Blind Church?

I was involved in a discussion tonight, which made think about the following. It seems like many churches (and some christians too) are semi-blind to what they are. People seem to have this idea that if you’re honest about a problem, your somehow insulting the Son of God. If we’re not honest about problems, we can’t and won’t begin to fix them. But the problem is, there are far too many people who think we’ve basically have it right already. This is true especially in doctrine, but in practice as well. If asked, most christians can recite all of the negative ways in which we are, more often than not, perceived by those “outside”. But a lot of these same christians are at a lost to understand why we’re perceived that way, may think the Continue reading →

Alyosha

In The Brothers Karamazov, I identify the most with Alyosha.

Formula for Emotion

As people, we all experience emotions to various degrees and in a variety of ways. Though this is so, it seems like we generally don’t have a good grasp on why we feel the way we do. We typically externalize our emotions, seeing them as the inevitable result of events outside of our control: other people’s actions are to blame or it’s our circumstances which are at fault. While these things may play a role, we miss the fact that much of our emotional state has to do with us as opposed to the situation we’re in. This is important to understand if we seek to change our feelings. If we address the wrong problem (externalities) when the issues are actually within us, we won’t find the change that we seek.

To help us understand our feelings, Continue reading →

A Response to the Argument for Early Marriage

Yesterday I happened to run across the cover article for this month’s Christianity Today magazine. The title caught my attention a bit, so I decided to read it. The article supports a view point which I’ve ran across before. There seems to be two opposing camps on this issue, while most “average” people probably fall in the middle somewhere. There is one camp which upholds marriage as being almost centrally important, even sometimes going so far as to say that it is sinful not to marry at a relatively young age. On the other side, there are those who say marriage has been over emphasized in christianity, and that we need to stop acting like it’s so important. I decided that this issue is important enough to take a look at here. So I Continue reading →

Police Visit Church

Not long ago the police showed up at our home church. I guess we’re doing something right? 8 )

A Jesus Manifesto

In case you haven’t seen it yet, Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola have written a document they’re calling “A Jesus Manifesto”. It has been creating some buzz around the web right now. At the very least, it is something good to consider, though I think it is more than that. It makes me think of Christ telling the church in Ephesus to remember their first love (Revelation 2:1-7).

I found it helpful to summarize the points made in the manifesto:
1. “The center and circumference of the Christian life is none other than the person of Christ.”
2. “Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his teachings.”
3. “God’s grand mission and eternal purpose in the earth and in heaven centers in Christ.”
4. “Being a follower of Jesus does not involve Continue reading →

Doing Stuff for God

I was just thinking about how a lot of people and ministries talk about what they’re doing for God. If things, often financially, they’ll talk about how we just need faith that God will provide. Sounds good doesn’t it? The problem is that God often doesn’t provide the way we think he should. So does God not provide? Is he not real? Or is he unable? I think we’re looking at things all wrong.

I think the truth of the matter is that God doesn’t really care about what we’re doing for him. He may appreciate our intentions, but we’re missing the boat. What God is interested in is us getting on board with what he is doing. God has plans and purposes which are much bigger than each of us. He wants us to help him accomplish his plans, in his Continue reading →

The Ups and Downs of an Organic Church

I’ve had a couple of blogs I’ve been wanting to write, but as I believe I’ve mentioned, I’ve been pretty busy—too busy perhaps. I did want to talk some more about church. I don’t think I’ve written any updates in the past month or two.

It seemed as though our house church was starting to pick up some momentum. We were having a handful of people meeting pretty consistently every week for a month or two. Then suddenly one week, almost everyone stopped showing up. And it wasn’t just for a week or two. Most people haven’t come back, at least not more than once. And the times when more people have been there, people haven’t stayed in the same room. Additionally, our meetings had little substance. We’d still do communion, and a little Continue reading →

Knowing God

Thought of the day: You can’t know God through facts. You can’t get to God through knowledge, logic, science or reason. Though the gap is small, there is a chasm between facts and God. One may think that if they can only dig a bit deeper, they will find the place where the two connect. “They are so close, surely there must be a connection here eventually!” But the two never meet. That’s not to say God is illogical, unreasonable, untrue, or goes against science, facts and knowledge. It’s simply that you can’t reach God through these.

There is only one way to God, and that is through experience. That experience comes only in and through Christ. You can’t safely observe from the outside and decide if God is real or not, and only then, once Continue reading →

Motivation

I’ve been feeling moved to do better in a couple of areas recently. I was pondering this tonight, and questioned what my motivation is. Am I doing this to improve myself, to make me a better person? Am I doing this because I don’t want the embarrassment of people seeing me as less than perfect? Or am I doing this because it’s what God wants me to do, and in response to his love?

I think the first two reasons perhaps aren’t bad in assisting to work towards change, but they are the wrong motives. If I’m just trying to improve myself, it is self focused, and not focused on God. If I succeed (or appear to have succeeded for a time), I can take pride in myself and look down on others for not doing better themselves. But I believe I will Continue reading →