The Return of the Middle Ground

So there's a war going on inside my head and inside the church. I don't know if the church even knows it. It's about how the people of God should evangelize. This applies especially when it comes down to how a church should evangelize. Let me explain by taking at the three general forms of evangelizing that I've been taught growing up.


1. If-You-Died-Tonight- Method. I've seen this approach taken far too much in the world. The premise is that you bring up death as a way to tell about God. You stress the person's sinful nature and their complete dependence on God to save them from the fiery pits of hell. That's all true. Because of our sinful nature we are separated from God and the only way that we can escape an eternity in Hell is through the loving sacrifice of God through Jesus. The problem is that why are we using the fear of death to talk about the Love of God?? Every time that I've used this approach the person that I've been talking to has given me this look like, "You are the strangest person I know. Please stop talking to me..." The truth is that this either scares people or turns them off to God altogether...If there was only a way where we can turn people on to God without scaring them....

2. Don't-worry-God-Loves-You-So-Much Method. I think that this method came about when people got tired of the other method. It consist of telling anyone and everyone that God loves them. Hey you, captain sinner, God loves you. Hey kids, God loves you! Hey creepy Co-worker, God loves you. Hey, Mr.Christian who keeps intentionally sinning, God loves you. These are all true. God is Love and loves each of us. The problem is that there is no mention of our sinful nature taking us away from God. There's also no mention of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. It's like taking the first part of John 3:16. "For God so loved the world," Well isn't that nice. God loves the world. Well how? Why? This method falls short also. But it still has God in it. God offends people, what if there was a way to tell people about God, without actually mentioning God.

3. Let's-All-Be-Nice-and-Maybe-work-at-A-Soup-Kitchen Method. This is the last method that I've seen taught in church. There's a verse in the Bible that talks about how people will no who we are by our actions. I've even taught that. I've told teenagers, other teenagers will look at them and see that they are different and therefore then wonder about God. For the record, this does happen. I've seen it happen. But it seems that there is a trend growing in the church that says that this is ALL that we should do. Just be nice to people, maybe they will see God. Just feed a homeless guy, maybe he'll see God. Just DO all these nice things and the world will be saved. That way we can evangelize to people without offending them by saying the words Jesus or God. This is one of the most dangerous methods because you are almost removing God from the entire equation. (and He created the equation!)

The middle ground falls at the heart of all three methods. The middle ground says that we are sinful. Our sin keeps us from an eternity with God. Because God loves us, He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Because God has saved us, we can be filled with His joy and love. This love then can pour out and be shared with others through our actions.

There you have all three combined together. I think that this middle ground is the most authentic way to tell others of how God has saved us. What do you think?

Why the church should cheer like Duke. (unc fans can read this too)

Tonight is the first Duke/Carolina game. In fact it's already started and Duke isn't doing that hot. This is an annual event that gives me automatic heartburn. In fact, for this game I've never even really thought that Duke ever had a chance. I guess I'm not a true Duke fan.

I did have a chance to attend the Duke-Miami game this past weekend. It was a dream come true for me and my wife as Duke tickets are hard to come by. We drove 2.5 hours each way to get there. We took out a whole Saturday to go to a basketball game. We got there, got in, and Duke went down by 16 points. It seemed like a wasted trip....

But as we were down by 16 points, I noticed something. The Duke students never stopped chanting. When going to someone elses court the first thing you want to do is take the crowd out of it. You do that by building a seemingly insurmountable lead. When that happens, the crowd usually dies out taking the team with it.

At Duke the cheering not only kept going, but as the deficit went up, the cheering got LOUDER. You never see that. Each time Miami would score, the students would yell louder to encourage their team to keep working. The crazy thing is that it worked. Duke slowly but surely went on a run. The gap started to close. As we got closer, the cheers got LOUDER. As Jon Scheyer took a shot that tied the game, the crowd went ballistic. It was so loud that my ears were ringing 15 minutes later....The game went to overtime and Duke eventually won it. They were carried by the crowd.

This doesn't happen in the church. When one of our own falls behind, we stop cheering them on. They don't even have to fall behind by much and we completely abandon them. Why is that? Why is it that if one of our own sins, we don't cheer for them to return to a righteous God loving life. This is the most critical time in our relationships with our fellow Christians and we fail.

I want to challenge you if you are reading this. The next time you see a Christian stumble start encouraging and start praying. The more they fall the more you encourage and pray. If we can do this imagine how much we can grow closer to God.

Take care until next time.

Jon

The Middle Ground

My wife was bragging last week that she was a better blogger that I was. That thought sent chills down my spine. Nevertheless, as of lately, it's true. So hopefully I'll get to blog more...

As for today's post, I've been having an internal battle. Let me give you some background.

I grew up in a church with a lot of screaming. The pastor was a very....how should I say....passionate person. It seemed that every week there was something new that would send me to Hell. It's funny to me now. The music I listened to. The shows that I watched. If I ever danced. (it's lucky I have no rhythm) Even back then, it struck me as a horrible method of telling people about God. In fact it made more people afraid of Hell than excited about God. Where was God's love? Where was God's grace? I sat and thought. This can't be right. Those things should be instrumental in telling other about God.

Fast forward to today. For the most part the Hellfire and Brimstone approach to preaching has been left to the past. In the things I read and in the sermons that I hear (God bless Itunes!) a new approach is being taken to tell people about God. It's full of God's love for us. That's great news! We don't have to worry about having the Hell scared out of us anymore. No more screaming that everything we do is wrong. As this trend has continued, I've begun to notice something. All I hear is about how much God loves me. Not only is there no hellfire or brimstone, There isn't a lot of mention of our sinful nature either. It's just simply God loves us.


There has to be a middle ground. If dwelling only on our sin is wrong, isn't completely ignoring it wrong as well? God loving us is true indeed. However, if we don't talk about our sinful nature, God's grace becomes irrelevant. There has to be a middle ground. A place where we can address our sinful nature and God's loving response and sacrifice.

This is what I struggle with. In a culture that usually tunes you out when you start talking about mankind's sin, how much should I confront it? As a speaker it kills me to know that someone is going to tune me out. It's a horrible feeling. But there is an even worse feeling. That is short changing the true and complete love of God. Here it is:

We are sinful. We have screwed up and turned away from God. Because of that we deserve death. We deserve to be separated from God for eternity. God loves us in this: that when we screwed up, he sent Jesus to die for us. We're completely sinful, but God completely loves us, and through Christ, He has completely saved us....

That is the middle ground of evangelism.

Why naps are amazing.

I've been awake for way too long. It started at the National Youth Workers Convention that started last Friday. It was four 16+ hour days that started early and ended late. As a result I got used to staying up late. When we made it home on Monday night I couldn't sleep until after midnight. As a result, I've gotten way to little sleep for the past week. The past two days I've been living off of sweet tea. Today I just want to crash. I want to sleep for days. This could have been avoided if I took naps. Naps aren't the best kind of sleep but they are better than nothing. In college they are almost necessary.

I get the same way when it comes to spending time with God. I get busy and go for long periods of time without spending any time with Him. As a result I just want to crash spiritually. I want to give up and not worry with it anymore. But the more I put it off, the worse off I get. I long for time with God but I don't make time for it. I just keep putting it off.

We can take naps with God. I don't mean that we can snuggle up and catch up on sleep with God. I mean that we can take more brief times with God throughout the day. A lot of people that the only way to grow closer to God is to take a longer period of time (30 min, 1 hour, 40 days) and spend it with Him. I challenge that. Those might be the best ways to spend time with God, but they aren't the only way. Sometimes we can take multiple short times with God throughout the day. It can be a quick prayer. It can be a short time reading a psalm. It can simply stepping outside and thanking God for the beautiful day. (or the rain for that matter)

I'm not saying that these shorter times should replace the longer times. But they are a good way to keep close to God when the longer times just aren't happening.

Perhaps I'll go take a nap right now....

jon

What I have to say about politics

OK. It's getting close to that time and I'm tired of political ads. I long for the days where Virginia wasn't a battle ground state. Then no one really cared because they just assumed it was republican. Now all I hear are ads talking about John McCain is at carbon copy of George Bush who is at death's door. Or about how Barack Obama is a liberal muslim who hates Joe the plumber. I mean how can you hate Joe the Plumber? If you read anything in this election read the following...

Here's the deal. The one concern that I have is that people are making their decisions based on stupid things. They think that Obama is hip and young. He's a great speaker and able to make people jump on board just by talking. On the other side people look at McCain and think that he's a maverick and gonna shake things up. Plus he's a republican and that's better than being a democrat.

Here's the thing. None of those are good reasons to choose who to vote for. I don't care if Barack is a great speaker. I don't care if John McCain is a war hero. Just voting on those things doesn't make sense. Do me a favor. Go to the website http://ontheissues.org .

Take time to click on the picture of Obama. Read where he stands on actual issues. Read where he stands on the economy, abortion, foreign policy, crime, education, .etc. Then you go and click on the picture of John McCain and do the same.

This website will tell you what the people have said about certain issues as well as how they've voted in the past. If you agree with Obama, vote for Obama. If you vote for McCain vote for McCain. If you agree with Nadar...well I don't know exactly what to say to do.

In an election year, people will say anything to get elected. It's time to not listen to the politicians but to look at where they have voted in the past.

That's all I have to say about politics. Go Vote next week. But be educated before you do.

Working out kills me

I went to the gym this morning. I went when there weren't many people there because I hate for people to look at me when I look like I am about to die. I went and I took a treadmill at the back of the room. I ran/jogged/walked/stumbled for 47 minutes. I burned 505 calories. I felt great....for about 6 seconds. Working out kills me. Correction, not all workouts kill me. Just workouts after long absences from the gym kill me. I've gone 4 times in the last 7 days. Before that, I hadn't worked out since....May. From January-May I went to the gym at least 3 times a week. The treadmill was my friend back then. I left the gym and felt great and in shape. I was almost fit. Then I got my job and working out wasn't as much of a priority. Quickly I stopped going at all. Until this week. Where in May, I would feel great; Now I feel like I can't even walk. The impending pain that I know is coming has almost kept me from the gym altogether. I don't even want to go because of how much it will hurt afterward.

My spiritual life is the same way. At times, I'm going strong. I spending time in God's Word. I'm spending time in prayer. I feel great afterward. I have a spring in my step and my thoughts aren't far from God. Then for whatever reason God loses priority in my life. Work is keeping me busy. I want to spend more time with my wife. I love sitting on the couch eating Chick-Fil-A. None of these things are bad, when they are prioritized behind God. It's when the replace God altogether that they are detrimental.

At some point I realize that I've gotten pretty far from God. My personal time with Him has shrunk to almost nothing. I find myself thinking, I'll pray after I finish writing this talk. Then it hits me. I need to get away with God. I need to spend time talking to Him. I need to dive into His Word. I'm terrified though because I know it's not going to be pleasant. While I was away I did some things and thoughts some things that I know weren't good for me. I rationalized things that I know were wrong. I know that coming before God is going to be painful and that I might find it tough to walk at first. It's going to hurt confessing and repenting of some things. But just like the gym if I can have the discipline to get through those first moments back with God, then I'll start feeling good again. I start to grow closer to God. My life will receive joyfulness and peace in Him. I'll start to become spiritually fit.

So I think I'll go work out for a change.

jon

It's been a while

So it's been a while. I miss blogging. It's one of those things that really excites me but that I don't ever remember to do. So here goes. I'm going to make a new effort to write more.....I also made an effort to lose weight. That's not going so well. So I'll blog while I'm on the treadmill and we'll see where it goes from there.

Jon