The Quest for Authenticity

Its no secret that I’m often quite fed up with many contemporary expressions of the church. My big issue is authenticity or lack thereof. I want authenticity, I want to be involved in living breathing communities committed to the Gospel in a fresh but authentic manner.

I want to meet with Christians who ‘let it all hang out’ so to speak. I want to meet Christians who understand that they are rebellious sinners, who understand the broken nature of this world – but that also live with the tension of being instruments of proclamation and blessing. I want to meet Christians who want a real Jesus, not a soft sissy who loves everyone so much that he’s lost his moral compass and can’t judge sin for what it really is. At the same time I want to meet Christians who realize that Jesus isn’t just handing out ‘get out of hell free’ tickets but is actively teaching what it means to love and live like residents of the New Creation. I want to meet Christians who struggle to die to self everyday and acknowledge it. I want to meet Christians who know what God’s will is for this planet and don’t run around all day long chasing ‘peaces and fleeces’. I want to meet Christians who take what God has said in scripture both seriously and with humility and don’t use it as a power tool to make their own selfish and megalomaniac alterations on society. I want to meet Christians who love outside of church and home group meeting times. I want to meet Christians who think past guitars and drums when I mention the word ‘worship’. I want to meet Christians who fail but are big enough to run back to the Cross of Jesus and beg for real mercy. I want to meet Christians who know that if they don’t have Jesus then they have nothing – and this is worth fighting tooth and nail for.
I want to meet these people and live with them. I want to see others be transformed and become these people. I want to see myself transformed and become ‘these people’.

Why I DON’T Want to be Involved in Church Planting

(Following on from my last church planting post – this a list of reasons as to why I’m absolutely terrified about getting into church planting…)

I’m terrified that my work ethic is pathetic and that church planting requires people who work to the max.

I’m terrified that my life will on be on display to an entire body of Christians – I don’t want to let them down.

I’m terrified of the responsibility of having to teach the Bible with the deepest integrity every single week.

I’m terrified of displaying authentic orthopraxy.

I’m terrified of loving people, especially those who tick me off.

I’m terrified of all the massive social concerns our country faces.

I’m terrified of working with other Christians who don’t agree with me.

I’m terrified of trying to balance out a humble orthodoxy.

I’m terrified of the possible limits to which my body, mind and emotions will be stretched.

I’m terrified of building my own empire.

Beckwith and Incentive

Most of the blogging world already knows about Francis Beckwith leaving Protestantism and re-joining Roman Catholicism, as well as resigning as the Evangelical Theological Society’s president – so I won’t rehash it. You can read more here. What interested me was a comment that almost blew my socks off that Beckwith made when being interviewed by Christianity Today’s David Neff. (HT – Justin Taylor). Beckwith made the following statement:

“The issue of justification was key for me. The Catholic Church frames the Christian life as one in which you must exercise virtue—not because virtue saves you, but because that’s the way God’s grace gets manifested. As an evangelical, even when I talked about sanctification and wanted to practice it, it seemed as if I didn’t have a good enough incentive to do so.” (emphasis mine).

What knocked my sideways was when I thought about this against the backdrop of historical evangelicalism. As a historic evangelical I look upon the cross and see a bleeding dying savior giving up his life in the world’s single greatest ever act of love and I cannot but strive for godliness in response to that love. How on earth can I lack incentive? Am I just missing something here or does it not add up in your mind either? Surely the love of Christ compels us more than any other single thing on this earth to live a sanctified life before our God? How did Beckwith lose that incentive – the Protestant church needs to answer that question as far as I’m concerned.

Love and Life

As I continued reading through the Psalms this morning I came across what for me is one of the most profound verses in Scripture. If I remember correctly I first really reflected on this verse when I read a sermon of John Piper’s dealing with it. The verse is Psalm 63:3

“Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.”

What strikes me is the frame of mind David has to be in to write such words. To reckon that God’s love is greater than one’s very own life – and not just intellectually, but to the point of action – is completely mind boggling for me. Everyday I love this life, and my life, more than God’s love – it is a constant challenge for me to reckon that God’s love is greater than life. Intellectually I’m there completely but in practice I’m miles away.

I pray for God’s Spirit to transform my heart and my actions so that I can sing this Psalm with David with great conviction.

Transforming Gospel

I’m back in Cape Town and today I just spent a short time today with some really, really, godly, loving, kind and caring people and I was just struck by the transforming power of the Gospel. We’re such sinful rebellious people and I’m just amazed at how, over time, the truth of a crucified Jesus changes people in such a powerful and evident way.

I pray, that this Gospel will change me, I pray that it will break, bend and mould me into someone who loves and serves Jesus with every ounce of energy. To my mind, that’s the incarnation of the kingdom of God in this world.

Peterson on Sanctification #1

In my spare time reading I’m having a crack at reading David Peterson’s ‘Possessed by God‘ – A New Testament theology of sanctification and holiness. So as I come across bits of interest I’ll post them and make comment. Be warned this could be a slow-in-coming series based on my current reading requirements for studies.

Peterson contends that little is made of ‘definitive sanctification’ in the contemporary debate on holiness and so he puts forward:

“There is an assumption that sanctification is mainly viewed in progressive terms in the New Testament. Little is made of definitive sanctification as a basis and motivation for holy living.

Klaus Bockmuehl more helpfully begins his exposition of the subject by defining sanctification in the Old Testament as ‘the act or process by which people or things are cleansed and dedicated to God, ritually and morally’ (1988: 613). Turning to the New Testament, he observes that cleansing and dedication continue to be dominant notes when the terminology of sanctification and holiness is used. Sanctification is a state in which believers find themselves because of the work and the operation of the Spirit in their lives. They are called to remain in that state ‘by living in correspondence to their given holiness’ (614). It is also a state to which they must strive, which they must ‘pursue’, or ‘complete’. In sum, sanctification in the New Testament is seen as ‘a one-time event and as a process, the believers being and becoming holy and acting correspondingly’ (615).” p.13-14

That’s not really the way we use the term in theologically conservative evangelical circles today is it? Methinks we need a revision of sorts.