The Gospel Summarized

I'm teaching a class soon at Church on evangelism, and part of it is learning how to explain the Gospel message very simply in just a few minutes. I thought I'd put it up here. Let me know if you have any suggestions or if you find it helpful.

“What is Christianity all about in really simple terms?”

1. God created us to be with Him. The Bible teaches that God is good, and that He created everything that exists. He made people so that we could enjoy an intimate relationship with Him. He promised that if we lived His way, life would go well and He would fulfill all our needs.

2. We have rebelled against Him. The first man, Adam, decided to break that relationship with God. God told him not to eat one piece of fruit, but Adam didn’t trust God and ate it anyway. When he did that, he sinned. We all do that every day. When we lie, cheat, hurt other people, honor other things above God, and act selfishly we’re basically telling God that we don’t trust Him, and that our ways are better than His ways. Because we’ve rebelled against Him like this, the only thing left for us is eternal punishment.

3. Jesus paid our price of rebellion. But the great news is that God loves us even though we continually rebel against Him. So He came to Earth as a person, Jesus, to save us from ourselves. He paid our price of rebellion by being tortured and killed on a cross 2,000 years ago. He paid that price for all people, everywhere. He loves us so much that He died to bring us back into a relationship with God so that not only will we not be punished, but we’ll get to be His children again and experience life in the best way possible.

4. We can reject His love. But we can choose to reject that love. We can choose that we’d rather live whatever way we want to, or that we don’t believe it, or that we’ve got better things to do. If we do that, God will have to punish us. No matter if we ever seek God out or not, doing nothing is still rejecting His free gift. He wants to be with us, but there’s nothing He can do if we refuse His love.

5. We can accept His love. But we can also choose that we do need God, and that we want to accept the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. We can choose to trust in that sacrifice and trust that God knows what’s best for us. If we do that we can not only be forgiven for our rebellion, but we can then experience life in the most fulfilling way possible. This love is free for anyone who wants it, no matter what bad decisions they’ve made in their lives. It’s not about being a better person, but understanding that none of us are good people, and that only Jesus’ sacrifice can make us into good people. God loves us so much that He desperately wants us to accept His love, but we can also choose to reject it. He loves you very much, and He wants to be with you. He is wanting for you to choose Him.

Harry Potter and Spirituality

I just finished reading the 7th Harry Potter book. I know I'm a little late on the scene, but what an amazing piece of literature. Good writing makes you feel like you're there, and the Harry Potter series definitely succeeds at that. I started reading because I was watching too much tv, and I wanted something more productive for relaxation. I actually feel really good after reading the series, kind of encouraged in my spiritual walk. Maybe that sounds strange, but I think just about anything can bring you closer to God if you approach it right.

I guess there's been a lot of religious debate over the series, since it uses words like "magic" and "witchcraft." However, if you've read the books you know that the kind of witchcraft presented is not near the kind the Bible is against. It's not about some kind of religion, but fantasy. In that way it's no different from Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings, both authors being professed Christians. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, also claims to be a practicing Christian, and some Christian themes come out especially in the last book.

I got several things out of the series. First, I love the picture of Dumbledore in the books. He is the representation of wisdom and good, who eventually dies on purpose in order to help extinguish evil (sound familiar?). Like the lion Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia, the fictional character has two characteristics that paint, in some ways, a representation of God's nature. First he is strong and wise, his power demanding respect from everyone he encounters, even from the most vile characters in the book. But he is also a loving character, well-liked. He takes special interest in Harry, later on showing much trust in him and being open with his affections. God also carries these two qualities seamlessly: love and power. He demands respect by His power, creating worlds by mere words. But we also see Him hugging lepers, and letting people beat, mock, and belittle Him in order to save mankind. I love this about God, that He is supreme and approachable both.

I also love that in the book, the main characters are some of the most unlikely to do great things. Harry is an orphan who was treated badly by his aunt and uncle, and he doesn't show particular talent in most areas. He seems to be an unassuming teenager struggling with identity and relationships and other things that most people can relate to. But this concept (the unassuming becoming heroes and saving people) was not thought up by Rowling first. God has always worked that way. The Old Testament is full of such stories. I think immediately of Gideon, very young and from an obscure family. He goes on to lead Israel in victorious battles. I think of Amos, a seemingly random farmer and shepherd from the country, whom God uses to confront a nation. "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty." Most people love the idea of weak people doing great things, but I believe that's because God wrote it into us to love it, because that's how He works.

And finally, I love the idea of another world, an enchanting and magical world. This alone, I think, has made the world of Harry Potter so alluring and interesting to millions of readers. People love the idea of other worlds, whether it be the idea of aliens and other planets or from pure fiction. The Lord of the Rings and many other fantasy stories are enchanting, because they appeal to a part of our soul that God made to feel wonder and be curious about something beyond what we are experiencing. C.S. Lewis said, "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." And, of course, we were. This world is not meant to be the end. Mankind was made to be with God, to live on in eternity. God built in us that desire, which excites us even on a fictional level. If authors can think up such interesting and engaging worlds by their own imagination, imagine what the real world will be like thought up by the God who created imagination itself?

Less Theologians, More Disciples

I've been thinking for quite some time about this topic. What is it God wants me to be? What exactly is a Christian? What should my goals be? What makes someone great in the Kingdom of God? What makes someone a "mature" Christian?

Our religious world is eaten up with study. We love it. The Evangelical world today is a largely academic one. We have degrees in theological studies, Biblical studies, divinity, and loads of others. Even much of what we do when we gather together is sit and learn. We listen to someone speak on Sundays and we sit in classes. We are encouraged to "study" our Bibles.

I'm not saying all this is evil. I am saying that religious academics don't necessarily produce better Christians. In many cases it may actually create worse ones. It's amazing how much we love learning but hate doing.

I go to an official Bible school, and when I'm finished I will receive a bachelor's in Biblical studies (which I am grateful for). But with an academic approach to the Scriptures comes certain tendencies of thinking. I once heard a fellow student say, "I wonder what I need to study and how much I need to know before I become a great theologian." I've wondered a lot since then how God felt about that statement. I'm sure this person had good intentions and today wouldn't say that again, but I couldn't help but feel bothered by that statement. "I want to become a theologian. I want to have all the right answers." That was his goal. What does God want me to want? To know as much religiously as possible? Or to become as much like Jesus as possible?

Society today holds academic achievement in the highest regard. Some parents will absolutely lose it if their children even consider not going to college. But academic achievement means nothing in the Kingdom of God. In His Kingdom we are to be like little children who only want to make our Father happy. We need not understand His commands because we are too concerned with obeying them. It's amazing to me how Churches' requirements for ministry positions are religious degrees, and on top of that they pay them more the more they know. Does having more degrees make you a better minister? I'm not saying it doesn't, I'm just not saying it does. The fact that I could be a complete scoundrel but have a doctorate in divinity should tell me something about credentials in the Kingdom of Christ.

I know that there is a certain amount of academics needed in Christianity. But we are called to be followers of Jesus, not scholars of Him. While knowledge and study may better equip and stimulate our obedience, it's still a means to an end. The end is to be a devoted and loving follower of Jesus Christ. Knowing Him and His commands make that clearer, but they aren't the thing itself. There are far too many of us who know plenty about God, but know Him personally no more than we could personally know a textbook.

Filled minds do not produce spirituality.

Knowledge is a dangerous thing when it comes to God. It killed the Pharisees, and it's killing us. It's a strange thing, isn't it? To make ourselves somehow superior by having knowledge we received but did not create. Anything I know about God or His Bible I know because He let me know it. How can I feel arrogant or more mature because I learned something? The essence of learning is submitting yourself to something higher than yourself. You are taking in something that you did not make.

My primary goal in life is to be a devoted follower of Jesus in every aspect of my life. I want to have His priorities, His heart, His way of thinking, the identity He wants me to have, and everything else in my life that needs to be affected by Him. Good theology creates that. But if my study isn't increasing my discipleship to Jesus, why am I doing it?

I am convinced that the Church needs more disciples, and less theologians. Jesus' final call was to go into all the world and make more disciples. Good disciples may make good theologians, but good theologians don't always make good disciples.

Holiness?

I've been thinking about holiness a lot lately. The word literally just means to be different. Christians are to be different, separate in quality, from the way this world is run.

Have you noticed how we tend to mark our spirituality or holiness by how we are in comparison to other people? Even non-Christians do this. If you start talking about God, Jesus, and sin people tend to have this common response: "Well I haven't killed anyone. I'm a decent person, and I try to do the right thing" as if them "trying to do the right thing" should merit entrance to Heaven.

It really is a silly idea when you think about it. In response to utter perfection, the God of the entire Universe, the One who gave us a mind to think about right and wrong at all, we have told Him that we actually have something to offer Him. It's like letting someone borrow 20 bucks and them getting all excited, thinking they've earned it. Then, after they've paid you back, wanting some kind of congratulations or gratitude because they gave you what was yours in the first place.

But we can't even give God a cent back. We use the verse a lot that says "for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." But I'm not sure we always realize how big a deal this really is. God created us to love Him, obey Him, and stay in fellowship with Him. But every time we sin we tell Him, "I really don't like your way right now. My way is better." The very fact that God forgives any of us at all is a testament to His unlimited love and grace. To say we don't deserve forgiveness is a gross understatement.

When you understand how big of a deal sin is, you understand just how amazing grace is. Religion is doing good works to earn merit, but that's not Christianity. We're all totally lost and in the same boat, but Jesus came to bring us all forgiveness. There is no such thing as a good person outside of Christ.

Moving on to Christians, I tend to still think the way the world does about this. As long as I'm more active or faithful than the person next to me, I'm doing good. And if I have higher moral standards than the world around me, I'm doing really well. But God didn't just call me to become better, but new altogether.

This world has been completely ruined by sin. Our way of thinking and doing life is completely flawed. So, when we come into Christ, it is not an improvement He's after but an utter renewal. It is a complete tearing down of the ruin, and a rebuilding of what we were meant to be in the first place.

I wish I thought this way all the time. I'm amazed at some of the movies we allow ourselves to watch as Christians, or the amount of time we just completely waste on ourselves. We even have one holiday a year when (in the name of Jesus) we spend large quantities of money on an overflow of materialism. There's a load of other things that we accept as good in our culture that trickles into our standards as Christians.

Are we comparing ourselves to God, or to the world around us?

I mean, just think about one area alone. How much do we laugh at sin? Tons of TV shows (that are completely culturally acceptable) lay waste to God's name and proudly glorify sin as a source for laughter and entertainment.

How do we expect to save people from a devil's Hell when we laugh at the very things that send them there?

I'm not trying to be legalistic here. I'm not saying we need to be mean Christian nazis who constantly look down on others for their standards and actions. But we do need to look inwardly. What are we honestly basing our standards on? What in the Bible have we completely overlooked and excused away because we just don't want to deal with it?

Renewal isn't an easy thing, especially in our pleasure-centered culture. America is all about you. You deserve happiness. You deserve lots of money and a comfortable job. You deserve retirement. You deserve a pretty spouse, and if they aren't pleasing you, you deserve to get a new one. Life is about you.

But this stands in complete contradiction to the Bible. Life isn't about us. It's about God. We're not even close to being the point. The Bible is not about people being saved. It's about God's name being glorified, and He is good. He is the point of life, and we are so privileged to enter into Him, to be friends with Him.

What in our lives is comfortable, but not holy? In what way have we been comparing ourselves to others, instead of looking up? What does pursuing holiness look like in our culture? If we're trying to be like Jesus, what needs to be removed from our lives? What do we need to be practicing?

Intentional Mentoring - Part 3

How To Mark Your Mentoree's Spiritual Progress

This is the final of my three-part post on intentional mentoring. This is in no way exhaustive, but I do hope it gives you some tools and thoughts in how to disciple another person.

When you're mentoring someone it can be difficult to know if they're growing or not, and if you're doing a good job. There's four main things I try to keep in mind to encourage in them. I try to encourage these things in whatever context I'm with them in: relaxation, Bible study, service, or ordinary life.

1. Understanding - This may be the most important. When I'm mentoring someone I need to make sure they're understanding the things of God. Do they really get what the Gospel is about and how it applies to them? Do they understand who God is? Do they understand what it looks like to live for Christ? Do they see what God is doing in this world, and how they're a piece in that puzzle? Do they have a clear understanding of the Bible? If the answer to any of these are no, I know what to focus on in our studies.

2. Action - Once someone understands the concepts of the Bible, it's vitally important to make sure they're living lives that reflect this understanding. Are they serving others? Are they kind in speech? Do they love other people? Do they genuinely care for how other people are doing? Do they hold lives of integrity based on their love for Jesus? Are they praying and reading their Bible on their own? Are they sharing their faith with others? Are they taking the things we're studying and trying to match their lives with it? What am I doing as a mentor to encourage them to live like Christ practically? Am I modeling this? If the answer to any of these is no, then I have something to talk to them about. I may even have to specifically show them what living like Christ looks like (like, "hey follow me, watch as I genuinely listen to what this person has to say before I answer them.")

3. Desire - I also want to make sure that this person is not just understanding the facts about God and applying them, but that it also reaches their heart. This is a real intangible one, and can be really difficult to know how to encourage. Some people just aren't emotional people, and that doesn't make them less spiritual. But do they have a deep desire and conviction to love God and please Him? Is my teaching and example stimulating this desire or choking it? When they are excited about something about God (even if you find it immature or incorrect) try to encourage their excitement. Zeal is a good thing, because you can then direct it at falling in love with Jesus and living committed to Him.

4. Following your example - I want to see that someone I'm mentoring is actually trying to follow my example. If they're not, I have to ask myself what kind of example I am leading. Can I really tell them like Paul did, "imitate me as I imitate Christ"? This can look like a lot of different things. One of the guys I was mentoring started to take on my teaching style, and it would have been really easy for me to poke fun at him for not being original or something. But instead I rejoiced that he looked up to me enough that he wanted to be like me. Mentoring is trying to bring someone closer to Jesus as you're trying to get closer to Jesus, so it's good if they're trying to be where you are.

I hope these things help stimulate some thought about discipleship for you. I'd love to hear any of your thoughts if you're willing to share them.

Program-based to Discipleship-focused

Paul asked me to share my opinion about how a youth ministry could transition from being program-based to being discipleship-focused. Let me first say that my ideas are completely theoretical since I have almost no full-time ministry experience in the States. So take it for what it's worth.

First of all, I would like to define terms a little better. I think it should actually be program-focused to people-focused. Because here's the deal: with programs you're successful as long as (a) you have lots of programs and (b) people are showing up. But when you're focused on people, your ministry is only successful if people are becoming more like Jesus.

In most current models, you can come to church and be "involved" all your life and never experience any actual spiritual growth at all. And worst of all, no one will even notice. One Sunday night in a large congregation I ended up talking to an elderly woman who had been coming all her life. When I mentioned I might like to go to Mexico to do mission work she said something like, "all those people want is your money." Here was a woman who came to church all her life but hadn't made it past step 1 of the Gospel. She was still racist for goodness' sake! Something's wrong with what we're doing if you can call a ministry successful when a large majority remain untransformed by the Gospel.

Moving on to youth ministry, you may not like my ideas. Anyway, here's my four steps for transitioning.

1. Get everyone on board. You can't press forward with anything in a church until the congregation understands what's going on and why. Spend some time teaching and preaching about the nature of the church, as well as the problems with what we've turned church structure into. Explain that the church is a family, and that quality matters more than quantity. Then explain that in light of these facts we will have to change (ow, the church cuss word) the structure to make our church more like what God wants.
2. Integrate the ages. Separating people by race has been somewhat abolished (we still have white and black churches) but we have completely segregated churches by age. Youth are basically in their own church, and we have classes divided up into 20s, 30s, young marrieds, 40s and so on. In our culture youth are raising themselves with almost no adult influence whatsoever. What should be the solution? Kill the youth ministry. It's not healthy. Stop separating everyone by age and move people together. The Church is a family, but we don't act like one, and neither do we gather like one. Classes, small groups, and fun activities should be mixing ages and not segregating them.
3. Impress on parents their responsibility for their childrens' spiritual growth, then give them the tools to do it. In our culture we have handed off virtually every aspect of parenting to "trained professionals." Right or wrong, when it comes to education on science, history, English, math, and so on we have brought them to a school for other people to do it. We teach them sports by enrolling them in leagues. And we train them in spirituality by handing them off to youth ministers. But God has given that role to parents. Regardless of what we do with science and sports, It is the parents' responsibility to impart the glory of God to their children. Parents are the youth ministers in God's eyes, regardless of what we have paid other people to do. However, in my experience many parents are clueless in how to parent their children, let alone disciple them. They need to be trained in godly parenting and discipleship.
4. Facilitate times when the older are with the younger in smaller numbers. Though parents have the primary responsibility of imparting the glory of God to their children, some people don't have godly parents. The Church can be that family, full of acceptance and an adopting spirit. I am so thankful that people have adopted me in the faith, welcoming me to their homes and sharing their lives with me. We should facilitate times where the older can impart their wisdom, transparent faith, and lives to the younger. This doesn't mean that the older are perfect, just more experienced. Whether its Life Transformation Groups, small groups, or assigned mentors, this should be pursued. You are hindered in growing in your faith if you're never around those with more maturity than yourself.

Our culture has failed miserably at the older imparting wisdom to the younger. For example, my dad has built houses all his life. He can build a house from the ground up, and in fact he's done it many times. But guess what? I couldn't build a house to save my life. I didn't learn building homes by osmosis, like just being around my dad would make me a skilled builder. I have to be taught. So you know what? His building skills will likely die with him. They won't continue because he hasn't passed them down.

What about handing down living for Christ? We have done exactly the same thing. We have largely focused on our private spiritual growth, but we must be concerned about the next generation. Have we learned nothing from Israel? How could a generation rise up that "did not know the LORD" so quickly? The people of God did not pass down and invest in the next generation, and we are doing exactly the same thing today. The worst part is that our own church structure actually promotes this.

Youth go on camps, have devotionals, classes and everything else with almost no adults present. There are some adults who go along with these things, but in my experience these are usually the ones who never grew up anyway. They're trying to "relate" to the kids, and so are not helping them mature at all. They're just gaining from the kids' immaturity.

We need godly men and women who will invest time in their own children first: training them to be disciples of Jesus Christ. And we need churches that don't just focus on evangelizing the outside, but making real Christians of the people who are already there. We need churches that adopt their own in the faith with all the love and adoption the Gospel creates.

"We were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory." - Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12

Intentional Mentoring - Part 2

Finding Someone to Disciple/Mentor

In Luke 8 Jesus tells a story about soils. A man throws out seed which falls on the various soils, some on the path and were taken up by birds, some on a rock that died without root or moisture, some fell among thorns and the plant choked and died. Then there was the seed that landed on good soil and yielded crop a hundredfold what was put into it.

Now, in this story the seed is the Word of God. And the different soils are the hearts of men. Some have bad hearts, which will either reject God's Word altogether or hold onto it for a little while before getting distracted, bored, or overwhelmed with the world. So there's bad hearts that won't accept the Word of God, but some... some will accept it and put out a hundredfold what you put into it.

Which one do you think is the best candidate for you to mentor?

I want to share with you how I go about looking for the good soil that is worth investing time into.

The first thing to do is to start praying that God leads you to someone with a good heart whom you can influence. A good heart doesn't equal a good person. In fact, people who have a lot of visible sin in their lives sometimes have great hearts. They don't pretend like the most of us have learned to do. A good heart is just one that deep down wants to change, and who will accept God's Word when it's presented in a way that makes sense to them.

These are the two primary things I'm looking for when looking for someone to mentor:

• Interest in Spirituality - Notice again from John 4 that Jesus brought up something spiritual, and the woman at the well responded with spiritual questions. I use this same method when feeling people out to see who might be receptive. Bring up spiritual things (not forced) often and see who responds. This is my way of throwing out the seed to see what happens. Even if at first they don't respond, keep praying and talking about God-things. For example, for someone I'm mentoring now, I taught class and he came up to me afterwards wanting to talk about atheism. It wasn't an in-depth discussion by any means, but it showed me he had spiritual interest.
  

• Interest in You - It doesn't really matter if someone is interested in spiritual things but they're not interested in you. If they don't trust and respect you, they'll likely not want to meet with you, nor will they listen to what you have to say about life. There's lots of ways you can connect with people, though. In 1 Corinthians 9 Paul talks about "becoming all things to all men." Study that passage. You can connect to others without giving up your identity, integrity, or convictions. For example, one of the guys I'm mentoring now was obviously looking for a role model. He likes converse, and when he saw my converse glasses he thought they were the coolest thing in the world. Well, I used that. That was an entrance into a growing friendship with him. We were friends before we ever studied together.
  

You really need both of these to mentor someone. The bottom line is that you can't disciple someone who doesn't want to be discipled. If someone is interested in the spiritual but you two don't connect, you're going to have a really hard time mentoring them. Become friends first, no matter how long it takes. If they're interested in you but not the spiritual, use that. Be transparent about your walk with Jesus and spiritual thoughts. Eventually they will either lose interest in you, or you'll influence them to start thinking about important things in life.

Let me just add that at this point I'm usually not concerned with if someone's a "Christian" or not. Most "Christians" don't read their Bibles or think spiritually anyway. Just focus on their heart and you can help them along to Christ, wherever they are in relation to Him. It's easy if you're looking for it.

Once you've found someone you think God has led to you, invite them out to coffee, dinner, or to your home. I'll often ask about their lives and share some about my own, and especially what led to me becoming a Christian. Then I'll ask if they'd like to start meeting (weekly or every other week) and studying the Bible together. Sometimes they're not ready for that. Not a problem. Just keep praying that their heart will be opened, and keep trying to influence them for Christ.

A general rule for me is that I only mentor guys who are younger than me. There's just too many problems in mentoring a female, namely the high risk of her building an unhealthy attachment to me. You can usually find a godly woman who will mentor a girl anyway.

These are just the basics I know, but hopefully this will help give you an idea of some things to keep in mind when looking for someone to mentor.