A Christmas Meditation from John

I love the Gospel of John. I’ve been immersed in it for about 6 months now, leading my Sunday School class through a year long study of this book. It’s full of theological and practical truth, and gives us a unique look at Jesus. There’s lots of stuff in John that is not in any of the other Gospels. It’s been well worth the time spent studying it.

The book begins with what I think is a powerful passage on the promise of Christmas, well worth looking at as we come up on the big day this weekend. It’s not the traditional Christmas story. It’s not about how Jesus was born, and has nothing to do with angels or wise men. There is no manger scene, no cattle lowing, and no swaddling clothes. But we do learn something important about Christmas, about the coming of Emmanuel. What does it mean that God became a man? That’s what the first chapter of John is all about.

Notice how it begins:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” – John 1:1-5

We learn essential truth about the Word in these first five verses. He was from the beginning. He was with God. He was God, from the beginning. He created everything, which means he himself was not created. He holds in his hands life, which shines like a light into the darkness, giving that life to men. As we read these verses, we ought to be able to feel the weight of what is being said here. If you were reading this for the first time, you might be thinking at this point, “Whatever this Word is, John believes it to be the most powerful, most incredible, most unbelievable, being in the entire universe.” Eternal? Creator? Life? Light? None of these are small things, and John says he’s all of them.

John talks about John the Baptist for a few verses, and how he was not the light, but only a witness to the light, before getting back to what this Word, who is light, has done. Look in what he says next:

“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” – John 1:9-13

Whatever this light was, it came. The same light that made the world came into the world. Not everyone will receive him, but those who do will become children of God! What an amazing thing to imagine. They will become God’s children, not through anything they do, not by willing themselves to be better people, but through the power of the Word who was from the beginning, and was with God, and was God! The most powerful being in the universe came to shine his light into the world, and make men sons of God! He came to give them a brand new start, a brand new birth! What an amazing thing to consider!

But it gets even better! This passage is building to a crescendo. As you read this, and you consider it this Christmas, let your heart leap with the excitement of what is being said. The Word is eternal. He is creator. He is light. He is life. And he has come, to share that light with others. So the question is this: how does this happen? And John answers it in such a stunning way that it ought to stop us in our tracks. We ought to hear what John says as if we are hearing it for the first time, feel it like we could have never imagined such a thing. How has God come to accomplish this plan of his?

“And 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.” – John 1:14

What? Became flesh? Dwelt among us? Could this possibly be true? Could this Word, who was from the beginning, and with God and was God; who was light and life, have actually become a man? Is it possible that the most powerful being in the universe walked this earth as a human being? His plan to give humanity life, to come on this mission, involved him actually becoming one of us? He has come for us, by becoming one of us! This means that (gulp) God has been seen by someone? He’s been spotted? John is saying that he has looked into the eyes of God himself? What was it like? It was full of glory, grace and truth. Oh what good news! In verse 16, John says we have received “grace upon grace.” If you’ll be honest with yourself, and you look at the world, you will realize that the story of Christmas, the story of God coming to the earth, could very easily not be a happy story. When you see what the world is like, you can easily imagine that God would come to earth, and bring with him a sword, and judge the world. But instead, he brought with him, not just grace, but grace upon grace. This is what we need, what we really need.

Now, the implications of this are simply enormous. Frankly, enormous is not a big enough word. There is no way to possibly describe the full length and breadth and width of the implications of God becoming one of us, coming to us with glory and grace and truth . . . and grace! But John gives us a major hint as to what it means as he wraps up this opening session of his Gospel. Notice what he says next:

“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” - John 1:18

Get what’s being said here about what it means that the Word became flesh, that this Jesus, the Son of God, has come down from Heaven and become one of us. From the beginning of time, until the time Jesus came, no one had ever seen God. A few people, like Moses, caught tiny little glimpses. But that was it. From the beginning of time, until Christmas, 2,000 years ago, no one had been able to truly know or understand who God actually was. But when the Word – Jesus – put on flesh, and walked around on this earth for 33 years, and lived his life and died for our sins, and rose from the grave, he made known who God was. This is the story of Christmas. We know who God is, because he came in the flesh and showed himself to us. He shined his light into this world, by becoming one of us, so that we could become like him. How does that happen? How are we transformed from what we are now, into God has planned for us? By simply looking to this Jesus, looking upon this Jesus, we are changed into what he has planned for us. Paul put it this way: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”  (1 Corinthians 3:18) So we look upon this Jesus, who revealed who God is to us, and we are transformed by it. We are changed by it. We see his glory, we begin to understand his truth, we are given his grace, upon grace, and we are transformed by it.

The story is the baby boy in the manger. But the truth is that God became a man. The Word became flesh. Don’t forget it this Christmas.

Jesus and Tim Tebow, Part 3

This is the third part in a series on life and faith, that was triggered by a segment I recently did on Tim Tebow at WMOX radio. You can read parts 1 and 2 here and also here.

I am Tim Tebow. And you are Tim Tebow. We are all Tim Tebow. No, most of us will never set foot on an NFL football field for any reason; much less lead a game winning drive, (or a bunch of them, for that matter.) But there is one major thing that we all have in common with the budding star quarterback for the Denver Broncos. We have been given a vocation in which we are supposed to glorify God.

Now, I am neither a theologian, nor a son of a theologian, but I think that this idea of vocation is one of that has been greatly under-discussed in our churches today. How do I best glorify God in my work? Whether I am an NFL quarterback, or a TV news anchor, or an engineer, or a nurse, or a stay at home mom, I have been given a sphere of influence through my work, and I am to work in that sphere, to the best of my abilities, as an act of worship to Jesus.

 

Now, we need to be careful when we talk this way. Lots of people have encountered the “Jesus guy,” at their place of work. He or she is the person with the Bible verse screen saver, and the Bible on his desk, who is too “holy” to speak to his co-workers, except to call them out on their sin or decry the ills of society, or “witness” to them. Think Angela on “The Office.” The only thing her co-workers know about her faith there is that it seems to keep her in a constant state of “stick-up-her-behindedness.” The worst thing about these kinds of “Jesus people,” at work, is that they rarely, if ever, do any actual work. They make life harder on everyone else in more ways than one. So this is not who you want to be. But you do want to be someone who works to the glory of God. Paul made it very clear: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) That “whatever you do,” most certainly includes your job.

Here are a few things I try to keep in mind while I work, in an attempt to do it as an act of worship. Let me say from the beginning, that I do none of these perfectly. I fail often. I’m thankful for a forgiving Jesus.

1 – My main job as a Christian at work is to do the very best job I can do. This means showing up for work on time, working while I’m here, getting my work done in a prompt manner, being a team player, and producing quality, in whatever it is I’m doing. If I don’t do this, if other people at work see me as someone who’s trying to slack, then they’re not going to care about anything else. If I’m making work harder for my co-workers, because I’m not carrying my weight, then I have failed in my vocation. Now, there are times when it is possible that being the very best at work might come in conflict with my faith. I think these times are generally rarer than we think. But there may be times when being good at my job means spending too much time away from my family, or missing too much church. I’ve never worked in a place where I was asked to do something that I found morally questionable, but if it ever happened, I would be forced to choose doing the right thing over being the “good” employee.

2 – I must have a good attitude. This is easier some days than others. It’s quite natural for us to have days when we just don’t feel like coming to work. But this must be overcome. I’ve known, and have Christian co-workers who have terrible attitudes about their jobs and about life. If you complain all the time, you will probably draw a lot of people to you. Everyone loves to complain about their jobs. Misery loves company. People will come to you. But they will not respect you. And when there comes an appropriate time to share Christ with them, you will not have the credentials. But if you constantly work hard and don’t complain, people will notice. It might not happen quickly, but eventually it will be noticed. It’s amazing how easy it is to be considered a good worker, and become well-liked, if you keep your mouth shut and do your job.

3 – Look for appropriate times and places to share your faith. Now, this is going to be different for everyone. There is a time and place for this, and it is not when everyone is working. If you are a pastor, and you’ve never held a job in the real world, this may be hard to understand. But people don’t really want to hear about Jesus when they’re trying to do their jobs. They mainly want to get their work done and go home. The guy who is constantly talking about Jesus while others are trying to finish up the payroll project is not going to be very well liked. I work in a job with people from different parts of the country, and in some instances, the world. They are great people, and I have, for the most part, great relationships with them. And they know about my faith. It is no secret. But if I tried to share the Romans Road with some of these people, they would look at me like I just passed gas. I’m in it for the long haul with them, and trust God and his providence to provide the right opportunities. If you are paying attention, and looking for opportunities, they will arrive. But please don’t do this if you aren’t doing steps 1 and 2!

Different jobs provide different opportunities and ways to share your faith. Tim Tebow has different avenues and different ways he can share his faith than you do, or I do. It is not appropriate for me to pray as I begin my newscast, at least not live on the air. It is not appropriate for me to “sneak Jesus,” into my stories, as I once heard a Christian reporter say she tries to do. But with the Holy Spirit’s help, there are certainly ways to make my faith known, and share the Gospel with my co-workers.

Tim Tebow has a sphere of influence of millions. I am fortunate enough to have a sphere of thousands. You may only have a sphere of influence of dozens, or ones. That’s fine. God has given you an opportunity to glorify him through your work, in the same way he’s given Tebow that opportunity. Take it. Use it. Glorify him.

Jesus and Tim Tebow, Part 2

This is the second part of a series on life and faith, that was triggered by a recent segment I did on WMOX Radio about Tim Tebow. See part 1 here.

One of the questions that inevitably comes up in any discussion of public faith is this: why do people get offended when someone puts their faith on display? Why should it bother others that someone is unashamed about their faith? Why should others want him to shut up? Why do they care? He should be able to practice and express his faith in any way he wants! Why would someone get offended by that? Now, I think sometimes we misconstrue honest questions and legitimate concerns with offense. But I think there are times when non-believers in Jesus do get offended over how a person expresses their faith publicly. And if not offended, they often, at the very least, think it is over the top.

Before I go any further, I also think some non-believers might have legitimate concerns about the way they see people living out their faith in the public arena. Christians far too often don’t look very Christ-like, even when, and sometimes especially when, they’re professing to be with Jesus in the public eye. We are all too often prone to legalism and judgmentalism. And we must do better. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening with Tim Tebow. He’s in many ways been a role model for how to live for Jesus in the public eye. And for some, that is still offensive. So, what’s going on here? Why does this bother people so?

The answer to this question is actually pretty simple. And non-believers seem to get this much more than many believers do. I can’t believe we have missed this. But we need to get it. I’ve heard one too many people say, “I don’t see anything offensive at all about Christianity.” Let me make this clear. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Gospel of Jesus is incredibly offensive. The Apostle Paul talked about “the offense of the Cross.” (Galatians 5:11) He also says it is foolishness to unbelievers. Jesus told us that all men would hate us because we followed him. We need to understand that this is what we signed up for. If you became a Christian thinking that everyone would love you, and your friends would stay with you, and those who don’t believe would embrace you, and that you could say whatever you wanted to, and that people would smile and think, “That’s nice,” you were misled, or you misunderstood. That is not what this is about.

Christianity makes a radical claim that cannot be avoided. We tell the world that we have a corner on the truth of God. We say that God can only be found through the Jesus who was God from the beginning, and then put on flesh and walked the earth, before dying a bloody death for the sins of the world, and then raising himself from the grave. We tell people that Jesus demands their total allegiance, above home, above family, above friends, above country, above everything that they know and hold dear. We tell people that they are radically sinful, and have no chance except to allow God to fix them, without their help. It is offensive.. It is foolishness. It is obscene. It is radical. But it is also true, and it is also life. And far too often, because we’ve grown up in the Bible belt, and we’ve heard this story from the time we were in diapers, and we’ve lived lives of relative ease, we forget this. We forget how this message, time and again, has gotten people laughed at, and persecuted, and cast aside as idiots, and killed.

When Tim Tebow “Tebows,” when he takes his knee and bows his head, or when you pray, you are both doing more than a private act of worship. You are declaring your allegiance. You are telling the world that you hate the things it loves. You are telling the world that it is in rebellion against its creator, and you have joined the other side. Tim Tebow is making his allegiances clear, and those who are offended by it understand that. The question is whether or not we who are believers do. Do you realize what you have gotten yourself into? This is not a pizza party.

One other thing – what are we as believers to do when people are offended? Well, first of all, we should not return their offense with offense of our own. We should expect this. It should not offend us. We know that their only chance is what our only chance is – the ability of the Gospel to change our hearts. It’s likely that some of these people are our friends, or even our family. At the very worst, they are our enemies. And our Savior has given us only one command as to how we treat enemies. I hope you know what that is.

Jesus and Tim Tebow, Part 1

This is the first in what I hope will be a series of posts on life and faith, that was triggered by a recent segment I did on WMOX radio about Tim Tebow . . .

Let me lay my cards on the table from the beginning. I really like Tim Tebow. I like him for a number of reasons. Some of them are related to his faith, some of them are related to his football skills, and some of them are related to the how entertaining he has made this year’s NFL season, on and off the field. But generally speaking, I really like the guy, from what I have seen. He seems to be a guy who is doing his best to glorify God through his life as an NFL quarterback. I’m guessing he would be the same way if he was a dentist. But this season, and the way Tebow so publicly lives out his faith, have given us plenty to think about and talk about, when it comes to issues of the Christian life. Over the next several posts, I’m going to try to flesh out some of what I think about those issues. These posts won’t be mainly about Tebow. They’ll be mainly about the questions that I think arise from this apparently sincere Christian with a huge personality and an even bigger fan base, living out his faith in such a public way.

Let’s start here: are his public displays of devotion toward Jesus too much? Are they violations of Jesus’ commands to pray privately, and not publicly? Or is he simply being “salt and light” to the world? Is this what public Christian faith is supposed to look like? Is this the way all Christians ought to do it? Should I be “Tebowing” before I go to break every night? These are not unimportant questions. They’re the kinds of questions we should all ask, not about Tebow, but about ourselves.When people talk about Tebow, and his “public” prayers, they often bring up Matthew 6:5-6:
 

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

At first glance, the issue may seem pretty cut and dry. Jesus said don’t pray publicly, but to go in your room and shut the door and do it there. So keep your prayers private. But is that really what he said? Is that really what this passage means? I don’t think that’s exactly what it means. Jesus command to do our praying privately cannot be a complete prohibition on public prayer. How can we know that? Well, it’s simple. There are too many examples of public prayer in the Bible. There are numerous examples of Jesus’ praying publicly. One of them comes in John 11, a passage I’m currently studying as my Sunday School class works its way through John’s Gospel. Just before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he prayed the following:

“Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” – John 11:41-42

That’s an obvious public prayer. And Jesus did it. I could cite numerous other public prayers throughout the Bible, including Jesus on prayer on the Cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) So it’s obvious that there is no blanket prohibition of these kinds of prayers. What to make of them then? Should we pray in public, or shouldn’t we? Is Tim Tebow being “salt and light,” or is he being “like the hypocrites?” I honestly don’t think there is any way of knowing. 

Let me explain. This passage in Matthew 6, in Jesus Sermon on the Mount, is not really a prohibition on public prayer. It’s a prohibition against hypocritical prayer. Notice the progression of what Jesus says. 1 – Don’t pray like the hypocrites. 2 – They love to pray on street corners, where they can be seen by others. So the question is not so much about where the hypocrites prayed, but what their motivation for that kind of praying was. They prayed on street corners because they loved to be seen by others. They loved what other people thought about them when they publicly prayed. They did it so people would think highly of them. And Jesus called them hypocrites. Why did he call them that? Because their public prayers were not a reflection of what their heart was really like. He called them “whitewashed tombs,” another time. Clean on the outside, rotten on the inside. Their public personas did not reflect their private realities. That’s the heart of hypocrisy, and that’s why their prayers were so disgusting to Jesus.

So what’s the takeaway here? I think it’s this: in comparison to your private prayer time, your public prayers ought to be limited and careful. You should check your motivations before you pray publicly. If you have prayed publicly very often, then you probably understand the temptation to pray as an exhibition for the people around you, rather than pray as an act of worship to God. So public prayer can be wrong, but it can also be “salt and light.” How do you know the difference? Maybe this: if you are tempted to pray in public because you want everyone to see how pious you are, then maybe you should avoid doing it altogether, to avoid breaking Jesus’ commands. But if you’re tempted not to pray in public, because you are afraid of what other people would think, then maybe you should do it, to practice being salt and light.

So what about Tebow? Which one is he doing? Is he praying like the Pharisees, or he being salt and light? It all goes back to his motivations for doing so. And I don’t know his motivations. Neither do you. Probably, it’s like all of us. We are a mix of motivations. Sometimes they are pure, and sometimes they are less than pure. Thankfully, because of the very Jesus who sets the rules, we are also given grace when our motivations aren’t exactly what they ought to be. I get that grace. So I’m going to give it to Tim Tebow.

On Sunday School - Diversity

This is the latest in a multi-part series on Sunday School. For more, click on Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

There's a little sign as you walk into our classroom, put there by the church, to denote a bit about who we are. It simply says, "Co-Ed 30-40, Wade Phillips, The Loft." The sign is simply there to give us some simple identifying marks of the people who are in the class. We are both men and women, between the ages of 30 and 40, I'm the teacher, and we meet in this room, the loft above the kitchen. There's only one problem with it. It isn't really true.

I mean, most of it is. I'm the teacher. We meet in the loft. Men and women are both welcome. But there's one little problem. I have people who range from their early 20's, all the way up to their 50's in my class. So the 30-40 thing is really not true. They come in all ages. And frankly, despite the misnomer on our sign, I'm pretty pleased with this fact.

As long as we have been a class, we have really made strong efforts to have diversity in our class. Now, I know this is a word that brings up some strong connotations, some positive and some negative. But we have felt from the very beginning that the more different kinds of people we have in our class, the better. To that end, we have people, both black and white, married and single, single again and married with husbands who don't come to church, couples with "full quivers" of kids, and couples with no kids at all, people who have lived in our area all their lives, and others who just moved here. We have people who are well-off financially, and people who are struggling, and people in between. And all different kinds of ages. It's something that we feel very strongly about.

Now, if you are familiar with church growth strategies at all, you may look at this with some amount of concern; maybe even a bit of horror. For many years, a strategy called the "homogeneous unit principal," has held sway in many church circles. There are a lot of different ways to define that very large term, but the basic idea of it, I think, is that people like to be around people who are like them. People will naturally gather with other people who are like them, so we should just use that fact, and grow with it. Now, there are obviously some ways in which this almost has to be true; it's hard for people who speak different languages to worship and study together regularly. I can even see a need for some age segregation in a Sunday School class; it would be difficult for an 8-year old to get the things we are talking about (though we've seen a few of those in class over the years, too.) But the bottom line is this: I believe diversity is not only acceptable, but that it is good and should be encouraged.

Here's what I mean. The Bible has a lot to say about the right kind of diversity. Revelation 5 talks about how God "ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation . . ." God made a point, not just to save as many people as possible, but to make sure they represented all of these different kinds of people. God made the diversity, he likes it, and he wants to redeem all of it. We should embrace it too.

Maybe the most important verse when we talk about the subject of diversity is this one: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28) What's the point here? It's simply that the differences that we see on the outside, those differences in race and gender, social and economic status, marital status, and age, among others, aren't really that important as compared to the similarities we have as people ransomed by Jesus. We all unite under the Cross. We all possess the same Spirit. And those similarities are infinitely more important than any differences we might have.

Now, I don't think it's enough just to say this: we must believe it in a way that it actually makes a difference. We must welcome people who don't look like us or act like us, or think like us. We must make sure the people in our class know that this is not a class for one particular "people group." We must teach on the importance of this kind of diversity, when it comes up in the texts we are studying together.

And here is what might be the most important thing: when we study the Word, those barriers come down. God's people unite around God's Word. This is why our studies are centered on the Word. It applies to everyone. It pierces hearts and minds, and cuts through joints and marrow, and gets deep inside people. And it shows us our similarities, while helping us appreciate our differences.We are not perfect at this. We're still working on it. But it's important to us.

Let me end by making something clear: the sign on the wall doesn't bother me. I'm fine with it as a guide. I just hope it never becomes a fence. I hope the common theme of the Gospel continues to help unite all kinds of people in our classroom, and for that matter, in Sunday School classrooms everywhere.

On Sunday School - Let's Stay Together

This if the third of a multi-part series. For the first two parts, see here, and here.

Four of us stood on the carport; an empty house in front of us, and a U-Haul behind us. We'd just spent the last couple of hours loading up that U-Haul with furniture, clothes, and five years of memories. Now, all that was left to do was say goodbye. This was the unfortunate scene I was faced with several weeks ago, as one of the charter couples in our Sunday School class prepared to move to a different state; forced out by the closure of his plant. Over the last five years, we had built a bond that was so close, so tight, so important in the lives of both them and us, that I didn't really know how to say goodbye now. They're leaving was  more than about some our friends going away; it really felt like a part of us was leaving also.

These are the kind of relationships that are built in real, Christian community, and I've found that the best place for that to happen is in a small group/Sunday School class. We weren't close with this couple because we'd shared a few fun times together, or a few laughs with one another. We'd shared our lives. Each had let the other in on their joys and pains, successes and failures. And though the parting was terrible, it was worth it to have had the time together. This is really what church is supposed to be like and about. And we've managed to find these kind of relationships through our Sunday School class; not just with that couple, but with several others in our class.

So the question becomes, how do you do this? How can a Sunday School class cultivate these kinds of relationships? What are the things that bring people close together, and allow them to share their lives with one another? I am no expert at this, but I have seen it in action over the last five years, and I want to suggest some things that make it happen. Some of these we have done better than others. I list them in no particular order of importance.

1 - Bible Study - Okay, so I do list this one first for a reason, and I think it's very often forgotten when we talk about how we develop community and intimacy with other people. This is one of three things that the church in Acts was described as doing.  "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching . . ." (Acts 2:42) If you want to have real, Christian fellowship, it must be fellowship centered around the Word. That has to be your jumping off point.

2 - Prayer - We pray together. I would like to say we did better than we do on this. But we find out what is going on in the lives of one another, and make it a point to pray together and pray for one another. The more you pray for one another, the more intimacy you can develop with them.

3 - Fellowship - We get together, hang out and take part in one another's lives. It's really that simple. Now, let me confess. We don't have class-wide "fellowships" every month. We've tried not to be dogmatic about it. But here's what happens. The men meet monthly for breakfast on a Saturday morning. The ladies will meet together for an evening of fun every few weeks. Random members of the class meet with one another for a night out or a night in, or a few minutes of just hanging out. And once every few weeks, maybe every couple of months, we all get together for a night of fun, with all of the class members and their kids. With nearly 80 people on the roll, you can understand how this can be hectic. It normally has to be done at the church multi-purpose center. We've also held more baby and wedding showers than I can count.

4 - Service - We serve one another. As I mentioned last week, my grandmother recently passed away. And though she was buried in a town 50 miles from Meridian, I had several class members come visit us at the funeral home. In addition, more than a week after her passing, people are still bringing us meals every night. I say this, to brag on the people in my class, but to also say, this is what we do. We love to serve one another. We go above and beyond the call of duty. I mentioned baby showers earlier. I have not mentioned that our class seems to be a particularly fertile class. We've had more babies over the last five years than I can count. And in every single case, class members have fed those families for two weeks after the birth of the child. When you serve one another, you show love and concern in a way that words will never do.

5 - Ministry - Now, this is the often overlooked way of developing community, especially in Sunday School classes I've been a part of before. And I'll readily admit we haven't done as well as we would have liked, at least up until recently. But we're finding that it really strengthens bonds when people come together for more than just fun, but for a common cause. We have worked with Habitat for Humanity. We have put together bags for the homeless that included Bibles, food and sanitary items. And most recently, we've started a monthly outreach Bible Study, called City Gate, in downtown Meridian. Doing these things has helped us to develop relationships with one another that would not have been nearly so close if we'd just done a monthly fellowship.

6 - Care Groups - This is something we've found particularly helpful as we've grown. We currently have our class divided up into 9 groups, with leaders who contact the members of each group week. This is a simple way for people to pass on prayer requests, praises announcements, and concerns about the class or the church. I actually find it easier to keep up with the people in my class of nearly 80, than I did when it was a class of 20, because of this system. It works really well. I can go to one of my care group leaders right now, and get a report on each member of their class, if I need to. It also helps to have really good people heading up the groups.

The growth of our class has added both blessings and challenges to our ability to fellowship with one another. It's harder for us all to get together at one time, but it's easier for us to serve one another. We just have more people who can do things. And I've found that if you expect people to serve, they will! And they'll be glad they did. So we have a very low percentage of class members who are just seat-warmers. They're willing to take part in what we have going on.

But the sheer numbers do make it harder for us to keep up with one another. The good news is this; we have tools that can help us do that better than at virtually any time in the history of the world. And we use them! There are two tools that I use virtually every single day to keep up with members of my class, and I do not know what I would do without them - text messaging and Facebook. Now, if you are like I was just a few years ago, you hate them both. And there are serious downsides to both of them. But there are also incredible upsides. If there is an urgent prayer request, I can get it to my entire class within five minutes. I simply send out a mass text message, and/or I send it out as a Facebook message. There is no need for phone trees or smoke signals. We live in an age of instantaneous communication, and we take advantage of that.

Our class also has a Facebook page. We call it "The Loft." Clicking on the link will allow you to see only very limited information, because it is for members only. We use it as a way to share prayer requests, announcements,  and links that are of interest. I also write the occasional article on a particular topic, if I feel like there were unanswered questions after a lesson, or if someone asks me a theological question that I think it would benefit the whole class to have answered publicly.

Again, some of these things we can do better than others, I readily admit. I also admit that people have fallen through the cracks. Despite our best efforts, we have several class members who we haven't seen in months. But we don't give up. We keep studying, praying, fellowshipping, serving and ministering, as a way to get closer to get closer and encourage one another. I think, for the most part, it has worked.

And sometimes, because of circumstances beyond our control, we end up on a carport with a U-Haul. These relationships, no matter how strongly built, don't always last in the same way forever. But they do last, and neither distance nor time can truly break them. That is the joy of true, Christian fellowship.

On Sunday School - Bible Study

This is the second of a multi-part series. For previous post, see On Sunday School.

It was November 2005, a Sunday. It was a Sunday I had been looking forward to for several weeks. It was the Sunday we began our new Sunday School class. We had been birthed from what was, at the time, one of the largest classes in the church, and I was excited about the prospect of several of the couples in that class joining me for a new adventure. I'd already confirmed that two couples and another woman would be joining us. I was excited to see who else would do so.

My excitement was tempered by reality that morning. No one else decided to join us, and one of the couples who would be a part of us, could not be there that Sunday. So including Crystal and I, there were five of us. It let the air out of my balloon just a little bit, to be honest. But looking back on it, I believe it was exactly what should have happened. More on that later.

I tell this story to tell you what I told those four who joined me that Sunday.  We were few in number, and our church had been in a state of plateau/decline for several years, so there was no real guarantee that we would ever grow. For all I knew, it would be us seven and no more until they finally shut us down. But I had made a commitment then, and I told it to them on this day.

Here's what I said, (paraphrased): "We're going to be committed to studying the Bible. I believe it is our only hope and our only chance. The things we read here are the most important things in the world, and we will study them. If we never grow larger than we are right now, that's fine. We are going to grow spiritually, if not numerically, because studying the Word will do that."

I'm actually certain I wasn't nearly so eloquent at the time. But that was what I believed then, and it's what I believe, even more so now, because I've really seen it in action over the last five years. I have seen people grow spiritually, and God has also grown our class numerically, exponentially even. Let me be clear; I take no credit for that (well, in my lesser moments I might). But I believe the commitment to study the Bible, deeply and systematically and in an expository way, has been blessed by God.

Looking back five years, I see now how ignorant of what I was saying that I actually was. I had spent a fair amount of time in Bible study classes that were that in name only. In other words, though they (usually) opened their Bibles, the lesson and the conversation often veered off into personal feelings and opinions, and psychology instead of theology. I had been in one class that I thought had really been serious about studying the Word, and I had watched that class shrink, rather than grow, because people thought it was "too hard." So my experience had been that classes that grew were classes that were light on the Bible. I was convinced that it could be otherwise, and even if it wasn't, that I must try anyway.

So that was my commitment. I was very fortunate to have fellow members who were in agreement with me, and who wanted to study the Bible with real depth, and ask real questions about meaning and theology and how that applied to their lives. We didn't know what would happen, but we all wanted to find out.

So our first commitment was to study the Bible, every Sunday. We weren't going to take weeks off to do testimony time, or read books on marriage, or do Bible trivia games. (Let me be clear; I'd not only done these in classes before, but recommended and supporting doing them. But not this time.) The Bible was going to be our guide.

Here's what I've learned though, since that time. It's not enough to say you're going to study the Bible. There are right ways and wrong ways to do it. Over the last 5 years, I've learned a lot. Here are some of the things that we have tried to do as we study, every single week. Admittedly, I do better some weeks than others, and many of these things, I have learned over the years.

1 - We study the Bible systematically. I'm not one to skip around the Bible a lot from week to week. My preference is to go through the Word, book by book, one at a time. But I've actually found in recent years that using the Lifeway literature (as a loose guide) has helped a lot. Whether we are studying a particular book, or a particular topic, I'm able to help people keep common themes and thoughts in the minds of my class over a several week period.

2 - We study expositionally. I'm no Biblical scholar, and I have no degrees in theology. But I do believe the best way to study scripture is to study it verse-by-verse, with the goal of trying to figure out what the passages mean. All too often, we decide on a topic we want to teach on, and then try to throw all the verses together that support what we already think. There is no growth in this. There is growth in looking at themes, and interconnections between verse and passages. In short, when you study expositionally, you study in context, with the goal of finding what God is saying.

3 - We explore the tensions. In every passage you can study, there are going to be phrases and words and sentences that, at least on their face, don't seem to make sense. Maybe they don't seem to fit with the rest of the passage. Maybe they seem to contradict something else that we know, or think we know, about God and about the Word. Whatever they are, we don't ignore them. We embrace and we explore. And in doing that, we grow, because we find more meaning and deeper nuances and connections that we didn't previously realize existed.

4 - We look for Jesus. I have come to realize over the years, that Jesus is the main character in every story and every passage that we study. He's not always standing center stage, but he can always be found, if you search hard enough. And this searching is always fruitful. The finding is even better. I try to make Jesus appear in every single lesson, sometimes from the beginning, sometimes riding in on his white horse to save the day, sometimes bubbling up from the surface over the course of the class. But he is always there, and he is always the main character.

5 - We center on the Gospel - I wish I'd realized this sooner than I did. I guess I always knew it, but I'm not sure I always really "got it." If we don't look at every part of the Bible through the lens of God's redemptive plan to save his people through Jesus' death on the Cross, then we will fall into empty moralism and legalism. We will tell people what they must do, without helping them understand where they find the strength and ability to do it. This is what too much of our Bible study and preaching has become. And it does no good. Even if it does manage to change some actions, it never changes hearts. Only the Gospel of Jesus, which rips out hearts of stone, and replaces them with new hearts that love God, can cause us to be the kinds of people we must be.

So these are my goals, every Sunday. To reach them, I spend hours in Bible study every week. It's a long, difficult, but incredibly rewarding process. I'm certainly imperfect, and have to admit my imperfections, and confess my lack of knowledge often. But we ask the questions together, and grow through the process.

On Sunday School

I have had the great honor, for the last five or so years, to be able to teach a Sunday School class of young adults at my church, Northcrest Baptist, in Meridian. Yes, we still call it Sunday School here in Mississippi. I guess it really doesn't matter what it's called. It's what you're doing there that counts. Over these five years, it has been, for the most part, one of my greatest joys. I believe I am called and gifted to be a teacher, and I have taken the job as seriously as I know how. It's my hope and prayer that I get to continue leading this class for many years to come.

But things inevitably change; we're probably going to see some changes in our class soon. Frankly, we have gotten very large. We started the class five years ago, birthed from another class, with a mere 5 people there on our first Sunday. We now have almost 80 on the roll, and have lately been running close to 40 in class. It really has been remarkable to watch the class grow and change over the years. We began meeting in the smallest classroom at our church; a couple of years ago, we moved to the largest one, and we are growing ever-close to outgrowing it.

It looks like we're about to start another class out of our class; we've gotten so large, and I have some people who are really qualified to teach in my class. I'm certain one of them is going to step up and take on a leadership role in the new class. Most Sunday School/Small Group experts would tell you we should have already started another class, but we've just been having so much fun, and we've just been growing so fast. It's been a wild ride, to say the very least. We have visitors and new members almost every single Sunday. It's really a lot to keep up with. So I think a new class is probably best, though I do not look forward to losing some of my most faithful members.

A lot has happened over 5+ years. We've studied thousands of verses of scripture, gathered at dozens of homes, held numerous baby and wedding showers, fed multitudes of sick people and new parents, done multiple mission projects, and even started a brand new downtown Bible Study for young people, called City Gate. I've been in a lot of Sunday School and small group classes, and this has been by far the most active and most mission-oriented. We've also formed bonds that I believe will last a lifetime, bonds that are stronger than just friendship; they are bonds forged by fire, strengthened by service, and bonded by the Gospel of Jesus. We are truly brothers and sisters, in a way I've not always been able to say about fellow church or Sunday School members.

The fact that I'm probably about to send some of my friends off into a new adventure of their own has gotten me thinking a lot about our class lately. I think I'm going to spend the next few days blogging about what it's been like, specifically what I think we've done well, and what I think we could have done better. Stay tuned.

Thoughts on Dying

As many of you already know, my grandmother passed away Monday. We buried her yesterday. She was a great, Christian lady, a wonderful grandmother, one of my biggest cheerleaders, with a spitfire of a personality to go along with a heart and a smile as big as anyone I’ve ever known.

We watched her die. She had been sick for some time, but seemed to recovering, until early Monday morning, when she fell, and developed a large bleed on her brain. It was just a matter of time at that point. She died about nine hours after she fell. Most her family, daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, and grand in-laws were there to wish her farewell. It was difficult, but not without it’s joys, as we all shared stories about her life, and her last days. I’ve spent the last couple of days thinking a lot about her, and also a lot about the subject of death itself. I guess times like this do that to a person.

It’s hard to know exactly how to feel at a time like this; you just lost someone you love, so you feel sad. But when it’s someone who has lived a long, full life, and has been sick for so long, there is also some relief, because you know they are no longer in any pain. I think both emotions are appropriate, especially in light of what the Bible says about death itself.

Let’s make this clear; despite our sometimes romantic ideas about death and dying well, it is our enemy. Death is a result of sin. If there were no sin, there would be no death. Paul described death as “the last enemy.” (1 Corinthians 15:26) So it is an enemy. It is not, as Forrest Gump’s mom said, “just another part of life.” It is terrible, and no amount of comforting words will change the fact. Neither should we want that fact to be changed. Death is bad and death is the enemy. End of story.

But that’s not really the end of the story, is it? Because the same Paul who described death as the enemy also said, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21) He said that he was torn between wanting to go and be with Jesus, and to stick around and live for him. I think that is probably as appropriate a feeling about death as I can come up with.

The Bible really gives us a mixed view of death. Sometimes it may be hard to figure out how to think correctly of it, because we’re told both that for the Christian, death is an enemy and death is gain. I guess the only thing that is proper to do here is to embrace that tension. Death is terrible. It hurts. It should not be. But it is also the beginning of something much better.

The resolution to this tension is found, I think, as so many things are, at the Cross. Here is where the badness of death meets the goodness of eternity. Jesus’ death on the Cross was one of the worst, most tragic things, that ever happened. The perfect God-man, completely innocent, murdered for crimes he did not commit. It was the most tragic death in the history of the world. Yet, out of his death, great good comes, and through his resurrection, death is dealt a decisive blow. Though death is still around, it is badly wounded, and it’s defeat is assured.

That’s why I’ve imagined my grandmother this week, standing triumphantly at the gates of Heaven, echoing the words of Hosea and Paul: “O death where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54,55) As terrible as death is, it’s sting and it’s victory are gone, because those who believe are forever triumphant over death, as they reign in Heaven with Jesus. And this is another important point. We spent the last few days making little jokes about what my grandmother was going to say to my also-departed grandfather when she arrived. And we often think that Heaven is this great place, because our loved ones are there, and because there is no more sickness and pain and sin. And that is true, as far as it goes. But that kind of Heaven will never be ultimately satisfying unless Jesus is there. The reason death’s sting doesn’t affect us is because of what Jesus did, and because we get to be with Him when death comes. All other pleasures are secondary. My grandmother is getting the greatest pleasure that a person can possibly know right now; real, lasting, eternal fellowship with the God of the universe, who redeemed her, bought her with a price, and has promised her great reward forever.

And so we mourn our loss, but “not as those without hope,” because we have hope, not only that we will see her again, but that will see Jesus with her. And that will make it all worthwhile.