Some Great Posts I read this morning.

Church Membership
Check out why Chruch Membership is not only beneficial but biblical. Pastor Thabati gives one of the clearest and biblically centered approaches here!

Vision for your Family
Check out my man Quicy at Truth in the Innermost as he discusses a biblical vision for your children. This is simply amazing. You have to also read Tony Carter's response as he adds a point of making that vision rest on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Read it here


The Primary Purpose of the Church
Check out John MacArthur over at Pulpit Magazine as he discusses what people look for in a church and what the primary goal of the church is here.

I think you will be edified by each of these. Why reinvent the wheel when you can just help it roll faster?

Holistic Outreach: Is it bringing people into a sinking ship?

I had a very good conversation with someone today and wanted to share some afterthoughts on this. Amongst Urban Evangelicals the conviction for community outreach, has become a growing concern. As young Christians move from the ministry philosophy of many of their parents which they feel was the “if you want to know Jesus come to my church” philosophy to the “church without walls” philosophy I wonder if some things have been lost in the transition.

We first have to understand that the human race is always and I do mean always in danger of going from one extreme to the other. For example a person who thinks that reaching the lost is critical, will employ any and all methods to reach the lost or the unchurched thus the birth of the “Seeker Sensitive” model. Or the person who may have a Calvinistic evangelistic mindset may never do any type of invitation and thus miss opportunities to “biblically” evangelize. Another example is the fact of holiness and how legalism becomes the compass of “true Christianity” while on the other hand liberty takes the form of a lack of biblical church discipline. I can think of many instances in my life from everything from cessasionism to other positions that I took as I left the Charismatic arena in which my pendulum swung so far that I almost couldn’t identify the Holy Spirit if He sat next to me at lunch. So once again extremes lurksin the shadows for many of us.

I want to focus on the perspective of outreach in this short exhortation. I am not a pastor, nor do I understand (practically, not theoretically) the life of a Shepherd. So I am not throwing stones just engaging. As we wrestle with reaching the community that we worship in Corporately what should be the health of the church before such an exploration takes place. If marriages are crumbling, congregants are involved in all types of sin, the majority of the congregation has a low view of God and a high view of man, and if the church doesn’t understand the high calling of biblical church membership (which some people disagree with) should we be attempting to “reach out” without first reaching in? Is God displeased if we took a year or two off to help build the local fellowship and invest in families and biblical faithfulness and then go out to try to help others?

A picture came to my mind as I was talking with the individual. It would be like you pulling people into a ship that is sinking. Is our witness before the community and the world primarily how we live out the Gospel in our lives or reaching out to the community abroad with programs? What is funny is that as I read through Acts and the Epistles and even the Gospels, Jesus, nor the Apostles main focus was not holistic outreach but holistic in-reach. I think we are challenged to provide for the widow and orphan, but I think the primary widow and orphan are those within the Body of Christ. We can see that as Paul addresses widow care in his epistle to Timothy. I think we can do more harm than damage to the body if we focus our energy, time and resources in building the community abroad without first using the resources to build the community within.

That may seem “four wallish” but I think I can make a biblical case for it. As Paul is raising funds for the poor in Jerusalem it was for the poor believers, as people sold their goods in Acts it wasn’t so that the community abroad could have “all things in common” but that the believers could have “all things in common”. The Apostle Paul did not exhort the Churches he wrote to to reach out, but to love each other within. I think we can easily lose focus on what and for whom Christ died. It wasn’t for holistic ministry but for reconciliation. I am not saying churches should not reach out and if the resources are available, especially for mega-churches, then go for it. But I don’t think that the local body should get the scraps from the table while we invest in schools and community outreach programs. I don’t think we should charge those who give frequently for a marriage conference when we take those same dollars to help buy books for the community. That is only my opinion but I think there is some validity there.

If we spend our time rebuilding the city while simultaneously ignoring those within our local fellowship, I think we will continue the trend of nominal Christianity. People aren’t being properly discipled because they are busy painting houses and not being ministered to. Many pastors and leaders aren’t even equipped to deal with the major problems many Christians face within their congregtions Christ has granted them charge over, so we substitute keeping busy for biblical ministry. Many of our brothers are struggling with pornography, don’t have a clue how to disciple their families (I wrestle with this in my own life greatly) and have no clue about biblical manhood, but they are busy working within the body. Many of our women don’t understand their roles as women in a Christian marriage, can’t really reproduce other Godly women and are struggling relating to their teenage daughters, but they are busy organizing outreach events.

This isn’t the case for all churches but I know what I have seen across many ethnic and socioeconomic ministries. We are failing at succeeding at what God calls us to do, in the name of reaching the community, which I can’t find biblical where God spends a bunch of time discussing in the scriptures. I think if we want holistic ministries they must start from within. As the brother I talked to said “Get the families inside healthy, then they can aid in getting those outside healthy”. God bless.

Gospel "Less" Music

Let’s start by asking a question. If someone had a steady hand would you allow them to perform brain surgery on you? The obvious answer is no. I use the same argument as it relates to Gospel Music. Just because someone has a beautiful voice by no means deem them qualified to be worship leaders, or even release gospel albums. I have seen some of the most criminal acts being performed on the Word of God by those who make gospel music. Just as the surgeon has to meet qualifications such as med school, a medical board and residency, I believe that a gospel music artist should do the same. Just because someone has musical talents doesn’t mean that should be leading music within the Church (I wanted to reiterate this).

The sad reality is this. I know people who either lead worship, or are involved with the most visible people group within the church behind the pastor who should be disciplined for their lifestyles. Growing up, I knew a guy who had three kids by two different women being the key musical figure in the church I grew up in. Because of his talent people overlooked his sin (they overlooked everyone’s). Those in the forefront of our local fellowships should be examples of Christ first. This should be an automatic DQ! I am seeing whoremongers, adulterers, man and women who are divorced and remarried without biblical grounds, and other related individuals being encouraged instead of admonished, just because of a musical gift.

Next we have people who may meet the moral qualification but have no clue of what the Gospel is. So they sing songs, that are man centered instead of understanding that when we Worship, we are to be worshipping someone. That someone is not we but our God, through Jesus Christ. I hear songs like “Falling in Love with Jesus” (though my worship leader song this Sunday and he is solid as it relates to morality and the Gospel) and we are calling the fellowship together to sing this song? This is a man centered song. We offer nothing to Jesus at best we are singing to one another, at worst we are singing to ourselves. When the Corporate Body comes together we should be humbling ourselves in reverence to our Lord and not singing self-help songs that offer up nothing up to our Savior. Just because the melody is nice and it is an emotion grabber, this should not be how we choose songs for us to worship. I would sometimes rather sing from a Hymnal versus singing man-centered songs. These great man and women of faith understood the Gospel and understood what it meant to worship God. Many of the songs we sing today are from professional singers who are making a killing regurgitating self help garbage that only leads us to more self-centeredness versus a proper view of ourselves in light of the glorious Gospel. That is why we have churches packed with people who believe that they are relatively good, and that goodness is what is going to get them heaven. They believe that “God wants them to be happy” and God’s greatest joy comes from us getting what we want. I personally believe that a non-believer should be extremely convicted by what we sing in worship, not moved. He should here about the cross, atonement, sacrifice, our need of the Gospel, and are hopelessness of attaining that in and of ourselves.

Finally, I want to address professional Christian music artists. It is very rare that you would find anyone of African American decent that has a Christ Centered Album. Kirk has a few songs, but overall it is hit and miss. Fred Hammond is a modalist who believes sitting under Jakes is what is going to help him mature and get some sort of spiritual blessing (Elijah/Elisha). Israel songs makes me want to skip through the field with flowers behind my ears, Yolanda Adam does songs with Kanye and Bone so enough said there, Donnie McClurkin is singing at a TBN praise-a-thon, Juanita done lost her mind, Hezekiah is mentoring Puff Daddy, P-Diddy, or whatever you call him, Mary Mary sings an entire song about Heaven and Jesus is the only person they don’t want to see and my man William Murphy is busy speaking in tongues through his entire album, and is constantly singing Word of Faith hogwash. I don’t know their motives so I will not go there. I do know for sure that a lot of these individuals I listed are millionaires, (J Moss with his Bentley in his videos). Nothing wrong with being a millionaire, but I will ask, how many Wilberforce songs would you play in a club (remember Stomp), or how many of hymnals do you know will get national airplay (Smokie and Donnie Mack) in the middle of heavy rotation? None! Why because they boast about Christ and His accomplished work on the cross. Last year the song of the year was “The blessings of Abraham” by Donald Lawrence. It is a massacre performed on the promise made to Abraham and his future seed. This dude somehow equates this seed to faith and twists faith to be something you just need to speak and wah lah God becomes an instant genie.

I believe we have to become more critical, more people are duped by gospel artist than word of faith preachers everyday (as a matter of fact most of them work hand in hand, remember Kirk went from having R. Kelly on his album to Jakes, I don’t know which is worse). We have to start drawing a line in the sand, and telling these artist and churches, if they will continue to compromise the Gospel we will have to go our separate ways. Currently there is a muddy mixture which is bound to get someone drowned.

How Should We Treat Our Children Who are Non-believers?

I have been listening and reading stuff from the guys at www.ids.org for over a year now. They are New Covenant Theologians who have a passion for Reformed Baptist Theology. I absolutely love these guys, they have been such a blessing to me. Here is a paper they wrote on how to deal with your nonbelieving children in the context of Church. They bring up some very interesting points, that I really never even considered. Here are a few.

1. We should not let our children lead worship (you know children choirs) unless they are believers.

2. We should not treat them as believers (i.e Lord's Supper, serving in the ministry, and other church related functions).

3. We should not let them lead prayers, for they are nonbelievers (unless of course that is a prayer of repentenance)

These are just a few. I had a few objections that I emailed them about and I am waiting for a response. As for now let me know what you think. God bless.