Main point: Gospel teaching and gospel community go hand in hand, and we need to be intentional about both.
The first Christian church was notable for two things: gospel teaching and gospel community. They “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship” (Acts 2 v 42).
Through the gospel message, God saves us to be in community, a people. As Tim Chester and Steve Timmis put it in Total Church: “It is not that I belong to God and then make a decision to join a local church. My being in Christ means being in Christ with those others who are in Christ.”
We don’t just believe—we belong.
Which, Acts 2 shows, means:
This kind of loving, sharing, trusting, affirming community is what we were, literally made for. And yet belonging to a gospel community is counter-cultural. It doesn’t come naturally, because:
It seems to me there are lots of churches which are great at up-front gospel teaching—but wouldn’t be described as an Acts 2-type gospel community. Ironically, that actually undermines gospel teaching. Because it’s only in gospel community that gospel teaching becomes really effective—only there members can minister to one another, serve one another, encourage and rebuke one another.
Good church leaders don’t wait for gospel teaching to grow organically. They lead and model it from the pulpit, and they scaffold it through small-group Bible studies, encouraging people to use Bible-study notes, and so on.
Likewise, gospel community needs intentional building—requires leading, modelling, scaffolding. We can do church in a way that encourages and supports being together, sharing together, praising and witnessing together—being true community—or we can do church in a way which actually reinforces our natural individualistic consumerist tendencies.
Think about our churches.
Interestingly, in Acts 2, it’s not the gospel teaching so much as the gospel community which seems to have been noticed by those around the church. As Timmis and Chester write, “we have found some people wanting to be part of our church community not because they were interested in Christ, but because they wanted a kinder, gentler alternative to their existing network of relationships”.
Gospel teaching in gospel community is where we’ll see gospel growth. It’s worth being as intentional about planning and building community as we are about planning and preparing our teaching.
Practical suggestion: read Total Church. It’s one of those books that is both practical and provocative, and always thoroughly gospel-centred and gospel-hearted.
Main point: Service orders work best when they’re thoughtful, purposeful, and clear.
Service order. Not two words which set many hearts racing…
Some churches have a set order, which never changes. Some decide the order five minutes before the meeting begins each Sunday! Some change the order on the principle that variety is the spice of life.
But the order of the various elements in a Sunday meeting can both add greatly to, or detract from, a church family’s worship; and of their understanding of and response to the gospel teaching.
We’ve all seen parts of services which don’t really work. A song where no one knows why they’re singing it. The prayers after the sermon which don’t mention the teaching. The Communion which takes over half an hour to administer. Service orders need thinking about!
Two questions are helpful to ask of any part of the service: “Why are we doing this at this stage?” “Would someone in a pew/chair know why we are doing this at this stage?”
In other words, what is the purpose of each part of our time together?
Sometimes, neither gets asked. And often, if we’re honest, the service leader knows the answer to the first question, but no one else does!
If you’re taking this purposeful approach, at some stage in the week before the service, you need to list the various elements of your service—teaching, singing (including how often to sing, what to sing, and perhaps the “tone” in which it’s to be played), praying, notices, possibly Communion, perhaps a time to give financially. What will guide the order in which you write those elements down?
The single summary sentence of the teaching (see the post on gospel teaching) drives the service order. The beginning of the service recaps on the previous week, and/or introduces the theme, or the issue, or the question, that’s being spoken to by the Bible passage (and summed up in the sentence). The middle part teaches the summary sentence. And the last part applies it, enables people to respond to it, and/or reinforces it.
One week, the main teaching slot might be very early on, because there needs to be lots of time for discussion, prayer, thinking and application of what’s been said. Another week, the whole meeting might build up to the teaching, which therefore comes near the end—less time for considering application, but more for outlining the issues the passage addresses.
The summary sentence is the centerpiece of the meeting—virtually everything else in the meeting points to it in some way.
In a great book called “Worship by the Book”, where three pastors discuss how they order their gathered worship, Tim Keller (of Redeemer in New York) explains his three-part order to services.
i) Adoration
Christians arrive at church from a week in the world, where in some ways they’ll have forgotten who the real God is, and worshipped false gods. The first thing we need to do is to adore the true God, remembering and focusing and loving who He is.
ii) Renewal
This will lead us to see that we haven’t worshipped the true God in the past week. We need to renew our relationship with him, to seek and receive his forgiveness as His people.
iii) Commitment
Having renewed our grace-based relationship with the true God, we are ready to commit ourselves once more to his service, to consider how we will do that in the week ahead in His strength.
A time of confession and assurance of forgiveness slots into Part Two of the service—the rest can go pretty much anywhere. The teaching can be placed according to what the passage is. It can go early if it’s adoration-focussed, in the middle if it’s forgiveness-focussed, and towards the end if it’s more a call to action of some kind. But the whole service order leads the congregation through a narrative arc, from who they are when they enter (failing Christians who’ve forgotten God in some way) to who they are when they leave (forgiven Christians who’re leaving to serve God).
Those are just two possible approaches. Do add others that you’ve seen work well in the Comments below. There’s no “right way” of ordering a service. But being deliberate, thoughtful, and clear—answering both those “why” questions—will help avoid wrong ways.
Practical suggestion: Next Sunday, ask yourself the “why” questions after the service. And then scribble down how things would have been ordered according to the two approaches set out above.
The main point: Evangelicals are great at focusing on what we teach in church—we also need to think about how we teach.
How do evangelical churches do their teaching at Sunday meetings? Chances are, it’s done by one man, in one go.
And Scripture supports that method of teaching—there’s a lot of it in the Bible! But it’s not all there is in the Bible.
When Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, he thought it could be a good idea for “everybody” to prophesy (1 Corinthians 14 v 24). “Everyone” seemed to turn up with something to offer teaching-wise (v 26).
The Colossian church was told to make space for the gathering to “teach and admonish each other” (Colossians 3 v 16).
In Acts, Luke describes the way the apostles taught as “preaching” (eg: Acts 9 v 20)—and as interactive (2 v 36-39); “reasoned with” (18 v 4); “public debate” (v18 v 28); “discussions” (19 v 9); Bible study (17 v 11).
Should a block of up-front, top-down teaching be the only way Christians learn when they meet together as church?
Educational theory (as well as the Bible!) would suggest not. Of course, we don’t want to use secular research uncritically. But equally, we shouldn’t just write it off.
What to teach isn’t flexible: the unchanging truths of Scripture. But when it comes to how to teach, it’s helpful to bear in mind:
What implications might this have?
Of course, the what is more important than the how: but the how is still vital. We have many organizations, courses and conferences helping church leaders think about the what: is it time to begin to challenge ourselves and equip ourselves when it comes to the how?
Practical suggestion: Primary school teachers spend almost all of their prep time thinking through how to teach. Why not get a primary school teacher in your congregation… give them the main point of the passage for next week’s service… get them to imagine they’re teaching a lesson, only to adults… tell them to think imaginatively how they’d teach it… and see what they come up with!
This is the first in a series of blog posts on “Church outside the box”. It’s aim is to prompt discussion, to raise questions, and to offer a few ideas. It’s the product of thinking-in-progress, so when you think of something to add, or want to raise a question or disagreement, please use the Comment box!
The main point: As we do church, we need to be inflexible on the inflexibles, but also flexible on the flexibles.
Imagine sitting down with a Bible in your left hand, and a blank sheet of paper in your right. Then imagine writing down on the right-hand piece of paper everything your left-hand Bible says MUST happen at your church meetings.
What would be on it? I think the list would pretty much look like this:
That’s not a very long list! It’s worth mentioning what it doesn’t include:
In your right hand is a bit of paper with a lot of room left. A lot of space to imagine, or re-imagine, how our church gatherings look, feel and run. A lot of areas to be flexible, to think about what will most encourage our fellow Christians, and what will most connect with our community’s non-believers.
An individual church exists in a culture, a time, a place. Two of those three are always changing. If a church isn’t flexible on non-Biblical essentials, it will be existing in (and seeking to reach) a culture that no longer exists, in a time which has passed. Surely it’s no accident that that Bible leaves us so much flexibility.
In our left hand is the Bible. No room left at all here—it’s packed with everything God wants us to know about His Son. This is what we need to be resolutely inflexible on—it is what our fellow Christians, and our communities’ non-believers, need to hear.
A church needs to be inflexible on what the Bible says, for the glory of God… and flexible on everything else—for the glory of God.
This may seem obvious! But is it how our churches work? Let’s categorise churches into four types:
Type One
Type Two
Type Three
Type Four
Is it worth asking what type of church our own is? And if it’s not Type Four, asking what would need to change to make it that kind of church?
Practical suggestion: Actually get that right-hand sheet of paper. Scribble down what the Bible says we MUST do in church. Then use the space that’s left to re-imagine church, for your culture and community, which:
Sometimes groups of Christians get things spectacularly wrong.
With the persistence of sin in the lives of believers (1 John 1:8) and the reality of false teachers in the church (2 Peter 2:1-3) this should not be a surprise. But it should be a cause of great sadness. And a massive spur to prayer. So with that in mind it’s good to encourage one another to be interceding for the church in Zimbabwe.
The Anglican Church there is in turmoil. A reasonable desire to be involved in politics has been distorted out of all proportion with bishops using governmental alliances to further their own ends and destroy the ministries of their rivals. Clergy have been evicted. Orphanages left with few staff. Congregations put at physical and spiritual risk.
Of course, amid all this there are good and godly pastors seeking to serve the Lord in Spirit and in truth.
The plight of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe has been highlighted this week because Archbishop Rowan Williams is soon to visit there as part of his trip round central Africa. So why not use this increased publicity to encourage yourself and others in your congregation to pray?
It would be fantastic if Christians around the globe could join together and ask the Lord to:
It’s an inescapable fact that men and women are different.
It’s not that men are from Mars and women are from Venus – we’re all from planet earth and need to accept that fact.
Nor is it that girls are full or sugar and spice and all things nice and boys obsessed with slugs and snails – we’re all sinners and there’s no escaping that.
But we are created to complement one another (Genesis 2:20-24). To be both diverse as well as similar. And that means to a certain extent we learn differently and serve differently.
This has implications for preaching. It doesn’t change the gospel but it does mean that if sermons are to inspire, instruct and equip women then some careful thought needs to be given to how preachers communicate and apply God’s precious word.
And this is one of the topics that are going to be considered at next week’s Evangelists' conferences. If you would like to explore this important area, there are still tickets available at both the London and Leyland venues. So why not come and join the conversation …? Or if you can’t make it to the event, check back here to read about some of the things we discussed.
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Steve Jobs founder of Apple Computer, technological visionary and business genius and who died today. Apple products are owned by perhaps 300 million people worldwide. From his commencement speech at Stanford University 2005: "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.'' "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.'' "Stay hungry, stay foolish." |
The Apostle Paul, theological visionary and passionate preacher who died, probably executed, sometime in the 1st Century. The faith he sought to bring to the non-Jewish world is adhered to by almost a third of the world's population - over 2 billion people. From the Letter to the Philippians For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. (3 v 10-11) "For me to live is Christ to die is gain" (1 v 21) "But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (3 v 13-14) |
I have a terrible confession to make:
I find it hard to pray.
Actually, I don't find it hard to pray. As soon as I get going, there's loads of stuff I want to talk to my heavenly father about - things that concern me - people I love - expressions of thanks and praise for all he's done for me. Once I get started, I'm often like a ball rolling downhill. (Ask any of my daughters who regularly complain that my 'grace' prayers before dinner tend to ramble on a bit, and not always be just about the food!)
But there has now entered into my digitally-ordered world a new iPhone app called 'PrayerMate' that has done something really significant to make me more of a prayer warrior than I was:
1. It reminds me to get praying
The app is really very simple. It's basically a prayer diary that allows me to set up lists of people and situations to pray for. But the terrific feature is that, at the time I set every day, it pops up a message whatever I am doing saying: "Time to Pray?"
In and of itself that has been a massive help. My family and working life is ever-so-slightly chaotic, and finding a set time for daily Bible reading remains difficult - often being squeezed between getting up, school lunch making, making tea to take milady in bed, and leaving the house. Easy to forget or to get squeezed. The daily reminder is, quite literally, a God-send (via Apple).
2. It gives me a good structure
On opening, it presents me with a prayer from the Bible, which is often stimulating for the content and character of my prayers. Today was Matthew 9:38 The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest."
What follows on the sliding screens is a selection of people and issues from a number of lists I have set up: for family, my housegroup; my sunday school class and co-leaders; my work colleagues; friends, church etc. The nice thing here is that I can set the frequency of when they get prayed for. I talk to the Lord about each member of my immediate family every day, whereas only one of my work mates, homegroup and sunday school class pop up each day. Other things may be less frequent.
Importing the names as a dream from my address book, and there is room to add notes and issues to each person as time goes on.
This is the first version of this terrific little app - no doubt it will grow in sophistication with revision releases - but I hope the developers don't lose the practical simplicity of how it works at the moment. Technology has a habit of getting in the way of something that should be intimate and personal - and PrayerMate elegantly achieves being a helpful aid that does not intrude, but genuinely equips and encourages. Well done lads.
At the church I go to, some people shriek and shout their way through the songs. Others shout out things or snort loudly during the sermon. Still others need some restraint to stop them lashing out at others.
No, it's not the latest brand of "spiritual phenomena" that has hit South West London. It's just that we decided many years ago as a church that we needed to integrate people who live with profound learning disabilities into our church life. So at the youth group, in the children's groups and in the main meetings we have a sprinkling of folk with Downs Syndrome and cerebral palsy who take part in our regular worship. While there have been challenges, I have to confess that this has been a great choice for us all, and for the families who are caring for them.
But it raises an important theological question. Of course our Christian response to learning disability is to simply show love and compassion for their physical and emotional wellbeing, and for the families that are often under great stress. But how should we think about their spiritual needs? How should we explain the Gospel to them and encourage a response in the way we would any other?
I admit to confusion on the issue, which is why I am looking forward to next weeks' Evangelists' conferences, where one of the seminars is about sharing the Gospel with people with learning disabilities. Tony Phelps Jones from Prospects will be helping us think through some big issues.
If this is an issue of concern to you too, then do join us for what promises to be a stimulating and insightful day.
Book for the conference here.
And if you really can't get there do check this blog in the coming weeks for some great tips from the other excellent seminars being run.
