by Marc Buxton | Sep 24, 2009 | General
The traditional view of the church is that it is distinct from the world as standing over against it and is intended to transform it. And by traditional I mean biblical.
I have been tossing this idea around in my brain for a few weeks, and I wanted to begin the conversation on it. This will be of special interest to those of you in ministry (or training to be in ministry), but is certainly applicable to all Christians. The issue is this: what is the church? what should the church look like? what should it do? This is not going to be a deep theological discussion (maybe later), but rather a treatment of the modern tendency to view the church from a pragmatic standpoint.
There is a growing trend, rooted in praxis theology, that is changing the traditional view of church as mentioned above. In the Scriptures, the church is to be a “city set on a hill” (Matt 5:14) and the pillar and ground of truth (I Tim 3:15). The church is supposed to be a light source – a lighthouse. It is to stand in the darkness as a representative to the world of righteousness, justice, peace, and love.
Andy Stanley (one of my favorites) started Northpoint as a “church for unchurched”. Every church should have a special emphasis on bringing lost friends to church. But it is when this idea gets taken too far that there is a problem.
Here is my fear: our churches have become so focused on attracting seekers, that we have lost the realization of who we are supposed to be, traditionally. Evangelist Junior Hill said he saw a sign for a “church for people who don’t like church”. A what? It is this mentality that leads to, in essence, an integration of anything (and everything) of pragmatic appeal. To use the illustration, we have turned off our city hill light so as not to alarm anyone passing by down below….
But the strength of the church is not it’s ability to appeal to the world. It appears that many churches want their visitors (and members) to have the attitude – “hey this is just like out there, but they do it better in here”. Whatever “it” happens to be at the moment, we try to emulate that. The strength of the church, however, is that we hold the truth – the light of the gospel. And it is this light that attracts those whom the Father is calling….
by Marc Buxton | Sep 14, 2009 | Time Management
Ok…ok….8:30 – 5:30….that’s my schedule that I am trying to stick to now for work and related things. Maybe you are like me – you could work on your work 24/7, because you love what you do. I love the fact that one of my main textbooks for my seminary classes is my Bible. I love that I am spending time each day developing the ministry that God is leading me in. And I love the fact that I get to incorporate my love of illusion into some of my work. I could work all day, and I used to do that. This time last year, I would literally spend every waking moment working on something. Because if I wasn’t working, I was wasting time and that was no good. I did not watch TV, I didn’t read much for pure enjoyment, and I definitely didn’t take naps. I was the exact opposite of George on Seinfeld during his “Summer of George”.
So after I got married earlier this year, I began to realize that some things needed to change. God began to teach me about the importance of rest. Somewhere along the lines, those of us in ministry have bought into the Corporate American ideal that if you aren’t ‘doing” something then you are wasting your time. But in Mark 6:31, Christ acknowledges the importance of some “down time”. He takes the apostles away into the desert to get some rest. In fact, rest was very important to Jesus. Remember how he slept in the boat before and during the storm? This was also a case of “pre-meditated” rest. Jesus didn’t just “doze off” in the boat, he went into a covered section of the ship, found a “pillow”, and got some rest (Mark 4).
In light of all of this truth about rest, my wife and I had a conversation last week. I had been thinking about the dangers of my 24/7 mindset: the dangers to our family, to my health, and our relationship with others. Here is our solution: Working from home most of the day AND having a laptop allows me to always be “in the office” if I want too (NOT a good thing). So we have decided that I will work from whatever time I start in the morning (usually around 8:30) and I will end at 5:30. After 5:30, I don’t touch the computer for work purposes. Sure, there is always more that can be done. But that’s the issue: there’s always more to be done. Somewhere in all this work we have to learn to draw the line in the sand, retreat into the desert, fall asleep in the hull of the ship, and spend time with the ones we love. And put the iPhone on silent. More thoughts later…
by Marc Buxton | Sep 10, 2009 | Book Review, Prayer
I recently read a volume of work by E. M. Bounds on prayer entitled “Necessity of Prayer”. I encourage you to take the time to read over some of it. The work is lengthy, but well worth the effort.
Click here to download it free as a pdf. Or buy it here on Amazon: The Necessity of Prayer
The piece is at once revealing, convicting, inspiring, and telling. It is a work on true prayer that, upon initial encounter, is deeper than other books concerning the same. It is revealing in the fact that Bounds covers much theological ground in handling the subject of prayer. This task in itself reveals the mystery and deepness of true biblical prayer. Bounds discusses faith, perseverance, righteous living, the house of God and more – all centered around a Christian’s prayer life. It is convicting, as we will see in a moment, in that the truth that he uncovers applies instantly to any Christian reading it who has any spiritual pulse at all.
It is also convicting to read that a mere man writes (and presumably lived) this way. To have a full understanding of these things he addresses means that he has worked them out himself in the battlefield that is the Christian life. This is not a theoretical thesis from a fresh grad student – this volume is wisdom in print. It is inspiring, however, in that Bounds does not leave us destitute on the roadside along his straight path to righteousness. He stops and picks us up and points the way, so that we too can experience this awesome prayer life he speaks to us of.
Lastly, it is telling in that a majority of the evangelical Christian population today would not comprehend the content of Mr. Bound’s work, much less be inspired to attain to it, having understood its biblical relevance.
There is too much information to cover in detail, or even at a distance, for that matter. So, I will be selective. I trust that the material I provide will inspire you to read or re-read the work, if you have already done so. In the first section of the paper, Bounds tackles the notion of faith and prayer, and their relation.
When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are, in a measure, shutting tomorrow out of our prayer. We do not live in tomorrow but in today.”
His assertion here is that the biblical teaching is to attend to things of today and not to worry about what will happen tomorrow. If we spend time praying for tomorrow’s needs today, and God knows of our need and was going to provide when the time came, our prayers were in essence “unnecessary and redundant”. Food for thought.
Later in the volume, Bounds addresses issue of sincerity in prayer. He speaks specifically of desire and its relation to our prayers:
Desire goes before prayer, and by it, created and intensified. Prayer is the oral expression of desire. If prayer is asking God for something, then prayer must be expressed. Prayer comes out into the open. Desire is silent. Prayer is heard; desire, unheard. The deeper the desire, the stronger the prayer. Without desire, prayer is a meaningless mumble of words.
The truth here is self-evident for any Christian: prayer without sincerity is dead. We ask God for what we have need of, and those needs come from our desires for our lives. This work by E. M. Bounds is full of similar spiritual truths and insights. It is bolstered by the fact that he references Scripture as his guide throughout. Sadly, these truths and similar ones are the farthest thing from many of our minds for many of our days. We have become a generation focused on quick information, when the truths to be found, like those concerning prayer, require patience, long-suffering, and diligence.
by Marc Buxton | Aug 28, 2009 | General
When is the last time someone accused you of being crazy? I maintain that everyone has some insane tendencies, but when was the last time that someone considered your commitment to and witness about our Lord Jesus insanity? If you can remember an instance, you would be in good company.
When he spoke of Christ, the Apostle Paul was accused of being insane by those who didn’t know him (Acts 26:24). Even better than that, Jesus himself was accused of insanity by his friends (Mark 3:21).
Is your witness that bold? Are you willing to let it be?
Don’t sugar coat the gospel and what Christ has done for you – share Him boldly today, among enemies and friends.
by Marc Buxton | Aug 25, 2009 | General
Just watched a short talk by Andy Stanley on clarity vs. confusion. We often think they are related, but they are not. Just because you may be confused about HOW something is going to work out in your life (or, rather, how God will work it out) doesn’t mean that you cannot be clear on WHAT He has asked you to do. He may have given you a full time ministry and a vision for it, or He may have given you a family to care for, or He may want you to spend some more time in His Word each morning. Whatever the task is, don’t worryabout the how; act on the what. God will make it possible if you step out in faith.
ur 2-do 4 2-day: Act.
