Gospel.com Blog

I’m not attending any church or ministry conferences this year, but I have in the past. In my experience, conferences can be fantastic times for reconnecting with old friends, worshiping God and planning for the future. There’s something about gathering together for a solid block of time with like-minded people that manages to be helpful and fun.

What about you? Are you attending any church or ministry conferences this year?

Share your thoughts!

While it’s not always easy to get a group of people to agree on something, it usually can be done. After all, agreements are mutually beneficial. You might not get everything you want, but you’ll probably get a lot closer than you would have on your own.

Unity, however, is an entirely different beast. I might have found an amicable agreement with you, but it doesn’t mean we’re unified. Merriam-Webster defines unity as “the quality or state of not being multiple : oneness.” To be unified we would have to agree on more than just one or two issues. No, for us to be truly unified our vision for everything would have to be aligned.

This morning Jon Brown of Word of Life discusses how Christ’s mission was to bring unity to humanity. Christian unity can only be had when we decide to put others before ourselves:

Unity is more than agreement. Agreement is nice. It makes life much easier when people agree on things like the style of worship, or the Sunday school curriculum, or what to look for in the next pastor. But Christian unity is more than just reaching agreement. It comes only when we are willing to put others before ourselves. In this we follow Jesus’ example. He prayed for it, died for it, and rose from the dead to accomplish it. He will come again to usher in full unity. Until that great day, we affirm in the words of the Belhar Confession that God’s heart for unity “must be manifested and be active in a variety of ways.” We must work toward the unity we know is coming.

Have you ever experienced unity with a group of people? What was it like? How does your church work towards unity?

The World Cup is underway!

Since I’m working today, that means that I have no idea how the US v. Slovenia match ended up. As soon as I clock out today I’ll be sitting down to retroactively cheer on the Stars and Stripes to victory (hopefully)!

For most of the US, the World Cup is just another blip on the sports radar. But to the rest of the world it’s the culmination of years of waiting. Billions of people will watch, analyze and enjoy the World Cup.

A few ministries view the World Cup as a prime opportunity for evangelism and outreach. Mission Network News reports on the efforts of HCJB to reach out to the youth of South Africa:

Not far from the excitement at Cape Town Stadium in Fish Hoek Valley, four churches will be using sports and the heightened interest in soccer to convey the message of Christ.

In a press release from HCJB Global, pastor of King of Kings Baptist Church in Fish Hoek, John Thomas, said, “Since the World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world, it follows logically that it has to be the biggest event to reach people for Christ.”

For the next four weeks, up to 1500 youth from age 4 to 17 will have the chance to improve their soccer skills, while they also improve their life skills such as teamwork, self-discipline, good sportsmanship, and making the best of everyday according to God’s Word.

After activities conclude daily at 4 p.m., that day’s World Cup games will be shown on a large screen while the children enjoy refreshments.

Pray for the kids HCJB and their partners will be impacting through this ministry. Pray also for God to be the ultimate victor throughout all of South Africa.

Do you think sporting events are a good way to reach out to people? Who are you cheering for this World Cup?

I was pleased to find out from blog readers earlier this month that I’m not the only person whose favorite Narnia book is Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The official trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation has been released this week. Fellow Dawn Treader fans, what do you think?

Does this trailer make you more or less confident that the film will be faithful to the book? Do you see any red flags? I, for one, was pleasantly surprised to see the monopods hopping around—that was probably my favorite of the Dawn Treader’s many adventures (although I look forward to seeing Eustace’s unfortunate “transformation,” with its moving allegory of sin and forgiveness, on the big screen as well).

Did you do any spring cleaning this year? Each year as winter draws slowly to a close and the last piles of snow melt away, I count down the days until it’s finally warm enough to open the house windows and let the spring breeze in. It’s the time-honored tradition of spring cleaning, when all the little household chores, repairs, and cleanups that have been put off all winter must finally be dealt with.

This devotional from Delve Into Jesus uses the metaphor of spring cleaning to make a point about our Christian faith: it’s important to periodically conduct a “spring cleaning” of your spiritual life. “Little” sins and unhealthy habits have a way of accumulating over time if we let them, and there comes a time when we must grit our teeth and clean them out:

Dealing with sin in our lives is a bit like taking care of chores around the house. None of us are free from the need to battle sin; it is an ever-present, daily struggle to identify and weed out problem areas where we are not living the life Jesus intends for us. The more frequently and diligently we do this, the cleaner our spirit will be. If we neglect this task entirely, it won’t take long before we are wading in filth and grime.

Most of us do an admirable job of identifying and tackling the bigger sins, even if we don’t always win the fight every time…. But how are we doing with the little sins? I’m referring to the ones which keep getting put off and pushed down our chore list as we battle for control over the larger and more serious sins. We can procrastinate for a little while, but eventually the combined effect on your spiritual health of these so-called “smaller” sins can cause just as much damage as the larger ones. If we are going to keep our spirits clean and healthy, then maybe it’s time for a little spring cleaning.

Can you relate to this experience? Have you allowed sins or habits to accumulate in your life, but you keep putting off the task of confronting them? If you cleaned your physical house out earlier this year but still need to clean out your spiritual house, stop putting it off—do a little spiritual spring cleaning today!

In Job 29:6, a nostalgic Job pines for the days that his “path was drenched with cream.” This devotional from Today points out how this odd phrase is a fantastic descriptor of good things God gives us, and how we need to be careful that we don’t take the “cream” in our life for granted:

Jesus warns, though, that sometimes “the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful” (Mark 4:19). And it’s true. Sometimes we worry, asking, Do I have enough cream? or What will all this cream do to my cholesterol level? or Is the cream as good as it used to be? And we get taken in by the deceitfulness of riches and extras that cater to our desires as we wonder, Why can’t I have strawberries with my cream? or Why doesn’t God give me flavored cream?

When we focus on the cream—on the extra things, we soon become dissatisfied. How much better to be content with basic milk and daily bread, and if God chooses to drench us with cream, to say heartily, “Thank you, Lord.” Then, as an old catechism puts it, “we can be patient when things go against us, [and] thankful when things go well.”

Are you content with the basic milk and bread that God gives you? Is there anything in your life that you’ve been taking for granted that you shouldn’t be?

It’s time for another entry in our series of posts about common objections to Christianity. In each post, we present an often-heard objection to the Christian faith and ask for your response, in your own words.

Imagine that a friend has challenged you with this objection, and that you don’t have access to any books, sermons, or other publications to which you can refer them. They want to hear your response, in your own words!

How would you respond to this statement:

The archaeological evidence for much of the history of the Old Testament is shaky—archaeologists are divided about whether the evidence supports the Exodus, the Israelite campaign against Canaan, and other key points of Biblical history. And anytime somebody claims to have find archaeological evidence for a miraculous item or event like Noah’s Ark or the Resurrection, the evidence turns out to be mistaken or fabricated. If the Bible’s account of history were really true, there would be definitive evidence for it.

Previous posts in this series:

The church is full of hypocrites!

Does prayer really work?

Why does God allow Hell to exist?

Did God endorse genocide?

Four years ago the World Cup turned me into a raving soccer fan for a month. I found myself watching matches on the local Spanish stations just to keep up with the day-to-day action. Anyone who would listen to me was hit with a barrage of facts and animated play-by-plays. After the Cup ended, my interest in the sport dwindled until it started up again this summer with the 2010 World Cup.

Looking back, those hot summer days four years ago feel like they happened just yesterday. In the interim I’ve been through life-changing events and circumstances, but despite the weight of those events when they were happening, life continued to go on. The same sensation comes over me when I look at my nieces and nephews and realize that they can now talk in full sentences, or in some cases have stopped laughing so hard at their goofy uncle.

And when I look forward, the only thing I can really conclude is that I have no idea what’s going to happen.

When we look back on our past, we see how quickly life moves along; and when we look forward, the only thing we can conclude is that life is full of the unexpected. Today’s devotional from Chuck Swindoll’s Day by Day discusses how we should view the present in light of this knowledge:

I suggest there are three words that adequately and accurately describe the present. They do not contradict either lesson we have learned from time, nor do they require rose-colored glasses. Neither do they agree with philosophy’s futile meanderings. For as we look at the present, we discover: LIFE IS CHALLENGING.

Because it is short, life is packed with challenging possibilities. Because it is uncertain, it’s filled with challenging adjustments. I’m convinced that’s much of what Jesus meant when He promised us an abundant life. Abundant with challenges, running over with possibilities, filled with opportunities to adapt, shift, alter, and change. Come to think of it, that’s the secret of staying young. It is also the path that leads to optimism and motivation.

With each new dawn, life delivers a package to your front door. When you hear that ring tomorrow morning, try something new. Have Jesus Christ answer the door for you.

Life’s most challenging opportunities are often brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.

Can you relate? What unexpected circumstances have come into your life over the last year, and looking at them in retrospect, can you see that they were opportunities for growth?

Ted Haggard has once again found himself in the limelight—this time not for his very public personal problems, but rather for his quick return to ministry.

It’s a story that plays out every few years: a leader falls from grace, goes into a period of rehabilitation, and then attempts to rebuild their ministry. Google can help you find countless additional examples of leaders who have gone through this process. To me, there’s always an element of concern that surrounds these reappearances: Will anyone ever trust these leaders again? Should they?

I believe in mankind’s limitless capacity for sin, and in the limitless power of God’s forgiveness and grace. However, just as it takes time for one to become ensconced in sin, it takes time to break free from it. And the people who are hurt by someone else’s sin often need time to forgive as well. When I’m wronged, I always attempt to forgive people quickly with words, but it often takes my heart a bit longer to catch up to that commitment. I don’t think I’m alone in that sentiment. I can only imagine the difficult issues one would have to work through after a trusted pastor’s fall from grace.

Haggard’s fall and return will not be the last story like it, so rather than debate the merits of his particular circumstance I’d rather use it as a way to give context to a discussion on the restoration process. It’s unfortunate, but many of us have trusted (or will trust) a leader who has gone through a moral failing of some kind. The Bible doesn’t give us an outline of how to restore a leader, although 1 Timothy 3 outlines the qualifications overseers and deacons should have before they start their ministry, which seems to give us a good overview of where a leader should be before they return to ministry.

How do you think the restoration process should happen? Should there be an imposed timeframe in which the leader is considered “barred” from ministry? What steps should they have to go through in order to be considered fit for ministry? And how should the hurting people left in their wake handle the situation?

I like my privacy. My Myers-Briggs test results indicate that I’m some sort of super-introvert. I often feel uncomfortable shaking hands with people at church and I spend time stressing out over my Facebook privacy settings.

And so it was a challenge for me to read this devotional from the Online Pulpit archives this morning, recounting the author’s visit to Vietnam and the lessons he learned there about privacy and public engagement:

In Vietnam there is little separation between public life and personal life. Especially in the north and central part of Vietnam, where there is much less Western influence, the people conduct life out in the open. The small shops that line most of the streets are places of business, but here shop owners also sit with their families and their neighbors while they eat their meals and drink afternoon tea. It’s nearly impossible to distinguish between paying customers and family members. And when you walk the street, it’s not uncommon to be invited to sit for a while. [...]

I was struck by how dramatically this contrasts with the American obsession with privacy. We have weatherized our porches and air-conditioned our homes so that the windows and doors are almost always closed, and our blinds or drapes are often pulled. If we do venture out, it is into the privacy of our back yards. We are intentionally not open to the streets and our neighbors. One sociologist says that Americans have lost a sense of public space. In our search for privacy we have retreated, and we now fail to value publicly shared lives—lives that pour out into the streets.

Vietnam was a vivid picture for me of the task that lies ahead for my church. We must find a way to pour our lives out into the streets. Our church services and activities should be much more open to passersby. And more of our activities should be done on the streets and in the neighborhood. After all, according to the Scripture, “The Word became flesh and moved right into the neighborhood” (Jn 7:17, The Message). We need to do the same.

Talk to any American who’s spent a lot of time in a foreign country, and you’re likely to get a similar story: America, and by extension the church that lives within it, are much more private than many other countries and cultures. I experienced this vividly during an extended stay in rural Jordan—in the village where we stayed (and even in the large modern city of Amman) it was almost impossible to walk more than a block in any direction without being invited to a stranger’s house for tea or dinner.

It’s unlikely that I’ll ever change my relatively introverted personality (nor do I especially want to). But while intense and continual social engagement was disorienting and sometimes awkward… it also left me with the sense that Americans, with our emphasis on privacy, are missing out on something important.

What would it look like if Christians lived lives that were “poured out into the streets”? What does your church do to actively engage its community and encourage church members to live open, welcoming social lives?