Without This There Is No Church

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church, church planting, conversion, crucifixion, gospel, jesus, new testament, old testament, paul, salvation, theology

In the last post we highlighted the importance of defining the church properly by exploring the claim that what we believe about the church determines how we coordinate its life together. Today we’re going to dig further into the definition of the church rooted in teachings by the fine folks at Missio: The church is a networked family of gospel communities on mission. 

This definition requires further definition if it’s going to be helpful. What is the gospel? What is community? What is mission? Today we start with the gospel.

Introduction to my new book “Jesus in 3D”

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crucifixion, gospel, Gospels, jesus, Jesus in 3D, new testament, real life church

The following is the introduction from my book Jesus in 3D which came out this past month. (The Amazon search feature only gives half of the intro, so I figured I’d offer it here in full.) Of course I’d love for you to buy it, read it, and let me know what you think. (And if you like it, post a favorable review there on Amazon!)

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Retelling Stories, Rethinking Christmas (Rev 12)

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atonement, crucifixion, jesus, Revelation

Reflecting on the text (Revelation 12)

If one thing has consistently characterized human beings from the dawn of time up to our own day, it is our love of stories. We love to tell, hear, write, make up, and act out stories.

We tell stories about tiny experiences as well as huge events, about things that matter greatly and things that are just plain silly. Without stories none of us would be able to make sense of the world.

Entire cultures and societies often revolve around a few central stories, and in our own society those stories are repeatedly celebrated in print and on the silver screen. In the Ancient World (as in our own), many such stories concerned how the world came into being. Other stories have to do with what god (or the gods) are up to.

One of the most popular myths in John’s day supposedly took place on an island called Delos, which was not far from Patmos (where John was in exile when he wrote Revelation).

This story is about Zeus, the king of the gods, who had a son with a woman named Leto.

“Political” Musings on the Fiery Furnace (4 of 4)

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America, american culture, christendom, crucifixion, discipleship, gospel, jesus, martyrdom, new testament, old testament, politics, salvation

“They disobeyed the king’s command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.” (Daniel 3.28b)

This is my final post offering reflections on the “political lessons” we learn from the very strange story in Daniel 3. See previous posts here,  here and here. So far I have claimed from this story that (1) Politics is a question of idolatry – that is, competing claims for allegiance; (2) Obedience to God sometimes requires disobedience to the government; (3) This “theo-political” showdown is often fought on the battlefield of symbolic ritual; (4) In the ancient world God’s people faced persecution due to their position as a minority outsider in an imperial world; (5) Loyal servants of idolatrous political powers often die needlessly and tragically; (6) Sometimes governments do acknowledge God’s superior power to save; (7) The “political idolatry problem” does not rule out participation in political affairs. Below are the final two of my nine reflections (the last one is my favorite!).

The Forgotten Message of Jesus

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crucifixion, forgotten message of Jesus, gospel, jesus, new testament, obedience, politics, real life church, son of God

In a couple weeks I’ll begin teaching a six-week class called The Forgotten Message of Jesus. I’m very excited about it and have been trying for months to nail down an outline or plan on how to work through it all. Studying to teach about Jesus is incredibly humbling – there is so much I don’t have time to say and so much more I don’t know. Anyhow, I finally put together my plan for the six weeks, so I figured I’d share it here. If you’re planning to come (or listen online), this’ll give you an idea about what we’re going to talk about. I am sure there is too much here and I’ll have to pare it down, but this is what I’m working with for now.

The Shape of Jesus’ Victory (Rev 5.5-6)

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crucifixion, jesus, new testament, politics, Revelation

Reflecting on the text

We mentioned yesterday that first century Israelites expected God to act soon to conquer Rome, redeem Israel, and establish his kingdom on earth. For most people, such hopes centered in God’s promises to send a Messiah, an anointed king who would lead the people of Israel into their glorious destiny.

Naturally, they expected this Messiah to be a warrior. After all, he would be called Son of David; just as David slew Goliath, the Messiah would defeat Israel’s giant enemies.

We can see this for ourselves in many Old Testament texts. Let’s take a look at a few: Genesis 49.8-12, 2 Samuel 7.12-13, Psalm 2; Isaiah 11

What I find interesting is that Jesus played to these expectations. Listen to how Mark summarizes his basic message, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news” (1.15). In Jesus’ day the “kingdom of God” was a token phrase of revolutionaries—if God was becoming King, then Caesar’s days were obviously numbered (see also Luke 1.52-53, 68-71).

My Answers to Ty’s Questions

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american culture, apologetics, church, crucifixion, God, homosexuality, politics

A while back my good friend Ty posted a series of questions addressed to me on his blog. Don’t know if they were rhetorical, but I suppose not. Here are his questions and my answers (in italics). Thanks Ty!

Is war evil? I think most people would recognize some level of evil in war. The questions, I suppose, are (a) whether it is a “necessary” evil, and (b) whether it is categorically evil.

What do we do if Christ really wasn’t raised from the dead? Something else. I’m with Paul on this one; if Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead, then Dawkins, Hitchens, and Onfray are right – we are pitiable idiots.

What if it were actually proven that He didn’t? Therein lies the problem: it can’t be. To put it in technical terms, the resurrection is nonfalsifiable. There is simply no way for it to be disproven. On the flip side, there is thus no way for it to be proven either.

Is the church – or to what degree is the church – merely a form a societal mind control?

Stream of Consciousness on “the gospel”

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american culture, church, crucifixion, gospel, jesus, salvation, sin

Sorry it’s been so long! I’m in the middle of crazy season so I may not blog a whole, whole lot over the next bit, but I’ll be sure to get a couple things up a week at least. A while back I wrote “the gospel…” in my journal and then just started letting the words flow. Not saying this is the best way to do theology, but it can be fun (and at times helpful!). The only rule is that I promise not to edit or change anything, for better or worse. Here’s what I wrote next:

Jesus is the Messiah, our Savior and Lord, and in dying and being raised from the dead he has saved us from sin. Jesus is God’s Word made flesh, the culmination of God’s efforts in creation and Israel to build and then restore a world of peace, justice, and love. He is our King and we are his people, called out from among the nations as the peculiar people of a peculiar God, sent to declare his praises, preview his kingdom, and invite all people to join his family. We resist all that is hostile to God and out of line with his purposes as revealed in Jesus. We thus reject imperialism, individualism, secularism, rationalism, militarism, pragmatism, and consumerism, along with pride, anger, envy, lust, gluttony, sloth, and greed.

I’m not sure where I’d draw the line between what I’d call “the gospel” and what comes out of that. Actually, I’m not sure if such a line should be drawn at all.

The Solution to Our Problems

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crucifixion, discipleship, gospel, grace, jesus, new testament, old testament, paul, romans, salvation, sin, theology

I know this sounds cheesy, but I believe it’s Jesus. I think Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection saves us completely, and I know of nothing else adequate to the task. Yesterday I talked about how sin works – the process of corruption that results in our world of broken families, political instability, a crisis of spirituality, and injustice all around. Read that one first because without it this won’t make full sense. There I described this process as having five essential steps: we reject God (rebellion) and replace him with something else (idolatry), with the result that we come to increasingly reflect our new idols and thereby lose our full humanness (corruption); we set ourselves a trap from which we cannot escape (bondage), eventually giving in totally to sin or at least resigning ourselves to a “realism” that is actually hopelessness or nihilism (depravity or despair). Here I want to show how Jesus’ death and resurrection save us from this fivefold curse.

1. Jesus reveals to us that God is truly Love and as such can be trusted safely. Remember the root problem of sin is that we doubt God’s love, we fear that he’s holding out on us, so we rebel against him and take our fate into our own hands. If God is love, this rebellion is altogether unnecessary.

What’s so bad about sin?

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crucifixion, sin, sinning like a christian, william willimon

Sinning Like a Christian // 01

Have you ever thought about how boring most sin is? Particularly the so-called seven deadly ones: pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust. In Sinning Like a Christian, Will Willimon begins by admitting how mundane these sins seem to be – how normal, how simple, how uninteresting when compared to other sins. As he puts it, “Gluttony, lust, and pride, while not the most attractive of personal attributes, can hardly compete with sexism, racism, and the bloodletting actions of [insert hated politician here]” (14). Or again, “Hitler’s genocide is so much more significant and interesting than my inner thoughts about Nicole Kidman” (21).