Contains strong gospel content

So there I was flicking through the Wesley-Owen church resources catalogue when my attention was caught by the words ‘Contains strong gospel content’. No really, there in a small box under the letters ‘DVD’ was ‘Contains strong gospel content’. The advert was for the ‘Discipleship Explored’ DVD – which apparently, we are warned, contains ‘strong gospel content’ – so presumably not for the Sunday School then.

I flicked back through the catalogue for other such warnings – e.g. ‘Contains strong theological language’ or ‘Contains scenes of a Christian nature’ or ‘PG: Potentially Godly’ – but no, no other materials merited this kind of ‘red flag’ treatment (not even the Bible!).

The mind boggles – what does it say about our Christian culture that it’s felt necessary to warn people that discipleship materials might be, well you know, a bit full-on with the gospel! Come on, we’re not talking about materials for a pre-evangelism cheese & wine party here – this is something for people who are Christians to help them in their faith. The makers have even called it ‘Discipleship Explored’ in an effort to reduce such potential confusion.

Sadly – and it’s pretty sad – there is clearly a market for Discipleship-lite materials, presumably for those saved via the Gospel-lite message so prevelant today. After all why teach people about the battle for holiness when their sin was never a big issue in the first place, why talk about Cross-bearing when they signed up to promises of having ‘their best life now’, why move to the prayer room when you started in the pamper room.

Well good on ‘Discipleship Explored’ – they should wear ‘Contains strong gospel content’ as a badge of honour – and we should seek to win the world and disciple Christians with nothing less.

The 'Jesus Test'

Here's an exercise to do sometime - open up your Bible in the New Testament letters and just scan through the columns noticing any mention of the words 'Jesus', 'Christ', 'Jesus Christ' or 'Christ Jesus'.

It very quickly strikes you just how saturated the New Testament is with references to Jesus. Obvious point? Doh! Well of course, but it's amazing how often we can miss the obvious. You can hardly throw a brick in Paul's letters without hitting the name of Jesus - it is peppered throughout his letters, e.g. 'in Christ Jesus', our Lord Jesus Christ', 'purposed in Christ', 'mystery in Christ', 'fulness of Christ', 'with Christ', 'as Christ', 'of Christ', 'about Christ', 'to Christ', 'know Christ' - and that's just some of the mentions within about 4 pages.

The NT writers addresss a whole range of issues but they do so in a way that connects everything to Jesus. The name of Jesus is weaved through the text of the NT - He is the reason, the example, the authority, the hope, the source, the answer, the end, the beginning, the point etc - of everything that Christians are instucted about in the NT.

So when evangelical organisations produce publicity DVDs or send out appeals for support that contain no references to Jesus Christ it is not just unfortunate but actually sub-Christian. I mean, the notion that Paul would have disconnected Jesus from an exhortation to Christians, whether in giving to the poor or just living uprightly, is simply unimaginable. John Chapman makes the point that a sermon that could be preached by a Rabbi or an Iman is not a Christian Sermon - the challenge for many Christian organisations is do they want to be 'Christian' or just a 'successful' organisation? There is a creeping pressure to keep Jesus locked in the back office while Christians go out to show the world what great caring people they are - we must resist it.

In our secular - 'we don't want any of your faith stuff here' - society we will need to resist the temptation to become 'Jesus-lite'. Because if we take Jesus out of our ministry rationale or just minimise His profile - we are moving far away from NT Christianity and robbing ourselves of the one thing that will actually make our ministries powerful, meaningful and effective.

Harvest Bible Chapel

Scott Hamilton (formely pastor at Castlemilk Baptist Church) is planning a new church plant in Glasgow city (Harvest Bible Chapel). There will be a meeting for anyone interested in finding out more about this exciting new gospel initiative at 8pm on 25 March at Premier Inn, George Street, Glasgow.

Scott explains a bit more about it below...


Harvest Bible Chapel Glasgow Open House Invite from Scott Hamilton on Vimeo.

Right Relationships

What do you regularly pray about? What kind of ‘needs’ dominate your prayers? …In prayer, we tell God what we think we need. We ask for what we want.’ (Lane & Tripp, How People Change, p34)

As I reflected on this (yet another) searching question from Lane & Tripp – one prayer theme of mine came to mind: my many and constantly recurring prayers to have better relationships with people. You know, ‘help me to get on better with so & so’, ‘help me to be less testy in such & such situation’, ‘give me a less strained relationship with A,B,C…A1, A2, A3….AA1..’ – you get the idea. Good stuff, surely? Well, yes and no. Yes, in the sense that we should always be seeking to be humble, recognise our failings and seek unity and peace where possible.

But no – if my subtext is really just a plea for easier relationships with people – rather than ‘Christ-honouring’ ones.

Let me explain – people in church leadership can think that their ‘pastoral stock’ is measurable by how many people they are really friendly with – the idea being that ‘pastoral nirvana’ would equate to being everybody’s best friend. So the more people I have a cosy pally closeness to – the more I’m being a successful pastor. But the problem with such a view of pastoral ministry is that doesn’t face up to the reality that I and all around me are a bunch of sinners. Thus, this side of heaven, there will be tensions and differences between us – offences must come (Mt 18:7). Tensions and differences are caused by sinfulness - which is why there won’t be stress clinics in heaven. Now in the pusuit of ‘close warm relationships’ we could all just turn a blind eye to sinfulness – that is, never point out when people are out of line, never disagree with a bad idea, never say hard things to others even if they probably should be told, etc. We could all collude in a 'no questions asked' love-in. But it would hardly be Christ-honouring.

No, I’m afraid that if we are to be faithful to Christ and be people who model honesty and integrity – then tensions between us at times will be a fact of life. Sometimes a tough response will be needed, sometimes we will have to say ‘no’ or withdraw support. When we do so the reaction may be one of upset, awkwardness, and even hostility. In short we just won’t be able to be everyone’s pal and pastor with integrity.

Now of course we will need to be prepared to accept rebuke ourselves. We will have to examine very carefully our own sin-prone motives to check that we aren't masquarading pride as conviction. Nor does it mean that we can't have close friends with whom we can be ease – but even those relationships will feel the strain at times.

So rather than just praying for easier relationships we need to pray for Christ-honouring ones. Relationships that won’t always be the most comfortable but will be built on the desire to put Christ first.

Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiples kisses. (Proverbs 27:6).

Blood, toil, tears and sweat.

OK a bit self-indulgent for a Christian blog - but for those who wonder why I'm such a big Winnie fan and use him so much in sermon illustrations - Simon Schama says it so much better than I could.

The 6 O'Clock Theology Shop

New Workshops looking at Biblical priorities in church life & leadership.

Fortnightly on Thursdays

19 Feb: Expository Preaching

05 Mar: Biblical Theology

19 Mar: The Gospel

02 Apr: Understanding Conversion

23 Apr: Understanding Evangelism

07 May: Church Membership & Discipline

21 May: Discipleship & Growth

04 Jun: Biblical Church Leadership

Open to all who lead & teach (in any capacity) in church life and who have a desire to develop a leadership model based on Biblical priorities.

6pm in Greenview - to register contact: andy.hunter@greenviewchurch.co.uk

The series is based on Mark Dever's '9 Marks of a Healthy Church'.

Commander-in-Chief

Been reading a couple of excellent books of late which having been recommended to me I can heartily recommend to others:

When Sinners Say I Do - Rediscovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage, D Harvey (Shepherd Press, 2007)
How People Change, TS Lane & PD Tripp (New Growth Presss, 2006)

Both books start from the premise that in order to understand ourselves, our needs and our challenges correctly – we need to freshly appreciate the true depth of our sinful nature. Otherwise we will forget, for example, that the greatest obstacle to having a good marriage is not my mother-in-law, my work schedule, or even my spouse – but myself. Similarly when we forget the reality of our sinfulness we will start to get all sorts of wrong-headed expectations concerning Jesus and the gospel.

Lane & Tripp list many of the pitfalls here – one of which is the lack of thankfulness and wonder that arises when we have shallow thoughts of sin. For example they observe (p4): ‘My work with teenagers has convinced me that one of the main reasons teenagers are not excited by the gospel is that they do not think they need it… When they look at themselves they do not see a sinner in desperate need, so they are not grateful for a Saviour.’ In other words, Jesus is the bloke offering a helping hand as they make their way to heaven – rather than their only chance to escape hell.

John in his first letter speaks of the deceit of thinking you have no sin (1:8). Well few of us would claim that – but isn’t there a great danger of thinking we’re not ‘that bad’ really. As evangelicals we shy away from speaking of sin in the kind of blunt terms the Bible does – evil behaviour, depraved minds, enemies of God, taken captive by the devil etc. After all it sounds a bit extreme and could offend people – so instead we talk of sin as ‘messing up’, ‘having junk in our lives’, ‘not always doing the best’. All of which are fair enough as far they go but are hardly expressive of desperate need and guilt before a holy God.

Such a ‘lightening’ of the true reality of sin can also draw us into seeing Jesus not primarily as my Saviour but a life-coach or therapist. ‘Jesus the therapist’ is one way Lane & Tripp point out people distort the gospel. They state (p24): ‘…is Jesus my therapist or my Redeemer? If he is my therapist, then he meets my needs as I define them. If he is my Redeemer, he defines my true needs and addresses them in ways far more glorious than I could have anticipated.’

Now of course Jesus helps us, comforts us and is interested in our struggles. But our relationship with Him is more than that. For example, take my children, as a father I support them in their activities & life, I am there to comfort them in times of upset, I want to encourage in times of disappointment, I see myself as their greatest ally, no-one would want to do more for them than me. But as their father there are times when I say, ‘no you can’t do that’, ‘go and tidy that up’, ‘eat your brocolli’ etc. You see, my relationship with them is more than (but not less) just being a supporter.

We need to remember that Jesus is our Saviour – we owe Him everything, there is nothing He can ask us to do for Him that is more than He has done for us. Further not only is He our Saviour but also our Lord or 'Commander-in-Chief' (2 Tim 2:3).

As Commander-in-Chief he may call us to action in places and situations we would rather not go. I was reminded* recently of those Israelites living in slavery in Egypt pre-Exodus. What a life – slavery and oppression and it wasn’t their fault. God told Jacob to settle in Egypt so the slavery was not somekind of judgement on sin. It was because their part in God’s great plan of salvation for the world was to be a slave – that was what God needed them to be and to endure for the coming Kingdom.

This isn’t something I like to think about (never mind put in writing) because I guess we all like to think that our part in God’s great Kingdom work will be a glorious one (that we’ll be a Billy Graham for example). But Jesus is our Commander-in-Chief not our agent. Just as a general in planning a battle might have to call on some soldiers to ‘go over the top’ or do sentry duty in a barren outpost - so Jesus may call us to hard places and hard tasks too. In some places today Jesus will have told one of His soldiers: ‘I need you to go to prison now for me’, or ‘I need you leave your friends and home now for me’, or ‘I need you to be ill for me now’, or ‘I need you to stay in that hard situation for me’. Like the Israelites of old we may not be able to see how our situation is helping to advance God’s Kingdom – but if we see Jesus as our Saviour & Commander we will not expect that His will for us will always be the same as our own - but it will be best.


*Need to credit Paul Rees for this thought.