Upgrading a Church of Christ Worship Service Without Buying a Guitar, Part IIB

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Jay F Guin

Angel with harpHow do we develop worship services where —

(1 Cor 14:25b) [vistors] fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

I have a theory, but God will show himself as he pleases. This is not to limit God.

First, and this is the easiest part (not that it’s easy), you have to eliminate those things that get in the way. Bad singing not only doesn’t encourage, it can be discouraging. I don’t mean the old woman with a bad voice (obviously). I mean when the congregation as a whole is being badly led. That means the church isn’t using its gifts to their fullest.

Not everyone cares about the quality of the music, because some of us weren’t born sensitive to these things. But most people (including me) are very attuned to the quality of the song service — which means we can be lifted to the heavens by great singing and deeply discouraged by bad singing. If you’re not that way, well that’s how God made you, but don’t impose your views on those created with different needs. Continue reading →

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Election: Some Conclusions

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Jay F Guin

At this point, I’ve not answered all the questions and certainly haven’t solved all the disagreements between Calvinists and Arminians. That’s not been the goal. The goal is to learn what Paul has to teach us in Rom 9 – 11, and I’ve learned a lot and hope the readers have as well.

I’ve learned that —

  • Israel was a critically important step in God’s redemptive plan. And I’ve learned that God’s promises to Israel remain true today. But those promises are conditioned on faith in Jesus, and most Jews today are not believers.
  • Although God loves the Jewish people, he considers rejection of Jesus just as damning as Baal worship.
  • Also, God brings his blessing to his people through Jesus, not the force of arms. God had little patience with the Jews who sought to bring the blessings of God by overthrowing the Romans. They should have sought God’s blessings through his Messiah, instead. Continue reading →
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Upgrading a Church of Christ Worship Service Without Buying a Guitar, Part IIA

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Jay F Guin

Angel with harpAbout 18 months ago, I wrote this post on how to upgrade an a cappella worship service. And then for some reason, just today it became a comment magnet. It’s not that surprising, really. This post has garnered around 4,000 hits by itself, which is quite a lot by OneInJesus standards. Worship is a big, big deal in the Churches of Christ.

On the other hand, as important as worship is to us, we aren’t very good at worship theology. Indeed, we routinely ignore some of the most important passages. I’ll consider just two, which should be enough to make the point.

(Heb 10:24-25)  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Where I grew up, this passage meant: “Attend all services of the church, even if they conflict with the SuperBowl.” But that’s not really the point of the passage. Continue reading →

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Election: Isaiah 65

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Jay F Guin

There are numerous prophesies in the Old Testament about God’s plans for Israel. We don’t study them because we thnk they have little to do with “New Testament Christianity.” We think they were written for a people that God rejected and so are of interest only to scholars. But consider Isaiah 65 in light what we’ve learned —

(Isa 65)  “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’

Paul interprets this as referring to the Gentiles. You’ll see why as we go.

2 All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations– 3 a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick; 4 who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat; 5 who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me, for I am too sacred for you!’ Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day.

God now speaks of the Jews, before he allowed Babylon to take Judea into captivity. Continue reading →

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Election: Romans 8:31-39 (“we are more than conquerors”)

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Jay F Guin

Indeed —

(Rom 8:31-34)  What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

God’s passion for our salvation is amply shown by the gift of his Son. Therefore, God’s forgiveness is complete. As the Hebrews writer says, we are made “perfect forever” and saved “once for all” (and he says this despite also teaching that we can fall away (Heb 6:4-6; 10:26 ff).

(Rom 8:35-37)  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Why would Paul bring up such things? Well, because he’d suffered such things. Indeed, he points out that, although many Christians are destined to be martyred, we should see this as a victory. Rather than feeling abandoned by God, Paul says we who suffer in this life are nonetheless “more than conquerors”! Continue reading →

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Ministry Ideas: Harvest Hands

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Jay F Guin

Harvest Hands is among our oldest and most popular ministries. It even has its own facilities built just for this program. And all it does is give groceries away to those who are in need. Lately, it’s been providing groceries to over 200 families a week.

The program has had great success for several reasons —

* No one receives groceries unless they’ve been certified as being in need that week by one of two social service agencies in town. This way we aren’t giving limited resources away to people who don’t really need them. (Some churches are unwilling to turn undeserving people away. But when you have finite resources, every undeserving person served is one deserving person not served.)

* The program leaders have always insisted on personal contact with those being helped. Those receiving groceries are treated with dignity and concern. In fact, for several years, our college students provided those being served with an annual sit down dinner. The idea is that we are honored to be able to serve.

* No one has ever been required to read a tract or listen to a sermon as a condition to receiving food. We give food out of love, not as a tool to manipulate people.

However, for the last few years we’ve also provided a weekly Bible class, and it’s recently grown to 50 regular attenders and has begun to produce conversions to Jesus. It’s certainly not required, but the love shown through the ministry led many to ask for the class. One of our elders teaches the weekly class.

The interesting thing about Harvest Hands is not just its impact on those being served, but its impact on those serving. There have been times they’ve had to turn down volunteers — they were literally overrun with people wanting to help. You see, Harvest Hands for years was the singular ministry that assured our members that we were headed in a good direction: it’s the ministry that most made people proud to be a part of the University Church.

And, over time, this well-run, compassionate, effective ministry gave the Spirit a tool to use to change us to enjoy serving others. It took years, but this ministry, as much as any other, changed us.

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Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan: The Very Words of God

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Jay F Guin

The apostles followed Jesus “until they were covered by the dust of his feet,” as the ancient saying goes. And they were immersed in the text.

Jesus learned the text, lived the text, taught the text, prayed the text, and died the text — Jesus even recited from the Psalms while hanging on the cross.

The apostles had the advantage of having grown up in a culture that honored the text, but they had to teach in a Greek world that knew nothing of the text. Continue reading →

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Ministry Ideas: Celebrate Recovery

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Jay F Guin

Several months ago, some of our members began working with some of our staff to start a chapter of Celebrate Recovery at our church. It took months of planning and preparation, but we finally got started earlier this year.

“Celebrate Recovery” is a Biblically based program for addiction recovery begun by the Saddleback congregation led by Rick Warren. Several of our members have been through the training and have helped lead the program. The program launched after a series of sermons laid out the principles behind the program. We offer it once a week on Wednesday nights.

The first night, we had over 70 visitors, and it’s been going strong ever since. The leaders coordinate their ministry with other Celebrate Recovery programs in town, so that they are all offered on different nights, allowing those who need to attend several times a week to do so at different churches. (No other Churches of Christ in town offer this program, but a non-denominational community church does.)

The program helps with recovery from addiction to alcohol, drugs, pornography, sex … anything that can control your life. And it’s strongly focused on the healing power of faith in Jesus.

Many of our members have benefited from the program, and some visitors have begun worshiping with us.

How do you measure the success of such a program? By baptisms? By addictions defeated? By the image the program projects to the community? I think these are all valid measures, but ultimately it’s about whether our members are being changed to live as Jesus lived, and by that measure, it’s a huge success.

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Ministry Ideas: B.A.G.S.

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Jay F Guin

I thought it might be worthwhile to use a few posts to share some ministry ideas. Most of these will come from my own congregation, but this is not to brag. It’s just that I can only write what I know.

Lately, God has been moving powerfully in my home church to raise up ministries that do all sorts of things. These ministries are rarely initiated by the elders or staff, least of all by me. Rather, we elders have found that our role is to give permission, to provide support, and to get out of the way.

For example, one of our small groups (we call them “Acts 2 Groups”) was touched by the needs of the homeless in our community. Many in Tuscaloosa have lost their jobs due to the currrent recession, although we’ve not been hit nearly as hard as some other places.

Anyway, it’s fairly common to find someone on the street asking for food or money. Rather than “passing by on the other side,” this group decided that they should each Be A Good Samaritan — hence B.A.G.S. They made a list of what they should have on hand to give away, went shopping, and found that for $5 they could stuff a bag with simple food, a razor, water, soap, etc. The idea is that we should be prepared to be generous.

The group leader made a powerful presentation to the congregation. He explained that he’d given a bag of supplies to a homeless man. Sometime later, he saw the same man again, pulled over, and asked him how well the supplies he’d given him had worked out and whether he needed anything more. The man replied, “I really appreciate the supplies, but what I really appreciate is you taking the time just to talk to me like I matter.”

The group then sold, at cost, dozens of bags to the church to be given away as opportunities arise, with encouragement to be sure that we take the time to make the person receiving the bag feel significant.

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Election: Romans 8:29 (“those God foreknew he also predestined”)

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Jay F Guin

(Rom 8:29)  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Whom did God “foreknow”? The word only appears one other time in the Pauline corpus —

(Rom 11:2)  God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah–how he appealed to God against Israel:

— and it refers to the Jews, concluding that only a remnant of those foreknown by God would be faithful.

We see, here, one sense of God’s foreknowledge. Paul concludes that this remnant — the relatively few Jews who believed in Jesus — is the same remnant referred to in the prophets as being those who will be saved when the long exile is over. God had foreknowledge in the sense that his prophets spoke of these things.

There are, of course, difficult issues with foreknowledge that Christians wrestle with. But for Paul, foreknowledge is not about the paradoxes that might arise due to God knowing in advance. It’s simply the fact that God’s foreknowledge allowed him to announce the results in advance. Continue reading →

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