Acts 17 is one of the prime passages that is looked to when wrestling with contextualizing the gospel to a culture. The Apostle Paul was very good at explaining and communicating the gospel. All throughout the book of Acts he is constantly looking to preach the gospel. Jesus did the same thing. The Southeast Church is going through the book of Mark right now. We're seeing how Jesus made proclaiming the gospel the primary concern of his ministry.
So when we look at Acts 17 we get excited about how Paul addressed the culture and proclaimed the gospel. What we often fail to consider is the response and how Paul handled it afterwards. Directly following Paul's time in Athens he headed to Corinth (Acts 18). When we look at the beginning of 1 Corinthians where Paul is recounting his state when he arrived we see something interesting. In the beginning of chapter 2, Paul writes "And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified."
Paul had just seen how his great contextualization of the gospel resulted in very little result. I'm by no means arguing that we should avoid contextualization, but rather that we need to really look at culture and invest time and thought into how we do it. The gospel is going to sound crazy to most people because it divides our nature as sinners and we don't like that. We want to be in control. We pull our own weight and don't need help. The gospel is the opposite of this. The gospel says that we can't do it and so we have to rely entirely on what Christ has already accomplished.
Paul saw results and people being saved in Corinth. Let's not get too excited about the one stop that Paul didn't see people get saved and even crushed his spirit to a certain degree. Let us be bold in preaching Christ crucified on our behalf to accomplish what we cannot. Let us rest in the Power of God that is made known to us because of the resurrection.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Church Planting
I've been knee-deep in planting a church now since this last summer. My sending church, Oregon City Christian Church, is supporting me to expand the Gospel. It's pretty awesome and something I've been wanting to do for a long time. We're actually coming upon the start of our weekend service beginning. That is what this post will be about.
Part of what I've been spending time doing is looking at how churches operate and how well those churches are reaching people. It's been really good and something that I love doing. I've seen some really cool things where people are engaging the culture and effectively sharing Jesus. One church in particular is about two-and-a-half years old and has grown to about 800, with well over half of those being new believers. Awesome.
There has also been some things that are troubling to me. One church I was looking at online offered people to join them in worship "if they could find them." I get that that can make it seem cool and really locally focused on a particular neighborhood. My issue is what if someone heard about that church and wanted to find where it met to visit without sending them an email? This seems to miss a big part of how churches can reach out to their community.
Going into this church plant, I was really anti-buying a building. Part of that was coming from a church where 1/3 to 1/4 of the tithes had to go to pay a mortgage. That is too much to pay and I saw how it hindered the church. So that made me reject buildings and think how cool it'll be to be completely mobile, working in coffee shops, pubs, and my living room. There is a very big advantage to that. I'm in the community a lot. I support local businesses this way. I get to see my kids more. We save a lot by not having rent or a mortgage.
My thinking got rocked on this one day while listening to the great wise Ken Swatman. He was preaching about why OCCC has a building and how it's a reminder to the local community that the church is present and that we're committed to serving it. That made me really think about things and buildings and how to proceed.
I still don't like the idea of making payments, however I am fully for having a building, so long as it doesn't hinder the growth and opportunities of the church. That will come through God's provision and our patience, the latter of which is the hard part.
We will be launching a worship service at another local church on a Sunday evening next month. The goal is to proclaim the Gospel so as many can hear, repent, and believe as possible.
Part of what I've been spending time doing is looking at how churches operate and how well those churches are reaching people. It's been really good and something that I love doing. I've seen some really cool things where people are engaging the culture and effectively sharing Jesus. One church in particular is about two-and-a-half years old and has grown to about 800, with well over half of those being new believers. Awesome.
There has also been some things that are troubling to me. One church I was looking at online offered people to join them in worship "if they could find them." I get that that can make it seem cool and really locally focused on a particular neighborhood. My issue is what if someone heard about that church and wanted to find where it met to visit without sending them an email? This seems to miss a big part of how churches can reach out to their community.
Going into this church plant, I was really anti-buying a building. Part of that was coming from a church where 1/3 to 1/4 of the tithes had to go to pay a mortgage. That is too much to pay and I saw how it hindered the church. So that made me reject buildings and think how cool it'll be to be completely mobile, working in coffee shops, pubs, and my living room. There is a very big advantage to that. I'm in the community a lot. I support local businesses this way. I get to see my kids more. We save a lot by not having rent or a mortgage.
My thinking got rocked on this one day while listening to the great wise Ken Swatman. He was preaching about why OCCC has a building and how it's a reminder to the local community that the church is present and that we're committed to serving it. That made me really think about things and buildings and how to proceed.
I still don't like the idea of making payments, however I am fully for having a building, so long as it doesn't hinder the growth and opportunities of the church. That will come through God's provision and our patience, the latter of which is the hard part.
We will be launching a worship service at another local church on a Sunday evening next month. The goal is to proclaim the Gospel so as many can hear, repent, and believe as possible.
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