Category Archives: Church

We Are Called

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There are times when I send out a list of reminders to the OpenDoor congregation. Sometimes it must feel like they have just finished reading a page of advertisements! I suppose in one respect that’s exactly what it is, but my hope is that they will think of it as more than just an advertisement. I hope that it carries more weight than the daily, annoying circulars we all toss in the waste basket without even a glance.

I hope each of our members hears a call; a call to assemble, a call to be one with one another in Christ just as Christ is one with our Father.

We are the church of God, the church of Jesus Christ, His body. We are the ones “called out” by the gospel of God to alter our lives and structure them according to the amazing truths of the salvation and love of God. We are called out from the world, to live in it but not to be of it. We are called to surrender our spirits to the Holy Spirit and let Him reign in our thinking and in our decision making. We are called to “encourage one another daily as long as it is called Today, so that none of (us) may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

We are called by God.

We are called by the cross and by the One who hung there.

Bible class, worship, time with church family, this stuff is crucial to our spiritual life. We are not strong enough on our own! We are not strong enough without each other!! God designed us for one another, to live together with Him.

Summers are always so full and of so many good things. As we approach a more normal routine again, I encourage you to make the opportunities to be with your church family a priority. And I encourage you to do this, not for me, but for you, and for your marriage, and for your children. Know that you make all the difference in our body. There is not a single person of our body who is not missed when he/she is not present.

The bottom line is, you are loved, you are wanted, and you are needed.

We are part of the most amazing organization on earth! We are not a social club, or a sports team, or simply a special interest group. We are the church of God with an eternal, powerful, appointed purpose; a people covenanted with God himself.

Vision and Purpose

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Open Door needs a strong vision and purpose. We need to know we are part of something special and that being part of this something special is impacting our lives significantly to the glory of God. Paul writes, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10). God may choose to reveal the details of specific good works he has for us as a congregation, or he may simply call us to keep calling on him and take every step forward with fear and trembling in a firm resolve of faith and trust.

We know God has his purposes for us, and the congregation needs to feel confident in that truth and our corporate resolve to seek and live by that truth. I feel both honored and confident serving at Open Door with you. I cherish your faith, your friendship and your brotherhood in Christ. I look for inspiration, creativity, love, faithfulness and accountability from you as my brothers. I pray to help you to grow as you help me to grow. And I pray God will use us individually and collectively to lead those around us into the glory of his wondrous light.

Thank you for prayerfully considering these thoughts. I look forward to our time together in his name.

Election Blues

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I know a lot of good Christians are concerned about the November presidential election and I’m right there with them. I sometimes wonder, though, whether the country would really be the better for it, whether the cause of the Kingdom would be any better served, if everything turns out the way we’d like.

When we have “our people” in power don’t we tend to relax a bit? It’s an unstated assumption, I think, that if we can just get our party in, the group that we think best represents our values and makes policy accordingly, then it can turn our country around and reverse our culture’s moral decline. When this happens, when it goes the way we deem as “ours,” the sense of urgency seems to ebb. It’s a natural tendency. (We show it in our fellowships even. We hire a team of qualified ministers, then kick back in our designated pew, write our weekly check and leave the rest to our professionals.)

This all ties in with something I wrote recently about how political action is truly powerless to bring change in the place where change must occur if it’s going to work its way through the culture – the hearts of individuals.

Make no mistake. I shudder to think that a President of the United States could believe it is morally acceptable to take a premature baby who has survived an unsuccessful abortion, even as it cries for its mother, its tiny lungs filling with new air, and toss it aside to die. For a President to hold this position, invoking the so-called “right” to choose as including its protection, the practical consequences may not be great. We’ve so perfected this cruelest of expedients that it seldom fails the first time. What does this belief say, though, of a candidate’s underlying worldview? It’s frightening. Chilling, really.

But again, God often gave wayward Israel the bad leaders it deserved, men who indulged their own and the people’s lusts for all manner of pagan excess, even child sacrifice. As a nation, we’ve become practiced in similar rituals. We sacrifice our children to the god Choice. The altars are built by black-robed men, but to our own specs — all to ringing chants of “rights” and “freedom.”

The point: If we don’t like our leaders, it may be that we’re getting our just desserts as a nation. As Christians, we should certainly pray for our country. Come November, we should go to the polls and do our duty as good citizens, voting as our consciences guide us. Then, whether we get the outcome we want or otherwise, we should forget about it. Put it out of our minds, for all practical purposes, rejoin our brothers and sisters and get on with the hard task of taking Christ to a country that no longer knows its right hand from its left.

Because it’s in the trenches of everyday life, not the marble halls of power, where souls are won and cultures are changed.

“And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ.”

Colossians 4:3

A Kingdom of Priests

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I went to a Catholic high school, even though I wasn’t a member of the Catholic church. I received a quality education and got to be the only “protestant” quarterback in the school’s history. In my three years at this school, I met some very fine “Priests” and “Sisters”, who served as teachers, administrators and in other capacities that helped shape my educational path.

I didn’t know the Bible very well then, but as I grew in my knowledge, I became confused at the difference in the way the term “priest” is used by Catholics in contrast to how it is used by the writers of the New Testament.

For example, the Old Testament is full of references to the priesthood that God set up through Moses for the nation of Israel. This priesthood came from a certain family (the Levites) and the duties and responsibilities were clearly set out for the people to follow.

“…you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,
offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ” 1 Peter 2:5

In the gospels and in the book of Acts, we see Christ and his disciples interact with this same priesthood in various discussions and confrontations. I used to wonder about what happened to this priesthood until I read some of the historical accounts of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. In that catastrophe, the temple was torn down, the genealogical records were destroyed, the city was razed, and surviving Jews were scattered everywhere. Since that destruction nearly 2,000 years ago, there have been no priests, no sacrifices and no temple worship.

The writers of the New Testament explain why. In numerous references throughout the book of Hebrews, in the epistle of 1 Peter and in the Revelation, it becomes clear that the nature and composition of the priesthood has changed under Christ. With the end of the Old Covenant and the fulfillment of the law of Moses, there has been a dramatic change: Christ has assumed the throne of a new kingdom (1 Tim. 6:15); He has become the Law Giver; He is the new high priest (Heb. 4:14). With these changes has also come a change in the composition of the priesthood: All believers are priests (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Revelation 1:6).

You see, God never intended for the fleshly, Levitical priesthood to go on forever. The intent of Christ is that His followers serve under Him as ministers of the gospel to a lost and misguided world. The ministry of some of us is to teach the gospel. For others it is to share the gospel. For all of us it is to LIVE OUT the gospel.

I have no idea why the Catholic church has retained a specialized priesthood that is separate and apart from the members. But I do know this: restoration congregations (communities intent on restoring first century worship and practices) stand in danger of replicating this flawed model if we insist on distinctions between members and the leadership with regards to our common responsibilities to know, share and live out the gospel message.

An active shepherding program, constant and loving teaching on the responsibilities we inherit when we become members of the New Testament priesthood, and continual accountability to each other on our words and actions will help us avoid this pitfall. It is a liberating thought to understand that God sees me as an important part of His grand plan to save the world. That I could serve others in the gospel of His Son — sinful man that I am — is a sobering, but energizing thought. That I could do it with a group of like-minded people who will help me is comforting indeed. We are truly a “kingdom of priests.”

At the Open Door church of Christ, there are plenty of opportunities to grow, share and serve. Check us out.

“And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ.”

Colossians 4:3