Transforming Church Growth: From Addition to Multiplication
What if church were different? What if we grew exponentially instead of by addition?
Upwards of 80% of church growth is actually transfer growth.[1] We rearrange the furniture on the Titanic quite a bit, so to speak, but we’re not moving a whole lot of new people into the lifeboats. We’re adding some but we’re not multiplying very much.
The early church exploded, it didn’t merely add. Larry Hurtado gives this estimate on the exponential growth of Christianity: “One thousand Christians in 40 AD, about seven to ten thousand by 100 AD, about two hundred thousand or a bit more by 200 AD, and by 300 AD perhaps five to six million.”[2] There was a time when Methodists were growing at an outlandish pace. In 1776 Methodists made up just 2.5 % of religious adherents but by 1850 they were up to 34.2 %. Explosive growth has happened at various times throughout church history. How can it happen again in America?
First, we need to think super simple and super small.
You may be familiar with the story of the inventor of the chess game. As a reward for his invention he was offered one free wish as his reward by the king of India. As a most ‘modest’ reward, he wished just for a kernel of rice on the first square of the chess board to be squared (multiplied by itself) for every section of the chess board—64 sections in all. That will mean two kernels on the second square, four on the third, sixteen on the forth, and so on. The king, who had initially smiled on it, thinking that he would get off lightly, simply could not grant the wish. He would have to produce 26 kernels of rice, which is 2,223,372,036,000,000,000 kernels, or 153 billion tons of rice.[3]
We must do all the Bible things a church has to do but not all the modern American things, it doesn’t have to do. Simple things can spread quickly, but complexity bogs down. Also, disciples disciple, consumers don’t.
Second, trust that the Spirit has endowed the church body and individuals with various gifts to build up the body. Every Jesus follower has God the Spirit within them. They have latent potential. When Jesus’ followers work with others in the body, the body grows. It builds itself up in love. All the markings of a Jesus movement are contained in one church body. Just as, “In the seed the whole tree lies coiled, and in the tree, there lies the potential for the production of countless other seeds. In the tree is the full potential of the forest.”[4]
God has gifted His people. We go in the confidence of Jesus the Lord who has “all authority in heaven and earth” (Matt. 28:18). We go with the power of the Holy Spirit, the Helper, who is with us and for us. We don’t need huge budgets and fancy buildings. We need to lean into all that God has already provided. It is more than enough. When we overly rely on buildings, budgets, and human wisdom, we often emphasize our power, and not God’s, and thus don’t see explosive growth. As D.L. Moody said, “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to God.” What if we raise up an army of men and women who set their faces like flint and put their hands to the plow?
God never promised to bless our innovation or entertainment. He said sow, and then we’ll reap. It won’t always be “sexy,” in fact, it will often be scary, but that’s the work our Master has told us to be about.
The Jesus movement was not exponential, at first. By definition, nothing is exponential at first. But, if we actually focus on disciple-making, and not injecting Christians with consumerism resulting in lethargy and atrophy, a movement can happen.
We see a pattern of multiplication in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. God says, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 1:28). God says to Abraham, “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore”(Gen. 22:17). We see a call for multiplication in Acts (1:8) and we see that multiplication happening: “The church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied” (9:31).[5] Thus, later in Revelation, we see “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9-10).
Paul was about the multiplication of the Church and sacrificed to see it spread. Paul multiplied himself in others to facilitate the multiplication of the Church. Paul said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1 cf. Acts 20:18ff; Phil. 3:17; 1 Tim. 4:12; Titus 2:7-8; Heb. 13:7; 1 Pet. 5:2-3).[6] Thus, Paul taught men, like Timothy, who would be able to carry on and teach others (2 Tim. 2:2). Paul’s desire was not to merely preach but to make many disciples. That was Paul’s consuming toil and struggle (Acts 14:21 cf. Col. 1:28-29). He sought the strength of his disciples and not merely their salvation (Acts 14:22; 15:32-41; 16:5; 18:23).
A church is never meant to be about that one church, it is to be about the Kingdom of God, the Church. So, the church is to pursue multiplication because it is a mere embassy of the Kingdom, it’s a local outpost. But, the church is about the Kingdom, and Kingdom expansion.
Notes
[1] Ken Sidey says, “research that shows that more than 80 percent of all the growth taking place in growing churches comes through transfer, not conversion” (“Church Growth Fine Tunes Its Formulas” https://www.christianitytoday.com/1991/06/church-growth-fine-tunes-its-formulas/ see also David Dunlap, “The Myth of Church Growth,” Current Thoughts and Trends, 8/6, (June 1998), 7).
[2] Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods, 3.
[3] Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 208.
[4] Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 206.
[5] “There must have been hundreds of churches in the small cities and towns throughout this large region, but all of them together can be called a “church” (Gk. ekklēsia, singular in the earliest and best manuscripts of this verse, though some later manuscripts have the plural). The NT can apply the singular word “church” to the church meeting in a home (Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19), in an entire city (1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1), in a large region (as here), or throughout the whole world (1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 5:25)” (ESV Study Bible note on Acts 9:31).
[6] Robert L. Plummber, “Imitation of Paul and the Church’s Missionary Role in 1 Corinthians” in JETS 44/2 (June 2001) 219-35. This article demonstrates that individuals are called to imitate Paul in his witness for the gospel. However, Paul did not expect “bland uniformity” (235) because people are entrusted with different stewardships.
Why Consumerism Harms Church Discipleship
What if church were different? What if we disciple instead of entertain? I recently read this striking description of church: “Sunday services are essentially a bunch of people gathered to sing along with a worship cover band.”[1] But church was always meant to be much more than an entertaining sing-along.
Jesus talked about the cross yet we encourage and support consumerism. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk. 9:23). What if the church growth method of coddling Christians is backfiring? Perhaps our emphasis on entertainment over discipleship is partially at fault for this startling statistic: “51% of Churchgoers Don’t Know of the Great Commission.”[2] Clearly, being a churchgoer is not the same as being an apprentice of Jesus.[3]
It seems like at least many of the biggest and brightest churches across America are the most successful vendors of “religious goods and services.”[4] As Kenneth Woodward said, “Some of the least demanding churches are now in the greatest demand.”[5] Yet, as has often been said, “What you win them with, is what you win them to.” Of course, most churches will not be able to compete with the world when it comes to amazing entertaining experiences, but “even if we could produce cool church events, we would create a generation of Christian consumers who look to the church to entertain them.”[6]
Plus, the church has what the world can never duplicate. We foolishly put the emphasis on the wrong thing if we put it on entertainment. America is drowning in entertainment. We are “amusing ourselves to death.”[7] We have the bread of life, if the world has butter, why are we offering more butter?! They need bread! They may not know it, but they’re desperately hungry for substance.
Further, when we entertain and coddle Christians, is it any wonder why Christians don’t want to take up their crosses as Jesus commands? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in The Cost of Discipleship, said, “When Jesus bids a man, He bids him come and die.” We, instead, offer entertainment and amusement. The church often tries to compete with what the world offers all the while Jesus is calling us to put to death what is earthly in us. I’m not saying all entertainment is wrong, but entertainment as a church growth model is problematic for discipleship.
Christ tells us to take up our cross but we’re often worried about our coffee. Jesus tells us to lay our life down but “the sermon didn’t really speak to me.” This mindset is problematic and prevalent. And it’s been bred in our churches in America. Alan Hirsh has said,
Ninety percent or more of the people who attend our services are passive. In other words, they are consumptive. They are the passive recipients of the religious goods and services being delivered largely by professionals in a slick presentation and service. Just about everything we do in these somewhat standardized services and ‘box churches,’ we do in order to attract participants, and to do this we need to make the experience of church more convenient and comfortable. It is the ultimate religious version of one-stop shopping-hassle-free. But alas, all we are achieving by doing this is adding more fuel to the insatiable consumerist flame. I have come to the dreaded conclusion that we simply cannot consume our way into discipleship. Consumerism as it is experienced in the everyday and discipleship as it is intended in the scriptures are simply at odds with each other.[8]
We have so distorted the radical call of Jesus that the standard for Christian faithfulness has become somewhat frequent church attendance or checking out the church’s livestream. It is such the norm for pastors to pander to the middle classes’ desire for safety and security, comfort and convenience, that it’s hardly ever seen for what it is. It’s just the way it is, the way it’s always been. Pastors will run themselves ragged, be chewed up, and spit out, all the time catering to the church’s perceived “needs.” The pastor can feel good because he sacrificed himself—and probably his family—for the “good” of the church. But what if “good of the church,” is equal to “sufficiently coddled and entertained”?
A major threat to the viability of Christianity in America is consumerism. Revelation warns Christians of the beast and Babylon. Perhaps American Christians are unaware that one of the evils of Babylon is its consumerism. Consumerism and following Christ are contradictory, they are positive and negative magnets, they repel each other. Again, “We plainly cannot consume our way into discipleship.”[9] In part, because “The task of the church is not to make men and women happy; it is to make them holy.”[10]
Entertainers provide popcorn and reclining chairs. Coaches provide water to replenish sweat and bandages to stop bleeding. Fans sit in their seats and buy hot dogs. Players lay it all on the line on the field. When we entertain we make fans. When we coach we make players. Fans may not sweat and bleed from the stands but are often overweight and unhealthy.
When we overprotect and provide, we stunt growth. In this way, people and plants are both byproducts of their environments. Biosphere 2 was built in Arizona to test the possibility of creating an ecological system that would support plant and human life in outer space. Everything was thought of; everything was perfect—too perfect. The trees in Biosphere 2 appeared strong and healthy until they collapsed.
The trees did not experience the stress of real life outside their perfectly designed environment. There was no wind, which resulted in a weaker cellular structure and roots that did not grow as deep. Perfectly curated environments hinder actual maturity. In the same way, an emphasis on entertainment is antithetical to an apprenticeship with Jesus. Curated comfortable environments can curb our conformity to Christ.
Notes
[1] Justin Sarachik, “Everybody Loves a Good Cover,” 48 in Common Good
[2] https://www.barna.com/research/half-churchgoers-not-heard-great-commission/
[3] Being a disciple of Jesus is much more than knowledge but what we believe is very important. When we look at the beliefs of “evangelical Christians” there is much reason for concern. The 2022 Ligoniers State of Theology found that 43% of evangelical Christians agree with this statement: “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God” and 56% agree with this statement: “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam” (See https://thestateoftheology.com).
[4] Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 110.
[5] Charles Colson and Ellen Vaughn, Being the Body, 22.
[6] Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Everyday Church: Gospel Communities on Mission, 49.
[7] See Neil Postman’s book with the same title: Amusing Ourselves to Death.
[8] Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 110.
[9] Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 45.
[10] Colson and Vaughn, Being the Body, 26.
Rethinking Church: From Invitation to Evangelism
What if church were different? What if we evangelize instead of invite?
Admittedly, this is an old study, but in 1988 George Barna found that
Despite the fact that churches and para-church organizations have spent billions of dollars on evangelism. More than 10,000 hours of evangelistic television programming have been broadcast, in excess of 5,000 new Christian books have been published, and more than 1,000 radio stations carry Christian programming. Yet despite such widespread opportunities for exposure to the Gospel, there has been no discernible growth in the size of the Christian body.[1]
Could it be because invitation has replaced evangelism, and inviting people to the Christmas program has replaced dinner in our homes? The church was always supposed to incarnate the good news of Jesus and show the lived reality of His reign through Christian love. Francis Schaeffer went as far as to say that the love of Christians must be visible, for it is “the final apologetic.”[2]
Perhaps we must take a different approach than the church growth experts have promoted for decades. Instead of watching the neighbor’s kids, who is a single mother and in need of a lot of help, we are exhausting ourselves in the nursery supporting the church service. What if we did the opposite?! What if we didn’t serve in nursery, and instead knew and helped our neighbors? The church was never meant to be for itself. It exists to love Jesus and love others like Jesus.
The Bible tells us to “go and tell.” It doesn’t instruct us to “invite people to a building.” We are to be the church, not invite people to a building we’ve falsely labeled “church.”
“Letting our light shine” was never meant to become: “gather all the lights in the same building and keep them from the dark.” Too often, Christian life circles around propping up and keeping the institution of the church afloat. It becomes a vicious cycle. The church needs people at the “church” to keep the “church” going, all the while taking the church out of the world.
People often ask me, “Why is the world such a dark place?” Could it be, in part, because the church—the light of the world—has left the world and gone into a building? Sadly, churches are notorious for taking people out of actual outreach to put them on an outreach committee.
Further, we’ve hamstrung ourselves by encouraging and facilitating invitation over evangelism. Instead of the whole body being deployed in specific contexts where different people are specifically equipped to contextually share the good news of Jesus, we’ve allowed the onus to fall on professional clergy. Inviting someone to church is now the faithful thing to do. We’ve essentially taken an army off the frontlines where they are desperately needed and given a weapon to one person to wield from the stage.
UPS delivers packages to us, typically Amazon packages. What if UPS went around town and told us we could go to the distribution center one day a week between 9 and 11 AM and pick up packages? First, that’d be bizarre. Second, it would be very unhelpful and UPS wouldn’t be in business very long. Third, it would be a lot like our “evangelism” in America. Yet, as Bill Hull has said, “There are no commands in Scripture for non-Christians to go to church, but there are plenty about Christians going to the world.”
Instead of being missionaries, we expect those who would be part of the church to become missionaries. The responsibility is on them to cross boundaries and learn a new vocabulary. Instead of crossing the thresholds into people’s homes and inviting them into ours, we’re inviting them to a sterile church building. We’re inviting them to a strange and foreign institution. Jesus and Paul sought out people where they were, they didn’t invite them to a church service.
Jesus who is the good news, brought good news. He did not merely call us up to heaven. He came down from heaven—to walk, dine, and die for us—to bring us up. And Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (Jn. 20:21; 17:18). He has sent us not to merely invite people to a church building, but to compel people into the Kingdom.
Notes
[1] George Barna, Marketing the Church (Navpress, Colorado Springs, CO, 1990), 22.
[2] Bryan A. Follis, Truth with love: the apologetics of Francis Schaeffer, 58.
[3] Luke 14:23 says, “Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled” but the context (note v. 15) informs us that the parable is about the Kingdom, and not any one church. It’s certainly not about a church building.
What if church were different?
What if church were different? And what if church needed to be different? Different to better fit the biblical ideal and different to better reach North America? What might that “different” look like?
Christianity as we know it in America is receding. That’s what John Dickerson shared in his book The Great Evangelical Recession in 2013. The decline of evangelical Christianity in America “is not just that we’re failing at evangelism or just that we’re failing to keep our own kids or just that we’ll lose 70 percent of our funding in the next thirty years. It’s all those factors (and more) combined and gaining speed simultaneously.”[1]
If that’s the case, and it is, “We are in need of a new paradigm, not a mere reworking of the existing one.”[2] I propose a new paradigm in upcoming posts; but first, let’s look at the current reigning paradigm.
What is the typical American church growth model? What is seen as necessary for the continued growth of the church?
- Inspiring worship experiences by an excellent band and positive worship leaders.
- Dynamic and entertaining preaching related to the felt needs of the audience.
- Fun programming for kids and youth.
- Excellent parking and building facilities.
- Effective marketing and branding to set the church apart from other churches.
- Small group opportunities without commitment.[3]
- The latest and greatest visual technology.
- Increasing staff, buildings, and money.
- When the church grows, go multisite and export the brand.
With all of this, in the USA, we spend roughly $1.5 million on church functions per baptism of one new convert (notice, this is a convert, not a trained up faithful follower of Jesus).[4]
Further, the “market appeal” for this type of church in America is around 35 percent.[5] Most evangelical churches subscribe to this approach yet growth with this model is relatively rare.[6] It is quite hard to start a Saddleback, Willow Creek, or Mars Hill. It takes a whole lot of money and talent and can produce a whole lot of scandal. And sadly these churches often produce fans who sit in their seats instead of Jesus followers who serve.
I am sure church growth experts were sincere, well-intentioned, and did not perceive the ramifications of the consumeristic approach. Yet, they “have explicitly taught us how to market and tailor the product to suit target audiences. They told us to mimic the shopping mall, apply it to the church, and create a one-stop religious shopping experience catering to our every need.” In this way, “consumerism has actually become the driving ideology of the church’s ministry.”[7] Of course, in our preaching, we’re against consumerism but our practice often says something else.
One of the problems, however, is who is going after the roughly 65 percent of people not interested in the typical American church? How are we going to reach the people who think church branding is shallow? What about the people who long for authenticity and not a “positive worship experience?”
What if something else is needed in America? What if we don’t need more mega churches, what if we need micro churches? What if we need simple churches, filled with authentic Jesus followers? What if more money and more buildings aren’t the key?
What if many people are disillusioned not with Christianity, but with the American church? What if people don’t need better visuals during the service but someone to imitate in real life? What if people need a visual of how to live their messy lives as followers of Jesus? What if what we’re building is built with straw (1 Cor. 3:10-15)?
Notes
[1] John Dickerson, The Great Evangelical Recession, 22. Before that, in 2008, Christine Wicker wrote, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation. In it, she said, “Evangelical Christianity in America is dying… They are a remnant, unraveling at every edge. Look at it any way you like: Conversions. Baptisms. Membership. Retention. Participation. Giving. Attendance. Religious literacy. Effect on the culture. All are down and dropping” (Christine Wicker, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church [2008, Harper One], ix).
[2] Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 26.
[3] These small are designed with on and off-ramps so if people are “too much” fellow Christians don’t have to “bear their burdens.” A sense of community needs to be available but needs to conveniently fit the limited schedule carved out for it.
[4] David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, World Christian Trends AD 30-AD 2200, 520-29.
[5] Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 36.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid., 110.
Photo by Kenny Eliason
The Bible Shows the Worth of Women
The Bible over and over again shows the worth of women. This is in great contrast to the culture of its time. At the time of the writing of the New Testament women did not have equality with men. For example, there was no approved public place for the self-expression of women, and women could be subject to the death penalty if caught in the stands at the Olympics.
Christianity was also different from the surrounding culture in that it demanded holiness and honor not just from the wife but also from the husband, and both partners had sexual rights. This was not the Roman way. Sexual loyalty was required of women but not men, but the Bible counter-culturally taught that both partners were to be exclusively loyal to the marriage partner.
The Bible shows and defends the value of women. It repeatedly defies the expectations of the surrounding society. Christians turned the world upside down in many ways, for one, it showed women have inestimable worth and so their names are written across the word of God.1 There are some 202 women listed in the Bible. This is significant, for example, because the Quran lists just one and the Hindu Bhagavad Gita lists none.
Women have worth not as sexual objects, not as carriers of kids, and not as cooks. Women have worth because God loves them and Jesus died for them. Christianity also teaches that women are not to be mistreated. That, however, was not the expectation in the culture from which Christianity sprang. We see the contrast between Christianity and the culture of the time when we compare the contemporaries Plutarch, the philosopher and historian, and the Apostle Paul.
Plutarch allows husbands to have sexual relations outside of their marriage. It was actually expected that married men would have sexual relations with other women, such as prostitutes, female slaves, or mistresses from lower social classes. Demosthenes even famously said, “Mistresses we keep for our pleasure, concubines for our day-to-day physical well-being, and wives in order to bear us legitimate children and to serve as trustworthy guardians over our households.”
Paul, by contrast, calls for loving marital commitment for both the husband and the wife. Plutarch does not let wives speak in public, but Paul does. Plutarch says a wife should follow the religion of her husband. Paul says both spouses should love their spouse regardless of their religion. “For Plutarch, it is the husband who takes the initiative in sexual matters. For Paul, both partners have mutual obligation and should act in agreement.”2
Plutarch said husbands should rule their wives “as the soul rules the body.” Whereas Paul says in Ephesians 5 that “husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh.” What Paul and Plutarch say about how husbands are to live with wives is very different. Paul’s instructions to the churches he wrote to were subversive. He showed love and respect for both women and wives and told others to do so.
When we read the New Testament we see “Women were among the early churches’ most active and respected members.”3 The Bible shows women in high roles of leadership, compliments them, greets them, and considers them fellow workers in the gospel. Jesus spoke to and cared for the outcast Samaritan woman at the well. Even Jesus’ disciples were surprised. “They marveled that He was talking to a woman” (John 4:27). Yet He was. Jesus loved and cared for women. Of course, He loved women. He created them. And He created women as part of His good design to image Himself through humanity.
The Bible is emphatic that women have worth. Women are precious and made in the image of God. Women do not have less worth than men. Sadly, this has not always been understood or communicated as it should be. But thankfully Jesus once and for all communicated it on the cross when He bled and died for precious women. He never treated them like meat to fulfill His pleasure but died like meat to provide salvation.
Photo by Joel Muniz
- Romans 16 mentions 29 people and 10 of them are women. Here is the list of the females mentioned: Phoebe (Rom. 16:1-2), Priscilla (Rom. 16:3-5), Mary (Rom. 16:6) Junia (Rom. 16:7), Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis (Rom. 16:12), Rufus’ mother (Rom. 16:13), Julia and Nereus’ sister (Rom. 16:15). That may not seem like a lot but it is very significant for the time that over one-third of the people Paul greeted were women. Women were valuable colaborers in the early church. Here are some other women Paul mentions in his letters: Claudia (2 Tim. 4:21), Priscilla (Acts 18:25; 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Tim. 4:19), Chloe (1 Cor. 1:11), Nympha (Col. 4:15), and Apphia (Philemon 1:2). ↩︎
- Benjamin Marx, “’Wifely Submission’ and ‘Husbandly Authority” in Plutarch’s Moralia and the Corpus Paulinum: A Comparison,” 88 in Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism. ↩︎
- Sarah Ruden, Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time, 86. ↩︎
The Work of the Spirit | pt. 6
You can see the previous post in the series here.
There is no exegetical reason for believing the gifts have ceased. Ninth, despite what many believe, there is no convincing exegetical argument for the cessation of the grace gifts.[1] 1 Corinthians 13:10 plays a prominent role in many cessationists’ arguments. It did for me when I was taught as a kid. There is another hermeneutical issue, however. Thomas R. Schreiner says,
To see ‘the perfect’ as referring to the New Testament canon is an example of anachronism…
Instead of referring to spiritual maturity or to the canon of the New Testament, ‘the perfect’ most likely refers to the second coming of Christ, the end of the age. The perfect is equivalent with seeing God face to face (1 Cor. 13:12).[2]
John MacArthur says although many “scholars [e.g. B.B. Warfield, Richard Gaffin, Robert Thomas, Thomas Edgar, Simon J. Kistemaker] disagree on the identification of the ‘perfect,’ they all reach the same conclusion—namely, that the miraculous and revelatory gifts have ceased.”[3] He goes on to say that “we must look elsewhere than 1 Corinthians 13:10, to passages like Ephesians 2:20, where Paul indicated that both the apostolic and prophetic offices were only for the foundational age of the church.”[4]
Many, such as John MacArthur, Richard B. Gaffin, along with Schreiner, end up making the argument that the gifts of the Spirit have ceased because they claim, otherwise, the canon of Scripture would be in jeopardy.[5] That, however, is rather a different issue than if the gifts of the Spirit continue or not. For one, the canon of Scripture, as well as the very existence of the Church, has been in jeopardy since the outset. The way to defend Scripture, as well as the church, is a more robust understanding of what Scripture teaches, not fear.
The Work of the Spirit | pt. 2
God the Spirit and the Filling of the Spirit
God the Spirit. Since we are considering the work of the Spirit within the church, it is important that we consider God the Spirit, who He is and what He does. First, without going into any detail, the Holy Spirit is the third person of Trinity. The Spirit is fully God.[1] The Holy Spirit also has personhood; He is not an impersonal force.[2] That is who the Spirit is.
Second,[3] it is important that we briefly consider what it is that the Spirit does. The Old Testament teaches us various things about the Holy Spirit. The Spirit molds creation into shape and gives life to created beings (Gen 1:2; 2:7; Ps 33:6; Job 26:13; 33:4). The Spirit controls the course of nature and history (Ps 104:29-30; Isa 34:16). The Spirit teaches and reveals God’s truth and will to His messengers.[4] The Spirit elicits personal response to God.[5] The Spirit equips individuals for leadership.[6] We also see that the Spirit equips individuals with skill and strength (Exod 31:1-11; 1 Kgs 7:14; Hag 2:5; Zech 4:6).
The Spirit is given as our Helper (John 14:24). He takes what belongs to the Son and shares it with those who believe (John 16:14), beginning with the new birth (John 3:6), teaching and guiding (John 16:14), and transforming (2 Cor 3:5-18) in ways that surpass human capacity (1 Cor 2:10-14). He empowers believers to be Jesus’ witnesses to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8) and to the end of the age (Matt 28:20). By indwelling believers (Rom 8:9; 1 John 2:27), the Spirit washes and renews (Titus 3:5), pours out divine love in our hearts (Rom 5:5), reproduces the divine virtues (Gal 5:22-23; Rom 14:17), enables us to resist sin (Rom 8:13) and pursue holiness (2 Thess 2:13), and build unity among the church (Eph 2:22; 4:3, 13; Phil 2:1-2).[7] The Spirit hears, speaks, witnesses, convinces, shows, leads, guides, teaches, commands, forbids, desires, gives speeches, helps, and intercedes with groans.[8] It is vital that we not leave out the most miraculous work that the Spirit works within people; He makes them new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17; 3:3, 6, 18; Titus 3:5-6; Ezek 36:25-28; Rom 2:28-29).
The Work of the Spirit | pt. 1
Introduction and Thesis
The Apostle Paul said, “Now concerning spiritual gifts: brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be unaware” (1 Cor 12:1).[1] This is a very important subject yet sadly very divisive. The reality is “there is one body and one Spirit” and “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph 4:4-5) but there are many divergent views on the work of the Spirit within the Church. So we have all the more reason to carefully evaluate this subject.[2]
This subject is important to consider because we want Christ’s church to be as healthy as it can possibly be, we want it to be adorned as Christ would have it. If there are good gifts that are available to the church for it’s upbuilding then we should want to and should make use of them.[3] Especially because 1 Corinthians 12:31 tells us we are to eagerly desire the greater grace gifts.
I believe that all the good gifts that were available at the outset of the church continue to be available and will be until the consummation when the Lord Jesus comes back to get His bride. So my thesis is that God the Spirit continues to empower and provide various grace gifts[4] to the Church for its upbuilding and these gifts should be earnestly desired and practiced in accordance with Scripture. This is very important to consider because “despite the affirmations in our creeds… and the lip service paid to the Spirit in our occasional conversations, the Spirit is largely marginalized in our actual life together as a community of faith.”[5]
Setting the Context
I have a number of questions that are important for us to honestly consider.[6] Could it be the case that some people have a bias against the continuation of the gifts of the Spirit?[7] Could it be that people do not have solid biblical reasons for believing that the “more miraculous” gifts of the Spirit have ceased? Could it be that most people’s beliefs in this regard are simply based upon what they have heard someone else say? Could it be that in this case, people have failed to check what was taught to ensure it was in accordance with Scripture (See Acts 17:11)?
Could it be that the Western enlightenment worldview has crept into our own view of the world and impacted the way we think about spiritual things?[8] Many have adopted a view of reality that sees “the universe as a uniform system based strictly on the cause-and-effect relationships between its constituent parts, each in a determinate relationship one to the others, utterly closed to any dimensions of reality that transcend the natural.”[9] Of course, many Christians rightly confess with Abraham Kuyper, that “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” But, could it still be the case that “naturalism nonetheless deeply influences our view of the daily events of our lives”[10]?
Can we concede that the continuation of the gifts would be a good thing? Should not we want all the grace that our good Father has availed to us? How can we say something is bad that our Father has called good?[11] If the grace gifts are part of the “every good and perfect gifts” (Jas 1:17) that God has graciously given us then should we not receive them gratefully?[12] If spiritual gifts are as bad and unhelpful as many make them seem, then why would the gifts have ever existed at all?
The Church & the Coronavirus
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).
5 things for Christians to do in the midst of the coronavirus:
1. Continue in faith and fight against fear.
One way you can work at doing that is by memorizing these verses:
“We can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:6).
“My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2).
“Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22).
“From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for Him” (Isaiah 64:4).
2. Feast on God’s word and fast social media & entertainment.
The Bible is the authoritative word of God and as such, it is uniquely profitable (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Scripture is a light (Ps. 119:105,130), sword (Eph. 6:17), hammer (Jer. 23:29), and surgeon (Heb. 4:12). Scripture is more essential than bread (Matt. 4:4), better than gold (Ps. 19:10; 119:72), and we need it to live (Ps. 119:144). Scripture is perfect (Ps. 19:7), true (Ps. 19:9), pure (Ps. 19:8), and eternal (1 Pet. 1:25). Scripture contains the words of life (Jn. 6:68) and the words that are breathed out by God (2 Tim. 3:16). Scripture gives joy (Ps. 119:111; Jer. 15:16), makes wise (Ps. 19:7), equips (2 Tim. 3:17), guards (Ps. 119:9), guides (Ps. 73:24; 119:105), saves (1 Pet. 1:23), sanctifies (Ps. 119:9,11; Jn. 17:17), and satisfies because by it we know God (1 Pet. 2:3). The Bible is of absolute importance.
So, feast on God’s word and spend less time on social media and entertainment.
3. Make a prayer list of 10 people & pray for them every day.
4. Make a check-in list of 10 people & check in on them.
5. Pray for needs across the globe & pray for God to turn hearts to Himself.
“Be kind to one another”
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:31–32).
There is a right way and a wrong way to live. That is not popular to say but it is the undiluted truth. The right way is in accord with “the way [we] learned Christ” (Eph. 4:20). The wrong way to live involves “hardness of heart” (Eph. 4:18), callousness (Eph. 4:19), and corruption through deceitful desires (Eph. 4:22).
So, there are certain things we should not do. There is a wrong way to live and act. It is damaging and even devilish (James 3:15).
Therefore, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” We should not be resentful. Sinful anger should have no place in our lives. Foolish arguments should never be heard to come from our mouths. We should never speak wrong of others. How can we try to tarnish a person made in God’s image (James 3:9)?! Lastly, how can we have ill-will for someone when God the Son paid the ultimate price for us?! How can we not be transformed by our heavenly Father’s sacrificial love so that we extend grace and love even to our enemies?!
in X 