Darrin Patrick is a friend of mine who leads a wonderful church in St. Louis. He has also recently authored a book entitled Church Planter: The Man, The Message, The Mission. A promotional video for his book was posted this morning and after watching it, I can say, if you don’t read the book (which I hope you do if you’re a Lead Pastor), this video should at least inspire you to lead your church well.
I caught this video post today at The Gospel Coalition (originally created by Heath McPherson) and wanted to share it here as well. This is an excerpted message from Tim Keller’s 2007 conference message (which is one of my all-time favorites) put together in video form. While there might be some liberties taken in a couple analogies to Christ in the Old Testament, on the whole, this is exactly how I feel about the ultimate, and preeminent, message of the Bible. And thus, how I feel the Bible should be preached, taught and read to all.
This past week my small group talked at length about the all-too-often unbelievable aspect of God’s grace, namely that God gives his riches to us based not upon our merit but the achievement of his Son for us in the gospel. This is the gospel-truth from which the Christian life is lived. It affects everything we do: work, marriage, parenting, etc. Yet, mindful of its centrality, I find myself regularly forgetting to operate from this essential truth.
However, in looking over some class notes from my doctoral studies this summer, I ran across this encouraging passage from Martin Luther’s The Sum of the Christian Life:
I myself have been preaching and cultivating [grace] through reading and writing for almost twenty years and still feel the old clinging dirt of wanting to deal so with God that I may contribute something so that He will give me His grace in exchange for my holiness. Still I cannot get it into my head that I should surrender myself completely to sheer grace, yet [I know that] this is what I should and must do.
Luther’s words remind me that even the more spiritually mature can derail themselves from living out of grace. Brother Martin gives me hope knowing that even one of the men God used to restore the church to the message of grace struggled in his head with living out that very grace in his life. It proves to me once again that grace really is that amazing!
It’s no secret Radiohead has been my favorite band for some time. This video from UNICEF (with track donated by RH) gives me one more reason to like them all the more. Watch and get a little more perspective on what really happens to some children around the world. Sobering to say the least.
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”
- The Gospel According to St. Matthew 25:35-40
Ways you can help:
Anne Rice, the famed author of “Interview with a Vampire,” garnered news a few years ago when she publicly announced she had become a Christian. Today, she created a buzz with the news she is done with Christianity. On Wednesday, Rice posted on Facebook:
For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten …years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.
…I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.
Today she continued:
My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn’t understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become.
On first blush there are things I like about Rice’s confession.
Thus, I think there are things in Rice’s words to, at some level, affirm. But her sentiments also create caution in me. I don’t think she intends this, but her words can be construed to say, “I believe in Christ. I just don’t want to follow Him.” How do I get there?
Rice lists beliefs she obviously considers right no matter what “Christianity” – the collection of believers throughout history – says. They are dogma to her. But what if, in following Christ, she discovers that Christ holds beliefs in conflict with hers? What does she do then? It appears she may have already shown us: just write off the church. Blame them for being wrong in it all. Say they’ve lost their way and don’t have a grip on modernity. But what if, on some issues, that’s imply not true? What if she’s just at odds with the biblical understanding of an issue. Then maybe…
She really needs to write off Jesus?
The Gospel accounts show us that Jesus gave teachings which very well may conflict with our fallen, man-centered ways of seeing things. His very own disciples (the institutional church at the time, by the way) felt this sting of this truth. John 6:6-69 records:
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
The real question we should ask ourselves is, Who do you really believe has the words to eternal life? You or Jesus?
If, like Peter, you believe that Jesus is “the Holy One of God” then what he says about anything and everything is true…even if it conflicts with what you believe about life, gender, sexuality, politics or any other area. And believe me, Christ will say “hard” things – things we need to wrestle with, repent of and embrace. Can the institutional church get things wrong? Yes. For that, she should repent. But, if in finding through the Scripture rightly understood, we are the on opposite side of Jesus and his Word (which Jesus completely affirmed) on any issue, it is we who are to move, not him. Divorcing ourselves from “Christianity” isn’t the answer to the conflict. It’s helping to work with the church to make sure she is hearing God’s Word clearly and truly (see Martin Luther).
The truth is Jesus died for the church. He loves the church. And if we want to follow Jesus, we must love what he loves and believe what he believes. Picking and choosing what we like about Jesus and his Word – embracing what fits our preconceived notions and rejecting the rest – only shows us we want our version of Jesus but not the real Jesus. This warning is for you, me, Ms. Rice and anyone who considers themselves a Christian.
Because to believe in Jesus is to follow Jesus.
