Author Archives: Royce

Aug 30 2010

Social Networking for Jesus


In recent weeks I have had readers visit from about a dozen foreign countries and about 40 states. Amazingly, little ole’ me can type a post here, hit the publish icon with my mouse, and in less than 5 minutes have an email telling me someone from across the world has read my post and made a comment.

Who can imagine what the next decade, or the next 25 years will be like? I have a profile on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and some others. Some of my friends have even more. For about $39 I can do an impressive background check on almost anyone if I know their name, or telephone number, or address, and I can do it in about one minute.

I have enjoyed contacting old classmates and catching up with old friends from places I’ve lived over the last 50 years. I think last time I looked I had something over 700 friends on Facebook. I don’t know most of them but someone I know knows them so they wanted to be my friend. I have no idea why.

So I’m thinking today….just how effective is the social networking platforms for ministry, and more specifically for evangelism. One way to measure this is to compare 2010 to about 80 or 90 A.D.

A group of rag-tag fishermen, a tax collector, a doctor, and other roustabouts started to follow Jesus of Nazareth. He performed miracles, healed the infirm, opened blinded eyes, fed multitudes with a few loaves of bread and a few fish, raised the dead, and preached. His message was against the established religion of the day and he was considered by most of the church crowd to be quite a rebel.

You know the story, Jesus was executed after being convicted in a kangaroo court, and then after being buried for 3 days he was raised from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus was common knowledge in all the near countries in a short time.

These first century evangelists were common men and women who for the most part were uneducated, had very limited training in the Scriptures, didn’t like each other, many of them were dirt poor, yet they turned the world upside down for the cause of Christ. At once after the events of that first Pentecost after Christ’s resurrection the gospel swept across the land like the wind.

No printing presses for flyers or tracts, or Bibles. No telephones, no telegraphs, none of almost everything we take for granted today, and the record shows that those first century Christians were indeed very effective. And, the record is also clear that we are not very effective. Especially in this country we are loosing ground, not holding our own. Some of the sects are recruiting members at much higher rates. Why?

One would think that with all the technology, all the education, all the wealth, we should be blazing with evangelistic zeal. We aren’t.

Maybe we are too comfortable

Cars with nav systems, huge flat screen HDTV’s, cosmetic surgeons, lake houses and club memberships are standard fare for some of us. Even the poorest of us (in the U.S.A.) are rich compared to much of the rest of the world. We are full and happy, and making plans to build bigger barns.

We have no persecution

Severe persecution marked the history of the church for the first several centuries after Christ was raised from the dead. That persecution was the very thing God used to spread the people and thus the message of the good news far and wide. Christ promised it would come, and it did to them, and it turned out to be good for the gospel cause. Maybe we haven’t done anything threatening enough to be persecuted for.

Maybe we are off message

Those earliest gospel heralds preached Jesus, his death, burial, and resurrection. It was the resurrection that stirred up the opposition the most. We preach on it a lot on Easter Sunday but not a lot otherwise. We quote scripture to each other on Facebook and try to one-up each other with pithy quotes on Twitter, but there is precious little gospel out reach on the social platforms I know about.

Maybe we are going and doing in our own power

Jesus said “I have all the power in heaven and on earth and I’ll give it to you”. You go wait until you receive that power and then go be my witnesses and I’ll be with you, you have nothing to fear.” So, this bunch of guys who ran like rabbits before Jesus was crucified, less than two months later were mighty men of God who feared nothing but God. Maybe we should wait before God in prayer until we have that same power for gospel witness.

Maybe we need a new profile

Instead of thinking I’m Bob, a teacher, father, and avid football fan who is a Christian, we should be thinking I’m a Christian who happens to be a teacher, father, and football fan. Maybe a new identity would change our sense of worth and affect our work for Jesus and the gospel. A different profile might result in new priorities.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:18-21)

Royce

Aug 25 2010

A new look at an old institution – the Church


Brian Mashburn’s post today reminded me of something I needed to write. Brian’s post is titled “Change how you do church or watch your church die“.

The traditional way we build churches is sort of  a competition. Group “A” will locate a town with no church like their brand in it and they will plant a church there. Then they will try to grow that church, especially numerically. In truth, the goal, even if unspoken, is to be the largest church in town one day. I think its settled that the way success is measured is by Sunday a.m. attendance isn’t it?

Consider a new way.

A congregation wants to evangelize Yourtown, USA.  Three young couples who have been discipled and are mature believes are willing to move to the town to plant a church. So they move, find housing, get jobs, put the kids in school, and start meeting in the living room of one of the couples. The group grows, and soon outgrows the living room. Here is where the story changes.

(Back to Yourtown, USA for a moment. Lets suppose this town has 8 major apartment complexes, 4 large subdivisions, and a large trailer park. There are jobs, a favorable climate, acceptable tax structure, and people are moving in.)

The traditional way, is to begin trying to find a larger space, first to rent, until they get big enough to purchase land and build a building. And many thousands have done just that. In a few years they have lets say 200 solid members.

What if when Bob and Carol’s space becomes too small, they simply start a simultaneous group over at Ted and Alice’s apartment complex, and when that space gets to small they begin another at Bill and Susan’s trailer park meeting room, etc, etc, etc.

You tell me which is more Biblical and a more effective model.

Traditional: In five years there are two hundred members, two services on Sunday and one on Wednesday night. There are Bible classes, the church is supporting foreign missions, people are happy and things are going well. People are members from all over the town, there were 7 baptisms last year and some other families joined whose jobs brought them here. The young church has a full-time preacher, a youth minister, two elders, and a huge mortgage. Pretty typical huh?

Non-Traditional: In five years there are 12 cell churches. Each of them meets weekly for teaching, praying together, communion, worship, and mutual encouragement. Each member of each group lives in the apartment complex, subdivision, trailer park, etc. For instance, Ted and Alice have 9 couples in their group and are about to birth another in a nearby community where a member’s brother and his wife live. Ted and Alice and the other 8 families minister to the people who live in this complex, first, and then to others. When someone has a death in the family these Christians are there with food, a listening ear, baby sitting, money, or whatever help they can give. Ted and Alice and their group try desperately to love the people of that complex in Jesus stead. They will see people who have been loved open to the gospel and the Lord will add to his church.

Twelve small communities are being saturated with Christian love, concern, and modeling life as it should be lived to a watching world. Each of those complexes, subdivisions, and trailer parks are well aware of these good people who want nothing but to love them.

The leaders of the several groups meet once every few weeks to pray for each other and their people, to brainstorm, to plan large group community fairs, picnics, ect where the whole town (and all the groups) can be invited. Three men, who each lead a group, are elders. Any problems that cannot be sorted out by the people themselves is shared with these  three men who decide what is best and right.

Which model is better?

I contend that the very best traditional church, where most of what happens happens inside the “building” can never reach a community as well as the newer model. There is no competition between groups in the new model because when a group gets to about 9 or 10 families (or less) they have already been praying about where to begin a new church. (they are churches you know…) There is no salary to pay, there is no mortgage payment, so guess what? The people have more discretionary dollars to use to help others and support missions.

In my view the new model is an ego crusher. There is no big “I” and little “you”. There is just Christians being salt and light to the people who live near them. They are Christ’s ambassadors to the people they play ball with, bowl with, eat BBQ with, etc.

It might be a new way or the highway!

The attractional model of doing church once worked pretty well. No more in my view. If we don’t find a way, some way, to actually be involved in our neighbors lives with love, and help, and healing, and hope, we are a dying breed. There are some churches, even mega-churches, that are doing a great job of ministering to the communities they serve. They are meeting the needs of the people in tangible ways and making opportunities for gospel conversations. They are rare though, and I think becoming more rare.

I can imagine dozens of house churches all over a city sitting in living rooms, or on back porches, watching a live stream of a man of God teaching the Bible on a big screen TV patched to a computer. What does the future hold? Only God knows. I do know that where ever God’s sheep are that is where the church is, big or small, traditional or non-traditional. Jesus is still building it and until He comes for it, we get to work with him in his mission.

Agape”

Royce

Aug 24 2010

10 Things Armenians DON’T Have a Problem With, BUT SHOULD


God is undeniably sovereign over these things; however, Arminians do NOT have a problem with His Sovereignty over temporal things.

via 10 Things Arminians DON’T Have a Problem With, BUT SHOULD.

An interesting read. What do you think?

I believe that at least some Armenians believe things happen by random chance. The Bible does not support that view.

Consider these facts:

  • God did not have a  pre-conception interview with Mary and her parents to arrange for her pregnancy by the seed of God. He simply announced to her: “And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High…” (Luke 1:31,32)
  • When it was time for the Ethiopian official to hear the gospel, God sent a preacher.
  • When God needed a man to reveal his truth about the gospel of Christ and to suffer for his name He confronted Saul of Tarsus, rebuked him, and announced his plan for Paul’s life and work.

If we believe these things, and we do, isn’t it odd that we think God can’t, or doesn’t, decide about who will or will not be saved? “Whosoever will let him come” is an invitation from God himself and it does not conflict in the least with his command that those who will come were chosen before the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God.

At age 65 I find myself still trying to sort out what I believe and why. There is much I don’t know. There are some things I believe but am not sure why, but I am searching, praying, listening…

Agape’

Royce

Aug 23 2010

The Joy of Biscuits


Ahh…there is hardly anything on earth that gives me more pleasure than hot biscuits. (I try to refrain from using the singular form of the noun, “biscuit”, since I avoid eating only one..)

My earliest memories include a pan of momma’s biscuits on the table. For more than 60 years her biscuits were as consistent as McDonald’s french fries. They were always fluffy and light and boy did they taste good! In her later years, mom made her biscuits on top of the stove in an aluminum pan. It is a hinged pan with two equal sides. She knew just the right amount of time for side A and then she would flip it over to side B and when they came out of that pan into the wicker basket they were perfect.

My dad’s lunch when he was a school boy was a biscuit sandwich of some sort. Sometimes jelly, or if they had it, a piece of pork. He loved those lunches and after many decades still had warm memories of grandma Ogle’s biscuits. He would be quick to tell you though that “Vivian’s are the best anywhere”.

Things are simpler now. A flat of Pillsbury biscuits at Sam’s Club is about $3.00, they are already cooked, and are delicious. They only need to be heated a bit and I think they are just as good as mamma’s. There is no need for the process, or the skill, of making them from scratch. You can go from hungry to munching on a wonderful biscuit in about 20 seconds!

Biscuits and gravy will surely be served at the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven. How could a place really be heaven without biscuits and gravy? Carol serves up biscuits and gravy for my breakfast several times and month. Now some folks, mainly city slickers, think that sort of table fare isn’t good for you. Well, let me tell you something. This antique body is programmed to only run with perfect precision when fueled often with biscuits and pork grease.

Hot biscuits with butter and honey, with blackberry jelly, with peach preserves, or with apple butter are unbeatable. Once in a blue moon I’ll run across someone who knows what red-eye gravy is. A biscuit soaked in red-eye gravy is oh so good! My favorite I suppose is biscuits and gravy with eggs and sausage. I want the eggs over easy, the sausage spicy, and I break the biscuits in little pieces and cover the whole mess with gravy. That is right up there with good collard greens and corn bread!

Hey gals, want to make your feller happy! Give him biscuits, lots of biscuits, he’ll love you for it! I have never talked to a guy down at the service station who said “My wife makes the very best toast anywhere”. They say the way to a guy’s heart is his stomach. I’m pretty sure when God created stomachs the next thing he thought of was hot biscuits. There is no doubt biscuits have saved lots of marriages. You think I’m joking but nope, I really believe it.

See you at the local Cracker Barrel. I’ll be the old guy with a breakfast menu in my hand!

Royce