So….. Were you amused, convicted, or both?

Read it HERE

I know that I will still be celebrating Easter this year!

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Update:

Here is a satirical interview with ‘Lost Tomb’ producer, James Cameron from Christianity Today.

I have a question and I would like the input of my readers.

How and when did church attendance become the defining characteristic of Christianity? Of course, it shouldn’t be — but in many ways, it is. Think about it: We generally assess someone’s “faithfulness” by their attendance record. We try to persuade unbelievers to “come to church” with us. Most, if not all of our activities involve meeting together at the “church building.” We go to great lengths and spend a fair amount of money to advertise our address and meeting times. We make a big production out of our meetings by dressing up in nice clothes. Try to change one of your weekly meetings to an activity serving the community (away from your “church building”) and see what kind of opposition you face in your congregation — people will think you’ve gone “soft” if you suggest cancelling a “church service.”

Shouldn’t “church service” be a verb instead of a noun?

Don’t get me wrong, I think it is important for believers to meet together on a regular basis, for many reasons. But I don’t hear Jesus saying that His followers will be known by their meetings or their attendance record. It seems we should be known more for our words and activities that take place away from “church.”

If you took away the Sunday morning assembly, what would be left for most churches? Isn’t following Jesus about much more than a Sunday assembly? How did it become the end-all of our faith?

Tonight in Bible Class, we learned how important olives (and olive oil) were in Jesus’ day. A community that had several fruitful olive trees would be blessed. A community with no olive trees, or unfruitful olive trees would be a hurting community.

It stands to reason that a community with a fruitful church would definitely be blessed. How is our church doing? Is our community better because our church is here? Is our church a blessing to the people of this community? Or do we just exist for “us”? I believe we need to ask those questions and answer them honestly.

“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” –Jesus

How is your church doing?

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone — for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” (1 Timothy 2:1-2)

I think this passage is very relevant in light of the recent changes in our government. We should be praying for our leaders (even if you didn’t vote for them) and for our nation.

I don’t believe we should get too excited when our side wins or too depressed when our side loses (regardless of which side you’re on). We need to remember that no matter who wins or loses, God is ultimately in charge. He is still running things.

In 1 Peter 2:13-14, we’re told “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority; whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.” I firmly believe we should be involved in the process – doing our best to understand the issues, giving our support to those who stand for Biblical principles, integrity and morality. But we must understand that God’s kingdom is not of this world, and our ultimate allegiance is not to any ideology, political party or earthly king. We serve the King of kings!

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]]> http://jeffslater.net/2006/11/07/election-day/feed/ 2 http://jeffslater.net/2006/09/07/jeff-lacks-self-control/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jeff-lacks-self-control http://jeffslater.net/2006/09/07/jeff-lacks-self-control/#comments Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:48:27 +0000 Jeff Slater http://jeffslater.net/?p=154 That statement was found on most, if not all, of my report cards throughout elementary school. I guess I had a bit of trouble in that area! Those of you who know me well are probably not surprised.

I got to thinking about self-control this week while putting together a sermon series on temptation. I had never really considered the amount of self-control Jesus had to have in order to overcome temptation.

Self-control is at the root of so many problems and sins – overeating, lack of exercise, lust/sexual sins, materialism, envy, laziness, profanity, fits of rage, neglectful prayer life, etc., etc., etc. I think self-control may be a bigger problem than we think.

When I was six years old, I lost control of my bike, went flying over the handlebars, and was knocked out cold. I suffered bumps, bruises and a concussion. When we lose control of our lives, even in just one area, there will be injuries. Bad health, damaged relationships, loss of reputation/influence, broken marriages and abusive behavior are just some of the consequences of a life lacking self-control.

It would be nice if there were “7 Easy Steps to a Self-Controlled Life.” But it doesn’t work that way. Self-control is something the Holy Spirit produces in us as we surrender to His guidance (Galatians 5:22-25). It is not something we get by gritting our teeth and trying harder. But there are some things we can do in order to “get in step with the Spirit.”

I believe one of those things is fasting. Fasting is so neglected in our culture, and yet it is one of the key ways in which we surrender to the guidance of the Spirit. If you can deny one of the strongest appetites you have, which is for food, then you are conditioning yourself to deny other appetites. You will find it easier to say ‘No’ to temptations of the flesh, because you have said ‘No’ to opportunities to eat. Fasting will condition you for self-control and it will strengthen your self-control. It is interesting that Jesus had fasted for 40 days right before he overcame an all-out assault from Satan.

I’m still working on this. I fear that if I received a report card today, it would still say “Jeff Lacks Self-Control.” How about you?

I want to revisit that, because it is apparent that this is more of a problem than I had thought. I’ve seen it in every church I’ve worked with in my 12+ years of full-time ministry — people who are content to sit back and let about 20% of the congregation do almost all of the work. People who are quick to complain about the church, but not so quick to do anything to make it better.

The problem recently hit me right between the eyes. My wife serves on the Education Committee at our church, and they are currently getting things ready for the fall quarter. This means lining up teachers for the children’s classes, and they are having a difficult time finding some people who are willing to teach (other than the few who teach constantly and are in danger of getting burned-out). We have a congregation that has an average Sunday morning attendance of about 240. And we can’t seem to find a handful of folks willing to teach our kids. That is just disgraceful. Oh, we hear lots of excuses and lots of explanations. I could understand if someone was already involved in ministry, but most of the people giving excuses are not involved. They are just Pew Warmers.

To be completely honest with you….. I wish they would go warm someone else’s pew. Because not only do they refuse to get involved in ministry, but they are usually the first ones to complain when something happens that they don’t like, or when they think the church (or the elders, or the ministers) is not doing what they think it should be doing.

My wife is about as frustrated as she can be. She is over-involved (almost to the point of burn-out). She teaches children’s classes, volunteers in the nursery, coordinates Wednesday night fellowship meals in the summer, heads-up our Wonderful Wednesday program, does bulletin boards, and serves on the Education Committee. And when she goes to ask someone to teach a children’s class for one quarter, she gets responses like, “Nah.” Or, “I’m too busy.” How we long to have folks come up to us and say, “What can I do to serve? What can I do to help? How can I contribute? How can I serve?”

If any of you who are wiser and more experienced have suggestions and/or solutions to this problem, I would love to hear them.

To any members of our congregation who may be reading this — please don’t come to me and complain about our church, our leaders, our ministries, etc. — unless you’re also planning to get involved and work positively to make things better. If you’re just coming to complain, I don’t want to hear it. You’re wasting my time.

Patrick Mead has written an excellent piece on his blog that relates to what I wrote.

Read it HERE.

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These are the people who get all bent out of shape when things don’t go their way. They get upset and threaten to leave (and often do) if you don’t pay enough attention to them and don’t visit them often enough. If they miss a Sunday or two and no one calls or visits, they accuse the church of not caring for them.

Some church leaderships make a mistake by coddling these people, instead of confronting their self-centered attitude. When a person like this leaves our congregation to attend elsewhere, I am usually relieved. Nine times out of ten, the church will be stronger and healthier when they’re gone.

Am I off-base here? What can be done about these selfish malcontents? How should church leadership respond to them? How would Jesus respond to them?

Here’s a Great Video on the subject.

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Being a preacher, it is sometimes hard to really let go and give my all in worship. If I raised my hands, or shed a tear, or got down on my knees….. well, let’s just say that the folks would have more to talk about after church than where they’re going to go eat!

Also, I’m usually thinking about the sermon I’m going to preach, and am not able to focus like I should (which is no one’s fault but mine). And then, it is hard to really worship when we sing songs like “Camping in Canaan’s Land” — which have little or nothing to do with praising and adoring God.

That’s why those times of worship this week were so meaningful. But then I think, why should we have to settle for mediocre, bland, irrelevant, just-going-through-the-motions worship? Its a struggle my wife and I live with every week. But it really hit me between the eyes after the times of worship at P.O.E.

While listening to a worship song on the computer this morning, I told my wife, “I want Chris Tomlin to be our worship leader!”