Faith You Can See

I started a teaching series on the book of James two weeks ago in the college ministry. When I started it I knew that it was going to be a challenging book to study, but it has really blown my own expectations out of the water. It is REALLY challenging and really practical. This week we are looking at James 1:19-27 which paints a picture of what true faith looks like. As i have studied, there are really 4 different things that James points out. Faith expresses itself in the way that we deal with anger, the way we listen and respond to the Word, the way we speak, and the way we care about the things God cares about.

This is a really challenging passage, but I think James a book that the church needs to embrace in a new way. We (at least in Evangelicalism) have told people that faith is saying a prayer and being convinced in our head of some theological truths. After spending time with James, I think he would say that is a pretty weak definition of the word 'faith.'

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts....

Jesus the Post-modern Evangelist?

Was Jesus a post-modern evangelist at heart? Let me explain what I mean by that. I have been studying for this weekend's message that I am teaching on John 17. I am so excited because the passage is just absolutely jam packed full of applicable truth for the church today. However, one of the things that Jesus said in this prayer really got my attention.

Jesus says,"May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." (John 17:23) The "they" in this verse is talking about followers of Christ; the church. So, Jesus' point is that the way that the world is going to know that Jesus is the Son of God (see also v. 21) is through the unity that the church exhibits. It's not through well crafted arguments, its not through diagrams or pamphlets, and its not through evangelistic crusades. Not that any of those are necessarily bad, but they are not the way that Jesus said people would know that he was the Son of God. Simply, he stated, people will know that he is the Son of God by the way that the people who claim to be his followers love each other and the world around them. So, one of the great evangelistic methods that Jesus taught was a unified body!

That sounds very post-modern. It sounds very experiential. It's almost like Jesus was saying that people have to have an experience with the truth before they are going to really, truly believe it. I wonder if the church has more to say to the post-modern mind than we have originally thought. I also have to wonder if we could make a bigger impact if we were more unified.

Thoughts?

Ash Wednesday

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the Lenten season. As a college group we are going to celebrate the beginning of Lent with an Ash Wednesday service. I am well aware that the Evangelical Church has not typically celebrated Ash Wednesday (or even Lent for that matter), but as a staff we wanted to do something to make the Easter season more impacting this year. The past few years I have felt like Easter has just flown by with a one hour long service on a Sunday morning. So, if you are curious about what Ash Wednesday is all about from an Evangelical perspective, I have included a link to Mark Roberts' blog where he wrote about Ash Wednesday. I think he does a good job of giving a summary - and he is a reputable scholar and pastor.

Let me know what you think about the Evangelical church celebrating Ash Wednesday. Have we gone too far in distancing ourselves from some of the "high church" holy days? Not too far in the sense that any of the days/celebrations (like lent and Ash Wed) provide salvation, but that we are missing out on something that could potentially help us tend to our spiritual lives in a greater manner? I'm interested to know what you think.

http://markdroberts.com/