Two things that we can do that will help us as we follow Jesus.

1. Ask Jesus to reveal what’s truly in your heart. That’s what Jesus did for the people in this story. They were going along following him in some sense, part of the crowd, but he stopped them and told them what was really going on in their hearts when he said: “You are following me because you ate the bread and had your fill.” They probably hadn’t thought if it that way. They were just going along. He told them what was really going on in their hearts. This is one of the things about Jesus that is so unique. He isn’t just after your outward behavior. You can be in the crowd and looking passionate about Jesus. Your outward behavior can trick everyone else. But you can’t trick Jesus. He wants your heart. So why don’t you go to Christ and ask him to show you what’s going on in your heart.

Some people never do this. Some people rarely do this. Some people resist and avoid or just never get around to doing this. So they listen to sermons and even make commitments and come along with the crowd for a while but don’t really understand what is going on in their hearts. The result is they end up being constantly dragged down and tempted by hungers that go unnamed and unchallenged and therefore live in the shadows under the surface of their lives. Those things need to be brought up into the light so you can see what you are dealing with, confess your sins and surrender to Christ.

Ask Christ to reveal your heart. Make time, to set aside time to pray, to be still, or maybe to walk and reflect and listen. What are the things that you say to your self? What are the messages that play in your mind? What does all that reveal about your relationship to Christ and where you are trying to fill the hungers of your heart?

2. Tell Jesus you are choosing him and believing in him as the bread of life. I love the way the story ends. Jesus, as he does with Peter several times, pushes his followers to choose and to actually speak and declare their love for and faith in him. Look at verse 66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. 67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Over and over in life Jesus has to ask us this question. It’s a question that doesn’t allow us to just drift along. It requires a decision, a choice of faith. And it requires a definite answer from us.

For each of us this should be a constant part of our conversation with Christ as we practice his presence. For all of us this should be a daily part of our Bible reading and prayer. For many of you it could be very powerful to set aside an extended time for prayer and reflection in which you ask Jesus to reveal what’s truly in your heart and then tell Him you are choosing him and believing in him as the bread of life.

It’s the question he is asking you: Understanding the hungers of your heart and knowing that Jesus claims to be the bread of life, will you choose to believe in him and follow him.

Tim Keller gives the following examples that can help us think about what it means to deal with the issues of discipleship in light of believing in Jesus as the bread of life.

If you struggle with temptation, Rejoice in the gospel until you see its beauty. How are these temptations being caused by an inordinate hope for some-one or some-thing to give me the comfort and consolation that only Jesus can really give me? How does Christ give me so much more fully and graciously and suitably the very things I am looking for elsewhere? Rejoice and think of what he has done and what he has given you. Pray and say: “Lord, only in your presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forever more (Psalm 16:11) yet here am I trying to find comfort in something else. Why rake in a mud puddle when you have set a table for me (Psalm 23:5) filled with your love, peace, joy? This thing I am tempted by is just a pleasure that will wear off so soon–it is a sham and cheat, while your pleasure, though it may start small will grow on and on forever (Prov.4:18). Remove my idols of pleasure, which never can give me the pleasure I need.”

If you struggle with anxiety, Rejoice in the gospel until you are humbled enough (to see you don’t know best) or valued enough (to see that he could not forget you. Ask yourself: How are these anxieties being caused by an inordinate hope for some-one or some-thing to give me the control over my life and environment only Jesus can really give me? How does Christ give me so much more fully and graciously and suitably the very things I am looking for elsewhere? Rejoice and think of what he has done and what he has given you. Pray and say: “Lord, I live by your sheer grace. That means though I don’t deserve to have things go right, yet I know you are working them all out for good (Rom.8:28) because you love me in Christ. All my punishment fell into Jesus’ heart–so you only allow bad things for my growth, and for loving wise purposes. I can relax, because my security in life is based neither on luck, nor hard work, but on your gracious love for me. You have counted every hair on my head (Matt.10:30-31) and every tear down my cheeks (Ps.56:8)–you love me far more and better than anyone else loves me or than I love myself. And remove my idols of security–which never can give me the security I need.”

Take a moment to write out your own prayer of repenting and rejoicing. Ask Christ to show you what is going on in your heart and then tell him how you are believing in him as the bread of life.

Take some time to reflect on the two charts we have looked at in previous sections of “The Walk”. Reflect on how the principles pictured in these charts related to the issue in this section of “The Walk”. How do they help us to believe in Jesus as the bread of life and to find our heart’s hungers filled by Him?

Jot down a few of your thoughts under each graphic

Continue reading the Bible. Keep reading the gospel of John. If you are reading a lot and finish John consider reading Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians or Luke. Or ask the group or person you are doing The Walk with to make suggestions. The important thing is to try to be consistent in your reading. Write down your questions, thoughts and insights as you read. Don’t forget to review your memory verses.

Two ways of looking at life in relationship to following Jesus.

1. The first, is that you follow Jesus so that He will help you have the things that make for a good and happy life. That’s what was going on with the crowd in this story. That way of looking at your relationship to God, while common, is unbiblical. It is wrong.

2. The second way to look at life is that you follow Jesus because He himself is the source of life. It’s your relationship with God through Christ that does for your soul what food does for your body. When your faith feeds your heart with his life, love and goodness, He fuels your life. His love and presence gives strength and energy as you feed on Him. So Jesus is saying don’t just think of me as the one who can help you get what you need. I am what you need. Jesus doesn’t say: “I’m a caramel macchiato venti with an extra shot of espresso”. He says, “I’m the bread of life.” That means is that he is not a luxury he is essential. It also means that to follow him we have to make him the very source of our life.

I’ve had people tell me,“I thought that if I believed in Jesus and went to church and said my prayers and tried to follow God’s word then I would find love, succeed in business, build a close-knit family and enjoy a happy marriage. But I’ve tried to do things right and working out very well so I’m over it. I’m walking out.” The same thing that happened in Jesus’ day happens all over again. People come to Jesus wanting him to enrich their lives with the things they want. When they find out he wants to enrich them with himself they turn away. The truth is we all want good families, loving relationships, rewarding jobs, secure futures, good health, we want to see our causes prosper and our passions fulfilled. We get anxious or upset when there are things that mean a lot to us and we are afraid we aren’t going to get them or if we have them they are going to slip away. “Believing that Jesus is the bread of life doesn’t mean that nothing matters except for him but it does mean that nothing matters as much as Him and nothing matters so much that the presence of that thing overshadows Him or the absence of that thing robs us of the peace, and joy, of his love and presence.”

Do you believe what Jesus is saying here? The ultimate question of life and discipleship is “What will fill your hungry heart?” Jesus says he is the answer to that question. Do you believe Him?

Continue reading the Bible. Keep reading the gospel of John. If you are reading a lot and finish John consider reading Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians or Luke. Or ask the group or person you are doing The Walk with to make suggestions. The important thing is to try to be consistent in your reading. Write down your questions, thoughts and insights as you read. Don’t forget to review your memory verses.

Day 5:  Going Deeper

Look at John 14:20 where Jesus says, you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. What Jesus is describing here is what theologians call the spiritual union of Christ with his people. What it means is that when you believe in Jesus, you are born again spiritually and Christ not only becomes present with you but also at the same time one with you. His Spirit interpenetrates your renewed and reborn human spirit. So that his presence in your life is not only by your side but in your thoughts, in your mind, will and emotions in the deepest way. Some people emphasize the verse from the prophet Jeremiah that says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. So they figure everything within them is bad. But Scripture also says that when you experience new birth in Christ you receive a new heart and a new nature. Christ, by the Holy Spirit, comes into your life and unites himself to that new and spiritually reborn part of your innermost being. Christ become one with you. Then from that place of new life he begins to speak, to counsel, to strengthen, to purify, to convict, to guide from within. In Galatians Paul says, Christ lives in me. From within your heart Jesus says: “Follow me.”

The presence of Christ and the gift of the Spirit should change how you think of yourself; your very identity. There’s a crazy old story about a man who went to a psychiatrist because whenever he went grocery shopping and walked past the pet food he had an overpowering urge to rip open a bag of dog food and start eating. The doctor had never heard anything like this so he asked, “When did this begin?” The man said, “I think it’s been this way ever since I was a puppy.” I know it’s a silly story but it makes a point. The way you see yourself has a tremendous impact on the way you live your life. Your sense of who you are drives a lot of what you do. How do you see yourself? The Bible says if you believe in Jesus Christ then see the truth about who you really are through him. You are a needy human being whose needs have been deeply met by God’s grace. You are not pure in yourself but you have been cleansed by Christ. You don’t deserve God’s love but it has flooded your life. You are not powerful in yourself but you are not alone, you can do all things through Him who strengthens you. You are not an orphan, unknown or cared for scrambling to make it on your own. You have Christ in you by the Holy Spirit who has been given to you forever. Christ is in you, you are in Him and he is in the Father and you have become one with him by grace. To live life with Jesus, following him is not some restrictive limitation imposed on you from outside is what you were made for and saved for.

Sometimes we look at the gospel with tunnel vision, seeing only one facet of the blessings and promises that come to us through faith in Jesus. The result is that the impact of the gospel on our hearts to strengthen us for a life of discipleship is diminished. The gospel brings us much more than the promise of forgiveness and acceptance into heaven when we die. Through the gospel we are brought into a reconciled relationship with God. We are united to him! His Spirit lives in us so that we “participate in the divine nature”. We become new creatures with a new identity in Christ and a new power for life. His love, truth and beauty satisfies our hearts deeper longings. All of God promises are ours through faith in Jesus.

What gospel promises do you focus on the most? What gospel promises to you tend to overlook or neglect. What difference might it make in your life to see more fully the full dimensions of the grace of God that you receive through faith in Jesus?

Take a moment to pray asking God to help you see who you are in Christ. Then take a moment and in your own words write down some of your thoughts to complete this sentence. I see by faith in Jesus, that in Christ I am

Continue reading the Bible. Write down your questions, thoughts and insights as you read. Don’t forget to review your memory verse from last week and this week.

I quoted Oswald Chambers in the Sermon this weekend so I thought I would share the reading from “My Utmost for His Highest” for today, July 26.

“Out of the heart proceed . . .” Matthew 15:18-20

We begin by trusting our ignorance and calling it innocence, by trusting our innocence and calling it purity; and when we hear these rugged statements of Our Lord’s, we shrink and say—But I never felt any of those awful things in my heart. We resent what Jesus Christ reveals. Either Jesus Christ is the supreme Authority on the human heart, or He is not worth paying any attention to. Am I prepared to trust His penetration, or do I prefer to trust my innocent ignorance? If I make conscious innocence the test, I am likely to come to a place where I find with a shuddering awakening that what Jesus Christ said is true, and I shall be appalled at the possibility of evil and wrong in me. As long as I remain under the refuge of innocence I am living in a fool’s paradise. If I have never been a blackguard, the reason is a mixture of cowardice and the protection of civilized life; but when I am undressed before God, I find that Jesus Christ is right in His diagnosis.

The only thing that safeguards is the Redemption of Jesus Christ. If I will hand myself over to Him, I need never experience the terrible possibilities that are in my heart. Purity is too deep down for me to get to naturally: but when the Holy Spirit comes in, He brings into the centre of my personal life the very Spirit that was manifested in the life of Jesus Christ, viz., Holy Spirit, which is unsullied purity.

Today is Saint Partick’s day 2010. For most people it’s just another holiday and maybe an excuse to down a Guiness. However, the truth is the real Patrick was outstanding Christian leader and missionary.

Here’s an excerpt from Discoll’s article,

Curiously, Patrick’s unorthodox ministry methods, which had brought so much fruit among the Irish, also brought much opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. Because Patrick was so far removed from Roman civilization and church polity he was seen by some as an instigator of unwelcome changes. This led to great conflicts between the Roman and Celtic Christians. The Celtic Christians had their own calendar and celebrated Easter a week earlier than their Roman counterparts. Additionally, the Roman monks shaved only the hair on the top of their head, whereas the Celtic monks shaved all of their hair except their long locks which began around the bottom of their head as a funky monk mullet. The Romans considered these and other variations by the Celtic Christian leaders to be acts of insubordination.

In the end, the Roman Church should have learned from Patrick, who is one of the greatest missionaries who has ever lived. Though Patrick’s pastors and churches looked different in method, they were very orthodox in their theology and radically committed to such things as Scripture and the Trinity. Additionally, they were some of the most gifted Christian artists the world has ever known, and their prayers and songs endure to this day around the world,….

Here’s a link to the whole article on the man and his legacy for missional living.  Saint Patrick

In this painting by Siegar Koder as the Lord washes Peter’s feet, the bread and the cup of the eucharist on the table nearby. Peter is objecting and protesting as John 13 describes the story. Jesus’ face is hidden in service but reflected in the water in the basin. I once read that in some earlier church baptism ceremonies the newly baptized were given a towel, not only as a practical gift for the dripping wet but also as a reminder of their mission to be of service to others. Where do we find the motivation for that kind of service? In the one who served us and gave himself in love for us. John 13:1 begins by telling us, just before the foot washing, that what Jesus was doing was revealing the “full extent of his love”.

I once asked my doctor why I had never heard of sleep apnea very much in the past. Now it seems like many of my friends suffer from it and are on CPAP. The doctor said, the problem was always there but before CPAP there wasn’t a great therapy for it so we just didn’t talk about it that much. I wonder if the same dynamic is a work when people refuse to face their sins. When we don’t really think there is a cure or anything effective to be done, why talk about it or even admit to it? Just struggle along. Could it be that we avoid an honest look at our sins and flaws sometimes because we have too small a view of his love and grace? Do we really believe the grace in him is bigger than the sin in us, always bigger?

If we don’t know or believe there is a cure for a problem maybe we just don’t like to really identify it. On the other hand if there is a cure, shouldn’t we be more open about naming the problem and applying the cure? Our deepest problem is the soul-sickness of sin. However we have a cure so let’s look for and identify our problem honestly, humbly and continually. John assures us, “the blood of Jesus, His (God’s) son, purifies us from all sins.” (1 John 1:5) There is no cure for my vague feelings, excuses or rationalizations but for sin there is a cure. And seeing that honestly and believing it deeply heals my heart and hands me a towel.

When Connie and I first moved into our church parsonage in Topeka, Kansas years ago the back yard was a mess. It was overgrown with weeds, shrubs and even small trees. We wanted a garden so we went to work. I remember how surprised I was when under a thorny tangle of vines I found a scrawny rose bush with one little bud. I remembered something Jesus said.

In Luke 8:14 he said, The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.

I think what sometimes happens is that I do believe deeply and that faith shapes the big decisions daily but I can easily let other concerns and issues grow so thick in my mind that the vitality of faith is to some degree choked out by the many concerns of life and, in my case, even of ministry.

In Luke 21:34 Jesus said, “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.

Here he’s talking about the last days but what I want to stress is the way the heart can be weighed down. The word “weighed down” suggests a heavy sleepiness. Not just sadness but weariness and dullness of thought. Notice what brings this dullness of heart about: dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life. Okay drunkenness we understand. What about dissipation? Dissipation means a careless and wasteful life. Drunkenness is a kind of dissipation but there are other ways to dissipate or waste your life. You can do this just by giving too much time and attention to foolish things in a kind of wasteful self-indulgence. It can take many forms; hobbies, TV, shopping… Paul even warns about worthless theological arguments. 2 Timothy 2:23 says, Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. Titus 3:9 says, But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.

If we waste our life’s energies on unimportant things we may find the vitality of our faith slipping away, or shrinking and growing flabby like an unused muscle. Think about it, could it be that what seems a crisis of faith in someone is really just the atrophy of faith due to a wasteful indulgence of modern life without the essential discipline of weeding and cultivating the garden. The last issue Jesus mentioned in Luke was “the anxieties of life”, an overanxious heart so concerned with this present earthly life that there is little room for deep faith to grow. Sometimes when we feel our faith is weak the problem might not be the vitality of our faith so much as the crowding of our faith. Faith can’t thrive if it is just be one plant in a garden overgrown with weedy worthless thoughts and emotions. Faith in Christ has to be guarded, cultivated, nurtured and encouraged. Everything that gets in the way of that faith has to be ruthlessly cut away, rooted up and thrown out. Psalm 139:23-24: says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Some of us need to believe in a completely different way than we have been believing! Because what some of us call believing just isn’t working. Please read this whole post! I know I’ve told the story before about a man told about a friend he was visiting. They were driving somewhere and this friend wasn’t wearing his seat belt. So the man mentioned this to his friend. He said, “Uh, you know the statistics don’t you, you really should drive with a seat belt.” His friend just shrugged him off. About a year later they got together again and he noticed that his friend put his seat belt on when he got in the car. So he said something like this. He said: “Wow, now you’re wearing your seat belt, how come?” His friend said: “well, I visited a man I know who was in a car accident he didn’t have his seat belt on. He went right through the windshield and had about a hundred and twelve stitches in his face and now I always wear my seat belt.” So the man who was telling the story says to his friend: “Are you saying you didn’t really believe in seat belts before?” And the man said something very interesting and very human. He said: “Well I did believe it but I didn’t believe it. I believed it but I wasn’t effected by it. I didn’t get any new information when I saw my friend all stitched up in the hospital but all the information became sort of new to me. What about you and your faith in God?Does it really make a big difference in daily life or do you pretty much act as if it doesn’t when there are struggles and temptations?

I remembered this story after a couple of conversations I recently had that left me sad and a little discouraged. In both cases I was talking to a Christian who was struggling with certain issues that were difficult or sad or caused anxiety. In both cases I felt I listened sympathetically and expressed sincere empathy. But in order to share the only truth that has ever, ever, ever helped me and in order to be faithful to the gospel I believe myself called to preach, I, having listened, started to talk about Christ and the promises we have in Him. The responses were slightly different but similar in that neither person seemed to be helped by the promises of God’s love, help, presence, or for that matter any aspect of our Christian faith. I wish I could say this surprised me. It frustrated me but it did not surprise me because it happens fairly often. Sometimes the attempt to call people to actually believe in real life with they confess so readily in church results in the person being upset. It sometimes seems as if we are supposed to have a social contract to support each other in our troubles only by listening sympathetically but never by exhorting faith in Christ, or God or the gospel and it’s promises. Sometimes the person who is being encouraged to believe isn’t offended but they aren’t really responsive either. They just look at you as if to say, “You can’t seriously think that I should find any comfort in my difficulties or strength to fight temptation just by taking to heart the cardinal truths of the faith I profess”. I guess I sound a little frustrated. Well, maybe so but it’s okay. It really is because as Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:12 I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. 

Are we in danger of succumbing to a culture, even in the church, in which we profess a faith that doesn’t work in our lives? Wouldn’t that be the kind of dead faith that James warns us against? At Christ Community I long for us to be a church of believers who truly believe. Can we honestly claim to believe that Christ is Lord if we actually let emotions, temptations, self-pity, the desire for comfort or affirmation or any number of other idols or issues actually rule as Lord in the day to day of life? What actually rules your life? That thing is your Lord. If it isn’t Christ then repent and believe in Him! If you have to do that a thousand times a day do it. I’m not talking about just trying harder. I’m talking about first believing more, or believing what you claim to believe more deeply. Choosing in the temptations and emotion to believe the promises. That’s how we listen to the music. And unless you do you won’t dance! If you aren’t dancing well (living the life) you just aren’t hearing the music. The music is beautiful and sufficient and moving but only for those who listen and receive and really believe. Check your emotions and temptations and let them show you where you are not believing and then turn back to faith and worship. Sometimes it is in choosing to worship that faith sinks in and becomes real.

Not too long ago Ed Stetzer posted an article which asks the question “Why is cultural relevance a big deal?” I’m going to post the whole article below because it think it is very important and helpful for us: Christ Community Church, Daytona, to be thinking about these issues.

. . . The unchurched think that Christianity is a retrograde culture rather than a living faith. Our job is to remove the “extra” stumbling blocks of culture without removing the essential stumbling block of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:23). . . .

HERE’S THE WHOLE ARTICLE

Why is cultural relevance a big deal? – Ed Stetzer

The scriptures are relevant to this and every culture. They do not need updating, correcting, or revisioning. On the contrary, what needs revisioning is our understanding and obedience to God’s word as we live out His mission in context. When we live a humble orthodoxy and humble missiology, we will be salt and light in contemporary culture—a biblically-faithful, culturally-relevant, counter culture. Here is a brief article I wrote for our friends at Catalyst that might be an encouragement: 


The fight goes on. Like a giant tug of war, each side is pulling hard. The battle lines: Cultural relevance versus biblical faithfulness—a classic tyranny of the “OR.” Yes, cultural relevance can be confusing.

On the one hand, the church can be so focused on cultural relevance that it loses its distinctive message. Don’t think it won’t happen—it has happened to countless churches and denominations. On the other hand, it can decide that culture does not matter. That leads to a church whose message is indiscernible and obscure to those who are “outside.” Let me propose an alternative: our churches need to be biblically faithful, culturally relevant, counter culture communities.

Not everyone buys into what I’ve just said. Whole ministries exist just to tell you not to pay attention to culture. To them, a virtuous church is one that is culturally irrelevant. In their view, a mark of holiness is not just being disconnected from sin but also being disconnected from sinners and the culture they share with us every day.

Preaching against culture is like preaching against someone’s house—it is just where they live. The house has good in it and bad in it. Overall, culture can be a mess—but (to mix metaphors) it is the water in which we swim and the lens through which we see the world. And the gospel needs to come, inhabit, and change that and every culture (or house).

Preaching against culture is not the pattern of the New Testament church (see Dean Fleming’s Contextualization in the New Testament), the historic church (see Ruth Tucker’s From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya), or today’s church (see Breaking the Missional Code).

Culture clearly does matter! For 2000 years, missionaries have courageously sought to take the message and make it understandable. Through these two millennia, changing cultures have impacted the church and its missional strategies. Conversely, in many cases, the church has also impacted culture. The reason ministry models have to change is because they have an unchanging message that must be conveyed in a changing world. That message is Christ, the gospel, and the Scriptures. Jude 3 says that we are to “contend for the faith once delivered for the saints.” That’s essential.

But, the Bible also clearly gives us a mandate to make the message understandable. We do more than just translate it into a language. We also have to translate it into a culture. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22-23, “I have become all things to all men.” Why? Because the message needs to be contextualized. The “how” of ministry is, in many ways, determined by the “who, when, and where” of culture. That’s also essential.

We have to both contend and contextualize. This brings a balanced focus in our proclamation and practice. When we contend for the gospel, we remain biblically faithful. When we contextualize, we communicate the message effectively. When we contend and contextualize, our churches are biblically faithful, culturally relevant, counter culture communities.

Those who preach against culture are often unaware that they live in one. But the dynamic culture around them is often not the culture of their church. What they yearn for is typically not a scriptural culture, but rather a nostalgic religious culture of days past. The irony of this is that every church is culturally relevant. It is simply a matter of whether the culture of the church is in any way similar to the culture of its community or only meaningful to itself.

Contextualizing does not mean that your church needs to look like Northpoint (Atlanta) or Mosaic (LA). It may mean something very different, and a culturally relevant church in your community may look very different from culturally relevant churches in other communities. Yet, many of us miss that. Why? Because too many leaders pastor their churches in their heads and not in their communities. But the truth is, if you can’t pastor the people God has given you (not the ones He’s given Andy Stanley or Erwin McManus), then you don’t love them. John Knox said, “Give me Scotland or I die.” He had a passion for the people of Scotland. We need to have the same passion for the people where we are, and to love them and their culture (though parts of every culture should make you uneasy and call for a biblical critique—see Acts 17 and my message from The Resurgence conference).

The alternative to this kind of passion is “community lust” and “demographic envy.” Lots of pastors are lusting for someone else’s community. They want a church that is culturally relevant to Los Angeles, Seattle, or New York even though they live in Des Moines, Iowa. But that’s not the answer.

Biblically Faithful
Before anything else, the church and its ministry must be biblically faithful. A lot of great conferences on creativity and ministry are helpful. But, we need to remember that our purpose is to apply that creativity in biblically and culturally relevant ways. The reason we engage culture is not to be cool, trendy, contemporary, or cutting edge—words that have become idols to us—but so that those who live in culture can hear the message of Jesus. That message is more than just “come to Christ,” it involves how we live and structure our lives, and it matters deeply. Our churches should share the gospel message wherever they are and whatever their cultural context. They should be known as people who love God’s Word and seek to live differently because of it.

Culturally Relevant
Churches that are biblically faithful to God’s mission will work to relate to people in culture. We who are Christians should look similar to, but not be identical to, our culture. If we don’t, people will assume that being a Christian simply means being different—dressing differently, listening to different music styles, and voting the same way. They’ll confuse Christianity with a change of clothes, music, and political party registration. That means that Christians should use language, dress, and live life in the “house” of culture, while living differently because they are in the family of God.

Counter Culture
Jesus said that we should be “in” the world but not “of” the world. Many churches today do just the opposite. They are “of” the world but not “in” it. We must teach people to look similar to the world, but live differently. Most churches in the U.S. today do just the opposite.

For example, born—again Christians divorce at a higher rate than the unchurched, while many of their church services feel like a trip to a museum. It’s like going back to a time when culture was more “holy” and divorce was unheard of. Today, we’ve kept the museum culture but jettisoned the biblical morality—the wrong choice. Rather, Christians should be counter culture—in family life, values, finances, and every other aspect of their lives. They should reflect their culture while living in contrast to that culture.

Why, if we have the timeless truth of the gospel, do we need to concern ourselves with culturally relevant ministry? Because if we don’t, the message of the gospel gets confused with the cultures of old. The unchurched think that Christianity is a retrograde culture rather than a living faith. Our job is to remove the “extra” stumbling blocks of culture without removing the essential stumbling block of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:23). Unfortunately, the stumbling block of the cross has too often been replaced by the stumbling block of the church. Most people aren’t being recruited by other religions; they are being confused by the practice of ours.

The easy route is to go to a conference, read a book, and create a great church “in your head”—a cutting edge, cool, trendy, and contemporary church. But the biblical route is found in Paul’s activities in Acts 17. Wander through your Athens. Look at the cultural idols. Let this break your heart and burden your mind. Let godly passion drive you to say “Give me Athens or I die.” Then confidently take the gospel to those who’ll see its uncluttered message, trust its validity, and receive its Savior—Jesus Christ.

Ed Stetzer serves as the Missiologist and Senior Director of the Center for Missional Research at the North American Mission Board in Alpharetta, GA and co-pastor of Lake Ridge Church in suburban Atlanta. His most recent books are Breaking the Missional Code (w/ David Putman, 2006) and Planting Missional Churches (2006).Ed is one of the featured speakers at the National New Church Conference in Orlando, Florida on April 23-26th, 2007. Catalyst is excited to be a partner in the National New Church Conference. Checkout www.exponentialconference.com for more information.