Ran across an interesting lesson from the Advance Conference being held in North Carolina this weekend.
I’ve been doing a fair amount of research on successful church revitalization efforts recently. There are some interesting stories out there; J.D. Greear’s is among them.
According to him, in order for a church revitalization to be successful the members must get away from pharisaical religiosity and embrace Jesus above all else. The lesson I’m posting today unpacks that.
As J.D. says on his blog, this lesson doesn’t present a step by step process to church revitalization, but does speak against attitudes that will kill one (I’ll post more on the process as I see it later).
I’d like to begin archiving resources like this one – there is huge interest in the topic of church revitalization right now. If any of you have additional resources to point me to, please do. Our team in San Francisco can use them, and I know we’re not alone.
Notes taken during Monte Cox’s presentation at The 2009 Pepperdine Lectures – “Christ, the Mystery of God” – Tuesday, May 5, 2009 – 7PM. Based on Colossians 2:1-7.
To download Dr. Cox’s PowerPoint presentation used during this lecture, go to www.harding.edu/cwm and look under the heading “Dr. Monte Cox’s ’09 Pepperdine presentation,” or click here.
“Pluralism drives the relativism that makes evangelism a four letter word.”
The book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is a good example of how people view spirituality today (pluralistically – just make sure you get a little bit of every religion and you’ll be ok).
“Does the concept of ‘God’ belong in a religion class? Can a Christian teach a world religion class at a secular university? Some would say ‘no’ because of their Christian bias. We do, however, need to critique that question. How is a believer’s bias less valid than an unbeliever’s? The underlying assumption of that question is a biased one.”
Colossians 2:9 – “Son of God – fully human and fully divine?” Rejected by postmodern thinkers because that sounds too exclusive.
People today aren’t looking for a Savior – they’re looking for a spiritual life coach. They’re looking for a therapist. For many, that’s what Jesus is reduced to.
Jesus is seen by many as a highly evolved spiritual coach who can help … if you want Him to.
Colossians 2:2,3 – “All mysteries” are hidden in Christ. Not Christ plus something else!
Paints a picture of two people. One is a girl who gets up in the morning, looks in the mirror, and sees nothing but ugly. Another is a young man that gets up in the morning, looks in the mirror, and sees a suave ladykiller. Dr. Cox says both of them have a self-esteem problem – not just the girl. The problem is they get up in the morning, look in the mirror, and see themselves instead of seeing Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:14 – “If Christ isn’t the Son of God and raised from the dead, we have nothing to say! Apart from Christ – the center of our faith and identity – we have nothing to say!”
“I do not want to be guilty of drawing lines [in terms of fellowship] where God hasn’t clearly drawn them Himself because I’m too conservative for that!” (Amen to that!)
Christ-centric theology is the key to the future of the Churches of Christ. (Amen to that too!)
Other good stuff from Dr. Cox concerning Church of Christ world missions (PowerPoint presentations):
I’m in the midst of finishing up a lesson on 1 Corinthians 10. A good portion of this chapter is dedicated to warning the Corinthians about the pitfalls of idolatry – something I’ve been studying quite a bit lately.
Two questions:
1) What is your definition of an idol? 2) What, if any, are some common idols prevalent in United States culture today?
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Rex Butts has been discussing idols on his blog recently – check out those discussions here and here.
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I presented a lesson a couple of weeks ago that deals with concepts helpful in understanding what idolatry looks like today. The sermon audio, PowerPoint presentation, and a brief summary are posted here: What does it mean to have a Christ-centered identity?
“Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be start his own religion.” (Los Angeles Times, August 27, 1978)
And guess what Hubbard did? He started his own religion, and made millions and millions of dollars! In fact, paying money to the higher-ups in Scientology is actually a requirement to be considered a Scientologists! Scientology is pay-to-play only.
And check this out:
“The only way you can control people is to lie to them. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them.” (Lecture: “Off the Time Track” (June 1952) as quoted in Journal of Scientology issue 18-G, reprinted in Technical Volumes of Dianetics & Scientology Vol. 1, p. 418)
The collaborative online encyclopedia Wikipedia has banned the Church of Scientology from editing the site. The Register reports Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee, or ArbCom, voted 10 to 0 in favor of the ban, which takes effect immediately.
Wikipedia’s innovative free-encyclopedia draws upon the knowledge of millions of users to create and edit articles on every conceivable topic. Edits appear immediately and do not undergo any formal peer-review process.
Wikipedia officially prohibits use of the encyclopedia to advance personal agendas – such as advocacy or propaganda and philosophical, ideological or religious dispute – but the open format makes enforcing such policies difficult.
According to Wikipedia administrators speaking to The Register:
Multiple editors have been “openly editing [Scientology-related articles] from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities.”
This video being on the net is not authorized by The Church of Scientology.
An anti-scientology group known as Anonymous continues to post it online so that the general public may be aware of what Scientology is all about (you may also be interested in Anonymous’ formal declaration of war).
Here it is for your viewing pleasure:
Scientology mini dictionary (needed to decode Tom’s rhetoric):
*KSW (short for Keeping Scientology Working): A policy written by Hubbard in the 1960’s that requires all Scientologists to follow his words and his rules exactly.
*Orgs: Orgs is an abbreviation for ‘organizations’ and describes all churches of Scientology throughout the world.
*David Miscavige: He is the current leader of Scientology. He’s the equivalent of the Pope to the Catholics.
*Out-ethics: Any behavior that violates any of Hubbard’s rules of conduct.
*Put ethics on someone else: Making others conform to Hubbard’s rules of behavior.
*Criminon: Scientology front group that tries to recruit through the prisons.
* SP: Suppressive Person. Anyone that doesn’t like Scientology and/or criticizes Scientology.
*PTS/SP: Another Hubbard term to define behavior that goes against Scientology rules.
*LRH technology or ‘tech’: All the Scientology policies, rules, mandates, procedures.
The Overflow 