Notating the "LOST" For Everyone

I just finished reading the weekly bulletin and thought how wonderful it would be to lay down for a few minutes and nap. I couldn’t stay down because within just few minutes thoughts were flowing through my mind concerning an attribute of my fellowship I grew to understand and make important in my life. While I would like to say the articles, one mentioning how apparently dysfunctional the apostles chosen by Jesus were in their approach to each other, it was a simple little note reminding everyone how Sunday would be our last day to make corrections in our “CHURCH DIRECTORY.”

Prior to starting this blog, I went to the directories I have on hand and I am pleased to say, whether it was a mistake or the maturity of the one typing out the directory, we no longer list the “LOST” of those attending with us each week. In the churches of my past, placing an asterisk or other designation by names to notate for everyone who was not in a “saved” position was a common theme. I am not sure how this got started, but in my life, it was born from a position where I would take the responsibility of being the savior away from Jesus.

Instead of being a messenger for Christ, I was the one tasked with being the savior for the lost and I had to know who they were so I could be about my task. I refused to let Jesus be the savior because my leadership was necessary to save.

Straying from a biblical basis, I often gave a reason in my Christian immaturity of needing to know who was baptized so I could call on them to help out in ministry. In my training, baptism allowed the new creature in Christ to serve the communion trays, lead a public prayer, lead a song, teach a lesson and be a “real” contributing member of the CHURCH. As I began to finish this last sentence I realized I left out the official doctrinal position of this only being applicable if you are a baptized male. Sarcastically, if you are a baptized woman, you can help with some trivial task but nothing officially authorized by the churches of Christ.

I made the comment in this manner because none of this is born of what we have in the bible. All of this “baggage” of my youth came from man and has been burdened on successive generations because people fail to read their bible and simply be a servant.

When speaking of a church directory, I have a problem with it in many contexts but not from the point of purpose in giving us necessary numbers to contact those within our congregational family. My first problem comes with the promotion of an idea where we are the official representative of God deciding who is and who is not a viable part of His family. The call is simply not ours and while most of these designations fall on children too young to realize we are saying “you don’t belong to God,” there were often those in my past who resented and put off accepting the Lordship of Christ because we were condemning of their position.

Not only do we openly condemn others with the special designation found in the church directories of the churches of Christ, but we place restrictions on these people who might learn to function and transform their lives into the life of Jesus. In my past, it placed a wall between me, “the good Christian” and the wicked person invading my space. I can remember one of my friends taking me to an Episcopal Church service one morning and he got a robe for me, some music and proceeded to guide me to the choir loft where I was a participating member of those gathering in the name of God. Did he think I believed in everything taking place on this day? There was no way for this to be the case since I have already described how condemning I was for Christ. My important realization now is how he understood my desire to please God and he accepted rather than condemned the working of God in my life.

Ultimately, my life should be used to engage people with God and if I am serving on the table and my friend (not a baptized member of the body) can help, then it has opened something to him for maturing towards a point in his life when the importance of communion is something other than juice and a cracker.

I am pleased to see our last directory did not have this designation but the desire to make tradition our Lord in place of Christ is still strong in the churches of Christ and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it return.

I guess it is not enough to be about the Lord’s work, we need to replace Him as Lord and decide for ourselves who is and who is not allowed to enjoy the fullness of Christ.

Trying to Hide/Destroy Our Talent

"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' Matthew 25:24-25 NIV

“But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Matthew 18:6 NIV

Children are on my mind this morning. As I grew up, children were to be managed and controlled and as I came into being an adult, I carried on the tradition of my past. I learned to shut down the spirit of God within the child and teach him/her to be like me. I was so hardened in my “Christian” training it was no longer possible to remember the burning fire of my youth for God.

Unless we become like the child is straight from Jesus and instead of becoming like the child I chose to make them like me. Most of my years in the church have been spent following a tradition of transforming children and others into the church of Christ instead of working to transform others to be like Christ/children.

I have taught my own children the importance of many things contrary to scripture. I have taught them to be on time to a building for worship, I have taught them to listen to a bible class teacher, I have taught them to sit quietly and listen to the preacher, I have taught them the necessity to sing and take communion in the “proper” way, I have taught them to be anything but Christ/children.

I could have been teaching them to express their love for others and I could have been watching them for instruction on how to become like them but no, I had to control and manipulate them into something other than what God wants.

We are told of children being a gift from God and the parable of the talents came to my mind within the last couple of months regarding the children and the church. Consumed by the desire to keep the church constant with no change, I and others have fought to make the church of Christ look like the church of the first Century. I was too blinded to see all of the examples in the bible of the church becoming like Jesus and began trying to copy the formula of the First Century in things done which became “artificial” worship.

They would sing and so I must sing. They would pray so I must pray. They gave of their money so I must give of mine. They preached so I must preach. Finding so many things to copy, I forced an artificial form of worship on to others and specifically the children who now have to leave our fellowship if they are to find any true worship. I taught acts of worship instead of worship. I did not teach the object of all obedience is to love God and our neighbor. I have caused children to be less than Christ by demanding the bondage of false worship be carried on if they are to be accepted.

Effectively, I have done worse than hiding the gift from God and not allowing it to gain in value; I have been focused on destroying His gift and making it into something of which He does not approve.

I hope the new Mike will encourage the kids to be real towards God. I hope to encourage them to continue loving and doing good to all. Instead of saying “you can’t do that,” I hope to encourage others to look at our kids and do everything possible to become like them.

In closing, (this was a short one) I wish everyone could see the strength that has been found by the youth in my congregation. They are the DELTA FORCE for Christ because they have for years been evading the enemy and rescuing others from bondage. They have been faced with obstacles from those like me not approving of them doing things other than those “blessed” by our fellowship.

Warriors for Christ still exist today! The youth of my congregation have tolerated the harshness of the churches of Christ and done things the way of Christ. With so many of them graduating and leaving home, the spark of true Christianity goes with them to infect those they will be around in the future.

Tradition tried to bury them because the Master is hard and we wanted to take no chance at angering Him. I have discovered once again something I should have learned from my lessons in the bible. I once, like some still today, chose tradition over Christ and now hope to choose Christ over tradition.

NONE CAN STAND AGAINST GOD! Tradition has tried and it is coming to an end. May God be praised by those who no longer will give in to Tradition; those who have become (are becoming) like the kids in my congregation.

The Feeling of Hopelessness

I was online recently and one of those making comments mentioned how he understood all being said but he was still in a hopeless situation because everyone around him still didn’t get the message. Being only one, he had to live with the reality of doing church like he has always done church.

I have considered myself to be in the same position and after listening to the audio lessons taught by Patrick Mead during this last Tulsa Workshop, I was drawn even deeper into a sense of hopelessness over where I am and how little control I have to be what I want to be for those in my area. If there is anyone wanting to listen to the lessons I heard yesterday (July 7, 2009), I have attached a link to the site where you can listen. I am not sure if I want it to have the same effect on the reader or not.

http://www.wwjdtoday.com/Tulsa2009/index.htm

One thing really giving me a problem is how anyone attending this workshop and hearing him speak could ever go back to their home congregation and simply go back to the shadow of doing church the same way as has been done in the past. The reality of the situation focuses on how we are a compassionate people who do not wish to offend someone.

In my life, this has been Satan’s greatest tool! He has dominion over our Christianity because we allow him to shut our Christian lives down under the premise of not offending someone. Satan wants his dominion over our lives and the last thing he would have us consider is how harshly the apostle Paul and even Christ offended those of their day. So offended were the people by what Jesus did, the people, the religious leaders of the day, took Jesus and killed Him.

The problem with my past is not how I was afraid of offending someone but rather the purpose behind the offense. I was not afraid of offending someone who was praising God in the WRONG way and yet, being controlled by Satan I was afraid of offending someone by what I did to praise God. When I think about it now, I had twisted the passage about making a brother stumble so far in my thinking, I did not even consider how I was being used by Satan in this thinking to place a WALL before those who MIGHT come to a relationship with Christ.

I spoke of the hopeless feeling I got after listening to Patrick Mead and I think many have had this same feeling of hopelessness. The great news is how this sense of hopelessness does not have to be the reality of my situation. I am surrounded by a majority of like-minded people and as the church; it is our choice to represent the church to others. I don’t have to allow Satan control of my choice to be real apposed to artificial in my approach to the Christian life and my worship.

For some time now, I have been afraid to engage the world for Christ because I know, like our teenagers know, if I get an opportunity to bring them to a time of worship with me they will stand a greater chance of being turned away from God than turned on to God. We are told in the bible to be ready to give an answer and for most of my life it has been an answer to condemn. I now have to be ready to give an answer to someone challenging honest praise and worship of another person because it is not what someone is used to doing.

My encouragement to myself and others is to be real and let God be praised in all we do. If God moves me a little different, if I raise my hands, if I clap my hands, and if I make up my own harmony to the song I hope I am simply ready to stand beside and give answer to any who would be like my past and bring challenge because it is not what “they” like.

I recently met and had great discussions of the Christian life with a man who lives in another community and is part of a praise team and he mentioned taking a tambourine up with him one day when they are praising God (yes, it is a church of Christ). Having traveled in countries where the tradition of our heritage is not forced by Satan on all of those who worship behind the sign Church of Christ, he made me believe he felt a greater connection with God in this way. To him, I hope he will have the courage to take his tambourine with him and use it when he next gets an opportunity and I pray there will be one with courage to stand and give answer to anyone who might be offended.

As I see it, Satan only has power over each individual making the choice to be less than God wants them to be. There is really no hopelessness past my own thinking because I can be the church Patrick Mead spoke of in his lesson. The reader can be the same church he speaks of and the power of being real is appealing to others. I am not in a position like the story of the man I began with but rather I am in a position like Elijah in hiding. I am surrounded by a host of others desiring a true and real relationship with God. I am surrounded by others who can choose to be the church God wants and be Christ to the world. I don’t have to be the Pharisee of the past ready to condemn those who do not meet my concept of traditionally proclaimed worship in “spirit and truth.”

The Role of a Woman

If I simply posted the title to this blog and said nothing more, questions should come to mind with concern. One of the big questions would be over the idea of a role among any of us since I hope we all want to be REAL and not play any kind of role. Unfortunately, we have all been taught how to behave and we have been guided into a role to play within our congregations.

In my life, I have resisted children playing any part other than one of a child and women, specifically in church, were to be seen but not heard. Basically, the church women I grew up with were treated as inferior objects within the congregation and they could come as long as they would not interfere with the working of the body. I have even witnessed earlier in my youth women passing notes to their husbands in class so an important question could be asked.

On Sunday, July 5, 2009, I was invited to play my horn in a Baptist Church where, through one of their songs, created a parallel view of the representation of our freedom found in the Statue of Liberty and the representation of our freedom found in the cross. After a woman was asked to come forward and lead the congregation in prayer, I realized, once again, the liberty found in what Christ did for us on the cross still does not apply in our congregations today. As mentioned in an earlier blog, women today are still not regarded as full heirs. I have in the past, regarded them as lesser heirs when it comes to the congregation.

I was taught and I still hear people within my fellowship today declaring how a person honestly studying with an open heart will see the truth of scripture. With the sinful nature being so powerful within all of us, I have severe problems accepting anyone studying the bible as not doing so in all honesty of purpose to learn more; to fill themselves more fully with the knowledge of God. Saying this, it still amazes me to find women so devalued in our gatherings each week.

I have found rationale in the past for women to do a few things within the church but this only represented things of a feminine nature. They could take care of the babies in the nursery; teach bible class for small children, female teens, and adult women (if a man was not available). Over the years, I gradually accepted women cooking in the “un-scriptural” kitchens, preparing the “un-scriptural” slide presentations, the “un-scriptural” bulletins and even running the various “un-scriptural” media found in our “un-scriptural” buildings. Basically, my view of women was how they were allowed to do anything behind the scenes of the actual “pomp and circumstance” I, as a male, could actually participate in during the “official” service. My status as a male Christian has been found superior to the female Christian in my past and has been continued by many Church of Christ congregations still today. It pleases me to know of at least two churches of Christ in the immediate Houston area not holding to this un-biblical position.

It is not uncommon to hear those of my fellowship discuss the required silence of women in the assembly when it comes to teaching, preaching, or leading prayer and yet these same people offering condemnation of a woman’s voice even being heard during small group prayer time will allow their wives and daughters the opportunity to sing or offer a profession of faith leading to baptism in the assembly. It took me nearly 50 years, but I can’t have it both ways. Either a woman is to remain silent (completely) or the text I have used for so long is addressing something entirely different.

While I grew up knowing how to use the bible to condemn women to be silent in our worship time, I was never taught about the woman apostle (Iounian) mentioned in our bibles as Junias or Junia depending on the specific translation of the name. In fact, the bias of our concept for the male to be dominant within the congregation, led some to make sure the translation of this name took on a male gender instead of the female gender. In fact, not only was this woman an apostle, but she was OUTSTANDING among the apostles. I can only imagine the church of Paul’s day having Junia coming to visit them as one of the apostles and not allowing her to speak! I would have done so in the past and many in the churches of Christ would do so today. For additional information on the subject of what has been done in the translation of Iounian, I would direct you to the following linked study of this topic.

http://www.godswordtowomen.org/juniapreato.htm

I am thankful to all of those who have been used by God to show me the falseness of my previous belief requiring women to be silent in our congregations and look forward to the day when my congregation will join those who have already matured to the point where women preach, teach, serve communion, and pray during our time together. The time when none of us plays a ROLE but rather a time when there will truly be no distinction between male and female Christians and we will all be one in Christ together.