I have discovered over the years, since my initial encounter with Jesus while in college in the Fall of 1958, that I am particularly interested in theology. Who knew? Jill used to pray for me that I would be “interested in the Word,” a quality she looked for in a husband and found was severely lacking in my life when we met in 1964.  After following a number of other biblical trails into various and sundry other Christian pursuits, years later I discovered myself…

The church is a church of producers, not performers. In order for the church to function at optimum capacity in its responsibility of extending the kingdom of God, each of us will become a producer, recognizing that we each have a task—an important role to play in the church. When we have been deceived into withdrawal, inactivity or resistance, the church is hindered from becoming what God intended: a demonstration to principalities and powers of the brilliance, wisdom and creativity of God.  We are…

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11, 12), In this foundational passage about the functioning of the New Testament church, these men are “laymen,” non-professionals just like us, who are gifted by God to equip us to go into the world. These gifted men lead with their own weakness, loving all they meet…

One of the characteristics of first responders is that they run TO the danger and not FROM it. Who can forget the pictures of the fire-fighters and police who were dashing into the twin towers in New York and rushing up the stairs to almost certain death, while all around them—the terrified citizens—were madly scrambling down the stairs and fleeing for safety.  Today, Satan’s desperate, last gasp counter attack against God here on the earth rages all around us. It is his version of…

We have been discussing for several weeks the New Testament church, what it is and its purpose and function in the world today—always, I am sure, eliciting many varied and controversial views. As we have done so, another of God’s kingdom-extending institutions, the civil government, has continued to make news, also with much controversy attached.  I woke up this morning with some new thoughts about our current political situation that I believe are worthy of discussion. After reading this, if you want to talk…

Understanding the New Testament church, as we are endeavoring to do in these blog postings, involves making the biblical distinction between its message—the new wine of the gospel of the grace of God—and the new wineskin—an appropriate church structure to hold it. New wine will always, ultimately, produce a new wineskin, never the reverse. When someone experiences the grace of God for the first time and attempts to bring it into the old wineskin (Mark 2:22) of the traditional church, he will eventually become…

We have seen in previous postings that the church’s first calling is to minister to God Himself. All other ministries are secondary. Worshipping God is more important than church growth, than a full range of programs to “meet all the needs” of the church members and even more important than eloquent sermons presented by a gifted preacher. We are to “continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips” (Hebrews 13:15), “exalt the Lord our God and worship…

I have pictured in these last few postings very eventful and colorful worship of the Triune God. Singing, shouting, praising, lifting of hands, clapping, dancing, bowing, kneeling and waiting in expectant silence for Him to speak are all ways of worship He has communicated to us in His Word that He desires that we bring to Him. For some, this behavior has only been associated with “holy rollers” or “wild-eyed, half-crazed zealots.” It is a brand new idea that these expressions of worship are…

The majority of today’s church has limited its worship to silence and singing. Some may even experience verbal praise. Shouting, probably not so much. That seems so “undignified,” but, as we saw last week, these are all spelled out clearly as biblical ways our Heavenly Father wants us to approach Him.  However, these are but the beginning of the full range of ways God has told us He would like us to worship Him. Other than these verbal means, the Bible clearly teaches physical…

In last week’s posting we saw that the Bible exhorts us to come into God’s presence with silence, but also with loud, thundering worship as well! This can take the form of singing, including songs with rhythm and a beat. Let’s look at these songs a little more closely 1. Verbal worship – contemporary songs vs. traditional songs A big issue in many churches is the actual nature of the songs sung. First, let me say that many contemporary Christian songs are not corporate…