The Gospel According to the Culture

DateLine (10/27/05 – Philadelphia, PA)

The number one definition of “gospel” as provided by dictionary.com is “The proclamation of the redemption preached by Jesus and the Apostles, which is the central content of Christian revelation.” Our fast paced society has grown addicted to the sound byte, “cliff notes”, and three paragraph summaries. It is no wonder that many times our notion of the central themes of the gospel are formed from short blasts delivered by a variety of contemporary outlets; TV, newspaper, movies, and radio (i.e. cultural media.)

The gospel is as likely to be delivered by a non-believer as a believer. Just because one does not accept the message it does not mean that they are not willing to offer up an opinion. We don’t have to look far to discover the gospel being exploited for commercial gain, subtlety compromised, ridiculed, grossly distorted, or used to justify contradictory action.

Faithful saints are occasionally led astray because of the constant humdrum delivered by the pervasive trumpets of the culture. Distortions are often wrapped around nuggets of truth. How can Christians filter the noise of the culture? II Timothy 2:15 exhorts the Christian to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” The official source for the gospel is the revealed words of our Lord, recorded in the Bible. Our Christian apprenticeship requires us to study it as a student. There are no short cuts. A true learning experience goes beyond reading and incorporates critical analysis and practical application.

The history of the Bible is an amazing story of God’s delivery and inspired human custodians as it has been faithfully preserved and passed down through the generations. We are the contemporary stewards of the gospel. Don’t let the culture drown you out.

Church Work

DateLine (10/19/05 – Naas, County Kildare, Ireland)

I was reading a copy of Fortune magazine recently and happened upon an article entitled “The25 people we envy most.” I fully expected to find the likes of Bill Gates, the two co-founders of Google, Tiger Woods, J. K. Rowling of Harry Potty fame, and even Chris Rock the comedian. These are all people who have measured up in terms of how society defines success; fame and fortune and at an early age mind you for some of those profiled.

Quite to my surprise I find included in the list, Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church and wildly successful author of “The Purpose Driven Life.” The article labeled him as the most influential evangelical since Billy Graham and ends the piece with the statement, “and he’ll never wake up wondering if his job has meaning.” Why is this man so admired?
A recent article in our own Baptist Courier weekly tabloid quotes from Reggie McNeal, the director of leadership development, who led a group to analyze our effectiveness in accomplishing some goals that we had set for ourselves in the year 2000. In response to a question which asked about some goals where we had achieved disappointing results he states, “my own opinion is that we are too busy doing church to “be” church.

In my opinion the appearance of Rick Warren in Fortune’s list of most envied people and the disappointment verbalized by Reggie McNeal are connected. If there is one thing that Rick Warren did in the book referenced above it was to drive home the point that everything that we do in the church should be purpose driven. He laid out a challenge to evaluate our programs and efforts to insure that they are aligned with the heartbeat of God. He helped formulate the metrics to determine “on purpose” living by sifting out the five primary purposes of our existence; worship, evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, and personal need focused ministry.

A well balanced person and a well-balanced church have equal emphasis on all five. If our fellowship drowns out our evangelism or our worship leaves no time for discipleship or our evangelism ignores the physical needs of those we reach out to, then we are out of balance and not meeting our personal potential, our church’s potential, or God’s objectives. If church activities that cannot be tied back to any of the five basic purposes then the energy to perpetuate the program is leached from the programs that are purposeful. Rick Warren could be acknowledged as the person most responsible for liberating a generation from the drudgery of religion therefore earning him the admiration of his listeners.

Our church participation should not be driven by guilt or obligation. Understanding God’s will for us and the tools that he has equipped our person with should lead to a sense of freedom and empowerment. What I hear in Rick Warren’s teaching and Reggie McNeal’s analysis is a need to release people from church “obligations” in order for them to have the time and energy to “be” the church. I once heard a pastor say, there is a big difference between church work and the work of the church. Don’t ever feel like you have to apologize when approached to do church work if you’re confident that your life is invested in the work of the church.

Teamwork

DateLine (10/12/05 – Ponce, Puerto Rico)

A few days ago I had the opportunity to meet one of the legends of professional golf, Chi Chi Rodriguez. Just so happens that one of the members of my project team is staying in a condo at his golf course in Guayama, Puerto Rico and took us over at lunch to meet this unique individual. Now well past his prime, he was one of the most unique characters to have played the game.

Born into humble surroundings in Puerto Rico, he taught himself how to play golf with clubs fashioned from guava tree limbs and tin cans hammered into balls. Now in addition to piddling around his golf course complex where I met him, this 70 can be found working to create opportunities for the youth of his beloved Puerto Rico or offering up tidbits of homespun wisdom on the inspirational speaking circuit.

During the brief time that I spent with him, he volunteered several folksy spiels. In one story He confessed that he was fascinated by the ants. On an occasion he happened upon an ant that was struggling to drag a dead bat back to the ant hill to provide food for his “army” of friends. Try as he would, the ant could not overcome the size differential between himself and his prize even though ants are notorious for their strength. About that time several more ants arrived, and then several more. Eventually enough ants surrounded the bat carcass that they were able to drag it away; a powerful testimony to the power of teamwork.

Jesus talked about teamwork in Romans Chapter 12. “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.” God uses the ants to challenge us.

As individual church members we are nothing more than dysfunctional underachievers. A church full of individuals doing their own thing is like the lone ant struggling to get the job done. In God’s view of teamwork presented in Romans 12 one cannot imagine the individual parts separate from the whole, yet each part retains a clear identity. The almost unbelievable story told by my “friend” Chi Chi about the Herculean feat of the ant “team” is a fascinating glimpse into the potential of our team; the church. We each have a unique contribution to the team; when we’re missing the body is handicapped. God said in John 14:12, "I assure you: The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father”. How can we understand what God means? The ants will tell us!

Reproducible

DateLine (10/5/05 – Ponce, Puerto Rico)

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had been reading a book about the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 – 1919. It’s interesting that the airwaves are full of the news of an avian flu (H5N1) right now which some are comparing to what happened in the early part of the last century. But that’s really not what I wanted to talk about.

While the Spanish Flu pillaged our country and even the world, medical researchers were locked into a deadly race to identify the source and manufacture a cure. Years of research was being compressed into months. Necessity dictated the dishonoring of normal research protocols. Rivalries between researchers who competed for grants and recognition morphed into cooperation. These were disparate times.

While medical research had limited success in 1918, the success that it did have is attributable to a single natural attribute. Quoting from the book, “One key to science is that work be reproducible. Someone in another laboratory doing the same experiment will get the same result. The result then is reliable enough that someone else can build upon it. The most damning condemnation is to dismiss a finding as ‘not reproducible.’”

God has created a tremendous natural order here on earth even in the form that we know it which is stained by sin. It is a reflection of His very nature. Jesus is the same “yesterday, today, and forever;” rock solid dependability; reproducible dependability. Just like those medical heroes from almost 100 years ago, we take it for granted and exploit it everyday to our advantage.

What’s the lesson for us here? God promised that if we renounce our sins and confess Him as Lord He opens the doors of heaven for us to spend eternity with Him. Someone shared the good news with someone who accepted the eternal truth for their own. They shared the good news with someone who accepted the eternal truth for their own. They shared the good new with us and we accepted the eternal truth for our own; reproducible results. God designed it. God built it. God’s saving it. Don’t you want to be a part of God’s natural order? Share the good news today.