We Can’t Do This Stuff Later

I’ve been reading the blogs again, and I often find Christians who argue that Evangelicals have got it all wrong. They repeatedly write that we Christians are not here to try to tell others about our faith, but are simply called to live a Christ-like life. “Stop trying to force your faith on others and live without being such hypocrites.” Well I would agree with the fact that all of us are hypocrites (see my earlier post), but that shouldn’t stop us from doing the things here on earth that we cannot do once we are in Heaven.

I really started thinking about this last week as I was doing a funeral for a dear friend and neighbor who passed away. Funerals have a tendency to cause you to think about your life and about the life that follows this one! So I started to think about the things that we will someday be able to do when we are with God in Heaven. We’ll be able to see our loved ones who have accepted the Lord. We’ll be able to know and love God completely. Our worship will be unobstructed. We’ll have rest and freedom from pain. We will be able to rejoice fully.

I started thinking about the fact that, as Christians, we often find ourselves seeking these things here on earth, and indeed we can enjoy many of God’s gifts right here, before we leave the planet. We can worship God here. We can find peace and rest in His Salvation here. We can enjoy each other and all of God’s creation here. So from these perspectives, there are many things that we will do in heaven that we can also do here in this life. But there are clearly a couple of things that we cannot do in Heaven. There are a couple of things that we can ONLY do here in this life.

This is the only place and time in which he can REACH and RETAIN the lost. There are no second chances in Heaven. No additional opportunities to come to faith. If people don’t hear the Gospel and make a decision for Christ in this life, they are going to perish. We won’t get another opportunity to tell them what Christ has done for us. And once we get to Heaven, we won’t be tempted to step away from our faith. In fact, there won’t be FAITH at all. Instead, we will simply have KNOWLEDGE (confirmed truth) about who God is.

There will be plenty of time for us to REST and REJOICE in Heaven, but now is the only time we can REACH and RETAIN the lost. I guess that’s why I call myself an Evangelical Christian. It’s because I sense that this life is very short, and that now is the time to tell people about the reality of our eternal destiny. And that’s why I simply don’t believe much in the approach that some churches take in designing activities for their members that simply help them to be entertained and rested. I do believe that the ‘church’ is here for a reason, and that we should be involved NOW in the things that we can’t do LATER.

Pastor Jim

Please visit us at www.PleaseConvinceMe.com

We Can’t Do This Stuff Later

Everyone is a Pastor…

Many of my students are getting ready to graduate from High School and they are approaching a very important time of decision. Now is the time to choose the college they will attend, and the career they will pursue. Many of my most sincere students, those who are deeply committed to the Gospel and to our Lord Jesus are now trying to decide the best way to honor and serve him with their lives. I just hope they realize that they can worship and serve God without having to retreat to pastoral studies or pursue a career as a pastor or formal missionary…

Don’t get me wrong, I AM a pastor, and I have a seminary degree. And I believe in pursuing theology in an academic environment. No doubt about it. But I know that God wants ALL of us, not just those who have decided to become pastors and missionaries. You know, for years I wished there was some way I could be a full-time pastor. It was all I thought about. I wanted the best pastoral degree I could find and afford and I dreamed of church planting or working in the mission field. I still had a divided notion about truth, and I didn’t even realize it. I still saw religious truth as something set apart from other forms of scientific, cultural, or empirical truths. I thought of the world as divided in two: the world of faith and the world of reason. There seemed to be two different sets of rules in place, two different ways of examining truth and evidence. The world of faith was a world of opinion; of undiscoverable truths, while the world of science and reason was a place of certainty and knowledge. Even though I know this sounds ridiculous, it was truly reflected in the way I was living my life.

I became convinced that the only way to explore my faith and serve my Lord was to adventure into the faith world of the professional pastor. My ‘secular’ academic achievements no longer had value to me. I was on a mission to erase all that I had accomplished with a new academic goal: to be trained as a pastor. The two level divide of religious and secular truth was an active part of my life. It took me many years to realize that God had given me a life as a designer, and architect and even as a homicide detective, and I had largely wasted it. I kept my faith experiences in a box. I went to work and did the secular job stuff, then went home and did the religious pastor stuff. There was no overlap. The two realms were harshly divided.

That can’t be what God wants of me. Is it possible that ALL of my life is intended to honor God? Is it possible that ALL of my life is a mission filed, a pastoral opportunity, and adventure to be lived for Christ? I think so. For many years I felt insecure that I didn’t have the best of seminary degrees, that I hadn’t worked as a pastor for years and years, that I wasn’t the author of great books and the leader of a great church, but I’ve come to realize that I’m right where I’m supposed to be. I’m living a life that now unites the two worlds of faith and reason, and I’m able to live this life largely BECAUSE of my ‘secular’ career, not in spite of it.

So, as my students try to wrestle with their career goals and what it is that they should do with their lives, as they wrestle with the decision about what university to attend and what major to choose, I try to help them understand that EVERY career is a pastoral career. In many ways, the BEST thing they could do with their lives is to hop into the secular world of science and reason with both feet, bringing with them the Biblical worldview they have come to know as true, and sharing this truth with the people around them. If they do choose a pastoral career, it is my hope that they don’t retreat into a defensive posture and live as though there are two separate worlds of faith and reason.

Pastor Jim

Please visit us at www.PleaseConvinceMe.com

Everyone is a Pastor…

Encouraged and Convinced

I was greatly encouraged last week when I got the chance to be the speaker for a Labor Day Weekend retreat in the mountains at the Alpine Conference Center. My job was to present a series of messages to the English speaking half of a local Chinese Church. The group I had was younger, ranging from high schoolers to graduated college students. I was prepared to speak on a topic that had been chosen by the lead pastor of the church; four messages from the book of James on being a spiritual winner. But when I got there, something interesting happened.

I found that many of the students, especially those who had already graduated from college, were very interested in proofs and evidences to support their faith. They had just come from a college experience that had been filled with challenges and they described the college environment as a place where Christians were often ridiculed and subjected to a world view that denies the presence of God. Not much of a shock, of course; we’ve known in our youth ministry that this is usually the case. Well, our retreat took several detours as I quickly substituted several of the messages and we began to take a look at the scientific and philosophical arguments that support our beliefs as Christians. Many of these arguments can be found on our THEISM page and on our ATHEISM page.

One of the high school students present at the retreat (a friend of a regular attendee at the Chinese Church) had several great questions related to the nature of TRUTH. She was clearly trying to search out an appropriate understanding of the nature of truth and the reality of the relativism she was experiencing in her world. She was a delightful and respectful young lady who while filled with doubts and concerns, was also passionately interested in seeing the evidences.

The experience for me was an important confirmation of the value of a reasonable faith. All too often we encounter youth leaders who are either hesitant to address issues of evidence or apologetics, or are actually hostile to the idea. Meanwhile, students continue to show me that they have a sincere and deep need to know that their faith is reasonable in a world that continues to challenge them. That’s why our youth group is so committed to exploring the truth of our Christian propositions, as well as the significance and power of our Christian lives. I came back from this trip encouraged and convinced that our young people need to FEEL as though their faith has transformational power, but also KNOW that their beliefs are true.

Pastor Jim

Please visit us at www.pleaseconvinceme.com!

Encouraged and Convinced

The Battle Begins

Yesterday a former student of mine (now a college sophomore) came by the house and sat with us for about an hour. She said, “Jim, I know you always used to say that someday we were going to face this stuff in college, but I always thought, ‘That’s just Jim being dramatic.’ Well, this week you’ll never believe what I’ve been hearing in class…” She continued to tell me about her first encounter with a Christian-hating college philosophy teacher.

Attending a logic class in a small, local junior college, Brittni encountered a professor who was quick and happy to tell the class all that was wrong with Christians and Christianity. He openly asked for commentary from his students and the Christians in the class where understandably silent (as they listened to his repeated rants against people of faith). Jesus, according to this man, was simply the product of a romantic tryst between Mary and a Roman soldier, the Christian God was a murdering beast, and Christians were arrogant fools who dare to say that they had the only true path to God.

I think you’ve heard it all before (I certainly have). Each Christian in that class now faces the dilemma of having to sit silently and pretend like they don’t believe what they believe, or take a stand somewhere along the way and face the challenge of having to debate with a man who is clearly ready for the fight. How many of those young Christians do you think are ready for that fight? How many will silently surrender their beliefs to the overwhelming onslaught of criticism and condemnation? How many will engage the debate and fail miserably before any number of undecided students who are weighing the arguments? How many will develop significant doubts about the things they have embraced as true?

Look, I’m focused on the task at hand with our High School students. They are about to leave the security and safety of their youth group and enter into a world where the cards will often be stacked against them (Brittni’s teacher doesn’t even offer an objective test as part of his class – instead, he require essays that he can subjectively grade without challenge). These students are not like the adults who call our churches home. Our students face special challenges as they enter the ‘20 Something’ portion of their young lives. They will encounter their first taste of freedom, their first taste of independent thinking, and their first challenges of faith.

I think Rob Shelton (a more experience youth pastor than I) gets it right in the latest issue of Network Magazine from the National Network of Youth Workers. He warns us that we, as youth workers, have been duped into thinking that “Our culture is neutral”, that “Christianity is a leisure activity” and most importantly, that “we are not at war”. Boy, nothing could be farther from the truth. That’s why we take the approach that we take in our youth group. I’m not here to hang out. I’m not here to reflect the culture. I’m here to get you students ready for the battle ahead; the battle that Brittni is facing today as she tells me her story, nearly in tears.

It’s time we give our students the philosophical, scientific and rational tools to understand WHY they believe WHAT they believe. It’s time we prepare them to be good ambassadors for our Lord, Jesus Christ. In case your wondering, I gave Brittni a hug, encouraged her, reminded her of the strength of the evidence that she has studied and LIVED as a Christian over the past several years, and then gave her a copy of Greg Koukl’s “Tactics in Defending the Faith”. (You might also be interested in some free training that Greg is doing on September 10th!). It’s time that we help our students understand that they have the truth on their side, but we’re going to need to start by equipping ourselves with the skills and knowledge it takes to be good ambassadors.

Please Visit Us At PleaseConvinceMe.com!

The Battle Begins