The "Messiness" of Grace

I am presently reading a book entitled "Teaching Redemptively - Bringing Grace and Truth Into your Classroom" by Donovan Graham.  The more I read the more convinced I am that, in many cases in Christian education we have missed much of the point of why the God of grace called us to this ministry.  I feel we have been, as Graham states, more concerned about right "doing" than we have right "being" and the result is students who leave the doors of our schools with a false sense of what it means to be a true child of God's magnificent grace.

Here is why, in many Christian circles, we have run from emphasizing grace in our approach to education.  Grace is risky!  In fact, grace is downright messy!  So because the last thing we want to do in our schools is take risks and deal with mess we have turned our ministry into ones of law and legalism and have not come to embrace the truth that true Christian education immerses the student in the grace of the gospel of Christ.

Let's face the truth.  It is much easier and safer to just create a set of rules and force the students to look right, act right, dress right, talk right, walk right, say the right things, "never smoke, drink or chew and date people that do" in order to comply and be seen as "right with God."  That's safe and, truthfully, it creates the image we want our schools to have in public eyes.  When visitors come on the campus they see all these well dressed, well mannered students and it's impressive to the public. Do we want that public image to be there?  Absolutely, but it must come from a student body that is immersed and transformed by God's grace.  Worse yet, we send many of our grads out to face the world having convinced them that the way to please God is compliance, conformation to a set of standards.  Sound familiar?  It should if you've read the New Testament.  In other words, unwittingly, we are graduating modern day Pharisees.  But it has been clean, black/white and safe for us.  We don't have to make subjective decisions in discipline.  We don't have to take time to invest in the lives of young men and women to find out what is really going on in their hearts.  We just have to ride shotgun over the herd!  We can maintain these surface relationships, close our classroom doors at 3:30 and go home to our "away from school" lives.  And we don't get messy!

BUT, is that truly educating in a redemptive, Christian way?  I submit to you that it isn't, at all.  Folks, especially those of you involved in Christian education, IF God deals with us by grace and calls us to live and teach by that same grace, what else can we do??

Over the next few days I want to unpack the question of WHY is grace so messy.  And then I want to share some thoughts on teaching with grace.  Stay tuned!  God wants us to be redemptive teachers and redemption is based in totality on the gospel of grace.  Get ready!  If you are going to teach redemptively, you're going to have to get messy!

Is The Christian Church in Transition?

Is the Christian church in a period of transition?  I have been asked this and have asked it myself.  I think the answer is a resounding, YES.  But, in reality, the Christian church has been in a state of transition since its birth at Pentecost 2000 years ago.  The reason it seems more transitional today than it has in past history?  Everything today happens at warp speed.  For centuries the transitions the church went through were slow and often subtle.  Today the transitions are fast and much more overt.  BUT, I submit to you that the TRUE Christian church, while constantly transitioning in some ways, has always been solid, firm and unmovable in the things that really matter, the foundational doctrinal truths that make it the Christian church.

Think about it like this.  Architectural styles of houses, churches, schools and other structures have changed over the years.  These styles have come and gone like clothing fads.  But the engineering principle of foundations has not changed one iota in since God created natural laws.  Jesus spoke of this in the Sermon on the Mount.  The wise man built his house on a rock and it withstood the storms.  The foolish man built his house on the sand and it soon collapsed.  In other words, construction that survives is built on a sure, unmovable foundation.  The Christian church was built on the solid foundation of certain doctrinal truths given to us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and as long as the church stayed true to those foundational doctrines it remained the TRUE Christian church. Throughout history, heresies would invade the church, resulting in splinter groups but there was always a remnant of true believers who would fight the battles, suffer the martyrdom, pay the ultimate price to keep the true Christian church alive and well but even then the transitions continued. They didn’t fight those fights and suffer those fiery deaths to preserve “architectural style.”  They did it to preserve foundations.

So, where is the Christian church today?  Exactly where it has always been, standing true to the foundations laid by Christ and the apostles.  Some reading this will question that last statement, because they see a church that looks different than the one they grew up seeing and often the changes in practice gets misinterpreted as changes in foundations.  Music is different.  I was in a church Sunday that had a six piece bluegrass ensemble leading the congregation in a blend of old hymns and contemporary praise and worship songs that were doctrinally sound and I LOVED it! (I knew I was in the right place when I walked in and heard that banjo! Earl Scruggs, I miss you!) That was followed by the pastor preaching a great message on the marvelous grace of God and how it is through His grace we are saved.  The music was a new “architectural style” but the preaching revealed the truth of Christian foundation.  We have to remember that in days gone by, the introduction of the piano in church brought a firestorm of criticism as "bringing the world into the church" because the piano was considered a saloon instrument.  Dress is different.  Suits and dresses have been replaced by khakis and slacks, in some cases t-shirts, jeans, even cargo shorts.  Many pastors no longer wear suits and ties.  That’s the new “architectural design” but if the statement of faith the church stands on and the preaching is based on the true doctrines of Christ, the foundation is solid and firm.  We have to remember that many years ago when pastors stopped wearing robes in the pulpit, they were accused of lowering standards an becoming worldly.  The format is different.  Some churches have a stage instead of a platform and the preacher doesn’t use a pulpit.  Some churches have lighting effects during the music.  Then the pastor gets up and declares the clear gospel message of salvation and Christian living.  “The architectural style” changes but the foundation is sure and solid.  Again, we only need to go back a century to find that pastors mounted a high pulpit, pretty much on a pedestal far above the congregation and read his sermon word for word.  When the church brought pulpit down to almost floor level and the pastor began to speak more extemporaneously and actually venture away from the pulpit as he preached, it began to be called “low” church and people saw it as lowering the bar. 

We have to face the truth that the church “architecture” is always changing.  I have to make a choice as I watch this accelerating transition.  I can do like my grandparents did and say, “I don’t like it!  They just don’t build them like they used to.” Or I can look for the foundations, and if they are solid, accept that change is part of generational progress.  Churches that do not adapt will slowly die.  We are seeing that take place before our eyes in both churches and Christian schools.  My grandkids will not “do” church like I did and that is okay if the foundations are solid.  Truly, it is the foundations that really matter.  In the end whether Christians sing to a piano and organ, or a bluegrass praise team; whether the pastor stands behind a pulpit in a suit, or paces an open “stage” in khakis and a polo shirt, that’s simply architectural style.  If WHAT is being sung and preached from that pulpit or on that open stage is foundational truth based on the rock of Christ, all is well!  I am one guy who believes that if we make sure the next generation gets the solid foundation of doctrinal truth passed on from us, we can bless them with the freedom to use their God-given creativity to find their own “architectural design.”

I spoke in a church recently and a man walked up to me and introduced himself.  He was a man that would be frowned on in many churches because he had shoulder length hair, was dressed in leather and had a few tattoos on his arms.  He told me his story of how, in many churches he'd visited when he was seeking an answer for his soul's questions, he'd be stared and, pointed at and avoided.  Then he came to the church where I met him and told me that he's found there a church that wasn't JUST for church people and he came to Christ.  Then after a few months of discipleship and mentoring God called him to reach out to people like him.  So today he has a thriving ministry to street people, the down and out.  He goes into his town, and because those people can identify with him, they listen and dozens are being saved and helped.  God found him where he was and now the Lord is using him to do the same with those to whom he has been sent.  Different architecture; same foundation! 

The God of Outsiders

Let me first of all give credit to this concept to my Pastor, Dr. J.D. Greearr, who touched on this thought Sunday in his sermon.  I have been rolling something like this through my head for some time and his words were far more eloquent and current than mine will be.  But they usually are.

One of the most intriguing New Testament passages is found in the words of Jesus in what, chronologically, was the first recorded sermon He preached.  It is Luke 4:25, where Jesus said, and I paraphrase, "God brought a great famine in all of Israel and though there were many widows who suffered during that famine, God sent Elijah to only one of them, a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon."  This is a reference to an Old Testament event recorded in I Kings 17:8-24.  Why did He mention this event in His first recorded sermon?  He was sending forth a very powerful message. The true God was a superior God to Baal because the true God is a God of outsiders.  There isn't enough time or room to deal fully with the I Kings passage here so I suggest you go there and read the story.

Consider this:  There were many widows in Israel, all part of God's chosen people, but God didn't send Elijah to provide for them and do the miracles He did for the widow in Sidon.  Why did He pick her?  Tim Keller, in his book, "A Widow's Joy", makes the point that she typified the people for whom God sent His Son, she was an outsider in almost every sense of the word.  She was a gentile, so she was an outsider racially.  She was pagan, so she was an outsider religiously.  She was a woman, so she was an outsider in gender and she was a widow, which made her an outsider economically.

By the way, I'm not sure if you've ever noticed or thought about this, but in the genealogy of Christ there are four women recorded and that was highly unusual in Jewish genealogies.  Women were almost never included in Jewish genealogies.  But what is even more unique is who these women were:  Rahab, a gentile prostitute; Ruth, a cursed Moabite; Baathsheba, an adulterer, and Mary, who became pregnant prior to her marriage (although we know why this happened).  It was fairly common in those days for people concerned about their family reputation to eliminate sketchy characters from their genealogies altogether.  But God intentionally left these women in the genealogy of Christ BECAUSE all of them were outsiders.  The true God is a God of the outsider.  Now, what do I mean by outsider?

Every other religion in the world focuses on God rewarding the "insider".  Sadly, even Christianity has slipped into this in some ways.  He  rewards you with His grace and blessing IF you keep the rules.  IF you do religious things, IF you wear certain clothes, IF you listen to certain music, IF you pray certain prayers at certain times of the day, IF you carry the right version of the Bible.  IF you never smoke, drink or chew or date any people that do, that sort of thing.  It's easy for me, us, to become very judgmental about other people that don't follow the "rules" because insiders are rules followers.  So we look at a guy who rides a Harley, covered in tattoos, adorned in leather, riding in a pack and judge his spirituality based on that.  We hear someone rapping a Christian song and immediately judge whether he can truly be a sold out Christian, or Christian at all, because of his music preferences.  We can easily cast them as "outsiders" and they are.  But we tend to forget that we are all outsiders and the only hope any of us have is the great grace of a great God who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for the outsider. No matter how holy or righteously we try to live, and think everyone else should live, WE ARE ALL OUTSIDERS. In fact, the only way of any of us gain entrance to the "insider" club is through His blood, not through following rules on either side of the passageway to the "insider" club. 

All this reminds me again how grateful we must be for the grace of a loving God who looks beyond our faults and sees our need.  A God who never loses sight of the fact that we are just dust, worth nothing in ourselves either before or after salvation.  But because of His marvelous grace we've been made worthy through Him.

His grace and peace to you today!

The Value of Wise Investments

All of us are concerned about investments.  We watch the stock market climb and we are excited but underneath that euphoria lies this little dark thought.  Eventually that has to stop and there will be some type of economic correction.  There will be a drop.  How much will we lose when it comes?  What if we've been duped and our money is invested in some type of Ponzi scheme?  How will I be able to make it when I retire if I don't invest wisely?

Jesus, in His sermon on the mount, gave sage advice on the value of investing wisely.  He said, "Lay up treasure in eternal things that stand the eternal value test."  We trust our money to investors here, and I have one I trust who is good at his job, but even the best can't predict the future of our fragile economy and even the most certain stock investments are, at best, gambles.  What Jesus spoke of is not a gamble.  It is a sure thing, no way to lose.  Invest in the eternal market.

I have committed my life to Christian education because I believe that this is one of the ways I can best invest in children and teens.  As a parent I put my children in Christian schools when they were still young because I knew the value of investing in their eternal future.  My wife and I can see the return on this investment today with all our kids actively living the Christian life and raising their kids to do the same.

One of the keys to building up a substantial retirement investment portfolio is to start investing very early in life.  I have taught students over the years that just putting aside $25-$30 a month consistently will compound to pretty nice nest egg if the economy holds strong.  But, you know me, and so you know this blog is not about investing money in retirement accounts.  I'm no financial investment expert. This is about investing early in the eternal future of your kids.  It's about making sure they get a strong biblical worldview instilled in them early.

All people develop a worldview, that is, they way they view God, the world, man, life, eternity, family, career, money, everything about life.  Our worldview is the lens through which view all aspects of life.  Psychologists tell us that a person's worldview is fully shaped by the age of ten, fourth grade.  Scary, isn't it?  You look at that little kindergarten child as they watch TV, go to school, meet new people, sit under your teaching at home and realize that everything they come in contact with helps shape that worldview.  Want to know what is even more sobering?  Your child's school has him/her seven waking hours each day.  You have them about four.  THAT's why the attitude, "I'll put them in the elementary school because it is safe.  They can't be harmed there.  I know some Christian teachers there," is so misinformed and dangerous.  From kindergarten your children are being taught a humanistic, free sexual, sin tolerant worldview seven hours everyday.  The MOST pivotal and vulnerable period of time for you children is early elementary years, NOT, middle school or high school.  The Christian school is not capable of replacing an ungodly worldview built into your kids from kindergarten up to grade six. 

Invest wisely, mom and dad.  It is easy to be temped by the free public school kindergarten after paying pre-school tuition for 2-3 years.  But keep this in mind.  You can't put a dollar value on a biblical worldview in your children.  It has to be seen as an eternal investment in the most prized possessions you have.

Grace and peace to you!

Micro Vision vs. Macro Vision

Most of us are familiar with the micro/macro concepts.  Macro is the term that means "large" while micro is the term that means "small."  For example, microeconomics refers to the study of individual markets in the economy while macroeconomics refers to the global, notional or even regional economic picture.  So what do I mean by micro vision as opposed to macro vision?  Think of it in these terms, little picture and big picture.

In Philippians 1:15-18 Paul has been told that there were some people preaching about Jesus of impure and disingenuous motives.  They said, "You know there are people there preaching about Jesus to cause strife and divisions. Some are doing it for personal gain.  Some are doing it to bring trouble to you, Paul.  Some are preaching pretentiously.  What do you have to say about that?"  Paul's reply revealed that he was a macro vision type of guy.  He said, "I know that some preach Christ out of envy, strife, selfish motive, trying to add to my troubles BUT whether they preach Christ out of sincerity or out of false pretense, Christ is being preached!  In that I do and will rejoice."

Macro vision people see the big picture of the Christian ministry.  They understand that not everything is going to suit them, that they may have to set aside personal preferences on some things like music, dress, worship styles in order that the main purpose of proclaiming the gospel be accomplished.  I am almost 60 years olds.  I was saved and raised in strict fundamentalism.  If anyone has traditional roots it is yours truly.  When I first walked into the church I now attend, and heard the contemporary music, I felt an immediate negative, judging spirit rise up inside me.  Then, horror of horrors, the pastor stood up in a pair of khaki pants with his shirttail out to preach and I started shutting him off.  But I took a deep breath and said, "Bob, give it a chance.  You may be focused on the small stuff."  So, he began to preach the gospel of Christ with power and clarity and it hit me that the big picture of Christ being preached is what matters.  I've watched this church reach college age young men and women and send them out to the mission fields in bunches with the gospel of Christ.  I'm not suggesting that a church like mine is for everyone who reads this post.  What I am saying is that we have to choose whether we are going to focus on the small picture or big picture.  As for me and my house, it is and will be macro.

Christian education is a macro vision, big picture ministry.  There is a big purpose God has planned for us that goes beyond me, my preferences, my traditions, my worship style.  Schools that get hung up over whether a skirt is knee length or two inches above the knee or whether to allow a girl to wear jeans, is a small picture ministry and is destined to shrink and then die.  That is disturbing to me.  But even more disturbing is the attitude I see among some people that it would be better for the school to close than compromise our "convictions".  How many children can be educated to share the gospel in a closed school?  How many children can be rescued from a corrupt school system by a school that died because it wouldn't broaden from micro to macro vision.  I'm certainly not suggesting that we have no dress codes or music standards in our schools.  What I am suggesting is that we not waste our opportunities to prepare young people to impact this culture for Christ because we would rather see our school closed and the buildings sold than relax our dress codes, make our music a bit more contemporary, work harder to build graceful relationships with the students than to force compliance for the sake of image.  I was in a school a few years ago where a student could wear green jeans, black jeans, white jeans, purple jeans but would get demerits for wearing BLUE jeans.  And then we wonder sometimes why the world we are trying to win looks at us like a cow looking at a new gate!

There are things far more important than the beat of a piece of music, or the length of a skirt or the version of the Bible someone walks into church with.  Preparing our students to walk with God (measured by the fruit of the Spirit, not by hair length, by the way). Preparing them to reach their culture for Christ.  Preparing them to continue supporting and furthering Christian education, a ministry that is BIG picture and it must either adapt or die.

Now before anyone reading this skewers me, just ask yourself this question.  How do you want your school to be viewed in the community?  What good does it do the cause of Christ if people ride by your empty buildings one day and say, "I'll give that bunch one thing.  They stuck to their hardline standards.  Of course, they had to shut the school down when they lost their kids, but they didn't compromise."