KDs are designed/developed/inspired/mused/auto-suggested/indigested to make folks think; an especially uncommon experience among Democrats, Republicans, and jingoistic mainline denominationalists who continue to discourage dissent with their ever-threatening thought police.
It took too many
years before knowing I
talked too much when people needed immediate...
@#$%
She called:
"Do you remember me? You counseled my husband and me about nine
years ago. We're in trouble again. Can you help us?"
Me: "Where
are you worshipping?"
She:
"We're...not...right now...but..."
Me: "The
best way to begin getting your life and marriage and everything...well...begins with
worship. So come to our first or second service on Sunday and
then I'll meet with you and begin..."
She:
"O.K."
@#$%
It took too many
years before knowing I
talked too much when people needed immediate...
About a decade or
so ago, I was sitting in the stands for a Bucs high school football game
with my friend and often mentor Ev.
Directing my
attention to some of the fans, he said, "Hey, there's...He was a member of
the church about 30 years ago...Hey, there's...she was a member about 20 years
ago...Hey, there's...He was a member about 15 years ago...Hey, there's someone
who left when you came!"
Interesting.
Metaphor.
Fans.
That's never been
a problem in the Church where followers
of Jesus gather for worship along with discipling for service and
evangelism.
Fans.
It's always been
a problem in the church where fans
aka posers or
those coincidentally related to Jesus hang in and around as long as their
navel-gazing religion is reinforced.
@#$%
Kinda reminds me
of pulpit committees.
People are always
commenting/gossiping on how it's sooooooo
common for PC members - Wink!
- to leave a C/church not long after the
clergywoman/man "of their choice" has been around.
Acknowledging
those clergywomen/men who fall/fail or were never really called to such C/churches
as I did/wasn't twice, PCers
- Wink! - who
leave not long after "their" choices arrive, most often, weren't
really looking for a worship leader, discipler, and radical advocate for
Jesus.
Psst.
Here's the dirty
dark secret that no one likes to talk about.
Psst.
Most often, they
were looking for a BFF, paramour, or champion for their, uh, whatever.
@#$%
@#$%
During a polity
class, Dean Adams was asked, "Can you be a Christian without going to
church?"
After a selah moment, he answered,
"Well, I guess it's possible to be a Christian without going to church;
but I have never seen a Christian who did not go to church."
Well, that exchange
can fill up those moments in the classroom when the professor's notes have been
exhausted.
@#$%
Harold was a
great associate pastor in Pennsylvania.
When a fan
complained about him targeting her in a sermon, he said, "Well, that's
really, really, really arrogant of you to think that I would preach a sermon
just for/about you; but if
the shoe fits..."
When another fan
said she was leaving the church because we were not meeting her
"needs" which included..., he said, "If you find the perfect
church, don't join it because
it won't be perfect anymore if you do!"
@#$%
@#$%
People leave a C/church
for many reasons.
You know the
list; and, frankly, most of 'em are silly, superficial, stupid, and selfish.
Really.
Go ahead, list
em.
Which ones aren't silly, superficial,
stupid, or selfish?
Which ones don't
expose navel-gazing religion only coincidental to Jesus by the book?
Which ones don't
insult Matthew 18, John 17, Romans 12, and...?
Really.
C'mon, which ones
aren't really ideologically, idolatrously, idiosyncratically, or just plain old
ignorantly motivated?
Really.
Oh, I forgot.
You gotta get out
of it because it's part of a baaaaaaad
denomination; as if leaving one stinking denomination for another
stinking denomination makes sense.
Oh, I forgot.
The new one does
not stink as bad as the old one.
Puuuuuuuhhhlease.
Yo, faintheart!
Look at the
cross!
Read about
Luther, Bonhoeffer, King, and...
Check out those
"inspired" texts instead of your ideological, idolatrous,
idiosyncratic, and ignorant judgments/prejudices
about salt-shaking, light-reflecting, and being the good leaven
that mixes in to make better.
Really.
BTW, how
about a little consistency?
If you're gonna
dump the denomination, why not dump the country at the same time?
Really.
From what I see,
and, please, someone help me if my sight's as bad as fidelity in the mainline,
America's churches are only a mirror of the country's morality,
government, education, media, entertainment, commerce, and...
So, reaaaaaaallllllly, show
some intellectual and spiritual consistency.
If you think
you'll be better off, leave 'em!
@#$%
On the other
hand, as I've discovered in the family of faith that I'm privileged to undershepherd for the last
decade or so and until I'm assassinated by an Islamofascistnutball or
denominational jingoist or some fan/poser that left when exposed, sometimes
there's addition by subtraction.
When the
rotting/rotten apples are removed from the barrel...
Sometimes revival
don't mean gettin' people in...but
gettin' the people out who don't really love Jesus and all His children by the
book.
You can read more
about this by scrolling down to Scratching the Surface of Revival (below).
@#$%
@#$%
Sooooooo when is it O.K.
to leave C/church?
It's never O.K.
to leave Church.
Go back to the,
uh, top - Wink! - to
distinguish Church from church.
Buuuuuuut when the church
professionals and their church boards and the church's
constituents do not acknowledge and advocate Jesus by the book but rather sport
religion only coincidental to Jesus by the book at the altar of some kinda
navel-gazing left, right, up, down, inside, outside, or other inverted
ideology, it's time to leave.
Indeed, I urge
our family of faith on the corner of Lincoln and Main to invite, welcome,
include, and agape folks
into our family of faith and other Biblically Christocentric parts of the Church
in the neighborhood from the fans, posers, and...
It ain't stealin'
sheep.
It's savin' 'em
from...
Annnnnnnd because
parts of the Church unlike churches are always ready/eager to
confess and repent for restoration if corrected/disciplined by Jesus, Holy
Scripture, and common sense in humility before Him and His, charges of
judgmentalism, self-righteousness, and the like are designed darkly and
deceptively to continue enabling church apostasies.
Of course, if I
have to explain any of the preceding in any more detail, you wouldn't
understand anyway because
you're already comfortably deceived by your preferred version of churchianity
over the Biblically Christocentric Church.
@#$%
Getting back to
PCs, many have asked me how to interview candidates.
Essentially, I
say, "You should ask them anything that you want to ask them; because it's
too late after the installation. Yeah, I know some PC - Wink! - church
bureaucrats will say you can't ask some questions. Buuuuuuullloney! You
can ask anything that you'd like to ask. Sure, they don't have to answer;
but even if they don't answer all of your questions, you'll have received
important answers. Lots of unpleasant surprises are averted by asking everything/anything up
front."
Continuing/concluding, "Of course, you can save yourselves lots of time by
just asking two questions. Who is Jesus by the book? Do you
acknowledge and advocate Jesus by the book with enthusiasm and without
equivocation?"
If she/he gets
those two questions right according
to Jesus by the book, you may not be on the same page for all
things but you will be on
the same page for Who's/what's really, really, really most important right now
and then.
The problem is churches
never really, really, really address those two questions before addressing life and
ministry's opportunities, challenges, and...
That's why so
many of today's churches have no focus or filter for life and ministry.
That's why churches
are sooooooo fanatical,
silly, superficial, stupid, and selfish.
Conversely, parts
of the Church, imperfect as they will always be, are closer to the truth
because they are, uh, closer to the truth by acknowledging and advocating Jesus
by the book.
@#$%
It's never right
to leave if Jesus by the book is acknowledged and advocated with enthusiasm and
without equivocation.
@#$%
It's never right
to stay if Jesus by the book is not acknowledged and advocated with enthusiasm
and without equivocation.
@#$%
Whether it's
staying in the Church or leaving a church, it's all about Jesus
by the book.
@#$%
Blessings and Love!
@#$%
@#$%
Scratching the Surface
of
Revival
(A
Brief and Incomplete Guide to Revival’s Recipe/Results)
While there are many exemplary
examinations/explanations of revival’s recipe and results – how it
happens and what happens when churches really get it/Him and the
trickles turn into rivers of living water – with Bob Griffin’s Firestorms of
Revival among the most comprehensive, I’ve been observing the accelerating
revival on the corner of Lincoln and Main in Belvidere, Illinois and see seven
ingredients that have enabled/encouraged Actsual results of
increasing reconciliations with Him and His along with increasing emotional,
intellectual, spiritual, and physical signs, wonders, and miracles:
1. Worship – We’ve thrown away stopwatches/clocks
and ignored people who wanna limit our praise, proclamation, prayers,
sacraments, and ordinances to 59 minutes and 59 seconds.We’re increasingly Selahed about
worship – pausing and pondering and taking the time for Him to sink in as we
soak in His glory.Whoa!Sounds Pentecostal!Absolutely!We want to worship!We want to
experience/express Him!We’ve abandoned
the hypocrisies and insults to God of going through the motions of meaningless
liturgies for something/Someone who really wants our existential and eternal
wholeness, happiness, health, joy, and security.Of course, it’s more than that; and if
you haven’t already experienced/expressed it/Him, ain’t no way for me to…
2. Word – It’s all about Jesus by
the book!!!We pray and labor to
honor the Father and move with the Holy Spirit as personified in Jesus and
prescribed in the Bible.Our highest
goal, greatest ambition, and most fervent prayer is to let go of the church and
let Him have it; or as we like to say, “We’ve gotta get out of the way so we
can go with His flow!”
3. Witness – We talk about Jesus by
name with enthusiasm and without equivocation as our Lord and Savior and
have an increasing passion to invite, welcome, include, and agape everyone
to get it/Him!
4. Rebirths – Regardless of age or
gender or who or what or when or why, more and more and more folks –
longstanding members who knew something about Him but didn’t know Him in a
personal kinda way and newcomers and whoevers – are experiencing an emotional,
intellectual, and spiritual regeneration that feels like being born all over
again in a John 3 kinda way.
5. Renewals – There’s a refreshing and
restoring passion for Jesus enabled/encouraged by worship and Word mentioned
above sweeping through the family on the corner of Lincoln and Main.It’s contagious!
6. Recruits – Along with family
members who’ve come alive in Jesus for the first time or have experienced a
reinvigorated relationship with Him, we’re welcoming, including, and agapeing
new family members who are hungry and thirsty for Jesus by the book from
churches that don’t know Him by the book along with sisters and
brothers getting to know Him for the first time or again or…
7. Removals – Simply, some folks in
some churches gotta go before they can grow!Additions often follow subtractions in churches
with unchecked miscreants, control freaks, idolaters, apostates, contradictions
to 1 Corinthians 13, and the like.Go to
Matthew 15, 16, 18, 23, Luke 18:9-14, Romans 16:17ff., Titus 3:10-11, and other
related texts for more on that.
Getting back to letting go and letting Him
lead the family of faith by His Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus as explained
in Holy Scripture, it’s time for dying/troubled churches to recognize
they have exhausted all of the wrong answers in addressing their problems,
confusions, and decline.
Hmm.
Maybe that’s why our Lord is driving so many
of ‘em to their knees.
