Smorgasbord Spirituality

From Messiah Lutheran Church's October 2011 Newsletter

When I was a child, I used to love going out to eat with my grandparents at a local Scandinavian restaurant that served a “smorgasbord.” If you’re not familiar with that term, it’s basically a buffet. Sort of like going to the Golden Corral or other similar eateries. You can pick and choose what you want to eat. Don’t like broccoli? Forget about it. Move on to the baked beans! Don’t like ham? Who cares? Have a slab of roast beef! Or, if you are really feeling rebellious, skip everything and head right to the desserts. There’s pie, cake, pudding, cookies, strudel … whatever suits your taste buds.

Many people act as though their spiritual lives are like bellying up to a smorgasbord. They prefer to pick and choose whatever they want to believe. They sift through all the various world religions and select that which resonates with them as good and proper or that which makes them feel good. And this is not just limited to those who do not classify themselves as Christian.

A recent article in USA Today stated

The folks who make up God as they go are side-by-side with self-proclaimed believers who claim the Christian label but shed their ties to traditional beliefs and practices. Religion statistics expert George Barna says, with a wry hint of exaggeration, America is headed for "310 million people with 310 million religions."

"We are a designer society. We want everything customized to our personal needs — our clothing, our food, our education," he says. Now it's our religion…

More people claim they have accepted Jesus as their savior and expect to go to heaven.

And more say they haven't been to church in the past six months except for special occasions such as weddings or funerals. In 1991, 24% were "unchurched." Today, it's 37% .

Barna blames pastors for those oddly contradictory findings. Everyone hears, "Jesus is the answer. Embrace him. Say this little Sinners Prayer and keep coming back. It doesn't work. People end up bored, burned out and empty," he says. "They look at church and wonder, 'Jesus died for this?'"…

Barna laments, "People say, 'I believe in God. I believe the Bible is a good book. And then I believe whatever I want.'"

(http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2011-09-14/america-religious-denominations/50376288/1)

The article goes on to feature one individual who combines elements of religions that are mutually exclusive, yet still somehow calls herself a Christian. It also talks about others who have jettisoned their faith in Christ altogether after drifting in and out of assorted religious traditions.

You and I probably know someone like the folks mentioned in this article. How can we communicate to them the richness and depth of true Christianity without leaving them “bored, burned out and empty”? How can we make clear to them the exclusive nature of the claims of Christ (e.g. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:6) without coming across as a self-righteous prig? How can we explain the difference between works-righteousness and the righteousness of Christ that is received as a gift of grace? How can we tell them that all that they truly need (whether they recognize that need or not) is truly found within the fellowship of the Holy Christian Church? How can we show love and mercy to one another so that those outside the Church do not look at us and say, “Jesus died for this?” These are questions we need to carefully ponder as we seek to proclaim Christ and his life and forgiveness to those who are “darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardness of their heart” (Eph. 4:18) … those who are “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14).

All efforts to have some kind of spirituality apart from Christ alone are futile, because they are man’s own efforts to seek God and find him … or efforts to avoid his Law which condemns them. True spirituality acknowledges that we are spiritually dead and can do nothing to save ourselves, to draw closer to God, to find him somehow (Eph. 2:1). True spirituality acknowledges that God is the one who has sought us and found us, like the shepherd who goes off to find the one lost sheep (Luke 15). True spirituality is pure receptivity … receiving that which God offers to us as a gift because of the death and resurrection of his Son (Eph. 2:8-10; 1 Cor. 4:7).

In Christ’s service and yours,
Pastor Onken

Greek Tuesday with RevFisk...

...is quickly becoming part of my weekly sermon prep. You ought to watch and listen, too. Check out all his videos at his channel on YouTube.

Understanding "Millenials"...and finding I am not one

I took a quiz today from the Pew Research Center's website asking "How Millenial Are You?" A "Millenial" is the tag given to those individuals born in 1981 or later, according the continuum on which your score is placed after you take the quiz (see graphic below). This is in contrast to "Generation X" (1965-1980), "Baby Boomers" (1946-1964), and the "Silent" generation (1928-1945). My score was 19 which placed me somewhere between Baby Boomer and Gen-X'ers, which, seeing as I was born on the cusp of both of those categories, seems to make sense. Julie (my wife) scored a 7, which puts her between the Silents and Baby Boomers. We got a good laugh at that one, since I'm five years older than she is.

Coincidentally, I ran across this post at the Fearsome Tycoon's blog about the Millenial generation.

Everyone's all hot and bothered now that the generation has a name. Basically, old people are so incredibly impressed that The Millennials all know how to use Facebook, all have cell phones, and all spend 7 years in college that they've decided that this is one whip-smart, super-creative, socially conscious generation. Mark Tapscott thinks that when they see how destructive top-down government is and how stifling it is of their technologically enabled creativity, they'll revolt and all become conservative Republicans or something.

Well, you know I wouldn't be posting about something if I didn't think it was B.S.

Speaking as one who is responsible in part for teaching said generation, their blistering intelligence and stunning creativity is highly overrated. Sure, they've frittered away more years of life in school than any previous generation, but that's in large part because school has become so devalued. If I would characterize the Millennial Generation, here's how I would do it:

1. Knowledge that they have no immediate use for is viewed as a complete waste of time.

2. They expect to have things done for them and for everything they need to materialize out of the sky.

3. Complex things aren't worth understanding. Anything requiring reading a book isn't worth the time it takes to know.

4. They believe that they are never at fault for the consequences of their own actions.

5. They need to be constantly praised.

Mark Tapscott and everyone else who thinks the Millennials will rebel against top-down socialism are sadly mistaken. Quite to the contrary, they have all the necessary prerequisites to embrace and even demand socialism. When socialism fails to deliver, as it always does, they lack the critical thinking skills to associate the failure with the nature of the system and will be naturally inclined to listen to explanations that promise even more handouts and less responsibility. You know who's out there rioting in Berkley, demanding that a bankrupt state somehow magically conjure up more money to spend on them? Millennials. That should give you a foretaste of the feast to come.

Frankly, I'm not all that in to labels. Applied to individuals, they can lead to vicious stereotypes. Applied to generations, however, perhaps there is some benefit to these categories in order to better understand them...not to tailor the Church to their desires, but to reach them with the Word of Truth to meet their spiritual needs, which are the same in every generation.

On Seeking Lost Sheep One at a Time

Thanks, Pastor Schlueter. We all need to hear this, not just pastors, but all congregations and members who are envious of what's happening at their neighboring churches. The following was posted at Straight Schlueter.

I suppose its true in any other profession, but it seems that pastors are good at professional one-up-manship. Pastors like to tell tales about the stuff they have going at their parish; building programs, stewardship, average worship attendance, etc. etc. etc. It is easy (for me anyway) to come away thinking that I need to get moving and make my congregation more like theirs.

It is way too easy to get sucked in.

I was recently reading on a friend's blog a posting by Matt Harrison (find it here) and discovered a quote that I found both inspiring and at the same time helpful.

Our vocation is not to save the ninety-nine, but to seek the one. One at a time. One here and one there. One child cared for. One person nursed to health. One life saved. One hurting soul comforted with the name of Jesus. One man loved. Our vocation is not to change Haiti, or to change the whole world, or to change the economic realities with which Haitians wrestle. Our vocation is to act and make a life-changing difference one at a time. And acting one at a time, we find that over some hours, over a few days, and over a couple of weeks, the flock of those helped in the name of Jesus has grown to be surprisingly large.

Pastor Harrison is talking about the parable of the Lost Sheep from John 15 and applying it to the needs of the people in Haiti following their devastating earth quake. He points out that Jesus went after the one. One at a time. One by one. This has been for me a profound insight.

There is always that pressure to be the church that has the budget surplus, that has the great attendance, that has the busting-at-the-seems programs. (I suppose I might confess it is easy to covet...) So churches always try to become this by implementing policies and adopting programs. "If they haven't attended in 3 years, drop them from the roles." "Let's write a series of form letters." "Let's hire a consultant to tell us how we can fix ourselves." These things don't work, or if they do work they have worked the wrong thing. Faithful pastoring doesn't mean you have budget surpluses and rear ends in the pews. It means that you preach God's Word; law and gospel. Week in and week out. And, when necessary, one at a time.

Instead of cleaning up the roles, instead of lopping off the dead wood, I have resolved to seek one. Reach out to one with God's Word. Rightly divide it. Mercifully apply it. And who knows, maybe after a time the flock will have grown quite large.

"The ways of destroying the church"

Since we've been studying 1 Corinthians in our Sunday morning Bible class, I may have to pick up a copy of the book from which this quote is taken. Thanks to Paul McCain for posting this at his blog Cyberbrethren.

The ways of destroying the church are many and colorful. Raw factionalism will do it. Rank heresy will do it. Taking your eyes off the cross and letting other, more peripheral matters dominate the agenda will do it-admittedly more slowly than frank heresy, but just as effectively over the long haul. Building the church with superficial ‘conversions’ and wonderful programs that rarely bring people into a deepening knowledge of the living God will do it. Entertaining people to death but never fostering the beauty of holiness or the centrality of self-crucifying love will build an assembling of religious people, but it will destroy the church of the living God. Gossip, prayerlessness, bitterness, sustained biblical illiteracy, self-promotion, materialism-all of these things, and many more, can destroy a church. And to do so is dangerous: ‘If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple (1 Cor. 3:17).” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry: Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 83-84.

One of the many reasons why we support Issues, Etc.

Click below to read a recent post at the Brothers of John the Steadfast website...

http://ping.fm/fCNTX

A Guide to Church Shopping.

I had a conversation the other day with someone who was looking for a new church. Even his three-year old son, when asked how he enjoyed Sunday School, replied, "I miss our old church where we used to hear about Jesus." Huge red flag, right?

We didn't have much time to go into specifics about what to look for, so I recommended he check out an article I read online some years ago by Pastor Bill Cwirla. It's entitled "A Guide to Church Shopping." Check it out at the link below...

http://ping.fm/LWP4h

P.S. To members of Messiah, Marysville...I hope that this doesn't get you to thinking about shopping around. ;-)

From Atheist to Christian

Read about it by clicking here.

HT: Cyberbrethren

Top 10 Reasons to Attend Our Church

I was surfing around checking out the websites of some of our area churches, and I ran across one particular church in our community. I could not believe my eyes. On their website, they list the top 10 reasons to attend their church. Here they are, directly copied from their website...

10. You can hang with real people, like yourself.
(Get connected with social activities and class electives, when you're ready)

9. You'll feel welcomed but not harassed.
(no one will contact you, unless you want to be)

8. We have great children and youth programs.
(your kids will love the variety of activities offered)

7. Your infant will feel safe and secure.
(and so will you; we have a great nursery staff)

6. You won't be preached "at" or bored to tears.
(Commandment #11 - Thou shalt not bore people with the gospel)

5. We won't put you on the spot.
(feel free to blend into the crowd)

4. We have cool music.
(no aunt Betsy singing her favorite hymn, again)

3. We won't beg for money.
(and we don't pass an offering plate)

2. We offer great munchies.
(the best desserts and refreshments on Sunday; a hearty snack that rivals any dinner on Saturday)

1. Dress is casual and comfortable.
(no fashion police show up here)

Now, here are the top 10 reasons to attend Messiah Lutheran Church...

1. Jesus

2. Forgiveness of sins

3. Jesus

4. Forgiveness of sins

5. Jesus

6. Forgiveness of sins

7. Jesus

8. Forgiveness of sins

9. Jesus

10. Jesus

Evangelism, Outreach, and Assimilation Seminar

We had close to 50 attendees at the "Evangelism, Outreach, and Assimilation Seminar" on Saturday. It was sponsored by the Confessional Lutherans for Christ's Commission (CLCC) and the presenter was Pastor Dan Freeman of Chehalis, WA. Gene White, the CLCC treasurer, and his wife Deanna, were there, too, and attended services with us on Ash Wednesday and today. Thanks to Gene, Deanna, and Pastor Freeman for being with us.

Gene shared with us after church this morning a bit more about the work of the CLCC and I promised I would put a link up to their website on my blog. It can be found at www.theclcc.org. I've also put a link up in the sidebar at the right under "Lutheran Links."

Comments about the state of today's church

God keep us from the descriptions of the state of today's church in the following video. This is from the White Horse Inn, although I viewed it at Slice of Laodicea.

"Brother, when were you saved?"

My short answer to that question is usually twofold: 1) Over two-thousand years ago on a cross outside of Jerusalem on a particular Friday we call "Good," and 2) May 2, 1965 when my parents brought me to the font and I was baptized in the name of the Triune God. Needless to say, I'm usually met with blank stares from the questioner, since said questioner is expecting me to give such and such a date when "I gave my heart to Jesus" or some such nonsense (refer back to yesterday's post quoting Bo Giertz).

Pastor Juan Palm at Palm Sundays blogged about this, and here's what he had to say about a certain professor's answer:

I know a theology professor who was once asked if he had a "personal relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior." He replied (rather cheekily in order to cut off any further interrogation), "I have Jesus as my Lord and Savior as he comes to me mediated through the Word and Sacraments in His Church, but personally I never met the fellow."

Then, Pastor Palm quotes Pastor Bill Cwirla, who gives a much more thorough answer to the question "Brother, when were you saved?" This is also great stuff for those who wonder about how the doctrine of election fits in here. Rather than bringing uncertainty, the doctrine of election ought instead to bring comfort. Here's Cwirla:

... The best way to approach the “when” question is to note the distinction between the two modes of time: Chronos and Kairos. Chronos, or chronological time, is time as we experience it - evening and morning, clocks and calendars, one event followed by another in sequence. This is the way of history. Kairos is eternal moment, all time compressed into a single point, what some might call “eternity.” Kairos is God’s time, where every moment embraces all of chronological time so that God says “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are chronologically dead. Only as we understand kairos, can we understand Christ’s sacrifice as being “once for all” (Romans 6:10; Hebrews 9:12,26; 10:10; 1 Peter 3:10) meaning that this atoning death on a Friday afternoon embraces all people and all times...

Back to the question “When were you saved?” Answer: It depends how you look at it and why you are asking. Kairotically speaking, I was saved in Christ “from before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). Don’t leave out the “in Christ” or you’ll get it wrong. There is no “election” apart from the Elect One, the Lamb who was slain “before the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). This is the doctrine of election, which can only be understood properly “in Christ” (see Ephesians 1:3-14) and in kairos, outside of chronological time.

Played out in the chronos of salvation history, salvation is past, present, and future. Chronologically and objectively speaking, I was saved in Christ, am being saved in Christ, and will be saved in Christ. I was saved at 3 PM on that Good Friday some two thousand years ago when the incarnate Son of God hung dead on the cross from the forgiveness of my sins, embracing me in His death. “When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.” (John 12:32).

I was saved when I was baptized, having been buried with Christ in His death (Rom 6:4) and clothed with the righteousness of Christ (Galatians 3:27). Through the work of the Holy Spirit’s washing of water with the Word by which He rebirths and renews us daily, I received the gift of faith by which I am able to enjoy and put to use the objective and forensic gift of salvation every breathing moment of my life. I would also note here that because salvation is a forensic act of God in that God declares the sinner to be righteous, it is also a sacramental act of God in that God baptizes the sinner declaring him to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Again, don’t forget the “in Christ” or you will get it wrong.

I am being saved whenever I hear the spoken Word of Christ forgiving my sin and receive that Word of Christ as being for me through trust (ie faith). “Now is the time (kairos) of your salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). This is the ongoing work of Baptism, daily drowning the sinner to death and raising the saint in Christ to life.

I will be saved at the coming judgment according to the promise of Christ, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16)....

Analyzing Rick Warren's Prayer at the Presidential Inauguration

Click here to read a spot-on analysis of Rick Warren's prayer at President Obama's inauguration on Tuesday.

HT: Pastor Juan Palm at Palm Sundays.

More stupidity. And I'm giving up on the French.

Got a little hot under the collar a couple of days ago and used some blue language. Forgive me if I offended any readers. But I was sincere in my use of the word because of the demonic purposes to which Gospel-less presentations and Christ-less prayers can be used.

Now, we have more stupidity at hand, but I will refrain from speaking any "French." Lord knows, this deserves it. A so-called Christian bishop has been invited to pray at the upcoming presidential inauguration. However, he feels that it would be wrong at this event to give a Christian prayer. Click here to read more about it over at Cranach: The Blog of Veith.

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. And Dumber.

As a Christian pastor, that's the only prayer I know how to give.

Listen to Jesus...

"If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." (John 14:14)

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. " (John 16:23-24)

Not the name of Buddha. Not the name of Allah. Not the name of Vishnu. Not the name of some generic god or goddess.

None of the these but the Holy Name of Jesus Christ.

I'm sorry. Forgive my French. But this is just so damn stupid.

First, click here and read the article and watch the interview. Then, come on back and read my comments below...

I could care less if this guy took a swig of beer, apparently against the rules of his institution. I could care less who the guy voted for. Well, okay, maybe I do care who he voted for, but we live in a free country (and to say, as Dobson does in the interview, that our president-elect is the best representative of the teachings of Jesus is a questionable proposition).

What I think is so absolutely ridiculous is that this guy tried to "live like Jesus for a year."

So how did he do keeping God's Holy Commandments, every jot and tittle? He claims he kept the Sabbath (even says that it was one of the "easy" parts of what he did). But did he make it to the Jerusalem temple for all the required festivals and sacrifices? Oh, wait. There is no Jerusalem temple. Strike one.

Did he speak Aramaic? I doubt it. Strike two.

And I'd also like to see the holes in his hands and side which he got for living the way he did. Strike three.

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

Thanks be to God that Jesus lived the way he did to be our substitute. Not as a moral example for us to follow. Not to give us weight loss tips by going kosher. And not to tell us "what not to wear" or giving us facial hair fashion suggestions. He lived the perfect life that you and I could never live and died on the cross in our place, bearing our sins and shedding his blood to pay the price that we owe to God ... our very life. Now, through Christ's finished work at the cross, we are reconciled to God. By trusting in him, we have forgiveness and life everlasting. We are justified by faith. We are declared not guilty. The righteousness of Christ is credited to our account.

If I try to live like Jesus did, I will always fail miserably, because I am a poor miserable sinner. But Jesus lived and died and rose for me. In my Baptism, I became united to Christ's death. And as St. Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20 ESV)

And by the way, I know that word in the title of this post is not French. But I get pretty ticked off sometimes at the silliness that passes off for Christianity nowadays. And it is "damned" because people are going to hell if they do not hear the Gospel proclaimed clearly.

"Full" or "Fool" Gospel

Fellow blogger LP Cruz from down under related this story at his blog ExtraNos. Ever had an encounter like this? I'm sure many of us have. Many (perhaps even well-intentioned) fellow Christians sometimes have a superiority complex when it comes to their "born again" experience. Make sure to read his excellent, concise reply at the end.

My sister-in-law just recently understood the free gift of God - Christ. She was a bit in tears when I relayed to her the story of our salvation. Needless to say, she and her family attend our local church.

So time went on.

A month ago she and her husband went to a fiesta held by the Filipino community here in Melbourne. She was hired by our friends to distribute some promotional leaflets, so naturally she bumped into lots of people in the fiesta.

Amazingly she did bump into one of her old time friend from Manila. So she and this friend began to talk. In the course of conversation, the friend semi-proudly said to my in-laws that she attends a "born again" Christian church. In my sister-in-law's excitement she and her husband spoke about me and how they now attend church with me.

Her friend disappointedly said to them, "oh what a shame, he should be Full Gospel and should attend a Full Gospel Church". This threw my sister-in-law into a confusing spin. When she reached home with a concerned face, she relayed this incident to me. I had to do a lot of explaining.

My reply to her: "You see these folk believe there are several components to the Gospel. Unlike us, these folk do not believe that there is one and only one Gospel - the forgiveness of your sins at the Cross of Christ freely given by God. For them, it is just one aspect of the Gospel. Jesus came not just to die for you but to make you healthy, wealthy and wise. These for them are all equal in importance to Jesus' payment for sins. So when we simply preach Jesus at the Cross, they criticize us for being not-Full Gospel".

Full or Fool Gospel?

Walther's Law and Gospel

C.F.W. Walther's classic The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel is now available online. Walther was one of the founding pastors of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, was the synod's first president, as well as first president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.

Law and Gospel consists of a series of lectures Walther gave to his seminary students on Friday nights. As dull as that might sound to some of you, don't write it off. (I mean, what seminarian in his right mind would want to sit and listen to a lecture on Friday night, right?) There's some rich stuff here. Law and Gospel is not only about learning how to apply these two great doctrines of the Bible. It also offers comfort to tormented souls who wonder about their own salvation. It's full of great Luther quotes and anecdotes from Walther's own life as he himself struggled with his own doubts when under the influence of pietism in Germany.

Click here to read Law and Gospel at the LutheranTheology.com website.

Click here to order a copy of a more recent edition from Concordia Publishing House.

The Gospel for those Broken by the Church

I wish I'd had the chance to take classes from Rod Rosenbladt at Christ College Irvine (now Concordia, Irvine), but I was there such a brief time that I never had him as a prof. Thankfully, I've been able to hear him over the years on the White Horse Inn.

"The Gospel for those Broken by the Church" is a presentation of Rosenbladt's featured at New Reformation Press as an mp3 download. I've heard it advertised for a while now on Fighting for the Faith podcasts and finally decided to purchase it. It's only $3.45 and worth every penny. In today's church climate where sermons offer not much more than self-help, moralism, pop-psychology, and obscure the cross of Christ, Rosenbladt's presentation points the hearer back to Christ and his all-sufficient work at the cross for the salvation of sinners like you and me. Get this. Listen to it. Tell your friends about it. That's why I'm telling you about it here.

Photo of Rosenbladt found at A Bryan Photo.

Warren Blows It Again

I didn't see two recent appearances of Rick Warren (of "Purpose-Driven" fame) on TV, but here are reactions by others who did...

Click here for Chris Rosebrough's comments on Warren's appearance on Fox's Hannity & Colmes

Click here for Ingrid Schlueter's comments on Warren's appearance on NBC's the Today Show

What a travesty that this guy seems to keep blowing it royally when it comes to clearly proclaiming the Gospel before a national audience. We've talked about his faulty "purpose-driven" theology in Bible class, but if you want to read more, click here for an article by my friend Scott Diekmann for a review of Warren's ultra-popular "Purpose-Driven Life."

A Late Thought on Halloween

I know Halloween has come and gone, but click here to read another blogger's balanced thoughts on participating in Halloween celebrations. This is a couple of days late because I just can't seem to read everything in my Google Reader in a timely fashion.