Would you invite me to your church?

This is a question I think that requires immense reflection. I sat and thought about this the other day whenever I people watch and ask : Would you like to come to my church? This got me thinking would you really want people to come to your church?
Disclaimer--this is with the understanding you know what a church is supposed to be. If not read Acts 2:42, 4:32-37, 5:12-16.

I see churches and the invitation in 3 ways:

1. You are the kid who didn't have sleepovers cause you didn't want other kids to see how dysfunctional and broken your family was.

These are the people who have churches that are broken, in decline spiritually and numerically, have no accountability, no church discipline, they have small cliques keeping the church alive, hardly any transformation...they look similar to the Corinthian church but worse---they have lost influence and their focus. They do not want to change, nor be relevant to today's culture. Most people do not want to invite people to this church. These people want to but realize that there just isn't anything healthy at their church and have even visited other churches to find a possible new home. They have no vision, no mission, therefore they cannot carry it out. They are coasting until every member either leaves or dies.


2. You were the kid who was excited to have everyone over cause your parents or family was fun, open, loving, relevant and you wanted people to see the atmosphere was exciting and there were many things to do.

This group loves to invite people to their church. They can't wait to invite people....why? Because the people are growing in Christ, they are meeting together for the biblical fellowship of praising God, not fulfilling their religious attendance. They have small groups meeting for intimate time with each other and God, they have missions (local and global) taking part for their members, they have outreach to meet with the local community and meet various needs (economic, social, fiscal,. They love people, they greet people, they preach God's word, they have facilities to meet the various needs of various demographics. Their members feel more like a family than a person attending a meeting because they can share, love and worship Christ freely. This does not exempt them from having problems as they have church discipline, and their leadership authority established in their church because they have a clear vision and mission, and it is executed through its various ministries, and everyone in the church knows it.

3. You were the kid who didn't invite others because you didn't have any video game systems, board games, or a yard bigger than 4ft by 4ft or just anything to do. (Don't joke I lived in a townhouse like this).

These people have a church, and it could have good people who love Jesus. They could preach the Word, but they simply do not have anything else. I call these churches One Hit Wonders because they try to do all they can only on Sunday. These churches do not have what is essential to growing: small group ministries, community outreach, evangelism, and local and glo bal missions. They simply cannot retain people as they are a Sunday only kind of church. Growth is either plateaued or is declining. You could invite people here but they can't grow. Its like buying a plant and watering it but once a week. Or imagine eating as much as you could on Sundays and then not eating again until the following Sunday. You simply can't grow. This church has nothing outside of its occasional special events. They have a vision (or not) but do not convey it to their church (cause they dont have one), they may or may not have church discipline and no one really knows who is leading the church (congregation, individuals, Jesus, the leadership??) or who has authority. The thing that these churches most is a lack of discipleship ministries and outreach ministries. So you could get people in, but do nothing with them.

So my question is posed for those to think and answer in the comment section: Would you really want to invite someone to your church and why? If not then should you really be at that church that is not growing, not feeding you, and where you do not get intimate time and fellowship with other members ?

Be Blessed

Working......with the wrong mindset

Now if you are Protestant you have heard it said a million times that grace is through faith (alone). Got it! That isn't the hard part. The hard part for me is the sanctification part. I get that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8), I know His grace is completely sufficient (2 Cor. 12:1-4) and I get that my Facebook status in life has changed from guilty to forgiven by his blood.

I can admit that I find myself getting in a mentality that I think many Christians find themselves: if I work harder at not sinning that means I will sin less in life. Let me elaborate.
Jim is a believer, he loves Jesus, serves at his church and does what good Christians do: pray, read, serve. He struggles with sin in his life, just as any Christian does, some more than others are consistent, so he decides to work harder at not "doing" those sins anymore.

See the problem? Tom's focus is not a matter of obedience to Christ, it isn't a matter of him being a bad Christian, rather his focus is more on him working harder (self-oriented) to eliminate his consistent sin.

Read any Paul book and you are going to get a list of exhortations. For examples read: Eph. 4:25-5:3-21; Colossians 3:5-17.

Through the Holy Spirit, Paul makes exhortations to "put to death....kill...or put away various sins and falsehoods (sexual immorality, gossip, slander, etc...). Sin that kills your joy, alters your mood or steals our focus. Stop doing these things.

But this is only half of the battle.

In no way am I saying that we shouldn't combat sin through the Spirit, God's word, prayer and petition. That's biblical. But I do find that we become very works oriented with our struggles and self help and self combat becomes our solution. I am saying that to work harder at not sinning is going to leave you feeling lonely and defeated. Rather than spending so much of our time trying "not to sin" I propose another and I believe biblical approach.

What do we know? Using Ephesians 4:22-24: That our old self (unregenerate, sin destroyed life) is over. It died with Christ,(Gal. 5:24) and that life was corrupted through desires that were deceitful (as part of our unregenerate nature). Now our call is to renew. To renew is to restore, to begin again in our minds and our thinking. Similar to Jesus conversation with Nicodemus about being born again, our new life our sanctification is a product of new creation that took place through Christ working on the hearts of his people through the cross.

Look at 2 Cor. 5:17--"We are a new creation...the old has gone the new has come"
Ephesians 4:22-24-" put off the old self....put on the new self"

Rather than trying to NOT sin, we should be busy with pursuing the things of Christ. Read Galatians 5:16-"I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." Paul tells us in 5:17 that these two natures are opposed, they are in combat, war with each other.

What Paul is getting at here is if you are so focused and busy with living or walking by the Spirit, then you will not have time to gratify the flesh desires! What a profound concept.

The Greek word for walk is (peripateo) which means to physically and literally walk, but is used in the metaphorical sense to conduct one's life, to behave, to live in a way that glorifies God. This is the context Paul uses it: live (walk) in a way that is characterized the Spirit, which is shown by the fruits (outward signs) of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, gentleness. Pursue these!

What Paul doesn't say is expel so much energy in working harder and focusing NOT to sin. I recently read a psychological article about how a person can tell themselves over and over not to do something, and because of it being a constant reminder on the brain, they are actually more prone to do whatever it is they told themselves NOT to do. They have defeated themselves already. Translate this to the Christian life: we have sins we struggle with, and we cannot have victory apart from Christ. We cannot hope to achieve a Spirit-filled life by simply trying harder. We need Christ to help us, forgive us, heal us of the sins that "so easily entangle" us (Heb. 12:1-2) and we need to put effort in working out our salvation (Phil 2:10) which is supplied by Christ' power. We do this by setting our hearts and minds to pursuing Christ, and the fruits of the spirit (mentioned above).

Finally another great example of pursuing the things of Christ is Paul's letter to Timothy in 1 Tim. 6:11-12 where he tells him to "pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness." Chase after those things, so that you won't have time or a desire for the things of the flesh.

Be Blessed

Character Should Matter

Recently if you have not read any newspapers, online journals, TV, internet sites, etc... you may have noticed that several high profile politicians have been caught cheating, fathering a child (not from their wife). Rep. Anthony Wiener, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the indictment of John Edwards for using funds to help, etc...

I would love to sit back and say that the church is doing better, but it isn't.
_Anyone remember the Jim Baker Scandal of the 80's?
-Or who can forget the Ted Haggard sex scandal?
-Eddie Long's sexual encounters with young men

I am saddened constantly when reading about another pastor involved in a sexual scandal, or some sort of moral failure. Or some family that now is torn apart because of the moral misgivings of a father, a husband, and a pastor. We are called to live differently!

Character should matter. Now of course, we are taking into account that all of these people could confess and repent of their sin and be forgiven. In no way are we to sit back and judge as we have all been in the same predicament (maybe not the same situation) but we all know what it feels like to be in a place where you have dishonored and sinned against God. (Remember we ALL fall short of God's glory). The point I am making is that we seem to in our society honor appearance, impressive accomplishments and competency OVER character. Character should matter a lot more to us.

The Bible addresses character from cover to cover. One of the main evidences of actually know Jesus as Lord and Savior is that your character is different from that of the world. Meaning that you do not pursue the things of the world, you choose to be "set apart" (hagios=holy) in your life, marriages, jobs, families, to your children in regards to your character.

Scripture tells us that "we are to be imitators of God...(Eph. 5:1). It goes even further for leaders, laying out an extensive list not of accomplishments, or gifts or talents but a list of characteristics a leader should have: to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (1 Tim. 3:2-5)
The only competency listed is that a leader must be, "able to teach". This same notion goes for deacons and deaconesses---character is from the top down.

I have always heard it said that accomplishments, success, and organizations gets you to the top, but character keeps you there. I believe this in ministry, as I have worked with several different people and found the ones I loved were competent (we need competent people or else we would never get anything done) but their character made me want to follow them.
Dave Kraft wrote a wise book for leaders and makes this statement that has resonated with me:

"Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

Be Blessed