."
As I have told several people, if the two words, “and affirms” were removed from the original statement (which also didn’t have the words “as children of God”), I could have voted yes and stayed. I believe we are to welcome and extend God's love to everyone. That doesn't mean to have to affirm them if that means we have to agree that their behavior is OK with us and we cannot say anything about that behavior.
Contrary to what has been taught at the church lately, I do believe the Bible classifies homosexual behavior as sin. At the very least, there is no place in the Bible where homosexual activity is praised, spoken of positively, or “affirmed”.
So, if I am accused of being intolerant or unloving because I believe the traditional interpretation of the Bible is God’s word on the matter, then I’ll admit my mea culpa. I do wonder though, why those who would thus judge me as unloving and judgmental don’t see that their own judgment of me is unloving and judgmental.
I stated that I told my class why I was leaving the church. Here are the primary reasons:
(1) I cannot “affirm” behavior the Bible classifies as sin. My remaining there after the church voted to affirm that behavior would be a tacit endorsement of the statement.
(2) I cannot endorse or accept what I see as revisionist interpretations of Scripture—interpretations based more on P.C. reactions to cultural changes than on solid hermeneutics.
(3) Since I started as their teacher, my goal has been three-fold: to teach the Bible; to teach how to study and interpret the Bible (hermeneutics); and to seek to apply the Bible’s teachings to life today. That’s why I can’t stand by silently when faced with interpretations that “pull us from the future” and in the process throw overboard “the faith that was once for all entrusted to…(us)”.
(4) I have been swimming against the stream too long. I am conservative and traditional (small "o” orthodox) in my theology. The direction of the church’s flow is not one I want to struggle against anymore, and I can’t just go with the flow.
(5) And, there are some other reasons that I’ll have to get to later. For now, it was important for the class to know that although the homosexual agenda issue is there, much more than that is involved.
It was serendipitous that the lesson for today was from Genesis 12 and 15 (God telling Abram to set out on a journey to “the land I will show you” and that he and Sarai, both beyond normal child-bearing age, would have a son). This lesson also followed a summer forum on faith in Hebrews 11 that I co-taught last August. I was able to connect the passages and say that when we step out in faith under God’s guidance, we can know that He will be with us on that journey.
Interestingly, Abram was a human being like you and me. He messed up badly by taking things into his own hands after God had promised to bless him. The fact that he obeyed God initially and set out on the journey, and that he “believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness” regarding the birth of a son, doesn’t negate his sin of not trusting that God would be with him along the journey.
His faith, like mine sometimes, was not always rock solid. Still, God blessed him when he obeyed, and granted him grace when he strayed. In saying that I am, like Abram, starting a journey into the unknown, I’m not claiming any special status or insight. I’m just doing what I believe the Lord is leading me to do at this time. May the Lord be gracious when I also blow it.
I had to tell my class why I was leaving. They knew that the vote to pass the “inclusion statement” last Sunday was connected; but I didn’t want them to think that I was leaving just because I was “unreasonably afraid of homosexuals” (the literal mean of “homophobic”—the pejorative term made up to demean those who disagree with the pro-gay agenda).
Again, the statement adopted by my church is “Calvary welcomes and affirms all people as children of God from every cultural and religious background, sexual orientation, family composition, physical and mental ability, economic means, race, age and gender."
As I have told several people, if the two words, “and affirms” were removed from the original statement (which also didn’t have the words “as children of God”), I could have voted yes and stayed. I believe we are to welcome and extend God's love to everyone. That doesn't mean to have to affirm them if that means we have to agree that their behavior is OK with us and we cannot say anything about that behavior.
Contrary to what has been taught at the church lately, I do believe the Bible classifies homosexual behavior as sin. At the very least, there is no place in the Bible where homosexual activity is praised, spoken of positively, or “affirmed”.
So, if I am accused of being intolerant or unloving because I believe the traditional interpretation of the Bible is God’s word on the matter, then I’ll admit my mea culpa. I do wonder though, why those who would thus judge me as unloving and judgmental don’t see that their own judgment of me is unloving and judgmental.
I stated that I told my class why I was leaving the church. Here are the primary reasons:
(1) I cannot “affirm” behavior the Bible classifies as sin. My remaining there after the church voted to affirm that behavior would be a tacit endorsement of the statement.
(2) I cannot endorse or accept what I see as revisionist interpretations of Scripture—interpretations based more on P.C. reactions to cultural changes than on solid hermeneutics.
(3) Since I started as their teacher, my goal has been three-fold: to teach the Bible; to teach how to study and interpret the Bible (hermeneutics); and to seek to apply the Bible’s teachings to life today. That’s why I can’t stand by silently when faced with interpretations that “pull us from the future” and in the process throw overboard “the faith that was once for all entrusted to…(us)”.
(4) I have been swimming against the stream too long. I am conservative and traditional (small "o” orthodox) in my theology. The direction of the church’s flow is not one I want to struggle against anymore, and I can’t just go with the flow.
(5) And, there are some other reasons that I’ll have to get to later. For now, it was important for the class to know that although the homosexual agenda issue is there, much more than that is involved.
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Journey Into The Unknown, part 2
In my last post I said that I'm starting on a journey into the unknown. It's not quite like Star Trek. It's not a place where I really haven't gone before. A number of times in my life, I've made a decision that led to changes I hadn't anticipated.
A few times the decisions have been made by others, and I've just had to respond to the situation as best I could. In 1985 I was the Director of Metro Baptist Campus Ministries in Denver. Then the organization that employed me ran out of money and eliminated my job, along with several others. I hadn't expected that. I was unprepared for a job hunt. I just said to the Lord, I don't know what you have in store for me, so I'll just have to let the search for a job be the way You reveal Your will to me.
It didn't turn out anything like I even imagined. Instead of leading me to another full-time ministry position, the Lord closed all those doors that I thought were open and He led me into real estate sales. It has turned out to be a way to support my family and to use the ministry gifts He gave me as well.
I am, in effect, practicing what I preached to college students from 1970 to 1985: "the Lord doesn't care where you get your check, every one of us is supposed to be a minister." I've been able to preach, teach, counsel, and be involved in a variety of ministries for which I haven't been paid. I often tell folks who ask about my background that Paul was a tentmaker to support his missionary work. I don't make tents, I just sell them (or houses, at least).
The situation which has put me on this journey is another of those times when I’ve had to respond to a decision made by others. This time it is related to my church, not my job. The church I’ve been a member of for the past 8 years voted last Sunday on a “statement of inclusion” (see below*). At a later point in this series I’ll address that statement in more detail. For now, I just want to say this:
(1) On the surface, who could object to a statement which is designed to show that the church “welcomes and affirms all people as children of God…” and then goes on to name 10 different groups which are to be included? It almost sounds churlish to object to that. Yet I do object to the statement.
(2) But my objection is not just with the statement. It’s also not just with the fact that the only reason for initiating the statement was to show how welcoming and affirming the church is to one specific group (the “LGBTQ Community”).
(3) I do have problems with the statement. But even more, I have problems with the interpretations of Scripture that were given to support the statement—interpretations that differ considerably from what Christians have taught for two millennia. I am, for better or worse, more conservative and traditional than the majority of the church.
(4) When the church voted by a 74% to 26% margin to adopt the statement, I could only conclude that I am not a good fit there. As part of the 26% minority, I seriously disagree with the direction the church is going. And, since my continued presence would not change that direction, it is better that I leave.
I don’t know where I will go. It is indeed a journey into the unknown. I do know that I need to step out in faith like Abraham.
“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” Hebrews 11:8 (NIV)
What will come of it, only God knows. I do expect that just as in 1985, the Lord will open a door and enable me to use the ministry gifts He gave me. I just need to be obedient to what I understand to be the Lord’s will for my life.
* "Calvary welcomes and affirms all people as children of God from every cultural and religious background, sexual orientation, family composition, physical and mental ability, economic means, race, age and gender."
A few times the decisions have been made by others, and I've just had to respond to the situation as best I could. In 1985 I was the Director of Metro Baptist Campus Ministries in Denver. Then the organization that employed me ran out of money and eliminated my job, along with several others. I hadn't expected that. I was unprepared for a job hunt. I just said to the Lord, I don't know what you have in store for me, so I'll just have to let the search for a job be the way You reveal Your will to me.
It didn't turn out anything like I even imagined. Instead of leading me to another full-time ministry position, the Lord closed all those doors that I thought were open and He led me into real estate sales. It has turned out to be a way to support my family and to use the ministry gifts He gave me as well.
I am, in effect, practicing what I preached to college students from 1970 to 1985: "the Lord doesn't care where you get your check, every one of us is supposed to be a minister." I've been able to preach, teach, counsel, and be involved in a variety of ministries for which I haven't been paid. I often tell folks who ask about my background that Paul was a tentmaker to support his missionary work. I don't make tents, I just sell them (or houses, at least).
The situation which has put me on this journey is another of those times when I’ve had to respond to a decision made by others. This time it is related to my church, not my job. The church I’ve been a member of for the past 8 years voted last Sunday on a “statement of inclusion” (see below*). At a later point in this series I’ll address that statement in more detail. For now, I just want to say this:
(1) On the surface, who could object to a statement which is designed to show that the church “welcomes and affirms all people as children of God…” and then goes on to name 10 different groups which are to be included? It almost sounds churlish to object to that. Yet I do object to the statement.
(2) But my objection is not just with the statement. It’s also not just with the fact that the only reason for initiating the statement was to show how welcoming and affirming the church is to one specific group (the “LGBTQ Community”).
(3) I do have problems with the statement. But even more, I have problems with the interpretations of Scripture that were given to support the statement—interpretations that differ considerably from what Christians have taught for two millennia. I am, for better or worse, more conservative and traditional than the majority of the church.
(4) When the church voted by a 74% to 26% margin to adopt the statement, I could only conclude that I am not a good fit there. As part of the 26% minority, I seriously disagree with the direction the church is going. And, since my continued presence would not change that direction, it is better that I leave.
I don’t know where I will go. It is indeed a journey into the unknown. I do know that I need to step out in faith like Abraham.
“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” Hebrews 11:8 (NIV)
What will come of it, only God knows. I do expect that just as in 1985, the Lord will open a door and enable me to use the ministry gifts He gave me. I just need to be obedient to what I understand to be the Lord’s will for my life.
* "Calvary welcomes and affirms all people as children of God from every cultural and religious background, sexual orientation, family composition, physical and mental ability, economic means, race, age and gender."
Sunday, December 04, 2011
Journey Into The Unknown
Next week in the adult Sunday School class I've been teaching we will look at Genesis 12 in which God said to Abram (later called Abraham) "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you."
We don't see all the dialogue that went on between God and Abram, and we don't see what went on in Abram's mind. We just see that at 75 years old he obeyed God and left for that unknown land.
I find myself in a situation similar to that which Abram faced. I am being led away from one place where I've been for over 8 years, and I don't yet know where this journey will take me. I only know that the Lord will not just tell me where to go; He will be with me on this journey into the unknown.
This space will once more provide a way for me to chronicle what I experience en route. Perhaps it will inspire some others to take a step of faith in their own life journeys.
In the next post--what prompted this new adventure.
We don't see all the dialogue that went on between God and Abram, and we don't see what went on in Abram's mind. We just see that at 75 years old he obeyed God and left for that unknown land.
I find myself in a situation similar to that which Abram faced. I am being led away from one place where I've been for over 8 years, and I don't yet know where this journey will take me. I only know that the Lord will not just tell me where to go; He will be with me on this journey into the unknown.
This space will once more provide a way for me to chronicle what I experience en route. Perhaps it will inspire some others to take a step of faith in their own life journeys.
In the next post--what prompted this new adventure.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
“Portraits of Faith” Forum Series
A couple of months ago I was asked if I would be interested in leading a “Summer Forum” study on Hebrews 11 with a fellow member, David Beaty. The tentative title was “Portraits of Faith”. It turned out to be a 5-week study, so it expanded a bit over what I had originally thought it would be.
Dave and I started meeting weekly, and over the past 10 weeks we have had a blast getting to know each other and discussing what we would do in the forums.
The study, and my relationship with Dave Beaty, has taken me to places I haven’t visited in a while. The concept of faith as trust, obedience, believing something, being trustworthy and faithful, and holding onto “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 1:3 NIV) challenges me to examine and reaffirm my own faith.
It’s not enough to study about faith and to teach about faith. The teacher, as well as his students, must have faith himself. Hebrews 11:6 says it clearly, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
The basic meaning of “Faith” is trust—a sense of confidence in another that allows a relationship between the two parties to exist and to continue. It’s what keeps a marriage together, what develops a sense of unity to develop in an army unit or sports team, what enables those in a society to live with each other in harmony, and what keeps order in a democracy—the trust that citizens have in their leaders. It’s opposite, distrust, is of course what causes anarchy, wars, a breakdown of unit cohesiveness, and divorce.
Our faith in God, then, is more than just believing that He exists. It is a relationship with God in which we trust His promises, rely on His presence, and have confidence that He will lead us and enable us to carry out what He asks us to do—be His witnesses and ambassadors in the world to bring others into His kingdom. For Christians, “…faith is primarily the relationship we have with God through what Jesus accomplished in His death and resurrection.” (William L. Self, Holman Bible Dictionary).
It is that relationship I hope to foster in myself and the students through this study.
Dave and I started meeting weekly, and over the past 10 weeks we have had a blast getting to know each other and discussing what we would do in the forums.
The study, and my relationship with Dave Beaty, has taken me to places I haven’t visited in a while. The concept of faith as trust, obedience, believing something, being trustworthy and faithful, and holding onto “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 1:3 NIV) challenges me to examine and reaffirm my own faith.
It’s not enough to study about faith and to teach about faith. The teacher, as well as his students, must have faith himself. Hebrews 11:6 says it clearly, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
The basic meaning of “Faith” is trust—a sense of confidence in another that allows a relationship between the two parties to exist and to continue. It’s what keeps a marriage together, what develops a sense of unity to develop in an army unit or sports team, what enables those in a society to live with each other in harmony, and what keeps order in a democracy—the trust that citizens have in their leaders. It’s opposite, distrust, is of course what causes anarchy, wars, a breakdown of unit cohesiveness, and divorce.
Our faith in God, then, is more than just believing that He exists. It is a relationship with God in which we trust His promises, rely on His presence, and have confidence that He will lead us and enable us to carry out what He asks us to do—be His witnesses and ambassadors in the world to bring others into His kingdom. For Christians, “…faith is primarily the relationship we have with God through what Jesus accomplished in His death and resurrection.” (William L. Self, Holman Bible Dictionary).
It is that relationship I hope to foster in myself and the students through this study.
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