Read this incredibly helpful article this morning on how one should go about prayer meetings. It begins with you deciding to pray for your church. How often do you do that? You can read the article here.
All posts tagged church
Prayer Meetings
Posted by mikethestrand on April 13, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/04/13/prayer-meetings/
Contextualization in the Church
The Gospel Coalition has a wonderful article today titled, ‘Don’t Throw Out Your Nice Suit Just Yet.‘ One of the most helpful paragraphs is:
It is interesting, then, to see church leaders intentionally get rid of these more traditional elements in order to contextualize the gospel. Churches all across our nation emphasize casual worship, and their pastors often sport graphic tees, jeans, and flip flops on Sunday mornings. They believe this approach will best reach a generation turned off by “churchiness.” However, while these churches may be contextualizing their church services for one particular demographic, they do not necessarily reach an entire generation.
This is where I think it’s very helpful to have multiple people on staff. One person cannot effectively reach an entire generation of people, but multiple people can. Tied into that, I don’t think that means that EVERY senior pastor needs to wear a suit when they preach, I think they should let their personality shine out in the way they dress. For me, I’m most comfortable in a button-up and jeans with a nice pair of Sperrys. The other two pastors wear slacks and button-ups every week! (I don’t really know how they do it!)
So yes, let’s not forget that not everyone is used to jeans and a T, but let’s not completely do away with them either. Wear what you’re comfortable wearing and praise God that he loves you not for your outward appearance, but for your heart (1 Samuel 16:7).
Posted by mikethestrand on April 12, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/04/12/contextualization-in-the-church/
Who Is My Family?
One topic I’ve touched on before is the concept of the church as a family. Today I’m going to expand that thinking just a little bit as we explore what the church says about the family.
In 1 Timothy 5, Paul expands upon this idea, starting in verse 1, “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.” Plenty of things have been written about that last part, “in all purity,” but not as much has been written about the rest of those two verses. My Bible (ESV) describes this section as “Instructions for the Church.” We can already see the family ties beginning to connect in the church as we are to treat everyone in the church as our family. I would even extend this thinking into treating those who are considerably older as grandparents, and those who are considerably younger as grandchildren. I have some people like that in the church I serve now. Godly men and women who have taken me under their wing and give me a hug every time they see me. I’m so grateful for their influence in the church and my life.
So then if the church is to be one big family, what is the purpose of your immediate family? Paul has some very strong words to say about your immediate family in verse 8, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Wow! Worse than an unbeliever! Paul clearly expects people to provide for their families. I’ve heard stories of pastors who have had the children of older people in the church come to them and expect the church to help their parents out. I’m sorry, but that’s NOT what the church is called to do! The church is called to help those who have no other family to help them out, as Paul says in verse 4, “if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.” Again, we see immediate family is called to provide for their immediate family. So now, how does the church fit in to that?
Acts 2:42 provides a picture for us of what this should look like, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of break and the prayers.” When your blood family is provided for, then out of the overflow of God’s blessing in your life, use it as an opportunity to help those in the family of the church. Just a few verses later in Acts 2 it says, “They were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” How can you be helping those in your church family as they have needs? This isn’t always physical! I wrote last week about the importance of prayer, and just yesterday had the opportunity to pray with a dear friend at church who is today having surgery. How can we spiritually, physically and emotionally care for both our family through blood and our family through water.
“It’s been said that blood is thicker than water,
But in the church, the opposite is true
Water is thicker than blood.”
My Dad
Posted by mikethestrand on March 26, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/03/26/who-is-my-family/
Hospitality
Hospitality seems to be a dying art today. People are increasingly moving toward being more private and reserved, and this is especially seen in the life of the church. Throughout the New Testament you see regular exhortations to meet together and spend time together (Hebrews 10:25, 1 Peter 4:9, Acts 2:42, etc.). Many people don’t realize that to be a believer is to be a part of a larger body. This is something that has been very enjoyable for the small group I’ve been a part of. This past weekend a number of them came over to my house to play Settlers of Catan (unfortunately, I wasn’t able to play because there were too many, but it was still an enjoyable time). These get togethers are a regular occurrence for our small group, and each time is very enjoyable!
Randy Alcorn recently addressed this issue in a blog titled ‘What Happened to Hospitality?‘ In it he says, “Beyond the service and the feeding of the meal, there’s something wonderful about the conversations that can come out of having people over. Some of the greatest discussions are centered around meals.” I couldn’t agree more! I think having someone over to your home breaks down some of the barriers people have and is a great way to get to know others. So when is the last time you had someone over for a meal?
Posted by mikethestrand on March 25, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/03/25/hospitality/
The Pope Is Probably the Antichrist, Part 2
Yesterday I posted a blog ‘The Pope of Probably the Antichrist‘ and pointed people to another blog with the same title. While my blog was meant to be taken with a grain of salt (I wan’t actually saying the new Pope is the antichrist), the blog I linked to was very helpful in thinking through what some of the Reformers thought about the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church.
The main issue I see with the Roman Catholic Church is with justification (see John Piper on what he would ask the Pope). If the Catholic church says that they do not teach that we are justified by faith alone, through Christ alone then they are teaching a heresy. I do not think Christians today are willing enough to call people out for theological issues. Many people will say they don’t agree with someone else but people within the church are too often willing to allow many false teachings to slide by without properly confronting them.
My response when people ask about the Catholic church is that yes, there are many people within the Catholic church who are not believers, just like there are many people within the E Free Church, who are not believers, and the same can be said about every other denomination in the world. The world does not need Christians who just go to church on Sunday and leave it at that. James 1:22 says, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” If a brother or sister claims to be a believer but is not acting as the Bible commands, they should be confronted of the sin in their lives, and if they are not willing to repent there should be questions about their faith.
So ultimately, do I think the Pope is the antichrist? No. But I do think the Catholic church teaches some things that are contrary to Scripture and I look forward to the day when Christ will return to right all the wrongs that have gone on in the world today.
Posted by mikethestrand on March 14, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/03/14/the-pope-is-probably-the-antichrist-part-2/
The Pope Is Probably the Antichrist
I’ve said before that the only virtue praised in America today is “judge not, lest you be judged.” This includes people within the church, yet the Bible commands us to help each other in our struggle with sin (see Galatians 6:1-2, James 5:16, Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 4:25, James 5:19-20) and that includes “judging” as many people tend to use that word today.
There was a very interesting article on judging written at the Cripplegate today on the Catholic church and their election of a new pope. He brought up some points that I had never heard before, that Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and Edwards all condemned the pope as being an antichrist. The article ends by saying:
And if calling the Pope the antichrist seems like a very unchristian thing to do, I assure you that it is not the theology of the thing that has changed in the last 50 years.Today’s reluctance to make that connection says a lot about how far our evangelical culture has drifted, and very little about the Pope.
The whole article is worth reading, and a good check of where we as the church have been and continue to go. How can we continue to hold true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ dying for our sins and raising to life on the third day, now sitting at the right hand of God until he will return to judge the living and the dead in our current culture?
Posted by mikethestrand on March 13, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/03/13/the-pope-is-probably-the-antichrist/
The Consequences of a Liberal Lifestyle
I found a very interesting story about how the culture is pushing a 10 year old to become a gamer as well as watch explicit videos on YouTube. You can read the article here. This is a very sad commentary on what is going on in the world today. This is something I experienced in going to public school in rural North Dakota, with people showing me pornographic pictures in 7th grade. Thankfully, gaming wasn’t as big of an issue, and the only online interaction we had was MSN Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger, and I even had to sneak onto those to use them!
My only concern with the article is Rod’s response. As he explains why this is the very reason he homeschools his kids, he goes on to say that parents are alone in this struggle:
Your kids’ school is not going to help you, and may not be able to even if it wanted to.
Your church, lacking an awareness of the seriousness of the cultural situation, and perhaps having lost confidence in its message, is probably not going to help you. Your community is probably not going to help you either, because people either choose not to see what’s happening, or understandably feel so powerless against technology and the deeper cultural forces it carries with it that they tell themselves it’s not as bad as all that.
It’s just you. What now?
I find this even more sad than a liberal culture negatively affecting children! Of course the culture is going to continue to push Christians away from what is good right and true, but does that mean families need to pull in even closer to their “bubble” to protect themselves without any concern for what is going on around them? NO! This is the very reason we have the church and community around us to lovingly support rebuke and encourage us in our growth in holiness. Yes, the church hasn’t always done a good job of reaching out to families and helping to protect them, I’m struggling with this at the church I serve in as well, but there are many good families who are together doing the best they can to help each other as they raise their children to, Lord willing, become godly men and women. If we don’t have the church to support us in this, who do we have? I’m incredibly grateful for families who took an interest in me as I was growing up. Even when I go back home today I’ll stop and visit those parents just to catch up. That is what the body should do as we live in a broken culture. Don’t withdraw, but engage and show how we interact with the world around us in a godly way.
Posted by mikethestrand on March 6, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/03/06/the-consequences-of-a-liberal-lifestyle/
Top 10 Reasons Our Kids Leave Church
Last week I did a blog titled ‘Resisting Being Cutting Edge‘ and included a link to another blog titled ‘Top 10 Reasons Our Kids Leave Church‘ Today I’m going to interact a little with that article. This article says the 10 reasons are:
10. The Church is “Relevant”
9. They never attended church to begin with
8. They get smart
7. You sent them out unarmed
6. You gave them hand me downs
5. Community
4. They found better feelings
3. They got tired of pretending
2. They know the truth
1. They don’t need it
It’s worth reading the explanations in the article, but the thing I don’t see on here is family upbringing. I think this is the key to all these other issues. We have professionals who take care of every need we have. There are teachers who are professional educators, doctors who are professional health care providers, shouldn’t we have professional Christians too? I hate to break it to you, but there is only one professional Christian who we can read about in the Bible. His name is Jesus. Ultimately we need to trust that God is going to work in the students lives as we do our best to instruct them, but I think it’s almost completely up to the parents. The parents are the ones who have the option of spending the most time with their kids, and the ones who the kids will most often imitate.
Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” This is not a universal truth, but it is a general trend. Ultimately children have their own minds and identities, but in the grace of God those who are raised in Bible believing and God fearing homes will grow to be the same. Parents need to start stepping up and setting an example for their children as they grow to be more Christ like in their lives. If the parents are nominal Christians the students will be that AT BEST, and most often will completely fall out of church.
The other issue I see with these top 10 reasons is that we NEED community in the church. We all have these spiritual blind spots and sin issues in our lives that we aren’t aware of until someone else points them out in our lives. Were it not for the church people would follow their own thinking and reasoning right into sin. Community may be a buzz word in the Christian circle today (just as “Gospel” is), but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t value it. The call to Christianity is a call to community. We need the body around us to support encourage and hold us accountable.
Posted by mikethestrand on February 20, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/02/20/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/
Gay Is an Adjective – Review of Washed and Waiting
Gay is an Adjective – My Review of Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality
Adjective: a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it.
Noun: a word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any class of people, places or things (common noun).
Many people use nouns to identify themselves, for example, I regularly tell people, “I am Norwegian.” Today, many people define themselves by their sexuality. This leads to many people saying, “I am gay.” I just finished reading Washed and Waiting by Wesley Hill who says Christians need to begin switching the use of that word to an adjective, so he describes himself as a “celibate, gay Christian.” Christian is the noun and the other two words are adjectives. He has, through many trials, learned to place his whole identity in Christ, making Him the head of his life, as he battles his homosexual attraction.
This is a much needed book in our culture today. Is there room in the church for people who struggle with same sex attraction, yet are willing to call it a sin and trust Christ in their struggle against this sin? I hope that churches are able to see this book as a wake up call to reach out to those who are broken by sin, as the church is supposed to do. And if you look at Scripture, that’s all of us.
Wesley does a fantastic job of bringing us along with him in his journey through life and relentless pursuit of Christ. There were a couple occasions that the book brought me to tears as I was able to see this struggle through his perspective. I hope and pray Wes is able to continue to find strength in the only one who can give it, Jesus Christ.
“Faithfulness is never a gamble. It will be worth it.”
-Wesley Hill
Posted by mikethestrand on February 15, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/02/15/gay-is-an-adjective-review-of-washed-and-waiting/
Resisting Being “Cutting Edge”
My dad sends me articles quite regularly, and one of the most recent ones was titled ‘Resisting the Urge to Do Cutting Edge Youth Ministry.’ It was a helpful article, and I read another one today called ‘Top 10 Reasons our Kids Leave Church‘ that I’ll interact with later this week.
I don’t think the ultimate goal of and youth pastor on pastor in general should be to be cutting edge and always staying relevant, but does having a faithful ministry and being cutting edge have to be mutually exclusive? I replied to my dad saying: “I agree – but then what does that look like practically? He says “I describe our strategy with a few participles: loving, teaching, proclaiming, worshiping, and praying.”
My follow up question is: how? I don’t think being “cutting edge” and following his “few participles” are mutually exclusive, you can still do things well and things that will reach a broad demographic and maybe even be cutting edge without sacrificing what God has called us to.”
I know within Christianity there is a tendency to run from one end of a spectrum to the other. For example, within the Evangelical Free Church, we were founded within the charismatic movement which is characterized by very emotive responses to pretty much everything and strongly encourages the use of all the gifts of the spirit talked about in the New Testament (tongues, prophecy, laying hands on, etc). Yet my experience with much of the EFCA today is a divorce from emotional and intellectual knowledge. These two things can’t be mutually exclusive, we need the intellectual knowledge, but it should lead to an emotional response of gratefulness.
So within the church today, I think our main focus needs to be on being faithful to the Gospel, but then practically we’re going to live that out in different ways depending on where we are in life, where we live, what we do and a host of other things. As of right now I am a 24 year old serving in a church with another pastor in his mid 30s and another pastor in his late 50s. We all talk differently, have different passions and different gifts. This doesn’t mean any of us is better or worse than the other, but together we can reach a much broader demographic than if we were trying to do ministry on our own. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re cutting edge, I’d say far from it, but we do try our best to do everything we do to the best of our ability and to the glory of God.
Posted by mikethestrand on February 13, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/02/13/resisting-being-cutting-edge/
This is Me
Pastor Mike's Musings 