What is the church about?

There is an interesting review of George Barna's book "revolution" on the Reformation 21 web site.

The review raises some interesting points about Barna's approach, and about Evangelicalism in general. As the reviewer states:

Barna’s argument reveals a belief that the Church should be governed by marketplace consumerism. George Barna is a pollster. Pollsters deal with popular or consumer opinion. Popular opinion is the anthropology of the marketplace. The pollster sees the market changing and recommends changes in the product to suit these changes. In this case, the consumers are the revolutionaries and the product is a stimulating Christian life. Barna sees the market changing. The consumers needs aren’t being met, therefore the church must change its product.

One of the arguments that Martin Luther had to refute in his book "Bondage of the Will" was that God wouldn't let His church go so wrong as to require the Reformation. Luther responded that the history of the church revealed in the Old Testament shows repeatedly that there are many times when a majority of those within the church are apostate or just plain wrong.

It's very dangerous for us to base what we should do as Christians on polls, even if the polls are of other Christians. According to the reviewer, Barna places a great deal of emphasis on people's experiences over what the Bible says. Is that a good thing to do?

When I was tutoring software development project managers I was constantly trying to teach them to discern between activity and progress. Activity only counts as progress if it moves the project closer to it's goals. As Christians we need to keep Christ and His Word ever before us so that we can accurately answer the question "would doing this move me closer to the goals given us by our Lord?"

Because in the end this is what accepting Christ as Lord is all about: working toward the goals He has set for us, His church.

New Year Resolutions

pastorway: The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards (#1-24)

I'm not sure if I should study these for inspiration, or pretend they don't exist. There are 70 all told, to be reviewed weekly.

So far the only resolution I have made is to learn New Testament Greek. Actually living up to what I read is something else entirely.

This is a problem I used to run into when I was a software developer building a new system. At some point I would be overwhelmed by the scope of what I was building. I found that the secret was to just start working on the system, building it in bite-sized chunks.

I may go back and look over Edwards' resolutions the same way. Maybe 1 a month or so.

I'll have one thing going for me that I didn't have as a software developer: the support of the Holy Spirit.

Why do churches exist?

An interesting post on TwentySomeone about the furor over church closures this past Christmas.

What struck me about the posts were the 3 main reasons churches gave for closing:

1. Christmas is a family day and the church was a family insitution, so the church wanted to honor the family.
2. Church is for non-believers and since nonbelievers wouldn’t come to church on Christmas Day, there was no point in having it at all.
3. Church takes too much time and work for the people who put it on, so to give those people a break, it should be cancelled on Christmas.

Item 2 was the one that has been sticking out in my mind, as it did for Doug.

Why does my church exist? Is it just one big evangelism tool that the person doesn't need after they become Christian? And why would a person who does "accept" Christ not want to go to church?

Maybe the problem is with the churches themselves. If your people don't want to get together to worship God, can you really say that they understand the Gospel? How can anyone who really believes that they are a sinner saved by God's grace not feel the need to praise and worship the God who saved him/her?

If there is anything that ever makes me doubt my salvations, it is those times when I don't feel a deep gratitude for God, and for what His Son did for me. I can't imagine not wanting to praise or worship the Father or His Son. I can't imagine not wanting to say "thank you" one more time. I can't imagine not wanting to get together with other people who truly have the love of God within them. I can't imagine not wanting to hear His Word being spoken and preached. I can't imagine not wanting to learn more about Him.

Chaplains' prayers censored by military brass...

Chaplains' prayers censored by military brass...: "More than eight years ago a friend of mine told me he had lost his Navy chaplaincy largely because of his unwillingness to stop praying explicitly in the Name of Jesus. Recent reports indicate things have only gotten worse. " As reported on BaylyBlog

I can see the problem that the military has to deal with. You can't have a chaplain representing every single religion available in every miliary unit. Personally, I wouldn't see the point in asking a Muslim cleric to pray for me. I think he's wrong in his belief. (If I didn't think that, I would be a Muslim and not a Christian.) The fact that we was a cleric wouldn't change the fact that he was praying to the wrong god. I'm pretty sure that a Muslim would feel the same way about having a Presbyterian minister pray for him.

It does raise a very interesting question: why do we ask chaplains (or any clergy member for that matter) to pray for/with us? Is it to give us a warm and cozy feeling only, or do we actually expect God to do something? On a more general level, why do we pray at all?

So why do we ask for ministers and priests to pray for us?

I've had others say that they were comforted by the knowledge that I and others were praying for them, but that's not why I pray. When I pray it's because I genuinely want God to do something. That means I should the way I think God wants me to pray, not the way the person wants me to pray. How else can my prayer be effective?

As a Christian, this means that I have to pray in Jesus' name. Jesus is the only person to have walked the earth in a manner worthy to have His petitions heard by God the Father. My sinfulness won't get me very far when I pray, I haven't earned the right to be heard by God. Jesus has. I am allowed to approach God in prayer and ask favors of Him because His Son has allowed me to use His Name.

If I'm not allowed to pray in Jesus name, I might as well not pray.