by Marc Buxton | | 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 | | 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 | | 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.
by Marc Buxton | | General
I know the cool thing to do would have been to post this in July….thereby giving the post a catchier title. But…I didn’t come across this website until just now, and it is August already, unfortunately. Timeliness aside, this website answers a question that I think a lot of Christians struggle with: how do we make Christmas meaningful AND fun? We know about keeping Christ in Christmas, and that He is the real “reason for the season”. But there’s also nothing wrong with celebrating with family, friends, presents, and parties. At first glance, the folks at Advent Conspiracy have come up with a very good answer to this dilemma.
Now that I have a family of my own, I am more aware of the importance of creating a Christ honoring Christmas tradition. I am going to think about this take on things some more over the coming weeks, and I encourage you to do the same….
http://www.adventconspiracy.org/
ur 2-d0 4 2-day: re-think for upcoming December traditions in August
by Marc Buxton | | General
So much of our world today is results driven. We have sales quotas at work to meet. When we throw a party, it had better be a good time. And is that automatic carwash really cleaning anything at all? Results. We are driven to require, expect, and deliver them. And pushing for results often leads to one thing: anxiety.
A fear of not meeting expectations of yourself or others is a common problem and is deterrent for being all you can be all the time. Unfortunately, this results=anxiety formula often spills over into our spiritual lives. If you are living to serve God, you want to accomplish things for Him. If you are actively serving Him, you may be anxious about seeing (or not seeing) certain results. But there is nothing to worry about here.
God promises that we will be successful for Him – IF we follow His prescription. In Psalm 1:1-3 it says that if we meditate on God’s Word that God will bless us, and whatever we do will be prosperous. He promises that we will produce (spiritual) fruit – no question about it. What a promise!
Now, this verse does not teach that if you read God’s Word you will be able to try whatever business venture you want and have the Midas touch. There is an important principle here. If we are meditating on God’s Word, and delighting (verse 2) in God’s Word, the desires of our heart will become His desires (Psalm 37:4). We will want to prosper – for God!
So there you have it – a promise that takes all of the anxiety out of ministry. Seek God and delight in His Word, and He will use you to produce fruit and further His Kingdom!
Meditate on His Word. Serve. Expect Results.
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by Marc Buxton | | General
I was driving home this weekend, and I began noticing the front of people’s cars. On the front of most cars here in America is a spot for what we call “vanity plates”. Whoever gave the name to this craze was right on the money. A good definition of vanity is “something worthless, trivial, or pointless”. Most vanity plates consist of sports team logos, business emblems, products, etc. Some people actually just leave the plate on from the dealer where they bought the car. I, for one, do not understand this one. Did they have such a good experience at the car lot that they want to tell everyone about it 24/7? To each his own.
I’m not knocking them altogether by the way – I have one myself. But what people put on their vanity plates really says a lot about what they care about, what they spend their time and money on. Some people doget religious with them, starting with the “God is my co-pilot” craze of the 1980’s. It wasn’t long before some astute auto-theologians corrected this blunder with “God is my PILOT”. Touche Mr. Co-pilot.
But I couldn’t help but think as I drove, how much time we spend on all these things that are represented on our vanity plates, and how much better our lives and our world might be if we spent that time with God and our families instead. Vanity plates, indeed….
