I’m Fed Up!

Like I said….I’m fed up with the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ. They have gone so far from the truth of the Bible that I’m sick of them. They have gone so far from the New Testament pattern that I don’t think they can be brought back! Who cares about souls or Bible authority…we just want a preacher that can live in our house!!!!!! And another soul dies without God!

”Yes, I still preach for one and will do so until they fire me or I fire myself. But I will preach the truth, no matter what anyone likes or dislikes.

More later, as it develops…….

“There She, ah, I mean, He Is……”

I am on the downhill side of being involved in another “beauty pageant” of my ministry life. Frankly, I’m sick of them,  and it’s time to make some observations on it.

What is a beauty pageant in ministry? Let’s say a church needs a minister. They solicit candidates. Then, they take the best ones, as determined by a board or a search committee, and bring them in for a “trial sermon”, along with an interview. At the end, all of the candidates are placed before the membership of the church for a vote. They will either hire the one who got the most votes, or ask the two who got the most votes back for a runoff. Majority rules….maybe.

Here is the danger.  You have so many candidates, and so many folks who like one candidate over another, that you will never get a clear mandate, and factions develop. It becomes utter chaos, congregationalism gone amok. And if a church is already having issues, any desire for a man who can help to lead them out of their morass through sound preaching and teaching is nothing more that a pipe dream. Plus, once they hire someone, that man has no chance to succeed. He will be second-guessed, and always compared to “the one that got away”.

One church I know of basically descended into anarchy when they couldn’t decide between the candidates they had called in and decided to solicit more candidates. They finally found somebody. God be with them.

We in America are so endeared with “democracy” that we cherish it over everything, including the Word of God.  The only thing that even remotely comes close to such a process is the choosing of what we believe were the first deacons of the church at Jerusalem (Acts 6). Nowhere in the Bible is found mass democracy. We do, however, find evidences of godly, gifted leaders praying and asking for God’s guidance in the selection of people to help in the proclamation of the Gospel (e.g., Paul and Barnabus).

The church also is not a business. We are not hiring for a cashier on the midnight shift. if it is in a “business”, it is in th e”business” of proclaiming the Gospel and doing what it can to bring as many people as possible into a justifying knowledge of the truth. This involves a different paradigm; namely, taking the same message we are charged with proclaiming, and using it to govern the activities of the church. And that Word tells me that  elders (Acts 14:23, Titus 1:5)govern the activities of the church.

It all comes down to this: whose church is it? It’s not “his” or “hers” church; it’s not Brother so-and-so’s church; it sure isn’t mine. It is the LORD’S church! And what He says matters rather than what we think we want. And God did not desire the selection of his messengers to be a popularity contest. If you look at redemptive history, there weren’t too many of those.

But you say, “Ah! God didn’t give a specific plan to select a minister.” You’re right. God didn’t tell us exactly how. But, the thought of going off into your own thing is dangerous. How do you think the Roman Catholics came up with their system? They didn’t pay attention to God’s desires and design. The results are obvious.

Whatever happened to allowing those ordained to oversee the flock to pray, research, and interview the candidate, then present them  to the congregation to either affirm or deny? The elders do what they are supposed to do – oversee the flock to which they are entrusted. There is no mob rule, and there is a congregation united. And…..That is why having  a plurality of elders is so important to any New Testament church. Without qualified men, desirous of the work, anarchy can ensue.

I’ve never been a fan of beauty pageants – of no sort. And there is no place for them in the Lord’s church.

‘Nuff said.

An “Aha!” Moment

If the sheep cannot stray, where is the use of a shepherd?

Every now and then, you have that moment….the moment that crystallizes your thoughts, focuses your thinking, and gives you that “aha” feeling. Not the “I could’ve had a V-8” kind of feeling, but the feeling of “Now it makes sense to me.” It comes in reading, in thinking, most usually in the mundane.

For me, it came last week, while reading that stirring bestseller, the 1976 Florida College Lectures.

I came upon a quote that produced the “aha” moment. It referred to the Franklin-Fisher debate of 1858.

During the debate, Fisher, a known Calvinist, used John 10 and the sheep to teach the doctrine of Impossibility of Apostasy. In reply, Benjamin Franklin replied in the following:

I believe I must refer to these sheep spoken of in John X. One would think to hear him talk, that these sheep should never be caught; there is no danger of wolves catching them, for there is no death for them. I would not pay preachers for not watching a flock and trying to save them, if they could not die. It is all absolute absurdity, and it puts me to mind of a gentleman from Warsaw who had gotten into Universalism. I asked him why they hired preachers to attend them if all were to be saved.

And then, the dagger. Savor it, like a good cigar……..

In the same way I reply to my friend: if the saints can never fall, why employ and pay a man to watch them? If the sheep cannot stray, where is the use of a shepherd?

Think about it……..

Can You Love The Bible Too Much?

I guess that’s what some think. To answer that, read this post at Arminian Today. Excellent thoughts.

Celebrity Justification by Death

Sounds like the title of a new reality show, or a tacky 70’s game show, doesn’t it?

In recent weeks, we’ve been hit with a wave of celebrity deaths. And, the celebrity culture machine has been hard at work, making these people larger thanlife, even to the point of rewarding to them the final prize of eternal life. While we do not know all of the details of their private lives, we do know one part of their lives that conform to the Bible – they died. Unfortunately, in our PC culture, the doctrine of “justification by death” is rampant – especially if you are popular. “God should surely justify them just because they are famous, right? The preacher said that old Uncle Jed, who never darkened the door of a church, is going to heaven. Why shouldn’t that dead musician be there, too?”

The problem is that God justifies us based on the work of Christ on the cross, being applied to our lives by obedient faith, based upon repentance. And it makes plain that God does not show favoritism. All are subject to the same requirements.When FF or MJ, or Ed, or BM, or old Uncle Jed stand before God, they will be subject to the same standard by which we will be found either worthy of eternal life or eternal condemnation.

The bigger question here is not whether or not FF or MJ met them. Are you or me meeting them?

500….and counting.

Just saw I made it to the magical 500 hit mark…and the hits just keep on comin’. THANK YOU FOR READING MY DRIVEL!!

What Price Freedom?

On the day after Indpendence Day, let’s think about true freedom – what is real freedom, and what freedom that is morevsaluable than the freedom we celebrate this weekend….thanks to Dan Phillips and an incredible post on Pyromaniacs.

Is Democracy Good for Christianity?

Just to prove I am still alive ( unlike Michael Jackson and Billy Mays), here’s an intersting chat by John MacArthur on wehether or not the freddom and peace we enjoy here as Christians has, in reality, made us soft and undiscerning.

Disclaimer, courtesy of John:

I am certainly not in favor of totalitarianism. But we who live in free societies need to understand the dangers inherent in the system that gives us our freedom.

The rest is up to you..,….something to think about as our nation’s birthday approaches.

“Doc Martin” and the Truth

Nobody wants to hear the truth anymore. In our postmodern culture, truth is what you make of it. What works for me may not work for you, as they say. And, anyone who declares that they have the absolute truth is seen as arrogant and unloving and, the worst sin of all in this age, “intolerant”

Which leads me to Doc Martin.

For the unenlightened amongst you, Doc Martin is a British comedy/drama about a brilliant doctor who suddenly develops a phobia over blood. With his surgical career in ruins, he is relegated to being a General Practitioner in a little fishing town. On top of all of this, his loveless childhood has pretty much stripped him of any people skills, let alone the ability to build any kind of relationships.

Dr. Martin Ellingham is then left to try to care for an eccentric group of country folks with the bedside manner, at times,  of a steam roller. But, there is one thing that the wrters do not leave to chance: the doctor cares about the truth. He places the truth about his patients and their health above niceties. Even if he continually irritates the townsfolk and foten raises their ire, the truth is of supreme importance.

We care too much now days about being nice. We put civility above courage. Truth is the unnecessary baggage in a politically correct society. But the truth is still the truth, whether we like it or not. And, like it or not, our lives depend on the truth. The law of gravity is still a fact to be dealt with.

While we should speak the truth in love, we should speak the truth. The truth of God is still the truth of God. We don’t have a vote as to whether it is or not. Our only vote si whether or not that truth is to be a reality in our lives. Sadly, far too many today vote in the negative.

As I heard John MacArthur say once, I don’t want a post-modern surgeon operating on me. I don’t want an emergent pilot flying the plane I am on. Too much is at stake. Why should we think any other way about the Word of God? Eternity hangs in the balance.

We should care. We should be heartroken over sin. We should care for the sheep with love and compassion. But,  in the end, we need more Doc Martins in the church and less Dr. FeelGoods.

Dirty Preaching – A Postscript

Very recently, I attended a small church conference put on by one of our RM Colleges at one of our camps. One of the breakout sessions was on relating to and reaching out to the “millenials”. The speaker was a senior at this particular college.

I found nothing of great help in the seminar – probably because I lost focus. Why? At one point, he described a situation with a word that is used to describe the essential function of a vacuum cleaner- except, he wasn’t talking about a
vacuum cleaner.

The fact that he said such a word is not the point – I have had members admit to their “potty mouth” problems to me, openly and honestly The fact that this is a young man speaking to a gathering of church leaders, speaking
on behalf of, and in the name of, one of our colleges, is what gets me.

I am endeavoring to contact the young man and confront him on his language. I will keep you informed.

I must now change my mind. It has happened. The restraint is now off, and may God have mercy on us as a church.