Community

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A teaching moment

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A teaching moment

The other evening Elaine and I were at a small group we joined at the church. The leader was planning to show a teaching video, but there were problems with the sound, and in the end he (being my age) declared, “I’m just going to teach this myself!” And I was glad he did, because he was outstanding. 

It seems to me there are three critical elements in the health of a local church: teaching, worship and community. Evangelism is of course essential, but what’s the point of evangelizing in order to bring people into a church where there is poor teaching, questionable worship and no sense of relationship? The best thing that could happen is for the convert to go in one door and out the other into a church in better shape.

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The death of death

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The death of death

We should always be ready for the unexpected when it happens.

We were sitting in church this morning at Firm Foundation in Centreville, Michigan waiting to ordain elders. Everything had been planned well in advance.

But just as we arrived the previous day, word came of a terrible accident in which the daughter of a couple in the church had been tragically killed. The couple showed up at church the next morning. Part way through the worship time, they came up to the front and simply fell down on their knees at the edge of the platform, casting themselves upon the grace and mercy of God.

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Joinings of the Lord

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Joinings of the Lord

Joinings of the Lord. My friend Art Good used to use that phrase all the time. You could dress up the language a bit to express what he meant, but I think he got it just right.

A joining of the Lord takes place in that moment where you realize God has brought you and someone else together to partner in relationship toward the advancement of his kingdom. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But I think most people miss it.

And here’s the reason. Our culture is very shallow, a mile wide and an inch deep. It’s not easy for most of us to develop depth in relationship. We prefer to keep our distance. And that attitude seeps into the church.

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When the foundations are forgotten

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When the foundations are forgotten

My friend Don and I were leading a mens’ conference together a couple of weeks ago. Prior to the conference beginning, God had laid a word on my heart about returning to foundations. The Lord had also laid a word on Don’s heart based on the idea of a bulldozer clearing ground. You would have expected that the bulldozer was preparing the land for a totally new building, but on further inspection the machine was actually clearing the dirt off old foundations it was uncovering.

The message was clear: build on the foundations that have been laid.

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Can Christianity survive in a churched culture?

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Can Christianity survive in a churched culture?

We are on the road in Holland, Michigan. This is church country. 

Holland is a pretty and very upmarket tourist community with heated sidewalks to ward off the winter snow, and open gas fireplaces on the street to counter the chill wind. You can buy Christian-themed merchandise in almost every shop. Plaques and mugs are only the beginning. We even saw a plaque with a quotation from the Heidelberg Catechism. The window of the ladies’ wear store was festooned with verses between the dresses. “Fearfully and wonderfully made” was one of them. The toy shop had childrens’ devotionals. And the conversation was similar. In the art store, both conversations we overheard were on local church topics. We did not visit the craft brewery to see whether there were Bible verses on the beer mugs, but being Reformed country, it is possible there were.