Are We Trying to Change the World?

I am intrigued by a new book by James Davison Hunter called To Change the Word: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. I just read a summary of the book and an interview with Hunter in Christianity Today (May 2010). He argues that the common evangelical goal of changing the world or transforming the culture is not really the goal of the church. Furthermore, even if it were, the current strategy of the church to do so will not work because it is built on a misunderstanding of how culture works.

Instead of culture being derived from ideas and culture only (the common views), it is also built upon “elites, networks, technology, and new institutions.” Hunter argues that the church depends too heavily upon politics in its current attempt to influence the world. Instead, the strategy of the church for cultural engagement is what Hunter calls “faithful presence.” The goals of this engagement is to make disciples and serve the common good.

The interview with Hunter was very impressive. He seems to have a good understanding of culture and addresses many of the issues of mainline Christian cultural engagement that I have been uncertain about. I look forward to reading this.

Does Family Integrated Church Work?

Our church, Highland Christian Fellowship, is “family integrated.” This means that when we meet as a body on Sundays and Wednesdays, we meet as families, with all ages present. There are unique challenges and benefits to this approach.

During homegroup on Wednesday night at our house, we had a discussion on male/female relationships, especially in the context of how young unmarried people relate to one another. My friend, Clarke Kennedy, wrote me this email reflecting on the discussion:

I thought the discussion last night was FABULOUS!   What a joy and a privilege to see our church working in the way it is.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like what happened last night.  A family-integrated church, with children of all ages, all the way up to young adults and then the older adults, all in a discussion of purity and holiness and appropriate ways of relating to the opposite gender, while being fairly explicit about what is acceptable and not acceptable, and yet doing it in a way that the young children could still be there an not be exposed to ideas beyond their capacity to process.  I think one way this can be done is just by using biblical language, which is usually quite clear, but in a way that is not needlessly offensive, and that even children can hear, and yet grow into their understanding of it over time.

One of the weaknesses I had feared in a family oriented church was that the young people, such as the teenagers who face these kinds of issues in very aggressive and direct ways would not be able to hear truth about these issues because of the presence of the younger ones.  What happened last night proved that this is not a problem, and in fact I thought it had tremendous power to have the older adults and the married adults speak from their own experiences into the lives of the younger unmarrieds, so as to say “Look, I’ve made mistakes..I wish I had known…here’s a better way.”  Wow! This church design is more powerful than I realized, and I guess I’ve just never seen a church like ours before, so I’ve never seen it work, and didn’t know if or how it would work in these areas.

I just think of the strength that this will give these young people, when they think of these kinds of meetings, with older role models, spiritual family members, counseling them, and loving them, and speaking truth to them, right there with their parents in the room!  It must give a tremendous sense of strength and courage and fortitude to these younger adults when they are facing the pressures of their own flesh and the lies of the world to stand strong, thinking of all that they have heard and seen and felt from their close-knit spiritual family.  THIS IS POWERFUL!  AMEN!  GOD IS DOING AN AMAZING WORK AMONG US!

Submission in Ministry

I just uploaded the final part in the teaching series from 1 Corinthians 16:5-18 on Doing the Work of the Lord. This section is from vv. 15-18 and establishes the principles that as we all engage in the Lord’s work, we are to submit to others who are doing the Lord’s work. This message provides an opportunity to review the biblical bases for submission and principle from the text reveals the priority of ministry of the Gospel in the church. You can listen to or download the message from the audio player on the right.

Interviewed by a Homeschooler

Emma Curtis, one of the students in our local home school association (High Country Christian Home Schoolers), e-mail interviewed me for their online publication. Here are the questions and my answers:

1) How long have you been homeschooling?  Six years

2) Do you have any tips for new homeschoolers that plan to have large families?

We recommend selecting a curriculum that allows you to teach some subjects to several grade levels at once. We use My Father’s World. We are able to teach Bible, History, Vocabulary, Art, and Science to our three oldest together (5^th, 4^th, and 2^nd grades). This is not only efficient for the parents, but it gives us more of a group learning experience with more dialogue and learning from the other students. Although they are studying the same basic subject, they are allowed to work at their own levels.

I would assume that a large family full of undisciplined, selfish consumers would be quite miserable. The only way it is possible to have a large family and a peaceful home is for each family member to see himself or herself as a productive part of a team. It is important to establish a culture of service, strong relationships, kindness, and shared purpose.

3) What are the Christian principles that your family embraces most?

The purpose of our family is to love God, love people, and make disciples. This is not unique, of course. We believe that is God’s purpose for all believers, families and churches. As I mentioned in the last question, having such a purpose is one of the keys to having a productive, peaceful home. All other principles, guidelines, or questions fall somewhere under these goals.

4) What are some of the greatest triumphs and trials our family experienced while planting a new church in Boone?

The greatest trial of our experience in starting Highland Christian Fellowship was working through significant theological and practical difference with other believers. This can be hard at two levels. First is when such difference are dealt with wrongly, without humility, patience, and love. Second is when such differences cannot be resolved, even when dealt with rightly. We have learned that it is important to discern between primary and secondary issues of faith. There are comparatively few primary issues of faith that must be met for Christian fellowship. In general, I’m afraid the Church often makes too much of secondary issues.

The greatest triumph of our experience has been the tremendous spiritual growth of everyone involved. Many of us have seen the last few years as providing the most significant spiritual growth in our lives. Now that we are established, our hope is that the greatest triumph will be that God uses us powerfully to see the lives of others transformed by the love and truth of Christ.

Download: The Authority of Church Elders in the NT

I have had quite a few requests for a complete copy of my dissertation, The Authority of Church Elders in the New Testament. You can now download a pdf of the whole work here:

The Authority of Church Elders in the New Testament