Two weeks ago we were fortunate to welcome Dr. Zack Eswine, pastor at Riverside Church in St. Louis, when he gave a leadership seminar, a message at the church potluck, and a Sunday sermon on "the way of love".
Here are some photos from his visit:
If you have wondered why church membership is important, Pastor Tim Bertolet of Pocono Mountain Bible Fellowship Church has some good questions and answers about membership:
One discussion that often comes up is: do I need to regularly attend a local church? Another subset of this question is: do I need to become a church member?
Often times we are told there was no portrait of church membership in Scripture. I will admit some churches today may practice membership as a form of self righteousness justifying their own self worth as a church by how many numbers they can pad into their roles. Yet I would maintain church membership is important and 100% faithful with Biblical practices--when it is not abused. Membership is basically mutually acknowledged commitment in a local body and agreement with the local elders/under-shepherds that you are under them and that they will watch over your soul according to the Biblical proscription.
Yesterday marked the start of the Vine church membership class. If you missed out on the first session, it is not too late to join in for the remaining two:
Contact Pastor Scott () if you would like to learn more about taking the class.
Tomorrow, a great number of Christians around the world remember and reflect on the brutal death of Jesus through the holiday of Good Friday. Why do English-speaking Christians call this day "good" when clearly the events that took place are immensely sorrowful and gloomy?
Justin Holcomb, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, summarizes why Good Friday is "so dark and so good":
Still, why call the day of Jesus’ death “Good Friday” instead of “Bad Friday” or something similar? Some Christian traditions do take this approach: in German, for example, the day is called Karfreitag, or “Sorrowful Friday.” In English, in fact, the origin of the term “Good” is debated: some believe it developed from an older name, “God’s Friday.” Regardless of the origin, the name Good Friday is entirely appropriate because the suffering and death of Jesus, as terrible as it was, marked the dramatic culmination of God’s plan to save his people from their sins…
The Vine will be marking the occasion of Good Friday with a service tomorrow at 7:30pm at Lapham Elementary School.
The heart of the gospel message is that redemption, restoration, and salvation are not things we can accomplish through our own efforts. Another way to say it is that the gospel is the polar opposite of religion.
Tim Keller, pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian church in New York City, in his book, The Prodigal God, has some very thought-provoking words about religion vs. gospel and the types of people we attract or offend as a church:
To most people in our society, Christianity is religion and moralism. The only alternative to it (besides some other world religion) is pluralistic secularism. But from the beginning it was not so. Christianity was recognized as a tertium quid, something else entirely.
The crucial point here is that, in general, religiously observant people were offended by Jesus, but those estranged from religious and moral observance were intrigued and attracted to him. We see this throughout the New Testament accounts of Jesus’s life. In every case where Jesus meets a religious person and a sexual outcast (as in Luke 7) or a religious person and a racial outcast (as in John 3-4) or a religious person and a political outcast (as in Luke 19), the outcast is the one who connects with Jesus and the elder-brother type does not. Jesus says to the respectable religious leaders ‘the tax collectors and the prostitutes enter the kingdom before you’ (Matthew 21:31).
Jesus’s teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren’t appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we’d like to think.
Next month, the pastors of the Vine will be hosting a series of three membership classes where you can learn what we believe as a church and consider whether you want to join as an official member.
If you are wondering what church membership is and whether it is important for you to join a church in membership, John Piper, pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, has a brief video answering those types of questions:
The three classes are:
After completing the membership classes, you will have the opportunity to meet with a pastor for a membership interview to finalize the process.
Phil Ryken, president of Wheaton College in Illinois:
Shortly before college I read Mortimer Adler's little classic How to Read a Book. That may sound like an odd title. After all, how could somebody read the book unless they already knew how to read? And if they did know how to read, then why would they need to read it at all?
How to Read a Book turned out to be one of the most important books I have ever read. Adler quickly convinced me that I didn't know how to read a book after all—not really. I didn't know how to ask the right questions while I was reading, how to analyze the book's major arguments, or how to mark up my copy for later use.
I suspect that most people don't how to listen to a sermon, either.
He makes some great points about how to actively hear God's word in the Sunday sermon:
At the Vine, we are constantly reminded that the city groups are the heart of the church. City groups are where community primarily happens—we live life together, rejoicing in the good and encouraging one another through our struggles.
Community is important because it is a primary attribute of God who is perfect community in the Father, Son, and Spirit who seeks to commune with his creation despite our rejection of him through sin.
Often we see faithful pursuit of community at odds with faithful pursuit of mission, spreading the gospel to unreached co-workers, neighbors and friends. Lean too heavily on one calling and the other suffers.
Seth McBee, a pastor at Soma Community in Renton, Washington, shares why community and mission are intertwined and that real community thrives with multiplication of disciples and vice versa:
Most small groups in churches believe their goal is to get to know each other or form a close bond. If this is the goal, multiplication will never be desired. Drawing close to one another is not the goal of missional community, but making disciples who make disciples is (being fruitful and multiplying images of Jesus). Drawing close to one another happens because Jesus has given us the same Father, and we are a part of the same family. So, forming a close bond is a bi-product rather than the goal of living together on mission as family.
Success is an powerfully attractive siren call in our lives—if only we could get a little further ahead in our careers or studies, our lives would be much better, or so we tell ourselves. But at what cost?
Ray Ortlund, pastor at Immanuel Church in Nashville, has some great words on the allure of sucess and how it gets in the way of our more fulfilling pursuit of Jesus:
In a world of secrets, outward success is everyone’s goal. If we can just succeed, we won’t have to face ourselves. No wonder that doesn’t work. It can’t work. The reality of what we are will always topple this house-of-cards persona we so earnestly wish were true.
The gospel is not God’s way of giving us an even better self-improvement goal. The gospel is God’s judgment on our better selves and his replacement of it all with Jesus.
Every one of us thinks, “If only I could do __________ or be __________, then I would arrive.” So, what does “arrival” look like to you? If it isn’t Jesus, the risen Lord himself, every arrival you achieve is only another set-back.
Madison is home to the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin, with more than 42,000 students and many thousands of researchers. In 2008, more research dollars were spent at UW-Madison than any college in the country except Johns Hopkins University, and recently the annual research expenditures have topped $1 billion, with top-ranked stem cell research viewed as the jewel in the crown of the university.
Science is certainly an important sphere within Madison, and there are many thousands of scientists and students aspiring to be scientists who live here. How can we as a church engage with people in science?
Phil Reinders, a pastor at Knox Presbyterian Church in Toronto, has some encouraging words on being friendly towards those in science fields:
The perceived conflict between faith and science is so commonplace that it’s a given in popular culture. Caught up in this false choice, churches are sometimes inhospitable places for people trained in the sciences.
So how can congregations create a welcoming space where people celebrate God’s scientific truth, and where all those involved in the sciences (including engineers, teachers, lab technicians, researchers, health care professionals and others) can grow as disciples and embrace their work as a holy vocation?
Although some might think of a hospitable attitude toward science and faith as an option package, it is an essential facet of the church’s witness. It is vital to the spiritual formation of those who are engaged in the sciences. It is critical for a compelling Christian witness in a culture where the dogma of the scientific worldview mostly goes unchallenged. And it is integral to developing a robust faith centered on the God who reveals His glory within the created world.
Becoming a science-friendly church is not so far out of reach - it doesn’t require a conference or a shiny new program. Most congregations and pastors can draw on Christ-centered practices and postures cultivated over centuries, mindfully extending them toward the sciences. Following are a few of those practices and postures that might be helpful.
Some of Jesus' last words to his followers are to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28). Regarding discipleship, the apostle Paul tells the young pastor Timothy that "what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2).
We know that discipleship is something that's important, something we probably should be doing, but how do we go about doing it?
Trevin Wax at the Gospel Coalition blog has some great insights into discipleship. He sees that churches typically fall into two camps on opposite sides of the pendulum swing that imperfectly pursue discipleship. Camp 1 forgoes thoughtful discussion about the Bible and simply tells people in detail how to live. Camp 2 faithfully communicates doctrine, but is not very helpful when the rubber of application hits the road of life.
Jesus' example of discipleship included years of living and traveling with his followers and friends. There was definite doctrinal instruction, but also a clear example of doing life together. While a weekly meeting at the coffee house is a good starting point for discipleship, we are being called to something deeper.
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