Category: Church

Monday Morning Insight has a post asking if pastors should have close friends in the Church. I thought I would weigh in on what I think.

Let's start by looking at scripture. What does the scripture have to say about friends and friendship?

Here is a link to all verses that contain the word friend. Some ones I want to highlight are below.

⁶If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;

⁷Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;

⁸Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:

Deuteronomy 13:6-8

¹⁶Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it? 

¹⁷A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

¹⁸A man void of understanding striketh hands, and becometh surety in the presence of his friend.

Proverbs 17:16-18

²⁴A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

Proverbs 18:24

⁵Open rebuke is better than secret love.

⁶Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

⁷The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

Proverbs 27:5-7

³Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.

⁴And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

⁵But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

Luke 12:3-5 

¹⁴Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

¹⁵Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

¹⁶Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

John 15:14-16

From the results of the search, we can see the Bible has TONS to say about friendship. From several verses (see Deuteronomy 13:6-8 and Proverbs 17:16-18 from above) we can clearly see that friends can be a bad thing. From yet other verses (Proverbs 27:5-7 above) we can see that friends can serve a purpose. From yet other verses (Luke 12:3-5 above) we can see that Jesus had friends on earth. We can even see in John 15:14-16 that Jesus says calls those who have accepted Him friends. So what is the problem?

I think the problem–just like in most things–isn't the thing but our implementation of friends. Clearly friends and friendship is Biblical. Friends serve to encourage, lift up, help, and keep each other on track. However, I think we have list sight of the last one. We want friends. We want others to like us. How do we do that? We are "nice" to each other.

In our culture, being nice has been transformed into "doing favors for", "thinking more of", and "don't say 'mean' things." Biblical friendships would entail speaking tough love to people. Helping them improve and get closer to Christ.

In a business meeting or other situation, friendships shouldn't stop us from doing the right thing. Since when does being a friend entail always siding with your "friend." If that is what is expected, one should evaluate if the "friend" is a real friend or not.

In conclusion, I don't think there is anything wrong with pastors having friends. Having friends–both in and out of the church–is acceptable. However, those friendships should be Biblical friendships and neither party should feel pressured to NOT do the right thing.

I'm going to gripe for a bit; however, before I do, I want to set the stage so you know a bit about me if this is your first visit.

First, I'm a Christian. Second, I'm a conservative. I happen to believe the Bible is true from start to finish. This is the primary reason I also happen to be a Baptist. I like cooperating together with others to accomplish the Great Commission: together we can do more than we could seperatly. This is the reason I'm a Souther Baptist.

Southern Baptists have developed something called the Cooperative Program. For more information, you can read a short paper I wrote at Marshall. You can also visit the Cooperative Program website. In a nutshell, Southern Baptists give to their church. Each church decides what percent of their undesignated gifts get sent to the state convention. Each church then sends messengers to the state convention. There, the messengers decide what percent of the money sent by each chuch will be used within the state and what percent will be sent on to the Southern Baptist Convention. Then, each church elects messengers to the Anual Southern Baptist Convention. At the convention, the messengers decide how the money sent to the convention by the states will be spent. I won't go into all the details about how this is different from the traditional denomination structure; however, I will talk a bit about what this allows Southern Baptists to do.

Because all agencies of the convention–the International Mission Board, North American Mission Board, etc…–are already fully funded, Southern Baptists are in a great position to respond in a crisis. When the tsunami hit last year, 100% of the money sent to the International Mission Board for relief were able to be sent overseas for tsunami relief. Every year, Southern Baptists give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Because the agency is fully funded through the Cooperative Program, none of this money is used to administrative support. NAMB–the North American Mission Board–functions the same way. The administrative tasks are carried out using Cooperative Program gifts. Special money given to the agency can be 100% utilized for the designated task. This is awesome!

Here is a graph showing how much different organizations spend on overhead.

Since these organizations use this percentage of ALL donations, the Cooperative Program makes giving to disaster relief through NAMB or the IMB look very good.

Something else to remember…NAMB is the 3rd largest disaster relief agency in the US. According to this article, the Red Cross would be unable to serve hot meals without Southern Baptist Help. Here are some more articles talking about how NAMB–through various state disaster relief agencies–is helping: http://www.namb.net/site/c.9qKILUOzEpH/b.227361/k.D1FD/News/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp.

So, why aren't NAMB and Southern Baptists receiving media attention? Not that we really need it (or want it) but some recognition would be nice. We don't support these agencies and volunteer to get attention. We do it because we really care about people and want to help meet their spiritual and physical needs. Before you say that the lack of attention is due to the "faith based" relief, I'd like to point out that the Methodists, Catholics, Muslims, and others have received attention.

Oh well, in the end, it doesn't matter. We do what we do because we love people and care about them. God allowed the SBC to cooperate together so in times like this, we can help. He allowed us to get big so we can be there to meet people's spiritual need (along with physical and emotional needs) at times like this.

I was reading blogs tonight, and came across this article. I think it shows what is wrong with most people today. Note the picture. Note what the person is looking for.

No, church shouldn’t be boring or irrelevant. HOWEVER, never loose sight of what you go to church for. There needs to be sound Biblical preaching. The Word should never be compromised! Before you choose a church, put some thought into your criteria. Figure out what is important. First on your list should be doctrine and Biblical preaching!

Image from diofw via flickr

[Update 2012-12-28 07:49:54] While testing my blog to make sure it worked, I came across this article that had a bad link.  The link used to go to http://tonymorgan.typepad.com/tony_morgan_one_of_the_si/2005/08/boring_churches.html.  I also added an image.

Dr. Mohler had a blog entry about the BTK killer and his pastor. He says, among other things:

Rev. Michael G. Clark is a deeply committed man. I know this because The New York Times reports that he was at the sentencing hearing yesterday for Dennis L. Rader, the infamous B.T.K. killer in Wichita, Kansas. Rader, now one of the nation's most notorious serial killers, was sentenced to ten life terms in prison for a brutal series of slayings that terrorized Wichita for years. He avoided the death penalty, but will not be eligible for parole for 175 years.

Pastor Clark comes into the story because he serves as pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Wichita. When arrested earlier this year, Rader had just taken over as president of the church's congregational council. He had actually taken one of his victims to the church and had hidden torture tools in the church's shed. He was caught when police traced him through a church computer he had carelessly used.

The paper reports that Pastor Clark sat in the courtroom reading Psalm 51, even as the grieving family members of the victims poured out their sorrow and testified of their loss. When Rader addressed the court, he pointed to Pastor Clark as his "main man," adding, "If there's anybody I was dishonest to, it's that man right there."

So, why was he at the courtroom? In an interview with the paper, Pastor Clark explained, "I just tell people . . . would you want me to stop coming to see you if I were your pastor?"

All I know is that in this very public moment of national attention — with every reason to run and hide — this pastor sat in the courtroom and read Psalm 51. That was a demonstration of rare pastoral courage, given by a man who must surely bear a broken heart. It should not go unnoticed.

Along these lines, I was watching the news several days ago (This hotel only has CNN, so I don't have it on all the time) and saw Dennis Rader on TV. It was a report in response to his sentencing. The families of his victims–at least the ones shown on the report–were full of hate. They really hated this man. Dennis was then able to speak.

I don't have the exact quote, but the jist of what I heard was him saying that he hoped by turning himself in he would get some favor with God. What went through my mind was that he was worried about his salvation…about going to heaven.

The Bible tells us that the only way to be forgiven for our sins is through the blood of Christ (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8, Romans 10:9, Romans 10:13, Romans 5:1, Romans 8:1, Romans 8:38-39). We cannot "work" our way to salvation. Now, being forgiven by God doesn't mean that we don't have to put up with the consequences (for an example of this, see how God dealt with Israel after they refused to go into the promised land and what God told them when they wanted to go after they heard what would happen.).

So, in conclusion…what Dennis did was wrong. He must suffer the consequences. However, God still desires that no one–you, me, and Dennis–would go to hell (see the verses above). God sent His son to die on the cross while we were still in our sin. God loved us then knowing what our lives would be like. The only way to restor our fellowship and relationship with Him is to accept His gift. I wish I knew how I could communicate this to Dennis.

Dr. Mohler is reporting that Bishop Mark Hansen is calling for an ecumenical council to resolve the question of biblical interpretation.

I had to hear this one for myself. Presiding Bishop Mark Hansen of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has called for an ecumenical council to convene in order to resolve the question of biblical interpretation in the church. Calling for the global council, Bishop Hansen called upon Pope Benedict XVI, leaders of the Eastern Orthodox churches, and mainline Protestant leaders to convene the council in order to stem the tide of what he called "fundamentalist" readings of Scripture.

"Christianity is in the midst of a global identity crisis because we have not addressed ecumenically the questions of authority and interpretation of scripture," Hanson told the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly last week. Religion News Service reported that the bishop also "called for Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches to come together to combat a 'fundamentalist-millennialist-apocalypticist reading of Scripture.'"

Christianity certainly is "in the midst of a global identity crisis," but that crisis is the result of theological accommodation and confusion — not biblical literalism. In this context, biblical literalism is code language for any assertion of biblical authority or biblical inerrancy.

There once was a time when the great councils of the church defended theological orthodoxy. Whatever happened to Nicaea, Chalcedon, and Ephesus? We can only imagine where this bizarre council might meet. The Council of Greenwich Village? Harvard Yard? Riverside Drive? I suggest the Council of Laodicea. The possibilities are endless.

Perhaps "fundamentalists" should hold a council on why NOT holding to biblical authority, inerrancy, infailability, etc… is harmful to the church.

Last night I checked my e-mail. I have received a response from Dr. Morgan and Sagemont Church to post mp3s of The Sagemont Story. I'm currently working on ripping the CDs I have. One I'm done with that (give me a few days) I'll post to the blog. Once they are up, I'll update the Christian Computer Solutions Online Store.

I have finally digitized the Sagemont Story. To download it, click the links below:

The Sagemont Story — part 1 of 4
The Sagemont Story — part 2 of 4
The Sagemont Story — part 3 of 4
The Sagemont Story — part 4 of 4

Salem Baptist Church is having Dr. John Morgan come in to speak to the church about his story. His story is about how Sagemont Church put their faith in God, and how God kept His promise and followed through. Pastor Zbinden has CDs and tapes with an audio presentation of their story. I have sent Dr. Morgan an e-mail asking for permission to post MP3s on my website. This story is awesome and inspiring. It shows how, when we follow God wherever He leads, God is always keeps His promises.

I was recently reading this Baptist Press article and ran across the following paragraph:

The librarian, who asked to be identified only as Lori, also reported the voracious reading of the Koran among the detainees. The prison initially ordered 1,600 Korans in various languages for $23,000 but has since ordered 200 more, The Times said.

Christians we should take this as a challenge. When was the last time we wore out a Bible? Heck…when was the last time we even picked up a Bible to read? Why not?

Forquite some time, I have been wondering why it is so easy to join a church. Why don't churches have some way for people to "prove" themselves first? Well, I was surfing and came across an article describing what it took to join a church in 1829. It makes for an interesting read. I think it interesting that the rules are really more just confirming that the person is saved.