Missional: Culture Makers (3/4)

There are basically 4 types of Christian organizational groups that exist in a general sense. Only one of the four seeks to make/change culture for the benefit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

1)Hyper-Fundamentalists
2)Liberals
3)Para-churchers
4)Missionals
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Today, I will discuss the 3rd group:

3)Para-churchers
(Gospel + Culture - Church = Para-church)

Para-church ministries are definitely not all bad. They serve some very good purposes. On the flip side, I don't believe it is biblical to strive after para-church ministries unless the end is to begin a new church. This is simply because the Bible seeks to advance the Kingdom of God through His church. Paul harped on the church at Corinth because they actually were dividing the congregation into separate para-church ministries where some wanted to learn from Paul, some from Peter, some from Apollos, and some from Christ. This was not a denomination split, but one church losing folks to para-church ministries that ultimately hurt what God wanted to do in His Kingdom. (1 Cor. 1:12-13)

Para-churches are also dangerous because they sometimes result in people no longer seeing the need for local church community as long as they believe they are ok just attending a weekly Bible study or Campus Crusade meeting / Baptist Student Union / RFU / etc. ATTN COLLEGE STUDENTS: These are not church! And if this is all you have, you are not following the biblical example of a missional church! You may have the Gospel, you may have community, but you do not have true discipleship, church discipline, true accountability, biblical tithes and giving, elder headship, deacon service, and pastoral preaching/teaching, and much much more...

Para-churches can be done successfully if done within the right context with regard to the local church, but that is hard and a little unnecessary. Most para-church ministries actually become church parasites using the local church to help fund, provide resources, and ultimately produce customers from the church resulting in some people disregarding the local church altogether. God is not pleased with our efforts to stim away from the church in creating ministries apart from the church with the goal of keeping away from the church in order to reach people. The local church simply needs better leadership, creativity, discipline and courage to produce these types of ministries itself.

This is hard to swallow being a person who has hosted many Bible study events outside of church myself. I am even presently engaged in leading a young adult ministry called 28:19 in Olive Branch, MS. The only difference is that the end in mind now is to become a Missional Church Plant in the near future. Backyard Bible Studies are not all bad, but they are not church.

In addition, para-churches are sometimes intended to bring to the table what the church cannot, and for a lot of people this just means trying to produce an event to get high on Jesus. There was a historical religious group called the Essenes who were very similar. They just went from event to event trying to escalate their spiritual high-ness, but in between these events, their lives were strangely fruitless. They would withdraw themselves to try and have an incredible experience that they couldn't get at church and that is what they based their spirituality on. Curiously, this is what youth ministries try to provide when they host summer camps or weekend disciple-nows or retreats. They provide an event outside of church that is so great and experiential that students bleed with tears thinking God has really shown out and they repent unto salvation seemingly year after year and when they get back home they wonder why they don't feel the same love or have the same intoxicating drive as they did during that rally or event. They simply go from event to event apart from "boring" church to try to fix themselves spiritually. We need to rethink our efforts fellow student-ministers! I am not a camp hater, but I am if you know what I mean. Students need to see that our church services are not boring but necessary for sanctification and life change. Some student ministers don't even try to make their week to week services any good - they spend like 30 mins on the sermon and such - and this trains our kids to be Essenes with a para-church mentality. They will always be searching for the high. They will eventually turn to other things.

Jesus says in John 17:15
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
Jesus is speaking of the CHURCH. He wants to accomplish Kingdom growth through the Church as a local body in community and culture representing the Gospel!

Function with the church and not apart from the church

(to be continued...) Next Post: Missionals

for more info: check out Mark Driscoll's Vintage Church and Radical Reformission
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Missional: Culture Makers (2/4)

There are basically 4 types of Christian organizational groups that exist in a general sense. Only one of the four seeks to make/change culture for the benefit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

1)Hyper-Fundamentalists
2)Liberals
3)Para-churchers
4)Missionals
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Today, I will discuss the 2nd group:

2)Liberals
(Church + Culture - Gospel = Liberalism)

Jesus encountered Liberals during His time on earth as well. The cultural Liberals in NT times were a group called the Sadducees that took religion and mixed it with much compromise. They were the ones who tried to look the most socially acceptable in the culture. They did not strive for the Gospel or even holiness, but they instead sought after the best social status possible. Popularity became their god essentially. They were known more as cultural accommodators that would quickly give up on hard teachings of the Scripture in order to seem more politically accurate. They gave up the Gospel in their churches. So Liberalism is really nothing new.

Today, a Liberal church is sometimes hard to pinpoint if one is not sound in the Scriptures. They put on a cloak of humility that some people are drawn to. They do really good things in and for the community and culture that seem to be real beneficial and biblical, but they neglect certains teachings that would harm their attendance or social status. That is why if you are not biblically sound yourself, it will be hard to realize what they are NOT teaching. They have pretty good cultural habits as far as being environmentally friendly and trying to help the poor and helping widows which is extrememly important, but what they teach people about the Bible is very dangerous.

Liberals tend to leave out repentance, the cross, blood and the exclusivity of Jesus as the only Savior in their doctrine and teaching. Some have even abandoned the pulpit to have open discussion or dialogue about what is right and wrong and what other religions have to offer us as well. Many essential teachings of the Bible are "take it or leave it" according to the Liberals. They believe that there is no real way to know what Jesus meant when He spoke in the Scriptures - so to be absolute about the Bible is to be arrogant. The liberal cloak of humility is one that makes the Scripture an obsolete book written by men just like any other book. In other words, to know something for sure is to be prideful. This is a horrendous teaching that saddens and angers the heart of God especially after He poured Himself into a book written through the power of the Holy Spirit with full salvific revelation once for all delivered to the saints=us.

The problem is that they sin by forsaking the truth of the Gospel and in so doing they have made culture their god rather than the true God. They still have church (though it is weird that they are selling to people what people already believe) and they will always be somewhat prevalent. The result of Liberalism is that they reflect the culture back at the culture rather than reflecting Jesus to the culture. Mark Driscoll calls them the "Mirror" churches because they are just the same as the culture. They eventually compromise on sins and make them normal functions in the church such as: homosexuality, abortion, women as pastors of churches, and allowing more than one way to heaven. Another result is that there is no real cultural transformation taking place because when there is no Gospel and no personal holiness amidst a dark culture then there is nothing new. They are disobedient and grotesque! In reality, they just have fancy ways of saying, "We Think God Is Wrong." Another tragic result of Liberalism is that it scares the Hyper-fundamentalists into their own corner of Christianity.

Hyper-fundamentalists see the Liberal church as the greatest threat. They see that the Liberals have made culture their God so, in turn, they will just be the polar opposite and flee from cultural association altogether.

Jesus, in the same Scripture as we discussed above, prayed that we would keep from Liberalism as well as Hyper-fundamentalism.
John 17:15
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

Jesus says that we are sent as missionaries by God and that we should not leave the world, but since we are in the world, we should be sanctified by the Scriptures (vs 17) and not give in to sin and Satan.

Be Light in darkness.
(to be continued...) Next Post: Para-churchers


For more info: refer to Mark Driscoll's Vintage Church and Radical Reformission.

Missional: Culture Makers (1/4)

There are basically 4 types of Christian organizational groups that exist in a general sense. Only one of the four seeks to make/change culture for the benefit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

1)Hyper-Fundamentalists
2)Liberals
3)Para-churchers
4)Missionals
__________________________________
Today, I will discuss the first group:

1)Hyper-Fundamentalists
(Church + Gospel - Culture = Hyper-Fundamentalism)

This sounds good at first, but this is the group that is so overly religious that they try to stay away from the world thinking they are righteous and everyone else can just go to hell unless, of course, I run into them on "Outreach Night."

The attitude is that the world is dark, there is no hope, so huddle up and hide. Its premise is based on paranoia that the world will always beat the Christian if the Christian is in the world. So they say, "lets do what we can to leave this world while we're here because that's what Jesus would do." - for example: giving up opportunities to further the Gospel on the internet, tv, movies, music, politics, fashion, secular employments, and other things that "Make" culture."

BUT if you study people like Joseph(Gen. 37-), Nehemiah(Nehemiah), and Daniel(Daniel), you will see that these guys served the Lord faithfully as missionaries right dab in the middle of corrupt cultures such as Egypt, Babylon, and backsliding Jerusalem. They did so through the power of the Spirit. These men: loved their city, served the common good without compromise, worshipped through their secular vocations, and ultimately suffered for their faith. They lived for Jesus, proclaiming Jesus, resisting sin in sanctification and brought God to the culture they were sent to. (and yes, OT people believed in Jesus as the coming Messiah)

(Hyper-Fundamenatlists) They are typically people that love Jesus but have a skewed view of sanctification which actually is our growth as Christ followers and as missionaries wherever God has us, and we need to know that our communities are "training grounds" and "battlefields." Our sanctification is based on that we have flesh, we are dark and evil apart from Jesus, and the closer we get to Jesus, the more prepared for battle we are. This is also why sheltering ourselves, our children, and others becomes faulty- because even though we do these things out of love and concern, we are not producing innocence but naivety. We are not teaching Missional values but "bomb shelter" values. For example, homeschooling (though not always bad) can be done from a paranoia-driven conviction that I don't want my child to see that corruption until later. While this is generally understandable, we need to be training our kids at a very early age what is wrong and what is righteous and WHY. It is ok to keep them from grotesque sin in the world, but they need to be educated for missional purposes on why things are the way they are and what our responsibilities as missionaries are. They need to be trained as missionaries here much like "foreign-missionary kids" are trained to adapt to foreign cultures.

For us to understand grace, we need to first understand the depravity of our world - heck, the 1st three chapters of the Bible are dedicated to this teaching. Not everyone is saved by growing up in church, and hyper-fundamentalists sometimes refuse to remember what they were saved from. That employee, that public-school kid, that secular musician, that lawyer, that college student, that single-mom working two jobs - they all need us to be IN Culture living missional lives in obedience to Jesus.

The Pharisees were similar to the hyper-fundamentalists in that they were very serious and devout but were more about spreading the law rather than the love of Jesus. They simply added to the scriptures what was not there, they avoided culture where Jesus was needed most, they extricated themselves to keep their piety and reputation clean, and they sinned grievously because of these practices.

Jesus Himself desires that we abstain from becoming hyper-fundamentalists:
John 17:15
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

Even though we are NOT of this world and we will be hated, we must understand that it is unbiblical to do everything to leave the world without actually leaving the world. Study Joseph, Nehemiah and Daniel.

The sin of hyper-fundamentalism is a sin of omission - not being missional in a dark world and not loving their neighbor.

(to be continued...) Next Post: Liberals

for more info: check out Mark Driscoll's Vintage Church or Radical Reformission
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Missional: His Light / Our Darkness

^{John 1:4-18 (ESV)}

⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through Him. ⁸ He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

⁹ The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. ¹¹He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. ¹²But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵(John bore witness about Him, and cried out, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.'") ¹⁶And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.

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Isn't it funny how we shelter either ourselves, our children or those we love from the world? Yet this is based on the fact that we think that some people are innocent, and once exposed to the sins of the world that they will THEN become marred or perverted. The Bible teaches that we are darkness - every last one of us - from the youngest of children to the oldest of elders. We are wretched, filthy, rebellious, and utterly depraved beyond human recognition. Our best, the Bible says, is as filthy rags. As gross as it may be, Isaiah 64:6, literally says our righteousness is like a polluted garment that women use during their menstrual periods. Even when we were born, we were filthy. Jesus is the light. He is the only light. Without Jesus, there is nothing but darkness.

We Are Darkness. Not just the world, not just the world system, not just the porn industry, not just the drunkenness of the men, not just the homosexual movement, but our own selves killed God on the cross by our sin. Darkness.

Jesus as our Savior and missional example left heaven and came to dwell among darkness as Light without sin. He is alone in this. We are all naturally opposed. BUT He is God.

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LIGHT vs DARKNESS

I am preaching through the gospel of John on Wednesday nights at our youth Bible study called "The Realm" (http://realmministry.ning.com) at Meadow Brook. This text (John 1:4-18) was and is powerful. Here are a few insights on this battle between us and God.

1) Darkness is our condition because of sin. In the fall of man, darkness overtook everything in creation. We are image bearers of God, but that image has been marred and we have a sin nature that enslaves us into total depravity (which is not just a reformed teaching but a biblical teaching) - meaning we are dark, and we can't make ourselves Light.

2) Darkness is our world. The world is corrupt and under the influence of the darkness of Satan. Besides the nation of Israel, no people group (ethnically) is specifically God's people. So America itself is not God's people and nation that He is dependent on. Some religious people believe America is the new Israel- specifically blessed and chosen by God to be His people. Not true. Only believing Gentiles and believing Jews are the holy and chosen generation described in 1st Peter. So don't marvel that America has turned from being a "Christian" nation. This is a dark world. America is not the Light. Jesus is.

3)Darkness is in us. Everyone is the same apart from Christ. Sinful. We are all equally sinful and wretched. The same darkness in the world is in our hearts as humans.

4)Darkness existed in Jesus' day and prior. Our world has not developed new evil that Jesus and His disciples never faced. There was every form of evil back then - rape, adultery, murder, hate, lying, strife, homosexuality, etc...

5)Darkness presently exists in churches. There are lost people in church, and there are Christians giving provision to the flesh daily in the church. We are imperfect people walking and living in darkness.

6)Darkness is loved by some churches. Liberal churches are accepting darkness as normal and not preaching the full counsel of God AND over-fundamental churches have a hatred for their communities so they "evangelize" themselves and have Christians get saved over and over again in revival and call them "new converts." If that church ceased to exist, the community wouldn't know or care.

7)Darkness is attractive. People flock to darkness cause of its immediate gratification of desires. Darkness will always be popular in a dark world with a dark human condition.

8)Darkness = blindness. Lost people don't understand Jesus. They understand sin. Their sin blinds them of the truth of the gospel. Some church members can't figure out why they have no desire or reason to read God's Word, pray, share faith, or be missional. They don't light up when thinking about Jesus and they don't understand why. Blindness in the darkness explains this.

9)Darkness is comfortable. If you stay in pitch black dark long enough, your eyes get used to it though you are blind. If after a while you shine a mag-light into your eyes, it will sting and be very uncomfortable and you will shut your eyes to get back to the darkness you know and love too well. Darkness is comfortable to our sinful lives.

10)Darkness hates light. Light is uncomfortable to darkness, and darkness can't exist in Light. (pure Science) Darkness is imposed upon by Light. The world hates Jesus and in return will hate us if we love Jesus. Darkness murdered the Light on a cross because it hated Him so much. (vs 10-11)

11)Light exposes darkness. Jesus exposes sin. Jesus exposes all sin. Everyone who has ever existed is vulnerable to Jesus as the Light of the world. Darkness cannot hide from Christ. (vs 5)

12)Light changes darkness. Jesus provides reconciliation for darkness. His death He died for all so that all would be without excuse. Jesus changes people from dark to Light by His divine power. (vs 9, 12; 1 John 2:2)

13)Darkness doesn't choose Light. Darkness hates Light so why would it choose Light? Christians don't make themselves Christians. That's why salvation in not a plan, it is a man. It is isn't a prayer, it is a man. It isn't a feeling or experience, it is a man. If YOU do something to save yourself, then that is salvation by works which isn't salvation at all. This explains people's struggles with security. It is bad theology to teach people it is about what they did or how much they meant a certain prayer in the past that secures their salvation. The promises of God are in the very text we are looking at. The man is Jesus and Jesus is the Light that changes darkness by His will and power. (vs 13)

14)The Light is true and saves by grace. If you have been changed by the Light of Jesus, that is grace. That is undeserved favor. Darkness deserves hell. We deserve hell. Some ask, "How could a good God not impart grace on everyone and send people to a burning hell?" The better question is, "How could a good God ever let anyone as dark and sinful as we are into His holy heaven?" Jesus is the truth. Truth is exclusive. Jesus is the only truth when it comes to salvation. Truth is singular. So... Jesus is true whether we believe it or not. Just because I believe in Jesus doesn't make it true. This is refreshing cause the Light reveals salvation and truth by grace. (vs 14, 17)

15)Light already has victory over darkness. Even though this world is presently dark, we are still fighting from victory and not for victory. Jesus' death, burial and resurrection put sin to death, death to death, and hell to death. The Light of Jesus, in victory, allows us to live and strive for holiness. This victory means we no longer have to be enslaved by sin, but we can yield to His righteousness and live holy. We don't have a license to sin, we have freedom to live in Christ's righteousness.

16)Light won't annihilate darkness until Jesus' return and we are fully glorified. Darkness will exist in this lifetime, and it will always be prevalent. We will still battle flesh and sin, and we will not be able to escape a rotten world no matter what we do to shelter ourselves or others. When Jesus returns, it is on like donkey-kong, and sin and darkness are in trouble. Read Revelation for more on that.

17)Being Light among Light does not advance the Kingdom, it is not missional, it is not what Jesus did, and it is impossible. This is the over-fundamental problem. Christians in their holy huddles trying to escape culture and community does not in any way advance the Kingdom. Jesus came as Light in darkness as a missionary to save the lost by dying for the filthy. Plus, as stated earlier, their is darkness in us and the church anyways so there is no way to ultimately purge out sin until Jesus wipes it away completely. This doesn't mean we just accept sin (especially in our churches) but we must realize that we are bad people saved by Jesus so that we can testify to other bad people about Him that they might be saved.

18)Being dark in darkness does no good. This is the liberal problem. When we compromise and become just like the culture and its desires, we are in sin not loving Jesus. If we are saved by the Light of Jesus, we will shine in the darkness, not blend into the darkness. This is sadly a popular church view - that we become like the world so they world feels accepted by Jesus. Not Good. Being dark in darkness is ultimately the easier route. It is the path of least resistance, so many will follow. BUT Jesus is Light!

19)Being Light in Darkness is being missional. This is a massive part of sanctification. Living in sinful culture, staring face to face at sin, denying yourself, resisting temptation, portraying Jesus, and showing His power. When you do this, you mature in the faith. If you give in to sin and justify your sin, you are just dark in darkness living a false gospel. BUT those that put on the full armor of God and stand strong in the darkness, soaked in the living Word of God, protected by unceasing prayer, and filled with the knowledge of Christ become Light to a dark world. This is missional living.

You are Light SENT into the darkness. We shelter ourselves from aspects of culture like movies, music, facebook, myspace, public schools, tv, internet, and concerts declaring them to be irredeemable when God has called us to live as Lights in darkness. We need to use these things for the glory of God. We need to be Lights ..... in Hollywood so that movies and tv can be redeemed, in the music industry so music can be redeemed, in technology so it can be redeemed and used for godly purposes, on the internet- instead of porn lets put Christian blogs and preaching up, on facebook and myspace where predators and adulterers are - lets use it to spread what God is doing in our lives; in public schools - be missionaries; in concerts- lets infiltrate the secular to bring the message of Christ redeeming the music of the culture. We don't run away from these things, we use them as missional tools to reach people for Christ.

To run away from culture is to be fine letting people go to hell as long as you appear clean. To be missional in culture is to do whatever you can, short of sin and spiritual compromise, to reach the lost. It is to be the Light in darkness.

(for more: I will blog on Missional: Culture Changers in the near future)

-Ben Williams

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - "7th Floor West"

Missional: Yearbook

by Ben Williams

I went to high school at Evangelical Christian School in Cordova, TN (ECS). The other day, I pulled out the ole' yearbook because I figured it has been now close to 7 years since I graduated high-school, and it seems to be a good time to reminisce. I was super skinny back in those days so I don't like showing others my yearbook mainly to avoid people looking at me with disdain saying,"what happened to you?" as if I had indulged 20 something honey-buns a day since graduation. I just recently had to get another driver's license picture because I was 16 in the last photo, and no one believed it was actually me which spells trouble each time I was ID'd for a credit card purchase or trying to get into Buffalo Wild Wings after 11pm on weekends. I was tired of the weird looks...

Plus, I was a weird guy in junior high/high school anyways. I was saved by Jesus at 16, but didn't cease to be a complete "nut-job" who passionately wanted to be a rockstar for Jesus that went to a preppy school where we had to wear golf shirts tucked in to our Sunday-pants when what I really wanted to wear was tight muscle shirts with gothic-design pajama pants and put highlights in my hair thinking I looked like the lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls. (I did all of these BTW) It was a fun but dorky part of my life BUT I began loving Jesus, so my regrets are minimal.

All this is to say that Paul wrote this:
¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
- Philippians 3:13-14 (ESV)

If anything, when we look at our past, we should have smiles on our faces, and laugh as hysterically as ever BECAUSE we have matured (at least somewhat). God wants us to not sit in regret over our past sins, failures and ultimate dorkiness. He doesn't even desire that we look at our past achievements and gloat thinking, "those were the days." When we do reminisce, understand that it is in the past! Good or bad - it doesn't matter. There are people that feel so dirty, ashamed and unforgiven that all they do is associate themselves with past failures which becomes their identity. And there are those that think they have already accomplished their best and they relish in their past. They are convinced that their "peak" was reached years prior.

As believers, we must press on FORWARD.
What does this mean?
Grow.
Grow in what?
Knowledge and Understanding of Jesus Christ in relationship with Him, partaking of His death, burial, and resurrection on a daily and missional basis.

Here is a BIG problem today:
Christians think back.......and see "better, closer, motivated, and excited," concerning their relationship with Jesus.

If you look at your past, and you feel like you've lost spiritual ground...
If you look at your past, and you knew more about Him back then than you do now...
If you look at your past, and you don't see any progression spiritually...

Instead of finding your righteousness and identity in Christ, you have abandoned growth, and you have made yourself "your past."

"Your past" is who you are, and that is unbiblical for believers.

Paul, by the Holy Spirit, says to forget about past sins, failures, and accomplishments AND press forward.

This means discipline yourself in sanctification. Grow. Mature. Allow Jesus to live through you daily. Get involved in ministry. Plug in. Don't be a slug that is unfruitful for the Kingdom.

Jesus desires us to persevere. Those that truly love Jesus will persevere.

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To all those that are struggling with their past: Grow forward.

To all my high school peers: hi. (miss and love you all)