I recently discovered another blogger in my ICOC family of Churches. His site is pinakidion.com I’m not sure what that means, but I’m glad I found his site. He has been wrestling with much of the same things I have over the last year or two. He’ll make it onto the links at the left in the coming days.
I’ve been going through his old posts and came across this post from a couple of weeks ago about ‘God-Thinking Theology’. In it he talks about how Barnabas’ vouching for Saul is what led to his acceptance in Jeruselem, not anything Saul did to prove himself. In fact, any attempt by Saul to prove himself would have probably backfired. Barnabas is one of my favorite NT characters because of how he stood up for Saul like he did. He didn’t have to and he had little to gain in doing so.
Pinakidion’s point is that just as Barnabas was Saul’s advocate before men, Jesus is our advocate before God. And just as Barnabas eliminated the need for Saul to prove himself before the apostles, Jesus means we have nothing to prove to anyone. God accepts us because Jesus vouches for us. Go read his post, it’s very good.
Category: God and Church
Quiet Times
Justin at RC posted a lament today about his lack of consistency in his Quiet Time.
I wrote about this subject a while ago, here. I used to get so guilted out if I missed a daily reading or two. It was liberating to come to the realization that there’s nothing magic or required about a daily Bible study or prayer, at least the daily part. God doesn’t demand a certain schedule on getting into His word.
But that liberation can be paralyzing as well. If you check here you’ll see that I haven’t posted a quiet time entry since July. There’s a simple reason for that, I haven’t had one. Oh, I’ve been in my Bible sporadically for s topical research or something, but a time to just open up the Bible and read to see what God will reveal to me? Nope.
Lately I find that I don’t have the desire to just sit down and read. Since no one is going to ask me about whether I did or not, I don’t. I think that this is one of those times where a structure and accountability can be helpful. What if I knew that someone was going to ask me about it or would be looking for my post on my QT that day? I think that I would do it more, sometimes out of fear of confrontation, but I don’t think I’d regret the accountability if it kept me in the word and I was learning and growing closer to God.
I bet there are more like Justin and I out there. So here’s my idea. What if we consistency-challenged bloggers paired up? We could have a commitment to God to get into our Bibles on a regular basis. For me I’d like to see a minimum of 3 times a week. We would publish our notes on our weblog and the we’d also watch out for those posts on the other’s weblog. If we did not see it happening we could gently challenge the other to keep up with their commitment. A little accountability in the blogscape. Anyone game to this sort of thing? I for one could use the help.
What is Salvation?
Note: This is a particularly long post, but the subject matter deserves it. I had thought to break it into several different posts, but thought it best to keep it, and any resulting discussion, together in one place. It also serves to answer a series of posts that I have done on Christian fundamentals *. The things enumerated here are the very core of what we, as Christians, ought to stnad united on.
In the process of this long conversation at Virusdoc, the question came up – what is salvation? Sounds simple enough, but it seemed (incorrectly I believe) that some commenters were contending salvation to be the mere forgiveness of sins. Is this all that salvation is? Or is salvation merely the receipt of a ticket to heaven? What does it entail? The conversation is still going on there, but has long drifted away from the question of what salvation is (not even the original topic either.) I have kept that question in the back of my mind since, however. I’m going to make a go at answering it.
Let me start by saying that neither simple explanation above seems adequate for what is described as salvation in the NT. Even the simple term ‘saved’ implies more than that. How can one be saved unless they are in peril? So our salvation implies a sort of rescue. To be rescued one must be in a danger greater that they can handle themselves. After all, if they could handle it they would not need saving, would they? You don’t ‘save’ a mere swimmer, but one who is drowning. It also implies a change of state, from danger to safety. If one is drowning and is then saved, the implication is that they are no longer in the water, or a least have been given some means of support which they lacked before and are therefore out of danger.
Another part of any salvation from danger is the decision to get help. Here the drowning analogy tends to fall apart as most folks who are drowning know it and are desperate for help. However, most of us are familiar with the concept that the first thing an addict needs to do is realize they are one. Without that realization, there is no desire to change and hope for recovery. Of course, realization is only the first step, one must then decide to pursue change. I imagine there are hundreds of drunks and addicts out there who freely admit that is who they are and have no desire to change it.
The question in regards to Christian salvation, then, is this: What sort of danger are we in? If we need to be saved, what do we need saved from? Certainly, a destiny in Hell is part of that, but is this all? Is it only for the afterlife that we are in danger? Jesus said that he came to give us life to the full (John 10:10), implying that our salvation is more than being with God after death. It seems that if all we have been granted is an eternity with God, it makes no sense to leave us here on earth after our salvation. In fact, in Acts 5:20 God describes being a Christian as a new type of life. It’s something new, not seen before. So salvation has implications on who we are and how we live here on Earth as well as after death.
Christian salvation then, it seems to me, has three parts – realization of our peril, a decision to abandon our sinful ways followed by a new life.
Realization of the Problem
So what is the peril that plagues us? Why is it that we need to be saved? Put plainly, it’s sin. Sin is what plagues us all. I’m convinced that it is the root of all of our troubles. Dig to the bottom of any of our struggles, conflicts or problems and you’ll find sin. Sometimes it’s easy to spot, sometimes not so easy, but none the less it is there. Our problem is that we do not take sin seriously. Our society sin is not serious, its funny. When I was a kid I can remember going to barbershop singing events with my father. One of the men attending would frequently wear a shirt that said “Wanna sing?” on the back. Except he thought it was funny to blank out the ‘g’ at the end so it said “Wanna sin?” Jaguar has a new marketing campaign for it’s XJ8L that touts it as so good it’s sinful (see link in lower right of their page). It lists the 7 deadly sins (lust, greed, pride, sloth, envy, wrath and gluttony) and shows how the new car satisfies each one. Sin as a virtue.
But the problem isn’t so much the sin itself, but what that sin produces. The scriptures teach clearly that we are all sinners (Romans 3:23). We can look around and see the obvious effects of sin in each other’s life. But the real problem is that our sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). In our sinful behavior we have not only hurt our lives here on Earth, we have built a wall between us and God. It does not matter how good or loving God is, we have cut ourselves off from Him.
But we, in our pride, are blinded to that reality. We like to think that we are just fine. We are not murderers or rapists, we are Good People. But God does not have that standard, he has a higher one. If we look in passages like Galatians 5:19-21 and Colossians 3:5-10 we quickly see that we are guilty as charged, absolute sinners. We have been angry or drunk, we’ve used filthy language, we’ve lusted and in doing so we’ve separated ourselves from God. Jesus Himself convicts us in Luke 9:23-26 where He tells us that self denial is a requirement in order to follow God. In Luke 14:25-33 He tells us that nothing, not even our closest relationships, can match our love for Him. In fact we must give up everything, complete surrender, in order to be His disciple. If that weren’t enough, we have the admonition in James 4:19 that tells us that we are in sin when we know of good that we could do, but don’t do it. Who can say that they measure up to God’s standards as described in these verses (and others)?
Before we can be saved, we must understand that is us, through our sin, who have built a wall between ourselves and God. We must stand face to face with our extreme shortcomings before God and own up to them. We must absolutely recognize and realize our need for God’s grace, for though we’ve built the wall we cannot tear it down.
Decision Time
Once we have come to the realization of who we truly are before God, we have a decision to make. We can either continue in our sin, blatantly turning from God or we can commit to being different. Do you want to continue to add to that wall between the Almighty and yourself or do want to choose a different path? If we are going to receive salvation God demands repentance. Repentance is simply a decision to take a different path. It’s not a commitment to perfection, it’s a direction change. I was once told that the word sprung from a military term that meant to do an about face. You were going east, turn and go west. You were living your way, now you will live God’s way.
The fact remains that we are not capable of living perfectly from this point on, let alone to make up for our past shortcomings, but that does not change the fact that God expects repentance. The verses mentioned above make it clear that people whose lives are characterized by sin cannot be saved. Jesus said in Luke 13:1-7 that unless we repent, we will perish. In response to the people’s plea of “What shall we do?” when confronted with their sinfulness, Peter replied that they should repent (Acts 2:36-38). Repentance was the expected response to the message of God (Matthew 11:20-24, Luke 3:7-9), in fact it was to produce repentance in sinners that Jesus came (Luke 5:32). God loves it when we repent (Luke 15:1-11). Isn’t that the point of the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)?
There are many more passages that speak to the necessity of repentance. See Acts 3:19, Acts 5:31, Acts 17:30, Acts 20:21, Acts 26:20; 2 Corinthians 7; 2 Timothy 2:25; 2 Peter 3:9, Revelation 2-3. Repentance is an undeniable part of our salvation. We have wronged God. He created us to be a certain way and we have turned from that and Him, nearly at ever opportunity available. Once we are aware of that, we can remain that way, mocking God, or we can choose to turn away from our sin.
Reconciliation
We’ve realized our problem (separation from God due to our sin) and in light of what we’ve done we have determined to take a new path, God’s path. As important as these first two aspects of salvation are, they cannot save us. Realization of our sinfulness does not bring us closer to God in and of itself; it can only point us toward repentance. And though we repent with all our might, even If we somehow remained perfect from here forward, we cannot earn our way into God’s good graces. We need forgiveness, reconciliation.
Forgiveness, even among men, cannot be earned. Forgiveness cannot be demanded. It cannot be bought. It can only be granted by the one sinned against. The sinner has no power to produce it. It can only come through the grace of the one wronged. In our relationships we try though, don’t we? We act so much nicer and serve and kiss up to the one we’ve wronged, hoping for forgiveness. And when we’ve been wronged, we are tempted to take advantage and squeeze some extra ‘good deeds’ from the sinner before letting them off the hook. Thankfully our God is not like that. He is willing to forgive, more than that, He longs for us (Luke 15:11-32). All he asks from us is to love Him and to completely to surrender to Him (Luke 14:25-33) and turn our lives over to Him.
God, in His amazing love and mercy, has graciously offered us a means to wipe our slate clean. He has sent us Jesus to bring forgiveness to the world (John 3:16, Acts 5:31, 13:38, 26:18, Eph. 1:7). Through Jesus’ death and ultimate sacrifice on the cross, our debt is repaid. God’s demand for justice is satisfied (Romans 3:21-26). Our sins demanded punishment (Eph. 2:3) and God, in His mercy, sent Jesus to take it for us (1 Peter 2:24, Isaiah 53). Make no mistake; it is because of God’s mercy that we have the opportunity to be reconciled to Him.
But how is it accomplished? The book of Hebrews gives us incredible insight into how Jesus’ sacrifice fits into the Old Testament law and sacrifices, both fulfilling them and ending them. That knowledge, however, does not help us to actually connect with God’s grace in Jesus. God has put this out there, but how do we experience it? We simply get baptized.
Today there are many different ideas about baptism, but in the NT church they only had one definition (Eph. 4:4). Hebrews 6:1-2 talks about the NT Christians being taught about baptism, describes it as an ‘elementary teaching’, but it does not go into detail about what was taught. The interesting thing is that there is no single passage in the Bible where we can look to have baptism defined and described for us. We must dig through many passages, piecing the puzzle together, to discover what baptism meant to the NT church. Today people talk of infant baptism or baptism as an outward sign of an inward grace, the Bible never talks about baptism in those terms. It speaks of baptism always at the point of conversion and it is described as providing salvation.
Baptism is the means provided by God for us to receive forgiveness. When Peter preached that first message of the Good News on Pentecost in Acts 2, he told the convicted masses to repent and get baptized ‘for the forgiveness’ of sins. Paul understood baptism to be for our forgiveness when he wrote the book of Romans. In Romans 6:1-10 Paul describes our connection to the saving power of Jesus blood and crucifixion as happening through our baptism. When Paul was baptized he was told to do so to wash his sins away (Acts 22:16). Peter comes right out and says it in 1 Peter 3:20-21: baptism saves us. He takes pains to remind us that it is not due to a physical clean up, no it’s an internal transformation that happens when we are baptized. God is doing the work, not us. Jesus told the twelve in Mark 16:16 that it is our belief and our baptism together that saves.
The early church believed the same thing. For this point I’ll quote from a short paper on baptism by my friend Douglas Jacoby:
References to baptism in the patristic literature abound! It is extremely clear that for the first few centuries everyone was in agreement that baptism was for the forgiveness of sins, and was the only way to be saved. We will limit our survey to the earliest patristic writers.
- Hermas, c. 140-150 AD: … when we went down into the water and received remission of our former sins… (Shepherd, IV.iii.1) Note: Remission is simply another word for forgiveness.
- Justin Martyr, c. 150-165 AD: As many as … believe that the things are true which are taught by us … and decide to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their past sins, and we pray and fast with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are born again… (Apology, 1.61)
Then, in discussing John 3:5, Justin continues: In order that we … may obtain the remission of sins … there is pronounced in water over whom who has chosen to be born again, and has repented of his sins, the name of God the Father and the Lord of the universe. (1.61)
In his discussion of the Eucharist (Lord?s Supper), he says that no one is allowed to partake of the communion except the man who … has been washed with the washing that is for remission of sins and unto a second birth, and is so living as Christ has enjoined (1.66)- Irenaeus, c.130-200 AD: We have received baptism for the remission of sins … And this baptism is the seal of eternal life and new birth unto God. (Dem. 3.41f., Haer. 5.11.2)
- Creed of the Council of Nicaea, 325 AD This fourth century creed is well known. It is ironic that, although it is cherished by churchgoers the world over, the import of its words is frequently overlooked: … I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins …
Naturally, these affirmations do not stand on a par with the authority of scripture, but they do shed light on the early Christians? understanding of baptism.
So in the Bible, at the founding of the church, and for the first several hundred years baptism was taught and understood as the means of receiving forgiveness of sins. Any other means of connecting with the cross to receive God’s grace has been invented since.
But what of the sinners prayer or simply accepting Jesus into your heart? These are well understood and widely accepted beliefs. There is simply no example of such conversions happening in the Bible. There are verses that can be made to support such a view, taken alone and out of context. (The origins of the sinners prayer have been documented in this article by Steve Staten, teacher and elder in the Chicago Church of Christ.) Yes there are conversions in the Bible where baptism is not mentioned, but it’s not being included is not proof that it did not occur. Yes, it is not mentioned where the apostles got baptized, but that does not infer that they didn’t. Yes, the thief on the cross did not get baptized and was promised salvation, but we re talking about the Lord Himself. If Jesus cannot make exceptions, who can? Besides, baptism is he means of connecting with the saving power of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. Jesus had not yet died, so the man’s baptism would have been meaningless.
Does it seem as thought his post regarding the meaning of salvation has turned into a treatise on baptism? Perhaps. It was, in fact, born out of a discussion on baptism in the comments of another blog. But take a look back over the rest of my words. Is there anything aside from my thoughts on baptism that would offend most Christians? I think the teachings on our own sinfulness and our need to repent are commonly believed and relatively unquestioned. Baptism for salvation, however, is not. It is an idea that is scorned by many Christians as an attempt to ‘earn’ our salvation. A foolish notion indeed. But does an honest examination of the Bible and church history support any other means of connecting with God’s grace? I don’t think so.
So it is my view that salvation, in a nutshell, is restoration of our relationship with God. In order for that to happen, we must first recognize that it is lost. Moreover, we are responsible for that lost relationship with God due to our own sin. We must also make the decision to repent, that we will no longer live that life of sin but will surrender ourselves to God. Lastly we need the forgiveness that comes through baptism into Christ.
Relationship Failure
I had a discouraging discussion with a friend this evening. He and his wife had been fairly close to my wife and I a couple of years ago. We were involved in their lives pretty deeply at that time. Back when our church had assigned ‘discipling’ relationships, we ‘discipled’ them. Since then, however, we have not been very involved in their lives.
This has long been one of the rightful criticisms of our churches, although to be honest it’s a failure more of the individual than the church. Too often these discipling relationships weren’t the real, loving relationships that they were meant to be. Don’t get me wrong, we genuinely cared about them, and still do. It’s just that when you are assigned someone to care about it’s much more difficult to develop the kind of relationship that transcends the assignment, one that will last, no matter what. Sometimes that happens, but many times once the discipling relationship changes, the relationship cools.
Anyway, my friend shared with me how he and his wife aren’t doing so well. She will sometimes disappear for days at a time, taking her son (from a prior marriage) with her. They don’t talk much because they can’t do so without arguing. We had talked with them about some of the issues he related to me some two years ago, trying to help them work through it. He shared, however, that nothing has changed in those two years. Two years had gone by and things hadn’t improved, but what concerned my was I hadn’t taken the time to follow up on their marriage in two years. What kind of friend behaves this way? What kind of disciple acts like that? This is not the kind of life that Jesus called us me to live.
This is what Christianity is about. This is what should make us different, that we love each other & we know each other deeply. We aren’t afraid to get in there and dig – in love – and find out what’s going on, in fact we expect to have these kind of relationships. I had thought about him in those two years, even wondered how things were going. I had remembered those challenging talks with them in our living room, but I did nothing. I believe that the Holy Spirit was prompting me to get in there again, a subtle warning that something was up, but I ignored it. I had too much to do. Perhaps there was nothing to be done, but as if to guarantee that I actually did nothing.
I have a challenge for you. Does this describe you too? Are you too distracted by life to get in there and love those around you? Perhaps everyone around you, like my friend and his wife, seem happy and fine. Maybe they even say that they are, like he did. Are you willing to dig and find the truth? I bet there are several near you who are decidedly not fine, but in fact are drowning. Will you dare to jump in and get dirty and wet trying to save them?
Praise God for repentance! I hope that my friend will be coming over tomorrow night to talk. I expressed to him my apologies for my lack of care. I told him that I was there when he needed me, no matter what. Now I just have to follow up on it.
Is anyone home?
Just wanted to let you know that I’m still here. I’ve not been real inspired to write nyhting of any significance lately, sorry. I have some thoughts spinning around my head relative to some blogs I’ve been reading(including this 94 comment exchange at virusdoc) lately, but I haven’t found the inspiration to put words to the page. I hope to get to those soon. I’ve got the week off working around the house. If I can get my projects done early I might have some serious time on my hands. 🙂
Healing
I’ve written in the past on the power of Christian reconciliation. I’m convinced that there is almost nothing that can match the glory given to God when His people are divided – sometimes deeply and bitterly – and then reconcile. It is usually intimidating to initiate the process and carries the risk of deeper hurt, but with love and a little humility God is powerfully glorified.
As I wrote about earlier, Aaron at Radical Congruency recently went through some hurt at the hands of folks from his own church. I’m very pleased to report that he has reconciled with nearly everyone involved. Through this whole process, as is usually the case, he even learned something about himself. His post about it is a powerful testimony to God’s plan for our lives, namely that we love each other deeply, go read it.
Missing the Point
As I’ve mentioned before, the church I’m a part of is an offshoot of the Churches of Christ. One of the things that attracted me to this church was it’s passion for thestandards and misson of God and for the restoration of first century Christianity. They were determined to get into their Bibles and get it right. Let’s set aside all of our preconceived notions of Christianity and look at the Bible fresh and see what it says. I learned that it said a lot of important stuff that I wasn’t aware of and that a lot of stuff that I thought it said just wasn’t there.
One of the side effects of this sort of passion can be an over the top stand on docrinal issues. In other words, an attitude of “This is right and there is no way around it and if you think otherwise you’re in sin!” In the CoC’s, we are unfortunately famous for such lines in the sand. Some draw a line on musical instruments in worship, some draw one over one cup for cummunion vs. many, sone over kitchens in the church building. A nearly universal line drawn by all CoC’s is on baptism for salvation.
We believe that the Bible clearly teaches that baptism is for salvation. Through it we receive the forgiveness of sin and receiving the holy spirit. There are plenty of verses to back this up, in fact I consider it God’s plan of salvation. The early Christians practiced it and it was only much later in church history (around 400 AD if memory serves) that the idea of any other kind of salvation came to be widely accepted. God wants us, no commands us, to be baptised to receive his forgiving grace.
But the point of this post isn’t the ‘rightness’ of baptism. I haven’t even pointed to scriptures or adequately researched the historical things I’ve spoken about (from memory of classes I’ve been in) No, it’s about the arrogance of my CoC family. Frankly, we’ve gotten many things right. The trouble is we look down our noses at the rest of mainstream Christianity as the only ones who’ve made it and Baptism is our litmus test for your salvation. I’ve been there. In fact, my church group, the International CoC’s, took that arrogance to a new level. We looked down our noses at the rest of the CoC’s as well as mainstream Christianity. We had a lock on Christianity, we were ‘God’s modern day movement’ (yes, that’s exactly how we described ourselves.)
We’ve missed the point. We’ve ‘strained out a gnat but swallowed a camel’. Yes, baptism is an important doctrine, crucial to our slavation. Yes, we ought to teach it to everyone we study the Bible with. Yes, it is God’s plan of our forgiveness. But no, it is not the most important thing. More important than that, it’s not the proof of one’s salvation. Even more to the point, deciding who is saved or not is not our role. That belongs to God and God alone. God has said that he expects us to be baptised in order to fellowship with Him, but it is His perrogotive to make an exception if He so chooses. Should we count on it? No. Should we treat baptism as trivial or unnecessary? Absolutely not. It is one thing to be ignorant of God’s commands regarding baptism, it’s quite another to understand them but simply ignore them.
This post springs from an interesting post at Radical Congruency on baptism. Aaron’s point was that it is not up to us to judge one’s salvation. We should, as Priscilla and Aquila in Acts 18, insruct other on God’s plan for baptism, but if they refuse to listen it is God’s role to decide what that rejecton means. The post lay dormant for a few months, then exploded in a flurry of comments a few days ago. Many of those new posts were judgemental, condescending and mean. What’s more, it turns out that many of these posters were not strangers from accross the country, but members of Aaron’s own congregation. That folks who are supposedly so passionate for God can say such hurtful things – and in a ‘public’ forum to someone in their own church (would they stand up in the local mall and shout those same comments?) – tells me that perhaps they’ve missed (or forgotten) the point of Christianity.
And Aaron, in response to the pain inflicted, has decided to stop blogging for a while. What a shame.
Church Structure vs. Freedom
Justin at Radical Congruency had an interesting post about the tension between traditional church structures – any structure really – and the room to freely express, explore and expand our relationship with God. The Emergent Church (First time I’ve used that phrase here. If you’re like me, you’ll need some help figuring out what that means.), that is those trying to emerge from the doldrums of traditional Christianity to live a full life that Jesus promised us, is attempting to throw off the old ways and explore new ways of building a church community. At Justin’s suggestion, I’ve decided to post my response here:
What I hear from the ’emergent’ (I’m only beginning to understand what that means) is a longing for something more. More than a prayer ritual and a Bible reading schedule – a real connection and relationship with God. More than a Sunday service and midweek Bible study group – a real community of believers. More that a set of rules and regulations – a real life that’s free, exciting and fulfilling, not restrictive and dull. So we abandon tradition in pursuit of real, meaty Christianity. No pastors, no buildings, no structure – just live as a disciple! (correct me if I’ve missed what the Emergent Church is about)
There’s a fallacy in that thinking. We need the structure. We need a worship schedule to remind us to go and worship together regularly. We need a prayer list to remind us to pray. We need a Bible study schedule to keep us going. And on and on. Perhaps you are good at one or two of those, but none of us are good at all of them. The challenge is how to have the structure, the accountability, the discipline with out that system becoming the focus. It seems that we take our eyes so easily off of Jesus and onto the system. Then it becomes more about the doing then the why we are doing.
My church is wrestling with this now – and have been for over a year. We’ve spent the last year or so dismantling the structure that our church was based on and trying to recapture the heart underneath. It’s been immensely challenging. We’re discovering how much of who we are spiritually was tied to that structure. We had disciplers that advised on nearly everything. We had mandatory meetings and expected levels of giving. At one time we had input on nearly every aspect of your life. We had a pretty radically committed group as a result, but take it away and make them stand alone and their knees get wobbly and they’re not sure what to do. Structure can build us up, but can also be a crutch.
I’m not sure how we’re going to get to where we need to be. Some structure is needed but many are fearful of it and it’s empty results and lack of God focus. With the structure gone, there’s a void. The easy answer is to fill that void with a new structure. A different method. What needs to fill that void, however, is God, but how do we set up – structure – a church, a community, to do that?
Wedding Day
I got to go to a wedding to day. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to one. I love weddings. They make me all nestalgic to my wedding 11.5 years ago.
One of my favorite things is when the bride comes through the door. I turn my eyes not to the bride, but to the groom. It’s a special moment. He hasn’t seen the love of his life all day, he’s about to marry her and become more than a ‘boyfriend’ or even fiance, but a lover. She’s spent hours having others make her the most beautiful she can possibly be. The doors open up and this unstoppable, stupid-happy grin blossoms on the groom’s face. You couldn’t remove it with all the botox in the world. That smile is truly priceless. There she is in all her radiance and glory and she is all his. That’s how I felt on my wedding day. I was stunned and overwhelmed at Maria’s beauty (and I still am.) and I couldn’t stop smiling as she walked toward me, her eyes fixed on mine. Watching that smile develop on another man’s face for his bride takes me right back to my wedding day and helps keep me grateful for what I have.
This wedding had a couple of oddities. He is a video game freak, and so is she. He has a Game Cube, and she has an X-Box. In fact ,after the ceremony they walked out to the background music to Super Mario Brothers. They even did a little jump like (I guess ) Mario does. All the other couples standing up with them did it too as they exited. They both love the Lord of The Rings and when he put the ring on her finger he muttered “My precious …” in his perfect Gollum voice (which he does very well).
They’ve dated on and off for 9 years, someof that before they bcame Christian and some after. They are one of those couples that everyone but them (or more specifically, him) knew that they should be together.
Conragts, guys.
Church websites
Mean Dean at Heal Your Church Website is on vacation and has gotten a couple of guests to post some stuff while he’s gone. Check out this article from Mike Boyink titled Web Sites Are Easy.
In this excelent article, he makes the case that setting up the site – the mechanics of it – is easy, it’s the content that’s hard. Why? Becasue we forget that the web isn’t about information exchange or moving data back and forth between computers. It’s about people exchanging ideas, ultimately it’s story telling. He writes:
So here’s the core frustration of what’s starting to become a personal rant (sorry Dean, you did ask for something I was “passionate about”..;)). In one corner, we have the church website. No, let’s not call it a website. Let’s call it a “Story Container”. A searchable, accessible, readable, always-available, hyperlinked, cross-referenced story container. In the other corner, the Church has the best story. Indeed – The Greatest Story Ever Told. And countless related personal stories – stories of great faith, triumph over addictions, persistence through illness, gain from loss, and undeserved grace.
But we go on… presenting our churches like products – telling people why they’ll like our church (Relevant! Great Music! Fresh Coffee!) but so rarely simply telling the stories of what our church, our faith, and our God has meant to us, and the true change seen in our lives because of it. What is it going to take to wake the modern church to the power of connecting the two, and filling our websites with our own stories? ….
It’s those stories that members need to tell and visitors need to hear. Those stories are going to move people closer to God. And if our church websites aren’t moving people closer to God then we’re wasting our time.
C’mon. Tell me a story of when God was good to you. Oh..before you start…I’ll bet there are other people that would like to hear it too. Can I put it somewhere where they will find it when they need to?
Powerful stuff. time to call my church webmaster. 🙂
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