"Success" at Church

There is no other success for Christians than to become more Christlike. Even to
think of "success" is to open ourselves to idolatry and ego. We think of
building bigger churches, having larger assemblies, distributing larger contributions. Especially Americans think "more bigger" is "more better" when in
fact we might serve in a a season of pruning. Focusing on things like attendance and contribution (one elder told me "I measure success by two things, attendance and
contribution, and both are down since you came here") means we lose our Lord's
ability to insist on eating his flesh and drinking his blood, even when it makes the
masses leave. As anyone in an institutional church can testify, for many leaders, the highest good is to not rock the boat, to make sure that nothing is said or done in a way that offends anyone. But this view of success makes us timid waiters at a table peopled by finicky customers. We fetch clean forks, raise or lower the thermostat, change the music, and return perfectly good plates of food, all because we are terrified they might choose another restaurant next time.

If we are to truly be successful, we must embrace the cross. We must realize that our success may look to all the world like failure. If we can do that, then perhaps an atmosphere can be fostered that encourages Christlike growth.

Grace & Peace,
Steve Kenney
Russellville KY

The Only Christians

Francis Bacon once said “It is not what men eat but what they digest that makes them strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; not what we preach but what we practice that makes us Christians.

For too long many of us have defined Christians as those who believe certain things, rather than those who behave in certain ways. We've tried to find the one true church based solely upon what their positions were upon certain doctrinal issues, usually the hot topics of the day. The search itself oftentimes led to ugliness.

Perhaps you’ve been discouraged by someone who constantly spouts rivers of orthodoxy while being dry of the milk of human kindness. I hope instead that you’ve met those who have experienced God as love, and even though they might not be able to explain everything they believe or answer every theological question, they live the life of God. Those are the only Christians, and they make up the only church.

Grace & Peace,

Steve Kenney

Keep it short?

"We discourage the position of those who are impatient of the sermon, who walk out when it comes on, or who paralyse (sic) preachers by a demand for brevity before everything else. I speak of those who do so on the ground that they go to Church to worship God. I should like to say here that in my humble judgment the demand for short sermons on the part of Christian people is one of the most fatal influences at work to destroy preaching in the true sense of the word. How can a man preach if he feel throughout that the people set a watch upon his lips. Brevity may be the soul of wit, but the preacher is not a wit. And those who say they want little sermon because they are there to worship God and not hear man, have not grasped the rudiments of the first idea of Christian worship ... A Christianity of short sermons is a Christianity of short fibre. (sic)" (pp.68-69) P. T. Forsyth, Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind.

I fully recognize that I and other preachers may not be easy to listen to for more than twenty minutes, yet I believe what P.T. Forsyth has said with all my heart. I've never seen a church on fire for the Lord that put a time limit, explicit or otherwise, on the pulpit. I've never seen people who are concerned about seeking deeper discipleship who stare at their watches after a few minutes of the sermon. On the other hand, I have seen churches grow cold and lifeless, all the while holding regular Sunday "preaching services" sometimes for decades.

So which comes first? Does a deep desire for the Lord lead to more tolerance for sermon length? Or does a tolerance for sermon length place a person in the position where their hunger for the Lord can grow? I suspect it's both. Like any form of discipline, it may not be enjoyable at first, but with persistence, the benefits just keep coming.

Grace & Peace,
Steve Kenney

Disciple v. Christian

We call ourselves Christian, yet the word is only used 3 times in the New Testament. Far more common is the word "disciple." The shift may be significant. "Christian" implies identity. We might think of one being Christian because of what that person thinks or believes. "Disciple" implies more than just identity. A disciple has an inclination of heart and life. A disciple does not just believe; he or she imitates. Perhaps the shift from disciple to Christian in our speech reflects a shift from action to thought. It may be helpful to remember that Jesus calls for people to follow him much more often than he calls for people to believe in him. While it is possible to conceive someone who intellectual believes but does not do anything, and thus defines self as "Christian," it is much more difficult to imagine someone who follows, but does not believe. By focusing on the active life of the disciple, identity will become self-evident. Discipleship seeks to embrace the cross. Christianity seeks to understand it. Both are good, but I cast my lot with the overwhelming scriptural preference for "disciple."

Grace & Peace,
Steve Kenney

The Tyranny of "Pretty Good"

We want to grow in deeper discipleship. Yet at times we look back and realize that we have stagnated or even declined in that walk. Why is that?

Oftentimes the answer is that we stagnate and even decline because we had been doing pretty good. When we feel that we're doing well, we will oftentimes become complacent. The athlete who is pleased with his or her early training may take a break instead of pressing even harder. The student who gets a good initial jump on the final research paper may find that it ends up getting set aside until the night before.

As for Christians, it is easy to look at what our lives used to be and become content. If we're not careful, our churches become not centers of passionate people, but enclaves of the content and complacent. What can be harder to motivate than a church or a person who is doing "pretty good"?

Will a church with no declining numbers feel the need to reach out?
Will a church with no recent splits work on unity?
Will a church with a satisfactory number of recognized leaders develop more?
Will a church with fulfilling small groups work on making them outstanding?

Will a Christian who is still progressing feel the need to pick up the pace?

The truth is that the greatest deception many of us will face is the idea that we are doing pretty good, and that God is satisfied with our mid-range efforts. Remember, Paul pictures our "reasonable" sacrifice as being the offer of our very bodies. (Romans 12:1)

"I don't consider myself to have attained or accomplished everything, but instead I press on to the goal of the high calling of God." (Phillippians 3:14)

Grace & Peace,
Steve Kenney

The Church's Place in the World: Revelation

Revelation gives us a behind the scenes picture of reality. The powers of this world which look to formidable are exposed as weak and powerless. The rulers are defeated, Satan is crushed. All this is the work of God, yet he involves his people. In Revelation the church is seen as persecuted, praying, and persevering.

Revelation reminds us that the place of the Christian in the world is not in the accepted power centers. In fact, those power centers actually exalt themselves against God. The extreme image is that of a government which demands worship to an idol, but the letter serves to open our eyes to all the other ways that the world demands our allegiance. In this context, the church's unwillingness to compromise full devotion to Christ becomes politically unwieldy. Interestingly, Christians throughout the centuries are seen as not being as patriotic as they ought to be. This results in persecution in one form or another.

What is the church to do when faced with such persecution? The answer is to pray and to persevere, even if it costs us our lives. This is a difficult lesson when all that is required by opposing powers is just a pittance of acknowledgment. "Just say 'Caesar is Lord.' You don't even need to mean it." But a Christian will do no such thing. Even if it costs us our lives, we will not acknowledge a national or worldly power beyond that of Christ.

From the perspective of the world, Revelation teaches us that God's people often look like abused outsiders who have no real impact in the direction of things. From the perspective of heaven, the prayers of the persecuted saints rise up to heaven and effect the full deliverance of God's people.

Grace & Peace,
Steve Kenney

The Church's Place in the World: Good Works

Without a doubt, we are Christ's body in the world today. Just as God was incarnate (became human) in the person of Jesus Christ, so we today continue that human presence of God in the world by continuing the tasks he valued. One of those tasks was to go about doing good. (Acts 10:38). Many of his miracles were motivated by compassion.

Throughout the ages, his disciples have been characterized as people who do good works. Tabitha, for example, was always doing good and helping the poor. (Acts 9:36). Paul describes us as a people who have been saved precisely so that we can perform good works. In Ephesians 2, Paul emphasizes that we are saved by the gracious acts of God. Having been saved, we exist to do good works, which is the reason God has created us.

Christians are not saved because they do good works; they do good works because they are saved.

May those who come in contact with Christ's people find themselves blessed by the good works those people perform.

Grace & Peace,
Steve Kenney

The Church's Place in the World: Witness

The church's evangelistic presence in the world is that of witness. This is in contrast to other evangelistic images which do not capture the richness of the church's presence. Those images include apologist or teacher/professor. In these images, the Christian is called to know the answers and to be able to confound opposition. The key qualification for evangelism is knowledge and ability to communicate. The tool is the Bible, properly highlighted and keyed.

I focus on two statements by Luke that I take as paradigmatic:

"...repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." Luke 27:47b-48

^"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8

The image of witness is more complex. Certainly the witness may at times persuade. The witness may find tools of apologetics useful. Still, the most important qualification for a witness is experience. The witness speaks from what she or he has seen, heard, and touched. The exercise is not merely an academic one, but an experiential one. The Bible is helpful, but the tool is the word incarnated in the life of the witness. Focusing on witness naturally leads us to focus on Christ, who has said that he will draw everyone to him if he is lifted up. Focusing on witness allows the Christian to be comforted by the fact that the convicting is done by the Holy Spirit. The witness simply tells the experience.

In fact, this is exactly what we see in Acts. We see the Holy Spirit leading the mission as it expands from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. At key moments, sometimes subtely, Luke emphasizes that the spread and the success of the mission depended on the Spirit's work, not on human ingenuity.

I hesitate to use a legal analogy, but the analogy of witness works. While a witness inherently tries to convince the jury or judge, a witness who tries too hard to convince looses credibility. The believable witness simply relates his or her testimony and leaves it up to the lawyer (in this case the Holy Spirit) to make the application and the argument to the fact-finder. The pressure is off for results, but the demand is on for a simple telling of God's story.

We are witnesses.

Grace & Peace,
Steve Kenney