Finished this book this morning, and let me just say, as much as I like Matt Chandler, this book was tough to read through. My initial impression was that his thoughts were scattered, some of his comments were misdirected/mislabeled the issues, and the book itself didn’t quite make points skillfully. In short order, he needs a ghost writer to make this flow much better in the future. If you want to read a better book on this subject, I heartily recommend The Green Letters.

Here’s the main point that needs to be taken from this book:

The Gospel is the core of what we believe and what transforms us–if we don’t make it clear enough, often enough in our churches and our relationships, people will assume incorrectly that we are just trying to be good to earn God’s favor–the basis of every other religious system. The gospel is about the restoration of the entire world, one heart and mind at a time, through the power of the Holy Spirit. In order to experience that, people must understand that their sin stands between them and a holy, just God. Then they must understand that there is one payment for sin–past present and future, in Jesus Christ. We must live, preach, and teach this truth.

That said, the book explains why the gospel is important, a message that needs repeated as many times as possible. While I found the book dry for me, I loved the first 30 pages, and the last 15…those thoughts were worth reading the entire thing. Here are some of those thoughts I loved:

We are wired to worship–and if we don’t know that it should be God, we find people or things to worship: celebrities, movies, sports teams–the world is full of fanatics for things that really don’t matter that much. pg 36-37

God is HUGE, and in some ways, out of our league. We need to live in awe of His power, knowledge, and love. Rather than presume that He owes us something, or that we can earn His favor, we need to start coming to God on HIS terms, not ours. pg 28-29

We need to learn to let go of the past–God forgives our past, present, and future sins in Christ. However, we let those things come back to disable us. We need to see the past as God sees it–we died to that life. It no longer matters. What matters is the present and how we move into the future, with the new life God has given us. pg 212-213

The key to defeating sin is twofold: We need to kill the root of our sin–to have our heart’s motivations reshaped, and we need to fall deeply in love with God. If we can do those things, then following God will become far more attractive than sin. But it takes time. It takes a deep conversation with God, and the insight and accountability of others. If we are just trying to cover our bad behavior or stop it, we need to make sure that we understand God’s purpose in saving us–it is not about earning God’s favor! pg 216-219

Those are the best part of the book for me. Without trying to slander Matt, whose intentions are great. Here are a few things I think he could have argued better.

Matt tended to attack messages and preachers for not preaching the saving news of the gospel at every event. He seems to think that we need to explain the work of Jesus every time we are in front of people. That’s distracting, and its overkill to me. Coming to Christ takes time, takes the full breath of teaching of what our Scriptures have to say. He took a non-believer to a True Love Waits rally for Christians on sexual purity, expecting her to hear the gospel. Wrong event, wrong person, not the wrong message, in my opinion. He was placing expectations on an event that he should not have. I don’t take non-believers to the Leadership Summit, or a Married Life Live conference to let them hear Jesus on the cross. I take them to a service intended for non-believers.

Matt tended to portray the gospel as if it would always evoke an immediate response–as if a person is changed dramatically for good or worse by a single sermon.  I think that most people take a lot of time to come to a saving faith--they listen to our sermons, watch our actions, and begin to trust God slowly by hearing about how much love and mercy and grace God has for this world. Demanding a response from people short-circuits their ability to be drawn by God. We need comfortable, yet challenging church environments and relationships with people that allow them to “taste and see” that God is good, trustworthy, and gracious without demanding an response until they are ready. pg 63

“We should not think of our fellowship with other Christians as a spiritual luxury, and optional addition to the exercises of private devotions. Fellowship is one of the great words of the New Testament: it denotes something that is vital to a Christian’s spiritual health, and central to the Church’s true life…The church will flourish and Christians will be strong only when there is fellowship.” ~ J.I. Packer

“It is both foolish and wicked to suppose that we will make much progress in sanctification if we isolate ourselves from the visible church. Indeed, it is commonplace to hear people declare that they don’t need to unite with a church to be a Christian. They claim that their devotion is personal and private, not institutional or corporate. This is not the testimony of the great saints of history, it is the confession of fools.” ~ R.C. Sproul

I have a passion to equip and encourage small group leadership in the church.

It seems that every church I hear about has adopted a small group strategy–so there are a lot of people doing small groups–but I fear that most of them are not doing small groups WELL. Small groups can be a bad strategy if they are not done well. Think about it for a moment, and I’m sure you will agree. Most people don’t leave the church because of the sermons, the worship, or the children’s program…they leave the church because someone hurt them, violated their trust, or even “stabbed them in the back.” And where does that hurt come from? Not from Sunday morning, but from small group environments.

In response to the need of churches everywhere, I took last summer to refine a lot of my thoughts on group leadership, to read some more books on the subject, and to package a class into notes and a PowerPoint presentation. This past Saturday, I taught the class through DTS’s Lay Institute for the second time. Now that these notes have been tested and received a good response, I want to pass them along to you as well. PLEASE–use these! I don’t want credit or fame, I just want to build up the body of Christ…and I hope you find these notes to be a key resource in your own life and ministry, to that end.

Let me leave you with one other quote that I believe sums up my thoughts on Small Groups.

There is no passage in the Bible that says, ‘You must have a small group for people to grow in their faith.’ Instead, what is in the Bible is an understanding, from beginning to end, that people need an authentic, intimate community in which to grow.

Click here for the Word Document of the notes

Click here for the PDF version of the notes

Click here for the Power Point Presentation

I am a sucker for an epic story…especially one that you can interact with to determine the conclusion. Hence my love of Mass Effect. And while I slowly work my way through the episodes of the latest release as my reward for hours spent in the study of Hebrew and Greek, I find myself with many intriguing connections between the game and the spiritual life. Here are a few of my conclusions:

One Strategy is Poor Strategy

Just as the Mass Effect universe is made up of different races of beings, our world is made up of diverse and unique cultures and languages. When the Protheans in Mass Effect attempted to enslave all the races in their time to defeat their enemies, they failed to grasp that unity is both a strength and weakness. When their enemies figured out their strategy and overcame it, the Protheans were defeated. It is the same with our church. Our world does not need one super-mega-ultra church model and strategy. There is not one form of worship that is demanded of all the world. That would be a very inspiring organization to look at, but it would also be one that Satan could easily corrupt and defeat. God, who created our world’s diversity, intends His church to reflect it. We should enjoy the unique expressions each culture gives to the teachings of Christ. Different songs, different ways of gathering, and different emphasis in the way that they appear to the outside world. Morality and belief’s should be consistent, but consistency in those areas does not demand precision in worship.In Revelation God has worshipers from every tribe, tongue, and nation. We shouldn’t think that they are all singing the same Chris Tomlin tune. Diversity is strength…diversity is beauty. Our unity is in Christ’s redemptive work, not our form of worship.

Choices Matter

Having played through three consecutive games, my choices from long ago are beginning to have HUGE consequences. Some consequences were foreseen, others were not. Some are helping me greatly, others are costing me dearly. People I chose to save are showing up after 3 years in the Mass Effect world, some trying to kill me, and some saving my life. Sexuality, traumatic events, and actions expressed out of intense anger can follow a person for ages in this life. We can’t simply let go of things we did in a moment of foolishness decades ago…they mark us like tattoos and scars. They won’t fully heal until God redeems the world in the last days. Make careful choices. Remember that God’s way is the best way for reasons you cannot yet see.

Something that constantly rests on my mind is the major trend in the most churched countries in our world. The nations that have led the way in Christian movement for the past century are diminishing. Some of it is inevitable, as people reject Christianity they begin to learn how to run it out of their families, towns, and states. Some of it is due to the way God chooses to work, and is evidence of the fact that He is doing something different in those places. But from my perspective, a significant part of it has to do with the fact that we are simply doing church poorly. We have added so much baggage to what it really is, that the Christian life and the Christian message are muffled.

I hate statistics, especially all the ridiculous stats that I hear from the Barna group week after week. But this one from Willow Creek is pretty challenging, and fairly true.

In the United States, with more than 162 million self-professed Christians, the news is sobering. Each year, between three to five thousand churches in the United States hold their last service, close their doors, and put up the “for sale” sign. Statistics indicate that from 1999 to 2009 the combined membership of the major Protestant denominations declined 6 percent, while the national population has increased 12 percent. The proportion of Americans who claim to have “no religion” has increased to 15 percent, up from 8.2 percent in 1990.

We need to do church differently…very differently. And although I have some ideas, I want to spark your thoughts more than I want to hand you answers. My main exhortations to you are these…

1. Evaluate the church based on the need of the world, not on what feels good. Ask, how can my church preach to and disciple 1 million people? Not 10, not 100, 1 million. Use a big goal, not a simple one. The world is a big place, it needs churches with BIG goals.

2. Look at the churches that are growing rapidly outside the U.S. and ask yourself, should church look more like that? Why is that working?

3. Make sure your church model can be reproduced. Church is about multiplication. Can my church model be used to start 100 other churches? Why or why not?

So I find myself preaching once again, and to tell the truth, its still a lot harder than it looks!

I’ve had practice, I have evaluations, and yet, it requires more and more and more. Preaching is like learning to drive a car with a manual transmission: you can get the basics down with a little bit of practice, but to really get good, you need to log some hours in the car. Let’s face it, until you have some practice, you will get from point A to point B, but the car ride will be less than smooth.

That being said, I have two sermons to preach this semester: Eternal Rewards for Believers, and Responding to Disaster. The first one has been posted below: my outline, my manuscript, and the audio from my presentation. In it, I work to answer some common questions: Are we really going to be rewarded in heaven? Should I be motivated by rewards? Aren’t rewards manipulative?

Sermon Texts and Explanation (Exegesis)

Sermon (Preaching) Outline

Sermon Manuscript (Full Text)

Sermon Audio

I hope you enjoy it…it won’t be super smooth, but I hope it will be informative and challenging!