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Q: How do you teach immature children the truth of the Gospel and a Christian life?
A: The same way you taught them how to use a fork.

I recently inherited my brand new baby sheep. With the start of every school year i get all the new 6th graders. It is always culture shock for them as well as for myself. They are used to children’s church and now they are being forced out of their proverbial nest into a whole new world of “mature” youth group. I know as adults looking back it is much harder to see the difference in maturity levels from children to youth but for those stuck in the middle, it is night and day. Last night was youth group and i remembered quickly that i am now entrusted with these special treasures, full of energy and short of attention spans. The initial split second re-action to the constant wiggling and whispering is first to pause and wonder what that noise is, then silently question why they can’t act like all the older kids (well not all the older kids) but that thought quickly dissolves in the wonderful memory of the elation when i was in 6th grade and getting to graduate up to the youth group. I love my 6th graders and honestly it isn’t at all hard for me to be patient with them. When it comes to teaching the immature, let’s face it, there is a right way and a wrong way, just like everything else, there is life and death. At times, this task may be overwhelming, difficult and/or frustrating, however, i like to think of it in these terms…

When your child didn’t at all know how to use a fork or use it very well, did you lower your standards for your own fork use? Did you make a mess on purpose and use your utensils poorly to teach them the proper ways or to make them feel better about where they were in their forking abilities or lack there of? No!

We, as shepherds, and as parents both biological and spiritual, are to walk uprightly and teach a true, whole gospel to our children; the generation that is following in our footsteps. Not water it down for the immature thereby prolonging the ignorance and adolescence. We are to meet people where they are just like Jesus did for us; becoming all things to all men. Now think for a moment what exactly that means, what shape that takes, when it comes to teaching a child how to use a fork.

There are the tricks, we had the mutations of the fork into wonderfully imaginative representations, we did the songs, and the games etc. It is made fun at times but the fun is always kept in a well balanced perspective to what was really important – teaching them how to feed themselves and greater yet, them eating! Eventually they were able to hold it on their own for a little while even if it was just to spread their mush around on their tray, and eventually in the course of the meal revert back to using their pudgy little fingers all the while making a wonderfully cute, yet inconvenient mess of the food provided them. More time goes on, and what do ya know, they are getting better and better at this whole fork business! All the while as parents and adults we never stopped eating properly how we know to eat, mostly mess free and yes we drop our forks at times, but in retrospect we have come a long way from where we started, making a mess now is the exception not the rule…

Let us eat well, and teach well! Amen.

Watch an excerpt of Piper protesting the prosperity gospel and exulting in God, whose glory shines in suffering.

The audio in this clip is from the message “Where Is God? (UCF).”

Just found an article entitled “‘Fusion Centers’ Expand Criteria to Identify Militia Members” on foxnews.com and thought it was pretty interesting in an alarming kind of way.  I submit to you that it won’t be long before christianity is put on the list of “unsafe” organizations to be monitored and labeled as domestic terrorist and national security threats, and the Bible listed as a book of subversive literature.  But hey, don’t worry Jesus was charged and murdered as a domestic terrorist and a national security threat, guess it can’t be that bad.

Some of you may be thinking i sound more like a conspiracy theorist (which by the way is another criteria for you to be monitored and labeled) but history warns us of the consequences, of the path this nation under god (little “g” for government) is on.  It seems as though my thoughts are being confirmed every which way i turn and the above article is just one small piece.  Everything from america’s economic situation being remedied and insured by communist China, one of the major persecutors of the “evil cult” that is Christianity.  To the age-old debate of the question:  ”Is Christianity Good for the World?”  that is rapidly reemerging, one of which was recently documented with prominent athiest Charles Hitchens and Pastor Douglas Wilson at The King’s College.  These aren’t the only examples all you have to do is read or watch the headlines for 5 minutes and you can see.  We must discern the times we live in.  We the church must understand by a revelation of the Spirit of God that our allegiance is not for one second to a flag, seal or sword, but to Christ the Lamb who was slain and Him alone. When we understand this we will not fear the tribulations that are soon coming to the true body of Christ.  In fact He pointedly told us to expect this very thing because they hated Him first!

Let us go in peace and spread the Gospel to the loveless, to the ones who desire nothing more than to irradiate us from their world.  This is our commission, the ministry of reconciliation.  Let us forsake our fleshly desires to defend our patriotism to a man-made kingdom and surrender our entire selves to the work the Holy Spirit desires to do in us in order for that work to naturally flow out of us. This is my prayer.  Amen.

This is an article i just stumbled across and it is a must read for sure! Let me know what you think!

By Jonathan Dodson

It’s a buzzword. It’s often misunderstood. It’s central to the Christian faith and yet absent from many churches: Community. I will address two main issues with our attempts to find community. First, defective Christian views of community are based on unbiblical notions of the Church. Second, true community is based not on what you do but who you are.

Church: A Community?

Most church-goers conceive of church as a building. On Sunday mornings they get up, get dressed, and “go to church.” However, this is not how the early Christians conceived of church. They did not go to church—they were the church. Church is a community, not a building or a meeting. Church is all week, not just on weekends. Church literally means a “public assembly of people.” It has to do with people gathering, not with program-participating.

In trying to communicate the church as community to my two-year-old son, I have changed the way I talk about church. Instead of telling him that we are “going to church,” I tell him that we are going to be with the church, to sing and eat with them. Once Christians repent of reducing church to buildings and programs and begin to cherish the people God has given them to live with, warts and all, community will increase.

The Household of God

In a letter to a pastor named Timothy, the apostle Paul described the church as “the household of God.” Household has more to do with dwelling and living than it has to do with brick and mortar. God dwells in the church. The church is not just people; it’s God’s living room, his neighborhood. Church is both human and divine, a place where people and God live in community together.

God: A Community of Persons

Community as a divine-human phenomenon is traced back to the nature of God. God is not, as many assume, a disinterested Scientist, a removed Observer, or an impersonal Energy. According to the Bible, God is three persons in relationship—God the Father, Son and Spirit. God has always existed as a community of persons, self-sufficient, self-delighting, self-honoring, with no need of anything or anyone else.

The Imago Dei

When he created the universe, he made man like himself, “in his image.” This means many things. One thing it means is that man was created with a need for community. We don’t need the Bible to prove this need. Even feral children, kids that are abandoned in the wild, make friends with animals. We are social creatures.

The Redemption of Community

God is also purposeful. He designed the universe for redemption. New life comes out of dying stars. In divine agreement, the Trinity agreed that Jesus would die to rescue the world that man would mar. Jesus died “before the foundation of the world.” As a result, Jesus put the creation project back on track. He began restoring it right away. Healing lepers, stilling storms, balancing the unstable, drawing people back into community with God and with one another. God is missional. One of his purposes is to redeem and restore community by saving humanity from their broken relationships with him and with one another.

Vintage Church:

In this book, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears discuss the essentials of what it means to be a biblical church. Find out more.

I just stumbled onto this blog post by Jonathan Dodson that I thought was so awesome. It is called “50/50 or 100 percent gospel?” check it out here. It so elequently diagnosis the fundemental problem of the institution that is the western church.