Yes, it is I, the phantom faith blogger. It has been far too long. It is one of those situations where it went to long, then it just kept getting longer, then you start feeling bad, but you keep pushing it off, then it gets almost laughable, then you feel even more bad, then you finally get back to it. So here I am.
Over the next few weeks, I will finish out this series. One more after this one at least. And I will also update you on the church planting front.

If you remember way back to the first article in this series, the third element of the Acts church was meeting the needs of others. More specifically, they were living communally, and if a need came up within their church family, they met it. However, I imagine, because they were following Christ, I believe they would be caring for orphans and widows.

See aside from all the other things God wants us to do, He has boiled it down to just two commandments. Do you remember Mark 12:29-31? The most important commands are to love your Lord and love your neighbor. This is all we have to worry about. If you adhere to these, all the other commands will take care of themselves.

So if we act like the Acts church and truly start loving each other and loving our neighbors, what would this do to our church? Would we see dying churches? Would we see a world heading to hell in a handbasket? Probably a lot less so.

I know we have talked about it before, but I cannot say it enough, start loving.

And finally, let me be the first to say, “Welcome Back.” To myself.

Technorati Tags: acts, church, faith, love

Admittedly, it has been a bit since my last post.  I am happy to report that during this time, I have finished my tax preparation for my accountant.  Now that I have that behind me, I can refocus once again.

To recap where we were, we are looking at the three legs of the Tripod For Church Success.  (In your head, imagine that last part being read by the guy who does the movie preview voice overs.  It will sound much more dramatic)

The second leg in the Tripod of Church Success is the leg of fellowship. I honestly believe it is one of the most underdeveloped legs in the American church, and this underdevelopment has had a powerful impact on the impotency of the church.

What is fellowship? Let’s first look at what it is not. Some erroneously believe it is one and the same with church membership. If you are a member, you are part of the fellowship. Others believe that showing up at church every time the doors are open equates to fellowship. People are sometimes admonished regarding their church absences that they should not be forsaking the fellowship of believers. Thus equating attendance with fellowship.

Let’s take a moment to honestly look at our individual church experiences. I can name multiple ‘members’ of different churches who were recluses. They are members, but to most in the church they are strangers. Many who attend church every time the doors are open are the same. As soon as they are open at the end of service, they are the first to bolt out the door, and you best not be in their path, because you will probably get run over.

So, after all that, what is fellowship?

1. Fellowship is deliberate and takes time. It is more than just the hey how are you that typically takes place after church service.
2. Fellowship is the vehicle by which we are drawn close to each other to care for each other and to hold each other accountable. I cannot care for you well if I barely know you, and I cannot hold you accountable or you hold me accountable if we do not have a relationship deep enough to allow and survive such interaction.
3. Fellowship is sweet. When God’s people fellowship, they should feel like they are in the sweetest place on earth (even sweeter than Hershey, Pa). When we fellowship we are acting as God’s family and therein lies the sweetness.
4. Fellowship involves openness. If I am in a relationship with you, and I am not open with you, I can never feel close to you. Why? Because without openness, I never really know if you accept me for me. Think about your relationships. The more open you are with someone, the closer you will feel to them.
5. Fellowship is God’s design. This is why we are admonished not to forsake it. The question is, are you willing to risk your time, your heart, and your agenda to truly experience God’s best for you?

So what is our leg challenge for this week?

As individuals, we need to evaluate how much true fellowship we are getting. Are we building relationships with our brothers and sisters to a level beyond casual. Some of us are great at this, some may need some work. Only you can tell. Maybe it is time clear some spots in our schedule God’s relational agenda.

As churches, I think there is a temptation to overlook the degree of importance this has in the life of a believer. I think it is time to consider having church functions that do not include a Bible study. One where fellowship is the top priority. Christians dedicate a lot of time to the functions of the church, and I believe the church needs to do a better job of deliberately creating environments for the third leg to develop. Some people will not do something unless the church has a function to do it in. Realizing this, we need to meet people where they are, and use this wonderful aspect of Christian living to take them to the next level.  The church needs to treat fellowship on equal status with doctrinal learning, and not like a red headed step child.

Technorati Tags: acts, church growth, fellowship, taxes

Last week, I laid the foundation for looking at how we act as a church and how these actions affect our impact on our world around us.  I call the three most important activities we should engage in, The Tripod of Success.

All of you are familiar with a tripod.  You put your video camera on it, and it is supposed to help compensate for your lack of video skills by keeping things steady.  Now, imagine if you cut off one of the legs, what will happen?  Imagine if you cut off two of the legs, what will happen?  Clearly, without three legs, the tripod is unstable at best.  The tripod is weak and impotent when it comes to its job as a camera stabilizer.

Looking back at last week, here is what we see:

If we look at Acts 2:42-47, we see that they church was engaging the three basic activities, and through that, God was adding to their numbers.  If you boil down these verses, you can see the following three activities:

1. They were devoting themselves to the Apostle’s teaching.
2. They were eating/fellowshipping together daily.
3. They were helping anyone in need.

This week we are going to look at the first leg.  Now I have trouble imagining a ‘Christian’ church in America that does not teach at least some of the Bible.  Some churches add to it, some subtract from it, but most would claim as their basis the Bible.

Most churches I am aware of pride themselves in getting the first leg correct.  Many churches have Sunday School, Sunday Worship, Sunday Night Service, and Wednesday Night Churches.  Throw in a week of revival services now and again, and the opportunity to be devoted to the Apostles teaching is constantly within reach.

And now, with youtube, church’s websites, and other internet services, we can fully immerse ourselves in the teaching of the Bible.  Bible, Bible everywhere.  In fact, thanks to the Bible, a luxury the early church did not have by the way, you can devote yourself to the Apostle’s teaching anytime and anywhere.

So what is the challenge?  What is the church growth challenge?  Honestly, this leg of the tripod is the most sound.  Yes, there are variances throughout different churches, but the opportunity for exposure is there.  So what is our challenge?

In college, and in select classes in some churches, I have taken classes on the technique of studying the Bible.  These classes should be constantly in front of the people of Christ for their consumption.  Why are they so important and what are they about? (no need to ask, I ask the questions for you.)  The purpose of these classes, also known as hermeneutics classes, is to study the Bible is such a way that we understand better what the author intended.  In other words, we let the text tell us what should happen in our lives rather than using our lives to decide what the text means.

For example, imagine 2,000 years from now, and the Borg have taken over our world.  They assimilate the internet, and find a on some remote server this blog.  In the blog, I write, “It is raining cats and dogs today.”  Now, 2000 years from now, in whatever Borgian language this translates to, a young Borg may actually start looking up each time it rains, waiting for the cats and dogs to start falling.  Context is everything.  Knowing and understanding the context of Biblical passages is key to understanding the teachings of the Bible.

So that is our challenge for this week, as a people and as the Church.  For the people, learn to study the Bible properly.  For the Church, go beyond teaching the Bible, and teach people to study the Bible properly.

That is all for this week, next week we will look at the second leg.  Until then, Love God, and Love your neighbor.

Technorati Tags: bible, church, faith, hermeneutics, study, tripod

OK, I know I am late in updating everyone on this, but I I have been running around like a crazy man this past week.  Last Thursday we had our church planting assessment, and then on Friday, at work we had to move to a new office.  This has severely limited my time to think, let alone write.  However, I am back.

The assessment was great.  The men who conducted it did a great job identifying some key areas that Stef and I should work on before embarking on a church plant.  So far all we have is the preliminary report.  We are looking forward to sitting down with our pastor with the full report once we receive it.

As we work on fine tuning our skills, we will also be talking to our Pastor about how to best facilitate moving forward with the plant.

Some things that can be prayed for:

1. A team- starting a church can be a monumental task.  Obviously, we have strengths and weaknesses, and it would be fantastic to partner with some folks which can compliment the Stef’s and my unique make up.

2. A location- there are some locations which seem logical to me, but I am really seeking God as to the best location to embark on this.

3. Humility- Those who know me personally know that I get very passionate about ideas.  Please pray that in that passion, I will stay humble and follow those who God has walking with me in this journey.

That is all I have for now.  Feel free to ask any questions if I missed anything.

I am hoping to increase the frequency of my posts here soon, but we shall see.  Time is such a precious fleeting commodity.

Technorati Tags: assessment, church, church planting, faith, pastor

I want to extend a loving welcome to the Atheists (they claim it, not I.  I say this because of the site you are coming from.) who have started reading my blog in recent days.  If some of you are in fact agnostic, I welcome you as well.  I appreciate the feedback and your honesty.  My only request is that we keep it on an intellectual level and not degrade it to name calling or character judging.  This does nothing to further the conversation and only feeds negative stereotypes.  Besides that, I doubt any of you actually know me, so you are in no place to judge my character.

I look forward to answering some of your concerns shortly.  I will explain the delay below.  I also plan on posting this on the blog you are all coming from to ensure you get a chance to see it.

An update for everyone:

The reason I am not addressing the comments or even posting a deep post for the past two weeks is preparation for the Church Planting assessment which is next Thursday.  Half of the work was due yesterday, and the rest when we show up.  Hopefully I can get it finished this weekend, but we shall see.  Please keep my wife and I in your prayers as we walk down this road.

By next Friday, I should be able to dedicate more time here to my writing.

One other word of caution to those readers who claim the name of Christ- There are those who claim Christ and angrily condemn and attack others when they are discussing things that seem to be attacking their belief system.  Please do not fall into this trap.  This is not how Christ would respond, and neither should we.  People who respond this way give all Christians a bad name.  God loves those who have different opinions than us, and so should we regardless of how they respond to us.

That being said, any comment that is contrary to me and my post will be allowed to stay unless it is does not adhere to the standards of a polite society.   You know what I am talking about.  Any comment by a Christian that starts attacking those that do not agree with us will be deleted as soon as I can get to it.

Let’s try to keep all discussions intellectual and not emotional.

If you are not aware of what I am referring to, you can visit it here.

Technorati Tags: atheist, atheists, athiest, athiests, christ, church planting

I want to get the new year off to a proper start by sharing a little bit with you about what God has in store for me and my family 2009.  Before I elaborate on this, I want to give you a little bit of my background.  Some of it you know, but some will be new.

As many of you know, I went to college to study to become a pastor.  After taking some preaching classes, it was abundantly clear to me and those who suffered through my sermons that my gift was not in preaching.  Through this experience I came to realize that my future still lay in ministry, but not in a preaching pastoral role.

For the past ten or so years I have been working in various jobs knowing that full time ministry was in my distant future.  Somewhere around five years ago I started feeling a weight on my shoulders.  A weight is the best way I can describe it.  It was this overwhelming sense that God had something for me to do.  I did not know what or when, I just knew something was coming.

As time passed, the weight increased.  In one sense, it was a bit frustrating.  I was willing to do anything, I just did not know what God wanted me to do.  About six months ago it was very intense.

I want to take a moment to clarify something.  I am not one prone to mysticism.  I look through the Bible and see certain men and women at certain times called out to a specific task for God.  Besides those times, I believe these folks were free to live their lives as they wished as long as they were not violating scripture.

So all that said, the weight on me was very intense.  So much so that I let a great real estate deal pass by so I could be ready to act, I knew I would find out soon what the task would be.  As much as I hated to let that deal go, I had to be as unfettered as possible, and this property would not have allowed me this opportunity to focus.

Within two weeks of passing on this deal, I was meditating on some scripture when it came to me.  It was totally unexpected.  God wants my wife and I to start a Church.  This is the last thing I would have thought God wanted.  To be totally honest, I feel a bit like Moses.  God, I can’t speak.  However, I will move forward in faith.

From a different perspective, I also feel a bit like Abraham when God asked him to leave his home, but did not tell him where to go.  I know I am supposed to start a church, but do not know where or how at this point.

Please do not misinterpret what I am saying:

• This is not my desire, it is God’s, you have to trust me on this one.

• This is not born out of dissatisfaction with our current church home, we love it at our church.  We are getting more involved and have great relationships.
• I am both scared to death and very excited to serve God in this day.

Over the next months as we prepare for this, I will keep you all posted on the progress.  The vision I have for how this Church will function I will lay out as well once they become a little more distilled in my head.  All visions and plans will be fluid to the guiding of God.

As of right now, we are planning to attend a Church planters assessment next month.  This assessment as far as I understand it is not intended to decide if you should plant a church, but to help you stategize in light of your skill sets and weaknesses.  Obviously, I will know more after next month.

Other than that, it is just one step at time.  I tried to cover everything here, but if you have any questions, please ask them in the comments, I would love to answer them.

Technorati Tags: church, church planting