Satan, the Opportunist

“Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose…(Acts 6:1)”

“When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time. (Luke 4:13)”

Success for God is failure for Satan. He will oppose, in any way he can, the progress of the kingdom. We can count on it: when things are looking good, Satan is looking for an opportunity. And, being a thorough demon, he usually finds one.

The church in Jerusalem was enjoying a brief run of popularity. In spite of the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, “…the people held them in high esteem. And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number” (Acts 5:13,14). Then, all Hell broke loose. The first trouble came from outside: the arrest and flogging of apostles with a warning to shut up about Jesus. Then it came from inside with a complaint of unfair distribution of food. When it originates inside the body our out, it is the work of our adversary. Satan will not abide such advancement since it means retreat for him.

It is highly dangerous to discount his ability to disrupt any forward movement on our part. He will shut us down us if we let him. It is wise to aware of his schemes and strategies and to be assured that he will employ them against us. The warnings are clear:

“Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity” (Ephesians 4:26,27).
“…so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11).
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).
“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

It is when disciples are growing numerically and everything looks good that we should be on guard. I have, with my own eyes, seen savage wolves filled with the lust for power, tear successful churches apart. The carnage is horrible.

In the case of Jerusalem, seven godly men were chosen to answer the complaint and the tables were turned on Satan. “The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7).

In Australia, several churches are making decisions and plans to recapture the purpose and mission of the church. God will surely bless such decisions but we must be warned: Satan is also making decisions and plans.

Why Do Mission Churches Grow?

“Mission church” is a good example of faulty nomenclature. Not only is it faulty, it is misleading and damaging. It is misleading in that such terminology assumes there can be churches which are not “mission churches.” It is damaging for the same reason. There really shouldn’t be any difference between churches in the so-called “mission field” and churches where the Christian population is thicker, like my home town of Abilene, Texas.

In Abilene, with a church of some kind on every major street (many of them churches of Christ), you still can’t throw a rock without hitting someone who needs to hear the good news. So does that make Abilene a “mission field?” I would argue that it does. Does that make Abilene churches “mission churches?” In theory, it must. In actual practice, however, few churches in Abilene conduct themselves as such.

I think we will all agree that not all mission fields are in other countries. Churches in the U.S. send missionaries to places in this country where the Christian population is thin, such as the Northern tier of states. My definition of a “mission field” is any place where there is a mission to fulfill. So, what constitutes a “mission field?” It must be a place where people need to hear the gospel. In fact, I walked through the door of my Abilene home today to run some errands and backed out of the driveway into the “mission field.”

In these first years of the new millennium, we find ourselves moaning and groaning about the fact that churches of Christ in the West are not growing[1]. We actually have this in common with the evangelical denominations including the Southern Baptists. Thirteen years ago, Dr. Flavil Yeakley, Jr. wrote,

The good news is that Churches of Christ are not declining as some reported. The bad news is that they are not growing and have not been growing for over 13 years. It is not that we do not know how or that we do not have the necessary resources. We have the man power; we have the money power; we have the brain power; and, most of all, we have the power of God. All that we need is the will power.[2]

Now, another 13 years later, The Christian Chronicle has featured a series of articles asking, “Are We Growing?”[3] In one of those articles, Rich Little and Charles Cook, had this to say: “There has been a disconnect between the doctrine of evangelism and the practice of evangelism,” said Rich Little, a minister in Naperville, Ill. “While we passionately believe we should reach the lost, we are not passionately seeking them.” Charles Cook, now working with Sunset International Bible Institute’s new branch school in Singapore says, “We primarily convert only our offspring, and only a small percentage of these are remaining active in the church as grownups. Not until the whole church again catches the evangelistic spirit … will we experience growth and retain our young people.”

Mission churches grow because their leaders understand the mission and diligently pursue it. Missionaries and their senders understand they are sent to make disciples. Unlike their counterparts in plateaued and declining churches at home, they know they are not sent to build buildings and hold “worship services.” Every person they meet, every situation they encounter is seen as a potential opportunity to make disciples and gather them into fellowships; God-powered growth results.

“Swelling” will not do. Real growth only occurs when a lost person is saved, discipled and added to the body of Christ. The process is simple: we become salt and light by living lives that adorn the gospel which is consistently planted and watered. God then causes the growth. That’s the way Jesus and the apostles did it. That’s the way we must do it.

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[1] This is most certainly not true in developing countries. It is estimated that at least two thirds of members of churches of Christ live in Africa, India and other “developing nations.” But this illustrates the point: mission churches grow because of intense outreach.

[2] Church Growth Magazine 10 (January - March, 1995): 9 - 11. Accessed 25 May, 2008 at http://4churchgrowth.com/chur4148.htm

[3] The Christian Chronicle, “Are We Growing?” Accessed 25 May, 2008 at http://www.christianchronicle.org/article611~Population_outpaces_church

So, you don’t like church?

A lot of people are turned off by “church.” My premise for this article is that people are repulsed not by the church, but by something else that bears that name but is not the genuine article. Let’s start off with a few basics.

First of all, the word “church” is a wimpy translation of another Greek word, “ekklesia.” Trust me…a better translation would be “assembly” in some contexts, “community” in others. If you don’t trust me, check it out for yourself and you’ll see I’m shooting straight with you. In the New Testament we learn some solid facts about the word we translate “church.”

1. It never refers to a building.
2. It always refers to people.
3. It sometimes refers to a gathered assembly.
4. It sometimes refers to groups or communities in regions.
5. It sometimes refers to all believers in the world.
6. It sometimes refers to the un-gathered community of the saved.
7. There is only one ekklesia or flock belonging to God and all the saved are in it (Acts 2:47).
8. It never refers to a particular denomination (As in, “Which church do you attend?”).
9. It is always a noun and never modifies another noun (As in, church building, church treasury, church property, church members, etc.).
10. Jesus built it (Matthew 16:18).
11. It is God’s household (I Timothy 3:16)
12. Christ is the only head of it, eliminating any other head…(Ephesians 1:22, Colossians 1:18 et al.).
13. Christ sustains a loving, nurturing relationship to the church (read Ephesians 5).
14. It is His body (Colossians 1:24).
15. He purchased it with His blood (Acts 20:28).

The monstrosity we so often see today is a corrupted, human-manipulated, man-dominated, misguided version of the church (ekklesia) revealed in God’s word. In many cases institutions called “churches” are merely clubs. They do not resemble the “church” of the New Testament in description or function. But make no mistake, if you are a penitent, immersed believer, God has added you to his community, flock, assembly whether you like it or not.

The ekklesia Christ built is a perfect concept. We ought to appreciate it for what it is. It is, however, made up of flawed humans (you and me) and will never be perfect in expression. We ought to struggle for what it can be.

WHO IS THE MESSAGE?

Paul, in his second letter to the church at Corinth tells us why we must get out of the pep rally (“church services”) and into the game (the world). Let me invite you to carefully consider this passage:

2 Corinthians 4: 6 - 11 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.[1]

The world does not see Jesus because we stay out of sight. The solution is simple:

We are our own worst enemy

 

 

Sometimes the opposition seems overwhelming. Most of it has been self-inflicted.
History – people doing horrible things in the name of Christ. The world of observers, not knowing any better, makes uninformed assessments and forms terrible opinions of Christianity.
Televangelists – money-grubbing, high-living, charlatans and false teachers giving religion in general and Christianity in particular a bad rap (1 Timothy 6:3-5).
Division & infighting – people who should be loving each other and thus proving to be disciples (John 13:35) fighting and slinging mud in the most unloving ways. Dividing into yet another denomination over the slightest perceived doctrinal error, we assist the world in its dismissal and unbelief (John 17:20-23).

 

We are our own worst enemy.

Four (4) reasons we will never fulfill the Great Commission

Christians are a meeting and talking people. We meet in church buildings, chapels, public halls and classrooms. We meet in those rooms to talk or to listen to someone talk. We make sure someone is talking most of the time. Someone talks to us in assembly twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday. That’s 156 times a year not counting gospel meetings, workshops and seminars. Mostly, we talk to ourselves.

Somehow we must jump from talking to doing from gabbing to going. We must kick ourselves out of the chat rooms and step boldly into the world as the Great Commission demands. We have to get out because few of Christ’s commands are accomplished in some room.

Okay, let’s consider, one more time, the Great Commission:

Mark 16:15, 16 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.”

Matthew 28:19, 20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Now let me give you four reasons why the Great Commission will never be fulfilled.

Paltry, Hodgepodge Evangelism

I believe that one of the most beneficial changes the church could make is to correct our misunderstanding of evangelism. We’ve made such a monster of it in our minds that very few of us do any of it at all. Instead, we count on the drawing power of user-friendly churches with seeker-sensitive assemblies featuring state-of-the-art equipment and methods. We rely on doing Bible classes and assemblies so well that when people visit us to do their “church shopping,” we hope they’ll choose us instead of that other church down the road. There are four things wrong with that.

· First, it’s not evangelism. It’s marketing.

· Second, it’s not conversion, it’s accumulation.

· Third, people who have to be won by attractive methods and surface cosmetics will only last as long as those do.

· Fourth, it is a focus and emphasis unknown by, and alien to, Jesus, the apostles and the early church.

The church that won the Roman Empire knew nothing of “user-friendly churches” or expensive, explicit, exploitive, explosive methods of reaching the unconverted. They simply knew that they were salt and light. To live was to be like Jesus to their world. Mark Galli writes,

What it did have seems paltry: unspectacular people, with a hodgepodge of methods (so hodgepodge they can hardly be called “methods”), and rarely a gathering of more than a handful of people. The paltry seems to have been enough, however, to make an emperor or two stop and take notice. Without publicized campaigns or even an explicit evangelistic strategy, Christianity made its way quietly and effectively in an environment not wholly unlike that in the post-Christian West today (Christian History, Issue 57, p. 8).

Glenn Hinson writes, “Most churches had the same goal: evangelism.” But it was not evangelism based on getting people into church buildings since it was nearly 300 years before the first one was built. This was evangelism by friendship and relationship. It was outreach through good works such as feeding the hungry and rescuing abandoned children (1 Peter 2:12). It was the message of a moral and pure way of life (1 Peter 3:2) proclaimed by word and deed. It was seen in their keen pursuit of justice. Each disciple was ready to tell their friends and associates the reason for their hope (1 Peter 3:15).

Evangelism (being salt and light in our world) is the life-blood of any congregation of the church. We need a transfusion of it! When it begins to course through the veins of the church, when it surges through our sanctified innards and spiritual muscles, then we will see revival.

Cultural Engagement: Every Christian’s Obligation

Let me recommend this article on the Crosswalk.com site.

ASSEMBLY

 

Recapturing the purpose for coming together

In assemblies today a group (the congregation) gathers to observe and lightly participate in a set of rituals (Lord’s Supper, singing, preaching, collection, etc.) and, upon completion, leave for lunch.  This is often referred to as “going to church,” as in, “Sorry, I can’t play golf with you today, I have to go to church.”  This (often legalistic) routine has become the major weekly exercise of the Christian religion.  Great effort and expense is applied to making this production attractive and satisfying to members and visitors.  We want the best preacher and musicians money can buy.  We work hard to script and stage the presentation to please the audience.  We hope that what we do on Sunday will be so well done that the members will keep coming back and visitors will be positively impressed enough to become part of the church. 

Interestingly and unfortunately it is also the major evangelistic effort (usually the only one) for most churches.  In this regard it has a terrible track record.  Almost no one is converted as a result of the most splendid “worship services.”

But what would happen if we decided to fulfill the original purpose of assembly?  In The Urgent Revolution I wrote:

…assembling provides time for encouragement to faithfulness and provocation to love and good deeds.  When our time together is over, I should be filled with a burning desire to bring the love of Jesus into my family and world.  Our sharing together supplies a means (encouraging, edifying, stimulating) to an end (love and good deeds)…In our concern to be scriptural in the form of corporate worship [I have since worked to drop that terminology], we have lost our concern to be scriptural in purpose.  Designed for a time of rallying, assembly equips us and fills us with motivation to become good soldiers in God’s army.  Here we inflame each other with zeal!  We mutually stoke fires of commitment.  We kindle each other’s love and spotlight opportunities for good deeds.  Never designed as a place where people passively observe worship rituals and listen to sermons, scriptural assembly renews our sense of mission and our passion to fulfill it. (pp. 35-37)

I have a suggestion (I obviously lack the apostolic authority to make it a command!): let’s restore the original, God-given purpose of assembly (Hebrews 10:23-25; I Corinthians 14:26).  Let’s make it a priority that no one comes into our assembly discouraged and leaves the same way.  Let’s make it our goal that when someone attends our assembly with a flat faith battery, they leave with their battery recharged.  Let’s provoke the passive, stimulate the sluggish and build-up the beaten-down.

Then the people of God, renewed and invigorated, will march out of our assemblies under the banner of the Lamb to confront the world forces of this darkness assured of ultimate victory.

Then, when Christians say, “I have to go to church,” it will mean, “I can’t wait to assemble with my brothers and sisters!”

Fundraising Forever

    Fundraising is the bane and blessing of missionaries and ministries.  It is something missionaries and those who recruit and train them must do constantly.  That’s what I’m doing today…getting out letters, brochures and reports as fast as I can but also being as personal as I can.  So far I have resisted machine-addressing the envelopes.  Hopefully, someday, we will have so many donors that it can’t be done by hand.

Fundraising is a blessing because you are rallying those who believe in you and what you are trying to do for the Lord!  The work of missions is impossible without someone to go and someone to send.  The one is a blessing to the other.

Fundraising can be a bane because those dollars are hard won!  There’s more than enough to go around but convincing your donors of the worthiness of your cause is a challenge.  Fundraising takes a lot of time and energy…one is tempted to think that energy is better invested pursuing the ministry task.  The fundraiser must remember that without partners the task is impossible.

As we approach presidential elections, it is amazing how much the candidates are able to quickly raise for political causes and how difficult it is to raise funds for spiritual causes.  I think it ought to be the other way around!

Be sure and have a look at our Mission South Pacific website: www.missionsouthpacific.wordpress.com.  You like the logo?  My son the artist designed it.