Expositional Listeners?

A few years ago Thabiti Anyabwile wrote a book entitled What is a Healthy Church Member?  It is a sort of continuation of Mark Dever's thoughts in Nine Marks of the Healthy Church.  As I begin, let me say that I respect Anyabwile a great deal, enjoy listening to him speak, and appreciate his stand for the gospel.

In this post I'd like to take issue with one of Anyabwile's main points in What is a Healthy Church Member?

According to Anyabwile, "The first and most important mark of a healthy church is expositional preaching."  Anyabwile goes on to say that in response to this a healthy church member should be what he refers to as an "Expositional Listener."  He defines expositional listening as, "Listening for the meaning of a passage of scripture and accepting that meaning as the main idea to be grasped for our personal and corporate lives as Christians."

Watchman Nee on Biblical Examples

According to Watchman Nee, "A word of explanation may be needed regarding the examples God has given us in His Word.  Christianity is not only built upon precepts, but also upon examples.  God has revealed His will, not only by giving orders, but by having certain things done in His Church, so that in the ages to come others might simply look at the pattern and know His will.  God has not only directed His people by means of abstract principles and objective regulations, but by concrete examples and subjective experience." 

The Normal Christian Church Life, Introduction, 1980.

House Church - Teaching

Teaching is an interesting topic when it comes to the church.  There are many questions involved such as who?, when?, where?, what?, how?, and why?  I admit that I don't have all the answers to these, and I certainly don't intend to try to answer them in a single blog post.

Instead, I'd like to take a brief look at elders teaching, gifted people teaching, and everyone teaching.  I'll close by discussing what teaching is and should look like.

First, what abut elders?  Do they teach?  Should they teach?

Two Part Time Jobs

Today I begin working a second part time job.  It is an office-type position that involves a lot of organizational and people skills, but not a great deal of responsibility.

This means that I'll now be working this job from 1-7 PM, and then the cleaning job from about 8:30-midnight.  My family time will now happen in the mornings and on weekends.

Since time is at much more of a premium, my blogging frequency is about to drop.  I used to post almost every day, but for the foreseeable future it will be more like three times per week.  This should make my blogging more selective which I hope will improve the quality of the posts.

I'd really appreciate your continued prayers about all this.  My desire is to work during the day so that I'd have family time in the evenings.  That would also allow us to gather with friends and reach out to neighbors after most people get off work.

Thanks.

House Church - Non-Hierarchical Leadership

I've thought about this particular post for quite some time.  There is so much that could be said.  I'll try to keep this to a semi-reasonable length.

Let's begin with two examples from Jesus' ministry:

In Mark 10:42-45 we read, "And Jesus called them to him and said to them, 'You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'"

Rotating Helps

When the church gathers in a certain house, the reality is that a greater burden falls on those who actually live in that particular house.

In our fellowship, five families are currently meeting together on a regular basis.  That makes for 25-30 people.  By American standards that is a lot of people under one roof.  Many people equals more stress.  It's just the reality of the situation.

Additionally, when people are coming over to your home, what do you do? You probably pick up the living room, make space in the kitchen for the food, shove various and sundry things in closets and under beds, vacuum, wipe the crust off the bathroom, etc.  This takes time and effort.

Please hear me when I say that these are not bad things.  Hosting a house church gathering is wonderful.  I love it so far and look forward to doing this for the rest of my life.

Shut Up Already!

This is a letter to myself from myself:

"Dear Eric,

When we gather together as a church family, you simply talk too much.  I realize you have good intentions, that you love the people present, and that you want to glorify God through what you say.  Despite this, I need to lovingly tell you that you tend to dominate the conversation.  If 25 people are present, you shouldn't be speaking 25% of the time.

God has gifted us all with the ability to edify one another through our speech.  If you, the former pastor, talk too much it will intimidate others. You may inadvertently be giving them the message that you know more than they do and should, therefore, get to talk more than others.

Be Encouraged to Encourage

My guess is that you probably are taking part in a church gathering today.  My encouragement to you is to encourage someone else.

Life is difficult.  We all have struggles.  Day-to-day functioning can sometimes be simply lousy.  There are the sins we fight but seem to give in to nonetheless.  Many of us have family members, co-workers, and/or friends who are causing us stress.  The list goes on.

Almost all of us could benefit from encouragement.  This is a different kind of encouragement than the world gives.  The world basically provides a pep-talk, Dr. Phil, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps kind of encouragement.  The reality is that this is not encouraging at all.

We followers of Jesus encourage one another in Christ.  We can't do anything on our own.  But through the grace of God, we can live in such a way that is fulfilling to us and God-honoring at the same time.  God gives us all we need to live in the joy of Christ, through the power of Christ, and for the glory of Christ.

Encouragement is not automatic.  We must actively do it.  So let's do it.

"He Was A Working Pastor"

I think I've mentioned this previously, but I want to expand on it here.

When I first began serving as pastor of Chevis Oaks Baptist Church, I tried to get to know both the people and the history of the church.  As I was conversing one day with a sweet senior citizen, she began telling me about the first pastor of Chevis Oaks.  I'll never forget one thing she told me.  Her exact words were, "He was a working pastor."  What she meant specifically was that he worked full time at a local paper mill while at the same time serving at Chevis Oaks.  The bulk of his income came from the paper mill, while at the same time he received a small salary from the church.  He remained in this capacity for 25 years.

In contrast to the first pastor, every pastor since (including me) has worked full time for Chevis Oaks.  They have had no other occupation while serving the church.

More on the One Anothers and Body Life

Jon Zens has written an excellent post that focuses on reading the New Testament from a plural perspective. Zens writes:

"As folks listen to local and media Bible teachers, most miss the fact that Christ’s body is missing from their use of the New Testament. More often than not the approach taken is individualistic – 'how can Christ help me live the Christian life?' However, the NT was not written to individuals but to groups of believing people in various cities and regions. This does not come across in English translations for the most part because the word 'you' in the Greek can be singular or plural. For example, the 'you' in 'Christ in you, the hope of glory,' is plural, and has in view the Body of Christ."

Read the entire post here.

Beware House Church Gnosticism

This is as short post to myself as much as anyone else.

I'm currently writing quite a bit about house church life.  My goals are to explain what it is and why I find it both biblical and edifying.  Additionally, it generates a good deal of discussion that I hope can stretch us all.

In the midst of writing about these things, I want to avoid something else.  That thing is what I'll refer to as "House Church Gnosticism."

The original Gnosticism was an ancient heresy that, among other things, taught that secret knowledge exists that is important to spiritual life.  This is nonsense of course because we have all we need within the pages of scripture.  We enjoy both the freedom and the responsibility of reading the bible to see what it says about belief and practice.

In talking about the house church (or simple church/organic church/authentic church), those of us who favor this model of church life must be careful.  We should at all costs avoid even implying that we have come across some sort of special knowledge that others just haven't figured out.  If we suggest that we are somehow smarter than those who disagree with us on this issue, then we have slipped into a sort of gnosticism related to our beliefs about the church.

Fewer Decisions

In keeping with the theme of consensus in decision making, it is important to revisit the fact that some church models require much more decision making than others.  The more decisions a church has to make, the more difficult it is to strive for consensus.

I've heard Christians say that churches must vote; they can't wait for consensus because if they did, "Nothing would ever get done."  The key to this statement is the assumption about what things have to get done.

In the traditional church model, decisions have to be made all the time regarding building and grounds issues, salaried personnel, numerous church programs, planned worship services, various events, and of course budgetary issues.  This combination requires many decisions.  Seeking consensus would be extremely difficult.

House Church - Striving for Consensus

We all "have issues." In the church this is no different. We all have issues that we need to talk about. There are frequently decisions that have to be made. As in all of life, problems need to be addressed and handled in an appropriate way.

But how are decisions made? How are problems handled? How are issues dealt with in a manner that builds up the body of Christ and glorifies God?

In trying to follow the biblical model in all things, the house church strives for consensus in decision making.  The purpose is to gain agreement by all involved to maintain and improve the unity of the body.  This also encourages all members of the church family to participate.  It avoids the elevation of some members over others, and instead looks to Christ as the only Head of the church.

I Ditched Dish

As you must know by this point, I don't currently have a full time job.

I had an interview scheduled for earlier today with Dish TV, but I just couldn't go through with it. A few years ago Alice and I decided to do away with our cable TV subscription. It was one of the best things we have ever done. Not only do we not waste hours watching TV, but we also don't have unwanted worldly influences invading our house. No more diving for the remote for me!

I don't write this to pat myself on the back. It happened only by the grace of God. I strongly encourage you to pray about whether or not you should have cable TV.

In light of all this, how could I spend my days installing satellite dishes? The inconsistency would have been more than I could have handled.

Nice Missions Resource

Click here to see a helpful missions resource from the IMB. The "Virtual Wall" shows locations, characteristics, and needs of the many unreached people groups.

Video of Varanasi Ghats

In contrast with where we now live, this video shows a glimpse of our home city from late 2006 until early 2007. Varanasi is the holiest city of Hinduism, and therefore is in desperate need of the gospel. The ghats (large stone steps) are the focal point of life and worship along the Ganges River.

Video of Beautiful Savannah

This video shows many sites from Savannah's beautiful historic district. Although the audio can be a bit cheesy at times, the video alone is worth it. Come visit.

Thankful for These Experiences

I'm thankful to God for providing me with numerous experiences that have challenged the way I think about Jesus Christ and His church. It has been quite an array of different people and places that has shaped what I now believe and who I am. I share these not to boast in any way, but to thank God for His great grace in allowing me to be a part of these things:

I was raised in Houghton, NY. Houghton is a small town in western New York State that is home to Houghton College and Houghton Wesleyan Church. In this environment, I met many missionaries serving around the world. Since Houghton College is attended by Christians of almost all evangelical denominations, I was able to talk to many people about why they believe what they believe.

When we moved to Georgia in 1996, we began attending the First Baptist Church of Springfield. This was our first exposure to Southern Baptist doctrine, life, and tradition. After four years at FBC-Springfield, we moved to another local SBC church. That church, Emmanuel Baptist, had a much different worship style (contemporary vs. traditional), but much the same structure and beliefs.

Thinking Outside the Reformed Box

About seven years ago I began to embrace the biblical truth of God’s sovereignty over salvation. Prior to that, I had always believed that man has free will and therefore ultimately makes the decision about whether or not to surrender to Jesus Christ. After searching the scriptures for several months in 2003-2004, I came to see and love God’s sovereign choice in salvation.

I still love the doctrines of election and predestination. I also continue to embrace the Doctrines of Grace and the 5 Solas of the Reformation.

Something else has happened to me, however, during the last few years. I’ve realized that in this country amongst the Reformed there are certain topics that dominate conversations. There are also certain topics that are basically ignored. This is not healthy or balanced (and it's especially dangerous and prevalent among seminary students).

House Church - The Lord's Supper Feast

I love celebrating the Lord's Supper.

We partake of this ordinance as a key aspect of our weekly meetings. As we conclude our time of sitting together and singing, praying, teaching, exhorting, etc., we all move to the kitchen and celebrate the supper together. We eat of the loaf and drink of the cup as part of our lunch.

The theology behind the Lord's Supper as practiced in the house church is very similar to that in most orthodox churches. We thankfully remember what Christ has done for us on the cross. Some may think of Christ as being more spiritually present at the meal than at other times, but we really don't get into much of that. The theology is best described by Paul in I Corinthians 11.