A New Look...
For those of you who might be coming here to read something new periodically, allow me to redirect you to the site of my new blog:
timmorrison.wordpress.com
From today forward, all new posts will be on the new site. Wordpress is a great blog provider and is extremely easy to use, not to mention the fact that it provides a lot of really interesting templates. They are much more aesthetically pleasing than Blogger (in my humble opinion, of course). So, check it out if you're in the mood for a new blog.
You Decide 2006
Ok, let's all be real for a moment and lay down some assumed agreement among all rational thinking Christians. First, God is absolutely not a Republican, nor is He a Democrat. God is not right-wing, left-wing, or moderate. God is not for a party anymore than He is for a particular team to win any given sporting event, regardless of what psychotic fans may believe at times. But, let's also get a few more things straight. I firmly believe that the God of the Bible is: 1. Pro-Life, 2. Pro-Family, and 3. Pro-Marriage (meaning the traditional sense of the word). So, examine the parties and their basic fundamental policies and belief systems, make your judgment as to which one MOST lines up with Scripture, then go do your civic duty and vote.
Theodore Roosevelt once said the following:
There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them.
May we be found faithful to stand up for that which is right.
Dr. Mohler on Student Ministry
Dr. Mohler had as his guests on the Friday edition of his radio program Dr. Jimmy Scroggins, Student Pastor at Highview Baptist Church and Grant Layman, Student Pastor at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD. These three had great insights into student ministry. Check it out if you're interested. You can access the program
here.
A Sad, Sad Day...
For all of you UK fans out there, just remember that I called this game. For two weeks, unfortunately, I have been saying that UK would beat UGA. Actually, I also said that we would not win another game this year after we beat Mississippi State. So, I stand correct and truly believe we will not win another game. What a sad year.
Just a thought: Don't call the person who just got beat when you KNOW they will not answer the phone. So far, I have received no less than four phone calls. Hello people! Do you really think I will answer?!
Why We Listen...
As a continuation to my previous post, I would like for us to think about the purpose of why we are to listen and give our attention to the individual designated within our congregation, that being the Pastor, who is breaking the bread of life, the Word of God. A lot of people come to church to be entertained, to be amused, or to be given something "interesting." This will ultimately lead both to an unbiblical view of what it means to "preach the Word" as well as an unbiblical view of why we attend church. We attend Church to hear the Word of God spoken and taught and to worship and glorify God corporately as a body of believers. Many other things take place as well, obviously. But it most not be forgotten that all through Scripture the Word is the central focus for our times of corporate worship. I have heard it said many times, and from a variety of sources, "The preaching and worship at my church simply does not change my life - I go for the relationships." Since in my last post I touched on the fallacy that the purpose of Church is to foster meaningful relationships, I will focus here on the degridation of the Word in today's church culture.
A common verse to all who love the Word is 2 Timothy 4:1:
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (ESV)
This is the basic attitude behind the line "I've heard many preachers who claim to be something great, but are just average." You are not going to hear a person! When we enter a place of worship, a Bible study, or any other location where the Word is being preached, we should be going to hear God speak through His Word. When we need counsel, advice, or guidance, our beginning point should always be the Word, not a person. Therefore, for those who say that they "do not get anything out of the preaching," or "I've heard a lot of preachers whose preaching didn't change my life with their teaching," the problem MOST LIKELY is not with the preacher, but with the listener. If the preacher is preaching the Word of God, not topically, but in a manner that truly lays out the Word, those in attendance cannot say that they didn't get anything out of it and blame that on the preacher. If the Word is proclaimed and anyone is able to say that it did not "change their life," that is a spiritual problem, not the problem of the Word being effective.
We do place too high a value on the actual person proclaiming the Word today. Too many people follow a person, not The Person of Christ. Too many people seek relationships instead of the only Relationship that matters - that with Jesus Christ. Too many people seek community, not life change. Too many people seek experience instead of God-honoring worship. Too many people seek teachers who will tickle their ears with teaching that "meets their felt needs" instead of seeking a Christ honoring, God-exalting pastor who seeks to break the Bread of Life in a manner that truly brings glory to God through doctrinal integrity and sound preaching of the Word.
Next time you are in worship or in a Bible study and you say "I just didn't get anything out of that," examine your own heart, not the heart of the one doing the preaching. The Word of God stands forever, and never returns void (Isaiah 55:11).
A Generous Response...
I have not posted in quite some time. This is due to many factors, not the least of which is, quite simply, the lack of time. But there are times when certain conversations, things I have read, or comments to some previous posts compel me to post a response. This is one of those occasions. For a long time I have heard people say that the purpose of the Church is relationships - the building of community and the necessity of positive relationships. This is especially true with a lot of student pastors who believe the purpose of student ministry is to facilitate positive relationships among the students within their ministry. In other words, relationships are the purpose for Church and ministry.
With that said, I am responding in this post to the idea that the chief end of ministry is the building of relationships. I am the first to say that as a Minister to Students, I am all about building relationships with students and fostering an environment that makes it possible for the students to build relationships among themselves. With that said, however, I do not believe that the purpose of the ministry that God has entrusted to me is to foster relationships. This idea of "community" is more frequently put forth by those who do not place a very high value on doctrinal integrity, God-honoring worship, and the preaching of the Word in a systematic, expository fashion. To those pushing the "community/relational/experiential" agenda, it is all about being "generous" in their orthodoxy. Authors and books that have recently become mainstream and that put forth this doctrinally dangerous position are "Generous Orthodoxy" by Brian McClaren, "Blue Like Jazz" and "Searching for God Knows What" by Donald Miller, and "Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell. Each of these authors questions the sole authority of Scripture, questions the total inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible, and places the role of community and personal experience above the role of doctrinal integrity and Scriptural faithfulness within the Church.
My job as a student pastor is not to foster relationships that make people feel better about themselves! My job, my calling, and my responsibility is to lead students toward a proper and glorifying view of God that will ultimately lead them to surrender their lives to Him and the furthering of His Kingdom. I stand by the Westminster Catechism that states the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Hence, my highest calling is to lead students to be followers of God who will glorify God with their lives and enjoy Him forever. They will simply not be able to do that if they do not know God in a proper way!
This leads me to my second point. I cannot lead students to Christ and teach them a proper view of God if I do not hold fast to Biblical doctrine and Scriptural principles. What does this mean? It mean that it DOES matter how you interpret the Scriptures. So many people today believe that it simply does not matter what "label" you have as long as you have good relationships in your life. For instance, it's OK if you are Roman Catholic and hold true to the doctrine of the RC Church, just as long as you have good friends that you met at mass. Or, it doesn't matter if you go to a church that follows the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. Or, it doesn't matter if you go to a Jehovah's Witness congregation, so long as those you meet there make you feel good about yourself and give you good advice and counsel. Here is the problem with all of these: Doctrinal integrity and Scriptural authority. If you hold to Roman Catholic doctrine through and through, you are basing your soul's salvation on what you yourself can accomplish in reaching for God. If you believe in baptismal regeneration, you are holding that Christ's death on the cross is not enough to save you of your sins - but it also must include something of your own doing, namely baptism. One can carry this out even further in applying the principle to Jehovah's Witness, Mormon, etc. If fellowship is all that matters, then we can throw the Bible out the window.
We are told, most comprehensively in 1 John, that we are to love our brothers. In 1 John 3:14, John says that "whoever does not love abides in death" (ESV). This verse is used quite prominently, but often out of context. This verse is saying that those whose lives are characterized by hate have never experienced the new birth of salvation. It is not saying that relationships are the focal point of ministry. We are also told in 1 John that we are to love our brothers, for by doing so we show that we love God. Again, this is often taken out of context and made to imply that "love equals compromise." In reality, this verse is about obedience. We are to love others precisely because God loved us first and gave Himself up for us.
The purpose of the church is to instill within God's people a love for God, His Word, His principles, and His Kingdom. That is "God's Dream" - to have people wholly devoted to Him and His Kingdom. Friendships, fellowship, and community will naturally come about as those who are seeking the face of God come together to glorify Him, enjoy Him, worship Him, and follow Him as a corporate body, both literally and figuratively as the invisible body of Christ.
More to come...
It's all in the numbers...or is it?
Recently, my attention was directed to a research project done by the
Hartford Institute for Religion Research on megachurches. The basic idea of the research was to compile a list of all megachurches within the United States and to list their REPORTED numbers, as they were given to the team at HIRR. The method in which the numbers were compiled is detailed in the article and can accessed
here. The criteria for being considered a "megachurch" for the purposes of this study is that the church in question must have had an
average attendance of 2,000 people for two consecutive years. For the purposes of my readers, most of whom are in Kentucky, the list of those churches who reportedly match this criteria in Kentucky can be accessed
here. What is interesting is the date that these numbers were supposedly in effect. A majority of those on the list have their numbers as being accurate as of February 2006.
What is the point? The point is this: we cannot draw a strong conclusion that just because a church is larger than another that it is healthier, stronger, etc. Though this is true in a number of cases, this survey draws into question the very numbers that we hear reported so very often. For instance, how do we know that just because a church says they average 3000 (a strictly made-up number) in attendance that they
actually have that many coming to their services and filling their pews. And, if we say that large churches are healthy, yet those very numbers are untrue...what does that say about the very health of that particular church.
For some, it is truly all in the numbers....and numbers can be, and very often are, an indicator of our effectiveness to some degree. But, shouldn't those numbers on which we are judging our effectiveness be an accurate representation of what is actually taking place within our churches? I pray that our integrity is greater than our desire to be impressive to others within the church world whom we may desire to impress.
As a disclaimer: These churches just might not be aware that these numbers were reported to this agency. It would be wise of them, and would show a great deal of integrity, to correct the numbers should they be seen as a misrepresentation of what is actually the truth.
So, check out the research and the numbers. Judge for yourself.
